Every time Sohaila Rezazadeh rings up a sale at her Exxon station on Chain Bridge Road in Oakton, her cash register sends the information to Exxon Mobil’s central computers. If she raises the price of gasoline a couple of pennies, chances are that Exxon will raise the wholesale price she pays by the same amount.Through [...]
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[Source: War On You
Showing posts with label bank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bank. Show all posts
5/27/2008
Awash In Profits, Exxon Extracting Every Penny From Its Franchisees
5/16/2008
Australia's budget
Tax cuts in Labor's first budget
Australia's Labor government unveiled its first budget on May 13th. The new government's main goals in crafting the budget were to reward the electorate with tax cuts and to keep spending under control in order to curb inflation. A raft of tax breaks and benefits, especially for working-class households, will shift some of the tax burden to high-income earners while reducing taxes overall by A$46.7bn (US$43.5bn) over the next four years. At the same time, government spending is set to increase only by a modest 1.1%, resulting in a projected budget surplus of A$21.7bn. The government also plans to delay a significant portion of its spending until next year, when both economic growth and inflation are set to ease.
The 2008/09 budget represents the new Labor administration's first difficult policy test. Since taking office after winning the federal election in November, the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has fulfilled several high-profile election pledges?including an official apology to Aborigines, ratification of the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse-gas emissions and a decision to reduce military involvement in Iraq. These measures demonstrated that the new government is more in touch with the electorate, but they were successes in part because they produced a "feel-good" effect without requiring immediate sacrifices. Crafting a budget that would fulfil campaign pledges to cut taxes while keeping inflation under control was a task of a different order, presenting genuine dilemmas as the government sought to balance the interests of various political constituencies and conflicting economic imperatives. ...
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[Source: The Economist: News analysis
5/14/2008
Feds Accuse Student Of Terror and Espionage For Talking About Constitution
A student of a large bible college in east Texas was accused by federal agents of committing an “act of terror and espionage” after he gave a talk to a group of Boy Scouts in which he encouraged them to educate themselves about the U.S. constitution.Jeff, who wishes to remain anonymous at present, is a [...]
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[Source: War On You
5/03/2008
On the brink
Venerable newspapers face extinction
THE New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry?s deep malaise. The Grey Lady?s circulation is tumbling, down another 3.9% in the latest data from America?s Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Its advertising revenues are down, too (12.5% lower in March than a year earlier), as is the share price of its owner, the New York Times Company, up from its January low but still over 20% below what it was last July. On Tuesday April 29th Standard & Poor?s cut the firm?s debt rating to one notch above junk.
At the company?s annual meeting a week earlier, its embattled publisher, Arthur ?Pinch? Sulzberger, attempted to quash rumours that his family is preparing to jettison the firm it has owned since 1896. Carnage is expected soon as dozens of what were once the safest jobs in journalism are axed, since too few of the staff have accepted a generous offer of voluntary redundancy. ...
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[Source: The Economist: News analysis
Making the grade
Brazil gets recognition for improved economic management
Investment-grade status, which was awarded to Brazil?s foreign-currency-denominated debt on April 30th by Standard & Poor?s, one of the main US credit rating agencies, is an acknowledgment of the important progress achieved in macroeconomic management and of a substantial improvement in external solvency ratios. Indeed, with reserves close to US$200bn, Brazil has become a net external creditor. Nevertheless, weaknesses persist, as the government has confirmed its intention to keep increasing public spending as part of its state-led development policies.
The quest for investment grade was so long and fraught with difficulties that financial markets were taken somewhat by surprise when Standard & Poor?s (S&P) raised Brazil?s long-term foreign-currency credit rating from BB+ to BBB- on the eve of the May 1st Labour Day holiday. Even though some investors thought the upgrade had been long overdue, few expected it to materialise before the end of the year due to current global uncertainty. The Latin American giant is now on par with India, according to S&P?s ratings, but still two notches below the ratings given to Russia and Mexico, and far below that of China. ...
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[Source: The Economist: News analysis
4/27/2008
Wealth mismanagement
A candid account of what went wrong
HOW did UBS, a Swiss bank whose core business is the staid one of wealth management, manage to lose $38 billion betting on American mortgage-backed assets, battering its core capital and share price in the process? Shareholders, out in force at the bank?s annual meeting on Wednesday April 23rd in Basel, asked just that question.
The mystery is being resolved. On Monday the bank released a summary of an internal investigation into the causes of the write-downs that had been demanded by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission. The 400-page report is now being chewed over by the regulator. Rivals should read it too. The report gives three broad explanations for the bank?s woes. The investment-banking arm?s preoccupation with growth, the reliance of the control team on flawed measures of risk and the culture of the bank. ...
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[Source: The Economist: News analysis
NORTH AMERICAN UNION Secrecy Reported by CNN
BREAKING NEWS, CNN Money stumbled on to some truth. I was surprised to see this story on CNN Video. They obviously didn’t go far enough, but at least they are willing to mention it.It just shows the masses that this really is happening, and unless we come together to stop it, we are going to [...]
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[Source: War On You -
4/23/2008
Providing cover
The Bank of England offers help
AS THE global banking crisis has gone on, central banks have repeatedly had to improvise responses to an ever-worsening financial storm. In America, the Federal Reserve stretched its powers to the limit when it organised the rescue of Bear Stearns. Now the Bank of England has come up with an innovative plan?a ?special liquidity scheme? that may provide at least GBP50 billion ($100 billion) to help troubled British banks.
The need for a new approach has been clear for several weeks. The most obvious sign has been the elevated (Libor) rate at which banks raise funds through the money markets. This is normally quite close to the Bank of England?s base rate, which sets the cost of overnight funds. When the crisis struck last August, however, it soared (see chart). ...
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[Source: The Economist: News analysis - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]
4/19/2008
ABC gets slammed for debate.
Editor & Publisher called this week’s ABC presidential debate “perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.”Moderators George Stephanopolous and Charlie Gibson spent the first 50 minutes obsessed with distractions that only political insiders care about–gaffes, polling numbers, the stale Rev. Wright story, and the old-news Bosnia story. [...]
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[Source: War On You -
4/17/2008
Samsung's woes
POLICE in riot gear took up station in front of South Korea’s prosecutors’ offices on the evening of Thursday April 17th to quell demonstrations. Normally an angry public calling for accountability would welcome corruption charges against a corporate chieftain—but not in the case of the long-running scandal at Samsung Group.
The charges against Lee Kun-hee, the 66-year-old chairman of Samsung, seem small beer compared with the accusations. Mr Lee was publicly accused last year by Kim Yong-chul, a former chief legal counsel at the company, of orchestrating a $200m slush fund to bribe public officials. Mr Lee denied it. A special prosecutor was appointed by South Korea's National Assembly to look into the claims.
On Thursday, after a three-month investigation, Mr Lee was charged with tax evasion and breach of trust. The prosecutor, Cho Joon-woong, said that Samsung controlled hidden funds of around $4.5 billion. But allegations of bribery could not be confirmed, he said, and anyway the statute of limitations had expired. Mr Lee was charged with evading taxes of 113 billion won (around $114m) and with illegally fiddling with the books by selling corporate assets at a discount as a way to pass corporate control to his son.
Moreover, he and nine other company executives also facing charges were not detained. Shares in the group’s publicly traded companies—which range from construction and shipbuilding to optical equipment and electronics—barely shifted, a telling sign that few expect the charges to have any bite.
The mild charges and meek actions by the prosecutors clearly show South Korea’s ambivalence towards wrongdoing at the country’s chaebol. The industrial giants, often family-run, are responsible for the country’s rise to prosperity and prominence over the past two decades. Yet today their enormous power is questioned and occasional infractions criticised, as the country strives to adhere to global norms of accountability, transparency and corporate governance. At the same time, however, South Korea resists holding the groups fully to account, lest it jeopardise economic growth.
In recent corruption cases miscreant bosses have been spared prison on the basis of their importance to the economy, provided they donate some of their ill-gotten gains to charity. Last year Chung Mong-koo, the chairman of Hyundai Motor, saw his three-year prison sentence for embezzlement suspended after he agreed to donate almost $1 billion (though the Supreme Court overturned the deal and ordered a new trial). Kim Woo-choong, the founder of Daewoo, was this year pardoned for an accounting-fraud conviction in 2006.
Indeed in 1996 Mr Lee was convicted of bribing politicians, but his two-year prison sentence was suspended and in 1997 he was pardoned. Often in white-collar criminal cases shuffling into the courtroom in hospital pyjamas or snug in a wheelchair is enough to win the sympathy of the judges.
To a sceptical public, it makes the new charges against Mr Lee seem less an example of rare prosecutorial vigour and more another case of flaccid judicial activity. It is unlikely that Mr Lee will serve time in prison. It helps that Samsung is such a power in the country—its many companies boast a workforce of 220,000 worldwide. Its sales are equivalent to some 20% of the country's GDP.
Samsung apologised for “causing concerns” to South Koreans and said that next week it would unveil a reform plan to put the company right. Now the focus of attention will shift to South Korea’s recently elected president, Lee Myung-bak. Although he campaigned on improving corporate transparency, the former chairman of Hyundai also pledged to push forward business-friendly reforms. In the past, the country tolerated white-collar crime fearing the harm to the economy if the bosses were behind bars. At some point it will have to consider the damage wrought by allowing them free reign.
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[Source: The Economist: News analysis
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