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for 03/14/2010

(last updated 7:30am EST 03/14/2010)

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• Chinese PM rebuts criticism over Copenha... Chinese PM rebuts criticism over Copenhagen role
03/14/2010
Wen Jiabao defends China's place on world stage, says his conscience is clear on climate deal and warns US on currency The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, today launched a robust defence of his country's place on the world stage, including a sharp rebuttal of what he called "baffling" criticism of his country's role at the Copenhagen summit. Acknowledging "serious disruption" in ties with the United States and rising criticism of Chinese assertiveness on the climate, currency, trade and other issues, the premier said he wanted to set the record straight. "Some say China has got more arrogant and tough. Some put forward the theory of China's so-called 'triumphalism'. You have given me an opportunity to explain how China sees itself," Wen said. In a press conference marking the close of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, Wen said the country was still developing and would never seek hegemony even when fully modernised, but had always sought to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity. He said China was a "responsible" nation that took an active part in international co-operation on major issues. In the angry aftermath of the Copenhagen climate conference, China was accused of wrecking a deal by blocking emission reduction targets for 2050 and failing to send its most senior delegates to key meetings. In his most detailed public comments yet about the conference, Wen responded to critics with a Chinese proverb. "My conscience is untainted despite rumours and slanders from outside," he said. "It still baffles me why some people are trying to make the issue about China. Climate change is about human survival, the interest of all countries, and issues of equity and justice in the international community." He accused foreign leaders of a shocking breach of protocol in their attempt to press him, with advance warning, into an unscheduled meeting after a welcome banquet. "Why was China not notified of this meeting? So far, nobody has explained. it is still a mystery to me," he said. The final deal was the best that could be achieved in the difficult circumstances, he said, promising China's support for the Copenhagen accord. Asked about other areas of friction, particularly with the US, the premier responded: "The responsibility for the serious disruption in US-China ties does not lie with the Chinese side but with the US." He cited Barack Obama's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama, the announcement of US arms sales to Taiwan and disagreements over exchange rates and trade. "We are opposed to the practice of engaging in mutual finger-pointing or taking strong measures to force other countries to appreciate their currencies. That is not in the interest of reform of the renminbi's exchange rate regime," the premier said. There is growing pressure for revaluation from the US and Europe, where many analysts argue that the renminbi is massively underpriced. Chinese experts have also argued that a rise in the currency would be in the country's own interests. Wen told reporters: "I understand some countries want to increase their exports – what I don't understand is the practice of depreciating one's own currency and attempting to press other countries to increase theirs, just to improve exports. In my view that is a protectionist measure." He went on to warn the US on its own currency, as he did at his last news conference. China holds more US treasury debt than another country. "If I said I was worried [about the US dollar] last year, I still want to make the same remark this year," he said. "We cannot afford any mistake, however slight, when it comes to financial assets ... I hope the US will take concrete steps to reassure investors." Turning to domestic issues, the prime minister warned that China faced "an extremely difficult task" in promoting steady and fast growth while restructuring the economy and managing inflationary expectations. Inflation, corruption and unfair income distribution taken together would be "strong enough to affect social stability and even the stability of state power," he said. The government is seeking to gradually withdraw from the massive stimulus that helped to see China through the global slump, particularly given soaring property prices and rising inflation, which hit 2.7% in the year to February. But it must do so without damaging confidence. The premier warned of the risk of a double-dip in the global economy and said that while the domestic economy had stabilised, many Chinese businesses were still reliant on the stimulus measures. China Currencies Climate change Tania Branigan Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (3 h ago)

• More money makes society miserable, warn... More money makes society miserable, warns report
03/13/2010
Economics experts argue that Britain's thirst for status symbols harms our well-being The national belt-tightening expected to follow next month's budget could prove to be of more benefit to the nation's sense of well-being than if wealth levels were to soar, according to a new study. Complex economic formulas developed by two professors of economics, Curtis Eaton and Mukesh Eswaran, and published in the current edition of the Economic Journal, suggest that greater affluence can seriously damage a nation's health. Based on their mathematical modelling, the economists advance the theory that once a country reaches a reasonable standard of living there is little further benefit to be had from increasing the wealth of its population. Indeed, it could make people feel worse off. They believe their work shows that, as a nation becomes wealthier, consumption shifts increasingly to buying status symbols with no intrinsic value – such as lavish jewellery, designer clothes and luxury cars. But they warn: "These goods represent a 'zero-sum game' for society: they satisfy the owners, making them appear wealthy, but everyone else is left feeling worse off." Their work owes much to the economist Thorstein Veblen, who in 1899 coined the term "conspicuous consumption" in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class . Veblen argued that people seek status through conspicuous consumption, which derives its value not from the intrinsic worth of what is consumed but from the fact that it permits people to attempt to set themselves apart from others. As the economy grows, people increasingly choose status symbols or "Veblen goods" over other goods. "Those with above-average wealth consume Veblen goods with a positive impact on their happiness," the authors write. "But those with below-average wealth simply cannot afford these goods, so they have a negative impact on their happiness. This is known as 'Veblen competition'. As average wealth rises, people grow richer but not happier." The pair believe their research helps to explain why empirical studies show that levels of happiness and feelings of community in affluent countries have stagnated, despite growth in real incomes. There is another downside. As people yearn for more status symbols they have less time or inclination for helping others. This, the authors argue, damages "community and trust", which are vital to an economy because they ensure the smooth running of society. They conclude: "Conspicuous consumption can have an impact not only on people's well-being but also on the growth prospects of the economy." The theory may go some way to explaining the public backlash against the louche lifestyles of the UK's footballers, bankers and politicians. It fits into a debate within economics about how to measure a nation's true wealth. Many economists believe they need to focus more on measuring happiness. The belief that a focus on individual wealth creation can be divisive has spread around the worlds of politics, psychology and science. Clinical psychologist Oliver James has argued that there is an epidemic of "affluenza" throughout the developed world, with attempts "to keep up with the Joneses" triggering huge increases in depression and anxiety. Last year a bestselling book by two epidemiologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, called The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better , suggested that Britain and America were the countries with the widest gulfs between rich and poor in the developed world, and as a result had the most health and social problems. Nevertheless, Eaton and Eswaran, from the universities of Calgary and British Columbia respectively, do not believe the developed world's obsession with wealth shows any signs of abating. The pair predict that "it is likely that conspicuous consumption will become worse as time progresses". Economics Health & wellbeing Economic growth (GDP) Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Waitrose unveils plan to become a brand ... Waitrose unveils plan to become a brand and sell its products in other stores
03/13/2010
Managing director Mark Price aims to keep fast-growing upmarket grocer ahead of rival M&S Waitrose boss Mark Price is drawing up plans to transform the upmarket food chain into a consumer brand available in thousands of non-Waitrose shops in the UK and overseas. He believes the Waitrose label has the potential to be a big "fmcg" – fast moving consumer goods – name like Heinz or Kellogg's, which he can sell to other retail businesses, rather than just direct to shoppers. He has similar ambitions for the Duchy Originals brand, founded in 1990 by the Prince of Wales. Waitrose signed a licensing deal with the struggling royal label last autumn, which gives the John Lewis-owned grocer the right to manufacture, distribute and sell all Duchy goods in the UK. Price said there would be more than 300 Duchy products by the end of the year and there was potential for many more. He said: "What we are trying to do is give access to the brand and it is not just about owning shops. It is about taking a creative approach and making products available to as many people as possible. We are looking to work with partners." The plan to sell Waitrose goods in other stores will be kickstarted this month when Price unveils details of a deal that could eventually see Waitrose food sold in more than 700 Boots outlets. Sections of Boots' stores will be transformed into mini-Waitroses, with the grocer's own fixtures, fittings and signage. In return, Waitrose will sell a range of Boots health and beauty goods in its own stores. Last year Waitrose defied predictions it would be battered by the recession and emerged as the fastest-growing big grocer, chalking up a sales increase of more than 11% to in excess of £4.5bn, trouncing upmarket rival Marks & Spencer. "We expect to be the fastest growing again this year," Price said. Sales to overseas supermarkets are also to be ramped up. "Waitrose is seen as a really premium brand outside the UK," said Price. The grocer has already more than doubled business-to-business overseas sales to more than £100m over the past two year, exporting to 25 countries including Thailand, the Bahamas, India and China. But Price said there was much more potential. The grocer is also keen to open more franchised outlets overseas, especially in the Middle East. Two stores in Dubai are chalking up 60% annual sales growth and franchises have been awarded for Bahrain, Oman and Abu Dhabi. Price said there would soon be 20-23 Middle East outlets. Supermarkets John Lewis Retail industry J Sainsbury Morrisons Tesco Julia Finch guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Embarrassment for David Cameron over Tor... Embarrassment for David Cameron over Tory hopefuls' lobbying links
03/13/2010
Conservative drive to 'clean up politics' faces test over failure by several candidates to fully declare their work for lobby firms, says Nick Mathiason David Cameron's drive to clean up politics is facing an embarrassing public test after it emerged that a number of prospective Conservative MPs have failed fully to declare in their campaign literature that they work for lobby firms representing powerful business interests. The revelation threatens to destabilise Tory hopefuls in the upcoming election as voters in constituencies where alleged "secret lobbyist candidates" are running will be the subject of a targeted online advertising blitz on Google and Facebook orchestrated by 38 Degrees, an innovative online campaign group. Only last month, Cameron warned that lobbying "was the next big scandal waiting to happen". But campaigners claim that while secret lobby links extend across all parties, the Conservatives are the worst offenders. Last night, the Tories hit back saying they "are committed to shining the light of openness onto the lobbying world" and suggested Labour candidates' links to lobby firms were far more extensive. But several Tory candidates seem to have kept back details of their work for lobbying firms, including: ■ Priti Patel, the Tory candidate for Witham, a new seat in Essex. On her website, Patel says she is a director of a company providing "business and communication strategy" advice but fails to clarify that she works for one of the world's most powerful lobby firms, Weber Shandwick, personally advising Microsoft and bank lobby group, International Financial Services London. ■ Penny Mordaunt, the Conservative candidate for Labour-held Portsmouth North, who is a 15% shareholder in lobby firm Media Intelligence Partners, which boasts among its clients Sony, Orange, and DHL. Mordaunt is also listed as the firm's director in Companies House. Mordaunt also worked for 10 months last year at leading public PR firm Hanover. ■ George Eustice, Cameron's former press secretary, fighting the three-way marginal in Camborne and Redruth, Cornwall, has failed to disclose on his campaign site that he works for powerful Westminster lobby firm Portland, which acts for Google, Tesco and McDonald's. ■ Prospective Labour MP Emma Reynolds on Friday hurriedly updated her biography on her campaign website to include details of her work for lobby outfit Cogitamus, which advises the biggest names in the construction industry on government relations. The Observer is aware of a significant number of parliamentary candidates who will be unmasked in coming days as part of a co-ordinated campaign by Spinwatch and 38 Degrees aimed at introducing a statutory register of interests. This would force lobby firms and parliamentary candidates to clarify who they represent and work for. David Babbs, 38 Degrees executive director, said: "The election is a chance to clean up parliament, which is why it's time for all PPCs to come clean about their links to lobbying. 38 Degrees members are going to work together to make sure that those people who want to be our MPs promise to put their voters first, not their friends in big business. 38 Degrees is a 100,000-strong, people-powered movement, and during this election we plan to work together to cut through the spin and make sure politicians answer to us. We'll be challenging PPCs on their lobbying links, and if they refuse to draw a line under their past business interests we'll be raising money for ads in local papers to make sure local voters hear the facts." Tamasin Cave, from the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency, said: "The public is calling for – and deserves – a new type of politics, so it's vital that prospective MPs are fully transparent about their links to lobbying. If they are helping powerful companies get privileged access to key politicians in the runup to the election, we have a right to know who they are lobbying for and which policies or contracts are being discussed. Covert lobbying harms public trust. Lobbying firms clearly hire these parliamentary hopefuls to both open the door to politics now and to secure a direct line to any future government. If you want to influence politics, it pays to employ political insiders." Eustice defended the lack of information about his work for Portland, saying his campaign website was intended to set out his beliefs. The one-time Cameron spin doctor also said there was a welter of publicity when he left Cameron to join Portland. In addition, he had been a tireless campaigner for more transparency in the public relations arena. Mordaunt said her role at both Media Intelligence Partners and Hanover was centred on communications work rather than public affairs. She explicitly denied she was a lobbyist and said she supported the campaign for a statutory register of lobbying interests. Patel did not comment on her links with Weber Shandwick. But the firm's corporate communications and public affairs chairman, Jon McLeod, confirmed that Patel advised Microsoft and the International Financial Services London. He stated: "Weber Shandwick is clearly an agency with a political dimension. We would not be good at our job if we weren't." McLeod confirmed he was a vocal supporter of legislation to create a statutory register of lobby firms. Last night, the Tories said they would introduce new rules to stop central government bodies using public money to hire lobbyists and "push for the lobbying industry to ensure greater transparency of their operations through self-regulation, and we would be prepared to legislate if this fails". Cave said: "As David Cameron said just last month, this isn't a minor issue with minor consequences. It's not just public policy that's affected by lobbying – government contracts worth billions are potentially at stake. Cameron has spoken about the urgent need to shine the light of transparency on lobbying. But words alone won't bring public scrutiny: we need new rules that force lobbyists to come clean about their activities." David Cameron Conservatives Nick Mathiason guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Lehman's advisers were guard dogs that d... Lehman's advisers were guard dogs that didn't bark
03/13/2010
By their silence, the failed bank's lawyers and accountants gave highly questionable practices a sheen of respectability It's good to know we still lead the world in something. "Business services" is often cited as one of Britain's proudest export industries, and last week's postmortem on the collapse of Lehman Brothers from the US "examiner" brought some formidable examples of its recent triumphs. "Magic circle" City law firm Linklaters gave the thumbs-up to "Repo 105", the complex manoeuvre that allowed the ailing Lehman to book short-term loans from other banks as "sales", effectively disguising billions of dollars of assets, sometimes conveniently just as the end of a quarter approached. Herbert McDade, the man known inside the bank as its "balance sheet tsar", described the instruments in an email as "another drug we're on". (And, having opined that "Repo 105" was legal, at least under UK law, Linklaters is advising PWC on the Lehman administration.) Auditor Ernst and Young is even more firmly in the examiner's sights. He says it was "professionally negligent" in passing the Repo 105 arrangements, which will be music to the ears of the many creditors and shareholders itching to take class-action cases against anyone they might be able to blame for the firm's catastrophic bankruptcy. The examiner also reports that senior Lehman banker Matthew Lee sounded the alarm about "accounting improprieties" in the summer of 2008, referring specifically to $50bn of repo arrangements, but Ernst and Young "took virtually no action to investigate". Of course, Linklaters and Ernst and Young will say they were only following the rules, but auditors and lawyers are professionals and they gave Lehman's highly questionable practices a sheen of respectability. Lehman's chief Dick Fuld could not have spun this web of self-delusion without having a team of advisers on his side. After Enron's collapse led to the annihilation of its auditor Arthur Andersen, the industry was meant to have been transformed. It's about time lawyers and accountants were subject to the same searching scrutiny as ratings agencies, regulators and the banks themselves. Lehman Brothers Heather Stewart guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Recovery yields Alistair Darling a £12bn... Recovery yields Alistair Darling a £12bn budget windfall
03/13/2010
Chancellor will cite state investment in jobs as key to lower-than-expected unemployment Alistair Darling will claim next week that government action to protect jobs has saved around £12bn, as Labour uses the pre-election budget to spell out key economic dividing lines with the Tories. In what is expected to be the most political budget in decades, the chancellor will cite government investment in jobs programmes as a major reason why unemployment has turned out to be dramatically lower than economists predicted. Last year's budget anticipated that the level of unemployment, based on National Audit Office assessments of independent forecasts, would be 2.09 million people in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 2.44 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. By December's pre-budget report (PBR), however, the government had revised the forecasts to 1.72 million for 2009 and 1.91 million for 2010, saying that this would save up to £10bn over five years from lower unemployment benefits alone. Since then, the Observer has established that Darling's officials have cut the forecasts still further. The latest projections for unemployment are for it to hit 1.72 million in the final quarter of this year and 1.75 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 – a further 200,000 lower than in the PBR plans, potentially freeing up an extra £1bn-£2bn. The work and pensions secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: "In the 80s and 90s unemployment continued to rise even after the recession ended, because the government failed to put the necessary support and training in place and keep it there as the economy returned to growth." She claimed that the Conservatives would cut back investment in jobs programmes and "put the economy at risk, even though the clear evidence shows helping people back to work saves money for the future too". This week Cooper is expected to announce that the government will subsidise another 7,000 jobs for young people, bringing the total created under the Future Jobs Fund to 117,000. The funding will pay for work at the national minimum wage, targeted at under-25s and people living in unemployment hotspots. Last night Treasury sources insisted that most of the windfall savings from lower-than-expected unemployment would be used to cut the deficit, rather than for pre-election giveaways. Darling believes the budget could spark a sell-off in government markets unless he stands by his pledge to halve the deficit within four years. Ministers believe that they have a credible plan to put the public finances back in order, through targeted investment in the economy, which they say will speed progress towards sustained growth; the introduction of tax rises such as the 50p rate for top earners (from this April) and national insurance rises from next April; and efficiency savings across government. But Darling is not expected to spell out any more details of specific departmental spending cuts so close to polling day. Unemployment and employment statistics Budget Alistair Darling Economics Toby Helm Heather Stewart guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Auditors face calls for inquiry after Le... Auditors face calls for inquiry after Lehman revelations
03/13/2010
MPs and financial experts demand regulators reform industry in effort to eliminate risky practices, writes Phillip Inman Pressure was mounting this weekend for a root-and-branch review of the role played by auditors in the credit crunch, following the revelation that Lehman Brothers was able to hide $50bn (£32bn) of debts from regulators despite checks by accountancy firm Ernst & Young. MPs and financial experts called on regulators to clean up the audit industry as part of a clampdown on reckless and risky practices in the financial sector. Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott urged the government to commission a fundamental review, while Tory MP Michael Fallon, who is deputy chairman of the influential treasury select committee, said: "Too much is being concealed. We need a fresh approach that gives a more realistic picture of bank finances and not one that disguises risky practices." Oakeshott said the treasury select committee's investigation of Northern Rock's collapse had already revealed that accountants should be banned from accepting additional consultancy work for the firms they audit; but, he added, "that is just a starting point to cleaning up the whole profession". Prem Sikka, a professor of accounting at Essex University and a leading critic of the accounting profession, warned that without deep-rooted reform the crisis could repeat itself. "The report into the collapse of Lehmans is indicative of a deeper malaise," he said. "We rely on the discretion of eminent firms of auditors and lawyers that are paid millions of pounds for their efforts, but that discretion is too often abused." A damning 2,200-page report commissioned by the US bankruptcy courts into the collapse of Lehman said that Ernst & Young's failure to act over off-balance sheet accounting practices which allowed the bank to hide $50bn of debts, and failing to investigate the concerns of a whistleblower, amounted to "professional negligence". Ernst & Young, which earned fees of $31m from auditing Lehman Brothers in 2007, has insisted that a thorough internal review showed it did nothing wrong. Lehman Brothers Financial crisis Credit crunch US economy United States Phillip Inman guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Can Katy Perry stop EMI going to America... Can Katy Perry stop EMI going to America for a song?
03/13/2010
Billions of pounds of debt, the internet and piracy are crippling one of Britain's most iconic firms It is a tale of sex, debt and rock'n'roll that is unlikely to have a happy ending. When Guy Hands, a City financier with a penchant for fast food and an insatiable appetite for deal-making, came up with a plan to buy EMI, Britain's flagship music company, using billions of pounds of borrowed money, many wondered how he could possibly make a decent return on his investment. As it has turned out, he couldn't. This weekend EMI's new chairman Charles Allen, the former ITV chief executive hired by Hands last week to run the music arm of the company, is battling to ensure its independence, assembling a rescue plan for the company that signed the Beatles and became synonymous with the golden age of British pop. Sources close to the company say Allen, a former accountant whose eclectic musical tastes encompass Lily Allen and Edith Piaf, is "rolling up his sleeves" and working to ensure the company does not breach the terms of its bank loans, but there is no doubt EMI is in peril. "It is a very, very big moment," according to Claire Enders, founder of media consultancy Enders Analysis. "The next two or three months are critical for the future of EMI." Allen's predecessor, Elio Leoni-Sceti, left suddenly last week just as the final touches were being put on a rescue package, prompting fears over the company's future. The business is effectively being propped up by its past, surviving on the revenues generated by artists signed during a 30-year period when British music dominated the world. The list of talent on EMI's books reads like a roll call of rock royalty: David Bowie, Queen, Lennon and McCartney, the Sex Pistols and Pink Floyd. As an incubator of home-grown musical talent, the company is without equal and its position as one of the "big four" global record labels is a source of national pride; it exists to make money but EMI also safeguards the country's status as a place where music that matters is made. If EMI disappears or falls into foreign hands, many music industry figures worry that future generations of British acts may find it more difficult to find a worldwide audience. Jazz Summers, who manages former Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft, who is signed to EMI, said: "If you look at their track record, they have broken more British acts in America than anyone else, and the same is true in other countries." EMI is in crisis because it is burdened with what sources close to the company describe as a "ludicrous" amount of debt, racked up after it was bought in 2007 by Hands's private equity company Terra Firma. EMI Music currently has three artists in the top 15 of the album chart for the first time this century, including Blur vocalist Damon Albarn's Gorillaz, and it is on course to make a profit of £200m this year, but a staggering three quarters of that will go on interest payments. Hands borrowed heavily to fund the deal, using money provided by Terra Firma's investors, and EMI's valuable back catalogue, as collateral, but even then some questioned whether he was right to pay the amount he did for a business that was struggling to come to terms with downloads and a dramatic decline in physical music sales. The industry has lost between 30% and 50% of its revenues in the last five years, but the irony is that EMI is currently outperforming its peers, which include Sony BMG and Warner Music. It had the biggest-selling album of 2008, Coldplay's Viva La Vida , and reissued the Beatles digitally remastered back catalogue last year. Acts including Lily Allen and Katy Perry are selling well, but the way the company is structured means it cannot trade its way out of trouble. Before the credit crunch, loans could be refinanced cheaply, but now EMI is struggling to meet its debt repayments in the wake of the severe economic downturn. It has been forced to cut costs dramatically, laying off close to 20% of its workforce. The company is now worth £450m, around a tenth of what Hands paid for it. Some big acts, including Radiohead, have already left, muttering that the money men simply didn't understand the music business. Last week one of EMI's biggest-selling groups, Pink Floyd, won a court action preventing the company from making tracks from their 1970s album Dark Side of the Moon available to download individually. That was widely portrayed as a victory for artistic integrity – the group want their masterpiece to be consumed from start to finish, as they originally intended – but it also illustrates the challenges the music industry faces in an era of huge upheaval, when illegal downloading is costing it dear and making money from talent discovered and developed at huge cost is more difficult than ever. If Allen cannot persuade Terra Firma's investors to stump up another £120m, EMI will be in breach of its loan terms, and its main creditor – US bank Citigroup – could seize control of the company. If it does so, Citigroup is likely to sell it to Warner Music, an American rival which was outbid by Hands for EMI three years ago. The situation is complicated by Terra Firma's decision to sue Citigroup in New York, accusing it of forcing EMI towards administration so it can take possession of the company and make a profit from a quick sale, allegations that the bank denies. Hands is a larger-than-life tax exile, a hero in the Square Mile whose reputation has been badly tarnished by the EMI debacle. He now concedes he overpaid for EMI, but his miscalculation means he could be about to hand a much-loved cultural institution into the keeping of the Americans. At the end of last year Cadbury's city shareholders agreed to sell the nation's favourite chocolate company to Illinois-based Kraft. The prospect of another household name passing into foreign ownership, particularly a national champion in one of the few industries in which Britain still excels, is an unsettling one. One senior music industry executive explained: "For British music, the fact that there was a very successful British company to sign for was hugely significant." However, others say the temptation to indulge in flag-waving should be resisted. Enders said: "Britain is one of the places people come looking for talent and that won't change. There are a lot of players in the market and advances paid to acts such as Florence and The Machine have gone up." If EMI does fall into the hands of an American rival, she added, it might ultimately safeguard its future. "It would be better for EMI to have less indebtedness. It will have much more firepower." EMI could survive. It is still lining up the sale of some prized assets. It was reported last month that the Abbey Road studios in London could be sold off. The company later insisted the studios should stay under its ownership and was working with "third parties" about funding a "revitalisation project". Raising the possibility that a part of the nation's cultural heritage could be sold provides a graphic reminder of how the company's huge debt is forcing it to make unpopular decisions. It may not matter if British acts are no longer championed by a UK company as long as the country continues to produce talent and A&R men from overseas arrive here in search of the next Lily Allen or Amy Winehouse. "In the end the music business is the same as it ever was," Enders said. "It's about hits." EMI Music industry Charles Allen Guy Hands Piracy Internet Lily Allen The Beatles James Robinson guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Can I buy underwear and be green? Can I buy underwear and be green?
03/13/2010
Say pants to the pesticides used in manufacturing cotton! You might be doubtful that your choice of briefs can be a catalyst for global change, but consider the statistics. The UK underwear market was valued at £4.1bn in 2009. Most of that money is spent on multinational-produced pants. Some are constructed from a mixture of oil-based synthetics, including nylon (which results in emissions of nitrous oxide, a poisonous greenhouse gas). Received wisdom tells us that cotton, the main underwear fibre, is the type of natural material we need in these delicate regions. Received wisdom is wrong. Although cotton covers less than 1% of the earth's landmass, it soaks up 25% of all pesticides and herbicides. A single pair of cotton pants uses 10ml of pesticides. In the past year a number of NGOs have got their knickers in a twist about cotton pesticide endosulfan, banned in 62 countries. It is linked to reproductive and developmental damage in animals and humans and is manufactured by pharmaceutical brand Bayer. PantsToPoverty.com, a leader in fairtrade cotton underwear, instigated a "pants amnesty" whereby protestors sent their worst pair of pants to Bayer – which quickly pledged to phase out endosulfan by the end of 2010. Greenknickers.org offers zero-carbon pants from recycled sources. Whomadeyourpants.co.uk is a workers' co-operative in Southampton employing women who have been granted asylum but find it difficult to get work. They take knickers seriously (like Alan Greenspan, who has said he looks at sales of men's underwear to indicate the direction of the economy). Ethical smalls can become a big deal. Fair trade Underwear (men) Pesticides Alan Greenspan Ethical and green living Lucy Siegle guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• When the dotcom bubble burst the ideas d... When the dotcom bubble burst the ideas didn't just float away
03/13/2010
The internet boom and bust saw companies come and go, but the seeds of great website businesses were sown, and many of the entrepreneurs are still working The streets of Silicon Valley are littered with survivors of the dotcom boom and bust – but while many retain vivid memories of the crash, few seem permanently scarred by the experience. Among the most notorious failures was pets.com, an online pet shop that promised to deliver food and supplies across America at competitive prices. Founded in August 1998 and backed with tens of millions from investors including Amazon, the brand blew up quickly, with a popular ad campaign and a January 2000 Super Bowl spot that cost more than $1m (£660,000). The company went public with an $83m stock offering a month later – weeks before the crash. Just nine months on, the company had collapsed and the truth about its business became clear: it had spent vast amounts on advertising while selling most of its products at a significant loss. Founder Julie Wainwright remains unapologetic for the very public burnout, suggesting that "it was a great company, but the timing wasn't". She went on to run an online photo service and worked in venture capital, before starting women's health website SmartNow two years ago. Even the fact that her husband filed for divorce just days after pets.com went under seems to have been part of the process. "I had two major life crises in the same week, one public and one private, that sent me on a journey of self-discovery and healing I couldn't have anticipated," she told the New York Times in 2008 . Wainwright's story is one repeated by veterans all over the internet industry: their companies may have collapsed during the bust, but that failure is worn as a badge of honour. In fact, despite the estimated $5tn lost when the internet bubble collapsed, it is the websites themselves that have fallen by the wayside – rather than the people behind them. A prime example is the web radio service broadcast.com, which was sold to Yahoo for $5.7bn in 1999 but no longer exists as a website in its own right. While broadcast.com is dead, former chief executive Mark Cuban has gone on to become more famous than ever before, as the outspoken billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and Magnolia Pictures, distributor of films such as Food, Inc . "I was fortunate enough to be part of a great company that got whisked away in the frenzy. I was also fortunate enough to recognise the difference between a company and a stock," he says. "What was unfortunate was that with the bursting of the bubble came Yahoo basically killing off a company that was doing everything that YouTube does today but years earlier. But they paid me for the right to do whatever they wanted with it." Other sites that struggled through the bust have fallen into disrepair, obscurity or simply shut down. GeoCities, an early precursor to social networking sites, was bought by Yahoo for $3.5bn in 1999. It was left to languish after the crash and finally put down last year. Co-founder David Bohnett, who now runs his own foundation, says that although much of the enthusiasm died after the bust, many of the ideas developed have gone on to have a massive impact on millions of people. "GeoCities paved the way for the success of today's social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace," he says. "The internet has continued to evolve in wonderful ways in the last 10 years." Not every site from the boom has withered, however. One of the biggest success stories, Amazon, bullied its way through the crash – despite not posting its first profit until 2002. Boss Jeff Bezos bet everything on the idea that heavy, long-term investment would corner the online retail market, even if it meant losses in the short term, and it paid off. He is now ranked 43rd richest man on the planet, with a net worth of $12.3bn. While many entrepreneurs saw their paper fortunes dwindle with the crash, some of the sharpest criticism was aimed at the bankers and investors who had helped fuel the dotcom rollercoaster with soaring valuations. They too, by and large, recovered quickly from the after-effects of the crash. Mary Meeker, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, was famed for her predictions on internet stocks and crowned in 1998 as the "queen of the net" by Barron's magazine. Despite the crash, she was an important player in a boardroom coup several years ago and continues to command respect as a managing director of the company's technology group. Even one of the villains of the era, equities analyst Henry Blodget, has undergone something of a rehabilitation. Charged with fraud when it emerged that he had advised investors to buy shares in companies that he privately rubbished, Blodget eventually settled without admitting culpability for a total of $4m in fines and other payments. Barred from ever working in the securities industry again, he returned to his previous career as a journalist and now runs a popular industry news blog, Business Insider . Cuban says that despite the tumult caused, few lessons have been learned in the United States. "Sad thing is that nothing has changed," he says. "In 2000 it was the internet stocks. A couple of years ago it was real estate and mortgages. In five years it will be something else. We live for bubbles in this country. The internet bubble was just one example of the many that have happened. It's shocking that so few seem to learn so little from history that they repeat it over and over." Technology sector Internet Yahoo Amazon.com Bobbie Johnson guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Dotcom boom finally comes of age Dotcom boom finally comes of age
03/13/2010
In 2000 the internet bubble spectacularly burst, now technology has caught up with some of the ideas it spawned The gong that signalled the end of the business day on the Amsterdam stock exchange sounded particularly ominously when it rang out on Friday, 17 March, a decade ago. It closed the first day's trading in shares of World Online. While previous dotcom IPOs had rocketed skywards, shares in the pan-European internet service provider halted a mere €0.20 above their offer price . The firm was still valued at an eye-watering €12bn (£7.2bn) but in web terms the performance was a disaster. The internet bubble, which had created a slew of paper millionaires and a fair clutch of real ones, was beginning to burst. The so-called "new economy" was turning out to be nothing of the sort: it was just boom and bust on steroids. After the weekend, World Online shares crashed to earth. In London, investors started bailing out of Lastminute.com, which had managed to get onto the stock market just days before, and as jitters about over-valued technology stocks became panic, markets across the world went into reverse. It quickly became a rout that pushed scores of businesses to the wall and ushered in a technology recession that lingered at least until the arrival of Google on the American stock market in the summer of 2004. And an estimated trillion dollars of investors' money went down the drain as the contagion spread to the communications infrastructure sector. They had argued that in a gold rush the real winners were the ones who sold the shovels and pickaxes – in the internet's case, the actual equipment of the web – but they quickly discovered that in a recession, everyone loses. Companies which had poured hundreds of millions into building huge fibre-optic cable networks and data-hosting centres suddenly found their mantra of "build it and they will come" sounded hollow. They had built, but the dotcom clients suddenly were not coming. Companies such as KPNQwest, Pangea and CityReach International collapsed while others such as Energis , Telecity and Cable & Wireless were forced into massive restructurings. But out of the mess emerged a new way of doing business. The internet did have a profound effect on both society and commerce, just not as quickly as the "digerati" from the dotcom boom, with their inflatable boardrooms and dress-down style, had hoped. Some of the technology trends that everyone now takes for granted were born in the boom, from instant unmetered internet access, web TV and "cloud computing" to social networking and the mobile web. They may have been born in the boom but only in the past few years have they come of age. There was already unrest in the air when World Online floated. The week had started with the publication of the annual statement to investors in Berkshire Hathaway by its investing guru boss, Warren Buffett. Having refused to invest in tech stocks because he did not understand them, he was forced to apologise for the fund's poor performance in the previous year, but warned: "If anyone starts explaining to you what is going on in the truly manic portions of this enchanted market, you might remember still another line of song: 'fools give you reasons, wise men never try'." As his message was sinking in, Freeserve, Britain's biggest internet service provider and 80%-owned by Dixons, started offering unmetered internet access for the first time, after being forced to react to moves by cable group NTL and Alta Vista the previous week. The move ripped a hole in its business model – it had made money from call charges – but chief executive John Pluthero said it would mean more people would spend more time online and Freeserve would make money from content, e-commerce and advertising – a battle the ISPs are still waging. Even back then, analysts were unconvinced, starting to doubt the crazy revenue projections built into their financial models. Then on the Tuesday, Lastminute.com made its stock market debut, crystalising a £150m paper fortune for its founders, Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox, the young couple who had become pin-ups of the British dotcom boom. The shares rocketed from 380p to 555p within minutes of the opening but the nearly 200,000 retail punters who had registered to take part in the float were left disappointed, given just 35 shares each. At their height on that first day, Lastminute.com's shares valued the business at £800m. That's £800m for a company that in the previous three months had made revenues – not even profits – of just £409,000, the naysayers pointed out. But the dotcom boom was all about the creation of a new paradigm for business. Companies could not be valued on multiples of revenues or profits, the dotcom crowd argued. As Julie Meyer, founder of internet networking event First Tuesday and one of the UK digerati's fiercest evangelists, said on the day of Lastminute's ascension: "As for value, it is like beauty – all in the eye of the beholder." And it was a brave person who denied the power of putting a small 'e' in front of any business model, be it e-venturing or e-commerce. There had been a lot of "moonshots" – companies whose shares soared on their debut – created out of the stock of dotcom businesses. In the US, for instance, between 1975 and 1998 only 39 IPOs doubled in value on their first day. In 1999, 117 achieved it. By the middle of March 2000, 43 had already doubled in value on their first day. There were mammoth gains to be made and the effective takeover of Wall Street bellwether Time Warner by digital upstart AOL at the start of 2000 really had seemed to signal an unstoppable revolution. A few days before World Online went public, there was talk that Yahoo was about to merge with eBay, having been in talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, in order to compete with the AOL/Time Warner behemoth. Such talk helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average race up 500 points – its biggest one-day gain – fuelling concerns on Capitol Hill about the "casino mentality" gripping US markets. This side of the Atlantic, traders were becoming nervy. Buoyed by the positive share price reactions which had greeted dotcom investment announcements from the likes of Sky, Pearson and Reuters, magazine group Emap announced plans to invest £250m in new e-ventures, only to see its share price drop 12% . Investor sentiment was turning against 'dotcommery'. When traders returned to their desks after that weekend, the selling gained pace and after three days in the public markets World Online's shares had lost 20% of their value. By the end of the following week Lastminute.com shares were down a similar amount. "The greed evident in the flotation might actually increase the chances that the company disappears up its own portal," the Guardian commentator Edmond Warner said at the time , summing up a mood. In Germany, shares in Lycos Europe dipped under their issue price within moments of the company going public. In the US, the Nasdaq still had some life in it and touched a high of 4816.35 points on March 24 as internet technology firm Cisco surpassed Microsoft as America's most valuable corporation with a valuation of $579.1bn. But the rot had set in. Within a few weeks, company after company was pulling its flotation – starting with video-on-demand player Yes Television, which pulled its £600m IPO – and the following months one after another high-profile corporate collapse as funding dried up . Even Joanna Lumley's endorsement could not help health and beauty site Clickmango, for instance, while the demise of fashion retailer Boo.com, amid tales of executive jets and champagne excesses, quickly became the stuff of legend. Also headed into the deadpool were so-called business-to-consumer – or B2C – firms with such webby names as Letsbuyit.com and UrbanFetch. Business-to-business – B2B – firms, e-finance boutiques and so-called dotcom incubators were wound up or sold on the cheap. Once tipped for a £700m flotation, online retailer Jungle.com, for instance, was snapped up by Argos owner Great Universal Stores for £33m; the technology behind online information group Scoot, which once had a stock market valuation of more than £2bn, was picked up by BT for just £5m. By the end of 2000, World Online itself had been taken over by rival Tiscali . Investors suffered massive losses as, having hit its peak in early March, the FTSE Techmark index, launched with great fanfare just the previous November by then-chancellor Gordon Brown, went on to lose 90% over the next three years. The Nasdaq dropped 83% over the next two-and-a-half years. The pendulum had swung wildly from "everyone's going to be a millionaire by Christmas" to the "internet is dead", remembers web entrepreneur Jamie Riddell, one of the British pioneers of internet advertising who launched his own agency, Cheeze, in late 1999. "We were a new digital advertising agency trying to promote the web ... and we came back after the millennium and the party just stopped. We had gone from one extreme: people throwing hundreds of thousands of pounds at companies with business plans that did not add up, to the other: people saying 'no, the internet is not going to work'." "We survived because we were a very lean business – we took six months with no salary – and by maintaining the conviction that the internet was the future. We did not have a fish tank in the stairs or anything crazy, we kept it sparse. It was beans on toast for six months," he said. Eventually the company prospered and three years ago was scooped up by the Digital Marketing Group. Part of the reason the post-dotcom collapse was so prolonged was that while the boom provided fertile ground for new ideas, the technology of the web lagged behind. The internet connections being offered by the likes of Freeserve, for instance, were 56Kb per second dial-up. The average home connection today is more than 80 times faster. Back in 2000, getting a broadband connection, which ran at a fraction of the speed available today, cost upwards of £50 a month and only a few tens of thousands of people had one. Most home connections struggled with the overly complex sites created by many B2C companies, such as Boo.com, while the chances of consumers being able to watch internet TV, as proposed by some companies during the boom, were slim indeed. Telewest experimented with virtual worlds as it tried to drive sales of faster cable connections, but two years later it had abandoned its experiments as it struggled with its debts . It was another two years before BT started properly rolling out broadband services and only in the last few years has it become ubiquitous. Back in 2000, data-hosting companies talked of corporate clients storing information on the web, or switching to an application service provider (ASP) model, under which many of the programmes used by their employees would be run on the internet. Few companies, however, were confident enough about their web connections to plot such a move. But now, companies like Google are challenging the might of Microsoft by providing corporate clients with everything from document management to calendars and email through a browser, and so-called "cloud computing" is one of the hottest topics in tech. The dotcom boom also saw the sale of licences to operate the next generation of 3G mobile phone services. The mobile phone operators had already tried unsuccessfully to get consumers to try a pared-down version of the internet – using technology called Wap – but it took years for 3G services to take off. It was not until the arrival of the 3G iPhone in 2008, which spawned a host of copycat touchscreen devices, that 3G services came of age. "It was a very tough time after the boom, because we did not have the audience online that we do now, we did not have the technology," Riddell remembers. "We had the ideas, but the boom was built on foundations of sand that were washed away." Technology sector Martha Lane Fox Telecommunications industry Nasdaq eBay Richard Wray Joanna Lumley guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Security firm Control Risks to make bid ... Security firm Control Risks to make bid for Wall Street detective agency Kroll
03/13/2010
Control Risks poised to table £600m bid for US corporate investigations company Kroll Control Risks, which provides security for foreign companies in Iraq and the British government, is poised to join the bidding war for Wall Street's favourite detective agency, Kroll. The security firm, headed by Richard Fenning, is linking with US private equity firm General Atlantic to table a £600m bid. Additional firepower for the bid could come from British private equity group 3i, which has a 17% stake in Control Risks. Control Risks was founded in 1975 by former army officer Timothy Royle to provide advice to insurer Hogg Robinson after a spate of kidnappings of company executives in the US and Europe by political extremists. It became independent in 1982 and offers advice on the political, economic and logistical risks of doing business abroad as well as providing crisis-management services. A large contract with the British government for work in Iraq accounted for 30% of its sales in 2008. The firm has more than 1,000 employees in 15 countries and performs vetting, provides bodyguards and carries out anti-stalking measures for high-profile individuals. The majority of its clients are large corporations that need political and security risk assessments. Control Risks rose to prominence in 1997 when it produced video evidence of senior Co-operative Wholesale Society executives passing information about the group to British entrepreneur Andrew Regan ahead of his planned bid for the business. But it has also grown on the back of the increase in global mergers and acquisitions activity and rising use of technology in the workplace. "Investigating technology-based fraud and providing political and economic analysis for entrants to a particular market remains its stock in trade," said one security analyst. Kroll is best known for helping to uncover the hidden assets of Saddam Hussein, and for proving that the death of "God's banker", Roberto Calvi, found hanging from London's Blackfriars bridge in 1982, was not suicide. In the early 1980s, Kroll started investigating corporate raiders such as Sir James Goldsmith and Victor Posner on behalf of the companies they were attacking. During the 1990s, it also gained attention for its success in searching for assets hidden by dictators Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti and Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos of the Philippines. Following the 11 September attacks in 2001 and a rash of corporate scandals during the early part of the decade – which reinforced the message that companies and investors needed to carry out proper due diligence – Kroll and other corporate security groups were in increasing demand. However, Kroll has seen many twists and turns in its history as it pursued expansion and diversification into other areas such as computer security, forensic accounting, data recovery, employee screening and restructuring. Kroll has offices in 33 countries and employs more than 3,800 people. By 1987, it had established a reputation as Wall Street's pre-eminent private eye during hostile takeovers, after being hired to look into the new breed of financiers and their novel means of raising money. Kroll was hired by the Sears Tower in Chicago to review security after 9/11 and took the job of restructuring Enron, the energy firm brought down by fraud in 2001. City sources say Control Risks and General Atlantic face fierce competition for Kroll from three American private equity bidders – Carlyle, Apax and BC Partners – with the latter teaming up with restructuring expert David Buchler. Control Risks declined to comment. Kroll has been put up for auction by parent company Marsh & McLennan, the global insurance broker and consultancy company which acquired the firm from founder Jules Kroll in 2004 for nearly $2bn. Carlyle is viewed as a leading contender for the business as it has historically had a strong focus on the defence and security sectors. Former prime minister John Major was once a member of its board. But General Atlantic has deep pockets – the firm has approximately $15bn (£9.8bn) of capital under management and is among the 50 largest private equity firms globally. Analysts say that the increasing complexity of the financial markets, globalisation and the internet have presented new security challenges for companies, meaning increased opportunities for firms such as Kroll and Control Risks. Private equity Iraq Richard Wachman guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Where's Irene? Cadbury's chief vanishes Where's Irene? Cadbury's chief vanishes
03/12/2010
Kraft boss Irene Rosenfeld has been conspicuous by her absence since Cadbury's takeover by the US food group She's named after a Greek goddess and stands astride a $50bn sales colossus but Irene Rosenfeld, the boss of Kraft Foods and new owner of Cadbury, is nowhere to be seen. Whispers started in the anxious days that followed the Cadbury board's capitulation to an £11.9bn offer from the maker of Ritz crackers and Dairylea. When would the American businesswoman, ranked sixth in Forbes magazine's female global power list, pitch up at the company's home in Bournvillle and tell them what the future holds for the 186-year-old company? The chorus grew louder when Rosenfeld broke her first promise to the Cadbury workers she had welcomed to the "Kraft Foods family" just days earlier by announcing that she planned to close its Somerdale plant in Somerset after all. There will also be an Irene-shaped hole at Tuesday's meeting of the House of Commons select committee which is looking at takeover rules in the wake the buyout. Kraft says she cannot attend due to "other engagements" but Unite deputy general secretary Jack Dromey, who is giving evidence, says he will make a point of asking: "Where's Irene?" On the day Kraft made an offer Cadbury couldn't refuse, Rosenfeld said: "I warmly welcome Cadbury employees into the Kraft Foods family and look forward to meeting many of them in the days and weeks ahead." Six weeks on, her absence from Bournville has been noted by workers. It is said to be at the behest of PR minders who advised against such a trip for the time being, given the level of ill-feeling. "No she has not been to Bournville yet but she is looking forward to it," said a Kraft spokesman. Kraft's decision to renege on an early promise to grant Somerdale a reprieve has fuelled mistrust of its faceless new US owner in a workforce used to its special brand of "philanthropic capitalism" that dates back to the confectioner's Quaker founders. The pledge, made at the outset of the five-month takeover battle, was designed to win their confidence but is now viewed by union officials as a cynical attempt to manipulate public opinion and mask the Maxwell House-to-Philadelphia-cheese group's reputation for being a rapacious cost-cutter. The Takeover Panel is as keen as the MPs on the business, innovation and skills (BIS) committee to get to the bottom of why Rosenfeld says one thing, only to do another. "It would be better if Irene Rosenfeld was coming in person but she has decided not to," said Peter Luff, the BIS committee's chairman. "We will be asking Kraft about the past and the future as well as the decision to close Somerdale. It is in their interests for the committee and the wider world to be satisfied by their answers." Although Rosenfeld frequently flies around the world in the company jet, Kraft has put forward three executives including one of its PR men, Marc Firestone, the executive vice-president for corporate and legal affairs, to face the music. Michael Osanloo, the director of strategy at Kraft who is in charge of integrating Cadbury, will also be absent. "The team we are putting up is best-placed to answer the questions the committee wants answered," said Kraft. "Marc was a core member of the deal team and has day-to-day responsibility for many of the areas it is interested in." Luff said the committee was not a "one-day wonder" and would not let the matter rest if it felt it had not been told the whole story. The sour taste left by the takeover battle has fired up Unite to campaign for a "Cadbury law", essentially a public interest test to guard British companies against hostile foreign takeovers. "Kraft deliberately misled workers at Somerdale," said Jennie Formby, Unite national officer for the food and drink sector. "They started to believe their jobs would be safe. It is an outrageous way to treat people and they don't care." "If Irene doesn't turn up on Tuesday it shows complete disdain for the UK workforce, government and regulatory authorities," she said. Formby said Kraft had reneged on promises made to the Swedish authorities and workers at chocolate brand Marabou, which it acquired in the early 1990s. "There is a pattern of behaviour where Kraft has taken companies over and then stuck two fingers up." Lord Mandelson was given no advance warning that Kraft was to break its word on Somerdale and in a recent speech to City bosses he said there was a need to "throw some extra grit" at the country's mergers and acquisitions' regime. The business secretary said directors should be "stewards" rather than just "auctioneers", adding, "if this requires restating the 2006 Companies Act then so be it". "The open secret of the last two decades is that mergers often fail to create any long-term value, except perhaps for the advisors and those who arbitrage the share price," said Mandelson. Kraft Cadbury Mergers and acquisitions Trade unions Zoe Wood guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Barclays builds home for New York Nets Barclays builds home for New York Nets
03/12/2010
• Bob Diamond and rapper Jay-Z at ground-breaking ceremony • British bank hopes $300m deal will promote its image in America Seated alongside rap star Jay-Z, Barclays president Bob Diamond beamed cheerfully as a soul rendition of the US national anthem was partially drowned out by the din of circling helicopters and noisy protesters. In a marquee on a disused rail yard in the New York borough of Brooklyn, hundreds of dignitaries including the city's mayor gathered to watch a ground-breaking ceremony for an 18,000-seat basketball stadium to be named the Barclays Centre under a naming deal that has cost the British bank more than $300m (£200m). The stadium will house the Nets, an NBA team owned by Jay-Z, and will be part of a broader $5bn development including shops, offices and 6,400 homes on a desolate site described by a local religious leader as "rodent-infested and garbage-strewn". For Barclays, the arena is a key step in a path to building its brand in the US public consciousness. Ever since snapping up the American assets of defunct Lehman Brothers for a bargain $1.75bn in 2008, the bank has had a none-too-subtle ambition to be a top tier player on Wall Street. "It's helping us brand Barclays with our clients, customers, future clients and future customers," said Diamond, who added that contributing towards urban development could be a small step in repairing the battered public reputation of banks. "That's not why we're doing it, but if it plays a small part in improving the image of the industry, that's good." Barclays was recently ranked number one in fixed-income trading on Wall Street, a shade ahead of JP Morgan. The bank is strong in commodities and currencies but remains smaller in traditional investment banking operations such as equities and corporate finance for mergers and acquisitions. Recent reports have suggested that Barclays is considering buying a high-street bank in the US to bolster its position. Diamond played this down as "speculation", though he admitted that Barclays wanted to build certain consumer businesses, including the credit card brand Barclaycard. The new Barclays Centre is intended to be a rival concert venue to Manhattan's Madison Square Garden and the bank was warmly praised for its involvement by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and by the governor of New York state, David Paterson. Property developer Bruce Ratner, whose Forest City Ratner group is spearheading the project, said Barclays had been a loyal backer through several delays since signing on to naming rights in 2007: "We'll never forget how, through difficult times, Barclays stood with us through thick and thin." But Barclays' brand-building efforts have not been universally welcomed. One New York City councillor, Letitia James, has suggested the bank's involvement is unwelcome in an area of ethnic diversity because it did business in South Africa during the early 1980s despite that country's regime of apartheid. And some community activists have railed against the compulsory purchase of properties to redevelop Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards. Protesters outside the ground-breaking ceremony waved placards reading "stop the rape of Brooklyn" and heralding "the destruction of Brooklyn's soul day". However, Al Sharpton, a prominent black civil rights leader who stood alongside Diamond to support the new stadium, remarked: "You can't have a baby without labour pains." Barclays Bob Diamond Banking US economy Andrew Clark guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Superdry fashion group to float at 500p Superdry fashion group to float at 500p
03/12/2010
Flotation on course to yield about £80m windfall for Julian Dunkerton the entrepreneur behind Supergroup fashion chain The man behind the fast-growing Superdry fashion label is set to bank nearly £80m when the company joins the stockmarket later this month. Julian Dunkerton, who started out in the fashion business with a market stall in Cheltenham, will also retain a 33% stake in the business, worth another £130m at the 500p flotation share price. The Superdry label, which specialises in street-style clothing and is aimed at 18-23 year olds, was launched only six years ago but sales have soared, reaching £119m last year - more than double the UK sales of US giant Abercrombie & Fitch. The brand's Supergroup parent company said today its offer of shares to institutional shareholders had been "heavily oversubscribed" – an impressive achievement in the wake of several much bigger firms, including fashion chain New Look, being forced to abandon their own float plans as a result of market uncertainty and investor reticence. Unlike New Look, however, Supergroup has no debt. On Monday Supergroup starts a retail offer to allow small investors to buy a slice of the business. It will be the first retail offer since 2007. The Supergroup float will value the business at £395m and raise £125m, of which more than £100m will go to the group's owners. Only £15m will be used to fund expansion, with 20 new outlets, including a flagship London store, planned. Only around 32% of the company will be floated. James Holder, a designer hired by Dunkerton and the man who came up with the Superdry concept, and international sales head Theo Karpathios, will also receive multimillion-pound windfalls and retain stakes in the company. Dunkerton's success was built on a £40-a-week grant under Margaret Thatcher's Enterprise Allowance scheme, designed to encourage entrepreneurs in the 1980s. A market stall turned into a chain of fashion boutiques, called Cult, and they are also part of Supergroup. Holder, who had previously dreamed up the Bench young fashion label was brought in during 2003 and came up with Superdry. The trademark orange label has won celebrity fans such as David Beckham and the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, even though Supergroup does not pay famous faces to endorse its clothes. The group now employs 1,000 staff. It opened 17 new stores last year, taking its total to 40 and also has 54 concessions in House of Fraser, where it is one of the department store group's fastest-selling labels. The Superdry brand is sold in 30 countries and the group also has wholesale and online operations. Dunkerton believes there is scope for 120 UK stores within five years. Dunkerton said the high level of demand for Supergroup shares ahead of the float showed that "the institutions are as excited as we are by the success and growth prospects for SuperGroup." He said the retail offer, which opens on Monday for a week, will "allow customers, friends, family, business partners and the general public an opportunity to invest alongside institutions and the Board in the growth of SuperGroup." The shares are due to start trading on March 25th. The last big retail float in the UK was Sports Direct, which turned its owner Mike Ashley into a billionaire. Ashley, however, refused to play by the City's normal rules and keep investors informed of developments. Profit warnings followed and the shares have never returned to anywhere near their 300p flotation price. Retail industry Investing Fashion New Look Julia Finch guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• FSA promises to prevent mis-selling scan... FSA promises to prevent mis-selling scandals
03/12/2010
FSA boss Hector Sants said the regulator would conduct mystery shopping exercises and visits to financial firms to try to prevent future mis-selling scandals The culture and attitudes of society and financial firms need to be overhauled to avoid a repeat of the banking crisis, the chief executive of the Financial Services Authority said today as he outlined a new approach to regulation that is intended to end the wave of mis-selling scandals which have hit the industry. Hector Sants said the regulator would conduct mystery shopping exercises and on-site visits to financial firms in an attempt to identify products which might lead to industry-wide scandals such as those caused by pensions and payment protection insurance. "We will now seek to proactively intervene earlier in the product chain to anticipate consumer detriment and choke it off before it occurs," said Sants. While the regulator does not intend to approve products before they are sold, Sants was outlining a major change to the current approach to consumer regulation adopted by the FSA, which has until now been concerned about the way products are sold – and the advice customers are given – rather than the actual structure of the products themselves. As a result, the City has been investigated for scandals over the way personal pensions, endowment policies and payment protection insurance have been sold. Sants said the FSA would look at products when they were "at the design stage" and would intervene to change the incentives offered to the sellers of the financial products if an industry-wide problem was found to be emerging. Acknowledging that the previous system - which led to consumers being handed redress after large-scale investigation - did not work effectively, Sants said: "Fines and past business reviews are proven not be a sufficient deterrent". "Essentially our process has been too late in the product life cycle to ensure that we identify potential issues early enough to prevent consumer detriment," he added. He said the FSA would also "improve the framework and delivery of redress to consumers, including a review of the complaint-handling standards of all the major banking groups". Sants was beginning to add detail to the pledge made in the regulator's financial risk outlook on Wednesday "to do more to detect and prevent risks before they cause significant consumer detriment". However, with an election expected on 6 May, the FSA's plans may be thrown off course if the Conservatives win and follow through their pledge to close down the regulator. Without referring to this directly, Sants admitted that the current tripartite system - including the FSA, Bank of England and the Treasury - had "deficiencies". "But what matters here is that we have the right people making the right decisions, and the right policies and rules in place to support that process". Sants also addressed the "ethics" of the financial system which has been locked in a crisis for more than two years. "Poor risk management was a key driver of the crisis," Sants said. "My personal view is that if we really do wish to learn lessons from the past, we need to change not just the regulatory rules and supervisory approach, but also the culture and attitudes of both society as a whole, and the management of major financial firms," Sants said. "At the heart of the challenge is the need to restore trust. In particular society's trust in the regulatory authorities and financial market participants," he said. Financial Services Authority (FSA) Regulators Payment protection insurance Personal pensions Consumer affairs Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• EU agrees bailout for Greece EU agrees bailout for Greece
03/12/2010
Exclusive: Germany plays pivotal role in potential eurozone rescue package for Greek debts The eurozone has agreed a multibillion-euro bailout for Greece as part of a package to shore up the single currency after weeks of crisis, the Guardian has learnt. Senior sources in Brussels said that Berlin had bowed to the bailout agreement despite huge resistance in Germany and that the finance ministers of the "eurozone" – the 16 member states including Greece who use the euro – are to finalise the rescue package on Monday. The single currency's rulebook will also be rewritten to enforce greater fiscal discipline among members. The member states have agreed on "co-ordinated bilateral contributions" in the form of loans or loan guarantees to Greece if Athens finds itself unable to refinance its soaring debt and requests help from the EU, a senior European commission official said. Other sources said the aid could rise to €25bn (£22.6bn), although it is estimated in European capitals that Greece could need up to €55bn by the end of the year. Germany, the EU's traditional paymaster, but the most reluctant to come to the rescue of a fiscal delinquent in the current crisis, has played the pivotal role in organising the rescue package, the sources added. "There have been quite intensive preparations under the eurogroup. We have the ways and means to do it," said the senior official, asking not to be named because of the subject's sensitivity. "It will be a co-ordinated approach of bilateral contributions [between EU governments] … A bilateral contribution can be a loan or a loan guarantee. The guarantees will facilitate the kind of funds potentially needed in this context." The rules governing the operation of the single currency proscribe a bailout for a country on the brink of insolvency. Berlin, in particular, has been worried that any bailout of Greece could be challenged in its constitutional court. The senior official said the agreement – which will not involve any contribution from the UK taxpayer – had been tailored to respect the bailout ban and avoid a supreme court challenge in Germany. Alongside the financial relief package for Greece, the European commission is rushing through tougher rules for the eurozone, using powers conferred by the recently enacted Lisbon treaty to try to establish a system of rigorous "budgetary surveillance" of all 16 participating countries. The aim is a new regime of "reinforced economic policy co-ordination" in the EU. "This is the essential lesson that has to be learned from the Greek case," Olli Rehn of Finland, the new commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, told the Guardian (and four other European papers). "The Greek case is a potential turning point for the eurozone," said Rehn in the interview. "If Greece fails and we fail, this will do serious and maybe permanent damage to the credibility of the European Union. The euro is not only a monetary arrangement, but a core political project of the European Union … In that sense, we are at a crossroads." While ready to bail out the Greeks if only on terms of "rigorous conditionality", European leaders are hoping that the rescue will not be needed, that the draconian package of austerity measures announced by Prime Minister George Papandreou will be enough to calm the markets and stabilise the euro. EU leaders are to rule next week on whether Papandreou is doing enough to slash the 12.7% budget deficit by four percentage points this year, part of his ambition to cut the deficit by 10 points over three years. Rehn said he would unveil new proposals next month, enshrining a new single currency regime of "rigorous surveillance of national budgets" and that Eurostat, the EU's statistical agency, would need to be given formidable new auditing powers over the books of eurozone member states, a demand that may be resisted by EU governments. "That's the hard core of our proposal. [The surveillance] should be automatic," said Rehn. "We have an immediate corrective instrument for the Greek case, plus another framework to prevent new Greek crises." Inside the commission, officials are confident that Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, supports the tough new regime being plotted. Schäuble, who uses a wheelchair and is currently in hospital, and will not attend key meetings in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday. Schäuble enjoys a longstanding reputation as a European integrationist and is said to have played a central role in shaping the Greek bailout plans despite widespread hostility to any such moves in Germany. Over the past week, he has sparked a major debate by calling for a European Monetary Fund to underpin the currency, and yesterday stoked more controversy by proposing that serial sinners in the eurozone could be expelled from the single currency club. The EMF concept is for the long-term and a new rule enabling expulsion from the euro club would require the Lisbon treaty to be re-opened, a nightmare for most after labouring over it for almost nine years. While senior figures in Brussels believe that Chancellor Angela Merkel and Schäuble are intensely serious about establishing an EMF, they also suspect they are using the idea to assuage hostile public opinion in Germany and "prepare a short-term fire brigade operation for Greece". Greece European Union Global economy Global recession Germany Currencies Europe Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Aga profits reduced by 97% Aga profits reduced by 97%
03/12/2010
• Aga saga took sad turn as recession hit demand • But company says sales of upmarket cookers are hotting up Aga Rangemaster has seen its annual profits almost wiped out after running up big reorganisation costs and a sharp drop in demand for its traditional cast iron stoves during the recession. Not surprisingly, sales fell off a cliff at the height of the downturn, but the upmarket cooker maker said markets improved as the year progressed. Demand slumped in the first half of last year, before levelling out and, in some areas, strengthening later in the year. Chief executive William McGrath is optimistic that sales will pick up in coming weeks. The cold weather should give the company a boost , highlighting the benefits of the firm's all-in-one cookers and boilers, with more people keen to become less reliant on the grid. McGrath is also pinning his hopes on the company's continental and North American operations. Aga's European sales have benefited from the pound's weakness against the euro. It hopes to make greater inroads into the American market by launching "punchily priced" products and pushing its self-cleaning cookers that carbonise dirt. "The right thing to do last year was to hammer down on costs and to go for cash. This year we can be more expansive," McGrath said. The group makes a third of its sales outside the UK, of which 20% comes from France, Holland, Belgium and Germany, but wants to raise the overseas share to half of overall revenues. He also hopes to turn around the loss-making Fired Earth division, and noted that its new tile range is attracting an "unprecedented level of interest". A new generation of "smart control" is also in the pipeline, which will tie together various energy sources like solar collectors and boilers to come on the market in the summer. Trying to improve its green credentials, Aga is also bringing out a new Rayburn cooker-boiler this spring as part of its A-rated condensing boiler range. Profits plummeted to £500,000 last year from £14.4m in 2008, while revenues fell to £245m from £279m. Stripping out one-off costs related to factory mergers and management reorganisations, pre-tax profits halved to £12.6m. The company has streamlined its operations; for instance, in Canada it now sells directly to dealers. Aga Foodservice Food & drink industry Food & drink Recession Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• BA strike: seven days of walkouts BA strike: seven days of walkouts
03/12/2010
More than half a million travellers to be hit by successive weekend walkouts, with the first beginning on 20 March More than half a million British Airways passengers face strike disruption this month after the Unite trade union announced walkouts over two consecutive weekends, prompting BA to withdraw a last-ditch peace offer. Unite has called a series of strikes by up to 12,000 flight attendants, beginning with a three-day walkout on 20 March and then a four-day stoppage from 27 March. Further strike action will take place after 14 April if there is no deal by then, the union added. Gordon Brown intervened in the dispute this afternoon, calling on both sides to reach agreement. "I hope they will do so [resume talks] but I remind them of the danger and risk to the British economy of disruptive strikes going ahead," he said. Brief hopes of a reprieve for the 525,000 passengers affected by the strike action were extinguished this afternoon when the BA chief executive, Willie Walsh, withdrew a compromise offer after hearing that Unite had set dates for the airline's first cabin crew strike in 13 years. BA said the offer, which included a partial repeal of staffing cuts, was conditional on Unite not setting strike dates. Walsh told the BBC that the two sides were "not close at all" to reaching an agreement and described Unite's counter-offer of a 2.6% pay cut for staff as "morally wrong". He said passengers already booked on to flights from 19 March to 31 March could apply for a refund or reschedule their journeys. A BA spokesperson said: "Our offer to Unite was conditional on the union not naming strike dates. Because strike dates have been announced, Unite has invalidated the offer. It is no longer on the table." BA's move means strikes are certain to go ahead next Friday unless the tentative lines of communication between both sides, described as "slender" by one source close to the talks, yield a new compromise. This morning Unite said it would put the BA proposal out to a consultative ballot with the result due next Wednesday. However, the simultaneous announcement of strike dates angered BA, which said it had offered Unite an extension to its strike mandate. Speaking before BA's move, Len McCluskey, Unite's chief negotiator and assistant general secretary, said he was willing to keep talking. "There are no negotiations [planned] but of course we remain open to meeting with BA anytime, anywhere." McCluskey later added that the withdrawal of the BA offer "beggars belief". The two sides are haggling over a £62.5m target for cost savings in the annual cabin crew budget, which BA has achieved by unilaterally cutting staffing levels on flights by at least one person. This followed a voluntary redundancy programme that saw 1,100 flight attendants leave the company. Unite wants the majority of those positions reinstated and has offered a 2.6% pay cut this year to help fund the move. The industrial action has been timed to cause maximum disruption to BA, with the airline facing a struggle to reinstate a normal timetable between strikes. BA normally carries about 75,000 passengers a day on 650 services. Walsh has said he hopes to operate a substantial proportion of the airline's Heathrow airport long-haul operations and a good number of short-haul flights during the strikes. The airline has admitted that there will be cancellations and hopes to announce a revised flight schedule on Monday. The airline has pledged to break the strike with 1,000 volunteer flight attendants drawn from the ranks of its non-cabin-crew workforce, and is preparing to hire 23 aeroplanes complete with their own trained crew. BA said today that it will only be able to offer hot meals to first-class passengers on affected flights, with no specialist meals such as kosher and halal dishes, while the remaining passengers will have cold meals. BA has said it will operate its entire schedule from London City airport during the industrial action and has claimed more than two-thirds of its Gatwick-based crews will work normally. Informal channels of communication are still open between BA and Unite, via the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Brendan Barber. According to BA's withdrawn offer, the airline was willing partially to repeal the staffing cuts at the heart of the dispute and would consider putting around 184 cabin crew positions back on its 239-plane fleet. However, Unite wants 700 positions returned to BA aircraft and has proposed about £60m worth of cost savings to fund the proposal. BA says the figures are significantly short of its cost-cutting target. Unite is also threatening to hold a consultative ballot over proposed changes to baggage handlers' contracts. If union members vote against BA's proposals an industrial action ballot will be held, although that move is several weeks away. Unite argues it has been bypassed by BA despite holding talks about the baggage handler contracts. Steve Turner, the Unite national officer for civil aviation, said: "It is hugely concerning that BA feel that management by imposition is their preferred approach. Very soon no worker at the airline will feel that either their job or their terms and conditions are safe. This instability cannot be healthy for the airline." A BA spokesman said: "We are consulting with our ground-handling staff at Heathrow about potential changes to improve the way in which we work. Any talk of a ballot for industrial action is speculative and premature." British Airways Airline industry Air transport Transport Trade unions Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• Liberty says it has received bid approac... Liberty says it has received bid approaches
03/12/2010
A deal for the London department store would end months of speculation Liberty , the London department store, said this morning that it has received bid approaches. A deal would end months of speculation over the future of the Liberty store, which was put up for sale last July by its majority shareholder, property firm MWB. Liberty said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange: Further to the recent press speculation, the board of Liberty confirms that it has received approaches which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company. At this stage, it is too early for the Board to determine whether or not these discussions will result in any formal offer being made for the xompany. Over the past six months Liberty has been examining and assessing a range of options and initiatives that would enable it to build upon its success since the launch of the Renaissance of Liberty in February 2009. This has included seeking investors who could bring capital and expertise to help develop and grow the business both within the UK and internationally. According to reports , Marco Capello, the former managing director of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, is close to buying Liberty through his investment fund BlueGem Capital Partners. Capello is expected to pounce on the luxury retailer, which also has a wholesale fabric business, in a fortnight's time, when Liberty should have completed a £40m sale and leaseback of its Tudor-style building on Great Malborough Street. Other suitors are thought to include the luxury investor and Sirius Equity founder Robert Bensoussan and global supplier Li & Fung, but Capello, who was involved in the privatisation of Debenhams during his time at Merrill Lynch, has reportedly outbid them. Liberty had a market value of £63m last night. Liberty said overall revenues climbed 20% last year, with its London flagship store posting 16% revenue growth. Online sales enjoyed a particularly strong Christmas. Also this morning, Aga Rangemaster saw 2009 profits before tax plummet to £500,000 from £14.4m the previous year. The upmarket cooker maker suffered a slump in demand for its traditional cast iron stoves during the recession, but expects sales to pick up again this spring. William McGrath, the chief executive, said: The generation of cash was the big achievement of 2009 and that remains the focus given the caution needed in the current market. Our lead indicators, however, are positive and after a slow order intake at the start of the year, the prospects are encouraging heading into the spring. Night club operator Luminar admitted today that its business has been "severely affected" by poor weather across most of the UK in the last two months of its financial year, which ends on 25 February. The group is still trading within its debt covenants and continues to generate cash to reduce its borrowings. Debts have been cut by £49m to £93m. Luminar has appointed Simon Douglas as chief executive to supervise a "rigorous cost reduction exercise". Liberty International Aga Foodservice Luminar Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• Runaway Prius Probe Can't Verify Story Runaway Prius Probe Can't Verify Story
03/14/2010
Congressional Spokesman Says Investigation's Findings Casts Doubt on Calif. Driver's Harrowing Tale (3 h ago)

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03/12/2010
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03/12/2010
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03/11/2010
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• Obama Touts Effort to Double U.S. Export... Obama Touts Effort to Double U.S. Exports
03/11/2010
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03/11/2010
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03/11/2010
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• GMAC Bailout May Add $6.3B to Public's T... GMAC Bailout May Add $6.3B to Public's Tab
03/11/2010
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• HSBC Swiss Bank Accounts Data Stolen HSBC Swiss Bank Accounts Data Stolen
03/11/2010
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• Beijing sees foreign trade up 70% in Jan... Beijing sees foreign trade up 70% in Jan., Feb.
03/14/2010
Foreign trade value in the Chinese capital rose 70 percent year on year to 42.2 billion U.S. dollars in January and February, Beijing's customs authorities said Saturday. Export value in the first two months of 2010 stood at 8.06 billion dollars, up 10.7 percent from the same period last year, while imports rose by 94.7 percent to 34.16 billion dollars, the customs said. This has resulted in a trade deficit of 26.1 billion dollars, up 150 percent year on year, the customs said. The cust ... (1 h ago)

• NW China province to invest 500 mln yuan... NW China province to invest 500 mln yuan to explore mineral resources
03/14/2010
Northwest China's Qinghai Province will invest 500 million yuan (about 73.2 million U.S.dollars) to explore mineral resources in the region's Qaidam Basin, according to the province's Land and Resources Bureau. Qaidam Basin, which locates in the north of Qinghai Province, is one of China's four biggest inland basins. So far, a total of 57 kinds of mineral resources, have been detected,with an estimated economic value of 16 trillion yuan(about 2.3 trillion U.S.dollars). The bureau says t ... (1 h ago)

• Chinese companies to bid on U.S. high-sp... Chinese companies to bid on U.S. high-speed railway projects
03/14/2010
Chinese companies plan to bid for contracts of building high-speed railways in the United States as China is willing to share its advanced technologies, a senior official said on Saturday. "We have organized related companies to take part in bidding, and we have signed memorandum of cooperation with the railway authority in California,"said Wang Zhiguo, vice minister of railways on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the nation's top legislature. U.S. Pre ... (1 h ago)

• How far will China go for yuan globaliza... How far will China go for yuan globalization?
03/14/2010
The world is watching China's next move after it witnessed last year key progress in the initiative to make renminbi, or yuan, a global currency. As government officials hinted the establishment of a global board at the Shanghai A-share market during the annual "two sessions" of the country's supreme legislature and top political advisory body, analysts believed it would be a catalyst to help accelerate yuan's globalization. While delivering the government work report to the National Peopl ... (1 h ago)

• Chinese yuan appreciates 14.5% in real t... Chinese yuan appreciates 14.5% in real term when world economy is worst hit
03/14/2010
Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday that keeping the RMB exchange rate basically stable had played an important role in facilitating the recovery of the global economy from the worst financial crisis in decades. When the global economy was worst hit between July 2008 and February 2009, the real effective exchange rate of the RMB has risen by 14.5 percent, Wen told a press conference after the annual parliament session. &$ &$Source:Xinhua&$ &$ ... (1 h ago)

• Dollar falls at end of week as Greece de... Dollar falls at end of week as Greece debt worries ease
03/14/2010
The dollar fluctuated on risk appetite during the past week before falling against major currencies on Friday as investors' worries about Greece's debt crisis eased. Debt woes in Greece and other European countries have been one of the major driving factors for currency trading in the week. The dollar fell on Monday as French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered support to Greece. After meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Sunday, Sarkozy said the euro zone countries would p ... (1 h ago)

• ASEAN officials to finalize Single Windo... ASEAN officials to finalize Single Window project draft: Indonesian official
03/14/2010
An Indonesia senior official said that senior customs officials of ASEAN countries will finalize the MoU draft on ASEAN Single Window (ASW) in Kuching, Malaysia later this month, local media reported Saturday. "The meeting of ASEAN customs director general will take place from March 23 to 30 in Kuching Malaysia," Indonesian National Single Window (NSW) technical team chief Susiwijono Mugiharso was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying at a press conference here on Friday. The Association of ... (1 h ago)

• U.S. economy to "come out of mess" this ... U.S. economy to "come out of mess" this year: economist
03/14/2010
The U.S. economy has gone through its worst days over the last two years and will "come out of this mess" with some degrees of improvement in 2010, a U.S. economist has said. Maria Fiorini Ramirez, president & CEO of Maria Fiorini Ramirez, Inc., (MFR), an independent global economic and financial consulting firm, made the comments in an interview with Xinhua on Thursday. Regarding the outlook of the U.S. economy in 2010, she predicted that "the growth will be modest and we look for a 2.7-p ... (1 h ago)

• U.S. economist remains cautious despite ... U.S. economist remains cautious despite improved consumer spending data
03/14/2010
While consumer spending data in the past two months have undoubtedly been improved, a U.S. economist remains cautious on the underlying trend. "Wage and salary income growth is weak, credit is very tight, asset values have been decimated, and balance sheets are generally a wreck," Maria Fiorini Ramirez, president & CEO of Maria Fiorini Ramirez, Inc., an independent global economic and financial consulting firm, told Xinhua on Friday. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index decl ... (1 h ago)

• Housing proves hot button issue Housing proves hot button issue
03/14/2010
Any topic related to property prices is a hot topic of discussion among Chinese people at the moment, and members of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) attending their annual meetings are no exception. Nearly half of the proposals to the NPC and CPPCC sessions were about different ways of curbing soaring property prices and addressing the housing difficulties faced by low-income families. The most eye-catching of these was a ... (1 h ago)

• Housing proves hot button issue (3) Housing proves hot button issue (3)
03/14/2010
Such an idea is, in fact, nothing new. As early as 1998, when the country embarked on housing reform, the State Council issued a notice requiring governments at all levels to set up a housing supply system to meet demand from people on lower incomes. But the real challenge is how to ensure the comprehensive implementation of such policies. A report submitted by the NPC Standing Committee said that by the end of August last year, only 23.6 percent of the central government's budget for econ ... (1 h ago)

• Housing proves hot button issue (2) Housing proves hot button issue (2)
03/14/2010
Though this reform allowed a great many Chinese people to own their own homes, growing numbers are unhappy with the soaring real estate prices that it has also brought about. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, property prices in China's 70 major cities grew 10.7 percent in February, the highest pace for 23 months. For people on average incomes in Beijing and Shanghai, a regular two-bedroom apartment may cost them 20 to 30 years' income, far higher than the international averag ... (1 h ago)

• China expects mild, controllable price i... China expects mild, controllable price increase this year: official
03/14/2010
Consumer price increase in China is expected to be "mild and controllable" this year, Fang Aiqing, assistant commerce minister, said Saturday. "The country's inflation target this year has been set in accordance with the real situation and is expectedly achievable," Fang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's parliament annual session. China targets a rise of consumer price of around 3 percent this year, Premier Wen Jiabao said when delivering a government work report ... (1 h ago)

• Chinese official optimistic in consumpti... Chinese official optimistic in consumption's role in driving growth
03/14/2010
Consumption is expected to contribute more to China's economic growth this year, Fang Aiqing, assistant commerce minister, said Saturday. &$ &$Fang Aiqin, minister assistant of the Ministry of Commerce(MOFCOM), speaks during a press conference on "Activating Circulation and Promoting consumption" held on the sidelines of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress in Beijing, China, March 13, 2010. (Xinhua/Ma ... (1 h ago)

• Eurozone ministers to finalize bailout p... Eurozone ministers to finalize bailout plan for Greece: report
03/13/2010
Finance ministers of eurozone countries were expected to finalize a bailout plan for Greece at their meeting next week, a news report said on Friday. The Guardian said that eurozone countries have broadly agreed to the bailout plan after Germany finally bowed to pressure despite domestic opposition, citing unnamed sources in Brussels. Finance ministers of the 16 countries that use the euro were scheduled to finalize details of the rescue when they meet on Monday, the British newspaper said ... (20 h ago)

• Questions arise over story of runaway Pr... Questions arise over story of runaway Prius
03/13/2010
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• Study: Hearts may swoon when stocks do Study: Hearts may swoon when stocks do
03/13/2010
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• WaMu settles with JPMorgan, FDIC WaMu settles with JPMorgan, FDIC
03/12/2010
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• Affluent California county sues Toyota Affluent California county sues Toyota
03/12/2010
Southern California prosecutors filed the first U.S. consumer protection lawsuit against Toyota Friday, claiming it had engaged in "fraud" by hiding evidence of dangerous vehicle defects. (1 d ago)

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03/12/2010
Mixed economic reports held the stock market to only modest moves Friday but gains for the week were strong. (1 d ago)

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03/12/2010
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners are in limbo waiting to find out if they will be accepted for the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention program. (1 d ago)

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03/12/2010
The unemployment rate last year for young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans hit 21.1 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, reflecting a tough obstacle combat veterans face. (1 d ago)

• Policy ‘dove’ may be tapped for Fed vice... Policy ‘dove’ may be tapped for Fed vice chair
03/12/2010
President Barack Obama wants to nominate Janet Yellen, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, to take over as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. (1 d ago)

• Homeowners take ‘cash for keys’ to escap... Homeowners take ‘cash for keys’ to escape debt
03/12/2010
Owners of bad loans are increasingly making deals with borrowers to avoid a foreclosure. Lawmakers are more accepting of these solutions even if they mean the borrower loses the home. (1 d ago)

• Oil production predicted to peak in 2014 Oil production predicted to peak in 2014
03/12/2010
Predicting the end of oil has proven tricky and often controversial, but Kuwaiti scientists now say that global oil production will peak in 2014. (1 d ago)

• Retail sales rise unexpectedly in Februa... Retail sales rise unexpectedly in February
03/12/2010
Retail sales posted a surprising increase in February as consumers did not let major snowstorms stop them from storming the malls, (1 d ago)

• Blunt the e-mail interruption assault Blunt the e-mail interruption assault
03/12/2010
Constant e-mail interruptions make you less productive, less creative and — if you're e-mailing when you're doing something else — just plain dumb. Here's how to fight back. (1 d ago)

• Weak economy means it’s a freebie nation... Weak economy means it’s a freebie nation
03/12/2010
Whether it's to boost sagging business or attract customers to a new product, there seems to be a freebie fad going on. That's a boon for budget shoppers and can be good for companies too. (1 d ago)

• Consumer sentiment dips amid job worries Consumer sentiment dips amid job worries
03/12/2010
U.S. consumer sentiment declined slightly in early March, with Americans less positive about the job outlook, a survey released on Friday showed. (1 d ago)

• Business sales rise to highest level sin... Business sales rise to highest level since 2008
03/12/2010
Business inventories were unexpectedly flat in January, while sales rose to their highest level since October 2008, government data showed on Friday. (1 d ago)

• U.S. sales tax rates hit record high U.S. sales tax rates hit record high
03/12/2010
Forbes: While the White House's push to raise federal income taxes for the wealthy gets the attention, the sales tax rates imposed by state and local governments has crept to its highest level ever. (2 d ago)

• Red Tape: Toyota woes raise car-tech woe... Red Tape: Toyota woes raise car-tech woes
03/12/2010
We may never know why runaway Toyotas suddenly seem to be everywhere. The scariest possibility, however, is that faulty computers are driving some victims to their deaths with frightening randomness. (2 d ago)

• New wave of foreclosures threatens marke... New wave of foreclosures threatens market
03/12/2010
Swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but haven't yet lost their homes may soon lead to a new round of foreclosures. (2 d ago)

• Everybody’s Business: Shopping the Mortg... Everybody’s Business: Shopping the Mortgage Rate Before the Home Price
03/13/2010
One real estate broker has this advice for prospective homebuyers: “Predicting interest rates is a whole lot easier than predicting home prices.” (13 h ago)

• The Haggler: Capturing the Moments of Cu... The Haggler: Capturing the Moments of Customer Frustration
03/13/2010
When a Flip video camera won’t connect with a Mac laptop, a new father inadvertently embarks on a customer-service adventure. (15 h ago)

• Economic View: Managed Care: Get Used to... Economic View: Managed Care: Get Used to It
03/13/2010
Like it or not, more cost control looks likely to flourish in any health plan, Tyler Cowen says. (16 h ago)

• How Men’s Overconfidence Hurts Them as I... How Men’s Overconfidence Hurts Them as Investors
03/13/2010
During the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, men were much more likely than women to sell their stock at market lows, a new study has found. (18 h ago)

• Patient Money: Finding the Right Care fo... Patient Money: Finding the Right Care for the Elderly
03/12/2010
Advice for making an informed decision about supporting an ailing parent without bankrupting the family. (1 d ago)

• Appeals Court Upholds Cable TV Access Ru... Appeals Court Upholds Cable TV Access Rules
03/12/2010
The regulations require cable TV companies to make programming available on equal terms to rival TV providers. (1 d ago)

• Mortgage Modification Program Gains Trac... Mortgage Modification Program Gains Traction
03/12/2010
The Treasury Department said that more than 168,000 households had received permanent new mortgages under its modification plan. (1 d ago)

• Shortcuts: When a Cap Full of Soap Is No... Shortcuts: When a Cap Full of Soap Is Not a Good Thing
03/12/2010
Go easy on the detergent in dishwashers and washing machines, and never clean your oven the day before Thanksgiving. (1 d ago)

• Wealth Matters: No Federal Estate Tax, b... Wealth Matters: No Federal Estate Tax, but What About Your State?
03/12/2010
Twenty states have their own versions of the old federal estate tax. The many clauses and provisions mean that, even in the absence of a federal estate tax, you might not be able to die tax-free. (1 d ago)

• Your Money: In Most Cases, Best to Pass ... Your Money: In Most Cases, Best to Pass Up Overdraft Protection
03/12/2010
Many bank customers are having to decide whether to ask for overdraft protection. Most should say no. (1 d ago)

• Its Own Advisers Oppose Consumer Role fo... Its Own Advisers Oppose Consumer Role for the Fed
03/12/2010
Some current and former members of the Fed’s Consumer Advisory Council say a watchdog agency doesn’t belong in there. (1 d ago)

• I.R.S. Increases Audits of Wealthy I.R.S. Increases Audits of Wealthy
03/12/2010
The federal agency increased its audits of taxpayers who earned $1 million to $5 million by 33 percent in 2009 from 2008. (1 d ago)

• Would You Opt In to Overspending? Would You Opt In to Overspending?
03/12/2010
Do you want your bank to charge you extra when you overspend? (1 d ago)

• Taking Questions on New Consumer Laws Taking Questions on New Consumer Laws
03/12/2010
Our expert is taking questions on the credit card law and other new consumer rules and regulations. (1 d ago)

• Friday Reading Friday Reading
03/12/2010
The latest on President Obama's proposed plan to have the federal government provide student loans, paying more to sit in the shade and other consumer-focused items from Friday's Times. (1 d ago)

• Bank of America Plans to End Overdraft F... Bank of America Plans to End Overdraft Fees on Debit Card Purchases
03/11/2010
The decision that could cost the bank tens of millions a year and put pressure on other banks to do the same. (2 d ago)

• Sending Money Electronically to a Friend... Sending Money Electronically to a Friend: Why It's Hard
03/11/2010
A look at why it has taken so long for banks to adopt quick interbank person-to-person transfer services and when the services will probably be available. (2 d ago)

• Why Would N.C.A.A. Expand Tournament? It... Why Would N.C.A.A. Expand Tournament? It’s About the Money
03/13/2010
With a larger television contract a strong possibility, the idea of increasing the number of teams to 96 in the tournament has gained momentum. (10 h ago)

• Fearing Drug Cartels, Reporters in Mexic... Fearing Drug Cartels, Reporters in Mexico Retreat
03/13/2010
Attacks on the media along the border with the U.S. have resulted in what amounts to a news blackout. (10 h ago)

• Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy ... Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy With My Blog and Building My Brand.
03/13/2010
So-called mommy blogs were once little more than glorified electronic scrapbooks. Now they have evolved into a cultural force to be reckoned with. (10 h ago)

• TV Sports: ESPN Shows Reggie Miller as a... TV Sports: ESPN Shows Reggie Miller as a Straw That Stirred the Garden
03/13/2010
A new ESPN documentary, “Winning Time,” profiles the playoff battles between the Knicks and Pacers during the 1990s. (19 h ago)

• Vast F.C.C. Plan Would Bring Net to More... Vast F.C.C. Plan Would Bring Net to More in U.S.
03/12/2010
The 10-year plan would reimagine the nation’s media and technology priorities by establishing high-speed Internet as the country’s dominant communication network. (1 d ago)

• Facebook Helps Social Start-Ups Gain Use... Facebook Helps Social Start-Ups Gain Users
03/12/2010
Facebook Connect can help nascent Web services recruit a healthy crowd of users in a hurry, and help the users find their friends on those sites. (1 d ago)

• Netflix Cancels Contest Over Privacy Con... Netflix Cancels Contest Over Privacy Concerns
03/12/2010
The movie rental company canceled a competition to improve film recommendations after learning that customers could be identified from data it released. (1 d ago)

• Advertising: Instant Ads Set the Pace on... Advertising: Instant Ads Set the Pace on the Web
03/12/2010
Companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft let advertisers buy ads in the milliseconds between the time someone enters a site’s Web address and the moment the page appears. (2 d ago)

• Pink Floyd Wins Court Battle With EMI Ov... Pink Floyd Wins Court Battle With EMI Over Downloads
03/12/2010
The court ruling prevents the record company from selling single downloads on the Internet from the group's concept albums. (2 d ago)

• Dysport Takes On Botox With Aggressive R... Dysport Takes On Botox With Aggressive Rebates
03/11/2010
Medicis has started a new marketing campaign that pits its wrinkle-smoother, Dysport, directly against Botox. It makes bioethicists squirm. (2 d ago)

• Outraged by Glenn Beck’s Salvo, Christia... Outraged by Glenn Beck’s Salvo, Christians Fire Back
03/11/2010
The Rev. Jim Wallis and others were outraged when the broadcaster said the words “social justice” and “economic justice” were code for Communism and Nazism. (2 d ago)

• F.C.C. Considers Changes on Cable Fee Di... F.C.C. Considers Changes on Cable Fee Disputes
03/11/2010
The agency wants to ensure that customers do not lose TV access because of fee disputes between broadcasters and cable companies. (2 d ago)

• The Mouse That Roared: Turning to the In... The Mouse That Roared: Turning to the Internet to Catch a Favorite TV Show
03/11/2010
With new devices making it easy to stream Internet content to a television, more people are watching cable shows for free. (2 d ago)

• A Futures Site Coming to Bet on Movie Ti... A Futures Site Coming to Bet on Movie Ticket Sales
03/11/2010
A virtual futures exchange is being assembled to allow people to bet money on a film’s box office success. (3 d ago)

• Meltdown movie magic Meltdown movie magic
03/14/2010
While Washington still appears to hate Wall Street, Hollywood is starting to flirt with the idea that the crash-and-burn intrigue of Ponzi schemes, billion-dollar bets against the housing market and bank failures will create box-office magic. Hollywood's latest go-round with financial-sector flicks was sparked by the December 2008 arrest... (6 h ago)

• Jets look to run $$ back play Jets look to run $$ back play
03/14/2010
Six weeks after their season ended, one game short of the Super Bowl, Woody Johnson's New York Jets appear close to yet another victory. The team is in good shape to pocket a $200,000 grant from cash-strapped New York to pay for the expenses associated with holding its... (6 h ago)

• Lower credit scores cost New Yorkers $1,... Lower credit scores cost New Yorkers $1,400 a year
03/14/2010
New Yorkers are getting kicked while they are down. The Great Recession has pushed the credit scores of Big Apple denizens down dramatically -- which has pumped up how much we are paying to borrow money for mortgages, for auto loans or on our credit cards. An analysis of credit... (6 h ago)

• Apple soaring Apple soaring
03/14/2010
Shares of Apple surged 3.5 percent last week -- to an all-time high -- as the company geared up for taking pre-orders on its much-anticipated iPad tablet. Apple closed Friday at $226.60, up 135% in the last year. The tech giant, headed by Steve Jobs, now has a... (6 h ago)

• This bank really does God's work This bank really does God's work
03/14/2010
There's at least one bank in the New York metropolitan area that's doing God's work -- and no, we're not talking about Goldman Sachs. Atlantic Stewardship Bank, based in Bergen County, NJ, donates 10 percent of its annual pre-tax earnings to charity -- and has done... (6 h ago)

• NY's layoffs get longer NY's layoffs get longer
03/14/2010
The amount of time unemployed New Yorkers have spent out of work has ballooned 44 percent since the beginning of the recession, statistics show. In the second half of 2009, the average length of time a person collected unemployment benefits was 23.1 weeks, according the New York-based National Employment... (6 h ago)

• I even fill jobs in my free time I even fill jobs in my free time
03/14/2010
Dear John: We currently need to hire a driver with a commercial license for our paper company in the Bronx. The job pays about $45,000 per year plus family medical coverage. We would like to give the job to a vet. Do you know anybody? Thanks for your time... (6 h ago)

• Happy returns Happy returns
03/14/2010
It's just over a month until tax day -- April 15 -- typically one of the most dreaded days on the calendar for Americans. But that red-letter day is of diminishing significance to an increasing percentage of Americans every year, even as Uncle Sam runs up record amounts of... (6 h ago)

• Sponsored By: Sponsored By:
03/12/2010
(1 d ago)

• SEC head urges Congress to act on deriva... SEC head urges Congress to act on derivatives
03/11/2010
The SEC is calling anew for Congress to impose oversight on derivatives, warning that allowing risky instruments like credit default swaps to continue unfettered could bring new economic damage. Credit default swap - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - Business - United States Congress - Congress (2 d ago)

• The 25 richest counties in the United St... The 25 richest counties in the United States
03/11/2010
The country may have started its long haul back to economic recovery — if recent news that consumer spending increased slightly in January is any indication. United States - Recreation - Business - Carlos Slim - Bill Gates (2 d ago)

• Wall Street reform hits an impasse Wall Street reform hits an impasse
03/11/2010
Chances of a broad overhaul of U.S. financial regulation this year dimmed on Thursday after bipartisan Senate talks collapsed. Christopher Dodd - United States Senate Committee on Banking Housing and Urban Affairs - United States - Government - Business (2 d ago)

• Obama outlines steps in bid to double ex... Obama outlines steps in bid to double exports
03/11/2010
President Barack Obama sought to put some detail behind his lofty drive to double U.S. exports over the next five years, calling the effort imperative to putting people back to work. Barack Obama - United States - President of the United States - President - History (2 d ago)

• Big majority wants Wall Street regulatio... Big majority wants Wall Street regulation
03/11/2010
An overwhelming majority of Americans wants Wall Street subjected to tougher regulation in the aftermath of the bank bailout and the bonus scandals, according to a poll. Wall Street - United States - Business - Financial services - Banks and Institutions (2 d ago)

• Conan to go on the road for live shows Conan to go on the road for live shows
03/12/2010
Conan O'Brien is contractually barred from appearing on TV for several months, so he's taking his show on the road. Why? Jeremy Hobson reports. (1 d ago)

• A history of the world's worst car A history of the world's worst car
03/12/2010
The Yugo may be one of the worst cars in history, but it can teach us a lot about the auto industry. Author Jason Vuic talks with Kai Ryssdal about how the 80s car caused a frenzy of excitement, and then horror. (1 d ago)

• Have lead problems improved in China? Have lead problems improved in China?
03/12/2010
Authorities in China have given the go-ahead to reopen a big smelting plant in Shanxii Province that was closed because of lead concerns. Scott Tong reports on how things are now bearing out at one of the worst poisoning sites. (1 d ago)

• Weekly Wrap: Lehman report fallout Weekly Wrap: Lehman report fallout
03/12/2010
The Big Money's Heidi Moore and Clusterstock's John Carney talk with Kai Ryssdal about whether the latest Lehman Brothers report is surprising and whether it will lead to regulation. (1 d ago)

• EU regulation may hurt London biz EU regulation may hurt London biz
03/12/2010
London has lost its crown as the world's leading financial center. It now shares the top spot with New York. Stephen Beard reports taxes and regulation are to blame. (1 d ago)

• Walkaways help reduce consumer debt Walkaways help reduce consumer debt
03/12/2010
The Federal Reserve is reporting that consumer debt has fallen at record rates. But not necessarily because we're all saving and skimping. Nancy Marshall Genzer explains. (1 d ago)

• Report: Lehman execs manipulated data Report: Lehman execs manipulated data
03/12/2010
A bankruptcy examiner report has found that negligence and manipulation on the part of top executives at Lehman Brothers contributed to the firm's collapse. Amy Scott reports on a piece of accounting chicanery known as "Repo 105." (1 d ago)

• Scientists losing the climate change deb... Scientists losing the climate change debate
03/13/2010
According to the latest Gallup poll, half the American population or 48% think concerns about global warming are exaggerated and twisted out of proportion. That's the highest margin since Gallup started asking the question 13 years ago.While most Americans believe that global warming is real, that number is dwindling. What's more, 35% say that the effects of global warming either will never happen (19%) or will not happen in their lifetimes (16%). The percentage of Americans who believe that global warming is going to ... (10 h ago)

• Google 99.9% sure to shut China operatio... Google 99.9% sure to shut China operation
03/13/2010
Google is likely to close its Chinese search engine as talks with the Chinese authorities over Internet censorship reach an impasse. The Financial Times reports that Google is 99.9% certain to close its search operations in China. And although it wants to find ways to keep its other operations in China going, a backlash from the Chinese authorities would make it almost impossible to keep a presence in the world's biggest Internet market.The Financial Times reports that the Chinese government has thrown down the gauntlet. ... (12 h ago)

• Social networks and the death of privacy Social networks and the death of privacy
03/12/2010
So now we have all become Big Brother. Has social networking killed privacy?Now we have reports that Twitter has just rolled out a new feature that tells the world where you're tweeting from. The tweets link to a Google map of the area the user is in.According to the New York Times, Facebook plans to add a similar feature.So does privacy matter any more? Does anyone take it seriously?Peter Cashmore, founder of the social media blog Mashable says privacy is dead. The cost of ... (1 d ago)

• Lehman's accounting shenanigans Lehman's accounting shenanigans
03/12/2010
The revelations about the accounting shenanigans at Lehman Brothers get more appalling. These accounting tricks destroyed the financial institution which in turn created the financial crisis that destroyed jobs, investments and retirement incomes. Now we can blame all that on the accountants.The New York Times reports how Lehman's number crunchers used a particularly aggressive accounting practice, known internally as Repo 105.With Repo 105, they could temporarily exchange assets in return for short term loans and by doing so, temporarily park assets off the books ... (1 d ago)

• Lohan's bizarre lawsuit Lohan's bizarre lawsuit
03/12/2010
The thing that Lindsay Lohan likes to call her career is going nowhere which might explain her bizarre lawsuit against E-Trade. Watch the Associated Press report on YouTube and judge for yourself. In her court papers, she claims that one of the online brokerage's recent TV ads featuring a ditzy, "milkaholic" baby girl named Lindsay is modeled after her and improperly invoked her "likeness, name, characterization, and personality" without permission, violating her right to privacy.Lohan, the former Disney child star who became part of the ... (2 d ago)

• Lehman culprits Lehman culprits
03/12/2010
The Lehman Brothers collapse could end up in court for years. But it will not answer one key question: who was regulating banks? Why did US regulators pretend things weren't going off the rails?It's been a year and a half since the financial services giant fell apart. The biggest bankruptcy in US history, it sent the global economy into paroxysms. The result: a credit squeeze as banks stopped trusting each other. The cost of money went through the roof and businesses started closing down and ... (2 d ago)

• BA cabin crew to strike for 7 days BA cabin crew to strike for 7 days
03/12/2010
British Airways PLC cabin crew announced plans Friday to strike for seven days this month, potentially disrupting thousands of travelers ahead of the Easter holidays. British Airways - Strike action - Business - Trade union - Airline (1 d ago)

• Sponsored By: Sponsored By:
03/11/2010
(2 d ago)

• Miners say ‘Avatar’ doesn’t do them just... Miners say ‘Avatar’ doesn’t do them justice
03/11/2010
It's enough to make a mining executive grit his teeth or his kids to give him the silent treatment. Mining - Business - Mining and Drilling - Technology - History (2 d ago)

• Online Printing Helps Develop Marketing ... Online Printing Helps Develop Marketing Collateral
03/11/2010
© Antonio Bonanno Even if you're a whiz at SEO and your website's Google ranking is close to the top, developing a strong brand is still always going to mean lots of professional marketing collateral - the sorts of brochures and white papers that require you to do lots of printing. Online printing has always looked like the best option to me. It's competitive and convenient - easy to use. Developing a strong brand take work. Why make it harder than it has ... (2 d ago)

• Seen that? - The Best Customer Service T... Seen that? - The Best Customer Service Tip Ever
03/11/2010
The Best Customer Service Tip Ever Bizinformer If you want to deliver excellent customer service, there is one simple thing you can do that will aid you in good times and bad - set realistic expectations. That's it. Setting realistic ... (2 d ago)

• More Ways to Cut Down Stress when Starti... More Ways to Cut Down Stress when Starting a Business
03/11/2010
© tom.arthur When you consider ways to cut down on stress you really have to think in two different directions. On the one hand, there are ways to releive stress after it has occurred. On the other hand there are ways to prevent stress. You need to work in both directions if you want to survive the stress involved in starting a new business. My favorite ways to relieve stress involve setting aside time to relax (preferably at a beach) and regular physical activity. ... (2 d ago)

• Seen that? - Focus on India and China Seen that? - Focus on India and China
03/11/2010
Focus on India and China TJ's Weblog Edward has pointed me to his media venture that maintains the LivingIn sites like LivingInIndia and LivingInChina. Dozens of freelance contributors from these countries provide insight into cultural and economic issues. If you interested ... (2 d ago)

Business

Technology

Sports

Entertainment

This is abundant, look forward to looking into ea...
John gogs :: 12/28/2009

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?...
CocoChanels :: 07/03/2009

Hi, my friends!! I want to get program XRumer 5.0 ...
MagicOPromotion :: 05/03/2009

Where is this money coming from except from the mo...
carl allen :: 04/11/2009

out of control
staystrong :: 02/23/2009

The poor thing! Once so high and mighty and far ab...
leaf :: 02/22/2009

It always amazed me how eagerly people flocked to ...
David :: 12/23/2008

• Alumni Offer Goldman Advice on Helping S... Alumni Offer Goldman Advice on Helping Small Businesses
03/11/2010
Ex-Goldman Sachs employees are sharing their ideas about what their old firm can do to help small businesses. (2 d ago)

• Online Printing and the Philosophy of Ou... Online Printing and the Philosophy of Outsourcing
03/11/2010
© Antonio Bonanno Outsourcing is more than just the occasional solution to some immediate problem. It should be a philosophy, a way of doing business. If you're going to effectively leverage outsourcing for your company, you have to include regular tasks, things like printing. Online printing is one of the best ways to outsource work for your company. Generally, it will save time and money. And since time is, that's a double savings. Think of all the little taks that outsourcing might help ... (2 d ago)

• Planning Your Exit Strategy Planning Your Exit Strategy
03/13/2010
© lansakit It takes a lot of nerve to finally get out on your own; to leave corporate America and start your own business. There's a lot of work and a lot of courage that goes into taking that first step. However, before you quit, plan your exit strategy. Money: Starting any venture has associates costs that you should take into consideration. Before you ever walk out on a salary job, be sure to put aside a little cash *just in case*. You may ... (10 h ago)

• Seen that? - Productivity and Personal O... Seen that? - Productivity and Personal Organization
03/13/2010
Productivity and Personal Organization Biz Plan Hacks I have discovered a great new website, Success from the Nest and yesterday read an insightful post "The Thrill of Productivity, and the Agony of Deceit". The site is definitely unique as the blogger ... (12 h ago)

• Switzerland real estate market to get a ... Switzerland real estate market to get a kick with European and US Corporate Relocation
03/12/2010
© KeckoThere seems to be an increase in trend of corporate clients relocating their office based functions from European and U.S markets and this trend seems to be giving a push to property market out there. The trend is expected to continue as the economy improves and profitability comes back as this would enable them to examine their tax positions. When compared with the rest of the European market, the Swiss market is quite small in terms of office space stock and any inward relocation ... (1 d ago)

• Vacation Deals: Vacation Homes are Green... Vacation Deals: Vacation Homes are Greener Than Hotels
03/11/2010
© D.B. Blas Vacation deals are abundant these days. Something about slow economic times; people tend to cut expenses on travel and vacations first. If you can afford a vacation despite the hard economic times, the deals out there mean that you can good on for your money. So, as you shop around, keep this in mind: staying in a vacation home is greener than renting a hotel room Are you concerned with your carbon footprint? A week in a hotel uses the ... (2 d ago)

• Muhammad Yunus: Godfather of Microcredit Muhammad Yunus: Godfather of Microcredit
03/12/2010
© World Economic ForumHe may not be the first micro lender of the world but he is surely the first one to bring it into limelight. You must have guessed till now I am talking about Muhammad Yunus who made the concept of microcredit a household name. He was born in 1940 and completed his PhD from Vanderbilt University. After Bangladesh was created he returned to teach economics at Chittagong University. He always dreamt of creating a new nation and was deeply moved in the ... (1 d ago)

• Banks lead another week of stock market ... Banks lead another week of stock market gains
03/13/2010
U.S. stocks rose, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index to a 17-month high, as Citigroup led a rally among banks and report data boosted confidence that the economic recovery is sustainable. (10 h ago)

• Top Chinese Casinos: Macau and Hong Kong... Top Chinese Casinos: Macau and Hong Kong Gambling Scene
03/11/2010
© xiquinhosilva Gambling in Macau has been around probably since the invention of the chop sticks, but it became legal under the Portuguese in the 1850. Portugal promoted it as the "Monte Carlo of the Orient." Most people don't know that only Chinese games were played until the 20th Century. But Western-style casinos were finally introduced in the late 1930's, and sports betting was not far behind. While gambling is also around in Hong Kong and doesn't look much different, ni Macau gambling is ... (2 d ago)

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