Thứ Tư, 19 tháng 12, 2012
Your Best Holiday Sweets
With the holiday season in full swing, we asked you to share your favorite recipes for winter sweets on Pinterest. Here’s a selection.
Dirty money costs developing world $6 trillion, led by China: report
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (TrustLaw) - Crime, corruption and tax evasion have cost the developing world nearly $6 trillion over the past decade, and illicit funds keep growing, led by China, a financial watchdog group said in a new report.
China accounted for almost half of the $858.8 billion in dirty money that flowed into tax havens and Western banks in 2010, more than eight times the amounts for runner-ups Malaysia and Mexico. Total illicit outflows increased by 11 percent from the prior year, Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based group that campaigns for financial accountability, said in its latest report released on Monday.
"Astronomical sums of dirty money continue to flow out of the developing world and into offshore tax havens and developed country banks," said Raymond Baker, director of GFI.
"Developing countries are hemorrhaging more and more money at a time when rich and poor nations alike are struggling to spur economic growth. This report should be a wake-up call to world leaders that more must be done to address these harmful outflows," he said.
All the countries in the top 10, which this year saw India, Nigeria, the Philippines and Nigeria join the ranks, face significant problems with corruption, and in most there are vast gaps between rich and poor citizens as well as internal security problems.
Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies increasingly are focusing on ways to crack down on money laundering, bank secrecy and tax loopholes to prevent funds stolen from public coffers or earned through criminal activity from depleting the budgets of developing countries.
The sums are so huge that for every dollar in foreign direct aid, $10 leaves developing countries.
China lost $420.4 billion in 2010 and over the decade lost a total of $2.74 trillion. And its losses are steadily rising. In an October report, GFI said another $602 billion in illicit flows left China in 2011 for a total of $3.79 trillion between 2000-11.
However, the numbers in the latest report are not directly comparable with earlier data because GFI has updated its methodology, making the estimates somewhat more conservative. It measures illicit flows by calculating the difference between fund inflows from loans and net foreign direct investment, and the outflows from a country to pay for trade, cash transfers and other earnings.
Aware of the destabilizing impact of corrupt money, Chinese leaders are embarking on a crackdown. Outgoing President Hu Jintao recently warned corruption threatens to destroy the communist party and the state. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin last week also put the issue high on his agenda as citizen protests over corruption mount.
"Our report continues to demonstrate that the Chinese economy is a ticking time bomb," said Dev Kar, GFI's lead economist, who compiled the report. "The social, political and economic order in that country is not sustainable in the long run given such massive illicit outflows."
Mexico lost $51.17 billion in illicit flows in 2010 for a total of $476 billion over the last decade, which does not even count the billions of dollars in bulk cash that probably left under organized crime and drug dealing. Malaysia, an export-dominated economy with a wealthy elite, lost $64.38 billion in 2010 and $285 billion cumulatively between 2001 and 2010, the report said.
Illicit financial flows have grown by 13.3 percent a year since 2001, robbing countries of wealth and benefiting a handful of corrupt leaders. Kar said the worsening picture over the past decade coincides with the globalization of finance and loosening of capital controls, changes that make it easier to transfer funds to Western banks and to tax havens.
"Until governance improves and measures to shrink the underground economy take hold, we will not see a sustained decline in illicit flows," Kar said.
GFI called on world leaders to accelerate efforts to curtail the flow of dirty money by clamping down on secret bank accounts and ownership of shell companies; reforming customs and trade protocols so that export/import payments cannot be used to hide illegal fund transfers; requiring multinational companies to report their profits by country to prevent tax avoidance; and strongly enforcing anti money-laundering laws.
(Reporting by Stella Dawson; Editing by Leslie Adler)
State of the Art: Android Cameras From Nikon and Samsung Go Beyond Cellphones - Review
New cameras from Samsung and Nikon merge elements of the cellphone and the camera into something pioneering, but not yet at the promised land.
In Newtown, Conn., a Stiff Resistance to Gun Restrictions
The legislative battle in Newtown, Conn., shows how the slightest attempts to impose restrictions on guns can run into withering resistance, made more pointed by the escalation in firepower.
Congressman Picked for South Carolina Senate Seat
The move makes Tim Scott, a Republican, the first black senator from the South since the late 19th century.
The Lede Blog: Latest Updates on Shooting Aftermath
At the funeral for Jack Pinto, a boy cannot believe his friend is gone; Bloomberg, angered, demands action.
Security Increased at Connecticut Schools as Investigation Into Shooting Continues
As the town buried the first young victims of the killings at an elementary school, investigators said it could take months to recreate a full account of the events.
South Koreans Vote in Closely Fought Presidential Race
The candidates hope to win over still-undecided voters, who polls have indicated want a new direction for the country but are disenchanted with the established parties.
Report on BBC Inquiry Into Sex Abuse to Be Released Wednesday
The report will examine the cancellation last year of a broadcast that would have exposed allegations of sexual abuse involving Jimmy Savile, one of Britain’s best-known TV personalities.
Massachusetts fines Morgan Stanley over Facebook IPO
BOSTON (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley , the lead underwriter for Facebook Inc's initial public offering, will pay a $5 million fine to Massachusetts for violating securities laws governing how investment research can be distributed.
Massachusetts' top securities regulator, William Galvin, charged on Monday that a top Morgan Stanley banker had improperly coached Facebook on how to disclose sensitive financial information selectively, perpetuating what he calls "an unlevel playing field" between Wall Street and Main Street.
Morgan Stanley has faced criticism since Facebook went public in May for revealing revised earnings and revenue forecasts to select clients before the media company's $16 billion initial public offering.
This is the first time a case stemming from Morgan Stanley's handling of the Facebook offering has been settled.
Facebook had privately told Wall Street research analysts about softer forecasts because of less robust mobile revenues. A top Morgan Stanley banker coached Facebook executives on how to get the message out, Galvin said.
A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said on Monday the company is "pleased to have reached a settlement" and that it is "committed to robust compliance with both the letter and the spirit of all applicable regulations and laws." The company neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing.
Galvin, who has been aggressive in policing how research is distributed on Wall Street ever since investment banks reached a global settlement in 2003, said the bank violated that settlement. He fined Citigroup $2 million over similar charges in late October.
"The conduct at Morgan Stanley was more egregious," he said in an interview explaining the amount of the fine. "With it we will get their attention and begin to take steps in restoring some confidence for retail investors to invest."
Galvin also said that his months-long investigation into the Facebook IPO is far from over and that he continues to review the other banks involved. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan also acted as underwriters. The underwriting fee for all underwriters was reported to be $176 million at the time, or 1.1 percent of the proceeds.
As lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley took in $68 million in fees from the IPO, according to a Thomson Reuters estimate.
Massachusetts did not name the Morgan Stanley banker in its documents but personal information detailed in the matter suggest it is Michael Grimes, a top technology banker who was instrumental in the Facebook IPO.
The report says the unnamed banker joined Morgan Stanley in 1995 and became a managing director in 1998, dates that correlate with Grimes' career at the firm. It also says the banker works in Morgan Stanley's Menlo Park, California, office, where Grimes also works.
Grimes did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and was not accused of any wrongdoing by name.
The state said the banker helped a Facebook executive release new information and then guided the executive on how to speak with Wall Street analysts about it. The banker, Galvin said, rehearsed with Facebook's Treasurer and wrote the bulk of the script Facebook's Treasurer used when calling the research analysts.
A number of Wall Street analysts cut their growth estimates for Facebook in the days before the IPO after the company filed an amended prospectus.
Facebook's treasurer then quickly called a number for Wall Street analysts providing even more information.
The banker "was not allowed to call research analysts himself, so he did everything he could to ensure research analysts received new revenue numbers which they then provided to institutional investors," Galvin said.
Galvin's consent order also says that the banker spoke with company lawyers and then to Facebook's chief financial officer about how to prove an update "without creating the appearance of not providing the underlying trend information to all investors."
The banker and all others involved with the matter at Morgan Stanley are still employed by the company, a person familiar with the matter said.
Retail investors were not given any similar information, Galvin said, saying this case illustrates how institutional investors often have an edge over retail investors.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss with additional reporting by Suzanne Barlyn and Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio, Andrew Hay and Richard Chang)
FiveThirtyEight: In Gun Ownership Statistics, Partisan Divide Is Sharp
Republicans have long been more likely to own guns than Democrats, but the differences among them have become much starker in recent years.
E1 on West Bank is Empty but Full of Meaning
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The Caucus: Some Unlikely Democrats Join in Push for New Gun Laws
Senator Joe Manchin, who has opposed gun controls, indicated on Monday that he supported re-evaluating laws on ammunition sales and Representative John Yarmuth said publicly that he backed new legislation.
Richard Engel of NBC Is Released in Syria
Richard Engel, the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, and three of his crew members were freed on Monday after five days in captivity in Syria, the news organization said Tuesday.
Boehner Invokes ‘Plan B,’ Dismissing Obama’s Offer
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For Young Survivors, Odds of Emotional Recovery Are High
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Iraq’s President Hospitalized With ‘Medical Emergency’
Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, was taken to a hospital in Baghdad after suffering a medical emergency on Monday.
Judge denies Apple injunction bid vs. Samsung
(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday denied Apple Inc's request for a permanent injunction against Samsung Electronics' smartphones, depriving the iPhone maker of key leverage in the mobile patent wars.
Apple had been awarded $1.05 billion in damages in August after a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. The Samsung products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.
After the jury verdict, Apple asked U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose to impose a permanent sales ban against 26 mostly older Samsung phones, though any injunction could potentially have been extended to Samsung's newer Galaxy products.
In her order late on Monday, Koh found that Apple had not presented enough evidence to show that its patented features drove consumer demand for the entire iPhone.
"The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple's patents," Koh wrote.
"Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple," she continued, "it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions."
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on Koh's ruling, and a Samsung representative could not immediately be reached.
In a separate order on Monday, Koh rejected a bid by Samsung for a new trial based on an allegation that the jury foreman was improperly biased in favor of Apple.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.
(Reporting by Dan Levine in Oakland, California)
Pentagon to Reimburse Pakistan $688 Million
The Pentagon will reimburse Pakistan $688 million for stationing troops along the Afghan border, an effort to normalize support for the Pakistani military.
Two Funerals for Two 6-Year-Old Boys in Newtown
The people of Newtown buried two boys on Monday afternoon, in the first of the many funerals to follow last week’s massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The boys were both 6 years old.
California teachers fund reviewing private equity gun investment
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) said on Monday it was reviewing its investment with Cerberus Capital Management LP, the private equity firm that controls Bushmaster Firearms International, in light of last week's school shooting in Connecticut.
With $155 billion in assets under management, CalSTRS is the largest teachers' fund and the second-largest pension fund in the United States, making it a powerful voice in the investment community that may influence others in reaction to the shooting.
"At this point our investment branch is examining the Cerberus investment to determine how best to move forward given the tragic events of last Friday in Newtown, Connecticut," Ricardo Duran, a spokesman for the public pension fund manager, said in an email.
CalSTRS had invested $751.4 million with Cerberus by the end of March 2012, according to its website. Cerberus owns Madison, North Carolina-based Freedom Group Inc, which includes Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the AR-15 rifle used by the shooter in the Newtown killings.
Spokespeople for Cerberus and Freedom Group did not respond to requests for comment.
CalSTRS has disclosed investments in three Cerberus funds that were raised between 2003 and 2008. It was not immediately clear which of the three funds Cerberus had used to invest in Freedom Group or how broad CalSTRS' review of its commitment to Cerberus was.
Investments in private equity, which involve fund managers buying, reorganizing and then selling companies in a bid to make a profit, are notoriously illiquid. A private equity fund usually has a ten-year lifespan and investors wishing to exit may have to find another party willing to buy their stake in the fund.
Cerberus acquired Bushmaster in 2006 and later merged it with other gun companies to create Freedom Group, which reported net sales of $677.3 million for the nine months ending September 2012, up from $564.6 million in the corresponding period a year ago.
Founded in 1992 by Stephen Feinberg and William Richter, New York-based Cerberus has over $20 billion under management invested and shares its name with a mythical three-headed dog that in Greek mythology guards the entrance to the underworld.
Newtown's schools remained closed on Monday after a weekend of mourning that followed Adam Lanza's shooting spree on Friday that claimed 28 lives, including those of 20 young children, his mother's and his own.
Police said Lanza was armed with hundreds of bullets in high-capacity magazines of about 30 rounds each for the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle and two handguns he carried into the school, and had a fourth weapon, a shotgun, in his car outside.
A growing number of U.S. lawmakers - including a leading pro-gun senator - called on Monday for a look at curbing assault weapons like the one used in a massacre at a Connecticut grade school, a sign that attitudes toward gun control laws could be shifting.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; editing by Gary Hill, Gary Crosse)
(This story corrects headline and paragraph 1, to investment, not investments, to make clear CalSTRS only addressed Cerberus investment; drops extraneous word "the," paragraph 1)
In Spain, Having a Job No Longer Guarantees a Paycheck
With Spain’s ongoing economic crisis leaving local governments in debt and businesses struggling, workers sometimes have to resort to legal measures simply to be paid.
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