Tag Archives: Cyprus

Cyprus crisis ruins dying father's plans for kids

April 9, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

When Costas Kalapodas was diagnosed with brain cancer two years ago and given months to live, he saw one sure place to put his money: Cyprus‘ biggest bank.

The 43-year-old threw his entire savings into Bank of Cyprus stock, and even took out a 47,000 euro loan to pad his holdings. He then gave his wife Maria strict instructions to sell the shares when prices reached one euro per share in order to build a 500,000 euro ($640,000) nest egg that he felt would be sufficient to guarantee her, their 9-year-old son Yiannis and 4-year-old daughter Rita a secure future.

Bank of Cyprus, after all, was the bedrock of the nation’s banking system. And Costas was himself a proud employee of the financial institution. He fought the tumor valiantly but succumbed last November, Maria Argyrou-Kalapoda said, certain that his investment was safe.

Today, a multi-billion bailout that cash-strapped Cyprus agreed with international creditors has rendered Bank of Cyprus shares effectively worthless, their value wiped out under the terms of a complicated recapitalization scheme. His 35-year-old widow, who never knew how much he originally poured into the bank, is wondering how she and her family will survive in the years to come.

“Costas was so sure about this, so meticulous about the way he went about this investment,” said Argyrou-Kalapoda. “He even told me the exact price at which I should sell the shares so we would get enough money not to have to worry about the future.”

Maria, who has held a job at the Cyprus Stock Exchange since 1999, says that in addition to seeing the value of her husband’s savings destroyed, she’s now saddled with a loan for something that has been taken away in the bailout.

“It’s not that I’m shirking my responsibilities, but why should I by paying for shares that are worthless, especially when those shares were supposed to be security for my children’s future?”

“It’s unbelievable what’s happening in this country,” she said. “I feel lost.”

It’s not just fat-cat investors or Russian oligarchs bemoaning losses. Ordinary people who built up savings are the ones facing real disaster. Cypriot authorities agreed that all bondholders, investors and savers with over 100,000 euros tied up in the country’s two biggest banks — Bank of Cyprus and Laiki — will take massive losses as part of bailout terms. The deal …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Margaret Thatcher Predicted The Failure of the Euro in Forbes, October, 1992

April 8, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Robert Lenzner, Forbes Staff Margaret Thatcher was indomitably outspoken against submerging all the European nationalities into a single superstate some 21 years ago when I interviewed her for a Forbes magazine article entitled “It just won’t do. It’s not big enough minded.” The Iron Lady had a grander scheme in mind; a free trade area between and among North America and the European Community. What did we just elect our own Parliament for, she insisted sardonically; “Just to be a talking show?” On this score she was indomitable, ferociously scathing at the willingness of independent European nations giving up their autonomy to a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels. She did not exactly predict the descent of the Euro, the financial crisis in Cyprus or the meltdown in most European sovereign securities or the need to bailout the banks of Italy, Spain and France. But, in a scathing tone, Lady Thatcher insisted to me that a single currency was impossible. It would never work. “Every single fixed exchange rate has cracked in the end. We’re all at different levels of development of our economies. Some countries simply couldn’t live up to a single currency… We should each of us be proud to be separate countries cooperating together.” The turmoil in European currency markets that fall of 1992 was proof for Thatcher that a united Europe was meant to crumble. And indeed her prophecy 21 years ago has been borne out lately. The grand experiment of a single monetary system, a single economic policy, working towards a common defense policy, even a common foreign policy meant to her that “80% of Britain’s economic decisions will be made in Brussels.” Actually, it has been more the need of the European Central Bank and Germany to prop up the staggering debt-laden economies of Greece, Spain, Italy, France and try to devise stability for Cyprus. Imagine having banks in Cyprus become an Achilles heel for Europe. Thatcher would have been furious. And she doesn’t exactly look wrong in her worry over the prospect of German domination of Europe— though “domination” today means the helping hand of the giant strong economy of Europe. Thatcher was going to be damned if she made Britain subservient to Germany. Finally came this prediction; ” Europe cannot do in the world without American leadership. There is no substitute for this great land sand the clear lead it can give.” I walked out of the Carlyle Hotel that fall afternoon into the clear bracing air, knowing that I had just spent an hour with Margaret Thacher, one of the world’s most indomitable personalities. She knew her mind more certainly than any other politician I had ever met or heard. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Gold Bulls Loved Japanese QE, Weak U.S. Job Markets, And The Return Of European Uncertainty

April 8, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff

Gold prices have fallen consistently since last October, just before the impressive rally in equities took off. Yet the yellow metal found some strength toward the end of last week, rallying on the Bank of Japan’s impressive expansion to its program of quantitative easing, finding further support from the worst jobs report in nine months fueling continued easing expectations in the U.S. The flare up of the European sovereign debt crisis, with Cyprus still in trouble, Italian political uncertainty, and now problems returning to Portugal, could push the European Central Bank to loosen monetary conditions further, possibly setting the stage for gold to move higher. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Are Stocks About to Get Crushed?

April 8, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By John Maxfield, The Motley Fool

Filed under: Investing

Earnings season is upon us, and many analysts are predicting that it won’t be pretty. According to data analysis company FactSet Research Systems, earnings at S&P 500 companies are expected to contract by 0.6% (link opens PDF), marking the second year-over-year decline in three quarters.

Aluminum-maker Alcoa kicks things off after the bell today. Figures available on Yahoo! Finance show that analysts expect Alcoa to report between $0.04 and $0.13 per share in earnings, with a consensus estimate of $0.08 per share.

But while the purported economic bellwether is the first company on the Dow Jones Industrial Average to report, does its performance set the tone for the rest of earnings season? FactSet’s John Butters suggests that it just may be: “Recent history shows that when Alcoa has beat estimates, the price of the index has increased about 80% of the time over the next three months.” Yet, as Butters goes on to explain, “When Alcoa has missed estimates, the price of the index has actually increased nearly as often as it has decreased over the next three months.”

In other words, perhaps there isn’t such a strong causal relationship after all.

The bigger issue is how the banks performed over the first three months of the year. “Most of the people I’m talking to have low expectations for earnings,” an executive told The Wall Street Journal. “There’s a lot of trepidation over what the banks will report.”

The nation’s first- and fourth-largest banks by assets, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, get the ball rolling this Friday. As I discussed, analysts will be watching three things in particular: mortgage originations, expenses, and trading profits or losses in the wake of the Cyprus bailout.

To be fair, if the performance of the market today is any indication, investors don’t seem to be overly concerned, as the Dow is up a negligible four points with an hour left in trading.

Today’s sluggish market could, however, have more to do with an impending speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke scheduled for later today. Bernanke is expected to reaffirm the central bank’s support for its current monetary policy, under which it’s buying $85 billion in Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities per month in order to boost housing demand and compress long-term interest rates.

So will stocks get crushed this earnings season? It remains to be seen. On the one hand, earnings could well be lackluster, led in particular by the banks. But on the other, the Fed is doing everything it can to pick up the slack.

Is now a good time to buy Alcoa stock?
Materials industries are traditionally known for their high barriers to entry, and the aluminum industry is no exception. Controlling about 15% of global production in this highly consolidated industry, Alcoa is in prime position to take advantage of growth that some expect will lead to total industry revenue approaching $160 billion by 2017. Based …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Cyprus government rejects euro area exit

April 8, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Cyprus‘ new finance minister is ruling out any notion that the cash-strapped country will abandon the euro as its currency.

Harris Georgiades says the government is not looking at any other alternatives and remains committed to implementing the terms of a bailout deal with its euro partners and the International Monetary Fund.

Last month, Cyprus agreed that bondholders, investors and savers with more than 100,000 euros in the country’s two largest — and most troubled — banks will take significant losses in exchange for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) rescue package.

Georgiades says Monday that Cyprus‘ exit from the 17-country eurozone would effectively crush the economy. He also says limits on accessing accounts, which have been imposed to prevent a potential run on banks, will be lifted gradually.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

UN says experts ready to go into Syria to probe reported chemical weapons attacks

April 8, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

U.N. experts are poised to move into Syria within 24 hours to investigate reported chemical weapons attacks in the country’s civil war, but President Bashar Assad‘s government still has not given them the green light to enter the country, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.

Ban told reporters in The Hague that an advance team is already waiting at a final staging post on Cyprus, while the U.N. negotiates “technical and legal” issues with Damascus.

All reports of chemical attacks “should be examined without delay, without conditions and without exceptions,” Ban said.

His comments appeared aimed at increasing pressure on Assad’s regime and ensuring that U.N. inspectors are given access to all sites of reported chemical weapons attacks and not just those Damascus wants them to see.

Ban said it is “a matter of principle” to investigate all allegations and not just a case in which Syria alleges that rebels used poison gas.

“I am hopeful we will be able to finish this as soon as possible, and I urge the Syrian government to be more flexible so this commission can be deployed as soon as possible,” Ban said. “We are ready.”

Syria asked the United Nations last month to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack by rebels on March 19 on Khan al-Assal village in northern Aleppo province. The rebels blamed regime forces for the attack.

Britain and France followed up by asking the U.N. chief to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in two locations in Khan al-Assal and the village of Ataybah in the vicinity of Damascus, all on March 19, as well as in Homs on Dec. 23.

Ban was speaking at the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, which is sending a team of 15 experts to join the commission, along with World Health Organization staff.

The team is led by Ake Sellstrom, a Swedish professor who was a U.N. chemical weapons inspector in Iraq and now works at a research institute that deals with chemical incidents. Ban said he spoke to Sellstrom on Sunday night and he was now heading to join the advance party in Cyprus.

Syria is widely believed to have a large stockpile of chemical weapons, but it is one of only eight countries in the world that have not signed up to the chemical weapons convention, which means that it does not have to report any chemical weapons to the Hague-based organization that monitors compliance with the treaty.

Ban said the experts need to get to Syria as soon as possible to investigate the attacks.

“The longer we wait, the harder this essential mission will be,” he said.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is This Your Last Chance to Buy Royal Bank of Scotland?

April 8, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By David O’Hara, The Motley Fool

Filed under: Investing

LONDON — In one month’s time, Royal Bank of Scotland Group will announce its results for the first three months of 2013. I expect that this announcement will be an important milestone in the bank’s turnaround.

RBS shares have take a battering in the last month, falling 13%. After a great 2012, they are down a total of 16% so far this year.

RBS shares have suffered in the aftermath of the crisis in Cyprus. This was followed by the banking regulator announcing that it wants the sector to raise more capital by the end of the year. Bearish sentiments increased further this week as it was announced that investors would be suing the bank regarding a fundraising that it underwent in 2008.

Back in February, shares in RBS changed hands for more than 350 pence. I believe that a series of events is about to play out that could see RBS shares return to that level in May.

On 3 May, RBS will announce its Q1 results. I believe this could inspire new confidence in the bank and its ability to generate profits.

In 2012, RBS reported a 5.6 billion-pound loss from ongoing operations. This was a result of 5.3 billion pounds of impairment losses, 1.5 billion pounds paying for misdeeds and a 4.6 billion-pound accounting charge (ironically resulting from RBS‘s perceived rehabilitation).

If RBS can avoid further fines in 2013 and impairments continue to reduce at a similar rate, the company could report an operating profit for the full year of around 2.5 billion pounds.

At the end of 2012, RBS announced a tangible net asset value of 446 pence per share. That’s a long way ahead of today’s share price.

I believe profitable companies should not trade at a discount to their asset value. If RBS can convince the market that it will be profitable again, I expect that discount will narrow.

Furthermore, a profitable bank will likely be increasing its asset value. RBS‘s May statement could demonstrate that the bank’s shares are currently too cheap by half.

While RBS‘ recent recovery has been considerable, analysts here at the Motley Fool believe that there is an even better large-cap growth share available on the market today. Despite this company’s great success, it still trades on an attractive valuation. To find out more about this share and why our team have staked their reputations on it, get the free Motley Fool report “The Motley Fool’s Top Growth Share for 2013.” This report is 100% free. Just click here to get your copy today.

The article Is This Your Last Chance to Buy Royal Bank of Scotland? originally appeared on Fool.com.

David owns shares in Royal Bank of Scotland. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Pain bites into Portuguese life as crisis deepens

April 8, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Serving a frugal lunch in their kitchen not much bigger than a bathroom, Pedro and Elena Baptista spoon stewed chicken feet onto their boiled potatoes and leave the slightly meatier wings for their 12-year-old daughter, Vania, and 7-year-old son, Joao.

The Baptista family counts itself among the casualties of an unrelenting financial crisis that is squeezing the life out of some European Union economies, including Portugal. Pedro Baptista, a stocky 37-year-old, has found work as a part-time window cleaner but his wife Elena, 35, has been on welfare for almost a year after losing her job in a school canteen. Scraping by on a monthly household income of €650 ($840) and constantly going cap-in-hand to charities and family members has sapped their confidence.

But Pedro is determined to stay positive. “Ups and downs are part of life. Things will improve,” he says. “We just have to hold on.”

Exactly how long is hard to say, however, as Portugal‘s prime minister warns his nation to harden itself for more austerity.

It seems that every time Europe‘s leaders appear to have contained the continent’s 3-year-old crisis over too much government debt, it erupts again — witness the recent woes in Cyprus. Across Europe, the long-held belief that the state will always provide for its citizens’ well-being is vanishing.

In return for rescue loans, governments across the region are slashing spending and raising taxes. However, the austerity has a knock-on effect of choking the growth needed to pull countries out of their nosedive. Despite the acute hardship, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said Sunday that his government must cut even deeper. That’s because the Constitutional Court last week struck down some austerity measures aimed at government workers and pensioners, denying the government more than 1.3 billion euros in anticipated savings.

Meanwhile, the debt crisis risks jumping from Cyprus to Portugal. The creditors who lent Portugal 78 billion euros in a bailout two years ago are demanding that the government prune spending by another 4 billion euros in 2014 and 2015. If Portugal doesn’t comply, it could be denied the next installment of its bailout.

Portugal‘s ordeal has begun to send shivers across Europe, even as the pain becomes hard to bear at home. Pensioners, schools and government workers are in the crosshairs of the latest planned cuts. The austerity is destroying legions of small businesses. And charities say they are already struggling to cope with a deluge of calls for help.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Putin's visit to Germany clouded by disputes

April 7, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Germany for a visit expected to focus on differences over Cyprus‘ financial crisis and German concerns about the Kremlin crackdown on civil society groups.

Germany is Russia’s No. 3 trade partner, but ties have become increasingly strained recently over the Kremlin’s heavy-handed response to the opposition, differences over the Syrian crisis and other irritants.

The Cyprus crisis, which has badly bruised Russian investors, has become the latest irritant, which is certain to figure high on the agenda of Putin’s talks Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hannover, where the two leaders will attend a trade fair.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Better to Bank with Cyprus Than the United States?

April 7, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By David John Marotta, Contributor

Imagine that five years ago, you could put your money either with a bank in Cyprus or America. After those five years, the bank in Cyprus will confiscate 10% of your money with a onetime tax. Where would be the more favorable place to deposit your savings? …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Financial hub Luxembourg under increased scrutiny

April 7, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

As the European Union‘s wealthiest country, Luxembourg could have been forgiven for thinking that it would never find itself on the bloc’s financial risk list.

With just half a million people living on a tiny patch of lush land nestled between Belgium, France and Germany, Luxembourg is as tranquil as a buzzing financial center gets. Still, some of Europe‘s regulators and politicians have started wondering aloud whether its banks might be holding the 17-nation eurozone’s next ticking bomb.

Following the chaotic bailout for Cyprus last week, European officials have been drawing worrying comparisons between the two countries’ oversized financial industries.

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, cautioned on Thursday that “the recent experience shows that countries where the banking sector is several times bigger than the economy are countries that, on average, have more vulnerabilities.”

“Financial shocks hit these countries stronger, simply because of the size of their banking sector.”

The increased scrutiny has taken Luxembourg‘s government by surprise and put it on the defensive. It has rejected calls to shrink its country’s main source of wealth to a more manageable size, claiming that its banking industry is much more secure than Cyprus‘s and any crackdown would not only harm its own economy but that of the wider eurozone.

Cyprus was forced to seek a bailout from its eurozone partners after its once-thriving banking industry collapsed. The country couldn’t afford to bail out its financial sector which, thanks to massive deposits of foreigners, had grown to eight times the size of its economy. The 10 billion euro ($13 billion) rescue loan package comes with tough austerity measures attached, as well as a brutal shrinking of the banking industry and significant losses for savers with deposits larger than 100,000 euros.

In comparison, the balance sheets of the banks in Luxembourg have swollen to about 22 times the country’s annual economic output of 44 billion euros — making it Europe‘s richest country per capita. The country is also the world’s second-largest center for investment funds, with about 3,800 funds holding assets worth €2.5 trillion ($3.2 trillion) — about 55 times the country’s gross domestic product. It has 141 banks based there, with five of them domestic institutions and the remainder being mainly divisions of foreign banks.

“There are no parallels between Cyprus and Luxembourg, and we don’t allow any parallels to be forced …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Cyprus allows limited bank-to-bank money transfers

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Cyprus‘ finance ministry has further loosened restrictions on access to accounts in the country’s two biggest lenders by allowing limited, bank-to-bank money transfers.

The ministry issued a new decree Friday stating that individuals can transfer up to 2,000 euros ($2,588) from one bank to another each month. Business can transfer as much as 10,000 ($12,944) euros from bank to bank per month.

The new decree will remain in force for another seven days.

Cyprus imposed the limits last month to head off a potential bank run after lenders reopened following a nearly two-week closure to allow the country to finalize a 10 billion euro ($12.94 billion) bailout with its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.

The bailout forces savers in the country’s two biggest banks to take hefty losses.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Articles of Interest

Video: Insider: Obama Plans To ‘Kill’ U.S. Dollar

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Kris Zane

The so-called “Gang of Eight” yesterday announced they were very close to coming up with an immigration reform bill.

Leading conservative Republicans, however—not the gaggle of RINOS that make up half of the Gang of Eight—point out that the immigration “reform” bill has a flaw: it will provide a back door for millions of illegal aliens to collect welfare.

The cost? Several trillion dollars.

That’s trillion with a “t.”

That would put our national debt above the “magic number” of twenty trillion, the point that many economists state is the tipping point of our economy. Tipping point meaning the U.S. economy would implode.

Add to this the fact that Obama is actually calling for a second Stimulus—as if a trillion dollars flushed down the toilet wasn’t enough.

Add to this the artificially high level of the stock market due to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s endless printing of money in which many are stating a crash is imminent—losing up to 90% of its value.

If one were a conspiracy theorist, it would seem like Barack Obama was actually trying to collapse the economy, putting us in a place like Cyprus where the EU is “taxing”—that is, confiscating—privately held bank accounts to the tune of 40% of their value.

On April 2, Ben Bernanke was asked if the U.S. would do the same thing in a dire economic crisis.

Bernanke hemmed and hawed for several minutes and finally gave up this answer: “It’s unlikely.”

Gee, that sure instills confidence in our banking system.

I guess we’re just a bunch of knuckle-dragging conspiracy theorists who think Obama is actually trying to collapse the economy—by devaluing (killing) the U.S. dollar.

Except that is exactly what a high level source in the intelligence community has stated, as reported in the Canada Free Press on Monday, in the widely read article, “Intelligence Insider: Obama Administration Agenda to Kill U.S Dollar.”

But that is just the beginning. According to the source, after the collapse of the economy, after the collapse of the dollar—after the U.S. dollar is properly devalued and buried long after the collapse of the euro—there will be a banshee cry by the globalists and banksters for an international currency with global government in order to prevent another world-wide economic crisis.

Yes, the economic crisis that they caused.

Obama’s push to gut the Second Amendment, the DHS’s stockpiling of two billion rounds of hollow point ammunition and tens of thousands of assault weapons, and Obama pushing George W. Bush’s Patriot Act to Orwellian levels by spying on literally every single American—is all part of a plan to institute a totalitarian New World Order.

Welcome to Barack Hussein Obama’s fundamental transformation of America.

News, Politics, Government

Governments Still Heavy-Handed 80 Years After FDR's Gold Confiscation

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Adrian Ash, Contributor

Of two men walking down Main Street, one with a gold coin in his pocket and the other carrying a bottle of booze, the first was now breaking the law and the second was an upstanding citizen. Or so went the joke in 1933, no funnier than it is today, with the Cyprus deposit-seizure fiasco neatly marking 80 years since President Franklin D.Roosevelt signed his infamous Executive Order 6102 on April 5, 1933. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Have Gold Miners Lost Their Luster?

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Matt DiLallo, The Motley Fool

Filed under: Investing

It’s been an awful start to the year for investors in gold miners. Shares of both Goldcorp and Gold Resource hit 52-week lows this week while many other gold miners have seen their shares dive this year. Take a quick look at this year-to-date performance chart of a basket of gold stocks and you’ll see what I mean:

GG data by YCharts

I hope you didn’t stare at that chart too long; it’s pretty brutal. What happened, and is now time to invest in these gold miners?

Lost its luster
Gold, which is viewed by many investors as a safe haven just hasn’t been needed in recent weeks. The precious metal hit a 10-month low earlier this week as signs continue to point to a strengthening economy. It’s also quite possible that we’re becoming immune to bad news.

European fears of a contagion from Cyprus eased almost as quickly as they flared up. Even sabre rattling from North Korea hasn’t seemed to strike too much fear into the markets when that country supposedly has the capabilities to wipe Los Angeles off the map.You’d think that would have people buying gold and running for the hills.

Amid all this, overall investor interest in gold has fallen to the point that Credit Suisse has cut its price prediction for gold to $1,580 an ounce this year and $1,500 an ounce for next year. Given that gold is the contrarian’s investment of choice, now just might be time to be that contrarian and buy a gold miner. The hard part is determining which gold miner to buy.

Now on sale
While it hasn’t fallen as far as some of the names on my dismal chart from above, Goldcorp is viewed by many as being the gold standard when it comes to gold investments. That being said, if you like income you might want to look at Gold Resource as it pays a high monthly dividend. You’re options don’t end there — Barrick Gold offers investors the opportunity to invest in one of the world’s largest pure gold mining companies. As you can see, it gets complicated very quickly.

That’s why I think a lot of investors might be drawn to a company that simply enables you to profit from the price appreciate of gold. By taking away the operational risks that can tarnish the names I just mentioned, gold streamer Sandstorm Gold is a company that’s worth a deeper look. The company has a management team that’s experienced in streaming and a diversified production base that should yield long-term returns.

Moving away from operational risks is more important than you’d think. Take Gold Fields for example, the company’s operations at its two mines in Ghana were halted recently after a strike broke out over a pay dispute. This isn’t the first time the company has been hit by labor unrest as a 23-day strike shut the company’s South African mines …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Articles of Interest

Offshore Tax Haven Report Will ‘Increase Pressure:’ German Finance Minister

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By The Huffington Post News Editors

By Stephen Brown
BERLIN, April 5 (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday he was glad the identities of thousands of holders of bank accounts in tax havens had been leaked because it would help do away with a business model that Cyprus had shown was flawed.
“I’m glad about this report, which will increase the pressure,” he said, referring to a report by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in cooperation with some international media.
The investigation, titled “Secrecy for Sale”, details what it calls “complex offshore structures” used by wealthy people from all over the world, including government officials and their families. The German media says these include hundreds of Germans.
It has received major media coverage in Germany and France, where President Francois Hollande‘s former campaign treasurer was reported to have had joint ownership of two firms registered in the Cayman Islands, a Caribbean tax haven.
The ICIJ report said international banks have “aggressively worked” to help wealthy clients use offshore banking facilities in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands. This prompted a response from Germany‘s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, defending the legality of its wealth management services.
Schaeuble told German radio it remained to be seen how much of the activity revealed by the ICIJ was actually illegal, “but much of it is at least a grey area”.
Berlin has taken a leading role in getting international bodies like the G20 and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to define clearly which countries were acting as tax havens and then ensure that “legal consequences are brought to bear”, he said.
The minister cited the example of euro zone member Cyprus, which was forced by its partners, led by Germany, to impose significant losses on depositors in its big banks in exchange for a 10 billion euro EU bailout.
The island nation has attracted large deposits from wealthy foreigners, particularly Russians, with low taxes and loose regulations. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Twitter: The Carnival Barker of Investing

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Morgan Housel, The Motley Fool

Filed under: Investing

“The calamity of the information age is that the toxicity of data increases much faster than its benefits.” — Nassim Taleb.

When asked what I read, I always plug Twitter. It is one of the most effective communication devices ever invented, I usually say, with no exaggeration.

Twitter has become so important to finance that it is taking over the role of the Wall Street analyst. As news broke of the Cyprus bailout last month, Twitter was a mile ahead of Wall Street. Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider wrote:

Twitter is increasingly equaling or surpassing the value of traditional sell-side research from Wall Street analysts … Because the [Cyprus] news was so surprising, and because there’s so little time between when the bailout was announced early Saturday morning, and when trading begins Sunday evening, there’s been an aggressive thirst for information and analysis on what it all means. But the sell-side has been fairly slow, and the Twittersphere has come to the rescue.

He is right. When big financial news is breaking, all the money in the world can’t buy the information streaming from Twitter’s free iPhone app. It is indispensable.

But there is another side of Twitter, as Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein recently wrote:

Toward the end of the election, I pretty much stopped reading Twitter altogether. It improved my life, and the quality of my work. There was so much partisan sniping and gaffe-driven garbage that reading almost anything but Twitter was a huge improvement in the quality of the information I consumed.

Most forms of information are slow-moving, Klein writes. “If I neglect my RSS feed today, the posts will still be there tomorrow,” he says. “The same is true for the books I’m reading, the magazines piled on my nightstand, the tabs open in my browser.” Ditto for conventional journalism. If I check WSJ.com at 4 A.M. or 9 A.M. or noon, I will find the same stories. There is no rush.

But on Twitter, not checking your feed for an hour can mean missing something important. Since there’s no easy way to see what everyone you follow has Tweeted in the last day — to say nothing of the last week — the best way to stay on top of what’s important is to become a Twitter maniac, glued to the screen all day. It’s as if you didn’t know when your favorite TV show will air, and there’s way to record it when it does. Not wanting to miss it, you sit in front of the TV all day, waiting for it come.

But that means having to sit through a lot of soap operas and realty TV shows. Which is exactly how Twitter can feel sometimes. And I feel it’s getting worse.

In decade’s past, top investors wrote their clients once a quarter, maybe even once a year. Top newspaper columnists wrote once or twice a week.

Twitter has sent those expectations through …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Poll: Germans back Merkel's crisis management

April 5, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A new poll points to wide approval among Germans for Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s crisis management following a bailout deal for Cyprus. It also shows Merkel’s personal popularity riding high ahead of elections in September.

Merkel’s hard-nosed handling of the debt crisis has long been popular at home, though some in her center-right coalition have voiced unease about rescuing struggling eurozone countries and many in those nations resent the conditions attached.

The poll of 1,002 people for ARD television, conducted Tuesday and Wednesday, found 65 percent agreed that Merkel has “acted correctly and decisively in the euro crisis.” Fifty percent said it was right that investors and savers in Cyprus had to contribute to the bailout.

The poll gave a margin of error of plus or minus up to 3.1 points.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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