Monthly Archives: July 2013

A Western Alternative to the West

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“Investors in Dubai needed patience. Even in 2011, stocks dropped another 20% before hitting rock bottom. The recovery started only last year, with shares up 20%. But the rally this year has been truly spectacular at 63% on the Dubai Financial Market. That’s against a falling trend in other emerging markets. The market has also massively outperformed the S&P 500. Indeed, it ranks among the best stock market performances in the world this year. It’s trounced the S&P 500.  House prices have also recovered very strongly, though we are still a little shy of the peak valuations of 2008. For rental increases, Dubai is ranked No. 1 in the world this year.”

http://dailyreckoning.com/a-western-alternative-to-the-west/

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Overstock.com CEO: Steve Cohen Responsible For Corruption That Cost Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs

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“Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne colorfully explained in his own words why he took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal mocking SAC Capital’s Steve Cohen Saturday.  Since 2005 Byrne has been saying that powerful market actors have been working to destroy his company. In 2010 he identified them as Michael Milken and SAC’s Steven Cohen. Two years later, emails accidentally leaked by lawyers representing a number of Wall Street banks described how the banks were allegedly naked short-selling Overstock.com stock and advising their hedge fund clients on how to do the same.  SAC Capital, as you know, is one massive hedge fund client.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/overstockcom-ceo-explains-anti-sac-ad-2013-7

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Obama offers ‘grand bargain’ on corporate tax rate, infrastructure

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“Obama wants to cut the corporate tax rate of 35 percent to 28 percent and give manufacturers a preferred rate of 25 percent. He also wants a minimum tax on foreign earnings as a tool against corporate tax evasion and the use of tax havens. Obama wants the money generated by a tax overhaul to be used to fund such projects as repairing roads and bridges, improving education at community colleges and promoting manufacturing, senior administration officials said.  Republicans contended that by spending the revenue, it would violate Obama’s previous commitment to a ‘revenue-neutral’ overhaul of corporate taxes.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/30/us-usa-obama-idUSBRE96T0F820130730

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Japan now reconsidering sales-tax hike

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“Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may ditch a long-planned hike in the national sales tax, a senior official said Sunday, according to Kyodo News. Abe had intended to help shore up Japan’s finances by raising the 5% national consumption tax to 10% in two steps, slated for April 2014 and October 2015. But Kyodo quoted Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga as saying in a television interview that Abe would reconsider the issue ‘after revised data are released in September on preliminary figures for April-June gross domestic product, and before a fall extraordinary Diet session.'”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japan-now-reconsidering-sales-tax-hike-report-2013-07-28

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‘Way Harder’ For Goldman And Morgan Stanley To Get Out Of Commodities Than JP Morgan

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“Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley two decades ago became known as the ‘Wall Street Refiners’ for their mastery of both financial and physical commodities. But since 2012 Morgan Stanley has looked at selling its commodity arm and Goldman has made moves to scale back its physical operations. Letters between the banks and the Federal Reserve, received by Reuters under the Freedom of Information Act, show both banks are in discussions on conforming or divesting activities that fall outside the normal scope of commercial banks.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-and-goldman-on-physical-commodities-2013-7

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Silver Vault for 200 Tons Starts in Singapore as Wealthy Buy

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“The new facility is 30 percent booked at the opening, said Joshua Rotbart, precious-metals general manager at owner Malca-Amit Global Ltd. The storage will add to the firm’s five vaults at the Singapore FreePort, which are fully reserved for gold, he said in an interview. The repository can hold $128 million of silver at today’s prices. The number of individuals with $1 million or more in investible assets climbed to 3.68 million in the Asia-Pacific region in 2012. The Singapore government has been promoting the country as a bullion-trading hub, removing a 7 percent sales tax on investment-grade precious metals in 2012. ”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-28/silver-vault-for-200-tons-starts-in-singapore-as-wealthy-buy.html

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Mondragon Corporation (Wikipedia)

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“Currently it is the seventh-largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2012, it employed 83,321 people in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge. The determining factor in the creation of the Mondragon system was the arrival in 1941 of a young Catholic priest José María Arizmendiarrieta in Mondragón, a town with a population of 7,000. In 1943, Arizmendiarrieta established a technical college that became a training ground for generations of managers, engineers and skilled labour for local companies, and primarily for the co-operatives.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

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Taiwanese Apple contractor probes claims of labor abuse

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“The US rights groups said three Pegatron plants in China impose excessive overtime and employ minors. It also cited crowded dormitories, insufficient fire escape routes and arbitrary fines for perceived minor lapses of behaviour. Apple has also said it will investigate the claims. Pegatron produces consumer electronics like game consoles, television sets and computers for Sony, Toshiba and some other brand name vendors, as well as assembling products for Apple, an official of the Taiwanese company said.  It currently has around 110,000 employees, the vast majority of them in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Suzhou and Chongqing.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/30/taiwanese-apple-contractor-probes-claims-of-labor-abuse/

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Ex-inmate at Chinese prison: We made airline headsets

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“Major airlines including British Airways and electronics manufacturers have been accused of sourcing products from a Chinese prison where inmates are tasered if they don’t hit production targets. The Australian Financial Review was tipped off about the story by New Zealander Danny Cancian, a former inmate of Dongguan prison in southern Guangdong province. He claimed he had made in-flight headphones for Qantas, British Airways and Emirates as well as parts for local firms which supply US technology giant Emerson and home appliance maker Electrolux. All companies denied any knowledge of selling products made in Dongguan.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/26/dongguan_prison_labour_airline_headphones/

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Challenging a Long-Held Assumption about Commodities

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“When it comes to oil demand, 17 years ago, China was a net exporter. Today, it is the second-largest importer, transporting 5.4 million barrels of oil into the country every day. That’s why it is widely accepted that the Asian giant spurred higher commodity prices in the past decade. And if the country was the force behind the boom, then the assumption is that China’s lower, but still healthy growth will be a drag on commodity prices. But recent research challenges this assumption. According to BCA Research’s Chen Zhao, what is initially an ‘outrageous proposition’ may not actually be.”

http://dailyreckoning.com/challenging-a-long-held-assumption-about-commodities/

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