The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
WASHINGTON -- Leaders of a congressional commission investigating the causes of the recent financial crisis are threatening to publicly identify any company or government agency that stalls in voluntarily producing requested documents. Phil Angelides, the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, told McClatchy in an interview that the panel would investigate the role that Wall Street firms played in causing the crisis to mushroom.McClatchy reported earlier this month that Goldman Sachs, the nation's premier investment bank, sold more than $40 billion in securities backed by risky mortgages in 2006 and 2007 while secretly betting on a housing market downturn that would depress the value of those securities. After purchasing those bonds from Goldman, pension funds, insurance companies and other institutions are facing bigger losses from the financial meltdown.Angelides, a Democrat, and Republican Bill Thomas, the vice chairman, vowed that they wouldn't let the subjects of their inquiry "run out the clock on us."
WASHINGTON -- Leaders of a congressional commission investigating the causes of the recent financial crisis are threatening to publicly identify any company or government agency that stalls in voluntarily producing requested documents.
Phil Angelides, the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, told McClatchy in an interview that the panel would investigate the role that Wall Street firms played in causing the crisis to mushroom.
McClatchy reported earlier this month that Goldman Sachs, the nation's premier investment bank, sold more than $40 billion in securities backed by risky mortgages in 2006 and 2007 while secretly betting on a housing market downturn that would depress the value of those securities.
After purchasing those bonds from Goldman, pension funds, insurance companies and other institutions are facing bigger losses from the financial meltdown.
Angelides, a Democrat, and Republican Bill Thomas, the vice chairman, vowed that they wouldn't let the subjects of their inquiry "run out the clock on us."
I said in my post on November 12 Larry Ellison should ask himself whether it is even worthwhile for the new Oracle (ORCL)/Sun (JAVA) combination to do business in the information technology (IT) backwater that is the European Union (EU). Why go through the hassle of dealing with EU regulators when it appears the return on investment is so low? My suggestion is to just consummate the merger without EU approval and don't do business in the EU. A bunch of Euroblatherers on seekingalpha.com commented that my idea was anti-Europe bashing. One even criticized the quality of my photograph, which I love because it is a snapshot taken by a friend in front of an old restaurant on Helsinki harbor. I love to go to places like that in Europe and look at the old cathedrals and decrepit palaces. It's just that the over-regulated EU is an increasingly bad place to sell enterprise software and IT. Look at the numbers.
I said in my post on November 12 Larry Ellison should ask himself whether it is even worthwhile for the new Oracle (ORCL)/Sun (JAVA) combination to do business in the information technology (IT) backwater that is the European Union (EU). Why go through the hassle of dealing with EU regulators when it appears the return on investment is so low? My suggestion is to just consummate the merger without EU approval and don't do business in the EU.
A bunch of Euroblatherers on seekingalpha.com commented that my idea was anti-Europe bashing. One even criticized the quality of my photograph, which I love because it is a snapshot taken by a friend in front of an old restaurant on Helsinki harbor. I love to go to places like that in Europe and look at the old cathedrals and decrepit palaces. It's just that the over-regulated EU is an increasingly bad place to sell enterprise software and IT. Look at the numbers.
A nice sentiment, perhaps, and Byron does keep it from being purely an emotional one, arguing the return on investment isn't worth the headache. But it just isn't feasible, said Mervyn Adrian, president of IT Market Strategy. "They need to stay in Europe. Oracle services multinationals of all sizes, so there's no such thing as not being in Europe. Even if your initial contact and first sales are taking place in other geographies, if you are dealing with large companies, they are doing business in Europe. And if they are doing business in Europe and they are using your software, the EU will get involved," he told InternetNews.com.
A nice sentiment, perhaps, and Byron does keep it from being purely an emotional one, arguing the return on investment isn't worth the headache. But it just isn't feasible, said Mervyn Adrian, president of IT Market Strategy.
"They need to stay in Europe. Oracle services multinationals of all sizes, so there's no such thing as not being in Europe. Even if your initial contact and first sales are taking place in other geographies, if you are dealing with large companies, they are doing business in Europe. And if they are doing business in Europe and they are using your software, the EU will get involved," he told InternetNews.com.
A swedish kind of death:
As predicted the CEO of Vattenfall has been fired. Replacement to be announced tomorrow, intense rumors believes Øystein Løseth has been appointed.
Wall Street bankers make too much money -- on that the American public may be in near-unanimous agreement. But what about your own compensation? Can you justify it in this still-struggling economy? One inevitable effect of this recession's massive job losses and plunge in consumer and business spending has been downward pressure on the wages and benefits of many of those who still are working. That pressure has been evident for the last 18 months or so, of course, as the unemployment rate has climbed relentlessly. Now, with the economic downturn seemingly over as measured by the classic gauge of gross domestic product growth, the question is whether workers' piece of the economic pie will begin to grow again. .... Yet the magnitude of job losses here and abroad in this devastating recession poses a huge risk to the future compensation of the still-employed: What if, for years to come, there are masses of qualified people willing to do what you do -- but for much less pay?
One inevitable effect of this recession's massive job losses and plunge in consumer and business spending has been downward pressure on the wages and benefits of many of those who still are working. That pressure has been evident for the last 18 months or so, of course, as the unemployment rate has climbed relentlessly.
Now, with the economic downturn seemingly over as measured by the classic gauge of gross domestic product growth, the question is whether workers' piece of the economic pie will begin to grow again.
....
Yet the magnitude of job losses here and abroad in this devastating recession poses a huge risk to the future compensation of the still-employed: What if, for years to come, there are masses of qualified people willing to do what you do -- but for much less pay?
whether workers' piece of the economic pie will begin to grow again
Again?
Balancing actThe government has to tread a difficult line in how this re-nationalised east coast line is to be run. If it's too good, there will be strong calls for the rest of the rail network to be operated by the state. If it's too poor, the government and the Department for Transport in particular will be heavily criticised for incompetence, though it's playing down any talk of further nationalisation.
Balancing act
The government has to tread a difficult line in how this re-nationalised east coast line is to be run.
If it's too good, there will be strong calls for the rest of the rail network to be operated by the state.
If it's too poor, the government and the Department for Transport in particular will be heavily criticised for incompetence, though it's playing down any talk of further nationalisation.
One can only imagine the instructions issued to the Directly Operated Railways (DOR) management....
"In view of the excessively high customer ratings, staff are instructed not to clean the toilets North of Doncaster...." "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
(Read it on ET before you read it on ET ;))
