Allen Stanford arrived at a federal court in Virginia today to face criminal charges over an alleged $8 billion investment scam.
The entrepreneur already faces civil charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the financial regulator, over the sale of $8 billion worth of certificates of deposit with his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. The SEC alleges that Mr Stanford, his chief financial officer, Jim Davis, and chief investment officer, Laura Pendergest-Holt, ran a "Ponzi" scheme similar to the $65 billion fraud committed by Bernard Madoff, who will be sentenced in New York next Tuesday.
The SEC alleges that Mr Stanford, his chief financial officer, Jim Davis, and chief investment officer, Laura Pendergest-Holt, ran a "Ponzi" scheme similar to the $65 billion fraud committed by Bernard Madoff, who will be sentenced in New York next Tuesday.
MOSCOW. (Oleg Mityayev, RIA Novosti economic commentator) - The Russian city of Yekaterinburg on May 16 hosted the first official summit of BRIC, a group comprising four countries showing the highest rate of economic growth - Brazil, Russia, India and China.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in the wake of the summit that the event was aimed at promoting a fairer world order.The BRIC nations currently account for 15% of the global economy and 42% of global currency reserves. These are important reasons for BRIC to have ambition to influence international economic and financial policies.According to many estimates, emerging economies will the driving force of the expected global economic recovery - that is, they will bail out wealthier nations. Citigroup's chief executive Vikram Pandit said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in early June that "China, India and Russia will become the engine of world growth for a while."Most estimates put China's and India's 2009 GDP growth at 6% and 4%, respectively, while the Group of 7 will still be in recession. The two fastest growing modern markets, China and India, are not heavily dependent on exports to industrially developed countries, but are developing independently due to booming internal demand.
The two fastest growing modern markets, China and India, are not heavily dependent on exports to industrially developed countries, but are developing independently due to booming internal demand.
The world's biggest emerging markets have called for a bigger say in the global financial system at their first summit. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) called for a "more diversified" currency system, but backed away from Russian calls for a new "supra-national" currency to replace the dollar.
The world's biggest emerging markets have called for a bigger say in the global financial system at their first summit.
The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) called for a "more diversified" currency system, but backed away from Russian calls for a new "supra-national" currency to replace the dollar.
Challenging America will be the prime focus of extended meetings in Yekaterinburg, Russia (formerly Sverdlovsk) today and tomorrow (June 15-16) for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The alliance is comprised of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrghyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia. It will be joined on Tuesday by Brazil for trade discussions among the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The attendees have assured American diplomats that dismantling the US financial and military empire is not their aim. They simply want to discuss mutual aid - but in a way that has no role for the United States, NATO or the US dollar as a vehicle for trade. US diplomats may well ask what this really means, if not a move to make US hegemony obsolete.
Challenging America will be the prime focus of extended meetings in Yekaterinburg, Russia (formerly Sverdlovsk) today and tomorrow (June 15-16) for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The alliance is comprised of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrghyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia. It will be joined on Tuesday by Brazil for trade discussions among the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
The attendees have assured American diplomats that dismantling the US financial and military empire is not their aim. They simply want to discuss mutual aid - but in a way that has no role for the United States, NATO or the US dollar as a vehicle for trade. US diplomats may well ask what this really means, if not a move to make US hegemony obsolete.
They will NOT be able to create another alterantive themselves, because who would be crazy enough to put one's savings in rouble or yuans? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
