New Study Reveals What Makes Europeans Happy | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 20.11.2008

Wealth does not automatically make people in Europe happier, according to a quality-of-life survey conducted in all 27 European Union member states. But it certainly plays an important role.

The study, released on Wednesday, Nov. 19 shows that other factors, such as social environment and health, also contribute greatly to levels of satisfaction.

  

The happiest Europeans are the Danes and Finns, according to the findings of a representative survey of 30,000 EU citizens. At the other end of the scale, Hungary and Bulgaria returned the lowest satisfaction rates.

  

Germans, Czechs and Slovaks lie at what might be called the happy medium, while the French, British and Spanish reported above-average satisfaction with their lot in life. In Poland, Austria and especially in Italy, people had more to grumble about.

  

"Countries with high incomes do very well in terms of satisfaction in life," said Branislav Mikulic of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).

  

European Union plans online library to rival Google - Telegraph

Cultural riches from over 2,000 years of European civilization are going digital.

It's part of a new European Union online library project that is set to rival Google and create a one-stop-shop to access history, art, literature, cinema and music from across the continent.

Items have been collected from 1,000 museums, national libraries, galleries and archives -- including the Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam -- so users can scour for books, paintings, audio files, maps, videos and other artifacts in one website: http://www.europeana.eu

Subjects are as varied as the recipe for a French ham and cheese "croque monsieur" to Homer's epics and the life of Mozart.

"You can see all aspects of (Mozart's) life in the works and material that comes from our museums, libraries, audio visual collections and archives across Europe," said Jill Cousins, director of the Europeana project.

She called up nearly 1,000 items related to Mozart in a sample search on the website, which is available in 23 languages including English, French, German and Spanish.

Brits most internet-friendly nation - EUobserver

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Brits are the most active users of the internet among European nations, the UK's communication regulator, Ofcom, revealed in a report, depicting the country's population as keen participants of social networks such as Facebook and huge fans of online video games.

There is nearly one broadband connection for every four people across the G7 most industrialised nations plus Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland, according to the International Communications Market report, published on Wednesday (19 November).

Brits are heavy users of online video games and social networking services such as Facebook

In the European Union, the UK, France and Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland saw the highest average growth in connections between 2004 and 2007, at five percent per year.

Across all the countries surveyed, more women than men were using the internet.

The research found that US consumers spend most time online (15 hours per week) while Brits lead the European league with almost 14 hours. Spaniards on the other hand spend the least time on the internet: 7.5 hours per week.

European Commission to force women to take six weeks off after giving birth - Telegraph

Women are to be banned from returning to work within six weeks of giving birth under new EU plans.

New mothers in Britain could also receive full pay for longer, as part of the scheme to improve maternity leave and make it uniform across Europe.

But the British Government fears the European Commission scheme will pile unnecessary added costs on employers and the state.

In addition, Conservatives have warned it could damage the careers of businesswomen who want to get back in the boardroom as soon as possible after having a baby.

It comes amid continuing controversy over whether employment rights for women need to be extended further.

Equality campaigners believe many women's careers still suffer if they take time off to raise children, with official figures showing the gender pay gap widened to 17.1 per cent in the past year.

Poland rejects French CO2 compromise as summit looms - EUobserver

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Poland has given the cold shoulder to concessions offered by the French EU presidency on how the union's power sector should reduce CO2 emissions.

"It does not solve the problem of electricity prices in a satisfactory way," one Polish diplomat said on Wednesday (19 November) in response to the French proposal.

What will happen if the 11 December summit fails to see agreement?

The concessions paper is aimed at addressing Warsaw's key objection - against the buying of 100 percent of pollution permits under the union's reformed emissions trading scheme (ETS), the cornerstone of the EU's strategy against climate change.

Under the reform, EU governments would no longer give away permits to pollute to the power sector. Instead, the industry would be forced to buy the right to emit carbon dioxide by auction, with full auctioning expected to kick in from 2013.

To get Poland on board, the French EU presidency has offered a three-year long exemption from the regime to those countries that produce at least 60 percent of their electricity from coal and are poorly connected to the grids of other EU states.

Don't turn deaf ear to Ukraine Nato bid, Viktor Yushchenko begs allies - Times Online

The President of Ukraine urged Nato yesterday to resist Russian pressure and make an historic offer of membership to his country.

Viktor Yushchenko said that Ukraine was "devoted" to winning support for a Membership Action Plan (MAP) at next month's summit of Nato foreign ministers despite opposition in Moscow and a bitter political crisis at home that has split the pro-Western Orange coalition.

He gave warning that expansion of the military alliance was vital to European security in the wake of Russia's war with Georgia, and the only way to secure Ukraine's independence.

"I am sure that the ball is not on the Ukrainian side of the field, Ukraine has done everything it had to do," President Yushchenko said in an interview with The Times.

[Murdoch Alert]

Billions in EU Funds Misspent in 2007, EU Auditor Says | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 20.11.2008

The European Union is wasting billions of euros due to sloppy bookkeeping and the sending of funds down the wrong channels, a senior European auditor said.

From 42 billion euros ($53 billion) in structural subsidies provided last year by Brussels, at least 11 percent should not have been paid out, European Accounting Office chief Vitor Caldeira said Thursday, Nov. 20.

 

Caldeira also highlighted serious inconsistencies in the EU's spending policies for agriculture, natural resources, research, energy, transport, education, foreign aid and aid to poor EU regions.

 

These programs account for 80 percent of EU spending by respective national governments and EU agencies.

BBC NEWS | Europe | EU reaches deal on farm reforms

EU farm ministers have agreed to reform agricultural policy by shifting more subsidies away from production and liberalising the dairy market.

The deal on reforming the Common Agricultural Policy came on Thursday after marathon all-night talks.

More subsidies will be transferred to conservation, reducing the traditional EU incentives for farmers to produce.

Milk quotas will be raised initially, but later scrapped, in the biggest overhaul of farm policy since 2003.

The measures will go into effect during 2009-2013.

The changes build on a major CAP reform enacted in 2003, which broke the link between farm production and subsidies.

How dependent is Europe on Russian gas?
November 18th, 2008 by Pierre Noël, University of Cambridge

Conventional wisdom has it that Russia dominates Europe's natural gas market, and that European imports of Russian gas are growing and can only continue to grow. This supposedly places the EU in a dangerous state of dependency and compromises its strategic position towards Russia. All sides of the debate over Europe's Russia policy share these premises, including those "realists" who argue that dependency on Russian gas makes it irresponsible for the EU to pursue policies that antagonise Moscow. But the conventional wisdom is wrong: Europe's gas supply is not dominated by Russia, or, for that matter, by any other exporter.

Since 1980, and particularly since 1995, Europe has considerably diversified its sources of gas imports. Today, for the EU as a whole, gas supply diversity is not a pressing problem.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

IMF, Nordic Neighbors Agree Billion-Euro Loans for Iceland | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 20.11.2008

Iceland's Nordic neighbors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed loans of over two billion euros to keep the North Atlantic island nation afloat after the credit crunch laid waste to its banking sector.

The executive board of the IMF approved a two-year $2.1 billion (1.6 billion-euro) loan to Iceland to "restore confidence and stabilize the economy," the IMF announced on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

The fund said it approved the stand-by arrangement -- structured so that Iceland can immediately draw about $827 million, with the rest in eight installments of about $155 million -- to stabilize a "banking crisis of extraordinary proportions."

The global financial crisis sparked the collapse of three of Iceland's major banks and a rapid depreciation of the crown and the nation is facing a severe recession through 2010, the fund said in a statement.

Crisis Could Bring Russia in From the Cold: World Bank Chief | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 20.11.2008

The global financial crisis could present the international community with the chance to lay aside the recent tensions that have emerged with Russia, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said in a speech delivered in Berlin.

"Relations with Russia have been strained in recent years," Zoellick told an audience at Berlin's Humboldt University on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

 

"Today's financial crisis could be an opportunity to develop sounder economic relations that might be a foundation, with Russia's help, to build co-operation in solving common problems," said Zoellick.

 

The World Bank chief also stepped up his call for the international community to take action to recognize the growing economic power of the world's leading emerging economies such as Russia and China.

Putin promises economic strength; blames crisis on U.S. - International Herald Tribune

MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised Thursday the country would emerge stronger from a world economic crisis he said had been triggered by U.S. recklessness.

Putin said the global financial system had made the crisis "impossible to avert."

"Cheap money doping and mortgage troubles in the United States have caused a real chain reaction, paralyzed the global financial system and brought global distrust to the market," Putin said, addressing a meeting of United Russia, the dominant pro-Kremlin party he leads.

The prime minister said Russia had prepared for the crisis in advance through economic growth and abundant currency reserves -- benefits of the oil-driven economic boom during his eight-year presidency.

But he acknowledged that "low diversification of the national economy, its low efficiency and the insufficient development of the financial system" made Russia's economy "extremely dependent on global factors."

FHA-Backed Loans: The Next Subprime Crisis Looms - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The same people whose reckless practices triggered the global financial crisis are onto a similar scheme that could cost taxpayers tons more.

As if they haven't done enough damage. Thousands of subprime mortgage lenders and brokers -- many of them the very sorts of firms that helped create the current financial crisis -- are going strong. Their new strategy: taking advantage of a long-standing federal program designed to encourage homeownership by insuring mortgages for buyers of modest means.

You read that correctly. Some of the same people who propelled us toward the housing market calamity are now seeking to profit by exploiting billions in federally insured mortgages. Washington, meanwhile, has vastly expanded the availability of such taxpayer-backed loans as part of the emergency campaign to rescue the country's swooning economy.

 Foreclosures have spiked in the wake of the subprime crisis, leading to a number of businesses, like this one in Rio Vista, CA, having to close. For generations, these loans, backed by the Federal Housing Administration, have offered working-class families a legitimate means to purchase their own homes. But now there's a severe danger that aggressive lenders and brokers schooled in the rash ways of the subprime industry will overwhelm the FHA with loans for people unlikely to make their payments. Exacerbating matters, FHA officials seem oblivious to what's happening -- or incapable of stopping it. They're giving mortgage firms licenses to dole out 100-percent-insured loans despite lender records blotted by state sanctions, bankruptcy filings, civil lawsuits, and even criminal convictions.

After comparing Paulson and Bush to Chubias and Yeltsin in Russia in 1996, as promoted by Robert Rubin, formerly of Goldman Sachs, who in Russia decided which institutions went to which oligarch, so today another Goldman Sachs alumnus is attempting to decide which US kleptocrat gets which public resourse, via the agency of Helicopter Ben.  "Mr. Bernanke's famous quip about helicopters dropping money to get the economy moving seems to be limited to Wall Street for use in buying financial assets, not real goods and services for the population at large."

Michael Hudson on Paulson's task and motives and on the scope of the problem  CounterPunch  Nov. 17, 2008

Speaking on Thursday, November 13, before the Manhattan Institute, a lobbying organization for finance and real estate, President Bush repeated the myth that foreign countries recycle so many dollars to America because of our "strong economy" and free markets.

The reality is quite different. There is no such thing as a "free market." For a few days after announcement of the $700 billion giveaway, some knee-jerk opponents of government spending accused this of being "socialism," but they quickly discovered that not all government spending is socialist. Regardless of what economic system is followed, all markets are planned, and have been ever since calendars were developed back in the Ice Age. Most market structures throughout history have been organized in a way that provides the vested interests with a free lunch. This remains the essence of post-feudal capitalism - or as some have expressed it, corporativism.

What happens in practice is that foreign central banks recycle the dollars that their exporters and asset sellers receive because (as noted above) their currencies would rise if they failed to do this. That would price their exports out of world markets, leading to unemployment. Foreign countries thus are in a dollar trap. They send their savings to finance the domestic U.S. Government budget deficit instead of helping their own domestic economics, because they have not been able to create an alternative to the dollar. Next to Treasury debt, real estate mortgages are the only category large enough to absorb the excess dollars being thrown off by the U.S. payments deficit - thrown off, that is, by U.S. military spending abroad, consumer spending to swell the trade deficit, and investment outflows as investors here and abroad diversified their holdings outside of the United States. The upshot is that world monetary reserves have come to consist of central bank loans to finance the U.S. bubble economy. But the knee-jerk deregulatory philosophy of the Clinton and Bush eras has killed the U.S. investment market.

-Skip-

Nobody has found a "market-oriented" solution to this problem. That is what doomed the G-20 meetings this weekend to failure, just as there could be no agreement at the G7 meetings a few weeks ago. In the face of U.S. Treasury dreams of re-inflating the mortgage market, Europe is trying to draw the line at financing a losing proposition. But now that gold no longer is the means of settling balance-of-payments deficits, foreign central banks lack an alternative to the U.S. dollar to hold their monetary reserves. This leaves them with (1) U.S. Treasury securities, and (2) U.S. mortgage securities. Recent years have seen a further diversification via "sovereign wealth funds" into (3) direct ownership of mineral resources, industrial companies, privatized national infrastructure and other equity investment rather than debt. But rather than welcoming this, the U.S. Government seeks to limit foreign central banks to buying junk mortgages, junk bonds and other financial garbage. To call this "market equilibrium" is to indulge in the feel-good argot that fogs today's international financial dialogue.

To put matters bluntly, the issue at the G-20 meetings is mistrust of the unregulated U.S. banking system and, behind it, government "regulators" who refuse to regulate. China and other foreign dollar recipients have been treating the dollar like a hot potato, trying to spend it on buying foreign minerals, fuels and other assets from any country that will accept payment in dollars. Most of the takers are third world countries still committed to paying the heavy dollarized debts owed to the World Bank and other global creditors. The price of their remaining in the Bretton Woods system is to sacrifice their public domain in a kind of pre-bankruptcy sale rather than repudiating their debts under the "odious debt" and "fraudulent conveyance" escape valves. What is needed is not to "reform" the World Bank and IMF, but to replace them. But that is another story, one that other countries dared not even bring up at the November 15-16 meetings.

The whole piece is well worth a read.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

In addition to articles in the Klatsch section:

Market weighs up Citi scenarios

After another brutal day for Citigroup, the market is beginning to think through a host of unpalatable options.

As Citi's shares lost another quarter of their value to close at $4.71 - a level not seen since 1994 - investors, regulators and employees were staring at the possibility that the US financial services group might need outside help.

Some asset managers, pension funds and endowments adhere to internal standards that mean they cannot hold stocks with a value of less than $5. With the shares below that mark, some analysts suggested a further bout of selling might take place on Friday.

(...)

A government-aided deal with a relatively healthy regional bank like US Bancorp or Wells Fargo or a better placed New York bank like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs or even Morgan Stanley was also mooted. A break-up of Citi into its consumer, wholesale and corporate businesses, with different buyers for each piece, is also seen as a possibility.

At Thursday's close, Goldman's market value was about $20bn, just $5bn shy of Citi's.

(...)

The US Treasury and the Federal Reserve - Citi's main regulator - are also watching. No action has yet been planned, but bankers on Thursday speculated that, if Citi's situation gets worse, the authorities might have to inject more capital on top of the $25bn they invested recently.

The Fed could also extend a huge loan to Citi, as it did for AIG, in exchange for a large ownership stake. A government guarantee of all of Citi's debt and derivative contracts is also a possibility, especially if the cost of insuring the company's debt against a default and the interest rates on its bonds continue to rise.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Abiding in Bolivia: Note of Caution

Are you over your hangover from partying up Obama tuesday night? Good, because here are some sober thoughts on Obama from Bolivia. -What could President Obama mean for improving US - Bolivian relations after Bush sent Goldberg to support a bunch of fascist coup plotters? Well if Obama´s current advisors signify anything, not much. A while back Gringo Tambo dug up this video of Obama´s Bolivia advisor, Greg Craig speaking about the possible extradition of Bolivia´s ex-Pres "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada for his role in the 2003 El Alto Gas War in which more than 60 civilian protesters were shot dead by the national military. Summerized:-"we do not accept your characaterization of those events as a massacre." He says there were no crimes against humanity, genocide, disappearances, or torture, but rather, "tragically, civil disturbances which cost lives." -Oh, did I forget to tell you?, that in addition to advising Obama on Bolivia, Craig is also Goni´s legal representive. Conflict of interst. What conflict of interest?-But hey, Bolivia is a small poor country anyways. Who cares? Obama is awesome, smart, unifying, and "transhistorical"- MLK´s dream fulfilled. Except Bolivians, like Americans, also elected in 2005 their first President from a group historically enslaved, racially segregation, and widely discriminated against. So Bolivia has been living a "postracial" politics ever since, right?

Obama brings US in from the cold - Climate Change, Environment - The Independent

In a landmark speech, the next president pledges to revive Kyoto Protocol and end American isolationism over climate change

Prospects for success in the world's struggle to combat global warming have been transformed at a stroke after US President-elect Barack Obama made it clear that America would play its full part in renewing the Kyoto Protocol climate-change treaty.

His words, in effect, brought an end to eight years of wilful climate obstructionism by the administration of George Bush, who withdrew the US from Kyoto in March 2001, thus doing incalculable damage to the efforts of the international community to construct a unified response to the threat.

The Bush withdrawal set back the international effort by nearly a decade - years in which it became increasingly clear that the warming of the atmosphere being caused by greenhouse gas emissions was proceeding much faster than UN scientists thought it would.

Although Mr Bush and the oilman-caucus in his government justified their Kyoto withdrawal by casting doubt on whether climate change was happening, or was caused by human actions, by last year the scientific consensus on both propositions was so great that Bush aides had to reluctantly accept both were true. But Mr Bush's diplomatic stance hardly changed. In contrast, the President-elect's remarks, in a video address to a global warming summit in California attended by US governors and representatives from other nations, instantly injected a new mood of optimism among negotiators preparing for the conference at which Kyoto will be renewed and extended, due to take place in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Keep Pressure on Iran, Says German Foreign Minister | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 20.11.2008

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on a visit to India, said the international community should keep up pressure on Iran to be transparent about its nuclear program.

"Iran is stalling at the moment in the expectation that the new American government will send a new signal," said Steinmeier Thursday, Nov. 20, while on an official visit to the Indian capital New Delhi. "International pressure should be sustained."

 

US President-elect Barack Obama has said he wants to engage in direct negotiations with Iran after he takes office on Jan. 20. So far, group negotiations have taken place between Iran and the US, Germany, China, Russia, Britain and France.

 

"Nothing changes the fact that Iran must move on this issue," Steinmeier said

Venezuelan State Elections: Pressure Mounts for Entire Chavez Clan - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is facing yet another battle for power in gubernatorial elections. Even in his home state, a growing number of people are getting tired of the president and the Chavez clan.

When Doña Elena Frías de Chavez goes to church, she is accompanied by seven bodyguards and driven in a small convoy of three armored Ford SUVs. It is shortly after seven, and the mass has just begun in the church of Cristo Rey in Barinas, a city of 270,000 people on the hot plains of western Venezuela. The mother of the Venezuelan president takes a seat in the second row. She is wearing a turquoise blouse and sunglasses, and her hair is dyed blonde.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez comes from a devout family. Doña Elena used to walk to mass at her church, which was only two blocks from her old house. But now she and her husband live in an enormous mansion in a well-to-do section of Barinas.

A Climate Gift for Future Generations: Ecuador Seeks to Sell Rainforest - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Ecuador is the first country in the world to announce plans to leave the oil reserves beneath its rainforests in the ground. The country wants foreign businesses, including German companies, to compensate it for making this sacrifice.

There are as many different types of wood growing on each hectare in the Yasuni rainforest in the northwestern Amazon as there are species in all of North America. Even rare species of animals, like the mountain tapir and the brown-headed spider monkey, exist in the region. This paradise is also home to a number of native tribes now living in complete isolation from the outside world.

There is more biological diversity in the Yasuni rainforest than almost anywhere else in the world. The virgin forest is protected by its status as a national park and UNESCO biosphere reserve, but for how much longer? Several oil companies are pressuring the government in the Ecuadoran capital of Quito to finally issue drilling licenses for the biosphere.

Is it Too Late for Afghanistan?

James Joyner | November 18, 2008

During his address this evening to the Atlantic Council, ISAF commander General David McKiernan emphasized the many positive trends in Afghanistan, noting that he preferred a "Glass Half Full" view.  At the same time, he emphasized that Afghanistan is in the middle of a war -- not a peacekeeping, stability, or human assistance operation.  Afghanistan is not Iraq and faces a myriad of complex challenges, including a near total lack of human capital, a population that has mostly faced a lifetime of violence, and a tribal relationship almost impenetrable to outsiders.
Most interestingly, he defined -- for the first time I've seen from anyone close to his level of responsibility and seniority -- the answer to a seemingly simple question:  What is winning?   He did it, not from a U.S. or Coalition strategic perspective, though, but from that of the average Afghan:

• A sense of security at home and for the country
  
• Trusts government and is willing to defend it
  
• Expects economic and social progress

This, he acknowledges, is mostly a political problem which will require a regional approach.  One thing's for sure, McKiernan assured us:  "We're not going to run out of bad guys."

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Beaujolais nouveau hit by poor harvest - Telegraph

This year's batch of Beaujolais nouveau goes on sale across the world today - but poor harvests could make it harder to get your hands on a bottle.

The first cases of the simple, some would say bland, French red wine are traditionally delivered on the third Thursday in November.

Due to their time zone, Japanese wine buffs will be the first to raise their glasses of the drink, which is made from Gamay grapes in Beaujeu, Burgundy.

But the region's producers have suffered their worst harvest since 1975, meaning that only a few hundred thousand bottles have been shipped to the UK.

"Bad weather in August affected a quarter of our vines, and some producers lost all of theirs," said Dominique Capart of the trade group Inter Beaujolais.

Gartner: 85 percent of companies using open source | Tech News on ZDNet

Eighty-five percent of companies are already using open-source software, with most of the remaining 15 percent expecting to do so within the next year, according to analysts at Gartner.

However, only 31 percent of companies surveyed by the analyst house had formal policies for evaluating and procuring open-source software (OSS). Gartner conducted its survey of 274 end-user organizations across the Asia/Pacific, Europe and North American markets in May and June, and announced the results on Monday.

Respondents to the survey consistently pointed to cost as a prime motivator for their adoption of open source, with some also suggesting OSS provided some protection against single-vendor lock-in. Other reasons for adoption included fast time to market and the avoidance of complex procurement rules and procedures, Gartner said.

However, according to Gartner, a lack of formal policies could open companies up to intellectual-property violations. The analyst house's survey put governance issues at the top of the list for barriers to OSS adoption.

"Just because something is free doesn't mean that it has no cost," said Gartner research director Laurie Wurster in a statement. "Companies must have a policy for procuring OSS, deciding which applications will be supported by OSS, and identifying the intellectual property risk or supportability risk associated with using OSS. Once a policy is in place, then there must be a governance process to enforce it."

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

Introducing : The Monty Python Channel

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char

World Publics Strongly Favor Requiring More Wind and Solar Energy, More Efficiency, Even If It Increases Costs
Most Think It Will Save Money in the Long Run

A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 21 nations finds very strong support for the government requiring utilities to use more alternative energy, such as wind and solar, and requiring businesses to use energy more efficiently, even if these steps increase the costs of energy and other products. Fewer than half of the nations polled favor putting more emphasis on nuclear energy or on coal or oil.

In all nations most people reject the view that shifting to alternative energy sources would hurt the economy, believing instead that it would save money in the long run.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

but it's in the WSJ...

Before the Bust, These CEOs Took Money Off the Table

The credit bubble has burst. The economy is tanking. Investors in the U.S. stock market have lost more than $9 trillion since its peak a year ago.

But in industries at the center of the crisis, plenty of top officials managed to emerge with substantial fortunes.

Fifteen corporate chieftains of large home-building and financial-services firms each reaped more than $100 million in cash compensation and proceeds from stock sales during the past five years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Four of those executives, including the heads of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos., ran companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection or seen their share prices fall more than 90% from their peak.

The study, which examined filings at 120 public companies in such sectors as banking, mortgage finance, student lending, stock brokerage and home building, showed that top executives and directors of the firms cashed out a total of more than $21 billion during the period.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

EU urges action to exploit Arctic oil and gas
By Tony Barber in Brussels

European Union policymakers called for a carefully managed international effort to exploit the Arctic's oil and gas resources and said that its vast untapped reserves could enhance Europe's energy security.

The European Commission demanded observance of the highest environmental standards and appealed for full protection of the rights of indigenous Arctic people.

The Commission's initiative reflected concern about the risk of sharp rivalries among global powers in a region that is not governed by a specific international treaty regime and where no single country has sovereignty over the North Pole or the ocean around it.

According to the US Geological Survey, the Arctic accounts for about 22 per cent of the world's undiscovered, technically recoverable resources, including 30 per cent of natural gas and 13 per cent of oil.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Apple's Greatest Idea Yet

There is an Apple (AAPL) story that I don't want you to miss. It's bigger than the Mac, it's bigger than the iPod, and it's bigger than the iPhone. Steve Jobs briefly mentioned it in the quarterly conference call and it deserves repeating, "We've never seen anything like this in our careers".

Of course, I'm talking about the App Store. This store is causing a sea change in both the mobile phone industry and the gaming industry that threatens the viability of all competitors.

(...)

Apple has brought the Internet to the next level. That level that everyone expected during the tech bubble has arrived. The efficiency of distribution is impossible for the traditional model to compete with. Consumers are eating this thing up. During a quarter in which consumers supposedly quit spending, Apple grew real revenue by 54.5% and grew net income by a staggering 81.2%. That kind of growth is absurd for a company as mature as Apple. That kind of growth is absurd during an economic collapse. But it happened. And it's just beginning. The $199 price tag on the iPhone was a brilliant move by Apple as it allows them to fly below the radar of the economic downturn.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup

November 20 (Gloomberg) -- The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.

The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said.  ``You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to offer the shareholders anything," said Ali.

The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities.  The PRBS's are backed by the cash flows from future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden.  Moody's and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS's.

Head pirate, Ubu Kalid Shandu, said "we need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money.  Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets has allowed us to purchase Citigroup at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster."

Shandu added, "We don't call ourselves pirates. We are coastguards and this will just allow us to guard our coasts better."

(by email)

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes