Scott Monty’s personal brand doesn’t take a back seat to anyone else’s — not even that of Ford Motor Co., his employer. “I’m not somebody who can be accused of using Ford’s brand to benefit my own,” says Monty, the car giant’s first global digital and multimedia communications manager. “If anything, the opposite is true.”Infosys Technologies
International Business Machines
Inventec
Kddi
Kla-tencor
Choosing either ETF options or index options can make the difference between big profits or a big bust.
Fiserv
First Solar
Finisar
Fei Company
Fairchild Semiconductor International
A 2 or 4 degree centigrade increase in average global temperature sounds small, but it will have enormous impacts on the earth?s climate and life in general.
This page has been updated to include an interactive map from the UK?s Met Office that illustrates this. Also added are more charts and graphs and videos looking at past emissions and temperatures, projected future changes, and the impact to the arctic.
Read full article: Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction
Arian Semiconductor Equipment
Arrow Electronics
Asml Holding
Asustek Computer
At&t
For years, many have argued that our current economic system does not fully capture the cost of the environment. The price signal, for example, should be an indicator of resource scarcity or other environmental concerns, but often does not capture the full costs. (Current climate change is perhaps a clear indication of this.)
As a result, we continue efficiently producing products and services that have a negative impact on the environment in some way (which is inefficient, on the whole, in the long run).
For those who fear excessive government regulation, a truer accounting of such costs could allow markets to more naturally price goods and services, and highlight seemingly efficient companies and industries as inefficient, forcing change through markets, rather than regulation, which market proponents always fear. (The irony may be that to see such a change in our economic systems may require political leadership by governments and citizens ? although that is how national and global market systems came into being in the first place.)
The biodiversity page has been updated to explain this further.
Read full article: Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?
World military spending in 2008 topped $1.4 trillion. Military spending has been on the rise since the late 1990s.
Using 2005 constant prices (where the spending for 2008 would be equivalent to just over $1.2 trillion), a comparison of previous years can be seen:
This page has been updated with various new and updated charts, as well as further discussion on peace spending vs. military spending and US military spending debates about pegging it to GDP or not.
Read full article: World Military Spending
Rf Micro Devices
Red Hat
Radisys
Rackable Systems
Quest Software
For a number of years, there have been concerns that climate change negotiations will essentially ignore a key principle of climate change negotiation frameworks: the common but differentiated responsibilities. This recognizes that historically:
Industrialized nations have emitted far more greenhouse gas emissions than developing nations (even if some developing nations are only now increasing theirs) enabling a cheaper path to industrialization;
Rich countries therefore face the biggest responsibility and burden for action to address climate change; and
Rich countries therefore must support developing nations adapt to avoid the polluting (i.e. easier and cheaper) path to development?through financing and technology transfer, for example.
This notion of climate justice is typically ignored by many rich nations and their mainstream media, making it easy to blame China, India and other developing countries for failures in climate change mitigation negotiations.
Development expert, Martin Khor, calculated that taking historical emissions into account, the rich countries owe a carbon debt, because they have already used up what would be considered their fair quota of emissions between 1800 and 2008 and while they will emit less up to 2050, they will still be way over their fair share:
However, rather than continue down the path of unequal development, industrialized nations can help pay off their carbon debt by truly helping emerging countries develop along a cleaner path, such as through the promised-but-barely-delivered technology transfer, finance, and capacity building.
In this update, additional videos, including from Martin Khor, as well as additional charts similar to above, have been added to explore this further.
Read full article: Climate Justice and Equity
Epicor Software
Emulex
Ems Technologies
Emc
Electronics For Imaging
For a number of years, there have been concerns that climate change negotiations will essentially ignore a key principle of climate change negotiation frameworks: the common but differentiated responsibilities. This recognizes that historically:
Industrialized nations have emitted far more greenhouse gas emissions than developing nations (even if some developing nations are only now increasing theirs) enabling a cheaper path to industrialization;
Rich countries therefore face the biggest responsibility and burden for action to address climate change; and
Rich countries therefore must support developing nations adapt to avoid the polluting (i.e. easier and cheaper) path to development?through financing and technology transfer, for example.
This notion of climate justice is typically ignored by many rich nations and their mainstream media, making it easy to blame China, India and other developing countries for failures in climate change mitigation negotiations.
Development expert, Martin Khor, calculated that taking historical emissions into account, the rich countries owe a carbon debt, because they have already used up what would be considered their fair quota of emissions between 1800 and 2008 and while they will emit less up to 2050, they will still be way over their fair share:
However, rather than continue down the path of unequal development, industrialized nations can help pay off their carbon debt by truly helping emerging countries develop along a cleaner path, such as through the promised-but-barely-delivered technology transfer, finance, and capacity building.
In this update, additional videos, including from Martin Khor, as well as additional charts similar to above, have been added to explore this further.
Read full article: Climate Justice and Equity
Lam Research
Liberty Global
Lm Ericsson
Logitech International
Memc Electronic Materials
This morning, Bank of America downgraded shares of OpenTable (OPEN) from buy to neutral citing valuation. The stock has gained more than 75% year to date and could use a breather.Microsemi
Micros Systems
Micron Technology
Microchip Technology
Methode Electronics
Sadly, diabetes is quickly becoming a global epidemic. Nearly 300 million people suffer from the disease worldwide.
Veeco Instruments
Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates
United Online
Unisys
Triquint Semiconductor
After the bell yesterday, Valero Energy (VLO) declared its quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share, maintaining the amount paid to shareholders last quarter. Based on the current stock price, investors can expect a yield of about 1.Compal Electronics
Cosmote Mobile Telecom.
D-link
Digital China Holdings
Directv Group
Over 25,000 children die every day around the world. That is equivalent to: 1 child dying every 3.5 seconds or 17-18 children dying every minute. It is like a 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring almost every 1.5 weeks, or an Iraq-scale death toll every 16?38 days. It means over 9 million children dying every year. For latest figures available, some 70 million children died between 2000 and 2007. The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. Although the number of children dying each year is being reduced (some half a million less deaths in 2007 than 2006, for example), the rate of reduction is slow. Furthermore, it is feared that the global financial crisis will undo some of that annual reduction, with an extra 200,000 to 400,000 children dying from the knock-on effects of the economic downturn. And yet, despite the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage. This update includes updated numbers, charts and graphs.Shaw Communications
Siemens Zoran
Zions Ban
Yahoo!
A 2 or 4 degree centigrade increase in average global temperature sounds small, but it will have enormous impacts on the earth?s climate and life in general.
This page has been updated to include an interactive map from the UK?s Met Office that illustrates this. Also added are more charts and graphs and videos looking at past emissions and temperatures, projected future changes, and the impact to the arctic.
Read full article: Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction
Acer
Adobe Systems
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering
Alliance Data Systems
Alltel
Of all the stocks to short, why do people want to short Apple?
Hypercom
Hewlett Packard Co
Heartland Payment Systems
Google
Google
Don’t hold your breath for big-in-Europe music site Spotify to work in the U.S. any time soon. Negotiations with the music labels are “back to square one,” Billboard reports, via MediaMemo.Join the conversation about this story »
Drugmaker Merck on Friday reported a 52% drop in second-quarter net income, due to big merger and restructuring charges and lower income from …
Xilinx
Western Digital
Volt Information Sciences
Vishay Intertechnology
Virgin Media
Here’s something interesting to note about the language of politics, courtesy of a POLITICO feature on Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to save the Democratic majority:
The massive health care overhaul has morphed into a “patients’ bill of rights;” Wall Street reform is “consumer protection.”
“Nobody wants you to go out there and talk about legislation; they want to talk about the impact it has on them,” Pelosi said. “As Tip O’Neill says, ‘All politics is local.’ I always say, ‘All politics is personal.’”
In other words, the whole cracking down on Wall Street — an issue that you would have guessed to be a winner a year ago — now doesn’t resonate. Or at least you can’t campaign on it.
This helps explain why the (potential) nomination of Elizabeth Warren has become the hot-button post Dodd-Frank topic. The establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is the key slice of the bill that might actually affect the day-to-day lives of voters (at least voters who aren’t prop traders are too big to fail banks).
Of course, Pelosi has her work cut out for her.
The latest InTrade odds give the GOP a clear edge on taking over the house.
Join the conversation about this story »See Also:What Is It About Elizabeth Warren That Makes People Freak Out?Suddenly, The Obama Administration Loves Elizabeth Warren For The Consumer Financial Protection AgencyIf Obama Doesn’t Nominate Elizabeth Warren, He’s Going To Infuriate His Base
Transaction Systems Architects
Total System Services
Tns
Tibco Software
Tibco Software
Shares of drug development tumble after earnings release.Memc Electronic Materials
Microsoft
Millicom Intl. Cellular
Mobile Telesystems
Nanya Technology
A number of global forums have taken place to address various aspects of the global financial crisis, from immediate measures to discussion on long-term reforms and changes. However, it appears that rich nations are blocking meaningful reform and resisting calls from developing countries for fundamental changes that would democratize the international order and give more voice to developing countries to have a say in their own economic affairs. This update includes a description of this in further detail.Microsemi
Micros Systems
Micron Technology
Microchip Technology
Methode Electronics
Even though crashes, corrections and capitulations are bad news for investors holding the stock, there are still ways to profit.
Interdigital Communications
Intel
Insight Enterprises
Ingram Micro
Informatica
Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play. For example, a larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops; greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters. This update includes additional illustrations and notes on these aspects, including an illustration of the nitrogen cycle and updates on the declining bee population and their importance to agriculture.Electronic Data Systems
Electronic Arts
Eclipsys
Eastman Kodak Co
Earthlink
This evening the SEC announced a massive fraud charge against Dallas-based investors The Wyly brothers.
As Paul Murphy at FT Alphaville notes, the charge — which pertains to activity taking place over 13 years, worth $550 million — makes Rajaratnam and Martha Stewart look like small potatoes.
The gist of the allegations: The brothers Wyly (Samuel and Charles J.) used their various board seats and a network of offshore accounts to trade and conceal their holdings.
Here’s the press release:
—–
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged brothers Samuel E. Wyly and Charles J. Wyly, Jr. of Dallas with violating federal securities laws governing ownership and trading of securities by corporate insiders. The Wyly brothers reaped more than $550 million in undisclosed gains while sitting on corporate boards by trading stock in those public companies through hidden entities located in foreign jurisdictions to conceal their ownership and trading of those securities.
The SEC alleges that the brothers created an elaborate sham system of trusts and subsidiary companies in the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands to sell more than $750 million worth of stock in four public companies for which they were corporate directors. They also committed an insider trading violation in one of the companies for an unlawful gain of more than $31.7 million.
Along with the Wylys, the SEC charged their attorney Michael C. French of Dallas and their stockbroker Louis J. Schaufele III of Dallas for their roles in the fraudulent scheme. French was on the board of directors at three of the companies.
“The cloak of secrecy has been lifted from the complex web of foreign structures used by the Wylys to evade the securities laws,” said Lorin L. Reisner, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “They used these structures to conceal hundreds of millions of dollars of gains in violation of the disclosure requirements for corporate insiders.”
According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the public companies the Wylys used in the scheme were Michaels Stores Inc., Sterling Software Inc., Sterling Commerce Inc., and Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings Ltd. (now known as Scottish Re Group Limited).
The SEC’s complaint alleges that the Wylys and French knew or were reckless in not knowing their legal obligations as public company directors and greater-than-five-percent beneficial owners. The laws require such persons to report holdings and trading in their companies’ securities on Schedule 13D and Form 4, which are filed with the SEC. The Wylys and French also knew or were reckless in not knowing that the investing public routinely uses such disclosures to gauge the sentiment of public companies’ insiders and large shareholders about the financial condition and prospects of those companies, relying on those disclosures when making investment decisions.
The SEC alleges that the Wylys and French systematically and falsely created the impression that the Wylys’ entire holdings and trading were limited to the fraction that they held and traded domestically. By depriving existing shareholders and potential investors of information deemed material by the federal securities laws, the Wylys were able to sell — in large-block trades alone — more than 14 million shares of issuer securities over a period of 13 years for undisclosed gains in excess of $550 million. The SEC further alleges that the sales generating most of these illicit gains were made pursuant to materially false or misleading SEC filings.
According to the SEC’s complaint, the Wylys exploited their illegal non-disclosure of their offshore issuer securities to make a massive and bullish transaction in Sterling Software in October 1999 based upon the material and non-public information that they — while serving as the company chairman and vice chairman — had jointly decided to sell the company. This insider trading yielded ill-gotten gains of more than $31.7 million when Sterling Software’s sale was ultimately announced to the public less than four months later.
The SEC alleges that the Wylys and French made hundreds of false and materially misleading statements to conceal their scheme. Schaufele also made materially misleading statements to brokerage firm intermediaries. The SEC alleges that the Wylys and French established and operated an offshore “Wyly family office” in the Cayman Islands as a conduit and repository for communications and records they wished to conceal. They allocated the Wylys’ offshore holdings among various offshore entities that were often newly created and all under the control of the Wylys in an effort to avoid making required SEC filings.
The SEC’s complaint charges that all four defendants violated, and that French and Schaufele also aided and abetted the Wylys’ violations of, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The complaint further charges the Wylys and French with violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 as well as Exchange Act Sections 13(d), 14(a) and 16(a) and Rules 13d-1 13d-2, 14a-3, 14a-9, 16a-2 and 16a-3 thereunder. The complaint further charges the Wylys with violations of Securities Act Sections 5(a) and 5(c); and charges the Wylys and French with aiding and abetting violations of Exchange Act Sections 13(a) and 14(a) and Rules 13a-1, 14a-3 and 14a-9 thereunder as well as violations of Exchange Act Section 13(d) and Rules 13d-1 and 13d-2 thereunder. The complaint charges French with aiding and abetting the Wylys’ violations of Exchange Act Sections 13(d), 14(a) and 16(a) and Rules 13d-1, 13d-2, 14a-3 and 14a-9 thereunder. The SEC seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest, financial penalties, and officer-and-director bars against the Wylys and French.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Martin L. Zerwitz and J. Lee Buck, II in the Division of Enforcement. The SEC acknowledges the assistance of the Isle of Man Attorney General’s Office, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority and the New York County District Attorney’s Office.
# # #
For more information about this enforcement action, contact:
Lorin L. Reisner Deputy Director, SEC Division of Enforcement (202) 551-4787
Cheryl J. Scarboro Associate Director, SEC Division of Enforcement (202) 551-4403
J. Lee Buck, II Assistant Director, SEC Division of Enforcement (202) 551-4598Join the conversation about this story »
Kla-tencor
Koninklijke Kpn
Lam Research
Liberty Global
Lm Ericsson
The old adage about it being a recession if your neighbor is out of work and a depression if you are out of work is, I think, particularly apt these days. The jobless are in agony, and the large businesses are laughing all the way to the bank.
A study recently covered in The New York Times claims that the “intervention” efforts (stimulus, Wall Street’s bailout, the Fed’s asset purchases) helped us avoid entering a second Great Depression.
If we hadn’t done all those things, the article claims, “…the nation’s gross domestic product would be about 6.5 percent lower this year. In addition, there would be about 8.5 million fewer jobs, on top of the more than 8 million already lost; and the economy would be experiencing deflation, instead of low inflation.”
Sounds like we did good!
Except, the problem is that American big business has found an ingenious loophole, as it always does: the Man has discovered he can thrive, even without doing his part to get America back to work.
So the workers have been fired, and the companies continue to churn out record profits. Every day, we get a bit closer to becoming a third-world banana republic, where shareholders make tidy returns and workers are, well, out of work… A whole segment of our once productive population has been reduced to playing Halo and attending Tea Party protests on weekdays.
An America without an employed middle-class might be a drastically different place. An uncomfortable place.
For now, it’s good news for the companies, even if the American consumer is getting beaten down and ignored: big business has found new markets, such as China, where goods can be sold.
Luckily I am not the only person who realizes this is happening. The Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson recently wrote in his column: “Ain’t no hiring. And ain’t likely to be any for a good long time. The problem isn’t merely the greatest downturn since the Great Depression. It’s also that big business has found a way to make big money without restoring the jobs it cut the past two years, or increasing its investments or even its sales, at least domestically.
In the mildly halcyon days before the 2008 crash, the one economic outlier was wages. Profit, revenue and GDP all increased; only ordinary Americans’ incomes lagged behind. Today, wages are still down, employment remains low and sales revenue isn’t up much, either. But profits are the outlier. They’re positively soaring.
Among the 175 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index that have released their second-quarter reports, the New York Times reported Sunday, revenue rose by a tidy 6.9 percent, but profits soared by a stunning 42.3 percent. Profits, that is, are increasing seven times faster than revenue. The mind, as it should, boggles.”
Eventually, this may all come back to bite corporate America’s manhood off, as it will be responsible for wiping out one of its largest consumer bases. The Chinese won’t buy our stuff forever. But for now, business is good.Join the conversation about this story »
United Online
Unisys
Triquint Semiconductor
Trimble Navigation Limited
Trident Microsystems
Term of the Day for Monday, July 26, 2010
Memc Electronic Materials
Microsoft
Millicom Intl. Cellular
Mobile Telesystems
Nanya Technology
