Business

Responding to corporate crime

October 31, 2011
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According to this article in the Hankyoreh, the Fair Trade Commission of Korea recently fined 10 corporations in Korea and Taiwan, including Samsung and LG, a total of $176 million for conspiring to fix prices and delivery quantities. The conspiracy was conducted by firms that control 80% of the global LCD market. The group of firms conspired to set the timings of product price increases and price differences.  This is of course just the latest (and by no means the most egregious) example of corporations seeking to maximize profits at the public’s expense. Ignoring these abuses only guarantees that they…

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50% debt cut for Greece?

October 31, 2011
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Reading German newspapers theses days, one of the most prominent headline reads “50% debt cut for Greece settled.” The headline refers to the latest meeting of the EU member head of states, who supposedly settled for a 50% debt relief for Greece and most notably with “substantial participation” of the private banking sector holding Greek government bonds. Why then did stock prices of these institutions surge upwards shortly after the 50% cut publication?  Here’s why: What was settled for is by no means a real 50% debt cut and was even less settled with the “substantial participation of the private banking sector.”…

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Hedge funds buying African farmland

October 31, 2011
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Starving? Not able to live off your land? Well here’s the solution: just sell it to a hedge fund! No time to worry about your family’s future when there are much more urgent problems to deal with! Economically this makes perfect sense–buy cheap farming land now and sell it when farming land becomes the next scarce resource:  Over 148 million acres of farmland in Africa have been purchased by Western hedge funds in the last three years. Western hedge funds have begun buying up vast parcels of land all over Africa. According to a series of new reports by the Oakland…

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Dylan Ratigan’s rant

October 21, 2011
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No further introduction needed, just watch this: Similarly entertaining: How did this guy ever pass under my radar? Here we go with Ratigan vs. Glenn Beck:

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Citigroup’s growing responsibility

October 20, 2011
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This comes from the Washington Post: Federal regulators charged a Citigroup unit with negligence Wednesday, saying it sold a $1 billion investment product tied to the weakening housing market in 2007 without telling investors it was using the instrument to bet against them. Citigroup agreed to pay a settlement of $285 million, which will be distributed to investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Under the settlement, which is subject to court approval, Citigroup neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing…. Investors “lost several hundred million dollars,” the SEC said. An agency spokesman would not be more specific. Citigroup reaped fees and trading profits of “at…

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