by Saifulbahri Ismail
04:47 AM Oct 27, 2011
SINGAPORE - Despite the new salary criteria that will kick in next year, companies Channel NewsAsia spoke to said they are likely to retain skilled, professional foreign workers.
They said Employment Pass (E-Pass) holders who have undergone training will be an asset to the company, even though these workers would cost more with the higher qualifying salaries next year.
Mr Lawrence Leow, president of the Association of Small & Medium Enterprises, said: "Companies will likely continue to renew their existing E-Pass holders because they are well-trained and I don't think they want to lose them."
The tighter E-Pass rules are aimed at ensuring that local workers are not disadvantaged compared with a foreign worker who may be cheaper to employ. About 30,000 E-Pass holders are likely to be affected by the changes when their passes are up for renewal.
Despite the authorities' efforts to level the playing field, employers said they still have problems placing local workers in some jobs.
Mr Leow said: "Singaporean workers are not going to be (paid) anything lower than foreign workers even with the increase (in qualifying salaries). In my view, it's not likely to happen. The foreigner will continue to be a substitute to the Singaporean workforce and not the other way round."
Industry players said companies are not rushing to bring forward the recruitment of E-Pass holders before the new rulings take effect.
This is despite wage costs going up, possibly by as much as 3 to 4 per cent, according to some businesses.
But some employers may try to circumvent the new rulings - by switching E-Pass holders to an S-Pass, which has a lower salary requirement.
"Let's say they're not worth S$3,000 (minimum salary for the lowest rung of E-Passes), and we can't pay, maybe we can change them from an E-Pass to S-Pass," said Ms Dora Hoan, group CEO of Best World International.
Mr Ronald Lee, managing director of Primestaff Management Services, said: "This is a loophole ... where organisations then may save some money. However, there's a need to note that for S-Pass there is a 25 per cent dependency ratio, which means that the company needs to have at least three locals to hire one S-Pass and also there is an annual levy payable for S-Pass."
The Government has said that the changes to the E-Pass salaries will not be the last round of adjustments. As local salaries move up, requirements for E-Pass holders will be tightened further.
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111027-0000185/Firms-to-keep-E-Pass-holders-despite-new-salary-criteria
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
What are Singaporeans happiest about?
by Channel NewsAsia
01:08 PM Oct 25, 2011
Just being in Singapore tops happiness survey; lack of savings was biggest bugbear
SINGAPORE - Singaporeans have rated their personal savings as the area in which they are most unhappy with, according to a study titled The Happiness Report.
Conducted by Grey Group, a global communications firm, the study was designed to monitor national sentiments on issues that impact consumer behaviour. Conducted in June this year, with 200 respondents aged 18 to over 60, results showed that nearly half of the respondents reported a lack of sufficient savings over the last six months.
Other areas in which respondents voiced their unhappiness with over the last half year were personal expenditure (40.5 per cent), confidence in the economy (27 per cent), job satisfaction (23 per cent), and work-life balance (21 per cent).
The study also revealed the top five things that Singaporeans were happiest about. Top of the list was "area of residence", with 78 per cent saying Singapore was the best place to stay in the world.
Close family ties ranked second, spirituality came in third, while social support networks took fourth spot. Personal time rounded off the top five on the happiness index.
The study also discovered that baby boomers - those aged between 45 and 49 - were the happiest people with an overall net happiness score of 11.4 per cent, 4.6 percentage points higher than the young adult segment, those aged between 18 and 29.
In addition, it also found that men were happier than women at the workplace, with 46.08 per cent of men found to be happy at their jobs compared to 37.75 per cent for women.
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111025-0000377/What-are-Singaporeans-happiest-about
01:08 PM Oct 25, 2011
Just being in Singapore tops happiness survey; lack of savings was biggest bugbear
SINGAPORE - Singaporeans have rated their personal savings as the area in which they are most unhappy with, according to a study titled The Happiness Report.
Conducted by Grey Group, a global communications firm, the study was designed to monitor national sentiments on issues that impact consumer behaviour. Conducted in June this year, with 200 respondents aged 18 to over 60, results showed that nearly half of the respondents reported a lack of sufficient savings over the last six months.
Other areas in which respondents voiced their unhappiness with over the last half year were personal expenditure (40.5 per cent), confidence in the economy (27 per cent), job satisfaction (23 per cent), and work-life balance (21 per cent).
The study also revealed the top five things that Singaporeans were happiest about. Top of the list was "area of residence", with 78 per cent saying Singapore was the best place to stay in the world.
Close family ties ranked second, spirituality came in third, while social support networks took fourth spot. Personal time rounded off the top five on the happiness index.
The study also discovered that baby boomers - those aged between 45 and 49 - were the happiest people with an overall net happiness score of 11.4 per cent, 4.6 percentage points higher than the young adult segment, those aged between 18 and 29.
In addition, it also found that men were happier than women at the workplace, with 46.08 per cent of men found to be happy at their jobs compared to 37.75 per cent for women.
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111025-0000377/What-are-Singaporeans-happiest-about
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Apple’s Lower Prices Are All Part of the Plan
By NICK WINGFIELD
Published: October 23, 2011
Producing objects of desire without a price premium over competitors has proven a winning combination
Apple uses its growing manufacturing scale and logistics prowess to deliver products like its iPhone 4S at aggressive prices.
Something unexpected has happened at Apple, once known as the tech industry’s high-price leader. Over the last several years it began beating rivals on price.
People who wanted the latest Apple smartphone, the iPhone 4S, were able to get one the day it went on sale if they were willing to wait in a line, spend at least $199 and commit to a two-year wireless service contract with a carrier.
Or they could have skipped the lines and bought one of the latest iPhone rivals from an Apple competitor, as long as they were willing to dig deeper into their wallets. For $300 and a two-year contract, gadget lovers could have picked up Motorola’s Droid Bionic from Verizon Wireless, or they could bought the $230 Samsung Galaxy SII and $260 HTC Amaze 4G, both from T-Mobile, under the same terms.
Apple’s new pricing strategy is a big change from the 1990s, when consumers regarded Apple as a producer of overpriced tech baubles, unable to compete effectively with its Macintosh family of computers against the far cheaper Windows PCs. But more recently, it began using its growing manufacturing scale and logistics prowess to deliver Apple products at far more aggressive prices, which in turn gave it more power to influence pricing industrywide.
Apple’s innovations — including products like the iPhone, iPad and the ultrathin MacBook Air notebook — are justifiably credited for their role in the company’s resurgence under its chief executive and co-founder, Steven P. Jobs, who died on Oct. 5. But analysts and industry executives say Apple’s pricing is an overlooked part of its ability to find a large audience for those products beyond hard-core Apple fans. Apple sold more than four million iPhone 4S smartphone over its debut weekend.
People can still easily find less expensive alternatives, with less distinctive and refined designs, to most Apple products. Within the premium product categories where Apple is most at home though, comparable devices often do no better than match or slightly undercut Apple’s prices. “They’re not cheap, but I don’t think they’re viewed as high-priced anymore,” said Stewart Alsop, a longtime venture capitalist in San Francisco.
Apple declined to comment for this article.
Apple is using its scale and prowess to deliver products at more aggressive prices, giving it more power to set prices for the industry. THE NEW YORK TIMES
Prices in the ultrathin notebook category are an illustration of Apple’s strategy. While there are much cheaper laptops for sale, ranging all the way down to bargain-basement netbooks that cost a few hundred dollars, Apple’s MacBook Air has become a hit among computer users seeking the thinnest and lightest notebooks available. The product starts at $999 for a model with an 11-inch screen.
On Oct. 11, the Taiwanese computer maker Asus introduced its answer to the MacBook Air, a sleek device that uses Windows. But it was unable to undercut Apple; the Asus computer also starts at $999. Samsung’s wafer-thin Series 9 notebook, with comparable features, costs $1,049.
The computer maker Acer, however, began undercutting the cheapest MacBook Air this month with an $899 ultrathin notebook, the Aspire S series, that has a bigger screen.
The original MacBook Air catered to a more rarefied audience when it came out in early 2008, priced at a whopping $1,799 for a model with a 13-inch screen. A year ago Apple revamped the notebook to make it thinner and smaller and reduced its entry-level prices to $999 and $1,299 for models with 11-inch and 13-inch screens. Jean-Louis Gassée, a venture capitalist and former Apple executive, said there was a “collective gasp” at how low Apple priced the new MacBook Air.
The aggressive pricing, analysts say, reflects Apple’s ability to use its growing manufacturing scale to push down costs for the crucial parts that make up its devices. Apple has also shown a willingness to tap into its huge war chest — $82 billion in cash and marketable securities last quarter — to take big gambles by locking up supplies of parts for years, as it did in 2005 when it struck a five-year, $1.25 billion deal with manufacturers to secure flash memory chips for its iPods and other devices.
By buying up manufacturing capacity ahead of time, Apple forces its competitors to scramble for the parts that are still available, raising costs for their products, analysts say. Apple is the biggest buyer of flash memory chips in the world, according to the research firm iSuppli.
Mr. Gassée said Apple’s pricing decision on the MacBook Air made it clear that Apple’s management of its supply chain had become a “strategic weapon.”
Another example of that was Apple’s decision to price the entry-level iPad at $499 when it was introduced early last year, hundreds of dollars lower than many analysts expected. “I think everyone was stunned at the cost of the iPad,” said John Gallaugher, an associate professor of information systems at Boston College. “It was a very competitively priced device.”
For a time, Apple’s biggest competitors were unable to go below the iPad’s price with their own tablets. When Motorola Mobility Holding’s Xoom tablet hit the market in February, the cheapest model available without a wireless service contract was $800. Motorola later released an entry-level model with more storage than the least expensive iPad, priced at $599.
After lackluster sales, Apple’s major competitors are now finally undercutting the iPad on price, though it is not clear how sustainable that approach is. Motorola recently announced a plan to offer an entry-level Xoom tablet for $379 at Best Buy stores for a limited time. After Hewlett-Packard, having missed sales goals, announced plans to discontinue its TouchPad line of tablets, it dropped the price of its cheapest model to a fire-sale $99.
The most credible challenge to the iPad is likely to come from Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet, which goes on sale in November. While analysts say they believe Amazon will lose money on each device sold, the Internet retailer’s plan is to use the device to encourage purchases of other Amazon products and services, like e-books. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said the price of the iPad reflected a “mind-set change” at Apple after the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, which started at $499. That was an eye-popping sum for a phone in markets like the United States, where people had become accustomed to getting lower-price, carrier-subsidized phones in exchange for committing to long wireless contracts.
Only a few months after the product went on sale, Apple cut $200 off the price of the high-end model of the iPhone, to $399. Apple shifted gears again in 2008 with a new model called the iPhone 3G that it priced at $199, after beginning to accept handset subsidies from its carrier partners, something it did not do with its first version of the phone. Carriers pay Apple more for the latest iPhones — around $600 each, analysts estimate — aiming to profit by locking consumers into wireless plans.
Mr. Sacconaghi said Apple’s pricing of the original iPhone and its exclusive distribution deal with AT&T in the United States at the time created an opening for Google and its handset partners to flood the market with phones running its Android operating system.
While Apple’s iPhone business is thriving, Android handsets accounted for 43.4 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in the second quarter, compared with 18.2 percent for Apple, the research firm Gartner estimates.
Many carriers now offer older Android handsets that cost customers nothing if they sign up for two-year contracts. And now even Apple is getting into that act: when it announced its latest iPhone model this month, it said its two-year-old iPhone 3GS would be free with a two-year contract.
Via: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/technology/apples-lower-prices-are-all-part-of-the-plan.html?pagewanted=all
Published: October 23, 2011
Producing objects of desire without a price premium over competitors has proven a winning combination
Apple uses its growing manufacturing scale and logistics prowess to deliver products like its iPhone 4S at aggressive prices.Something unexpected has happened at Apple, once known as the tech industry’s high-price leader. Over the last several years it began beating rivals on price.
People who wanted the latest Apple smartphone, the iPhone 4S, were able to get one the day it went on sale if they were willing to wait in a line, spend at least $199 and commit to a two-year wireless service contract with a carrier.
Or they could have skipped the lines and bought one of the latest iPhone rivals from an Apple competitor, as long as they were willing to dig deeper into their wallets. For $300 and a two-year contract, gadget lovers could have picked up Motorola’s Droid Bionic from Verizon Wireless, or they could bought the $230 Samsung Galaxy SII and $260 HTC Amaze 4G, both from T-Mobile, under the same terms.
Apple’s new pricing strategy is a big change from the 1990s, when consumers regarded Apple as a producer of overpriced tech baubles, unable to compete effectively with its Macintosh family of computers against the far cheaper Windows PCs. But more recently, it began using its growing manufacturing scale and logistics prowess to deliver Apple products at far more aggressive prices, which in turn gave it more power to influence pricing industrywide.
Apple’s innovations — including products like the iPhone, iPad and the ultrathin MacBook Air notebook — are justifiably credited for their role in the company’s resurgence under its chief executive and co-founder, Steven P. Jobs, who died on Oct. 5. But analysts and industry executives say Apple’s pricing is an overlooked part of its ability to find a large audience for those products beyond hard-core Apple fans. Apple sold more than four million iPhone 4S smartphone over its debut weekend.
People can still easily find less expensive alternatives, with less distinctive and refined designs, to most Apple products. Within the premium product categories where Apple is most at home though, comparable devices often do no better than match or slightly undercut Apple’s prices. “They’re not cheap, but I don’t think they’re viewed as high-priced anymore,” said Stewart Alsop, a longtime venture capitalist in San Francisco.
Apple declined to comment for this article.
Apple is using its scale and prowess to deliver products at more aggressive prices, giving it more power to set prices for the industry. THE NEW YORK TIMESPrices in the ultrathin notebook category are an illustration of Apple’s strategy. While there are much cheaper laptops for sale, ranging all the way down to bargain-basement netbooks that cost a few hundred dollars, Apple’s MacBook Air has become a hit among computer users seeking the thinnest and lightest notebooks available. The product starts at $999 for a model with an 11-inch screen.
On Oct. 11, the Taiwanese computer maker Asus introduced its answer to the MacBook Air, a sleek device that uses Windows. But it was unable to undercut Apple; the Asus computer also starts at $999. Samsung’s wafer-thin Series 9 notebook, with comparable features, costs $1,049.
The computer maker Acer, however, began undercutting the cheapest MacBook Air this month with an $899 ultrathin notebook, the Aspire S series, that has a bigger screen.
The original MacBook Air catered to a more rarefied audience when it came out in early 2008, priced at a whopping $1,799 for a model with a 13-inch screen. A year ago Apple revamped the notebook to make it thinner and smaller and reduced its entry-level prices to $999 and $1,299 for models with 11-inch and 13-inch screens. Jean-Louis Gassée, a venture capitalist and former Apple executive, said there was a “collective gasp” at how low Apple priced the new MacBook Air.
The aggressive pricing, analysts say, reflects Apple’s ability to use its growing manufacturing scale to push down costs for the crucial parts that make up its devices. Apple has also shown a willingness to tap into its huge war chest — $82 billion in cash and marketable securities last quarter — to take big gambles by locking up supplies of parts for years, as it did in 2005 when it struck a five-year, $1.25 billion deal with manufacturers to secure flash memory chips for its iPods and other devices.
By buying up manufacturing capacity ahead of time, Apple forces its competitors to scramble for the parts that are still available, raising costs for their products, analysts say. Apple is the biggest buyer of flash memory chips in the world, according to the research firm iSuppli.
Mr. Gassée said Apple’s pricing decision on the MacBook Air made it clear that Apple’s management of its supply chain had become a “strategic weapon.”
Another example of that was Apple’s decision to price the entry-level iPad at $499 when it was introduced early last year, hundreds of dollars lower than many analysts expected. “I think everyone was stunned at the cost of the iPad,” said John Gallaugher, an associate professor of information systems at Boston College. “It was a very competitively priced device.”
For a time, Apple’s biggest competitors were unable to go below the iPad’s price with their own tablets. When Motorola Mobility Holding’s Xoom tablet hit the market in February, the cheapest model available without a wireless service contract was $800. Motorola later released an entry-level model with more storage than the least expensive iPad, priced at $599.
After lackluster sales, Apple’s major competitors are now finally undercutting the iPad on price, though it is not clear how sustainable that approach is. Motorola recently announced a plan to offer an entry-level Xoom tablet for $379 at Best Buy stores for a limited time. After Hewlett-Packard, having missed sales goals, announced plans to discontinue its TouchPad line of tablets, it dropped the price of its cheapest model to a fire-sale $99.
The most credible challenge to the iPad is likely to come from Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet, which goes on sale in November. While analysts say they believe Amazon will lose money on each device sold, the Internet retailer’s plan is to use the device to encourage purchases of other Amazon products and services, like e-books. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said the price of the iPad reflected a “mind-set change” at Apple after the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, which started at $499. That was an eye-popping sum for a phone in markets like the United States, where people had become accustomed to getting lower-price, carrier-subsidized phones in exchange for committing to long wireless contracts.
Only a few months after the product went on sale, Apple cut $200 off the price of the high-end model of the iPhone, to $399. Apple shifted gears again in 2008 with a new model called the iPhone 3G that it priced at $199, after beginning to accept handset subsidies from its carrier partners, something it did not do with its first version of the phone. Carriers pay Apple more for the latest iPhones — around $600 each, analysts estimate — aiming to profit by locking consumers into wireless plans.
Mr. Sacconaghi said Apple’s pricing of the original iPhone and its exclusive distribution deal with AT&T in the United States at the time created an opening for Google and its handset partners to flood the market with phones running its Android operating system.
While Apple’s iPhone business is thriving, Android handsets accounted for 43.4 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in the second quarter, compared with 18.2 percent for Apple, the research firm Gartner estimates.
Many carriers now offer older Android handsets that cost customers nothing if they sign up for two-year contracts. And now even Apple is getting into that act: when it announced its latest iPhone model this month, it said its two-year-old iPhone 3GS would be free with a two-year contract.
Via: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/technology/apples-lower-prices-are-all-part-of-the-plan.html?pagewanted=all
Monday, October 24, 2011
The Paradox of the New Elite
By ALEXANDER STILLE
Published: October 22, 2011
Damon Winter/The New York Times
IT’S a puzzle: one dispossessed group after another — blacks, women, Hispanics and gays — has been gradually accepted in the United States, granted equal rights and brought into the mainstream.
At the same time, in economic terms, the United States has gone from being a comparatively egalitarian society to one of the most unequal democracies in the world.
The two shifts are each huge and hugely important: one shows a steady march toward democratic inclusion, the other toward a tolerance of economic stratification that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.
The United States prides itself on the belief that “anyone can be president,” and what better example than Barack Obama, son of a black Kenyan immigrant and a white American mother — neither of them rich.
And yet more than half the presidents over the past 110 years attended Harvard, Yale or Princeton and graduates of Harvard and Yale have had a lock on the White House for the last 23 years, across four presidencies. Thus we have become both more inclusive and more elitist.
It’s a surprising contradiction. Is the confluence of these two movements a mere historical accident? Or are the two trends related?
Other nations seem to face the same challenge: either inclusive, or economically just. Europe has maintained much more economic equality but is struggling greatly with inclusiveness and discrimination, and is far less open to minorities than is the United States.
European countries have done a better job of protecting workers’ salaries and rights but have been reluctant to extend the benefits of their generous welfare state to new immigrants who look and act differently from them. Could America’s lost enthusiasm for income redistribution and progressive taxation be in part a reaction to sharing resources with traditionally excluded groups?
“I do think there is a trade-off between inclusion and equality,” said Gary Becker, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a Nobel laureate. “I think if you are a German worker you are better off than your American equivalent, but if you are an immigrant, you are better off in the U.S.”
PROFESSOR Becker, a celebrated free-market conservative, wrote his Ph.D. dissertation (and first book, “The Economics of Discrimination”) to demonstrate that racial discrimination was economically inefficient. American business leaders seem to have learned that there is no money to be made in exclusion: bringing in each new group has simply created new consumers to court. If you can capture nearly three-quarters of the economy’s growth — as the top 1 percent did between 2002 and 2006 — it may not be worth worrying about gay marriage or skin color.
“I think we have become more meritocratic — educational attainment has become increasingly predictive of economic success,” Professor Becker said. But with educational attainment going increasingly to the children of the affluent and educated, we appear to be developing a self-perpetuating elite that reaps a greater and greater share of financial rewards. It is a hard-working elite, and more diverse than the old white male Anglo-Saxon establishment — but nonetheless claims a larger share of the national income than was the case 50 years ago, when blacks, Jews and women were largely shut out of powerful institutions.
Inequality and inclusion are both as American as apple pie, says Jerome Karabel, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of “The Chosen,” about the history of admission to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. “I don’t think any advanced democracy is as obsessed with equality of opportunity or as relatively unconcerned with equality of condition,” he says. “As long as everyone has a chance to compete, we shouldn’t worry about equality. Equality of condition is seen as undesirable, even un-American.”
The long history of racial discrimination represented an embarrassing contradiction — and a serious threat — to our national story of equal opportunity. With Jim Crow laws firmly in place it was hard to seriously argue that everyone had an equal chance. Civil rights leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were able to use this tradition to draw support to their causes. “Given our culture of equality of opportunity, these kinds of rights-based arguments are almost impossible to refute,” Professor Karabel said. “Even in today’s conservative political climate, opponents of gay rights are losing ground.”
The removal of traditional barriers opened up the American system. In 1951 blacks made up less than 1 percent of the students at America’s Ivy League colleges. Today they make up about 8 percent. At the same time, America’s elite universities are increasingly the provinces of the well-to-do. “Looking at the data, you see that the freshman class of our top colleges are more and more made up of the children of upper- and upper-middle-class families,” said Thomas J. Espenshade of Princeton, a sociologist.
Even the minority students are more affluent, he noted; many of them are of mixed race, or the children of immigrants or those who benefited from affirmative action.
Shamus Khan, a sociologist at Columbia and the author of “Privilege,” a book about St. Paul’s, the prep school, agreed that there had been a change in the composition of the elite. “Who is at elite schools seems to have shifted,” he said. “But the elite seem to have a firmer and firmer hold on our nation’s wealth and power.”
Still the relatively painless movement toward greater diversity should not be dismissed as mere window dressing.
“After the immigration reform of 1965, this country went from being the United States of Europe to being the United States of the World. All with virtually no violence and comparatively little trauma,” Professor Karabel said. This is no small thing, particularly when you compare it to the trauma experienced by many European societies in absorbing much lower percentages of foreign-born citizens, few of whom have penetrated their countries’ elites.
Moreover, inequality has grown partly for reasons that have little or nothing to do with inclusion. Almost all advanced industrial societies — even Sweden — have become more unequal. But the United States has become considerably more unequal. In Europe, the rights of labor have remained more central, while the United States has seen the rise of identity politics.
“There is much less class-based organization in the U.S,” said Professor Karabel. “Race, gender and sexual orientation became the salient cleavages of American political life. And if you look at it — blacks, Hispanics and women have gained somewhat relative to the population as a whole, but labor as a category has lost ground. The groups that mobilized — blacks, Hispanics, women — made gains. But white male workers, who demobilized politically, lost ground.”
One of the groups to become mobilized in response to the protest movements of the 1960s and early 1970s was the rich. Think tanks dedicated to defending the free-enterprise system — such as the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation — were born in this period. And it is not an accident that the right-wing advocate Glenn Beck held a national rally on the anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Republicans now defend tax cuts for the richest 2 percent using arguments and language from the civil rights movements: insisting that excluding the richest earners is unfair.
Removing the most blatant forms of discrimination, ironically, made it easier to justify keeping whatever rewards you could obtain through the new, supposedly more meritocratic system. “Greater inclusiveness was a precondition for greater economic stratification,” said Professor Karabel. “It strengthened the system, reinvigorated its ideology — it is much easier to defend gains that appear to be earned through merit. In a meritocracy, inequality becomes much more acceptable.”
The term “meritocracy” — now almost universally used as a term of praise — was actually coined as a pejorative term, appearing for the first time in 1958, in the title of a satirical dystopian novel, “The Rise of the Meritocracy,” by the British Labour Party leader Michael Young. He warned against the creation of a new technocratic elite in which the selection of the few would lead to the abandonment of the many, a new elite whose privileges were even more crushing and fiercely defended because they appeared to be entirely merited.
Of the European countries, Britain’s politics of inequality and inclusion most resemble those of the United States. Even as inequality has grown considerably, the British sense of economic class has diminished. As recently as 1988, some 67 percent of British citizens proudly identified themselves as working class. Now only 24 percent do. Almost everybody below the Queen and above the poverty line considers himself or herself “middle class.”
Germany still has robust protections for its workers and one of the healthiest economies in Europe. Children at age 10 are placed on different tracks, some leading to university and others to vocational school — a closing off of opportunity that Americans would find intolerable. But it is uncontroversial because those attending vocational school often earn as much as those who attend university.
In France, it is illegal for the government to collect information on people on the basis of race. And yet millions of immigrants — and the children and grandchildren of immigrants — fester in slums.
In the United States, the stratification of wealth followed several decades where economic equality was strong. The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed underscored the excesses of the roaring ’20s and ushered in an era in which the political climate favored labor unions, progressive taxation and social programs aimed at reducing poverty.
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the income of the less affluent Americans grew more quickly than that of their wealthier neighbors, and the richest 1 percent saw its share of the national income shrink to 8.9 percent in the mid-1970s, from 23.9 percent in 1928. That share is now back up to more than 20 percent, its level before the Depression.
Inequality has traditionally been acceptable to Americans if accompanied by mobility. But most recent studies of economic mobility indicate that it is getting even harder for people to jump from one economic class to another in the United States, harder to join the elite. While Americans are used to considering equal opportunity and equality of condition as separate issues, they may need to reconsider. In an era in which money translates into political power, there is a growing feeling, on both left and right, that special interests have their way in Washington. There is growing anger, from the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, that the current system is stacked against ordinary citizens. Suddenly, as in the 1930s, the issue of economic equality is back in play.
Alexander Stille is a professor of international journalism at Columbia.
Via: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/opinion/sunday/social-inequality-and-the-new-elite.html?pagewanted=all#h[]
Published: October 22, 2011
Damon Winter/The New York TimesIT’S a puzzle: one dispossessed group after another — blacks, women, Hispanics and gays — has been gradually accepted in the United States, granted equal rights and brought into the mainstream.
At the same time, in economic terms, the United States has gone from being a comparatively egalitarian society to one of the most unequal democracies in the world.
The two shifts are each huge and hugely important: one shows a steady march toward democratic inclusion, the other toward a tolerance of economic stratification that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.
The United States prides itself on the belief that “anyone can be president,” and what better example than Barack Obama, son of a black Kenyan immigrant and a white American mother — neither of them rich.
And yet more than half the presidents over the past 110 years attended Harvard, Yale or Princeton and graduates of Harvard and Yale have had a lock on the White House for the last 23 years, across four presidencies. Thus we have become both more inclusive and more elitist.
It’s a surprising contradiction. Is the confluence of these two movements a mere historical accident? Or are the two trends related?
Other nations seem to face the same challenge: either inclusive, or economically just. Europe has maintained much more economic equality but is struggling greatly with inclusiveness and discrimination, and is far less open to minorities than is the United States.
European countries have done a better job of protecting workers’ salaries and rights but have been reluctant to extend the benefits of their generous welfare state to new immigrants who look and act differently from them. Could America’s lost enthusiasm for income redistribution and progressive taxation be in part a reaction to sharing resources with traditionally excluded groups?
“I do think there is a trade-off between inclusion and equality,” said Gary Becker, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a Nobel laureate. “I think if you are a German worker you are better off than your American equivalent, but if you are an immigrant, you are better off in the U.S.”
PROFESSOR Becker, a celebrated free-market conservative, wrote his Ph.D. dissertation (and first book, “The Economics of Discrimination”) to demonstrate that racial discrimination was economically inefficient. American business leaders seem to have learned that there is no money to be made in exclusion: bringing in each new group has simply created new consumers to court. If you can capture nearly three-quarters of the economy’s growth — as the top 1 percent did between 2002 and 2006 — it may not be worth worrying about gay marriage or skin color.
“I think we have become more meritocratic — educational attainment has become increasingly predictive of economic success,” Professor Becker said. But with educational attainment going increasingly to the children of the affluent and educated, we appear to be developing a self-perpetuating elite that reaps a greater and greater share of financial rewards. It is a hard-working elite, and more diverse than the old white male Anglo-Saxon establishment — but nonetheless claims a larger share of the national income than was the case 50 years ago, when blacks, Jews and women were largely shut out of powerful institutions.
Inequality and inclusion are both as American as apple pie, says Jerome Karabel, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of “The Chosen,” about the history of admission to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. “I don’t think any advanced democracy is as obsessed with equality of opportunity or as relatively unconcerned with equality of condition,” he says. “As long as everyone has a chance to compete, we shouldn’t worry about equality. Equality of condition is seen as undesirable, even un-American.”
The long history of racial discrimination represented an embarrassing contradiction — and a serious threat — to our national story of equal opportunity. With Jim Crow laws firmly in place it was hard to seriously argue that everyone had an equal chance. Civil rights leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were able to use this tradition to draw support to their causes. “Given our culture of equality of opportunity, these kinds of rights-based arguments are almost impossible to refute,” Professor Karabel said. “Even in today’s conservative political climate, opponents of gay rights are losing ground.”
The removal of traditional barriers opened up the American system. In 1951 blacks made up less than 1 percent of the students at America’s Ivy League colleges. Today they make up about 8 percent. At the same time, America’s elite universities are increasingly the provinces of the well-to-do. “Looking at the data, you see that the freshman class of our top colleges are more and more made up of the children of upper- and upper-middle-class families,” said Thomas J. Espenshade of Princeton, a sociologist.
Even the minority students are more affluent, he noted; many of them are of mixed race, or the children of immigrants or those who benefited from affirmative action.
Shamus Khan, a sociologist at Columbia and the author of “Privilege,” a book about St. Paul’s, the prep school, agreed that there had been a change in the composition of the elite. “Who is at elite schools seems to have shifted,” he said. “But the elite seem to have a firmer and firmer hold on our nation’s wealth and power.”
Still the relatively painless movement toward greater diversity should not be dismissed as mere window dressing.
“After the immigration reform of 1965, this country went from being the United States of Europe to being the United States of the World. All with virtually no violence and comparatively little trauma,” Professor Karabel said. This is no small thing, particularly when you compare it to the trauma experienced by many European societies in absorbing much lower percentages of foreign-born citizens, few of whom have penetrated their countries’ elites.
Moreover, inequality has grown partly for reasons that have little or nothing to do with inclusion. Almost all advanced industrial societies — even Sweden — have become more unequal. But the United States has become considerably more unequal. In Europe, the rights of labor have remained more central, while the United States has seen the rise of identity politics.
“There is much less class-based organization in the U.S,” said Professor Karabel. “Race, gender and sexual orientation became the salient cleavages of American political life. And if you look at it — blacks, Hispanics and women have gained somewhat relative to the population as a whole, but labor as a category has lost ground. The groups that mobilized — blacks, Hispanics, women — made gains. But white male workers, who demobilized politically, lost ground.”
One of the groups to become mobilized in response to the protest movements of the 1960s and early 1970s was the rich. Think tanks dedicated to defending the free-enterprise system — such as the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation — were born in this period. And it is not an accident that the right-wing advocate Glenn Beck held a national rally on the anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Republicans now defend tax cuts for the richest 2 percent using arguments and language from the civil rights movements: insisting that excluding the richest earners is unfair.
Removing the most blatant forms of discrimination, ironically, made it easier to justify keeping whatever rewards you could obtain through the new, supposedly more meritocratic system. “Greater inclusiveness was a precondition for greater economic stratification,” said Professor Karabel. “It strengthened the system, reinvigorated its ideology — it is much easier to defend gains that appear to be earned through merit. In a meritocracy, inequality becomes much more acceptable.”
The term “meritocracy” — now almost universally used as a term of praise — was actually coined as a pejorative term, appearing for the first time in 1958, in the title of a satirical dystopian novel, “The Rise of the Meritocracy,” by the British Labour Party leader Michael Young. He warned against the creation of a new technocratic elite in which the selection of the few would lead to the abandonment of the many, a new elite whose privileges were even more crushing and fiercely defended because they appeared to be entirely merited.
Of the European countries, Britain’s politics of inequality and inclusion most resemble those of the United States. Even as inequality has grown considerably, the British sense of economic class has diminished. As recently as 1988, some 67 percent of British citizens proudly identified themselves as working class. Now only 24 percent do. Almost everybody below the Queen and above the poverty line considers himself or herself “middle class.”
Germany still has robust protections for its workers and one of the healthiest economies in Europe. Children at age 10 are placed on different tracks, some leading to university and others to vocational school — a closing off of opportunity that Americans would find intolerable. But it is uncontroversial because those attending vocational school often earn as much as those who attend university.
In France, it is illegal for the government to collect information on people on the basis of race. And yet millions of immigrants — and the children and grandchildren of immigrants — fester in slums.
In the United States, the stratification of wealth followed several decades where economic equality was strong. The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed underscored the excesses of the roaring ’20s and ushered in an era in which the political climate favored labor unions, progressive taxation and social programs aimed at reducing poverty.
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the income of the less affluent Americans grew more quickly than that of their wealthier neighbors, and the richest 1 percent saw its share of the national income shrink to 8.9 percent in the mid-1970s, from 23.9 percent in 1928. That share is now back up to more than 20 percent, its level before the Depression.
Inequality has traditionally been acceptable to Americans if accompanied by mobility. But most recent studies of economic mobility indicate that it is getting even harder for people to jump from one economic class to another in the United States, harder to join the elite. While Americans are used to considering equal opportunity and equality of condition as separate issues, they may need to reconsider. In an era in which money translates into political power, there is a growing feeling, on both left and right, that special interests have their way in Washington. There is growing anger, from the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, that the current system is stacked against ordinary citizens. Suddenly, as in the 1930s, the issue of economic equality is back in play.
Alexander Stille is a professor of international journalism at Columbia.
Via: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/opinion/sunday/social-inequality-and-the-new-elite.html?pagewanted=all#h[]
Thursday, October 20, 2011
蔡添强：首相人民午餐，真实价格高出一倍
国内新闻 2011-10-20 17:32 新闻由光华日报提供
■ 蔡伟杰（左起）、陈玞全、蔡添强、陈毅翰及骆文吉揭露"一个马来西亚人民餐单"，以3令吉"埋单"根本不够。
（吉隆坡20日讯）公正党揭露，首相拿督斯里纳吉较早前在“一个马来西亚人民餐单”下享用的3令吉午餐，仅只是用作宣传噱头，倘若消费者同样以纳吉当天餐单到柜台“埋单”（即结账）的话，价格竟是6令吉，比纳吉的高出一倍！
该党峇都区国会议员蔡添强今日手捧着两碟杂饭菜肴，在国会走廊召开记者会，出席记者会尚有其助理陈毅翰、士拉央区国会议员助理蔡伟杰、陈玞全、灵南区国会议员助理骆文吉。
■ 这家餐厅地点位于美丹端姑，首相纳吉周三曾前往用餐，并推荐给大马人民。
蔡添强说，公正党4名国会议员助理今早前往3间坐落在吉隆坡国都花园、古晋路及大马回教教育合作社（Ukhwah）餐厅明察暗访，各点了“一个马来西亚人民餐单”的食物，不料买单时发现价格截然不同。
他因此吁请纳吉切勿误导人民，餐馆根本提供人民仅需要3令吉的丰富午餐餐单，政府应根据实际通货膨胀情况，实施更实际的政策协助人民解决生活负担，否则最后也将沦为笑话而已。
“一个马来西亚人民餐单’和实际餐单收费不对版，人民根本无法省钱。”
峇都区国会议员助理陈毅翰指出，他所点的2令吉50仙早餐依旧是椰浆饭和一杯茶点，但分量明显较平时餐单少了一半。
他说，另一份早餐餐单是印度煎饼加茶点，不过业者也表明，平常也只是以2令吉的价格出售该份餐单。
“据了解，政府的确给予提供‘一个马来西亚人民餐单’的餐馆津贴，不过餐馆业者并没有透露津贴的数额。”
士拉央区国会议员助理蔡伟杰透露，他们是根据首相纳吉当天选择的“一个马来西亚人民餐单”点餐，配菜包括豆芽、两块鸡肉、牛肉、鱼肉、饭及玫瑰露等，业者向其收取6令吉。
“他说3令吉根本不够埋单。”
蔡伟杰指出，根据餐馆业者的说词，真正可用3令吉“埋单”的餐单，其实就只有一条鱼、豆芽、白饭及玫瑰露而已。
“他还说，3令吉午餐只限首相光顾当天的收费而已，餐馆根本不可能以3令吉出售同样的餐单。”
蔡伟杰后来补充，政府津贴“一个马来西亚餐单”餐馆将会造成市场不公平竞争的状况，对其他业者不公平。
通货膨胀时代 一马套餐让民享廉价美食
（吉隆坡20日讯）“一个大马人民套餐”计划下，是为让大马人民享有更便宜的餐点价格，在这通货膨胀的时代，用更低廉的价格享用美食。
这项由贸消部推介的“一个大马人民套餐”计划已于今年7月7日开跑，分别以2令吉与4令吉以下的价格推出早餐及午餐，让人民以低价格吃得便宜及饱足。
早餐与午餐的价格非常廉价，业者也不时会更换多样彩色来吸引顾客。
《光华日报》周四来到首相拿督斯里纳吉到访位于美丹端姑的Ukhwah餐馆，营业经理瑞祖安指出，早午餐两个配套是于每逢周一至周五，早上7时至下午3时左右正式售卖，直到卖完为止。
“我们这里通常是熟客，附近的员工在休息时间（午餐）或上班前（早餐）习惯到我们这里吃东西。”
至于首相纳吉昨日（周三）到该店面，选了两块鸡翅膀、杂菜和白饭，只需区区3令吉，他表示，这是当天的特别折扣价格，平时此套餐则要卖6令吉，不过分量却小很多。
他也表示，其实只要售卖的分量高，餐点的价格便宜，还是可以负担成本，不会出现亏损现象。他透露，印度煎饼每天制作及售出大约500份，午餐则200份左右，要是生意很好，食物可在两小时之内清空。
根据本报观察该店的状况，环境气氛都不俗，吸引不少客人前往用食，现场可看见许多巫裔及印裔，华裔却寥寥无几。
网友亲自前往 同样菜肴收费达6令吉
(吉隆坡20日讯)纳吉日前在大马回教教育合作社（Ukhwah）餐馆杂菜档享用3令吉的“一个大马人民餐单”套餐，引起人民关注，更有网友亲自前往该档口点了一样的菜肴，收费却达6令吉。
网友也上载了所得到收据，引来众人议论纷纷。收据显示网友于10月20日上午11时47分买单时，1份“Open Food ”的售价为6令吉。
该张照片也引来不少网友留言，打趣地说：“3令吉是首相的友情价。”、“3块钱好像连鸡翅膀都买不到。”
咖哩饭最贵卖6令吉
(吉隆坡20日讯)“一个大马人民餐单”强调美食廉价，《光华日报》走访位于斯里白沙罗其中一家参与该计划的餐馆。由印裔回教徒营业的Restoran Sedap Nasi Kandar，提供的“一个大马人民餐单”下的咖哩饭最高售价为6令吉。
餐馆经理亚斯山表示，店里提供两份一个大马人民餐单，即：售价2令吉20仙的印度煎饼与拉茶、4令吉50仙的白饭加咖哩鸡肉和一杯温水。“不过，顾客可以选择Dalca饭加咖哩鸡，价格为6令吉。”
他透露，一块印度煎饼与一杯拉茶的原价分别为1令吉与1令吉20仙；白饭原价为1令吉20仙、Dalca饭为3令吉、咖哩鸡为3令吉50仙、温水免费。换言之，顾客如果购买“一个大马人民餐单”的咖哩鸡饭，就能节省50仙。“我们提供的两份“一个大马人民餐单”为全日提供的餐单，惟Dalca饭需要中午12时以后才提供。”
亚斯山补充，“我们是于1年前开始加入“一个大马人民餐单”计划，也有不少的顾客前来购买较便宜的“一个大马人民餐单”套餐。我们也是附近唯一一家提供该套餐的餐馆。
该餐馆也同时售卖多种的马来餐与印度餐，惹当羊肉售价为5令吉、牛肉售价为4令吉，为餐点加青菜则每样收费80仙。
■ 咖喱鸡、豆芽、煎鱼、白饭、炸鸡、玫瑰露：6令吉。（原价：10令吉）
■ 豆芽、白饭、红鸡肉和玫瑰露：3令吉。（原价：6令吉）
■ 早餐：椰浆饭+拉茶：1令吉。（原价：2令吉50仙）
■ 豆芽、咖喱牛肉、煎鱼、白饭和玫瑰露：4令吉。（原价：7令吉）
■ 豆芽、煎鱼、白饭、玫瑰露（Ais Sirap）：3令吉。（原价：6令吉）
■ 早餐：糕点+拉茶：1令吉（原价：2令吉20仙）
转自：http://www.kwongwah.com.my/news/2011/10/20/109.html
■ 蔡伟杰（左起）、陈玞全、蔡添强、陈毅翰及骆文吉揭露"一个马来西亚人民餐单"，以3令吉"埋单"根本不够。（吉隆坡20日讯）公正党揭露，首相拿督斯里纳吉较早前在“一个马来西亚人民餐单”下享用的3令吉午餐，仅只是用作宣传噱头，倘若消费者同样以纳吉当天餐单到柜台“埋单”（即结账）的话，价格竟是6令吉，比纳吉的高出一倍！
该党峇都区国会议员蔡添强今日手捧着两碟杂饭菜肴，在国会走廊召开记者会，出席记者会尚有其助理陈毅翰、士拉央区国会议员助理蔡伟杰、陈玞全、灵南区国会议员助理骆文吉。
■ 这家餐厅地点位于美丹端姑，首相纳吉周三曾前往用餐，并推荐给大马人民。蔡添强说，公正党4名国会议员助理今早前往3间坐落在吉隆坡国都花园、古晋路及大马回教教育合作社（Ukhwah）餐厅明察暗访，各点了“一个马来西亚人民餐单”的食物，不料买单时发现价格截然不同。
他因此吁请纳吉切勿误导人民，餐馆根本提供人民仅需要3令吉的丰富午餐餐单，政府应根据实际通货膨胀情况，实施更实际的政策协助人民解决生活负担，否则最后也将沦为笑话而已。
“一个马来西亚人民餐单’和实际餐单收费不对版，人民根本无法省钱。”
峇都区国会议员助理陈毅翰指出，他所点的2令吉50仙早餐依旧是椰浆饭和一杯茶点，但分量明显较平时餐单少了一半。
他说，另一份早餐餐单是印度煎饼加茶点，不过业者也表明，平常也只是以2令吉的价格出售该份餐单。
“据了解，政府的确给予提供‘一个马来西亚人民餐单’的餐馆津贴，不过餐馆业者并没有透露津贴的数额。”
士拉央区国会议员助理蔡伟杰透露，他们是根据首相纳吉当天选择的“一个马来西亚人民餐单”点餐，配菜包括豆芽、两块鸡肉、牛肉、鱼肉、饭及玫瑰露等，业者向其收取6令吉。
“他说3令吉根本不够埋单。”
蔡伟杰指出，根据餐馆业者的说词，真正可用3令吉“埋单”的餐单，其实就只有一条鱼、豆芽、白饭及玫瑰露而已。
“他还说，3令吉午餐只限首相光顾当天的收费而已，餐馆根本不可能以3令吉出售同样的餐单。”
蔡伟杰后来补充，政府津贴“一个马来西亚餐单”餐馆将会造成市场不公平竞争的状况，对其他业者不公平。
通货膨胀时代 一马套餐让民享廉价美食
（吉隆坡20日讯）“一个大马人民套餐”计划下，是为让大马人民享有更便宜的餐点价格，在这通货膨胀的时代，用更低廉的价格享用美食。
这项由贸消部推介的“一个大马人民套餐”计划已于今年7月7日开跑，分别以2令吉与4令吉以下的价格推出早餐及午餐，让人民以低价格吃得便宜及饱足。
早餐与午餐的价格非常廉价，业者也不时会更换多样彩色来吸引顾客。
《光华日报》周四来到首相拿督斯里纳吉到访位于美丹端姑的Ukhwah餐馆，营业经理瑞祖安指出，早午餐两个配套是于每逢周一至周五，早上7时至下午3时左右正式售卖，直到卖完为止。
“我们这里通常是熟客，附近的员工在休息时间（午餐）或上班前（早餐）习惯到我们这里吃东西。”
至于首相纳吉昨日（周三）到该店面，选了两块鸡翅膀、杂菜和白饭，只需区区3令吉，他表示，这是当天的特别折扣价格，平时此套餐则要卖6令吉，不过分量却小很多。
他也表示，其实只要售卖的分量高，餐点的价格便宜，还是可以负担成本，不会出现亏损现象。他透露，印度煎饼每天制作及售出大约500份，午餐则200份左右，要是生意很好，食物可在两小时之内清空。
根据本报观察该店的状况，环境气氛都不俗，吸引不少客人前往用食，现场可看见许多巫裔及印裔，华裔却寥寥无几。
网友亲自前往 同样菜肴收费达6令吉
(吉隆坡20日讯)纳吉日前在大马回教教育合作社（Ukhwah）餐馆杂菜档享用3令吉的“一个大马人民餐单”套餐，引起人民关注，更有网友亲自前往该档口点了一样的菜肴，收费却达6令吉。
网友也上载了所得到收据，引来众人议论纷纷。收据显示网友于10月20日上午11时47分买单时，1份“Open Food ”的售价为6令吉。
该张照片也引来不少网友留言，打趣地说：“3令吉是首相的友情价。”、“3块钱好像连鸡翅膀都买不到。”
咖哩饭最贵卖6令吉
(吉隆坡20日讯)“一个大马人民餐单”强调美食廉价，《光华日报》走访位于斯里白沙罗其中一家参与该计划的餐馆。由印裔回教徒营业的Restoran Sedap Nasi Kandar，提供的“一个大马人民餐单”下的咖哩饭最高售价为6令吉。
餐馆经理亚斯山表示，店里提供两份一个大马人民餐单，即：售价2令吉20仙的印度煎饼与拉茶、4令吉50仙的白饭加咖哩鸡肉和一杯温水。“不过，顾客可以选择Dalca饭加咖哩鸡，价格为6令吉。”
他透露，一块印度煎饼与一杯拉茶的原价分别为1令吉与1令吉20仙；白饭原价为1令吉20仙、Dalca饭为3令吉、咖哩鸡为3令吉50仙、温水免费。换言之，顾客如果购买“一个大马人民餐单”的咖哩鸡饭，就能节省50仙。“我们提供的两份“一个大马人民餐单”为全日提供的餐单，惟Dalca饭需要中午12时以后才提供。”
亚斯山补充，“我们是于1年前开始加入“一个大马人民餐单”计划，也有不少的顾客前来购买较便宜的“一个大马人民餐单”套餐。我们也是附近唯一一家提供该套餐的餐馆。
该餐馆也同时售卖多种的马来餐与印度餐，惹当羊肉售价为5令吉、牛肉售价为4令吉，为餐点加青菜则每样收费80仙。
■ 咖喱鸡、豆芽、煎鱼、白饭、炸鸡、玫瑰露：6令吉。（原价：10令吉）
■ 豆芽、白饭、红鸡肉和玫瑰露：3令吉。（原价：6令吉）
■ 早餐：椰浆饭+拉茶：1令吉。（原价：2令吉50仙）
■ 豆芽、咖喱牛肉、煎鱼、白饭和玫瑰露：4令吉。（原价：7令吉）
■ 豆芽、煎鱼、白饭、玫瑰露（Ais Sirap）：3令吉。（原价：6令吉）
■ 早餐：糕点+拉茶：1令吉（原价：2令吉20仙）转自：http://www.kwongwah.com.my/news/2011/10/20/109.html
The facts of happiness
Letter from Sanjay Perera
04:46 AM Oct 20, 2011
I REFER to the current Parliament sittings and the debate over Gross Domestic Product as a measure of economic success.
It is a healthy sign that fundamental assumptions are being discussed robustly, as we should examine other indicators that can effectively include happiness, the welfare of people and our environment.
Arguments to the effect that Singapore is not Bhutan, but a pseudo-American capitalist entity with a different history, begs the issue of what Singapore actually is.
Singapore, with its unique history, is what its citizens choose what they want it to be now and for tomorrow. The question is whether our attempts at nationhood are boxed in by economic numbers or led by a sense of fairness and well-being for all.
We are also a country which has a matrix of legislation. However, part of trying to sidestep the situation of legislating happiness is to examine going beyond using merely numbers in finding a happy meld of policy and the way we lead our lives.
Just as any government of the day has to do its part, we the citizens have to do ours. In tandem with having a balanced look at ways to measure progress, we have to ask: Can we do more to show tolerance and compassion?
While it is natural for us to focus on our grievances, as it is sometimes a way to keep a sense of justice alive, there are certainly more instances of courtesy and kindness in our society than are reported in the media.
It takes greater effort to speak up on what is right and to show gratitude to the people around us. A regular feed of good news and what works well is rare in the media or among ourselves.
The front pages tend to be about who blasted whom to kingdom come and of the fears in our lives. Any wonder then, this becomes the reality we believe in and create?
When the good we can and do perform is given appropriate publicity and encouraged by the authorities, the way we lead our lives may well result in a ground energy that would compel any clear thinking government to do what is right virtually all the time.
What we do not need is a slew of legislation based on which we take one another to court because we have been made "unhappy".
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC111020-0000134/The-facts-of-happiness
04:46 AM Oct 20, 2011
I REFER to the current Parliament sittings and the debate over Gross Domestic Product as a measure of economic success.
It is a healthy sign that fundamental assumptions are being discussed robustly, as we should examine other indicators that can effectively include happiness, the welfare of people and our environment.
Arguments to the effect that Singapore is not Bhutan, but a pseudo-American capitalist entity with a different history, begs the issue of what Singapore actually is.
Singapore, with its unique history, is what its citizens choose what they want it to be now and for tomorrow. The question is whether our attempts at nationhood are boxed in by economic numbers or led by a sense of fairness and well-being for all.
We are also a country which has a matrix of legislation. However, part of trying to sidestep the situation of legislating happiness is to examine going beyond using merely numbers in finding a happy meld of policy and the way we lead our lives.
Just as any government of the day has to do its part, we the citizens have to do ours. In tandem with having a balanced look at ways to measure progress, we have to ask: Can we do more to show tolerance and compassion?
While it is natural for us to focus on our grievances, as it is sometimes a way to keep a sense of justice alive, there are certainly more instances of courtesy and kindness in our society than are reported in the media.
It takes greater effort to speak up on what is right and to show gratitude to the people around us. A regular feed of good news and what works well is rare in the media or among ourselves.
The front pages tend to be about who blasted whom to kingdom come and of the fears in our lives. Any wonder then, this becomes the reality we believe in and create?
When the good we can and do perform is given appropriate publicity and encouraged by the authorities, the way we lead our lives may well result in a ground energy that would compel any clear thinking government to do what is right virtually all the time.
What we do not need is a slew of legislation based on which we take one another to court because we have been made "unhappy".
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC111020-0000134/The-facts-of-happiness
'To the Bhutanese we could well be Shangri-La'
by Esther Ng
04:47 AM Oct 20, 2011
SINGAPORE - Happiness and Bhutan have been brought up in Parliament several times since Monday, and Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan yesterday weighed in on the debate.
His visit to Bhutan a few years ago left him with "deep impressions". A tiny nation straddled between India and China, it was not unlike Singapore.
"The challenges of a tiny nation are real and huge. We are not a continental economy like the United States or China. We live in a troubled and troubling region," said Mr Khaw. "Against all odds, we have done well in the last 50 years when we had so little."
On Monday, Workers' Party MP Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) had cited Bhutan and its Gross National Happiness indicator when she questioned if the Government was too focused on gross domestic product growth, at the expense of Singaporeans' happiness.
Yesterday, Mr Khaw said Bhutan was no "Shangri-La". When he was there, he saw "unhappy people", toiling in the fields, worried about the next harvest and whether there would be buyers for their products.
The Bhutanese have studied Singapore because it has "successfully transited" from Third World to First, and managed to create a harmonious society.
"In their mind, Singapore could well be the Shangri-La and they want Bhutan to emulate Singapore," he said.
Singapore's public policies are founded on hard work, prudence and meritocracy, and while they are "not perfect", they are "not bad" either.
"It is now incumbent on all of us, to do our best to make the lives of our people better, not through empty rhetoric, sound bites or mindless giveaways," he said.
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111020-0000191/To-the-Bhutanese-we-could-well-be-Shangri-La
04:47 AM Oct 20, 2011
SINGAPORE - Happiness and Bhutan have been brought up in Parliament several times since Monday, and Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan yesterday weighed in on the debate.
His visit to Bhutan a few years ago left him with "deep impressions". A tiny nation straddled between India and China, it was not unlike Singapore.
"The challenges of a tiny nation are real and huge. We are not a continental economy like the United States or China. We live in a troubled and troubling region," said Mr Khaw. "Against all odds, we have done well in the last 50 years when we had so little."
On Monday, Workers' Party MP Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) had cited Bhutan and its Gross National Happiness indicator when she questioned if the Government was too focused on gross domestic product growth, at the expense of Singaporeans' happiness.
Yesterday, Mr Khaw said Bhutan was no "Shangri-La". When he was there, he saw "unhappy people", toiling in the fields, worried about the next harvest and whether there would be buyers for their products.
The Bhutanese have studied Singapore because it has "successfully transited" from Third World to First, and managed to create a harmonious society.
"In their mind, Singapore could well be the Shangri-La and they want Bhutan to emulate Singapore," he said.
Singapore's public policies are founded on hard work, prudence and meritocracy, and while they are "not perfect", they are "not bad" either.
"It is now incumbent on all of us, to do our best to make the lives of our people better, not through empty rhetoric, sound bites or mindless giveaways," he said.
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111020-0000191/To-the-Bhutanese-we-could-well-be-Shangri-La
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Losing Their Immunity
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: October 16, 2011
Occupy Wall Street demonstrators gather at Grand Army Plaza before marching on the Upper East Side on Oct. 11. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow, the response from the movement’s targets has gradually changed: contemptuous dismissal has been replaced by whining. (A reader of my blog suggests that we start calling our ruling class the “kvetchocracy.”) The modern lords of finance look at the protesters and ask, Don’t they understand what we’ve done for the U.S. economy?
The answer is: yes, many of the protesters do understand what Wall Street and more generally the nation’s economic elite have done for us. And that’s why they’re protesting.
On Saturday The Times reported what people in the financial industry are saying privately about the protests. My favorite quote came from an unnamed money manager who declared, “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it.”
Occupy Wall Street participants chant slogans on their way to stage a demonstration on Times Square in New York, October 15, 2011. Photographer: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
This is deeply unfair to American workers, who are good at lots of things, and could be even better if we made adequate investments in education and infrastructure. But to the extent that America has lagged in everything except financial services, shouldn’t the question be why, and whether it’s a trend we want to continue?
For the financialization of America wasn’t dictated by the invisible hand of the market. What caused the financial industry to grow much faster than the rest of the economy starting around 1980 was a series of deliberate policy choices, in particular a process of deregulation that continued right up to the eve of the 2008 crisis.
Not coincidentally, the era of an ever-growing financial industry was also an era of ever-growing inequality of income and wealth. Wall Street made a large direct contribution to economic polarization, because soaring incomes in finance accounted for a significant fraction of the rising share of the top 1 percent (and the top 0.1 percent, which accounts for most of the top 1 percent’s gains) in the nation’s income. More broadly, the same political forces that promoted financial deregulation fostered overall inequality in a variety of ways, undermining organized labor, doing away with the “outrage constraint” that used to limit executive paychecks, and more.
Oh, and taxes on the wealthy were, of course, sharply reduced.
Protesters march over the Brooklyn Bridge during an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York (Reuters)
All of this was supposed to be justified by results: the paychecks of the wizards of Wall Street were appropriate, we were told, because of the wonderful things they did. Somehow, however, that wonderfulness failed to trickle down to the rest of the nation — and that was true even before the crisis. Median family income, adjusted for inflation, grew only about a fifth as much between 1980 and 2007 as it did in the generation following World War II, even though the postwar economy was marked both by strict financial regulation and by much higher tax rates on the wealthy than anything currently under political discussion.
Then came the crisis, which proved that all those claims about how modern finance had reduced risk and made the system more stable were utter nonsense. Government bailouts were all that saved us from a financial meltdown as bad as or worse than the one that caused the Great Depression.
Police officers reach into a crowd of protesters to make an arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge during an Occupy Wall Street march (Reuters)
And what about the current situation? Wall Street pay has rebounded even as ordinary workers continue to suffer from high unemployment and falling real wages. Yet it’s harder than ever to see what, if anything, financiers are doing to earn that money.
Why, then, does Wall Street expect anyone to take its whining seriously? That money manager claiming that finance is the only thing America does well also complained that New York’s two Democratic senators aren’t on his side, declaring that “They need to understand who their constituency is.” Actually, they surely know very well who their constituency is — and even in New York, 16 out of 17 workers are employed by nonfinancial industries.
But he wasn’t really talking about voters, of course. He was talking about the one thing Wall Street still has plenty of thanks to those bailouts, despite its total loss of credibility: money.
Londoners joined the OWS global movement on Saturday
Money talks in American politics, and what the financial industry’s money has been saying lately is that it will punish any politician who dares to criticize that industry’s behavior, no matter how gently — as evidenced by the way Wall Street money has now abandoned President Obama in favor of Mitt Romney. And this explains the industry’s shock over recent events.
The mayor went to inform the anti-corporate demonstrators that the owner of Zuccotti Park – where they began camping almost a month ago – plans to bring in power washers Friday.
You see, until a few weeks ago it seemed as if Wall Street had effectively bribed and bullied our political system into forgetting about that whole drawing lavish paychecks while destroying the world economy thing. Then, all of a sudden, some people insisted on bringing the subject up again.
And their outrage has found resonance with millions of Americans. No wonder Wall Street is whining.
Via: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/opinion/krugman-wall-street-loses-its-immunity.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212#h[]
Published: October 16, 2011
Occupy Wall Street demonstrators gather at Grand Army Plaza before marching on the Upper East Side on Oct. 11. Photographer: Jin Lee/BloombergAs the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow, the response from the movement’s targets has gradually changed: contemptuous dismissal has been replaced by whining. (A reader of my blog suggests that we start calling our ruling class the “kvetchocracy.”) The modern lords of finance look at the protesters and ask, Don’t they understand what we’ve done for the U.S. economy?
The answer is: yes, many of the protesters do understand what Wall Street and more generally the nation’s economic elite have done for us. And that’s why they’re protesting.
On Saturday The Times reported what people in the financial industry are saying privately about the protests. My favorite quote came from an unnamed money manager who declared, “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it.”
Occupy Wall Street participants chant slogans on their way to stage a demonstration on Times Square in New York, October 15, 2011. Photographer: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty ImagesThis is deeply unfair to American workers, who are good at lots of things, and could be even better if we made adequate investments in education and infrastructure. But to the extent that America has lagged in everything except financial services, shouldn’t the question be why, and whether it’s a trend we want to continue?
For the financialization of America wasn’t dictated by the invisible hand of the market. What caused the financial industry to grow much faster than the rest of the economy starting around 1980 was a series of deliberate policy choices, in particular a process of deregulation that continued right up to the eve of the 2008 crisis.
Not coincidentally, the era of an ever-growing financial industry was also an era of ever-growing inequality of income and wealth. Wall Street made a large direct contribution to economic polarization, because soaring incomes in finance accounted for a significant fraction of the rising share of the top 1 percent (and the top 0.1 percent, which accounts for most of the top 1 percent’s gains) in the nation’s income. More broadly, the same political forces that promoted financial deregulation fostered overall inequality in a variety of ways, undermining organized labor, doing away with the “outrage constraint” that used to limit executive paychecks, and more.
Oh, and taxes on the wealthy were, of course, sharply reduced.
Protesters march over the Brooklyn Bridge during an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York (Reuters)All of this was supposed to be justified by results: the paychecks of the wizards of Wall Street were appropriate, we were told, because of the wonderful things they did. Somehow, however, that wonderfulness failed to trickle down to the rest of the nation — and that was true even before the crisis. Median family income, adjusted for inflation, grew only about a fifth as much between 1980 and 2007 as it did in the generation following World War II, even though the postwar economy was marked both by strict financial regulation and by much higher tax rates on the wealthy than anything currently under political discussion.
Then came the crisis, which proved that all those claims about how modern finance had reduced risk and made the system more stable were utter nonsense. Government bailouts were all that saved us from a financial meltdown as bad as or worse than the one that caused the Great Depression.
Police officers reach into a crowd of protesters to make an arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge during an Occupy Wall Street march (Reuters)And what about the current situation? Wall Street pay has rebounded even as ordinary workers continue to suffer from high unemployment and falling real wages. Yet it’s harder than ever to see what, if anything, financiers are doing to earn that money.
Why, then, does Wall Street expect anyone to take its whining seriously? That money manager claiming that finance is the only thing America does well also complained that New York’s two Democratic senators aren’t on his side, declaring that “They need to understand who their constituency is.” Actually, they surely know very well who their constituency is — and even in New York, 16 out of 17 workers are employed by nonfinancial industries.
But he wasn’t really talking about voters, of course. He was talking about the one thing Wall Street still has plenty of thanks to those bailouts, despite its total loss of credibility: money.
Londoners joined the OWS global movement on SaturdayMoney talks in American politics, and what the financial industry’s money has been saying lately is that it will punish any politician who dares to criticize that industry’s behavior, no matter how gently — as evidenced by the way Wall Street money has now abandoned President Obama in favor of Mitt Romney. And this explains the industry’s shock over recent events.
The mayor went to inform the anti-corporate demonstrators that the owner of Zuccotti Park – where they began camping almost a month ago – plans to bring in power washers Friday.You see, until a few weeks ago it seemed as if Wall Street had effectively bribed and bullied our political system into forgetting about that whole drawing lavish paychecks while destroying the world economy thing. Then, all of a sudden, some people insisted on bringing the subject up again.
And their outrage has found resonance with millions of Americans. No wonder Wall Street is whining.
Via: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/opinion/krugman-wall-street-loses-its-immunity.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212#h[]
Saturday, October 8, 2011
US job figures for September bolster market confidence
Dominic Rushe in New York
guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 October 2011 15.00 BST
Non-farm payrolls show addition of 103,000 new jobs – exceeding Wall Street expectations by 43,000
The increase in employment partially reflected the return to payrolls of about 45,000 Verizon telecoms workers who had been on strike in August.
Photograph: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
The US economy added 103,000 new jobs in September, the labour department said on Friday.
The increase was larger than the 60,000 expected by Wall Street economists but left the 9.1% unemployment rate unchanged. Futures rose sharply ahead of the US stock markets opening, as the better than expected non-farm payroll numbers cheered investors, while the FTSE 100 index in London, which had been flat, jumped more than 70 points on the news.
The increase in employment partially reflected the return to payrolls of about 45,000 Verizon telecoms workers who had been on strike in August. The number of unemployed people, at 14m, remained essentially unchanged in September. Since April, the rate has held in a narrow range from 9% to 9.2%.
The report was strengthened by revisions that showed 99,000 more jobs added in July and August than initially reported. Hourly earnings rebounded and the average work week also rose.
Next week, president Barack Obama will present his latest job package to Washington and has called for both sides to vote it through. The $447bn (£287bn) jobs bill will not pass without Republican support and Obama and Treasury secretary Tim Geithner have called for bipartisan cooperation this week.
September's jobs figures were boosted by 137,000 new jobs in the private sector, a sign of growing confidence among private employers. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2% to $23.12 in September, reversing a drop in August. Economists had been expecting a 0.2% gain.
But employment was held back as the government continued to shed jobs, axing another 34,000 in the month. The US Postal Service lost 5,000 jobs over the month. Local government employment declined by 35,000, and has fallen by 535,000 since September 2008.
The labour department said that the number of people employed part time for economic reasons rose to 9.3m in September. These individuals, also known as involuntary part-time workers, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
Professional and business services and healthcare were among the brighter areas of the economy as far as new jobs are concerned. Employment in professional and business services increased by 48,000 over the month and has grown by 897,000 since a recent low in September 2009.
Construction also appears to be picking up with employment up 26,000 over the month, after showing little movement since February. The Labour department said the increases were a result of new jobs in the non-residential construction industries, which includes heavy and civil construction. Mining employment continued to rise in September.
Manufacturing employment was little changed in September and has been essentially flat for the past two months. In retail, employment declined in electronic and appliance stores. Employment in wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality changed little.
Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/07/us-job-numbers-rise-september
guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 October 2011 15.00 BST
Non-farm payrolls show addition of 103,000 new jobs – exceeding Wall Street expectations by 43,000
The increase in employment partially reflected the return to payrolls of about 45,000 Verizon telecoms workers who had been on strike in August.Photograph: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
The US economy added 103,000 new jobs in September, the labour department said on Friday.
The increase was larger than the 60,000 expected by Wall Street economists but left the 9.1% unemployment rate unchanged. Futures rose sharply ahead of the US stock markets opening, as the better than expected non-farm payroll numbers cheered investors, while the FTSE 100 index in London, which had been flat, jumped more than 70 points on the news.
The increase in employment partially reflected the return to payrolls of about 45,000 Verizon telecoms workers who had been on strike in August. The number of unemployed people, at 14m, remained essentially unchanged in September. Since April, the rate has held in a narrow range from 9% to 9.2%.
The report was strengthened by revisions that showed 99,000 more jobs added in July and August than initially reported. Hourly earnings rebounded and the average work week also rose.
Next week, president Barack Obama will present his latest job package to Washington and has called for both sides to vote it through. The $447bn (£287bn) jobs bill will not pass without Republican support and Obama and Treasury secretary Tim Geithner have called for bipartisan cooperation this week.
September's jobs figures were boosted by 137,000 new jobs in the private sector, a sign of growing confidence among private employers. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2% to $23.12 in September, reversing a drop in August. Economists had been expecting a 0.2% gain.
But employment was held back as the government continued to shed jobs, axing another 34,000 in the month. The US Postal Service lost 5,000 jobs over the month. Local government employment declined by 35,000, and has fallen by 535,000 since September 2008.
The labour department said that the number of people employed part time for economic reasons rose to 9.3m in September. These individuals, also known as involuntary part-time workers, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
Professional and business services and healthcare were among the brighter areas of the economy as far as new jobs are concerned. Employment in professional and business services increased by 48,000 over the month and has grown by 897,000 since a recent low in September 2009.
Construction also appears to be picking up with employment up 26,000 over the month, after showing little movement since February. The Labour department said the increases were a result of new jobs in the non-residential construction industries, which includes heavy and civil construction. Mining employment continued to rise in September.
Manufacturing employment was little changed in September and has been essentially flat for the past two months. In retail, employment declined in electronic and appliance stores. Employment in wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality changed little.
Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/07/us-job-numbers-rise-september
Banks downgraded as EU squabbles over next bailout
Reuters Oct 7, 2011 – 9:40 AM ET | Last Updated: Oct 7, 2011 11:20 AM ET
The logo of Belgian-French financial services group Dexia is seen at the bank headquarters in central Brussels.
Debt rating agencies had the knives out for some of Europe’s weakened banks on Friday, highlighting the pressure for decisive government action in support for the industry. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its ratings on nine Portuguese banks, citing the increased asset risk linked to their holdings of Portuguese government debt and the sovereign downgrade of Portugal in July. The same agency also cut the ratings of two top British banks, citing a likelihood of less state support in a future crisis as Britain sought to reassure investors the sector was well capitalised.
Meanwhile Standard and Poor’s downgraded the core banks of Franco-Belgian financial group Dexia — the bank which has come to epitomise the European debt crisis through its unusually large exposure to the debts of the euro zone’s weakest country, Greece.
Rival Fitch placed Dexia bank entities on rating watch negative. The downgrades come ahead of crucial summit talks on Sunday between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy and as diplomats detected a split between them over how any strengthening of banks should take place.
Portugal’s top listed bank Millennium bcp BCP.LS fell 2.8% on the downgrade news.
Moody’s said it expected a further deterioration of Portuguese banks’ domestic asset quality due to a weak economic growth outlook and government austerity measures, as well as liquidity strains due to a lack of access to wholesale funding.
Debt-laden Portugal is enacting painful tax hikes and spending cuts under a 78 billion euro EU/IMF bailout designed to shore up its public finances and restore investor confidence.
Banks have to boost their capital ratios under the bailout terms after becoming overly dependent on ECB funding. Moody’s cut its credit rating on Portugal by four notches to Ba2 in July.
“The key driver for the downgrades of most banks’ debt and deposit ratings is Moody’s assessment of the deterioration of their unsupported financial strength,” the ratings agency said.
The six banks whose standalone ratings and debt and deposit ratings were cut are the state-controlled Caixa Geral de Depositos, top listed bank Millennium bcp BCP.LS, Banco Espirito Santo, Banco BPI, Banco Santander Totta and Caixa Economica Montepio Geral.
Among the top listed banks, Moody’s cut Millennium bcp’s BCP.LS standalone rating by two notches to B1 — which is four notches below investment grade — citing concerns over its high reliance on wholesale funds, its exposure to Greece via its Greek subsidiary and weak profitability.
Britain, with its own currency, sits aloof from the euro zone sovereign debt crisis itself, but banks had been on review for possible downgrade as part of a trend where state support for lenders dates back to the 2008 crisis.
Concern is also growing that its banks may need more capital as part of a wider European move to shore up the industry.
Ratings agency Moody’s cut its rating on Royal Bank of Scotland by two notches, downgraded Lloyds by one notch, and cut its ratings on Santander UK, the UK arm of Spain’s Santander, the Co-Operative Bank, Nationwide Building Society and seven other smaller British building societies.
UK finance minister George Osborne said Britain’s banks remained well-capitalised and in better shape than many of their European rivals, who face bigger losses on holdings of peripheral euro zone debt.
“I am confident that British banks are well capitalised, they are liquid, they aren’t experiencing the kind of problems that some of the banks in the euro zone are experiencing at the moment,” Osborne said in an interview with BBC radio.
Standard and Poor’s downgrade of Dexia by one notch cited difficulties in securing wholesale funding and the need for increased collateral.
It comes at the end of a torrid week for the bank’s shares and ahead of a board meeting this coming weekend to hammer out a rescue plan that will break up the bank.
Bank recapitalisation needs are at the heart of the issue that has led to downgrades across the sector in Europe in recent weeks and months, even though the sector was widely refinanced after the 2008 crisis.
UK banks have raised over $120-billion in the last three years, forced by the government to raise low capital levels. Over the same period German banks have raised about $40-billion, Italian banks have raised $29-billion and French banks — seen as most in need of fresh funds — have raised $22-billion, according to Reuters data.
© Thomson Reuters 2011
Via: http://business.financialpost.com/2011/10/07/banks-downgraded-as-eu-squabbles-over-next-bailout/#more-98706
The logo of Belgian-French financial services group Dexia is seen at the bank headquarters in central Brussels.Debt rating agencies had the knives out for some of Europe’s weakened banks on Friday, highlighting the pressure for decisive government action in support for the industry. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its ratings on nine Portuguese banks, citing the increased asset risk linked to their holdings of Portuguese government debt and the sovereign downgrade of Portugal in July. The same agency also cut the ratings of two top British banks, citing a likelihood of less state support in a future crisis as Britain sought to reassure investors the sector was well capitalised.
Meanwhile Standard and Poor’s downgraded the core banks of Franco-Belgian financial group Dexia — the bank which has come to epitomise the European debt crisis through its unusually large exposure to the debts of the euro zone’s weakest country, Greece.
Rival Fitch placed Dexia bank entities on rating watch negative. The downgrades come ahead of crucial summit talks on Sunday between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy and as diplomats detected a split between them over how any strengthening of banks should take place.
Portugal’s top listed bank Millennium bcp BCP.LS fell 2.8% on the downgrade news.
Moody’s said it expected a further deterioration of Portuguese banks’ domestic asset quality due to a weak economic growth outlook and government austerity measures, as well as liquidity strains due to a lack of access to wholesale funding.
Debt-laden Portugal is enacting painful tax hikes and spending cuts under a 78 billion euro EU/IMF bailout designed to shore up its public finances and restore investor confidence.
Banks have to boost their capital ratios under the bailout terms after becoming overly dependent on ECB funding. Moody’s cut its credit rating on Portugal by four notches to Ba2 in July.
“The key driver for the downgrades of most banks’ debt and deposit ratings is Moody’s assessment of the deterioration of their unsupported financial strength,” the ratings agency said.
The six banks whose standalone ratings and debt and deposit ratings were cut are the state-controlled Caixa Geral de Depositos, top listed bank Millennium bcp BCP.LS, Banco Espirito Santo, Banco BPI, Banco Santander Totta and Caixa Economica Montepio Geral.
Among the top listed banks, Moody’s cut Millennium bcp’s BCP.LS standalone rating by two notches to B1 — which is four notches below investment grade — citing concerns over its high reliance on wholesale funds, its exposure to Greece via its Greek subsidiary and weak profitability.
Britain, with its own currency, sits aloof from the euro zone sovereign debt crisis itself, but banks had been on review for possible downgrade as part of a trend where state support for lenders dates back to the 2008 crisis.
Concern is also growing that its banks may need more capital as part of a wider European move to shore up the industry.
Ratings agency Moody’s cut its rating on Royal Bank of Scotland by two notches, downgraded Lloyds by one notch, and cut its ratings on Santander UK, the UK arm of Spain’s Santander, the Co-Operative Bank, Nationwide Building Society and seven other smaller British building societies.
UK finance minister George Osborne said Britain’s banks remained well-capitalised and in better shape than many of their European rivals, who face bigger losses on holdings of peripheral euro zone debt.
“I am confident that British banks are well capitalised, they are liquid, they aren’t experiencing the kind of problems that some of the banks in the euro zone are experiencing at the moment,” Osborne said in an interview with BBC radio.
Standard and Poor’s downgrade of Dexia by one notch cited difficulties in securing wholesale funding and the need for increased collateral.
It comes at the end of a torrid week for the bank’s shares and ahead of a board meeting this coming weekend to hammer out a rescue plan that will break up the bank.
Bank recapitalisation needs are at the heart of the issue that has led to downgrades across the sector in Europe in recent weeks and months, even though the sector was widely refinanced after the 2008 crisis.
UK banks have raised over $120-billion in the last three years, forced by the government to raise low capital levels. Over the same period German banks have raised about $40-billion, Italian banks have raised $29-billion and French banks — seen as most in need of fresh funds — have raised $22-billion, according to Reuters data.
© Thomson Reuters 2011
Via: http://business.financialpost.com/2011/10/07/banks-downgraded-as-eu-squabbles-over-next-bailout/#more-98706
Circle Line now open for boarding
By Dylan Loh | Posted: 08 October 2011 1053 hrs
HarbourFront Circle Line station.
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Circle Line rail network got off to a start on the first day of full operations, with the remaining 12 train stations from HarbourFront to Caldecott opening on Saturday morning.
It's also the first day of higher fares for bus and train rides, with adults who use the EZ-link card paying about two cents more per ride.
But that didn't stop self-professed trainspotter Jay Tan from hopping on.
The 23-year-old waiter took one of the first trains out, just after 5.30am.
He said: "Well I'm on one of the first trains out and it's been a smooth journey so far. Very few people on board. I suspect because most would prefer sleeping in on a Saturday morning. But not reporters like me, my hardworking camera crew and of course, a few train enthusiasts.
"I'm too excited, I (couldn't) sleep last night ... I wanted to board the first train. I also like to board the bus, take a bus photo at the bus stop outside the bus interchange doing bus spotting or trainspotting, sometimes. Like either the new train or new bus, I really like it very much."
Another commuter Samuel Gan said: "The air-con was like malfunctioning because like one moment was like you are in the desert, then suddenly in the other moment like you are in the Arctic."
Several commuters said they'll switch to the Circle Line.
A girl said:" "The bus service is very crowded, quite jam after work. So I need to use this."
A man said: "It's a very good connector to people and places. I really am glad that it is done after so many years."
Another commuter shared the same sentiment: "It's very convenient for me. Otherwise, I need to take the bus."
With plenty of other passengers expected, preparations were in place to welcome them.
Jack Chan, manager, Station Operations, SMRT Rail Operations Division, said: "We have over 200 over staff who have gone through six months of intensive training. (Additionally) they have actually also gone through three months of trial running to lead-up until today.
"(Also) we have employed about 50 over staff for the first week for this opening, most of which we have concentrated at the interchanges because we expect more people at these stations."
With the Circle Line fully open, travel time can be shortened by up to 17 minutes.
Via: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1158006/1/.html
HarbourFront Circle Line station.SINGAPORE: Singapore's Circle Line rail network got off to a start on the first day of full operations, with the remaining 12 train stations from HarbourFront to Caldecott opening on Saturday morning.
It's also the first day of higher fares for bus and train rides, with adults who use the EZ-link card paying about two cents more per ride.
But that didn't stop self-professed trainspotter Jay Tan from hopping on.
The 23-year-old waiter took one of the first trains out, just after 5.30am.
He said: "Well I'm on one of the first trains out and it's been a smooth journey so far. Very few people on board. I suspect because most would prefer sleeping in on a Saturday morning. But not reporters like me, my hardworking camera crew and of course, a few train enthusiasts.
"I'm too excited, I (couldn't) sleep last night ... I wanted to board the first train. I also like to board the bus, take a bus photo at the bus stop outside the bus interchange doing bus spotting or trainspotting, sometimes. Like either the new train or new bus, I really like it very much."
Another commuter Samuel Gan said: "The air-con was like malfunctioning because like one moment was like you are in the desert, then suddenly in the other moment like you are in the Arctic."
Several commuters said they'll switch to the Circle Line.
A girl said:" "The bus service is very crowded, quite jam after work. So I need to use this."
A man said: "It's a very good connector to people and places. I really am glad that it is done after so many years."
Another commuter shared the same sentiment: "It's very convenient for me. Otherwise, I need to take the bus."
With plenty of other passengers expected, preparations were in place to welcome them.
Jack Chan, manager, Station Operations, SMRT Rail Operations Division, said: "We have over 200 over staff who have gone through six months of intensive training. (Additionally) they have actually also gone through three months of trial running to lead-up until today.
"(Also) we have employed about 50 over staff for the first week for this opening, most of which we have concentrated at the interchanges because we expect more people at these stations."
With the Circle Line fully open, travel time can be shortened by up to 17 minutes.
Via: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1158006/1/.html
Eurozone banking collapse: Dexia is gone, who’s next?
October 7, 2011 • 10:09AM
The Dexia bank headquarters in Brussels
(Nouvelle Solidarité) — To cover up the fact that the giant Belgo-French Dexia Bank went bankrupt on October 5, it was decided to avoid the word “bankruptcy” and call it “organized break-up.” Yesterday, when shares dropped dramatically by 17.24% the Belgian government decided to suspend their quotation on the Brussels stock market till Monday. Dexia’s motto was “short term has no future.” The bank plays a key role in helping some US states and cities raise funds. Concerns about its health have caused their borrowing costs to rise.
Dexia was created in 1996 when Credit Local de France merged with Credit Communal de Belgique. The company combined France and Belgium's biggest municipal lenders providing finance for spending on schools, public transport, street lighting and other locally controlled budgets. The aim was to strengthen the business ahead of the euro's launch in 1999. The single currency's introduction was expected to increase competition across the bloc's banking sector. Over subsequent years, Dexia continued to expand. It took control of the Italian lender Crediop, Belgium's Artesia Banking Corporation, the Israeli bank Otzar Hashilton Hamekomi and Turkey's DenizBank. Trouble of Dexia started when it bought the US asset management and bond insurance unit, FSA which lost big with the subprime debacle. Close to bankruptcy, Dexia was saved in September 2008 with a 6.4 billion euro bailout by France, Belgium and Luxemburg.
Besides the vast amount of old “toxic assets” conserved in Dexia’s “legacy division”, today, what provoked collapse it’s the euro crisis. Dexia has 3.4 billion euros exposure to Greek government bonds. Analysts estimate it has a further 17.5 billion euros of exposure to sovereign debt issued by Italy, Spain, Portugal and other troubled eurozone economies.
Ironically, on July 15, Dexia passed the banking stress tests carried out by the European Banking Authority and announced in a press release: “2011 EU-wide stress test results: no need for Dexia to raise additional capital”. The problem is that the tests did not take into account a scenario in which Greece might default on its bonds. Dexia has written down the value some of its long-term Greek holdings by 21%. However, some speculate that creditors may ultimately have to absorb a 50-60% loss.
The other direct factor was that Dexia relied mostly on short-term funds, which are renewed on a rolling basis. But the access to those funds is no longer there because of market concerns about its exposure to the euro periphery and the requirement of higher collateral.
The main shareholder of Dexia, the largest Belgian corporation, is the French state institution Caisse des Dépôts et des Consignations (CDC) with 17.7%. Second largest is the Belgian Holding Communal (14.1%) which belongs to Belgian municipalities and regional governments. Tomorrow the management will meet tomorrow to decide on the sale of the different components of the bank.
Dexia Bank is a giant holding with five legs which are now cut off and sold separately to the most offering.
1) Dexia Banque International du Luxembourg (BIL), is a private bank with 12 billion euros of assets and some 40 agencies. Discussions have started with Qatar for a takeover. 2) Dexia Crédit Local (DCL), formerly the “Crédit Local” is the main source of financing of French municipalities and cities. They became notorious for their scheme of “toxic loans” with rates adjustable on exotic indexes. This part would be taken back directly by the French CDC. 3) Denizban is a real deposit bank in Turkey. The Russian Sberbank started exclusive talks with Dexia for a takeover. 4) Dexia Bank Belgique (DBB) is also a real commercial bank. Belgium announced they consider nationalizing it. Belgian citizens already pulled out 300 million euros in cash in what is the beginning of a bank run. 5) Dexia Asset Management (DAM), also for sale.
Once everything is sold, Dexia Bank as such, will remain stuck with 95 billion euros of “toxic assets” with a 13 year lifespan in short a “bad bank”. But Sarkozy wants to save it with French and Belgian state guarantees and have the Caisse des Dépots and Banque Postal, to take over the 95 billion of toxic junks of Dexia Municipal Agency (Dexma)! In short, the old monetarist trick of “privatizing profit and socializing losses.”
So far, as confirmed by inside sources, the Caisse des Dépôts is at war with Sarkozy and the Finance Ministry (Bercy) and refuses to bail out Dexia in fear of losing its own AAA rating. Former Finance Minister Laurent Fabius declared on Wednesday morning that such a state guarantee would affect France’s AAA rating. In an immediate response, the president of the Banque de France Christian Noyer, a staunch opponent of Glass-Steagall, said this was all untrue, since the European statistical agency Eurostat doesn’t consider such garantees “as debt” and therefore no consequences are to be feared. Noyer was rebuked by the rating agencies which declared that indeed they took into consideration such guarantees.
From the propaganda side, the financial media lies this to be “not a new Lehman Brothers” but only a “new Bear Sterns” whose failure should have provoked a recapitalization of all the banks to avoid more dramatic bankruptcies afterwards.
Via: http://www.larouchepac.com/node/19751
The Dexia bank headquarters in Brussels(Nouvelle Solidarité) — To cover up the fact that the giant Belgo-French Dexia Bank went bankrupt on October 5, it was decided to avoid the word “bankruptcy” and call it “organized break-up.” Yesterday, when shares dropped dramatically by 17.24% the Belgian government decided to suspend their quotation on the Brussels stock market till Monday. Dexia’s motto was “short term has no future.” The bank plays a key role in helping some US states and cities raise funds. Concerns about its health have caused their borrowing costs to rise.
Dexia was created in 1996 when Credit Local de France merged with Credit Communal de Belgique. The company combined France and Belgium's biggest municipal lenders providing finance for spending on schools, public transport, street lighting and other locally controlled budgets. The aim was to strengthen the business ahead of the euro's launch in 1999. The single currency's introduction was expected to increase competition across the bloc's banking sector. Over subsequent years, Dexia continued to expand. It took control of the Italian lender Crediop, Belgium's Artesia Banking Corporation, the Israeli bank Otzar Hashilton Hamekomi and Turkey's DenizBank. Trouble of Dexia started when it bought the US asset management and bond insurance unit, FSA which lost big with the subprime debacle. Close to bankruptcy, Dexia was saved in September 2008 with a 6.4 billion euro bailout by France, Belgium and Luxemburg.
Besides the vast amount of old “toxic assets” conserved in Dexia’s “legacy division”, today, what provoked collapse it’s the euro crisis. Dexia has 3.4 billion euros exposure to Greek government bonds. Analysts estimate it has a further 17.5 billion euros of exposure to sovereign debt issued by Italy, Spain, Portugal and other troubled eurozone economies.
Ironically, on July 15, Dexia passed the banking stress tests carried out by the European Banking Authority and announced in a press release: “2011 EU-wide stress test results: no need for Dexia to raise additional capital”. The problem is that the tests did not take into account a scenario in which Greece might default on its bonds. Dexia has written down the value some of its long-term Greek holdings by 21%. However, some speculate that creditors may ultimately have to absorb a 50-60% loss.
The other direct factor was that Dexia relied mostly on short-term funds, which are renewed on a rolling basis. But the access to those funds is no longer there because of market concerns about its exposure to the euro periphery and the requirement of higher collateral.
The main shareholder of Dexia, the largest Belgian corporation, is the French state institution Caisse des Dépôts et des Consignations (CDC) with 17.7%. Second largest is the Belgian Holding Communal (14.1%) which belongs to Belgian municipalities and regional governments. Tomorrow the management will meet tomorrow to decide on the sale of the different components of the bank.
Dexia Bank is a giant holding with five legs which are now cut off and sold separately to the most offering.
1) Dexia Banque International du Luxembourg (BIL), is a private bank with 12 billion euros of assets and some 40 agencies. Discussions have started with Qatar for a takeover. 2) Dexia Crédit Local (DCL), formerly the “Crédit Local” is the main source of financing of French municipalities and cities. They became notorious for their scheme of “toxic loans” with rates adjustable on exotic indexes. This part would be taken back directly by the French CDC. 3) Denizban is a real deposit bank in Turkey. The Russian Sberbank started exclusive talks with Dexia for a takeover. 4) Dexia Bank Belgique (DBB) is also a real commercial bank. Belgium announced they consider nationalizing it. Belgian citizens already pulled out 300 million euros in cash in what is the beginning of a bank run. 5) Dexia Asset Management (DAM), also for sale.
Once everything is sold, Dexia Bank as such, will remain stuck with 95 billion euros of “toxic assets” with a 13 year lifespan in short a “bad bank”. But Sarkozy wants to save it with French and Belgian state guarantees and have the Caisse des Dépots and Banque Postal, to take over the 95 billion of toxic junks of Dexia Municipal Agency (Dexma)! In short, the old monetarist trick of “privatizing profit and socializing losses.”
So far, as confirmed by inside sources, the Caisse des Dépôts is at war with Sarkozy and the Finance Ministry (Bercy) and refuses to bail out Dexia in fear of losing its own AAA rating. Former Finance Minister Laurent Fabius declared on Wednesday morning that such a state guarantee would affect France’s AAA rating. In an immediate response, the president of the Banque de France Christian Noyer, a staunch opponent of Glass-Steagall, said this was all untrue, since the European statistical agency Eurostat doesn’t consider such garantees “as debt” and therefore no consequences are to be feared. Noyer was rebuked by the rating agencies which declared that indeed they took into consideration such guarantees.
From the propaganda side, the financial media lies this to be “not a new Lehman Brothers” but only a “new Bear Sterns” whose failure should have provoked a recapitalization of all the banks to avoid more dramatic bankruptcies afterwards.
Via: http://www.larouchepac.com/node/19751
2012財政預算案，100個重點
2012年財政預算案 2011-10-07 22:00
●推動投資：
1.開放17個服務業副領域
2.落實總值984億令吉的第二轉型藍圖
3.推動價值5千萬令吉以上的新計劃
4.公共與私人界（PPP）聯合管理25億令吉的“便利基金”（Dana Mudahcara）
5.發展價值9億780萬令吉的5個區域走廊（Wilayah Koridor）
6.60億令吉的特別振興配套
●刺激中小型企業：
7.總值20億令吉符合伊斯蘭法的中小型企業承擔基金――政府將承擔2%利潤
8.總值5億令吉，符合伊斯蘭法的中小型企業創新基金――政府將承擔2%的利潤
9.總值1億令吉的中小型企業重整基金（SME Revitalisation Fund），讓有關企業家重新發展生意
10.總值1千萬令吉的中小型企業緊急基金，以援助受天然災難影響的中小型企業
●激發創意及創新： （2012年-啟動創新的年份）
11.在學校及國立高等學府推行“滲透及發展創新計劃”
12.開發創新計劃以激發年輕人的新創意
13.推介1個馬來西亞發明獎勵
14.在媒體推行真實與紀錄片計劃
15.準備3千萬令吉的市場測試基金
16.商業化300項新智慧產權的產品或新科技，國民總收入預計300億令吉
17.舉辦全球創新論壇及亞洲經濟天使論壇。
●教育：
18.10億令吉的興建、提昇及維修特別基金
19.取消小學24令吉50仙及中學33令吉50仙的附加費
20.全國每名小學生，中一至中五的中學生每人可獲得100令吉的求學援助
21.在高等學府、預科班及中六學生求學的大馬學生可獲得每人200令吉的購書禮券
22.個人或公司捐助學校活動可獲得扣稅
●郊區轉型計劃：
23.推行10億令吉的郊區轉型計劃
24.成立郊區轉型中心作為服務交流中心，特別是在吉打、柔佛、沙巴及沙拉越。
25.設立1億令吉的專業服務基金讓專業群體借貸，利息為4%
26.在11個農業計劃地區實行1億1千100萬令吉的郊區大型提昇計劃
27.發展郊區的基本設施，包括水電供應、住家及道路，價值50億令吉
28.價值5億令吉的公共基本維修計劃
29.在沙巴及砂拉越實行水供分配計劃，以及水供系統設施，同時在園坵進行乾淨水供設施（價值5千萬令吉以銜接水管及給予家庭水費）
30.使銀行服務普及，遴選5千個國家銀行代理
31.郊區巴士服務
32.原住民福利―發展及遷移計劃
公務員調薪7至13%
●公共服務領域：
33.成立退出政策（Dasar pemisah／exit policy）
34.改善公務員的薪金架構：調薪7至13%、根據等級調高公務員的年薪，調幅從80令吉至320令吉
35.根據年資來提昇公務員計劃：等級48的老師-SSM（服務20年以上）、SBPA（16年以上）
36.提高退休年齡，從58歲提高至60歲
37.增加半個月的花紅或500令吉
38.提供進修援助，學士（2萬個）、碩士（5千個）及博士（500個）
39.士兵照顧計劃——提昇及維修軍營
●退休公務員者前合約公務員：
40.退休的政府公務員：享有退休金調整、落實每年調整2%退休金
41.給予3千令吉特別費用予在特別事務局及社會發展局的合約職員
42.支付3千令吉特別費用予曾經在緊急狀態保護國家安全的退伍警員或輔警、他們的遺孀或鰥夫
43.讓退休軍人參與特別培訓計劃，以便投身商界
●應付通膨及抒緩人民生活壓力：
44.月入3千令吉及以下的家庭，將獲得500令吉的現金援助
45.持續提供總額332億令吉的補貼、獎掖和援助
46.持續為低收入家庭提供20令吉的電費補貼
47.增建一個大馬商店，以為消費人提供比市價便宜40%的物品
48.在全國開設30間人民農產品市場
49.促銷一個大馬人民菜單
50.擴大園坵合約計劃範圍，讓4千500家農戶受惠
51.提供一個大馬人民福利計劃（KAR1SMA）
●人民房屋計劃：
52.“我的首間房屋計劃”――將提高夫婦貸款頂額，由22萬令吉增至40萬令吉
53.一個大馬人民房屋計劃（PR1MA）擴大範圍至巴生河流域以外的地方，有1千880個單位
54.通過伊斯蘭貸款條規，可借貸不超過60萬令吉購買先建後售房屋
55.在全國興建1萬5千個單位的人民房屋計劃
56.政府津貼一萬個單位的人民親善房屋計劃（Program Rumah Mesra），每間2萬令吉
57.漁民房屋特別基金將為漁民提供更舒適和居住條件更好的房屋
●認同樂齡人士的貢獻：
58.樂齡門診病人都能在所有政府醫院、診療所，包括“一個大馬診所”和牙科單位，獲得免費醫療服務
59.樂齡者使用輕快鐵和單軌火車服務，一律折扣50%
●優質醫療服務：
60.興建醫院，81所診療所，50間一個大馬診所
61.提昇布城醫院婦產部，以及吉隆坡中央醫院的水平
62.為醫護人員提供更彈性的工作時間表，提高夜班急召津貼，從現有的30令吉增至80令吉
●一個大馬人民信託計劃：
63.推行一個大馬人民信託計劃（SARA 1 Malaysia），預料有10萬個月入低過3千令吉的家庭受惠。這項投資提供具吸引力的回酬保證。
●提昇土著社會：
64.提供3億令吉的土著便利基金
65.引導1千100家有潛能的土著公司
66.鄉村發展及區域部將推動土著企業和承包商發展計劃
●減輕廉價德士業者和出租車負擔：
67.購買本地製造新德士者，可豁免100%國內稅和銷售稅
68.7年以上車齡德士的買賣和轉手，豁免退回國內稅和銷售稅
69.廢除私人擁有的廉價德士的路稅
70.購買本地製造的新德士可獲2%利息津貼
71.更換舊德士者獲援助——7至10年獲3千令吉，10年以上獲1千援助
72.廉價德士業者整體受惠額是7千560令吉
●全國法律援助資金：
73.為無能力付還高昂的律師費者提供免費的法律援助
●收留中心：
74.提供稱為ANJUNG SINGGAH的社會援助服務中心，為居無定所者提供臨時的保護
●認同和發揚婦女的角色：
75.提供適當的培訓計劃，吸引專業婦女重返職場
76.免費提供人乳頭瘤病毒（HPV）的疫苗注射服務——5千萬令吉
77.大馬計劃信託基金（AIM）將為企業家提供21億令吉的種族微型貸款
78.興建吉隆坡婦女和兒童醫院
●青年是未來的推動力：
79.政府成立My Creative Venture Capital風險投資公司，是鼓勵更多年輕人加入創意工業行列的公司。
80.一個大馬青年行動策略（SAY 1 Malaysia）。
81.全國增建150個室內足球場，以實現“一個地區，一個球場”的目標。
82.30個仿造草草場將設立泛光燈。
●提早為朝聖作登記：
83.允許通過公積金第二戶口款項提早進行朝聖登記。
稅務獎掖
●銀行、金融和投資領域：
84.為了吸引投資者選擇大馬為財務管理服務公司首要據點，投資者獲70%所得稅豁免，為期5年
85.繳付貸款利息可豁免預繳稅
86.貸款合約和服務合約豁免印花稅
87.發展吉隆坡國際金融中心享有的稅務獎掖配套，將包括所得稅全免，為期10年
88.擁有吉隆坡國際金融中心地位的公司，將獲貸款和服務合約豁免印花稅
89.從2012年開始發行伊斯蘭債券代理費可獲扣稅長達3年
90.非令吉伊斯蘭債券發行及交易所享有的豁免所得稅優惠，將延長3年
91.非企業和個人投資者在產業投資信託所作的投資所享有的10%特許經營稅收將延長5年
92.特許經營權經營者所承擔的特許經營權費用將獲得扣
93.特許經營權持有者進口油電混合車所享有的入口和國內稅豁免，將延長至2013年
●酒店業：
94.在半島投資建設全新的四星和五星級酒店，70%的收入可獲免稅，或60%的投資稅津貼，為期5年
●稅務津貼：
95.重新檢討產業盈利稅率（RPGT），以制止房地產的投機情況
96.豁免設計服務業高達70%的所得稅，長達5年
97.私立學校將享有稅務津貼，例如豁免高達70%盈利稅，或在5年內享有100%的資本開銷的稅務津貼
98.捐款予中小學，如國民中小學、國民型中小學、宗教學校或已註冊的宗教場所，將可獲得減稅
99.政府將為私人公司提供稅務優惠，以便讓私人公司強化高技能的人力資本發展，私人界給予實習生的津貼將享有2次的稅務回扣
100.私人界公積金及保險年金將享有稅務獎掖
【熱點新聞：2012年財政預算案】
转自：http://www.sinchew-i.com/sciWWW/node/244764?tid=783
●推動投資：
1.開放17個服務業副領域
2.落實總值984億令吉的第二轉型藍圖
3.推動價值5千萬令吉以上的新計劃
4.公共與私人界（PPP）聯合管理25億令吉的“便利基金”（Dana Mudahcara）
5.發展價值9億780萬令吉的5個區域走廊（Wilayah Koridor）
6.60億令吉的特別振興配套
●刺激中小型企業：
7.總值20億令吉符合伊斯蘭法的中小型企業承擔基金――政府將承擔2%利潤
8.總值5億令吉，符合伊斯蘭法的中小型企業創新基金――政府將承擔2%的利潤
9.總值1億令吉的中小型企業重整基金（SME Revitalisation Fund），讓有關企業家重新發展生意
10.總值1千萬令吉的中小型企業緊急基金，以援助受天然災難影響的中小型企業
●激發創意及創新： （2012年-啟動創新的年份）
11.在學校及國立高等學府推行“滲透及發展創新計劃”
12.開發創新計劃以激發年輕人的新創意
13.推介1個馬來西亞發明獎勵
14.在媒體推行真實與紀錄片計劃
15.準備3千萬令吉的市場測試基金
16.商業化300項新智慧產權的產品或新科技，國民總收入預計300億令吉
17.舉辦全球創新論壇及亞洲經濟天使論壇。
●教育：
18.10億令吉的興建、提昇及維修特別基金
19.取消小學24令吉50仙及中學33令吉50仙的附加費
20.全國每名小學生，中一至中五的中學生每人可獲得100令吉的求學援助
21.在高等學府、預科班及中六學生求學的大馬學生可獲得每人200令吉的購書禮券
22.個人或公司捐助學校活動可獲得扣稅
●郊區轉型計劃：
23.推行10億令吉的郊區轉型計劃
24.成立郊區轉型中心作為服務交流中心，特別是在吉打、柔佛、沙巴及沙拉越。
25.設立1億令吉的專業服務基金讓專業群體借貸，利息為4%
26.在11個農業計劃地區實行1億1千100萬令吉的郊區大型提昇計劃
27.發展郊區的基本設施，包括水電供應、住家及道路，價值50億令吉
28.價值5億令吉的公共基本維修計劃
29.在沙巴及砂拉越實行水供分配計劃，以及水供系統設施，同時在園坵進行乾淨水供設施（價值5千萬令吉以銜接水管及給予家庭水費）
30.使銀行服務普及，遴選5千個國家銀行代理
31.郊區巴士服務
32.原住民福利―發展及遷移計劃
公務員調薪7至13%
●公共服務領域：
33.成立退出政策（Dasar pemisah／exit policy）
34.改善公務員的薪金架構：調薪7至13%、根據等級調高公務員的年薪，調幅從80令吉至320令吉
35.根據年資來提昇公務員計劃：等級48的老師-SSM（服務20年以上）、SBPA（16年以上）
36.提高退休年齡，從58歲提高至60歲
37.增加半個月的花紅或500令吉
38.提供進修援助，學士（2萬個）、碩士（5千個）及博士（500個）
39.士兵照顧計劃——提昇及維修軍營
●退休公務員者前合約公務員：
40.退休的政府公務員：享有退休金調整、落實每年調整2%退休金
41.給予3千令吉特別費用予在特別事務局及社會發展局的合約職員
42.支付3千令吉特別費用予曾經在緊急狀態保護國家安全的退伍警員或輔警、他們的遺孀或鰥夫
43.讓退休軍人參與特別培訓計劃，以便投身商界
●應付通膨及抒緩人民生活壓力：
44.月入3千令吉及以下的家庭，將獲得500令吉的現金援助
45.持續提供總額332億令吉的補貼、獎掖和援助
46.持續為低收入家庭提供20令吉的電費補貼
47.增建一個大馬商店，以為消費人提供比市價便宜40%的物品
48.在全國開設30間人民農產品市場
49.促銷一個大馬人民菜單
50.擴大園坵合約計劃範圍，讓4千500家農戶受惠
51.提供一個大馬人民福利計劃（KAR1SMA）
●人民房屋計劃：
52.“我的首間房屋計劃”――將提高夫婦貸款頂額，由22萬令吉增至40萬令吉
53.一個大馬人民房屋計劃（PR1MA）擴大範圍至巴生河流域以外的地方，有1千880個單位
54.通過伊斯蘭貸款條規，可借貸不超過60萬令吉購買先建後售房屋
55.在全國興建1萬5千個單位的人民房屋計劃
56.政府津貼一萬個單位的人民親善房屋計劃（Program Rumah Mesra），每間2萬令吉
57.漁民房屋特別基金將為漁民提供更舒適和居住條件更好的房屋
●認同樂齡人士的貢獻：
58.樂齡門診病人都能在所有政府醫院、診療所，包括“一個大馬診所”和牙科單位，獲得免費醫療服務
59.樂齡者使用輕快鐵和單軌火車服務，一律折扣50%
●優質醫療服務：
60.興建醫院，81所診療所，50間一個大馬診所
61.提昇布城醫院婦產部，以及吉隆坡中央醫院的水平
62.為醫護人員提供更彈性的工作時間表，提高夜班急召津貼，從現有的30令吉增至80令吉
●一個大馬人民信託計劃：
63.推行一個大馬人民信託計劃（SARA 1 Malaysia），預料有10萬個月入低過3千令吉的家庭受惠。這項投資提供具吸引力的回酬保證。
●提昇土著社會：
64.提供3億令吉的土著便利基金
65.引導1千100家有潛能的土著公司
66.鄉村發展及區域部將推動土著企業和承包商發展計劃
●減輕廉價德士業者和出租車負擔：
67.購買本地製造新德士者，可豁免100%國內稅和銷售稅
68.7年以上車齡德士的買賣和轉手，豁免退回國內稅和銷售稅
69.廢除私人擁有的廉價德士的路稅
70.購買本地製造的新德士可獲2%利息津貼
71.更換舊德士者獲援助——7至10年獲3千令吉，10年以上獲1千援助
72.廉價德士業者整體受惠額是7千560令吉
●全國法律援助資金：
73.為無能力付還高昂的律師費者提供免費的法律援助
●收留中心：
74.提供稱為ANJUNG SINGGAH的社會援助服務中心，為居無定所者提供臨時的保護
●認同和發揚婦女的角色：
75.提供適當的培訓計劃，吸引專業婦女重返職場
76.免費提供人乳頭瘤病毒（HPV）的疫苗注射服務——5千萬令吉
77.大馬計劃信託基金（AIM）將為企業家提供21億令吉的種族微型貸款
78.興建吉隆坡婦女和兒童醫院
●青年是未來的推動力：
79.政府成立My Creative Venture Capital風險投資公司，是鼓勵更多年輕人加入創意工業行列的公司。
80.一個大馬青年行動策略（SAY 1 Malaysia）。
81.全國增建150個室內足球場，以實現“一個地區，一個球場”的目標。
82.30個仿造草草場將設立泛光燈。
●提早為朝聖作登記：
83.允許通過公積金第二戶口款項提早進行朝聖登記。
稅務獎掖
●銀行、金融和投資領域：
84.為了吸引投資者選擇大馬為財務管理服務公司首要據點，投資者獲70%所得稅豁免，為期5年
85.繳付貸款利息可豁免預繳稅
86.貸款合約和服務合約豁免印花稅
87.發展吉隆坡國際金融中心享有的稅務獎掖配套，將包括所得稅全免，為期10年
88.擁有吉隆坡國際金融中心地位的公司，將獲貸款和服務合約豁免印花稅
89.從2012年開始發行伊斯蘭債券代理費可獲扣稅長達3年
90.非令吉伊斯蘭債券發行及交易所享有的豁免所得稅優惠，將延長3年
91.非企業和個人投資者在產業投資信託所作的投資所享有的10%特許經營稅收將延長5年
92.特許經營權經營者所承擔的特許經營權費用將獲得扣
93.特許經營權持有者進口油電混合車所享有的入口和國內稅豁免，將延長至2013年
●酒店業：
94.在半島投資建設全新的四星和五星級酒店，70%的收入可獲免稅，或60%的投資稅津貼，為期5年
●稅務津貼：
95.重新檢討產業盈利稅率（RPGT），以制止房地產的投機情況
96.豁免設計服務業高達70%的所得稅，長達5年
97.私立學校將享有稅務津貼，例如豁免高達70%盈利稅，或在5年內享有100%的資本開銷的稅務津貼
98.捐款予中小學，如國民中小學、國民型中小學、宗教學校或已註冊的宗教場所，將可獲得減稅
99.政府將為私人公司提供稅務優惠，以便讓私人公司強化高技能的人力資本發展，私人界給予實習生的津貼將享有2次的稅務回扣
100.私人界公積金及保險年金將享有稅務獎掖
【熱點新聞：2012年財政預算案】
转自：http://www.sinchew-i.com/sciWWW/node/244764?tid=783
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Greek debt tragedy hits markets again
04:46 AM Oct 04, 2011
ATHENS - World stock markets kicked off the fourth quarter on a dismal note as Greece's admission that it will miss its deficit target raised new doubts over a planned second bailout.
The news from Athens brought the spectre of a debt default even closer and weighed on talks among euro zone finance ministers in Luxembourg yesterday on the next steps to try to resolve the currency area's sovereign debt crisis.
About half an hour after the opening bell in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 per cent, extending Friday's 2.2 per cent loss. Late in Europe, London's FTSE was down 2 per cent, Germany's DAX was 2.8 per cent lower as Greece's ATHEX fell 2.9 per cent. Earlier, in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumped 4.4 per cent on heavy fund selling and Japan's Nikkei lost 1.8 per cent. China was closed for holidays.
The euro fell 0.5 per cent to US$1.3314 (S$1.74683), its lowest level since Jan 18 while gold jumped 2.1 per cent to US$1,657 an ounce. The draft budget sent to the Greek parliament yesterday showed this year's deficit would be 8.5 per cent of gross domestic product, much worse than the 7.6 per cent agreed in the bailout programme between Athens, the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that the 2012 fiscal targets would be met in absolute terms and Greece would have a primary surplus before debt service for the first time in many years. However, next year's deficit is projected to be 6.8 per cent of GDP, rather than the 6.5 per cent EU/IMF goal, because the economy is set to shrink by a further 2.5 per cent after a record 5.5 per cent contraction in 2011.
Deeper-than-forecast recession means public debt will be equivalent to 161.8 per cent of GDP this year, rising to 172.7 per cent next year, the highest in Europe.
Deputy Finance Minister Pantelis Oikonomou said the EU and IMF inspectors had "essentially concluded" negotiations to give Greece a crucial 8 billion euro instalment of aid to avert bankruptcy. The 17 euro zone ministers are set to decide on the funds at a special meeting on Oct 13, just days before Greece would run out of cash.
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Business/EDC111004-0000163/Greek-debt-tragedy-hits-markets-again
ATHENS - World stock markets kicked off the fourth quarter on a dismal note as Greece's admission that it will miss its deficit target raised new doubts over a planned second bailout.
The news from Athens brought the spectre of a debt default even closer and weighed on talks among euro zone finance ministers in Luxembourg yesterday on the next steps to try to resolve the currency area's sovereign debt crisis.
About half an hour after the opening bell in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 per cent, extending Friday's 2.2 per cent loss. Late in Europe, London's FTSE was down 2 per cent, Germany's DAX was 2.8 per cent lower as Greece's ATHEX fell 2.9 per cent. Earlier, in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumped 4.4 per cent on heavy fund selling and Japan's Nikkei lost 1.8 per cent. China was closed for holidays.
The euro fell 0.5 per cent to US$1.3314 (S$1.74683), its lowest level since Jan 18 while gold jumped 2.1 per cent to US$1,657 an ounce. The draft budget sent to the Greek parliament yesterday showed this year's deficit would be 8.5 per cent of gross domestic product, much worse than the 7.6 per cent agreed in the bailout programme between Athens, the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that the 2012 fiscal targets would be met in absolute terms and Greece would have a primary surplus before debt service for the first time in many years. However, next year's deficit is projected to be 6.8 per cent of GDP, rather than the 6.5 per cent EU/IMF goal, because the economy is set to shrink by a further 2.5 per cent after a record 5.5 per cent contraction in 2011.
Deeper-than-forecast recession means public debt will be equivalent to 161.8 per cent of GDP this year, rising to 172.7 per cent next year, the highest in Europe.
Deputy Finance Minister Pantelis Oikonomou said the EU and IMF inspectors had "essentially concluded" negotiations to give Greece a crucial 8 billion euro instalment of aid to avert bankruptcy. The 17 euro zone ministers are set to decide on the funds at a special meeting on Oct 13, just days before Greece would run out of cash.
AGENCIES
Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Business/EDC111004-0000163/Greek-debt-tragedy-hits-markets-again
Administrative fees for work passes up
Posted: 03 October 2011 1146 hrs
Office workers in Singapore
SINGAPORE: Administrative fees for passes for foreigners to work in Singapore will be raised from December 1 this year.
The Manpower Ministry said it is increasing the rates for application and issuance of Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit with the aim of "full recovery of cost".
It said the rates were set substantially below cost when they were first introduced in 2005.
The increases are in line with the policy for the cost of public service to be borne by users of the service rather than taxpayers.
The biggest increase in work pass rates is for the issuance of Employment Pass for foreign professionals.
This will go up from S$30 a year to S$120 per transaction.
For skilled workers on S Pass, the rate goes up from S$30 a year to S$70 per transaction.
For unskilled foreign labour on work permit, the rate is still S$20 per transaction but with no subsidy for those who opt to be issued the pass online.
The Ministry said the S$20 subsidy in place since 2005 to encourage online submissions, will be withdrawn from December 1.
The application fee for all three types of work passes (Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit) will also go up from S$10 to S$20.
Application and issuance fees for other passes will also be adjusted.
The issuance fee for an EntrePass to start and operate a business for example will cost more; from S$30 per year to S$120 per transaction.
Via: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1156927/1/.html
Office workers in SingaporeSINGAPORE: Administrative fees for passes for foreigners to work in Singapore will be raised from December 1 this year.
The Manpower Ministry said it is increasing the rates for application and issuance of Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit with the aim of "full recovery of cost".
It said the rates were set substantially below cost when they were first introduced in 2005.
The increases are in line with the policy for the cost of public service to be borne by users of the service rather than taxpayers.
The biggest increase in work pass rates is for the issuance of Employment Pass for foreign professionals.
This will go up from S$30 a year to S$120 per transaction.
For skilled workers on S Pass, the rate goes up from S$30 a year to S$70 per transaction.
For unskilled foreign labour on work permit, the rate is still S$20 per transaction but with no subsidy for those who opt to be issued the pass online.
The Ministry said the S$20 subsidy in place since 2005 to encourage online submissions, will be withdrawn from December 1.
The application fee for all three types of work passes (Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit) will also go up from S$10 to S$20.
Application and issuance fees for other passes will also be adjusted.
The issuance fee for an EntrePass to start and operate a business for example will cost more; from S$30 per year to S$120 per transaction.
Via: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1156927/1/.html
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Occupy Wall Street (Photos)
1 Oct 2011
Occupy Wall Street
In New York City's Financial District, hundreds of activists have been converging on Lower Manhattan over the past two weeks, protesting as part of an "Occupy Wall Street" movement. The protests are largely rallies against the influence of corporate money in politics, but participants' grievances also include frustrations with corporate greed, anger at financial and social inequality, and several other issues. Nearly 80 people were arrested last weekend in a series of incidents with the New York police as the protesters attempted to march uptown. Most are now camped out in nearby Zucotti Park. Demonstrations also took place yesterday in San Francisco, and an "Occupy Boston" protest is planned for tonight, September 30. Collected here are a handful of images of the protesters occupying Wall Street from the past two weeks.
"Occupy Wall Street" protesters march and hold signs in New York City on September 17, 2011. Frustrated protesters have been speaking out against corporate greed and social inequality on and near Wall Street for the past two weeks. Original here. (CC BY SA Carwil Bjork-James)
Protesters with Occupy Wall Street march up Wall Street towards the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, on Monday, September 26, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)
In the midst of protests, New York City police officers stand near barricades surrounding Charging
People protesting the economic system flood financial district sidewalks as office workers head to work on September 19, 2011 in New York City. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
An Occupy Wall Street protester wearing an anonymous Guy Fawkes mask holds up a sign in New York's financial district on September 17, 2011. Original here. (CC BY SA Carwil Bjork-James)
Police officers erected barricades as people protesting the economic system flooded financial district streets and sidewalks while office workers headed to work on September 19, 2011 in New York City. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
New York City police officers use a flexible orange net to block and pen in Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and some curious onlookers as well. Photo taken on September 25, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
People protesting the economic system walk on a financial district sidewalk as office workers head to work on September 19, 2011 in New York City. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
Businessmen look at demonstrators opposed to corporate greed on a Wall Street march in the Financial District on September 26, 2011 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Police arrest a person in New York City, during an Occupy Wall Street march, on September 25, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Police detain a woman in New York City, during an Occupy Wall Street march, on September 25, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Police arrest a man in New York City, during an Occupy Wall Street march, on September 25, 2011. The officer at right has been identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, who appeared to have pepper-sprayed several peaceful protesters in a number of videos found on YouTube. The NYPD has launched an internal probe into the allegations. Video of the incident can be seen here. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Milk pours down a man's face, used to treat his eyes, which were affected by pepper spray used during an Occupy Wall Street protest on September 25, 2011, in New York City. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Demonstrators protesting corporate greed march from nearby Zucotti park to Wall Street amid heavy police presence, on September 20, 2011, in New York City. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Participants in the Occupy Wall Street protest set up laptop computers in New York's financial district, on September 20, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
A reporter with Russian Television International speaks to Occupy Wall Street protesters who have camped out in New York's financial district on September 20, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Former New York Governor David Paterson (center) stops to talk to demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street campaign in Zucotti Park near the financial district of New York, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
A protest sleeps in Zuccotti Park in New York City on September 19, 2011, where demonstrators against the economic system have been gathering since Saturday the 17th. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
A reporter speaks to a video camera in front of Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York, on September 19, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Demonstrators gather to call for the occupation of Wall Street, Saturday, September 17, 2011, in New York City. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
An Occupy Wall Street protester speaks to New York City police officers on September 17, 2011. Original here. (CC BY SA Mike Fleshman)
Philosopher Cornel West (center) stops to talk to demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street campaign in Zucotti Park near the financial district of New York, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
A protester holds up a sign in Zuccotti Park, in New York City, on September 28 2011. Original here. (CC BY David Shankbone)
Filmmaker Michael Moore waves during a visit to the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park in New York, on September 26, 2011. The protesters, many of whom are camping out in the lower Manhattan plaza to speak out against corporate greed and social inequality, got a morale boost from Moore, who told the crowd they were the start of something big. (AP Photo/Stephanie Keith)
A protester from the Occupy Wall Street campaign sleeps underneath a plastic sheet in Zuccotti Park near the financial district of New York, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Morning commuters walk past Occupy Wall Street campaign protesters sleeping in Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street in New York, on September 27, 2011. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
Chris Parisi (center) stands with a sign in Zucotti Park during a demonstration by the Occupy Wall Street campaign near the financial district of New York, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Demonstrators opposed to corporate profits on Wall Street march in the Financial District on September 26, 2011 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Police carry away a participant in a march organized by Occupy Wall Street in New York on Saturday September 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)
A protester with Occupy Wall Street holds up a sign and an American flag on September 26, 2011, in New York City. Original here. (CC BY Sasha Kimel)
Across the country, in San Francisco, Nick Galloro, of Berkeley, holds a sign during a rally against banking institutions as part of the Occupy Wall Street campaign in California, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)
A group of demonstrators scuffles with a Charles Schwab employee (right) at the door during a rally against banking institutions as part of the Occupy Wall Street campaign in San Francisco, California, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)
A group of demonstrators are detained by police inside a Chase banking center during a rally against banking institutions as part of the Occupy Wall Street campaign in San Francisco, California, on September 29, 2011. The demonstrators were later released. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)
Brenda Reed (center), speaks after being released by the police after earlier being detained while protesting inside a Chase banking center during a rally against banking institutions in San Francisco, California, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)
A woman holds up a sign reading Compassion
Occupy Wall Street
In New York City's Financial District, hundreds of activists have been converging on Lower Manhattan over the past two weeks, protesting as part of an "Occupy Wall Street" movement. The protests are largely rallies against the influence of corporate money in politics, but participants' grievances also include frustrations with corporate greed, anger at financial and social inequality, and several other issues. Nearly 80 people were arrested last weekend in a series of incidents with the New York police as the protesters attempted to march uptown. Most are now camped out in nearby Zucotti Park. Demonstrations also took place yesterday in San Francisco, and an "Occupy Boston" protest is planned for tonight, September 30. Collected here are a handful of images of the protesters occupying Wall Street from the past two weeks.
"Occupy Wall Street" protesters march and hold signs in New York City on September 17, 2011. Frustrated protesters have been speaking out against corporate greed and social inequality on and near Wall Street for the past two weeks. Original here. (CC BY SA Carwil Bjork-James)
Protesters with Occupy Wall Street march up Wall Street towards the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, on Monday, September 26, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)
In the midst of protests, New York City police officers stand near barricades surrounding Charging
People protesting the economic system flood financial district sidewalks as office workers head to work on September 19, 2011 in New York City. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
An Occupy Wall Street protester wearing an anonymous Guy Fawkes mask holds up a sign in New York's financial district on September 17, 2011. Original here. (CC BY SA Carwil Bjork-James)
Police officers erected barricades as people protesting the economic system flooded financial district streets and sidewalks while office workers headed to work on September 19, 2011 in New York City. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
New York City police officers use a flexible orange net to block and pen in Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and some curious onlookers as well. Photo taken on September 25, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
People protesting the economic system walk on a financial district sidewalk as office workers head to work on September 19, 2011 in New York City. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
Businessmen look at demonstrators opposed to corporate greed on a Wall Street march in the Financial District on September 26, 2011 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Police arrest a person in New York City, during an Occupy Wall Street march, on September 25, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Police detain a woman in New York City, during an Occupy Wall Street march, on September 25, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Police arrest a man in New York City, during an Occupy Wall Street march, on September 25, 2011. The officer at right has been identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, who appeared to have pepper-sprayed several peaceful protesters in a number of videos found on YouTube. The NYPD has launched an internal probe into the allegations. Video of the incident can be seen here. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Milk pours down a man's face, used to treat his eyes, which were affected by pepper spray used during an Occupy Wall Street protest on September 25, 2011, in New York City. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Demonstrators protesting corporate greed march from nearby Zucotti park to Wall Street amid heavy police presence, on September 20, 2011, in New York City. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Participants in the Occupy Wall Street protest set up laptop computers in New York's financial district, on September 20, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
A reporter with Russian Television International speaks to Occupy Wall Street protesters who have camped out in New York's financial district on September 20, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Former New York Governor David Paterson (center) stops to talk to demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street campaign in Zucotti Park near the financial district of New York, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
A protest sleeps in Zuccotti Park in New York City on September 19, 2011, where demonstrators against the economic system have been gathering since Saturday the 17th. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
A reporter speaks to a video camera in front of Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York, on September 19, 2011. Original here. (CC BY Paul Weiskel)
Demonstrators gather to call for the occupation of Wall Street, Saturday, September 17, 2011, in New York City. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
An Occupy Wall Street protester speaks to New York City police officers on September 17, 2011. Original here. (CC BY SA Mike Fleshman)
Philosopher Cornel West (center) stops to talk to demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street campaign in Zucotti Park near the financial district of New York, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
A protester holds up a sign in Zuccotti Park, in New York City, on September 28 2011. Original here. (CC BY David Shankbone)
Filmmaker Michael Moore waves during a visit to the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park in New York, on September 26, 2011. The protesters, many of whom are camping out in the lower Manhattan plaza to speak out against corporate greed and social inequality, got a morale boost from Moore, who told the crowd they were the start of something big. (AP Photo/Stephanie Keith)
A protester from the Occupy Wall Street campaign sleeps underneath a plastic sheet in Zuccotti Park near the financial district of New York, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Morning commuters walk past Occupy Wall Street campaign protesters sleeping in Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street in New York, on September 27, 2011. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
Chris Parisi (center) stands with a sign in Zucotti Park during a demonstration by the Occupy Wall Street campaign near the financial district of New York, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Demonstrators opposed to corporate profits on Wall Street march in the Financial District on September 26, 2011 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Police carry away a participant in a march organized by Occupy Wall Street in New York on Saturday September 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)
A protester with Occupy Wall Street holds up a sign and an American flag on September 26, 2011, in New York City. Original here. (CC BY Sasha Kimel)
Across the country, in San Francisco, Nick Galloro, of Berkeley, holds a sign during a rally against banking institutions as part of the Occupy Wall Street campaign in California, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)
A group of demonstrators scuffles with a Charles Schwab employee (right) at the door during a rally against banking institutions as part of the Occupy Wall Street campaign in San Francisco, California, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)
A group of demonstrators are detained by police inside a Chase banking center during a rally against banking institutions as part of the Occupy Wall Street campaign in San Francisco, California, on September 29, 2011. The demonstrators were later released. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)
Brenda Reed (center), speaks after being released by the police after earlier being detained while protesting inside a Chase banking center during a rally against banking institutions in San Francisco, California, on September 29, 2011. (Reuters/Stephen Lam)
A woman holds up a sign reading Compassion
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