Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Spain’s Economy Sends City Residents Back to Country
The following is an excerpt from an article in:
The New York Times
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Spain’s Economy Sends City Residents Back to Country
By RAPHAEL MINDER
VILLANUEVA DE LA VERA, Spain — A chemist by training, Silvia Barcenilla searched for a job in Madrid for almost a year. But in March, she decided to try a different approach, moving here to the village of Villanueva de la Vera, a two-and-a-half-hour drive to the west.
Within two months, she was working for a resort, the HospederÃa del Silencio, which runs yoga courses and other recreation activities on onetime farmland. She signed a lease on a two-bedroom apartment for 200 euros, or about $255, a month, just a fraction of what it would cost her in Madrid. “If I had found a great job in Madrid, I would not even have thought about moving here,” she said. “But now I don’t see any obvious reason to go back.”
Ms. Barcenilla is part of a movement within Spain that has swelled to such proportions that some sociologists have dubbed it “rurbanismo,” a term invented to describe the reverse migration from city to country that has stemmed a generations-old trend that has long been the usual pattern in most advanced industrial economies.
The movement has steadily built, but it has been accelerated by Spain’s economic crisis, breathing new life and entrepreneurship into some nearly abandoned areas. “Rurbanismo started before the crisis, once the Internet took off and made it possible to work anywhere, but what the crisis is doing is making the model more attractive,” said Carles Feixa, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Lleida.
The movement is difficult to quantify, he said, partly since many of the new migrants do not bother changing their official residence. But it is clear, he said, that Spain’s cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants have recently stopped growing while villages of fewer than 1,000 are no longer shrinking.
Some of these new migrants are returning to the villages where they grew up or where earlier generations of their family lived, sometimes taking over property that had been left empty or used only for vacations.
Economic necessity is certainly not the only reason Spaniards are moving to the country. Around Villanueva, for instance, a community of artists has sprouted, from graphic designers to musicians and sculptors. Some have restored farm buildings in which tobacco and peppers used to dry.
The New York Times
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Spain’s Economy Sends City Residents Back to Country
By RAPHAEL MINDER
VILLANUEVA DE LA VERA, Spain — A chemist by training, Silvia Barcenilla searched for a job in Madrid for almost a year. But in March, she decided to try a different approach, moving here to the village of Villanueva de la Vera, a two-and-a-half-hour drive to the west.
Within two months, she was working for a resort, the HospederÃa del Silencio, which runs yoga courses and other recreation activities on onetime farmland. She signed a lease on a two-bedroom apartment for 200 euros, or about $255, a month, just a fraction of what it would cost her in Madrid. “If I had found a great job in Madrid, I would not even have thought about moving here,” she said. “But now I don’t see any obvious reason to go back.”
Ms. Barcenilla is part of a movement within Spain that has swelled to such proportions that some sociologists have dubbed it “rurbanismo,” a term invented to describe the reverse migration from city to country that has stemmed a generations-old trend that has long been the usual pattern in most advanced industrial economies.
The movement has steadily built, but it has been accelerated by Spain’s economic crisis, breathing new life and entrepreneurship into some nearly abandoned areas. “Rurbanismo started before the crisis, once the Internet took off and made it possible to work anywhere, but what the crisis is doing is making the model more attractive,” said Carles Feixa, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Lleida.
The movement is difficult to quantify, he said, partly since many of the new migrants do not bother changing their official residence. But it is clear, he said, that Spain’s cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants have recently stopped growing while villages of fewer than 1,000 are no longer shrinking.
Some of these new migrants are returning to the villages where they grew up or where earlier generations of their family lived, sometimes taking over property that had been left empty or used only for vacations.
Economic necessity is certainly not the only reason Spaniards are moving to the country. Around Villanueva, for instance, a community of artists has sprouted, from graphic designers to musicians and sculptors. Some have restored farm buildings in which tobacco and peppers used to dry.
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Shut Out of the Debt Markets, Catalonia Asks Madrid for Emergency Aid
The following is
an excerpt from an article in
The New York Times
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Shut Out of the Debt Markets, Catalonia Asks Madrid for Emergency Aid
By RAPHAEL MINDER
MADRID — The most economically important region of Spain, Catalonia, asked the national government on Tuesday for more than 5 billion euros in emergency financing, underscoring a growing regional debt burden as the country struggles to pull out of its economic tailspin.
Catalonia says it can no longer obtain loans in the financial markets to support its debt. Just last month, the Valencia and Murcia regions both said that they would need help from a new 18 billion euro, or $23 billion, fund set up by the Spanish government.
The government of the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has been struggling to meet its budgetary commitments to the euro zone and avoid requiring a Greek-style bailout. Already, Europe has committed to lending Spain up to 100 billion euros to prop up its banking industry.
Whether Spain will itself have to request a European rescue depends in part on whether its 17 semiautonomous regions can clean up their finances and stick to budgetary targets this year. The fact that a region like Catalonia cannot meet its debt-financing obligations “is the big problem in this country at the moment,” Mr. Rajoy said Tuesday.
Mr. Rajoy was speaking after meeting on Tuesday in Madrid with Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, the administrative arm of the European Union. Both denied that Spain was already negotiating aid beyond the bank bailout. Mr. Van Rompuy said it would be up to Spain to decide whether to apply for more aid.
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
U.S. Sets Much Higher Fuel Efficiency Standards
The following is
an excerpt from an article in
The New York Times
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
U.S. Sets Much Higher Fuel Efficiency Standards
By BILL VLASIC
DETROIT — The Obama administration issued on Tuesday the final version of new rules that require automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks by 2025.
The standards — which mandate an average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon for the 2025 model year — will increase the pressure on auto manufacturers to step up development of electrified vehicles as well as sharply improve the mileage of their mass-market models through techniques like more efficient engines and lighter car bodies.
Current rules for the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, program mandate an average of about 29 miles per gallon, with gradual increases to 35.5 m.p.g. by 2016. The new rules represent a victory for environmentalists and advocates of fuel conservation, but were attacked by opponents, including the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, as too costly for consumers.
While the regulations have been in development for more than a year, the White House’s decision to make them final on the first full day of the Republican National Convention seemed intended to highlight one of President Obama’s proudest accomplishments at a time when Mr. Romney has laid out a different energy and environmental agenda.
The administration called the new rules “historic,” and estimated that Americans would reduce their oil consumption by 12 billion barrels over the course of the program. “These fuel standards represent the single most important step we’ve ever taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.
But the Romney campaign has criticized the new rules as “extreme” and said the standards would limit the choices when consumers shop for a new car. “The president tells voters that his regulations will save them thousands of dollars at the pump, but always forgets to mention that the savings will be wiped out by having to pay thousands of dollars more upfront for unproven technology that they may not even want,” said Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign.
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
Friday, August 17, 2012
For Europe’s Economy, a Lost Decade Looms
The following is
an excerpt from an article in
The New York Times
Friday, August 17, 2012
For Europe’s Economy, a Lost Decade Looms
By JACK EWING
FRANKFURT — The euro zone is hurtling back into recession, economists declared after official figures this week portrayed a shrinking economy. But by some measures the downturn has been under way for years.
With the exception of Germany, none of Europe’s biggest economies have returned to the level of economic output they had at the beginning of 2008, before the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States spread across the Atlantic, according to calculations by two U.S. economists, Peter Rupert and Thomas F. Cooley.
The figures suggest that Europe is already well into what could become a lost decade — a period of pernicious stagnation and wasted potential that could have lasting effects on ordinary citizens.
Economic growth not realized represents investments in education that were never made, research that was never financed, businesses that failed and careers that ended too early or never got off the ground.
“There are larger implications that people don’t think about,” said Mr. Rupert, a professor of economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “There is a huge decline in human capital.”
Just what marks the beginning and end of a recession is not always easy to define. One common definition is two consecutive quarters of falling output. By that standard, the euro zone is technically not yet in a recession.
Most economists agree, though, that a recession is also defined by other indicators like unemployment, industrial production and investment. The closest thing Europe has to an arbiter on the question is a committee of prominent economists convened by the Center for Economic Policy Research, a research organization in London.
By the committee’s reckoning, the euro zone’s last recession ended after the second quarter of 2009, the point at which the region hit bottom and began to grow again. The economists’ panel, known as the Euro Area Business Cycle Dating Committee, has not yet begun to consider whether the euro zone is in recession again. But few people would argue that Europe, stricken by a self-inflicted debt crisis that began in 2010, has basked in prosperity recently.
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Two Ways to See China’s Problems - Economic View
The following is
an excerpt from an article in
The New York Times
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Two Ways to See China’s Problems - Economic View
By TYLER COWEN
CHINA is confronting some serious economic problems, and how Beijing does — or doesn’t — respond to them could bend the course of the global economy.
First, China’s real estate bubble is deflating. But its economy also seems to be suffering from what we economists call excess capacity — an overinvestment in capital goods, whether in factories, retail stores or infrastructure.
So what now? The answer depends in part on your school of economic thinking.
Keynesian economics holds that aggregate demand — the sum of all consumption, investment, government spending and net exports — drives stability, and that government can and should help in difficult times. But the Austrian perspective, developed by the Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. Hayek, and championed today by many libertarians and conservatives, emphasizes how government policy often makes things worse, not better.
Economists of all stripes agree that China may be in for a spill. John Maynard Keynes emphasized back in the 1930s the dangers of speculative bubbles, and China certainly seems to have had one in its property market.
Keynesians would argue that Beijing has the tools to stoke aggregate demand. It could, for example, adjust interest rates and bank reserve requirements, instruct state-owned banks to maintain lending, or deploy some of its $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves. The government also appears to have many shovel-ready construction and infrastructure projects that could help the economy glide to a soft landing and then bounce back.
The Austrian perspective introduces some scarier considerations. China has been investing 40 percent to 50 percent of its national income. But it is hard to invest so much money wisely, particularly in an environment of economic favoritism. And this rate of investment is artificially high to begin with.
Beijing is often accused of manipulating the value of its currency, the renminbi, to subsidize its manufacturing. The government also funnels domestic savings into the national banking system and grants subsidies to politically favored businesses, and it seems obsessed with building infrastructure. All of this tips the economy in very particular directions.
The Austrian approach raises the possibility that there is no way for China to make good on enough of its oversubsidized investments. At first, they create lots of jobs and revenue, but as the business cycle proceeds, new marginal investments become less valuable and more prone to allocation by corruption. The giddy booms of earlier times wear off, and suddenly not every decision seems wise. The combination can lead to an economic crackup — not because aggregate demand is too low, but because the economy has been producing the wrong mix of goods and services.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Survey Finds Investors Displaying Growing Conviction in Growth
| BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey Finds Investors Displaying Growing Conviction in Growth |
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Portfolio Managers Indicate That QE Era Is Coming to an End A net 28 percent of investors expect the world economy to strengthen in the coming 12 months – a large increase from a net 11 percent in February. As recently as January, the majority of respondents predicted that the economy would weaken. Eurozone confidence has risen – this month sees an even split between those expecting a stronger or weaker eurozone economy. In February, a net 35 percent predicted the economy would deteriorate. Investors are more optimistic about corporate profits. A net 6 percent of the panel expects corporate profits to improve in the coming year. A month ago, a net 11 percent predicted profits would decline. Fewer investors expect the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) to engage in further QE. Nearly half of the panel (47 percent) expects no further QE in the U.S., up from 36 percent in February. Thirty-nine percent predicts the “The prospect of higher inflation reflects a victory of central banks in the war against deflation. Risk appetite is rising with hedge funds more active, but cash is still on the sidelines to put to work,” said Attention shifts to developed economies from emerging markets Growth prospects in Global investors hold far fewer fears about the eurozone. The numbers naming EU sovereign debt as their number one “tail risk” have declined sharply to 38 percent this month from 59 percent in February. Investors within the eurozone are both more bullish about growth and far less worried about corporate profits. A net 7 percent expects corporate earnings in the eurozone to deteriorate in the coming 12 months, down from a net 39 percent in February and a net 84 percent in December. A net 29 percent of U.S. investors say the U.S. economy with get stronger in the year ahead, up from a net 15 percent in February. Japanese fund managers are the most bullish with a net 91 percent saying that Japan’s economy with strengthen, up from a net 47 percent two months ago. While Global Emerging Markets remain the most popular region, concerns about China’s growth prospects have increased. A net 9 percent of respondents say China’s economy will weaken in the next year, up from a net 2 percent in February. Sentiment within Furthermore, inflation concerns have risen significantly among Banks gaining momentum – U.S. underweight position disappears Banks and financial services companies have enjoyed a second month of popularity among investors as allocations towards equities have risen. The proportion of global asset allocators underweight banks has fallen 11 percentage points month-on-month to a net 14 percent. U.S. investors are now collectively neutral on banks with a net zero percent over/underweight this month. Two months ago, a net 16 percent were underweight banks. In Technology remains comfortably the top sector globally, but it has also enjoyed a surge in popularity among Europeans. A net 33 percent of eurozone investors are overweight technology, up from a net 10 percent in February. The sector has overtaken automotives/parts to become the region’s most popular. Survey of Fund Managers An overall total of 278 panelists with For more  Source: |
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Sales at Sit-Down Restaurants Suggest a Rising Economy
Excerpt from an article in
The New York Times
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Sales at Sit-Down Restaurants Suggest a Rising Economy
By FLOYD NORRIS
Have you been eating more at restaurants with waiters rather than fast-food joints?
If so, you are not alone, and that in fact is an indication that the American economy is improving.
Over the 12 months through January, sales at what the government calls full-service restaurants were 8.7 percent higher than in the previous 12 months. That was the fastest pace of growth since the late 1990s, when the economy was booming. Moreover, as is seen in the accompanying charts, that rate was much greater than the rate of growth in sales at limited-service restaurants.
Since those numbers became available 20 years ago, that difference has been a reliable indicator of how the economy is going. In tough times, people may still eat out, but they cut back.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Energy Innovation Summit
Business, Government and Tech Leaders Give the Full Perspective
February 24, 2012
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu speaking at the 2011 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. | Energy Department file photo.
- Check out the full conference program for more on the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.
When the third annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit convenes in Washington, DC, next week, key innovators from across the country and around the world will meet to share ideas for solving our greatest energy challenges.
While recent ARPA-E award winners and finalists will be on display at the Technology Showcase, the keynote speakers will offer a personal perspective on innovation in the energy sector.
One of the highlights of the conference will be a "fireside chat" between Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft has led the computer industry with investments in research and development each year. Check Energy.gov after the Summit for a video of the conversation that you can watch, share, and offer your perspective on.
Former President Bill Clinton will deliver remarks on Wednesday. As the 42nd President of the United States, President Clinton oversaw the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history and the creation of more than 22 million jobs.
We'll also hear from Dr. Arun Majumdar, Director of ARPA-E, and Dr. Susan Hockfield, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-chair of the President's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership.
From the private sector, we will be joined by Ursula M. Burns, Chairman and CEO of the Xerox Corporation; Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of the FedEx Corporation; and Lee Scott, chairman of BDT Capital and former CEO of Walmart. Each of these individuals has been an innovative leader in their field and will offer their own perspectives on what it takes for innovators and entrepreneurs to succeed in the clean energy economy.
The Summit will also highlight the winning startup companies that competed in DOE’s “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge," which leverages cutting-edge technologies from the Energy Department’s national laboratories to support new startup companies across the country. The Secretary will present the winners with awards on Monday during the luncheon, and you can learn more about their innovations at their booth in the Technology Showcase.
You can find more information on the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit and the full program for the three-day conference here.
Friday, February 24, 2012
News Release from the DOE - Energy Efficiency Training Centers
President Obama Highlights Energy Department Efficiency Training Centers That Save U.S. Manufacturers $5.6 Billion
February 23, 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a visit to the University of Miami to highlight his administration’s all-out, all-of-the-above approach to American energy, President Obama today touted the Energy Department’s cost-cutting Industrial Assessment Program. The program supports university-based Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs) across the country, which provide students with critical skills and training to conduct energy assessments in a broad range of facilities, while producing real cost savings for small to mid-size manufacturers. To date, these assessments have helped save over 530 trillion BTUs of energy – enough to meet the energy needs of 5.5 million American homes – and have helped participating manufacturers save more than $5.6 billion in energy costs.
“As President Obama made clear, an American economy built to last will depend on American manufacturing, American energy and skills for American workers,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “This is why the Energy Department invests in innovative initiatives like the Industrial Assessment Centers that help to train the clean energy workforce of tomorrow, while cutting energy waste for American businesses and making our manufacturing companies more competitive.”
Through Industrial Assessment Centers at universities throughout the U.S., engineering students receive practical training in industrial processes, energy assessment procedures, and energy management principles, and gain real-world experience by working directly with small and medium-sized industrial and manufacturing facilities in their communities.
For more than 30 years, the Industrial Assessment Program has provided valuable training and experience for students, while saving money for manufacturing plants. Since the program began in 1976, the university teams have conducted more than 15,000 energy assessments at U.S. manufacturing plants nationwide. To date, more than 3,000 students have graduated from the Industrial Assessment Center program, with more than 60 percent going on to careers in the energy industry.
More information and a full list of Industrial Assessment Centers across the U.S. can be found HERE.
Through Industrial Assessment Centers at universities throughout the U.S., engineering students receive practical training in industrial processes, energy assessment procedures, and energy management principles, and gain real-world experience by working directly with small and medium-sized industrial and manufacturing facilities in their communities.
For more than 30 years, the Industrial Assessment Program has provided valuable training and experience for students, while saving money for manufacturing plants. Since the program began in 1976, the university teams have conducted more than 15,000 energy assessments at U.S. manufacturing plants nationwide. To date, more than 3,000 students have graduated from the Industrial Assessment Center program, with more than 60 percent going on to careers in the energy industry.
More information and a full list of Industrial Assessment Centers across the U.S. can be found HERE.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
News Release from the U.S. Dept. of Energy
Small Businesses Nationwide Begin Work on Cutting-Edge Innovative Research Projects
February 21, 2012 - 12:18pm
Washington, D.C. – Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that with support from the Department of Energy, 142 small businesses around the nation are starting work this week on 180 innovative research projects ranging from designing better wind turbines to developing a chemical-free approach to killing bacteria in power plant cooling water and from developing instruments to improve nanomaterials to making new coatings to improve the efficiency of gas turbines. These grants to small businesses - totaling $26.4 million – are developing new energy technologies that will help to grow America’s economy, create new jobs around the country and improve American competitiveness around the world. The Energy Department’s Small Business Innovation Research program is part of the Obama Administration’s broader support for job-creating small businesses and startup companies nationwide.
“These small businesses are working to develop new technologies to bring to the marketplace, creating new jobs and potentially new industries here in America,” said Secretary Chu. “As part of the Obama Administration’s Startup America Initiative, these innovative small businesses are helping the Department improve America’s energy security, grow our economy, and ensure U.S. companies can compete in the global economy.” .
The companies will use their awards -- in amounts up to $150,000 -- over the next nine months to explore the feasibility of their innovative concepts. They will then be eligible to compete for awards up to $1 million under a two-year, Phase II of research and development.
DOE selected the 180 projects from among nearly 1,000 Phase I proposals submitted under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
This year’s Phase I awards to date were made in 36 technical topic areas for research supporting the Department’s diverse energy, scientific and environmental missions. Under the STTR program, 23 of the companies are partnering with a university or DOE national laboratory to do the research. In addition, DOE is planning on at least one more Phase I competition with another round of awards later in the year.
The full list of Phase I award winners and their projects is available HERE.
DOE’s Office of Science manages the departments’ SBIR and STTR programs. More information about the two programs is available HERE.
The companies will use their awards -- in amounts up to $150,000 -- over the next nine months to explore the feasibility of their innovative concepts. They will then be eligible to compete for awards up to $1 million under a two-year, Phase II of research and development.
DOE selected the 180 projects from among nearly 1,000 Phase I proposals submitted under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
This year’s Phase I awards to date were made in 36 technical topic areas for research supporting the Department’s diverse energy, scientific and environmental missions. Under the STTR program, 23 of the companies are partnering with a university or DOE national laboratory to do the research. In addition, DOE is planning on at least one more Phase I competition with another round of awards later in the year.
The full list of Phase I award winners and their projects is available HERE.
DOE’s Office of Science manages the departments’ SBIR and STTR programs. More information about the two programs is available HERE.
News Release from Microsoft
News Press Release
Microsoft’s Local Language Program Bridges Languages, Cultures and Technology
Microsoft’s Local Language Program Bridges Languages, Cultures and Technology
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| Language translation technology reaches more than 90 percent of global speakers. |
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REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 21, 2012 — In recognition of International Mother Language Day, Microsoft Corp., a strong supporter of language preservation, today highlighted the company’s Local Language Program (LLP), which enables the development of custom language translation. LLP enables 1.7 billion people worldwide to access technology in their own language, while striving to preserve those local languages and cultural identities. In many parts of the world, technology has transformed the way people and businesses share and use information, improved the way children and adults learn, and helped governments address social and economic issues in ways never before imagined. Languages play an important role in the integration process in all aspects of life, education and the local economies. “Providing technology in a native language is critical to helping people access the tools they need to create better economic opportunities,” said Anthony Salcito, vice president of Worldwide Education at Microsoft. “Language preservation and support also help preserve cultural identities for the next generation of learners.” Microsoft’s services and products focusing on the importance of language and culture through the LLP include the following:
For people to experience the benefits of technology, they must have access to the technology and the skills to use it. In Spain, the Local Language Program has developed Windows and Office in Basque, Valencian, Catalan and Galician. Now, citizens throughout the country have access to technology in their native language and not only Spanish. This impact can provide greater economic opportunities to generations young and old. “We loved the fact that Microsoft offers software in Valencian because it gives our students the ability to use their native tongue in a modern context,” said Francisco Masquefa, director of the Albal Institut in Valencia, Spain. “The availability of these the programs in our native language shows that Microsoft is truly committed to helping local communities sustain cultural traditions — while supporting advancement through technology.” About Local Language Program Microsoft is committed to helping people worldwide benefit from technology while striving to uphold local language and cultural identity. Representing this commitment, the Local Language Program is a global initiative that provides people access to technology in a familiar language while respecting linguistic and cultural distinctions. Through this program, Microsoft bridges languages, cultures and technology to empower individuals in local communities to create economic opportunities, build technology skills, enhance education outcomes, and sustain their local language and culture for future generations. More information on LLP is available at http://www.microsoft.com/LLP. |
News Release from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Release Date: Feb 21, 2012Contact: 888-249-NEWS
U.S. Chamber Applauds Announcement of U.S.-Korea Trade Agreement Implementation
WASHINGTON D.C.—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce applauded the administration and the U.S. Trade Representative today for their announcement that the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) will enter into force on March 15, 2012. The landmark trade agreement that would support more than 70,000 export-related jobs was ratified last October through a bipartisan vote in Congress.
“The U.S. business community commends our negotiators for staying the course on implementing a groundbreaking trade deal with South Korea that will create American jobs and boost American competitiveness,” said Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber. “We will now be able to play on a level playing field in South Korea’s dynamic market and start creating tens of thousands of new jobs here at home.”
Upon entry into force, tariffs will be eliminated on nearly 80% of U.S. exports of industrial products and nearly two-thirds of U.S. exports of agricultural products to South Korea. It will also break down non-tariff barriers and strengthen transparency and intellectual property protections in South Korea so that American companies can compete fairly in the South Korean market.
“It is now up to the business community, including the hundreds of thousands of small and medium sized enterprises that make up the backbone of the U.S. economy, to take full advantage of this agreement to grow American exports,” Donohue said. “This agreement is the foundation for moving bipartisan, job-creating policies forward, and we urge the administration to build on the positive momentum of the South Korea trade agreement to continue opening up markets abroad.”
The Chamber is continuing to advocate for implementation of the trade agreements with Colombia and Panama on a commercially sound basis as soon as possible.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Rest of Europe vs. Germany
Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
I am a little confused by the statement: "its (Germany's) currency is undervalued". Germany uses the Euro, just like many of the other European countries, including the ones that are in trouble. But the German economy is well-managed. No doubt about that.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Rest of Europe vs. Germany
By FLOYD NORRIS
The German economy has been one of the wonders of the world over the last couple of years. While the rest of Europe staggered, German unemployment fell to the lowest level in decades.
This week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of developed economies around the world, issued a new “Economic Survey of Germany.” The biggest challenge it could find facing the country was finding enough workers.
It recommended steps to encourage more women to work.
“Please accept our sincere congratulations for a well-managed economy,” said Angel GurrÃa, the O.E.C.D.’s secretary general, in a speech in Berlin. The country’s “growth model has been so successful in navigating through the stormy waters of the crisis.”
The German labor system, with its incentives to move workers to part time rather than lay them off, does appear to have been critical in keeping the country’s unemployment rate from rising more than it did during the credit crisis.
But the decline of unemployment since then has more to do with the fact that Germany — perhaps unintentionally but certainly effectively — has managed to assure that its currency is undervalued, both relative to that of its neighbors and to much of the rest of the world. That has helped the country’s exporters and brought more business to the country.
In the Great Depression, many countries tried devaluations to gain export advantages over rivals. The strategy became known as “beggar thy neighbor.” It generally failed to work because other countries responded with their own devaluations.
Now some of Germany’s neighbors have been reduced to begging. They cannot take a page from the Depression playbook and devalue their own currency. They no longer have one.
I am a little confused by the statement: "its (Germany's) currency is undervalued". Germany uses the Euro, just like many of the other European countries, including the ones that are in trouble. But the German economy is well-managed. No doubt about that.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Rest of Europe vs. Germany
By FLOYD NORRIS
The German economy has been one of the wonders of the world over the last couple of years. While the rest of Europe staggered, German unemployment fell to the lowest level in decades.
This week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of developed economies around the world, issued a new “Economic Survey of Germany.” The biggest challenge it could find facing the country was finding enough workers.
It recommended steps to encourage more women to work.
“Please accept our sincere congratulations for a well-managed economy,” said Angel GurrÃa, the O.E.C.D.’s secretary general, in a speech in Berlin. The country’s “growth model has been so successful in navigating through the stormy waters of the crisis.”
The German labor system, with its incentives to move workers to part time rather than lay them off, does appear to have been critical in keeping the country’s unemployment rate from rising more than it did during the credit crisis.
But the decline of unemployment since then has more to do with the fact that Germany — perhaps unintentionally but certainly effectively — has managed to assure that its currency is undervalued, both relative to that of its neighbors and to much of the rest of the world. That has helped the country’s exporters and brought more business to the country.
In the Great Depression, many countries tried devaluations to gain export advantages over rivals. The strategy became known as “beggar thy neighbor.” It generally failed to work because other countries responded with their own devaluations.
Now some of Germany’s neighbors have been reduced to begging. They cannot take a page from the Depression playbook and devalue their own currency. They no longer have one.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Claims for Jobless Benefits Fall
Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Friday, February 10, 2012
Claims for Jobless Benefits Fall, Suggesting a Trend
By REUTERS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The number of Americans signing up for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week, the latest sign of recovery in the nation’s labor market.
Initial claims for state jobless benefits dropped 15,000, to 358,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. A four-week average of new filings, which provides a better view of the trend, hit its lowest level since April 2008.
The decline in first-time claims, which defied economists’ forecasts for a rise to 370,000, pointed to building strength in the labor market and improved the chances of another increase in employment this month.
“We are getting better employment growth and are seeing some signs that we are getting some self-sustaining aspects of economic activity,” said Michael Strauss, chief economist at Commonfund in Wilton, Conn.
Other data on Thursday showed a jump in wholesale inventories in December, suggesting the government’s fourth-quarter growth estimate could be revised higher.
But much will depend on the December trade data on Friday and a broader report on overall business inventories next week.
The recent string of upbeat data has raised doubts about whether the Federal Reserve will carry out a third round of bond buying to spur the recovery.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Claims for Jobless Benefits Fall, Suggesting a Trend
By REUTERS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The number of Americans signing up for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week, the latest sign of recovery in the nation’s labor market.
Initial claims for state jobless benefits dropped 15,000, to 358,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. A four-week average of new filings, which provides a better view of the trend, hit its lowest level since April 2008.
The decline in first-time claims, which defied economists’ forecasts for a rise to 370,000, pointed to building strength in the labor market and improved the chances of another increase in employment this month.
“We are getting better employment growth and are seeing some signs that we are getting some self-sustaining aspects of economic activity,” said Michael Strauss, chief economist at Commonfund in Wilton, Conn.
Other data on Thursday showed a jump in wholesale inventories in December, suggesting the government’s fourth-quarter growth estimate could be revised higher.
But much will depend on the December trade data on Friday and a broader report on overall business inventories next week.
The recent string of upbeat data has raised doubts about whether the Federal Reserve will carry out a third round of bond buying to spur the recovery.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Optimism About Year Ahead
News release from General Electric:
31 January 2012
Construction Equipment Dealers Optimistic About Year Ahead, GE Capital Survey Reveals
77% of respondents say the best time to increase inventory levels is first half
IRVING, TX – Construction equipment dealers are looking forward to improving trends in 2012 while acknowledging the challenges facing the industry, according to survey results released today by GE Capital, Dealer Finance.
Forty percent of respondents said they expect sales to increase 3%-5% this year, while 25% said they expect sales to increase 6%-8%. A full 77% said the best time to increase inventory is within the first half of 2012.
At the same time, 57% cited slack demand for new construction – both residential and commercial – as the biggest hurdle that construction equipment distributors have to overcome this year.
Slightly more than half of respondents said improvement in the U.S. economy will have the greatest impact on the construction industry. The other important factors affecting the industry are access to credit for end users (23%) and reauthorization of the federal highway spending bill (20%).
When asked what single category of construction equipment they believe will be in greatest demand this year, 37% cited earthmoving equipment and 23% cited specialty equipment such as pavers, compactors, drills, crushers and grinders.
The full survey results are available here:http://www.gelending.com/misc/Construction_Flash_Survey_Results_1-12.pdf
To stay on top of developing trends, participants can sign up for GE Capital’s Construction Industry Research Monitor here:http://www.americas.gecapital.com/insights-ideas/industry-research-monitor
“We’re dedicated to helping our customers be successful,” said Kristi Webb, commercial leader of GE Capital, Dealer Finance. “In addition to financing, we provide construction industry insights and expertise to help dealers and end-users tackle their biggest challenges so they can thrive in the year ahead.”
The Construction Equipment Distributor Survey of 65 respondents was conducted Jan. 18-19, 2012. Respondents included a variety of construction industry participants.
About GE Capital, Dealer FinanceGE Capital’s Dealer Finance business provides commercial leases and loans ranging from $5,000 to $25 million for the wholesale and retail financing of equipment to thousands in North America in over 12 industries. With long-term relationships and dedicated channel support, Dealer Finance works with small, medium and large enterprises as well as state and local governments. From web-based application submittals to online account management, its dedicated industry professionals bring knowledge and expertise to every relationship.
GE Capital offers consumers and businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services. For more information, visitwww.gecapital.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GECapital).
GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
Forty percent of respondents said they expect sales to increase 3%-5% this year, while 25% said they expect sales to increase 6%-8%. A full 77% said the best time to increase inventory is within the first half of 2012.
At the same time, 57% cited slack demand for new construction – both residential and commercial – as the biggest hurdle that construction equipment distributors have to overcome this year.
Slightly more than half of respondents said improvement in the U.S. economy will have the greatest impact on the construction industry. The other important factors affecting the industry are access to credit for end users (23%) and reauthorization of the federal highway spending bill (20%).
When asked what single category of construction equipment they believe will be in greatest demand this year, 37% cited earthmoving equipment and 23% cited specialty equipment such as pavers, compactors, drills, crushers and grinders.
The full survey results are available here:http://www.gelending.com/misc/Construction_Flash_Survey_Results_1-12.pdf
To stay on top of developing trends, participants can sign up for GE Capital’s Construction Industry Research Monitor here:http://www.americas.gecapital.com/insights-ideas/industry-research-monitor
“We’re dedicated to helping our customers be successful,” said Kristi Webb, commercial leader of GE Capital, Dealer Finance. “In addition to financing, we provide construction industry insights and expertise to help dealers and end-users tackle their biggest challenges so they can thrive in the year ahead.”
The Construction Equipment Distributor Survey of 65 respondents was conducted Jan. 18-19, 2012. Respondents included a variety of construction industry participants.
About GE Capital, Dealer FinanceGE Capital’s Dealer Finance business provides commercial leases and loans ranging from $5,000 to $25 million for the wholesale and retail financing of equipment to thousands in North America in over 12 industries. With long-term relationships and dedicated channel support, Dealer Finance works with small, medium and large enterprises as well as state and local governments. From web-based application submittals to online account management, its dedicated industry professionals bring knowledge and expertise to every relationship.
GE Capital offers consumers and businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services. For more information, visitwww.gecapital.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GECapital).
GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Russian Tycoons Find Tougher Times as Money Flees
The New York Times (The New York Times Company)
Added on Sunday, December 11, 2011
Russian Tycoons Find Tougher Times as Money Flees
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
MOSCOW
NIKOLAI MAKSIMOV, one of the richest men in Russia, was sitting in a grimy jail cell in the Ural Mountains.
Through the murk, Mr. Maksimov saw his cellmate — a man, he says, who appeared ill with tuberculosis, a scourge in Russian prisons. “I had the feeling that I was put in this cell on purpose,” Mr. Maksimov, now free on bail, recalled recently.
Mr. Maksimov, who was arrested in February on suspicion of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars, is hardly the only Russian tycoon who has run into trouble. Among the six men who have topped the Forbes rich list here in the last decade, one, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, is in prison, and another, Boris A. Berezovsky, is in exile. They, like Mr. Maksimov, maintain their innocence.
Even before the authorities here acted last week to quash protests against the government and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, Russia’s rich were growing agitated, too. Evidence is mounting that conditions are deteriorating for the maintenance and investment of their vast wealth — and while this development may gladden populists, it may become an economic threat.
Post-Soviet privatizations shifted state-owned factories into the hands of a coterie of well-connected businessmen — the oligarchs. Partly as a result, Russia has 101 billionaires, behind only China, with 115, and the United States, with 412, according to Forbes.
Only now, capital flight, a problem in the 1990s, has re-emerged. Money is flowing out of Russia faster than it is flowing in. The net outflow is expected to reach $70 billion by year-end, and the figures suggest that the bulk of that will be from large investors.
Yaroslav Lissovolik, chief economist for Deutsche Bank here, notes that “the scale of capital flight has more than compensated for the rise of oil prices.”
Even if oil output is maintained and crude prices stay relatively high, according to Russian finance ministry estimates, the nation’s current account will slip into deficit by 2014. Then Russia’s economy, like that of the United States, will depend on an inflow of investment, economists say.
The Russian government has recently made modest gains in attracting foreign investment. The problem is that for every foreign company that invests — from Exxon on the Russian Arctic Shelf to Cisco Systems in a high-technology park going up outside Moscow — far more Russian entrepreneurs head for the exits, gauging the risks too great.
Officials understand that oil can take Russia only so far and are eager to lure investment from all quarters. “The amazing thing is that they are doing far better with the foreign investors than the locals,” says Clemens Grafe, chief economist at Goldman Sachs here.
It’s hard to know how big a role cases like Mr. Maksimov’s have played. Mr. Maksimov, 54, is withering in his criticism of the authorities. The suggestion is that his business enemies enlisted the police to try to persuade him to resolve a dispute.
“I was on the Forbes list; now I’m going to jail,” he says. “It’s normal. It’s Russia.” His troubles began three years ago, when he sued Vladimir S. Lisin, another steel tycoon, touching off the dispute that eventually led to Mr. Maksimov’s arrest.
The two had made a deal, which quickly soured, for Mr. Lisin to buy 50 percent plus one share of Mr. Maksimov’s company, the Maxi Group. Maxi was estimated at the time to be worth $1.2 billion after debts. Mr. Lisin’s company, Novolipetsk, paid Mr. Maksimov an advance of $317 million. It was to pay the remainder after an outside auditor estimated the extent of the company’s debt, within 90 days.
Executives of Novolipetsk declined to pay. In an interview at its headquarters here, lawyers for Novolipetsk accused Mr. Maksimov of transferring large sums out of the Maxi Group to the bank account of his girlfriend. He denied the accusation, saying he had been buying out shares that his girlfriend, who was also a business partner, owned in business subsidiaries.
Whatever the case, such disputes were supposed to be settled by an international arbitration panel under the terms of the agreement. By February, Mr. Maksimov felt that he was close to winning. He said he had rebuffed informal discussions of a $100 million settlement and was holding out for the full balance, $287 million. He called a news conference at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Moscow on Feb. 14.
Along with the media, men toting Kalashnikovs showed up.
“Russia is always interesting,” Mr. Maksimov says. He was whisked out of the hotel in a Russian version of a “perp walk.” Soon enough, he was handcuffed to a chair in a dingy police station on the city’s outskirts.
FORMALLY, he was held on charges related to the payment to his girlfriend, which had in any case been repaid to the Maxi Group. But Mr. Maksimov says the investigator also discussed with him the arbitration with Novolipetsk. As Mr. Maksimov recalls it, the investigator sat on the edge of the table during the questioning and asked: “’You were offered $100 million. Why didn’t you take it?”
Mr. Maksimov says he was then escorted to the airport to fly to a prison in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals. Awaiting the flight, he says, he was again urged to make a deal with Novolipetsk.
“You won’t like people in jail,” he says he was told. “They aren’t your type.”
Anton Bazulev, director of external relations for Novolipetsk, said in an interview that it had never made a settlement offer to Mr. Maksimov and denied that it had orchestrated his arrest. Mr. Bazulev said Novolipetsk handed evidence to the police of possible fraud and was obliged to do so under Russian law as a publicly traded company.
Five days after his arrest, Mr. Maksimov was released on bail. A month later, in March, a Moscow International Commercial Arbitration panel awarded him $287 million in a ruling that, under terms of the chamber, is final and not subject to appeal.
When capitalism and democracy arrived in Russia in the early 1990s, many people thought a new industrialist class would become a pillar of the state, substituting for the Communist Party, the Red Army and the K.G.B. But under Mr. Putin, a K.G.B. veteran, the security services resurged as a force in society and business. Last Sunday’s poor election showing for his party, United Russia, suggests some Russian voters are cooling toward Mr. Putin, who intends to wage his own three-month campaign to return to the presidency.
In 2000, when he first ran for president, he vowed to eliminate the oligarchs “as a class,” but that didn’t happen. Some who seemed to clash with him directly, like Mr. Khodorkovsky, lost fortunes.
A loose system of patronage, in which security services and big business overlap, is still pervasive.
In one prominent case, a hedge fund called Hermitage Capital, once the largest foreign money management firm in Russia, accused several dozen midlevel police, tax inspection and judicial authorities of abusing their offices to steal $230 million in a fraudulent tax refund. After the fund’s lawyer, Sergei L. Magnitsky, testified in the case, he was arrested and held 10 months in dank cells before dying, possibly of a heart attack or pancreatitis.
Novolipetsk says it has litigated the failed deal with Mr. Maksimov in 141 separate cases in Russian state courts, winning 90 times. Such a proliferation of hearings is common in Russian business law, as all sides typically jurisdiction-shop for sympathetic judges by filing similar lawsuits in dozens of courts.
Importantly, lawyers for Novolipetsk have obtained rulings suggesting that even if contract parties specify arbitration to resolve disputes, Russian courts can claim jurisdiction, a precedent that could damp foreign investment, too. Russian civil courts have refused to enforce the arbitration panel’s ruling.
After the favorable ruling in March, Mr. Maksimov’s lawyers successfully appealed to courts in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Cyprus to freeze shares in six European steel mills. Novolipetsk has appealed on jurisdictional grounds and won a ruling against him in Amsterdam in November, though the court left in place the restriction against selling the European assets.
Mr. Maksimov has put what remains of his wealth into a British-domiciled holding company.
WHILE his money has escaped from Russia, it is less clear that he will himself. The police are now investigating him in a separate fraud case. They argue that because Russian courts do not recognize the arbitration panel ruling, presenting that ruling, even to a foreign judge, is fraudulent — even if a European court accepts its validity.
“We understand this as blackmail,” says Vladimir Melnikov, a lawyer for Mr. Maksimov. “If you receive the money in Holland, you go to jail in Russia.”
==========
Added on Sunday, December 11, 2011
Russian Tycoons Find Tougher Times as Money Flees
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
MOSCOW
NIKOLAI MAKSIMOV, one of the richest men in Russia, was sitting in a grimy jail cell in the Ural Mountains.
Through the murk, Mr. Maksimov saw his cellmate — a man, he says, who appeared ill with tuberculosis, a scourge in Russian prisons. “I had the feeling that I was put in this cell on purpose,” Mr. Maksimov, now free on bail, recalled recently.
Mr. Maksimov, who was arrested in February on suspicion of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars, is hardly the only Russian tycoon who has run into trouble. Among the six men who have topped the Forbes rich list here in the last decade, one, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, is in prison, and another, Boris A. Berezovsky, is in exile. They, like Mr. Maksimov, maintain their innocence.
Even before the authorities here acted last week to quash protests against the government and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, Russia’s rich were growing agitated, too. Evidence is mounting that conditions are deteriorating for the maintenance and investment of their vast wealth — and while this development may gladden populists, it may become an economic threat.
Post-Soviet privatizations shifted state-owned factories into the hands of a coterie of well-connected businessmen — the oligarchs. Partly as a result, Russia has 101 billionaires, behind only China, with 115, and the United States, with 412, according to Forbes.
Only now, capital flight, a problem in the 1990s, has re-emerged. Money is flowing out of Russia faster than it is flowing in. The net outflow is expected to reach $70 billion by year-end, and the figures suggest that the bulk of that will be from large investors.
Yaroslav Lissovolik, chief economist for Deutsche Bank here, notes that “the scale of capital flight has more than compensated for the rise of oil prices.”
Even if oil output is maintained and crude prices stay relatively high, according to Russian finance ministry estimates, the nation’s current account will slip into deficit by 2014. Then Russia’s economy, like that of the United States, will depend on an inflow of investment, economists say.
The Russian government has recently made modest gains in attracting foreign investment. The problem is that for every foreign company that invests — from Exxon on the Russian Arctic Shelf to Cisco Systems in a high-technology park going up outside Moscow — far more Russian entrepreneurs head for the exits, gauging the risks too great.
Officials understand that oil can take Russia only so far and are eager to lure investment from all quarters. “The amazing thing is that they are doing far better with the foreign investors than the locals,” says Clemens Grafe, chief economist at Goldman Sachs here.
It’s hard to know how big a role cases like Mr. Maksimov’s have played. Mr. Maksimov, 54, is withering in his criticism of the authorities. The suggestion is that his business enemies enlisted the police to try to persuade him to resolve a dispute.
“I was on the Forbes list; now I’m going to jail,” he says. “It’s normal. It’s Russia.” His troubles began three years ago, when he sued Vladimir S. Lisin, another steel tycoon, touching off the dispute that eventually led to Mr. Maksimov’s arrest.
The two had made a deal, which quickly soured, for Mr. Lisin to buy 50 percent plus one share of Mr. Maksimov’s company, the Maxi Group. Maxi was estimated at the time to be worth $1.2 billion after debts. Mr. Lisin’s company, Novolipetsk, paid Mr. Maksimov an advance of $317 million. It was to pay the remainder after an outside auditor estimated the extent of the company’s debt, within 90 days.
Executives of Novolipetsk declined to pay. In an interview at its headquarters here, lawyers for Novolipetsk accused Mr. Maksimov of transferring large sums out of the Maxi Group to the bank account of his girlfriend. He denied the accusation, saying he had been buying out shares that his girlfriend, who was also a business partner, owned in business subsidiaries.
Whatever the case, such disputes were supposed to be settled by an international arbitration panel under the terms of the agreement. By February, Mr. Maksimov felt that he was close to winning. He said he had rebuffed informal discussions of a $100 million settlement and was holding out for the full balance, $287 million. He called a news conference at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Moscow on Feb. 14.
Along with the media, men toting Kalashnikovs showed up.
“Russia is always interesting,” Mr. Maksimov says. He was whisked out of the hotel in a Russian version of a “perp walk.” Soon enough, he was handcuffed to a chair in a dingy police station on the city’s outskirts.
FORMALLY, he was held on charges related to the payment to his girlfriend, which had in any case been repaid to the Maxi Group. But Mr. Maksimov says the investigator also discussed with him the arbitration with Novolipetsk. As Mr. Maksimov recalls it, the investigator sat on the edge of the table during the questioning and asked: “’You were offered $100 million. Why didn’t you take it?”
Mr. Maksimov says he was then escorted to the airport to fly to a prison in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals. Awaiting the flight, he says, he was again urged to make a deal with Novolipetsk.
“You won’t like people in jail,” he says he was told. “They aren’t your type.”
Anton Bazulev, director of external relations for Novolipetsk, said in an interview that it had never made a settlement offer to Mr. Maksimov and denied that it had orchestrated his arrest. Mr. Bazulev said Novolipetsk handed evidence to the police of possible fraud and was obliged to do so under Russian law as a publicly traded company.
Five days after his arrest, Mr. Maksimov was released on bail. A month later, in March, a Moscow International Commercial Arbitration panel awarded him $287 million in a ruling that, under terms of the chamber, is final and not subject to appeal.
When capitalism and democracy arrived in Russia in the early 1990s, many people thought a new industrialist class would become a pillar of the state, substituting for the Communist Party, the Red Army and the K.G.B. But under Mr. Putin, a K.G.B. veteran, the security services resurged as a force in society and business. Last Sunday’s poor election showing for his party, United Russia, suggests some Russian voters are cooling toward Mr. Putin, who intends to wage his own three-month campaign to return to the presidency.
In 2000, when he first ran for president, he vowed to eliminate the oligarchs “as a class,” but that didn’t happen. Some who seemed to clash with him directly, like Mr. Khodorkovsky, lost fortunes.
A loose system of patronage, in which security services and big business overlap, is still pervasive.
In one prominent case, a hedge fund called Hermitage Capital, once the largest foreign money management firm in Russia, accused several dozen midlevel police, tax inspection and judicial authorities of abusing their offices to steal $230 million in a fraudulent tax refund. After the fund’s lawyer, Sergei L. Magnitsky, testified in the case, he was arrested and held 10 months in dank cells before dying, possibly of a heart attack or pancreatitis.
Novolipetsk says it has litigated the failed deal with Mr. Maksimov in 141 separate cases in Russian state courts, winning 90 times. Such a proliferation of hearings is common in Russian business law, as all sides typically jurisdiction-shop for sympathetic judges by filing similar lawsuits in dozens of courts.
Importantly, lawyers for Novolipetsk have obtained rulings suggesting that even if contract parties specify arbitration to resolve disputes, Russian courts can claim jurisdiction, a precedent that could damp foreign investment, too. Russian civil courts have refused to enforce the arbitration panel’s ruling.
After the favorable ruling in March, Mr. Maksimov’s lawyers successfully appealed to courts in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Cyprus to freeze shares in six European steel mills. Novolipetsk has appealed on jurisdictional grounds and won a ruling against him in Amsterdam in November, though the court left in place the restriction against selling the European assets.
Mr. Maksimov has put what remains of his wealth into a British-domiciled holding company.
WHILE his money has escaped from Russia, it is less clear that he will himself. The police are now investigating him in a separate fraud case. They argue that because Russian courts do not recognize the arbitration panel ruling, presenting that ruling, even to a foreign judge, is fraudulent — even if a European court accepts its validity.
“We understand this as blackmail,” says Vladimir Melnikov, a lawyer for Mr. Maksimov. “If you receive the money in Holland, you go to jail in Russia.”
==========
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