These are my links for January 26th through January 27th:
- re: The Auditors: PwC and Satyam - Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Yourself Into - Francine McKenna and Dennis Howlett think PWC's global existence will end
They may well be right
And as Francine points out - there's an expectation gap on the auditor and their duty to discover fraud, but none at all on that fact that the auditor is not meant to participate in fraud
It's not looking good
- Asset Protection BLOG - Mark Nestmann: So What if 80% of Big U.S. Corporations Have Tax Haven Subsidiaries? [Part I] - Probably the weakest fight back for the tax havens I've read in a long time
Sure people may use them for real business purposes - but that would require about one company per haven - not the vast numbers there are
In the face of evidence the tax haven lobby does what it does best - spread misinformation based on an absence of facts
- FT.com / Companies / Banks - Positive reaction to Barclays’ personal touch - Barclays books £850 million profit from the fall in value of its own debt
Accountancy has gone mad
- FT.com / Companies / Retail - Barratts and Priceless go into administration - Worth reading
Good that someone is trying real financial innovation to save jobs
- FT.com / US & Canada - US ‘ready to lead’ on climate change - Doesn't that sound good?
- Trades Union Congress - Recession Report - Getting down to facts that matter
- A welcome for bankrupt banks: the idiocy of market fundamentalism | ToUChstone blog: A public policy blog from the TUC - Well said
- Larry Elliott: Banks need to go back to being boring | - "The City minister, Lord Myners, says the activities of the City's masters of the universe are unpalatable and fundamental change will be needed.
Myners is right to call for root-and-branch reform. To ensure that there is not a return to business as usual after a period of sackcloth and ashes, this country has to return to one basic principle: the high-street banks need to be boring.
A healthy banking system is dull because its core function is mundane: to keep the economy ticking over by taking in savings and recycling them as loans.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a bank as an organisation offering financial services, especially the safe keeping of customers' money until required, and making loans as interest.
Nothing there about borrowing for speculative activities, about gigantic takeovers, about pursuing high returns from collateralised debt obligations."
Larry is right: but then he's part of the Green New Deal, and so is this banking reform
- Nortel collapse adds to pressure on Pension Protection Fund - "The government's beleaguered pensions lifeboat scheme could see its funding shortfall double to more than £1bn after the collapse of the Canadian telecoms firm Nortel earlier this month.
Already forced to rescue the schemes of collapsed companies such as Woolworths and Lehman Brothers, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has been asked to step in to pay the retirement incomes of Nortel's 43,000 British pensioners after the parent company went under with huge debts.
Figures revealed that the Nortel scheme's accounting deficit of £250m ballooned to more than £500m once the company had collapsed. The PPF's last accounts revealed a shortfall of £500m, making a total of £1bn."
It's why we need a People's Pension
It's all part of the Green New Deal
- Hospital projects at risk in PFI credit crisis, warns leaked memo | - "Hospital building and improvement programmes financed through the government's controversial private finance initiative (PFI) are being placed at risk by the credit crunch, according to a leaked health service memo.
Health managers have been told to "expect a capital desert" next year and "a real problem" in completing projects because no banks are financing PFI schemes, the memo claimed."
As I've said before - it's time for bonds
- Social mobility, equality and a minimum rate tax | ToUChstone blog: A public policy blog from the TUC - Minimum tax for the best off - that is
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here: