Nils Pratley is a Guardian columnist to whose opinion I usually pay little attention. But he caught my eye today. Writing on the raid on Cadbury Schweppes by the US hedge fund led by Nelson Peltz, infamous for his tussle with Heinz which cost 2,700 of its employees their jobs, he says:
He will be in [...]
On 9 November last year I did a long blog on the Jyske Bank, based in Denmark. To cut to the quick, that blog suggested:
The result is that a major European bank is offering on its web site to use its “Company Manager” to set up an offshore trust and company for people resident in [...]
I have been reading the opinion of the Special Commissioner who heard the applications from the Revenue to obtain information from four UK high street banks with regard top accounts they hold offshore (mainly it is believed in the Channel Islands) on behalf of UK resident domiciled people who would have liability to pay tax [...]
I’ve mentioned Simon Caulkin’s writing here before. I will again. In considering the role of the heretic challenging the status quo with a truth that is obvious, and yet unacceptable (as Galileo did the Catholic Church) he wrote last Sunday:
Today those keeping people in ‘a pearly haze of superstition’ about their place in the world [...]
One part of my work which I mention very little here is a continuing, if small, role in the campaign against exploitative secondary lending by the likes of Provident Financial plc. Their normal loan interest rate is 177%. You read that correctly.
This featured on Primetime on Irish television yesterday.
I welcome their involvement. It is timely. [...]
I blogged yesterday on the need for an accounting standard on carbon emissions and trading.
The person I was discussing this with had been looking at the subject for a while, and I gave it a good internet search before writing. But one thing I had not searched was ‘IASB‘ for International Accounting Standards Board and [...]
Almost since its inception the Tax Justice Network has been developing and promoting the International Financial Reporting Standard calling for country-by-country reporting by all quoted companies.This is now the subject of discussion by the International Accounting Standard. One enjoyable side effect has been the opportunity to discuss ideas for accounting which may not as yet [...]
The FT reports this morning that VNU is to get the private equity treatment now that’s its been owned by that sector for six months. This is short hand for mass sackings. In the old days we used to call this asset stripping. Now its people stripping. In either case it amounts to much the [...]
It’s been announced that two Norwegian companies, Statoil and Hydro are to merge.
Both have great records on disclosure, tax and corporate responsibility. Could this be the creation of the world’s biggest ethical company, and be the basis for a real force for good?
I hope so.
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