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This basket consists of stocks that have attracted bad press.
French retail giant Carrefour has agreed to sell an 80% stake in its China operations for ~$705 million to Suning.com, an Alibaba-backed company. While China represents a massive opportunity with its almost 1.4 billion population, it has not been an easy market for foreign companies, at least when it comes to retail and e-commerce.
JetBlue (JBLU) believes, Walmart is trying to cash in on the carrier's goodwill by using the name Jetblack for its personal shopping service.
We expect Walmart’s (WMT) revenues to continue to grow on the back of sustained momentum in comparable sales. The retailer’s comparable sales stayed strong in the past several quarters despite heightened competition in the grocery business. We expect comparable sales in its US business to continue to mark strong growth, driven by an increase in traffic and ticket size.
Walmart (WMT) stock is hitting new highs thanks to the continued momentum in its comparable sales and better-than-expected earnings performance in the past several quarters. Walmart stock is up 19.3% on a YTD basis and closed at $111.13 on June 21, which is a tad lower than its 52-week and all-time high of $112.19.
Today, Bloomberg reported that India is planning incentives such as a tax holiday and lower tax rates for companies moving out of China while the US and China are embroiled in their bitter trade war. But emulating China’s manufacturing prowess and ecosystem might not be easy.
Target stock trades at a forward PE ratio of 14.5x. Target stock is trading at a discount of 37% compared to Walmart’s forward PE ratio of 23.0x.
TJX Companies (TJX) is gaining momentum on the back of strong merchandising and brand strategies combined with effective marketing efforts.
Yesterday, India’s Economic Times reported that Walmart-owned Flipkart (WMT) will go public in the US. The newspaper said that the board has decided on a listing in 2022. Walmart bought a 77% stake in this Indian e-commerce startup last year at a whopping $16 billion.
(Bloomberg) -- Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund revoked its more than decade-long exclusion on Walmart Inc. after the U.S. retailer tightened control over potential human rights abuses in its supply chain.Walmart has made “positive developments” in monitoring its suppliers, the fund’s Council on Ethics said in a statement released Tuesday.“Furthermore, the company engages actively in selected, high-risk areas in order to help bring about improvements in working conditions,” the council said in a letter. “There seem to be fewer reports of poor working conditions in Walmart’s supply chain now than there were before.”The fund also decided to revoke exclusions to Grupo Carso SAB de CV, General Dynamics Corp., Nutrien Ltd., Rio Tinto Ltd. and Rio Tinto Plc, as well as Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB de CV, according to a statement.General Dynamics was let in from the cold after discontinuing the production of cluster munitions while Grupo Carso is no longer involved in tobacco, according to the fund. The exclusion of Nutrien was revoked after it ceased purchases from Western Sahara and Rio Tinto was taken off the list after it agreed to sell its Grasberg mine in Indonesia, reducing the risk of “severe environmental damage.”Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, takes into account ethical rules encompassing human rights, some weapons production, corruption, the environment, coal and tobacco when deciding on its investments.Runar Malkenes, a spokesman at Norway’s central bank, said the recommendations to revoke the exclusions were made over time, but the bank found it “appropriate” to publish all seven decisions at the same time. It’s part of the council’s mandate to regularly reassess exclusions, he said in an email. To contact the reporter on this story: Sveinung Sleire in Oslo at email@example.comTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at firstname.lastname@example.orgFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- One of the most opaque areas of China’s credit markets involves the practice of companies buying their own bonds. That may soon get a lot tougher, contributing to financing difficulties that are already bedeviling the nation’s policy makers.At issue is a sharp increase in scrutiny by financial institutions of the collateral that their counterparties offer up in the repurchase market, a crucial channel for short-term funding. If the debt sold by issuers that indirectly purchased a portion of their own bonds -- which could account for as much as 8% of China’s corporate bonds, according to Citic Securities Co. -- is shunned, that will squeeze liquidity for a swathe of the nation’s businesses.Despite regulators’ actions to prevent any seizing up in the repo market and short-term collateralized lending between banks, some institutions still moved to avoid riskier securities. The moves have showcased the fragility of confidence toward borrowers that lack state backing in a financial system still dominated by state-sector banks.For firms that obtained funding via unorthodox methods, conditions may become particularly challenging. One of those practices is known as structured issuance, where a company will transfer cash to an asset manager to buy a slice of the bonds the company is itself selling. The manoeuvre helps give the appearance of greater demand for its securities and stronger ability to obtain funding. What could make the practice untenable is if asset managers can no longer use those securities held in custody as collateral for repos.“Since some repo transactions have defaulted recently, it is unclear whether companies can continue to borrow money from the structured issuance method, said Meng Xiangjuan, chief fixed-income analyst at SWS Research Co. in Shanghai. “If it stops, some issuers will certainly face difficulties operating their business normally, and their debt-repayment pressure will rise,” she said.CHINA DEFAULT WATCH: Three More Companies Missed PaymentsWhile the practice of self-financing a portion of bond issuance is well known among credit analysts and ratings companies, observers have been loath to name the firms involved, making this a particularly murky part of China’s debt market. Citic Securities, for its part, hazarded a total of about 1.5 trillion yuan ($218 billion) worth of securities outstanding that were sold in part via structured issuance.A shock takeover of Baoshang Bank Co., a city commercial lender linked with conglomerate Tomorrow Group, has had cascading effects. One of the readily quantifiable ramifications has been to raise the funding costs for lower-rated banks, as seen in the rates on their negotiable certificates of deposits.Another impact has been the shock to confidence after regulators warned that Baoshang’s interbank creditors might face losses. They have since had to fight a rearguard action to encourage banks to sustain their interbank and repo operations, and the People’s Bank of China has had to pump liquidity into money markets to avert any systemic upset.Concern became so great that the China Foreign Exchange Trading System, an arm of the PBOC, set up a procedure for the orderly resolution of defaulted repo transactions, pledging to conduct anonymous auctions of the bonds used as collateral -- a move that hides the name of the counterparty that defaulted.“The government has been taking measures proactively to avoid systemic risk” in the interbank market, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists including Zhennan Li, wrote in a note Tuesday. Even so, “in coming months, the macro environment looks set to remain complicated, and macro policy more challenging, and we think the probability of a rise of financial stress will remain relatively high,” they wrote.Regulators’ actions have averted a broader surge in premiums for lower-rated borrowers, such as local government financing vehicles that analysts say account for a portion of structured issuance. But strategists remain concerned that the days of such an unconventional fund-raising strategy may be numbered if the securities are no longer accepted as collateral for financial transactions.“In the short run, companies that rely on structured issuance definitely have to sell bonds at higher yields to attract investors,” said Brian Lou, portfolio manager from UBS Asset Management in Shanghai. “Everyone knows the funding chain is really fragile after the Baoshang Bank seizure, and the most important task for institutional investors right now is to allocate assets better and improve risk management.”(Updates the charts.)To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Tongjian Dong in Shanghai at email@example.com;Qingqi She in Shanghai at firstname.lastname@example.orgTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Neha D'silva at email@example.com, Christopher Anstey, Lianting TuFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- It’s official -- SoftBank Group Corp. is Japan’s most generous employer, at least when it comes to executive pay.Six of the country’s 10 biggest salary packages last fiscal year were offered by SoftBank, according to a report from Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. SoftBank Group Vice Chairman Ronald Fisher topped the list with 3.27 billion yen ($31 million) in the period ended March 31. Toyota Motor Corp. director Didier Leroy, the highest-paid non-SoftBank executive, ranked No. 5, while Sony Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Yoshida was 8th.SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has a history of paying top dollar to attract high-profile executives. Former SoftBank President Nikesh Arora still holds Japan’s all-time record with the 10.3 billion yen package he received in fiscal 2016, according to the report. Since then, Son’s hunt for global talent accelerated as he launched a $100 billion Vision Fund to invest in the world’s biggest technology companies. SoftBank paid a total of 9.1 billion yen in compensation to six lieutenants last year.Key Insights:SoftBank Group Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure ranked second with 1.8 billion yen. Claure, who also heads Sprint Corp. in the U.S., was named EVP in July. He also heads SoftBank’s $5 billion technology fund focused on Latin America. Ken Miyauchi, head of SoftBank’s domestic telecom operation, was third with 1.23 billion yen, followed by Simon Segars, head of its ARM Holdings Plc chip unit, with 1.1 billion yen.Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive and SoftBank Group Chief Strategy Officer Katsunori Sago earned 982 million yen in the sixth place. Rajeev Misra, who heads the Vision Fund, earned 752 million yen.Son’s own salary remained modest at 229 million yen, according to a company filing in May. The billionaire controls a roughly 22% stake in SoftBank, which alone is worth about 2.3 trillion yen.Toyota paid Leroy a little over 1 billion yen. Sony CEO Yoshida made 847 million yen, 6% less than his pay last year.Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron Ltd. was the most frequent name on the list as nine of its executives made the top 30, earning a collective 5 billion yen. Chief Executive Officer Toshiki Kawai ranked 7th with 925 million yen.To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at firstname.lastname@example.orgTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at email@example.com, Colum MurphyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Dan Loeb wants to split up Sony Corp. to enhance its value. The company isn’t the only household name in Japanese electronics that might benefit from the treatment.Panasonic Corp. shares have dropped more than 40% over the past 12 months after a partnership with Tesla Inc. disappointed; the company forecast earnings will decline; and a restructuring plan put forward last month failed to convince investors. The firm is trading on a multiple of 3.8 times enterprise value to Ebitda, compared with a five-year average of 4.6 times.Loeb’s Third Point LLC has called for a spinoff of Sony’s semiconductor business, aiming to reduce the stock’s so-called conglomerate discount – the situation where a company is valued at less than the sum of the different businesses it owns. It’s an analysis that could equally be applied to Panasonic.Last month, the Osaka-based company released a mid-term plan that will increase its number of divisions to seven from four. Panasonic aims to shift its focus away from the automotive business, which is struggling under the shadow cast by the difficulties in its relationship with Tesla. The electronics maker also announced a series of partnerships and alliances, and estimated restructuring costs of about 90 billion yen ($840 million), according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Analysts say Panasonic still doesn’t have a coherent strategy, and investors clearly want more change. So could a breakup be the solution?The answer from a sum-of-the-parts analysis is a clear: maybe. If Panasonic listed all its business segments separately and they traded at the mid-point of their peer-group ranges of between 4 times and 9 times enterprise value to Ebitda, then the combined value would be 2% higher than the company’s current market capitalization of about $20 billion. At the high end of the ranges, Panasonic could increase its value by as much as 32%. At the low end, though, there’s a similar amount of downside.(1)Analysts in Japan have questioned Loeb’s proposal for Sony. While they lauded his effort to improve the company’s valuation, they also cast doubt on whether the activist investor’s proposals were feasible or made strategic sense. A Sony split may unlock value now but, as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Tim Culpan asked, what’s the vision for the future? As Sony analysts have pointed out, Loeb has reversed course since 2013, when he recommended that the company sell part of its film unit.This uncertainty is precisely where a breakup proposal may make sense for Panasonic, though. Pulling apart its various businesses – grouped broadly under appliances, automotive and industrial systems, connected solutions and eco solutions – would enable investors to put their money where they see value and growth prospects, without being encumbered by laggard businesses.For instance, sales for the connected solutions segment rose 6.9%(2) in the 2019 fiscal year, helped by the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and growing demand from businesses to help automate tasks. Itochu Techno-Solutions Corp., which competes in a similar business, is trading on a forward price-earnings ratio of 23 times.Panasonic thought the automotive business would drive its profitability over the past three years. Even here, running the unit separately could create more value. Panasonic has teamed up with Toyota Motor Corp. and already has partners other than Tesla. With demand for electric cars and the pace of adoption being reassessed, the company could take time to leverage its technology advantage. In the process, the segment’s rising fixed costs won’t weigh down other more profitable businesses. In fact, investors might give a standalone battery business a higher valuation, as they’ve done with South Korean battery-makers Samsung SDI Co. and LG Chem Ltd.Analysts at Credit Suisse AG downgraded the stock on Friday, noting that they see “no signs of a rebound in earnings in the near term,” and that it was unclear how the company and its profit would look after the restructuring. Earnings at the auto business, where the analysts earlier saw potential for sales growth, is unlikely to improve over the medium term, they said.There are additional reasons why a breakup should be considered. For one, the government is incentivizing spinoffs with tax breaks. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors are becoming more activist: The rejection rate for takeover defense measures has risen over the past six years to 80.5% from 40%, according to Goldman Sachs. That’s close to the 85% rate for foreign investors.Panasonic has some thinking to do. Loeb, meanwhile, might just have a new target. --With assistance from Elaine He. (1) Sum-of-the-parts analysis for Panasonic is based on FY2019 operating profit for each segment and used the following assumptions:1. Average enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for peer group of each segment.2. A range of two times above and below average multiple.(2) Includes exchange-rate effects.To contact the author of this story: Anjani Trivedi at firstname.lastname@example.orgTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at email@example.comThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Asia. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- FedEx Corp. may finally be waking up to the threat Amazon.com Inc. poses to its business model.The logistics company is offering big discounts to help fill the planes in its Express delivery network with more e-commerce shipments, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter. The deals are being used to woo customers away from rival United Parcel Service Inc., or to convince them to switch from FedEx’s cheaper ground offerings, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. For some customers, shipping goods via FedEx’s two-day air service may now cost about the same as shipping them through the ground division.(1)A FedEx spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that the company hasn't changed its pricing strategy, adding that the two-day Express service “has been very successful and continues to deliver tremendous value to small and medium businesses competing in the e-commerce market.” Reports of the discounts come just weeks after FedEx said its domestic Express air-delivery unit was dropping Amazon as a customer to focus on "serving the broader e-commerce market." FedEx dropped Amazon as a customer for its Express air-delivery unit to focus on “serving the broader e-commerce market.” The charitable interpretation of that move is that FedEx had found a bit of backbone and was holding a firmer line on pricing with Amazon in an effort to bolster its profit margins. The other possibility is that FedEx recognized that Amazon’s efforts to bring more of its logistics operations in house were real, and that it may want to start the process of breaking up with Amazon before Amazon decides to break up with it. While FedEx CEO Fred Smith has repeatedly painted any notion of Amazon disrupting the logistics industry as “fantastical,” his actions increasingly suggest otherwise. The share of capacity devoted to the time-sensitive legal documents and medical supplies that the FedEx Express network was originally built for will likely continue to shrink. But it’s uneconomical for the division’s fleet – which numbered 670 leased and owned planes at the end of 2018 – to fly partially full or not at all. Meanwhile, FedEx expects U.S. e-commerce demand to grow to 100 million packages per day by 2026. It’s been adamant that Amazon only directly accounts for a small percentage of its overall sales. But Amazon has forever changed the world’s expectations around shopping and delivery. So whether or not its own sales are in the mix, FedEx will be forced to drink more deeply from the firehose of e-commerce shipments to keep its network humming along. And that will come at a cost to margins.FedEx’s decision to prioritize shipments from the likes of Walmart Inc., Target Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. gave some analysts hope that it would deliver a greater share of packages to higher-paying business customers and add more density to its delivery routes. But there’s some debate as to whether the Express air-delivery unit as currently constituted still makes sense. Amazon relies on a network of fulfillment and sorting centers close to metropolitan areas to rapidly complete and ship orders, a model that many rival retailers are mimicking in some shape or form as they try to stay competitive. If you’re only going to deliver a package 25 or 50 miles, you’re not going to use a plane to do that. Indeed, when FedEx’s decision to drop Amazon as a U.S. Express customer was first announced, Seaport Global Holdings analyst Kevin Sterling wondered to Bloomberg News whether it was a precursor to the Express unit eventually fading out.Planes still have a role to play: Amazon last week announced an agreement to lease 15 additional Boeing Co. 737-800 converted freighters from General Electric Co.’s jet-lessor arm, adding to an existing agreement for five planes. But FedEx’s reported need to offer discounts to keep the planes it has full calls into question the company’s decision to devote a significant amount of its capital expenditure budget to refreshing its airplane fleet. Management has been clear it’s not expanding capacity at the Express unit, but rather replacing its planes with more efficient options to improve productivity and costs. Downsizing the fleet and reallocating those resources could be a smarter move. The reported pricing cuts – coupled with FedEx’s recently announced plan to offer delivery seven days a week by 2020 and add a fleet of flexible, part-time drivers – reinforce a point both I and my colleague Shira Ovide have long argued: Amazon doesn’t need to steal customers away from FedEx and UPS en masse to be a threat. It’s already forcing both companies to rethink the way they operate. The revenue lost from removing Amazon as an Express customer is relatively minor, but the world the e-commerce giant has created isn’t a hospitable one for the package-delivery incumbents’ profit margins and capital-spending budgets. (1) News of the discounts weighed on shares Monday, as did a separate shipping issue: FedExhad to issue a second apology to Huawei Technologies over the misrouting of packages, and some reports indicate China is contemplating black-listing it.To contact the author of this story: Brooke Sutherland at firstname.lastname@example.orgTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Beth Williams at email@example.comThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Over the past several years, Shanghai entrepreneur Yung Lin has built a decent business selling wrenches, screwdrivers and other tools on Amazon.com. Then President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on thousands of goods made in China, and Lin faced a difficult choice: eat the additional cost or try and pass it onto his mostly American customers. He chose to raise prices and watched sales of some products dive by as much as one third in just two weeks. Amazon.com Inc. merchants around the world are scrambling to navigate an unpredictable trade war that’s upending their proven business model of buying inexpensive goods in China and selling them at a markup in the U.S. The problem is particularly acute now as Trump weighs another $300 billion worth of tariffs, many on consumer goods.Mom and pop sellers won’t be able to wait for Trump’s decision: They have to place factory orders now and figure out pricing if they want to get their goods made in time for the lucrative Christmas shopping season, when they make as much as half their annual revenue. The most obvious solutions—raising prices, shifting production to other countries, stockpiling inventory—all have costs and complications of their own.These businesses—many of them one-person shops—are especially vulnerable because they lack big companies’ wherewithal to ride out the uncertainty as well as the negotiating power to shift tariff costs onto their suppliers. “The smaller companies have a significant problem,” says Joel Sutherland, Managing Director of the Supply Chain Management Institute at the University of San Diego. “We have an administration that says one thing today and does something else tomorrow, which poses tremendous risks.”Amazon is more insulated than the merchants in the near term but it too could take a hit if sales slow and cut into the commissions and fees the company charges merchants to use its online store. The shares were down less than 1 percent at 12:08 p.m. in New York.Much depends on whether the U.S. and China can come to terms. Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 28-29, and both sides have agreed to resume trade talks after a weeks-long stalemate. But even if they hammer out an agreement, the trading relationship between the world’s two largest economies probably will never be the same.“We’re going to assume the tariffs are here to stay,” says Chuck Gregorich, who sells China-made hammocks, patio furniture and 2,000 other products on Amazon. “We can’t have this happen in a year or two and get caught with our pants down again.”Like many other importers, Gregorich tried to move up orders early last year to beat a Jan. 1 tariff hike on Chinese imports from 10% to 25%. He wound up spending an extra $400,000 on shipping only to see the tariff hike delayed. Burned once by the guessing game, Gregorich is looking to shift about 30% of his production to factories in Vietnam and elsewhere. He’s not alone. Many other Amazon merchants are considering having their goods made in India, Southeast Asia and Central America. Michael Michelini relocated to China from New York in 2007 to make Italian coffee presses and upscale bar supplies for U.S shoppers. Eight months ago he decided to move with his wife and kids to Thailand, where he’s working with a new factory to develop a line of high-end kitchenware. “Now when I think of China, I think of risk,” he says.Moving isn’t easy, however. Merchants say finding the right factory, securing raw materials and conducting product quality testing can easily eat up a year. Jerry Kavesh sells cowboys boots and hats on Amazon and recently spent months locating a factory in India that could make his products. But Kavesh discovered he would still have to import raw materials from China, negating any advantage. So as a last resort, he’s cutting his holiday inventory by about 15% and raising prices by about 12%, which he figures will spook enough customers to hurt sales.“When I hear the [U.S.] administration say just move, that's just not realistic,” says Kavesh, the chief executive officer of 3P Marketplace Solutions. “You can’t just suddenly turn all of your production over to someone new.”Even as U.S. sellers try to diversify their manufacturing base, their Chinese counterparts are looking for new customers in Europe, Japan and Australia to offset the potential hit to their U.S. business. “If you are a Chinese seller, money is money,” says Eddie Deng, a former Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. strategist who now runs an online clothing brand called Urbanic that sells Chinese-made, Western-style clothing in India. “It doesn't matter if it's from the U.S., India or the Middle East.”Amazon has said little publicly about the trade war. It wasn’t among 600 businesses including Walmart and Target that wrote the Trump administration earlier this month seeking an end to the trade war because it’s bad for U.S. shoppers. Amazon is a member of the Internet Association trade group, which signed the letter.Behind the scenes, Amazon has agreed to pay some vendors up to 10% more for products affected by tariffs, according to two people familiar with the matter. “Companies of all sizes throughout the supply chain are adjusting to increased costs resulting from new tariffs,” Amazon said in an emailed statement. “We’re working closely with vendors to make this adjustment as smooth as possible.”But that help will apply only to products Amazon buys wholesale and resells itself. The mom and pops that sell directly to consumers on Amazon’s marketplace are on their own.The hardest part is the uncertainty—the temptation to parse Trump tweets in a mostly vain effort to divine the future. “This could all be a head fake,” says Steve Simonson, who sells Chinese-made home goods and electronics and has been scouting factories in India, Vietnam and Central America. “In two months, this could all go away and all of this time and work will be wasted.”(Updates with share price. A previous version of this story corrected name of university in the fourth paragraph.)To contact the authors of this story: Shelly Banjo in Hong Kong at firstname.lastname@example.orgSpencer Soper in Seattle at email@example.comTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Robin Ajello at firstname.lastname@example.org, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Amazon had been ”chipping away at Walmart’s pricing advantage” in groceries, but Walmart has started to reverse that, one analyst says.
Target (TGT) has taken steps that have improved prospects in a big way. The company's initiatives such as omni-channel capacities and emphasis on flexible format stores bode well.
(Bloomberg) -- The first round of the latest Federal Reserve stress tests, released last Friday after the market closed, was well received by Wall Street analysts, who said the results generally topped expectations.Bank of America Corp., PNC Financial Services Group and trust banks BNY Mellon Corp., Northern Trust Corp. and State Street Corp. were seen as relative winners, while the Fed’s harsh view of credit cards led to disappointment for Capital One Financial Corp.All eyes now turn to Thursday’s Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, known as CCAR, for banks’ capital plans.The biggest banks were mixed in early Monday trading, with BofA rising as much as 0.4%, Citigroup Inc. gaining as much as 0.2%, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. rallying as much as 1.2%, Wells Fargo & Co. dropping as much as 1% and JPMorgan Chase & Co. up 0.2%.Here’s a sample of the latest commentary:Morgan Stanley, Betsy GraseckAn “easier stress test is a positive for this week’s more important CCAR test,” Graseck wrote in a note. All 11 of Morgan Stanley’s covered banks passed, with Northern Trust, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., State Street, BNY Mellon, and Citigroup screening well versus Morgan Stanley’s capital return expectations. Capital One is most at risk.Citi, Keith HorowitzThe results offer a “green light for higher capital return for most banks,” Horowitz wrote in a note. He forecasts a total payout of 103% versus 97% last year, as banks look to be “on solid footing” on the Dodd-Frank Act stress test (DFAST) results.Citi views State Street Corp., PNC Financial Services Group, Northern Trust Corp., Bank of America Corp. and BNY Mellon Corp. as among those best positioned to exceed Street payouts. The results also imply that Capital One’s total payout will improve, though there’s risk buybacks will trail consensus estimates.Goldman, Richard RamsdenResults were “modestly better than expected,” as loss rates improved across trading and all loan categories, except for card and other consumer lending, Ramsden said in a note. Banks, with the possible exception of Capital One, look to be able to meet consensus estimated payouts.Goldman attributes increased card losses to “higher stress to unemployment relative to last year, as well as higher stress on subprime card due to a Fed methodology change.” Commercial real estate loss rates were most improved, though in-line with the 2016-2017 average loss rate. Trading losses fell across the banks to $80 billion from $105 billion, with State Street and BofA seeing the biggest improvement.Credit Suisse, Susan Roth Katzke“Manageable stress” for large-cap U.S. banks means that “more manageable stress capital buffers should follow,” Katzke wrote in a note. DFAST results indicate banks “have sufficient capacity for expected capital returns.”JPMorgan, Vivek JunejaThe results show an “increase in capital cushion at most of the large U.S. banks, and all of our banks remain well positioned to continue to return sizable amounts of capital.”Bloomberg Intelligence, Alison Williams, Neil Sipes“A solid pass across the largest U.S. banks, including units of foreign banks, in annual Dodd Frank Act stress tests should generally support payout plans, in our view. U.S. banks stressed capital ratios held above required minimums for participating banks. Stressed CET1 ratios were broadly better than in year-ago tests -- with the exceptions being Northern Trust and the U.S. unit of UBS.”Atlantic Equities, John HeagertyThe results “once again underline the robustness of the large U.S. banks’ balance sheets,” Heagerty wrote in a note. BofA “appears to do very well in 2019,” while Goldman also fared better than last year. “With these results, it’s difficult to see any objections arising to submitted capital returns.”KSP Research, Kevin St. PierreThe results were better than expected, with “widespread improvement in minimum CET1 ratios and sizeable cushions to allow for consensus capital return expectations,” St. Pierre wrote in a note.St. Pierre called Wells Fargo, BofA and PNC “relative winners,” as each saw “significant increases in CET1 minimums and large buffers to accommodate above-consensus capital return if they were aggressive in their ask.” Capital One was “the relative loser,” due to the Fed’s harsh view on cards.Recommends buying bank stocks, as they’re “a compelling value,” while cautioning that “investing around CCAR results has been ineffective.”Macquarie, David KonradU.S. banks under Macquarie coverage “performed well,” with higher minimum capital levels in every category except the leverage ratio for Wells Fargo. Lower loan loss rates and trading losses helped to improve capital ratios, while assumed growth rates in RWAs (risk-weighted assets) were lower. Trading and counter-party losses dropped, led by an “abnormally large” decline for BofA.Sees potential upside for Goldman Sachs and PNC with CCAR, while BofA and Wells Fargo “also shine.” Those two have the most excess capital above stressed requirements, and may report the strongest buybacks, with a total payout ratio of 146% for Wells and 112% for BofA.RBC, Gerard CassidyDFAST demonstrated that “under a supervisory severely adverse economic scenario ... the U.S. banking industry’s capital levels can withstand massive losses and still remain above well capitalized levels.”KBW, Brian KleinhanzlThe results were “less stressful than the prior year,” as banks “saw stress losses declining and modest improvements in net income before taxes.” As a result, only one bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., “seems at risk of not meeting our capital return expectations.”KBW expects “fewer surprises in CCAR results on Thursday, which is a modest positive for the group overall.”Raymond James, David LongLong sees BNY Mellon and State Street as winners, “given the wide spread between their projections and the Fed’s.” He also sees BofA as a winner, as their results pave the way for them to increase the dividend payout closer to peers, and as “stock repurchases remain an attractive use of capital at current levels.”(Updates share trading in fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Felice Maranz in New York at email@example.comTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at firstname.lastname@example.org, Steven FrommFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.


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LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Another Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are in the books and now shoppers are gearing up for Cyber Monday.
Experts estimate more than $3 billion will be spent online and are predicting that it will be the largest Cyber Monday in history.
Fraud attempts are up 43% this year but here’s how you can avoid being a victim.
• Create multiple and unique passwords for each shopping site that you visit.
• Watch out for spoof apps by making sure that t store you want to spend with is spelled correctly.
• Use two-factor authentication which requires a password and another security feature such as a question or mobile number to complete a transaction.
• Never save your credit card information to any shopping site.
• Choose credit over debit when making online transactions, which allows you time to dispute un-known activity.
By following these tips you can reduce your chances of being a victim of cyber fraud.

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Organic Expert Receives Chilly Reception at "Coexistence" Conference
To Subscribe to the Non-GMO Report call 1-800-854-0586 or visit http://www.non-gmoreport.com/ The outlook for peaceful coexistence between organic and genetically modified agriculture looks bleak if the chilly reception given to an organic industry expert at a recent conference is any indication. Lowell Rheinheimer, farm resource manager at Organic Valley was one of several organic industry experts invited to speak at a "Coexistence, Choice, and Sustainability in Crop Production" conference organized by Iowa State University's Biosafety Institute on Genetically Modified Agricultural Products held at university in April. Many conference speakers praised GM crops as a solution to "feeding the world" and agricultural sustainability. "Life and death issue for organic industry" Rheinheimer said the organic community believed that GM crops are about using more pesticides, that c...


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Get a 40-Inch 1080p TV With New Xbox One for $500
GameSpot CBS By Eddie Makuch
6 hours ago
Retailer Best Buy has announced a pretty nice Back to School deal where you can save big on a new TV and an Xbox One.
Beginning this coming Sunday, August 9, shoppers can pick up the Samsung 40-inch 1080p Smart HDTV and a new Xbox One together for just $500.
The TV right now sells for $430 and new Xbox Ones go for $350, meaning you'll save about $280 through the limited-time promotion. This deal rolls out Sunday and runs for a period of one week, ending August 15.
Best Buy is aiming this deal at college students.
"It's the perfect college student deal, as a gaming console like the Xbox One is a college essential and a 40-inch TV is a great size for a dorm room," the retailer said in a statement.
Looking for more gaming deals? Check back later today for GameSpot's full roundup of the day's best offers.


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A-Data has released a new storage solution for laptop or desktop PC called S510. S510 is a STA 6.0 Gbps Solid State Drive that has been equipped with MLC NAND Flash memory chip. It’s 2.5-inch only, so it can be fitted into a laptop without trouble. Also, A-Data S510 has come with SandForce SF-2200 series controller, TRIM support and MTBF of 1,000,000 hours.
The speed of this A-Data S510 is 550MB/s read and 510MB/s write. It’s not the fastest, but could be counted as the high-performance SSD drive. There is no pricing details given yet, as well as no release date informed yet.


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Earlier, news broke that Facebook had changed its name to Meta. But while the essence of Mark Zuckerberg's statement had not yet dried, Bloomberg magazine published an image of a smartwatch equipped with a front-facing camera.
The publication also said that the smartwatch was likely It will be released next year. Of course, it should be said that this announced time is not definite and this watch may be unveiled at another time. Developed, obtained. This app can be used to record videos with these glasses and upload them to the social network Facebook.
This is a sign that this smartwatch can be used with this app on iOS And controlled Android. Also, the information and codes found in this app show that photos and videos taken with this smartwatch can be stored on the phone using this app.
In addition, this information shows that this smartwatch It has the code name "Milan". A look at other smartwatches on the market, such as the Apple Watch, shows that Apple has never used a camera in this smartwatch.
This has led third-party companies like Wristcam to build a special camera that They can be used to equip the Apple Watch with a front-facing camera. In fact, the company has designed a strap equipped with a camera that users should replace their Apple Watch strap.
As you know, Oculus is a subsidiary of Facebook, which currently manufactures virtual reality headsets. There are also reports that the company is working on a hybrid reality headset, virtual reality and augmented reality at the same time.
- What is Metavars and why do you need to know about it?
As a result, this smartwatch may become an input for this headset. Bloomberg says the smartwatch will be unveiled next year. If this happens, this watch could become a competitor to the Apple Watch 8 Series. Published information about the Apple Watch 8 Series shows that this watch has sensors to monitor a person's body temperature, as well as a non-invasive sensor to measure blood sugar.
There are other rumors that Apple will use next year Will unveil 3 types of Apple Watch. These three models are the standard version of the Apple Watch 8 Series, the affordable Apple Watch SE, and a hard-working version for athletes. There is a lot of talk about Apple developing an augmented reality headset. If these rumors come true, it could be said that the headset could compete with the device Meta is developing.
- Facebook will spend at least $ 10 billion by the end of the year on the Metavars project. li>


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Starting February 1, Delta Air Lines is offering free Wi-Fi access on most of its planes.
“It’s going to be free, it’s going to be fast and it’s going to be available to everyone,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He said the airline has invested more than $1 billion in Wi-Fi technology over the past few years.
To use the on-board internet, passengers will have to be a member of its free SkyMiles loyalty program. Customers who are not members will pay a flat fee of $10.
Delta’s more than 500 domestic narrowbody aircraft serving the airline’s “most popular routes” will be ready for free Wi-Fi at launch, the company said. Wide-body international and small regional jets will come online by the end of 2024.
Customers will know if their flight has free Wi-Fi by posting a decal near the boarding door. They can also connect multiple devices at a time.
It’s been years since Thursday’s announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show. Bastion said in 2018 that offering free Wi-Fi on its fleet was a priority, but that the technology needed time to improve so that passengers did not have to deal with sluggish speeds.
Delta currently charges approximately $50 per month for Wi-Fi on its flights within North America and $70 on international flights. It has been testing free Wi-Fi for several years, and made messaging free in 2017.
In-flight Internet on any airline has long been plagued by complaints for its inconsistent speeds. However, efforts by several satellite providers and airlines have helped the technology develop significantly over the past decade – although there is still some catching up to do when compared to home and office networks.
Delta is the first of the “Big Three” airlines to offer free Wi-Fi: United Airlines and American Airlines (AAL) both charge separate rates for access. JetBlue (JBLU) has offered free Wi-Fi since 2017.
The airline is betting that adding free Wi-Fi could make passengers more loyal to Delta and further boost its loyalty program, which has nearly 100 million members. In October 2022, Delta partnered with Starbucks (SBUX) and began awarding 1 mile for every $1 spent at the coffee chain.
Bastian predicted that the partnership would add 1 million SkyMiles members within a year. However, Delta added 1 million new members within two weeks of its launch.


text: According to E! News, wedding bells will soon be ringing for Mariah Carey and James Packer! Mariah is engaged to the Australian billionaire businessman after a fairy tale romance. Mariah's future hubby popped the big question in her hometown tonight, and he presented her with what can only be described as the most breathtaking engagement ring. Mariah's new diamond bling comes in at around 35 carats and that no wedding date has been set just yet. Their love affair began just under a year ago and from the moment they started dating, "they fell head over heels in love with one another, " says an insider. "It's crazy how perfect they are together, they both know it and couldn't be happier." This will be the third marriage for both.


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Bitcoin to become world’s 6th largest reserve currency
Bitcoin, the world’s most popular digital currency, has been on a roll – but no one is really sure why.
The alternative theory for China is the country may be in the grip of a massive Bitcoin-based Ponzi scheme called MMM; Bitcoin Magazine quotes a spokesperson from another Chinese Bitcoin exchange called Huobi as saying “We believe that most of the investors hold a positive attitude towards the future development of Bitcoin industry”.
New research shows the rise of bitcoin is to become the world’s 6th largest global reserve currency by 2030, and that the top 100 global financial institutions are set to invest $1bn into blockchain projects in the next 1-2 years.
Magister Advisors sees the initial use of Blockchain is to typically not replace core infrastructure activities such as wire transfers, but to complement them, often by storing “meta-data” in areas such as settlement and clearing.
Another theory points to the impending auction by US Marshals of Bitcoin seized from Silk Road during the raids past year.
While the theory is denied by a few, there’s no question that something is going on in China with trading on BTC China, the biggest Bitcoin exchange globally surging to exchanging 80,000 Bitcoin a day lately, up from a more recent average of 20,000. “Blockchain, more fundamentally, will become the default global standard distributed ledger for financial transactions”, said Jeremy Millar, a partner at Magister Advisors, in a statement released by the organization.
“Ironically bitcoin has attracted negative publicity over its short life because attempts to rig it have been flagged by the Blockchain technology that underpins it”, he added. “Growing vendor acceptance and the adoption of Bitcoin in developing markets are creating a pincer movement that will lead to widespread business and consumer acceptance and adoption over time”, he said.
Bitcoin soared over $450 for its first time this year according to the Coin Desk Bitcoin Price Index today.
Interest in speculation has even creation of a number of bitcoin “money market funds” or ETF equivalents, but its usage still remains high in developing markets and 90 per cent of the transactions occur in those regions, according to the largest Bitcoin wallets, the group said. Traders are addicted to volatility and we mustn’t underestimate the significance of speculation.
The report says the actual number of transactions is being “underreported by an order of magnitude” by not factoring in “off-chain transactions”.


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Michael Ramlet, Robert Book, and Han Zhong | June 4, 2012
Introduction Key Takeaways The Medical Device Excise Tax (“device tax”) is a tax on all medical devices sold in the United States and a component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama’s signature legislation. The device tax will soon be center stage in the Congressional healthcare debate. A Ways and Means committee markup of repeal legislation this week will be followed by a floor vote in the House of Representatives in June. The device tax debate highlights the economic impact of the ACA. The device tax pays, in part, for the entitlement expansions in the ACA. The 2.3 percent tax will be applied to all medical devices sold in the United States, including both U.S.-made and imported devices. The only explicit exemptions are for eyeglasses, contact lenses, and hearing aids. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) anticipates the tax will generate over $29 billion in new tax revenue between 2013 and 2022.1 While not scheduled to begin until 2013, the economic impact of the device tax is already being felt. The artificial joint manufacturer Stryker announced plans to cut 5 percent of its global workforce (currently at over 20,000 employees) in part to reduce costs to pay the tax.2 In this paper, we estimate the full economic impact of the tax on medical device industry employment, investigate the tax’s effect on startups and small businesses, and evaluate the implications for U.S. leadership in the medical device industry.
The Medical Device Tax is a Tax on Jobs The device industry will finance the excise tax largely by reducing payroll employment. We estimate that at least 14,500 jobs will be lost, based on Joint Committee on Taxation revenue estimates and historical industry data. Job losses could reach as high as 47,100, or 10 percent of industry employment if the medical device industry is unable to shift the burden of the excise tax. The Device Tax and the Demise of Small Businesses The device tax tilts the playing field against smaller companies who are less able to absorb the lost revenue as a result of higher fixed costs and smaller cash reserves. Small to medium size firms represent over 91 percent of 16,424 U.S. medical device companies. The impact on small businesses is visible in the dramatic drop off of venture capital deals for medical device companies in 2011 – down over 50 percent compared to any of the previous five years. The Device Tax Threatens U.S. Innovation Leadership As the regulatory cost of medical device development has increased and revenues have stagnated, the number of U.S. medical device firms has dropped considerably. Since 2008, the U.S. medical device industry has seen an annual 5 percent decline in the number of active companies.
“Description of H.R. 436, The ‘Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2011’,” Joint Committee on Taxation, May 29, 2012: https://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=showdown&id=4431 2 “Stryker to cut 5% of workforce,” Detroit Free Press, November 11, 2011: http://www.freep.com/article/20111111/BUSINESS06/111110345/Stryker-cut-5-workforce. Michael Ramlet is the Director of Healthcare Policy at the American Action Forum. Robert Book is an affiliated Healthcare Economic Expert at the American Action Forum. Han Zhong is a Policy Analyst at the American Action Forum. Questions related to this paper or the American Action Forum’s healthcare research program can be sent to firstname.lastname@example.org.
Medical Device Excise Tax is a Tax on Jobs The medical device industry relies on continuous innovation to provide new and improved treatments for patients, as products may have a marketable life of only a few years. In order to compete globally, companies must attract elite talent from the fields of medicine and engineering to perform research and development. In 2010, it is estimated that the industry spent 23 percent of its revenue on wages and compensation3 and employed over 474,000 employees.4 To offset the revenue loss due to the excise tax, medical device companies will likely have to absorb the cost of the tax as a reduction in their net revenue for the devices they sell. Note that excise taxes are taken as a percentage of a manufacturer’s revenue. Therefore regardless of whether a company generates profits, the tax is enforced at the same rate. This is tremendously damaging to companies that have low profit margins or operate with losses during a given year. Companies that make a profit already pay a 35 percent federal corporate tax and 5 to 10 percent state corporate tax on income. On average, this excise tax takes another 5 percent cut to profits.5 Combined, medical device companies pay 45 to 50 percent of their profit in taxes. Figure 1, is an illustrative example of how the new excise tax and existing corporate taxes would impact current medical device companies. Figure 1: Effect of Excise Tax on Net Income for Illustrative Medical Device Companies
20.0% Percentage of Revenue
Corporate Tax Paid
5.0% 2.3% Excise Tax
0.0% Effective Tax Rate:
Merit Medical 46.1%
ICU Medical 40.7%
Source: Author’s calculations based on data from Mass Device and 2011 company SEC filings
Samadi N. “IBISWorld Industry Report 33451b: Medical Device Manufacturing in the US,” June 2011. National American Industry Classification System (NAICS): #325413, #334510, #334517, #339112, #339113, #339114, #339116 5 Perriello B. “By the Numbers: How the Medical Device Tax Shakes Out,” Mass Device, March 2012: http://www.massdevice.com/news/numbers-how-medical-device-tax-shakes-out?page=2
In the short term, most of the revenue reduction from the excise tax is likely to be absorbed by the device industry in the form of reduced payroll employment. If the entire revenue reduction was absorbed by the medical device industry, job losses could reach as high as 47,100, or 10 percent of the total industry employment. To develop a more conservative projection of the likely reduction in employment, we estimated the relationship between revenue and employment in the industry.6 Through our analysis, we found that an average of 1.274 direct industry jobs and 2.210 indirect jobs are lost per year for each $1 million reduction in industry revenue that year.7 This estimate takes into account only direct employment by the medical device industry. Notably, a portion of the revenue from that industry flows through to suppliers of goods and services from other industries. To estimate this impact, we subtracted total revenue from value added by the industry, to obtain the dollar value of inputs supplied by other industries. The average ratio of the value of inputs to value added over the period of our data is 1.658. Output per job in 2002-2010 was 1.332 times higher in the device industry than in the overall economy supplying these inputs.8 Overall, this indicates additional 2.210 jobs will be lost in other industries for every job lost in the medical device industry. This likely underestimates the impact for two reasons. First, the input ratio has increased steadily from 1.54 in 2002 to 1.86 in 2010; the annual figure decreased only twice in that period, and each time the subsequent increase was larger in magnitude than the preceding decrease. The ratio is projected to rise even further in future years, to 1.94 by 2015.9 Second, productivity per job in the medical device industry has been increasing faster than in the rest of the economy, from 1.072 times the average in 2002, to 2.058 times the average in 2010. There is no reason to expect this trend will reverse, but by using the average over that period we are being cautious. For this reason, our estimates for job loss in supplier industries should be viewed as somewhat conservative. The annual tax collection projections and estimated job losses are shown in Table 1. Annual tax collections from the device tax are expected to be over 29 billion in the coming decade. Based on the JCT projections, we estimate a reduction of 14,500 medical device industry jobs by 2022. Table 1: Annual Estimated Jobs Losses Due to the Medical Device Excise Tax10 Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
JCT Projected Tax Collections ($) 1,742,000,000 2,562,000,000 2,668,000,000 2,771,000,000 2,889,000,000 3,012,000,000
Cumulative Job Losses -7,100 -10,500 -10,900 -11,300 -11,800 -12,300
Samadi, op. cit. We ran an ordinary least-squares regression of first differences (“changes”) in employment on first differences (“changes”) in revenue (in millions of constant dollars). The result was a statistically significant coefficient of 1.205 (with a t-statistic of 2.80). 8 This is the ratio of value added per job in the medical device industry to GDP per job in the overall economy. 9 Samadi, op. cit. 10 “Description of H.R. 436, The ‘Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2011’,” Joint Committee on Taxation, May 29, 2012: https://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=showdown&id=4431
2019 2020 2021 2022 10-Year Total
3,143,000,000 3,280,000,000 3,428,000,000 3,582,000,000 29,076,000,000
-12,800 -13,300 -13,900 -14,500 -14,500
As noted above, the reduction in industry revenue (or equivalently, the amount of tax collected) from a 2.3 percent tax is not simply 2.3 percent of whatever revenue would have been otherwise, since both prices and quantities sold could change as a result of the tax. We assume that JCT took these factors into account when making their projections. The Device Tax and the Demise of Small Businesses Small businesses and startups in the medical device industry will have greater difficulty adapting to the excise tax burden. The structure of the device tax favors larger companies who are better position to absorb the lost revenue as a result of lower fixed costs and larger cash reserves. The tax could therefore be especially devastating to the 13,303 U.S. medical device companies with of 50 or fewer employees; 1,200 companies with 50 to 500 employees; and roughly 450 companies with fewer than 1000. Together these small to medium size firms represent over 91 percent of 16,424 U.S. medical device companies. 4 Figure 3: U.S. Companies by Employee Size Figure 4: Venture Capital Deals for Medical Device Companies
68 61 62 66 54
2006 Source: Hoovers
Source: PwC MoneyTree Report
The impact on small businesses is already visible in the dramatic drop off in venture capital deals for medical device companies in 2011 – over 50 percent less than any of the previous five years (Figure 4).
The Device Tax Threatens U.S. Innovation Leadership The medical device industry is uniquely American. The industry is dominated in size and scope by American firms, but future U.S. leadership depends on whether the regulatory and tax environment nurtures growth or suppresses innovation. The reality is that U.S. dominance in the industry is receding. As the regulatory cost of medical device development has increased and revenues have stagnated (Figure 4), the number of U.S. medical device firms has dropped considerably. Since 2008, the U.S. medical device industry has seen an annual 5 percent decline in the number of active companies (Figure 5). This annual decline is expected to continue and accelerate with new investment dollars going abroad, or to other industry sectors as a result of the medical device excise tax. Figure 4: U.S. Medical Device Industry Revenue (% Annual Change)
24.8% 21.5% 19.2% 15.9% 13.3% 8.7% 7.4% 6.9% -5.4% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 -5.4% -4.0% -4.6% -5.6% -6.0% -5.3%
Figure 5: Change in U.S. Medical Device Companies (% Annual Change)
-7.9% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Source: IBISWorld Industry Report: Medical Device Manufacturing in the U.S. April 2012.
As Congress begins the debate over whether to repeal the medical device excise tax, the economic lesson is clear. If left in place, medical device industry employment will decline, medical device startups and small businesses will decline, and U.S. leadership in the medical device industry will decline. The medical device excise tax is bad tax policy, bad economic policy and bad healthcare policy.
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Wisconsin Narcan Vending Machines
HRI Vending is playing an important role in Milwaukee’s new harm reduction and prevention strategy aimed at combating the rising number of drug-related deaths in the area.
The company is providing vending machines stocked with essential supplies such as Narcan, fentanyl testing strips, and safe injection supplies, all available free of charge.
The vending machines are set to be deployed in key neighborhoods that have been heavily affected by the crisis.
This innovative approach has already garnered support from local officials who believe that it’s a “totally commonsense approach” to help those who are struggling with addiction. With the vending machines set to be customized and delivered to key locations in December, the project is well on its way to helping those who need it the most.
If your community is looking for a safe, convenient, and effective way to access Narcan and other life-saving supplies, look no further than HRI Vending.
Contact us today to learn more about our products and services, and to find out how we can help you make a difference in your community.


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MEMBERS of Thetford Players have been exploring a new way to play Monopoly.
On Saturday, the players travelled to London to take part in their first ever Monopoly Race. The traditional board game was turned into a fun, real-life version with the aim of raising money for their charity of the year, East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (Each). Speakers Corner in Hyde Park became their GO! spot and the 22 players visited as many places in London featured on the Monopoly board as possible.
The winning group, Fairgate Flyers, reached 26 out of 27 locations. The game lasted five hours and was done in 30C. Their prize, a £50 Amazon voucher, was donated to Each. The fun day raised just under their £1,500 target.
If anyone would like to donate, they can go to www.justgiving.com/Robert-Waple0
If you would like to join call 07738 174069.


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The following blog post was originally published by Faizeen Khandaker, president Xtream IT, a Logi Analytics partner.
Changes are coming to the retail world. Big changes. And at Xtream, it’s vital for us to keep track of those changes, as we continue to fine tune our delivery of products and services to the Retail Marketing industries and their core data aggregators, the MSPs and MSOs in the Mystery Shoppping and Merchandising Service industries.
GigaOM had an amazing article in their paid content highlighting how technology will bring drastic changes to the showroom floor. The study outlines successes retailers have had by


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Pakuranga Plaza will become a new "urban village", with a hotel, conference centre, community facilities, apartments, offices and more shops in a $500 million upgrade.
Mah Bow Tan, chairman of the plaza's Singaporean-headquartered owner GYP Properties, will today announce a grand scheme to transform the mall, including developing publicly owned land around it.
"The proposed development would see over $500 million invested in Pakuranga and the proposed retail and commercial properties would house over 1300 people working in the facilities on a daily basis," his company said.
Plans are for 1ha of new office space, and up to 6ha or 60,000sq m of new retail, service, food and beverage, entertainment, hotel, conference and community space including a library with a civic plaza and public open spaces.
GPY is a subsidiary of Singaporean listed company Global Yellow Pages. Tan said the scheme would enhance the wider area and he cited the Pakuranga Town Centre Masterplan.
"The proposal is the first step of designing the future of Pakuranga and GYP will work with Auckland Council and other stakeholders to deliver a truly integrated development that includes housing, new community facilities and improved retail alongside major transport investment," Tan said.
While the proposal is still a work in progress, the vision is for the site to become an urban village where people live, work and play locally.
GPY has engaged architects Warren and Mahoney and is working with Auckland Council, the main owner of land surrounding the existing shopping centre.
"GYP, Auckland Council and the Howick Local Board all share a common passion," Tan claimed.
Local investors Ross and Dallas Pendergrast of Ladstone Holdings last year sold the mall in one of the year's biggest transactions for $96 million. Ladstone had carried out extensive renovations before the sale.


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Huawei and Telstra have teamed up to launch the world’s first long term evolution (LTE) category six-compatible mobile broadband device in Australia.
Samsung has surprised the tech world at Barcelona's Mobile World Conference, announcing two follow-ups to the maligned Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
Bose has made a surprise announcement this morning, unveiling the latest addition to its SoundLink Bluetooth speaker range, the SoundLink III.
How hopeless is ACMA?We've had mobile phone number porting for 18+ years,with all the fraud and problems,yet it's finally being[…]
I can't find "Privacy Alert" in the Chrome store.
C'mon now. Because you're ignorant -- so you say -- about all these areas you're prepared to receive loose or[…]
Good on 'em.
Fair enough, too. Has anybody or any organisation publicly released detailed PROOF that any Huawei products are in some way[…]


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Roger Collins started with Harps Food Stores Inc. in 1986 as vice president of finance and chief financial officer. He grew up in west Texas and practiced as a CPA in public accounting for four years before moving to Arkansas.
In 1995, Collins was promoted to executive vice president and to president and CEO in 2000. He has served on both the boards and executive committees of the National Cooperative Bank, the National Grocers Association and Associated Wholesale Grocers.
For the fiscal year that ended Aug. 30, 2013, Harps reported $571 million in revenue, up 5.7 percent from the previous year. Harps has 73 stores in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
- The Interesting Battle over Alcohol in Arkansas
- Arkansans Have Endured 80k Political Ads Worth $33.1M
- Performance, Not Academics, Drive Incentives for SEC Football Coaches
- Whataburger Chain To Break Ground on First of Five Possible Locations in NWA 5 days ago
- Crye-Leike Adopts New Safety Rules After Beverly Carter Death 2 days ago
- Home BancShares Completes Purchase of Broward Financial 17 hours ago
- Wal-Mart Used Technology to Become Supply Chain Leader 2 years ago
- Turner Grain Collapse Prompts Legislation 14 hours ago


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BEGIN ARTICLE PREVIEW:
There was a time when large automakers like Ford and GM kept things like new vehicle and technology development strictly in-house. But in recent years, both Detroit companies have adopted a new strategy when it comes to autonomous and electric vehicle development – investing in and partnering up with startup companies that specialize in those fields, as well as each other.
In the world of EVs, these moves include Ford’s sizable investment in Rivian, which gains it access to the EV maker’s skateboard platform, while GM owns a $2 billion stake in electric truck manufacturer Nikola. Meanwhile, both Ford and GM have also invested heavily in autonomous driving technology companies – The Blue Oval in Argo AI, and the Bow Tie brand in Cruise Automation Inc.
These moves have been widely praised by industry analysts and investors for a variety of reasons. For starters, investing in startups allows both Ford and GM to make up considerable ground in these fields quickly. It also allows both to continue building and selling traditional internal combustion-powered SUVs and trucks while smaller startups focus on the future.
Startups are also more nimble, attract investor money more easily, and are able to …
END ARTICLE PREVIEW


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GENEVA (AFP) – The World Trade Organization (WTO) will appoint experts to examine a European Union (EU) complaint against Russia over allegations its state-run companies disadvantage imports from the bloc, a Geneva-based trade official said on Monday.
The decision was reached during a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body meeting on Monday, the source said.
Brussels first launched the dispute last July, and after consultations between the two sides failed, it called last month for a WTO panel of experts to weigh in.
Moscow blocked that first request, but according to WTO rules, second requests are basically granted automatically.
Brussels charges that Russia has developed measures that seriously disadvantage EU companies when selling goods and services to Russian state-related enterprises and other entities through commercial procurement, in what it said is a violation of international trade rules.
The EU has said a lot of business is at stake, pointing out that Russian state-owned enterprises issued tenders amounting to around EUR290 billion in 2019, equivalent to around a fifth of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Russia said it regretted the EU’s decision to request the panel, insisting that its measures were in compliance with its WTO obligations.
The two sides now have 20 days to agree on which experts should sit on the panel. If they fail to do so, the task will be left to WTO Chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
It can take several years for WTO panels to render their decisions.


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Take a closer look at Premium Financed Life Insurance
This powerful policy-funding strategy for HNW clients is currently underutilized – which means there’s a big opportunity for advisors to step in and help.
2017 CSO kicks 3Q indexed life sales down a notch
Total third quarter non-variable universal life sales were over $1,012 million, according to the 81st edition of Wink’s Sales & Market Report, released on Nov. 16. Pacific Life was the top selling carrier in the quarter and had the top-selling product.
Updated Indexed UL illustration guidelines to take effect Sept. 1
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) on June 18 approved updated, more reasonable guidelines for the illustrations that insurers, agents and brokers can...
Record IUL sales drive 1% overall growth in individual life new annualized premium for...
Indexed and variable universal life sales highlighted a year that saw modest life insurance sales growth as LIMRA, WINK release final 2018 figures.
8% growth in 3Q individual life new premium spurred by IUL strength
WINDSOR, Conn. — U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium increased 8% in the third quarter 2015 – the fifth consecutive quarter of positive...
Hot IUL category gets another boost with trio of new products
Indexed Universal Life insurance policy sales – already on track for a record-setting year in 2017 – figure to get an additional boost from a trio of new IUL products that were introduced to the market recently.
Individual life premium improves 4% in 3Q while IUL up 18% YTD; more LIMRA...
Total individual life insurance new annualized premium improved 4% in the third quarter, according to LIMRA’s Retail Individual Life Insurance Survey. In the first nine...
Indexed life sales up 6.1% in 2017
Strong fourth quarter bolsters increase according to latest Wink report; Pacific Life retains the top spot in indexed life sales, with an 18.5% market share.
IUL: So zero’s your hero?
It may not be what you say that gets you in trouble; it’s what you leave out that may land you in litigation. Over the...
Individual life sales flat in second quarter, first half of 2019
YTD policy count down 4%, but indexed universal life continues to shine according to latest LIMRA sales figures.
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Lego Dimensions is a pretty genius idea - a base game which involves not only building Lego sets but also buying more and more of them in order to unlock new locations and abilities.
Almost a year on from release and a huge range of packs have already been released, ensuring that kids remain engaged and parents pockets remain empty. As the first 'season' comes to a close it appears the developers and publishers have a long term plan in place to keep the content fresh for at least another two years.
A listing on the Lego site which was immediately yanked suggests that the next character to be released could be Supergirl. That's certainly an interesting one to add, especially at a time when the NBC TV series is earning positive reviews, putting Superman's cousin back into the spotlight.
Eurogamer has a look at an instruction booklet for the figure.
Yup, that's definitely Supergirl, taking her place beside a menagerie of charcters from all manner of worlds which all seem to be working together through the magic of Lego. It's a pretty impressive lineup, and it's set to expand in the near future with more packs potentially featuring the likes of Harry Potter and E.T.


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KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 -- The popular animated series ‘Papa Pipi’, which sparked a phenomenon on YouTube last year, will be aired on television in conjunction with the school holidays.
Monsta’s head of International Brand and Sales, Faiz Zainal Aabidin said in a statement today that the animated series will air on TV3 every Monday to Friday at 5 pm.
“A special edition of the ‘Papa Pipi’ animated series will also be aired in conjunction with Ramadan and Aidilfitri soon. Monsta will also provide interesting collaborations involving this popular duo with local Malaysian artistes later,” he said.
Papa Pipi tells the story of Captain Papa Zola's life with his daughter, Pipi (Princess Intan Payung Indah Zulaikha Odelia Ladasyia Absyari), which is filled with entertaining scenes and family tips that will surely touch the hearts of the audience.
Last year, Papa Pipi’s public service announcement (PSA) videos on COVID-19 titled ‘Pesanan Papa Pipi: Duduk Rumah Diam Diam! Jauhi COVID-19!’ and the song ‘Ayuh Cuci Tangan!’ had sparked a phenomenon on YouTube.
It has garnered 22 million views on the Monsta digital platform as well as received extensive coverage from within and outside the country for delivering important information that is easy for children to understand.
The number of views for the Papa Pipi series has reached 400 million through the Monsta digital platform.
Monsta is an intellectual property and character company that has produced a variety of animated series, films and consumer products in over a decade.
Besides Papa Pipi, the company is also known for the popular animation franchise BoBoiBoy, ‘Fly With Yaya’ travel series and the upcoming animated series ‘Mechamato’.
BoBoiBoy has enjoyed immense success in the Asian region, with over six billion views on YouTube to date.


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Retail veteran Brett Blundy has sold the Dusk candle and homewares chain and the Adairs linen chain to private equity firm Catalyst for an undisclosed amount.
According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, Blundy and the management of the two chains – led by Adairs chief David MacLean and Dusk’s chief Greg Milne – will retain a 20% stake in the chains, which will be placed in a new vehicle to be called Home & Decor Holdings.
Blundy, MacLean, Milne and Catalyst’s managing director Trent Peterson will sit on the board of the new vehicle.
Attempts to contact Catalyst and Blundy’s company BB Retail Capital were unsuccessful this morning.
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Blundy was listed on this year’s BRW Rich 200 list with a fortune of $587 million. While he is probably best known as the founder of the Sanity chain, Blundy has a formidable track record in retail as the owner of chain’s such as Bras N Things, jewellery chain Lovisa and youth accessories chain Diva.
Blundy also has an investment in the hugely successful BridgeClimb attraction at Sydney Harbour Bridge and owns a portfolio of retail properties, including a number of bulky goods homemaker centres.
However, Blundy appears to be on something of a sales drive at present. As well as selling of major stakes in Dusk and Adairs, he is also reported to have the put the Bras N Things chain up for sale as well.
Last year, Blundy sold his stake in the Macro organic grocery chain to supermarket giant Woolworths in a deal believed to worth about $30 million.
The Dusk chain has 72 stores in Australia, while Adairs has more than 110 stores.
But the booming Diva chain, which now has 250 stores around the world and has just opened stores in China, appears to be now where Blundy is placing most of his energy and financial clout.


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Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is set for launch on Wednesday, June 15, across Xbox Live Arcade, Steam and PlayStation Network. Wizards of the Coast confirmed the launch date (which we assume will actually be Tuesday, June 14, on PSN) today, along with a $10 price point for the sequel to 2010's surprise hit, Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers.
Each version of Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 will also include a rare paper card bonus (while supplies last!), which can be acquired at your local card shop by producing a unique in-game code. Check out an image of all three cards just past the break.


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I've criticized those old-fashioned German car makers on numerous occasions, and chances are there'll be more reasons further down the road. Now I can't help but offer the prediction that Tesla is going to far outspend, on a per-car basis, everyone else in the automotive industry, and that's because of three decisions its management took without fully considering the ramifications it has for future patent licensing negotiations and infringement disputes.
As the saying goes, you can't argue with success. But Tesla's market capitalization doesn't mean that the company doesn't make mistakes in its operational business that a company like Apple, with its far greater experience in--and more sophisticated and strategic approach to--patent licensing and litigation, would avoid. Tesla is going to pay hefty tuition fees before it will learn how to play this game like the pros in Cupertino.
As IAM (Intellectual Asset Management) reported, industry observers believe that the new Avanci licensee (whose name the patent pool firm behind Avanci, Marconi, hasn't disclosed yet) is none other than Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker.
What gives rise to this speculation is that several lawsuits by Avanci members against Tesla have recently been dismissed in different U.S. federal districts.
Last year, Tesla settled with Conversant (as IAM reported), which was suing Tesla in the Western District of Texas. Actually, Conversant appears willing to license automotive suppliers, as its settlement with Huawei shows. So Tesla should have insisted on Conversant extending a license to its component makers. Then, Conversant's patent portfolio is pretty old and weak, so it might just have appeared cost-efficient to take a direct license, just like Daimler thought when it settled with Sharp. Both settlements--Tesla/Conversant and Daimler/Sharp--unnecessarily endorsed the concept of licensing cellular SEPs at the level of a car. Just like I criticized Daimler's decision in no uncertain terms, I didn't like Tesla's deal with Conversant because of what it means for other automotive SEP disputes. But Daimler has, at least so far, declined to take an Avanci license. Tesla apparently has done just that, and that means it has opened a can of worms and will have to pay off countless patent trolls, but also major operating companies holding patents it infringes.
I've looked up a few U.S. dockets and been able to verify that apparently there are no more cases pending between Avanci members and Tesla. Here's an Optis Wireless v. Tesla stipulation of dismissal from the Eastern District of Texas (this post continues below the document):
21-02-26 Optis v. Tesla Sti... by Florian Mueller
The following screenshot shows a Sisvel v. Tesla dismissal, dated March 2, in the District of Delaware (click on the image to enlarge):
After taking an Avanci license, Tesla is not going to be able to credibly defend itself against other SEP holders by arguing that those patent holders should insteasd talk to Tesla's suppliers.
Austin factory and relocation to Texas
Earlier today I mentioned that the Western District of Texas is the world's #1 hotspot for patent damages, and that is so because companies with a presence there (as opposed to merely having resellers offer its products) can't just move patent cases out of that district under TC Heartland.
Texas is building an Austin factory and even plans to move its HQ to Texas. It's understandable in political terms, because even though I predict Texas will become a blue state in the not too distant future, Texas Democrats may be as centrist as California Republicans, at least in fiscal policy. However, the Western District of Texas effectively imposes a huge patent tax on business.
From a marketing point of view, it made a lot of sense for Tesla to build a "Gigafactory" in Germany. "Made in Germany" has always been, in no small part, about cars. It's a major market. And maybe Tesla hoped to generate political goodwill in the largest EU member state.
However, Germany is exactly the jurisdiction to which patent holders flock in pursuit of injunctions. The judicial district in which you're based there doesn't matter: there's no forcible venue transfer, thus no TC Heartland equivalent either. The problem is that a patent injunction in Germany will not only disrupt Tesla's sales in that particular market, but will force it to halt production in its Gigafactory. Also, Tesla wouldn't be able to circumvent an injunction by exporting the products it makes in Germany to other markets.
Tesla could have built a factory somewhere else in Europe. Just a little bit to the east of its Berlin-Brandenburg site there's Poland. In that jurisdiction it's likely that politicians would immediately take action and protect a major foreign investor against patent injunctions, should the Polish judiciary follow the German example. But in Germany there's no chance: even local players like Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW have failed (partly because their IP lobbying expertise is lacking and wanting) to persuade lawmakers to address the issue. As I explained in my most recent post on the subject, the proposed reform will not affect patent holders who make a licensing offer by the trial date. There won't be a proportionality analysis in such cases. And those are the cases Tesla will be dealing with.
The best cross-jurisdictional patent litigation strategy against Tesla will be to sue them for damages in the Western District of Texas and to seek an injunction in Germany. Maximum leverage.
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Business-to-business (B2B) marketers worldwide are using video to fulfill a variety of objectives, according to September research. Most report that it’s working for their purposes, though not necessarily very well.
Ascend2 polled a group of primarily B2B marketing professionals worldwide about their usage of video in September 2015. According to the survey, they were using video marketing for a number of purposes. More than four in 10 were using video to increase brand awareness, increase online engagement, improve customer education and also increased the number of leads they generated. Around one in three also hoped to use video to boost conversion rates.
Based on the survey, it’s not clear how well video can serve so many purposes. Though one in four respondents said they thought it was “very successful,” another 60% were positive but much less sure.
Marketers may realize some of their problems come from a lack of focus. Nearly half said the lack of an effective strategy for video marketing was the biggest obstacle to their success. A lack of compelling content registered 40% of respondents, followed closely by complaints about inadequate budgets and production resources.
Research suggests that video is one of the most effective B2B tactics for lead generation, but that many B2B marketers aren’t using it.
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Germany's Metro AG (MEO.XE) said Wednesday it swung to an operating loss in the second quarter on flat sales, as it readies to split into two narrowly focused entities.
Metro, which is one of Europe's biggest retail and wholesale groups, kept its full-year targets of slightly higher sales, but said they now apply to continuing operations in the new group structure.
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The company's main earnings yardstick--earnings before interest and taxes before special items--or adjusted EBIT, fell to a 19 million euros ($21.2 million) loss in continuing operations in the three months through March. That compares with EUR38 million profit a year earlier.
Sales from continuing operations were flat at EUR5.26 billion, on weaker sales in western Europe outside the German home market, which weren't offset by improvements in Eastern Europe and Germany and rising online sales.
Net profit, adjusted for one-offs, was EUR24 million, a swing from a net loss of EUR57 million. Without adjustments, net profit was EUR131 million. For continuing operations, the adjusted net loss was EUR13 million.
-Write to Ulrike Dauer at email@example.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 31, 2017 02:30 ET (06:30 GMT)


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"Invention companies that rely on patent-licensing fees are outnumbered and outgunned in lobbying by the companies selling products that are in high demand because of the valuable technologies inside them. "
TheHill has commentary related in part to non-practising entities (NPEs):
Meanwhile, policy discussions have focused on theories, promoted by parties that would profit from lower patent licensing fees, of alleged patent hold-up and royalty stacking -- which suggest patent holders can charge excessive royalties – despite the utter lack of evidence offered by proponents of these theories. To the contrary, there is abundant evidence showing the smartphone market is open, competitive, accelerating with innovation and technology adoption, and increasingly cost effective for consumers. Unsurprisingly, no party seeking to reduce its royalty costs has yet tried to prove in court the total amount of the alleged smartphone “royalty stack,” or more importantly, that the total amount of royalties they pay to use technologies they did not invent is “excessive.”
Antitrust agencies should resist pressures from vested interests to regulate the market in favor of one business model over another. Invention companies that rely on patent-licensing fees are outnumbered and outgunned in lobbying by the companies selling products that are in high demand because of the valuable technologies inside them. If this free-market economic balance shifts to favor short-term profits of technology implementers over long-term innovation, consumers will be the biggest losers.


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Zalando aims to keep growing even as the economic backdrop remains challenging.
Over the past year, the online platform serving the fashion and lifestyle market in Europe has grown its number of active customers by 6% to 51 million and doubled the number of members of its loyalty program, Plus, to 2 million, Zalando said in a Tuesday (March 7) press release.
“The fact that we were able to continue to grow our customer base in the current economic environment shows that our core strategy is working,” Zalando Co-CEO Robert Gentz said in the release. “We want our customers to love Zalando and that’s why we are deepening our relationships with them.”
Other fashion marketplaces and retailers have been impacted by economic headwinds too. For example, fast-fashion eCommerce marketplaces Wish, Shein and Temu are reeling in the face of inflation and a shift in consumer buying behavior.
During 2022, Zalando introduced minimum order values to achieve profitable growth, acquired Highsnobiety to help highlight fashion through storytelling, began offering logistics services to brands that don’t sell on its platform and encouraged customers to shop across its different fashion and lifestyle categories — boosting the percentage of customers who do so to 20%, according to the press release.
“There’s a lot of growth potential within our existing customer base,” Zalando Co-CEO David Schneider said in the release. “On top of that, we see further opportunity in increasing penetration across our markets, where huge potential lies ahead of us.”
In February, the company removed several hundred overhead roles across many of its teams as part of its effort to improve margin and simplify the organization, according to the press release.
Looking ahead, Zalando expects its GMV to grow between 1% and 7% in 2023 while its revenue growth trails behind at –1% to 4%, the release said.
“While consumer demand is hard to predict in the current environment, Zalando’s ambition remains to continue to outperform the online fashion segment in terms of growth,” the company said in the release.


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Nintendo has announced that Pokkén Tournament DX will be getting an 'exciting new update.' This update adds a recording facility to the practice mode, as well as enhancing the game's online multiplayer features. This update also introduces Official Groups in the Group Match mode, adding the functionality for official online tournaments, which will be lovely if you're into the competitive scene and all that. Players form a team of their favorite Pokemon and duke it out with an opponent's team. Fans will also get the ability to record training sessions to share online and various gameplay improvements. In addition to that, players will now be able to join official groups in Group Match, which in turn will allow them to earn new titles. The idea is simple-players choose three Pokemon and battle it out in a last-man standing type battle. Another interesting feature is the option to control the opposing Pokemon in the Free Training mode, and record its movements with the objective of improving our skills when fighting it afterwards.
South-West APC: Buhari Is Yet To Inform Us Of His Interest
Akande told newsmen that restructuring was not the language of the APC, adding that it was not in its constitution or manifesto. He said the party only stands for devolution of functions of the Federal Government to the state and local governments.
Pokkén Tournament DX is available now for Nintendo Switch. No release date for the update has been given, though it will be coming to the system soon.


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NATRUE and the UK Organic Trade Board have joined forces to raise awareness of organic cosmetics and boost sales.
The objective of the partnership is to support, promote and increase knowledge about the natural and organic beauty sector in the UK specifically about NATRUE-certified brands.
This will be achieved by providing information for consumers in an “easy-to-digest way on the benefits of certified organic beauty”, said NATRUE.
“With this partnership, NATRUE and the OTB aim to amplify their messaging through the sharing of clear, concise information about the benefits of certified organic cosmetics,” it added.
Historically, the OTB’s marketing campaign was limited to members in the food and drink industry but it is now welcoming all areas of the organic industry, including cosmetics.
Part of the OTB’s mission is to raise awareness of organic beauty brands. Unlike food and drink, there is no legal definition for an organic cosmetic.
“So, especially for consumers, it is important to provide clarity and this is where NATRUE enters,” it added.
Globally, there are more than 8,800 products and raw materials carry the NATRUE certification label on the market.


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Connecting the next billion to the Internet – Nokia once said at the Nokia World last year. Exactly what they’re doing!
They’ve announced two new devices the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112, dual-SIM, attractive and affordable. It has apps to access Facebook, Twitter and social media networks. A super [...]


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'Counter rage' over identity checks
THE Government is rethinking planned changes to money-laundering laws after a barrage of angry feedback from investors and financial advisers.
Banks complain that their staff are being subject to an increasing amount of 'counter rage' as customers find they can't get their money out because they can't prove who they are.
Bank insiders say that their hands are being tied by requirements to check customers' identities when handling unusual requests. Increasingly, a single piece of identification such as a driving licence, is deemed insufficient.
Angry customers are left unable to complete their transactions, sparking furious confrontations in bank branches.
Bank staff aren't the only ones being caught in the crossfire. Lawyers and accountants are now lobbying the Home Office over proposals that will force them to report any suspicions they have about money laundering. The advisers claim that such a move will force them to breach client confidentiality.
The rules for advisers are complicated by the fact that financial services companies have to comply with a web of legislation on money laundering.
The Financial Services Authority has its own set of rules and firms are also bound by the Proceeds of Crime Act and the Money Laundering Regulations, which incorporate the latest EU directives.
These regulations extended anti-money laundering checks to a wider range of firms, including estate agents, accountants, jewellers, auctioneers and car dealers.
As the new rules are currently drafted anyone who falls into one of these categories of adviser who fails to notify the authority about their suspicions can be jailed. And the FSA has been quick to fine firms it believes are not taking their responsibilities seriously.
Advisers say that the rules are too onerous and it is still not exactly clear what sort of 'suspicious' behaviour has to be reported and what does not.
Advisers say that they, and banks, are worried about the way customers react when faced with onerous restrictions about how exactly they prove their identity when withdrawing large amounts of cash or closing accounts.
The Financial Services Authority says it wants firms to make greater use of automated databases to verify a customer's identity. It also wants to move to a single document for proof of identity rather than making customers produce several, something that bankers and others would like to see happen.
Jeremy Thorp, director of financial crime at the British Bankers' Association, says: 'Checks are made for lots of reasons, not just to stop money laundering, but also to prevent fraud. The public has to realise that the aim is to fight financial crime.
'We want to be able to tap directly into agencies such as the DVLA, the Passport Office and the Department for Work and Pensions so that we can automatically verify the identity of customers.'
Who do you think you are?
Investment giant Fidelity told Claudette McDonnell to prove her identity before she could withdraw cash from her account. Instead, she decided to close it - only to find that without proof she still couldn't have her money. As a long-standing customer Claudette was incensed.
The extra checks on identity are supposed to make it harder for criminals and terrorists to launder money. But they are also tripping up law-abiding customers, some of whom find it difficult to produce the correct paperwork.
Although all new customers of banks and building societies have been required to give proof of identity since 1994, more recent rule changes mean that companies now have to double-check the identity of many established customers.
Claudette's problems were made worse because she shares a house with her mother, so bills are not in her name - and she was reluctant to put valuable items such as a passport or driving licence in the post.
Eventually Fidelity accepted a letter from the Inland Revenue as proof. Fidelity said it had to protect customers from the risk of financial crime and to comply with the Financial Services Authority requirements for customer identification.
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