Archive for the ‘Money’ Category
‘They’re killing us’: world’s most endangered tribe cries for help | World news | The Observer
Logging companies keen to exploit Brazil’s rainforest have been accused by human rights organisations of using gunmen to wipe out the Awá, a tribe of just 355. Survival International, with backing from Colin Firth, is campaigning to stop what a judge referred to as ‘genocide’
via ‘They’re killing us’: world’s most endangered tribe cries for help | World news | The Observer.
Canada Ditches Its Penny
Canada will say goodbye to the penny this fall. As Finance Minister Jim Flaherty explained, “The penny is a currency without any currency in Canada, and it costs us 1.5 cents to produce a penny.”
Of course, Canada isn’t the only country to abandon the penny.
A government statement said New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden and others “have made smooth transitions to a penny-free economy.”
So why does the U.S. still use pennies? Well, that’s complicated. Back when he was a presidential candidate, Obama did say, “We have been trying to get rid of the penny for some time.” But now the administration is simply looking into cheaper ways to produce the penny, which is currently made of zinc.
Piracy cut in half in France, yet music and movie revenues fell | Techi.com
France made waves in the P2P industry by implementing a controversial graduated response program in 2010 that was designed to reduce the amount of illegal downloads by establishing progressively-harsher penalties on file sharers. The results were strong, as shown in Hadopi’s report, with file-sharing activities traffic slashed by two-thirds in 2011. However, the goal of increasing revenues in the French music and movie industries did not materialize and revenues fell in both industries.
The French music market fell 3.9% in 2011 while the video market fell 2.7%.
As Ernesto of TorrentFreak says, “If we follow the logic employed by the anti-piracy lobby during the past decade, this means that piracy is actually boosting sales.”
The declines in revenue were inevitable and will continue as technology makes it less-expensive to be entertained. Legal downloads and streaming services do not generate the revenue nor the profits that DVDs and CDs once did. The obsessive pursuits by governments, lobbyists, and anti-piracy organizations are wastes of energy when the real challenge the industries face are evolutionary. They are simply not adapting fast enough.
Piracy has an effect on music and movie sales in the same way that smoking has an effect on a person’s health. The problem is that the industries have a much bigger problem with understanding the way that their customers operate today and onward into tomorrow. If piracy is like smoking than lack of innovation is like a bullet wound. When you’re getting shot, you don’t take time to quit smoking.
via Piracy cut in half in France, yet music and movie revenues fell | Techi.com.
Jefferson County votes to file for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history « Second Front
After two days of meetings in and out of public and months of settlement negotiations, the Jefferson County Commission voted Tuesday to proceed with bankruptcy filings and become the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
After thanking Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley for supporting Jefferson County in negotiations with the county’s creditors, Commissioner Jimmie Stephens motioned for the filing, and Commissioner Sandra Little Brown seconded the motion.
Carrington apologized for the effect the bankruptcy — which will be twice the size of Orange Co., Calif.’s bankruptcy filing, the current recordholder — will have on the state of Alabama and other municipalities.
“I’m sorry, I feel like this has to be done,” Carrington said.
Attorneys for Jefferson County filed a bankruptcy petition at 4:29 p.m. Hearings could begin as early as Thursday morning.
via Jefferson County votes to file for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history « Second Front.
The Great Tech War Of 2012 | Fast Company
Gilbert Wong, the mayor of Cupertino, California, calls his city council to order. “As you know, Cupertino is very famous for Apple Computer, and we’re very honored to have Mr. Steve Jobs come here tonight to give a special presentation,” the mayor says. “Mr. Jobs?” And there he is, in his black turtleneck and jeans, shuffling to the podium to the kind of uproarious applause absent from most city council meetings. It is a shock to see him here on ground level, a thin man amid other citizens, rather than on stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center with a larger-than-life projection screen behind him. He seems out of place, like a lion ambling through the mall.
“Apple is growing like a weed,” Jobs begins, his voice quiet and sometimes shaky. But there’s nothing timorous about his plan: Apple, he says, would like to build a gargantuan new campus on a 150-acre parcel of land that it acquired from Hewlett-Packard in 2010. The company has commissioned architects–”some of the best in the world”–to design something extraordinary, a single building that will house 12,000 Apple employees. “It’s a pretty amazing building,” Jobs says, as he unveils images of the futuristic edifice on the screen. The stunning glass-and-concrete circle looks “a little like a spaceship landed,” he opines.
Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you’ll be fired | The Digital Home – CNET News
Zynga followed that strategy. But now the CityVille and FarmVille maker apparently wishes it hadn’t, according to a new report.
Citing industry sources, The Wall Street Journal reported today that Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, along with his top executives, decided last year as they were preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that they had given out too much stock to employees. But rather than accept that reality, the executives reportedly tried a different tactic: demand employees give back not-yet-vested stock or face termination.
In order to determine which employees would be asked to give stock back, Pincus and his executives tried to pinpoint workers whose contributions to Zynga–in the execs’ eyes–didn’t necessarily justify the potential cash windfall they could receive when the company went public, the Journal claims. One Journal source said that Zynga executives were especially concerned with not creating a “Google chef” scenario.
via Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you’ll be fired | The Digital Home – CNET News.
Occupy Italy: Police raid homes after riots
Italian police conducted raids, including house searches, Monday against suspected leftist extremists following a weekend that saw some of the worst violence to hit Rome in years.
Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano told local media that police targeted far-left suspects in an ongoing operation in cities across the country, the Associated Press reports.
Read more at GlobalPost: Occupy Wall Street goes global
Police reportedly raided homes and youth centers in Florence, Palermo and Ancona.
The riots began Saturday when Italians took to the streets to join the global campaign against corporate greed and economic inequality inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Protests took place in cities across the world Saturday.
The protests turned violent Saturday when several hundred protesters started setting cars on fire, breaking store windows, smashing bank ATMs and store windows and torching police vehicles in Rome. Italian police responded by firing teargas and using water cannons to break up demonstrators.
20 biggest CEO pay raises – Philippe P. Dauman, $50.5 million (1) – CNNMoney
Viacom’s chief executive Philippe Dauman enjoyed a whopping $50.5 million raise last year. What other top execs saw their pay jump tremendously in 2010?
via 20 biggest CEO pay raises – Philippe P. Dauman, $50.5 million (1) – CNNMoney.
BBC News – Aardman threatens overseas move
Wallace and Gromit maker Aardman’s head of TV has said the company may have to halt UK production of its famed stop-frame animations because it has become too expensive.
Miles Bullough told Radio 4′s World This Weekend there was a “crisis” in the UK’s TV animation industry and that homegrown shows were being lost to cheaper foreign competitors.
“When a company like Aardman is considering offshoring stop-frame animation, which we are at the moment, something’s got to be wrong,” he said.
The main problem, he said, was that while films made in the UK can receive government help in the shape of a 15-20% tax credit, UK TV animation receives nothing.
As a result, many British companies were either sending their shows abroad to be made or were being bought out altogether, he said.
“There is genuinely a crisis. HIT, a beacon of excellence in children’s animation in the UK and maker of Bob the Builder and Pingu, has just been bought by US company Mattel.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Do we want to see Bob the Builder driving on the right-hand side of the road?”
End Quote Miles Bullough Head of TV, Aardman Animations
“Cosgrove Hall, known for Dangermouse and Avenger Penguins, is sadly no longer with us.”
Why Wall Street hates Obama: The surprisingly simple explanation. – Slate Magazine
Wall Street hates Barack Obama. That much, we know. But why? Just three years ago, he was Wall Street’s favored candidate. After being elected, he helped bail them out. He stopped Congress from going after their pay. He rejected proposals for radical reforms like breaking up the biggest banks. You would think Wall Street would give Obama a big Christmas bonus this year. Instead, they’re mobilizing against him.
There have been several competing theories for why the finance industry has turned on the White House. One is policy: The administration pushed through the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill, which tamps down on proprietary trading, leverage, and other tools banks use to increase profits. Another is ideology: Wall Street fingered Obama as a socialist, seeking to redistribute its hard-earned capital gains to the lazy and poor. A third explanation is psychology: Obama clearly doesn’t respect Wall Street. Therefore, Wall Street hates him.
via Why Wall Street hates Obama: The surprisingly simple explanation. – Slate Magazine.
