To avoid paying taxes, the rich are emptying their bank accounts in Switzerland and investing in art. This has spawned a new business of storing such works tax- and duty-free in warehouses across the world

07/24/2013 12:10 PM

(Sm)art Investing

Rich Move Assets from Banks to Warehouses

By Christoph Pauly

To avoid paying taxes, the rich are emptying their bank accounts in Switzerland and investing in art. This has spawned a new business of storing such works tax- and duty-free in warehouses across the world.

One of the world’s most valuable art treasures is being stored in an extremely ugly place, a six-story concrete building known as the Geneva free port. Instead of windows, much of the façade of this giant safe for the world’s wealthy is covered with gray panels. Anyone hoping to get into the walk-in lock boxes of this very special Swiss tax haven must first surmount a number of hurdles. At the first door, an employee has to type the right combination of numbers into a small screen. The next hurdle is a large steel barrier that has to be rotated counter-clockwise until it snaps into place, followed by a heavy steel door that resembles a submarine bulkhead. Behind it is a drab corridor with doors on both sides. Only the renters have keys to these doors. Read more of this post

Chinese films gain box office edge with reality-based films

Chinese films gain box office edge with reality-based films

Xinhua

2013-07-25

Already topping US box office charts, action sequel Fast & Furious 6 and sci-fi flick Pacific Rim are also poised to cash in on the flourishing Chinese film market. These Hollywood blockbusters, which are scheduled to debut in Chinese theaters on July 26 and July 31, respectively, will face fierce competition from their Chinese counterparts, including a sequel to a popular coming-of-age drama Tiny Times that will hit screens early next month. Tiny Times, a film inspired by author-turned-director Guo Jingming’s novel of the same name, has raked in 475.6 million yuan (about US$77.5 million) in the Chinese mainland since its debut on June 27, according to figures released by China Film News on Tuesday. Read more of this post

Japan’s Temples, Universities, Hospitals Haunted By Yen Bets; Ryusho Soeda, 66, has taken on a job for which his career as a Buddhist priest never prepared him: forensic accounting

Japan’s Temples, Universities, Hospitals Haunted By Yen Bets

By Hideyuki Sano on 1:36 pm July 24, 2013.
Koya, Japan. Ryusho Soeda, 66, has taken on a job for which his career as a Buddhist priest never prepared him: forensic accounting.

Soeda’s temple is the 1,200-year-old Koyasan, a World Heritage site deep in the mountains of western Japan and long prized as a haven for quiet contemplation. But in recent months monks here have been debating a very worldly question: How did a complex bet on the yen go so horribly wrong?

Soeda, who was picked to head Koyasan in June after his predecessor was forced out, has promised a full accounting of the temple’s losses, which at one point last year threatened to wipe out half of its endowment. Read more of this post

As growing numbers of Indonesians become frustrated with the rising price of basic foods, such as chili, onion, chicken and eggs, the government faces scrutiny

Hot Seat on Chili Cost

By Yanto Soegiarto on 9:40 am July 24, 2013.
As growing numbers of Indonesians become frustrated with the rising price of basic foods, such as chili, onion, chicken and eggs, the government faces scrutiny.

Not only are citizens upset, but President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also recently expressed anger over the public outcry and incapability of his ministers to stabilize food prices.

Based on official statistics obtained from the Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) during the first week of July, the price of red chili (bird’s eye chili) went up to Rp 41,000 ($4) a kilogram — nearly 50 percent higher than the normal price. Read more of this post

Tide Turns Against Private Equity in India

Jul 24, 2013

Tide Turns Against Private Equity in India

By Kenan Machado

The rupee’s slump to a record low is adding to the woes of foreign private-equity firms invested in India even as they deal with slowing economic growth and a big drop in initial public offerings this year. Those firms piled into the country in 2007 and 2008, when the economy was expanding at 8% to 9%. Since then, growth has fallen, sliding to a 10-year low of 5% in the fiscal year that ended in March. The rupee has fallen by around 52% since hitting a multiyear high in late 2007. It reached a record low of 61.20 to the dollar this month before strengthening to trade at around 59.40 on Wednesday. Read more of this post

No Menstrual Hygiene For Indian Women Holds Economy Back

No Menstrual Hygiene For Indian Women Holds Economy Back

Sushma Devi, a mother of three in Northern India, stores her “moon cup” on the window sill of the mud-brick veranda that shelters the family goats.

In a village where few have indoor toilets and the Hindi word for her genitals is a profanity, 30-year-old Sushma struggles to talk about how she manages her period and the changes brought by the bell-shaped device she inserts in her vagina to collect menstrual blood.

“It’s a thing from hell,” she says of the malleable, silicone cup, which she received from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research group. “I have to keep it far from the house, from where I pray.” Read more of this post

China Wrings Price Cuts in Public Campaign on Graft-to-Collusion

China Wrings Price Cuts in Public Campaign on Graft-to-Collusion

When GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) sent a top executive to Beijing this week to apologize in person for alleged corruption, he delivered a second pledge: cheaper drugs.

“We fully support the efforts of the Chinese authorities in their reforms of the medical sector,” Abbas Hussain, the London-based drugmaker’s president overseeing emerging markets, said in a statement on the website of the Ministry of Public Security, the country’s top law enforcer. Any savings in the way Glaxo operates, he said, will be passed to consumers, “ensuring our medicines are more affordable to Chinese patients.” Read more of this post

What about the workers … and their share of income?

What about the workers … and their share of income?

10:33am EDT

By Alan Wheatley, Global Economics Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters)- Nothing lasts forever but a global trend that set in 30 years ago shows no sign of ending: a steep rise in the share of income that goes to profits and a corresponding decline in labor’s slice of the economic pie.

The imbalance, which is driven by technical change, the waning clout of unions and the rise of financial markets, raises issues that are primarily political.

At what point will public opinion decide that the pendulum has swung too far towards the owners of capital? Should taxes and transfers be tweaked to redistribute income more fairly? Read more of this post

Australia’s CBA Seeks Property Withdrawal With Plan to Exit REITs Management

CBA Seeks Property Withdrawal With Plan to Exit REITs Management

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is seeking to exit its property management business by proposing that its three listed property funds set up their own management teams.

CFS Retail Property Trust (CFX) and Commonwealth Property Office Fund (CPA), now managed by CBA’s funds management division, and Kiwi Income Property Trust in New Zealand have received a conditional proposal from the bank to internalize their management, the trusts said in separate regulatory filings. The bank is also proposing that CFS Retail acquire the wholesale property funds management and retail property and development business from CBA, the trust said. Read more of this post

Americans Gambling on Rates With Most ARMs Since 2008

Americans Gambling on Rates With Most ARMs Since 2008

Jung Lim plans to offset the cost of rising mortgage rates by using an adjustable-rate loan to buy a home for his expanding family. For the California endodontist, the money he’ll save makes up for the ARM’s risky reputation.

Lim, 38, whose wife is expecting a second child in December, is leaving a two-bedroom condo in Los Angeles’s Hancock Park to buy a four-bedroom house in the city’s Sherman Oaks neighborhood for $1.12 million. His lender offered him a rate for an adjustable mortgage that is about a percentage point cheaper than a fixed loan. Read more of this post

Angolan Capital Overtakes Tokyo as Most Costly City for Expats

Angolan Capital Overtakes Tokyo as Most Costly City for Expats

The Angolan capital Luanda has overtaken Tokyo to become the world’s most expensive city for expatriates in a survey of 214 cities by Mercer, which cited security for pushing up costs.

“Despite being one of Africa’s major oil producers, Angola is a relatively poor country yet expensive for expatriates since imported goods can be costly,” Barb Marder, a senior partner at Mercer, said in a statement with the company’s annual Worldwide Cost of Living Survey. “In addition, finding secure living accommodations that meet the standards of expatriates can be challenging and quite costly.” Read more of this post

Humans Beating Robots Most in Currency Trading Since ’08 as Trends Shift

Humans Beating Robots Most Since ’08 as Trends Shift: Currencies

By Ye Xie and Liz Capo McCormick – Jul 23, 2013

Humans are proving more adept than computers in reacting to the Federal Reserve’s mixed messages on when policy makers will reduce their unprecedented stimulus.

Currency funds that use computer models for trading decisions made 0.9 percent this year through May, compared with 2.5 percent for those that don’t, the biggest margin since 2008, according to the latest data from Parker Global Strategies LLC. Hong Kong-based Ortus Capital Management Ltd.’s $1.1 billion computer-model fund lost 13.8 percent in the first half, while the FX Concepts Global Currency Fund, which employs a similar strategy, fell 3.3 percent, Barclay Hedge Ltd. data show. Read more of this post