Johor Sultan decrees weekends will be on Fridays and Saturdays

Johor Sultan decrees weekends will be on Fridays and Saturdays

POSTED: 23 Nov 2013 21:01
The Sultan of Johor has ordered that weekends in the state be changed to Fridays and Saturdays effective January 1 next year. MUAR — The Sultan of Johor has ordered that weekends in the state be changed to Fridays and Saturdays effective January 1 next year. He said Friday was the most auspicious day of the week and Muslims should take advantage of the day to perform more religious deeds. Read more of this post

How EPF makes money for dividend payment; CEO reveals EPF’s strategies

Updated: Saturday November 23, 2013 MYT 12:45:20 PM

How EPF makes money for dividend payment

BY JAGDEV SINGH SIDHU

IT’S probably the one dividend rate most Malaysians will scrutinise. The rate will be dissected, debated and then the verdict from the people will be whether it’s satisfactory or poor. That single dividend is what the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) announces yearly. Last year’s 6.15% was the highest in a decade but the challenge that the EPF faces is how to keep that going. Read more of this post

‘I can’t look at myself in the mirror’: Eclectica’s Hugh Hendry reveals why he has turned bullish

‘I can’t look at myself in the mirror’: Hendry reveals why he has turned bullish

22 Nov 2013 | 14:41

Dan Jones

Eclectica hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry has said he has been forced to leave his bearish outlook behind as he faces up to a market “which only makes sense through the prism of trends”. Speaking at Harrington Cooper’s 2013 conference this morning, Hendry (pictured) said he is no longer fighting the “two-way feedback loop” which is continuing to boost risk assets. That centres on the currency war being played out between the US and China, in which US QE prompts dollar-denominated investment to head to China, and China fights the resulting upwards pressure on its currency by manufacturing an investment boom. Read more of this post

Regulator Sanctions New Jersey Audit Firm; PCAOB Says Company Didn’t Properly Audit Firms From China, Hong Kong

Regulator Sanctions New Jersey Audit Firm

PCAOB Says Company Didn’t Properly Audit Firms From China, Hong Kong

MICHAEL RAPOPORT

Nov. 23, 2013 10:44 a.m. ET

The U.S. government’s audit regulator sanctioned a New Jersey firm Friday, saying it hadn’t properly audited companies from China and Hong Kong. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board barred Acquavella Chiarelli Shuster Berkower & Co., an Iselin, N.J., firm, from auditing public companies for at least two years, after which the firm can reapply to the board. The PCAOB also fined the firm $10,000. Read more of this post

Mankiw: In Fed Policy, the Exit Music May Be Hard to Hear

November 23, 2013

In Fed Policy, the Exit Music May Be Hard to Hear

By N. GREGORY MANKIW

Is it time for the Federal Reserve to start its exit from the extraordinary set of policies it has pursued over the past few years? That crucial question is on the minds of the nation’s central bankers, as well as the stock and bond traders who follow the Fed’s every move. When Ben S. Bernanke and his Fed colleagues embarked on their policy of near-zero interest rates and large-scale asset purchases, they hoped that things would be back to normal by now. Unfortunately, events haven’t gone as predicted. Even though the recovery began more than four years ago, it has been so meager that the economy, by some metrics, is still very sick. The slowness of the healing has delayed the Fed’s exit — although minutes of last month’s policy-making meeting indicate that it is considering some changes. Read more of this post

France: The people see red; The scarlet hat has become the symbol of protest against François Hollande’s tax rises

November 22, 2013 5:40 pm

France: The people see red

By Hugh Carnegy

The scarlet hat has become the symbol of protest against François Hollande’s tax rises

Red alert: farmers have been at the forefront of protests against the Hollande government

In 1675 a popular revolt exploded in Brittany, the rugged north western region of France that juts into the Atlantic Ocean. It was against taxes imposed by Louis XIV, the Sun King, to finance war against the Dutch. The red-capped protesters were known as Les Bonnets Rouges. Nearly 440 years after the uprising was bloodily suppressed, people in Brittany have donned their bonnets rouges once more. This time they are fighting a wave of taxes imposed not by a king, but by President François Hollande and his socialist government. Read more of this post

Do You Dare Buy Stocks at Record Highs? Some say the market looks overpriced. Others disagree. But that’s not the question investors should be asking

Do You Dare Buy Stocks at Record Highs?

Some say the market looks overpriced. Others disagree. But that’s not the question investors should be asking.

JASON ZWEIG

Nov. 22, 2013 7:21 p.m. ET

Hedge-fund manager Carl Icahn says he is “very cautious” on U.S. stocks, which “could easily have a big drop” from their new record highs. Ben Inker, a director at asset manager GMO, forecasts that overall, U.S. stocks will suffer losses of 2% annually, counting dividends and inflation, through 2020. Yet billionaire investor extraordinaire Warren Buffettsays the U.S. stock market is valued “in a zone of reasonableness.” So who is right? In fact, whether stocks are overvalued or fairly priced isn’t the question that investors should be asking. Instead, what you need to answer is this: How much can I stand to lose before I will bail out? Experts can’t tell you that, but history and what’s in your own head can. Read more of this post

Asset price ‘security alerts’ mask real risks; Defining value is hamstrung by assumptions and expectations

Last updated: November 22, 2013 9:44 am

Asset price ‘security alerts’ mask real risks

By Tracy Alloway in New York

Defining value is hamstrung by assumptions and expectations

Any reader who has flown commercially in the US during the past dozen years will no doubt have a passing awareness of the Homeland Security Advisory System. The now defunct terrorism threat scale was rolled out to indicate the threat level faced by the nation, from green – for a “low” risk of an attack – to red for “severe”. I was this week reminded of the now-moribund warning system thanks to a flight to Florida and a new research report by Fitch Ratings that draws an unusual parallel between the nation’s old colour-coded scale and US accounting rules. There is something undoubtedly alluring about a process that classifies a complicated concept – be it the threat of a terrorist attack or the value of a security – into an easily digestible label. But there are unquestionable trade-offs in doing so. For much of its lifespan, the Homeland Security system was stuck at “yellow” or “orange” – indicating a significant or high risk of terrorist attacks. So omnipresent were the yellow and orange indicators that many critics of the system pointed out that the colours should simply become the baseline for the entire scale. When the warning system was eventually phased out in 2011, public officials noted that it had provided “little practical information”. About five years ago, a new “mark to market” regime came into effect to govern how US banks value the assets on their balance sheets at market prices, known as “fair value”. The rule – FAS 157 – created three categories financial institutions could use to classify the securities on their balance sheets. Read more of this post

Why Does It Cost $18 To Make A Call From Prison? It’s a monopoly, fueled by government kickbacks.The FCC says it’s fixing the problem, but things still look bleak

Why Does It Cost $18 To Make A Call From Prison?

It’s a monopoly, fueled by government kickbacks.The FCC says it’s fixing the problem, but things still look bleak.

posted on November 19, 2013 at 11:39am EST

Justine SharrockBuzzFeed Staff

For more than 15 years, the cost of a prison phone call has been as high as $18 for just 15 minutes of talk time. While it has varied over time and state by state, in Georgia, for example, rates can reach 89 cents per minute, with an additional per-call charge as high as $3.95. And that doesn’t even include the many extra costs for using the phone system. There are flat fees every time you add money to your prepaid account. There are high connection fees. Often calls are dropped — if you pause in conversation, for example, the connection may cut off — and the user has to pay another fee to call back. Read more of this post

The mystery of Bitcoin is how it keeps users’ trust; Europeans took a leap of faith when they embraced the euro and look where it got them

November 22, 2013 5:48 pm

The mystery of Bitcoin is how it keeps users’ trust

By Christopher Caldwell

Europeans took a leap of faith when they embraced the euro and look where it got them

Each generation has its own technological superstitions. Country folk used to vault off the bottom steps of escalators. Tribal peoples feared cameras. Until relatively recently, certain impressionable readers of the book of Revelation feared the government was using monetary and credit instruments to spy on them. Turns out they had a point. After September 11 2001, airport security authorities started paying close attention to anyone who bought an air ticket in cash. There are indeed a lot of private transactions for which government expects a public record. Read more of this post

Why the Swiss Scorn the Superrich

November 22, 2013

Why the Swiss Scorn the Superrich

By PETER STAMM

WINTERTHUR, Switzerland — Abroad, Switzerland may be best known for its smart ski resorts and discreet banking services for the superrich, but the Swiss themselves are remarkably allergic to the trappings of conspicuous wealth. It was not quite another Occupy moment perhaps, but in a referendum held in March of this year, the Swiss electorate voted by a two-thirds majority to ban bonuses and golden handshakes and force companies to consult shareholders on executives’ remuneration. It’s not easy for ballot initiatives like this to succeed in Switzerland: Of the 110 that have made it to a vote in the last 32 years, only 20 have passed. Many observers agreed that Daniel Vasella, the C.E.O. and chairman of the pharmaceutical giant Novartis, played a decisive role in the plebiscite’s success. Read more of this post

Nationwide property tax for China

Nationwide property tax for China

Saturday, Nov 23, 2013

Grace Ng

The Straits Times

To achieve its twin priorities of urbanisation and reducing social unrest, the top Chinese leadership has for the first time endorsed a nationwide property tax in a key policy document. Beijing has pledged to “accelerate legislation on the property tax”, among a host of other fiscal reforms described by analysts like government think-tank researcher Gao Peiyong as “critically important” to the next phase of China’s development. Read more of this post

Urbanites Flee China’s Smog for Blue Skies

November 22, 2013

Urbanites Flee China’s Smog for Blue Skies

By EDWARD WONG

DALI, China — A typical morning for Lin Liya, a native of Shanghai transplanted to this ancient town in southwest China, goes like this: See her 3-year-old son off to school near the mountains; go for a half-hour run on the shores of Erhai Lake; and browse the local market for fresh vegetables and meat. She finished her run one morning beneath cloudless blue skies and sat down with a visitor from Beijing in the lakeside boutique hotel started by her and her husband. “I think luxury is sunshine, good air and good water,” she said. “But in the big city, you can’t get those things.” Read more of this post

Teen idols, apps: New York store windows want to ‘retailtain’ you

Teen idols, apps: New York store windows want to ‘retailtain’ you

8:35am EST

By Marina Lopes

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Frosted fairies swoop between snow-covered trees as they guide a young boy from his bed to a whimsical forest with reindeer, angels and holiday magic. It’s not a trailer for a Disney release. It’s the Macy’s flagship store in New York City, where six display windows have been transformed into an animated story. Paul Olszewski works year-round with a team of 100 full- and part-time animators, hair stylists, makeup artists, composers, musicians and copywriters to create the mechanical scenes. Read more of this post

Solar May Power Smartwatches and Smoke Alarms, Alta Says

Solar May Power Smartwatches and Smoke Alarms, Alta Says

Alta Devices Inc., a supplier of solar cells for military applications, is in talks to provide its products for consumer electronics including mobile phones, smoke detectors and security systems. Solar cells can power wireless devices and systems that operate remotely, Rich Kapusta, vice president of marketing for Sunnyvale, California-based Alta, said yesterday in an interview. Read more of this post

South Korea’s financial firms will face severe punishments if they are found to be engaged in incomplete sales of financial products, which cause multiple victims

Financial firms to face suspension of operations over incomplete sales

Lee Eun-ah, Park Yong-beom

2013.11.21 17:48:39

South Korea’s financial firms will face severe punishments if they are found to be engaged in incomplete sales of financial products, which cause multiple victims. These punishments include suspension of operation and cancelation of business approval. When it comes to 10 malpractices including financial firms’ undue support for their majority shareholders or affiliates, the authorities will impose the strictest penalty stipulated by the relevant law.  Read more of this post