A Mime Speaks Out: Amanda Palmer: The art of asking

 

Amanda is very intriguing in how she has made MUSIC PAY considering even Tower Records or Virgin records weren't able to switch paradigms and to stay in business...

lished on Mar 1, 2013

Don't make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer. Let them. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she examines the new relationship between artist and fan.

This is an Inspiring talk by one of those annoying Mimes.....

Source:

 http://youtu.be/xMj_P_6H69g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g

A Popular Delusion: Great Drinkers think themselves great men.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Popular Delusions

Dylan Grice F

US RESEARCH ANALYSTS.

GLOBAL

STRATEGY

January 2013

SPECIAL REPORT

Extract from a report

Cred and

Credulity

A collection of Popular Delusions

essays

from 2009 to 2012

  Popular Delusions

 

   

 

 

Source:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/123487201/Dylan-Grice-Full

Libyan Fund Helping SEC in Goldman Probe - WSJ.com

By LIZ RAPPAPORT And GIOVANNI LEGORANO

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s GS +0.51% headache in Libya didn't go to the grave with Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

Libya's sovereign-wealth fund said it is cooperating with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in its continuing investigation into Goldman Sachs over the securities firm's dealings with the fund when Col. Gadhafi was in power.

Alessandro Bianchi/Press Pool

Col. Moammar Gadhafi



The Libyan Investment Authority said in a statement that it also hired a law firm to discuss possible actions to recover losses it suffered from investments made in structured-finance products.

Before the financial crisis, Goldman and other financial firms sold complex investments to Libya as officials there looked for ways to put some of the fund's $60 billion in assets to work. Many of the investments plunged in value during the crisis.

An SEC spokesman declined to comment. The identity of the London-based law firm couldn't be determined. Goldman declined to comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported in May 2011 that the Libyan Investment Authority had lost 98% of a $1.3 billion bet on currency movements and other complex trades done with Goldman in 2008. The losses were devastating to the Libyan sovereign-wealth fund, and some of its executives demanded that Goldman find a way to recoup the fund's losses.

Goldman and Libyan fund officials went back and forth for months over several plans to make Libya whole on its investment, the Journal has reported. Many of the ideas Goldman presented involved structured-finance instruments or investment funds that would have required the Libyan fund to invest even more money through Goldman Sachs.

The discussions at Goldman about repairing its relationship with Libya escalated to include Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman's then-Chief Financial Officer David Viniar and Michael Sherwood, the securities firm's top executive in Europe.

One of Goldman's proposals included a $50 million fee that the firm initially agreed to pay the Libyan fund, the Journal reported. The Libyan fund then planned to transfer that fee to an outside investment adviser called Palladyne International Asset Management BV, which was run at the time by the son-in-law of the head of Libya's state-owned oil company. The Libyan fund never reached any agreement with Goldman, and fighting broke out in Libya, leaving the problem unresolved.

The exposure of Libya's dealings with Goldman led the SEC to home in on the activities of the securities firm. The regulator was particularly interested in the $50 million fee.

The SEC's scrutiny of Goldman's dealings with Libya's sovereign-wealth fund centers on possible violations of U.S. anticorruption laws, the Journal reported. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bans U.S. companies from offering or paying bribes to foreign government officials or employees of state-owned companies.

The Libyan fund's estimated $60 billion in assets was frozen under international sanctions after rebels began to fight to topple Col. Gadhafi's regime. Many Libyan Investment Authority executives abandoned Tripoli, but new managers nominated immediately after Col. Gadhafi's fall made the fund's first-ever audit and reported fresh financial statements detailing the fund's first public record of its holdings, the Journal reported.

Like the leadership of the nation, the leadership of the Libyan Investment Authority has been in flux since Col. Gadhafi's death in October 2011. Libya has been struggling to rebuild after the bloody revolution that ended four decades of dictatorial rule.

The board of directors resigned in September 2012, citing what it said was incompetence of the fund's current management. That has meant that the Libyan Investment Authority hasn't been legally able to execute substantial trades or sell any holdings. The Libyan Investment Authority's current management has lost support of the government. Last month, the Libyan prime minister dismissed the chairman, but his refusal to step down has sparked a political crisis in Tripoli. Current management has said the dismissal is politically motivated and is illegal.

Even with a different form of turmoil, Libyan officials haven't let go of their desire to recoup losses they suffered on investments made by Col. Gadhafi's stewards of Libya's sovereign-wealth fund before the financial crisis.

People close to the Libyan investment fund said officials have authorized some former fund executives to give testimony to the SEC. The officials also agreed to provide documents and other data to U.S. regulators about the fund's ties to Goldman, these people said.

—Margaret Coker contributed to this article.  
Write to Liz Rappaport at liz.rappaport@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared March 1, 2013, on page C1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Libya Fund Aids SEC Probe Into Goldman.

Source:
Libyan Fund Helping SEC in Goldman Probe - WSJ.com

 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323978104578332553842543488.html

Buffett: $24 Billion Gain 'Subpar' - WSJ.com

Berkshire Boss Says He Is Donning His 'Safari Outfit' as He Continues the Hunt for Big Acquisitions



By ANUPREETA DAS and ERIK HOLM



Warren Buffett bemoaned Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s BRKB -0.11% failure to land a major acquisition during 2012 to use its swelling cash hoard, and in his annual letter to shareholders called his company's performance "subpar" despite a $24 billion increase in its net worth.



The value of the Omaha, Neb., company rose 14% in 2012, Berkshire said Friday, compared with a 16% total return in the Standard & Poor 500-stock index, including dividends. But Berkshire's ballooning size means that keeping up with the market continues to get tougher, as Mr. Buffett has long warned it would.












In his highly anticipated annual shareholder letter, published Friday, Warren Buffett called Berkshire Hathaway's 2012 returns "subpar" despite a $24 billion increase in its net worth. MarketWatch's Laura Mandaro took a look at the letter. (Photo: Getty Images)













"When the partnership I ran took control of Berkshire in 1965, I could never have dreamed that a year in which we had a gain of $24.1 billion would be subpar," Mr. Buffett, Berkshire's chairman and chief executive, said. "But subpar it was."







The lagging performance is just the company's ninth in the 48 years that Mr. Buffett has steered the company, but the third in four years. If the stock market continues to advance in 2013, it could jeopardize his streak of beating the S&P on a rolling five-year basis, as Mr. Buffett said Berkshire's relative performance is stronger when the market is down or flat.



Not landing a large deal in 2012 was another disappointment, Mr. Buffett said: "I pursued a couple of elephants, but came up empty-handed."

















 Bloomberg News



Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett



Two years ago, he said he was on the prowl for big deals as a way to boost returns on Berkshire's billions of dollars in cash. At the time, Mr. Buffett said, "Our elephant gun has been reloaded, and my trigger finger is itchy."



That message sent deal makers scurrying to identify potential "elephants," or companies that fit Berkshire's acquisition criteria of profitability and sound management, and also are large enough to increase the company's overall book value, a measure of worth.











Mr. Buffett said he studied a couple of opportunities, which he didn't name. But the planned $23.4 billion purchase with Brazilian buyout firm 3G Capital of H.J. Heinz Co., HNZ +0.06% announced last month—Berkshire is putting up $12 billion—is the biggest deal the billionaire investor has struck since the 2010 purchase of railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. for $26 billion. There have been smaller deals, including "bolt-on" purchases by Berkshire subsidiaries for a total of $2.3 billion, Mr. Buffett said.



Still, small deals don't move the needle for Berkshire, which had $47 billion in cash at the end of 2012. Four of the conglomerate's biggest noninsurance subsidiaries—Burlington Northern, Lubrizol, Iscar and Marmon Group—entered the Berkshire fold through acquisitions in recent years, and posted $10.1 billion in 2012 pretax earnings, up $600 million from a year ago.



Mr. Buffett said he and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger continue to hunt for big deals. "Charlie and I have again donned our safari outfits and resumed our search for elephants," he said.



Berkshire has been busy acquiring newspapers. In the past 15 months, the company bought 28 daily newspapers for $344 million. These deals don't fit Berkshire's size requirements, but Mr. Buffett said he and Mr. Munger love papers and will continue to buy them "if their economics make sense."



The company also boosted its stake in major investments American Express Co., AXP +0.35% Coca-Cola Co., KO -0.05% International Business Machines Corp. IBM +1.04% and Wells Fargo WFC +0.88% & Co., and expects to increase those stakes further in the future, Mr. Buffett said.



He didn't delve into succession plans, but said the two investment managers Berkshire has hired in recent years, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, outperformed the S&P 500 by double digits in 2012.



"We hit the jackpot with these two," Mr. Buffett wrote.



Berkshire Hathaway reported net income of $14.8 billion for 2012, up 45% from a year earlier and driven largely by improved underwriting results at its insurance units and $1.28 billion in derivative gains.



In the letter, Mr. Buffett also chided chief executives around the nation who declined to invest for the future, citing economic uncertainty, and with tongue in cheek urged them to consider selling out to Berkshire.



"If you are a CEO who has some large, profitable project you are shelving because of short-term worries, call Berkshire," he said. "Let us unburden you."











Write to Anupreeta Das at anupreeta.das@wsj.com and Erik Holm at erik.holm@dowjones.com



A version of this article appeared March 2, 2013, on page B1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Buffett: $24 Billion Gain 'Subpar'.




View the Report



See notes and commentary from WSJ reporters on Berkshire Hathaway's annual report.





View Interactive

Interactive of entire Annual Report

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324662404578334641466859124.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection#project%3DBUFFET0301%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive

      

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report

   

            

                                                                  

Subpar Performance   

     Missed Targets   

     Berkshire Insurance Units Post Underwriting Loss   

     They Left Me in the Dust   

     Buffett Lauds Wells Fargo, But Not Its Accounting   

     Todd & Ted   

     Buffett Loves Newspapers   

     5k Challenge   

     Where Are All the Bears?   

     A 21,500-Page Federal Income Tax Return   

        Share Buyback  

MoreArticles:

Deal Journal: Also Hunting for Bears

Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Report

Superstorm Sandy Hit Geico Hard

Highlights From Buffett's Letter

Buffett, in 'Safari Outfit,' Is Looking for More Acquisitions

Berkshire Repurchased $100 Million in Stock

Buffett: 'I Love Newspapers'















Source:

Buffett: $24 Billion Gain 'Subpar' - WSJ.com 



 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324662404578334641466859124.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Who gets rich when tuna goes from $3.99 to $28 per pound in two decades???

InvestigateWest

By Jason Alcorn
January 10, 2013

Two decades ago a pound of halibut sold in frozen bricks for less than $4. Then the government privatized the industry, putting in place a first-in-the-nation system called catch shares that stabilized the fishery and sent prices soaring. But it was a move that created basic inequities in a system that has yet to right itself. 
This week in Seattle Weekly, Lee van der Voo has the story for InvestigateWest.

Guys like Jared Bright vie for control of the industry's lower rungs, the only rungs that seem to be left. Simply put, they're renters. They don't own the halibut, not even when it lands in their boats. The fish are instead the property of a generation of wealthy owners, most of whom did nothing more than fish in the right place at the right time to get a stake.
Their ownership rights came courtesy of the federal government. At the time, it was a good idea. In ways, it still is. But it's created what amounts to a feudal system over a natural resource.

It's a system, called catch shares, that the government and environmental groups will tell you is the best thing to happen to fish since catch limits. But fishermen in the halibut and black-cod industry—the first in the country to live with the bizarre realities of these new policies—have weathered its real consequences, outcomes that fly in the face of more official, rosy portrayals. Outcomes like absentee landlords, brokers and bankers, fish quota that costs more than your house, and a new generation of people cluttering their hulls, demanding sandwiches.

It's getting hard for young fishermen like Bright to stay in this game. Those who try, though, are bettering their odds with a few comfy amenities, bait for a different kind of big fish: owners. Big-screen TVs, staterooms, hot tubs, saunas, and a super-sweet DVD collection are all things that could potentially shift their odds.

Meet America's newest sharecroppers.

 Source:
Who gets rich when halibut goes from $3.99 to $28 a pound in two decades? | InvestigateWest

http://www.invw.org/post/who-gets-rich-when-halibu-1335

Super Rich: The Greed Game (2008) - YouTube

Published on Oct 27, 2012

As the credit crunch bites and a global economic crisis threatens, Robert Peston reveals how the super-rich have made their fortunes, and the rest of us are picking up the bill.

http://www.thedossier.info/

Category - News & Politics

License - Standard YouTube License



Source:
Super Rich: The Greed Game (2008) - YouTube

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHVWhkFz0JY

Cyber Attack is a reality and China is the main source

 China’s Cyber games


Washington has not had much success persuading Beijing to rein in its hackers even though American officials and security experts have long known that China is the main source of cyber attacks on the United States. 

On Tuesday, a new report from Mandiant, an American computer security firm, publicly documented an explicit link between Chinese hackers and the People’s Liberation Army. 

The report cites a growing body of digital forensic evidence that most of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around a 12-story office tower on the outskirts of Shanghai that is the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398.

Mandiant tracked individual members of the most sophisticated of the Chinese hacking groups, known as “Comment Crew” or “Shanghai Group,” to the headquarters of the military unit, which is central to China’s computer espionage operations. 

It followed “Comment Crew” for six years, monitoring 141 attacks by looking at Web domains, malware, Internet protocol addresses and embedded codes.

Chinese officials denounced the report, but their reaction was hardly a denial. 



In a second development that could further raise the stakes for Beijing, Washington decided to share with American Internet providers and antivirus vendors information about the unique signatures of the largest of the Chinese groups, including those originating from the area where Unit 61398 is based. 

The government warnings will not link the hackers and their computers to the Chinese Army as such, but the effects will be felt when the hackers and computers are denied access to American networks, as many of the Internet providers and antivirus vendors are expected to do. 
 

Americans are increasingly concerned about cyber attacks intended:

1)to steal corporate secrets and



2) to “sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air traffic control systems,”
as President Obama said in his recent State of the Union address.

 
As a defensive measure, Mr. Obama last week signed an executive order promoting increased information-sharing about cyber threats between the government and private companies that oversee the country’s critical infrastructure, including its electrical power grid, gas lines and waterworks. 



 



 


Read More:
China’s Cybergames - NYTimes.com
 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/opinion/chinas-cybergames.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130220&_r=0

SEC Freezes Swiss Account Used in Trades Ahead of Heinz Deal

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of a Swiss trading account that allegedly made a series of "highly suspicious" trades reaping about $1.7 million ahead of the blockbuster sale of H.J. Heinz Co. HNZ -0.30%
 
The regulator's move came one day after Heinz said it was selling itself for $23 billion to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRKB +0.56% and Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital in one of the biggest food-industry acquisitions ever.

In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday, the SEC said the traders invested nearly $90,000 in options that would gain in value if Heinz's share price rose. A day later, after the deal was announced, the traders stood to reap a profit of more than $1.7 million, the lawsuit said. Regulators began an inquiry into possible insider trading very shortly after the deal was announced, alerted by a spike in options trading the day before, according to people close to the investigation.

Heinz shares jumped $12.02 to close at the offer price of $72.50 in trading on Thursday after the deal was made public. Before that, the stock had traded at about $60 or below since November 2012, the SEC said—price levels at which the options involved in the trading now under scrutiny would be valueless.

The stock ended 4 p.m. composite trading Friday at $72.28 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The SEC said the timing and size of the trades were highly suspicious given the account had no history of trading in Heinz securities in the last six months. Trading in Heinz's options in the several days ahead of the deal's announcement was minimal as well, the SEC said.
SEC investigators don't yet know the number or identity of the traders involved in the suspicious trading.

"Despite the obvious logistical challenges of investigating trades involving offshore accounts, we moved swiftly to locate and freeze the assets of these suspicious traders, who now have to make an appearance in court to explain their trading if they want their assets unfrozen," said Sanjay Wadhwa, senior associate director of the SEC's New York Regional Office.

Heinz and the investor group weren't accused of any wrongdoing. A spokesman for the investor group, which includes 3G Capital, declined to comment Friday. Berkshire Hathaway and Heinz didn't immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

The trades were done through an account at GS Bank in Zurich, a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS -0.60% Goldman wasn't accused of any wrongdoing. "We're cooperating with the SEC's investigation," a Goldman Sachs spokeswoman said Friday. 

The SEC investigators conducting the inquiry are the same team investigating suspicious trading linked to another 3G Capital deal, the 2010 purchase of Burger King, BKW +4.70% said a person close to the investigation.

The SEC in September 2012 took emergency action to freeze the assets of a stockbroker the agency alleged had exploited a tip from a 3G Capital investor to trade ahead of the firm's purchase of the burger chain.

The Heinz enforcement action is one of the fastest ever filed by the agency, according to officials. The SEC typically files only one or two emergency actions related to suspected insider trading using options every year, usually to prevent the risk that profits from suspicious trading will vanish offshore.

"If we didn't act [to freeze assets] and ended up proving a case of insider trading but the money had gone, it would be a pyrrhic victory," Daniel Hawke, chief of the SEC's market abuse enforcement unit, said in a telephone interview.

A version of this article appeared February 16, 2013, on page B3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: SEC Freezes A Swiss Account Over Heinz Trades.

By CHAD BRAY and JEAN EAGLESHAM

 Source:
SEC Freezes Swiss Account Used in Trades Ahead of Heinz Deal - WSJ.com

 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323478004578306500280942678.html?mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1

Buffett and 3G hungry for Heinz Deal

This is a deal to take Heinz private .... allowing more flexibility in how the partners manage the asset without so much scrutiny by the various financial market regulators and complaining shareholders with an eye on quarterly profits.

Buffett dips into ketchup business, buys Heinz

The acquisition of Heinz by Warren Buffett and 3G Capital is a landmark moment in the journey of a company that began selling horse­radish in a Pennsylvania farming town in 1869.

Heinz went bankrupt just a few years later but went on to become one of the world’s best-known brands.

Yesterday’s $28 billion (€21 billion) acquisition will both bring Heinz back to its beginnings as a private company and give it a chance to become more global at a time when the US food industry is undergoing rapid transition.

“It’s an opportunity to build this brand more globally but fundamentally the company is returning to its roots,” said William Johnson, chief executive of Heinz, yesterday.


For his money, the Oracle of Omaha gets one of the nation's oldest and most familiar brands, one that's in refrigerators and kitchen cupboards all over the U.S. 

The deal is intended to help Heinz accelerate its expansion from a dominant American name into a presence on grocery shelves worldwide. 

The Pittsburgh-based company also makes Classico pasta sauces and Ore-Ida potatoes, as well as a growing stable of sauces suited to regional tastes around the world. 

Buffett's investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, is teaming with investment firm 3G Capital to snap up Heinz, which had long been a subject of takeover speculation.  New York-based 3G is best known for its acquisitions of Burger King and its role in the deals that created Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's biggest beer maker.


Heinz is being acquired at a moment of strength for the company but it follows a recent period of investor unrest about its performance. 
In 2006, Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who now sits on its board of directors, took a 5 per cent stake in the company and pushed Johnson to cut costs, streamline operations and reinvest in marketing.

In recent years, Heinz has been something of a trailblazer in its own right, actively seeking deals in Brazil and China and repackaging its core ketchup to make it easier for Americans to dress French fries in new ways.

 Although ketchup and sauces still account for just under half its sales, Heinz has expanded over the years to include a much broader array of products across 200 countries, including ABC soy sauce in Indonesia, Quero tomato sauces and vegetables in Brazil and Complan nutritional drinks in India. 
 
In 2010, the company bought Foodstar, which makes Master brand soy sauce and fermented bean curd in China.

However, the company remained under pressure to unload some of its struggling brands and its frozen foods business, and analysts say that going private could aid in such disposals.

People familiar with the Heinz transaction said 3G Capital was hungry for a new deal, and set its sights on Heinz. 

The group approached Buffett about joining forces last December, and discussions with Heinz picked up in earnest in the past six weeks.


Berkshire is putting up $12.12 billion in return for half of the equity in Heinz, as well as $8 billion of preferred shares that pay 9 percent, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 3G Capital will run Heinz, and Berkshire will be the financing partner.

By taking the company private, Johnson said, Heinz will have the flexibility to react more quickly without the pressure of satisfying investors with quarterly earnings reports. 

The company's push to go global began more than a decade ago, and about two-thirds of its sales already come from outside the U.S. 

Heinz is increasingly focusing on emerging markets, where it expects to get about a quarter of its sales this year. Like other packaged food companies, it is betting that staking an early claim in countries with multiplying ranks of middle-class customers will secure its own future.



“The value opportunity for the shareholders was too good to pass up,” Johnson said.  

“This is the largest transaction in history for a global food business.”

Heinz is a prize because it has the type of name recognition that takes years to build, said Brian Sozzi, chief equities analyst for NBG Productions. One testament to the strength of the brand has been the company's ability to raise prices even in the competitive market, he said.  

For Buffett, the deal, which is expected to close during the third-quarter of this year, is a chance to further cement his legacy.

“Buffett is trying to make the non-insurance businesses more significant,” says Vitaliy Katsenelson, a value investor and long-time Buffett watcher. 

“Buffett is willing to pay so much more than he would in the past, but he wants bulletproof businesses that can’t be destroyed.”

Heinz appears to be a classic fit for Mr Buffett, who likes consumer companies and has taken equity stakes in Coca-Cola.


Buffett has recently said that he's been hunting for elephant-sized deals. At the end of last year, he said on CNBC that he had about $47 billion in cash available.
Berkshire's biggest acquisition ever was its $26.3 billion purchase of BNSF railroad in 2010. 

Last year, Buffett also starting building a newspaper company with the $149 million acquisition of 63 Media General newspapers and several other small or mid-sized newspapers. Berkshire now owns 28 dailies and a number of other publications. 

Berkshire's real estate unit also bought the Prudential and Real Living real-estate franchises nationwide last fall. 

The deal is a departure for Berkshire Hathaway. Generally, Buffett prefers to buy entire companies and then allow the businesses to continue operating much the way they were before. Berkshire has also helped finance deals before - most recently during the financial crisis of 2008, when he made lucrative deals for Berkshire when few other companies had cash. 

Heinz shareholders will receive $72.50 in cash for each share of common stock they own. Based on Heinz's number of shares outstanding, the deal is worth $23.3 billion excluding debt. Including debt, it's worth about $28 billion. 

The price for the deal represents a 20 percent premium to Heinz's closing price of $60.48 on Wednesday. Heinz said the deal was unanimously approved by its board. 

"It's our kind of company," Buffett said in the CNBC interview, noting Heinz's signature ketchup has been around for more than a century. "I've sampled it many times."




Sources:
  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0215/1224330056725.html

http://www.eveningsun.com/business/ci_22591316/buffett-dips-into-ketchup-business-buys-heinz