某金融機関の手続きを郵便サービスで申し込んだが、返事が来なかった件について。
（1）手続きの半分について返事が来た。
（2）残り半分について郵送→返事来ず。
（3）もう一度、全体を申し込みし直し→今日返事が来た。
全体で2ヶ月かかった。
（1）手続きの半分について返事が来た。
（2）残り半分について郵送→返事来ず。
（3）もう一度、全体を申し込みし直し→今日返事が来た。
全体で2ヶ月かかった。
ちょっと自分自身のことについて確認したくなったので、このブログを検索したら、ヒットしない。
その前に、まずlivedoorの「ブログ内検索」ってひどいね。実在する記事を検索してみたが、ヒットしない。
次に、Googleであれこれ検索してみるとヒットするが、自分が知りたい記事はヒットしない。ということは、存在しない。
どうもここは、保存期間4年4ヶ月みたいだ。
くだらん事を書き連ねた雑記帳だが、それでも過去を確認したいことはあるのだ。どこか別の業者に乗り換えますか。
ヘルプを検索したら、
容量は無料、有料を問わず上限2.1GBまで。
上限に達したら新規投稿はできない。
古い投稿が削除されることはない。
保存期間に制限はない。
とある。
でも、自分では書いた記憶がある（書きだすきっかけというものがある）し、それと照らし合わせると現存する最古の投稿は唐突。
今のLivedoorの機能については堀江さんも不満があるみたいだし、やはり引っ越ししましょう。
その前に、まずlivedoorの「ブログ内検索」ってひどいね。実在する記事を検索してみたが、ヒットしない。
次に、Googleであれこれ検索してみるとヒットするが、自分が知りたい記事はヒットしない。ということは、存在しない。
どうもここは、保存期間4年4ヶ月みたいだ。
くだらん事を書き連ねた雑記帳だが、それでも過去を確認したいことはあるのだ。どこか別の業者に乗り換えますか。
ヘルプを検索したら、
容量は無料、有料を問わず上限2.1GBまで。
上限に達したら新規投稿はできない。
古い投稿が削除されることはない。
保存期間に制限はない。
とある。
でも、自分では書いた記憶がある（書きだすきっかけというものがある）し、それと照らし合わせると現存する最古の投稿は唐突。
今のLivedoorの機能については堀江さんも不満があるみたいだし、やはり引っ越ししましょう。
知らない間に、銀行ATMの1日あたり出金限度額が50万円まで引き下げられていた。この変更、私は知らされていないと思う。
で、200万円を引き出したい時には、その都度パソコンで操作しなければならない。
600万円を出金したいときは、家を出る前にパソコンに向かうという行為を3日間続けなければならない。
変なの。
で、この件に関するルールは銀行ごとに異なるのだが、口座ごとの利用目的と出金制限ルールがうまくかみ合っていない。
現金引き出し用では制限が厳しく、公共料金引き落とし用（つまり現金を出金しない口座）では毎日300万円まで引き出せる。
すごく使いにくい。
で、200万円を引き出したい時には、その都度パソコンで操作しなければならない。
600万円を出金したいときは、家を出る前にパソコンに向かうという行為を3日間続けなければならない。
変なの。
で、この件に関するルールは銀行ごとに異なるのだが、口座ごとの利用目的と出金制限ルールがうまくかみ合っていない。
現金引き出し用では制限が厳しく、公共料金引き落とし用（つまり現金を出金しない口座）では毎日300万円まで引き出せる。
すごく使いにくい。
Banks should refuse Silvery evasion
In future, Swiss banks should refuse the money not declared to the tax authorities of foreign customers. With this new business model that introducing tax discharge Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) wants automatic information exchange counter claimed by rec evasion struggle abroad.
November 15, 2009, 11:45 November 15 2009, 11:45
LeMatin.ch & agencies & agencies LeMatin.ch
In interview on "NZZ am Sonntag" President of ASB Patrick Odier lifted new pan Sailing Project "Rubik" strategy developed by banks defend umbrella association of Swiss financial future. The introduction of a final tax shall be accompanied by a new business model that Swiss banks accepted from abroad more than money "own tax". Introducing tax must discharge Accompanied new business model whereby Swiss banks accepted more than money abroad "fiscally clean.
It is yet to consider the implementation but we can imagine, for example, a voluntary statement: By signing, the foreign customer confirms that he said the money in his country, said Patrick Odier. These rules apply to the States with which Switzerland has concluded an agreement for the introduction of a final tax.
Patrick Odier believes that the majority of Swiss banks would subscribe to such a solution because it ensures long term protection of customer privacy. It aims to counter the automatic exchange information that the EU wants to implement to fight against tax evasion.
Despite the negative signals from Brussels, Patrick Odier believes that the alien is interested in introducing a final tax. It is unimaginable that a finance minister can not be, says he. The SBA has received positive signals in the sense of Germany and Italy.
As for the money already invested in Switzerland for tax evasion, should arrange a regularization with the countries concerned, such a tax amnesty. This should last several years, said Patrick Odier.
No more untaxed funds into Swiss bank accounts
BERN - The President of the Swiss Bankers Association, Patrick Odier, wants to introduce a new business model, in which the taxpayer is accepting new money in the goal. BERN -
Updated at 09:33 | Updated 15/11/2009 at 09:33 | 15.11.2009
The details of the scheme had not yet been worked out, "as compared to drilling of the" NZZ am Sonntag. It is possible, however, that customers would have to declare in writing that they have paid their money.
According to drilling the scheme is to apply for funds from countries with which Switzerland has agreed to a final withholding tax. With this, the money would be taxed without the privacy of the individual to affect bank customers.
If the protection of privacy is protected in the long run, become the majority of the banks speak in support of such measures. And if the confidentiality is assured of bank records, places this represents for Switzerland's financial center a strong competitive advantage, then continue drilling.
"We want the withholding tax as a replacement for the automatic exchange of information to establish the EU," said Odier. "In negotiating with interested countries, Switzerland must also insist on the free market access for banks. (SDA)
As the banker president wants to prevent the automatic exchange of information
The Swiss banks should continue to be exempt untaxed funds from abroad will accept.
Patrick Odier announced new details about the concept of "Rubik".
"It's hard to imagine that a finance minister might be interested in a final withholding tax": Patrick Odier.
* "Victory for the Swiss banking industry,"
* "It is still two years bonus-party be"
* Banking supervision needs to justify himself
With this new business model and the introduction of a withholding tax, the Bankers Association, according to its president wants to turn the automatic exchange of information required from abroad.
The Geneva private banker and president of the Swiss Bankers Association, Patrick Odier, said in an interview with the "NZZ am Sonntag" new details about the concept of "Rubik" known to the Bank Association, which plans to place a free financial impact from the controversy over the black money. Accordingly, the introduction of a withholding tax of a new business model of banks should be accompanied, in which only affects legitimate funds are received. For not yet worked out in detail the implementation of said drilling, one could imagine, for example, a self-declaration. The customer would need to confirm with his signature, that its funds are properly taxed.
These rules should apply only to those countries to conclude an agreement with Switzerland on the introduction of a withholding tax, "said the banker next president. He believes that a majority of Swiss banks supported such a solution, when so to protect the privacy of the Customers can be assured in the long run. The model will serve as a replacement for the automatic exchange of information, which the implement the EU in the fight against tax evasion will.
Big Big Future Future
Despite the negative signals from Brussels, there are Odier convinced that the foreign country has an interest in withholding tax. the Bankers Association had received positive signals from Germany and Italy. "It's hard to imagine that a finance minister could not" be interested in a final withholding tax, said Odier. For the already lying on the Swiss banks would have to tax flight capital agreed with the interested countries will be a regularization, for example through a tax amnesty. This may take several years, according to drilling. If the withholding tax in place and thus the protection of privacy will be long term, the financial center has a great future. If the withholding tax will not come, had a decreasing number of employees are expected, because the banks would then expand its strong presence abroad.
Asked about the dispute with Italy in the context of the current Italian tax amnesty, "said the banker, President, the attacks on Italy's financial center belong to the Tessin diplomatic negotiation tactics. The Bankers Association but have not received positive signals from Italy. The final withholding tax in Italy is a very interesting solution, and Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, knows how important were trade relations with Switzerland and its direct investment in Italy. (sam / AP)
Swiss banks considering foreign client tax compliance forms
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss banks are discussing the possibility of asking some foreign clients to sign forms saying they are in compliance with their countries’ tax laws, Patrick Odier told Swiss German newspaper NZZ. Odier is head of the Swiss Bankers Association. The interview appears in the Sunday edition of NZZ. Odier, a Geneva banker who has headed the bankers’ group since September, says Swiss banks are not interested in “black gold” but in line with Swiss law they are working to find solutions to work with other countries without having an automatic transfer of client information. He also told the newspaper that his association favours a tax on interest earned that would be paid to governments - but from anonymous sources.
The US has put pressure on Swiss banks, notably the two largest, UBS and Credit Suisse, to provide client data in the past two years as it seeks tax evaders, but neighbours France, Germany and Italy have stepped up pressure as well in recent months, with Italy last month raiding several banks, including Italian branches of Swiss banks, in October, seeking information on tax evaders.
Swiss banks plan tax requirement for clients: report
(AFP) – 4 hours ago
GENEVA ― Switzerland's secretive banks are considering landmark plans to require that their foreign clients conform to personal taxation requirements abroad, a leading banker said in an interview on Sunday.
Patrick Odier, head of the Swiss bankers' association and a senior partner at private bank Lombard Odier, told the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that the industry was studying such a step alongside more extensive taxation on foreign savers in Switzerland.
"I also want to go a step further," Odier was quoted as saying.
"We, the banks, must introduce a new business model where tax honesty is the goal when new money is taken in," he said, adding that such an approach must "clearly" be the focus of future business activities.
"We're still working on the details. It could, for example, take the form of a personal declaration: the client would confirm with his signature that his money is properly taxed."
"We want to work out a really credible solution," he added.
However, Odier said such a step could only apply to countries that enter into a bilateral agreement with the Swiss.
Swiss banks have been at the heart of a renewed international pressure in recent years over tax evasion, including bruising multi-billion dollar litigation against the country's biggest bank UBS in the United States.
Neighbouring European countries and the G20 group of leading economies have claimed that Switzerland's banking secrecy law encourages foreign clients to hide their revenue from domestic tax authorities in Swiss bank accounts.
The NZZ am Sonntag said that Odier's comments marked a "new tone" and signalled a "radical change in course" in the Swiss banking industry's approach to foreign clients.
Traditionally, some Swiss banks have been prone to turn a blind eye on a foreign client's tax affairs, while local legal firms were more likely to offer "tax optimisation" services for wealthy clients.
In recent years Switzerland has levied a withholding tax on interest earned by EU residents with Swiss savings accounts, under an agreement to pay part of the revenues back to the European Union.
However, loopholes in the agreement have been criticised, while the deal only applies to savings accounts, not other investments.
UBS set for 'very small' disclosure in US tax case
(AFP) – 1 day ago
GENEVA ― Swiss bank UBS might have to disclose only a "very small" number of US account holders compared to those envisaged in a settlement for a tax evasion case, the US ambassador to Switzerland has said.
Ambassador Donald Beyer said late Friday that a parallel US amnesty scheme had prompted about 9,000 US citizens to voluntarily disclose secret Swiss bank accounts, about twice as many as the number requested from UBS.
"In the case of UBS, we actually got a good compromise, where UBS agreed to share the names of up to 4,450 American citizens who have bank accounts here, but only after an amnesty programme in the United States," Beyer said on World Radio Switzerland.
"That amnesty programme by the way has already turned up more than 9,000 Americans who have come forward voluntarily to talk about their Swiss bank accounts."
"So I guess our hope once we see the numbers is that the actual number of bank records that will be shared will be very very small," added Beyer.
In August, UBS agreed to reveal the identities of some 4,450 American clients in the landmark out-of-court settlement of a tax-evasion case in the United States that challenged Switzerland's sacrosanct banking secrecy.
Beyer said the case and spat over "abuse" of secrecy had been "an irritant" in otherwise close US-Swiss relations.
"I think that this really is spilt milk, and that we have a chance to move forward. I don't see this ever becoming an issue again and that it will fade with time," he added.
In the February 19 civil complaint, US authorities had accused the Swiss bank of "systematically and deliberately" violating American laws by promoting offshore accounts to American citizens.
They had initially demanded that UBS turn over the names of as many as 52,000 American account holders.
That civil case followed another settlement of a US criminal complaint earlier this year in which UBS admitted to tax fraud.
The bank paid 780 million dollars and identified some 300 US clients to settle the criminal case.
The US government has estimated the amount of hidden assets at more than 18 billion dollars.
UBS to hand over small amount of data - report
Sat Nov 14, 2009 11:48am EST
(Updates attribution, adds quotes, UBS comment and ZURICH)
CHICAGO/ZURICH, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) may hand over only a small amount of bank data as part of a U.S. settlement because the Internal Revenue Service has succeeded in cracking down on tax evaders, a radio station reported.
World Radio Switzerland, a Geneva-based English language station, quoted U.S. ambassador to Switzerland Donald Beyer as saying more than 9,000 Americans had been persuaded to talk about their Swiss bank accounts under a U.S. tax amnesty.
"In the case of UBS we actually got a good compromise, where UBS agreed to share the names of up to 4,450 American citizens with bank accounts here. But only after an amnesty programme in the United States," Beyer told the radio station.
"That amnesty programme, by the way, has already turned up more than 9,000 Americans who have come forward voluntarily to talk about their Swiss bank accounts. So I guess our hope, once we finally see the numbers, is that the actual number of bank records that will be shared will be very, very small."
UBS declined to comment. Under the amnesty programme that began in September, tax dodgers can declare offshore accounts and income, pay reduced fines and receive immunity from criminal prosecution. In mid-October, some 7,500 wealthy Americans had turned over information about hidden overseas assets.
Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on investigations, has estimated the U.S. loses $100 billion annually from international tax evasion.
The government's investigation of UBS is at the heart of the U.S. offshore tax effort. The company earlier this year settled a criminal probe by paying $780 million and admitting it helped U.S. citizens evade taxes.
After months of tortuous negotiations that involved the Swiss government and challenged the country's tradition of banking secrecy, UBS agreed in August to disclose the names of 4,450 American holders of secret accounts at UBS in a settlement that pierced Switzerland's prized banking secrecy.
The Swiss government is due to hold a news conference on Tuesday to outline the criteria for transfer of UBS client data to U.S. tax authorities.
UBS to hand over small amount of data: report
Posted by admin On 2009-11-15 01:21:25
UBS to hand over small amount of data: report
CHICAGO/ZURICH - Swiss bank UBS may hand over only a small amount of bank data as part of a U.S. settlement because the Internal Revenue Service has succeeded in cracking down on tax evaders, a radio station reported.
World Radio Switzerland, a Geneva-based English language station, quoted U.S. ambassador to Switzerland Donald Beyer as saying more than 9,000 Americans had been persuaded to talk about their Swiss bank accounts under a U.S. tax amnesty.
"In the case of UBS we actually got a good compromise, where UBS agreed to share the names of up to 4,450 American citizens with bank accounts here. But only after an amnesty program in the United States," Beyer told the radio station.
"That amnesty program, by the way, has already turned up more than 9,000 Americans who have come forward voluntarily to talk about their Swiss bank accounts. So I guess our hope, once we finally see the numbers, is that the actual number of bank records that will be shared will be very, very small."
UBS declined to comment.
Under the amnesty program that began in September, tax dodgers can declare offshore accounts and income, pay reduced fines and receive immunity from criminal prosecution. In mid-October, some 7,500 wealthy Americans had turned over information about hidden overseas assets.
Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on investigations, has estimated the U.S. loses $100 billion annually from international tax evasion.
The government's investigation of UBS is at the heart of the U.S. offshore tax effort. The company earlier this year settled a criminal probe by paying $780 million and admitting it helped U.S. citizens evade taxes.
After months of tortuous negotiations that involved the Swiss government and challenged the country's tradition of banking secrecy, UBS agreed in August to disclose the names of 4,450 American holders of secret accounts at UBS in a settlement that pierced Switzerland's prized banking secrecy.
The Swiss government is due to hold a news conference on Tuesday to outline the criteria for transfer of UBS client data to U.S. tax authorities.
In future, Swiss banks should refuse the money not declared to the tax authorities of foreign customers. With this new business model that introducing tax discharge Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) wants automatic information exchange counter claimed by rec evasion struggle abroad.
November 15, 2009, 11:45 November 15 2009, 11:45
LeMatin.ch & agencies & agencies LeMatin.ch
In interview on "NZZ am Sonntag" President of ASB Patrick Odier lifted new pan Sailing Project "Rubik" strategy developed by banks defend umbrella association of Swiss financial future. The introduction of a final tax shall be accompanied by a new business model that Swiss banks accepted from abroad more than money "own tax". Introducing tax must discharge Accompanied new business model whereby Swiss banks accepted more than money abroad "fiscally clean.
It is yet to consider the implementation but we can imagine, for example, a voluntary statement: By signing, the foreign customer confirms that he said the money in his country, said Patrick Odier. These rules apply to the States with which Switzerland has concluded an agreement for the introduction of a final tax.
Patrick Odier believes that the majority of Swiss banks would subscribe to such a solution because it ensures long term protection of customer privacy. It aims to counter the automatic exchange information that the EU wants to implement to fight against tax evasion.
Despite the negative signals from Brussels, Patrick Odier believes that the alien is interested in introducing a final tax. It is unimaginable that a finance minister can not be, says he. The SBA has received positive signals in the sense of Germany and Italy.
As for the money already invested in Switzerland for tax evasion, should arrange a regularization with the countries concerned, such a tax amnesty. This should last several years, said Patrick Odier.
No more untaxed funds into Swiss bank accounts
BERN - The President of the Swiss Bankers Association, Patrick Odier, wants to introduce a new business model, in which the taxpayer is accepting new money in the goal. BERN -
Updated at 09:33 | Updated 15/11/2009 at 09:33 | 15.11.2009
The details of the scheme had not yet been worked out, "as compared to drilling of the" NZZ am Sonntag. It is possible, however, that customers would have to declare in writing that they have paid their money.
According to drilling the scheme is to apply for funds from countries with which Switzerland has agreed to a final withholding tax. With this, the money would be taxed without the privacy of the individual to affect bank customers.
If the protection of privacy is protected in the long run, become the majority of the banks speak in support of such measures. And if the confidentiality is assured of bank records, places this represents for Switzerland's financial center a strong competitive advantage, then continue drilling.
"We want the withholding tax as a replacement for the automatic exchange of information to establish the EU," said Odier. "In negotiating with interested countries, Switzerland must also insist on the free market access for banks. (SDA)
As the banker president wants to prevent the automatic exchange of information
The Swiss banks should continue to be exempt untaxed funds from abroad will accept.
Patrick Odier announced new details about the concept of "Rubik".
"It's hard to imagine that a finance minister might be interested in a final withholding tax": Patrick Odier.
* "Victory for the Swiss banking industry,"
* "It is still two years bonus-party be"
* Banking supervision needs to justify himself
With this new business model and the introduction of a withholding tax, the Bankers Association, according to its president wants to turn the automatic exchange of information required from abroad.
The Geneva private banker and president of the Swiss Bankers Association, Patrick Odier, said in an interview with the "NZZ am Sonntag" new details about the concept of "Rubik" known to the Bank Association, which plans to place a free financial impact from the controversy over the black money. Accordingly, the introduction of a withholding tax of a new business model of banks should be accompanied, in which only affects legitimate funds are received. For not yet worked out in detail the implementation of said drilling, one could imagine, for example, a self-declaration. The customer would need to confirm with his signature, that its funds are properly taxed.
These rules should apply only to those countries to conclude an agreement with Switzerland on the introduction of a withholding tax, "said the banker next president. He believes that a majority of Swiss banks supported such a solution, when so to protect the privacy of the Customers can be assured in the long run. The model will serve as a replacement for the automatic exchange of information, which the implement the EU in the fight against tax evasion will.
Big Big Future Future
Despite the negative signals from Brussels, there are Odier convinced that the foreign country has an interest in withholding tax. the Bankers Association had received positive signals from Germany and Italy. "It's hard to imagine that a finance minister could not" be interested in a final withholding tax, said Odier. For the already lying on the Swiss banks would have to tax flight capital agreed with the interested countries will be a regularization, for example through a tax amnesty. This may take several years, according to drilling. If the withholding tax in place and thus the protection of privacy will be long term, the financial center has a great future. If the withholding tax will not come, had a decreasing number of employees are expected, because the banks would then expand its strong presence abroad.
Asked about the dispute with Italy in the context of the current Italian tax amnesty, "said the banker, President, the attacks on Italy's financial center belong to the Tessin diplomatic negotiation tactics. The Bankers Association but have not received positive signals from Italy. The final withholding tax in Italy is a very interesting solution, and Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, knows how important were trade relations with Switzerland and its direct investment in Italy. (sam / AP)
Swiss banks considering foreign client tax compliance forms
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss banks are discussing the possibility of asking some foreign clients to sign forms saying they are in compliance with their countries’ tax laws, Patrick Odier told Swiss German newspaper NZZ. Odier is head of the Swiss Bankers Association. The interview appears in the Sunday edition of NZZ. Odier, a Geneva banker who has headed the bankers’ group since September, says Swiss banks are not interested in “black gold” but in line with Swiss law they are working to find solutions to work with other countries without having an automatic transfer of client information. He also told the newspaper that his association favours a tax on interest earned that would be paid to governments - but from anonymous sources.
The US has put pressure on Swiss banks, notably the two largest, UBS and Credit Suisse, to provide client data in the past two years as it seeks tax evaders, but neighbours France, Germany and Italy have stepped up pressure as well in recent months, with Italy last month raiding several banks, including Italian branches of Swiss banks, in October, seeking information on tax evaders.
Swiss banks plan tax requirement for clients: report
(AFP) – 4 hours ago
GENEVA ― Switzerland's secretive banks are considering landmark plans to require that their foreign clients conform to personal taxation requirements abroad, a leading banker said in an interview on Sunday.
Patrick Odier, head of the Swiss bankers' association and a senior partner at private bank Lombard Odier, told the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that the industry was studying such a step alongside more extensive taxation on foreign savers in Switzerland.
"I also want to go a step further," Odier was quoted as saying.
"We, the banks, must introduce a new business model where tax honesty is the goal when new money is taken in," he said, adding that such an approach must "clearly" be the focus of future business activities.
"We're still working on the details. It could, for example, take the form of a personal declaration: the client would confirm with his signature that his money is properly taxed."
"We want to work out a really credible solution," he added.
However, Odier said such a step could only apply to countries that enter into a bilateral agreement with the Swiss.
Swiss banks have been at the heart of a renewed international pressure in recent years over tax evasion, including bruising multi-billion dollar litigation against the country's biggest bank UBS in the United States.
Neighbouring European countries and the G20 group of leading economies have claimed that Switzerland's banking secrecy law encourages foreign clients to hide their revenue from domestic tax authorities in Swiss bank accounts.
The NZZ am Sonntag said that Odier's comments marked a "new tone" and signalled a "radical change in course" in the Swiss banking industry's approach to foreign clients.
Traditionally, some Swiss banks have been prone to turn a blind eye on a foreign client's tax affairs, while local legal firms were more likely to offer "tax optimisation" services for wealthy clients.
In recent years Switzerland has levied a withholding tax on interest earned by EU residents with Swiss savings accounts, under an agreement to pay part of the revenues back to the European Union.
However, loopholes in the agreement have been criticised, while the deal only applies to savings accounts, not other investments.
UBS set for 'very small' disclosure in US tax case
(AFP) – 1 day ago
GENEVA ― Swiss bank UBS might have to disclose only a "very small" number of US account holders compared to those envisaged in a settlement for a tax evasion case, the US ambassador to Switzerland has said.
Ambassador Donald Beyer said late Friday that a parallel US amnesty scheme had prompted about 9,000 US citizens to voluntarily disclose secret Swiss bank accounts, about twice as many as the number requested from UBS.
"In the case of UBS, we actually got a good compromise, where UBS agreed to share the names of up to 4,450 American citizens who have bank accounts here, but only after an amnesty programme in the United States," Beyer said on World Radio Switzerland.
"That amnesty programme by the way has already turned up more than 9,000 Americans who have come forward voluntarily to talk about their Swiss bank accounts."
"So I guess our hope once we see the numbers is that the actual number of bank records that will be shared will be very very small," added Beyer.
In August, UBS agreed to reveal the identities of some 4,450 American clients in the landmark out-of-court settlement of a tax-evasion case in the United States that challenged Switzerland's sacrosanct banking secrecy.
Beyer said the case and spat over "abuse" of secrecy had been "an irritant" in otherwise close US-Swiss relations.
"I think that this really is spilt milk, and that we have a chance to move forward. I don't see this ever becoming an issue again and that it will fade with time," he added.
In the February 19 civil complaint, US authorities had accused the Swiss bank of "systematically and deliberately" violating American laws by promoting offshore accounts to American citizens.
They had initially demanded that UBS turn over the names of as many as 52,000 American account holders.
That civil case followed another settlement of a US criminal complaint earlier this year in which UBS admitted to tax fraud.
The bank paid 780 million dollars and identified some 300 US clients to settle the criminal case.
The US government has estimated the amount of hidden assets at more than 18 billion dollars.
UBS to hand over small amount of data - report
Sat Nov 14, 2009 11:48am EST
(Updates attribution, adds quotes, UBS comment and ZURICH)
CHICAGO/ZURICH, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) may hand over only a small amount of bank data as part of a U.S. settlement because the Internal Revenue Service has succeeded in cracking down on tax evaders, a radio station reported.
World Radio Switzerland, a Geneva-based English language station, quoted U.S. ambassador to Switzerland Donald Beyer as saying more than 9,000 Americans had been persuaded to talk about their Swiss bank accounts under a U.S. tax amnesty.
"In the case of UBS we actually got a good compromise, where UBS agreed to share the names of up to 4,450 American citizens with bank accounts here. But only after an amnesty programme in the United States," Beyer told the radio station.
"That amnesty programme, by the way, has already turned up more than 9,000 Americans who have come forward voluntarily to talk about their Swiss bank accounts. So I guess our hope, once we finally see the numbers, is that the actual number of bank records that will be shared will be very, very small."
UBS declined to comment. Under the amnesty programme that began in September, tax dodgers can declare offshore accounts and income, pay reduced fines and receive immunity from criminal prosecution. In mid-October, some 7,500 wealthy Americans had turned over information about hidden overseas assets.
Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on investigations, has estimated the U.S. loses $100 billion annually from international tax evasion.
The government's investigation of UBS is at the heart of the U.S. offshore tax effort. The company earlier this year settled a criminal probe by paying $780 million and admitting it helped U.S. citizens evade taxes.
After months of tortuous negotiations that involved the Swiss government and challenged the country's tradition of banking secrecy, UBS agreed in August to disclose the names of 4,450 American holders of secret accounts at UBS in a settlement that pierced Switzerland's prized banking secrecy.
The Swiss government is due to hold a news conference on Tuesday to outline the criteria for transfer of UBS client data to U.S. tax authorities.
UBS to hand over small amount of data: report
Posted by admin On 2009-11-15 01:21:25
UBS to hand over small amount of data: report
CHICAGO/ZURICH - Swiss bank UBS may hand over only a small amount of bank data as part of a U.S. settlement because the Internal Revenue Service has succeeded in cracking down on tax evaders, a radio station reported.
World Radio Switzerland, a Geneva-based English language station, quoted U.S. ambassador to Switzerland Donald Beyer as saying more than 9,000 Americans had been persuaded to talk about their Swiss bank accounts under a U.S. tax amnesty.
"In the case of UBS we actually got a good compromise, where UBS agreed to share the names of up to 4,450 American citizens with bank accounts here. But only after an amnesty program in the United States," Beyer told the radio station.
"That amnesty program, by the way, has already turned up more than 9,000 Americans who have come forward voluntarily to talk about their Swiss bank accounts. So I guess our hope, once we finally see the numbers, is that the actual number of bank records that will be shared will be very, very small."
UBS declined to comment.
Under the amnesty program that began in September, tax dodgers can declare offshore accounts and income, pay reduced fines and receive immunity from criminal prosecution. In mid-October, some 7,500 wealthy Americans had turned over information about hidden overseas assets.
Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on investigations, has estimated the U.S. loses $100 billion annually from international tax evasion.
The government's investigation of UBS is at the heart of the U.S. offshore tax effort. The company earlier this year settled a criminal probe by paying $780 million and admitting it helped U.S. citizens evade taxes.
After months of tortuous negotiations that involved the Swiss government and challenged the country's tradition of banking secrecy, UBS agreed in August to disclose the names of 4,450 American holders of secret accounts at UBS in a settlement that pierced Switzerland's prized banking secrecy.
The Swiss government is due to hold a news conference on Tuesday to outline the criteria for transfer of UBS client data to U.S. tax authorities.
サウジアラビアでは、公務員向けにインフレ手当として月給の15％が追加支給されることになりました。財源は、余裕の原油収入です。赤字国債なんてみっともないものは発行しません。
日本では不況下に「政府の歳出削減」「消費税引き上げ」が議論されています。
サウジは1980年代半ばまでトイレも設置されていないような、遅れた野蛮な国で、逆に日本は先進国の中で一番の金満国家だったんですけど、上下関係が入れ替わってしまいました（笑）。
ご存じの通り、国家公務員は東京大学法学部、経済学部卒が大半を占めるわけですが、彼らに政治・経済を任せていたら、今日の日本のようになってしまった。
Govt employees to receive 15 percent inflation allowance
P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab News
JEDDAH: Government employees and non-Saudi government contractors will receive a 15 percent inflation allowance from the beginning of the next Hijrah year, corresponding to Dec. 18, 2009, informed sources said.
Ministries and government departments have already moved the file of government employees to complete the procedures for including the allowance in their monthly salaries, an Arabic newspaper said.
The Council of Ministers, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, approved the inflationary allowance in January 2008 as part of measures taken by the government to counter inflation.
The Cabinet said government employees would receive an allowance of five percent of the basic salary in the first year, 10 percent in the second year and 15 percent in the third year.
The employees began receiving the allowance along with their monthly salaries in Muharram 1429 (January 2008).
The Cabinet adopted a 17-point program to offset the effect of rising inflation and prices in the country. Apart from inflation allowance, the program included a 10 percent increase in social insurance and subsidies for essential products such as rice, baby milk and barley.
Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf said the government was spending about SR12 billion annually on direct subsidies. He estimated the additional annual spending at SR10 billion as a result of the payment of five percent inflation allowance and 10 percent additional allocation for social insurance.
The payment of additional inflation allowance comes at a time when a team of economists at Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) said inflation rates in Saudi Arabai would go up this year by 5.1 percent.
“We expect an inflation of 5.1 percent this year and 4.6 percent in 2010,” said the study authored by BSF’s Chief Economist John Sfakianakis, research analyst Turki A. Al Hugail and analyst Daliah Merzaban.
The study substantiates Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency’s (SAMA) forecast of an inflationary trend published in the media recently.
In July 2008 inflation rates in the Kingdom touched a record high of 11.1 percent as a result of increasing prices and growing worldwide demand for essential commodities. Global economic downturn was instrumental in containing that trend and the inflation rate declined to a two-year low of 4.2 percent in July.
日本では不況下に「政府の歳出削減」「消費税引き上げ」が議論されています。
サウジは1980年代半ばまでトイレも設置されていないような、遅れた野蛮な国で、逆に日本は先進国の中で一番の金満国家だったんですけど、上下関係が入れ替わってしまいました（笑）。
ご存じの通り、国家公務員は東京大学法学部、経済学部卒が大半を占めるわけですが、彼らに政治・経済を任せていたら、今日の日本のようになってしまった。
Govt employees to receive 15 percent inflation allowance
P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab News
JEDDAH: Government employees and non-Saudi government contractors will receive a 15 percent inflation allowance from the beginning of the next Hijrah year, corresponding to Dec. 18, 2009, informed sources said.
Ministries and government departments have already moved the file of government employees to complete the procedures for including the allowance in their monthly salaries, an Arabic newspaper said.
The Council of Ministers, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, approved the inflationary allowance in January 2008 as part of measures taken by the government to counter inflation.
The Cabinet said government employees would receive an allowance of five percent of the basic salary in the first year, 10 percent in the second year and 15 percent in the third year.
The employees began receiving the allowance along with their monthly salaries in Muharram 1429 (January 2008).
The Cabinet adopted a 17-point program to offset the effect of rising inflation and prices in the country. Apart from inflation allowance, the program included a 10 percent increase in social insurance and subsidies for essential products such as rice, baby milk and barley.
Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf said the government was spending about SR12 billion annually on direct subsidies. He estimated the additional annual spending at SR10 billion as a result of the payment of five percent inflation allowance and 10 percent additional allocation for social insurance.
The payment of additional inflation allowance comes at a time when a team of economists at Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) said inflation rates in Saudi Arabai would go up this year by 5.1 percent.
“We expect an inflation of 5.1 percent this year and 4.6 percent in 2010,” said the study authored by BSF’s Chief Economist John Sfakianakis, research analyst Turki A. Al Hugail and analyst Daliah Merzaban.
The study substantiates Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency’s (SAMA) forecast of an inflationary trend published in the media recently.
In July 2008 inflation rates in the Kingdom touched a record high of 11.1 percent as a result of increasing prices and growing worldwide demand for essential commodities. Global economic downturn was instrumental in containing that trend and the inflation rate declined to a two-year low of 4.2 percent in July.
Mafia rushed through gap in Berlin Wall
By Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: November 13 2009 20:03 | Last updated: November 13 2009 20:03
The Italian Mafia moved in quickly. For the mob it was the firesale of the century when almost everything and everyone could be had on the cheap, from discotheques to material for nuclear bombs.
In the moment when the Berlin Wall was breached 20 years ago, Italian investigators intercepted a telephone conversation to overhear a mafioso ordering his agent in the city to cross immediately to the east and start buying.
“What?” the agent asked. “Restaurants, discotheques, everything,” the boss replied. “Everything! Everything!”
Among the unexpected and insidious consequences of the collapse of the Soviet bloc, anti-Mafia prosecutors say, was the dawn of a “world without frontiers” for organised crime groups.
In particular, it propelled the Calabrian Mafia, known as the ‘Ndrangheta, rooted in the far south of Italy, towards a global reach and status unmatched by other criminal organisations.
Italy’s parliamentary anti-Mafia commission has compared the ‘Ndrangheta’s cell-like, family-based structure to the organisational model of al-Qaeda, and its reputation in the criminal world to that of a multinational brand. Eurispes, a research institute, estimated the ‘Ndrangheta earned €47bn ($70bn, £42bn) in 2007.
“The process of globalisation, the fall of the Berlin Wall, European Union enlargement, the new Schengen areas were all used by the Calabrian clans to give an impetus to their building of new routes, not just for narcotics trafficking but also illegal capital flows,” the commission said in a report last year.
As the Soviet meltdown brought an arms bonanza, the ‘Ndrangheta was emerging as the dominant force trafficking cocaine from South America.
In the same period EU and national development funds were pouring into Calabria, Italy’s poorest region, much of it ending in the hands of the mob.
What began in the 19th century as village-based clans focused on kidnapping evolved into a sophisticated organisation, sustained locally by extortion rackets and government tenders, and internationally through trafficking in drugs, arms and the disposal of toxic waste.
“In those times they were mountain people,” says Francesco Fonti, an ex-Mafia boss, reflecting on the early days of his life with the ‘Ndrangheta in the late 1960s.
“But then these mountain people sent their children to university. Now they are professionals – lawyers, consultants, computer experts, engineers. They left Calabria and move round the world, organising investments with family money. A lot of this money sees the light of day through legitimate enterprises.”
Mr Fonti, was speaking from a location in northern Italy where he is serving a 50-year sentence. He is collaborating with the authorities.
An important sideline in the 1990s, and still possibly today, was trafficking in nuclear material, mostly from the former Soviet bloc but also from the former US Atoms for Peace programme that sent nuclear fuel round the world.
“When the Berlin Wall came down,” Mr Fonti recalls, “all those working for the KGB found themselves out in the street, so they started trafficking – in plutonium and weapons.”
Mr Fonti, 61, claims an ‘Ndrangheta clan in the southern city of Reggio Calabria obtained six cylinders containing uranium, each worth €20m. “Five were recovered by the CIA, the sixth no one knows. They came from Russian nuclear reactors.”
Alison Jamieson, writing for the UK’s Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism, reports that formal contacts between Russian and Italian Mafia began across eastern Europe in 1991, focusing on drugs, arms and nuclear components. In 1993 two Italians were arrested near the Belarus-Russia border and charged with smuggling 36kg of enriched uranium.
In the post-communist cornucopia Mr Fonti also describes being offered 50 Ilyushin cargo planes by a KGB colonel through an Italian intermediary. He declined and claims they were acquired by Victor Bout, an alleged Russian arms dealer, who he says flew them to Liberia. The US wants Mr Bout’s extradition from Thailand, where he was arrested last year.
Trafficking took Mr Fonti round the world, including Somalia, a big market for dumping waste and selling arms, and Afghanistan, where he bought drugs. Singapore was a favourite haunt – “all the trafficking in the world was there ... ships, missiles”.
The Italian authorities are currently searching for three ships Mr Fonti claims he personally scuttled off the coast of Calabria with toxic waste in their holds, including nuclear material.
An articulate and soft-spoken man, Mr Fonti studied maths, physics and commerce at university. He entered the ‘Ndrangheta in 1968 to protect his father from attacks on his business but then found he could never leave.
“Only horizontally,” he was told.
グーグル訴訟で新和解案 英米文化圏の作品に限定
2009年11月14日16時32分
【ニューヨーク＝田中光】デジタル化した書籍の全文検索サービス「グーグルブックス」をめぐる集団訴訟で、グーグルや米出版協会などの訴訟当事者は１３日、新たな和解案をニューヨークの連邦地裁に提出した。対象を、米国の連邦著作権登録局に登録されている作品か、英国、カナダ、オーストラリアで出版された作品に限定することなどを柱にしている。これで日本への影響は当面、なくなったとみられる。
当初の和解案では当事者の参加の意思にかかわらず、世界中の著作権者が含まれていたため、欧州や日本など各国政府から反発の声があがっていた。
IEA deals blow to US oil benchmark
By Javier Blas
Published: November 13 2009 02:00 | Last updated: November 13 2009 02:00
The reign of the West Texas Intermediate as the world's top oil benchmark "looks increasingly precarious", the International Energy Agency said yesterday, after Saudi Arabia last month dropped the yardstick as its reference for US sales.
"WTI has been the most important price benchmark for several decades but its fall from grace was long in the making ," the western countries' watchdog said. The IEA added that "inherent logistical flaws" caused by the contract delivery point at the landlocked pipeline hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, "frequently led to a disconnect from international markets".
Riyadh last month said it will switch to a new index developed by Argus, the London-based oil pricing company. The Argus Sour Crude Index (Asci) tracks three varieties of crude produced in the US Gulf of Mexico. Other big oil exporters, including Venezuela, are also considering dropping the WTI contract.
The benchmark rose to prominence after the New York Mercantile Exchange started using it in 1983 as the basis for its light, sweet crude futures contract. The Nymex WTI is currently the world's most liquid oil futures contract.
The IEA's warning comes as the InterContinental Exchange, home of the rival Brent benchmark, said this week it will launch a new futures contract tracking the Asci benchmark. CME Group, the owner of Nymex, said last month it will launch futures and swaps tracking Asci.
David Peniket, president of ICE Futures Europe, said that the availability of the US Gulf Coast benchmark Asci would enhance the ability of market participants "to effectively manage price risk in the global energy market".
The IEA said, nonetheless, that "for all its flaws, WTI still has an important role to play", noting that Asci prices will remain linked to WTI quotes through differentials.
Saudi Aramco, the state- owned company, previously used WTI prices published by Platts, a unit of McGraw Hill companies. The Platts' WTI price quote is closely linked with the Nymex WTI futures contract.
Khalid al-Falih, chief executive at Saudi Aramco, last week told reporters that the company dropped the WTI after the benchmark "has really become disconnected" with the overall crude oil market. "We were finding out that increasingly either our customers or ourselves were out of the market," Mr al-Falih said.
Earlier this year, a surge in oil inventories in Cushing depressed the value of the WTI against other global benchmarks, throwing the global oil market into disarray.
In January, WTI, which usually trades at a premium of $1-$2 a barrel to Brent, fell sharply, leaving it at a discount of almost $12 - a record gap. This dislocation in the market receded somewhat, but problems continued well into the summer.
By Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: November 13 2009 20:03 | Last updated: November 13 2009 20:03
The Italian Mafia moved in quickly. For the mob it was the firesale of the century when almost everything and everyone could be had on the cheap, from discotheques to material for nuclear bombs.
In the moment when the Berlin Wall was breached 20 years ago, Italian investigators intercepted a telephone conversation to overhear a mafioso ordering his agent in the city to cross immediately to the east and start buying.
“What?” the agent asked. “Restaurants, discotheques, everything,” the boss replied. “Everything! Everything!”
Among the unexpected and insidious consequences of the collapse of the Soviet bloc, anti-Mafia prosecutors say, was the dawn of a “world without frontiers” for organised crime groups.
In particular, it propelled the Calabrian Mafia, known as the ‘Ndrangheta, rooted in the far south of Italy, towards a global reach and status unmatched by other criminal organisations.
Italy’s parliamentary anti-Mafia commission has compared the ‘Ndrangheta’s cell-like, family-based structure to the organisational model of al-Qaeda, and its reputation in the criminal world to that of a multinational brand. Eurispes, a research institute, estimated the ‘Ndrangheta earned €47bn ($70bn, £42bn) in 2007.
“The process of globalisation, the fall of the Berlin Wall, European Union enlargement, the new Schengen areas were all used by the Calabrian clans to give an impetus to their building of new routes, not just for narcotics trafficking but also illegal capital flows,” the commission said in a report last year.
As the Soviet meltdown brought an arms bonanza, the ‘Ndrangheta was emerging as the dominant force trafficking cocaine from South America.
In the same period EU and national development funds were pouring into Calabria, Italy’s poorest region, much of it ending in the hands of the mob.
What began in the 19th century as village-based clans focused on kidnapping evolved into a sophisticated organisation, sustained locally by extortion rackets and government tenders, and internationally through trafficking in drugs, arms and the disposal of toxic waste.
“In those times they were mountain people,” says Francesco Fonti, an ex-Mafia boss, reflecting on the early days of his life with the ‘Ndrangheta in the late 1960s.
“But then these mountain people sent their children to university. Now they are professionals – lawyers, consultants, computer experts, engineers. They left Calabria and move round the world, organising investments with family money. A lot of this money sees the light of day through legitimate enterprises.”
Mr Fonti, was speaking from a location in northern Italy where he is serving a 50-year sentence. He is collaborating with the authorities.
An important sideline in the 1990s, and still possibly today, was trafficking in nuclear material, mostly from the former Soviet bloc but also from the former US Atoms for Peace programme that sent nuclear fuel round the world.
“When the Berlin Wall came down,” Mr Fonti recalls, “all those working for the KGB found themselves out in the street, so they started trafficking – in plutonium and weapons.”
Mr Fonti, 61, claims an ‘Ndrangheta clan in the southern city of Reggio Calabria obtained six cylinders containing uranium, each worth €20m. “Five were recovered by the CIA, the sixth no one knows. They came from Russian nuclear reactors.”
Alison Jamieson, writing for the UK’s Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism, reports that formal contacts between Russian and Italian Mafia began across eastern Europe in 1991, focusing on drugs, arms and nuclear components. In 1993 two Italians were arrested near the Belarus-Russia border and charged with smuggling 36kg of enriched uranium.
In the post-communist cornucopia Mr Fonti also describes being offered 50 Ilyushin cargo planes by a KGB colonel through an Italian intermediary. He declined and claims they were acquired by Victor Bout, an alleged Russian arms dealer, who he says flew them to Liberia. The US wants Mr Bout’s extradition from Thailand, where he was arrested last year.
Trafficking took Mr Fonti round the world, including Somalia, a big market for dumping waste and selling arms, and Afghanistan, where he bought drugs. Singapore was a favourite haunt – “all the trafficking in the world was there ... ships, missiles”.
The Italian authorities are currently searching for three ships Mr Fonti claims he personally scuttled off the coast of Calabria with toxic waste in their holds, including nuclear material.
An articulate and soft-spoken man, Mr Fonti studied maths, physics and commerce at university. He entered the ‘Ndrangheta in 1968 to protect his father from attacks on his business but then found he could never leave.
“Only horizontally,” he was told.
グーグル訴訟で新和解案 英米文化圏の作品に限定
2009年11月14日16時32分
【ニューヨーク＝田中光】デジタル化した書籍の全文検索サービス「グーグルブックス」をめぐる集団訴訟で、グーグルや米出版協会などの訴訟当事者は１３日、新たな和解案をニューヨークの連邦地裁に提出した。対象を、米国の連邦著作権登録局に登録されている作品か、英国、カナダ、オーストラリアで出版された作品に限定することなどを柱にしている。これで日本への影響は当面、なくなったとみられる。
当初の和解案では当事者の参加の意思にかかわらず、世界中の著作権者が含まれていたため、欧州や日本など各国政府から反発の声があがっていた。
IEA deals blow to US oil benchmark
By Javier Blas
Published: November 13 2009 02:00 | Last updated: November 13 2009 02:00
The reign of the West Texas Intermediate as the world's top oil benchmark "looks increasingly precarious", the International Energy Agency said yesterday, after Saudi Arabia last month dropped the yardstick as its reference for US sales.
"WTI has been the most important price benchmark for several decades but its fall from grace was long in the making ," the western countries' watchdog said. The IEA added that "inherent logistical flaws" caused by the contract delivery point at the landlocked pipeline hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, "frequently led to a disconnect from international markets".
Riyadh last month said it will switch to a new index developed by Argus, the London-based oil pricing company. The Argus Sour Crude Index (Asci) tracks three varieties of crude produced in the US Gulf of Mexico. Other big oil exporters, including Venezuela, are also considering dropping the WTI contract.
The benchmark rose to prominence after the New York Mercantile Exchange started using it in 1983 as the basis for its light, sweet crude futures contract. The Nymex WTI is currently the world's most liquid oil futures contract.
The IEA's warning comes as the InterContinental Exchange, home of the rival Brent benchmark, said this week it will launch a new futures contract tracking the Asci benchmark. CME Group, the owner of Nymex, said last month it will launch futures and swaps tracking Asci.
David Peniket, president of ICE Futures Europe, said that the availability of the US Gulf Coast benchmark Asci would enhance the ability of market participants "to effectively manage price risk in the global energy market".
The IEA said, nonetheless, that "for all its flaws, WTI still has an important role to play", noting that Asci prices will remain linked to WTI quotes through differentials.
Saudi Aramco, the state- owned company, previously used WTI prices published by Platts, a unit of McGraw Hill companies. The Platts' WTI price quote is closely linked with the Nymex WTI futures contract.
Khalid al-Falih, chief executive at Saudi Aramco, last week told reporters that the company dropped the WTI after the benchmark "has really become disconnected" with the overall crude oil market. "We were finding out that increasingly either our customers or ourselves were out of the market," Mr al-Falih said.
Earlier this year, a surge in oil inventories in Cushing depressed the value of the WTI against other global benchmarks, throwing the global oil market into disarray.
In January, WTI, which usually trades at a premium of $1-$2 a barrel to Brent, fell sharply, leaving it at a discount of almost $12 - a record gap. This dislocation in the market receded somewhat, but problems continued well into the summer.
昼前後に起きたら、
（1）天気予報では快晴、最高気温21度だったのに、雨が降っていた。今はどんより曇り。
（2）左目が「ものもらい」のように腫れぼったくなっている。なんで？
ということで予定変更。
（1）天気予報では快晴、最高気温21度だったのに、雨が降っていた。今はどんより曇り。
（2）左目が「ものもらい」のように腫れぼったくなっている。なんで？
ということで予定変更。
もう一つ、イギリスの凋落を示唆する記事がありました。
駄目な国は不況下に増税をして国民を苦しめる。お金を持っている人は国を離れる。国内には貧乏人しか残らない・・・という悪循環の典型です。
日本も同じ議論してますが（苦笑）。
BlueCrest to relocate 50 staff to Geneva
By Sam Jones, Hedge Fund Correspondent
Published: November 11 2009 23:33 | Last updated: November 11 2009 23:33
BlueCrest Capital, one of the UK’s largest hedge funds, is moving a significant portion of its operations to Geneva amid growing concerns about London’s status as a centre for alternative asset managers.
Founded in 2000 by former JPMorgan traders Bill Reeves and Mike Platt, the $15.5bn firm is the third-largest hedge fund manager in Europe. It is looking to relocate 50 staff.
The new office will be BlueCrest’s largest after its headquarters in London, where it currently employs 300 people.
People close to the fund said increased taxes for high earners and controversial new European financial regulations made it prudent to look beyond the UK.
Many industry experts are doubtful that London’s large hedge funds will change their corporate domicile completely, but BlueCrest’s move may herald a trend for part-relocations.
London’s position as the top city for hedge funds after New York has begun to slip, according to a recent government-sponsored report.
Many UK managers worry that attracting talented employees from the US and Asia will be hampered by the UK tax regime and fears over pay restrictions.
The finance ministry of Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said the latest draft of the European alternative investment fund manager directive – expected this week – would include restrictions on hedge fund managers’ remuneration.
“The last six weeks have seen a significant ramping up in the number of London funds looking to move to Switzerland,” said John Lowry, chairman of hedge fund consultants ML Capital. “It’s a trend that is now definitely gaining momentum.”
Brevan Howard, London’s biggest hedge fund manager, said this year it could move up to 100 staff to Geneva.
Hong Kong Is New Target of U.S. Crackdown on Global Tax Evasion
By David Voreacos, Carlyn Kolker and Alan Katz
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong is a new target of U.S. prosecutors pursuing a global campaign against evaders of federal taxes, spurred by data acquired in their crackdown on Swiss banks.
Prosecutors are trying to determine what role financial professionals in Hong Kong play in tax evasion, according to people familiar with the matter. They are examining how much taxable money was moved to the former British colony that returned to China in 1997, whether accounts were based there in name only and what banks were involved, the people said.
The push follows the government’s success in penetrating Swiss bank secrecy and learning from insiders how UBS AG helped Americans evade taxes. UBS, the largest Swiss bank by assets, avoided prosecution by agreeing in February to pay $780 million and disclose account data on 250 clients. In August, it agreed to supply information on another 4,450.
“They must have reason to believe this is a target-rich environment and a very significant amount of tax evasion is going on there,” said Peter Zeidenberg, a former federal prosecutor now at DLA Piper LLP in Washington.
Since the February settlement, prosecutors have won guilty pleas from six UBS clients who described a web of bankers, lawyers and advisers who helped conceal income and assets. All six hid money in shell companies outside Switzerland. Four used Hong Kong corporations, including toy salesman Jeffrey Chernick.
Probes Beyond Switzerland
Debriefings of Chernick started probes of financial institutions in Switzerland and beyond, “in particular tax- haven jurisdictions such as Hong Kong,” prosecutor Michael Ben’Ary said Oct. 30 at Chernick’s sentencing in Florida.
“From the public statements at the Chernick hearing and elsewhere, the government has made it very clear that they are interested in other secrecy jurisdictions, especially Hong Kong,” said Douglas Tween, an attorney for Chernick, 70.
Chernick told prosecutors he hid sales commissions in an $8 million UBS account in the name of a Hong Kong corporation.
Hong Kong is already changing its laws to implement the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s efforts to enhance tax transparency, said Katherine Kwong, a spokeswoman for the government’s Financial Services and Treasury Bureau.
These changes would help “significantly enhance Hong Kong’s position as a transparent tax jurisdiction,” she said yesterday.
Global Tax Standards
The OECD has a so-called gray list of countries that haven’t complied with global tax standards. Hong Kong and Singapore announced in February that they would put forward legislation to meet them, according to Pascal Saint-Amans, who heads the tax competition division at the OECD. Macau made a similar announcement in March.
The UBS clients who used Hong Kong corporations told prosecutors how their bankers and lawyers helped them set up offshore corporations so their assets would be hidden in accounts that didn’t bear their names, court records show.
Roberto Cittadini, a retired Boeing Co. sales manager, told a federal judge in Seattle Oct. 5 that he didn’t report income from a $1.86 million UBS investment account nominally owned by a Hong Kong corporation.
He said Swiss banker Hansruedi Schumacher and Zurich lawyer Matthias Rickenbach helped him with the account. Schumacher is a former NZB Neue Zuercher Bank manager who once ran the cross- border business for Zurich-based UBS, according to court papers. Both men were indicted Aug. 20 in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Schumacher no longer works at NZB, said Patrick Hunger, corporate secretary, in a telephone interview. He declined to say when Schumacher left the bank and wouldn’t provide Schumacher’s new contact details. Messages left at Rickenbach’s office and home weren’t immediately returned.
Malibu Businessman
John McCarthy, a businessman in Malibu, California, admitted Oct. 20 that he failed to declare $1 million in a UBS Swiss account tied to a Hong Kong entity.
“I’ve been told there are active investigations on the West Coast of Hong Kong account holders,” said McCarthy’s attorney, Steven Toscher, of Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez in Beverly Hills.
Hong Kong hasn’t been the only tax jurisdiction implicated in the past year. UBS admitted in February that it helped U.S. clients create sham companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands, while hiding the true owners from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. UBS clients who pleaded guilty also implicated Singapore, Liechtenstein, Mexico and the Cayman Islands.
The IRS is analyzing a trove of information from more than 7,500 taxpayers who voluntarily disclosed their offshore accounts this year to avoid prosecution. To qualify, clients had to disclose everyone who handled their money overseas and everywhere it went.
‘Scouring the 7,500 Disclosures’
“We’re going to be scouring the 7,500 disclosures to identify financial institutions, advisers and others” who helped taxpayers cheat on taxes, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Oct. 14.
He said the IRS is hiring 800 people in the next year and increasing staff in eight overseas offices, including Hong Kong. It also will open offices in Beijing, Sydney and Panama City.
“There is a phenomenal amount of money in undeclared status in Singapore, Hong Kong and maybe now China,” said Scott Michel, an attorney at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington. “The IRS has decided that the template has worked so well for Switzerland that it wants to mimic that investigative strategy with other countries.”
While Hong Kong has strict anti-money laundering measures, it is easy to set up nominee and trust accounts there that obscure the ownership and control of assets, according to the Financial Action Task Force, an inter-governmental body.
‘Relative Ease’
“The availability of corporate services and the relative ease with which shell companies can be purchased contribute to the risk of Hong Kong being used for structuring of the proceeds of financial crime, corruption, tax evasion and smuggling,” according to a June 2008 report by the task force, which works to combat money laundering.
Cittadini trusted UBS, as well as Schumacher and Rickenbach, when they advised setting up accounts in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands as a way to keep his assets hidden, his lawyer John Colvin said.
“It’s totally routine,” said Colvin, of Chicoine & Hallett PS in Seattle. “It would cost a few hundred or a few thousand dollars at most to set up.”
Schumacher and Rickenbach told Cittadini such accounts were the easiest way to continue investing in U.S. securities while not reporting the income to the IRS, Colvin said. UBS was required to report the income under an agreement it signed with the U.S. in 2000.
David Ellis, a lawyer in Hong Kong, said he was a “bit surprised” to hear that corporations had been used there to help evade U.S. taxes.
‘Legitimate Tax Benefits’
“I suspect it’s probably more for the legitimate tax benefits of operating through Hong Kong that Hong Kong companies are used rather than its efficiency in evading U.S. tax,” said Ellis of Mayer Brown JSM. “I would have thought for evading U.S. tax you would want a different jurisdiction. But Hong Kong is maybe the legitimate end of it.”
Zetland Corporate Services in Hong Kong sets up companies for foreign clients, said its managing director, Michael Foggo.
“Our client can act as director and shareholder,” Foggo said. “Sometimes our clients do want us to act as directors for them and provide nominee shareholders if they are looking for confidentiality for whatever reason. It’s not something unique to Hong Kong or any other place in Asia.”
駄目な国は不況下に増税をして国民を苦しめる。お金を持っている人は国を離れる。国内には貧乏人しか残らない・・・という悪循環の典型です。
日本も同じ議論してますが（苦笑）。
BlueCrest to relocate 50 staff to Geneva
By Sam Jones, Hedge Fund Correspondent
Published: November 11 2009 23:33 | Last updated: November 11 2009 23:33
BlueCrest Capital, one of the UK’s largest hedge funds, is moving a significant portion of its operations to Geneva amid growing concerns about London’s status as a centre for alternative asset managers.
Founded in 2000 by former JPMorgan traders Bill Reeves and Mike Platt, the $15.5bn firm is the third-largest hedge fund manager in Europe. It is looking to relocate 50 staff.
The new office will be BlueCrest’s largest after its headquarters in London, where it currently employs 300 people.
People close to the fund said increased taxes for high earners and controversial new European financial regulations made it prudent to look beyond the UK.
Many industry experts are doubtful that London’s large hedge funds will change their corporate domicile completely, but BlueCrest’s move may herald a trend for part-relocations.
London’s position as the top city for hedge funds after New York has begun to slip, according to a recent government-sponsored report.
Many UK managers worry that attracting talented employees from the US and Asia will be hampered by the UK tax regime and fears over pay restrictions.
The finance ministry of Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said the latest draft of the European alternative investment fund manager directive – expected this week – would include restrictions on hedge fund managers’ remuneration.
“The last six weeks have seen a significant ramping up in the number of London funds looking to move to Switzerland,” said John Lowry, chairman of hedge fund consultants ML Capital. “It’s a trend that is now definitely gaining momentum.”
Brevan Howard, London’s biggest hedge fund manager, said this year it could move up to 100 staff to Geneva.
Hong Kong Is New Target of U.S. Crackdown on Global Tax Evasion
By David Voreacos, Carlyn Kolker and Alan Katz
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong is a new target of U.S. prosecutors pursuing a global campaign against evaders of federal taxes, spurred by data acquired in their crackdown on Swiss banks.
Prosecutors are trying to determine what role financial professionals in Hong Kong play in tax evasion, according to people familiar with the matter. They are examining how much taxable money was moved to the former British colony that returned to China in 1997, whether accounts were based there in name only and what banks were involved, the people said.
The push follows the government’s success in penetrating Swiss bank secrecy and learning from insiders how UBS AG helped Americans evade taxes. UBS, the largest Swiss bank by assets, avoided prosecution by agreeing in February to pay $780 million and disclose account data on 250 clients. In August, it agreed to supply information on another 4,450.
“They must have reason to believe this is a target-rich environment and a very significant amount of tax evasion is going on there,” said Peter Zeidenberg, a former federal prosecutor now at DLA Piper LLP in Washington.
Since the February settlement, prosecutors have won guilty pleas from six UBS clients who described a web of bankers, lawyers and advisers who helped conceal income and assets. All six hid money in shell companies outside Switzerland. Four used Hong Kong corporations, including toy salesman Jeffrey Chernick.
Probes Beyond Switzerland
Debriefings of Chernick started probes of financial institutions in Switzerland and beyond, “in particular tax- haven jurisdictions such as Hong Kong,” prosecutor Michael Ben’Ary said Oct. 30 at Chernick’s sentencing in Florida.
“From the public statements at the Chernick hearing and elsewhere, the government has made it very clear that they are interested in other secrecy jurisdictions, especially Hong Kong,” said Douglas Tween, an attorney for Chernick, 70.
Chernick told prosecutors he hid sales commissions in an $8 million UBS account in the name of a Hong Kong corporation.
Hong Kong is already changing its laws to implement the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s efforts to enhance tax transparency, said Katherine Kwong, a spokeswoman for the government’s Financial Services and Treasury Bureau.
These changes would help “significantly enhance Hong Kong’s position as a transparent tax jurisdiction,” she said yesterday.
Global Tax Standards
The OECD has a so-called gray list of countries that haven’t complied with global tax standards. Hong Kong and Singapore announced in February that they would put forward legislation to meet them, according to Pascal Saint-Amans, who heads the tax competition division at the OECD. Macau made a similar announcement in March.
The UBS clients who used Hong Kong corporations told prosecutors how their bankers and lawyers helped them set up offshore corporations so their assets would be hidden in accounts that didn’t bear their names, court records show.
Roberto Cittadini, a retired Boeing Co. sales manager, told a federal judge in Seattle Oct. 5 that he didn’t report income from a $1.86 million UBS investment account nominally owned by a Hong Kong corporation.
He said Swiss banker Hansruedi Schumacher and Zurich lawyer Matthias Rickenbach helped him with the account. Schumacher is a former NZB Neue Zuercher Bank manager who once ran the cross- border business for Zurich-based UBS, according to court papers. Both men were indicted Aug. 20 in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Schumacher no longer works at NZB, said Patrick Hunger, corporate secretary, in a telephone interview. He declined to say when Schumacher left the bank and wouldn’t provide Schumacher’s new contact details. Messages left at Rickenbach’s office and home weren’t immediately returned.
Malibu Businessman
John McCarthy, a businessman in Malibu, California, admitted Oct. 20 that he failed to declare $1 million in a UBS Swiss account tied to a Hong Kong entity.
“I’ve been told there are active investigations on the West Coast of Hong Kong account holders,” said McCarthy’s attorney, Steven Toscher, of Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez in Beverly Hills.
Hong Kong hasn’t been the only tax jurisdiction implicated in the past year. UBS admitted in February that it helped U.S. clients create sham companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands, while hiding the true owners from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. UBS clients who pleaded guilty also implicated Singapore, Liechtenstein, Mexico and the Cayman Islands.
The IRS is analyzing a trove of information from more than 7,500 taxpayers who voluntarily disclosed their offshore accounts this year to avoid prosecution. To qualify, clients had to disclose everyone who handled their money overseas and everywhere it went.
‘Scouring the 7,500 Disclosures’
“We’re going to be scouring the 7,500 disclosures to identify financial institutions, advisers and others” who helped taxpayers cheat on taxes, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Oct. 14.
He said the IRS is hiring 800 people in the next year and increasing staff in eight overseas offices, including Hong Kong. It also will open offices in Beijing, Sydney and Panama City.
“There is a phenomenal amount of money in undeclared status in Singapore, Hong Kong and maybe now China,” said Scott Michel, an attorney at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington. “The IRS has decided that the template has worked so well for Switzerland that it wants to mimic that investigative strategy with other countries.”
While Hong Kong has strict anti-money laundering measures, it is easy to set up nominee and trust accounts there that obscure the ownership and control of assets, according to the Financial Action Task Force, an inter-governmental body.
‘Relative Ease’
“The availability of corporate services and the relative ease with which shell companies can be purchased contribute to the risk of Hong Kong being used for structuring of the proceeds of financial crime, corruption, tax evasion and smuggling,” according to a June 2008 report by the task force, which works to combat money laundering.
Cittadini trusted UBS, as well as Schumacher and Rickenbach, when they advised setting up accounts in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands as a way to keep his assets hidden, his lawyer John Colvin said.
“It’s totally routine,” said Colvin, of Chicoine & Hallett PS in Seattle. “It would cost a few hundred or a few thousand dollars at most to set up.”
Schumacher and Rickenbach told Cittadini such accounts were the easiest way to continue investing in U.S. securities while not reporting the income to the IRS, Colvin said. UBS was required to report the income under an agreement it signed with the U.S. in 2000.
David Ellis, a lawyer in Hong Kong, said he was a “bit surprised” to hear that corporations had been used there to help evade U.S. taxes.
‘Legitimate Tax Benefits’
“I suspect it’s probably more for the legitimate tax benefits of operating through Hong Kong that Hong Kong companies are used rather than its efficiency in evading U.S. tax,” said Ellis of Mayer Brown JSM. “I would have thought for evading U.S. tax you would want a different jurisdiction. But Hong Kong is maybe the legitimate end of it.”
Zetland Corporate Services in Hong Kong sets up companies for foreign clients, said its managing director, Michael Foggo.
“Our client can act as director and shareholder,” Foggo said. “Sometimes our clients do want us to act as directors for them and provide nominee shareholders if they are looking for confidentiality for whatever reason. It’s not something unique to Hong Kong or any other place in Asia.”
ブッシュ時代だったら、「日本ごときが生意気言うな」という論調になっていたはずですが、この記事、ダメリカから日本が離れていくのは仕方ないよね〜だって私らダメリカだもんな〜みたいな、なんだか日本に対して腰が引けた書き方になっている。
記事本文にも書いてあるが、米ドルの価値下落で日本の外貨準備は随分な迷惑を被っています。
為替レート・ベースでは価値は2割減、金（ゴールド）を基準にすると価値は75％減です。25％減じゃありませんよ、75％減です！
2000年前後には「今の時代、金を持っていても意味がない」という解釈が広がり、欧州諸国の中央銀行は大量の金を売却しましたが、それでも彼らはまだゴールドを保有しています。
ところが日本銀行は、最初からゴールドをほとんど保有していません。自慢の外貨準備はほぼ100％ドル紙幣です。我が祖国の日本は、見事に外貨資産の価値保全に、世界で一番失敗しました。いや本当に迷惑です。←この部分、政治的立場の違いを超えて全国民で納得できると思います。
日本国民をあげて米国から離れましょう（笑）。
Japan Cools to America as It Prepares for Obama Visit
By HELENE COOPER
Published: November 11, 2009
WASHINGTON ― President Obama will arrive in Tokyo on Friday, at a time when America’s relations with Japan are at their most contentious since the trade wars of the 1990s ― and back then, the fights were over luxury cars and semiconductors, not over whether the two countries should re-examine their half-century-old strategic relationship.
A Japanese naval ship bound for the Indian Ocean in 2008 to support American military operations. Such efforts are in doubt.
When Japan’s Democratic Party came to power in September, ending 50 years of largely one-party government, Obama administration officials put on an outwardly positive face, congratulating the newcomers. But quietly, some American officials expressed fears that the blunt criticism that the Japanese had directed at the United States during the political campaign would translate to a more contentious relationship.
Within weeks, those fears started to play out. The new Japanese government said the country would withdraw from an eight-year-old mission in the Indian Ocean to refuel warships supporting American efforts in Afghanistan.
The government also announced that it planned to revisit a 2006 agreement to relocate a Marine airfield on Okinawa to a less populated part of the island, and to move thousands of Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
And Japanese government officials have suddenly lost their shyness about publicly sparring with American officials, as evident in a dispute in September between Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, and the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has called for a more equal relationship with the United States, and his government wants a review of the status of forces agreement, which protects American troops from Japanese legal prosecution. Japanese citizens, and Okinawans in particular, have demanded such a review for years.
When Mr. Hatoyama met Mr. Obama in New York during the United Nations General Assembly in September, the conditions seemed ripe for a kiss-and-make-up session. At their initial meeting, Mr. Obama congratulated Mr. Hatoyama “for running an extraordinary campaign” and complimented his party for “leading dramatic change in Japan.”
Mr. Hatoyama responded with the usual diplomatic niceties, telling reporters after the meeting that “I told President Obama that the Japan-U.S. alliance will continue to be the central pillar, key pillar of the security of Japan and Japanese foreign policy.”
But there were also a few awkward moments. Mr. Hatoyama and his wife, Miyuki, were the last to arrive at a leaders’ dinner at the Phipps Conservatory on the margins of the Group of 20 economic summit meeting in Pittsburgh later that week in September. Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, had been greeting arriving guests for almost two hours. “I’m sorry we were late,” Mrs. Hatoyama apologized.
A few days later, after the Obamas and the Hatoyamas flew to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee for the 2016 Olympics, Tokyo beat out Chicago in the first round of voting, then was bumped as Rio de Janeiro took the prize.
But all of that paled in comparison with the uproar that erupted in Japan after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited Tokyo in October. Mr. Gates, known for speaking bluntly, pressed Mr. Hatoyama and Japanese military officials to keep their commitment on the military agreements.
“It is time to move on,” Mr. Gates said, calling Japanese proposals to reopen the base issue “counterproductive.” Then, adding insult to injury in the eyes of Japanese commentators, Mr. Gates turned down invitations to attend a welcoming ceremony at the Defense Ministry and to dine with officials there.
In the weeks since, in advance of Mr. Obama’s visit, both countries have taken pains to tone down the rancor. The Japanese government has sent several high-level officials, including members of Parliament, to Washington to take the political temperature. Besides meeting with Obama administration officials, the Japanese representatives have spoken with members of research and policy groups based in Washington, particularly experts on foreign policy issues related to Japan.
“The feelers they’ve been putting out is, ‘Please don’t push us to make a decision because if you do, you’ll hear what you don’t want to hear,’ ” said Andrew L. Oros, a professor at Washington College and the author of “Normalizing Japan: Politics, Identity and the Evolution of Security Practice.”
Japan’s new government is “trying to backtrack from some of their campaign rhetoric, but it’s too soon,” Mr. Oros said.
“This was a historic election,” he added. “They overturned 50 years of conservative rule. They can’t do everything at once.”
Indeed, the new government is under political pressure at home. More than 20,000 Okinawa residents held a protest rally against the base last week, and residents have been vociferous in letting the government know that they expect it to keep its campaign promises.
Administration officials said they had no intention of letting the relationship slide. Mr. Obama will be “looking to build his relationship and his personal ties with the new D.P.J. government there,” Jeffrey A. Bader, Mr. Obama’s senior director for East Asian affairs, told reporters on Monday, using the initials for the Democratic Party of Japan. “This government is looking for a more equal partnership with the United States. We are prepared to move in that direction.”
But the United States, while tamping down the tone of the discussion, is still pressing Japan, particularly on the Okinawa base issue. Mr. Obama, in an interview on Tuesday with NHK television of Japan, said Japan must honor the agreement.
While “it’s perfectly appropriate for the new government to want to re-examine how to move forward,” Mr. Obama told NHK, he added that he was “confident that once that review is completed that they will conclude that the alliance we have, the basing arrangements that have been discussed, all those things serve the interest of Japan and they will continue.”
In an effort to defuse tensions and perhaps make up for saying it would not refuel the Indian Ocean warships, Japan said Tuesday that it would sharply increase its nonmilitary aid to Afghanistan, pledging $5 billion for a variety of projects that include building schools and highways, training police officers, clearing land mines, and rehabilitating former Taliban fighters.
But even if the military squabble is eventually resolved, Japan’s economic relationship with the United States is being altered. China has now surpassed the United States as Japan’s major trading partner, a switch that economists expect to continue as China’s economy grows.
“Japan sees its future more within Asia,” said Eswar S. Prasad, an Asia specialist and professor at Cornell University. “They feel that they owe a lot less to the U.S. right now. U.S. economic policy is hurting them in a lot of ways, particularly with the decline in the value of the dollar versus the yen.”
記事本文にも書いてあるが、米ドルの価値下落で日本の外貨準備は随分な迷惑を被っています。
為替レート・ベースでは価値は2割減、金（ゴールド）を基準にすると価値は75％減です。25％減じゃありませんよ、75％減です！
2000年前後には「今の時代、金を持っていても意味がない」という解釈が広がり、欧州諸国の中央銀行は大量の金を売却しましたが、それでも彼らはまだゴールドを保有しています。
ところが日本銀行は、最初からゴールドをほとんど保有していません。自慢の外貨準備はほぼ100％ドル紙幣です。我が祖国の日本は、見事に外貨資産の価値保全に、世界で一番失敗しました。いや本当に迷惑です。←この部分、政治的立場の違いを超えて全国民で納得できると思います。
日本国民をあげて米国から離れましょう（笑）。
Japan Cools to America as It Prepares for Obama Visit
By HELENE COOPER
Published: November 11, 2009
WASHINGTON ― President Obama will arrive in Tokyo on Friday, at a time when America’s relations with Japan are at their most contentious since the trade wars of the 1990s ― and back then, the fights were over luxury cars and semiconductors, not over whether the two countries should re-examine their half-century-old strategic relationship.
A Japanese naval ship bound for the Indian Ocean in 2008 to support American military operations. Such efforts are in doubt.
When Japan’s Democratic Party came to power in September, ending 50 years of largely one-party government, Obama administration officials put on an outwardly positive face, congratulating the newcomers. But quietly, some American officials expressed fears that the blunt criticism that the Japanese had directed at the United States during the political campaign would translate to a more contentious relationship.
Within weeks, those fears started to play out. The new Japanese government said the country would withdraw from an eight-year-old mission in the Indian Ocean to refuel warships supporting American efforts in Afghanistan.
The government also announced that it planned to revisit a 2006 agreement to relocate a Marine airfield on Okinawa to a less populated part of the island, and to move thousands of Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
And Japanese government officials have suddenly lost their shyness about publicly sparring with American officials, as evident in a dispute in September between Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, and the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has called for a more equal relationship with the United States, and his government wants a review of the status of forces agreement, which protects American troops from Japanese legal prosecution. Japanese citizens, and Okinawans in particular, have demanded such a review for years.
When Mr. Hatoyama met Mr. Obama in New York during the United Nations General Assembly in September, the conditions seemed ripe for a kiss-and-make-up session. At their initial meeting, Mr. Obama congratulated Mr. Hatoyama “for running an extraordinary campaign” and complimented his party for “leading dramatic change in Japan.”
Mr. Hatoyama responded with the usual diplomatic niceties, telling reporters after the meeting that “I told President Obama that the Japan-U.S. alliance will continue to be the central pillar, key pillar of the security of Japan and Japanese foreign policy.”
But there were also a few awkward moments. Mr. Hatoyama and his wife, Miyuki, were the last to arrive at a leaders’ dinner at the Phipps Conservatory on the margins of the Group of 20 economic summit meeting in Pittsburgh later that week in September. Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, had been greeting arriving guests for almost two hours. “I’m sorry we were late,” Mrs. Hatoyama apologized.
A few days later, after the Obamas and the Hatoyamas flew to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee for the 2016 Olympics, Tokyo beat out Chicago in the first round of voting, then was bumped as Rio de Janeiro took the prize.
But all of that paled in comparison with the uproar that erupted in Japan after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited Tokyo in October. Mr. Gates, known for speaking bluntly, pressed Mr. Hatoyama and Japanese military officials to keep their commitment on the military agreements.
“It is time to move on,” Mr. Gates said, calling Japanese proposals to reopen the base issue “counterproductive.” Then, adding insult to injury in the eyes of Japanese commentators, Mr. Gates turned down invitations to attend a welcoming ceremony at the Defense Ministry and to dine with officials there.
In the weeks since, in advance of Mr. Obama’s visit, both countries have taken pains to tone down the rancor. The Japanese government has sent several high-level officials, including members of Parliament, to Washington to take the political temperature. Besides meeting with Obama administration officials, the Japanese representatives have spoken with members of research and policy groups based in Washington, particularly experts on foreign policy issues related to Japan.
“The feelers they’ve been putting out is, ‘Please don’t push us to make a decision because if you do, you’ll hear what you don’t want to hear,’ ” said Andrew L. Oros, a professor at Washington College and the author of “Normalizing Japan: Politics, Identity and the Evolution of Security Practice.”
Japan’s new government is “trying to backtrack from some of their campaign rhetoric, but it’s too soon,” Mr. Oros said.
“This was a historic election,” he added. “They overturned 50 years of conservative rule. They can’t do everything at once.”
Indeed, the new government is under political pressure at home. More than 20,000 Okinawa residents held a protest rally against the base last week, and residents have been vociferous in letting the government know that they expect it to keep its campaign promises.
Administration officials said they had no intention of letting the relationship slide. Mr. Obama will be “looking to build his relationship and his personal ties with the new D.P.J. government there,” Jeffrey A. Bader, Mr. Obama’s senior director for East Asian affairs, told reporters on Monday, using the initials for the Democratic Party of Japan. “This government is looking for a more equal partnership with the United States. We are prepared to move in that direction.”
But the United States, while tamping down the tone of the discussion, is still pressing Japan, particularly on the Okinawa base issue. Mr. Obama, in an interview on Tuesday with NHK television of Japan, said Japan must honor the agreement.
While “it’s perfectly appropriate for the new government to want to re-examine how to move forward,” Mr. Obama told NHK, he added that he was “confident that once that review is completed that they will conclude that the alliance we have, the basing arrangements that have been discussed, all those things serve the interest of Japan and they will continue.”
In an effort to defuse tensions and perhaps make up for saying it would not refuel the Indian Ocean warships, Japan said Tuesday that it would sharply increase its nonmilitary aid to Afghanistan, pledging $5 billion for a variety of projects that include building schools and highways, training police officers, clearing land mines, and rehabilitating former Taliban fighters.
But even if the military squabble is eventually resolved, Japan’s economic relationship with the United States is being altered. China has now surpassed the United States as Japan’s major trading partner, a switch that economists expect to continue as China’s economy grows.
“Japan sees its future more within Asia,” said Eswar S. Prasad, an Asia specialist and professor at Cornell University. “They feel that they owe a lot less to the U.S. right now. U.S. economic policy is hurting them in a lot of ways, particularly with the decline in the value of the dollar versus the yen.”
100年前には世界の資源と工業生産力の7割を支配していたイギリスですが、20世紀を通じて資産の切り売りを続け、イギリス資本の世界的大企業はもうほとんど残っていません。
今度は航空会社までスペインとくっつけてしまうことになりました。
もっとも私たちもJAL問題を抱えていますが（笑）。
BA and Iberia merger to create Europe's third-largest airline
By Pilita Clark in London and Mark Mulligan in Madrid
Published: November 13 2009 02:00 | Last updated: November 13 2009 02:00
British Airways and Iberia last night agreed the terms of a merger to create Europe's third-largest airline by revenue, one of the biggest deals in the global aviation industry.
But the two airlines have agreed that Iberia will be able to terminate the accord if it is unhappy with BA's handling of its swollen pension scheme, which has been one of the sticking points in the deal, first announced in July last year.
Investors in BA will have 55 per cent of the combined group - yet to be named - and Iberia's shareholders will have the remaining 45 per cent.
The group's headquarters will be in London and Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, will stay in the top job. Antonio Vázquez, Iberia's chairman, will become chairman of the merged group.
"The merger will create a strong European airline well able to compete in the 21st century," Mr Walsh said.
A new holding company will own both airlines and be tax resident in Spain. Both airlines will maintain separate corporate structures so as not to jeopardise international traffic rights.
Mr Walsh said the deal, which is not due to be fully completed until late next year, would create €400m ($594m) in synergies by the fifth year of the merger, two-thirds of which would be derived from cost reductions in areas such as IT, fleet maintenance and back-office functions.
Iberia will be entitled to terminate the merger if the Spanish airline deems the outcome of discussions between BA and its pension trustees is "materially detrimental to the economic premises of the proposed merger". BA's pension scheme liabilities have reached more than £2.66bn ($4.4bn), according to the latest reported figures.
BA shareholders will receive one new ordinary share in the new holding company for every existing BA ordinary share held by them. Iberia shareholders will receive 1.0205 new ordinary shares for every existing Iberia ordinary share they hold.
Only Germany's Lufthansa and Air France-KLM would be larger in Europe than the proposed group.
It would have 419 aircraft and fly to 205 destinations. In 2008, British Airways and Iberia carried 62m passengers and, in their last financial years, their joint revenues were approximately €15bn. Shares in Iberia gained 11.8 per cent to €2.22, while BA's rose 7.5 per cent to 215p.
今度は航空会社までスペインとくっつけてしまうことになりました。
もっとも私たちもJAL問題を抱えていますが（笑）。
BA and Iberia merger to create Europe's third-largest airline
By Pilita Clark in London and Mark Mulligan in Madrid
Published: November 13 2009 02:00 | Last updated: November 13 2009 02:00
British Airways and Iberia last night agreed the terms of a merger to create Europe's third-largest airline by revenue, one of the biggest deals in the global aviation industry.
But the two airlines have agreed that Iberia will be able to terminate the accord if it is unhappy with BA's handling of its swollen pension scheme, which has been one of the sticking points in the deal, first announced in July last year.
Investors in BA will have 55 per cent of the combined group - yet to be named - and Iberia's shareholders will have the remaining 45 per cent.
The group's headquarters will be in London and Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, will stay in the top job. Antonio Vázquez, Iberia's chairman, will become chairman of the merged group.
"The merger will create a strong European airline well able to compete in the 21st century," Mr Walsh said.
A new holding company will own both airlines and be tax resident in Spain. Both airlines will maintain separate corporate structures so as not to jeopardise international traffic rights.
Mr Walsh said the deal, which is not due to be fully completed until late next year, would create €400m ($594m) in synergies by the fifth year of the merger, two-thirds of which would be derived from cost reductions in areas such as IT, fleet maintenance and back-office functions.
Iberia will be entitled to terminate the merger if the Spanish airline deems the outcome of discussions between BA and its pension trustees is "materially detrimental to the economic premises of the proposed merger". BA's pension scheme liabilities have reached more than £2.66bn ($4.4bn), according to the latest reported figures.
BA shareholders will receive one new ordinary share in the new holding company for every existing BA ordinary share held by them. Iberia shareholders will receive 1.0205 new ordinary shares for every existing Iberia ordinary share they hold.
Only Germany's Lufthansa and Air France-KLM would be larger in Europe than the proposed group.
It would have 419 aircraft and fly to 205 destinations. In 2008, British Airways and Iberia carried 62m passengers and, in their last financial years, their joint revenues were approximately €15bn. Shares in Iberia gained 11.8 per cent to €2.22, while BA's rose 7.5 per cent to 215p.
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