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Retail investors may not have access to private infrastructure assets on the public market, but they certainly have access to corporate bonds. |
Investment grade corporate bond ETFs like the iShares IBoxx $ Invest Grade Corp Bd Fd (NYSE: LQD) and high-yield corporate bond ETFs like the iShares iBoxx $ High Yid Corp Bond (ETF) (NYSE: HYG) have been popular investments among traders looking to diversify outside of stocks. |
Archives|SMOOT SEES BIG TAX CUT.; Expects Reduction of $300,000,000, and 20 Per Cent. Surtax. |
SMOOT SEES BIG TAX CUT.; Expects Reduction of $300,000,000, and 20 Per Cent. Surtax. |
CFOs today are finding themselves in a leadership position at the strategy table. Whether your company’s objectives are to deliver growth in 2016 or stay the course, it is crucial that the office of finance contribute to the strategic decision-making process and become one of the company’s trusted business partners. |
With rich data from all parts of the organization, the finance leadership team can offer unprecedented value to the decision-making process and help make the right business decisions executable. Listen to how Finance Professionals are helping guide their organizations toward making well-reasoned, data-driven strategic ... |
Nimby or not: Would you house the homeless in your neighborhood? |
Donna Lynn and Curtis Gamble, both formerly homeless, stand outside after a church dinner in Fullerton. Some Fullerton neighbors are fighting against a housing proposal for Fullerton's chronically homeless. |
A homeless aid organization wants to build permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals in a suburban, Orange County neighborhood. Neighbors fight back. |
ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger should be sacked, according to Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy. |
The former Liverpool man made the argument last night when analysing the Gunners’ defeat to Bournemouth. |
Wenger has been under pressure for some time at Arsenal but has escaped the axe. |
But Murphy thinks there are severe problems at the club and the only way they can be changed is with a new manager coming in. |
He told MOTD2: “They need a new manager who is going to change things and create some discipline at that club. |
“They play with no discipline and there has to be repercussions for bad performances and there isn’t from what I’m understanding. |
“You can’t play one week well and look like a team that are on the up and then play like they did today because that was embarrassing. |
The defeat to Bournemouth yesterday leaves Arsenal eight points off the top four as they look to qualify for the Champions League. |
Things could get even worse for the Gunners with Alexis Sanchez set to leave the club. |
Murphy added: “Sanchez and Ozil are going to go. |
The Ethiopian government led by new premier Abiy Ahmed announced a slew of reforms on Tuesday, including ending its border dispute with Eritrea and opening key economic sectors, among them Ethiopian Airlines, to foreign investment. |
Both steps represent major policy changes by Abiy, the first prime minister in modern Ethiopia from the country's largest ethnicity the Oromo who took office in April after years of anti-government protests and political turmoil. |
A former province, Eritrea became Ethiopia's bitter foe after a 1998-2000 border conflict followed by Ethiopia's refusal to accept the ruling of a UN-backed boundary commission that divided up contested territory between the two countries. |
In a surprise announcement that came on the same day as parliament's repeal of a nationwide state of emergency, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) said it would "fully implement" the boundary commission's 2002 decision. |
Since the formal end of the border conflict, Ethiopia and Eritrea have taken starkly different paths, with Eritrea growing increasingly isolated while Ethiopia has exerted power across the region, fuelled by an economy that has expanded at one of the fastest rates in Africa. |
But a shortage of foreign currency is seen as threatening that economic growth, which dropped to 8.5 percent this year from 10.9 percent in 2017, according to the International Monetary Fund. |
Looking to increase the players in the economy, the ruling party said it would sell minority stakes in Ethiopian Airlines and the sole telecom company Ethio Telecom to foreign investors -- a reversal of years of policy that closed those sectors to outsiders. |
The move would "enable Ethiopia-born citizens living abroad who've long wished to work on the development of their country, and... foreigners who have the knowledge and foreign currency, to play a positive role in our growth," said the statement issued after a meeting of top EPRDF officials. |
But the neighbours were soon at war over the demarcation of their shared border, a conflict that would leave 80,000 people dead and degenerate into a stalemate after the impasse over the UN ruling. |
Hundreds would die in subsequent years in periodic border clashes as the two countries would try to undermine each other elsewhere. |
The UN Security Council sanctioned Eritrea in 2006 for supporting Al-Shabaab extremists in Somalia, the same year Ethiopia invaded to battle the group. |
Ethiopia faced its own challenges starting in late 2015 when the Oromos and later the country's second-largest ethnicity the Amharas protested against the one-party EPRDF government. |
Hundreds died and tens of thousands were arrested in the revolt that pushed Ethiopia to declare a nationwide state of emergency for 10 months starting in October 2016. |
The unrest was seen as a key reason why Hailemariam Desalegn made the unprecedented move to resign as prime minister in February, which the government followed by declaring another state of emergency for six months. |
He was replaced by Abiy, who took office amid high hopes he would move the EPRDF away from its authoritarian past. |
In this Nov. 3, 2015 file photo, the Keystone Steele City pumping station, into which the planned Keystone XL pipeline is to connect to, is seen in Steele City, Neb. |
BUFFALO, S.D. — In the last few weeks up in windswept Harding County, sheriff's deputies have driven down long, dirt roads to serve court papers to landowners, announcing whether they like it or not, TransCanada would be running an oil pipeline onto their land. |
But at least one South Dakota landowner isn't relenting yet. |
"I'm ready to take this all the way to court," said Jeffrey Jensen, of rural Harding County, by phone on Thursday. "I got nothing to lose. Wouldn't bother me in the least." |
Last month, in the courthouse in this remote northwest corner of the state just east of Montana, separate verified petitions for condemnation were filed in South Dakota's 4th Judicial Circuit against parcels of land owned by two Harding County families, including Jensen's. |
It's the latest baby step in the decade-long journey to build the nearly 1,200 miles of three-foot pipe proposed to run as the crow flies between Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, and Steele City, Neb. The pipeline, the energy company says, ensures a more direct and wider transfer of crude than the current Keystone line runni... |
However, the July 25 petition shows the pipeline company still has some work to do before boring pipe. |
"Keystone was unable to acquire the necessary easements by agreement with Jeffrey and Christina Jensen," reads the petition, "and therefore seeks by this Verified Petition to exercise its right of eminent domain." |
TransCanada says in its latest quarterly report filed with the South Dakota PUC that is has 94 percent ownership of easements on private property. The pipeline would cross over 300 landowners' turf from northwest Harding County to south-central Tripp County. The company states it has not secured easements on state land... |
The petition filed against Jensen, his wife, and a bank requests the right to cut across Jensen's land with two, 50-foot wide permanent easements, covering nearly 8 acres. TransCanada also asks to condemn temporary easements for the pipeline and workspaces and insists it will pay for damage from construction or pipelin... |
Jensen signed eight years ago, but doesn't plan on doing so this time. "I think we were darn foolish to sign the way we did the first time." |
The pipeline, under state and federal law, is considered a "common carrier." Like a telephone line and or highway, it enjoys broad authority as a public interest. Legal experts say landowners have few options. |
"What's happening up there shouldn't be a surprise to anybody," said Mark Meierhenry, a Sioux Falls attorney and former state attorney general. "When the pipeline decides to take your property, all it has to do is file a lawsuit that says so." |
On the last page of the court filing, attorneys for Keystone request a jury trial if Jensen refuses. Meierhenry said that final step is merely for a jury of the landowners' peers to decide what they should get paid. |
Harding County has seen a condemnation trial before. In 2012, according to documents filed with the Harding County Clerk of Courts, TransCanada had offered more than $6,000 to run a pipeline on a section of land approximately 120 acres large on land owned by a number of absentee landlords, including members of the Szab... |
"As just compensation for the easement," wrote Judge John Bastian, "judgment is entered in favor of the defendants against TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP, in the amount of $780." |
Jensen, the landowner being sued, knows the deck is stacked against him. When TransCanada first made the rounds securing easements in Harding County for the pipeline, he was one of the many ranchers who signed on, figuring they would get better terms with the company than in court. However, TransCanada's contract for e... |
"They (TransCanada) actually want to give less than they did before on my first easement, and there's no sunset clause," said Jensen. "And I guess I don't agree with a foreign country being able to condemn your land." |
Since Trump reignited the pipeline, many hurdles before the pipeline 10-years-in-the-making have been cleared. In June, the South Dakota Supreme Court dismissed appeals by a local citizens' rights group and two Native American tribes to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission's 2010 permitting of the part of the p... |
An appeal by environmental groups, tribes and landowners to the November decision by the Nebraska utilities board is being expedited. |
Pace residents are asking Santa Rosa County commissioners for help controlling flooding. |
With hurricane season underway and a tropical system in the forecast for the next few days, several residents addressed Santa Rosa County commissioners on Monday about flooding earlier this month that in some cases destroyed their homes. |
"Everything in the house was wet or was ruined," said John Mahoney, who lives on Belvedere Circle in Pace, of the flooding overnight on June 6. |
Mahoney, his wife and 2-year-old daughter remain displaced from their home in a neighborhood where several homeowners suffered damage from heavy rains that dropped about a foot of rain in the county over 12 hours. |
The Mahoneys, who moved into the house in February, are now staying with neighbors, and there is no timetable for their return. |
Santa Rosa County Commissioner Sam Parker, who represents the Pace area, said the county is "working on solutions" to alleviate flooding. He said he'd like all efforts to be implemented within 30 days. |
Santa Rosa County Director of Public Works Stephen Furman said the rain and flooding that hit the Pace area earlier this month came on the heels of other significant periods of rainfall. Furman said swamps and retention ponds in the area did not have a chance to empty out, and the ground was saturated. |
"That's what causes the vast majority of flooding situations," Furman said. "Rain upon rain upon rain is the biggest factor." |
The National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, on Monday reported there is the potential for more than 10 inches of rain in some areas of the county, with heavy rain expected to begin Tuesday and last through Thursday. |
Furman said the county is doing what it can to prepare for localized flooding by cleaning out ditches, pipes and the retention ponds as much as the underlying soil will allow. |
"Nothing is a super-quick fix," he said, adding that the county has to "weigh the cost benefit of spending millions when the damage is less than that." |
Furman said the county is concerned about the forecast over the next few days, and he encouraged residents to purchase flood insurance if they haven't already done so. |
"With complete saturated conditions, even less than 12 inches in 12 hours could cause something more severe because the ponds are full and the ground is saturated," he said. |
Sheridan Drive resident Fredrick Bradley said the severe flooding has been an ongoing issue in the area for more than a decade. He said the area is growing faster than its infrastructure. |
"This is a problem of overbuilding and faulty watershed run-off," said Bradley, referring to water running from one property to another. "The county is responsible for the water, and they're shirking their responsibility." |
Bradley said he has not yet determined the amount of damage to his home after the flood. |
"I think they need to re-evaluate the whole drainage system that's in this area," he said. |
Thousands of protesters have been clashing with riot police in Frankfurt ahead of a ceremony on Wednesday that opened the new headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB). The morning rally was marred by torched vehicles burning in the blocked streets. |
1. The German city of Frankfurt has become home to the twin-towered €1.3-billion ($1.4 billion) ECB headquarters The complex has become a source of anger for many Europeans in times of recession. |
2. Riot police had to build barricades to block “aggressive” crowds of anti-capitalist protesters and disperse them with water cannons. According to police, nearly 90 police officers were injured by stones and unidentified liquids. |
3. Dozens of protesters say they were injured by pepper spray, used by police. At least 350 people were detained, according to police, and others taken into custody for questioning. |
4. A breakaway group of demonstrators turned to torching cars, which later smoked amidst burning stacks of tires and rubbish bins that blocked the streets of the German financial capital. |
5. The protest against austerity was organized by the Blockupy group, named after the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, which estimated the number of participants at about 10,000 people, who had flocked to Frankfurt from all over Europe. |
6. Activists are irritated by what they describe as "capitalist business as usual" – strict austerity measures imposed on EU countries, hit by the financial crisis. They intend to blockade the ECB building, which they regard as a symbol of capitalism. |
7. The European Central Bank is responsible for eurozone policy, it also manages the euro, so even supporters of the new Greek government, led by the left-wing Syriza party, have traveled to Germany to take part in the demonstration. |
The international luxury real estate market remains relatively immune to the economic and political trends that drive the general housing market and is off to strong start in 2013, according to a report from high-end real estate affiliate network Christie’s International Real Estate. |
The report compared 10 top property markets around the world: London, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, San Francisco, France’s Cote d’Azur, Toronto, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami. The company, a subsidiary of Christie’s auction house, also rolled out a new index, the Christie’s International Real Estate Index, which ranks ... |
The 10 markets were also chosen for the network’s strong market share locally. Christie’s International Real Estate has 125 affiliated brokerages in 41 countries. |
London, which topped the index, achieved a record sales price of more than $121 million for a residential property in 2012, followed by an $88 million sale in New York. In all of the cities studied except Dallas and Toronto, the highest sales price for the year exceeded $35 million, the report said. |
Economist Robert Shiller has predicted U.S. home prices will rise only one or two percent a year in inflation-adjusted terms for the next half decade due to "lingering uncertainties" in world economies, the report said. By contrast, a study by the The Boston Consulting Group expects global sales of personal luxury good... |
"Except where there is government intervention luxury residential real estate values will likely follow luxury goods and not the general housing market, and are therefore poised to increase in many of the cities studied in 2013," the report said. "This is particularly true as (high-net-worth individuals) turn their lux... |
Bonnie Stone Sellers, CEO of Christie’s International Real Estate, said in a statement that "strong momentum" in the luxury property market "is also being driven by scarcity of quality inventory and demand from international buyers in many of the world’s top destinations." |
There are more billionaires worldwide now than before the 2008 financial crisis and 55 percent more millionaires than in 2000, the report said. |
"This is a large part of the reason the cities surveyed have done so well: the international crossborder purchaser has continued to buy the trophy properties at top dollar," the report said. |
This is particularly true for buyers from countries where local economic uncertainty encourages the rich to park their cash in international cities least affected by the global downturn. In seven of the 10 cities studied, more than 30 percent of the luxury homebuyers were from other countries. |
High-net-worth individuals "find the world to be a small place, and geographical distances between cities are not relevant to purchasing patterns, which are more similar to each other in the 10 cities surveyed than other cities within the same country," the report said. "Globalization, economic development, wealth depo... |
In the most of the cities studied, the share of all-cash deals rose with the sales price. Nearly 100 percent of Los Angeles transactions above $5 million were in cash, followed by 90 percent in New York and 70 percent each in San Francisco and Miami. |
Recent tax law changes in many of these markets will likely have a negative effect on 2013 high-end market activity, the report said. For instance, in Toronto, new restrictions on mortgage financing intended to cool the housing market, are expected to lengthen days on market for luxury properties, which have hovered at... |
"Government actions relating to taxation and lending standards can significantly influence buyers worldwide, including luxury home buyers. In nearly all of the cities examined, recent changes to capital gains taxes, wealth taxes, transfer taxes, mortgage restrictions, and secondary residence taxes have created notable ... |
You expect candidates to be prepared, but it’s a two-way street. Here are six ways companies can improve their interview process. |
I worked in recruitment at Google for six years, and like all companies we wanted the best talent. We believed that we were only as good as our next hire. But we also realized that our next hire was only as good as our interview process. That’s something that most companies might understand, yet neglect to put a formal... |
But just like candidates have to do their homework if they want to land a great job, companies also need to make sure their recruitment processes are set up for success. Here are a few tips I’ve learned throughout my 10 years in recruiting. |
You expect candidates to be well prepared, so the same should apply to your interview panel. After all, an interview isn’t just about you deciding if you want to hire a candidate, it’s also an opportunity for them to decide if they want to work for your company. And with unemployment rates at a 10-year low, the fight t... |
Of course, before you meet a candidate you should do the basic due diligence, like checking out their social media profiles. But try digging a little deeper. Hoping to hire an engineer? Research their open source contributions online. Looking for someone with great presentation skills? Have a search around the internet... |
A name on a resume, an address, a university: Any of these small things can trigger our unconscious biases. They may be hidden, but these biases have a powerful effect on the hiring process. |
For example, in Europe, where candidates frequently include a photo on their application, researchers found that employers were less likely to hire a woman who was wearing a headscarf, even if her qualifications were identical to other applicants. |
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