Guardian’s front page $1,000,000,000,000 – the cost of Greek euro exit.
Facebook founder ‘defriends’ U.S. over taxes. Something for M. Hollande to take note of?
Two news items. Draw your own conclusions. From the New York Times:
Eduardo Saverin, one of the founders of Facebook, officially defriended the United States in September, giving up his American citizenship for the more tax-friendly residency status of Singapore.
Mr. Saverin, who was born in Brazil and has lived in Singapore since 2010, plans to remain in the Asian island nation indefinitely. Singapore has a maximum personal income tax rate of 20 percent and no taxes on capital gains Read more…
The head of Google News on the future of journalism, objectivity, and everything else
Richard Gingras is the head of Google News. Here’s one of the many interesting things he had to say about journalists during a recent talk at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation:
We need to reconsider our missions and our ethical guidelines (in terms of behaviors and audience engagement, not core ethics), and the concept of objectivity. Richard sides with transparency in this debate and believes readers place their trust in the individual online rather than the brand, and expects reporters to be transparent about their views. He doesn’t buy the opaque objectivity of yore where reporters said, “Trust us,” and consumer opinion surveys bear this out. Read more…
Yes Lab/Occupy types punk US trade negotiator Kirk
The TPP is the new black in the world of international trade negotiations. Forget about GATT, the Doha Round or whatever else you’ve got going on. The Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP is the new New Thing.
One of the key things that distinguishes the TPP from other trade agreements is that companies from TPP member countries have to be treated like local companies. So, for the U.S., that means “Buy American” provisions which might prohibit Vietnamese companies from bidding on a government contract would be waived for that Vietnamese company. Canada would like to be part of the TPP but the big sticking point there is that Canada protects some agricultural sectors — namely dairy and poultry — from foreign competition. If Canadian firms are to get unfettered access to the markets in TPP countries, then TPP countries are going to want unfettered access to Canadian markets. Already, New Zealand wants Canada kicked out of the TPP talks because the Harper government says its sticking to protectionism in agricultural sectors. Read more…
Meanwhile in the South China Sea: China moves its warships
Hong Kong’s largest circulation English daily newspaper reports:
China has sent five warships to the disputed Scarborough Shoal off the west coast of the Philippines with the warning that Beijing is ready for “any escalation” of the conflict. Read more…
