Tuesday, 11 May 2010 06:32 'Ontario's Liberal government has put Goldman Sachs, the huge banking and investment firm being investigated by the US Congress for fraud, in charge of selling off Ontario's public assets. For some reason, the involvement of this ethically challenged firm has, to date, failed to ignite controversy in Canada. In its March budget, the government announced a plan to raise money by placing Crown assets, including public power, liquor stores, and the lottery commission into a combined fund and sell 49 percent of it privately. Goldman Sachs, which has specialized for decades in organizing privatizations around the world - often representing both buyers and sellers - is being paid $200,000 to organize the scheme. In the USA, for instance, the company has supervised highway privatization deals in which it acted as a financial advisor to the state at the same time as it invested in companies vying for the highways.' Read more: Goldman Sachs Set to Plan Sell-Off of Ontario Assets Tuesday, 11 May 2010 06:10 'The firm that owns the leaking oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has made a $270 million profit from insurance payouts, despite having caused a massive ecological disaster. Transocean, the company contracted by BP to drill the well, brought the story to light in a conference call on Monday. Transocean took out a $560 million insurance policy on its Deepwater Horizon rig, which was greater than the value of the rig itself.' Monday, 10 May 2010 09:55 'David Cameron is facing an immediate clash with Europe after Alistair Darling prepared last night to sign up to a massive new fund to back the euro that could cost British taxpayers £15 billion. In what could be his last act as Chancellor, Mr Darling went along with plans to double to ¤110 billion (£96 billion) the bailout fund designed to prevent a repeat of the Greek financial crisis. The emergency finance, used to help Latvia and Hungary last year, will now be available to eurozone countries for the first time as well. The fund, known as the “stabilisation mechanism”, increases by a further ¤60 billion the ¤50 billion that the EU can already use to help countries with balance-of-payments problems. Britain was already exposed to a potential £7 billion cost under the original scheme and its ultimate liability under the enhanced plan will be a further £8 billion, Treasury officials say.' Read more: Darling’s Last Act: Leaving a £15 Billion Bill for British Taxpayers
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Posts
