Latest Posts by ronbowlens - Page 3
Ethiopia hires French firm Lazard to secure credit rating-officials
By: Aaron Maasho
Dec 19 (Reuters) - Ethiopia has hired French investment bank and asset manager Lazard Ltd in a bid to select rating companies and secure its first credit rating, officials said on Thursday, which would pave the way for issuing a debut Eurobond.
In an October interview, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn told Reuters that Addis Ababa planned "not only a Eurobond but other bonds as well" once it secured a rating.
Ethiopia has ruled out liberalising its state-owned banks or telecoms sector to foreigners saying the revenues generated for the state each year were spent on vital infrastructure projects.
But a Eurobond issue would give investors, who have snapped up sub-Saharan sovereignbonds, another route into Africa's second most populous nation, which is keen to shift its largely agrarian economy towards textiles and other manufacturing.
"We chose a French company. The second phase will be to initiate a rating for the country," Sufian Ahmed, Ethiopia's minister for finance and economic development, told a businessforum attended by a delegation of 30 French firms.
Another official at the ministry told Reuters the government had hired Lazard Ltd, and that Addis Ababa expected the whole process to be finalised in a "few months".
The French delegation included officials from French banks BNP Paribas and Societe Generale.
Propelled by huge public spending on infrastructure and an expansion in services and agriculture, Ethiopia's economic output is set to grow 7.5 percent in each of the next two fiscal years, the IMF says.
The Washington-based body, however, has warned Ethiopia that its economy has reached a crossroads and, to prevent growth rates from falling, needs to be restructured to encourage more private sector investment. (Reporting by Aaron Maasho; editing by George Obulutsa and Rosalind Russell)
[Credit scores as a basis for hiring is] one more way in which the system is rigged. If you’re rich and you get divorced, it’s not going to hurt your credit rating. If you’re rich and you have a medical problem, it’s not going to hurt your credit rating. If you’re rich and you end up quitting your job or losing your job, you walk out with a whole lot of savings, you walk out with a nice package. It’s not going to hurt your credit rating. But how about families who work hard every day, who live a lot closer to the economic margin? Those are the ones who get hit with a problem, with a medical problem, with a job loss. And boy, it’s not only the hit, it’s the financial fallout from that hit. And here’s the deal: it stays on their credit report for seven years, in some cases even longer. So what does that really mean? This is a problem that hits hardworking families who are struggling to get back on their feet. It’s not one that hits the rich, and I think that’s just wrong.
Elizabeth Warren, commenting on credit scores being a rigged way to deny poor people employment, as reported by Common Dreams. (via america-wakiewakie)
Learn what type of impact a credit rating score downgrade can have on your personal life and what steps you can take to recover from a downgrade.
Fight Over Debt Ceiling Risks Credit Rating,Moody’s Warns http://ping.fm/FUTOB moody creditrating USA deficit WETHEPEOPLE teaparty sgp
Last week closed on an interesting note on the financial markets: Hungary had a record-breaking sale of Treasury bills and then Standard and Poor’s downgraded Hungary’s credit rating.
In a peculiar move, Standard and Poor’s announced on Friday that it has lowered Hungary’s credit rating to two...
Cheezborger! Cheezborger! Salad? The Billy Goat quietly opens a nicer outpost in the Loop with a new menu. Via DNAinfo
A fine run through the woods
The Art of Prepping
Posted on December 19, 2013 by REDHORSE
The task of prepping whether it is food or training or…
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VIDEO: Pillars of Eternity - Gameplay Teaser
Check out gameplay footage of the Kickstarted action-RPG.
(more…)
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VIDEO: New Dragon Age: Inquisition Updates
BioWare released new information regarding the current state of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the…
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Women’s halfpipe qualifier kicking off shortly here @CopperMtn. 30+ women set to drop, 12 advance to finals. #GrandPrix #UnderTheLights #Freeskier #Skiing (at Copper Mountain Resort)
In an exclusive CNBC interview, Kenneth Jacobs, Lazard, chairman & CEO discusses the financial crisis, the global economy and CEO confidence. Jacobs says, "CEO confidence is a factor of the real economy." CNBC's Kayla Tausche reports.
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Throwback to last season. Powder bombs in Pandoras all day.
Follow me on Instagram for more mountain and active lifestyle goodness @zachluchsphoto
Possibly the best governmental office building in the world
In the Netherlands, UNStudio has shaken up the usual government building typology, creating the undulating Education Executive Agency & Tax Offices,
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating the high fees charged to investors in the $337 billion managed futures market.
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VIDEO: The Producer Behind Miley’s Makeover Goes Solo
When word got out that Miley Cyrus was relaunching her music career, producer Mike Will handed…
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The frothing excitement around these prototype, titanium-framed wearable computers has the tech world tripping over itself, but big what, why, and how questions remain. CNET dives in to clear up the reality -- and the future possibilities -- of Google Glass.
Google glass is a cool idea but the commercials take it way further than what is possible.
DOMA Ruling Prompts Change in Federal Student Aid Rules
By Philip Elliott Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Students in same-sex marriages will be treated the same as their straight married classmates when it comes to federal college loan applications, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday in a shift that reflects this year’s Supreme Court ruling that broadened gay rights.
“We must continue to ensure that every single American is treated equally in the eyes of the law, and this important guidance for students is another step forward in that effort,” Duncan said in a statement.
The Education Department also revised its required Free Application for Federal Student Aid to reflect more inclusive language about students and their parents. The department said it would recognize a student — and parents — as legally married if the couple was legally married in a state that permits same-sex marriages.
The new application forms do not distinguish between gay or straight marriages.
The department also said students’ eligibility for federal aid would be the same in all 50 states, regardless of where the student attends school.
For instance, a same-sex couple from Massachusetts, where gay marriage is legal, would be treated the same as a straight couple if one or both applied for a federal student loan to attend a school in one of the 34 states that do not permit gay marriage. The same standards would apply to parents in same-sex marriages.
“As students fill out their FAFSA this coming year, I’m thrilled they’ll be able to do so in a way that is more fair and just,” Duncan said, using the financial aid application’s acronym.
Before the Supreme Court ruled this summer, the Education Department was bound by the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited all federal agencies from recognizing same-sex marriages. The Clinton-era law defined marriage as between one and one woman and hurt many applicants in same-sex marriages.
Friday’s move is the latest from the Education Department to be more helpful to students in same-sex marriages or with married gay parents.
Even before the ruling, Duncan instructed the department to collect information on both of the student’s legal parents, regardless of marital status. That meant children being raised by unmarried couples — regardless of sexual orientation — would have both adults’ incomes factored into financial aid eligibility.
That was an effort to reflect that same-sex couples share financial responsibilities for children, even if their state does not sanction gay marriages.
Kenneth Mehlman also talks about progress after DOMA
VIDEO: Katherine Jackson Calls Upon Fans to Fund Michael Jackson Documentary
Michael Jackson’s mother, Katherine, is the executive producer of an unfinished project…
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All over America, formerly prosperous communities are being transformed into crime-infested wastelands of poverty and despair. Of course the most famous example of this is Detroit. At one time, Detroit was the greatest manufacturing city that the world had ever seen and it had the highest per capita income in the entire country. But now it has become a rotting, decaying hellhole that the rest of the planet laughs at. And of course Detroit is far from alone. There are hundreds of other U.S. cities that are suffering a similar fate. In this article, the focus is going to be on Camden, New Jersey, but the truth is that there are lots of other “Detroits” and “Camdens” all over the nation. Jobs and businesses are leaving our cities at a staggering rate, and what is being left behind is poverty, crime and extreme desperation.
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