“My tax return in the United States has to be kept on a special computer because their normal computers can’t deal with the numbers. So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven’t paid something when really it is just on the wrong computer. Then they will send me another notice telling me how bad they feel they that they sent me a notice that was a mistake.”
via Quoted | Good Morning Silicon Valley.
Footnoted.org, déjà cité ici, permet parfois aussi de remarquer des exemples de bonne gouvernance.
Par exemple, Larry Ellison, le président d’Oracle, possède des sociétés liées qui fournissent divers biens et de services à la société. Dans ce cadre, il leur a conféré un accord écrit d’alignement sur le meilleur prix de marché, et de remboursement de la différence :
“…if we present Mr. Ellison with reasonable evidence of a lower price or rate for the same goods or services offered by the related company, which would have been available to us at the time we entered into the applicable transaction, then Mr. Ellison will reimburse us for the difference.”
via Oracle’s proxy reveals tempered extravagance… | footnoted.com.
Peu de domaines sont aussi compliqués que le financement des long-métrages. La plupart du temps, cette complexité est liée à la maximisation des subventions et du levier fiscal qui augmentent les retours du producteurs sur les films qui réussissent.
En général cependant, toutes ces subventions et contreparties ont un prix : filmer dans un certain pays, dans certaines conditions, … Mais pas toujours, comme le montre le système des réductions d’impôt allemandes !
In 2003, German tax shelters, with the aid of German corporate shells and the happy cooperation of American studios, invested some $3 billion in the total fiction that they were owners, producers, and profit-sharers in Hollywood movies.
(…)
Consider the case of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. A Munich-based tax-shelter fund, Hannover Leasing, had a corporate shell pay $150 million to New Line Cinemas for the movie’s copyright, which it simultaneously leased back to a New Line affiliate. It also entered into agreements for New Line to produce and distribute the movie. At the end of filming, New Line Cinemas paid the German company the agreed-upon minimum advance (which approximately equaled the interest on the initial investment) to honor the pretense that the Germans had participated in the profits. For engaging in these strictly paper transactions, New Line “earned” $16 million, a tidy “money-for-nothing” sum.
via germanshelter.
Footnoted.com lit les publications annuelles des sociétés cotées et attire l’attention sur les informations – souvent croustillantes – remisées dans les notes de bas de page.
Celle-ci est particulièrement exceptionnelle :
During fiscal 2008, the Compensation Committee determined that maintaining a lease on a private airplane was no longer a cost-effective method for providing business-related transportation to our Named Executive Officers and Directors. The airplane was used only for business-related travel, and personal use was not permitted.
With the termination of the lease on the airplane, it also became increasingly difficult and cost prohibitive to access our Canadian fish camp. Consequently, the fish camp, which was only used for business entertainment purposes, was offered for sale during 2008.
The only offer to purchase the fish camp came from Terry L. Haines, our former Chief Executive Officer and President. Ultimately we negotiated with Mr. Haines to sell the fish camp for a purchase price of $55,000 and the transaction closed during fiscal year 2009.
via Gone fishing — seriously… | footnoted.com.
L’auteur de The Invisible Hook – un (très bon) livre sur la justification économique de l’organisation adoptée par les bateaux pirates – profite de sa préface pour discrètement faire sa demande en mariage :
I can’t thank her enough and, as with everything, I don’t know where I’d be without her. In this book’s dedication I ask her to marry me. If I’ve succeeded in hiding my plans from her since writing this, she should be very surprised. I hope she says “yes.” If she doesn’t, I might have to turn to sea banditry, which would be tough since I don’t know how to sail (though I’ve tried to learn)
Quoi de plus ennuyeux qu’une pub pour un disque dur ? Bravo à Hitachi pour ce contre-exemple (qui embarque par la même occasion un petit cours de physique !)
get perpendicular – the flash animation.
Déjà en 2005 …
The result of the opacity of performance data across the industry was a persistence of mediocrity, [Jeremy Coller] said. ‘The private nature of private equity has allowed too much poor performance to be hidden by smoke and mirrors,’ Coller said.
He proposed four steps that fund managers should make compulsory to improve governance; a requirement for all funds to be audited by one of the big four accounting firms, the use of custodians by PE firms, no-fault divorce clauses in all limited partners agreements, and the complete abolition of deal by deal carry.
via Coller warns of private equity ‘scandal’ and calls for greater transparency.
Il y a des millions de choses qui ne tournent pas rond dans le système américain des brevets, mais la plupart de ces choses sont liées à l’effet que ces brevets ont sur l’économie.
Il apparaît (article de Ezra Klein, repris par Marginal Revolution) que les problèmes sont aussi dans leur informatique interne :
Orszag quotes the president bragging that “the Patent Office receives more than 80 percent of patent applications electronically,” but notes that “these applications are then manually printed out, re-scanned, and entered into an outdated case management system. The average processing time for a patent is roughly three years.”
Alors qu’il devient de plus en plus clair que l’information sur le nombre de chômeurs n’est, en soi, pas suffisante pour estimer l’ampleur du phénomène, on entend de plus en plus souvent citer le nombre de chômeurs de longue durée.
Cependant, si cet indicateur est déjà meilleur, Greg Mankiw analyse sur son blog un autre axe : la durée médiane du chômage aux Etats-Unis. Cette durée est significative, parce que par définition, 50 % des chômeurs sont aux chômage depuis au moins aussi longtemps.
La courbe est assez inquiétante, atteignant des durées jamais vues dans un passé récent :
Durée médiane du chômage
Article originel : Median Duration of Unemployment, Greg Mankiw
Belle photo d’écran prise pendant le lock-up aérien du au nuage volcanique :
Europe is closed
(via Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed : Europe is closed, please check back later.)
Les scientifiques sont peut-être parmi les gens à qui il est le plus difficile de vendre – en particulier pour des objets à la valeur douteuse… Cela n’empêche pas certains d’essayer, comme pour ces CD de physique statistique subliminale qui sont censés subliminalement rendre l’apprentissage de la physique plus agréable !
The Superior Statistical Physics subliminal CD is designed to super charge your brain to learn statistical physics faster and easier than ever imagined. It will help you learn and master statistical physics so that you retain the material longer, understand it better, and enjoy it much more than you normally would. This session can help you pass statistical physics exams easier and with higher scores. All you have to do is continue the same statistical physics classes or text that you re studying now and listen to this CD to accelerate your learning ability.
Article originel : Markets in Everything: Subliminal Statistical Physics (marginalrevolution.com)
Des études citées par Marginal Revolution montrent que les voitures à la recherche de places de parking génèrent de 30 à 45 % de la circulation des quartiers d’affaires américains.
Pourquoi ? Simplement un effet secondaire du prix insuffisant des parcmètres souvent 5 fois moins cher que les places de parking. Ces derniers en effet s’adaptent tout de suite à l’inflation, alors que les municipalités doivent subir des procédures longues et compliquées pour changer le prix du stationnement public :
Several studies have found that cruising for curb parking generates about 30 percent of the traffic in central business districts. In a recent survey conducted by Bruce Schaller in the SoHo district in Manhattan, 28 percent of drivers interviewed while they were stopped at traffic lights said they were searching for curb parking. A similar study conducted by Transportation Alternatives in the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn found that 45 percent of drivers were cruising.
…What causes this astonishing waste? As is often the case, the prices are wrong. A national study of downtown parking found that the average price of curb parking is only 20 percent that of parking in a garage, giving drivers a strong incentive to cruise.
Lire l’article originel : Parking fact of the day (marginalrevolution.com)
Excellent article on constructive capitalism. Umair Haque at his best. http://bit.ly/5dklTu
Joli article sur Climpact sur le blog du Figaro http://bit.ly/5jamkn
RT @melinelanouille: Hugh Grant a acheté un Wahrol pour 2 millions de livres. Il vient d’avouer qu’il était bourré… http://bit.ly/6MERJH
Reportage TF1 (JT de 13h) sur notre participation Delamaison.fr http://bit.ly/5adQdu
Inario 