The Truth Revealed

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Hillary under the Clinton cloud


Big News Network.com
Friday 19th December, 2008

Former President Bill Clinton has raised millions of dollars from governments and politicians in the Middle East and Asia, raising fresh concerns about the impartiality of his wife Hillary's role as Secretary of State.

Bill Clinton received donations ranging between one and five million dollars from a political party in India, a wind turbine company owned by Tulsi R. Tanti (right), one of the wealthiest Indian businessmen, and the Confederation of Indian Industry which also donated between 500,000 and one million dollars.

Clinton raised at least 46 million dollars from Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments for the William J. Clinton Foundation, which was created to fund his presidential library and fight poverty and disease worldwide.

The Saudi kingdom gave between ten and twenty five million dollars.

Other governments on the donations list include Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy and Jamaica.

All donors gave at least 492 million dollars from the inception of the foundation in 1997 to the end of last year.

After years of refusing to divulge his donors, Clinton was forced to release the list to allay concerns about conflict of interests between his international philanthropic fundraising efforts and the worldwide diplomatic role of his wife.

But the large sums given by foreign governments will inevitably play a role at her Senate confirmation hearings next year.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Major donors to Clinton Foundation

Amar Singh, Lakshmi Mittal, CII, Reliance among major donors to Clinton Foundation
IANS Thursday 18th December, 2008

Several Indian big-wigs, including industrialist Lakshmi Mittal (left) politician Amar Singh (right), corporate houses Reliance and Ranbaxy, media house India Today group and Confederation of Indian Industry figure in the list of prominent donors to the Clinton Foundation, according to the information made public Thursday.

Though the exact amounts donated were not released, steel-tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh fall in the category wherein they donated between one million to five million US dollars. So did Tulsi R. Tanti (right) headed Suzlon Energy Limited, which is based in Amsterdam, and is a leading supplier of wind turbines.

A close friend of the Clinton family, successful Indian American entrepreneur Vinod Gupta(right), donated between quarter million to half a million US dollars, so did hotelier Lalit Suri (left) who died in October 2006. Ajit Gulabchand, (left-below) chairman and managing director of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) also made a similar donation.

The list of donors was released by the William J. Clinton Foundation, established by the former US President, Bill Clinton, as part of an agreement with the president-elect, Barack Obama, under which he nominated the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, as his Secretary of State.

'As soon as Senator Clinton was nominated to be Secretary of State, the Foundation staff began working with President-elect Obama's transition team to ensure that not even the appearance of a conflict of interest existed between the Clinton Foundation's operations and Senator Clinton's anticipated service as Secretary of State,' the Foundation said in a statement issued in New York.

The Foundation is involved in charitable work particularly in the underdeveloped world and in Africa. A large number of its donors are from outside the US. The biggest donors include the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, UNITAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, kingdom of Saudi Arabia and government of Norway.

President Clinton's efforts are unprecedented and go above and beyond what the law requires and are intended to allow the important work of the Foundation to continue.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) donated between half a million to one million US dollars, according to the list released by the Clinton Foundation. Major Indian and Indian American donors in the category of $100,000 to quarter million include the India Today group, Lata Krishnan, Mike Patel, Raani Corporation, Ranbaxy Pharmacuticals and Reliance Europe Limited.

Chrysler decides to close auto factories


Big News Network.com
Thursday 18th December, 2008

Thirty car manufacturing plants in the US will be closed for a month or more by Chrysler.

The shutdowns will occur from this Friday, with employees being asked to take leave for the duration.

Chrysler has said the credit crisis and dwindling sales have caused the decision to close the plants.

The company estimates that between 20 to 25 percent of its volume has been lost since November.

Chrysler had warned the US government it could collapse without a special funding arrangement.

US President George Bush has said his administration is trying to put together a plan to aid Chrysler, GM and Ford.

On Wednesday, the president told the Fox news network his administration would make a decision "relatively soon" and that he would look at all options.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The swimming naked awards


Dec 16th 2008
From Economist.com

A year of embarrassment when the financial tide went out

“YOU only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out”, Warren Buffett famously observed. In 2008, the financial tide went out further than anyone expected, revealing a multitude of skinny-dippers. To help them cover up their embarrassment, Business.view is proud to announce the following winners of the 2008 “naked shorts” awards:

Scoundrel of the year: Too many contenders to mention, but the last minute entrant has won by a landslide: Bernie Madoff, who is providing a helpful demonstration of the difference between a financial collapse due to management incompetence (most of this year’s banking failures) and a genuine 100% fraud.

AP Bernie Madoff, scoundrel of the year (photo left)

Outstanding Public Relations: No question, the decision of the bosses of Detroit’s shrinking Big Three car makers to fly in separate corporate jets to appeal to Congress for a bail-out. What better way to tell the public that the leaders of corporate America are out of touch? Runner up: John Thain, boss of Merrill Lynch, who looked like a hero for saving his firm, only to blow it by demanding his bonus.

Greatest sovereign risk: In a year of meltdown, Iceland is a fitting winner.

Rumble in the jungle: Dick “the Gorilla” Fuld versus Lehman “Nameless” Employee. The boss who presided over Lehman’s demise was allegedly knocked out with a single punch in the investment bank’s gym, by an angry employee.

Gift horse: Mr Fuld wins again, for reportedly turning down multiple offers of life-saving investment in Lehman. Honourable mentions to the bosses of Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Ford, who all publicly said they did not need an injection of state funds, but may live to regret it.

The Andrew Mellon award for incompetence as Treasury Secretary: Hank Paulson, whose lack of strategy and catastrophic decision to let Lehman Brothers fail made a bad situation far worse.

Best letter: Runner up, for its undisguised Schadenfreude, was Congressman Henry Waxman’s letter to the heads of Wall Street firms after the government bought some of their shares, demanding to know the salaries of their top earners, their bonuses and how these were calculated. But the lifetime achievement award goes to the letter A, as in “triple-A rating”, which is now entering long-overdue retirement.

Most convincing Jekyll-and-Hyde impersonation: Scary sovereign-wealth funds were going to buy up the world. Then they were heroically going to rescue the banking system. Now they are in hiding, counting their massive losses and wondering where all their money went. In second place, and closely related, oil: expensive one moment, cheap the next.

Most dismal scientist: Nouriel Roubini and George Soros battled it out for the role of scarily-accented Dr Doom in the next James Bond movie, “A Quantum of Funds”, but nobody put the dismal science into economics more effectively than the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, during her unforgettable interview with Katie Couric. As she explained: “That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.” Indeed. Perhaps best enjoyed in the Tina Fey version from Saturday Night Live.

Client of the Year: Client Number Nine, aka Eliot Spitzer. Wall Street had little to cheer about in 2008, but the fall of its former persecutor in a sex scandal was one of them. Happily for former New York Governor Spitzer, America’s tradition of giving failures a second chance is alive and well. Starting soon, he will write a regular column in Slate, an online magazine.

Best supporting abbreviation: Last year, it was SIV (structured-investment vehicle). This year, the winner is TARP, which stands for troubled asset relief programme—better known as a blank cheque for Mr Paulson. Runner up: IOU.

Most oligarchic oligarch: Two strong entries: Mikhail Frydman, Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg (collectively), for driving out Robert Dudley, the boss of the joint-venture between TNK and BP; and the winner, Oleg Deripaska, for embarrassing first Britain’s government and main opposition by inviting two leading members onto his yacht, and then himself by falling foul of the credit crunch.

Party of the year: The $86,000 partridge-hunting trip funded by AIG, a government-rescued insurance firm, for some top clients. They had fun, but the public outcry was such that lots of other firms cancelled their holiday parties lest they be accused of wasting money in tough times. Cheers!

Badly-timed nickname: Awarded jointly to Whole Foods Market and Starbucks. Being known, respectively, as Whole Paycheck and Fourbucks is fine when the going is good, but not when consumers are obsessed with value for money. Both of these pricey retailers have had a miserable year. Whole Foods’ shares are down by 75% so far in 2008, and shares in Starbucks are down by over half.

In memoriam: A posthumous award for this year’s notable departures. Contenders include Alan Greenspan’s reputation as a great central banker; investment banks; the newspaper industry; sport-utility vehicles; fiscal prudence; the inexorable rise of BRIC economies and the theory that BRICs had “decoupled” from rich world economies; pay increases; and capitalism. But the winner is economic growth—gone, though one hopes not forever.
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Flash Gordon award for saving the universe: Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister, would have won, but the self-proclaimed mastermind of the great global banking bail-out claims only to have been saving the world. The winner is Warren Buffett, whose timely investments seem to have rescued both General Electric and Goldman Sachs, home of the financial Masters of the Universe.

Comeback kid: Not everyone had a bad year. Some of the business winners in 2008 include the value-shopper’s favourite, Wal-Mart, whose chief executive Lee Scott is leaving on a high; Ken Lewis, boss of Bank of America, which now has enough of the country’s money to deserve its name; Paul Volcker, who has replaced Alan Greenspan as everyone’s favourite ex-central banker; bankruptcy lawyers and corporate restructuring experts; sucking up to your boss to keep your job; and nationalisation. But the winner is cash, which once again is king. Hot favourite for next year’s comeback kid award? The Great Depression.

Monetary fund director asks for quick minds to solve crisis

Big News Network.com
Tuesday 16th December, 2008

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has asked world governments to come up with fresh ideas to solve the financial crisis.

Speaking in Madrid, Strauss-Kahn said efforts to rein in a spreading financial crisis needed coordinated action between governments to keep financial firms from going under.

He added that the world was facing an unprecedented decline in output, with negative growth effects to last for some time.

Strauss-Kahn said he expected the world's major economies to contract by 0.25 percent on an annual basis in 2009, requiring measures to stimulate consumer demand and liquidity support for emerging markets.

In conclusion, he said 'We are facing the first decline since World War II.'

OPEC members discuss oil demand

Big News Network.com
Tuesday 16th December, 2008

One day before members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet to discuss reducing production, the cartel said Tuesday that global oil demand would decrease in 2009, contributing to an overhang of stocks.

As industrialised countries slipped into a recession, global oil consumption would fall to 85.68 million barrels per day next year, a year-on-year decrease of 0.18 percent, Vienna-based OPEC said in its monthly oil market report.

The figures stood in contrast to a forecast by the International Energy Agency in Paris, which said last week that demand would grow slightly, by 0.5 percent.

OPEC president Chakib Khelil has indicated that the cartel's oil ministers would decide on a substantial cut of production quotas when they meet in Oran, Algeria Wednesday, in order to support falling prices and deal with lower demand.

As OPEC predicts falling demand and rising production from non-OPEC suppliers, it said stocks would grow in the first three quarters of 2009, creating a market imbalance that would be addressed in Oran.

In November, OPEC had still forecast global oil demand to grow by 0.57 percent next year.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Stop bickering and get down to business

Anwar must face up to reality: relatively minor conflicts within the opposition alliance, whether over the sale of alcohol in Selangor or Bumiputera quotas in the Kedah property market, can shape public perceptions of his coalition and of him. If he wishes to be prime minister one day, he will have to learn to focus on the things that matter to ordinary Malaysians. Delivery is paramount. As the Nike ad put it: “Just do it.”


Karim Raslan

Many Malaysians are getting tired and even resentful of the country's endless politicking. They are not used to such a drawn-out period of political uncertainty. They are familiar with bouts of intense political horse-trading — in the run-up to Umno elections, say — but these generally have been followed by the real business of governance.

Malaysians feel they took a decision back in March — for better or for worse — and now they want the political class to focus on the challenges of administration. No one appreciates watching as one side scores points off another.

Indeed, the anxiety over the economy has meant that public debate over matters of race and religion can and will assume a more “heated” quality.

Certainly, the mainstream Malay-language media and Umno have managed to make many in the community increasingly uneasy about their future.

At the same time, the middle classes, especially the Malay middle classes, are beginning to realise after the fatwa issued against yoga that there are no political parties out there to represent their interests. Moderate Malays have been short-changed by recent political developments. Their constitutional rights have been forgotten in the name of religious purity.

Still, the greatest scorn seems to be reserved for the politicians who can't resist in-fighting. The squabbling between Pas and the DAP — both components of the opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat — infuriates everyone. Malaysians understand the deeply rooted structural differences between the two but right now they don't really care.

Thankfully, PR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has at last begun to realise that his most important KPI (Key Performance Indicator) isn't taking power at the federal level but dealing with disputes within his fractious coalition. Malaysians want him to achieve better administration in the five states held by the opposition. They are not interested in his sense of “manifest destiny”. The want results.

Anwar must face up to reality: relatively minor conflicts within the opposition alliance, whether over the sale of alcohol in Selangor or Bumiputera quotas in the Kedah property market, can shape public perceptions of his coalition and of him. If he wishes to be prime minister one day, he will have to learn to focus on the things that matter to ordinary Malaysians. Delivery is paramount. As the Nike ad put it: “Just do it.”

The public exasperation with Pakatan Rakyat should be benefiting the ruling Barisan Nasional. However, long drawn-out power struggles within virtually all of BN's component parties — most notably Umno — have meant that it is unable to benefit from PR's troubles.

Even Barisan leaders I have come across seem to be aware of their party's impending demise. Indeed, it's almost as if they're passengers on a runaway train that they're unable to stop. Money politics is the “kryptonite” factor that makes the whole situation so uncontrollable.

But once again, Malaysians are sick and tired of hearing of “money politics”. They want action, not hand-wringing. If “money politics” is a scourge, then root it out — that's their attitude. Charge the key perpetrators and shock the rest of the jokers into submission. There's a Chinese saying: “You must slaughter the chickens to frighten the monkeys.” At this juncture, most Malaysians would agree with that principle.

Curiously, United States President-elect Barack Obama hasn't been making things any easier for Malaysia's premier-in-waiting Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Obama remains a transformational figure even while doing something as prosaic as planning the composition of his administration. His focus on talent has been breathtaking. He has been willing to take on board former rivals, such as Hillary Clinton, as well as Republicans such as Defence Secretary Robert Gates. His emphasis on ability makes Umno's petty politicking look pathetic.

In times of uncertainty, the people want a leader who can unite and inject hope and direction into the national debate. Ladies and gentlemen of the Malaysian political establishment: Malaysians want action, not politicking. And they want leaders who can tell the difference between the two. - The Straits Times, Singapore

Monday, December 1, 2008

Begging to differ - BN heading for a split

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 - Sometime in June, when cries for him to resign had dropped by a decibel or two and when he harboured hopes of staying on till 2010, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi started making plans for a national convention of the Barisan Nasional.

He commissioned a comprehensive survey of more than 3,500 Malaysians to understand what they truly felt about the ruling coalition. The findings confirmed his worst fears: a growing number of Malaysians did not believe that only the BN had the tools or ideas to govern the country.

Abdullah wanted to use the survey as a base for a thorough discussion of the coalition and its future road map. He got sidetracked by unfolding events and the BN convention got pushed back and back.

In October, Abdullah announced that he would not contest the party elections but would stay on until March 2009 to finish a slew of initiatives. Bundled in that package was the BN convention.

Checks by The Malaysian Insider showed that no date has been fixed for the meeting of the 13 component parties of the coalition but government officials say it will probably be in mid-February.

A government official said: “PM still believes that it is crucial for BN leaders to meet and thrash out all their concerns and differences and reach a new level of understanding. Otherwise, it will be tough for Barisan to move forward or look beyond what happened during the elections.’’

That fact has been underscored repeatedly since March 8. Defeat and rejection by a swathe of voters has forced MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP to rethink their own political strategies including their relationship with the senior partner of BN, Umno.

In recent days, statements by Datuk Chua Soi Lek (left), Datuk M. Kayveas (center) and Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon (right) have reminded Malaysians that more than eight months may have passed since BN were shocked at the polls, but the clamour for change remains strong among BN component parties.

Chua urged for an end of the 'Ketuanan Melayu' concept, which he said created the impression of a master and servant relationship between Umno and BN parties. He was slammed for going down that path by a clutch of Umno leaders including Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

But several days later, Gerakan chief Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon supported Chua, urging Umno to use the term “special position” of the Malays instead of 'Ketuanan Melayu'.

“The term 'Ketuanan Melayu' would give rise to a tuan and hamba (master and slave) situation so let us use the proper term as provided for in the Federal Constitution. Article 153 safeguards the special position of the Malays and natives, the Rulers and Islam as well as protects the legitimate interests of non-Malays.

“We must understand the Federal Constitution, parliamentary democracy system and constitutional monarchy in totality, ‘’ he said.

Sandwiched in between those two comments was a stark warning from the People’s Progressive Party. Kayveas said that his party will pull out of BN if there are no substantial changes to the Internal Security Act. He also gave a broad hint that he expects the BN to change the way it has been operating if it was serious about rebranding itself.

“The Barisan has to make changes before the next general election. It is suicidal if we do not plan for the next elections. The problem with the Barisan was its success in the past 50 years. Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose," he said.

“The March elections have already shown what the voters are looking for in good governance and multi-racialism. The Barisan has conducted numerous postmortems at all levels to gather input on what went wrong and why the voters rejected Barisan.

“The solution has always been multi-racialism, but to date Barisan is still caught in its own political racial configuration – that what is being spoken is not being implemented fast enough, ‘’ he said.

It is not difficult to understand why Messrs Chua, Koh and Kayveas are still pushing for a change. Their constituents - Chinese and Indians - deserted the BN in droves on March 8.

The BN survey suggests that, unless there are substantial changes to the manner Umno is preceived by non-Malays and there is evidence that the ruling coalition is capable of meeting the expectations of younger voters, the bank of non-Malay votes could remain with Pakatan Rakyat for the foreseeable future. This scenario could spell the end for MIC, Gerakan, MCA and PPP.

But sceptics do not believe that holding a convention for BN parties will make much difference. They note that for any real change to happen, it must be driven by Umno.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Umno politicians are less willing to listen to their colleagues in BN today than they were in April or May. The sentiment in the ruling party is this: the time for talking and taking shots at Umno and shortcomings of the BN are over.

Commenting on Chua’s call to drop the 'Ketuanan Melayu' concept, Hishammuddin said: “It is better for leaders of BN component parties to join the Opposition if they want to continue questioning historical facts.’’

He is not alone. Other Umno leaders also believe that their friends in BN have become too vocal and need to pipe down and accept the reality of politics in Malaysia. If this “I know best’ approach permeates through discussions at the BN convention in February, it could persuade a few BN leaders that their future may lie outside the coalition.

Worse yet, it could be the clearest sign yet for many Malaysians that the BN - the political behemoth - is on its last legs.