Business

European leaders are starting to follow suit; Britain's five largest banks have agreed to publish the pay of their key staff members, and will spread bonus payments over three years. French president Sarkozy has announced a set of even tougher and more broadly applied regulations.

Of course, not everyone thinks that bonus reforms are the way to go. Nobel prize-winning conomist Robert F. Engle III says

We shouldn't ban bonuses, but restructure the way they're paid so they're more commensurate with the risk the company is taking....What's important is we give the banking system the right incentives to figure this out. When companies get too big and too complex to fail, they would face a higher tax rate, which would go into a rescue fund. The banks are not excited about it, they would rather go back to business as usual."

According to Izhmash Arms' parent company, the Rosoboronexport State Corporation -- which has a monopoly on supplying Russian arms to the international market -- there are about eight countries in which dozens of business are making their own versions of the Kalashnikov. And they are doing this without passing on any licensing fees to the Russians.

And now it appears that the financial difficulties facing the weapons manufacturer have reached crisis point: its very existence is threatened. A businessman in Izhevsk has filed a motion to declare Izhmash Arms bankrupt because of outstanding debts of around 8 million rubles (around €180,000 or $265,000). The case has caused a sensation in Russia because for a long time the Russian armaments industry has been one of the only industries considered competitive on an international basis. And Izhmash, which was founded in 1807 by Russia's royals, is one of the largest firearms manufacturers in Russia.

However, arms exports have fallen dramatically over the past year, falling from around $10.8 billion (€7.4 billion) worth of weaponry in 2007 to a mere $3.5 billion (€2.4 billion) in 2008.

According to the Der Spiegel article, Izmash's problems are partly of its own making. Licenses to manufacture the AK were granted generously to like-minded regimes throughout the third world during the Cold War. After the Soviet Union fell, the companies that were already making the weapons saw no reason to stop. 

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SPIEGEL: Do you see an opportunity for dialogue with the new regime?

Zelaya: International pressure would have to be increased for that to happen. It affected the coup leaders when Washington suspended their diplomatic visas, and the sanctions are also taking effect. In many ports, goods coming from Honduras are no longer being unloaded. The German firm Adidas, along with Nike and clothing manufacturer Gap, have announced that they will cancel orders from Honduran factories unless democracy is restored. [Emphasis mine.]

Zelaya seems to be embellishing to say the least. He is likely referring to a letter the companies wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week urging her to seek a negotiated compromise to the crisis in Honduras. Here's an excerpt:

While we do not and will not support or endorse the position of any party in this internal dispute, we feel it is necessary in this case to join with the President of the United States, the governments of countries throughout the Americas, the Organization of American States, the UN General Assembly and the European Union in calling for the restoration of democracy in Honduras.

The letter doesn't say anything about canceling orders. And while the organizations mentioned in the above paragraph all support Zelaya's reinstatement, it's hardly a ringing endorsement for his position. 

I called Nike's media relations department today and spokesperson Kate Meyers denied that there were any plans to cancel orders:

We have no plans to alter our supply orders from Honduras, whatsoever. One of the aims of the letter is to support workers’ rights and civil liberties. Canceling our orders wouldn’t be the way to go about that. 

LA Times' blogger Catherine Lyons has some useful background on why the apparel companies are getting involved with the situation in the first place. 

ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images

They may be leftists, but the current and former president of Argentina have no aversion to making money on the side.

Rory Carroll in the Guardian reports that Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, elected in 2007, and her husband Nestor, the previous president, have done pretty well for themselves:

New figures show that since Nestor and Cristina Kirchner came to power in 2003, they have presided over a remarkable sixfold increase in their own wealth.

The couple have racked up a fortune through property speculation and investments that have thrived even as the economy has faltered. Last year alone their wealth jumped 158% to £7.3m...

According to information the couple supplied to the anti-corruption office, they own 28 properties valued at $3.8m, four companies worth $4.8m and bank deposits of $8.4m. Last year they sold 16 properties, almost tripling their bank accounts, and expanded their hotel business in El Calafate, a tourist magnet. Their debts also jumped because of bank loans.

Knowing Argentina's history of corruption, the open disclosure by the first couple of their wealth is actually kind of reassuring.

But now, with Argentina fighting to avoid a recession and public debts mounting across the country, the Kirchners would do well to apply that same financial acumen to the country's problems. Otherwise, they will face increasingly tough questions about how they had so much time for their own finances when they were supposed to be focusing on those of Argentina. 

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The Christian Science Monitor highlights an April report by the International Food Policy Research Institute entitled "'Land Grabbing' by Foreign Investors in Developing Countries." The report details purchases of farmland in developing countries by China, South Korea, India, and a handful of gulf states.

Saudi Arabia recently purchased 500,000 hectares of land in Tanzania and Indian companies have bought land in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique.

Another analysis of the "land-grabbing" trend relased in June by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization and two other agricultural research groups examines more closely the potential positives and negatives of the purchases.

Increased investment may bring macro-level benefits (such as GDP growth and improved government revenues), and may create opportunities for economic development and livelihood improvement in rural areas.

But as governments or markets make land available to prospecting investors, large-scale land acquisitions may result in local people losing access to the resources on which they depend for their food security – particularly as some key recipient countries are themselves faced with food security challenges. 

And, as Devindeer Sharma from India's Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security told the Telegraph on June 28, there is a high chance of a local backlash and investors will have to avoid a neo-colonial image:

"There are 80 Indian companies trying to get land in Ethiopia, and it's all to be imported back to India. The government of India has been encouraging them," he said, and warned of danger if famine returned to Africa.

"If food is being shipped out and poor people are dying, what will happen? There would be riots," he said.

Thoughts? Is the investment good or bad for the recipient countries? 

RANCOIS XAVIER MARIT/AFP/Getty Images

Teenagers are consuming more media, but in entirely different ways and are almost certainly not prepared to pay for it. They resent intrusive advertizing on billboards, TV and the Internet. They are happy to chase content and music across platforms and devices (iPods, mobiles, streaming sites). Print media (newspapers, directories) are viewed as irrelevant.

Texting is still key and use of new data services limited due to cost.

Teenagers listen to a lot of music, mostly whist doing something else (like travelling or using a computer). They are VERY reluctant to pay for it (most never having bought a CD) and a large majority (8/10) downloading it illegally from file sharing sites.

Conclusions? Teenagers don't have any money and they like free things. Also, eight out of ten of Robson's friends are downloading music illegally.

Derek Berwin/Getty images

Via Mike Allen, fun facts about General Motors:

GM has a $458 million market capitalization now - it was $59 BILLION nine years ago. GM will have 40,000 people building cars in America. It had 400,000 in the 1970s.

As Allen points out, if you're an American taxpayer, you're now the proud owner of this white elephant.

In contrat to vlogging, live-journaling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimiur Putin has generally preferred to let his actions do the talking. But this Friday, Putin will make his debut as a magazine columnist in the monthly magazine Russian Pioneer. But don't expect an ideological pean to the glories of sovereign democracy.

Putin's topic is management, specifically "why it's hard to fire people." But the released exceprts of the column, as printed by The Independent,  do seem to offer a few clues to recent Kremlin infighting though:

Conflicts within a team, especially within a big team, always arise," writes Mr Putin, in extracts leaked to a Russian news agency. "This happens every minute, every second – simply because between people there are always clashes of interest."...

"I can say honestly that while I was president, if I hadn't interfered in certain situations, in Russia there would long ago ceased to have been a government." ...

"In contrast to previous, Soviet rulers, I always do it personally. I usually call the person into my office, look them in the eye, and say: 'There are concrete complaints. If you think this isn't true, then please, you can fight against it; argue your case'."

Photo by Junko Kimura/Getty Images