PJC Journal – Original » 2007 » September

Sep

02

Deutsche Bank shuts proprietary credit trading desk in London

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Hard on the heels of the news that Barclays bank has taken 2 emergency central bank loans exceeding £1.6bn, Deutsche Bank has shut down its proprietary credit trading desk in
London and is laying off some of the 14-strong team, a source familiar
with the matter said on Friday.

Earlier last month a source close to Deutsche Bank told Reuters the
bank was set to ditch its credit relative-value trading strategy used
by the London proprietary trading desk after losses of about $US135
million.

The chief executive of Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, says GLOBAL economic growth will take a hit as a result of the US subprime mortgage crisis.

“Growth, especially of private consumption in the United States,
will suffer because of the housing crisis and that can naturally not go
without negatively affecting the world economy overall,” Josef
Ackermann said in a column to be published in the German business daily
Handelsblatt overnight.

Mr Ackermann said many banks and investors affected by the credit
market turmoil that arose in the wake of the sub-prime crisis had
apparently taken risks that exceeded their size and risk-bearing
capacity.

“This is, to say it clearly, above all negligence on the part of the managements of these houses,” he said.

The distribution of credit risks in the international financial
system had not been transparent to supervisory authorities and market
participants, he said.

Deutsche Bank has declined to comment.
(source)

EU goes after Vatican tax

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The Italian government is being asked by the European Commission (EC) to explain tax breaks which the Vatican enjoys on income from property.

The EC has received complaints that the concessions amount to illegal state aid, despite the deal stemming from an treaty between Italy and the Catholic church dating back to 1929.
Full texts of the Concordats can be read here.

The Vatican has agreed to co-operate fully with the EU, but many analysts say that the Holy See, or central government of the Catholic church, senses an underlying prejudice against the church.

Ed Pentin, Rome correspondent for the Catholic Herald, said the EU has a history of being anti-Catholic and anti-church. “Particularly within the European parliament, for example, there is a certain anti-Catholic bias,” he said.

The Catholic church is a wealthy organisation with property and commercial enterprises worth $3bn, at the helm of which sits Pope Benedict XVI.

Now, the State of the Vatican City has been called before the European Union for questioning.

(source)

Can the EU do that to a sovereign State??
Should the EU do that to a sovereign State??

EU goes after Vatican tax

IanPJ Main Page Add you comment

The Italian government is being asked by the European Commission (EC) to explain tax breaks which the Vatican enjoys on income from property.

The EC has received complaints that the concessions amount to illegal state aid, despite the deal stemming from an treaty between Italy and the Catholic church dating back to 1929.
Full texts of the Concordats can be read here.

The Vatican has agreed to co-operate fully with the EU, but many analysts say that the Holy See, or central government of the Catholic church, senses an underlying prejudice against the church.

Ed Pentin, Rome correspondent for the Catholic Herald, said the EU has a history of being anti-Catholic and anti-church. “Particularly within the European parliament, for example, there is a certain anti-Catholic bias,” he said.

The Catholic church is a wealthy organisation with property and commercial enterprises worth $3bn, at the helm of which sits Pope Benedict XVI.

Now, the State of the Vatican City has been called before the European Union for questioning.

(source)

Can the EU do that to a sovereign State??
Should the EU do that to a sovereign State??

DWP to 'deskill' staff

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In a growing trend to de-skill civil servants and turn staff into box ticking robots and run government departments by process, the DWP has appointed Capgemini to apply “lean” business tools to its processes, as part of an ongoing change programme.

Capgemini will deliver the £5.7m contract with consultants Ad Esse and Going Lean.

Lean techniques began with Toyota in Japan in the 1950s and 60s and are used by manufacturing and service industries around the world. They look at the number of processes that organisations make and seek to identify what would make better value.

However, there have been significant problems with lean at HM Revenue and Customs, where Unipart has been operating a £7m programme.

But the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said staff were unsure about the scheme, claiming there had been overzealous implementation in other departments, such as HMRC where someone was asked “to take a banana off their desk because they were not eating it.”

“We have had real issues with lean in Revenue and Customs, where it has been taken to ludicrous lengths. The system has been imposed on staff and turned people into robots. Work on tax claims has been broken into individual tasks and de-skilled the workforce”.

George Orwell wrote about The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs.

NuLab is now paying consultants to make this kind of government department reality, with moronic processes like this.

NuLab – Destroying Britain from the inside out.