Replies to post #6909 on FinancialAdvisor's College Class (FACC)

[FinancialAdvisor]

2 Brits nabbed with $3 trillion in fake US fed notes

*More potential paper fraud in #msg-6137781 as a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the people of Canada accusing banks of illegally creating money!...

2 Brits nabbed with $3 trillion in fake US fed notes
April 20, 2005



The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday said it has arrested two British nationals with $3 trillion fake US federal bank notes in their possession, DZMM reported.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco identified the suspects as Paul Edward John Flavell and Sam Beany. The two listed their address as Unit 305 CEO Apartments in Jupiter Street, Makati City.

The suspects were not physically present during the press conference called by Wycoco at the NBI office in Taft Avenue, Manila. Only the suspects' photographs were shown to reporters.

Wycoco said NBI agents have also launched a manhunt for two other British nationals involved in the syndicate.

The two other suspects are Seki Mehmet Bayram and Peter Whittkamp.

Flavell and Beany's arrest came following a tip from international cargo forwarder DHL Philippines Inc. on April 14, Wycoco said.

The tip was about a shipment consigned to two foreigners, which was pending at the company warehouse.

The forwarder said the cargo was bound for Zurich, Switzerland.

The NBI dispatched a team to the DHL office. The agents were able to chance upon the suspects as they were paying the airway bill amounting to P53,967.

Company records show the suspects paid using a credit card.

Wycoco said Flavell and Beany did not resist arrest after they were made to open the cast-iron boxes containing bogus federal bank reserve certificates.

LINK: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/topofthehour.aspx?StoryId=3274

[FinancialAdvisor]

Fall in investment hits Russian economy

Fall in investment hits Russian economy
By Arkady Ostrovsky in Moscow
Published: June 23 2005 20:19 / Last updated: June 23 2005 20:19

Judged by Moscow's buzzing restaurants, shopping malls and boutiques, the Russian economy is booming.

State finances also seem to be in good shape: foreign currency reserves are at an all-time high, the stabilisation fund is swelling with petrodollars and budgets are in comfortable surplus.

But between exuberant consumer spending at the bottom and burgeoning coffers at the top, the picture is one of falling investment and stagnating production.

"Russia is a tripled-layered economy and it is the middle layer that is causing real concern," says Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Alfa Bank.

After several years of strong growth and moderate inflation, the economy is starting to slow while inflation climbs. The government has revised its growth forecast for this year from 6.5 per cent to 5.8 per cent, well below last year's 7.1 per cent. It has revised its inflation forecast upwards to 10 per cent, and Mr Weafer says that in reality inflation is running at double that. Economists fear that rising inflation and slowing growth could lead to meltdown.

"Until last year the country's macroeconomic policy gave no cause for concern. But in the past year the economic situation has begun to worsen significantly," says Yegor Gaidar, the architect of Russian market reforms and head of the Institute of Economy in Transition.

The main reason for the deterioration is a fall in investment and a decline in economic activity. While foreign direct investment remains negligible by comparison with other emerging market economies, domestic investment fell 10 per cent in the first five months compared with the same period last year.

"When we talked to foreign investors three years ago, we could make an argument that notwithstanding the politics, the economy made up for it. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make this argument," says Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital.

William Tompson, senior economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, says: "We have seen little or no good news over the past 18 months in terms of economic policy. But we have seen the distraction of Yukos, which has damaged the investment climate."

He says Russia has missed an opportunity, in favourable conditions, to press on with structural reform, without which it risks becoming an underperformer. In its recent report, the OECD says corruption and opacity in government and a politically dependent court system remain obstacles. Having witnessed the attack on Yukos, many people feel more comfortable buying assets abroad than investing in their own country.

"The uncertainty over property rights creates the worst climate for investment," says Mr Gaidar.

Much of the investment in the early part of this decade came from private oil companies, some of which increased their production by as much as 90 per cent.

However, over the past year Russian oil output has started to stagnate in spite of rising oil prices, and Yukos is not the only reason companies are investing less.

Leonid Fedun, the vice-president of Lukoil, said: "The era of easy oil, when companies could increase output by simply intensifying production, is over. From now on we need billions of dollars in investment to sustain the output growth."

But he says Lukoil cannot afford large-scale investment with the current level of taxation and transport tariffs: in the past five years the tax burden on the company increased 6.5 times and the government is taking 65 per cent of its upstream revenues by means of taxes and transport levies. Mr Weafer says the current tax rate was designed for lower oil prices and the government can and should leave more money for companies to invest.

There is pressure on the government to start spending money from the stabilisation fund.

President Vladimir Putin has promised to raise public wages by 50 per cent in real terms over the next three years, prompting criticism from the International Monetary Fund, which says: "Spending the oil wealth on wages, pensions and other recurrent expenditures before there is political resolve to push ahead with reforms will be a waste of an opportunity to accelerate Russia's economic modernisation. At worst it will require a painful and prolonged fiscal tightening if oil prices were to drop sharply."

The pro-Kremlin United Russia party has called on the government to "show will and leave aside the dogmas of formal monetarism and false liberalism". Boris Gryzlov, its leader, said the government should assume the role of "biggest investor in the economy".

Mr Gaidar said spending money from the stabilisation fund is like "trying to extinguish a fire with dollar notes". But he said: "The market economy has one big advantage: it quickly shows up mistakes".


LINK: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e1f15fa0-e412-11d9-a754-00000e2511c8.html