• Clinton Cards is among those under strain as rents fall due • Stocks expected to fall include Home Retail, Dixons and HMV Britain’s high street retailers are braced for another wave of closures following one of the worst summer trading periods in years and growing concern about pressures on consumers in the run-up to Christmas. Sales figures for August, blighted by riots, volatile stockmarkets and poor weather, slipped 2.2% among mid-market retailers, according to accountancy firm BDO – the worst drop since the depths of recession two years ago. Widespread disruption, which caused shops to close their doors during trading hours well beyond the riot flash points, has left many retailers facing an uphill struggle in the face of a looming quarterly rent deadline at the end of this month. Among those already under financial strain is Clinton Cards. It emerged the company had approached landlords requesting more time to meet rent bills – as it did this time last year. Earlier this year, the rent deadlines at the end of March and June were followed by a string of retailers crashing into administration. They included Focus DIY, Habitat, TJ Hughes and fashion chain Jane Norman. The second quarter of 2011 saw 375 retailers call in administrators, said accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, a 9% rise on the same period in 2010. Meanwhile, many surviving mid-sized retailer groups listed on the stock exchange are among those most targeted by short sellers – those investors who effectively bet on the value of shares falling. Recent figures from research firm Data Explorers suggest stocks heavily shorted included Argos’s parent company Home Retail, Dixons, HMV, Ocado, Mothercare, Next and Carpetright. Accountancy firm RSM Tenon has identified almost 9,000 retailers it believes are now financially vulnerable, an increase of more than 10% in the last six months. The Local Data Company and the British Property Federation will this week issue a report expected to show that many towns have seen a sharp rise in the number of boarded-up shops. Previous figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) suggest about one in 10 shops are vacant in town-centre shopping districts. The BRC will publish its sales survey for August on Tuesday, which are expected to confirm the gloomy picture painted by BDO. Its figures for July pointed to comparable sales having risen by 0.6% – a number boosted by inflation. The next two weeks will see trading updates from Next, JD Wetherspoon, Costa Coffee parent Whitbread, Carpetright, Home Retail Group, B&Q parent Kingfisher and Primark parent Associated British Foods. All will be closely watched for hints of stress on the high street. However, struggling retailers may well be able to put a case to creditors to ease the pressure before the Christmas trading period, traditionally the busiest time of year. Retail industry Clinton Cards Economics Simon Bowers guardian.co.uk
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FTSE 100 chiefs enjoy record windfalls from complex and opaque bonus deals thanks to stock market bounce Bosses at the helm of Britain’s top 100 companies saw their pay packages jump by an average of £1.3m to almost £4.5m last year, the biggest leap in nine years, according to a study commissioned by the High Pay Commission. The average pay deal for a FTSE 100 chief executive soared from £3.09m to £4.45m last year as business leaders were able to enjoy record windfalls from share-based incentive schemes, thanks to a sharp bounce in the stock market. The commission, which was set up last November to run for a year, has singled out these highly complex and often opaque share-based reward programmes as the most controversial element of boardroom pay. They are of “staggering complexity” and there is “no clear evidence” they work, it claims. Many economists have suggested the recovery in the value of shares in late 2009 and 2010 which boosted executive rewards had little to do with the underlying performance of businesses. Rather, it was in large part an indirect consequence of drastic policy measures taken by central banks around the world to drive down long-term interest rates in order to avert a global depression. Recent months have seen these share gains go into reverse. The benefits reaped from the stock market bubble by top FTSE 100 executives have not been mirrored on the shop floor. Instead wage inflation stood at 2.2% for the final three months of 2010. Factoring in the rising cost of living – the retail price index stood at 4.8% last December – that means most workers in Britain saw a significant decline in their real incomes. “The evidence exposes the myth that big bonuses and high salaries result in better company performances,” said Deborah Hargreaves, chair of the commission. “There has been massive growth in what has been termed performance-related pay, yet no such corresponding leap forward in company performance.” She suggested the real acceleration in top executive pay had been hidden behind an array of bewilderingly complex schemes purportedly designed to peg share-based rewards to company performance. “All we’ve seen is things getting much more complicated – in many ways masking the real value of what executives get paid,” she said. “Corporate governance reforms attempting to link pay with performance appear to have done little more than add to the huge complexity of executive packages, reward schemes and bonuses that make up the pay of FTSE 100 directors.” The study of executive pay deals, carried out for the commission by Incomes Data Services, showed the average annual director’s bonus rose by 187% in 10 years. The commission said the disparity between pay and performance was sharpest at Britain’s leading banks, several of which have relied on taxpayer support in recent years either through Bank of England liquidity assistance or in bailout recapitalisations in the case of Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. Executive pay and bonuses Stock markets Corporate governance Simon Bowers guardian.co.uk
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New prime minister Yoshihiko Noda promises urgent assistance as winds and rain leave thousands stranded in central areas Rescuers and search parties were scouring central Japan on Monday as the death toll from the worst typhoon to hit the country in seven years climbed to 26. Typhoon Talas, which was later downgraded to a tropical storm, lashed coastal areas with destructive winds and rain at the weekend before moving offshore into the Sea of Japan. Fifty two people were missing and thousands were stranded as the typhoon washed outbridges, railways and roads. The scenes of destruction were an unwelcome reminder of Japan’s vulnerability to natural disasters as the country attempts to recover from the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was sworn in a day before the storm, said the government would provide assistance as quickly as it could. His predecessor, Naoto Kan, was forced out of office chiefly because of public anger over the government’s response to the tsunami, which left nearly 21,000 people dead or missing and sparked the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. “We will do everything we can to rescue people and search for the missing,” Noda said. The typhoon was believed to be the worst to hit Japan since 2004, when 98 people were killed or reported missing. It caused most damage on the Kii peninsula in central Japan, south-west of Tokyo and hundreds of miles from the north-eastern coast, which bore the brunt of the effects of the earthquake and tsunami. The extent of damage from the typhoon continued to emerge on Monday. Rescuers and reconnaissance teams spread out over the worst-hit areas to look for survivors or people stranded in flood zones. Television footage showed washed-out train bridges, neighbourhoods inundated by swollen rivers and police using rope to pull frightened survivors out of homes. The government’s emergency headquarters put the death toll at 26 on Monday morning. About 100,000 people were being advised to evacuate their homes. Most of the dead were in Wakayama prefecture, said local official Seiji Yamamoto. He said 17 were killed there and another 28 people were missing. “There are so many roads out that it is hard to count them all,” he said. “Hundreds of homes have been flooded.” Rains and wind were recorded across wide swaths of Japan’s main island, but no significant damage was reported in the north-east. At least 3,600 people were stranded by flooded rivers, landslides and collapsed bridges that were hampering rescue efforts, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported. The centre of the typhoon crossed the southern island of Shikoku and the central part of the main island of Honshu overnight on Saturday. It moved slowly north across the Sea of Japan off the country’s west coast, the Japan meteorological agency said. Japan Natural disasters and extreme weather Yoshihiko Noda guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Wallace Shows Cheney the Today Show’s ‘Investigate Cheney’ Protest Sign
September 4, 2011 No Comment
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace displayed to former Vice President Dick Cheney how NBC’s Today show on Tuesday had ended Matt Lauer’s interview with him by pulling back to highlight an Amnesty International protest sign (“TORTURE IS A CRIME: INVESTIGATE CHENEY”) in the crowd on the street. Wallace wondered: “What do you make of that? I mean, I somehow doubt that if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama were speaking, they would have taken the shot and then suddenly a person with a sign would have been putting their picture up. I mean, simply, do you think there is a liberal bias in the mainstream media?” Cheney, who seemed to have not seen the video before, chuckled as he repeated the sign’s line, “investigate Cheney.” Out on a media tour to promote his memoirs, Cheney demurred on a chance to condemn NBC News, replying to Wallace’s liberal bias suspicion: “Oh, I think there probably is. But I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it.” Earlier: “ NBC's Lauer to Cheney: You’re the ‘Most Divisive Political Figure in This Country in a Century ’” From the September 4 Fox News Sunday: CHRIS WALLACE: I don’t know if you’ve seen this. I was watching your interview on the Today show earlier this week and I don’t even know if you’re aware of this. I want to show you – take a look at how it ended. TODAY SHOW CLIP: MATT LAUER, TODAY : Thank you for being with us this morning. I appreciate it. DICK CHENEY, ON TODAY: Well Matt, I’ve enjoyed it. [VIDEO: sign] END TODAY CLIP
Continue reading …Title: All The Pretty Little Horses Artist: Odetta Sleep tight.
Continue reading …Erika Smith at Indy Star: ‘I Really Don’t Care’ About Truth of Andre Carson’s Comment
September 4, 2011 No Comment
On Wednesday (at NewsBusters ; at BizzyBlog ), quoting Indiana Congressman Andre Carson's inexcusable, hateful comment at a Congressional Black Caucus event on August 22 (key sentence: “Some of them in Congress right now of this Tea Party would love to see you and me … hanging on a tree”), I observed that “Carson was obviously accusing some of his congressional colleagues, whom he gutlessly would not name, of actually wanting (not metaphorically wishing) to see himself and his black colleagues lynched.” I should also note that in an earlier segment of the quote originally cited by Matthew Balan at NewsBusters , Carson said, of Tea Party sympathizers wishes, “And this is beyond symbolic change.” This is why I also wrote that “The meaning of the words Carson used is not arguable.” With a disregard for the truth and gutlessness similar to Carson's, Indianapolis Star columnist Erika D. Smith wrote today that the congressman “had the guts to stand up and say what we've all seen over the last three years,” while also asserting that “I really don't care” if any congressmen actually want to lynch anyone. Here's more; brace yourself (bolds and numbered tags are mine): Smith: Carson had the guts to say what some feel In recent days, I've tried to explain to many of my white friends and colleagues exactly why I support what Rep. Andre Carson said. And why I hope that he never takes it back. My reasons, I've discovered through some friendly debates, aren't entirely logical. They're emotional. [1] When I opened my Web browser Wednesday morning and read the headline “Rep. Carson: Tea party wants blacks 'hanging on a tree' ” on IndyStar.com, my first thought was: “Yup! That's about right.” My second thought was: “It's about time somebody said it.” That was before I even opened the article. … I admit that the details of what he said didn't concern me. Are there members of Congress who literally want to lynch black people? I don't know. And to be honest, I really don't care. [2] Because that's not the point. The point is that the essence of what Carson said is true. There is racism in Washington and a lot of it is coming from an extreme faction of the tea party — a faction that mainstream Republicans have chosen to indulge and no one, until now, has bothered to check. The GOP would rather pretend that faction doesn't exist and silence anyone who dares to point out the obvious by calling him a “racist.” Talk about doublespeak. [3] … (Many who disagree with me) think the personal attacks on Obama are just the lumps that come with being president of the United States. That because people called President George W. Bush “Hitler” and “stupid,” it's the same as Obama being called an ape. [4] … When Obama is criticized, and veiled — or not so veiled — threats of racism
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Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Sunday that she was “open” to implementing Sarah Palin’s suggestion that all corporate income taxes be abolished. “I propose to eliminate all federal corporate income tax,” Palin had said in a speech to the tea party in Iowa Saturday. “This is how we create millions of high-paying jobs… To eliminate any loss of federal revenues from this tax cut, we eliminate corporate welfare and all the loopholes, and we eliminate all the bailouts.” “We could go that route,” Bachmann told CBS’ Bob Schieffer Sunday. “If we went that route then we’d have to have a fundamental restructuring of the tax code. I’m open to having that debate… What we do know is that the current corporate tax rate is killing job creation.” “So you could see a way to do that?” Schieffer pressed. “It would be possible if we have a fundamental restructuring of the tax code,” Bachmann insisted. “But immediately what we could do is repatriation of bringing this money in from American companies that are earning the money overseas. But second, I do believe that the president at minimum should lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent so that businesses can see that they will have a more competitive rate. We certainly could get down to a 0 percent corporate tax rate but it would mean a fundamental restructuring of the tax code.” Later on CBS, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman suggested that Palin’s idea just wasn’t realistic. “That’s a great political bromide,” he said. “How do you do it? How do you make the numbers work? All I’m telling you is I have been there and I have done that… I know how difficult it is to make the numbers work. You have got to find the revenue somewhere that you can reinvest back in the tax code to bring down the rate for everybody.”
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He argues in a speech that teachers cannot be responsible for all society’s problems following last month’s riots The deputy prime minister is to open up a new front in his disagreements with the education secretary, Michael Gove, criticising the recent decision by the Tories to heap responsibility for children’s development on to teachers. Nick Clegg’s aides believe the Conservatives have placed too much emphasis on teachers as arbiters of authority over children in the wake of last month’s riots. Gove is planning to fast-track former soldiers into school to provide children with more male role models. In a speech to teachers and pupils, Clegg will say: “We already expect our teachers to be social workers, child psychologists, nutritionists, child protection officers. We expect them to police the classroom, take care of our children’s health, counsel our sons and daughters, guide them, worry about them – and on top of that, educate them too. “Teachers are not surrogate mothers and fathers. They cannot do it all.” Clegg’s comments come as his party claimed to have reined in Gove’s desire to allow his free schools programme to become profit-making, and that any new wave of free schools had to be in deprived areas. In response to this Lib Dem assertion, Gove refused to rule out profit-making schools as a possibility in the future. Suggesting Clegg’s claim had more to do with positioning himself before his party conference meeting with his activist base than the real state of debate inside the government on free schools, a Gove source went on to rule out the idea that the next wave of free schools would be solely located in deprived areas. The source said the government would not rewrite the rules governing the location of free schools for Clegg and pointed out that half of those approved already were in the most deprived 30% of areas. Analysis conducted by the Guardian suggests this is not true. Clegg will talk about the experience of raising his own children. He will urge parents to take a more active role in supporting their children’s education and warn that he believes teachers cannot “do it all”. Giving children a proper breakfast, reading to them and ensuring the TV is switched off when it is time to do their homework must be the responsibility of families, Clegg says. Clegg, who shares the school run and other childcare duties equally with his wife, says that schools do not expect parents to cut down on their working hours. Instead, he will say: “They just want mothers and fathers to get into simple, commonsense, inexpensive routines.” These include an extra 15 minutes of reading at home and making sure children go to bed on time. Ruling out allowing free schools to be run for a profit, Clegg will say: “To anyone who is worried that, by expanding the mix of providers in our education system, we are inching towards inserting the profit motive into our school system, again, let me reassure you: yes to greater diversity; yes to more choice for parents. But no to running schools for profit, not in our state-funded education sector.” However, the Conservatives are declining to rule this out in future. On Sunday, Gove told the Andrew Marr programme on BBC1: “I’m a pragmatist, not an ideologue. We don’t need to have profit-making organisations involved at the moment.” Gove pointed out that the Conservative election manifesto said profit-making schools were not necessary “at the moment”. Allowing profit-making companies to get involved is one way to fund the building of schools without squeezing the Department for Education’s budget. Gove has already announced plans to build schools under private finance initiatives, which costs taxpayers more in the long term. Clegg is calling for all of the next wave of free schools to be in poorer neighbourhoods or areas in desperate need of extra classroom places. The first wave of 24 free schools is tilted towards middle-class neighbourhoods, according to analysis carried out for the Guardian. The analysis shows the 10-minute commuting areas around free school locations have 57% of better-off, educated and professional households compared with the English average of 42.8%. The government published its own analysis on Sunday which showed that the majority of the first crop of schools were located outside the most deprived neighbourhoods of the country. Just three schools – Nishkam free school, Rainbow primary school and Ark Atwood primary academy – are in the most deprived 10% of areas of England. Nine out of 24 are in the most deprived 20% of areas. The next wave of free schools, due to open next year, is expected to include more projects targeting the poorest parts of the country. A source close to Gove said: “[Profit-making] has been at the back of people’s minds but Cameron gave Clegg a veto and he’s exercised it. However on the idea that Clegg is insisting that the next wave of free schools have to be in areas of need, that is already the case. The process is set up already for the next wave and we’re not going to start it all over again and actually it will be the case that many of the next free schools are in areas of deprivation anyway.” Fifteen of the first 24 schools are oversubscribed, including the west London free school, where Toby Young is chair of governors. The school received more than 500 applications for 120 places. Another nine, including the Bristol free school, are either full or still trying to fill “the last few remaining places”, according to the Department for Education. Nick Clegg Michael Gove Liberal Democrats Free schools Schools Allegra Stratton Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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President Barack Obama is promising people affected by Hurricane Irene that he won’t let “Washington politics” to get in the way of getting them federal help. Obama toured the flood damage in New Jersey. (Sept. 4)
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Click here to view this media Another Saturday, another week for members of Fox’s Saturday morning “business block” to sit around and promote a race to the bottom for American workers. This segment the topic was President Obama’s new pick to lead his Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger . Their issue with Krueger? He supports increases in the minimum wage, which they naturally start fearmongering over, even though there’s not a chance in hell we’d see another increase with the makeup of this current Congress. BUTTNER: Meet Alan Krueger. He’s the President’s pick to lead his team to help turn around the economy. And he’s also a big time believer in hiking the minimum wage. But, Gary B. you say in this bad economy, the way to get jobs back is to ditch the minimum wage altogether. SMITH: Absolutely Brenda. Look, you know, minimum wage is nothing more than a form of price control. That’s what it is, and even if you believe wholeheartedly in the goodness of the minimum wage, all you have to do is the statistics. When… the last time we bumped minimum wage in 2009, youth unemployment was 21%. It went to 30%. Black teen unemployment is now over 40% Brenda. So it’s not just wrong to say minimum wage is good. I think it’s irresponsible, particularly in this economy. After the panel’s one lonely liberal, Jehmu Greene called him out for just being wrong on the facts and some back forth between Greene and a couple of the other panel members on whether raising the minimum wage increases unemployment or hinders job growth or not, panelist Todd Schoenberger goes into a full rant agreeing with Gary B. Smith that the minimum wage should be eliminated or at least reduced, claiming that it’s killing job growth in our economy and can lead to inflation. You’ve got to love the reaction from the rest of them when Greene finishes off the segment with this statement: GREENE: Well, forget the minimum wage. Why don’t we just have the wages of the salaries keep up with where CEO’s have been in the last few years. And if that was the case, you would have workers making $22 an hour, but that’s clearly not the case. Followed by all of the wingnuts on the panel’s heads simultaneously exploding. Heaven forbid anyone brings up the horrible income disparity we have in the United States while they’re debating whether the lowest income earners among us should be paid even less. Media Matters posted a shorter portion of this segment and linked some research they did on the matter when Fox’s John Stossel was making similar claims to those of Smith and Schoenberger — Fox’s Stossel Ignores Evidence To Rail Against Minimum Wage .
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