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Hang Lung Group
|
[
"Hang Lung Group",
"Land developers of Hong Kong",
"Conglomerate companies of Hong Kong",
"Conglomerate companies established in 1960",
"Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1960",
"1960 establishments in Hong Kong",
"Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange",
"Former companies in the Hang Seng Index"
] | 551 | 4,556 |
Hang Lung Group is an investment holding company that engages in property development for sales and leasing, as well as management of car parks, properties, and dry cleaning businesses. Its subsidiary Hang Lung Properties is one of the largest property developers in Hong Kong and also invests in the mainland China market. , Hang Lung Group ranked number 1501 in the Forbes Global 2000 list.
History
Hang Lung Group was founded by T.H. Chan on 13 September 1960 and is now one of Hong Kong's biggest real estate developers. For the first 32 years, the group operated its business mainly in Hong Kong. It became well known by developing the largest residential complexes along the Mass Transit Railway. The Hong Kong market suffered from a temporary collapse during the early 1980s owing to uncertainty surrounding the territory's return to China, but Hang Lung survived the turmoil. The group operates businesses in property development for sale and lease in Hong Kong. Its investment properties are diversified, ranging from retail and residential developments to industrial and office complexes.
In 1988, it gained control of Parry Corporation in Australia. On 1 January 1991, Ronnie Chan took over as the group's chairman. He foresaw the opportunity to invest in the mainland China market owing to its rapid economic growth. Its first step into the mainland, in Shanghai in 1992, was with two landmark properties, Plaza 66 and Grand Gateway 66. Following the success of its Shanghai projects, the group continued to expand its business to other parts of the mainland such as Shenyang, Jinan, Wuxi, Tianjin, Dalian, Kunming, and Wuhan.
List of chairmen
T.H. Chan (1960–1986); founder
Thomas Chen Tseng-tao (1986–1991); brother of T.H. Chan
Ronnie Chan (1991–2024); son of T.H. Chan
Adriel Chan (2024–present); son of Ronnie Chan
See also
Hang Lung Properties
|
Geraldine Ssali Busuulwa
|
[
"Living people",
"1975 births",
"Ugandan accountants",
"Ugandan women accountants",
"Ugandan Christians",
"Alumni of the University of Manchester",
"Makerere University alumni",
"People educated at Gayaza High School",
"Ganda people",
"People from Kampala",
"Ganda women",
"21st-century Ugandan businesspeople",
"21st-century Ugandan businesswomen"
] | 787 | 7,847 |
Geraldine Ssali Busuulwa is a Ugandan accountant and business administrator. She served as the Permanent Secretary in the Uganda Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives after getting appointed on the 15th of July 2021.
Before that, she served as the Deputy managing director of the National Social Security Fund (Uganda) (NSSF Uganda) from 20 March 2011, until 29 October 2017. She was first appointed to that position on 20 March 2011 by Finance Minister Syda Bbumba. On 29 October 2014, she was re-appointed to the same position after ten months when she served as Acting managing director.
Education
She was born in Lubaga Hospital to Agnes Ssali and Gerald Ssali, circa 1975. She attended Gayaza High School for her pre-university education. She studied at Makerere University, Uganda's oldest and largest public university, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics, statistics, and economics. She also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Manchester Business School. She is a professional accountant and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Work experience
Before her employment by NSSF Uganda, in March 2011, she worked as head of the Directorate of Management, in Her Majesty's Treasury in the United Kingdom. She served as deputy managing director of NSSF Uganda from 20 March 2011 until 31 December 2013. On that day the employment contract of Richard Byarugaba, the managing director expired and was not immediately renewed. Busuulwa was promoted to acting managing director (MD) while a search for a substantive MD was conducted. After a ten-month search, Byarugaba was re-appointed to his former post and Busuulwa was reappointed as his deputy.
In October 2017, the then Uganda Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija, declined to renew Geraldine Busuulwa's contract, following the board's recommendation. The board cited "less-than-satisfactory performance", during her tenure. She was replaced by Patrick Ayota, previously the Head of Finance at NSSF Uganda, from 2010 until 2017.
See also
Aminah Zawedde
List of government ministries of Uganda
|
Hermann Tietz
|
[
"1837 births",
"1907 deaths",
"People from Międzychód",
"19th-century German Jews",
"German company founders",
"German businesspeople in retailing",
"Merchants from the Kingdom of Prussia",
"19th-century German businesspeople",
"20th-century German businesspeople",
"Department stores of Germany",
"People from the Grand Duchy of Posen"
] | 859 | 7,345 |
Hermann Tietz (born 29 April 1837, in Birnbaum an der Warthe near Posen (today Międzychód, Poland), died on 3 May 1907 in Berlin) was a German-Jewish merchant, co-founder of the Tietz Department Store. He was buried in the Weißensee Cemetery.
Life
Tietz, co-founder of the Tietz Department Store, was the first to carry out the idea of the department store in Germany.
In 1882, the first department store of Tietz was opened in Gera (Thuringia, Germany) by his nephew Oskar Tietz. Oskar's brother Leonhard Tietz later founded his own chain store ("Kaufhof"). After stores in smaller towns like Bamberg, Erfurt, Rostock, Stralsund and Wismar had been successful, Tietz established his first department store in Berlin. In 1900, Herrmann Tietz opened a store in Leipziger Straße, where it was located close to the department store Wertheim, the biggest store in Europe at the time. In 1904, Tietz opened another luxurious store at Alexanderplatz. The impressive and palace-like stores were designed to offer the customers a unique shopping experience. Another example is the Alsterhaus in Hamburg (established in 1912). With ten department stores Tietz was the largest chain in Berlin. In 1927 some 13,000 employees worked in the Tietz department stores.
The Tietz family divided the German market into two spheres of interest. Herrmann and Oscar Tietz concentrated on the South and East, while Leonhard Tietz ("Kaufhof") was active in the West and in Belgium.
When Hermann Tietz died in 1907, the firm was the "largest concern of the kind in Germany".
Oscar Tietz further developed the manufacturing side of the firm, establishing factories, organised in 22 subsidiary companies. During the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Tietz Department Store in 1932, The Jewish Telegraph Agency noted that "the Tietz firm is still a family enterprise, and is conducted at present by Georg and Martin Tietz, the sons of Oscar Tietz, and by his son-in-law, Dr. Hugo Zwillenberg.
Nazi-era persecution of the Tietz family
In the Third Reich, all businesses of the Tietz family were Aryanized (i.e., seized from Jews and transferred to non-Jewish owners) and the family members emigrated. The Tietz department store was Aryanised in 1934.
Oscar's son Martin Tietz migrated with his wife to Liechtenstein in 1939 and his assets were seized by the Gestapo.
In 1933, Georg Karg, the new non-Jewish owner, changed the company’s name to "Hertie Department Stores" as an abbreviation of Hermann Tietz.
Hertie was acquired by its competitor Karstadt in 1994, and the Hertie stores were gradually converted to Karstadt outlets. In 2007, Hertie made a brief comeback. Due to a crisis of the Karstadt department store group, Karstadt dissolved 74 of their stores. These stores were the smallest ones and had been unprofitable at least. The "new" relaunched Hertie department store group re-opened them under the name "Hertie". Today, all former business relations to Karstadt have been severed and Hertie is independent. Hertie had planned to expand, but on 20 May 2009 it was decided that all 54 Hertie department stores were to close.
In 2020, the Hertie Foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in Germany, was criticised for refusing to publicly address the Nazi past of its founder.
See also
Aryanization
Arcandor
Hertie School
The Holocaust
KaDeWe
Tietz family
Leonhard Tietz
|
Toll bridge
|
[
"Toll bridges",
"Bridges",
"Car costs",
"Toll roads"
] | 1,826 | 13,705 |
A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or toll) is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road.
The practice of collecting tolls on bridges harks back to the days of ferry crossings where people paid a fee to be ferried across stretches of water. As boats became impractical to carry large loads, ferry operators looked for new sources of revenue. Having built a bridge, they hoped to recoup their investment by charging tolls for people, animals, vehicles, and goods to cross it.
The original London Bridge across the river Thames opened as a toll bridge, but an accumulation of funds by the charitable trust that operated the bridge (Bridge House Estates) saw that the charges were dropped. Using interest on its capital assets, the trust now owns and runs all seven central London bridges at no cost to taxpayers or users.
In the United States, private ownership of toll bridges peaked in the mid-19th century, and by the turn of the 20th century most toll bridges were taken over by state highway departments. In some instances, a quasi-governmental authority was formed, and toll revenue bonds were issued to raise funds for construction or operation (or both) of the facility.
Peters and Kramer observed that "little research has been done to quantify the impact of toll collection on society as a whole" and therefore they published a comprehensive analysis of the Total Societal Cost (TSC) associated with toll collection as a means of taxation. TSC is the sum of administrative, compliance, fuel and pollution costs. In 2000 they estimated it to be $56,914,732, or 37.3% of revenue collected. They also found that a user of a toll road is subject to a form of triple taxation, and that toll collection is a very inefficient means of funding the development of highway infrastructure. Nakamura and Kockelman (2002) show that tolls are by nature regressive, shifting the burden of taxation disproportionately to the poor and middle classes.
Electronic toll collection, branded under names such as EZ-Pass, SunPass, IPass, FasTrak, Treo, GoodToGo, and 407ETR, became increasingly prevalent to metropolitan areas in the 21st century. Amy Finkelstien, a public finance economist at MIT, reports that as the fraction of drivers using electronic toll collection increased, typically toll rates increased as well, because people were less aware of how much they were paying in tolls.
Electronic tolling proposals that represented the shadow price of electronic toll collection (instead of the TSC) may have misled decision-makers. The general public has additionally endured an increased administrative burden associated with paying toll bills and navigating toll collection company on-line billing systems. Additionally, visitors to a region may incur e-toll tag fees imposed by their rental car company. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 identified and attempted to address a similar problem associated with the government collection of information. Approvals were to be secured by government agencies before promulgating a paper form, website, survey or electronic submission that will impose an information collection burden on the general public. However, the act did not anticipate and thus address the burden on the public associated with funding infrastructure via electronic toll collection instead of through more traditional forms of taxation.
Removal and continuation of tolls
In some instances, tolls have been removed after retirement of the toll revenue bonds issued to raise funds. Examples include the Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge in Richmond, Virginia which carries U.S. Route 1 across the James River, and the 4.5-mile long James River Bridge 80 miles downstream which carries U.S. Highway 17 across the river of the same name near its mouth at Hampton Roads. In other cases, especially major facilities such as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis, Maryland, and the George Washington Bridge over Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey, the continued collection of tolls provides a dedicated source of funds for ongoing maintenance and improvements.
Sometimes citizens revolt against toll plazas, as was the case in Jacksonville, Florida. Tolls were in place on four bridges crossing the St. Johns River, including I-95. These tolls paid for the respective bridges as well as many other highway projects. As Jacksonville continued to grow, the tolls created bottlenecks on the roadway. In 1988, Jacksonville voters chose to eliminate all the toll booths and replace the revenue with a ½ cent sales tax increase. In 1989, the toll booths were removed, 36 years after the first toll booth went up.
In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament purchased the Skye Bridge from its owners in late 2004, ending the requirement to pay an unpopular expensive toll to cross to Skye from the mainland.
In 2004, the German government cancelled a contract with the "Toll Collect" syndicate after much negative publicity. The term "Toll Collect" became a popular byword among Germans used to describe everything wrong with their national economy.
Toll collection
It has become increasingly common for a toll bridge to only charge a fee in one direction. This helps reduce the traffic congestion in the other direction, and generally does not significantly reduce revenue, especially when those travelling the one direction are forced to come back over the same or a different toll bridge.
Toll avoidance: shunpiking
A practice known as shunpiking evolved which entails finding another route for the specific purpose of avoiding payment of tolls.
In some situations where the tolls were increased or felt to be unreasonably high, informal shunpiking by individuals escalated into a form of boycott by regular users, with the goal of applying the financial stress of lost toll revenue to the authority determining the levy.
One such example of shunpiking as a form of boycott occurred at the James River Bridge in eastern Virginia. After years of lower-than-anticipated revenues on the narrow privately funded structure built in 1928, the state of Virginia finally purchased the facility in 1949 and increased the tolls in 1955 without visibly improving the roadway, with the notable exception of a new toll plaza. The increased toll rates incensed the public and business users alike. Joseph W. Luter Jr., head of Smithfield Packing Company, the producer of Smithfield Hams, ordered his truck drivers to take a different route and cross a smaller and cheaper bridge. Tolls continued for 20 more years, and were finally removed from the old bridge in 1976.
Historic examples of toll bridges
England
London Bridge
The Humber Bridge: Previously the world's longest bridge, the Humber bridge links the counties of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire near the port city of Kingston upon Hull
Bristol Clifton Suspension Bridge
Wandsworth Bridge: Originally designed by Julian Tolmé in 1873, it was a toll bridge until it was taken into public ownership in 1880 and made toll-free.
Ireland
Ha'penny Bridge: This cast iron pedestrian bridge was built in 1816 over the River Liffey in Dublin and takes its name from the historical toll amount (a half-penny).
North America
Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, Canada; a bridge privately built in 1929.
Collins Bridge, longest wooden bridge in the world when opened in 1913, across Biscayne Bay between Miami on the mainland and the barrier island which became Miami Beach, Florida.
George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge crossing the Ohio River between Louisville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Indiana. Opened as a toll bridge in 1929; tolls removed in 1946.
James River Bridge, longest bridge over water in the world when completed in 1928, across the James River between then-Warwick County and Isle of Wight County near Hampton Roads.
Florida Overseas Highway between Florida and Key West, Florida. Built on the former alignment of the Key West Extensions of the Florida East Coast Railway, it included the Seven Mile Bridge.
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco.
Golden Gate Bridge between San Francisco and Marin County.
Mackinac Bridge connecting the Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula of Michigan at the Strait of Mackinac connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron
Sunshine Skyway Bridge between Tampa, Florida, and St. Petersburg, Florida
See also
List of toll bridges
+
|
Subsidy reform in Malaysia
|
[
"Economic history of Malaysia",
"Subsidies",
"Reform in Malaysia",
"Economic reforms"
] | 744 | 5,656 |
Subsidy reform in Malaysia was initiated in July 2010 by Prime Minister Najib Razak via a reduction in subsidies for fuel and sugar. Further cuts in subsidies for these and other products are planned over a three- to five-year period to strengthen government finances and improve economic efficiency.
Implementation
Prime Minister Najib announced cuts in the subsidies for vehicle fuel, sugar, and gas for cooking that took effect on midnight 15 July 2010.
RON95 and RON97 grades of petrol was subject to a price increase of RM0.05 per litre resulting in prices of RM1.85 and 2.10 per litre respectively. The price of liquefied petroleum gas, commonly known as LPG, was raised by RM0.10 to RM1.90 per kilogram. The price of diesel was fixed at RM1.75 per litre. Sugar increased in price by RM0.25 to RM1.85 per kilogram. Prices for cooking gas have increased by RM0.10 per kilogram. For example, a 10 kg cylinder of cooking gas will increase from RM17.50 to RM18.50.
At the start of 2014, the government withdrew subsidies of RON97, a premium grade of petrol. The prime minister stressed that the government would continue to standardise prices in Sabah and Sarawak to protect the rural poor
On 1 December 2014, the government of Malaysia officially ended the subsidy of all fuels, taking advantage of low oil prices at the time, potentially saving the government almost RM20 billion ringgit (US$5.97 billion) annually. A managed float mechanism has been put in place where prices would adjust according to the market rate.
Budget implications
Prime Minister Najib cited improving the government's balance sheet as a key reason for subsidy reform.
The Malaysian government spent RM24.5 billion on subsidies in 2009, contributing to a large deficit amounting to 7% of GDP. Subsidy rationalisation will save about RM750 million in 2010. The government projects that it will still spend RM7.82 billion on fuel and sugar subsidies the same year.
Najib expressed hope that reforms would inspire the confidence of financial markets. Moody's Investors Service said that Malaysia's subsidy cuts were partially responsible for maintaining its standing in financial markets and that there is "upward pressure" on its bond rating.
The prime minister emphasised that not all of the savings would go to deficit reduction. He said to reporters, "We use the savings from expenditure to fulfil more agenda such as the National Key Results Area (NKRA) and National Key Economic Areas which we are implementing." Scholarships for excellent students and healthcare efforts such as the 1Malaysia Clinics were specifically mentioned. Najib said that these changes would only minimally impact family budgets while bringing long-term benefits to the nation.
Smuggling and shortages
Malaysia's extensive system of subsidies has been linked to shortages and smuggling of commodities. Malaysian fisherman often abandon fishing to sell fuel intended for their boats to their counterparts in countries like Thailand and Indonesia that do not offer similar subsidies. According to Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob businesses eligible for subsidised sugar often dramatically over-order and illegally sell their surplus to industries that are not targeted for subsidy. Such schemes can sometimes make it difficult for consumers to locate and purchase commodities.
Post 2022 General Election
In November 2022, 10th Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced a review of government subsidies, aiming to direct funds towards lower-income groups.
|
Pedro Romero de Terreros
|
[
"1710 births",
"1781 deaths",
"Mexican philanthropists",
"Counts of Spain",
"People of Spanish Texas",
"18th-century philanthropists",
"People from Huelva",
"Spanish mining businesspeople",
"Mexican mining businesspeople",
"Immigrants to New Spain",
"18th-century Spanish businesspeople",
"18th-century Spanish nobility",
"Spanish people in New Spain",
"Spanish colonial governors and administrators",
"18th-century people from New Spain"
] | 1,846 | 14,274 |
Pedro Romero de Terreros, Count of Regla (June 28, 1710 – 1781) was a Spanish merchant and philanthropist.
Early life
Pedro Romero de Terreros was born in Cortegana, Spain, on June 28, 1710, the fifth of six children and fourth son of Ana Gómez and José Romero de Terreros. His parents had little land or wealth but were related to the two largest landowners in Cortegana. Pedro and his brothers were all literate, although no documentation has been found as to how they were educated. Pedro showed signs of having a superior intellect, and his parents originally considered having him trained for the priesthood.
It is likely that Romero de Terreros began his career as a clerk in Puerto de Santa María. There would have been little opportunity for advancement, and the pay would have been very low. As a younger son, Romero de Terreros would not have received the same support from his parents as his elder brothers received, and he would have needed to find his own way. Several members of his extended family had previously emigrated to the New World and operated successful businesses there, and his eldest brother Francisco had emigrated in 1723 to work for their uncle Juan Vázquez Terreros; Francisco died in Mexico in 1728.
About 1730, Romero de Terreros traveled to Mexico. According to a contemporary account, Romero de Terreros's trip may originally have been to settle his brother's estate, but he chose to stay and assist his uncle. On his arrival, he followed a local practice of recent European immigrants using the honorific "don", a title which in Spain was reserved for the minor nobility (hidalgos). Romero de Terreros joined his uncle in Querétaro, the third largest city in Mexico.
On his arrival, Pedro learned that his uncle was almost bankrupt; rather than being trained, Pedro was instead almost immediately given full authority over his uncle's businesses. After his uncle's death in 1735, Romero de Terreros administered the estate. According to the will, Romero de Terreros would receive one-third of the profits from any future business, with the rest to be shared by Vázquez's children. In the will, Vázquez praised Romero de Terreros for his "activity, accuracy, and good work". By 1747, however, he settled his uncle's estate; money from the sale of the businesses was distributed to Vázquez's children.
Career
Romero de Terreros showed an affinity for making money and soon brought the businesses back into profitability. In 1741, he began to invest in the Pachuca-Mineral del Monte silver mines, along with his business partner Jose Alejandro Bustamante. As his personal wealth rose, so did his social status. He served as alcalde of Querétaro, and in 1752 was given an honorary knighthood in the Order of Calatrava. Spanish King Ferdinand VI granted Romero de Terreros a special exemption so that he could be inducted into the order from Querétaro rather than have to travel to Spain for the ceremony.
Romero de Torreros' management of the mines at Pachuca and Real del Monte resulted in a miner's strike in 1766 after he abolished the workers' party.
Personal life
On June 29, 1756, Romero de Terreros married noblewoman María Antonia de Trebuesto y Dávalos. The bride was the youngest daughter of the Countess of Miravalle, whose family had lived in Mexico for over 150 years. The Miravalle family was in dire financial straits, so Trebuesto was given no dowry. Romero de Terreros promised to give her 50,000 pesos if he died first, and, as a wedding present, gave her a large amount of jewelry, including two dresses covered in diamonds, and sponsored dowries for several young women to join convents in the city. The wedding celebration lasted two days and cost over 66,000 pesos, much more than Romero de Terreros would later pay for his home in Mexico City. The ceremony was officiated by the Archbishop of Mexico Manuel Rubio y Salinas. The couple had nine children before Trebuesto died from complications of childbirth in 1766.
Romero de Terreros lobbied very hard to be elevated to the nobility. His request was granted in 1768, when he was named the first Count of Regla (Conde de Santa María de Regla).
Colonization, charity, and mission benefaction
In the 1740s Romero de Terreros became a patron of the Franciscan order in Mexico. From 1745 through 1781 he gave 41,933 pesos to the Franciscan seminary College of San Fernando de México and another 91,023 pesos to the seminary College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro, as well as 100,000 pesos for the monastery in Pachuca. He met with friar Ilarione da Bergamo, an Italian Capuchin friar, who had been sent to Mexico by the Propaganda Fide to solicit alms he gave permission to do so at his mine at Real del Monte.
Romero de Terreros attempted to endow a convent on the grounds of the College of San Fernando de México in 1756, but the head of the seminary refused the request. After hearing that authorities were considering establishing a mission to the Lipan Apache tribe in Spanish Texas, Romero de Terreros volunteered to provide initial funding for the effort. He agreed to give 150,000 pesos to support twenty missionaries over a three-year-period and to purchase all church furnishings and other necessities. In return, he asked that the missionaries come from the College of San Fernando de México and the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro, and that his cousin, Father Alonso Giraldo de Terreros, be given responsibility for the mission.
After three years, the government would pay mission expenses, and the government would also fund a garrison to protect the missionaries. Unlike most missions, this one would report to the viceroy instead of the governor. Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá was established in 1757. The mission was destroyed, and Father Terreros killed, the following year by Comanche who were angered that the Spanish had allied with the Comanche's traditional enemies, the Apache.
Besides his support for the Catholic Church in Mexico, Romero de Terreros also gave funds to civil authorities. He funded a battleship for the Spanish Navy.
Between 1774 and 1777, Romero de Terreros established the Monte de Piedad, a charitable institution and pawnshop, as an attempt to provide interest-free or low-interest loans to the poor.
In 1762, Romero de Terreros commissioned a painting to honor his cousin who had died in the attack on the San Sabá mission. The resulting The Destruction of Mission San Sabá in the Province of Texas and the Martyrdom of the Fathers Alonso Giraldo de Terreros, Joseph Santiesteban is the earliest painting known to depict a historical event in Texas. According to the Handbook of Texas, the painting is "the only such work executed in Mexico in the mid-1700s that attempted to document a contemporary historical event". It remained in the Terreros family for the next 200 years.
Legacy
Beginning in 1750, Romero de Terreros retained every letter addressed to him as well as most of his written business records. His descendants preserved this archive. Some of the records now reside at Washington State University, while the rest remain with the family. According to his biographer Edith Boorstein Couturier, "no equivalent archives exist for other important eighteenth-century figures".
Terreros has been the subject of many biographies, starting with an 1858 tome written by his great-grandson, Juan Ramón Romero de Terreros. Another of his descendants, Manuel Romero de Terreros, wrote the first modern biography of him in 1943, but Courturier calls this book "a hagiographic and uncritical account". In the decades since, Terreros has been written about several times, largely in terms of his impact into labor relations within Mexico.
See also
Real del Monte
Further reading
|
List of European stock exchanges
|
[
"Stock exchanges in Europe",
"Lists of stock exchanges",
"Economy of Europe-related lists"
] | 1,350 | 12,786 |
In the European region, there are multiple stock exchanges among which five are considered major (as having a market cap of over US$1 trillion):
Euronext, which is a pan-European, Dutch-domiciled and France-headquartered stock exchange composed of seven market places in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, and Portugal.
London Stock Exchange Group, which is a global stock exchange composed of the London Stock Exchange.
Deutsche Börse, which operates Europe's third largest stock exchange, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange/Xetra.
SIX Group, which operates Switzerland's major stock exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, and Spain's major stock exchanges, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles.
Nasdaq Nordic, which is composed of Nordic stock exchanges; including Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, with activity in Norway and the Faroe Islands.
CountryGroupStock exchangeCityFoundedListingsTechnologyOperatingMIC Aquis Aquis Markets London, Paris 20126300 Aquis Technologies AQXE, AQEUAquis Stock ExchangeLondon2005~100Aquis TechnologiesAQSECboeCboe EuropeLondon2007 Cboe TitaniumCCXEEuronextEuronext AmsterdamAmsterdam16023600OPTIQXAMSEuronext ParisParis1724XPAREuronext LisbonLisbon1769XLISEuronext DublinDublin1793XDUBEuronext BrusselsBrussels 1801XBRUBorsa ItalianaMilan1808XMILOslo Stock ExchangeOslo1819XOSLNasdaq BalticNasdaq VilniusVilnius1992Main: 51MTF: 19 INET NordicXLITNasdaq RigaRiga1993XRISNasdaq TallinnTallinn1995XTALNasdaq Nordic Nasdaq Copenhagen Copenhagen1808Main: 698 INET NordicXCSENasdaq StockholmStockholm1863XSTONasdaq HelsinkiHelsinki1912XHELNasdaq IcelandReykjavík1985XICE Tirana Stock ExchangeTirana19964XTIR Warsaw Stock ExchangeArmenia Stock ExchangeYerevan2001XAMX Wiener BörseVienna177163T7XWBO Baku Stock ExchangeBaku200027BSEX Belarusian Currency and Stock ExchangeMinsk1998 BCSE Sarajevo Stock ExchangeSarajevo2001XSSEBanja Luka Stock ExchangeBanja Luka2001XBLB Bulgarian Stock ExchangeSofia1914 T7XBUL The International Stock ExchangeGuernsey20134000TISE Zagreb Stock Exchange Zagreb190745T7XZAG Cyprus Stock ExchangeNicosia1996 XCYS Prague Stock ExchangePrague187129 T7XPRA Faroese Securities MarketTórshavn2004 VMFX Georgian Stock ExchangeTbilisi1999261XGSE Berliner BörseBerlin168529461Xontro, EquiductXBERBörse DüsseldorfDüsseldorf1853XontroXDUSHamburg Stock ExchangeHamburg/Hanover 1558 XontroXHAM/
XHANBörse MünchenMünchen1830 MAX-ONEXMUNBörse StuttgartStuttgart1861 XitaroXSTUDeutsche BörseBörse FrankfurtFrankfurt15851555843T7XFRAXetraFrankfurt19973580T7XETRTradegate ExchangeBerlin20099100 XGAT, XGRM Gibraltar Stock ExchangeGibraltar2014 GSXL Athens Stock ExchangeAthens1876251XATH Budapest Stock ExchangeBudapest186461T7XBUD Kazakhstan Stock ExchangeAlmaty1993 XKAZAstana International ExchangeAstana2017 AIXK Luxembourg Stock ExchangeLuxembourg (city)1927OPTIQXLUX Malta Stock ExchangeValletta1992T7XMAL Moldova Stock ExchangeChișinău1994XMOL Montenegro Stock ExchangePodgorica1993XMNX Nxchange Amsterdam20158XNXCNPEXThe Hague2009NPEX Macedonian Stock ExchangeSkopje1995XMAE Warsaw Stock ExchangeWarsaw1817449UTPXWAR Bucharest Stock ExchangeBucharest188283XBSE Moscow ExchangeMoscow2013 (1992)MISXSaint Petersburg Stock ExchangeSaint Petersburg1997SPIM Belgrade Stock ExchangeBelgrade189466XBEL Bratislava Stock ExchangeBratislava1991XBRA Ljubljana Stock ExchangeLjubljana198961T7XLJU SIX GroupBolsa de BarcelonaBarcelona1915BMEXBolsa de BilbaoBilbao1890BMEXBolsa de MadridMadrid1831BMEXMercado Oficial Español de Futuros y OpcionesMadrid1989BMEXBolsa de ValenciaValencia1981BMEX Börse StuttgartNordic Growth MarketStockholm2003 Main: 6SME: 104ElasticiaXNGMSpotlight GroupSpotlight Stock MarketStockholm1997 138INET NordicXSAT SIX GroupSIX Swiss ExchangeZürich1850266XSWXBörse StuttgartBX SwissZürich188818ElasticiaXBRN Borsa IstanbulIstanbul1866417XIST PFTS Ukraine Stock ExchangeKyiv2002PFTSUkrainian ExchangeKyiv200888XUAX LSEGLondon Stock ExchangeLondon1571 2800MillenniumXLON
See also
Central banks and currencies of Europe
List of stock exchanges
European Central Bank
Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges
*
Stock Exchanges
|
Kutty Padmini
|
[
"Tamil actresses",
"Actresses from Chennai",
"Actresses in Tamil cinema",
"Actresses in Telugu cinema",
"Kerala State Film Award winners",
"Living people",
"Indian film actresses",
"Indian women film producers",
"Film producers from Chennai",
"Actresses in Malayalam cinema",
"20th-century Indian actresses",
"21st-century Indian actresses",
"Indian women television producers",
"Indian child actresses",
"Businesswomen from Tamil Nadu",
"Best Child Artist National Film Award winners",
"20th-century Indian businesswomen",
"20th-century Indian businesspeople",
"21st-century Indian businesswomen",
"21st-century Indian businesspeople",
"Actresses in Hindi cinema",
"Actresses in Tamil television",
"Actresses in Telugu television",
"Actresses in Hindi television",
"Child actresses in Malayalam cinema",
"Year of birth missing (living people)",
"Tamil television directors",
"Tamil television producers",
"Tamil television writers"
] | 2,778 | 28,050 |
Kutty Padmini is an Indian actress who mainly works in Tamil cinema. She was a child star in her debut movie Abalai Anjugam (1959). She has also acted in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi movies. She made her debut in Tamil cinema at the age of 3. She has acted with prominent personalities of Tamil cinema, including Sivaji Ganesan, M. G. Ramachandran, Gemini Ganesan, Jaishankar, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. She was the first female artist from Tamil Nadu to win the National Film Award for Best Child Artist for the movie Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum.
Kutty Padmini also established herself as supporting actress in movies such as Penmani Aval Kanmani, Aval Appadithan, Avargal, Sakalakala Sammandhi etc.., She made a foray into TV serials productions through her Vaishnavi Films Enterprises Limited and produced many of the finest works of the day, including Krishnadasi (2016 TV series)(Hindi remake of the Tamil TV series of the same name), Romapuri Pandian and Ramanujar.
Kutty Padmini is also the executive member in Nadigar Sangam, one of the directors in Blue Ocean Films and Television Academy, managing director of Kreeda Sports Foundation and Brand owner of Kreeda Cup, an initiative by Kreeda Sports foundation to support young athletes.
Career
Padmini entered filmdom at the age of 3 months. She went on to act in many movies as child artist. However, her notable film role was in the 1965 Tamil film Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum along with Jaishankar and Jamuna, where she played dual roles. She received the National Film Award for Best Child Artist for her performance and she is the first person from Tamil Nadu to have received this award since its inception. This film was subsequently remade in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi and she was felicitated for her role by both Kannada and Andhra state governments. She was also acted in various movies such as Pasamalar, Navarathri, Leta Manasulu, Odayil Ninnu, etc.., She stunned everyone with her performance in the movie Thiruvarutchelvar as a young girl "Ponni", who answered the King's three questions and also in Thirumal Perumai as young Andal, which was widely appreciated.
Political life
Kutty Padmini joined BJP in the presence of party president Nitin Gadkari in February 2011.
Tamil
YearTitleRole 1959Abalai Anjugam1960Deiva Piravi1961Pasa MalarYoung Radha1962Azhagu NilaLakshmi1962Nenjil Or AalayamDying Child1962Kaathiruntha KangalLalitha, Shenbagam1962Avana IvanMeena1963Aasai AlaigalKannama1964NavarathiriLalitha Arputhara1964Vazhkai VazhvatharkeValli1965Kuzhandaiyum DeivamumLalli/Padmini "Pappi"1966Sadhu MirandalPreema1966Motor Sundaram PillaiRajee1966Anbe Vaa1967ThiruvarutselvarPonni1967Naan1967Anubavam Pudumai1968Thirumal PerumaiYoung Kothai1969Nam NaaduSelvi1969Ulagam Ivvalavuthan1970Maanavan1972Naan Yen PiranthenAnoushia1974Avalum PenthaneNishalu1974Sisubalan1977AvaragalGayathri1978Aval Appadithanherself1979Nallathoru Kudumbam1981NanduLakshmi1981Arumbugal1986Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu1986Thazhuvatha Kaigal1987Oru Thayin SabhathamMrs. Ravi1987JallikattuKutty Amma1987Koottu Puzhukkal1987Kani Nilam1987Neethikku Thandanai1987Ullam Kavarntha Kalvan1987Thali Dhanam1988Sakalakala SammandhiVellai Amma1988Kan Simittum NeramVanni1988Illam1988Therkathikkallan1988Penmani Aval KanmaniKalpana1989Penn Buthi Pin Buthi1990Shathriyan1991Karpoora Mullai1992Pattathu Raani2018Utharavu Maharaja
Telugu
YearTitleRole 1959Daiva Balam1959Illarikam1960Shanthi Nivasam1961Bhakta Jayadeva1962Manchi Manasulu1963Irugu Porugu1963Pempudu Koothuru1965Anthasthulu1966Asthi ParagluAmmulu1966SakunthalaBharatha1966Leta Manasulu(Puppy) / Lalitha (Lalli) (Dual role)1967Chikkadu Dorakadu1969Eka Veera1969Kadhanayakudu1969Vichithra Kudubam1970Pasidi Manasulu1971Vichithra Thambathiyam1971Amaayakuraalu1972Vichitra Bandham1972Kula Gouravam1978Chilipi KrishnuduCollege student1982AnthaBanthaluAs a patient1985Jeevitha Bandham1986Karu Diddina Kapuram1996Pavithra Bandham
Malayalam
YearTitleRole 1964School Master1965Odayil NinnuYoung Lakshmi1965KuppivalaTharabi1973Surya Gandhi1976Aalinganam1977Anandham Paramanandham19771977Aa Nimisham1978Vayanadan Thamban1985Anubandham1991Ente Sooriya Puthri
Kannada
YearTitleRole 1963Saaku MagaluBabu (baby boy)1965Satya HarischandraLohitasya1967Sri Purandara Dasaru1976Katha SangamaShoba (uncredited)
Hindi
YearTitleRole 1963GrahasthiAbbitu1963Dil Ek MandirUma1987Kudrat Ka Kanoon
TV serials
Year Title Credited asLanguage NotesProducerDirectorWriterActed1986Shrimanji Hindi1987Kishan Khanya Hindi1986Bhool Na Jhana Hindi1989Tarazu Hindi1991Kittigadu Tamil, Telugu, Hindi1991Valar Pirai Tamil,1991Vaishali Tamil 1992Sangursh Hindi 1994Aadhar Shila Hindi, Tamil 1995F.I.R Tamil 1995Kadamai Tamil 1995Kash Ma Kash Hindi 1995Nijamana Uyarangal Tamil 1995Oliyum Oliyum Tamil 1995Thulasi Thalam Tamil 1996Ab Aaya Na Maza Hindi 1996Sthree Hindi 1996Dharm Adharm Hindi, Tamil 1996Anandha Rao Palli Telugu 1997Olimighu Bharatham Tamil 1997Ungal Viruppam Tamil 1997Nayagi Tamil 1997Pen Ninaithal Tamil 1998Naveena Nakeeran Tamil 1999Poomanam Tamil 2000Uravugal Tamil 2000Krishnadasi Tamil 2001Jhala Khreedai Tamil 2001Nila Tamil 2002Chutti Payal Kittu Tamil 2002Swarangal Tamil 2002Kadhiravan Tamil 2002Swaati Muthu Kannada 2002Thillu Mullu Tamil2004Kana Kanden Tamil2004Bairavi Tamil2003Cinta Bollywood (Part - I) Malay2003Cinta Bollywood (Part - II) MalayMasakan Afrikan Seletan Malay2004Malayu Aftrika -2004Masakan India -2004Teroka Afrika Malay2004Teroka India -2004Teroka Jaipur -Avakai Girls Telugu2007Kohara Hindi 2007 Ammayi Kapuram TeluguKannadi Kadavugal Tamil2008Kalasam TamilCreative Head2010Bakthavijayam Tamil2010Suryaputhri Tamil2012Romapuri Pandian Tamil2015Ramanujar Tamil2016Thenpandi Singam Tamil
Web series
Year Title Credited asLanguageChannel IMDbProducerDirectorWriterActed2017 Maya ThirraiKutty Padmini kaushik Narasimhan U KirthanaNandha Durairaj, Eden Kuriakose, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, Tamil ALTBalaji6.4/10 2019Police Diary 2.0 Kutty Padmini, Shiva , P. Danush
Harry J. Heffes
Kutty Padmini
P. Rajaganesan
Rupa SrinithaLizzie Antony, Anjana Jayaprakash, John Kokken , Santhosh PrathapTamilZee57.4/10 2020Singa Penne Kutty PadminiR. Pavan Kutty Padmini,
Shyam Prasad , Payal Radhakrishna , Arnav, Vincent Asokan, , Pandi (actor)Tamilzee 57.4/10 2021Kuruthi KalamKutty Padmini,
Sameer Nair,
Deepak SegalP. Rajapandi
Danush
K. Mohan
Vignesh Karthick
Kishore Sankar
KavirajSanthosh Prathap, Sanam Shetty, Ashok Kumar (Tamil actor), Vincent Asokan, Eden Kuriakose, Santhana Bharathi, Soundararaja, G. Marimuthu, SrikanthTamilMXPLAYER8.6/10 Under productionNashaKutty PadminiTeluguAmazon PrimeUnder productionSiraaiKutty PadminiTamilVoot
Awards and honors
National Award as the "Best Child Artiste" for the film Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum
Kutty Padmini Actress Felicitated by Rotary Club of Madras
Best Producer for Cinta Bollywood from former President of Singapore- S. R. Nathan
Gold Award from Indian Content Leadership Awards in 2109 for best thriller content on an OTT platform- Maya Thirrai by Vaishnave Mediaa Works Limited
Kalaimamani Award in 2011 from Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram.
Lifetime Achievement award in the South Indian Cinematographers Association (SICA) Awards 2015
|
Hypercom
|
[
"1978 establishments in Australia",
"2011 disestablishments in Arizona",
"Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange",
"Defunct software companies of the United States",
"Point of sale companies",
"Financial services companies established in 1978",
"Financial services companies disestablished in 2011",
"Manufacturing companies established in 1978",
"Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2011",
"2011 mergers and acquisitions",
"Defunct manufacturing companies based in Arizona"
] | 636 | 6,978 |
Hypercom Corporation was an Australian company which was a pioneer of electronic payment processing hardware and software. It was acquired by rival VeriFone in 2011.
History
Hypercom was founded by Hungarian born George Wallner, David Saul, Brian Pascoe, and Leslie Fritz in Sydney Australia in 1978. It went on to dominate the South Pacific region in terms of payment terminals. In 1988 the company signed a deal with American Express to provide its terminals to them in the US. To consolidate the deal, Hypercom moved its head office from Australia to Arizona in the US. It then faced head-to-head competition with VeriFone on its home market.
On April 4, 2011, Ingenico announced its agreement to acquire Hypercom's U.S. Payment Systems Business prior to the close of the VeriFone acquisition On the same day it announced that its UK and Spanish operations would be sold separately to a private investment company and this business was renamed as Spire Payments.
On May 12, 2011, The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the proposed acquisition of Hypercom by VeriFone saying the planned sale of Hypercom's U.S. POS terminal business to Ingenico does not resolve the antitrust concerns
On August 4, 2011, VeriFone announced its completion of the acquisition of Hypercom U.S. business after reaching a settlement with antitrust regulators to sell Hypercom's U.S. payment systems business to an entity sponsored by investment firm Gores Group LLC Simultaneously, KleinPartners Capital announced the acquisition of Hypercom Spain S.A. and Hypercom UK, with Kazem Aminaee, the former President of Hypercom Europe, Middle East, and Africa, forming Spire Payments
On September 30, 2011, Hypercom US announced it formally changed its corporate name to Equinox Payments, LLC.
|
Sleeman Breweries
|
[
"Food and drink companies established in 1834",
"Food and drink companies established in 1988",
"Canadian companies established in 1988",
"Companies based in Guelph",
"Beer brewing companies based in Ontario",
"Canadian beer brands",
"Food and drink companies disestablished in 1933",
"Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies",
"Sapporo Breweries",
"Re-established companies",
"1834 establishments in Upper Canada",
"1933 disestablishments in Ontario",
"1988 establishments in Ontario",
"2006 mergers and acquisitions"
] | 2,409 | 21,665 |
Sleeman Breweries is a Japanese-owned Canadian brewery founded by John Warren Sleeman in 1988 in Guelph, Ontario. The company is the third-largest brewing company in Canada. Along with its own Sleeman brands, the company produces under licence the Stroh's family of brands, Maclays Ale and Sapporo Premium beers for sale in Canada. The company's parent Sapporo owns 4.2 per cent of Ontario's primary beer retailer The Beer Store.
The company is the re-establishment of a line of brewing companies owned by the Sleeman family dating back to the 1830s. The original Sleeman Breweries was established in the 1850s and operated until it lost its licence due to smuggling and tax evasion, for 50 years, in 1933.
John W. Sleeman re-established the brewery in the 1980s using the original company recipes. In 2006, Sleeman Breweries was purchased by Sapporo Brewery for million. John W. Sleeman remained as CEO until 2010 when he relinquished that role and was made Chairman of the company.
History
John H. Sleeman was born in Cornwall, England, in 1805 and came to Upper Canada (present day Ontario) in 1834, first settling in St. David's (Niagara-on-the-Lake) where he founded the Stamford Spring Brewery in 1836. He and his family moved to Guelph in 1847 where they operated a series of breweries including the Hodgert’s Brewery, and the Silver Creek Brewery, which he opened in 1851. His son George Sleeman joined the company in 1859 as general manager and was named a partner in 1865. John H. died in 1893.
By 1890, George Sleeman had achieved great success with Silver Creek Brewery which had sales in Ontario and Quebec. He incorporated it into the Sleeman Brewing and Malting Company Limited with members of his immediate family. Due to excessive investments in his Guelph Street Railway Company, he lost the businesses to the banks in 1905; he then opened the Springbank Brewery. A year later the banks sold the brewery back to Sleeman. The family subsequently operated breweries in Guelph, often with success, until 1933.
Prohibition in Canada had an effect on the business. In Ontario, prohibition started in 1916 with the passing of the Ontario Temperance Act by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. While that eliminated the domestic market, the law allowed for brewing for export, so the Sleemans continued to do so, shipping their products to the US. This was perfectly legal until 1920 when the Volstead Act led to Prohibition in the United States as well. The Sleeman family (including younger members) subsequently worked with bootleggers to export their beer to Michigan, paying no taxes on the illegally gained profits. Some sources (including John W. Sleeman) hint that the family was involved with Al Capone but after considerable research, historian Micheal Matchett suggests that the contact in the US was actually Rocco Perri, often called the "Al Capone of Canada" according to the book Rocco Perri: The Story of Canada's Most Notorious Bootlegger. Perri had documented connections with Guelph's large Italian population.
In April 1927, the family claimed to a Parliament of Canada special committee that the business' books had been lost. Eventually, the smuggling was uncovered; it was allowed to continue however, on the agreement that taxes would be paid. Since the business refused to pay, charges were laid for smuggling and for non-payment of taxes later in 1933. On conviction, the family's license to brew beer was revoked for 50 years, effectively ending their entire enterprise. The brewing operation was sold to the Jockey Club Brewery Ltd.
Revival
Five decades later, in 1984, John W. Sleeman of Oakville, Ontario, great-great-grandson of John H. Sleeman, acquired the book of family beer recipes from his aunt Florian. He incorporated the new Sleeman Brewing and Malting Co. Ltd. in Guelph and began producing beer in 1988 with backing from Stroh Brewery Company for much of the $3 million he needed, a loan from a Detroit bank, and about $500,000 of his own money. The company flourished.
In 2006, Sleeman Breweries was purchased by Sapporo Breweries for $400 million; in the agreement, John W. Sleeman sold all of his shares to Sapporo but continued as president until 2010. In 2012, the company produced of beverages, an increase of approximately over the previous year.
As of 2020, the company's President and CEO was Jesse Hanazawa. The company was brewing its products in three cities: Guelph, Ontario; Chambly, Quebec; and Vernon, British Columbia. These facilities were manufacturing Sleeman, Okanagan Spring and Unibroue Canadian beers as well as the Sapporo, Old Milwaukee and Pabst Blue Ribbon brands. The company previously operated a plant in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, until its closure in 2013.
Acquisitions
Over the years, Sleeman either acquired other breweries or purchased the rights to distribute, or manufacture and distribute, various brands of beer.
In 1996, the Sleeman brewery purchased the Okanagan Spring Brewery and the consortium formed the new Sleeman Breweries Ltd.
In 1998, the company acquired Upper Canada Brewing and Quebec's Brasserie Seigneuriale Inc.
In 1999, Sleeman purchased Shaftebury Brewing Company, a large microbrewery in Delta, B.C.
Also in 1999, Sleeman purchased the Canadian rights to brew and distribute the American Stroh Brewing Company's folio of brands, including Stroh's, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Milwaukee, Rainier and others for $39 million.
In 2000, Sleeman bought Maritime Beer Co., a small bankrupt brewer in Dartmouth, N.S.
In 2002, the company purchased the rights to distribute products of the Dutch Grolsch Brewery in Canada.
In 2004, the company bought Unibroue, Quebec's largest craft brewer that was making a line of premium beers in Chambly, Quebec.
In 2019, the company bought Wild Rose Brewery, a small craft brewery in Calgary, Alberta.
Timeline
Sleeman's breweries date back to 1836 when John H., a malter and brewer, founded Stamford Springs Brewery.
1800s – The Slyman family, unlicensed English brewers, change their name to Sleeman.
1805 – John Sleeman is born in Cornwall, England.
1834 – John H. Sleeman leaves Cornwall and arrives in Upper Canada (Ontario); he settles in St. Davids (Niagara-on-the-Lake).
1836 – Sleeman establishes the Stamford Springs Brewery in St. David's.
1845 – Sleeman moves to Lockport, New York, to craft brew beer.
1847 – He sells the Stamford Spring Brewery and moves from Rockport, New York, to Guelph, where he leases Hodgert's Brewery, which he will operate for three years.
1850 – Hodgerts Brewery is sold.
1851 – Sleeman establishes his third brewery, Silver Creek Brewery, in Guelph.
1859 – He relinquishes control to his son George Sleeman (1841–1923) who had been general manager and then partner.
1862 – The business is renamed Sleeman and Son when George Jr. joins the enterprise.
1867 – John H. Sleeman retires leaving George Sleeman (Sr.) as sole owner.
1900 – John's grandson George Sleeman Jr. incorporates Sleeman Brewing and Malting and in 1903, he opens a second company, Spring Bank Beverages.
1921 – Silver Springs Brewery Beverage Company is renamed Canada Malt Products.
1927 – Spring Bank Brewery is incorporated and managed by Henry O. Sleeman.
1933 – The Sleeman brothers are charged with smuggling and tax evasion; their license is suspended and the brewery is sold to the Jockey Club.
1955 – The Sleeman Brewing and Malting Company name becomes inactive.
1988 – The Sleeman Brewing and Malting Company is re-established by John Warren Sleeman, great-great grandson of John H. Sleeman, marketing beer in clear bottles instead of the typical brown.
1999 – Sleeman Brewing purchases Shaftebury Brewing Company.
2004 – Sleeman Breweries Ltd. buys Quebec based Unibroue brewery for $36.5 million.
2006 – Sapporo Breweries purchases Sleeman for approximately $400 million.
2014 – Shaftebury Brewing Company is sold to Fireweed Brewing Company
The brewery produces a line of beers under the Sleeman name, including:
Clear 2.0 (a low carbohydrate beer)
Cream Ale
Original Lager
Honey Brown Lager
Silver Creek Lager
Light
Rousse Dark
India Pale Ale
Fine Porter
Aside from its own brands, the company brews Pabst products for the Canadian market, including Old Milwaukee, Stroh's, Schlitz and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Other brands brewed under licence include Maclays Pale Ale for Maclays Brewery, Red Bull Beer and Sapporo Premium for Sapporo Brewery, their parent company.
Sleeman also continues to brew Upper Canada Lager and Upper Canada Dark Ale, two beers that were formerly produced by the Upper Canada Brewing Company before it acquired the company. Additional beers under the Upper Canada brand including Rebellion Lager, Wheat and Maple Brown Ale have since been discontinued.
Sleeman owns a 2% stake in The Beer Store (previously Brewers Retail), the operator of the primary retail outlet for beer in Ontario.
Many Sleeman brands are distributed in clear bottles, which are less expensive, but can result in the liquids becoming more susceptible to light damage. Concerned this would affect the beer's taste, Sleeman compensates for this in a majority of their brews by using hops that are processed to be less light sensitive.
The annual Canadian Brewing Awards recognizes the best beers in Canada using blind taste tests. Most of the 2015 winners were craft beers. However, one of the winners was Sleeman Cream Ale, taking a Gold in the Cream Ale category.
Marketing
The brewery entered into a $1.2 million sponsorship deal with the City of Guelph in 2007 that gives Sleeman exclusive naming rights to the Guelph Sports and Entertainment Centre until 2020.
In 2010, the company began an advertising campaign drawing attention to their bootlegging past. In July 2016, an ad with the slogan "Every bottle of Sleeman has a past – A shady past" won Best Alcohol Ad of the Month from AdForum, an online showcase for advertising agencies.
See also
Beer in Canada
List of breweries in Canada
|
International Volunteer HQ
|
[
"New Zealand companies established in 2007",
"International charities",
"International volunteer organizations",
"Cultural exchange",
"Mercury Capital",
"Privately held companies of New Zealand",
"Service companies of New Zealand",
"Education companies established in 2007",
"2017 mergers and acquisitions",
"B Lab-certified corporations"
] | 574 | 5,695 |
International Volunteer HQ Limited (IVHQ) is a New Zealand-based volunteer travel company founded by Daniel John Radcliffe in 2007. In September 2015, it has sent 50,000 volunteers overseas to 30 countries on 200 different projects. In November 2017, the Sydney investment company Mercury Capital acquired a majority stake in IVHQ.
Services and activities
The organization facilitates affordable volunteer trips abroad, with the intent of enabling travelers to explore the world while making a difference. IVHQ focuses on matching volunteers with projects that are locally led and have a focus on long term sustainability. Volunteer projects cover a broad range of skills which includes childcare, teaching, medical, wildlife, environmental, construction, arts, sports, NGO Support, refugee support, women's empowerment, sea turtle and marine conservation, community development, elderly care and special needs care. IVHQ has reportedly dispatched more than 127,000 international volunteers in more than 40 countries since its founding.
History
IVHQ was started in 2007, when Daniel Radcliffe volunteered in Kenya. His stated goal was to refocus on the basics of volunteer service, which he felt were not being met by other organizations. IVHQ was initially started on his family farm in Taranaki, New Zealand. Now it employs more than 40 people and includes a sister company, Intern Abroad HQ, that places interns around the world on career-focused opportunities.
In 2015, IVHQ became an independently certified B Corporation.
In November 2017, Sydney-based firm Mercury Capital purchased an 80% majority stake in IVHQ.
See also
Cross-Cultural Solutions
Global Work & Travel
Global Brigades
Rotary Youth Exchange
Volunteers in Africa Foundation
|
Jørgen Thormøhlen
|
[
"1640s births",
"1708 deaths",
"17th-century Norwegian businesspeople",
"18th-century Norwegian businesspeople",
"Businesspeople from Schleswig-Holstein",
"Norwegian people of German descent",
"Norwegian slave traders",
"Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire",
"Merchants from Denmark–Norway"
] | 600 | 5,646 |
Jørgen Thormøhlen ( – 25 December 1708) was a German-born Norwegian merchant, shipowner, slave trader and industrialist.
Thormøhlen was born in the Duchy of Holstein, at that time a hereditary possession of the King of Denmark as Duke of Holstein-Glückstadt. He was the son of Jürgen ther Möhlen, a German wine trader from Hamburg. In 1664, he settled in Bergen, where he married Giertrud Magers. She was the daughter of naturalized citizen Hendrich Magers, who was regarded as the wealthiest merchant in Bergen. Thormøhlen became the largest ship-owner in Norway, trading fish from Northern Norway and being involved in a number of other businesses. He made his fortune through overseas and domestic trade (including the Danish slave trade) and owning ships. He also developed an industrial site located at Vestre Sydnes. The property included a salt refinery, packing sheds, a deep-water harbour, and employee homes.
Thormøhlen was the main owner of the Norwegian slave ship Cornelia, which in 1673 sailed to West Africa transporting a cargo of liquor and trinkets which it exchanged for a number of enslaved Africans; 103 slaves were transported to the island of Saint Thomas in the Danish West Indies by the Cornelia. In the next year, the Cornelia made another triangular trade voyage, again delivering 103 slaves to Saint Thomas. In 1682, King Christian V proclaimed him trade director. in 1695, he received royal permission to issue banknotes supported by a loan from the king. From 1685 to 1693, Thormøhlen owned the Kronstad Hovedgård manor house, which was located in the borough of Årstad (on the southern shore of the bay of Store Lungegårdsvannet) south of the city. However, heavy financial losses in overseas trade along with a major series of structure fires at Bryggen in 1702 created difficulties for Thormøhlen, who eventually went bankrupt.
Personal life and legacy
He was married to Giertrud Magers, daughter of Hendrich Magers and Mægtele Lorentzen; the couple were the parents of a number of children. Thormøhlen was the great-grandfather of playwright, literary critic, editor and civil servant Claus Fasting. After his death, Thormøhlen's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade had come under controversy. During the 2020 George Floyd protests, there were calls to remove a statue of him in Bergen. A neighbourhood of the city, Møhlenpris, which was named after Thormøhlen has faced calls to be renamed.
|
Tsvetan Vasilev
|
[
"Bulgarian businesspeople",
"Bulgarian company founders",
"Bulgarian bankers",
"20th-century Bulgarian economists",
"1959 births",
"People from Gabrovo",
"Living people",
"21st-century Bulgarian economists"
] | 3,408 | 34,277 |
Tsvetan Vasilev (also spelled Tzvetan Vassilev; ; born 1959) is a Bulgarian entrepreneur. He is the former majority shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board of Corporate Commercial Bank, the fifth-largest Bulgarian bank based on assets, which collapsed in 2014 after a bank run. Vasilev argues the bank faced a corporate raiding attack orchestrated by media mogul and politician Delyan Peevski with the help of Bulgaria's Prosecutor's Office and the Bulgarian central bank, so that its most attractive assets could be stolen. Vasilev has submitted an application under the US Global Magnitsky Act against Delyan Peevski and Bulgaria's General Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov. He successfully challenged the withdrawal of the bank's license before the European Court of Human Rights which established violations of the right to property and the right to a fair trial. Depositors at the Corporate Commercial Bank have submitted a claim against Peevski, the Bulgarian National Bank and others under the US Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act: they argue that the defendants engaged in fraud after the bank's closure to deviate assets. Vasilev currently lives in exile in Serbia where he was granted political asylum.
Years of Bloom
Vasilev is former chairman of the supervisory board of Corporate Commercial Bank AD, the fifth bank in Bulgaria based on assets, which collapsed after a bank run in 2014. as well as its majority shareholder.
Tsvetan Vasilev is also former chairman of the supervisory board of Victoria FATA Insurance as well as the supervisory board of Vivacom, a Bulgarian telecom company. Vasilev is the recipient of the badge of honor of the University of National and World Economy in Sofia and Doctor Honoris Causa of the "St Ivan Rilski" University of Mining and Geology.
Education
Tsvetan Vasilev holds a master's degree in International Economic Relations from the University of National and World Economy. After graduation, he worked as a research fellow in economics at the Center of Foreign Trade and International Markets for seven years.
Early career
Tsvetan Vasilev started his career in finance in 1992 when he founded his brokerage company Bromak EOOD and his investment intermediary Fina-S AD. Between 1995 and 1999 he headed the Foreign Exchange Operations and Liquidity Department of Central Cooperative Bank, and in 1997 he also became member of the bank's board of directors. In 1999 he left Central Cooperative Bank to head the Markets and Liquidity Department at CB Bulgaria Invest (now Allianz Bulgaria Commercial Bank).
Corporate Commercial Bank ("Corpbank")
Between 2000 and 2003, Vasilev served as chairman of the executive board and executive director of Corporate Commercial Bank AD. In 2003 he became its majority shareholder and chairman of its supervisory board.
Entrepreneurial and innovative investments
By 2014, Corpbank was Bulgaria's fourth-largest bank. The bank held an extensive portfolio of companies and was the only bank in Bulgaria investing in start-ups and entrepreneurs. Because the bank was making these types of investments that no other banks were doing, its profits and regional power grew. Until its destruction by Bulgarian regulators and the looting of its assets, Corpbank was arguably the most innovative and entrepreneurial bank in the Balkans.
Starting from scratch in 2001, it was a pioneer in export financing to Bulgarian energy producers and ammunition manufacturers previously without banking options. Unlike its rivals, Corpbank also made direct investments in its clients and emerging enterprises in Bulgaria, most notably the country's leading telecom Vivacom, which it bought from creditors along with affiliates of VTB Capital in 2012. Vivacom is the leading market provider in Bulgaria for a variety of telecommunications services, including landline, mobile, Internet, radio, and TV. It has approximately 3,500 employees. Vassilev saw the opportunity and raised the capital to make the purchase.
Experts claim that the Vivacom deal was amidst the most complicated ones on the Bulgarian financial market. The restructuring was approved by the European Commission and the international creditors of Vivacom. Prior to the acquisition by Vasilev and VTB Capital, Vivacom had incurred significant debt after a buyout by AIG in 2007, which subsequently sold its shares to PineBridge Investments.
The company's 2013 financial report showed considerable improvement: EBITDA increased from BGN 267 million to BGN 339 million.
"Sudden" run on the bank
Because of its growth, wealth, and power, in April 2014 one of the most influential political parties in Bulgaria (DPS) visited Vassilev. The request was simple: transfer assets for free to the "mobster circle of DPS." Vassilev refused.
Suddenly, by June and July 2014, Corpbank customers withdrew cash in a panic. Prior to the bank run, several Bulgarian media outlets ran stories accusing Vassilev of trying to organize the murder of a media titan who had close connections to the government, Delyan Peevski. Prosecutors raided companies affiliated with Corpbank. They confiscated financial documents from those companies. TV stations ran live feeds of the prosecution's raids. Over the course of 4 days, over 20 percent of Corpbank's assets were withdrawn in cash by depositors.
After the bank run, Corpbank was closed for six months. Customers could not get money out. The Bulgarian government's currency board denied the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) from creating money to pay Corpbank's customers. According to Forbes, "Paying off depositors was therefore impossible. But reopening the bank was not an option either since that would simply re-start the run. Therefore, the BNB kept the bank "on ice".
Bank collapse and shutdown
In June 2014, Corpbank collapsed following a bank run during which the equivalent of nearly 20% of its assets were withdrawn. Corpbank was officially shut down and placed under the special supervision of the Bulgarian National Bank on 20 June 2014 after a request by its management. The bank's management applied for special supervision because the Bulgarian National Bank refused to provide liquidity support. According to media reports at that time, the shutdown was due to a dispute between Vassilev and "Bulgarian media oligarch Delyan Peevski."
Civil and criminal charges
After spending some time in Austria, Vasilev is currently residing in Belgrade, Serbia where he was granted political asylum. He voluntarily surrendered to Serbian police officers on 16 September 2014. In March 2015, the Appellate Court of Belgrade ruled against an extradition request by the Bulgarian authorities. The Appellate Court of Belgrade conclusively refused to extradite Vasilev to Bulgaria in May 2022.
After inexplicably modifying charges several times, in July 2017 Bulgaria's prosecution indicted Vasilev with embezzlement along with 17 other people. According to Reuters, the case is "seen as one of the Balkan nation's biggest post-communist fraud investigations". The Prosecutor's Office set a record by drafting an indictment which is more than 5000 pages long: Bulgaria's Deputy General Prosecutor Ivan Geshev has compared writing it to landing on the Moon with a diesel engine and transplanting a brain. However, it has been observed that two-thirds of the indictment do not seem to be related to the charges.
Vasilev argues that the charges against him are political. He has successfully challenged the withdrawal of the bank's license before the European Court of Human Rights which established violations of the right to property and the right to a fair trial. In August 2017, he also submitted an application under the US Magnitsky Act, which sanctions corrupt government officials implicated in human rights abuses, against Bulgaria's General Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov and media mogul and Member of Parliament Delyan Peevski. His application has been supported by Bill Richardson.
"Delyan Peevski is simply one of the main tools that the Bulgarian political mafia uses to blackmail Bulgarian business—the visible part of a rather large iceberg of corruption," Vassilev said in a Forbes interview. "The political mafia is persistently trying to downgrade what happened to Corpbank to a personal conflict between Mr. Peevski and me, which is utterly untrue. I had a conflict with the political mafia ruling the country, which has been blackmailing and threatening me for many years."
In 2019, Bulgarian authorities arrested key witnesses in the ongoing trial: critics argue this is an illegitimate attempt to influence their testimonies. The government is also going after Vasilev's wife who is a university professor by raising charges. Meanwhile, the government amended Bulgaria's criminal codes in a rush several times: in the eyes of Bulgarian jurist Tatyana Doncheva, these amendments were made to help the Prosecutor's Office in the trial against Vasilev by compromising the equality of arms in criminal proceedings and by making it easier to convict people based on fabricated charges. The Association of Bulgarian Judges has deemed that many of these amendments are anti-constitutional.
Corpbank's assets after the forced shutdown
After Corpbank's shutdown, insolvency proceedings were officially initiated. Corpbank's clients, however, repeatedly warned that Bulgaria's authorities were violating the creditors' interests. Media reported that assets were deviated by companies and persons allegedly affiliated with Delyan Peevski and the witnesses against Vasilev.
Vasilev also argues that Bulgarian authorities close their eyes to irregularities in the insolvency proceedings. He was concerned about the fate of Corpbank's strategic assets, such as Vivacom. In particular, VTB Capital controlled 33% of Vivacom through their daughter company Crusher even though they were not the true owner as the price of the shares had already been paid by Corpbank's SPV Technological Center-Institute for Microelectronics (TC-IME). In murky circumstances, the shares of Vivacom were sold by VTB Capital at a devalued rate at a tender in London to Bulgarian Spas Rousev in September 2016. There is pending litigation before the London High Court for allegedly illegal seizure of the equity stake in Vivacom. Vasilev has raised concern that Vivacom's new owners would probably fail to pay the company's debt to Corpbank and would hurt the interests of the creditors in the insolvency proceedings. It has been suggested that Spas Rousev is a strawman of Delyan Peevski.
In the past, Vasilev had tried to strike a deal with a Belgian investor who was supposed to find financing for Vivacom's debt towards Corpbank, but it fell through.
Tsvetan Vasilev is Doctor Honoris Causa of the "St. Ivan Rilski" University of Mining and Geology. He is also recipient of the Honorary Badge of the University of National and World Economy and a member of the university's board of trustees. He has authored a number of publications analyzing the financial challenges before Bulgaria and the European Union.
Vasilev is a frequent guest of various international economic forums, such as the Wroclaw Global Forum and the Black Sea Energy and Economic Summit.
Vasilev has sponsored many initiatives in various fields, including scientific research, development of sports, support of orphanages, renovation of churches and monasteries, etc.
He is the main benefactor of PFC Botev Plovdiv, the oldest football club in Bulgaria. Vasilev's efforts are concentrated on the development of the football club and its junior football academy.
Tsvetan Vasilev has received a number of prestigious awards. He has been the recipient of The Banker newspaper "Banker of the Year" award for his personal contributions to the Bulgarian economy and banking several times:
Award for Dynamic Banking Management as Chairman of the Management Board of Corporate Commercial Bank AD in 2004
Award for Promoting Bulgarian Capital in Bulgaria's Banking System in 2008
Market Stability Special Award in 2010
Award for Efficient Policy and Long-Lasting Presence on the Bulgarian Market in 2013
In 2011 he received the Mr. Economy award (the grand award of the Economics magazine in Bulgaria) for overall contribution to the development of the Bulgarian economy. In 2012 Vasilev received an award for his overall contribution to the development of motorcycle sports in Bulgaria by the Bulgarian Motorcycle Federation.
Personal life
Tsvetan Vasilev is married to Professor Antoaneta Vassileva, Dean of the International Economics and Politics Faculty of the University of National and World Economy.
See also
Corporate Commercial Bank
Vivacom
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Crisis in Venezuela
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[
"Crisis in Venezuela",
"2000s in economic history",
"2010s in economic history",
"2020s in economic history",
"2000s in politics",
"2010s in politics",
"2020s in politics",
"2000s in Venezuela",
"2010s in Venezuela",
"2020s in Venezuela",
"Economic collapses",
"Economic history of Venezuela",
"Political history of Venezuela",
"Hugo Chávez"
] | 28,128 | 281,562 |
An ongoing socioeconomic and political crisis began in Venezuela during the presidency of Hugo Chávez and has worsened during the presidency of successor Nicolás Maduro. It has been marked by hyperinflation, escalating starvation, disease, crime and mortality rates, resulting in massive emigration.
It is the worst economic crisis in Venezuela's history, and the worst facing a country in peacetime since the mid-20th century. The crisis is often considered more severe than the Great Depression in the United States, the 1985–1994 Brazilian economic crisis, or the 2008–2009 hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. Writers have compared aspects, such as unemployment and GDP contraction, to that of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the 1992–95 Bosnian War, and those in Russia, Cuba and Albania following the Revolutions of 1989.
In June 2010, Chávez declared an "economic war" due to increasing shortages in Venezuela. The crisis intensified under the Maduro government, growing more severe as a result of low oil prices in 2015, and a drop in oil production from lack of maintenance and investment. In January 2016, the opposition-led National Assembly declared a "health humanitarian crisis". The government failed to cut spending in the face of falling oil revenues, denied the existence of a crisis, and violently repressed opposition. Extrajudicial killings by the government became common, with the UN reporting 5,287 killings by the Special Action Forces in 2017, with at least another 1,569 killings in the first six months of 2019, stating some killings were "done as a reprisal for [the victims'] participation in anti-government demonstrations." Political corruption, chronic shortages of food and medicine, closure of businesses, unemployment, deterioration of productivity, authoritarianism, human rights violations, gross economic mismanagement and high dependence on oil have contributed to the crisis.
The European Union, the Lima Group, the US and other countries have applied sanctions against government officials and members of the military and security forces as a response to human rights abuses, the degradation in the rule of law, and corruption. The US extended its sanctions to the petroleum sector. Supporters of Chávez and Maduro said the problems result from an "economic war" on Venezuela, falling oil prices, international sanctions, and the business elite, while critics of the government say the cause is economic mismanagement and corruption. Most observers cite anti-democratic governance, corruption, and mismanagement of the economy as causes. Others attribute the crisis to the "socialist", "populist", or "hyper-populist" nature of the government's policies, and the use of these to maintain political power. National and international analysts and economists stated the crisis is not the result of a conflict, natural disaster, or sanctions, but the consequences of populist policies and corrupt practices that began under the Chávez administration's Bolivarian Revolution and continued under Maduro.
The crisis has affected the life of the average Venezuelan on all levels. By 2017, hunger had escalated to the point where almost 75% of the population had lost an average of over 8 kg (over 19 lbs) and more than half did not have enough income to meet their basic food needs. By 2021 20% of Venezuelans (5.4 million) had left the country. The UN analysis estimates in 2019 that 25% of Venezuelans needed some form of humanitarian assistance. Following increased international sanctions throughout 2019, the Maduro government abandoned policies established by Chávez such as price and currency controls, which resulted in the country seeing a temporary rebound from economic decline before COVID entered Venezuela. As a response to the devaluation of the official bolívar currency, by 2019 the population increasingly started relying on US dollars for transactions.
According to the national Living Conditions Survey (ENCOVI), by 2021 95% of the population was living in poverty based on income, out of which 77% lived under extreme poverty, the highest figure ever recorded in the country. In 2022, after the implementation of mild economic liberalization, poverty decreased and the economy grew for the first time in 8 years. Despite these improvements, Venezuela continues to have the highest rate of inequality in the Americas. Although food shortages and hyperinflation have largely ended, inflation remains high.
Chávez presidency
After attempting a coup d'état in 1992 and being pardoned by President Rafael Caldera, Hugo Chávez was elected president and maintained the presidency from 1999 until his death in 2013. Increasing oil prices in the early 2000s led to levels of funds not seen in Venezuela since the 1980s. Chávez established Bolivarian missions, aimed at providing public services to improve economic, cultural, and social conditions. According to Corrales and Penfold, "aid was disbursed to some of the poor and, more gravely, in a way that ended up helping the president and his allies and cronies more than anyone else". Nonetheless, poverty was cut more than 20 percent between 2002 and 2008. The Missions entailed the construction of thousands of free medical clinics for the poor, and the enactment of food and housing subsidies. A 2010 OAS report indicated achievements in addressing illiteracy, healthcare and poverty, and economic and social advances. The quality of life for Venezuelans had also improved according to a UN Index. Teresa A. Meade wrote that Chávez's popularity strongly depended "on the lower classes who have benefited from these health initiatives and similar policies." According to Chosun Ilbo, Venezuela began to face economic difficulties due to Chávez's populist policies. On 2 June 2010, Chávez declared an "economic war" due to increasing shortages in Venezuela.
Political corruption, chronic shortages of food and medicine, closure of businesses, unemployment, deterioration of productivity, authoritarianism, human rights violations, gross economic mismanagement and high dependence on oil have also contributed to the worsening crisis.
The social works initiated by Chávez's government relied on oil products, the keystone of the Venezuelan economy, leading to Dutch disease according to Javier Corrales. By the early 2010s, economic actions taken by Chávez's government during the preceding decade, such as overspending and price controls, became unsustainable. Venezuela's economy faltered while poverty, inflation and shortages in Venezuela increased. According to Martinez Lázaro, professor of economics at the IE Business School in Madrid, the economic woes Venezuela continued to suffer under Maduro would have occurred even if Chávez were still in power. In early 2013, shortly after Chávez's death, Foreign Policy stated that whoever succeeded Chávez would "inherit one of the most dysfunctional economies in the Americas—and just as the bill for the deceased leader's policies comes due."
Maduro presidency
Following Chávez's death in 2013, Nicolás Maduro became president after defeating his opponent Henrique Capriles Radonski by 235,000 votes, a 1.5% margin. Maduro continued most of the existing economic policies of his predecessor Chávez. Upon entering the presidency, his administration faced a high inflation rate and large shortages of goods, problems left over from Chávez's policies.
Maduro said capitalist speculation had driven high rates of inflation and created widespread shortages of basic necessities. He enacted economic measures against political opponents, who he and loyalists stated were behind an international economic conspiracy. Maduro was criticized for concentrating on public opinion, instead of tending to practical issues which economists had warned about, or creating ideas to improve Venezuela's economic prospects.
By 2014, Venezuela had entered an economic recession and by 2016, the country had an inflation rate of 800%, the highest in its history.
The crisis intensified under the Maduro government, growing more severe as a result of low oil prices in early 2015, and a drop in Venezuela's oil production from lack of maintenance and investment. The government failed to cut spending in the face of falling oil revenues, and has dealt with the crisis by denying its existence and violently repressing opposition. Extrajudicial killings by the Venezuelan government became common, with the United Nations (UN) reporting 5,287 killings by the Special Action Forces (FAES) in 2017, with at least another 1,569 killings recorded in the first six months of 2019; the UN had "reasonable grounds to believe that many of these killings constitute extrajudicial executions" and characterized the security operations as "aimed at neutralizing, repressing and criminalizing political opponents and people critical of the government". The UN also stated that the Special Action Forces "would plant arms and drugs and fire their weapons against the walls or in the air to suggest a confrontation and to show the victim had resisted authority" and that some of the killings were "done as a reprisal for [the victims'] participation in anti-government demonstrations."
In January 2016, the National Assembly declared a "health humanitarian crisis" given the "serious shortage of medicines, medical supplies and deterioration of humanitarian infrastructure", asking Maduro's government to "guarantee immediate access to the list of essential medicines that are basic and indispensable and that must be accessible at all times." In August, Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon declared that there was a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela caused by the lack of basic needs, including food, water, sanitation and clothing. Before the 2019 presidential crisis, the Maduro government denied several offers of aid, stating that there was not a humanitarian crisis and that such claims were used to justify foreign intervention. Maduro's refusal of aid worsened the effects of Venezuela's crisis.
In March 2019, The Wall Street Journal said that "Mr. Maduro has long used food and other government handouts to pressure impoverished Venezuelans to attend pro-government rallies and to support him during elections as the country's economic meltdown has intensified." In 2019, The Economist wrote that the Maduro government had obtained "extra money from selling gold (both from illegal mines and from its reserves) and narcotics".
Elections and protests
Since 2010, Venezuela has been suffering a socioeconomic crisis under Maduro, and briefly under his predecessor, Chávez. As a result of discontent with the government, in the 2015 parliamentary election the opposition was elected to the majority in the National Assembly, after which the outgoing (lame duck) National Assembly—consisting of Bolivarian officials—filled the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the highest court in Venezuela, with Maduro allies.
Maduro disavowed the National Assembly in 2017 leading to the 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis; as of 2018, some considered the National Assembly the only "legitimate" institution left in the country, and human rights organizations said there were no independent institutional checks on presidential power. Protests grew to their most "combative" since they began in 2014. On 1 May 2017, Maduro called for a constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution to replace the 1999 Venezuela Constitution. The members of the Constituent Assembly would not be elected in open elections, but selected from social organizations loyal to Maduro. It would also allow him to stay in power during the interregnum and skip the 2018 presidential elections.
Many countries considered these actions a bid by Maduro to stay in power indefinitely, and over 40 countries, along with NGOs, stated that they would not recognize the 2017 Constituent National Assembly (ANC). The Democratic Unity Roundtable—the opposition to the incumbent ruling party—boycotted the election, and the incumbent Great Patriotic Pole, dominated by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, won almost all seats in the assembly by default.
The ANC was sworn in on 4 August 2017, and the next day declared itself to be the government branch with supreme power in Venezuela, banning the opposition-led National Assembly from performing actions that would interfere with the assembly.
In February 2018 Maduro called presidential elections, four months before the prescribed date. There were many irregularities, including the banning from standing of several major opposition parties. Maduro was declared the winner in May 2018. Many said the elections were invalid. Politicians both internally and internationally said Maduro was not legitimately elected, and considered him an ineffective dictator. In the months leading up to his 10 January 2019 inauguration, Maduro was pressured to step down by nations and bodies including the Lima Group (excluding Mexico), the United States, and the OAS; this pressure was increased after the new National Assembly of Venezuela was sworn in on 5 January 2019.
The 2019 presidential crisis came to a head when the National Assembly stated that the results of the May 2018 presidential election were invalid and declared National Assembly president Juan Guaidó to be the acting president, citing several clauses of the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution.
2024 Venezuelan political crisis
The 2024 Venezuelan political crisis is the crisis that continued after the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election results were announced. Maduro ran for a third consecutive term, while former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia represented the Unitary Platform (; PUD), the main opposition political alliance, after the Venezuelan government barred leading candidate María Corina Machado from participating.
Academics, news outlets and the opposition provided "strong evidence" according to The Guardian. to suggest that González won the election by a wide margin. The government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) announced results claiming a narrow Maduro victory on 29 July. A 6 August article in The New York Times stated that the CNE declaration that Maduro won "plunged Venezuela into a political crisis that has claimed at least 22 lives in violent demonstrations, led to the jailing of more than 2,000 people and provoked global denunciation." In the aftermath of the government's announcement of falsified results, protests broke out across the country, as the Maduro administration initiated Operation Tun Tun, a crackdown on dissent, and detained opposition political figures while refusing to relinquish power. Criminalization of protest was widely condemned by human rights organizations. Maduro did not acknowledge the results which showed him losing the election, and instead asked the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) on 1 August to audit and approve the results. On 22 August, as anticipated, the TSJ described the CNE's statement of Maduro winning the election as "validated".
Basic needs
Poverty
The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2019 that poverty was double that of 2014. A study from Andrés Bello Catholic University indicated that by 2019 at least 8 million Venezuelans did not have enough to eat. A UN report estimated in March 2019 that 94% of Venezuelans live in poverty, and that one quarter of Venezuelans need some form of humanitarian assistance.
According to the Living Conditions Survey by the Andrés Bello Catholic University (Encovi in Spanish, Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida), by 2021 94.5% of the population was in poverty based on income, out of which 76.6% lived under extreme poverty, the highest figure ever recorded in the country.
Food and water
More than 70% of Venezuela's food is imported; Venezuela became so dependent on food imports that it could no longer afford when the price of oil dropped in 2014. Chávez gave the military control of food, and nationalized much of the industry, which was then neglected, leading to production shortages. With a "diminished food supply", Maduro put "generals in charge of everything from butter to rice". With the military in charge of food, food trafficking became profitable, bribes and corruption common, and food did not reach the needy. The government imports most of the food the country needs, it is controlled by the military, and the price paid for food is higher than justified by market prices. Venezuelans were spending "all day waiting in lines" to buy rationed food, "pediatric wards filled up with underweight children, and formerly middle-class adults began picking through rubbish bins for scraps".
Several other factors have led to shortages: imports over the two years until the end of 2017 declined by two-thirds; hyperinflation has made food too costly for many Venezuelans; and for those who depend on food boxes supplied by the government, "these do not reach all Venezuelans who need them, provision of boxes is intermittent, and receipt is often linked to political support of the government".
Corruption became a problem in the distribution of food. The operations director at one food import business says "he pays off a long roster of military officials for each shipment of food he brings in from ... the US. It's an unbroken chain of bribery from when your ship comes in until the food is driven out in trucks." A National Guard lieutenant denies this charge, saying corruption would be worse if the military were not involved; government and military officials say the opposition is overstating the corruption problem for their own benefit. Retired General Antonio Rivero said that "Maduro is trying to prevent soldiers from going hungry and being tempted to participate in an uprising against an increasingly unpopular government", adding that using the military to control food distribution has "drained the feeling of rebellion from the armed forces" by giving soldiers access to food denied others, with the resulting corruption increasing shortages for the general public.
The colectivos are also involved in food trafficking, selling food on the black market; a colectivo leader told InSight Crime that trafficking food and medicine is as profitable as drug-running, but carries less risk. With shadowy connections to the government, The Washington Post says "some have been put in charge of the distribution of government food packages in poor areas—giving them control over hungry neighborhoods."
The Associated Press reports that people gather every evening in downtown Caracas in search of food thrown out on a sidewalk; the people are typically unemployed, but are "frequently joined by small business owners, college students and pensioners—people who consider themselves middle class even though their living standards have long ago been pulverized by triple-digit inflation, food shortages and a collapsing currency". A waste collection official in Maracaibo reported that most of the trash bags he received had been gone through by people searching for food. One dump reports finding parts of dismembered animals, like "dogs, cats, donkeys, horses and pigeons" and there is evidence that people are eating wildlife such as anteaters, flamingos, vultures and lizards.
"Hunger, malnutrition, and severe food shortages are widespread in all Venezuela", according to Human Rights Watch. Doctors at 21 public hospitals in 17 Venezuelan states told The New York Times in 2017 that "their emergency rooms were being overwhelmed by children with severe malnutrition—a condition they had rarely encountered before the economic crisis began", and that "hundreds have died". The government has responded with "a near-total blackout of health statistics, and by creating a culture in which doctors are often afraid to register cases and deaths that may be associated with the government's failures".
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN said that less than 5% of Venezuelans were undernourished between 2008 and 2013, but that number had more than doubled, to almost 12% from 2015 and 2017, representing 3.7 million people. A 2016 survey found that almost three-quarters of the population said that, because of improper nutrition, they had lost on average 8.7 kg (19.4 lbs) and 64% said they lost 11 kg (24 lbs) in 2017. A 2016 Venebarometro poll of 1,200 Venezuelans found almost half are no longer able to eat three daily meals; the government blames this on an "economic war" they say is waged by the opposition.
A UN report said that because of lack of water and sanitation, 4.3 million Venezuelans needed assistance in 2019.
During the 2019 Venezuelan blackouts which started on 7 March, the water distribution system also had shortages. Analysts said that two-thirds of Venezuela's population (20 million people) were without water, partially or completely, in the weeks after the blackouts. The head of the infectious disease department at the University Hospital of Caracas, María Eugenia Landaeta said that, without access to clean water, the chance of people contracting bacterial infections increased, and that doctors had seen during the blackouts "surges in diarrhea, typhoid fever and hepatitis A", while non-sterile water and lack of hygiene was contributing to postpartum infections.
By 2017, hunger had escalated to the point where almost seventy-five percent of the population had lost an average of over 8 kg (over 19 lbs) in weight and more than half did not have enough income to meet their basic food needs. An UN report estimated in March 2019 that 94% of Venezuelans lived in poverty, and by 2021 almost twenty percent of Venezuelans (5.4 million) had left their country. The UN analysis estimates in 2019 that 25% of Venezuelans need some form of humanitarian assistance. Venezuela led the world in murder rates, with 81.4 per 100,000 people killed in 2018, making it the third most violent country in the world. Following increased international sanctions throughout 2019, the Maduro government abandoned policies established by Chávez such as price and currency controls, which resulted in the country seeing a temporary rebound from economic decline before COVID-19 entered Venezuela the following year. As a response to the devaluation of the official bolívar currency, by 2019 the population increasingly started relying on US dollars for transactions. Maduro described dollarization as an "escape valve" that helps the recovery of the country, the spread of productive forces in the country and the economy. However, Maduro said that the Venezuelan bolívar remained as the national currency.
Health care
During the Bolivarian Revolution, the government began providing free healthcare, with Cuban medical professionals providing aid. The government's failure to concentrate on healthcare and a reduction in spending on healthcare, along with unchecked government corruption resulted in avoidable deaths due to severe shortages of medical supplies and equipment, and the emigration of medical professionals to other countries.
Venezuela's reliance on imported goods and the complicated exchange rates initiated under Chávez led to increasing shortages during the late 2000s and into the 2010s that affected the availability of medicines and medical equipment in the country. Associated Press says the government stopped publishing medical statistics in 2010. The Health Minister changed multiple times during Chávez's presidency. According to a high-ranking official of Venezuela's Health Ministry, the ministers were treated as scapegoats whenever issues with public health arose in Venezuela. He also said that officials of the Health Ministry engaged in corruption to enrich themselves by selling goods intended for public healthcare to others.
Early in the Maduro presidency, the government could not supply enough money for medical supplies among healthcare providers, with the president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation saying that 9 of 10 large hospitals had only 7% of required supplies and private doctors reporting numbers of patients that are "impossible" to count "dying from easily treatable illnesses when Venezuela's downward economic slide accelerated after Chávez's death". Many Venezuelans died avoidable deaths with medical professionals having scarce resources and using methods that were replaced decades ago. In February 2014, doctors at the University of Caracas Medical Hospital stopped performing surgeries due to the lack of supplies, even though nearly 3,000 people required surgery.
By early 2015, only 35% of hospital beds were available and 50% of operating rooms could not function due to the lack of resources. In March 2015, a Venezuelan NGO, Red de Medicos por la Salud, reported that there was a 68% shortage of surgical supplies and a 70% shortage of medicines in Venezuelan pharmacies. In 2018, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported that approximately one-third (22,000 of 66,138) of registered physicians left Venezuela as of 2014. Rosemary DiCarlo from the UN said that 40% of medical professionals had left Venezuela and supplies of medicine were at 20% of levels needed. The Venezuelan Medical Federation said that doctors were leaving the public health care system because of shortages of drugs and equipment and poor pay. In August 2015 Human Rights Watch said "We have rarely seen access to essential medicines deteriorate as quickly as it has in Venezuela except in war zones." In 2015, the government reported that a third of patients admitted to public hospitals died. The medications of individuals who die are re-distributed through small-scale and local efforts, with the help of the families of the deceased, to try to supply surviving patients.
One study of 6,500 households by three of the main universities in Venezuela found that "74% of the population had lost on average nineteen pounds in 2016". In April 2017 Venezuela's health ministry reported that maternal mortality jumped by 65% in 2016 and that the number of infant deaths rose by 30%. It also said that the number of cases of malaria was up by 76%. Shortly after Minister of Health Antonieta Caporale released in 2017 this data, and health statistics showing increases in 2016 infant and maternal mortality and infectious diseases, Maduro fired her and replaced the physician with a pharmacist close to vice-president Tareck El Aissami, Luis López Chejade. The publications were removed from the Ministry's website, and no further health data has been made available, although the government had produced health bulletins for several decades.
In March 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that the "collapse of Venezuela's health system, once one of the best in Latin America, has led to a surge in infant and maternal mortality rates and a return of rare diseases that were considered all but eradicated. Health officials say malaria, yellow fever, diphtheria, dengue and tuberculosis are now spreading from Venezuela to neighboring countries as Venezuelan refugees surge over borders." The United Nations estimated in 2019 that 2.8 million Venezuelans have healthcare needs, 300,000 are at risk of dying with cancer, diabetes or HIV as they have not had access to medicine for more than a year, and preventable diseases like diphtheria, malaria, measles and tuberculosis are rising in 2019, along with hepatitis A, because of sanitation and lack of access to water. The April 2019 HRW/Johns Hopkins report showed this rise in infectious and preventable diseases, as well as increasing malnutrition, infant and maternal death, and undertreatment of HIV. Inflation and medicine shortages have meant that patients are asked to bring their own food, water and soap, and medical supplies including scalpels and syringes. In August 2019, as part of regional efforts to help Venezuelan migrants, the United States promised that it will provide thousands of doses of HIV medication to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to treat those who have it.
2019 Human Rights Watch/Johns Hopkins report
In April 2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published the results of a joint, year-long research project in a report entitled "Venezuela's humanitarian emergency: Large-scale UN response needed to address health and food crises". Combined with data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the PAHO and Venezuelan sources, the report was based on 156 interviews with Venezuelan emigrants to Colombia and Brazil, officials from relief and humanitarian organizations, Venezuelan health care professionals, and UN and government officials from Brazil and Colombia. Most of the interviews occurred in July or August 2018 in visits by the experts to the Venezuelan border towns of Cúcuta, Colombia and Boa Vista or Pacaraima, Brazil.
The Washington Post stated that the HRW/Johns Hopkins report "paints an extremely grim picture of life in Venezuela, whose once-prosperous economy has imploded because of mismanagement and corruption under Maduro"; it documents rising maternal and infant death, spread of preventable diseases, food insecurity, and child malnutrition. HRW declared that the "combination of severe medicine and food shortages ... with the spread of disease ... amounts to a complex humanitarian emergency that requires a full-scale response by the United Nations secretary-general." The Washington Post states that the report describes a healthcare system that is in "utter collapse", with diseases that are preventable via vaccination spreading, and "dramatic surges" in infectious diseases once eradicated in Venezuela.
The economic crisis in Venezuela started around 2010, and the health crisis followed by two years and significantly worsened in 2017, but the situation in 2019 "is even more dismal than researchers expected". Paul Spiegel, MD, who was the editor and reviewer of the report said, "Venezuela is a middle-income country with a previously strong infrastructure, so just to see this incredible decline ... in such a short period of time is quite astonishing." Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, a doctor in Barquisimeto, Venezuela who is a member of the Venezuelan National Academy of Medicine, told NPR that the report gave an accurate, thorough and timely depiction of the medical situation in his country; he had no affiliation with the report, but said that he had seen cases where there were not even catheters for hooking up children who appeared to have malnutrition for intravenous therapy. Spiegel adds that, because of the infrastructure and trained personnel in Venezuela, aid can be distributed quickly once delivered to Venezuela.
Maduro administration response
The Maduro administration does not publish health statistics, but rather it "paint[s] a rosy picture of its health care system". The Guardian reported Maduro's response to the country's health care crisis as "inadequate". "Because of the intransigence of President Nicolás Maduro—who has blamed deprivations on US sanctions and refused to allow anything beyond a trickle of assistance to enter the country"—aid has not been delivered quickly enough. Reuters reported that "Maduro says there is no crisis and no need for humanitarian aid, blaming U.S. sanctions for the country's economic problems." Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza did not respond to a letter asking for Venezuela's "views regarding the extent of the crisis and the policies it was implementing to address it" before the HRW/Johns Hopkins report was published.
The HRW summary of the HRW/Johns Hopkins report said, "The Venezuelan authorities during the presidency of Nicolás Maduro have proven unable to stem the crisis, and have in fact exacerbated it through their efforts to suppress information about the scale and urgency of the problems." The Associated Press said Maduro "suppress[es] information" and has made the problem worse. The Americas director for HRW, José Miguel Vivanco said, "Venezuelan authorities publicly minimise and suppress information about the crisis, and harass and retaliate against those who collect data or speak out about it, while also doing far too little to alleviate it." The report discusses a teaching physician who said "residents are threatened with being expelled from the program or their hospital if they include a malnutrition diagnosis in medical records", causing malnutrition to be understated in Venezuelan data.
The report states that "many analysts have argued that the government's own policies have played a role in causing the economic crisis ... However, under the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan government has denied the crisis, hidden health statistics and data, harassed health professionals who speak out about the reality on the ground, and made it harder for sufficient humanitarian assistance to reach the Venezuelan people. Through these policies and practices, authorities have contributed to the worsening humanitarian crisis documented in this report." The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is a multilateral treaty ratified by Venezuela; it commits its parties to "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health", and the right to an adequate "standard of living" and "adequate food". The Constitution of Venezuela provides for the right to health. The HRW/Johns Hopkins report states that, facing deteriorating health conditions, the government's suppression of information and actions against those speaking about the crisis "represent a violation of Venezuela's obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health" to which Venezuelans are entitled from both the ICESCR treaty and their Constitution.
Following the April HRW/Johns Hopkins report, and amid announcements from the United Nations about the scale of the humanitarian crisis, along with increasing international pressure, Maduro met with the Red Cross, and it announced it would triple its budget for aid to Venezuela. The increased aid would focus in four areas: the migration crisis, the health care system collapse, water and sanitation, and prisons and detention centers. Maduro, for the first time, indicated he was prepared to accept international aid—although denying a humanitarian crisis exists. The Wall Street Journal said that the acceptance of humanitarian shipments by Maduro was his first acknowledgement that Venezuela is "suffering from an economic collapse", and The Guardian reported that Maduro's stance has softened in the face of increasing pressure. Guaidó said the acceptance of humanitarian aid was the "result of our pressure and insistence", and called on Venezuelans to "stay vigilant to make sure incoming aid is not diverted for 'corrupt' purposes".
Infectious and preventable diseases
In 1961, Venezuela was the first country declared free of malaria. In 2009, the WHO reported there were less than 36,000 cases of malaria in Venezuela. In 2013, Venezuela registered a new high in the number of cases of malaria in the past 50 years, and by 2014, was the only country in Latin America where the incidence of malaria was increasing, allegedly in part due to illegal mining; and medical shortages in the country which hampered treatment. By 2016, Venezuela's malaria-prevention program had collapsed, and there were more than a hundred thousand cases of malaria yearly. In 2017, there were 414,000 confirmed cases of malaria, according to the WHO.
Other preventable diseases that "were rare or nonexistent before the economic crisis, have surged", including diphtheria, measles, and tuberculosis. "Venezuela did not experience a single case of diphtheria between 2006 and 2015"; according to the HRW/Johns Hopkins report, since mid-2016, 1,500 of the 2,500 suspected cases have been confirmed. Between 2008 and 2015, there was one recorded case of measles, in 2012; since June 2017, 6,200 of the 9,300 reported cases have been confirmed. The highest rate of tuberculosis in four decades was reached in 2017. In 2014, there were 6,000 reported cases of tuberculosis; preliminary data shows more than 13,000 for 2017.
In 2014, shortages of antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV/AIDS affected about 50,000 Venezuelans, potentially causing thousands of Venezuelans with HIV to develop AIDS. In 2018, PAHO estimated that 90% of Venezuelans who had HIV and were registered by the government—69,308 of the 79,467 registered—were not receiving antiretroviral treatment. The PAHO report estimated that in six years, new HIV cases grew by 24% through 2016, after which the government stopped providing data. NPR reported: "New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have increased sharply, in large part because the vast majority of HIV-positive Venezuelans no longer have access to antiretroviral medications." Because of a shortage of HIV test kits, there may be more people who have HIV but are not aware. The HRW/Johns Hopkins report says: "Venezuela is the only country in the world where large numbers of individuals living with HIV have been forced to discontinue their treatment as a result of the lack of availability of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines."
In late 2014, Venezuelans began saying that due to shortages of medicines, it was hard to find acetaminophen to help alleviate symptoms of the newly introduced chikungunya virus, a potentially lethal mosquito-borne disease. In September 2014, the Venezuelan government stated that 400 Venezuelans were infected with chikungunya; the Central University of Venezuela stated that there could be between 65,000 and 117,000 Venezuelans infected. In August 2015 independent health monitors said that there were more than two million people infected with chikungunya while the government said there were 36,000 cases.
COVID-19 pandemic
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reached Venezuela in March 2020, costs for services such as internet and telephone lines rose between 80% and 749%, further limiting access to these utilities. Shortages of beds and essential medical equipment, such as latex gloves and antibiotics, have severely limited the capabilities of the country's medical infrastructure.
In April 2020 the Venezuelan government asked the Bank of England to sell $US1.02 billion of the Venezuelan gold reserves held by the bank to help the government fund its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was followed on 14 May by a legal claim by the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) asking the Bank of England to send the proceeds of the sale of gold to the United Nations Development Programme. The claim stated that the funds would then be used to buy healthcare equipment, medicine, and food to address the country's "COVID-19 emergency". The UK Foreign Office had previously agreed to a request from the Trump administration to block the release of Venezuela's gold. In July 2020, the UK High Court ruled that the gold could not be released to the BCV because the UK government recognised Juan Guaidó as the "constitutional interim president of Venezuela". However, in October 2020, an appeals court overturned the High Court decision and asked the UK Foreign Office to clarify who it recognised as president of Venezuela. The Guardian wrote that the position of the UK government was unclear as it "maintains full consular and diplomatic relations with the Venezuela government".
Women, maternal and infant
In 2016, infant mortality increased 30% in one year, to 11,466 deaths of children under the age of one. By 2019, the UN reported that infant mortality had "soared". "Venezuela is the only South American country where infant mortality has returned to levels last seen in the 1990s", according to the HRW/Johns Hopkins report. Maternal mortality also increased 65% in one year, to 756 deaths.
Abortion is illegal in Venezuela; the director of a large family planning clinic in Venezuela indicated that more women are arranging for permanent sterilization, and that more are presenting with "complications from clandestine abortions". One of the causes, according to the Venezuelan Association for Alternative Sexual Education, is the severe shortage of oral and injectable contraceptives and intrauterine devices.
The HRW/Johns Hopkins report states that the more than 454,000 Venezuelan women who have emigrated to Colombia face 'threats of sexual exploitation and abuse, trafficking, and sexual and reproductive rights violations"; violence based on gender accounted for more than 12% of 2018 health-care events, and indigenous women may be at higher risk.
Venezuelan women emigrating are at risk for becoming sex trafficking targets virtually anywhere they flee to. Cases of trafficking in Peru, the United States, Spain, and Colombia display the highest numbers.
Pregnancy and motherhood
Due to lack of medical supplies, food and medical care in Venezuelan hospitals, many pregnant women in Venezuela are crossing the border into neighboring countries to give birth. Lack of basic medicine and equipment is causing preventable deaths and maternity is a very high risk for women, especially since there are no blood banks in the event of excessive bleeding. Hospitals frequently have water and electricity outages and only 7% of emergency services are fully operative. Maternal mortality is estimated to have increased by 65% from 2013 to 2016, and unsafe abortions have contributed to 20% of preventable maternal deaths. According to Amnesty International, causes of the increase in maternal deaths include a lack of medical personnel and supplies like anticoagulants, scar healing cream, painkillers, antibiotics, antiseptics, and other tools and equipment.
Statelessness
Cúcuta, a city on the Colombian-Venezuela border, has received 14,000 Venezuelan patients at the Erasmo Meoz University Hospital since 2016 and is expecting to receive even more. In this hospital, 75% of the newborns born in the first two months of the year 2019 were Venezuelans. The situation has strained the budget of these hospitals, putting Erasmo Meoz 14 million dollars into debt. While Colombia is the most impacted since it shares a border, women are also traveling to Brazil to give birth. The number of births of Venezuelan babies attended to in Boa Vista, Brazil, has increased from 700 in 2014 to 50,000 in 2017. Venezuelan mothers have also been fleeing to neighboring Peru and Ecuador. For Colombian citizenship it is required that Colombian citizens be born to at least one Colombian parent or be born to foreign parents who meet residence requirements and are eligible to become citizens. Due to the influx of Venezuelan babies being born in Colombia and the Venezuelan government's inability to issue citizenship, Colombia has introduced a new measure that will give these Colombian-born newborns Colombian citizenship to avoid 'statelessness'. The measure went into effect August 2019 and includes babies of Venezuelan parents born in Colombia starting in January 2015, having given citizenship to approximately 27,000 babies born in Colombia over the past four years.
Mental health
Following the Bolivarian Revolution, the rate of suicide among Venezuelans quadrupled over two decades, with hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans dying from suicide during the period according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence. As a result of the crisis, stressors resulting in suicide included economic burden, hunger and loneliness due to the emigration of relatives.
In 2015, concerns about shortages and inflation overtook violent crime as Venezuelans' main worry for the first time in years according to pollster Datanálisis. The chief executive of Datanálisis, Luis Vicente Leon, said that Venezuelans had greater concerns over shortages and became preoccupied with the difficulties surrounding them instead. Eldar Shafir, author and American behavioral scientist, said that the psychological "obsession" with finding scarce goods in Venezuela is because the rarity of the item makes it "precious".
In 2016, reporters from The New York Times visited six psychiatric wards across the Venezuela at the invitation of doctors; all reported shortages of medicine and even food. In the investigation, they reported that El Pampero Hospital had not employed a psychiatrist in two years, and that it only had running water for only a few hours a day. The hospital, the article said, also suffered from shortages of basic personal-care and cleaning supplies, such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste or toilet paper. The nurses declared that without sedatives, they had to restrain patients or lock them in isolation cells to keep them from harming themselves. The reporters also noted that the government had denied that its public hospitals were suffering from shortages, and had refused multiple offers of international medical aid.
Despite the threat of violent protests, the economic crisis affected children more than violence. Abel Saraiba, a psychologist with children's rights organization Cecodap said in 2017, "We have children from a very early age who are having to think about how to survive", with half of her young clients requiring treatment because of the crisis. Children are often forced to stand in food lines or beg with their parents, while the games they play with other children revolve around finding food. Friends of the Child Foundation psychologist Ninoska Zambrano said that children are offering sexual services for food. Zambrano said "Families are doing things that not only lead them to break physically, but in general, socially, we are being morally broken".
In 2017, suicide increased by 67% among the elderly and 18% among minors; by 2018, reports emerged of a rapidly increasing suicide rate due to the stressors surrounding the crisis.
Medical care and elections
Mission Barrio Adentro was a program established by Chávez to bring medical care to poor neighborhoods; it was staffed by Cubans that were sent to Venezuela in exchange for petroleum. The New York Times interviewed sixteen Cuban medical professionals in 2019 who had worked for Barrio Adentro prior to the 2018 Venezuelan presidential elections; all sixteen revealed that they were required to participate in voting fraud. Some of the Cubans said that "command centers" for elections were placed near clinics to facilitate "dispatching doctors to pressure residents". Some tactics reported by the Cubans were unrelated to their profession: they were given counterfeit cards to vote even though they were not eligible voters, they witnessed vote tampering when officials opening ballot boxes and destroyed ballots, and they were told to instruct easily manipulated elderly patients in how to vote.
But they also "described a system of deliberate political manipulation"; their services as medical professionals "were wielded to secure votes for the governing Socialist Party, often through coercion", they told The New York Times. Facing a shortage of supplies and medicine, they were instructed to withhold treatment–even for emergencies–so supplies and treatment could be "doled out closer to the election, part of a national strategy to compel patients to vote for the government". They reported that life-saving treatment was denied to patients who supported the opposition. As the election neared, they were sent door-to-door, on house visits with a political purpose: "to hand out medicine and enlist voters for Venezuela's Socialist Party". Patients were warned that they could lose their medical care if they did not vote for the socialist party, and that, if Maduro lost, ties would be broken with Cuba, and Venezuelans would lose all medical care. Patients with chronic conditions, at risk of death if they couldn't get medicine, were a particular focus of these tactics. One said that government officials were posing as doctors to make these house calls before elections; 'We, the doctors, were asked to give our extra robes to people. The fake doctors were even giving out medicines, without knowing what they were or how to use them," he said.
Since the mid-2000s during Chávez's presidency, Venezuela has had a housing crisis. In 2005, the Venezuelan Construction Chamber (CVC) estimated that there was a shortage of 1.6 million homes, with only 10,000 of 120,000 promised homes constructed by Chávez's government despite billions of dollars in investments. Poor Venezuelans attempted to construct homes on their own despite structural risks.
By 2011, there was a housing shortage of 2 million homes, with nearly twenty prime developments being occupied by squatters following Chávez's call for the poor to occupy "unused land". Up to 2011, only 500,000 homes were constructed during the Chávez administration, with over two-thirds of the new housing developments being built by private companies; his government provided about the same amount of housing as previous administrations. Housing shortages were further exacerbated when private construction halted due to the fear of property expropriations and because of the government's inability to construct and provide housing. Urban theorist and author Mike Davis said in July 2011 to The Guardian, "Despite official rhetoric, the Bolivarianist regime has undertaken no serious redistribution of wealth in the cities and oil revenues pay for too many other programmes and subsidies to leave room for new housing construction." By 2012, a shortage of building materials also disrupted construction, with metal production at a 16-year low. By the end of Chávez's presidency in 2013, the number of Venezuelans in inadequate housing had grown to 3 million.
Under the Maduro government, housing shortages continued to worsen. Maduro announced in 2014 that due to the shortage of steel, abandoned cars and other vehicles would be acquired by the government and melted to provide rebar for housing. In April 2014, Maduro ruled by decree that Venezuelans who owned three or more rental properties would be forced by the government to sell their rental units at a set price or they would face fines or have their property possessed by the government. By 2016, residents of government-provided housing, who were usually supporters of the government, began protesting due to the lack of utilities and food.
Social
Corruption
Corruption is high in Venezuela according to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and is prevalent at many levels of society. While corruption is difficult to measure reliably, in 2018 Transparency International ranked Venezuela among the top 13 most corrupt countries out of 180 measured, tied with Iraq, but ahead of Afghanistan, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, North Korea, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. A 2016 poll found that 73% of Venezuelans believed their police were corrupt. Latinobarómetro's 2018 report said that 65% of Venezuelans believed their president was involved in corruption, and 64% believed that government officials were corrupt. Discontent with corruption was cited by opposition-aligned groups as one of the reasons for the 2014 Venezuelan protests. A once wealthy country, Venezuela's economy was driven into political and economic crisis by corruption and mismanagement.
Escalating violent crime, especially murder, had been called "perhaps the biggest concern" of Venezuelans during the crisis. Venezuela had "by various measures, the world's highest violent-crime rate" in 2017, and almost none of crimes that were reported were prosecuted. InSight Crime says the crisis has "all too often been obscured by the government's reluctance to release damning crime statistics". The New Yorker reporter found that even stairwells in a public hospital were not safe from robbers, who preyed on staff and patients despite the large number of security forces guarding the hospital, saying this was because the police were assigned to contain journalists who might embarrass the government with exposés on the state of the hospital; they were not assigned to protect its occupants. The police allegedly collaborated with the robbers receiving a cut of what they stole.
According to The U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security, street gang violence, "corrupt" underpaid police officers, "an inefficient and politicized judicial system", an extremely troubled prison system, and an increased widespread of weaponry has resulted in the majority of criminal activity in Venezuela, with murder being the crime committed the most. The Bureau states that there were 73 daily violent deaths in 2018, and that the government "often attempts to refute or repudiate reports of increasing crime and murder rates; however, independent observers widely reject" the Venezuelan government's claims. The government says there were 60 daily homicides in 2016, and 45 daily in 2015, corresponding with Venezuela's downward economic spiral; the OVV says the numbers are higher.
For 2015, the government says the rate of homicides was 70.1 per 100,000 people. The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV) says the rate was 91.8 homicides per 100,000 people (in 2015, the comparative U.S. number was 4.9 per 100,000 inhabitants). According to the World Bank, the 2016 homicide rate was 56 per 100,000, making Venezuela third in the world, after El Salvador and Honduras. OVV data has 23,047 homicides committed in Venezuela in 2018, a rate of 81.4 per 100,000 people, with the decline being attributed to emigration.
According to the Los Angeles Times,... carjack gangs set up ambushes, sometimes laying down nail-embedded strips to puncture tires of vehicles ferrying potential quarry. Motorists speak matter-of-factly of spotting body parts along roadways. ... While most crime victims are poor, they also include members of the middle and upper classes and scores of police and military personnel killed each year, sometimes for their weapons. ... "Before the thieves would only rob you," is a common refrain here in the capital. "Now they kill you."
Venezuela led the world in murder rates, with 81 per 100,000 people killed in 2018; the third most violent country.
As a response to the high rate of crime, the Venezuelan government banned private ownership of firearms by some individuals in 2012. El País reported in 2014 that Chávez had years earlier assigned colectivos to be "the armed wing of the Bolivarian Revolution" for the Venezuelan government, giving them weapons, communication systems, motorcycles and surveillance equipment to exercise control in the hills of Caracas where police are forbidden entry. In 2006, they received arms and funding from the state when they were brought under the government's community councils. Chávez eliminated the Metropolitan Police in 2011, turning security over to the colectivos in some Caracas barrios. Some weapons given to the groups include assault rifles, submachine guns and grenades. Despite the Venezuelan government's statements saying that only official authorities can carry weapons for the defense of Venezuela, colectivos are armed with automatic rifles such as AK-47s, submachine guns, fragmentation grenades, and tear gas.
During the 2014 Venezuelan protests against Maduro, colectivos acted against the opposition protesters. As the crisis intensified, armed gangs have taken control of cities. The Civil Association for Citizen Control said that more than half of those killed during the protests were killed by colectivos. Human Rights Watch described colectivos as "armed gangs who use violence with impunity" to harass political opponents of the Venezuelan government. Amnesty International calls them "armed pro-government supporters who are tolerated or supported by the authorities". During the 2019 Venezuelan blackouts in March, Maduro called on the armed paramilitary gangs, saying, "The time has come for active resistance". As blackouts continued, on 31 March, citizens protested the lack of electricity and water in Caracas and other cities; Maduro called again on the colectivos, asking them "to defend the peace of every barrio, of every block". Videos circulated on social media showing colectivos threatening protesters and shooting in the streets; two protestors were shot.
There is no reliable data on kidnapping in Venezuela and available data is considered an underestimate; it is against the law to pay ransom, and according to criminologists, at least 80% of kidnappings are not reported for fear of retaliation, or because relatives prefer to negotiate, hoping the hostage will be released and fearing they will be killed if authorities are contacted. Available data underestimates the amount of express kidnapping, where victims are typically released in less than two days after relatives pay a quick ransom. Most express kidnapping victims are released, but in 2016, 18 were killed. At least 80% of kidnappings occur in a limited area around Caracas and including Miranda State. In the areas where most kidnappings occur, the government set up so-called "peace zones" where official police withdrew and gangs took over; "experts say the government has armed these groups ... [who] ... control large territories, financed through extortion and the drug trade".
Illegal mining creates pools of standing water that encourage mosquito breeding, a partial cause of the increase in malaria seen in Venezuela.
The murder rate in Venezuela had also decreased significantly between 2017 and 2019. In 2018, Venezuela's murder rate–described as the highest in the world–had begun to decrease to 81.4 per 100,000 people according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (OVV), with the organization stating that this downward trend was due to the millions of Venezuelans that emigrated from the country at the time. The murder rate declined even further to 60.3 in 2019.
Human rights
Repression and politically motivated detentions have risen to record levels in 2019. Foro Penal states that Venezuela has at least 900 political prisoners as of April 2019, with more arrests of people being held longer in poor conditions and on dubious charges. The human rights organization has documented more than 50 instances that include "sexual abuse, strangulation using plastic bags and the use of razor blades to cut detainees' feet". In the first three months of 2019, Foro Penal says 1,712 people were arrested and about two-thirds of those were held for more than 48 hours, the threshold used to classify a detainee as a political prisoner. Maduro calls those arrested members of "terrorist groups" and says his government will not hesitate to send them to prison. Juan Requesens and Roberto Marrero are examples of "purely political" arrests, according to their attorney. Increasingly high numbers of the detainees are working-class people, who have been driven to protest by the crisis.
The final published report addressed the extrajudicial executions, torture, forced disappearances and other human rights violations reportedly committed by Venezuelan security forces in the recent years. Bachelet expressed her concerns for the "shockingly high" number of extrajudicial killings and urged for the dissolution of the FAES. According to the report, 1,569 cases of executions as consequence as a result of "resistance to authority" were registered by the Venezuelan authorities from 1 January to 19 March. Other 52 deaths that occurred during 2019 protests were attributed to colectivos. The report also details how the Venezuelan government "aimed at neutralising, repressing and criminalising political opponents and people critical of the government" since 2016.
On 16 September 2020, the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Venezuela accused the Maduro government of crimes against humanity.
On 15 February 2024, the Maduro government closed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office in Caracas after High Commissioner Volker Türk condemned the detention of activist Rocío San Miguel, demanding "her immediate release and respect for her right to legal defense". Maduro's government expelled its officials, giving them 72 hours to leave the country.
The exodus of millions of desperate impoverished Venezuelans to surrounding countries has been called "a risk for the entire region". Millions of Venezuelan people have voluntarily emigrated from Venezuela during the Chávez and Maduro presidencies. The crisis started during the Chávez presidency, but became much more pronounced during Maduro's term. Emigration has been motivated by economic collapse, expansion of state control over the economy, high crime, high inflation, general uncertainty, a lack of hope for a change in government, a failing public sector, and "shortages of basic necessities". The PGA Group estimates more than 1.5 million Venezuelans emigrated in the 15 years between 1999 and 2014; an estimated 1.8 million left in ten years through 2015.
The UN said that in the first part of 2018, about 5,000 Venezuelans were leaving Venezuela daily. A February 2019 UN reported estimated that 3.4 million Venezuelans have emigrated, and they expect another 1.9 million may emigrate in 2019. The UN estimates 2.7 million have gone to the Caribbean and Latin America. Most have gone to Colombia; estimates of Venezuelans emigrating to Colombia are 1.1 million, Peru 506,000, Chile 288,000, Ecuador 221,000, Argentina 130,000, and Brazil 96,000. This is in contrast to Venezuela's high immigration rate during the 20th century. Kevin Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador in Colombia, says, "Colombians, in their tens and hundreds of thousands, migrated to Venezuela in the '60s and '70s and '80s, when Venezuela was a wealthy country and Colombia was not so much. Now, more than 1 million Venezuelans, many of them since 2015, have gone to live in Colombia."
Those who leave by foot are known as los caminantes (the walkers); the walk to Bogotá, Colombia is , and some walk hundreds of kilometres further, to Ecuador or Peru. Alba Pereira, who helps feed and clothe about 800 walkers daily in Northern Colombia, said in 2019 she is seeing more sick, elderly and pregnant among the walkers. The Colombian Red Cross has set up rest tents with food and water on the side of the roads for Venezuelans. Venezuelans also cross into northern Brazil, where UNHCR has set up 10 shelters to house thousands of Venezuelans. Images of Venezuelans fleeing the country by sea have raised symbolic comparisons to the images seen from the Cuban diaspora.
In 1998, only 14 Venezuelans were granted U.S. asylum, and by September 1999, 1,086 Venezuelans were granted asylum according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The first wave of Venezuelan emigrants were wealthy and middle class Venezuelans concerned by Chávez's rhetoric of redistributing wealth to the poor; the early exodus of college-educated people with capital caused a brain drain.
Emigration especially increased during the Maduro presidency. This second wave of emigration consisted of lower class Venezuelans suffering directly from the economic crisis facing the country; thus, the same individuals whom Chávez attempted to aid were now seeking to emigrate, driven by worsening economic conditions, scarcity of food and medicine, and rising rates of violent crime. Tomás Pérez, who studies the Venezuelan diaspora at the Central University of Venezuela, said in 2018 that because "now everyone is poor", it is mostly poor leaving the country. Carlos Malamud, from a Spanish think tank, said Maduro is "using migration as a political weapon against the opposition". The scale of the crisis has surpassed in four years the Cuban exodus, in which 1.7 million emigrated over a period of sixty years; Malamud says "Latin American societies aren't prepared for such wide-scale arrivals".
Impacting the health care crisis in Venezuela, health care professionals are emigrating; a primary factor driving emigration to Colombia is the lack of "medicines, supplies, health providers, and basic health services" in Venezuela. Since 2017, the banking sector has seen 18,000 employees leave the country.
Migration crisis
The Organization of American States (OAS) and spokespersons for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, have described it as the largest exodus in the history of the Western Hemisphere in the last 50 years.
Maduro's government stopped releasing social and economic indicators, so most data rely on estimates. The Institute of International Finance (IIF) stated in March 2019 that "Venezuela's economic collapse is among the world's worst in recent history". A chief economist of the IIF said the crisis resulted from "policy decisions, economic mismanagement, and political turmoil", saying it is on a scale that "one would only expect from extreme natural disasters or military confrontations". The April 2019 International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook described Venezuela as being in a "wartime economy". For the fifth consecutive year, Bloomberg rated Venezuela last on its misery index in 2019. The government's main source of income is oil, with output "plummeting due to lack of investment, poor maintenance and neglect", from which consultant Eduardo Fortuny expects will take 12 years to recover.
As of 2020 the Venezuelan government has liberalized many socialist or redistributive economic policies—price and currency controls, stringent labor laws—and brought a rapprochement with members of the local business community—especially Lorenzo Mendoza of the iconic Empresas Polar conglomerate (who is no longer denounced as a "thief," a "parasite" and a "traitor"), in exchange for an abandonment of political opposition by Mendoza. However, a "slight recovery" in economic activity in January 2020 reportedly "evaporated in February and March" due to "the fall in global oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic".
Business and industry
A number of foreign firms have left the nation—often due to quarrels with the socialist government—including Smurfit Kappa, Clorox, Kimberly Clark and General Mills; the departures aggravate unemployment and shortages. Before the effects of the 2019 Venezuelan blackouts, the number of multinational companies in the industrial city of Valencia in Carabobo State had dropped from 5,000 when Chávez became president to a tenth of that.
Airline industry
Domestic airlines are having difficulties because of hyperinflation and parts shortages, and most international airlines have left the country. Airlines from many countries ceased operating in Venezuela, making travel to the country difficult: Air Canada became the first international airline to cease Venezuela operations in March 2014 and was followed by Alitalia in April 2015.
Other airlines that have left are Aeroméxico, Avianca, Delta, Lufthansa, LATAM, and United Airlines. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the government of Venezuela has not paid US$3.8 billion to international airlines in an issue involving conversion of local currency to U.S. dollars. Airlines have left for other reasons, including crime against flight crews and foreign
passengers, stolen baggage, and problems with the quality of jet fuel and maintenance of runways. Aerolíneas Argentinas left in 2017, citing security reasons, and American Airlines, the last U.S. airline serving Venezuela, left on 15 March 2019, after its pilots refused to fly to Venezuela, citing safety issues. Currently, the only North American airline flying to Venezuela is Sunwing Airlines, with seasonal service to Margarita Island and Punto Fijo.
Following the increasing economic partnership between Venezuela and Turkey in October 2016, Turkish Airlines started offering direct flights from December 2016 connecting between Caracas to Istanbul (via Havana, Cuba) in an effort to "link and expand contacts" between the two countries.
Iranian airline Mahan Air (blacklisted by the U.S. government since 2011) began direct flights to Caracas in April 2019, "signifying a growing relationship between the two nations" according to Fox News.
In May 2019, the United States Department of Transport and Department of Homeland Security suspended all flights between Venezuela and the United States, due to safety and security concerns. The suspension affects mainly Venezuelan airlines flying to Miami, which are Avior Airlines, LASER Airlines and Estelar Latinoamérica.
Gross domestic product
Estimated to drop by 25% in 2019, the IMF said the contraction in Venezuela's GDP—the largest since the Libyan Civil War began in 2014—was affecting all of Latin America.
In 2015 the Venezuelan economy contracted 5.7% and in 2016 it contracted 18.6% according to the Venezuelan central bank; after that, the government stopped producing data. Ecoanalítica, a Venezuelan consultant, told The Wall Street Journal that output had halved between 2016 and 2019. The IMF and AGPV Asesores Económicos, a consulting firm based in Caracas, estimate that GDP shrunk to $80 billion in 2018 from $196 billion in 2013, making the economy smaller than Guatemala's or Ethiopia's.
The annual inflation rate for consumer prices has risen hundreds of thousands of percent during the crisis. Inflation in Venezuela remained high during Chávez's presidency. By 2010, inflation removed any advancement of wage increases, and by 2014 at 69% it was the highest in the world. In November 2016, Venezuela entered a period of hyperinflation, with inflation reaching 4,000% in 2017; the Venezuelan government "essentially stopped" producing inflation estimates in early 2018. At the end of 2018, inflation had reached 1.35 million percent.
In the 2017 Christmas season, some shops stopped using price tags since prices would inflate so quickly. From 2017 to 2019, some Venezuelans became video game gold farmers and could be seen playing games such as RuneScape to sell in-game currency or characters for real currency; players could make more money than salaried workers by earning only a few dollars per day. Some of these "gold farmers" will use cryptocurrencies as an intermediary currency before converting into Bolivares, as .
In October 2018, the IMF estimated that inflation would reach 10,000,000% by the end of 2019.
In early 2019, the monthly minimum salary was the equivalent of US$5.50 (18,000 sovereign bolivars)—less than the price of a Happy Meal at McDonald's. Ecoanalitica estimated that prices jumped by 465% in the first two-and-a-half months of 2019. The Wall Street Journal stated in March 2019 that the "main cause of hyperinflation is the central bank printing money to increase money supply, thus boosting domestic spending.", reporting that a teacher can buy a dozen eggs and two pounds of cheese with a month's wages.
In May 2019, the Central Bank of Venezuela released economic data for the first time since 2015. According to the release, Venezuela's inflation rate was 274% in 2016, 863% in 2017 and 130,060% in 2018. The new reports imply a contraction of more than half of the economy in five years, according to the Financial Times "one of the biggest contractions in Latin American history". Sources quoted by Reuters, said that China may have asked Venezuela to release the data to bring Venezuela into compliance with the IMF and make it more difficult for the IMF to recognise Juan Guaidó during the presidential crisis. The IMF said it was not able to assess the quality of the data as it had no contact with the Venezuelan government.
Shortages in Venezuela became prevalent after price controls were enacted according to the economic policy of the Hugo Chávez government. Under the economic policy of the Nicolás Maduro government, greater shortages occurred due to the Venezuelan government's policy of withholding United States dollars from importers with price controls. Some Venezuelans must search for food—occasionally resorting to eating wild fruit or garbage—wait in lines for hours and sometimes settle without having certain products.
In January 2016 the unemployment rate was 18.1 percent and the economy was the worst in the world according to the misery index. Venezuela has not reported official unemployment figures since April 2016, when the rate was at 7.3 percent.
Unemployment was forecasted to reach 44% for 2019; the IMF stated that this was the highest unemployment seen since the end of the Bosnian War in 1995.
Venezuelan debt
In August 2017 President of the United States Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Venezuela which banned transactions involving Venezuela's state debt including debt restructuring. The technical default period ended 13 November 2017 and Venezuela did not pay coupons on its dollar eurobonds, causing a cross-default on other dollar bonds. A committee consisting of the fifteen largest banks admitted default on state debt obligations which in turn entailed payments on CDS on 30 November.
In November 2017, The Economist estimated Venezuela's debt at US$105 billion and its reserves at US$10 billion. In 2018, Venezuela's debt grew to US$156 billion and as of March 2019, its reserves had dropped to US$8 billion.
With the exception of PDVSA's 2020 bonds, as of January 2019, all of Venezuela's bonds are in default, and Venezuela's government and state-owned companies owe nearly US$8 billion in unpaid interest and principal. As of March 2019, the government and state-owned companies have US$150 billion in debt.
Oil industry
By 2018 the political and economic troubles facing Venezuela had engulfed the El Tigre-San Tomé region, a key region for oil production in eastern Venezuela. Oil workers were fleeing the state-owned oil company as salaries could not keep up with hyperinflation, reducing families to starvation. Workers and criminals stripped vital oil industry equipment of anything valuable, ranging from pickup trucks to the copper wire within critical oil production components. Oil facilities were neglected and unprotected, crippling oil production and leading to environmental damage. As noted petroleum historian, expert, and former San Tomé resident Emma Brossard stated in 2005, "Venezuelan oil fields had a depletion rate of 25 per cent annually [and] there had to be an investment of US$3.4 billion a year to keep up its production." "But since Chávez has become president there has been no investment."
As of 2020 there were no longer any oil rigs searching for oil in Venezuela, and production has been "reduced to a trickle". Oil exports are expected to total $2.3 billion for 2020, continuing a decline of more than a decade. Pollution from crude oil leaking from abandoned underwater wells and pipelines has caused serious damage to fishing and human health.
In 2022, rising oil prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine led the World Oil Commission to start meetings with the Venezuelan Government to push oil production to have a control over the price. As a consequence of the energy crisis caused by the war, the United States allowed the American oil and gas company Chevron to resume limited operations in Venezuela again.
Public opinion
A November 2016 Datincorp survey that asked Venezuelans living in urban areas which entity was responsible for the crisis, 59% blamed chavismo or the presidents (Chávez, 25%; Maduro 19%; Chavismo 15%) while others blamed the opposition (10%), entrepreneurs (4%) and the United States (2%).
A September 2018 Meganálisis survey found that 85% of Venezuelans wanted Maduro to leave power immediately. A November 2018 Datanálisis poll found that 54% of Venezuelans opposed a foreign military intervention to remove Maduro, while 35% supported an intervention. Instead, 63% supported a "negotiated settlement to remove Maduro".
An 11–14 March 2019 survey of 1,100 people in 16 Venezuelan states and 32 cities by Meganálisis found that 89% of respondents wanted Maduro to leave the presidency. A Datanálisis poll on 4 March 2019 found Maduro's approval rating at an all-time low of 14%.
According to Datanálisis, in early 2019, 63% of Venezuelans believed that a change of government was possible. Fourteen months later, in May 2020, after the Macuto Bay raid, the percentage decreased to 20%.
According to economists interviewed by The New York Times, the situation is by far the worst economic crisis in Venezuela's history, and is also the worst facing a country in peace time since the mid-20th century. The crisis is also more severe than that of the United States during the Great Depression, the 1985–1994 Brazilian economic crisis, or the 2008–2009 hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. Other writers have also compared aspects of the crisis, such as unemployment and GDP contraction, to that of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the 1992–1995 Bosnian War, and those in Russia, Cuba and Albania following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Reaction
Economic sanctions
The European Union, the Lima Group, the United States and other countries have applied individual sanctions against government officials and members of both the military and security forces as a response to human rights violations, corruption, degradation in the rule of law and repression of democracy. The United States would later extend its sanctions to the petroleum sector.
Economists have stated that shortages and high inflation in Venezuela began before US sanctions were directed towards the country. The Wall Street Journal said that economists place the blame for Venezuela's economy shrinking by half on "Maduro's policies, including widespread nationalizations, out-of-control spending that sparked inflation, price controls that led to shortages, and widespread graft and mismanagement." The Venezuelan government has stated that the United States is responsible for its economic collapse. The HRW/Johns Hopkins report noted that most sanctions are "limited to canceling visas and freezing assets of key officials implicated in abuses and corruption. They in no way target the Venezuelan economy." The report also stated that the 2017 ban on dealing in Venezuelan government stocks and bonds allows exceptions for food and medicine, and that the 28 January 2019 PDVSA sanctions could worsen the situation, although "the crisis precedes them". The Washington Post stated that "the deprivation long predates recently imposed US sanctions".
In 2011, the United States sanctioned Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela. According to executives within the company as well as the Venezuelan government, the sanctions were mostly symbolic and had little effect (if any) on Venezuela's trade with the US since the company's sale of oil to the US and the operations of its US-based subsidiary Citgo were unaffected. On 9 March 2015, Barack Obama signed and issued an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against Venezuelan officials. The sanctions did not affect Venezuela's oil company and trade relations with the US continued. In 2017, Trump's administration imposed additional economic sanctions on Venezuela. In 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented that "information gathered indicates that the socioeconomic crisis had been unfolding for several years prior to the imposition of these sanctions".
According to The Wall Street Journal, new 2019 sanctions, aimed at depriving the Maduro government of petroleum revenues. In 2019, former UN rapporteur Alfred de Zayas said that US sanctions on Venezuela were illegal as they constituted economic warfare and "could amount to 'crimes against humanity' under international law". His report, which he says was ignored by the UN, was criticized by the Latin America and Caribbean programme director for the International Crisis Group for neglecting to mention the impact of a "difficult business environment on the country", which the director said "was a symptom of Chavismo and the socialist governments' failures", and that "Venezuela could not recover under current government policies even if the sanctions were lifted." Michelle Bachelet updated the situation in a 20 March oral report following the visit of a five-person delegation to Venezuela, saying that the social and economic crisis was dramatically deteriorating, the government had not acknowledged or addressed the extent of the crisis, and she was concerned that although the "pervasive and devastating economic and social crisis began before the imposition of the first economic sanctions", the sanctions could worsen the situation.
In February 2019, Jorge Arreaza, Maduro's Minister for Foreign Affairs, said he was forming a coalition of diplomats who "believe the U.S. and others are violating the U.N. charter against non-interference in member states". During the announcement, he was surrounded by diplomats from 16 other countries, including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba. Arreaza said the cost to the Venezuelan economy of the US blockade was over $30 billion. Reporting on Arreaza's statements, the Associated Press said that Maduro was blocking aid, and "saying that Venezuelans are not beggars and that the move is part of a U.S.-led coup".
During the COVID-19 pandemic, world leaders called for a suspension of economic sanctions, including against Venezuela and Iran, that have "increasingly become the pursuit of war by other means". The US responded by intensifying the sanctions against Venezuela.
An October 2020 report published by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) by Venezuelan economist Luis Oliveros found that "while Venezuela's economic crisis began before the first U.S. sectoral sanctions were imposed in 2017, these measures 'directly contributed to its deep decline, and to the further deterioration of the quality of life of Venezuelans' ". The report concluded that economic sanctions "have cost Venezuela's government as much as $31 billion since 2017"
Alena Douhan, United Nations special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures, was due to visit Venezuela in August 2020 to investigate the impact of international sanctions. Before her visit, 66 Venezuelan NGOs (including PROVEA) asked Douhan in an open letter to consider the harmful impact of sanctions in the context of years of repression, corruption and economic mismanagement that predate the sanctions, and requested she meet independent press and civil society researchers. She arrived on 31 January, and was welcomed on arrival by a government minister and the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN. She declared on her preliminary findings as she left on 12 February: that sanctions against Venezuela have had a "devastating" noticeable impact in both the economy and the population. She said "the increasing number of unilateral sanctions imposed by United States, the European Union and other countries have exacerbated the economic and humanitarian calamities in Venezuela" but that Venezuela's economic decline "began in 2014 with the fall in oil prices" and that "mismanagement and corruption had also contributed." The government welcomed the report, while the opposition accused her of "playing into the hands of the regime" of Maduro. Douhan was harshly criticized by the Venezuelan civil society, and several non-governmental organizations pronounced themselves in social media with the hashtag "#Lacrisisfueprimero" (The crisis came first).
Foreign involvement
On 11 August 2017, President Trump said that he is "not going to rule out a military option" to confront the autocratic government of Nicolás Maduro and the deepening crisis in Venezuela. Military Times said the unnamed aides told Trump it was not wise to even discuss a military solution due to the long history of unpopular intervention in Latin America by the United States. Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino criticized Trump for the statement, calling it "an act of supreme extremism" and "an act of madness". The Venezuelan communications minister, Ernesto Villegas, said Trump's words amounted to "an unprecedented threat to national sovereignty".
Representatives of the United States were in contact with dissident Venezuelan military officers during 2017 and 2018 but declined to collaborate with them or provide assistance to them. The opinion of other Latin American nations was split with respect to military intervention. Luis Almagro, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, while visiting Colombia, did not rule out the potential benefit of the use of military force to intervene with the crisis. Canada, Colombia and Guyana, which are members of the Lima Group, refused to sign the organization's document rejecting military intervention in Venezuela.
During the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, allegations of potential United States military involvement began to circulate, with military intervention in Venezuela was already being executed by the governments of Cuba and Russia. According to professor Erick Langer of Georgetown University, while it was being discussed whether the United States would militarily intervene, "Cuba and Russia have already intervened". Hundreds or thousands of Cuban security forces have allegedly been operating in Venezuela while professor Robert Ellis of United States Army War College described the between several dozen and 400 Wagner Group mercenaries provided by Russia as the "palace guard of Nicolás Maduro". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the deployment of Russian mercenaries, calling it "fake news". On 2 April 2019, the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected Trump's call to "get out" saying their 100 military servicemen now in Venezuela will support Maduro "for as long as needed".
Humanitarian aid
Throughout the crisis, humanitarian aid was provided to Venezuelans in need both within Venezuela and abroad. In October 2018, the USNS Comfort departed for an eleven-week operation in Latin America, with a primary mission being to assist countries who received Venezuelan refugees who fled the crisis in Venezuela. The main goal was to relieve health systems in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and other nations which faced the arrival of thousands of Venezuelan migrants.
At the end of January 2019, as the US prepared to bring aid across the border, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned the United States about the risk of delivering humanitarian aid without the approval of the government's security forces. The UN similarly warned the US about politicising the crisis and using aid as a pawn in the power struggle. Other humanitarian organisations also raised risks.
On 23 February 2019, 14 trucks carrying 280 tons of humanitarian aid attempted to bring aid across the Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santander bridges from Colombia. There were clashes, with Venezuelan security forces reported to use tear gas attack in attempt to maintain a blockade of the border. Colombia said around 285 people were injured and at least two trucks set on fire. CNN reported that the Venezuela government accused Guaidó supporters of burning the trucks and noted that "While a CNN team saw incendiary devices from police on the Venezuelan side of the border ignite the trucks, the network's journalists are unsure if the trucks were burned on purpose." In March, The New York Times reported that footage showed that it was anti-Maduro protestors rather than Venezuelan security forces who were responsible for the burning trucks. The New York Times reported that the trucks had been set on fire by anti-Maduro protester who threw a Molotov cocktail that hit one of the trucks. Colombian foreign minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo rejected the claims by The New York Times that the Colombian government manipulated the video of the burning of the aid truck, insisting that Nicolás Maduro was responsible. Responding when asked about the claims in a BBC interview, Juan Guaidó stressed that its findings suggested only a possible theory, that it was the newspaper's point of view and that a total of three trucks were burned, while the footage focused on one. Journalist Karla Salcedo Flores denounced state-run Telesur for plagiarism and the manipulation of her photos for propaganda purposes after the network claimed protesters poured gasoline on the trucks. Agence France-Presse published an investigation disproving Telesur's claims with the photos. Bellingcat reported that since the open source evidence examined for its investigation does not show the moment of ignition, it is not possible to make a definitive determination regarding the cause of the fire.
Franceso Rocca, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, announced on 29 March 2019 that the Red Cross was preparing to bring humanitarian aid to the country to help ease both the chronic hunger and the medical crisis. The Guardian reported that Maduro had "long denied the existence of a humanitarian crisis, and on 23 February blocked an effort led by Guaidó to bring aid into the country", and that the Red Cross had "brokered a deal" between the Maduro and Guaidó administrations "indicating a seldom-seen middle ground between the two men".
The Red Cross aid shipments were expected to begin within a few weeks, and the first shipment would help about 650,000 people; simultaneously, a leaked UN report estimated that seven million Venezuelans were likely in need of humanitarian assistance. During what The Wall Street Journal called "Latin America's worst humanitarian crisis ever", the "operation would rival Red Cross relief efforts in war-torn Syria, signaling the depth of Venezuela's crisis." Rocca said the efforts would focus first on hospitals, including state-run facilities, and said the Red Cross was open to the possibility of delivering aid products stored on the Venezuelan borders with Colombia and Brazil. He warned that the Red Cross would not accept any political interference, and said the effort must be "independent, neutral, impartial and unhindered".
Maduro and Arreaza met with representative of Red Cross International on 9 April to discuss the aid effort. The Wall Street Journal said that the acceptance of humanitarian shipments by Maduro was his first acknowledgement that Venezuela is "suffering from an economic collapse", adding that "until a few days ago, the government maintained there was no crisis and it didn't need outside help". Guaidó said the acceptance of humanitarian aid was the "result of our pressure and insistence", and called on Venezuelans to "stay vigilant to make sure incoming aid is not diverted for 'corrupt' purposes".
The first Red Cross delivery of supplies for hospitals arrived on 16 April, offering an encouraging sign that the Maduro administration would allow more aid to enter. Quoting Tamara Taraciuk—an expert at Human Rights Watch on Venezuela—who called the situation "a completely man-made crisis", The New York Times said the aid effort in Venezuela presented challenges regarding how to deliver aid in an "unprecedented political, economic and humanitarian crisis" that was "caused largely by the policies of a government intent on staying in power, rather than war or natural disaster". Armed pro-government paramilitaries fired weapons to disrupt the first Red Cross delivery, and officials associated with Maduro's party told the Red Cross to leave.
An April 2021 report by the inspector general at United States Agency for International Development found that the Trump administration had politicized the early 2019 humanitarian aid package and was motivated by regime change in Venezuela more so than ameliorating the humanitarian situation there.
See also
Fuel shortages in Venezuela
Guaire miners
Pemon conflict - a theatre of the Venezuelan crisis
|
Legatum
|
[
"Venture capital firms",
"Emirati companies established in 2006",
"Financial services companies established in 2006",
"Investment companies of the United Arab Emirates",
"Companies based in Dubai"
] | 1,981 | 22,024 |
Legatum Limited, also known as Legatum, is a private investment firm, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Legatum was founded in 2006 by Christopher Chandler. Legatum owns the British broadcaster GB News.
History and business activities
Legatum (meaning "legacy" or "gift") is a private investment firm based in Dubai using only capital provided by members of the firm. Legatum was founded in December 2006 in the United Arab Emirates by investor Christopher Chandler. Previously, Chandler was the president of Sovereign Global, or Sovereign, which he co-founded with his brother Richard Chandler in 1986. Sovereign invested capital in companies located in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, and in industries including telecommunications, electric utilities, steel, oil and gas, banking and oil refining. The Chandler brothers embarked on separate ventures following the de-merger of Sovereign in 2006. Christopher Chandler established Legatum the following December. In 2012, Legatum purchased a building in the Dubai International Financial Centre for its global headquarters. The building was renamed Legatum Plaza, and the company moved into the building the following year.
In 2015, Legatum transitioned to a partnership, consisting of Christopher Chandler, Mark Stoleson, Philip Vassiliou and Alan McCormick, providing a structure for the firm to continue operating beyond its founders.
Investments
The firm's investment activities tend to focus on globally listed companies, markets in economic transition (such as Japan or China), or distressed situations.
Legatum was one of the first foreign commercial investors to provide critical equity capital to for-profit microfinance organizations in India, investing $25 million for a majority stake in SHARE Microfinance, India's leading microfinance institution.
In 2006, the company co-founded an early charity crowdfunding platform, Razoo Global Corporation. The platform announced a management buy-out of Legatum's holding in 2017. In 2007, Legatum purchased a significant minority stake in consultant firm Intellecap, which it subsequently sold back to its owner, the Aavishkaar Group, in 2017.
In 2008, Legatum and Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm founded by Pierre Omidyar, collaborated to co-invest a total of $40 million into Unitus Equity Fund II (now known as Elevar Equity). The fund is a commercial venture providing capital to businesses targeted at serving the poor in the developing world.
In 2021, Legatum invested in GB News, a new UK TV channel.
Also in 2021, Legatum invested in Mobile Premier League, an esports and gaming platform.
Support to other entities and schemes
As of 2014, Legatum had invested around US$80 million in 1,440 projects in 107 countries.
Legatum is funder of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, a conservative conference affiliated with Jordan Peterson that brings together representatives from fossil fuel companies and right-wing figures.
Development
Legatum Foundation is the development arm of Legatum and invests in community-based organizations and projects around the world to help the poorest and most marginalized people and populations in society. In 2015, Legatum established the Luminos Fund, a private donor philanthropic fund designed to develop and scale initiatives which promote education by helping out-of-school children get back to school. The 2020 expansion of the Speed School Programme to Ethiopia was funded by the Foundation. During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, Luminos worked with Syrian refugees to offer educational support and therapeutic interventions for school-aged children. By February 2020, the Luminos Fund had provided education for 132,611 children in Ethiopia, Lebanon and Liberia, whose access had been limited due to conflict, discrimination or poverty.
Legatum founded the END Fund in 2012 to co-ordinate and support programmes to treat neglected tropical diseases. Legatum first started funding NTD work in 2006, after Legatum partner Alan McCormick visited Professor Alan Fenwick (Professor of Tropical Parasitology) at Imperial College London, who in turn had founded the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative in 2002. It has since led to Legatum investing over $10m in efforts to eliminate NTDs.
In 2013, in partnership with Humanity United and Walk Free, Legatum established a $100 million fund called the Freedom Fund. The aim of the fund is to help eradicate modern day slavery. Prior to the founding of the Fund, Legatum sponsored a 2012 information-gathering trip for non-profit organizations in Nepal and India to learn more about the human trafficking and slave-trade industries there. (see also Human trafficking in Nepal, Human trafficking in India)
Entrepreneurship
In 2007, Legatum established The Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT with the aim to create a generation of business leaders in developing countries by providing them with the skills needed to succeed as entrepreneurs. Fellowships are granted to students who show entrepreneurial ambition and an interest in making a lasting and positive economic impact on low-income countries.
Throughout 2017, the Center had distributed over $7 million to 213 fellows and launched enterprises across 40 countries. The Legatum fellows have pursued businesses that tackle social issues such as improving sanitation by converting waste products into fertiliser in Kenya, establishing plastic recycling businesses in Nigeria, and improving the clothing industry's conditions in Tanzania.
Legatum established the annual Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship program, which recognises and rewards business leaders who serve as role models to Africa's aspiring entrepreneurs. The scheme has been in operation since 2007 and is now run by the African Leadership Network, with Legatum still involved as a lead sponsor.
In 2008, Legatum partnered with Fortune magazine to announce the Legatum Fortune Technology Prize, a $1 million award intended to reward for-profit businesses who provide products and services to the needy through the use of technology.
In 2013, Legatum launched the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) in partnership with Luke Johnson to promote and support entrepreneurs in the UK.
Legatum Foundation is a sponsor of the Legatum Institute, based in London.
|
Trillion dollar club (macroeconomics)
|
[
"Country classifications",
"Economic development",
"Economic history",
"Gross domestic product",
"Economic country classifications",
"International relations",
"Investment",
"Lists of countries by economic indicator"
] | 1,719 | 13,794 |
The Trillion dollar club is an unofficial classification of the world's major economies with a gross domestic product (nominal GDP) of more than US$1 trillion per year. As of 2023 it included 19 countries. This does not include purchasing power parity, which increases the GDP of many countries with an undervalued currency, which are usually poorer countries.
Since currency valuations can be subject to rapid change, a country could achieve the US$1 trillion nominal GDP mark one year and then produce less than that in total goods and services the following year(s). The 2010 data used here are compiled according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) values. As for the former Soviet Union, the last statistics about its economy stated that it had an over US$2.5 trillion economy in the 1990 fiscal year, before its collapse.
US$1 trillion – US$10 trillion
US$1 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1969 1972 1979 1987 1988 1989 1990 1998 2004 2004 2006 2006 2007 2007 2007 2008 2017 2021 2022 2023 2025Switzerland
US$2 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1977 1977 1986 1992 2003 2004 2005 2007 2010 2011 2014 2021
US$3 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1979 1981 1988 2007 2007 2007 2021 2023
US$4 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1984 1986 1993 2008 2018 2025
US$5 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1987 1988 1995 2009
US$6 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1989 1992 2010 2011
US$7 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1990 1994 2011
US$8 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1992 1996 2012
US$9 trillion economy
Year Country Source 1995 1998 2013
US$10 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2000 2004 2014
US$11 trillion – US$20 trillion
US$11 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2003 2004 2015
US$12 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2004 2004 2017
US$13 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2004 2005 2018
US$14 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2005 2007 2019
US$15 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2006 2011 2021
US$16 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2007 2012 2021
US$17 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2007 2014 2021
US$18 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2008 2015
US$19 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2008 2018
US$20 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2018
US$21 trillion – US$30 trillion
US$21 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2019
US$22 trillion economy
Year Country Source 2021
US$23 trillion economy
+YearCountrySource2021
US$24 trillion economy
+YearCountrySource2022
US$25 trillion economy
+YearCountrySource2022
US$26 trillion economy
+YearCountrySource2022
US$27 trillion economy
+YearCountrySource2023
US$28 trillion economy
+YearCountry2024
US$29 trillion economy
+YearCountry2024
US$30 trillion economy
+YearCountry2025
See also
List of countries by GDP (nominal)
List of countries by GDP (PPP)
|
Jeff Ray Clark
|
[
"Living people",
"Economists from Virginia",
"People from Waynesboro, Virginia",
"University of Richmond alumni",
"Virginia Commonwealth University alumni",
"Virginia Tech alumni",
"University of Tennessee at Chattanooga faculty",
"21st-century American economists",
"Year of birth missing (living people)",
"20th-century American economists"
] | 1,994 | 13,726 |
Jeff Ray Clark is an American economist specializing in public finance, public choice, and managerial economics. He is the Scott L. Probasco, Jr. Chair of Free Enterprise at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Education
A native of Waynesboro, Virginia, Clark attended the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University earning the B.S. in economics in 1970. He received the Ph.D. (1974) in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Professional history
Clark held a series of national level administrative positions with the Joint Council on Economic Education in New York from 1974 to 1980. In 1980, he was appointed professor of economics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and chaired a large tri-campus economics and finance department. In 1988, he completed a visiting research fellowship at Princeton University and held the Hendrix Chair at The University of Tennessee at Martin until 1993. Since then, Clark has served as the Scott L. Probasco, Jr. Chair of Free Enterprise at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Clark has consulting experience in both the public and private sectors and philanthropic experience at the national and institutional level. He has held seats on the boards of The Palmer R. Chitester Fund, the William B. Cockroft Foundation, the Freedoms Foundation, and Kenco Corporation. Clark holds an Airline Transport Pilot rating and currently flies light jet aircraft.
Clark was president of The Association of Private Enterprise Education in 1992. He is currently secretary/treasurer of both The Association of Private Enterprise Education and the Southern Economic Association. In 2006, he was elected to the board of directors for The Mont Pelerin Society, vice president in 2010, and treasurer in 2014. In 2012, he served as vice president, freedom and free enterprise, at the John Templeton Foundation. He is managing editor of The Journal of Private Enterprise and business manager of the Southern Economic Journal.
Selected books
Freedom and Prosperity in Tennessee, editor, 2012.
Economics: The Science of Cost, Benefit, and Choice with J. Holton Wilson. Cincinnati: South Western Publishing Co. 1st edition, 1983; 2nd edition, 1987; 3rd edition, 1992; 4th edition, 1997; and 5th edition, 2000.
Macroeconomics for Managers with Clifford F. Thies, J. Holton Wilson, and Saul Z. Barr. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1990.
Economics: Cost and Choice with Michael Veseth. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1987.
Essentials of Economics with James D. Gwartney and Richard Stroup. Orlando: Academic Press Inc., 1st edition, 1982 and 2nd edition, 1985. (Japanese translation published in 1984 by Taga Shuppan Publishers Tokyo.)
Recent selected articles
"The 'Minimal' State Reconsidered: Governance on the Margin" with Benjamin Powell. Review of Austrian Economics, 2017, DOI:10.1007/s11138-017-0400-5.
"Taxation in the Liberal Tradition" with Robert Lawson. Review of Austrian Economics, 2017, DOI:10.1007/s11138-017-0399-7.
"The Use of Knowledge in Technology Entrepreneurship: A Theoretical Foundation" with Russell Sobel. Review of Austrian Economics, 2017, DOI: 10.1007/s11138-017-0380-5.
"Does Mass Immigration Destroy Institutions? 1990s Israel as a Natural Experiment" with Benjamin Powell and Alex Nowrasteh. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2017, doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.06.008.
"The Economics of Brexit" with Scott Niederjohn and Ashley S. Harrison. Social Education, Vol. 81, No. 2, 2017, 84-87.
"Econ 101 Morality: The Amiable, the Mundane and the Market" with Dwight R. Lee, Econ Journal Watch, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2017, 61-76.
"Interest Group Activity and Government Growth: A Causality Analysis" with Russ Sobel. Cato Journal, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2016, 207-533.
"Economic Freedom and Real Income" with Maggie Foley. Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Vol. 46, No. 2, 2016, 52-59.
"The Impact of Higher Quality Government Regulation of Business and Greater Economic Freedom on the Growth and Level of Living Standards: Evidence from OECD Nations" with Richard Cebula. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2016, 82-94.
"Higher Costs Appeal to Voters" with Dwight R. Lee. Public Choice, Vol. 166, No. 1, 2016, 1-9.
"Will the Economy Pick the Next President?" with M. Scott Niederjohn and Ashley S. Harrison. Social Education, Vol. 80, No. 2, 2016, 96-100.
"Dangling at the Abyss: How Deadweight Costs and Political Attitudes May Prevent (or Induce) Collapse" with John Garen. Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice, Vol. 31, No. 1-3, 2014 printed in 2016, 3-21.
"Jack Soper: A Pioneer in Economic Education" with Ashley S. Harrison and Joshua C. Hall. Journal of Private Enterprise Education, Vol. 21. No. 1, 2016, 91-100.
"Trust and the Growth of Government" with John Garen. "Cato Journal", Vol. 35, No. 3, 2015, 549-580.
"Overcoming Barriers to Entry in an Established Industry: Tesla Motors," with Edward P. Stringham and Jennifer K. Miller. California Management Review, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2015, 85-103.
"Does Immigration Impact Institutions?" with Robert Lawson, Alex Nowrastch, Benjamin Powell, and Ryan Murphy. Public Choice, Vol. 163, No. 3-4, 2015, 321-335.
"Is Bitcoin the Money of the Future?" with M. Scott Niederjohn and Ashley S. Harrison. Social Education, Vol. 79, No. 2, 2015, 94-97.
"In Remembrance of Gordon Tullock" with Dwight R. Lee. Public Choice, Vol. 162, No. 3-4, 2015, 225-227.
"The Effects of Economic Freedom, Regulatory Quality, and Taxation on the Level of Per Capita Real Income: A Preliminary Analysis for OECD Nations and Non-G8 OECD Nations" with Richard J. Cebula. Applied Economics, Vol. 46, No. 31, 2014, 3836-3848.
"Freedom and Economic Education: Jim Gwartney at the Crossroads." The Annual Proceedings of the Wealth and Well-Being of Nations, Upton Forum, Vol. VI, 2013-2014, 67-81.
"Buchanan and Tullock Ignore Their Own Contributions to Expressive Voting" with Dwight R. Lee. Public Choice, Vol. 161, No. 1-2, 2014, 113-118.
"Preference Formation, Choice Sets, and the Creative Destruction of Preferences" with Russell S. Sobel. The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2014, 55-74.
"The Problem with the Holdout Problem" with Edward J. Lopez. Review of Law & Economics, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2014, 151-167.
"A Presidential Tribute to James M. Buchanan: In Appreciation of the Man, His Work, and His Example" with Dwight R. Lee. Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 80, No. 4, 2014, 905-911.
"Battling the Forces of Darkness: How Can Economic Freedom Be Effectively Taught in the Pre-College Curriculum?" with Ashley S. Harrison and Mark C. Schug. The Journal of Private Enterprise, Vol. XXIX, No. 1, 2013, 87-100.
"An Extension of the Tiebout Hypothesis of Voting with One's Feet: The Medicaid Magnet Hypothesis" with Richard J. Cebula. Applied Economics, Vol. 45, No. 32, 2013, 4575-4583.
"The Impact of Economic Freedom on Per Capita Real GDP: A Study of OECD Nations" with Richard J. Cebula and Franklin G. Mixon Jr. The Journal of Regional Analysis & Policy, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2013, 34-41.
"Sweatshop Working Conditions and Employee Welfare: Say It Ain't Sew" with Benjamin Powell. Comparative Economic Studies, Vol. 55, No. 2, 2013, 343-357.
"Market Failures, Government Solutions, and Moral Perceptions" with Dwight R. Lee. Cato Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2013, 287-297.
"An Economic Analysis of the Effects of Fair-Trade with Rumination on the Popularity of Economists" with Dwight R. Lee. Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice, Vol. 28, No. 2/3, 2012, 133-145.
"Beyond Kelly Green Golf Shoes: Evaluating the Demand for Scholarship of Free-Market and Mainstream Economists" with Jennifer Miller-Wilford and Edward Peter Stringham. The American Journal of Economics & Sociology, Vol. 71, No. 5, 2012, 1143-1280.
"Lessons from the Experience of OECD Nations on Macroeconomic Growth and Economic Freedom, 2004-2008" with Richard J. Cebula. International Review of Economics, Vol. 59, No. 3, 2012, 231-243.
"Just Wait Until It's Free" with Dwight R. Lee. The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, Vol. 62, No. 6, July/August 2012, 11-16.
"All We Know That May Be So in Economic Education" with Mark C. Schug and Ashley S. Harrison. Social Studies Research and Practice, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 2012, 1-8.
"Markets and Morality" with Dwight R. Lee. Cato Journal, Vol. 31, No. 1, Winter 2011, 1-25. Reprinted 2015 in German and English in "Markets and Morality," Der Markt und seine moralischen Grundlagen: Diskussionsmaterial zu einem Aufsatz von Jeff R. Clark und Dwight R. Lee, Verlag Karl Alber/Munchen 2015.
"Shrinking Leviathan: Can the Interaction Between Interests and Ideology Slice Both Ways?" with Dwight R. Lee. The Independent Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, Fall 2011, 221-236.
"Internalizing Externalities Through Private Zoning: The Case of Walt Disney Company's Celebration, Florida" with Edward P. Stringham and Jennifer K. Miller. Journal of Regional Analysis & Policy, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2010, 96-103.
"Examining the Hayek-Friedman Hypothesis on Economic and Political Freedom" with Robert A. Lawson. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Vol. 74, No. 3, Spring 2010, 230-239.
"Suppressing Liberty, Censoring Information, Wasting Resources, and Calling It Good for the Environment" with Dwight R. Lee. Social Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 26, No. 2, Summer 2009, 272-295.
"Censoring and Destroying Information in the Information Age" with Dwight R. Lee. Cato Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3, Fall 2008, 421-434.
"Are Regulations the Answer for Emerging Stock Markets? Evidence from the Czech Republic and Poland" with Peter J. Boettke and Edward Stringham. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Vol. 48, No. 3, August 2008, 541-566.
"Freedom, Barriers to Entry, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Progress" with Russell S. Sobel and Dwight R. Lee. Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 20, No. 4, August 2007, 221-226.
"Workers Should Want to Pay More for Social Security" with Dwight R. Lee. Economic Inquiry, Vol. 44, No. 4, Fall 2006, 753-758.
"The Poverty of Politics: How Income Redistribution Hurts the Poor" with Gordon Tullock and Leon S. Levy. The Atlantic Economic Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1, March 2006, 47-62.
"Economic Freedom of the World, 2002" with Robert A. Lawson and James D. Gwartney. The Independent Review, Vol. IX, No. 4, Spring 2005, 573-593.
"The Increasing Difficulty of Reversing Government Growth: A Prisoners' Dilemma That Gets Worse with Time" with Dwight R. Lee. Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice, Vol. XXI, Rome, Italy, 2003-2/3, 151-165.
"The Optimal Trust in Government" with Dwight R. Lee. Eastern Economic Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1, Winter 2001, 19-34.
"The Economics of Moral Imperatives." The Journal of Economics, Vol. XXV, No. 1, July 1999, 1-8.
"Too Safe to Be Safe: Some Implications of Short- and Long-Run Rescue Laffer Curves" with Dwight R. Lee. Eastern Economic Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2, Spring 1997, 127-137.
"Sentencing Laffer Curves, Political Myopia, and Prison Space" with Dwight R. Lee. The Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 77, No. 2, June 1996, 245-259. Abstracted in "Sentencing Laffer Curves, Political Myopia, and Prison Space" with Dwight R. Lee. Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 1998.
"The Political Economy of Dissonance" with Gordon L. Brady and William Davis. Public Choice, Vol. 82, No. 1/2, January 1995, 37–51.
|
Christopher Ondaatje
|
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Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje (; born 22 February 1933), styled Earl of Rothes, Lord of Leslie and Sheriff of Fife between 2004 and 2024, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian-English businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer and bob-sledding Olympian for Canada. Ondaatje is the older brother of the author Michael Ondaatje and lives in both Chester, Nova Scotia, and the United Kingdom.
Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to Major Mervyn Ondaatje and Doris Gratiaen, a Chetty-Burgher family of Dutch and Indian origin, Ondaatje first went to S. Thomas' Preparatory School in Kollupitiya as one of its first students, and later went to Blundell's School in the United Kingdom. His name comes from an Indian ancestor called Ondaatchi from Thanjavur, India. After his alcoholic father lost the family fortune, Ondaatje had to leave school a year from graduation.
In 1956, he emigrated to Canada, arriving in Toronto with virtually no money. He quickly began to rebuild the family fortune, becoming a wealthy stockbroker, going on to be one of the three founding members of Loewen Ondaatje McCutcheon. He became a multi-millionaire in the publishing industry by founding the Pagurian Press, which he later sold to the Bronfman family.
He represented Canada in the four-man bobsled at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. Although the first Canadian men's team won gold in the event, Ondaatje's team finished 14th out of 18 teams. He is a member of the Chester Yacht Club in Nova Scotia, where he owns an island with a view of Chester Harbour.
Ondaatje is a prominent philanthropist; among the institutions he has helped are: The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Geographical Society, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Somerset County Cricket Club, Blundell's School, The Sir Christopher Ondaatje Devon Cricket Centre at Exeter University, Lakefield College School and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Chester Playhouse.
The Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize – and annual award for "a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place" – is named after Ondaatje, as is the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture from the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
Political donations
In 2000, Ondaatje donated £2 million to the UK Labour Party, and gave a further £100,000 to its head office in 2001.
After many years of success, in which Ondaatje was considered one of Toronto's most aggressive and predatory businessmen, he left the business world in 1995. He moved to Britain and began a career as a philanthropist and adventurer. Travelling through India and Africa, he also became an author, following in the footsteps of his younger brother Michael Ondaatje, a novelist. His books describe his travels and adventures.
His 2003 book Hemingway in Africa details his thesis regarding the life and motivations of Ernest Hemingway.
Titles, honours and arms
Ondaatje was made a Knight Bachelor by the Queen in 2003 in her 2003 Birthday Honours for his philanthropy and charitable services to Museums, Galleries and Societies. He had previously been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 Birthday Honours, and is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Senior Fellow of Massey College.
He was elected an Honorary Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature in 2003. In 2004, he succeeded, by re-assignation, the titles of Earl of Rothes, Lord of Leslie, and Sheriff of Fife in the Baronage of Scotland.
In 2011, he was made an Honorary Fellow of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and was awarded its Gold Medal. In 2013, the RCGS established a medal in his name – the Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration — which is awarded annually to outstanding Canadian explorers.
Personal life
Ondaatje has three children with his Latvian-born wife, Valda: David Ondaatje, a Hollywood script writer then movie producer, Seira Ondaatje and Jans Ondaatje Rolls.
Publications
Olympic Victory: The story behind the Canadian Bob-Sled Club's incredible victory at the 1964 Winter Olympic Games (1967)
The Prime Ministers of Canada, 1867–1967 (1968)
Leopard in the Afternoon — An Africa Tenting Safari (1989)
The Man-eater of Punanai — a Journey of Discovery to the Jungles of Old Ceylon (1992)
Sindh Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1996)
Journey to the Source of the Nile (1999)
Hemingway in Africa: The Last Safari (2004)
Woolf in Ceylon: An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf, 1904–1911 (2005)
The Power of Paper: A History, a Financial Adventure and a Warning (2007)
The Glenthorne Cat and other amazing leopard stories (2008)
The Last Colonial: Curious Adventures & Stories from a Vanishing World (2011)
See also
Ondaatje Letters
Michael Ondaatje
Ondaatje Prize
Pearl Ondaatje
Quint Ondaatje
Further reading
Reviews Love duet ....
|
Cheryl McKissack Daniel
|
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Cheryl McKissack Daniel (born May 15, 1961) is an American civil engineer and businesswoman. She is the president and chief executive officer of McKissack & McKissack, a design and construction company founded by her grandfather Moses McKissack III and granduncle Calvin Lunsford McKissack.
Early life and education
Cheryl McKissack Daniel was born in 1961, in Nashville, Tennessee to parents and William DeBerry McKissack. She is the granddaughter of Moses McKissack III.
McKissack Daniel graduated from the University School of Nashville, then called the Peabody Demonstration School, in 1979. She went on to graduate from Howard University in 1983, earning a bachelor’s and a master's degree in civil engineering.
In 1985, McKissack Daniel moved to New York City to work as a civil engineer for Weidlinger Associates. She started her professional career working on Department of Defense projects. She was responsible for providing quality assurance, quality control, and government research for missile silos. She worked at Weidlinger until 1989 when she became a project estimator at Turner Construction.
In 1991, she began working for McKissack & McKissack while her mother, Leatrice McKissack, was CEO. McKissack Daniel helped open the firm's new office in New York City. McKissack Daniel also incorporated The McKissack Group, Inc in 1991. In 2000, McKissack Daniel purchased the company from her mother Leatrice, and became CEO and President. The move made her the company’s fifth-generation owner. In 2002, under her leadership, the company closed its office in Nashville, making New York City its headquarters. According to CBS News, by 2019, 61% of her hires had been minorities.
Since becoming CEO, McKissack Daniel has led construction projects, including John F. Kennedy International Airport New Terminal One, Barclays Center, Atlantic Yards Long Island Rail Road Vanderbilt Yard Relocation, Fulton Fish Market, Medgar Evers College, Studio Museum in Harlem,Harlem Hospital Center New Patient Pavilion, Coney Island Hospital Campus Renovation, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
McKissack Daniel is also the founder of Legacy Engineers, a mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection engineering design firm focused on mentoring young professionals in the field.
She has served or serves on community, municipal, national, and professional advisory boards, and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Columbia University Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space (CBIPS).
In May 2022, McKissack Daniel received the Diversity and Inclusion lifetime achievement award from Crain's New York Business. In 2022, Ebony magazine gave McKissack Daniel the Black-Owned Business Award. She was honored by the National Liberty Museum as a "Hero of Liberty" for her "her support of humanitarian initiatives and for promoting the responsibilities of a free and diverse America."
|
Friedrich Engels
|
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Friedrich Engels ( ; ; 28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German philosopher, political theorist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He was also a businessman and Karl Marx's lifelong friend and closest collaborator, serving as the co-founder of Marxism.
Born in Barmen in the Kingdom of Prussia, Engels was the son of a wealthy textile manufacturer. Despite his bourgeois background, he became a staunch critic of capitalism, influenced by his observations of industrial working conditions in Manchester, England, as published in his early work The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). He met Marx in 1844, after which they jointly authored works including The Holy Family (1844), The German Ideology (written 1846), and The Communist Manifesto (1848), and worked as political activists in the Communist League and First International. Engels also supported Marx financially for much of his life, enabling him to continue his writing in London. After Marx's death in 1883, Engels edited from his manuscripts to complete Volumes II and III of his work Das Kapital (1885 and 1894).
Engels' own works, including Anti-Dühring (1878), Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880), Dialectics of Nature (written 1872–1882), The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), and Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy (1886), are foundational to Marxist theory.
Life and work
Early life
Friedrich Engels was born on 28 November 1820 in Barmen, Jülich-Cleves-Berg, Prussia (now Wuppertal, Germany), as the eldest son of (1796–1860) and of Elisabeth "Elise" Franziska Mauritia van Haar (1797–1873). The wealthy Engels family owned large cotton-textile mills in Barmen and Salford, England, both expanding industrial cities. Friedrich's parents were devout Calvinists and raised their children accordingly—he was baptised in the Calvinist Reformed Evangelical Parish of Elberfeld.
At the age of 13, Engels attended secondary school (Gymnasium) in the adjacent city of Elberfeld but had to leave at 17 due to pressure from his father, who wanted him to become a businessman and work as a mercantile apprentice in the family firm. After a year in Barmen, the young Engels was, in 1838, sent by his father to undertake an apprenticeship at a trading house in Bremen. His parents expected that he would follow his father into a career in the family business. Their son's revolutionary activities disappointed them. It would be some years before he joined the family firm.
While at Bremen, Engels began reading the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, whose teachings dominated German philosophy at that time. In September 1838 he published his first work, a poem entitled "The Bedouin", in the Bremisches Conversationsblatt No. 40. He also engaged in other literary work and began writing newspaper articles critiquing the societal ills of industrialisation. He wrote under the pseudonym "Friedrich Oswald" to avoid connecting his family with his provocative writings.
In 1841, Engels performed his military service in the Prussian Army as a member of the Household Artillery (). Assigned to Berlin, he attended university lectures at the University of Berlin and began to associate with groups of Young Hegelians. He anonymously published articles in the Rheinische Zeitung, exposing the poor employment and living conditions endured by factory workers. The editor of the Rheinische Zeitung was Karl Marx, but Engels would not meet Marx until late November 1842. Engels acknowledged the influence of German philosophy on his intellectual development throughout his career. In 1840, he also wrote: "To get the most out of life you must be active, you must live and you must have the courage to taste the thrill of being young."
Engels developed atheistic beliefs and his relationship with his parents became strained.
Manchester and Salford
In 1842, his parents sent the 22-year-old Engels to Salford, England, a manufacturing centre where industrialisation was on the rise. He was to work in Weaste, Salford, in the offices of Ermen and Engels's Victoria Mill, which made sewing threads. Engels's father thought that working at the Salford firm might make his son reconsider some of his radical opinions. On his way to Salford and Manchester, Engels visited the office of the Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne and met Karl Marx for the first time. Initially, they were not impressed with each other. Marx mistakenly thought that Engels was still associated with the Young Hegelians of Berlin, with whom Marx had just broken off ties.
In Manchester, Engels met Mary Burns, a fierce young Irish woman with radical opinions who worked in the Engels factory. They began a relationship that lasted 20 years until her death in 1863. The two never married, as both were against the institution of marriage. While Engels regarded stable monogamy as a virtue, he considered the current state and church-regulated marriage as a form of class oppression. Burns guided Engels through Manchester and Salford, showing him the worst districts for his research.
Engels was often described as a man with a very strong libido and not much restraint. He had many lovers and despite his condemnation of prostitution as "exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie" he also occasionally paid for sex. In 1846 he wrote to Marx: "If I had an income of 5000 francs I would do nothing but work and amuse myself with women until I went to pieces. If there were no Frenchwomen, life wouldn't be worth living. But so long as there are grisettes, well and good!" At a Workers' Union meeting in Brussels, Engels's friend turned rival Moses Hess accused Engels of raping his wife Sibylle. Engels vehemently denied the charge, writing in a letter to Marx that Sibylle's "rage with me is unrequited love, pure and simple."
While in Manchester between October and November 1843, Engels wrote his first critique of political economy, entitled "Umrisse zu einer Kritik der Nationalökonomie" (Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy). Engels sent the article to Paris, where Marx and Arnold Ruge published it in the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher in 1844.
Engels observed the slums of Manchester in close detail, and took notes of its horrors, such as child labour, the despoiled environment, and overworked and impoverished labourers. He sent a trilogy of articles to Marx. These were published in the Rheinische Zeitung and then in the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher, chronicling the conditions among the working class in Manchester. He later collected these articles for his influential first book, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). Written between September 1844 and March 1845, the book was published in German in 1845. In the book, Engels described the "grim future of capitalism and the industrial age", noting the details of the squalor in which the working people lived. The book was published in English in 1887. Archival resources contemporary to Engels's stay in Manchester shed light on some of the conditions he describes, including a manuscript (MMM/10/1) held by special collections at the University of Manchester. This recounts cases seen in the Manchester Royal Infirmary, where industrial accidents dominated, and which resonate with Engels's comments on the disfigured persons seen walking around Manchester as a result of such accidents.
Engels continued his involvement with radical journalism and politics. He frequented areas popular among members of the English labour and Chartist movements, whom he met. He also wrote for several journals, including The Northern Star, Robert Owen's New Moral World, and the Democratic Review newspaper.
Engels returned to Germany in 1844. On the way, he stopped in Paris to meet Karl Marx, with whom he had an earlier correspondence. Marx had been living in Paris since late October 1843, after the Rheinische Zeitung was banned in March 1843 by the Prussian government. Prior to meeting Marx, Engels had become established as a fully developed materialist and scientific socialist, independent of Marx's philosophical development.
In Paris, Marx and Arnold Ruge were publishing the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher, of which only one issue appeared (in 1844), and in which Engels wrote Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy. Engels met Marx for a second time at the Café de la Régence on the Place du Palais, on 28 August 1844. The two quickly became close friends and remained so their entire lives. Marx had read and was impressed by Engels's articles on The Condition of the Working Class in England in which he had written that "[a] class which bears all the disadvantages of the social order without enjoying its advantages, [...] Who can demand that such a class respect this social order?" Marx adopted Engels's idea that the working class would lead the revolution against the bourgeoisie as society advanced toward socialism, and incorporated this as part of his own philosophy.
Engels stayed in Paris to help Marx write The Holy Family. It was an attack on the Young Hegelians and the Bauer brothers and was published in late February 1845. Engels's earliest contribution to Marx's work was writing for the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher, edited by both Marx and Arnold Ruge, in Paris in 1844. During this time in Paris, both Marx and Engels began their association with and then joined the secret revolutionary society called the League of the Just. The League of the Just had been formed in 1837 in France to promote an egalitarian society through the overthrow of the existing governments. In 1839, the League participated in the 1839 rebellion fomented by the French utopian revolutionary socialist, Louis Auguste Blanqui; as Ruge remained a Young Hegelian in his belief, Marx and Ruge soon split and Ruge left the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher. Following the split, Marx remained friendly enough with Ruge that he sent Ruge a warning on 15 January 1845 that the Paris police were going to execute orders against him, Marx and others at the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher requiring all to leave Paris within 24 hours. Marx was expelled from Paris by French authorities on 3 February 1845 and settled in Brussels with his wife and one daughter. Having left Paris on 6 September 1844, Engels returned to his home in Barmen to work on his The Condition of the Working Class in England, which was published in late May 1845. Even before the publication of his book, Engels moved to Brussels in late April 1845, to collaborate with Marx on another book, German Ideology. While living in Barmen, Engels began making contact with Socialists in the Rhineland to raise money for Marx's publication efforts in Brussels; these contacts became more important as both Marx and Engels began political organising for the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany.
The nation of Belgium, founded in 1830, had one of the most liberal constitutions in Europe and functioned as a refuge for progressives from other countries. From 1845 to 1848, Engels and Marx lived in Brussels, spending much of their time organising the city's German workers. Shortly after their arrival, they contacted and joined the underground German Communist League. The Communist League was the successor organisation to the League of the Just which had been founded in 1837 but had recently disbanded. Influenced by Wilhelm Weitling, the Communist League was an international society of proletarian revolutionaries with branches in various European cities.
The Communist League also had contacts with the underground conspiratorial organisation of Louis Auguste Blanqui. Many of Marx's and Engels's current friends became members of the Communist League. Old friends like Georg Friedrich Herwegh, who had worked with Marx on the Rheinsche Zeitung, Heinrich Heine, the famous poet, a young physician by the name of Roland Daniels, Heinrich Bürgers and August Herman Ewerbeck, all maintained their contacts with Marx and Engels in Brussels. Georg Weerth, who had become a friend of Engels in England in 1843, now settled in Brussels. Carl Wallau and Stephen Born (real name Simon Buttermilch) were both German immigrant typesetters who settled in Brussels to help Marx and Engels with their Communist League work. Marx and Engels made many new important contacts through the Communist League. One of the first was Wilhelm Wolff, who soon became one of Marx's and Engels's closest collaborators. Others were Joseph Weydemeyer and Ferdinand Freiligrath, a famous revolutionary poet. While most of the associates of Marx and Engels were German immigrants living in Brussels, some were Belgians. Phillipe Gigot, a Belgian philosopher and Victor Tedesco, a lawyer from Liège, both joined the Communist League. Joachim Lelewel, a prominent Polish historian and participant in the Polish uprising of 1830–1831, was also a frequent associate.
The Communist League commissioned Marx and Engels to write a pamphlet explaining the principles of communism. This became the Manifesto of the Communist Party, better known as The Communist Manifesto. It was first published on 21 February 1848 and ends with the lines: "Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletariat have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working Men of All Countries, Unite!"
Engels's mother wrote in a letter to him of her concerns, commenting that he had "really gone too far" and "begged" him "to proceed no further". She further stated:You have paid more heed to other people, to strangers, and have taken no account of your mother's pleas. God alone knows what I have felt and suffered of late. I was trembling when I picked up the newspaper and saw therein that a warrant was out for my son's arrest.
Return to Prussia
There was a revolution in France in 1848 that soon spread to other Western European countries. These events caused Engels and Marx to return to Cologne in their homeland of Prussia. While living there, they created and served as editors for a new daily newspaper called the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Besides Marx and Engels, other frequent contributors to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung included Karl Schapper, Wilhelm Wolff, Ernst Dronke, Peter Nothjung, Heinrich Bürgers, Ferdinand Wolff and Carl Cramer. Engels's mother gave unwitting witness to the effect of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung on the revolutionary uprising in Cologne in 1848. Criticising his involvement in the uprising she states in a 5 December 1848 letter to Friedrich that "nobody, ourselves included, doubted that the meetings at which you and your friends spoke, and also the language of (Neue) Rh.Z. were largely the cause of these disturbances."
Engels's parents hoped that young Engels would "decide to turn to activities other than those which you have been pursuing in recent years and which have caused so much distress". At this point, his parents felt the only hope for their son was to emigrate to America and start his life over. They told him that he should do this or he would "cease to receive money from us"; however, the problem in the relationship between Engels and his parents was worked out without Engels having to leave England or being cut off from financial assistance from his parents. In July 1851, Engels's father arrived to visit him in Manchester, England. During the visit, his father arranged for Engels to meet Peter Ermen of the office of Ermen & Engels, to move to Liverpool and to take over sole management of the office in Manchester.
In 1849, Engels travelled to Bavaria for the Baden and Palatinate revolutionary uprising, an even more dangerous involvement. Starting with an article called "The Magyar Struggle", written on 8 January 1849, Engels, himself, began a series of reports on the Revolution and War for Independence of the newly founded Hungarian Republic. Engels's articles on the Hungarian Republic became a regular feature in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung under the heading "From the Theatre of War"; however, the newspaper was suppressed during the June 1849 Prussian coup d'état. After the coup, Marx lost his Prussian citizenship, was deported and fled to Paris, then London. Engels stayed in Prussia and took part in an armed uprising in South Germany as an aide-de-camp in the volunteer corps of August Willich. Engels also took two cases of rifle cartridges with him when he went to join the uprising in Elberfeld on 10 May 1849. Later when Prussian troops came to Kaiserslautern to suppress an uprising there, Engels joined a group of volunteers under the command of August Willich, who were going to fight the Prussian troops. When the uprising was crushed, Engels was one of the last members of Willich's volunteers to escape by crossing the Swiss border. Marx and others became concerned for Engels's life until they heard from him.
Engels travelled through Switzerland as a refugee and eventually made it to safety in England. On 6 June 1849 Prussian authorities issued an arrest warrant for him which contained a physical description as "height: 5 feet 6 inches; hair: blond; forehead: smooth; eyebrows: blond; eyes: blue; nose and mouth: well proportioned; beard: reddish; chin: oval; face: oval; complexion: healthy; figure: slender. Special characteristics: speaks very rapidly and is short-sighted". As to his "short-sightedness", Engels admitted as much in a letter written to Joseph Weydemeyer on 19 June 1851 in which he says he was not worried about being selected for the Prussian military because of "my eye trouble, as I have now found out once and for all which renders me completely unfit for active service of any sort". Once he was safe in Switzerland, Engels began to write down all his memories of the recent military campaign against the Prussians. This writing eventually became the article published as "The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution".
Back in Britain
To help Marx with Neue Rheinische Zeitung Politisch-ökonomische Revue, the new publishing effort in London, Engels sought ways to escape the continent and travel to London. On 5 October 1849, Engels arrived in the Italian port city of Genoa. There, Engels booked passage on the English schooner, Cornish Diamond under the command of a Captain Stevens. The voyage across the western Mediterranean, around the Iberian Peninsula by sailing schooner took about five weeks. Finally, the Cornish Diamond sailed up the River Thames to London on 10 November 1849 with Engels on board.
Upon his return to Britain, Engels re-entered the Manchester company in which his father held shares to support Marx financially as he worked on Das Kapital. Unlike his first period in England (1843), Engels was now under police surveillance. He had "official" homes and "unofficial homes" all over Salford, Weaste and other inner-city Manchester districts where he lived with Mary Burns under false names to confuse the police. Little more is known, as Engels destroyed over 1,500 letters between himself and Marx after the latter's death so as to conceal the details of their secretive lifestyle.
Despite his work at the mill, Engels found time to write a book on Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation and the 1525 revolutionary war of the peasants, entitled The Peasant War in Germany. He also wrote a number of newspaper articles including "The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution" which he finished in February 1850 and "On the Slogan of the Abolition of the State and the German 'Friends of Anarchy'" written in October 1850. In April 1851, he wrote the pamphlet "Conditions and Prospects of a War of the Holy Alliance against France".
Marx and Engels denounced Louis Bonaparte when he carried out a coup against the French government and made himself president for life on 2 December 1851. Engels wrote to Marx on 3 December 1851, characterising the coup as "comical" and referred to it as occurring on "the 18th Brumaire", the date of Napoleon I's coup of 1799 according to the French Republican Calendar. Marx later incorporated this comically ironic characterisation of the coup into his essay about it. He called the essay The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte using Engels's suggested characterisation. Marx also borrowed Engels' characterisation of Hegel's notion of the World Spirit that history occurred twice, "once as a tragedy and secondly as a farce" in the first paragraph of his new essay.
Meanwhile, Engels started working at the mill owned by his father in Manchester as an office clerk, the same position he held in his teens while in Germany where his father's company was based. Engels worked his way up to become a partner in the firm in 1864. Five years later, Engels retired from the business and could focus more on his studies. At this time, Marx was living in London but they were able to exchange ideas through daily correspondence. One of the ideas that Engels and Marx contemplated was the possibility and character of a potential revolution in Russia. As early as April 1853, Engels and Marx anticipated an "aristocratic-bourgeois revolution in Russia which would begin in "St. Petersburg with a resulting civil war in the interior". The model for this type of aristocratic-bourgeois revolution in Russia against the autocratic Tsarist government in favour of a constitutional government had been provided by the Decembrist Revolt of 1825.
Despite the unsuccessful revolt against the Tsarist government in favour of a constitutional government, both Engels and Marx anticipated a bourgeois revolution in Russia would occur, which would bring about a bourgeois stage in Russian development to precede a communist stage. By 1881, both Marx and Engels began to contemplate a course of development in Russia that would lead directly to the communist stage without the intervening bourgeois stage. This analysis was based on what Marx and Engels saw as the exceptional characteristics of the Russian village commune or obshchina. While doubt was cast on this theory by Georgi Plekhanov, Plekhanov's reasoning was based on the first edition of Das Kapital (1867) which predated Marx's interest in Russian peasant communes by two years. Later editions of the text demonstrate Marx's sympathy for the argument of Nikolay Chernyshevsky, that it should be possible to establish socialism in Russia without an intermediary bourgeois stage provided that the peasant communes were used as the basis for the transition.
In 1870, Engels moved to London where he and Marx lived until Marx's death in 1883. Engels's London home from 1870 to 1894 was at 122 Regent's Park Road. In October 1894 he moved to 41 Regent's Park Road, Primrose Hill, NW1, where he died the following year.
Marx's first London residence was a cramped flat at 28 Dean Street, Soho. From 1856, he lived at 9 Grafton Terrace, Kentish Town, and then in a tenement at 41 Maitland Park Road in Belsize Park from 1875 until his death in March 1883.
Mary Burns died suddenly of heart disease in 1863, after which Engels became close with her younger sister Lydia ("Lizzie"). They lived openly as a couple in London and married on 11 September 1878, hours before Lizzie's death.
Later years
Later in their lives, Marx and Engels came to argue that in some countries workers might be able to achieve their aims through peaceful means. In following this, Engels argued that socialists were evolutionists, although they remained committed to social revolution. Similarly, Tristram Hunt argues that Engels was sceptical of "top-down revolutions" and later in life advocated "a peaceful, democratic road to socialism". Engels also wrote in his introduction to the 1891 edition of Marx's The Class Struggles in France that "rebellion in the old style, street fighting with barricades, which decided the issue everywhere up to 1848, was to a considerable extent obsolete", although some such as David W. Lowell empashised their cautionary and tactical meaning, arguing that "Engels questions only rebellion 'in the old style', that is, insurrection: he does not renounce revolution. The reason for Engels' caution is clear: he candidly admits that ultimate victory for any insurrection is rare, simply on military and tactical grounds".
In his introduction to the 1895 edition of Marx's The Class Struggles in France, Engels attempted to resolve the division between reformists and revolutionaries in the Marxist movement by declaring that he was in favour of short-term tactics of electoral politics that included gradualist and evolutionary socialist measures while maintaining his belief that revolutionary seizure of power by the proletariat should remain a goal. In spite of this attempt by Engels to merge gradualism and revolution, his effort only diluted the distinction of gradualism and revolution and had the effect of strengthening the position of the revisionists. Engels's statements in the French newspaper Le Figaro, in which he wrote that "revolution" and the "so-called socialist society" were not fixed concepts, but rather constantly changing social phenomena, and argued that this made "us socialists all evolutionists", increased the public perception that Engels was gravitating towards evolutionary socialism. Engels also argued that it would be "suicidal" to talk about a revolutionary seizure of power at a time when the historical circumstances favoured a parliamentary road to power that he predicted could bring "social democracy into power as early as 1898". Engels's stance of openly accepting gradualist, evolutionary and parliamentary tactics while claiming that the historical circumstances did not favour revolution caused confusion. Marxist revisionist Eduard Bernstein interpreted this as indicating that Engels was moving towards accepting parliamentary reformist and gradualist stances, but he ignored that Engels's stances were tactical as a response to the particular circumstances and that Engels was still committed to revolutionary socialism. Engels was deeply distressed when he discovered that his introduction to a new edition of The Class Struggles in France had been edited by Bernstein and orthodox Marxist Karl Kautsky in a manner which left the impression that he had become a proponent of a peaceful road to socialism. On 1 April 1895, four months before his death, Engels responded to Kautsky:
I was amazed to see today in the Vorwärts an excerpt from my 'Introduction' that had been printed without my knowledge and tricked out in such a way as to present me as a peace-loving proponent of legality [at all costs]. Which is all the more reason why I should like it to appear in its entirety in the Neue Zeit in order that this disgraceful impression may be erased. I shall leave Liebknecht in no doubt as to what I think about it and the same applies to those who, irrespective of who they may be, gave him this opportunity of perverting my views and, what's more, without so much as a word to me about it.
After Marx's death, Engels devoted much of his remaining years to editing Marx's unfinished volumes of Das Kapital. He is credited with preventing the work from being lost due to Marx's "incredibly difficult handwriting". He had to provide it with structure and develop its lines of thought, so that the second and third volumes of Capital are effectively joint in authorship and its content (except for the extensive forewords added by Engels) cannot be attributed exclusively to either author. Some scholars, notably , thought that Engels had altered the course of Marx's analysis, but the shift in focus from the exploitation of labourers to the accumulation of capital, and the introduction of the possibility that capitalism could survive the tendency of the rate of profit to fall is argued by van Holthoon to be already Marx's, with the latter notion present in the long unpublished Grundrisse.
While the task of editing Capital forced Engels to abandon his unfinished Dialectics of Nature, he still completed two other works of his own in the years following Marx's death. In The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), he made an argument using anthropological evidence of the time to show that family structures changed over history and that the concept of monogamous marriage came from the necessity within class society for men to control women to ensure their own children would inherit their property. He argued a future communist society would allow people to make decisions about their relationships free of economic constraints. Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy was published in 1886. On 5 August 1895, Engels died of throat cancer in London, aged 74. Following cremation at Woking Crematorium, his ashes were scattered off Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, as he had requested. He left a considerable estate to Eduard Bernstein and Louise Freyberger (wife of Ludwig Freyberger), valued for probate at £25,265 0s. 11d, equivalent to £ in .
Engels's interests included poetry, fox hunting and hosting regular Sunday parties for London's left-wing intelligentsia where, as one regular put it, "no one left before two or three in the morning". His stated personal motto was "take it easy" while "jollity" was listed as his favourite virtue.
Of Engels's personality and appearance, Robert Heilbroner described him in The Worldly Philosophers as "tall and rather elegant, he had the figure of a man who liked to fence and to ride to hounds and who had once swum the Weser River four times without a break" as well as having been "gifted with a quick wit and facile mind" and of a gay temperament, being able to "stutter in twenty languages". He had a great enjoyment of wine and other "bourgeois pleasures". Engels favoured forming romantic relationships with women of the proletariat and found a long-term partner in a working-class woman named Mary Burns, although they never married. After her death, Engels was romantically involved with her younger sister Lydia Burns.
Historian and former Labour MP Tristram Hunt, author of The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, argues that Engels "almost certainly was, in other words, the kind of man Stalin would have had shot". Hunt sums up the disconnect between Engels's personality and the Soviet Union which later utilised his works, stating:
As to the religious persuasion attributable to Engels, Hunt writes:
Engels was a polyglot and was able to write and speak in numerous languages, including Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Spanish, Polish, French, English, German and the Milanese dialect.
In his biography of Engels, Vladimir Lenin wrote: "After his friend Karl Marx (who died in 1883), Engels was the finest scholar and teacher of the modern proletariat in the whole civilised world. [...] In their scientific works, Marx and Engels were the first to explain that socialism is not the invention of dreamers, but the final aim and necessary result of the development of the productive forces in modern society. All recorded history hitherto has been a history of class struggle, of the succession of the rule and victory of certain social classes over others." According to Paul Kellogg, there is "some considerable controversy" regarding "the place of Frederick Engels in the canon of 'classical Marxism'". While some such as Terrell Carver dispute "Engels' claim that Marx agreed with the views put forward in Engels' major theoretical work, Anti-Dühring", others such as E. P. Thompson "identified a tendency to make 'old Engels into a whipping boy, and to impugn him any sign that once chooses to impugn subsequent Marxsisms.
Tristram Hunt argues that Engels has become a convenient scapegoat, too easily blamed for the state crimes of Communist regimes such as China, the Soviet Union and those in Africa and Southeast Asia, among others. Hunt writes that "Engels is left holding the bag of 20th century ideological extremism" while Karl Marx "is rebranded as the acceptable, post–political seer of global capitalism". Hunt largely exonerates Engels, stating that "[i]n no intelligible sense can Engels or Marx bear culpability for the crimes of historical actors carried out generations later, even if the policies were offered up in their honor". Andrew Lipow describes Marx and Engels as "the founders of modern revolutionary democratic socialism".
While admitting the distance between Marx and Engels on one hand and Joseph Stalin on the other, some writers such as Robert Service are less charitable, noting that the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin predicted the oppressive potential of their ideas, arguing that "[i]t is a fallacy that Marxism's flaws were exposed only after it was tried out in power. [...] [Marx and Engels] were centralisers. While talking about 'free associations of producers', they advocated discipline and hierarchy". Paul Thomas, of the University of California, Berkeley, claims that while Engels had been the most important and dedicated facilitator and diffuser of Marx's writings, he significantly altered Marx's intents as he held, edited and released them in a finished form and commentated on them. Engels attempted to fill gaps in Marx's system and extend it to other fields. In particular, Engels is said to have stressed historical materialism, assigning it a character of scientific discovery and a doctrine, forming Marxism as such. A case in point is Anti-Dühring which both supporters and detractors of socialism treated as an encompassing presentation of Marx's thought. While in his extensive correspondence with German socialists, Engels modestly presented his own secondary place in the couple's intellectual relationship and always emphasised Marx's outstanding role, Russian communists such as Lenin raised Engels up with Marx and conflated their thoughts as if they were necessarily congruous. Soviet Marxists then developed this tendency to the state doctrine of dialectical materialism.
Since 1931, Engels has had a Russian city named after him—Engels, Saratov Oblast. It served as the capital of the Volga German Republic within Soviet Russia and as part of Saratov Oblast. A town named Marx is located northeast.
In July 2017, as part of the Manchester International Festival, a Soviet-era statue of Engels was installed by sculptor Phil Collins at Tony Wilson Place in Manchester. It was transported from the village of Mala Pereshchepina in Eastern Ukraine, after the statue had been deposed from its central position in the village in the wake of laws outlawing communist symbols in Ukraine introduced in 2015. In recognition of the important influence Manchester had on his work, the 3.5-metre statue now stands on Manchester's First Street. The installation of what was originally an instrument of propaganda drew criticism from Kevin Bolton in The Guardian.
The Friedrich Engels Guards Regiment (also known as NVA Guard Regiment 1) was a special guard unit of the East German National People's Army (NVA). The guard regiment was established in 1962 from parts of the Hugo Eberlein Guards Regiment and given the title "Friedrich Engels" in 1970.
In Brighton and Hove there is a Bus named after Engels, due to his love of the Eastbourne as a holiday resort and ashes being scattered in the city.
Influences
According to Norman Levine, in spite of his criticism of the utopian socialists, Engels's beliefs were influenced by the French socialist Charles Fourier. From Fourier, he derives four main points that characterise the social conditions of a communist state. The first point maintains that every individual would be able to fully develop their talents by eliminating the specialisation of production. Without specialisation, every individual would be permitted to exercise any vocation of their choosing for as long or as little as they would like. If talents permitted it, one could be a baker for a year and an engineer the next. The second point builds upon the first, as with the ability of workers to cycle through different jobs of their choosing, the fundamental basis of the social division of labour is destroyed and the social division of labour will disappear as a result. If anyone can be employed at any job that they wish, then there are clearly no longer any divisions or barriers to entry for labour, otherwise, such fluidity between entirely different jobs would not exist. The third point continues from the second as once the social division of labour is gone, the division of social classes based on property ownership will fade with it. If the labour division puts a man in charge of a farm, that farmer owns the productive resources of that farm. The same applies to the ownership of a factory or a bank. Without labour division, no single social class may claim exclusive rights to a particular means of production since the absence of labour division allows all to use it. Finally, the fourth point concludes that the elimination of social classes destroys the sole purpose of the state and it will cease to exist. As Engels stated in his own writing, the only purpose of the state is to abate the effects of class antagonisms. With the elimination of social classes based on property, the state becomes obsolete and a communist society, at least in the eyes of Engels, is achieved.
Major works
The Holy Family (1844)
This book was written by Marx and Engels in November 1844. It is a critique of the Young Hegelians and their trend of thought which was very popular in academic circles at the time. The title was suggested by the publisher and is meant as a sarcastic reference to the Bauer Brothers and their supporters.
The book created a controversy with much of the press and caused Bruno Bauer to attempt to refute the book in an article published in Vierteljahrsschrift in 1845. Bauer claimed that Marx and Engels misunderstood what he was trying to say. Marx later replied to his response with his own article published in the journal in January 1846. Marx also discussed the argument in chapter 2 of The German Ideology.
The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845)
A study of the deprived conditions of the working class in Manchester and Salford, based on Engels's personal observations. The work also contains seminal thoughts on the state of socialism and its development. Originally published in German and only translated into English in 1887, the work initially had little impact in England; however, it was very influential with historians of British industrialisation throughout the twentieth century.
The Peasant War in Germany (1850)
An account of the early 16th-century uprising known as the German Peasants' War, with a comparison with the recent revolutionary uprisings of 1848–1849 across Europe.
Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science (1878)
Popularly known as Anti-Dühring, this book is a detailed critique of the philosophical positions of Eugen Dühring, a German philosopher and critic of Marxism. In the course of replying to Dühring, Engels reviews recent advances in science and mathematics seeking to demonstrate the way in which the concepts of dialectics apply to natural phenomena. Many of these ideas were later developed in the unfinished work, Dialectics of Nature. Three chapters of Anti-Dühring were later edited and published under the separate title, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880)
In this work, one of the best-selling socialist books of the era, Engels briefly described and analyzed the ideas of notable utopian socialists such as Charles Fourier and Robert Owen. Engels pointed out their strong points and shortcomings, and provided an explanation of the scientific socialist framework for the understanding of capitalism, and an outline of the progression of social and economic development from the perspective of historical materialism.
Dialectics of Nature (1883)
Dialectics of Nature (German: "Dialektik der Natur") is an unfinished 1883 work by Engels that applies Marxist ideas, particularly those of dialectical materialism, to science. It was first published in the Soviet Union in 1925.
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)
In this work, Engels argues that the family is an ever-changing institution that has been shaped by capitalism. It contains a historical view of the family in relation to issues of class, female subjugation and private property.
Tristram Hunt describes Engels as a pioneering feminist and as "the intellectual architect of socialist feminism", and according to him, "Engels' relevance rests on... The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State." Engels wrote that in primeval societies women were treated with a high degree of respect and took major social roles, but this changed drastically with the development of private property and monogamic family; in times contemporary to Engels, monogamic family was underpinned by capitalism, what asserted the suppression of women's rights.
Further reading
Commentaries on Engels
Royle, Camilla (2020), A Rebel's Guide to Engels, London: Bookmarks.
Fiction works
Square Enix (2017), Nier: Automata. Where a machine named Engels tries to overthrow the android species for the machines' sake.
Graphic novel
A biographical German graphic novel called Engels – Unternehmer und Revolutionär ("Engels – Businessman and Revolutionary") was published in 2020.
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Napoléon (coin)
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"Currency unions",
"Economic history of France",
"Coins of France",
"Gold coins",
"Modern obsolete currencies",
"Cultural depictions of Napoleon"
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The Napoléon is the colloquial term for a former French gold coin. The coins were minted (at various times) in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 40, 50, and 100 francs. This article focuses on the 20 franc coins issued during the reign of Napoléon Bonaparte, which are 21 mm in diameter, weigh 6.45 grams (gross weight) and, at 90% pure, contain of pure gold. The coin was issued during the reign of Napoleon I and features his portrait on the obverse. The denomination (known as the Franc Germinal) continued in use through the 19th century and later French gold coins in the same denomination were generally referred to as "Napoléons". Earlier French gold coins are referred to as Louis (the name of eighteen French kings) or écu (an old French word for shield). Gold Napoléons have historically proven more resilient than other gold coins to economic forces, such as after the Suez crisis when unlike other coins Napoléons did not weaken.
The coins were originally minted in two denominations, 20 and 40 francs for Napoléon Bonaparte. The 40-franc gold piece did not become popular. The 20 franc coins are 21 mm in diameter (about the size of a U.S. five-cent piece or a Swiss 20 Rappen coin), weigh 6.45 grams (gross weight) and; at 90% pure, contain of pure gold. The 40 franc coins are 26 mm in diameter, weigh 12.90 grams (gross weight) and; are 90% pure gold.
They were issued during the reign of Napoleon I and feature his portrait, sometimes bare headed and other times wearing a laurel wreath (the ancient Roman symbol of imperial or military glory) and, depending upon the political status of France, the words on the front: either Bonaparte – Premier Consul (First Consul) or Napoléon Empereur (emperor). On the back: the legends read either "RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE" (French Republic) or after 1809, "EMPIRE FRANÇAIS" (French Empire). There was even a 20 and 40 Lire Napoleon minted under the auspices of the Kingdom of Italy, a client state. "Bonaparte First Consul" pieces of similar size, weight and fineness were struck at the Turin Mint. The obverse (L'Italie Délivrée à Marengo]) recounts that Italy was liberated from Austria by Bonaparte at Marengo, Piedmont on 14 June 1800, whereat the French General Louis Desaix was killed. The reverse indicates the extent liberated lands, known as Gaul Subalpine, Eridania or Northern Italy. The type was created pursuant to the decree of the Gaul Subalpine government established after the Battle of Marengo and which existed from 16 June 1800, through 11 September 1802.
Dates of usage of the "Napoléon" coins
The coin continued in use through the 19th century and later French gold coins in the same denomination were generally referred to as "Napoleons". In particular the coins of Napoleon I were minted not only at the several French mints but also at the mints in Italian territories: Genoa, Turin (1803 to 1813), Rome (1812 to 1813), the Netherlands: Utrecht (1812 to 1813), and Swiss territories: Geneva, during the French occupation of these places. Although the mints came under French administration and minted French Empire coins, it was otherwise business as usual as the incumbent mint masters remained in their posts, for example: Sarwaas in Utrecht, Paroletti in Turin and Mazzio in Rome.
French coins minted in London
Some coins of King Louis XVIII were minted in London in 1815. The English were supportive of the return of the French king to power after he was deposed by Napoleon in 1815, during the famous Hundred Days. The coins minted at London were purportedly authorized by Louis XVIII himself and were used to pay British troops occupying parts of North Western France. Some coins found their way to Paris and were considered counterfeits by the monetary authorities there and then. There was an exchange of diplomatic letters between France and England and the activity was stopped. The English artist who engraved the London dies, Thomas Wyon, Jr. (1792–1817), a highly accomplished artist, was insulted when his dies which were low relief based on the French struck coins and the original engravings of London born French engraver Pierre Joseph Tiolier (1763–1819) were considered inferior. Allegations also arose that the London Mint did not respect French law regarding fineness and tolerance with these coins and these facts have been offered for the early withdrawal of the coins from circulation. However, contemporaneous assays demonstrated adherence to the French law by the London minters. No coins were struck after 30 November 1815.
+ French mints of the time of Napoleon I Letter City Letter City Letter CityA Paris AA Metz B RouenBBStrasbourg CLGenoaDLyonGGenevaHLa RochelleILimogesKBordeauxLBayonneMToulouseM/AMarseilleQPerpignanR OrléansTNantesWLilleflagUtrechtUTurinCrown/RRomeR London
First authorized by the Monetary Ordinance of 28 March 1803
Napoleon tried to unify Europe and almost succeeded, especially in terms of the coinage. The Napoleon coin was first authorized by a Monetary Ordinance of 28 March 1803 by the Premier Consul (First Consul) Napoleon Bonaparte. The 20 franc gold pieces which he authorized in 1803, became the model of all the coins of the Latin Monetary Union which circulated in Europe until 1914. The French coin carries the effigy, in profile, Napoleon, who would later become the French Emperor. The coins had the same value as the Louis, which bears the likeness of the pre-French Revolution King Louis XIV. For Napoleon, there were ostensibly seven types or varieties of the coins minted. In general the varieties differed in terms of obverse legend, reverse legends, portraiture, and calendaring system. For each variety, there was a new enabling statute or executive decree: 28 March 1803; 7 April 1803; 26 June 1804; 8 September 1805; 11 February 1807; 5 August 1807; and 22 October 1808. By extension, the term Napoleon is applied today to all the various types of 20 franc French gold pieces.
"The Euro before the Euro"
Although the portraits and legends changed with the political changes in France, the denomination remained in usage until World War I under what was known as the Latin Monetary Union, the "Euro before the Euro", so-to-speak. Switzerland had 20 Swiss franc pieces, Spain had 20 peseta coins, Italy had 20 lira pieces, Belgium had 20 Belgian franc coins, and Greece had 20 drachma coins, all of which circulated and were accepted throughout Europe. Only for political reasons did the United Kingdom and the German Empire refuse to follow this direction. Attempts were even taken to explore the unification of the European currency with the American dollar, which explains the extremely rare U.S. pattern coins carrying $4 marking on the face and 25 franc markings on the reverse.
Distinguishing marks of the mint masters
The coins bear the signature of the master engraver responsible for the engraving of the coins' dies. In later times the engraver used a symbol to identify himself. The coins also bear the mark (a symbol, letter, or monogram) denoting the particular French (or French controlled) mint which struck the coin. These mint marks often signal the rarity of the issue, for example the Napoleon 20 franc gold coin struck in 1809 at Paris and marked with the letter "A" had an issue of 687,508 coins; in the same year at the mint at Bordeaux, marked with the letter "K" only 2,534 coins were struck; while the mint at Lille, marked with a "W" struck 16,911 coins. Over the years there were some twenty-three French mints not only in France but also in annexed or occupied countries, including Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
The engravers
Jean Pierre Droz (1746–1823), was perhaps the most skillful and certainly the most famous engraver and medallist of his day. Born in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Droz studied in Paris and won acclaim with his fine pattern piece known as the Écu de Calonne after the French finance minister. This coin was struck with an edge inscription using a six-segmented collar (virole brisée) of Droz' own invention at the Paris Mint. After a brief tenure at Matthew Boulton's Birmingham (Soho) Mint, Droz returned to France and in 1799 was appointed Keeper of the Coins and Medals at the Paris Mint, which post he held throughout the Napoleonic era. Meanwhile, he was much in demand by other governments as a consultant. He struck patterns for Spain, the United States and his native Neuchâtel among others. In French coinage, the effigy of Napoleon as engraved by him appears both on the 20 and 40 franc gold pieces from 1804 through 1814. Droz was also responsible for the pattern of the 5 francs of the "Hundred Days" in 1815. Among his medallic work, the coronation medals for Napoleon in 1804 ("Medal Celebrating the Coronation of Napoleon I by Pope Pius VII at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris") and several medals and jetons for the Bank of France are the most noteworthy.
Pierre-Joseph Tiolier (1763–1819), born in London, was appointed the engraver-general of the Paris Mint from 1803 to 1816. Tiolier engraved the patterns for the Bonaparte-First Consul coins. Tiolier was trained by his brother-in-law, the notable, Benjamin Duvivier. Many improvements of the coining machinery took place during Tiolier's tenure at the mint. His many medals and coins attest to his high skill. Tiolier's full signature appears on the dies he cut while coins bearing a "Tr" were from dies cut by others.
Thomas Wyon, Jr. (1792–1817) was an English medallist who died at the early age of 25. In both 1810 and again in 1811, he won the Society of Arts gold medal for medal engraving. In only four years, from 1811 to 1815, he rose at the Royal Mint from a probationer to chief engraver.
Notes on varieties of Napoleon coins
After a competition among artists who submitted designs: Nicholas Guy Antoine Brenet (1773-1846), André Galle (1761-1844), Romain-Vincent Jeuffroy (1749-1826), the design by the Swiss, Jean-Pierre Droz (1746-1823) was selected. The coins were the work of Joseph Pierre Tiolier (1763-1819), who was appointed Chief Engraver of the Paris Mint on 1 April 1803. There were no reducing machines at the time and the entirety of the engraver's work was completed by directly cutting into the die face with punches and gravers.
In Year XI the government invested in a different method of minting pioneered by Jean-Pierre-Joseph Darcet (1777-1844). And in 1807, new minting equipment was introduced under the supervision of Philippe Joachim Gengembre (1764-1838), Inspector General of the Mints. This equipment, a Balancier Manuel (screw press) included a full ring (closed collar), produced slightly reduced reliefs. The general appearance of the coins is thus slightly modified compared to the coins struck by the prior methods.
In accordance with the Concordat with Pope Pius VII (1742-1823), signed 15 July 1801, a decree put an end to the revolutionary calendar. On 17 Brumaire Year 14 (8 November 1805) the Minister of Finance announced the return to the Gregorian calendar, which had been outlawed in October 1793, with effect from 1 January 1806.
Slight modifications in the portrait make it possible to distinguish the 1807 type from the preceding 1806 type; in particular, the variation is in the space between the rim and the top of the head. The 1807 issues are remarkable because the design was decided during Napoleon's absence. When he returned to Paris he was surprised to discover the new coins which were the result of the engraver's diligence. This is also considered a transitional issue, that is a coin struck after an official series ends, or before an official series starts. It can also refer to a coin struck with either the obverse or the reverse of a discontinued or upcoming series. These coins are a transitional issue because they were minted just before the 1807/08 issues (with laurel crown). The term "tête de nègre" sometimes used for these coins is a colloquial descriptor applied because of the frizzy appearance of Napoleon's hair as that of an African man.
A decree was announced by the Ministry of Finance on 5 August 1807, specifying the addition of a laurel wreath to the bust of Napoleon symbolizing the military victories of the Emperor. The decree of 22 October 1808, specified that for coins issued after 1 January 1809, the legend ―French Republic‖ would be replaced by ―French Empire.
1813CL- Tiolier was responsible for the dies for the Napoleonic coinage of Genoa (15 November 1811 through 1814).
1813Flag- the coining of French coins at Utrecht began on 16 November 1812 and did not continue beyond 1813.
1815 – the beading for the 1815 issue consists of 100 beads rather than the 103 beads used from 1809 to 1814. The 1815 coins show a greater distance between the eyebrows and the points of the "N" in Napoleon which are 2.4 mm for 1815 compared to 1.5 mm for earlier strikes. It is unlikely that at the time of the Emperor's return, Tiolier's original 20 francs dies had been preserved and thus, the dies must have been re-cut for the Hundred Days (21 March 1815 through 14 July 1815). The 1815 issue constitutes a discrete variety and the dies, signed Tr, were cut by Droz.
1815R (London) was struck in a lower relief, therefore, examples are difficult to find in better quality, yielding what is known as "condition rarities". On the obverse, the portrait is unsigned by the engraver, Wyon. On the edge, the word "SALVUM" appears to begin with the letter "Z" and the word "FAC" is not separated by a dot from the word "REGEM." On the reverse, the date is flanked by a fleur de lye, which was not a mark of any mint director, and the letter "R" which was not assigned to any French mint. The issue was considered counterfeit at the time of issue; however, it was authorized by Louis XVIII, in exile, and used for the payment of British troops serving in France.
Between 1802 and 1814 millions of coins were struck and they circulated heavily. The average daily wage in 1805 was 1.50₣ (US 27¢).
The coins carry mottos on the edges. Irregularities of the rims are acceptable and are not considered defects as they were caused by shifts of the coining collar and are characteristic of the edge lettering process. The edge letters are not sharp. There may be adjustment marks on the rims as well. The die axis was not well fixed and oscillates between 5 and 7 o'clock (as illustrated in the above photo of the An IX coin).
"Coins, a reflection of the political events of 1814–1815"
In 1814 when Louis XVIII was restored to the throne of France (the Restoration), France changed its flag. Its coins, however, were merely modified to carry the king's portrait. There was a possibility that in modifying the coinage, Louis XVIII could have broken the reforms of the Revolution and returned to the duodecimal system and the livres of the Old Regime. But the new coins were struck with the same weight and fineness envisaged by Napoleon in the law of the 7 Germinal year XI, with one effigy (Louis XVIII) replacing another (Napoleon I).
List of 20 franc French coin issues
All issues are 90% fine gold, have a nominal net weight of 6.45 grams and, have a diameter of 21 mm.
Date Mintage Obverse legend Reverse legend Edge Engraver Notes Bonaparte
1er consul An XI to An XII 1,046,506 (XI= 58,262) (God Protect France) Pierre Joseph Tiolier First year of issue Napoléon An XII 428,143 Pierre Joseph Tiolier Intermediate bust Napoléon An XIII and an XIV 673,878 Pierre Joseph Tiolier Bare head; Revolutionary calendar Napoléon 1806 996,367 Pierre Joseph Tiolier Bare head; Gregorian calendar Napoléon 1807 594,332 Pierre Joseph Tiolier Bare head; transition type Napoléon 1807 to 1808 1,725,753 Pierre Joseph Tiolier Laurel crowned head; République Française Napoléon 1809 to 1815 14,283,710 Pierre Joseph Tiolier Laurel crowned head; Empire Français – note coins were struck in 1815 for both Napoleon and Louis XVIII Louis XVIII 1814 to 1815 5,634,709 (King of France) (God Save the King) Auguste-François Michaut Uniformed bust – Some pieces were struck in London and are marked with an "R" Louis XVIII 1816 to 1824 12,733,226 (King of France) Auguste-François Michaut Bare bust Charles X
type 1 1825 to 1826 771,932 (King of France) Auguste-François Michaut Signature fine Charles X
type 2 1827 to 1830 919,535 Charles X Roi de France (King of France) Auguste-François Michaut Signature bold Louis-Philippe
type 1 1830 to 1831 2,371,848 Louis Philippe I Roi des Français (King of the French) Nicolas Pierre Tiolier Edge incused; this king held pro-Revolutionary ideals and therefore changed his royal title Louis-Philippe
type 2 1830 to 1831 included above Nicolas Pierre Tiolier Edge raised/in relief Louis-Philippe 1832 to 1848 6,761,231 Joseph François Domard Laurel crowned head Génie
2nd république 1848 to 1849 2,843,007 Augustin Dupré Cérès
2nd république 1849 to 1851 17,293,983 Louis Merley Louis Napoléon Bonaparte 1852 9,857,428 Jean Jacques Barre Napoléon III 1853 to 1860 146,557,145 Jean Jacques Barre Bare head Napoléon III 1861 to 1870 85,344,950 Jean Jacques Barre Laurel crowned head Génie
3 rd république 1871 to 1898 86,101,594 (God Protect France) Augustin Dupré Génie ailé (winged genius) writing the Constitution on a blank tablet Cérès/Coq
(Harvest goddess/Rooster) 1898 to 1914 117,448,888 see notes Jules Clément Chaplain Edge 1 (before 1905): *++* DIEU *+ PROTEGE+* LA FRANCE Edge 2 (after 1905): *++* LIBERTE +* EGALITE +* FRATERNITE
See also
Louis (coin)
Vreneli
Notes and references
|
Gideon Yu
|
[
"Google employees",
"Facebook employees",
"Yahoo! employees",
"American venture capitalists",
"Living people",
"1971 births",
"Stanford University alumni",
"Harvard Business School alumni",
"American people of Korean descent",
"American chief financial officers",
"20th-century American businesspeople",
"21st-century American businesspeople",
"University School of Nashville alumni"
] | 1,041 | 11,952 |
Gideon Lee Yu (born May 14, 1971) is an American technology, media and sports investor, executive and advisor.
Yu is currently a co-owner of the San Francisco 49ers football team. He was previously the team president. In 2012, Yu became the first president of color in the history of the National Football League. Prior to his career in professional sports management, Yu was a high-technology executive, most notably as the chief financial officer of both Facebook and YouTube as well as the senior vice president and treasurer of Yahoo.
Career
Yu graduated from the University School of Nashville in 1989, where he was student body president and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2011. He then attended Stanford University, majoring in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1989, he received the First Place Grand Award in Environmental Science at the 40th International Science and Engineering Fair.
In his time with the 49ers, Yu led the team's efforts in financing Levi's Stadium, including securing an $850 million stadium construction loan, the largest ever in professional sports, a $200 million financing package from the NFL and the largest long-term stadium financing in NFL history. Yu also directed the 49ers drive to accelerate the opening date of Levi's Stadium from the 2015 to 2014 season. Perhaps the most notable distinction during Yu's tenure at the San Francisco 49ers, however, is that he is the first president of color of any team in the history of the National Football League. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
Prior to joining the San Francisco 49ers football team, Yu was a General Partner at Khosla Ventures, where he led the firm's investment in Square and was the founding outside board member (Yu's board seat was later transferred to Vinod Khosla).
Previously, Yu was the chief financial officer of Facebook. Upon Yu's hiring, Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, speaking with the Wall Street Journal, said: "I consider it kind of a coup that we were able to recruit him here." Yu led the $375 million investment round from Microsoft and Hong-Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing at a then record $15 billion valuation. Zuckerberg further noted to the Wall Street Journal about Yu, "He's just excellent."
Before Facebook, Yu was a partner at Sequoia Capital, and was also the chief financial officer at YouTube where he negotiated its $1.65 billion sale to Google amidst a competitive auction for the company.
Prior to YouTube, Yu was the treasurer and senior vice president of Finance for Yahoo where he executed over 30 acquisitions/investments for Yahoo, including Alibaba, Taobao, Overture, Inktomi, Flickr, del.icio.us and over $5 billion of capital markets transactions. Prior to Yahoo, Yu was the chief financial officer of NightFire Software (acquired by NeuStar, NYSE: NSR) and held positions at Disney, Hilton, and DLJ / CSFB.
Philanthropy
Yu serves on the board of trustees of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the board of directors of Tipping Point Community. Yu is also active philanthropically at his alma mater, Stanford University, where he "made a significant commitment to undergraduate scholarships" and "is volunteering as a member of the School of Engineering Advisory Council and the School of Earth Sciences Task Force." He previously served on the boards of directors of the UCSF Medical Foundation, and BUILD.
|
Lamar Advertising Company
|
[
"Advertising agencies of the United States",
"Financial services companies established in 1902",
"Marketing companies established in 1902",
"Real estate companies established in 1902",
"Companies based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana",
"Companies listed on the Nasdaq",
"Outdoor advertising agencies",
"Real estate investment trusts of the United States",
"Companies in the S&P 400"
] | 621 | 6,399 |
Lamar Advertising Company is an outdoor advertising company which operates billboards, logo signs, and transit displays in the United States and Canada. The company was founded in 1902 by Charles W. Lamar and J.M. Coe, and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The company has over 200 locations in the United States and Canada. They have reportedly more than 363,000 displays across the USA. Lamar Advertising Company became a real estate investment trust in 2014.
History
Lamar Advertising Company was founded in 1902 by J.M. Coe and Charles W. Lamar. The Company became independent under its current name in 1908 in Pensacola, Florida, when Charles W. Lamar, Sr. and J.M. Coe decided to dissolve their three-year partnership using a coin toss to divide their assets. The Pensacola Opera House and the Pensacola Advertising Company that was created to be divided between the two men. Charles W. Lamar lost the toss and was left with the less-lucrative poster company, which he renamed the Lamar Outdoor Advertising Company.
The Pensacola Opera House was destroyed during Hurricane Four of the 1917 Atlantic hurricane season, with the Saenger Theatre later built on the site.
On August 2, 1996, following an initial public offering (IPO), Lamar Advertising Company began trading on the NASDAQ with the ticker symbol LAMR.
In October 2004, Lamar swapped assets in South Carolina and Georgia to Fairway Outdoor Advertising, in exchange for the Palm Springs, CA; Fayetteville, NC; Rocky Mount, NC; and New Bern, NC assets. Later in November, Lamar acquired Obie Media Corporation of Eugene, Oregon, adding outdoor displays in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington; as well as handling transit advertising contracts in a few areas.
In January 2016, Lamar purchased advertising rights in five major American markets from Clear Channel Outdoor for $458.5 million.
|
Michael Fay (banker)
|
[
"1949 births",
"Living people",
"Merchant bankers",
"Businesspeople from Auckland",
"New Zealand people of Irish descent",
"People educated at St Peter's College, Auckland",
"People educated at St Patrick's College, Silverstream",
"Victoria University of Wellington alumni",
"New Zealand bankers",
"New Zealand Knights Bachelor",
"New Zealand expatriates in Switzerland",
"America's Cup",
"Businesspeople awarded knighthoods",
"1988 America's Cup sailors"
] | 1,072 | 8,879 |
Sir Humphrey Michael Gerard Fay (born 10 April 1949) is a New Zealand merchant banker and partner in the merchant bank Fay Richwhite. He is one of the ten richest men in New Zealand. His personal wealth was largely acquired during the late 1980s and early 1990s, which included the period in which he had a significant role in the structural adjustment of the New Zealand economy undertaken by New Zealand's Fourth Labour Government. He is thought to be worth in excess of NZD 920 million, making him the 10th richest New Zealand citizen in 2017.
Early life and family
Fay was born in Auckland on 10 April 1949. He was educated at St Peter's College, Auckland and St Patrick's College, Silverstream, and studied law at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating LLB in 1971. In 1983, he married Sarah Ann Williams, and the couple went on to have three children.
Fay Richwhite
Michael Fay and David Richwhite are best known for gaining wealth in a series of loosely regulated privatisation and asset swapping transactions that occurred between 1986 and 1993 – involving their companies European Pacific, Capital Markets and Fay Richwhite and the former state owned operations Bank of New Zealand, Tranz Rail and Telecom New Zealand, and the pension accounts associated to them.
One notable transaction among these actions was their role as advisors to the government on the sale of New Zealand Rail Limited to overseas interests; a deal in which Fay and Richwhite later bought 31.8 per cent of the shares, and were subsequently investigated for insider trading by New Zealand authorities.
Securities Commission case
In October 2004 the New Zealand Securities Commission accused Richwhite and Midavia Rail Investments, a company owned by Richwhite and Fay, of insider trading. Richwhite was alleged to have tipped off Midavia to sell $63 million worth of Tranz Rail shares, whilst knowing Tranz Rail faced financial problems undisclosed to the public. In June 2007, Midavia paid $20 million to settle insider trading proceedings relating to Tranz Rail. The commission stated that the payments had been made "without any admission of liability". The settlement is the largest of its kind ever seen in Australasia.
America's Cup
Fay backed New Zealand's first America's Cup campaign in 1987, which won through to the challenger's final before losing to a US entry from San Diego.
In 1988 Fay backed a challenge to San Diego Yacht Club, who had just won the America's Cup. Rather than wait three to four years and join a general international challenge as had been the custom for thirty-five years, he had his legal team review the original Deed of Gift. The Deed of Gift was the document drawn up by the owners of the 100 Guineas Cup, won by the yacht America, to offer the cup for international competition. The deed did not specify a time delay between challenges, nor were competitors limited to compete in a particular class of boat, nor did boats have to be the same size or class. Fay financed the creation of KZ 1, a large single-hull yacht which complied with the original Deed of Gift but was much larger and hence faster than the 12-metre class boats which had been used for America's Cup competition for many years. Dennis Conner, skipper of the American defender, responded by building the multihull Stars & Stripes (US-1). Court actions followed which, after initially ruling a mismatch and requiring forfeiture, decided that both boats complied with the original Deed of Gift. Fay sailed on the boat during the 1988 America's Cup. The Stars & Stripes catamaran easily won. The bad press generated by Fay's heavily litigious approach to yacht racing heralded an era of better management and agreement for future challenges.
In the 1990 Queen's Birthday Honours, Fay was appointed as a Knight Bachelor, for services to merchant banking and yachting.
Fay was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 2002.
Sport and Domicile
Fay is also the chairman of and was the financial backer of the Samoa national rugby union team. Fay now resides in New Zealand and, with David Richwhite, owns Great Mercury Island. They have spent $750,000, matching the same amount contributed by the Department of Conservation, to make the island (which is open to the public) pest-free, in a programme beginning in 2014.
See also
For some more biographical details: List of alumni of St Peter's College, Auckland
|
Poker Masters
|
[
"Poker in Las Vegas",
"Television shows about poker",
"Recurring events established in 2017",
"Poker tournaments"
] | 2,110 | 19,108 |
The Poker Masters is a series of high-stakes poker tournaments. Created in 2017, it takes place at ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and online at partypoker. Final tables are streamed on PokerGO, and the player who accumulates the most points during the series wins the Purple Jacket.
History
The first season took place in September 2017 and had five events on the schedule. Steffen Sontheimer won the $100,000 Main Event and was awarded the Purple Jacket for accumulating the most winnings after winning two events and making five final tables. For the second season, a points system was introduced to award the Purple Jacket. There were seven events on the schedule in September 2019, and David Peters won the $100,000 Main Event, while Ali Imsirovic was awarded the Purple Jacket by winning two events and making three final tables.
The third season was held in November 2019 and had ten events on the schedule. Sam Soverel won the $50,000 Main Event and was awarded the Purple Jacket after winning two events and making seven final tables. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fourth season was held online at partypoker in April 2020 and had 30 events on the schedule. Linus Loeliger won the $50,000 Main Event, while Alexandros Kolonias was awarded the Purple Jacket with 11 cashes and over $1.2 million in winnings.
The fifth season was held in June 2020 on partypoker and had 16 events on the schedule that were all Pot-Limit Omaha. Isaac Haxton won the $50,000 Main Event, while Eelis Pärssinen was awarded the Purple Jacket by winning one event and cashing six times.
The sixth season was held in September 2021 at the PokerGO Studio and had 12 events on the schedule. Australian Michael Addamo won the final two events of the series including the $50,000 Main Event and was awarded the Purple Jacket and $50,000 championship bonus.
The seventh season was held in September 2022 at the PokerGO Studio and had 10 events on the schedule. Sean Winter cashed in two events including a win in Event #9 and was awarded the Purple Jacket. Jason Koon won the $50,000 Main Event.
The eighth season was held in September 2023 at the PokerGO Studio and had 10 events on the schedule. Stephen Chidwick cashed in four events including winning Event #8 and was awarded the Purple Jacket. Jonathan Jaffe won the $50,000 Main Event.
The ninth season was held in September 2024 at the PokerGO Studio and had 8 events on the schedule. James Collopy cashed in four events and was awarded the Purple Jacket. Ben Tollerene won the $25,000 Main Event.
Poker Masters Schedule
The 2017 Poker Masters was held at ARIA Resort & Casino, and for 2018 and 2019, the event played out from the PokerGO Studio. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Poker Masters would move online to partypoker where there would be two series for the year. The second series would be unique with every event being Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments only.
The 2021 Poker Masters was announced by PokerGO in April 2021 with a 12-event schedule returning to the PokerGO Studio. The 2022 Poker Masters was announced by PokerGO in July 2022 with a 12-event schedule but was reduced to 10 events mid-series.
The 2024 Poker Masters take place from September 10-19, 2024, was presented by the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) from the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
+Poker Masters ScheduleDatesSeries NameLocationEventsSeptember 13-20, 20172017 Poker MastersARIA Resort & Casino5September 8-15, 20182018 Poker MastersPokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino7November 4-14, 20192019 Poker MastersPokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino10April 12-26, 20202020 Poker Masters Onlinepartypoker (online)30June 21-29, 20202020 Poker Masters Online PLO Seriespartypoker (online)16September 7-19, 20212021 Poker MastersPokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino12September 21-October 3, 20222022 Poker MastersPokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino10September 14-26, 20232023 Poker MastersPokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino10September 10-19, 20242024 Poker MastersPokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino8
Purple Jacket winners
The 2017 Poker Masters awarded the Purple Jacket based on total winnings for the series, but since the 2018 Poker Masters, the Purple Jacket has been awarded based on the points system used by the High Roller of the Year scoring system. For the 2021 Poker Masters, the PokerGO Tour points system was used to decide the Purple Jacket winner. The winner also received a $50,000 championship bonus.
+Poker Masters Purple Jacket WinnersSeriesEventsWinnerWinsFinal TablesCashesEarnings (US$)PointsRunner-upPoints2017 Poker Masters5 Steffen Sontheimer254$2,733,000 -- Bryn Kenney --2018 Poker Masters7 Ali Imsirovic233$1,288,600660 David Peters6502019 Poker Masters10 Sam Soverel277$1,396,8001,160 Kahle Burns6302020 Poker Masters Online30 Alexandros Kolonias 2 511$1,266,2961,191 Artur Martirosian1,0482020 Poker Masters Online PLO Series16 Eelis Pärssinen166$735,359625 Andras Nemeth6242021 Poker Masters12 Michael Addamo222$1,840,000808 Nick Petrangelo4022022 Poker Masters10 Sean Winter122$777,000466 Jason Koon4492023 Poker Masters10 Stephen Chidwick144$1,109,000688 Vladas Tamasauskas5062024 Poker Masters8 James Collopy044$521,600522 Isaac Haxton458
Main Event winners
+Poker Masters Main Event WinnersSeriesEntrantsWinnerWinning HandPrize (US$)Runner-UpLosing Hand2017 Poker Masters36 Steffen Sontheimer$1,512,000 Christian Christner2018 Poker Masters25 David Peters$1,150,000 Dan Smith2019 Poker Masters34 Sam Soverel$1,512,000 Chris Hunichen2020 Poker Masters Online77 Linus Loeliger$1,097,250 Giuseppe Iadisernia2020 Poker Masters Online PLO Series29 Isaac Haxton$675,000 Grazvydas Kontautas2021 Poker Masters29 Michael Addamo$1,160,000 Nick Petrangelo2022 Poker Masters37 Jason Koon$666,000 Adrián Mateos2023 Poker Masters42 Jonathan Jaffe$756,000 Stephen Chidwick2024 Poker Masters68 Benjamin Tollerene$510,000 Taylor von Kriegenbergh
Event wins
Information correct as of September 29, 2023.
+Poker Masters Event WinsTotal WinsPlayerLiveOnline4 Ali Imsirovic224 Andras Nemeth043 Michael Addamo213 Jens Kyllönen032 Steffen Sontheimer202 David Peters202 Sam Soverel202 Brandon Adams202 Kahle Burns112 Pauli Ayras022 Pascal Lefrancois022 Alexandros Kolonias022 Mustapha Kanit022 Linus Loeliger022 Isaac Haxton112 Eelis Pärssinen022 Bengt Sonnert022 Jason Koon112 Adam Hendrix202 Nick Schulman202 Stephen Chidwick202 Andrew Lichtenberger202 Vladas Tamasauskas201 Darren Elias101 Chino Rheem101 Orpen Kisacikoglu101 Justin Bonomo101 Jonathan Jaffe101 Jeremy Ausmus101 Ethan Yau101 Bryn Kenney101 Keith Lehr101 Isaac Baron101 Daniel Negreanu101 Mikita Badziakouski101 Miles Rampel101 Chris Brewer101 Maxx Coleman101 Ryan Laplante101 Shannon Shorr101 Sean Perry101 Martin Zamani101 Tony Bloom101 Nick Guagenti101 Ronald Keijzer101 Brock Wilson101 Jonathan Depa101 Jared Bleznick101 Julian Martini101 Kristen Bicknell101 Sergi Reixach101 Elias Talvitie011 Tobias Ziegler011 Alex Foxen011 Mike Watson011 Joni Jouhkimainen011 Laszlo Bujtas011 Luuk Gieles011 Timothy Adams011 Sean Winter101 Steve O'Dwyer011 Dan Smith011 Sebastian Lewin011 Samuel Vousden011 Mark Davis011 Marcello Marigliano011 Jesper Hougaard011 Sami Kelopuro011 Aku Joentausta011 Chance Kornuth011 Alexander Petersen01
|
Charles Handy
|
[
"1932 births",
"2024 deaths",
"People from Clane",
"People educated at Bromsgrove School",
"Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford",
"Writers from County Kildare",
"Business theorists",
"20th-century Irish economists",
"21st-century Irish economists",
"Academics of London Business School",
"Commanders of the Order of the British Empire"
] | 1,155 | 9,915 |
Charles Brian Handy, CBE (25 July 1932 – 13 December 2024) was an Irish author and philosopher who specialised in organisational behaviour and management. Among the ideas he advanced are the "portfolio career" and the "shamrock organization" (in which professional core workers, freelance workers and part-time/temporary routine workers each form one leaf of the "shamrock").
Handy was rated among The Thinkers 50, a private list of the most influential living management thinkers. In 2001, he was second on this list, behind Peter Drucker, and in 2005, he was tenth. When the Harvard Business Review had a special issue to mark the publication's 50th anniversary, Handy, Peter Drucker and Henry Mintzberg were asked to write special articles.
In July 2006, Handy was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Law by Trinity College Dublin.
Background
Born the son of a Church of Ireland archdeacon in Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, Handy was educated as a boarder at Bromsgrove School and Oriel College, Oxford.
Career
Handy's business career started in marketing at Shell plc. He left Shell to teach at the London Business School in 1972 and spent a year in Boston observing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's way of teaching business.
He was:
Marketing executive at Shell International Petroleum Company, from 1956 to 1965.
Economist at Charter International, from 1965 to 1966.
International Faculty Fellow at MIT, from 1966 to 1967.
London Business School, from 1967 to 1995 (professor from 1978 to 1994).
Warden at St George's House, Windsor Castle from 1977 to 1981.
Writer and broadcaster from 1981 to 2024; his death.
Handy was the chairman of the Royal Society of Arts from 1987 to 1989 and was instrumental in persuading Mark Goyder to join which led to the Tomorrow's Company inquiry.
Handy had honorary doctorates from Bristol Polytechnic (now the University of the West of England), UEA, Essex, Durham, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Dublin. He was an honorary fellow of St Mary's College, Twickenham, the Institute of Education City and Guilds and Oriel College, Oxford. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours "for services to Personnel Management Education and Practice."
At the time of his death, Handy had one book forthcoming, The View from Ninety: Reflections on Living a Long, Contented Life, which is set for publication in June 2025.
Ideas and style
A feel for Handy's style can be gained from the opening of his autobiography: "Some years ago I was helping my wife arrange an exhibit of her photographs of Indian tea gardens when I was approached by a man who had been looking at the pictures. 'I hear that Charles Handy is here,' he said. 'Indeed he is,' I replied, 'and I am he.' He looked at me rather dubiously for a moment, and then said, 'Are you sure?' It was, I told him, a good question because over time there had been many versions of Charles Handy, not all of which I was particularly proud."
Personal life and death
He was married to Elizabeth Handy (née Hill), a photographer, with whom he collaborated on a number of books, including The New Alchemists and A Journey through Tea. Elizabeth died in a car accident in England on 5 March 2018, at the age of 77. They had two children.
Handy died at his home in London on 13 December 2024, at the age of 92.
Books
Handy was the author of the following books:
Understanding Organisations (1976) – .
Gods of Management (1978) – .
The Future of Work (1984)
Understanding Schools (1986)
Understanding Voluntary Organisations (1988) .
The Age of Unreason (1989) – .
Inside Organisations (1990)
The Empty Raincoat (1994) – . US printing under title The Age of Paradox (1994) – .
Waiting for the Mountain to Move (1995)
Beyond Certainty (1995) – .
The Hungry Spirit (1997) – .
New Alchemists (1999) – .
Thoughts for the Day (1999) – . – (first published in 1991 as Waiting for the Mountain to Move)
The Elephant and the Flea (2001) – .
A Journey through Tea – with Elizabeth Handy
Re-invented lives (2002)
Myself and Other More Important Matters (2006) – an autobiography and further reflections on life – .
The New Philanthropists (2006)
21 Ideas for Managers (2000) .
The Second Curve (2015) .
|
New Frontier Hotel and Casino
|
[
"1942 establishments in Nevada",
"1967 establishments in Nevada",
"2007 disestablishments in Nevada",
"Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion",
"Buildings and structures demolished in 2007",
"Casinos completed in 1942",
"Casinos completed in 1967",
"Casinos in Paradise, Nevada",
"Defunct hotels in the Las Vegas Valley",
"Demolished hotels in Clark County, Nevada",
"Hotel buildings completed in 1942",
"Hotel buildings completed in 1967",
"Hotels established in 1942",
"Hotels established in 1967",
"Landmarks in Nevada",
"Las Vegas Strip",
"Defunct casino hotels in the Las Vegas Valley"
] | 10,444 | 107,345 |
The New Frontier (formerly Hotel Last Frontier and The Frontier) was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The property began as a casino and dance club known as Pair O' Dice, opened in 1931. It was sold in 1941, and incorporated into the Hotel Last Frontier, which began construction at the end of the year. The Hotel Last Frontier opened on October 30, 1942, as the second resort on the Las Vegas Strip. The western-themed property included 105 rooms, as well as the Little Church of the West. The resort was devised by R.E. Griffith and designed by his nephew, William J. Moore. Following Griffith's death in 1943, Moore took over ownership and added a western village in 1948. The village consisted of authentic Old West buildings from a collector and would also feature the newly built Silver Slipper casino, added in 1950.
Resort ownership changed several times between different groups, beginning in 1951. A modernized expansion opened on April 4, 1955, as the New Frontier. It operated concurrently with the Last Frontier. Both were closed in 1965 and demolished a year later to make way for a new resort, which opened as the Frontier on July 29, 1967. Future casino mogul Steve Wynn was among investors in the ownership group, marking his entry into the Las Vegas gaming industry. The ownership group also included several individuals who had difficulty gaining approval from Nevada gaming regulators.
Businessman Howard Hughes bought out the group at the end of 1967. Like his other casino properties, he owned the Frontier through Hughes Tool Company, and later through Summa Corporation. In 1988, Summa sold the Frontier to Margaret Elardi, and her two sons became co-owners a year later. A 16-story hotel tower was added in 1990. The Elardi family declined to renew a contract with the Culinary Workers Union, and 550 workers went on strike on September 21, 1991. It became one of the longest strikes in U.S. history. Businessman Phil Ruffin eventually purchased the Frontier for $167 million. The sale was finalized on February 1, 1998, when Ruffin renamed the property back to the New Frontier. The strike ended on the same day, as Ruffin agreed to a union contract. Ruffin launched a $20 million renovation to update the aging property. His changes included the addition of a new restaurant, Gilley's Saloon.
Over the next decade, Ruffin considered several redevelopment projects for the site, but lack of financing hindered these plans. In May 2007, he agreed to sell the New Frontier to El Ad Properties for more than $1.2 billion. The resort closed on July 16, 2007, and demolition began later that year. The 16-story tower was imploded on November 13, 2007. It was the last of the Hughes-era casinos to be demolished. The 984-room property had been popular as a low-budget alternative to the larger resorts on the Strip. El Ad owned the Plaza Hotel in New York City and planned to replace the New Frontier with a Plaza-branded resort, but the project was canceled due to the Great Recession. Crown Resorts also scrapped plans to build the Alon Las Vegas resort. The site was purchased by Wynn Resorts in 2018, although plans to build the Wynn West resort were also shelved, and the land remains vacant.
The property hosted numerous entertainers throughout its operation, including Wayne Newton and Robert Goulet. It hosted the Las Vegas debuts of Liberace in 1944, and Elvis Presley in 1956, and also hosted the final performance of Diana Ross & The Supremes in 1970.
History
A portion of the property began as a casino and dance club known as Pair O' Dice. It opened on July 4, 1931, and was remodeled and enlarged during its first year. It was originally owned by casino dealer Frank Detra. Businessman Guy McAfee took over club operations in 1939. He remodeled the property and renamed it the 91 Club, after its location on Highway 91, which would later become the Las Vegas Strip. He purchased the club later in 1939, for $10,000.
Hotel Last Frontier (1942–65)
McAfee sold the 91 Club in late 1941, to a group based in Arizona. R.E. “Griff” Griffith, the brother of film director D.W. Griffith, and owner of a movie theater chain in the southwestern U.S., paid $1,000 per acre for the 35-acre site. In addition to theaters, Griffith also owned the El Rancho Hotel & Motel in Gallup, New Mexico, and planned to expand it into a hotel chain. Griffith had originally planned to build his next hotel in Deming, New Mexico, before traveling to Las Vegas and realizing that it presented better opportunities. He intended to construct a western-themed hotel-casino resort on the newly purchased land. However, his initial name for the project was already in use by the El Rancho Vegas, which opened in 1941 as the first resort on the Las Vegas Strip. Instead, Griffith named his property the Hotel Last Frontier, while maintaining the western theme.
Griffith hired architect William J. Moore, his nephew, to design the project, with emphasis on an authentic recreation of the Old West. Construction began on December 8, 1941, taking place around the 91 Club, which was incorporated into the new project as the Leo Carrillo Bar. It was named after Griffith's friend, entertainer Leo Carrillo. Building materials were difficult to acquire, due to a supply shortage caused by World War II. Moore purchased one or two abandoned mines in Pioche, Nevada, and sent crews to strip the sites of any usable materials. Moore also purchased two ranches in Moapa, Nevada, to supply meat and dairy for the resort.
The Hotel Last Frontier opened on October 30, 1942. It was the second hotel-casino resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip. The motel was mostly two stories, with some rooms on a third floor. It included 105 rooms at its opening, and an additional 100 would be added later. To maintain cool temperatures, cold water was carried through pipes in the walls of each room, originating from tunnels beneath the property.
Because Griffith and Moore were inexperienced in the gaming industry, they had the casino built at the rear of the property, not realizing that it should have been presented as the main attraction. The property included the Gay Nineties Bar, which had sat in the Arizona Club in Las Vegas, before being reassembled at the Last Frontier. The Frontier added the Little Church of the West in May 1943. The resort also included the El Corral Arena, used for rodeo events.
Griffith died of a heart attack in November 1943, and Moore took over the property. Moore conceived an idea to add the western-themed Last Frontier Village. It opened in November 1948, initially with three buildings while others would be added later. The village ultimately included restaurants, bars, and shops. The Little Church of the West was also incorporated into the village. Located at the property's northern end, the village included authentic Old West buildings saved by Doby Doc, a collector in Elko, Nevada. He served as curator of the attraction. The village also featured some newly built replicas created by the resort, including a Texaco gas station designed by Zick & Sharp. It offered free showers and restrooms to attract motorists to the resort. The Silver Slipper casino was added to the village in 1950.
The Last Frontier was sold in 1951, to a group led by McAfee. The new ownership included Jake Kozloff and Beldon Katleman, the latter of whom also owned the El Rancho Vegas. By 1954, Kozloff was the primary stockholder, and the ownership group now included Murray Randolph.
New Frontier (1955–65)
In June 1954, construction began on a $2 million expansion known as the New Frontier, designed by architect Albert Criz. The project included more rooms, new restaurants, and additional casino space. The Little Church of the West was relocated elsewhere on the property to make room for the new facilities. Later that year, Katleman sued several resort executives, including Kozloff, his brother William Kozloff, and Randolph. Katleman alleged that the trio had undisclosed partners invested in the resort, going against state law. He also alleged that the men began expansion of the resort without first obtaining a loan to cover the costs. The Nevada Tax Commission launched an investigation into the resort's hidden ownership.
An opening celebration for the New Frontier was held on April 4, 1955. It served as a modernized expansion of the Hotel Last Frontier, which continued to operate under its original name. Singer Mario Lanza was scheduled to perform for the opening, but canceled at the last minute due to laryngitis, forcing the property to refund $20,000 in tickets.
Jake Kozloff resigned as president and general manager a few weeks after the opening. He and Randolph sold their interest to a new investor group, which finalized their purchase in May 1955, after paying more than $1 million to creditors. Katleman had sought to prevent the sale, as the resort was heavily mortgaged under the new group's financial setup. Katleman had also gotten into a fist fight with Maury Friedman, a member of the group who was denied ownership by the tax commission. Friedman was approved for an ownership stake later in 1955, along with seven other new partners in the group. Katleman's 1954 suit against Kozloff and Randolph was settled a few months later.
An expansion project was announced later in 1955. The adjacent Royal Nevada hotel-casino, located north of the Frontier, was taken over by the latter's ownership group in 1956. The Royal Nevada then briefly served as an annex to the New Frontier. Later that year, a new group took over operations and invested $301,000 into the New Frontier, which was struggling financially. The group included Vera Krupp, the estranged wife of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Krupp oversaw operations with Louis Manchon, a swimming pool contractor. The previous group, including Friedman, returned to take over operations in early March 1957, after Krupp declined to invest any further in the struggling resort. Krupp alleged that stockholders had misled her on the monetary potential of the New Frontier. The property owed approximately $100,000 to creditors, not including back taxes sought by the U.S. government. Federal agents seized more than $1 million in assets from the property, which closed its facilities on March 18, 1957, with the exception of the hotel. The New Frontier later went into bankruptcy. Restaurant and bar operations eventually resumed.
In mid-1958, a new operating group – led by Los Angeles shirt manufacturer Jack Barenfield – proposed a $400,000 investment to reopen the casino and operate it on a limited basis. The Nevada Gaming Control Board was skeptical that the group would have enough funds to keep the casino operational for long.
Warren Bayley, one of the primary owners of the Hacienda resort, reached a deal to take over the New Frontier from Katleman and Friedman. The $6.5 million deal was finalized on October 1, 1958. The property was leased to Bayley, who agreed to pay off its debts. Actor Preston Foster served as vice president for Frontier Properties, Inc. The casino area reopened in April 1959. Two years later, Idaho banker and construction company owner Frank Wester sought to take over the property. Wester was approved by state gaming regulators, but failed to follow through on the deal.
The Frontier (1967–98)
Bayley became the primary owner of the New Frontier Hotel in November 1964. He died a month later, and the casino was closed on New Year's Eve, in preparation for an expansion. The hotel and other facilities closed a few days later, and the property never reopened. Bankers Life purchased Frontier Properties Inc. in August 1965, and leased it to a new company, Vegas Frontier Inc., overseen by Friedman. Six months later, Friedman announced plans to demolish the existing facilities entirely for a larger Frontier resort to be built on the site. The demolition process reached its final stage in May 1966. The western village was included in the demolition, although the Little Church of the West and the Silver Slipper casino were kept.
Groundbreaking for a new Frontier hotel-casino took place on September 26, 1966, with Friedman set to oversee casino operations. The new project had more than a dozen investors, including future casino mogul Steve Wynn, who purchased a three-percent stake. The Frontier marked Wynn's entry into the Las Vegas gaming industry. It was later discovered that the Frontier project was financed with Detroit mob money, from a group led by Anthony Joseph Zerilli.
The $25 million Frontier opened on July 29, 1967, with a four-day celebration. It included 650 hotel rooms, entertainment venues, several restaurants, and convention space. The project was designed by Rissman & Rissman. The Frontier's roadside sign had a height of 184 feet, making it the tallest in Las Vegas. The sign, along with the Frontier's new "F" logo, was designed by Bill Clark of Ad Art. The sign featured 16-foot-tall letters, with the giant "F" logo resting at the top.
Several individuals in the new property, including Friedman, had difficulty gaining approval of state gaming regulators. Businessman Howard Hughes bought out the group in December 1967, paying $23 million for the Frontier. Like his other casino properties, it was originally operated through Hughes Tool Company, until Hughes' Summa Corporation took over in 1973. Hughes died three years later. A $5 million renovation concluded in 1978. Later that year, the Little Church of the West was relocated to the Hacienda resort, making room for the Fashion Show Mall to be built just south of the Frontier.
In December 1987, Summa agreed to sell the Frontier and Silver Slipper – the last of Hughes' Las Vegas gaming properties – to casino owner Margaret Elardi. She took over ownership of the Frontier on June 30, 1988, and acquired the Silver Slipper later that year, demolishing the latter to add a Frontier parking lot. In December 1989, Elardi's two sons, John and Tom, became part-owners with her in the Frontier. The 16-story Atrium Tower, consisting of 400 suites, was opened a month later.
Under the Elardis' ownership, the Frontier focused primarily on a low-budget clientele of slot players. It offered few amenities, at a time when new megaresorts were becoming popular on the Las Vegas Strip.
Strike
The Frontier had a labor agreement with the Culinary Workers Union that expired on July 1, 1989. Upon its expiration, general manager Tom Elardi said that the union presented the Frontier with two contract renewal choices, with no option to negotiate; he said the family would not have purchased the Frontier if they had known this would happen. Citing a reduction in salaries and worker benefits, 550 workers went on strike on September 21, 1991. Politicians such as Jesse Jackson expressed support for the strikers, who represented four unions, including Culinary.
The strike ran continuously on the sidewalk in front of the resort, and striking workers were occasionally violent towards patrons who crossed the picket line. In April 1993, California tourist Sean White and his family were verbally and physically assaulted by the strikers. Seven union workers were charged in the incident, and the union itself settled with the Whites after they filed a lawsuit. Sean White also sued the Frontier, seeking damages for his injuries and alleging inadequate security at the resort. He claimed that the property was aware of the strikers being particularly agitated on the night of the incident, yet did nothing to resolve the situation. The Frontier countered that the Whites provoked the strikers. Furthermore, Tom Elardi said that guests were always warned about possible verbal abuse from the strikers when making hotel reservations. He also said that, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), it would be illegal to label the strikers as "violent". In addition, Elardi said that Frontier security did not have the authority to help guests on public property, where the incident took place. A jury eventually ruled in the Frontier's favor, finding it not liable for events that take place on public property.
In late 1991, the Frontier ran controversial ads in the Los Angeles Times implying that the entire Strip was being targeted by the strike. The property eventually stopped running the ads after protests from other resorts. Business at the Frontier saw a 40-percent decrease during the first year of the strike. In 1993, Nevada governor Bob Miller appointed a fact finder to help resolve the strike, although these efforts failed after 28 meetings. Miller later called the Frontier an embarrassment to the state for its refusal to end the strike. Margaret Elardi wanted to settle with the union and end the strike, but her sons opposed the idea.
Numerous complaints against the Frontier were filed with the NLRB. In 1995, a federal court ruled that the resort had to pay back work-related benefits that it had cut off to striking workers. The NLRB later ruled in favor of the union, agreeing with the 1995 ruling and calling the dispute an unfair labor practice strike. Negotiations between the Culinary union and the Elardis took place in July 1996, but ended without a resolution, in part because Tom Elardi refused a Culinary mandate to rehire all of the striking workers: "I believe the ones who've been violent or who participated in major picket line misconduct shouldn't come back. The union says that's the only way they will settle, but I absolutely refuse to take them back".
Arthur Goldberg, chairman of Bally Entertainment, announced in July 1996 that there was interest in purchasing the Frontier and ending the strike. At the time, Hilton Hotels Corporation was in the process of acquiring Bally. Goldberg was willing to purchase the Frontier himself if Hilton should pass on it. His plan would potentially include demolishing all or part of the Frontier to make way for a 3,000-room resort. Wynn and casino rival Donald Trump were also rumored to have an interest in buying the Frontier. Trump passed on the property, as he found Elardi's $208 million asking price too high. Hilton and Goldberg also did not proceed with a purchase, and the strike continued.
Allegations
In late 1996, a former Frontier worker alleged that the Elardis ran a technologically advanced spy operation to monitor the strike. It was also used to monitor Frontier security guards, as well as officers of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department whenever they came to view video footage of the strike. The operation allegedly included security cameras and listening devices, operated from a second-floor headquarters known as the 900 Room that was overseen by 15 people. The worker also said that the resort routinely sabotaged the strike, for instance by turning on nearby sprinklers or placing manure bags near a catering truck. Tom Elardi called the worker disgruntled. He said the 900 Room functioned only to monitor and maintain the exterior during the strike, denying that any sabotage had taken place.
Other former workers came forward to confirm the spying allegation, stating that there was a high level of paranoia relating to the strike. Some workers said that the Frontier had tapped its office phones to monitor conversations, allegations which led to an FBI investigation. Concerned that strikers might stay at the hotel to gain information, Frontier officials also had recording devices planted in certain guest rooms which were to be occupied only by confirmed members of the strike, allowing the hotel to spy on them. The spying operation allegedly went beyond the resort, as some workers said they were tasked with following strikers around. Others collected garbage from the Culinary headquarters in hopes of gaining incriminating information.
After the allegations came to light, strikers filed 75 criminal complaints against the Frontier, and the Nevada Gaming Control Board opened an investigation. Meanwhile, the AFL–CIO launched a campaign to raise awareness about the strike, with president John Sweeney calling the Frontier "one of the biggest corporate criminals" in American history. The AFL-CIO also opened a committee investigation into the strike. John Elardi later admitted that the 900 Room was used for spying, stating that he created it in 1992, without first consulting Margaret or Tom Elardi. He also acknowledged using sprinklers on the strikers, after police stopped responding to the resort's calls about trespassing picketers.
Resolution
In October 1997, businessman Phil Ruffin reached an agreement to buy the Frontier from the Elardis for $167 million. He also agreed to sign a contract with the union, putting an end to the strike. Ruffin's application for a gaming license was fast-tracked to expedite the sale and end the strike sooner. Prior to the announcement of Ruffin's purchase, the Nevada Gaming Control Board was prepared to file a complaint revoking the Frontier's gaming license, due to the property's conduct during the strike.
Ruffin completed his purchase on February 1, 1998, ending the 2,325-day strike. It was among the longest strikes in U.S. history, and the Culinary union had spent $26 million on it. Approximately 300 of the 550 striking workers returned to their jobs. Striking employees received a total of nearly $5 million in back-pay and trust fund contributions. On the day of the purchase, a celebration event was held at the resort, and was attended by 3,000 people.
New Frontier (1998–2007)
Upon taking ownership, Ruffin renamed the property back to the New Frontier. It had 986 rooms and a casino, and catered to a middle-class clientele. The resort had become outdated during the strike, and lacked basic features such as fulltime room service and a 24-hour coffee shop. Profits improved following a $20 million renovation project, which included new restaurants and a remodeled sportsbook.
Gilley's Saloon, a country western restaurant, was among the additions. It included a mechanical bull, a dance hall, and live music. The saloon opened in December 1998. Ruffin got the idea for the restaurant after seeing the 1980 film Urban Cowboy, which had featured the Gilley's Club in Texas, along with its mechanical bull. Ruffin subsequently partnered with country singer Mickey Gilley to open the saloon, inspired by the original club. Gilley's later offered bikini bull-riding and mud wrestling.
Ruffin intended to rebrand the hotel as a Radisson, and renovated the guest rooms to bring them up to standard. However, in 1999, he decided against this idea as he now had other plans for the property. In January 2000, Ruffin announced plans to demolish the New Frontier in five or six months to make way for a new casino resort, scheduled to open in 2002. The new project, known as City by the Bay, would include a San Francisco theme and more than 2,500 rooms. Ruffin said the new resort was necessary to stay competitive on the Las Vegas Strip. The project would cost up to $700 million. He put his redevelopment plans on hold in May 2000, because of difficulty raising the necessary funds. Ruffin said the project would eventually proceed. The New Frontier continued operations in the meantime, and remained profitable.
In 2002, Ruffin partnered with Trump to build Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. It was constructed on the Frontier property's southwest corner, taking up part of a rear parking lot. Meanwhile, Ruffin still had difficulty acquiring funds to build City by the Bay, and his plans evolved several times over the years. At one point, Ruffin considered a Trump-branded resort to replace the New Frontier. In 2003, Ruffin was in discussions with several casino operators about a possible joint venture for a new resort on the Frontier site. At the end of 2004, he said he would redevelop the New Frontier site on his own, stating that he had turned down a dozen offers from potential partners. By 2006, Ruffin's unnamed resort project was planned to include a 485-foot Ferris wheel. Later that year, Ruffin announced that the new casino resort would be named Montreux, after the Swiss town of the same name. The $2 billion resort would include 2,750 rooms.
However, by March 2007, Ruffin was in negotiations to sell the New Frontier to El Ad Properties, which owned the Plaza Hotel in New York City. A sale agreement was announced two months later, with El Ad paying approximately $35 million per acre for the 35-acre site. At more than $1.2 billion, it was the most expensive real estate transaction on the Strip. El Ad planned to demolish the New Frontier and build a $5 billion Plaza-branded resort in its place.
The New Frontier closed on July 16, 2007, at 12:01 a.m. The closing was a low-key event. At the time, the New Frontier operated the last remaining bingo room on the Strip, and was one of the few remaining casinos to still use coin-operated slot machines. El Ad completed its purchase three weeks after the closure.
The 984-room New Frontier had remained popular as a low-budget alternative to larger resorts nearby. However, it lacked the same popularity as previous resorts such as the Sands, Stardust, and Desert Inn. In 2006, readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal voted it "Hotel Most Deserving of Being Imploded". Wynn, who now owned the Wynn Las Vegas resort across the street, called the aging Frontier "the single biggest toilet in Las Vegas".
The New Frontier was the last of the Hughes-era casinos to be demolished. After a five-minute fireworks show, the 16-story Atrium Tower was imploded on November 13, 2007, at 2:37 a.m. to the thousands of spectators that turned out to view the demolition. The tower was imploded by Controlled Demolition, Inc., which had worked on other Las Vegas hotel implosions. The interior was stripped down allowing for the insertion of dynamite, totaling 1,040 pounds and spread across 6,200 different areas of the tower. The implosion left a four-story pile of concrete, glass and steel remains. Two low-rise hotel wings were demolished with the use of an excavator, although the discovery of asbestos slowed the process down.
The roadside sign was left up until December 2008, when Wynn requested that it be taken down ahead of the opening for Encore Las Vegas, an addition to his Wynn property. The city's Neon Museum sought to save portions of the sign.
Redevelopment proposals
Following the closure of the New Frontier, there had been multiple redevelopment proposals.
The Plaza project failed to materialize, due to financial problems brought on by the Great Recession. Wynn offered to beautify the vacant site with landscaping, and was also approached by El Ad several times to take over the land and develop it. However, he declined as he considered such a project too much of a financial risk. Wynn blamed what he saw as anti-business policies of U.S. president Barack Obama, and a challenging level of debt as a consequence of El Ad having paid what proved too high a price for the property.
In 2014, Crown Resorts purchased the property for $280 million and partnered with Oaktree Capital Management. A year later, they announced plans to build a casino resort known as Alon Las Vegas. However, Crown Resorts pulled out of the project in 2016, and it was eventually canceled.
Wynn Resorts bought the land and four adjacent acres in early 2018, for $336 million. The company announced plans to build Wynn West, a new casino resort to complement the existing Wynn and Encore properties. Steve Wynn, amid sexual assault allegations against him, resigned from his company shortly after the announcement. Matt Maddox took over as CEO, and plans for Wynn West were shelved. In 2024, the county extended permits for the site, giving Wynn until April 2026 to begin construction on an unnamed resort expansion. The project would include additional casino space and a hotel tower with 1,100 rooms.
Entertainment
The Hotel Last Frontier opened with an entertainment venue known as the Ramona Room. Liberace made his Las Vegas debut at the showroom in 1944. The Mary Kaye Trio performed at the Hotel Last Frontier for approximately three years, starting in 1950. The Ramona Room had already been booked by other acts over the next six months, so a stage was added to a bar area for the trio to perform. They became the first lounge act to perform in Las Vegas, popularizing the concept.
The New Frontier addition in 1955 included a restaurant and showroom known as the Venus Room. A new Venus Room, with seating for 800, opened with the rebuilt Frontier in 1967. The new resort also included the 400-seat Post Time Theater. Elvis Presley made his Las Vegas debut at the New Frontier in 1956, but was poorly received. In the late 1950s, the New Frontier offered Holiday in Japan, a variety show featuring 60 performers from Tokyo.
Ronald Reagan entertained at the resort in the 1950s, as did Wayne Newton in the 1960s and 1970s. Other entertainers included Robert Goulet, Jimmy Durante, George Carlin, Ray Anthony, and Phil Harris.
Diana Ross & The Supremes gave their final performance in 1970, at the Frontier. Their performance was recorded for the album Farewell. In the early 1970s, the Frontier hosted the Miss Rodeo America pageant. Siegfried & Roy performed in Beyond Belief, a magic show that opened in 1981. It ran for 3,538 performances over a period of nearly seven years. When the Elardi family took over ownership in the late 1980s, they closed the showroom. After years without live entertainment, Ruffin added a 284-seat venue in 2000.
One new show, Legends of Comedy, featured entertainers who impersonated comedians such as Rodney Dangerfield, Jay Leno, and Roseanne Barr. In 2001, the New Frontier launched Rock 'n' Roll Legends, featuring impersonator singers. Numerous other shows ran at the resort in the 2000s, including a magic act, the Thunder From Down Under male revue, and a Frank Sinatra tribute show. Female impersonator Kenny Kerr also had a musical dance show at the property.
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Cost of living
|
[
"Personal finance",
"Social issues",
"Microeconomics",
"Standard of living",
"Costs"
] | 2,579 | 20,745 |
The cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living for an individual or a household. Changes in the cost of living over time can be measured in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living in different geographic areas. Differences in the cost of living between locations can be measured in terms of purchasing power parity rates. A sharp rise in the cost of living can trigger a cost of living crisis, where purchasing power is lost and, for some people, their previous lifestyle is no longer affordable.
The link between income and health is well-established. People who are facing poverty are less likely to seek regular and professional medical advice, receive dental care, or resolve health issues. The cost of prescription medicine is often cited as a metric in cost of living research and consumer price indices. Cost of living pressures may lead to household energy insecurity or fuel poverty as well as housing stress.As the cost of living steadily increases, the amount of household income necessary for a financially comfortable life subsequently increases, thus resulting in the number of people who do possess the privilege of a comfortable financial situation decreasing over time. as the cost of living becomes difficult to afford for more and more people.
Cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living. Changes in the cost of living over time can be operationalized in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations can be used to compare the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living in different geographic areas. Differences in cost of living between locations can be measured in terms of purchasing power parity rates.
Major components of the cost of living include food, housing costs and energy. Energy costs include heating, light and cooking costs. In the United Kingdom, about 18% of an average home's energy costs relate to the cost of heating water.
Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)
Employment contracts and pension benefits can be tied to a cost-of-living index, typically to the consumer price index (CPI). Another statistical measure, COLA, adjusts salaries based on changes in a cost-of-living index. Salaries are typically adjusted annually. They may also be tied to a cost-of-living index that varies by geographic location if the employee moves. In this latter case, the expatriate employee will likely see only the discretionary income part of their salary indexed by a differential CPI between the new and old employment locations, leaving the non-discretionary part of the salary (e.g., mortgage payments, insurance, car payments) unmodified. Some made recently are a 3.2% increase in Social Security benefits and an increase in the maximum annual contribution limit to traditional and Roth IRA's from $22,500 to $23,000, both of which were implemented in 2024.
Annual escalation clauses in employment contracts can specify retroactive or future percentage increases in worker pay which are not tied to any index. These negotiated increases in pay are colloquially referred to as cost-of-living adjustments or cost-of-living increases because of their similarity to increases tied to externally determined indexes. The cost-of-living allowance is equal to the nominal interest minus the real interest rate.
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
When cost-of-living adjustments, negotiated wage settlements and budgetary increases exceed CPI, media reports frequently compare the two without consideration of the pertinent tax code. However, CPI is based on the retail pricing of a basket of goods and services. Most purchases of that same basket require the use of after-tax dollars—dollars that were often subject to the highest marginal tax rate. Consequently, the COLA will necessarily have to exceed the CPI inflation rate to maintain purchasing power.
The widely recognized problem known as bracket creep can also occur in countries where the marginal tax brackets themselves are not indexed — COLA increases simply place more dollars into higher tax rate brackets. Only under a flat tax system would a percentage gain on gross income translate into a comparable inflation-offsetting gain at the after-tax level.
Some salaries and pensions in the United States with a COLA include:
Social Security
Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS)
Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS)
Pensions in Canada with a COLA include:
Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) Local 200 (Ontario)
Social security benefits
United States
Social security benefits in the United States receive cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to match increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). They can also receive funds from public charities for specific issues. The COLAs are made at most annually and are calculated based on the value of the CPI-W in the third quarter of the year (averaging the values from July, August, and September). COLAs can only increase benefits, so in deflationary years when the CPI-W drops there is no COLA.
Canada
Canada's social security system incorporates cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) across multiple federal and provincial programs to maintain the purchasing power of retirement benefits amid inflation. Federal programs include the Old Age Security (OAS) pension, which is adjusted quarterly and increased by 2.0% over the past year. For the January to March 2025 period, OAS showed no increase as the CPI reflected a small dip over the previous three months. The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits will see increases due to cost-of-living adjustments to address rising living costs.
Beyond federal initiatives, provincial and occupational pension plans also implement COLA mechanisms. British Columbia's Municipal Pension Plan applied a 1.6% increase effective January 1, 2025, while Ontario's OPTrust pensions increased by 2.7% for 2025. The Alberta Teachers' Retirement Fund demonstrates variable adjustment rates, with 1.74% for service before 1993 and 2.03% for service after 1993.
COLA calculation methodologies share common features but vary in implementation. Most provincial plans use the Canadian consumer price index (CPI) changes measured over specific periods. The College Pension Plan bases its 2.6% COLA on "the change in the 12-month average Canadian consumer price index (CPI) up to the end of October 2024 compared to the previous 12-month period". The Alberta Teachers' Fund uses the Alberta Consumer Price Index (ACPI), which is specific to Alberta's economy. For new retirees, COLA is typically pro-rated based on pension receipt duration.
These adjustments significantly impact retirees' long-term financial security. OPTrust illustrates this effect: a $20,000 pension that began in 1995 would grow to $37,313 by 2025—an 87% increase over three decades. While preserving purchasing power remains the primary goal, pension administrators must balance this with sustainability concerns. The College Pension Plan notes that "the plan's ability to provide you a full COLA demonstrates the health of the plan's inflation adjustment account", while the BC Municipal Pension Plan has removed COLA caps through 2025 due to the financial strength of the plan's accounts.
As Canada faces ongoing inflation pressures, these cost-of-living adjustments across federal, provincial, and occupational programs provide crucial protection for retirees, demonstrating Canada's commitment to safeguarding retirement benefits against inflation's erosive effects while maintaining system sustainability.
Worldwide survey
There are multiple statistical methodologies used to corroborating data that can effective measure the cost of living in a region, namely by assessing the purchasing power of a population in regards to the cost of products, land and/or assets; the average income; or both. Due to differences in the statistical formulae used to generate a hierarchal order in the cost of living, these research methods often diverge and occasionally conflict in their findings.
Economic Intelligence Unit
The Economist Intelligence Unit produces a semi-annual (twice yearly) worldwide cost of living survey that compares more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services. They include food, drink, clothing, household supplies and personal care items, home rents, transport, utility bills, private schools, domestic help and recreational costs.
The survey itself is an internet tool designed to calculate cost-of-living allowances and build compensation packages for corporate executives maintaining a western lifestyle. The survey incorporates easy-to-understand comparative cost of living indices between cities. The survey allows city-to-city comparisons, but for the purpose of this report all cities are compared to a base city of New York City, which has an index set at 100. The survey has been carried out for more than 30 years.
In March 2017, Singapore remains the most expensive city in the world for the fourth year running, in a rare occurrence where the entire top five most expensive cities were unchanged from the year prior. Sydney and Melbourne have both cemented their positions as top-ten staples, with Sydney becoming the fifth most expensive, and Melbourne becoming the sixth. Asia is home to more than five most expensive cities in the top twenty but also home to eight cheapest cities of the cheapest ten.
Rising cost of living
Larry Summers estimated in 2007 that the lower 80% of families were receiving $664 billion less income than they would be with a 1979 income distribution, or approximately $7,000 per family. Not receiving this income may have led many families to increase their debt burden, a significant factor in the 2007–2009 subprime mortgage crisis, as highly leveraged homeowners suffered a much larger reduction in their net worth during the crisis. Further, since lower income families tend to spend relatively more of their income than higher income families, shifting more of the income to wealthier families may slow economic growth.
The 2022 World Inequality Report, a four-year research project organized by the economists Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, shows that "the world is marked by a very high level of income inequality and an extreme level of wealth inequality". According to the report, the bottom half of the population owns 2% of global wealth, while the top 10% owns 76% of it. The top 1% owns 38%. This wealth disparity and its contributions to poverty have had significant negative effects on the general population, ,or and thus less on personal consumption for necessities or leisure.
Other uses
Stipends or extra pay provided to employees who are being temporarily relocated may also be called cost-of-living adjustments or cost-of-living allowances. Such adjustments are intended to offset changes in welfare due to geographic differences in the cost of living. Such adjustments might more accurately be described as a per diem allowance or tied to a specific item, as with housing allowances. Employees who are being permanently relocated are less likely to receive such allowances, but may receive a base salary adjustment to reflect local market conditions.
A non-taxable cost-of-living allowance is frequently given to members of the U.S. military stationed at overseas bases if the area to which a service member is assigned has a higher cost of living than the average area in the United States. For example, service members stationed in Japan receive a cost of living allowance of between $300 and $700 per month (depending on pay grade, years of service, and number of dependents), in addition to their base pay.
See also
ACCRA Cost of Living Index
Cost of living in Namibia
Eardex.com
Housing stress
United Kingdom cost of living crisis
United States Consumer Price Index
Inflation
Precariat
Price index
Cost of Living Allowance (U.S. Military)
List of countries by GNI per capita growth
List of U.S. states by adjusted per capita personal income
Specific:
List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees
Middle class squeeze
Cost of raising a child
Walk to work protest
Sam Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness
|
Valerie Mars
|
[
"Living people",
"1959 births",
"Yale University alumni",
"Columbia Business School alumni",
"Mars family",
"American billionaires",
"Female billionaires"
] | 449 | 5,080 |
Valerie Anne Mars (born 20 January 1959) is an American billionaire heiress and businesswoman. As of June 2021, Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated her wealth to be $11.5 billion.
Valerie Mars is a fourth generation member of the Mars family. Her father was late Forrest Mars Jr. (1931–2016). She has three sisters: Marijke Mars, Pamela Mars-Wright and Victoria B. Mars. She inherited about 8 percent stake of Mars Inc. in 2016, which made her a billionaire.
She earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University and an MBA from Columbia University. She is married to Philip Michael White (since 1984), and has two sons.
She is a senior vice president and head of corporate development for Mars, Inc. Since 2014 she has served as a board member of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. She serves also as a board member of Ahlstrom-Munksjö, a Finnish-Swedish stock company (paper industry). She is member of the advisory board of Rabobank North America. Her participation in nonprofit organizations include board membership in Conservation International (nature protection) and the Open Space Institute (landscape protection, honorary trustee).
|
Basis swap
|
[
"Swaps (finance)",
"Derivatives (finance)",
"Capital budgeting"
] | 330 | 2,425 |
A basis swap is an interest rate swap which involves the exchange of two floating rate financial instruments. A basis swap functions as a floating-floating interest rate swap under which the floating rate payments are referenced to different bases.
The existence of a basis arises from demand and supply imbalances and where, for example, a basis is due for a borrower seeking dollars, this is indicative of a synthetic dollar interest rate in the FX market pricing higher than the direct dollar interest rate. The existence of the basis is a violation of the covered interest rate parity (CIP) condition.
Usage of basis swaps for hedging
Basis risk occurs for positions that have at least one paying and one receiving stream of cash flows that are driven by different factors and the correlation between those factors is less than one. Entering into a Basis Swap may offset the effect of gains or losses resulting from changes in the basis, thus reducing basis risk.
against exposure to currency fluctuations (for example, 1 mo USD LIBOR for 1 mo GBP LIBOR)
against one index in the favor of another (for example, 1 mo USD T-bill for 1 mo USD LIBOR)
different points on a yield curve (for example, 1 mo USD LIBOR for 6 mo USD LIBOR)
Basis swaps in energy commodities
In energy markets, a basis swap is a swap on the price differential for a product and a major index product (e.g. Brent Crude or Henry Hub gas).
See also
Interest rate swap
Basis trading
|
Investment Canada Act
|
[
"1985 in Canadian law",
"Investment in Canada",
"Foreign direct investment",
"International business"
] | 1,053 | 10,487 |
The Investment Canada Act (ICA) is a Canadian federal law governing large foreign direct investment in Canada. The ICA was one of the first acts of Brian Mulroney's newly elected Progressive Conservative government, receiving royal assent on 20 June 1985. It has been amended at various times, including recently the Economic Action Plan 2013 Act. Pertinent regulations include the Investment Canada Regulations, SOR/85-611. The Act empowers the government to forbid foreign investments of "significant" size if they do not present a "net benefit to Canada." As of 2017, Canadian policy is to consider over $1 billion "significant." The determination of what substantially constitutes the locus of control of a corporation is governed by the Canadian Ownership and Control Determination Act.
The Act was intended to signal Canada's openness to foreign investment and coincided with a narrowed mandate of the Foreign Investment Review Agency (FIRA), which was renamed Investment Canada. FIRA had been set up by Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government to limit increasing US ownership of Canadian business. Canadian nationalists criticized FIRA's effectiveness, noting that in practice it was rarely used to actually forbid an investment. The business community and opposition Progressive Conservative Party criticized FIRA for its activism, saying it had stifled investment from the emerging global economy.
All transactions that are acquisitions of a Canadian business by non-Canadians must be "notified" (ICA ss. 11-12), but only those above a 5 million dollar threshold (or 50 million dollars for indirect investments, such as shares) are reviewable (ICA s. 14). If the investor is a WTO member, the threshold was 320 million in 2012.
The Act empowers a ''Director of Investments'" which is also the Deputy Minister of Industry , to produce decisions, and reports of decisions. The thresholds, for valuations above which the ICA is to be invoked, are (according to the legislation) several and hinge on whether or not the investors are part of the World Trade Organization.
While the ICA gives Investment Canada the power to restrict investment, its mandate is only to "review...significant investments...in a manner that encourages investment, economic growth and employment opportunities" unless proposed investments specifically injure national security. According to labour economist Jim Stanford, the Mulroney government never invoked the Act to deter a foreign investment, nor did its successors, the Chrétien and Martin Liberal governments.
Foreign investment in Canada rose significantly in the wake of the ICA, from approximately $100 billion in 1985 to over $550 billion in 2006.
The ICA was invoked for the first time when in 2008 the Conservative government of Stephen Harper blocked the sale of the space division of MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates, a Vancouver-area technology company, to US-based Alliant Techsystems. As of November 2010, the federal government had reviewed 1,637 takeovers since 1985 and rejected only one, that of MDA.
On 3 November 2010, then-Minister of Industry Tony Clement imposed conditions for approval of the hostile takeover for over $38bn of PotashCorp by Australia-based mining conglomerate BHP Billiton. On 15 November 2010, BHP-Billiton withdrew its bid, saying the conditions had proved too onerous.
While the Act was not used to formally block takeover bids and investments, its presence and vague mandate enables diplomats, public representatives and civil servants to informally dissuade investors, and creates a sense of government risk amongst foreign investment analysts. The scale of impact is difficult to measure and has not been widely studied.
Nationalist critics believe the Act is too narrow and, as a matter of policy, should more heavily restrict foreign investment.
Critics note that Canada's share of world direct investment fell significantly after 1985. Some of this is due to large increases in emerging economies' receipt of FDI, but Canada's share has fallen even amongst developed countries, and in the late 2000s Canada became a net investor in the world.
Some critics note that the Harper government's use of the ICA has seemed unpredictable, resulting in a "chilling" effect on foreign investment in Canadian companies. This hidden effect, if it exists, could suppress the value of Canadian shares and companies by deterring potential investors from even considering Canada as a market or destination. In response to this criticism, on 15 November 2010 the Harper government signalled its intention to provide clear guidelines for its use of the ICA.
|
Aveng
|
[
"Companies based in Johannesburg",
"Companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange",
"Steel companies of South Africa",
"Construction and civil engineering companies of South Africa",
"Mining companies of South Africa",
"1880 establishments in South Africa",
"Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1880"
] | 1,030 | 9,697 |
Aveng (formerly Anglovaal Engineering) is an international engineering led contractor focused on infrastructure, resources and contract mining and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Its origins lie in modest construction projects in South Africa, but Aveng now operates in engineering, infrastructure development, construction and contract mining across Australia, New Zealand & Pacific Islands, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa.
It employs some 5 211 people and has an annual turnover in excess of R30 billion.
History
Strategic review (2017-2019)
After Aveng reported large losses in September 2017, the company's CEO resigned. During the first half of FY2018, Aveng undertook a "robust strategic review" to fully evaluate their financial structure and operational performance to determine the key requirements for our medium- and long-term sustainability. Aveng announced in 2019 a strategic plan that they would dispose of businesses that did not support the group's long-term strategy. Aveng intended to dispose of the Grinaker-LTA and Trident Steel operating divisions first, followed by the individual manufacturing businesses. Aveng sold its rail business, Aveng Rail formerly known as Lennings Rail, in October 2018. Earlier, Aveng had announced it would also sell its Jet Park and Vanderbijlpark properties. Sean Flanagan was named CEO later in 2019, taking over from interim CEO Eric Diack, who returned to the role of chairperson. Aveng disposed of its Rand Roads business unit in July 2019. It told Reuters in 2019 it was selling non-core assets to focus on mining by 2020.
Divestitures (2020-2023)
In relation to non-payment on a bridge project, Aveng lodged a claim against Eskom in April 2020. UBS Group AG became a 6.39% shareholder in Aveng in October 2021. In February 2022, while maintaining its placement on the JSE, Aveng narrowed its offshore listings to only bourses in Singapore and Australia. The company at the time described its two remaining core businesses as McConnell Dowell and Moolmans. It stated it still intended to sell Trident Steel. It completed that sale in October 2022. Aveng Trident Steel at the time supplied a wide range of products to the distribution, mining, construction and automotive industries from its steel processing service centers and warehouses, and its manufacturing and fabrication plants.
Aveng completed a debt restructure and rights issue in March 2021. In 2022, Sean Flanagan remained CEO of Aveng. In 2022, Aveng lost arbitration involving penalties for missing construction deadlines regarding The Leonardo building in South Africa, concerning a contract from 2015 to 2019.
Business and divisions
Core businesses
Construction and Engineering
McConnell Dowell - a major engineering, construction and maintenance contractor, in the building, infrastructure and resources sectors in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Mining
Moolmans - a South African-based operator in open cut contract mining across Africa.
Major projects
Gouda Wind Facility
The Leonardo
FNB Stadium
See also
List of companies traded on the JSE
List of companies of South Africa
Economy of South Africa
|
Civilekonom
|
[
"Master's degrees",
"Business qualifications",
"Swedish titles",
"Business occupations",
"Professional titles and certifications",
"Scandinavian titles",
"Economics occupations",
"Education in Sweden",
"Economy of Sweden",
"Economics education"
] | 301 | 2,796 |
Civilekonom, literally "civil economist", is a professional title in Sweden (with corresponding titles in Denmark and Norway, see below) which traditionally refers to an individual who holds either a Bachelor's degree or a Master's degree in business administration and economics (with a major in business administration and a minor in economics, or vice versa). Unlike the English language usage, in Swedish, ekonomi ("economy") is commonly used as an umbrella designation for both business- and economics-related subjects.
As an academic title it was first introduced by the Stockholm School of Economics for the degree that the school offered, and was created in parallel to the already established engineering degree .
Formally, the exam certificate for a civilekonom would say ekonomexamen ("degree in economy"), or be a general Bachelor's (kandidat) or Master's (magister) degree.
Although the title remains unprotected in Sweden and the aforementioned practice is still in use, as of 2007 a new academic degree called Civilekonomexamen (Master of Science in Business and Economics) has been introduced which can be awarded after four years of studies in business administration and economics by the following universities in Sweden:
University of Gothenburg (Gothenburg)
Linköping University (Linköping)
Luleå University of Technology (Luleå)
Lund University (Lund)
Umeå University (Umeå)
Linnaeus University (Växjö and Kalmar)
Örebro University (Örebro)
Jönköping University (Jönköping)
Halmstad University (Halmstad)
Karlstad University (Karlstad)
See also
Civiløkonom for the corresponding Danish title
Siviløkonom for the corresponding Norwegian title
Socionom
|
Reuters Group
|
[
"Reuters",
"British companies established in 1851",
"British companies disestablished in 2008",
"Financial services companies established in 1851",
"Financial services companies disestablished in 2008",
"Defunct mass media companies of the United Kingdom",
"Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange",
"Defunct financial data vendors",
"Financial software companies",
"Mass media companies based in London",
"Mass media in Hudson County, New Jersey",
"1980s initial public offerings",
"2008 mergers and acquisitions"
] | 2,113 | 17,348 |
Reuters Group plc was a British multinational media and financial information company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was acquired by the Thomson Corporation in 2008, forming Thomson Reuters, and moved its head office to Toronto.
Reuters Group was best known for the Reuters news agency, which was the original business of the company. By the time of its acquisition by Thomson, the bulk of Reuters Group's revenues came from the provision of financial market data, with news reporting comprising less than 10% of its revenue.
Paul Reuter noticed that, with the electric telegraph, news no longer required days or weeks to travel long distances. In the 1850s, the 34-year-old Reuter was based in Aachen – then in the Kingdom of Prussia, now in Germany – close to the borders with the Netherlands and Belgium. He began using the newly opened Berlin–Aachen telegraph line to send news to Berlin. However, the telegraph did not extend the to Brussels, Belgium's capital city and financial center. Reuter saw an opportunity to speed up news service between Brussels and Berlin by using homing pigeons to bridge that gap.
In 1851, Reuter moved to London. After failures in 1847 and 1850, attempts by the Submarine Telegraph Company to lay an undersea telegraph cable across the English Channel, from Dover to Calais, promised success. Reuter set up his "Submarine Telegraph" office in October 1851 just before the opening of that undersea cable in November, and he negotiated a contract with the London Stock Exchange to provide stock prices from exchanges in continental Europe in return for access to the London prices, which he then supplied to stockbrokers in Paris. In 1865, Reuter's private firm was restructured, and it became a limited company (a corporation) called the Reuter's Telegram Company Limited. Reuter had been naturalised as a British subject in 1857.
Reuter's agency built a reputation in Europe for being the first to report news scoops from abroad, such as Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
The last surviving member of the Reuters family founders, Marguerite, Baroness de Reuter, died at age 96 on 25 January 2009, after having suffered a series of strokes.
Initial public offering (IPO)
Reuters was financed as a public company in 1984 on the London Stock Exchange and on the NASDAQ in the United States. However, there were concerns that the company's tradition for objective reporting might be jeopardised if control of the company later fell into the hands of a single shareholder. To counter that possibility, the constitution of the company at the time of the stock offering included a rule that no individual was allowed to own more than 15% of the company. If this limit is exceeded, the directors can order the shareholder to reduce the holding to less than 15%. That rule was applied in the late 1980s when Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which already held around 15% of Reuters, bought an Australian news company that also owned stock in Reuters. Murdoch was subsequently compelled to reduce his holdings to less than 15%.
Further protecting Reuters from owner actions that might threaten its independence is Reuters Founders Share Company Limited, formed in 1984 as part of the share float. This company's stated mission is to protect the integrity of the company's news output. It holds one "Founders Share", which can veto all other shares if an attempt is made to alter any of the rules relating to the Reuters Trust Principles. These principles set out the company's aims of independence, integrity, and freedom from bias in its news reporting. Subsequent to the forming of Thomson Reuters the trust principles continued, with the RFSC now holding a Founders Share in each of Thomson Reuters Corporation and Thomson Reuters PLC.
Post-IPO expansion
Reuters grew rapidly after its 1984 IPO, widening the range of its business products and global reporting network for media, financial and economic services. In 1988, Reuters formed a joint-venture with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to build an automated futures trading system named "Globex" at a cost of over US$100 million. Key product launches include Equities 2000 (1987), Dealing 2000-2 (1992), Business Briefing (1994), Reuters Television for the financial markets (1994), 3000 Series (1996) and the Reuters 3000 Xtra service (1999). In the mid-1990s, the Reuters company engaged in a brief foray in the radio sector – with London Radio's two radio stations, London News 97.3 FM and London News Talk 1152 AM. A Reuters Radio News service was also set up to compete with the Independent Radio News. In 1995, Reuters established its "Greenhouse Fund" to take minority investments in start-up technology companies, initially in the US, only. In October 2007, Reuters Market Light, a division of Reuters, launched a mobile phone service for Indian farmers to provide local and customised commodity pricing information, news, and weather updates.
Acquisition by Thomson
On 15 May 2007, Canada's The Thomson Corporation acquired Reuters in a deal valued at US$17.6 billion. Thomson controlled about 53 per cent of the new company, named Thomson Reuters. Tom Glocer, the former head of Reuters became the CEO of Thomson Reuters. An earlier rule of 15-per cent maximum ownership was waived; the reason as given by Pehr Gyllenhammar, the chairman of the Reuters Founders Share Company, as that the "future of Reuters takes precedence over the principles. If Reuters were not strong enough to continue on its own, the principles would have no meaning." citing the recent bad financial performance of the company. The acquisition was closed on 17 April 2008.
Acquisitions and investments
Action Images – In September 2005, Reuters purchased North London-based Action Images, a collection of sports photography of more than 8 million images, of which 1.7 million are online.
Application Networks – In June 2006, Reuters acquired Application Networks, Inc., a provider of trade and risk management software based on JRisk, and agreed to acquire Feri Fund Market Information Ltd (FERI FMI) and its fund database subsidiary, FI Datenservice GmbH (FID).
AVT Technologies – In December 2002, Reuters announced that it would acquire AVT Technologies, a specialist in foreign exchange transaction technology. Concurrent with the deal, Reuters established an Automated Dealing Technologies business unit, headed up by Mark Redwood, CEO of AVT Technologies.
Bridge Information Systems – On 28 September 2001, it completed the largest acquisition in its history with a partial acquisition of Bridge Information Systems Inc. Also during the year, the Group acquired 100% of Diagram fip SA and 92% of ProTrader Group LP. In October 2001, the Group disposed of its majority stake in VentureOne Corp.
ClearForest – In June 2007, Reuters acquired ClearForest, a provider of text analytics, whose tagging platform and analytical products allow clients to derive business information from textual content.
EcoWin – In November 2005, Reuters acquired EcoWin, a Gothenburg (Sweden)–based provider of global financial, equities, and economic data.
Factiva – In May 1999, Reuters entered a joint venture with rival Dow Jones & Company to form Factiva, a business news and information provider. In December 2006, Reuters sold its 50% share in Factiva to Dow Jones, who is now sole owner.
Instinet – After taking a minority stake in Instinet in 1985, Reuters acquired the entire company in 1987. In May 2001, Reuters sold a minority stake in the firm via an IPO on NASDAQ, and in December 2005 sold the remainder of its share to NASDAQ and Silver Lake Partners.
Multex.com Inc. – In March 2003, Reuters acquired Multex.com, Inc., a provider of global financial information.
StarMine Corporation—In January 2008, Reuters acquired StarMine Corporation, a provider of equity research tools and quantitative analytics.
TIBCO Software – In July 1999, TIBCO Software completed an IPO on NASDAQ; Reuters retains a substantial proportion of the shares. Reuters announced, in early 2000, initiatives designed to migrate core business to an internet-based model.
Corporate locations
From 1939, corporate headquarters were in London's famous Fleet Street in a building designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. In 2005, Reuters moved to a larger building in the more modern Canary Wharf. The Reuters Building at 30 South Colonnade is near the One Canada Square tower, Jubilee Park and Canary Wharf tube station. The open space below the Reuters building has since been renamed Reuters Plaza.
The company's North American headquarters are located in Hoboken, New Jersey. and were previously located at the Reuters Building at 3 Times Square, New York. It is on Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets, and was constructed from 1998 to 2001.
The Asian headquarters were located in Singapore, having moved there from Hong Kong ahead of the British handover to China in 1997 (Thomson Reuters retains offices here at ICBC Tower and Cityplaza 3). It had two offices in Singapore, one in the city centre at One Raffles Quay, and another at 18 Science Park Drive next to the National University of Singapore.
References
Citations
Read, Donald (1992). The Power of News: The History of Reuters 1849–1989. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. .
Mooney, Brian; Simpson, Barry (2003). Breaking News: How the wheels came off at Reuters. Capstone. .
|
Consolidated Edison
|
[
"Consolidated Edison",
"Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange",
"Companies based in New York City",
"Thomas Edison",
"Electric power companies of the United States",
"American companies established in 1823",
"Energy companies established in 1823",
"Companies in the Dow Jones Utility Average",
"Companies in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats",
"1823 establishments in New York (state)",
"Tammany Hall",
"William M. Tweed"
] | 5,769 | 52,201 |
Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 billion in assets. The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through its subsidiaries:
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (CECONY), a regulated utility providing electric and gas service in New York City and Westchester County, New York, and steam service in the borough of Manhattan;
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc., a regulated utility serving customers in a area in southeastern New York and northern New Jersey; and,
Con Edison Transmission, Inc., which invests in electric and natural gas transmission projects.
In 2015, electric revenues accounted for 70.35% of consolidated sales (70.55% in 2014); gas revenues 13.61% (14.96% in 2014); steam revenues 5.01% (4.86% in 2014); and non-utility revenues of 11.02% (9.63% in 2014).
In March 1823, Con Edison's earliest corporate predecessor, the New York Gas Light Company, was founded by a consortium of New York City investors. A year later, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Due to the Board of Aldermen's authority to grant franchises in the City of New York in the early to mid-19th century, interaction with Tammany Hall was required to expand the business. By William M. Tweed's reign in the late 1860s as the boss of Tammany Hall, the power to authorize franchises lay with the County Board of Supervisors, of which Tweed had been a member. By 1871, Tweed was a member of the board of the Harlem Gas Light Company, a precursor to the Consolidated Edison Company. On November 10th, 1884, New York Gas Light merged with the Manhattan Gas Light Company (inc. 1830), Metropolitan Gas Light Company (inc. 1848), Municipal Gas Light Company (inc. 1874), Knickerbocker Gas Light Company (inc. 1876), and Harlem Gas Light Company (inc. 1855) to form the Consolidated Gas Company of New York.
In 1901, the Consolidated Gas Company bought Edison Illuminating Company, which had been founded by Thomas Edison in 1880, first supplying electricity to 59 customers in a area in lower Manhattan. After the "war of currents", more than 30 companies were generating and distributing electricity in New York City and Westchester County. But by 1920 there were far fewer, and Consolidated Gas's electricity arm, now called the New York Edison Company, was the leader. On February 18th, 1936, an annual report issued by Consolidated Gas Company of New York, Inc. revealed that roughly 75% of their gross operating revenue came from electricty, leading to dicussion by company's officers about changing the company's name to better reflect its nature. On March 16th, 1936, stockholders of the Consolidated Gas Company of New York, Inc. voted to change the company's name to Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
The New York Steam Company began providing service in Lower Manhattan in 1882. Con Edison bought it in 1954, and now operates the largest commercial steam system in the world, providing steam service to nearly 1,600 commercial and residential establishments in Manhattan from Battery Park to 96th Street.
Consolidated Edison acquired or merged with more than a dozen companies between 1936 and 1960. Con Edison today is the result of acquisitions, dissolutions, and mergers of more than 170 individual electric, gas, and steam companies.
Consolidated Edison acquired land on the Hudson River in Buchanan, NY, in 1954 for the Indian Point nuclear power plant. The first reactor (Indian Point 1) began generating power on September 16, 1962. The reactor was shut down on October 31, 1974, because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. The company built two more reactors at Indian Point during the 1970s: Indian Point 2 and 3. Indian Point 3 was sold to the New York Power Authority in 1975. Entergy acquired Indian Point 2 in November 2000, nine months after a steam generator leak. With the sale of Indian Point 2, the last power plant it owned, Consolidated Edison, Inc. became primarily an energy distributor.
On January 1, 1998, following the deregulation of the utility industry in New York State, a holding company, Consolidated Edison, Inc., was formed. It is one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $47 billion in assets. The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through two regulated utility subsidiaries and three competitive energy businesses. Under several corporate names, the company has been traded on the NYSE without interruption since 1824—longer than any other NYSE stock. Its largest subsidiary, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., provides electric, gas, and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York, an area of with a population of nearly 9 million. Also in 1998, Consolidated Edison, Inc. acquired Orange & Rockland Utilities, which is operated separately.
Con Edison had invested $3 billion in solar and wind projects. In September 2017 it was announced that the company would invest $1.25 billion in "renewable energy production facilities over the next three years."
The company's "renewable portfolio" contained more than 1.5 gigawatts of operating capacity. Seventy-five percent of that capacity came from solar energy. Clean energy accounted for around eight percent of the company's earnings, as of fall 2017. Con Edison sold its clean energy business to RWE in 2023.
Clean energy
To support electric vehicles, Con Edison partnered with the company FleetCarma to provide $500 in rewards to owners of electric vehicles in New York City and Westchester County, New York. Through this program, Con Edison pays customers to charge their vehicles when energy demand is low.
Electrical
The Con Edison electrical transmission system utilizes voltages of 138 kilovolts (kV), 345 kV, and 500 kV. The company has two 345 kV interconnections with upstate New York that enable it to import power from Hydro-Québec in Canada and one 345 kV interconnection each with Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) in New Jersey and Long Island. Con Edison's connection with Hydro-Québec is via a series of transmission lines owned by the New York Power Authority and neighboring utilities; a more direct connection via the Champlain Hudson Power Express HVDC line is expected to come online in 2025.
Con Edison is also interconnected with PSE&G via the Branchburg-Ramapo 500 kV line. Con Ed's distribution voltages are 33 kV, 27 kV, 13 kV, and 4 kV.
The of underground cable in the Con Edison system could wrap around the Earth 3.6 times. Nearly of overhead electric wires complement the underground system—enough cable to stretch between New York and Los Angeles 13 times.
Gas
The Con Edison gas system has nearly of pipes—if laid end to end, long enough to reach Paris and back to New York City, and serves Westchester County, the Bronx, Manhattan, and parts of Queens. Gas service in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the rest of Queens is provided by National Grid USA's New York City operations, except the Rockaway peninsula, which is serviced by National Grid's Long Island operations. The average volume of gas that travels through Con Edison's gas system annually could fill the Empire State Building nearly 6,100 times.
Con Edison produces 30 billion pounds of steam each year through its seven power plants which boil water to before distributing it to hundreds of buildings in the New York City steam system, which is the biggest district steam system in the world. Steam traveling through the system is used to heat and cool some of New York's most famous addresses, including the United Nations complex, the Empire State Building, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metering
The Smart Meter Project was awarded to Aclara Smart Grid Solutions (electric) and the majority of the rollout was completed in 2022 with several thousand meters still needing to be changed in 2023 due to customer access issues. ConEd utilized Aclara's metering products for field installation. Over five million electric and gas meters were replaced in this project. Lime green-colored seals were used on electric meters to indicate that the meter was changed by a contractor.
Programs and resources
ConEd offers a variety of programs and resources for its customers and stakeholders, organized in such categories as, "For Renters", "For Residential Owners", "For Small & Medium Businesses", "For Commercial & Industrial", "Business Partners", "Investors", "Community Affairs", and "Municipalities". Examples of such resources include:
CONCERN Program, which offers eligible customers a specially trained representative and advice about government aid programs, safety tips, and ways to save money on one's energy bill
Quarterly Billing Plan, which allows senior citizens, whose Con Edison bills are less than $420 a year, to receive bills once every three months (in March, June, September, and December), rather than once a month
SPOTLIGHT, Con Edison's newsletter
Community partnerships
Con Edison contributes substantial funding and volunteer hours to many non-profit organizations and learning centers including New York Botanical Garden, Hudson Valley Groundworks Science Barge, Teatown Reservation, Jay Heritage Center, and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
Leadership and associations
Timothy P. Cawley, Chairman, president and Chief Executive Officer, Consolidated Edison, Inc.
Matt Ketschke, president, Con Edison of New York
Michele O'Connell, president and CEO, Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.
Stuart Nachmias, president and CEO, Con Edison Transmission
Robert Sanchez, president, Shared Services
Kirkland Andrews, senior vice president and chief financial officer
Mary E. Kelly, senior vice president and chief information officer
Jennifer Hensley, senior vice president, Corporate Affairs
Yukari Saegusa, vice president, Treasury and Investor Relations
Edlyn Misquita, vice president and general auditor
Sylvia Dooley, vice president and corporate secretary
Joseph Miller, vice president, controller and chief accounting officer
Deneen L. Donnley, senior vice president and general counsel
Scott Sanders, vice president, Business Finance
Edward L. Conway, ombudsman
ConEd Solutions is a member of Real Estate Board of New York.
Major accidents and incidents
1977: All of New York City, with the exception of the Rockaways - which get their power from the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCo) - was blacked out overnight on July 13 and 14, due to lightning strikes on a number of sub-stations and the resulting failures of interconnects in the power grid.
1989: A steam pipe explosion in Gramercy Park killed three, injured 24, and required the evacuation of a damaged apartment building due to high levels of asbestos in the air. Workers had failed to drain water from the pipe before turning the steam on. The utility also eventually pleaded guilty to lying about the absence of asbestos contamination, and paid a $2 million fine.
2001: The Con Edison electricity substation at 7 World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11th as a result of the collapse of Numbers 1 and 2 World Trade Center following a terrorist attack by Al-Qaeda against the United States.
2004: In Manhattan, stray voltage killed East Village resident Jodie Lane and her dog when she stepped on a service box that wasn't properly insulated. The corner of East 11th Street and 1st Avenue, where the incident occurred, was given the alternate name of Jodie Lane Place in 2005.
2006: After the blackout in Queens, the company was criticized by public officials for a poor record in the restoration of service to its customers.
2007: On July 18, an explosion occurred in midtown Manhattan near Grand Central Terminal when an 83-year-old Con Edison steam pipe failed, resulting in one death, over 40 injuries, as well as subway and surface disruptions.
2007: The day before Thanksgiving, an explosion critically burned Queens resident Kunta Oza when an 80-year-old cast iron gas main ruptured. Oza died on Thanksgiving Day, and her family later settled with Con Edison for $3.75 million.
2009: Another gas explosion claimed a life in Queens while Con Edison personnel were on the scene. There was a leak in a manhole and a fault in an electrical feeder at the same time. The fault in the feeder caused the explosion due to the sparks being generated. When the mechanic opened the manhole more oxygen entered and the explosion took place. Due to that event, Con Edison has changed its procedure on outside gas leak calls.
2012:
On October 29, flooding from Hurricane Sandy caused a transformer explosion at a Con-Ed plant on New York City's East Side.
During the storm, Con Edison used social media to get outage and restoration information out to customers. The company's Twitter account gained an extra 16,000 followers during the storm.
Con Edison's subsidiary, Orange & Rockland Utilities, was criticized for its response to Hurricane Sandy. Some customers experienced a loss of electrical power for 11 days.
2014: On March 12, two apartment buildings exploded in East Harlem after a reported Con Edison gas leak. Eight people were killed in the massive explosion that reduced the conjoining buildings to rubble.
2018: After 9 p.m. on December 27, a transformer short-circuit at a ConEd power plant in Astoria, Queens shut down La Guardia Airport for several hours - until it switched to back-up generators - caused extensive delays on the #7 subway line, and an outage on Rikers Island, until it, too, reverted to back-up equipment. The incident caused a large portion of the sky in the surrounding area to be lit up by blue light that was caused by arc flashes, in which light-emitting atoms of excited gas, called plasma, are projected into the air. The arc flashes probably lasted only a few minutes, but because of meteorological conditions which caused them to be refracted, they were seen across a large portion of the New York City metropolitan area. There was no explosion or fire connected to the electrical surge, and no reported injuries. The New York Police Department reported that 911 calls increased from 500 in the half-hour before the event to over 3,200 in the 30 minutes afterwards. ConEd is investigating the cause of the surge in equipment that was intended to monitor voltage in the electrical sub-station, but suspects that the problem was a malfunctioning of its relay system. The lights were nicknamed the "Astoria Borealis" on Twitter.
2019: On the night of July 13 a significant portion of Manhattan saw a blackout due to a Consolidated Edison cable that burnt out in a transformer on West End Avenue. The blackout, which lasted for about three hours, shut down a number of subway stations, much of the West Side from the 40s to 72nd Street, parts of Times Square and Rockefeller Center, and other areas, resulting in an estimated 73,000 customers losing power. The outage fell on the anniversary of the 1977 blackout, where most of the city lost power.
2020: During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, 170 Con Edison employees tested positive for COVID-19 and three died. Consolidated Edison said they would not shut off service due to non-payment related to the health crisis and would waive any new late-payment charges for customers.
Bribery prosecution
On January 14, 2009, eleven Con Edison supervisors were arrested for demanding more than $1 million in kickbacks related to work done by a construction company that was repairing the Midtown steam pipe eruption of 2007. According to federal prosecutors, the employees had approved payment for work that was unnecessary or not performed and promised faster payment for some work performed by the construction company in exchange for the bribes. The FBI had two retired Con Edison employees and the president of the construction company wear recording devices that recorded the suspects demanding bribes of between $1000 and $5000. Later that year Con Edison sued Brendan Maher, one of the construction supervisors who was arrested and later admitted to taking bribes that the utility company claimed amounted to $10,000.
In April 2016, Con Edison agreed to pay over $171 million, about 1.5% of its annual revenue, back to its customers in compensation for harm resulting from the bribery. The Public Service Commission had found that Con Edison failed to supervise the employees. Con Edison admitted no wrongdoing.
Honors and criticism
● In March 2002, Fortune magazine named the company as one of "America's Most Admired Companies" in the publication's newest corporate ranking survey. In 2003, Con Edison ranked second on the top ten list for electric and gas utilities.
● In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign released a report criticizing ConEd for spending $1.8 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008–2010, instead getting $127 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $4.2 billion, and increasing executive pay by 82% to $17.4 million in 2010 for its top five executives.
● In 2014, Con Edison was named the #1 utility and #16 overall among corporations, in Newsweeks Green Rankings, and one of the 50 best companies for Latinas by Latina Style Magazine. In its "Best of the Best" issue in 2015, Hispanic Network Magazine named the company a top employer among energy, gas, and oil companies. Con Edison was also selected as one of the top regional utilities by DiversityInc magazine in 2014. In 2016, the company was listed among America's best large employers by Forbes.
● In February 2021, The Energy and Policy Institute criticized Con Edison for touting clean energy while investing in Gas Infrastructure. This is unclean fracked gas. (Fracked gas is methane gas produced by hydraulic fracturing.) The article explained,
"A recent analysis of utility executive compensation by the Energy and Policy Institute found that Con Edison’s executive compensation policies include renewable energy growth as components of broader goals, but do not reward executives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Stop tags
When a New York City contractor is unable to repair a reported nonfunctioning or malfunctioning street light, traffic light or pedestrian Walk/Don't Walk light because of a failure in the power to the affected unit, a stop tag is assigned by Con Ed. When a caller to NYC's 311 asks for followup information about a reported outage, they're told the stop tag number, and told to call Con Ed at 800-752-6633 (800-75-CON-ED).
The New York Times wrote that it can take over two years for some repairs. Sometimes an entire fixture must be removed, repaired, then returned. Other times the streets must be torn up to replace underground wiring. Temporary fixes, using what was described as "nothing more than overhead extension cords" (called "Shunts") at times are left in place for an extended period. In 2017 Con Ed committed to repair "at least 90% ... within 90 days."
Adaptive re-use of former Con Ed buildings
A former Con Edison building on West 53rd Street in Manhattan was converted first into the studio for the television game show Let's Make a Deal, and later into a recording studio called "Power Station" because of its Edison history. In 1996, the studio was renamed Avatar Studios and then in 2017 back to "Power Station".
In 1978, Con Edison sold the Excelsior Power Company Building, a former substation on Gold Street in Manhattan's Financial District. It was renovated into an apartment building, and became a New York City designated landmark in 2016.
See also
2006 Queens blackout
2007 New York City steam explosion
2017 Farragut Station oil spill
Carmine DeSapio
Consolidated Edison Building
Gashouse District
George Metesky, "the Mad Bomber", terrorized NYC for perceived mistreatment by Con Ed
Indian Point Energy Center
Northeast blackout of 1965
Northeast blackout of 2003
New York City blackout of 1977
New York City steam system
Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States
September 2013 New Haven Line power outage
Transmission Owner Transmission Solutions
|
Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office
|
[
"1934 establishments in the Philippines",
"Lotteries",
"Government-owned and controlled corporations of the Philippines",
"Government agencies under the Office of the President of the Philippines",
"Government agencies established in 1934",
"Charities based in the Philippines"
] | 2,373 | 21,018 |
The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO; ) is a government-owned and controlled corporation that operates national and local lotteries in the Philippines. It is under direct supervision of the Office of the President of the Philippines.
PCSO is mandated to do fund raising and provide funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character. The raised collections goes to the President's Presidential Social Fund to improve the country's social welfare.
Sources of Revenue
Sweepstakes Draw
National Lotteries (Lotto)
Small Town Lotteries (to compete with jueteng, an illegal gambling practice)
Scratchcard (Scratch-it)
Horse Racing
Allocation of Net Receipts
Fifty-five percent shall be set aside as a prize fund for the payment of prizes, including those for the owners, jockeys of running horses, and sellers of winning tickets. Prizes not claimed within one year from date of draw shall be considered forfeited, and shall form part of the charity fund for disposition.
Thirty percent shall be set aside as contributions to the charity/ social fund of the Office of the President.
Fifteen percent shall be set aside as contributions to the operating expenses and capital expenditures of the PCSO.
All balances of any funds in the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office shall revert to and form part of the charity fund.
The disbursements of these allocations are subject to state auditing rules and regulations.
History
Before the establishment of the PCSO
Lotteries were introduced in the Philippines in 1833, as the company called Real Renta de Loteria was founded on January 29, 1850, and the first draw was held on January 21, 1851, under the auspices of private enterprises called the Empresa de Reales Loterias Españolas de Filipinas, the Spanish government conducted loterias to generate revenues. José Rizal won ₱6,200.00 in the draw of 1892, while on exile in Dapitan. He donated his winnings to an educational project.
The loteria was forced to stop operations during the outbreak of the Spanish–American War on July 19, 1898.
In 1932, the first Sweepstakes draw after the last loteria was conducted by the American Insular government to raise funds to support sports projects for the Filipino youth through the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF) – the beneficiary of the first draw. After the success of the PAAF Sweepstakes, the government decided to conduct more draws for the benefit of the Philippine Anti-Tuberculosis Society, now the Philippine Tuberculosis Society (PTS). The draws were held under the auspices of an organization called the National Charity Sweepstakes (NCS).
The establishment of the PCSO
In March 1935, then President Manuel L. Quezon approved Act No. 301 – the law passed by the Philippine Legislature on October 30, 1934, creating the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), replacing the then National Charity Sweepstakes. Under this law, the new organization was authorized to secure from the National Treasury a loan amounting to ₱250,000.00, the minimum amount required for organizing the office and printing the tickets for the draw. On September 8, 1935, the new agency held its first Sweepstakes draw. The loan was paid back in less than two months and shortly after the note was signed, proceeds from the sales started coming in.
Among its beneficiaries then were the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF; today the Philippine Olympic Committee), the Philippine Tuberculosis Society (PTS), the National Federation of Women's Clubs, the Asociación de Damas de Filipinas, the Gota de Leche, the Associate of Manila and the Provinces, the Philippine Islands Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Asilo para Invalidos de los Veteranos de la Revolución, the Child Welfare Center and other institutions and organizations engaged in charitable and health work, or work for the improvement of the conditions of the indigent Filipino masses.
Its corporate charter was enacted into law under Republic Act No. 1169 on June 18, 1954, by Ramon Magsaysay. It repealed Act No. 430, as amended by Commonwealth Act Nos. 301 and 546 and by Republic Acts Nos. 72 and 574. In September 1979, Batas Pambansa Blg. 42 was enacted to raise the fund allocation for the agency's Charity Fund and for the use of unclaimed prizes.
Modern history (1987-present)
In 1987, the PCSO launched the small-town lottery (STL) and Instant Sweepstakes, the STL is intended to compete with jueteng, a popular but illegal numbers game that is criticized as a major source of corruption in local government units and was suspended in 1990.
In January 1995, during the incumbency of then Chairman Manuel Morato, the PCSO launched the very first online lottery in the Philippines known as Lotto, its first draw was held on March 8, 1995. Similar to lotteries in the United States, Europe and Australia, the automated gaming, initially the Lotto 6/42 and later expanded to Mega Lotto 6/45, 6-Digit Lotto and 4-Digit Lotto in 1997, Super Lotto 6/49 in 2000, Swertres 3D Lotto in 2002, EZ2 Lotto in 2004, Grand Lotto 6/55 in 2010 and Ultra Lotto 6/58 in 2015, the player chooses any set of 6 numbers from 1 to 42 and wins when these numbers are drawn in any sequence during the draw date. An equipment lease was signed with Malaysia's Berjaya Sports Toto Berhad.
In 1997, the company was changed into the name Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
On March 20, 2006, through the advice of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the PCSO revived the small-town lottery (STL).
On July 26, 2019, in a speech, President Rodrigo Duterte declared PCSO games as "illegal" due to corruption allegiations and closing down the lotto outlets across the country by the Philippine National Police (PNP), temporarily suspending its gaming operations after the speech, Lotto operations was resumed on July 31, 2019, and small-town-lottery operations on August 22, 2019.
From July 26 to August 26, 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte has suspended the STL operations around the country due to allegations of corruption.
On March 17, 2020, PCSO's gaming-related operations such as Lotto, Keno, digit games and small-town lottery in Luzon is temporarily suspended for the second time following the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon amid COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 7, 2020, PCSO announced that small-town lottery in Visayas and Mindanao is temporarily suspended for the second time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 16, 2020, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte banned small-town lottery in Davao City for the second time, also due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On October 1, 2023, PCSO launched its state-of-the-art Philippine Lottery System (PLS) after nearly 3 decades. The PLS now has a single and centralized lotto system run by one operator – the same two lotto systems providers but combined in a joint venture.
On December 15, 2023, PCSO launched its Test run of E-Lotto. With the introduction of the e-lotto web-based platform, players and bettors can use their laptops or PCs to place bets, purchase lottery e-tickets, and make payments using GCash e-wallets.
On August 1, 2024, PCSO breaks ground on P 2.2-b ultra-modern corporate center located in Ermita, Manila. The P 2.2-billion project is expected to become the permanent home for the agency's employees and stakeholders, while allowing a 24/7 operational capability for designated operations.
In August 2024, Supreme Court Justice Marvic Leonen granted Yeng Guiao's 2016 mandamus nullifying the Ramos-era Pagcor memorandum. It directed the PCSO to account and refund to the Philippine Sports Commission, 30% charity fund from the six lottery draws annually, starting 2006.
Controversies
Killing of Wesley Barayuga
On July 30, 2020, Wesley Barayuga, the PCSO's board secretary, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman on a motorcycle who opened fire at his vehicle in Mandaluyong. At a hearing by the House of Representatives in 2024, a police officer accused former PCSO general manager Royina Garma and National Police Commission commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, then a police colonel, of ordering the killing, citing Barayuga's alleged involvement in illegal drugs. Both Garma and Leonardo denied the allegations.
January 2024 viral lotto winner photo
In January 2024, a photo of a 6/42 Lotto jackpot winner claiming her ₱43 million prize check from the PCSO went viral on social media after netizens found that certain features of the supposed winner were "poorly edited". A Senate inquiry on the legitimacy of the winner ensued, with the PCSO admitting that the photo could have been edited properly but explained the editing was necessary to conceal the identity of the winner. The PCSO revealed they have had complaints from winners whose identity were recognized through their clothing by people close to them, even though their face was covered. The PCSO assured that the supposed winner is a real person, describing the bettor as a 47-year-old housewife from San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan whose winning numbers reportedly came from "her family's birthdates and two other 'lucky' numbers"; she claimed her prize on December 28, 2023, at the PCSO's main office in Mandaluyong. Senator Raffy Tulfo has said he will conduct a thorough investigation on the legitimacy of lotto winners beginning January 25, 2024, and the PCSO vowed to disclose the name of the winner to the committee should they get subpoenaed.
The photo has since been parodied and turned into memes by brands and netizens on social media.
3D Lotto Glitch
On February 27, 2024, during the 3D Lotto draw, a draw machine malfunctioned. After the live stream was halted for 15 minutes, a new machine was used to draw the first number again. The second and third digits were unchanged. Senator Imee Marcos, who earlier called for the temporary halting of PCSO draws, said she was stunned after watching the live stream video.
PCSO funding controversy
See also
Games and Amusements Board
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation
|
Saint Helena pound
|
[
"Economy of Saint Helena",
"Ascension Island",
"Fixed exchange rate",
"Circulating currencies",
"Currencies of Africa",
"Currencies of the British Empire",
"Currencies of dependent territories of the United Kingdom",
"Currencies of Saint Helena",
"Currencies introduced in 1976",
"Pound (currency)"
] | 1,525 | 10,904 |
The Saint Helena pound is the currency of the Atlantic islands of Saint Helena and Ascension, which are constituent parts of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. It is fixed at parity with sterling, and so both currencies are commonly accepted and circulated within Saint Helena. It is subdivided into 100 pence.
Tristan da Cunha, the third part of the territory, officially adopted sterling. However, commemorative coins are occasionally minted for the island.
History
Initially, sterling coin circulated on Saint Helena, in units of a pound divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence.
That was supplemented by occasional local issues of paper currencies. One coin, a copper halfpenny, was struck in 1821, specifically for use in the islands, and intermingled with sterling coinage. The notes were denominated in pounds and shillings, and valued at par with sterling.
Prior to February 1961, the South African pound, which was then equal in value to sterling, was also accepted on the island, but that ceased with the introduction of the new decimal South African rand, with one rand being worth only 10 shillings sterling.
Until 1976, St. Helena used sterling currency, but in February of that year, the St. Helena Government established the Currency Board and began issuing new decimal banknotes at par with sterling for use on the island. Coins intended for circulation on St. Helena and Ascension were introduced in 1984. The use of those coins and notes was extended to Ascension Island, and later also to Tristan da Cunha. Whereas circulating coins are struck with "Saint Helena • Ascension", the banknotes only say "Government of St. Helena".
For a more general history of currency in the South Atlantic region, see British currency in the South Atlantic and the Antarctic.
The copper halfpennies introduced in 1821 were issued for Saint Helena by the East India Company, and were used for a majority of the time the company was involved in the area. During that period, the island was used as a penal location for high-ranking political prisoners, including Napoleon Bonaparte. Circulating coinage for St. Helena was not issued again for another 163 years, in 1984.
Prior to 1984, both Saint Helena and Ascension Island had issued non-circulating commemorative coins, but officially used standard circulation coins. The St. Helena-issued banknotes circulated alongside British coins and banknotes.
In 1984, circulating coins were first introduced in the names of St. Helena and Ascension, in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, and 50 pence and £1. The coin series was designed by engraver and coin designer Michael Hibbit. All of the coins are the same size and composition as the corresponding British coins and have the same value. Each coin depicts flora and fauna unique to the islands. The coins and notes of St. Helena and Ascension are also in use on the Island of Tristan Da Cunha, along with British coins and notes. Tristan da Cunha is not included on the series by name because the island chain was originally not politically incorporated into the St. Helena and Ascension Colony at the time of the currency's official release. Later issues have yet to include Tristan da Cunha's name as an incorporated territory. Tristan da Cunha still considers sterling to be its official currency.
Non-circulating commemoratives and unofficial coins are issued separately under the name of Tristan da Cunha and the uninhabited Gough Island, but are not recognised legal tender.
Queen Elizabeth's effigy was redesigned on most of the denominations in 1991, followed by the rest in 1998. Seven-sided 20-pence coins were also first introduced in 1998 and, in that same year, older 5- and 10-pence coins were replaced by downsized issues featuring new animal designs. However, the 50-pence coin was not downsized until 2003. Until that time, the original, larger-sized 50-pence coin continued to circulate. In 2002, nickel-brass £1 coins were introduced to replace the note, and bimetallic £2 coins were introduced to the islands the following year. The edge inscriptions of the £2 coins are (in capitals) "500th Anniversary" for the 2002 coin, and "Loyal and Faithful" for the 2003 coin.
All circulating coins have on a portrait of the head of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse side, with the inscription: "Queen Elizabeth II", "St. Helena • Ascension" and the year. However, many of the commemorative coins over the years have only been inscribed "St. Helena" or "Ascension Island".
Some of the coin reverse designs have changed since 1984. The 5-pence pieces issued prior to 1998 showed the Saint Helena plover (the wirebird, which is the national bird of St Helena), whilst the 10-pence coins issued prior to 1998 showed orchids. The following table shows the current designs:
+ Depiction of St Helena and Ascension coinage (reverse side) £0.01 £0.02 £0.05 Tuna Donkey with firewood Jonathan £0.10 £0.20 £0.50 Dolphin Ebony Green sea turtle £1.00 £2.00 Sooty tern Coat of arms of Saint Helena
Banknotes
Especially in comparison to other British colonies, St. Helena has a long history of issuing its own currencies, which have come and gone over various economic periods.
From 1716, the Governor and Council of the Island of St Helena issued notes for 2/6 and 5/- and £1 and £2, which were issued up until the late 18th century.
The next issue of notes occurred sometime after 1917. It was produced by the St Helena Currency Board in denominations of 5/-, 20/- and 40/-.
In 1976, the currency board of the Government of Saint Helena began issuing £1 and £5 notes, followed by 50p and £10 notes in 1979.
The 50p and £1 notes were withdrawn and replaced by coins in 1984, and £20 notes were first introduced in 1986. A redesign of the £5 note was introduced in 1988.
In 2004, a new series of £10 and £20 notes was introduced, produced by De La Rue Banknote and Engraving Company, featuring a redesign and newer security features. With the introduction of the new series, the £1 note was discontinued and withdrawn from circulation.
Usage in financial transactions
The only bank on Saint Helena and Ascension is the Bank of Saint Helena. All accounts in this bank use pounds as currency, which can be considered Saint Helena pounds because SHP banknotes are given on withdrawal. All international transfers have to be done in sterling, euros, South African rand, or United States dollars. Credit card usage by visitors on the island will have sterling as currency. This means that SHP does not exist as transfer currency outside the islands.
Exchange rates
The Bank of St Helena publishes the exchange rates for its currency exchange. The exchange rate for the Saint Helena pound against sterling is 1:1, although exchange or transfer fees can be incurred.
Indicative rates for other currencies can be obtained as follows:
See also
Bank of St Helena
Economy of Saint Helena
References
Notes
|
Rosgosstrakh
|
[
"1992 establishments in Russia",
"Financial services companies established in 1992",
"Insurance companies of Russia",
"Companies of the Soviet Union",
"Companies based in Moscow",
"Companies listed on the Moscow Exchange",
"Russian entities subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions",
"Privatized companies of Russia"
] | 620 | 6,226 |
Rosgosstrakh () is a Russian insurance company. It was the largest insurance company in Russia for many years but as of 2016 it became the second largest, behind SOGAZ.
Rosgosstrakh was the main sponsor of the Russian National Football Championship.
As Russia began its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Rosgosstrakh was sanctioned by the US on 24 February 2022.
History
Rosgosstrakh is the successor of Gosstrakh USSR, which was founded in 1921 during the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Gosstrakh was the Russian government-owned insurance monopoly until 1947, when Ingosstrakh was established as agency of foreign insurance. Rosgosstrakh became a state-owned joint stock company on 10 February 10 1992 by the Government Resolution of the Russian Cabinet №76 "On the establishment of the Russian State Insurance Company".
In July 2003, the controlling stake of 78%, minus four shares, was privatized. As of 2006, Rosgosstrakh was Russia's largest insurance company with US$1,528 billion in premiums per the Russian Federal Insurance Oversight Service (FIOS), aka Federal Service for Insurance Supervision (FSIS) or by the Russian acronym FSSN, the All-Russian Insurance Association (ARIA), Interfax, and public websites of the 20 leading Russian insurance companies.
During 2007 and 2008 Rosgosstrakh bought the insurance company arm of the IFD Kapital Financial Group, consisting of Kapital Insurance, Kapital Reinsurance, Kapital Health Insurance and Kapital Life Insurance. They continue to do business under the name "Capital". On January 1, 2010 Rosgosstrakh restructured its ten regional insurance companies into the unified federal company "Group Rosgosstrakh".
Up until September 2010, Rosgosstrakh was the only insurance company with government shares. At that time the Russian government sold the remaining 13.1% stake in the company and hence lost its power, the golden share.
In 2018 Rosgosstrakh acquired Ergo Life, a Russian-based subsidiary of German insurance company Munich Re.
|
Fernando Zobel de Ayala
|
[
"1960 births",
"20th-century Filipino businesspeople",
"Filipino people of German descent",
"Filipino people of Spanish descent",
"Filipino people of Basque descent",
"Zobel de Ayala family",
"Living people",
"People educated at Worth School",
"Filipino business executives",
"Harvard College alumni",
"Chief operating officers",
"INSEAD alumni",
"21st-century Filipino businesspeople"
] | 502 | 4,556 |
Fernando Miranda Zóbel de Ayala (born March 14, 1960) is a Filipino businessman. He served as president (2006–2022) and chief executive officer (2021–2022) of Ayala Corporation.
Education
Zóbel attended Ladycross School for his preparatory studies and graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982. He also completed a Certificate in International Management at INSEAD in France.
Career
Zóbel served as chairman of Ayala Land, Inc., Manila Water Company, Inc., AC International Finance Ltd., Ayala International Pte Ltd., Ayala DBS Holdings, Inc., Alabang Commercial Corporation, AC Energy Holdings, Inc., and Hero Foundation, Inc; co-chairman of the Ayala Foundation, Inc.; co-vice chairman of Mermac, Inc.; director of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. (IMI), LiveIt Investments, Ltd., Asiacom Philippines, Inc., AG Holdings Limited, Ayala International Holdings Limited, AI North America, Inc., Vesta Property Holdings Inc., Honda Cars Philippines, Inc., Isuzu Philippines Corporation, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., and Manila Peninsula.
Other activities
He sits on the boards of various international and local business and socio-civic organizations:
International
Chairman, Habitat for Humanity Asia-Pacific Capital Campaign Steering Committee
Vice Chairman, Habitat for Humanity International
Member, The Asia Society
Member, World Economic Forum
Member, INSEAD East Asia Council
Member, World Presidents' Organization
Local
Chairman, HERO Foundation, Inc.
Trustee, Caritas Manila
Trustee, Pilipinas Shell Foundation
Trustee, Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig Advisory Board
Trustee, National Museum of the Philippines
Personal life
Zóbel is married to Catherine Silverio, daughter of former PBA coach Dante Silverio. They have four children.
Philippine Legion of Honor, Rank of Grand Commander (June 29, 2010).
|
Tanzanian shilling
|
[
"Circulating currencies",
"Currencies of Tanzania",
"Currencies introduced in 1966",
"Shillings",
"Currencies of Africa"
] | 2,050 | 18,916 |
The shilling (Swahili: shilingi; abbreviation: TSh; code: TZS) is the currency of Tanzania. It is subdivided into 100 cents (senti in Swahili).
The Tanzanian shilling replaced the East African shilling on 14 June 1966 at par.
Prices in the Tanzanian shilling are written in the form of , where x is the amount above 1 shilling, while y is the amount in cents. An equals sign or hyphen represents zero amount. For example, 50 cents is written as "" and 100 shillings as "" or "100/-". Sometimes the abbreviation TSh is prefixed for distinction. If the amount is written using words as well as numerals, only the prefix is used (e.g. TSh 10 million).
This pattern was modelled on sterling's pre-decimal notation, in which amounts were written in some combination of pounds (£), shillings (s), and pence (d, for denarius). In that notation, amounts under a pound were notated only in shillings and pence.
In 1966, coins were introduced in denominations of , , and and , with the struck in bronze, the in nickel-brass (copper-nickel-zinc) and the -/50 and 1/= in cupro-nickel. Cupro-nickel coins were introduced in 1972, followed by scalloped, nickel-brass in 1977. This First Series coins set, in circulation from 1966 up to 1984, was designed by Christopher Ironside OBE.
In 1987, nickel-plated steel replaced cupro-nickel in the and , and cupro-nickel and coins were introduced, with the decagonal in shape. In 1990, nickel-clad-steel , and were introduced, followed by brass-plated steel coins for in 1993, in 1996 and copper-nickel-zinc in 1998.
Coins currently in circulation are the , , , and . The coin was issued on 8 September 2014.
Tanzanian shilling coins Image Value Composition Diameter Weight Thickness Edge Issued bronze 23.24 mm (dodecagonal) 4.0 g 1.33 mm Smooth 1966-1984 nickel-brass 25 mm (scalloped) 5.03 g 1.49 mm Smooth 1977-1984 nickel-brass 24 mm 5 g Smooth 1966-1984 copper-nickel 21 mm 4 g 1.6 mm Reeded 1966-1984 nickel-plated steel 21 mm 4 g 1.8 mm Reeded 1988-1990 copper-nickel 27.7 mm 8 g 1.62 mm Reeded 1966-1984 nickel-plated steel 23.5 mm 6.5 g Reeded 1987-1992 copper-nickel 31.5 mm (decagonal) 13.8 g 2.2 mm Segmented; five smooth and reeded parts 1972-1980 copper-nickel 27.5 mm (decagonal) 8.3 g 2 mm Segmented; five smooth and reeded parts 1987-1989 nickel-plated steel 27.5 mm (decagonal) 8.52 g 2 mm Reeded 1990-1993 copper-nickel 29 mm 9.7 g 2 mm Reeded 1987-1989 nickel-plated steel 29 mm 10 g 2.25 mm Reeded 1990-1993 nickel-plated steel 32 mm (heptagonal) 13 g 2 mm Smooth 1990-1992 brass-plated steel 22 mm (heptagonal) 7.91 g 2.9 mm Smooth 1996 brass-plated steel 24.5 mm 9 g 2.7 mm Reeded 1993 copper-nickel-zinc 26.8 mm 8 g 2 mm Segmented; five smooth and reeded parts 1998, 2008, 2014 nickel-plated steel 27.5 mm 9.5 g 2.4 mm Reeded 2014
On 14 June 1966, the Benki Kuu Ya Tanzania (Bank of Tanzania) introduced notes for , , and . The note was replaced by a coin in 1972. notes were introduced in 1985, followed by in 1986, in 1989 and in 1990. The , , and notes were replaced by coins in 1987, 1990, 1996 and 1994, respectively. and notes were introduced in 1995, followed by 2,000/= in 2003. A new series of notes came out in 2011. These new notes include many security features that prevent counterfeiting.
Banknotes in circulation today are , , , and
Older Series Image Value Dimensions Main Colour Description Date of issue Obverse Reverse Obverse Reverse Watermark - Green Julius Nyerere Arusha Declaration Monument Giraffe - - Blue-violet Julius Nyerere General Tyre East Africa Plant - Red Julius Nyerere Maasai
1997 Series Image Value Dimensions Main Color Description Date of issue Watermark Obverse Reverse 500 /= (Shilingi Mia Tano) 138 x 69 mm Green Tanzanian coat of arms; Giraffe; Zebra Clove harvest; Uhuru Torch1997Giraffe 1000 /= (Shillingi Elfu Moja) 142 x 71 mm Red Tanzanian coat of arms; Giraffe; African Elephant Kiwira coal mine; Door of People's Bank of Zanzibar 1000 /= (Shilingi Elfu Moja) 142 x 71 mm Red Tanzanian coat of arms; Julius Nyerere; African Elephant Kiwira coal mine; Door of People's Bank of Zanzibar2000 5000 /= (Shillingi Elfu Tano) 145 x 73 mm Purple Tanzanian coat of arms; Giraffe; Rhino Giraffes; Mount Kilimanjaro1997 10,000 /= (Shilingi Elfu Kumi) 149 x 75 mm Indigo Tanzanian coat of arms; Giraffe; Lion Bank of Tanzania; "House of Wonder" (Zanzibar)
2003 Series Image Value Dimensions Main Colour Description Date of issue Obverse Reverse Obverse Reverse Watermark 130 × 63 mm Green African Buffalo Nkrumah Hall, University of Dar es Salaam Giraffe 2003 135 × 66 mm Blue Julius Nyerere Statehouse, Dar es Salaam 140 × 69 mm Orange-brown Lion, Mount Kilimanjaro Old Fort, Stone Town, Zanzibar 145 × 72 mm Purple Black RhinocerosGeita gold Mine and House of Wonders Zanzibar 150 × 75 mm Red Elephant Bank of Tanzania headquarters in Dar es Salaam
Currently in circulation
2011 Series Image Values Dimensions Main Colour Description Date of issue Date of first issue WatermarkObverseReverse Obverse Reverse 120 x 60 mm Green Tanzanian coat of arms; Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume University of Dar es Salaam central hall building; graduating students wearing caps and gowns; Aesculap's rod20111 January 2010Julius Kambarage Nyerere with electrotype 500 125 x 65 mm Blue Tanzanian coat of arms; President Julius Kambarage Nyerere; Bismarck Rock in Mwanza Harbor Coffee plant; State House (Ikulu) building with flag in Dar es Salaam Julius Kambarage Nyerere with electrotype 1000 130 x 66 mm Orange Tanzanian coat of arms; Lion Palm trees; old Omani Arab Fort (Ngome Kongwe) in Zanzibar's Stone Town; carved block Julius Kambarage Nyerere with electrotype 2000 135 x 67 mm Purple Tanzanian coat of arms; plant; black rhinoceros Cyanid Leaching plant of the gold mines of Geita Julius Kambarage Nyerere with electrotype 5000 140 x 68 mm Red Tanzanian coat of arms; Elephant Flowers; Bank of Tanzania headquarters building in Dar es Salaam Julius Kambarage Nyerere with electrotype 10000
See also
Economy of Tanzania
Ugandan shilling
Kenyan shilling
|
Fang Chengguo
|
[
"1943 births",
"2009 deaths",
"Chinese bankers",
"Businesspeople from Ningbo",
"Agricultural Bank of China people",
"Bank of Communications people",
"Members of the 10th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference"
] | 452 | 4,523 |
Fang Chengguo (; 14 December 1943 – 27 January 2009) was a Chinese senior banker, governor/president of the Bank of Communications, and vice-president of the Agricultural Bank of China.
Biography
Born in Zhenhai District, Ningbo, Zhejiang in December 1943, Fang joined the Chinese Communist Party in November 1963.
Fang first worked as a clerk in the Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China. He was continuously promoted into the positions of deputy group leader (), group leader (), deputy director of the department ().
Fang also worked in the Shanghai Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, chronologically as the deputy director of the department (), deputy director (), director (), assistant for the governor of Shanghai Branch (), deputy governor of the Shanghai Branch (), and finally the governor of the branch. Then he was transferred to the headquarters of Agricultural Bank of China in Beijing, eventually promoted as the deputy governor of the Agricultural Bank of China.
Afterward, Fang worked in the Bank of Communications, first as its deputy governor, the Chinese Communist Party Deputy Committee Secretary, and the member of the board. Then he became the governor of the Bank of Communications, the secretary-in-general, and the vice-president of the board.
|
George Mahon (Everton F.C. chairman)
|
[
"1853 births",
"English football chairmen and investors",
"English people of Irish descent",
"Everton F.C. directors and chairmen",
"Businesspeople from Liverpool",
"1908 deaths",
"19th-century English businesspeople"
] | 835 | 6,306 |
George Mahon (7 July 18539 December 1908) was a founding father and former chairman of Everton Football Club.
George Mahon was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on 7 July 1853. He was baptised at St. Anne Richmond Church of England Liverpool on 14 August 1853. His parents, Robert Mahon and Harriet Bates, were Irish. The Mahons came to Liverpool from Dublin, Ireland, where Robert and his father were shoemakers.
The family moved back to Dublin when George was about three years old and they lived in Ireland for nearly a decade. They lived in Wicklow Street then later in Pitt Street (now called Balfe Street). In 1858 Robert was elected to the Office of Beadle of St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street. His election was supported by his brother-in-law, Edward Bates, who was sexton of the church at the time. Robert's duties were to attend to the churchwardens, look after deserted children, provide coffins for the poor and other parochial business.
The Mahons returned to Liverpool in the mid 1860s and after initially working as a shoemaker, Robert got a job as a book keeper. His son George went into a similar profession and eventually became a senior partner in Roose, Mahon & Howorth, a leading accountancy firm. In 1875 George Mahon married Margaret Fyfe at St. Peter's Church, Sackville Street, Everton. The marriage record shows that at the time of his marriage George was working as a cashier and living at 108 Field Street in Everton.
Although the Mahon family had links to the established church, the family's burial practices and chapel attendance in Liverpool suggest that they were Nonconformists. By 1879 George Mahon was regularly attending the Great Homer Street Wesleyan Chapel in Everton where he provided musical accompaniment to the choir playing an American organ. Mahon delivered a lecture entitled "An Hour with Nature's Little Things" for the Anfield Wesleyan Literary Society in their chapel's lecture hall on 18 March 1887. The lecture was illustrated through the medium of a lantern microscope showing insects and pond life and was much appreciated by a large audience.
In 1887 Mahon stood as a candidate in the St. Simon and St. Jude's Ward and was elected to the Walton Local Board. He was later elected chairman of the board. Mahon was a member of Walton Liberal Association and supported the Liberal Party's campaign to grant Home Rule for Ireland. He reorganized the district body after the defection of Liberal Unionists who were opposed to Gladstone's proposed solution to the Irish Question.
George Mahon was a key figure in the history of a football team formed at another Everton chapel. Reverend Ben Swift Chambers, minister of St. Domingo Methodist New Connexion Chapel, encouraged young members of his congregation to play cricket. Members later took up football to provide a team sport for them to play during winter. Initially formed in 1878 as St. Domingo FC, named after the location of the chapel on the corner of Breckfield Road North and St. Domingo Vale, the football team was renamed Everton in 1879 after the district of Everton. Mahon became involved with the team after watching them play Preston North End in May 1886.
Due to the rising rental costs of Everton's then home ground Anfield, Mahon was key to the decision to move to Mere Green, which later became known as Goodison Park. At a Special General Meeting convened in the college on Shaw Street on 25 January 1892, Mahon talked about the need for a new ground. A heckler shouted, "Yer can't find one!" and Mahon famously responded, "I've got one in my pocket." Mahon became the club's chairman in 1892 and was responsible for overseeing Everton's move from Anfield to Goodison Park and the creation of Everton Football Club Company Ltd. He remained a board member after resigning from the post of chairman in 1895 and returned as chairman before retiring from the position in May 1908.
|
Entertainment Complex Bill
|
[
"Thai legislation drafts",
"Gambling legislation",
"Gambling in Thailand",
"Casino hotels"
] | 998 | 10,011 |
The Entertainment Complex Bill, was a proposed Thai law to legalize "entertainment complex", a term for integrated resort with casino in Thailand. The bill was introduced by Julapun Amornvivat, a member of Pheu Thai Party. The government claimed that entertainment complexes would attract an addition 5-20% of foreign tourists and increase visitor spending from 40,000 Baht to 60,000 Baht. Reaction to the bill has been mostly negative and the bill was officially withdrawn on 9 July 2025.
Background
Under the Gambling Act, most forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand.
The Thai government expected the legislation to reduce illegal gambling, generate revenue and attract investment.
Some Thai-language forums and media outlets had reported growing interest from international gaming operators, as well as debate among citizens about the long-term social impact of legalized gambling.
Legislative history
In September 2024, the Thai government announced it would proceed with plans to introduce casinos, following an online public hearing showing strong support for a "mega entertainment complex" housing a casino.
In October 2024, Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat announced the draft bill would be submitted to the cabinet for consideration later in the year. According to a study conducted by the Fiscal Policy Office, establishing entertainment complexes is projected to attract an addition 5-20% of foreign tourists and increase visitor spending from 40,000 Baht to 60,000 Baht.
On 13 January 2025, the Cabinet of Thailand approved the draft bill. The Bill will be sent to Parliament for deliberation.
On 27 March 2025, Cabinet approved another draft, imposing entry restrictions on Thai citizens. The draft would require an entry fee of 5,000 Baht and proof of at least 50 million Baht in bank deposits. Additional restrictions including limiting casino usage to 10% of the entertainment complex space. A preliminary reading of the bill was scheduled for 9 April 2025.
Following public opposition and criticism by the Bhumjaithai Party secretary-general Chaichanok Chidchob, the bill has been postponed until the next parliamentary session, which begins on 2 July 2025. Deliberation of the bill was planned to be held on July 9, 2025. However, on July 7, the bill was withdrawn in the aftermath of the Thailand–Cambodia phone call leak scandal which led to the suspension of the Prime Minister.
Provisions
The bill would require entertainment complexes to be operated by Thai-registered corporations.
Another proposed amendment would require only Thais holding at least 50 million Baht can enter casinos.
Reaction
Former leader of the red-shirt faction Jatuporn Prompan has called for a protest against the bill.
The bill is seen to face opposition particularly from Thai muslims living in Southern Thailand, in part due to resentment of Thaksin Shinawatra and his former government's policies in the region. The Prachachat Party, members of the current governing coalition, has expressed opposition to the bill.
On 9 April, hundreds protested against the bill in front of Thailand's parliament. Approximately 1,200 demonstrators participated, including those from the Network of Students and People Reforming Thailand and the ‘Anti-Casino’ alliance.
See also
Gambling in Thailand
Gambling Act (Thailand)
Integrated resort
|
X.com (bank)
|
[
"1999 establishments in California",
"2000 disestablishments in California",
"2000 mergers and acquisitions",
"American companies disestablished in 2000",
"American companies established in 1999",
"Banks based in California",
"Banks disestablished in 2000",
"Banks established in 1999",
"Companies based in Palo Alto, California",
"Defunct banks of the United States",
"Elon Musk",
"Online banks",
"PayPal"
] | 1,042 | 9,238 |
X.com was an American online bank founded by Ed Ho, Harris Fricker, Elon Musk, and Christopher Payne in 1999 in Palo Alto, California. It merged with competitor Confinity in 2000 and the merged company changed its name to PayPal in 2001. Starting in 2023, the x.com domain began to be used for Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022 and subsequently rebranded to X.
Business model
X.com developed and operated a financial services website with banking services provided by First Western National Bank, an FDIC-insured bank in La Jara, Colorado. The company was initially funded by Elon Musk and Greg Kouri, who went on to fund Musk's later ventures: Tesla and SpaceX.
Customers were not assessed fees or overdraft penalties. New member referrals were rewarded with a $20 cash card and a $10 card for each new sign-up. These features were unique for their time. For instance, customers could send money to another person by entering their email address into X.com. Additionally, customers could open an account strictly with online registration with no need to mail a check.
History
Musk commented in a 1999 interview with CBS MarketWatch: "I think we're at the third stage now where people are ready to use the Internet as their main financial repository."
In January 1999, Musk sold his company Zip2 to Compaq. A month later, Musk invested about $12 million into co-founding X.com in March 1999 with Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho. Fricker worked with Musk when Musk was an intern at the Bank of Nova Scotia, Payne was a friend of Fricker, and Ho was an engineer at Silicon Graphics and executive at Zip2. The company was initially run from a house before moving to an office in Palo Alto.
Due to conflict on how to run the company, Musk fired Fricker five months after X.com had started, and the other two co-founders, Payne and Ho left consequently.
X.com officially launched on December 7, 1999, with former Intuit CEO Bill Harris serving as the inaugural CEO. Within two months, X.com attracted over 200,000 signups.
In January 2000, it was discovered that a security flaw allowed users of X.com who had the account number and bank routing number of any other bank account, even at other banks, could move money from that other account to their own and withdraw it. The problem existed for a month before it was discovered and corrected.
In March 2000, X.com merged with its fiercest competitor Confinity, a software company also based in Palo Alto which had developed an easy payment system named Paypal. The new company took PayPal's name. Musk was its biggest shareholder and was appointed as its CEO. Started in 1998, PayPal enabled users with PalmPilots to send money to each other through the devices' infrared ports. Subsequently, PayPal developed to allow users to send money using email and the web.
In September 2000, when Musk was in Australia for a honeymoon trip, the X.com board voted for a change of CEO from Musk to Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Confinity due to mismanagement on Musk's part. In June 2001, the x.com domain was changed to PayPal.com.
Domain name
In July 2017, PayPal sold the domain x.com back to Elon Musk. Starting in 2023, x.com began being used by Twitter which had been acquired by Musk in 2022 and subsequently rebranded to X.
|
Rockstar Toronto
|
[
"1995 mergers and acquisitions",
"1997 mergers and acquisitions",
"Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies",
"Companies based in Oakville, Ontario",
"Rockstar Games subsidiaries",
"Take-Two Interactive divisions and subsidiaries",
"Video game companies of Canada",
"Video game development companies"
] | 2,381 | 25,352 |
Rockstar Toronto (Rockstar Games Toronto ULC; formerly Imagexcel, Alternative Reality Technologies, and Rockstar Canada) is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Oakville, Ontario. The company was established as Imagexcel in the early 1980s and developed more than fifteen games under that name, including Quarantine, which was published by GameTek in 1994. The publisher bought the studio's assets through its Alternative Reality Technologies subsidiary in March 1995 and then sold Alternative Reality Technologies to Take-Two Interactive in July 1997. The studio became part of Take-Two's Rockstar Games label as Rockstar Canada in 1999 and was renamed Rockstar Toronto in 2002 when Take-Two acquired Rockstar Vancouver. Under Rockstar Games, the studio developed the 2005 game The Warriors, based on the 1979 film of the same name, as well as several ports, including the Windows versions of Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, Max Payne 3, and Grand Theft Auto V. In July 2012, Rockstar Vancouver was merged into Rockstar Toronto, which then moved into larger offices.
History
Rockstar Toronto was established as Imagexcel in the early 1980s, "before the time of He-Man". The studio developed roughly fifteen games across multiple systems until 1995. It began developing a proprietary game engine in 1993, as well as a complementary game in collaboration with GameTek in December that year. Rod Humble, as GameTek's executive producer, initially wrote a script titled Bloods that revolved around gang warfare. When the company sent a revision thereof to Imagexcel, the studio reworked the concept into what became Quarantine. Humble considered the new version a "far superior game". In October 1994, Imagexcel comprised programmer and managing partner Kevin Hoare, programmers Ed Zolnieryk and Andy Brownbill, and artists Greg Bick and Ray Larabie. GameTek released the game in the same month. On 9 March 1995, the publisher announced its acquisition of Imagexcel's assets through a newly founded subsidiary, Alternative Reality Technologies. The transaction included Quarantines engine, which GameTek intended to use in other games. Hoare, Zolnieryk, Bick, and Larabie formed the core of GameTek's Canadian development operations. After the acquisition, the studio was also referred to as GameTek Canada.
Take-Two Interactive bought several assets from GameTek in July 1997, including Alternative Reality Technologies, GameTek's European offices, and distribution rights for games including Dark Colony. The Alternative Reality Technologies team became part of Take-Two's Rockstar Games label in 1999 as Rockstar Canada. The studio then created two expansion packs for the 1997 game Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 and London 1961, both released in 1999. It developed ports of Rockstar Games' Oni and Max Payne for the PlayStation 2 that were released in 2001. When Take-Two acquired Barking Dog Studios and renamed it Rockstar Vancouver in August 2002, Rockstar Canada was renamed Rockstar Toronto to avert confusion between the two. At the same time, Take-Two announced that Rockstar Toronto was working on a video game adaptation of the 1979 film The Warriors. The eponymous game was first shown at E3 2005 before being released in October that year. A spiritual successor, internally known as We Are the Mods, was planned at the time. After The Warriors, Rockstar Toronto developed further ports: It brought Manhunt 2 and Bully: Scholarship Edition to the Wii, and Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, and Max Payne 3 to Windows.
In July 2012, Rockstar Games announced Rockstar Toronto would be moving into larger, custom-built offices within Oakville, Ontario. Rockstar Vancouver was merged into Rockstar Toronto and the former's thirty-five employees were given the option to relocate to Rockstar Toronto or any other Rockstar Games studio. The Government of Ontario contributed to this expansion. Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar Games' vice-president of publishing and operations, stated creating a single Canadian team that would "make for a powerful creative force on future projects" while making room for fifty new positions at the studio. In November 2012, Rockstar Toronto's legal entity, Rockstar Toronto Inc., was transitioned from Ontario to British Columbia as Rockstar Games Toronto Inc. and then transformed to Rockstar Games Toronto ULC, an unlimited liability corporation.
Rockstar Toronto later ported Grand Theft Auto V to Windows. This version was initially scheduled to be released alongside the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions in 2014. The port was delayed to April 2015, which the studio attributed to optimizations and the integration of a built-in video editor, which is exclusive to this release. Rockstar Games referred to the Windows port as the game's "ultimate" edition. On 24 December 2020, worth of newly delivered computer equipment and accessories were stolen from Rockstar Toronto's offices. The incident was the first in a string of robberies in Oakville that continued until 23 January 2021. The suspect, a 30-year-old woman, was arrested on 25 January.
Games developed
+ Year Title Platform(s) Publisher(s) Notes 1988 Techno Cop Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Sega Genesis, ZX Spectrum Gremlin Graphics, U.S. Gold, RazorSoft Co-developed with Gray Matter 1990 The Ultimate Ride Amiga, Atari ST Mindscape Co-developed with Gray Matter 1994 Quarantine 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, MS-DOS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn GameTek 1996 Quarantine II: Road Warrior MS-DOS Mindscape, GameTek 1997 Dark Colony Classic Mac OS, Windows Strategic Simulations 1999 Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 MS-DOS, PlayStation, Windows Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 MS-DOS, Windows 2001 Oni PlayStation 2 Port development Max Payne Port development 2005 The Warriors PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 2007 Manhunt 2 Wii Port development 2008 Bully: Scholarship Edition Port development Grand Theft Auto IV Windows Port development 2010 Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City Port development 2012 Max Payne 3 Port development 2015 Grand Theft Auto V Port development 2018 Red Dead Redemption 2 PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One Developed as part of Rockstar Games
Cancelled
We Are the Mods
|
Economic History Museum
|
[
"Museums in Colombo",
"Numismatic museums in Asia",
"Currencies of Sri Lanka",
"Economic history of Sri Lanka"
] | 517 | 4,032 |
Economic History Museum of Sri Lanka (commonly known as the Currency museum or Money museum) is located in the Central Point building, 54 Chatham Street, Colombo Fort (the head office of Central Bank of Sri Lanka).
Building
Construction of the building commenced in 1911, with the laying of its foundation stone. The National Mutual Building was opened in 1914, as the Colombo head office of a global insurance company, National Mutual Life Association of Australasia Limited. At the time of its opening it was the tallest building in Colombo. It was designed in a Greco-Roman architectural style, with a colonnade of Corinthian columns at the building's entrance. It has a circular glass dome with a tapering central atrium that lets light into the circular inner halls throughout all seven floors and features the tallest chandelier in Asia.
The building was extensively damaged in the 1996 attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the Colombo Central Bank.
In 2011 the building was acquired by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), who undertook extensive renovations and refurbishment, in order to house the museum. The Economic History Museum of Sri Lanka was formally opened in 2013. The CSBL also renamed the building to the Central Point building, reflecting its central location within Colombo.
Museum
The museum has a collection of currency which date back to the 3rd century BC. It includes coins from the Anuradhapura era (3 BC to 107 AD), Polonnaruwa to Kotte Kingdoms era (1017 AD - 1597 AD), coins used during the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial eras through to the modern era and commemorative coins and notes.
Other banking museums
National Savings Bank, Bank of Ceylon, People's Bank and Hatton National Bank also have their small museums in Colombo. However, the currency museum of Central Bank of Sri Lanka exhibits more information.
See also
List of museums in Sri Lanka
|
Muhammad Aurangzeb
|
[
"Living people",
"1964 births",
"Pakistani bankers",
"Pakistani chief executives",
"Pakistani emigrants to the Netherlands",
"ABN AMRO people",
"Citigroup employees",
"JPMorgan Chase people",
"Aitchison College alumni",
"Wharton School alumni",
"Ministers of finance of Pakistan",
"Naturalised citizens of the Netherlands",
"People who lost Dutch citizenship",
"People who lost Pakistani citizenship",
"Naturalised citizens of Pakistan",
"People from Lahore"
] | 1,836 | 17,935 |
Muhammad Aurangzeb (born 1964) is a Pakistani banker who has been serving as the finance minister of Pakistan since 11 March 2024. He previously served as the chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Habib Bank Limited from February 2018 to March 2024.
Early life and education
Aurangzeb was born in June 1964 to Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq Ramday, who served twice as the Attorney-General for Pakistan.
Aurangzeb attended Aitchison College in Lahore for his early education and later went on to study at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from the Wharton School, earning both a bachelor's degree in economics and an MBA.
Family
Aurangzeb's father, Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq, served as the Attorney-General for Pakistan on two occasions: first in the caretaker government and later in the Second Nawaz Sharif ministry until Sharif was removed in the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état.
His grandfather, Chaudhry Mohammad Siddique, was a justice of the Lahore High Court. His uncle, Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Another uncle, Asad Ur Rehman, served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, affiliated with Pakistan Muslim League (N).
Banking career
Aurangzeb began his banking career at Citibank, initially in Pakistan, and later in New York. In 2001, he joined the Dutch bank ABN AMRO in Pakistan, where he initially worked as a country manager. He later spent eight years at ABN Amro's headquarters in Amsterdam as the global head of wholesale lending and commercial client business. During his time in Amsterdam, Aurangzeb gained proficiency in the Dutch language. After leaving ABN Amro, Aurangzeb joined RBS International, where he served as the head of global banking and markets for RBS in Southeast Asia as well as country executive of Singapore until December 2010.
In 2011, Aurangzeb joined JP Morgan as the chief executive for the bank's Asia-Pacific corporate division, based in Singapore, where he served until 2018.
In February 2014, Aurangzeb received an offer to serve as the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan by the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif.
In February 2018, Aurangzeb was appointed as the President and CEO of Habib Bank Limited (HBL). He joined HBL shortly after the bank received a $225 million penalty from the New York State Department of Financial Services. As the President and CEO of the bank, he applied his extensive experience in leading banking and financial institutions to steer HBL towards recovery and growth. During his five-year tenure, the bank achieved significant milestones, including a profit of PKR 12 billion in its first year and a record profit of over PKR 57 billion in the latest earnings report and the bank's customer base was also expanded from 12 million in 2018 to 36 million by December 2023. Under his tenure, the bank also expanded its operations to China and he also served as the chairman of the Pakistan Banks Association and as a director of the Pakistan Business Council during the same time.
He actively supported the Charter of Business and the Charter of Economy proposed by member parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
Minister for Finance (2024–present)
In March 2024, it was reported that Aurangzeb was ranked among the top five highest-paid bank CEOs in Pakistan, earning an annual salary totaling PKR 352 million at Habib Bank. It was also reported that he was ready to forego his monthly salary package of PKR 30 million at Habib Bank as well Dutch nationality to take up the position of federal minister of finance in Shehbaz Sharif's second cabinet. On 11 March, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with the status of Federal Minister. Subsequently, he resigned as HBL's president and CEO. Aurangzeb was one of the three yet-to-be-elected members appointed to Shehbaz's second-term cabinet. The other two members were Mohsin Naqvi and Ahad Cheema. As per the country's regulations, unelected cabinet members have six months to attain parliamentary status to retain their positions as federal ministers. On the same day, he renounced his Dutch citizenship and acquired Pakistani nationality. Asif Kirmani, who regarded as a close ally of Nawaz Sharif, criticized the appointment of Aurangzeb as finance minister, labeling it as an "establishment pawn." As the Prime Minister Shehbaz had bifurcated the Ministry of Finance, Revenue, and Economic Affairs into three divisions, the Ministry of Economic Affairs was allotted to Ahad Cheema while Aurangzeb was assigned the additional portfolio of the Revenue Division.
Aurangzeb became the third banker to assume the position of Minister for Finance after Shaukat Aziz (1999-2007) and Shaukat Tarin (2021-2022). In March 2024, Aurangzeb, backed by PML-N, filed his nomination papers for the 2024 Pakistani Senate election. On 2 April 2024, he was elected to the Senate of Pakistan on the technocrat seat from Punjab, receiving 128 votes.
Since sources within the PML-N indicated that there were varying opinions regarding the appointment of Aurangzeb as finance minister instead of Ishaq Dar. Ultimately, it was decided that Dar would remain involved in economic affairs, despite being appointed as the Foreign Minister. Subsequently, on 22 March, Prime Minister Shehbaz reconstituted cabinet committees, resulting in the removal of the Aurangzeb from the chairmanship of two important committees. This included the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), which had previously been chaired by a finance minister. Additionally, Dar, despite being Foreign Minister, was appointed as the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP), a position formerly held by a finance minister. This restructuring indicated a reluctance to assign the ECC’s chairmanship to Aurangzeb, thereby reducing Aurangzeb's influence over economic matters. Nevertheless, the following day, Prime Minister Shehbaz decided to transfer the chairmanship of the ECC to Aurangzeb amidst criticism. However on 29 March, for the first time, the foreign minister Ishaq Dar replaced the finance minister in the Council of Common Interests.
|
Niue dollar
|
[
"Economy of Niue",
"Currencies of Oceania",
"Currencies introduced in 1966",
"Currencies of New Zealand",
"Dollar",
"Circulating currencies"
] | 440 | 3,624 |
Niue, a country in free association with New Zealand, uses only one official legal tender currency, which is the New Zealand dollar.
Before the creation of the New Zealand dollar in 1967, Niue was a user of the New Zealand pound and its very early commemorative coins of Niue were in pound or shilling increments.
Niue first began issuing coins in 1966. These have been mostly bullion and non-circulating base metal commemorative issues. They are acceptable as legal tender within Niue, though unlikely to be found anywhere on the island.
Coins
In 2009, Niue began issuing its first standardised coin set in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50 cents and 1 Dollar; they are thicker than New Zealand coins as well as having a different metallic composition. They are also of the same exact size and composition as the Pitcairn Islands special coin set.
All of the standard set coins bear images relevant to the country, surrounded by a distinct border.
All coins of Niue depict the national crest or an official effigy of the reigning British monarch on the obverse.
In 2011, the New Zealand Mint produced a limited edition set of New Zealand Dollar legal tender coins, as an official issue of Niue commemorating the Star Wars motion picture series, authorised by Lucasfilm Ltd., and depicting many principal characters from the series rendered in colour.
See also
Cook Islands dollar
New Zealand dollar
Pitcairn Islands dollar
References
Krause, Chester L. and Clifford Mishler (1991). Standard Catalog of World Coins: 1801–1991 (18th ed. ed.). Krause Publications. .
|
Françoise Bertrand
|
[
"Businesspeople from Quebec",
"Living people",
"Canadian women in business",
"Canadian chief executives",
"Chairpersons of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission",
"Université de Montréal alumni",
"York University alumni",
"Canadian chairpersons of corporations",
"Canadian corporate directors",
"Knights of the Legion of Honour",
"Knights of the National Order of Quebec",
"Officers of the Order of Canada",
"1948 births"
] | 981 | 10,366 |
Françoise Bertrand, (born 1948) is a Canadian business personality. She is the first woman to head a North American television network, as CEO and president of Télé-Québec, and was the first woman to serve as chairperson of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), a position she held from 1996 to 2001. Bertrand was inducted into the National Order of Quebec in 2008 and appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013. She has served as president and CEO of Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (Québec's Federation of Chambers of Commerce) from 2003 to 2016, the first woman to hold the position. She is currently the first woman to serve as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Via Rail Canada Inc., a position she has held since April 2017.
Born in Montreal, Bertrand holds a sociology degree from the Université de Montréal and a master's in Environmental Studies from Toronto's York University.
Career
From 1980 to 1988, she held many positions at the Université du Québec à Montréal, including dean of resource management. She was then president and CEO of Télé-Québec, becoming the first woman to head a North American television network. Her leadership received praise for "redirecting its educational and cultural programming to reflect the realities of Quebec society".
In 1996, Bertrand became the first, and so far the only, woman to serve as chairperson of the CRTC. During her tenure, the "opening [of] telephone service to competition" took place, as did a major May 1999 decision on "New Media" that gave the CRTC jurisdiction over certain content communicated over the Internet, such as audio and video, but not primarily alphanumeric content such as emails and most webpages. She served as chair until 2001, when David Colville succeeded her as CRTC's interim chair.
From 2003 to 2016, she served as the president and CEO of Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, Québec's Federation of Chambers of Commerce, the first woman to do so.
From 2001 to 2018, she served on and chaired numerous boards, including but not limited to Quebecor (chair, 2011-2014), the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (board member, 2007-2017), and the United Nations Association in Canada (board member, 2016-2018).
In November of 2016, Bertrand became President of the International Board of Directors of Proaction International, and in April of 2017, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of VIA Rail Canada Inc. Today, she is also Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors of Concordia University since 2015 and has served on the Board of Osisko Gold Royalties since 2013.
Honours and awards
Bertrand has received numerous awards and honors, including an honorary degree from Concordia University. Bertrand was granted the insignia of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 2001. In 2007, she was named in Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 by Women's Executive Network (RFE). In 2008, she received the insignia of Chevalier of the National Order of Quebec (NQO). In June 2013, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for "her contributions to corporate governance as an administrator and role model for women".
In November 2019, Francoise Bertrand was awarded the Prix Réalisations (The Achievements Prize) by the Reseau des femmes d’affaires du Québec, a non-profit organization and network of women business professionals “contributing to the leadership, economic development and professional fulfillment of its members”. This prize “pays tribute to a Quebecoise (woman from Quebec) whose exceptional career, compelling achievements, drive and influence both locally and internationally have set her apart in business world”.
|
Vermeer's Hat
|
[
"17th century in economic history",
"2007 non-fiction books",
"21st-century history books",
"Books about economic history",
"Books about globalization",
"Books by Timothy Brook",
"Early modern period",
"History books about China",
"History books about Europe",
"History books about the 17th century",
"History books about the arts",
"History books about the Dutch Empire",
"History books about the Dutch Golden Age",
"History of international trade",
"Profile Books books",
"Works about Johannes Vermeer",
"Works about the Dutch East India Company"
] | 2,758 | 20,833 |
Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World is a book by the Canadian historian Timothy Brook, in which he explores the roots of world trade in the 17th century through six paintings by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. It focuses especially on growing ties between Europe and the rest of the world and the impact of China on the world, during what Brook sees as an "age of innovation" and improvisation.
Synopsis
Brook argues that globalization, which is often taken to be a modern (i.e., late 20th/21st-century) phenomenon, actually had its roots in the 17th century; and he states that it was his intention to surprise his readers with this information, that "people and goods and ideas were moving around the world in ways that their ancestors had no idea was possible." The growth in trade and exploration was facilitated in part by advances in navigation and in shipbuilding technology and also, according to the author, was driven along when European nations such as "England, the Netherlands and France started to fight their way into the trade."
By studying and analysing the paintings of Johannes Vermeer, beginning with his landscape View of Delft (1660), and examining the scant documents detailing his life, the author builds up a picture of the world in which Vermeer lived; and from this he finds evidence of socioeconomic phenomena and globalization. In the case of the port in Delft in the Netherlands, for example, he finds evidence of the Dutch East India Company's operations. This is often said to be the world's first multinational corporation, which competing traders were forced to join; it had quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies, and played a powerful and prominent role in trade between the Dutch and Asia, including China.
The painting entitled Officer and Laughing Girl (1658), which is shown on the front cover of the book and to which the title alludes, speaks to Brook of the interest people had in the world, which is reflected in the maps of the world frequently seen on walls in paintings, showing a patriotic pride which went along with the emergence of the Netherlands from Spanish occupation, and the painting is also used to examine trade between Europe and North America. The huge felt hat itself, Brook says, is made of beaver under-fur and the origin of that would be via French traders operating in North America. This being before the discovery of the Northwest Passage, the French had been commissioned to find a route to China, and the beaver fur simply helped them "cover their costs." From here, the narrative goes on to talk of other commodities which were available in abundance and traded in the Americas, such as sugar, tobacco, copper, wood in the 18th century, enslaved Africans, and the metallic artefacts and guns which were sold in exchange.
In the painting Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (1658), there is a large Chinese porcelain bowl in the foreground (standing on a Turkish carpet), and Brook uses this to introduce the subject of trade with China. Chinese porcelain was just becoming more widely available and featured in many paintings. The porcelain grew very popular in households in Vermeer's time as its price came down and it became affordable to less wealthy families. In sharp contrast to the necessary outward-looking gaze of countries in Europe, the stereotypical view of China was that it had "an adequate resource base for most of its needs, an advanced technology and was not having to look outside of itself for things that it needed." However, Brook maintains that the Chinese did venture out of their country to trade during lengthy periods when they were not prohibited from doing so (due to perceived threats to Chinese authority or to Chinese people), and that the Chinese simply wanted to control the terms of their trade. They did not want traders setting up colonies in their sovereign territory. According to Brook, the Chinese not going out exploring the world did put them at a technological and linguistic disadvantage as they had a very limited world view and lacked experience of the increasingly cosmopolitan world outside their borders. This wasn't so much of a problem in Vermeer's time but was to become more of an issue as Europe's empires grew in the 18th century and 19th centuries.
The fourth painting is The Geographer (1669), often suggested to be modelled by Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek.
Next Brook discusses Woman Holding a Balance (1664).
The final painting is The Card Player (1660).
Indra's net
In the book, the author uses the metaphor of Indra's net:
Writing in The Spectator, Sarah Burton explains that Brook uses this metaphor, and its interconnectedness, "to help understand the multiplicity of causes and effects producing the way we are and the way we were." She adds: "In the same way, the journeys through Brook's picture-portals intersect with each other, at the same time shedding light on each other.
Reception
Writing in The Guardian, Kathryn Hughes describes Vermeer's Hat as "an exhilarating book" and "a brilliant attempt to make us understand the reach and breadth of the first global age." She states that "What Brook wants us to understand [...] is that these domains, the local and the transnational, were intimately connected centuries before anyone came up with the world wide web."
Also in The Guardian, Jerry Brotton describes Vermeer's Hat as "the finest book on Vermeer I've read in years." He states that "by deftly unravelling their stories, he gives us a picture of Vermeer unwittingly sitting in at the birth of the modern global world" and concludes that "This is a fabulous book that drags Vermeer away from our complacent Eurocentric assumptions of his insular domesticity."
In the Literary Review, Lisa Jardine describes the book as an "enthralling" "jewel of a study".
In the Washington Post, Michael Dirda writes: "Vermeer's Hat ... provides not only valuable historical insight but also enthralling intellectual entertainment."
In The Independent, T. H. Barrett states that "[Brook] is too good a scholar to treat Vermeer's paintings as straightforward windows into the past, but he does show us how pictorial sources can open "doors" into "corridors" linking up diverse regions of the globe."
Also in The Independent, speaking of the way the author "teases out" detail from the paintings, Lesley McDowell states that "[he] shows, better than anyone I've read so far, the truly subversive power of detail – especially when it's brought to the fore instead of filling in the background."
Douglas Smith writes in The Seattle Times "In Brook's hands Vermeer's canvases, together with a painting by a second-rate contemporary and an old chipped Delft plate, are just bright lures to catch our attention before he takes us on his rich, suggestive tours of the 17th-century world." He goes on to say: "In recounting these tales of international trade, cultural exchange and foreign encounter, Brook does more than merely sketch the beginnings of globalization and highlight the forces that brought our modern world into being; rather, he offers a timely reminder of humanity's interdependence."
Peter Conrad, writing in The Observer, is more critical. He is of the opinion that "Brook is so intent on cost and the grim injustice of expropriation that he can seem crassly unresponsive, indifferent to the almost beatific peace of the paintings" and "knows everything about price, but rather less about value."
Awards
In 2009, Vermeer's Hat won Brook the Mark Lynton History Prize from Columbia University in New York, worth $10,000 (U.S.). The prize is one of the Lukas Prize Project awards. The book was described as a "bold, original and compulsively readable work of history."
See also
Age of Discovery
Baroque
Dutch Golden Age
Early modern Europe
Major explorations after the Age of Discovery
Further reading
Other reviews
|
Wertpapierkennnummer
|
[
"Security identifier types",
"Banking in Germany",
"Financial metadata"
] | 249 | 2,313 |
The Wertpapierkennnummer (WKN, WPKN, WPK or Wert) is a German securities identification code. It is composed of six digits or capital letters (excluding I and O), and no check digit.
Changes in format
There have been several changes in the WKN definition:
WKN were switched from numeric to alphanumeric on 21 July 2003
The first 2–4 Letters may show the issuer of the Instrument.
Until March 2000, the WKNs were divided into different number ranges that represented different types of securities (e.g., stocks, warrants, funds, etc.).
The WKNs and DE-ISINs are provided by WM-Datenservice.
WKNs may be obsolete in future, since they may be replaced by International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs).
Spelling and meaning
Like most very long German words, Wertpapierkennnummer is a compound word: Wert-Papier-Kenn-Nummer, if translated literally, means value–paper–identification–number (Wertpapier = financial security; Kennnummer = identification number).
Before the German spelling reform of 1996 the correct spelling was Wertpapierkennummer with only two consecutive ns, since the orthography rules allowed the same consonant three times in a row only under special circumstances. Since the reform, the spelling has been Wertpapierkennnummer with three consecutive n’s.
See also
CUSIP
ISIN
SEDOL
|
Arlington Business Park
|
[
"Business parks of England",
"Economy of Reading, Berkshire",
"High-technology business districts in the United Kingdom",
"West Berkshire District",
"Year of establishment missing"
] | 383 | 3,037 |
Arlington Park is a business park in Theale (west of Reading, Berkshire), England. specially designed to blend the benefits of a modern working environment with the benefits of outdoor living.
The park is home to a number of major corporations such as Nokia, Laithwaites, Carabao, Willis Towers Watson,
The offices are based within picturesque landscaped grounds and set against a lake backdrop and has a wide range of amenities including a floating pavilion, a cafe, a gym, and a theatre style landscaped space affectionately known as 'The Bowl' that holds events throughout the year. The park aims to achieve wellbeing excellence and has been designed to promote good work–life balance and help communities flourish by creating an environment that is both functional and relaxing.
Arlington Park is adjacent to Junction 12 of the M4 which provides direct access to London, the west and beyond.
Theale station is 5 minutes walk from the park with direct links to London Paddington and connections to Reading and Newbury.
The Elizabeth line opening in 2022 will run from Reading to London enabling faster connections to London's West End and East End, the City and Canary Wharf.
|
Star Entertainment Group
|
[
"Star Entertainment Group",
"Gambling companies of Australia",
"Holding companies of Australia",
"Entertainment companies established in 2011",
"Holding companies established in 2011",
"Australian companies established in 2011",
"Gambling companies established in 2011",
"Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange",
"Companies based in Brisbane",
"Hospitality companies of Australia"
] | 3,353 | 33,493 |
The Star Entertainment Group Limited is an Australian gambling and entertainment company. The company was formerly known as Echo Entertainment. Star is Australia's biggest listed casino group.
Following a money laundering scandal and 3 years of massive losses, it was seeing massive slumps in it share price with fears that it will go into voluntary administration and/or be forced to close or sell off its assets. On 3 March 2025, ASX suspended the company from trading for contravening listing rules by not lodging its half-yearly report, making the second trading halt in a week, as the company tried to find or complete a refinancing deal to ensure it could continue as a going concern. On 7 April 2025, Star Entertainment Group and Bally's Corporation reached an agreement where Bally's would acquire a 56.7% controlling stake in the company. The takeover was later approved by Star shareholders.
Properties
The Star Entertainment owns and operates three properties: The Star Brisbane, The Star Gold Coast and The Star, Sydney. Star Entertainment holds two out of Queensland's four casino operation licenses.
The group also manages the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre on behalf of the Queensland Government. Star owned a 50% stake in the Sheraton Mirage resort on the Southport Spit, that it sold in 2023 for $192 million.
Queen's Wharf Brisbane
The Queensland Government announced on 20 July 2015 that Echo Entertainment as 50% joint venture partner of the Destination Brisbane Consortium was the preferred tenderer for Queen's Wharf, Brisbane, beating rival Crown Resorts. Echo has two Hong Kong–based joint venture partners Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium. The two joint venture partners will each contribute 25% of the capital to develop the integrated resort and will also jointly pay for the apartment and broader Queen's Wharf developments. Prior to the Bally’s deal, Star Entertainment was initially looking to sell its stake in the property to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium as part of a deal to keep Star Entertainment afloat.
Controversies
In 2021 a joint report by the Sydney Morning Herald the Age, and the television program 60 Minutes, found that Star management had been warned that its anti-money laundering controls were inadequate and that between 2014 and 2021 Star had attempted to recruit high rollers who were allegedly linked to criminal or foreign-influence activities. In response to the report Star stated that it was "concerned by a number of assertions within the media reports that it considers misleading." And also stated that it would take steps to address the allegations with Australian authorities. Following the report shareholders began forming a class action lawsuit against Star and inquiries were launched by Queensland's, Western Australia's, Victoria's, and New South Wales's state gaming regulators.
On 13 September 2022 the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) published a report finding The Star unsuitable to hold its Sydney casino license because of its conduct relating to money laundering risks. It had 14 days to respond. The company was fined A$100m ($62m) as a result. Star's gambling license was suspended and operations were placed under a new manager Nicholas Weeks.
In late 2022, the Queensland Government also found Star unsuitable to hold its dual state casino licences. Former Court of Appeal Judge Robert Gotterson conducted an independent review of the matter. Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman found Star misled regulators and failed in its anti-money laundering duties. The company has been served a statement of claim for a securities class action in the Supreme Court of Victoria. The class action alleges that Star breached disclosure obligations and acted against the best interests of the shareholders. Star was fined $100 million on 9 December 2022. Casino licences for the Treasury Brisbane and the Star Gold Coast will be suspended for 90 days, with this action deferred until December 1, 2023. The deferment gives Star an opportunity to remediate its management and operations. In addition to these issues with their properties in Queensland, in New South Wales, The Star, Sydney has been under government supervision. This will remain in effect through September 2025 at the earliest.
In April 2024, the chair for The Star Star Entertainment Group Limited David Foster resigned from his post less than a week after giving evidence to the ongoing inquiry into the license suitability of the company's The Star Sydney property. Foster reportedly found his efforts increasingly frustrated by office politics and, in particular, the relationship between the company's Chief Executive Officer, Robbie Cooke, and the independent manager appointed to help implement an official state-mandated remediation plan, Nicholas Weeks. Foster's departure came after he told the official inquiry his company was currently unsuitable to operate a casino in New South Wales. There was ‘not a scenario’ in which it would be able to run the property unsupervised. He was additionally quizzed over a series of ‘heat of the moment’ texts with Cooke in which the pair allegedly discussed getting rid of Weeks by having shareholders launch a class-action lawsuit against the government-appointed manager.
As of January 2025, AUSTRAC is currently calculating a fine for breaching counterterrorism and anti-money laundering laws. The company has deposited $150 million for the fine, and it is reported that shareholder Bruce Mathieson is refusing to pour more money into the company until a fine is agreed upon.
On 10 February 2025, ASIC is proceeding to sue the former board of the company in the High Court of Australia for failing to keep track of money laundering. It already settled with and withdrew CFO Harry Theodore on misleading the National Australia Bank on its ATMs being used to funnel the money, with the penalty yet to be calculated.
Losses
During the 2022-23 financial year Star lost $2.44 billion. In the 2023-24 financial year the company sustained losses of $1.69 billion. In the following years, the company has continued to struggle. There has been speculation that they could be acquired by a larger company or they could go into administration.
Takeover attempts & sale of assets
In May 2024, it was reported that multiple suitors were looking to acquire Star Entertainment and their assets. Hard Rock International was said to be weighing a bid for the struggling company, but they subsequently stated that they were not looking into acquiring Star Entertainment.
On 29 January 2025, as part of possible sales of non-core assets of the company, the company announced it would sell The Star Sydney Event Centre and unspecified spaces within the complex to Foundation Theatres in order to raise $60 million. The sale of the Star Sydney Events Centre was complete in April of 2025.
On 10 February 2025 Star announced it knocked back 'several' inquiries from prospective foreign investors for Queen's Warf, citing that they undervalued the asset, but is in talks with CTFE and FEC on whether to relinquish its stake in Queen's Warf. Later in February, it was reported that Blackstone Group was mulling an acquisition of Star Entertainment Group. Blackstone already is in the global casino business and owns Australian rival Crown Resorts so it may not go through on anti-competition concerns, though reports speculate authorities' stance may be soften in this special case. The group has particular interest in the company's gambling machine assets. It is also specualated Blackstone will only intervene if the company collapses.
In order to attempt to keep Star afloat, the company attempted to sell its stake in The Star Brisbane. The company had also secured a $200 million loan. Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium would have assumed Star’s stake in The Star Brisbane and will also assume all debts incurred by the property. Chris Wallin was also planning to give Star Entertainment the $200 million loan which would have been intended to help keep the company solvent for the time being. On 7 March the company agreed to sell its stake in Queen’s Wharf for only $53m in installments, but the deal collapsed.
Acquisition by Bally’s Corporation
Bally's Corporation emerged as a possible bidder for the company in February of 2025. It had been reported that they sent representatives to meet with Star officials in Australia. Bally’s does not run any properties outside of the US.
In March of 2025, Bally's Corporation submitted a bid to rescue Star Entertainment. Ballys was offering $250 million for a 50.1% stake in the company. By April of 2025, Star was looking to Ballys to rescue the company.
On 7 April 2025, Star Entertainment and Bally’s reached an agreement where Bally's will acquire a controlling 56.7% stake in the company, effectively rescuing Star Entertainment from collapse. The $180 million deal will allow Star to keep all three of their properties and will allow Bally's to expand outside of the US for the first time in the company’s history.
On 25 June 2025, shareholders approved the Bally’s takeover bid.
2025: Bankruptcy speculations
The share price saw a catastrophic 40% sell-off between 8 and 11 January 2025, becoming the worst performing business on the ASX, only selling for over a dime. This followed a release of a very bleak financial report over the previous quarter, particularly that it burned through $100 million in the quarter, and fears the company has a 50-50 chance of collapsing into voluntary administration by the end of February. Angus Hewitt, an equity analyst at Morningstar, Inc., cites weak consumer sentiment and restrictions such as mandatory carded play as significant factors. There are also fears that its portfolio will be divested or shuttered, with the Queen's Wharf, Brisbane precinct opening just the previous August, as well as that the company collapsing will wipe out investors or workers. The Queensland Government has said that it is in talks to support the South East Queensland workers should something happen, but has ruled out intervening on the actual company. Two out of three Star properties operate in Queensland.
The share price bumped up to $0.13 on 13 January after mystery speculators bought up shares of the company, amid an otherwise dismal day on the stock market after inflationary revelations.
On 17 January as part of last minute negotiations with stakeholders to prevent collapse, the company has asked the NSW and Queensland Governments for tax breaks - which they have previously denied the company - and placed itself in safe harbour, a move that protects the directors from insolvent trading whilst they grapple with refinancing the company without using an external administrator.
By February of 2025, it was reported by Sky News Australia that Star Entertainment “could enter administration within a week”. The company has been unable to secure enough cash to offset it’s liquidity crisis. Ross Greenwood who is the business editor at Sky News reported “Sources close to the financially troubled Star Entertainment have revealed to us that the company could enter administration within a week as its cash reserves again run dry”. The company would need an immediate cash injection in order to remain solvent. Later that month Oaktree Capital Management offered a $650 million loan to help refinance the company's debt.
Trading halt
On 28 February 2025, Star Entertainment Group was forced into a brief trading halt "pending a further announcement", after not posting its overdue half-yearly financial results until it received "liquidity proposals [which are feasible in] determining whether the Company can continue as a going concern...and the ASX determines that the Company’s shares should be reinstated to quotation [on Monday]".
On Monday 3 March, the company was placed into a compulsory second trading halt by the ASX after not posting its half-yearly earnings in the end, putting such deals in jeopardy as a result and thousands of jobs at risk as a collapse is potentially imminent. It reportedly has spent $50 million in a month over just $75 million cash at hand in the previous report. The company is reported to be waiting for access to proceeds from its asset sales, which are currently waiting for state approval, as well as a separate "bridge loan", before it can refinance itself. If it cannot get the funds, it will be forced into administration. With the company asking for financial support from the states, the states have reiterated their hesitancy to contribute, with NSW premier Chris Minns saying they are not using their taxpayer money on casinos rather than roads, EDs and schools.
The company was at risk of entering administration in early March before securing a $200 million loan. The company was also able to sell Queen's Warf, receiving multi million dollar installments and fees to stave off administration, following conflicting reports of collapsed negotiations.
See also
Gambling in Australia
List of integrated resorts
List of casino hotels
|
XY Company
|
[
"Fur trade",
"Trading companies of Canada",
"1798 establishments in Lower Canada",
"1804 disestablishments in Lower Canada",
"Companies disestablished in 1804",
"1804 mergers and acquisitions",
"Companies based in Montreal",
"Defunct companies of Quebec",
"Economic history of Canada",
"British North America",
"Companies established in 1798",
"Trading companies established in the 18th century",
"Trading companies disestablished in the 19th century"
] | 1,199 | 8,715 |
The XY Company, also known as the New North West Company, was a joint-stock fur trading enterprise based in Montreal that conducted business chiefly in the Canadian Northwest between 1798 and 1804. It was established in opposition to the North West Company, whose employees called it the Little Company and the Potties.
Background
In 1795 some partners withdrew from the North West Company and began to trade on their own through the firm of Forsyth, Richardson & Company which already was engaged in the trade around Lake Superior. At the same time, an agreement was made between on the one hand McTavish, Frobisher & Company and on the other hand Alexander Mackenzie as agent and attorney of Angus Shaw, Roderick McKenzie, Cuthbert Grant, Alexander McLeod and William Thornburn, to begin independent trading operations in 1799 and continue with these until 1805. Due to the animosity that arose between Simon McTavish and Alexander McKenzie this agreement was superseded in 1798 when new partners were admitted and others retired.
Foundation
After the Jay Treaty of 1794, Britain evacuated its military posts at Michilimackinac and Detroit which meant that Canadian firms operating on United States territory had to leave, either to dissolved or to compete with the North West Company north of the international border, west of Lake Superior. The XY Company was founded in 1798 when the Forsyth, Richardson & Company (which was a subsidiary of the London firm of Phyn, Ellis & Company) and Leith, Jamieson & Company of Detroit united in order to increase its competitive advantage against the North West Company. It was invigorated when John Ogilvy and John Mure entered the company in 1800 and Alexander Mackenzie joined in 1802.
From its beginning, the XY Company contested the dominance in the Canadian Northwest of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Its robust financial support made it possible to open competing fur trading posts on the Red River, at Rainy Lake and Bas de la Rivière Winnipic and many other sites in close vicinity to already existing North West Company posts.
In 1801 the XY Company had posts on the Saskatchewan, (near the Fort Edmonton and Fort Augustus at the site of today's Fort Saskatchewan), in 1803 on the Great Bear Lake, and the same year posts were established on the Peace and the Swan rivers. When the North West Company in 1802 moved its rendezvous from Grand Portage to Kaministiquia, the XY Company followed in 1804. The company then also had a trading fort at Qu'Appelle River and a winter post at Fishing Lake. The XY Company also had a post at Fort Charlotte, by the Pigeon River at the upper end of the portage from Lake Superior. In the North-Western Territory, the XY Company built posts in the immediate vicinity of those of the North West Company; depots near Fort Chipewyan, the posts at the Great Slave Lake, Fort Liard on the Mackenzie River, and at Great Bear Lake. In the Peace River are the XY Company estqablished four posts. It also had depots at Île-à-la-Crosse and Green Lake.
The rivalry between North West Company and XY Company led to an increased use of hard liquor as a competitive means. North West Company increased its use of rum and other spirits from 10,000 gallons in 1799 to 16,000 in 1803. North West Company's average use of hard liquor 1802-1804 was 14,400 gallons, while the average for the XY Company during the same period was 5,000 gallons. Soon both companies were losing money, important fur trading areas became depleted and relations with the First Nations were impaired.
The often close proximity of North West Company's and XY Company's post led to violent interactions between clerks and servants of the companies. In August 1802, a clerk of the XY Company shot and killed a clerk of the North West Company after the latter attempted to steal his furs. The killer was indicted for murder in Montreal, but he was set free as the court had doubt about its jurisdiction; the act having taken place at Fort de l'Isle on the North Saskatchewan River.
Merger
In 1803, Alexander Mackenzie reorganized the company as a partnership under the name Sir Alexander Mackenzie & Company, but it was nevertheless mostly called the XY Company. The vehement contest with the North West Company for market shares caused instability in the fur-producing regions and decreased revenue for both companies. In order to end the competition, thereby increasing profit, the two companies merged in 1804 with the North West Company absorbing the XY Company. The XY Company becoming a part owner receiving 25 of the reconstructed North West Company's 100 shares. Yet, McTavish, Frobisher & Company continued as the only agent of the North West Company, and Alexander McKenzie was barred from any engagement in the fur trade. Increased profitability after the merger was reached, among other measures, by lowering the salaries of the clerks.
Cited literature
Brophy, Susan Dianne (2022). A Legacy of Exploitation: Early Capitalism in the Red River Colony, 1763–1821. The University of British Columbia.
Davidson, Gordon Charles (1918). The North West Company. New York.
Easterbrook, William Thomas & Aitken, Hugh G. J. (1988). Canadian Economic History. University of Toronto Press.
Innis, Harold A. (1930). The Fur Trade in Canada. Yale University Press.
National Park Service (2001). Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota: Draft General Management Plan. United States Department of the Interior.
Yerbury, John Colin (1986). The Subarctic Indians and the Fur Trade, 1680-1860. University of British Columbia Press.
|
Big Bang (financial markets)
|
[
"1986 in economic history",
"1986 in the United Kingdom",
"Economy of London",
"Economic liberalization",
"Economics of regulation",
"Financial markets",
"London Stock Exchange",
"Separation of investment and retail banking"
] | 1,384 | 11,007 |
The phrase Big Bang, used in reference to the sudden deregulation of financial markets, was coined to describe measures, including abolition of fixed commission charges and of the distinction between stockjobbers and stockbrokers on the London Stock Exchange and change from open outcry to screen-based electronic trading, effected by UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986.
History
The Big Bang was the result of an agreement in 1983 by the Thatcher government and the London Stock Exchange to settle a wide-ranging antitrust case that had been initiated during the previous government by the Office of Fair Trading against the London Stock Exchange under the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1956. These restrictive practices included the London Stock Exchange's rules establishing fixed minimum commissions, the "single capacity" rule (which enforced a separation between brokers acting as agents for their clients on commission and jobbers who made the markets and theoretically provided liquidity by holding lines of stocks and shares on their books), the requirement that both brokers and jobbers should be independent and not part of any wider financial group, and the stock exchange's exclusion of all foreigners from stock exchange membership.
The day the London Stock Exchange's rules changed on 27 October 1986 was dubbed "Big Bang" because of the increase in market activity expected from an aggregation of measures designed to alter the structure of the financial market.
The effect of Big Bang led to significant changes to the structure of the financial markets in London. The changes saw many of the old firms being taken over by large banks both foreign and domestic and would lead in the following years to further changes to the regulatory environment that would eventually lead to the creation of the Financial Services Authority.
Consequences
The effects of Big Bang were dramatic, with London's place as a financial capital decisively strengthened, to the point where in 2006 it was arguably the world's most important financial centre. The boom resulted in the relocation of institutions into new developments in the nearby Isle of Dogs area, particularly that of Canary Wharf.
Although the "Big Bang" eased stock market transactions there is a debate in the UK about how far it affected the 2008 financial crisis.
In 2010, Nigel Lawson, Margaret Thatcher's Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time of Big Bang, appeared on the BBC Radio Four programme Analysis to discuss the banking reform. During the programme, Lawson is reported as having "converted to the Glass-Steagall cause" of separating retail banking from investment banking, due to concerns that it was a moral hazard ("[banks] are not going to be as careful and as cautious and as prudent as they should be") and that banks which were "too big to fail" would do so at taxpayers' expense, as seen during the 2008 financial crisis. During the programme, the presenter, Edward Stourton, said, "Lord Lawson isn't alone in his admission that [through the 'Big Bang'] we walked into the new banking world without really understanding the risks involved" in ending the separation of high street banks and merchant banks. Lawson mused, "I didn't give it a great deal of thought at that time. I'd taken for granted that separation, as by custom and practice we'd had that all those years (we'd always had it), but it was a completely unforeseen consequence of the stock exchange reforms".
John Reed, a former Citigroup banker, says that “we were simply ignorant of the risks that we were getting into” from the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999. He attributes its repeal in the United States to his customers (“big international institutions”) wanting to issue commercial paper, instead of borrowing directly from banks, as well as to the Big Bang, after which “globalised markets” and “inter-connected capital markets” made it difficult to sustain one regime in London and a different one in New York.
In 2011 former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed regret at not implementing tougher regulations during his tenure as chancellor between 1997 and 2007, responding to "relentless pressure" from the City not to over-regulate.
Similar events
United States
On May 1, 1975, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eliminated fixed rate brokerage commissions on stock trades. This deregulation got rid of the fixed commission schedule set by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which all member firms were required to follow. Before deregulation, firms charged the same minimum fee (1%–2% of the trade's value) depending on the size of the trade, ever since the 1792 Buttonwood Agreement. Because of this, the typical fee incurred on U.S. stock trades is currently ~0.25%, with some platforms taking no commisssion on online trades.
Japan
On October 1, 1994, Japan’s Ministry of Finance implemented the first phase of securities commission deregulation. This reform was part of a broader financial liberation agenda known as the "Japanese Big Bang." The overall goal was to modernize Japan's financial system and increase global competitiveness. For decades prior, firms in Japan operated under a uniform commission structure that was enforced by the Japanese Securities Dealers Association (JSDA), which set minimum fees for both institutional and retail trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). The fixed rate system in Japan had long been criticized for inflating transaction costs and protecting brokers from competition. The deregulation was completed in April 1999 and successfully increased competition between brokers, and lowered trading fees across the board.
See also
Wimbledon Effect
|
John Alevizos
|
[
"1919 births",
"2005 deaths",
"Atlanta Braves executives",
"Boston Red Sox executives",
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"Businesspeople from Boston",
"Harvard Business School alumni",
"Major League Baseball general managers",
"MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni",
"20th-century American businesspeople",
"United States Army personnel of World War II"
] | 534 | 4,501 |
John Peter Alevizos (December 11, 1919 – August 1, 2005) was an American businessman and a front-office executive in professional baseball. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, he was a real-estate developer for over forty years and a former member of the faculty of the Boston University School of Management.
Alevizos was an alumnus of Boston University, where he earned both bachelor's and master's degrees, and held a certificate in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also attended Harvard Business School. He was a United States Army veteran of World War II, where he served in the Pacific Theater of Operations and was awarded the Bronze Star.
A lifelong fan and former youth baseball coach, Alevizos became involved in professional baseball in 1969, when he purchased the Binghamton Triplets, Double-A Eastern League affiliate of the New York Yankees, and moved them to Manchester, New Hampshire. He operated the Manchester Yankees for two seasons, then joined the Boston Red Sox as vice president, administration, from 1971 to 1974. Functioning as the team's business manager, he helped expand the Red Sox' spring training facilities, then based in Winter Haven, Florida.
He resigned from the Red Sox on December 29, 1974, reportedly to pursue investing in the Cleveland Indians or an expansion team for Toronto. Although those efforts were unsuccessful, Alevizos returned to baseball in March 1976 when he was named general manager of the Atlanta Braves by the club's new owner, Ted Turner. Alevizos served six months in the post before his replacement by Bill Lucas in September. One month into Alevizos' tenure, the Braves signed free agent pitcher Andy Messersmith, whose court case against the reserve clause led to the arbitrator's ruling permitting free agency in baseball.
In , Alevizos, then 84, made headlines when he proposed to buy the MLB-owned Montreal Expos franchise with the intent to move them to Connecticut. Instead, the Expos relocated to Washington, D.C., where they now play as the Washington Nationals.
John Alevizos died in Weston, Massachusetts, at age 85.
|
King George's Sound Company
|
[
"British companies established in 1785",
"Trading companies of England",
"Pre-Confederation British Columbia",
"History of Vancouver Island",
"18th century in British Columbia",
"Trading companies established in the 18th century",
"1789 disestablishments",
"1789 in economic history",
"Companies disestablished in the 1780s"
] | 918 | 7,957 |
The King George's Sound Company, also known as Richard Cadman Etches and Company after its "prime mover and principal investor", was an English company formed in 1785 to engage in the maritime fur trade on the northwest coast of North America. The company had nine partners in 1785: Richard Cadman Etches (merchant of London), John Hanning (gentleman of Dowlich, Devon), William Etches (merchant of Ashbourne, Derbyshire), Mary Camilla Brook (tea dealer of London), William Etches (merchant of Northampton), John Etches (merchant of London), Nathaniel Gilmour (merchant of Gosport, Hampshire), Nathaniel Portlock (captain), and George Dixon (captain). No change in the list of partners after 1785 has been found.
Richard Etches and his associates were able to obtain licenses from the South Sea Company and the East India Company (EIC), the former allowing them to trade and explore, the latter giving permission to sell goods in China.
Two ships left England in early 1785, the 320-ton King George under Nathaniel Portlock, and the 200-ton Queen Charlotte under George Dixon, with Portlock in overall command. Both men had sailed with Captain James Cook on his third expedition and were therefore familiar with the region. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the Falkland Islands in January 1786, and transited Cape Horn to enter the Pacific Ocean. They reached the Hawaiian Islands on 24 May and anchored in Kealakekua Bay (where Cook had been killed in 1779), but did not go ashore. They took on fresh food at other Hawaiian Islands and proceeded on to what is now Alaska. After two years of plying the waters, Portlock and Dixon departed North America, reaching Macao in November 1787.
From Macao, both vessels returned to England with cargoes for the EIC. Queen Charlotte went on to make a second voyage for the EIC, but under a new master.
Two other company ships arrived in 1787, reaching the west coast of Vancouver Island in July, Prince of Wales, commanded by James Colnett, and , under Charles Duncan. Colnett and Duncan separated in 1788, but eventually rendezvoused and proceeded in early 1789 to Canton to sell their furs at a good profit, making this voyage "one of the more successful ones of the period".
In April 1787, Richard Etches dispatched Duke of York, a ship he had acquired, to reinforce the settlement at New Years Harbour (now Puerto Ano Nuevo) on Staten Island (now Isla de los Estados), off Tierra del Fuego. Seal hunters had established a factory there in 1786, which was also well-located for vessels rounding Cape Horn to refresh and replenish their water. On 11 September, shortly after she arrived at New Years Harbour, Duke of York was lost. Her crew, however, was saved. The loss of Duke of York ended the factory. The people took to their boats and left the island.
The King George's Sound Company merged with that of John Meares on 23 January 1789. The new company placed Colnett in command of the 120-ton Argonaut. However, when Colnett returned to Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island, he became embroiled in the Nootka Crisis; he and his crew were arrested and their ship seized by the Spanish. After a treaty was eventually signed by the Spanish and British, the company tried unsuccessfully to obtain compensation for its losses from the Spanish.
As it turned out, there was no great profit to be made from the trade in sea otter pelts (except by the Russians), and the company ceased sending ships.
See also
List of trading companies
Further reading
Sources
Gallois, Robert (2011) A Voyage to the North West Side of America: The Journals of James Colnett, 1786-89. (UBC Press).
|
Passbook
|
[
"Banking terms",
"Accounting source documents",
"Retail financial services",
"Paper products"
] | 837 | 6,471 |
A passbook or bankbook is a paper book used to record bank or building society transactions on a deposit account.
Traditionally, a passbook was used for accounts with a low transaction volume, such as savings accounts. A bank teller or postmaster would write the date, amount of the transaction, and the updated balance and enter his or her initials by hand. In the late 20th century, small dot matrix or inkjet printers were introduced that were capable of updating the passbook at the account holder's convenience, either at an ATM or a passbook printer, either in a self-serve mode, by post, or in a branch.
History
Passbooks appeared in the 18th century, allowing customers to hold transaction information in their own hands for the first time. Until then, transactions were recorded in ledgers at the bank only, so customers had no history of their own deposits and withdrawals.
The passbook, which was around the size of a passport, ensured that customers had control over their own information, and was called a "passbook" because it was used as a way to identify the account holder without needing further identification. It also regularly passed between the bank and the account holder for updating.
Usage
Credits and deposits
To add credit to an account by bringing cash to a bank in person, the account holder can fill a small credit slip or deposit slip. The total value of notes and coins is counted and entered on the slip, along with the date and the payer's name. The cash and details are counted and checked by the teller at the bank; if everything is in order, the deposit is credited to the account, the credit slip is then kept by the bank, and the credit slip booklet is stamped with the date and then returned to the account holder. An account holder uses his passbook to record their history of transactions with his bank.
Debits and withdrawals
Withdrawals normally required the account holder to visit the branch where the account was held, where a debit slip or withdrawal slip would be prepared and signed. If the teller did not know the account holder, the signature on the slip and the authorities would be checked against the signature card at the branch, before money was paid out. In the 1980s, banks adopted the black light signature system for passbooks, which enabled withdrawals to be made from passbooks at a branch other than the one where an account was opened, unless prior arrangements were made to transfer the signature card to the other branch. Under this system, the passbook's owner would sign in the back of the passbook in an invisible ink and the signing authorities would also be noted. At the paying branch, the signature on the withdrawal slip would be checked against the signature in the book, which required a special ultraviolet reader to read. Today, the customer is more commonly verified by PIN and commonly through an automated teller machine.
Direct banking
For people who feel uneasy with telephone or online banking, the use of a passbook is an alternative to obtain, in real-time, the account activity without waiting for a bank statement. However, unlike some bank statements, some passbooks offer fewer details, replacing easy-to-understand descriptions with short codes.
Gallery of passbooks
See also
Bank statement
Cheque book
Deposit account
|
Edward Hayward
|
[
"1983 deaths",
"1903 births",
"Australian colonels",
"20th-century Australian businesspeople",
"Australian businesspeople in retailing",
"Australian Army personnel of World War II",
"Australian Knights Bachelor",
"Businesspeople from Adelaide",
"People educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide"
] | 802 | 6,302 |
Sir Edward Waterfield Hayward (10 November 1903 – 13 August 1983) was an Australian businessman, best known for owning and managing John Martin's, a chain of department stores in Adelaide, South Australia, and for instigating the Adelaide Christmas Pageant.
Hayward was born in Adelaide and was educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide, where he took up polo among other sports in which he excelled. After completing his education, Hayward worked as a jackaroo in New South Wales for several years. He started in the retail sector for the first time in 1929, working for Sydney Snow and Co. Ltd., and moved back to Adelaide in 1931 to join the family business, John Martin's.
One of his first jobs at John Martin's was to visit Canada and the United States to gather ideas from department stores in those countries. It was on this trip that he came up with the idea to start the Adelaide Christmas Pageant, being in particular inspired by the Toronto Santa Claus Parade and by Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Since the first pageant in 1933, it has become a much loved Adelaide tradition.<ref> Adelaide Advertiser 28 November 1950</ref>
During World War II Hayward served in the Australian Army; he was 36 when he enlisted in the army. During the war Hayward noted the popularity of the soft drink Coca-Cola with the Americans. After the war Hayward established a franchise to bottle and sell Coca-Cola in Adelaide. He served either as president or chairman of the franchise for a total of 33 years.
In 1951 he co-founded Vintage Cellars. Hayward was chairman of the St John Council in South Australia when, in 1952, it became responsible for ambulance services in that state, and he was made a Knight of the Order in 1959. He was made a Knight Bachelor on 10 June 1961.
Hayward and his wife, Ursula (née Barr-Smith), were art enthusiasts and built up a magnificent art collection in their Adelaide home Carrick Hill. The house, its lands, and the collection were bequeathed to the state on Hayward's death (Lady Hayward having died before him), and now form a museum and cultural centre.
ReferencesChristmas Pageant creator dies at 79, The Advertiser, 15 August 1983, p. 14
Cockburn, Stewart. Ideas man who led parade'', The Advertiser, 15 July 1983, p. 6
|
Allard Roen
|
[
"1921 births",
"2008 deaths",
"Businesspeople from Cleveland",
"American people of Jewish descent",
"Businesspeople from the Las Vegas Valley",
"People from Carlsbad, California",
"Fuqua School of Business alumni",
"United States Navy personnel of World War II",
"20th-century American businesspeople"
] | 669 | 5,233 |
Allard Roen (May 8, 1921 – August 28, 2008) was an American businessman in the hospitality industry. He was the Managing Director of the Desert Inn and the Stardust Resort and Casino in Paradise, Nevada. He was a co-founder of the Sunrise Hospital, The Boulevard Mall and the Las Vegas Country Club. Later, he was a co-founder and the on-site Manager of the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California.
Early life
Roen was born on May 8, 1921, in Cleveland, Ohio. He was awarded a baseball scholarship to attend Duke University, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business in 1943. He served as Lieutenant in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946.
Career
Allard arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1949. Shortly after, he was hired by Moe Dalitz to serve as the Managing Director of the Desert Inn. As such, he negotiated with labor unions and construction companies to build the casino. Shortly after it was built, in 1952, he added a golf course for guests. When Dalitz acquired the Stardust Resort and Casino, Roen became its Managing Director as well. In this capacity, he negotiated for the Le Lido, a Paris-based cabaret company, to perform at the Desert Inn. A proponent of civil rights, he reached an agreement with the NAACP to allow black guests at the Desert Inn and the Stardust in 1960. Eventually, he negotiated to sell the Desert Inn to Howard Hughes.
With Moe Dalitz, Irwin Molasky and Merv Adelson, he founded Paradise Development, a real estate development company in the 1950s. Together, they founded the Sunrise Hospital, The Boulevard Mall and the Las Vegas Country Club. Roen served as the first president of the Nevada Resort Association. He also served on the board of trustees of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
In the late 1960s, he reconvened with Molasky and Adelson to develop the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California. The luxury resort had a golf course and an equestrian center. Roen served as its on-site manager from 1967 to 1987. The resort was eventually sold to Sports Shinko Co., a Japanese company, in 1987.
Personal life
He was married to Evelyn Roen. They had a son, Jeffrey, and three daughters, Judy, Priscilla, and Melissa. Roen was one of the founders of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas.
Death
He died of heart disease on August 28, 2008, in Carlsbad, California, at the age of eighty-seven. His funeral took place at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego, California.
|
Jacques Laffitte
|
[
"1767 births",
"1844 deaths",
"People from Bayonne",
"French people of Basque descent",
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"Orléanists",
"Prime ministers of France",
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"Members of the Chamber of Representatives (France)",
"Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Bourbon Restoration",
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"Members of the 3rd Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy",
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"Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery",
"19th-century French businesspeople"
] | 3,629 | 25,412 |
Jacques Laffitte (24 October 1767 – 26 May 1844) was a leading French banker, governor of the Bank of France (1814–1820) and liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy. He was an important figure in the development of new banking techniques during the early stages of industrialization in France. In politics, he played a decisive role during the Revolution of 1830 that brought Louis-Philippe, the duc d'Orléans, to the throne, replacing the unpopular Bourbon king Charles X.
Laffitte was named president of the new Citizen King's Council of Ministers and Minister of Finances (2 November 1830 – 13 March 1831). After a brief ministry of 131 days, his "Party of Movement" gave way before the "Party of Order" led by the banker Casimir-Pierre Périer. Laffitte left office discredited politically and financially ruined. He rebounded financially in 1836 with his creation of the Caisse Générale du Commerce et de l'Industrie, a forerunner of French investment banks of the second half of the 19th century such as the Crédit Mobilier (1852). The Caisse Générale did not survive the financial crisis caused by the Revolution of 1848.
Biography
Early life
Laffitte was born in 1767 at Bayonne in the French Basque Country, one of four sons and six daughters of Pierre Laffitte, a master carpenter. He apprenticed with his father for a time, but also found clerking positions with a local notary and merchant. In 1788, at 21 years of age and on the eve of the Revolution in France, he arrived in Paris at the offices of the prominent Swiss banker Jean-Frédéric Perregaux (1744–1808), rue du Sentier, where he was hired as a bookkeeper. It was a starting position that offered Laffitte valuable learning experiences and great potential for advancement. Perregaux was a banker with a wealthy clientele, important foreign connections and friends in high places.
He was a shrewd, cosmopolitan businessman who prospered from the Revolution. He helped to bankroll Napoleon's rise to power and became a founder of the Bank of France in 1800 and president of its directing Council of Regents. Laffitte became Perregaux's right-hand man in the private bank and was promoted to a partnership in 1806. In 1807, because of Perregaux's declining health, he was named managing director and effective head of the bank. The bank's name was changed to "Perregaux, Laffitte and Company". Perregaux's son, Alphonse (1785–1841), and his sister, were sleeping partners (commanditaires). Virginie Monnier observes: "For the first time in the history of banks in France, a clerk took over his patron's position directly." When Perregaux died in 1808, Laffitte also took over his place as one of the fifteen regents of the Bank of France. He became president of the Chamber of Commerce of Paris (1810–1811) and was appointed as a judge of the Tribunal de commerce de la Seine (1813).
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, he was named provisional governor of the Bank of France by the incoming Bourbon king Louis XVIII. Napoleon, when on his way into final exile after Waterloo (15 June 1815), reportedly deposited 6 million francs in Laffitte's bank. When Napoleon's estate was being contested later in 1826, Laffitte calculated his bank's obligation at 3,856,121 francs, interest included.
Business career during the Restoration
During the Bourbon Restoration, "Jacques Laffitte and Company" was one of the wealthiest private banks in Paris and a leading firm among the select group of twenty or so banking houses known collectively as the "haute banque parisienne". Besides Laffitte, the group included the banks of Casimir and Scipion Perier fr, Benjamin Delessert, Jean Hottinguer, Adolphe Mallet, François Cottier fr, Antoine Odier, Jacques Lefebvre fr and Michel Pillet-Will fr.
The capital resources of such early 19th century banks were limited, but they associated for underwriting major government loans and for financing promising private business ventures. Laffitte associated with Delessert, Hottinguer, James de Rothschild and others to compete in 1817–18 with the powerful foreign banks of Baring Brothers (London) and Hope & Company (Amsterdam) for underwriting shares in France's loans of liberation. Earlier, in 1816, he took the lead with Delessert in founding the Compagnie Royale d'Assurances Maritimes,a pioneer joint-stock insurance company with a capitalization of 10 million francs. Laffitte was president and Casimir and Scipion Perier were among the administrators of this capital mobilizing venture. In 1818, along with fellow banker and industrialist Benjamin Delessert, Laffitte was a key figure in the establishment of the first French savings bank, the Caisse d'Épargne et de Prévoyance de Paris. Practically all of the members of the board of regents of the Bank of France, where Laffitte was then governor, were listed as administrators of the new bank. Laffitte was reaching the peak of his good fortune by 1818. He was sufficiently wealthy by then to be able to purchase the 17th century Château de Maisons (Department of Yvelines), near Paris, designed by the famous architect François Mansart. Before the Revolution, the beautiful château was the property of Louis XVI's brother, the comte d'Artois, who would come to the throne in 1824 as Charles X. Possessing Maisons, and being able to entertain notables of French society there in the former royal château, was a personal triumph for Laffitte, the son of a Bayonne carpenter. It was "le rêve d'un parvenu" (the dream of a newly rich) at a time when family history, titles and property holdings mattered so much.
In 1821–1822, Laffitte was the moving spirit behind the formation of the Compagnie des Quatre Canaux, a joint-stock company that mobilized the capital assets of haute banque members to help finance a major canal construction program initiated by the government. Laffitte's consortium obtained one-half of the total value of the loans made to the government. The top four lenders for the Four Canals Company were Jacques Laffitte & Co. (11,736,000 francs), H. Hentsch, Blanc & Co. (11,736,000), Pillet-Will & Co. (10,976,000) and André & Cottier (7,870,000). Laffitte's bid for an even larger share in the loans had been rejected by the ultra-royalist ministry of Count Jean-Antoine Villèle. In 1825, Laffitte's ambitious financial planning was frustrated a second time when Villèle refused to authorize his proposed Société Commanditaire de l'Industrie, a private investment bank designed to provide bank credit for large-scale industrial development in France. The Commanditaire, with Laffitte as its president, was to be capitalized at 100 million francs. It had the backing of French industrialists, many haute banque members in Paris and leading banking houses in London, Geneva and Frankfurt. Casimir Perier and the famous woolens industrialist William Ternaux were to have been its two vice-presidents. "L'esprit d'association" (the spirit of association), which was a broad slogan of the time among liberals for promoting economic progress, would have been exemplified by the company. But the Commanditaire was ill-timed politically: Laffitte was then a leader of the liberal opposition to the government of Charles X. Also, the plan was seen as too ambitious, even audacious, by the conservative regents and government administrators of the influential Bank of France. Laffitte would need to wait and try again after the July Revolution of 1830.
Political career
Laffitte viewed the return of the Bourbons favorably at first. He provided financial assistance for the incoming Louis XVIII (1814–1824) and kept his position as governor of the Bank of France during 1814–1820. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1815 and continued as a deputy throughout the Restoration except for the years 1824–27. Like his fellow elected deputy and banker Casimir Pierre Périer, he took a liberal stance "on the left" and spoke out in the Chamber in support of constitutional monarchy, liberty of the press, freedom of enterprise, competence in state administration and transparency in government financial affairs. As the Bourbon regime became more and more conservative and royalist after 1820, Laffitte became increasingly dissatisfied and outspoken in opposition. With Casimir Perier, he led a spirited opposition in the Chamber in the 1820s against Comte Villèle's handling of the finances of the government's canal construction program. He lost favor in 1825 by voting for Villèle's plan for indemnifying notables for lands confiscated during the Revolution, but regained popular support in 1828 when his daughter, Albine Laffitte, was married to Napoleon-Joseph Ney, the son of the honored Maréchal Michel Ney, duc d'Elchingen, the prince de Moskowa. Things began to go wrong rapidly after Charles X became king in 1824. Fearful of growing liberal and even republican opposition to his government, the king finally acted disastrously in 1829 by installing the ultra-royalist ministry of Prince Jules de Polignac. When the ultra-royalists were defeated in the elections of 1830 the King issued his infamous ordinances of 25 July 1830, suspending freedom of the press, dissolving the Chamber of Deputies, and changing election laws in favor of the landed nobility. The upshot was the July Revolution of 1830.
Laffitte was one of the earliest and most determined advocates for ousting Charles X and his ministers and establishing a new government under Louis Philippe I, the duc d'Orléans, whose father, Philippe Égalité, had supported the Revolution of 1789. Laffitte's home in Paris became a headquarters for the "Party of Movement" to make Louis-Philippe the "Citizen King" of a reformed constitutional monarchy. Against the background of popular insurrection in Paris and growing unrest in the provinces, the plan succeeded. Charles X fled to England, his ministers were arrested, Louis-Philippe I assumed the throne and Laffitte became president of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Finances (2 November 1830 – 13 March 1831). As it proved, Laffitte was much better as a banker and financier than as a king maker or political leader. His government, torn between the necessity for preserving order in France and the need to conciliate the Parisian populace, succeeded in doing neither. To moderate liberals in the Chamber of Deputies like Casimir Perier, and even for the king himself, his dealings with popular revolutionary figures such as General Lafayette were moving France dangerously toward the establishment of a republic. Perier refused to have anything to do with Laffitte's ministry. After 131 days of turmoil and indecision, Laffitte was forced to resign and Perier's "Party of Order" formed a new ministry. Laffitte would keep his seat in the Chamber after 1831, but he would never lead or be part of another ministry.
Laffitte's foray into the complicated politics of 1830 in France cost him dearly financially. The revolution had worsened an already troubled French economy. Laffitte & Co. suffered losses of 13 million francs and the bank had to be liquidated (January 1831). To help cover his bank's losses, Laffitte talked the governor of the Bank of France into arranging an unprecedented bank loan of 7 million francs. He put his Paris home on the rue d'Artois (now the rue Laffitte) and his art collection up for sale. Most importantly, for 6 million francs, he sold off family woodlands at Breteuil to the king, Louis-Philippe, which helped greatly but hurt Laffitte politically and financially when the king made the sale public. Laffitte at least managed to protect the Château de Maisons from sale, but he divided up its extensive parklands into lots for building country villas to sell to rich Parisians. This actually became a remarkably creative early experiment in suburban real estate development, as described in a brochure prepared by M. de Rouvières entitled Histoire et description pittoresque de Maisons-Laffitte (1838). Laffitte and his brother, Jean-Baptiste Laffitte, established a stage coach line for the 15-kilometer trip from Paris to Maisons. His nephew, Charles Laffitte (1803–1875), and his son-in-law, the Prince de Moskowa, added a grassland horse racing track – the first in France.
Recovery
By 1836–37 Laffitte had his affairs sufficiently in order to revive his 1825 plan for the Commanditaire. He created (15 July 1837) the Caisse Générale du Commerce et de l'Industrie to help provide long-term credit for industrial enterprise. The commandite rather than the joint-stock form of association was employed. The venture was capitalized at 55 million francs. The Bank of France imposed some annoying restrictions (the term "Banque" could not be employed), but otherwise the venture's approval went forward successfully. Laffitte's principal associates were his brother, Martin Laffitte (1783–1840), and the sugar industrialist François Lebaudy (1799–1863). Was this company the prototype for the great joint-stock investment banks of the second half of the 19th century in France? Historians continue to research and ponder this question. Laffitte himself appears to have understood that the Caisse Générale did not fulfill his dream of a real "banque d'affaires." He wrote in his Mémoires: "If I was never able to create a great credit establishment like the one I would have wished, I at least built a great banking house that will be useful to Commerce and my family for a long time. That's a manly enough achievement for a 70-year old. Although others after me succeed in creating great credit establishments, for me there will remain the pride in having tried."
Final years and legacy
Undoubtedly, had he lived longer, Laffitte would have led the Caisse Générale enthusiastically into the risky business of financing railroad construction in France. Bonin has noted that by 1843 the company had already edged into the field with a 10 million franc loan for railroad construction by the Compagnie du Nord. Laffitte's nephew, Charles Laffitte, was involved with the investment. But Jacques Laffitte was seriously ill with pulmonary disease at the time. He died in Paris on 26 May 1844, at 77 years of age. The Caisse Générale was continued for a few years under the direction of the banker Alexandre Goüin (1792–1872), but failed to survive the Revolution of 1848 in France. Goüin wrote in his unpublished autobiography that, in his experience, the design failure of the company was that it could not cope adequately with both its long-term investments and its short-term commercial loans during times of financial crisis. The demise of the company during the economic crisis of 1847–48 in France was a case in point.
See also
The French Wikipedia has valuable articles for: fr:Jacques Laffitte, fr:Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, fr:Banque de France, fr:Caisse générale du commerce et de l'industrie.
Family names
Pierre Laffitte, brother (1765–1846)
Martin Laffitte, brother (1773–1840)
Jean-Baptiste Laffitte, brother (1775-?)
Marine Laffitte, wife (1783–1849)
Albine Laffitte, daughter (1803–1881)
Charles Laffitte, nephew (1803–1875), son of Jean-Baptiste Laffitte
Bibliography
Baude, J.J. "Notice sur la Société Commanditaire de l'Industrie," Revue Encyclopédique, XXXIX (1828).
Bayard, Eugène. La Caisse d'Épargne et de Prévoyance de Paris (Paris, 1900).
Bergeron, Louis. Banquiers, négociants et manufacturiers parisiens du Directoire à l'Empire (Paris, 1978).
Bertier de Sauvigny, Guillaume de. The Bourbon Restoration (Univ of Pennsylvania, 1966).
Bonin, Hubert. "Jacques Laffitte banquier d'affaires sans créer de modèle de banque d'affaires," Bulletin de la Société des amis du château de Maisons, No.3 (2008).
Bourset, Madeleine. Casimir Perier. Un Prince Financier au Temps du Romantisme (Paris, 1994).
Brun, Maurice. Le banquier Laffitte, 1767–1844 (Abbeville, 1997).
Cameron, Rondo. "France, 1800–1870," in Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization, Chap. IV (New York, 1967).
Gille, Bertrand. La banque et le crédit en France, 1815 à 1848 (Paris, 1959).
Gille, Bertrand. La banque en France au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1970).
Geiger, Reed G. Planning the French Canals (Newark, DE, 1994).
Laffitte, Jacques. Mémoirs, 1767–1844 (Paris, 1932).
Landes, David. "Vieille banque et banque nouvelle: Le révolution financière du dix-neuvième siècle," Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, III (1956).
Marec, Jacques. "Le banquier Jacques Laffitte, 1767–1844," Bulletin de la Société des amis du château de Maisons, No.3 (2008).
Mathiez, Albert. "Le banquier Perregaux," Annales révolutionnaires, XII (March 1920).
Monnier, Virginie. Jacques Laffitte. Roi des banquiers et banquier des rois (Bruxelles, 2013).
Pinkney, David. The French Revolution of 1830 (Princeton, 1972).
Ramon, Gabriel. Histoire de la Banque de France d'après les sources originales (Paris, 1929).
Redlich, Fritz. "Jacques Laffitte and the Beginnings of Investment Banking in France," Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, Vol 22 (December 1948).
|
Peter Wilmot-Sitwell
|
[
"1935 births",
"2018 deaths",
"English bankers",
"People educated at Eton College",
"Alumni of the University of Oxford",
"English male fencers",
"Coldstream Guards officers",
"S. G. Warburg & Co. people",
"English stockbrokers",
"Wilmot-Sitwell family",
"People from Kent",
"People from Dummer, Hampshire",
"20th-century English businesspeople",
"Military personnel from Kent",
"20th-century British Army personnel",
"20th-century English sportsmen"
] | 1,102 | 7,809 |
Peter Sacheverell Wilmot-Sitwell (28 March 1935 – 19 June 2018) was a British merchant banker and stockbroker. He is credited with inventing the "dawn raid" which enabled companies to build up a stake in a takeover target before the target had the chance to react. He was described by the Financial Times as a "gentleman banker", and one of the last of "an almost extinct breed" from the pre-Big Bang era.
Early life
Peter Wilmot-Sitwell was born in Kent on 28 March 1935 to Robert Bradshaw Wilmot-Sitwell (born 1894), a Royal Navy officer, and Barbara Elizabeth, daughter of Walter Septimus Fisher, of Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand. He hardly knew his father due to his naval service during the Second World War and his early death in 1946 from cancer. The Wilmot-Sitwell family were minor landed gentry, kinsmen of the Sitwell baronets; on his uncle's death, Robert Wilmot-Sitwell had inherited the family property of Stainsby House, Derbyshire, which was later sold, his widow living at Dummer Clump, near Basingstoke, Hampshire.
Peter was educated at West Downs preparatory school in Winchester, and then at Eton College and the University of Oxford (1955–58 BA, MA) where he obtained a third class degree in modern history and a half-blue in fencing for which he also represented England. His education was interrupted by national service in the Coldstream Guards from 1953 to 1955 that he enjoyed so much that he had to be persuaded by his mother to go on to Oxford.
Career
Wilmot-Sitwell started his banking career as a trainee at Hambros Bank in 1958, before becoming a partner at the age of 25 in 1959 at Rowe & Pitman (R & P). He was senior partner there from 1982 to 1986. He claimed that he got the job at such a young age due to his social background rather than for anything he knew and that young well-connected partners like him were known in the firm as "orchids" because they were "beautiful but utterly useless".
He is credited with inventing the "dawn raid" in 1979 or 1980 when he assembled 30 of his staff to call large shareholders in Consolidated Gold Fields as soon as the market opened and offer to buy their shares at a premium to the then market price on behalf of R & P's clients Anglo-American Corporation and De Beers Consolidated Mines. The raid purchased more than £100m of Consolidated stock and enabled his clients to build up a stake in their takeover target before it had a chance to react. He carried out a similar raid on Eagle Star soon after, although neither resulted in a full takeover of the intended target.
A notable deal was in 1987 when Wilmot-Sitwell recruited Robert Maxwell, who already had a bad reputation in the City and would normally not have been considered, to back the difficult flotation of Eurotunnel and secured funding of £25m from him.
He was joint chairman of the merchant bank S.G. Warburg from 1986 to 1990, and chairman from 1990 to 1994. His other appointments included chairman of Merrill Lynch (formerly Mercury) World Mining Trust from 1993 to 2006, and board appointments to W. H. Smith, The Stock Exchange, Minorco, Foreign & Colonial Income Growth Investment Trust, Close Brothers, Southern Africa Investors, and Anglo American.
In the City, he received the nickname of "The Red Ferret" due to his ruddy complexion, and "Captain Mainwaring" after the character in the British television sitcom, Dad's Army. He was described as notably polite but with a quick temper that the Financial Times characterised as smacking of his army experience on the parade ground. Despite his third class degree, his colleague Sir David Scholey described him as shrewd and "daunting to work against".
Wilmot-Sitwell's career straddled the period in which British financial services moved from a business based on trust and self-regulation where, he recalled, "people wouldn't do business with people they didn't know socially" and firms were "ruled by the governor of the Bank of England's eyebrows", to a far more regulated environment by the end of his career. The Financial Times described him as a "gentleman banker", one of the last of "an almost extinct breed" from the pre-Big Bang era.
Personal life
In 1960, Wilmot-Sitwell married Clare Veronica (LVO 1991), daughter of Ralph Hamilton Cobbold, of Fairlawn House, Tadley, Basingstoke, Hampshire, of a landed gentry family, of Glemham Hall, Suffolk. They had two sons and one daughter. The elder of his sons is the banker Alex Wilmot-Sitwell.
His home was at Portman House, Dummer, near Basingstoke. His hobbies were shooting, golf, and tennis. He was a member of White's club and Swinley Forest Golf Club in Ascot.
Death
Wilmot-Sitwell died on 19 June 2018 after a stroke. He received obituaries in The Times and the Financial Times.
Peter
|
Department of Financial Services (India)
|
[
"Ministry of Finance (India)",
"Government ministries of India",
"Finance in India",
"Ministries of finance"
] | 487 | 4,655 |
The Department of Financial Services (DFS) is an Indian governmental department under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, responsible for overseeing the financial sector. It formulates policies and administers laws for banking, insurance, and pension sectors.
History
The DFS was established to foster the growth of India’s financial system. Initially part of the Ministry of Finance, it became a separate department in 2007 to manage the growing complexity of the Indian financial system.
Functions
The DFS is led by the Secretary of Financial Services and collaborates with regulators like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). Its key functions include:
Policy formulation and implementation.
Oversight of public sector banks and financial institutions.
Regulation of insurance companies and pension schemes with IRDAI and PFRDA.
Promoting Financial inclusion and Digital banking.
Managing Public debt and fiscal policies.
Driving financial sector reforms like privatization and modernization.
Overseeing schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Initiatives
The organization has taken numerous initiatives in the recent days. These includes -
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) – Micro-financing for small businesses.
Atal Pension Yojana (APY) – Pension scheme for unorganized workers.
Banking Correspondents Model – Expanding rural financial access.
Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB) – Promoting financial investments over physical gold.
Challenges
The DFS faces challenges like:
Rising Non-performing assets in public sector banks.
Low Financial literacy in rural areas.
Mixed reactions to privatization and consolidation of state-owned banks.
See Also
Minister of Finance (India)
Central Plan Scheme Monitoring System
External Links
|
Securitas AB
|
[
"Companies based in Stockholm",
"Security companies of Canada",
"Security companies of Singapore",
"Security companies of Sweden",
"Security companies of the United States",
"Business services companies established in 1934",
"Swedish companies established in 1934",
"Swedish brands",
"Companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm",
"1991 initial public offerings",
"1930s establishments in Malmöhus County"
] | 2,861 | 29,122 |
Securitas AB is a Swedish group devoted to security services, such as security guarding, mobile patrolling, monitoring, investigation and related consulting services. The group is headquartered in Stockholm and had over 336,000 employees in 44 markets worldwide as of 2024. Securitas AB is listed at Nasdaq OMX Stockholm in the Large Cap segment.
Securitas AB owns and operates the Swiss security company Protectas AG in Switzerland, where there is a pre-existing, separate security company called Securitas AG, part of the Swiss Securitas Group.
Since 1999, Securitas AB has been the parent company of Pinkerton, a historically significant American detective agency.
Securitas AB was founded in 1934 in Helsingborg, Sweden, as AB Hälsingborgs Nattvakt, when Erik Philip-Sörensen bought a small guarding company. In 1935, the name was changed to Förenade Svenska Vakt AB. The company expanded through acquisitions of several small security companies, initially in southern Sweden.
In 1949, AB Securitas Alarm was founded as the company's security technology subsidiary, and during the following decade, the company started expanding internationally.
Securitas made its first technical breakthrough in 1961 with the Securi-Coll automatic access control system. The company then introduced a payment system for petrol stations in Sweden, which was later modified to enable cash withdrawals. On May 7, 1968, Securitas launched the world's first ATM linked to a banking system at Oxie Sparbank in Malmö.
In 1972, the group was rebranded as Securitas, the Roman goddess of security and stability, with a logotype consisting of three red dots and the word "Securitas." The dots are described as representing the group's core values of "Integrity, Vigilance, and Helpfulness."
In 1976, Erik Philip-Sörensen sold the Securitas group to his sons Jörgen Philip-Sörensen and Sven Philip-Sörensen, and in 1981, the group was divided between the sons, with the international operations developing into Group 4 and the Swedish operations retaining the Securitas brand.
In 1983, Securitas was sold to the holding company Skrinet, and in 1985, it was acquired by Investment AB Latour, controlled by Gustaf Douglas. Under the new ownership, the group focused on security, and in 1989, an international expansion began with acquisitions in Norway, Denmark, and Portugal and the establishment of Hungary.
In 1991, Securitas was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. In 1994, the group distributed ASSA AB (acquired in 1988) to its shareholders. Throughout the 1990s, foreign acquisitions were made in eleven European countries and in the United States.
In February 1999, Securitas acquired Pinkerton and in August 2000, Burns Security and several regional security companies in the United States. These acquisitions made Securitas one of the largest security companies in the world. In 2001, a new organization took effect, with five business areas according to the types of services offered, and Loomis Fargo & Company was acquired.
In 2003, the group's security services in the United States were integrated under the Securitas brand, and the group's cash handling services were completely divisionalized, with joint management for United States and European operations.
In 2006, the divisions Securitas Systems (alarm, monitoring, and access control systems) and Securitas Direct (solutions for homes and small businesses) were distributed to the group's shareholders and listed at the Stockholm Stock Exchange. In the same year, the divisions Mobile (small and medium-sized customers) and Alert Services (electronic surveillance of homes and businesses) were created (as of 2007, constituting the business segment Mobile and Monitoring). Securitas Direct was later renamed to Verisure in all countries except Spain and Portugal.
In November 2007, the United Kingdom cash handling services of the division Loomis were sold to Vaultex Ltd., owned by HSBC and Barclays. Securitas began operating in Peru in November 2007. In 2008, the division Loomis (cash handling) was distributed to the group's shareholders and listed at Nasdaq OMX Stockholm.
In September 2010, Securitas acquired the security-services operations of Reliance Security Group in the United Kingdom. In November 2011, Securitas acquired Chubb Security Personnel in the United Kingdom.
As of 2012, Securitas was present in 53 countries and territories.
In 2013, Securitas acquired Pinkerton Government Services, which provides cleared security services to governmental agencies and programs that require a Department of Defense or Department of Energy security clearance. This government services division of Securitas became known as Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services. This division operates both in the United States and worldwide when cleared services are needed overseas.
In October 2015, Securitas acquired Diebold Incorporated's (NYSE-DBD) Electronic Security business in North America. Diebold's North American Electronic Security business, based in Green, Ohio, United States, is the third largest commercial electronic security provider in North America. Diebold's North American Electronic Security business has approximately 1,100 employees. The operation includes more than 55,000 monitored customer locations and 200,000 sites serviced.
In March 2022, Securitas partnered with Citizen to trial a version of Citizen's on-demand private security service in Chicago.
On July 22, 2022, Securitas purchased Stanley Security Solutions, which included Stanley Healthcare, from the American company Stanley Black & Decker. The brands were renamed Securitas Technology and Securitas Healthcare, respectively. The initial agreement was signed on December 8, 2021
Murder of Cassie Heppner
In February 2020, American Securitas officer Robert Pavao murdered Timberland employee Cassie Heppner at Timberland's corporate headquarters in Stratham, New Hampshire, where Pavao was contracted to. Pavao was found guilty of second degree homicide and sentenced to 55 years in prison for the crime.
Suspension for Harvard union protest
In January 2022, an American Securitas officer contracted to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Walter J. Terzano, was suspended for protesting during a contentious union contract negotiation between Securitas and the Service Employees International Union. Terzano created protest signs and attempted to get other Securitas officers to protest outside the home of University President Lawrence Bacow. A complaint was made to Securitas by Harvard's director of facilities and maintenance, leading to the suspension. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that Securitas had unlawfully retaliated against Terzano.
Sex scandal
In 2010, the chief executive of Securitas Sweden was arrested for buying sexual services from a prostitute in Stockholm. He was convicted in 2012. The company said it would put an end to the misogynistic and sexist culture that prevailed in the company.
In 2022, A Swedish TV documentary exposed two employees at Securitas Sweden who paid for sex during work trips and were suspected of having bribed employees of the city of Malmö. The company fired them.
Securitas is organized into three business segments: Securitas North America, Securitas Europe, and Securitas Ibero-America. The Group also has operations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia, which form the AMEA division.
In general, the group operates under the brand Securitas for all business segments. Specialized services including due diligence, background checks, security assessments, brand protection, intellectual property protection, executive protection, investigations, cyber surveillance, computer forensics, social compliance and IT security are performed worldwide under the brand "Pinkerton."
These operations are reported as part of the North American business segment. There are three operations centers in North America: Toronto, Ontario, Parsippany, New Jersey and Westlake Village, California. The Swiss market is an exception to the name, in that general security services are provided under the brand Protectas.
On-site Guarding
Securitas' primary operations are their on-site security and guarding services. Through their on-site guarding division, Securitas provides on-site security officers in various roles. Most commonly Securitas officers are hired for standing rolls, reception, patrol, and vehicle patrol. Specialty assignments can also include fire-watch, fire extinguisher testing, access control and badging, console operations, safety auditing, alarm & emergency response, and what Securitas refers to as "customized and site-specific security tasks". Additionally, Securitas offers special event security services, primarily for concerts and sporting events.
Mobile patrol
Securitas operates a mobile patrol division, which they refer to as "mobile guarding". Businesses wanting security but not needing full time guards can subscribe to a mobile patrol service where officers will patrol the property one to a few times a night. The subscription also includes incident response services for security concerns occurring when an officer is not currently on-site.
Remote guarding
Remote Guarding services involve Securitas officers monitoring a customer's site from an off-site command center. If suspicious activity is noticed, Securitas can use speakers to talk to people on-site as well as notify the police or other emergency services when necessary. Mobile patrol officers are also often used to respond to incidents discovered by a remote guarding officer. Securitas also offers remote escort services that involve an off-site officer watching an employee walk to or from their vehicle.
Securitas Technology
Securitas Technology, which includes Securitas Healthcare, primarily provides locks, fire sensors, security cameras, and similar hardware. They also provide the software used to monitor this hardware. Additionally, Securitas Technology provides computer security software to protect hardware, software, or electronic data.
Risk Management & Private Investigations
Securitas' corporate risk management and investigations services are provided by their subsidiary Pinkerton.
See also
Loomis for robberies committed against Loomis while it was a division of Securitas
Securitas depot robbery for the events of 2006 affecting the United Kingdom cash handling operations of the Loomis division of Securitas, at the time operating under the Securitas brand, and in 2007, sold to HSBC and Barclays
Surfside condominium collapse, a 2021 building collapse for which Securitas paid over $500 million US in a later settlement
|
Tan Kim Ching
|
[
"1829 births",
"1892 deaths",
"Kapitan Cina",
"Hokkien businesspeople",
"Thai businesspeople",
"Chinese businesspeople",
"Singaporean people of Hokkien descent",
"Malaysian businesspeople",
"Crime bosses",
"Singaporean gangsters",
"Singaporean businesspeople",
"Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun",
"People from Malacca",
"Triad members"
] | 5,344 | 38,140 |
Tan Kim Ching (; 1829 – 27 February 1892), also known as Tan Kim Cheng, was a Chinese politician and businessman. He was the eldest of the three sons of Tan Tock Seng, the founder and financier of Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He was consul for Japan, Thailand and Russia, and was a member of the Royal Court of Siam. He was one of Singapore's leading Chinese merchants and was one of its richest men in Singapore at that time. He was also the first Asian member of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. After his father's death, he became the Kapitan Cina of the Straits Chinese community. He is believed to have been the head of the Triad in Malaya.
Business career
Tan was one of Singapore's leading Chinese merchants, one of the richest men in Singapore and had sizable business interests in Singapore, Siam, Vietnam and Malaya. His business boomed with rice mills he owned in Bangkok and Saigon.
He helped to manage his father's firm, "Tan Tock Seng", which is named after his father. After his father's death, the firm was renamed as "Tan Kim Ching" after him. The business was carried on at "River-Side" (now known as Boat Quay) from 1851 to 1859 with him as the sole owner. In 1860, Tan admitted his brother Tan Swee Lim as a partner, the firm was renamed as "Tan Kim Ching & Brother". Tan Swee Lim left the firm after a few months. The firm was finally renamed as "Kim Ching & Co.". With considerable success at the firm, Tan subsequently bought rice mills at Saigon, Siam, and elsewhere which supplied him with his milled rice. In 1888, the company opened a branch in Hong Kong.
Tan also had mining concessions and had tin mining operations in the Kra Isthmus, Patani, Mount Ophir, Kampong Rusa, and various other places.
He was also one of the earliest merchants to import silk from China.
In 1863, Tan paid $120,000 to set up the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company and purchased two steamships, Siam and Singapore.
In 1866, Tan, along with William Henry Macleod Read (Chairman of the Straits Chamber of Commerce), secured the lease for Klang from Raja Abdullah bin Raja Jaafar, the administrator of Klang. Among the benefits of this lease arrangement was being able to collect taxes. Their attempts to collect taxes from Raja Mahdi whose father Raja Sulaiman was Klang's headman, however, sparked off a civil war that became known as The Klang War or The Selangor Civil War.
Some historians have said that the history of Kra Buri began with its governor, Tan Kim Ching.
Diplomatic career
Tan played a significant role in fostering relationships between Singapore and the colonial government on the one hand, and Siam and its ruler King Mongkut (Rama IV) on the other.
He helped Sir Harry Ord secure a new treaty with Kedah in 1867, and played an integral role in ending the Larut wars by getting Abdullah to seek British intervention, which led to the signing of treaties at Pangkor.
When the Hokkien-Teochew Riots which broke out on 5 May 1854 over 400 people were killed during 10 days of violence. In a meeting with British authorities, Tan Kim Ching represented the Hokkiens and with his assurance and that of Seah Eu Chin of the Teochews, the situation was brought to an end.
In March 1878 The Straits Asiatic Society (formed on 4 November 1877) was renamed The Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and Tan Kim Ching was one of its founding members.
Tan had a very close relationship with the royal family of Siam and often served as their go-between. In recognising the importance of his role, he was appointed ‘the first Siamese Consul in Singapore’ by King Mongkut in 1863 and in 1885, King Chulalongkorn elevated his title to that of consul-general. He was bestowed the royal title Phraya Astongt Disrarak Siamprajanukulkij. He was also Special Commissioner for Siam in the Straits Settlements.
He introduced his business partner in Singapore, Read, to the Siamese king in the late-1850s when the king desired to get out of a disadvantageous treaty with France.
He had great influence on the Chinese outside the colony, especially in the northern Malay States bordering Siam, Kelantan and Patani (originally all the Malay states were vassals of Siam but British intervention brought them under the control of the British Empire as "independent states". Eventually Patani was reannexed in 1909 as part of the Kingdom of Siam). Exercising this influence, during the time of Sir Andrew Clarke, Tan Kim Ching was instrumental in settling a difficulty that arose between the Siamese and Perak governments.
King Mongkut of Siam (also known as King Rama IV) wanted someone to educate his immediate family without the person attempting to convert them to Christianity while educating them. He turned to Tan for a recommendation. On a suggestion from William Adamson of The Borneo Company, Tan recommended Anna Leonowens, a teacher in Singapore who is looking for work to support herself and her two children.
When the King and Queen of Siam landed in Singapore in 1890 they stayed at Tan's home, "Siam House", in North Bridge Road. It was reported that the king, who was expected to arrive in Singapore at Tanjong Pagar Wharf on board the royal vessel Ubon Burratit on 30 May 1890, had landed at Johnston's Pier instead. Due to the late arrival, only Tan was at the pier to receive him.
When the king wished to acquire property in Singapore, he turned to Tan for recommendations which resulted in the acquisition of "Hurricane House" in the vicinity of Orchard Road.
Political career
In 1860 the Hokkien Huay Kuan was established in the premises of the Thian Hock Keng at Telok Ayer Street and Tan was installed as its first leader. He held the position of president for 30 years. He was especially noted for his establishment of a marriage registry for the Hokkiens.
In 1864, he was elected to the grand jury as one of five Chinese members on the jury.
In 1865 he was made a Justice of the Peace by the British Straits Settlements government.
In 1888, he was appointed to the municipal council.
Towards the end of his life he was prosecuted for keeping slaves, but he was discharged.
Philanthropy
Tan Tock Seng Hospital
On 25 July 1844, the foundation stone of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital was laid on Pearl's Hill. The stone was laid but the construction took three years. After that the hospital stayed empty for another two years because of insufficient funding. In 1852, in order to ease overcrowding at the hospital founded by his father Tan Tock Seng, Tan offered to bear the cost of additions to the building, approximately two thousand dollars ($2,000). His generous gesture led to many other merchants increasing monthly subscriptions to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
By 1854, the additions were completed. An inscription engraved in stone at the hospital gate acknowledges the donation of $3,000 by Tan Kim Ching. After all of that it was decided that the Tan Tock Seng Hospital had to move as the government wanted to build a new building. Tan agreed to the move, on condition that the rebuilt hospital should not cost less than the original one. He also requested a female ward, which his mother paid for in 1858 to perpetuate the memory of Tan Tock Seng. In 1858, two years after the government's decision to acquire Pearl's Hill, construction work began and Tan Kim Ching donated an additional $3,340.
Tan Si Chong Su
Tan together with Tan Swee Beng donated funds to build an ancestral temple to serve the needs of the Tan clan (people bearing the Tan surname) and in 1876 the Tan Si Chong Su was built.
School funding
In 1849, when the Chinese school Chung Wen Ge was built, he donated $100.
In 1854, he donated $150 towards the construction of the Chui Eng School.
The Larut Wars and The Pangkor Engagement
See articles at Larut War and Pangkor Engagement
Tan Kim Ching was a member of the Ghee Hin secret society and a supporter of the Raja Muda Abdullah of Perak and the Ghee Hin in Larut. It was Tan Kim Ching who had encouraged Abdullah to write seeking the involvement of the British.
Released from his arrest at sea, and his temporary incarceration on Penang, and forbidden return to Perak, Abdullah ventured to Singapore in October 1873 to seek help from the Ghee Hin there. Had Ngah Ibrahim not already aligned himself with the Hai San, he would not have got it. As it was, he arrived at an accommodation with Tan Kim Ching whose influence among the Chinese, at that time, was without comparison. After going through the introduction provided by the Ghi Hin from Penang Tan Kim Ching offered to put Abdullah on the throne in return for five elevenths (5/11) of all duties collected between Telok Serah and Krian for a period of ten years.
Tan Kim Ching together with an English merchant in Singapore (W. H. M. Read) drafted a letter to Governor Sir Andrew Clarke, which Abdullah signed, in which Raja Muda Abdullah expressed his desire to place Perak under British protection, and "to have a man of sufficient abilities to show him a good system of government."
In the British intervention in Malaya 1867-1877 Parkinson tells us that Sir Andrew Clarke, just weeks after his arrival in Singapore, had already found evidence of the continuing disturbances in Perak and Selangor. Apart from his executive council, he talked to Tan Kim Cheng. Clarke decided that both the Hai San and Ghee Hin should have access to Larut with neither side being excluded, a complete reversal of the policy of his predecessor, Sir Harry Ord. Tan Kim Ching agreed and wrote to the Ghee Hin on Penang to put this to them and advocate peace.
Clarke then sent Pickering to Penang to talk to the respective headmen in Penang. Pickering gave Tan Kim Ching's letter to Chin Ah Yam. Twenty Ghee Hin headmen met through the night at the Ghee Hin Kongsi house considering Tan Kim Cheng's letter. In the morning they met with Pickering and agreed to surrender their forces in seven days time.
Following that outcome and the outcome of a meeting with Chung Keng Quee whom Pickering also met, Sir Andrew Clarke then gathered the main Chinese leaders (principally Chung Keng Quee and Chin Ah Yam) and some Malays – including Abdullah – at Pulau Pangkor where the "Pangkor Engagement" was formulated and signed, recognising Abdullah as Sultan, and getting the Chinese to agree to settle their differences in Larut under British arbitration.
Singapore syndicates
During the tenure of Chiu Sin Yong's Revenue Farming syndicate in Singapore, backed by Khoo Thean Poh, Tan testified against Cheang Hong Lim and his group who had mobilized all of their allies and affiliates and organized a conspiracy to scuttle Chiu's farming syndicate. Tan Kim Cheng's testimony was a godsend for Chiu and Khoo. Tan and his father Tan Tock Seng, representing most of the Malacca-born Hokkien, led the Haizhang group while their archrivals Cheang Sam Teo and his son, Cheang Hong Lim led the Zhang Hai group, the division between Hokkien migrants from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou.
Honours
Commander of the Third Class of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan.
Special letter of thanks from the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Andrew Clarke, for his role in settling a difficulty that arose between the Siamese and Perak governments.
Special letter and honour from China for his contribution to the Famine Fund in 1890.
Personal life
Tan had three wives and a total of 19 children. He had seven children with his first wife, Chua Yee Ren, three children with Khunying, Puen Anukulsiamkit, and nine children in his third marriage.
His eldest daughter, Tan Cheng Gay (), who had been taught Chinese and also a little English, was the first among those appointed trustees of his estate to take out probate of his will, one of the rare instances of a Chinese lady being appointed and assuming the duties of executrix of the will of a Chinese testator.
Five of his grandsons (and who were all sons of Tan Soon Toh), Tan Boo Liat, Tan Cheow Pin (), Tan Kwee Liang (), Tan Kwee Swee () and Tan Kwee Wah () were well known members of the Chinese community.
Death
Tan died of suspected heart disease on 27 February 1892 and his remains were interred at his private burial ground at the thirteenth mile on the Changi Road. His grave was transferred to Bukit Brown in 1940.
Legacy
The setting up of the Tao Nan School, established on 18 November 1906, financed by the Hokkien Huay Kuan (which was led by Tan Kim Ching before he died), was initiated by Tan Boo Liat, the grandson of Tan Kim Ching. Tan Kim Ching's residence at Siam House served as temporary grounds for the school which moved to its own premises in Armenian Street and later Marine Parade (1982).
There are two roads named after him in Singapore: the Tan Kim Cheng Road in Bukit Timah and the Kim Cheng Street in Tiong Bahru.
In 2014, a plaque was installed in Kim Cheng Street which narrate the life of Tan.
Further reading
Pioneers of Singapore: Builders of Our Land By Lee Chin Lim, Soon Onn Chan Contributor Lee Chin Lim Published by Asiapac, 2004; ,
"Singapore Story" by the National Library Board of Singapore
James Brooke of Sarawak: A Biography of Sir James Brooke - Page 251 by Emily Hahn - 1953 - 271 pages, Published 1953 by A. Barker
An Ode To Friendship—Celebrating Thailand-Singapore Relations, Mr Wong Wee Hon, Head (Archives Reference Room), National Archives of Singapore
Tanjong Pagar: A Pictorial Journey (1819–1989) = Tan-Jung Pa-Ko T'u P'Ien Chi - Page 88 1989 - 149 pages Published 1989 by Tanjong Pagar Citizens'Consultative Committee
The Kuomintang Movement in British Malaya, 1912-1949 By Ching Fatt Yong, R. B. McKenna Published 1990, SUP
Singapore: Wealth, Power And The Culture Of Control By Carl A. Trocki Published 2006 Routledge (UK)
The Greek Favourite of the King of Siam - Page xiv by Sitsayamkan (Sit) - 1967 - 362 pages Published 1967 Donald Moore Press
Handbook to Singapore with Map, and a Plan of the Botanical Gardens By George Murray Reith Published 1892 Singapore and Straits Print. Off.
Anna and the King of Siam - Page 74 by Margaret Landon, Lessing J. Published 1944 John Day Company, Incorporated
Thailand: an introduction to modern Siam - Page 63 by Noel Fairchild Busch - 1959 - 166 pages Published 1959 Van Nostrand
The Political Economy of Siam, 1910-1932 - Page 127 by Chatthip Nartsupha, Suthy Prasartset, Montri Chenvidyakarn, Samākhom Sangkhommasāt hǣng Prathēt Thai, Montrī Čhēnwitkān - 1981 - 253 pages Published 1981 Social Science Association of Thailand
Manners and Customs of the Chinese of the Straits Settlements - Page 112 by Jonas Daniel Vaughan - 1971 - 136 pages Published 1974 Oxford University Press
The American Neptune ... - Page 113 by Peabody Museum of Salem - 1941 Published 1941 Peabody Museum of Salem
Play and Politics: Recollections of Malaya by W. H. M. Read - 1901 - 178 pages Page 38 Published 1901 Darto
The Management of Success: the moulding of modern Singapore By Kernial Singh Sandhu, Paul Wheatley, Syed Hussein Alatas Published 1989 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
Chinese Business in the Making of a Malay State, 1882-1941 By Walter Ullmann, Xiao An Wu, Kedah and Penang Published 2003 Routledge (UK)
Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society - Page xii by Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Malaysian Branch - Published 1922
Singapore Then & Now, Ray Tyers, University Education Press, 1976
The London Illustrated News, 6 March 1858
The Free Press, 31 May 1890
The Sunday Times, 30 November 1969
A King of Siam Speaks By M.R. Kukrit Pramoj, Mongkut, Seni Pramoj Published 1987 by The Siam Society
From Competition to Constraint: The International Rice Trade in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, A. J. H. Latham, University of Wales, Swansea
Tao Nan School by Mr Dhoraisingam S. Samuel
Lim Siew Yeen & Renuka M, National Library Board, Singapore, 2002
The King of Siam's Eclipse: The Total Solar Eclipse of 18 August 1868 by Heather Hobden
Ancestors of Claudine Chionh, Claudine Chionh, 2005
Lawrence Tan's Family Tree, Lawrence Tan
Koh Saeng Tat - The Opium King by Carl A Trocki
Lecture 3.2 The underside of Development, Topic 3: Singapore's Economic Development, Associate Professor Karl Hack, Humanities and Social Studies Education Academic Group, National Institute of Education
Class Structure and Social Mobility in the Chinese Community in Singapore and Malaya 1800-1911
Yen Ching-Hwang Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1987), pp. 417–445
Chinese Capitalism and the British Empire By Carl A. Trocki—A paper presented to the International Association of Historians of Asia, Conference, Taiwan, Taipei, 6–10 December 2004
The Siamese Royal Agent in Singapore: The Activities of Tan Kim Ching by Miyamata, Toshiyuki., Southeast Asia: History & Culture, Number 31, 30 May 2002
"Rescuing Businesses through Transnationalism: Embedded Chinese Enterprise and Nationalist Activities in Singapore in the 1930s Great Depression" by Kuo, Huei-Ying, Enterprise & Society - Volume 7, Number 1, March 2006, pp. 98–127
The rice trade between Siam and Singapore in the late nineteenth century : Tan Kim Ching and Siam 'Garden Rice' by Toshiyuki Miyata
The Straits Settlements, 1826-67: Indian Presidency to Crown Colony By Constance Mary Turnbull Published by Athlone Press, 1972; pp. 32, 125, 296
Methodist Schools in Malaysia: Their Record and History By Seng Ong Ho Published by Board of Education, Malaya Annual Conference, 1965; p. 209
Journeys to Java by a Siamese King By Imtip Pattajoti Suharto Published by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, 2001; , ; p. 5, 20
American Association of Singapore, 50th Anniversary: 50th Anniversary By American Association of Singapore, Glenn A. Wood Published by American Association of Singapore, 1967; p. 21
Siam and the British, 1874-75: Sir Andrew Clarke and the Front Palace Crisis By Shunyu Xie Published by Thammasat University Press, 1988; p. 42
Play and Politics, Recollection of Malaya by an Old Resident By William Henry Macleod Read published in London by W. Gardner Darton, 1901 (Call no.: RRARE 959 503 REA); p. 38
Zhongguo hai yang fa zhan shi lun wen ji By Zhongguo hai yang fa zhan shi lun wen ji bian ji wei yuan hui, Zhong yang yan jiu yuan San min zhu yi yan jiu suo, Zhong yang yan jiu yuan Zhongshan ren wen she hui ke xue yan jiu suo Published by Zhong yang yan jiu yuan san min zhu yi yan jiu suo, 1984; Item notes: v.5 (1993)
An Early Surveyor in Singapore: John Turnbull Thomson in Singapore, 1841-1853 By John Hall-Jones, Christopher Hooi Published by National Museum, 1979; p. 135
Nghiên cứu Huế By Trung tâm nghiên cứu Huế Published by Trung tâm nghiên cứu Huế, 2002; Item notes: v.4; p. 70
Estudios del archipiélago asiático: Bajo el punto de vista geográfico, histórico, agrícola, colonial, político y commercial By Balbino Cortés Published by Impr. de A.A. Babi, 1861; p. 114
Xingzhou shi nian By Chupu Guan Published by Xing zhou ri bao, 1940
新社學報 By Island Society (Singapore) Published by Xin she, 1967; Item notes: v.1-3 1967–1969; p. 63
The Siamese Royal Agent in Singapore: The Activities of Tan Kim Ching by MIYATA Toshiyuki Southeast Asia: History and Culture (Academic Journal, 2002 ) 31 /, 27-56
|
Financial Stability Board
|
[
"Central banks",
"2009 establishments in Switzerland",
"Organizations established in 2009",
"Financial regulation",
"International finance institutions",
"Organisations based in Basel",
"Systemic risk",
"Mario Draghi",
"Bank for International Settlements"
] | 2,023 | 17,232 |
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It was established in the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh Summit as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF). The Board includes all G20 major economies, FSF members, and the European Commission. Hosted and funded by the Bank for International Settlements, the board is based in Basel, Switzerland, and is established as a not-for-profit association under Swiss law.
The FSB represented the G20 leaders' first major international institutional innovation. U.S. treasury secretary Tim Geithner has described it as "in effect, a fourth pillar" of the architecture of global economic governance, alongside the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the World Trade Organization.
Unlike some other multilateral financial institutions, the FSB lacks a treaty basis and formal power, and relies instead on an informal and nonbinding memorandum of understanding for cooperation adopted by its members.
History
Financial Stability Forum
The FSB's predecessor organization, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), had emerged from a group of finance ministries, central bankers, and international financial bodies, which had been founded in 1999 to promote international financial stability by the finance ministers and central bank governors of G7 countries. The FSF facilitated discussion and cooperation on supervision and surveillance of financial institutions, transactions, and events. FSF was managed by a small secretariat housed at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.
The FSF membership included about a dozen nations who participate through their central banks, financial ministries and departments, and securities regulators, including: the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and several other industrialized economies as well as several international economic organizations. At the G20 summit on 15 November 2008, it was agreed that the membership of the FSF will be expanded to include emerging economies, such as China. The 2009 G20 London summit decided to establish a successor to the FSF, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to include members of the G20 who had not been FSF members.
Founding
The Financial Stability Forum met in Rome on 28–29 March 2008 in connection with the Bank for International Settlements. Members discussed current challenges in financial markets, and various policy options to address them from this point forward. At this meeting, the FSF discussed a report to be delivered to G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in April 2008. The report identifies key weaknesses underlying current financial turmoil, and recommends actions to improve market and institutional resilience. The FSF discussed work underway at the International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development with regard to sovereign wealth funds. The International Monetary Fund is working closely with sovereign wealth funds to identify a set of voluntary best practice guidelines, and is focusing on the governance, institutional arrangements and transparency of sovereign wealth funds. On 12 April 2008, the FSF delivered a report to the G7 Finance Ministers detailing its recommendations:
Strengthen prudential oversight of capital, liquidity, and risk management
Enhance transparency and valuation
Change the role and uses of credit ratings
Strengthen the authorities' responsiveness to risks
Make robust arrangements for dealing with stress in the financial system
2012 reforms
The High-Level Panel on the Governance of the FSB was an independent initiative coordinated by Domenico Lombardi of the Brookings Institution and funded by the Connect U.S. Fund. It assembled a high-level panel of experts, including Uganda's former Finance Minister and Central Bank Governor of Uganda Ezra Suruma, former Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Djoomart Otorbaev, former Finance Minister of Colombia José Antonio Ocampo, and Jacques Mistral, a former member of France's Council of Economic Analysis. Lombardi published the panel's final report in September 2011 as a Brookings Issue Paper, concluding that the FSB's governance had not evolved as quickly as its prominence. It made several recommendations:
At the 2011 G20 Cannes summit, the G20 called for a strengthening of the FSB's capacity resources and governance by establishing the FSB "on an enduring organizational basis". In its 2012 report to the G20 Los Cabos summit, the FSB set out concrete steps to strengthen the organization's capacity, resources, and governance as well as establish it on an enduring organizational footing. The G20 endorsed the FSB's restated and amended charter. In January 2013, the FSB became a separate legal entity in the form of an association or "Verein" under Swiss law, when its Articles of Association were adopted by the FSB Plenary.
The FSB is hosted and funded by the Bank for International Settlements under a five-year agreement executed between the two in January 2013. The bank bears the majority of the FSB's operating expenses, and the FSB does not have any assets, liabilities, or revenue.
2016 reforms
In late July 2016, after the world markets had faced a number of crises, including terrorism and the UK's decision to leave the European Union, Carney sent a letter to Finance Ministers attending the G20 Summit and to Central Bank Governors outlining the reforms the FSB had made indicating that the global economy and financial system had "continued to function effectively" and had "weathered" the "spikes in uncertainty and risk aversion", confirming that "this resilience in the face of stress demonstrates the enduring benefits of G20 post-crisis reforms". He emphasized the value of specific reforms that had been implemented by the Financial Stability Board stating that these had "dampened aftershocks from [global financial crises] rather than amplifying them". He expressed confidence in the FSB's strategies, stating that "resilience in the face of stress demonstrates the enduring benefits of G20 post-crisis reforms".
The FSB published the pre-G20 summit letter in light of the "two spikes in uncertainty and risk aversion" weathered by the global economy and financial system as of late July 2016, which outlined its priorities for 2016:
Promote a coordinated program of reforms to deliver resilient sources of market-based finance, including addressing structural vulnerabilities associated with asset management
Develop robust financial market infrastructure, including assessing policies on central counterparty resilience, recovery, and resolvability, and recommending any necessary improvements
Support effective macroprudential arrangements by drawing lessons from countries that have applied macroprudential policy frameworks and tools, working in partnership with the International Monetary Fund and Bank for International Settlements
In addition to the priorities listed above, the FSB also sought to:
Pursue the full and consistent implementation of post-crisis reforms, while addressing material unintended consequences
Address new and emerging vulnerabilities in the financial system, including those associated with conduct, correspondent banking and climate change
Monitor the potentially systemic implications of financial technology innovations, and the systemic risks arising from operational disruptions
In November 2016, the FSB and the board of the Bank for International Settlements agreed to a further five-year extension of the agreement from January 2018 to 2023.
Membership and leadership
The FSB has 71 member institutions, comprising ministries of finance, central banks, and supervisory and regulatory authorities from 25 jurisdictions as well as 13 international organizations and standard-setting bodies, and 6 Regional Consultative Groups reaching out to 65 other jurisdictions around the world.
Members include:
1
Organizations
Bank for International Settlements
International Monetary Fund
The World Bank
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
European Commission
European Central Bank
ECB Banking Supervision
Standard-setting bodies
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures
Committee on the Global Financial System
International Association of Insurance Supervisors
International Accounting Standards Board
International Organization of Securities Commissions
As a 2011 Brookings Institution report noted, there are no set rules for how the FSB chair is selected, reflecting the FSB's newness as well as the "central banking culture of discretion and informality that permeates the institution".
The list of the FSB's chairs from its inception is:
Mario Draghi (2009–2011), Governor of the Bank of Italy (2006–2011), subsequently President of the European Central Bank (2011–2019) and Prime Minister of Italy (2021–2022)
Mark Carney (2011–2018), Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008–2013) and Governor of the Bank of England (2013–2020), subsequently Prime Minister of Canada (2025–present)
Randal Quarles (2018–2021), Vice Chair for Supervision of the U.S. Federal Reserve (2017–2021)
Klaas Knot (2021–2025), President of De Nederlandsche Bank (2011–present)
Andrew Bailey (2025–present), Governor of the Bank of England (2020–present)
fr:Conseil de stabilité financière
|
Anne Rossignol
|
[
"1810 deaths",
"18th-century businesswomen",
"1730 births",
"African slave traders",
"18th-century Haitian people",
"18th-century French businesspeople",
"French slave traders",
"19th-century American businesspeople",
"18th-century American planters",
"African-American slave owners",
"Signare",
"18th-century American slave traders",
"18th-century African businesspeople",
"Women slave owners",
"19th-century American slave traders",
"Women slave traders",
"Free people of color"
] | 846 | 7,112 |
Anne Rossignol (1730–1810), was a famous signare businesswoman and slave trader. Born on Gorée, she emigrated to Saint-Domingue in 1775, where she became one of the three richest free coloured businesswomen in the colony, alongside Zabeau Bellanton in Cap-Français and Jeanne-Genevieve Deslandes in Port-au-Prince. She emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina during the Haitian Revolution, and has been called the first free African to have emigrated voluntarily and freely to America.
Anne Rossignol was born as the daughter of the Frenchman Claude Rossignol and the African signare Madeleine-Francoise of Gorée.
She accompanied her father and his legal French wife to France as a child in 1736.
In the documents, she was referred to as her father's natural mulatto daughter.
She returned from France to Gorée on an unknown date. By birth she belonged to the privileged Afro-France signare community of Gorée: her sister Marie-Therese became the sister-in-law of the French Governor of Gorée Jean-Baptiste Estouphan by her marriage to Blaise Estouphan de Saint-Jean in 1749.
Anne Rossignol was noted to be living in Gorée in the 1750s, where she had a son and a daughter, Armand and Marie-Adelaide, with the Frenchman Aubert of Marseilles, an official of the Compagnie des Indes.
As other signare's, she would have participated in the slave trade: in 1767, she owned thirty "captives".
In 1775, Rossignol emigrated with her children from French Gorée to Cap-Français in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. On Saint-Domingue, she became a successful businesswoman in slave trade and investments in real estate.
She owned a number of buildings in Le Cap, some of them luxurious and located in parts of town normally inhabited mainly by white people, and resided in a palatial building.
She also owned a number of personal slaves aside from the slaves she traded in. Her living standard rivaled some of the richest white people of the colony.
In 1786, her daughter married the white surgeon Guillaume Dumont, and was given a dowry larger than what was given to many of the richest white planters of the colony.
She is noted as one of the three richest coloured women in the colony, alongside Zabeau Bellanton of Cap-Français and Jeanne-Genevieve Deslandes of Port-au-Prince.
South Carolina
On an unknown date during the Haitian Revolution, Anne Rossignol fled to Charleston, South Carolina in the United States with her daughter and her white son-in-law (her son having returned to Gorée).
Her daughter is confirmed to have lived in Charleston at least from the year 1800 onward, and is listed as white in 1829.
Anne Rossignol is referred to as a rare example of a voluntary African immigrant to the Americas, and perhaps first African to have freely emigrated to the United States.
In Charleston, she established herself as a slave owner and planter and died as a very rich woman. Her life story is considered uncommon among the free people of color, particularly in the United States.
See also
Jean-Baptiste Belley, Haitian politician who was born at Goree.
Zabeau Bellanton
Sources
Lorelle Semley,
Stewart R. King:
/ edited by Douglas Catterall and Jodi Campbell.
|
Daikin
|
[
"Daikin",
"Conglomerate companies of Japan",
"Defense companies of Japan",
"Electronics companies of Japan",
"Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies",
"Medical technology companies of Japan",
"Conglomerate companies established in 1924",
"Manufacturing companies established in 1924",
"Japanese companies established in 1924",
"Japanese brands",
"Companies listed on the Osaka Exchange",
"Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange",
"Companies in the Nikkei 225"
] | 1,964 | 21,505 |
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Osaka. Daikin is the world's largest air conditioner manufacturer.
Daikin Industries Ltd was founded in 1924 as by Akira Yamada. In 1953, Daiflon or polychlorotrifluoroethylene was developed. In 1963 the company was renamed and developed Neoflon. In 1982 it was renamed to the current Daikin Industries Ltd.
Daikin entered the North American air conditioning market in 2004.
In 2006, Daikin Industries acquired McQuay International, a Minneapolis, Minnesota–based global corporation that designs, manufacturers and sells commercial, industrial and institutional heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) products. In 2008, McQuay International was rebranded as Daikin-McQuay as Daikin began implementing many of its technologies (including the Daikin Inverter Compressor) and manufacturing processes into McQuay equipment and factories. However, in November 2013, the Daikin-McQuay group was again rebranded as Daikin Applied, ending 80 years of business for the McQuay name in the United States. Meanwhile, the McQuay brand continues to be used in mainland China and Hong Kong.
In the filtration realm, Daikin acquired American Air Filter (AAF) in 2007, and Flanders in 2016. The resulting entity is known both as AAF International and AAF Flanders.
In 2008, Daikin purchased a 75% share of All World Machinery Supply based in Roscoe, Illinois. In 2009, Daikin Airconditioning Philippines was established.
In August 2012 Daikin agreed to acquire Goodman Global from the San Francisco–based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $3.7 billion, after first planning to buy Goodman the previous year. In January 2011, Daikin had announced plans to buy Goodman Global at approximately US$4 billion valuation; however, the plans were delayed for a year by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
The acquisition was expected to expand Daikin's presence in the United States and in duct-type and split-system air-conditioners, and was expected to make Daikin the world's largest maker of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.
Later in 2013, they launched a split air conditioner, the Ururu Sarara FTXZ-N. , Daikin Hydraulics marketed a line of piston pumps, vane pumps, manual pumps, solenoid valves, and flow and control valves, claiming their pump technology to be 50–70 percent more energy efficient than conventional technology.
In 2017, Daikin opened the Daikin Texas Technology Park, its largest plant and the fifth largest factory in the world. Costing $417 million, this 4.1-million-square-foot facility in Waller, Texas, will consolidate Goodman's manufacturing operations.
As of 2021, other companies representing additional Daikin brands include Motili and Quietflex. On March 2, 2023, Daikin announced they had acquired the San Diego–based custom air-handling equipment manufacturer Alliance Air Products. In 2024, Daikin bought the naming rights to Minute Maid Park, home of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros, renaming it to Daikin Park on January 1, 2025. The deal is expected to run through 2039. On February 27, 2025, Daikin announced that the company will stop producing white phosphorus shells.
Centennial celebration
On April 28, 2024, Daikin Philippines President Takayoshi Miki hosted Daikin's first fun run, “Daikin: Run for Clean Air 2024” at Bridgetowne with 800 runners. On May 21, 2024, Daikin Industries, led by President & CEO, Masanori Togawa with Chief global group officer and board chair, Noriyuk Inhoue, celebrated its centennial founding with a commemorative ceremony attended by 2,000 at The Symphony Hall to further support its "Forests for the Air" project.
PFAS pollution and lawsuits
In 2005, Daikin and 3M paid $4 million in a US settlement over water contamination with preflourinated compounds in Decatur, Alabama, the site of several chemical production facilities. In 2017 Daikin agreed to pay $5 million to the West Morgan-East Lawrence authority for an advanced water purification filter. The authority had advised residents not to drink the water in 2016 due to PFAS contamination. In 2021 Daikin, 3M, Toray, BFI Waste Systems, and Synagro paid a $98.5 million settlement with the city of Decatur over PFAS dumping in Morgan County.
A 2004 study by Kyoto University Professor Akio Koizumi identified Daikin as the source of PFOA pollution in the Yodo river. In 2020 a Settsu city survey in Osaka found elevated levels of PFAS contamination in groundwater and waterways. One well used to irrigate crops was found to have levels 420 times over the national average. In 2021 blood tests of 9 residents living near Daikin's Yodogawa factory revealed elevated levels of PFAS, the highest in a 69-year old man 70 times the national average. Daikin had suspended production of PFAS-based water repellents in 2012 and stated the risks were “only possibly carcinogenic, like how pickled vegetables are” and that the water in Daikin's wastewater treatment tanks as "clean enough to drink" at a city council meeting. Daikin later issued retractions towards the "clean enough to drink" statement. Production and export of preflourinated compounds in Japan have been banned since 2021.
Business divisions and products
Daikin is organised into the following divisions, offering the following products:
Air conditioning
Residential air conditioners
Residential air purifiers
Commercial-use air conditioners
Commercial-use air purifiers
Humidity-adjusting external air-processing units
Large-sized chillers
Marine container refrigeration units
Marine vessel air conditioners
Chemicals
Fluorocarbons
Fluoroplastics
Fluoro coatings
Fluoroelastomers
Fluorinated oils
Oil- and water-repellent products
Mold release agents
Pharmaceuticals and intermediates
Semiconductor-etching products
Dry air suppliers
Air filtration
Oil hydraulics
Industrial hydraulic equipment and systems
Mobile hydraulic equipment
Centralized lubrication equipment and systems
Medical equipment
Rebreathers and similar equipment
Home-use oxygen therapy equipment
Electronics business
System management of product development process
Facility design CAD software
Molecular chemistry software
Daikin Industries, Ltd.
In August 2016, Daikin Industries Ltd opened a fully functional headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Daikin Cairo is yet another move for the company to establish business in Africa. Plans are underway to open more headquarters.
|
Robert Astley
|
[
"1944 births",
"Living people",
"Canadian actuaries",
"Canadian chairpersons of corporations",
"Directors of Bank of Montreal",
"Canadian chief executives",
"University of Manitoba alumni",
"Canadian corporate directors",
"Sun Life Financial",
"CPP Investment Board directors",
"Canadian financiers"
] | 390 | 4,372 |
Robert Murray Astley (born 26 December 1944), a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, was the chairman of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Biography
Astley has been a director of the CPP Investment Board since September 2006, and succeeded its Chairmen of the Board, Gail Cook-Bennett, effective October 2008.
Astley is also a Director of the Bank of Montreal and chairman of its human resources and management compensation committee.
Astley was formerly the president of Sun Life Financial Canada, president and CEO of Clarica Life Insurance Company, chair of Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. In 2004 he was succeeded by Kevin Dougherty. Astley is also a former Chair of Wilfrid Laurier University, a former member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, Laurier School of Business & Economics and a former Chair of the K-W Symphony.
Astley graduated from the University of Manitoba with an Honours degree in Science.
Defamation suit
On May 31, 2011, the Toronto Star reported that Astley won $650,000 in a defamation suit against shareholder activist, Robert Verdun.
|
Piotr Szulczewski
|
[
"Polish computer programmers",
"Polish billionaires",
"Canadian computer businesspeople",
"Canadian technology chief executives",
"Canadian technology company founders",
"Canadian computer programmers",
"Polish emigrants to Canada",
"Canadian billionaires",
"1981 births",
"Living people",
"Businesspeople from Warsaw"
] | 703 | 7,022 |
Piotr Szulczewski (; born 1981) is a Canadian-Polish businessman and computer engineer who is the founder and former CEO of the mobile-first ecommerce platform focused on low-cost goods, Wish.com. He is the youngest billionaire from Canada according to Forbes.
Early life and background
Szulczewski grew up in the Warsaw neighborhood of Tarchomin. Upon the collapse of the communism in Poland, his parents immigrated to Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, about west of Toronto. He studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Waterloo, where he met Danny Zhang.
Just before graduating from the University of Waterloo in 2004 at the age of 23, Szulczewski relocated to Palo Alto, California and commenced a four-month internship coding for Google. He then became a full-time employee for Google, where he wrote the prototype algorithms for keyword expansion, a feature which aids in searching for products from advertisers.
Career
In June 2007, Szulczewski moved to South Korea to work in the new Google office. The Korean market demanded more detailed search portals than the minimalist ones used by Google in the West, and effectively trained Szulczewski in how to cater for the public.
In 2009, he saved enough money to leave Google and spent six months at home writing code for an ads recommendation platform that analyzed at a person's browsing behaviors to predict their interests. He set up a software company, ContextLogic, that in September 2010 received $1.7 million in investments and involved Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. Jerry Yang, the cofounder of Yahoo! and an investor in Wish through his angel fund, AME Cloud Ventures, recalls that Szulczewski was highly ambitious. In May 2011, Szulczewski invited his old friend Danny Zhang, then at Yellowpages.com to join the new business as a cofounder and they relaunched the company as Wishwall.me. Facebook learned of the new technology and offered $20 million for ContextLogic but Szulczewski refused the offer. Szulczewski states that with Wish.com his primary aim is to create "the largest, most convenient and most affordable shopping mall in the world" and to target low-income households. By 2016 Wish.com had over 5 million daily visitors.
In 2016, Szulczewski was listed at #21 on America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 list and in 2019, #1605 on Forbes's list of Billionaires. In 2019 he was cited as the 34th wealthiest person and youngest billionaire from Canada, and the 5th wealthiest Polish billionaire. Despite his success, he stays out of the spotlight and rarely gives interviews. He was interviewed for the first time by the Polish media in November 2017.
In November 2021, it was announced that Szulczewski would be stepping down as Chief Executive Officer. On January 31, 2022, Vijay Talwar was named as Chief Executive Officer and a member of Wish’s Board of Directors, effective February 1, 2022. Szulczewski remained on the board.
|
Bloom Holding
|
[
"Emirati brands",
"Conglomerate companies established in 2008",
"Emirati companies established in 2008",
"Real estate companies of the United Arab Emirates",
"Companies based in Abu Dhabi"
] | 980 | 10,081 |
Bloom Holding is a development company headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The company was established in 2008 as a subsidiary of National Holding and engaged in real estate, education, services, and hospitality. The entities that are being operated under the umbrella of Bloom Holding include Bloom Properties, Bloom Education, Bloom Hospitality, Bloom Facilities Management (bfm), and Bloom Landscape.
Projects
In April 2015, during the Cityscape Abu Dhabi exhibition, Bloom Holding launched Park View in Saadiyat Island, a residential and hotel apartment building consisting of 234 units. In 2016, the company started the development of Soho Square, a 10 storeys building on Saadiyat Island and next to New York University's Saadiyat campus.
In 2022, Bloom Holding launched Bloom Living, a AED 9 billion gated, development that includes more than 4500 villas, townhouses, and apartments built over an area of 2.2 million square meters close to Zayed International Airport. As of 2024, six phases of Bloom Living have been launched, which include Cordoba, Toledo, Casares, Granada, Seville, and Olvera.
Bloom Holding's hospitality offerings include a combination of guest rooms and executive hotel apartments across Marriott Downtown, the Abu Dhabi EDITION and the upcoming Bloom Arjaan by Rotana.
Bloom Holding manages and operates 18 schools and one nursery with over 21,000 students, including Brighton College in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and Dubai ADEK Charter Schools, ESE "Ajyal" Schools, Bloom Nurseries at Bloom Gardens, Bloom Holding's own brand IB School Bloom World Academy, and two international schools to be located within Bloom Living.
Outside UAE
In May 2016, Bloom Holding announced the South Broadway project in downtown Rochester, Minnesota, a renovated building that provides office space available up to 20,000 square feet.
In 2022, Bloom Holding entered into a joint venture with New Era Education and New Giza Real Estate Development to launch Uppingham Cairo, a K12 co-educational international school located in New Giza, west of Cairo, Egypt.
In 2024, Bloom Holding and LEAD Development announced a joint venture agreement with Spanish developer, Mabel Real Estate, a division of Mabel Capital, to co-develop a luxury residential project in Spain, “Mabel Marbella Residences”. The project will span over 100,000 sqm of land in the coveted Golden Mile, a premier residential area in the Spanish city, Marbella.
|
Frank Giustra
|
[
"1957 births",
"Businesspeople from Greater Sudbury",
"People named in the Panama Papers",
"Canadian expatriates in Argentina",
"Canadian expatriates in Italy",
"Canadian philanthropists",
"Living people",
"People from West Vancouver",
"Businesspeople from British Columbia",
"Canadian stockbrokers",
"Clinton Foundation people",
"Members of the Order of Canada",
"Lionsgate people",
"Canadian film production company founders"
] | 2,540 | 23,421 |
Frank Giustra (born August 22, 1957) is a Canadian businessman, mining financier and global philanthropist, who founded Lionsgate Entertainment (later Starz Entertainment) and its film studio Lionsgate Films. He is also the CEO of Fiore Group of Companies and co-chair of the International Crisis Group think tank. From 2001 to 2007, he was the chairman of the merchant banking firm, Endeavour Financial, which financed mining companies. He was allegedly involved in the Uranium One controversy after a $31.3 million donation to the Clinton Foundation.
Early life
Giustra was born in 1957 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, the son of Giuseppe and Domenica Giustra, who immigrated to Canada. His father worked in the mines as a driller and blaster. Giustra spent his childhood in "Italy, Argentina and Texada Island off the British Columbia coast." He spent his middle school years in Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada, and graduated from high school there in 1976. Giuseppe Giustra was a Sudbury nickel miner, who introduced his son to his broker. He graduated in 1979 from Douglas College where he spent his first year playing trumpet in the school's music program before switching over to business and finance.
Investment industry
Giustra began his career in the investment industry in 1978 with Merrill Lynch as an assistant trader and then as a stockbroker. Giustra raised "billions of dollars and developing a loyal following of investors in mining ventures" while at the Vancouver Stock Exchange as broker. He left in 1996 before the mining sector collapsed.
Yorkton Securities
In the early 1980s, Giustra left Merrill Lynch to create a resources-financing group in Europe for the new firm Yorkton Securities. He is said to have "transformed Yorkton into a major force in the world of international mining finance." In 1990, he became president of the company and, in 1995, was appointed chairman and CEO.
In 2001, Giustra and a group of investors took control of Wheaton River Minerals, which was then a junior company. By 2005, Wheaton merged with Rob McEwen's Goldcorp. As the price of gold rose, Ian Telfer, a "mine entrepreneur...turned an insignificant shell company into a billion dollar gold producer." In 2005 Goldcorp absorbed Wheaton River Minerals. According to Bloomberg News, Wheaton River Minerals was the precursor for both Goldcorp and Endeavour. By 2014, Goldcorp was the world's fourth-largest producer of gold.
Endeavour Financial (2001–2007)
From 2001 to 2007, Giustra was chair of Endeavour Financial, a merchant banking firm which financed mining companies.
In June 2007, when Giustra stepped down as chairman of Endeavour Financial "to pursue his philanthropic interests", he became Endeavour's exclusive financial adviser. In that capacity he oversaw the November 2007 merger between Petro Rubiales and Pacific Stratus, creating Petro Rubiales Energy Corporation. The parent company of Endeavour Financial was Endeavour Mining Capital, which was then led by Frank Holmes. At the time of the merger, Petro Rubiales was described by Newswire as a "Canadian-based company and producer of heavy crude oil" and "owner of 100 percent of Meta Petroleum Limited, a Colombian oil and gas operator which operates the Rubiales and Piriri oil fields in the Llanos Basin in association with Ecopetrol S.A. the Colombian, state-owned oil company. The Company [was] focused on identifying opportunities primarily within the eastern Llanos Basin of Colombia."
According to a 2007 article in The Globe and Mail, in that year Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp purchased a controlling share in the Rubiales oil fields for $250 million. Through the deal, Colombia's state oil company, Ecopetrol SA became a partner with Pacific Rubiales. By 2007 Pacific Rubiales was trading on the TSX.
Although oil had been discovered there in 1982, when the original company, Pacific Rubiales, was established, production began in 1988. By 2011, the Rubiales oil field was the largest in Colombia and along with Frank invested in the business to pursue the legacy of lionsgate.
Leagold Mining (2017-2019)
By 2017, Giustra was chairman of Leagold Mining which acquired the Los Filos deposit in Guerrero state, Mexico, a deposit that Giustra says, is twice the size of the Wheaton River Mineral's assets. In 2019, Leagold Mining was sold to Equinox Gold Corporation.
Lionsgate Entertainment and Thunderbird Entertainment Group
After he left investment banking in 1996, he served as chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment from 1997 to 2003. He hoped to capitalize on the growing film industry in Vancouver. The company bought a number of small production facilities and distributors. Its first success was American Psycho, which began a trend of producing and distributing films far too controversial for the major American studios. Other successes included Affliction, Gods and Monsters, Dogma, Crash and the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which turned out to be the studio's highest-grossing film. In 2000, Giustra left the firm and it was taken over by Jon Feltheimer and Michael Burns. Giustra sold most of his stake in Lionsgate in 2003.
In December 2010, Giustra returned to Lions Gate Entertainment as a member of the board of directors.
In August 2011, it was announced, by Alcon Entertainment that Ridley Scott would direct the new Blade Runner film. Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEO's of Thunderbird Films, will serve as executive producers.
Giustra is a major shareholder of Thunderbird Entertainment, a pure play content production studio creating original programming in scripted, factual and animation that includes Atomic Cartoons and Great Pacific Television. Based in Vancouver, with offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, Ottawa and London, Thunderbird partners with OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime and traditional broadcasters like CBC and Discovery. Thunderbird's projects include Highway Thru Hell for Discovery, Oscar winning Blade Runner 2049, CSA winning Kim's Convenience for CBC and Netflix, and the animated Emmy winning series Beat Bugs for Netflix. Thunderbird's animation company, Atomic Cartoons is producing Last Kids on Earth based on the New York Times best selling book series for Netflix and is in development on Eerie Elementary and Princesses Wear Pants adaptations as well.
Fiore Group of Companies
Mr. Giustra is president and CEO of the Fiore Group, a private firm managing a broad portfolio of private equity investments and companies, focussing on natural resources, entertainment, art, food and lifestyle. The portfolio is as varied as Mr. Giustra's interests – Modern Farmer Media Inc., and he is the founder of Domenica Fiore, award-winning Olive Oils which is named after his mother, a company that produces olive oil. His entrepreneurial success includes founding Lionsgate Entertainment, now one of the world's largest independent film companies. Giustra is a major shareholder of Thunderbird Entertainment, a company focused on content and distribution in the television and film sector.
Awards
2019 Order of Canada, C.M.
The Giustra Foundation
The Giustra Foundation (formerly Radcliffe Foundation) was established in 1997 by Frank Giustra. The Vancouver-based foundation supports initiatives focused on women and children, education, homelessness and refugee resettlement in British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada. The Giustra Foundation is involved in the global refugee crisis by providing humanitarian aid, along with being the founding partner in the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative.
The Giustra Foundation also has worked with the Vancouver Foundation and the City of Vancouver on Streetohome, a community-based initiative established in 2008 which brings together non-profits, civil society groups, business, governments and citizens to address homelessness in Vancouver. Giustra sits on the board of Streetohome Foundation and chairs the capital campaign. He also donated $5 million to the foundation in 2010.
In 2007, Giustra and President Bill Clinton launched the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which in 2020 transitioned into a new independent entity named Acceso. Acceso is a social business builder. Acceso, with support from Giustra, invested start-up capital, built from scratch, and manages agribusinesses in Colombia, El Salvador, and Haiti.
Frank Giustra Social Enterprise Partnership and Initiative CGSGI aims to alleviate poverty in the developing world in partnership with the global mining community. Giustra committed $USD 100 million plus half of what he earns in the resource industry for the rest of his life. Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican businessman and one of the richest men in the world, made a matching contribution.
On June 17, 2010, Giustra joined with Carlos Slim and President Clinton to create a $20 million fund to assist small businesses in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
International Crisis Group
In 2020, Giustra was named co-chair of the International Crisis Group. He has been a trustee of the International Crisis Group since July 1, 2006, an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts through high level advocacy.
In 2005, the foundation began supporting the International Crisis Group, an independent organization working to prevent and resolve deadly conflict on five continents through analysis and high-level advocacy. With the support of Giustra, who sits on the executive committee, and contributions that total $10 million, the International Crisis Group is a leading independent, non-partisan, source of analysis and advice to governments and intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, European Union, and World Bank on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict.
Personal life
In 2021, Giustra married Francesca Dutton. His previous marriage was to Alison Lawton, a Canadian investor, activist, and producer of documentary films on humanitarian crises. Giustra and Lawton divorced in 2007 and have two children together.
|
Intime Department Store
|
[
"Department stores of China",
"Chinese companies established in 2007",
"Companies based in Beijing",
"Alibaba Group",
"Privatized department stores",
"Privatization in China"
] | 722 | 6,059 |
Intime Department Store (sometimes transliterated as Yintai) is a chain of department stores with stores in Beijing, Zhejiang, Hubei, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Anhui. Founded in 1998, Yintai Department Store opened its first store in Hangzhou, headquartered in Beijing. It is owned by Yintai Commercial Group Co., Ltd. (Hong Kong Stock Exchange:1833.HK), and is part of Alibaba Group.
History
In March 2007, Yintai Department Store made a public offering in Hong Kong, with a fund of up to 2.43 billion Hong Kong dollars. China Life's fund and the Pandisson family, a major shareholder of Dickson, were also subscribed. Yintai Department Store also holds some shares of the 100 Group and Wuhan Wushang Group.
In October 2010, Yintai Department Store acquired a 50% stake in Beijing Yansha Friendship from Hengji Property for 1.612 billion yuan, and the acquisition was completed in the form of shares. After the acquisition, Hengji Property held 7.74% of Yintai Department Store.
On March 31, 2014, Alibaba Group invested in new shares and convertible bonds of Yintai Department Store, with a total investment of 5.37 billion Hong Kong dollars. According to the agreement, Yintai will issue 2205 million new shares to Alibaba at 7.5335 yuan per share, equivalent to 16.6% of the closing price of 9.13 yuan before the suspension, accounting for 9.9% of the issued share capital. In addition, the company will issue 3.706 billion yuan of convertible bonds to Alibaba. From now on, Alibaba can exchange 489.6 million new shares at a price of 7.9102 yuan at any time in the next three years. Alibaba holds up to 26.13% of Yintai shares.
In July 2015, Shen Guojun, the former chairman of Yintai Commercial, reduced his holdings of Yintai Commercial and sold 18% of the shares to his family, Sun Tao and Tang Yue, and Shen Guojun's holdings of shares was reduced to 12%.
On January 10, 2017, Alibaba Group, together with Shen Guojun, the founder of Yintai Department Store, proposed to privatize Yintai Commerce at HK$19 billion per share. After the completion of the acquisition, Alibaba will become the controlling shareholder of Yintai, and the shareholding is expected to increase to 73.73%.
On March 30, 2018, Yintai Commercial spent 3.361 billion yuan to acquire 100% of Xi'an Kaiyuan Mall from Xi'an International Medical Investment Co., Ltd.
On December 14, 2020, due to the acquisition of the equity of Yintai Commercial (Group) Co., Ltd. by Alibaba Investment Co., Ltd., which failed to declare the illegal implementation of the concentration of operators in accordance with the law, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration imposed 50 on Alibaba Investment Co., Ltd. in accordance with the Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China. Administrative penalty of 10,000 yuan fine.
Investor Jenny Zeng's company Maple Valley gained fame by helping Intime Department Store raise US$90 million of private investment and later go public and attracted many other high-profile clients.
In December 2024, Alibaba announced it would sell Intime Department Store to Youngor Group.
|
Wen Wei Wang
|
[
"1965 births",
"Living people",
"20th-century ballet dancers",
"20th-century Canadian businesspeople",
"20th-century Canadian dancers",
"21st-century Canadian businesspeople",
"21st-century Canadian dancers",
"Ballet choreographers",
"Businesspeople from Vancouver",
"Canadian choreographers",
"Canadian entertainment industry businesspeople",
"Canadian male ballet dancers",
"Canadian schoolteachers",
"Chinese choreographers",
"Chinese emigrants to Canada",
"Chinese male ballet dancers",
"21st-century Chinese ballet dancers",
"20th-century Chinese ballet dancers",
"Artists from Xi'an",
"Businesspeople from Xi'an"
] | 1,224 | 11,699 |
Wen Wei Wang (born 1965) is a Chinese-Canadian businessman, choreographer, dancer, and teacher. Born in Xi'an, China, he moved to Vancouver permanently in 1991. He established the dance company Wen Wei Dance in 2003 and has since created 8 full-length works for the company. He is currently the artistic director of both Wen Wei Dance and Ballet Edmonton as of 2018.
Early life and career
Wang's parents had hoped he would be involved in different art forms like painting or music, but his love of dance propelled his professional career. He began training at the Langzhou Army Song and Dance Company at the age of 12. In four years was he promoted to a full-time company dancer position at only 16. Wang trained in Russian style ballet as well as other movement forms like; Chinese folk dancing, tai chi, and martial arts. All these various movement studies inform his choreography today. Wang moved to Vancouver in 1986 on a short term cultural exchange with Lorita Leung Chinese Dance Company. He danced and taught for the company on his five-month tenure before moving back to China. Once back in China, he began choreographing and won his first award in 1986 in Gansu Province. He then began his education at People's Liberation Army Academy of Art in Beijing, participating in the country's only university-level choreography program at the time.
Moving to Canada
Wang moved to Vancouver in 1991 when he was invited to the Contemporary Arts Summer Institute hosted by Simon Fraser University. From 1991 onwards, Wang resided in Vancouver full-time where he danced with Judith Marcuse Dance Company for two seasons and Ballet BC for seven seasons. He also participated in a choreography summer session with SFU in 1993 and briefly moved to Montreal to dance with Les Grands Ballet Canadiens for one season in 1995.
Wang also taught as a freelance teacher during the same period he danced professionally with Judith Marcuse, Ballet BC, and Les Grands Ballet Canadiens. He taught for various local institutions such as; Goh Ballet, Dancers Dancing, Arts Umbrella Junior Company, and the Chinese Cultural Centre. His career as a full-time teacher and choreographer followed his performance career. Outside of Wen Wei Dance, Wang has made pieces for Ballet BC, Ballet Jörgen, Alberta Ballet, North West Dance Project, a Vancouver Opera Production: Nixon in China, and for the San Francisco Opera Production of Nixon in China. In 2005, Wang partnered with Edam Dance's Peter Bingham. Together they created and performed Thirst in 2005.
Company career
Wang formed his own company called Wen Wei Dance in 2003 after the premiere of his work Tao. Early on, the company was invited to tour internationally. Wang's solo work, One Man's, was created in 2005 and performed in the 7th Temporada Internacional de Danza Contemporanea Colombia.
Wen Wei Dance's 2006 work, a commission from CanDance Network, premiered in Ontario. The premiere was well-received and the company was afforded additional international touring opportunities in Italy, China, and across Canada.
In 2009, Wang began a collaborative process with Beijing Modern Dance Company creating pieces for the company with co-choreographer Gao Yanijzi. Under The Skin was their first work together and premiered in Ottawa in 2010. They later co-choreographed a production called Made In China that premiered in Banff, Alberta in 2015. The piece focused on their shared Chinese heritage.
In recent years Wen Wei Dance premiered two pieces, one of which the cast is all male and the other completely female. The former, Dialogue (2017), focuses on ideas of communication, mis-communication, language barrier, and sexuality. The latter, Ying Yun (2019), was named after and created for Wang's late mother. The piece features five women.
Works
At The Corner (2002) – Ballet Jörgen
Four Dimensions (2003) – Ballet Jörgen
Tao (2003) – Wen Wei Dance
Thirst (2005) – Edam Dance
One Man's (2005) – Wen Wei Dance
Unbound (2006) – Wen Wei Dance
Three Sixty Five (2007) – Wen Wei Dance
Cockpit (2009) – Wen Wei Dance
Chi (2009) – Northwest Dance Project
Sections of Nixon In China (2010) – Vancouver Opera House
Under The Skin (2010) – Wen Wei Dance with Beijing Modern Dance Company
In Motion (2011) – Ballet BC
Sections of Nixon In China (2012) – San Francisco Opera
Night Box (2012) – Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal
7th Sense (2013) – Wen Wei Dance
Made in China (2015) – Wen Wei Dance with Beijing Modern Dance Company
Dialogue (2017) – Wen Wei Dance
Swan (2017) – Ballet BC
X-Body (2018) – Ballet Edmonton
Last Words (2018) – Ballet Edmonton
You Are All I See (2018) – Northwest Dance Project
Ying Yun (2019) – Wen Wei Dance
Le Quattro (2019) – Ballet Edmonton
Awards
2000 : Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award
2006 : Isadora Award for Choreography (Unbound)
2009 : Rio Tinto Alcan Award (Cockpit)
2013 : Chrystal Dance Prize with Dance Victoria (Co-Winner with Gao Yanjinzi)
2013 : Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award
|
Navy Federal Credit Union
|
[
"Credit unions based in Virginia",
"Companies based in Vienna, Virginia",
"Mutual companies of the United States",
"American companies established in 1933",
"Banks established in 1933",
"United States Navy"
] | 3,774 | 38,585 |
Navy Federal Credit Union (or Navy Federal) is an American global credit union headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, chartered and regulated under the authority of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Navy Federal is the largest natural member (or retail) credit union in the United States, both in asset size and in membership. As of December 2024, Navy Federal has US $180.8 billion in assets and has 14.5 million members.
Navy Federal was originally incorporated on 17 January 1933 as the Navy Department Employees' Credit Union of the District of Columbia (NDCU). Only Navy Department employees who were members of the federal employees' labor union and members of their families were eligible to join. The next year, President Roosevelt signed into law the Federal Credit Union Act, which would eventually become the basis of business for the credit union. On July 17, 1947, the credit union was granted a federal charter as a credit union, named Navy Department Employees Federal Credit Union (NDEFCU). It also expanded membership to include all Navy personnel in the Washington, D.C., area, both military and civilian.
In 1954, the credit union changed its charter again to open membership to Navy and Marine Corps officers everywhere, regardless of geographic location, and changed its name to Navy Federal Credit Union. Eventually, membership was opened to enlisted personnel as well. By April 1962, the credit union reached a milestone, becoming the biggest credit union in the world, a distinction which it still holds today. In 1977, the credit union moved into its current headquarters in Vienna, Virginia, eventually undergoing several major expansions of its facility there.
In 2003, the credit union opened its membership further, to include Navy contractors. There have also been several times in the credit union's history that the NCUA has asked Navy Federal to merge with or absorb other credit unions that were experiencing financial or other difficulties. Members of these prior credit unions remained members of Navy Federal after the merger (following the NCUA's policy of "once a member, always a member"). In September 2010, Navy Federal Credit Union announced plans to absorb/merge with USA Fed, stating that joint operations would begin 4 October 2010 under the Navy Federal banner.
In May 2008, Navy Federal Credit Union widened its membership to include the entire Department of Defense, which made eligible all active duty, retired, and reserve Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force personnel, as well as contractor and civilian personnel within the Department of Defense. In March 2013, Navy Federal Credit Union further widened its membership to include all Coast Guard members and employees as well. In 2020, Navy Federal Credit Union also expanded its membership to include Space Force members. In 2014, Navy Federal expanded its Vienna headquarters. As of March 2025, 5,200 employees worked at the Vienna location.
An increase in membership also led to three expansions: one at the credit union's San Diego location in 2010, where Navy Federal has 185 employees; one at the credit union's Pensacola location in 2015, where Navy Federal has 8,800 employees; and one at the Winchester Operations location in 2019 where Navy Federal has 2,600 employees.
As of 2025, Navy Federal is by far the largest credit union in the United States, with total assets nearly three times that of the second-largest US credit union.
+Financial Summary ($ millions)20182019202020212022Assets$96,962.4$111,986.1$135,664.1$153,433.0$156,645.1Loans Outstanding$75,059.2$83,919.9$91,679.8$95,811.3$109,985.4Savings, Checking, MMSAs, IRAs$50,626.6$56,733.7$81,902.8$103,484.3$104,372.5Share Certificates$19,790.9$29,299.6$29,302.3$24,275.2$29,062.6Member's Equity$11,404.7$13,763.6$14,932.4$16,910.2$14,168.1Gross Income$6,818.6$7,993.2$8,374.0$8,271.7$9,315.9Non-Interest Expense$2,844.1$3,430.8$3,920.8$4,515.5$4,767.5Dividends$642.6$1,016.4$1,123.3$829.2$885.8Mortgage Loans Serviced$68,697.7$77,307.3$80,585.6$79,515.7$84,277.4Members8,232,0228,959,6659,927,16611,133,37012,322,979
Legal issues
In 2017, Navy Federal Credit Union settled a class action lawsuit over millions of unwanted phone calls, many of which had gone to individuals who were not credit union members and specifically asked not to be contacted. NFCU settled a similar class action lawsuit in 2020 over unwanted text messages, paying out $9.25 million.
In 2021, Navy Federal Credit Union settled another class action lawsuit over a non-sufficient funds fee lawsuit over breached member agreements where over 700,000 members were charged multiple insufficient funds fees.
In November 2024, “Navy Federal was ordered by the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) to pay more than $95 million in redress and fines for charging illegal overdraft fees, the largest penalty ever charged to a credit union for illegal activity. Navy Federal charged surprise overdraft fees on certain ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases, even when customer accounts showed sufficient funds at the time of the transaction. It also showed that funds from peer-to-peer transfer services were available to spend when they were in fact still pending, and then charged overdraft fees when customers attempted to spend those funds.”
Membership
Navy Federal's field of membership is set by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). As with all federally-chartered credit unions, membership in Navy Federal is limited to individuals sharing the common bond defined in its credit union charter. Membership in Navy Federal is limited to:
All Department of Defense (DoD) uniformed personnel — Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Marine Corps retirees and annuitants
All DoD reservists — Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps— regardless of drill status — retirees and annuitants
All US Coast Guard uniformed personnel — regardless of drill status — civilian employees, auxiliarists, retirees, and annuitants
All Army National Guard and Air National Guard personnel — regardless of drill status — civilian employees, retirees, and annuitants
All DoD Officer Candidate programs: midshipmen and cadets at the United States Naval Academy, United States Military Academy, United States Air Force Academy, United States Coast Guard Academy, and the United States Merchant Marine Academy; personnel in Officer Candidate programs
All DoD current and retired civilian employees
U.S. government employees assigned to DoD installations
DoD contractors assigned to U.S. government installations
Employees of Navy Federal Credit Union
Family members, including grandparents, parents, spouses, siblings, grandchildren, cohabitants and children (including adopted, foster and stepchildren).
All Honorably Discharged Veterans
Organization
Navy Federal is chartered with NCUA as a single-sponsor credit union, with its sponsor being the Department of Defense. Like all credit unions, Navy Federal is governed by a board of volunteers, elected by and from its membership. Navy Federal also has a separate subsidiary, named Navy Federal Investment Services, which operates as a credit union service organization (CUSO). CUSOs were established by NCUA as a way for credit unions to pursue product offerings that would normally be outside of the purview of a credit union.
Employees
As of March 2025, the credit union had over 25,100 employees worldwide. Navy Federal, founded in 1933, has never had a layoff, choosing instead to move employees to other departments to avoid layoffs. It was ranked number 74 on the 2025 Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list, which is produced by the Great Place to Work Institute. They were 95th in 2012, rose to 56th in 2013, 96th in 2014, 72nd in 2015, 44th in 2016, 29th in 2019 19th in 2020, 59th 2021, 76th in 2022, 53rd in 2023, and 37th in 2024.
On March 1, 2024, Dietrich Kuhlmann was appointed President and CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union, succeeding Mary McDuffie.
Services
Navy Federal operates branches in many U.S. metro areas as well as in some overseas locations, comprising a total of 367 branches worldwide as of March 2025. In addition, members can make transactions through the CO-OP network of more than 30,000 ATMs in the U.S. and Canada without incurring surcharges or fees.
Major banking competitors include Pentagon Federal Credit Union and USAA.
Charitable contributions
Navy Federal Credit Union engages in multiple charitable partnerships, including a decades-long relationship with Toys for Tots, dedicated to helping families surrounding the Vienna, Virginia, headquarters, and a partnership with the National Hockey League's Stick Tap for Service Program. Navy Federal has also made multiple disaster relief donations, most recently a $100,000 donation to , to assist communities near their Pensacola, Florida offices that were adversely affected by Hurricane Sally in October 2020.
Navy Federal recently donated $100,000 through its Dollars for Doers program which, based on nominations from the credit union’s employees, awards 100 nonprofits with grants. Navy Federal donated to U.S. Vets in November 2021 in honor of Veteran’s Month. During Navy Federal’s annual drive for the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation in the 2021 holiday season, members and employees donated over $20,000 and 20,000 toys to families in need.
In 2022, Navy Federal’s members and employees donated over $33,000 and over 22,000 toys to families in need during the Toys for Tots campaigns.
In 2023, the credit union donated more than one million meals to servicemembers, veterans, and their families as a part of its recent military food insecurity campaign, No Plate Left Behind.
Navy Federal Credit Union has received the following awards and honors:
Rated a TrustScore of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot.
Top Military Financial Institution by The Military Wallet
Best Mortgage Refinance Company by Money
Ranked #1 for Customer Experience Among Multichannel Banks/Credit Unions in Forrester’s 2021 US Customer Experience (CX) survey
Ranked #1 for Customer Experience Among Credit Card Issuers in Forrester’s 2021 US Customer Experience (CX) survey
Ranked "Credit Union of the Year" by United States Navy for 15th consecutive year in a row
Ranked 7th in Computerworld’s Best Places to Work in IT for 2021
Ranked 25th in “75 Best Large Workplaces for Women” list by FORTUNE in 2021
Ranked #1 for Customer Experience Among Multichannel Banks/Credit Unions in Forrester’s 2021 US Customer Experience (CX) survey
Ranked #1 for Customer Experience Among Credit Card Issuers in Forrester’s 2021 US Customer Experience (CX) survey
Received the highest score in the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Consumer Financing Satisfaction Study
Ranked 59th in “100 Best Companies to Work For” list by FORTUNE in 2021
One of America's Best Employers for Veterans, Best Employers for Diversity, and Best Employers for New Grads by Forbes
One of GOBankingRates Best Credit Unions of 2021
Top Credit Union by Bankrate 2022
Best Mortgage Lender by Bankrate
Top 100 Best Banks by GOBankingRates
One of GOBankingRates Best Credit Unions of 2022
Best Home Equity Loans of 2020: Best Customer Experience by Money.com
Best Mortgage Lender by U.S. News & World Report
4th in Customer Experience Excellence by KPMG in 2020, falling from 1st in 2019
Best Overall Personal Loan of 2022 for Veterans & Military Members from Forbes
Ranked as the 4th Top Workplace in the Washington, D.C., area by The Washington Post
Ranked #1 for Customer Experience Among Multichannel Banks/Credit Unions in Forrester’s 2022 US Customer Experience (CX) survey
Best Auto Loans for New Car Purchase in 2022 by Bankrate
Ranked 35th in “100 Best Large Workplaces for Women” list by FORTUNE in 2022
Ranked 53rd in "100 Best companies to Work for" by FORTUNE
One of GOBankingRates Best Credit Unions of 2023.
Ranked 84th in “America’s Best Employers For Women” list by Forbes in 2023
Ranked 88th in “Best Workplaces for Millennials” list by FORTUNE in 2023
Money’s Best Overall Credit Union for Military Members in 2023-2024
U.S. Veterans Magazine’s Top Veteran-Friendly Company in 2023
Ranked 3rd in “Best Employers in Virginia” by Forbes in 2023
Ranked 8th in “Best Employers in Maryland” by Forbes in 2023
Ranked 13th in “Best Workplaces in Financial Services & Insurance” list by FORTUNE in 2023
Ranked 14th in “Best Places to Work in IT” list by Computerworld in 2023
Ranked 33rd in “100 Best Large Workplaces for Women” list by FORTUNE in 2023
Ranked 84th in “America's 100 Most Loved Workplaces” list by Newsweek in 2023
Ranked 45th in “Best Workplaces for Parents” list by Great Place To Work® in 2023
GoBankingRates’ Best Balance Transfer Credit Card for 2023
Ranked 69th in “America’s Best Large Employers” list by Forbes in 2024
The Motley Fool Ascent’s Best Bank for Veterans in 2024
Latino Leaders Magazine’s Best Banking Company for Latinos to Work For in 2024
RippleMatch’s Campus Forward Award for Large Early Career Programs in 2024
The Balance’s Best Personal Loan for Military Members in 2024
USA Today Customer Service Champion for 2024
Ranked 87th in “America’s Best Employers for New Grads” list by Forbes in 2024
Ranked 11th in “Largest Top Workplaces” list by The Washington Post in 2024
Inman Best of Finance Award for 2024
Business Group on Health Best Employers: Excellence in Health & Well-Being Award for 2024
Ranked 12th in “America’s Best Employers For Tech Workers” list by Forbes in 2024
Ranked 54th in “America’s Best Employers For Veterans” list by Forbes in 2024
Ranked 77th in “100 Companies That Care” list by People in 2024
Ranked 77th in “Best Employers for Vets” list by Military Times in 2024
Ranked 87th in “100 Best Large Workplaces for Millennials” list by FORTUNE in 2024
Ranked 94th in “America's 100 Most Loved Workplaces” list by Newsweek in 2024
Ranked 99th in “100 Best Large Workplaces for Women” list by FORTUNE in 2024
Money’s Top 100 Best Banks in 2025
Computer World’s Best Places to Work in IT in 2025
Named to "America's Most Trusted Brands" list by USA Today in 2025
Named to "America's Best Customer Service" list by USA Today in 2025
Ranked 170th in "America's Most Innovative Companies" list by FORTUNE in 2025
Ranked 5th in "America's Best Large Employers" list by Forbes in 2025
|
Peter J. N. Sinclair
|
[
"1946 births",
"2020 deaths",
"Academics of the University of Birmingham",
"Academics of Bayes Business School",
"Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford",
"People educated at Gresham's School",
"Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in England",
"20th-century British economists",
"21st-century British economists",
"Alumni of the University of Oxford",
"People from Norfolk"
] | 793 | 8,432 |
Peter James Niven Sinclair (18 September 1946 – 31 March 2020) was a British economist. He was Professor, and subsequently Emeritus Professor, in Economics at the University of Birmingham. Previously, he had been a fellow and tutor at Brasenose College, Oxford.
Early life and education
Sinclair grew up in London and Norfolk and was educated at Gresham's School and the University of Oxford, where he gained his BA and doctorate. His first job was in the export department of Linde AG in Germany. This sharpened his lifelong interest in international economics.
Career
Peter Sinclair taught at Oxford from 1970 to 1994, mainly in economic theory, monetary policy and international economics, as fellow and tutor in Economics at Brasenose College. In 1994 he became Professor of Economics at the University of Birmingham. He retired in 2012, but continued teaching as an Emeritus Professor until his illness and death in March 2020.
Sinclair published widely on a range of topics in economics, including the optimal rate of inflation, central bank independence, the costs and benefits of monetary union, and international trade policy. He became Director of the Bank of England's Centre for Central Banking Studies in 2000 where he taught central bank staff from all over the world, both in London and overseas. Sinclair maintained a connection with the Bank of England after leaving CCBS in 2008, including as a visiting academic, advising on research and teaching graduate entrants for many years. He also advised numerous overseas central banks. He contributed to a number of CCBS and Bank of England publications, including the Bank's Quarterly Bulletin, often providing an academic's perspective on contemporary monetary issues.
He was the author of numerous articles and books on economics, one written with his first wife, the late economist Shelagh Heffernan, who was Professor of Banking and Finance at the Cass Business School, City University London. His main research interests included inflation, unemployment, and tax questions, often in the open economy setting. He served as a consultant to the Financial Services Authority, the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Labor. A visiting professor at the University of British Columbia and Queen's University in Canada, he also lectured in China, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lesotho, Poland, Russia, and the United States. He was visiting professor at the London School of Economics and University of Warwick, and chairman of the Royal Economic Society Easter School, and the International Economics Study Group. In 2016 he married the environmental artist, Jayne Ivimey.
His non-economics interests included architecture, history, and languages.
Former students
Sinclair's most notable former student was David Cameron, who described Sinclair as "one of the cleverest people I ever met". Others include King Letsie III, Camilla Cavendish, Peter Conradi, Diane Coyle, Tim Harford, Lieutenant General Michelle D. Johnson, Dave Ramsden, Guy Spier, Abhisit Vejjajiva and a prominent Nepali economist and Asia Times opinion writer Bhim Bhurtel, Ross Bailey and Anthony Brown.
Death
Sinclair was admitted to hospital in March 2020 after contracting COVID-19; he died on 31 March 2020 aged 73.
|
TI Group
|
[
"Defunct companies of the United Kingdom",
"Engineering companies of the United Kingdom",
"Cycle manufacturers of the United Kingdom",
"Holding companies established in 1919",
"Companies based in Oxfordshire",
"Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange",
"Steel companies of the United Kingdom",
"Technology companies established in 1919",
"1919 establishments in England",
"Technology companies disestablished in 2000",
"2000 disestablishments in England",
"Holding companies disestablished in 2000"
] | 1,872 | 16,259 |
TI Group plc (formerly "Tube Investments") was a holding company for specialised engineering companies. It was based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and was listed on the London Stock Exchange, at one point being a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The company was originally registered as Tube Investments in 1919, combining the seamless steel tube businesses of various companies. In 1949, the company established TI Cycles of India as a joint venture with the Murugappa family. During 1956, it created the subsidiary British Cycle Corporation, consisting of Armstrong, Norman Cycles, Sun Cycles, Phillips Cycles, Hercules Cycles, and merged it with Raleigh Industries. During the 1980s, the company acquired Alfred Herbert Ltd, Houdaille, and Armco Inc.'s European Tubing business. In 1987, Raleigh was sold to Derby International while Creda was sold to GEC.
During 1992, TI Group acquired Dowty Group, after which the business underwent heavy restructuring, making 1,500 former Dowty employees redundant and quickly disposing of seven ex-Dowty Group companies via a management buyout that resulted in the creation of Ultra Electronics. In 1994, TI Group transferred the Dowty landing gear business into a joint venture that it formed with SNECMA, which became known as Messier-Dowty. During late 1998, TI Group opted to sell its stake in Messier-Dowty. Throughout the late 1990s, the group acquired numerous other companies, including Technoflow Tube Systems, Bundy Asia Pacific, S&H Fabricating and Engineering, Kenmore Italiana, Walbro Corporation, and Marwal. On 4 December 2000, Smiths Industries merged with TI Group.
History
The company was registered as Tube Investments in 1919, combining the seamless steel tube businesses of Tubes Ltd, New Credenda Tube (later known as Creda), Simplex and Accles & Pollock. Reynolds Tube joined the group in 1928.
Ivan Stedeford joined the company in 1928; he became chief executive in 1935, and chairman in 1944. The company benefitted greatly from the expansion of Britain's aviation sector, particularly amid the Second World War.
In 1946, the company bought Swallow Coachbuilding Co. (1935) Ltd. and Hercules Cycles. In 1949, the company established TI Cycles of India as a joint venture with the Murugappa family. The British Cycle Corporation subsidiary was formed in 1956, and consisted of Armstrong, Norman Cycles, Sun Cycles, Phillips Cycles and Hercules Cycles (no connection with the German Hercules company). TI subsidiary Swallow Coachbuilding Co. constructed the Swallow Doretti sports car in 1954 and 1955. The 'Aluminium War' from 1958 to 1959 was a fierce, and ultimately successful, battle fought by the firm to acquire British Aluminium.
Raleigh Industries were acquired in 1960, bringing the Raleigh owned brands BSA Cycles, Humber, Triumph, Rudge, New Hudson, Sunbeam Three Spires and J. B. Brooks. During 1963, the company bought kettle manufacturers Russell Hobbs in 1963; that same year, Sir Ivan Stedeford retired as chairman and chief executive officer and became life president.
The group bought Alfred Herbert Ltd in 1982. In 1986, Tube Investments acquired Houdaille, parent of John Crane and other industrial companies from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts; the non Crane divisions were sold back to KKR as IDEX. Tube Investments acquired Armco Inc.'s European Tubing business – Fulton (UK) and Bundy Corporation (USA) in 1987; Raleigh was sold that year to Derby International and Creda to GEC.
TI Group bought Huron Products Industries (USA) in 1991, and Dowty Group in 1992, Reportedly, Dowty had been regarded by TI's chairman, Sir Christopher Lewinton, as his number-one target and had made substantial preparations towards its acquisition, although the bid was not regarded as being a hostile one despite Dowty's board initially having spurned the proposition. Following the completion of the Dowty acquisition, TI Group became the second largest engineering concern in the UK.
Considerable restructuring of the company occurred during the early-to-mid 1990s. By August 1993, TI Group had made 1,500 of ex-Dowty workforce redundant since the acquisition, equivalent to 20 per cent of the total workforce; this move was reportedly a consequence of the unit's performance having been beneath expectations. During 1993, TI Group decided to dispose of seven former Dowty Group companies engaged in the manufacture of electronic equipment; this was achieved in the form of a management buyout that resulted in the creation of Ultra Electronics.
In 1994, TI Group transferred the Dowty landing gear business into a joint venture that it formed with SNECMA, which became known as Messier-Dowty. According to Tony Edwards, the chief executive and chairman of the merged entity, while acknowledging there having been some difficulties due to a lack of preparation, he regarded it as being: "a successful example of European integration that works". At one point, TI Group had ambitious to wholly own Messier-Dowty, however the French government made any such deal impossible. Accordingly, during late 1998, TI Group opted to sell its stake in Messier-Dowty, it thus became wholly owned by the French aerospace business Safran and subsequently renamed Safran Landing Systems.
During 1996, TI Group decided to sell Accles & Pollock to Hay Hall Group. Throughout the late 1990s, various companies were acquired by TI Group, including Technoflow Tube Systems (Germany), Bundy Asia Pacific, S&H Fabricating and Engineering (USA), Kenmore Italiana (Italy), Walbro Corporation (USA), and Marwal (France).
On 4 December 2000, Smiths Industries merged with TI Group. Shortly after the merger was completed, Smiths Group transferred its newly acquired automotive business into a separate corporate entity, creating TI Automotive, and promptly disposed of it.
Operations
The three major divisions were:
John Crane International, manufacturer of mechanical seals,
Bundy Corporation, a tubing manufacturer and supplier to the refrigeration and automotive industries,
Dowty Group, an aerospace company.
The group also owned TI Creda, a manufacturer of domestic cookers, and owned TI Chesterfield Cylinders, a manufacturer of pressurised gas cylinders for companies such as BOC and Air Products and Chemicals: the business was sold and the factory moved from Chesterfield to Sheffield.
|
American Capitalism
|
[
"1952 non-fiction books",
"Books critical of capitalism",
"1952 in economic history",
"Houghton Mifflin books",
"Books by John Kenneth Galbraith"
] | 549 | 3,933 |
American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power is a book by John Kenneth Galbraith, written in 1952. It contains a critique of the view that markets, left to their own devices, will provide socially optimal solutions. Galbraith agrees with F. A. Hayek as far as the assertion goes that "the price system will fulfil [its] function only if competition prevails, that is, if the individual producer has to adapt to price changes and cannot control them." The book presents Galbraith's account of the inter-relationship between politics and economics which for Galbraith is based on a theory of competition guiding a capitalistic democratic society.
Synopsis and summary
Galbraith builds on work by Prof. E. H. Chamberlin of Harvard and Joan Robinson at Cambridge, as well as the work done by Joe S. Bain of the University of California at Berkeley, arguing that the America of the early 1950s no longer complied to a textbook definition of Perfect competition. On page 66 he sets out the conclusions which result from the abandonment of competitive behaviour in favour of oligopoly or crypto-monopoly:
"The producer now has measurable control over his prices. Hence, prices are no longer an impersonal force selecting the efficient man, forcing him to adapt the most efficient mode and scale of operations and driving out the inefficient and incompetent. One can as well suppose that prices will be an umbrella which efficient and incompetent producers will tacitly agree to hold at a safe level over their heads and under which all will live comfortably, profitably and inefficiently."
Just as the market at the micro-level may not always work to society's advantage, Galbraith concludes that Keynes was correct in his explanation of the deficiencies of the macro-model where an equilibrium was possible below the full employment level of output and that without outside intervention, this equilibrium might persist.
Galbraith highlights the role of "Countervailing Power" in dealing with market failure & outlines its operation at the micro, and at the macro levels. At the micro level, firms might merge or band together to influence the price. Individual wage earners might also combine in unions to influence wage rates. Finally, government might intervene in the market place where required to provide regulation where countervailing power failed to develop but was nevertheless required. He concluded that Countervailing power was legitimate and welcome as the alternative of state control would be much less palatable to the business community. Without countervailing power, Galbraith concluded (p181):
"private decisions could and presumably would lead to the unhampered exploitation of the public, or of workers, farmers and others who are intrinsically weak as individuals. Such decisions would be a proper object of state interference or would soon so become."
Notes
|
Samworth Brothers
|
[
"British pie brands",
"Companies based in Cornwall",
"Meat companies of the United Kingdom",
"Companies based in Leicestershire",
"Food and drink companies established in 1896",
"Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange",
"Privately held companies of the United Kingdom",
"Family-owned companies of the United Kingdom",
"1896 establishments in England",
"Callington"
] | 1,457 | 11,326 |
Samworth Brothers is a British food manufacturer which produces a range of chilled and ambient foods, both own-label and branded. It is the owner of Cornish pasty maker Ginsters and malt loaf manufacturer Soreen, and is also known as a maker of certified Melton Mowbray pork pies.
History
George Samworth was born in 1868, and after joining a group of Birmingham-based pig buyers started his own pig-dealing business in 1896. After his retirement in 1930, his sons Frank and George took over the business. In 1950, Frank bought Nottingham based butchery and pie makers TN Parr, followed in 1969 by the acquisition of local Nottinghamshire rival Pork Farms which doubled the size of the business overnight. Frank decided to retire, leaving the business to his sons, with David as chairman, while Frank Jr. and John Samworth were senior Directors. In 1971, the group was floated on the London Stock Exchange as Pork Farms plc, and in 1972 bought rival Holland's Pies. In 1978, Pork Farms was acquired by Northern Foods.
Separately, in 1977, John Samworth had left the business after his purchase of the Ginsters Cornish pasties business from the Ginsters family, under his holding company Goran Foods Ltd. In 1985 the name of Goran Foods was changed to Samworth Brothers, to reflect the involvement of John and David Samworth.
In 1986, Samworth Brothers purchased Leicester-based Walker & Son Ltd. Having sold their Walkers crisps business in 1971 to US-based Standard Brands, their pie-making business was now the largest distributor of Melton Mowbray pork pies. This business was added to in 1992 after the purchase of the fire-destroyed Melton Mowbray based pie maker Dickinson & Morris, which was refurbished in a traditional style.
In 2014, the Group bought the malt loaf brand, Soreen, and in 2015, the sports nutrition brand, SCI-MX.
In 2017, Samworth Brothers bought the West Cornwall Pasty Company, a chain of fast food outlets which at that time had 33 shops and 19 outlets at motorway service stations.
In June 2024, Samworth Brothers Manton Wood voluntarily recalled 15 sandwich and wrap products containing vegetable leaf following an outbreak of Shigatoxigenic E. coli in the United Kingdom in major supermarket chains. The recalls were done as a precautionary step, as no testing has yet indicated traces of E. coli in tested products.
Present
The business is chaired by non-family member Nick Linney.
Products
Samworth Brothers manufactures the following product lines:
Food to go: including sandwiches, wraps, salads, pasties and mini malt loaves.
Savoury pastry: including Ginsters and the West Cornwall Pasty Company, as well as pork pie brands Dickinson & Morris and Walker & Son. The Group is a member of the Cornish Pasty Association and the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association.
Meals: a range of 'heat and serve' meals for major UK retailers and branded suppliers.
Sausages and cooked meats: Walker Sausage Company and Walkers Deli make a range of premium sausages, hams and pates.
Sports nutrition: SCI-MX makes a range of high protein powders, capsules, snack bars and shakes.
Services
Samworth Brothers Supply Chain provides temperature controlled distribution services to companies within the Samworth Brothers Group, as well as to external food manufacturers, retailers and other distributors.
Westward Laboratories is a food testing lab in Cornwall which provides microbiological and chemical testing for the food industry.
Community
Since 2007, the company has run the Charity Challenge, a fundraising triathlon-style event that takes place every two years.
In 2013, the Group launched the Samworth Brothers Sports Opportunity Fund which supports community sports projects close to Samworth Brothers locations. Between 2013 and 2019, it gave £1.9 million to 160 sports projects.
Sustainability
Since 2017, Samworth Brothers has bought all its grid-supplied electricity from certified renewable sources. In an effort to tackle food waste, the Group is a signatory to the IGD/WRAP Food Waste Reduction Roadmap and to the Champions 12.3 pledge – an international food-waste-reduction initiative.
Samworth Brothers also has group-wide initiatives in place aimed at reducing impact, reusing resources, recycling materials and adopting recovery principles.
National Living Wage debate
At the time of introduction of a National Living Wage in April 2016, Samworth Brothers came under widespread criticism for removing premium pay rates in order to pay the new minimum wage. Joan Ryan, Labour Party MP for Enfield North, stated in Parliament:
Bradgate Bakery is part of the group [Samworth Brothers] that owns famous brands that we all enjoy, such as Ginsters pies and Soreen loaf, but the pay that it is offering staff is a lot less tasty than its food. Bradgate has written to all its Leicestershire staff, detailing changes to their wages. Most shop-floor employees at Bradgate were earning just over £6.70 an hour before 1 April, so the introduction of the national living wage should have made quite a difference for them, but Bradgate, like B&Q, has found an opportunity to save money.
[Bradgate] has changed staff terms and conditions to phase out double pay for Sundays by 2019. That means that while employees on the national minimum wage earned £13.78 per hour on a Sunday last month, by 2019 they will earn just £9 per hour. That is the national living wage according to Bradgate Bakery. Extra pay for night shifts, Saturdays and overtime are also being scaled back. In sum, Bradgate workers are being sold a lie: they are told that their pay is increasing, but what the Government are giving with one hand, Bradgate is taking with another. According to one very worried worker who approached my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden, these cuts will affect the whole range of shifts that run in the factories. That means that by 2018 a production operative on night shift will be paid £2,778 less a year, while a night shift team leader will be paid £344 less.
Politics
Mark and David Samworth, who died in 2022, were regular donors to the Conservative Party. It was reported in 2015 that donations since 2002 by the Samworths, and others connected with the company, totalled nearly £650,000.
Mark Samworth was invited to one of the Conservative Party's "leaders' group meals" in 2016, according to documents released by the party and analysed by the Morning Star. These "cash-for-access" meals require a minimum payment of £50,000 to the Conservative Party.
|
Lydia Hamilton Smith
|
[
"1810s births",
"1884 deaths",
"Businesspeople from Lancaster, Pennsylvania",
"People from Adams County, Pennsylvania",
"African Americans in the American Civil War",
"Women in the American Civil War",
"African-American abolitionists",
"American abolitionists",
"Underground Railroad people",
"African-American women in business",
"19th-century American businesspeople",
"19th-century American businesswomen",
"African-American Catholics",
"Housekeepers"
] | 1,431 | 11,840 |
Lydia Hamilton Smith ( – February 14, 1884) was an American businesswoman and the long-time housekeeper and confidante of Thaddeus Stevens, later becoming a prominent entrepreneur after his death.
Early life
Lydia Hamilton was born as a free person (her father was a Scottish immigrant; her mother had a white mother and black father) at Russell Tavern near Gettysburg in Adams County, Pennsylvania. There is uncertainty over her date of birth; 1813 is the date on her tombstone. There are other sources that cite 1814; her death certificate and obituarites posted in Lancaster and Washington D.C. list 1815. She had been the wife of a Black Gettysburg barber, Jacob Smith, but they were living apart when she was employed by Stevens as a housekeeper (in 1844 or 1847). She had two children by Smith, and they remained with her in her employment. Jacob Smith died in 1852.<ref>Sandburg, Carl. "Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years and The War Years. The Reader's Digest Association, Pleasantville, New York. 1970. p. 236.</ref>
Career with Stevens
Separated from her husband, Smith moved with her mother and sons to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and accepted a position as housekeeper to a prominent lawyer and abolitionist, the unmarried Thaddeus Stevens, who had moved from Gettysburg in 1842 but practiced law and had business interests in several counties in the Susquehanna River basin. Stevens was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1858, and Smith continued to keep house for him (including his house in Washington, D.C.) until his death in 1868.
Smith was described as "giving great attention to her appearance," and in later years she had her clothes made to resemble those of Mary Lincoln. American poet Carl Sandburg described Smith as "a comely quadroon with Caucasian features and a skin of light-gold tint, a Roman Catholic communicant with Irish eyes ... quiet, discreet, retiring, reputed for poise and personal dignity."
Smith had two sons, William and Isaac (by Jacob Smith), whom Stevens helped to raise. She and Stevens also raised two of Stevens' nephews, whom he had adopted in the 1840s. On April 2, 1861, her older son William fatally shot himself while handling a pistol at Stevens' home, as his mother watched. William Smith was 26 years old and had worked as a shoemaker in Lancaster. Her other son, Isaac Smith, a banjo player and barber, enlisted in the 6th United States Colored Infantry Regiment in 1863 and served in Virginia.
The exact nature of the relationship between Stevens and Smith is unclear. In the one brief surviving letter from Stevens to her, he addresses her as "Mrs. Smith," unusual deference to an African-American servant in that era. Family members also asked Stevens to be remembered to "Mrs. Smith." Nonetheless, during her time with Stevens, neighbors considered her his common-law wife. Smith not only handled social functions for the politician, she also mingled with Stevens' guests, who were instructed to address her as "Madame" or "Mrs. Smith." Opposition newspapers (for Stevens' views concerning racial equality were quite controversial) claimed she was frequently called "Mrs. Stevens" by people who knew her.
Smith was at Stevens' bedside when he died in Washington, D.C., on August 11, 1868, along with his friend Simon Stevens and surviving nephew (Thaddeus Stevens Jr.), two African-American nuns, and several others. Under Stevens' will, Smith was allowed to choose between a lump sum of $5,000 or a $500 annual allowance; she was also allowed to take any furniture in his house. With the inheritance, Smith purchased Stevens' house and the adjoining lot.
Abolitionist and businesswoman
Stevens and Smith were active in the Underground Railroad, which led to the burning of his ironworks, Caledonia Furnace, during the Civil War. Recent excavation of their house in Lancaster unearthed a cistern with a passageway to a nearby tavern, as well as a spittoon inside, which some historians think was used to shelter escaping slaves. Smith bought her house in Lancaster next to Stevens' house in 1860. During and after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, Smith hired a horse and wagon, and collected food and supplies for the wounded of both sides from neighbors in Adams, York and Lancaster counties and delivered them to the makeshift hospitals. After Stevens' death in 1868, in addition to buying his house in Lancaster, Smith operated a prosperous boarding house across from the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., and invested in real estate and other business ventures.
Death and legacy
Lydia Hamilton Smith died in Washington on her 71st birthday in 1884 and, per her wishes, was buried in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Lancaster, although she also left money for the continued upkeep of Stevens' grave at the Shreiner-Concord cemetery.
In Steven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln, Smith was portrayed by actress S. Epatha Merkerson. The film assumes that she did have sexual relations with Stevens and that they acted as a married couple in every way, and a scene of the film depicts the two of them privately celebrating the hard-fought passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.
In the 21st century, a historical group in Lancaster, Pennsylvania has mounted a campaign intended to convert the existing 'Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Historic Site' into 'The Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy', with plans to open in 2025.
Notes and references
Further reading
Carlson, Peter. "Lincoln's Feisty Foil." American History, vol. 48, no. 1 (Apr. 2013), pp. 50–55.
Delle, James A., and Mary Ann Levine. "Archaeology, Intangible Heritage, and the Negotiation of Urban Identity in Lancaster, Pennsylvania." Historical Archaeology'', vol. 45, no. 1 (2011), pp. 51–66
|
Kori Udovički
|
[
"1961 births",
"Living people",
"People from La Paz",
"Governors of the National Bank of Serbia",
"Serbian economists",
"United Nations Development Programme officials",
"University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics alumni",
"Government ministers of Serbia",
"Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni",
"Deputy prime ministers of Serbia",
"Women government ministers of Serbia",
"21st-century Serbian women politicians",
"21st-century Serbian politicians",
"Serbian officials of the United Nations",
"Serbian people of Bolivian descent"
] | 1,113 | 9,784 |
Kori Udovički (, ; born 4 December 1961) is a Serbian former politician. An independent politician, she previously served as deputy prime minister of Serbia and minister of public administration and local self-government from 2014 to 2016, governor of the National Bank of Serbia from 2003 to 2004, and minister of mining and energy from 2002 to 2003.
Prior to that position, she served as an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Assistant Administrator of the UNDP and Director of the Regional Bureau of UNDP for Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (RBEC) from 2007 to 2012.
Previously she was the founder and the President of the Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES), a Belgrade NGO that works for the advancement of economic research and education in South East Europe. She was also President of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN). CEVES's main publication is Quarterly Monitor of Economic Trends and Policies in Serbia, a publication that systematically monitors macroeconomic, corporate and financial trends and policies in Serbia. It comes out in Serbian and English and is also posted on the CEVES and FREN websites. Kori Udovički was the Editor in Chief until February 2007.
Personal life
Kori was born in La Paz (Bolivia) to a Serbian father and a Bolivian mother. She is married and has three children. Her maternal uncle is former President of Bolivia Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. Her father was a politician in SFR Yugoslavia who served as ambassador in Uruguay and volunteer in Spanish Civil War. Kori is the sister-in-law of actor Rade Šerbedžija as he is married to her sister Lenka.
Education and political career
She graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics in 1984 she obtained an MA (1988) and a PhD (1999) in Economics from Yale University. She researched inter-regional trade and integration between the republics of the former Yugoslavia. More recently, she has studied the sustainability of Serbia's macroeconomic framework. From 1993 to 2001, she worked at the IMF in Washington, D.C., and then returned to Belgrade as Special Advisor to the Serbian Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs. In 2002, she became Minister of Energy and Mining in Serbian Government. She was appointed Governor of the National Bank of Serbia on July 23, 2003, a position she held until February 25, 2004, when her appointment was annulled due to the illegal use of a proxy vote in the Serbian parliament .
|
Cayetano Antonio Licciardo
|
[
"1923 births",
"Ministers of economy of Argentina",
"Argentine accountants",
"1999 deaths",
"20th-century Argentine economists",
"Rectors of universities in Argentina",
"Academic staff of the University of Buenos Aires"
] | 755 | 5,855 |
Cayetano Antonio Licciardo (July 19, 1923– October 30, 1999) was an Argentine politician and the Minister of Economy of Argentina from 1971 to October 13, 1972, and the Minister of Education December 22, 1981 to December 1983.
Education and career
Educated at Argentine Catholic University, he began as a fiscal accounting in 1947 before becoming head of Argentina's Office of Budget Accounting. He was Undersecretary of Finance from 1962 to 1963, National Director and Undersecretary of Budget from 1966 to 1968, Director of Central Bank in 1971 and also Director of the National Development Bank. In 1981, he was appointed as Minister of Economy followed by Minister of Education. He was also a professor of economics at Argentine Catholic University and also a Professor, Dean and Rector at Catholic University of La Plata, and also Professor at University of Buenos Aires, becoming Dean there in 1979, Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and Universidad del Salvador. He was married to Delia Cabaleiro with whom he had five children.
|
DiDi
|
[
"Companies based in Beijing",
"Companies traded over-the-counter in the United States",
"Transport companies established in 2015",
"Transport software",
"Chinese brands",
"Chinese companies established in 2015",
"Carsharing",
"Vehicles for hire",
"Apple Inc. partnerships",
"Ridesharing companies of China",
"Road transport in China",
"Online companies of China",
"Transport companies of China",
"2021 initial public offerings"
] | 6,373 | 82,590 |
Didi Chuxing Technology Company is a Chinese vehicle for hire company headquartered in Beijing with over 550 million users and tens of millions of drivers. The company provides app-based transportation services, including taxi hailing, private car hailing, social ride-sharing, and bike sharing; on-demand delivery services; and automobile services, including sales, leasing, financing, maintenance, fleet operation, electric vehicle charging, and co-development of vehicles with automakers. The company is a subsidiary of Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc.
History
2012–2014: founding of Didi Dache
In June 2012, following eight years working in Alibaba's sales and Alipay divisions, Cheng Wei founded Didi Dache (), a taxi-hailing app, through Beijing Xiaoju Keji Co. (; xiaoju meaning "little orange"), which then changed to . "" means "beep beep" in Mandarin (like a car's horn).
The application was the initial incarnation of Didi Chuxing's ride-hailing service, and consisted of an app for consumers to request taxis and other rideshare services for immediate pick up. Beijing Xiaoju Keji Co. developed the app. In November 2012, Tencent invested $15 million in the company.
2015: merger of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache
A study in December 2013 by Analysis International, estimated that at the time Didi Dache (backed by Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Limited) held approximately 55% of the smartphone-based taxi-hailing market in China (about 150 million Chinese were estimated to use their smartphones to hail taxis). According to the same study, Kuaidi Dache (快的打车; meaning "Fast Taxi"), backed by Alibaba Group, held most of the remaining market share. Aggressive fundraising by the two companies resulted in Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache raising US$700 million and US$600 million from private investors, respectively, to sustain their growth in the world's largest transport market. In February 2015 the companies merged to form Didi Kuaidi.
In May 2015, Didi Kuaidi spent aggressively to compete with other startups including Yidao Yongche () and Uber (of which Baidu was an investor). The company also added other features to complement its basic taxi-calling function such as new premium vehicle services, functions for carpool and designated driver transportation modes and enhanced accessibility functions for passengers with disabilities. In July 2015, Didi Kuaidi completed a US$2 billion fundraising round, bringing the company's cash reserves to over US$3.5 billion; the same month, Didi Kuaidi was reported to get 80.2% market share in car hire services.
Didi Kuaidi's existing stakeholders, including Alibaba, Tencent, Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd and Coatue Management, participated in the round, alongside new investors including, Capital International Private Equity Fund and Ping An Ventures, part of Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd. The July 2015 fundraise is ranked as the world's largest single fundraising round by any private company, as well as the largest fundraising round for a Chinese mobile internet company at that time.
By September 2015, Didi Kuaidi had obtained 80% market share in private car hailing services and 99% of the taxis market share. The same month, Didi Kuaidi announced the launch of a rebrand process, including a plan to rename itself "Didi Chuxing". Following the rebrand, in December 2015, taxi drivers concerned with the potential risk of ride-hailing applications cutting into their business protested against Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, forcing both companies to close their offices in the city of Luoyang.
2016: acquisition of Uber China
By the beginning of 2016, Uber China, which started its Chinese operations in 2015, had become a major competitor to Didi Kuaidi. Uber's then-CEO, Travis Kalanick, claimed the company was losing over US$1 billion annually in China.
DiDi closed a US$4.5 billion fundraising round in June 2016, with investors including Apple Inc., China Life Insurance Co., and a financial affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. As part of the round, DiDi secured a $2.5 billion syndicated loan arranged by China Merchants Bank Co. This equity share fundraising round is one of the world's largest by any private company, surpassing the previous record set by DiDi.
On 1 August 2016, DiDi announced that it would acquire Uber China in an acquisition valuing Uber China at US$35 billion. As part of the deal, Uber acquired 5.89% of the combined Chinese company with preferred equity interest which at the time equated to a 17.7% economic interest in DiDi. The transaction also provided DiDi with a minority equity interest in Uber.
In April 2019, Uber released a public version of its S-1 filing ahead of its planned initial public offering. As part of the filing, Uber revealed that at the time of filing, the company owned a 15.4% stake in DiDi. Uber's stake in the company was diluted (from 17.7% in 2016 to the 2019 stake) as a result of new investments from additional investors since 2016.
2017–2020: business expansion, crisis and safety system enhancement
In March 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank Group Corporation approached DiDi with an offer to invest $6 billion in the company to fund the ride-hailing firm's expansion in self-driving car technologies, with a significant portion of the money to come from SoftBank's then-planned $100 billion Vision Fund.
On 28 April 2017, DiDi announced it closed a new financing round of over US$5.5 billion to support its global expansion strategy and continued investments in AI-based technologies. The round valued the company at US$50 billion.
In December 2017, Reuters reported that DiDi had raised $4 billion for a global push into foreign markets and investments into technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.
In May 2018 the company received a wave of negative media coverage when a female passenger on the company's Hitch social carpooling service was murdered by her driver. In August of the same year, a second female passenger was raped and killed by her driver using the same Hitch service on the DiDi platform. Following these incidents, DiDi suspended its Hitch services in August 2018, and began to reform its platform with improved safety standards. In September 2018, Didi announced an investment of $20 million in customer service, The app's safety updates included an evolving set of safety precautions and in-app functions, including the formation of an in-app safety center, en-route audio recording, police assistance button and blocking function to restrict service from certain drivers and passengers. The company also invested $20 million in its customer service offerings and increased its in-house customer service team to 8,000 staff. As part of the update, DiDi created an online discussion platform to facilitate online and offline national public opinion surveys in China. Media reported that in 2018, DiDi recorded losses of up to $1.61 billion owing to heavy spend on training and recruitment of qualified and skilled drivers.
In 2018, the company launched its "Red Flag Steering Wheel" program in which verified Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members would be visible as drivers. The company also pledged to hire 1,000 CCP members as part of its safety drive.
Since late 2020, DiDi cooperates with BYD and developed the BYD D1 for ride-hailing services.
Following the launch of the BYD D1, in April 2021, DiDi officially started its own car-building plan, code-named "Da Vinci". The headquarters of the car building team is located in Shunyi District, Beijing and has recruited 1,700 employees, covering R&D, senior algorithm engineer, autonomous driving development team and so on. The known first project to be launched was codenamed Mona during its development starting from 2021. Original plans were to launch Didi's own budget entry level EV brand, and the Mona would be the first vehicle of the brand to be launched. Plans started to change in late 2022 when the development of the Mona project was near complete, while camouflaged testing prototypes were seen driving around as early as March 2023, the layoff has begun and the majority of the Da Vinci team was dismissed before Didi sold its EV development business along with the Mona project to XPeng in August 2023. The vehicle was previewed with a set of images in June 2024, then introduced in July 2024 and went on sale in August 2024 as the Mona M03 ahead of the 2024 Chengdu Auto Show.
2021–present: initial public offering and regulatory scrutiny
On 10 June 2021, DiDi filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange hoping to raise $10 billion, making it the second largest Chinese share offering in the US since Alibaba. On 16 June, it was reported that the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) launched an investigation into DiDi around pricing and competitive practices. On 30 June the company went public on the NYSE under the stock ticker "DIDI", raising $4.4 billion on a valuation of close to $70 billion US dollars. It did so against Chinese government guidance. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) had sought to persuade DiDi to postpone its IPO filing in order to allow time for a more thorough cybersecurity review.
On 4 July 2021, the CAC ordered app stores to remove DiDi, citing violations around the company's collection and usage of personal information. According to Chinese regulators, the company had delivered sensitive data to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The CAC cited the National Security Law, the 2017 Cybersecurity Law, and Measures on Cybersecurity Review as the basis for its approach.
The cybersecurity investigation of DiDi coincided with nationalistic public sentiment against the company. Chinese netizens frequently asserted that the company had turned over sensitive data to United States authorities during the IPO and described the company as a "traitor" and "walking dog" of the United States.
Chinese authorities ordered all app stores in China to remove 25 apps owned and operated by DiDi, including Didi Chuxing Enterprise Edition, Uber China, and D-Chat. Chinese regulators also fined DiDi, along with other Chinese tech firms such as Alibaba and Tencent, for alleged violations of the Anti-Monopoly Law. The fines were for 500,000 yuan ($77,174) per violation —the maximum amount for such violations.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding DiDi and other Chinese companies listed in the US, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily halted all IPOs from Chinese companies in August 2021. DiDi also revealed that it was under investigation by the SEC in regards to its IPO.
In December 2021, DiDi announced that it planned to delist from New York and re-list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. However, DiDi's plans to re-list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange were halted in March 2022 after the CAC informed DiDi executives that they still failed to meet security regulations, and DiDi's shares fell 44% as a result.
DiDi formally de-listed from the NYSE on 13 June 2022 and began trading over-the-counter under the symbol "DIDIY". DiDi was fined 8.026 billion yuan ($1.2 billion USD) by the CAC in July 2022 for breaking its cybersecurity laws. DiDi CEO, Cheng Wei, and DiDi President, Jean Liu, were also fined $150,000 each for the violations.
DiDi finally won approval to restart new user registration in China in January 2023 in a move seen as a softening of China's crackdown on its tech companies.
In August 2023, it was announced DiDi had agreed to sell its autonomous driving technology unit and EV development project to the Guangzhou-headquartered electric vehicle manufacturer, Xpeng, in exchange for $744 million worth of shares.
On 19 May 2024, Jean Liu, co-founder of DiDi, stepped down from her roles as president and board director after a decade at the helm of the company. Liu has announced she will continue as "permanent partner" and chief people officer, focusing on the company's long-term development, including talent and corporate social responsibility, while DiDi, which had faced significant regulatory scrutiny, will no longer have a president position.
Criticism
DiDi faced scrutiny after it continued to operate in the Russian market following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Observers and critics argued that such a decision was inconsistent with the efforts of other multinational companies that scaled back or ceased operations in Russia during the war.
Services
DiDi serves 550 million users across over 400 cities. A total of 7.43 billion rides were completed on DiDi's platform in 2017. Some of DiDi's services include:
DiDi Taxi: Launched in September 2012, the service provides intelligent request-dispatching system for taxi companies. DiDi currently partners with more than 500 taxi companies in China, Japan and Brazil.
DiDi Express: Launched in May 2015, the service matches riders traveling in the same direction with an available shared car. DiDi ExpressPool carries over 2.4 million daily rides in 2018.
DiDi Premier: Launched in April 2014 and rebranded in 2018, the service includes a 24/7 customer service hotline in Chinese and English and services, including vehicles equipped with child seats, adapted vehicles for riders with disabilities, and arrangements for guide dogs.
Designated Driving: Launched in July 2015, the service lets customers who own a vehicle request a chauffeur to drive them. In 2015, the service operated in about 200 cities.
Enterprise Solution: The service offers business travel services to about 170,000 corporate clients.
DiDi Bus: Launched initially in Beijing and Shenzhen in 2015, the platform offers a real-time minibus pooling service (U+ Bus), customized bus services (Youdian Bus), data-based intelligent bus dispatching service and real-time bus service inquiry service. In 2018, DiDi launched an intermodal transportation recommendation function allowing users to search and book public transportation, online car-hailing and bike-sharing services in a single smartphone screen.
DiDi Luxe: Launched in May 2017, the service offers chauffeurs and mid-to-high end cars.
Bike-Sharing: In April 2017, DiDi added bike-sharing services to its app. On 17 January 2018, DiDi launched its own bike-sharing platform, which integrates companies like Ofo, Bluegogo and DiDi-branded bikes and e-bikes.
Xiaoju Automobile Solutions: Incubated in 2015 and put in trial operation in April 2018, Xiaoju provides various auto-related services, including leasing and trading, refueling and recharging, maintenance, repair and car-sharing services to DiDi drivers and independent car owners. In August 2018, DiDi announced a $1 billion investment into the platform. In January 2019, a Xiaoju Automobile Solutions app was launched.
DiDi Financial Services: In January 2019, DiDi announced the launch of a new line of financial services, such as car insurance, personal loans and crowdfunded medical insurance, available through a separate "DiDi Finance" app.
DiDi Food: Launched in April 2018, DiDi Foodie is DiDi's food delivery service, available in Mexico, Brazil and China.
DiDi English: In May 2017, DiDi released an English-language service in the Chinese mainland. The service offers English-language user interface and a real-time, in-app text message translation to facilitate rider-driver communication.
Technology
DiDi launched AI Labs in Beijing and in 2018 the company opened DiDi Labs in Mountain View, California. This facility mainly focuses on AI-based security and intelligent driving technologies.
In April 2018, DiDi and the Beijing Capital International Airport Public Security Bureau Traffic Detachment jointly built a smart transportation innovation laboratory. Since 2018, the traffic lights at more than 30 intersections in the airport area have been optimized, and the delays in the airport area at night peaks have been reduced by about 20%. As of 2019, DiDi Smart Transportation projects have been deployed in more than 20 cities, including Jinan, Guiyang, Tianjin, and Shenzhen. These projects include traffic management systems, smart traffic lights, smart traffic screens, and reversible lanes.
Globalization
August 2016: acquired Uber China and obtained an equity interest in Uber.
January 2017: made a strategic investment in 99(app), Brazil's largest local shared mobility provider. In its official announcement, DiDi noted its intention to provide strategic guidance and support to 99 in the areas of technology, product development, operations and business planning.
March 2017: opened a research and development center called DiDi Labs in Mountain View, California, U.S.
July 2017: co-led a new financing round of Grab.
August 2017: formed a strategic partnership with Taxify, a transportation network company operating in Europe and Africa. DiDi also formed a strategic partnership with Careem, a transportation network company operating in the Middle East and North Africa.
January 2018: acquired 99 and now operates in Brazil under the 99 brand.
February 2018: launched its new app in Hong Kong, which is an upgraded version of Kuaidi Taxi. It was also announced that DiDi will, along with SoftBank Group, begin a venture in Japan.
April 2018: started operation under its main name in Mexico.
May 2018: started trial operation in Geelong, Australia.
July 2018: DiDi and Tokyo-based SoftBank Corp. have set up a joint venture for taxi-hailing in Japan.
September 2018: launched a taxi-hailing service in Osaka.
November 2018: launched a research facility in Toronto, its second in North America.
March 2019: launched ride-hailing services in Newcastle, Australia.
April 2019: launched Taxi-Hailing Service in Tokyo and Kyoto.
June 2019: started operations under its main name in Chile and Colombia.
November 2019: DiDi scheduled to commence ride sharing services in Perth, Western Australia. DiDi will be the third major player to enter the West Australian ride share market alongside Uber and Ola. DiDi also launched operations in Costa Rica this month.
January 2020: DiDi started hiring staff to start its business in Russia.
August 2020: DiDi launched service in Kazan, Russia.
November 2020: Announced entry into New Zealand market.
May 2021: DiDi launched services in other Russian cities (Ufa, Tomsk, Voronezh, Tyumen, Krasnodar and other).
March 2021: Announced launch in South Africa after a pilot in Gqeberha.
May 2021: DiDi launched services in Kazakhstan, its fourth country in the Eurasian market.
September 2021: DiDi launched services in Egypt, its second country on the African continent.
2022: DiDi surpassed Uber to become the dominant ride-share company in Mexico, obtaining 56% of the market.
March 2022: DiDi suspended services in Kazakhstan, citing "market changes and other challenges". DiDi expressed an intention to exit Russia on 4 March 2022, although the service continued operating. As of 15 July 2023 the DiDi ride-hailing app is not available in Russia.
April 2022: DiDi suspended services in South Africa, which it launched in March of the previous year.
As of at least 2023: DiDi is the most popular ride-sharing app in Latin America.
Leadership
Cheng Wei (), founder and CEO of Didi Chuxing
Cheng Wei founded Beijing Orange Technology Co Ltd. in 2012, and soon launched Didi Dache, a taxi-hailing app. Prior to founding Beijing Orange, Cheng Wei worked in Alibaba Group for eight years. Cheng Wei holds a BA from Beijing University of Chemical Technology.
Jean Liu (), president of Didi Chuxing
Jean joined in DiDi in July 2014 from her previous position as managing director in Goldman Sachs Asia for 12 years. Jean is a member of the board of directors of ONE Foundation. Jean earned her B.A. from Peking University and her M.S. from Harvard University, both in Computer Science. Jean received an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science from New York University.
Staff
Diversity: 40% of DiDi's employees are women. In 2017, DiDi launched a female career development plan and established the "DiDi Women's Network". It is reportedly the first female-oriented career development plan in a major Chinese Internet company.
Honors
2015: DiDi was announced as a World Economic Forum Global Growth Company
2016: DiDi was included in Fortune "Change the World" list
2016: DiDi was named one of the World's 50 Smartest Companies by MIT Technology Review
2017: DiDi was nominated as one of the best five startups for TechCrunch's 10th Annual Crunchies Awards
2018: DiDi was included in Fast Company "Top 10 Most innovative Companies in China" list
2018: DiDi was included in the Global Clean Tech 100 list by Cleantech Group
2018: DiDi was named on CNBC's Disruptor 50 list
2018: DiDi was selected on Fortune's Change The World list
2018: DiDi Rider App was recognized as Best Hidden Gem for Mexico in Google Play's Best of 2018 list
2021: DiDi was named one of the 100 Most Influential Companies by Time.
|
Demola Aladekomo
|
[
"Computer engineers",
"Nigerian computer scientists",
"Nigerian engineers",
"Nigerian philanthropists",
"Nigerian business executives",
"Obafemi Awolowo University alumni",
"1957 births",
"Living people",
"Nigerian company founders",
"University of Lagos alumni",
"Lagos Business School alumni",
"20th-century Nigerian businesspeople",
"21st-century Nigerian businesspeople",
"Nigerian chairpersons of corporations"
] | 1,314 | 13,734 |
Sir Demola Aladekomo KJW HOA (born 31 December 1957) is a Nigerian computer engineer and businessman. He is the chairman of SmartCity Resorts Plc, Card Centre Nigeria Limited, Treasure-nest Limited, Crops Nigeria Limited, Chams Consortium Limited, Insider Concepts Limited, and the founder of Chams Plc. Aladekomo is a Fellow of the Nigeria Computer Society (FNCS) and the Computer Professional Registration Council (CPN); a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), and the immediate past President of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association (LBSAA) and the Nigeria Computer Society, respectively. He has also served as the vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of SmartCard Society of Nigeria. Aladekomo is the founder of DATA Foundation and Volunteer Corps, non-governmental organizations focused on corporate social investments in Nigeria. He is a Patron and "Handler of the Order of Anchor (HOA)" from the , of the Boys' Brigade in Nigeria.
Early life and family
Aladekomo graduated from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1982 with a degree in computer engineering and obtained an MBA from the University of Lagos in 1984. He was Chief Executive Programmer at the Lagos Business School (LBS) from 1991 to 1992. He is married to the Very Revered Titi Aladekomo, a Methodist minister, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. They have four children, one of which is Tomiwa Aladekomo, and other grandchildren.
Professional life
Aladekomo founded Chams Limited (now Chams Plc, and listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange) as the first indigenous computer maintenance outfit in Nigeria in September 1985. Working as the chief engineer at the time, the company deployed Nigeria's first Wide-Area-Network WAN) on personal computers, and deployed the country's pioneer card technology. The company also contributed to the development of the first e-payment card in Nigeria: the Valucard project, working with a consortium of five local banks.
Aladekomo helped transform Chams from a privately held company to public company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It attempted to differentiate itself in the Nigerian market by focusing on the business of identity management, ceding the increasingly cluttered card technology and transaction payments segments to its subsidiaries, ChamAccess Limited and Card Centre Nigeria Limited.
From 2007 to 2010, Demola led the successful rollout of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) National ID (NIN) project, a pivotal initiative in establishing national identity infrastructure for Nigeria.
Demola was instrumental in delivering the 2011 Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) SIM registration project, making possible the registration of millions of SIM cards and users nationwide.
Demola also oversaw the 2013-2014 implementation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System's (NIBSS) Bank Verification Number (BVN) initiative, which strengthened banking security and financial inclusion in Nigeria.
INEC VOTER DATABASE, CARDS & WORLD RECORD
Additionally, Demola led Chams to deliver a purified database of 54.3 million Nigerians and managed the delivery of voter cards for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2007. DEMOLA's Chams earned the world record for the largest card personalization centre in the world at 1.75 million cards per day in his Abuja card factory.
GUINESS WORLD RECORD
Demola established ChamsCities in Lagos and Abuja in 2008, which earned double Guinness World Records for its innovation and largest cyber centres in the world then.
Demola's career is marked by numerous professional achievements. He served as President of the Nigerian Computer Society from 2011 to 2013 and as President of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association from 2012 to 2014.
As a trailblazer in Nigeria's ICT industry, his leadership has been instrumental in driving innovation, particularly in pioneering e-payment platforms and smart card technologies in Nigeria
Demola voluntarily retired from Chams after serving for 30 years.
Now, as the Executive Chairman of SmartCity PLC, Demola is focused on shaping the future of urban living in Nigeria through the development of HazanaCity, a polycentric smart city with residential areas, tech hub+ and markets, in Ibadan and Osogbo. His commitment to sustainable, tech-driven urban environments is a testament to his vision of fostering innovation and economic growth.
Philanthropic activities
Aladekomo is a Knight of John Wesley, the founder and past chairman of the Board of Trustees of Volunteer Corps and the DATA Foundation; a non-governmental organisation committed to professional volunteerism for public school education which has repeatedly awarded scholarships to students in public schools.
Aladekomo has served in the following capacities:
Council Member, Osun State University
Board Member, Osun State University Advancement Board
Board Member, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAUTECHEXCEL), the foundation implementing a knowledge park at the university
Patron, Lagos City Chorale Group
Patron, Boys' Brigade Nigeria
Member, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) from inception/Vision 2010 and Vision 2020
|
Taylor rule
|
[
"Federal Reserve System",
"Monetary policy",
"Monetary economics",
"1992 introductions",
"Eponymous laws of economics"
] | 2,959 | 24,855 |
The Taylor rule is a monetary policy targeting rule. The rule was proposed in 1992 by American economist John B. Taylor for central banks to use to stabilize economic activity by appropriately setting short-term interest rates. The rule considers the federal funds rate, the price level and changes in real income. The Taylor rule computes the optimal federal funds rate based on the gap between the desired (targeted) inflation rate and the actual inflation rate; and the output gap between the actual and natural output level. According to Taylor, monetary policy is stabilizing when the nominal interest rate is higher/lower than the increase/decrease in inflation. Thus the Taylor rule prescribes a relatively high interest rate when actual inflation is higher than the inflation target.
In the United States, the Federal Open Market Committee controls monetary policy. The committee attempts to achieve an average inflation rate of 2% (with an equal likelihood of higher or lower inflation). The main advantage of a general targeting rule is that a central bank gains the discretion to apply multiple means to achieve the set target.
The monetary policy of the Federal Reserve changed throughout the 20th century. Taylor and others evaluate the period between the 1960s and the 1970s as a period of poor monetary policy; the later years are typically characterized as stagflation. The inflation rate was high and increasing, while interest rates were kept low. Since the mid-1970s monetary targets have been used in many countries as a means to target inflation. However, in the 2000s the actual interest rate in advanced economies, notably in the US, was kept below the value suggested by the Taylor rule.
The Taylor rule represents a rules-based approach to monetary policy, standing in contrast to discretionary policy where central bankers make decisions based on their judgment and interpretation of economic conditions. While the rule provides a systematic framework that can enhance policy predictability and transparency, critics argue that its simplified formula—focusing primarily on inflation and output—may not adequately capture important factors such as financial stability, exchange rates, or structural changes in the economy. This debate between rules and discretion remains central to discussions of monetary policy implementation.
Equation
According to Taylor's original version of the rule, the real policy interest rate should respond to divergences of actual inflation rates from target inflation rates and of actual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from potential GDP:
In this equation, is the target short-term nominal policy interest rate (e.g. the federal funds rate in the US, the Bank of England base rate in the UK), is the rate of inflation as measured by the GDP deflator, is the desired rate of inflation, is the assumed natural/equilibrium interest rate, is the actual GDP, and is the potential output, as determined by a linear trend. is the output gap, in percentage points.
Because of ,
In this equation, both and should be positive (as a rough rule of thumb, Taylor's 1993 paper proposed setting ). That is, the rule produces a relatively high real interest rate (a "tight" monetary policy) when inflation is above its target or when output is above its full-employment level, in order to reduce inflationary pressure. It recommends a relatively low real interest rate ("easy" monetary policy) in the opposite situation, to stimulate output. In this way, the Taylor rule is inherently counter-cyclical, as it prescribes policy actions that lean against the direction of economic fluctuations. Sometimes monetary policy goals may conflict, as in the case of stagflation, when inflation is above its target with a substantial output gap. In such a situation, a Taylor rule specifies the relative weights given to reducing inflation versus increasing output.
Principle
By specifying , the Taylor rule says that an increase in inflation by one percentage point should prompt the central bank to raise the nominal interest rate by more than one percentage point (specifically, by , the sum of the two coefficients on in the equation). Since the real interest rate is (approximately) the nominal interest rate minus inflation, stipulating implies that when inflation rises, the real interest rate should be increased. The idea that the nominal interest rate should be raised "more than one-for-one" to cool the economy when inflation increases (that is increasing the real interest rate) has been called the Taylor principle. The Taylor principle presumes a unique bounded equilibrium for inflation. If the Taylor principle is violated, then the inflation path may be unstable.
History
The concept of a policy rule emerged as part of the discussion on whether monetary policy should be based on intuition/discretion. The discourse began at the beginning of the 19th century. The first formal debate forum was launched in the 1920s by the US House Committee on Banking and Currency. In the hearing on the so-called Strong bill, introduced in 1923 by Representative James G. Strong of Kansas, the conflict in the views on monetary policy clearly appeared. New York Fed Governor Benjamin Strong Jr. (no relation to Representative Strong), supported by Professors John R. Commons and Irving Fisher, was concerned about the Fed's practices that attempted to ensure price stability. In his opinion, Federal Reserve policy regarding the price level could not guarantee long-term stability. After the death of Governor Strong in 1928, political debate on changing the Fed's policy was suspended. The Fed had been dominated by Strong and his New York Reserve Bank.
After the Great Depression hit the country, policies came under debate. Irving Fisher opined, "this depression was almost wholly preventable and that it would have been prevented if Governor Strong had lived, who was conducting open-market operations with a view of bringing about stability". Later on, monetarists such as Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz agreed that high inflation could be avoided if the Fed managed the quantity of money more consistently.
The economic downturn of the early 1960s in the United States occurred despite the Federal Reserve maintaining relatively high interest rates to defend the dollar under the Bretton Woods system. After the collapse of Bretton Woods in 1971, the Federal Reserve shifted its focus toward stimulating economic growth through expansionary monetary policy and lower interest rates. This accommodative policy stance, combined with supply shocks from oil price increases, contributed to the Great Inflation of the 1970s when annual inflation rates reached double digits.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, central banks increasingly adopted monetary targeting frameworks to combat inflation. During the Great Moderation from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s, major central banks including the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England generally followed policy approaches aligned with the Taylor rule, which provided a systematic framework for setting interest rates. This period was marked by low and stable inflation in most advanced economies. A significant shift in monetary policy frameworks began in 1990 when New Zealand pioneered explicit inflation targeting. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand underwent reforms that enhanced its independence and established price stability as its primary mandate. This approach was soon adopted by other central banks: the Bank of Canada implemented inflation targeting in 1991, followed by the central banks of Sweden, Finland, Australia, Spain, Israel, and Chile by 1994.
From the early 2000s onward, major central banks in advanced economies, particularly the Federal Reserve, maintained policy rates consistently below levels prescribed by the Taylor rule. This deviation reflected a new policy framework where central banks increasingly focused on financial stability while still operating under inflation-targeting mandates. Central banks adopted an asymmetric approach: they responded aggressively to financial market stress and economic downturns with substantial rate cuts, but were more gradual in raising rates during recoveries. This pattern became especially pronounced following shocks like the dot-com bubble burst, the 2008 financial crisis, and subsequent economic disruptions, leading to extended periods of accommodative monetary policy.
Alternative versions
While the Taylor principle has proven influential, debate remains about what else the rule should incorporate. According to some New Keynesian macroeconomic models, insofar as the central bank keeps inflation stable, the degree of fluctuation in output will be optimized (economists Olivier Blanchard and Jordi Gali call this property the 'divine coincidence'). In this case, the central bank does not need to take fluctuations in the output gap into account when setting interest rates (that is, it may optimally set .)
Other economists proposed adding terms to the Taylor rule to take into account financial conditions: for example, the interest rate might be raised when stock prices, housing prices, or interest rate spreads increase. Taylor offered a modified rule in 1999: that specified .
Alternative theories
The solvency rule was presented by Emiliano Brancaccio after the 2008 financial crisis. The banker follows a rule aimed at controlling the economy's solvency . The inflation target and output gap are neglected, while the interest rate is conditional upon the solvency of workers and firms. The solvency rule was presented more as a benchmark than a mechanistic formula.
The McCallum rule was offered by economist Bennett T. McCallum at the end of the 20th century. It targets the nominal gross domestic product. He proposed that the Fed stabilize nominal GDP. The McCallum rule uses precise financial data. Thus, it can overcome the problem of unobservable variables.
Market monetarism extended the idea of NGDP targeting to include level targeting (targeting a specific amount of growth per time period, and accelerating/decelerating growth to compensate for prior periods of weakness/strength). It also introduced the concept of targeting the forecast, such that policy is set to achieve the goal rather than merely to lean in one direction or the other. One proposed mechanism for assessing the impact of policy was to establish an NGDP futures market and use it to draw upon the insights of that market to direct policy.
Empirical relevance
Although the Federal Reserve does not follow the Taylor rule, many analysts have argued that it provides a fairly accurate explanation of US monetary policy under Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan and other developed economies. This observation has been cited by Clarida, Galí, and Gertler as a reason why inflation had remained under control and the economy had been relatively stable in most developed countries from the 1980s through the 2000s. However, according to Taylor, the rule was not followed in part of the 2000s, possibly inflating the housing bubble. Some research has reported that households form expectations about the future path of interest rates, inflation, and unemployment in a way that is consistent with Taylor-type rules. Other show that monetary policy rule estimations may differ under limited information, involving different considerations in terms of central bank objectives and on the monetary policy rule types.
Limitations
The Taylor rule is debated in the discourse of the rules vs. discretion. Limitations of the Taylor rule include.
The 4-month period typically used is not accurate for tracking price changes and is too long for setting interest rates.
The formula incorporates unobservable parameters that can be easily misevaluated. For example, the output gap cannot be precisely estimated.
Forecasted variables such as the inflation and output gaps, are not accurate, depending on different scenarios of economic development.
Difficult to assess the state of the economy early enough to adjust policy.
The discretionary optimization that leads to stabilization bias and a lack of history dependence.
The rule does not consider financial parameters.
The rule does not consider other policy instruments such as reserve funds adjustment or balance sheet policies.
The relationship between the interest rate and aggregate demand.
Taylor highlighted that the rule should not be followed blindly: "…There will be episodes where monetary policy will need to be adjusted to deal with special factors."
Criticisms
Athanasios Orphanides (2003) claimed that the Taylor rule can mislead policymakers who face real-time data. He claimed that the Taylor rule matches the US funds rate less perfectly when accounting for informational limitations and that an activist policy following the Taylor rule would have resulted in inferior macroeconomic performance during the 1970s.
In 2015, "Bond King" Bill Gross said the Taylor rule "must now be discarded into the trash bin of history", in light of tepid GDP growth in the years after 2009. Gross believed that low interest rates were not the cure for decreased growth, but the source of the problem.
See also
Monetary policy
Monetary policy reaction function
Fisher effect
McCallum rule
Friedman's k-percent rule
Golden Rule (growth)
Inflation targeting
Inverted yield curve
|
Syed Ali Raza
|
[
"Living people",
"Pakistani businesspeople",
"Alumni of the London School of Economics",
"Pakistani bankers",
"Sadiq Public School alumni",
"Pakistani financiers",
"Alumni of Bayes Business School",
"Year of birth missing (living people)",
"Recipients of Sitara-i-Imtiaz"
] | 329 | 3,930 |
Syed Ali Raza is a Pakistani businessman and author. He became the president of the National Bank of Pakistan, being the longest-serving president of the bank up to that point, and has also worked at the North African branch of Bank of America.
Biography
Raza was born to Syed Hashim Raza. He graduated from London School of Economics with Bachelor of Science in economics. He also holds a Master of Science in administrative sciences from Cass Business School and a graduate degree from Karachi Institute of Business Administration.
While serving as the president of the National Bank of Pakistan, Raza eliminated over 3,000 jobs and closed 250 branches, raising the bank's profits and lowering its bad loans.
In 2006, BusinessWeek included Raza in their list of the "25 Stars of Asia", ranking him among the top 4 financiers in Asia.
Awards
Raza has also been given a Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) Award in 2006 by the President of Pakistan.
Raza resigned from his post in 2012 for unstated reasons.
|
Antony C. Sutton
|
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"English economists",
"20th-century British engineers",
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"California State University, Los Angeles faculty",
"British classical liberal economists",
"University of California, Los Angeles alumni",
"Alumni of the University of Southampton",
"Alumni of the University of London",
"1925 births",
"2002 deaths",
"Skull and Bones Society",
"20th-century English historians",
"20th-century American engineers",
"20th-century British political scientists",
"20th-century American political scientists"
] | 2,438 | 21,532 |
Antony Cyril Sutton (February 14, 1925 – June 17, 2002) was a British-American writer, researcher, economist, and professor.
Early life and education
Antony C. Sutton was born in London on February 14, 1925 to Edward Ceril Sutton and Marjorie Sutton, maiden name Burrett. The family relocated to California in 1957 with Antony and two of his siblings, and he became a U.S. citizen in 1962.
Sutton studied at the universities of University of London, University of Göttingen, and University of California, Los Angeles, and received his D.Sc. from the University of Southampton.
Career
Sutton became an economics professor at California State University, Los Angeles. He had a research fellowship at Stanford University's Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace from 1968 to 1973.
At the Hoover Institution, he wrote the study Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (in three volumes), arguing that the West played a major role in developing the Soviet Union from its beginnings until the then-present year of 1970. Sutton argued that the Soviet Union's technological and manufacturing base, which was then engaged in supplying North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, was built by United States corporations and largely funded by US taxpayers. Steel and iron plants, the GAZ automobile factory, a Ford subsidiary in eastern Russia, and many other Soviet industrial enterprises were built with the help or technical assistance of the United States government or US corporations. He argued further that the Soviet Union's acquisition of MIRV technology was made possible by receiving (from US sources) machining equipment for the manufacture of precision ball bearings, necessary to mass-produce MIRV-enabled missiles.
Ayn Rand advertised the first volume of the book for sale in The Objectivist Book Service for $9 alongside a review of the work by Robert Hessen that she published in The Objectivist.
He contributed articles to Human Events, Review of the News, Triumph, Ordnance, The Proceedings, and other journals.
In early 1972, U.S. Senator John Tunney received an inquiry from Sutton regarding the rumor that Zhou Enlai was involved in the murder of a family of six in the 1930s.
In 1973, Sutton published a popularized, condensed version of the sections of the forthcoming third volume relevant to military technology called National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union. Sutton and his associates have claimed that Sutton was forced out of the Hoover Institution for this. His conclusion from his research on the issue was that the conflicts of the Cold War were “not fought to restrain communism” but were organised in order “to generate multibillion-dollar armaments contracts”, since the United States, through financing the Soviet Union “directly or indirectly, armed both sides in at least Korea and Vietnam.”
The update to the text, The Best Enemy Money Can Buy, looked at the role of military technology transfers up to the 1980s.
Sutton's next three published books (Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Wall Street and FDR and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler) argued that Wall Street's involvement in the Bolshevik Revolution to destroy Russia as an economic competitor and turn it into “a captive market and a technical colony to be exploited by a few high-powered American financiers and the corporations under their control” as well as its decisive contributions to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose policies he assessed as being essentially the same “corporate socialism,” planned by the big corporations. Sutton concluded that it was all part of the economic power elites' “long-range program of nurturing collectivism” and fostering “corporate socialism” in order to ensure “monopoly acquisition of walth” because it “would fade away if it were exposed to the activity of a free market.”
In his view, the only solution to prevent such abuse in the future was that “a majority of individuals declares or acts as if it wants nothing from government, declares it will look after its own welfare and interests” or, specifically, if “a majority finds the moral courage and the internal fortitude to reject the something-for-nothing con game and replace it by voluntary associations, voluntary communes, or local rule and decentralized societies.”
In the early 1980s, Sutton used a combination of public-domain information on Skull and Bones (such as Yale yearbooks) and previously unreleased documents sent to him by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt whose father was a Skull and Bones member to write America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull and Bones, which, according to Sutton, was his most important work.
The Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University house four boxes of Sutton's personal papers from 1920 (?) to 1972. The collection includes writings, clippings, letters, and notes related to the outbreak of wars, civil wars, revolutions and other violent conflicts around the globe from 1820 to 1970. There is a particular emphasis on the life and career of American entrepreneur Armand Hammer and his business investments and operations in the Soviet Union.
Sutton died in Reno, Nevada on June 17, 2002.
Reception
Sutton's works have received criticisms from academics, particularly his Wall Street trilogy (Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Wall Street and FDR, and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler)". A contemporary review of Sutton's Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, researcher Virgil D. Medlin of Oklahoma City University reported finding numerous factual errors in the book and claimed that Sutton repeated "unsubstantiated allegations [and came to] unwarranted conclusions." Medlin also wrote that Sutton made use of dubious sources, such as rumor and uncorroborated inquiries, as "documentary proof of [his] allegations."
Howard Dickman of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research referred to Sutton's Wall Street and FDR as a "weak specimen of conspiracy history" that was "poorly written and edited, digressive, repetitious, disorganized, and unconvincing."
Sutton's Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945 to 1965, also received criticism, specifically its thesis. Dr. Samuel Lieberstein of Temple University had initially praised the first two volumes of the study but later came to criticize it in his review of the third volume, stating that Sutton failed to note instances of Soviet technological innovation and ignored positive aspects of the USSR's planned economy that seemed to conflict with his thesis. British historian Richard C. Thurlow also criticized Sutton's thesis, writing that "all nations were dependent on international trade for economic development and their industrial infrastructure, including the United States" adding that Sutton "totally [disregarded] alternative explanations of Soviet industrialization".
Writing in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, T. Hunt Tooley, professor of history at Austin College of Sherman, Texas, said Sutton was the most important of the conservative and libertarian writers who "took up the subject of the bankers from the 1960s, bringing to paleoconservative and libertarian audiences a highly critical picture of bankers and their influence".
Bibliography
Books
Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917–1930. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1968)
Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930–1945. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1971)
Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945–1965. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1973)
New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House (1973)
Wars and Revolutions: A Comprehensive List of Conflicts, Including Fatalities, Part One: 1820 to 1900. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1973)
Wars and Revolutions: A Comprehensive List of Conflicts, Including Fatalities, Part Two: 1900 to 1972. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1973)
Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House (1974)
Wall Street and FDR. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House (1975)
Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler. Seal Beach, Calif.: '76 Press (1976)
Seal Beach, Calif.: '76 Press (1977)
Energy: The Created Crisis. New York: Books in Focus (1979)
The Diamond Connection: A Manual for Investors. Future Technology Intelligence Report (1979)
Trilaterals Over Washington, Vol. 1. Scottsdale, Ariz.: August Corporation (1979). Co-authored with Patrick M. Wood.
Trilaterals Over Washington, Vol. 2. Scottsdale, Ariz.: August Corporation (1980). Co-authored with Patrick M. Wood.
The Paper Factory (1980)
Gold vs Paper: A Cartoon History of Inflation. Phoenix, Ariz.: Phoenix International Publications (1981)
Investing in Platinum Metals. Metairie, LA: Adam Smith Publishing (1982)
Technological Treason: A Catalog of U.S. Firms with Soviet Contracts, 1917–1982. Phoenix, Ariz.: Research Publications (1982)
America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. Originally published 1983 by Liberty House Press; republished in 2002 by TrineDay: Walterville, Oregon
An Introduction to the Order. Phoenix, Ariz.: Research Publications (1983)
The Secret Cult of the Order. Seal Beach, Calif.: Concord Books (1983). .
How the Order Controls Education. Seal Beach, Calif.: Concord Books (1985)
How the Order Creates War and Revolution. San Pedro, Calif.: GSG & Associates (1985)
The Best Enemy Money Can Buy. Billings, Montana: Liberty House Press (1986)
Two Faces of George Bush. Dresden, New York: Wiswell Ruffin House (1988)
The Federal Reserve Conspiracy. Boring, Oreg.: CPA Book Publishers (1995)
Trilaterals Over America. Boring, Oreg.: CPA Book Publishers (1995)
Gold For Survival. Boring, Oreg.: CPA Book Publishers (1996)
Cold Fusion: Secret Energy Revolution. Future Technology Intelligence Report (1997)
Future Technology Intelligence Report (1998)
Phoenix Letter: A Report on the Abuse of Power (1982-1997). .
Phoenix, Arizona: Research Publications.
Billings, Montana: Liberty House Press (November 1988-).
Future Technology Intelligence Report (FTIR). (1990-2002). .
Congressional testimony
"Statement of Antony C. Sutton, Former Research Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University" (April 24, 1974). International Economic Policy: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on International Trade of the Committee on Banking and Currency. House of Representatives, Ninety-Third Congress, Second Session. April 22–26, 29-30; May 1–2. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1974, pp. 155–166.
Film appearances
Archive footage of Sutton was used in the 2014 documentary, JFK to 9/11: Everything Is a Rich Man's Trick. According to Sutton, a Dutch TV production company interviewed him for a documentary on Skull and Bones in the 1990s, but it was not aired.
See also
Military funding of science
Power elite
|
Ecuadorian real
|
[
"Modern obsolete currencies",
"Currencies of Ecuador",
"1871 disestablishments",
"19th century in Ecuador",
"19th century in economic history",
"Economic history of Ecuador"
] | 234 | 1,685 |
The real was the currency of Ecuador until 1871. There were no subdivisions but 16 silver reales equalled 1 gold escudo, with the 8 reales coin known as a peso.
History
Until 1822, the Spanish colonial real circulated, followed by the Colombian real. Ecuador introduced its own coinage in 1833, with the Ecuadorian real replacing the earlier currencies at par. In 1856, the currency was pegged to the French franc, with 8 reales = 5 francs (1 real = 62½ centimes). From 1862, banknotes were issued denominated in pesos and reales. The real was replaced by the peso in 1871 at a rate of 8 reales = 1 peso.
Coins
Silver coins were issued in denominations of ¼, ½, 1, 2, 4 and 8 reales, 1, 2, 4 and 8 escudos. In 1858, a coin denominated as 5 francos was issued. This was worth 8 reales and was issued to indicate the currency's link to the French franc. Coinage production was suspended in 1862.
Banknotes
Private banks issued paper money denominated in reales between 1862 and 1871. For details, see Ecuadorian peso.
See also
Ecuadorian peso
Ecuadorian sucre
Economy of Ecuador
|
Royal Bank Plaza
|
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"Bank headquarters in Canada",
"Modernist architecture in Canada",
"Path (Toronto)",
"Royal Bank of Canada",
"JPMorgan Chase buildings",
"Skyscraper office buildings in Toronto",
"Twin towers",
"Oxford Properties",
"WZMH Architects buildings",
"1976 establishments in Ontario"
] | 822 | 7,499 |
Royal Bank Plaza is a skyscraper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that has served as the corporate headquarters for the Royal Bank of Canada since 1976. The building shares with the Fairmont Royal York Hotel the block in Toronto's financial district bordered by Bay, Front, York, and Wellington streets. It is owned by Pontegadea.
History
The building was built to be the new main office of the Royal Bank of Canada after its decision to move its centre of operations from Place Ville Marie in Montreal to Toronto in the late 1970s, although Place Ville Marie remains the bank's head office (a distinct title from its corporate headquarters). Royal Bank Plaza consists of a South Tower and a North Tower. The South Tower, a skyscraper, is the taller of the two at ; the North Tower has a height of . The structures each have a triangular footprint and sit on opposing corners of the square site. The exteriors of the structures are largely covered with gold-bronze glass with tan granite accents. Together, both towers contain more than 14,000 windows which project from the facade to form angular bays set into brushed aluminum frames. Six bays are grouped between piers which are covered in the same glass. The upper stories are recessed and contain three larger angled-bays between the piers. The double-height entry is also recessed from the facade and covered in dark-tinted glass set into dark aluminum frames. The glass for the body of the building was manufactured by Canadian Pittsburgh Industries and was coloured using of gold, valued at CA$70 per pane at the time of installation.
In addition to office space and the Toronto Main Branch of the Royal Bank, Royal Bank Plaza also contains a shopping concourse which is part of the PATH network, linking directly to the TD Centre as well as Union Station, Brookfield Place (BCE Place) and the Fairmont Royal York. The concourse merchants mall and tower lobbies underwent extensive renovations between 2005 and 2007.
The building was constructed with a large atrium above the main banking hall that linked the two towers, but in the 1990s a trading floor was added, closing the open space.
The bank maintains a presence in a number of other towers in the downtown core, including the Royal Bank Building at 20 King Street West adjacent to Scotia Plaza, the RBC Centre at 155 Wellington Street West, and the building complex at 310, 315, 320 and 330 Front Street West, next to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, which is also owned by Oxford.
Notable tenants
Royal Bank of Canada
Vale S.A.
HomeEquity Bank
JPMorgan Chase
MUFG
Interac Corporation
See also
List of tallest buildings in Toronto
List of tallest buildings in Canada
|
Bruno de Finetti
|
[
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"1985 deaths",
"Italian actuaries",
"20th-century Italian mathematicians",
"Italian statisticians",
"Probability theorists",
"Philosophers of probability",
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"Bayesian econometricians",
"20th-century Italian economists",
"Fellows of the Econometric Society",
"Fellows of the American Statistical Association",
"Scientists from Innsbruck",
"Austrian emigrants to Italy",
"Academic staff of the University of Trieste",
"Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome",
"Mathematical statisticians"
] | 1,464 | 13,104 |
Bruno de Finetti (13 June 1906 – 20 July 1985) was an Italian probabilist statistician and actuary, noted for the "operational subjective" conception of probability. The classic exposition of his distinctive theory is the 1937 , which discussed probability founded on the coherence of betting odds and the consequences of exchangeability.
Life
De Finetti was born in Innsbruck, Austria, and studied mathematics at Politecnico di Milano. He graduated in 1927, writing his thesis under the supervision of Giulio Vivanti. After graduation, he worked as an actuary and a statistician at (National Institute of Statistics) in Rome and, from 1931, the Trieste insurance company Assicurazioni Generali. In 1936 he won a competition for Chair of Financial Mathematics and Statistics, but was not nominated due to a fascist law barring access to unmarried candidates; he was appointed as ordinary professor at the University of Trieste only in 1950.
He published extensively (17 papers in 1930 alone, according to Lindley) and acquired an international reputation in the small world of probability mathematicians. He taught mathematical analysis in Padua and then won a chair in Financial Mathematics at Trieste University (1939). In 1954 he moved to the Sapienza University of Rome, first to another chair in Financial Mathematics and then, from 1961 to 1976, one in the Calculus of Probabilities. De Finetti developed his ideas on subjective probability in the 1920s independently of Frank P. Ramsey. Still, according to the preface of his Theory of Probability, he drew on ideas of Harold Jeffreys, I. J. Good and B. O. Koopman. He also reasoned about the connection of economics and probability, and thought that guiding principles to be Paretian optimum further inspired by "fairness" criteria. De Finetti held different social and political beliefs through his life: following fascism during his youth, then moving to Christian socialism and finally adhering to the Radical Party.
De Finetti only became known in the Anglo-American statistical world in the 1950s when L. J. Savage, who had independently adopted subjectivism, drew him into it; another great champion was Dennis Lindley. De Finetti died in Rome in 1985.
Work and impact
De Finetti emphasized a predictive inference approach to statistics; he proposed a thought experiment along the following lines (described in greater detail at coherence): You must set the price of a promise to pay $1 if there was life on Mars 1 billion years ago, and $0 if there was not, and tomorrow the answer will be revealed. You know that your opponent will be able to choose either to buy such a promise from you at the price you have set, or require you to buy such a promise from your opponent, still at the same price. In other words: you set the odds, but your opponent decides which side of the bet will be yours. The price you set is the "operational subjective probability" that you assign to the proposition on which you are betting. This price has to obey the probability axioms if you are not to face certain loss, as you would if you set a price above $1 (or a negative price). By considering bets on more than one event, de Finetti could justify additivity. Prices, or equivalently odds, that do not expose you to certain loss through a Dutch book are called coherent.
De Finetti is also noted for de Finetti's theorem on exchangeable sequences of random variables. De Finetti was not the first to study exchangeability, but he brought the subject to greater visibility. He started publishing on exchangeability in the late 1920s, but his 1937 article "La Prévision" (see bibliography) is his most famous treatment.
In 1929, de Finetti introduced the concept of infinitely divisible probability distributions.
He also introduced de Finetti diagrams for graphing genotype frequencies.
The 1974 English translation of his book is credited with reviving interest in predictive inference in the Anglophone world and bringing the idea of exchangeability to its attention.
In 1961 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.
The de Finetti Award, presented annually by the European Association for Decision Making, is named after him. The Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Economics of the University of Trieste is named after him too.
In the 21st century quantum extensions of de Finetti's representation theorem have been found to be useful in quantum information, in topics like quantum key distribution and entanglement detection.
Bibliography
See Works on
de Finetti in English
(The following are translations of works originally published in Italian or French.)
"Probabilism: A Critical Essay on the Theory of Probability and on the Value of Science," (translation of 1931 article) in Erkenntnis, volume 31, issue 2–3, September 1989, pp. 169–223. The entire double issue is devoted to de Finetti's philosophy of probability.
1937, "La Prévision: ses lois logiques, ses sources subjectives," Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincaré,
- "Foresight: its Logical Laws, Its Subjective Sources," (translation of the in French) in H. E. Kyburg and H. E. Smokler (eds), Studies in Subjective Probability, New York: Wiley, 1964.
Theory of Probability, (translation by A Machi and AFM Smith of 1970 book) 2 volumes, New York: Wiley, 1974–1975.
Discussions
D. V. Lindley, "Bruno de Finetti, 1906-1985 (Obituary)" Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 149, p. 252 (1986).
The following books have a chapter on de Finetti and references to further literature.
Jan von Plato, Creating Modern Probability: Its Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy in Historical Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994
Donald Gillies, Philosophical Theories of Probability, London: Routledge, 2000.
See also
Exchangeability
Quasiconvex function
|
Revolut
|
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"Financial services companies of the United Kingdom",
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"Foreign exchange companies",
"Money laundering"
] | 5,726 | 65,382 |
Revolut Group Holdings Ltd, doing business as Revolut, is a British multinational neobank and fintech company that offers banking services for individuals and businesses. It was founded in July 2015 by British-Russian businessman Nikolay Storonsky and British-Ukrainian software engineer Vlad Yatsenko. As of 2025, the company operated in over 48 countries and caters to over 60 million retail customers globally.
The bank offers free and subscription-based digital banking services, primarily through a mobile app. Features include domestic and international bank transfers, debit cards, credit cards, a stock and cryptocurrency exchange, as well as other features such as savings accounts and loans.
As of August 2024, Revolut is valued at $45 billion, making it the most valuable private tech company in Europe. As per the company's latest annual report, the revenue in 2024 stood at $4 billion, while the profit before tax grew to $1.4 billion.
History
Early history (2015–2017)
Revolut was founded on 1 July 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, offering individuals in the United Kingdom and European Economic Area (EEA) a smartphone app linked to a pre-paid Mastercard to spend money abroad using interbank foreign exchange rate. Customers could use their Revolut card in 90 countries. The company states that its exchange rates are competitive. They also said their vision was to build a payments platform that enable customers and merchants to make low-cost instant payments and marketing platform. The company was originally based in Level39, a financial technology incubator in Canary Wharf, London.
The same month, the company raised £1.5 million during a seed funding round. This was followed by a Series A round the following year, where Revolut raised over £6.75 million, which put them at a total valuation of about £42 million at the time. By that time, they reached around 300,000 users, processing almost £1 billion in transactions according to the company.
Building on its initial success, Revolut then launched a subscription-based app in June 2017 available to businesses across the UK and Europe. Under the name of "Revolut Business", businesses could create an account with a multi-currency IBAN to hold, exchange, and transfer money with 25 currencies. Following the launch of Revolut Business, the company raised $66 million during a Series B round in July 2017 with the goal to expand across Asia and the United States.
The company was also affected by a major outage with their card processor Global Processing Services in June 2017, causing card payments to fail. Revolut experienced a similar outage along other companies, such as Monzo, back in March of the same year.
EU banking license and international expansion (2017–2022)
Until now, Revolut was only operating as an Electronic Money Institution in the United Kingdom under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They first applied for their EU banking license in November 2017, at which time they also started work on their own payment processor. The bank then received its EU banking license as well as an EMI license in December 2018 from the European Central Bank, facilitated by the Bank of Lithuania. Under their new license, the bank could accept deposits and offer consumer credits. However, they were not allowed to provide investment services until later. Stock trading was then made available in July 2019, where customers could now perform commission-free trade on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Initially, this was only available for customers in Revolut's "Metal" subscription plan, but available to all users later on.
Following the acquisition of a banking license, the company announced plans in September 2019 for expansion into 24 new markets across the United States, Asia, and other regions, supported by agreements with Visa and Mastercard. The company said that they also want to hire an additional 3,500 employees. Earlier that year, it had already expanded into Australia, marking its first expansion outside of Europe. The following month, Revolut expanded to Singapore, becoming the company's first Asian market. By 2020, they had also launched in the United States and Japan.
By November 2020, Revolut reported that it had reached breakeven! At that time, it was valued at £4.2 billion, making it one of the highest-valued fintech companies in the UK. The company's valuation was brought further during a Series E round in July 2021, with a $800 million funding round bringing them to $33 billion.
The company applied for banking license in the United Kingdom and a bank charter in the United States in early 2021. The European Central Bank also granted Revolut a full banking licence later that year.
Since 2022
After having secured bank licenses, Revolut started moving away from being an e-money institution to a bank. In January 2022, they started operating as a bank in 10 additional European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.
The Financial Times reported in July 2023 that Revolut had lost $20 million to organized criminal groups due to a flaw in its US payment system between late 2021 and early 2022. The issue affected the company's corporate funds and not customer accounts; some of the money was recouped. Later that year, Revolut announced that they would stop offering cryptocurrency trading services to their US customers due to the "evolving regulatory environment" as the Securities and Exchange Commission intensified regulations regarding certain crypto assets and platforms.
The company was the target of a cyberattack in September 2022. An unauthorized third party briefly obtained access to a small portion (0.16%) of customer details. While no funds were accessed or stolen, personal data of over 50,000 customers was accessed by the perpetrator. In the same month, The UK's Financial Conduct Authority added Revolut to its list of companies authorized to offer cryptocurrency products and services. Before, the company had offered crypto trading since 2017, but it was not regulated.
In January 2023, the company announced that it would transfer its 2 million Irish customers to a new Irish branch, moving them from a Lithuanian IBAN to an Irish IBAN. This was followed by a launch for IBANs in France, Netherlands and Spain in September 2023.
Revolut launched a subscription tier named "Ultra" for individuals in the UK and EEA in June 2023, which was the company's most expensive subscription at the time. Around this time, the bank also began allowing staking for holders of proof of stake cryptocurrencies in the UK and EEA, a feature used by various cryptocurrencies such as Cardano or Polkadot at the time. In October 2023, Revolut expanded its stock trading services to include commission-free European stock trading in the EEA, aligning with similar offerings from other fintech platforms. By the end of the year, it was reported that they reached customer deposits of £15.1 billion. It was also reported that, despite ongoing uncertainty regarding the UK banking license, the company swung to a £25m loss in 2022 after giving out higher wages to staff. This included a near 80% pay jump for its founder and the highest-paid director.
In August 2024, the company was seen to be preparing for a potential IPO on the Nasdaq in the United States with an expected valuation of approximately £45 billion, although UK politicians were said to be pushing for a London listing. The company also doubled its headcount over the past two years, employing over 8,000 people in more than 25 countries. The company faced criticism from local Portuguese banks about unfair competition after its subsidiary, "Revolut Bank UAB", was granted a full banking license by the ECB. Revolut was also granted a British banking license the following month, though with restrictions via the standard "mobilization" stage.
A report in October 2024 found that Revolut was named in more fraud complaints in the UK than any major bank in the country, sparking a debate on the effectiveness of its security controls. It was stated that many customers had to turn to the Financial Ombudsman Service after falling victim to fraud earlier that year. By the end of 2024, Revolut reported having 50 million registered users globally. In 2023, they had over one million daily active users. In 2025, figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service showed that Revolut topped the fintech industry for the most complaints.
In April 2025, Revolut obtained the PPI licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to offer international and domestic payment solutions including pre-paid cards and wallets with UPI.
In May 2025, Revolut announced that it plans to invest $1.1 billion over the next three years to expand in France and officially made Paris as its Western European headquarters, at the 'Choose France' summit by French President Emmanuel Macron.
In 2025, Béatrice Cossa-Dumurgier (a former board member of Société Générale and executive at BNP Paribas) was appointed CEO of Revolut's Western Europe headquarters, based in Paris.
In 2025, Revolut entered discussions with the Bank of Israel to obtain a "lean bank" licence, a regulatory framework introduced in 2019 aimed at encouraging competition in Israel’s financial sector. If approved, the licence would enable Revolut to offer limited banking services such as deposit-taking and lending. This move follows Revolut’s launch of its app in Israel in 2023 and reflects its broader strategy to expand regulated operations in new markets.
Number of users 2015–2025
Revolut has experienced consistent user growth since its founding in 2015. By the end of 2021, the company reported 18 million personal users and over 500,000 business customers worldwide. This figure rose to approximately 25 million by the end of 2022, and 38 million by mid-2023.
As of June 2025, Revolut announced it had reached 60 million global users, solidifying its position as one of the largest digital banking platforms worldwide. The growth was attributed to continued expansion across Europe, North America, and new markets in Latin America and the Middle East.
Funding and investments
The company raised £6.5 million ($8.5 million) in a Series A funding round in 2016. An additional £17.1 million was raised on an equity crowdfunding site. A year later, $66 million was raised in a Series B funding round. Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, and Ribbit Capital all participated.
On 26 April 2018, Revolut raised $250 million in Series C funding. It had a post-funding valuation of US$1.7 billion, making it a unicorn. In February 2020, Revolut completed a Series D funding round of $580 million that more than trebled its value, valuing the company at £4.2 billion and becoming the United Kingdom's most valuable financial technology startup.
In July 2021, Revolut's Series E raised US$800 million from investors, including SoftBank Group and Tiger Global Management, at a US$33 billion valuation. This made Revolut the leading European startup in terms of valuation.
As of June 2023, Revolut has raised $1.7 billion in total funding.
In August 2024, Revolut announced a secondary share sale that valued the company at $45 billion, up from its previous valuation of $33 billion in 2021.
Services
Personal and business banking
Revolut offers banking services including GBP and EUR bank accounts, debit cards, credit cards, currency exchange with over 25 fiat currencies, stock trading, cryptocurrency exchange and peer-to-peer payments. Revolut's mobile app supports spending and ATM withdrawals in 120 currencies and transfers in 36 currencies. Similar multi-currency features are available from competing fintech companies. Revolut's credit card is available in Poland, Lithuania, the United States, and Ireland. Crypto cannot be deposited or spent, only converted back to fiat inside Revolut. Additionally, Revolut banks with Metropolitan Commercial Bank of New York, which does not allow the transfer of fiat money to or from cryptocurrency exchanges.
Retail app
Users with a personal Revolut account have access to services in some markets including payments and cards, savings, credit, investment and trading, cryptocurrency trading, multi-currency accounts, shared accounts, premium lifestyle features, and donations.
Regulation and litigation
Revolut complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), a regulatory requirement for financial institutions handling card transactions, which ensures end-to-end security of information and protection of funds. The standards are internationally recognized regulations set to protect cardholder data.
Revolut Bank
Revolut Bank UAB, licensed by the European Central Bank, provides deposit account services in 30 EEA markets. Customers in those markets have access to deposit protection of up to €100,000 to their accounts for free. This is covered by the Lithuanian State company Deposit and Investment Insurance.
Revolut Ltd
As an electronic money institution, Revolut protects funds via Safeguarding. Using this process, funds are held at partner banks where they receive the safeguards provided by banking institutions. Revolut will soon be able to directly take customer deposits as part of the FSCS scheme following its approval for a UK banking licence.
Criticism and controversies
Revolut has been subject to criticism and many controversies in the past, such as issues with customer support and long-lasting lockouts, as well as anti-money laundering compliance failures, lack of support for defrauded customers, and even claims of ties to the Russian government which the company strongly denied.
Employment practices
In March 2019, Wired published an exposé of the company's employment practices and work culture. They found evidence of unpaid work, high staff turnover and employees feeling the need to work weekends to meet performance indicators. A later article in December 2019 by Sifted noted that Revolut had a higher rating than its peers on Glassdoor.
In June 2020, Wired published a further exposé of Revolut's dismissal of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which employees, particularly in Kraków, were given the choice of being terminated for underperformance or a mutual agreement to leave the company voluntarily, to reduce the headline number of 62 redundancies announced by Revolut. The report said "Current and former Revolut employees say staff were coerced into accepting terminations, even though the company had no legal grounds to fire them" and that employees in Porto were pressured into agreeing to a salary sacrifice scheme to keep their jobs. According to Wired, in a message sent to the 495-strong customer support team on Slack soon after the salary sacrifice scheme was announced, head of Support Inna Grynova urged them to participate.
Automated suspension of accounts (2020)
Revolut, in common with traditional financial institutions, uses algorithms to identify money laundering, fraud, and other criminal activity. Under certain anti-money laundering legislation, if suspicious activities are being investigated, bank staff are not allowed to tell customers why their accounts have been frozen.
It has been reported since 2020 that Revolut's algorithms suspended accounts for weeks or months at a time after unusual activity was detected. Revolut's policies require customers whose accounts were suspended to request a resolution via in-app chat support. Revolut said that "the system is programmed to temporarily lock an account and place it in a queue, until one of our compliance agents can review the case".
In February 2020, The Daily Telegraph reported that Revolut suspended an account containing £90,000 for more than two months and that another customer travelled 500 miles from Auvergne in France to Revolut's London offices in an unsuccessful attempt to recover £15,000 in an account that Revolut had frozen with no justification given. The account was later closed and the money in it returned to the customer's other bank accounts.
Also in February 2020, The Times reported that Revolut suspended and later closed a business account containing €300,000 belonging to Priorité Energie, an energy transition start-up company, preventing the company from paying its staff. Revolut publicly apologised and eventually rectified the problem.
There were further reports in 2021 of Revolut withholding clients' funds.
UK fraud victims
In 2023, Revolut reported a 35% reduction in APP fraud. However, the company remained one of the most frequently named financial institutions in UK fraud complaints, prompting scrutiny of its security measures. The number of complaints of fraud reported to Action Fraud, the UK reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, by Revolut customers rose from 567 in February 2023 to 1,086 for February 2024.
Prior to Revolut having a banking license, complaints were made by defrauded Revolut customers to the Financial Ombudsman, who in some cases required Revolut to reimburse and compensate victims, and remove fraud markers wrongly placed against the individuals.
Many financial service customers in the UK have been subject to fraud, but Revolut has been involved in more cases than any major High Street bank, and has a reputation for not reimbursing victims, which full banks are more likely to do. ActionFraud received 10,000 reports of fraud naming Revolut in 2023, 2,000 more than Barclays, one of the UK's largest banks, and twice as many as a competitor bank of similar size to Revolut. That year over 3,500 complaints about Revolut were made to the ombudsman, more than any other financial institution. Consumer organization Which? did not recommend banking large sums of money with Revolut, saying "They have a track record of not reimbursing people who fall victim to fraud or find themselves in this incredibly difficult situation, [and] of money being taken from accounts even after scam activity has been reported."
See also
bunq
Klarna
Monese
N26
Neobanks in Europe
Openbank
Wise
|
Instacart
|
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Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, is an American retail media and delivery company based in San Francisco that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada accessible via a website and mobile app. It allows customers to order groceries, and alcohol where legal, from participating retailers with the shopping being done by a personal shopper, who picks, packs, and delivers the order within the customer's designated time frame.
The company offers service from over 1,800 retailers covering more than 100,000 grocery stores, and works with over 7,000 consumer packaged goods brands. Alcohol delivery is available from 600 retail banners that span more than 23,000 stores across North America.
Instacart reaches nearly 98% of SNAP households, offering delivery services from nearly 180 retail banners, including ALDI, Food Lion, Publix, The Save Mart Companies and Walgreens, spanning more than 30,000 stores across all 50 states and Washington D.C. Since its founding, Instacart Marketplace has powered more than $100 billion of GTV and over 900 million orders with approximately 20 billion items ordered.
History
Corporate history
After getting inspiration from being low on groceries without owning a car as well as his trips to the grocery store by bus in the cold while growing up in Canada, Apoorva Mehta founded Instacart in 2012 at age 26. He tried to apply for funding through Y Combinator but missed the deadline. He eventually got a meeting by using the Instacart mobile app to deliver a six-pack of beer from 21st Amendment Brewery to a Y Combinator partner and was admitted to the summer of 2012 batch. Y Combinator helped Mehta raise $2.3 million in funding and enabled him to meet his two co-founders, Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo. The company’s name is a combination of "maple," in reference to Canada, and "bear," for the logo on the California state flag, as Mehta grew up in Canada and moved to California.
At the end of 2018, Instacart changed its pay system for its personal shoppers.
In 2019, the company expanded its services to offering an on-demand option for its shoppers, in order to allow shoppers to work more flexible schedules.
In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Instacart implemented contactless delivery, safety kits and guidelines for shoppers. From mid-March to mid-April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of a surge in usage of the mobile app, Instacart signed up an additional 300,000 shoppers to meet the surge in demand for grocery deliveries.
In July 2021, Fidji Simo was appointed CEO, while Mehta transitioned to Executive Chairman of the Board. In July 2022, Simo was appointed to succeed Mehta as chairperson once the company completed its initial public offering. In September 2023, the company became public through an initial public offering raising $660 million, valuing the company at about $10 billion. The company's shares opened on Nasdaq at a price of $30. Mehta left the company after it went public. In 2025, Instacart unveiled its first Super Bowl ad.
In May 2025, TechCrunch and others reported that Simo would leave Instacart to take a role with OpenAI. Later that month the company appointed business chief Chris Rogers as its next CEO beginning in August 2025.
Service launches and grocery partnerships
Instacart was first launched in San Francisco in 2012. In November 2013, Instacart added alcohol delivery in areas where alcohol delivery was legal. The company expanded across the United States in the following years.
In August 2013, Instacart began offering an annual membership service called Instacart Express. In June 2022, Instacart Express was renamed Instacart+ and new family shopping features, including sharing membership and shopping-cart collaboration with another family member for free, were added.
In November 2017, the company expanded to Canada, first with a partnership with Loblaw Companies in Toronto and Vancouver. By May 2018, Instacart was available for use in 11 Canadian markets and was planning expansions for five more markets.
In April 2018, Instacart changed its prices by instituting a mandatory 5% service fee on all orders. It originally offered an optional 10% service fee that went directly to Instacart that could be turned off. It also returned the gratuity option back to the checkout screen and raised the default value from 0% to 5%.
In March 2019, Instacart expanded its same-day alcohol delivery service in the U.S. Effective May 2019, Whole Foods Market ended its partnership with Instacart in the U.S. given its ties to Amazon.com. In February 2024, Instacart announced customers throughout Canada can now order fresh groceries and everyday essentials from Whole Foods Market on the Instacart App.
In May 2020, Instacart began a partnership with Rite Aid, offering its service across 2,400 locations in 18 states. In August 2020, Instacart entered its first partnership with Walmart in the U.S. to offer same-day delivery services. The partnership is a pilot program beginning in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Tulsa. Additional partnerships in June included C&S Wholesale Grocers and Staples. Instacart had a valuation of $39 billion as of 2021. In March 2022, in partnership with TikTok, Hearst Magazine and Tasty, Instacart launched Shoppable Recipes with product integrations for food creators. In the same month, Instacart introduced the Instacart Platform, a program with services for retailers. The platform launched with features for advertising, home delivery, and inventory counting.
In May 2022, Instacart partnered with Canadian grocers Metro, Giant Tiger, and Galleria Supermarket. In March 2023, Instacart announced the availability of digital tools for medical providers to promote nutritious foods to patients and their families. In November 2023, Instacart partnered with Peacock. In May 2024, Instacart partnered with Uber Eats to give Instacart customers access to food delivery from Uber Eats U.S. restaurant partners. In June 2024, Instacart began a partnership with New York Times Cooking.
Acquisitions history
In January 2018, the company acquired Toronto-based Unata, a white-label platform for grocers, for $65 million. In October 2021, Instacart acquired smart cart and checkout company Caper AI for $350 million. In September 2022, Instacart announced the acquisition of Eversight, an artificial intelligence pricing platform for brands and retailers. Also in September 2022, the company acquired Rosie, an e-commerce platform for local and independent retailers and wholesalers.
Shopper Concerns
Instacart has approximately 600,000 shoppers on their platform. Instacart shoppers are independent contractors, and the majority of shoppers choose to shop less than 10 hours per week. In June 2015, Instacart began hiring some shoppers as part-time employees, known as in-store shoppers, starting with Chicago and Boston and extending to shoppers in Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C. the following month.
In March 2017, Instacart agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle a class action settlement stemming from the alleged misclassification of its personal shoppers as independent contractors. The suit, filed in March 2015, alleged 18 violations, including improper tip pooling and failure to reimburse workers for business expenses.
In February 2020, 15 Instacart in-store shoppers in Skokie, Illinois voted to form a trade union.
In March 2020, shoppers impacted by COVID-19 would be eligible for up to 14 days of sick pay. Instacart required that workers either get a positive COVID-19 test or be under a mandatory quarantine by a public health or other government agency. Workers demanded hazard pay and personal protective equipment. In early April 2020, Instacart began providing safety kits to workers. In June, Instacart changed its sick leave in an agreement reached by it and D.C. Attorney General, Karl Racine. Under the agreement, Instacart provided paid leave to workers who were clinically diagnosed with COVID-19 by a doctor or other medical professional along with those who had a household member contract COVID-19. The agreement also provided workers access to telemedicine services.
In January 2021, Instacart announced a $25 stipend to provide financial assistance to company shoppers who choose to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In January 2021, the company announced plans to lay off nearly 2,000 in-store employees, Instacart said that the layoffs were due to stores increasingly using Instacart to have consumers place orders, but have their own employees fulfill the order instead of Instacart's workforce, reducing reliance on Instacart's in-store shoppers.
|
Rod Phillips (politician)
|
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Rod Phillips is a Canadian businessman and former politician who was the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Ajax from 2018 to 2022. A member of the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party, Phillips served as Ontario's minister of the environment, conservation and parks from 2018 to 2019, minister of finance from 2019 to 2020, and minister of long-term care from 2021 to 2022.
Phillips ran for MPP in the 2018 provincial election, following which his PC Party would form government. Premier Doug Ford named him environment minister, before promoting him to the finance portfolio, succeeding Vic Fedeli. He resigned from that role in 2020, after he took a vacation to St. Barts contrary to his government's public health advice during the COVID-19 pandemic, but was later named the minister of long-term care in 2021. Phillips resigned from cabinet in 2022 and resigned his seat in February, 2022, he did not run in the 2022 election.
Before politics, Phillips was the former president and CEO of Shepell-fgi, a professional services company, from 2002 to 2010; the president and CEO of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) from 2011 to 2014; the chair of Postmedia from 2014 to 2017; and chair of CivicAction from 2014 to 2017. After stepping down from cabinet and resigning his seat, Phillips became vice-chair of Canaccord Genuity. He sits on the board of Aecon Group Inc.
Education
Phillips graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and English. He completed a master of business administration degree at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, graduating in 1992. Phillips also holds an ICD.D designation from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
Business career
Phillips worked for KPMG. In 2001, after stint working as chief of staff to the mayor of Toronto, Mel Lastman, Phillips became co-managing director of the venture division of Goodmans LLP, one of Canada's leading law firms. A non-lawyer, his fellow co-managing director of the Goodmans Venture Group was Dale Lastman, the Goodmans co-chair and son of Mel Lastman.
In 2002, Phillips became president and CEO of Shepell-fgi, a company that delivered workplace health and productivity solutions to eight million employees and family members from over 7,000 organizations in Canada and 54 other countries. Under Phillips's leadership, Shepell-fgi (now Morneau-Shepell) grew its services to include elder and child support, legal advice, financial guidance, and help with mental health and addiction issues.
In May 2011, Phillips was recruited by the Province of Ontario to be the new president and CEO of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, a government agency, reporting into the Ministry of Finance. During his tenure at OLG, Phillips led an effort to rehabilitate its reputation following several widely publicized scandals involving theft of winning tickets and fraudulently claimed prizes.
Phillips led the corporation to its highest net profit since 2005 and oversaw the design and launch of the modernization of Ontario's lottery and gaming industry. Under Phillips's direction, OLG was praised after it was able to identify a $50 million lottery winner, Kathy Jones, who had lost her winning ticket. Phillips presented Jones with her prize-winning cheque in a photo-op.
After leaving OLG, Phillips became the chair of the board of Postmedia, Canada's largest news media company, whose portfolio includes the National Post, the Toronto Sun, and the Ottawa Citizen. Phillips served as chair from 2014 until 2017.
From 2015 to 2017, Phillips was also on the board of directors of Afinti, a Washington DC–based global artificial intelligence company and served as the Canada chair.
Political career
Phillips worked as chief of staff for former Ontario PC cabinet minister Elizabeth Witmer and former mayor of Toronto Mel Lastman. He also worked for Ontario PC leader John Tory as the director of his leader's tour during the 2007 Ontario provincial election.
In November 2017, Phillips was acclaimed as the Progressive Conservative candidate for the riding of Ajax.
Phillips considered running in the 2018 Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election, but ultimately declined and backed Caroline Mulroney. In the 2018 Ontario election, Phillips was elected to serve as the MPP for Ajax for the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. He defeated New Democrat candidate Monique Hughes and Liberal incumbent Joe Dickson to win the riding with 39.05% of the vote and 4,000 votes more than the runner-up.
Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks
On June 29, 2018, Premier Doug Ford appointed Phillips as Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in his cabinet. During that time Phillips repealed cap-and-trade in Ontario and replaced it with an Emissions Performance Standard (EPS) for businesses. The federal government accepted the EPS approach on business, but following the end of cap-and-trade imposed a province-wide carbon tax.
In June 2019, Phillips appointed David Lindsay, the CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities and former deputy natural resources minister, as a special advisor on revamping Ontario’s Blue Box Recycling Program to shift the responsibility for paying from municipalities and non-profits to producers. This plan was supported by Lindsay's report and was scheduled to be phased in during 2023–2025 by Phillips's success as Environment Minister, Jeff Yurek.
He also launched the first province-wide Climate Impact Assessment, modernized the province’s 50 year old environmental assessment program and aligned it closer to the federal program, and renegotiated the Canada-Ontario Agreement on the Great Lakes.
Minister of Finance
On June 20, 2019, Phillips was appointed as the Minister of Finance.
COVID-19
On March 25, 2020, Phillips released Ontario's Action Plan: Responding to COVID-19, which provided $17 billion in what the government referred to their "initial response" to provide support and relief to businesses and individuals in the province impacted from the global pandemic.
On March 31, 2020, because of the pandemic, Phillips released an economic update instead of the annual budget, which was initially deferred to November 2020. This failure to meet the mandated deadline in the Fiscal Sustainability, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2019 – passed by Ford – meant that Ford as premier and Phillips as finance minister, had to pay 10% of their annual salaries into the provincial Consolidated Revenue Fund. On April 9, 2020, he was appointed the chair of the Ontario Jobs and Recovery Committee, which has been tasked with planning for the economic reopening and recovery in the province.
Secret vacation and resignation
In December 2020, Phillips was widely criticized for leaving Canada for a personal Caribbean vacation in St. Barts when travel out of the country was strongly discouraged by the government of Canada at the time. In addition to leaving the country, Phillips took steps to leave the impression that he remained in his riding during his absence from the country by scheduling tweets during his absence, including a tweet on Christmas Eve thanking those who made sacrifices by avoiding travel over the holidays to protect others. Premier Doug Ford told him that "it will not be tolerated again", and told him to return home. Ford had previously said he was unaware that his finance minister had left the country but backtracked 24 hours later admitting he did know Phillips was not in the country, knew his destination and failed to issue a call for his return. His office confirmed that Phillips had also secretly vacationed in Switzerland in August 2020 and stated that he has quarantined for 14 days upon his return.
On December 31, 2020, Phillips resigned as Minister of Finance due to the controversy surrounding his trip to St. Barts.
Minister of Long-Term Care
On June 18, 2021, Phillips was appointed to be the minister of long-term care.
As minister, Phillips introduced legislation which increased penalties for violations in the industry and hired additional inspection staff. He also introduced a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for long-term care staff.
On January 14, 2022, Phillips announced he would not seek re-election in the next provincial election. He resigned his seat as MPP on February 2, 2022. He was succeeded in the legislature by PC candidate Patrice Barnes in the June 2022 Ontario general election.
Community service
Phillips served as volunteer chair (2014–2017) of CivicAction a non-profit which focuses on issues in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Phillips supported the CivicAction DiverseCity Fellows program, which seeks to have Toronto's leadership more fully reflect the city's cultural diversity. He has also served on the Telus Toronto Community Board. Since 2005, this organization has donated $8 million to 479 charities and grassroots projects in the Toronto area. Phillips was the founding chair of the Transforming Lives Gala for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He served on the Boards of the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation, the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Mental Health and Addiction, the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, Bridgepoint Hospital, the Toronto Community Foundation, and is a past president of the Canadian Club of Toronto.
Personal life
He is married to his wife Lydia.
Electoral results
|
Bank of Florence Museum
|
[
"Landmarks in North Omaha, Nebraska",
"Banks based in Omaha, Nebraska",
"National Register of Historic Places in Omaha, Nebraska",
"Omaha landmarks",
"Banks established in 1856",
"Museums in Omaha, Nebraska",
"Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska",
"History museums in Nebraska",
"Bank museums",
"1856 establishments in Nebraska Territory"
] | 524 | 4,291 |
The Bank of Florence was a wildcat bank located in Florence, Nebraska Territory. It originally operated for three years in the 1850s, and another bank adopted the name and location in 1904. Today the building that housed the bank is the Bank of Florence Museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is the oldest building in Omaha, Nebraska.
History
The town of Florence was founded on the ruins of Winter Quarters, with dozens of small buildings still intact from the early Mormon pioneer settlement. A speculator's dream, the town was quickly built.
The Bank of Florence was built as a wildcat bank for speculators to make an easy profit. Many of the early investors included members of the land company that founded the nearby town of Saratoga, as well as businessmen from around the local area. When the Panic of 1857 hit, many local townspeople and farmers were financially drained.
The building reopened as the Second Bank of Florence in 1904, and was restored as a landmark in the 1980s.
Today the building has been turned into a museum, which is owned and operated by the Florence Historical Foundation. Visitors can view the main bank floor, the vault, the rooms upstairs that served as the home of the original bank manager, and a restored Florence Telephone Company switchboard. The bank is open on Saturdays and Sundays 11 AM-3 PM from May through August and on special event days. Tours on other days can be arranged by appointment.
See also
List of the oldest buildings in Nebraska
References
|
Tim Ferriss
|
[
"1977 births",
"American male bloggers",
"American bloggers",
"American business theorists",
"American business writers",
"American Internet celebrities",
"American motivational writers",
"Angel investors",
"American venture capitalists",
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"Life coaches",
"Living people",
"People from East Hampton (town), New York",
"People with bipolar disorder",
"Princeton University alumni",
"Technology evangelists",
"Henry Crown Fellows",
"21st-century American non-fiction writers",
"21st-century American male writers",
"American male non-fiction writers",
"Writers from New York (state)"
] | 2,573 | 28,989 |
Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He is known for his 4-Hour self-help book series — including The 4-Hour Work Week, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef — that focused on lifestyle optimizations, but he has since reconsidered this approach. He also supports scientific research into psychedelic treatments.
Early life
Ferriss grew up in East Hampton, New York, and credits his poor health in childhood for sparking an interest in self-improvement. At age 15, he spent a year in Japan as an exchange student. He was a member of the wrestling team in high school. After graduating from St. Paul's School, he attended Princeton University, earning a B.A. in East Asian studies in 2000, then first worked in sales at a data storage company.
In 2001, Ferriss founded BrainQUICKEN, an internet-based nutritional supplements business, while still employed at his prior job. He sold the company, then known as BodyQUICK, to a London-based private equity firm in 2010. He has stated that The 4-Hour Workweek was based on this period.
Ferriss has been an angel investor and startup advisor. He invested or advised in companies including Reputation.com, Trippy, and TaskRabbit. He is a pre-seed money advisor to Uber. In 2013, Ferriss raised $250,000 to invest in Shyp by forming a syndicate on AngelList. Ferriss raised over $500,000 through his backers, and Shyp raised a total of $2.1 million. In 2018, Shyp shut down and laid off all its employees. Ferriss was an advisor to Shopify, helping them to launch the "Build a Business" competition that fostered web-store startups in 2010 with a $100,000 prize. He was also an investor in Duolingo and Twitter.
In November 2013, Ferriss began an audiobook publishing venture, Tim Ferriss Publishing. The first book published was Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. Other books include Ego Is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday, Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, and What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan.
Also, in 2015, Ferriss declared a long vacation from new investing. He cited the stress of the work and a feeling his impact was "minimal in the long run", and said he planned to spend time on his writing and media projects. In 2017 he stated one of the reasons he moved from Silicon Valley was that, "After effectively 'retiring' from angel investing 2 years ago," he had no professional need to be in the Bay Area.
Ferriss has written five books, The 4-Hour Workweek (2007, expanded edition 2009), The 4-Hour Body (2010), The 4-Hour Chef (2012), Tools of Titans (2016), and Tribe of Mentors (2017).
In December 2013, The Tim Ferriss Experiment debuted on HLN. The series focused on Ferriss' life hacking and speed learning methods. Although 13 episodes were produced, only a portion were shown on television. Ferriss also hosted the 2017 TV show Fear{Less} with Tim Ferriss, in which he interviews people from different industries about success and innovation. In 2015, Ferriss acquired the rights to all of The Tim Ferriss Experiments episodes. He distributed them on iTunes, where they were featured in the most-downloaded chart. In 2016, Ferriss was listed in Fortune (magazine)'s 40 Under 40.
Ferriss has publicly advocated the value of Stoicism and meditation, crediting it with helping him deal with his bipolar disorder, and states that his personal experience with psychiatric disorders and losing a friend to fentanyl drug overdose motivates his involvement in psychedelics research.
In 2017, Tim Ferriss gave the TED talk "Why you should define your fears instead of your goals".
He reevaluated his earlier ideas in a 2020 interview with GQ, concluding that "not everything that is meaningful can be measured." In his turn towards resilience and even spirituality, he recommended three books, Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, Awareness by Anthony de Mello, and Letters From a Stoic (Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium) by Lucius Seneca. He calls the last one, "My favorite writing of all time".
Ferriss is the host of The Tim Ferriss Show, an interview-centered podcast that has been running since 2014. The podcast has more than one billion downloads. Popular podcast guests include Brené Brown, Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Sharapova, LeBron James, and Matthew McConaughey.
Ferriss became interested in the potential of psychedelics due to personal experiences with depression, as well as bipolar disorder, depression, and addiction in his family. In 2015, Ferriss met Roland Griffiths, who was leading research in psychedelics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and organized a crowdfunding campaign to support Griffiths' research into depression.
In 2019, Ferriss contributed to Imperial College London's Center for Psychedelic Research. That year, Ferriss donated more than $2 million to fund the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research led by Griffiths, and he organized an additional $8 million in commitments.
In 2020, Ferriss donated $1 million to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies for research into PTSD treatments using psychedelic-drug MDMA. He issued a $10 million challenge grant, and helped to raise a total of $30 million for the research by publicizing the challenge on his podcast. The following year, Ferriss donated to promote psychedelic research at the Neuroscape Psychedelics Division at the University of California, San Francisco, led by Robin Carhart-Harris and Adam Gazzaley.
In 2018, Ferriss founded the Saisei Foundation. In 2021, the foundation committed $800,000 to UC Berkeley's Center for the Science of Psychedelics to create the Ferriss – UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship with author Michael Pollan. The fellowship provides ten annual grants of $10,000 each to journalists working on in-depth print and audio stories focused on psychedelics. The Foundation also collaborated with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and co-funded POPLAR, the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation.
Ferriss was a member of the National Advisory Council of DonorsChoose and, as of 2016, was a donor and a member of the advisory board of QuestBridge. In 2016, as part of a #BestSchoolDay campaign led by Stephen Colbert, Ferriss funded all 145 classroom projects on Long Island, as well as all the classroom projects in New Hampshire and Sacramento, California with DonorsChoose.org.
Personal life
Ferriss won a National Chinese Kickboxing Championship by technical knock-out, and is the first American to hold a Guinness World Record for tango spins.
Published works
|
Fals
|
[
"Coins",
"Coins of the medieval Islamic world",
"Umayyad Caliphate",
"Islamic banking",
"Islamic banking and finance terminology"
] | 343 | 2,935 |
The fals (; ) was a medieval copper coin first produced by the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) beginning in the late 7th century. The name of the coin is derived from the follis, a Roman and later Byzantine copper coin. As common with most Islamic coinage, the fals was aniconic and usually featured ornate Arabic script on both sides. Various copper fals were produced until the 19th century. Their weight varied, from one gram to ten grams or more.
The term is still used in modern spoken Arabic for money, but pronounced 'fils'. The plural form fulus فلوس is used in contemporary dialects of Arabic (e.g. Egyptian, Iraqi) as a general term for "money". The French term flouze is borrowed from Arabic. It is also absorbed into Malay language through the word fulus .
In popular culture
The Malay derivant fulus was used as basis for naming the fictional setting of Metrofulus in the 2006 Malaysian superhero film Cicakman.
See also
Daughter currencies:
Fils, a subdivision of the dinar, dirham or rial
Falus, coin of Morocco (1672–1901)
|
Non-Standard Finance plc
|
[
"British banned television advertisements",
"British companies established in 2015",
"2015 establishments in the United Kingdom",
"Companies based in London",
"Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange",
"Financial services companies established in 2015",
"Financial services companies of the United Kingdom"
] | 721 | 6,649 |
Non-Standard Finance plc (NSF) is a UK-based consumer finance company that provides home credit under the brands Loans at Home and Everyday Loans. Loans at Home is the UK's third-largest provider of home credit (home-collected personal loans), and of Everyday Loans, a branch-based provider of unsecured consumer loans.
History
NSF was established in February 2015 by John van Kuffeler, who ran home credit group Provident Financial for 22 years before retiring in December 2013. The firm was formed with £48m backing from a group of investors. NSF was listed on the London Stock Exchange in February 2015 as a cash shell, raising £100m for the acquisition of existing short-term consumer finance companies.
In August 2015, the firm acquired Loansathome4u, the home credit arm of finance group S&U, for £82.5m.
In December 2015, the firm acquired Everyday Loans (a branch-based lending chain owned by Secure Trust Bank) for £235m. The transaction was funded by bank debt along with £160m in new equity finance.
NSF declared its first interim dividend in August 2016.
In August 2017, the firm acquired George Banco, a guarantor lender, for £53.5m.
Operations
NSF operates in three main areas of consumer lending: home credit, guaranteed loans and branch-based unsecured lending.
Through Loans at Home (previously Loansathome4u), it serves approximately 98,000 customers from 40 branches in England, Wales and Scotland; and through Everyday Loans a further 37,000 customers from approximately 40 branches in the UK.
|
Dubai Holding
|
[
"Financial services companies established in 2004",
"Companies based in Dubai",
"Investment companies of the United Arab Emirates",
"Holding companies established in 2004",
"Government-owned companies of Dubai"
] | 677 | 8,789 |
Dubai Holding () is Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum's global investment holding company and personal investment portfolio.
Mohamed al-Gergawi built the company's portfolio. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum was appointed chairman by the Dubai ruler. Dubai Holding has over in assets in 13 countries and around 20,000 employees worldwide.
In 2021, leaks from the Pandora Papers about a secretive offshore system used to hide income from tax authorities and creditors revealed that Dubai Holding used three shell companies.
Dubai Holding was established in 2004.
2004: Madinat Jumeirah opened as a themed Arabian resort.
2005: Dubai Studio City was announced.
2005: du, a telecom provider company, was launched.
2005: Dubai International Academic City opened.
2006: Emirates International Communications (EIT) launched, and invested in communication organizations across the Middle East, Europe, Africa and South Asia, including Interoute Communications Ltd.
2007: SmartCity launches in Kochi and Malta.
2008: Jumeirah Beach Residence officially opened.
2013: The Dubai Design District (d3) was created, supposedly for the design community.
2013: in5 launched to provide early-stage companies with support.
2014: Mall of the World was announced to align with the Dubai Tourism Vision 2020.
2014: The Creative Community at d3 was announced.
2014: The Innovation Hub was announced; the hub focused on innovation from Dubai Media City and Dubai Internet City. It was inaugurated in May 2022.
Subsidiaries
Major business groups of Dubai Holding:
Jumeirah Group
Dubai Properties
TECOM Group
Arab Media Group
Dubai International Capital
Dubai Group
Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company
Meraas
Wild Wadi Waterpark
The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management
Dubai Parks and Resorts
|
David Richards (motorsport executive)
|
[
"1952 births",
"Living people",
"20th-century Welsh businesspeople",
"21st-century Welsh businesspeople",
"Welsh motorsport people",
"World Rally Championship people",
"Welsh rally drivers",
"British rally co-drivers",
"Commanders of the Order of the British Empire",
"Apax Partners",
"Aston Martin people",
"Formula One team owners",
"Formula One team principals",
"Benetton Formula",
"FIA people"
] | 980 | 8,612 |
David Pender Richards is the chairman of Prodrive and chairman of Motorsport UK. He is former chairman of Aston Martin and a former team principal of the BAR and Benetton Formula One teams.
Rally driving
Richards won the 1981 World Rally Championship as a co-driver to Ari Vatanen.
Prodrive circuit racing
In 1987 Prodrive entered into what was to become a long-standing partnership with BMW in the British Touring Car Championship. They took the Class B title three times, from 1988 to 1990, winning outright in 1988 with Frank Sytner.
Formula One
Richards became chief executive of Benetton Formula in , replacing Flavio Briatore. He left after just a year in his post and was replaced by Rocco Benetton for .
When the British American Racing (BAR) team was restructuring after the departure of Craig Pollock in 2001, the owners, British American Tobacco (BAT), brought in Prodrive to run the team with Richards as its team principal. Under his direction there was an immediate improvement in performance, ultimately leading to the team taking second place in the 2004 F1 Constructors' Championship. Richards also brought Jenson Button to the team and made him lead driver, providing the majority of their championship points in 2004. This success led to BAT selling a 45% share of the team to Honda in late 2004. With Prodrive having completed its management contract with BAT, Richards stood down as team principal and Prodrive's then managing director Nick Fry assumed this role.
His Prodrive company entered a bid to enter a Formula One team for the 2008 season and on 28 April 2006, Prodrive were officially granted entry when the FIA announced the list of entrants to the 2008 Formula One World Championship. However, on 22 November 2007, he was forced to announce that Prodrive F1 would not be competing in the 2008 Formula One World Championship after a lack of clarity over the legality of 'customer cars' and the threat of possible legal action.
Aston Martin
On 12 March 2007, Richards led a consortium of investors including Investment Dar and Adeem Investment, raising $925 million to finance the purchase of Aston Martin from Ford. Richards subsequently became chairman of the car company. He stepped down from this role at the end of 2013.
Personal life
On 16 September 2007 Richards and his wife, Karen, survived a forced landing in their helicopter in Essex whilst returning from the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix, less than 24 hours after his former WRC driver, Colin McRae, perished in a similar accident along with his son and two others. Based on Prodrive's statement after the incident, Richards was piloting Prodrive's Eurocopter EC 135. Both Richards and his wife Karen walked away unharmed.
In the 2005 New Year Honours, Richards was appointed a CBE for his services to motorsport. In 2017, he was inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame and received the Spirit of Le Mans award from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). In 2019 he received the Autocar Outstanding Leader Award. Cranfield School of Management awarded Richards an Honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2008.
|
Dollar Bank
|
[
"Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania",
"Banks based in Pennsylvania",
"Beaux-Arts architecture in Pennsylvania",
"Banks established in 1855",
"Companies based in Pittsburgh",
"Mutual savings banks in the United States",
"National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh",
"Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks",
"1855 establishments in Pennsylvania"
] | 3,579 | 26,995 |
Dollar Bank is a full-service regional savings bank serving both individuals and business customers, operating more than 90 offices throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia. The bank's corporate headquarters is in downtown Pittsburgh alongside its Pennsylvania regional headquarters. The Ohio headquarters is located in downtown Cleveland, and the Virginia headquarters is located in Hampton Roads.
Founding
Charles A. Colton (1807–1881), a Hartford, Connecticut native, moved to Pittsburgh with his family in 1850 to sell insurance. Mills, factories, coal mines, and other industries in the fast-growing Pittsburgh region drew thousands of people in search of work annually, Americans and immigrants alike. Colton recognized the need for a mutual bank to serve the interests of the working class.
On July 19, 1855, Dollar Bank opened for business as "The Pittsburgh Dollar Savings Institution". For $1, anyone could open a savings account. The first day's deposits totaled $53, which included two dollars from Charles Colton's 10-year-old son. Colton was the only salaried employee for the first three-and-a-half years of the institution's existence. In 1858, "The Pittsburgh Dollar Savings Institution". changed its name to Dollar Savings Bank.
A survey by The Daily Post in November 1880 revealed that the trade of ironworkers was the most common occupation among depositors who opened accounts that year. Artisans (stonemasons, plasterers, millwrights, and other skilled trades) were the second most common occupation, followed by porters, servers, clerks, salespeople, bookkeepers, farmers, and coal miners. Women comprised 45% of Dollar Bank's savings account holders.
At the time of Colton's death in 1881, Dollar Savings Bank had more depositors and more money on deposit ($6.5 million) than any of the other 17 banks in the city. Colton had personally handled the opening of more than 10,000 savings accounts of the 65,000+ accounts in total that Dollar Savings Bank had recorded in its ledgers over the first 26 years.
Mutual Bank Structure
Dollar Bank is one of the few U.S. banks that has a mutual structure: It is owned by its depositor base customers, not by outside shareholders. Mutual savings banks in the United States date back to 1816. Originally, these institutions were organized to help the working classes because most commercial bankers at the time primarily served retail and commercial business.
With no public shareholders to answer to, the bank is not fixated on stock price but on customer service. Such a structure lends itself to a more conservative business model so that the bank never participated, for instance, in the subprime lending that was so destructive to other banks during the 2008 financial crisis. Though rare in the banking industry, mutual structures are common in the insurance world and even in the investment world. The Vanguard Group of mutual funds is probably the most famous mutually-structured financial institution.
On December 3, 2018, the bank completed its reorganization from a mutual savings bank to a mutual holding company.
A mutual holding company results from the conversion of a mutual institution into a parent company of a subsidiary stock company. As a result of the conversion—referred to as mutual-to-stock conversion—the parent company owns a portion of the subsidiary stock company, and the subsidiary receives all of the assets and liabilities of the original mutual company. For owners of the original mutual company—members who, before the conversion, retained ownership and sometimes governance of the mutual—it means the termination of the prior-held mutual rights in exchange for the option to ownership in stock form.
As part of the conversion, the mutual holding company may undergo an initial public offering (IPO) where members of the original mutual company are allowed to purchase shares of the new mutual holding company, but Dollar Bank CEO Jim McQuade says that this is not Dollar's intention. From this point forward, Dollar Bank operates under a mutual holding company structure with Dollar Mutual Bancorp (a mutual entity without shareholders) owning 100% of the common stock of Dollar Bank, Federal Savings Bank.
African American Customers
Since Dollar Bank's founding in July 1855, there have been no restrictions on who can open a savings account. African Americans were among its earliest customers.
First Savings Account
Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1812, Alfred A. Gibson became Dollar Bank's first African American depositor when he opened his savings account on November 13, 1855. He listed his occupation as a porter on a boat. In 1860, Gibson opened a second savings account at Dollar Bank. By that time, he was a porter at the Monongahela House, one of the most celebrated hotels in Pittsburgh. He was one of thirty founding members of the Colored United Brethren of Mutual Relief, a mutual aid society founded in 1843 in the Hill District. His wife, Maria Gibson, and son, Alfred A. Gibson Jr., also had savings accounts with Dollar Bank.
First Mortgage
Dollar Bank's first mortgage to an African American was issued in February 1860 to John L. Woodson, a barber and oldest son of Lewis and Caroline Woodson. John L. Woodson paid off his $850 mortgage in 1863. He and his wife, Julia Brannon Woodson, raised their three children in their home on Pittsburgh's South Side.
Civil War Growth
Nearly 200,000 African American men fought in the Civil War. Soldiers such as Clayton Ragan, Vachel Catlin, William Temple, and William Chatman became early customers of Dollar Bank.
Enslaved people in the battle-torn Virginia region took liberation into their own hands by fleeing toward the lines of Union troops and Northern states. The migration swelled the African American population in cities like Pittsburgh, which was already growing with industrial expansion and workers seeking jobs. Between 1855 and the early 1900s, about 40% of Dollar Bank's African American customers were born in Virginia.
Famous Notable Customers
Founders of iconic Pittsburgh department stores were among Dollar Bank's depositors in the late 1800s. Joseph Horne opened a savings account in 1862 in trust for his son, Durbin. Brothers Morris and Jacob Kaufmann, German immigrants who were making a name in Pittsburgh retail, became depositors in 1888 and 1890, respectively. Walter Rosenbaum, whose father Max founded The Rosenbaum Company store, which for decades anchored a corner of the intersection at Market Street and Liberty Avenue, opened an account with Dollar Bank in 1894.
Artist George Hetzel, founder of the Scalp Level School of Painting, is famous for his landscapes showcasing the natural beauty of Southwestern Pennsylvania. In February 1866, he opened a savings account at Dollar Bank.
Author, publisher, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate Jane Grey Swisshelm opened a savings account at Dollar Bank in 1876. The Pittsburgh neighborhood of Swisshelm Park is named in her honor.
In March 1888, John Paul Golden, M.D., became the first African American graduate with a medical degree from Western Pennsylvania Medical College, forerunner of University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. One month later, Dr. Golden became a Dollar Bank depositor.
Composer and conductor Victor Herbert made his home in Pittsburgh for six years, from 1898 through 1904 when he was conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. His house in Shadyside became a gathering place for world-famous musical talent. Herbert opened a savings account at Dollar Bank in 1900.
Abolitionist, preacher, and Underground Railroad activist Lewis Woodson and his wife Caroline Woodson became Dollar Bank depositors in 1857 and 1860. They were the patriarch and matriarch of one of the notable African American families in early Pittsburgh. By the early 1900s, at least twelve Woodson family members had opened savings accounts at Dollar Bank.
First Office
The Dollar Savings Bank's Fourth Avenue Building was opened in April 1871 and is still in operation today. The architect was Isaac H. Hobbs & Sons of Philadelphia. The building was constructed using 14,000 tons of brownstone quarried in Portland, Connecticut.
When the Hobbs building was constructed, two stone lions were carved on site beside the stairs leading to the entrance of the Fourth Avenue Building as symbols of guardianship of the people's money. The stately lions guarding the entrance were sculpted by 28-year-old German immigrant Max Kohler, and his 25-year-old assistant, Welsh immigrant Richard C. Morgan. Each lion was carved from a single block of quarry-bedded brownstone. A project to restore the original Kohler lions began in September 2009. A new pair of lions, exact replicas of the originals, were created by Master Carver Nicholas Fairplay and his assistant, Brian C.E. Baker. The original lions were returned to the Fourth Avenue building in February 2012 and placed inside the main banking hall, while the new lions were installed on the plinths outside in May 2013.
The Board Room was added to The Dollar Savings Bank's Fourth Avenue Building in 1896 for $37,981.
Today, the Dollar Bank Heritage Center in the Fourth Avenue Building contains displays of vintage banking machines, Dollar Bank advertising through the decades, oil portraits and photographs of the Bank's officers and Trustees, and hand-written ledgers featuring the original signatures of some of the Dollar Bank's early depositors.
The Great Depression
During the 1930s, the main lobby was redecorated. Lighting fixtures were replaced with a new brass chandelier and sconces, which remain in place today. The extensive security cage over the teller counter was reduced by removing a substantial portion of the wrought iron. Pittsburgh was not immune to the bank failures that plagued the nation during the Great Depression. Pittsburgh-based financial institutions that closed in 1931 and 1932 included Exchange National Bank, Monongahela National Bank, Diamond National Bank, and Duquesne National Bank. Perhaps the most shocking failure was that of the Bank of Pittsburgh, N.A., which closed its doors in September 1931. Dollar Savings Bank, however, grew deposits from $44 million in 1930 to $56 million in 1940.
After the St. Patrick's Day Flood of 1936, Dollar Savings Bank hired local contractor W.F. Trimble & Sons to install a new vault that was both fireproof and flood-proof. Designed by Philadelphia-based vault engineers The Hollar Company, the vault was installed in November 1937.
World War II and 1950s
Dollar Savings Bank applied for FDIC membership in November 1943.
By June 1950, Dollar Savings Bank had more than 63,000 depositors and assets of $101.6 million, the first time in the bank's history that assets exceeded $100 million.
Dollar Savings Bank celebrated its 100th anniversary in July 1955.
Dollar Savings Bank bought the six-story Boyd Building at 303-309 Smithfield Street in February 1950. The bank built a new, additional entrance on Smithfield and used the second floor for offices. The rest of the building was leased to the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Red Cross.
In 1956, Dollar Savings Bank purchased the DeRoy Building and converted the first floor for bank use, expanding the Fourth Avenue Building footprint. This building was demolished in 1970, and the space became a pedestrian plaza.
In the 1960s, the Fourth Avenue Building's cupola skylights were filled in, the interior was repainted, and the teller counter was altered to make it a one-level surface.
Dollar Savings Bank opened its first branch office in the Oliver Building on June 29, 1961. The Squirrel Hill branch office opened in 1963; it was Dollar Bank's first location outside of downtown. Over the next 15 years, Dollar Bank expanded to 21 locations in four counties.
Early technology
The rapid expansion of branch banking was made possible by Dollar Savings Bank's installation of the NCR 315, a real-time online teller accounting system, in November 1964. Capable of processing 12,000 savings transactions an hour, the NCR 315 transmitted data in real-time over leased phone lines. Dollar Savings Bank customers could complete any normal transaction at any window, in any Dollar Savings Bank office, instead of being tied to a particular location for their bank business. Dollar Savings Bank was the first bank in Pennsylvania and among the first ten in the nation to use an online teller accounting system.
On April 1, 1975, Dollar Savings Bank launched Pay-By-Phone, a fully automated bill payment service for savings account customers. The system was the first in Pennsylvania and the second in the United States.
Dollar Savings Bank's Fourth Avenue Office was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 14, 1976.
In December 1976, Dollar Savings Bank announced that its assets had reached $1 billion, representing a 17.9 percent growth over just one year before. This was the largest single year of growth in the history of the bank. The bank's net earnings increased more than 200 percent in the previous fiscal year.
Dollar Savings Bank installed its first automated teller machine (ATM) in 1977 and in 1978, free retail checking accounts, called "NOW accounts", were offered for the first time. In July 1981, Dollar Savings Bank began to provide accounts and services tailored to the needs of businesses.
Market expansion
On September 20, 1984, The Dollar Savings Bank acquired Continental Federal Savings and Loan Bank and offered banking services to the Cleveland, Ohio, area. In a deal brokered by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, The Dollar Savings Bank acquired the troubled Cleveland-based thrift, and within two years, a combination of government guarantees against losses and new investment returned Continental to profitability. That same year, Continental's name was changed to Dollar Bank, and The Dollar Savings Bank was renamed to "Dollar Bank". Dollar Bank began offering term loans, lines of credit and Credit cards in 1986.
The first Dollar Bank Loan Center was opened in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, on January 18, 1994. Dollar Bank's "Win-Win Home Equity Adjustable Rate Loan" was launched as the first loan of its kind in March 1994. Dollar Bank became the 16th bank in the country to offer online banking via the Internet in March 1997. Dollar Bank initiated the Freedom ATM Alliance surcharge-free network, a group of 29 banks that joined on January 4, 1999. The goal of the Alliance is to provide surcharge-free ATM alternatives to customers. Banks entering the Alliance agree not to surcharge the customers of any other Alliance member at their ATMs.
On June 28, 2016, Dollar Bank announced that they had agreed to merge with Virginia-based Bank . Both institutions are mutual banks. Dollar Bank retained all Bank employees and continued to operate all four Virginia bank offices. Dollar Bank's asset size grew to over $7.5 billion.
On October 5, 2016, Dollar Bank announced that it had agreed to merge with Pennsylvania-based Progressive-Home Federal Savings and Loan. Both institutions are mutual banks. Dollar Bank retained all Progressive-Home Federal Savings and Loan employees and continues to operate the two branch offices in Allentown and Dormont. Following the merger, Dollar Bank's asset size grew to over $7.6 billion.
On July 20, 2020, Dollar Bank announced that it became the official retail bank of the Cleveland Guardians.
In 2021, Dollar Bank announced that it had agreed to merge with Standard Bank.
National recognition
On April 6, 1998, the Dollar Bank online banking service was inducted into the 1998 Computerworld Smithsonian Innovation Collection.
Product development
In January 2005, the Dollar Bank CD Ladder was launched as the first CD of its kind. Laddering is based upon the premise of not putting all money in a single CD. By dividing money between CD terms ranging from short to long, CDs with a range of yields that reflect market expectations for the future direction of interest rates are purchased.
Dollar Bank was the first to offer text messaging on June 19, 2007, and mobile online banking was introduced on June 5, 2008.
On March 11, 2009, Dollar Bank introduced reverse mortgages to provide financial help to seniors.
Recent developments
In July 2012, Dollar Bank was the first financial institution in the region to release video personal teller machines. These machines allow customers to speak to a live teller during non-traditional banking hours.
On November 1, 2015, James J. McQuade was appointed as the bank's new president. Mr. Oeler remained the CEO until his retirement on May 31, 2016, when Mr. McQuade became president and CEO. Mr. McQuade has 27 years of banking experience, 20 with Dollar Bank. He previously served as the bank's Executive Vice President of Retail Banking.
During the 2025 fiscal year, Dollar Mutual Bancorp’s financial statement reflects its continued strength and growth. Its core capital amounted to over $1.32 billion or 11.12% of total average assets.
Business banking
Dollar Bank provides financial tools and personal services to small businesses, large companies, and corporations. The bank offers a variety of traditional loans, commercial and investment real estate loans, lines of credit, and credit cards. Its new Business Express Loan offers a simple online application and instant decision. Dollar Bank's deposit accounts, cash management, and online services help businesses manage cash flow more efficiently, control, and confidently.
Dollar Bank has several subsidiary businesses, including:
Dollar Bank Servicing Center services loans and mortgages
Dollar Bank Insurance Agency, Inc., provides term life insurance products
Notable buildings
Dollar Bank's official headquarters is currently at 20 Stanwix Street in Downtown Pittsburgh. Its old headquarters building at 340 Fourth Avenue in Pittsburgh is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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