MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia will build at least six nuclear-powered submarines with long-range cruise missiles for its navy, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry told the Itar-Tass news agency.

The missiles can potentially carry low-capacity tactical warheads, the news agency reported Friday.

"These supersonic, highly maneuvering missiles are designed for strikes on aircraft carriers of the enemy if the latter poses a direct threat to Russia's security," the unnamed source told Itar-Tass. "The missiles can be launched at the most important coastal facilities."

The source added, "Despite the construction of a new nuclear submarine with new missiles, Russia intends to observe firmly international arms control agreements on equal terms with other countries."

The Severodvinsk-class submarines are being built at the Sevmash shipyard, the center of Russian nuclear submarine production, according to Global Security's Web site.

The new subs will be put into service for the Russian navy in 2011, the source told Itar-Tass.

Russia will finance the construction of the new submarine with long-range cruise missiles, First Deputy Chief of the Navy's General Staff, Vice-Admiral Oleg Burtsev told Itar-Tass.
source:http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/28/russian.subs/index.html

Link: http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/30/ordinary-workers-make-sacrifices/

NEW YORK — News this week of big bonuses paid out at financial firms on government life support has sparked outrage. AIG is paying $450 million to roughly 400 people at a financial products unit — the same unit that directly contributed to massive losses at the insurer. The company calls them “retention bonuses”.
A woman holds up a sign near Wall Street on September 22, 2008, in New York City.
A woman holds up a sign near Wall Street on September 22, 2008, in New York City.

They are not alone. The New York state comptroller’s office said cash bonuses paid by Wall Street firms totaled $18 billion in 2008. That is down sharply from the boom times, but still unbelievable considering that these companies would be out of business if not for taxpayer bailouts.

Those headlines stand in stark contrast to another story told to me this week. A medium sized company, hit hard by frozen credit markets and clients that are behind in payments, found itself running low on cash. The bosses made the difficult decision of asking their workers if they would skip a pay period. It was totally voluntary. Ninety percent agreed, with many coming up to the bosses after to express their support and willingness to pull together to make it through this crisis.

Another story crossed our desks about a Michigan pancake restaurant where workers got together and agreed to work a shift with no pay to help the restaurant owner bring down costs. Local patrons, hearing the news, left more generous tips to help make up the difference.

These are not big bosses worth millions of dollars who make a big show of taking a dollar salary as a public relations move. These are real people with real bills who are making big sacrifices to try to save their jobs and the companies they are loyal to.

Maybe we should require CEO’s at companies taking taxpayer money to do a job swap and go spend some time out in the real world. They might find out that you don’t need to pay million dollar bonuses to find employees that are worth holding on to.
source:http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/30/ordinary-workers-make-sacrifices/

Link: http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/04/kal-the-death-of-the-cartoonist-is-greatly-exaggerated/

LONDON, England — Have you seen the cover of this week’s Economist with Brown, Sarkozy and Merkel having to pay the “dinner” bill to rescue Eastern Europe? If you did you would have seen the artwork of Kevin Kallaugher — or Kal as he signs his work.
An example of Kal's witty and perceptive cartoon talent.
An example of Kal's witty and perceptive cartoon talent.

American-born Kal has contributed more than 100 Economist covers during the past 30 years. He’s also been published in my hometown paper; the Baltimore Sun. Kal was discovered during the recession of the late 1970s drawing caricatures on the streets of London and Brighton.

He has benefited from Reaganomics, Thatcherism, Bill Clinton (fish in a barrel all of them) but is now tasked with describing the “credit crunch” with pen and ink.

Some commentators speculate that the end of the Bush era might mean the end of cartoon satire to reflect today’s news. Not Kal.

“Certainly it (the Bush presidency) was the golden era to a certain degree,” he told me during an interview at the Political Cartoon Gallery in Central London last month.

“I mean also what we’re seeing in Obama’s case — although the satire may not be immediately directed at him as an individual — is that we’re going through such historic changes, politically, economically, around the world, it’s going to supply a lot of material.”

The challenge for Kal and his contemporaries is to describe the credit crunch in one drawing. Kal hopes his craft actually helps people make sense of the global recession. “You not always just react to the news. I like to think that we’re in the business of kind of clarifying the news,” he said.

He is very busy these days trying to “draw” the recession and also the new president. “It’s this early phase, where we as the cartoonists are helping to establish in the public’s mind what these people look like, this is an interesting time for us.”

Kal has drawn many a character during his career. He often has to hear their voice to capture their essence. If you want to hear his imitation of one famous voice (he says it drives his wife crazy as he talks to himself in character as he draws some people) and see his efforts to capture the character of a certain CNN employee, watch Quest Means Business on Thursday night or check out on cnn.com
source:http://business.blogs.cnn.com/category/united-states/

Link: http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/20/bad-karma-on-mayfair/

(CNN) – Mayfair has been the playground of London’s super rich for centuries.
Berkeley Square, one of London's most exclusive addresses, has lost some of its luster.
Berkeley Square, one of London's most exclusive addresses, has lost some of its luster.

Since the 1990s, it’s also been home to the hedge fund and private equity crowd, joining the private banks dotted around Berkeley Square in Georgian townhouses or low key new buildings.If you’ve shopped on New or Old Bond Street or Savile Row, if you’ve stayed at Claridges or the Dorchester or just played Monopoly, then you know Mayfair; the ritzy area surrounded by Piccadilly, Regent Street, Oxford Street and Hyde Park.

The past decade, Mayfair’s players have attempted to keep a low profile. You’d never know you were walking by the headquarters of Blackstone, Carlyle or, at No. 1 Curzon Street, AIG Financial Products where many of the losses occurred and where many of those infamous bonuses were paid.

And you certainly would not have known that the small townhouse known as No. 12 Berkeley Street was the London offices of Madoff Securities International Ltd.

Those offices are now up for rent. Someone I talked to recently said he had a good look around at place to relocate now that Mayfair has become more “affordable” but felt the place had bad karma.

He noted as well that the office had swipe card entry access to every cabinet which he thought excessive. That goes along with reports that Madoff had a camera installed in the London office so he could keep in better contact from New York.

Property group CB Richard Ellis estimates that rental prices in Mayfair have fallen between 25-30 percent since prices topped £120 ($173) per square foot in 2007, the most expensive place on earth for office space at the time. Now new rent prices have fallen behind rents in New York and Tokyo and likely Hong Kong.

Still, occupancy stands at 94 percent so it’s not as if the property market has collapsed. After all, a hedge fund might be three people and a secretary in one small office. The impact would be much greater if a private equity group were to move out.

On the day I walked around Mayfair, there was a Rolls Royce and Maserati outside Gordon Ramsay’s at Claridges. There were plenty of Bentleys roaming as well. No surprise really since one of the premium corner spots is filled by the Jack Barclay Bentley dealership (there is a Porsche dealer opposite).

And that seems to be the key to Mayfair; after private money flies into London and checks into Claridges or the Dorchester or the Hilton, it wants a private banker or wealth advisor within walking distance. Then it’s lunch nearby at Ramsay’s or Nobu and maybe a drink at Mayfair’s most exclusive (and hardest to find) club, Annabelle’s.

AIG, UBS and other big names all have big offices in the City of London or in the Docklands, but they want their private banking and alternative investments arms separate.

Whether its Mayfair or Greenwich, Connecticut, the super wealthy and those who cater to them like to be off on their own, tucked away from the day-to-day banking operations.

Yet, thanks to Mr. Madoff and those at AIG getting big bonuses, the spotlight is uncomfortably focused on them and the neighborhoods they like to walk around — usually without a tie.

Watch my report on how the financial crisis is hitting Mayfair.
source:http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/20/bad-karma-on-mayfair/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The global economy will shrink up to 2 percent, and rapidly approved stimulus plans worldwide could spark another crash in financial markets, World Bank President Bob Zoellick projected at a forum in Belgium Saturday.
Zoellick: Nations need to focus on long-term economic fixes.

Zoellick: Nations need to focus on long-term economic fixes.

Zoellick said the World Bank, an international institution that offers aid to developing nations, projects a global economic decline between 1 percent and 2 percent.

That estimate is in contrast with an earlier 1 percent decline projected by the International Monetary Fund, a Washington-based organization formed to stabilize international exchange rates, among other duties.

Global economic recovery won't come until 2010, according to the IMF report. The world's economic powers will struggle to break even in the new year, while developing nations' economies will surge by up to 4.5 percent, the IMF said.

The world has not seen a 2 percent drop since World War II or the Great Depression, according to the World Bank.
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However, Zoellick likened such stimulus plans to a "sugar high," saying they would likely lead to another crash.

"The issue now that is most important are the bad assets, and recapitalizing the banks," he said in a statement. "The reason I use 'sugar high' is that it's like if you have to have stimulus, it gives you a boost, but unless you get the credit system working again, it will drop off."
source:http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/03/21/global.economy/index.html