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Although this thread does not function under the same strict guidelines as the USPMT, it is still a general practice on TL to provide a source with an explanation on why it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion. Failure to do so will result in a mod action. |
On February 09 2015 04:31 WhiteDog wrote:
Thanks.
I thought financial assets would be more than epsilon.
Why would it? If I company makes a lot of money(or a higher return) on financial transactions in the long run, then it will move into that line of business. It doesn't make sense for me to produce widgets at 10% ROE when I can play the stock market and make 15% ROE.
Company's make their money on their primary business. If they don't, they either end up going under, being bought out, or changing their line of business. Financial transactional profit (from a non-bank business) is usually a by-product of short term investment of liquid assets, or money made from hedging activities from their primary resource input.
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So the Greeks have undone the austerity measures and their PM told the Germans to eat a dick -- and once again demanded reparations for World War 2.. Greece has about 2 months of hard currency left and the next meeting is next week. Grexit?
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On February 05 2015 13:54 Lucumo wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2015 09:42 A3th3r wrote:
H&M is the most successful European company I know of, economically speaking. They are situated in Sweden & have stores all over the world. Just bought some clothes from there a few days ago & they look great. I think that other firms, specifically those from GERMANY, could really learn a lesson from the H&M example. What are you talking about? For example: Aldi in 2010 had already more than thrice the revenue of what H&M had in 2013. BASF in 2013 had more than four times the revenue while having 2.5 times the profit. And what about BMW, Volkswagen, etc? Must be fun, living under a rock.
Yes, but H&M is INTERNATIONAL. That's the difference. They delve into markets in dozens of countries. Meanwhile, you'll never see an Aldi in the US of A. They don't have enough range to make that step. I do see Aldi in other countries but I NEVER see BASF anywhere but confined inside the borders of Germany. That is great & all but Germany is big but not that big, you know what I'm saying? Sort of like working in Belgium, but never doing transaction in the Netherlands or France. All of German companies' eggs are in one basket - a recipe for disaster if I've ever heard of one.
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On February 08 2015 07:38 Sent. wrote:
I don't see IKEA on that list. Hard to believe it's not there
From their website: "The IKEA Group is not a publicly listed company and therefore does not issue an annual report."
They probably are among the largest, if not the largest, European companies, but there's very little data available on them.
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On February 09 2015 16:26 A3th3r wrote:Show nested quote +On February 05 2015 13:54 Lucumo wrote:On February 04 2015 09:42 A3th3r wrote:
H&M is the most successful European company I know of, economically speaking. They are situated in Sweden & have stores all over the world. Just bought some clothes from there a few days ago & they look great. I think that other firms, specifically those from GERMANY, could really learn a lesson from the H&M example. What are you talking about? For example: Aldi in 2010 had already more than thrice the revenue of what H&M had in 2013. BASF in 2013 had more than four times the revenue while having 2.5 times the profit. And what about BMW, Volkswagen, etc? Must be fun, living under a rock. Yes, but H&M is INTERNATIONAL. That's the difference. They delve into markets in dozens of countries. Meanwhile, you'll never see an Aldi in the US of A. They don't have enough range to make that step. I do see Aldi in other countries but I NEVER see BASF anywhere but confined inside the borders of Germany. That is great & all but Germany is big but not that big, you know what I'm saying? Sort of like working in Belgium, but never doing transaction in the Netherlands or France. All of German companies' eggs are in one basket - a recipe for disaster if I've ever heard of one.
You're a funny dude. Don't know if you're trolling or really don't know better. For ALDI in the U.S. look here: https://www.aldi.us/ - they got lots of stores over there. Maybe just not in the area where you are living.
If you want you can read up about BASF Corporation here: https://www.basf.com/us/en.html where it says it's the second largest producer and marketer of chemicals and related products in North America.
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On February 09 2015 16:26 A3th3r wrote:Show nested quote +On February 05 2015 13:54 Lucumo wrote:On February 04 2015 09:42 A3th3r wrote:
H&M is the most successful European company I know of, economically speaking. They are situated in Sweden & have stores all over the world. Just bought some clothes from there a few days ago & they look great. I think that other firms, specifically those from GERMANY, could really learn a lesson from the H&M example. What are you talking about? For example: Aldi in 2010 had already more than thrice the revenue of what H&M had in 2013. BASF in 2013 had more than four times the revenue while having 2.5 times the profit. And what about BMW, Volkswagen, etc? Must be fun, living under a rock. Yes, but H&M is INTERNATIONAL. That's the difference. They delve into markets in dozens of countries. Meanwhile, you'll never see an Aldi in the US of A. They don't have enough range to make that step. I do see Aldi in other countries but I NEVER see BASF anywhere but confined inside the borders of Germany. That is great & all but Germany is big but not that big, you know what I'm saying? Sort of like working in Belgium, but never doing transaction in the Netherlands or France. All of German companies' eggs are in one basket - a recipe for disaster if I've ever heard of one.
"Hi, i have absolutely no clue about the matter but i somehow think that germanies big companies have problems doing shit in "foreign" countries and it will end bad for them".
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BASF is an absolute monster of a company, the only way to not have their products in your line of sight is to close your eyes or look at the sky. Higher revenue than Google.
On February 09 2015 09:00 Sub40APM wrote:
So the Greeks have undone the austerity measures and their PM told the Germans to eat a dick -- and once again demanded reparations for World War 2.. Greece has about 2 months of hard currency left and the next meeting is next week. Grexit?
If somehow Syriza gets what they want then all hell will break loose in Portugal and Spain. I'm sort of sadistically hoping that Greece gets what's coming to them.
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Zurich15355 Posts
On February 09 2015 20:39 warding wrote:
BASF is an absolute monster of a company, the only way to not have their products in your line of sight is to close your eyes or look at the sky. Higher revenue than Google.
Hahaha yeah the part about BASF was probably in the top 10 dumbest things said on TL. Congrats.
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On February 09 2015 20:39 warding wrote:BASF is an absolute monster of a company, the only way to not have their products in your line of sight is to close your eyes or look at the sky. Higher revenue than Google. Show nested quote +On February 09 2015 09:00 Sub40APM wrote:
So the Greeks have undone the austerity measures and their PM told the Germans to eat a dick -- and once again demanded reparations for World War 2.. Greece has about 2 months of hard currency left and the next meeting is next week. Grexit? If somehow Syriza gets what they want then all hell will break loose in Portugal and Spain. I'm sort of sadistically hoping that Greece gets what's coming to them.
And what, pray tell, is coming to Greece, ehh?
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The HSBC files, which cover the period 2005-2007, amount to the biggest banking leak in history, shedding light on some 30,000 accounts holding almost $120bn (£78bn) of assets.
The files – obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, the French daily Le Monde, BBC Panorama and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – reveal that HSBC’s Swiss private bank:
• Routinely allowed clients to withdraw bricks of cash, often in foreign currencies of little use in Switzerland.
• Aggressively marketed schemes likely to enable wealthy clients to avoid European taxes.
• Colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared “black” accounts from their domestic tax authorities.
• Provided accounts to international criminals, corrupt businessmen and other high-risk individuals.
margaret-hodge-accuses-ex-chairman-lord-stephen-green-over-hsbc-files
This is why I hate our banking system in Europe. Politicians talk about tax evasion but never actually confront countries that make it possible like Swiss, Luxembourg or Monaco. And it is like the tenth time that it's about Swiss banks.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/aug/30/swiss-banks-french-accounts
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/switzerland-charges-ex-hsbc-whistleblower-herve-falciani-industrial-espionage-1479122
Swiss is a really strange country anyway, it benefits a lot from Europe as it is in the center of it but does actually nothing for it. Moreover it is very nationalistic and doesn't care about anything but itself so they don't involve themselves with international matters. If every country on Earth acted the same way there would be no Earth anymore. In my circle of friends we like to call Swiss the back-stabbing whore of Europe.
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So the Greece situation is basically a giant game of chicken.
Can Greece handle domestic bank runs before the bond defaults detonate on Euro bank balance sheets?
That about it?
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On February 09 2015 09:00 Sub40APM wrote:
So the Greeks have undone the austerity measures and their PM told the Germans to eat a dick -- and once again demanded reparations for World War 2.. Greece has about 2 months of hard currency left and the next meeting is next week. Grexit?
Greece's asking for reparations for World War 2 (one wonders how much in the past those people actually live) shows how desperate for cash they really are. Honestly, it sounds as if they want to take revenge on the Germans for some kind of perceived harm that has been done to them since 2008.
I don't really like this trend of blaming outside sources (the Germans, banks, oligarchs, whatever) for the situation in Greece now. Greece is a prime example of what happens if a clientelistic government runs out of money to pay - or bribe - their electorate with. Tsipras' recent rehiring of public workers makes me doubt whether he will tackle the issue at all. Populists are not known for their abilities to make painful choices.
The article below has some rather striking figures:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/opinion/the-cost-of-protecting-greeces-public-sector.html?_r=0
Judging from that article (and others) I've read, I'd say that Greece's government needs to tackle the following three issues concerning public workers:
1) there are just too many of them;
2) government isn't effective: too much red tape and incompetent people;
3) the private sector cannot compete with the public sector in terms of wages and benefits, causing everyone to flock to public sector jobs.
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On February 09 2015 21:50 Acertos wrote:Show nested quote +The HSBC files, which cover the period 2005-2007, amount to the biggest banking leak in history, shedding light on some 30,000 accounts holding almost $120bn (£78bn) of assets.
The files – obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, the French daily Le Monde, BBC Panorama and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – reveal that HSBC’s Swiss private bank:
• Routinely allowed clients to withdraw bricks of cash, often in foreign currencies of little use in Switzerland.
• Aggressively marketed schemes likely to enable wealthy clients to avoid European taxes.
• Colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared “black” accounts from their domestic tax authorities.
• Provided accounts to international criminals, corrupt businessmen and other high-risk individuals. margaret-hodge-accuses-ex-chairman-lord-stephen-green-over-hsbc-filesThis is why I hate our banking system in Europe. Politicians talk about tax evasion but never actually confront countries that make it possible like Swiss, Luxembourg or Monaco. And it is like the tenth time that it's about Swiss banks. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/aug/30/swiss-banks-french-accountshttp://www.ibtimes.co.uk/switzerland-charges-ex-hsbc-whistleblower-herve-falciani-industrial-espionage-1479122Swiss is a really strange country anyway, it benefits a lot from Europe as it is in the center of it but does actually nothing for it. Moreover it is very nationalistic and doesn't care about anything but itself so they don't involve themselves with international matters. If every country on Earth acted the same way there would be no Earth anymore. In my circle of friends we like to call Swiss the back-stabbing whore of Europe.
No Problem with hating our Banks and what they have done (but the laws changed, what you got now is more or less "old stuff" coming to light).
But as long as the channel islands, luxembourg and various other tax heavens actually inside the EU are doing basically the same you just sound like a giant hypocrit (same goes for the US with the cayman islands).
+ There was actually huge pressure on Switzerland from various counries/institutions and our «strategy» changed due to this.
+ Switzerland is actually not rich because of its Banks, they help and are an important part of our economy, but our economy as a whole is structured pretty much like germanies…
Only profiting from the EU and doing nothing for it is also a very simplistic view. We actually pay a good sum of money into the EU and we just built the longest Tunnel world wide to make transportation between germany/northern europe and italy faster (but germany and italy fail at their end of the deal and aren’t ready…).
If every country on Earth acted the same way there would be no Earth anymore.
Yeah. We would have worldpeace since nearly 200 years now… The Horror! Or how exactly do you justify this claim? Yes, many swiss people are pretty nationalistic but in fact Switzerland is one of the more multicultural countries in europe… So the facts go against the image our/some of our politics paint.
Btw: If we would be in the EU we would basically be Germany on fire… You think Germany is profiting from the cheap euro? Switzerland would profit even more.
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On February 09 2015 21:00 farvacola wrote:Show nested quote +On February 09 2015 20:39 warding wrote:BASF is an absolute monster of a company, the only way to not have their products in your line of sight is to close your eyes or look at the sky. Higher revenue than Google. On February 09 2015 09:00 Sub40APM wrote:
So the Greeks have undone the austerity measures and their PM told the Germans to eat a dick -- and once again demanded reparations for World War 2.. Greece has about 2 months of hard currency left and the next meeting is next week. Grexit? If somehow Syriza gets what they want then all hell will break loose in Portugal and Spain. I'm sort of sadistically hoping that Greece gets what's coming to them. And what, pray tell, is coming to Greece, ehh?
Insolvency, run on the banks, exit from the Euro.
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On February 09 2015 23:53 Velr wrote:Show nested quote +On February 09 2015 21:50 Acertos wrote:The HSBC files, which cover the period 2005-2007, amount to the biggest banking leak in history, shedding light on some 30,000 accounts holding almost $120bn (£78bn) of assets.
The files – obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, the French daily Le Monde, BBC Panorama and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – reveal that HSBC’s Swiss private bank:
• Routinely allowed clients to withdraw bricks of cash, often in foreign currencies of little use in Switzerland.
• Aggressively marketed schemes likely to enable wealthy clients to avoid European taxes.
• Colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared “black” accounts from their domestic tax authorities.
• Provided accounts to international criminals, corrupt businessmen and other high-risk individuals. margaret-hodge-accuses-ex-chairman-lord-stephen-green-over-hsbc-filesThis is why I hate our banking system in Europe. Politicians talk about tax evasion but never actually confront countries that make it possible like Swiss, Luxembourg or Monaco. And it is like the tenth time that it's about Swiss banks. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/aug/30/swiss-banks-french-accountshttp://www.ibtimes.co.uk/switzerland-charges-ex-hsbc-whistleblower-herve-falciani-industrial-espionage-1479122Swiss is a really strange country anyway, it benefits a lot from Europe as it is in the center of it but does actually nothing for it. Moreover it is very nationalistic and doesn't care about anything but itself so they don't involve themselves with international matters. If every country on Earth acted the same way there would be no Earth anymore. In my circle of friends we like to call Swiss the back-stabbing whore of Europe. No Problem with hating our Banks and what they have done (but the laws changed, what you got now is more or less "old stuff" coming to light). But as long as the channel islands, luxembourg and various other tax heavens actually inside the EU are doing basically the same you just sound like a giant hypocrit (same goes for the US with the cayman islands). + There was actually huge pressure on Switzerland from various counries/institutions and our «strategy» changed due to this. + Switzerland is actually not rich because of its Banks, they help and are an important part of our economy, but our economy as a whole is structured pretty much like germanies… Only profiting from the EU and doing nothing for it is also a very simplistic view. We actually pay a good sum of money into the EU and we just built the longest Tunnel world wide to make transportation between germany/northern europe and italy faster (but germany and italy fail at their end of the deal and aren’t ready…).
For real????
Switzerland managed to do what the UK couldn't do (being the egoistic and nationalistic bastard who can fully benefit while not really contributing) thanks to its geographical position. The UK created EFTA in 1960 but left it because they couldn't really benefit from it and Switzerland didn't even have to care as trade would inevitably have to pass by it. The Rhenish axis made and makes Switzerland a center piece of the European megalopolis so of course your country will facilitate trade between Southern Europe and Northern Europe as it is in a huge part what makes it rich (about 5% of your GDP is created thanks to cargo).
Your country could have managed to do things differently after WW2 but no, like usual in its history, it didn't play fairly and resorted to fiscal dumping, to helping frauds, to burying its head and not listening, trying to milk the system as hard as it could all the while benefiting immensely from the European project and not contributing at all to the European project or even to anything good internationally (Switzerland doesn't promote anything). Like you said, the laws and policies of your country have changed only recently and that says a lot about its corruption (see the story of Hervé Falciani, this guy was targeted by his own country and is now protected at all times because he revealed some of the fraudulent activities of HSBC). Actually Switzerland's law against money laundering was created in 1990 and it created huge scandals as a lot of politicians were involved in the banking system (http://www.hec.unil.ch/jlambelet/groupe7.pdf). 1990... It sets a good example for a developed country.
Switzerland has always been a weight for the European project and has always gotten all the benefits from its dynamism. In my opinion that is a huge joke. And a worse joke than the other fiscal paradises as they are smaller countries that wouldn't have been able to be relevant without doing these dodgy and fraudulent practices.
On February 09 2015 23:53 Velr wrote:Show nested quote + If every country on Earth acted the same way there would be no Earth anymore. Yeah. We would have worldpeace since nearly 200 years now… The Horror! Or how exactly do you justify this claim? Yes, many swiss people are pretty nationalistic but in fact Switzerland is one of the more multicultural countries in europe… So the facts go against the image our/some of our politics paint. Btw: If we would be in the EU we would basically be Germany on fire… You think Germany is profiting from the cheap euro? Switzerland would profit even more.
Yeah sure, Switzerland is multicultural. Western Europeans have the same values, it is not the same as illiterate and poor people coming from the Middle-East or Africa.
So now let's think about it. If every country on Earth would let criminals from other countries launder their blood stained money or would help strangers not pays their taxes, would try to stay isolated and create fiscal advantages for itself against every other country, there would be nothing but war. Switzerland is just extremely lucky to be in a cooperative, peaceful and understanding Europe. A country acting like that in any other continent would just get eaten by less pacifist neighbors.
Switzerland is like the egoistic, annoying and immature rich kid that stays alone and thinks highly of himself even tough he didn't have any part in his own success.
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So basically... Greece cheated in 1999 with GS to get in the euro zone and now they want money from Germany just to give it back to GS & friends? Seems legit.
Looking foreward to see Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Irak, Iran, Koweit, Pakistan, Afghanistan (+ other countries ending in stan) asking for greek money because of war crimes commited by Alexander the great.
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On February 10 2015 01:46 Saumure wrote:
So basically... Greece cheated in 1999 with GS to get in the euro zone and now they want money from Germany just to give it back to GS & friends? Seems legit.
Looking foreward to see Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Irak, Iran, Koweit, Pakistan, Afghanistan (+ other countries ending in stan) asking for greek money because of war crimes commited by Alexander the great.
Greece already got money from Germany, France and other Eurozone members who wanted to turn a bigger profit by lending to Greeks at a marginally higher rate than other countries.
It was a fuckup on both ends. Greece borrowed too much and Eurozone lenders were complicit in that. Yet the burden of that fuckup is primarily falling on the Greeks so that German / French / Eurozone banks can avoid further losses.
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On February 09 2015 23:32 maartendq wrote:Show nested quote +On February 09 2015 09:00 Sub40APM wrote:
So the Greeks have undone the austerity measures and their PM told the Germans to eat a dick -- and once again demanded reparations for World War 2.. Greece has about 2 months of hard currency left and the next meeting is next week. Grexit? Greece's asking for reparations for World War 2 (one wonders how much in the past those people actually live) shows how desperate for cash they really are. Honestly, it sounds as if they want to take revenge on the Germans for some kind of perceived harm that has been done to them since 2008. I don't really like this trend of blaming outside sources (the Germans, banks, oligarchs, whatever) for the situation in Greece now. Greece is a prime example of what happens if a clientelistic government runs out of money to pay - or bribe - their electorate with. Tsipras' recent rehiring of public workers makes me doubt whether he will tackle the issue at all. Populists are not known for their abilities to make painful choices. The article below has some rather striking figures: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/opinion/the-cost-of-protecting-greeces-public-sector.html?_r=0Judging from that article (and others) I've read, I'd say that Greece's government needs to tackle the following three issues concerning public workers: 1) there are just too many of them; 2) government isn't effective: too much red tape and incompetent people; 3) the private sector cannot compete with the public sector in terms of wages and benefits, causing everyone to flock to public sector jobs.
the funny thing here is that on one hand there's no way it's possible without a debt-cut according to greece and they're (rightfully) pointing at Germany, how cutting debt helped out a lot and want the "same".
On the other hand that apparently should have never happened now ...?
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To be fair Switzerland is at least as industrialized as Germany so it's not just banks and tax evasion, but I definitely agree that the nationalistic attitude is really awful. Especially the whole immigration limitation thing will come back to bite them.
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EPT
