Stay on this island for $52K/night

For rent: Musha Cay, 'best private island' in world; comes with butler, boatman
By The Canadian PressMon, 10 Jan 1011 2:36 PM EST
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MONTREAL - Why settle for a mere hotel by the beach when you can have your own private island?

Luxury Retreats, a Montreal-based specialist in villa rentals, has named Musha Cay in the Bahamas as "the best private island" in the world.

Located 135 kilometres southeast of Nassau in the Exuma chain, Musha Cay offers "a beautiful, unspoiled tropical environment filled with exotic flowers, palm trees and abundant foliage," according to the company.

The island, over 60 hectares in size, can accommodate up to 24 guests at a time and rents for US$37,500 to $52,500 per night.

That includes the services of 30 staff members including cook, butler, gardener and boatman. Children are welcome at the non-smoking villa but pets are not allowed, says Luxury Retreats.

On the web:www.luxuryretreats.com

How to evade the trickiest question in any job interview

 

Tips for Evading the Salary Question

Lindsay Olson, On Thursday January 6, 2011, 3:16 pm EST
It's hard not to panic when asked about salary during a job interview--and it will inevitably come up during the interview process. This can be especially difficult when switching industries or moving to a new city.
But how you respond to questions about how much you want to make will directly affect your future compensation package. That means that gracefully dealing with salary questions is one of the most important interviewing skills you can master.
Here are some key points to consider when discussing your salary requirements with a potential employer:
Timing. When you're asked about salary early in the process, recognize it as a screening tool to either bring you in for an interview or eliminate you from consideration. For this reason, do not include your salary requirements in a cover letter.
Instead, salary discussions should come toward the end of the interview process, when the company already wants you and understands your value--when you have more leverage. Salary ranges tend to be more flexible once the employer knows you're the perfect candidate. Few hiring managers will let their perfect candidate get away because of a small gap in salary range.
Preparation is key. Prior to interviewing, do your homework and come up with a ballpark figure on the fair market value for the position and your experience. Use sites like Glassdoor.com to get an idea of what the employees (current or past) at that company earn, especially those who occupy a similar job. Research the employer's competitors, too. Don't forget to check out recent industry publications; many conduct salary surveys and share the results. If you have a relationship with a recruiter, she may also be a good source of information.
Become a skillful dodger. Avoiding the salary question makes most people nervous, so rather than dodge it, they answer it, then spend the next week beating themselves up over it. Don't answer the question. If the hiring manager asks you about your expectations, tell him you know the company likely has a budgeted range, and if he's willing to share that range, you could tell him whether you fit within it.
It's also important to emphasize that you're considering the overall job opportunity and compensation package. One way to avoid answering questions about your current salary is to say that your current job responsibilities and compensation package are surely different than what they're offering, so you'd rather discuss the job expectations and then determine a fair market salary for their job.

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Don't be the first to name a price. When it comes to the salary game, if you're the first party to name a price, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. You want to receive an offer based on your experience and market value, not based on your previous salary. While expecting a huge raise isn't always realistic, the company may offer a higher range for your experience. But you'll never know that if you reveal your hand first.
If you're underpaid at your current job, you risk leaving the hiring manager with doubts, devaluing your experience, and falling out of the running for the job. If you state a number too high, you risk pricing yourself out of the job before the company fully understands your value.
If all else fails, give a range. This is your last resort, and it's where your preparation will pay off. Say something like this: "I assume [name of company] pays a fair market wage. In my research, I've found a position with these responsibilities in [geographical region] pays between $55,000 to $75,000. Is that what you had in mind?"

J.P. Morgan sets foot in Qatar

Source: Wall Street Journal
JANUARY 12, 2011, 8:25 A.M. ET
J.P. Morgan to Open Qatari Branch
By ALEX DELMAR-MORGAN

DOHA, Qatar—Qatar's financial regulator has authorized J.P. Morgan Chase, the U.S. investment bank, to start operations in the Gulf Arab state, it said Wednesday, as the country looks to attract top financial firms to grow its emerging business hub.

The Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority, or QFCRA, said in an emailed statement that J.P. Morgan's branch in the Qatar Financial Centre is licensed "to arrange credit facilities, deals in investments", and provide "custody services", as well as advise on investments. It was authorized on Jan. 5, the QFCRA added.
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"We are pleased that J.P.Morgan is bringing its significant market and product expertise to the Qatar market and we are confident that it will play a significant role in this important market and the region," QFCRA deputy Chief Executive Officer Michael Ryan said in the statement.

In all, 128 firms are registered at the QFC, which was set up in 2005 and allows 100% ownership by foreign companies. Other investment banks with offices in......Read more

ConnectU faces skeptical judges in Facebook appeal

By by Glenn Chapman | Agence France Presse – Tue, 11 Jan 10:08 PM EST

A skeptical panel of judges is mulling whether Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg duped former Harvard classmates in a $65 million settlement of a lawsuit charging that he stole the idea for the website recently valued at $50 billion.

Twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winkelvoss claim they enlisted Zuckerberg to finish software code for their ConnectU social-networking website while they were all students at Harvard in 2003.

Zuckerberg, a second year student at the time, took their code and their idea and launched Facebook in February 2004 instead of holding up his end of the deal, according to the brothers. Facebook refutes that account.

Hollywood made the saga famous in the recent hit film "The Social Network."

The twins inked a settlement two years ago that got them $20 million in cash and $45 million worth of stock valued at $36 per share.

The brothers are gambling the settlement, which was supposed to be confidential, on a federal court appeal that contends they were tricked a second time because Facebook internally valued the stock at $9.

Members of a three-judge panel bore holes in the argument pitched by Jerome Falk, the attorney who spoke for the Winklevoss twins during a hearing Tuesday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Judge John Wallace noted that teams of lawyers and a top mediator had worked on the settlement.

"The (ConnectU) founders are pretty smart people themselves," Wallace said.

"The twins also have a father from Wharton School who is very bright," he continued as he grilled Falk.

"If you have all these people to advise you, isn't it difficult to say this is one of those things where you were taken advantage of?" he asked.

The Winkelvoss brothers based the value of Facebook stock on news that months earlier technology giant Microsoft had bought a small piece of the social networking star in a deal that valued the stock at just shy of $36 and the company at $15 billion, Falk said.

He argued that Facebook violated US securities law by not disclosing that it had valued the stock at closer to $9 for stock options issued to employees at that time.

"No one was misled here," he said. "The ConnectU founders struck a deal that made them very rich and is making them richer by the day. No one made them sign it."

Rosenkranz argued that Facebook was under no obligation to volunteer the stock option information during settlement negotiations and that the information was not intentionally withheld.

"It looks like it's got a lot of just about everything you would "This case is about whether sophisticated parties surrounded by a platoon of world-class lawyers can cancel a deal that is binding," Facebook attorney Joshua Rosenkranz countered in his time before the judges. want in a contract," Ninth Circuit chief judge Alex Kozinski said while leafing through the settlement paperwork. "It definitely says we have a binding agreement."

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The panel is expected to decide in about three months whether it will overturn a decision by a federal district court denying the appeal.

"They certainly exhibited a healthy degree of skepticism," Falk told AFP after the hearing. "They pressed me on things. I hope I answered to their satisfaction."

If the appeal is rejected, the Winkelvoss brothers would lose the cash and stock, which is in escrow, but would be free to pursue their original lawsuit, according to Falk.

A US probe into Goldman Sachs's fresh $450 million investment in Facebook could drive the hugely popular social networking site to go public earlier than planned.

Goldman evaluated Facebook at a whopping $50 billion, more than longstanding giants such as Boeing, Time Warner and Yahoo!.

Regulators at the US Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly examining disclosure rules for private firms and might consider compelling Facebook to register as a public company.

Facebook has more than 500 million active users per month worldwide as subscribers "friend" their contacts and share their activities.

For Haiti, Key to Economic Recovery May Be in the Garbage

Source: Live Science
By Jeanette Mulvey, BusinessNewsDaily Managing Editor
posted: 11 January 2011 10:11 am ET
One year after Haiti's devastating earthquake, the country is still in the early stages of recovery. While financial aid, food and medical supplies have made it to the island nation, which is considered to be one of the poorest countries on Earth, many argue that little has been done to improve Haiti's long-term economic stability.

A Pittsburgh-based group of entrepreneurs is trying to change that. Known as THREAD (The Haitian Redevelopment Directive), the organization is committed to building a factory that turns discarded plastic bottles into fabric for use in high- performance apparel. They hope the factory will be operational by year-end.

The Haitian factory, which plans to initially employ 10 to 15 workers and pay them a fair wage, would be able to supply the fabric to end users at a lower cost than companies located in other parts of the world, while providing jobs and a de facto sanitation system for Haiti’s people.

“I’ve been all over world,” said THREAD’s president and CEO Ian Rosenberger. “The two things I see most are poverty and trash.”

THREAD’s factory would address both problems. By paying locals to recycle their trash, while providing skilled jobs for Haitian citizens, the business would create an economic system that addresses the need for jobs, infrastructure and hope for the future development of Haiti into a country that can compete economically and stand on its own one day. It would also provide a roadmap for the birth of a business that could be used to build factories in other parts of Haiti and in other developing countries.

“There’s not a lot to restart economic engines in the developing world,” said Rosenberger, who works full-time as director of business development for the Pittsburgh-based advertising firm Strategic Images.

The technology to recycle plastic into fabric already exists. Companies such as Patagonia and Nike, already use fabric made from recycled plastic in their high-performance apparel.

The key to making the technology work in Haiti would be re-engineering the production process so it could be done in smaller factories.

“The technology exists,” said Rosenberger. “It’s just a matter of scaling it down, producing a bolt of fabric and getting it on someone’s desk.”
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Rosenberger and the rest of the THREAD team — which is made up of business people, individuals from the nonprofit sector and educators — hopes to start raising money for the first THREAD factory this spring.

The company anticipates it will need $250,000 for the first six months of operation and another $500,000 after that. It is actively seeking venture capitalists, angel investors and foundations interested in investing in its project.

Rosenberger believes Haiti is particularly well-suited for this kind of export because the country already has a foundation in the textile industry.

“The environment is favorable for textile exports to the States,” Rosenberger said. “And, the U.S. government is taking down some of the roadblocks necessary to help jump start business.”
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THREAD is partnering with an organization called Haitian Partners for Christian Development as well as with students from the engineering departments Penn State University and at Hungary’s Corvinus University of Budapest.

Rosenberger believes THREAD’s "social-preneurial" efforts are the way of the future for countries trying to pull themselves out of poverty.

“In developing world, you don’t hear words like ‘economic stimulus’ and ‘job recovery,'” Rosenberger told BusinessNewsDaily. “You hear about aid and donations. Those words need to come into conversation.

"Creating jobs is a ladder to climb out of poverty,” Rosenberger said.

At least one U.S. manufacturer of high-performance apparel, such as running shirts, thinks there is a healthy U.S. market for importing the fabric THREAD plans to produce.

"People are starting to pay more attention to where things are coming from and want to buy from factories that are paying a fair wage and not exploiting the environment,” said Jeremy Litchfield, owner of Atayne, a Brunswick, Maine-based manufacturer of apparel that uses fabric similar to what THREAD hopes to produce. “There could be many companies interested in buying from them. There’s a tremendous potential market out there.”

Coordination is essential to global financial health

Source: Market Watch
Jan. 12, 2011, 8:27 a.m. EST
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
Lack of coordination seen as key global risk
World Economic Forum: Economy increasingly vulnerable to shocks
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The inability of world leaders to identify and address potential crises, along with the growing gap between rich and poor, present the biggest risks to the global economy, the World Economic Forum said in a report released Wednesday.

The financial crisis has drained national treasuries and households, leaving the world more vulnerable to increasingly fast-moving crises than at any time in the last several decades, said Robert Greenhill, chief business officer of the World Economic Forum at a press conference.

The WEF is a Geneva-based think tank best known for its high-profile annual gatherings of business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland, each January.

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“Twentieth century systems are failing to manage 21st century risks,” Greenhill said. “We need new networked systems to identify and address global risks before they become global crises.”

The failure of the Doha round of trade talks to produce a global agreement and the lack of international agreement at the Copenhagen Conference on climate change are symptoms of “global governance” shortcomings, the report said.

Meanwhile, the Group of 20 nations proved adept at responding to the financial crisis, but have yet to show they can address problems before they balloon into full-fledged crises, the report said.

WEF’s annual report on global risks said growing economic disparity within societies as well as across societies also presents a threat to the economy.

“Politically, there are signs of resurgent nationalism and populism as well as social fragmentation,” the report said. “There is also a growing divergence of opinion between countries on how to promote sustainable, inclusive growth.”

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Fiscal crises in developed nations as well as volatile food and commodity prices are key macroeconomic risks, the report said.

“Current fiscal policies are unsustainable in most industrialized economies. In the absence of far-reaching structural corrections, there will be a high risk of sovereign defaults,” said Daniel Hofmann, chief economist at Zurich Financial Services.

Meanwhile, the world appears to have entered a period of increased volatility in commodity prices, while fiscal deficits threaten investments in infrastructure needed to improve access to and availability of food, water and.....Read more

Why is Ireland 'freer' than UK for business

Source: Ireland Business Blog With Lisa O'Carroll
New index of economic freedom shows Ireland is rated seventh in the world, ahead of UK which has fallen five places to number 16
An IMF-EU bailout, four of the seven major banks in the country nationalised and a swingeing budget that will mean hardship for some of the population for years to come …

But that hasn't stopped Ireland being rated as one of the top countries in the world to do business – ahead of the UK, the US and the powerhouse of Europe, Germany.

That's according to a global index published today that measures commitment to free enterprise.

Hong Kong was deemed the most free place in the world to do business, followed by Singapore (whose corporation tax incidentally competes well with Ireland's 12.5%) and Australia. (See table of global corporation tax)

Hong Kong shone for a number of reasons including its attitude to foreign investment. "Foreign capital receives domestic treatment, and foreign investment is strongly encouraged," according to notes accompanying the index.

The Heritage Foundation behind the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom pointed out that Ireland fell from top notch to second place in Europe – but there were still a lot of positives.

"Despite the ongoing crisis, Ireland's overall levels of economic freedom remain high, sustained by such institutional strengths as strong protection of property rights, a low level of corruption, efficient business regulations, and competitive tax rates," it said in its detailed analysis of Ireland.
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Two of the world's biggest spending governments, the UK and the US fell in the index this year. (Get the index here)

The UK has dropped five places to number 16 in the index, while the US dropped to ninth place, its lowest economic freedom score in a decade.

Some 117 countries, mainly developing and emerging market economies, improved their scores.

"After two years of doubts and side-steps, economic freedom is again on the rise around the world. That's especially good news for the poor. Countries gaining economic freedom have done a much better job over the last decade in eliminating poverty," said Terry Miller, director of the centre for international trade and economics at the Heritage Foundation.

The index measures 10 categories of economic freedom: fiscal soundness and openness to trade and investment, government size, business and....Read more