Source: North Jersey
Investing in smaller firms worked for some mutual fund investors
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Record
By most measures, 2010 was a good year for investors. After a few anxious years the Standard & Poor's 500 Index generated a return of almost 13 percent.
But some mutual fund investors were rewarded with eyebrow-raising returns of more than 40 percent. The key strategy in their playbook? Going small.
The success of that approach stands out in a list of last year's top-performing stock funds. The largest returns among nine fund categories tracked by Morningstar Inc. are concentrated in those that specialize in stocks of small companies. And "small" is a relative term — it generally refers to companies valued at $2 billion or less.
The focus worked well for SouthernSun Small Cap (SSSFX), a $105 million fund that posted a 2010 return of more than 48 percent. That's because of a portfolio packed with small-to-moderate-sized industrial companies faring well as the economy begins to regain some traction. One example: The fund's top holding, Nordson Inc., an industrial equipment supplier, saw its shares jump nearly 49 percent.
SouthernSun's return was the largest among broadly based funds, rather than specialized funds, such as those that focus on specific sectors like technology or real estate.
Many of the other top funds on Morningstar's list tilt toward the smaller end of the stock spectrum.
Just two other funds finished 2010 with returns of greater than 40 percent. One was Integrity Williston Basin/Mid North America Stock (ICPAX), with a 47.4 percent gain. That fund holds many stocks of small companies that look for sources of energy in a region that encompasses eastern Montana, the Dakotas and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.
The second was Hotchkis and Wiley Small Cap Value (HWSAX), up 43.3 percent. Its top five holdings include energy stocks Great Plains Energy Inc. and Stone Energy Corp.
Those three funds managed to race to returns that doubled, even tripled, the 2010 total return of the Standard & Poor's 500. Although there was a broad rally, it was uneven. The most glaring difference: Funds specializing in small-cap stocks gained an average 26 percent, compared with 13.6 percent return for large-cap funds, according to Lipper Inc.
In a typical year, small caps post returns that are around 5 percentage points higher than large-caps, according to Lipper analyst Tom Roseen. This year's gap was more than twice as big and extends a decade-long stretch when small caps have consistently performed better than bigger stocks.
In 2010, small caps began to surge late in the year when economic news began to turn more positive — a signal that an economic recovery was gaining momentum. Many small caps, especially the industrial companies that helped lift SouthernSun Small Cap, tend to be among the first to see their stock prices rise when the economy comes back. Larger stocks generally hold up better in market declines and can use their size to ride out recessions more easily.
But that often wasn't the case in the recent recession. One reason: The financial crisis hit stocks of large banks especially hard, which held back the large-cap category.
Whether the small-cap advantage still has legs depends in part on the direction of interest rates. Because they remain near historic lows, expect rates to rise as the economy strengthens.
Higher rates could hurt small-cap companies because they are more dependent on borrowing, Roseen says.
Mark Jewell is a columnist for The Associated Press. His column appears on Thursdays.
Are Madoff's victims being relieved ?
Source: Bloomberg
Little Relief for Madoff Victims
Many former investors won't benefit even as a trustee found surprising success recovering funds lost in Bernard Madoff's $65 billion fraud
By Ben Steverman
It's 4 a.m. and Stephanie Halio, a once-retired 67-year-old, is driving a van up and down the highways of South Florida. Why? Blame Bernie Madoff.
Shortly after learning almost all their investments were lost in Madoff's Ponzi scheme, Halio and her 70-year-old husband, Robert—retired since 2005—opened a transportation business, carting tourists to cruise ships and airports in Miami and West Palm Beach. Though they had no experience and the long days leave them exhausted, it was their only option, she says: "We're struggling to maintain some sort of lifestyle." The bank already foreclosed on their New York home, leaving them with a mortgaged house in Boca Raton. "We have no place else to go at this point."
Two years after Madoff's $65 billion fraud was revealed, its victims are trying to move on. It was good news indeed to hear over the holidays that Irving Picard, the trustee hired by the Securities Investor Protection Corp., or SIPC, has recovered $9.8 billion so far—much more than some had expected. Yet many of Madoff's neediest victims might never benefit from Picard's settlements, and in fact some are being sued to give back gains from the scheme, funds already spent on retirement or taxes.
One thing is certain: Little of the money survivors do recover is likely to find its way into the stock market. Several say their faith in the U.S. financial system has been shattered. One detail that irks Madoff investors: The SIPC, a quasi-governmental organization funded by brokerages that provides $500,000 protection in case of broker failure, isn't paying out as they expected. In the Madoff case, that protection is being applied only to initial investments, not to the final statement balances that included fictitious gains investors had been relying upon.
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"I wouldn't invest a nickel in the stock market," Stephanie Halio says. "It's too dangerous, and the government is not there to protect us." All the Halios' remaining assets are in the bank, despite the fact they now offer miniscule interest rates.
Here are the stories of three families who lived through the Madoff fraud and now must deal with its aftermath.
§ § §
Peter Moskowitz may have survived, but he still believes the Madoff case could kill him. Within days of Madoff's arrest, he developed chest pains. Now the 68-year-old former dentist, who already couldn't work because of a disability, needs a serious bypass operation. The last statement from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities said his account had $1.15 million. Now it's all gone. Adding to his woes, he says, "I had to live in fear of somebody coming to sue me for two years."
That somebody is Picard, who, backed by a bankruptcy judge, is trying to recover money earned in the Ponzi scheme, even from innocent victims who thought those gains were real. An estimated $20 billion was initially invested with Madoff, but account statements in December 2008 showed balances of $65 billion. If, before the fraud, customers withdrew more from accounts than they put in, they are considered beneficiaries of the scheme. They won't get any recovered funds or any SIPC protection, an interpretation of the law that Madoff victim lawyers and some in Congress dispute. Of 16,444 claims on Madoff settlement money, Picard has recognized 2,372 as legitimate.
Moskowitz fell in this trap because he withdrew about two-thirds of his portfolio for a divorce settlement in 1997. Seeking to help out a daughter-in-law who works at a mutual fund company, he then withdrew another 30 percent of his account in 2007 and invested it with her employer.
He thought it was his money, to do with as he pleased. "I planned my life based on certain things and it was all phony," he says. He blames the SIPC for not coming through with even minimal, $500,000 protection. "Everybody should know there is no real protection of theft of your property if you have it with an SIPC broker," he says. (Most U.S. securities brokers are required to be SIPC members.) "The longer you have an account, the more dangerous it is."
Picard had until last month to file lawsuits. Moskowitz hasn't heard anything; he assumes he hasn't been sued, but the slightest uncertainty still weighs heavily. He suspects a ruling against him would have cost him his home in Corona, Calif. The trustee does have a hardship program to exempt customers from giving back gains under certain circumstances, such as advanced age and inability to pay living and medical expenses. A spokeswoman for Picard declined to comment.
Moskowitz's remaining assets remain with his daughter-in-law's employer, though he worries it's impossible for amateur investors to tell which companies are honest. "You have no way of knowing what any of these companies are doing because it's not transparent," he says. "Is the whole stock market a Ponzi scheme? I don't know. It may be."
§ § §
The family of Boyer Palmer, an 88-year-old Swedish immigrant who built a successful drywall business, is being sued by Picard for more than $5 million, despite the fact that Palmer, his wife, and 16 other family members lost $12 million in the fraud.
The lawsuit was filed in December, Palmer's son-in-law Tim Murray says. At Palmer's age, "it's tragic to see him have to go through this," Murray says, adding: "He came from nothing. He had some money, but didn't live like he did. He watched every dollar."
Unfortunately the oldest and poorest victims are those most likely to have received no SIPC protection, says Ron Stein, a financial planner who is president of Network for Investor Action and Protection, a nonprofit founded by Madoff victims. The least wealthy investors often needed to withdraw money to pay taxes on their gains, and the oldest investors—many now in their 80s and 90s—often cashed out to pay for retirement. "Innocent victims are now being forced to return assets which most cannot afford without tremendous additional financial shock," Stein says, noting wealthy individuals and hedge funds were most able to preserve their original principal investments by staying fully invested with Madoff.
Murray assumed that after the fraud they would get more than $3 million in SIPC coverage on various accounts, based on statements from Madoff that they "relied on in good faith," he says. Instead they're being asked to refund more than $5 million in withdrawals above their initial principal. Where did the money go? Murray says the withdrawals funded "ordinary living expenses" during retirement for Palmer and his wife, who recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. Palmer donated to charities, including $500,000 in 2007 to fund an addition to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. Also, money was taken out to pay taxes on their Madoff account's fictitious gains, often at higher short-term, capital-gains rates.
Murray says it's unclear whether the 18 family members, who range in age from 16 to 88, could scrape together $5 million even if they thought the trustee's calculations were fair. "What we've got left we've got mostly in the bank," Murray says. The funds are carefully arranged so deposits are covered by FDIC insurance, making them safe even in case of bank failure.
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Stephanie Halio won't get specific but says the couple lost "practically everything" in the Madoff fraud. They had cashed in her husband's life insurance policy and invested it with Madoff, and didn't buy long-term-care insurance "because we felt we had enough money to insure ourselves."
When they realized Madoff's firm was a Ponzi scheme, they each went looking for jobs—but couldn't find anything in the depths of the recession in late 2008 and early 2009. So they decided to start the transportation business. By one measure, it has been a success, with rides booked at all hours of the day and night. The problem is the two primary drivers are senior citizens. Robert Halio already had a long career, running a process-serving company, and Stephanie helped out. "We're very tired," she says. "We never thought we'd be doing this at this stage of our lives."
The Halios did get some money refunded by the SIPC, but "far less" than they think they deserve. They asked Picard to recalculate their settlement. "We can't afford to hire an attorney," she says of the dispute. "So we sit and wait for what his decision will be." She is angry not just with the SIPC but with the governmental agencies that failed to spot Madoff's fraud earlier, even as the couple paid taxes on "false profits."
"You live your life according to what you've saved," she says. "I don't want anyone else's money. I want my money returned to me."
Steverman is a reporter for Bloomberg News .
Little Relief for Madoff Victims
Many former investors won't benefit even as a trustee found surprising success recovering funds lost in Bernard Madoff's $65 billion fraud
By Ben Steverman
It's 4 a.m. and Stephanie Halio, a once-retired 67-year-old, is driving a van up and down the highways of South Florida. Why? Blame Bernie Madoff.
Shortly after learning almost all their investments were lost in Madoff's Ponzi scheme, Halio and her 70-year-old husband, Robert—retired since 2005—opened a transportation business, carting tourists to cruise ships and airports in Miami and West Palm Beach. Though they had no experience and the long days leave them exhausted, it was their only option, she says: "We're struggling to maintain some sort of lifestyle." The bank already foreclosed on their New York home, leaving them with a mortgaged house in Boca Raton. "We have no place else to go at this point."
Two years after Madoff's $65 billion fraud was revealed, its victims are trying to move on. It was good news indeed to hear over the holidays that Irving Picard, the trustee hired by the Securities Investor Protection Corp., or SIPC, has recovered $9.8 billion so far—much more than some had expected. Yet many of Madoff's neediest victims might never benefit from Picard's settlements, and in fact some are being sued to give back gains from the scheme, funds already spent on retirement or taxes.
One thing is certain: Little of the money survivors do recover is likely to find its way into the stock market. Several say their faith in the U.S. financial system has been shattered. One detail that irks Madoff investors: The SIPC, a quasi-governmental organization funded by brokerages that provides $500,000 protection in case of broker failure, isn't paying out as they expected. In the Madoff case, that protection is being applied only to initial investments, not to the final statement balances that included fictitious gains investors had been relying upon.
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"I wouldn't invest a nickel in the stock market," Stephanie Halio says. "It's too dangerous, and the government is not there to protect us." All the Halios' remaining assets are in the bank, despite the fact they now offer miniscule interest rates.
Here are the stories of three families who lived through the Madoff fraud and now must deal with its aftermath.
§ § §
Peter Moskowitz may have survived, but he still believes the Madoff case could kill him. Within days of Madoff's arrest, he developed chest pains. Now the 68-year-old former dentist, who already couldn't work because of a disability, needs a serious bypass operation. The last statement from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities said his account had $1.15 million. Now it's all gone. Adding to his woes, he says, "I had to live in fear of somebody coming to sue me for two years."
That somebody is Picard, who, backed by a bankruptcy judge, is trying to recover money earned in the Ponzi scheme, even from innocent victims who thought those gains were real. An estimated $20 billion was initially invested with Madoff, but account statements in December 2008 showed balances of $65 billion. If, before the fraud, customers withdrew more from accounts than they put in, they are considered beneficiaries of the scheme. They won't get any recovered funds or any SIPC protection, an interpretation of the law that Madoff victim lawyers and some in Congress dispute. Of 16,444 claims on Madoff settlement money, Picard has recognized 2,372 as legitimate.
Moskowitz fell in this trap because he withdrew about two-thirds of his portfolio for a divorce settlement in 1997. Seeking to help out a daughter-in-law who works at a mutual fund company, he then withdrew another 30 percent of his account in 2007 and invested it with her employer.
He thought it was his money, to do with as he pleased. "I planned my life based on certain things and it was all phony," he says. He blames the SIPC for not coming through with even minimal, $500,000 protection. "Everybody should know there is no real protection of theft of your property if you have it with an SIPC broker," he says. (Most U.S. securities brokers are required to be SIPC members.) "The longer you have an account, the more dangerous it is."
Picard had until last month to file lawsuits. Moskowitz hasn't heard anything; he assumes he hasn't been sued, but the slightest uncertainty still weighs heavily. He suspects a ruling against him would have cost him his home in Corona, Calif. The trustee does have a hardship program to exempt customers from giving back gains under certain circumstances, such as advanced age and inability to pay living and medical expenses. A spokeswoman for Picard declined to comment.
Moskowitz's remaining assets remain with his daughter-in-law's employer, though he worries it's impossible for amateur investors to tell which companies are honest. "You have no way of knowing what any of these companies are doing because it's not transparent," he says. "Is the whole stock market a Ponzi scheme? I don't know. It may be."
§ § §
The family of Boyer Palmer, an 88-year-old Swedish immigrant who built a successful drywall business, is being sued by Picard for more than $5 million, despite the fact that Palmer, his wife, and 16 other family members lost $12 million in the fraud.
The lawsuit was filed in December, Palmer's son-in-law Tim Murray says. At Palmer's age, "it's tragic to see him have to go through this," Murray says, adding: "He came from nothing. He had some money, but didn't live like he did. He watched every dollar."
Unfortunately the oldest and poorest victims are those most likely to have received no SIPC protection, says Ron Stein, a financial planner who is president of Network for Investor Action and Protection, a nonprofit founded by Madoff victims. The least wealthy investors often needed to withdraw money to pay taxes on their gains, and the oldest investors—many now in their 80s and 90s—often cashed out to pay for retirement. "Innocent victims are now being forced to return assets which most cannot afford without tremendous additional financial shock," Stein says, noting wealthy individuals and hedge funds were most able to preserve their original principal investments by staying fully invested with Madoff.
Murray assumed that after the fraud they would get more than $3 million in SIPC coverage on various accounts, based on statements from Madoff that they "relied on in good faith," he says. Instead they're being asked to refund more than $5 million in withdrawals above their initial principal. Where did the money go? Murray says the withdrawals funded "ordinary living expenses" during retirement for Palmer and his wife, who recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. Palmer donated to charities, including $500,000 in 2007 to fund an addition to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. Also, money was taken out to pay taxes on their Madoff account's fictitious gains, often at higher short-term, capital-gains rates.
Murray says it's unclear whether the 18 family members, who range in age from 16 to 88, could scrape together $5 million even if they thought the trustee's calculations were fair. "What we've got left we've got mostly in the bank," Murray says. The funds are carefully arranged so deposits are covered by FDIC insurance, making them safe even in case of bank failure.
Stephanie Halio won't get specific but says the couple lost "practically everything" in the Madoff fraud. They had cashed in her husband's life insurance policy and invested it with Madoff, and didn't buy long-term-care insurance "because we felt we had enough money to insure ourselves."
When they realized Madoff's firm was a Ponzi scheme, they each went looking for jobs—but couldn't find anything in the depths of the recession in late 2008 and early 2009. So they decided to start the transportation business. By one measure, it has been a success, with rides booked at all hours of the day and night. The problem is the two primary drivers are senior citizens. Robert Halio already had a long career, running a process-serving company, and Stephanie helped out. "We're very tired," she says. "We never thought we'd be doing this at this stage of our lives."
The Halios did get some money refunded by the SIPC, but "far less" than they think they deserve. They asked Picard to recalculate their settlement. "We can't afford to hire an attorney," she says of the dispute. "So we sit and wait for what his decision will be." She is angry not just with the SIPC but with the governmental agencies that failed to spot Madoff's fraud earlier, even as the couple paid taxes on "false profits."
"You live your life according to what you've saved," she says. "I don't want anyone else's money. I want my money returned to me."
Steverman is a reporter for Bloomberg News .
Midwifery: A Smart Investment in Haiti
Source: The Huffington Post
By Isobel Coleman
Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
A year after the devastating earthquake in Haiti last January, the situation on the ground remains grim: more than a million people are still living in tents, less than 5 percent of the rubble has been cleared from Port-au-Prince, and now a cholera epidemic, which has already taken thousands of lives, is raging across the country. Despite pledges to "build back better," international efforts in Haiti are struggling just to provide relief. The window for transformative change is closing. Donor fatigue is setting in, and new commitments are slowing to a trickle. Reality demands doing more with less, which is why it is so critical to invest in women. As demonstrated in other post-conflict and post-disaster situations, investments in women can have a significant payoff in terms of health, economic growth, and stability for the whole society. In Haiti's case, one area in particular -- midwifery training for women -- deserves support.
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Haiti has the worst maternal health statistics of any country in the Western hemisphere (and among the worst in the world). Prior to the earthquake, only a quarter of births were attended by trained personnel, compared with 98 percent of births in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Its maternal mortality ratio of 630 deaths per 100,000 live births ranks it alongside some of the poorest countries in Africa. A Haitian woman is seventy times more likely to die in childbirth than an American woman, a fact that serves as a marker of the country's nonexistent healthcare system, poor transportation, low education levels, and deeply rooted cultural practices that encourage women to stay at home during delivery. The challenge of fixing all these problems is overwhelming, but there are some cost-effective solutions that can make a difference.
Experience from Afghanistan has shown that investing in midwifery can significantly reduce maternal mortality, even under the harshest circumstances. Midwives are significantly less expensive to train and maintain than doctors, they can be drawn from local populations with low educational levels, and as "local daughters," they are more likely to be accepted and trusted by, and continue to serve, hard-to-reach rural communities. Over the past seven years, the number of midwives in Afghanistan has risen from fewer than 500 to more than 2,000. Deliveries attended by skilled personnel have more than tripled, and maternal mortality has fallen significantly, albeit from extraordinarily high levels. As important, the midwifery programs in Afghanistan are creating a generation of young, empowered women involved in the healthcare of their whole community. They are teaching mothers how to care for themselves and their infants, and helping to improve hygiene and nutrition for the family. Midwives also earn a decent living, and as professional women in the community, serve as role models to society. Becoming a midwife is now such an attractive career path for Afghan girls in rural areas across the country that applicants outstrip availability of spots, even in some of the most conservative districts where women rarely venture outside of their homes.
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An expansion of midwifery programs in Haiti would not only help address the country's dire maternal mortality statistics, but also create economic, educational, and training opportunities for women. By almost every measure, women lag behind men in Haiti and their low status in society compounds many social ills. Haitian midwives can also be conduits for increasing access to family planning, as they have successfully been doing in Afghanistan and other countries. Some 40 percent of women of childbearing age in Haiti have unmet contraceptive needs. Not surprisingly, Haitian women have high fertility -- 4.7 children per woman on average. They also have the highest rate of HIV infection in Latin America, and the rate for women is higher than men. Midwives can be trained to counsel patients on family planning and HIV prevention.
Expanding midwifery and family planning programs to women across Haiti can yield long-term gains that will benefit all Haitians. Prior to the earthquake, the Haitian government had a program that was graduating 40 midwives a year, but the main training hospital in Port-au-Prince was devastated. Several non-governmental organizations, like Partners in Health and Haitian Health Foundation, also run midwifery programs with great success, but the critical need is to bring these programs to scale across the country. Building back better in Haiti increasingly seems like a pipe dream, but smart investments in programs with demonstrated high returns, like midwifery programs, can give the next generation a chance.
By Isobel Coleman
Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
A year after the devastating earthquake in Haiti last January, the situation on the ground remains grim: more than a million people are still living in tents, less than 5 percent of the rubble has been cleared from Port-au-Prince, and now a cholera epidemic, which has already taken thousands of lives, is raging across the country. Despite pledges to "build back better," international efforts in Haiti are struggling just to provide relief. The window for transformative change is closing. Donor fatigue is setting in, and new commitments are slowing to a trickle. Reality demands doing more with less, which is why it is so critical to invest in women. As demonstrated in other post-conflict and post-disaster situations, investments in women can have a significant payoff in terms of health, economic growth, and stability for the whole society. In Haiti's case, one area in particular -- midwifery training for women -- deserves support.
Haiti has the worst maternal health statistics of any country in the Western hemisphere (and among the worst in the world). Prior to the earthquake, only a quarter of births were attended by trained personnel, compared with 98 percent of births in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Its maternal mortality ratio of 630 deaths per 100,000 live births ranks it alongside some of the poorest countries in Africa. A Haitian woman is seventy times more likely to die in childbirth than an American woman, a fact that serves as a marker of the country's nonexistent healthcare system, poor transportation, low education levels, and deeply rooted cultural practices that encourage women to stay at home during delivery. The challenge of fixing all these problems is overwhelming, but there are some cost-effective solutions that can make a difference.
Experience from Afghanistan has shown that investing in midwifery can significantly reduce maternal mortality, even under the harshest circumstances. Midwives are significantly less expensive to train and maintain than doctors, they can be drawn from local populations with low educational levels, and as "local daughters," they are more likely to be accepted and trusted by, and continue to serve, hard-to-reach rural communities. Over the past seven years, the number of midwives in Afghanistan has risen from fewer than 500 to more than 2,000. Deliveries attended by skilled personnel have more than tripled, and maternal mortality has fallen significantly, albeit from extraordinarily high levels. As important, the midwifery programs in Afghanistan are creating a generation of young, empowered women involved in the healthcare of their whole community. They are teaching mothers how to care for themselves and their infants, and helping to improve hygiene and nutrition for the family. Midwives also earn a decent living, and as professional women in the community, serve as role models to society. Becoming a midwife is now such an attractive career path for Afghan girls in rural areas across the country that applicants outstrip availability of spots, even in some of the most conservative districts where women rarely venture outside of their homes.
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An expansion of midwifery programs in Haiti would not only help address the country's dire maternal mortality statistics, but also create economic, educational, and training opportunities for women. By almost every measure, women lag behind men in Haiti and their low status in society compounds many social ills. Haitian midwives can also be conduits for increasing access to family planning, as they have successfully been doing in Afghanistan and other countries. Some 40 percent of women of childbearing age in Haiti have unmet contraceptive needs. Not surprisingly, Haitian women have high fertility -- 4.7 children per woman on average. They also have the highest rate of HIV infection in Latin America, and the rate for women is higher than men. Midwives can be trained to counsel patients on family planning and HIV prevention.
Expanding midwifery and family planning programs to women across Haiti can yield long-term gains that will benefit all Haitians. Prior to the earthquake, the Haitian government had a program that was graduating 40 midwives a year, but the main training hospital in Port-au-Prince was devastated. Several non-governmental organizations, like Partners in Health and Haitian Health Foundation, also run midwifery programs with great success, but the critical need is to bring these programs to scale across the country. Building back better in Haiti increasingly seems like a pipe dream, but smart investments in programs with demonstrated high returns, like midwifery programs, can give the next generation a chance.
New rule: Employees embarking in office dating must propose in writing
Source: Reuters
Office affair? Declare it in writing, says UK boss
LONDON | Wed Jan 12, 2011 6:38am EST
LONDON (Reuters) - A local authority in Britain was accused by union bosses on Tuesday of planning an "Orwellian dictat" by compelling staff to write to their manager to reveal any office romance they had with a co-worker.
The proposal is contained in a draft policy on relationships at work produced by human resources officials at Fenland District Council, which covers a rural area in central England north of Cambridge.
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"Any employee who embarks on a close personal relationship with a colleague working in the same team must declare the relationship to his/her manager in writing," the document said, adding the details would go on the employees' personal files.
Furthermore, the policy warns that "intimate behaviour during work time is not acceptable".
"This applies during all working time (not flexed off time), both on and off Council sites," the document added. "Any breach of this could be regarded as a disciplinary offence ... leading to disciplinary action."
The Trades Union Congress, Britain's union umbrella body, condemned the proposal, saying workers should not have to disclose details about their private lives outside office time, which their bosses probably did not want to know about either.
"It's quite common for relationships to start in the office, but having to declare your feelings via the HR department is hardly the most romantic way to make a move," said Sarah Veale, TUC Head of Employment Rights.
"Whilst it's important for employers to tackle inappropriate behaviour at work, laying down Orwellian dictats about people's personal lives will simply generate resentment among staff."
The draft policy is due to be discussed by councillors later this month.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)
Office affair? Declare it in writing, says UK boss
LONDON | Wed Jan 12, 2011 6:38am EST
LONDON (Reuters) - A local authority in Britain was accused by union bosses on Tuesday of planning an "Orwellian dictat" by compelling staff to write to their manager to reveal any office romance they had with a co-worker.
The proposal is contained in a draft policy on relationships at work produced by human resources officials at Fenland District Council, which covers a rural area in central England north of Cambridge.
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"Any employee who embarks on a close personal relationship with a colleague working in the same team must declare the relationship to his/her manager in writing," the document said, adding the details would go on the employees' personal files.Furthermore, the policy warns that "intimate behaviour during work time is not acceptable".
"This applies during all working time (not flexed off time), both on and off Council sites," the document added. "Any breach of this could be regarded as a disciplinary offence ... leading to disciplinary action."
The Trades Union Congress, Britain's union umbrella body, condemned the proposal, saying workers should not have to disclose details about their private lives outside office time, which their bosses probably did not want to know about either.
"It's quite common for relationships to start in the office, but having to declare your feelings via the HR department is hardly the most romantic way to make a move," said Sarah Veale, TUC Head of Employment Rights.
"Whilst it's important for employers to tackle inappropriate behaviour at work, laying down Orwellian dictats about people's personal lives will simply generate resentment among staff."
The draft policy is due to be discussed by councillors later this month.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)
Will Jewish investments benefit Palestinians ?
Palestinians see profit in Jerusalem investment
By Tom Perry
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians seeking to invest in Jerusalem need time, patience and a good lawyer.
A small but growing number of them are rising to the challenge, seeing the chance to make a decent return while helping to revive the city's decaying Palestinian economy.
Palestinians, say local businessmen, have long been hesitant about investing in Arab East Jerusalem, governed by Israel since it occupied the West Bank in 1967.
The deterrents include the political uncertainty surrounding a city at the heart of the Middle East conflict and Israeli policies that complicate Palestinian life here.
While those factors have not changed, Palestinians seeking to do business in the city see a greater willingness to explore opportunities in a market they say has been ignored for years.
"In my economic reading, the market in East Jerusalem is virgin and the opportunities are enormous," said Mazen Sinokrot, a Palestinian businessman who last year helped set up a holding company, licensed in Israel, to invest in the city.
For many, it has been easier to invest in Ramallah, the nearby West Bank city governed by the Palestinian Authority. Lower taxes and cheaper labor add to the business case. Ramallah is booming, thanks largely to Western donor support.
By contrast, economic life in East Jerusalem's walled old city and nearby Arab districts, home to some 350,000 Palestinians, has been suffocated by the impact of the barrier built by Israel during the last Intifada, or uprising.
Erected on what Israel described as security grounds, the barrier has severed East Jerusalem from its Palestinian West Bank hinterland, denying traders access to their main domestic market.
That is why Palestinian businessman Osama Salah chose to invest in tourism. "It's the only chance we have," he said.
"TOURISM GOLD MINE"
"There is only one Jerusalem. It is a tourism gold mine that we are not exploiting," he said. "The Israelis are."
He has invested in a hotel just a five-minute walk from the old city, whose Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy sites draw visitors from the world over.
After four years of renovation, Salah reopened the National Hotel in September. At the same time, another hotel reopened just down the road. Around the corner, builders are renovating another that will be ready for business later this year.
Nearby, a complex housing a mall, offices and a hotel is also due to be completed this year, said Mohammed Nusseibeh, the developer who is investing $7 million in the project.
Salah had to fight 14 separate court cases related to his project, battling claims of ownership from other Palestinians and fighting Israel's Jerusalem municipality over planning-related issues. The problems are now resolved, he said.
The 100-room hotel, in which he invested $10 million, is now worth up to $25 million, he estimates. Having created 60 new jobs, it serves as an example of what can be done.
"Don't make the Israeli occupation a hook upon which to hang all your problems," he advises other Palestinian and Arab businessmen. "If you want to invest, you can."
More investment is crucial to sustaining Palestinian life in East Jerusalem and combating Israel's efforts to deepen its control of the city, said Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian Authority-appointed governor of Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem should not just be the focus of songs and poetry. Today, Jerusalem is about work. People who want to protect Jerusalem must work in it. Israel is working hand over fist and putting in billions. The Arab nation must spend more," he said.
Money put into hotels and cultural centers meant the situation in East Jerusalem was improving from the "ghost town" it had been a few years ago, he said. "This year, the progress will become more apparent," he said. But much more needs to be done, he added.
NOT FOR CHARITY OR POLITICS
To Israel, East Jerusalem is part of what it describes as its eternal and indivisible capital. Israel annexed East Jerusalem and a belt of surrounding West Bank land after the 1967 war. That step has never won international recognition.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they hope to found in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The heads of EU missions, in a recently leaked confidential report, identified inadequate investment as one of many factors undermining the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem.
These also included Israeli settlement expansion, evictions of Palestinian families and demolition of Palestinian buildings erected without hard-to-obtain Israeli permits and a restrictive zoning and planning regime by Israel's Jerusalem municipality.
Samir Hulileh is the chief executive of a company that has been waiting for a decade for Israeli permission to build 166 new homes in a predominantly Palestinian residential area of Jerusalem.
Now, finally, he is confident that the first quarter of 2011 will yield a license for the start of ground work on the $33 million housing development in Beit Safafa.
"It's not charity, it's not politics. We have to start first with making a profit," said Hulileh, CEO of Palestine Development and Investment Limited (PADICO), a holding firm traded on the Palestine Securities Exchange.
"You have to be patient and add to the cost of the project the cost of waiting. This squeezes the profit margin," he said.
"However, there are always possibilities. The opportunity from investing in Jerusalem is much higher than in investing in the West Bank. In Jerusalem, you are alone," he said.
PADICO is the investor behind the restoration of the St. George Hotel. Located near the old city, the 144-room hotel is set to reopen in July or August. It also renovated the nearby Alhambra Palace, an events venue with restaurants.
PADICO has two more hotel renovation projects in the pipeline, though its Jerusalem investments are just a fraction of its portfolio in the Palestinian territories, Hulileh said.
"People have overcome the psychological barrier," he said. "They can do something about investment in Jerusalem and shouldn't wait for others, neither the Palestinian Authority or the Arab world."
(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Reuters Canada
Wed Jan 12, 2011 9:09am ESTBy Tom Perry
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians seeking to invest in Jerusalem need time, patience and a good lawyer.
A small but growing number of them are rising to the challenge, seeing the chance to make a decent return while helping to revive the city's decaying Palestinian economy.
Palestinians, say local businessmen, have long been hesitant about investing in Arab East Jerusalem, governed by Israel since it occupied the West Bank in 1967.
The deterrents include the political uncertainty surrounding a city at the heart of the Middle East conflict and Israeli policies that complicate Palestinian life here.
While those factors have not changed, Palestinians seeking to do business in the city see a greater willingness to explore opportunities in a market they say has been ignored for years.
"In my economic reading, the market in East Jerusalem is virgin and the opportunities are enormous," said Mazen Sinokrot, a Palestinian businessman who last year helped set up a holding company, licensed in Israel, to invest in the city.
For many, it has been easier to invest in Ramallah, the nearby West Bank city governed by the Palestinian Authority. Lower taxes and cheaper labor add to the business case. Ramallah is booming, thanks largely to Western donor support.
By contrast, economic life in East Jerusalem's walled old city and nearby Arab districts, home to some 350,000 Palestinians, has been suffocated by the impact of the barrier built by Israel during the last Intifada, or uprising.
Erected on what Israel described as security grounds, the barrier has severed East Jerusalem from its Palestinian West Bank hinterland, denying traders access to their main domestic market.
That is why Palestinian businessman Osama Salah chose to invest in tourism. "It's the only chance we have," he said.
"TOURISM GOLD MINE"
"There is only one Jerusalem. It is a tourism gold mine that we are not exploiting," he said. "The Israelis are."
He has invested in a hotel just a five-minute walk from the old city, whose Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy sites draw visitors from the world over.
After four years of renovation, Salah reopened the National Hotel in September. At the same time, another hotel reopened just down the road. Around the corner, builders are renovating another that will be ready for business later this year.
Nearby, a complex housing a mall, offices and a hotel is also due to be completed this year, said Mohammed Nusseibeh, the developer who is investing $7 million in the project.
Salah had to fight 14 separate court cases related to his project, battling claims of ownership from other Palestinians and fighting Israel's Jerusalem municipality over planning-related issues. The problems are now resolved, he said.
The 100-room hotel, in which he invested $10 million, is now worth up to $25 million, he estimates. Having created 60 new jobs, it serves as an example of what can be done.
"Don't make the Israeli occupation a hook upon which to hang all your problems," he advises other Palestinian and Arab businessmen. "If you want to invest, you can."
More investment is crucial to sustaining Palestinian life in East Jerusalem and combating Israel's efforts to deepen its control of the city, said Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian Authority-appointed governor of Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem should not just be the focus of songs and poetry. Today, Jerusalem is about work. People who want to protect Jerusalem must work in it. Israel is working hand over fist and putting in billions. The Arab nation must spend more," he said.
Money put into hotels and cultural centers meant the situation in East Jerusalem was improving from the "ghost town" it had been a few years ago, he said. "This year, the progress will become more apparent," he said. But much more needs to be done, he added.
NOT FOR CHARITY OR POLITICS
To Israel, East Jerusalem is part of what it describes as its eternal and indivisible capital. Israel annexed East Jerusalem and a belt of surrounding West Bank land after the 1967 war. That step has never won international recognition.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they hope to found in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The heads of EU missions, in a recently leaked confidential report, identified inadequate investment as one of many factors undermining the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem.
These also included Israeli settlement expansion, evictions of Palestinian families and demolition of Palestinian buildings erected without hard-to-obtain Israeli permits and a restrictive zoning and planning regime by Israel's Jerusalem municipality.
Samir Hulileh is the chief executive of a company that has been waiting for a decade for Israeli permission to build 166 new homes in a predominantly Palestinian residential area of Jerusalem.
Now, finally, he is confident that the first quarter of 2011 will yield a license for the start of ground work on the $33 million housing development in Beit Safafa.
"It's not charity, it's not politics. We have to start first with making a profit," said Hulileh, CEO of Palestine Development and Investment Limited (PADICO), a holding firm traded on the Palestine Securities Exchange.
"You have to be patient and add to the cost of the project the cost of waiting. This squeezes the profit margin," he said.
"However, there are always possibilities. The opportunity from investing in Jerusalem is much higher than in investing in the West Bank. In Jerusalem, you are alone," he said.
PADICO is the investor behind the restoration of the St. George Hotel. Located near the old city, the 144-room hotel is set to reopen in July or August. It also renovated the nearby Alhambra Palace, an events venue with restaurants.
PADICO has two more hotel renovation projects in the pipeline, though its Jerusalem investments are just a fraction of its portfolio in the Palestinian territories, Hulileh said.
"People have overcome the psychological barrier," he said. "They can do something about investment in Jerusalem and shouldn't wait for others, neither the Palestinian Authority or the Arab world."
(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Cousins of Gwyneth Paltrow, Sophia Bush are among shooting victims
By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – Mon, 10 Jan 2011 3:06 PM EST
 |
| FILE - In this July 8, 2010 file photo, actress Sophia Bush arrives at "The Darker … |
Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is the first cousin of director Bruce Paltrow, who is the late father of "Country Strong" actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
"One Tree Hill" actress Sophia Bush also has a connection to the shooting. According to a Us Weekly report, Bush is the second cousin of Christina Green, the 9-year-old who was killed in the rampage.
Bush wrote on Twitter on Sunday that "there are no words to explain what my cousin's family is going through in Arizona."
Gwyneth Paltrow told Entertainment Tonight that she has never met Giffords but her "thoughts and prayers are with her and her family."
Is the Dow a good tool to measure the market ?
Source: Investor Place
The Dow Is a Dinosaur
Investors should ignore this myopic market measure and focus on better metrics
Jan. 12, 2011, 7:10 am EST | By Jim Woods
At the risk of committing heresy, it’s time investors stop worrying about where the Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading. In fact, it’s high time we ignored the Dow entirely.
Why? Because the Dow is an anachronism of a bygone era. Its constituent companies are less than representative of the real market, and more recently, its stodgy mix of components has failed to keep pace with more broad-based market indices such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
This last point was brought to my attention quite nicely by a recent post on the blog Crossing Wall Street. The site, run by well-known financial blogger Eddy Elfenbein, pointed out via a simple price chart how the Dow has essentially missed the rally that took place since August. I’ve taken Eddy’s keen observation, which points out how the Dow has lagged the S&P 500, and added the even better-performing Nasdaq Composite Index to the mix. I’ve also expanded the chart to include the last six months.
As you can see, the chart below tells the tale of an index that, while still posting laudable gains, has fallen well behind its bigger-breadth brethren.
Here we see the Dow (blue line) is up about 12.5% over the past six months. Certainly, this can be considered outstanding performance. Yet from a relative viewpoint, the S&P 500 (red line) and the Nasdaq (black line) have left it in the dust. The S&P 500 is up about 16% over the same time period, and the Nasdaq is up over 20%. So, in the race for the best bang for your investment buck, at least over the past six months, the Dow has been the slowest of the three major market horses.
Why has the Dow failed to keep pace? Perhaps one reason has to do with the Dow’s long and storied history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the brainchild of the great Charles Dow, a true Wall Street pioneer. He created his famous index back in 1896 as a way to accurately measure the direction of the biggest industrial stocks. Back then the Dow had only 12 members, but in 1928 the measure was expanded to include 30 companies — a number it’s been stuck at ever since.
Arguably, this lack of representation in a market with as many listings as the current market is one big reason why the Dow is no longer a good lens with which to view the wider equity picture. And though the companies that comprise the Dow are rotated periodically, they are done so at the discretion of editors at The Wall Street Journal. This editorial subjectivity when it comes to selecting Dow components could also be one reason why this isn’t a very true measure of stocks.
Many truly representative companies exist out there with huge market capitalization, companies such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) — both big market bellwethers and which are not currently on the Dow. Of course, both of these stocks can be found on the S&P 500 and on the Nasdaq.
Journal editors have, of course, reshuffled the Dow’s deck in recent years. In 2008, AIG (NYSE:AIG) was booted out of the Dow, and just a few months later in 2009 General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) were ousted from the index. These three former components were replaced by Kraft (NYSE:KFT), Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Travelers (NYSE:TRV), respectively.
But the real issue isn’t willingness to change, or the fact that some of the biggest market-cap bellwethers are absent from the average. The real reason why investors need to consider the Dow a dinosaur is because it’s just not a real true measure of the market’s performance — and the constant monitoring of its price isn’t going to alter that.
If you want a more accurate feel of how well the market is doing, ignore the Dow and follow the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
At the time of publication, Jim Woods held no positions in any of the above mentioned securities.
The Dow Is a Dinosaur
Investors should ignore this myopic market measure and focus on better metrics
Jan. 12, 2011, 7:10 am EST | By Jim Woods
At the risk of committing heresy, it’s time investors stop worrying about where the Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading. In fact, it’s high time we ignored the Dow entirely.
Why? Because the Dow is an anachronism of a bygone era. Its constituent companies are less than representative of the real market, and more recently, its stodgy mix of components has failed to keep pace with more broad-based market indices such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
This last point was brought to my attention quite nicely by a recent post on the blog Crossing Wall Street. The site, run by well-known financial blogger Eddy Elfenbein, pointed out via a simple price chart how the Dow has essentially missed the rally that took place since August. I’ve taken Eddy’s keen observation, which points out how the Dow has lagged the S&P 500, and added the even better-performing Nasdaq Composite Index to the mix. I’ve also expanded the chart to include the last six months.
As you can see, the chart below tells the tale of an index that, while still posting laudable gains, has fallen well behind its bigger-breadth brethren.Here we see the Dow (blue line) is up about 12.5% over the past six months. Certainly, this can be considered outstanding performance. Yet from a relative viewpoint, the S&P 500 (red line) and the Nasdaq (black line) have left it in the dust. The S&P 500 is up about 16% over the same time period, and the Nasdaq is up over 20%. So, in the race for the best bang for your investment buck, at least over the past six months, the Dow has been the slowest of the three major market horses.
Why has the Dow failed to keep pace? Perhaps one reason has to do with the Dow’s long and storied history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the brainchild of the great Charles Dow, a true Wall Street pioneer. He created his famous index back in 1896 as a way to accurately measure the direction of the biggest industrial stocks. Back then the Dow had only 12 members, but in 1928 the measure was expanded to include 30 companies — a number it’s been stuck at ever since.
Arguably, this lack of representation in a market with as many listings as the current market is one big reason why the Dow is no longer a good lens with which to view the wider equity picture. And though the companies that comprise the Dow are rotated periodically, they are done so at the discretion of editors at The Wall Street Journal. This editorial subjectivity when it comes to selecting Dow components could also be one reason why this isn’t a very true measure of stocks.
Many truly representative companies exist out there with huge market capitalization, companies such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) — both big market bellwethers and which are not currently on the Dow. Of course, both of these stocks can be found on the S&P 500 and on the Nasdaq.
Journal editors have, of course, reshuffled the Dow’s deck in recent years. In 2008, AIG (NYSE:AIG) was booted out of the Dow, and just a few months later in 2009 General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) were ousted from the index. These three former components were replaced by Kraft (NYSE:KFT), Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Travelers (NYSE:TRV), respectively.
But the real issue isn’t willingness to change, or the fact that some of the biggest market-cap bellwethers are absent from the average. The real reason why investors need to consider the Dow a dinosaur is because it’s just not a real true measure of the market’s performance — and the constant monitoring of its price isn’t going to alter that.
If you want a more accurate feel of how well the market is doing, ignore the Dow and follow the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
At the time of publication, Jim Woods held no positions in any of the above mentioned securities.
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