Really? US dollar? Swiss Franc is much more stable. Euro, is very spendable, mostly stable. Petro-Euro could easily replace Petro-Dollar (but ask Saddam Hussien how that turned out).
US Dollar is not worth its weight in paper.
China holds vast amount of US Dollars and the moment they decide to sell some or all of these, the currency will start to look like the Zimbabwe Dollar.
Very true. I was working in our office in Milan when two users PCs were hit.
Email avoided Barracuda mail firewall device, Sophos on two Excahnge servers, Sophos on the endpoint and Outlook junk-email filters. It also came in through our Cisco firewall with an IDS module.
Email appeared to be a legit email from a logistics company in Italy (in Italian). Only three users out of 60 got the email, those that deal with the company. Two users opened the mail and the attachement.
So, one, it avoided a lots of checking. Secondly it worked very fast. It encrypted hard drives and network drives to the tune of 170k files in a few minutes. Thirdly, seems there were a few critical leaks of email databases (corroborated by the IT manager having spoken with her former colleagues and they had a similar problem only a few days before hand). Lastly, it seems that the attack was highly targetted.
Backup procedures are heavilty audited in our company and the Italian IT backup nightly and test restores daily. It took a while to load data from the tapes, but within 24 hours, all network data was restored with only a few files (those created that day) lost. Pc files lost amount to a few inconsequential files, plus lots of personal photos that the users had been warned NOT to store on company IT equipement.
"When I ask my other tech friends what they would do, they simply suggest changing ISPs. Nobody likes Comcast, but I don't have a choice here. I'm two years into a three-year contract. So, moving is not an option"
Moving is always an option. But you have to eat the cost of one year of Comcast. Sorry, but that's your solution.
Think I am going to start wearing hats more often now.
What will happen is that the large denomination notes will just simply not be issued.
Want that $1000 in cash? That will be a lot of 20s or even 10s. This is chump change and of no interest.
Large amounts of $100s make it easy to pay for stuff "of interest" - large amounts of drugs, bribes, high end weapony, keeping wages or other taxable payments of the radar, etc. Smaller notes mean that physical transportation of large amounts of cash becomes more problematic and risky, but not impossible.
Pennies might go, but that will be just coincidence.
Better have a way of getting your 1000 swiss franc and 500 Euro notes ASAP, and hope.
Geo location and pricing differentials are evil.
Big companies want freedom to move labour and taxes to lowest cost countries. Ok, but then consumers should have the same rights to do the same.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Worst flight ever: red eye LA to Miami nearly killed me. Perth to Melbourne, a similar distance no problem. Probably just the lack of red eye.
I fly lots and the only other one as bad is Europe (Zurich) to Johannesburg. Overnight but same time zone. Got pretty cranky near the end of Dubai Melbourne too (17 hours after a quick 6 jaunt - via Asia is much better)
Why don't we use the lawyers to line the containment facility? There is a near limitless supply of lawyers.
Not talking main structure here, just internal, cosmetic purposes.
There has to be a huge cost saving this way.
Small players don't do business multi-national (mostly).
Actually, I think it would be much easier just to change the tax law to ignore related party transactions. So, if one company owned or had a beneficial stake in another, or common board membership, or had a board membership that was majorly composed of staff of the other company, that first company could not claim (1) fees for use of IP, (2) interest, (3) management charges, or (4) other imaginary charges from the second. Any charges for physical goods would have to be declared and the legal onus would be on the supplying party (overseas) to prove the cost of goods is realistic. Open, audit able books, so no hiding tax or bank accounts in tax havens.
If the the transaction is between unrelated companies, then charges are fully deductible.
Businesses are free to trade with whoever they want. But there becomes less of an incentive to implement transfer pricing. You could still do it, but both the buyer and the seller would have to agree to be fully accountable.
Problem solved.
(P.S. Rupert Murdoch owns the media in Oz, so don't expect to find the Herald-Scum or any like publications inciting the masses to rise up over this issue.)
I would argue that religion is just a specialised form of cult.
Not really that much difference between the crowd at a rally in NK and one outside the Vatican.
NKs might be there to look good (or avoid disappearing in to a gulag), but how many that turn up to church at 10am on Sunday are also there only because of social pressure (and the fear of an eternity in hell).
Oblig George Carlin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjVLJKR6g7U
The Swiss have sensibly stayed out of the EU. Hence there might a little problem if they decided to put the capital, in say, Frick, or Frauenfeld, or Fribourg.
Although, (and despite what Germany would like), they are picking and choosing which regulations they would like to cooperate with. There are many bilateral agreements between the Swiss and the Eu.
Success is not defeating the trap, it's getting the cheese.
No cheese, ergo, no success.
Go read some Machiavelli.
We have talked about this at length. No marriage, no rings, no kids. I keep my motorbikes, she keeps her cars. She doesn't like my apartment, I don't like hers.
I'm in an open office. 10 people, in a space that is comfortable for 6, at the most. At the end of the day, I just want some quiet time. Fortunately, I have achieved the mythical
Boss does let me work from home if I've project specific stuff that must be done and I'm up to my limit in distractions.
What I really need is a test lab area, that hurts me more than the open plan office.
You can blow up stuff outside the office or play some classic Diecide on 11 and I can work. But the constant bable of voices just pisses me off.
With your bare hands?!?
