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2012_0420 - Debt - Age of Entitlement

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BoQ gets a grip on bad loans. Factoring (finance) The sale of the receivable transfers ownership of the receivable to the factor, indicating the factor obtains all of the rights associated with the receivables.[2][3] Accordingly, the receivable becomes the factor's asset, and the factor obtains the right to receive the payments made by the debtor for the invoice amount, and is free to pledge or exchange the receivable asset without unreasonable constraints or restrictions.[2][3] Usually, the account debtor is notified of the sale of the receivable, and the factor bills the debtor and makes all collections; however, non-notification factoring, where the client (seller) collects the accounts sold to the factor, as agent of the factor, also occurs.

Factoring (finance)

Travellers to gain from airline battle. BoQ gets a grip on bad loans. RBA urged to go for big cut. IMF warns of lower commodity prices. Inflation key, despite RBA misreading. Banks vulnerable on deposits. Retail deposits are clearly the most attractive form of funding from a regulatory point of view, but also the most expensive.

Banks vulnerable on deposits

Photo: Louie Douvis Jonathan Shapiro ANZ Banking Group’s decision to lift its standard variable mortgage rate by 6 basis points late on Friday was a surprise to many. The great budget deficit debate. Give PM room to ‘ease off’ surplus: Milne. Heather Ridout, new Reserve Bank of Australia member: ‘Their [the Greens] overall approach to business issues may well be counter-productive and undermine the achievement of ... higher living standards for all.’

Give PM room to ‘ease off’ surplus: Milne

Photo: AAP Louise Dodson and Gemma Daley New Reserve Bank of Australia board member and outgoing Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout hit out yesterday at the Greens for having a “hard-nosed, ideological stance” that threatened investment, jobs and living ­standards. A day after new leader Christine Milne claimed business groups were stuck in the past century and should form alliances with “progressive” companies, Ms Ridout said the Greens were being counter-productive on carbon pricing, industrial ­relations and their rejection of tax cuts for larger companies.

Joe Hockey - Shadow Treasurer - The end of the Age of Entitlement. Lateline - 18/04/2012: We have bred entitlement: Hockey. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 18/04/2012 Reporter: Tony Jones.

Lateline - 18/04/2012: We have bred entitlement: Hockey

Hockey's on the money - Abbott. Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey Photo: Penny Bradfield Hockey's strange road to entitlement enlightenment Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has defended comments made by his Treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, that the "age of entitlement" in Western countries was over.

Hockey's on the money - Abbott

Mr Hockey held up Hong Kong as an example, where the top rate of income tax was 17 per cent but the government provided no social safety net. Hockey blasts attitude of 'entitlement' Hockey blasts attitude of 'entitlement' Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey condemns systems of 'universal entitlement' in Western democracies. 19, 2012 Hockey's strange road to entitlement enlightenment SHADOW treasurer Joe Hockey has condemned systems of ''universal entitlement'' in Western democracies, contrasting this attitude with the concept of ''filial piety'' thriving across Asia where people get what they work for and families look after their own.

Hockey blasts attitude of 'entitlement'

Speaking in London, Mr Hockey said that by Western standards the highly constrained public safety net in Hong Kong and other Asian places might seem brutal ''but it works and it is financially sustainable''. Hockey's strange road to entitlement enlightenment. Hockey blasts attitude of 'entitlement'

Hockey's strange road to entitlement enlightenment

Has Joe Hockey promised the end of the Australian safety net? Joe Hockey has called for an “end to the age of entitlement”.

Has Joe Hockey promised the end of the Australian safety net?

He added on Lateline that “we need to compare ourselves with our Asian neighbours where the entitlements programs of the state are far less than they are in Australia”. He says that “the age of unlimited and unfunded entitlement to government services and income support is over”. He compares the 16% of GDP that Australia devotes to social spending with Korea’s figure of “around 10%,” which is actually 7.6% on the latest OECD figures.

It’s important to understand exactly what we buy with that 16% of GDP. When a politician talks vaguely about “middle class welfare” and a culture of entitlement, a lot of voters probably nod sagely and think of their least favourite porky perk for other people, like the baby bonus. Here’s where our public social spending goes: Public social spending as a proportion of GDP in Australia Source: OECD Social Expenditure Database. Surplus at all costs is ‘mindless’ Bernanke Says Too Early for Victory on U.S. Recovery. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S.

Bernanke Says Too Early for Victory on U.S. Recovery

Bernanke said unemployment remains too high, the recovery in the U.S. economy isn’t assured and policy makers don’t rule out any further options to boost growth. “It’s far too early to declare victory,” Bernanke said, according to a transcript of an interview with ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer provided by the network. “The recent news has been good. Merkozy s'est suicidé. "Merkozy" s'est suicidé(e) ce dimanche, place de la Concorde.

Merkozy s'est suicidé

On le (la ?) Savait du reste en mauvaise santé depuis plusieurs semaines. Qu'il est loin le temps où la "fusion" indivisible des deux chefs de l'exécutif français et allemand ouvrait la voie à la nouvelle Europe des règles d'or et des sanctions budgétaires renforcées et où l'on attendait Angela dans les meetings pour soutenir son "cher Nicolas" ! L'action Vestas s'envole sur fonds de rachat par des groupes chinois. Vestas, leader mondial de l'éolien, est particulièrement fragilisé par la crise que traverse le secteur.

Ces derniers mois, il a fait plusieurs avertissements sur résultats et annoncé un plan de licenciements massif de 2.335 persones. La perte annoncée pour 2011 a dépassé les craintes des analystes à 218,4 millions de dollars (167 millions d'euros). Sept cadres dirigeants, dont le directeur financier et le directeur de la division éolien offshore, ont quitté l'entreprise en janvier. Le PDG Ditlev Engel est pour le moment parvenu à conserver son poste.

Après avoir atteint un record de 700 couronnes danoises (94 euros) en 2008, l'action avait bouclé à 48,98 couronnes (6,58 euros) vendredi dernier. D'après un analyste cité par Reuters lundi, les deux entreprises chinoises, soutenues par l'Etatn int les capacités financières pour acquérir Vestas. Local debt in favour overseas. Westpac joins other majors in India. Asians pile into Aussie bonds as $250bn debt ceiling is put in doubt. Source: The Australian ASIAN sovereign wealth funds and central banks have seized a record level of Australia's growing government debt, which is soon likely to threaten the nation's debt ceiling. Analysis by The Australian has shown the slice of debt owned by Asian investors has jumped from 5.8 per cent to at least 12.9 per cent in just two years. Labor has overseen a $120 billion blowout in gross debt over the past three years, sparking the prospect that the $250bn debt ceiling will have to be raised.

The federal government's gross debt level has soared from $117.3bn in 2009 to $237.43bn, as a result of its fiscal stimulus program during the global financial crisis. The Australian Office of Financial Management estimates that Asian investors have become the most active buyers of Australian debt, helping push government bond yields to record lows below 4 per cent. Small banks in rates warning. Gold cards dumped for no-frills. Dividends power the big banks. Major mortgage insurance lender confident. Bupa on prowl for Australian acquisitions. Leave banking to the experts. Banks have their backers. IAG woos women, new parents. Climate change denial and the suburbs. Intelligent people are just as likely to dismiss the evidence of global warming as anyone else as those we most readily associate with the ideals of reason and rationality turn their backs on the world of evidence-based research, Mark Latham says.

Photo: Jessica Hromas. Investment banks’ culture of conflict. The number of people convicted of market manipulation has doubled since the Australian Securities and Investments Commission took over supervision from the ASX. Illustration: Warren Hackshall Joyce Moullakis Conflicts of interest at investment banks are a perennial issue, but in recent weeks, the banking arena has been showered with allegations of malfeasance, further tainting the industry’s image. Royal Canadian Mint to create digital currency. The Royal Canadian Mint wants to get rid of pocket change — and it’s enlisting hacker-types for help. Less than a week after the government announced the penny’s impending death, the Mint quietly unveiled its digital currency called MintChip. Still in the research and development phase, MintChip will ultimately let people pay each other directly using smartphones, USB sticks, computers, tablets and clouds. Networks key to Instagram’s success.

Somini Sengupta, Nicole Perlroth and Jenna Wortham It was past midnight, in a dimly lighted warehouse jutting into San Francisco Bay, when Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger introduced something they had been working on for weeks: a photo-sharing iPhone application called Instagram. What happened next was crazier than they could have imagined. In a matter of hours, thousands downloaded it. The computer systems handling the photos kept crashing. Publisher pulls plug on Amazon. An Amazon warehouse near London . . . prices keep falling, but is it sustainable? Photo: Reuters David Streitfeld Tulsa, Oklahoma Plenty of people are upset at Amazon these days, but it took a small publishing company whose best-known volume is a toilet-training tome to give the mighty internet store the boot.

Toyota culls ‘failed’ car workers. Security guards and workers outside the centre in Altona where Toyota took workers to sack them. Royal Canadian Mint aims to kickstart digital currency with MintChip developer challenge. Royal Canadian Mint’s “MintChip” Looks To Officially Digitize Cash. Moving everyday transactions into the digital realm seems an inevitability, but as yet there have been no breakout successes. Sure, there are fringe efforts like Square (which relies on existing card and bank infrastructure) and Google Wallet (which is a bit early to the NFC party), but there’s nothing that the average consumer would see and think “yes, that is as simple as handing the merchant a five-dollar bill.”

The Royal Canadian Mint is hoping to create such a system: a multi-platform, simple, and secure alternative to cash. Telstra pledges ‘ruthless’ growth focus. Gordon Ballantyne said cost cutting had freed up funds for Telstra to compete aggressively in mobiles while still charging a premium for access to its network Photo: Tomasz Machnik.