Climbing the greasy pole

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

12 December 2012

PER ASPERA AD ASTRA

“Everyone believes in virtue, but who is virtuous?….If I set myself to obtain wealth or power, does it not mean that I must make up my mind to lie and fawn and cringe and swagger and flatter and dissemble? To consent to be the servant of others who have likewise fawned and lied and flattered? Must I cringe to them before I can hope to be their accomplice? Well then, I decline.”

Musings of the protagonist Eugène de Rastignac, who has gone up to Paris from the provinces in search of fame and fortune, in the novel Le Père Goriot, published in serial form during 1834 and 1835, by French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), whose prolific output provides a withering critique of the society of his times.

——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——-

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in France, Literature, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Bank high on brown sugar tacos

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

11 December 2012

It’s becoming embarrassing. Hardly a day passes without some giant of world capitalism eating humble pie and confessing that it has driven a horse-and-coaches through the light-touch regulations that purport to keep the free market on the right side of criminality.

 

Opponents of the free market, such as Antigone1984, ever on the look-out for evidence that exposes the hypocrisy of the business class, are having a field day.

 

Today it’s the turn of UK-based HSBC – formerly, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and now Europe’s biggest bank by market capitalization – to hang its head in shame.

 

The bank has confessed that it is to pay the US authorities a fine of 1.9 billion dollars (1.2 billion pounds sterling) for money laundering (the offence of disguising the source of money obtained from criminal activity). This is said to be the largest penalty ever imposed in a case of this type.

 

The fine follows a US Senate investigation which said that HSBC had acted as a conduit for “drug kingpins and rogue nations”.

 

The Senate report suggested that HBSC accounts were used by Mexican drug barons to launder their ill-gotten gains. It also said that HSBC regularly circumvented restrictions on dealings with Iran, North Korea and other states subject to US sanctions on rogue states.  In addition, the bank was alleged to have provided US dollars and banking services to banks in Saudi Arabia that were implicated in the financing of terrorism.

 

HSBC has admitted having poor money laundering controls.

 

“We accept responsibility for our past mistakes,” said HSBC group chief executive Stuart Gulliver. “We have said we are profoundly sorry for them.”

 

The bank said that it had spent 290 million dollars on improving systems to prevent money laundering in the future.

 

The settlement with the US authorities has not got HSBC completely off the hook. The UK’s own Financial Services Authority (FSA) is also likely to want its pound of flesh.

 

HSBC has said it expects to reach an agreement shortly with the FSA.

 

Antigone1984:

 

Oh dear! And such a respectable company, too – on the surface.

 

Unfortunately, it broke the one rule of capitalism that is unforgivable – it got caught!

 

Still, we mustn’t weep too many tears on HSBC’s account.

 

According to the BBC, it made pre-tax profits of 12.7 billion dollars in the first six months of 2012.

 

Quite enough to take care of that pesky 1.9 billion dollar fine – and still have some to spare!

 

Antigone1984 intends to continue highlighting developments that expose the glaring discrepancy between the operation of the free market in theory – as set out in economic textbooks – and its operation in practice.

 

Readers might like to check out some of our earlier posts in this connection. For instance, “How the market economy works”, “Capitalism in practice”, “Frothy tasteless milk” and “Coining it”.

 ——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Iran, Korea, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A hard rain’s gonna fall

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

10 December 2012

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.

Prediction in the dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (part 3, chapter 3) published in 1949 by George Orwell (1903-1950), English novelist and essay writer.

Antigone1984:

George Orwell – always the optimist!

No, seriously.

——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——-

 

 

 

Posted in Literature, Politics, UK | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Frothy tasteless milk”

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

9 December 2012

COFFEE HOUSE CULTURE

Tax-avoiding multinational companies are not the flavour of the month in Britain. In fact three of them – Amazon, Google and Starbucks – garnered a mauling from the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons when they were hauled before it on 12 November 2012 to explain themselves.

Today we look a bit more in detail at Starbucks. According to Wikipedia, Starbucks is the largest coffee house company in the world with around 20 500 stores in 61 countries. It was founded in 1971 and is based at Seattle in the US State of Washington.

You might have expected exemplary behaviour on all fronts –  prompt payment of corporate tax, for instance, and model employment conditions – from a company with such a high international profile.

Well, judge for yourselves.  In the UK Starbucks is reported to have around 750 outlets and a staff of around 7000. Yet in the past 15 years it has paid very little tax since, as it told the Public Accounts Committee, it rarely makes a profit.

This puzzled the committee. How on earth could the  company afford to keep trading while rarely turning in a profit?  Such a state of affairs seemed to run somewhat counter to the normal business model. One wag suggested that Starbucks is actually a charity!

Taken aback by its savaging at the hands of the committee, Starbucks is reported subsequently to have agreed to consider upping its UK tax payments.

One lesson we can learn from this is that even mega-sized multinational corporations, highly concerned with projecting a wholesome brand image, are not impervious to public pressure.

However, today we want to draw attention to the company’s treatment of its employees.

On 4 December 2012 the London Guardian published the following snippet:

New contractual terms being circulated to staff across 750 UK Starbucks stores include the removal of paid lunch breaks, an end to cash incentives for becoming manager or partner of the year and the removal of a bonus scheme for women returning after they have had a baby.

A Starbucks spokeswoman said the contract changes followed several months of consultation with a group of employees and that all employees ‘were given the opportunity to feed back’.

The news drew a brickbat the next day from Guardian columnist Seumas Milne who was highly critical of the fact that “an anti-union firm such as Starbucks can announce it’s cutting staff benefits on the day it’s in the public dock for tax dodging”.

The same day, 5 December 2012, the following letter appeared in the paper from reader Geoff Fieldsend of Sheffield:

“So the business strategy of Starbucks becomes clear (Starbucks to slash range of workers’ benefits, [Guardian] 4 December).  Impoverish and exploit staff to the full, operate temporarily on a no-profit basis and squirrel all profits safely away from the UK tax authorities. Over time, this should have the effect of putting out of business the small tax-paying cafes which contribute to the community, with the result that the only coffee “product” available will be those huge bowls of frothy, tasteless milk that Starbucks seems to specialise in. So much for the ‘free market’.”

Antigone1984:

It is one thing for the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee to savage international corporate tax avoiders. It is another for the Government to take action to bring them to book. Wanting, like any government, to attract international investment, which brings both wonga and jobs into the chosen country, the UK Government is wary of wielding a big stick against international household names for fear that a heavy-handed approach might deter other potential investors. So Antigone1984 remains sceptical of whether much will be done in practice to remedy the tax scandal.

What is certain is that the UK Government will do nothing whatever to pressurise Starbucks into improving the lot of its workforce. In fact, what Starbucks is doing by degrading staff working conditions is precisely what the current anti-worker UK Tory Government wants it to do. The policy is called “flexibility in the workplace”. The idea is to reduce workers’ pay and conditions till they are just enough to keep body and soul together. Slave labour is what we need, you see, to “compete in the global market place”. And it’s not just in Britain either.  Governments are at it all over the world. And not least in the holier-than-thou world of the European Union. The Tarfuffes of  Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin have jettisoned the so-called Rhine model of capitalism – a market economy tempered by arguably reasonable social and working conditions –  for the IMF model of capitalism red-in-tooth-and-claw, ie the law of the jungle. Look at how they have turned Greece into a Third World country. Spain is next in line. And after that who knows which will be the next state to suffer salvation by fire?  Brussels’ order of the day is now “sauve qui peut!” So much for the wonders of the eurozone, which was meant to usher us into a land flowing with milk and honey when it was launched around the turn of the century.

For our own part, Antigone1984 never patronises a multinational corporation where a local enterprise can provide comparable goods and services. Even where this is not the case, we frequently go without rather than bestow our custom on giant international predators which are sucking the life-blood out of national economies.

Readers who wish to consult our short report on the Public Accounts Committee meeting with Starbucks, Amazon and Google should click on “Coining it”.

Two other posts which might edify readers interested in this subject are “Like fish needs a bicycle” and “Alas for Bharat!”

——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Europe, Greece, Spain, UK, USA | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Wage differentials

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

8 December 2012

We all know that salaries in the First world differ considerably from those in the Third world.  Yet it is an eye-opener, all the same, to discover how dramatic the gap is.

The International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency based in Geneva, Switzerland, published a report yesterday which, inter alia, highlights international wage differentials.

Using data for 2010, the report shows, for example, that the hourly earnings of a worker in the manufacturing sector, converted into euros, were:

–      0.77 in the Philippines;

–      4.2 in Brazil;

–      17.9 in the United States;

–      26.8 in Denmark.

[According to parities posted by Reuters this evening,

1 euro  =  1.2923 US dollars  = 0.8060 pounds sterling]

Antigone1984:

Obviously, there is a massive gap between salaries in the developed and undeveloped worlds.  This is the basic motor of globalisation, namely the relocation of industries from high-wage to low-wage countries in the interests of increased profitability.

Equally obviously, we need to take into account the relative cost of living when assessing the spending power of earnings in different countries. Clearly, 77 cents (0.77 of a euro) will buy more in Manila than it will in Copenhagen. Workers in lower-wage countries are not necessarily living on the breadline (although this may be the case).

The question we find it difficult to answer is this: with relatively sky-high labour costs, how can Danish exports  – and those of other countries with comparable wage levels – manage to compete in a global market?

There are two explanations we can think of:

1. The cost of labour forms a relatively low percentage of the overall cost of first-world exports;

2. Highly developed economies (like those of Germany and Denmark, for instance) export highly sophisticated knowledge-intensive niche products with which upstart companies in the developing world have not the resources to compete.  Sometimes first world exporters have also benefited from a centuries-old manufacturing tradition. One example is the export of world-leader precision medical equipment from the Black Forest region of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. This expertise originated out of the area’s historic tradition of clock manufacture.

——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Economics, Germany, Switzerland, UN, USA | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Fertile Crescent

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

7 December 2012

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

“I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, US President 1953-1961

In the United Nations General Assembly on 29 November 2012,  188 of the 193 UN member states voted on a motion to accept Palestine as a non-member observer state. The motion was adopted by 138 votes to 9 with 41 abstentions.

Despite months of hard worldwide lobbying for a no vote, the United States and Israel managed to seduce only one other top-table country into their camp, namely Canada.

The other naysayers comprised two small states, the Czech Republic and Panama, plus a quartet of Pacific nano-states – Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau and Nauru.

Two states which habitually support the US/Israeli position – the United Kingdom and Germany – abstained on this occasion, to the patent chagrin of the motion’s opponents.

Israel wasted no time in retaliating.

The day after the UN vote, on 30 November 2012, it announced plans (1) to build 3000 new homes for Israeli settlers in the West Bank and (2) to zone for construction the undeveloped corridor of land (known as “E1”) between occupied East Jerusalem and the existing Israeli West Bank colony of Maalé Adoumim, which is home to around 35 000 settlers.

All Jewish settlements on the West Bank are illegal under international law. UN Resolution 242, adopted unanimously by the Security Council on 22 November 1967, outlaws the acquisition of territory by war.

The Israeli announcement drew criticism from France, Britain, the Netherlands and Germany.  Israel’s unconditional backer, the United States, called the move “counter-productive”.

The European Union, which had voiced doubts about the wisdom of the UN motion, also expressed its concern.

While downplaying the likelihood of economic sanctions against Israel, Britain’s foreign secretary William Hague is quoted as saying that “if there is no reversal of the decision….we will want to consider what further steps European countries should take”.

Undeterred, on 2 December 2012 Israel announced that it was freezing the transfer of customs duties to the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank. Normally, Israel collects these duties on Palestinian imports and hands them over to the Palestinians. It has now said that, following the vote in the UN, it will use the duties instead to pay down an outstanding Palestinian debt for electricity supplied from Israel.

The harsh retaliation by Israel should be seen in the context of the Israeili parliamentary elections scheduled for 22 January 2013.  Seeking re-election in a political climate favourable to the hardline right, many of whom favour a Greater Israel incorporating much, if not all, of the West Bank – for which they use the name of the historic Israeli districts of Samaria and Judaea – Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must be seen to be talking tough.

The question is whether he will tone down the rhetoric sufficiently after the elections to bring the Palestinian side to the negotiating table.  In the past the Palestinian government in Ramallah headed by Mahmoud Abbas has made a resumption of negotiations conditional upon a halt to the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The UN vote took place 65 years to the day after the then 57-member UN General Assembly voted – on 29 November 1947 –  by 33 votes to 13  with 10 abstentions (and one member state absent) to partition the land area known as Palestine between a Jewish State and an Arab State. The UN decision was largely welcomed by Jews but rejected by Arabs. The proposed division of the territory of Palestine in accordance with the decision – roughly 55 % was earmarked for the Jewish state and only 45 % for the Arab state – was a major bone of contention. Under the UN plan, Jerusalem, a holy city for both Jews and Arabs, was to enjoy international status.

However, the UN decision was never fully implemented. On 14 May 1948 the British Mandate in Palestine came to an end. On the same day, the Jewish People’s Council proclaimed the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The next day, 15 May 1948, Arab states in the region invaded Israel. The rest is history. The Arabs lost the war (which, according to convention, ended on 10 March 1949) and, as a result, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their land and homes. This period is known to the Arabs as the “nakba” or catastrophe. To the Israelis it is the War of Independence.

The dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs continues unresolved to this day. Since the first Arab-Israeli War of 1948/1949, there have been two others: one in 1956, when Israel, Britain and France invaded Nasser’s Egypt, and the other, known as the Six-Day War, in June 1967. Conflict involving the Gaza Strip on Israel’s southern flank and the state of Lebanon to the north has broken out repeatedly.

Antigone1984:

The battle for ownership of land is as old as man.

Nonetheless, a settlement of the Arab/Israeli conflict is long overdue. If borders can be agreed in any forthcoming negotiations – a big “if” – they should be policed for as long as is necessary by a large international military force under UN command.

Only then will this combustible micro-zone – the source of unending altercation out of all proportion to its natural geo-political significance – be in a position to revert to its historic role as the Fertile Crescent.

 

BREAKDOWN OF THE UN “NO” VOTE ON 29 NOVEMBER 2012

 

The 9 votes against were by countries with a total population of roughly 372 million (including four Pacific island statelets with a combined population of 205 000).  World population is around 7 billion.

 

population

Israel                                                            8 million

United States                                             315  m

Canada                                                         34.5  m

Czech Republic                                          10.5 m

Panama                                                        3.5 m

Micronesia                                                  107 000

Marshall Islands                                         68 000

Palau                                                              21 000

Nauru                                                             9500

TOTAL        371 705 500

 ——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——-

 

 

 

Posted in Europe, Israel, Palestine, UK, UN, USA | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How the market economy works

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

5 December 2012

As it does from time to time, Antigone1984  today draws readers’ attention to the latest example, hot from the press,  of how capitalism is working.

 

In this post we supply a juicy instance from behind the scenes in the shady world of global electronics. This concerns price-fixing and market-rigging on a gigantic scale not by small fly-by-night hole-in-the-wall micro-businesses but by some of the most prominent corporate names in international consumer electronics: Philips of the Netherlands; L G Electronics and  Samsung of South Korea; Toshiba and Pansonic of Japan; Technicolor of France; and Chungwa of Taiwan. For almost a decade these companies colluded as members of one or two cartels to manipulate electronics markets to the detriment of consumers. The European Commission has just hit them with a record antitrust fine totaling nearly 1.5 billion euros ( nearly 2 billion dollars or 1.2 billion pounds sterling). Chungwa escaped the fine as it was the company that blew the whistle on the price-fixing. Strategy aimed at rigging the market was sometimes decided at top-level “green meetings”, so called because participants often followed up their illegal plotting with a round of golf. The European Commission fine aside, the companies now face court action for redress from consumers harmed by the operation of the cartels.

 

Antigone1984: The capitalist economy, which prevails today throughout the world, is based on the theory that firms compete with one another so as to provide the best price for the consumer. The reality is otherwise. Companies do their utmost to achieve monopoly control of a market. If they cannot do that, they will try to form cartels with each other to share out the market between them against the interests of the consumer. What should happen and what does happen are two different things. However, the corporate electronics giants which have now been fined broke one cardinal rule of business – they got caught out! In the amoral world of international capitalism that is the one principle that must be observed at all times.

 

Thank goodness for the market economy! Where would we be without it!? Almost certainly suffering from some kind of major economic crisis. Come to think of it……

The following is the essential part of a press release issued in Brussels today 5 December 2012 by the European Commission. We have highlighted certain passages and figures in bold. The text is long but we believe it will repay careful study. A few inessential details have been removed.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESS RELEASE

Brussels, 5 December 2012

Antitrust: Commission fines producers of TV and computer monitor tubes  1.47 billion euros for two decade-long cartels

The European Commission has fined seven international groups of companies a total of € 1 470 515 000 for participating in either one or both of two distinct cartels in the sector of cathode ray tubes (“CRT”). For almost ten years, between 1996 and 2006, these companies fixed prices, shared markets, allocated customers between themselves and restricted their output. One cartel concerned colour picture tubes used for televisions and the other one colour display tubes used in computer monitors. The cartels operated worldwide. The infringements found by the Commission therefore cover the entire European Economic Area (EEA). Chunghwa, LG Electronics, Philips and Samsung SDI participated in both cartels, while Panasonic, Toshiba, MTPD (currently a Panasonic subsidiary) and Technicolor (formerly Thomson) participated only in the cartel for television tubes.

Chunghwa received full immunity from fines under the Commission’s 2006 Leniency Notice for the two cartels, as it was the first to reveal their existence to the Commission. Other companies received reductions of their fines for their cooperation in the investigation under the Commission’s leniency programme.

Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia said:

“These cartels for cathode ray tubes are ‘textbook cartels’: they feature all the worst kinds of anticompetitive behaviour that are strictly forbidden to companies doing business in Europe. Cathode ray tubes were a very important component in the making of television and computer screens. They accounted for 50 to 70% of the price of a screen. This gives an indication of the serious harm this illegal behaviour has caused both to television and computer screen producers in the EEA, and ultimately the harm it caused to the European consumers over the years”.

 

The two CRT cartels are among the most organised cartels that the Commission has investigated. For almost 10 years, the cartelists carried out the most harmful anti-competitive practices including price fixing, market sharing, customer allocation, capacity and output coordination and exchanges of commercial sensitive information. The cartelists also monitored the implementation, including auditing compliance with the capacity restrictions by plant visits in the case of the computer monitor tubes cartel.

Top management level meetings, dubbed “green(s) meetings” by the cartelists themselves because they were often followed by agolf game, designed the orientations for the two cartels. Preparation and implementation were carried out through lower level meetings, often referred to as “glass meetings“, on a quarterly, monthly, sometimes even weekly basis. Meetings were held in various locations in Asia (Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, etc.) and Europe (Amsterdam, Budapest, Glasgow, Paris, Rome). The cartels operated worldwide.

Multilateral meetings usually started with a review of demand, production, sales and capacity in the main sales areas, including Europe; then prices were discussed, including for individual customers, i.e. TV and computer manufacturers. They had therefore a direct impact on customers in the European Economic Area (EEA), ultimately harming final consumers. The cartelists were trying to address the decline of the CRT market in a collusive way, to the detriment of consumers. For example, one document recording the cartel discussions spells out clearly: “producers need to avoid price competition through controlling their production capacity”.

 

The investigation also revealed that the companies were well aware they were breaking the law. For instance, in a document found during the Commission’s inspections, a warning goes as follows: “Everybody is requested to keep it as secret as it would be serious damage if it is open to customers or European Commission”. The participants were therefore taking precautions to avoid being in possession of anticompetitive documents. Some documents spelled out, for example: “Please dispose the following document after reading it”.

 

 

The fines imposed are as follows:

Name of undertaking Reduction under the Leniency Notice (%) Fine for the TV tubes cartel1 (€) Fine for the computer monitor tubes cartel1 (€) Total fine1
(€)
Chunghwa2 100% 0 0 0
Samsung SDI 40% 81 424 000 69 418 000 150 842 000
Philips 30% 240 171 000 73 185 000 313 356 000
LG Electronics 0% 179 061 000 116 536 000 295 597 000
Philips and LG Electronics2 30%
(reduction only for Philips)		 322 892 000 69 048 000 391 940 000
Technicolor 10% 38 631 000 38 631 000
Panasonic 0% 157 478 000 157 478 000
Toshiba 0% 28 048 000 28 048 000
Panasonic, Toshiba and MTPD2 0% 86 738 000 86 738 000
Panasonic and MTPD2 0% 7 885 000 7 885 000
TOTAL 1 142 328 000 328 187 000 1470 515 000

1 Legal entities within the undertaking may be held jointly and severally liable for the whole or part of the fine imposed.

2 Jointly and severally liable for that whole fine imposed.

 

Action for damages

Any person or firm affected by anti-competitive behaviour as described in this case may bring the matter before the courts of the Member States and seek damages. The case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Antitrust Regulation (Council Regulation 1/2003) both confirm that in cases before national courts, a Commission decision is binding proof that the behaviour took place and was illegal. Even though the Commission has fined the companies concerned, damages may be awarded without these being reduced on account of the Commission fine. The Commission considers that meritorious claims for damages should be aimed at compensating, in a fair way, the victims of an infringement for the harm done.

Background

A Cathode Ray Tube (“CRT”) is an evacuated glass envelope containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen. Two distinct types of CRTs are relevant for the cartels sanctioned in today’s decisions: (i) colour display tubes (CDT) used in computer monitors and (ii) colour picture tubes (CPT) used for colour televisions. The CRT was gradually replaced by alternative techniques such as LCD and plasma displays.

[End of press release]

——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——-

Posted in France, Japan, Korea, Netherlands | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cartesian odyssey

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

4 December 2012

TRAVELLING MAN

“Je voyage, donc je suis”

“Il est bon de savoir quelque chose des moeurs de divers peuples, afin de juger des nôtres plus sainement, et que nous ne pensions pas que tout ce qui est contre nos modes soit ridicule et contre raison, ainsi qu’ont coutume de faire ceux qui n’ont rien vu….

 

…..sitôt que l’âge me permit de sortir de la sujétion de mes précepteurs, je quittoi entièrement l’étude des lettres; et me résolvant de ne chercher plus d’autre science que celle qui se pourrait trouver en moi-même, ou bien dans le grand livre du monde, j’employai le reste de ma jeunesse à voyager, à voir des cours et des armées, à fréquenter des gens de diverses humeurs et conditions, à recueillir diverses expériences, à m’éprouver moi-même dans les rencontres que la fortune me proposoit, et partout à faire telle réflexion sur les choses qui se présentoient que j’en pusse tirer quelque profit.”

 

“It is useful to know something of the manners of different nations, that we may be enabled to form a more correct judgement concerning our own, and be prevented from thinking that everything contrary to our customs is ridiculous and irrational – a conclusion usually come to by those whose experience has been limited to their own country….

……as soon as my age permitted me to pass from under  the control of my instructors, I entirely abandoned the study of letters and resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself or of the great book of the world. I spent the remainder of my youth in travelling, in visiting courts and armies, in holding intercourse with men of different dispositions and ranks, in collecting varied experience, in proving myself in the different situations into which fortune threw me, and, above all, in making such reflection on the matter of my experience as to secure my improvement.”

Extracts from Part One of the “Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison et chercher la vérité dans les sciences” (Treatise on the best way to use one’s reasoning faculties and seek scientific truth) published in 1637 by French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650). Descartes was born at La Haye (now Descartes) in central France but died in Stockholm.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in France, Philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Evidence-based forecast

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

3 December 2012

 

Cold winter ahead? That’s what folks were wondering.

 

It’s late autumn and the Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.

 

The chief had received a modern education but he had never been made privy to the old secrets of his tribe. So, when he looked at the sky, he just couldn’t tell what the winter was going to be like.

 

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter could well be cold.  They should all collect firewood in order to be prepared for the worst.

 

However, the chief was not happy that he had no evidence to back up his hunch. So he picked up the phone, called the National Weather Service, and asked: ‘Is the coming winter going to be cold?’

 

‘It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,’ replied the meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

 

So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared for the worst.

 

A week later he called the National Weather Service again. ‘Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?’

 

‘Yes,’ replied once more the man at the National Weather Service. ‘It sure is going to be a very cold winter.’

 

The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could lay their hands on.

 

Two weeks later the he rang the National Weather Service again. ‘Are you absolutely sure that this winter is going to be very cold?’ he asked.

 

‘I’m absolutely sure of it,’ the man replied. ‘In fact, it’s looking more and more like it’s going to be one of the coldest winters we’ve ever seen.’

 

‘How can you be so sure?’ the chief asked.

 

‘Because the Indians are collecting a shitload of firewood,’ said the weatherman.

 

——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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“To be, or not to be”

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

2 December 2012

A DILEMMA

The historic industrial metropolis of Newcastle upon Tyne (population around 280 000) in north-east England is proposing to stop subsidizing cultural activities.

Under this proposal, the existing £2.5 million annual spend on cultural projects will be hacked back to zero.

Institutions affected include the Theatre Royal, the Live Theatre, Northern Stage and the Laing Art Gallery.

Newcastle Council, which is controlled by the Labour Party, is also proposing to axe 10 of its 18 libraries.

The proposals are out for public consultation with a view to formal ratification by the council next spring.

The reason is no mystery: it is the world-wide economic downturn, which is affecting the peripheral regions of states as much as globally significant mega-cities.

As a result of the depression, the UK national government, like the governments of other states in recession, has slashed its subsidy to local authorities.

With a reduced budget, these local authorities have no option but to cut spending.

The dilemma they face is in which public service to make the cuts.

The proposed cutback in cultural spending in Newcastle has sparked virulent criticism from the arts community.

Playwright Lee Hall, for instance, who grew up in the city, is quoted as saying:

“It is a philistine attack on the arts. It is culturally, socially and, crucially, economically illiterate. It is the supine nature of local government that they are willing to throw the arts to the dogs.”

However,  Nick Forbes, Labour Party leader of Newcastle Council, has reportedly said that, faced with the obligation to take “awful decisions”, it is impossible to argue that the arts “come before life-and-death services like children’s social work”.

Newcastle arose out of the Roman settlement of Pons Aelius founded around 122 AD on the orders of the Spanish-born Emperor Hadrian (who reigned 117-138 AD).

It has played a crucial role in England’s economic development, the trades for which it has been noted ranging from wool and beer to coal-mining and ship-building.

The inhabitants of Newcastle are known as “Geordies” and speak a dialect, derived from Anglo-Saxon, which is incomprehensible to the rest of the country.

 

Antigone1984:

If we, as radical leftwingers, were in control of Newcastle City Council, how would we tackle this dilemma? Suggestions from readers welcomed.

——–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Literature, UK | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment