| Sarkozy, Under Investigation in France for Fraud, Plans to "Dodge New 75% French Tax Rate by Moving to London and Setting Up £1bn Private Equity Fund" Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:05 PM PST To the victor, belongs the spoils. Had former French president Nicolas Sarkozy won reelection, he certainly would not be under investigation for illegally funding his campaign, nor there would be an investigation regarding his involvement in fraudulent arms sales to Pakistan. Perhaps Sarkozy wants to escape such charges, or perhaps he wants to move for tax reasons, but regardless of why, the latest political scandal is Sarkozy's plans 'to dodge new 75% French tax rate by moving to London with wife Carla and setting up £1bn private equity fund' Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing to move to London to set up a billion pounds plus investment fund, it was claimed today.
If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in his home country.
He and his former supermodel third wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy would be likely to settle in an affluent district like South Kensington – so becoming the most high profile Gallic celebrity couple in the city.
But the former president is under investigation for corruption in France, and if he does cross the Channel there will be outrage.
Details of the planned move were uncovered during a raid by fraud police on Sarkozy's Paris mansion last June.
It came within weeks of Mr Sarkozy losing his immunity against prosecution after being defeated by Socialist rival Francois Hollande in the May presidential election.
Now the hugely respected investigative news site Mediapart reports that the 'first draft' of Mr Sarkozy's London project was found by detectives examining his computer files.
Mr Sarkozy is said to have taken the money from Liliane Bettencourt, the I' Oreal heiress – a claim the politician denies, but for which he could still receive a prison sentence.
He is also being investigated over numerous other funding scandals, including one linked to arms sales to Pakistan, and another in which he is said to have used millions in taxpayers' money to pay friends to produce opinion polls while he was in office.
Mediapart suggests that the planned London move would create a 'conflict of interest' – not only because Sarkozy is being investigated, but because a former French president should not choose the UK as a base to make his fortune. France Abuzz Over Sarkozy Plans The Telegraph reports France abuzz over Nicolas Sarkozy 'London private equity fund' claim On Tuesday night, France was rife with speculation – hotly denied [Not Really - at least by Sarkozy - Mish] that Nicolas Sarkozy plans to set up a £800 million private equity fund across the Channel in London.
The former French president, who left office in June, has been using his new job as a highly paid international conference speaker to try and stump up capital for the new venture, according to Mediapart, the respected investigative website.
Mediapart said the former leader's plan to launch a private equity fund in London is currently in the "exploratory" stage and that no company has yet been officially created.
Sources close to Mr Sarkozy dismissed the alleged plan as an "intellectual construction", with one telling The Daily Telegraph the former leader "does not confirm anything in the article". [No Confirmation, but No Denial either - Mish]
However, the website cited "very precise financial and industry sources" as saying plans are definitely afoot.
With the help of Alain Minc, a businessman and confidant, Mr Sarkozy has since October been seeking to recruit investors during a string of conferences, the first two for Brazilian group PTB Pactual, which has a large private equity arm.
Yesterday, Mr Minc denied playing any role in creating such a fund.
"It is absurd to think he would move to London and stop paying taxes in France." "Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't need me to meet the world's biggest funds," he told Le Figaro. "He has a thousand contacts and hasn't made up his mind about what he wants to do."
[The statement by Minc is not exactly a denial either - Mish].
Laurent Mauduit the Mediapart journalist who wrote the article, said: "I note Minc denies things I never wrote." "I never said he would physically move to London but planned to set up his company there," he told The Daily Telegraph. Sarkozy Neither Confirms, Nor Denies Story Notice that Sarkozy did not confirm anything in the Mediapart article, but did not deny anything either. Minc's statement "He has a thousand contacts and hasn't made up his mind about what he wants to do" is certainly plausible. So is his statement "Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't need me to meet the world's biggest funds." Neither is a denial of anything. Evidence suggests Sarkozy is indeed planning a move to the UK, probably for multiple reasons. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Meet "Baxter" the Robot Out to Get Your Minimum-Wage, No Benefits, Part-Time Job, Because He's Still Much Cheaper; Fed Cannot Win a Fight Against Robots Posted: 21 Jan 2013 11:52 PM PST The federal Minimum wage in the US is $7.25 per hour. Ten states have higher minimum wages with Rhode Island clocking in 50 cents higher at $7.75. Costs to the employer are higher of course, even if the employer ducks benefits by using part-time workers. For starters, employer contributions to Social Security are 6.2% of hourly wages which adds another 45 cents to employer costs. That brings employer costs up to $7.95 per hour minimum, not counting training costs, vacation (if any), sick-time disruptions, and other such costs. Of course, employers must also factor in the cost of Obamacare. Small businesses do not have to provide health-care, but under employer responsibility provisions of the affordable care act, businesses that employ more than 50 workers will pay a steep penalty in 2014 if they don't. Click on the preceding link to see a nice flow chart of the penalty process. What IF? What if companies, small or large, did not have to worry about Obamacare? What if they did not have to worry, about training, sick-leave disruptions and weather-related disruptions? What if companies only had to pay $3.00 per hour, rivaling wages in China? Meet Baxter  Baxter - The Automation Robot MIT Technology Review discusses Baxter in Small Factories Give Baxter the Robot a Cautious Once-Over. Chris Budnick, head of Vanguard Plastics, a small injection-molding operation in Southington, Connecticut is considering the use of Baxter for one process that is not yet automated: stacking and packing textured, plastic cups, which Vanguard sells for 2 cents apiece to a medical company. It currently costs Budnick $9.00 an hour to have a staffer from a temporary agency to do the job. Budnick is now considering Baxter to replace that agency job. Let's tune in to the MIT story for additional details about Baxter and the job Baxter will replace. Baxter was conceived by Rodney Brooks, the Australian roboticist and artificial-intelligence expert who left MIT to build a $22,000 humanoid robot that can easily be programmed to do simple jobs that have never been automated before.
Brooks's company, Rethink Robotics, says the robot will spark a "renaissance" in American manufacturing by helping small companies compete against low-wage offshore labor. Baxter will do that by accelerating a trend of factory efficiency that's eliminated more jobs in the U.S. than overseas competition has. Of the approximately 5.8 million manufacturing jobs the U.S. lost between 2000 and 2010, according to McKinsey Global Institute, two-thirds were lost because of higher productivity and only 20 percent moved to places like China, Mexico, or Thailand.
The ultimate goal is for robots like Baxter to take over more complex tasks, such as fitting together parts on an electronics assembly line. "A couple more ticks of Moore's Law and you've got automation that works more cheaply than Chinese labor does," Andrew McAfee, an MIT researcher, predicted last year at a conference in Tucson, Arizona, where Baxter was discussed.
Baxter comes with two arms, a vision system, and 360° sonar (which it uses to detect people nearby), but for the cup-stacking job it will also need a specially designed gripper, which Rethink is now developing. Rethink is also developing software so that the robot can communicate with other machines, such as a conveyor belt, telling it to move forward or stop.
So how important will Baxter really be to Vanguard? Budnick couches his answer in baseball terminology. "Baxter is a potential double," he says. "Maybe a home run if it can use both its arms." 60 Minutes Discusses Baxter Inquiring minds are listening to a 13 minute video on 60 Minutes that discusses "The Age of Robots", and Baxter. |
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