Ben Bernanke couldn't have planned it better if he tried. Monday's announcement of new stock-buyback programs by three well-known companies -- Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Nike -- was a reminder of the strength of nonfinancial U.S. companies.
In contrast to banks in need of a bailout, all three companies have solid balance sheets and strong cash flows. Microsoft dwarfs the others. It had about $30 billion in cash and investments at June 30.
Microsoft Has Solid Balance Sheet
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ben Bernanke couldn't have planned it better if he tried. Monday's announcement of new stock-buyback programs by three well-known companies -- Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Nike -- was a reminder of the strength of nonfinancial U.S. companies.
In contrast to banks in need of a bailout, all three companies have solid balance sheets and strong cash flows. Microsoft dwarfs the others. It had about $30 billion in cash and investments at June 30.
The timing of the announcements, however, may be somewhat symbolic. H-P and Nike, at least, have buyback programs under way that are far from being exhausted. As of July 31, H-P had $3 billion of repurchase authorization remaining under its current $8 billion plan, and it had only spent $1.6 billion in the quarter ended July. Nike was only two-thirds of the way through its $3 billion plan as of May 31. Microsoft was announcing a new program to replace one whose authorization was exhausted earlier in the quarter.
The real significance of Microsoft's announcement came in its decision to tiptoe into the debt market with a $2 billion commercial-paper program. Microsoft historically hasn't needed to borrow money because it generates so much cash. On Monday it became the first new corporate issuer to secure a triple-A rating from Moody's since 2002.
It certainly doesn't need to borrow to fund the buyback. But establishing a presence in the debt markets will give Microsoft the flexibility to make big acquisitions, whether renewing its pursuit of Yahoo (whose shares are back below the level that proved too tempting for Microsoft in February), or another multibillion-dollar morsel.
-- Martin Peers
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Microsoft Has Solid Balance Sheet
Nomura Confirms Plan To Acquire Lehman's European Operations
TOKYO -- Nomura Holdings Inc. (NMR) said it has bought the European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ), a day after snagging the Wall Street firm's entire Asian franchise for $225 million.
By Alison Tudor
Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
TOKYO -- Nomura Holdings Inc. (NMR) said it has bought the European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ), a day after snagging the Wall Street firm's entire Asian franchise for $225 million.
Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.
The onslaught by Japan's biggest broker by market cap shows its determination to establish itself as a global financial powerhouse. Armed with cash that it recently raised, Nomura is keen to grab market share at a time when the U.S. financial crisis is creating new opportunities.
Lehman Brothers consistently has commanded 4% of investment banking revenue globally, ranking ninth in its peer group, while Nomura had a 0.7% market share and was ranked 25th so far this year.
Nomura entered exclusive negotiations with Lehman's London insolvency administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP after Britain's Barclays PLC (BCS) dropped out.
Nomura has based its international operations in London. Its four main business lines in Europe are markets, investment banking, merchant banking and asset management.
Dan Schwarzmann, joint administrator and partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in a statement: "We have now focused on one party as they are interested in acquiring a wider team, which should result in a better deal for staff and creditors of these businesses."
Across the Asia-Pacific region, Lehman Brothers employed nearly 3,000 people, allowing Nomura to almost double its presence in the region outside of Japan when the two businesses are integrated. Since employees are key resources in any acquisition of a financial company, Nomura will have to act quickly to retain staff and manage any differences between the firms' cultures.
Analysts in Tokyo say they are also concerned that Nomura will have to rebuild Lehman's former trading positions and client relationships without the flagship U.S. operations, which were bought by Barclays. It may take time for the acquired businesses to once again turn a profit, they cautioned.
Nomura's aggressive move comes after a rough year of pruning its exposure to U.S. real estate mortgage-backed securities and financial insurance firms called monolines, it is back on the offensive. Still, it has plenty of cash, since it has raised 600 billion yen since April.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers gives the Japanese broker the chance to put some of this capital to work, and acquire assets shorn of links to toxic loans which have threatened to topple an increasing number of U.S. financial institutions in the last week. "It's an opportunity of a lifetime," said one senior executive at Nomura..
---By Alison Tudor, Wall Street Journal Asia
Burma Tops US Agenda at Upcoming UN General Assembly
By LALIT K JHA / UNITED NATIONS Monday, September 22, 2008
The United States of America has made it clear that the current situation in Burma is among its top priorities during the annual General Assembly Session of the United Nations, which opened last week.
The 63rd session of the UN General Assembly formally began with Burma taking over as one of the 21 vice presidents of the annual session. More than 100 heads of governments and heads of states, besides a large number of world leaders, are scheduled to address the General Assembly beginning on Tuesday.
In the run up to the General Assembly Session, top United States officials said President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, when they meet world leaders, will make it a point to seek cooperation of the international community to help in the restoration of democracy in Burma and protection of human rights.
Bush will also take up the issue when he meets UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at UN headquarters in New York.
"The president will meet with Secretary-General Ban to discuss the full range of challenges facing the United Nations, including U.N. reform, Georgia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Burma and Zimbabwe," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told White House reporters.
Briefing reporters about US priorities during the General Assembly, the country's US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad said: "We'll continue efforts to increase pressure on Burma, to make progress on the political track. There has been no progress on that."
Joining the US on this issue would be two other permanent members of the Security Council—Britain and France. The latter made it clear last week that it is not satisfied with the steps initiated by the secretary-general on Burma and wants more pressure on Burma.
However, the new General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister and a fierce critic of the US, is unlikely to take a strong interest on Burma as was the case with his predecessor, Srgjan Kerim, who regularly used to meet with Special UN Envoy on Burma Ibrahim Gambari for updates.
Brockmann has made it clear that he holds an anti-US agenda at the UN, which will make things difficult for the pro-Burmese democracy lobby at the UN.
Myanmar opposition wants review of constitution
http://paokhun.burmabloggers.net/?p=342
The party of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged Myanmar’s ruling junta on Monday to set up a committee to review the military-backed constitution, saying it was «approved by force» in a referendum earlier this year.
The terms of the charter perpetuate the military’s influence over politics and bar Suu Kyi from public office.
«The majority of the people do not accept the constitution which was illegally approved by force,» said a statement by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, charging that the authorities used coercion, intimidation, deception and misrepresentation to get voters’ approval. Myanmar’s ruling military junta claimed the constitution received the approval of more than 92 percent of voters in May.
The party’s statement said the government should set up a «Constitution Review Committee» of elected members of parliament from the 1990 general election, the military, ethnic representatives and constitutional experts.
It said the constitution was not written by elected representatives but «unilaterally drawn up by the delegates hand-picked by the authorities. Myanmar’s generals had billed the referendum that led to the adoption of the constitution as an important step in their «roadmap to democracy.» It offered the first chance for voters to cast ballots since 1990. The country had been without a charter since the current junta seized power in 1988 and threw out the last constitution.
A general election was held in 1990, but the military refused to recognize the landslide victory of Suu Kyi’s party. Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years in detention and is currently under house arrest in Yangon.
Posted on September 23rd, 2008 under Daily News • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed
BREAKING NEWS of AAPP
BREAKING NEWS
Date: September 23, 2008
"I will keep fighting until the emergence of democracy in this country," he told reporters outside a friend's house. He was still wearing his light-blue prison clothes" U Win Tin said to Reuter after his release.
Military regime granted amnesty for 9002 prisoners on Today newspaper but we could confirm that very few political prisoners were included until 5:30 pm. They are:
(1) U Win Tin From Insein Prison – who is a famous journalist
(2) Dr.May Win Myint from Insein Prison – who is also MP
(3) U Aung Soe Myint from Thayet prison – who is also MP
(4) U Khin Maung Swe from LaShow prison – who is also an MP
(5) Win Htain – From Kathar prison – who is an personal Assistance to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
(6) Dr.Than Nyein – From Prome prison – who is also an MP
U Win Tin, 78 was arrested on July 4, 1989, He had been in prison for over 19 years.
Dr. Than Nyein, 72 and Dr.May Win Myint, 59 were arrested in September 1997. They were given 7 years imprisonment. They completer their imprisonment in 2004 but they were arrested again under state protection act " Article 10/a. Both of them had been in prison for almost 11 years.
U Khin Maung Swe, 67 was arrested in August 1994. He was given 7 years imprisonment. Even though he was released its 7 years imprisonment in 2001, he had to continue his imprisonment until today. He had been in prison for over 14 years.
U Win Htein, 67 was arrested on May 21, 1996. He had been in prison for over 12 years.
U Aung Soe Myint, 57, was arrested on August 31, 2003. He had been in prison for over 5 years.,
NOTES: Today, 40 prisoners were released from Thayet prison but one political prisoner was included.
80 prisoners were released from Myitkyinar prison but no political was included.
AAPP
More information: contact to Ko Tate at 66-(0)81-2878751
Bo Kyi at 66-(0)81-3248935
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Burma frees longest-serving political prisoner
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/23/2372461.htm?section=world
Burma's longest-serving political prisoner, journalist Win Tin, has been freed after 19 years in prison.
ailing 79-year old was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for giving shelter to a girl thought to have received an illegal abortion, and for distributing anti-government propaganda.
He vowed to continue his struggle against 46 years of military rule only moments after his release.
"I will keep fighting until the emergence of democracy in this country," he told reporters outside a friend's house. He was still wearing his light-blue prison clothes.
He was released on the same day that 9,002 prisoners were set free, but said he had complained to prison officials about being lumped in as part of a nationwide amnesty for mainly ordinary criminals getting out on good behaviour.
"I did not accept their terms for the amnesty. I refused to be one of 9,002," he said, adding that no conditions had been attached to his release.
"Far from it. They should have released me five years ago. They owe me a few years."
He also played down worries about his health, which many human rights groups had feared was in severe decline.
"I am quite OK. I am quite all right," he said.
-Reuters
ေထာင္တြင္း ၁၉ ႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ၾကာ ေနခဲ့ရသူ သတင္းစာဆရာၾကီး ဦး၀င္းတင္ လြတ္ေျမာက္ျပီ မဇၩိမသတင္းဌာန
အဂၤါေန႔၊ စက္တင္ဘာလ 23 2008 12:49 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
စစ္အစိုးရက ယေန႔ လႊတ္ေပးေသာ အက်ဥ္းသား ၉၀၀၂ ေယာက္တြင္ သတင္းစာဆရာၾကီး ဦး၀င္းတင္ အပါအ၀င္ ႏိုင္ငံေရး အက်ဥ္းသား ၃ ဦး ပါရွိသည္ဟု အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ ေျပာေရးဆိုခြင့္ ရွိသူက ေျပာသည္။
အသက္ ၇၈ ႏွစ္ အရြယ္ရွိျပီျဖစ္ေသာ ဦး၀င္းတင္သည္ အင္းစိန္ေထာင္အတြင္း ၁၉ ႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ၾကာ ေနခဲ့ရျပီးေနာက္ လြတ္ေျမာက္လာျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။ မရမ္းကုန္းျမိဳ့နယ္ ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္အမတ္ ေဒါက္တာ ေမ၀င္းျမင့္ႏွင့္ ေတာင္ငူလႊတ္ေတာ္အမတ္ ဦးေအာင္စိုးျမင့္ဦး တုိ႔ကိုလည္း စစ္အစိုးရက လႊတ္ေပးခဲ့သည္ဟု ဦးဥာဏ္၀င္းက ေျပာသည္။
ဦး၀င္းတင္ကို ပံုမွန္ ေထာင္၀င္စာ သြားေရာက္ ေတြ႔ဆံုေလ့ရွိသူ မိတ္ေဆြၾကီး ဦးေမာင္ေမာင္ခင္ကေတာ့ အင္းစိန္ေထာင္ဗူး၀တြင္ ေစာင့္ဆုိင္းလွ်က္ ရွိေၾကာင္း မဇၩိမသို႔ ေျပာျပသည္။
တခ်ိန္တည္းမွာပင္ သပိတ္က်င္းျမဳိ့နယ္ အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္၀င္ ဦးေအးသိန္းသည္ ကေလးအက်ဥ္းေထာင္မွ ယေန႔ လြတ္ေျမာက္လာသည္ဟု မဇၩိမက စံုစမ္း သိရွိရသည္။
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ဦးဝင္းတင္၏ မိတ္ေဆြၾကီး ဦးေမာင္ေမာင္ခင္ ေျပာၾကားခ်က္
လႊတ္ေတာ့ မလႊတ္ေသးဘူးဗ်။ ေထာင္ဗူးဝေတာ့ ေရာက္ေနၿပီ။ ျမင္ခဲ့တဲ့ လူေတြကေတာ့ ေသခ်ာေျပာတာဘဲ။ ဦးဝင္းတင္နဲ႔ ေဒါက္တာ ေမဝင္းျမင့္ တို႔၊ ႏုိင္ငံေရးသမားၾကီးေတြေပါ့ဗ်ာ။ ႏွစ္ေတြ ထပ္ထပ္ တိုးေနတဲ့ သူေတြကိုေပါ့ဗ်ာ။
က်ေနာ္ ၾကားတာကေတာ့ ၁၂း၃ဝ နာရီခြဲ ၁ ခ်က္တီးေလာက္မွာ လူၾကီးေတြက မိန္႔ခြန္းေခၽြၿပီး လႊတ္မယ္လို႔ ေျပာမယ္။ သတင္းေတြ လိုက္ၿပီး စုစည္း လိုက္တဲ့အခါက်ေတာ့ ေသခ်ာဘို ့ေတာ္ေတာ္ နီးစပ္ပါတယ္။
က်ေနာ္တို႔ကေတာ့ လႊတ္ၿပီဆိုမွ လြတ္ၿပီလို႔ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ယံုရမွာေပါ့ေနာ္။
၂ဝ ရက္ေန႔က က်ေနာ္ သူ႔ကို သြားေတြ႔တယ္။ သူသိတယ္။ သူတို႔ ေထာင္သားေတြကို လႊတ္လိမ့္မယ္ကြ၊ အို၊ နာ၊ က်ဳိး၊ ကန္း ေတြကိုတဲ့။ အသက္ၾကီးတဲ့ သူေတြ၊ နာမက်န္းတဲ့ သူေတြ။ ငါေတာ့ အဲဒါကို ျငင္းထားတယ္။ ငါ့ကို ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ ဖမ္းရင္ေတာ့ ႏုိင္ငံေရးအရ လႊတ္ရမယ္လို႔ က်ေနာ္ ေျပာထားတယ္တဲ့။
သူ႔ကို ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ လႊတ္ရင္ေတာ့ သူထြက္လာမွာပါ။
၂ဝဝ၅ ခုႏွစ္ကလည္း မိန္႔ခြန္းေတြ ပါေတြေခၽြ၊ သူ႔အေၾကာင္းေတြ ပါေတြေျပာ၊ ထမင္းေတြ ဘာေတြ ေကၽြးၿပီးေတာ့ အထဲ ျပန္ေခၚသြားတာ။
က်ေနာ္က ဒီမွာ တယ္လီဖုန္းေတြ ေစာင့္ေနတာ။ လႊတ္လာရင္ အစုိးဘက္က လူၾကီးေတြ က်ေနာ့္အိမ္ကုိဘဲ လာပို႔ေပးမွာပါ။ က်ေနာ့္အိမ္က ေထာင္နဲ ့မ်က္ႏွာခ်င္းဆိုင္မွာဘဲေလ။ ဒီမွာလည္း ေစာင့္ေနၾကတာ။
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အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ ျပန္ၾကားေရးအဖြဲ႔ဝင္ ဦးသိန္းညႊန္႔ ေျပာၾကားခ်က္
ဦးဝင္းတင္နဲ့ ေဒါက္တာ ေမဝင္းျမင့္ တု႔ိ က်ေနာ္အမႈသည္၊ က်ေနာ္ လုိက္ခဲ့တာပါ။ သူတုိ႔ လြတ္လာျပီဆုိေတာ့ က်ေနာ္ အရမ္း ဝမ္းသာပါတယ္၊ က်ေနာ္ ေရွ႔ေနအျဖစ္ ႏွစ္ခု ေျပာခ်င္တယ္။ သူတုိ႔ ဘယ္အေၾကာင္းနဲ့ပဲ လြတ္လာ၊ လြတ္လာ က်န္တဲ့ ႏုိင္ငံသားေတြ ေထာင္ခ်၊ အခ်ဳပ္မွာ ရွိေနတဲ့ လူေတြကုိေရာ လြတ္လာတာကုိေရာ ျမင္ခ်င္ပါတယ္။ က်န္တဲ့ ႏုိင္ငံေရး အက်ဥ္းသမားေတြ အပါအဝင္ လြတ္လာတယ္ဆုိေတာ့ ဘာဘဲ ေျပာေျပာဗ်ာ၊ အမ်ဳိးသာ ျပန္လည္ သင့္ျမတ္ေရးအတြက္ ေကာင္းတဲ့ဟာျ ဖစ္ပါေစဗ်ာ။ က်ေနာ္ ဒီေလာက္ပဲ ေျပာခ်င္တယ္။
Japan incoming PM works to keep coalition
Photo: AFP
TOKYO, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - Japan's premier-designate Taro Aso got down to business Tuesday by trying to ensure an alliance with his party's partner, which has been increasingly uneasy about the coalition as tough elections loom.
The brash conservative handily won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election on Monday, fuelling speculation that he would call general elections as soon as late October.
The 68-year-old former foreign minister was to meet Tuesday with Akihiro Ota, head of New Komeito, to confirm the two-party coalition in a deadlocked parliament half controlled by a rising opposition.
New Komeito, Japan's third largest party, enjoys steady support from a Buddhist sect. It has been restless with Aso's predecessor Yasuo Fukuda, fearing he would lead the two parties to election defeat by weakening social welfare services.
Soon after his election, Aso pledged to take action to boost Asia's largest economy , saying he saw people suffering when he toured the countryside.
"The important thing is that we can't forget that now is a time of recession," Aso said Tuesday.
Aso is to appoint a new cabinet Wednesday afternoon soon after parliament votes him in to replace Fukuda, who abruptly quit on September 1 after months of sliding poll ratings.
Potential members of the new cabinet include Fiscal and Economic Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano, the runner-up in the LDP leadership vote who had accused Aso of fiscal irresponsibility by backing spending to boost the weak economy.
Aso may also provide key cabinet posts to former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, who finished last in the race, outspoken nationalist Shoichi Nakagawa and former education minister Takeo Kawamura, local media reported.
Newspapers urged Aso to swiftly map out concrete plans on the economy, which suffered its worst contraction in seven years last quarter amid the global slowdown, and to address a scandal over pesticide-tainted rice.
"Aso has to pick people who are trustworthy and immediately respond to such difficult issues in forming his cabinet," the Yomiuri Shimbun said in an editorial.
"As a national leader he needs to elucidate his policy goals and explain how he will achieve them," the best-selling daily said.
The LDP has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955. But the opposition has been making headway and is more confident than ever leading into general elections.
"The LDP presidential race was just an early skirmish. The real fight is general elections," said Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
"The LDP is faced with the toughest moment it has ever experienced," Kato said. "It used to survive by just switching the face of the party, but that doesn't appear to work anymore."
General elections do not need to be held until September next year, but Aso is widely expected to call them soon, hoping he can seize on initial popularity.
Aso is known as a charismatic if gaffe-prone campaigner. The fifth-generation politician has charmed audiences with his love of pop culture and comic books.
Some analysts speculate that Aso will try to call the election before the November 4 presidential election in the United States, fearing that a victory by Barack Obama in Japan's closest ally would buoy the opposition here.
Japan's main opposition Democratic Party has tried to associate itself with the Democrats across the Pacific, adopting Obama's mantra that the country needs "change."
Aso has pledged a close relationship with the United States and is expected to clash with the opposition by trying to extend a naval mission in the Indian Ocean supporting the "war on terror" in Afghanistan.
Aso has also said he wants friendly relations with China and South Korea, although he has caused controversy in the past by praising aspects of Japan's past colonialism.
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