Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Brazilian students protest corrupt Brazilian Gov. Jose Roberto Arruda
Brasilia, Brazil
http://www.latimes.com/la-pictures-in-the-news-pictures,0,6121542.photogallery
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$50 000 bribe caught on camera
Legalbrief (subscription) - 5 hours agoCorruption-hardened Brazilians have been shocked by footage of José Roberto Arruda, the Governor of Brasilia, pocketing an envelope allegedly containing ...
Protesters still in Brazilian Federal District building
Xinhua - - Dec 7, 2009They proclaimed they would only leave after Federal District Governor Jose Roberto Arruda and Vice Governor Paulo Octavio resign on corruption allegations. ...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6943424.ece
Brazil Cops Kill '11,000 In Six Years'
Police in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have killed more than 11,000 people in the past six years, many in execution-style murders, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
BrazzilMag.com | Brazil's President Lula Signs Bill Making Corruption Heinous Crime
December 9, 2009 - Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Wednesday, December 9, during a ceremony commemorating the International Day Against Corruption, that is necessary to encourage people to report acts of corruption and provide protection so that citizens feel safe to report them. He signed the bill, to be sent to Congress, which makes the practice of corruption a heinous crime.For Lula, the country has to act against corruption as a person who always visits his doctor for regular physical exams. "Corruption is like a drug. Sometimes it's inside the house and people don't know. That's why we need to act as when we do a medical check up. We must be ever more efficient to control public money. The other way is the reporting process, people must be assured they will be protected," he said.
The president also said that fighting corruption is a hard task because the corrupt person almost always has an angel face. "I think the work we are doing is like a check up. The face of the corrupt is that of an angel's face, he is the one who most speaks out against corruption, who most denounces it, because he thinks he will not be caught, that somebody else will always be blamed for it. But once in a while, the trap gets the bird. And we owe it to the institutions we create."
READ MORE
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/11520/1/
Deadly rainstorms paralyzes Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo - 6 Dead
A truck driver waits to cross under a flooded bridge at Marginal Tiete highway, northern Sao Paulo, Brazil. Heavy rain brought Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo grinding to a halt on Tuesday and reportedly claimed the lives of six people in landslides. (AFP/Mauricio Lima)
The bodies of four brothers aged five to 20 were recovered by firemen from a house that crumbled apart in one landslide in a northwestern suburb, CBN radio, Globo Television and the Terra news website all said.
Reports also said two more people died in other parts of the city, while authorities evacuated 22 homes in an eastern suburb because of fear the ground there could shift too.
The persistent rain brought traffic on key cross-city highways to a standstill as the adjacent Tiete and Pinheiros rivers broke their banks.
Television images showed trucks and motorbikes driving through long stretches of water-covered roads, while vehicles piled up for kilometers (miles) on other impassable routes.
Access to the city's international airport of Guarulhos was difficult, with the main road to the facility cut off.
The Climatempo weather service said it was the heaviest 24-hour period of rainfall Sao Paulo had seen all year. Overnight alone, the city received half of its total average December precipitation.
The state Emergency Administration Center declared an alert, saying the rain would continue with "light to moderate intensity," creating the "potential for new flooding."
Sao Paulo mayor Gilberto Kassab assured reporters that his services were prepared to handle the consequences of the bad weather, and he denied repeated accusations that lack of investment in water canalization was to blame.
Farther south, 161 towns in the state of Rio Grande do Sul bordering Uruguay declared a state of emergency because of the rain. The region had already been lashed by storms over the past few weeks that killed eight people and forced 14,000 from their homes.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091208/wl_afp/brazilweatherdeaths_20091208183609
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Brazilian Ethanol Producers and the official fuel supplier for this Indy Racing League season at Indy Grand Prix
The state of California is implementing a first-of-its-kind low carbon fuel standard, which will affect all fuels sold in the state, and Brazil's sugarcane ethanol is expected to play a key role in its implementation. Cane ethanol has been assessed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as the liquid fuel with the lowest carbon intensity available today.
UNICA's fuel supply agreement with Indy complements the association's existing global promotional project with Apex-Brasil, the Brazilian federal government's export promotion agency. The project is designed to promote Brazilian sugarcane ethanol around the world as a clean, renewable fuel. Apex- Brasil is also an official sponsor of the Indy Racing League.
Related:
Wall Street Journal | Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling - Too bad it's not in U.S. waters (Brazil).
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
US Export-Import Bank prepared to provide up to $10 billion in loans to finance the development of massive hydrocarbon reserves off Brazil’s coast
Petrobras USA: High technology in the Gulf of Mexico
Export-Import Bank of the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Export-Import Bank of the United States | |
 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | February 2, 1934 |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
| Employees | 395 (2006) |
| Agency executive | Fred Hochberg, Chairman and President |
| Website | |
| www.exim.gov | |
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is the official export credit agency of the United States federal government. It was established in 1934 by an executive order, and made an independent agency in the Executive branch by Congress in 1945, for the purposes of financing and insuring foreign purchases of United States goods for customers unable or unwilling to accept credit risk. The mission of the Bank is to create and sustain U.S. jobs by financing sales of U.S. exports to international buyers. The Bank is chartered as a government corporation by the Congress of the United States; it was last chartered for a five year term in 2006.[1] Its Charter spells out the Bank's authorities and limitations. Among them is the principle that Ex-Im Bank does not compete with private sector lenders, but rather provides financing for transactions that would otherwise not take place because commercial lenders are either unable or unwilling to accept the political or commercial risks inherent in the deal. Its current chairman is Fred Hochberg.
Export-Import Bank
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) is the principal government agency responsible for aiding the export of American goods and services, and thereby creating and sustaining U.S. jobs, through a variety of loan, guarantee, and insurance programs. Generally, its programs are available to any American export firm regardless of size. Similar banks, or export credit agencies (ECAs), are operated by a number of foreign countries[citation needed]. Many ECAs agree to conduct their activities by following a set of common rules and principles through their membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); these ECAs are generally in the so-called "developed" countries. The goal is to permit exporters in various countries to compete on the basis of the quality of their goods and services, not on preferential financing terms. Other ECAs, such as the China Exim Bank (in the People's Republic of China) do not abide by the OECD rules[citation needed].
History
The bank was originally organized as a District of Columbia banking corporation by Executive Order 6581 from Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 2, 1934, under the name Export-Import Bank of Washington. The stated goal was "to aid in financing and to facilitate exports and imports and the exchange of commodities between the United States and other Nations or the agencies or nationals thereof", with the immediate goal of making loans to the Soviet Union. The Bank's first transaction was a $3.8 million loan to Cuba in 1935 for the purchase of U.S. silver ingots.[2] Congress continued the bank as a government agency, using a series of laws between 1935 and 1943 to place it under various government departments, before making it an independent agency on July 31, 1945 with the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945. On March 13, 1968, further legislation changed the name to "Export-Import Bank of the United States".[3][4]
Roosevelt created a Second Export-Import Bank of Washington with Executive Order 6638 on March 9, 1934, with the specific aim to aid trade with Cuba, and it was dissolved in 1936 with its obligations transferred to the first bank.[3]
Small Business Programs
The Export-Import Bank of the United States focuses much of its energy and resources to providing support to U.S. small businesses for export of U.S. made products. There are no transactions, in terms of dollars, that are too small for the Ex-Im Bank to consider. Programs aimed at this sector include Export Credit Insurance, and Working Capital Guarantee programs. From October 2005 through September 2006 the Ex-Im Bank authorized $3.2 billion in financing directly to U.S. small businesses[citation needed].
Export Credit Insurance
Export Credit Insurance from Export-Import Bank of the United States provides insurance policies to U.S. companies and banks to mitigate risks of non-collection from foreign buyers and borrowers. Risks covered include default due to commercial reasons, such as buyer insolvency and cash-flow problems, as well as political risks such as war, civil unrest and currency flow restrictions[citation needed].
Export Credit Insurance policies can be issued to companies directly exporting, or to banks lending to foreign buyers. Export-Import Bank of the United States has a special insurance program for small businesses, with no premium minimum, and a pay-as-you-go premium structure. This is often the most affordable trade credit insurance available for new and small exporters[citation needed].
Working Capital Guarantee
The Working Capital Guarantee program provides loan guarantees to banks willing to lend to exporting companies. The loan guarantee is secured against foreign accounts receivable, and against work in process and finished goods inventory destined for export[citation needed].
Direct and Intermediary Loans
The Ex-Im Bank provides two types of loans: direct loans to foreign buyers of American exports and intermediary loans to responsible parties, such as foreign government lending agencies which relend to foreign buyers of capital goods and related services (for example, a maintenance contract for a jet passenger plane). Both programs cover up to 85 percent of the value of the exported goods and services, with repayment terms of one year or more[citation needed].
Criticism
The Bank has come under criticism for allegedly favoring special interests ahead of that of the U.S. taxpayer. These interests include that of heavily subsidized corporations such as Boeing or Enron as well as those of well-connected foreign governments and nationals (such as a 1996 $120 million low-interest loan to the China National Nuclear Power Corporation (CNNP).[5]
However, the current congressional mandate for the Export-Import Bank of the United States is to focus on small business support[citation needed].
In 2007, WFAA-TV in Dallas revealed that the Ex-Im Bank had given at least $243 million in fraudulent loans to companies doing business with Mexico, including giving loans to companies with no verifiable address and individuals who were known associates of the Sinaloa and Juarez drug trafficking cartels.[6]
In February 2009, the Ex-Im Bank settled a 7-year long legal proceeding brought by Friends of the Earth, other NGOs, and various American cities. The plaintiffs claimed that the Ex-Im Bank and the Oversees Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) provided financial assistance to oil and other fossil fuel projects without first evaluating the projects' global warming impacts. In 2005, the plaintiffs were granted legal standing to sue these federal bodies. The landmark decision is the first time that a federal court has specifically granted legal standing for a lawsuit exclusively challenging the Federal government's failure to evaluate the impacts of its actions on the earth's climate and U.S. citizens.[7] In its settlement agreement, the Ex-Im Bank agrees to evaluate the carbon dioxide emissions as part of its determination for qualification for a project.[8]
References
- ^ Senate Bill 3938, which became Public Law 109-438 on December 20, 2006.
- ^ "A Reporter's Guide To Ex-Im Bank". http://www.exim.gov/news/reporter.cfm. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ a b "Records of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EIBUS)". http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/275.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ "Notes to 12 U.S.C. § 635". http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode12/usc_sec_12_00000635----000-notes.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ Carney, Timothy (May 31, 2002). "Bank Scam". National Review. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-carney053102.asp. Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
- ^ Harris, Byron (December 27, 2007). "Drugs tied to $243 million in bogus loans". WFAA-TV. http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/localnews/news8/stories/wfaa071227_mo_bankdrugs.5adabe14.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
- ^ "Climate Change Lawsuit". http://www.foe.org/climate/climatelawsuit/index.htm. Retrieved on 2009-6-25.
- ^ "Ex-Im Settlement text". http://www.foe.org/pdf/Ex-Im_Settlement.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-6-25.
External links
- Ex-Im Bank home page
- Import Export Forum
- Export-import Bank Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed
- Robert Higgs "Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society." Oakland CA: The Independent Institute, 2004
- The Use of Environmental and Social Criteria in Export Credit Agencies’ Practices, by Markus Knigge et al. Published in 2003 by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit - GTZ