My Outrage Goes Beyond Baseball

Editorial by: Joel Noe

Editors Location: Lyon, France

Images & Video by: Getty Images | Washington Post

As most readers on The International Reader know, the Mets recently got a $40 million dollar bridge loan from Bank of America to help tide the team over until some of those $20 million dollar ownership stakes they’ve been peddling start to come through.

What really irks me right now, is not so much that the Wilpons got a $40 million dollar loan, but who they got it from; Bank of America. That absolutely stinks to high heaven.

This is the same Bank of America who only two years ago got a $138 billion dollar bailout from the United States government. At the time, Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Ken Lewis told his investors that “losses were accelerating beyond expectations.”

In addition to the bailout money, nearly 13% of the first $350 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds went to Bank of America as well. This was all the result of thousands and thousands of bad loans by BOA to very low credit worthy individuals and thousands of high-risk loans to failing businesses.

Now I don’t begrudge the Wilpons applying for and receiving a loan – any loan no matter the size. They are American citizens and like all of us are entitled to the same privileges afforded to all of us under the constitution.

But what I do have a problem with is Bank of America doling out such a sizable loan to an institution that is only weeks away from becoming completely insolvent based on current and anticipated losses. This transaction is inexcusable and wreaks like the Great Kills landfill on a scorching hot, sunny day in August.

This isn’t the first time I’ve taken issue with a situation like this. It reminds me of when Citigroup took bailout money with one hand, and then agreed to pay the Wilpons $20 million a year for the naming rights to the park over the next 20 years with the other hand. That’s adds up to a grand total of $400 million dollars.

After a national outcry over this fiasco, Citigroup vowed that none of the money going toward Citi Field would come from TARP money. Still, what kind of a crock is that? It just sounded like some high tech number fudging to me – and while it appeased Congress, it certainly didn’t satisfy me.

Anyway, if any of you wonder why the Wilpons are still the owners of the Mets today, as many have said on many occasions before – you can thank Uncle Bud Selig primarily for that.

But leave some blame for Citi Group who funnels in $20 million annually to the Wilpons, and now Bank of America as well, for keeping this New York Mess alive.

 

Volvo Cars to close Uddevalla plant

Reported by: Joel Noe

Source: La Local, Sweden

First Reported by:  Rebecca Martin | TT News

 

 

Volvo Car Corporation is terminating production at their plant in Uddevalla, in western Sweden, when they take over sole ownership of the company in 2013, the company announced on Monday.

"The low volumes in the Uddevalla plant do not justify continued production," Stefan Jacoby, Chief Executive of Volvo Car Corporation said in a statement.

Volvo has been building cars in Uddevalla since 1989, although operations have been carried out in a joint venture with its majority shareholder Pininfarina S.p.a. since 2005.

But the plant in Uddevalla has only been producing at 65 percent of its capacity, according to the company. In 2010 the factory manufactured 10,000 cars.

Production will cease at some point in 2013, but the exact date has yet to be decided.

”We don't know exactly when that will be yet,” said Olle Axelson, head of informations at Volvo, to news agency TT.

According to Axelson, negotiations with the unions will be commencing immediately.

”All the employees will be offered continued employment within Volvo Cars,” he said to TT.

The Uddevalla plant employed some 600 workers. The option they will have is to move or commute to the company's other factories in Gothenburg or Skövde, Floby or Olofström – all locations at a significant distance from Uddevalla.

”Exactly how this will work is too early to say. We have one and a half years left, so there is time to consider different options,” Axelson told TT.

Jacoby said in the statement that he hoped that as many as possible of the Uddevalla workers would choose to take up other employment within the company.

"We will now look into when a next generation Volvo convertible can be on the market and where it should be manufactured," said Jacoby.

Volvo Car Corporation is owned by Chinese Hegelian Geely Holding Group Co.

'Ikea founder was an active Nazi': report

Reported by: Joel Noe

Source: La Local

First Reported by: Olag Nordenson | La Local (Swedish)

 

 

Stockholm Sweden - The Swedish security police tracked Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad's membership of a Swedish Nazi movement in the 1940s, one of the revelations of the business leader's Nazi past revealed in a new book.
 

 

Sveriges Television journalist Elisabeth Åsbrink's book "Och i Wienervald" (literally: And in Wienervald) furthermore reveals that Kamprad was active in recruiting to Sweden's main war-time Nazi movement the National Socialist Workers' Party (Svensk Socialistisk Samling - SSS).

The book also details how the 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad's movements were of sufficient interest to the Swedish security police in 1943 that his involvement was mapped in a security police file, leading to further questions about his links to the Nazis.

Åsbrink claims in her book that the predecessor to the Security Service (Säpo), Allmänna Säkerhetstjänsten ('Public Security Service'), steamed open young Ingvar Kamprad's letters and were thus able to establish his role in recruiting new members.

"It is a little odd that Ingvar Kamprad has not himself come out with this information. He has said that he wants to tell, and to say sorry," Elisabeth Åsbrink told SVT's Aktuellt news programme on Tuesday.

Åsbrink's book establishes that Kamprad's links to the SSS and far-right leader Per Engdahl continued long after the end of the war, and after the horrors of Adolf Hitler's regime and the Holocaust became known.

Kamprad was, for example, present at Per Engdahl's wedding in the 1950s, writing a letter at the time in which he expressed his pride to be part of the 'nysvenska' circles", referring to the nationalist movement founded by Engdahl in the late 1930s.

A spokesperson for the Ikea founder said on Wednesday that Kamrad was unaware that Swedish security services had files detailing the time he was active in the Nazi movement.

“But it's not that strange, that was Säpo's job to keep tabs on people on the right and left side,” Kamprad spokesperson Per Heggenes told the TT news agency on Wednesday.

“It confirms only one thing – that Ingvar time after time has told about the biggest mistake of his life and apologised to all involved 20 years ago.”

According to Heggenes, Kamprad hadn't seen the SVT report himself.

“But it's clear he hopes he can put this behind him. It's not fun to be reminded of it again and again – when he's been open from the beginning about it and apologised."

Heggenes doubted that the new details would have a negative impact on Ikea, however.

“It doesn't affect its image in any way. Everyone who knows Ikea knows that it's a multicultural company which practices a multicultural strategy,” he told TT

 

 

Hackers stole $2.7 million from Citi

Reported by: Joel Noe

Source: Business News

First Reported by: Abhishek Takle, Andre Grenon

 

 

Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, has told government officials that about 3,400 of the customers whose credit-card information was hacked have suffered about $2.7 million in losses, the Wall Street Journal reported.

However, Citigroup has said its customers are not liable for any losses resulting from "any unauthorized use of their accounts."

The company disclosed the losses when briefing government officials this week about the breach, the Journal said citing people familiar with the matter.

Last week, the company said a total of 360,083 North American Citigroup credit card accounts were affected by the cyber attack in May, the latest in a spate of attacks in recent months targeting high-profile companies like Sony, Google Inc and Lockheed Martin.

Citigroup had said that "data critical to commit fraud was not compromised."

The company could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Abhishek Takle in Bangalore; Editing by Andre Grenon)

(This June 28 story is corrected to fix headline and to clarify that Citi customers are not liable for losses related to the data breach)

Google Gay Pride Rainbow Doodle Condemned for Being Hidden

Reported by: Joel Noe, Tommy Hoegaarden

Source: Google, CNN, Instinct Magazine

First Reported by: Joel Noe, Tommy Hoegaarden

 
Google, famed for creating “doodles” to celebrate significant events, has been criticized by the gay community for hiding one of its new doodles marking gay pride month.

Throughout June a rainbow pops up alongside the Google search bar – but only when users search for certain "pride-related" terms such as: “gay,” "lesbian," "homosexuality," "LGBT," "bisexual" and "transgender."

A Google email explained: “During the month of June, Google is celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Pride. For some Pride-related search queries, we are showing a rainbow at the end of the search bar.”

However, the gay community has expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the search engine does not show the rainbow for all searches.

Some have said that “hiding” the feature behind only “pride-related” searches has been so Google can avoid criticism from anti-gay groups.

According to Nicholas Jackson writing on “The Atlantic” tech site, by hiding the “pride doodle” Google should be able to “keep the six-color rainbow, a symbol universally associated with gay pride ever since San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker created it 33 years ago, from appearing on the pages of those who are still opposed to gay rights. And keep Google from having to deal with any backlash.”

HP offers free cloud storage to its TouchPad users

Reported by: Joel Noe

Source: The Business Times

First Reported by: The Business Times, Hewlett-Packard

Palo Alto-based IT giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced a bonus 50GB of free cloud storage for its TouchPad buyers.

The free cloud storage will be provided by Box.net. The users will only need to tap the Box.net application to access the offer, which will be already installed in the tablet.

The company, however, hasn’t revealed if the free storage will be for a limited time and if the user will have to pay for future use of the 50GB storage.

Box.net incorporates with services like Zoho, ThinkFree, Picnik and Google Docs.

HP, previously, introduced the Skype and Roxio in the device, the Geek reported.