HONG KONG - "Get rich - then get out" is the life message being grasped by China's wealthiest citizens two decades after former leader Deng Xiaoping supposedly declared that "to get rich is glorious".
by Eyder Peralta, The Two Way @ NPR.org, Nov. 10, 2011
The history of the more than $4 billion in debt spans a decade and mostly involves a failed sewer construction deal fraught with corruption. Experts worry that the municipal bond market in the United States will suffer the consequences.
Guy Raz speaks with Portland, Ore., Mayor Sam Adams who today ordered the Occupy protesters in his city out of their encampments by 12:01 a.m. Sunday. The move comes after he wrote an open letter to the protesters, saying their living conditions were unsustainable.
Irving Kahn is about to celebrate his 106th birthday. He still goes to work every day. Scientists are studying him and several hundred other Ashkenazim to find out what keeps them going. And going. And going. The secrets of the alter kockers.
Lead-in:
“Don’t be sad,” says Finklestein on his deathbed. “I’ve had 80 good years.” “But you’re 98!” says his wife. “I know.”
By John Pedro Schwarz for Foreignpolicy.com, Nov. 4, 2011
....It all began on a pleasant motorcycle trip I took last month from Beirut, Lebanon, to Tartous, Syria, that ended up becoming a semi-surreptitious probe of Hama and Homs, the twin flashpoints of the Syrian uprising. As an English professor at the American University of Beirut, armed only with a rare visa obtained over the summer at the Syrian Consulate in Houston, Texas, and a modicum of Arabic, I managed to pass muster at a series of military checkpoints and gain entry into these two besieged cities.
By Susanne Craig, Deal Book @ nytimes.com, Nov. 7, 2011
Wall Street bonuses are set to fall by an average of 20 to 30 percent this year from a year ago, according to a closely watched compensation survey — the weakest bonus season since the financial crisis and a reflection of the leaner times confronting the industry.
By Thom Shanker & Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, Nov. 6/7, 2011
WASHINGTON — Under orders to cut the Pentagon budget by more than $450 billion over the next decade, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is considering reductions in spending categories once thought sacrosanct, especially in medical and retirement benefits, as well as further shrinking the number of troops and reducing new weapons purchases.
By Damien Cave, New York Times, November 3/4, 2011
MEXICO CITY — Cuba announced a new property law Thursday that promises to allow citizens and permanent residents to buy and sell real estate — the most significant market-oriented change yet approved by the government of Raúl Castro, and one that will probably reshape Cuba’s cities and conceptions of class.
By Adam Entous, Siobhan Gorman & Julian E. Barnes, Wall Street Journal, November 4, 2011
The Central Intelligence Agency has made a series of secret concessions in its drone campaign after military and diplomatic officials complained large strikes were damaging the fragile U.S. relationship with Pakistan.
