Australia's largest stockfeed maker, Ridley Corporation Ltd, has reiterated its rejection of a takeover offer from GrainCorp Ltd as inadequate and said it had no hope of success.Ridley on Thursday released its target's statement in response to the bid from eastern Australia's largest grain handler.In May, GrainCorp launched a...
Australia's trade balance returned to a deficit in May after posting its first surplus in six years the previous month.The nation's trade deficit is predicted to narrow, if not be in the black, in the months ahead once the increases in recent iron ore price contracts flow through, economists...
Australia could see narrower trade deficits in coming months after the balance of good and services for May came in near expectations, economists say.The balance of goods and services was a deficit of $965 million, seasonally adjusted, in May, from a revised $12 million surplus in April, figures from...
Cash flows in a cycle into, around and out of a business. It is the business's life blood and every manager's primary task is to help keep it flowing and to use the cash flow to generate profits. If a business is operating profitably, then it should, in theory, generate...
Paul Michelman used the Harvard Business Review Conversation Starters blog Friday to highlight a piece of news that was easy to miss amid all the howls of pain emanating from Wall Street: China's trade surplus "soared to its second-highest monthly level on record in July," WSJ.com reports. Given analysts...
The social value of an innovation is comprised of the value to consumers and the value to innovators. This paper estimates that for the HIV/AIDS therapies that entered the market from the late 1980's onwards, innovators appropriated only 5% of the social surplus arising from these new technologies. Despite the...
This paper aims to put some constraints on the way primary surpluses are projected when making assessments of public debt sustainability. Projections should be tied either to the country's historical track record in generating surpluses-if the institutional and other factors accounting for this track record are expected to persist-or to...
Traditional life insurance policies in many markets are sold with minimum interest rate guarantees. In the case of a so-called cliquet style guarantee, the guaranteed return must be credited to the policyholder's account each year. Usually, life insurers try to provide this guaranteed rate of interest plus some stable surplus...
This paper provides a presentation of the authors' respective views on return on surplus or return on premium as the most appropriate measure of return. This is a debate of importance to more than the insurance industry. When surplus and premium are substituted with equity and sales, respectively, one clearly...
The wind-up of a pension plan and the distribution of any remaining surplus are generally governed by provincial or federal pension legislation, and pension plan texts and pension legislation are worded accordingly. The paper presents the case of Buschau v. Rogers Communications Inc., and reveals that the Buschau decision introduces...
With over $1 trillion in assets, the U.S. Social Security trust fund is the largest pension reserve in the world, and potentially a model for other developed countries facing future financing problems. This paper provides a unified conceptual framework for thinking rigorously about the assets accumulated in the trust fund....
This paper argues that the saving or capital accumulation of the trust funds should have been and should now be separated from the primary budget surplus. Rather than attempting to balance the unified surplus in times of full employment, the goal should be to balance the extrust funds budget. In...
The article discusses the least liked aspect of downsizing, which is deciding what to do with the managers and professionals whose jobs are declared "surplus.” Companies vary widely in the ways they deal with these surpluses. Article considers the approaches taken by two Houston businesses. If there are more managers...
This paper describes two common misapplications o f internal rate of return IRR models in property/liability insurance ratemaking. These misapplications have contributed to the popular belief that the fair premium is heavily dependent on supporting surplus, leading casualty actuaries to devote much time and attention to techniques of surplus allocation....
Both the U.S. and Canada have been at a trade tug of war in recent years regarding whether or not Canadian exports of nonfat dry milk, known as skim milk powder around the globe, are subsidized. The U.S. is claiming the Canadians are effectively using subsidies on their dairy exports....
The no-surcharge rule NSR prohibits merchants from charging different prices to consumers that use credit cards instead of cash. The paper shows that, while an NSR raises card company profits, it may reduce both cash and card transactions. If the card company can offer rebates to its cardholders, it will...
Inclusion in Indexes is Based On Company's Market Capitalization WASHINGTON -- Liquidity Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:LQDT), a leading online auction marketplace for wholesale, surplus and salvage assets, announced today that it remains on the Russell 2000 Index, Russell 3000 Index and the Russell Microcap Index after the 2008 Russell...
ARMONK, N.Y. -- In response to investor inquiries, MBIA Inc. (NYSE:MBI) announced today that consistent with the prior approval provisions of the New York Insurance Law, its subsidiary, MBIA Insurance Corporation, has requested and received approval from the New York State Insurance Department for the July 15, 2008 interest payment...
FRANKFURT AFP — Germany's trade surplus fell in May by much more than expected to 14.4 billion euros (22.6 billion dollars), provisional data released on Wednesday by the national statistics service Destatis showed. The figures were more evidence that Europe's biggest economy has hit the brakes, and several...
MADRID AFP — Barcelona said Tuesday they are ready to play hardball and prevent Ronaldinho from joining the Brazil squad for the Beijing Games. Brazil coach Dunga on Monday included the Brazilian wizard along with Real Madrid's Robinho in his squad but Barca, who have already made it...
