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Showing posts with label Credit Suisse. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

E-Commerce Killing Shopping Malls

Up to 25% of U.S. shopping malls may close in the next five years, report says

Makeda Easter

Between 20% and 25% of the nation’s shopping malls will close in the next five years, according to a new report from Credit Suisse that predicts e-commerce will continue to pull shoppers away from bricks-and-mortar retailers.

For many, the Wall Street firm’s finding may come as no surprise. Long-standing retailers are dying off as shoppers’ habits shift online. Credit Suisse expects apparel sales to represent 35% of all e-commerce by 2030, up from 17% today.

Traditional mall anchors, such as Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Sears, have announced numerous store closings in recent months. Clothiers including American Apparel, Bebe and BCBG Max Azria have filed for bankruptcy. The report estimates that around 8,640 stores will close by the end of the year.

Retail industry experts say Credit Suisse may have underestimated the scope of the upheaval.

“It’s more in the 30% range,” Ron Friedman, a retail expert at accounting and advisory firm Marcum said of the share of malls that he predicts will close in the next five years. “There are a lot of malls that know they’re in big trouble.”

By ignoring new shopping centers being built, the research note took an overly simplistic view of the changing landscape of shopping centers, said analyst David Marcotte, senior vice president with Kantar Retail.

“There are still malls being built,” Marcotte said. “Predominantly outlet malls and lifestyle malls.”

The change may not affect all sectors of the mall economy evenly.

Paula Rosenblum, co-founder and retail analyst at RSR Research, believes the report overstates the risks, and says lower-tier shopping centers in particular would bear the brunt of the blow.

“The problem with a lot of these studies ... is they look at what’s dying, they don’t look at what’s being born,” Rosenblum said.

But analysts agreed that to survive and stay relevant, malls need to make serious changes.

“A lot of malls are being redone. We are seeing mixed-use, many more restaurants and service providers, and less clothing stores,” Friedman said. “You’re going to see a future where you’ll be living at the mall.”

“If you have food and entertainment, that gives you a court to build around,” Marcotte said. “Once you get past that you need to create a space that is lifestyle oriented.”

Rosenblum says shopping centers will be driven by the demands of millennials and members of Generation Z behind them, who are more likely to spend money on entertainment rather than just clothing.

Malls, Rosenblum said, “are going to become more of a destination, not just for shopping but for activities and experiences.”

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Elizabeth Warren Is Into The Touchy Feely Not Facts

Elizabeth Warren Tweets Something Imbecilic About U.S. Military. Shapiro Pulverizes Her.

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

BY:

HANK BERRIEN

MAY 4, 2017

On Wednesday morning, Senator Elizabeth Warren issued a tweet that certainly
earned her brownie points among the leftists she has her latte with, but elicited
a fierce reply from Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro.

Warren tweeted:

Shapiro fired back:

Warren citing the military’s diversity as its greatest strength is as ludicrous as it
gets. The U.S. has 1.3 million active duty troops, the third largest number
in the world behind India’s 1.4 million and China’s 2.2 million. North Korea
has slightly fewer troops than the U.S.: 1.2 million.

But the Military Strength Index weights the following criteria to rank a
country’s overall military capabilities: Number of active personnel in the
army (5%); Tanks (10%); Attack helicopters (15%); Aircraft (20%); Aircraft
carriers (25%); Submarines (25%). Thus the number of personnel is the
least important factor in the strength of a military; the equipment means
everything. According to a Credit Suisse report in 2015, the U.S. had
the strongest military in the world, with a ranking of 0.94, followed by
Russia, (0.80), China, (0.79), Japan, (0.72), India, (0.69) and France, (0.61).

As Shapiro also referenced, the United States not only has the greatest
equipment in the world, but also the finest training and a cause that has
been a never-ending source of strength for an army; the will to die so that
your family back home can be free.

But for Warren, what really matters is diversity rather than excellence.

And she should know about the advantages of diversity; this is the same
woman who once claimed, “Native American has been a part of my story,
I guess since the day I was born, I don’t know any other way to describe
it.” As Maggie Haberman wrote for Politico in 2012, “Warren had described
herself as a minority on a law professors’ listing for several years, ending
in 1995.”

Why shouldn’t she cite “diversity” as one helluva asset? It seemed to
work for her.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Is The Bloom Coming Off The Rose?

Bill Gross: Banks 'Permanently Damaged' as Credit Expansion Ends

Bill Gross (Getty Images)

Thursday, 03 Mar 2016 08:38 AM

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Financial companies will be hard-pressed to meet long-term growth expectations as decades of credit expansion come to an end and central-bank policies and tighter regulations squeeze profits, according to bond investor Bill Gross.

Banks such Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are trading far below their pre-crisis highs as the credit growth that has fueled the global economic expansion in the past appears to near its end, Gross said in his monthly outlook posted Thursday. The recent selloff in global bank stocks shows investors recognize that future returns on equity for the industry “will be much akin to a utility stock,” he said.

“Banking/finance seems to be either a screaming sector ready to be bought or a permanently damaged victim of write- offs, tighter regulation and significantly lower future margins,” wrote Gross, co-manager of the $1.26 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund. “I’ll vote for the latter.”

Gross likened the troubles of the financial system as a driver of economic growth to the inevitable demise of the sun. It’s a climate that’s also challenging for insurers and pension funds, according to the 71-year-old billionaire, who joined Janus in 2014 after decades at Pacific Investment Management Co.

Friday, September 26, 2014

While Canada Stops Chasing Offshore Money, American's FATCA Law Is Making More Criminals.

Armed With FATCA, IRS Hunts Offshore Tax Evaders, While Canada Eases Up

Posted by Steven Maimes, Contributor - on September 25th, 2014

Forbes article by Robert W. Wood

In a move tied to budgets, Canada’s Revenue Agency is cutting its top staff focused on international tax evasion.

Cuts to experienced personnel who ferret out aggressive tax planning appear to be deepest, despite comments by MP Gerald Keddy that “the CRA is not reducing the number of auditors, nor the number of tax evasion and tax avoidance experts.” See CRA to cut managers, fold tax-evasion units, memo shows.

The shake-up is raising concerns that the Canadian government’s crackdown on offshore tax cheats may be all talk. or at least more talk than action. Yet Canada has gone to great pains to make clear that it is going after evaders. For example, Canada signed on to FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, America’s global tax law.

FATCA is a key weapon in the American war on tax evasion. It requires foreign banks to reveal American accounts holding over $50,000. Non-compliant institutions could be frozen out of U.S. markets, so everyone is complying, even China and Russia. The IRS has a searchable list of financial institutions. See FFI List Search and Download Tool and a User Guide. Countries on board are at FATCA – Archive.

America taxes its citizens and permanent residents on their worldwide income regardless of where they live. In 2009, the IRS and Department of Justice sliced through the Gordian knot of bank secrecy, netting account holder names and a $780 million penalty from UBS. Many other Swiss banks have fallen into line. A few closed their doors, and the rest now say Swiss bank secrecy really didn’t mean what you thought it meant.

Credit Suisse paid a $2.6 billion fine, and avoided death in U.S., copping to a U.S. felony tax charge, an astounding hit. Americans are particularly unable to hide anywhere for any reason. FATCA is America’s global tax law. It requires foreign banks to reveal American accounts holding over $50,000. The world has agreed, even Russian and China, and names are being revealed to the IRS.

The nature of private financial arrangements is also becoming less private. In administrative cases before the IRS and in tax prosecutions, the use of trusts and companies have come under fire. The IRS and DOJ underscores these common devices to enhance the willfulness that may be present, suggesting that efforts to be anonymous are suspect. In many ways, the cover-up is worse than the crime. In some cases, such layers can make innocent activity ‘willful’ triggering IRS penalties or jail.

All of this comes at a time when secrecy itself is under attack. The UK is moving to make company ownership entirely transparent. If current proposals pass into law, that may be replicated elsewhere. The topic of company ownership transparency is being discussed in Brussels too.

Nominee ownership used to be common. Nominees are straw-men listed as owners or directors of a company, but who are acting on behalf of someone else. As secrecy itself as come under attack, this once extremely common device is now more likely to be viewed as a problem that triggers others. Indeed, secrecy and willfulness may be linked like never before.

Although there is no doubt that America is still firmly on the scent of tax enforcement, Canada’s position is more tenuous. For one, a lawsuit has been filed against the Canadian Attorney General challenging the constitutionality Canada’s FATCA agreement with the United States. The legal claim is that the agreement violates provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That document enumerates the right to life, liberty, security of person; security against unreasonable search and seizure; equal protection of law without discrimination.

That is a serious charge. So is the contention that Canada’s FATCA agreement flies in the face of the “principle that Canada will not forfeit its sovereignty to a foreign state.” And yet for now, given that Canada signed FATCA, the IRS will get the data. How reciprocal the information will be, is another uncertainty. And with the controversy in Canada, perhaps that is of little moment.

Source: forbes.com