Business




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The Truth About Business Lies

The old saying goes that if you want people to believe something, you should keep saying it over and over. People will get used to hearing the lie and they will start to believe it…


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Wisdom Of The Crowds? Online Effort Seeks To Raise Funds For Greece

A collection of old Greek Drachma and euro notes and coins.

A collection of old Greek Drachma and euro notes and coins. Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

Updated at 12:14 p.m. ET

Only 1,599,888,909 euros to go. A crowd-funding effort to raise the 1.6 billion euros (about $1.8 billion) Greece needs to make a loan payment to the International Monetary Fund has so far raised 111,091 euros ($124,569) from 7,275 donors.

The organizer of the effort on IndieGogo says the European Union’s 503 million people need to chip in just over 3 euros each ($3.37).

“That’s about the same as half a pint in London. Or everyone in the EU just having a Feta and Olive salad for lunch,” the organizer writes. “So come on, order a Feta and Olive salad, maybe wash it down with an Ouzo or glass of Assyrtiko greek wine and let’s sort this s —- – out.”

Here’s more:

“Pledge €3 and get a postcard sent from Greece of Alex Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister. We’ll get them made and posted in Greece and give a boost to some local printers and post offices.

“Pledge €6 and get a greek Feta and Olive salad

“Pledge €10 and get a small bottle of Ouzo sent to you

“Pledge €25 and get a bottle of Greek wine”

The effort also offers a Greek food basket for 160 euros (about $180), a Greek holiday for two for 5,000 euros (about $5,616) and “gratitude from citizens of Europe and particularly from the Greek people” for 1 million euros ($1.12 million).

The effort’s organizer is Thom Feeney, 29, who works in a shoe shop in London. He insists the effort isn’t a joke. He says:

“I can understand why people might take it as a joke, but Crowdfunding can really help because it’s just a case of getting on and doing it. I was fed up of the Greek crisis going round in circles, while politicians are dithering, this is affecting real people. While all the posturing is going on, then it’s easy for the politicians to forget that. I just thought, sod it, I’ll have a crack.”

Those donating money have seven days to make the goal. If they don’t, they get a refund. Feeney says he believes Europeans are generous enough to save Greece:

“Europeans are pretty generous on the whole, maybe Ms [German Chancellor Angela Merkel] and Mr [British Prime Minister David] Cameron are the exception. There are 500 million people in the EU and actually, it wouldn’t cost each person much to just sort it out ourselves. I’m confident the people of Europe will get this campaign and some time soon we’ll all be raising a glass of Ouzo and having a bloody great big celebration.”

Feeney tells NPR’s Jackie Northam that he woke up today to “1,200 emails and 30 friend requests from Greek women.

“And this day’s gone even crazier from there.”

Of course, the 1.6 billion euros Greece must repay the IMF by 5 p.m. ET today is just a tiny fraction of what the country’s owes. The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that Greece owes the IMF, one of its many creditors, $26 billion. And this Wall Street Journal interactive explains what Greece owes its creditors and when.

Greece faces a possible exit from the eurozone, the bloc of countries that use the euro, if it defaults on its loan to the IMF.

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President Pitches Overtime Rule That Could Raise Wages For 5 Million

President Obama signs a presidential memorandum in March of 2014 that directed the Department of Labor construct a new set of overtime rules, with the goal of making more employees eligible for overtime pay.

President Obama signs a presidential memorandum in March of 2014 that directed the Department of Labor construct a new set of overtime rules, with the goal of making more employees eligible for overtime pay. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Mark Wilson/Getty Images

President Obama is expected to release this week a long-awaited rule governing overtime that could affect 5 million people as soon as next year, a source familiar with the plans confirmed to NPR.

The proposed rule would more than double the salary cap under which most workers would qualify for overtime pay whenever they work more than 40 hours a week, the source said. The cap would be raised from $23,660 to $50,440, and indexed to wage growth or inflation, ensuring the cap would move with the overall economy.

The rule is still subject to a lengthy comment period, and is bound to face opposition from the retail and restaurant industries. Unlike the president’s push to increase the minimum wage, though, the overtime rule does not require congressional approval.

Politico first reported the details, which were then formally unveiled in a Huffington Post blog post by President Obama tonight. The president will speak about the rule in LaCrosse, Wis., on Thursday.

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Ministry prepares platform for NZ Business Number rollout

Business number functions. Source: MBIE The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), which manages a large number of separate registers, is now seeking registrations of interest from potential suppliers of a Shared Business Entity…


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Supreme Court Blocks Obama Administration Plan On Power Plant Emissions

The Supreme court has ruled against an Obama administration effort to limit toxic mercury emissions from power plants, saying the costs of compliance with regulation should be taken into account.

In a 5-4 decision, the court sided with industry and 23 states that challenged the Environmental Protection Agency over the rules for oil- and coal-fired utilities, which the EPA estimated would cost $9.6 billion dollars annually. The states and industry groups said the cost estimate far outweighed the benefits the rules would produce, estimated at $4 million to $6 million per year.

The courts majority agreed, saying the EPA interpreted the regulation “unreasonably when it deemed cost irrelevant to the decision to regulate power plants.”

NPR’s Nina Totenberg has this background on the case, Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency:

“The regulations have been in the works for nearly two decades. Work on them began in the Clinton administration, got derailed in the George W. Bush administration, and then were revived and adopted in the Obama administration.

“The regulations were subsequently upheld by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., last year.

“They stem from 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, which ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to expedite limits on power plant emissions of mercury and 188 other dangerous air pollutants.

“Mercury is considered one of the most toxic pollutants because studies show that when it falls from the atmosphere, it readily passes from fish and other sources to a pregnant woman’s unborn fetus and the fetal brain, causing neurological abnormalities and delays in children. The EPA estimated that 7 percent of American women of childbearing age — millions of women — were being exposed to the pollutant in dangerous amounts.”

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Economic Crisis Looms For Puerto Rico, Report Says

Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla in April delivered his budget address for the next fiscal year at the Capitol building in San Juan.

Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla in April delivered his budget address for the next fiscal year at the Capitol building in San Juan. Ricardo Arduengo/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Ricardo Arduengo/AP

A report obtained by NPR paints a bleak portrait of Puerto Rico’s economic future, saying its deficit is much larger than previously thought.

“Puerto Rico faces hard times,” says the report which was commissioned by the Government Development Bank and written by three former and current International Monetary Fund economists. It is to be released on Monday.

“Structural problems, economic shocks and weak public finances have yielded a decade of stagnation, outmigration and debt. Financial markets once looked past these realities but have since cut off the commonwealth from normal market access. A crisis looms,” it says.

Following the report’s release, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla is preparing to give a major speech, in which he’s expected to say Puerto Rico can no longer afford to pay off its $73 billion in debt on time.

“The debt is not payable,” Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla told The New York Times. “There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math.” He also said he will ask its creditors for more time to pay off what it owes.

The island has borrowed heavily over the years, issuing bonds to pay for pensions and government services, even as its economy shrunk and its population grew smaller.

Its debt load is now by far larger per capita than any of the 50 states. Its bonds were considered attractive because Congress allowed them to be issued free of federal, state and local taxes.

“The economy is in a vicious cycle, where unsustainable public finances are feeding into uncertainty and low growth, which in turn is raising the fiscal deficit and the debt ratio,” the report says.

It adds the government needs far-reaching economic reforms, but even so will have trouble paying its debts in the years to come.

On Wednesday, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is due to make a $400 million payment to condholders, money it reportedly does not have.

The interview by Garcia Padilla, coupled with the troubles in Greece, could lead to a tumultuous day in the bond markets on Monday.

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