Friday, September 30, 2022

The only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about

 

The only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about.
~ Oscar Wild


 “There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.”

 – George Shinn


  1. "Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability." 
  2. – Patrick Lencioni




Wings 

If your greatest desire in life is to own more things, you are selling your potential short. 

Unfortunately, society has told us our greatest dreams should consist of doing well in school, getting a lucrative job, building a large retirement fund, and buying a really nice house with lots of cool things. And because we get told that deceptive lie so many times and from so many sources, we start to believe it—without even noticing. 






Before we know it, we are accumulating more and more things hoping to satisfy the longing in our hearts for something greater. This is a shame.

We can dream bigger dreams.

We can dream better dreams.

As Eric Hoffer once said, “You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.”

Our lives are worth more than the things that we own. Our lives can be lived for things that matter: love, hope, charity, relationships, contribution, spirituality.

But not if we sacrifice them by settling for possessions that only distract us from it.


Make no mistake about it. We all need money to survive. Without it you can’t eat — have a roof of your head — or enjoy the things that make you happy. But, are you obsessed with money? Here are some things in life that are more valuable than money.

I think we’ve all been in a spot where we were only focused on making a ton of money.

We take a job that we can’t stand because the pay is outstanding. Next thing you know — you dread hearing that alarm clock every morning.

Next — you start neglecting your health and relationships. These are more valuable than money. Despite the myth — you aren’t any happier. In fact, research has found that having strong social connections and access to nature makes you happier than merely more money.

In other words — money becomes the most important thing in your life. Even worse, it influences all of your choices and decisions. You’ll find that this is not the way to live.

If you feel that you’re in this situation, remember this statement: 

Money is not the most important thing in life. But, there are some things in life that are more valuable than money.





Bishop Johann Faber of Vienna claimed, "There are no crueler and more audacious villains under the heavens than the Turks, who spare no age or sex and mercilessly cut down young and old alike and pluck unripe fruit from the wombs of mothers."

In various European languages, the word "Turk" has acquired a meaning similar to "barbarian" or "heathen", or is used as a slur or curse



 

Leonard Cohen - Tom Stoppard - the "apostle of detachment "

 Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossedEverybody knows the war is overEverybody knows the good guys lostEverybody knows the fight was fixedThe poor stay poor, the rich get richThat's how it goesEverybody knows

Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows


About those rumors of a “coup” Sinocism. I believe this New York-based account was the epicenter of the rumors, which were all over my Twitter feed for a day or so


Private equity may become a ‘pyramid scheme’, warns Danish pension fund FT


Perfectionism, pressure, and “toxic” productivity: Does being a successful academic necessitate burning out?  Productivity »



Tom Stoppard, the "apostle of detachment," is getting in touch with his emotions: sadness, mortality, melancholy,  vulnerability  


Berlin Has a Surprising Soft Spot for Its Soviet Memorials Bloomberg


Edie Sedgwick, Warhol’s muse, was perfectly captivating. And so her addictions and her severe bulimia were overlooked Son of Slovak Father and Mother »


Dragons, gargoyles, fairies — much of what we take to be medieval aesthetics in fact come from 19th-century renderings medieval  »


Creativity at the End: Leonard Cohen on Preparing for Death

On that singular moment at the end of life when all creative energy is concentrated and consecrated.

Listen to the hummingbird
whose wings you cannot see,
listen to the hummingbird —
don’t listen to me.

Listen to the mind of God,
which doesn’t need to be,
listen to the mind of God —
don’t listen to me.

How Wall Street stormed the music business Investors poured billions into buying rights, turning pop songs into a new asset class — but then the economy stalled

For Barry Massarsky, a specialist number cruncher for pop stars and record labels, the financialisation of music has been very good business. “We are so busy. We are so unbelievably contracted with so many different players . . . new funds are coming in once or twice a week”, Massarsky told the Financial Times in July. “[My business partner] is like: ‘Hold the door shut!’ It’s wild . . . the market is scintillating”. People who have worked with Massarsky describe him as an eternal optimist — one former client compared him to the mentor in the film Jerry Maguire who says: “I clap my hands every morning and say, ‘This is gonna be a great day!”. But, until recently, the Cornell business school graduate had spent more than a decade toiling in an industry suffering from chronic malaise.


As an economist he calculated the value of music royalties for record labels, publishers and artists. When online piracy disrupted the industry in the 2000s, Massarsky earned his keep by calculating, for example, how much money Bob Dylan stood to lose due to copyright infringement on a website called mp3.com.

But in recent years, music streaming has resuscitated industry revenue, while central banks cut interest rates to historic lows, sending investors searching for new sources of returns. The result: the world’s biggest investors poured billions into what had been a staid sector and music royalty payments were turned into a recognised asset class. Massarsky and his small team became the financial wizards behind billions of dollars in high-profile transactions. Today, music executives, lawyers and agents say the influx of Wall Street cash is unprecedented. After a string of investments in the sector, Blackstone now earns money every time Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” plays in a shopping mall. Apollo gets paid each time Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” is blasted through a nightclub. The phenomenon was pioneered by a London-listed investment trust called Hipgnosis, named after an art group that designed album covers for Pink Floyd and others. In 2018 Merck Mercuriadis, a music obsessive who once managed Elton John, created the fund as a vehicle to buy songs, pitching them to institutional investors as a way to make reliable, bond-like returns.

In an era of rising interest rates, the nascent asset class faces its first real test. “What you’re buying is an anticipated future stream of cash flows. If rates go up, you discount those cash flows at those higher levels,” says Dan Ivascyn, Pimco’s chief investment officer. “Music IP [intellectual property], like other private markets, is an area where we haven’t seen the markets fully react to the realities of what we’re seeing in public markets. You’re going to see transaction volumes slow down.” Under these conditions Massarsky’s role will be crucial. If he were to start using higher interest rates as part of his calculations — reflecting rising real-world rates — the valuation of tens of thousands of songs would fall, potentially wreaking havoc for investors who have used debt towards the purchases. So far he has resisted. The rich get rich “Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich,” Leonard Cohen sang in his 1988 hit “Everybody Knows”.

Blackstone — the private equity titan whose chief executive, Stephen Schwarzman, made more than a billion dollars last year — not only owns rights to that song, but has packaged it up with a host of others and securitised it as collateral against hundreds of millions of dollars of debt. The tale of how that happened traces the story of post-financial crisis capitalism. When Mercuriadis founded Hipgnosis in 2018, interest rates were low and the stock market was in its ninth year of a historic rally. As recently as 2019, only $368mn worth of music catalogue deals were announced publicly, according to Midia Research. But as investors made creative attempts to generate higher returns than the measly sums on offer from government bonds, an investment case for songs was developed. Music catalogue dealmaking ballooned to $1.9bn in 2020, then to $5.3bn in 2021, says Midia…


When the music stops 

A broader culture clash is being felt in the music industry as Wall Street enters a sector that had been used to operating more informally, with deals subject to the whims of big personalities and personal relationships. Securitising songs has led to some unusual forms of financial analysis, such as a Kroll report that last month told bond investors a cover of Cohen’s “Hallelujah” by Pentatonix, a US a-cappella group, accounts for more than three times as many Spotify streams as the original. It also beats Jeff Buckley’s cover. When 10 different versions of the song “Hallelujah” are added together they account for almost 13 per cent of the Blackstone catalogue’s royalties.


The World Brain: H.G. Wells’s Prophetic 1930s Vision for the Internet and How to Fix Its Ugliest Present Breaking Point

“The world is a Phoenix. It perishes in flames and even as it dies it is born again.”


World economic outlook darkening and disrupted: Cormann

Prologue OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann says he is "quietly optimistic" that a global minimum corporate tax rate will be implemented by 2024


Epilogue  Global minimum tax on multinationals goes live to raise up to $220bn


Heads of tax administrations emphasise the importance of swiftly implementing the landmark global tax agreement and enhancing collaborative work on digital transformation


World economic outlook darkening and disrupted: Cormann

Tom McIlroy
Tom McIlroyPolitical reporter

OECD boss Mathias Cormann has warned of a darkening world economic outlook, telling an international tax conference that the global rules-based order faces sustained pressure.

Speaking on the final day of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Forum on Tax Administration in Sydney, Australia’s former finance minister said disruption was growing, adding to pressure on policymakers in capitals across the globe.

“The world has entered a highly challenging and disruptive period,” Mr Cormann said.

“Pressures from economic fragmentation around the world are real and are growing.

“In the near term, we face lower growth and high inflation with negative impacts on business investment and private consumption. And the challenges facing our international rules-based order are profound.”


Amid destabilisation from Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and his moves to annex parts of the country under the guise of sham referendums, as well as China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, Mr Cormann said “megatrends” such as business digitalisation and green transformation presented challenges and opportunities for governments.

“It is precisely at times like this that we need to maintain, and indeed to reinforce international co-operation,” he said.

“Deepening this co-operation, including with policymakers, will be of critical importance in meeting the challenges and realising the opportunities that the next 20 years will bring.”

Two-pillar system

Tax and revenue bosses at the conference have discussed progress on the OECD-led two-pillar global tax reform project, which includes moves to implement a global 15 per cent minimum corporate tax rate.

The 139-country deal – that will also better tax tech giants including Google and Meta in the countries in which they do business – is not expected to be fully up and running until at least 2024.


Supported by both sides of Australian federal politics, the deal has two parts.

Pillar one, which requires a multilateral treaty, will provide a formula for allocating the taxable profits of the 100 largest multinational companies – particularly big tech companies – to the jurisdictions where the activity actually takes place.

It will redistribute taxing rights on more than $US125 billion ($190 billion) of profit, replacing countries’ recently imposed digital services taxes.

Pillar two will set a minimum company tax rate of 15 per cent on any company with annual revenue exceeding €750 million ($1.13 billion). That aspect is designed to prevent countries competing to lure firms from each other with low tax rates.

The Albanese government has factored the global project into its economic plans and wants Australia to help deliver the deal.

Mr Cormann told the conference that the technical work on model rules for pillar two were essentially finished


He said once a “critical mass” of countries passed legislation for the new global minimum tax rate, the plan would very quickly become “self-perpetuating”.

He told delegates “it will not be in any country’s interest to leave money on the table for other jurisdictions to collect at their expense”.

“That is why we are quietly optimistic that the momentum is there to ensure that pillar two of this historic agreement will be implemented in time for 2024.”

Ireland’s Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe this week called for the European Union to take time to build unanimous support for the global minimum corporate tax plan.

Bob Hamilton, commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency, said before the conference that the plan would deliver significant new revenue to countries including Australia, helping stop a global race to the bottom.

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan says  more outstanding debts were paid faster than expected.

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Tom McIlroy reports from the federal press gallery at Parliament House. Connect with Tom on Twitter. Email Tom at thomas.mcilroy@afr.com

Future of Tax 3.0: Address to the OECD Tax Administration Forum - How Money Was Born



Considered the foremost global expert on retail banking innovation, Brett King is also a three-time bestselling author and founder of the mobile banking startup “Moven.” King was voted American Banker’s “Bank Technology News Innovator of the Year.” In 2013 he was nominated by Bank Innovation as one of the “Top Ten coolest brands in banking,” the only individual to make that list. He is also on the board of the Centre for Financial Services Innovation.

Brett King Bank 4 Future of Financial Services 




Address to the OECD Tax Administration Forum - 29 September 2022
























ACLEI was pleased to attend a bilateral meeting with the Indonesian delegation from and at the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group. We discussed opportunities for cooperation and how ACLEI can learn from KPK's history fighting corruption as we move into the #NACC.



Today we mark International #
AccessToInfoDay and recognise the importance of the community’s right to know and access information from governments around the globe. For more visit oaic.gov.au/iaid







OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann says he is "quietly optimistic" that a global minimum corporate tax rate will be implemented by 2024.



Mr Cormann was in Sydney on Friday to close the OECD's Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) Plenary, which this week hosted officials from around the world focusing on how to boost international tax cooperation.

A key issue is implementing an OECD-brokered deal to rewrite cross-border taxation rules to deal with challenges from the digitisation of the economy, including tax avoidance by large multinationals.

The "pillar one" portion of the deal would replace unilateral taxes on digital services with a new mechanism enabling multinationals to be taxed in part based on where they sell products and services, rather than where they situate their headquarters and intellectual property.

Under the plan's second pillar, a floor rate would be put under corporate income tax via a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15 per cent, with the aim for countries to use it to protect their tax bases.


The former Australian finance minister, in closing remarks, said once a "critical mass" of countries legislated the global minimum it would very quickly become "self-perpetuating".

"As It will not be in any country's interest to leave money on the table for other jurisdictions to collect at their expense," he said

"That is why we are quietly optimistic that the momentum is there to ensure that pillar two of this historic agreement will be implemented in time for 2024."

Mr Cormann, previously a West Australian senator who worked under three Liberal prime ministers before becoming the new OECD chief in 2021, also pointed to the "sobering backdrop" of war in Ukraine.

He said the "war of aggression" was most sad for the Ukrainian people, while noting its impact on the global economy, energy markets and energy transition.

"It's a sobering backdrop but one that should make us even more determined to forge a better future based on increased and ever improving international cooperation," he told the forum.

Earlier this week, the OECD warned global economic growth is slowing more than was forecast a few months ago in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, flagging higher recession risks in major economies.



In hacked cyberspace no one can hear you scream

The Optus hack is a wake-up call for businesses to get their digital affairs in order or pay the price, writes Morry Bailes.


Robodebt Royal Commission begins

Automated debt recovery system goes under the microscope


TikTok’s $2 billion fraud challenge for the ATO

Crypto industry is not as ethical as private equity, says buyout billionaire FT


How Money Was Born: The Small Seashell and the Fierce Maldivian Queen That Made the Modern World

How humanity turned another species into its first specie.


Money began as a language for expressing gratitude and became the lever of the extraction economy — the currency of aggregate human entitlement. In the golden dawn of modern capitalism, Henry Miller — passionate, idealistic, and broke — sang the thrush song of warning: “The dilemma in which we find ourselves today is that no matter how much we increase the purchasing power of the wage-earner he never has enough.” A century hence, the dilemma has swelled to a carbon cloud of doom — and yet money keeps washing through this pale blue dot no longer capable of regarding itself as a world without its circulating medium. 

How did we get here?

It turns out we came on the back of a small marine gastropod mollusk, in the lap of a fierce Maldivian queen.



Known as the money cowry, Monetaria moneta is the world’s least impressive cowry — so plain it was entirely omitted from the most lavish illustrated encyclopedia of seashells — and its first global currency. Its remarkable story, laced with all the imaginative strengths and moral follies that make us human, comes alive in The Sound of the Sea (public library) — Cynthia Barnett’s wondrous evolutionary-cultural history of seashells. She writes:

In the fourteenth century, a queen known as Rehendi Khadijah ruled the islands of the Maldives with epic command. One of the earliest women leaders of an Islamic nation, she derived power from both the sultanate and Islam, even as she declined to cover her head — not to mention other parts. She led the kingdom for a third of the century despite two attempts, both by husbands, to depose her. Neither man survived the effort. 

All the more remarkable was the Maldivian queen’s role in the dawn of international trade. The chain of atolls, coral reefs, and lowlying islands 600 miles off the tip of India was the center of production for the first global money.