Swiss Bank Pleads Guilty to Felony Conspiracy with American Tax Dodgers

Syndicated news with introduction by Nomad 

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has admitted that it conspired to help some US clients avoid paying taxes. It has agreed to pay over $2.5 billion and to cooperate with investigations. 

This would make the Swiss company the largest bank in 20 years to plead guilty to criminal charges.

  

As much as I think this is a good- and long overdue- step, imposing a fine on Swiss banks for helping Americans hide their wealth is a little like punishing dogs for peeing on fire hydrants. It's what they do. There's nothing very "brazen" about either case. 

Perhaps the only surprising aspect of this news is that the US government found the wherewithal to actually do anything about it. As Forbes describes the news, the IRS took on Swiss banking and it won. According to that article, IRS is the big winner in this plea bargain arrangement.

Plus, the IRS earns dividends in the form of account holders applying for amnesty. And for the IRS, it isn’t just Switzerland, but everywhere now that FATCA has expanded U.S. tentacles almost worldwide. Attorney General Eric Holder wins big too, getting the benefit of a guilty plea. He can’t be accused of letting another big bank off the hook for being too big to fail.

The U.S. Treasury and New York State both make out well. Credit Suisse will pay nearly $1.8 billion to the Justice Department, $100 to the Federal Reserve, and a whopping $715 million to New York’s Department of Financial Services.

With FATCA approaching its launching date, some would see this in a little less cheery light. The US, they'd say, is simply attempting to assert its control over all international banks. 

Amid all this back slapping, and at a time when Putin is threatening to renew a Cold War, what is left unsaid is that the long-term consequences may be hard to calculate.

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Credit Suisse guilty on US felony charge, pays $2.6 bn (via AFP)

Credit Suisse pleaded guilty and was fined $2.6 billion for helping Americans avoid taxes, the first time in 20 years a major bank has been punished on US criminal charges. US authorities said the "brazen" Swiss bank, one of the world's largest wealth…

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How Cleveland's Urban Farming Project is Helping Neighborhoods Find Homegrown Solutions

by Nomad

In many urban neighborhoods, a lack of access to affordable food, especially fresh produce, has reduced the inter-city to "food deserts." As many US cities are learning, urban farming can bring oases to such communities.

One doesn't normally associate hunger with urban life. Cities were supposed to be about shared resources and shared responsibilities. That's how they came into being in the first place.
Today, however, for the poor, the problem is trying to find nourishing food at affordable prices.

As UNICEF reported back in 2012,

Urban areas may appear to have great levels of food availability and security, however not every family is granted access to those resources. The urban poor experience high levels of food insecurity because of poverty and social exclusion. Urbanization ultimately leads to poverty because families incur high costs in paying for food, housing, health fees, transportation, school and other basic necessities.

The food, especially fresh produce, simply isn't available at an affordable price.

Chilling the Messenger: Turkish Officials Fine News Channel for Reporting Child Murder Case

by Nomad

Turkish media watchdog agency fines TV news channels for broadcasting "disturbing" news in child murder case. What does this mean for press freedom in Turkey?

In Turkey the ministry in charge of overseeing broadcasting, RTÜK, recently issued fines on two TV channels totalling 500,000 Turkish Liras - or around 175,815 Euros or $241,000. At issue, according to the watchdog agency, was the manner in which news of child abuse/ murder case was covered. 

According to an article in the English-language Hurriyet

Kanal D was fined 342,000 liras while Show TV was fined 157,000 by the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK) for their coverage of the murder of a 9-year-old boy in Kars last month.

In that incident, a 9-year-old boy was found dead in the northeastern province of Kars last month. Police arrested a suspect in the case, a man acquainted to the family.

The story explains the rationale behind the imposition of fines for the coverage.

Ali Öztunç, a RTÜK member from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said news stories about child abuse created public pressure on the possible criminals but may also encourage criminals to commit similar acts. He said the news channels must be very careful and act appropriately while delivering such stories on TV.

Short Changed: Why Americans Are No Longer The Tallest People in the World

by Nomad

A study reveals that the height of Americans on average is being outpaced by other countries for the first time in its history. The reasons are surprising.

Precise measurements of the living standards of any country can be a tricky business. In the past, economists have relied on a variety of tools to chart a nation's development or decline. 

One method that has found a lot of support in the last few decades might seem a little unorthodox. By its medical name, it is known as auxology, the study of growth.

By merging two seemingly unrelated fields, the study of medicine and the study of the economy, researchers began making some interesting discoveries. They found that the average height of a citizen can say much about the overall living conditions inside a nation. The analysis can be applied to the bones of ancient Romans or to the records from modern nations. 

And working on that basis, what they found when they looked at the US was intriguing but a little disturbing.

How One California Farm Will Provide Organic Vegetables and Hope for Veterans

by Nomad

One farm in Monterey County California offers an example of a innovative idea to help US veterans transition back into civilian life. By providing vocational agriculture training, such farms can provide fresh food for the local community.
More importantly, it offers them a safe place among like-minded to begin a long healing process.

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wound down, President Obama faced  a challenge that his predecessor never had to worry about: How to find work of millions of veterans returning home in an already-depressed economy. So that was no small feat and some steady progress has been made.

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released in March of this year, the unemployment rate for veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces (at any time since September 2001) edged down to 9.0 percent in 2013.

And where there is unemployment, there is homelessness. At one point, around 2006, one in four homeless Americans was a veteran. Those numbers have been in steady decline due to an improved economy and increased funding to those on the streets. Although the situation might have improved, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said last year that the Obama Administration goals remain the same: to eliminate the problem by the end of 2015.

That won't be won't be easy.

  

While there is still so much more that needs to be done for those who risked life and limb,  that duty is much harder when partisanship seems to cripple progress in Washington.

The shameful fact is that now that the veterans are no longer so vital to the defense of the nation, many  legislators in the capitol have turned their backs.

A Veterans bill,  a sweeping $21 billion bill that would have expanded medical, educational and other benefits for veterans, was derailed in the Senate in February this year  by the Republicans. They dismissed the legislation as election year campaign and an example of unnecessary and excessive spending.  

That's why, despite the discouraging lack of significant progress, it was it was inspiring to read about one small project on the other side of the nation.

Farming the Pastures of Heaven

A pair of Marine Corps veterans in California, John Wagner and Bryan Showalter, are business partners in a venture which may offer one answer to the problem. 

Their 20-acre Semper Fresh Farm, located in Corral de Tierra in Monterey County, California, is part commercial farm and part vocational training for veterans.  

The project which opened last week, is still operating on a rather small scale. The initial market for their organic heirloom tomatoes will be at the farm, as well as local restaurants and other farmers' markets in the area. Once the farm is open to the public later this year, visitors will be able to  this year for the public to come and harvest the 100% organically-grown tomatoes. Picking off the vine is about as close to fresh as you can possibly be. 

The farm is located in Steinbeck country, and provides the setting for stories in his book  The Pastures of Heaven. 

Can't get a better advertisement than that.