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Chinese Firm Seeks Halt of iPad Sales in Shanghai – Asia Business News – CNBC

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Chinese Firm Seeks Halt of iPad Sales in Shanghai

A Chinese technology firm sought to halt the sale of Apple’s iPads across the affluent city of Shanghai, arguing at a local court hearing on Wednesday that the U.S. firm had infringed on its trademark.

Previous court rulings in favor of Proview Technology (Shenzhen) have covered specific retailers in smaller cities, but a Shanghai order, if imposed, would eat into one of Apple’s biggest markets in China.

Proview lawyers argued, at times emotionally, that an immediate halt of iPad sales be implemented in China’s commercial hub, which is the home to three of the country’s five Apple stores.

Apple defended its right to use the trademark in China and said Proview had no ability to produce or sell its own device under the same name.

“Proview has no product, no markets, no customers and no suppliers. It has nothing,” Hu Jinnan, a partner at Guangdong Shendadi law firm, which is representing Apple in the case, told [Continue reading in new window...]

Filed Under: China, Country, Economy, Rotating, United States, World News

Americans’ Satisfaction Almost as Low as It Was Under Carter – Washington Whispers (usnews.com)

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Americans’ Satisfaction Almost as Low as It Was Under Carter

It’s February, nine months before a presidential election, and only 22 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going. Voters haven’t been this unhappy with the country since George H.W. Bush’s presidency, when only 21 percent of Americans reported being happy with the country’s direction. And before that, the lowest approval rating was 19 percent during Jimmy Carter’s first term.

What do the two presidencies have in [Continue reading in new window...]

Filed Under: Economy, Politics, United States Tagged With: ,

Chart: Nearly Half of All Americans Don’t Pay Income Taxes

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This year’s Index of Dependence on Government presented startling findings about the sharp increase of Americans who rely on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid or other assistance. (See last week’s chart.)

Another eye-popping number was the percentage of Americans who don’t pay income taxes, which now accounts for nearly half of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, most of that population receives generous federal benefits.

“One of the most worrying trends in the Index is the coinciding growth in the non-taxpaying public,” wrote Heritage authors Bill Beach and [Continue reading in new window...]

Filed Under: Economy, Rotating

Review & Outlook: Obama’s Dividend Assault – WSJ.com

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

President Obama’s 2013 budget is the gift that keeps on giving—to government. One buried surprise is his proposal to triple the tax rate on corporate dividends, which believe it or not is higher than in his previous budgets.

Mr. Obama is proposing to raise the dividend tax rate to the higher personal income tax rate of 39.6% that will kick in next year. Add in the planned phase-out of deductions and exemptions, and the rate hits 41%. Then add the 3.8% investment tax surcharge in ObamaCare, and the new dividend tax rate in 2013 would be 44.8%—nearly three times today’s 15% rate.

Keep in mind that dividends are paid to shareholders only after the corporation pays taxes on its profits. So assuming a maximum 35% corporate tax rate and a 44.8% dividend tax, the total tax on corporate earnings passed through as dividends would be 64.1%.

In previous budgets, Mr. Obama proposed an increase to [Continue reading in new window...]

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: ,

My Way News – AP source: Obama seeks 28 percent corp. tax rate

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama is proposing to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent and wants an even lower effective rate for manufacturers, a senior administration official says, as the White House lays down an election-year marker in the debate over tax policy.

In turn, corporations would have to give up dozens of loopholes and subsidies that they now enjoy. Corporations with overseas operations would also face a minimum tax on their foreign earnings.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday was to detail aspects of Obama’s proposed overhaul of the corporate tax system, a plan the president outlined in general terms in his State of the Union speech last month.

Chances of accomplishing such change in the tax system are slim in a year dominated mostly with presidential and congressional elections. But for Obama, the proposal is part of a larger tax plan that is [Continue reading in new window...]

Filed Under: Economy, Politics Tagged With: ,
February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Analysis & Opinion, Economy, World News

Robert McDowell: The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom – WSJ.com

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet. Dozens of countries, including Russia and China, are pushing hard to reach this goal by year’s end. As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last June, his goal and that of his allies is to establish “international control over the Internet” through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a treaty-based organization under U.N. auspices.

If successful, these new regulatory proposals would upend the Internet’s flourishing regime, which has been in place since 1988. That year, delegates from 114 countries gathered in Australia to agree to a treaty that set the stage for dramatic liberalization of international telecommunications. This insulated the Internet from [Continue reading in new window...]

Filed Under: Analysis & Opinion, Economy, World News Tagged With:

Romney, Santorum Deficit Slayers? Team Obama Says ‘No’ – ABC News

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Romney, Santorum Deficit Slayers? Team Obama Says ‘No’

As debate over religion and social policy at least temporarily steals the spotlight in the presidential race, the Obama campaign today took aim at the tax and budget plans of Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, claiming neither will trim the deficit as promised if they win the White House.

“We’ve heard a lot of unfounded claims during the Republican primary and a lot of unrealistic promises that would be very difficult for a lot of these candidates to keep as president,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told reporters on a conference call. “But Gov. Romney and Sen. Santorum’s claims about the deficit are among the hardest to square because they’re easiest to debunk.”

In a memo released this morning, the campaign provided an analysis of how [Continue reading in new window….]

 

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/romney-santorum-deficit-slayers-team-obama-says-no/

Filed Under: Economy, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

For boomers, it’s a new era of “work til you drop” – The Associated Press

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Paula Symons joined the U.S. workforce in 1972, typewriters in her office clacked nonstop, people answered the telephones and the hot new technology revolutionizing communication was the fax machine.

Symons, fresh out of college, entered this brave new world thinking she’d do pretty much what her parents’ generation did: Work for just one or two companies over about 45 years before bidding farewell to co-workers at a retirement party and heading off into her sunset years with a pension.

Forty years into that run, the 60-year-old communications specialist for a Wisconsin-based insurance company has worked more than a [Continue reading in new window...]

Filed Under: Economy
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