Shorts (left)
Editorial Dispute Threatens Chinese Magazine
Caijing, a respected Chinese business magazine, has been thrown into turmoil after a dispute over its editorial direction recently led to the resignation of 11 high-ranking executives and nearly 70 other workers from the business staff, according to people close to the magazine.
The magazine’s general manager, its top advertising executive and the head of its conference unit are among those who have submitted resignation letters in recent weeks. And Hu Shuli, considered the most powerful business editor in China, may be forced to resign from the magazine, which is based in Beijing.
The dispute threatens to dismantle one of the country’s leading media properties, a thriving magazine published twice a month that specializes in investigating government corruption and corporate fraud. Caijing also has partnerships with The Wall Street Journal and Reuters.
Travel Cost-Cutting Is the New Normal
As business travel slowly comes back, company travel departments are sending out a strong message:
Work harder. Fit more productivity into each trip. Become a lot more accessible on the road – even on airplanes, using new in-flight wireless services.
And, oh yeah, do it more cheaply.
What lies ahead for the grunts on the road as the long slump in business travel eases? Air travel has already become less convenient, as airlines have significantly cut capacity. According to the airline data company OAG, domestic capacity in October was down 21 percent from October 2000 – roughly the equivalent of an entire major airline disappearing.
Well, get used to it. Invoking the current business travel buzz phrase, prepare for the “new normal,” says Charles Petruccelli, the president of the American Express Global Travel Services division, which managed $29.1 billion in worldwide corporate travel sales last year.
Tax Day Looms for Holders of Offshore Accounts
Many Americans dread April 15, the deadline for filing their income tax returns. But some well-heeled people are trembling over another looming tax day: Oct. 15.
Thursday is the deadline for Americans to come clean about the money they have hidden offshore, in places like Swiss bank accounts. No one can say with certainty how much money is out there – the accounts are secret – but the hoard may be tens of billions of dollars.
Several thousand wealthy people have come forward, hoping to avoid large fines or possibly even prison. But many others are still weighing their options. The choice is stark: They can confess and pay the penalties, or gamble that they will not get caught. With the deadline only days away, tax lawyers say they are being inundated by anxious clients.
“We’re seeing a flood of people,” said Scott D. Michel, a tax lawyer in Washington. His firm, Caplin & Drysdale, has 350 clients who are preparing to report their offshore accounts to the Internal Revenue Service. The firm has 14 lawyers handling their cases, one of which involves a tax bill of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The deadline is part of a broad crackdown on Americans who use offshore accounts to evade federal taxes. As part of the effort, U.S. authorities have challenged the long tradition of banking secrecy in Switzerland, and, in particular at UBS, that nation’s largest bank.