Just another example of why no one will do business with these criminals

To contact us Click HERE

BP Sells Out in Russia

Four years after Russia chased TNK-BP BP.LN -1.54% CEO Bob Dudley out of the country by revoking his visa, the British oil major has succumbed to the inevitable, selling its 50% stake in the joint venture to the state-controlledRosneft ROSN.RS -3.16% . BP's partner in the deal, a group of Russian oligarchs, is also expected to sell out to Rosneft.

BP will emerge from the venture with $19 billion in dividends, as well as $17.1 billion in cash from the sale. The company will also end up with a nearly 20% stake in Rosneft when the deal closes, assuming Moscow approves the terms. According to Monday's announcement, BP is to plow $4.8 billion of the cash it will receive from the sale back into Rosneft shares.

This deal fits a pattern going back a decade in which Moscow welcomes foreign investment in its oil business long enough for the Western companies to put up risk capital and prove the investments' worth, then later reasserts control. We suppose BP should consider itself lucky that it's being paid to exit the joint venture, rather than finding itself on the short end of a multibillion-dollar tax claim or a sudden bout of environmental punctiliousness, as has happened to the likes of Yukos and Shell.



Associated Press

BP CEO Bob Dudley

Rosneft itself is largely built on the bones of Yukos, the Russian oil major that Vladimir Putin dismantled starting in 2003 when its co-founder and CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, became politically inconvenient. As Ariel Cohen writes nearby, several Western courts have ruled the expropriation of Yukos illegal. But perhaps Moscow hopes that a substantial BP stake in Rosneft will help insulate the Russian firm from claims in Europe related to its acquisition of Yukos assets.

BP, in taking a large chunk of its payment for the joint venture in Rosneft shares, is plainly hoping that its minority stake in Rosneft will be treated better than many other minority shareholders in Russia. We wish Mr. Dudley better luck this time.

So far, Mr. Putin and his circle have proved adept at allowing most Western firms just enough upside to keep them coming back. The increased nationalization of Russia's oil wealth has nonetheless taken its toll, with growth in exports and total production slowing dramatically since 2004. Moscow seems to realize that it needs Western know-how to extract its oil and gas. But the Kremlin also knows that it only needs to respect property rights and the rule of law so much to keep the capitalists interested.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203406404578072410820257432.html

Temporary Employees Sue Wal-Mart

Again why do you shop or work with these people. They may as well be street gangsters who sell you into slavery. I will not set foot in a Walmart if the crap they are selling was free. They are destroying America by moving manufacturing offshore and enslaving American workers. Every other retailer has to follow their lead to compete. QB
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/business/wal-mart-is-sued-by-temporary-workers.html?_r=0A lawsuit filed Monday accuses Wal-Mart Stores and two staffing agencies of requiring temporary employees to show up early for work, stay late and work through lunch at the world’s largest retailer.The proposed class action, filed in a Chicago federal court, claimed that Wal-Mart and the agencies violated minimum wage and overtime laws, potentially affecting several hundred temporary workers in the Chicago area.Wal-Mart declined to comment immediately, saying it first needed to review the lawsuit.Wal-Mart has faced protests in various American cities lately, and some workers said they planned to walk off the job on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Such actions are being sponsored by groups including a contingent of workers called OUR Walmart that is calling attention to what it says are tough working conditions.