BRICS Nations Plan New Bank to Bypass World Bank, IMF

Mike Cohen & Ilya Arkhipov - Mar 26, 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-25/brics-nations-plan-new-bank-to-bypass-world-bank-imf.html

The biggest emerging markets are uniting to tackle under-development and currency volatility with plans to set up institutions that encroach on the roles of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are set to approve the establishment of a new development bank during an annual summit that began today in the eastern South African city of Durban, officials from all five nations say. They will also discuss pooling foreign-currency reserves to ward off balance of payments or currency crises.

“The deepest rationale for the BRICS is almost certainly the creation of new Bretton Woods-type institutions that are inclined toward the developing world,” Martyn Davies, chief executive officer of Johannesburg-based Frontier Advisory, which provides research on emerging markets, said in a phone interview. “There’s a shift in power from the traditional to the emerging world. There is a lot of geo-political concern about this shift in the western world.”

The BRICS nations, which have combined foreign-currency reserves of $4.4 trillion and account for 43 percent of the world’s population, are seeking greater sway in global finance to match their rising economic power. They have called for an overhaul of management of the World Bank and IMF, which were created in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, and oppose the practice of their respective presidents being drawn from the U.S. and Europe.

Reform Needed

“We need to change the way business is conducted in the international financial institutions,” South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said in a March 15 speech in Johannesburg. “They need to be reformed.”

The U.S. has failed to ratify a 2010 agreement to give more sway to emerging markets at the IMF, while it secured Jim Yong Kim, an American, as head of the World Bank last year over candidates from Nigeria and Colombia.

Finance ministers and central bank governors from the BRICS nations, who met in Durban today, agreed to set up currency crisis fund of about $100 billion, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters today. He didn’t give details of proposed funding for the new bank, which Brazil wants established by 2014. The nation’s leaders are due to sign a final accord tomorrow.

FDI Inflows

Goldman Sachs Asset Management Chairman Jim O’Neill coined the BRIC term in 2001 to describe the four emerging powers he estimated would equal the U.S. in joint economic output by 2020. Brazil, Russia, India and China held their first summit four years ago and invited South Africa to join their ranks in December 2010.

Trade within the group surged to $282 billion last year from $27 billion in 2002 and may reach $500 billion by 2015, according to data from Brazil’s government. Foreign direct invesment into BRICS nations reached $263 billion last year, accounting for 20 percent of global FDI flows, up from 6 percent in 2000, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said on its website yesterday.

“If they announce a BRICS bank it will be quite something,” O’Neill said in an e-mailed reply to questions on March 15. “At a minimum it symbolizes they can achieve something as political group and means lots of other things could follow in the future. It also means that they will have their own kind of special World Bank, which may aid infrastructure and trade projects.”

Currency Pool

While BRICS leaders may approve the creation of a development bank in principle at the summit, details on funding and operations may take longer to finalize.

Russia favors capping each side’s initial contribution at $10 billion, Mikhail Margelov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to Africa he said in a March 15 interview in Moscow.

“It will be some time before it will be feasible for this bank to start financing say, a railway project,” Simon Freemantle, an analyst at Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa’s biggest lender, told reporters in Durban yesterday. “That is some way out.”

Interest rates near zero in the U.S., Japan and Europe have fueled foreign investors’ appetite for higher-yielding assets, driving up currencies from Brazil to Turkey. Brazil has warned of a global currency war as nations take reciprocal action to weaken their currencies and protect export industries.

African Leaders

Brazil’s real has gained 1.9 percent against the dollar since the beginning of the year, while South Africa’s rand has dropped 8.7 percent in the period.

For South Africa, which makes up just 2.5 percent of total gross domestic product in BRICS, the summit is a way to showcase its role as an investment gateway to Africa. President Jacob Zuma has invited 15 African heads of state, including Egypt’s Mohamed Mursi and Ethiopia’s Hailemariam Desalegn, for talks with the BRICS leaders at the summit. For most of the BRICS leaders, it’s also the first opportunity to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping after his appointment on March 17.

“We will discuss ways to revive global growth and ensure macroeconomic stability, as well as mechanisms and measures to promote investment in infrastructure and sustainable development,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement yesterday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mike Cohen in Cape Town at mcohen21@bloomberg.net; Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net

IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn calls for new world currency

International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn calls for new world currency

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has called for a new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar and protect against future financial instability.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn saw a greater role for the IMF's Special Drawing Rights, which is currently composed of the dollar, sterling, euro and yen
Andrew Trotman
10 Feb 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/8316834/International-Monetary-Fund-director-Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-calls-for-new-world-currency.html

“Global imbalances are back, with issues that worried us before the crisis - large and volatile capital flows, exchange rate pressures, rapidly growing excess reserves - on the front burner once again,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. “Left unresolved, these problems could even sow the seeds of the next crisis.”

“When we worry about the deficiencies of the international monetary system, we are mostly worrying about volatility,” he added. There is “a sense that money sometimes flows around the globe in too-volatile a fashion and that countries need a more stable, more predictable external environment in order to prosper”, he said.

He suggested adding emerging market countries' currencies, such as the yuan, to a basket of currencies that the IMF administers could add stability to the global system.

China, which holds much of its $2.85 trillion mountain of reserves in US Treasury bonds, has repeatedly expressed unease about the value of the dollar, while American politicians have complained that Beijing gains an unfair advantage by keeping its own currency cheap.

Strauss-Kahn saw a greater role for the IMF's Special Drawing Rights, which is currently composed of the dollar, sterling, euro and yen, over time but said it will take a great deal of international cooperation to make that work.

"Using the SDR to price global trade and denominate financial assets would provide a buffer from exchange rate volatility," Strauss-Kahn said, while "issuing SDR-denominated bonds could create a potentially new class of reserve assets".

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last month said the currencies of Brazil, Russia, India and China should be included in the SDR valuation basket. The same month, Sarkozy said that the yuan should be included, and US President Barack Obama’s administration said it supports such a transition “over time”.

However, among the yuan's drawbacks is that it is not freely traded and China's capital markets are largely closed.

Strauss-Kahn said: "Increasing the role of the SDR would clearly require a major leap in international policy coordination. For this reason, I expect the global reserve asset system to evolve only gradually, and along with changes in the global economy."

Strauss-Kahn's views come a week before finance ministers from the Group of 20 developed and developing nations meet in Paris to discuss proposals by French president Nicolas Sarkozy for changes to global economic governance.

The world's happiest cities

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/tastefulliving/the-worlds-happiest-cities-508202/

The world's happiest cities
by Forbes.com
Wed Sep 2, 2009

Ever since Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared in the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio, the world has been fascinated with Rio de Janeiro. Popular perception of the city is infused with images of starry-eyed youngsters dancing into the dusk, backed by imposing mountains and dark sea.

That view has propelled Rio to the top of our list of the world's happiest cities. Famous for its annual Carnaval festival (starting Feb. 13 next year), the second-largest metropolis in South America finished first among 50 cities in a recent survey conducted by Simon Anholt, an author and policy adviser.

"Brazil is associated with all these qualities of good humor and good living and Carnaval," says Anholt. "Carnaval is very important--it's the classic image that people have of Rio, and it's an image of happiness."

Next on the list is the top city from Down Under: Sydney, Australia. Known for balmy weather, friendly locals and an iconic opera house, Sydney fared well in Anholt's survey because of its association with a popular brand--Australia.

"It's where everybody would like to go," he says. "Everybody thinks they know Australia because they've seen Crocodile Dundee. There's this image of this nation of people who basically sit around having barbecues."

Rounding out the top five are third-ranked Barcelona, Spain, which Anholt calls "the classic Mediterranean city"; fourth-ranked Amsterdam, Netherlands, because Anholt's young respondents "know you can smoke dope in the bars"; and Melbourne, Australia, which makes the list simply because it's in Australia.

"People know it's in Australia, and that it's full of Australians," says Anholt. "Therefore, it must be fun."

Behind the Numbers

The data Anholt provided for our list is part of his Nation Brands Index, which he developed in 2005. The latest incarnation, the 2009 Anholt-GfK Roper City Brands Index, was released in June. The data was compiled from online interviews with 10,000 respondents in 20 countries.

Happiness is difficult to quantify, and Anholt acknowledges that his data is less an indicator of where local populations are happiest than a reflection of respondents' thinking about where they could imagine themselves happy.

"This is a survey of perception, not a survey of reality," he says. "People write me all the time and say 'that's not true.' It probably isn't true, but it's what people think. The gap between perception and reality is what interests city governments."

The French historian Fernand Braudel wrote that "Happiness, whether in business or private life, leaves very little trace in history." But a perception of happiness leaves a strong trace on the balance sheets of cities that depend on conventions, tourism and an influx of talent.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Anholt notes that the results of his survey reflect the longstanding reputation of Mediterranean and Latin American cities as non-stop party locales.

"It's pretty much the expected bunch," says Anholt. "Though I'm a little surprised about Spain outdoing Italy. It's interesting that the Spanish are perceived as being happier than the Italians--I find the Spanish rather gloomy."

Still, Barcelona--Spain's highest-ranked city--has plenty of supporters.

"The beauty of the city and its environs, along with affordable housing and business opportunities, is the fantastic lifestyle," says Michelle Finkelstein, a vice president at travel agency Our Personal Guest. "There's not the stress of getting a child into the best preschool--the public ones are good and close by. And they have the top soccer team and some of the best weather in Europe."

Other places in the world that lack the metropolitan flair of the cities on this list are often identified with the notion of happiness. "Anyone lucky enough to visit the magical Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan would know that there is no competition: There can be no happier place," says Patricia Schultz, author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. "This small Buddhist nation of incredibly stunning beauty follows a unique guiding philosophy of GNH--Gross National Happiness. You can see it in their open faces--they smile from the heart. Barcelona has nothing on them."

Global rivalries notwithstanding, Anholt notes that his findings more or less support historical trends, with one notable exception.

"The cities on this list would probably be the same if I'd been running this survey in 1890, aside from Sydney and Melbourne," he says. "Australia is kind of a branding miracle."

Not bad for a former penal colony.

Top 5 World's Happiest Cities
1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2. Sydney, Australia
3. Barcelona, Spain
4. Amsterdam, Netherlands
5. Melbourne, Australia

Nazi Josef Mengele 'created twin town in Brazil'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/4307262/Nazi-angel-of-death-Josef-Mengele-created-twin-town-in-Brazil.html

Nazi angel of death Josef Mengele 'created twin town in Brazil'
The Nazi doctor Josef Mengele is responsible for the astonishing number of twins in a small Brazilian town, an Argentine historian has claimed.
One in five pregnancies in the small Brazilian town have resulted in twins - most of them blond haired and blue eyed.
By Nick Evans in Buenos Aires
21 Jan 2009

The steely hearted "Angel of Death", whose mission was to create a master race fit for the Third Reich, was the resident medic at Auschwitz from May 1943 until his flight in the face of the Red Army advance in January 1945.

His task was to carry out experiments to discover by what method of genetic quirk twins were produced – and then to artificially increase the Aryan birthrate for his master, Adolf Hitler.

Now, a historian claims, Mengele's notorious experiments may have borne fruit.

For years scientists have failed to discover why as many as one in five pregnancies in a small Brazilian town have resulted in twins – most of them blond haired and blue eyed.

But residents of Candido Godoi now claim that Mengele made repeated visits there in the early 1960s, posing at first as a vet but then offering medical treatment to the women of the town.

Shuttling between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, he managed to evade justice before his death in 1979, but his dreams of a Nazi master race appeared unfulfilled.

In a new book, Mengele: the Angel of Death in South America, the Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa, a specialist in the post-war Nazi flight to South America, has painstakingly pieced together the Nazi doctor's mysterious later years.

After speaking to the townspeople of Candido Godoi, he is convinced that Mengele continued his genetic experiments with twins – with startling results.

He reveals how, after working with cattle farmers in Argentina to increase their stock, Mengele fled the country after fellow Nazi, Adolf Eichmann, was kidnapped by Israeli agents.

He claims that Mengele found refuge in the German enclave of Colonias Unidas, Paraguay, and from there, in 1963, began to make regular trips to another predominantly German community just over the border in Brazil – the farming community of Candido Godoi.

And, Mr Camaras claims, it was here that soon after the birthrate of twins began to spiral.

"I think Candido Godoi may have been Mengele's laboratory, where he finally managed to fulfil his dreams of creating a master race of blond haired, blue eyed Aryans," he said.

"There is testimony that he attended women, followed their pregnancies, treated them with new types of drugs and preparations, that he talked of artificial insemination in human beings, and that he continued working with animals, proclaiming that he was capable of getting cows to produce male twins."

The urbane German who arrived in Candido Godoi was remembered with fondness by many of the townspeople.

"He told us he was a vet," said Aloisi Finkler, a local farmer interviewed by Mr Camarasa. "He asked about illnesses we had among our animals, and told us not to worry, he could cure them. He appeared a cultured and dignified man."

Another farmer, Leonardo Boufler, said: "He went from farm to farm checking the animals. He checked them for TB, and injected those that were infected. He said he could carry out artificial insemination of cows and humans, which we thought impossible as in those days it was unheard of."

But the Nazi eugenicist did not concentrate on animals alone.

A former mayor and town doctor, Anencia Flores da Silva, set out to try to solve the town's mystery. He interviewed hundreds of people, and discovered one character who crept on cropping up: an itinerant medic calling himself Rudolph Weiss.

Dr da Silva said: "In the testimonies we collected we came across women who were treated by him, he appeared to be some sort of rural medic who went from house to house. He attended women who had varicose veins and gave them a potion which he carried in a bottle, or tablets which he brought with him. Sometimes he carried out dental work, and everyone remembers he used to take blood."

The people of Candido Godoi now largely accept that a Nazi war criminal was an inadvertent guest of theirs for several years in the early 1960s. The town's official crest shows two identical profiles and a road sign welcomes visitors to a "Farming Community and Land of the Twins". There is also a museum, the House of the Twins.

While the twins birthrate varies widely in different countries, it is typically about one in 80 pregnancies – a statistic that has left Mr Camarasa certain in his claim that Mengele was successfully pursuing his dreams of creating a master race, a real-life Boys from Brazil.

"Nobody knows for sure exactly what date Mengele arrived in Candido Godoi, but the first twins were born in 1963, the year in which we first hear reports of his presence," he said.

Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected

Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected
Travel Guidebook is an Insider’s Peek At Underground Sao Paulo, Brazil
Coming March 2009

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL/LOS ANGELES, CA — From hidden bars serving up $2.50 caipirinhas and tiny boutiques, to the best clubs and vintage markets, Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected (Unhinged Jaw Press) is a must-have travel resource for discerning creative types traveling to one of the world’s most up-and-coming cities. Written by Phuong-Cac Nguyen, an American journalist who has been reporting and breathing Sao Paulo’s pop culture/lifestyle beat for years, this beautifully designed 176-page paperback guidebook packs in places off the beaten track in 10 essential neighborhoods. Sprinkled among the candid, gorgeously shot photographs are also 11 easy-to-read, illustrated maps and 17 interviews with Sao Paulo VIPs who give the inside scoop on the metropolis’ best spots. Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected will be released in March 2009 through www.unhingedjawpress.com and independent bookstores worldwide. A supplemental online Sao Paulo city guide will be launched in December at www.totalSPguide.com with profiles on hotspots, provocative features and a regularly updated happenings calendar.

Authoritative and in the know, Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected leads travelers through a rigorously edited list of Sao Paulo’s locally adored restaurants, art spaces, boutiques, street fairs, bars, clubs and other can’t-miss sights, like the city’s Red Light District and its version of Little Tokyo.

Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected has a streetwise and clean magazine-style design (think Tokion, Wallpaper, Nylon, Mass Appeal) and is written in a smart, edgy tone that makes it a speedy reference unlike any other travel guidebook about Brazil or South America on the shelf today. Its small, handbook-like size (6.1” x 5.3”) is convenient for on-the-go reading and has a sewn spine for extra durability. Thanks to a team that includes talented, locally based photographers and illustrators, travelers will get a truly first-hand experience of Sao Paulo through their eyes.

THE SPECS:
· Title: Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected
· Publisher: Unhinged Jaw Press
· Release date: March 2009
· Cover: Paperback
· 176 full-color pages divided into the top bars, restaurants, shops, and sights in 10 must-see neighborhoods
· 11 easy-to-read colored maps
· 17 interviews with Sao Paulo VIPs who give the inside scoop on the city’s best spots
· Full-page features on the highlighted locations & experiences in each neighborhood
· Locally created by a team who lives in the city
· Size: 6.1” x 5.3”
· Available online at www.unhingedjawpress.com and independent bookstores worldwide; check site for locations
· Price: TBD (between $24.99 - $28.99)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phuong-Cac Nguyen writes about Sao Paulo for renowned trend-hunter blog websites CoolHunting.com and JoshSpear.com. She started her journalism career at the Los Angeles Times and served as one of the editors at URB magazine before expanding her writing work to include marketing projects for Nokia and surf/skate retailer Pacific Sunwear, as well as projects for a respected trend-forecasting agency in Sao Paulo. She has been published in the Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly, mcsweeneys.net, Anthem Magazine, and others. Nguyen has appeared on major Brazilian television network O Globo promoting her upcoming book and discussing her favorite hidden Sao Paulo haunts.
# # #
For more information, photos or to arrange interviews please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

Brazil finds fossil of "missing link" to crocodile

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=brazil-finds-fossil-of-mi

January 31, 2008
Brazil finds fossil of "missing link" to crocodile

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian paleontologists said on Thursday they had found the fossil of a new species of prehistoric predator that represented a "missing link" to modern-day crocodiles.

The well-preserved fossil of Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, a medium-sized lizard-like predator measuring about 5 1/2 feet (1.7 meters) from head to tail, dates back about 80 million years to the Late Cretaceous period.

"This is scientifically important because the specimen literally is the link between more primitive crocodiles that lived in the era of the dinosaurs 80-85 million years ago and modern species," said paleontologist Ismar de Souza Carvalho of Rio de Janeiro Federal University.

Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, an agile terrestrial predator of the Peirosauridae family, had different habits from today's crocodiles but it was similar in form and structure despite having longer limbs, scientists said.

The fossil was found near the town of Monte Alto in Sao Paulo state and is named after the place and the local scientist who dug up the fossil in 2004 -- Arruda Campos.

The new species is one of a number of important finds by paleontologists in Brazil and Argentina over the past few years.

(Reporting by Leonardo Teixeira and Andrei Khalip; Editing by David Storey)

Berezovsky wanted in Brazil

http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0%2C%2C2126355%2C00.html

Berezovsky wanted in Brazil for alleged money laundering
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro and Saeed Shah
Saturday July 14, 2007
The Guardian

The tussle between Britain and Russia over the London-based billionaire tycoon Boris Berezovsky took a new twist yesterday when the Brazilian authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.

Brazilian officials vowed to seek the extradition of Mr Berezovsky from the UK to face charges of money laundering. He is already wanted in Russia, accused of embezzlement.

The Brazilian move comes after the authorities there released the findings of a two-year investigation into a suspected money laundering racket involving the Brazilian football club Corinthians, which was effectively bought by a company linked to Mr Berezovsky in 2004. Brazilian prosecutors argue that Media Sports Investments (MSI), the subsidiary of an offshore company that formed a "partnership" with Corinthians in November 2004, is funded with the profits from organised crime in Russia.

In Brazil on Thursday, Judge Fausto Martin de Sanctis ordered the arrest of Mr Berezovsky and two other men, including the Iranian businessman Kia Joorabchian, who controls MSI in Brazil, which is accused of laundering Mr Berezovsky's money through the Corinthians team. Since none of the men was in Brazil, arrest warrants were forwarded to Interpol. The lawyer behind the federal investigation, Rodrigo de Grandis, told the Guardian that if the men tried to enter Brazil they would be arrested immediately. Officials from Brazil's public prosecutor admitted yesterday, however, they were not hopeful that Mr Berezovsky could be extradited.

Mr Berezovsky said the Brazilian court order was "an extension of the Kremlin's politicised campaign against me". The tycoon fell out with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and left the country in 2000. He has since been charged with embezzling millions of dollars from Russia's flagship airline, Aeroflot. This week, a trial in Russia started in the Aeroflot case, in Mr Berezovsky's absence.

The tycoon also faces potential prosecution in Russia over alleged calls for the government's overthrow, stemming from an interview he gave earlier this year to the Guardian. Britain, which granted him asylum in 2003, has repeatedly refused Russian requests for extradition.

Last year, Mr Berezovsky was detained and interrogated at Sao Paulo's international airport as he tried to embark for London. He was released without charge.