酢を飲んでメタボ改善 内蔵脂肪を減らす効果判明 ミツカン中央研

酢を飲んでメタボ改善　内蔵脂肪を減らす効果判明　ミツカン中央研
2009.5.15 00:08

　酢を毎日大さじ１～２杯飲み続けると、内蔵脂肪や血中中性脂肪が減少することが、ミツカン中央研究所（愛知県半田市）が行った臨床試験で分かった。

　２１日に長崎市で開かれる日本栄養・食糧学会大会で発表する。主成分の酢酸が脂質の合成を抑制し、燃焼も促進するためという。同研究所は「メタボリックシンドロームの予防や改善に有効」としている。

　臨床試験は、２５～６０歳の男女１７５人を対象に実施。リンゴ酢の摂取を１日大さじ２杯分（３０ミリリットル）、１杯分（１５ミリリットル）、摂らない－の３グループに分け、１２週間内の経過を観察、内臓脂肪や血中中性脂肪を比較した。その結果、大さじ２杯のグループでは、内臓脂肪が平均で４.９５％減少。血中中性脂肪は２３.２１％減と、特に大きな効果があった。体重（２.６４％減）や皮下脂肪（２.７９％減）、腹囲（２.０２％減）の数値でも肥満改善の効果が示された。大さじ１杯のグループでも一定の効果があったが、摂取しなかったグループは変化がなかった。

　同研究所によると、酢酸には血圧や血中コレステロール値を下げる効果もある。「メタボリックシンドロームの改善には非常に有効だが、摂取をやめると脂肪は元の水準に戻ってしまうので、継続的に摂取してほしい」としている。

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中国が“米国債離れ”か…オバマ大統領、財政再建訴える

　【ワシントン＝矢田俊彦】オバマ米大統領は１４日のニューメキシコ州での演説で、中国が米国債の購入を控える可能性があるとの見方を示し、財政再建の必要性を訴えた。

　オバマ大統領は、「中国などはいつか米国債の購入に飽きてくる。（諸外国が）購入を控えた場合、資金借り入れのための金利を引き上げなくてはならず、米経済に悪影響を与える」と述べた。そのうえで、「我々は、財政赤字の問題に取り組まなくてはならない」と強調した。

　米財政赤字は、２００９年度に１兆８４１０億ドル（約１７６兆円）に膨らむ見通し。米政府は１３年度には５０００億ドル程度までに削減する目標を示している。

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新銀行東京：住民の監査請求を却下　「損害の事実ない」と

　新銀行東京（東京都新宿区）が経営難に陥った問題を巡り、都監査委員が１３日付で、石原慎太郎都知事と旧経営陣に対して都の出資金１２５５億円を返還するよう求めた住民監査請求を却下していたことが分かった。却下理由は「都に損害が生じた事実がない」としているが、監査請求したＮＰＯ法人「情報公開クリアリングハウス」（同区）のメンバーら市民グループは不服として住民訴訟を起こすことを決めた。

　住民訴訟では都を相手取り、損害賠償を知事らに請求するよう求めることを検討している。市民グループは「石原知事は新銀行のマスタープランの作成を主導し、旧経営陣を任命した責任がある」と主張している。

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Fujitsu arm shuts final salary scheme

By Norma Cohen

Published: May 15 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 15 2009 03:00

Fujitsu Services, the UK arm of the Japanese technology company, is to be the first large employer in nearly two years to close its defined benefit pension scheme to existing workers, a trend that pensions experts say is likely to accelerate as the recession drags on.

While more than 70 per cent of final salary pension schemes have been closed to new workers during the past decade, limiting the benefits of long-term employees has been much more controversial and one that employers have been reluctant to take. So far, only a handful of large employers, including Rentokil Initial, Debenhams and WH Smith have done so.

Alex Waite, partner at actuary firm Lane Clark & Peacock and head of the division that advises employers on their schemes, said it was a trend likely to pick up steam in the months ahead.

LCP, which is running seminars entitled "Defined Benefit Accrual: Time to Call it a Day?", has had more than 100 attendees at recent sessions. "It has been so popular, we have had to re-run it," he said of the seminar.

"Every company I have advised has considered this question. Some have decided against it." He added that for some employers whose workers really valued defined benefit pensions, keeping the scheme open was a more attractive option.

Peter Skyte, national officer at Unite, the labour union, said: "Fujitsu Services is a highly profitable company and made £177m profit in the last financial year," adding that the union would fight the move. It comes as BT announced a steep rise in the deficit in its final salary pension scheme and said additional contributions to close the gap would have to be raised sharply to £525m in each of the next three years. The collapse in stock markets, falling bond yields and the longer lives of retirees have taken a toll on the cost of providing defined benefit pensions.

Because Fujitsu's scheme was closed to new workers in 2000, only 4,000 of its 14,500 workers in the UK and Ireland are still earning final salary pension benefits.

The company confirmed the move, but said: "It is a regrettable but prudent decision on our part," adding that the scheme was currently running a deficit of about £1bn. "We are not the first to do this and I don't suppose we will be the last."

Fujitsu will consult with staff for the next 90 days, longer than required by law. The company plans to offer affected workers membership of the company's defined contribution scheme.

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Temasek sells entire stake in BofA

SINGAPORE, May 15 – Temasek, the Singapore state investment company, sold its entire stake in Bank of America during the first quarter of this year, suffering an estimated $3bn loss in the process, as the state investor refocuses on emerging markets.

Temasek had invested in Merrill Lynch and other global banks during the early phase of the global credit crisis but, like most sovereign wealth funds, was burnt by losses from the deepening financial crisis.

But the US-centric Bank of America may not have been the first choice of investment for Temasek, given that the state investor focuses on global companies that aim to grow in Asia, sources familiar with Temasek’s thinking told Reuters.

Temasek ended up with the Bank of America stake when the US bank bought Merrill in January.

The state investment firm has also recently become more aggressive in the Asian market and is eyeing investments in Latin America and Russia.

The cash from the Bank of America stake sale partly allowed Temasek to subscribe to rights issues of Asia-focused Standard Chartered, Singapore’s DBS and Indonesia’s Bank Danamon.

This week it bought more shares of China Construction Bank from Bank of America.

”It seems they feel the China growth story is better than the ’green shoots’ of recovery in the US,” said Song Seng Wun, chief executive of CIMB Research in Singapore.

He said Temasek probably sold its BofA holdings to cap its exposure to financial stocks, which at the end of March 2008 was 40 percent of its portfolio.

Temasek chief executive Ho Ching, who will be replaced by former BHP Billiton chief executive Chip Goodyear in October, said this week that the investment firm had debated whether to raise its long term Asia exposure, and add new exposures to other geographies. Asia and Singapore account for 70 per cent of its portfolio.

Temasek’s portfolio fell 31 per cent between March 2008 and November last year to S$127 billion (US$87bn).

The global financial crisis has sent Temasek’s portfolio value back three years to the level seen in March 2006, said Ms Ho in the speech posted on Temasek’s website on Thursday.

The Bank of America stake sale was confirmed by a Temasek spokeswoman on Friday.

Temasek held 188.8m Bank of America shares. The state investment firm said in early January it had converted its 13.7 per cent stake in Merrill Lynch nto BofA stock.

At that time, its stake in Bank of America was worth around $2.6bn, or $13.7 a share.

The shares were sold for between $2.53 and $14.81 during the first quarter of this year.

Assuming an average price of $8.67 between the low and high prices in the quarter, Temasek may have suffered a loss of more than $1bn, according to Reuters’ calculations. Temasek declined to provide the average selling price of its BofA shares.

The loss on Bank of America shares adds to the $2bn paper loss it took when it converted Merrill shares into 189m BofA shares based on the announced conversion ratio of 0.8595 BofA share for each Merrill share.

Temasek’s latest filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission for the quarter ended March, filed late on Thursday, did not show any BofA shares.

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Brazilian mills' credit crunch fuels sugar prices

By Javier Blas in London and Jonathan Wheatley in São,Paulo

Published: May 15 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 15 2009 03:00

The rally in raw sugar prices has been exacerbated by diminished forward selling from Brazil, the world's largest exporter, as some producers there have seen their credit lines for trading severely restricted, traders and local executives said.

Prices of raw sugar in New York rallied this week to a 3-year high of 16.03 cents per pound, up about 35 per cent so far this year, boosted by a crop failure in India, the world's largest consumer. ICE July sugar was yesterday flat at 15.40 cents.

Traders said that in normal circumstances, Brazilian companies forward selling - or hedging - should have capped the rally triggered by India's hefty imports and speculative buying. However, hedging was weak as many producers from Brazil lacked credit lines to finance their margins.

Participants in the futures markets have to post an initial deposit, or margin, for each trade. In addition, if the market moves against their position, they will receive a margin call - a request to put up more collateral.

"Relative to historic levels, we are seeing a massive restriction on the selling side of the sugar market," said Toby Cohen, at London-based sugar merchant Czarnikow, echoing a view widely held by other participants in the sugar market. "When mills need all available capital to keep the business running, hedging becomes a luxury."

Sugar dealers said the problem was not widespread, however. Larger Brazilian groups, such as Cosan SA Industria & Comercio, were operating almost normally, but added that other smaller mills and local trading houses were struggling.

Manoel Fernando Garcia, president of S/A Fluxo, one of the biggest sugar traders in Brazil, said credit lines used to finance futures contracts had been cut drastically compared with the level of the last two years. "I can't say if it's 60 per cent or 80 per cent, but it's considerably more than 50 per cent," he told the Financial Times.

Mr Garcia said Brazilian sugar producers were "extremely anxious" to take advantage of today's high prices to hedge sugar contracts for delivery in October 2009 and March 2010, but their ability to do so had been severely curtailed.

"To fix contracts for October or March delivery, I would have to have credit lines to cover margin calls as prices go on rising," he said. "But the banks are being extremely cautious and we just don't have the lines," Mr Garcia added.

Brazil's capital-intensive sugar industry, which leveraged its expansion on cheap debt, has suffered under the weight of the current credit crunch and low prices for most of 2007 and early last year. Five sugar companies with about 1m tonnes of production - about four per cent of the country's exports - have applied for "judicial recuperation", the Brazilian form of US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Jonathan Kingsman, of Lausanne-based Kingsman SA sugar consultancy, said that credit both to trade and to expand was no longer available to the Brazilian sugar mills as it was when the industry was growing rapidly in the early 2000s.

In spite of all its problems, Brazil is set for a record sugar crop this season of 36.4-37.9m tonnes, up from last season's 31.6m tonnes, official figures show.

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Kazakhs approve pipeline to Russia

By Isabel Gorst

Published: May 14 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 14 2009 03:00

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, has signed a law approving the construction of an additional gas pipeline to Russia that will bolster Gazprom's control over central Asian gas exports.

The 1,600km pipeline will carry 20bn cubic metres of gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan north to Russia.

The European Union has urged the two countries to join the planned Nabucco pipeline project to bring gas to the west without crossing Russia, but the countries have refused to commit to it.

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BG and CNOOC sign landmark LNG deal

By Ed Crooks in London

Published: May 13 2009 17:55 | Last updated: May 13 2009 17:55

BG , the British gas and oil group, has signed a deal with China National Offshore Oil Corporation to sell liquefied natural gas from BG’s planned plant in Australia, opening up a new supply route to Asia.

CNOOC has agreed to buy 3.6m tonnes of LNG a year for 20 years and is taking small stakes in BG’s LNG plant and some of its gas fields. The supply represents about 5.3bn cubic metres of gas a year – about 8 per cent of China’s present demand.

The deal is China’s first commitment to gas imports from eastern Australia’s huge reserves of coal bed methane – natural gas produced from coal deposits.

Queensland’s coal bed methane resources have been one of the world’s most active areas for new gas projects over the past year. The CNOOC deal puts BG in the lead in the race to develop those reserves for LNG – gas supercooled to -160°C so it can be shipped in tankers.

BG has made two acquisitions in Australia – the Queensland Gas Company and Pure Energy – to provide the resources to supply its proposed LNG plant on the east coast, which it wants to have on stream in 2014.

Other international groups have similar plans, including a consortium of Santos of Australia and Petronas of Malaysia, and another of Origin Energy of Australia and ConocoPhillips of the US.

Royal Dutch Shell, with its Australian partner Arrow Energy, has also taken an interest but Shell has played down the prospect of a rapid development there.

Converting coal bed methane to LNG uses well-established technology, but has never been proved as a commercial proposition.

The CNOOC deal, signed by the companies’ chief executives in Beijing on Tuesday, gives BG the confidence to go ahead with its proposed plant, knowing that almost half its planned output of 7.4m tonnes of LNG a year has already been sold.

BG has also signed long-term supply deals for LNG with Singapore and Chile that could also be served from Australia.

Frank Harris of Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy, said: “A year ago, if you had the gas, you could be confident that someone would buy it but that has changed. Now it is a buyer’s market and sellers need to get on and secure the market before it disappears.”

He added it was possible that a lack of customers could force the Santos/Petronas and Origin/Conoco projects to combine.

The details of the agreement between BG and CNOOC have yet to be finalised. Neither side gave any indication of the price at which the gas would be sold.

The two companies will also set up a consortium to own two LNG tankers to ship the LNG to China.

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05-14-2009 17:29
Korea Stays 14th in GDP Table

By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter

Korea remains the 14th-biggest economy in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), according to a new report.

In the World Development Indicators 2009, the country's GDP stood at $969.8 billion as of 2007, the 14th largest among 188 countries, making up 1.78 percent of globally aggregated GDP.

The country's per capita gross national income (GNI) stood at $19,730.

Korea rose to become the world's 11th-largest economy in 2002 and 2003, but slid to 14th in 2006 and stayed there the following year.

``While Korea recorded stable economic growth and inflation during the period, Brazil, Russia and India posted high economic growth rates and inflation,'' the central bank said.

The United States was the biggest economy in the world with a $13.8-trillion GDP, 14 times bigger than Korea. However, its stake of the pie is getting smaller. The country took up around 40 percent of the global economy in 1960, but the portion shrank to around one quarter in 2007.

Japan was the second largest economy with $4.4 trillion, 4.5 times larger than Korea, followed by Germany, China and the United Kingdom. Japan had 15 percent in 2000, but the ratio now stands at 8 percent. China was the world's sixth-largest economy in 2000, but its high economic growth rate pushed it up in terms of portion, now taking 6 percent of the total.

Korea saw its real GDP grow by 5 percent in 2007, higher than the global average of 3.8-percent growth. China marked the biggest growth at 13 percent, followed by India at 9.1 percent and Argentina, Venezuela and Russia all at an over 8-percent growth rate.

Korea GNI of $19,730 saw it ranked at 48th among the 209 countries. But the figure is much lower than other developed economies in Asia such as Singapore, which has a $32,340-per-capita GNI, and Hong Kong with $31,560.

The richest people in the world in terms of per capita GNI were the people of Liechtenstein, who had $99,159. The second was Bermuda with $84,159, with Norway next at $77,370.

The United States ranked 16th with $46,040, and Japan stood at 26th with $37,790.

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Labuan to adopt new rules to become tighter tax haven

KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — New legislation to be tabled by the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority (Lofsa) governing all facets of business done in Malaysia’s tiny tax haven east of Sabah will essentially focus on tightening up business practices so that Malaysia will never again be targeted by entities such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In April, the OECD singled out three countries, including Malaysia, as “uncooperative tax havens”. All three countries were taken off the list after they promised to abide by OECD rules.

“They don’t want that to ever happen again because it can hurt your business,” a banker told BT. “But it’s also housekeeping. They want everyone to do what they say they are going to do and not try everything under the sun.”

Two days ago, Lofsa chairman Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said the new legal framework will enhance the provision of a wider range of financial products and services. “It will involve both conventional and Islamic financial products, without impinging on the status of Labuan as a well regulated centre, with strong corporate governance and high international standards,” she told reporters.

Zeti, who is also Bank Negara’s governor, said the objective is to create a more facilitative framework for a conducive business environment.

Already, the Labuan model is being liberalised in ways that had been sought by investors since the tax haven was set up in the early 1990s.

Beginning in June, holding companies in Labuan will be allowed to have a physical presence in Kuala Lumpur. Similarly, Zeti said that Labuan banking institutions and insurance companies that meet “pre-determined” criteria will also be allowed to have a physical presence in Kuala Lumpur from 2010 and 2011, respectively.

The move by the Labuan authority to tighten up business practices illustrates the rush for private capital by international tax havens in the wake of the global financial crisis and the resulting critical appraisal of tax havens by Western governments, fearful that it could be used by its citizens anxious to dodge taxes.

Bankers told BT that Labuan’s secrecy rules could also be made more flexible in line with global practices, that are now beginning to frown on too much secrecy. Thus, it was likely that the tax haven’s tax, trust and finance rules could be amended.

The bankers also said that the laws on Islamic finance could be made clearer in light of the increasing legal problems worldwide of defaults of Islamic debt going to court and the ensuing clash between the conventional law and Syariah.

It isn’t clear, however, how exactly this will be addressed although the government has allowed three international legal firms specialising in Islamic finance to be set up in Kuala Lumpur beginning next year. — Business Times Singapore

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Some U.S. States Booming in Tax Crimes… But They’re Scarce Abroad

The Punch line of this whole “war on tax havens” joke is that they’re not really waging war on offshore tax havens, per se…

“Simply put,” Bob Bauman explains, “a "tax haven" is a jurisdiction where taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all. In that sense, the State of Florida, where I live, levies no income tax…so it is a tax haven.”

Further driving the point home, a recent report in The Economist confirmed that the majority of tax crimes happened within the continental US, and not offshore.

But you have to look into the benefits of offshore banking to see the real truth of the matter…

“Tax havens – as they’re commonly called – actually benefit individuals and businesses worldwide because they create tax competition among governments – and that means choices and cost savings.”

Do you see that?

Squint your eyes…you’ll have to look all the way back. And at the very back of this argument you’ll find something you won’t find anywhere else…namely; a way to keep government costs in check.

Say it again, out loud…a way to keep government costs in check.

In other words, something you won’t find almost anywhere else.

And in an age where the federal government owes (careful not to say “we owe…” as you might begin to think of it as such) US$11,270,444,948,526.10 as of this writing, that’s a serious commodity.

This is the same federal government that’s pledged over US$14 trillion in emergency spending over the last year. The same government that has an empty Social Security reserve and trillions in obligations, while stacking another national healthcare plan on top of it.

Dare I say there might be a trend developing here?

And up until now, there’s not a soul on this Earth who could explain how they planned to pay for it.

But then came a campaign of outrageous slander…where Senators and agencies speculated that some US$6 trillion was smuggled offshore, leading to US$100 Billion in lost tax income.

And then we saw more of Obama’s plan last week, when he pledged to ramp up corporate taxes and close the avenues for legal tax avoidance. Take a look at Dan Mitchell’s video for a more detailed explanation.

...And then the plan starts to come together.

This isn’t a war against insidious international bankers or offshore havens…it’s a war against tax competition and the very real the benefits of offshore banking. A war to wrestle imaginary tax losses back from a flailing economy…at the worst possible time.

But just to make sure we’re getting the story right, let’s crack open a few of these “tax havens” and see what’s really making them tick…
In Search of Offshore Tax Havens…

During our Total Wealth Symposium a few weeks ago, Mark Nestmann hit on a crucial point…

He insisted that they weren’t really waging war on tax havens…as Bob pointed out above. Instead, these are international financial centers…the banks of the world…many of which come complete with the kind of intense scrutiny, regulation and management you’d expect at that level.

Rainelda Mata-Kelly, a Panamanian attorney on our Council of Experts, confirms that viewpoint in regards to Panama, one of the world’s most accessible financial centers… “The argument that Panama is not a tax haven is based on the fact that we do not discriminate between nationals and foreign residents. We tax everyone the same. Our territorial tax system, which was reluctantly recognized by the OECD as a valid tax system, only taxes income produced in the country and this applies to everyone, whether they are Panamanians or foreign residents doing business in Panama."

Like Panama, many of these offshore havens have faced years of scrutiny from G-20 nations and the OECD…and as a result they’ve become much more accessible and feasible to the general public.

The continued attacks against offshore are actually having effect opposite the one intended. Instead of scaring more intelligent Americans into keeping their money at home, the continued assaults are simply making offshore banks more attractive to average individuals like you and me.

You can still find the same, private Swiss banks who’ve serviced a small host of clients for hundreds of years. You can still find extremely tax-efficient alternatives for your business or personal assets…

But these days, there are a host of other options.

Like systems for second passports, investment visas, structures to protect yourself from frivolous lawsuits, Estate protection, offshore structures to use in place of pre-nuptial agreements…or simply peace of mind from having your wealth diversified across countries and continents.

You never can be too careful. And given the trend we’re seeing in government, it might be an opportune time, regardless of what you see on television.

Yours in Personal Sovereignty,
MATTHEW COLLINS, A-Letter Editor

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遺伝子組み換えしない大豆、三井物産がブラジルで大量生産

　総合商社大手の三井物産が、遺伝子を組み換えていない大豆を出資先のブラジルの農場で大量生産し、今夏にも日本への出荷を始めることが１１日、明らかになった。

　米国などで栽培面積が減り、入手が難しくなっている非遺伝子組み換え大豆を安定的に確保することが狙いだ。大手商社が「自前」の農場で大豆の大量生産に乗り出すのは珍しいという。

　三井物産が３９・３５％出資する穀物会社「マルチグレイン」（本社・スイス）のブラジル北東部にある農場で生産する。初年度の日本向け出荷量は数万トンとする。一つの農場の大豆出荷量としては、世界最大規模になるという。

　日本は大豆の約８割を米国から輸入しているが、米国では大豆栽培地の９割以上で、コストが安い遺伝子組み換え大豆用の生産に切り替えられている。手間がかかる非遺伝子組み換え大豆は価格が高騰しやすくなっており、三井物産は自前の生産が必要と判断した。

　今後は、高い付加価値を持つ農産物として日本以外にも売り込むなどして、栽培面積を広げていく考えだ。