| A.
R. Kakhsaz Company
an accountancy corporation
Member
American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants
International associates:
Tavana & Co.
Chartered Accountants
Toronto, Canada
Tel.416-229-2221
|
• A widening
gap in quality of business regulations between rich and poor nations:
Businesses in poor countries face larger regulatory burdens than those in
rich countries. It takes a 153 days in Mozambique to start a
business, as compared with three in Canada. And it takes 21 steps to
register a commercial property in Nigeria, but only three in
Finland. Lowering the burden to encourage more businesses may have
hefty economic benefits. Colombia's improvements in its business
regulations resulted in creation of 350,000 jobs last year. Here's
the top ten economies ranked by ease of doing business:
| 1 |
New Zealand |
| 2 |
United States |
| 3 |
Singapore |
| 4 |
Hong Kong |
| 5 |
Australia |
| 6 |
Norway |
| 7 |
United Kingdom |
| 8 |
Canada |
| 9 |
Sweden |
| 10 |
Japan |
Countries that move into the top 25% tier could
experience two percentage points of added growth. While the U.S. is
not tops in many categories considered in this evaluation, its ranking is
said to be based on its solid business practices across the board.
• Wow: The Minnesota State Patrol pilot
couldn't believe his stopwatch when he clocked a motorcycle on U.S. 61
doing 205 mph.
• SBC landed a contract
to provide Internet phone service to 50,000 Ford employees.
Separately, Bank of America is deploying its 180,000 Internet phones
nationwide.
• Economies of the nations (Part
4)
|
Traditional economics:
|
| You have two cows. |
| You sell one and buy a
bull. |
| Your herd multiplies and
the economy grows. |
| You retire on the income. |
| German Economics: |
| You have two cows. |
| You reengineer them so
that they live for 100 years, eat once a month and milk themselves. |
• For more of the Generalist, please visit our website
at ARKCPA.COM.
|
•
theGeneralist, a one-page monthly
publication of the accounting firm of A. R. Kakhsaz Company,
is in its ninth year of providing information, presented fairly and
accurately, from sources we can depend upon and trust.
• The IRS Commissioner called the comedy and car-repair
radio show, "Car Talk," to warn about vehicle-deduction
scams to charities. The show is hosted by two brothers Tom and
Ray Magiozzi. the Commissioner said: "Don't give the car
to your brother and take a tax deduction." The show's
hosts cracked: "You can't do that anymore?"
• Online-advertising revenues hit a record $2.37 billion
in the second quarter '04, exceeding levels set during the dot-com
boom.
• With oil prices soaring more than 50% this year and
topping $50 a barrel, oil titans from Texas to Tehran are awash in
record revenue. But as the money floods in, they are spending
little extra in finding and extracting more petroleum. That's
because what's good for the world economy - i.e., ample spare
capacity, - carries big risks for Western oil majors and OPEC.
That is, they have been burned by past supply gluts. They are
fearful that prices would collapse again as they did in 1998.
This has led to one of the biggest potential disconnects between
supply and demand in the 150-year history of the oil business.
The top six U.S. and European oil majors are expected to rake in a
record $140 billion in cash flow this year alone. That's up
from $108 billion in 2003. But capital spending by the Big Six
will inch up only 8% to $68 billion from $63 billion a year ago and
this is largely due to higher costs, not the quantity or quality of
their new investments. Fewer than 2,500 rigs are drilling for
new oil and gas around the world. That's less than half the
peak number in 1981. And oil refining capacity has been stuck
at the same level for 25 years. World oil demand is estimated
to grow 50% by 2030.
• John Kerry, accused Bush of "stubborn
incompetence," dishonesty and "colossal failures in
judgment." Holy Cow, all of those together?!
- •We see more in numbers than just numbers…
Ali R. Kakhsaz, CPA, MAcc
www.arkpca.com
|
