Gulf Times Newspaper - Qatar, Gulf and World News - Finance & Business

Gulf Times Newspaper - Qatar, Gulf and World News - Finance & Business

From the article:

Oil and utility companies such as ExxonMobil Corp and Southern Co spent $367mn over the last two years pushing the US Congress to pass energy legislation. For many, the money was a good investment: lawmakers are poised to pass a measure providing about $11.6bn in taxpayer subsidies.

Booze, babes & a dwarf

Booze, babes & a dwarf

From the article:

A plush bachelor party for disgraced tycoon Dennis Kozlowski's son-in-law included booze, scantily clad women on a yacht and even a dwarf for hire - and Wall Street companies apparently paid for all the hijinks.

Private jets whisked a crew of money men down to Miami from Boston and New York for the no-expense-spared weekend shindig for Thomas Bruderman, then a hotshot trader at Fidelity and the future hubby of Sandra Kozlowski.

Corporations overcharge you for the products you buy, and then use the money for this.

The incredible cost of health care

The concentration of wealth has a huge effect on health care costs:

The wrong Rx

From the article:

The United States spent $5,267 per person on health care in 2002. That's more than double, per capita, what 29 other industrialized nations spent. The total amounts to 14.6 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. The United Kingdom, by comparison, spent 7.7 percent.

The costs are surging like an uncontrolled fever, and what the researchers found is that politicians are devoting an extraordinary amount of time to changes that have little appreciable impact.

See, for example: Drugs and the concentration of wealth.

Enron Board in Houston Gets Hefty Pay Raise

Enron Board in Houston Gets Hefty Pay Raise

From the article:

The five-member Enron board has approved raises for themselves that will up their pay by as much as one million dollars.

The Houston-based company revealed the move in a filing with the New York bankruptcy court that oversaw its reorganization last year. According to the filing, the Enron board said it voted to increase its compensation retroactively to the beginning of June.

It raises the annual salary of Enron Chairman John Ray the third from 200-thousand dollars to one-point-two million dollars.

Hotels 'cash in' on bomb attacks

The concentration of wealth at it worst:

Hotels 'cash in' on bomb attacks

From the article:

Hundreds of commuters spent Thursday night stranded in London and some have accused hoteliers of cashing in on the bomb attacks.
Prices at a number of London's hotels increased by more than double on Thursday night, the BBC has learned.

Lastminute.com said price rises for hotels featured on its site had been set by hotels themselves.