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| Articles about Offsets |
| For HSBC, Asia Offsets Bad U.S. Loans | | 2008-05-12 12:00:34 | | LONDON — HSBC Holdings, Europe’s biggest bank, said on Monday that a recession in the United States was “increasingly likely” because the housing market would continue to deteriorate into next year. The London-based bank put aside $3.2 billion for bad loans in the United States in the first quarter, in line with its expectations, and said that the consumer finance business in America “remains challenging” because the “trend of rising delinquency ratios will continue.” HSBC reported higher profit in the first quarter from the same period a year ago as its Asian business more than offset declining earnings in the United States.“Emerging markets have held up for them but inflation is a risk, putting pressure on margins, and the thing we’re paying most attention to is them not calling an end to the U.S. situation,” an analyst at Panmure Gordon in London, Sandy Chen, said.Turmoil in the American subprime mortgage market has erased more than $320 billion in profit | | By: Clickbank Business Guide | | |
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| IBM Services Growth Offsets Weakness in Hardware Unit | | 2008-01-17 19:52:26 | | International Business Machines Corp., which disclosed stronger-than-expected preliminary fourth-quarter results earlier this week, said net income for the period surged 12% despite a slowing U.S. economy. It also gave a 2008 earnings forecast that was above Wall Street’s expectations.
IBM, regarded as a barometer of capital spending, reported net income of $3.95 billion, or $2.80 a [...] | | By: Business News | | |
| | Who Cares about Carbon Offsets? | | 2008-01-16 15:54:00 | | Apparently, a lot of companies. According to a recent article in the New York Times, individuals and corporations have spent over $54 million dollars last year on carbon offsets, which are credits towards tree planting, wind farm projects, solar plants, and other eco projects. This figure is likely to double next year, with the rising awareness and popularity of the "green" cause. Major corporations like GE, Bank of America, VW, and Dell offer offsets with the purchase of their products. With the growing popularity, skeptics are beginning to ask questions. Who are these little known carbon offset companies? Is the money going to good use? Is this really offsetting carbon in the atmosphere? How is that measured? The FTC, which regulates advertising claims, recently began hearings on the "green markets", including offsets.Companies like Terrapass.com and Carbonfund.org have been the benefactors of this new trend. You can visit their websites yourself and make your own determination. But one corporate sponsor takes it a step further. Gaiam Living, the eco retailer's management insists on visiting the actual site before donating a percentage of their profits. They want to see first hand how their dollars are put to work, and that it's completely legitimate.Not a bad idea.Unless you have the time and money to actually visit these companies, you might try other options. Plant your own trees instead. Invest your money directly into a green mutual fund or solar company's stock. Trade in your SUV for a hybrid model or Prius. Or simply sell your house and live in a turkey coop with no electric or running water like Burt's Bee's multi-millionaire co-founder, Burt. Uh, maybe not. | | By: I Dream of Greenie | | |
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| House Passes AMT Patch with No Offsets | | 2007-12-19 00:00:00 | | The House of Representatives has passed a patch for 2007 tax law to prevent about 20 million new tax returns from being hit with the Alternative Minimum Tax. The bill now awaits President Bush's signature. The bill passed 352-64. (All those opposing were Democrats.) Here is the roll call vote record.Following Bush's signature, the AMT exemption amounts for 2007 are as follows: Married Filing Jointly: $66,250Single: $44,350Married Filing Separately: $33,125Based on current law (prior to president's signature), the AMT exemption amounts are as follows (1993 tax law same as 2007 current law):Married Filing Jointly: $45,000Single: $33,750Married Filing Separately: $22,500In 2006 (last year), the AMT exemption amounts were as follows:Married Filing Jointly: $62,550Single: $42,500Married Filing Separately: $31,275 | | By: Tax Policy Blog | | |
| | Senate Approves AMT Patch with No Revenue Offsets | | 2007-12-06 00:00:00 | | News from Thursday night on Capitol Hill regarding AMT, courtesy of Bloomberg:The Senate agreed to spare 23 million American households from the alternative minimum tax this year after Republicans forced Democrats to drop plans to balance the cuts with higher taxes on managers of hedge funds and buyout firms. The Senate voted 88-5 to approve a one-year, stop-gap measure that temporarily indexes the minimum tax for inflation and adds $51 billion to the deficit. The vote sends the issue back to the House of Representatives, which last month approved higher taxes on executives of hedge funds, buyout firms, real estate, and other partnerships to offset the revenue lost from the minimum tax relief. Senate Democrats today complained that Republicans refused to balance the revenue losses by increasing taxes elsewhere, adding to the federal deficit. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said House Democrats must agree to the ``commonsense solution'' or ``explain to taxpayers why they | | By: Tax Policy Blog | | |
| | Fart Offsets | | 2007-11-26 16:27:09 | | Written in correlation with Thoughts on Global Warming, Thoughts on the World, and The Statistics Monster.Humanity is facing quite a serious epidemic: farts. Humanity’s gaseous eating habits are causing methane and CO2 to be released into the atmosphere. Your buttocks are like factories wearing pants.The average human farts 12-18 times a day. That means, every day, the average human produces 45 milliliters of CO2 and 35 milliliters of methane. Methane, by the way, is 25 times as potent of a greenhouse gas as CO2.That is a lot of gas. Therefore, my friends, I have come up with a solution to our flatulence-epidemic.Every time one farts, one must turn off one lightbulb for thirty seconds to offset the greenhouse gases produced by one’s anus.Simple as that. We don’t even need oversight or regulation. Just keep track for yourself, like the guy in the picture.
| | By: Thoughts on the World | | |
| | Liberals Learn that Carbon Offsets are a Swindle, Proceed to Eat their Own | | 2007-09-02 18:16:23 | | Liberals are finally catching on to the simple fact that Carbon offsets are a swindle. It is impossible to pollute 10 to 100 times the amount of the average American and then pay some company to counterbalance the effect by reducing emissions somewhere else in the world. Now we can all sit back as these environmentalist lunatics eat their own; it is going to be wonderful entertainment.While I do not agree with the premise that humans are contributing to any discernable planetary temperature change, liberal hypocrisy is an issue that must be confronted. When John Edwards tells a middle-class audience to give up their SUVs, while maintaining his own, his stupidity must be attacked. When Arianna Huffington creates a commercial telling Americans they are killing us every time they fill their tanks at the gas station to get to work, and yet she refuses to stop flying a private jet, we must call her on her arrogance. When Al Gore creates a propaganda movie pressuring us how urgent the c | | By: Copious Dissent - Your Daily Dose of Liberty | | |
| | Carbon Offsets to Play Role in My Trip Around the World | | 2007-05-09 01:24:03 | | I’m excited to share my decision to make carbon offsets a part of my backpacking trip around the world. As it becomes increasingly evident the US government is far from taking the aggressive measures it’s citizenry would support, I am inspired by the actions of individuals (such as Richard Branson), cities, states (California), and countries (France) to change the carbon equation. In February, after watching An Inconvenient Truth, I began to recycle again. In April, for Earth Day, I bought compact fluorescent lamps.
I am looking forward to developing a strategy to account for my carbon footprint during my trip. For the moment, I’m entertaining the idea of dedicating 50% of any advertising income from this site to offsetting the carbon emissions of the planes, trains and automobiles I will use. For example, one UK company estimated the cost of an offset for an airplane ride from Washington, DC to Auckland, New Zealand at $32. Given this first flight will likely b | | By: GoBackpacking | | |
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