Byline: By armand limnande section: Section mm; Column 0; T: Men's Fashion Magazine; Pg. 76 Length
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URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: FILM (90%); MOVIE REVIEWS (89%); MOVIE INDUSTRY (78%); CONTENT RATINGS (78%); DRAMA LITERATURE (78%); HOSTAGE TAKING (75%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (73%); VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (73%); CLERGY & RELIGIOUS (70%); THEATER (58%); FILM DIRECTORS (89%); MOVIE RATINGS (78%); MOVIE RELEASE DATES (78%) TITLE: First Sunday (Movie)>; First Sunday (Movie)> LOAD-DATE: January 11, 2008 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Ice Cube, left, and Tracy Morgan, right, as petty criminals with Katt Williams, back, as a loopy choirmaster in ''First Sunday.'' (PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY RIVETTI JR./SCREEN GEMS) DOCUMENT-TYPE: Review PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1200 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Giant Write-Down Is Seen for Merrill BYLINE: By JULIA WERDIGIER and JENNY ANDERSON SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1 LENGTH: 906 words Merrill Lynch is expected to suffer $15 billion in losses stemming from soured mortgage investments, almost double its original estimate, prompting the firm to raise additional capital from an outside investor. Merrill, the nation's largest brokerage firm, is expected to disclose the huge write-down when it reports earnings next week, according to people who have been briefed on its plans. The loss far exceeds the $12 billion hit many Wall Street analysts had forecast. To shore up its deteriorating finances, Merrill is now in discussions with investors in the United States, Asia and the Middle East, including American private equity firms, to raise about $4 billion in the coming days, these people said. The developments underscore the rising toll that the mortgage crisis is taking on many once-proud Wall Street banks. In recent months Merrill and several other firms have grabbed financial lifelines from wealthy foreign governments. Further investments by so-called sovereign wealth funds could prompt scrutiny by Congress. The latest moves at Merrill come as John A. Thain, who became the company's chairman and chief executive in December, struggles to bolster the firm's capital, burnish its reputation and avoid the toxic internal battles that have hurt the firm in the past. Mr. Thain, who won plaudits as head of the New York Stock Exchange, has wasted little time. After he took over last month, Merrill Lynch promptly sold a $5.6 billion stake to Temasek Holdings, which is controlled by the government of Singapore, and Davis Selected Advisers, a money management firm based in Tucson. During a meeting in December in London, Mr. Thain told anxious employees that Merrill expected further losses after an $8.4 billion write-down in the third quarter. He also said the firm would require additional capital. He said the fourth quarter would be a ''very bad quarter,'' those attending recalled. Mr. Thain has made clear that Merrill would not sell its 49 percent stake in BlackRock, the global money management firm. But he has said that Merrill is considering selling noncore assets like its stake in Bloomberg, the financial news and information company founded by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York. In a research report, Brad Hintz, a securities analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said that stake was worth about $4 billion. Mr. Thain also said at the London meeting that Merrill's management style needed to change. Recalling his days as a co-president of Goldman Sachs, Mr. Thain said that he wanted employees to build consensus. Among other things, that means Merrill will now pay fewer bonuses based on individual performance and instead focus on the performance of a team. Many employees received bonuses this week that included a greater portion of stock than in the past. Merrill is hardly alone in seeking capital from overseas. United States financial institutions have raised more than $29 billion from foreign governments and their related investment entities, according to the market research firm Dealogic. In recent months, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Singapore's lesser-known government fund, invested $9.7 billion in UBS; Citigroup sold a $7.5 billion stake to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority; and the China Investment Corporation poured $5 billion into Morgan Stanley. If a foreign government takes another big stake in Merrill, Congress might ratchet up its scrutiny of sovereign wealth funds, which have ballooned thanks to rising oil prices and booming emerging markets. On Thursday, SenatorCharles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, expressed concern about the amount of money American financial institutions are contemplating raising from sovereign wealth funds. ''Foreign investment, in general, strengthens our economy and creates jobs,'' Senator Schumer said. ''Because sovereign wealth funds, by definition, are potentially susceptible to noneconomic interests, the closer they come to exercising control and influence, the greater concerns we have.'' So far, none of the foreign investors that have bought into United States banks have sought management roles. ''All have been very consciously structured to be passive,'' said H. Rodgin Cohen, chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell, who has worked on a number of these deals. ''None have asked for directors.'' In addition to seeking funds from outside investors, which heavily dilutes the stakes of existing shareholders, Merrill Lynch has sought alternative ways to raise capital. In December, it agreed to sell most of its commercial finance business, Merrill Lynch Capital, to General Electric, raising about $1.3 billion in equity. Mr. Hintz, the securities analyst, suggested another option would be to reduce the firm's fixed-income business by a third, which would add about $3 billion in capital. He estimates that Merrill will write down its $27 billion of combined collateralized debt obligation and subprime-related exposures by $10 billion and report a loss of $5.10 a share for the fourth quarter. Any write-down above $20 billion, he said, would ''significantly increase leverage and would threaten the credit ratings of the firm.'' During the London meeting, Mr. Thain said that Merrill would have to build its presence in China as well as expand its principal investing businesses, including private equity, commercial real estate and infrastructure. URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: MORTGAGE INVESTMENTS (90%); PERSONAL FINANCE (89%); BANKING & FINANCE (89%); INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT (89%); HOLDING COMPANIES (78%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (78%); INDUSTRY ANALYSTS (78%); STOCK EXCHANGES (77%); COMPANY EARNINGS (77%); TALKS & MEETINGS (75%); PRIVATE EQUITY (73%); FINANCIAL RESULTS (72%); DIVESTITURES (72%); MANAGEMENT THEORY (71%); CREDIT CRISIS (79%) COMPANY: MERRILL LYNCH & CO INC (92%); SANFORD C BERNSTEIN & CO LLC (63%); NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE LLC (54%); GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC (59%) TICKER: MLY (LSE) (92%); MER (NYSE) (92%); 8675 (TSE) (92%); GS (NYSE) (59%) INDUSTRY: NAICS523930 INVESTMENT ADVICE (59%); NAICS523920 PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT (59%); NAICS523120 SECURITIES BROKERAGE (92%); NAICS523110 INVESTMENT BANKING AND SECURITIES DEALING (92%); SIC6282 INVESTMENT ADVICE (59%); SIC6211 SECURITY BROKERS, DEALERS, & FLOTATION COMPANIES (59%); NAICS523110 INVESTMENT BANKING & SECURITIES DEALING (59%); SIC6289 SERVICES ALLIED WITH THE EXCHANGE OF SECURITIES OR COMMODITIES, NEC (59%) PERSON: MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (52%); JOHN THAIN (84%) GEOGRAPHIC: LONDON, ENGLAND (90%); TUCSON, AZ, USA (79%) ARIZONA, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (93%); ENGLAND (90%); UNITED KINGDOM (90%); MIDDLE EAST (79%); ASIA (79%); SINGAPORE (72%) LOAD-DATE: January 11, 2008 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: PHOTO: John A. Thain, the chief of Merrill Lynch, is urging change. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC THAYER/REUTERS) PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1201 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Pockets to Grandfathers: Time's Lovely Face BYLINE: By KEN JOHNSON SECTION: Section E; Column 0; Movies, Performing Arts/Weekend Desk; ART REVIEW 'ART OF TIME'; Pg. 37 LENGTH: 919 words Here's an apt attraction for the start of the new year: ''The Art of Time'' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a wonderful presentation of about 90 European timepieces from the museum's permanent collection. They range from pocket watches to grandfather clocks and date from the 16th to the 18th century. They include traditional mantel clocks in wooden, peaked-roofed houses and extravagantly fanciful forms like a revolving globe engraved with star charts and figures of the zodiac held up on the wingtips of a flying horse, all beautifully fashioned in silver, from 1579. A clock is a complex thing. It's an appliance and a decorative object. It can be a work of sculpture, and it can be scaled down to a piece of personal jewelry. The wall labels in the exhibition, which was organized by Claire Vincent, an associate curator in the department of European sculpture and decorative arts, explain some of the important mechanical innovations in timekeeping, describing how elements like escapements, springs, weights and pulleys and pendulums work and who invented them. But the show is not about technology per se, and neither is it about scientific or philosophical theories of time. The main interest is in what these timepieces look like on the outside. To a certain extent outer form follows function, as in tall grandfather, or longcase, clocks, which were designed to accommodate the length and arc of the pendulum inside. But form and function are not so integrated in clocks as they are in, say, violins. The maker of the works and the maker of the container are usually two different people, and the more imaginative container makers take full advantage of their freedom from functional constraints. A spectacular example is a mantel clock from about 1700 in which the central face is surrounded by panels bearing dozens of little bas-relief figures acting out scenes from the life of Venus, all beautifully rendered in silver by Johann Andreas Thelot, a renowned German goldsmith. Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, a late-18th-century French confection has three-dimensional cast-bronze figures representing American Indians, male and female, flanking the central round clock. They have black skin, sandals and feathered skirts of gold and silly, puffy hats. They lean toward each other over the clock, poised to embrace and kiss. A popular product of the Deverberie et Compagnie ornamental bronze-making company in Paris, it speaks volumes about European fantasies about the Edenic New World and its denizens. (''European ideas of faraway peoples were sometimes hazy during this period,'' the wall label wryly comments.) The centerpiece of the show is a dazzling astronomical table clock built by an unknown German in the second quarter of the 16th century. Made of gilded brass with silver and brass dials on each of its four sides, it looks like a little Renaissance temple. Neoclassical columns anchor each corner, and a little balustrade around the top frames a rising series of rings that culminate in a cupola, which is in turn topped by an open pyramid containing the tiny head of a horse: a removable key for winding the clock. Various dials tell the time in systems used then: French hours (I to XII), Italian hours (1 to 24) and Nurnberg hours, which start fresh at sunup and sundown. One dial is an astrolabe indicating the motion of stars in the Northern Hemisphere, the phases of the moon and mean solar time. While that clock suggests a Renaissance-style, encyclopedic way of thinking about time, an imposing, stand-up astronomical regulator made around 1770 represents a modern scientific approach. The coffin-size, neoclassical, ebony-veneered case with bronze ornaments looks antique, but a glass window allows you to see inside to the modern gridiron pendulum, which has a wide shaft of finely machined rods of brass and steel and a heavy, discus-shape weight. Designed by the master clockmaker Ferdinand Berthoud, it was the technological state of the art, and it enabled astronomers to time celestial events fairly accurately. On the purely decorative side, one vitrine holds works by James Cox, an entrepreneur who employed as many as 1,000 people to produce absurdly fancy items for export to China. One piece has a miniature Rococo secretary of agate and gilded brass resting on four little gilded bulls and topped by little bejeweled flowers and a wristwatch-size clock. As absorbing to study as the clocks are the approximately 50 pocket watches on display. Every one is an amazing feat of miniaturism, and the variety of styles and designs is dizzying. A moral dimension emerges. Some watches -- particularly the French -- unashamedly flaunt luxury and sensuousness. See, for example, the gold case bearing an extremely fine miniature enamel painting illustrating the story of Pero, the dutiful Roman daughter who breastfed her father, Cimon, to keep him from starving while in prison. Sweet prurience overrides the traditional allegory of charity. On the other hand, 17th-century English Puritan watches had smooth, egg-shaped silver containers representing the principled refusal of conspicuous consumption. And then there is the silver Swiss watch in the form of a human skull, whose lower jaw flips open to reveal its watch face. If it could speak it would no doubt advise, ''Time is running out.'' ''The Art of Time: European Clocks and Watches From the Collection,'' Metropolitan Museum of Art, through April 27; (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1202 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Middle- Class Capitalists BYLINE: By DAVID BROOKS SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 19 LENGTH: 840 words In 1974, a group of economists and journalists got together in a bar and launched supply-side economics. It was a superb political and economic package. It addressed a big problem: stagflation. It had a clear policy focus: marginal tax rates. It celebrated a certain sort of personality: the risk-taking entrepreneur. It made it clear that the new, growth-oriented Republican Party would be different from the old, green-eyeshade one. Supply-side economics had a good run, but continual tax cuts can no longer be the centerpiece of Republican economic policy. The demographics have changed. The U.S. is an aging society. We have made expensive promises to our seniors. We can't keep those promises at the current tax levels, let alone at reduced ones. As David Frum writes in ''Comeback,'' his indispensable new book: ''In the face of such a huge fiscal gap, the days of broad, across-the-board, middle-class tax cutting are over.'' The political situation has changed, too. Republicans used to appeal to the investor class with economic policies and the working class with values, crime and welfare policies. But that formula has broken down. The workers are walking away from the G.O.P., and the only way to win them back is by listening to their economic concerns. As a result, smart Republicans are groping for a new economic model, and as they do, Republican economic policies are shifting. The entrepreneur is no longer king. The wage-earner is king. As the presidential campaign rolls into Michigan, it's clear that Republicans are adjusting their priorities to win back the anxious middle class. The Republicans who are reaching toward this new model still sound very different from Democrats. They never describe American workers as victims. They never describe globalization as a remorselessly punishing process. They argue that individuals can still control their own destinies, provided they work hard and get educated. They believe it would be a catastrophe if the U.S. abandoned free trade or adopted a European-style safety net and suffered European tax rates. But they envision a different role for government than the 1980s Republicans. ''Americans aren't afraid of competing in a global economy,'' says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, John McCain's economic adviser, ''They're afraid they're doing it by themselves. They want a government that is on their side.'' In this new model, government is sort of like Vince Lombardi, setting a context that allows individuals and families to compete. There are four main spheres of policy innovation. First, a human capital agenda. The U.S. needs a more skilled work force, but for the first time in our history it is getting a generation no better educated than its parents. To remedy this, Ramesh Ponnuru of The National Review proposes an increased child tax credit to reduce the stress on young families, the seedbed of human capital. Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina proposes tuition tax credits for families earning less than $75,000. The G.O.P. presidential candidates vow to spend more on scientific research and to take on special interests like the teachers' unions. If schools can't fire bad teachers and reward good ones, then nothing else we do to improve education will do any good. Second, Republicans have embraced health care reform. While Democrats emphasize the uninsured, Republicans emphasize cost control. They understand that it's not a question of protecting health markets from government takeover. Government already controls and distorts health care. It's a question of straightening out the system so that it is clear who is paying and for what. Mitt Romney supports private insurance enforced by a universal mandate. McCain talks about paying for outcomes rather than tests to cut down on unnecessary procedures. Mike Huckabee promotes an activist agenda to reduce obesity and prevent chronic illness. Third, Republicans are putting together pieces of what you might call a resiliency agenda to help families withstand setbacks. McCain would subsidize the wages of workers who were laid off and forced to take lower-paying jobs. President Bush has proposed $3,500 personal re-employment accounts. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama supports $1,000 at-birth savings accounts, so that every American has assets to fall back on. Romney has a plan to aggressively increase savings, and Fred Thompson proposes a federal 401(k). Finally, Republicans are shifting their emphasis from tax cutting to fiscal rectitude. McCain, Huckabee and Thompson emphasize spending control and dealing with the monumental problem of entitlements. Middle-class workers don't worry so much about investment incentives. They worry that their government is fiscally decadent and fundamentally irresponsible. This spring Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam will publish ''Grand New Party,'' a book about efforts to win back the so-called Sam's Club Republicans. The book will be groundbreaking, but the campaign can't wait. Republican candidates are shifting focus right now.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1203 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Advocate for Taxpayers Calls for Paid Apologies BYLINE: By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 3 LENGTH: 827 words Taxpayers who endure excessive expense or drain on their time when the Internal Revenue Service mishandles a case should receive ''apology payments'' of up to $1,000 each, the national taxpayer advocate told Congress on Wednesday. The advocate, a position Congress created in 1998, also said a new taxpayer bill of rights should be enacted, one that includes a list of responsibilities requiring taxpayers to conduct themselves honestly and to cooperate with auditors and tax collectors. Nina E. Olson, the taxpayer advocate, in her annual report on the most serious problems faced by taxpayers, also said that the I.R.S. could use technology to apply the tax system to the underground or cash economy, where small entrepreneurs work for unreported pay. She said that by tracking credit card spending, state sales tax reports and other records, the I.R.S. could identify who collects this cash. Ms. Olson estimated that the government could collect $100 billion more each year from those who evade taxes by dealing in unreported cash. That would be enough for honest taxpayers to receive a 10 percent cut in their income tax bills. Ms. Olson also criticized Congress for making changes in the tax laws in November and December. She said such last-minute changes caused a million taxpayers to forgo deductions they were entitled to last year. Within a long list of problems, shortcomings and backsliding by the I.R.S., the proposal that Congress authorize apology payments is the most unusual. The proposed apology payments of $100 to $1,000, adjusted for inflation, would go to taxpayers who endure ''excessive expense or undue burden'' on their time. Britain and Australia already make such payments. The money would not be subject to tax. ''A fair and just tax system should acknowledge I.R.S. mistakes and delays in'' resolving issues, Ms. Olson said. She proposed that her office be allowed to authorize such payments up to a total of $1 million a year. The proposed budget implies that the advocate's office believes 1,000 to 10,000 taxpayers per year should receive apology payments. Ms. Olson also told Congress that the use of private debt collectors is costing more than the money brought in. Private debt collection ''is failing in most respects,'' she said. The I.R.S. had expected private companies to collect $88 million but has now lowered that to as little as $23 million. The collectors are paid almost a fourth of the money they bring in. When the costs of government oversight are added in, Ms. Olson said, the program may even lose money. If Congress authorized more money for I.R.S. staff and equipment, the agency said it could bring in $20 for each dollar it receives, five times the Bush administration's official estimate of private debt collector efficiency. Congressional Republicans oppose hiring more I.R.S. workers, and the administration favors private collection even though it acknowledged in testimony to Congress that it was far less efficient than having the I.R.S. handle all collections. But the proposal most likely to draw opposition is one that would require partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations -- all of which pass tax obligations on to their owners -- to report more about their income. Such reporting already applies to wage earners, 99 percent of whose income is reported to the I.R.S., compared with as little as 70 percent for entrepreneurs and partners, I.R.S. reports to Congress show. Ms. Olson said that ''a significant number'' of S corporations were only distributing dividends, avoiding payroll taxes on compensation. Previous proposals to add any independent reporting requirements on small businesses have faced opposition from members of Congress who say it stifles entrepreneurship. Con artists and tax protesters have used the lack of reporting for pass-through businesses like S corporations to cheat the government out of vast sums and, in some cases, cheat their clients out of their life savings, records in federal trials in Washington State and Colorado show. Charles O. Rossotti, the I.R.S. commissioner from 1997 to 2002, told Congress that rigorous third-party reporting rules for wage earners, but not small businesses, made the system unfair to wage earners. Ms. Olson also said that the I.R.S. had become much too aggressive in charging fees for services. One manager of a nonprofit organization who asked how to list some unusual income on its tax return was told that an answer would cost $2,700. Ms. Olson added that despite promises and the creation of a high-level committee, the I.R.S. had failed to enact policies that would bring more nonfilers into the system. Some of these nonfilers have wages withheld from their pay, but do not file, which means the I.R.S. must spend money preparing substitute tax returns for them. In a similar vein, she said that 80 percent of penalties imposed on tax preparers were not being collected. Directory: ~hesterj -> Entrepreneur Entrepreneur -> Byline: By richard siklos section: Section C; Column 5; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1 Length Download 3.51 Mb. Share with your friends:
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