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J'attire votre attention vers quelques articles sur vos métiers. (4) Retrait de l'eau Dasani du marché brittanique, (5) Les surprises des rapports annuels, (8) Extrait d'un site d'un établissement de financement d'entreprises.

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Week 14, 2004
THE REGULARS: Summary
A) Poem of the week: "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe [voir l'article ci-dessous (G) sur la création du poème. Sur le site indiqué vous pourrez l'écouter.]
B) Penguin Readers: Julie runs the London marathon [Entretien sur le marathon de Londres en 2002. L'édition 2004 aura lieu le 18 avril prochain.]
C) New York Times/Vows: Personne ne lit ce type de textes... Je supprime... Snif... Je les remplace par des articles sur la vie d'entreprise de l'émission "Global Office" sur CNN International.] Cette semaine, Employers fail the interview test [Des candidats aux postes rejettent leurs employeurs potentiels du fait des mauvaises impressions données lors des entretiens d'embauche]
D) The New York Times/The Ethicist: Testing [Conseils sur l'éthique et la déontologie : Puis-je porter les manteaux de fourrure que j'ai hérité de ma grand-tante ? / La moitié d'un couple gay doit-il prévenir que son 'invité à une soirée sera un monsieur et non pas une dame ?]
E) Slate/Dear Prudence: Mama's boy [Conseils sur la vie sentimentale et la vie tout court : Mon petit ami vit encore chez sa mère et c'est un véritable fils à maman. Comment supporter ? / Je suis attiré par une collègue de travail. / Je me suis fait snobber par une petite star du cinéma.]
F) Washington Post/Miss Manners: Discomforting the Sick [Conseils sur les bonnes manières : Je suis un traitement contre un cancer, et j'ai marre de tout le monde qui insiste pour en parler pour exprimer leurs propres inquiétudes par rapport à cette maladie. / Deux personnes peuvent-elles commander un plat identique au restaurant ?]
G) NPR Morning Edition/Present at the Creation: Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" [Topo sur la création du poème de la semaine (voir A) ; vous pouvez écouter le reportage en entier, ainsi qu'une lecture du poème par le comédien de films d'horreur Basil Rathbone sur le site indiqué.]
H) The Economist/Global taxation series: A brief history of tax [Une série d'articles sur l'imposition à l'ère de la mondialisation : Aperçu sur l'histoire de la taxation.]

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A) Poem of the week: "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe [voir l'article ci-dessous sur la création du poème. Sur le site indiqué vous pourrez l'écouter.]

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, [ponder=réfléchir] [weary=fatigué]
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore - [quaint=étrange] [lore=légende]
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, [nod=dandiner de sommeil] [tap=bruit de frapper]
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. [rap=frapper]
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door - [Tis=It is] [mutter=marmonner]
Only this and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, [bleak=désert]
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. [ember=tisons]
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow [morrow=le lendemain]
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore - [surcease=fin] [sorrow=chagrin]
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore - [maiden=demoiselle]
Nameless here for evermore. [evermore=à tout jamais]

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain [silken=de soie]
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; [thrill=exciter]
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating [to still=calmer]
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door - [entreat=prier]
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, [soul=âme]
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly yours forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you" - here I opened wide the door; - [scarce=à peine]
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, [peer=regarder]
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, [token=signe distinctif]
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" [whisper=souffler]
-This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" [murmur=marmonner]
Merely this and nothing more. [merely=seulement]

Then into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice; [lattice=grillage]
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore - [thereat=là bas]
Let my heart be still a moment, and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!"

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, [flinger=jeter]
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore; [raven=corbeau] [days of yore=d'antan]
Not the least obeisance made he; not an instant stopped or stayed he; [obeisance=salut respectueux]
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door - [mien=air]
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door - [bust of Pallas=statue d'Athéna]
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, [ebony=très noir] [beguile=enchanter]
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, [countenance=air du visage]
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, [shear=tondre] [craven=veul]
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore - [ghastly grim=effroyablement sinistre]
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." [quoth=cita]

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, [ungainly=maladroit] [fowl=volaille]
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore; [bear=porter]
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."

But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. [outpour=pour out, déverser]
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered - [utter=énoncer]
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store [stock and store=des stocks]
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore - [burden=fardeau]
Till the dirges of his Hope the melancholy burden bore [dirges=chants funèbres]
Of 'Never-nevermore.'"

But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,µ
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; [wheel=faire rouler]
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking [velvet=velours] [sink=couler]
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore - [fancy=fantaisie] [ominous=qui porte malheur]
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore." [croak=croasser]

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core; [fiery=enflammé] [bosom=poitrine]
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining [recline=s'incliner, se reposer]
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er, [lining=doublure] [gloat=(ici) briller]
But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer [methought=je pensais] [censer=encensoir]
Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. [seraphim=anges] [tinkle=tintiller]
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he hath sent thee [wretch=misérable]
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore; [respite=répît] [nepenthe=? boisson qui fait oublier?]
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!" [quaff=boire]
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by Horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? tell me - tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.
"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting -
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!

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This month, on April 14th, a 26.2-mile-long street party comes to London. It’s an unusual party: it happens on a Sunday morning, people wear thin clothes, even in the cold spring air – and some people will feel a lot of pain, too! If you can’t come you can watch it on television all around the world. It’s the London Marathon, of course, and Julie Nowell (who works at Penguin Readers!) is one of more than 30,000 runners taking part. I talked to her about the race:

Clare Swain: I’ve never watched or run a marathon. Can you tell me more about it?
Julie Nowell: The first marathon wasn’t a race at all! It was part of a war between Greece and Persia. One day in 490 BC, the Greeks won a difficult fight at Marathon, and a man called Pheidippides ran about 26 miles to Athens to tell the good news. He died soon afterwards.

CS: How did that sad story become a famous race?
JN: There was a special running race from Marathon to Athens at the first modern Olympics in 1896. And from that time marathon races have been popular all over the world.

CS: Why is the London Marathon special?
JN: Because there’s something for everyone – even if you don’t run! It’s a 26.2-mile-long street party! Every year 500,000 people, young and old, come to London to watch the race and enjoy the party. Also, perhaps more than other marathons, many people run the London Marathon to raise money for charity.

CS: Are you running for charity?
JN: Yes, I’m running for WaterAid, which works to give people in poor countries safe water to drink. It’s a really personal choice for me – I drink lots of water. I can’t imagine life without water…

CS: Do you feel ready?
JN: I can’t wait! I started a difficult 16-week training schedule after Christmas – but I was running regularly before that. My training schedule is made for people running a marathon. There are five days of running every week – getting harder and longer each week. Some training runs are nearly as far as a marathon – 19 or 20 miles. It’s really hard work.

CS: Do you enjoy such hard training?
Not always! One long run nearly made me cry! But I’ve found new, interesting places in London – and my running has slowly become stronger and faster. Most of all, I’ve learnt a lot about other people. It’s really wonderful how much hard work many people do for charity.

CS: What will you do after the marathon?
JN: I’m going to take a day’s holiday and rest with my feet up! And I’m going to wear my medal for a week.

CS: Do you have a message for anyone who wants to run a marathon?
JN: Yes, you can do anything if you really want to. Six months ago I thought ‘I can’t run a marathon’, and now I know I can. So my message is – JUST DO IT!

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- The job interview is traditionally an opportunity for candidates, clutching their CVs nervously, to impress prospective future employers. But new research suggests interviewees are turning the tables on the bosses. More than two thirds of workers have rejected job offers because they were unimpressed by a company's conduct during the interview.

In the survey of 4,400 job hunters, conducted by employment consultants reed.co.uk, 85 percent felt it was important that organizations also made an effort to make a good first impression. And two-thirds had accepted a job based on a positive interview experience with some workers even chosing a lower-paid job over more lucrative offers. In 43 percent of those cases, new employees said they had been attracted to a job by a really good office environment. A third said they had taken a lower salary because they felt their new boss was someone they wanted to work for or because they liked the sound of the team they would be working with.

But many companies are failing to interview so well.

Hit by a bomb

"You wouldn't buy a car from a showroom where you were kept waiting, the staff didn't treat you with respect or that looked like it had been hit by a bomb," said reed.co.uk managing director Dan Ferrandino. "A job may not be for life but it is far more important than buying a car or anything else. It is only right to expect employers to make the effort to gain your confidence."

The most frequent complaint of interviewees was that they had been kept hanging around, often without apology in kitchens or waiting rooms, for as long as three hours. Poor preparation -- discovering that a room had not been booked and being interviewed in a storeroom or busy open-plan office for instance -- and poor presentation -- scruffy interviewers and untidy offices -- also scored badly with prospective employees.

Job applicants were also infuriated if they felt their interviewer had not looked at their CV properly beforehand or appeared distracted. In some cases employers took phone calls, while others felt it appropriate to eat during an interview. Inappropriate questions -- one women was asked if she still had "an active womb" -- and bad language or insulting behavior were also considered turn-offs. Flirting was another problem mentioned, with one candidate complaining that an interviewer "kept staring at my body, openly driving the conversation sex."

"With unemployment hitting a 30-year low demand for skilled workers and talented staff is now at a high," said Ferrandino. "It is still true that job hunters need to work hard to impress employers. However by the same token potential employers need to impress if they want to attract and employ the best talent."

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E) Slate/Dear Prudence: Mama's boy [Conseils sur la vie sentimentale et la vie tout court : Mon petit ami vit encore chez sa mère et c'est un véritable fils à maman. Comment supporter ? / Je suis attiré par une collègue de travail. / Je me suis fait snobber par une petite star du cinéma.]
http://slate.msn.com/id/2096529/

Dear Prudence,
I have been dating this guy for two years, and our relationship is great except for one thing. He is a mama's boy to the point that it's DISGUSTING! He is 22 and still lives at home with his mom. To him, she is the greatest person who ever walked this planet. I feel like I don't measure up, and to top it off, I don't even like the woman. My boyfriend feels he has to include her in everything we do as a couple because her husband (his stepdad) treats her like dirt. But that is only because he feels the same way I do ... like he is in a competition. My boyfriend and I have talked about getting married, but he has come right out and said he is gonna live with his mother for the rest of his life. Well, that just won't work for me, and he is not compromising at all. I mean, this situation is so bad, people have commented that they act like they are married to each other! Please explain this situation so I can understand everyone's point of view here.

—Resentful

Dear Re,
It is a slight mystery how you can say you're in a "great relationship," save for the fact that your fella is a mama's boy who's vowed he will live with her forever. (This brings to mind Truman Capote's wonderful remark, "It was a great party—if you've never been to a party before.") This setup is wildly unhealthy, and you should run, not walk, out of this horror show. The mother is nuts, her son is damaged goods, and the stepfather is striking back. If there weren't laws, this mother and son would most likely marry each other. It is very depressing that this woman has fixed it so her son will never have anything approximating a grown-up life, or even a life of his own. If Prudie has not given you everyone's point of view, she has certainly given you her own.

—Prudie, swiftly

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Dear Prudie,
I am a man in my late 20s married to a wonderful lady in her mid-30s. We have a 2-year-old. I work in a large office building and will often go to lunch with my co-workers. For the last three months or so, I have been going to lunch everyday with a very attractive (married) younger lady. We would go once a week, then twice, now it's everyday. I am very attracted to her, and I know she is attracted to me. We have also gone out to dinner and to have drinks on several occasions. We have fun, and I have even taken my son with us on those occasions that we meet on weekends. We have had no sexual relations, but have held each other. I have no plans to leave my wife. Please help; is this an affair?

—G.

Dear G.,
For Pete's sake, young man, are you dense or disingenuous? Your situation is not unlike the girl who permits everything but the textbook definition of sexual congress so she can say she's a virgin. The aspects making your relationship an affair are the mutual attraction, daily lunches, dinner and drinks, weekend meetings, the "holding" each other, and the lack of plans to leave your wife. Prudie wonders, though, where the "wonderful lady" you're married to thinks you are on, say, a weekend ... or for dinner. And is your son mute? Why is he even along? You are looking for trouble, and Prudie is confident that you will find it.

—Prudie, psychically

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Dear Prudie,
I have a particularly Hollywood question, though it also applies to general etiquette. I was at a party in a nightclub when I saw one of the very few actors I have a crush on. It wasn't Johnny Depp or George Clooney or anyone who gets bombarded day and night. This actor is so low-profile, he had to wait outside the club longer than we did, and trust me, we're nobodies. Still, he's handsome and gets such witty, intelligent parts I would have hated myself for several weeks if I hadn't at least attempted to introduce myself and be (hopefully) charming. He wasn't with a date, and he wasn't trying to have a meal in peace; we were in a nightclub. I thought it would be fine to try to say hello. So, he's speaking with another man in a desultory fashion (nothing that seemed important, just killing time). I stood by his elbow with a pleasant smile on my face waiting for a break in the conversation so as not to interrupt. It didn't happen. The minutes ticked by. Five. Maybe seven. Way too long. So here are my questions: 1) Am I the jerk for trying to introduce myself? 2) Is he the jerk for not at least pretending that we are all equally human and acknowledging me? 3) Once it becomes clear the person with whom you're trying to speak has no interest in making your acquaintance, what's a graceful way to extricate yourself? Prudie, I was mortified.

—Bashful

Dear Bash,
You don't sound all that bashful to Prudie, but neither did you do anything wrong. One might reasonably imagine that a "low-profile" actor might be grateful for a fan coming over. Apparently this one was not. 1) You were not out of line to try to say hello. 2) He was being self-important, or whatever the opposite of "humble" is, not to acknowledge you. 3) There is probably no graceful way to extricate yourself from being ignored once you've stood at someone's elbow for seven minutes. Walking away is the best you can do. And you are correct that hanging around for longer than a minute is way too long.

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I learned recently that I have a very mild and entirely treatable form of cancer. This disease doesn't interfere with my everyday life, other than requiring a few hours out of the office to make a small number of trips to the doctor's office. My family and close friends have provided the kind of support that I find useful, which is to go about their normal lives.

A number of acquaintances, however, have taken this opportunity to project all of their cancer- and death-related fears onto me, and I have unexpectedly found myself in the position of having to console sobbing co-workers and hysterical neighbors. As my incredulous Italian mother-in-law put it, "You get sick, so THEY should cry?"

After the third or fourth such scene, I quit telling people anything beyond, "My doctor says it's really nothing important; she wants me to try some drug, and it should all be fine." The rude handful who have insisted upon more information have been told lies: I don't remember the name of the drug, and I can't pronounce the name of the condition.

I have also sworn several friends to secrecy after explaining my problem with this overwrought sort of sympathy (do you think it is really supposed to be sympathy)? I don't want to be surprised by any more of these scenes.

Even if there was some chance of my condition getting worse (and there isn't), could any person actually believe that making a scene could somehow console a sick or even dying person? Is it perhaps an attempt to get my mind off a relatively minor medical problem by helping me fixate on uncharitable thoughts about the person making the scene?

A:
Of course these people are trying to get your mind off yourself. They want the focus to be on themselves. Furthermore, they do not share your dignified aversion to collecting pity.

This makes the sympathy of those with no empathy a trial. Miss Manners advises your cutting this off at the first sign by saying, "Oh, please don't worry about me. You obviously have worse problems."

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Q:
Dear Miss Manners:

I have conducted a survey of friends and co-workers about this question and received startlingly different answers. Can you give us the final rule on this question? Is it considered poor etiquette to order the same dish in a fine dining establishment as someone else in your party?

A:
No, it's not poor etiquette, but watch out for the ones who voted that it was. Their forks are going to be in your plates.

There are occasions, when several people go out together -- to a Chinese restaurant, for example -- with the idea that they will order platters in which everyone shares. But there are also people who regard anyone's food as community property and those who, oddly enough, want to eat what they ordered because they ordered what they like.

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G) NPR Morning Edition/Present at the Creation: Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" [Topo sur la création du poème de la semaine (voir A) ; vous pouvez écouter le reportage en entier, ainsi qu'une lecture du poème par le comédien de films d'horreur Basil Rathbone sur le site indiqué.]
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/raven/index.html

Jan. 14, 2002 -- Edgar Allan Poe is easily remembered for such stories as "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Tell-Tale Heart."

But late in his career "The Raven" made Poe so popular that children would chase the author until he would turn around, raise his arms and yell "Nevermore." Yet despite the popularity of that dark and haunting poem, Poe remained a poor man.

Jeffrey Savoye works for the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, Md., and has been studying Poe for nearly 20 years. He says one of the reasons the author was so poor is that he would often spend months working on a poem, only to be paid a few dollars from the reviews or newspapers that would publish it. Poe sold "The Raven" in 1845 for around $15.

But how and when Poe wrote the poem remains a mystery, Elizabeth Blair reports for Morning Edition in the first installment of Present at the Creation. The new NPR series explores the origins of American cultural icons.

"He told different stories to different people," Savoye says. "He told someone he'd written it in a feverish passion over a couple of days... and someone else that it had lain on his desk for 10 years."

In an essay called "The Philosophy of Composition," written a year after "The Raven" was published, Poe implied that writing the poem was a methodical process, like solving a math problem, and that he wrote the end of it first. But Savoye says he and other scholars doubt that "that cold mechanical approach" was used.

"He doesn't seem to have written anything that way," Savoye says. "Writing was a more difficult process than that. It's interesting we have very few manuscripts that are working drafts. We only have final copies. It's almost like he didn't want anyone to see all the work that went into it."

And it has been speculated that the poem's Lenore, the narrator's deceased lover, is actually a reference to Poe's wife Virginia, who was dying of tuberculosis at the time of the poem's writing. But Savoye is convinced that's not the case.

"There's this incredible dogged optimism in Poe... how could you possibly have gotten up and faced another day under his circumstances without some incredible strength of 'today will be better'? Opportunity was always just around the corner for Poe and he just never quite got there."

Just four years after "The Raven" made him an international celebrity, Poe died, nearly broke.

“NO TAXATION without representation.” The slogan of the American revolution has long been a rallying cry for taxpayers and tax evaders alike—though not always with such dramatic consequences. Arguably, the struggle to tax people in ways they find acceptable has been the main force shaping the modern nation-state. But are tax policies designed when the nation-state was all-powerful still appropriate now that globalisation, spurred on by the Internet, is rapidly eroding national borders?

Prostitution may be the oldest profession, but tax collection was surely not far behind. The Bible records that Jesus offered his views on a tax matter, and converted a prominent taxman. In its early days taxation did not always involve handing over money. The ancient Chinese paid with pressed tea, and Jivaro tribesmen in the Amazon region stumped up shrunken heads. As the price of their citizenship, ancient Greeks and Romans could be called on to serve as soldiers, and had to supply their own weapons—a practice that was still going strong in feudal Europe. As Ferdinand Grapperhaus recounts in “Tax Tales” (International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, Amsterdam, 1998), the origins of modern taxation can be traced to wealthy subjects paying money to their king in lieu of military service.

The other early source of tax revenue was trade, with tolls and customs duties being collected from travelling merchants. The big advantage of these taxes was that they fell mostly on visitors rather than residents. One of the earliest taxes imposed by England’s Parliament, in the 13th century, was “tonnage and poundage” on wine, wool and leather, targeted at Italian merchants. Sometimes rulers went a little over the top. Excessive taxation was one reason why King Charles I of England lost his head. Many of those guillotined during the French Revolution of 1789 were much-resented private tax collectors. And the Boston Tea Party was a protest by American patriots against the tea tax imposed by their British rulers.

Income tax, the biggest source of government funds today, is a relatively recent invention, probably because the notion of annual income is itself a modern concept. Governments preferred to tax things that were easy to measure and therefore to calculate liability on. That is why early taxes concentrated on tangible items such as land and property, physical goods, commodities and ships, or the number of windows or fireplaces in a building. The first income tax was levied in 1797 by the Dutch Batavian Republic. Britain followed suit in 1799, and Prussia in 1808. Like most new taxes, these imposts were first introduced as temporary measures to finance war efforts. After the European powers had made peace in Vienna in 1815, Henry Addington, the British prime minister of the day, swore that an income tax would never be imposed again. But in 1842 the British government revived the tax.

What stands out about the 20th century—and particularly its second half—is that governments around the world have been taking a growing share of their countries’ national income in tax, mainly to pay for ever more expensive defence efforts and for a modern welfare state. Taxes on consumption, such as the sales tax that is a big source of revenue for America’s state and local governments, and the value-added tax on goods and services in Europe, have become increasingly important.

Big differences between countries remain in the overall level of tax. America’s tax revenues amount to around one-third of its GDP, whereas Sweden’s are closer to half. There are also big differences in the preferred methods of collecting it, the rates at which it is levied and the definition of the “tax base” to which those rates are applied, as well as the division of responsibility for taxation between levels of government.

Global economy, national taxes
The increasing globalisation of economies in the 20th century was accompanied by a rare outbreak of internationalism by the tax authorities. Many countries chose to tax their citizens—individual or corporate—on their global income, whether or not they had already paid their due on some of it abroad.

The League of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations, in 1921 commissioned a report by financial experts who concluded that this practice of “double taxation” interfered with “economic intercourse and...the free flow of capital”. It suggested rules for determining when tax should be paid to the country in which the income is generated, and when to the taxpayer’s country of residence. It drafted a model treaty (now updated by the OECD) that spawned many bilateral agreements. Initially intended to stop income being taxed twice, these bilateral treaties opened the way for multinational companies to avoid tax on their profits altogether by setting up in business where taxes were lowest. Combined with greater mobility of capital, this new flexibility encouraged tax competition between countries.

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Who says France isn't doing its part in the war on terror? After all, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin just struck a mighty blow against al-Qaida. He has deployed the rhetorical and financial heft of the French government to support a hostile takeover bid in the pharmaceutical industry.

In January, French drug company Sanofi-Synthelabo made an unwelcome $59 billion takeover bid for Aventis, the French pharmaceutical firm based in Strasbourg. Aventis responded in part by holding discussions with Novartis, the Switzerland-based drug giant, about a friendly merger. Today, Novartis CEO Daniel Vassella told the Wall Street Journal he would be interested in pursuing such a deal, which would create the world's second-largest drug company.

Enter Raffarin, alarmed at the prospect of a Swiss invasion. Last week, he said a Sanofi-Aventis merger would be crucial to the French "national interest." He suggested that the nation's ability to access vaccines in the case of a bioterror attack would be hindered were Aventis to fall into foreign hands—you know, the dangerous, shifty hands of the Swiss. Meanwhile, a unit of the bank CDC-Ixis, which is majority-owned by the French government, has agreed to help back Sanofi's bid for Aventis.

Terror, of course, is a pretext. The French government is pushing an all-French deal for reasons of national pride. In January, Raffarin said, "It is very important in France, but also in Europe, to have the capacity to maintain several big national champions by sector."

The notion of "national champions" has become a peculiar theme of the new European economy. In Germany, corporate grandees are trying to head off a potential acquisition of Deutsche Bank by a foreigner. Last week, senior executives of companies such as Deutsche Telekom, SAP, and Siemens told Chancellor Gerhard Schröder they still needed a "national champion," as the Financial Times reported.

Nationalization may no longer be in vogue in the large economies of continental Europe. But a strong sense of nationalism still pervades these governments' attitudes toward capitalism. And it's ironic. The Eurozone has a single currency—the euro—and a single central bank largely because Germany and France wanted them. But when it comes to the private sector, the nations most invested in European economic integration are the ones most unsettled by its implications. The need for champions is as much about preserving an established order and existing privileges as it is about encouraging growth and bolstering national security.

Whether it's banking or drugs, the need of large European nations to have "national champions" in order to promote domestic economic security is absurd. In banking, for example, German corporate honchos complain that Deutsche is the only domestic bank large enough to finance significant deals. But the German establishment—politicians, executives, labor leaders—doesn't want a German über-bank that will bestride the global capital markets like a colossus. Rather, it wants one that will function like an ATM for German companies—providing financing on accommodative terms and taking it easy on them when they founder.

Fifty years ago, the concept of creating a large German bank that would lend to German companies was both necessary and useful. There weren't many pools of capital available for a defeated, bankrupt nation that was widely reviled by its neighbors. Ditto for Japan. But since Japan and Germany quickly rose to become industrial powers in their own right, the persistence—and protection—of national champions has frequently been detrimental. In Japan, in particular, the pressure on banks to let bad loans to domestic borrowers go unpaid probably added several years to the nation's economic malaise.

The past several decades have shown that banks, regardless of their domicile, are willing—even eager—to lend money to eager borrowers in other nations. That's why U.S.-based Bank of America is waist-deep in Italy's Parmalat mess, and why Credit Suisse First Boston and Crédit Lyonnais wound up high on the list of Enron's creditors. Bank money, regardless of where it originates, seeks to find a home where it can earn a decent rate of interest.

Pharmaceuticals, which are essentially consumer products, are different than loans. And here, European countries have even less to fear. There have been remarkably few examples of drug companies—virtually all of which are multinational and polyglot—refusing to sell their products to governments or nations. With 60 million people and the second-largest market in Europe, France needn't fear that a Swiss takeover of Aventis will sharply reduce its ability to acquire vaccines. Swiss companies haven't exactly been known for their reluctance to do business with other countries—especially in times of war and global turmoil.

What the French and German governments are really doing here is erecting artificial obstacles to a deal. These barriers to foreign bidders drain the pool of potential buyers and hence suppress asset prices—ultimately making the target firms weaker and poorer.

The ability of foreign buyers to purchase world-class American assets and companies relatively easily is one of the factors that keeps our stock markets buoyant. There's another lesson Europeans might learn from Americans in this regard. Having an open market for control doesn't just put the best companies—the champions—in play, it makes it possible for the struggling firms—the last-place finishers—to find buyers, too. Frequently, foreign buyers prove willing to pay large, unwarranted premiums for also-rans because they want to acquire trophy properties in a giant market—think of Japanese investors buying Rockefeller Center at the market top, or Vivendi overpaying for Universal. If the U.S. government were obsessed with maintaining national champions and blocked such transactions, Chrysler would be struggling for its life instead of weighing down Daimler. France and Germany should remember that next time they consider blocking a foreign buyer. You may sacrifice control when you sell to a foreign company, but you also spread risk.

Daniel Gross (www.danielgross.net) writes Slate's "Moneybox" column. You can e-mail him at moneybox@slate.com.

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4) Reuters: Recall dents Coke's big hopes [Coca est obligé de retirer Dasani, son eau de robinet filtrée, de la vente en GB.]
http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,262690-1-453,00.html

Recall dents Coke's big hopes
Mar 22, 2004

Coca-Cola has recalled its Dasani bottled water product in Britain after tests showed the recently launched drink contained levels of a potentially harmful chemical above legal standards. The world's largest soft drink maker said it expected to complete its voluntary recall of about 500,000 bottles of Dasani from store shelves in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland within 24 hours. Coca-Cola said it began the recall after consulting with Britain's Food Standards Agency after the company's tests confirmed unexpectedly high levels of bromate in samples of British-produced Dasani.

Long-term exposure to bromate, a non-metallic salt, has been linked to a higher risk of cancer. Britain's food watchdog called Coca-Cola's recall "sensible" and noted that there was no immediate risk to public health. The government agency, however, said it understood if some consumers did not drink Dasani purchased before the recall.

Coca-Cola's European spokesman John Chandler declined to say how much the recall would cost or when the company planned to reintroduce Dasani in Britain. He noted that the company knew how to fix the bromate problem in its product. But the recall, which comes five years after Coca-Cola was embarrassed by a product contamination scare in France and Belgium, could prove a serious blow to the company's efforts to win over British water drinkers.

Coca-Cola, which launched Dasani in Britain in January, was recently criticized after disclosing that the British version of Dasani was in fact treated and purified tap water - a practice not uncommon in the bottled-water industry.

Coke's big hopes for Europe

Coca-Cola, whose global water empire includes more than 20 brands in more than 100 markets, had hoped the 2004 launch of Dasani in Britain and France would allow it to better challenge the dominance of Europe's bottled water giants, Nestle and Group Danone. Analysts said the recall could deflate some of those hopes. "This could damage Coke's ability to relaunch Dasani in the UK as Nestle and other players will likely take the opportunity to remind consumers that they are selling spring water vs. the purified 'tap' water Coke is selling..." Morgan Stanley's Bill Pecoriello said. Shares of Coca-Cola fell US14c to US$48.90 in early afternoon trading on Friday, March 19, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Coca-Cola's Chandler said the recall had no bearing on Dasani products in other markets, including the United States, the soft drink giant's largest and most important market. Dasani is the second most popular bottled water in the US market after PepsiCo's Aquafina. The US version of Dasani does not contain the calcium chloride that triggered the problem in Britain. Coca-Cola adds calcium chloride, a derivative of bromide, into Dasani in Britain to meet laws requiring calcium in all bottled waters.

The company said the problems in Britain occurred when the amount of bromide in the water used to manufacture Dasani led to the formation of unacceptable levels of bromate during the ozonization process. Ozonization is a popular process in the bottled water industry because the ozone gas bubbled through the water kills microorganisms, dissipates quickly and leaves no aftertaste, unlike chlorine treatment.

Chandler said the Dasani samples had tested at within a range of about 10 to 22 parts bromate per billion. British limits for bromate are 10 parts per billion. European tap water limits are 25 parts per billion.

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The encyclopedic reports are corporate America's showy response to the recent spate of business scandals. Their girth declares: Look how honest we are! But what's amazing in the new round of reports is that they often reveal the seamy, self-dealing, overpaying practices that created the scandals to begin with.

The annual SEC filings, known as 10Ks, don't have the pictures of smiling executives and fancy graphics found in the glossy annual reports that were traditionally sent to shareholders. Many companies, to their credit, have now abandoned the glossy reports and mail their shareholders the 10Ks instead.

Those 10Ks generally go right in the garbage, for obvious reasons. The 10Ks contain page after page of small, black type, and often the most alarming material is buried in the even smaller type of the footnotes. In Georgia-Pacific's case, the footnotes run to a whopping 60 pages of 8.5-point type. That's enough to scare off—and perhaps blind—many professional investors, let alone someone who isn't being paid to read one of these things.

But before you chuck your 10Ks in the trash, give them a quick read. You'll get a sense of whether your company really has learned its lesson from the past few years. If you own shares in the cruise line Carnival Corp., for example, check out the 10K's description of the consulting contract it signed with A. Kirk Lanterman, who resigned as chief executive of Carnival subsidiary Holland America last November. Carnival will pay Lanterman nearly $167,000 each month for the next 15 years. In exchange, he is required to work a grand total of five hours a month. That's $33,000 per hour!

Stanley Works' shareholders who read their 10K closely will find an equally ridiculous deal. Former CEO John M. Trani, who attracted controversy two years ago when he proposed moving the Connecticut-based company to Bermuda to avoid taxes, will do even better than Lanterman, at least over the short term. Trani resigned on Jan. 1 and began collecting $243,750 a month under his retirement agreement. After two years, the fee drops to a meager $113,742 a month. In retirement, Trani is earning four times as much as the CEO who replaced him, John Lundgren.

Gannett's 10K suggests the nation's largest newspaper company needs a better payroll manager. It plans to pay former Chief Financial Officer Larry Miller $600,000 a year under a consulting contract signed last year when Miller retired. That's $40,000 more than Miller made when he was working full time for the company, and now he only has to work half time. Under the contract, Gannett will also continue to pay for Miller's car and his membership at a local country club.

There's entertaining reading for Walt Disney Co. stockholders, too. In its recent proxy statement, Disney disclosed that it spent $444,752 to cover the legal bills of two dissident former board members, Roy Disney and Stanley Gold. The pair have been actively campaigning for Disney shareholders to dump Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner. You can just imagine Eisner grinding his teeth when he signs that check. And shareholders of Halliburton will learn from a late January filing that the company now considers its former CEO, Vice President Dick Cheney, a "risk factor." That's Wall Street lingo for a potential liability: Cheney's connection, Halliburton says, may lose the company contracts in "the Middle East or elsewhere "

Not only are these the sorts of details that never would have been mentioned in one of those glossy annual reports, they probably never would have made it into the 10K before, either, not even in the last footnote. By letting it all hang out, corporate executives are trying to prove that they're different from indicted former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers and indicted former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling.

Now it's your job to see if they really are different. Instead of getting intimidated and dumping these reports in the trash, you should pull out your reading glasses and settle in for a nice evening with the fine print. The sooner you know what they're doing in the footnotes, the sooner you know whether they deserve your money.

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Michelle Leder is a freelance journalist whose daily blog www.footnoted.org looks at the things companies try to bury in their SEC filings. She is also the author of Financial Fine Print: Uncovering a Company's True Value.

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March 24, 2004 | FLINT, Mich. (AP) -- Allies of Democrat John Kerry in this down-on-its-luck industrial state are armed with depressing statistics on unemployment and poverty, hoping to persuade voters to blame President Bush for the hit on their pocketbooks.

In Michigan, 6.6 percent of workers are unemployed, with the strain sharpest in communities that have suffered plant closings and manufacturing cutbacks as jobs moved overseas. There is widespread anger, spreading into conservative areas, that Bush is not doing enough to keep those jobs at home or help the poor.
"There's a lot more they could be doing rather than fattening the rich man's pocket," said Michael Rucker, who was fired from his job at a packing plant. As Rucker stood in line for help at a state work force development office in Flint, several cars circled its expansive parking lot, waiting for a space to open.

"I thought Bush was doing pretty good, but when you don't have a job, that makes a difference," said Chuck Westerfeld, as he smoked a cigarette outside the building. Westerfeld said he makes ends meet by doing odd jobs but needs one with benefits because his girlfriend is pregnant. He isn't sure who he'll vote for in November.

Kerry plans to discuss his ideas for creating jobs during a visit to the state Friday, with particular emphasis on the manufacturing sector that has sent jobs abroad. Republican Rep. Candice Miller, chairwoman of Bush's Michigan campaign, acknowledged that the state economy needs to improve to give Bush a boost. Economists predict improvement in coming months, she said, and January's 6.6 percent unemployment rate was down a full percentage point from December. "If the economy goes south, that's not a good thing for my guy," Miller said. "But if the economy gets good, that's a bad thing for the Democrats."

Miller said Bush doesn't have to win the state, but that Kerry must to win the presidency. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore narrowly defeated Bush in Michigan, one of more than a dozen battleground states Bush and Kerry are targeting for the Nov. 2 election. Other key states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri, also are suffering economically.

In 2000, Michigan's annual unemployment rate was below the national average, at 3.5 percent compared to 4 percent. After Bush, the rate crept upward, as did the nation's, and stood above 7 percent for the last seven months of 2003. January's 6.6 percent rate was a full point higher than the national rate of 5.6 percent. Poverty also is higher. Under President Clinton, the number of residents receiving public assistance steadily decreased to 589,000 in 2000, from 1 million in 1992. That number is now at 910,000.

A survey last month by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA showed that a majority of Michigan voters gave Bush negative ratings on the economy in every region of the state. Only 38 percent rated Bush's handling of the economy as excellent or good, compared to 61 percent who said it was fair or poor. Bush and Kerry were in a statistical dead heat in the poll, conducted Feb. 22-25.

In Greenville, in western Michigan, Electrolux AB recently announced that it's moving its refrigerator plant to Mexico, eliminating 2,700 jobs in the town of 8,000. Republican Mayor Lloyd Walker said he worked with the union and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to offer Electrolux a $74 million incentive package, but didn't get help "or sympathy even" from the Bush administration despite pleas to the Labor Department. "I've never voted for a Democratic president, but I think that's going to change this year," Walker said.

Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said Democratic clubs are starting in the more conservative western and northern parts of the state. Teacher Jack Schneider, who formed Democrats of West Oakland County two years ago in a conservative section of Detroit's suburbs, said dozens of people have joined because of outrage at Bush, the economy being the chief complaint. "Some members have seen their jobs outsourced," Schneider said. "Others are concerned about their own futures, people who have white-collar and manufacturing jobs."

Miller countered the stark economic figures by promoting Bush's economic growth package and rosy economic forecasts. Michigan voters will be turned off, she said, when they learn that Kerry has been the Senate's chief advocate for higher federal requirements for gas mileage. Kerry unsuccessfully pushed for a large increase in fuel economy over objections from auto manufacturers and union workers who said it would cost about 300,000 jobs. Miller said she thinks the race will be decided by a small group of swing voters, less than 10 percent of the turnout. They tend to be socially conservative, she said, and likely will take Bush's side against gay marriage and partial-birth abortion.

Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan State AFL-CIO, travels the heavily unionized state with a Power Point presentation that portrays Bush as favoring the rich. He ticks off statistics -- 37 million people in poverty, 38 million without health insurance, the worst job loss since the Depression, the largest deficits and worst trade balance in history. "That's why it's such a good issue. The numbers are the numbers," Gaffney said. "The unemployed people are the unemployed people. How do they play defense?"

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A class action lawsuit was filed today in Dane County Circuit Court accusing 24 downtown Madison taverns and the Madison-Dane County Tavern League of conspiring to fix prices on beer and liquor.

The suit, filed by a Minneapolis law firm on behalf of three University of Wisconsin-Madison students, says taverns that agreed to eliminate weekend drink specials - a step strongly urged by Chancellor John Wiley - committed felony violations of both state and federal antitrust law, regardless of their intent. It also accuses UW-Madison of participating. The suit maintains that the victims of price fixing - basically anyone who patronized the downtown taverns on Friday or Saturday nights and paid full price - are entitled to triple damages under antitrust law.

The three UW-Madison students, in their lawsuit, say they have four primary objectives:
To break up the "Madison Bar Cartel," which includes popular taverns such as the Nitty Gritty, Kollege Klub and Angelic Brewing Co.
To return price competition to the business of selling alcoholic beverages in downtown Madison.
To uncover the full duration, scope, nature of operation and economic impact of the "cartel."
To recover and return to victims, primarily UW-Madison students, the full measure of damages. The awards could be "in the tens of millions of dollars," the suit contends.

UW-Madison students Nic Eichenseer, Brian Dougherty and Eric Stener are listed as lead plaintiffs in the class action. All three said in the suit they purchased alcoholic beverages on Friday or Saturday after 8 p.m. from the taverns named in the suit.

A voluntary effort by downtown Madison bars to limit weekend drink specials has been in effect since Oct. 1, 2002, as part of the federally funded PACE project. PACE, which stands for Policy, Alternatives, Community and Education, is in the seventh year of a comprehensive campus-community partnership designed to reduce the negative consequences of high-risk drinking. Casey Nagy, an assistant to Wiley, said today he hadn't seen the suit but said it was "creative" in making its argument for illegal price fixing. "I think they'd have a hard time arguing there was any price fixing, but I guess we'll see," he said.

Lee Pier, general manager of the Nitty Gritty Tavern, said there has been no wrongdoing on the part of any tavern. "I don't know of any kind of agreement on what prices will be," he said. "This is something we did on a voluntary basis in response to the City Council and the UW."

But Peter Carstensen, a professor at the UW-Madison Law School, said he was surprised nobody in the university's legal counsel office, nor at the City Attorney's Office, recognized there was a problem with the voluntary ban. "The general rule of antitrust law is, competitors cannot agree about how they will compete. If that's what happened with these bars, then they're in serious trouble," Carstensen said.

The taverns named in the suit are Amy's Cafe, Angelic Brewing Co., Brothers, Buffalo Wild Wings, Bull Feathers, City Bar, Club Amazon, Kollege Klub, Lava Lounge, Mad Dogs Pub & Pizzeria, Madhatters, Mondays, the Nitty Gritty, Paul's Club, Plaza Tavern, The Pub, Red Shed, Spices Restaurante, State Bar, State Street Brats, Stillwaters, Vintage, Wandos and Irish Pub.

The suit contends that UW actively encouraged formation of the "cartel," making it the centerpiece of its anti-drinking effort. It says UW has no "legal authority to organize a cartel among of group of competitors whenever its social scientists believe that a particular product (beer, cigarettes, gasoline, ice cream, music, etc.) is being consumed in excess by its students." It says the proper way to affect prices or behavior is through a taxing authority. Carstensen agreed, saying that everything would have been different if the city or state had instead come up with an ordinance or law to forbid a certain type of conduct. "One of the things that they say about conspiracies, you can do it best when it's out in the open and everybody's looking at you and nobody notices what's going on," he said.

Susan Crowley, a coordinator of the PACE program, said the lawsuit would have no impact on the program. She said the university is continuing to support the ban on weekend drink specials and noted that the program has another 2 years to run. "It's still alive and kicking," she said. Data on the effect of the ban on drink specials have been mixed. A study released by the project shows that since the implementation of bans on weekend drink specials in downtown bars, alcohol-related crimes have actually increased. Tom Powell, a member of the Madison Alcohol License Review Committee, agreed that the voluntary weekend ban on drink specials didn't have much of an impact on student behavior, since most drink specials are offered toward the beginning of the week. Powell said the students' class action suit is "misguided," and called the ban a "dead issue." "I don't know how they're going to calculate the amount of damages," he said. "I hope they kept their receipts."

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8) America One Funding: Commercial bank loans [Site d'un établissement de financement d'entreprises]
http://www.venturecapital.20m.com/manufacturer_financing.html
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