AS THIS newspaper went to press, Facebook was about to become a public company. It will be one of the biggest stockmarket flotations ever: the social-networking giant expects investors to value it at $100 billion or so. The news raises several questions, from “Is it worth that much?” to “What will it do next?” But the most intriguing question is what Facebook's flotation tells us about the state o

A third industrial revolutionAs manufacturing goes digital, it will change out of all recognition, says Paul Markillie. And some of the business of making things will return to rich countries OUTSIDE THE SPRAWLING Frankfurt Messe, home of innumerable German trade fairs, stands the “Hammering Man”, a 21-metre kinetic statue that steadily raises and lowers its arm to bash a piece of metal with a ham

TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. To put the prob

CNN MoneyがFacebookの幹事獲得を巡って投資銀行間でフィーの値引き合戦になっていると伝えています。 通常、アメリカのIPOは調達金額の７％が引受手数料として差し引かれます。だから例えばIPOで１億ドルの新株を売った発行企業が実際に手にするのは9,300万ドルなのです。 この７％というスプレッドは投資銀行にとってたいへんオイシイ比率であり引受け案件をどれだけ獲得できるかがブローカレージのビジネスの採算性に大きく影響してきます。 逆に言えばIPOする企業や投資家にとって７％分だけ損するわけです。しかし実際には値決め価格でIPOを買った投資家がいきなり７％安い値段で取引開始になるというわけではなく（＊）、企業のバランスシートに載るキャッシュが１億ドルではなく9,300万ドルになるだけなので、投資家からすると「目に見えない」ディスカウントということになるのです。 往々にして投資家がこ

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. “Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster

NEW YORK, August 18, 2011 Bank stability is an ever-more pressing concern for the worlds corporations and investors. It is within this context that Global Finance announces its 20th Annual Ranking of the World’s 50 Safest Banks. The sovereign debt crisis is still raging in Europe and renewed fears of contagion from southern European countries is affecting banking and market outlooks throughout Eur

従わない場合、30％と高率の源泉税が課される。この分だと、外国金融機関をいたずらに米国離れへ追い込みかねない。規制の詳細が明らかとなるに及んで、米国内では「外国資本を遠ざけるこんな規制など、経済的自殺に等しい」などとする反対意見が出始めている。 邦銀関係者の間でも、膨大な実務を強いるものとしてFATCA（Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act）はつとにセミナーの主題となり、話題となっている。 その割に、昨今の本邦経済ジャーナリズムが受信解読能力をとみに落としている表れか、少なくともこの1年、邦字紙にめぼしい報道を見ない。 The Banker誌が本年5月1日号で報じたところによると、FATCAとは次のようなものである。簡便のため箇条書きにしてみよう。 （1） FATCA単体の立法化がなされたわけではない。本年3月、連邦議会上院が可決し大統領の署名を得て発効した

Three years after Sandberg joined Facebook, the company is profitable.Photograph by Michele Asselin In 2007, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, knew that he needed help. His social-network site was growing fast, but, at the age of twenty-three, he felt ill-equipped to run it. That December, he went to a Christmas party at the home of Dan Rosensweig, a Silicon Valley executive, and as he app