Gold is one of the most precious and expensive metals and is often used as a safe hard asset – an alternative investment to fiat currency. With that in mind, this infographic takes a look at global gold mines and deposits, and how they all rank up.
A study by the Institute for Policy Studies has found that twenty-six big US companies paid their chief executive officers more last year than they did in federal taxes.
In the report, Executive Excess, the Institute said that of last year’s 100 highest-paid US executives, 26 took home more in CEO pay than their companies paid in federal income taxes.
The Brazilian government is set to sell off the rights to nearly 7,500km of roads and 10,000km of railways for private investors to operate, said President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday, in the hopes of raising $66 billion to improve the nation’s public infrastructure.
Bill Gates wants to change how the world uses the toilet; and he’s willing to spend more than $370 million to do so, reported the Associated Press on Tuesday, after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave out new grants to numerous organisations and scientists, as part of their “Reinvent The Toilet Challenge.”
Standard Chartered Bank has agreed to a $340 million settlement with the New York State Department of Financial Services that accused it of hiding $250 billion of illicit transactions with Iran.
State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said Tuesday that Standard Chartered Bank will pay the civil penalty to the state and will additionally strengthen oversight of overseas transactions.
Two US officials who have been investigating bribery allegations against Wal-Mart revealed yesterday that new findings have emerged, with evidence suggesting the company’s compliance lapses may have extended to “questionable financial behaviour”, including tax evasion and money laundering.
Employees at Google will now be able to enjoy “death benefits” as part of the company’s ever-evolving employment perks, reported CBS News on Tuesday, after the company promised to pay half of an employee’s annual salary to his/her spouse or partner for 10 years after his/her demise.
A new “cleaner version of Facebook” is set to be launched in Indonesia this November, reported the Jakarta Globe on Monday, with its creators hoping to offer “better protection” for young Muslims from “harmful content” online.
The German and French economies showed signs of resilience as the two eurozone countries performed slighter better than expected. In particular, Germany’s growth slowed less than excepted while France narrowly escaped recession with zero growth in Q2.
Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy, posted modest economic growth of 0.3 percent over the quarter, marginally beating forecasts.
However, economists warn that the German economy could soon start to shrink unless a decisive solution is taken for the currency bloc’s debt crisis.
Three of Brazil’s largest telecommunication companies will have to spend more than $9.8 billion to upgrade their internet and mobile access services ahead of the upcoming football World Cup in 2014, reported the Financial Times on Monday, after the Brazilian government threatened to punish the companies unless they did so.
