Thursday, September 29, 2011

ArcelorMittal Closes Two Mills in Luxembourg



We were writing 1974. About 1/3 of Luxembourg's workforce was cooking steel. Luxembourg produced 21 tons of steel per capita, followed by Germany with 2.5 tons. That's the weight the steel industry mustered then. In 1975 the steel industry came crashing down in a fast and scary way, under the double action of slowing demand and the competition of emerging steel producers.

What is left of the former ARBED is under new ownership, ArcelorMittal. It still employs about 6,000, quite a number for Luxembourg. This closing targets about 10% of them. In the present setup, who will come up with an innovative solution? Globalism takes away the cake from those who have the cake. How desirable is it? Pursue it at any price? The only barriers to globalism were the borders. They tend to disappear. Everyone seems to want it. It is an excellent deal when you had no cake. The new countries are the multinational companies who now can play the best options.
What is safe at ArcelorMittal Luxembourg? What cannot be easily done elsewhere.
ArcelorMittal Closes Two Mills

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Fitch affirms Luxembourg at 'AAA'

Let me get this straight: we get a boring AAA ?

That cannot possibly take into account the fact that Luxembourg has the highest per capita GNP, and it defies our first place in all other categories: our Prime Minister enjoys a 92% popularity rate, we are, according to statistics, the heaviest drinkers and smokers on earth, the best student at the UN, the highest donor country, and we save Greece. There is even more, but that would take away some of the gravitas of this comment.

Bottom line: we deserve better. Please Miss Fitch, invent another category, the AAAAA. We certainly fit(ch) that rating. Think about the economic stimulation this would trigger internationally through others' sheer jealousy and their desire to catch up!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/28/idUSWLA630120110928


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Letter to a Great Luxembourg Scientist, Dr Félicien M. Steichen, MD, 1927-2011



Dear Félicien:

You left us, but I won’t write an obituary. You would have said it yourself, with that twinkle in your eyes: “this ain’t a place for obituaries.”
We met 22 years ago when I moved with my family into your neighborhood in Larchmont, New York. You lived there on 12 Pryer Lane with your wife Michèle, your daughters Anne and Claire and your son François, in your beautiful home overlooking Long Island Sound. The old BMW in your driveway, with that big letter “L” on the bumper, let everyone know that there was a true Luxembourger around. I knew you already as a “Living National Monument”, for your incredible contributions to medical science. I came to learn more about your tireless work, developing laparoscopic surgery.
Your neighbor, a surgeon himself, would say how guilty he felt playing with his dogs while he knew that you were working on yet another paper. I can still see you there, the lamp glowing on top of that cypress table crafted by an Amish cabinetmaker.  In this office, your creative genius would produce dozens of scientific papers, to promote minimally invasive thoracic and abdominal surgery. They cover the challenges of sutures and stapling, the introduction of 3D in laparoscopic surgery together with new tools known as “Tools of Steichen”.
For more than 48 years, after graduating from the University of Lausanne, you left giant footprints at many places such as Baltimore and Johns Hopkins Hospitals, Lenox, and Saint Agnes. The crowning of your tremendous work and the worldwide recognition as the great pioneer and professor was the creation of the Félicien M. Steichen Chair of Surgery at New York Medical College in 1993, of which you became the first holder. Among your many awards, this is the ultimate one.

We all remember you as the discreet gentleman, who would be first in line to do anything “Luxembourg”. We had such fun launching the Luxembourg-American Chamber of Commerce in New York. I am most thankful for your ever open doors.

One day I needed your help as a surgeon. I’m still wearing (proudly) the three tiny marks of laparoscopic incisions you made. And for sure the following morning I left Saint Agnes all repaired. My wife and I mostly remember the days of deep distress, when you showed up at our son’s hospital bed. Your spontaneous travel to that place, your appearance in that hospital room has done more than all medical science on earth.

Dear Félicien: You are a great benefactor to mankind. Every morning, thousands of patients get readied for surgery somewhere. Many will have an amazing recovery, thanks to your pioneering work. They’ll say of their doctors what one of your friends told me about you: “He saved my life!” At the LACC, you have touched ours. We send our most heartfelt condolences to your family,


Egide Thein.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Luxembourg home and offices of Leopard Trek owner Flavio Becca raided by police

This is reported by road.cc.


Find article here: http://road.cc/content/news/44413-luxembourg-home-and-offices-leopard-trek-owner-flavio-becca-raided


According to the article, this has nothing to do with Leopard-Trek. This is the relevant excerpt:


"Luxembourg-published tabloid magazine Privat says the police raids were carried out on Tuesday and concern a number of companies with which Mr Becca, whose parents moved to the Grand Duchy from Italy when he was a child, is involved. The website Wort.lu reports that a spokesman for the public prosecutor has confirmed that the raids took place."


Three remarks, to lay this to rest for the Schlecks:



  • This has nothing to do with cycling, but the other sponsors won't like this kind of publicity.
  • Unfortunately for our man Becca, he gets most to fear from that unwelcome publicity, and though not pronounced guilty of anything, he will be judged already in the court of public opinion.
  • Then again, if there are good news for Mr. Becca, they are this: we are at the stage of a Police investigation. Though that means that there were allegations credible enough to launch the investigation, it will take years and years before this gets resolved. The reason being that Luxembourg's Police and Justice system are dramatically understaffed. I reported in the following article the criminal case brought by a Luxembourg farmer against his neighbor, accused of stealing his cow: http://feierwon.blogspot.com/2011/06/la-justice-des-hommes-est-imparfaite.html After 13 years of proceedings, the man still hadn't gotten his cow back. Daisy might be dead by now. So may be most witnesses. But our man and the cow got their day in court: the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg sentenced the Luxembourg Government for violating the farmer's human rights by not providing an adequate judicial system that would have resolved the case in a "timely" way. The Government paid a fine. It did not improve its Judiciary. It did not bring the farmers cow back. The mooooving end.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Winter Park businessman Bob Mandell may become ambassador to Luxembourg



Very interesting. It took some time between the announcement and the hearing. US is becoming more like France: long vacations delayed the hearing.


But here's the beef:


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-bob-mandell-ambassador-luxembourg-20110921,0,6653691.story


You'll have read the summary program:



Mandell told senators that, if confirmed, he plans to focus on increasing U.S. exports and on making Luxembourg's banking industry more transparent.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

NETFLIX and the Quikster Blunder. Call me Quikstest!

Below is an Email from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. He nopologizes (not in the dictionary yet) for messing up. His blunder will occupy front page in many course books about corporate blunders. And now also in those for damage control: the three things not to do.
I could not resist coming to the rescue.


OPEN LETTER ON MY BLOG TO REED HASTINGS: EGIDETHEIN.BLOGSPOT.COM

Dear Reed:

Thank you for reminding me of the good old days when Netflix had no negative connotation. I feel your pain. Apart from a new name Quikster, you didn't tell me why I and a million others should become customers again.

May I suggest to your competitor Blockbuster to enhance their own offering by calling it "Quikstest". As in Irving Berlin's "Hostess of the Mostest." Go ahead Quikstest.com is available. As always, FREE advice. FREE. Nothing beats FREE.  Hey, Blockbuster, if you execute on my recommendation, I deserve FREE service for ever. Deal? 

Netflix had no deal.

Happy Quikstings!

Egide Thein



Dear Egide,

I messed up. I owe you an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.

So here is what we are doing and why.

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.

It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to
 qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you.

I want to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully yours,

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on
 our blog, where you can also post comments.






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Saturday, September 17, 2011

Luxembourg: banking sector situation "not worrisome"


What else is there to say for a Minister of Finance? Don't worry, be happy!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/17/eu-ecofin-luxembourg-idUSL5E7KH03620110917

EU slaps down US debt preaching

An interesting reporting from down under. It sounds like a story of two homeless guys arguing  about who is the better off, the one who just got downgraded by S&P, or the other one not sure if he'll see another day.

The accompanying picture is great!

http://www.news.com.au/world/eu-slaps-down-us-debt-preaching/story-fn6sb9br-1226140008441

Friday, September 16, 2011

Luxembourg:: Delivery of Boeing's first 747-8 cargo jet delayed

Alright, a little upset. All this with the new board getting tough. Maybe there is some dispute. Always a nice try to get a discount.

The Seattle Times says:

"Boeing on Friday abruptly suspended plans to deliver its first 747-8 freighter on Monday to launch customer Cargolux, saying only that "unresolved contractual issues" prevented the four days of ceremonial hoopla it had scheduled."

Visit: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2016231470_747freighter17.html

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Swiss deals complicate EU tax negotiations by Swissinfo.ch

Switzerland played this well. It leaves the former allies Luxembourg and Austria in the rain. The pressure is on them and it will be difficult for them to invoke these bilateral agreements with Switzerland to nix the former agreements on automatic information sharing in the Union. These did only allow for a transitional exception to automatic information sharing for Luxembourg and Austria.

It is true that this is revisiting past understandings: that was that ALL tax havens would move to the SAME system. Not as the un-elected Commissioner seems to say: to SIMILAR arrangements.

However, how urgent is this subject now that Euro zone is on fire and will either have to do a costly bailout or allow a costly collapse of the Euro? The funny thing is, it has become less of a Greek problem than a creditor's problem, according to the old saying: you owe the bank one million, and the bank owns you. You owe the bank one billion, and you own the bank.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Specials/Rebuilding_the_financial_sector/News,_results,_regulations/Swiss_deals_complicate_EU_tax_negotiations.html?cid=31129410

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Luxembourg and Wikileaks


Imagine, you sit comfortably at your desk in a cozy Embassy. You are supposed to do something from time to time. (Beware: we now know you shouldn't pay for a wine bill on the last day of your fiscal year, and not for a new mattress). So Ann Wagner did the right thing: she wrote her reports, and those were not supposed to be leaked. Despite that certainty, that nothing would violate the confidentiality of her messages, she wrote her stuff very diplomatically. For that, some people in Luxembourg might be disappointed. Some spontaneous salsa was what they expected.


Monday, September 5, 2011

Luxembourg's Leopard-Trek Team and Radioshack to Merge


I love it to be right! I told you so! RADIOSCHLECK. It should have happened two years ago. See my last post. Here is the news.


Where is Lance Armstrong? Now do all the right things.