Word: profiteer
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...French companies on France's CAC 40 exchange posted cumulative profits last year of $133 billion, attesting to the efficient, globalized nature of the nation's businesses. When it emerged last January that accused rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel had allegedly cost his employer, Société Générale, $6.86 billion for uncovered transactions, more than just a financial scandal was revealed. The case was also concrete proof, should any have been needed, that the French no longer matched their mythic status as a profit-eschewing, socially minded alternative...
...systems "are not expected to face a crisis situation," according to a Standard & Poor's report released this month. The primary reason is that the region's banks had little need to dabble in high-risk U.S. mortgage investments. With economies roaring at home, they found ample opportunities for profit. "They had a lot better things to do with their money," says Deborah Schuler, group credit officer at Moody's in Singapore. "There is real growth in Asia and they were financing...
...Alitalia has been in need of a shakeup for years. The company hasn't turned a profit since 1999, forcing the Italian government to set up a series of bailouts that have drawn the ire of European Union competition regulators. In December 2006, then Prime Minister Romano Prodi put the government's 49.9% share of Alitalia on the selling block. Several potential buyers pulled out, and a takeover bid by Air France-KLM was blocked by the unions and the open disdain of then opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi...
Some owners still believe they can profit by remaining in the subsidized housing game. Mark Carbone is the head of the division of New York-based Related Properties that deals with affordable housing. He says his company is well-financed enough to weather the current housing bust and continue to offer low-cost dwellings. "When we've had the opportunity to opt out, we've chosen to stay in," says Carbone, whose company has holdings in several states. "It doesn't mean we've forfeited a great deal of profit." He says with a strong cash flow, there...
...across the various levers that Treasury has pulled, Brook was hard pressed to say which bailout was the most egregious in Randian terms, but suggested that the takeover of AIG by Treasury and the Federal Reserve was particularly troubling because there is a chance that the government will actually profit from the selective sale of AIG's assets someday. "The Fed might make a lot of money on the AIG deal," he said. "We're turning the Federal Reserve into a hedge fund...