President Obama's voice echoed in the majestic rotunda of the Franklin Institute as he lit into the Republicans with fierce urgency.
"We want to move forward and make sure that elections aren't just about $10 million checks being written by folks who have vested interests in maintaining the status quo," Obama said, to applause. "The other side, they don't have any new ideas. . . . What they do have is, they'll have $500 million worth of negative ads."
In a note of irony common to modern politics, Obama was in the process of raising campaign cash while decrying its corrosive effects. Three events in the Center City science museum raised nearly $2 million Tuesday night for the president's reelection effort and Democratic committees supporting it.
And that was just after three similar events in Baltimore; by Thursday, Obama was at a star-studded gathering of donors in actress Sarah Jessica Parker's Manhattan home. The insurgent candidate of 2008 who promised to change our politics is now outpacing his modern predecessors in the amount of time raising money.
The people standing in front of the president beneath a marble statue of Benjamin Franklin had paid $250 to $2,500 to hear a fired-up stump speech. Meanwhile, in the Fels Planetarium, some 90 people waited for Obama to address them at a $10,000-a-ticket dinner. And earlier, about 15 people who had each pledged to raise or donate $40,000 got to sit at a table and talk privately with the president for 45 minutes.
"I was pleasantly surprised by the level of enthusiasm and the seriousness with which our donor base took this," said lawyer Kenneth M. Jarin, a cochairman of Obama's 2012 finance committee in Pennsylvania, who helped sell tickets. "They know what's at stake. People understand how much money is being spent by the other side, and that our side has to step up."
But all the hard work of Obama supporters in the months leading up to the Philadelphia events, overseen by Comcast executive vice president David L. Cohen, seemed puny the next day - when casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson gave $10 million to Restore Our Future, a "super PAC" helping Republican Mitt Romney.
Court and regulatory decisions in the last few years have led to unprecedented levels of money as corporations and wealthy individuals pledge to spend hundreds of millions, mostly in support of Republican candidates.
The amount of time presidents spend asking for cash has risen sharply in recent decades, according to Brendan Doherty, a political scientist at the Naval Academy and author of The Rise of the President's Permanent Campaign, to be published in July.
Obama has attended more fund-raising events in the second half of his first term than any of the last six presidents - 166 such events through Friday. In two years before Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection, Reagan attended just three fund-raisers for the Republican National Committee, zero for his own campaign. Bill Clinton, once lionized and derided for his fund-raising prowess, attended 70 campaign-finance events in 1995 and 1996, when he was reelected.
Now, in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, the sums flying around are enormous. Adelson and his wife have given $35 million this year, mostly to a super PAC that backed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's presidential run.
"It's the Wild West, an entirely different dimension," said Larry Makinson, former head of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group. "The bottom line is, it magnifies the power of the 1 percent who've got all the money."
In a sense, Obama kicked off the latest installment of the political arms race in 2008 when he chose to spurn public financing for his campaign, Makinson said. Obama raised about $750 million and swamped the GOP.
This time, Obama got ahead of Romney, out-raising him $197 million to $87 million by March 31. But Romney's donations have outpaced the Democrats since he sewed up the GOP nomination. And that doesn't count super PACs' funds, where Republicans dominate.
People raising cash for Obama here say it is a little harder than four years ago, when the campaign to elect the first black president felt like a movement; one dinner at Cohen's home that year, for instance, raised $6 million. The weak economy has also hurt.
Still, enough donors are eager and able to write big checks. Among those at the $40,000 event, according to several attendees: Jarin; former State Sen. Connie Williams of Montgomery County; Cohen and his wife, lawyer Rhonda Cohen; developer Ron Rubin; Mark Alderman, a lawyer and cochair of Obama's state fund-raising committee; Joseph and Marie Field, who founded the radio broadcasting giant Entercom; and Richard Horowitz, president of RAF Industries, a Jenkintown private-equity firm.
Businesswoman Marsha Perelman attended the $10,000 dinner. She thinks Obama's approach to government, promising investment in education and other public goods, will be better "in the long run" for business than Romney's promises to slash regulations, government, and taxes.
As is customary, a few reporters were ushered in to record Obama's opening remarks. Then the press was shooed away as the president said he'd take questions.
Perelman, who chairs the Franklin Institute board, said Obama didn't drop any bombshells in the planetarium dinner, but it was still revealing.
"One of the questions asked referred to how difficult it is to get the president's message across," Perelman said. "He made a terrific reference to how hard it is to cut through a news cycle that is a nanosecond long: During the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy did not announce the invasion until 13 days later. He had time to figure out what happened, and 70 percent of the nation tuned in when he went on television.
"President Obama said that if that happened today, within two minutes somebody would have tweeted about it. And the highest audience he ever gets for a speech, the State of the Union, is 10 percent of the population."
Contact Thomas Fitzgerald
at 215-854-2718, tfitzgerald@phillynews.com or @tomfitzgerald on Twitter. Read his blog, "The Big Tent," at www.philly.com/bigtent.
Act now to get your free money - Stuff
OPINION: Some people are putting too much into KiwiSaver – arguably, anyway.
Meanwhile, others contribute nothing or too little to get the most out of the scheme, and would be rewarded for taking steps to change that in the next two weeks.
First, the "too muchers". A recent survey by Mercer found that 44 per cent of salaried people contribute 4 per cent of their pay to KiwiSaver, even though the current minimum is 2 per cent. A further 6 per cent – twice as many are men as women – contribute 8 per cent of their pay.
I suspect many of those who contribute 4 per cent joined KiwiSaver near the start, when that was the minimum employee contribution, and they haven't changed since. Years ago they adjusted to having that much less in their pockets, and they like seeing their account balances grow steadily.
There's nothing really wrong with putting in more than you have to.
It's just that normally you can't get the money out until you reach NZ Super age.
Some people like that inaccessibility. They reckon they would spend the money if they could get their hands on it. But the counter-argument is that they can't predict when they might really need money.
While you can withdraw KiwiSaver money if you strike financial hardship or serious illness, there are some fairly big hoops to jump through to get it. And what if a family member needs the money? Or – on a more positive note – what if a relative or friend has a great idea for a business start-up that you would like to support?
Here's a suggestion: If you like the KiwiSaver fund you're in, ask your provider if they have a similar non-KiwiSaver fund, with similar fees. Many do. You could cut back your KiwiSaver contributions to 2 per cent of pay – rising to 3 per cent next April when the minimum rises – and put the rest into the alternative fund. Set it up so the money is transferred to the alternative fund the day after payday. And promise yourself you won't touch it unless it's for a good reason. It's not as if you'll be able to access it easily through an ATM.
Take care with this idea, though, if you earn less than $52,150.
You'll need to contribute more than 2 per cent of your pay if you want your annual contributions to total at least $1043, so you get the maximum $521 tax credit. You can deal with this by sending deposits directly to your provider before June 30 each year.
What about KiwiSavers who contribute too little? A full 45 per cent were classified as non-contributors in the Financial Markets Authority's annual report on KiwiSaver last year – up from 40 per cent the previous year and 23 per cent the year before that.
Given that non-contributors were defined as people who hadn't deposited money in the previous two months, the 45 per cent would include some non-employees who contribute once a year. It would also include under-18s, who don't get the tax credit and so have less incentive to contribute.
But there must be many others who are on contributions holidays. If that's you, I urge you to try to contribute at least something before June 30. Having your money boosted by 50c for every dollar you deposit is a big plus.
Similarly, non-employees who are free to contribute any amount whenever they like should try to get up to $1043 into their account by the end of June.
It's not every day that the government hands out money. Get your share.
Mary Holm is a freelance journalist, part-time university lecturer, member of the Financial Markets Authority board, director of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, seminar presenter and bestselling author on personal finance (see www.maryholm.com). Her opinions are personal. Mary's advice is of a general nature, and she is not responsible for any loss that any reader may suffer from following it.
You can contact her at mary@maryholm.com, or by mail care of this newspaper. Please name the newspaper in which you read this column.
- © Fairfax NZ News
Finance expert Martin Lewis secures TV deal - Daily Record
Islamic finance: Notion of stewardship imbues business ethics - Financial Times
Since the start of the global economic crisis in 2008, financial education has been under increased scrutiny from those dissecting what went wrong. Who, after all, had trained the perpetrators of the crisis? Were the “masters of the universe” ever taught about ethics? And if not, why not?
Training in Islamic finance, which was already gaining in popularity pre-crisis, has grown from strength to strength, as it has developed a reputation as a haven of common sense and relative security in uncertain times.
At least two of the causes of the crisis – gharar (risk) and gambling – are banned by sharia (Islamic law).
“Several of the ethical lapses which occurred in the financial sector are prohibited in Islam,” says Omneya Abdelsalam, the director of the El Shaarani Research Centre for Islamic Business and Finance and the director of the MSc in Islamic Finance at Aston Business School. “[The crisis] highlighted the resilience of Islamic banks.”
She says that religious beliefs, not limited to Islam, can help leaders be more responsible in business.
“The belief in God, and that absolute ownership of everything is solely His, brings with it an acute level of responsibility and accountability based on the notion of stewardship, which is equally placed on each individual, given that all mankind is believed to be equal before God.
“Such beliefs have a direct and powerful impact on the way business is conducted.”
This “notion of stewardship” or khalifa, common to all Abrahamic faiths but particularly central to Islam, overlaps considerably with corporate social responsibility and transparency, two areas that have enjoyed a post-crisis boom.
Dr Abdelsalam says khalifa manifests itself in Islamic businesses “through fulfilling social responsibility of the business to the best of its capabilities, including fair treatment of employees, care for the environment and customers, and fulfilling the obligation towards shareholders and other stakeholders, through wise use of financial resources”.
At Aston, the Masters in Islamic finance encourages students to think about ethics in every module, be it accounting, contract law, or conventional finance modules.
Cedomir Nestorovic, a professor of Islamic business and management at the Singapore campus of Essec, a French business school, agrees that Islamic finance courses need to address these issues.
He says: “A course about Islamic finance should not be teaching financial techniques alone. There must be a part dealing with religious and ethical issues, explaining the rationale behind the industry.”
Prof Nestorovic adds that elements such as marketing and management must also become more integral parts of Islamic courses, so that they increase their breadth.
One criticism aimed at Islamic finance instruments and banks, or Islamic finance divisions within conventional banks, is they do not embrace the spirit of sharia, but try to find ways round it, in an emulation of conventional finance.
“There is a trend to consider Islamic finance as a ‘cosmetic’ industry where products and services are conventional ones with an Islamic veneer, the only purpose to obtain clearance from thesharia board,” says Prof Nestorovic.
The danger is that Islamic finance, in trying to become more popular, loses its firm roots in religion and ethics.
Some Islamic scholars, adds Prof Nestorovic, “consider that Islam finance does not exist because riba (interest, banned under sharia) is embedded in contracts, even if it is not labelled as such”.
“There is also a certain disagreement between Islamic countries about the definition of a tangible asset and some accounting principles.
“All in all, there is a gap between what is taught and realities for a certain number of observers,” says Prof Nestorovic.
PRESS DIGEST: Financial Times - June 18 - Reuters UK
LONDON, June 17 |
LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) -
AXA RAISES $7 BLN FUND FOR BUYOUT DEALS
The investment arm of French insurance group AXA has raised $7.1 billion from outside investors to buy stakes in buyout funds from investors looking to cash out.
here#axzz1y4ilXVyK
EX-RBS HEAD URGES END TO FREE ACCOUNTS
Brian Hartzer, the outgoing head of retail at RBS, said in an interview that the current model of free bank accounts in Britain needs to be reformed.
here#axzz1y4ilXVyK
GROWTH DEMAND SPLITS BANK COMMITTEE
British finance minister George Osborne's demand that the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee should support government growth policy has divided the committee.
POLICY 'PARALYSIS' HITS GLOBAL RECOVERY
Confidence in the ability of policy makers to provide conditions for growth has been dented, stalling the global recovery, according to the FT/Brookings Institution Tiger Index.
here#axzz1y4ilXVyK
SNP SET TO DROP OPPOSITION TO NATO
The Scottish National Party is set to announce at its October conference that it will reverse 30 years of opposition to NATO membership for Scotland.
here#axzz1y4ilXVyK
(Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Joseph Radford)
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