Article: Indian-Origin Husband Of Ex-Amazon Employee Jailed For Securities Fraud In US

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Indian-Origin Husband Of Ex-Amazon Employee Jailed For Securities Fraud In US

Press Trust of India, 14 June 2021

Washington: The Indian-origin husband of a former Amazon employee has been sentenced to 26 months in prison by a US court for securities fraud and illegally making a profit of USD 1.4 million by using inside trading information from his wife.

Viky Bohra, 37, from Bothell, Washington state, pleaded guilty in November 2020, admitting that between 2016 and 2018, he used Amazon inside information he obtained from his wife, an Amazon finance employee, to place trades in Amazon stock-making a profit of $1.4 million, acting US Attorney Tessa M Gorman said. Continue reading “Article: Indian-Origin Husband Of Ex-Amazon Employee Jailed For Securities Fraud In US”

Article: Hedge Funds Bet On Higher Oil Prices

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Hedge Funds Bet On Higher Oil Prices

Tsvetana Paraskova, 05 May 2021

Money managers intimate a growing confidence that oil prices have room to run higher this year, thanks to expectations of a robust economic rebound and rising global demand for crude.

Last week, hedge funds added the most bullish positions in the oil complex in more than two and a half months, with the net long in crude oil futures jumping to the highest in six weeks. Continue reading “Article: Hedge Funds Bet On Higher Oil Prices”

Article: ‘America First’ clashes with India’s bid for strategic autonomy

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‘America First’ clashes with India’s bid for strategic autonomy

P.K.Balachandran, 01 May 2021

Colombo, May 1: India and the US have designated themselves as “strategic partners” with political, economic and military dimensions to the relationship. But the partnership has kept coming under strain.

The reasons are two-fold: Firstly, its contours are not defined. Secondly, Washington’s ‘America First’ policy and its tendency to pursue a foreign policy almost exclusively in its own immediate interest, clashes with India’s penchant for maintaining ‘strategic autonomy’ despite its increasing economic and military dependence on the US. Continue reading “Article: ‘America First’ clashes with India’s bid for strategic autonomy”

Article: India Penalizes Amex, Diners For Flouting Data-Storage Rules

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India Penalizes Amex, Diners For Flouting Data-Storage Rules

Jeanette Rodrigues, 23 April 2021

The Reserve Bank of India restricted American Express Banking Corp. and Diners Club International Ltd. from adding new local customers, citing non-compliance with data-storage rules.

The order will take effect May 1 and won’t impact existing customers, the RBI said in a statement Friday. Continue reading “Article: India Penalizes Amex, Diners For Flouting Data-Storage Rules”

Article: Who’s manipulating the currency, US?

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Who’s manipulating the currency, US?

ET Edit, 22 April 2021

America’s decision to place India on its currency manipulator’s watchlist is ludicrous. The US Fed’s policy of keeping interest rates ultra-low, along with America’s allies in Europe and Japan, is responsible for both the dollar’s plunge and surging flows of capital to emerging markets, like India, in search of reasonable returns. These capital inflows make the rupee appreciate out of line with real economy concerns. Seen from India’s perspective, the US should be pointing fingers at itself when it comes to currency manipulation.

The US uses three benchmarks to judge currency manipulators: a bilateral surplus with the US of over $20 billion, a current account surplus of at least 3% of GDP and net purchases of foreign currency of 2% of GDP over a 12-month period. India met the first and the third benchmarks while its current account surplus has been below the threshold level. The country has a marginal current account surplus due to the Covid-induced economic contraction that dented imports. Else, India consistently has run a current account deficit (barring in 2004). Continue reading “Article: Who’s manipulating the currency, US?”

Article: India does not see logic in U.S. putting it on currency watchlist

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India does not see logic in U.S. putting it on currency watchlist

Reuters, 20 April 2021

India does not see any logic in the United States putting it on a monitoring list of currency manipulators, a trade ministry official said on Tuesday.

“I don’t understand any economic logic,” Anup Wadhawan, India’s commerce secretary told reporters. The Reserve Bank of India is following a policy that allows currency movements based on market forces, he said.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department put India along with 10 other economies including Singapore, Thailand and Mexico on the “Monitoring List” that it said required close attention to their currency practices. read more Continue reading “Article: India does not see logic in U.S. putting it on currency watchlist”

Article: Amazon calls on India not to alter e-commerce investment rules – sources

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Amazon calls on India not to alter e-commerce investment rules – sources

Aditya Kalra,  25 March 2021

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Amazon asked the Indian government on Thursday not to change e-commerce foreign investment rules until investigations into its business practices had been concluded, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

The commerce ministry met e-commerce players after allegations by retailers, which are a crucial part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s support base, that Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart create complex structures to bypass federal foreign investment rules and damage small traders.

Both companies deny any wrongdoing and say they are helping small businesses in India. Continue reading “Article: Amazon calls on India not to alter e-commerce investment rules – sources”

Article: U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators

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U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators

Reuters Staff, 16 December 2020

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury labeled Switzerland and Vietnam as currency manipulators on Wednesday and added three new names to a watch list of countries it suspects of taking measures to devalue their currencies against the dollar.

In what may be one of the final broadsides to international trading partners delivered by the departing administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Treasury said that through June 2020 both Switzerland and Vietnam had intervened in currency markets to prevent effective balance of payments adjustments.

Furthermore, in its semi-annual currency manipulation report, the Treasury said Vietnam had acted to gain “unfair competitive advantage in international trade as well.” Continue reading “Article: U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators”

Article: Goldman Sachs faces 72 million won fine due to naked short selling

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Goldman Sachs faces 72 million won fine due to naked short selling

Kim Min-jee, 10 April 2019

Goldman Sachs was slapped with fines by financial authorities for illegal short stock selling. According to the Financial Services Commission on April 9, Goldman Sachs India, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, was fined 72 million won for making a naked short selling at a meeting of the Securities and Futures Commission held in February.

Goldman Sachs allegedly made naked short selling for 21 Lotte Chilsung Beverage shares and 18 JW Pharmaceutical shares in October 2017 and January 2018, respectively. Goldman Sachs said, “It is a human error.”

In November last year, the committee also slapped a record 7.5 billion won fine on Goldman Sachs International, a unit of Goldman Sachs, on charges of illegal short stock selling. Continue reading “Article: Goldman Sachs faces 72 million won fine due to naked short selling”

Article: Currency wars and the emerging-market countries

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Currency wars and the emerging-market countries

Richard Portes, 04 November 2010

The headlines shout “currency wars”. The US believes China engages in “currency manipulation”. The authorities hesitate to declare this to the US Congress, and the Secretary of the Treasury says “competitive non-appreciation” instead. China accuses the US of excessively loose monetary policy, flooding the world with liquidity. There is some truth in both charges, but some exaggeration.

This is one of the key issues facing the G20. Exchange-rate pressures, global imbalances and rebalancing, spillovers and the desirability of policy coordination – these are at the centre of the economic interdependence between the developed and emerging market countries. All this is in the context of weak US and European recoveries from the Great Recession, the risk of deflation, and the likelihood of more quantitative easing (QE) by major central banks. Domestic issues and inability to get direct action on exchange rates has led the US to propose internationally agreed targets for current-account imbalances. The wheel goes round – these proposals bear some resemblance to those of Keynes at Bretton Woods, which the US then opposed.

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