Zhou Xiaochuan

Zhou Xiaochuan () (born January 29, 1948) is a retired Chinese economist, banker, reformist and bureaucrat. Zhou served as the Governor of the People's Bank of China from 2002 to 2018. In 2001, his policies led to a stock crash, forcing him to revise his outlooks.
Zhou previously served as Vice-Governor of the People's Bank of China, Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Governor of China Construction Bank, and Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. He retired in 2018.
Early life and education.
Born in Yixing, Jiangsu province, he was the son of Zhou Jiannan and Yang Weizhe (). The elder Zhou was the head of Electric and Industrial Bureau of the North East district in 1949. He later became Vice Minister of First Department of Machinery Development in 1961. During the Cultural Revolution, Zhou Xiaochuan joined the Production and Construction Corps in Heilongjiang province while his father was persecuted.
Zhou Xiaochuan graduated from Beijing Institute of Chemical Technology (now Beijing University of Chemical Technology) in 1975 and received a PhD degree in Automation and System Engineering from Tsinghua University in 1985. From 1987 to 1988, he was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Career.
During the early days of the Cultural Revolution, he worked at a Production and Construction Corps in Heilongjiang province from 1968 to 1972. He was sent to the Beijing Institute of Chemical Technology as a Gong Nong Bing Student (students selected from workers, farmers and military, a common practice of college admissions in the Cultural Revolution) in 1972. After graduating from college in 1976, he was assigned to Beijing Research Center of Automation as an engineer studying large automation systems.
Between 1978 and 1985, he was studying for a master's degree in Industrial Application of System Engineering in China Academy of Machinery Science and Technology and PhD in Science at Tsinghua University.
In 1986, he started working in the State Council of the People's Republic of China on economic restructuring as a member of the Economic Policy Group of the State Council and Deputy Director of the Institute of Chinese Economic Reform Research. He served as Assistant Minister of Foreign Trade from 1986 to 1989 and between 1986 and 1991, he was also a member of the National Committee of Economic Reform. Before the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Zhou was an associate and protégé of Zhao Ziyang, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. In Pillbury's book, Zhou was one of the conservatives that rejected the Russian model of privatization and political reforms (favoured by reformers) and opted for maintaining CPC political control while allowing state owned enterprises to be subjected to market reforms. State owned enterprises were floated on the stock market, influenced with western corporate governance standards as well as transformed into national champions of the Chinese economy. China avoided SOE sold on the cheap to a select few who undoubtedly could become powerful Oligarchs like in the Russian economy.
Between 1991 and 1995, he was executive director and vice president of Bank of China. From 1995, he assumed the position of Administrator of State Administration of Foreign Exchange. From 1996 to 1998, he served both as Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
During 1998 to 2000, he served as president of the China Construction Bank and oversaw the creation of asset-management companies charged with working out the banking system's bad debt. He also played a part in managing China's vast foreign exchange reserves.
From 2000 to 2002, Zhou was the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. While there, he earned the nickname Zhou "Bapi" (), Zhou "the flayer". He targeted corruption in listed companies, angering many small shareholders, who saw their shares fall. In July 2001, Zhou declared his intention to reduce state ownership in the stock market. The stock market quickly went into freefall, forcing him to abandon his plans that October. He emphasized the role of market mechanisms, worked to reduce red tape and aimed to protect retail investors.
People's Bank of China.
In December 2002, he was appointed to his present position by Premier Zhu Rongji as governor of the People's Bank of China and also took over the position of chairman of monetary policy committee of the People's Bank of China from January 2003. In 2010, he was serving his second five-year term.
Zhou was in charge of clearing up some $865 billion of bad loans in the Chinese banking system. He had been under pressure from the finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 countries to revalue the renminbi and change its mechanism of setting exchange rate.
Zhou has published a dozen monographs and over one hundred academic articles in Chinese and international journals, including "Rebuilding the Relationship between the Enterprise and the Bank" and "Social Security: Reform and Policy Recommendations" and his book "Marching toward an Open Economic System."
Financial crisis.
On March 24, 2009, Zhou gave a speech, "Reform the International Monetary System". He argued that the ongoing financial crisis was made more severe by inherent weaknesses of the current international monetary system and called for a gradual move towards using IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) as a centrally managed global reserve currency. He argued that it would address the inadequacies of using a national currency as a global reserve currency, particularly the Triffin dilemma, the dilemma faced by issuing countries in trying to simultaneously achieve their domestic monetary policy goals and meet other countries' demand for reserve currency. Zhou explained global currency diversification was needed because an over concentration of foreign assets denominated in the dollar may bring about undesired consequences. Zhou argued that it was regrettable that John Maynard Keynes's "farsighted" bancor proposal was not adopted at Bretton Woods in the 1940s.
Zhou also asserted China's increasing confidence in its own financial governance philosophies. He criticized Western leaders for letting their banking sectors go astray by loose regulations.
Third term.
In March 2013, Zhou was reappointed as the governor of People's Bank of China. His reappointment came as "China's newly installed political chiefs - headed by Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang." Earlier in Zhou's career, "as a protege of former Premier Zhu Rongji, [Zhou] helped draw up the blueprint to wean the economy off central planning."
During a March 5, 2013 meeting of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Zhou announced the People's Bank of China would deal with the "ramifications of the excessive money supply and will gradually control the new money supply" because of the 2008 fourth quarter financial crisis.
In September 2015, Zhou addressed the G-20 finance meeting in Ankara about the sharp, sustained drop in the Chinese stock market in 2015 and said that the "correction in the stock market is almost done."
In October 2017, Zhou named three reforms he believed were crucial for China's economic future: scrapping capital account controls, letting the market freely decide the yuan's value, and embracing free trade and investment.


Adjutant General of Oklahoma

The Adjutant General of Oklahoma is the highest-ranking military official in the state of Oklahoma, subordinate only to the Governor of Oklahoma. The highest officer of the Oklahoma National Guard, the Adjutant General is the principal advisor to the Governor on military affairs and the head of the Oklahoma Military Department as the Secretary of the Military.
The current state adjutant general of Oklahoma is Major General Michael Thompson. Thompson was appointed by Governor Mary Fallin on November 15, 2017.
Eligibility and appointment.
The adjutant general is appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma, and confirmed by the Oklahoma Senate, to serve at the pleasure of the governor with no set term.
Once appointed, the adjutant general is elevated to the rank of major general.
To be eligible for hold the office of adjutant general, an officer must be federally recognized as being part as of the Oklahoma National Guard and the United States National Guard and must hold at least the rank of colonel for at least three years prior to appointment. However, should the Oklahoma National Guard be federalized and no person in the state meets these requirements, the governor may appoint anyone that meets these requirements that served in the previous ten years with at least two years of federal service at the rank of colonel or higher.
Duties.
The governor is the Commander-in-Chief of the Oklahoma Military with the Adjutant General responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the Military Department of Oklahoma. According to state law, the Adjutant General is subordinate only to the governor and is also his or her principal military adviser. The Adjutant General is responsible for the supervision of direction of the Oklahoma National Guard when in the service of the state at the direction of the governor. The Adjutant General is also responsible for the organization, training and other activities of the National Guard. As the second highest commander in the state, the Adjutant General is responsible for carrying into effect the orders of the governor as Commander-in-Chief. The governor may proscribe “other military and defense duties” to the Adjutant General as deemed necessary.
As the head of the Military Department, the Adjutant General has full control over funds allotted to the National Guard armories. Funds are controlled, deposited, expended and accounted for at the sole direction of the Adjutant General. The Adjutant General may order any record kept at individual armories audited at his discretion. Also, the Adjutant General is the Trustee of the Military Department and may act as such when accepting funds, land, or property to be used for the National Guard. When building new armories, the Adjutant General appoints a three-member board that selects all architects and contractors for the project.
The Oklahoma Legislature authorizes the Adjutant General to commission a state police force under OS title 44, section 230. To protect the Oklahoma Military Department's assets and personnel, the Adjutant General may commission state police officers to the " Oklahoma Military Department Police" to serve in that function. The Oklahoma Military Department Police, with the sole exception of the serving or execution of civil process, shall retain all the powers vested by law as state peace officers. The Oklahoma Military Department Police is a state law enforcement agency that satisfies the criteria for Posse Comitatus. The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 18, 1878, with the intention of substantially limiting the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The act prohibits members of the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, and state National Guard forces from exercising law enforcement powers, including those that maintain "law and order" within the United States.
The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the act. The Oklahoma Military Department Police satisfies this stringent criterion. Officers sworn to this office are non-military, civilian state law enforcement personnel.
The Adjutant General is granted the power to lease to any person(s), company(s), or agency(s), the armories of the State, with contracts not to exceed one year. The contract may be terminated by order of the Adjutant General after a written notice of 30 days is given to the other parties in the contract. If legal action is necessary, the Adjutant General can order the Attorney General of Oklahoma to investigate the claims.
The governor has the power to allow National Guardsmen to voluntarily serve under federal authority in certain instances. At the pleasure of the governor, this power may be delegated to the Adjutant General. The Adjutant General, at the consent of the governor, may assist other states in cooperative enforcement programs.
At the discretion of the Adjutant General, an Oklahoma Recruiting Medal may be awarded to any member of the Oklahoma National Guard who is “personally and solely responsible” for recruiting five new member to the Oklahoma National Guard within one year’s time.
The Adjutant General is the commander of the Oklahoma State Guard when the State Guard is organized and active.
Staff.
The governor may appoint two assistants to serve under the adjutant general, an assistant adjutant general to manage the Army National Guard of Oklahoma and an assistant adjutant general to manage the Air National Guard of Oklahoma.
Both assistant adjutant generals serve under the rank of brigadier general and at the pleasure of the governor. The assistant adjutant generals are the highest official within their respective branch, only under the adjutant general and the governor.
Within the Department of the Military, the adjutant general may appoint employees of the Military Department to the position of executive assistant and program manager to assist him in running the Military Department.
Salary.
As of 2010, the annual salary of the adjutant general is set at $162,598.


Security and Intelligence Division

The Security and Intelligence Division (SID) is the external intelligence agency of Singapore responsible for gathering and analysing intelligence related to the country's external security. Although it is within the Ministry of Defence, it has a certain independence in that it is not under the control of either of the Permanent Secretaries of Defence. It is also highly secretive as most of its personnel are known only to Singapore's top officials.
The SID is led by a director, who holds the rank equivalent of Permanent Secretary and reports directly to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). In the 1970s, the director reported directly to the Defence Minister. The SID had the post of deputy director, which was held by Lim Chye Heng in 1975.
History and activities.
The SID shared a similar background to its domestic counterpart, the Internal Security Department (ISD). In the aftermath of 1915 Singapore Mutiny, to collect the political intelligence, espionage, and the surveillance of potential subversives, a political intelligence bureau was established in Singapore under direct command and control of Major General Dudley Howard Ridout, General-Officer-Commanding (GOC) Singapore, which eventually became the Criminal Intelligence Department (Special Branch) in 1919. Before 1965, Singapore's primary intelligence agency was the Malaysian Special Branch. After Singapore gained independence in 1965, the Ministry of Interior and Defence was directed to reorganise and consolidate all intelligence capabilities in January 1966. The SID was subsequently established in February 1966, with Tay Seow Huah as its first Director. In 1974, S. R. Nathan, who was then the SID Director, led a negotiation team to help resolve the Laju hostage crisis.
As the SID is a highly secretive organisation, information about its activities is only released occasionally to the media. In 2001, Yap Chuin Wei, a reporter from "The Straits Times", interviewed a former SID officer on the agency's work. The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the SID works in three main ways: collection of information, analysis of information, and informal diplomacy. The SID was also mentioned in Lee Kuan Yew's book "From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000", in which it is said to have played a role in providing weapons to anti-communist forces in Cambodian Civil War in the 1970s. The SID also played a role in rebuilding Singapore's relations with Indonesia after the Konfrontasi ended in 1966. Tim Huxley wrote a short history of the SID in his book "Defending the Lion City: The Armed Forces of Singapore", which was published in 2000.
The former SID officer interviewed by Yap said that SID officers rarely receive public awards due to security and political concerns. They are awarded a set of medals equivalent to the National Day medals instead but their names are not publicised.
In 2004, the National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS) was set up under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to deal with security threats and terrorism. This meant that the SID and the ISD, which previously worked independent of each other, had to share information for the first time.
In August 2013, it was alleged that the SID cooperated with the Australian Signals Directorate to tap the undersea fibre optic telecommunications cables that link Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Directors.
The following is a list of known Directors of the SID.
In fiction.
The SID has occasionally been depicted in fiction. In an episode of the fictional television series, The Blacklist, the SID is mentioned amongst other well-known intelligence agencies including the CIA, KGB, and MI6 as having contracted out hits on its own agents who have since become "liabilities". The episode begins with a Chinese woman (presumably meant to be a SID agent) being covertly assassinated in what appears to be a shopping mall in Singapore.


International Development Enterprises

iDE, formerly International Development Enterprises, is an international nonprofit organization that promotes a business approach to increasing income and creating livelihood opportunities for poor rural households. iDE was founded in 1982 by Paul Polak, a Denver, Colorado psychiatrist who promoted the concept of helping poor people become entrepreneurs instead of simply giving them handouts. Originally, iDE was devoted to the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of affordable, scalable micro-irrigation and low-cost water recovery systems throughout the developing world. iDE facilitates local manufacture and distribution of these products through local supply chains that sell to farmers at an affordable price which they can repay in one growing season. This strategy allows farmers to grow higher value and surplus crops, and in turn links them to high-value crop markets where they can realize profits from their higher yields. Recently, their success is in the promotion of sanitation products (simple latrines, ceramic water filters) to decrease the practice of open defecation leading to diarrheal disease.
iDE has funding affiliates in the United Kingdom, and Canada. The head office is located in Denver, United States.
Overview.
iDE distinguishes its approach from traditional charity models, describing its approach as creating an enabling environment for poor rural households to participate effectively in rural market systems so they may increase their income and begin an upward spiral out of poverty. The organization promotes specific innovations in products, services, or business models as solutions to development problems. Three-quarters of people living in extreme poverty earn their living from small farms, and experience has shown that this market-based approach can help poor rural farmers increase their agricultural productivity, improving incomes, food security, and nutritional outcomes. In water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), iDE helps develop local businesses that supply latrines and water filters to low-income households in a manner that allows for the generation of profit along the supply chain while maintaining a price appropriate for poor households. iDE measures its success as average income gain per household (impact), number of farmers reached (scale) and total additional income generated per dollar (cost effectiveness). For every $1 invested in its projects, iDE customers generate on average $10.50 in additional household income in agriculture and $16.30 in increased savings in WASH.
iDE currently operates country programs in Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Zambia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua and Honduras. The organization employs nearly 1,000 total staff worldwide and had budget of $25 million in 2015. With funding from more than 110 donors, including USAID, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, SDC, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CIDA, DFID, and the World Bank, iDE has implemented more than 275 projects worldwide.
Agriculture development.
iDE invests in the design and initial promotion of affordable irrigation equipment, such as pumps, drip systems, and water storage, and engages the private sector to sustain the necessary supply chains. iDE also implements integrated value chain development approaches that focus on supporting existing enterprises to supply and market appropriate farm inputs, provides technical and business advice for small producers, and improves smallholder farmers’ market access. iDE developed an innovative business model to provide high-quality agricultural inputs and technical advice to poor farmers through commission-based sales agents known as Farm Business Advisors (FBA). iDE provides support to FBAs through training, bulk purchasing power, credit access, market information, and promotion while ensuring standards for product and service quality are maintained. FBAs then analyze individual farms to identify opportunities and match them with the appropriate inputs. FBAs sell the inputs at a profit and provide technical advice during visits throughout the growing season.
Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
iDE also pioneered market-based approaches in the WASH sector that incorporate private-sector, NGOs, and government stakeholders. Developing markets for sanitation improves rural sanitation at scale by connecting consumers with products and services that they want and can afford. This approach avoids the use of direct subsidies for hardware or installation, instead creating demand for sanitation products and services by promoting them through innovative means that align with the goals and aspirations of the target market. Sanitation marketing also develops sustainable businesses to supply those products and services to low-income households in a manner that allows for the generation of profit along the supply chain while maintaining a price point appropriate for poor households.
Technology.
Treadle pumps.
The treadle pump is a foot-powered water pump developed in the 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes. In the 1980s, iDE initiated a campaign to market the pumps to smallholder farmers. Over the course of 12 years, 1.5 million treadle pumps were purchased, increasing the purchasers' incomes by $150 million annually. The cost of the treadle pump program was $12 million, compared with conventional dam and canal systems which would have cost $1.5 billion to irrigate a similar area. The treadle pump program in India won an Ashden Award in 2006.
Drip irrigation.
Although drip irrigation is not a new technology, iDE has made major strides in breaking down the costs of irrigation systems to make them affordable and more usable (i.e., by encouraging manufacturers to sell kits sized for one acre farms) to low-income farmers. Micro-irrigation has enormous potential, as it uses 30%-60% less water than traditional methods, reduces salinization, delivers water directly to the roots of crops, and increases yields by 5%-50%.
Ceramic filters.
iDE has also promoted the use of ceramic water filters in countries such as Cambodia. Ceramic water filters can significantly improve household water quality (up to 99.99% reduction in E. coli) and can be manufactured locally and sold for under US$10.
Country programs.
iDE has country programs in 3 continents and 11 countries:
Asia
Africa
Latin America
Impact and awards.
As of late 2016, iDE estimates that it has improved incomes for more than 26 million people and catalyzed the commercial distribution of some 2.5 million irrigation technologies, which, on average, produce $150 of additional income annually. Over the last five years, iDE has facilitated the sale of 222,000 WASH technologies, benefiting over 1 million people, improving health and saving money previously spent on treatment. The income or savings from these interventions allows families to invest in nutrition, healthcare, education and additional business activities.
iDE has received a number of awards, including being named #33 in the NGO Advisor Top 500 World NGOs. (In previous years, iDE was #36 (2015), #36 (2014), #30 (2013), and #75 (2012).) Guidestar listed iDE as one of the top 16 nonprofits working in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector. iDE received the 2012 Dubai International Award for Best Practices (DIABP) for its sanitation marketing approach and the AGFUND International Prize for Pioneering Human Development Projects in 2009 for its PRISM approach. iDE Cambodia was the first recipient of the 2010 Nestle Prize in Creating Shared Value for its Farm Business Advisors program. The InterAmerican Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) through its Agricultural Innovation Network Project (Red SICTA) selected iDE for the best adaptive technology regarding climate change.
Charity Navigator currently gives iDE a rating of 94/100.


Vladimir Guerrier

Vladimir Ivanovich Guerrier (; – 30 June 1919) was a Russian historian, professor of history at Moscow State University from 1868 to 1904. As the founder of the "Courses Guerrier", he was a leading instigator of higher education for women in Russia.
He was also a member of the Moscow City Duma, the State Council of Imperial Russia and the Octobrist Party.
Guerrier's name is sometimes transliterated from the Cyrillic into the Roman alphabet as Ger'e, but he himself preferred Guerrier. When publishing works in German, he used the form W. I. Guerrier (the "W" representing "Wladimir").
Life.
Born in 1837 in Khovrino, a suburb of Moscow, Guerrier was descended from Huguenot immigrants to Russia who had moved from Hamburg. An uncle, Jean François Guerrier, otherwise Frantz Ivanovitch Guerrier, had arrived in the time of Catherine the Great to work as a millwright. Guerrier lost both parents as a small child and was brought up by relations as a Lutheran. He received his secondary education in Moscow at the parish school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peter and Paul on Kozmodemyansk Street, now Starosadskiy Lane. In 1854 he entered the historical-philological faculty of the Moscow State University, where he was a student of Granovsky. Upon completing this course, he was retained by the university to prepare for a professorship, and at the same time he became a teacher of literature and history to the first Moscow Cadet Corps. In 1862, he defended his master's thesis: "The struggle for the Polish throne in 1733", and then travelled abroad, spending three years in Germany, Italy and Paris. In 1865 he was elected a professor in the department of general history at Moscow University and began teaching there. Guerrier was a lifelong friend of the philosopher Vladimir Solovyov.
A strong campaigner for the independence of universities, in an article in "Vestnik Evropy" in 1876, Guerrier expressed the opposition of most Russian university professors in attacking proposals by Liubimov to transplant important features of the German system of university education into Russia. In 1879, Count Dmitry Tolstoy abolished the professors' disciplinary courts, but the subsequent University Statute of 1884 proved unworkable and had to be repealed.
Guerrier was not considered an impressive public speaker. One writer has called him "prolix, fairly boring", contrasting him with a riveting performance by Kovalevsky.
Guerrier wrote in Russian, German, and French. His study of Mably and Jacobinism appeared in French in 1886 and was published in Paris, while a major work on Leibniz appeared in German. Critics have suggested that he turned to the French Revolution "to stigmatize opponents of the Russian monarchy".
Guerrier died in 1919 and is buried in Moscow at the Pyatnitskaya cemetery.
His daughter Elena Vladimirovna Guerrier (1868–1943), who became a schoolteacher, worked also as a translator.
Higher Courses for Women.
In Moscow, in 1872, with the consent of Count Dmitry Tolstoy, the Russian Minister of Education, Guerrier founded the Higher Courses for Women ("vysshie zhenskie kursy", or "Courses Guerrier"), and headed them until 1905. In his lifetime, the courses developed into the Second Moscow State University.
Guerrier's concern for the education of women was primarily with training good conversationalists, mothers, and schoolteachers, and he advised one new class to avoid politics. He showed a paternalistic attitude towards women, long after they had shown they could master university-level courses. However, after Tolstoy had refused to give graduates of the courses teaching rights, in 1876 and 1877 Guerrier petitioned the minister to change his mind, arguing that a growing number of unmarried women were without families to support them, so that there was an economic imperative for employment rights for such women.
At one point there was controversy about Guerrier among the "kursistki", as the female students were known. The cry went up "Let's catcall Guerrier!" after it had been alleged that as director of the Higher Courses he had treated women "like an Oriental despot". This charge, described in Guerrier's defence as "an absurd and malicious slander", caused a bitter division between two rival groups of women known as the 'politicians' and the 'academics'.
Political life.
By his own account, during his student years Guerrier was a radical, but he began his academic career as a liberal. After the assassination of Alexander II on , he became a conservative, with the German historian Hecker calling him "a conservative-liberal Westernizer". In 1905, he joined the Octobrists.
In the 1870s, Russian liberals like Guerrier and Chicherin accused Karl Marx of being narrowly concerned with the proletariat and indifferent to the entrepreneur's more important "psychic labour".
From 1876 Guerrier was active in the Moscow City Duma, making social welfare his special field of expertise. He was seen as a member of the "educated" group of members, and on one occasion remarked witheringly on the petty bourgeois members' habits of "bowing humbly to eminent merchants", "preferring silence in debates", and "voting as their leaders told them". He was a member of the Grot Commission on help for the destitute and a founder of 'Guardianship of Work Relief'. In 1894 he was elected to chair a committee responsible for the welfare of the poor.
In 1903, Guerrier and a colleague named Popov, as members of the City Duma, proposed that binding regulations were needed to control the exploitation of waiters and other catering staff by their employers.
After the Russian Constitution of 1906 came into effect, six members of the State Council of Imperial Russia were to be elected to it by the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Guerrier was one of those the Academy appointed that year.


Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Alfred Alexander William Ernest Albert; 15 October 1874 – 6 February 1899), was the son and heir apparent of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He died aged 24 under circumstances still not entirely clear. He was a first cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King George V of the United Kingdom and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
Early life.
Prince Alfred of Edinburgh was born on 15 October 1874 at Buckingham Palace, London. His father was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His mother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, was a daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.
Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, baptised the prince in the Lower Bow Room of Buckingham Palace on 23 November 1874. His godparents were the Queen, the Emperor of Russia (whose son Tsesarevich Alexander stood proxy for him), the German Emperor (for whom Alfred's paternal uncle Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn stood proxy), the German Crown Princess (Alfred's paternal aunt, for whom her sister Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein stood proxy), the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (his paternal grand-uncle, for whom Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein stood proxy), and the Prince of Wales (his paternal uncle).
Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
In 1893, his granduncle, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the elder brother of his paternal grandfather, died without legitimate heirs. Being ineligible under Saxe-Coburg-Gotha house law to succeed to the duchy due to his status as the heir apparent to an existing throne, the Prince of Wales had previously renounced his claim to the ducal throne. Thus, the succession devolved to Alfred's father, who was at that time the Duke of Edinburgh. Alfred thus became the "Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha".
Prince Alfred had lived in Clarence House in the early years of his life with his parents and sisters; after his father's accession to the ducal throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he moved to Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg.
Death.
On 23 January 1899 Maria Alexandrovna and her husband celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at Schloss Friedestein, the Duke's official residence in Gotha. Absent from the festivities was their only son, who was gravely ill.
The exact circumstances of Alfred's death are not known, and varying accounts have been published. His sister Marie's memoirs simply say his health "broke down", and other writers have said that he had "consumption". "The Times" published an account stating he had died of a tumor, while the "Complete Peerage" gives the generally accepted account that he "shot himself".
Various authors have speculated on reasons why he might have killed himself. One author, Frank Bush, claimed to have been a descendant of a secret marriage between Alfred and Mabel Fitzgerald, granddaughter of the 4th Duke of Leinster, and claimed that friction between Alfred and his family over the "secret marriage" was the cause of the suicide. Despite the lack of documentary evidence, and the lack of contemporary reference, other authors have repeated Bush's assertion that Alfred and Mabel married, including John van der Kiste and Bee Jordaan in "Dearest Affie", and the assertion is repeated as fact in the official family history ("Das Haus von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha").
According to rumors, Alfred shot himself with a revolver while the rest of the family was gathered for the anniversary celebration. He survived and was looked after at Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha (Thuringia) for three days before being sent to the Martinnsbrunn Sanatorium in Gratsch near Meran in the County of Tyrol (Austria-Hungary, now Italy). Alfred died there at 4:15 pm on 6 February 1899, aged 24 years. He was buried in the ducal mausoleum of the "", Coburg, Bavaria (southern Germany).
Post his death, Alfred's uncle the Duke of Connaught and his son Prince Arthur of Connaught renounced their succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in July 1899. As a result, his first cousin Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, became heir presumptive.
Titles, styles, honours and arms.
Honours.
He received the following orders and decorations:
Arms.
As a male-line grandson of the British Sovereign, young Alfred bore the royal arms, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, all differenced by a label argent of five points, the odd bearing crosses gules and even anchors azure.


Taxation in Peru

Taxation represents the biggest source of revenues for the Peruvian government (up to 76%). For 2016, the projected amount of taxation revenues was S/.94.6 billion ($29 billion). There are four taxes that make up approximately 90 percent of the taxation revenues:
All these four types of taxes are imposed at the national level. There are also municipal taxes based on an individual’s or household’s residence as well as a municipal property tax and a municipal vehicle tax.
Income tax.
Peruvian income taxes may be divided into 2 large groups:
"Corporate income tax".
The general income tax annual rate for resident entities is 29.5%. In addition to this, resident entities are obliged to make advance payments on a monthly basis by applying a coefficient over the accrued taxable income of the month. Advance payments are to be offset against the annual income tax obligation.
All resident companies are subject to this income tax on their worldwide taxable income. Resident companies are those incorporated in Peru. Branches and permanent establishments of foreign companies that are located in Peru and non-resident entities are taxed only on income from Peruvian sources.
Various significant tax incentives are available for investments in the following areas:
They are available also for investments in manufacturing industries located in the jungles, in designated tax-free zones and in borderline areas of the country. Furthermore, companies involved in certain economic sectors may be subject to special or reduced income tax rates (i.e. companies involved in agriculture, animal husbandry and similar activities are entitled to a 15% rate).
"Personal income tax".
Peru also has an income tax for individuals. Peruvian citizens domiciled in Peru are subject to taxation on their worldwide income. Individuals not domiciled in Peru are only taxed in this country on their Peruvian sourced income.
Foreigners residing or staying in Peru for more than 183 days within any given 12-month period, will be given the status of individuals domiciled in the country from January 1 of the following fiscal year in which the duration of stay expires.
Dividends distributed by companies incorporated or established in Peru, received by individuals, are subject to the following rates:
This, currently valid Dividend Tax rate of 5%, is imposed on distributions of profits to nonresidents and individuals by resident companies and by branches, permanent establishments and agencies of foreign companies.
Value added tax (VAT).
The general rate of VAT is 18% (16% of VAT itself plus 2% of municipal promotion tax). VAT in Peru is generally imposed on the following transactions: sale of movable property, rendering and use of services, construction contracts, first sale of real property (except land) made by builders and the import of goods.
As occurs with many indirect tax systems, to determine the tax payable by the company performing the above-mentioned transactions (output VAT), the VAT paid in the company’s acquisitions is accepted as a tax credit (input VAT). Exporters can recover VAT paid in acquisitions for up to 18 per cent of an export’s free on board (FOB) value.
Companies that have not commenced productive operations with a pre-production stage equal to or longer than two years may resort to a special system to obtain the advanced recovery of the VAT levied on certain acquisitions provided that they execute an investment agreement with the state.
Excise Tax.
Excise tax rates, and the manner on which the tax is applied, depend on the type of goods or services. The specific goods which are subject to excise tax include fuel, cigarettes, beer, liquor, and vehicles.
Tax administration.
The Superintendencia Nacional de Administración Tributaria (SUNAT) (English version: National Superintendency of Tax Administration) is the government administrative body and the most important tax authority responsible for collecting of the national taxes. It means all taxes assigned as public resources of the national government (taxes on income, sales, assets and financial transactions, as well as customs duties), public pensions and health security system contributions.
In addition to this, each of the approximately 1 800 municipalities in Peru is considered as a separate tax authority with respect to municipal taxes (mainly taxes on the ownership and transfer of immovable property, real estate and payment of municipal public services). Tax authorities have discretionary faculties to exercise their auditing duties, which are not conducted on a routine cycle but rather on a variable basis. Larger businesses are usually audited every year, while medium-sized and small businesses may be audited on a biannual or lower frequency rate. However, all Peruvian-resident legal entities must file tax returns and pay taxes both on a monthly and annual basis. The annual tax returns must be filed by the end of March or beginning of April, depending on the taxpayer number.
Double taxation treaties.
Currently, in order to avoid double taxation, Peru has signed and ratified treaties with the following countries: Brazil, Chile, Canada, Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland; and Mexico. All these treaties are largely based on the OECD Model Tax Convention.
Negotiations to conclude tax treaties with Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom, and renegotiations with Spain, still continue.
Peru is also a member of the Andean Community, along with Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia. In this regard, Decision No. 578 is applicable for avoiding double taxation between Andean Community member countries, as well as for preventing tax evasion. Decision No. 578 prioritizes the taxation at the source, using the exemption method.


David M. Malone

David M. Malone, born in 1954, is a Canadian author on international security and development, as well as a career diplomat. He is a former president of the International Peace Institute, and a frequently quoted expert on international affairs, especially on Indian Foreign Policy and the work of the UN Security Council. He became president of the International Development Research Centre in 2008 and served until 2013. On 1 March 2013, he took up the position of UN Under-Secretary-General, Rector of the United Nations University, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
Education.
David Malone is bilingual in French and in English and passed the French exam "Baccalauréat" in Ecole Saint Martin in Pontoise (France).He holds a degree from l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales (Montreal); studied at the American University in Cairo; holds an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government; and earned a DPhil in International Relations from Oxford University.
Career.
Diplomatic career.
Malone served as a Canadian Ambassador to the UN from 1992 to 1994, after representing Canada on the UN's Economic and Social Council, 1990-92. He was appointed as the Canadian High Commissioner to India, and the non-resident Ambassador to Nepal and Bhutan, 2006-2008.
International Peace Institute.
From 1998 until 2004, when Terje Rød-Larsen took over, he was the president of the International Peace Institute, then known as the International Peace Academy. He has spoken at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
International Development Research Centre.
Malone was president of the International Development Research Centre, a Canadian crown corporation that supports evidence-based and policy relevant research into healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies in the global south, 2008-2013, and became president in July 2008.
Haiti.
Malone has a long-term interest in Haiti, which he visited as part of UN delegations and as a representative of human rights groups. His book "Decision-Making in the UN Security Council: The Case of Haiti" is "an account of the struggle to address the Haiti crisis from 1990 to 1998." A former supporter of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, he was highly critical of the international pressure that resulted in Aristide's ousting, singling out the United States, France, and Canada in a 2004 op-ed piece published in the "International Herald Tribune" and "The New York Times". In an interview with the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung", he expressed mixed optimism that a lengthy (15 to 20 years) international involvement might bring about positive change, but lamented the lack of interest in "Paris, Washington, or even Ottawa" in a long-term strategy. In an op-ed piece in "The New York Times" written with Kirsti Samuels (also of the International Peace Institute) published in July 2004, he advocated an international commitment to long-term nation-building for Haiti.
Malone has written a survey of Indian Foreign policy published in 2012, and co-edited, with C. Raja Mohan and Srinath Raghavan a wide-ranging collection of essays for Oxford University Press on the same topic primarily by Indian authors, including many young ones. He is one of the foreign scholars most often cited on India's international relations.
United Nations University.
Malone was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as Rector of the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo on 3 October 2012. He took up this position on 1 March 2013.
Authorship.
Malone has written a number of books, many of them concerned with the United Nations, international development, international security and Indian foreign policy. He frequently published academic chapters and articles in scholarly volumes and journals. As well, he writes regularly for the Literary Review of Canada. Earlier he had written on the political economy of civil wars, on the causes of violent conflict and conflict prevention, on Security Council decision-making, on Haiti and on Iraq.
Malone's "The International Struggle Over Iraq: Politics in the UN Security Council 1980-2005" was nominated for the 2006-2007 Lionel Gelber Prize, an award given annually to the best book on international affairs.


Leslie Bonnet

Group Captain Leslie Bonnet (22 August 1902 – 10 December 1985) was an RAF officer, short-story writer and duck-breeder, creating the Welsh Harlequin Duck, the only true Welsh duck breed.
Early life.
Bonnet was born 1902 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. His father was a bank manager in London's Chancery Lane; his mother was one of the Dudleys, a Staffordshire farming family He succeeded in winning a scholarship to Watford Boys Grammar School, from where he proceeded to St Catharine's College, Cambridge University, in 1920. He studied English and Law, obtaining a double first in 1923.
In the depressed 1920s, graduates were a glut on the market and he took a job selling "Watford" chocolates in Norfolk. He also stood as a Liberal parliamentary candidate in Watford but lost by a small number of votes.
Pre-war years.
Bonnet worked for the Bank of England for 15 years. In 1928, he married his first wife, Getrude Olive May, and had his first child, Bill, in 1930. In 1935, he was appointed the first full-time editor of the staff magazine – "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Stree"t Under his editorship, it became "a lively, absorbing journal of 200 sleek pages...packed with banking lore, poetry, literary articles, short stories and urbane correspondence, eagerly awaited and read by bankers all over the world." The December issues of the magazine became referred to as: "Uncle Leslie’s Bumper Christmas Annuals" During this period, he also published the "Honorary Secretary's Guide" (1938).
In 1938 he joined the Balloon Barrage, the only military service opened to someone at his advanced age. On 1 May 1939 he left the Bank and was appointed an acting pilot officer, second in command of E flight of 908 Squadron, Bethnal Green, one of the ten squadrons of barrage balloons in 30 Group of Balloon Command. He was quickly promoted to Flying Officer and then Flight Lieutenant.
War years.
In late autumn of 1939, Bonnet was posted to 30 Group Headquarters in Charlotte near the Middlesex Hospital as one of three Squadron Leader Operations Officers who operated the Balloons and next to 902 Squadron, Blackheath. Late in 1940, he was posted as second in command to 905, the West End Squadron. His next posting was to RAF Bomber Command, Cottesmore, as adjutant. He returned to 30 Group, which was at this time based in Chessington, in 1941. By this time he was Squadron Leader Air, with responsibility for balloon operations, under Wing Commander Barnes. He was given responsibility for the 450 London balloons, for the movement of the numerous extra squadrons of them that they were assembling and seconding overseas; and for the planning and siting of any new barrages that were established at home. Another responsibility was the Channel Convoy; each ship in the convoy flew a balloon from its stern.
In 1942, he was abruptly sent to the RAF Staff College in Gerrards Cross as a student, where he finished top of his class. At the beginning of 1943, he was posted to Stradishall Bomber Base in Suffolk as a Wing Commander where he spent 5 months as the administrative second in command. At this time, he divorced his first wife, Getrude Olive May, and married Joan Hutt, whom he had originally met when she exhibited at the Bank of England.
Chinese mission.
Later in 1943, he was asked by Group Captain "Daddy" Dawes (Head of Officers Postings at Bomber Command) and Air Marshal Saundby to be part of an RAF Training Mission to Chengtu in China under Air Vice Marshal Pattinson. The aim of the mission was to train the Chinese Air Force to operate as an independent service, rather than a branch of the Army as previously. Unofficially, the Chinese invited the British to counteract the influence of the Americans, who were establishing themselves in China in strength. Bonnet worked hard to improve the administration of the service – when he arrived, he found that their filing system consisted of only one file entitled "General Matters". He learnt Chinese and became a great enthusiast for traditional Chinese drama. "At first the Chinese gave him the name 'Pa-nai' (the industrious professor) but soon this was changed to 'Pa-na-ta' (he who is susceptible to every moral influence)" The Mission eventually succeeded in making the Chinese Air Force an effective fighting Force; however, it later deserted to the Communist forces. Bonnet was also briefly captain of the Chinese Air Force football team.
Staff college.
Its work completed, the RAF mission returned to the UK in 1944. On a British aerodrome, the Chinese Ambassador to London awarded Bonnet the rare Order of the Cloud and Banner with Special Rosette "for distinguished services to China" With the rank of Group Captain, Bonnet took up duties as director of studies at the RAF Staff College at Gerrards Cross until demobilisation in October 1947. He was offered the permanent post of adjutant to the Staff College with the peacetime rank of Wing Commander, which he declined.
Short story writer.
In 1949, Bonnet and his wife and family, along with 1,500 ducks and two dogs, moved to Criccieth in North Wales, where they had bought a ramshackle manor house with about 25 acres. They had 5 children including Lesley (b. 1944), Villette (b. 1945), Alice (b. 1947), Caroline (b. 1948) and Tom (b. 1950) and later numerous grandchildren.
In his adopted home of Wales, Bonnet had the opportunity to write; he published numerous short stories, principally for "Argosy", as follows:
He also published plays, such as "The Nine Fathers" (1970), which won the Maynard Cup at the Wales Final Festival of One Act Plays in 1969, as well as books such as "Chinese Fairy Tales" (1958). The children's book "The Terrible Nung Guama" (1978) was a retelling of one of his stories. He also acted for a time as area representative of a large unit trust company and in 1963 was acting Hon Secretary, Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales, Caernarvonshire Branch.
Originator of the Welsh Harlequin Duck.
While in Criccieth, Bonnet had the time to further develop his interest in duck breeding. He created a new duck breed, the Welsh Harlequin, from a colour mutation from a flock of Khaki Campbells. It is the only true Welsh breed of duck. Bonnet later created the Whalesbury Duck, a cross between an Aylesbury Duck and a Welsh Harlequin.
As a result of his work with ducks, Bonnet wrote the book "Practical Duck Keeping" (1960), which was regarded as the "bible" of duck-keeping and is still in use even today. The British Waterfowl Association present a prize in his honour every year to someone who has made an outstanding contribution to British waterfowl.
Memorials.
Leslie Bonnet died in December 1985, aged 83. He is buried in Criccieth Cemetery and there is woodland named in his honour close to Ymwlch, as well as a memorial bench on Garth Pier, Bangor. He was described in his obituary as a "countryman...rubicund, well-fleshed but never flabby, and abounding with energy".


2i Rete Gas

Headquartered in Milan, 2i Rete Gas is the second largest gas distribution operator and the only independent player in the gas distribution sector in Italy, with a widespread and diversified network of concession over the whole Italian territory, a market share of approximately 17% and more than 3.8m customers served.
The company is controlled by three infrastructure funds, F2i One, F2i Two (72% combined), an institutional long-term investor, and Ardian (28%), a premium independent private investment company.
In 2013, 2iRG generated €846m revenues (including €116m for IFRIC 12 effect) and €383m EBITDA.
Historical background.
In 2000, 2i Rete Gas appeared for the first time as a player in the gas distribution sector with the acquisition of Colombo Gas; in 2002, also Gruppo Camuzzi (approx. 1,000k clients) was acquired.
Since September 2009, after the acquisition of Enel Rete Gas by F2i and Axa Private Equity (today ARDIAN), the company has significantly grown from 2.1 m to 3.8m clients (in 2012) thanks to an important consolidation process.
In particular, in October 2011 the company's gas networks were reorganized by its shareholders: 2iRG acquired 2iGas Infrastruttura Italiana Gas S.r.l. (formerly E.On Rete S.r.l.), the seventh player in the Italian gas distribution sector (3.2% market share in 2010 in terms of volumes of gas distributed) and G6 Rete Gas S.p.A. (from GdF Suez), the sixth player in the Italian gas distribution sector (4.0% market share in 2010 in terms of volumes of gas distributed).
In December 2013, F2i and Ardian acquired another 14.8% stake in Enel Rete Gas from Enel S.p.A.
As of today, after these acquisitions and an organic growth process, 2i Rete Gas has a market share of 17.2% in terms of volumes of gas distributed with 5.9 billion of m3 of gas distributed and 3.8 million of users in 2,000 municipalities, served through a network of approximately 57,000 km.
The company operates throughout the national territory and has a dominant position in North-West and South-East Italy. The objective of the company is to consolidate and strengthen the Italian gas distribution market, which is currently very fragmented, being organized into aggregations of Ambiti Territoriali Minimi (ATEM).
At the beginning of 2014, Enel Rete Gas was renamed 2i Rete Gas SpA.


Sadharan Bima Corporation

Sadharan Bima Corporation (popularly known as SBC) is the one and only state-owned non-life insurer and reinsurer in Bangladesh under the Ministry of Finance, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Both Sadharan Bima Corporation, the non-life insurer, and Jiban Bima Corporation, the life insurer, were created under the Insurance Corporation Act (Act No. VI) of 1973 of Bangladesh.
History.
For underwriting the non-life insurance business of Bangladesh, Sadharan Bima Corporation was formed by the government in the year 1973. Up until 1984, SBC was the sole insurer of non-life insurance business in the country. In the same year, some private sector non-life insurance companies started operation. Since then, it is providing reinsurance support to private sector non-life insurers. With regard to regulatory control, Insurance Development & Regulatory Authority of Bangladesh regulates all insurance companies in Bangladesh including Sadharan Bima Corporation. Sadharan Bima Corporation is the only insurer of properties owned by Government of Bangladesh. No other private non-life insurance companies are allowed to insure any public property. An agreement between Sadharan Bima Corporation and Bangladesh Insurance Association (BIA) was introduced for stabilizing non-life insurance market under which Sadharan Bima Corporation underwritten 100% Public Property Non-life Business and 50% of it was equally distributed among the private sector non-life insurance companies. Now As per Insurance Corporation Act 2019, under section-16, Sadharan Bima Corporation has solely right to underwrite 100% Public Property Non-life Business and 50% of Business is to be equally distributed among the private sector non-life insurance companies who, on the other hand, compulsorily re-insure half of their re-insurable business with the SBC. SBC has recently been very active in capturing all public sector insurance business, and experts say that this move will definitely enhance the revenue of the corporation.
Management.
The board of directors of SBC consists of 11 member including one part-time chairman. Of the members, 9 are honorary (part-time) and the rest one, the chief executive officer of the company. Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam is the current chairman of Sadharan Bima Corporation. Apart from his teaching job at the University of Dhaka, he has been discharging his duties as Chairman of Sadharan Bima Corporation.
Business performance.
The business performance of SBC in the last decade or so is on an upward trend in comparison with the overall performance of the Bangladesh insurance sector. In the year 2018 SBC has managed to grow its profit by 8%. Moreover, the repeated devastating insured events in the RMG sector of the country, namely 2013 Savar building collapse (Rana Plaza Tragedy), 2013 Standard Garment fire and 2012 Tazreen Fashion factory fire, have adversely impacted the performance of SBC despite sufficient reinsurance protection. It has earned a direct premium of BDT 1909.6  million and BDT 218.92 in the year 2013 and 2012 respectively. Regarding reinsurance premium. it made BDT 6050.7 million in the year 2013 and BDT 5816.0 million in the year 2012.
Sponsor shareholding.
SBC is the sponsor shareholder of Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, Industrial Development and Leasing Company, National Tea Company Limited, National Housing Finance and Investment Ltd, Aramit Ltd, Central Depository BD Ltd. etc. Therefore; the contribution of SBC to the economy of Bangladesh is significant.
Insurance services.
The services provided by Sadharan Bima Corporation include insuring public and private property risks, providing liability insurance coverage, reinsurance of the risk underwritten by private non-life insurers, providing Risk Improvement Services, Industrial Development through Equity participation and Human Resources Development for Insurance Industry. Moreover, Sadharan Bima Corporation itself makes retro-cession to different overseas re-insurers.
Criticism.
The company has faced censure from the Insurance Regulatory Agency for its failure in realisation of outstanding reinsurance premiums worth about Tk 4.0 billion (4 billion).


Hyman A. Pressman

Hyman A. Pressman (April 23, 1914 – March 15, 1996) served as the Comptroller of Baltimore City, Maryland, from 1963–1991. He ran for Governor of Maryland in 1966 as an Independent after the Democratic Party nominated segregationist George P. Mahoney as its candidate.
Pressman's gubernatorial candidacy may have been a spoiler for Mahoney. Had the 10% of the vote received by Pressman instead gone to Mahoney, Spiro Agnew would have lost the 1966 gubernatorial election by a narrow margin. Had Agnew not been elected governor of Maryland in 1966, it is unlikely that he would have been chosen as Richard Nixon's vice-presidential running mate in 1968. Mahoney's support of segregation alienated many liberal Democrats, prompting them to split their tickets by supporting him or the pro-civil rights Agnew.
Pressman lost his first bid for election in the 1963 Baltimore Democratic Primary election for City Comptroller to Henry R. Hergenroeder, Sr. by just over 1,200 votes (less than 1%). Following the election, the Republican Party candidate withdrew and Pressman accepted the Republican nomination as their candidate for City Comptroller. He won the General Election running on a 'ticket' with former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Governor Republican Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, who was elected as Mayor the same year. Pressman returned to the Democratic Party following his victory and won six additional terms as Baltimore City Comptroller.
Involvement in the departure of the Colts.
During the 1970s when the Baltimore Colts owner Robert Irsay and Baltimore Orioles owner Jerold Hoffberger were seeking major upgrades to the outdated Memorial Stadium, or the building of a new stadium, Pressman opposed the use of public money to build a replacement. During the 1974 elections, Pressman had an amendment to the city's charter placed on the fall ballot. Known as Question P, the amendment called for declaring "the 33rd Street stadium as a memorial to war veterans and prohibiting use of city funds for construction of any other stadium." The measure passed 56 percent to 44 percent, effectively destroying any chance of a new, modern sports complex being built in Baltimore.
In 1984, the city's NFL franchise left for Indianapolis. In the next elections, city voters repealed Question P by a measure of 62 percent to 38 percent, paving the way for the construction of both Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Ravens Stadium (later renamed M&T Bank Stadium). Pressman remained as an elected City Comptroller for 28 years (7 terms in a row) until retiring in 1991.


Daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei

The daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei (12 February 528 – ?), whose given name is unknown, was briefly the emperor of Northern Wei (386–534), a Xianbei dynasty that ruled Northern China from the late fourth to the early sixth century AD. She bore the surname Yuan (), originally Tuoba. Yuan was the only child of Emperor Xiaoming (r. 515–528), born to his concubine Consort Pan. Soon after her birth, her grandmother the Empress Dowager Hu, who was also Xiaoming's regent, falsely declared that she was a boy and ordered a general pardon. Emperor Xiaoming died soon afterwards. On 1 April 528, Empress Dowager Hu installed the infant on the throne for a matter of hours before replacing her with Yuan Zhao the next day. Xiaoming's daughter was not recognised as an emperor ("huangdi") by later generations. No further information about her is available.
Birth.
Empress Dowager Hu (d. 528), known posthumously as Empress Dowager Ling, was originally one of Emperor Xuanwu's (483–515, r. 499–515) consorts; she gave birth to his only living heir Yuan Xu (510–528). Following Xuanwu's death, Yuan Xu ascended the throne as Emperor Xiaoming, and Hu was honoured as Consort Dowager, and soon Empress Dowager. Because Emperor Xiaoming was still young, she became his regent. To exert her power as the highest ruler of Northern Wei, she addressed herself as "Zhen" (), a first-person pronoun reserved for use by the emperor after the Qin dynasty. Officials addressed her as "Bixia" (), an honorific used when addressing the emperor directly.
When Emperor Xiaoming grew up, however, his mother refused to hand authority over to him. She successfully eliminated many of her opponents, including favourites of the emperor. The ancient Chinese historians who wrote the official history of the Northern Wei portrayed her as promiscuous. Both her lifestyle and her ruling style elicited widespread dissatisfaction among officials and from her son. Emperor Xiaoming gathered the people to oppose her and executed her lover Yuan Yi (元怿) in 520, causing deep hatred from his mother. After several failed attempts to overthrow the empress dowager, Xiaoming secretly ordered General Erzhu Rong to send troops to the capital Luoyang to coerce her into handing over the authority. When she learned about the plot, she discussed strategies with the officials who supported her.
As these events were occurring, on 12 February 528, Consort Pan, one of Emperor Xiaoming's nine concubines, gave birth to a daughter. Empress Dowager Hu falsely declared that the child was a son; she issued an edict the following day, ordering a general pardon and changing the emperor's reign title from Xiaochang (孝昌) to Wutai (武泰).
Accession and dethronement.
On 31 March 528, Emperor Xiaoming suddenly died in Xianyang Palace (显阳殿). The following day (1 April 528), Empress Dowager Hu declared the 50-day-old baby girl Yuan the new emperor, while she herself continued to be regent. She ordered another general pardon. As the year of Emperor Xiaoming's reign had not ended, the era name was not changed and the name "Wutai" remained in use. Empress Dowager Hu continued to be effectively in power.
Just a few hours later, Empress Dowager Hu issued an edict to dethrone the infant Emperor and declared that Yuan was a girl. She placed Yuan Zhaoson of the deceased Yuan Baohui (元宝晖), Prince of Lintaoon the throne instead. Yuan Zhao ascended the throne on 2 April 528, the day after Empress Dowager Hu issued the edict.
As he was too young to rule, Yuan Zhao was made a puppet emperor under Empress Dowager Hu. The series of events involving her son's death and the installation of the infant girl and the three-year-old Yuan Zhao on the throne occurred to ensure the continuation of her regency.
Outcome.
Because Empress Dowager Hu replaced the emperor in an unbridled manner, General Erzhu Rong sent in troops to overthrow her, stating that she had deceived Heaven as well as the Imperial Court by letting the infant girl succeed to the throne. Erzhu Rong made Yuan Ziyou (507–531) emperor. Not long after, Erzhu Rong sent troops to occupy the capital Luoyang, and Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Zhao were held captive. They were delivered to his camp at Heyin (河阴). Empress Dowager Hu begged him for mercy, but he refused and had her and Yuan Zhao drowned in the Yellow River. Erzhu later killed thousands of Han Chinese officials and their families who had served at the Northern Wei court during her regency. This massacre is known as the Heyin Incident (河阴之变). Erzhu Rong became the highest authority of the empire. From that time on, political power fell into the hands of powerful ministers and warlords. Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai were generals during the Erzhu Rong era who respectively controlled Eastern Wei and Western Wei following the split of the dynasty, while Erzhu controlled the northern part of the empire. This division eventually led to the downfall of the dynasty.
For the acts she committed during her regency, Empress Dowager Hu was discredited and became infamous in history for causing the downfall of the dynasty.
Controversy.
Yuan's status as an emperor ("huangdi") remains controversial and is not recognised by many. Official historical records have never listed her as a legitimate sovereign because she was a puppet under Empress Dowager Hu and reigned for less than a day. She was also an impostor for the throne as a boy. Hence, Wu Zetian remains as the first and only recognised female "huangdi" in Chinese history. Researcher Cheng Yang (成扬) believes that the fact that Yuan was the "first female in history to ascend the imperial throne" cannot be denied despite it being a plot by Empress Dowager Hu. According to Cheng, Wu Zetian was not the only female "huangdi", but the only one to have reigned over the empire. Luo Yuanzhen (罗元贞), another researcher on Wu, thinks that modern historians should not acknowledge Yuan's title as "Huangdi" as ancient Chinese historians did not.
In fiction and popular culture.
Yuan briefly appeared in Chapter 47"Xiao Baoyin's rebellion and capture by Erzhu Rong" () of the "Romance of the Northern and Southern Dynasties" () of Republic of China novelist Cai Dongfan's "Popular Romance of Dynasties" (); the story largely conforms with the historical account.


Malt tax

A malt tax is a tax upon the making or sale of Malted grain, which has been prepared using a process of steeping and drying to encourage germination and the conversion of its starch into sugars. Used in the production of beer and whisky for centuries, it is also an ingredient in modern foods.
Background.
Until the late 19th century, lack of access to clean drinking water meant particularly in urban areas, it was often safer to drink so-called small beer. These had relatively low levels of alcohol and were routinely drunk throughout the day by both workers and children; in 1797, one educationalist suggested for '...more robust children, water is preferable, and for the weaker ones, small beer ...'.
This meant malt was seen as an essential part of dietary health for the poor and taxing it caused widespread dissent.
Taxation.
In England, malt was first taxed in 1644 by the Crown to help finance the English Civil War.
Article 14 of the 1707 Acts of Union between England and Scotland agreed the malt tax would not be applicable in Scotland until the conclusion of the 1701-1713 War of the Spanish Succession. After the Peace of Utrecht in April 1713, Parliament voted to extend the tax, despite protests from the 45 Scots Members of Parliament, which reflected general discontent on the impact of Union. At a meeting with Queen Anne on 26 May, a deputation that included the Earl of Mar and Duke of Argyll asked her to dissolve the Union, which was refused.
According to William Cobbett, this tax contributed to inequality, poverty, and malnutrition in England, as it created a monopoly for malting and brewing, preventing ordinary householders from brewing their own nutritious beer for everyday use.


Helmut Schlesinger

Helmut Schlesinger (born 4 September 1924 in Penzberg) is a German economist and former President of the Bundesbank.
Education.
After his military duty, he studied economics at the University of Munich, from where he graduated with a Diplom in 1948, and with a Dr. oec. in economics in 1951.
Career.
He entered the German Central Bank in 1952 and ascended rapidly to the position of a department head. In 1964, he was appointed Director of Economics and Statistics, and became a member of the executive board in 1972. He served as deputy chairman from 1980 to 1991 and as President of the German Central Bank from 1991 to 1993. Schlesinger has been a distinguished honorary professor at the German University of Administrative Sciences. He is currently an advisor to IDEAglobal Group, a global financial research organisation.
Awards.
He is a member of the Orders of Merit and of Chivalry of Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, and Luxembourg.


William C. Wilson (New York politician)

William C. Wilson was an American lawyer and politician.
He was the Republican boss of the Twenty-Seventh Assembly District in New York City, and had a law office at 55, Liberty Street.
On May 3, 1900, he was appointed by Comptroller William J. Morgan one of the first five New York State Transfer Tax Appraisers for New York County under the new transfer tax law. He was First Deputy Comptroller under Otto Kelsey, and became Acting Comptroller upon Kelsey's resignation in May 1906. After months of delay, he finally was appointed New York State Comptroller by Governor Frank W. Higgins on November 8, 1906, to serve for the remainder of Kelsey's unexpired term.