Business stuff from the weeks 23/7 - 12/8/12

Apple has accrued tens of billions of dollars, that have gone untaxed, and are sitting in non-US accounts, while they lobby the US government to change the law, so that they don't have to pay any tax on it!
This is why there is a campaign to change the world's tax regimes, so that revenue is taxed according to where it came from. This way, companies can not have limbo money, that is taxed by neither source nor destination.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-apple-phantom-taxes-billions-profit.html
The campaign:
http://www.tackletaxhavens.com/the-solutions/

Don't forget that companies like Apple really are, each, soaking billions of dollars out of the world's societies, every year. And paying very little tax on any of it. If at all.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-apple-profit-bn.html
http://www.accountancylive.com/croner/jsp/Editorial.do?channelId=-601050&contentId=2211233&Failed_Reason=Session+not+found&Failed_Page=%2fjsp%2fEditorial.do&BV_UseBVCookie=No
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-glaxosmithkline-profits-tax.html

But they're still seeking billions in settlements from 'intellectual property' breaches...
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-apple-billions-samsung-patent.html

And paying out for massive legal cases, as they keep bully each other across the econo-scape...
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-spyker-sues-gm-saab-takeover.html
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-hp-court-oracle.html
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-apple-ditch-iphone-youtube-app.html

And then you've got Pfizer being fined $45 million for bribing people to win contracts. For them, that's a pittance, by the way.
http://www.accountancylive.com/croner/jsp/Editorial.do?channelId=-601066&contentId=2222543&Failed_Reason=Session+not+found&Failed_Page=%2fjsp%2fEditorial.do&BV_UseBVCookie=No
But let's not miss Google's $22.5 million fine for breaching privacy rules. They'll notice that amount even less than Pfizer will miss theirs.
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-google-fined-225mn-safari-privacy.html

Of course, the cartels are all part and parcel of the capitalism that are wholesale-bought politicians tell us has made us all so rich. Even though we're not.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-eu-probes-cartel-cd-makers.html

And even though public sector funding is too high, we can't afford to tax businesses, to cover the costs of it, because... because... because then they might actually pay *some* taxes (refer to first post)
At every turn, we've got lobbying groups setting up, or pushing anew, to get concessions from ministers, who are blissfully unaware at how they're being *used*
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-eu-scrap-airline-emissions-tax.html
Let's not pretend that the companies that 'own' the internet will really be lobbying in our interests.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-google-facebook-ebay-internet-lobby.html

Beyond the corruption and financial malpractice, of course, we've got your good-old-fashioned, greed-based profiteering, like in the olden days....

Gambling: 
'Robot trading loses firm $440 million in 45 minutes'
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/08/robot-trading-loses-firm-440-m.html

And exploitation of lands far far away, where we didn't really notice, so it's okay, no really, they're only foreigners/animals/whatever we're allowed to say...

'Gibson Guitar reaches agreement in ebony investigation'
Gibson - yes, that Gibson - has been paying local companies to plunder the rainforests of Madagascar, so that they can have nice-looking fret boards on the guitars they make. Isn't that nice. Not for all the animals that die, in the process, though.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22147-gibson-guitar-reaches-agreement-in-ebony-investigation.html