March 3rd, 2011 at 08:43am
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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Big stock exchanges in the United States are linked in what is known as the national market system plan. The idea is to process deals and report the best available prices to the public as quickly as possible.
But there are other ways of investing that operate outside the national market system.
In the late nineteen nineties, the Securities and Exchange Commission wanted to make room for new ideas in financial trading. The commission developed new rules for exchanges and for what are known as alternative trading systems.
Alternative trading systems are operated by brokers or dealers. They mainly serve big investors like retirement funds, universities and financial companies.
These systems trade the same public stocks as other market players do. But they do not publicly report their trades. This secrecy explains why they also have another name: “dark pools.”
As of October, there were eighty-six alternative trading systems registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A buy or sell order for a large amount of stock can move markets. It can influence other investors to try to buy or sell shares of that same stock. Supporters of alternative trading systems say the secrecy reduces the risk of a disorderly market.
But the International Monetary Fund has concerns about alternative trading systems. It says they limit the ability of the investing public to price a security effectively. Also, the IMF says the activity of these trading systems is largely outside the reach of market regulators.
Another alternative to the investing methods that most people know is the work of so-called angel investors. These are individuals who invest in new projects — and not just Internet startups that hope to become the next Google or Facebook. They could also be small, local businesses.
Steve Moore made a lot of money in the software business. After he retired he made an interest-free loan to Crystie and Keith Kisler. The couple operate a small organic farm in Washington state. They could not get a bank loan to build their business.
CRYSTIE KISLER: “This notion of an angel investor seemed just that to us. It seemed miraculous.”
In return, Mr. Moore received a minority share of their business.
STEVE MOORE: “I started thinking about where else can I get some kind of reasonable rate of return where return can actually be defined more fully than just how much money did I make.”
The Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire says angel investing fell more than six percent nationwide in the first half of last year. Still, angel investments during that period totaled eight and a half billion dollars.
And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report. I’m Steve Ember.
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Contributing: Tom Banse and Mario Ritter
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February 27th, 2011 at 08:22pm
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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
Moammar Gadhafi came to power in Libya on September first, nineteen sixty-nine. He led a military overthrow while King Idris was away. Early relations with the United States were generally good, says Bruce St John, the author of seven books on Libya.
BRUCE ST JOHN: “In the early years, he was very much focused on Arab nationalism, Arab unity, Arab socialism. And in fact, the United States government in the first two or three years — maybe even until nineteen seventy-four — there were people in the United States government who thought we could work with the man and work with his regime. It was only later that he began to employ terrorist-type techniques, not only in North Africa and the Middle East, but eventually throughout the world.”
Colonel Gadhafi distrusted his own generals, so over the years he built up special brigades. He built these forces with his sons and members of the military loyal to his native tribe and its allies. He also brought in foreign forces — African mercenaries.
During the nineteen seventies, he tried to unite Libya with other Arab countries. Experts say that was also when he began to provide aid to what some governments considered terrorist organizations. These included the Irish Republican Army and the Abu Nidal Group.
AP
Moammar Gadhafi on national television Tuesday
Relations with the United States fell to an all-time low during the eighties when Ronald Reagan was president. He called Colonel Gadhafi “the mad dog of the Middle East.”
Author Bruce St John points to two events from that time. In December of nineteen eighty-five, terrorists attacked the Rome and Vienna airports. And in April of nineteen eighty-six, a bomb exploded at a West Berlin discotheque popular with American troops. Two soldiers died.
BRUCE ST JOHN: “Gadhafi and his regime — the evidence was somewhat murky — but the United States government believed that they were involved in both of those instances. And it was particularly the La Belle discotheque incident that led the Reagan administration to take a decision to punish the Gadhafi regime and put it on notice that we no longer tolerate that kind of activity.”
American planes attacked targets in Benghazi and Tripoli. Many people were killed, including the adopted daughter of Colonel Gadhafi.
In nineteen eighty-eight, a bomb blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two hundred seventy people died, including many Americans. Another bombing took place the following year on a French plane over Niger.
Libya refused to surrender suspects in the two bombings. Libya faced years of United Nations sanctions until it finally surrendered the two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing.
One of them, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was found guilty. But Scotland released him in two thousand nine, saying he was dying of prostate cancer. He is still alive.
In two thousand three — the year of the American-led invasion of Iraq — Moammar Gadhafi became more cooperative with Western countries. He agreed to pay the final amount of money owed to families of the Lockerbie bombing victims. And he announced that Libya was ending its programs to make weapons of mass destruction.
The United States reopened diplomatic relations with Libya in two thousand six, but waited three more years to send an ambassador.
The uprising in Libya began last week in the east. Colonel Gadhafi, in a speech Monday, noted China’s use of tanks against pro-democracy demonstrators in nineteen eighty-nine. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died. In his words: “The unity of China was more important than those people on Tiananmen Square.”
Reporting on the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa has been limited in China. Workers put construction barriers around a site in Beijing where an online campaign has been urging weekly protests on Sunday afternoons.
And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. For more news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.
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Contributing: Elizabeth Arrott, Stephanie Ho, Andre de Nesnera and Edward Yeranian
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