Bizzy’s AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links (062706)

Free Links:

• It’s amazing his pants weren’t on fire (HT Manufacturers’ Blog) –
  

  A U.S. district judge in Baltimore ….. heard arguments over the validity of Maryland’s controversial law requiring large companies — namely Wal-Mart — to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits.

  ….. State Assistant Attorney General Gary W. Kuc denied that the legislation was intended to single out Wal-Mart.

  The legislation only affects Maryland companies with over 10,000 employees in the state. Wal-Mart is the only Maryland employer fitting that description.

• Extracting an article that is behind The Financial Times’ firewall, SOX First notes that former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt is afraid that Sarbanes Oxley will become the de facto standard of corporate conduct for the rest of the world:
  

  Pitt says that there are some positives in the legislation but the ”one-size-fits-all” approach has created something that stifles innovation, creativity, risk-taking and competitiveness. SOX has not only diverted intial public offerings abroad but it’s also encouraged the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq to seek offshore acquisitions.

• In possibly related news, publicly-traded Univision is going private in a $12 billion-plus deal, making it what I believe is the second-largest company to go private since Sarbanes Oxley became law; the largest was the $13.2 billion acquisition of Georgia Pacific by Koch Industries last year. Going private has become more attractive because of SarBox due to the law’s heavy compliance costs.
• And you thought FEMA was bad — how about this from Belgium:
  

  Flood victims left waiting for disaster compensation
  23 June 2006

  BRUSSELS — Just one in 10 victims in West Flanders have received government compensation a year after heavy rains and flooding.

  In 85 percent of the 4,081 claims for compensation, an expert has not even assessed the damage or has not yet completed the necessary report.

  This is despite the fact the federal government decided at the end of July 2005 that the heavy rainfall on the weekend of 4 and 5 July should be classified as a natural disaster.

  The same classification was also applied to the heavy hailstorms of 15 and 16 August 2004 — a classification necessary to qualify for government compensation.