[ssf] Upbeat the word was on the street

[tisiphone]

  Profits up at BAE as weapon sales soar
  ======================================

  Weapons giant BAE systems shrugged off controversies around the world
  to boost sales by 12% to £7.75bn for the first half of the year.

  Profits jumped by 26% to £881m, up from £700m this time last year. The
  company said that it 'expected to benefit further from the current high
  demand for armoured wheeled vehicles'.

  The half has not been without difficulties in the wake of accusations
  by the US that the company had made illegal payments to secure a big
  Saudi Arabian deal.

  The serious fraud office was cleared by the Law Lords this week who
  said it was right to drop inquiries into the matter.

  BAE said today it welcomed the publication of the Woolf Committee
  report into the company's principles and practices in May.

  This month the company published its programme for implementation of
  the findings of the report with a view to making BAE systems 'a leader
  in standards of ethical business conduct among global companies'.

  It had no comment on a report today that claims it had paid at least
  £20m to a company linked to a Zimbabwean arms trader, John Bredenkamp,
  allied to President robert Mugabe.

   [ http://tinyurl.com/69tkbf : Robert Lea : Evening Standard ]


-- tisiphone


   Raping a planet involves considerable expense.

   The profits are more than commensurate,
   do not misunderstand.

   It is just that they could be greater ...

   How ?

   Well -- For one thing,
           the heavy machinery involved is quite replaceable,
           in the main.

           That is,
           the machinery which is housed
           within the migrant metropoli.

           Moving it is expensive.

           Not moving it isn't.

           For it is actually cheaper,
           in terms of material and labor,
           to manufacture new units
           than it is to fast-phase the old ones
           more than an average of 2.6 times.

           Mining combines do not produce them
           ( and wouldn't really want to );
           the mining manufacturing combines
           like to make new units
           as much as the mining combines
           like to lose old ones.

           And of course
           it is rented machinery,
           or machinery on which payments
           are still being made
           to the financing associations,
           because carrying payments
           makes it easier to face down
           the Interstel Revenue Service every fiscal year.

           Abandoning the units would be criminal,
           violating either the lessor-lessee agreement
           or the Interstel Commercial Code.

           But accidents do happen ...

           Often,
           too frequently to make for comfortable statistics ...

           Way out on the raw frontier.

           Then do the big insurance associations investigate,
           and they finally sigh and reimburse the lien-holders.

           ... And the freighters make the market ahead of schedule,
           because there is less to dismantle
           and march-order and ship.

           Time is saved,
           commitments are met in advance,
           a better price is generally obtained,
           and a head start
           on the next worldsworth is supplied in this manner.

           All of which is nice.

           Except for the insurance associations.

           But what can happen
           to a transitory New York full of heavy equipment ?

           Well, some call it sabotage.

           ... Some call it mass-murder.

           ... Unsanctioned war.


                           [RZ]