by thearabweekly.com - Sami Kadi --BEIRUT - There is no proper public transport, no housing policy, no electricity and no decent roads in Lebanon, reasons enough for the Lebanese to stop paying taxes, argue activists of the “We Will Not Pay” campaign begun in reaction to the country’s deteriorating economic situation. The campaign, an implicit invitation to civil disobedience, basically calls on the Lebanese to stop paying electricity bills, income taxes and other government fees, in addition to high-interest bank loans that people contracted to finance services that the state has failed to provide for decades, said Roy Dib, a campaign activist. “It is a show of solidarity with the people who are rebelling against the political authorities because they lost their jobs, their savings are frozen and they can no longer afford to pay their dues,” Dib said. “The campaign calls on all Lebanese (without exception), including those who can pay loans, to boycott paying until certain demands are met.” “We pay double power bills (including one for private generators), take house loans because the government has no housing policy, car loans because there is no proper public transportation system and education loans to enroll in private universities because the level of public education has dropped drastically. These financial burdens are imposed on the Lebanese due to the government’s poor services,” Dib said.

Banks have been providing private loans with interest rates as high as 20%. The campaign aims to have banks offer a 6-month grace period for repayment of loans after which they would reschedule payments in addition to eliminating or reducing interest on loans. Dib said boycotting payments of loans “is a pressure tool to reschedule the loans and to assist those who are unable to pay and there are many of them.” “Banks have made a lot of money from high-interest rates over decades. It is time they pay back,” he said, adding that activists have prepared draft bills that some MPs are willing to propose in parliament to force banks to change their policies to protect people unable to pay back loans. The campaign established a hotline to volunteer lawyers providing legal consultations. “Every Friday a person can take an appointment to meet the lawyers and get advice on legal issues with the banks,” Dib said.

Brian Sozzi -- by finance.yahoo.com --The million-dollar question for IBM market observers? Did Big Blue — in promoting 30-year insider Arvind Krishna on Thursday night to replace long-time CEO Ginni Rometty in early April — just have its Microsoft Satya Nadella moment? “I wouldn’t be surprised if [IBM] is looking at Microsoft and hoping the same thing happens here,” said Sevens Report Research founder Tom Essaye on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade. Mostly everyone by now knows the Nadella folk story at Microsoft.

Microsoft promoted Nadella to CEO in 2014, taking over for the always charismatic Steve Ballmer. Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992 and rose the ranks on the technical side of the business. Before assuming the CEO role, Nadella was instrumental in pivoting Microsoft to the cloud. In Nadella, Microsoft got a CEO with real technical chops that could pivot the company to the future of computing and work. That was different from the salesman like skills of Ballmer, which garnered mixed results in terms of stock and financial performance. Since Nadella took over, Microsoft’s stock has surged more than 300%. The company’s market cap is a staggering $1.3 billion. Nadella has used his technical skills to accelerate Microsoft’s shift to cloud and enter into new businesses such as LinkedIn (which he led Microsoft in acquiring). Above all else, most experts would agree Nadella has completely transformed Microsoft’s culture to one focused on speed and execution. To Essaye’s point, IBM is probably hoping to catch Nadella-like magic in the battle with Krishna. Indeed the resumés are very similar.

BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point New) :The newly-appointed Lebanese agriculture minister said on Friday that his first priority is to restore good …

thearabweekly.com — LONDON – Lebanon has moved to combat “capital flight” after it emerged that $1 billion has already been transferred out …