LyrArc Article Gist
Olympus kept losses dating back to the bubble in the 1990's off its books for 2 decades. Then covered up the losses by paying inflated fees to advisors for acquisitions unrelated to its core camera and medical equipment business. Three companies in health food, resource recycling and cookware manufacturing were acquired. The coverup of losses was disclosed by the company's first British born CEO, Michael Woodford, who lasted only 2 weeks. He was fired for damaging Olympus's reputation when he made disclosures about the coverups. Olympus paid about $687 million in advisory fees to a firm in the Cayman Islands, for a $2 billion takeover of medical instrument company, Gyros, in 2008. Shares of Olympus have fallen 70% as a result.

LyrArc Article Gist
Andrew Higgins tells the story of the China Power Investment Corporation's hydro electricity generation project on Burma's Irrawady river. The project is located in the northern part of Burma, in Myitsone, Kachin state. This was to be the first of seven hydroelectric dams on the Irrawady river. Initial opposition to the project by local people turned into a national opposition movement against the projects as it became clear that the huge project which would generate as much electricity as the Three Gorges dam in China, or seven times the Hoover dam in the U.S., would for the most part benefit China. Burma's economy was too small after decades of neglect to need this much electricity. The fears of ecological damage, uprooting the people living in the area, took on a new dimension as national opposition coalesced around the issue of Burmese sovereignty. The former general, President Thein Sein, who assumed the position in March 2011, had second thoughts. One former military officer, leading one of the opposition groups, expressed fears that Burma would become a colony that helped China meet its energy needs under the arrangement with China Power Investment Corporation. China was already working with regimes in Sudan and Angola to meet its energy needs. In September 2011, President Thein Sein halted work on the project. This happens just as the country's military is relaxing its hold on the media and allowing opposition leaders to express their views. The two developments may be connected as the military sees the need for getting public support to counter China's pressure to go along with the project. Years of external pressure failed to create an opening for democracy in Burma. This event appears to create the atmosphere for a genuine expression of Burmese feeling and desire for protecting its sovereignty, which would help it join the world community, with the military finding a common ground with public sentiment....

LyrArc Article Gist
A former Wall Street trader says banning bonuses for investment bankers would take out much of the risk in the financial system. The current system is different from the one he joined as an intern in the 1980's, he says. At that time banking was a bland business, where the head of a financial firm made about the same as a junior trader makes nowadays. Large bonuses of today were rare at the time. What large incentives to take risk in the form of bonuses do is to encourage extreme risk taking, especially when the downside or pain as a consequence of these decisions is passed on to other individuals or institutions, or the government.

LyrArc Article Gist
A case of massive accounting fraud at Japanese camera and medical equipment maker Olympus.