October172011

China’s Ai Weiwei tops annual ArtReview power list


Contemporary art magazine ArtReview published its 10th annual “Power 100” list on Thursday, coinciding with the opening of the Frieze Art Fair in London which attracts many of the world’s top galleries and collectors.Ai, famous for his “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium in Beijing and a recent installation at London’s Tate Modern gallery comprising millions of replica porcelain sunflower seeds, was 13th in the ranking last year.Unchanged in second place was London’s Serpentine Gallery co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist, joined by his colleague Julia Peyton-Jones this time around.They are followed by New York’s Museum of Modern Art director Glenn D. Lowry, and, in fourth down from first last year, U.S. gallery owner Larry Gagosian.Mark Rappolt, editor of ArtReview, said the choice of Ai by a panel of experts was not a political one.”Of course it’s something about political activism that runs through the list this year,” he told Reuters.”But I think it’s more about expanding the concept of art that’s not really solely contained in the privileged space of museums and galleries. It’s about how it engages with the world.”It’s expanding the possibilities of what you can do with art and as an artist how you can use your voice.”Ai, who spent nearly three months in detention, was released in late June after being taken from Beijing airport and held in two secret locations.His family says he was targeted by authorities for his criticism of censorship and Communist Party controls, and Ai has remained largely silent since his detention because, under the conditions of his release, he is not allowed to be interviewed by journalists or use the Internet.Ai is only the second artist to have topped the ArtReview standings after Britain’s Damien Hirst in 2005 and 2008. Hirst continued to slip further down the “who’s who” list in 2011, moving to 64th from 53rd last year.Organizers highlighted the emergence of artist-filmmakers like Briton Steve McQueen (59) and Iranian Shirin Neshat (86) and agencies like Artangel (55), seen as key to funding art projects at a time of major spending cuts.German artist Gerhard Richter was in 11th position up from 55th last year while Frieze founders Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover rose to 24th from 41st.Following are ArtReview’s top 10 most powerful individuals in the world of art:1. Ai Weiwei/China/artist2. Hans Ulrich Obrist/Switzerland; Julia Peyton-Jones - gallery directors3. Glenn D. Lowry/United States/museum director4. Larry Gagosian/United States/gallerist5. Anton Vidokle/Russian-born; Julieta Aranda/Mexico; Brian Kuan Wood/United States - partners in art network group e-flux6. Nicholas Serota/Britain/museum director7. Cindy Sherman/United States/photographer8. Iwan Wirth/Switzerland/gallerist9. David Zwirner/Germany/gallerist10. Beatrix Ruf/Germany/curator.

Chinas Ai Weiwei tops annual ArtReview power list 

October122011

WRAPUP 3-US House OKs S.Korea, Panama, Colombia trade deals


* Labor concerns continue to hang over Colombia dealBy Doug PalmerWASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved long-delayed trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama that are expected to lift exports by about $13 billion a year, clearing the way for the Senate to give a final stamp of approval.Republicans and Democrats joined together to pass the pacts, with the Colombia deal receiving the least support. The Senate is expected to pass the deals later on Wednesday.Supporters hope the action marks an end to a long U.S. drought on deals to open trade. Each pact had been stuck at the White House for at least four years.”We will send a strong signal to the world that America is back on the trade field,” said Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, at a rally with business groups.U.S. farm and manufactured goods exports are expected to rise under the agreements as tariffs are phased out. The pacts also open new markets for U.S. companies in service sectors such as banking, insurance and express delivery.Critics such as Senator Sherrod Brown said the deals will harm U.S. employment, but the Obama administration and other proponents think they will support tens of thousands jobs.Brown, an Ohio Democrat, urged Obama to turn away from “NAFTA-style” agreements like the three deals and change trade policy to “put American manufacturers and workers first.”The biggest gains are expected from the pact with South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally and a $1 trillion economy in a region increasingly dominated by China. The agreement will help anchor the United States in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region so it can share in its growth, analysts say.The action comes just a day before South Korean President Lee Myung-bak speaks to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, a visit that has given lawmakers an added impetus to move the deals.House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi criticized Republican Speaker John Boehner for moving the three agreements but refusing to allow a vote on a recently passed Senate bill to crack down on China currency practices that she blamed for millions of lost American jobs. Boehner opposes that bill.President Barack Obama sent the three agreements to Capitol Hill just nine days ago, four to five years after they were negotiated. The deals had foundered primarily on Democratic Party concerns over labor practices abroad and the fear increased competition would cost U.S. jobs.OPPORTUNITIES LOST”It’s unfortunate that it took nearly 1,000 days for him to get these trade agreements up here, but now finally we’re going to have an opportunity to give American businesses and American farmers and ranchers a chance to grow,” said Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican.

WRAPUP 3US House OKs SKorea Panama Colombia trade deals 

4AM

UPDATE 2-Wall St protesters target homes of top executives


* College students plan solidarity protests on Thursday (Recasts, adds details throughout)By Michelle NicholsNEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters marched on the New York homes of wealthy executives on Tuesday, triggering one of their targets, billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, to defend his wealth.Around 500 people marched through Manhattan’s Upper East Side, passing the high-rise buildings where many of the executives live. Among them are Paulson, global media mogul Rupert Murdoch, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon and David Koch, co-founder of energy firm Koch Industries.The protesters chanted “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” and “Hey you billionaires, pay your fair share” and carried signs that read “Stop robbing from the middle class to pay the rich” and “We are the 99 percent,” a reference to the idea that the top 1 percent of Americans have too much.Mustafa Ibrahim, 23, an engineer marched on the “Billionaire’s Tour” during a visit to New York from Cairo, where he said he was arrested during a popular uprising this year which toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak.”It’s pretty much the same thing as Egypt,” Ibrahim said. “The problem is the rich keep getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”Since Sept. 17 protesters have been camped out in a park in Lower Manhattan near Wall Street, rallying against bailouts for banks during the recession, which allowed them to earn huge profits while average Americans suffer high unemployment and job insecurity with little help.As protesters took their grievances to the homes of the rich, the Paulson & Co hedge fund defended its status.Paulson took home $5 billion in 2010, the hedge fund industry’s biggest ever paycheck, but this year one of his main funds has fallen 47 percent after he mistimed a call that the economy would recover strongly.”The top 1 percent of New Yorkers pay over 40 percent of all income taxes, providing huge benefits to everyone in our city and state,” Paulson & Co said in a statement, adding that New York has the highest income taxes of any U.S. states.”Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City and continue to grow,” it said.The Occupy Wall Street movement is burgeoning ahead of planned global protests on Saturday. On Wednesday, the Service Employees International Union will march on New York City’s financial district for good jobs, while U.S. college students plan solidarity protests on Thursday on at least 56 campuses.According to Occupy Together, which has become an online hub for protest activity, the Occupy Wall Street movement has sparked rallies in more than 1,400 cities throughout the United States and around the world.ARRESTS IN BOSTON, WASHINGTON D.C.Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein canceled a talk at New York’s Barnard College, and though the company — which received and repaid a big federal bailout during the financial crisis — said a scheduling conflict would keep him away, students from nearby Columbia University were planning to”Don’t look at the Arab spring, look here because things are going to boil over,” said protester Charles Evans, 62, as he marched on the “Billionaire’s Tour.”Fifth Avenue resident Lorna Goldberg, 57, said she was surprised to see the protesters near her home. “But I guess they’re getting their point across by coming here,” she added.Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, last week likened the growth of the protest movement to the grass-roots Tea Party, but the conservative group on Tuesday sought to distance itself from the protesters.The Tea Party Patriots said in a statement that its supporters were “not lawbreakers, they don’t hate the police, they don’t even litter.”

UPDATE 2Wall St protesters target homes of top executives 

4AM

UPDATE 2-Wall St protesters target homes of top executives


* College students plan solidarity protests on Thursday (Recasts, adds details throughout)By Michelle NicholsNEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters marched on the New York homes of wealthy executives on Tuesday, triggering one of their targets, billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, to defend his wealth.Around 500 people marched through Manhattan’s Upper East Side, passing the high-rise buildings where many of the executives live. Among them are Paulson, global media mogul Rupert Murdoch, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon and David Koch, co-founder of energy firm Koch Industries.The protesters chanted “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” and “Hey you billionaires, pay your fair share” and carried signs that read “Stop robbing from the middle class to pay the rich” and “We are the 99 percent,” a reference to the idea that the top 1 percent of Americans have too much.Mustafa Ibrahim, 23, an engineer marched on the “Billionaire’s Tour” during a visit to New York from Cairo, where he said he was arrested during a popular uprising this year which toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak.”It’s pretty much the same thing as Egypt,” Ibrahim said. “The problem is the rich keep getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”Since Sept. 17 protesters have been camped out in a park in Lower Manhattan near Wall Street, rallying against bailouts for banks during the recession, which allowed them to earn huge profits while average Americans suffer high unemployment and job insecurity with little help.As protesters took their grievances to the homes of the rich, the Paulson & Co hedge fund defended its status.Paulson took home $5 billion in 2010, the hedge fund industry’s biggest ever paycheck, but this year one of his main funds has fallen 47 percent after he mistimed a call that the economy would recover strongly.”The top 1 percent of New Yorkers pay over 40 percent of all income taxes, providing huge benefits to everyone in our city and state,” Paulson & Co said in a statement, adding that New York has the highest income taxes of any U.S. states.”Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City and continue to grow,” it said.The Occupy Wall Street movement is burgeoning ahead of planned global protests on Saturday. On Wednesday, the Service Employees International Union will march on New York City’s financial district for good jobs, while U.S. college students plan solidarity protests on Thursday on at least 56 campuses.According to Occupy Together, which has become an online hub for protest activity, the Occupy Wall Street movement has sparked rallies in more than 1,400 cities throughout the United States and around the world.ARRESTS IN BOSTON, WASHINGTON D.C.Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein canceled a talk at New York’s Barnard College, and though the company — which received and repaid a big federal bailout during the financial crisis — said a scheduling conflict would keep him away, students from nearby Columbia University were planning to”Don’t look at the Arab spring, look here because things are going to boil over,” said protester Charles Evans, 62, as he marched on the “Billionaire’s Tour.”Fifth Avenue resident Lorna Goldberg, 57, said she was surprised to see the protesters near her home. “But I guess they’re getting their point across by coming here,” she added.Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, last week likened the growth of the protest movement to the grass-roots Tea Party, but the conservative group on Tuesday sought to distance itself from the protesters.The Tea Party Patriots said in a statement that its supporters were “not lawbreakers, they don’t hate the police, they don’t even litter.”

UPDATE 2Wall St protesters target homes of top executives 

3AM

ADR REPORT-Miners lead ADRs’ declines; European banks mixed


Shares of global miner BHP Billiton fell 2 percent to $73.66 in New York while shares of South Africa’s Gold Fields dropped 1 percent to $15.16 and shares of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd , also of South Africa, dipped 1.2 percent to $40.68.Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,665.80 an ounce, while benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $7,290 a tonne, down from Monday’s close of $7,495 a tonne.Upcoming results from Slovakia, the last member of the 17-member euro zone bloc which has not yet ratified a pact to boost the size and powers of the European Financial Stability Facility, kept investors on edge.Worries about how the euro zone debt problems could affect the global economy have plagued markets for months, with investors waiting for a long-term solution to the crisis.European bank ADRs were mixed near flat. Shares of Barclays were down 0.1 percent at $10.91 while shares of Deutsche Bank were up 0.8 percent at $38.01.The BNY Mellon index of leading American Depositary Receipts was down 0.6 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 0.1 percent.The BNY Mellon index of leading European ADRs fell 0.8 percent, while the BNY Mellon index of leading Asian ADRs slipped 0.5 percent and the BNY Mellon index of leading Latin American ADRs was up 0.6 percent.

ADR REPORTMiners lead ADRs declines European banks mixed 

October112011

Analysis: Solar installers thrive as panel costs slide


Those installers number in the hundreds across the country, focusing mostly on residential and small commercial market rooftop arrays rather than large-scale multi-megawatt systems under development in the U.S. Southwest.Photovoltaic panel prices have tumbled by more than 30 percent so far this year, making them far more affordable for consumers.”We’re the beneficiaries of a lot of the manufacturers’ continuing cost reductions,” said Bill Yearsley, chief executive of Real Goods Solar, a solar installer. “It has had a profound impact.”Real Goods is expected to see a near 63 percent leap in its full-year sales this fiscal year to $126 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company hopes to approach $200 million in sales within a year of its latest deal to buy a rival.Privately held SolarCity, Mercury Solar, Sungevity, SunRun and Borrego Solar are also rapidly boosting their customer numbers.”The average selling price declines (for panels) are absolutely a huge positive, driving in phenomenal returns for some of the installers,” Raymond James analyst Alex Morris said.The average installed cost of photovoltaic systems, which includes installation and financing costs as well as the panels, fell about 17 percent last year and an additional 11 percent in the first half of 2011, according to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report.”As the pricing continues to go down … customer demand is getting spurred in some markets even without incentives,” said Barry Cinnamon, CEO of solar systems maker Westinghouse Solar.EASY LEASESolar installations on homes and business rooftops remain the largest segment of the market, with 124 megawatts built on residential buildings during the first half of 2011, about 50 percent greater than utility-scale installation.Installations on non-residential buildings were even higher, totaling 373 MW in the first half.One megawatt is roughly enough to power 1,000 single-family houses.A key driver for many installers has been the growth of leasing programs in which homeowners or businesses make monthly payments for a period of 10 years or longer to the solar financier for the systems on their roofs rather than buy them outright.That allows customers to cut their electric bills using solar power without spending the thousands of dollars needed up front to build the photovoltaic systems.Nearly all the major installers offer leasing plans, and companies such as Google Inc and Citigroup have joined US Bancorp in recent months in pumping in millions to back the leasing market.The average installed price of a solar system is $6.39 per watt for residential projects and $5.20 for commercial — still much higher than conventional grid power, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry trade group.CONSOLIDATIONThe U.S. solar installation market is highly fragmented, with more than 300 independent installers in California alone, according to a Real Goods regulatory filing.Analyst Morris expects big installers such as SolarCity and Real Goods to roll up the market and become big regional companies.”We’re looking at different markets within the United States for acquisition,” Real Goods’ Yearsley said.Domestic module manufacturers are also likely to look at expanding their own downstream business as margins get squeezed by the sharp decline in panel prices.”There has been a push for the module manufacturers to move downstream to secure locked-in customers,” analyst Morris said.”U.S. manufacturers like First Solar and SunPower Corp are looking at it.”Analysts say Chinese companies such as Yingli Green Energy, Trina Solar and Suntech Power are likely to stay away, given that they would not have the advantage of low processing costs and easy access to capital.”The installation business could allow solar module companies another channel through which to sell their modules, but the price of that is having higher capital requirements and lower margins from the installation side,” Morningstar analyst Stephen Simko said.

Analysis Solar installers thrive as panel costs slide 

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