FAMOUS PEOPLE NAMED POLO FAMOUS PEOPLE BORN IN 1254
CROATIAN merchant and adventurer Marco Polo traveled from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295. He wrote Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo.“When a man is riding through this [Gobi] desert by night and for some reason ... he gets separated from his companions ... he hears spirit voices talking to him ...Often these voices lure him away from the path and he never finds it again."[from "Marco Polo" by Richard Humble.]” Marco Polo was born in 1254, in Venice, Italy. He traveled extensively with his family, journeying from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295. He remained in China for 17 of those years. Around 1292, he left China, acting as consort along the way to a Mongol princess who was being sent to Persia. His book Il Milione describes his travels and experiences and influenced later adventurers and merchants. Marco Polo was born in the year 1254 to a wealthy Venetian merchant family. Much of his childhood was spent parentless, and he was raised by an extended family. Polo's mother died when he was young, and his father and uncle, successful jewel merchants Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, were in Asia for much of Polo's youth. Their journeys brought them into present-day China, where they joined a diplomatic mission to the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol leader whose grandfather, Genghis Khan, had conquered Northeast Asia. In 1269, the two men returned to Venice, and immediately started making plans for their return to Khan's court. During their stay with the leader, Khan had expressed his interest in Christianity and asked the Polo brothers to visit again with 100 priests and a collection of holy water.Khan's Empire, the largest the world had ever seen, was largely a mystery to those living within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. A sophisticated culture outside the reaches of the Vatican seemed unfathomable, and yet, that's exactly what the Polo brothers described to confounded Venetians when they arrived home.
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M & A CF Industries in Merger Talks With Dutch Chemical Maker OCIINVESTMENT BANKING Standard Chartered Shakes Up Management StructurePRIVATE EQUITY Oxford University Doubles Private Equity ExposureHEDGE FUNDS Mutual Funds At Center in Puerto Rico TalksOFFERINGS Italy to List €4 Billion Stake in Post OfficeVENTURE CAPITAL Newark Venture Fund Seeks to Put New Jersey City on Start-Up MapLEGAL/REGULATORY IRS Said to Be Investigating Singapore Asset Manager | ||||||||||||||||||||
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BY AMIE TSANG
GREEK BANKS OPEN Greek banks opened for the first time in three weeks this morning, The Financial Times reports. Restrictions on international transfers remain but the withdrawal limit of 60 euros per day has been replaced with a weekly limit of 420 euros.
The reopening provides a morale boost for the crisis-racked state, but many Greeks are worried about the toll that new bailout requirements could take on the economy, Liz Alderman reports in The New York Times. Even if Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras can overhaul the economy, it remains to be seen whether that would enable Greece to grow despite staggering debt. The roots of Greece's problems run deep, Ms. Alderman notes. "Nearly every area of the economy is ensnarled by rules and practices thatdiscourage investment and innovation." The sluggish judicial system can take more than four years to enforce a commercial contract, while pharmacies are protected by fixed working hours and a guaranteed profit margin on medicine sales that keep drug prices artificially high. Economists say the changes demanded of Greece by its creditors in the latest bailout package will make little difference over the short term, unless the economy begins to emerge from its latest recession. But with more spending cuts required, the economy could be even more restrained. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has pushed to speed up clarification of the bailout terms. She called on Sunday for a swift start to negotiations over terms and reiterated that there would be no debt forgiveness, but that other relief measures could be discussed once Greece had been stabilized, Alison Smale reports in The New York Times. She suggested that it would be possible to discuss altering the maturities of Greece's debt or reducing interest paid by Athens but only after the first successful review of the bailout package. "A classic haircut of 30, 40 percent of debt cannot happen in a currency union," she said.
LOCKHEED SAID TO BUY SIKORSKY Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor, has agreed to buy Sikorsky, the maker of the Black Hawk helicopters used by the United States military, Michael de la Merced reports in DealBook. The deal would be worth more than $8 billion, said one person with knowledge of the matter.
The two companies plan to announce the deal on Monday before they report second-quarter results on Tuesday, according to Reuters, which first reported the deal. The acquisition would be Lockheed's biggest since its $10 billion takeover ofMartin Marietta 21 years ago and would give it a major new line of business apart from its already widely used military equipment. It would also conclude the monthslong effort by United Technologies to determine what to do with Sikorsky after owning it for nearly 70 years. Any deal is likely to be scrutinized by the Defense Department, which has indicated that it wants to preserve competition among military contractors.
ON THE AGENDA Morgan Stanley announces its second-quarter results at 7 a.m. The bank will hold a conference call on earnings at 8:30 a.m., when Hasbro is also holding a discussion of its results.Halliburton follows with its conference at 9 a.m. IBM's earnings for the second quarter will be announced at 4:30 a.m. E.D.T.
Dan Schulman, chief executive of PayPal, will be live on Bloomberg at 9:30 a.m. as PayPal begins its first day of trading as an independent company. Jacob J. Lew, United States treasury secretary, will deliver the keynote address at the Better Markets event on the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act at 2:30 p.m.
AN UPSIDE DOWN PROSECUTION When a director at Abacus Federal Savings Bank discovered a fraudulent scheme at its bank, the loan officer involved was fired. This put an end to the scheme but began a five-and-a-half-year odyssey through the New York State criminal justice system for the Sung family and the community lender they founded.
Bank officials reported the fraud to regulators and provided New York State prosecutors with over 900,000 pages of documentation, but the bank was indicted by a grand jury in New York State Supreme Court. Gretchen Morgenson's Fair Game column examines how a powerful prosecutor relentlessly pursued "a speck of a bank that for 31 years has prudently served an immigrant community in New York City." The jury threw out every one of the 80 charges at the trial but the cost was high for the lender. Thomas Sung, the bank's founder, said what Cyrus R. Vance Jr., Manhattan district attorney, managed to do was to make a small bank weaker: "He scared the community, all to glorify his reputation."
Contact amie.tsang@nytimes.com
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS »
CF Industries in Merger Talks With Dutch Chemical Maker OCINegotiations came after CF Industries and Yara International of Norway shelved separate merger discussions in October.
Schneider Electric to Take Majority Stake in Aveva Aveva would receive Schneider Electric's industrial software business and cash for a 53.5 percent stake in the British engineering company.
Shell Says BG Deal Will Save Billions Royal Dutch Shell expects billions of dollars more in savings from its proposed 55 billion pound takeover of BG Group than previously disclosed as it uses the enlarged company's scale to slash costs in its deepwater oil business and natural gas trading arm.
INVESTMENT BANKING »
Standard Chartered Shakes Up Management Structure The British bank will be organized around three business lines, and top managers will report directly to the new chief executive, William T. Winters.
Barclays Said to Consider Cutting Quarter of Jobs Barclays is considering deeper job cuts that could see its work force shrink by about a quarter over the coming years, Bloomberg News reports, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.
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PRIVATE EQUITY »
Oxford University Doubles Private Equity Exposure Oxford University's endowment fund has more than doubled its exposure to private equity since 2012, despite its chief executive's issuing a blistering attack on the buyout industry three years ago.
HEDGE FUNDS »
Mutual Funds At Center in Puerto Rico Talks Hedge funds are known as heavy buyers of Puerto Rico bonds, but as the United States commonwealth works to restructure about $72 billion in debt, it is a pair of mutual-fund firms that may take the lead in negotiations.
I.P.O./OFFERINGS »
Italy to List €4 Billion Stake in Post Office Italy's government will float a 40 percent stake of its 153-year-old national post office in the first week of August.
Apptio Said To Tap Banks for I.P.O. Apptio, a maker of cloud-based software, is planning an initial public offering that could value the company at roughly $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
VENTURE CAPITAL »
Newark Venture Fund Seeks to Put New Jersey City on Start-Up Map A new accelerator and early-stage venture fund, targeted at $50 million, are moving to Newark, N.J., in the hope of creating a substantial technology industry in the city.
A Light Bulb Goes On, Over the Mall Public lighting that dials into the Internet of Things could use billions of fixtures to collect data about things as diverse as traffic congestion and a shopper in the cereal aisle.
LEGAL/REGULATORY »
IRS Said to Be Investigating Singapore Asset Manager Criminal investigators at the Internal Revenue Service are looking into whether a Singapore asset-management firm accepted transfers from undeclared Swiss accounts closed by United States taxpayers, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing lawyers familiar with the matter.
Barney Frank Takes on Democratic Critics Barney Frank, the architect of the landmark financial reforms that bear his name, says building a wall between traditional lenders and riskier investment banks is not the way to make the financial system safer.
Stanley Fischer Defends Fed Role Stanley Fischer, the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, offered a robust defense of the Federal Reserve's lender of last resort functions amid attempts by some lawmakers to further curb its powers to provide support in a crisis.
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NEWSTwo Business Owners Fight the IRS to Get Their Seized Money BackThe IRS seized more than $153,000 from a convenience store owner last year, without ever charging the owner with a crime. Now he wants it back. Read More |
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COMMENTARYThe Sneaky Way Lawmakers Use to Get Around the Earmark BanRead More |
COMMENTARYOregon's War on the Christian Bakers' Free SpeechRead More |
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ISLAND KORČULA
How to find us: from the ferry port Korčula, drive a few kilometers on the local road Korčula - Racisce. From the ferry port Vela Luka, drive 47 km on the island's main road from Vela Luka to Korčula, turn on the local road Korčula - Racisce that leads to Žrnovska Banja. Apartment Vesela is located in the picturesque, quiet and protected bay of Žrnovska Banja on Island Korčula, only 2 km from old town Korčula, the reputed home town of the legendary traveler Marco Polo. Žrnovska banja is a small oasis situated on the eastern part of the island and has a grocery store, restaurant, boat and bike rental, and organized boat tours of the surroundings. Here you will find a peaceful and quiet place to spend your vacation. Enjoy our warm hospitality and comfortable accommodations while exploring Korčula town and many other interesting places. Numerous monuments, small picturesque villages, clean and unpolluted environment and the crystal clear sea with endless "hidden" bays and beaches offer something for everyone. Long walks along the shore or countryside are both very pleasant while providing a "glimpse" of the culture and tradition this island cherishes.
LOCATION - VILLAGE HOUSE VESELA
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