news blog from Shenita

For Christmas at Neiman Marcus: a $75,000 yurt

By Brad DorfmanOct 18 (Reuters) - Falling bonuses could not be coming at a worse time for investment bankers: It is going to make it that much harder to buy a $75,000 yurt for Christmas.A luxury version of the tent more associated with Mongol nomads than Wall Street dealmakers is one of the fantasy gifts in the 2011 Neiman MarcusChristmas book.At 18 feet in diameter, the hand-painted yurt is “the ideal simulation of a genie’s posh bottle,” the catalog says. The portable structure includes one-of-a-kind designer down-filled pillows and a crystal chandelier.Not interested in nomadic outdoor living? How about a $125,000 custom-built library from luxury book publisher Assouline? It has custom-carpeting, objets d’art and framed prints, as well as 250 current or vintage books of the customer’s choice.For those with a bit more to spend, there is a $420,000 international flower show tour, arranged by JetWay private air. The tour, for 10 people, begins at the tulip festival in Merges, Switzerland, and makes stops at the Kifissia flower show in Athens, the Altera rose festival in Avignon, France, and the Chelsea flower show in London.Neiman Marcus will also make contributions to charities like Firstbook, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.The Christmas book, first published in 1926, has become an annual display of pricey fantasy gifts mixed in with more prosaic items such as $95 sterling silver earrings.Neiman Marcus will donate $10,000 to Water.org, an organization that helps provide safe drinking water and sanitation in developing countries, in return for the $1 million purchase of his-and-her dancing water fountains from Wet, which designed the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.This year’s edition comes as the wealthy are facing assaults from various directions, including the Occupy Wall Street protest movement and its global offshoots, an expected drop of 20 percent or more in investment banking bonus pools, and a volatile stock market.And if all that is getting bankers down, there is a less-expensive way for them to drown their sorrows — a $5,000 Johnnie Walker scotch tasting, complete with an authentic Scottish bagpiper and master of whisky telling the history and attributes of the various spirits.

PRESS DIGEST - CANADA - Oct 14

THE GLOBE AND MAIL:— Thomas Mulcair has launched an underdog bid to transform the New Democratic Party into a broader movement with fewer ties to unions and its traditional elites.In Montreal, at his first official event, Mulcair showed that he has support among the party’s crop of rookie MPs, who have relatively low profiles and few connections to those in the party establishment, such as former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, who has already endorsed rival candidate Brian Topp.— Canada has a privileged relationship with the United States that should not be squandered, even at a time when U.S. world leadership is waning and new superpowers are emerging, Brian Mulroney says.”The resilience of America should never be discounted,” the former prime minister said in a luncheon speech on Thursday.Report on Business Section:— Air Canada is seeking damages from the union representing flight attendants, alleging that bargaining in bad faith and threats to go on strike scared away many customers.In its complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, Air Canada argues that negotiators for the Canadian Union of Public Employees fumbled their way through two botched rounds of labour talks.— A slowdown in China’s trade growth is raising fears that the engine of the global economy is cooling, and dragging on Canada’s already sluggish economy.Exports from China increased at the slowest pace in seven months in September, as demand from major trading partners — Europe and the United States — waned and a stronger Chinese currency pinched manufacturers.NATIONAL POST:— The Montreal MP, Thomas Mulcair, confirmed Thursday that after weeks of mulling things over and testing his support, he will seek the leadership of the New Democratic Party.— The Federal Court of Appeal has declared that justices over the age of 75 are too old to decide cases, a ruling that may bring a flood of fresh appeals of past court cases and a reorganization of the federal judiciary.Financial Post section:— The worst service blackout in Research In Motion Ltd’s history is finally over, but now the BlackBerry maker faces the daunting challenge of attempting to rebuild the shattered trust of millions of users.RIM founder and co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis issued a video apology Thursday to the millions of BlackBerry users affected by the service blackout, assuring customers RIM is taking “aggressive steps” to ensure the problem does not reoccur.— The National Energy Board on Thursday gave a go-ahead for the country’s first exports of liquefied natural gas, approving a licence sought by KM LNG, a group led by Apache Corp , planning an LNG project on the Pacific Coast.