Meanwhile, to the south, China itself has objected to plans by the Philippines to open areas in the Reed bank, off the island of Palawan, for oil-and-gas exploration.

ECONOMIST: South China Sea

Reed opened numerous bank accounts for the Cohen entities, and paid expenses and other items as directed by Cohen, and gave Cohen signed checks with blank payees and amounts to use for expenses and transactions.

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But, says Jamie Nicholson of Warburg Dillon Reed, an investment bank, with car makers and other steel buyers increasingly looking for local suppliers to make just-in-time deliveries, the export potential of high-value products is not good.

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Another twist on this idea is to require companies invest a portion in an infrastructure bank, as Reed Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, recently argued.

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The NYSE's chairman, Marshall Carter , and its chief executive, John Thain , told members that the arrangement with Goldman (where Thain used to work, incidentally) was carefully vetted by former Chairman John Reed , who signed the engagement letter with the investment bank.

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Mr Reed was chairman and co-chief executive of the investment bank Citigroup before his retirement in 2000.

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Rubin, who has always insisted he didn't want the top job at the bank, settled back into his role as director and head of the board's executive committee after Reed left the company in 2000.

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