Chancellor Alistair Darling is set to tax high polluting cars but delay fuel duty rises as he delivers his first Budget. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:32 pm
PARIS (Reuters) - Police arrested a trader from French bank Societe Generale in the trading room on Wednesday morning as part of their investigation into an alleged rogue trading scandal at the bank, Europe 1 radio reported.
For Americans already grappling with higher food prices, at least one big component of their burgeoning grocery bill - milk - could see a little relief in 2008.
Reuters - Motorola Inc has had interest
in its handset unit from foreign telecom equipment makers,
according to mergermarket.com, a Financial Times Web site.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Motorola Inc has had interest in its handset unit from foreign telecom equipment makers, according to mergermarket.com, a Financial Times Web site.
PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas could set out terms for any offer for embattled rival Societe Generale in May, La Tribune newspaper reported on Wednesday without saying where it got the information.
Reuters - Some local governments might find
they do not need insurance for their municipal bonds as bond
insurers emerge from their current crisis, New York's insurance
industry regulator said on Wednesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:11 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some local governments might find
they do not need insurance for their municipal bonds as bond
insurers emerge from their current crisis, New York's insurance
industry regulator said on Wednesday.
Reuters - Police arrested a trader from French bank
Societe Generale in the trading room on Wednesday
morning as part of their investigation into an alleged rogue
trading scandal at the bank, Europe 1 radio reported.
Reuters - Teen retailer American Eagle
Outfitters Inc reported lower quarterly profit on
Wednesday amid weak sales, higher markdowns and competition
from rivals. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:03 pm
Concerns about the weak dollar are mounting. But even as the greenback sinks to new lows against the euro and other global currencies, some experts say this is not necessarily a bad thing for the U.S. economy.
European stock markets added fresh momentum to the rally on world equity exchanges. Commodities markets paused for breath and the dollar slipped back after a strong rebound from record lows against the yen and the euro Source: FT.com - US homepage | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:52 am
Reuters - U.S.-based buyout company the Carlyle
Group said on Wednesday the challenges facing a
Dutch-based affiliate will have no "measurable impact" on any
other Carlyle-backed funds or businesses. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:48 am
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.-based buyout company the Carlyle Group said on Wednesday the challenges facing a Dutch-based affiliate will have no "measurable impact" on any other Carlyle-backed funds or businesses.
The Federal Reserve offered to let the biggest investment banks borrow up to $200 billion in Treasury securities, which sent stock prices soaring. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:44 am
Stocks futures rose early Wednesday as investors remained upbeat about a move by the Federal Reserve to inject additional liquidity into the credit markets.
Reuters - U.S. stock index futures edged higher
on Wednesday, with investors likely to extend the previous
session's rally on hopes of an easing in credit market strains.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday, with investors likely to extend the previous session's rally on hopes of an easing in credit market strains.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teen retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc said on Wednesday that quarterly net income fell, amid lower customer traffic, weak sales, and competition from rivals.
Germany saw the growth of consumer spending slow in 2007, according to latest official figures. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:34 am
(Reuters) - A lawsuit was filed against Chiquita Brands International Inc by relatives of five U.S. missionaries killed in the 1990s by Colombian rebels, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Wednesday. The lawsuit is the latest legal issue faced by the banana company that admitted paying off violent guerrilla groups in Colombia, where Chiquita's most profitable units operated.
The Chancellor Alistair Darling is set to deliver first Budget against a backdrop of the toughest economic conditions in the UK for almost two decades. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:20 am
U.S. stock futures on Wednesday pointed to a pause after the biggest one-day surge in more than five years, following a plan by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to allow banks and bond dealers to swap mortgage-backed securities that can't currently sell for highly liquid Treasurys that they can.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage applications dipped last week, reflecting lower demand for home loan refinancing as interest rates surged to their highest since October, an industry group said on Wednesday.
Reuters - U.S. mortgage applications dipped last
week, reflecting lower demand for home loan refinancing as
interest rates surged to their highest since October, an
industry group said on Wednesday.
Reuters - U.S. mortgage applications dipped last
week, reflecting lower demand for home loan refinancing as
interest rates surged to their highest since October, an
industry group said on Wednesday.
Financial stocks led the charge higher on European stock markets on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve took its most radical move to date to unfreeze credit markets, but volumes remained thin.In late... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:05 am
Hopes that the yuan will strengthen boost foreign investment in China in January, figures show. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 11:01 am
The UK's trade deficit with the rest of the world was £4.1bn in January, unchanged from December, figures show. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:54 am
The central bank of the world’s second largest economy could be “leaderless
within a week” after an assault on the Japanese government by the opposition
party. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:48 am
<a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3537275.ece">Read
the law lords' full judgment</a> Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:45 am
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Mobile phone operators are seeking more talks to discuss Indian government security concerns which a newspaper said could lead to the termination of BlackBerry services in India, an industry official said on Wednesday.
Savills, the property consultancy and high-end estate agency business, waded
into the non-doms debate saying that how hard the tax is levied could be
critical to the performance of the housing market in 2008. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:30 am
London equities make further progress on Wednesday following Wall Street's best performance in more than five years overnight.Financials and mining stocks led the way as world markets were cheered by the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:29 am
European stock markets added fresh momentum to the rally on world equity exchanges on Wednesday, as reaction to the Federal Reserve's biggest step yet to improve liquidity in financial markets remained... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:19 am
European and Asian stock markets rise as the world's biggest central banks move to tackle the global credit crisis. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 10:04 am
Mortgage applications filings last week dropped a seasonally adjusted 1.9% compared with the week before as interest rates rose sharply, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.
Applications to refinance an existing mortgage were down 4.7% during the week ended March 7, while applications for loans to purchase homes were up 1.6% on a week-to-week basis, according to the MBA's latest survey.
Standard Life, the insurer, has reported a 43 per cent jump in operating
profit driven by new business in high margin products, and lower costs. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:57 am
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's second-largest airline, on Wednesday forecast that sales and operating profit would rise in 2008. The German carrier said it feels confident about its prospects so long as global economic growth doesn't grind to a halt and rising fuel prices can be passed on to passengers.
The U.S. dollar's on the defensive, giving back part of the bounce seen on back of the Federal Reserve's effort to significantly boost liquidity in near-frozen credit markets.
Rio Tinto, the mining giant being stalked by rival BHP Billiton, is
threatening Asian steelmakers that it will sell iron ore on the lucrative spot
market unless they agree to pay higher prices for the metal. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:41 am
Asian stocks closed higher on Wednesday led by banking shares after the latest move by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to bolster liquidity. However, the morning's spirited rally slowed to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:20 am
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Wednesday's session are Caterpillar, Collective Brands, J. Crew, Steel Dynamics, Take-Two Interactive and VeraSun Energy.
For several years, Google has struggled to expand beyond simple text ads into Web banners, video and other kinds of display advertising. Now, the company is poised to make some serious headway. European... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:18 am
IT'S a race against the clock for American Media, publisher of the Star, the National Enquirer, Shape and Men's Fitness, following a downgrade by Moody's yesterday on the publisher's approximate $1.08... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:18 am
Take-Two Interactive's hopes of getting a sweeter takeover offer than the unsolicited $1.9 billion bid currently on the table from Electronic Arts may be darkening. Two of the videogame publisher's biggest... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:18 am
Spring officially begins soon, but shares of Syms are still in winter clearance mode. The Secaucus, NJ-based off-price clothing chain's stock has taken a beating during the past few months, as a controversial... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:18 am
The New York Times Co. isn't bowing to pressure from dissident shareholders who want it to shed the Boston Globe and other assets. Chief Executive Janet Robinson said yesterday that a Globe sale is unlikely... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:18 am
A French prosecutor seeks manslaughter charges against a US airline over the 2000 Concorde crash. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:11 am
French Connection, the fashion chain which issued a warning last November,
said today that profits fell by more than a fifth last year and there may be
more bad news to come. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:06 am
Asian stocks rose sharply Wednesday, taking their cue from an overnight rebound on Wall Street after the US and other central banks agreed to a huge cash injection into ailing financial... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:05 am
Japan's economy grew at a brisk 3.5 percent annualised pace in the fourth quarter of 2007, showing unexpected resilience in the face of growing fears of a US recession, official figures... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 9:03 am
LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca said on Wednesday a U.S. court would hear its patent case against Teva and Sandoz , which are seeking to make a generic version of schizophrenia drug... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:54 am
Japan lowered its reading for economic growth in the fourth quarter on Wednesday, but the revised 3.5 percent annual pace was healthier than expected. The revision down from a 3.7... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:28 am
PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas could set out terms for any offer for embattled rival Societe Generale in May, La Tribune newspaper reported on Wednesday without saying where it got the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 8:16 am
Tullow Oil says last year's lower UK gas prices were a main cause of its 57% drop in 2007 profits. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 7:54 am
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - World number two truck maker Volvo said late on Tuesday it had agreed with the United Auto Workers union on a wage deal for employees at its New River Valley plant in Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 7:37 am
Japanese economic growth holds steady in the fourth quarter, but there are fears it may be hit by a US downturn. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 7:14 am
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's high January and February readings for inflation have increased the pressure on the government to take action to counter price rises, Commerce Minister Chen... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 7:13 am
The Federal Reserve says it will lend up to $200 billion to financial institutions and will accept troubled debt, including mortgage-backed securities, as collateral.
Tuesday's big rally on Wall Street has investors hoping the end is near -- in a good way, that is.
The marquee topic was 3-D on Tuesday at the movie industry's ShoWest conference, as DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg teased exhibitors with footage from next year's "Monsters vs. Aliens" and four studios announced deals that could enable 10,000 more theaters to show films in the format.
With oil prices at record highs and gas heading to the $4-a-gallon level, I was set to come roaring out of the gate today with a proposal that all vehicles be slapped with a conservation-promoting surcharge based on mileage, with proceeds going to public-transit projects.
The airline will review safety inspections after the FAA finds lapses.
Southwest Airlines Co., accused of operating planes that had missed key safety inspections, said Tuesday that it had placed three employees on leave and hired an outside expert to review its maintenance procedures.
The company says the Air Force treated it unfairly in deciding to go with a plane from Northrop and Airbus.
Boeing Co. launched what may be its biggest political fight in decades Tuesday as it seeks to reverse the awarding of a $40-billion defense contract to a joint U.S.-European entry headed by Northrop Grumman Corp.
The temporary exchanges, which aim to ease the credit crunch, would take place in the form of auctions. The Dow surges more than 250 points in morning trading at the news.
Attempting to break the credit logjam that is threatening the already weakened economy, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced a new program to pump massive sums into the financial system.
Inflation and a tough job market strain migrant earners. Some cope by sending home less cash.
Slinging fish tacos at a stall in Grand Central Market on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles was never Ana Sanchez's idea of heaven. But the job pays enough so that she can wire money to her mother and daughter in Mexico, and last year she sent $1,500.
Confidence among Australian consumers weakened sharply in March to its lowest level since 1993, according to data released Wednesday, sparking economists' predictions that the central... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 6:56 am
LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister Alistair Darling looks set to cut growth forecasts and ramp up borrowing in his first budget on Wednesday as the economy faces its most... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 6:54 am
Thousands of Indian airport workers begin an indefinite strike affecting operations at many airports. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 12 Mar 2008 | 6:52 am
Oil prices held steady Wednesday after falling back from an overnight record near $110 a barrel as a strengthening of the U.S. dollar weighed on crude futures. The dollar rebounded... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 12 Mar 2008 | 6:46 am
Admiral William Fallon steps down following the publication of a magazine article that appeared to pit him against President Bush Source: FT.com - US homepage | 12 Mar 2008 | 5:07 am
The New Zealand arm of Dutch financial group ING said on Wednesday it was suspending withdrawals from two investment funds worth $521 million because of the global credit market turmoil.
It said the funds - the diversified yield... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 3:30 am
The amount of time visitors spent in short-term commercial accommodation hit record levels in five regions during January, despite a nationwide fall in stays by international visitors.
Figures out from Statistics New Zealand (SNZ)... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 2:30 am
Shares in recently listed Diligent Board Member Services Inc took a 17 per cent dive today.
Executives in the New York based company were not immediately available to comment.
The 11 cent slump to a record low of 54 cents was... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 2:00 am
A leadership vacuum looks increasingly likely at Japan's central bank after the opposition-controlled upper house voted to reject the government's choice of successor to Toshihiko Fukui Source: FT.com - US homepage | 12 Mar 2008 | 1:21 am
Anyone watching house prices shoot up over the past decade will hardly be able to believe the latest figures out from the Real Estate Institute.
The last year has seen virtually nil movement in prices - unthinkable in the heady... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:30 am
Britain's leading airlines have called for an overhaul of airport regulation after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced a big jump in the maximum landing charges BAA can levy at Heathrow and Gatwick. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Sir Michael Darrington, the long-standing managing director of Greggs, used what is likely to be his last full-year results presentation at the bakery chain to slam the "greedy speculators" he believes are driving up commodities prices and pushing up the cost of food in shops. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Airports operator BAA has admitted its planned £10bn refinancing may have to be restructured, despite receiving a five-year regulatory settlement condemned as too generous by the airlines. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Britain's banks should insist staff take a full two-week holiday every year to reduce the threat of rogue traders, the Financial Services Authority has recommended. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
The US Federal Reserve has taken the boldest action since the 1930s, accepting $200bn of housing debt as collateral to prevent an implosion of the mortgage finance industry and head off a full-blown economic crisis. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Equity traders, being ever the optimists, decided to look on the bright side of yesterday's central bank intervention. London and New York did a jig after the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England pulled out all the stops to avoid markets falling into a pit of despair. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
The head of Citigroup's UK consumer business has quit after overseeing a controversial decision last month to withdraw thousands of Egg cards from customers. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
AMEC, the UK oil and energy services company, is to spend £100m on acquisitions to boost its position in new methods of extracting fossil fuels and the environmental consultancy market. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Friends Provident has urged JC Flowers to clarify its intention toward the UK insurer after two months of speculation about whether the US private equity group would make a bid. Source: Telegraph Business | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Latin America was a place to where Britain once exported criminals rather than
the provision of security services. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
Britain's largest airlines called yesterday for the dismantling of the
airports operator BAA and the Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates the
country's skies. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
They could feed the world or at least a good part of it. Millions of hectares
of valuable farmland are lying fallow in Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union but tariffs and protectionism are keeping these countries from
bringing more food to the table. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
When Sir Stuart (then plain old Stuart) Rose joined Your M&S (then plain
old Marks & Spencer) in 2004, he promised to honour its stated aims of
having something for everyone - a mission that many thought hopelessly
outmoded. He also gave a commitment to the business of five years. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 12 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
Eliot Spitzer, Democratic governor of New York, sought to reach an agreement with prosecutors investigating his involvement with a prostitution ring before making a final decision on leaving office Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Mar 2008 | 11:53 pm
Oil surged to a record near US$110 a barrel overnight (NZ time) before a liquidity injection by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks brought things back a little.
US crude settled up 85 cents at US$108.75 a barrel after... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Mar 2008 | 11:00 pm
Barry Diller's lawyers came out smoking Tuesday on the second day of the Clash of the Moguls, a battle in Delaware Chancery Court with Liberty Media chairman John Malone for control of IAC/InterActive Corp.
Under aggressive questioning by Marc Wolinsky, a Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz lawyer representing Diller, Liberty Media's chief executive, twice said that Malone, his boss, was "wrong" in some of his testimony at the trial on Monday.
The Liberty Media C.E.O., Gregory Maffei also said that he is considering suing Diller over stock options in Expedia.
Liberty, which backed IAC financially as it grew, owns super-voting shares that give it control of the $5 billion company. But Diller, who built the company, has the power to vote those shares under a proxy agreement signed at the outset of their relationship.
Now Diller wants to spin off four businesses from IAC into separate companies with a single class of stock that would significantly dilute Liberty's voting power.
In the narrative that Diller's lawyers are spinning in court, Maffei is cast as the villain, motivated in part by personal animus toward Diller. Wolinsky set the tone early on, pressing Maffei about his dispute with Diller early in his tenure at Liberty.
Maffei obtained $28 million worth of stock options in Expedia when Microsoft owned a stake in the travel website; he said they had been extended and were still valid, but IAC, which owned Expedia at the time, claimed they had expired.
"You didn't get along with Mr. Diller in that process?" Wolinsky asked.
"I would describe it as a contentious process," Maffei said.
Wolinsky tried to suggest that Maffei had suggested a fix for the problem that was less than kosher, confronting the witness with an internal IAC email that he said summarized a conversation with Maffei over the options.
Maffei told one of Diller's lieutenants, "Why can't you go back and fix it and say there was some kind of mistake?" The IAC executive shot back that he could not "fabricate something that didn't happen." Maffei said he has not yet acted on the claim for stock options.
"You may still sue," Wolinsky pressed.
"Sitting here today, I have not decided on my final course of action," Maffei responded.
With the stage set and Maffei's motives cast in doubt, Wolinsky launched into questions at the heart of the lawsuit: Was Maffei unhappy with IAC's performance?
"It wasn't just whether I was unhappy," Maffei said, in one of many quibbling responses.
Malone testified on Monday that Maffei asked Liberty's lawyers from Baker Botts to draft a memorandum on legal issues relating to the voting proxy held by Diller.
Maffei denied it. "I was not the one who asked it to be prepared. He's just wrong," he testified.
Wolinsky's questions had an incredulous tone when Maffei testified that he had no recollection of how Malone responded to a May 2006 plan that would have stripped Diller of his voting rights.
In his testimony, Malone called it "brain damage," and said he would not put his name to a plan that was inconsistent with the partnership he had presented to the world for 10 years.
Maffei responded, "I don't recall Dr. Malone using those words."
The Liberty Media C.E.O. also disputed Wolinsky's characterization of his discussion with analysts about IAC's performance and the prospect of revoking the proxy agreements. Wolinsky described the talks as a "whispering" campaign.
"I do not believe that was what I was doing," Maffei protested. He quibbled several times that he was not a lawyer and could not opine whether this should be disclosed to shareholders. But he finally admitted that, as a businessman, "I think that was meaningful information, sure."
Maffei also became a key source for Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Vascerello, for a story published on October 27, as the catfight between Diller and Malone was building.
The reporter interviewed Maffei on Liberty's private jet en route from New York to Denver, where she was scheduled to interview Malone. Maffei said passengers on the plane also played the card game "Oh Heck" for much of the ride to Denver.
Yesterday, Malone testified that he had spoken with the reporter about the spinoffs.
"No he did not!" Maffei exclaimed.
"He testified to that yesterday," Wolinsky shot back.
"I believe Dr. Malone was wrong," Maffei said, smiling.
Court broke for the day shortly after that. Maffei will be back on the stand Wednesday morning.
Citigroup has been forced to launch a $1bn bail-out of six internal hedge funds hit by the turmoil in municipal bonds Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Mar 2008 | 10:50 pm
The sharemarket lifted strongly in early trading after Wall Street jumped more than 3 per cent.
Equities were given a boost when the Federal Reserve said it would add up to US$200 billion ($253 billion) to strained credit markets... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Mar 2008 | 10:30 pm
The soaring oil price did little to stimulate mergers and acquisitions activity in the oil and gas industry last year, according to the leading study of deals in the sector Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Mar 2008 | 10:13 pm
If each supermarket visit you make feels a bit more painful than the last one - don't worry, it's not just your imagination.
Food price rises are very real.
Staples like milk, bread, chicken and meat rose significantly in price... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Mar 2008 | 10:00 pm
New Zealand businesses are still among the most worried in the world about a shortage of skilled workers, according to the latest findings of an international survey.
"This is the second year in a row that the problem of the availability... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Mar 2008 | 10:00 pm
An environmentally-friendly New Zealand product will soon be seen on supermarket shelves across the Tasman.
Made for the ecology-conscious consumer, 'ecostore' laundry powder has gained a foothold in Australia's largest supermarket... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Mar 2008 | 9:30 pm
US stocks see their biggest gains in five years after the world's largest central banks act to calm credit markets. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Mar 2008 | 9:01 pm
Thousands of New Zealanders get sucked in by scams and rip-offs every year. Instead of the pot of gold they're promised, these victims lose anything from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand dollars.
Those behind the scams and... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Mar 2008 | 9:00 pm
The US administration is facing a key decision on whether to submit a contentious free trade agreement with Colombia for approval by Congress, in a move that could dramatically ratchet up the debate over US trade policy Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Mar 2008 | 8:08 pm
What did the Feds know about Spitzer and when did they know it?
We are only just beginning to understand the journey that federal prosecutors took in uncovering New York governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement in prostitution. But the track appears to have been a well-trodden one: Simply follow the money.
Unnamed justice department officials told the New York Timesand ABC that the investigation began during a routine inquiry by a Long Island office of the Internal Revenue Service.
Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions are required to report suspicious activity in their customer accounts and file an aptly named "Suspicious Activity Report" to the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency (Fincen). Fincen collects the information in a database, which is accessible by law-enforcement agencies including the I.R.S., the F.B.I., the D.E.A., and various state regulatory agencies.
Officials say the suspicious activity in the case of Governor Eliot Spitzer was a money-laundering technique known as "structuring." Banks are required to file different forms for all customer transactions totaling $10,000 or more. In order to catch the bad guys who think they can fly under the radar by making a series of sub-$10,000 withdrawals, banks have developed systems to flag patterns of unusual activity like this.
S.A.R.'s have been required by law since 1996, but they've increased substantially in number since the Patriot Act was passed after September 11, 2001. Last year, depository banks filed 567,080 S.A.R.'s, and other financial institutions filed another 496,400. Ten years prior to that, banking officials received just 81,197 such forms.
According to the F.B.I. affidavit in the Emperor's Club case, Client 9 (a.k.a. Spitzer) chose to pay for services in cash rather than wire transfer. Assuming that Spitzer was withdrawing large sums of money from his account to pay for his visits from Kristen and her co-workers, his bank's system would have flagged the activity as possible structuring.
It's important to note that it's not illegal to take large sums of money from your bank account. Many reports get filed on customers with perfectly legitimate reasons for their withdrawals. In fact, it's up to your bank to determine whether or not the activity its systems flag on your account even warrants an S.A.R. at all.
Here's where it helps if you're not a public official. Because the name on the account was Eliot Spitzer, the bank likely had no choice but to file the S.A.R. to Treasury officials. In this case, the suspicious activity could be covering up corruption, misuse of campaign finances, bribes, or any number of illegalities.
Now imagine you are a paper-pushing bureaucrat in a nondescript I.R.S. office in suburban New York, who examines reports from the Fincen database all day every day. One day you see a report filed on the governor of New York. You can imagine that's a pretty eventful day in that particular bean counter's life.
Conspiracy theorists suspect that a right-wing witch hunt brought Spitzer down and that a government form like the S.A.R. could never have launched such a huge investigation.
But it's easy to see how a fairly common bank form that usually doesn't signify any illegal activity at all was pushed to the forefront because of the significance of the customer's name. The I.R.S. then brought it to the F.B.I.'s attention, and the investigation was under way.
There are so many questions still unanswered, so many baffling turns to understand in Spitzer's downfall. (If he paid in cash, the bank would have had no record of the receiving party. What ultimately led officials to the prostitutes?) But the most perplexing one of all is how a law-enforcement official that has dedicated his life to exposing financial criminal activity could have let a fairly basic money-laundering technique undo him.
"It's almost unfathomable," says David Caruso, chief executive of the antilaundering consulting firm Dominion Advisory Group. "He showed almost no level of sophistication whatsoever."
Structuring violations are prosecuted as federal money-laundering crimes.
So next time you try to avoid the paper trail by paying for your criminal activity in cash, consider plastic instead. But if your job title starts with "governor of the state of," it's probably best to avoid paying at all.
Along Dubai Creek are the souks, or markets, where you can buy everything from spices and textiles to gold. Kai Ryssdal visited them and got a sense of their gold standard. Source: Marketplace | 11 Mar 2008 | 7:49 pm
When the millionaires aren't there for the big events, Dubai's Nad al Sheba racetrack is a great place for a family night out. But there's no booze and no betting . . . well, not exactly. Kai Ryssdal has more. Source: Marketplace | 11 Mar 2008 | 7:49 pm
While workers from around the world are striving to get to jobs in the Middle East, human capital is a big export for some countries in the region as well. Commentator Mona Eltahawy says the decision to leave comes with mixed emotions. Source: Marketplace | 11 Mar 2008 | 7:49 pm
Real estate in Dubai has been open to foreigners since 2002. Speculators and would-be Dubai transplants have been coming ever since. And developers are having trouble keeping up. Sean Cole reports. Source: Marketplace | 11 Mar 2008 | 7:49 pm
While Dubai is booming, the Gulf region's overall unemployment is near 15%. Kai Ryssdal spoke with labor consultant Kito de Boer about what leaders can do to address disparities between the local population and visiting workers. Source: Marketplace | 11 Mar 2008 | 7:49 pm
Dubai's workforce is almost entirely made up of laborers from other countries. They're nothing less than crucial to the city. Stephen Beard reports on the supply of cheap labor that makes Dubai go. Source: Marketplace | 11 Mar 2008 | 7:49 pm
For every Indian or Pakistani who decides to leave Dubai, for every Bangladeshi who figures their opportunites will be better at home, there are dozens or hundreds of others who'll gladly replace them. Scott Tong met one of them in Manila. Source: Marketplace | 11 Mar 2008 | 7:49 pm
Governor Eliot Spitzer is in deep trouble over his escapades as "Client 9." But he's lucky in one respect: He has hired lawyer Michele Hirshman, a partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.
Hirshman had served as Spitzer's first deputy when he was New York attorney general.
More important, she spent 11 years as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan. During that time, she served as chief of the Public Corruption Unit—the very unit that brought the criminal complaint that was unsealed last Thursday, charging four people over their roles as organizers of an international prostitution and money-laundering ring called Emperors Club V.I.P. The New York Times has identified Spitzer as Client 9, as he is called in the affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
A Paul Weiss spokeswoman confirmed that Hirshman "is leading the representation" of Spitzer.
Hirshman, a 1983 graduate of Yale Law School, where she was articles editor of the Yale Law Journal, focuses on "internal investigations and white-collar defense matters" in her practice at Paul Weiss, according to her entry on the law firm's website. After her move to Paul Weiss, Hirshman was one of several Spitzer alums featured in a May 18, 2007, Times article tracking where Spitzer's Wall Street warriors had landed as an "encore." At the time, Hirshman said, "I had a great job in the public sector, but what I learned about myself is that I liked being a lawyer, and what I liked most was negotiating and counseling."
The fate of Hirshman's former boss is now, in part, in her hands. In her time as the Public Corruption Unit's chief at the U.S. Attorney's office, she handled major investigations and prosecutions of government fraud and political and police corruption. The word graft comes to mind. Public corruption is generally considered a white-collar matter, but in this instance, there are shades of red.
Google may not be able to stop Microsoft from swallowing Yahoo, but it has bolstered its arsenal with the acquisition of DoubleClick.
That $3.1 billion deal has been cleared by European regulators, the last hurdle after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved it in December.
Some internet and advertising companies said after the deal was first announced in April that a combination of Google—which dominates search and has become extremely profitable from placing text ads by search results—and the biggest internet advertising company would limit competition in online advertising.
But the European Commission found that the merger would not impede competition, noting that advertisers and other customers had options with Microsoft, AOL, and, yes, Yahoo.
"The commission's in-depth market investigation found that Google and DoubleClick were not exerting major competitive constraints on each other's activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors at the moment," the regulator said.
"The market investigation also found that the merged entity would not have the incentive to close off access for competitors in the ad-serving market, mainly because such strategies would be unlikely to be profitable."
DoubleClick places and tracks online ads, acting as a broker between portals like Google and advertisers. The acquisition of DoubleClick is expected to help Google expand beyond paid search ads and do more with banner ads and videos.
It's usually hard to impress Wall Street. But a day after cheering the news of the downfall of a former nemesis, Wall Street was celebrating again—but this time, putting money on it. Big money.
Stocks had their biggest rally since October 2002 after the Federal Reserve set up a new auction facility to make as much as $200 billion in Treasury securities available to Wall Street banks.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared 416.7 points, or 3.6 percent, to close at 12,156.8. That is the largest one-day gain since July 2002, and the fourth-largest in history, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Other indexes did even better. Standard & Poor's 500 stock index jumped 47.3 points to 1,320.7, a gain of 3.7 percent. The Nasdaq composite index surged 4 percent, adding 86.4 points to close at 2,255.8.
Although prior cuts in interest rates or suggestions of further reductions have sparked increasingly muted pops on Wall Street, investors today hailed the Fed plan as innovative and aggressive. The most important dimension of the new auctions is that the accepted collateral has now been broadened to include Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities and triple-A residential mortgage-backed securities, the market for which has been nearly paralyzed by the housing crisis. And the loans will be for 28 days instead of overnight. The auctions will be held weekly, beginning March 27.
"By permitting borrowers to put up devalued collateral that currently contaminates the balance sheets of financial institutions, [this move] should provide a generous bout of temporary relief to portfolios overweight with distressed assets," said Joseph Brusuelas of IDEAglobal, according to the Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics blog.
Financial stocks in the S&P 500 index rose 5.2 percent: Citigroup gained 8 percent; Merrill Lynch gained 6 percent. Even Bear Stearns, which had tumbled earlier for a second day on fears that the firm was having liquidity problems, recovered to end with a gain of 2 percent for the session. On Monday, shares of Bear fell 11 percent.
While Wall Street cheered, others were skeptical.
Paul Krugman, on his New York Times blog, points to an article by Mark Pittman of Bloomberg News, who notes that Standard & Poor's has refrained from cutting the ratings on many triple-A securities.
Pittman says that "none of the 80 triple-A securities in ABX indexes that track subprime bonds meet the criteria S&P had even before it toughened ratings standards in February," according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
"So basically," Krugman says, "the Fed is going to be swapping Treasuries for dubious securities, in an attempt to give the market a really big slap in the face."
Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture blog says: "The good news is this will help brokers and banks; the bad news is it will do nothing to help the housing market or stop the decline in house prices. Nor will it help resolve the inverted pyramid of derivatives that sits atop housing."
The Fed said in its statement that it was also extending currency-swap arrangements with the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank. Those banks, as well as the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, separately announced liquidity measures.
"Since the coordinated actions taken in December 2007, the G-10 central banks have continued to work together closely and to consult regularly on liquidity pressures in funding markets," the Fed said. "Pressures in some of these markets have recently increased again. We all continue to work together and will take appropriate steps to address those liquidity pressures."
AFP - Global stock markets rebounded Tuesday on bargain hunting despite new record highs for oil prices, fresh all-time lows for the dollar and signs of distress in the financial sector.
For most of his career, Steve Schwarzman has had an impeccable sense of timing, in making acquisitions, selling out, and taking his firm public. Lately, that has been called into question, as deals collapse and the shares of his firm, Blackstone Group, slide.
The timing of his most recent move, a $100 million donation to the New York Public Library, may seem curious, as it comes a day after Blackstone Group reported an 89 percent slide in fourth-quarter earnings.
But a year after his ostentatious display of wealth, with a $5 million birthday party for himself, the donation may go a long way toward rehabilitating Schwarzman's public image.
As James Stewart described in a profile in the New Yorker, Schwarzman "has seemed reluctant to embrace the time-honored relationship between wealth, class, good works, and self-restraint."
Schwarzman is a member of a number of boards of worthy causes, including the New York Public Library. Stewart notes that "a board member is expected to make contributions that roughly correlate to the size of his personal fortune. In Schwarzman's case, this aspect of the pact has generated considerable controversy and ill will, especially given his overt displays of wealth."
Now Schwarzman has made good.
He told Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times that the library came to him: "They said, 'We'd like you to be the lead gift and give us $100 million and we'd like to rename the main branch after you.' I said, 'That sounds pretty good.'"
Schwarzman's name will be inscribed in stone on either side of the main entrance of the branch library on Fifth Avenue, the Times reports.
The donation is remarkable, given that Schwarzman, while still extremely wealthy, has lost nearly $4 billion on paper as Blackstone shares sank from their debut of $31 last June to $15 on Monday.
Reuters - Motorola Inc has had interest
in its handset unit from foreign telecom equipment makers,
according to mergermarket.com, a Financial Times Web site.
Reuters - Police arrested a trader from French bank
Societe Generale in the trading room on Wednesday
morning as part of their investigation into an alleged rogue
trading scandal at the bank, Europe 1 radio reported.
Reuters - U.S. stock index futures edged higher
on Wednesday, with investors likely to extend the previous
session's rally on hopes of an easing in credit market strains.
Reuters - U.S. mortgage applications dipped last
week, reflecting lower demand for home loan refinancing as
interest rates surged to their highest since October, an
industry group said on Wednesday.
AFP - Global stock markets rebounded Tuesday on bargain hunting despite new record highs for oil prices, fresh all-time lows for the dollar and signs of distress in the financial sector.