US ban on deepwater oil drilling will stay in force September 30, 2010 THE US ban on deepwater drilling looks set to stay in place for now, as both a government head and a judge yesterday talked down the possibility of an early end to the rules put in place after the BP oil spill. Judge Martin Feldman said yesterday he would move quickly on oil firms’ challenge [...]
China hits out at America’s yuan tariff legislation September 30, 2010 CHINA remained defiant in the face of America’s move to treat its currency value as an illegal trade subsidy yesterday, and suggested the law could breach World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. A representative for the Chinese government said in a regular press briefing that the passage of the US Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act [...]
Moody’s removes Spain’s AAA rating September 30, 2010 RATINGS agency Moody’s cut Spain’s credit to Aa1 from AAA yesterday, removing the last of its highly-valued triple-A ratings but saying it did not expect to cut again soon thanks to efforts at fiscal reform. The one notch downgrade was widely discounted by the markets, following cuts by Standard and Poor’s in April and by [...]
Business leaders say public sector cuts are the way to reduce deficits September 30, 2010 THE Conservative party conference starts on Sunday and George Osborne may take some comfort from a new KPMG report that supports the case for austerity, though he may find it too radical in other ways. Meeting the Deficit Challenge is a comprehensive analysis of the historical evidence on deficit reduction. It concludes that decisive, front-loaded [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF A COUNTRY SUCH AS IRELAND OR SPAIN DEFAULTING? September 30, 2010 MARK GROVES | EIB “Not directly in terms of my work however a major country defaulting would affect everyone through the direct country risk and the risk from the exposure our clients have. The knock-on effects on the financial services industry as a whole would most certainly be a cause for concern.” YASMINE MOEZINIA | [...]
CBI criticises migrant cap September 30, 2010 EMPLOYERS’ group the CBI has thrown its weight behind Vince Cable, the business secretary, by warning that government plans to cap non-EU immigration could hamper the economic recovery. The government is consulting on plans to introduce a permanent cap next spring, and has put a temporary limit in place until then. Home secretary Theresa May [...]
Criteria for loans gets tougher September 30, 2010 SMALL businesses had more access to credit in the last quarter than any time this year but many companies remained wary of taking on debt, the Bank of England said yesterday. A survey by the Bank showed that demand for loans tailed off in smaller companies in the three months to the start of September. [...]
Italy’s UniCredit selects new chief exec September 30, 2010 ITALIAN bank UniCredit named insider Federico Ghizzoni as its new chief executive yesterday, a week after Alessandro Profumo was ousted in a boardroom coup. The central Bank of Italy had urged UniCredit to appoint a successor quickly, before the bank begins to flail in its efforts to rebuild after the financial crisis. Ghizzoni, 54, was [...]
America’s biggest hedge funds rake in gains while smaller managers struggle September 30, 2010 BRIDGEWATER has increased its lead as the biggest hedge fund manager in America, figures released yesterday claimed. The firm now manages around $50.9bn (£32.4bn), up from $38.6bn last year to also make it the biggest riser, according to AR magazine’s biannual rankings. Bridgewater, a 35-year-old fund firm founded by Ray Dalio, comfortably outstrips nearest rival [...]
Growth of US economy revised up as consumer spending surges September 30, 2010 THE US government yesterday revised up its second-quarter GDP growth by 0.1 per cent to 1.7 per cent. Personal consumption was revised up from an original estimate of two per cent growth to 2.2 per cent, the biggest quarterly leap in consumer spending in three years. This compared with a 2.1 per cent rise in [...]