UBS fined for client rip-offs November 5, 2009 ONE of the City’s foremost investment banks, UBS, was yesterday fined £8m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after four former London-based dealers plundered customer accounts to trade and dumped the resulting losses on them. The fine – the third largest ever demanded by the FSA – comes after the Swiss bank had to compensate [...]
QE has worked it’s time to wind it down November 5, 2009 IT is nonsense to believe that quantitative easing has had no effect on the economy. It has prevented a collapse in the money supply, which would have triggered a collapse in output. It has also led to a surge in asset prices and started to fuel new bubbles in Britain and abroad, which is why [...]
Obama in GM trade row November 5, 2009 US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has stepped into the row about the future of Vauxhall and Opel as anger about General Motors’ decision to keep its European arm threatens to harm future business deals. Obama is believed to have made an agreement with German chancellor Angela Merkel that she would co-ordinate with the US leader on [...]
FINANCIAL TIMES November 5, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES LULA CALLS ON LEADERS TO ATTEND CLIMATE TALKSBrazil’s president has challenged other world leaders to attend next month’s climate talks in Copenhagen to break the deadlock in negotiations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the Financial Times he would speak to Barack Obama, US president, next week to [...]
Shooting rampage at US base November 5, 2009 A US Army major firing two handguns killed 11 people and wounded 31 others in a shooting rampage last night at Fort Hood base in Texas, a prime point of deployment for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military said the gunman was killed. Broadcast media identified him as Major Malik Nidal Hasan, and [...]
Maiden flight for new Airbus November 5, 2009 Airbus carried out the maiden flight yesterday of a new freight plane that could mark its entry into plane assembly in the United States, if it wins an epic contest with Boeing over refuelling planes. The A330-200F is the freight version of the European planemaker’s mid-sized passenger jet and aims to capture a larger share [...]
Galleon fraud probe ensnares 14 more November 5, 2009 FOURTEEN people were charged with fraud and conspiracy in a dramatic widening of the Galleon insider trading scandal in the US that has ensnared hedge fund managers, top Silicon Valley executives and a number of senior advisers. In complaints that read like scripts for the TV series “The Sopranos,” investigators alleged suspects dropped off bags [...]
French government demands ban on guaranteed bonuses November 5, 2009 FRENCH banks – including those based in England and English banks based in France – have been banned from offering guaranteed bonuses. The only exception in the rule, announced yesterday, is for signing bonuses for new employees, and they are limited to a one year maximum. The government decree, which takes effect immediately, says that [...]
Strike threat still on at BA as court date pushed to next year November 5, 2009 BRITISH AIRWAYS’ (BA) staff will still be balloted on strike action over the Christmas period, despite the union’s legal challenge to new contracts being delayed. The Unite union had requested a High Court injunction to block new working patterns, which BA is enforcing as it seeks desperately to cut costs at the airline, but the [...]
Citigroup to sell Primerica shares November 5, 2009 Wall Street bank Citigroup yesterday said that it plans to sell shares of its Primerica life insurance business to the public, as the bank looks to shed assets outside its main businesses. Citigroup tried earlier this year to sell Primerica, an insurer that specialises in door-to-door sales, but failed to attract any bids.