WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
CHINA AND US CLOSER ON TRADE TARGETS
China and the US have the basis for an agreement at the summit of the Group of 20 leading nations next month on setting targets to cut trade imbalances, according to an adviser to the Chinese central bank. Li Daokui, a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee and professor at Tsinghua University, said on Tuesday there had been “good progress” at the weekend meeting of G20 finance ministers in South Korea which had moved debate from the “surface issue” of nominal exchange rates to “talking about the substance of rebalancing world trade”.
UBS WANTS WATCHDOG TO WAIVE $1M CAP ON CASH BONUSES
UBS, one of the banks hardest hit by the financial crisis, is lobbying Swiss regulators to scrap a $1m cap on cash bonuses paid to its top bankers, amid complaints it has strained some executives’ personal finances. The Swiss banking group wants to pay out more cash to top earners, most of whom work in London, New York, and other places with relatively high rates of personal income tax, say people familiar with the situation. Under the bank’s existing pay structure agreed last year with Finma, Switzerland’s financial regulator, the cash component of bonuses is limited to $1m, with the remainder paid out in deferred cash and share awards that vest over several years.
SCOPE OF FED’S QE2 COMES UNDER SCRUTINY
The US Federal Reserve’s meeting next week is likely to result in a new dollop of quantitative easing – nicknamed QE2 – but how many assets it should ultimately buy remains a hot topic for debate within the Fed.Markets think the Fed initially will announce $500bn in asset purchases.
THE TIMES
BUFFETT, 80, BETS ON A RISING STAR LESS THAN HALF HIS AGE
Warren Buffett’s latest hot pick could be one of his most daring gambles yet. In hiring the little-known hedge fund manager Todd Combs to manage a big part of Berkshire Hathaway’s investments, the billionaire investor has added a new name to the list of runners and riders tipped to succeed him. At 39, Mr Combs could stay at Berkshire for decades.
RURAL DISABLED GET MOBILE
M-Pesa has provided a spur for economic growth in Tanzania, but the mobile money transfer service is also being harnessed to help to save lives. The CCBRT Disability Hospital in Dar es Salaam is using the system to pay to transport women suffering from fistula and children with cleft palates or club feet to the city for surgery.
The Daily Telegraph
GERMAN BOOM CREATES ECB POLICY NIGHTMARE AS SOUTH LAGS
Blistering growth in Germany is aggravating the growing gap between the eurozone’s North and South and may force the European Central Bank to tighten monetary policy long before the high-debt states are ready, Standard & Poor’s has warned. A separate report by Simon Ward from Henderson Global Investors said Eurozone indicators are showing “unprecedented divergence”.
PENGUIN TO LAUNCH A SOCIAL NETWORK FOR BOOKWORMS
Penguin is set to launch a social network for teenage bookworms called Spinebreakers, in an effort to keep young people interested in reading. Penguin views Spinebreakers, the social network, as a crucial part of future-proofing the book industry. The site exists as a content website.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
SENATOR ASKS FACEBOOK, MYSPACE TO DETAIL PRIVACY SAFEGUARDS
The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee asked top executives of Facebook and MySpace to detail how they safeguard information about users, in the wake of Wall Street Journal articles revealing privacy breaches on the social-networking sites. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., sought the information in letters Tuesday to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and MySpace President Michael Jones.
OIL MAJORS CRITICISE BP’S WELL DESIGN
Senior executives at major oil companies Total and Chevron yesterday criticised the safety of the design BP used on its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, which spilled millions of barrels of oil earlier this year following a blowout.