In November, Mario Monti, the former European Union official and academic, was tapped by Italy’s President to form a government after Silvio Berlusconi’s regime crumbled. At the time, heavily indebted Italy looked like the next domino to fall. Under Monti as Prime Minister, Italy has done the unthinkable: regained investor confidence. His government has pushed [...]
With the financial world lurching from one emergency to another, it’s time to consider that domination by men may foster aggression and risk-taking The protracted global financial crisis has led to a wide-ranging search for culprits, including blind regulators, greedy speculators, Chinese dumping, and a global market economy that lacks both a social and time [...]
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Some of the world’s biggest airport operators came away empty-handed after Brazil auctioned licenses to run three of its busiest hubs. With the concessions fetching five times the minimum bid, their caution may have been wise. Brazilian contractors teamed up with companies in Argentina, France and South Africa to bid 24.5 [...]
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — An Egyptian military delegation visiting Washington canceled talks with U.S. senators because the group was called home amid a dispute over charges against American pro-democracy workers, according to three U.S. senators. The generals were scheduled to meet as early as yesterday with senators including Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads [...]
(Updates with Russian Foreign Minister’s comments in 15th paragraph, expulsion of Syrian ambassadors from GCC in 17th.) Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has turned to his father’s playbook as he seeks to end an uprising that threatens his family’s 40-year reign. The government’s increasing brutality is reminiscent of 1982 when Hafez al-Assad [...]
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, said fourth-quarter profit dropped 76 percent after its investment bank reported a second consecutive quarterly loss. Net income fell to 393 million Swiss francs ($427 million) from 1.66 billion francs in the year-earlier period, the Zurich- based bank said in a statement today. Earnings missed the [...]
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Glencore International Plc, the world’s largest publicly traded commodities supplier, agreed to buy Xstrata Plc for 39.1 billion pounds ($62 billion) in the biggest mining takeover. Glencore, which has 34 percent of Xstrata, offered 2.8 new shares for each Xstrata share in an agreed all-share “merger of equals,” the companies said [...]
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Power Finance Corp., India’s largest state-run lender to electricity utilities, plans to more than double lending for renewable energy projects within a year as coal-fired plants become riskier investments. The company’s approved loans to projects, particularly solar and wind plants, will increase to 15 billion rupees ($305 million), or 4 percent [...]
(Updates with credit-card market data in sixth paragraph, cooperation with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank in eighth.) Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — China’s decision to allow Citigroup Inc. to issue credit cards may signal an opening of the banking market as the government relaxes restrictions that are the subject of a U.S. complaint at the World Trade [...]
(Adds bond returns in eighth paragraph. See {EXT4 <GO>} for more on euro-area financial crisis.) Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Anthony Roche is urging his unemployed son to emigrate to Australia from Ireland to escape joblessness stemming from the country’s economic collapse. “I’ve seen the good times and the bad and these are the worst,” Roche, [...]