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Business News
for 01/11/2009

(last updated 7:30am EST 01/11/2009)

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• Obama: $350b bailout needs to help peopl... Obama: $350b bailout needs to help people
01/11/2009
President-elect Barack Obama wants more transparency and strict guidelines for using the second $350 billion of the bailout fund Congress approved last fall to stabilize the nation's financial system. (1 h ago)

• States ponder early release for prisoner... States ponder early release for prisoners
01/11/2009
Governors, legislators and prison officials across the nation are considering policy changes that will likely remove tens of thousands of offenders from prisons and parole supervision. (1 h ago)

• Obama: Stimulus will create 4.1 million ... Obama: Stimulus will create 4.1 million jobs
01/10/2009
Facing growing criticism of his economic recovery plan, President-elect Barack Obama made public Saturday a detailed analysis by his economic advisers. (6 h ago)

• Bush prepares request for rest of bailou... Bush prepares request for rest of bailout cash
01/10/2009
Senior Bush administration officials, consulting with the Obama transition team, have prepared a plan to ask lawmakers for the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package, sources said. (7 h ago)

• Newsweek: Why Madoff should be free Newsweek: Why Madoff should be free
01/10/2009
Opinion: The presumption that defendants should remain free until they are convicted is centuries old in English common law. (23 h ago)

• Obama, Dems look to revamp bailout Obama, Dems look to revamp bailout
01/09/2009
President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats want to apply greater scrutiny to the financial sector bailout and a more defined mission to the $700 billion program. (1 d ago)

• Citigroup director Robert Rubin resigns Citigroup director Robert Rubin resigns
01/09/2009
Citigroup says board member Robert Rubin, the former U.S. Treasury secretary, has resigned as a senior adviser to the big financial services company. (1 d ago)

• Industry slams Citigroup mortgage deal Industry slams Citigroup mortgage deal
01/09/2009
A top bank industry group said it opposes an agreement between Citigroup and Democratic senators that would change bankruptcy law to help troubled mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure. (1 d ago)

• Ford says new Fusion to lead class in mi... Ford says new Fusion to lead class in mileage
01/09/2009
Ford Motor Co. on Friday said the conventional version of its new Fusion sedan will get the best gas mileage in the highly popular mid-size segment of the U.S. market. (1 d ago)

• Stocks end sharply lower on bleak jobs d... Stocks end sharply lower on bleak jobs data
01/09/2009
Stocks slumped Friday after the U.S. unemployment rate shot above 7 percent, signaling that Americans will be sticking to their tightened budgets for a while. (1 d ago)

• GM cleans out the garage GM cleans out the garage
01/09/2009
General Motors is cleaning out the attic to sell some stuff at the auction house to raise much needed cash. (1 d ago)

• Web startup to offer foreign news Web startup to offer foreign news
01/09/2009
As budget cuts force many U.S. newspapers to retrench on their foreign coverage, veteran journalist Charles Sennott saw virtually no chance of getting another assignment abroad. (1 d ago)

• Boeing plane division to cut 4,500 jobs Boeing plane division to cut 4,500 jobs
01/09/2009
Airplane maker Boeing Co. says it plans to cut about 4,500 jobs this year due to the global economic slowdown. (1 d ago)

• Seattle newspaper could close Seattle newspaper could close
01/09/2009
Hearst Corp. put Seattle's oldest newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, up for sale Friday, saying that if it can't find a buyer in the next 60 days, the paper will close or continue to exist only on the Internet. (1 d ago)

• Oil prices drop below $40 Oil prices drop below $40
01/09/2009
Oil prices fell below $40 per barrel Friday for the first time this year as the government reported the nation’s worst annual job losses since World War II. (1 d ago)

• Former Satyam chairman arrested Former Satyam chairman arrested
01/09/2009
Indian police on Friday arrested the former chairman of outsourcing giant Satyam Computer, days after he admitted he doctored the company's accounts to the tune of $1 billion. (1 d ago)

• Grim job outlook turns bleaker Grim job outlook turns bleaker
01/09/2009
Friday’s employment report confirms an already bleak job market outlook. Analysts say that even if all goes well hiring probably won’t pick up again until early 2010. (1 d ago)

• Charges dropped against Stockman Charges dropped against Stockman
01/09/2009
Federal prosecutors dropped charges Friday against former Reagan budget director David Stockman, who was accused of overseeing a sweeping fraud at a troubled auto parts supplier. (1 d ago)

• Microsoft’s Ballmer raises pressure on Y... Microsoft’s Ballmer raises pressure on Yahoo
01/09/2009
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has told the Financial Times newspaper that the current period of transition for Yahoo is a good time for a search deal between the two companies. (1 d ago)

• ‘Winners’ in Madoff case face hard choic... ‘Winners’ in Madoff case face hard choices
01/08/2009
The many Bernard Madoff investors who withdrew money from their accounts over the years are now wrestling with an ethical and legal quandary. (2 d ago)

• Citigroup, Morgan Stanley To Consolidate Citigroup, Morgan Stanley To Consolidate
01/10/2009
A deal to combine the brokerages of Citigroup and Morgan Stanley - which would give Citi more cash, and Morgan Stanley more manpower - appears just days away. (1 h ago)

• Where To Park Your Cash For A Crunch Where To Park Your Cash For A Crunch
01/10/2009
Ray Martin offered advice on safe places to invest funds you're saving for emergencies (such as a job loss) on The Early Show Saturday Edition. (5 h ago)

• Russia, EU Sign Energy Agreement Russia, EU Sign Energy Agreement
01/10/2009
Russian and European Union officials have signed a deal regarding the deployment of EU officials to monitor Russian gas shipments through Ukraine. (6 h ago)

• Indian Outsourcing Firm Hit By $1B Fraud Indian Outsourcing Firm Hit By $1B Fraud
01/10/2009
Indian police detained the chief financial officer of embattled outsourcing giant Satyam Computers, the third executive to enter police custody in the wake of a massive fraud scandal. (7 h ago)

• Schooling The Money "Experts" Schooling The Money "Experts"
01/10/2009
One year ago, the Dow was over 12,000. Low it's less than 9,000. But years ago, the financial experts making predictions about the market made some wild claims. Steve Hartman (21 h ago)

• Where Did The Bailout Billions Go? Where Did The Bailout Billions Go?
01/10/2009
Just months ago, the government spent hundreds of billions to rescue financial institutions. What's become of that money? That's what an oversight committee's trying to find out - but haven't, Sharyl Attkisson reports. (21 h ago)

• Feds End Probe Of Ex-Reagan Budget Chief Feds End Probe Of Ex-Reagan Budget Chief
01/10/2009
Federal prosecutors dropped charges against former Reagan budget director David Stockman, who was accused of overseeing a sweeping fraud at a troubled auto parts supplier that he led before the company collapsed into bankruptcy. (22 h ago)

• Key Lawmaker Eyes Bailout Bill Changes Key Lawmaker Eyes Bailout Bill Changes
01/10/2009
Rep. Barney Frank said he expects the House to act soon to impose conditions on any new release of the second $350 billion in federal bailout funds, with a mandate that up to $100 billion go to help struggling borrowers avoid foreclosure. (23 h ago)

• Disney Seeks To Build Shanghai Theme Par... Disney Seeks To Build Shanghai Theme Park
01/09/2009
The Walt Disney Co. said that it was going to submit a plan to build a new $3.59 billion theme park in China in a joint venture with the Shanghai government, to open as early as 2014. (1 d ago)

• Dec. Jobless Rate Jumped To 7.2% Dec. Jobless Rate Jumped To 7.2%
01/09/2009
The government says the U.S. unemployment rate bolted to 7.2 percent in December, the highest since early 1993, as employers slashed 524,000 jobs. (1 d ago)

• Questions, Doubts Loom Over Bailout Mone... Questions, Doubts Loom Over Bailout Money
01/09/2009
President-elect Barack Obama's economic team is broadening the mission of the $700 billion bailout for the financial sector, aiming to unfreeze credit for homeowners, consumers, small businesses and local governments. (1 d ago)

• Verizon Wireless Completes Alltel Buyout Verizon Wireless Completes Alltel Buyout
01/09/2009
Verizon Wireless says it has completed its $5.9 billion purchase of Little Rock-based Alltel Corp., making Verizon the nation's largest mobile phone company. (1 d ago)

• Obama Unveils Ambitious Economic Agenda Obama Unveils Ambitious Economic Agenda
01/09/2009
President-elect Barack Obama warned of dire and lasting consequences if Congress doesn't pump unprecedented dollars into the economy, making an urgent pitch for his mammoth spending proposal in his first speech since his election. (1 d ago)

• In Dollar Terms, Borrowing Drops Big Tim... In Dollar Terms, Borrowing Drops Big Time
01/08/2009
Consumers cut back on their borrowing by a record amount in dollar terms in November, another sign of trouble for the rapidly weakening economy. (2 d ago)

• Save, Don't Spend, During The Holidays Save, Don't Spend, During The Holidays
01/08/2009
Politicians are telling us to spend money to help the economy. Don't listen to them. It's time to rediscover the virtue of thrift, writes Declan McCullagh. (2 d ago)

• Madoff Belongs In Jail, Prosecutor Says Madoff Belongs In Jail, Prosecutor Says
01/08/2009
Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff and his wife sent at least 16 watches, a jade necklace and a diamond bracelet to relatives, proving he will continue to dissipate what is left from his $50 billion fraud, a prosecutor told a judge. (2 d ago)

• New Jobless Claims Make Unexpected Drop New Jobless Claims Make Unexpected Drop
01/08/2009
New claims for unemployment benefits dropped unexpectedly last week while the number of people continuing to seek aid rose sharply, the government said Thursday. (2 d ago)

• More Than 1/3 Of Rescue Money Disbursed More Than 1/3 Of Rescue Money Disbursed
01/08/2009
The Treasury Department says it has disbursed $266.9 billion from the $700 billion financial rescue program. (2 d ago)

• Wal-Mart Falters In Latest Retail Report Wal-Mart Falters In Latest Retail Report
01/08/2009
As merchants reported their sales figures, confirming fears that the holiday season was the weakest in four decades, the malaise cut through practically all areas from kitchen gadget stores to jewelry purveyors and teen apparel retailers. (2 d ago)

• Somali pirates drown with ransom share Somali pirates drown with ransom share
01/11/2009
Five Somali pirates drowned yesterday as they tried to make off with their share of a $3m ransom. The money, which was also lost as the pirates' boat capsized, was paid after they agreed to free a Saudi supertanker seized in the world's biggest ship hijacking. The capture of the Sirius Star and its $100m cargo of oil in November drew attention to a surge in piracy off Somalia. Eyewitnesses said at least five pirates were drowned in rough waters that engulfed one of the boats leaving the Saudi ship. The deaths marked the end of a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden which ended on Friday. The gang had originally been quoted as asking for £17m to release the Sirius Star but finally agreed to accept $3m. Farah Osman, an associate of the pirates, said five of the first eight pirates to leave the ship died after their boat capsized. Speaking from Haradheere port near where the tanker was held, he said: "Two others swam and survived. One is still missing. The weather was so terrible that it blew the boat over, then sank it. We got five dead bodies. We are still searching for the missing one." The Sirius was carrying 2m barrels of oil when it was captured on 15 November with 25 crew members, 450 miles southeast of Kenya, in the boldest seizure to date by Somali pirates. The tanker sailed from Haradheere, a pirate base, on Somalia's eastern coast on Thursday. Two Britons - Peter French, from County Durham, and James Grady, from Renfrewshire - are among the crew, who were all reported to be unharmed. There are currently around a dozen boats with more than 200 hostages in pirate hands. The average ransom per vessel is reported to be around $2m. Somalia Piracy at sea Oil and gas companies guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Deal to resume Russian gas eludes EU as ... Deal to resume Russian gas eludes EU as 11 people die in big freeze-up
01/11/2009
Tens of thousands of homes across Europe continued to freeze last night after Russia and Ukraine again failed to agree on a deal to end their bitter dispute and resume gas deliveries to an increasingly desperate European Union. The Czech prime minister and EU president, Mirek Topolanek, arrived in Moscow yesterday for talks with Vladimir Putin in an attempt to persuade the prime minister to restart supplies of gas to Europe, which have been cut off since last Wednesday. But Russia was still refusing amid wrangling over the details of an EU monitoring mission. EU experts arrived in Ukraine on Friday and have taken up positions at gas monitoring stations in the east and west of Ukraine. Both sides have failed to agree on the precise terms of the mission and insist that their experts be allowed to examine monitoring stations in each other's territory. Ukraine says Russia is trying to wrest control of its gas transportation system, a charge that Moscow denies. Officials from Ukraine's state energy company, Naftogaz, said there had been "some progress" in difficult talks with Gazprom, its Russian counterpart. "The negotiations have moved ahead," said Naftogaz deputy chief executive Volodymyr Trykolych, adding that the Russians had changed their terms "several times". During talks with the Czech prime minister, an angry Putin blamed Ukraine for the crisis, which has left more than a dozen European countries with no Russian gas at all. At least 11 people froze to death last week, including 10 in Poland, where temperatures have sunk to -25C. "Despite the fact that European institutions and you personally are making efforts to resolve the crisis, Ukraine has aggravated it," Putin said. Yesterday Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko, said Kiev would supply gas from its own reserves to Bulgaria and Moldova, two of the countries worst hit, but did not say how long this would last. Gas experts suggest it will be several days before energy is restored to Europe once Russia restarts pumping gas. It would take 30 hours to reach Ukraine and a further 36 to reach the first EU countries, such as Slovakia, bordering Ukraine. It would be at least three days before normal supplies can be restored. Meanwhile, throughout the Balkans the Orthodox Christmas of 2009 will be remembered for its bitter cold and a harsh reminder of the realities of the region's relationship with Russia. "Lots of people have no way of heating themselves and it's -15C outside," said Vlasta Stankovic from Novi Sad in Serbia, one of several countries where Orthodox believers celebrated Christmas in freezing conditions. "The shops have sold out of electric heaters and the price of firewood has almost doubled - and it's almost impossible to find now, so great is the demand. In some ways its worse than during the 1999 Nato bombing in the Kosovo crisis - at least it was springtime then and not so cold." In the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, lights on the façades of public buildings were turned off, heating on public transport was cut, and gas-powered buses and taxis ground to a halt. Ukrainian diplomats have warned that gas supplies to Europe can continue only when Kiev has resolved its dispute with Moscow. They describe Gazprom's current offer of $450 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas for 2009 as "ridiculous" and "reaching for the ceiling". A deal has been made more difficult by Russian accusations that the Ukrainians have been stealing gas. Kiev denies this, saying it merely used "technical" gas last week to stop its system from collapsing. Russia says European monitors are needed to prevent any more theft. Gazprom halted the shipment of gas intended for Ukraine on 1 January after negotiations over a new contract broke down. The main cause of the crisis seems to be a commercial dispute over gas transit and prices. But relations between the two countries have deteriorated since the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine which led to the election of a pro-western government in Kiev. Russia has been keen to restore its former power in what was the Soviet sphere. Russia Ukraine European Union Gas Energy guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Dubai budget deficit shock Dubai budget deficit shock
01/11/2009
Dubai is expected to post its first ever budget deficit this year as the cost of transforming it into a financial, media and tourist hub hits home. The deficit was expected to reach 4.2bn dirhams (£750m), said Dubai's finance department. Many of the Gulf emirate's most ostentatious construction projects have been put under review as the global economic crisis takes hold. Dubai Global economy guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Financial protection boosted after firms... Financial protection boosted after firms fail
01/11/2009
January is traditionally the time when tour operators compete to lure customers with discounts and offers, but this year many are changing the focus from saving money to protecting it. The collapse of Excel and other, smaller companies last year has increased public awareness of the perils of buying flight-only or accommodation-only deals and of the many loopholes in the Atol bonding scheme. "Protection" has become the travel industry's hottest issue, with operators desperate to reassure customers their money will be safe. Thomas Cook has launched a new campaign, guaranteeing that every holiday, flight and cruise booked through it - with any company - will be protected if that company fails, while Aito (the Association of Independent Tour Operators) is highlighting the fact that it offers all clients who book with any Aito member 100% financial protection. Thomson, who has rebranded Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways into one airline, Thomson Airways, guarantees financial protection on all its flights. Travel insurance is changing too, with tour operators battling to win consumers by including cover for eventualities such as scheduled airlines failing. Saga has introduced added protection against airline failure as standard in its one-trip and annual policies and all insurance - whether booked through a tour operator, travel agent or insurance company - will now be covered by city watchdog the Financial Services Authority. "This means that now everyone has the same right of comeback if they run into trouble with their travel insurance," says Kelly Ostler-Coyle of the Association of British Insurers. "Before, if you booked your insurance through a travel agent or operator, you had no comeback." Travel companies are currently discounting heavily which, while good news for consumers, also raises the possibility of further failures. Frances Tuke of Abta says: "Companies are making a lot of noise about guaranteeing all their products and that's clearly because they feel it's going to give them a commercial advantage." Many people still do not realise that the Atol logo is not a cast-iron guarantee. "If you're not booking a package, our advice is to ask specifically what financial protection is offered," says Tuke. "Don't assume you're covered. It could be a very expensive mistake." Flights Travel insurance Consumer affairs Travel & leisure guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Ex-home secretary Reid has private secur... Ex-home secretary Reid has private security job
01/11/2009
John Reid, the former home secretary, has cashed in on his ministerial experience by taking a £45,000-a-year job with private security company G4S, the Observer has learnt. His appointment comes just days after a parliamentary committee warned that former ministers have been exploiting their insider knowledge "with impunity". Formed from a merger of Group 4 and Securicor, G4S is Britain's largest security firm with contracts ranging from private prisons to the armed guards defending British officials in Iraq. The appointment was disclosed by the advisory committee on business appointments, which polices former ministers' job applications. Reid has been judged free to lobby ministers and officials on behalf of the security company. The public administration committee (PAC) called last week for all lobbying activity to be registered and monitored by a tougher watchdog - claiming the industry's attempt at self-regulation had entirely failed. "We are strongly concerned that, with the rules as loosely and as variously interpreted as they currently are, former ministers in particular appear to be able to use with impunity the contacts they built up as public servants to further a private interest," said a statement from the PAC. John Reid G4S guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Under-fire Tory Alan Duncan faces new at... Under-fire Tory Alan Duncan faces new attack over oil firm job
01/11/2009
Alan Duncan, the shadow business secretary under fire for spending too much time on outside business interests, is contracted to work four weeks every year for an oil company. The MP for Rutland and Melton is being paid £35,000 a year to work 20 days by Arawak Energy, an exploration company with interests in Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The disclosure of Duncan's terms and conditions comes as Tory officials brief against him for failing to spend enough time as a shadow minister and MP. He was criticised last week for failing to turn up to shadow cabinet meeting because he had chosen to go on holiday. David Winnick, Labour MP for Walsall North, said that the number of days Duncan is expected to work for the oil company in a year would be a distraction for anyone holding down a job as an MP, let alone a frontbench spokesman. "I think a good number of people will be very surprised by the terms and conditions for Arawak which expect him to work so many days," he said. "It is up to Duncan to explain the inconsistency between what is supposed to be his job as a frontbench spokesman, an MP and his own business interests." Duncan joined Arawak as a non-executive director last April, just weeks before the UK-Canadian oil firm raised money via a flotation on the London stock market. The company, which has offices in St James's, is part owned by Vitol, a company once fined after admitting bribing Saddam Hussein's government to obtain Iraqi oil contracts. Duncan resigned last month as non-executive director from a £45,000-a-year job with the Los Angeles-based company Catalytic Solutions, which he had held for two years. His share entitlement was worth £19,500 last year but had plummeted to £2,400 by the time he resigned on Christmas Eve. Charlie Call, chief executive of Catalytic Solutions, told the Observer that Duncan resigned for a number of reasons including his concern that others would think that his job demonstrated a potential conflict of interest. Duncan angered the Tory leadership team last year by defending the right to hold outside interests after David Cameron let it be known that he was considering scaling them down. The shadow minister told reporters: "Better to be part-time wise than full-time ignorant." Jon Cruddas, MP for Dagenham, has written to Francis Maude, the shadow minister for the cabinet office, expressing concern that shadow cabinet members including Duncan are being given access to permanent secretaries as part of an exercise by the prime minister. "This raises concerns over the lucrative second jobs many shadow ministers have kept in the City and gaining insider knowledge," he wrote. Sixteen out of the 22 members of the shadow cabinet have declared remunerated employment to top up their £65,000 salary as MPs. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, earned £230,000 over the past year from speaking fees and directorships, policy chief Oliver Letwin works part-time for bankers NM Rothschild, and international development spokesman Andrew Mitchell holds six directorships with the merchant bank Lazards. Duncan, 51, declined to comment on whether there could be a conflict of interest over his job with Arawak. He added, however, that he had resigned from his previous job so that he could devote more time to his responsibilities towards his party and constituents. Alan Duncan Conservatives Oil and gas companies guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• US papers in peril US papers in peril
01/11/2009
The New York Times is the latest in a series of US newspapers to experience financial turmoil (1 h ago)

• America's most revered newspaper, the Ne... America's most revered newspaper, the New York Times, is latest to be hit by financial woes
01/11/2009
It was meant to be a new beginning for a venerable newspaper. The New York Times building, soaring 57 storeys above Manhattan's 42nd Street, was heralded as the most significant addition to the city's skyline for a decade. When it opened in 2007, it was an ambitious statement of intent for the most famous journalistic brand in America. It would be a sleek and stylish home for the best journalism in the world. That was then. Now the "Grey Lady", whose masthead bears the famed motto "All the news that's fit to print", has begun to look decidedly off-colour. The US newspaper industry is in a disastrous state. Last year was a watershed: jobs were shed in their thousands, newsrooms slashed costs and even some of the most illustrious names in the business - such as the company that owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune - went bankrupt. On Friday, it was announced that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will be closed or go digital-only if no buyer for the 145-year-old title is found within 60 days. Now, as the industry gears up for an even worse year, even the New York Times has become the subject of panicked speculation. Saddled with debts, crippled by the costs of the new building and of running one of the most expensive news operations on earth, some believe the Times is running on empty. It is facing all the same problems that other American newspapers are struggling with, as the internet steals subscribers and advertising dries up in the face of a deep recession. In a sign of the financial straits in which the industry finds itself, the Times broke one of its oldest rules last Monday and put an advert on its hitherto sacrosanct front page. But the move only reinforced the sense of turbulent times ahead. Some New York media commentators are beginning to contemplate the previously unthinkable: could the New York Times go under? Certainly, Michael Wolff, a media writer at Vanity Fair, thinks the situation is bleak. "There is no point of optimism here. There is no way that this situation gets better for them," he said. It is hard to overstate the place that the New York Times holds in American journalism. It is worshipped by media professionals as the home of true, old-fashioned reporting. Many look enviously at its lavishly funded foreign operations, its arts coverage and its investigations unit. Liberal America regards the paper as a bible, while conservatives love to hate it. Like the BBC's Today programme in Britain, it is vital in shaping the news agenda each morning. "Losing the Times would be a blow to more than just American journalism; it would be a blow to American democracy," said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania. The latest article to examine the paper's precarious finances appeared in the Atlantic Magazine by Michael Hirschorn, who raised the prospect that the Times might default on debts of $400m by May. Hirschorn pointed out the Times earnings reports showed only $46m in cash reserves and no way to borrow, because its debt had been recently downgraded to junk status. "What if the New York Times goes out of business - like, this May?" Hirschorn asked. Times executives say they will be fine. Senior vice-president Catherine Mathis pointed out the debt was a revolving credit agreement. "We have been talking with lenders and, based on our conversations with them, we expect to get the financing to meet our obligations when they come due," she said. But whatever the details of the financial nitty-gritty, the Times is sailing in choppy seas and is starting to ship water. It is in negotiations for the sale of the office space it owns in its grand building, an embarrassment after the hoopla accompanying its move into the new base. Others speculate that the Times - which is owned by the aristocratic Ochs-Sulzberger family, headed by publisher Arthur Sulzberger - will have to sell off other assets. It owns the Boston Globe and a stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team. Either or both could be sold to raise cash. But critics say such moves would only signal the depth of the crisis, not the cure for it. "Let's face it; they would be distress sales," said Wolff. Many believe that the idea of the Times ever collapsing is still fantastical. They point out that, if the worst comes to the worst, it would be sold. The Sulzbergers play the part of benevolent owners, keeping the paper's journalism pure as a sort of political mission. But the large Sulzberger clan also relies on the Times company's dividend as income. That has been slashed in recent years and, like many other grand old newspaper families before them, the Sulzbergers might be tempted to get out while they can. Possible buyers include billionaire New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, internet giant Google and even deadly rival Rupert Murdoch. Times insiders, however, say the family has no intention of selling up. "The only way our ownership structure can be changed is if the Ochs-Sulzberger family decides to do so. They have said publicly that they do not wish to do so," Mathis said. But, whatever the ultimate loyalties of the Sulzbergers, the Times faces industry-wide changes that could swamp the best of intentions. Like other newspapers, the Times is facing the structural changes wreaked by the internet, where readers from Manhattan to Mumbai to Mongolia can read the newspaper free online. Like other papers, the Times has developed a huge web presence that has generated millions of readers. But the cost of the journalism is still borne by the print edition, which is struggling. Put simply: the business model of the Times - like that of every other newspaper - is rapidly ceasing to work. In the Atlantic, Hirschorn suggested the future of the paper lay as a website, but with perhaps 80 per cent staffing cuts, as the group seeks to become viable online only. But would a Times with only 20 per cent of the staff still be producing valuable journalism? "The best journalists will survive and eventually thrive," Hirschorn wrote, perhaps optimistically. Others balk at such a vision, especially those at the Times. "The New York Times is in a better position than many others," said Mathis. Yet that is a relative statement. The whole American newspaper industry is now very sick. The Fitch Ratings Service, which provides investment advice, brought out a report late last year on the American media. It included the prediction that by 2010 several cities would be adjusting to life with no daily newspaper. "The weakening of civil life is already taking place. No one is repeating the maxim: read your local newspaper, it's your civic duty," said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute in Florida. But, while the shape of the future for the Times and other newspapers is unknown, the problems are clear. Take Jack Lule, the journalism professor. He used to pay a subscription to the Times and have it delivered to his home. Now he reads it free online. Just like people in Bogotá, Berlin or Birmingham. "I guess I'm part of the problem," he said. Newspapers & magazines Internet United States Credit crunch guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• How long can Apple stay fresh once it lo... How long can Apple stay fresh once it loses its core?
01/11/2009
When Apple made its annual tranche of product announcements in San Francisco last week, few observers were focused on the products. The big question was one that the Californian technology giant has rarely had to answer: where was Steve Jobs? In December, Apple announced that its emblematic and charismatic chief executive would not be making his annual address to the industry at Macworld. It was the first time he had skipped the event since returning to the company in 1996, leading to rampant speculation about his health. Despite constant attempts to quell interest, Apple eventually revealed the truth - Jobs was suffering from a "hormonal imbalance", itself the result of life-saving cancer surgery in 2004. For many, Apple's massively successful brand is synonymous with Jobs, who co-founded the company in 1976 and is seen by most as indispensable. This perception is largely shared by Wall Street, which has become obsessed with the company's long-term future. What if Jobs is no longer at Apple? Could it survive - and who would take over? Predicting Jobs's successor is almost impossible. Even trying to guess who is in favour and who isn't would tax seasoned Kremlinologists, who could divine power struggles from the positions of USSR leaders on the balcony at the May Day parade. Apple-watchers do the same. Late last year when Tony Fadell - who in 2001 brought the idea of the iPod and the iTunes store to Apple - left the company, some people looked back and found his downfall foreshadowed in a Jobs demonstration of the new iPhone in 2007: when showing how to delete a contact from the phone's address book, it was Fadell's name that Jobs erased. The problem for those trying to understand who might be Apple's next CEO is that the company's board is so tight-knit. When Jobs regained control in 1997 after a 10-year exile, Apple had become notorious for leaks. Jobs, who has an innate understanding of the value of surprise, changed that completely by instituting a simple rule: loose lips sink ships. This makes it hard for observers to pick apart the succession process, particularly among internal candidates. What is clear is that the executive team around Jobs has been in place for a comparatively long time. Some are confidants who have been in his coterie for more than a decade. Others pre-date Jobs's return to Apple, such as Phil Schiller, head of product marketing, who stood in for his boss last Tuesday, and Jonathan Ive, the British designer who has won awards for his work on the iMac, iPod and other products. The company has not been riven by boardroom rows and power struggles and there is none of the usual personal dynamics found in a top-flight company trying to thrive. Instead, Apple's board has a collegiate approach: every Monday morning senior executives meet to go over in minute detail every aspect of the business, including which models of which iPods are selling well or not. But for all that, Jobs is still identified as the driving force and vital to Apple's commercial and financial success. Following false reports last October that he had had a heart attack, former Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget estimated that Jobs added 20% to the stock's value. So who would take his place? The question of succession had not been raised until Jobs's brush with pancreatic cancer, a rare and treatable form that was diagnosed in October 2003, but only treated (after Jobs didn't respond to a special diet) in summer 2004. That, and subsequent speculation culminating in last week's confirmation of his latest problems, threw the matter into sharp relief. When Jobs was recovering from his surgery, chief operating officer Tim Cook ran the business, while Schiller took over public duties. Cook, described as demanding but not a visionary, is respected inside Apple but rarely considered as a replacement for Jobs. While Schiller, an engaging and amusing public speaker, has been touted as a successor, it is unclear how well he could set out a strategy for the company. Ive, who has, unusually, been trotted out by Apple at recent events, has also been put in the frame. But for all his expertise in industrial design, he has not shown any evidence that he would seek to shoulder the huge burdens of a chief executive, where marketing, software and financial considerations must rule. Another one-time contender, Ive's former boss as head of hardware Jon Rubinstein, left in 2007 to become chairman of the handheld computer company Palm. That might not rule him out entirely, however; his engineer's training, allied to his long experience of life inside Apple - and now experience running another company - could count in his favour. Rubinstein, however, is staying tight-lipped and refused to comment on Apple's current predicament. Leander Kahney, the author of The Cult of Mac and Inside Steve's Brain, believes Apple has now been moulded so closely in the image of Jobs that it could easily survive without his leadership. "The company is a well-oiled machine, which is already 80% run by his lieutenants," he says. "During the past 10 years, Jobs has instituted his personality traits into Apple's business processes. His love of simplicity and good design, his obsessive perfectionism and focus - all have become trademarks of how Apple goes about its business. This will continue after he's gone." However, he adds, whether the company can continue to progress indefinitely is another question: "Apple will be fine post-Steve Jobs for about a decade. The company will run like clockwork at first, and things will go wrong only slowly." That is because while the challenge that will follow Jobs's departure is simple to enunciate, it is hard to fulfil. At Apple, it is not enough to understand technology, design and the trends shaping them; the successor also has to be a strong leader who can pick a path through an increasingly complex environment. Apple focuses on profitable niches, and tries to expand them. Its Mac computers are still niche; the iPod became a global brand. The iPhone hangs between the two. And after that, what is the next big thing Apple must be ready to do? The next chief executive probably knows. That will mark him, or her, out. Amid all Apple's recent successes, though, it's easy to forget that Jobs has not always guessed correctly. In 2000, Apple chose to put DVD drives into its computers, rather than CD-burners able to create music discs. It was a bad choice: CD burning was big business in 2000, and in January 2001 Jobs had to tell analysts that the company had suffered its first quarterly loss since he became chief executive. The same year the announced the G4 Cube computer, an eight-inch-square Macintosh encased in plastic. Despite Apple's hype, the machine failed to catch the public imagination and, after being plagued by technical problems, was discontinued. Undeterred by those failures, Apple quickly bought a third-party music-playing program called SoundJam and transformed it into its own brand, which it called iTunes. Soon afterwards, Fadell got in touch with his idea for a digital music player (then a burgeoning sector) tied to an online music store. The player became the iPod; the rest is history. That vision - to brush off defeat and focus on industry-changing products - is what could prove irreplaceable if and when Jobs departs Apple, says Kahney. "The big problem will be developing new products, the unique talent that Jobs so excels at, a skill that few in any other tech company - or any other industry, for that matter - seem to exhibit." Apple Apple Steve Jobs Apple guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Andrew Rawnsley: Three little words that... Andrew Rawnsley: Three little words that the prime minister can never say
01/11/2009
Ex-leaders can often tell truths that their successors dare not. When Tony Blair was still in Number 10, I don't recall a single occasion when he cheerfully admitted that he did not have the answer to a crisis. Freed from office, he can now be bracingly honest about the limitations of politicians when confronted with events as seismic and challenges as severe as those facing today's leaders. Mr Blair is unshackled from the obligation to pretend to omniscience and omnipotence. "We live in an era of very low predictability," was how the former prime minister put it in a speech in Paris about the economic crisis. Translation: no one has a clue what is going to happen next and everyone is guessing how this will all end. Just three months ago, the alpha minds of the Bank of England thought that 5% was the appropriate setting for the base rate. They have since slashed rates to their lowest level since the bank was founded at the end of the 17th century. Only a few nostalgic Marxists dreamed of mass nationalisation of the banks in the years BC (Before Crunch). In the months AD (After Disaster), governments around the world have poured an awesome $7 trillion into the financial sector. So Tony Blair is surely correct when he says that "the best and most honest" answer about this crisis is: "We don't know." That is, of course, much easier for him to say when he no longer has an electorate to impress. "We don't know" is not a response available to two members of that speech's audience, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. The citizens of France and the voters of Germany would not feel enamoured of leaders who shrugged their shoulders and admitted that they were fumbling in the dark. "What's the right answer? It's as clear as Scots mist!" That is not an admission I ever expect to hear from Mr Blair's successor in Number 10. Gordon Brown is not going to admit that he is flying in fog and by the seat of his pants. Even if we suspect that this is precisely what the prime minister is doing, we would not give him credit for confessing so. Ever since the crisis broke, Gordon Brown has projected himself as The Man With The Plan. The voters' response, initially at least, was to be pleased that he sounded as if he knew what he was doing, even if the thought lurked at the back of many of their minds that he might not. In truth, the prime minister has been a man with several different plans which are subject to constant revision. The original bank bail-out did prevent a catastrophic implosion of the financial system last autumn, but it is ever more evident that it has failed to unblock the credit markets. So ministers are now frantically working on Plans B, C and D. Fiscal stimulus has come in progressively bigger and more desperate injections of adrenalin into the stuttering heart of the economy. There was the income tax cut announced last March. There was the VAT cut announced in the November crisis budget. There will almost certainly be more of the same from Alistair Darling when the chancellor gets out his budget box this March. The prime minister, in his interview with the Observer last Sunday, has recently proclaimed himself to be an enthusiast for spending on infrastructure projects such as super-fast broadband, high-speed rail links and renewable energies. I am the last to mock him for that, not least because I argued for just such a programme in this space a month ago. I do hope, though, that he is serious. After last week's hectic tour around the country, tomorrow he will be hosting yet another crisis summit at Number 10. The more that his fellow citizens find themselves without a job, the more Mr Brown feels the imperative to be seen working 24/7. Looking as though you are energetically managing the crisis is obviously a better approach for a leader than displaying a fatalistic inertia. But all this hyper-activity comes with its own dangers. As initiatives tumble out of Number 10, the public may begin to suspect that the government is making things up as it goes along. There is a combined hazard that Gordon Brown is seeming to promise more than he can feasibly deliver. He tells trembling home owners not to worry because he has a scheme to rescue anyone who is threatened with repossession. Anxious graduates should have no fear because Supergord is coming to the rescue with a fix to find them work. It is a mistake for the government to try to give the impression that it has the power to take all the pain out of recession. This is going to hurt and it is foolish to pretend otherwise. Labour MPs will quietly concede that they cannot be sure whether all or any of the measures announced so far will have the desired effect. Even if they do help to alleviate recession, it will be some task to persuade voters that they should be grateful that it was only horrid because it could have been worse. In public, ministers have to sustain the line that their leader has it all worked out. Look behind their backs and you will see fingers tightly crossed. At the crudest political level, Mr Brown's dervish whirl of activity is designed to establish a clear dividing line between Labour and Conservatives both present and past. He hopes his interventionist approach will look both more caring and more effective to older voters who experienced the recessions under the Thatcher government in the Eighties and the Major administration in the Nineties. As for David Cameron, at every opportunity Mr Brown strives to characterise the current generation of Tories as the "do nothing" party. To which they have responded by floating a variety of their own plans: a national insurance holiday for businesses here, a council tax freeze there. The Conservatives are not always as far apart from Labour as both parties want to pretend. The argument between them over business loan guarantees is the petty squabble of who thought of it first. David Cameron returned from his Christmas break to announce that the Tories would try to help some savers and pensioners with tax breaks. But it turns out to be a promise of uncertain bankability. It was impossible to escape the feeling that the Tory leader made that announcement not because it is the best idea he has ever had, but simply because he needed something new to say for the beginning of the year. Just like his rival in Number 10, David Cameron wants to be seen as A Man With A Plan. He suffers from the handicap that he can only talk while the prime minister can do. Mr Brown can write cheques. Mr Cameron can only pen speeches. Downing Street is calculating that this contrast will work to its advantage more clearly once Barack Obama has moved into the White House and begins to implement his high-spending anti-recessionary strategy. Allies of the prime minister have sensibly dropped the early suggestion - hubristic and rather patronising as it was - that Gordon Brown would play some kind of wise godfather to the neophyte president, a Labour version of Harold Macmillan to Obama's JFK. The prime minister still has hopes that Obama will be an ally in fostering an international mood in favour of government activism. There will be the unveiling of more grand plans when Gordon Brown hosts the new American president and the rest of the G20 in London in April. The prime minister is telling friends that he wants that summit to be the moment when the world agrees to reforms to create a new and more stable international financial order. David Cameron is already reconciled to having to grin and bear the inevitable marginalisation of the Tories while his rival grandstands with the world's leaders. That, though, will be one week of international summitry in a world of pain. While there is a broad international consensus about the need for fiscal stimulus, there are many lively disagreements about the best way to go about it. Even a leader as hugely popular, freshly mandated and untainted by failure as Obama is not going to get things all his own way. Despite his stratospheric approval ratings, members of his own party in Congress are already rebelling against elements of his programme even before he has set foot in the Oval Office. One of Obama's huge advantages over Gordon Brown is that the president-elect is undeniably free of blame for the crisis. Another is that he has a full term of four years to lead his country out of it. Gordon Brown is working on a much more pressing timescale. There are 18 months at most before he must face the judgment of the voters. His bold boasts to have the solution to the crisis invite an especially harsh verdict from the public if they conclude that he has failed. "The best and most honest" answer, as Tony Blair put it, is that no leader can be absolutely certain what will work in such wildly unpredictable times. But Gordon Brown can never admit to that. Nor do we really want him to. When confidence is already so shattered, it would be truly terrifying if our leaders confessed that they are just as in the dark as everyone else. Gordon Brown David Cameron Economic policy Credit crunch Recession Global economy guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Editorial: Railways, not runways, should... Editorial: Railways, not runways, should be our priority
01/11/2009
Editorial: It has been a terrible few weeks for those who use Britain's railways (1 h ago)

• Simon Caulkin: It's got so horrible that... Simon Caulkin: It's got so horrible that we ought to be revolting
01/11/2009
In retrospect, one of the most remarkable things about the events of 2008 is that there weren't any. In 1968 the streets of Paris and London rang with protests over the Vietnam war and class solidarity; in 1984 the miners went on strike for more than a year. By contrast, over the past year, banks, jobs and money in colossal quantities have disappeared with barely a murmur of dissent, let alone the explosions of outrage that you might expect. This apparent fatalism is no doubt partly numbness in the face of figures that are truly incomprehensible. Where the liabilities of high-street banks are multiples of GDP, and a single hedge fund is responsible for write-offs that equal the UK's defence budget, it's hard to feel anything other than helpless. More insidiously, it is also a measure of how completely the message of "One Market under God" (to quote the title of an entertaining and telling polemic by Thomas Frank) has been internalised. Yet outrage and contempt are sometimes in order, not least to ensure that we don't get fooled again. Even now, some would argue that the crunch is the result of a bold experiment in financial innovation gone wrong; a mistake, certainly, but justifiable in the sense that, if it had come off, the resulting era of ultra-cheap money would have led to the prospect of capitalist prosperity without end. Another view would be that the reasons why it nearly came off also meant that it couldn't - the reliance on personal incentives untrammelled by any wider sense of responsibility left the system permanently teetering on the knife-edge where risk shades into outright fraud. As such, the disasters of 2008 are not an aberration but the culmination of a rewriting of the management project that now leaves many companies with a vacuum at their centre. What's been lost over the last three decades is only now becoming clear. Some of the warning signs were already visible in the succession of increasingly frequent panics and scandals of the last decade and a half - Enron, the dotcom boom, LTCM. Less obviously, the last 30 years have seen a steady erosion of balance between stakeholders. While layoffs of staff - "the most important asset" - were once a last resort for employers, they are now the first option. Outsourcing is so prevalent that it needs no justification. And the company's welfare role is now so attenuated that it barely exists. First to go was the notion of career; more recently, the tearing-up of company pension obligations is another unilateral recasting of the conditions of work - a historic step backwards - that has aroused barely a ripple of objection. The justification for this behaviour is, of course, the pressure of the market. But this is to disguise a betrayal. As a class, ever since the separation of ownership and management in the 19th century, managers have always occupied a neutral position at the heart of the enterprise - neither labour nor capital, but charged with combining the two for the benefit of both the company and society itself. Everything changed in the 1980s, however, with the advent of Reagan, Thatcher and Chicago School economists who preached the alignment of management with shareholders in the name of "efficiency". In effect, "efficiency" came to mean short-term earnings to the detriment of long-term organisation-building; what was touted as "wealth creation" was actually "wealth capture", from suppliers, clients and employees as well as competitors, on the grandest scale since the robber barons. Its purest expression was private equity. Managers never looked back. As late as the 1980s, a multiple of 20 times the earnings of the average worker was perfectly adequate CEO pay. But under the compliant gaze of shareholders and remuneration committees, performance-pay contracts boosted the ratio to 275 times by 2007. As we now know, "performance pay" was a misnomer, an incentive for financial engineering that has destroyed value on a heroic scale. But it's not just shareholder value that has suffered. By severing any common interest between top managers and the rest of the workforce, fake performance pay has fatally undermined the internal compact that makes organisations thrive in the long term. Perhaps the most poignant emblem of this dereliction is the British pub. The pub is the archetypal small business - the simplest, most rooted organisation there is. Pubs have thrived for centuries. But they are now closing at a rate of around 30 a week. Part of this is due to changing social habits. But it is also the case, not to put too fine a point on it, that pubs have been rogered frontwards, backwards and sideways by financial whizzkids who piled them with complex debt and left them desperately underinvested - at the same time extracting exorbitant fees for the privilege. The death of the local is a fitting monument to a bankrupt management model. It's time to get angry. simon.caulkin@observer.co.uk Recession guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Crisis 'will end last-minute holiday dea... Crisis 'will end last-minute holiday deals'
01/11/2009
Last-minute deals will disappear over the next two years as travel companies cut almost one in every five of the flights and holidays they sell, say industry experts. The market has been transformed in the past year with travellers choosing long-haul destinations over shorter trips to Europe because of the pound's dramatic fall against the euro, the mergers and closures of Britain's biggest travel companies, the demise of 30 airlines worldwide and high fuel prices, said Casia Zajac, of the Association of British Travel Agents. "The impact will be profound," she said. "The whole last minute era is over. It's a huge shift in culture for the British holiday market. "We strongly advise people to snap up good deals now because if they wait, they might well find their choices are very limited and costly." Thomas Cook Group has reduced the number of flights and holidays it offers by 16 per cent, while Tui UK said that by this summer it would have shed one in eight of its flights and holidays. The weak pound has seen a rise in demand for holidays to Australia, New Zealand and Canada and "mid-haul" destinations such as Turkey, Egypt and Morocco have also benefited. Travel & leisure guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• William Keegan: When there's no cashflow... William Keegan: When there's no cashflow, Mr Cameron, saving won't save us
01/11/2009
William Keegan: A capitalist economy runs on debt; banks and consumers need to regain a sense of proportion (1 h ago)

• Primark in storm over conditions at UK s... Primark in storm over conditions at UK supplier
01/11/2009
Britain's high street fashion giant Primark was at the centre of a storm last night over allegations that illegal immigrants paid just over half the minimum wage had been employed to make fashionable knitwear for one of the firm's bestselling ranges. Primark announced yesterday that it had launched an inquiry after an investigation by the Observer and the BBC revealed that Manchester-based garment firm TNS Knitwear may have breached key employment and immigration laws. Breaches of the legislation could lead to fines of up to £10,000 for each illegal worker and potential prosecution for tax evasion and employment law abuses. Primark also said it had handed material uncovered by the investigation to the UK Border Agency. The workers, caught by an undercover journalist on a hidden camera, were allegedly being paid £3 an hour - just over half the minimum wage of £5.73 - for 12-hour days, seven days a week. Many of the garments made by the Pakistanis, Afghans and Indians over the past five months had ended up two miles away in one of the retail giant's largest and most profitable stores in Manchester's bustling Market Street. The allegations were put to Primark this weekend, five months after an undercover investigation began into Primark's British supply chain. The investigation focused on Manchester's textile industry and in particular TNS Knitwear, which supplies 20,000 garments to the firm every week. Fashion Waves, a supplier used by TNS, was also investigated. Employees at both TNS and Fashion Waves were caught on film admitting their illegal status in the UK. One Pakistani working on a Primark order tells how his visa had run out eight years ago, yet he had remained in Britain working under the radar of the authorities. Working conditions inside both TNS and Fashion Waves were also exposed as cramped and cold, in breach of health and safety regulations. Most dramatically, the undercover journalist working at both units captures cash-in-hand payments being made to her for gruelling hours. The money, apparently paid without the knowledge of the taxman, amounts to about £3.50 an hour, £2.20 less than the minimum wage. TNS Knitwear denies the allegations, and there was no comment from Fashion Waves. A Primark spokesman said last night that the issue was now a matter for the authorities. "Primark was informed this week that one of the UK factories from which it buys some knitwear has allegedly broken a number of UK employment, tax and immigration laws," he said. "Primark is conducting its own investigation. Once that investigation is completed, it will decide how to proceed. Meanwhile, Primark has handed all relevant information passed to the company over to the relevant enforcement agencies so they may take action. "We are extremely concerned about the very serious allegations made against our supplier TNS Knitwear and against TNS's unauthorised subcontractor, Fashion Waves." Meanwhile, the firm agreed last night to remove all references to the Ethical Trade Initiative, the trade body that monitors Britain's top retailers, from its 140 storefronts across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The firm, as part of an agreement made with the ETI on Friday, must also remove ethical branding from thousands of tills and its corporate website while investigations continue. TNS Knitwear, which supplies some of Britain's most famous brand, is run by Pakistan-born Zahid Sarwar, a British citizen and TNS director. Last night it denied any wrongdoing. TNS Knitwear has made millions over the past five years from the so-called "fast fashion" phenomenon where garments are tracked and rapidly reordered to make sure they keep flying off the shelves. Sarwar's solicitors confirmed to the Observer that the company had been audited by Primark in the past six months. Primark said yesterday that it had initiated a "timed remediation programme" following the audit. TNS was a "relatively small supplier", Primark added, saying that if the allegations proved to be true, a deliberate attempt must have been made to mislead auditors. On Primark's website, www.ethicalprimark.com, the code of conduct reiterates the conglomerate's stance that wages and benefits paid to suppliers to their company for a standard working week must meet national legal standards or industry benchmark standards, whichever is higher. The same website states that working hours must comply with national laws and benchmark industry standards, whichever affords greater protection. The firm also claims to adhere to the ETI code of conduct. Last night, the ETI said in a statement that it was investigating the latest scandal to hit Primark. "We are horrified at the allegations of abuses exposed by this investigation and we are particularly concerned that they involve an ETI member. First, we have met with Primark and demanded that it provides us with a prompt, full and frank response to the allegations. Where they are substantiated, the company has a clear obligation to work with the suppliers concerned to put things right. "Second, we have immediately launched a formal inquiry to establish whether or not there is a systematic failure on Primark's part to implement the ETI base code. If such a failure were established, this would be grounds for formal sanctions." But last night Primark hit out at the ETI for forcing it into removing its ethical branding. A spokesman said: "Primark is surprised and disappointed with the public stance adopted by the ETI... The ETI is prejudging the situation by adopting this stance before Primark and the relevant UK authorities have even had the opportunity of investigating the allegations made about TNS, let alone report on the outcome of those investigations to the ETI." Primark is expanding more rapidly than any other British retailer. The company is planning to expand to Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands in 2009. Meanwhile, British shoppers can expect more new stores in the UK, where Primark already operates 4.8 million sq ft of retail space across 140 stores, employing 25,000 people. Its flagship Oxford Street store sold more than one million garments in its first 10 days of trading. Primark's parent company, Associated British Foods, which also controls Selfridges and owns Twinings, Ovaltine, Ryvita, Jordans and Patak, as well as multi-billion-pound sugar and agriculture interests, regards Primark as the jewel in its crown. Boosted by Primark's profits, the company last year posted revenues of £8.2bn. Primark Ethical business Ethical living Retail industry Fashion Consumer affairs guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 h ago)

• Founders of Indian Company Interrogated ... Founders of Indian Company Interrogated in Fraud Case
01/11/2009
The brothers who founded the outsourcing company Satyam have been interrogated and jailed, and the Indian government announced a new board for the company. (1 h ago)

• Ukraine and Russia Sign Deal Over Gas Ukraine and Russia Sign Deal Over Gas
01/11/2009
Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement with the European Union to establish monitors of gas pipelines. (1 h ago)

• Wealth Matters: What to Do if UBS Is Out... Wealth Matters: What to Do if UBS Is Outing Your Secret Account
01/11/2009
A few things to consider if you are part of the group of Americans with undeclared accounts in Switzerland. (1 h ago)

• Korean Carmaker Seeks Receivership Korean Carmaker Seeks Receivership
01/10/2009
Ssangyong Motor Company, the smallest of the five South Korean auto makers, filed for receivership in a bid to stave off collapse. (15 h ago)

• Deal to End Russia’s Cutoff of Gas Remai... Deal to End Russia’s Cutoff of Gas Remains Uncertain
01/10/2009
The European Commission said an agreement had been reached to send a monitoring mission to oversee gas deliveries, but Moscow said Ukraine had not signed yet. (18 h ago)

• After a Fraud in India, Government Steps... After a Fraud in India, Government Steps In
01/10/2009
Authorities took over Satyam’s board on Friday, seeking to ensure that clients are not affected and that confidence is restored in the stability of Indian outsourcers. (18 h ago)

• Pressured by I.R.S., UBS Is Closing Secr... Pressured by I.R.S., UBS Is Closing Secret Accounts
01/09/2009
UBS will close about 19,000 accounts held by Americans that may have gone undeclared to the Internal Revenue Service. (1 d ago)

• German Bank Gets More Money From Governm... German Bank Gets More Money From Government
01/09/2009
The government took a quarter stake in Commerzbank as it stepped up efforts to stabilize the financial system and consolidate one of Europe’s most fragmented banking landscapes. (1 d ago)

• Troubles of Satyam Could Benefit Rivals ... Troubles of Satyam Could Benefit Rivals and 2 U.S. Companies
01/09/2009
Big winners from the fallout are likely to be two American companies, Accenture and I.B.M., as competitors begin angling for a share of Satyam’s nearly $2 billion in annual revenue. (1 d ago)

• British Central Bank Cuts Rate to Record... British Central Bank Cuts Rate to Record Low
01/09/2009
The rate, now 1.5 percent, is expected to be cut to close to zero by the second quarter. (1 d ago)

• Austria’s ‘Woman on Wall St.’ and Madoff... Austria’s ‘Woman on Wall St.’ and Madoff
01/08/2009
Sonja Kohn, who gathered billions for Bernard L. Madoff from investors in Russia and across Europe, has disappeared from view. (2 d ago)

• The Costly Compromises of Oil From Sand The Costly Compromises of Oil From Sand
01/08/2009
Environmental groups in the U.S. and Canada are pushing for a slowdown to oil sands development. (2 d ago)

• China Losing Taste for Debt From U.S. China Losing Taste for Debt From U.S.
01/08/2009
As the global downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more of its money at home, which could have painful effects for U.S. borrowers. (2 d ago)

• Mortgages: Will Loan Limits Rise? Mortgages: Will Loan Limits Rise?
01/10/2009
If you’re in the market for a new home, especially in an area where housing prices are typically high, it might make sense to wait a few weeks. (29 m ago)

• Cost of Living: Making Frugality a Habit Cost of Living: Making Frugality a Habit
01/10/2009
The task of saving for a rainy day seems daunting, but finding specific areas to cut back can help. (18 h ago)

• Your Money: When Cash Is Scarce, There’s... Your Money: When Cash Is Scarce, There’s Comfort in Miles
01/10/2009
It’s time to appreciate and evaluate your frequent flier and other rewards programs. (18 h ago)

• Average Mortgage Rate Hits 5%, Lowest in... Average Mortgage Rate Hits 5%, Lowest in Decades
01/09/2009
It is unclear whether the record low will be enough to lure home buyers back into the housing market. (1 d ago)

• Gentler Tax Laws Urged on Debt Default Gentler Tax Laws Urged on Debt Default
01/09/2009
The Internal Revenue Service’s watchdog agency calls on Congress to ease some tax laws regarding defaults on consumer debt. (1 d ago)

• Air Security Could Involve Private Jets Air Security Could Involve Private Jets
01/09/2009
Some 10,000 air operators would lose at least some of their exemption status if a new security plan is adopted. (1 d ago)

• Citi Reaches Deal With Lawmakers on Home... Citi Reaches Deal With Lawmakers on Home Loans
01/09/2009
Under the plan, bankruptcy judges will be allowed to alter home loans in an effort to prevent foreclosures. (1 d ago)

• Aged Madoff Investors Wonder About the R... Aged Madoff Investors Wonder About the Rest of Their Days
01/08/2009
Many of Bernard L. Madoff's larger clients will survive, but there are dozens, if not hundreds, of less wealthy victims who poured their life savings into what turned out to be phantom accounts. (2 d ago)

• State of the Art: Many Ways to Plug In t... State of the Art: Many Ways to Plug In to Tech Savings
01/08/2009
When every $100 counts, here are a few suggestions for using high-tech gadgetry to save you money. (2 d ago)

• Wealth Matters: The Rules That Madoff’s ... Wealth Matters: The Rules That Madoff’s Investors Ignored
01/08/2009
The mystery is why so many wealthy people handed over so much money with so little due diligence. (2 d ago)

• Democrats Seek Delay in TV Shift Democrats Seek Delay in TV Shift
01/11/2009
The Obama transition team is seeking to delay the Feb. 17 move to digital TV, saying millions of homes aren’t ready. (1 h ago)

• Hearst Looks to Sell or Close Seattle Pa... Hearst Looks to Sell or Close Seattle Paper
01/10/2009
The Hearst Corporation will stop printing The Seattle Post-Intelligencer unless it can find a buyer in the next 60 days, company executives told employees. (18 h ago)

• The Mogul at Play The Mogul at Play
01/09/2009
A biography of the young William Randolph Hearst is also a story about the rising power of the press in the late 19th century. (1 d ago)

• Brad Grey, Paramount Chief, Renews Contr... Brad Grey, Paramount Chief, Renews Contract
01/09/2009
Mr. Grey, a former talent manager and producer, has renewed his contract to run Paramount for five more years. (1 d ago)

• TV Sports: Fox Announcers Scramble Secon... TV Sports: Fox Announcers Scramble Second Down in the B.C.S. Title Game
01/09/2009
When you can’t tell the difference between second down and third down, or between third and fourth down, you’re in trouble. (1 d ago)

• Advertising: A Lawyer’s Call for a Great... Advertising: A Lawyer’s Call for a Greater Black Presence in Agencies
01/09/2009
A project announced by the N.A.A.C.P. and lawyer Cyrus Mehri aims to increase the number of black workers on Madison Avenue. (1 d ago)

• Meredith Dismisses 7% of Its Workers and... Meredith Dismisses 7% of Its Workers and Closes Country Home Magazine
01/09/2009
Meridith said it was eliminating 250 jobs, including about 40 people who work at Country Home, a reduction that a company spokesman said was effective immediately. (1 d ago)

• For BlackBerry, Obama’s Devotion Is Pric... For BlackBerry, Obama’s Devotion Is Priceless
01/09/2009
President-elect Barack Obama has become BlackBerry’s most prominent user, a pitch that would be worth millions if he could charge for it. (1 d ago)

• London Journal: Atheists Send a Message,... London Journal: Atheists Send a Message, on 800 British Buses
01/09/2009
An ad campaign for atheism in London is aiming to counter religious ads, one bus billboard at a time. (1 d ago)

• Azerbaijan Bars Foreigners From Use of I... Azerbaijan Bars Foreigners From Use of Its FM Band
01/08/2009
The move to enforce a law that bans foreign companies from broadcasting in the country effectively bans Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America and the BBC. (2 d ago)

• MarketPlace: A Time Warner Deal That Kee... MarketPlace: A Time Warner Deal That Keeps Going Downhill
01/08/2009
The owner of CNN and Time magazine said that it expected to record a fourth-quarter $25 billion write-down that would lead to an operating loss for the period. (2 d ago)

• THE WEEK'S WINNERS AND LOSERS THE WEEK'S WINNERS AND LOSERS
01/11/2009
WINNERS BONO U2 singer's Elevation Partners investment company invests in Palm and is rewarded as its stock rose 34% Friday. BRAD GREY Gets new five-year deal to stay atop Paramount, Hollywood's No. 2 studio last year thanks to the success of... (1 h ago)

• HOW NOT TO SPEND WAY OUT OF MESS HOW NOT TO SPEND WAY OUT OF MESS
01/11/2009
Dear John: It's time to think WAY outside the box. These extraordinary times need extraordinary measures - the bailout methodology does not qualify as an extraordinary measure. Now's the time to inject reality into the equation. Reality is one... (1 h ago)

• BAILOUT BOLOGNA BAILOUT BOLOGNA
01/11/2009
IN the 10 months since the chips fell on Bear Stearns, the ad-hoc Washington response to the crisis has left risk-takers rewarded, savers in peril, fraudsters running for cover and taxpayers feeling like they have been taken for a ride. Take... (1 h ago)

• NOW ON SALE! INVESTORS DUMPING HEDGE FUN... NOW ON SALE! INVESTORS DUMPING HEDGE FUND $$
01/11/2009
Some battered hedge fund investors are so desperate to get out of their positions that they don't mind selling them - for 75 percent off. Some hedge funds lost 50 percent to 60 percent of their value in a brutal 2008 - and many have put up gates... (1 h ago)

• MAD. ABOUT YOU, TOO MAD. ABOUT YOU, TOO
01/11/2009
The success of AMC's "Mad Men" - a drama about a New York ad agency in the 1960s - has spawned another series based on the ad business. "Trust Me," which premieres Jan. 26 on TNT, is a more modern-day take on advertising but nevertheless owes a... (1 h ago)

• A WEB OF INTRIQUE A WEB OF INTRIQUE
01/11/2009
New York Observer owner Jared Kushner, the scion of a wealthy and politically entangled New Jersey real estate family, is having a bumpy ride in the media world. His one-year excursion into building a national network of local political Web sites... (1 h ago)

• JAMES IN ODD PUSH FOR MOVIE JAMES IN ODD PUSH FOR MOVIE
01/11/2009
CBS is giving some unusual face time to one of its former sitcom stars. Kevin James is returning to CBS, his network home during his decade-long "King of Queens" run, to tout his first big-screen comedy. In a twist on the traditional movie... (1 h ago)

• FDIC FACES UP TO $10B WHACK ON INDYMAC L... FDIC FACES UP TO $10B WHACK ON INDYMAC LOANS
01/11/2009
THE Federal Deposit In surance Corp. may not have fully washed its hands of IndyMac Bank. Despite the agreement to sell of the once-troubled bank last week to a group of private-equity investors for $1.6 billion, the FDIC may be facing up to $10... (1 h ago)

• BRUISED BOB RUBIN RIDES OFF BRUISED BOB RUBIN RIDES OFF
01/11/2009
In the end, Robert Rubin became just the latest Wall Street titan to exit the executive suite with his reputation more sullied then when he rode into town. Rubin, 70, who resigned last week as senior counselor and a director at Citigroup, was at... (1 h ago)

• GETTING SERIOUS GETTING SERIOUS
01/11/2009
Embattled investor Ezra Merkin may have jumped from the frying pan right into the fire. Merkin, the fallen hedge-fund billionaire who lost as much as $3 billion in investor funds in Bernie Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme, has attracted... (1 h ago)

• Madoff said to have stashed $173 million Madoff said to have stashed $173 million
01/09/2009
Prosecutors say Bernard Madoff had $173 million in signed checks in his office desk that he was ready to send out at the time of his arrest last month. (1 d ago)

• Sports Biz: Five sure bets for 2009 Sports Biz: Five sure bets for 2009
01/08/2009
So what’s ahead for the year in sports business? Here are five predictions as we enter the last year of the decade. (Hint: Look for Tiger to roar back to the top of the golf rankings.) (2 d ago)

• The lives of Wall Street's young guns The lives of Wall Street's young guns
01/09/2009
Every year young, ambitious business school graduates dreaming of wealth and power come to Wall Street. But with job losses mounting in the midst of the financial crisis, things have changed. Amy Scott reports on the world of Wall Street's upstarts. (1 d ago)

• Electronics show slowed by recession Electronics show slowed by recession
01/09/2009
The Consumer Electronics Show kicked off this week, promising the latest in gadgets and technology. But in this recession, how is the technology industry responding? Bob Moon speaks with tech expert Kevin Pereira about what's happening at the show. (1 d ago)

• Weekly Wrap: Obama's stimulus Weekly Wrap: Obama's stimulus
01/09/2009
With President-elect Obama set to take office shortly, it's no surprise that his stimulus proposals dominated the headlines this week. Bob Moon speaks with Fortune Magazine's Leigh Gallagher and Felix Salmon from Portfolio.com about the tough road ahead for Obama. (1 d ago)

• Who really needs the stimulus? Who really needs the stimulus?
01/09/2009
President-elect Obama's stimulus package calls for billions to be spent on infrastructure projects. But commentator Angela Glover Blackwell says to make the most out of the money -- and build up overlooked communities -- it needs to be invested in the right projects. (1 d ago)

• Investment banks hoarding oil Investment banks hoarding oil
01/09/2009
Fifty million barrels of oil are just sitting around on supertankers. They're not getting unloaded because investors are waiting for the price of oil to go up. Mitchell Hartman explains. (1 d ago)

• Panel criticizes Treasury over TARP Panel criticizes Treasury over TARP
01/09/2009
A Congressional oversight panel released a report today that criticizes the Treasury Department's handling of TARP money. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports that Congress now feels it has to clamp down on the department with more oversight. (1 d ago)

• Rep. Frank wants new TARP restrictions Rep. Frank wants new TARP restrictions
01/09/2009
The Treasury Department is seeking to dip into the second half of the $700 billion TARP money. But since the first half wasn't administered so well, Congress wants to implement new rules before dispersing the rest of the funds. John Dimsdale reports. (1 d ago)

• Economist: China could lose nearly 4 mln... Economist: China could lose nearly 4 mln jobs in 2009
01/11/2009
China is likely to lose 3.9 million jobs in 2009 compared with 2007 if GDP growth slows to 8 percent, said Cheng Siwei, a renowned economist here. Cheng, former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said at a forum on capital market on Saturday that one percentage drop in GDP growth may bring a loss of one million jobs. He noted China maintained an economic growth of 11.9 percent in2007, creating an additional 11.5 million jobs that year. ... (1 h ago)

• Indonesia secures debt swap with Italy Indonesia secures debt swap with Italy
01/11/2009
Indonesia and Italy have agreed over 13 million U.S. dollars debt-swap deal, according to the Coordinating Ministry for Economy. Under the deal, Italy would finance seven projects include the construction of a fishing port, three irrigation systems and two roads, and the government poverty alleviation scheme in Aceh province, Minister for the Economy Mahendra Siregar was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post on Saturday. "The approval has showed Italy's commitment to help Indonesi ... (1 h ago)

• Private companies in Myanmar propose to ... Private companies in Myanmar propose to cultivate more timber
01/11/2009
Local private companies in Myanmar have proposed to the government to cultivate 81,000 hectares more of timber in two division and state for the development of the sector, the Voice weekly reported Sunday, quoting the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Presented by the ATSO Green, Yeedagon, NRTC and Honda companies, a total of 48,600 hectares and 7,493 hectares will be respectively grown in Bago division and Kachin state, the report said. Permitted ... (1 h ago)

• Nepal Oil Corporation to permit private ... Nepal Oil Corporation to permit private sectors to establish gas industries
01/11/2009
Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the sole distributor of petroleum products in the country, has declared to permit the private sectors to establish gas industries at the places where the demands are increasing. The NOC made such announcement at its 39th anniversary by publicizing its future strategies here Saturday. It also assured to effectively implement the relief programs which are in the making for the benefits of the students and the low-income families. The NOC said th ... (1 h ago)

• Malaysia relaxes spending ban on governm... Malaysia relaxes spending ban on government departments
01/11/2009
The Malaysian government has relaxed its ban on spending by government departments, allowing them to buy necessary assets and do office revamping and others, local newspapers reported on Sunday. However, the Malaysian Treasury Ministry cautioned heads of the government departments to control their spending and spend the funds well and only when necessary. The Ministry said that it relaxed the austerity measures to allow the government departments to make their plans in the new ye ... (1 h ago)

• Reshaping governance: interview with Lor... Reshaping governance: interview with Lord Michael Hastings
01/10/2009
I had a conversation with KPMG's global head of citizenship and diversity Lord Michael Hastings from London. He proposed a radical shake-up of corporate governance around the world. Read on. SOX... (19 h ago)

• Corporate ethics and law Corporate ethics and law
01/09/2009
More than two years ago, I did a blog entry on the difference between ethics and morality. Moral decisions, around issues like theft and corruption, are absolutes regardless of time or culture. They... (1 d ago)

• Blagojevich and Spitzer: a moral tale ab... Blagojevich and Spitzer: a moral tale about power
01/08/2009
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, now embroiled in allegations that he tried to flog to sell President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat, and former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who... (2 d ago)

• Picasso, Van Gogh and networking Picasso, Van Gogh and networking
01/08/2009
Why did Pablo Picasso end up earning more than Vincent Van Gogh? Picasso left an estate valued at $750 million, Van Gogh died a pauper.According to Professor Gregory Berns, it was all because Picasso... (2 d ago)

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• Jobs, Corporate Reports Drag Down Stock... Jobs, Corporate Reports Drag Down Stocks
01/11/2009
U.S. stocks posted the biggest weekly retreat since November after companies cut profit forecasts and rising unemployment spurred concern the recession is deepening. (1 h ago)

• Stocks Fall as Jobs Report Deepens Pess... Stocks Fall as Jobs Report Deepens Pessimism About Consumer Spending
01/10/2009
NEW YORK, Jan. 9 -- Investors sent stocks lower Friday as the U.S. unemployment rate shot above 7 percent, signaling that Americans will be sticking to their tightened budgets. (19 h ago)

• Mortgage Plan Gives Stocks a Boost Mortgage Plan Gives Stocks a Boost
01/09/2009
NEW YORK, Jan. 8 -- A deal to help head off more mortgage foreclosures pulled Wall Street out of a slump Thursday, giving stocks a mostly higher close. (1 d ago)

• U.K. slashes interest rates to historic ... U.K. slashes interest rates to historic low
01/08/2009
The Bank of England cut official interest rates by a half a percentage point to 1.5 percent on Thursday, the lowest level in its 315-year history. (2 d ago)

• Satyam executives try to soothe investor... Satyam executives try to soothe investors
01/08/2009
Top executives of beleaguered Indian outsourcing company Satyam Computer struggled to reassure investors, employees and clients Thursday after its chairman resigned following an admission he cooked accounts and inflated profits for years. (2 d ago)

• Dismal December sales add to retailer wo... Dismal December sales add to retailer woes
01/09/2009
Major retailers Thursday reported dismal sales for December, confirming fears that the holiday season was the weakest in four decades. (1 d ago)

• Small retailers struggle in tough season Small retailers struggle in tough season
01/08/2009
Like a lot of small retailers, Henry Burton depends heavily on the holiday season to ring up sales, and, like a lot of retailers, this past holiday season proved especially challenging. (2 d ago)

• ConsumerMan: Obama coins worth the price... ConsumerMan: Obama coins worth the price?
01/08/2009
For the Obama inauguration, you can find all sorts of souvenirs for sale, including commemorative coins. Are they a good investment? Well, is a t-shirt a good investment? (2 d ago)

• Qinghai Solar Power Plant Would Be World... Qinghai Solar Power Plant Would Be World's Biggest
01/09/2009
Venture Beat was the first source that I saw this in: plans have been announced to build a gigawatt-sized solar power station in Qinghai Province, China. If it goes through, it would be the largest... (1 d ago)

• Finding a Job with Social Media Finding a Job with Social Media
01/09/2009
Mashable has a piece by Dan Schawbel (Personal Branding Blog) on how to use social media to find a job. Schawbel is a little more upbeat about LinkedIn than I was last week. But he make some of the... (1 d ago)

• The Amish Flock From Farms to Small Busi... The Amish Flock From Farms to Small Businesses
01/08/2009
The move into commerce by a religious sect that has determinedly kept the modern world at bay has been more out of necessity than desire. (2 d ago)

• The Effect of Satyam's Revelation The Effect of Satyam's Revelation
01/10/2009
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 5721341 As you've all seen by now, Satyam (one of the biggest Indian-based outsourcing companies) is in the midst of an earnings misstatement crisis. Like... (5 h ago)

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