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February 2009

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Business News
for 02/05/2009

(last updated 7:30am EST 02/05/2009)

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• NO REWARD FOR FAILURE NO REWARD FOR FAILURE
02/05/2009
President Barack Obama yesterday uncorked a new $500,000 cap on pay for top financial executives whose troubled companies tap government rescue cash going forward, saying Americans are upset at honchos "being rewarded for failure." But Obama's... (4 h ago)

• ON WALL STREET: WHO COULD LIVE ON $500K? ON WALL STREET: WHO COULD LIVE ON $500K?
02/05/2009
President Obama's executive-salary cap order got a mixed reaction yesterday on Wall Street, where company employees raised concerns about recruiting and retaining top talent. Stocks fell on the news, with the Dow Jones industrial average off 121... (4 h ago)

• SUISSE DO MISS CALLAN SUISSE DO MISS CALLAN
02/05/2009
Erin Callan, once Wall Street's highest-ranking woman, has gone into personal seclusion after being summoned by a federal grand jury for a tell-all about the stunning collapse of Lehman Brothers. Callan, who joined Credit Suisse five months ago... (7 h ago)

• TIME WARNER HAS $16B LOSS TIME WARNER HAS $16B LOSS
02/05/2009
Time Warner fell deep into the red yesterday reporting a $16 billion, fourth-quarter loss, hurt not only by previously announced hefty writedowns but also a downturn in advertising and consumer spending across many of its key businesses. Time... (7 h ago)

• WHY YOU WILL SEE HUGE DROP IN JANUARY JO... WHY YOU WILL SEE HUGE DROP IN JANUARY JOBS
02/05/2009
PREPARE yourself to be shocked. Tomorrow the Labor Department will announce the number of jobs that were lost in January, along with the nation's newest unemployment rate. We all know the numbers won't be good. In fact, they will be bad. I'm... (7 h ago)

• BANKS' MONEY WELL SPENT BANKS' MONEY WELL SPENT
02/05/2009
WASHINGTON - New York's top banking firms went on a multimillion lobbying spree late last year - just as the feds were crafting a $700 billion rescue plan for struggling banks. The banks got an extraordinary return on their investment, as they... (7 h ago)

• PLAYBOY'S ROCKER SCRIBE RIFFS ON STREET ... PLAYBOY'S ROCKER SCRIBE RIFFS ON STREET ROGUES
02/05/2009
Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses fame celebrates his 45th birthday today with a new job - a national financial columnist on a mean mission. Playboy magazine hired the rocker for an undisclosed sum to write a crusading column aimed at skewering and... (7 h ago)

• UBS TO DISS SWISS UBS TO DISS SWISS
02/05/2009
Swiss banking giant UBS next Tuesday will reaffirm its commitment to its strategy of being all things to all people, resisting fierce pressure from the Swiss government to break itself up, sources told The Post. During the bank's earnings call... (7 h ago)

• BUSINESS BRIEFS BUSINESS BRIEFS
02/05/2009
Boiler room The SEC has taken emergency action to stop an ongoing international boiler room scheme that raised at least $44.2 mil lion from 1,400 investors since March 2007 by claiming European in vestors would pay no sales commissions on shares... (7 h ago)

• UPPER WEST SIDE UPPER WEST SIDE
02/04/2009
Here's your chance to "recapture history" - and profit from it, too. This five-story, turn-of-the-20th-century brick and limestone townhouse, located on a "beautiful, tree-lined" block in the Riverside-West End Historic District, is now configured... (9 h ago)

• KEY LARGO, FLA. KEY LARGO, FLA.
02/04/2009
This "Mediterranean canal-front" home isn't actually in the Mediterranean, but rather in the incredibly exclusive (and strictly patrolled) Ocean Reef Club in the Florida Keys, where private golf and tennis facilities, an airstrip and a marina with... (9 h ago)

• SADDLE RIVER, NJ SADDLE RIVER, NJ
02/04/2009
This "extraordinary" brick manor set on 2.6 acres is a grand space built for entertaining. Just imagine: From the entryway, you'll greet guests in front of the double staircase that opens to a large reception hall, then usher your visitors into... (9 h ago)

• SUTTON SUTTON
02/04/2009
Just because the renovation on this massive co-op on East 57th Street was completed with "museum-quality workmanship" doesn't mean you can't touch anything or make yourself perfectly at home. Of course, with 4,100 square feet of space, you'll have... (9 h ago)

• CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN
02/04/2009
Bedrooms: 2 Bathrooms: 1 Square feet: 875 Maintenance: $769 -- If you're looking for an "extraordinary corner classic apartment" in a "gorgeous prewar building," who needs Park Avenue? Clinton Avenue will do just fine - and for a whole lot less... (9 h ago)

• MIDTOWN WEST MIDTOWN WEST
02/04/2009
Bedrooms: 2 Bathrooms: 1½ Square feet: 1,200 Maintenance: $1,634 -- In addition to all the services offered in this doorman building on West 55th Street, this "exquisitely renovated" prewar co-op comes "beautifully appointed" - all the... (9 h ago)

• KIPS BAY KIPS BAY
02/04/2009
Bedrooms: 1 Bathrooms: 1 Square feet: 450 Maintenance: $626 -- This split-layout condop, with an "ample" living area on one end and a bedroom on the other, also features a windowed kitchen with a breakfast bar and a renovated bathroom. Agent... (9 h ago)

• GRAMERCY GRAMERCY
02/04/2009
Bedrooms: 0 Bathrooms: 1 Square feet: 420 Maintenance: $608 -- This "serene" studio co-op in a full-service building on East 24th Street features a lofted sleeping alcove and a private balcony. The kitchen and bathroom have been recently updated... (9 h ago)

• YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY
02/04/2009
Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 2½ Square feet: 2,600 -- Built in 2003, this Colonial set on more than an acre is "better than new," thanks to all the updates inside. For example, there's the "gleaming" hardwood floors, the kitchen with an... (9 h ago)

• SOHO SOHO
02/04/2009
Bedrooms: 1 Bathrooms: 1 Square feet: 1,300 Maintenance: $1,310 -- Sure, the great location on Lafayette Street, the brand-new kitchen and the 7-by-7-foot windows are great - but we think the media room, designed as a "pod" and set on a raised... (9 h ago)

• GIVE ME LIBERTY! GIVE ME LIBERTY!
02/04/2009
Nine days before 9/11, hip-hop entrepreneur and philanthropist Russell Simmons and his family left their Liberty Street apartment and moved to Saddle River, NJ. They picked a good time to relocate. Their condo was juststeps from what would soon... (9 h ago)

• Swiss Re Turns to Warren Buffet Swiss Re Turns to Warren Buffet
02/05/2009
Swiss Reinsurance said it would get $2.6 billion in capital from Berkshire Hathaway, and Deutsche Bank and Banco Santander announced sobering forecasts. (4 h ago)

• McDonald’s Scales Back Prices in China McDonald’s Scales Back Prices in China
02/05/2009
When McDonald’s lowers the price of the Double Cheeseburger in China, it is clear that the global slowdown has arrived there. (4 h ago)

• American Chief Executive Leaves as Lenov... American Chief Executive Leaves as Lenovo Profits Slump
02/05/2009
Lenovo, the big Chinese computer maker, reported a sharp decline in its third quarter sales and profits and said that its chief executive had stepped down. (4 h ago)

• Chile Takes Steps to Rehabilitate Its Lu... Chile Takes Steps to Rehabilitate Its Lucrative Salmon Industry
02/05/2009
The country’s farmed salmon industry is still struggling to recover from a devastating virus that has killed millions of fish planned for export. (6 h ago)

• BHP Billiton Profit Falls on Lower Metal... BHP Billiton Profit Falls on Lower Metal Prices
02/04/2009
A sharp drop in commodity prices triggered a 56.5 percent decrease in first-half profits at BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company. (8 h ago)

• French Company Joins Indian Utility in a... French Company Joins Indian Utility in a Deal for Nuclear Plants
02/04/2009
A French company, Areva, reached an agreement to build new nuclear reactors in India. . (8 h ago)

• A Push to Free Capital for Emerging Mark... A Push to Free Capital for Emerging Markets
02/04/2009
With governments focused largely on shoring up domestic lending, major financial businesses are pushing to help the flow of financing to subsidiaries in emerging markets. (9 h ago)

• Write-Down of $5.1 Billion Is Taken by A... Write-Down of $5.1 Billion Is Taken by Alcatel-Lucent
02/04/2009
The $5.1 billion write-down, its biggest ever, was an admission by its new chief executive of the company’s shrunken value. (10 h ago)

• Hit Hard, Panasonic to Shed 5% of Worker... Hit Hard, Panasonic to Shed 5% of Workers
02/04/2009
Panasonic said it was cutting 15,000 jobs in the second mass layoff for Japan’s electronics sector in less than a week. (10 h ago)

• Icelandic Firm Seeks Creditor Protection Icelandic Firm Seeks Creditor Protection
02/04/2009
Baugur, which became a symbol for the boom and rapid decline of Iceland’s economy, filed for creditor protection on Wednesday after talks with its biggest lender broke down. (10 h ago)

• Foreign Firms Lining Up for Piece of Sti... Foreign Firms Lining Up for Piece of Stimulus
02/04/2009
Despite the chatter about trade protectionism, foreign businesses are gearing up to win a piece of the package. (10 h ago)

• SAS Cuts 3,000 Jobs and Seeks New Cash SAS Cuts 3,000 Jobs and Seeks New Cash
02/04/2009
The troubled Scandinavian airline said that it would cut 3,000 jobs and ask shareholders for more cash as it seeks to ride out the global economic crisis. (14 h ago)

• Spain’s Unemployment Rose Sharply in Jan... Spain’s Unemployment Rose Sharply in January
02/03/2009
The number of unemployed people in Spain rose by nearly 200,000 in January, the fastest monthly increase in more than a decade. (1 d ago)

• A Push in Europe to Oversee Derivatives ... A Push in Europe to Oversee Derivatives Trading
02/03/2009
A top European official said binding rules on the trading of certain instruments was needed after an agreement to produce a timetable for oversight fell apart. (1 d ago)

• Australia and Japan Offer New Stimulus P... Australia and Japan Offer New Stimulus Plans
02/03/2009
Australia announced a $26.5 billion stimulus plan and a deep interest rate cut as the Japanese central bank said it would start buying shares held by financial institutions. (1 d ago)

• BP Posts 1st Quarterly Loss in 7 Years BP Posts 1st Quarterly Loss in 7 Years
02/03/2009
The British energy giant reported a fourth-quarter loss of $3.3 billion and warned that demand would probably continue to drop as the global recession deepened. (1 d ago)

• In Shift, Chinese Move More Money Overse... In Shift, Chinese Move More Money Overseas
02/03/2009
The challenge for economists is figuring out why money is leaving China, and how long the trend will last. (2 d ago)

• Chrysler’s New Ally Takes a Pragmatic Ap... Chrysler’s New Ally Takes a Pragmatic Approach
02/02/2009
Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of the Fiat Group, is blunt in assessing a prospective alliance with Chrysler. (2 d ago)

• China Puts Joblessness for Migrants at 2... China Puts Joblessness for Migrants at 20 Million
02/02/2009
China’s government announced at a briefing that more than one in seven rural migrant workers have been laid off or are unable to find work. (2 d ago)

• World Leaders Wary of U.S. Economic Meas... World Leaders Wary of U.S. Economic Measures
02/02/2009
A reservoir of good will for President Obama at the economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, has failed to quell concern over American protectionism. (2 d ago)

• Liu Chuanzhi reassumes position as Chair... Liu Chuanzhi reassumes position as Chairman of Lenovo Group
02/05/2009
Lenovo Group made an announcement on the website of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited on February 5 that Liu Chuanzhi has reassumed his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Yang Yuanqing has reassumed the position of CEO, replacing William J. Amelio. Rory Read has been appointed as the new President and COO. According to the announcement, Lenovo's overall sales revenue in the third quarter from continuing operations (excluding sold operations) was 3.59 billion USD, a ... (3 h ago)

• China to double efforts in promoting new... China to double efforts in promoting new energy construction
02/05/2009
China will accelerate steps to shut down small, technologically out-dated and high energy-consuming thermal power plants, coal mines and oil refineries, and accelerate the construction of large-scale energy infrastructures and major energy projects, an official from the National Energy Bureau said. This year, China's total investment in power generation will reach 580 billion yuan, and the construction of nuclear and wind power plants will be significantly put forward. According to plans, ... (5 h ago)

• McDonald's declares an 1-year price-off ... McDonald's declares an 1-year price-off promotion on 40% products
02/05/2009
McDonald's, world's largest fast food chain restaurant group, declared in Beijing that it will carry out a price-off promotion on 40 percent of its products for one year. This is the largest price-off promotion since McDonald's entered the China market, said Jeffery Schwartz, CEO of McDonald's China. Feeling the impacts of the global financial crisis, the two largest foreign fast food giants, McDonald's and KFC, have each initiated frequent promotions in their restaurants in China. Shortly af ... (6 h ago)

• S Korean credit card firms' default rate... S Korean credit card firms' default rate rises
02/05/2009
The delinquency rate of South Korean credit card firms rose in the fourth of last year from three months earlier amid the ongoing economic slumping, the Korea Times reported on Thursday. The default ratio of Samsung Card and four other card firms reached 3.43 percent at the end of last year, up 0.15 percentage point from three months earlier, data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) showed. It was the first time that the delinquency ratio rebounded since 2003 when a credit ... (7 h ago)

• Chinese shares down 0.46%, fall below 2,... Chinese shares down 0.46%, fall below 2,100-point mark
02/05/2009
Chinese shares went down 0.46 percent on Thursday on profit-taking, with the benchmark index falling below the 2100-point mark. After gaining for three consecutive days, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went higher on mid-day trading to 2149.47 points on strong steel, financial and real estate stocks. It fell in the afternoon session to close at 2098.02 points, down 9.73 points. Shenzhen Component Index closed down 0.86 percent, or 64.21 points to 7413.42 points. The c ... (7 h ago)

• S Korean gov't denies credit rating down... S Korean gov't denies credit rating downgrading
02/05/2009
South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Thursday that international credit ratings agencies show no movement of downgrading the nation's sovereign credit rating. "International credit ratings agencies usually consult the government before they make any adjustments to the nation's credit ratings," said Song In-chang, head of International Finance Depart in the finance ministry, said. "Thus far, there has not been a single credit agency that contacted the government on su ... (7 h ago)

• Sanyo suffers 36.3% drop in net profit Sanyo suffers 36.3% drop in net profit
02/05/2009
Japan's electronics maker Sanyo announced Thursday that its net profit dropped 36.3 percent year-on-year to 18.32 billion yen (205.84 million U.S. dollars) in the April-December period. Contracting sales and sharp appreciation of the yen are among the factors behind the slump in net profit, according to Sanyo. Meanwhile, Sanyo's consolidated operating profit plummeted by 44.9 percent in the nine months to 30.83 billion yen (346.40 million dollars) on sales of 1.43 trillion yen (16. ... (7 h ago)

• Australia to check U.S.-Australia FTA fo... Australia to check U.S.-Australia FTA for American protectionism
02/04/2009
Australia will examine its free trade deal with the United States to see if Washington is flouting its obligations under the pact if the United States adopts a "Buy American" clause for new stimulus projects. America's key trading partners are alarmed at the clause, which seeks to ban the use of foreign steel and iron in major U.S. infrastructure projects. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned on Thursday that a reversion to protectionism was a "spear at the heart" of the Aus ... (8 h ago)

• Major investment banks forecast negative... Major investment banks forecast negative growth for S Korean economy
02/04/2009
Major global investment banks predict that South Korea will mark negative growth this year, in contrast to their earlier positive forecasts, South Korean government data showed Thursday. The data compiled by the Korea Center for International Finance showed that 10 major investment banks forecast a contraction of South Korean economy by 2.3 percent on average for this year, down from their earlier projection of 0.8 percent expansion at the end of December. BNP Paribas was with the ... (8 h ago)

• IMF chief: Chinese economy has potential... IMF chief: Chinese economy has potential to maintain 8 percent growth
02/04/2009
China's economic growth is vital to the world economy and that the Chinese economy has the potential to achieve its goal of 8 percent growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, commented in response to questions from Xinhua News Agency on the evening of February 2. Strauss-Kahn said that the IMF has predicted a 6.7 percent growth for China this year and that the country’s target of 8 percent growth will be "very challenging" but not impossibl ... (8 h ago)

• Founder of China's leading computer make... Founder of China's leading computer maker resumes chairmanship after losses
02/04/2009
Liu Chuanzhi, founder of China's leading computer maker Lenovo Group, has been reinstated as company chairman, the group announced Thursday after revealing a fourth quarter loss of 97 million U.S. dollars. A company statement said Liu, a non-executive director, has been appointed as non-executive chairman. The announcement said he would also serve as chairman of both the strategy and governance committees. Liu, who had been an executive director from 1994 and chairman until ... (8 h ago)

• Honda to debut new gas-electric hybrid Honda to debut new gas-electric hybrid
02/04/2009
Honda Motor Co. announced Thursday that it will launch new gas-electric hybrid car "Insight" Friday. The Insight is priced between 1.89 million yen (21,000 U.S. dollars) and 2.21 million yen (24,500 U.S. dollars), cheaper than its bigger rival Toyota's Prius, which is sold at the minimum price of 2.33 million yen (25,800 U.S. dollars). The new hybrid, however, covers 30 km per liter of gasoline, against 35.5 kilometers for Toyota's Prius. The second largest automaker in Japa ... (9 h ago)

• Bank expects surge in HK jobless rate Bank expects surge in HK jobless rate
02/04/2009
Hong Kong's unemployment rate may surge to around 6 percent by the end of this year, according to a forecast of Hang Seng Bank of Hong Kong made public here Thursday. The city's unemployment rate climbed to a 16-month high of 4.1 percent in December, 2008, from 3.8 percent in the previous month. But Hang Seng said the worst is yet to come and expected such figure to reach 6 percent, giving an average of 5.4 percent for the full year of 2009. Although there are high hopes on the gov ... (9 h ago)

• S Korean gov't warns of economic recessi... S Korean gov't warns of economic recession
02/04/2009
South Korea's economy is in danger of falling into a recession due to a recent downturn in domestic demand and exports amid a global economic slump, the country's Finance Ministry warned on Thursday. "Despite easing inflationary pressures, South Korea faces a growing risk of recession as many real economic indicators are worsening, including production, domestic demand and exports," the ministry said in its monthly economy-assessment report, urging the government to take every measure to ... (9 h ago)

• Bangladesh to fight Brazil's anti-dumpin... Bangladesh to fight Brazil's anti-dumping duty on yarn export
02/04/2009
Bangladesh is planning to fight a 16 percent anti-dumping duty Latin American economic giant Brazil imposed on its jute yarn last year, leading English daily The Financial Express reported on Thursday. Brazil imposed the duty, which is equivalent to 16 U.S. cents for every kg of jute yarn shipped by Bangladeshi exporters in August 2008 for a five-year period ending 2013, the newspaper said. The move followed the accusation made by one of Brazilian producers against one Bangladeshi ... (9 h ago)

• U.S. Senate retains "Buy American" provi... U.S. Senate retains "Buy American" provision in stimulus plan
02/04/2009
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday chose to retain "Buy American" provision in its roughly 900-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan despite of criticism from the nation's major trade partners and warnings of an international trade war. With a vote of 65-31, the Senate rejected an amendment by Republican Senator John McCain which would have stripped the stimulus package of the provision. "Should we enact such a provision, it will only be a matter of time before we face an array of simila ... (10 h ago)

• Brazil's energy giant to boost explorati... Brazil's energy giant to boost exploration, production with huge investment
02/04/2009
Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras plans to invest 92 billion U.S. dollars in the domestic market from 2009 to 2013, according to the company's newly-released business plan. With the investment, which represents a 41-percent increase from that in the five-year plan commencing 2008, Petrobras expects to boost domestic oil production to 2.68 million oil barrels per day by 2013. According to the Exploration and Production Business Plan, a total of 29 billion reais (12.5 ... (10 h ago)

• Philippine inflation eases to 7.1% in Ja... Philippine inflation eases to 7.1% in January
02/04/2009
Lower energy and food prices on the international market dragged down the annual inflation of the Philippines to 7.1 percent in January, the government said on Thursday. The Philippine inflation has declined for five straight months from the 17-year high of 12.5 percent in August 2008, according to data released by the National Statistics Office on Thursday. The January figure is the lowest in ten months. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy items, slid to ... (11 h ago)

• U.S. service sector shrinks for fourth s... U.S. service sector shrinks for fourth straight month
02/04/2009
Business activity in the U.S. service sector declined for the fourth consecutive month in January but at a slightly slower pace compared to December 2008, the Institute for Supply Management(ISM) said Wednesday in its latest non-manufacturing survey. The research group based in Tempe, Arizona, said its index of business activity in the non-manufacturing sector rose to 42.9 last month from December's downwardly revised reading of 40.1. A reading at or above 50 indicates expansion, w ... (11 h ago)

• Japan's imported vehicle sales plunge 37... Japan's imported vehicle sales plunge 37.2% in January
02/04/2009
Japan's sales of new imported vehicles dived 37.2 percent year-on-year to 8,915 units in January, said the Japan Automobile Importers Association Thursday. The sales, including those of Japanese brands manufactured abroad, saw a ninth consecutive monthly fall, which the trade body attributed to the deteriorating economy amid the ongoing global financial crisis. Foreign-brand vehicles sold in Japan plummeted 34.3 percent to 7,657 units while sales of Japanese cars nosedived 50.2 per ... (11 h ago)

• Interest rates cut to 1% Interest rates cut to 1%
02/05/2009
The Bank of England has cut interest rates by a half point to 1%, their lowest level in over 300 years, as it tries to drag Britain out of recession. The monetary policy committee voted to cut cost of borrowing again today to a new record low after hearing fresh evidence that the UK economy is in poor shape. The decision will disappoint those in the City who had had hoped for a full percentage point cut . It will be welcomed by borrowers and homeowners, coming just hours after the unexpected news that house prices rose by 1.9% in January . The latest data fom the Halifax put an end to months of falls and took many commentators by surprise. If lenders pass the reduction on in full to borrowers, people with mortgages that track a point below base rate will find themselves paying no interest. But the decision spells further gloom for savers as savings rates fall to virtually zero. The MPC warned that its latest data shows that business output is still declining . "Credit conditions faced by companies and households have tightened further. The underlying picture for consumer spending appears weak," it said. However, the committee also insisted that its recent rates cuts will stimulate the economy. Nick Parsons, head of markets strategy for nabCapital, predicted that today's cut will be the last one of the current economic cycle. "We could be here at 1% for a at least a year and possibly longer, and the next rise will be upwards," said Parsons, who warned that further cuts could force savers to pull their money out of the banks and building societies. The MPC has now cut the cost of borrowing for five months in a row. Last October interest rates were still 5%, but have now tumbled to their lowest level since the central bank was founded in 1694 . The weakening British economy The rate decision is the first since the UK's recession was officially confirmed a fortnight ago. And last week the International Monetary Fund warned that Britain would be the worst hit major economy in what is expected to be the "deepest recession since the second world war". The UK's economic output slumped by 1.5% between October and December – the biggest fall in nearly three decades – following a 0.6% drop in the previous quarter. "The savage slide in the economy's prospects outweighs the case for MPC gradualism," said Michael Saunders at Citi. "The Inflation Report, prepared in the run-up to the MPC meeting, is likely to show the weakest economic forecast the MPC has ever prepared, as well as the biggest downgrade." The Bank is due to release its latest forecasts for the economy in its quarterly inflation report next Wednesday. As interest rates get closer to zero, the Bank has hinted that it is considering more unconventional measures in a bid to stave off a long and deep recession. King has been given the green light to spend £50bn of taxpayers's money to buy company debts and other assets, suggesting that Britain is moving towards quantitative easing . Such radical action is also known as "turning on the printing press" - pumping money into the economy to get people and businesses spending again and to prevent deflation. As the gloom surrounding the economy deepens, thousands of jobs are lost every week, pushing unemployment towards 2 million. David Blanchflower , the Bank's labour market expert who voted to reduce rates by a full percentage point in January, has warned that unemployment is likely to top 3 million next year. Many banks and building societies have yet to pass on last month's half-point base rate cut to borrowers on their standard variable rates, while slashing their savings rates. Pensioners are among those hardest hit. The Building Societies Association had called on the MPC not to reduce the base rate further in a bid to protect savers. It warned that people would be even less likely to save after another rate cut, which could further reduce the funds that lenders have available for mortgage lending. Interest rates Interest rates Recession Inflation Savings Bank of England guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (3 h ago)

• More famous names emerge among the thous... More famous names emerge among the thousands in Madoff client list
02/05/2009
A list of the many thousands of people who invested with Bernard Madoff has been released, including the names of a number of well-known Americans from the world of politics, sport, and Hollywood. The 162-page roll call of potential victims of Madoff's alleged $50bn (£34.3bn) fraud was published late last night. Among the 13,567 entries is the name John G Malkovich, although there is no confirmation that this is indeed the famous actor. Other familiar names include John Denver Concerts and John Denver Enterprises, Sandy Koufax – one of America's greatest baseball pitchers – and Frank Lautenberg, senator for New Jersey. Fred Wilpon, owner of the New York Mets baseball team, is one of many names to appear multiple times. The list is peppered with members of Madoff family. As well as Bernard himself, his brother Peter, sons Andrew and Mark, daughter-in-law Deborah, and the wife of his late nephew, Jennifer, all appear. In a reminder of the tragedy that the Madoff case has already generated, the list also includes Access International Advisors. In December, René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuche, the co-founder of AIA, was found dead after it emerged that his company may have lost $1.5bn. Madoff's own lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, appears on the list, as do several financial firms such as Santander, Bank of New York, Bank of America, and Citigroup. Santander has offered to compensate the many small investors who have lost money in the alleged fraud. The Madoff scandal broke in mid-December, when the 70-year old veteran investor apparently told his family that his empire was "all one big lie" . Since being charged, Madoff has avoided attempts to put him in jail ahead of his trial, and he has taken to wearing a bullet-proof vest. The case has raised new questions over the regulation of the financial system. Yesterday an analyst who raised fears about Madoff in 2000 heavily criticised the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to act. Bernard Madoff Investments Investing United States guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (4 h ago)

• Zavvi axes 17 more stores and 242 jobs Zavvi axes 17 more stores and 242 jobs
02/05/2009
The slow demise of the Zavvi music chain continued today when the insolvency specialists running the business announced another 17 stores would close. The move is with immediate effect and will cost 242 jobs. The new redundancies bring the total number of jobs lost at the former Virgin Megastore chain to 1,068. At the time the business collapsed it employed 2,400 full-time staff. Zavvi got into trouble before Christmas after its main supplier EUK went into administration, along with its sister company Woolworths. A total of 269 jobs have been saved as part of a deal with rival HMV and 31 Zavvi outlets remain trading. Joint administrator Tom Jack said: "We will continue to trade the remaining stores and remain hopeful that a sale of some or all of these can be achieved. We are in detailed discussions with two interested parties and it is our intention to continue to trade all remaining UK stores with a view to their sale as a going concern." The stores closing today are in: Aberdeen, Blackpool, Camberley (Atrium), Carlisle, Chester, Coventry, Denton, Derby (Albion Street), Harlow, Hemel Hempstead, Hereford, Loughborough, Sheffield (Meadowhall), Shrewsbury, Swindon, Walton-on-Thames and York. Today's job losses are the latest in a lengthening list of retail casualties. Zavvi Recession Retail industry guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (4 h ago)

• Arrests made in what could be biggest in... Arrests made in what could be biggest investment scam in Japanese history
02/05/2009
It is a bizarre tale of a bedding company, a megalomaniac businessman and a make-believe currency. And today it culminated in a series of arrests in what could be the biggest investment scam in Japanese history. Kazutsugi Nami, the chairman of L&G, which stands for Ladies & Gentlemen, a bankrupt bedding supplier, and 21 other executives are suspected of defrauding hundreds of thousands of investors of at least $1.4bn (£1bn) over the past eight years. In return for their money, Nami promised investors cash returns of 36% a year plus their original investment. Those who paid at least ¥100,000 (£770) also received an equivalent sum in Enten - or Paradise Yen - a virtual currency Nami claimed would become legal tender in a post-recession era in which he would be "world famous". Until that day arrived, members of the scheme were invited to part with their Enten, which was wired to their mobile phones, on anything from vegetables and clothes to jewellery and immune system-boosting futons, on L&G's online bazaar. Moments before his arrest in front of the TV cameras, Nami was unrepentant as he held court over breakfast in a restaurant near his Tokyo office. "Please shoot the face of the biggest conman in history," he said, sipping from a glass of beer at 5.30am. "Time will tell if I'm a conman or a swindler. I'm leading 50,000 people. Can they charge a company this big with fraud?" Shortly before being led away by police, he was asked if he felt sorry for his cheated investors. "No. I have put my life at stake," he said. "Why do I have to apologise? I'm the poorest victim. Nobody lost more than I did. You should be aware that high returns come with a high risk." In happier times the 75-year-old businessman enjoyed cult-like status among investors; this week the media is calling him Japan's version of the alleged US fraudster Bernard Madoff. Nami and his associates are accused of pocketing at least ¥126bn from 37,000 investors, although some reports put the sum as high as ¥226bn. That would make the alleged scam the biggest since Toyota Shoji conned thousands of investors out of ¥202.5bn to buy gold bars in the late 1980s. The L&G scheme began to fall apart in early 2007 when it started paying dividends in Enten instead of cash, and then refused to allow investors to cancel their membership. By September that year the company had sacked most of its staff and filed for bankruptcy with debts estimated at ¥42.3bn. According to media accounts, Nami has a penchant for improbable business schemes and self-aggrandizement. In 2005 he set up a research institute called the Akari Laboratory whose mission, it said, was to revitalize local economies. As vice president of a car parts dealer in the 1970s, he drew 250,000 people into a pyramid scheme involving exhaust pipes, and set up another company that sold stones that, it falsely claimed, could purify tap water. According to lawyers representing hundreds of investors, one woman lost ¥100m to the scam. In an interview with the Jiji Press, a 70-year-old woman who lost ¥2m said of her involvement with L&G: "I had fun and a lively life ... I was stupid. But it's my fault as I was greedy." In a rambling, barely coherent blogpost last week, Nami claimed he was being persecuted by the police. "They told me they would arrest me without fanfare, so why are all the newspaper saying I'll be arrested within the week? If that happens, it means the police lied to me," he wrote. "Even if I say I didn't do anything wrong, they'll just use circumstantial evidence to find me guilty." Likening himself to the powerful 16th century warlord Oda Nobunaga, Nami predicted countries around the world would adopt the Enten in a matter of years. "I will start shining and become world famous. I will certainly move the world." Japan guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (4 h ago)

• Ford's job cuts highlight car malaise Ford's job cuts highlight car malaise
02/05/2009
The automotive industry's problems were underlined this morning with news of further job losses and the worst January car sales for 35 years. Ford announced that it was seeking up to 500 voluntary redundancies at its Southampton plant which makes Transit vans. The plant currently employs 1,120 people and Ford said the planned cuts reflected to move from double to single shift working. The company is also seeking some 350 volunteers for redundancy across its 4,300 salaried staff across its UK operations. Workers at Honda's Swindon plant are already on a four month shutdown and both Nissan in Sunderland and Jaguar Land Rover have announced job losses. Sales of new cars in the UK fell by almost a third last month, intensifying industry calls for urgent government aid to boost demand. Last month's total of just over 112,000 car sales was the worst performance for January since 1974, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The outlook for the industry remains bleak , according to the SMMT, which is forecasting that sales for the year overall will fall by a fifth to some 1.72m vehicles. Though the government has announced plans to support the industry and boost demand by making finance more accessible, the SMMT is calling for the UK to follow other European Union countries by introducing incentives for buyers to scrap older cars and buy new. "There is a clear need to stimulate demand for new vehicles in the UK market. A number of EU member states have launched scrappage incentive schemes, which has the benefit of boosting consumer confidence and delivering significant environmental improvements," SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt, said. "The UK motor industry is urging UK government to introduce a similar scheme and help sustain jobs and businesses throughout the sector." France, for example, is offering up to €2,000 (£1,776) to buyers who scrap a car more than 10 years old and buy a new vehicle with carbon dioxide emissions of less than 160g/km. The SMMT said all segments of the market were down except the "mini" segment where sales were up 40%. Sales of the "super mini" class fell less steeply than other segments, taking its share of a depressed market to more than 35%. The Ford Fiesta was Britain's best selling car for the third month in a row. Among marques hardest hit by the downturn were Bentley, down 59% in January, BMW and Citroen, both down 40% and Renault, 59% lower. Jaguar sales soared 55% but Land Rover saw it sales down 52%. Automotive industry Recession Credit crunch Honda Jaguar Land Rover guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (5 h ago)

• Deutsche makes first loss in 50 years Deutsche makes first loss in 50 years
02/05/2009
Deutsche Bank today underlined the scale of the financial crisis as it suffered its first loss in more than 50 years and warned of bleak prospects for the global economy. Germany's biggest bank plunged into the red by €5.7bn (£5.1bn) pre-tax for 2008 and is cutting its dividend to just €0.50. Deutsche has been hit by a collapse of debt and equity trading, the main source of revenues at its once-stellar investment bank in the City. Amid reports that Europe's investment banks will slash bonuses by an average 50%, the bank reported that it had cut pay and benefits by 36% last year. Josef Ackermann, the chief executive, faces close questioning on this at Deutsche's annual press conference in Frankfurt later today and has already admitted to being "very disappointed" at the results. Deutsche confirmed earlier statements last month that it had lost a net €3.9bn in 2008, going into the red to the tune of €4.8bn in the final quarter. Pre-tax losses in the last three months of 2008 were €6.2bn. But the bank's tier one capital ratio jumped to 10.1%. The bank said its business had shrunk dramatically in the unprecedented trading conditions of the post- Lehman Brothers final quarter: full-year net revenues collapsed to just €13.5bn compared with €30.7bn in 2007. Writedowns of assets totalled €7bn compared with €2.3bn a year earlier. The crisis took its biggest toll on corporate and investment banking, the traditional engine of Deutsche's growth and earnings. The division saw net revenues go into complete reverse in the fourth quarter at €3.8bn negative through the collapse of debt and equity trading even though money market and forex trading leapt on writebacks. Deutsche, which has stood aloof from Berlin's banking bail-out schemes, cut the dividend from €4.50 but Ackermann insisted the decision to pay out at all was designed to retain shareholders's trust and confidence and "reflects our confidence in the bank's future performance". He declared: "Looking forward, we see continuing very difficult conditions for the global economy, posing significant challenges for our clients and for our industry. Nonetheless, we remain firmly committed to our business model." Deutsche Bank European banks Banking Europe Credit crunch Germany guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (6 h ago)

• YouGov warns on profits YouGov warns on profits
02/05/2009
Polling firm YouGov today issued a profits warning after seeing new business dry up as banks slash their spending on customer surveys and research because of the credit crunch . Its shares almost halved after it admitted that profitability for the current financial year will be "significantly below market expectations" of around £10m. The market research firm said it would not meet its target for revenue growth this year because of "much weaker than anticipated new business in the UK". Its shares fell 33p in early trading to 37p. "The areas that have been particularly badly hit are the financial services companies and financial institutions," explained a YouGov spokesman. "They have both been a big area for the company in the past." The company expanded last year, even as the economy slowed down, hiring more people to work on new product development and to help it expand into markets like Germany and the US, where it polled last November's elections. Profit warnings Credit crunch Opinion polls guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (7 h ago)

• Warren Buffett invests £1.8bn in Swiss ... Warren Buffett invests £1.8bn in Swiss Re
02/05/2009
Veteran investor Warren Buffett is injecting £1.8bn into Swiss Re after the Zurich-based reinsurer admitted suffering heavy losses in the financial crisis. Swiss Re warned today that it expects to post a total net loss of around 1bn Swiss francs (£600m) for 2008. It no longer has enough capital to sustain its "AA" credit rating, and needs to raise another SFr2bn on top of the investment by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway group. Buffett, one of the world's richest men , had already bought a 3% stake in Swiss Re last month. He said this morning he was "delighted to have this opportunity to increase our investment in Swiss Re". The world's second largest reinsurance group, which provides insurance to insurance companies, said it has disbanded its financial markets arm. This division dealt in complicated financial instruments such as credit default swaps , and lost 6bn SFr last year. Jacques Aigrain, Swiss Re's chief executive, said he was disappointed by the company's results but said Buffett's investment was "a testament to the strength of our franchise". The SFr3bn investment is being made in the form of "convertible perpetual capital instrument" which will pay a coupon of 12%, a much better rate of interest than is on offer from the banks today. It can be converted into shares after three years, which would take Buffett's stake to more than 20%. Buffett, known as the "Sage of Omaha" once warned that credit default swaps were "weapons of financial mass destruction". Last October he declared his confidence in the US stockmarket by revealing that he had started to buy American stocks with his own money, saying that it was a great time to "buy a slice of America's future at a marked-down price" . He has made a string of investments in recent months and earlier this week took on $300m (£210m) debt from Harley Davidson. He has also pumped $5bn into Goldman Sachs. Warren Buffett Insurance industry Credit crunch Switzerland Europe guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (7 h ago)

• How to save a packet How to save a packet
02/04/2009
A curious thing happened to the UK profits of Walkers Snack Foods in 1999. They fell off a cliff, as did the UK tax bill that went with them. Walkers still manufactures its crisps in Leicester at the world's largest crisp factory, as befits the top brand in a country whose potato snack habit is one of the largest in the world. Its sales, boosted by that footballing symbol of middle England, Gary Lineker, have remained by and large as healthy as his image, despite nutritionists' best efforts. And yet Walkers' UK profits took a dive from which they have not recovered. The explanation, the Guardian has discovered, was quite simple. Walkers had been "restructured" by its owners, the US transnational giant, Pepsico. This shifted much of its profits to a tax haven in Switzerland. In June 1999, Pepsico transferred ownership of its Walkers brands, built up in the UK over the decades since it first began frying in 1948, out of England and into a Swiss subsidiary, Frito-Lay Trading GMBH. Moreover, up to the most recent accounts, the Swiss company had still not actually paid Walkers for them. Walkers carried on making the crisps that millions of Britons eat daily at its sites in England. It also carried on employing roughly the same number of production workers, about 3,000, and its marketing still boasts that "we're proud our crisps are made from 100% British potatoes, and we love our home". But for all Walker's Britishness, its "intellectual property" and "business functions and risks" had quietly migrated to the low-tax canton of Bern. The British factories were reduced from a major profit centre to mere contract manufacturers, paid a margin over their costs by Pepsico's Swiss trading company. Walkers on paper no longer owns at any point the raw materials or products it makes; it does not own the potatoes that go into the factory nor the crisps that come out. Its sales and marketing company does not own what it sells to the supermarkets and pub chains. It just collects commission like the Avon Lady. Pepsico's Swiss-registered entity owns the goods remotely instead. What has this surreal arrangement meant for the UK exchequer? The year before it happened, Walkers Snack Foods was turning over £469m. This generated profits in the UK of £91m and a tax bill of £28m to hand over to the British Revenue. But in 1999, the year the brands were sold, Walkers Snack Foods turnover almost halved, as did its profits, and the UK tax bill went down to £14.7m. The original Walkers operation in Britain had by now been split into three separate components - the original manufacturing arm, Walkers Snack Foods; Walkers Distribution; and Walkers Snacks, a sales and marketing entity. Adding all their tax charges together, the Walkers total came to just £18.3m - nearly £10m less than the previous year's £28m. By 2000, the first full year after restructuring, the total UK tax contribution from the new group had plummeted further to just £11.4m. Profits were piling up in low-tax Switzerland, in what was presented as now essentially a Swiss-managed operation. The Walkers companies were said to be merely making and distributing the crisps, and collecting the money from UK supermarkets, on behalf of the real managers abroad. There were some strange features to the newly devised "sales and marketing" entity, Walkers Snacks. A large chunk of the old Walkers' turnover was allocated to it. The average pay of the 170 employees also allocated to it in 1999 was exceptionally high, suggesting some expensive people might work there. But there turned out to be much room for argument with HMRC about just how "Swiss" the Walkers crisps operation had really become. In shifting a substantial chunk of the profits from its operations out of the UK to Switzerland in this way, Pepsico became one of the earliest adopters of the sort of business restructuring that Revenue sources now describe as the biggest threat to the UK tax base. Dozens of large companies have followed the Pepsico route. Tax authorities around the world struggle to keep up with them. It took two more years for the Revenue to blow the referee's whistle on Pepsico. By that time the UK tax bill from the restructured companies had shrunk to around £8m. Corporations, just like individuals, submit their returns in arrears. Walkers' auditors, KPMG, recorded the Revenue's challenge to its tax returns. "The tax authorities have queried a number of historical transactions," they said. However, the auditors added that "management are confident that the treatment which has been adopted is correct." Nevertheless, the company started making a provision in the next few years for a bigger tax bill but without disclosing it in its statutory accounts. It did this "on the grounds that it might be prejudicial to the company's interests in its dealings with the tax authorities". Eventually, Pepsico did a deal, and gave around £40m back to Britain. But the dispute moved at glacially slow speed. It took until last October for a final settlement with HMRC to be agreed and revealed in the small print of the Walkers accounts. The UK had managed to claw back less than a third of what it might have received had an unchanged structure continued producing the same sort of level of UK profits and tax as Walkers Snack Foods had in 1998. Invited to comment, New York-based Pepsico told us: "Pepsico manages its tax affairs in a prudent and lawful manner." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• The great high street sell-off The great high street sell-off
02/04/2009
A "sale of the century" is looming as the Icelandic investment empire that bought up swaths of the UK high street in recent years hovers on the verge of collapse. The Icelandic-backed Baugur group, which transformed itself from a family-owned Reykjavik discount store into a major retail group with 3,500 stores and some 50,000 staff, is expected to fall into administration by Friday after the group's main backer, the nationalised Icelandic bank Landsbanki, pulled the plug on the business tonight. Baugur's total debts add up to more than £1bn and it had been determined to hold on to its stakes in the UK retail sector and avoid a breakup. But Landsbanki ran out of patience and has filed a petition to put a key Baugur holding company into administration, which enables it to gain control of a number of Baugur's shareholdings. Baugur went on a 10-year spending spree and owns stakes in more than 20 UK retail brands, ranging from the Iceland supermarket chain, Debenhams department stores to the fashion designer Matthew Williamson, Wyevale garden centres, a host of fashion chains including Karen Millen, Oasis and the shoe businesses Nine West and Bertie. They have a combined turnover of more than £5bn. The Landsbanki claim relates to House of Fraser, Hamleys , Iceland, and Aurum, which runs Mappin & Webb, Goldsmiths and Watches of Switzerland. Accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers have been lined up to take over the shareholdings in these store groups, which are controlled from Baugur's headquarters, a chic black-panelled office in heart of London's West End. A source close to PWC insisted a fire sale would not be in the best interests of creditors, but retail analysts said it was inevitable that the Baugur shareholdings would change hands in the coming months. The Icelanders, led by Baugur's colourful boss Jón Asgeir Jóhannesson, do not own any of their businesses outright. The stores will continue to trade as normal, but the situation is still precarious as many of them relied on the now-collapsed Icelandic banks and must secure new financial backers. Nick Bubb, retail analyst at Pali International, said Baugur's assets would be in demand despite the recession : "There should be enough interest in most of its chains to attract buyers, perhaps from private equity firms," Bubb predicted. In other cases, store managers are likely to attempt buyouts. But it is far from certain whether they will be able to raise funds to do so, and how much any sell-off might raise in the current economic climate. Some of the shareholdings may be worthless and new investors might choose to take debt, rather than buy the shares, to gain control. Likely buyers are thought to include Sir Philip Green, who tried to buy Baugur's debt last year . Private equity groups such as Jon Moulton's Alchemy and Theo Paphitis, the owner of Rymans and one of the BBC's Dragons' Den entrepreneurs, might also be interested. Moulton confirmed that he was eyeing the stricken Baugur empire. The private equity specialist said the businesses ranged from the "quite nice and quite large to the really pretty horrible and quite tiny". Baugur's Jóhannesson appears resigned to the demise of his empire, which was built on debt provided by Iceland's aggressive domestic banks. Icelandic banks borrowed six times the country's GDP . Since their collapse Baugur has been paralysed, and some of the businesses will welcome an end to the uncertainty surrounding their financial position. The retailers affected by Landsbanki's move insisted they would be unaffected by Baugur's problems. Hamleys' chief executive, Guðjón Reynisson, said: "We are absolutely independent in the way we operate. We are not reliant on Baugur in any way for capital. It obviously affects us down the line if there is a change of ownership but right now we are just focusing on trading day-to-day." The struggling French Connection fashion chain, where Baugur has an 18% stake through its holding in Unity Investments, also said Baugur's demise was irrelevant. The Iceland supermarket chain said in a statement that Baugur's financial position had "zero impact" on its day-to-day trading. "Their shareholding in Iceland is only 13.5%," it said. House of Fraser said: "Baugur is a minority shareholder and has no impact on the strength of the business." Jóhannesson said administration was the only way to protect the interests of Baugur's companies and creditors: "I am sure that Philip Green is dancing a war dance in his living room because now he will become a large owner of our companies for virtually nothing," he told Icelandic news website Vísir-is. "Landsbanki didn't give us any other options." Landsbanki's move on Baugur was made independently and not in concert with the other two collapsed Icelandic banks, Kaupthing and Glitnir, which are also Baugur creditors. One source suggested Landsbanki's actions suggested that the new government in Reykjavik had decided on a get-tough approach to repatriate funds, which could create dramatic knock-on effects for other British businesses still supported by the Icelandic banks. What Baugur owns: Companies related to Baugur employ some 50,000 people worldwide in over 3,500 stores, and have a total turnover of £5.4bn. Fashion: French Connection Mosaic Fashions Coast Karen Millen Oasis Odille Principles Shoe Studio Group Warehouse Whistles Jane Norman All Saints Day Birger et Mikkelsen Matthew Williamson Steinunn SD&R Arcticgroup Department stores: Debenhams House of Fraser Illum Magasin Du Nord Souk Saks Food: Iceland Speciality: Hamleys Aurum Goldsmiths Mappin & Webb Watches of Switzerland Wyevale Garden Centres eCommera Baugur Iceland Retail industry Debenhams Mosaic Fashions Credit crunch Recession Global recession guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (19 h ago)

• Obama imposes $500,000 ceiling on bank b... Obama imposes $500,000 ceiling on bank bosses
02/04/2009
Wall Street bosses whose banks are being bailed out by the US taxpayer will not be able to earn more than $500,000 (£345,000) a year, President Barack Obama warned today as he vowed to clamp down on the "customary lavish bonuses". In a tough-talking pledge to the US taxpayer, Obama promised to investigate how the multimillion-dollar pay packets for top executives had contributed to the "reckless behaviour" that had "caused havoc in our financial system". He also promised to end the "disgusting" payoffs handed to Wall Street executives who were forced to resign as the credit crunch hit. "We are putting a stop to these kinds of massive severance packages we have all read about with disgust," he said. "We are taking the air out of the golden parachute." Flanked by the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, Obama signalled that a new stimulus package would be announced next week to get money flowing around the financial system again. The ground-breaking plans to tackle Wall Street's pay packets – where even last year more than $18bn was paid in bonuses – were needed to put confidence back into the financial system, he said. The curbs on pay are not retrospective. "To restore our financial system, we've got to restore trust," Obama said. "And in order to restore trust, we've got to make certain that taxpayer funds are not subsidising excessive compensation packages on Wall Street." The plan met with a mixed response. David Kotok, of Cumberland fund managers, said: "This is pure political grandstanding. If the limit has bite, it will be counterproductive and the unintended consequences will hurt the US as skilled and bright senior managers make choices." Lauren Smith, of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, agreed, saying there was "certainly a possibility" of a flight of talent from firms accepting bail-out funds. But the US House Republican leader, John Boehner, appeared to endorse the $500,000 limit. "Somebody's got to pick a number – the president has picked one; I applaud him for doing it. If anybody is looking to the taxpayer to help bail the company out, these kind of executive compensation limits are appropriate." Other Republicans also backed the idea. "I would say to Wall Street be careful what you wish for. Maybe it is going to wake up American business: that there is a cost when you invite the 800lb gorilla of government into your boardroom," said Mike Pence, a Republican from Indiana. Under Obama's plan, any executive of a company accepting federal aid will be able to increase their $500,000 basic pay through the award of shares but they will not be able to cash these in until all taxpayer funds have been paid back. Obama was incensed by the pay deals handed out as the banking crisis hit last year. "For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis is not only bad taste, it's bad strategy, and I will not tolerate it as president," he said. The president aims to ensure that banks seeking more support will not be riddled with the excesses of the past. "We're going to be demanding some restraint in exchange for federal aid, so that when firms seek federal dollars we won't find them up to the same tricks," Obama said. Examples of the pay deals concerning the new US administration are easy to come by. John Thain, recently removed from the helm of Merrill Lynch after it was bailed out by Bank of America, spent $1.2m redecorating his office – although he has now offered to pay this back. The severance package for Sanford Weill, former chief executive of Citigroup, which avoided collapse only thanks to a $45bn bail-out, included use of the corporate jet until 2016 . He has now forgone this perk – and a $175,000-a-year consulting contract and other benefits. Ken Lewis, who runs Bank of America, received $20m in 2007. BoA needed federal aid after its takeover of Merrill Lynch. Banking Barack Obama United States Executive salaries Merrill Lynch Citigroup guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (19 h ago)

• Kremlin to inject $40bn into Russia's ba... Kremlin to inject $40bn into Russia's banks
02/04/2009
The Russian government is preparing to pump $40bn in capital into its domestic banks, the country's finance minister revealed today. Alexei Kudrin, who is also Russia's deputy prime minister, said that Russia's second largest bank, VTB, would be able to benefit from the package. Speaking at a press conference, he said: "We are happy to invite VTB to enjoy this support and in the nearest future we will make an announcement connected to this." It has been widely reported that the government would give VTB $5.54bn, but VTB's chief executive, Andrei Kostin, said no decision has yet been made. He said he had invited Kudrin to London to try and persuade him to recapitalise VTB. "It's important such measures are taken. All the shareholders will win, including minority shareholders," he added. Ratings agency Fitch downgraded Russia's sovereign rating to BBB earlier today and said further cuts were possible due to low commodity prices, high capital outflows, declining foreign currency reserves and corporate debt problems. "We're facing some very difficult challenges. So certainly the forecast for Russia at the moment is worse now than at the end of 2008," Kudrin said of the downgrade. If Russia were to be downgraded just twice more on the Fitch scale, its debt would become "junk" as opposed to "investment grade". Fitch's downgrade follows one from Standard & Poor's in December. "The downgrade reflects the negative impact on Russia from the fall in commodity prices and the dislocation to global capital markets that has left Russian banks and companies struggling to refinance external debt, and the difficulties Russia faces in managing the necessary macroeconomic policy adjustments," said Fitch's Edward Parker. Fitch also said it was concerned by the depletion of Russia's foreign currency reserves, which have shrunk by a third, or around $200bn, since August as the Kremlin attempts to ensure that the rouble's depreciation is gradual. Russia Banking Credit crunch Global recession guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (23 h ago)

• Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide
02/04/2009
Panasonic is to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide over the next year in a drastic effort to reduce costs after the Japanese electronics manufacturer said it would suffer its first annual loss for six years. About half of the redundancies would be in Japan, company spokesman Akira Kadota said, but was unable to reveal where overseas cuts would be made. The move will lead to the closure of 27 manufacturing sites, 13 of them in Japan, and the loss of about 5% of Panasonic's global workforce of 300,000. Its British headquarters are located in Bracknell, Berkshire, and it has several manufacturing plants in the UK, employing about 4,000 people, according to its website. "The company's business conditions have worsened particularly since last October, due mainly to the rapid appreciation of the yen, sluggish consumer spending worldwide and ever intensified price competition," Panasonic said in a statement. The firm became the latest Japanese manufacturer to announce massive job cuts as the recession tightened its grip on exporters in the world's second biggest economy. Last week Japan's exporters announced at least 30,000 job cuts worldwide, including 20,000 at NEC and 7,000 at Hitachi . Sony, meanwhile, plans to shed 16,000 employees . The firms are all expecting full-year losses. To compound their misery, analysts say the consumer electronics sector is unlikely to mount a recovery until April next year at the earliest. US manufacturers have been forced to follow suit, with the computer giant Dell recently announcing the loss of 1,900 jobs over the next year at its plant in Ireland. The need to dramatically reduce costs was underlined by figures showing that Panasonic, the world's biggest maker of plasma televisions, posted a net loss of ¥63bn (£490m) for the October to December quarter compared with a profit of ¥115.2bn last year. The firm forecast losses of ¥380bn for the year to the end of March as a result of a slowdown in sales sparked by the financial crisis and a drop in orders for its range of factory equipment and manufacturing tools. The firm was predicting a profit of ¥30bn as recently as November. "Sales fell in all our business segments in the third quarter," Panasonic's director, Makoto Uenoyama, told reporters. "We expect sharper sales declines in this quarter, and profits are likely to shrink in every segment." Panasonic has also been hit by the dive in its share price, which has lost around 54% over the past 12 months. In addition, the yen's appreciation has eaten into earnings exports and handed an advantage to overseas rivals such as Samsung in South Korea. Panasonic said it hoped the measures would reduce costs by ¥100bn next year. Panasonic Global recession Japan Technology guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Poll points finger at Greenspan Poll points finger at Greenspan
02/04/2009
The people have spoken – and have named the guilty man. So step forward Alan Greenspan (left), the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, and take your bow as the chap most people blame for this fine financial mess we are in. Nearly a third of people (31.9%) who responded to a guardian.co.uk poll have pointed the finger at the man once dubbed "The Oracle" and at one time so revered by financial markets that a single utterance might prompt – to borrow a Greenspan phrase – an outbreak of "irrational exuberance". The committed free marketeer and staunch defender of derivatives is not alone in carrying the can in the eyes of those who responded – George W Bush and Gordon Brown have a lot to answer for too, as do the American public, who took on mortgages that they could never, ever afford to repay. They collected 16.7%, 14% and 11% of the vote respectively. The only other real villain of the piece, as assessed by the 8,500 people who cast their vote, was Icelandic premier, Geir Haarde (left), whose fellow countrymen seemed to concur and have now removed him from office. But that may be only be part of the story. Many of the readers who commented on the article in which I attempted to identify 25 people to blame for the global meltdown , reckon I got it all wrong. Badly wrong. It was, I am told, "shoddy reporting". For a start where were Thatcher, Bush Snr and Reagan, they asked? Well, those readers have a point, but the Thatcher/Reagan era seems so long ago, and there were so many other names to choose from, especially when you are limiting the list to just 25. Just as many readers wanted Blair in the line-up. They too, have a point. Then again, more than one respondent dismissed the lot of them as "minor players, every one", pointing their fingers instead at Milton Friedman, the grandaddy of monetarism. Unfortunately I missed him out as well. I also (stupidly, according to some respondents) blanked Russian-American novelist and screenwriter Ayn Rand (1905-1982) too, and her philosophy of objectivism – small government, laissez-faire capitalism. There were plenty of other suggestions for inclusion in the list of shame: the bankers who signed the Basle Accord (Basle 1), Von Hayek, Foxtons estate agency founder Jon Hunt, the Chicago school of Economics, the National Association of Realtors in the US, Hillary Clinton, "the shape-shifting alien reptiles from the lower fourth dimension" (something to do with David Icke), Peter Mandelson, the Rothschild banking dynasty, the Bilderberg group and "the entire government from the 1980s to the present day". I might have needed a little more space for that lot. For others, I was ignoring the obvious. "Don't forget all the financial journalists", said a comment from Reith . "Didn't notice them saying the sky was about to fall in". Reith should maybe read the back columns of the Guardian's economics editor Larry Elliott a little more often. The Reasoner needs to read a little more widely too. "How come no one every mentions the debt rating agencies to blame?", they enquire. Read on, Reasoner. Especially the words relating to Kathleen Corbet (left), former CEO, Standard & Poor's. There are some Americans that are clearly a little touchy about their part in this downturn. Nothingbettertodo , who was probably shouting as he composed his reply, says: "Excuse me. Why just the American public? Are we the ONLY greedy, irresponsible pigs on the planet? Last I heard, the British, Irish, French, and citizens of pretty much every country did just as we did – spend too much, buy houses we couldn't afford, and so on ... If this is really the way you folks over there see it, then I hope that the recovery passes you by, because clearly you don't need it." AlieninDC had not dissimilar thoughts: "I guess it was hoping for too much that the blatant anti-Americanism would have stopped with the inauguration. You blame the US public, who, I agree are responsible, but what about the UK public, who while watching property porn shows unlike anything broadcast in the US, taking out liar loans, and mortgage equity withdrawing to finance consumption, have driven up house prices to income multiples far in excess of those seen in the US market?" So much venom – if only Nothingbettertodo and AlieninDC had read to the end of the paragraph, to the bit where I wrote: "The British public got just as carried away. We are the credit junkies of Europe and many of our problems could easily have been avoided if we had been more sensible and just said no." Back in the actual poll, however, other familiar scapegoats are dismissed as mere bit part players. Who really thinks that Sir Fred Goodwin (left), now cast as the prince of darkness in British banking, had a big role in creating the current economic turmoil? He may have done some hugely expensive deals, he may have sanctioned some dodgy-looking loans running into billions, he may have brought a once world-class bank to its knees and now be under pressure to hand back his knighthood. But only 119 respondents to our poll reckon Goodwin was really bad. What about Dick Fuld (left), the Lehman Bros bank boss, who piled investors' money into property and raked in some $300m for the Fuld family coffers before presiding over the precipitous collapse of his bank? Surely he must share the blame for this global crisis? Er, no. In fact a rather measly 102 people blamed the man once affectionately known as The Gorilla. As for Adam Applegarth (left), the cricket-loving chap behind Northern Rock? Just 34 respondents, presumably angry Rock investors or former employees, wanted to pin the tail on that particular donkey. Credit crunch Global recession Global economy guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Creditors demand investigation over timi... Creditors demand investigation over timing of Woolworths collapse
02/03/2009
Angry creditors of Woolworths, Britain's biggest retailing failure, have demanded administrators investigate why the business was not declared bust sooner than the end of November. They were told at a creditors' meeting today that internal management forecasts had been projecting the 807 shops to make an operating loss of about £50m for the year to January 31 compared to a £4m profit for the previous year. Despite this internal forecast, last summer chairman Richard North rejected a bid approach led by Iceland food store founder Malcolm Walker reportedly worth "tens of millions" of pounds. Yesterday, Neville Kahn, joint administrator from Deloitte, said more than one creditor had asked why management had not declared the business bust sooner than November. Kahn told creditors he was required by law to look into directors' conduct prior to the business failing and to file a report on the subject with the department for business. In addition, he said, "we will feed back to creditors on the result of that investigation". Asked what difference calling in the administrators earlier might have made, Kahn said: "There would have been a different mix of creditors and, potentially, that would have given more time to sell the business." Kahn said it was now "highly unlikely" that unsecured creditors would receive any of £1.1bn owed to them by Woolworths retail stores or by the group's CD and DVD wholesaling arm Entertainment UK. Among secured creditors, six bank lenders, led by GMAC, are expected to receive in full £335m owed to them. Kahn said it remained unclear how much would then be available to pay next-in-line creditors — two unnamed hedge funds owed £40m — followed by £63m of secured credit due to the group's pension fund. In any event a payout to the pension fund, if it materialises, will pale in comparison to the fund's wind-up deficit, calculated at "more than £200m". The shortfall, which affects 9,000 former staff, is expected to be plugged only in part by the government's Pension Protection Fund in what could rank as one of its largest ever cash injections. Kahn expects between 200 and 300 of the group's stores to generate some modest return, though Woolworths owns the freehold on only a small number. Negotiations to sell those businesses not in administration — including publishing joint venture 2 Entertain — were ongoing. Meanwhile the administration of Entertainment UK has been mired by disputes over whether suppliers owned the rights to warehoused stock as well as rows over how much was owed to the wholesaling business by customers. Zavvi, formerly known as Virgin Megastore, was among the business's largest customers but it too has since gone bust . Woolworths Credit crunch Zavvi guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Buy the flat and we'll throw in a job Buy the flat and we'll throw in a job
02/03/2009
For young homebuyers facing the downturn, the offer from the Shanghai Sanxiang Co was unmissable. Buy a flat – and we'll give you a job to go with it. The developers, who have so far hired eight buyers, say the deal demonstrates their sense of social responsibility. Others think it says as much about the fear gripping the market as house prices in China tumble after soaring growth. Other Shanghai companies are slashing as much as 30% from the price of flats. British estate agents might wonder what the fuss is about. China's urban house prices fell 0.4% in December; the first year-on-year decline since records were first published in 2005, but hardly disastrous in the global context. Yet the headline rate disguises huge disparities within the market; while some cities in the centre and west of China are still enjoying growth, the "first-tier" cities such as Shanghai and Beijing have already been hit. Official estimates this week suggest that 20 million migrant workers have returned to the Chinese countryside from the big cities because of the economic downturn, reducing the demand for accommodation. The worst market of all is the export-led Pearl river delta; last month Shenzhen prices saw a drop of almost 18% year-on-year – and experts warn that things are going to get much worse. 'Sellers were not willing to come to the realisation that the market was changing, so they haven't dropped their prices significantly yet – but that's what we are starting to see in '09 and I think we will see further drops. "I'm sure it's going to be a difficult time for China over the next year, and therefore for the property market' James MacDonald The effects are beginning to be felt far beyond the glossy offices of developers: on empty building sites, in quiet factories, and in distant rural villages where families depend on the wages of migrant labourers. Tens of millions work in construction. Fewer house sales mean less demand for builders, materials, appliances and furniture – and a smaller chance of the government hitting its 8% growth target this year. According to Macquarie Securities, commercial, industrial and residential construction rose by more than 32% in 2007 and another 9% between January and September last year. But in October it fell by more than 16%. This year it will shrink another 30%, the firm predicted. Ma Jun, Deutsche Bank's chief economist for China, has warned that falling property prices would contribute to the worst deflation in a decade. Experts believe steep falls are inevitable because transaction volumes have plummeted, with a year-on-year drop in sales of about 20% for the first 11 months of last year. A report from the UK property consultancy DTZ Holdings this week said that unsold residential property in nine of China's biggest cities now totalled 38m square metres. James MacDonald, the Shanghai-based senior manager of China research for Savills, said: "Sellers were not willing to come to the realisation that the market was changing, so they haven't dropped their prices significantly yet – but that's what we are starting to see in '09 and I think we will see further drops. "I'm sure it's going to be a difficult time for China over the next year, and therefore for the property market." It is in stark contrast to the halcyon days of 2007, when prices went through the roof – rising by as much as 60% in fashionable areas of central Shanghai. Record growth and export values and chunky salary increases fuelled the market, and rising prices themselves drew more buyers in. Some saw property as a sure-fire way of making money, while others wanted to buy a home while they could still afford one. The government tried to rein back the market but the impact of its policies may have coincided with the start of the downturn, creating a bumpier landing than anticipated. More recently it has introduced measures to help purchasers, cutting property taxes and loosening mortgage policies for second-home buyers. Zhang Haiqing, of the real estate research centre at Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants, said it would take time to feel their effects, adding: "In the short term, the downturn will last and the prices will even keep dropping. In the middle of this year, we believe the market will become better again." Savill's MacDonald said he would "probably" predict an upturn late this year or in early 2010, depending on the state of the global economy. But no one expects a return to the frenzy of 2007. Developers draw faint hope from the likes of 40-year-old Li, a banker who splashed out on a second flat in Shanghai last month, in part because of the new incentives. "I thought about buying in August or September but I felt the price was higher than it should be, so I waited for a few months till it dropped another 10%. Then I figured it was the right time to buy," he said. "In Shenzhen, more people bought as an investment, but here people buy places to live in. In the long term I believe that Shanghai prices will go up again." Additional research by Chen Shi. Credit crunch Global recession China guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Ryanair: £30 charge if you can't fit dut... Ryanair: £30 charge if you can't fit duty free in your hand luggage
02/03/2009
It could be the most expensive bottle of asti spumante you'll ever buy. Ryanair has confirmed passengers will be charged £30 if they cannot fit their duty free purchases into their single piece of hand luggage. The low-cost carrier, which makes sizeable profits from its add-on fees, said it would make no exceptions to its carry-on bag allowance that limits passengers to one piece of luggage. Industry observers said the move could be a blow to the dozens of small airports around Europe that rely on retailing profits to subsidise their cut-price deals with Ryanair, which drives a hard bargain with any airport that takes its planes. Ryanair defended the charge, which it said "ensured fairness to all passengers". The airline was not the first carrier to enforce check-in fees and extra baggage charges, but it has pursued them vigorously to drive down baggage handling costs. A Ryanair spokesperson said the £30 charge was introduced to stop blatant flouting of hand luggage rules which, the airline claims, has seen one passenger attempt to board with five pieces of hand luggage. The Ryanair chief executive, Michael O'Leary , has admitted that the airline cannot eliminate hand luggage entirely but justifies the extra charges as "behavioural" because lower baggage handling costs would ultimately lead to lower fares. However, one industry consultant warned that regional airports might be damaged by the move. "It will dissuade people from buying duty free. It could impact airports that are dependent on people spending at their shops. You are eating into an airport's ability to generate revenues when low-cost carriers want lower fees from them," said Chris Tarry, chairman of the CTAIRA consultancy. Under the hand luggage rules, any passenger who attempts to board with more than one piece of hand lugage will be charged £30 at the departure gate. If they refuse to pay the extra fee, they have the option of dumping their purchases at the gate or missing their flight. The hand luggage weight limit is 10kg, with maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm. As well as duty free purchases, laptops and handbags will have to be contained in the single piece of hand luggage to avoid the fee. Ryanair Airline industry BAA Budget travel Travel & leisure Transport Consumer affairs guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• Johnny Rotten boosts butter sales Johnny Rotten boosts butter sales
02/03/2009
It has been one of the more unlikely celebrity endorsements; John Lydon, a member of the seminal punk band the Sex Pistols, advertising Country Life butter. But it appears to have worked. Dairy Crest today said the campaign, featuring a spiky-haired Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, dressed in tweeds , had helped lift sales of the brand by 85% in the most recent quarter. Lydon, once better known for sending chills down the spine of middle Englanders, now appears adept at sending them to the chiller cabinet. The performance of the brand helped to steady Dairy Crest after being forced to issue a profit warning in November . The business has been hit by spiralling milk prices, and sought to keep its costs down by laying off staff at its head office in Esher, Surrey. In an interim management statement, Dairy Crest said group sales for the nine months to the end of December had improved by 4% compared with the same period in the previous year. Another key brand, Cathedral City cheese, was also a strong performer, increasing sales by 14%. The company said it had also captured a larger share of the Marks & Spencer cheese business, which would improve results next year. Dairy Crest Sex Pistols Advertising guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• It's not hard to get tripped up by tax c... It's not hard to get tripped up by tax code
02/05/2009
No matter how hard “ordinary” taxpayers try to get it right, they're still vulnerable to getting tripped up by the extraordinary complexities of the tax code. (3 h ago)

• Bank of England cuts rates to record low Bank of England cuts rates to record low
02/05/2009
The Bank of England has cut its key interest rate by a further half percentage point to a new record low of 1 percent. (3 h ago)

• Report: Car suppliers want $20.5 billion Report: Car suppliers want $20.5 billion
02/05/2009
U.S. auto parts suppliers are asking for up to $20.5 billion in federal aid to survive the worst industry downturn in decades, the Automotive News reported Wednesday. (4 h ago)

• Koufax among those who invested with Mad... Koufax among those who invested with Madoff
02/04/2009
Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, a high school baseball teammate and friend of New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, was among the clients who lost money investing with Bernard Madoff, according to a court filing released Wednesday night. (8 h ago)

• China poised to be world’s largest auto ... China poised to be world’s largest auto market
02/04/2009
Two years ago, China zoomed past Japan to become the world's No. 2 vehicle market. (14 h ago)

• Obama imposes limits on executive pay Obama imposes limits on executive pay
02/04/2009
President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money. (14 h ago)

• Hunt on for loopholes in Obama exec pay ... Hunt on for loopholes in Obama exec pay caps
02/04/2009
The squeeze on big paydays for executives of bailed-out banks will probably leave Wall Street plenty of wiggle room. (16 h ago)

• Taxes, nannies bane of presidential nomi... Taxes, nannies bane of presidential nominees
02/04/2009
Since 1993, unpaid taxes and immigration violations have sunk more than a few presidential nominees. But some have survived to take office anyway. (16 h ago)

• Naming a stadium: Frivolous, or good mar... Naming a stadium: Frivolous, or good marketing?
02/04/2009
When the economy was healthy, no one batted an eye at Citigroup's deal t to spend millions of dollars to put its name on the Mets' new stadium. But now the idea is being hammered. (16 h ago)

• Companies turn to lobbyists to fight pay... Companies turn to lobbyists to fight pay curbs
02/04/2009
The country's largest corporations have turned to a group of seasoned lobbyists to fend off strict new limits on corporate honchos' pay. (17 h ago)

• Economic fears are snuffing out smoking ... Economic fears are snuffing out smoking bans
02/04/2009
In this economy, lawmakers are more willing to let people smoke 'em if they got 'em. (17 h ago)

• Circuit City ripples go beyond vacancies... Circuit City ripples go beyond vacancies, layoffs
02/04/2009
Circuit City will finally flicker out when its last 567 stores close this year, but the bankruptcy of the nation's second-largest electronics retailer will ripple across the U.S. economy for years. (18 h ago)

• 162-year-old Necco has change of heart 162-year-old Necco has change of heart
02/04/2009
Necco , the maker of Sweethearts — a Valentine's Days staple — and other treats says now is the perfect time to broaden its offerings, despite the recession and saturated candy market. (18 h ago)

• Interactive: Green industries in Obama p... Interactive: Green industries in Obama plan
02/04/2009
President Barack Obama has big plans to help curb our dependence on foreign oil and clean up the environment, and that should mean good things for a host of green industries. (18 h ago)

• Lawmakers clash with SEC over Madoff pro... Lawmakers clash with SEC over Madoff probe
02/04/2009
House lawmakers accused the SEC of impeding their probe into how the agency failed to uncover the alleged $50 billion fraud perpetrated by Bernard Madoff. (20 h ago)

• Squeezed by rising costs, grocers fight ... Squeezed by rising costs, grocers fight back
02/04/2009
Nearly every food staple has seen double-digit price increases over the past year, some of it due to skyrocketing energy costs. Now, grocers are fighting back. (21 h ago)

• Canceling Vegas trip may cost Wells Farg... Canceling Vegas trip may cost Wells Fargo
02/04/2009
Wells Fargo & Co. is likely on the hook for hefty cancellation fees after abruptly scrapping its upcoming retreats to Las Vegas casinos. (22 h ago)

• Interactive: Obama’s green dreams Interactive: Obama’s green dreams
02/04/2009
President Barack Obama has big plans to help curb our dependence on foreign oil and clean up the environment, and that should mean good things for a host of green industries. (18 h ago)

• BofA to sell 3 corporate jets, Merrill h... BofA to sell 3 corporate jets, Merrill helicopter
02/04/2009
Bank of America is selling some of its corporate aircraft fleet as the bank looks to scale back costs amid widespread criticism of lavish spending at financial companies. (19 h ago)

• About $950 million from Madoff recovered About $950 million from Madoff recovered
02/04/2009
A trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's investment firm has told a federal judge that nearly $950 million in cash and securities has been recovered for investors. (20 h ago)

• Postal Service is investigating Amazon.c... Postal Service is investigating Amazon.com
02/04/2009
Amazon is being investigated by the U.S. Postal Service, the online retailer disclosed in the annual report it recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (21 h ago)

• 'Peanut town' worries about economic fut... 'Peanut town' worries about economic future
02/03/2009
As the nationwide salmonella outbreak spreads, Blakely — the self-proclaimed “Peanut Capital of the World” — has found itself defending the peanut, not celebrating it. (1 d ago)

• GM to offer buyouts to all hourly employ... GM to offer buyouts to all hourly employees
02/03/2009
General Motors Corp. says it will offer buyouts to all of its hourly employees as the troubled automaker continues to slash costs. (1 d ago)

• Rebuilding America's job machine Rebuilding America's job machine
02/03/2009
Industrial policy isn't dead. It's thriving in the states — and may be the start of a U.S. comeback strategy (2 d ago)

• A value meal at Starbucks? Coming right ... A value meal at Starbucks? Coming right up
02/03/2009
As the dismal economy slurps up profits, Starbucks Corp. is hoping to find some sales salvation in its own value meal variety. (2 d ago)

• Feds may limit pay at banks that get aid Feds may limit pay at banks that get aid
02/03/2009
Administration officials said executive pay limits for banks that take bailout money could be announced this week. (2 d ago)

• Bailout Bank Pay Caps Leave Wiggle Room Bailout Bank Pay Caps Leave Wiggle Room
02/05/2009
Consultants on executive pay say the caps imposed by President Obama probably apply only to a few executives - not star traders, brokers and salespeople who routinely earn whopping pay packages. (4 h ago)

• Court Documents Reveal Madoff Client Lis... Court Documents Reveal Madoff Client List
02/04/2009
The names of several thousand clients who lost money investing with Bernard Madoff have been released in a court filing that reads like a Who's Who: baseball great Sandy Koufax, actor Kevin Bacon and even Madoff's defense lawyer. (12 h ago)

• Lawmaker: SEC Impeding Madoff Probe Lawmaker: SEC Impeding Madoff Probe
02/04/2009
A key House lawmaker is telling top Securities and Exchange Commission officials that the agency is failing to cooperate with a committee probe into its failure to uncover the alleged $50 billion Bernard Madoff fraud. (18 h ago)

• Liquidation Sale Caution Flags Liquidation Sale Caution Flags
02/04/2009
There are many deals to be had at such events, but you also have to beware being ripped off, Vera Gibbons warns. (21 h ago)

• Citigroup Ballpark Naming Deal Denounced Citigroup Ballpark Naming Deal Denounced
02/04/2009
A 2006, $400 million agreement for the bank, which has since been bailed out, to buy naming rights to the New York Mets' new home may be scrapped, reports say. (23 h ago)

• Panasonic To Slash 15,000 Global Jobs Panasonic To Slash 15,000 Global Jobs
02/04/2009
Panasonic Corp. says it will slash 15,000 jobs and shut down 27 plants worldwide to cope with plunging demand for its TVs, semiconductors and other electronics products. (1 d ago)

• Bailed-Out Bank Nixes Lavish Vegas Junke... Bailed-Out Bank Nixes Lavish Vegas Junket
02/03/2009
Wells Fargo & Co. is canceling a pricey Las Vegas casino junket for employees after a torrent of criticism that it was misusing $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money. (1 d ago)

• GM Sales Plunge 49%; Ford Down 40% GM Sales Plunge 49%; Ford Down 40%
02/03/2009
Ford Motor Co. says its U.S. sales fell 40 percent in January, starting 2009 at an abysmal pace for the automaker and the industry. Japanese rival Toyota posted a 32 percent drop for the month but managed to outsell Ford. (1 d ago)

• Bank Failures Will Cost FDIC $40 Billion Bank Failures Will Cost FDIC $40 Billion
02/03/2009
Federal regulators now believe U.S. bank failures will cost the deposit insurance fund more than $40 billion over the next four years as the economy weakens. (1 d ago)

• Treasury Doles Out Another $1.15B To Ban... Treasury Doles Out Another $1.15B To Banks
02/03/2009
The Treasury Department says it has provided $1.15 billion to 42 banks in new payments from the government's $700 billion financial rescue fund. (1 d ago)

• GM, Chrysler Offer More Buyouts GM, Chrysler Offer More Buyouts
02/03/2009
General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are offering blue-collar employees another round of buyout and early retirement offers as the automakers try to cut their work forces and reduce expenses. (1 d ago)

• China: Up To 26M Migrants Now Jobless China: Up To 26M Migrants Now Jobless
02/02/2009
An estimated 26 million desperately poor rural Chinese are jobless after pinning their hopes on factory jobs that dried up. An official said widespread unemployment could threaten the country's social stability. (2 d ago)

• Super Bowl Ads Hits & Misses Super Bowl Ads Hits & Misses
02/02/2009
A lot of people tuned into the Super Bowl last night just to see the commercials. A Doritos ad was the hands-down fan favorite according to a "USA Today" consumer opinion poll. (2 d ago)

• Americans Are Saving More, Spending Less Americans Are Saving More, Spending Less
02/02/2009
Americans' savings rate as a percentage of after-tax incomes rose to 2.9 percent in the last three months of 2008. The Commerce Department also reported consumer spending fell for a record sixth straight month in December. (3 d ago)

• Bailout Banks Sought More Foreign Worker... Bailout Banks Sought More Foreign Workers
02/02/2009
Even as the economy collapsed last year and many financial workers found themselves unemployed, the dozen U.S. banks now receiving the biggest bailouts requested visas for tens of thousands of foreign workers to fill high-paying jobs. (3 d ago)

• Citing Write-Down, Time Warner Posts Los... Citing Write-Down, Time Warner Posts Loss and Forecasts Flat Year
02/04/2009
The media company reported a fourth-quarter loss, hurt by a $24.2 billion write-down for its cable, publishing and AOL assets. (10 h ago)

• Switch to Digital TV Wins a Delay to Jun... Switch to Digital TV Wins a Delay to June 12
02/04/2009
Television owners will have four more months to upgrade old sets before they will no longer receive analog signals. (10 h ago)

• Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Stud... Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios
02/04/2009
Widely available broadband access and new streaming sites have made it easy to watch pirated video online. (10 h ago)

• Advertising: Hyundai, Using a Safety Net... Advertising: Hyundai, Using a Safety Net, Wins Market Share
02/04/2009
The company’s new marketing strategy promises to let buyers return their vehicles if they lose their jobs. (10 h ago)

• Disney Plans to Cut Costs and Release Fe... Disney Plans to Cut Costs and Release Fewer DVDs
02/04/2009
The global slowdown took a toll on DVD and television ad sales, but marketing promotions helped the company avoid dramatic declines at its theme parks. (12 h ago)

• Advertising: In Campaign Wars, Apple Sti... Advertising: In Campaign Wars, Apple Still Has Microsoft’s Number
02/04/2009
While other technology companies curtail their ad budgets, Apple has increased marketing and advertising, hammering away at its major competitor. (17 h ago)

• Screen Actors Guild Takes Its Feud to Co... Screen Actors Guild Takes Its Feud to Court
02/04/2009
An internal feud among the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild spilled into court on Tuesday. (20 h ago)

• Magazines Aimed at Bankers Shut Down Magazines Aimed at Bankers Shut Down
02/04/2009
Boom times have dried up at Doubledown Media, which chronicled lavish lives in magazines like Trader Monthly and Dealmaker. (1 d ago)

• IAC Was Profitable in 4th Quarter IAC Was Profitable in 4th Quarter
02/03/2009
IAC/InterActiveCorp said Tuesday that it swung to a fourth-quarter profit, but its adjusted earnings and revenue missed analysts’ expectations. (1 d ago)

• Executive Is Leaving CNBC News Executive Is Leaving CNBC News
02/03/2009
Jonathan Wald, the senior news executive at CNBC said Tuesday that he would leave the job next month, in the midst of one of the biggest stories in the channel’s history. (1 d ago)

• Big Audience, but Not the Biggest Big Audience, but Not the Biggest
02/02/2009
Pittsburgh’s 27-23 win over Arizona in the Super Bowl on NBC attracted average viewership of 95.4 million, the second most for the game after last year’s 97.5 million for the Giants’ upset over New England. (2 d ago)

• Advertising: Close Super Bowl Helps Late... Advertising: Close Super Bowl Helps Late-Game Spots
02/02/2009
The commercials that NBC broadcast during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl fared well in many postgame polls and surveys. (2 d ago)

• The Media Equation: When Even Condé Nast... The Media Equation: When Even Condé Nast Is in Retreat
02/02/2009
The recent closing of Domino magazine shows that even Condé Nast’s legendary patience to turn a profit is now meeting the pull of economic gravity. (2 d ago)

• Advertising: Ads That Pushed Our Usual (... Advertising: Ads That Pushed Our Usual (Well-Worn) Buttons
02/02/2009
Few of the commercials during Super Bowl XLIII offered anything special. (3 d ago)

• One Fewer Credit Score Accessible to Con... One Fewer Credit Score Accessible to Consumers
02/04/2009
As of Feb. 14, consumers will not be able to see credit scores based on data from Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus. (9 h ago)

• Critic’s Notebook: Restaurants Stop Play... Critic’s Notebook: Restaurants Stop Playing Hard to Get
02/04/2009
From left: Mario Batali of Del Posto, Sirio Maccioni of Le Cirque and Jean-Georges Vongerichten of Perry St., Nougatine and Matsugen really really want you to visit.Restaurants in New York are talking sweet and reaching out in ways they didn’t six or even three months ago. (15 h ago)

• U.S. Plans $500,000 Cap on Executive Pay... U.S. Plans $500,000 Cap on Executive Pay in Bailouts
02/04/2009
The new rules come amid public anger about huge pay packages at financial companies being propped up by federal tax dollars. (19 h ago)

• Health Insurance: What You Need to Know Health Insurance: What You Need to Know
02/04/2009
With Americans spending an ever increasing amount on medical costs, it’s more important than ever to have insurance that fits your health care needs. (23 h ago)

• Your Money: How to Avoid a Tom Daschle T... Your Money: How to Avoid a Tom Daschle Tax Problem
02/04/2009
Tax problems brought down two of President Obama’s nominees on Tuesday. So what sort of mess is lurking in your return? (1 d ago)

• Consumers Are Saving More and Spending L... Consumers Are Saving More and Spending Less
02/04/2009
Economic data released on Monday shows consumers and businesses embarking on an era of thrift as the recession deepens. (1 d ago)

• Income Taxes: What You Need to Know Income Taxes: What You Need to Know
02/03/2009
When it comes to income taxes, there are different types of people. (2 d ago)

• Patient Money: Making the Most of Flexib... Patient Money: Making the Most of Flexible Spending Accounts
02/02/2009
Flexible spending accounts offer a tax break and can stretch health care dollars, if used wisely. (2 d ago)

• Shortcuts: The Popular Practice of Putti... Shortcuts: The Popular Practice of Putting Stuff Off
02/02/2009
There’s a little procrastinator in all of us, but delaying some tasks can be costly. (2 d ago)

• For Home Buyers, More Bank Roadblocks For Home Buyers, More Bank Roadblocks
02/02/2009
Norman Calvo, the president of Universal Mortgage, says banks are now requiring documentation from buildings as well as home buyers.Many banks are refusing to make loans if they don’t like what they find when they review the finances and bylaws of the building where the purchaser hopes to live. (2 d ago)

• Fundamentally: It’s a Great Time for a M... Fundamentally: It’s a Great Time for a Makeover
02/02/2009
Some planners say the bear market has given investors a rare opportunity: they can completely refashion their portfolios with little or no tax consequence. (2 d ago)

• Farmers go low-tech to grow in winter Farmers go low-tech to grow in winter
02/04/2009
Farmers in Michigan are stretching their growing season -- and their profits -- into winter by using a relatively simple set-up called a hoop house. Lou Blouin reports. (20 h ago)

• Is stimulus a short or long-term fix? Is stimulus a short or long-term fix?
02/04/2009
There are lots of questions about whether President Obama's stimulus is the right fix for our economy right now or if it's intended for recovery in the long run. Diane Lim Rogers discusses the short and long-term of the stimulus with Kai Ryssdal. (20 h ago)

• Let's get expert review of stimulus plan Let's get expert review of stimulus plan
02/04/2009
The Senate is debating President Obama's stimulus package, and many lawmakers are adding to the price tag. Commentator David Frum thinks we should enlist top economists to tell us what we're spending -- or wasting -- our money on. (20 h ago)

• Robotics revolutionizes war Robotics revolutionizes war
02/04/2009
Robotics and other technologies have had a big impact on how war is waged. Kai Ryssdal speaks with warfare expert P.W. Singer about how technology is revolutionizing war on and off the battlefield. (20 h ago)

• Music industry juggernauts may merge Music industry juggernauts may merge
02/04/2009
If reported merger talks between Live Nation and Ticketmaster come to fruition, the new company could centralize power in the music industry and potentially drown out competition. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports. (20 h ago)

• Treasury adds 7-year note to pay debt Treasury adds 7-year note to pay debt
02/04/2009
The Treasury Department is bringing back the 7-year note to help with the rising deficit. It's also considering creating other unusual maturities. Why? Dan Grech reports. (20 h ago)

• Obama puts salary cap on bailout execs Obama puts salary cap on bailout execs
02/04/2009
President Obama has capped pay at $500,000 for CEOs of companies that receive bailout money from the government. But there's less to the salary caps than you might think. John Dimsdale reports. (20 h ago)

• Madoff tipster blasts SEC for ineptitude Madoff tipster blasts SEC for ineptitude
02/04/2009
Fraud investigator Harry Markopolos blasted the Securities and Exchange Commission before a House subcommittee for not heeding his warnings about Bernard Madoff for a decade. Now lawmakers are considering what to do about the regulatory agency. Jeremy Hobson reports. (20 h ago)

• Panetta's conflicts of interest Panetta's conflicts of interest
02/05/2009
The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, is risking enormous potential conflicts of interest with The Wall Street Journal reporting this guy earned... (5 h ago)

• Dick Cheney on the economy Dick Cheney on the economy
02/05/2009
Probably the best testimony of the Bush administration's handling of financial markets, check this interview with ex-Veep Dick Cheney in politico.com.After his ranting about the US being in... (6 h ago)

• Madoff madness Madoff madness
02/04/2009
Much has been said about the Securities and Exchange Commission's incompetence over fraudster Bernard Madoff and why it ignored all the red flags. Now whistleblower Harry Markopoulos, who warned... (1 d ago)

• US auto sales continue to shrink US auto sales continue to shrink
02/04/2009
US automakers are in serious trouble with the Financial Times reporting that China has overtaken the US in car sales. According to the FT, annualised US car sales slipped below 10 million last month... (1 d ago)

• Bank bailout failure Bank bailout failure
02/03/2009
If nothing else, the latest events are showing us that Bush's bank bailout strategy was a complete and absolute failure.First, we had the reports last week of four banks closing in January. The... (2 d ago)

• Global crisis creating turmoil Global crisis creating turmoil
02/03/2009
Last week, I did a blog entry looking at whether the riots in Paris would spread around the world. Will the economic meltdown create urban unrest and violence?Apparently it's happening right now.... (2 d ago)

• Citigroup greed Citigroup greed
02/02/2009
Citigroup has been in all sorts of strife since receivign a taxpayer funded $45 billion cash injection to keep the wolves from the door.At the end of last month, the world's biggest bank had to... (3 d ago)

• Does Sarbanes-Oxley mean audit offshorin... Does Sarbanes-Oxley mean audit offshoring?
02/02/2009
Offshoring has become more prevalent in recent years. Most firms send part of their operations to cheaper places overseas.But offshoring of audit functions is becoming more popular and, according to... (3 d ago)

• ConsumerMan: Car buyers get some help ConsumerMan: Car buyers get some help
02/04/2009
In 1992, Congress ordered the Department of Justice to create a database to track if a vehicle was ever totaled or stolen . Believe it or not, that system finally went on line last week. (17 h ago)

Business

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Entertainment

This is abundant, look forward to looking into ea...
John gogs :: 12/28/2009

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?...
CocoChanels :: 07/03/2009

Hi, my friends!! I want to get program XRumer 5.0 ...
MagicOPromotion :: 05/03/2009

Where is this money coming from except from the mo...
carl allen :: 04/11/2009

out of control
staystrong :: 02/23/2009

The poor thing! Once so high and mighty and far ab...
leaf :: 02/22/2009

It always amazed me how eagerly people flocked to ...
David :: 12/23/2008

• Save Money by Reducing Your Debt Save Money by Reducing Your Debt
02/04/2009
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 4778353 It is very difficult to reduce debt when money is tight. This is something that needs to be done when you have a good flow of currency. Most of us will... (10 h ago)

• 5 More Ways to Save on Heating Bills 5 More Ways to Save on Heating Bills
02/03/2009
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 278370 While I have already given you a number of tips about saving money on heating, I would like to give you a couple more. Once again, these tips are rather... (2 d ago)

• More Tips to Help You Save On Heating ... More Tips to Help You Save On Heating Costs
02/02/2009
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 6284593 With so many people laid off of work and having a hard time getting by, high heating costs is something you can do without. Most of these tips are rather... (2 d ago)

• Resilient in Hard Times: The Family Busi... Resilient in Hard Times: The Family Business
02/04/2009
After a few generations, memories of other downturns can inspire frugality and steadfastness. (10 h ago)

• Small Payroll, but Big Woes on Insurance Small Payroll, but Big Woes on Insurance
02/03/2009
The recession has accelerated the pressure on small-business owners to cut employee health coverage. (2 d ago)

• Tool Kit: Lessons Learned From Hard Time... Tool Kit: Lessons Learned From Hard Times Past
02/02/2009
Entrepreneurs say that it is even more important to keep learning and to strengthen relationships when the economy is in a downturn. (2 d ago)

• Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs, shut 27 pl... Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs, shut 27 plants
02/04/2009
Panasonic Corp. said Wednesday it will slash 15,000 jobs and shut down 27 plants worldwide to cope with plunging demand for its TVs, semiconductors and other electronics products. (23 h ago)

• Russian Investments and Hedge Funds Russian Investments and Hedge Funds
02/03/2009
The 11 year period of January 1998 through December 2008, which encompasses two market meltdowns and many other mini-crises, the Pharos Russia Fund has returned a total of 100.33%, against a gain of... (2 d ago)

• Credis Suisse sheds light on hedge fund ... Credis Suisse sheds light on hedge fund failure
02/02/2009
Credit Suisse Tremont Index LLC released a new research piece, 'One for the History Books: Hedge Fund Performance in 2008′, a review of the factors which contributed to hedge funds' dismal... (3 d ago)

• If banks start lending again, will it he... If banks start lending again, will it help?
02/04/2009
Your Biz blog: Everyone is holding their breath and waiting for banks and other lenders to re-open their money spigots. But for many small businesses the funds may be too little, too late. (20 h ago)

• Answer Desk: Small business bailout? Answer Desk: Small business bailout?
02/02/2009
Small business owners are wondering: is there anything in this bailout that's going to help me? The answer, unfortunately, is: not much. The Answer Desk. (3 d ago)

• 20 Bootstrapping Tips 20 Bootstrapping Tips
02/04/2009
Evan Carmichael has a good piece today that looks at ways you can bootstrap. What it amounts to is 20 tips for succeeding as a bootstrapper. The tips are basic: Hire people on a part time... (23 h ago)

• BP, Dominion Power Look to Bring Windmil... BP, Dominion Power Look to Bring Windmills to Bluefield
02/04/2009
I attended a public hearing last night. Tazewell County, Virginia is considering an ordinance to regulate the construction of "tall structures" on ridge lines in the Central Appalachian... (13 h ago)

• Despite the economy, Uncle Sam is hiring Despite the economy, Uncle Sam is hiring
02/02/2009
The economic downturn has forced private industry and state and local government to shed jobs, but one major employer in the country is hiring: The federal government. (2 d ago)

• Stocks Are Mixed as Market Is Gripped b... Stocks Are Mixed as Market Is Gripped by 'Legislative Paralysis'
02/02/2009
NEW YORK, Feb. 2 -- Investors worried about the recession have turned to a strategy of cherry-picking stocks -- on Monday sending tech shares higher and industrials lower. (2 d ago)