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Global growth will be very weak next year, a senior European banker warned on Tuesday, and loans to companies and household in the euro zone stagnated, raising new concerns about the extent of the credit crunch.
Japan was reported to be considering a $110 billion scheme to buy bad loans from banks, the latest in […]
Filed under: technology by Wolf
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It seems so easy in the IBM commercial. An underling explains to her pessimistic boss how their company will save millions of dollars with "green" technology.
"Where do I sign?" he asks, as happy music erupts and cartoon animals dance across the screen.
What the ad never mentions is the money he’s going to […]
Filed under: news by Wolf
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U.S. retailers’ sales fell as much as 4 percent during the holiday season, as the weak economy and bad weather created one of the worst holiday shopping climates in modern times, according to data released on Thursday by SpendingPulse.
The figures, from the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors, show the 2008 holiday shopping season […]
Filed under: business by Wolf
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Thousands more Missourians have had their natural-gas service shut off for nonpayment this year than in previous years, another sign of a faltering economy that’s left hundreds of thousands across the state without jobs and cost some residents their homes.
Statewide, more than 200,000 natural-gas customers were disconnected for nonpayment through October, according to […]
Filed under: legal by Wolf
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The U.S. Treasury Department’s appeal on Friday for the final $350 billion of a market bailout fund could finally push administration officials to finance a broad mortgage modification plan endorsed by a senior bank regulator.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair’s plan to spur mortgage modifications with a government promise to share the costs […]
Filed under: money by Wolf
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Pension funds and other big investors in commodities are reassessing strategies for 2009 after their huge buildup in commodity index exposure this year backfired as underlying raw material prices imploded.
Institutional investors in commodities have thus far stuck to “long-only” futures indexes, which principally make them buyers of commodities, not sellers. This worked wonders when […]
Filed under: term by Wolf
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NEW YORK — A federal judge on Monday threw a lifesaver to investors who may have been duped in one of Wall Street’s biggest alleged frauds, saying they need the protection of a special government reserve fund set up to help investors at failed brokerage firms.
U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton ordered that […]
Filed under: online by Wolf
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Royal Bank of Scotland, Man Group and Nomura on Monday joined a growing list of financial groups acknowledging exposure to the alleged $50 billion fraud surrounding Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff.
A report in the Financial Times said HSBC Holdings Plc had emerged as one of the largest victims, with potential exposure of about $1 […]
Filed under: money by Wolf
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A dramatic fall in Chinese exports underlined the weakness of the global economy on Wednesday and miner Rio Tinto joined a growing list of companies cutting jobs in response to the sharp downturn.
Exports from China shrunk 2.2 percent year-on-year in November, the largest drop since 1999. Imports tumbled almost 18 percent, the biggest fall […]
Filed under: technology by Wolf
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Add another economic worry to inflation and deflation: ecoflation, the rising cost of doing business in a world with a changing climate.
Ecoflation could hit consumer goods hard in the next five to 10 years, according to a report by World Resources Institute and A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm.
Companies that make fast-moving consumer […]
Filed under: finance by Wolf
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