Lord Mandelson has urged the banking sector to show "restraint" on pay, amid government estimates that 5,000 City bankers will earn more than £1m this year.The business secretary called on all banks to avoid excessive payouts to senior staff, when quizzed this morning on the ongoing row about Royal Bank of Scotland's bonus pool."I think it's banking practice, not only in this country but around the world, for these bonuses to form an integral part of the salary structures of those they employ at senior level," Mandelson told BBC Radio 4."But equally we believe that there has to be restraint exercised by these banks."
Lord Mandelson has urged the banking sector to show "restraint" on pay, amid government estimates that 5,000 City bankers will earn more than £1m this year.
The business secretary called on all banks to avoid excessive payouts to senior staff, when quizzed this morning on the ongoing row about Royal Bank of Scotland's bonus pool.
"I think it's banking practice, not only in this country but around the world, for these bonuses to form an integral part of the salary structures of those they employ at senior level," Mandelson told BBC Radio 4.
"But equally we believe that there has to be restraint exercised by these banks."
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown moved to allay fears of a mass walk out by the board of Royal Bank of Scotland, saying it would not be singled out for unduly harsh treatment over bonuses. In a rare move by politicians to calm the global backlash against big payouts to bankers, Brown said nobody was being "discriminated against" while his business secretary Peter Mandelson said he understood the concerns of RBS directors.
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown moved to allay fears of a mass walk out by the board of Royal Bank of Scotland, saying it would not be singled out for unduly harsh treatment over bonuses.
In a rare move by politicians to calm the global backlash against big payouts to bankers, Brown said nobody was being "discriminated against" while his business secretary Peter Mandelson said he understood the concerns of RBS directors.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU member states hammered out a compromise deal on Wednesday (2 December) that will see three new European supervisory authorities watch over the region's financial sector. In a bid for greater pan-European oversight, authorities in the banking, insurance and securities sectors will be set up in London, Paris and Frankfurt. The decision - coming after five hours of laborious negotiation - is an important part of the EU's response to the financial crisis that saw the region plunged into its worst recession since World War II. Finance ministers meeting in Brussels agreed on a complex appeals mechanism as part of the political accord, designed to assuage UK fears that the new bodies could overly infringe on areas of national sovereignty.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU member states hammered out a compromise deal on Wednesday (2 December) that will see three new European supervisory authorities watch over the region's financial sector.
In a bid for greater pan-European oversight, authorities in the banking, insurance and securities sectors will be set up in London, Paris and Frankfurt.
The decision - coming after five hours of laborious negotiation - is an important part of the EU's response to the financial crisis that saw the region plunged into its worst recession since World War II.
Finance ministers meeting in Brussels agreed on a complex appeals mechanism as part of the political accord, designed to assuage UK fears that the new bodies could overly infringe on areas of national sovereignty.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission pushed ahead with a formal proposal to extend tariffs on certain Asian shoe imports on Wednesday (2 December), amid new signs that member states are likely to support the measure in a vote later this month. The move was overseen by the commission's current stand-in trade chief Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who has temporarily taken over the commerce reigns until a new EU executive is up and running early next year.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission pushed ahead with a formal proposal to extend tariffs on certain Asian shoe imports on Wednesday (2 December), amid new signs that member states are likely to support the measure in a vote later this month.
The move was overseen by the commission's current stand-in trade chief Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who has temporarily taken over the commerce reigns until a new EU executive is up and running early next year.
Tourists were shunned from the Louvre museum and other French tourist sites on Thursday, as striking staff voiced their opposition to job cuts in the public sector.AFP - Striking staff shut down the Louvre museum and other French tourist sites on Thursday, cranking up their fight against public sector job cuts just as Paris prepares for the Christmas holiday season. Strikers blocked the entrance to the Louvre, turning tourists away as Wednesday's strike in other venues spread to one of the capital's biggest attractions, whose art masterpieces draw eight million visitors a year. The action also closed popular monuments including Notre Dame cathedral, the Sainte Chapelle -- a 13th-century chapel in the heart of Paris -- and the Arc de Triomphe war memorial, said the National Monuments Centre that runs them.
AFP - Striking staff shut down the Louvre museum and other French tourist sites on Thursday, cranking up their fight against public sector job cuts just as Paris prepares for the Christmas holiday season. Strikers blocked the entrance to the Louvre, turning tourists away as Wednesday's strike in other venues spread to one of the capital's biggest attractions, whose art masterpieces draw eight million visitors a year. The action also closed popular monuments including Notre Dame cathedral, the Sainte Chapelle -- a 13th-century chapel in the heart of Paris -- and the Arc de Triomphe war memorial, said the National Monuments Centre that runs them.
Here's a great chart from Reuters showing just how addicted many countries in emerging Europe have become to borrowing in foreign currency for everything from second homes to TV sets :
As Reuters notes, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is concerned that despite FX loans nearly blowing out the region earlier this year, most countries and institutions have failed to learn anything from the episode. In fact FX borrowing is supposedly back on the rise in many emerging European countries as talk of recovery propels many to take a more positive view on things like euro adoption.
Latvia's central bank said Wednesday that its economy will have lost over a third of its value over the past two years due to the recession. The Bank of Latvia wrote in its macroeconomics report that compared with the fourth quarter of 2007, when Latvia's four-year boom peaked, gross domestic product would fall 37 percent. The size of Latvia's economy will return to the level of 2004 -- the year it joined the European Union -- due to the crisis, the bank said. For four years after membership, Latvia boasted the hottest economy in the EU, only to see it enter a freefall in the beginning of 2008 -- as the global financial crisis began.
The Bank of Latvia wrote in its macroeconomics report that compared with the fourth quarter of 2007, when Latvia's four-year boom peaked, gross domestic product would fall 37 percent.
The size of Latvia's economy will return to the level of 2004 -- the year it joined the European Union -- due to the crisis, the bank said.
For four years after membership, Latvia boasted the hottest economy in the EU, only to see it enter a freefall in the beginning of 2008 -- as the global financial crisis began.
Did we really trust the "hottest" economies?
In local Baltic news, kidney donation is on the rise there.
Obama said chronic unemployment is "a struggle that cuts deep and touches people across the nation." Seeking to set a can-do tone, he claimed progress has been made toward an economic recovery since the depths of the recession last winter, while saying much more work needs to be done. Obama said the leading question of the day is "how do we get businesses to start hiring again" and asked his guests to "bring their A-game."
Seeking to set a can-do tone, he claimed progress has been made toward an economic recovery since the depths of the recession last winter, while saying much more work needs to be done.
Obama said the leading question of the day is "how do we get businesses to start hiring again" and asked his guests to "bring their A-game."
In a momentous shift in the balance of power of the entertainment industry, cable television giant Comcast Corp. announced this morning that it was acquiring control of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. The proposed $30-billion transaction is the fruition of a longtime ambition by Comcast's 50-year-old chief executive, Brian Roberts, to recast his family-controlled Philadelphia company into a leading producer of movies and television shows and a purveyor of prominent cable and broadcast networks, including the venerable NBC. Under terms of the deal, Comcast will contribute its entertainment channels, including E and Versus; nine regional sports networks; and about $6.5 billion in cash in exchange for 51% of the new venture, which will continue to be called NBC Universal for the immediate future. The deal underscores how cable television -- not a broadcast network or a Hollywood movie studio -- has become the new profit center for media conglomerates. GE, which has owned the NBC network for 23 years, will reduce its ownership in the company to 49%. The deal sets up GE for a gradual exit from the entertainment business, granting Comcast the right to buy out GE's interest within eight years. GE placed a value of $30 billion on its NBC Universal businesses.
The proposed $30-billion transaction is the fruition of a longtime ambition by Comcast's 50-year-old chief executive, Brian Roberts, to recast his family-controlled Philadelphia company into a leading producer of movies and television shows and a purveyor of prominent cable and broadcast networks, including the venerable NBC.
Under terms of the deal, Comcast will contribute its entertainment channels, including E and Versus; nine regional sports networks; and about $6.5 billion in cash in exchange for 51% of the new venture, which will continue to be called NBC Universal for the immediate future.
The deal underscores how cable television -- not a broadcast network or a Hollywood movie studio -- has become the new profit center for media conglomerates.
GE, which has owned the NBC network for 23 years, will reduce its ownership in the company to 49%. The deal sets up GE for a gradual exit from the entertainment business, granting Comcast the right to buy out GE's interest within eight years. GE placed a value of $30 billion on its NBC Universal businesses.
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's government has no plan to sell some of its holdings of U.S. Treasuries to fund its economic programs, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said. Market News yesterday reported speculation that Japan, the world's second-largest holder of Treasury debt, will tell the U.S. it plans to sell $100 billion to finance domestic spending. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is set to announce his first stimulus package today, and has said he won't increase domestic bond sales to fund it because of record government debt. "There's absolutely no such plan right now," Hirano told reporters today in Tokyo. "That kind of talk often surfaces at this season." Japan bought $20.3 billion in Treasuries in September to raise its holdings to $751.5 billion, while China purchased $1.8 billion to increase its total to $798.9 billion, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Nov. 17.
Market News yesterday reported speculation that Japan, the world's second-largest holder of Treasury debt, will tell the U.S. it plans to sell $100 billion to finance domestic spending. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is set to announce his first stimulus package today, and has said he won't increase domestic bond sales to fund it because of record government debt.
"There's absolutely no such plan right now," Hirano told reporters today in Tokyo. "That kind of talk often surfaces at this season."
Japan bought $20.3 billion in Treasuries in September to raise its holdings to $751.5 billion, while China purchased $1.8 billion to increase its total to $798.9 billion, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Nov. 17.
Since the crisis began, banks and other financial institutions worldwide have written off or lost a staggering $1.7 trillion, though the losses have been cushioned by capital-raising to the tune of $1.5 trillion. However, that $200 billion differential -- which doesn't include current-quarter losses or red ink hidden from view by "flexible" accounting treatments -- could easily widen out to far more troublesome levels amid a renewed downturn in the economy and an abrupt return to reality in the stock market (which would, of course, make it difficult to raise capital by selling shares). In fact, I think it is going to be a very long time before the financial sector is (legitimately) profitable or in financial good health, regardless of whatever those firms say in their quarterly and annual reports. For more on the subject of financial sector accounting, check out "The Bank Profit Mirage," by Annaly Capital Management.
Since the crisis began, banks and other financial institutions worldwide have written off or lost a staggering $1.7 trillion, though the losses have been cushioned by capital-raising to the tune of $1.5 trillion.
However, that $200 billion differential -- which doesn't include current-quarter losses or red ink hidden from view by "flexible" accounting treatments -- could easily widen out to far more troublesome levels amid a renewed downturn in the economy and an abrupt return to reality in the stock market (which would, of course, make it difficult to raise capital by selling shares).
In fact, I think it is going to be a very long time before the financial sector is (legitimately) profitable or in financial good health, regardless of whatever those firms say in their quarterly and annual reports.
For more on the subject of financial sector accounting, check out "The Bank Profit Mirage," by Annaly Capital Management.
"Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
Can you imagine an America without a strong middle class? If you can, would it still be America as we know it? Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street. Families have survived the ups and downs of economic booms and busts for a long time, but the fall-behind during the busts has gotten worse while the surge-ahead during the booms has stalled out. In the boom of the 1960s, for example, median family income jumped by 33% (adjusted for inflation). But the boom of the 2000s resulted in an almost-imperceptible 1.6% increase for the typical family. While Wall Street executives and others who owned lots of stock celebrated how good the recovery was for them, middle class families were left empty-handed.
Can you imagine an America without a strong middle class? If you can, would it still be America as we know it?
Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.
Families have survived the ups and downs of economic booms and busts for a long time, but the fall-behind during the busts has gotten worse while the surge-ahead during the booms has stalled out. In the boom of the 1960s, for example, median family income jumped by 33% (adjusted for inflation). But the boom of the 2000s resulted in an almost-imperceptible 1.6% increase for the typical family. While Wall Street executives and others who owned lots of stock celebrated how good the recovery was for them, middle class families were left empty-handed.
