Peer Steinbrück is back on the verbal warpath. This week's target is a returning guest -- Britain. The alleged offense at 10 Downing Street: torpedoing efforts at EU financial reform to keep London bankers happy.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück is known for speaking his mind and not pulling his punches. And things were no different on Wednesday when Steinbrück told an audience that Britain was blocking efforts to reform the world's financial markets -- just to keep London bankers happy.

 German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück speaks at a congress on financial regulation: "(London) has restoration in mind." In his speech to a Wednesday meeting organized by the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), Steinbrück accused the British government of having its policy interests "practically aligned" with the desires of the financial community there, which was opposed to any changes that might make it less competitive. "At times," Steinbrück said, "I see a great deal of resistance to regulatory measures whenever they matter to the City of London and the British government."

As members of the European commission gathered in Stockholm to mark the start of the Swedish presidency on Wednesday (1 July), the country's financial markets minister warned against overregulation of the hedge fund and private equity sectors.

"It is not private equity that caused the crisis, nor hedge funds. But in some countries, the political debate portrays private equity and hedge funds as the problem," said Mats Odell.

London's city and canary wharf are home to most of Europe's hedge funds, but Sweden also has interest in the sector

"That's not the same as saying we shouldn't regulate them. But the aim is to have sound regulation and not to kill the industry," he added.

Mr Odell's comments will provide some much needed cheer to the EU's hedge fund and private equity industries - largely based in London - who are concerned that draft legislation produced by the European commission in April could drive them out of business.

General Motors and Ford, the US car manufacturers, have suspended operations on their production lines in Russia.

The move comes as the deepening global economic crisis squeezes Russian consumers' demand for new cars.

GM said its brand new plant outside St Petersburg would halt manufacturing until August 31.

"Having carefully studied the state of the Russian car market and the extent of reduction in the demand from the creditworthy population, we have decided not to force a production increase at our Russian plant this year," Chris Gubbey, GM Russia's president, said in a statement.

Russian banks may need to raise $60bn (£36bn) in fresh capital if the recession drags on and energy prices wilt again, according to a report by Fitch Ratings.

The agency said a tenth of all bank loans have already gone bad and the final tally would rise to 40pc before the crisis is over under its "pessimistic scenario".

James Watson, Fitch's Russia analyst, said the loss ratios were significantly worse that anything seen so far in Western countries, though not as bad as in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Latvia. Even under Fitch's base case, bad loans will reach 25pc and require $22bn in fresh capital.

Chrysler Group LLC, the U.S. automaker run by Fiat SpA, will sell four models of the Italian carmaker's 500 subcompact in the U.S., Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said.

Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy on June 10, will eventually sell a convertible, wagon and sporty version called the "Abarth" in addition to the four-seat subcompact in the U.S., Marchionne said in an interview on June 30. While the base 500 will go on sale next year, he didn't say when the other models will be available. ...

In Europe, the Fiat small car can be equipped with a 1.2- liter or 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine or a 1.3-liter turbo diesel. The 1.4-liter engine variant gets a combined, city- highway average of 36 miles per gallon under European regulatory standards.

My '94 Honda still does 40 mi Hwy, FFS (FOR FUCK SAKE). The '04 Audi A4 (god rest its soul) even less. And I don't see a damn thing about CO₂ emissions in the PR. So remember this, murrikans, if you're in the market for a cute Mini-like ride (base $19K): Wait. USTax Code (in EPAct 2005) domestic production limits on hybrids and import quota encourages all manufacturers to pass premium to sticker price across inventory. Wait for "Fiat-Chrystler" to make an offer you simply cannot refuse.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals....

Called "shared responsibility payments," the fines would be set at least at half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. The goal is to nudge people to sign up for coverage when they are healthy, not wait until they get sick....

In a statement, Obama welcomed the legislation, saying it "reflects many of the principles I've laid out, such as reforms that will prohibit insurance companies from refusing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and the concept of insurance exchanges where individuals can find affordable coverage if they lose their jobs, move or get sick."

Then you die.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.