<http://platosbeard.org/archives/304>
========== BBC | US retail sales in surprise rise
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7243029.stm
US retail sales rose 0.3% in January official figures show, bolstered
by sales of new cars and petrol.
========== BBC | Venezuela breaks ties with Exxon
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7242133.stm
Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA has announced it is suspending
sales of crude to Exxon Mobil, in response to legal action brought by
the US firm.
========== UK might be on verge of recession, says King | The Guardian
URL:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/14/bankofenglandgovernor.economics?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
The Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, admitted yesterday that the
economy might grind to a halt this year - but warned that the
continuing risk of inflation made further interest rate cuts unlikely.
========== BBC | Mortgage insurer reports big loss
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7243280.stm
US mortgage insurer MGIC has reported quarterly losses of $1.47bn
(£750m) after being hit by the housing slump and resulting high levels
of bad debt.
========== AlterNet: Obamanomics: Barack Talks Tough on Trade
URL: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/76970/
On Wednesday, the first full day of a Wisconsin primary campaign that
he hopes will solidify his emerging lead over his once "inevitable"
rival, the Illinois senator started in Janesville, where he delivered
a rebuke to free-trade policies of the Bill Clinton and George Bush
eras that sounded a little like a speech Feingold might have delivered.
========== BBC | US annual trade deficit narrows
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7244993.stm
The US trade deficit narrowed in 2007, official figures show, as a
rise in exports offset the country’s large growth in oil imports.
========== Fed Chief Hints at Further Rate Cuts - NYT
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Congress-Recession-Threat.html?_r=1&ex=1360731600&en=d07fc49ef28946e3&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&oref=slogin
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday that the
country’s economic outlook has deteriorated and signaled that the
central bank is ready to keep on lowering a key interest rate — as
needed — to shore things up.
========== Think Progress » Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts
Down Website Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators
URL: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/13/economic-indicators/
The Bush administration’s latest move is to simply hide the data.
Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its “Best of the Web”
awards. Yet the Bush administration has decided to shut down this site
because of “budgetary constraints,” effective March 1.
========== State Intervenes to Prevent Subprime Death: German
Government Gives Bank Billion-Euro Bailout - SPIEGEL
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,535245,00.html
The German government is to bail out the troubled IKB bank to the tune
of 1 billion euros. It is the second cash injection for IKB, one of
the many German casualties of the US subprime crisis.
========== Interview with ‘Lemon Tree’ Director Eran Riklis: ‘There
Are So Many Mental Borders in the Middle East’ - SPIEGEL
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,535023,00.html
The "Panorama" section of this year’s Berlin International Film
Festival opened with the world premiere of "Lemon Tree," the story of
a Palestinian widow’s fight to save her family’s lemon orchard.
========== Mortgage Crisis Spreads Past Subprime Loans - NYT
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/business/12credit.html?_r=1&ex=1360558800&en=e229cc27b728d99c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&oref=slogin
Like subprime mortgages, many prime loans made in recent years allowed
borrowers to pay less initially and face higher adjustable payments a
few years later. As long as home prices were rising, these borrowers
could refinance their loans or sell their properties to pay off their
mortgages. But now, with prices falling and lenders clamping down,
homeowners with solid credit are starting to come under the same
financial stress as those with subprime credit.
========== BBC | Buffett offers deal to insurers
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7241227.stm
He offered to takeover the insurance of $800bn-worth (£408bn) of local
government bonds, currently covered by MBIA, Ambac Financial and FGIC.
========== The Comeback of the German Dinosaurs: Industry Returns as
Economic Engine - SPIEGEL
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,534811,00.html
The comeback of German manufacturing contradicts the notion that the
future belongs to the service industry. Manufacturing firms are
currently the engines of growth in the German economy, even for the
service sector.
