Links and News [2008.02.14]

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: news)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: economics elections)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: news)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

• 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.

  (categories: economics)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.