China to keep prudent monetary policy in 2013: central bank

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will stick to a prudent monetary policy next year and keep consumer prices stable, its outgoing central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said on Monday, in fresh sign that Beijing won’t be changing direction when the new government takes over in 2013.Reiterating China’s long-stated vow to reduce the level of central planning in its economy and make room for more market forces,...

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Crucial day for US budget talks

30 December 2012 Last updated at 08:03 ETPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. US President Barack Obama: “Agreement is being discussed as we speak”US politicians are facing a crucial day of talks aimed at preventing the economy falling over a “fiscal cliff”.Congress must reach a deal by the end of the year to avert steep spending cuts and tax rises due to take effect.President...

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Former City regulator knighted

28 December 2012 Last updated at 19:06 ETA former head of the Financial Services Authority and a founding member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee have been recognised in the New Year Honours.Hector Sants, who was in charge of regulation at the start of the credit crisis, has been knighted.It is in recognition for services to financial regulation.Alan Budd, who was on the first Monetary...

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Stock futures little changed with “cliff” talks to resume

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Thursday with legislators due to return to Washington to restart negotiations over the “fiscal cliff“.President Barack Obama will attempt to make another push to resume talks on the cliff, a series of tax hikes and spending cuts set to begin on January 1 which may tip the economy into a recession, on Thursday after returning from...

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Suing the Senate to Kill the Filibuster

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has it in for the filibuster. “I think the rules have been abused, and we are going to work to change them,” he told reporters soon after the election. The Nevada Democrat is worked up because Republicans have used it to hold up legislation 389 times since 2007. “We will not do away with the filibuster,” Reid said, but “we are going to make it so we can get things...

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Our Best Photos of 2012

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. X EntertainmentPosted on December 21, 2012More SlideshowsThe Corporate Apology Tour, via InstagramWill Mark Sanchez Join the Biggest Quarterback Busts?The 20 extraordinary images selected here represent the very best of this year’s photography in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. From Platon’s arresting...

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The Most Powerful Woman in Finance

Those who know her describe Abigail Johnson as steely and extremely serious, qualities that come across in photographs: Whippet-thin, she’s almost always wearing glasses, her fine features and blue eyes rarely revealing more than a slight smile. An heiress to a Boston family fortune—with a personal net worth estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires index at $ 10 billion—she’s one of the world’s...

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UBS fined $1.5 billion in growing Libor scandal

ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss bank UBS admitted fraud and accepted a $ 1.5 billion fine on Wednesday for its role in manipulating global benchmark interest rates.Dozens of UBS staff rigged the Libor rate, which is used to price trillions of dollars worth of loans, in collusion with brokers and traders at other banks, according to an investigation by authorities in multiple countries.The controversy is...

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Boeing delivers first new jet to Iraq in years

BAGHDAD (AP) — The first new Boeing jetliner sold to Iraq in years touched down in Baghdad on Saturday, signaling the country’s determination to rebuild its economy after decades of war and sanctions.Iraq is eager to improve its creaky aviation industry, which lags far behind that of its energy-rich neighbors. Boeing‘s delivery of the twin-aisle 777-200LR plane comes less than two weeks after the...

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Construction output decline slows

14 December 2012 Last updated at 05:52 ETOutput in the UK construction industry fell in October, down 5.1% from the same month last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).Compared with the previous month, construction output rose 8.3%.Construction is a component of gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of everything produced in the economy.This figure is the first...

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Airlines: 2013 profits to rise thanks to cost cuts

GENEVA (AP) — Airlines‘ profits will improve to $ 8.4 billion in 2013, mainly reflecting cost cuts and restructuring measures taken to compensate for stalling economic growth, the global industry‘s trade group forecast Thursday.For 2012, the industry anticipates net profits of $ 6.7 billion based on strong second and third quarters — particularly for larger carriers with bigger economies of scale...

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Doing the College Bowl Game Shuffle

In 1997, when the Arizona-based Copper Bowl was rechristened the “Insight.com Bowl”—and billed as “the first bowl game to be sponsored by an electronic commerce Web site”—it touched a nerve. Sports columnists called the tech suffix “ridiculous.” To echo one cantankerous newspaper writer: “What next? A flag game matching sororities, sponsored by AirTouch?”Be careful what you wish for. More than a decade...

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Northern Rock will repay £270m

11 December 2012 Last updated at 08:19 ETSome 152,000 Northern Rock Asset Management customers will receive hundreds of pounds each in compensation owing to mistakes made in paperwork.Customers who took out personal loans of less than £25,000 will receive an average of £1,770 each.Bank staff failed to include key details on annual statements about loans, including the original amount which had been...

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These Christmas Trees Have Frequent Flier Miles

People are finicky about their Christmas trees. For some, that holiday staple must hail from Wisconsin. That’s where Wayne Raisleger comes in. He’s been FedExing Wisconsin trees from his Windswept Tree Farm to customers across the nation since 1999.“A lot of my customers are ex-Wisconsin residents,” he says, noting that he’s shipped to at least 40 states. “They’re used to quality Christmas trees but...

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Alexander: No triple dip slump

9 December 2012 Last updated at 07:36 ETPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander: “It is a longer and harder road… but we are making progress”Britain is not heading for a triple dip recession, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has said.Last week, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast that the economy was...

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Starbucks tax protest ‘under way’

8 December 2012 Last updated at 08:07 ETPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Danni Wright, UK Uncut: “Starbucks should be paying the appropriate amount”Tax avoidance campaigners say they are protesting at Starbucks cafes across the UK, despite the firm’s pledge to pay millions of pounds of extra corporation tax for the next two years.The organisers, UK Uncut, say the coffee...

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Sharp fall in UK factory output

7 December 2012 Last updated at 07:42 ETUK manufacturing output registered a surprisingly sharp fall in October, resurrecting fears of recession.Output fell by 1.3% from September, the Office for National Statistics said, with food and drink output, notably beer, down following the Olympics.It was the worst fall since June, when activity was depressed by extra public holidays for the Diamond Jubilee.It...

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EADS EGM scheduled for first quarter: source

BERLIN (Reuters) – EADS will call an extraordinary general meeting in the first quarter of next year to seek approval of a planned overhaul of its shareholders structure, a source at the German economy ministry said on Thursday.Nations in EADS on Wednesday agreed on the biggest shake-up of the European aerospace group since it was founded over a decade ago, opting after years of uneasy cohabitation...

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Global firms’ tax pay ‘an insult’

3 December 2012 Last updated at 05:44 ETGlobal firms in the UK that pay little or no tax are an “insult” to British businesses, a committee of MPs says.Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) needed to be “more aggressive and assertive in confronting corporate tax avoidance”.Multinationals such as Starbucks and Amazon have come under fire for paying little...

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South Korea November exports show fragile, uneven global recovery

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean exports last month marked their first back-to-back growth of the year, but demand from the advanced economies was weak, data showed on Saturday, indicating any global recovery would be fragile at best.November exports grew by 3.9 percent over a year earlier to $ 47.8 billion on top of a revised 1.1 percent rise in October, while imports last month rose by 0.7 percent...

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