Global debt sales reached a record in 2016, led by companies gorging on cheap borrowing costs that are now threatened by Donald Trump’s pledge to fire up the US economy. The bond rally that dominated the first half of the year helped entice borrowers that issued debt via banks to take on just over $6.6tn, according to data provider Dealogic, breaking the previous annual record set in […]
Given the number of people in the city, New Yorkers rarely feel they’re on the same page with each other. The day after Donald Trump was elected United States president, however, they quietly mourned together. The weather, as if set in a Shakespearean drama, reflected the solemn state of the city’s inhabitants. In the days leading up to the election, the weather was perfectly crisp. The annual […]
World number two Rory McIlroy will be looking to maintain a proud record when he competes in the $2.65 million Dubai Desert Classic in February. The four-times major champion won the event in 2009 and 2015 and has finished in the top 10 in each of his seven previous visits to the Emirates Golf Club. “I have great memories of this tournament,” McIlroy said in a news […]
The eurozone’s biggest stock markets are closing in on double-digit gains for the final quater of 2016, as a combination of resurgent banks shares and a weaker euro entice investors into a region that has disappointed for much of the year. On Tuesday’s return from the Christmas break, Germany’s Xetra Dax 30 advanced 0.1 per cent in early afternoon trading, and is now up more than 9 […]
By Anuradha Nagaraj CHENNAI, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Housemaids, brick makers, labourers, textile workers, fleeing migrants and children risking their lives in mica mines. These were the faces of modern day slavery in 2016 when the world saw a renewed resolve to combat all forms of human bondage. An estimated 45.8 million people globally live in some form of slavery, either trafficked into forced labour, sold […]
HAMBURG The culling of about 55,000 turkeys, chickens and ducks is underway after bird flu of the highly contagious H5N8 strain was found on farms in a major poultry production region in the north German state of Lower Saxony, authorities said on Tuesday. Poultry culling on the three farms where H5N8 was found and three others which had contact with them was started over the Christmas weekend […]
Finland, once a world leader in mobile telephony with Nokia, is in a class of its own when it comes to internet usage on smartphones and tablets, thanks to cheap subscription plans On the crowded morning metro in Helsinki, silence prevails. Everyone is hunched over their smartphone screens, reading the news, checking emails or watching videos. A loud “yeah!” breaks the quiet, along with delighted screech from […]
In 2016 it was all about Panamagate. But by retaining Konrad Mizzi in his executive and Keith Schembri besides him in Castille, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat stubbornly failed to recognise the extent of the public outrage at these revelations Jurgen Balzan 27 December 2016, 7:20am Joseph Muscat stood by his men and by his own admission, he evidently considers himself unable to complete the energy plans without […]
A problem has emerged for France’s anti-immigrant, anti-Euro presidential frontrunner, Marine Le Pen, and it has little to do with being behind in the polls ahead of the 2017 presidential elections, far from it. It has, however, everything to do with something far simpler: money, as the National Front leader is suddenly struggling to raise the €20 million ($21 million) she needs to fund the French presidential […]
The European Central Bank has said that Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s capital shortfall has risen to €8.8bn from €5bn, significantly increasing the price tag of the rescue of Italy’s third-largest lender by the government. In a statement released late on Monday, MPS also revealed that the ECB had warned that the bank’s liquidity had suffered a “rapid deterioration” over the past month, as it tried in […]
The Sunday Times of Malta’s cartoonist Steve Bonello picked this effort as his favourite cartoon of the year. “The Panama Papers had not been published by that date (March 13), but it was what all of Malta was talking about, with the government pedalling hard to shift the focus on its three years of achievements,” Mr Bonello said in explaining his choice. It is indeed a remarkable […]
MILAN The European Central Bank has told Monte dei Paschi it needs to plug a capital shortfall of 8.8 billion euros ($9.2 billion), higher than a previous 5 billion euro gap estimated by the bank, the lender said on Monday, confirming what sources told Reuters. Last Friday the Italian government approved a decree to bail out Monte dei Paschi (BMPS.MI) after Italy’s No. 3 lender failed to […]
In January of 2016, the Bundesbank announced that three years after commencing the transfer of some of its offshore-held gold from vaults located at the Banque de France in Paris and the NY Fed in New York, it had repatriated a total of 366.3 tonnes, bringing the German central bank’s gold reserves held in Frankfurt to 1,402 tonnes, or 41.5% of Germany’s total gold of 3,381 tonnes, […]
FRANKFURT European Central Bank policymaker Jens Weidmann said plans for a state bailout of Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) should be weighed carefully as many questions remain to be answered, according to German newspaper Bild. “For the measures planned by the Italian government the bank has to be financially healthy at its core. The money cannot be used to cover losses that are already […]
MILAN/LONDON On the morning of July 29, former Italian Industry Minister Corrado Passera was traveling in a high-speed train toward the medieval city of Siena, racing to meet the directors of the world’s oldest bank to present them with a rescue plan. Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy’s third-largest lender, was destined to be wound down within months unless it could raise billions of euros and pull […]
Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, centre, performs with George Michael, left, and Annie Lennox from Eurythmics during the “Pavarotti & Friends“ concert in Modena June 6, 2000. Stefano Rellandini / Reuters British singers Paul McCartney and George Michael, left, perform at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park in London, July 2, 2005. Stephen Hird / Reuters In this April 10, 1997, file photo, George Michael, left, and […]
Submitted by Michael Jabara Carley via Strategic-Culture.org, Relations between Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Barack Obama are poisoned and irretrievably damaged. It’s therefore a good thing that Obama is leaving office on 20 January. Bad US-Russian relations are of course nothing new. Since the Anglo-American war against Iraq in 2003, the US-Russian relationship has been headed downhill. For Obama, it appears that everything has gotten […]
2016 was chock-full of surprises, both in markets and in politics. As Goldman’s Allison Nathan explains, the year began with a perfect storm of worries that had become all too familiar already in 2015. Oil prices plunged and fears of faltering growth and a sharp depreciation of China’s currency escalated, driving disruptive sell-offs in credit and other risk assets. Confidence in global growth faltered, particularly after an […]
But with few spies in the city, American officials say assessing the enemy is difficult. “We’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand the situation on the ground in Raqqa,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, the air war commander, said in an interview from his headquarters in Qatar. “It’s improving. It’s still not at the level we’d like it to be.” Continue reading the main story […]
When US authorities started pursuing banks for their role in slicing, dicing and packaging the arcane products that sparked the financial crisis, they initially focused on domestic lenders. Now it is Europe’s banks that are in the crosshairs. Two days before Christmas, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have agreed to settle with the US Department of Justice over the alleged mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up […]
I’d like to be able to say France withdrawing from the EU is a potential downside catalyst for stocks. However, these days nothing matters. Stocks would go up if nuclear war was initiated wordwide. There’s literally nothing that can stop stocks from heading higher. But in the event you’re still nostalgic about news, France’s Le Pen wants stronger ties with Moscow, out of the EU and NATO — […]
DUBAI Iran said on Sunday it had negotiated to pay only about half the announced price for 80 new Boeing (BA.N) airliners in an order that the American planemaker had said was worth $16.6 billion. Boeing and its European rival Airbus (AIR.PA) have both signed huge contracts this month to supply airliners to Iran, the first such deals since international sanctions were lifted under a deal to […]
By Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY VATICAN CITY Pope Francis on Sunday offered a Christmas hope for peace in a world lacerated by war and terrorism, urging people to remember migrants, refugees and those hit by economic instability caused by “idolatry of money”. Francis, marking the fourth Christmas season since his election in 2013, also urged Palestinians and Israelis, facing renewed tension after a U.N. resolution condemning […]
By Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY VATICAN CITY Pope Francis said on Saturday that Christmas had been “taken hostage” by dazzling materialism that puts God in the shadows and blinds many to the needs of the hungry, the migrants and the war weary. Francis, leading the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas for the fourth time since his election in 2013, said in his Christmas Eve […]
