Category: News Desk

US Escapes WTO-Okayed Retaliation by Brazil for Illegal Cotton Subsidies


Brazil on Thursday suspended retaliatory measures against U.S. goods over a cotton subsidy dispute,

freezing until 2012 a long-running row that has demonstrated the South American nation’s trade clout.

The government said a deal agreed between the two countries in April

to head off up to $829 million in World Trade Organization-sanctioned retaliation against U.S. goods

would stay in place until a new U.S. farm bill is passed.

TBTF Rock On, But Nearly 100 Smaller Banks Miss Quarterly TARP Payments


Further evidence that, as the TBTF banks continue making money hand over fist and giving top employees insane compensation,

things aren’t so great in the rest of the banking sector.

More than 90 U.S. banks and thrifts missed making a May 17 payment to the U.S. government under its main bank bailout program, signaling a rising number of lenders are struggling to meet their obligations.

Clients Still Loyal to Goldman – At Least So Far


Despite all the bad headlines — the accusations of fraud, the talk of a big settlement, the risk, however remote, of criminal charges —most of Goldman’s big customers are not bolting.

To the contrary, nearly all of them are standing by GS, despite come-hither looks from its rivals.

What gives?

To many people, Goldman has become America’s most reviled engine of capitalism.

Bankers Make Big Push Against Derivatives Legislation


Bankers have all but given up on defeating one of the most contentious provisions in the financial regulation bill —

one that would effectively bar federally insured banks from trading for their own accounts —

and are now focusing on battles like heading off a prohibition on derivatives trading.

As House and Senate negotiators head into a final push to send the legislation to President Obama,

China Now Challenging Hollywood Too


The movie has ancient Greek warriors, pirates, underwater kingdoms, a villain called the Demon Mage and mermaids that kill men during sex.

There is a sultry Bond girl, too, playing the mermaid queen.

Most of the actors are American, and the cameras use 3-D technology.

But the movie, “Empires of the Deep,” is not another fantasy dreamed up by Hollywood. It is being conceived and shot here on the world’s largest studio set, north of Beijing.

What It Means That Treasury Bonds Currently “Hotter” Than Stocks


WHEN Treasury bonds are hotter than stocks, it’s a sign that something is very wrong with the stock market.

That has been the pattern lately, though.

In a reprise of the flight to safety that occurred during the financial crisis of 2008 and early 2009,

people have been parking cash in Treasuries and fleeing stocks, which, of course, have had better long-term returns historically.

Kyrgyz, Uzbek Tensions Rooted in Class, Not Ethnicity, Experts Say


The violence that has claimed scores of lives in Kyrgyzstan is frequently ascribed to ethnic tensions, but regional experts say the causes are more complex.

“I don’t believe in a narrative of long-simmering ethnic tension,” Alexander A. Cooley, a professor at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute and an authority on Central Asia, said in a telephone interview.

Indeed, ethnic distinctions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz are so slight as to be hardly distinguishable, Professor Cooley and others say.

Gulf Spill Disaster Mobilizes “Peak Oil” Proponents


As oil continued to pour into the Gulf of Mexico, Jennifer Wilkerson spent three hours on the phone talking about life after petroleum.

For Mrs. Wilkerson, 33, a moderate Democrat from Oakton, Va., who designs computer interfaces, the spill reinforced what she had been obsessing over for more than a year — that oil use was outstripping the world’s supply.

Germany Unlikely To “Spend” Europe Out of Recession


Germany’s trading partners want the country to go on a shopping spree, increase imports and help countries like Greece and Spain grow faster so they can pay off their debts.

But a look at recent history suggests that it might be a bad idea to rely on German consumers for a European recovery.

Consumer spending has been in decline in Germany since well before the crisis hit, and the country has been a quagmire for retailers over the last decade.

Singapore On Verge of High-Speed Hyper-Space


This island city-state, thanks to its small size and a big public investment, could soon be the first country

blanketed with a fiber optic infrastructure so fast that it would enable the contents of a DVD to be downloaded in only a few seconds.

The new network is expected to give a strong boost to the growth of services like online video and Internet telephony.