London
The Conservatives have hit hard. Visiting at Thomson Reuters in Canary Wharf – the other lung financial London with the City – George Osborne, the rising star of the party presented its plan for the bonus. The finance minister's shadow cabinet, David Cameron, who did not 40 years, called the Treasury and the FSA, Constable of the British Stock Exchange, "to unite their forces to ensure that banks stop squandering their profits in huge bonus. " The highest paid bankers, including those with premium "six figures," Osborne says the BBC, should receive as 2 000 pounds maximum (less than 2 200 euros) in cash, the rest would be paid in shares.In the crosshairs, the British retail banks Lloyds, RBS, HSBC and Barclays, as well as their investment subsidiaries.
This proposal is intended to boost lending, while, according to George Osborne, the credit crunch is still raging in Britain "starved of credit and confidence". The initiative, temporary, could free him by 20 billion pounds for the trade or consumers.
The measure goes much further than those taken at G20 Pittsburgh last month, calling to pay only half the bonus tracks because, for the voice of Tory finances, "we can not expect a culture more responsible bonuses into place by itself. We must take urgent action. " The Conservatives took the example of the United States, where new policies of the Obama administration will lead to a reduction of 90% bonuses to employees the best paid."America works. Britain today does not, "Osborne Assen.
Labor has taxed George Osborne of hypocrisy. "The Conservatives have fought against all the plans that were put in place to support business and jobs," said Liam Byrne, secretary of the Treasury. "We have already introduced more stringent regulation in the world, says the Labor Party. We have not banned short bonuses in retail banking because it's impossible, but we are in talks with RBS and Lloyds about bonuses in 2009. The conservative discourse has also aroused the indignation of retail banks , who argue that "the culture of big bonuses is rather that of investment banks.
The United States as an example
The offensive conservative times, however timely.Last week, the CEBR Institute reported that in 2009 the bonus should be around 6 billion pounds in Britain, an increase of 50% compared to 2008. And on Monday, an IDS study found that if the bonus bosses 2008-2009, the largest UK listed companies have fallen by one third, increasing their salary has almost offset the decline. Two studies that provoke anger from the British while the macroeconomic data are poor, as evidenced by the contraction of GDP in the third quarter. At 8 months of a national election, the Tories have tried to show they had a plan of action to propose.
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Banks represent a risk that ultimately the States are obliged to assume, especially when it comes to very large financial institutions. This fact, proved from bank rescues of 2008, coupled with the poor state of public finances in major western economies, has given birth to the idea of additional taxation of the banking sector.
This Friday, the president of the U.S. Federal Reserve has certified the principle. "Any cost incurred by rescue of the government should be covered by a levy on the financial industry, not taxpayers," said Ben Bernanke.
Today, there are already in the United States a fund federal deposit insurance, the FDIC is funded by premiums paid by banks for deposit.The organization monitors the credit risks taken by banks and traditional acts to seize and liquidate those who make the balance sheet (hundreds since the beginning of the year). Not only did the FDIC reached its limits in terms of resources, but it has no counterpart for investment banks, specialized crafts markets, which do not collect public savings. Ben Bernanke would therefore address this deficiency.
The statements by the Fed chief may find an echo in Europe, where governments, or parliaments, are weighing the idea of charging the banks a kind of "insurance premium" in exchange for funding last spring that the State gives them, even implicitly. The Belgian federal budget was the first to explicitly.The United Kingdom is considering the at least one major institution, the Lloyds Banking Group.
In France, the same argument that has been brandished by members (see sidebar). At European Commission Tuesday urged that a dialogue on ways of resolving banking crises, has indicated its preference for funding by the "private sector".
Equity strengthened
In Washington, the debate focuses on the legal means available to the authorities to treat cases of collapse. This Friday, Ben Bernanke highlighted the adoption by Congress of the proposed reform of finance presented by the White House is pressing. The plan for accreditation before the end of the year is not acquired, would allow federal authorities to seize troubled financial institutions, even if they do not have the status of banks.The lack of a framework for such intervention was sorely felt last year when the insurer AIG found itself on the brink of bankruptcy.
Occasionally, this Friday, a conference organized by the Boston Fed, Bernanke also defended the principle of minimum capital requirements more stringent for banks whose health is essential to the stability of the financial system. The Federal Reserve, in consultation with its foreign counterparts, is working to develop rules requiring these banks to raise capital in the form of shares. In all cases, the idea is to shift priority to shareholders and creditors of banks that take risks, to reduce the likelihood of injecting public funds. Bernanke also promised that the Fed would sanction the compensation that would encourage taking undue risks.
"AIG is a burden for America
Four giants of the world's foremost advertising to Publicis, Interpublic Group, WPP and Omnicom and the association representing the United States Monday called on U.S. authorities to validate the faster the alliance announced in July by Yahoo! and Microsoft at the "research" on the internet.
"We believe that the proposed Yahoo! and Microsoft to combine their technologies and platforms for research is good for advertisers, marketing agencies, publishers of websites and consumers "can read this open letter to the Department of Justice U.S..
Without explicitly mention the giant Google, which now monopolizes the field of "research" on the internet, officials of the four giants of the advertising world, by supporting the merging Yahoo!, Microsoft is still positioned for a greater heterogeneity of the competition on the Internet.
The alliance between Yahoo! and Microsoft has been concluded with the avowed aim of providing better counterweight to industry leader Google, which in September monopolized 64.9% of the U.S. market, against 18.8% for Yahoo! and 9.4% for Bing (the search engine from Microsoft). A more equal distribution of market shares and directly reduce the influence of Google on the advertising rates charged and would thus benefit to advertisers.
"We are delighted with the results for the quarter and year. The Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, has reason to be satisfied. The group of computer and multimedia has announced a net profit up sharply on the year, from 18% to 5.704 billion dollars for the year, with an acceleration in year-end. In the fourth quarter, the increase has indeed reached 46.5%, which is well above expectations analystes.Le group's president, Steve Jobs, also expressed his satisfaction. For him, the results equally well ahead in the coming months, with "a very solid line for the holiday season and really great products in preparation for 2010.The group, however, known for his prudence, posting predictions and equally good for the current quarter, with sales and should be between 11.3 and 11.6 billion dollars, with earnings per share is expected between 1.70 and $ 1.78.
Mac sales support activity
In the past quarter, the turnover has exceeded all expectations, rising 25% yoy to 9.870 billion dollars, is also beyond the expectations of analysts. Mac sales, which reached the 3 million computers (+17% yoy), helped offset the slight decline in sales of iPods (10.2 million units, -8%) and weaker growth in sales of iPhones (7.4 million units, 7%).For the year sales, despite the crisis, grew 12.5% to 36.537 billion dollars.
Thus, current earnings per share was well above expectations at $ 1.82. Over the year it reached U.S. $ 6.29, against 5.88 expected. The Apple stock jumped 6.29% to 201.80 dollars in electronic trading after the close of business.
"Apple is preparing the digital book revolution
Nothing worked. Neither the words of Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Eurogroup, nor even those of Ben Bernanke, the Fed chief. The dollar is falling and the euro rises. This was decided by the market, more than ever sovereign foreign exchange. While the major fundraisers of the euro zone met yesterday in Luxembourg, the European currency traded against 1.49 dollars, up from Friday night. The comments of Jean-Claude Juncker at the weekend, suggesting that the ECB might intervene to support the dollar, have not impressed the markets busy to take risks amid low interest rates in the United States. The speech of Ben Bernanke on Monday called for reducing U.S. deficits, nor has helped strengthen the greenback.
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Big contract for Bouygues in the United States. His division of Public Works, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, will build a road tunnel in Miami for $ 440 million. A contract was awarded by Miami Access Tunnel, the project company, as part of a public-private partnership signed with the Florida Department of Transportation.
"This tunnel will provide a second access road to the port of Miami, which is essential for its development. Located on the island of Dodge, is currently served by a single road.This new access road, which will be connected to the motorway network MacArthur Causeway, will become the main track for freight traffic and will thus relieve the center of many trucks pass through "the group said in a statement.
750 people mobilized
For Bouygues, it will include extending six meters MacArthur Bridge over a length of 800 meters. The group will also build two parallel tunnels, each 1,100 meters and 12.3 meters in diameter, and access roads. The group will also undertake the development of road connections to the network port, the electromechanical underground parts, the automatic traffic control and construction of farm buildings.
A site that should Altogether last 55 months for Bouygues and start in mid-2010.750 people are expected, at peak, be mobilized on the project.
A cap crossed over to the Chinese industry. According to Xinhua, the country has reached Tuesday symbolic threshold of ten million vehicles produced since the beginning of the year. A news that pleased the authorities. Only the United States and Japan have in the past crossed the symbolic threshold, the agency noted.
Overcoming this bar in early October, and comes a little earlier than expected. Analysts had expected the effect that 10 million are crossed in mid-October. Production expected by the market for the full year 2009 was for its more than 12 million vehicles.
This fact confirms at least the strength of the Chinese automotive market, it is now early in the year the first global automotive market, from well before the United States, particularly boosted by government measures for the automobile industry such as decrease of 10% to 5% tax on the purchase of new vehicles with engines at or below 1.6 liters. And the country should not stop there: sales in the first nine months of the year have already surpassed the 2008 total.
"China firmly planted on four wheels