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<title>Europe&#x27;s corporate credit crunch: Muck in the fuel pipe</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15065849&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Europe&#8217;s banks will struggle to lend their clients a hand when demand revivesMECHANICS checking for a blockage in a car&#8217;s fuel pipes know to floor the accelerator, for a splutter then indicates a problem that may not show up when the engine is idling. The mechanics of the financial system are wondering whether the same rule applies to the world economy and whether its recovery will be choked by a lack of credit to companies just as demand starts picking up.In late summer, as Europe&#8217;s economies barely ticked over, bankers across Europe seemed ready to ease their grip on the purse strings. A survey of banks&#8217; loan officers in euro-area countries in late September led the European Central Bank (ECB) to conclude that a &#8220;turning-point&#8221; had been reached and that banks would probably soon start to relax credit standards. In Britain, a survey for the Bank of England (BoE) at about the same time showed an increased willingness by banks to lend to companies (even if they were holding back on lending to households).  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15066151&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Bankers&#x27; pay: Cui bono?</title>
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<description><![CDATA[Who benefits from a one-off levy on bankers&#8217; bonuses?COME April 6th 2010, it will be business as usual. Until then, banking firms with employees in Britain will have to be ultra-creative to get around measures announced in the pre-budget report (see previous story) to impose a 50% payroll tax at source on those dishing out bonuses of more than GBP25,000 ($40,750). As The Economist went to press there were rumours that France might follow suit.The intention is to catch cash benefits paid between now and April 5th, the end of the tax year, including loans against shares deposited in trusts, and other such tax-avoidance dodges. No firm engaged in banking activity, British or foreign, with employees taxable in Britain will be spared. Bonuses contractually guaranteed before December 9th, however, will slip through the net. So will incentive schemes awarding shares or share options. Banks that have hiked salaries at the expense of bonuses may escape the full fury.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15066082&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Banking in Venezuela: Fall of the Boligarchs</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15066082&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Hugo Chavez cracks down on allies&#8220;BEING rich is bad,&#8221; Hugo Chavez is wont to remark. But in the decade in which he has been Venezuela&#8217;s president, some people with close ties to his regime have made fortunes. Now he seems to have lost patience with them. Over the past fortnight the government has shut down seven small banks and an insurance company and arrested several of their owners, accusing them of fraud and mismanagement. The president says this is part of a drive to root out corruption. Yet the scandal would seem to lead to the upper echelons of his government.Mr Chavez has nationalised many other businesses, so the takeovers at first caused mild panic in financial markets. But the banks involved account for less than 10% of total deposits. Mr Chavez assured the big private banks that they were not incompatible with his ideology of &#8220;21st-century socialism&#8221;.  ...]]></description>
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<title>Banks and sovereign-wealth funds: Falling knives</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15065731&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The smart and the not-so-smartYOUR phone rings at 3am. It&#8217;s a senior American banker sounding desperate. An unidentified heavy-breather&#8212;the treasury secretary?&#8212;is also on the line. It&#8217;s the opportunity of a lifetime, the banker swears: the chance to buy a multibillion-dollar stake in a big Wall Street firm. By the way, he adds breezily, any chance of an answer right away?Most sovereign-wealth funds (SWFs) got an invitation of this sort between November 2007 and January 2008. Within a few weeks some $40 billion was poured into distressed Western lenders, among them Citigroup, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Now SWFs are selling out. This month the Kuwait Investment Authority, the oldest SWF, sold a $4 billion stake in Citigroup, claiming a $1.1 billion profit. In September one of Singapore&#8217;s two investment vehicles, GIC, sold part of its stake in Citi, realising a $1.6 billion profit. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15065782&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Banks and small businesses: For want of a loan</title>
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<description><![CDATA[America&#8217;s best job creators are being hit by a credit crunchIT IS basically a second stimulus, though no one wants to call it that. On December 8th President Barack Obama announced a set of proposals to address unemployment and made it clear that he wanted to use some of the unspent TARP funds (money set aside to support failing banks) to help pay for them. No precise figure was given. Some $50 billion will be spent on infrastructure projects; there will also be new rebates for home insulation and other energy-saving incentives. But the linchpin of the administration&#8217;s effort is a broad push to support small businesses. That sounds reasonable. Small businesses (firms employing 500 workers or fewer) have accounted for 64% of net new job creation over the past 15 years, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA), an independent government agency. And a recent economic study found that cities with more small firms have done better at creating jobs over the past 20 years. But America&#8217;s most recent recession has hit small businesses hard. The very small, with fewer than 50 workers&#8212;employing almost one-third of working Americans&#8212;have suffered around 45% of the job losses of the downturn.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15022616&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The restructuring of Rusal: Saving the oligarchs</title>
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<description><![CDATA[The Kremlin is bailing out the business tycoons it was once expected to curbANYONE watching Russian television this summer could have been forgiven for thinking that Oleg Deripaska, one of the country&#8217;s richest tycoons and the boss of Rusal, the world&#8217;s largest aluminium company, was finished. The closure of three factories, one of them owned by Mr Deripaska, in Pikalevo, a small cement-producing town near St Petersburg, had left workers without pay. In protest they had blocked the road and called for help from Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, who appeared on June 4th like a superhero in a sports jacket, with a penitent Mr Deripaska in tow. &#8220;I wanted the authors of what happened here to see it with their own eyes,&#8221; Mr Putin thundered, in a tirade beamed across Russia by state television. &#8220;You have made thousands of residents hostage to your ambition, your lack of professionalism and perhaps your greed.&#8221;&#8220;Come here and sign,&#8221; Mr Putin instructed Mr Deripaska, pointing to an agreement to restart the factory and holding out a pen. Mr Deripaska signed. &#8220;My pen&#8212;give it back,&#8221; Mr Putin then snapped. In the inflamed imagination of Russia&#8217;s disgruntled citizens, Mr Deripaska was about to share the fate of other disgraced oligarchs such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former boss of Yukos, a dismembered oil firm, who has languished in prison for more than six years.  ...]]></description>
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<title>Bank of America&#x27;s TARP repayment: Ken&#x27;s last act</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15020046&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[A surprise escape from government clutchesYOU can almost hear the gritting of perfect teeth. In a statement on December 2nd announcing Bank of America&#8217;s intention to repay $45 billion in government money, Ken Lewis, its outgoing chief executive, thanked the authorities for their role in stabilising the financial system last autumn. He will be less appreciative in private. Alleged arm-twisting by the government pushed BofA to consummate its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, despite misgivings over Merrill&#8217;s mounting losses. Lawsuits, probes and recriminations followed. Mr Lewis was stripped of the chairmanship in April and abruptly announced his retirement at the end of this year. Merrill&#8217;s write-offs forced BofA into taking a second tranche of capital from the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP), putting it under the thumb of America&#8217;s pay tsar. The threat of government meddling and pay constraints have delayed the board&#8217;s search for a successor to Mr Lewis. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15016132&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Banks and information technology: Silo but deadly</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15016132&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Messy IT systems are a neglected aspect of the financial crisisNO INDUSTRY spends more on information technology (IT) than financial services: about $500 billion globally, more than a fifth of the total (see chart). Many of the world&#8217;s computers, networking and storage systems live in the huge data centres run by banks. &#8220;Banks are essentially technology firms,&#8221; says Hugo Banziger, chief risk officer at Deutsche Bank. Yet the role of IT in the crisis is barely discussed.It should be. Corporate IT systems&#8212;collections of computers, applications and databases&#8212;always tend to be messy, but those of banks are particularly bad. They were the first to adopt computers: decades-old mainframes are still in use. Lots of product innovation means new systems, as does merger activity, which has proliferated in the industry in recent years: Citigroup had a notoriously fragmented IT set-up going into the crisis. The need to comply with regulations, and the global presence of big banks, adds complexity. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14973029&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>German banking: Bail-out poker</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14973029&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[WestLB is rescued for the fourth time in four yearsBANKS used to inspire trust with marble halls and granite facades. The modern equivalent is a website that touts state guarantees bailing out depositors and other creditors. WestLB, the shakiest of Germany&#8217;s state-owned wholesale banks, or Landesbanken, prominently displays an &#8220;overview&#8221; of the bank&#8217;s many &#8220;protection mechanisms&#8221; on its site. Readers who click through are taken to a document that is comfortingly entitled &#8220;Belt and Braces&#8221;. Even so, the bank teetered on November 24th. While its shareholders, a mix of local savings-bank associations and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, were squabbling with Germany&#8217;s federal government over who should take the hit for its losses on &#8364;85 billion ($129 billion) of toxic assets, the cost of insuring its debt spiked amid reports that the bank faced insolvency by the end of the month. At issue was uncertainty over whether WestLB would have enough capital when temporary guarantees from its owners expired. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14959727&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The Irish bust: Learning to make do and mend</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14959727&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The perils of politicians and property developersThe Bankers: How the Banks Brought Ireland to Its Knees. By Shane Ross. Penguin Ireland; 312 pages; GBP14.99. Buy from Amazon.co.ukFollow the Money. By David McWilliams. Gill &amp; Macmillan; 298 pages; GBP14.99. Buy from Amazon.co.uk ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14927222&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Reforming financial regulation: A one-trick bill</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14927222&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[An exercise in bank-bashing which may just please consumersCRACKING down on financial services was always likely to be a highlight of the Queen&#8217;s Speech, which sets out the government&#8217;s legislative priorities until the general election next year. With the cost of bailing out banks approaching GBP90 billion so far, lending to businesses still anaemic and bonuses once more rising, bank-bashing is now a national pastime. But the proposed new measures say more about the government&#8217;s determination to show it has bankers under control than they do about any bold new approach to financial reform. More detail was expected as The Economist went to press. The bill sets out to strengthen regulation, in four main ways. The most eye-catching concerns bankers&#8217; pay. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to be allowed to tear up contracts if it thinks a bank&#8217;s bonus structure encourages risky behaviour. Its enforcement powers are likely to be strengthened in other respects too&#8212;for example, by allowing it to curb business activities as a punishment for past transgressions. Banks will be required to prepare &#8220;living wills&#8221;&#8212;blueprints for winding down the business in the event of looming bankruptcy. And a new Council on Financial Stability is to monitor risk in the system. Headed by the chancellor of the exchequer, it will include the Treasury, the Bank of England and the FSA. ...]]></description>
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<title>Spanish banks: Savings and groans</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14924481&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Misery for the cajas does not mean joy for the banksSPAIN&#8217;S banks face a grim 2010. True, the listed banks made over &#8364;4 billion ($6 billion) in net profits in the third quarter of this year. But most economists predict that Spain will not emerge from recession until the middle of 2010 at the earliest. Dwindling margins and lower loan volumes will squeeze profits just as bad loans peak on the back of an expected 20% unemployment rate. One small consolation, say the commercial banks, is that Spain&#8217;s unlisted savings banks, or cajas, are generally doing even worse. Spain&#8217;s 45 cajas have been fierce competitors to the banks, steadily taking market share over the years.They are mutually owned and controlled by a mix of depositors, employees and, above all, local politicians. By riding Spain&#8217;s decade-long construction boom and taking advantage of their strong local presence, they now own 56% of Spanish mortgages. Loans to property developers make up about one-fifth of their assets. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14921343&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Rebuilding UBS: Ossie&#x27;s casino</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14921343&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[UBS wants to grow, but its supervisors want it to shrink&#8220;I&#8217;D LIKE to see us put more risk on the table and actually trade a bit harder.&#8221; In these times, such words from any banker might be enough to cause a little concern. Coming from the chief financial officer of a bank that is still clawing its way out of a $50 billion hole of accumulated losses and write-downs, they ought to set the fire alarms ringing. In fact, the gambling-for-redemption strategy outlined by UBS, Switzerland&#8217;s biggest bank, is winning the support of shareholders. That it is doing so neatly encapsulates a dilemma for regulators as they try to balance the contradictory goals of making banking safer while also making it profitable enough to attract investors and their capital.On November 17th UBS&#8217;s newish boss, Oswald Grubel, a hard-bitten veteran who was hauled out of retirement in February, outlined plans to turn the bank around. Mr Grubel (Ossie to his colleagues) hopes to repeat his success at Credit Suisse where, ironically, he had copied UBS&#8217;s strategy of combining private and investment banking with asset management. That the pupil surpassed its master and avoided its mistakes is largely due to Mr Grubel&#8217;s nose for risk and the decision to pull back from the American residential-mortgage market in 2006, even as UBS was upping the ante.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14856318&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>British banks in transition : The great escape</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14856318&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Is Barclays preparing for world domination or its own break-up?BARCLAYS is the escapologist of British banking. Its quarterly results on November 10th widened the gap still more on its British rivals, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group (LBG). In recent months the bank&#8217;s share price has also outperformed that of HSBC, which is the soundest of the four (see chart). Whereas RBS and LBG are still in the clutches of government ownership&#8212;70% and 43% respectively&#8212;Barclays has kept state intervention at bay with a series of smart moves over the past year.The bank now appears to be heading for respectable year-end pre-tax profits of around GBP6 billion. More importantly, the damage to its balance sheet from troubled assets may have peaked by the end of the year. But that does not necessarily mean it is well-equipped for a future in which dealing margins are likely to narrow and investment banking will become more volatile&#8212;and in which it will have to pay more for, or give up, the implicit government backing that it enjoys as an institution &#8220;too big to fail&#8221;. ...]]></description>
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<title>Gordon Brown and the Tobin tax: Desperate measures</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14845274&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The prime minister&#8217;s flirtation with an idea whose time never seems to comeIT WAS, veterans of economic summitry noted, the kind of idea a French minister would once have floated simply to annoy Gordon Brown. On November 7th the prime minister used the meeting of G20 finance ministers in his native Scotland to set out four options for building a sturdier financial system. The most eye-catching was the hoary idea of a global tax on financial transactions. The revenue would serve as an insurance fund in case the banks required costly government bail-outs in future. Mr Brown did not invoke the name of James Tobin, the economist who proposed a levy on currency dealings in the 1970s. A disbelieving media did that for him.Unless a Tobin tax were implemented worldwide, trading would move out of any country that enforced it. Some in Europe are keen on the levy but Mr Brown must have known that the Americans and others would kill the idea. It was also an extraordinary reverse from a politician who not only described the idea as having &#8220;big problems&#8221; and &#8220;very substantial drawbacks&#8221; when he was chancellor of the exchequer, but also showed no enthusiasm when Lord Turner, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), raised it in August.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14859353&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Islamic finance in France: Sharia calling</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14859353&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[A political row about Muslim lawWITH western Europe&#8217;s biggest Muslim population (some 6m) and a firm secular tradition, France has an unapologetic approach to religious minorities. Immigrants and their offspring must adapt to French rules, not the other way round. France has banned the Islamic veil in state schools. Parliament is looking into outlawing the burqa from public places. But how bendy is this attitude? When it comes to Islamic finance, to the dismay of some politicians on both right and left, the government is trying to introduce elements of sharia&#8212;under which &#8220;usury&#8221; is forbidden.In a global recession, Islamic finance looks an attractive business. Worldwide sharia-compliant assets grew by 29% over the past year to $822 billion, according to The Banker. French officials fret that Paris is missing out on its share, particularly to London, whose multicultural approach gives an open-arms welcome to Islamic investors. To catch up, the French have pushed through changes to their tax and legal codes. But their latest effort has prompted a political backlash. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14829533&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Survival of the quickest</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14829533&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Frequent crises have made for strong banks and nimble financiersBRAZILIAN businessmen often say that the country&#8217;s recent economic past has strengthened companies, and especially banks. The argument goes like this: you need to be good, or at least inventive, to survive and make money when you have no idea whether inflation next year will be 50% or 500%. Bankers and finance directors have had to be particularly nimble. One example is Souza Cruz (a subsidiary of BAT), Brazil&#8217;s largest tobacco company, which in the days of high inflation did no better than break even on its cigarette sales. Its profits came from the interest on the cash it held between being paid by retailers and paying tax fortnightly. Companies used to operating in such unusual circumstances flourished when life became more predictable.There is some truth to this argument, even though it brushes aside the fact that until the 1990s Brazilian companies did not have to worry about foreign competitors. No big companies went bust in the recent financial crisis, despite losses on foreign-exchange derivatives that the Bank for International Settlements estimates at $25 billion. Moreover, no big banks wobbled, let alone had to be rescued, though there were some mergers. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14859281&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Minsheng&#x27;s IPO: The not-so-little guy</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14859281&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[China&#8217;s first privately owned bank readies for listingTHE story of China Minsheng Bank ought to warm the heart. Cobbled together in 1996 by 59 investors, including Liu Yonghao, a pig-feed seller turned billionaire, it was China&#8217;s first bank with primarily private owners. It is now the country&#8217;s seventh-largest bank. And an imminent Hong Kong listing should enable it to raise about $4 billion, making it the territory&#8217;s biggest initial public offering (IPO) of the year.Size and state-sector camaraderie allow China&#8217;s big five state banks to carve up lucrative loans for big government projects. On the next rung down, Minsheng must fight it out against the other joint-stock banks, a dozen institutions (some with state backing) licensed to do business nationwide.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14823790&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>New banking measures: Chipped, not broken</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14823790&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The latest chapter in the banking rescue is less novel than it seemsJUST over a year ago, as Britain&#8217;s banking system suffered a near-death experience, the government resuscitated it with an emergency infusion of capital. This week Alistair Darling pumped in yet more money, leading to accusations that policy failures had brought about another big bail-out. The chancellor of the exchequer, for his part, made much of moves to create a more competitive banking market, forcing the two big banks that have gobbled up state aid&#8212;Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group (LBG)&#8212;to pay for it by shedding branches and customers. In fact, this latest chapter in the banking rescue is neither a new bail-out nor the dawn of a new competitive era. The government&#8217;s sudden interest in opening up the market was in any case the result of pressure from Europe (see article). And despite much hoopla before this week&#8217;s announcement about breaking up the banks, it amounted to precious little.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15337">
<title>The IDB&#x97;50 Years, Zero Reflection</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15337</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15324">
<title>Who Will Determine the Future of Capitalism?</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15324</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15286">
<title>Norway finds Canada&#x27;s largest publicly-traded company, Barrick Gold, unethical</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15286</link>
<description><![CDATA[Norway's Ministry of Finance announced Friday that it would exclude mining giant Barrick Gold and U.S. weapons producer Textron Inc from the country's pension fund for ethical reasons.  This is an especially significant judgment for Canada, as Barrick Gold is currently Canada's largest publicly traded company.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15259">
<title>Calls grow for a new model for global trade</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15259</link>
<description><![CDATA[Now come the second thoughts on globalization, as never before have world markets been so integrated. The current financial crisis could mark the start of an effort to overhaul the global financial system conceived at the 1944 summit in Bretton Woods, N.H., which set the rules of international commerce for industrial countries.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14800">
<title>EU: Court hits at Brussels secrecy</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14800</link>
<description><![CDATA[The European Union's secretive decision-making processes were condemned on Thursday in a legal judgment that should lead to more light being shed on how thousands of regulations affecting businesses are hatched.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14744">
<title>CONGO: World Bank accused of razing Congo forests</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14744</link>
<description><![CDATA[The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world's second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. 
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14588">
<title>Digging for Dirt in the DRC?</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14588</link>
<description><![CDATA[As the Congolese government begins a review of mining contracts, a  mining kingpin is deported on unrelated corruption charges, and the World Bank faces accusations of failure to provide oversight of contract deals. 
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14584">
<title>BRITAIN: Companies &#x27;looting&#x27; a continent</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14584</link>
<description><![CDATA[Gordon Brown has signalled he wants to see poor countries develop through trade rather than aid.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14562">
<title>WORLD: A Way for Resource-Rich Countries to Audit Their Way Out of Corruption</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14562</link>
<description><![CDATA[An Oxford economist has a new and potentially powerful idea: setting up an voluntary international charter to guide transparency efforts in resource-rich developing countries, in order to stave of corruption.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14569">
<title>UGANDA: African forest under threat from sugar cane plantation</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14569</link>
<description><![CDATA[Conservationists in Uganda are fighting a last-ditch battle to stop the destruction of a forest reserve by a sugar corporation friendly with the government.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=426396_EN">
<title>16/12/09 - ING completes rump offering at EUR 6.68 per share</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=426396_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=426318_EN">
<title>16/12/09 - ING announces rights issue take up of 97.0%</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=426318_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=425606_EN">
<title>11/12/09 - ING to repay Dutch State EUR 5 bn Core Tier 1 securities on 21 Dec.</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=425606_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ING announced today that it has notified the Dutch State that it will exercise its option to early repurchase EUR 5 billion of the Core Tier 1 securities.]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=423495_EN">
<title>30/11/09 - ING closes sale of Australian and New Zealand Insurance business</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=423495_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ING announced today that it has closed the sale of its life insurance and wealth management venture in Australia and New Zealand to ANZ, its joint venture partner.]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=423230_EN">
<title>27/11/09 - ING sets terms for its EUR 7.5 billion 6 for 7 rights issue</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=423230_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=422898_EN">
<title>25/11/09 - ING shareholders approve strategic decisions and rights issue</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=422898_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=422609_EN">
<title>25/11/09 - ING rights issue: provisional ADS Record Date 27 November &#x27;09</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=422609_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=421804_EN">
<title>18/11/09 - ING restructuring plan approved by European Commission</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=421804_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=420387_EN">
<title>11/11/09 - ING posts 3Q09 underlying net profit of EUR 778 million</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=420387_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=420719_EN">
<title>10/11/09 - ING closes sale of Annuity and Mortgage Businesses in Chile</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=420719_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14816649&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>India&#x27;s gold purchase: Adornment and investment</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14816649&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[India is eager for the IMF&#8217;s bullionIF YOU count bangles, necklaces, anklets and other pieces of jewellery, India is the largest repository of gold in the world, according to the World Gold Council. Many Indians see gold as an investment as well as an adornment. India&#8217;s post office sells 24-carat gold coins, as small as 0.5 grams, to savers wary of fiat currencies or mutual funds. The latest big investor in the metal is the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). On November 3rd the central bank said it had bought 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF, a purchase that would have cost about $6.7 billion. The news pushed the price past $1,090 an ounce for the first time.The IMF&#8217;s gold holdings are less decorative than India&#8217;s, but also impressive: the third-biggest official stash in the world. Its sale to the RBI is part of a plan to offload 403.3 tonnes, or an eighth of its total. The proceeds will create an endowment to cover the fund&#8217;s operating expenses and help expand its lending. It is doing its best not to rock the market by selling first to central banks, in keeping with their agreement in August to sell no more than 2,000 tonnes over five years. But the gold market is now interested in how much central banks might buy, not how much they might sell. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14584651&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The World Bank-IMF meetings: Money, votes and politics</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14584651&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Battles over money and power at the World Bank and IMF&#8220;WE ARE into the world of politics&#8221;, said the World Bank&#8217;s president, Robert Zoellick, at the two-day annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, ending on Wednesday October 7th in Istanbul. Mr Zoellick was referring to the disagreements between richer and poorer countries over his institution&#8217;s pleas for more funding to cope with the aftermath of the financial crisis. But his statement held true for much of what went on at this year&#8217;s meetings. It was easy to reach broad agreement that it was too early for governments and central banks to begin winding down their big stimulus packages. But opinions diverged over the need to boost the funding of the world&#8217;s main financial institutions, and even more so when it came to discussing demands by big developing countries such as China and India for more voting power on their boards.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14558474&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The role of emerging markets: Cosmetic surgery?</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14558474&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The face of global economic governance is changingSYMBOLISM or substance? The G20 meeting in Pittsburgh secured the place of emerging markets at the top table of global economic policy. &#8220;Bretton Woods is being overhauled before our eyes,&#8221; declared Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank. The G20 leaders agreed to shift voting power substantially within the IMF towards &#8220;dynamic emerging markets and developing countries&#8221;, and endorsed similar reform at the World Bank. They also announced that the G20 itself will replace the G7, a rich-world club that will now concentrate mainly on security issues, as the primary forum for international economic co-operation. The Financial Stability Board, which is supposed to oversee the co-ordination of global financial regulation, has also expanded to include the G20&#8217;s emerging&#8211;market members. But how much clout the developing world will actually have remains unclear. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14489982&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The IMF on economic recovery: Snail&#x27;s pace</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14489982&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Recovery from this recession is likely to take several years, says the IMFWHEN the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, told a Washington think-tank this month that &#8220;the recession is very likely over at this point&#8221;, he was careful to add that the American economy would remain weak for some time yet. Analysis released on Tuesday September 22nd by IMF economists who have been studying the aftermath of 88 banking crises over the past four decades, supports Mr Bernanke's cautious talk. While most discussion of the worst recession since the Depression looks at the immediate pain from lost jobs and shuttered shops, the IMF analysis suggests that the effects of the downturn will be felt long after it is technically over.It is not surprising that trouble in the banks results in big drops in GDP: the IMF finds that output per head falls steadily for three years after a typical banking crisis. Recovering from that takes a long time, even after a return to pre-crisis growth rates. Seven years after a typical banking crisis has ended output per head is 10% lower, on average, than it would have been in the absence of a crash. The IMF also finds that recessions (such as this one) that are associated with banking crises lead to output declines that are about three times as large in the medium term as those that follow currency crises (222 of which the fund's economists also scrutinised). ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14456879&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The IMF assessed: A good war</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14456879&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The IMF has done well under Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but its future is unclearDOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN, the ebullient managing director of the International Monetary Fund, likens its role to that of a doctor. As the crisis has spread, the IMF has been called in to cure ailing economies from Ukraine to Pakistan. It is still too early to judge the success of the fund&#8217;s prescriptions for troubled countries. But the IMF itself is certainly in far ruder health than it was at the start of the financial crisis.Just a year ago the fund&#8217;s finances were in tatters and its relevance was in doubt. During the early stages of an economic crisis that should have been its natural terrain, Barry Eichengreen, an economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote: &#8220;Global crises used to remind us why we have the IMF. If the fund doesn&#8217;t come up with some new ideas for how to handle this one, the crisis may only remind us why we can forget it.&#8221; ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14455617&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The International Monetary Fund: Back from the dead</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14455617&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[But the IMF is not quite ready for the futureTHE International Monetary Fund has had a good crisis. Two years ago the world&#8217;s main international economic institution was heading for irrelevance, its homilies ignored by rich countries, its advice despised in poorer ones and its lending unnecessary in a world flush with private capital. Today the fund is widely hailed as a flexible and innovative crisis-responder. It has committed over $160 billion in a host of new loans and credit lines, up from barely more than $1 billion in 2007. Its lending capacity is being trebled to $750 billion.This warp-speed revival is the result, in part, of good luck. The sudden slump in private capital flows after the collapse of Lehman Brothers a year ago was calamitous for many emerging economies, but it was a powerful reminder of the importance of an official emergency lender. Good leadership has also played a role. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister who took the IMF&#8217;s helm in November 2007, has shown a boldness and political deftness his predecessors lacked. His Keynesian instincts (he hails from France&#8217;s Socialist Party) proved right for the times. His call for a global fiscal stimulus in January 2008, for instance, now seems prescient. He has pushed through reforms that allow the fund to dole out large amounts of money fast, while convincing a broad array of countries, including rising powers like China, India and Brazil, to contribute to its coffers (see article).  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14413372&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The World Bank&#x27;s Doing Business report: Reforming through the tough times</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14413372&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[A World Bank report makes surprisingly cheerful readingWITH falling sales, rising public indebtedness and surging anti-business sentiment, the past year has been a tough one both for business people and for pro-business policymakers. &#8220;It is not just a crisis of the economy,&#8221; says Mahmoud Mohieldin, Egypt&#8217;s minister of investment. &#8220;It is a crisis of economic thinking. It is a crisis that is confusing many reformers.&#8221;Even so, the World Bank&#8217;s annual Doing Business report*, which tracks changes to the regulations that affect business, suggests that governments have handled the storm well. In the year since June 2008, 131 countries introduced 287 pro-business reforms&#8212;20% more than in the previous 12 months and more than in any year since the World Bank started the survey in 2004.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14416716&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Ecuador, Argentina and the IMF: The price of pride</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14416716&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Life outside the system becomes a bit harderWHEN the world economy was booming and prices for South America&#8217;s commodities were high, several left-wing governments in the region liberated themselves from what they denounced as the oppressive tutelage of the IMF, and embarked on a dash for growth powered by big increases in public spending. In today&#8217;s straitened times, such policies are harder to finance. First to find this out is Ecuador. High oil prices allowed Rafael Correa, its socialist president, to ramp up spending on social programmes and to win a second term at an election in April. But oil output and remittances from Ecuadoreans abroad are both falling. Despite better tax collection, the budget deficit is heading for around $1.5 billion this year. Since Ecuador adopted the dollar as its currency after a financial meltdown in 1999, the government must borrow this money and cannot print it. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.worldbank.org/ieg/arde09/index.html">
<title>2009 Annual Review of Development Effectiveness: Achieving Sustainable Development
</title>
<link>http://www.worldbank.org/ieg/arde09/index.html</link>
<description><![CDATA[The global financial crisis has driven up demand for World Bank support to mitigate the effects of the crisis on the poor. At the same time, concern has intensified that every development dollar be used effectively and efficiently to meet development objectives. Although it has always been important for the Bank to demonstrate that its work is producing real results for people living in poverty, it is particularly critical to do so this year. The Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2009 presents the World Bank’s record of performance in achieving outcomes from its projects and country programs and focuses on the Bank's contributions in supporting environmental sustainability. 
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTDIRGEN/Resources/Evaluation_to_improve.pdf">
<title>Evaluation to Help Improve Development Results: A New Paper by the Director General of IEG
</title>
<link>http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTDIRGEN/Resources/Evaluation_to_improve.pdf</link>
<description><![CDATA[This new paper by IEG Director General Vinod Thomas addresses a twofold question on evaluation. First, it deals with the question of the "what" – the need for evaluation methods and institutional frameworks to respond to the growing uncertainties and complexity of development situations. The paper notes the lasting validity of
some of the basics in evaluation, and the need to return to the basics. But it also suggests shifts needed to respond to emerging issues, such as growing interlinkages across sectors. Second, it discusses the "how." In particular, there are issues of capacity building, incentives, and organization that are necessary for an independent evaluation function to be effective within a country’s institutional architecture.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.worldbank.org/ieg/ecd/index.html">
<title>New Monitoring and Evaluation Resource: Mexico&#x27;s M and E System: Scaling Up from the Sectoral to the National Level</title>
<link>http://www.worldbank.org/ieg/ecd/index.html</link>
<description><![CDATA[This paper provides a brief review of Mexico's progressive movement from a sectoral to a governmentwide M and E system. It highlights the critical institutional reforms introduced, the policy decisions, and the most important operational steps that were taken, offering an account of the political context within which such changes and decisions were possible. The paper emphasizes the specific role of the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Policy (CONEVAL) as an innovative development, which furthered institutionalization of evaluation and a results focus at the federal government level through the implementation of the System for Performance Evaluation (SED). A quick review of the governmentwide system’s strengths and main challenges for the future is offered. Some lessons for other countries and conclusions follow.
]]></description>
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