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<title>American banks: When sorrows come </title>
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<description><![CDATA[Commercial banks prepare, reluctantly, to take centre stageEVERY episode in the credit crunch has had its dramatic flourish. There were the defenestrations at Citigroup and Merrill Lynch late last year; then, in March, the Bear Stearns fiasco; the humbling of UBS; and now Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a tale of hubris that might impress Shakespeare himself. What next? With the tragedy of the mortgage giants still unfolding, another dark drama is entering its second act, and it has rather a lot of players. It concerns America&#8217;s commercial banks. &#8220;Pretty dismal&#8221; was the frank description of their recent performance offered on August 26th by Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). That was just after announcing a rise in the number of banks on its danger list, from 90 to 117. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12007269&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Private equity and banks: Loan rangers </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12007269&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Will private equity ride to banks&#8217; rescue?IN MOST financial crises private equity is part of the problem. During a typical credit cycle it is among the first to use cheap financing to buy companies. Buy-out firms gradually become trigger-happy, overpaying and loading businesses with so much debt that some of them go bust. After the crash, the industry is in disgrace and skulks away to bind its wounds. Years later it returns, penitent, wiser&#8212;but hungry once again for cheap loans.In this financial crisis, however, private equity thinks it is part of the solution. Buy-out firms have struck lots of dodgy deals, certainly, but they are still rich and ambitious. And amid the financial wreckage of the credit collapse, private-equity partners think they have spotted a chance to make a lot of money by helping Western banks to repair their tattered balance sheets. ...]]></description>
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<title>Nigeria: Are the banks as shiny as they look? </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11975488&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Doubts persist about Nigeria&#8217;s banksTHE bright logos of Nigeria&#8217;s financial institutions adorn the tallest and poshest office blocks in central Lagos, the country&#8217;s commercial capital, testimony to years of impressive growth in banking. But now, after a rocky year, there are worries that some of the optimism may have been overblown. The reform of Nigeria&#8217;s creaking, corrupt banking system was one of the big achievements of President Olusegun Obasanjo in his second term in office (2003-07). As part of a policy to squeeze weak or failing banks out of business, in 2005 the Central Bank of Nigeria raised banks&#8217; capital requirements. In a hectic round of consolidation, the number of banks dropped from 89 to 24. Those that remained have had a very good few years, with massive local expansion and sometimes triple-digit growth in their share prices. And with less than a fifth of Nigerians keeping their money in banks and with fast growth led by private companies, there still seems to be plenty of potential for more business. Banks surveyed by a Lagos-based stockbroker, Afrinvest, showed that median before-tax earnings had risen by 141% year-on-year by June.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11921736&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Auction-rate securities: Kicked in the ARS </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11921736&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Once again, banks are buckling under pressure from an attorney-general &#8220;LIKE a Moroccan bazaar&#8221; was how William Galvin, Massachusetts&#8217;s secretary of state, described the market for auction-rate securities (ARS), whose collapse has left thousands of investors stuck with debt they had assumed they could easily sell. But there is a difference. Getting a stallholder in Fez to take back damaged goods is a tall order. Banks, on the other hand, have moved quickly under pressure to buy back the paper they flogged, in what looks like the biggest-ever forced bail-out of Main Street by Wall Street.In normal markets, auction-rate debt looked highly seductive. With the interest rate reset weekly or monthly in auctions, cities, student-loan trusts and the like could issue long-term debt while benefiting from lower short-term rates. Buyers got a near-cash product that paid higher yields than money-market funds. Brokers typically creamed off up to 0.25% of a market that swelled to $330 billion by last summer. When demand began to subside late last year, dealers bought the debt themselves to prevent auctions from failing. But most pulled out in February as the failures became endemic. New York&#8217;s Andrew Cuomo and other attorneys-general took up the cudgel&#8212;in an echo of Eliot Spitzer&#8217;s post-dotcom crusade. UBS, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch have agreed to buy back more than a combined $41 billion of ARS and pay at least $250m in fines. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were reportedly close to a settlement on August 13th.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11920863&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Bank strategies: No size fits all </title>
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<description><![CDATA[Don&#8217;t blame banks&#8217; business models for the credit crisis. Blame their managementFROM &#8220;you and us&#8221; to &#8220;us and them&#8221;. UBS, a dishevelled Swiss bank, announced on August 12th that it was stepping away from its integrated model and establishing its investment-banking, wealth-management and asset-management divisions as stand-alone entities. UBS&#8217;s management scoffs at the idea that this will lead to the sale of the investment bank, but a break-up is precisely what many inside and outside the bank think is needed. The problem, they say, is that big banks like UBS and America&#8217;s Citigroup have got the wrong model. It is true that risk-loving investment bankers and stability-prizing private bankers make unlikely bedfellows. The recklessness of UBS&#8217;s investment bankers has made the bank the credit crunch&#8217;s biggest total loss-maker to date. Clients of its private bank are spooked: the wealth-management arm suffered an overall loss of deposits in the second quarter. Swiss regulators are also unnerved and want a more robust capital regime for the country&#8217;s big banks. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11895183&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Northern Rock: Of banks and men </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11895183&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The mortgage lender&#8217;s cash call is an ominous sign for all British banksSTUDENTS of politics (and more than a few politicians) know only too well the old dictum about lies that are repeated often enough becoming truth. Those foolish enough to believe it should take a look at the sorry tale of Northern Rock, a troubled mortgage lender that failed last September when it ran out of cash. For almost a year afterwards Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the exchequer, repeated, mantra-like, that this was a sound bank brought low by events from afar, and that taxpayers would get back every one of the billions of pounds they lent it. On August 5th Mr Darling was mugged by reality when Northern Rock came to him, cap in hand, again. This time the bank wanted help in shoring up its balance-sheet, which is crumbling thanks to a mortgage book that looks worse by the day. The government, which is still owed some GBP21 billion ($41 billion) by the hapless bank, has agreed to convert as much as GBP3 billion of the debt (as well as some GBP400m in preference shares) into ordinary shares. This urgent need for capital should make those who still think taxpayers will get all their money back think twice. So should those who dare to hope that Britain&#8217;s banks have seen the worst of the credit crisis. ...]]></description>
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<title>Bank losses: Hall of shame </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11897636&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Many bank bosses should count themselves lucky still to be in a jobBANKING sells itself as a cut-throat industry, lavish in its rewards but steadfast in its treatment of underperformers. A year into the credit crisis, it has too often been steadfast in its rewards and lavish in its approach to failure. The three banks that have suffered the heftiest losses since credit first crunched&#8212;Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS&#8212;have all swept out the old management since their problems surfaced. But of the ten banks to have spilt the most red ink over the past year (see table), five have the same chief executives in place. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11885670&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Venezuela: The autocrat of Caracas </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11885670&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Hugo Chavez tightens the state&#8217;s grip on politics and the economyFOR much of the past eight months, since suffering defeat in a referendum on changing the constitution, Hugo Chavez has seemed to be on the defensive. Abroad, he repaired strained relations with Colombia&#8217;s president and with Spain&#8217;s King Juan Carlos. At home, he backpedalled on unpopular measures, such as a new socialist educational curriculum and a draconian intelligence law. He met local businessmen in June and urged them to invest, in the hope that increased production would damp inflation of over 30%. But with Mr Chavez moderation rarely lasts, and he has now veered left again. On July 31st he announced that the government would buy the country&#8217;s third-biggest bank, Banco de Venezuela, owned by Spain&#8217;s Grupo Santander. Days later, the government published 26 decrees, many of which mimic the constitutional changes rejected in the referendum. Some of them will further tighten the state&#8217;s stranglehold on the economy. ...]]></description>
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<title>Meinl Bank: Pulling the wool </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11848791&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Some Jersey-knit structures enrage activist investorsCorrection to this articleTHE image of Austria&#8217;s financial markets continues to corrode. Just weeks after the conclusion of a trial over improper use of funds at Bawag, a local bank, another scandal is gathering pace.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11848906&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>South Korean banking: A game of patience </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11848906&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[HSBC&#8217;s difficult decision over Korea Exchange BankMISSING a deadline. Or missing a chance to build a meaningful presence in Asia&#8217;s fourth-largest economy. As The Economist went to press that was the choice facing HSBC, whose dogged pursuit of Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) has become a litmus test of South Korean attitudes to foreign investment. HSBC had a deadline of July 31st for regulators to approve its purchase of a 51% stake in KEB from Lone Star Funds, a Dallas-based investment firm, for $6.3 billion. That date came and went. HSBC is set to announce a decision on whether to keep up the chase on August 4th.That regulators missed the target-date is no surprise. South Korea&#8217;s financial supervisor, the Financial Services Commission, began considering HSBC&#8217;s application to acquire KEB only in late July, even though HSBC filed the application more than six months ago.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/markets/rankings/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11819910&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Big Mac index: Sandwiched</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/markets/rankings/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11819910&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Burgernomics says currencies are very dear in Europe but very cheap in AsiaEVER since the credit storms first broke last August, the prices of stocks, bonds, gold and other investment assets have been blown this way and that. Currencies have been pushed around too. Did this buffeting bring them any closer to their underlying fair value? Not according to the Big Mac index, our lighthearted guide to exchange rates. Many currencies look more out of whack than in July 2007, when we last compared burger prices.The Big Mac Index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), which says that exchange rates should move to make the price of a basket of goods the same in each country. Our basket contains just a single item, a Big Mac hamburger, but one that is sold around the world. The exchange rate that leaves a Big Mac costing the same in dollars everywhere is our fair-value yardstick. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11793109&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Australian finance: Down under </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11793109&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The air goes out of one of the last remaining boomsIN THE early 1990s the mining town of Newman in Western Australia was in a deep slump. Its population had dwindled to 3,000 from a peak of 15,000 in the 1970s. Thanks to extraordinary demand (and prices) for commodities, primarily from China, migration has since been reversed. The population is nearing 11,000 and no tour of the local streets is complete without pausing at a home that was recently sold for A$800,000 ($770,000), having fetched A$80,000 just a few years ago. The region is still thirsting for people. There are acute shortages of diesel-engine mechanics and electricians, as well as cooks and even jackaroos (cowboys). Lorry drivers can earn in excess of A$120,000 a year, plus benefits and vacations. Bringing in more people is tough because the waiting list for the kind of manufactured homes that can be brought in on trailers&#8212;the fastest solution to a housing shortage&#8212;is more than a year.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11793117&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Bank secrecy: Hear no evil </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11793117&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Is the Swiss model of private banking in danger? THIS is the opportunity of a lifetime to hire more private bankers, says Alex Widmer, chief executive of Bank Julius Baer, part of Switzerland&#8217;s third-biggest banking group. Baer added 49 bankers to its ranks in the first six months of the year, most of them snatched from UBS and Credit Suisse, its bigger, credit-crunched rivals. It plans to add as many as 60 more this year. Sarasin &amp; Cie, another Swiss bank, is on a similar hiring spree.Such expansionism may look rather brave, given recent attacks from American and German tax authorities on private-banking practices. On July 17th a Senate subcommittee raked through allegations that two particular banks, LGT Bank of Liechtenstein and UBS, had helped wealthy Americans to evade taxes. A contrite UBS witness said that since November the bank had stopped sending its private bankers from Switzerland to America to advise American taxpayers. The risk of their infringing regulations on what they may or may not sell was judged too great. &#8220;I hope that other Swiss banks will take notice,&#8221; said the committee&#8217;s chairman. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11793125&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The Big Mac Index: Sandwiched </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11793125&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Burgernomics says currencies are very dear in Europe but very cheap in AsiaCorrection to this articleEVER since the credit storms first broke last August, the prices of stocks, bonds, gold and other investment assets have been blown this way and that. Currencies have been pushed around too. Did this buffeting bring them any closer to their underlying fair value? Not according to the Big Mac Index, our lighthearted guide to exchange rates. Many currencies look more out of whack than in July 2007, when we last compared burger prices. ...]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751202&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Aftermath of a mega-merger: Three amigos, only one conquistador </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751202&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Mixed fortunes for the buyers of ABN AMROTO THE victors, the toils. Less than a year has passed since the bosses of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Fortis, a Belgo-Dutch lender, and Santander of Spain celebrated the biggest deal in banking history, the &#8364;72 billion ($101 billion, at the time) acquisition of ABN AMRO, a Dutch bank. Their divergent fortunes since then reflect the woeful state of European banking.Start with the casualties. Jean-Paul Votron lost his job as chief executive of Fortis on July 11th, paying the price for his announcement in June that the bank was raising another &#8364;8.3 billion of capital by selling assets, placing shares and scrapping its interim dividend. The bank tapped shareholders for &#8364;13.4 billion in 2007 to pay for its &#8364;24 billion portion of the ABN deal and had denied until recently that it needed more cash. Enraged investors asked the Dutch regulator to investigate whether those assurances amounted to misinformation&#8212;the effect was to depress the value of their holdings even further. The bank was even moved to deny rumours that depositors were withdrawing their savings on July 15th. Some think the company may be in play, with ING mooted as a possible buyer.  ...]]></description>
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<title>Prediction markets: Fortune telling </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751188&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[How to bet on the next bank collapseSURPRISES, in the staid world of banking, tend to be of the unpleasant sort, as customers at IndyMac Bancorp, a California thrift, can attest. Cross a few palms with silver, however, and there is a new way to profit from others&#8217; unexpected losses. Punters can now bet on bank failures in America, thanks to 12 new contracts against individually named banks listed on July 16th by Intrade, the largest online prediction market. Once viewed as grubby gambling dens, prediction markets have sharpened up. Intrade says it has brokered $76m of bets this year. Its data have been used as a price-discovery tool by America&#8217;s Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the United States Navy, various Federal Reserve banks, and the European Central Bank. The accuracy of prediction markets makes them hard to ignore; they were better than Gallup polls in predicting the outcome of elections between 1998 and 2004. Using the wisdom of crowds, they do a good job of forecasting the outcome of sporting events. ...]]></description>
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<title>American banks: Fear of failure </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751195&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The collapse of a big mortgage lender sparks panic about othersBY TRADITION, sequels are pale shadows of their forerunners. In this financial crisis, each episode in the saga seems even more potent than the last. While one arm of the American government tried to allay fears about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, another was busily orchestrating the seizure of IndyMac Bancorp, a large mortgage lender which collapsed on July 11th. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) set up a new bank to take control of IndyMac&#8217;s insured deposits and assets, and will now try to sell what it can.Judged by the standards of Northern Rock, a British mortgage lender where the death throes lasted for months, the failure of IndyMac has been orderly. Its consequences were anything but. Worried IndyMac customers queued in the sweltering Californian sun to retrieve their money, despite FDIC guarantees on deposits of up to $100,000 (of the bank&#8217;s $19 billion of deposits, $1 billion is uninsured).  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750886&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Consumer banking: The high price of free accounts </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750886&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The competition watchdog&#8217;s challenge may be more bark than biteAMID the gloom of a faltering economy and a slumping housing market, Britain&#8217;s banks, with their supervisors in hot pursuit, have been stumbling from one crisis to another. Having written off billions of pounds on the value of exotic credit products, and then tapped shareholders for billions more to rebuild strained balance sheets, banks have been bracing themselves for the next shoe to drop. Most expected it to come in the form of writedowns on bad loans in their traditional banking business. Some analysts reckon these may total as much as GBP19 billion, if defaults rise to levels last seen in the previous downturn in the early 1990s. Yet trouble, as so often happens, has come from an unexpected direction.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11708031&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Chinese and Taiwanese banks: Finally thinking Strait </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11708031&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The first steps in what could become more financial integration in Greater ChinaCorrection to this articleXIAMEN, the 19th-century tea port known to the British as Amoy, became in the 20th century a fortified front line in China&#8217;s struggle with Taiwan. For many years one of the only things it exchanged with Taiwan was artillery fire across the narrow strip of water that separates it from the Taiwan-controlled island of Kinmen. ...]]></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.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14506">
<title>GERMANY:German Police and Protesters Battle Near Site of G-8 Meeting</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14506</link>
<description><![CDATA[German police clashed with hundreds of protesters in the port of Rostock on Saturday following a much larger peaceful demonstration against the Group of 8 summit meeting next week in a nearby Baltic resort.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14502">
<title>SUDAN: China accused of supporting Sudan rights abuse</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14502</link>
<description><![CDATA[A leading opponent of a Chinese-financed dam in Sudan accused Beijing on Friday of fueling widespread human rights abuses, as Khartoum moved to relocate 70,000 villagers to make way for the project.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14577">
<title>CONGO: New row over delay of Congo funds report</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14577</link>
<description><![CDATA[The World Bank has withheld the findings of an inquiry into alleged 
mismanagement of bank funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fresh questions about the anti-corruption strategy of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14587">
<title>CONGO: New row over delay of Congo funds report</title>
<link>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14587</link>
<description><![CDATA[The World Bank has withheld the findings of an inquiry into alleged
mismanagement of bank funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fresh questions about the anti-corruption strategy of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=337140_EN">
<title>18/08/08 - ING DIRECT closes Interhyp takeover bid with approx. 90% of shares tendered</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=337140_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=336471_EN">
<title>13/08/08 - Second Quarter 2008 Results</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=336471_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=334742_EN">
<title>30/07/08 - ING DIRECT announces approx. 90% of Interhyp shares tendered; public takeover bid extended</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=334742_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=333918_EN">
<title>22/07/08 - ING Closes Sale of Mexican Non-Core Insurance Business to AXA</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=333918_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=332593_EN">
<title>14/07/08 - ING DIRECT receives regulatory approval for public takeover bid for Germany&#x27;s largest mortgage distributor Interhyp</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=332593_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=332069_EN">
<title>09/07/08 - ING receives approval to start life insurance in Ukraine</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=332069_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=330882_EN">
<title>01/07/08 - ING Closes Acquisition of CitiStreet, Moves to Leading Position in US Defined Contribution Business</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=330882_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=330304_EN">
<title>27/06/08 - ING to appoint Lard Friese CEO of Nationale-Nederlanden and Chairman of Dutch Intermediary Division</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=330304_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=330123_EN">
<title>27/06/08 - ING declares tender offer for preference shares A unconditional</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=330123_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=329975_EN">
<title>26/06/08 - ING appoints Karien van Gennip as Director European &#x26; International Affairs</title>
<link>http://www.ing.com/group/showdoc.jsp?docid=329975_EN</link>
<description><![CDATA[ ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12010733&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Poverty: The bottom 1.4 billion </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12010733&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The world is poorer than we thought, the World Bank discoversCorrection to this articleIN APRIL 2007 the World Bank announced that 986m people worldwide suffered from extreme poverty&#8212;the first time its count had dropped below 1 billion. On August 26th it had grim news to report. According to two of its leading researchers, Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion, the &#8220;developing world is poorer than we thought&#8221;. The number of poor was almost 1.4 billion in 2005. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11664289&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Who runs the world?: Wrestling for influence </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11664289&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The post-war global institutions have largely worked well. But rising countries and growing threats are challenging their pre-eminence THE powerful, like the victorious, do not just write history. They grab the seats at the top tables, from the United Nations Security Council to the boards of the big international economic and financial institutions. They collude behind closed doors. They decide who can join their cosy clubs and expect the rest of the world to obey the instructions they hand down. That is how many outsiders, not just in the poor world, will see the summit that takes place from July 7th to 9th of the G8, the closest the world has to an informal (ie, self-appointed) steering group. Leaders of seven of the world&#8217;s richest democracies, plus oil-and gas-fired Russia, gather this year in Toyako, on Hokkaido in northern Japan, to ruminate on climate change, rising food and energy prices, and the best way to combat global scourges from disease to nuclear proliferation. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11670305&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>International government: What a way to run the world</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11670305&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Global institutions are an outdated muddle; the rise of Asia makes their reform a priority for the WestCLUBS are all too often full of people prattling on about things they no longer know about. On July 7th the leaders of the group that allegedly runs the world&#8212;the G7 democracies plus Russia&#8212;gather in Japan to review the world economy. But what is the point of their discussing the oil price without Saudi Arabia, the world&#8217;s biggest producer? Or waffling about the dollar without China, which holds so many American Treasury bills? Or slapping sanctions on Robert Mugabe, with no African present? Or talking about global warming, AIDS or inflation without anybody from the emerging world? Cigar smoke and ignorance are in the air.The G8 is not the only global club that looks old and impotent (see article). The UN Security Council has told Iran to stop enriching uranium, without much effect. The nuclear non-proliferation regime is in tatters. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the fireman in previous financial crises, has been a bystander during the credit crunch. The World Trade Organisation&#8217;s Doha round is stuck. Of course, some bodies, such as the venerable Bank for International Settlements (see article), still do a fine job. But as global problems proliferate and information whips round the world ever faster, the organisational response looks ever shabbier, slower and feebler. The world&#8217;s governing bodies need to change.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTOED/EXTENVIRONMENT/0,,contentMDK:21798364%7EmenuPK:4681948%7EpagePK:64829573%7EpiPK:64829550%7EtheSitePK:4681890,00.html">
<title>New Joint World Bank-IMF-MIGA Evaluation: Environmental Sustainability: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support</title>
<link>http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTOED/EXTENVIRONMENT/0,,contentMDK:21798364%7EmenuPK:4681948%7EpagePK:64829573%7EpiPK:64829550%7EtheSitePK:4681890,00.html</link>
<description><![CDATA[Bank Group support for the environment has grown during the past 15 years and performance has improved. At the same time, environmental challenges have increased, and problems in the critical areas of pollution, congestion, loss of species, and climate change have worsened. In view of the public goods nature of these concerns, the Bank Group has a special role to play with respect to environmental issues-and has indeed been a leader in the analysis and advocacy that helps countries focus on these challenges. It is also the largest multilateral source of environment-related financing. But far greater progress is needed. These concerns must be given increased operational priority, as should how the Bank, IFC, and MIGA work together, in recognition that long-term economic growth, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability are interlinked.  Visit the Website | Download the Report ]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/oed/oeddoclib.nsf/DocUNIDViewForJavaSearch/F04A182C08A0E9398525740C00588FB8/$file/ppar_42709.pdf">
<title>New Project Performance Assessment Report (PPAR) on Colombia: Structural Fiscal Adjustment Project; First Programmatic Fiscal and Institutional Adjustment Loan Second Programmatic Fiscal and Institutional Structural Adjustment Loan; Third Programmatic Fiscal and Institutional Structural Adjustment Loan</title>
<link>http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/oed/oeddoclib.nsf/DocUNIDViewForJavaSearch/F04A182C08A0E9398525740C00588FB8/$file/ppar_42709.pdf</link>
<description><![CDATA[This PPAR of four loans extended to Colombia to help the government improve its fiscal performance and its institutional efficiency: the Structural Fiscal Adjustment Program (SFAL), and a series of three loans called the Programmatic Fiscal and Institutional Adjustment Loans, I to III (FIALS). Although the SFAL was an independent operation, it served as a steppingstone for the design of the more ambitious program that framed the FIAL series. For this reason, this report evaluates the outcomes of three processes: the SFAL, the FIALs and the fiscal operations as a whole.]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://feeds.feedburner.com/IEG-WBG-News">
<title>Reminder! Update to the NEW IEG RSS feed</title>
<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/IEG-WBG-News</link>
<description><![CDATA[To better serve our users, IEG has moved it's RSS feed to a new address. The new feed address is http://feeds.feedburner.com/IEG-WBG-News. Subscribers to the old feeds (www.worldbank.org/ieg/rss/oed.xml, www.worldbank.org/ieg/rss/feed.xml) are encouraged to update their feed to either of the two the new address as soon as possible.]]></description>
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</rdf:RDF>