TOP
STORIES:
Italians Squeezed by $9.50-a-Gallon Gas Face Costly Drive Home
- (www.bloomberg.com) Giovanni Cimmino filled up
his Fiat Multipla in Croatia before returning to Italy after
his summer holiday, avoiding Europe’s highest gasoline prices. “You need a
smart strategy to save on gas,” said Cimmino, 37, who manages a metals trading
company near Milan. With pump prices at a record in Italy, “I tend to use more
public transportation and avoid driving when it’s not necessary.” Unleaded fuel
has climbed to more than 2 euros ($2.50) a liter, about $9.50 a gallon, in some
areas of Italy, including parts of the Tuscany region. That’s made this year’s
end-of- summer “rientro,” when Italians return to the cities after their August
vacations, more costly than usual.
Majority of Jobs Added in the Recovery Pay Low Wages, Study
Finds - (www.nytimes.com) While a majority of jobs lost
during the downturn were in the middle range of wages, a majority of those
added during the recovery have been low paying, according to a
new report from the National Employment Law Project. The
disappearance of midwage, midskill jobs is part of a longer-term trend that
some refer to as a hollowing out of the work force, though it has probably been
accelerated by government layoffs. “The overarching message here is we don’t
just have a jobs deficit; we have a ‘good jobs’ deficit,” said Annette
Bernhardt, the report’s author and a policy co-director at the National
Employment Law Project, a liberal research and advocacy group.
Judgment Days Arrive for Euro Crisis - (www.online.wsj.com) After an uncharacteristically
calm August, European policy makers and financial markets are facing a
tumultuous autumn marked by major showdowns in key euro-zone battlegrounds. For
years, policy makers have wondered what would happen if a large euro-zone
country, like Spain, was unable to borrow money in large quantities. Now they
are edging closer to finding out. Demand for Spanish bonds is wilting fast, and
Spain must issue billions more to cover its deficits and repay old debt coming
due in October.
Deflation Deepens As Japan Contraction Risk Intensifies:
Economy - (www.bloomberg.com) Japan’s
consumer prices slid at a faster pace in July and industrial production
unexpectedly slumped, raising the danger that the world’s third-largest economy
has slipped back into a contraction. The benchmark price gauge, which excludes fresh
food, fell 0.3 percent in July from a year before, putting the central bank’s 1
percent inflation goal further from reach, a government report showed in Tokyo.
Industrial output fell 1.2 percent. A private measure of manufacturing for August
was the lowest since the aftermath of the record March 2011 earthquake. Today’s
releases reflect diminishing demand overseas for the nation’s exports amid the
European crisis and exchange-rate appreciation, and the end of incentives for
vehicle purchases. With Prime Minister Yoshihiko
Noda’s government today predicting it will miss a deficit-reduction
target, pressure may rise on the Bank of Japan (8301) to expand
stimulus and sustain the recovery.
Analysis: JPMorgan faces sea of trouble resolving
"Whale" probe - (www.reuters.com)
The fallout from a nearly $6
billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase & Co looks like it will haunt the
big U.S. bank and its high-profile chief executive, Jamie Dimon, for months to
come. U.S. authorities are interviewing witnesses in both the United States and
Europe to determine if three former London-based traders and others who worked
with them at JPMorgan tried to hide some of the mounting losses during the
first quarter of this year, said people familiar with the situation. The
situation presents several challenges to U.S. authorities: the potentially
irregular trading occurred in London; and it was carried out by non-U.S.
citizens, such as French national Bruno Iksil, who became known in the market
as the "London Whale" for the size of his positions.
No comments:
Post a Comment