$2.4B
Revel casino shuts down after just 2 years - (finance.yahoo.com) Revel
Casino Hotel opened with a bang a little more than two years ago amid high
hopes of turning around Atlantic City's struggling casino market. But the $2.4
billion resort went out with a whimper in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday,
as its casino closed one day after the hotel checked out its last guest. The
property that debuted at sunrise on April 2, 2012, with its then-president
joining New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno in a blueberry smoothie toast, quietly
ended operations as the last handful of gamblers, who never turned out in great
enough numbers to keep Revel alive, filed out of the sleek glass tower. "When
I started, it was promising. We had high hopes," said Liditze Diaz, a
restaurant worker at Revel. "Then we started hearing rumors, but I
thought, 'No way this place is going to close. It's too new, too pretty.' It's
hard to believe."
China’s
Property Slump Leads to Record Loans to Builders - (www.bloomberg.com) Cash-strapped
Chinese developers are borrowing a record amount in the offshore loan market
this year, adding to the highest debt loads since 2005. Homebuilders in the
world’s second-largest economy got $5.9 billion from foreign banks, up 39
percent from the same period last year, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg. Builder debt has soared to 128 percent of equity, the highest since
2005, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence gauge of 84 companies. New home
prices fell in July in almost all cities the government tracks and developers
are missing sales targets. “Higher leverage on the balance sheet will give
developers a higher financial burden,” said Agnes Wong, credit strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in
Hong Kong. “That means that if presales are not going as quick as they expect
it can translate into trouble more easily than before.”
Anti-euro
party's success poses dilemma for Merkel - (finance.yahoo.com) The
success of a new anti-euro party in a German state election intensifies a
dilemma for Chancellor Angela Merkel: how to handle a rival whose rise could
make it more difficult for her party to form coalition governments around the
country. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 9.7 percent support in Saxony on
Sunday and took its first seats in a regional legislature. It is the latest
success for a party that has already won representation to the European
Parliament after narrowly missing the 5 percent threshold needed to enter
Germany's parliament last fall. AfD leader Bernd Lucke told Deutschlandfunk
radio Monday that his party has "visibly arrived in the German party
spectrum" and that it is "growing from election to election."
The party hopes to repeat its success in two more eastern states in elections
Sept. 14.
German
GDP Shrinking Signals Fading Euro-Area Powerhouse - (www.bloomberg.com) Cracks
are emerging in Germany’s once rock-solid economy as companies’
reluctance to invest bears out Mario Draghi’s warning that the euro-area recovery is in
danger. Gross domestic product in Europe’s largest economy shrank 0.2 percent in the
second quarter, the Federal Statistics Office said today, confirming an Aug. 14
estimate. While part of the drop can be attributed to a mild winter that front-loaded
output earlier in the year, the Bundesbank has cast doubt on a second-half
rebound and suggested its forecasts may prove too optimistic. The weakness of a
German economy that has outperformed its peers since the regional debt crisis
comes as European Central Bank President Draghi ponders adding more stimulus to
fight the threat of deflation in the currency bloc. He signaled that declining inflation (ECCPEST) expectations could tip the ECB into
broad-based asset purchases, an option officials may discuss at this week’s
policy-setting meeting.
Swiss
Economy Unexpectedly Stalls as Euro Area Takes Toll - (www.bloomberg.com) The
Swiss economy unexpectedly stalled in the second quarter as stagnating growth
in the euro area hurt exports. Swiss gross domestic product was unchanged in the three months through
June from the previous quarter, when it expanded 0.5 percent, the State
Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said in a statement today. That’s the
weakest quarterly reading in two years and compares with a median estimate for
0.5 percent growth in a Bloomberg News survey of 16 economists. The Swiss National Bank’s three-year-old cap
on the franc has helped the economy outperform that
of the euro area in nine of the last 12 quarters. With conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, as well as in the Middle
East, putting a strain on global growth, SNB President Thomas Jordan yesterday
reaffirmed the ceiling’s importance to ward off economic risks.
China
Targeting Foreign Companies, American Chamber Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
Ukraine Warns of Europe’s Worst Conflict Since World War II - (www.bloomberg.com)
Ukraine Warns of Europe’s Worst Conflict Since World War II - (www.bloomberg.com)
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