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Economics, Policy & Regulation

Emerging Markets Roundup: China

WAGE GAP CLOSES AS GOVERNMENT EMBARKS ON SOCIAL REFORMS By Thomas Clouse China announced plans last month to reduce its wealth distribution gap through a series of measures—such as raising minimum wages, loosening lending and deposit rates and increasing ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Milestone: Spain Cuts Red Tape In An Effort To Help Businesses

MILESTONE: SPAIN By Forrest Jones Spain wants to make life a little easier for its business sector. Recently, Madrid drafted legislation to make it simpler for companies to conduct business in different autonomous regions within the country ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Newsmaker: White’s SEC Appointment Sends Mixed Message

NEWSMAKER US By Valentina Pasquali Though still bearing the scars of the recent financial crisis, the US economy is recovering, and markets are returning to levels unseen in years. White is reputed to be a tough enforcer Photo Credits: ...

Banking

Milestone: Enforcement Will Only Get Tougher Under New FSA Regime

MILESTONES: UK By Anita Hawser After four years under a shadow, the UK’s Financial Services Authority is once again being held up as a model financial regulator — both for its principles-based approach to reporting and for its ability to ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Milestone: Growing Chorus At Home Urges UK To Break With Brussels

MILESTONES: EUROPE By Valentina Pasquali On the tail of the European economic crisis, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union is nearing a breaking point. While in Brussels some members are pushing for further integration, in ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Newsmaker: Belka Navigates Choppy Economic Waters in Poland

NEWSMAKERS: POLAND By Justin Keay Poland’s central bank governor, Marek Belka, marked the start of the New Year with an interview to a leading business newspaper in which he claimed Poland had experienced “the perfect slowdown” rather than the slump ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Newsmaker: Blast From The Past As Park Geun-Hye Is Elected PM

NEWSMAKERS: SOUTH KOREA By Thomas Clouse South Korea will swear in 60-year-old Park Geun-hye as the country’s first female prime minister this month, after she narrowly defeated her more liberal competitor, Moon Jae-in, in the general election in December. ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Newsmaker: New Treasury Secretary Lew Lacks Private Sector Expertise

NEWSMAKERSUS By Valentina Pasquali With high-stakes negotiations with Congress under way, US president Barack Obama is bringing in a new treasury secretary. Lew: An experienced political negotiator Jacob Lew, 57, was the White House’s chief of ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Newsmaker: Venezuelan Successor Fails To Allay Concerns Over Power Vacuum

NEWSMAKERS: VENEZUELA By Valentina Pasquali As Hugo Chávez’s 13-year-long domination of Venezuelan politics is overshadowed by ill health, speculation over who will carry on his legacy is largely focused on vice president Nicolás Maduro Moros, whom Chávez himself appointed as his ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Investors, Not Banks, Will Feel Brunt Of Tobin Tax

MILESTONES: EU By Anita Hawser The proposed Tobin Tax, or financial transaction tax (FTT), is a political hot potato that is being kicked around by various European countries in the wake of the global financial crisis as a means ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Milestone: Judging Alternatives To Libor

MILESTONES: UK By Anita Hawser The ongoing controversy surrounding Libor, the global benchmark interest rate used for pricing financial contracts, has sparked a wider debate about the merits of using alternative reference rates. The Bank of England ...

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

AFP 2012 – End of FDIC Unlimited Insurance: Where Will Companies Stash Cash?

End of FDIC Unlimited Insurance: Where Will Companies Stash Cash? Part of the problem, of course, is the potential counterparty...