Conflicting Interests

“News that the Irish government were going to accept assistance with a debt bailout package certainly gave traders something to cheer about at the start of the week,” said sales trader Will Hedden at betting firm IG Index.

“But there seems to be a creeping realisation that this won’t necessarily mark the end of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.”

“The government has made a request to the European Union and they have agreed,” Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said after an emergency cabinet meeting in Dublin.

His finance minister, Brian Lenihan, said the euro partners “have not determined a precise figure,” although Didier Reynders, the finance minister of the EU’s Belgian presidency, suggested “less than 100 billion euros” (137 billion dollars).

As concerns grow on the continent about European economies feeling the knock-on effects of Ireland’s plight, Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s cabinet was set to gather for an emergency meeting to put the finishing touches on its austerity plan.

“A cabinet meeting is likely on Sunday, in the afternoon,” Cowen’s spokesman said.

There are concerns that the strains could become systemic across Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, the so-called weaker PIGS members of the eurozone, and infecting potentially even Italy.

There is uncertainty about the structure of expected help for Ireland, and concern about what happens when an underlying EU-IMF rescue scheme for eurozone countries expires in two years’ time.

There is “absolutely no reason” to compare Spain with Ireland, Finance Minister Elena Salgado said on Friday.

“We are able to borrow fresh funds at practically the same (cost) as Italy and do much better than Ireland, Portugal and most certainly than Greece.

In the weeks since the Fed boldly began to pump 600 billion dollars into the US economy, a swirl of criticism has encircled the central bank.

Abroad, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has been accused of recklessly devaluing the dollar — destabilizing global trade by making US exports cheaper — and of hypocrisy for criticizing similar moves by China.

GM, Ford and Chrysler were among the hardest hit by the 2008 collapse in US auto sales amid the worst economic downturn in decades.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost at the Detroit Three automakers and their suppliers which had just begun to reap the rewards of years of painful restructuring when the crisis hit.

News Corp. has been tight-lipped about the project but the Australian-born media mogul acknowledged its existence for the first time in an interview last week with his Fox Business Network.

Asked what “exciting projects” his sprawling media and entertainment company was working on, the 79-year-old Murdoch cited The Daily but offered no further information about the tabloid for Apple’s touchscreen tablet computer.

The two economic powers met at a time of global market concern over the fragile state of indebted European economies, amid fears that countries may fight to lower their currencies’ values to boost exports.

In a news conference after the summit, Obama took a veiled stab at economies such as China’s, which he has blamed for suppressing the yuan’s value despite a bulging trade surplus.

The announcement marked the latest setback in a protracted contest that pits the US aerospace giant Boeing against rival EADS, the parent company of France-based Airbus.

“Certain aspects of the source selection have taken longer than we originally anticipated,” spokesman Colonel Les Kodlick told AFP.

The Greens, junior partner in the coalition, withdrew their support a day after the European Union and International Monetary Fund agreed to rescue Ireland with loans to tackle its banking and budget crisis, which have stirred up deep public anger.

European and IMF officials began thrashing out details of the package — expected to total 80 to 90 billion euros — on Monday, while the government put finishing touches to a drastic 15 billion euros ($20.5 billion) austerity plan.

George Osborne, the finance minister, said Britain would offer Ireland bilateral aid as well as honoring its commitments as an IMF shareholder, but did not want to be part of a permanent bailout mechanism for euro zone members.

The EU and the IMF agreed on Sunday to help bail out Ireland with loans to tackle its banking and budget crisis in an attempt to safeguard Europe’s financial stability.

On Sunday, Ireland applied to the EU and the International Monetary Fund for a financial aid package to cover its fiscal needs and potential future capital requirements of its banking system.

EU finance ministers backed the request for aid, which an EU source put at 80-90 billion euros, to stop market concerns about Ireland’s debt from spreading to other countries with big budget gaps such as Spain and Portugal, threatening a systemic crisis.

But when the messages on internet bulletin boards became a concerted campaign of criticism against his oil and gas exploration company, Bramhill snapped. “When it comes to dishonesty, and not running the company the way it should be run, and spreading untrue rumors — this is where we’ve got major, major issues,” a disillusioned Bramhill told Reuters in early September.

Bramhill’s experience is part of a bigger story of insults and untruths involving a clutch of firms listed on AIM, London’s junior stock market. According to the companies, they are victims of a kind of financial cyber-bullying in which discussions among investors on internet bulletin boards have turned abusive. Executives of the targeted companies, typically small and often in commodities, suspect an organized hand may be directing those behind the comments — and then cashing in on the reaction.

Economists said the effort to manage inflation expectations was meant to reinforce an array of measures in recent days to curb actual inflation, including Friday’s order to banks to hold more of their deposits in reserve instead of lending them out.

“We can understand the worries of residents about the relatively quick rise in food prices and other daily necessities,” the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planning agency, said.

The central bank will release updated economic forecasts on Tuesday as part of the minutes from its latest policy-setting meeting, including a first stab at estimating growth, inflation and unemployment levels for 2013.

At first blush, the forecasts would seem destined to take a back seat to the section detailing the Fed’s discussions around launching its new $600 billion bond-buying program.

The ratings agency said it was revising New Zealand’s foreign currency outlook to negative from stable, citing a widening current account deficit and credit risks in its banking sector. An actual cut in the AA+/A-1+ rating could well lead to an increase in borrowing costs for the country and its banks.

“The outlook revision on the foreign currency ratings reflects our recognition of the risks stemming from New Zealand’s projected widening external imbalances in the context of the country’s weakened fiscal flexibility,” said S&P sovereign ratings credit analyst Kyran Curry.

Prosecutors and securities regulators are likely to file a number of cases targeting the $1.7 trillion hedge fund industry rather than a single spectacular case, said the lawyers, who have knowledge of the investigations but did not want to be identified since details have not been made public.

The new round of prosecutions could start in the next few weeks or early next year, the lawyers said, but it is too soon to say whether they will rival last year’s arrest of Galleon Group hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam and nearly two-dozen others, one of the largest insider trading cases ever.

The outcome of talks to shape a bailout for Ireland could also move stocks, analysts said, but they cautioned that other highly indebted euro zone countries could still be a source of worry.

Ireland will seek a bailout from international lenders, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said on Sunday, ending weeks of speculation that it would need aid to prop up its banks and help it secure cheaper state funding.

The banks said the settlement will resolve all claims related to the dispute.

Citigroup had originally sought as much as $60 billion of damages from Wells Fargo for derailing its September 2008 agreement to buy large portions of Wachovia and quadruple its U.S. branch presence.

Bernanke, facing a chorus of protests about the asset-buying spree from within and outside the central bank, said a more vigorous U.S. economy was essential to fuel the global recovery and dismissed charges he was debasing the dollar.

“The best way to continue to deliver the strong economic fundamentals that underpin the value of the dollar, as well as to support the global recovery, is through policies that lead to a resumption of robust growth in a context of price stability in the United States,” Bernanke told a conference at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

Meredith Whitney Advisory Group said on Friday that the firm plans to compete against long-time credit-rating heavyweights — Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings — while continuing to do research.

In early 2009, Whitney left her job as banking analyst at Oppenheimer & Co to set up her own equity analytics firm, and less than two years since its inception began dipping into the credit market, writing bearish notes on municipal bonds.

Lawyers for local businesses and individuals filed a motion this month asking U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who is overseeing the oil-spill litigation in New Orleans, to rule that a cap is inapplicable in this case.

Noting that BP itself had told the court it would waive the cap, the plaintiffs’ lawyers asked Barbier to rule on the matter to preclude BP from “re-urging this defense” in the future.

Proposed rules issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission showed regulators stepping cautiously as they implement hundreds of new regulations mandated in July by Congress.

Shining a brighter light on derivatives was one of the key goals of the landmark Dodd-Frank reforms, pushed through by Democrats and President Barack Obama over the resistance of most Republicans and a host of Wall Street lobbyists.

Pension plans at bankrupt companies did not collapse as feared in the recession-fueled auto industry downturn. More companies are now maintaining plans, beginning with a restructured GM which assured investors ahead of this week’s public offering that it wants to fully fund those accounts.

“As the economy recovers, we’re seeing fewer pension terminations, including the auto sector,” said Jeffrey Speicher, a spokesman for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (PBGC).

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 48.74 points, or 0.9 percent, at 5,684.19 while France’s CAC-40 fell 24.76 points, or 0.7 percent, to 3,834.40. Germany’s DAX was trading 11 points, or 0.2 percent, lower at 6,832.55.

Wall Street was poised for a modest retreat despite earlier signaling a higher opening – Dow futures were 34 points at 11,135, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell 4.2 points to 1,194.

European Union finance ministers quickly agreed in principle to the bailout, saying it “is warranted to safeguard financial stability in the EU and euro area.” But all sides said further weeks of negotiations loomed to define the fund’s terms, conditions and precise size.

Ireland’s crisis, set off by its foundering banks, drove up borrowing costs not only for Ireland but for other weak links in the eurozone such as Spain and Portugal. Ireland’s agreement takes some pressure off those countries, but they still may end up needing bailouts of their own.

Even if only a small percentage of passengers participate, experts say it could mean longer lines, bigger delays and hotter tempers.

The protest, National Opt-Out Day, is scheduled for Wednesday to coincide with the busiest travel day of the year.

John Pistole said in nationally broadcast interviews he understands public concerns about privacy in the wake of the Transportation Security Administration’s tough new airline boarding security checks.

But at the same time, he said a relatively small proportion of the 34 million people who have flown since the new procedures went into effect have had the body pat downs that have come under withering criticism in recent days.

After nine years of funneling travelers into ever longer lines with orders to have shoes off, sippy cups empty and laptops out for inspection, the most surprising thing about increasingly heated frustration with the federal Transportation Security Administration may be that it took so long to boil over.

Even Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is not subjected to security pat-downs when she travels, understands the public’s irritation. She, for one, wouldn’t want to go through such scrutiny.

Family members expressed frustration with the pace of the response as officials acknowledged for the first time it may be too late to save the miners, who have not been heard from since a massive explosion ripped through the Pike River Mine on the country’s South Island on Friday.

A buildup of methane gas is the suspected cause of the explosion, though officials say that may not be confirmed for days. And now the presence of that gas and others – some of them believed to be coming from a smoldering fire deep underground – are delaying a rescue over fears they could still explode.

Skeptics called the 7-story-tall Airbus A380 too big and ambitious when it was just a blueprint. There were wiring problems and debilitating management disputes. Time and again, the planemaker announced delays, exasperating investors and costing the company billions.

The A380 surmounted the problems, made its first passenger flight in 2007 and even became something of a celebrity – a roomy, smooth and quiet jetliner sought out by many business travelers and aviation enthusiastics.

But the investigators concluded the exact cause of the incident would never be known because the key piece of evidence – the oxygen tank – fell into the South China Sea and was never recovered.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau report into the July 2008 incident is unrelated to the blowout of a Rolls-Royce engine on a Qantas superjumbo earlier this month, but both events are part of a string of safety incidents in recent years that have tested the Australian airline’s reputation as one of the world’s safest.

Many will eventually be offered a final settlement from BP PLC’s compensation fund – but accepting that check is a gamble. To cash it, they’ll have to sign away their right to ever sue the oil giant and let a court decide how much they’re owed. And if the long-term damages end up amounting to more than the settlement, they’ll be out of luck for additional payments to cover those future losses.

They also could wait and risk getting an even lower settlement offer later if the shrimp, oyster, crab and fish industries rebound faster than expected, and tourists return in droves.

In only their fourth session since being elected in March, members of Iraq’s parliament on Sunday demanded to know what happened to the estimated $1 billion allocated for welfare funding by the Finance Ministry for 2010.

“We should ask the government where these allocations for widows’ aid have gone,” demanded Sadrist lawmaker Maha Adouri of Baghdad, one of the women who make up a quarter of the legislature’s 325 members. “There are thousands of widows who did not receive financial aid for months.”

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the banks, the largest by far being First Banking Center, based in Burlington, Wis., with $750.7 million in assets.

First Michigan Bank, based in Troy, Mich., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of First Banking Center. In addition, the FDIC and First Michigan Bank agreed to share losses on $515.6 million of First Banking Center’s loans and other assets.

Yet as he veers into these political debates, Bernanke may be putting at risk the Fed’s strongest tools – its credibility and independence.

Bernanke has been under fire since Nov. 3, when the Fed announced a bold plan to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds. The bond purchases are intended to lower long-term interest rates, lift stock prices and encourage higher spending to energize the weak economy.

Within minutes of casting their electronic bait they caught what they were looking for: A small Michigan company where an employee unwittingly clicked on an official-looking e-mail that secretly gave cyberthieves the keys to the firm’s bank account.

Before company executives knew what was happening, Experi-Metal Inc., a suburban Detroit manufacturing company, was broke. Its $560,000 bank balance had been electronically scattered into bank accounts in Russia, Estonia, Scotland, Finland and around the U.S.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration says a 14th mining operation, Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia, also meets the criteria for inclusion on the list that might qualify as having a pattern of serious violations.

But the agency says actions against Upper Big Branch and a Massey subsidiary, Performance Coal Co., are on hold until the completion of an investigation into an April blast that killed 29 men.

It’s a big setback for the investors who paid top dollar for the largest American casino company right before the economy tanked and took the gambling industry with it. The cancellation is also a sign that an improving market for stock offerings, highlighted by General Motors Co.’s successful return to the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, isn’t ready for debt-laden companies in industries that are still near the bottom.

Apollo Management Group, led by buyout titan Leon Black, and Texas Pacific Group paid $17.1 billion and took on $12.4 billion in debt in 2007 to take Harrah’s private in one of the biggest leveraged buyouts ever. At the time, private money was on a shopping spree for casino operators, considered hot targets for their cash-generating ability and real estate holdings. Then the financial crisis hit, taking with it many of the dollars that kept slot machines spinning and blackjack tables full.