U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he’ll raise taxes on banks and savers, while cutting welfare spending in a budget tomorrow that aims to close a record deficit without strangling an economic rebound. Osborne said yesterday the “pain” of the biggest spending squeeze in 30 years will be spread over the Parliament’s five- year [...]

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WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Thursday issued a fresh call to China to embrace a “market oriented” exchange rate for the yuan, saying such a move would help rebalance the global economy. Obama made his latest foray into the delicate US-China relationship in a major speech on trade, saying the world needed to rebalance [...]

China, dollar, forex, spending, US Hide

WASHINGTON: The US government registered a record budget deficit in February despite rising revenues, setting a record 17th consecutive month in the red, the Treasury said on Wednesday. The February budget shortfall was 220.909 billion dollars, a 14 percent rise from a year ago and the biggest monthly gap on record. The reading, however, was [...]

debt, recovery, spending, stimulus, US Hide

Daimler AG’sMercedes-Benz unit, the world’s second-largest maker of luxury cars, will almost double investment on “green” technologies to take on BMW in the race to offer electric vehicles. Stuttgart, Germany-based Mercedes intends to spend 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in each of the next two years to develop batteries and fuel-saving engines, Thomas Weber, Daimler’s development [...]

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You first start learning about teaching your kids about money on that special trip to Wal-Mart when your child first throws a tantrum because you won’t buy her a Barbie doll. Some people will grab the child from the shopping cart and leave the store fuming and red in the face. Other parents might opt [...]

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Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Evidence of a self-sustaining U.S. recovery is emerging on the factory floors of Texas Instruments Inc. The second-largest U.S. chipmaker will spend almost $1 billion this year to expand three factories and open a fourth to fill orders. The need to rebuild industrial capacity after the largest decline on record in 2009 is [...]

investor confidence, recovery, spending, US Hide

READING the fine print just got easier, if you are an American credit-card holder. Last May, the authorities in the United States stated that all information, including applications and disclosures for that piece of plastic, has to be printed in at least 12-point font. These rules are not in effect here. But The Association of [...]

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WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve finalised new rules aimed at protecting credit card holders Tuesday that also make it difficult for anyone under the age of 21 to obtain a credit card. As part of a series of new rules aimed at protecting consumers, the measure forbids banks from issuing a credit card to anyone [...]

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THE economic downturn has produced an explosion of popular anger against bankers’ ‘greed’. This has accompanied a wider critique of ‘growthmanship’ – the pursuit of economic growth at all costs, regardless of the damage it may do to the earth’s environment or to shared values. John Maynard Keynes addressed this issue in 1930, in his [...]

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by Andre Yeo WHEN Jane (not her real name) allowed her ex-husband to gamble and borrowed money to help him settle debts, she thought she was being a good wife. When he won, she celebrated with him and enjoyed the gifts he bought for her. Then, he started losing. And he kept on losing. His [...]

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