Retailers poised for victory in debit card fee fight

Retailers are poised for a major victory in the Wall Street reform bill currently pending in Congress. The Senate adopted an amendment late Thursday that will slap sharp restrictions on the fees issuers levy every time a buyer pays with a debit card.
Called "interchange" fees, the charges typically consume 1% to 3% of every […]

Goldman Sachs: No apologies

Goldman Sachs defended its controversial employee bonuses and multi-billion dollar relationship with AIG in its annual report released Wednesday, while downplaying its short-selling in the mortgage market.
Much of the letter was devoted to describing Goldman’s (GS, Fortune 500) role in the financial crisis and the recession, praising its own "strong performance" in 2009, which […]

Yacht brokers see fairer seas ahead

Yacht exporters are riding a weaker dollar and reduced prices to new markets, while domestic sellers are seeing signs that the market’s doldrums are coming to an end.
Yacht exports to Northern Europe were healthy before the recession since the dollar was still weaker than the Euro. But the international financial tidal wave left fewer buyers, […]

Holiday crowd boosts Best Buy

Customers snapping up electronics and gift cards for the holidays boosted Best Buy’s third-quarter profit, but the nation’s largest electronics retailer said Tuesday that shoppers are focused on prices, particularly of TVs and computers.
Best Buy predicted consumers will stay that way in the fourth quarter, squeezing its profit margin. That forecast sent […]

Charter lenders can’t block emergence, judge says

NEW YORK — Charter Communications Inc.’s lenders, led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., lost a bid Wednesday to block the cable communications company from leaving bankruptcy.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein affirmed Bankruptcy Judge James Peck’s Nov. 23 decision to deny the lenders’ request for a stay while they appeal his confirmation of Charter’s […]

British Would-Be Borrowers Resist Credit as Loan Demand Dips

A year ago, as Britain’s property market began to collapse, housebuilder Persimmon Plc owed 960 million pounds ($1.6 billion). Today, Chief Financial Officer Michael Killoran has slashed that debt by 58 percent.
“It’s safety first,” he said. “With the uncertainty in the markets currently, companies want to be carrying a lower level of gearing.” […]

Iceland ‘Can’t Wait’ for IMF Review, Funds, Sigurdardottir Says

Iceland can’t afford to wait any longer for its International Monetary Fund review and the transfer of the second tranche of its IMF-led bailout loan, Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said.
“The review of Iceland’s program has been delayed for way too long,” Sigurdardottir said in an interview in the township of Gardabaer in Iceland […]

Treasury Expects Congress to Act This Year on Pay, Regulation

The Obama administration expects Congress will act this year to strengthen financial regulation and rein in executive pay, the Treasury Department’s liaison to Capitol Hill said.
Kim Wallace, assistant secretary for legislative affairs, said he expects lawmakers will agree on a financial regulation plan by the end of 2009. The administration wants better oversight […]

Hungary Inflation Is ‘Ammunition’ for Rate Cut, Economists Say

Hungary’s falling inflation rate makes the case for a third consecutive interest-rate cut this month as the central bank seeks to jolt the economy out of a recession, economists said.
The bank will lower the benchmark two-week deposit rate by at least half a percentage point to 7.5 percent on Sept. 28, according to […]

U.S. Economic Growth to Slow as Car Rebates End, Survey Shows

The U.S. economy will pull out of the recession at a faster pace than previously forecast, before slowing as the end of the government’s auto-rebate program weighs on consumer spending, a survey of economists showed.
The economy will expand at a 2.9 percent annual rate in July through September, according to the median of […]