Banker Who Fled Kim Jong Il Says New Leader May Open North Korean Economy - Bloomberg

Kim Jong Un may relax state controls over North Korea

Growth even weaker than feared

The U.S. economy was weaker than previously thought in the third quarter, according to a government report, although economists are expecting stronger growth in the final three months of the year.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic health, grew at a 1.8% annual rate in the quarter. That’s down from the […]

Ex-Fannie CEO Mudd leaves Fortress after SEC charges

Daniel Mudd is taking an immediate leave of absence from his role as CEO of investment firm Fortress Investment Group, less than a week after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced fraud charges against him and other former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Mudd, who has headed Fortress () since August 2009, had […]

Italy again pays more to borrow

Italy paid sharply higher borrowing rates in an auction that raised euro567 million ($750 million), as markets continued to pressure the eurozone’s third largest economy to come up with reforms urgently.
Yields on 12-year bonds skyrocketed to 7.20 percent, a full 2.7 percentage points higher than last month.
While there were enough bids to cover the maximum […]

Slightly more people seek unemployment benefits

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits ticked up slightly last week after two months of steady declines.
But the increase isn’t enough to reverse the downward trend. The four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, fell to its lowest level since April. The decline in the average signals that companies are laying off fewer […]

US stocks drop as debt talks near collapse

Stocks are taking a sharp fall in early trading Monday amid reports that a congressional committee will fail to agree on a plan to cut the U.S. government’s budget deficit. The Dow Jones industrial average is down more than 200 points.
A 12-member bipartisan panel is supposed to agree on at least $1.2 trillion in budget […]

US stocks edge down as investors weigh jobs, Spain

Stocks are opening slightly lower as investors balance spiking bond yields in Spain with signs of growth in the U.S. economy.
An auction of 10-year bonds in Spain left the country paying interest rates of nearly 7 percent. That is the highest rate since 1997 and a level that economists see as unsustainable.
In the U.S., applications […]

Kerr to step down as Missouri economic development boss

The man in charge of boosting Missouri’s economy is stepping down.
David Kerr, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, will leave at the end of the year, Gov. Jay Nixon’s office said Tuesday.
Kerr, a longtime executive at AT&T in Missouri and Kansas before entering the public sector, said he was stepping down to spend […]

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Murdoch tabloid spied on hacking victims’ lawyers

Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper company spied on two lawyers who represent alleged victims of phone hacking by its tabloid News of the World, the firm acknowledged Monday.
News International said lawyers Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris “were subject to surveillance,” a practice it called “inappropriate.”
The BBC and The Guardian newspaper reported Monday that Lewis and Harris […]