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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.” […]
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For Christy Harp, a math teacher from Ohio, it was a great year for competitive gourd growing — her 1,725-pound giant pumpkin shattered the world record by more than 30 pounds.
But that achievement is a lone bright spot in the Midwestern world of pumpkins. In Morton, Ill., the "Pumpkin Capital of the World," […]
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The chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee introduced a financial regulation reform bill on Tuesday that leaps beyond earlier proposals, calling for new government agencies on financial stability, bank supervision and financial consumer protection.
Senator Christopher Dodd, a Democrat, released the bill after intense closed-door negotiations, raising the ante in a debate over tighter […]
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A voluntary recall was announced Monday for more than half a million pounds of ground beef because it may be contaminated with bacteria linked to at least two deaths, officials said.
Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York, said the recall was issued Saturday for approximately 545,699 pounds of ground beef produced between September 14 and […]
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The Swiss economy is probably past the worst of the recession and deflation risks have eased, the government’s head of economic affairs said.
“The recession has probably bottomed out but the situation isn’t without risks,” Jean-Daniel Gerber, who heads the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, said in an interview in his office in Bern […]
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The Czech central bank should further loosen monetary policy as inflation may be significantly below its target next year, Vice-Governor Miroslav Singer said.
The bank has “several tools” available to ease conditions, Singer said in an interview in Prague yesterday. He declined to elaborate or say whether an interest-rate cut is on the cards […]
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Economists will disapprove of yesterday’s decision to award the Nobel Economics Prize to Elinor Ostrom because it signals a shift toward rewarding social scientists, said Steven Levitt, a University of Chicago professor and co-author of the bestseller “Freakonomics.”
Ostrom, a professor at Indiana University in Bloomington who calls herself a political economist, became the […]
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Fierce disagreement over how much power rich nations should cede to developing countries clouded talks between global finance chiefs on expanding the role of the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF, which has lent more than $50 billion to countries around the world this year, says it needs more resources to oversee the recovery of the […]
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Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said the spending cuts the U.K. Treasury will impose after the election must be “sensible” and “measured,” suggesting he’s reluctant to make major reductions.
“You have to be measured about it,” Darling said in an interview on Bloomberg Television yesterday. “You have to make sure you reduce your […]
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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 […]
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