Standard & Poor's lost a landmark case in Australia over top-flight ratings given to financial products that collapsed in the build-up to the 2008 global economic crisis. The Federal Court of Australia on Monday ruled that S&P AAA rating of constant proportion debt obligation notes created by banking giant ABN AMRO and sold to the councils of 13 Australian towns had been misleading and deceptive.
The son of Falkland Islands war hero Colonel ‘H’ Jones is to take command of Britain’s 9.000 troops in Afghanistan, reports the Daily Mail. Brigadier Rupert Jones was 13 when his father died during a one-man charge on an Argentine trench in the Battle of Goose Green in 1982, for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
The leading world economies pressed the United States on Sunday to act decisively to avert a rush of spending cuts and tax hikes, warning that the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ is the biggest short-term threat to global growth.
Argentine Economy Minister Hernán Lorenzino called for developed countries to set limits to ‘vulture funds’ and credit rating agencies as “promoters of the global crisis,” as he addressed the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Mexico on Sunday.
The world's most expensive four-storey palatial house, in London's plush neighborhood has gone on the market at a staggering 100 million pounds. One Cornwall Terrace is a Grade 1 listed mansion overlooking Regent's Park in London.
Earlier in the week Standard & Poor’s ratings services lowered to ‘B-’ from ‘B’ its unsolicited long-term sovereign credit rating on Argentina and on Friday the ratings agency said it is taking a similar rating actions on four Argentine banks and 16 Argentine corporations.
By Gwynne Dyer - By the end of November 6, we will know who will be the president of the United States for the next four years. We already know who will be the leader of China for the next 10 years, although Xi Jinping will not be officially installed in power until a few days later. But some would argue that that is the more important event.
Argentine Economy Minister Hernán Lorenzino and Central Bank Governor Mercedes Marcó del Pont are leading the country’s delegation in the technical G20 meeting in Mexico, where they are expected to insist on the government’s criticisms against ‘vulture funds’ and credit rating agencies.
When Argentina still has not recovered from the impounding of the Navy’s flagship, ARA Libertad, retained in Ghana, another piece of bad news was confirmed in Pretoria on Friday when South African Foreign minister admitted that a second navy vessel, ARA Espora, docked in Simonstown was exposed to a similar fate.
Governance of the Bank of England is defective, according to the chairman of the Treasury Committee following the publication of three independent reviews into the Bank's performance. Andrew Tyrie said the reviews were too little, too late.