Finanzas

Las demandas por despidos se sitúan por debajo de 100.000, según un informe del Poder Judicial

Anticorrupción reclama una garantía de hasta 100.000 euros para el expresidente de Caja Madrid. Para Rato no solicita cautelares

El holding suma 14.913 millones en plusvalías latentes de toda su cartera de participadas, según la memoria

La platarforma social llega a Wall Street generando más pérdidas que ingresos

Las sanciones pactadas por la industria financiera global desde la crisis ascienden a 321.000 millones de dólares

La platarforma social llega a Wall Street generando más pérdidas que ingresos

THE new nationalists are on the march in Europe and America. They argue that globalisation has benefited the elites and penalised the ordinary workers and that governments should put America/Britain/France first. That means favouring domestic producers and restricting global flows of people, goods and (this gets mentioned less often) capital. The latest proposal came from the Trump White House last night—a threat to ignore World Trade Organisation rules and impose tariffs on countries with “unfair” trade practices.

A previous column suggested that the world may have entered a third phase of the post-1945 economy, after the Bretton Woods phase (fixed exchange rates and recovery) from 1945-early 1970s and the globalisation phase from 1982-2007. Each phase ended in a crisis (stagflation in the 1970s, a credit crunch after 2008). The next era could see globalisation in retreat for the first time since 1945.

That…Continue reading

La platarforma social llega a Wall Street generando más pérdidas que ingresos

Badluck Descalzi?

WHEN Eni, Italy’s oil major, this week revealed a return to profit in the fourth quarter and a long-term commitment to keep the barrels flowing, there was much to cheer. Three years on from Claudio Descalzi’s appointment as CEO, Eni has made spectacular oil and gas discoveries even as its peers retrenched amid the oil-price slump. Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, says only half in jest that it is “evolving into an actual oil company”.

But a cloud hangs over the firm, which is 30% state-owned—and over Mr Descalzi (pictured) personally. He is caught up in an Italian probe into alleged corruption in a deal Eni struck in partnership with Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria, just as he is seeking reappointment as CEO in April. The company’s response to the scandal, especially its treatment of independent board members, raises questions about its commitment to good corporate governance.

In 2011, Eni and Shell jointly paid $1.3bn for a huge offshore oil block, known as OPL 245, which has more than 9bn barrels of probable reserves. Over $1bn of this flowed to a shell company. That firm, Malabu,…Continue reading

“A SEA of sameness.” A veteran of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), Ben Wood of CCS Insight, a consultancy, was not expecting much from the mobile industry’s main trade show this week in Barcelona. As one product launch followed another, it was easy to lose track. Whether it was LG, Huawei or Wiko, they all showed off yet more black rectangles with slightly varying specifications.

Another reminder of the smartphone business’s maturity was that the most talked-about new device was the Nokia 3310 feature phone (pictured), an updated version of a phone first made 17 years ago. With limited internet connectivity, it appeals partly as a “digital detox”, said Arto Nummela, chief executive of HMD Global, a Finnish startup with ex-Nokia executives which licenses the brand.

The mobile industry is far from done in terms of genuinely new products. But the action has moved to parts of the business that do not lend themselves to splashy events and massive crowds (the tent erected by Huawei, a Chinese maker of all sorts of telecoms gear, to launch its new P10 smartphone was huge, but hundreds were still left waiting outside). Most innovation in…Continue reading