Noticias

La presidenta del Santander cree que esta política no funciona porque no ha hecho subir los créditos

Fuentes gubernamentales explican que Hacienda necesita un secretario de Estado con perfil político y negociador para que se encargue de la financiación autonómica. Leer

La compañía presenta sus alegaciones al procedimiento que le abrió Bruselas por obligar a los fabricantes de móviles a preinstalar sus aplicaciones

La compañía logra vender 4.780 millones de euros durante la primera hora de la mayor jornada de descuentos en el país. El objetivo es batir los 13.340 millones de 2015

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El gabinete de Luis de Guindos renueva este viernes dos de sus altos cargos

CONTROVERSY over the relationship between BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence company, and one of its main customers, Saudi Arabia, was raging when Ian King, its chief executive, started his job in 2008. BAE’s link to Saudi Arabia was forged 30 years ago with the first “al-Yamamah” arms deal. It saved the firm amid a difficult business environment, but embroiled it in a long-running corruption scandal that even led to Mr King’s immediate predecessor, Mike Turner, being briefly detained by America’s Department of Justice just before he stepped down.

The new boss’s mandate eight years ago was to banish BAE’s old, buccaneering ways and make it the acme of squeaky-clean corporate governance. Now, as Mr King prepares to leave and hand over to a successor, the firm is once again under fire for its ties to the house of Saud, this time for supplying its wares to support the kingdom’s war in neighbouring Yemen. A rising chorus accuses the Saudi-led coalition of using its Western-supplied and maintained air power indiscriminately in its campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Human-rights activists are trying to use…Continue reading

PITTSFIELD, a city of 43,000 on the Housatonic River in western Massachusetts, is a quintessentially American place, but in many ways an unlikely spot for a housing boom. The 255-year-old former industrial hub boasts the country’s earliest written reference to baseball. Its economy was dominated by General Electric for much of the 20th century. But by 2000 it had experienced ten years in which hardly any new jobs had been created. Incomes were 12% below the national average. The city’s population had been shrinking for decades. And yet between 2000 and 2007, amid a nationwide, credit-fuelled property boom, house prices in Pittsfield jumped by 70%, or 8% per year.

These days, such rapid growth in economically struggling cities is rare. Whereas local housing markets rose and fell together during the housing bubble and bust, the housing recovery which began in America in 2012 has been patchy. Cities and towns with growing economies have seen big gains; places like Pittsfield have stagnated (see chart 1). Such trends are contributing to a widening of America’s already unequal distribution of wealth.

According to an annual…Continue reading

“THE vultures all start circling, they’re whispering, ‘You’re out of time’…but I still rise!” Those lyrics, from a song by Katy Perry, an American pop star, sounded often at Hillary Clinton’s campaign rallies but will shortly ring out over a less serious event: a late-night party in Shenzhen to kick off “Singles’ Day”, an online shopping extravaganza that takes place in China on November 11th every year.

The event was not dreamt up by Alibaba, but the e-commerce giant dominates it. Shoppers spent $14.3bn through its portals during last year’s event. That figure, a rise of 60% on a year earlier, was over double the sales racked up on America’s two main retail dates, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, put together. Chinese consumers are still confident, so sales on this Singles’ Day should again break records.  

It points to an intriguing question: how will all of those purchases get to consumers? Around 540m delivery orders were generated during the 24-hour spree last year. That is nearly ten times the average daily volume, but even a slow shopping day in China generates an enormous number. By the reckoning of…Continue reading

The Miami blues

“A TODDLER drowns in the swimming pool of his neighbour’s vacant house. A firefighter dies falling through the floor of a vacant building. A gang take over an empty house…to advertise prostitution.” Thus begins an incendiary supporting brief filed by a trade union for police officers and firefighters in a suit brought by the city of Miami against Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The suit argues that mortgages granted by the banks to black and Hispanic residents who later defaulted caused the city to lose tax revenue and forced it to fork out more for services. This, it contends, entitles Miami to damages.

The case was largely dismissed in the trial court, reversed on appeal and then accepted by the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on November 8th. At issue is who can sue for alleged discrimination, and whether irresponsible loans can be blamed for broader economic damage. A separate court will consider whether the banks were actually guilty of discrimination (they deny it).

Part of civil-rights legislation passed in 1968, the “Fair Housing Act”, the statute under which the case…Continue reading