Author: Busman

Police raided six Deutsche Bank offices in and around Frankfurt on Thursday over money laundering allegations linked to the "Panama Papers", the public prosecutor's office in Germany's financial capital said. Investigators are looking into the activities of two unnamed Deutsche Bank employees alleged to have helped clients set up offshore firms to launder money, the prosecutor's office said. Around 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched the offices where written and electronic business documents were seized. "Of course, we will cooperate closely with the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt, as it is in our interest as well to clarify the facts," Deutsche Bank said, adding it believed it had already provided all the relevant information related to the "Panama Papers". The news comes as Deutsche Bank tries to repair…

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that new auto tariffs were "being studied now," asserting they could prevent job cuts such as the U.S. layoffs and plant closures that General Motors Co. announced this week.    Trump said on Twitter that the 25 percent tariff placed on imported pickup trucks and commercial vans from markets outside North America in the 1960s had long boosted U.S. vehicle production.    "If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here," Trump said, "and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan & Maryland."    The United States has a 2.5 percent tariff on imported cars and sport utility vehicles from markets outside North America and South Korea. The new North American trade deal exempts the first…

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell boosted U.S. stock markets on Wednesday when he said interest rates were “just below" estimates of a level that neither brakes nor boosts a healthy economy. Many took his comments as a signal that the Fed's three-year tightening cycle is ending.  The S&P 500 and Dow posted their biggest percentage gains in eight months, while the Nasdaq saw its largest advance in just over a month following Powell's speech to the Economic Club of New York.  Powell said that while "there was a great deal to like" about U.S. prospects, "our gradual pace of raising interest rates has been an exercise in balancing risks."  Earlier in the day, in its first-ever financial stability report, the Fed cautioned that trade tensions, Brexit and troubled emerging markets could…

U.S. President Donald Trump touted the use of U.S. tariffs on foreign small trucks Wednesday, saying their placement on other foreign vehicles would have prevented the closure of several General Motors plants and the loss of thousands of coveted manufacturing jobs. Trump noted on Twitter that brisk U.S. small truck sales in the country are due to a 25-percent tariff on small truck imports. The president reiterated on Twitter that "countries that send us cars have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades.” Trump added he has “great power on this issue,” which he said “is being studied now.” Trump has threatened to eliminate all federal subsidies to GM in response to the company’s planned closure of five plants and the elimination of 14,000 jobs in North America. Questions remain,…

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that while there was "a great deal to like" about U.S. prospects, the Fed's gradual interest rate hikes are meant to balance risks as it tries to keep the economy on track. "We know that things often turn out to be quite different from even the most careful forecasts," Powell said in a speech that comes in the wake of last week's volatile market selloff. "Our gradual pace of raising interest rates has been an exercise in balancing risks." Powell offered few clues on how much longer the U.S. central bank would raise interest rates in the face of a slowdown overseas and market volatility at home. Instead he highlighted a new financial stability report the Fed published earlier on Wednesday.…

An airport worker drops by Warsaw's newest Ikea store during her lunch break to finish up plans for a home refurbishment. Around her, people drift in and out of the shop, placing small houseware items in big yellow bags as cafe tables fill up with people just stopping in for lunch. The store is not one of Ikea's out-of-the-way, maze-like warehouses that require a car to visit, but a shop like any other in a city center shopping mall. The Swedish retailing giant plans to open 30 such smaller stores in major cities around the world as part of a broader transformation to adapt to changing consumer habits. Compared with just a decade ago, shoppers are more likely to be living in urban areas and not have a car, and…

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to cut subsidies for General Motors after the largest U.S. automaker said it would halt production at five plants in North America and cut nearly 15,000 jobs. "The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including ... for electric cars," Trump said on Twitter. Trump has made boosting auto jobs a key priority during his almost two years in office and has often attacked automakers on Twitter for not doing enough to boost U.S. employment. GM electric vehicles are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit under federal law, but it is not clear how the administration could restrict those credits or if Trump had other subsidies in mind. GM shares…

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could reach a new trade deal between the world's two largest economies when they meet in Argentina this weekend, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Tuesday. "The president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it," he said of Trump. But he cautioned that obstacles remain. Kudlow said the two leaders must resolve the issues of "fairness and reciprocity" at the center of the dispute. "China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations," he said. "Their responses have disappointed because ... we can't find much change in their approach." The U.S. and China over several months have imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions…

British and Dutch regulators have fined ride-hailing company Uber $1.2 million for what it said were inadequate security measures that left personal data at risk for a cyber attack. The fines are linked to a 2016 hack of Uber data that allowed attackers to download information about 32 million users, including 2.7 million accounts in Britain. The files included full names, mobile phone numbers, email addresses and some user passwords. Information about 3.7 million drivers, 82,000 of them in Britain, was also downloaded. Britain's Information Commissioner's Office said the hack was the result of "a series of avoidable data security flaws." "This was not only a serious failure of data security on Uber’s part, but a complete disregard for the customers and drivers whose personal information was stolen," ICO Director…

Fishing communities along Africa's coastline are at a greater risk of extinction as countries eye oceans for tourism, industrial fishing and exploration revenue to jumpstart their "blue economies," U.N. experts and activists said on Monday. The continent's 38 coastal and island states have in recent years moved to tap ocean resources through commercial fishing, marine tourism and sea-bed mining, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). "There is a great risk and a great danger that those communities will be marginalized," said Joseph Zelasney, a fishery officer at U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "The resources that they depend on will be decimated," he added at a side event at the Blue Economy Conference organized by Kenya, Canada and Japan in Nairobi. The world's poorest continent hosts…

The European Union and Iran are affirming their support for the international nuclear deal and say they aim to keep it alive despite U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to abandon the landmark pact. Ahead of EU-Iran talks on civil nuclear cooperation in Brussels Monday, EU Energy Commissioner Arias Canete said the deal is "crucial for the security of Europe, of the region and the entire world."   He said the agreement curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions is working and that "we do not see any credible peaceful alternative."   Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi said: "I hope that we can enjoy the niceties of this deal and not let it go unfulfilled."   Should the deal break down, he said, it would be "very ominous, the situation would be unpredictable."…

U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, a move by the Trump administration to bolster the domestic industry and protect U.S. jobs, are just starting to have a far-reaching impact on different sectors of the U.S. economy, including the growing craft beer industry. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, one thing that wasn’t in the business model for a new brewery in the Midwestern United States was the cost tariffs would have on each can of beer. ...

It took Britain’s Theresa May and 27 other European Union leaders just 40 minutes to sign the Brexit deal after two years of tortuous negotiations, but the trials and tribulations of Britain's withdrawal agreement approved Sunday in Brussels are far from over. As they endorsed the 585-page the agreement, and a 26-page accompanying political declaration that sets out the parameters of negotiating a possible free trade deal between Britain and the European Union, powerful political foes in London plotted strategies to undo it. There is little evidence Britain’s embattled prime minister will have sufficient support to win legislative endorsement of the deal in a House of Commons vote next month. That was clearly on the minds of European Commission officials Sunday as EU leaders gave their backing to the terms…

U.S. stocks closed lower after a shortened session Friday, bumping the benchmark S&P 500 index into a correction, or drop of 10 percent below its most recent all-time high in September.    Energy companies led the market slide as the price of U.S. crude oil tumbled to its lowest level in more than a year, reflecting worries among traders that a slowing global economy could hurt demand for oil.    "Oil is really falling sharply, continuing its downward descent, and that appears to be giving investors a lot of concern that there's slowing global growth,'' said Jeff Kravetz, regional investment director at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. "You have that, and then you have the recent sell-off in tech and in retail, and then throw on there trade tensions and rising rates.'' …

It would have been easy to turn on their computers at home over plates of leftover turkey and take advantage of the Black Friday deals most retailers now offer online.      But across the country, thousands of shoppers flocked to stores on Thanksgiving or woke up before dawn the next day to take part in this most famous ritual of American consumerism.    Shoppers spent their holiday lined up outside the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., by 4 p.m., and the crowd had swelled to 3,000 people by the time doors opened an hour later. In Ohio, a group of very determined women booked a hotel room Thursday night to be closer to the stores. In New York City, one woman went straight from a dance club to a department…

China will go along with changes meant to update global trade rules so long as they protect Beijing’s status as a developing country, a Cabinet official said Friday. The deputy commerce minister, Wang Shouwen, said any changes also must address protectionism and abuse of export controls and security reviews — a reference to Beijing’s trade clash with U.S. President Donald Trump. China agreed in June to work with the European Union to propose changes to the World Trade Organization to address technology policy, subsidies and state industry — all areas in which Beijing faces complaints. U.S. officials complain the global trade referee is too bureaucratic and slow to adapt to changing business conditions. Wang said each country’s “development model” must be respected — a reference to China’s state-dominated economy, which…

Some of Amazon’s workers in Europe are protesting against what they call unfair work conditions, in a move meant to disrupt operations on Black Friday. Amazon Spain said around 90 percent of workers at a logistics depot in near Madrid joined a walkout Friday. Only two people were at the loading bay, spokesman Douglas Harper said. However, he said Amazon had diverted cargo deliveries to its other 22 depots in the country. On a picket line, 38-year-old employee Eduardo Hernandez said the walkout intended to hurt the company financially. “It is one of the days that Amazon has most sales, and these are days when we can hurt more and make ourselves be heard because the company has not listened to us and does not want to reach any agreement,”…

Zimbabwe's finance minister has unveiled the country's 2019 budget. Mthuli Ncube says the plan should help restore the economy of the southern African nation after years of recession. "Madam Speaker, ma'am, in conclusion, this budget should mark a turning point towards realizing the country's vision 2030, as austerity will lead us to prosperity," Ncube said. "To quote the philosopher, Immanuel Kant, "We are rich not by what we possess, but by what we can do without." I now commend the 2019 national budget to this august house. I thank you." Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said the budget marked a step toward Zimbabwe attaining its vision of an "upper middle income country by 2030." He said Zimbabwe was working toward retiring its ever ballooning debt, which now stands at about $10…

Once-admired auto executive Carlos Ghosn's fall from grace deepened Thursday when directors of Nissan Motor Co. voted unanimously to fire the recently jailed businessman from his post as board chairman. Dismissed along with Ghosn was another director, Greg Kelly, whom the board accused of working with Ghosn to understate their incomes on formal declarations and use company assets for personal purposes. An internal investigation presented to the board found that Kelly had "been determined to be the mastermind of this matter, together with" Ghosn, the company said in a statement.  The board also said that Nissan's longstanding partnership with the French automaker Renault "remains unchanged." While he has been fired as chairman, the company said, it will require a vote of shareholders to remove Ghosn from the board altogether. The…

Lebanon is marking 75 years of independence with a military parade Thursday in Beirut, but many anxious Lebanese feel they have little to celebrate: the country's corruption-plagued economy is dangerously close to collapse and political bickering over shares in a new Cabinet is threatening to scuttle pledges worth $11 billion by international donors. The World Bank issued a stark warning last week, with one official saying that unless a government is formed soon to carry out badly needed reforms, "the Lebanon we know will fizzle away." It's been more than six months since Lebanon held its first national elections in nine years but the prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, still hasn't formed a government to undertake the reforms necessary to unlock the donors' funds.   The vote, in which the Shi'ite…

Canada will allow businesses to write off additional capital investments to make them more competitive at a time when the United States is aggressively cutting taxes, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Wednesday.  But Morneau, speaking as he unveiled a budget update that forecast a slightly smaller than predicted deficit for 2018-19, said Ottawa would not be slashing taxes to match aggressive moves by Washington.  "If we were to do that, it would add tens of billions in new debt," he told the House of Commons.  The move could disappoint business groups that said Ottawa needed to do much more to match the U.S. cuts. Morneau acknowledged their concern and said it would be neither rational nor responsible to do nothing.  The federal government will allow businesses to immediately write off for tax purposes the full cost of machinery and equipment used…

The Trump administration has invited the heads of Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler to the White House to discuss U.S. tariffs on carmakers, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Wednesday. Citing industry and diplomatic sources, the paper said the meeting could possibly take place as soon as next week, depending on circumstances. Handelsblatt said it was not known whether U.S. President Donald Trump would attend the meeting. A spokesman for Volkswagen declined to confirm or deny whether the carmaker had received an invitation. Sources close to VW said it had not received an invitation.   Daimler and BMW did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has threatened for months to impose tariffs on all European Union-assembled vehicles, a…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday thanked Saudi Arabia for tamping down world oil prices, a day after saying the U.S. would not turn its back on Riyadh despite its responsibility for killing a dissident U.S.-based Saudi journalist. From his retreat along the Atlantic Ocean in Florida, Trump praised the Saudis, second only to the U.S. as an oil producer but the biggest global exporter, for sending enough crude to world markets to keep oil prices in check. Before leaving Washington for the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump told reporters at the White House that U.S. national security and economic interests outweigh any human rights concerns. He said turning his back on Saudi Arabia, despite the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, "would be a terrible mistake." "We're staying with Saudi Arabia," Trump announced.…

Stocks dropped again Tuesday as losses mounted for the world's largest technology companies. Retailers also fell, and energy companies plunged with oil prices as the market sank back into the red for the year.    Oil prices tumbled another 6.6 percent as Wall Street reacted to rising oil supplies and concerns that global economic growth will slow down, a worry that's intensified because of the trade tensions between the U.S. and China.    Technology companies were hit after the Trump administration proposed new national security regulations that could limit exports of high-tech products in fields such as quantum computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence.    Retailers also skidded. Target's profit disappointed investors as it spends more money to revamp its stores and its website, while Ross Stores, TJX and Kohl's…

Analysts say Boeing Co. is canceling a conference call that it scheduled to discuss issues around its newest plane, which has come under scrutiny since a deadly crash in Indonesia.  The company didn't immediately give an explanation Tuesday.  CFRA Research analyst Jim Corridore said canceling the call as “a bad look for the company'' when it's facing questions about potential problems with sensors on the 737 MAX.  U.S. airline pilots say they weren't told about a new feature that could pitch the nose down automatically if sensors indicate the plane is about to stall.  On Oct. 29, a Lion Air MAX 8 plunged into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board.  Boeing shares are down about 13 percent since Nov. 9.  ...

Shares in automakers Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault fell sharply Tuesday after the arrest of executive Carlos Ghosn on allegations of "significant acts" of financial misconduct. All three firms are considering replacing him as chairman. Nissan, one of the world's biggest automakers, said Ghosn falsified reports about his compensation "over many years" and that its internal investigation also found he had used company assets for personal purposes. Japanese media reported Monday that Ghosn is being questioned by Tokyo prosecutors, suspected of failing to report millions of dollars in income.  Nissan said that based on a report by a whistleblower, it conducted an internal investigation of Ghosn and Representative Director Greg Kelly and shared its findings with public prosecutors. The company said both men had been arrested. The automaker said its investigation…

World stock markets fell Monday as worries about softening demand for the iPhone dragged down shares of Apple Inc and persistent trade tensions between China and the United States sapped investor sentiment. Concerns about slowing economic growth also pushed down the dollar. The U.S. benchmark S&P 500 stock index dropped 1.7 percent following a decline in shares of Apple and its suppliers. The Wall Street Journal reported Apple had cut production orders in recent weeks for iPhone models it launched in September. Renewed tensions between China and the United States also weighed. At an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative meeting in Papua New Guinea over the weekend, the issue prevented leaders from agreeing on a communique, the first time such an impasse had occurred in the group's history. U.S. Vice President Mike…

A new United Nations survey finds that opium cultivation in Afghanistan has decreased by 20 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year, citing a severe drought and falling prices of dry opium at the national level. The total opium-poppy cultivation area decreased to 263,000 hectares, from 328,000 hectares estimated in 2017, but it was still the second highest measurement for Afghanistan since the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) began monitoring in 1994. The potential opium production decreased by 29 percent to 6,400 tons from an estimated 9,000 tons in 2017. The UNODC country representative, Mark Colhoun, while explaining factors behind the reduction told reporters in Kabul the farm-gate prices of dry opium at the harvest time fell to $94 per kilogram, the lowest since 2004. The decreases,…