News & Financial Advice

Standard & Poor's expects a mild recession in the euro area in the first half of 2012 and Thursday lowered growth forecasts for several countries.

In a report entitled "European Economic Perspective: The Return of the recession," the rating agency forecasts growth of 0.4% for the euro area next year, following 1.5% expected this year.It has revised its forecast to 0.5% growth for France in 2012 (against 0.8% previously), 0.6% for Germany (against 1%) and 0.1% for Italy (against 0.2%).

In 2013, growth would accelerate to 1.2% for the euro area to 1.3% for France, 1.5% for Germany, 0.5% for Italy and 1.0% for Spain (after + 0.3% expected in 2012).

"We now expect a mild recession in the first half of 2012 in the euro area, before a modest rebound in the second half of the year," wrote the chief economist at S & P for Europe, Jean-Michel Six.

"The impending recession threatening Europe was first found fertile ground in Spain, Portugal and Greece, but economic problems are spreading now in the heart of the euro area, France and Spain," says it.

The field of business has expanded in a broad way, and one area that is common is the business of financing people who are on paychecks. The opening in this business has grown to a greater extent, and now, people have limitless options, including one of getting payday loans online.

Sales distributors in the United States have reached record during the long weekend of Thanksgiving, which marks the beginning of the holiday season and New Year, buyers are coming in numbers to take the early opening of shops and attractive promotions.

These sales were up 16.4% over the same period a year earlier to 52.4 billion (39.25 billion euros), according to data released Sunday by the National Federation of the distribution ( NRF).

A total of 226 million people traveled between Thursday and Sunday in stores or on online sales sites.This is also an unprecedented level, compared with 212 million last year.

Among the big winners of the weekend appears Best Buy, one of the stores that opened its doors at midnight on the night of Thanksgiving.

The Financial Markets Authority (AMF) French said Wednesday it has sanctioned two investment management companies, ADRs and Alternative Leaders France France, for failures of control and monitoring related to massive fraud orchestrated by Bernard Madoff until 2008 .

The fines amounted to 300,000 euros and 150,000 euros EIM France for Alternative Leaders France (ALF), the AMF said in a statement.

The exhibition of these two companies to the Madoff fraud was at the time of the revelation of it, from 63.5 million to three million ADRs and for ALF, said the AMF.

The Greek Ministry of Finance announced that new elections would be held on February 19. This date has been set by the leaders of the country's two main parties, George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou during the vote in Parliament of a new austerity plan, June 30, 2011.

The two main Greek political parties that have managed Sunday evening to a political agreement to form a national unity government agreed that February 19 would be the most appropriate date for the elections, said the Greek Ministry of Finance.

Interest rates Italian debt to 10 years have passed the psychological threshold of 6% to 6.06%. Concerns focus on capacity from Rome to take charge of its massive debt of 1,900 billion euros. Asian stock markets closed sharply down Monday, August 8, 2011. The Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 2.9%, Shanghai 3.79%, Sydney 2.9%, 3.82% Seoul, Hong Kong 2.11%. The Bombay Stock Exchange, she fell to its lowest since 2010 (-3%).

Despite the Europe Agreement in an attempt to stem the crisis, the cost of financing the huge debt of Italy rose again Friday at a bond test, the markets continue to doubt the credibility of the Berlusconi government.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended up sharply Thursday, forgetting his concerns over the high yen, in the hope that the Europe Agreement on the night between Wednesday and Thursday will stem the debt crisis.

The Nikkei gained 2.04% or 178.07 points to 8,926.54 and the Topix has taken 2.18% (16.31 points) to 762.79.

The Bank of Japan is also stepped in to buy more assets in the markets, which helped improve investor sentiment.

"There are many unknowns about Europe, and it is now more likely that something disappointing for investors to happen, instead of a positive surprise," said Tomomi Yamashita, fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management .

About values, Olympus has seen a strong rebound after plummeting last few days, taking 23.29% to 1,355 yen.

Olympus gave a press conference defending its mergers and acquisitions Thursday following the resignation of its chairman.

Several major automakers have values ​​slightly outperformed the market: Toyota made 2.22% to 2,584 yen and Honda has awarded 2.75% to 2,393 yen.

In electronics, Sony jumped 5.43% to 1,650 yen, while qu'Elpida fell by 0.6% to 496 yen.

NEC (2.31% at 177 yen) and Softbank (0.91% to 2450 yen) released their quarterly earnings at closing.

The EU summit Sunday will not lead to a global solution. But behind the technical question of strengthening the EFSF lies a conflict between France and Germany on the new role of the ECB. Explanations. Euro

Europe is in a fog for two days a summit critical to its future. A senior European official said the Thursday night, there will be no complete agreement at the EU summit in Brussels on Sunday. The elements of discord between states include the level of discount on Greek debt to private creditors to impose on the recapitalization of banks and especially the role of the ECB in the context of strengthening the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF ). For in cettetempête that shakes the eurozone, the ECB can not imagine a savior.His "future ex-" chief economist Jürgen Stark has also referred to this Thursday, the ECB "can not solve the crisis" and does not want to get out of the mandate it has been set. However, it could have a role to play. Explanations.

She refuses to be involved in strengthening the EFSF

One of the bones of contention between France and Germany is the role of the ECB in the rescue of the euro. Paris wants the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) obtain a banking license to go with her to refinance. Leverage and the ability to fund intervention limited to 440 billion euros that can lift the markets. Option rejected by the institution headed by Jean-Claude Trichet and Germany do not want the ECB to lend to the Fund in exchange for government bonds as collateral in trouble. Because it would weaken its balance sheet and would require a recapitalization.But Berlin refused to give his hand to the pocket.

Germany therefore recommends allowing the EFSF to act as guarantor to facilitate the obtaining of loans by fragile states. The fund could then provide up to 20% to 30% of their credits would be granted. In other words, the fund would be used to support a loan volume of 3 to 5 times higher in the private sector. This scenario would not involve the ECB.

But according to Cyril Regnier, strategist at Natixis, the track of the transformation of the EFSF bank is not completely abandoned. "I wait for the official release of Trichet's refusal to confirm," he said beforehand. "The ECB reversed its decision several times. She was sure she would not buy debt of struggling countries.Since it did massively. "

She claims to have done his share of work

In fact, the Frankfurt institution has already made several decisions that were outside its remit. Since May 2010, it bought bonds of troubled countries for a total of 165 billion euros, 45 billion for Greece. In exchange, it has hundreds of billions of euros of liquidity available to banks that have struggled to find on the market conditions as favorable. In his last speech as president of the institution, Jean-Claude Trichet has even granted two new lines of credit volume limit of one year, an unusually long. They also pledged 40 billion euros through the repurchase of a portion of their assets, especially real estate.The aim is to allow banks sufficient liquidity to meet their financial deadlines near term. The ECB is already far out of its responsibilities in the crisis. "For now, this is the only institution in Europe to have done something concrete," said Jean-Louis Mourier same.

She wants to return to its basic objectives

For over the events we tend to forget them. "The Bank has a mission, is to ensure price stability. This is too often overshadowed at this point in public perception," said Juergen Stark. This is because he refused these missions outside the mandate of the ECB's chief economist has decided to resign. He also pressed the point home by stating that if the ECB went further, "we not only ruin our reputation, but the ECB would also be overwhelmed by the task, and its independence threatened."Today, the objective of the ECB is that the EFSF is promptly voted and she stops to buy the debt of fragile states. But without really knowing if it will happen quickly. "It takes a lot of precautions. It gave no date for example on the end of the buyback," said Cyril Regnier.

The ECB should it have a stronger role in the future?

Opinion is divided on its role in the institutions. "The ECB is currently the only entity capable of ending the crisis," said Cyril Regnier reminder that the ECB has the weapon of the printing press. And he said, if the institution refuses to EFSF banking license, it could ultimately end up losing. "The EFSF can not buy as many bonds that the ECB did, simply because it has limited resources.And if it's not effective, then the ECB will continue to buy the debt of the States, "says strategist at Natixis. But according to Jean-Louis Mourier, the ECB has no additional role as that is his. "It's not really within its jurisdiction to be the savior of Europe. She has already done much. "He said the key lies rather in a" greater federalism "across Europe.

The level of satisfaction in life is to the French 7.3 out of 10, according to a study. Not surprisingly, satisfaction increases with the standard of living. Participants at the 13th edition of the Paris Techno Parade (September 2011)

The French are quite happy in their lives, and they are all the more as their incomes rise, according to a study released Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INSEE). "In France in 2010, when we ask people to indicate their level of satisfaction in life, they meet an average of 7.3 on a scale of 0 to 10", is the INSEE.

This study was conducted following the report presented in 2009 by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.This report commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested to complete the measurement of economic growth, currently estimated by the gross domestic product (GDP), indicators of "well being" taking into account the non-market activities (housework, leisure …) or inequality.

The money buys happiness

According to INSEE, 92% of respondents said a satisfaction greater than or equal to 5, and 60% even give themselves a score between 7 and 9. "The satisfaction increases systematically with the standard of living," said he: it rose from an average of 6 to 10% of the most modest at 7.8 for the 10% most affluent.Similarly, the French have more difficulties, to make ends meet month to pay their bills or have adequate housing, more dissatisfaction is high.

However, most high-income, "plus gain satisfaction is low and other dimensions that the income involved," said INSEE. "The money buys happiness, but only to a certain extent," he told AFP Fabrice Lenglart, Director of Demographic and Social Statistics at INSEE. "This is the first time that we assess subjective indicators. The main interest is to be correlated with objective data that we used to collect," he added.

After the material living conditions, health problems have a strong impact on the well-being felt.Other factors include age (45-49 years are the least satisfied) and the situation vis-à-vis employment (the unemployed are significantly more dissatisfied than assets). Residents of rural communities say they are on their side slightly more satisfied than city dwellers.

The study was conducted in May and June 2010 with a panel of 10,000 households representative of the so-called ordinary French metropolitan population over 16 years, interviewed face to face.

Several major partners in the euro area on Wednesday called its leaders to quickly overcome the crisis of sovereign debt worrying about its consequences for the future of the euro and the global economy as finance ministers and central bankers G20 meeting in Washington.

The continuing crisis in the euro area and new signs of slowing global economy led to a sharp correction in equity markets, lower long-term rates and a rising dollar.

Governments and institutions in the euro area must act quickly to resolve the crisis of sovereign debt at the risk of contagion in the global economy, said seven of the leaders of the G20 in a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, France chairing the G7 and G20.

In their letter, the leaders of Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Great Britain, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea are asking the leaders of the euro area to examine "all options to ensure long term stability of the second most widely used international currency in the world."

The U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has also been more urgent considering that it was more important to contain the crisis to support European growth and that it was essential to mobilize sufficient resources to avoid a default of Greece.He expressed confidence that Europe make more bold to resolve the crisis in the weeks and months ahead.

The European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) will be fully operational and strengthened in the second half of October, said European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn.

However, he felt that the Eurobonds, presented by their proponents as a solution to the debt crisis, would become "junk bonds" without better coordination of European economic policies.

The publication of purchasing managers index (PMI) showing a contraction in private sector activity in the euro area and China has fueled the drop in equity markets, the European indices yielding around 5.0 % in closing while the U.S. indices gave up over 3.0% in mid-session.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 meeting in Washington at the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, will discuss the crisis on Thursday night during a dinner but it is not anticipated that 'they publish a statement on the responses they intend to make.

THE EURO IN DANGER, SAYS STUDY OF THE ECB

The single European currency is at risk because of uncontrolled spending of the States of the euro zone and the debt crisis that ensued, warns a study by the European Central Bank (ECB), co-authored by Jürgen Stark, who has since resigned, because he seems to agree with the policy of buying government bonds introduced by the ECB in the fight against debt crisis in the euro area.

"The budgetary imbalances sharp rise in the euro area as a whole and the extreme situation of some individual countries could undermine the stability, growth and employment, as well as the sustainability of economic and monetary union ( EMU) itself, "it said in the study whose publication has plunged the euro fell to a seven-month low against the dollar, less than $ 1.35.

The European Committee of systemic risk (ESRB), new financial regulatory authority of the European Union, for its part warned that the consequences of the crisis of sovereign debt had significantly increased risks of financial instability in Europe.

"The high degree of interconnection within the EU financial system led to a rapid increase in the risk of contagion significantly.This threatens the financial stability within the EU as a whole and has negative consequences on the real economy in Europe and beyond. "

The ESRB, chaired by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, called for a "quick and decisive action" of the euro zone leaders whose efforts to contain the crisis is widely perceived as inadequate and too slow.

According to the ESRB, national supervisors "should coordinate their efforts to strengthen bank capital (…) taking into account the need for a transparent and consistent exposure to sovereign issuers."

Executive Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, renewed his call for a recapitalization of banks in Europe including the leaders of the institutions concerned and the governments of several countries in the euro area had downplayed the need for highlighting the strength of bank balance sheets in the zone.

Speaking on the eve of the G20 and the IMF, the Canadian Minister of Finance was alarmed by the possibility of credit crunch if the Europeans could not settle the Greek problem, by far the most critical within the euro area.

"The first item on the agenda …is that Europe needs to accelerate, they must resolve the issue of Greece, "said Jim Flaherty, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

"Otherwise the market will prevail and we will have some form of crisis, it will become a banking crisis, affecting banks around the world, and we have a new credit crisis will cause a contraction of the real economy.We need to fix this, "he said.

The lack of solution to the crisis continued to weigh on European banks, the first of which French banks because of their exposure to Greece and Italy.

BNP Paribas has categorically denied being in search of investors for a capital increase and reiterated the line of French banks that it can cope with the debt crisis in the euro area without injection of capital.

A source based in Qatar had told Reuters on Wednesday that the emirate was in talks with BNP and other French banks about possible equity participation.

BNP Paribas finished Thursday's session down 5.7%, while Credit Agricole dropped 9.49% and 9.57% Societe Generale, while the sector index of European banks plunged to 7.26%.

Corporate loans remained strong in July in France, rising 4.7% after rising 4.9% in June, according to figures released Friday by the Bank of France.

These are loans to SMEs that grew the most (5.9% and 8.3% for SMEs in a group), as real estate (+8.0%).

Loans to large companies have found a growth of about 2% (against 1.3% yoy in June) and those granted to holding companies and administrations have slowed (+0.5%).

The funds mobilized slowed to 3.8% from 7.6% in late June, a decline linked to the sharp decline in the volume of mobilized a company that completed an acquisition, said the Bank of France.

In contrast, the funds made available have accelerated 5.0% after 4.1% in late June