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"Americans have the will to resist because they have weapons. If you don't have a gun, freedom of speech has no power." -- Yoshimi Ishikawa, Japanese author, in the LA Times 15 Oct 1992
Days after it was rescued in an emergency buyout, Credit Suisse gathered hundreds of clients in an upscale Hong Kong hotel on Tuesday for a glitzy investment conference where they were told to "embrace the new reality".
Executives at the event from the troubled Swiss lender were eager to offer reassurances, even as details of the takeover by Swiss giant UBS remained unclear and global markets were buffeted by fears for the banking industry.
The "winter of discontent" that has been sweeping across Europe has now escalated into a "spring of discontent," with strikes and protests set to spread from France, Greece, and other surrounding countries to Germany.
According to Reuters, Germany's Verdi union and the railway and transport union EVG are preparing to unleash paralyzing strikes on the country's airports and railways next Monday.
Poland has long criticized Hungary for its neutrality in the war in Ukraine and its calls to end sanctions on Russia, but despite the Polish government’s tough rhetoric, billions in exports continue to flow from Poland to Russia
German newspaper Die Welt claims in an opinion piece that Turkey and Hungary should not be trusted within the NATO alliance. The paper writes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to block Sweden’s NATO accession, and Hungary wants EU money in exchange for approving the membership of both nations.
The troubles of once-major Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse is undermining Switzerland’s reputation as a global financial hub, says Opimas CEO Octavio Marenzi, as cited by CNBC on Tuesday.
His warning follows a historic takeover of Credit Suisse by the UBS Group, its domestic rival. On Sunday the two banking giants announced a Swiss-government-brokered deal aimed at shoring up public confidence in the Western financial system and at averting a global crisis. UBS agreed to acquire the embattled bank for three billion Swiss francs ($3.2 billion) as part of a cut-price deal.
Despite Poland’s hawkish war stance and criticism of Hungary’s position on the war, Polish exports worth billions continue flowing into Russia...
European Union (EU) ministers have agreed on a two-billion-euro ($2.14bn) plan to raid their own arsenals and jointly purchase ammunition for Ukraine.
EU defence and foreign ministers backed an initiative aimed at providing Ukraine with one million artillery shells in the next 12 months as well as replenishing EU stocks during a meeting held in Brussels on Monday.
Escalation and internationalization may be very close to happening in the Ukrainian conflict. In a controversial and irresponsible statement, a leading Polish diplomat announced that his country may send troops to the battlefield if Kiev fails to prevent a Russian victory. The official’s words sound like a frontal threat and could have drastic consequences, considering that such a scenario would represent a direct confrontation between Russia and a NATO country – it just remains to be seen whether the Atlantic alliance would be concerned with defending its Eastern European proxies.
On Tuesday, March 26, 2012, I was invited by Ron Paul and his staff to assist a meeting of the Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services. The title of the hearing was "Federal Reserve Aid to the Eurozone: Its Impact on the U.S. and the Dollar."
Shares of Credit Suisse plunged 63% in early trading Monday after the announcement that banking giant UBS would buy its troubled rival for almost $3.25 billion in a deal orchestrated by regulators to stave off further market-shaking turmoil in the global banking system.
UBS shares were down 14% in early trading on the Swiss stock exchange.
