International & World Report

Asian stocks take a breather. After starting the week on a sharp rise, boosted by optimism on Wall Street Friday, the markets of the region back into negative territory on Tuesday. They mimic their movements and those of the New York Stock Exchange, which yesterday closed at a decline of 0.44%, consolidating its position in a quiet market because of macroeconomic news.

Today, the Nikkei opened down 0.58%. The key index in Tokyo was then widened its losses to finally close on a decline of 1.12% to 9495.76 points. The Topix yielded 0.78% to 842.65 points. The excitement dominates the squares bourisères Japan while the yen reached in a meeting earlier in two weeks. The exporters have particularly suffered, Kyocera and Sony securities yielding 2.2% and 1.11% at closing.

Investors await confirmation of the rumors of a possible new government intervention to curb the rise in national currency values that penalizes exporters, heavy weight rating. The Nikkei newspaper reported the Bank of Japan considering further easing of monetary policy at its meeting on 4 and 5 October.

In China, stock markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong followed suit with cuts of 0.27% and 0.12%.The diplomatic tensions with Japan remain vivid while the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Seiji Maehara, said Tuesday that there was "no territorial issue" with China, on islands in the East China Sea that Japan regards as Japanese land, according to Japanese media.

As for values, the title of Chinese aluminum producer Chalco surged 10% in Shanghai and Hong Kong 7.12% after announcing an investment of its parent Chinalco for at least 10 billion yuan (1.1 billion euros) in the "rare earth". Chinalco will acquire a majority stake in Jiangxi Rare Earth and Rare Metals Tungsten Group in.

The rare earth metals are essential to the manufacture of many technologies. The announcement comes as Japanese traders complained last week of a blocking Chinese exports of rare earths.

Hesitation

Other exchanges in the region are in green. The Korean KOSDAQ gained 1.01% to 1363 points. The national manufacturer Hyundai continues to suffer from the crisis of vehicle recalls in the United States: Securities unleash 2.8%.

The Indian Sensex is 0.07% at 20,130 points while the S & P autralien is stable at 4675 points. Scholarships Taiwan, Pakistan and Indonesia climbed to 0.12%, 0.17% and 1.55%.

Oil drop

From their side, crude prices are displayed in small drop on Tuesday in electronic trading in Asia. Following the movement of stock markets, a barrel of light sweet crude for November delivery lost 29 cents to 76.23 dollars. That of Brent North Sea with identical maturity fell by 35 cents to 78.22 dollars.

Appeared as Benoist, Secretary of State for Housing, revealed to Le Figaro in July, the government will peak in 2011, rising rents for low-income housing (HLM). "We'll limit in 2011 rising rents in public housing increased IRL (benchmark rents, Ed)," he said before the 71st Congress of the HLM movement, which takes place from Tuesday to Thursday next to Strasbourg.

The RL, published since February 2008 and calculated on the basis of the index of consumer prices excluding tobacco and rents, as a reference for the review of residential rents to private owners.Since the beginning of the year, was up 0.57% on a year in the second quarter, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, after registering a decline of 0.06% last quarter of 2009.

The announcement comes following the publication of a study by the Consumer Association (CLCV) that 65.46% (figure updated in July) and HLM organizations have increased their rents by more than 1 %, going against the recommendation of the government not just to exceed 1%.Subsequently, the HLM movement had recognized an average increase of 1.3% in rents this year, but stressed that it was responding to a significant increase in charges on buildings.

September 13, CLCV went even further: it claimed outright freeze rents for 2011, "without the possibility of upgrading over the following years and in anticipation of a historic decline in purchasing power in 2010 and meet the current tensions, "says the association, which was the soul fact that rents have risen twice as fast as inflation guaranteed high risk personal loans.

The park cost housing (HLM) in figures:

– 4 million units (nearly one-third built after 1985)

– 10 million

– 1.2 million applications are pending homes (550,000 of which came from persons already rented).

– 77.000 new homes have been started in 2009, 14,000 other acquired and developed and 11,000 have been acquired without performing work. The new offer reached 102,000 units.

– 33% of households eligible for public housing based on their income and their status as non-owners.

– 85% social housing and 15% are collective individual.

– 450,000 families are welcomed each year, either in new housing or in homes vacated by their occupants.

– 50% of stock is concentrated in four regions: Ile-de-France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Rhone-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur.

(Source: Social Housing, August 2010)

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U.S. stock markets, should undergo further profit taking on Thursday. The index futures are predicting a slightly lower opening on Wall Street. The index futures Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 respectively retreating from 0.42% to 1125.30 points from 0.18% to 1 976.10 points. On Wednesday, the NYSE has closed in the red after taking careful speech the day before the Federal Reserve (Fed), the U.S. central bank. At the close, the Dow Jones lost 0.20% to 10,739.31 points, the S & P 500 declined 0.48% at 1134.28 points, while the Nasdaq dropped 0.63% in 2334, 55 points.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro held steady above $ 1.33 and remains at its highest in five months. For his part gold continues to beat his record.The ounce of precious metal climbed to 1296 dollars this night.

On the macroeconomic front, investors are waiting for the traditional weekly claims for unemployment benefits that are known to 14:30, the composite indicator of economic activity and sales of existing homes for the month of August to 16 hours.

Values to follow

The side of values, Starbucks announced its next higher sale prices on some coffee. The rise in coffee prices (the highest for 13 years) and sugar (up 43% since June) put pressure on margins in the group. Kraft Foods has already raised its prices in August.

Always on the side of values, the U.S. computer group HP to digitize the library of former Beatle Paul McCartney.

For his part RIM confirmed the upcoming release of Internet Tablet called BlackPad.The surprise came from the operating system: RIM will use the software for the QNX Software Sytems that the group has acquired and is developing operating software for the automotive sector.

Also note, Bed Bath & Beyond, a distributor of household equipment and food and health has announced a profit of $ 182 million above expectations. For its part Red Hat, the Linux software company, announced a profit of 23.7 million.

Blockbuster, the video rental company, is expected to announce today its passage under the protection of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Act, according to a source cited by Bloomberg. Blockbuster's debt is close to $ 900 million.

General Motors Place from North American investors most of the securities being sold to mark his return on the stock market, according to sources familiar with the matter quoted by Reuters.After split, the listing price should be between 20 and 25 dollars, the sources said. GM has not yet determined the overall valuation of the company, nor the price range of action, sources said.

Since yesterday, the chairman of the IOR, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and another part of the bank are being investigated by the Rome prosecutor's office for violating a provision of the law against money-laundering European entry into force in 2007. There are not suspected of money laundering itself, but omissions on subjects performing the operations.

Indeed, the law requires banks to mention the agent of any financial transaction and its purpose and its nature. Yet according to La Repubblica, justice has been discovered that the Vatican bank managed accounts with Italian institutions unnamed owner, identified only with the acronym IOR. If one believes the Italian daily, "the hypothesis of investigators is that subjects with a tax resident in Italy use the IOR as a" screen "to hide various crimes such as fraud or tax evasion."

In an interview published by the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi says he is "humbled" by the Italian judicial investigation.

"This is a procedural error" he assures. The transaction at issue was "a normal cash and involved a transfer of accounts belonging to the Vatican Bank to other accounts of the Vatican Bank."

For its part, in a statement posted on the website of Radio Vatican, the Holy See has expressed yesterday "perplexity and surprise" about the initiative from the floor of Rome us fast cash.

The Vatican wants to return to the White List

The IOR, which manages the accounts of religious orders and Catholic associations, is a structure enjoying extraterritoriality granted to the papal state, and therefore not bound by the standards applicable to financial institutions in Italy.

In fact, the bank had already made extensive mention of her in 1981 when the collapse of the Ambrosiano bank private Italian, she was the principal shareholder.

But about a year ago, the appointment as chairman of the IOR by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, representative in Italy of the Spanish bank Santander, ethicist finance, had appeared in the media as an attempt to reorder the accounts of IOR.

Moreover, in its statement, the Holy See has emphasized its desire for transparency on financial transactions of the Institute."The authorities of the IOR operate the necessary contacts and meetings, both with the Bank of Italy, with relevant international bodies – the OECD and the Financial Action Task Force against Money Laundering (FATF) – for the insertion of the Holy See in the White List (list of countries meeting the standards against money laundering, ed).

Meanwhile, the financial police seized 23 million euros in the bank as a precaution.

It is a controversial project that has long championed. And Nicolas Sarkozy has hammered at the UN General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Monday: as chair of the G20 and G8 in November, he will advocate for funding innovative to help the poorest countries, including the Tobin tax on financial transactions.

"The innovative financing, taxation of financial transactions, we can decide here! Why wait? Finance has globalized. On what we do not ask for funds to participate in global stability? ", Launched the Head of State on the first day of the summit on the MDGs."We are in the twenty-first century, we can not continue with the governance of the 20th century.

Also promoted by Brazil, Germany or Norway, these new modes of financing, however, raise the suspicion of other countries, including the United States, Canada or China.

Contribution to Fund AIDS increased over three years

As expected, Nicolas Sarkozy has announced a 20% increase over three years of France's contribution to the Global Fund against AIDS, including his wife Carla ambassador. "We have no right to hide behind the economic crisis" to reduce development aid, said President of the Republic short term personal loans."The crisis is severe in rich countries but it has far worse consequences for poor countries," he said, hoping that "all developed countries agree to do more."

According to the Global Fund, France pledged in 2010 to pay 381 million dollars (about 290 million euros) to fight against AIDS, malaria and turberculose, is substantially the same as in 2009.

Head to head with Merkel?

Arriving with more than half past one late to deliver his speech at the forum, Nicolas Sarkozy was to diplomatic sources, just before talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Relations between the two leaders have cooled since their declarations against the Roma.Criticized at European level on the new measures this community, the French president said that Germany supported this approach and considering itself to proceed in the coming weeks to evacuation camps. Statements strongly denied by the spokesman for Angela Merkel before the German foreign minister is not trying to calm the situation by referring to a "misunderstanding".

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The workers are good Lejaby. For the second consecutive night, they occupied the site of Friday night's headquarters company high-end lingerie Rillieux-La-Pape (Rhone). "Some have spent the night in the stairs, on the other car in their car and we are determined to continue," said one of those employed in Progress.

Thursday evening, some fifty employees on strike had already stayed there, "in tents in the yard and other inside the headquarters building, on cardboard on the floor," said Janine Friday Clot , CGT delegate, told AFP. These workers came from three production sites lingerie group – those Bellegarde-sur-Valserine and Bourg-en-Bresse, in the Ain and the Ardèche Teil – threatened with closure as part of a restructuring announced by management in April.

Relocation Plan

Lejaby has unveiled on 1 April, plans to close three sites on its four factories in France, and delete 197 posts from 653 in order to produce cheaper abroad, namely Tunisia, Morocco, China and Poland. The group justified its decision by the "sharp slowdown" in sales, 30% of production is still entrenched in France, against 0-5% for the competition. "Lejaby wishes to retain its expertise in tailoring holding between 7 and 10% of its production in France," he said.

Therefore undertook a showdown with workers, mostly women. On April 12, they demonstrated outside the headquarters of the group, wearing bras and panties over their clothes. Yesterday, according to Janine clot, "negotiations with management were blocked.The employees demanded 70,000 euros of compensation initially, while the management proposes 10,000 euros plus 420 euros per year worked, said Marie-Christine Grumpy, who works at the site of Bourg-en-Bresse, the agency AP.

Legal battle

The case will be brought to court Tuesday. The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Lyon must consider an application for annulment of the proceedings filed by employees. The current owner of Lejaby, Palmers Textil Austrian group, has launched proceedings against the previous owner, Warnaco Group U.S., because it accuses him of having cheated on the purchase value of Lejaby. Palmers Textil wants to cancel the sale, which was concluded in 2008.

A procedure in which employees Lejaby have heard … by the press."Palmers hid the fact that he had been engaged last November, a lawsuit against the U.S. Warnaco to cancel the sale of Lejaby," said Pierre Masanovic, counsel for the employees of Lejaby, told Reuters. "We are dealing with a totally new situation. If the sale of Lejaby was actually broken, we would leave on a totally new situation. "

(With agencies)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) does not consider and if necessary additional assistance to Greece and help him avoid defaulting on its debt, said on Friday the Wall Street Journal, citing "a person familiar with the matter."

The exceptional support that Greece has received "does not in itself any kind of agreement with the IMF added later after the expiration of the current agreement in three years," according to the source quoted by the newspaper.

In May, Greece, heavily in debt, has received financial support from the EU and IMF, with a loan of 110 billion euros over three years in exchange for fiscal austerity measures to avoid bankruptcy the country. The IMF has supported third of the credit.

In a brief article entitled "IMF suggests further assistance to Greece," the business daily said the U.S. for the first time since spring, the IMF launched a signal indicating that he would not abandon the Greece if the country could not regain market confidence despite the implementation of reforms in the agreement.

The Greek finance minister George Papaconstantinou, this week conducted a mini-tour of the three main financial centers in Europe London, Paris and Frankfurt to try to convince international investors to buy debt Greek, showing them the progress .

According to the Greek press, the minister declined to comment on a possible extension of IMF assistance to the maturity of the support plan for three years.Some analysts do not exclude that the threat of bankruptcy resurface in 2013, the loan term the euro area and the IMF.

While they are not convinced that this country does not restructure its huge debt, a move that would require a suspension of payment, investors refuse to Athens long-term loans were too risky. This denial requires Greece to increase fundraising and repayments in the short term, to a pressure of permanent market.

Four of the five facilities inspected BP in the North Sea last year have been pinned by the British government for deficiencies in their preparation against possible oil spills. After the serious crisis that followed the explosion was the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the revelation yesterday of the new security flaws in the Financial Times comes at the worst time for BP.

It is in fact yesterday that Tony Hayward, CEO of British oil out, appeared before a parliamentary committee about the safety of deep drilling in the North Sea. Despite calls by some politicians, including the European Commissioner for Energy, Günther Oettinger, Great Britain did not implement a moratorium on new deep wells, saying that safety standards were sufficiently robust.A decision could be reviewed if the non-observance of safety rules by BP proved serious enough. Inspection reports from the Department of Energy, which has procured the Financial Times through a request for Right to Information, show that most of the BP employees had not received training to prepare regulatory in the event of an accident causing an oil spill.

The British oil company has 33 drilling platforms and operating in the North Sea, and on 12 of them that were inspected, 7 had not made the necessary training. The company claimed to have corrected the problems identified since the inspections. BP is not the only company to be late on mandatory training.Shell was also affected but to a lesser extent, with only 5 out of 27 inspections identified problems in the last 5 years guaranteed payday loan.

Many accidents

On the whole North Sea, the safety statistics have worsened in recent years after the British authorities. There were 85 accidental releases of oil and gas over the period 2009-2010, compared to 61 in 2008-2009. The number of accidents classified as "serious" is also increased from 30 to 50 over the same period, while staff on the platforms was reduced from 28 200 to 26 600.

Some of the problems associated with aging platforms, some of which are active since the 1970s. Platform for BP Magnus, in operation for 27 years off the Shetlands, was repeatedly criticized by officials.The installation was not prepared to deal with oil spills, and labor inspectors noted deficiencies, such as a lack of sufficient lifeboats in running condition, the emergency lights failed and the beams and poorly maintained metal bridges. BP claims to have invested 250 million pounds to deliver Magnus to level.

A letter from the Labour Inspectorate to BP last winter, and published this week by the Daily Telegraph commented that their subcontractor Seawell "had a habit of working without due process or frames given by Authorities ". Labour inspectors also criticized BP for not sufficiently taken their previous conclusions seriously.

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Inflation picked up again in August in France. The price index (CPI) rose 0.2% after falling 0.3% in July, according to Insee. In one year, the evolution remains stable, prices rising by 1.4%. Despite the slight recovery in prices, "there is no risk of inflation in France," said Alexander Law, chief economist at Xerfi.

The small labels rebound is due to a seasonal effect, according to Insee, "This increase in the CPI in August was mainly due to higher prices of manufactured goods related to the end balances summer and increase again seasonal prices of services. " With a jump of 6% labels, clothing draws upward the prices of manufactured goods. The furniture prices also increase by 2.5%, as the leather travel (+4.1%).

Gold rush on world markets requires the prices of watches, jewelry, jewelry surged by 4.1% in August. In one year, the sector is highly dependent on the yellow metal, has had to increase its rates by 11.6%.

Same trend in services, a slight increase of 0.2% in August. "With the summer season, the price increases continue to holiday accommodation (+11.5%) and package holidays (+5.5%), falls INSEE.

Domestic demand is "depressed"

These increases were offset by seasonal declines in the prices of fresh products (-7.5%) and energy prices stable. Indeed, if electricity prices rose 1.6% in August, petroleum products, with a decline of 0.7%, they have pulled the index down.

These figures confirm the month of August, according to Alexander Law, that "domestic demand is so depressed that it prevents distributors to significantly raise their prices." So they may put pressure on their suppliers and wages, warns economist. Not enough to foreshadow a return to power in this context.

The keeper of inflation in the eurozone, the European Central Bank, said that rising prices should remain moderate in 2010. It expects growth of between 1.5% and 1.7%.

Gilles Carrez wants to go further than the government on the niches. It will introduce amendments to that effect during the debate on the 2011 budget this fall.

LE FIGARO – What are your views on the French public finance?

Gilles Carrez – Economic policy has been pursued since the crisis is a no-fault. Today, employment recovers, tax receipts and social re-form. But we emerge from the crisis with a very high public deficit. In 2011, France will be the second sovereign borrower in the world after the United States! This makes us vulnerable. The comparison with Germany could become difficult because our neighbor should have a deficit below 3% of GDP next year. France must absolutely bring his to 6% in 2011.

How?

We must first control public spending. But since they are rigid, the process is slow.Despite the non-replacement of staff on two retiring, the payroll of the state increased from 600 to 800million euros per year! The social welfare spending rose inexorably. So we must also protect revenue. Hence my fight against tax shelters and social.

The plane on the niches will bring 500 million. Are you disappointed?

500 million is not much. It is not a plane, but a nail file! Of the 10 billion in new revenues in 2011, expect about half of the insurance and banking is not a balanced fiscal policy. Especially since some measures are not sustainable.I propose in the budget debate amendments to go further, much further in reducing the tax and social niches and that with a sense of fairness.

What devices do you carry the iron?

The reduction rate of 75% tax on small niche ISF leads to bad investment decisions easy payday loans. We must decrease. Is it reasonable to exclude from the plane cuts the tax on donations, especially donations to political parties? I do not think. The real estate gains, excluding principal residence, must be submitted to CSG and CRDS. It would introduce an income ceiling for the new zero-interest loan to replace the tax credit on mortgage interest.

And side businesses?

It must redefine the research tax credit to avoid windfall. Book and the tax credit incentive for small businesses.Finally, deletion of the last installment of IFA (fixed annual tax), scheduled for 2011, should be postponed. This measure will only affect very large firms, which it is normal that they participate in the national effort.

Ultimately, should put an end to niches?

It would have to transform many grants. Rather than offering on tap for a tax credit to households that install solar panels, mostly imported from China, it would be better to give them direct support. And do the same for the niches overseas. The grant runs in a sealed envelope.If the credits are consumed in October, well, the distribution stops! With the tax shelter, forecasts and assessments are impossible and the result is disastrous for government finances.

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