German central bank has cut its economic growth forecast for 2013 from 1.6% (June estimate) to 0.4%. Estimates for 2014 are back at 1.9%. Oh well, so we’ll wait another year and pour more money into Europe’s open wounds. No biggie. Yesterday, the ECB said if the recovery was to kick in in the second half of 2013 as hoped [Draghi would have said 'expected'], the eurozone will grow 1.2% in 2014. read article
Also in Germany, financial regulator BaFin sat in on Deutsche Bank’s audit committee meetings during the financial crisis and should therefore have known about the skewed numbers that may have saved the bank from requiring a government bailout. The SEC, who’s investigating the derivative mis-valuations, is bound to be pissed off. read article
When Starbucks started to write your name onto its white paper cups, that was an effort to make you feel more at home, more individually loved in each stock-standard store. Then the company was part of a tax avoidance case worth millions of pounds. Today, Starbucks issued an open letter from its UK managing director, promising to pay up to £20m more in corporate tax just to be nice. Of course, that is an image-protecting half-truth, because Starbucks, Google and Amazon had become the poster children of tax avoidance in the UK. Yet, paying so much money for a one-page add just to remind me that there will always be a barrister barista waiting for me, almost got me walking into a Starbucks this morning. Then I remembered that the coffee’s not that good.
In fiscal cliff news, everybody has returned to the negotiation table, or so it seems. On that note, a depressing visualization of US debt.
The US is also awaiting jobs data that will be completely distorted by Sandy. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is convinced that Russia is planning a new Soviet Union and must be stopped. read article
And finally, bidding farewell to the Financial Times Deutschland.
Weekend reading
- The New Yorker goes for lunch with Warren Buffet, read article
- The FT got balls: In this opinion piece on the Autumn Statement, George Osborne became G-Dawg, read article (click here for a picture of the print version)
- Why Dilma Rousseff needs a new economic advisor, read article
- The US could create jobs by building a Death Star, read article
Have a good one.
