The Korea Herald

IMF chief avoids charges in French payout scandal

May 26, 2013

PARIS (AFP) ― IMF chief Christine Lagarde avoided immediate charges but was named an “assisted witness” after French prosecutors grilled her for two days over a state payout to a disgraced tycoon when she was finance minister.Lagarde was questioned for a total of 24 hours by prosecutors working for a court that probes cases of ministerial misconduct over her 2007 handling of a row that resulted in 400 million euros ($515 million) being paid to controversial business figure Bernard Tapie.“My stat
Abe pledges new assistance package for Myanmar

May 26, 2013

Japan’s premier vows ‘all possible’ help for Myanmar’s economy
Japan's ANA resumes Dreamliner flights

May 26, 2013

Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA), the single biggest operator of Boeing's flagship 787, said it put its Dreamliner fleet back into service Sunday following a four-month suspension due to battery problems.One of ANA's high-tech planes arrived safely at Haneda in Tokyo on time from Sapporo in Hokkaido as a relief service with some 220 passengers aboard, the firm and airoprt officials said.It was ANA's first commercial flight of Dreamliners since the planes were grounded worldwide after two separat
Obama picks two U.S. Senate aides as next SEC commissioners

May 25, 2013

Kara M. Stein and Michael S. Piwowar, both senior U.S. Senate aides, were nominated today by President Barack Obama to join the Securities and Exchange Commission. Stein would replace Elisse B. Walter as a Democratic commissioner and Piwowar would succeed Troy A. Paredes as a Republican appointee on the five-member commission that oversees the country’s capital markets, according to a news release issued by the White House. Stein has served as a top aide to Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Demo
Apple e-books judge: U.S. can show pricing conspiracy

May 24, 2013

The U.S. has evidence that Apple Inc. participated in a conspiracy to raise the prices of electronic books, the federal judge overseeing the government’s civil antitrust case against the company said. “I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that,” U.S. District Judg
New bank authority ‘indispensable’

May 24, 2013

Europe’s banking reform must include agency to wind down busted banks
Abe heads to Myanmar as Japan eyes cheapest wages in Asia

May 24, 2013

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Friday becomes the first Japanese leader to visit Myanmar in 36 years as his nation’s companies seek to invest in the former dictatorship, which has some of the cheapest labor in Asia. About 4,000 Japanese executives per month visited Myanmar last year, the second most popular destination behind Thailand, according to Masaki Takahara, executive managing director of the Japan External Trade Organization’s Yangon office. Cheap labor and an untapped market of more than 60
Japan’s P.M. Abe defends policies as markets settle

May 24, 2013

TOKYO (AP) ― Japan’s top leaders are defending the economic strategies championed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, though the central bank chief acknowledged a need for better communication with financial markets, a day after Tokyo shares suffered their worst loss since the 2011 tsunami disaster.Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda acknowledged Friday the need for careful handling of aggressive monetary policies aimed at breaking the world’s third-largest economy free of deflation, or falling prices,
Ford to halt car production in Australia in 2016

May 23, 2013

MELBOURNE (AFP) ― Ford announced Thursday it would cease making vehicles at its unprofitable Australian plants in 2016 and axe 1,200 jobs, having produced its first car in the country in 1925.Ford Australia chief executive Bob Graziano made the announcement as he revealed losses of A$141 million ($136 million) after tax in the last financial year and Aus$600 million over the last five years.“Unfortunately we will cease our manufacturing operations in October 2016. As a result, approximately 1,20
Bernanke signals Fed to stay course

May 23, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that the U.S. job market remains weak and that it is too soon for the Federal Reserve to slow its extraordinary stimulus programs.Reducing the Fed’s efforts to keep borrowing rates low would “carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery,” Bernanke said in testimony to the Joint Economic Committee, a panel that includes members of the House and Senate.The Fed has been buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and
EU leaders call time on banking secrecy

May 23, 2013

European leaders targeted Wednesday setting a year-end deadline to do away with banking secrecy, hoping to recoup a trillion euros in lost tax each year in a time of record recession and unemployment.“Tax fraud and the hindrance of a real exchange of information ― that has to end,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on arrival for a one-day European Union summit.Leaders also aim to produce a joined-up energy policy, hoping to boost the European economy’s competitive edge.The ambitious goal of
A divided Fed wrestles with when to slow bond buys

May 23, 2013

The Federal Reserve is torn over when to slow its aggressive efforts to stimulate the economy.Its uncertainty burst into view Wednesday, when Chairman Ben Bernanke testified to Congress in the morning and the Fed in the afternoon released the minutes of its last policy meeting.Stock prices gyrated through the day as investors struggled to determine whether the Fed might soon pull back _ even gradually _ on its extraordinary efforts.At one point, the Dow Jones industrial average had jumped more t
EU leaders face tough talks at tax fraud summit

May 22, 2013

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― Leaders of recession-hit Europe take a fresh stab at fighting tax fraud and evasion worth a trillion euros a year at a summit Wednesday but seem unlikely to convince reluctant Austria and Luxembourg to sign on.With euro-skepticism gaining ground as European Union unemployment queues lengthen and growth slumps, there were hopes of the one-day summit producing an EU-wide crusade against tax evasion and agreement to make the bloc energy-sufficient.“In times of tight budgetary const
BOJ says no new easing measures

May 22, 2013

Japanese central bank will expand the supply of money by $683b a year
JPMorgan's Dimon survives shareholder referendum

May 22, 2013

Shareholders at JPMorgan Chase voted to let Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO, keep both his jobs.At the bank's annual meeting, just 32 percent of shareholders voted for a non-binding measure that would have advised the bank to split the roles. That's less than the 40 percent vote that a similar proposal received last year.Shareholder groups lobbying for the split gained momentum from a surprise $6 billion trading loss last year, which tarnished the reputation of both JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Di