| The trouble with America? Washington and Wells Fargo to pay $148M fine for Wachovia misdeeds |
| News - Financial News |
|
Many of the challenges facing Europe are similar to what's going on here in America. The only major difference is that instead of a large number of sovereign nations bickering about debt, you have partisan politicians bickering about debt.The United States is stuck in a slow growth recovery from the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. And while there have been some encouraging signs in the job market lately, it's not enough to make most consumers (not to mention investors) get all that excited.Many think that the problem begins and ends with Washington. The refusal to do anything that might help the economy in the short-term because of this myopic focus on cutting the deficit is creating confusion and hurting consumers.Over the past two years, I've taken plenty of shots at cash-rich companies for not hiring more aggressively.I met with Alexander "Sandy" Cutler, the CEO of Cleveland-based manufacturer Eaton (ETN, Fortune 500), at the CNNMoney offices Thursday. [Read the full article] Among the 31 banks on the European Banking Authority's list, six are from Germany -- Europe's largest economy. But Spain's Banco Santander (STD) faces the biggest shortfall of €15.3 billion.Spanish banks came under scrutiny in July, when the EBA carried out stress tests of 90 institutions. Of the eight that failed, five were in Spain. At that time, the EBA said the banks needed €2.5 billion to survive.While the latest EBA report was not the result of stress tests per se, it is still a big reality check for banks across Europe.Aside from Greece, Spain faces the biggest overall shortfall, of €26.2 billion, followed by Italy (€15.4 billion) and Germany (€13.1 billion).And Belgian bank Dexia, which received a €90 billion bailout in October, needs to raise €6.3 billion."It's really no surprise," said Keith Springer, president of Springer Financial Advisors. [Read the full article] The new interface will roll out to all Twitter users over the next few weeks. It's also available immediately to those who download Twitter's iPhone or Android apps.The revamped Twitter has large "home," "connect," and "discover" buttons at the top of the homepage. On the left side of the screen, a smaller box invites users to Tweet, and below that visitors can view trending topics and Twitter's "who to follow" suggestions. Twitter's nickname for the redesign: #LetsFly.The changes carry through to Twitter's completely redesigned iOS and Android apps -- an acknowledgement that mobile is becoming the main playing field for social and messaging services like Twitter. More than half of Twitter's 100 million active members reach the site through mobile devices, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said in September. [Read the full article] 
|