Business Online - бізнес-новини України

The number of unemployed U.S. workers seeking new jobless benefits fell to a four-year low last week, as the labor market strengthens in the world's largest economy.

Paul Krugman continues to observe that those who have been doom-mongering about inflation since the financial crisis have been dead wrong.The brief spike in inflation we've seen over the last couple of years--which some Fed critics immediately viewed as the beginning of the end--has again subsided. And inflation is now running below the Fed's target.

"A shark has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark." Woody Allen's description of his failing relationship with Annie Hall is as apt when applied to the euro zone. Tensions within the zone are mounting as we enter a week in which Italy, Belgium, Spain and France plan to tap the markets for some €17 billion ($22 billion) in new loans and, says Goldman Sachs, the European economy slides into recession.

Euro-zone finance ministers on Friday agreed on a temporary boost of the bloc's bailout lending limit to €700 billion ($931 billion), opting for a less ambitious plan that some fear won't be enough to prevent a re-awakening of euro zone financial turmoil.

While the United States remains mired in the deepest slump since the Great Depression, President Barack Obama is touting a modest improvement in employment over the past several months to boost his electoral prospects in November.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says he thinks the European governmental debt crisis is "almost over," but on Wednesday blamed German and French actions a decade ago for causing it.

Greece's financial plight is easing a bit, with the government receiving the first segment of its new bailout and at the same time attracting investors for a bond offering.

A group of financial-market players on Monday will determine that holders of $3.2 billion in Greek credit-default swaps will receive around $2.5 billion in compensation for Greece's debt restructuring—a payout that mirrors the loss that creditors suffered.

When the federal government guarantees a student loan, that loan is subject to accounting treatment that was established by the 1990 Fair Credit and Reporting Act (FCRA). It should come as no surprise that the FCRA methodology is not “fair” at all.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivered a stern ultimatum to the European Union at an election rally Sunday, saying he will withdraw France from the Schengen accords, which allow free circulation within most of the bloc's borders, unless the E.U. hardens its immigration policy.