Greeks protest labor reform as lenders due to start fresh review

• Reuters

• Oct. 17, 2016, 2:51 PM
• 108

Greek labour unions protest over wages, pension and labour agreements in Athens Thomson Reuters

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greeks demanded their government protect wages, pensions and restore collective bargaining on Monday, staging a noisy reminder of popular dissent to leaders poised to start fresh negotiations with lenders.

Athens and its creditors are due to launch a fresh round of talks this week on reforming its labor market, among conditions of a multi-billion euro bailout and a vital economic test if the indebted country is ever to win debt relief.

About 7,000 people protested in Athens's central Syntagma square, the scene of much larger demonstrations in the past. Patriotic music blared from loudspeakers strung up in the square earlier.

"This is past our levels of endurance," said a 54-year-old teacher, who identified herself only as Evangelia. "A leftist government should speak in the name of the people, not in the name of capital."

Leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was re-elected a year ago on a pledge to revive collective bargaining and resist reforms that may lower the minimum wage.

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Under a conservative-led government in 2012, Greece froze the mechanism of collective bargaining, cut minimum wages and liberalized rules covering mass layoffs.

The present administration has cut pensions, increased taxes and introduced broad-ranging pension reform.

"The Greek people must throw the government's lies and propaganda into the garbage," said Dimitris Koutsoubas, head of Greece's Communist Party.

Lenders, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF), want further liberalization of redundancy rules and retention of the current minimum wage system, which is set by law and not collective bargaining as the practice in other EU member states.

Although there is growing consensus among European creditors and the IMF on the need for debt relief, its form and scope remain unclear.

Greece says it wants the review concluded by the end of the year, eyeing its inclusion in the European Central Bank's quantitative easing (QE) program.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Reuters Television; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2016. Follow Reuters on Twitter.

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JUAN WILDER 09.22.15 10:22 AM

REPUBLICANS SEETHING AS PRESIDENT OBAMA FINALLY ERASES BUSH’S $1.4 TRILLION DEFICIT MESS.

Between 2009 and 2013, President Barack Obama achieved the improbable: he successfully eliminated the $1.4 trillion deficit legacy of the Bush administration, lowering it to $679 billion. That’s right: he cleaned up the mess cowboy George left behind, and things are looking up for America.

Obama has seen, and will continue to see strong opposition to his policies from Republicans despite this astonishing accomplishment. The deficit is normalizing for the first time since 1965. In addition to proving himself worthy in terms of economic recovery the president has also instituted federal healthcare reform. Even though Obama will leave office in early 2017, he will be able to set the budget for that year, so he has plenty of time for more even more reduction.

Obama’s fiscal responsibility will place a large burden on the Republican party if one of its candidates should win the presidency in 2016. There are fears that a Republican president could reverse the trend set by the Obama administration, and all the hard work done over the past eight years would be malevolently undone for no better reason than to smite Obama’s legacy.

The last time the country cleared a budget deficit was during the eight-year Clinton administration, which ran from 1993 to 2001. The trend reversed when President Bush decided to play war over in the Middle-East at the cost of FAR TOO MANY American lives, and trillions of dollars.

Bank of America beats, has a historic quarter for banking

• Portia Crowe
 
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• 5h
• 3,265
 
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch CEO Brian Moynihan.REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Monday reported third-quarter earnings that beat on the top and bottom lines.

The firm reported earnings per share of $0.41 on revenue of $21.64 billion.

Analysts were expecting adjusted earnings of $0.34 on revenue of $20.82 billion, according to Bloomberg.

"We delivered strong results this quarter by staying true to our strategy of responsible growth and focusing on the quality of the relationships with our customers and clients," CEO Brian Moynihan said in a statement.

"Our investments in innovation, including industry-leading digital banking capabilities, continue to transform how we serve our customers."

It was the company's best third quarter for investment-banking fees since Bank of America's 2009 merger with Merrill Lynch, the firm said.

Here's the breakdown by division:

• Total trading revenue came in at $3.60 billion ($3.25 billion expected), up 14%.
• Fixed income, currency, and commodities revenue was $2.65 billion ($2.21 billion expected), up 39% thanks to stronger performance in credit products, especially mortgages, as well as in rates products and client financing.
• Equities revenue came in at $954 million ($1.03 billion expected), down 17% because of lower client activity in cash and derivatives, which the firm said reflected lower market volatility.
• Investment-banking revenue came in at $1.46 billion ($1.28 billion expected), up 13% because of higher debt and equity issuance activity but hurt somewhat by lower advisory fees.

In the same quarter last year, Bank of America beat on the bottom line but missed on the top, reporting earnings per diluted share of $0.37 ($0.33 expected) on revenue $20.68 billion ($20.73 billion expected).

In the second quarter, Bank of America had a clean beat, with earnings of $0.36 a share ($0.33 expected) on revenue of $20.6 billion ($20.4 billion expected).

JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup have already reported third-quarter earnings, each one beating expectations. Goldman Sachs will report on Tuesday.

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REPORT: Deutsche Bank could cut back its US operation

• Oscar Williams-Grut
 
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• 8h
• 2,358
 
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The former headquarters of Germany's largest business bank, Deutsche Bank, seen in Frankfurt in 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Deutsche Bank is considering scaling back its US operations amid spiralling legal and capital costs, according to multiple reports.

Bloomberg and the German paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung are reporting that management at the bank has discussed cutting back investment-banking operations in the US to save money.

The German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag reports that a pullback of US operations could be part of a deal with the US Department of Justice over misselling of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2007 US housing crisis.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.

Deutsche Bank has plunged into crisis after reports surfaced suggesting that the Department of Justice was seeking a $14 billion (£11.5 billion) settlement with Germany's biggest bank over the case. That total is bigger than Deutsche Bank's market capitalisation and sent shares tumbling.

Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan was forced to tell the market that the bank would not settle at that level and expected the eventual fine to be much lower. Cryan also said the bank had no plans to raise capital.

But cutting back on the US investment-banking operations could be a way of raising capital internally should Deutsche need it. The bank is required to set aside a certain amount of capital to fund investment-banking activities, so that capital would be freed up if these activities were scaled back.

About 10% of Deutsche Bank's total employees are based in North America, according to Bloomberg, equivalent to just over 10,000 people.

The bank, Germany's biggest, is already carrying out a major restructuring that will see 9,000 jobs go. Reuters reported earlier this month that a further 10,000 jobs could go.

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China detains staff from Australia's Crown for 'gambling crimes'

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The Crown Casino complex is pictured in Melbourne March 19, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File photo

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By Byron Kaye and Farah Master | SYDNEY/HONG KONG

Australian casino giant Crown Resorts Ltd (CWN.AX) said on Monday China had detained 18 of its employees including three Australians, sending gaming stocks tumbling on concerns about their strategy for luring Chinese gamblers.

The Sydney-listed company, 53 percent-owned by billionaire James Packer, said it had not made contact with its employees, including Australia-based head of international VIP gambling Jason O'Connor, and was not aware why they had been detained.

Australia consular officials in Shanghai were making arrangements to visit the Australians to offer assistance, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said, without specifying when the meetings would take place. It said support and information was also being provided to the families of the employees in Australia.

China's Foreign Ministry told Reuters in a statement that it detained some Australian nationals for suspected "gambling crimes" without further explanation. It said it was still investigating the matter.

Crown shares fell 14 percent, their biggest one-day decline, while smaller Australian rival Star Entertainment Group Ltd (SGR.AX) dropped as much as 6 percent, amid concerns about the impact the move would have on the companies' ability to attract wealthy Chinese gamblers to major new developments in Australia.

Vitaly Umansky, an analyst at Bernstein in Hong Kong, said the detentions appeared to be a repeat of China's crackdown on South Korean casino marketing efforts a year earlier, a move seen less as an attempt to curb Chinese gambling than to keep it under domestic control.

"The Chinese government seems to be making a clear statement about its view on gaming activity being offshored to foreign jurisdictions, while Macau is not being targeted in the same way," said Umansky.

Thirteen South Korean casino managers were arrested in China last year for offering Chinese gamblers free tours, free hotels and sexual services.

Melbourne-based Crown holds a 27 percent stake in Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (MPEL.O) based in the Chinese territory of Macau. It does not directly run casinos in China but relies heavily on Chinese gamblers at its Australian operations.

Shares in other non-Chinese Macau gambling companies also fell, including Melco Crown, down as much as 5.6 percent, Wynn Macau Ltd (1128.HK) and Sands China (1928.HK).

"GOT IT WRONG"

Although it remained unclear what prompted the mass detention, analysts said the move suggested Crown had misread the enforcement climate about marketing its venues on the mainland, where gambling is illegal except for regulated state-sanctioned lotteries.

Most other operators have toned down their marketing in China over the past two years, focusing on their live shows, restaurants and accommodation.

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"Crown apparently either thought nothing to worry about, or they have only recently revived operations in (China). Whatever, they got it wrong," said David Green, an analyst at Newpage Consulting, which focuses on the gambling industry in Asia.

The detention may affect Crown's operations in its home country, too. Crown is planning a A$2 billion ($1.5 billion) gaming resort on the Sydney waterfront, targeted largely at Chinese tourists.

"It's getting harder and harder to see how you continue to do business in that space when regulatory increases are clearly the highest risk factor," said Evan Lucas, a strategist at IG Markets.

The Crown staff were held following raids in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu, the Australian Financial Review reported at the weekend. Crown did not comment on the circumstances of the detentions.

Packer stepped down as co-chairman of Melco Crown earlier this year, as a Chinese government corruption crackdown put the brakes on gaming revenues in Macau.

(Reporting by Byron Kaye, with additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and James Regan in SYDNEY; Editing by Stephen Coates, Lincoln Feast and Ian Geoghegan)

A titan of Wall Street is getting his own TV show

• Linette Lopez
 
•   

• 5h
• 8,183

David Rubenstein, the founder of The Carlyle Group, with Bill Gates.Bloomberg, screenshot

On Monday night at 8 p.m. EST, Bloomberg TV is launching a new show starring one of Wall Street's most prominent figures, David Rubenstein, the founder and co-CEO of the private-equity firm The Carlyle Group.

The show is called "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations" and features Rubenstein doing one-on-one interviews with business leaders like Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Expect candid discussions about life lessons, formative experiences, and the business leaders' paths to success.

A few things you should know before you start watching on Monday.

• American Express CEO Ken Chenault, Google's Eric Schmidt, and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi will also be interviewed.
• The first episode, featuring Bill Gates, will air Monday, but later episodes will run on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
• The show will run for 12 weeks.

Business Insider caught up with Rubenstein and the CEO of Bloomberg Media, Justin Smith, to talk about how and why they decided to work on this project. Smith said the initial idea came from the fact that Rubenstein had already been known in business and political circles for his interviewing skills for some time.

It all started when Rubenstein became president of the Economic Club of Washington, DC. One of his official duties was to introduce the club's quarterly speakers. But there was a problem.

"I realized that some business people are boring speakers," Rubenstein told Business Insider over the phone.

So to spice things up he turned the interviews into Q&A sessions. It turned out he could be pretty funny.

"It sort of became a cultish thing in Washington because they were so different and so fresh," Smith said of Rubenstein's interviews.

Rubenstein interviewing Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Bloomberg, screenshot

Before Rubenstein knew it, he was doing speaking engagements here and there. Now he even hosts a private event with members of Congress in which he interviews an American historian. It's a chance for legislators from both chambers and both parties to come together and learn something.

"If you knew me 30 years ago, I was shy and retiring," Rubenstein said in his calm cadence, "but when I started Carlyle I had to do presentations and start making speeches, and I got more comfortable ... Now I'm making a speeches in front of 1,000 people."

Rubenstein doesn't claim to be a journalist, but he does think his personal relationships with some of his guests will give them breathing room to be more candid.

In Blankfein's episode, for example, the Goldman Sachs CEO discusses in great detail how he learned he had cancer and how he dealt with the diagnosis. "I'm a fatalist," he tells Rubenstein. But the relaxed, genial tone of the conversation conveys otherwise. Dare we say it, the Goldman CEO seems incredibly normal.

Project Rubenstein

Smith approached Rubenstein about doing the show about nine months ago.

"We viewed this as an experiment," Smith said. "The name of the game in media and in any business is to do things that are really different and innovative."

Of course, for Rubenstein the show represents much more than media — it's a way to frame how he sees success. In our interview he repeatedly associated true accomplishment with humility and an understanding that a lot of what great business leaders have is thanks to luck and the support of their communities.

"Some of the least accomplished people talk about how great they are," he said with a chuckle. "I'll let you read into that."

To prepare for interviews, Rubenstein reads a lot — he says he generally reads two books a week anyway. He does not use notes during interviews because he doesn't like to break eye contact with his subjects, so he writes his questions down but lets them guide the conversation from his memory. All of this while running a multinational private-equity firm.

"Sleep is overrated," he said.

As for his hopes for the success of the show, Rubenstein is fairly modest.

"I know at least one person will watch it, and that's my mother," he joked.

Check out the show's intro below:

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