The ECB has at last attended to the growing pressure in the euro zone, and has lowered its interest rate, to a record low of 0.75%. This move was long expected by the markets, and Mario Draghi has started explaining the ECB’s strategy, on this move about an hour ago. The ECB also reduced its deposit rate, from 0.25 to zero, which could encourage banks to lend to each other, instead of depositing excess funds, at the ECB every night. With these moves the ECB is starting to show support, to the ailing economy, in the euro zone. On the back of these news, the euro dropped significantly against the dollar, and is currently at around 1.2069.
The Barclay’s LIBOR rigging scandal is deepening, with Mr. Diamond alleging, that a top Bank of England official, Paul Tucker, gave one of Barclay’s deputies, a sort of a green light (I guess you could say light green?), on interest rate manipulation. That’s a huge allegation against Mr. Tucker and he set to explain himself in a separate phone call. During his committee hearing Mr. Diamond did maintain, that the traders’ actions were unacceptable, and that they should be prosecuted under criminal law, but he also feels, that Barclays was chosen as a scapegoat, despite its willingness to cooperate with the regulatory authorities. At the time of the supposed misunderstanding between a Barclays official and the Bank of England official, Mr. Diamond was supposedly getting nervous about the possibility, of the British Government nationalizing Barclays Bank, if they believed that Barclay’s costs were consistently higher than those of their competitors. Sounds like a vicious circle to me, and with dozen other banks being probed, by the US, Asian and European regulators, remains the questions, of who will be next!
It is sort of official and confirmed, the so called God particle has been discovered, at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Researchers from the Large Hadron Collider, reported to have found a new particle, that is consistent with the Higgs boson, and which can in essence explain, how matter attains its mass. This particle is names after Professor Higgs, and this discovery is expected to earn him the Noble Prize. According to CERN, this is a historic milestone discovery, but only the beginning to further research. More tests are needed to fully confirm the new findings, but if it is confirmed, then ladies and gentleman, we will have come a big step closer to understanding our universe.
And talking about our universe, Facebook has also made a huge discovery, namely how to monetize its “Like” button feature. Facebook is rumoured to be in talks with different networks and cable TV stations, about the possibility of making them pay, in return for delivering information on what content we Like. A deal with Time Warner may have been reached already and although the exact terms are not public knowledge yet, it seems Facebook will be promoting Time Warner content and leverage income from advertising linked to that content. Not a bad idea I would say, but definitely not Nobel Prize worthy.
The ECB has at last attended to the growing pressure in the euro zone, and has lowered its interest rate, to a record low of 0.75%. This move was long expected by the markets, and Mario Draghi has started explaining the ECB’s strategy, on this move about an hour ago. The ECB also reduced its deposit rate, from 0.25 to zero, which could encourage banks to lend to each other, instead of depositing excess funds, at the ECB every night. With these moves the ECB is starting to show support, to the ailing economy, in the euro zone. On the back of these news, the euro dropped significantly against the dollar, and is currently at around 1.2069.
The Barclay’s LIBOR rigging scandal is deepening, with Mr. Diamond alleging, that a top Bank of England official, Paul Tucker, gave one of Barclay’s deputies, a sort of a green light (I guess you could say light green?), on interest rate manipulation. That’s a huge allegation against Mr. Tucker and he set to explain himself in a separate phone call. During his committee hearing Mr. Diamond did maintain, that the traders’ actions were unacceptable, and that they should be prosecuted under criminal law, but he also feels, that Barclays was chosen as a scapegoat, despite its willingness to cooperate with the regulatory authorities. At the time of the supposed misunderstanding between a Barclays official and the Bank of England official, Mr. Diamond was supposedly getting nervous about the possibility, of the British Government nationalizing Barclays Bank, if they believed that Barclay’s costs were consistently higher than those of their competitors. Sounds like a vicious circle to me, and with dozen other banks being probed, by the US, Asian and European regulators, remains the questions, of who will be next!
It is sort of official and confirmed, the so called God particle has been discovered, at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Researchers from the Large Hadron Collider, reported to have found a new particle, that is consistent with the Higgs boson, and which can in essence explain, how matter attains its mass. This particle is names after Professor Higgs, and this discovery is expected to earn him the Noble Prize. According to CERN, this is a historic milestone discovery, but only the beginning to further research. More tests are needed to fully confirm the new findings, but if it is confirmed, then ladies and gentleman, we will have come a big step closer to understanding our universe.
And talking about our universe, Facebook has also made a huge discovery, namely how to monetize its “Like” button feature. Facebook is rumoured to be in talks with different networks and cable TV stations, about the possibility of making them pay, in return for delivering information on what content we Like. A deal with Time Warner may have been reached already and although the exact terms are not public knowledge yet, it seems Facebook will be promoting Time Warner content and leverage income from advertising linked to that content. Not a bad idea I would say, but definitely not Nobel Prize worthy.