Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

France now, for the moment, tops the list of Euroland countries giving agita to financiers and bankers around the world. The decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut 50 basis points on dollar swap rates, to European central banks, prevented a meltdown centered on French banks. With $8 trillion in (largely phony) assets, the French banking system is the most overexposed in the world. In the current phase of the global financial collapse, it is crumbling under the combined effects of a deleveraging of financial markets, stock capital collapse, depreciation of sovereign bonds portfolios, and a virtual dry-up of American funds.

On the road from Williston to New Town, N.D., gleaming new pumps pull oil from freshly fracked wells. Some residents think it's possible for farming culture to co-exist with an oil boom, but they say the state needs to get a grip on the accompanying chaos.

On the occasion of the OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Vilnius, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries (Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Minister for European Affairs of France Jean Leonetti) and the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov and Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian reaffirmed the importance of reaching a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The EBRD and Rusnano, the Russian state corporation set up to kick-start the development of innovative technologies, today jointly agreed to finance a new production line that will manufacture energy-saving glass.

A crowd mills at Demo Day for the technology incubator TechStars in Seattle, where a group of startups presented their pitches to investors. Marketing firm Bluebox Now pitched their product at Demo Day, but faces tough decisions about their future.

Eurozone And U.S. GDP Percent Change Since 1996
The economies of the U.S. and EU tend to move closely in tandem, rising and falling at the same time. If the EU goes down, the U.S. is likely to follow.

American Airlines is filing for bankruptcy protection. The airline is the last of the so-called legacy carriers, airlines that flew interstate routes before de-regulation of the industry, to reach this step. Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways all went through bankruptcy proceedings in the last 10 years.

As soon as this week, the Senate could vote on a bill to extend and expand the payroll tax holiday that gave millions of Americans a bit more money in their paychecks this year.

For the not-so-super debt reduction supercommittee, failure is clearly an option.

The Minister of Foreign and Political Affairs of the Republic of San Marino, Antonella Mularoni, in her address to the OSCE Permanent Council today, stressed the unique role of the Organization in promoting confidence among all 56 participating States.