Posts Tagged ‘business’

G20: Paris seeks to prevent patterns of tension

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

A sequence at high risk for economic diplomacy opened on Friday in Paris with a G20 Finance Ministers, which ends in mid-afternoon today. The summit precedes the meeting of European heads of state, October 23 in Brussels, to enable Europe to get united at the top twenty richest countries in the world, at Cannes, 3 and 4 November. The road is marked. But after the race progress is uncertain. The subjects of accumulated tensions between developed countries, amid Sino-US tensions around the issue of exchange rates.

Aware of the pitfalls, Paris, who chairs the G20 seeks to avoid the reasons for tension. First objective: to show that Europe is determined to solve the crisis of its debt, which raises concerns around the world.To do this, nothing better than to show the strength of the Franco-German couple at a luncheon on Friday at the Elysee, bringing together around the president, the French finance minister and Baroin his German counterpart Wolfgang Schäuble.

"We have made good progress on the path to find how to package a comprehensive and lasting agreement," said the French way out. For Baroin, progress has been made "on the joint bank recapitalization," he may say no more.According to European sources cited by Bloomberg, the euro area is working on the assumption of a default of 50% of Greek debt and would have identified seven options to boost the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), from the processing bank the simple assurance of securities issued by the countries most vulnerable.

Individual Solutions

Paradoxically, this sacred union between France and Germany is no longer visible in the markets bad credit personal loan lenders. Yesterday, the spread between ten-year French and German was 93 basis points, to the detriment of the former. Never since the creation of the euro area, France has borrowed as much from Germany even though the absolute rates at ten years French remain historically low.In the eyes of financial markets, it shows the weakness of leeway in Paris, to boost the EFSF or possibly refinance its banks.

The other cause of tension that the French Presidency is to avoid global order. At their working dinner last night, finance ministers from the G20 should discuss ways "to ensure global growth strong, sustainable and balanced", as agreed for three years. But unlike previous summits, where everyone was asked to revive its economy, the solutions will be this time individual. "At Cannes, each country will come with two or three steps to support its economy depend on the fiscal space of each other," says Bercy. What display a facade of unity.

However, the Twenty will not avoid the reasons for tension.The heaviest between China to the United States, since the passage by Congress in Washington, a bill denouncing the undervaluation of the yuan. The newest arrived yesterday: the emerging propose strengthening of $ 350 billion financial capacity of the IMF for help, among other things, to finance Europe. A proposal that has received a plea of ​​receiving U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, for whom the IMF has "largely sufficient resources to deal with the crisis."

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France is still looking for the keys to competitiveness

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

What should imagine to make French industry more competitive and allow it to regain market share in the euro area? This is the question almost as old as the foreign trade report of the Economic, Social and Environmental Committee (EESC) tries to answer.Indeed, despite its strengths, the delay of France grows: the trade deficit to increase from 51 billion euros in 2010 to over 70 billion this year.

To stop the bleeding, Isabelle de Kerviler, rapporteur of the opinion that is presented this morning at the EESC proposes to facilitate the development of medium-sized companies in particular by improving the financial environment.

"We must strengthen the role of OSEO, we want to launch a loan specifically for the industrial sector and the creation of a special savings account," says the reporter who did not want to quantify the amounts or the levels of these measures especially to SMEs.

Other proposed runway: corporate taxation."It should modulate the rate of corporation tax, the report said, by shifting the tax burden of work on the consumption of natural resources or pollution or swaps."

"Create" Grenelle of competitiveness "

Compared to Germany, envied model that continues to get ahead of our country, the EESC notes that the French labor costs are not even an advantage.The moderation of costs across the Rhine and the progression (in the EU average) of this side are trimmed away.

Nevertheless, France still has a bright points in its favor: the dynamic demographic, geographic location, quality workforce, the quality of public services contrasts with an educational level that s' weakens.

To implement practical solutions, Isabelle de Kerviler wants to organize a "Grenelle of competitiveness." But is that enough to compete with Germany?

The boom in safes

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Professionals safes are rubbing their hands. As for the crisis, they see their sales skyrocket. "At least the last eight, we show a sales growth above 30%, knowing that the market was doing well, with nearly 3,000 safes sold every year since 2007," explains Bruno Franche, head of home Bricard . Same conclusion in several department stores in Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville (BHV) in Paris, a seller finds "a very strong increase in sales last year." All players are unanimous: the crisis, individuals are increasingly fond of armor at home to put their nest egg safe.

Unmistakable sign that it is mainly the models of small and medium sizes that are popular, "our best sales affect the coffers of 20 cm by 30 cm, ranging in price from 200 to 400 euros depending on the sophistication of the product" confirms Bruno Franche. Easy to slip into a closet or beneath a desk, the boxes would welcome armored jumble "of gold, silver or jewels" in the words of professionals who see the consequence of the current enthusiasm for the yellow metal, coupled with a distrust vis-à-vis a moribund banking sector.

Banks, market catalyst

In fact, gold continues to attract investors considering it as a safe haven of choice when financial markets have long faces no fax cash advance.Evidenced by the increasing demands in this regard on the Web, like Gold by Gold, which recently launched the sale of ingots 50 and 100 grams from the melting of jewelry at the end of life of individuals. As for banks, they increasingly worry: according to a survey conducted in early September for JDD.fr, nearly one in two French (48%) has no confidence in the strength of French institutions.

True indicator of crisis, the health of the market for security containers and reflects the current economic gloom, after echoed in 2005 urban riots that had hit the Hexagon. "At the time, we have never sold as many cabinets inifuges (to protect from heat, ed)," recalls Hervé Rizzato, product manager for Papillon security.But paradoxically, if the sector is doing well, it's also thanks to orders from banks! In fact, most of them now are reviewing their security standards. "With the arrival of new players in Eastern Europe on the market ten years ago, banks have a long snubbed the French coffers, more expensive but safer, decrypts Hervé Rizzato. But last year, these facilities come to us, fearing for the safety of their brands. "

For Obama, Congress slows recovery

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

Barack Obama came on the same level in the campaign for his re-election in 2012, do not miss any opportunity to castigate the Congress. And first of his Republican opponents who control the House of Representatives. After accusing them of having lost the country's triple AAA, the U.S. president, on Saturday from his holiday resort of Martha's Vineyard, singled out "some" blocking parliamentary measures "common sense" intended by him , create jobs and help growth.

In its traditional broadcast weekly radio address, Barack Obama said the bill, currently stalled, relate to the construction, trade and taxes, and that they should "boost" the economy. "The only thing that prevents us to pass these texts is the refusal of some on Capitol Hill to put national interests before those of their party.This is the problem today is that hinders the country, "he said.

Barack Obama also confirms the fears of equity markets on the health of the world's largest economy. "We are in a difficult, terrible recession," he admitted. "So we need people in Washington, people whose job is to manage the affairs of the country, the people you elected to serve online payday loans. We need to solve problems by putting aside our differences, "he adds.

"Do not betray his principles"

The response from the other side was not built to wait. "Divided government is no excuse for doing nothing," ruled John Kasich, the Ohio governor, in a speech on behalf of the Republican opposition. "It does not replace the authority of the President of the United States.I hope that President Obama listen to his fellow Republicans as well as to get the economy back on track by creating jobs and manufacturing growth. "

The latter, however, urged his side to make more compromises when necessary. "It is equally important that the Republicans are not rigid about working beyond the party lines when the stakes are high. We can compromise on policy as it does not betray his principles. "

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Innovations in series to the radius Breakfast

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Activia has recently launched a variant of its yogurts, to be paid in grain payday loan lenders. (Photo credits: DR)

The Fed is concerned about growth

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

After the European Central Bank (ECB), it's time for the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) to dive into the arena. The Central Bank of the United States met on Tuesday FOMC's Monetary Committee. Supposed to be, usually, a meeting classic, this appointment has turned the eyes of the financial world in crisis meeting. It is indeed the first time the Fed meets in public since the beginning of the financial crisis and especially his first public speaking since the deterioration of the financial rating of the United States by Standard & Poor's.

Not surprisingly, it has maintained its key interest rates between 0% and 0.25%. However, she said that this policy would be extended "until mid-2013," sign it receives considerable stress on growth. In fact, she says, "the risks to the economy rose" and growing "considerably slower than expected."

Other measures

"The Fed is playing a tough game with the words, it must show it is taking the situation seriously, without making too much not that the markets are worried about a return to recession," said Philippe Bruneau, Director central bank Neuflize OBC. For the latter, "the only good news for the current crisis is the drop in oil prices, which dropped below the 80 dollars a barrel after reaching $ 115 in the spring. A decrease of $ 10 is equivalent to 0.3 percentage point of growth in addition to the United States. " It is not certain that the message of this evening of the Federal Reserve reassured. Especially since three members of the Monetary Committee voted against the decision to keep rates from 0 to 0.25% until 2013.Evidence that the division now also prevails in the central bank.

Taking note of the slowdown in action, the Fed said "consider further steps to promote stronger economic growth." But without saying more. "Ben Bernanke was forced to send a message to investors and told them that he will continue to support the price of U.S. government bonds, weakened by the S & P's decision," said Antoine Brunet, director of AB Markets.But by not precise commitments, Ben Bernanke shows how the scope is narrow to implement this new policy unconventional.

China, the first lender in the United States which it holds more than 1.3 trillion dollars in debt, is fiercely opposed to these measures, particularly in quantitative easing, which is for the Fed to directly purchase U.S. Treasury debt. "To walk the printing press allows the U.S. to go into debt on the backs of low-cost external creditors," a summary of the economists of HSBC. Moreover, "it keeps the dollar at low levels and put pressure on emerging currencies, including the yuan." The Chinese authorities find themselves faced with an alternative: let their currencies appreciate or prevent this movement, which requires in turn create the currency.Action inconsistent with their goal to fight against inflation (see cons below). "In one way or the other, China is losing, 'the experts of HSBC. The previous quantitative easing campaign was very unpopular in China. A new one could cause actual casus belli. With the key threat by Beijing to stop buying U.S. Treasuries.

Hiring on permanent contracts rose in France

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

After a dynamic first quarter of 2011 (+8.4%), statements of hiring more than a month have edged down 1.4% in second quarter 2011, according to a study published ACOSS today ' hui. But they are nevertheless remained at a high level (1.94 million hires), comparable to the peak reached in early 2008. This decrease is due to decreased hiring in CSD over a month (- 4.6%), while those on permanent contracts have kept a steady pace (+2.9%). Including contracts of less than one month, the total number of declarations of non-temporary employment has remained stable compared to last quarter. However, it rose 5.7% year on year.

The decline in hiring of more than a month was mainly observed in the very small (- 2.9%). In companies with more than 20 employees, these hires were stable (- 0.3%), supported by the CDI (6.5%).In one year, reports of hiring more than a month increased by 2.0% in TPE and 8.5% in companies with more than 20 employees.

2011 a good year for the use of frames

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Click the preview to enlarge the graphic.

The Director General of the Association for the use of frameworks (APEC), Jacky Chatelain, a smile: "2011 will be a very good year for the recruitment of executives," said he. It will be even better than expected. Tuesday during the presentation of its traditional mid-point year, his organization has substantially revised its statistics on the rise, according to his calculations, 194,000 cadres would be hired this year, against 181,000 originally announced in February as part of the APEC business panel 2011.

These figures confirm the trends optimistic in recent months. The latest indicator Apec published in May, the number of jobs grew by 70% year on year, driven by services, led by computer functions and research and development.In addition, mobility management, reflecting a renewed confidence, has also increased from 5% in 2009 to 7% in 2010.

The reasons for this dynamism? A greater investment in the first half of 2011, from 1.9% earlier this year to 3.8%. "For three years, we have established a strong link between investment and employment," said Jacky Chatelain. On the basis of a model by connecting the executive search, investment and growth, APEC has also made a forecast of recruitment to five years.

New legislation

With an investment of 3% per year, it expects an increase in employment context, not only in the second half of 2011, but over the next four years."However, investment has not recovered its pre-2000 levels," notes the director general of APEC, citing "a problem of competitiveness of the French economy, a profitability that is struggling to recover , difficult access to credit and public investment that does not play a role. " In this context, recruitment is expected to slow over the years. According to the study of Apec, they increase by 18% in 2011 compared to 2010, then increase by 8% in 2012, 5% in 2013, 6% in 2014, and begin to decline by 1% in 2015 to be at 232,100 hires.

The year 2015 was "marked a plateau for hiring managers in a market that lacks strong enough levers," says Apec.According to Jacky Chatelain, public policy must "be sensitive to investment."

In developing this scenario, APEC has also included new legislation on retirement and senior employment, which, combined with good market conditions of employment context, would encourage more employees working from more later. Thus, the proportion of managers employed at the time of retirement may remain stable at 69% over the period.

Cyber ​​attacks: an exorbitant cost

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

The numbers are staggering. In Germany, the financial damage caused by cyber crime amounted to 61.5 million euros in 2010, according to figures released Thursday by the criminal police and the Federation of high tech Bitkom. This is equivalent to an increase of 66% over the previous year. As the United States, the FBI estimated the cost of crime to some digital $ 560 million in 2009. A world-wide, according to McAfee, cyber crime would have generated some 1000 billion in 2008, about 1.64% of world GDP for that year. Remains that, without minimizing the scale of the scourge, these figures are perplexing.

Many experts give little credence to these studies because most of them emanate from computer security specialists. For the record, other than McAfee is the world number two antivirus software.In addition, "less than 10% of companies report having experienced cyber attacks," said Jean-Paul Pinte, senior lecturer in strategic intelligence at the Catholic University of Lille. According to the specialist risk management and cyber terrorists of enterprises affected societies fear the bad publicity due to media coverage of cyber attacks.

Jean-Paul Pinte, "we know nothing of the legacy and financial losses suffered indirectly." He added: "If an attack is to relieve a company of sensitive information, loss of data will generate multiple costs, such as loss of competitiveness, or the upgrading of security."

"Hard to get a comprehensive view"

Director of the National Security Information Systems (Anssi), Patrick Pailloux abounds in this direction."When a site is the victim of an attack, he takes as an example, it is first blocked, causing a shortfall. Then we must add additional costs to set up a hotline strengthened. "And on the practices of industrial espionage initiated via the Internet," How can we measure in terms of losses that a competitor could steal ?, "asks the director of Anssi. Clearly, "it is difficult to get a comprehensive view of the problem," says he.

Despite these criticisms, these figures are held up to each event on Cybercrime. However dated, the estimated one trillion dollars of McAfee is authoritative. Last May, it appeared even in the "reminder" of the fourth Parliamentary Forum on Information Society in Geneva, on the initiative, among others, the United Nations.Trompe-l'oeil, the text quoted a source stamped Europol, the pharmacy police intergovernmental European Union, which actually refers to the numbers … the software publisher.

If governments do not hesitate to chopping these impressive figures, it is often necessary to legitimize, but costly reinforcement of their agencies against digital piracy. Or clear, make the pill easier to swallow from taxpayers. In January, the UK has estimated that cyber attacks cost him a whopping 27 billion pounds per year (32.2 billion euros) in a government study.An amount (by far) greater than the harm claimed by the United States … A few days before making public figure, London has announced the release of 650 million pounds over four years to "strengthen its cyber security " freecreditscore

International cooperation in the war-horse

Without waving the national figures, France is no exception, as evidenced by the announcement of piracy Bercy in March. Patrick Pailloux it was for the state to "lead by example" to encourage companies to report piracy they wipe. The Director of Anssi said that 150 computers were then infiltrated by hackers to steal documents for the French presidency of the G20. "We were able to counter the threat," he goes on, noting that thirty experts have been mobilized for two months to "clean up" more than 130,000 positions in the Department.A communication that is timely, since Anssi plans to double its workforce (360 employees) by 2013.

Such methods may be distasteful, but experts and politicians agree: there is no time to waste on the face of digital crime. "For a long time in France, we thought that hacking and computer intrusions were not really dangerous, says Jean-Paul Pinte. But now we know that it's become a real business, and that the threat can come from anywhere: a simple USB key, hard drives or even photocopiers, which, connected to the Internet can become the target of hackers ".

Therefore, international cooperation, which requires significant resources, is "a priority," insists Patrick Pailloux. And for good reason: "90% of attacks are international," says the director of Anssi.In the columns of The Tribune, Laurent Wauquiez, Minister for European Affairs, recently recalled that a hacker "can be installed in Latvia, while in France to intervene through a Canadian site." He even considers urgent that Europe adopts "a kind of cyber-FBI-backed Europol" to stem the digital crime. And one last statistic to shoot, ensuring that "a user of thirty lost money in Europe over the last year" due to a hacker.

Businesses, prey selection

Having surveyed 45 U.S. companies in 2010, the Ponemon Institute found that on average, the financial damage caused by hackers and data theft was $ 3.8 million.Like that of McAfee, this figure is to be taken lightly, as though Ponemon shows his independence, his study was commissioned by ArcSight, a specialist in digital security. However, it appears that large groups are increasingly being targeted by hackers. Since the beginning of the year, the list of companies or institutions that have suffered cyberattacks has continued to grow. Sony has suffered more than ten attacks since mid-April, leading to theft of confidential data of more than 1 million customer accounts. Recently, Sega has had the same misfortune: the editor of the series of Sonic hedgehog found in mid-June have been stolen names, email addresses, birth dates and passwords of almost 1.3 million customers on its servers.Google or Citigroup also suffered cyber attacks.

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The largest banks will boost their capital

Saturday, June 25th, 2011

International financial authorities are preparing to endorse the creation of a "club" of the world's largest banks. Thirty institutions will thus be subject to particularly stringent constraints so that they are even better than the rest of the sector, protected in a crisis.

The most technical work in progress is expected to close today by the Basel Committee, the headquarters of the Bank for International Settlements. Saturday, it is the central bank governors and other officials of banking supervision that could endorse their conclusions.

Engaged for over a year, negotiations to define a particular treatment for qualified financial institutions of systemic, those whose health has an impact on the entire industry.Three criteria will preside mainly the selection of "systemically important banks," according to the word Basel: size, interconnection with the international financial system and the complexity of their activities.

According to indiscretions that have filtered in recent weeks on the work of the committee, regulators should develop up to five categories of systemic banks. Membership in a particular category of capital will determine the mattress, each of which will be able to prevail.

Under the general rules already written (called "Basel 3"), lambda banks will be subject to a minimum level of capital fixed at 7% of their commitments. For larger systemic banks, an additional 2.5 or 3 points would be imposed. For the category from below, it would be 2 to 2.5 points, etc..Behind these ratios abstruse, it is tens of billions of euros and dollars are at stake

Who will be affected? Financial analysts make their Paris, and generally agree to rank high on their "track record" the British HSBC, RBS and Barclays, the U.S. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. In France, BNP Paribas is sure to be in the higher category. The case of Societe Generale and Credit Agricole are less clear, such as those of UBS or Goldman Sachs … Dozens of smaller banks in the world will finally be described as systemic without having to inflate their own funds and they will only be subject to close monitoring.

Moderate growth

For the handful of banks that held the upper hand, the financial effort – theoretically spread until 2019 – will be considerable.The aim is both to make them safer, but also to discourage everyone to grow again. Moreover, to encourage larger growth to moderate, an empty category of participant, but subject to even greater stress will be created.

Although the principle of these categories seems systemic stopped, the debate continues to rage. Critics of the rule point out that the creation of a banking elite is dangerous: the institutions that will be considered as protected members of the risk of failure by the authorities themselves. And the banks may feel free to take greater risks.

Another point of controversy concerns the advisability of the boat still banks when the economy Flageole.In the United States and Europe, bankers but sometimes some of their regulators warn against measures to curb the strength of banks could stifle their ability to finance the economy. An episode recently shown the virulence of the debate at a conference, the respected head of the U.S. bank JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, was himself arrested on this point the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. A rare public skirmish in the world usually so subdued in the bank.