Europeans are losing jobs at an alarming rate. The latest numbers in from Eurostat show record-high unemployment of 10.6% for the 27 European Union countries, and 11.6% for the 17 euro zone countries. These are the highest percentages on record from data going back to 1995, and are up from a year ago—when they were 9.8% and 10.3% respectively.
Antony Jenkins, Barclays’ new chief executive, greeted investors on Halloween day with news of pre-tax losses of £47 million for the third quarter and a warning that the UK bank faces two new US regulatory probes.
Colleagues of Andrew Haldane, a Bank of England executive director for financial stability, probably don’t think of him as the Occupy type. But while speaking at a London event this week that brought together real Occupy protestors with economists, financiers, and others representing the 1%, Haldane praised protestors for making their voices heard, said new models were needed, and policymakers were listening. In short, he said the protestors were “right,” adding:
The Dutch have been extremely busy. Yesterday, the Labour and Liberal parties announced a new coalition government—47 days after the September elections—budget cuts and tax hikes of €16 billion ($20.6 billion), and a new government theme: Building Bridges.
The pro-Europe ruling Finnish party may have held power in this weekend’s municipal elections, but unusually low voter turnout suggests Finns are losing faith in all leadership options. Voter turnout was down to 58.2% of all eligible voters, the lowest level in a decade.
The UK’s Pearson and Germany’s Bertelsmann, two of the world’s biggest media groups, have agreed to merge two of the world’s biggest book publishers, their Penguin and Random House units. The combined company will be a joint venture called Penguin Random House and will account for roughly a quarter of global English-language consumer book sales globally (paywall).
A link from BBC
Here are some pretty alarming numbers on wages in the UK, where the poorest workers live, and what they do.
A link from Financial Times
The plot thickens.
The extraordinary hubris of Silvio Berlusconi never ceases to amaze. After being sentenced to four years in jail for tax fraud committed at his Mediaset broadcasting business, the former prime minister of Italy went on his own TV channel, Mediaset’s TG5, to share his side.
Cynthia Carroll, chief executive of the mining firm Anglo American, will step down after nearly six years on the job, and there are some perfectly good reasons why she should go.
This item has been corrected.
It is pretty outrageous when you think about it.
A link from Telegraph
The LIBOR scandal just got bigger.
A list of Greeks who stashed €1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) in Swiss bank accounts, potentially evading millions in taxes, has been circulating from one official to another for years without anyone investigating. Given Greece’s need for cash, the time would seem ripe for action. Or not.
Cheers, cheers, everyone! Today, Britain announced an end to its longest double-dip recession since the second world war.
Officials from the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve rejected calls to stop linking the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) benchmark rate to its bailout programs. Christy Romero, a special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), asked Treasury and the Fed this past summer to scrap LIBOR in favor of other reference rates.
Greece’s finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, says it’s official. He told parliament that the country will get two more years to reform its finances to meet the terms of its international bailout. European authorities have yet to confirm the news, saying they’re awaiting a report from international debt inspectors (alias, the troika) representing the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. But either way, perhaps the more important issue is what two more years might mean.
Data released today from Eurostat show Europe sinking deeper into debt, which has reached 90% of economic output for the 17-country euro zone—up from 88.2% a quarter ago.
A link from Bloomberg
Swedish furniture maker IKEA has announced plans to invest in clean energy with the goal of becoming energy independent. Steve Howard, chief sustainability officer at IKEA Group, said the aim is to meet 70% of the company’s energy demands in three years, and 100% by 2020.
