According to a Financial Times ranking, the current Minister of Economy holds the 15th place among the most influential ministers in the European Union. Before leaving Bercy for the IMF, Christine Lagarde had held the top spot on this list. The new Executive Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, said goodbye to the National Assembly Wednesday, June 29 It is replaced as Minister of Economy and Finance by Baroin

Baroin do not forget Christine Lagarde, French Minister of Finance holds an unenviable 15th position in the ranking of European central bankers prepared annually by the Financial Times, while his predecessor was the star. Mr.

Personal business cards are considered primary marketing tool for any type of business. It is the string of bondage that you build to create a long-lasting relationship with your customer and associates.

The U.S. government has revised sharply downward its growth in the third quarter. It is 2% annualized, or 0.5 points less than what was announced in October. U.S. President Barack Obama.

The U.S. government said Tuesday it has revised sharply lower growth rate of GDP of the United States in the third quarter. From July to September, the U.S. gross domestic product grew by 2.0% annualized over the previous quarter, said the Commerce Department, reviewing and down 0.5 point first growth estimate published at the end in October. According to their median forecast, analysts expected a confirmation of the first estimate of the ministry.

Bank of America reported an increase in its net income for the third quarter due to both an accounting effect that banks can reap when financial markets are turbulent and a gain on disposals of assets.

The hotel, the first U.S. bank by assets, posted over the period net income of $ 5.9 billion, or $ 0.56 per share against a loss of $ 7.6 billion (-0 , 77 dollar per share) a year ago, when the bank had spent $ 10.4 billion accounting charge.

LyondellBasell employees were extended on Monday the strike and blocking the production units of the group. The SP displays its support for the movement and the government provides "mobilize." LyondellBasell employees are on strike against the planned closure of the Berre refinery, which employs 370 people.

Employees of the U.S. company LyondellBasell have extended their Monday strike and blocking the production sites of the group. They protest against the closure of a refinery in Berre L'Etang (Bouches-du-Rhone). Several hundred people took part in the vote at a general meeting in mid-day, as part of the action taken after the September 27 announcement of the closure by management.

The refinery and production units in September LyondellBasell are blocked at the site of Berre L'Etang, and a fuel depot in Rognac and propylene oxide plant at Fos-sur-Mer, two neighboring towns. Staff representatives were sent to the Directorate Sunday, through their lawyers, questions about the future of the site but have not received a response for now, their last contact dating back to Thursday night they say.

The closure of the refinery would cover the approximately 370 employees to 1,250, in total, working in the petrochemical complex of the American group around the Etang de Berre. In recent days, the political reactions are multiplying on the subject. Martine Aubry, the Socialist candidate in the primary, on Monday expressed its "solidarity" with employees. It asks the Prime Minister to consider "alternatives to closing track".The mayor of Lille also known as "shared anger and anxiety of employees: see anger on the part of LyondellBasell's refusal to dialogue and put forward false numbers to justify for a purely financial and stock market, and concern before the uncertainty over the future of a site which employs 1,250 employees and thousands of subcontractors. " According to her, "the passivity of the government to a matter as serious, witnessed the acceleration of the industrialization of our country is unacceptable. It is not enough to say, as the Minister of Industry, that" his services are closely monitoring the ".

"The challenge of this case is the local district, regional and national levels"

Indeed, Eric Besson said Saturday that the government "mobilizing" all its means to ensure the future of the site.But he admitted not yet be able to indicate what decisions it would take to sustain the site. The Minister of Industry is expected to receive in the coming days the unions and the management of LyondellBasell said a ministry statement. The Ministry, it was recognized that the state could not force a company to maintain an activity when it decided to stop or suspend. The Government will ensure that LyondellBasell fulfills its reclassification as employees affected by this closure affect redundancy pay sufficiently "important," one said.

The case began to take a political turn with the Saturday site visit by the candidate for the primary Socialist Francois Hollande, who has held a "roundtable indispensable" for "transparency about the intentions of the group" and "how we can keep the whole chain from refinery to petrochemicals. " "The challenge of this case, it is not just a refinery is a potential that can, if nothing is clarified in the coming days, to be phased in question, or even disappear. It is a challenge local, district, regional and national, "he told reporters, after meeting a half hour with Inter (CGT, CFDT, CFE-CGC, FOR, CFTC).

Wall Street has ended up a very volatile day on Monday, a rally to have occurred at the very end of the session in the hope that Italy receive financial support from China.

Italy has asked China to perform major purchases of its sovereign debt, the Financial Times.

"This shows that the Chinese are not kidding when it comes to addressing the tensions of the market," said Robbert Van Batenburg (Louis Capital).

Before this news, which also had the effect of reducing the bond market, prices were well oriented in the red, affected again by fears about the crisis of sovereign debt in the euro area.

What should be added those of Moody's downgrade see French banks.

The fear of the debt crisis of the European impact on the U.S. banking system does not weigh less heavily on Wall Street for months. In addition, the ministerial summit of the G7 last weekend did not lead to new initiatives to boost growth.

"U.S. investors are faced with a barrage of bad news from European markets," commented Andrew Wilkinson, analyst at Interactive Brokers Group. However, he added, "after a weak start sensitive, investors seem a little less concerned."

The Dow Jones gained 68.99 points (0.63%) to 11,061.12. The Standard & Poor's is 8.04 points (0.7%) to 1162.27.The Nasdaq composite leading 27.10 points (1.1%) to 2495.09.

Agreement in the high tech sector was already allowed the Nasdaq to limit its losses during the session.

Areas that closely follow the business cycle have reacted differently to the late rebound for rating index of natural resources eventually even a loss of 0.77% but the energy was able to go back and shows a gain of 0.53%.

In high tech, NetLogic Microsystems jumped 50.8%, the specialist mobile chips that Broadcom agreed to buy back $ 3.7 billion.

Broadcom has yielded 1.14%.The semiconductor index has been 3.03%.

The merger "shows that many shares are undervalued, a historical perspective," says Joseph Cangemi, managing director of BNY ConvergEx Group.

In banking, Bank of America shows a gain of 1.0%. The bank announced Monday eliminate 30,000 jobs in the coming years in order to reduce its annual expenses of five billion dollars by 2014.

The financial index, which also visited the negative territory for most of the day, closing displays a gain of 1.22%.

Values ​​always, McGraw-Hill Companies has gained nearly 4%, the publisher has announced plans to split into two companies, one international and one in education.

Regions have less and less leeway to increase their resources and reduce costs. Result: debt continues to grow, according to a study released Tuesday by the rating agency Fitch. Debt regions would experience an increase of 8.4% in 2010, and 35% by 2013, according to the rating agency Fitch. It now stands at 17 billion euros.

The repayment ability of the regions is deteriorating. Analysis of the Fitch rating agency, published on Tuesday shows that debt amounts to 17 billion euros, against about 15.6 in 2009. And is progressing at an astonishing pace: 8.4% increase in 2010 and 35% by 2013. According to Les Echos, the assumption that the regions will devote all their resources now and stop any investment, they would put about four years to repay.In short: the regions are difficult to vary the amount.

Increased margins on spending

In addition, dependent on market conditions CVAE companies. Fitch situation which is far from expect miracles: "We expect that this resource is very dynamic in the future."

But the study is not as black dots. Regions seem to have more margin on expenditures than revenues. And they would have "sound fiscal fundamentals" .. If they can not easily reduce their operating expenses, according to the study, the recent land reform gives them a little breath of fresh air. She questioned the principle of "general competence" of regions and departments, allowing them, legally, to take care of almost everything.Because of this, according to the rating agency, the regions will be able to focus on their "skills required": transport, vocational training and college. And reduce their expenses.

A few hours before the deadline of August 2, the U.S. Senate, Republican majority, dismissed the Democratic plan to raise the debt ceiling. In less than 48 hours, the U.S. could default. View of the Capitol, seat of Congress. At 15 days of the deadline of August 2, elected Democrats and Republicans do not agree on conditions for raising the U.S. debt ceiling.

The U.S. Senate Republican majority, today rejected a Democratic proposal to raise the debt ceiling, which was rejected by the Republican minority yesterday. In a procedural vote of 50 votes against 49, elected officials have dismissed the text prepared by the Democratic majority leader of the Senate, Harry Reid.

The leader hoped to wrest the Democratic 60 votes out of 100 needed for a plan review, which was then followed by a final vote.But it has a majority of 53 senators and 43 of the 47 Republican senators had written him and told him they would not support his plan.

The House of Representatives, dominated by Republicans, rejected Saturday the plan of Mr. Reid by 246 votes against 173. In an attempt to attract the votes right, Mr. Reid was released on Friday a new version of its plan with measures "suggested" by the Republicans. Mr Reid's plan would have allowed an increase in the maximum debt of 2,400 billion, accompanied by 2,400 billion in cuts over 10 years.

Sunday's vote comes amid a new draft agreement is currently under discussion between Republicans, Democrats and the White House to raise the debt ceiling, currently at 14.294 billion dollars, before Tuesday, August 2 at midnight (4:00 GMT Wednesday), and avoid the United States end up in default of payment.

The outline of the plan under discussion include raising the debt ceiling of about 3,000 billion. Shortly before the vote, Mr Reid said he was "cautiously optimistic" about reaching an agreement, saying that some issues remained to be finalized. For its part, the Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday on CNN: "We are very close to an agreement."

Wall Street opened Friday's session down sharply, preliminary figures for growth in the U.S. in the second quarter disappointed the market.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones already yielded 1.03% to 12,114.40 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index 1.05% to 1286.95 points and the Nasdaq Composite 1.04% in 2737, 44 points.

U.S. growth in the second quarter was weaker than expected, according to preliminary figures released by the Commerce Department, due to sluggish consumer particularly affected by rising gasoline prices.

Gross domestic product (GDP) of the world's largest economy has increased by 1.3% over this period.

Values, securities Merck, Chevron and Starbucks opened the session down 1.34%, 0.65% and 1.76% after publication of their results.

The new car registrations in the European Union in June suffered their biggest drop in eight months, some markets have suffered in the late scrapping while the economic uncertainty is leading consumers to delay purchases heavy.

Figures released Friday by the European mobile manufacturers (ACEA) has revealed a drop in sales of 8.1% in June compared with June 2010, the highest percentage since the fall of 16.6% of October 2010.

The ACEA figures is in line with that of the German trade association VDA said that a contraction of 8% of registrations of German brand of automobiles in Western Europe in June, compared to the comparable month last year .

In May, a period when the effects of the economic recovery seemed to assert, sales had increased by 7.1%. But over a period of five months they were down 0.8% and Acea said they remained below their level before the crisis.

The abandonment of programs scrapping accentuates the depression of the European market.In France, where sales fell 12.6% in June, the scrapping ended in December even though it was still possible until March to save his vehicle following their terms.

In Spain, where sales tumbled 31.4% in June, the scrapping no longer in effect since last July.

European manufacturers are paying attention on new markets such as China, India, Brazil and Russia.

Over the period January to June, registrations in the EU were down by 2.1% over the comparable period of 2010, 7,120,499 passenger cars.

Koreans DIFFER

For Renault, sales fell 20.9% in June and 10.8% for the six months, says ACEA.

Renault announced on Monday a 1.9% increase in sales worldwide in the first half, the strength of demand abroad offsetting supply problems it encounters in Europe. (See)

Rival PSA Peugeot Citroën has seen its sales fall 11.9% in June But the manufacturer has reported a 0.2% increase globally in the first half.

Those of Toyota fell by 25.8%. The Japanese manufacturer is recovering slowly after the disruption caused by the earthquake of March 11.

The South Korean Hyundai and Kia have shone on the contrary, with increases of 9.1% and 14.1%.

Volkswagen, Europe's leading manufacturer, suffered a sales decline of 0.5% in JuneThe Volkswagen brand has experienced a decline of 4.7% but Audi jumped 8.7%.

The VDA said on Friday that sales in Germany in the U.S. increased by 22% in June, echoing the growth in Brazil, however, somewhat offset by higher rates in the country.

In China, car sales are recovering after suffering the last two months the impact of the earthquake in Japan, said the VDA. Sales increased 16% in Brazil and more than 9% in China, said the federation.

Recovery in Japan and also in Russia, but registrations in Western Europe fell by 8% in June, has yet said the VDA.

BMW has this week revised upwards its annual profit target due to booming sales in China.

China's GDP grew by 9.5% in the second quarter, 0.1 percentage point lower than the first. A development that both reassures those who fear overheating and those who want to see China continue to play the locomotives of the global economy.

The growth of China's economy declined only slightly to 9.5% in the second quarter despite tightening measures to fight high inflation, dispelling fears of a sharp slowdown in the second world economy, according to analysts.

For the entire first half, growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 9.6%, against 10.3% over the same period of 2010. She had risen to 9.7% in the first quarter and 9.8% in the last quarter of 2010.

"Growth factors are still strong in China.There is little risk of a sharp slowdown, "said the spokesman of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Sheng Laiyun. The GDP growth remains strong, despite the end of government support measures such as assistance the purchase of small cars. "The economy is currently operating a change driven by rapid growth stimulus to the healthy development aid without" public, says Sheng.

To stem rising prices, which accelerated to 6.4% in June, its highest level in three years, Beijing has on several occasions since the fall of interest rates and reserve requirements banks. "While there is still a fairly strong upward pressure on prices, more and more factors contribute to price stabilization," said the spokesman of the NBS.

"Slower growth and higher inflation puts the government in a dilemma for monetary policy," Analysis on the other hand Alistair Thornton, an economist at IHS Global Insight. Excessive tightening might indeed cause a sharp slowdown in the economy. But most analysts do not believe at the moment such a scenario, the level of growth still remains well above the government's objectives in 2011 by 8% and 7% per year for the whole period 2011-2015.

The Chinese economy is on a "soft-landing trajectory," says Thornton. IHS provides a continuation of the deceleration in the third quarter, but considers "unlikely that the slowdown is very strong."