Puerto Rico’s government said on Friday it would not make a $58m bond payment due on the weekend and warned that the general fund would run out of liquidity by November if no action is taken.
Related: Hedge funds tell Puerto Rico: lay off teachers and close schools to pay us back
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
While Facebook and Snapchat soar, the most immediate social media channel in the world has many experts worried
How many tech companies are saddled with the problem of enjoying global fame but struggling with lacklustre performance? Not Facebook, which revealed in its results that it has nearly 1.5 billion users logging in each month around the world. Twitter, however, is an example where participation is lagging behind reputation.
The company built around text-message-length “tweets” announced in its own quarterly results last week that it has 304 million monthly active users (MAUs), who logged in at least once a month in the past quarter. That figure was up only 0.7% from the previous quarter, while the figure for MAUs in the US stayed stubbornly at 65 million.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
Little interest in showrooms as deep discounts fail to drive in customers
Business appears to be slow at the Mercedes-Benz showroom in the Jing’an district of Shanghai. There are no customers and the staff look bored. A family comes in to look at the cars but appears to have no intention of buying. A salesperson is tight-lipped when asked whether they are seeing fewer customers through the doors.
Car sales in China are slowing after years of rapid growth, and have slumped in the last few weeks. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, numbers sold in June fell 5.3% from May; this drop coincided with the stock market crash that saw the Shanghai Composite Index lose 14% in July. The association previously estimated that sales would grow 7% this year; now it thinks that figure will only be 3%.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
Disastrous losses on the Shanghai exchange are leading to concern that the era of runaway Chinese growth is faltering at a critical time in the world economy
Recent events in Shanghai’s stock markets have been all too reminiscent of the tales that have entered American folk memory from the days of the Wall Street crash in 1929: of stock-tipping shoeshine boys, exhausted traders, and ticker-tape machines spooling late into the night.
In China, the Shanghai Composite Index lost more than 8% of its value last Monday, and shares have suffered their worst month for six years, falling by 29% since they peaked in June.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
French-born Mark Karpeles held in connection with the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the virtual currency
Mark Karpeles, the former head of defunct bitcoin exchange MtGox, has been arrested in Japan, and is reportedly to be questioned over the 2014 disappearance of nearly $390m (£250m) worth of the virtual currency.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
The latest survey of the huge factory sector shows only very sluggish growth, fuelling expectations of more government stimulus
Growth at China’s big manufacturers unexpectedly stalled in July as demand at home and abroad weakened, an official survey showed on Saturday, reinforcing views that the economy needs more stimulus as it faces fresh risks from a stock market slump.
The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stood at 50.0 in July, compared with the previous month’s 50.2. The 50-point mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
The trade minister, Andrew Robb, says 98% of agreement is finalised but the difficulties lie with the big four economies of US Canada, Japan and Mexico
Australia will not sign up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal in the current round of talks.
A spokesman for trade minister, Andrew Robb, confirmed that a conclusion will not be reached on the $200bn deal during the latest round of negotiations in Hawaii.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
Almost 23,000 employees to benefit from 3 to 5-year saving scheme allowing staff to buy shares at old prices
More than 23,000 BT staff are to profit from a £265m employee share scheme at the company, with some employees set to make more than £50,000 each.
The staff saved between £5 and £250 a month over a period of up to five years. They will now be able to buy shares on Monday at prices from when the schemes started.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
The three ex-employees are the first bankers to be imprisoned for actions that helped turn the Celtic Tiger boom to bust
Three officials from the bank that almost bankrupted Ireland have become the first bankers to be jailed for offences related to the Republic’s financial crash.
The failure of Anglo Irish Bank, which became synonymous with the casino-style lending practices that drove Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” boom and subsequent bust, cost the state €30bn (£21bn), part of what forced the government to seek a bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS
More than 150 members of Ingenious Media scheme labelled as tax avoidance by HMRC fail in bid to overturn new rules imposed by George Osborne
More than 150 wealthy investors in controversial film investment schemes, which HMRC says amount to tax avoidance, have lost a human rights challenge to new powers tax inspectors have been deploying to demand upfront payments.
George Osborne last year granted HMRC powers to demand disputed tax, even if agreement over sums owing had not been reached. At the time he said removing from aggressive tax planners the financial benefits of drawn-out disputes would “fundamentally reduce the incentive to engage in tax avoidance”.
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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS