By Martinne Geller (Reuters) Susan Coyne had her heart set on a new pair of earrings at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, a purchase she would not have thought twice about even a few weeks ago. But on Tuesday, she could not go through with it. "I felt guilty about buying them. All my
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Stocks around the world plunged on Wednesday, with the benchmark world equity index hitting 4-year lows as recession concerns and a lack of globally coordinated action to stem the credit crisis hit investor morale. MSCI world equity index was down 2.4 percent at a fresh four-year low, bringing its loss this month to more than
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By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. budget deficit hit a record of about $438 billion in fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30, the result of rising government spending for defense and other programs and lower revenues because of the troubled economy, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday. The deficit for
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By Peter Griffiths LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Identity thieves are targeting existing bank and credit card accounts because the financial crisis has made it harder for them to steal money by setting up new ones with false names, MPs said on Wednesday. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Identity Fraud said tighter lending rules
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Asian stocks plunged, with Japan's Nikkei dropping by the most since 1987, while the yen surged on Wednesday as fears of a global recession snowballed with no sign of a coordinated response or an end to the worsening financial meltdown. Government debt prices jumped as the equity selloff reached a fever pitch and investors snatched
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Britain announced plans to inject up to 50 billion pounds ($87.2 billion) in capital into its biggest retail banks on Wednesday and Hong Kong slashed interest rates to try to stem the global financial crisis. In an effort to kickstart stalled money markets, the Bank of England would offer at least 200 billion pounds in
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Oil rose more than $3 a barrel on Tuesday after a big interest rate cut in Australia raised hopes that other countries would follow suit to bolster economic growth, a move that would support oil demand. The market spiked briefly after a report that a U.S. warplane violated Iran's territory and was forced to land
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JERUSALEM, Oct 7 (Reuters) – The Bank of Israel lowered its key borrowing rate by a half-point to 3.75 percent on Tuesday, citing a sharp increase in uncertainty in global markets and the impact on Israel's market. The surprise inter-meeting move takes effect Oct. 12, the central bank said in a statement. "Since the worsening
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EU finance ministers, seeking a confidence-booster as the global financial crisis pounded tiny Iceland on Tuesday, agreed to increase the minimum level of bank deposit insurance across the 27 European Union countries. They also pledged in a joint statement to recapitalise any critical bank if needed. The ministers agreed to raise the minimum to 50,000
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The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced the creation of a special-purpose facility with the Treasury Department's blessing to begin buying commercial paper in yet another emergency move aimed at calming chaotic financial markets. The Fed said it was acting because money market mutual funds and other investors have become increasingly reluctant to buy commercial paper,
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