U.S. securities regulators obtained an emergency court order to stop an alleged Ponzi scheme that collected more than $23 mln from thousands of investors in Florida's Haitian-American community, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. The SEC alleged that Creative Capital and its principal, George Theodule, launched a scheme as early as November 2007 urging investors
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The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday moved forward aggressively with an effort to drive down mortgage costs, setting a goal of buying $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities by mid-2009. The central bank said it would start buying the securities in early January under a program announced last month. When it announced the program, mortgage rates
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Asian shares rounded out their worst year ever on Wednesday, down 50 percent after 12 months of financial market and economic turmoil, but optimism that 2009 will be an improvement lifted stocks for a third straight session. Government bond yields held near their lowest in decades, oil prices dipped further below $40 a barrel and
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she would press for stronger international financial regulations, saying the global economic crisis created an opportunity for more controls and greater transparency. In a speech for broadcast on New Year's Eve released in advance, Merkel said her government would raise spending on infrastructure and education to stimulate growth,
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The U.S. economy extended its run of record-breaking dismal data on Tuesday, with consumer confidence and home prices registering a pair of grim milestones. U.S. consumer confidence fell to a record low in December as the worst job market in 16 years hammered sentiment, the Conference Board business research firm said. The dour sentiment has
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The number of property sale contracts transacted during the period January – November 2008 showed a 27.9% year-on-year reduction while contract sales in November showed 60.5% YoY decline according to data issued by the Land Registry Department. Marfin Egnatia analysts said in a commentary that property sale contracts illustrate the activity recorded in the property
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''SS Dignity was creased along with the dignity of Europe, which did not react,'' Cypriot MP Eleni Theocharous said on Tuesday on her return home, after SS Dignity, which tried to break the Israeli blockage of Gaza to take humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, was intercepted and hit by the Israeli navy. ''One way or
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Prices of U.S. single-family homes in October plunged a record 18.0 percent from a year earlier, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released on Tuesday that indicated a U.S. housing market in the throes of a deep recession. The battered U.S. housing market is critical to the U.S. economy, with a wide-ranging
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Moody's Investors Service has changed to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ the outlook on the bank financial strength ratings (BFSRs) of 15 Ukrainian banks and has also lowered the outlook on the long-term global local currency or foreign currency deposit or debt ratings of 19 Ukrainian banks to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’. The following ratings now carry negative
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The high ratings of the federal government of the United Arab Emirates are resistant to the steep fall in international oil prices since July, Moody's Investors Service said in its new annual credit report on the country. The long-term foreign and local currency issuer ratings of the UAE government are Aa2 with a stable outlook.
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