Message-ID: <2972888.1075851605739.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 23:18:00 -0700 (PDT) From: the_economist-business-admin@lists.economist.com To: jdasovic@enron.com Subject: The world this week: Business 7th July - 13th July 2001 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-From: The_Economist-business-admin X-To: jdasovic X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Dasovich, Jeff (Non-Privileged)\Dasovich, Jeff\Deleted Items X-Origin: DASOVICH-J X-FileName: Dasovich, Jeff (Non-Privileged).pst Please respond to business-reply =09[IMAGE] =09 [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] ADVANCED SEARCH [IMAGE] [IMAGE= ] =09[IMAGE]=09 =09[IMAGE] Thursday July 12th 2001 Subscribe | E-mail & Mobile Editi= ons | Screensaver [IMAGE] [IMAGE]=09 [IMAGE] OPINION WORLD BUSINESS FINANCE SCIENCE PEOPLE BO= OKS & ARTS MARKETS DIVERSIONS [IMAGE] [IMAGE][IMAGE] [IMAGE][IMAG= E] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE]Subscribe to Economist.com today= and save 33% Click here to take advantage of Economist.com for US$39 - a = saving of over 33% on the regular price of US$59. A subscription to Economi= st.com gives you full access to premium content including all articles from= The Economist since 1997. Take advantage of this special offer. [IM= AGE] PRINT EDITION THE ECONOMIST [IMAGE]Full contents [IMAGE]Subscript= ions [IMAGE] [IMAGE] Customer service As a registered user of Econ= omist.com, you can sign up for or cancel the text and HTML versions of this= newsletter or change your e-mail address by amending your details . To = stop receiving this newsletter, please visit http://economist.com/members/= email.cfm , log in and complete the form. If you received this newsletter= from a friend and you would like to have your own free subscription, pleas= e go to the Economist.com registration page and fill out the registration= form. [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE]=09[IMAGE]=09[IMAGE]=09[IMA= GE]=09Business this week July 12th 2001 From The Economist print edition = Market jitters [IMAGE] Emerging markets were jittery. Argent= ina's government bonds fell sharply as investors fretted about a default. T= he Brazilian real hit intra-day lows against the dollar in response. Turkey= 's lira fell after the country failed to persuade the IMF to release its la= test tranche of funds. The Polish zloty and Hungarian forint also weakened.= Singapore slipped into recession and its dollar hit an 11-year low against= America's. See article: Gloom over the River Plate E+ One cause of emer= ging economies' ills has been the strength of the dollar, which this week h= it a 16-year high in real trade-weighted terms. The dollar's rise came desp= ite continued signs of weakness in the American economy. Unemployment in Ju= ne rose to 4.5%. See article: The greenback's charm The German Institut= e for Economic Research published the lowest-yet forecast for German econom= ic growth in 2001: a sorry 1%. See article: No great harm, no good either = A meeting of G7 finance ministers concluded on a cheerful note. They sta= ted hopefully that the world economy, particularly America's, would improve= soon. AT&T's plans to break up into four separate units began with the sp= in-off of its wireless arm. However, the company's low share price prompted= Comcast, an American cable rival, to offer $44.5 billion for AT&T Broadban= d, which was to have been spun off later this year. The bid boosted AT&T's = shares; but the company said it would not sell. See article: Loop dreams = E+ Hold the Mayo [IMAGE] John Mayo was forced to resign only= two weeks before he was to have become chief executive of Marconi ,after a= profit warning by the beleaguered British telecoms-equipment company. Lord= Simpson, the present chief executive, had been expected to become non-exec= utive chairman but will remain in place for now. Big shareholders also want= him to go soon. See article: Deputy heads will roll The European Commi= ssion raided mobile-phone companies in Britain and Germany as part of an in= vestigation into price-fixing on international charges in both countries. = Compaq Computer, the world's second-biggest PC maker, gave a warning that = profits in its latest quarter would be down sharply. America's economic slo= wdown has intensified competition, and troubles have spread to Europe. A re= port from Merrill Lynch suggested further gloom; companies are spending les= s on IT and delaying upgrades. Microsoft is to allow PC makers more freedo= m to change the Windows desktop. The software giant's move follows an appea= ls court ruling criticising its Windows monopoly; it may thereby hope to im= prove its negotiating position in settlement talks over the government's an= titrust suit. Baltimore Technologies, once one of the most admired Interne= t companies, shed its chief executive, Fran Rooney. The Irish Internet-secu= rity company, once worth ?5.1 billion ($8 billion), suffered a mini-collaps= e of its ever dwindling share price that took its value to as low as ?120m.= Webvan, an American online grocer once valued at $8.7 billion, said that = it would close with the loss of 2,000 jobs. The company had slowed its loss= es by abandoning extravagant expansion plans, but could not do enough to of= fset a rapid decline in orders. [IMAGE] Real Madrid paid a re= cord euro77m ($66m) for Zinedine Zidane, a French international. The Spanis= h football club financed the deal and paid off debts by selling its trainin= g complex in Madrid's business district. Opposite banks As expected, the = British government blocked an ?18 billion ($25 billion) bid by Lloyds TSB f= or Abbey National on competition grounds. This will, in effect, put an end = to consolidation among Britain's big banks; they may now seek targets abroa= d. See article: Ellwood Agonistes CSFB, a Wall Street bank under regula= tory investigation for its handling of initial public offerings, ousted its= chief executive, Allen Wheat. He will be replaced by John Mack, former pre= sident of Morgan Stanley. Euronext, the outcome of a merger of bourses in = Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris, made a poor showing on its own stockmarket d= ebut. Its shares, traded on all three exchanges, fell by 8.5% on the first = day despite being priced at the low end of the range. Merrill Lynch, Amer= ica's largest stockbroker, sought to reassure sceptical customers of the im= partiality of its analysts by stopping them owning shares in companies that= they cover. FTSE International, a British stockmarket indexer, launched = FTSE4Good, a set of stockmarket indices for socially responsible investment= . Many of Britain's top companies failed to make the grade. See article: B= est behaviour Science & Technology of the future Visit Science &= Technology, which features The Economist's prize-winning science articles.= Science & Technology also contains the contents of the latest Technology = Quarterly (TQ) from The Economist. This edition of TQ explores streaming v= ideo on the Internet, nanotechnology, gastrobots, gene sequencing and much = more... . [IMAGE] SEARCH The EconomistEconomist.comGlobal LibraryThe w= ebThe EIU Advanced search [IMAGE] =09[IMAGE]=09[IMAGE]=09 =09=09=09=09=09[IMAGE]=09[IMAGE]=09 =09=09=09=09 [IMAGE] =09[IMAGE]=09[IMAGE]=09 =09=09=09=09=09=09[IMAGE] =09 =09=09=09=09=09=09GO TO ECONOMIST.COM ? Copyright 2001 The Economist New= spaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved. Legal disclaimer | Pr= ivacy Policy | Terms & Conditions [IMAGE] [IMAGE] =09 [IMAGE]