FURTHER FURTHER ROUNDING
- The FT's long list for business books of the year.
- Protectionism and solar power.
- A new paper on the effects of long-term unemployment.
- Five takeaways on housing finance reform from Obama's town hall.
- Meet the town that's being swallowed by a sinkhole.
ROUND-UP
FT markets round-up: "Global equities lost further ground and the dollar staged a broad retreat as the bullish mood that has driven financial markets in recent weeks continued to show signs of fading. The S&P 500 equity index suffered its third successive decline as it closed 0.4 per cent lower. The index finished last week at a record high, but has since fallen more than 1 per cent. Across the Atlantic, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 slipped 0.3 per cent while, in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 4 per cent – its biggest one-day drop for eight weeks – as the yen rose sharply." (Financial Times)
Rajan dusts off plan for modernising India's financial system: "Raghuram Rajan, the incoming governor of the Reserve Bank of India, once called modernising the country's inefficient and under-developed financial sector a "moral and economic imperative". Proposing detailed reforms of the sector in a 2008 report, Mr Rajan bemoaned that the primary source of loans for most Indian households was still usurious informal moneylenders, while the financial system was "not able to meet the scale or the sophistication" of India's large companies, smaller businesses or public infrastructure projects." (Financial Times)
North Korea raises hopes for resumption of Kaesong project: "North Korea has promised to drop restrictions against operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, reviving hopes for the future of the last inter-Korean joint project. The 123 South Korean companies with factories at Kaesong were forced to halt operations in April after North Korea withdrew its 53,000 workers from the complex at a time of heightened diplomatic tensions." (Financial Times)
ICBC closes in on Standard Bank deal: "Executives from Standard Bank are in Beijing for intensive meetings with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to hammer out details of a deal to sell the South African lender's London-based commodity trading business to its biggest shareholder. The talks have been off and on for nearly a year, but the visit to China by a large Standard Bank team signals that the two are near to closing the sale, according to two bankers familiar with the meetings." (Financial Times)
