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...Anglo-Irish, the country's third biggest lender, had concealed from shareholders more than $100 million in personal loans by temporarily transferring the money to a building society. Amid public outcry over the scandal, the government nationalized Anglo-Irish and recapitalized two other banks to the tune of $10.5 billion...
...month, the Irish government is set to formalize a highly controversial bailout plan in which a National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) would be created to remove the unpaid, property-linked debts from the banks' balance sheets. If approved by Parliament, which appears increasingly likely, NAMA would spend some $81 billion of taxpayer money to buy loans worth an estimated $70.5 billion at current market value. The so-called bad bank, as NAMA is sometimes called, will then manage the loans on behalf of the state for the next decade, by which time, the government assumes, the country's property market...
...Those who support NAMA say Ireland has little option but to take the plunge. The International Monetary Fund has predicted that Irish banks could lose up to $53 billion next year if they fail to get rid of their toxic assets. For Pat McCloughan, a Dublin-based economist, the looming bankruptcy threat outweighs all other concerns. "Unfortunately, developers going out of business and home repossessions are an inevitable part of [the downturn]. But a much bigger problem would be if one of the big banks was to fail. That would have massive repercussions for a small country like Ireland...
...International expansion is continuing despite the financial crisis, which has ravaged Benetton's bottom line. Profit in the first half of this year plunged 60% to $42 million from $115 million in the comparable period of 2008; sales in the same period were down 11% to just under $1.3 billion. The company has responded by putting in place a restructuring plan that mainly targets operating efficiency in its supply chain. Many financial analysts are lukewarm about the company's prospects because of the weak consumer-spending climate and the tough competition. "Benetton remains under pressure from multiple angles...
...commitment to agriculture by the global community is clearly emerging. The latest G-8 summit of the world's largest economies, held in Italy in July, declared "there is an urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger" and, citing the sector's perennial neglect, pledged $20 billion for agriculture. "Since 2007, we have seen greater attention from world leaders on food security, in developed and developing countries alike," says Kostas Stamoulis, director of agricultural-development economics at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. The resources being committed to farming "is putting-your-money-where-your...