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...Moves to force lenders to pay up in response to the global financial blowout are gaining momentum. German officials announced plans Monday, March 22, to start taxing banks as a way of squirreling funds for any future bailouts, with details expected to come before the end of the month. U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled proposals in January for a $90 billion bank tax designed to recoup public money used to shore up the nation's lenders. No-nonsense Sweden, meanwhile, has already implemented its own version. But amid this consensus on the need to charge banks, doubts over the merit...
...Convincing every major economy of the virtues of a bank tax, though, remains the biggest challenge. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, for instance, rejected a bank tax out of hand earlier this month, favoring instead a wider implementation of some of the tough rules that left his country's banks relatively unscathed by the crisis. But the publication next month of the International Monetary Fund's recommendations on bank taxes - a report commissioned by the G-20 countries last year - might help coax reluctant nations into considering the measure. "Some countries feel they did their homework," says Arturo De Frias...
...There are already signs of how fragile the rebound truly is. The latest month-over-month data show sales have slowed in recent months despite low mortgage rates and the home-buyer tax-credit program. New and existing home sales fell 2.2% and 0.6% respectively from January to February, and unsold inventory rose 9.5% during the same period. Some of February's sluggishness could be explained by cold, snowy weather that blasted the Eastern seaboard, but the precise impact of this is hard to know...
...carbon tax had been plagued with troubles from the start - including the near refusal by rightist legislators to pass it until the Elysée whipped them into line in November 2009. A month later - just days before it was set to take effect - France's Constitutional Council struck the law down because it unlawfully applied measures to consumers while exempting French companies, by far the biggest carbon emitters. Sarkozy pledged to widen the measure to include businesses. But that only mobilized France's employers' lobby. With the voters finally having had their say, Sarkozy has decided to shelve...
...concerted campaign to damage the Catholic Church and its supreme leader. A senior official reacted with disgust after reading the latest article, saying, "It's obvious the New York Times has its mind made up. You have to ask why they didn't print a story earlier this month on the conviction of a Jewish rabbi in Brooklyn on eight counts of sex abuse." The official also referred to a libel case against Oprah Winfrey that involved sex-abuse allegations that was settled quietly on Wednesday. "But then why the front page for this story? They are targeting the Pope...