Business and Finance news

Australia’s economy will probably contract this year for the first time in almost two decades amid slumping global demand for exports, central bank Deputy Governor Ric Battellino said.
“There are limits on how much we can insulate ourselves from what is happening abroad, and therefore there are probably still some difficult times ahead,” Battellino […]

Maintenance shops will have to check the tire pressure of every vehicle they service under a new regulation adopted Thursday by the state Air Resources Board.
The rule takes effect July 1, 2010, and is part of the package of rules the Air Board is adopting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It includes smog check stations, […]

AGF Management Ltd. says its profit for the fiscal first quarter fell by 80 per cent compared with a year earlier, in part because of high loan-loss provisions at it trust division.
Net income fell to $12.2 million or 14 cents per share for the three months ended Feb. 28, down 80 per cent […]

Financier George Soros said the G20 summit next month must support developing nations to prevent further market turmoil.
“Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund face a novel task: to protect the periphery countries from a storm created in the developed world,” he wrote in a column published in the Financial Times on Monday.
“If the […]

Stocks managed gains for the second week in a row despite tumbling Friday, as investors pulled back after the recent run.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 122 points or 1.7%. However, it also managed slim gains for the week, rising for the second week in a row for the first time since […]

An IBM takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc would raise the prospect of creating a clear leader in computer servers, but gaining market share might not be what’s behind IBM’s expensive overtures in hard economic times.
Sun’s software portfolio, including Java, MySQL and Solaris, offers IBM a chance to get an edge in nascent open source […]

The latest spectacle in the AIG circus is a supposedly tough federal rule on executive compensation that has drawn no blood.
The troubled insurer has provoked another round of outrage by paying out $165 million in bonuses — to the employees of a subsidiary that caused AIG’s (AIG, Fortune 500) near collapse, no less. […]

Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it was under investigation by U.S. authorities for potential breaches of overseas bribery rules.
“Shell is currently under investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Department of Justice for violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” the company said in its 2008 annual […]

OTTAWA – As G20 finance ministers met yesterday to co-ordinate a global response to the recession, the governor of the Bank of Canada warned that Canada’s economic recovery will be "delayed."
"Many of the downslide risks that we identified in our last monetary policy (report) are now materializing. There are severe global headwinds," Mark Carney told […]

Sergio Barreto landed his first job out of college during the recession that began in 1990, as a mechanic for United Airlines. He survived the next one a decade later, selling semiconductor materials. This time, he may be out of luck.
Barreto, who has an engineering degree from San Jose State University and 12 […]