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Ireland's economy is in trouble yet it hasn't reached the point where it cannot tackle problems for itself. But Dublin doesn't have much room for error.
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Crafting a Citi solution that doesn't crater bank stocks -- but also isn't a taxpayer giveaway -- looks hard to pull off.
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Singapore has a small-business problem, which could feature big when the country unveils its 2009 budget next week.
How much longer can Deutsche Bank continue to convince investors it doesn't need to raise new capital?
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BNP Paribas thought buying the Belgian assets of Fortis was a good deal. But the bank finds itself at the mercy of shareholders and courts.
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The U.K. government spent months resisting calls for a loan guarantee scheme to help small enterprises get credit. It has succumbed, though the funding is much less than expected.
It can't have been easy to find a replacement for Jerry Yang as Yahoo CEO. And, at first glance, Yahoo's choice of Carol Bartz isn't exactly inspiring.
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In the credit crisis, there is uncertainty and then there is complete guesswork. In the case of Marshall & Ilsley, analysts appear to have plumped for the latter.
No one can blame them for being off by 20% or 30% in this environment. But while Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate was a fourth-quarter profit of seven cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters, the Wisconsin financial-services company's actual result was in a totally different ballpark -- a loss of $1.55 a share.
The reason: hefty credit losses in construction and commercial portfolios.
With shocks like that, no wonder investors have lost faith in even the biggest institutions. Just look at Bank of America's plunge as investors guess the size of the hit it will have to take after the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. And how generous the government will be in filling the hole.
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