Financial Collapse

US stocks in biggest loss in two months

2009-06-22T20:46:00.000-04:00

A surprisingly bleak forecast for the world economy pushed stocks to their biggest loss in two months. Major stock indexes tumbled by more than 2 percent Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down 201 points, after the World Bank estimated the global economy will shrink 2.9 percent in 2009. It previously predicted a 1.7 percent contraction.The grim assessment was the latest unwelcome

Fury as Lloyds closes Cheltenham & Gloucester branches and cuts 1,660 jobs

2009-06-10T22:20:00.001-04:00

All 164 branches of the 160-year-old building society to close Cuts come on day taxpayer's stake increases to more than 45%Lloyd Banking Group provoked a furious reaction from unions and MPs tonight over its plans to shut all 164 Cheltenham & Gloucester branches and cut a further 1,660 jobs.The decision, which came on the day the taxpayer's stake in the bailed out bank rose temporarily to 45.74%,

UK aerospace 'facing 10,000 job cuts'

2009-06-10T22:19:00.000-04:00

The UK aerospace sector is set to cut 10% of jobs, about 10,000 posts, in the next year, an industry body has said. The Society of British Aerospace Companies said falling passenger levels were hitting aircraft orders as well as spending on research and development. Demand for military planes was up by about 3% on the same time a year ago, it said, but this was partly thanks to orders placed

British Airways looks to 2,000 job cuts to stay airborne

2009-06-10T22:18:00.000-04:00

BRITISH Airways boss Willie Walsh has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies among the airline's 40,000 staff after setting a three-week deadline for an agreement on pay cuts and job reductions.BA is offering voluntary redundancy to its 14,000-strong cabin crew in an effort to cut 2000 jobs.Speaking at the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Kuala Lumpur, the BA

Arcandor files for bankruptcy

2009-06-10T22:11:00.000-04:00

German retailer Arcandor AG filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in an effort to salvage its department stores and its mail-order arm, a day after the government rejected its bid for state-backed emergency credit. Arcandor said in a statement it filed with the district court in Essen, where it is based."Through filing for protection, our aim is to continue restructuring the company and its

The St. Regis Monarch Beach schedule for a Foreclosure Auction!

2009-06-10T22:10:00.000-04:00

The St. Regis Monarch Beach, infamous as the hotel where American International Group sponsored a luxury retreat just days after accepting a federal bailout, has been scheduled for a foreclosure auction.The companies that own the resort are in default on a $70-million loan from Citigroup Global Markets Realty Group, people knowledgeable about the debt said Tuesday.Negotiations continue in an

FACTBOX-Banks, funds, insurers cut 382,880 jobs in crisis

2009-06-08T04:10:00.001-04:00

Banks, insurers and asset managers worldwide haveannounced 382,880 job cuts since August 2007 when the credit crisis began tointensify. Following is a list of the deepest job cuts at major companies: Company Jobs Headcount Latest cut before Aug 07* headcount**-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Airlines 'to lose $9bn' as they fight to survive recession

2009-06-08T03:52:00.001-04:00

Airlines will lose $9bn (£5.7bn) this year, nearly double previous forecasts, as carriers fight to stay afloat in the "most difficult" trading conditions they have ever faced, the industry's leading body has warned.Buffeted by a collapse in business traffic, falling fares and the threat of resurgent fuel costs, the industry is expected to come close to matching last year's losses of $10.4bn, said

General Motors to File for Bankruptcy

2009-06-01T04:15:00.002-04:00

GM - the biggest car manufacturer in the world until last year - will file for bankruptcy in the US courts as it seeks to restructure its stricken operations. The US government is said to be planning to take a 60% stake in the Detroit company under a deal to provide an additional £19 billion in aid to help GM emerge from bankruptcy. President Barack Obama is preparing to make a White House

Wall Street rescue: $2.3 trillion - the cost of US bank bailout

2009-02-10T19:27:00.002-05:00

President Barack Obama's administration placed an eye-watering $2.3 trillion price tag on its plan to bail out the US banking system yesterday, opening up what it called a second front in the battle to pull the country out of recession.As the $800bn economic stimulus plan finally passed the Senate, attention began shifting to the even bigger problem of fixing a financial system that has been on

Asia will be less affected by crisis

2009-02-10T19:23:00.000-05:00

Asia will have a less acute impact from the global financial and economic crisis but their recovery will also be slower than Western countries, said Morgan Stanley (Asia) chairman Dr Stephen Roach. He said Asia’s economies, which were largely export-led, would only recover after their main export markets, the US and Europe, recovered.“Export-led regions are followers, not leaders,” he said. “The

General Motors to slash 10,000 salaried jobs

2009-02-10T19:22:00.000-05:00

General Motors Corp, staying afloat with $13.4 billion in federal rescue loans, announced early today that it is cutting its worldwide salaried workforce by 10,000, or 14%, this year and temporarily reducing the pay for a majority of its U.S. white-collar workforce."These difficult actions are necessitated by a severe drop in vehicle sales worldwide and by the need to restructure GM for long

RBS planning up to 2,300 job cuts

2009-02-10T19:21:00.000-05:00

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it will cut up to 2,300 jobs as it restructures the business. The jobs will be lost from its back office operations across the UK. RBS said it hoped to keep compulsory redundancies "to a minimum", and said that there would be no cuts among its customer facing staff. The bank needed a government bail-out last year. In exchange for £20bn of public funds, the

UBS posts record Swiss loss, cuts 2,000 jobs

2009-02-10T19:20:00.000-05:00

Swiss bank UBS on Tuesday posted an annual loss of 17 billion dollars (13 billion euros) in 2008, the largest in Swiss corporate history, and announced 2,000 new job cuts. Full year loss in 2008 reached 19.697 billion Swiss francs, including 8.1 billion francs worth of losses incurred during the last three months of the year, UBS said in a statement.Switzerland's biggest bank, which is one of the

GM Slashes 10,000 Jobs and Executive Pay; Wal-Mart Cuts 800 Jobs

2009-02-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

A government grant of $9.4 billion hasn't helped General Motors, one of the nation's Big Three automakers, retain its workforce. GM today announced it will cut 10,000 jobs in May and continue global layoffs through the year. Mid-level salaries will be decreased 3 to 7 percent and executives will take 10 percent pay cuts. With a severe drop in car sales and the need for restructuring, GM joins a

Nissan to cut 20,000 jobs amid stormy forecasts

2009-02-10T19:18:00.002-05:00

Nissan Motor on Monday joined its Japanese carmaking rivals in forecasting a big loss for the current financial year, and said it would eliminate 20,000 jobs, in one of the most aggressive cuts announced by any Japanese company since the start of the global downturn. The development reflects the growing urgency felt by Japanese manufacturers across the board as it becomes clear that the slowdown,

Sega Loses Big, Company Now Facing Significant Layoffs

2009-02-10T19:18:00.001-05:00

More bad news in the form of financial results has surfaced today, this time from Sega and its results for the first three quarters of its 2009 fiscal year. This period, which ran through December 31, 2008, saw a total loss of 10.8 billion yen or $119 million USD, reports GamesIndustry.biz. It may not be as significant of a loss as the previous year's staggering $173 million loss during the same

Intel Defies Layoff Trend – Spends $7 Billion Protecting 7,000 Jobs

2009-02-10T19:16:00.001-05:00

At a time when U.S. employers are laying off workers in record numbers, Intel Corp. (INTC) announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it would spend $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities while safeguarding 7,000 high-wage jobs.To support the deployment of Intel’s cutting-edge 32-nanometer (nm) manufacturing technology, Intel President and Chief Executive Officer

FedEx Freight to layoff 900 employees

2009-02-10T19:15:00.002-05:00

FedEx Freight is making “staffing adjustments” to about 900 positions at 150 of its facilities.Employees were made aware of the cuts in an e-mail to employees by FedEx Freight President and CEO Doug Duncan on Feb. 5.FedEx Freight is a unit of Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX).Duncan cited a continued decline in consumer spending and overall industrial production as putting

Sales Fall Sharply for Retailers

2009-02-06T01:12:00.001-05:00

The nation’s retailers said they suffered a fourth consecutive month of steep sales declines in January, underscoring a broad and sustained shutdown in consumer spending. “For the last 10 years people bought cars and refrigerators and TVs like they were going grocery shopping,” said Mike Moriarty, partner at A. T. Kearney, a management consulting service. “Now people are grocery shopping like

Ford cuts 850 UK jobs amid 30% sales plunge

2009-02-06T01:11:00.000-05:00

Ford, the US car giant, today announced that it was cutting 850 British jobs as new vehicle registrations plunged by 30.9 per cent, confirming the dire state of the transport market. Ford said today that the job cuts were in response to the “serious economic situation”, and plans to reduce staff by between 400 and 500 at its Transit van plant in Southampton. A further 350 jobs will be lost across

Royal Mail looks to shed 16,000 Post Man jobs

2009-02-06T01:10:00.000-05:00

Royal Mail plans to cut 16,000 jobs in a move that would unleash further industrial unrest on the battered economy. The proposed losses — amounting to almost one in ten of the company’s workforce in a drive to reduce the wage bill by £470 million — come as unions also prepare to fight the introduction of a commercial partner to the business. David Ward, deputy leader of the Communications Workers

Boston Schools May Slash 900 Jobs

2009-02-06T01:09:00.001-05:00

Hundreds of Boston school teachers could be out of a job if the city school department follows through with a plan to make drastic budget cuts.The district may slash 900 jobs, and more than 400 would be teaching positions. Several schools may also be closed. Superintendent Carol Johnson announced her preliminary budget plan Wednesday night as hundreds of school students and their parents

GM to lay off 600 at northern Mexico plant

2009-02-06T01:06:00.001-05:00

General Motors says it will lay off 600 workers at a key production plant in northern Mexico due to falling demand in the country and in the United States. Company spokesman Angel Sanchez said Thursday that the cuts will come in February and March at the factory in Ramos Arizpe in Coahuila state. The plant currently employs about 4,500 workers.General Motors Corp. has some 12,700 Mexico employees

Cisco May Cut 2,000 Jobs. But That’s Not A Layoff.

2009-02-05T04:11:00.001-05:00

Cisco CEO John Chambers, in pursuing another billion dollars of expense reduction, just said on the networking gear company’s earnings call that the company could reduce its work force by 1,500 to 2,000 people. But he’s not considering a layoff, he said. A companywide layoff, by his definition, would constitute 10% of the work force, or 6,700 of the company’s worldwide workforce of 67,000