· registering their dissatisfaction
· making it known how unhappy they are
· holding him hostage
· capturing and keeping him until they get what they want
· the sub-prime mortgage meltdown
· the financial crisis caused by too many unpaid home loans that are owed to banks around the world
· the pensioner posse
· the group or gang of retired people working together
· accomplice
· someone who helps another person to commit a crime
· abducted
· kidnapped, illegally took someone away
· gagged him
· tied a piece of cloth over his mouth or put it inside his mouth to stop him from speaking or calling for help
· a crack team of commandos
· a highly skilled team of soldiers, specially trained to carry out raids and rescue people who are being held hostage
· co-defendants
Bonuses, thought to be worthless and given to Credit Suisse bankers as punishment for their poor work, have now become much more valuable than many other 'safer' investments.
The five billion dollar pool of so-called 'Toxic Debt' was originally described as a way of forcing Credit Suisse investment bankers to "eat their own cooking".
The bank lost seven billion dollars last year, in large part because of the investment decisions of some of its best paid staff. They'd put money into complicated financial products linked to risky commercial debt secured, on among other things, a Japanese shopping centre, an American supermarket chain and other commercial property that had plunged in value.
At the height of the financial crisis, many people thought these investments were worthless. To Credit Suisse, it seemed right to share them out as annual bonuses among the people who had apparently got things so wrong. But as confidence has returned to the market, it's become clear that the toxic asset pool wasn't nearly as toxic as had been thought.
The toxic bonus fund has soared in value by 72 percent. That compares with a 60 percent increase in the value of Credit Suisse shares over the same period, or a mere 19 percent rise in America's Dow Jones index.
The bankers may well feel they've earned their money though. Credit Suisse is safely back in profit and unlike its rivals at UBS, Credit Suisse didn't take a bail out from the Swiss Government.
· toxic debt
· loans bought from other financial institutions which failed to make money becausepeople and organisatios were unable to pay them back; such loans are thought of as poisonous
· financial products
· services that financial companies offer to help them make money, such as bank loans, mortgages and insurance policies
· risky
· dangerous, likely to fail, may cause loss or harm
· secured
· guaranteed
· supermarket chain
· group of supermarkets in different areas which all have the same name and are owned by the same company
· plunged in value
· was suddenly worth a lot less money than before
· asset pool
· collection of investments which the owners believe will go up in value rather go down
· has soared
· has suddenly increased or gone up
· its rivals
· its competitors in business
· a bail out
A court-appointed investigator says the American investment bank, Lehman Brothers, used "accounting gimmicks", and had been insolvent for weeks before it filed for bankruptcy in September 2008.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers was the biggest bankruptcy in US history and sparked the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. This report, which runs to two thousand, two hundred pages, has found that the leadership of Lehmans, including the Chief Executive, Dick Fuld, deliberately used financial trickery going back to 2001, to make the bank appear healthier than it really was.
In 2008 alone this mechanism enabled Lehmans to remove 50 billion dollars from its balance sheet, allowing it to maintain a decent credit rating and investor confidence.
The report says that Lehman was unable to get an American law firm to sign off these transactions, and instead moved the work to its London office, with the blessing of a leading city law firm. The bank's auditors also come in for criticism. Ernst and Young is accused of failing to question and challenge improper or inadequate disclosures in the bank's results.
· bankruptcy
· state of being unable to pay what you owe
· the Great Depression
· a period of time, which began in 1929, when most of the world economies were in decline
· deliberately used financial trickery
· knowingly or purposefully changed the financial figures in a dishonest way
· this mechanism enabled
· this way of working allowed
· to maintain a decent credit rating
· to continue to appear to be a good and reliable bank
· to sign off these transactions
· to agree to these dealings
· with the blessing of
· with the approval of
· auditors
· people whose job it is to carry out an official examination of the accounts of a business and to write a report on it
· improper or inadequate disclosures
not giving enough information openly and honestly
The low-cost airline, Easyjet, will be brought before a French court accused of violating French labour laws. The company may now face a fine of up to 10 million euros.
Easyjet has been under investigation here in France since 2006 when an inspection of their operations at Paris Orly airport showed they'd failed to register 170 employees to the French authorities.
The budget airline is accused of breaking strict labour laws and is now being pursued by the state prosecutor for millions of euros in unpaid social security and health insurance contributions. The budget airline insists that its staff were hired under British contracts and therefore were not subject to French rules. Orly airport, it claims, was merely a rest area for its workers and it was the planes themselves, and not France that served as their workplaces.
The French authorities point out however that most of the Easyjet staff lived and paid their taxes in France and many were working solely on internal flights between Paris and Nice.
· budget
· low-cost or cheap
· pursued by the state prosecutor
· followed by the official who is responsible for trying to prove in a law court that people accused of crimes are guilty
· social security and health insurance contributions
· money that employers pay to cover the costs of their employees' sickness or illness
· hired
· given jobs or employment
· were not subject to
· did not have to follow or obey
· claims
· says that something is true or is a fact, although you cannot prove it
· merely
· only
· served as
· was used as, acted as
· authorities
· people in power (in the government)
· solely on internal flights
only on flights that go between places inside a country (here, France), rather than international flights which go between two different countries
Argentina has offered to swap bonds that it failed to pay back nine years ago, at one third of their value. However, the offer may be a disappointment to some investors.
Argentina needs to access global markets because it faces tight financing and rising debt obligations this year. But Latin America's third-biggest economy has been a pariah since it defaulted on around 100 billion dollars worth of debt in 2001.
The Argentine government now wants to restructure 20 billion dollars in defaulted debt and nine billion dollars in accumulated interest.
The terms aren't as favourable as some investors had hoped and regulatory approval is still pending in Europe and Japan.
But the government hopes the offer will end investor lawsuits which led to the freezing of the country's assets in foreign banks and clear the way to return to the debt markets.
· access
· be able to get into
· tight financing and rising debt obligations
· not having much money to spend and owing a lot of money to other people or countries
· a pariah
· someone (or here, a country) who is not accepted by a social group, especially because he, she or it isn't trusted
· defaulted
· didn't repay the money it had borrowed
· restructure
· (specialised financial term) come to an agreement about repaying a loan
· accumulated interest
· the gradually increasing amount of money you have to repay in addition to the amount you borrowed
· favourable
· good or advantageous
· pending
· waiting for a decision to be made
· investor lawsuits
· people, companies or countries which had made loans to Argentina, trying to get their money back by taking legal action
· freezing of the country's assets
officially and legally preventing Argentina's money or property from being used or
moved
European leaders at a summit in Brussels have been discussing the Greek economy and have agreed to help the country with its financial crisis. The aim is to protect the economies of countries using the euro.
This summit was supposed to be a chance for Europe's prime ministers and presidents to discuss ways to promote growth and jobs, but with the euro single currency facing its worst ever crisis, the original agenda has long since been scrapped. Instead, all the focus will be on how to shore up Greece's precarious finances. Though the Greek economy is relatively small, its membership of the euro zone means its fate is wedded to that of the stronger currencies in the single currency.
For years Greek governments have spent more than they earned in taxes and borrowed to make up the shortfall. That public debt now threatens to engulf the economy. Greece's new socialist government has introduced some drastic austerity measures, such as a public sector pay freeze and fuel price increases to try to reduce the deficit, but the prospect of a default has prompted huge falls on the Greek stock market. The uncertainty has spread to other big euro debtors like Spain and Portugal. It's this contagion that most worries euro zone leaders as it risks destroying confidence in the euro as a whole.
So what to do? By underwriting the Greeks' debts they hope to stop the financial turbulence spreading and protect themselves in the process. But such largesse is not without risk. If they do end up having to pay Greece's debts, the leaders meeting here know it will be both expensive and unpopular with the voters back home.
· scrapped
· cancelled, abandoned
· to shore up
· to support and strengthen something that is weak
· precarious
· in a fragile state and seem likely to fail
· is wedded to
· is firmly linked to; if you are wedded to someone, you are married to them
· to engulf
· to overwhelm, to become stronger than
· drastic austerity measures
· severe actions that are taken to save money and spend money only on things which are absolutely necessary
· pay freeze
· stopping all increases in wages
· a default
· a failure to make payment on a loan or debt
· underwriting
· guaranteeing to make a payment for someone else if necessary
· largesse
The Icelandic Parliament will discuss the prospect of a public vote on repaying Britain and the Netherlands billions of dollars when the country's banks collapsed in 2008.
Icelandic MPs are meant to be enjoying a lengthy Christmas break, instead they've been summoned back to parliament to discuss the fall out of President Olafur Grimsson's refusal to sign a bill allowing more than five billion dollars to be paid to the British and Dutch governments.
A quarter of the population had signed a petition calling for him to withhold his signature. The money was meant to compensate the two governments after they bailed out savers put at risk when the online Icesave bank collapsed in 2008.
Now a public referendum will be held, possibly next month. But ministers have warned Iceland's bid to join the EU could be damaged, and the country risks losing desperately needed financial aid. There's also the danger of a constitutional crisis - the Prime Minister Johanna Siguroardottir said she wasn't convinced his actions were legal.
Meanwhile frantic diplomatic efforts have been made to try and build bridges with both the British and Dutch governments, and other Nordic countries who had made an agreement on refunding the compensation a condition of further aid payments.
· summoned back
· ordered to return
· the fall out
· the negative consequences
· a petition calling for him to withhold
· a formal piece of paper that a lot of people sign to ask him not to do something (here, not to sign the bill)
· to compensate
· to give money to people for some inconvenience or hardship they have had
· bailed out savers
· rescued the people who had money in the bank that the bank lost (in the financial crisis of 2008)
· a public referendum
· a public vote on an issue
· desperately needed financial aid
· help with the economy that the country needs very badly
· a constitutional crisis
· a legal or government disaster caused by actions that some people believe are illegal
· frantic
· frenzied, panicked, not calm
· build bridges
find areas that they can agree on
References:
· «Деньги» № 17-18 (772-773) , 2010
· «Коммерсантъ» № 77/В (4377) ,2010
· «Власть» № 23 (826), 2009
· “The Financial Times”
· www. BBC Russian.com
· http://www.class.uidaho.edu
· http://www.web.hc.keio.ac.jp
· http://www.inosmi.ru/authors