| Mortgage losses slam Citigroup
NEW YORK Bad bets on mortgages drove a $10 billion loss for Citigroup Inc. in the last three months of 2007, the worst in its 196-year history, adding to a wave of weak economic data pointing toward a recession. The nation's largest bank also announced Tuesday it had cut 4,200 jobs and slashed its dividend, and the poor performance forced Citi to turn to foreign investors for an infusion of cash. The news helped drag the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 277 points and wiped out almost $10 billion in market value in Citigroup stock alone. Shares in the bank skidded 7 percent to a new five-year low. The biggest hit came from a $19.1 billion writedown in the value of the bank's investment portfolio. But it also set aside $4 billion Tuesday to coverfrom Business 1 anticipated losses on loans to U.S.
Sainsbury's spreads a little post-festive cheer for City
Supermarket chain Sainsbury's yesterday delivered a welcome boost to the high street, with a Christmas trading update showing sales slightly ahead of City expectations. The third-biggest grocer said like-for-like sales, excluding gains from petrol price rises, were up 3.7% in the 12 weeks to December 29. City analysts had anticipated a rise of 3.6%, but there had been speculation in recent days that Sainsbury's would miss that target. The grocer's share price, which closed at 405p on Friday night, had sunk to 365p as traders worried that sales would be disappointing. But yesterday the shares bounced back, closing up 23p at 388p. Sainsbury's boss Justin King said household budgets are "clearly under strain", but contradicted his counterpart at Marks & Spencer, insisting the "doom and gloom" facing retailers had been overdone.
T-Mobile adds nearly 1M U.S. subs in 4Q
T-Mobile USA added nearly a million cell-phone subscribers in the fourth quarter, but full-year results fell short of its parent company's target. T-Mobile USA said Monday it added 951,000 subscribers in October to December, giving it 28.7 million by the end of 2007. That's up 14.6 percent from a year earlier. Shareholders last year called for Deutsche Telekom AG, the parent of T-Mobile, to sell off the U.S. unit. Chief Executive Rene Obermann parried those suggestions in June, in part by saying the unit aimed to add 5 million subscribers by the end of the year. T-Mobile USA added 3.6 million subscribers in all of 2007. However, T-Mobile USA's growth outpaced the 9 percent growth in Deutsche Telekom's European cell-phone operations from 2006 to 2007, including additions from last year's acquisition of the carrier Orange in the Netherlands.
Knocking Hillary for All the Wrong Reasons
Besides the bully pulpit, a President must know how to use the levers of power to get legislation passed. It would be nice to think Clinton could achieve sweeping, civil-rights-movement-scale reform in government. But not even Obama is promising that. Both Clinton and Obama eschew a single-payer health care system, for example. Both are talking about incremental change. Obama, like Clinton's husband, just says it better, in a way that appeals to our more hopeful, idealistic feelings. That might be reason enough to vote for him. But beware the misogynist subtext of the stories of Hillary Clinton's demise. Ruth Conniff covers national politics for The Progressive and is a voice of The Progressive on many TV and radio programs. © 2008 The Progressive .
NHS patients told to treat themselves
Using relaxation techniques to relieve stress and avoid "panic" visits to emergency wards. Gordon Brown hinted at the new policy in a message to NHS staff yesterday, promising a service that "gives all of those with long-term or chronic conditions the choice of greater support, information and advice, allowing them to play a far more active role in managing their own condition". The Prime Minister claimed the self-care agenda was about increasing patient choice and "personalised" services. .
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