Off the Shelf: Bretton Woods Monetary Agreement, Examined in a New Book

“DOWNTON ABBEY” has tapped our inner Anglophile on a wide front. But Americans were not so besotted with Britain in the first half of the 20th century, when it was a powerhouse of international trade. Until World War II, Britain ran international finance to its liking, and Americans were thirsting to chop it down to size. We need to understand that to grasp the importance of the Bretton Woods monetary...

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Ireland Seeks Easing of Its Debt Terms

DUBLIN — Ireland has been widely praised as the good pupil of the euro zone’s austerity school of thought. Now it wants to be rewarded. Ireland, whose banking crisis required it to receive a bailout of €85 billion, or $110 billion, by international lenders in 2010, is pressing for the right to ease the payback terms of billions of euros of debt it incurred in that process. It is also pushing...

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DealBook: Heinz Case May Involve a Side Bet in London

Regulators have escalated an investigation into suspicious trades placed ahead of the $23 billion takeover of H. J. Heinz, focusing on a complex derivative bet routed through London, according to two people briefed on the matter.The development builds on a recent regulatory action mounted against a Goldman Sachs account in Switzerland that bought Heinz options contracts. It also comes a week after...

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Shell Suspends Drilling for Arctic Ocean in 2013

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced Wednesday it will not drill for petroleum in the Arctic Ocean in 2013. Shell Oil Co. President Marvin Odum said in an announcement that the company will "pause" its exploration drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The company made progress in Alaska, but Arctic offshore drilling is a long-term program that the company is...

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DealBook: Tribune Said to Hire Bankers to Sell Newspapers

The Tribune Company has hired investment banks to pursue a sale of its top newspapers, including The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, a person briefed on the matter told DealBook on Tuesday.The media company, which emerged from bankruptcy late last year, has hired JPMorgan Chase and Evercore Partners to run the process, said this person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.Tribune’s move...

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Herald Tribune to Be Renamed The International New York Times

The New York Times Company said on Monday that it was planning to rename The International Herald Tribune, its 125-year-old newspaper based in Paris, and would also unveil a new Web site for international audiences. Starting this fall, under the plan, the paper will be rechristened The International New York Times, reflecting the company’s intention to focus on its core New York Times...

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Major Banks Aid in Payday Loans Banned by States

Major banks have quickly become behind-the-scenes allies of Internet-based payday lenders that offer short-term loans with interest rates sometimes exceeding 500 percent. With 15 states banning payday loans, a growing number of the lenders have set up online operations in more hospitable states or far-flung locales like Belize, Malta and the West Indies to more easily evade statewide caps...

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BP and Gulf Coast States Jockey Over Settlement on Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

John Moore/Getty ImagesA BP cleanup crew removing oil from a beach in May 2010 in Port Fourchon, La., after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. With a major civil trial scheduled to start Monday in New Orleans against BP over damages related to the explosion of an offshore drilling rig in 2010, federal officials and those from the five affected Gulf Coast states are trying to pull together to strike an...

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Euro Watch: European Commission Offers Grim Forecast for Economy

BRUSSELS — A top E.U. official warned Friday that the economy of the euro area would shrink for the second year in a row and that countries like France and Spain would miss fiscal targets meant to ensure the stability of the common currency. Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, forecast growth across the 27-nation European Union of just 0.1 percent this...

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Via Video, a Front-Row Seat to a Fashion Show

As the Belstaff runway show began in New York City last week, buyers, designers and bloggers crowded into their seats, jotted notes and took smartphone photos as the models strutted by. But it was another crowd, outside the tents, that Belstaff executives were particularly interested in this season. For the second time, it was live streaming its fashion show. And the Web viewers were...

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DealBook: A Revolving Door in Washington That Gets Less Notice

Obsess all you’d like about President Obama’s nomination of Mary Jo White to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Who heads the agency is vital, but important fights in Washington are happening in quiet rooms, away from the media gaze.After a widely praised stint as a tough United States attorney, Ms. White spent the last decade serving so many large banks and investment houses that by the...

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DealBook: Morgan Stanley Strives to Coordinate 2 Departments Often at Odds

Several hundred Morgan Stanley retail branch managers descended on the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes resort in Florida early this month for a retreat. They were greeted by an unlikely colleague, Colm Kelleher, who runs the company’s sales and trading and investment banking departments.Traditionally, traders and investment bankers think of themselves as the elite of Wall Street and look down on...

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Draghi Seeks to Quiet Talk About Global Currency War

BRUSSELS — The president of the European Central Bank sought Monday to ease fears that countries including Japan were deliberately weakening their currencies and that European exporters were threatened by a round of competitive devaluations among the world’s major economies. The comments by Mario Draghi appeared to show how some of the world’s most senior economic policy makers were continuing...

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DealBook: The Icahn Effect on Herbalife Shares

1:43 p.m. | Updated Investors in Herbalife initially cheered the disclosure that Carl C. Icahn had taken a big stake in the company, sending the stock price higher on Friday morning.But that enthusiasm appeared to fade a bit once Mr. Icahn had an opportunity to explain his reasons for investing in the nutritional supplements company.The stock gave up some gains at midday on Friday, falling below $40...

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Judge Clears Transocean Plea in Gulf Spill

HOUSTON – A federal judge in New Orleans approved on Thursday Transocean’s agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge and pay $400 million in criminal penalties for its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout that left 11 workers dead and resulted in a yearlong moratorium on deepwater drilling. The Switzerland-based owner and operator of the ill-fated Deepwater...

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DealBook: Societe Generale to Restructure After 4th-Quarter Loss

5:05 a.m. | Updated PARIS – Société Générale, one of the largest French banks, posted a larger fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday than the market had expected and said it would restructure to cut costs and simplify operations.The bank reported a net loss of 476 million euros ($640 million), compared with a profit of 100 million euros in the period a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected...

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DealBook: Nexen Secures U.S. Approval of Its Sale to Cnooc

Nexen said on Tuesday that it had received the last regulatory approval needed for its $15 billion sale to a major Chinese oil company, after the Obama administration declared the deal free from national security concerns.With all necessary regulatory approvals in place, Nexen is set to become the latest acquisition by the Chinese oil industry, as the country seeks more and more sources of oil and...

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Advertising: Self Magazine Widens Its Focus for a Younger Audience

WHAT’S the point of having Michelle Obama’s triceps if you can’t show them off in a smart sleeveless sheath? That seems to be the thinking behind a remake of Self magazine, the Condé Nast publication best known for teaching women how to crunch their abs, tone their thighs and eat the right foods. Self is broadening its tight focus on exercise and wellness to become a more general lifestyle...

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Israeli Says Syria Twisted Comments by Rebel Supporter

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A public relations controversy erupted Saturday after a leading Israeli newspaper published comments from a brief interview with the leader of Syria’s main exile opposition group. The news media outlets of the Syrian government, and its ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, reported that the opposition leader had declared that Israel had “nothing to fear” from a rebel-led...

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