Search results for

Many US corporates will be breathing a sigh of relief after the announcement by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it will grant certain companies an extra 45 days to submit reports on their internal controls. At present companies are obliged to submit annual reports to the SEC within 75 days after the end of the fiscal year. Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley requires that these annual reports include a management assessment on internal controls over financial reporting, as well as the related auditor's report on the management's assessment.

It's that time of year all employees look forward to - the Christmas office party, a chance to let down your hair with fellow colleagues and drink and eat your employer out of business. But it is not only the bar bill your boss could be dreading.

Corporate bonds

Asian governments have been fighting a rearguard action to hold down their currencies. They have stopped external surpluses from fuelling domestic inflation. But they are at their limits.

www.breakingviews.com

GE is not just a big lender. Through its diverse manufacturing and service operations the group has also built up vast experience in business processes. So it was reckoned to make sense to offer consultancy to potential clients for free in the hope that their businesses would grow on the back of that advice and that they would then turn to GE to fund that expansion.

Dropping the First Boston name is the easy part of Credit Suisse's plan to refocus its investment banking strategy, a plan to be officially unveiled this month. It will be harder for the Swiss bank to figure what it wants CSFB to become. Some early indications about where CSFB might place its bets in response to external and internal pressures suggest it might be embarking on another arduous journey.

Top bankers' talking shop the Institute of International Finance and the G-20 group of sovereign borrowers have proudly unveiled a new set of principles for orderly restructuring of sovereign debt. The Argentina fiasco underscores the urgent need for such an agreement. Unfortunately, this one was negotiated without much input from the most important groups of creditors.

www.breakingviews.com

When readers of Physics World recently voted for their favourite equations, it was no surprise when Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetism theory, which established the link between magnetism and electricity, topped the poll. Maxwell's 1873 classic beat strong competition from the likes of Einstein's e=mc2, and Pythagoras's a2 + b2 = c2. But the poll also sounded a word of warning for investors. Schrödinger's equation (HY = EY), which finished fifth in the poll, was devised by Erwin Schrödinger in the 1920s to explain how sub-atomic particles like electrons behave. As such, Cambridge, UK-based company quantumBEAM decided to design its radical optical communications technology around Schrödinger's work.

Back to editorial

Mexico