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The United Kingdom is helping to champion its oil. British Prime Minister David Cameron and his finance minister George Osborne reiterated the importance of BP for English and American economies Friday. The group is under fire from critics across the Atlantic for his management of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to a spokesman for the Prime Minister, David Cameron, "said he was in everyone's interest that BP remains a financially strong and stable". Nearly 40% of shareholders are British-including 25% of pension funds, and 40% are also Americans. The support of London has boosted the share price BP, whose market capitalization has lost several billion dollars since the explosion of the platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The title BP ended the session Friday up 7.2% in London, and 3.63% in New York.

Less good news for shareholders, BP has decided to suspend the payment of dividends, the Times of London. "The board of directors met Monday to approve the temporary deferral of payment of dividends," writes the British daily. BP has not confirmed the information, but the Chief Executive, Tony Hayward, told the Wall Street Journal that he was considering not paying dividends.

David Cameron is to hold talks on the phone with Barack Obama on Saturday 17h. The exchange promises to be tense: the two leaders must stand firm against their public opinion. The first to defend a large national group, the second to refute accusations of inaction.

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From 1 July 2010 will require some additional documents to send a letter. The price of the stamp of the priority letter weighing less than 20 grams will increase from 0.56 to 0.58 euro, an increase of 3.5%. The economic costs will also increase by two cents to 0.53 euros.

This is the sixth increase in eight years. The price of the stamp for a letter of less than 20 grams had already earned a penny last year. But Post said she "is in the average tariffs in Europe even though the universal service commitments of the post office and geographic constraints are higher in France" instant payday loan.

"The rising price of stamps will have a minimal impact on the household budget, or approximately 0.10 ? per month per household," the statement said.In addition, The Post said they considered the economic situation by adjusting charges for companies depending on their situation: there will be no change for major mailers and the increase will be 0.6% Small and medium enterprises.

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A denied "categorically". Fabrice Tourre, a trader at the heart of the case heard Goldman Sachs on Tuesday by U.S. lawmakers, denies all charges against him and issued against the bank by the SEC, the U.S. financial policeman. In his written testimony, he denied the charge of the market authority that it did not inform investors of the nature of complex financial product he had created, the Abacus AC-07 1. He also denied the fact of not having told investors that Goldman Sachs had authorized the manager hedge fund Paulson & Co in selecting portfolio securities included in the Abacus betting on depreciation.The SEC alleges including Paulson & Co have put in the pocket more than one billion dollars in capital gains through the operation, almost the total amount of losses incurred by investors who bid on Abacus.

Fabrice Tourre himself "surprised" and said he never told the ACA, the media company that acted as an agent of selection underlying portfolio of 07 Abacus AC-1, that Paulson & Co take share or buying a long position in the Abacus. "I do not remember the exact words I used at that time," admits Fabrice Tourre but he claims to have suggested to the ACA, Paulson could be involved in the transaction without being an investor. "If the ACA was not insured on this point, she had every opportunity to clarify the subject."

"We lost money too"

Fabrice Tourre said he never intended to mislead "two of its two major customers, the ACA and the German bank IKB No checking account payday advance. "When Goldman Sachs told investors that ACA had selected the titles referenced in Abacus, this statement was absolutely correct," said Fabrice Tourre.

Contrary to qu'assurent members of the Subcommittee investigation ongoing U.S. Senate, the transaction Abacus, "was not designed to fail". He said Goldman Sachs had no economic interest in seeing it fail. "We lost money too," says he, advancing "an amount exceeding 100 million dollars."

A polluted river

In his testimony, Fabrice Tourre appreciates being able to defend itself against these "false accusations". "These past weeks have been difficult for me and my family. I have been the subject of unfounded attacks on my motives, "he says.

Things get tough for him, as for the other leaders agreed Tuesday. In opening the hearing, Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the subcommittee, did not mince his words regarding the Goldman Sachs "who took advantage of the collapse. "As the polluters who put the poison into a river, they have integrated the risky products in our financial system and polluted," he acknowledges. He does not forget to pass the role of credit ratings agencies "who with their triple A have to believe that the water was drinkable.

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Credit Suisse said Thursday that its chief executive Brady Dougan had received 19.2 million Swiss francs (13 million euros) in cash and stock for the year 2009, making it one of the leaders the more lucrative banking sector.

This high level of pay, despite the profits generated by the bank in 2009 and its recent efforts to make its system more transparent compensation, likely to raise criticism from shareholder activists and political parties in Switzerland, where the Parliament debate new wage rules including the introduction of a ceiling on salaries.

In detail, the head of the Swiss bank has received a base salary of 1.3 million Swiss francs and a bonus of 17.9 million.

Huge side of France

"Such compensation for the CEO of Credit Suisse seems huge in terms of what affect the patterns of French banks," says Cyril Bellanger, at Proxinvest. At Societe Generale, Frederic Oud?a received 1.11 million euros of fixed and variable."He had no options or free shares," says analyst research firm specializing in executive compensation.

At BNP Paribas, Baudouin Prot has received 950,000 euros of fixed and 1.4 million bonus. The bank emerged in 2009 a net profit of 5.8 billion euros (+93%), third in the ranking of the best banking performance in 2009, after Barclays and Santander.

Other DGs have refused their bonuses

In Britain, the CEO of Barclays John Varley declined – as in 2008 – to receive his bonus for Payday Loan Bad Credit . The British bank posted a profit doubled to 10.4 billion pounds over the past year, crushing all its European competitors.The institution intends to distribute 1.5 billion in cash bonuses.

Same attitude towards Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh: Stephen Hester has waived his bonus. The Scottish bank posted a net loss after minority interests of 3.6 billion pounds, about 4.1 billion euros, against a loss of 24.3 billion the previous year.

Back in Switzerland, the CEO of the first institution in Switzerland, UBS, Oswald Gr?bel has waived its variable pay and decided to reduce his base salary of 2 million Swiss francs to 850,000 francs (583,000 euros).It is the responsibility of the Investment Banking Division which was the better off for the year 2009 with a premium of 12.5 million Swiss francs, or 8.6 million.

In late January, in a context where wages are banking scandal in the United States and despite a profit of nearly $ 5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, Goldman Sachs has decided to limit the pay of the hundred top leaders based the United Kingdom, one million pounds (1.13 million euros).

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The studio, based in New York could provide between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion dollars for the recovery of the mythical MetroGoldwynMayer (MGM), as disclosed by the British newspaper Financial Times.

MGM has put up for sale last year, following its inability to pay its bills. She had received several proposals, three were still in contention at the end of last week. The company, which had initially hoped to sell two billion dollars, must be examined this week, not totally exclude the possibility of remaining independent fast cash loans .

The Hollywood studio has contracted a debt of 3.7 billion dollars five years ago, and he suffered falling DVD sales that affects the entire industry.His library of 4,100 films is yet to dream all his competitors.

MGM owns the rights to include the James Bond series, including those who are running. Time Warner owns the news channel CNN and Time Magazine.

Palm is now survive. Friday, the opening of the NYSE, the action of the cellphone maker lost nearly 30%, to $ 4, after the publication of quarterly results disastrous. Since the beginning of the year, diving for more than 50%, completely erasing the gains made in 2009, after the presentation of the Palm Pre, who was to sign the renewal of the brand.

Between December and February, Palm has accumulated cons-performance. Its losses have almost doubled to 22 million dollars and his phones were sold poorly. Although Palm has shipped to retailers smartphones 960,000, almost four times more than a year earlier, but customers still bought 408,000. Result, operators found themselves with huge inventories, and decided to cut off their supplies.Revenues from Palm on the current quarter would be only 150 million dollars, two times less than expected by the market.

Palm is the scenario. "These problems are not going to accelerate the doubts providers and operators" on the future of the brand, wrote Friday morning Peter Misek, analyst at Canaccord Adams, which sets a target price to zero dollars. The operators have observed that, in their shops, customers are more eager to iPhone, Google Android phones and BlackBerry.Under these conditions, application developers are less interested in phones from Palm, which makes them less attractive.

Palm would have to "consider options more extreme"

"We see no quick solution to the challenges facing it: the risk of intensifying competition, and Palm's response seems inadequate," warned Friday Vivek Arya, an analyst at Bank of America / Merrill Lynch. "Palm has at most two or three quarters to take before having to consider more extreme options," she thought. Frontline is the idea of redemption. The names of Nokia, Dell, Hewlett-Packard or even Google, which embarked on the sale of its mobile phones with the Nexus One are among the most frequently mentioned.

Palm remains in effect a few gems. The operating system that runs its phones, webOS, has received very favorable reviews.His team, led by former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, are recognized for their quality. Furthermore, Palm has an interesting patent portfolio in mobile telephony, while the litigation in this area are increasing. "Obviously, if there is a reasonable proposal, our board of directors must consider," admitted CEO of Palm, while refusing to speculate on a purchase.

While acknowledging a "underperformance very disappointing," Jon Rubinstein holds that "Palm's potential remains strong." "The work we do to improve sales has an impact, we are making great progress on future products, and we prepare to launch new operators with new partners," he said, announcing a new campaign.In 2009, the market share of smartphones in webOS however, was only 0.7%, according to latest figures from Gartner, against 3.9% for Android, 14.4% for the iPhone and 46% for Symbian.

This Monday is the new fall. Employees of the Total refinery in Dunkirk will know their fate at the end of the meeting of the Central Works Council (CEC) this morning. Around the table, unions and management must discuss the "evolution of the situation sites in France refining" and "information / consultation on the proposed changes to the establishment of Flanders. The meeting, originally scheduled for February 1 was the first time extended to 29 March and, given the controversy and pressure from the government, advanced to March 8.

The proposed closure of the Dunkirk refinery is the source of the national strike in late February that poses the threat of a shortage of fuel. The refinery has 370 direct employees and 400 to 450 employees subcontractors.

Total pledged to each employee in the establishment of Flanders' work at Total matching skills.Another promise: "no closure or sale" of French refineries will happen within five years.

"We are under no illusions about the future of the cracker, which produces gasoline, but we want to keep refining crude oil is still profitable," said Philippe Wullens Delegate South Majority on the site. "If we make the observation that the commitments made by Total and the government during the movement are not met, then restart the strike, the CGT threat.

Substitution project

Before the start of the meeting, Total has confirmed its participation in the construction of an LNG terminal by EDF in the port of Dunkirk. The agreement provides for "an equity Total capital 'of society, Dunkerque LNG, a subsidiary of EDF responsible for the construction of this terminal will terminal.Ce regasification capacity of between 10 and 13 billion cubic meters per year.The decision regarding its actual construction will be taken before the summer and could be put into service in 2014. It remains "conditioned on obtaining all regulatory approvals and the completion of commercial procedures and tenders for construction."

This project would mobilize up to 1,200 people during construction "and could generate" at least fifty direct jobs, which should add about 150 jobs indirectly "in the operating phase out the two groups. The Industry Minister Christian Estrosi had rightly warned that the Dunkirk refinery would reopen if there was "no real alternative project" to maintaining employment.

But this news should not necessarily good news for employees. The CGT and Sud believe that this project is too distant and "inadequate" to compensate for job losses.Today at 12 hours, the employees of Dunkirk a protest in front of the seats in Total Defense.

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"VIDEO – Estrosi advocated" industrial patriotism "in France

Atmosphere tense in this weekend at the Porte de Versailles in Paris. While Friday is usually translated by a certain relaxation in the aisles of the Salon of Agriculture after the parade policies during the week this year, the reverse occurs. The farming community was mobilized for the coming of the President of the Republic. Unable to come Saturday for the opening, a gesture understood by many farmers, Nicolas Sarkozy came close this morning 47th. All responsible booths are still there to be present during the presidential transition. It should arrive Saturday around 9 hours for a quick round half past one in the aisles of Hall 1, the animals, and those of Hall 2. That housing actors in crop production.He must then lead a roundtable with all unions representing farm: FNSEA in mind, the Coordination Rurale and the Confederation Paysanne (Conf '). On this occasion the Head of State who will not come empty handed must disclose his actions to inflate morale. This is the lowest after declining average farm income of one third in 2009, following a decrease of 20% a year ago. "The head of state is expected to announce additional measures in terms of emergency support to agriculture last fall, the Figaro says a union official. This could result in an extension of almost 500 million euros for loans subsidized about 1.5 billion euros and also relaxation of agri-environmental measures, "he says. A meeting should end around noon. One thing seems certain already.The atmosphere should not be that of the previous day, when Jacques Chirac, still as passionate about agriculture, was cheered by the audience after a visit of 3 hours.

As for attendance – for the common man the show remains open as usual until Sunday evening – Organizers are hoping now over 20 000 visitors less. "But this should remain a good year this year we will exceed the 600,000 visitors mark, says Juana Moreno, Director General of the International Exhibition of Agriculture. But we will only probably not the 670,000 visitors last year at the current rate of admissions. " Three major explanations for this. The storm last Sunday slowed the enthusiasm of the visitors that they are provincial or Parisian.Moreover, events like the milk of the Apli (Association of Milk Producers independent) or Conf 'have also dampened the enthusiasm of visitors. Finally the prospect of a presidential visit in a tense atmosphere does not help for parents with small children. Still, the pride of exhibitors is still there and read on their faces passionate.

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The 3rd barometer CSA conducted jointly Halde and the International Labor Organization points a significant increase in workplace discrimination, within the company as a public service. In the private sector, they were 36% to consider themselves victims of such practices in December 2009 against 28% last March, and 25% in January 2008.

Ditto among the officers of the Public Service. Even if the discrimination is less strongly felt: 26% felt it reached in December 2009, against only 22% in March.Among employees who are not victims of discrimination, they are 29% in the private and the public, fear of suffering consequences one day!

Ethnicity top of discriminating factors

Among the discriminating factors cited by the victims, all professional situations together, are high on ethnicity (cited by 32% of private employees) and motherhood (31% of employees in the private and public officials) Same day payday loans . Age is also cited by 30% of private sector employees and the physical appearance by 28% (multiple answers were possible). Ethnicity happens however much in mind as trigger by witnesses of discrimination (38%), before motherhood (33%).

If the company management is most often due to private sector employees, victims of discrimination, in general, are silent on their fate in business. 40% of them claim to have in effect said nothing when 50% of victims by public officers have spoken with their management or their supervisor. For more than half of those who are silent, signaling the injustice they have suffered would not have changed.