News Links: European industry shrinks, Unicredit prepares rights issue, Buffett shuns euro banks

The region’s woes intensified as official Eurostat figures showed industrial production fell 2pc, more than reversing a 1.4pc increase in August. Portugal and Italy saw a particularly steep fall in output, at 5.8pc and 4.8pc respectively. Production fell by 2.9pc in Germany and 1.9pc in France.

(Reuters) – Profits at Italian bank UniCredit have all but evaporated and capital has shrunk to dangerous levels, results due on Monday will show as the bank prepares a $10 billion rights issue and 5,000 job cuts to get back on track.

(Reuters) – Warren Buffett said his Berkshire Hathaway Inc has accumulated a 5.5 percent stake in IBM, the billionaire investor’s biggest bet in the technology field he has historically shunned.

U.S. companies are buying back the most stock in four years, taking advantage of record-high cash levels and low interest rates to purchase equities at valuations 15 percent cheaper than when the credit crisis began.

Bank of America’s is selling most of its remaining stake in China Construction Bank, and the move will result in a much-smaller gain than the sale in August. Then, Bank of America announced it would sell half of its 10% stake in CCB and log $3.3 billion of after-tax gains (it was reported at $3.6B pre-tax in Bank of America’s third-quarter release last month).

Portugal’s gross domestic product fell 0.4 per cent in the third quarter from the second, data showed today, as the country’s recession deepened under the weight of sweeping austerity. The National Statistics Institute’s (INE) flash GDP estimate showed a decline of 1.7 per cent year-on-year, with consumption and investment slumping.

Argentina’s central bank cut dollar reserve requirements after bank deposits plunged $645 million last week following the government’s moves to restrict foreign exchange purchases in South America’s second-biggest economy.

Der nächste Kurswechsel bitte: Auf ihrem Parteitag will die CDU einem allgemeinen Mindestlohn den Weg ebnen. Im Interview mit SPIEGEL ONLINE lobt Arbeitsministerin von der Leyen den Last-Minute-Kompromiss im Streit um die Lohnuntergrenze und drängt die widerspenstige FDP zum Umdenken.

(Reuters) – None of the world’s major economies will escape a slowdown, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Monday, highlighting increasing signs that growth momentum is dwindling across the board.

So…because the Fed is providing funding at negative real interest rates, banks no longer value deposits and float as much as they used to. The contention is that banks are now having trouble making the supposed $200 to $300 a month they need per checking account

Wohin steuert die deutsche Wirtschaft? Noch trotzt sie den globalen Problemen – doch nach Informationen der "Süddeutschen Zeitung" sind die Prognosen im Gutachten des Sachverständigenrats schlecht. Das Wachstum sinkt demach auf 0,9 Prozent. Die Politik ist alarmiert.

For whatever the reason, what Amazon has delivered is a device that is intimately familiar yet mysterious — a simple, minimalistic exterior design hiding a flashy, seemingly quite trick customization that’s sitting atop a decidedly ho-hum Android Gingerbread build. Our questions leading up to this review were many: How will it handle sideloading? Are the battery life and performance better than the PlayBook? Can a tablet that costs two hundred bucks stand a chance against those that cost two and three times as much? C’mon baby, click on through to find out.

This is an edited transcript of an interview between Jens Weidmann, Bundesbank president, and Ralph Atkins and Martin Sandbu of the Financial times conducted on November 10 in Frankfurt.

(Reuters) – Japan’s economy grew 1.5 percent in July-September from the previous quarter following three quarters of contraction as exports and consumption rebounded from a slump caused by the March earthquake, government data showed on Monday.

(CNN) — Pennsylvania needs to change its law in the wake of a scandal over alleged child sexual abuse by a then-member of Penn State’s football coaching team, the governor said Sunday.

Weidmann is incorrect. It’s not a crisis that’s just about unique situations in various European countries. It’s a Europe problem, and more great evidence of this comes from this awesome chart from Naufall Sanaullah’s latest economic overview showing the difference in Italian-German industrial production pre-and-post Euro. As you can see, the two countries grew mostly in line in the years up until they fixed the exchange rate. It was after the exchange rate got fixed, and the Italians no longer had the power of competitive devaluation that the gap started to emerge — pretty soon after, really.

Of course, whether someone is an "enemy combatant" and has "engaged in war against the United States" is exactly what is in question in these controversies. But, critically, this mindset – that the President has the power to secretly and unilaterally decree you guilty of being an Enemy Combatant and then take whatever steps he wants against you (warrantless eavesdropping, indefinite detention, consignment to Guantanamo, execution) – was until very recently the hallmark, the defining crux, of right-wing Bush/Cheney radicalism. That’s why Newt Gingrich – Newt Gingrich – defends Obama’s actions by claiming with a straight face that Awlaki was "found guilty" – meaning "found guilty" by a secret White House committee and thus "has none of the civil liberties of the United States."

The drama began in Greece. Where is it going to end?

Mario Monti looks poised to become the new Italian prime minister. In sharp contrast to what happened in the last days of Silvio Berlusconi, there will be a strong political desire in Berlin, Paris and Frankfurt to help him stabilise the Italian crisis, and the markets may bounce on this mood. However, the eventual outcome will be determined not by personal relationships at the top of politics, but by economic fundamentals and by the way in which they interact with much wider political forces. On these grounds, Mr Monti’s Italian job looks to be facing daunting odds. There are three key factors which will determine the eventual outcome

(Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking to speed up reform of the European Union treaty and wants all 27 EU member states to give their approval by the end of 2012, government sources said on Sunday.

An examination of the Dade deal shows the unintended human costs and messy financial consequences behind the brand of capitalism that Mr. Romney practiced for 15 years.

Europe’s €1 trillion (£854bn) rescue fund has been forced to buy its own debt as outside investors become increasingly concerned about the worsening eurozone sovereign debt crisis.