Some of the more interesting and important items for December 7th :
- U.S. Ends Citigroup Investment With $10.5 Billion Stake Sale – Bloomberg – The U.S. Treasury Department sold its remaining stock in Citigroup Inc. for $10.5 billion, bringing the country’s third-biggest bank a step closer to independence from the government following a $45 billion bailout in 2008.
- New Bank Stress Tests Planned for February – WSJ.com – The new pan-European Union banking regulator will begin a new round of bank stress tests in February, the EU's economics commissioner said Tuesday.<br />
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The fresh tests will be part of a broader drive for stricter monitoring of European financial institutions by the recently created European Banking Authority. - Swiss supporters: WikiLeaks server goes down – Yahoo! Finance – WikiLeaks's main server in France has gone offline, preventing many users from accessing the U.S. State Department cables and other documents the site has posted online, a group of Swiss supporters said Sunday.
- Branson Says Oil May Hit $200 a Barrel Without New Clean-Energy Policies – Bloomberg – Oil prices may soar to $200 a barrel if the world doesn’t move more rapidly to a clean-energy economy, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., said in an interview.
- EU’s Bailout Fund May Be Increased, Reynders Says in a Break With Merkel – Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said the euro region could increase the size of its 750 billion-euro ($1 trillion) bailout fund, breaking ranks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy .
