June 27th, 2010 at 05:35am
Under Economy Report
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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Officials in Washington recently lost a ruling over their power to enforce competition on the Internet. Now the Federal Communications Commission has a new plan.
The F.C.C. currently defines high-speed Internet as an information service. As such, its powers to set rules for broadband service have never been clearly recognized. But telephone service is a recognized area for the agency to regulate. So the F.C.C. proposes to redefine broadband as a telecommunications service.
Congress could give the agency clearer powers over broadband. But F.C.C. Chairman Julius Genachowski calls his plan “a third way.”
He says the commission would act narrowly and enforce only parts of existing law. He says the government is not regulating the Internet. The changes are meant to support net neutrality — the idea that all Web traffic should be treated equally.
Last month’s ruling by a federal appeals court involved Internet service provider Comcast. The judges ruled that the F.C.C. had no legal basis for an effort to keep Comcast from limiting access to some services over its network. The company said file-sharing users were slowing its traffic.
Broadband providers say regulating them would hurt investment. Verizon Communications called the chairman’s plan “legally unsupported.”
As it happens, the plan was announced on May sixth — the same day as the “flash crash” on American stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly suffered a severe drop.
On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced new “circuit breakers” to support orderly trading. The plan involves the Standard and Poor’s list of five hundred stocks. Stock exchanges have agreed to temporarily halt trading of any stock that rises or falls ten percent or more within five minutes. The rules will be re-examined in six months and could be expanded.
And, in another development, the Senate voted Thursday to permit final debate and a vote on a financial reform bill. The House of Representatives has passed its own bill already. The House and Senate versions will need to be combined into final legislation for President Obama to sign into law.
The proposed changes in financial rules are the most extensive since the nineteen thirties. The president says the aim is not to punish banks but to protect the larger economy and the American people.
And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember.
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October 27th, 2009 at 02:44pm
Under Economy Report
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Bad loans could mean trouble for western European lenders. Hungary’s prime minister is calling for $230 billion in aid for weaker E.U. members. Transcript of radio broadcast:
05 March 2009 |
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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Leaders of the European Union met Sunday in Brussels to discuss measures to deal with the world financial crisis. But the emergency meeting showed growing divisions between western European countries and newer members of the European Union.
Economies in central and eastern Europe have been hit hard by the worldwide credit crisis and less demand for exports in western Europe.
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| Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, left, and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek at the E.U. meeting in Belgium |
Hungary’s prime minister, Ferenc Gyurscany, has called for two hundred thirty billion dollars in aid for the weakest of the twenty-seven members of the European Union. The leader of Europe’s biggest economy, however, opposes such a large plan. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested targeted aid for a few countries instead.
The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have already lent Hungary twenty-five billion dollars. Latvia received more than nine billion from the I.M.F. in December. But demonstrations fueled by the economic crisis led the Latvian government to resign last month.
The World Bank and two European development banks agreed last week to provide up to thirty-one billion dollars in aid to central and eastern Europe. A main concern is that the failure of some banks or governments to pay their debts could send a financial shock across many countries.
The effects could reach beyond central and eastern Europe. Banks in Austria, Italy and Sweden that expanded into the area during good times are now in danger of heavy losses.
Even in countries outside the euro area, like Hungary and Poland, businesses and individuals often borrowed in euros. Lower interest rates made euro loans a good deal at the time. Now, those loans have become more costly as local currencies have lost value. Chances are greater that foreign currency loans in some countries will not be paid back.
But some of the central and eastern economies in the European Union are in relatively good health. Poland is the biggest and its economy is less dependent on exports. The Czech Republic is also considered in a better position. The Czechs currently hold the E.U. presidency.
On Wednesday, banking supervisors from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary released a statement. They expressed concerns that information about risks to financial systems in central and eastern Europe is “often simplified and misleading.”
And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember.
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