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• Obama Said Not to Have Begun Search for Bernanke Replacement
  Amid speculation over who will succeed Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman, there are no signs that President Barack Obama has begun a formal search.
• Hatzius Says Fed Chairman Change Wouldn't Upend Policies
  The Federal Reserve won't make major policy changes regardless of who leads the central bank after Chairman Ben Bernanke's term ends in January, said Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s chief economist.
• Bernanke: Fed Likely to Reduce Stimulus Later This Year
  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the U.S. economy is expanding strongly enough for the central bank to begin slowing the pace of its bond-buying stimulus later this year.
• Home Depot Co-Founder Langone: Bernanke Is 'the Ultimate Lame Duck'
  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's words no longer carry the same weight as they did previously now that he is apparently on his way out, says billionaire investor Kenneth Langone.
• Mortgage Applications Tumble as Rates Rise Further
  Interest rates on home mortgages rose last week to hit their highest level in over a year, sapping demand from potential homeowners, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
• Berkshire Hires CNA's Fortin in Buffett's Business Insurer Push
  Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. hired Dan Fortin as senior vice president of the company's new commercial insurance unit.
• Britain: Reckless Bankers Could Face Jail
  Bankers who are reckless with customers' or taxpayers' money could face criminal charges and have bonuses and pensions clawed back, according to proposals backed by Britain's prime minister on Wednesday.
• UK Bankers Face Decade Bonus Delay and Criminal Sanctions
  Senior employees at U.K. banks may face a 10-year wait for bonuses under proposals put forward by a committee investigating the failures of the industry, which also recommended making "reckless" management of lenders a crime.
• World Bank: Fed Won't Make 'Short and Sharp' Policy Switch
  The World Bank is concerned about the spillover effects on developing countries of a slowing of U.S. money creation and will move to provide affordable capital when borrowing costs rise, its president said on Wednesday.
• Fortune: Equametrics Offers Automated Trading Platform to Main Street
  Automated trading is blamed for increasing stock market volatility and even creating "flash crashes." And now the startup firm Equametrics wants to provide automated trading — now used only by Wall Street traders — to the public, according to Fortune.
• WSJ: Euro Thrives Despite Economic Slowdown
  The protracted recession in Europe hasn't been enough to hold down the euro recently.
• Inflation at 53-Year Low Gives Fed Time to Press on With QE
  The lowest inflation since the brink of the Kennedy-era economic boom in the 1960s is buying time for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to press on with the central bank's $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.A gauge of consumer prices excluding food and energy that...
• Roubini: Fed Faces 'Treacherous' Path in Exiting its QE
  The Federal Reserve has a difficult balancing act to perform in pulling back from its massive easing program, say Nouriel Roubini, a New York University economist, and Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, a consulting firm.
• Libor Commission: British Banking Needs 'Radical' Overhaul
  Britain needs a "radical" overhaul of its scandal-hit banks, with reckless bankers facing jail and bonuses deferred for up to ten years, a government commission set up after the Libor scandal proposed in a final report on Wednesday.
• US Lawmakers, Businesses Demand Indian Trade Reforms
  A bipartisan group of more than 170 U.S. lawmakers joined with a coalition of U.S. business groups on Tuesday to demand increased U.S. pressure on India to change policies that they said threaten American exports, jobs and innovation.
• Fed: M&T Bank to Fix Anti-money Laundering Flaws
  M&T Bank Corp. will put a comprehensive plan in place to fix problems with its anti-money laundering policies that had caused regulators to put a hold on its $3.7 billion bid to buy Hudson City Bancorp.
• More Investors Hold Bullish US Bond Bets Before FOMC
  More investors raised their positions in longer-dated U.S. Treasurys holdings in the latest week in advance of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
• Pimco Cools on Covered Debt After Record Rally
  Europe's covered bond market is falling out of favor with Pacific Investment Management Co. after a record rally sent relative yields to a three-year low.
• FT's Harding: Bernanke Will Probably Indicate Tapering Wednesday
  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "is likely to signal" Wednesday that the Fed "is close to tapering down" its massive quantitative easing (QE) program, according to Robin Harding of the Financial Times.
• G-8 Summit Turns Focus to Tax-Dodging Clampdown
  Leaders from eight of the world's wealthiest countries spent the final hours of their summit Tuesday focusing how to make sure that multinational companies can no longer rely on shelters and loopholes to avoid paying the tax they owe.
• Swiss Lawmakers Reject Deal to End US Tax Spat
  Swiss lawmakers have rejected a government-backed banking bill meant to end a high-profile legal standoff with the United States over suspected American tax cheats.
• UK Fraud Office Charges Former UBS Trader in Libor Probe
  Britain's Serious Fraud Office has charged a former trader with conspiracy to defraud in the rigging of a benchmark interest rate.
• Obama: Bernanke Has Stayed at Fed 'Longer Than He Wanted'
  President Barack Obama said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has stayed in his post "longer than he wanted," one of the clearest signals the central bank chief will leave when his current term expires next year.
• Moody's Reviews Rhode Island for Possible Downgrade
  Rhode Island's credit rating was put on review for a possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service after lawmakers debated defaulting on $75 million in bonds used to lure a company started by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.
• S&P Downgrades Venezuela, Cites Political Turmoil
  Standard & Poor's downgraded Venezuela's sovereign foreign currency credit rating by one notch on Monday, citing political turmoil as an impediment to enacting meaningful reforms in order to stop a slide in economic activity.

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