Business this week

Pundits continued to ponder the communique issued by the members of the G20 at the end of their summit in London. The agreements main points include a promise of more money for the IMF, taking its funding to $750 billion; an increase in countries access to Special Drawing Rights, the IMFs synthetic currency; a promise to crack down on tax havens; and the establishment of a Financial Stability Board. The G20 members also committed themselves to supporting $250 billion-worth of new global-trade guarantees and gave assurances they would put a freeze on new protectionist measures. See article Ford announced that after a successful debt-for-equity swap programme it had reduced its outstanding automotive debt by $9.9 billion, from $25.8 billion at the end of last year. General Motors and Chrysler are negotiating with their lenders and bondholders to reduce their debt in order to avoid bankruptcy. ...