U.S. Bonds Refuge Amid Uncertainty, Rosenberg Says Play May 25 (Bloomberg) -- David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., talks about the outlook for the global markets and investment strategy. He speaks with Erik Schatzker and Sara Eisen on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg) Continue reading →

ROME | Fri May 25, 2012 10:24am EDT ROME (Reuters) - One of the young women who attended Silvio Berlusconi's "bunga bunga" parties told a court on Friday that she dressed up as a burlesque version of U.S. President Barack Obama to entertain the former Italian prime minister. In testimony during a trial against the 75-year-old Berlusconi on charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute, Marysthell Polanco said she had also dressed as prosecutor Ilda Boccassini.Boccassini, known as "Ilda the Red" because of her hair color and what Berlusconi says is her communist political sympathies, is one of the prosecutors in the ongoing trial."I dressed up as Boccassini with a toga to make him laugh, and also as Obama," Polanco told the court.Polanco, ... Continue reading →

China Banks May Miss Loan Target for 2012, Officials Say By Bloomberg News - 2012-05-24T16:01:00Z China’s biggest banks may fall short of loan targets for the first time in at least seven years as an economic slowdown crimps demand for credit, three bank officials with knowledge of the matter said. A decline in lending in April and May means it’s likely the banks’ total new loans for 2012 will be about 7 trillion yuan ($1.1 billion), less than the government goal of 8 trillion yuan to 8.5 trillion yuan, said one of the officials, declining to be identified because the person isn’t authorized to speak publicly. Banks are relying on small- and mid-sized companies for loan growth after demand from the biggest state-owned borrowers dropped, ... Continue reading →

Bloomberg Businessweek is all about the crisis in Europe this week and the cover sums it up in just three words. Bang. Head. Here. It might not be the most inventive cover Richard Turley has created — like this, or this, or this — but there's something about it that caught our eye (h/t @DKThomp). Maybe it's the fact that it's clean, not so tongue-in-cheek, and gauges sentiment of the crisis pretty perfectly. Continue reading →