The most significant news last week was AT&T asking its customers to download less data on their iPhones as its system is unable to cope with the traffic. This is just the beginning of Internet connectivity from cell phones.

Stocks and the dollar were up again, gold declined, oil dipped below 70, money continued to look for parking places and policy-makers continued to dither on reining in financial innovation and curbing carbon emissions.

The narrow margin (223 to 202) with which the US Congress cleared tightening of the finance industry says it is trying to get away with only ‘a new alarm system,’ though derivatives writers are talking of self-regulation and the Basel Committee too is working on relevant issues. Britain has slapped a one-time tax of 50% on bonuses and Angela Merkel called the idea charming.

Encouraging consumer spending and steadying consumer credit in US keep raising hopes but revenue, imports and trade deficit are declining. Obama keeps stressing the need to keep the stimulus going, and the resolve to keep interest rates near zero.

Despite a 25% drop in tax revenue and sharply lower exports, Japan has announced a fresh stimulus package of $80 bn to boost sales of energy efficient automobiles and to provide support to job seekers. GDP growth for July-Sep has been revised from 1.3 to 0.3% and equities are already quoting at 37 times earnings.

In Nov China’s industrial output leaped 19%, retail sales were up 16%, imports were up 27%, trade surplus narrowed to $19 bn, and Q3 GDP growth was almost 9%. Revenues of online gaming are expected to exceed $4 bn and sales of vehicles may exceed 13 mn units in 2009. Duty exemption has pushed Hong Kong wine imports 40% this year. Korean companies (Samsung, Hyundai and LG) are growing leaps and bounds on the back of a weak won.

New Zealand manufacturing was down 1.4% in Q3, and Greece is facing financial turbulence that may end up imitating Iceland, while Germany expects deficit to exceed 5% of GDP next year. Reserves of Nigeria and South Africa continue to rise and Bolivia is pregnant with expectations as lithium consumption is growing at a scorching 20% a year and may accelerate significantly after population of electric vehicles assumes a steady gait.

Russia, which routinely seeds clouds to get rains for drowning locusts and dissipates clouds with cement to ensure there are no rains on specific dates, has the world’s largest stock of carbon credits because its heavy industry collapsed a decade ago.

After the Swiss voted to ban construction of minarets and mosques, a survey last week said three of four Germans fear the spread of Islam and sketchy news reports suggest that the US has started deporting illegal migrants and radicals.

Obama tried to make his Nobel a low key affair by cancelling a number of engagements winners are normally expected to go through, including a lunch with the King, angering Norwegians in the process.

Australia is now receiving more migrants from China than Britain or New Zealand, and it has started cutting issuance of visas for skilled workers (read Chinese). US municipalities are being accused of supplying unsafe drinking water to their citizens, an honour hitherto reserved for developing countries only.

AOL (after demerging Time Warner) is trying to reposition itself as an online content and advertising company, like Google and Yahoo, while Facebook is trying to convince users it can protect their privacy, though one wonders why should anybody concerned about privacy go to Facebook at all. RIM has announced plans to push sales of Blackberry in China, in JV with Digital China of the Lenovo group, and a virtual IPR war seems to have broken out between Apple and Nokia, both of whom have accused each other of infringement of patents.

VW is buying 20% of Suzuki and Suzuki is buying 2.5% of VW; the two together produce more cars than Toyota – about 8 mn units. BMW is to build a new $732 mn facility in China for passenger cars. United Airlines has placed an order for 25 jets with Boeing and 25 with Airbus, for deliveries between 2016 and 2019.

Hitachi is trying to take a more focused approach by closing some of its 927 units and analysts believe the $3.9 bn it has raised may not be enough to take the exercise to fruition. Lafarge has raised over a billion dollars by selling 10-year notes, bringing the total borrowings this year close to $5 bn and total debt to $25 bn. STX of Korea is to build 200,000 homes in Ghana under a $10 bn project. SABIC is moving to expand petrochemicals output to 130 mn tons by 2020; its $3 bn JV with Sinopec of China is set to go on stream in Q1-2010.

Nine of the world’s ten largest selling basic drugs would lose patent protection over the next five years and the most affected among pharma giants, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers are hunting for new products to keep the show going. Wendy’s burger chain has decided to close all its 71 restaurants in Japan.

Kuwait Investment Authority has sold its entire stake in Citi for $4.1 bn while GIC of Singapore has sold half of its holdings; both have earned good profits. Goldman Sachs has decided to pay bonuses only in stock, and that too subject to satisfactory conduct for five years.

Britain’s closure of its UFO investigation unit was immediately followed by reports of UFOs having been seen in Norway and Russia last week. In Australia, a family has built a house on a turntable that enables the house to follow the Sun. In the US, women claiming to have had an affair with the world’s richest sportsman (Tiger Woods) keep surfacing with a sickening regularity and, surprisingly, successfully reducing his income from endorsements.

Moody’s says US and UK economies are ‘resilient.’

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