- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced that the government would be nationalizing the country’s leading oil company, YPF. The move expropriates the Spanish-based Repsol’s majority stake in YPF and reasserts state control over the once state-owned company. The announcement increased tensions with Spain and the European Union and sent new signals about the country’s policies to foreign investors, particularly those interested in the significant shale oil resources discovered in Argentina last year. Spain has threatened to retaliate and Repsol said that it would challenge the act in international courts.
- A retired former cyber-sleuth for the FBI said that there are at least half a dozen countries with offensive cyber-capabilities that are probing U.S. corporate and military computers systems. These foreign adversaries have shown that they are capable of stealing sensitive information and, according to the FBI Director, Robert Mueller, the threats may eclipse terrorism as the top menace to the United States as the costs of cyber-espionage increase.
- On the heals of an announcement by the Chinese government that it would loosen restrictions on yuan trading, the City of London launched an initiative to become a competitive offshore yuan trading center. The city, which is already the world’s biggest currency-trading center, is collaborating with five leading banks as well as the U.K. Treasury, the Bank of England, and the Financial Services Authority to compete against other financial capitals to capture the growing demand for yuan trading.
- After a three year delay, Cambodia started trading on its new stock exchange with sale of shares in a local water company. The birth of the Cambodian securities market marked a significant step in its path of growth and modernization. Brokers and investors are encouraged by the move towards transparency in state enterprises, but some investors remain concerned about the country’s corruption, unclear regulatory framework and use of local currency for trading on the exchange.
April 19th, 2012 | 
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Posted in REWIND
I was wondering who would write about Argentina’s nationalization of YPE. Nice work Grace. Thanks, bob