Things worth reading: 27th March 2009

There are loads of things we're reading today, so we need to place them in sections.

First, there's the big news that Barclays Bank has cleared the crisis according to the FSA, and needs no new capital whilst they trip up in the USA:

• Barclays gets green light from FSA (Telegraph)
• Barclays shares soar as FSA gives 'all clear'
  (Times)
• US banks pull out of $11bn Barclays tax avoidance partnerships (Guardian)
• Row grows in Brooklyn over Barclays' Nets deal (Independent)

Then there's a big investigation into AIG and the way Credit Default Swaps work:

• Subpoena on AIG to provide CDS details (Financial Times)
• Greenberg critical of AIG rescue tactics
  (Financial Times)
• Cuomo to expand inquiry into insurer AIG (Telegraph)

A few indications of more crisis impacts with the Norwegian pension fund losing $90 billion last year, the world's oldest bank Monte Paschi de Sienna getting into trouble, and IBM and Google laying off staff (Google, yes Google!): 

• Norway's global pension gamble (BBC)
• SFO investigates massive property fraud against banks (Independent)
• Monte Paschi Seeks €1.9 Billion of State Aid as Profit Drops (Bloomberg)
• IBM to cut 5,000 jobs in U.S. (Yahoo!)
• Google cuts 200 jobs (Telegraph)

Talking about Google, this article Google is Evil, Worse than PayPal: Don't use Google Checkout for your business (Slash7) does them no favours.  Take note that this is one of the web's most popular tech blogs and you can see why it's worth noting.

There's still a lot of anger about the banking system, with one London Professor talking about hanging bankers from lamp-posts:

• 'Hanging bankers' prof is suspended (Press Association)
• The Dirty Dozen: Meet the bankers and brokers responsible for the financial crisis (Rolling Stone)
• Darling warns banks to reform for good (Independent)
• Banks must work hard to regain trust, says Alistair Darling (Times)
• 'Blue-eyed bankers' to blame for crash, Lula tells Brown
  (Guardian)
• G20 Summit: Tens of thousands of protesters expected to rally in London (Telegraph)

This all builds on the fact that US bank chiefs to meet with President Obama (Telegraph) today as well.

Finally, 5 Items you owned (that would bore today’s youth) from Regretful Morning just cheered me up.