Media Navel Gaze: October 1, 2012
The Week Unpeeled
All political eyes in the US will be focused on the first of three presidential debates, starting Wednesday, with President Obama currently leading in three key states putting added pressure on Mitt Romney in what columnist Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend called a “hinge point in history,” especially for the Republican candidate.
Elsewhere:
- The Financial Services Authority announced an overhaul of the Libor interbank lending rate in an attempt to restore faith in the benchmark, which included the current governing body (British Bankers’ Association) giving up responsibility for what the Financial Times called the “broken” Libor;
- Spain and Greece outlined plans to reduce government spending and raise taxes to convince international lenders and financial markets they are on track to cut their deficits;
- The Dow ended September 2.6 percent higher and the quarter 4.3 percent higher to close Friday at 13,437, with Spain credit ratings weighing on the market despite the positive performance;
- Blackberry maker Research In Motion’s share price jumped nearly 18% after the company posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss of $235 million;
- Apple was forced to apologize over the fiasco surrounding its maps;
- The Huffington Post launched its Italian-language Web site, which featured an interview with Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy, who insisted that talk on his private life was “disinformation and defamation”; this marks the fifth version of the Web site with others besides the US in Canada, the UK, France and Spain;
- Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times for over 30 years, died; and
- Researchers revealed they are close to creating an anti-aging pill after identifying a protein responsible for the decline in muscle repair during aging.
