Goldman Sachs, the great vampire squid* of international finance, has been duped and lied to by the Bank of Portugal.
When Banco Espírito Santo was divided into ‘good bank, bad bank’ by the Bank of Portugal, Goldman Sachs was assured that the €584.3 million it had just spent on financing BES via Oak Finance in Luxembourg would end up safely with Novo Banco, not in the twisted wreckage of BES.
Despite being the fifth largest tourist destination in the world, Italian museums combined do not generate as much profit as just the restaurant in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Italy has turned to the private sector to increase the profitability of its museums, including the Uffizi in Florence and the Borghese in Rome, and make them more resemble other great museums in the world.
As many as one million supporters of the Conservative party have received a direct message from David Cameron.
The initiative is part of an internet campaign by the party to get expats to register to vote.
Oceanational Motor, SA owned by the former Formula 1 driver Tiago Monteiro (pictured) and the businessman José Guedes have filed a lawsuit against the Portuguese Government, demanding compensation of a minimum of €9.4 million for material and non-material damages.
At issue is the failure of the financial support agreement between Oceanational and the José Sócrates’ government for €6 million. The current government says it is nothing to do with them as there is no contract.
At least 2,300 migrants were rescued off the coast of Italy over the two days of Christmas.
The Italian navy had to launch several rescue operations late on Christmas Day, mostly to assist boats adrift in the sea off Sicily.
The Prime Minister announced that that this will be the first Christmas for many years that Portugal has an open horizon ahead, without an accumulation of dark clouds; but warns that it is important to protect what has been achieved with our sacrifices.
Forgetting his three previous Christmas speeches promising that the recovery will happen ‘next year,’ Pedro Passos Coelho filled his Christmas message with cheerful optimism, but did slip in xenophobic warnings of dark external forces at play as in 2015 there are "a number of uncertainties in the external sphere, particularly in the eurozone and Eastern Europe."
Monchique council has approved the idea by mayor Rui André to give financial support to those young people who wish to move to the Monchique area.
Any qualifying young singletons or couples can apply for council finance to help them in buying, reconstructing, maintaining, expanding, improving or rescuing property that is to become their main home.
According to a statement from Santander Totta, the bank led by Vieira Monteiro, 'taking into account the terms of reference related to the disposal of Novo Banco SA, Santander has decided to enter the first phase of the procedure, the delivery of an expression of interest.'
This 'expression of interest' is the first formal step and from now until December 31st, interested parties need to register so as to have access to detailed information about Novo Banco's finances to decide whether to make a formal bid.
