06.13.09

Geithner: Too early for move toward policy restraint

Posted in .com, All, Free blog Tips, news, shortly tagged , , , , at 2:12 pm by carydalton

LECCE, Italy (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Saturday it was too early to start withdrawing stimulus for the world's top economies, but governments should start to outline plans for future fiscal sustainability.

"Growth should remain the principal focus of policy among the G8 and broader G20 economies," Geithner said in a statement issued after finance ministers from the Group of Eight economies finished a meeting here.

He said governments need to continue to reinforce recent improvements in global demand and lay a foundation for a "durable recovery."

"It is too early to shift toward policy restraint," Geithner said. "Economic and financial recovery, however, will be stronger and more sustainable if we make clear today how we get back to fiscal sustainability when the storm has fully passed."

For that reason, he said the United States was committed to bringing down its fiscal deficits quickly to a sustainable level, starting in 2011, and would work to reduce long-term health care costs that are adding to deficits.

"Our programs to repair the credit markets and the financial system are designed to be temporary and quickly reversible," he said.

Geithner said the global economy was at a time of transition, as the rate of gross domestic product decline in major economies has slowed, while growth was accelerating in some emerging economies like China and global trade was showing some signs of life.

"The force of the economic storm is receding. There are encouraging signs of stabilization across many economies," added.

(Reporting by David Lawder; editing by Patrick Graham)

Geithner: Too early for move toward policy restraint

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Rambus to Settle Chip Inquiry in Europe

Posted in Free blog Tips, business, hot news, news, world of money tagged , , , , at 12:17 am by carydalton

BRUSSELS (AP) — The memory chip company Rambus and antitrust regulators in Europe said on Friday that they had tentatively agreed that the European Union would drop its investigation and any fines if the company reduced its royalty rates for DRAM memory chip patents.

The European Commission charged Rambus with monopoly abuse in 2007, accusing the company of setting “unreasonable” royalties for DRAM patents fraudulently set as industry standards.

Any company that wants to make DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, has to pay Rambus for the design it developed. The chips are used in personal computers, servers, printers, personal digital assistants and cameras. Worldwide DRAM sales were $34 billion last year.

Rambus said Friday that it would cap the fees it charged for licenses over five years for certain memory types and memory controllers. The European Union said Rambus also promised that any future fee cuts would benefit the entire market.

The European Union must check with other industry players that this satisfies antitrust concerns before the deal can be completed.

Rambus said last month that the Federal Trade Commission had dropped a similar inquiry.

Chip manufacturers claimed that Rambus was seeking royalties in the early 1990s even as it took part in industrywide talks that set standards for chips that were to be made mandatory — giving the company a monopoly over crucial technology patents.

The company, based in Los Altos, Calif., has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Rambus was cleared of these claims last year by a federal court that dismissed legal action by the chip makers Micron Technology, Hynix Semiconductor and Nanya Technology.

Rambus to Settle Chip Inquiry in Europe

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