Arnaud Montebourg, 49, was appointed minister of Adjustment Wednesday productive, a role he had foreshadowed a "tour de France plant" made in the name of Francois Hollande during the presidential campaign. It will be flanked by two junior ministers, Fleur Pellerin (SMEs, Innovation and Digital Economy) and Sylvia Pinel (Crafts, Trade and Tourism).

Born October 30, 1962 at Clamecy (Nièvre), that great admirer of Gambetta, son of a butcher and a professor in the Algerian origins, became known as a leading lawyer in battle against Alain Juppé in the case of his apartment the City of Paris in 1995.

Activist of the PS since 1981, elected deputy of Saone-et-Loire in 1997, this speaker is trying to clear facilities in vain, in 2001, full cohabitation, Jacques Chirac to appear before the High Court.

With Vincent Peillon, the fiery MP founded the New Socialist Party (NPS). Their current gets nearly 17% of the votes in Congress in Dijon in 2003, with a slogan: the Sixth Republic, and more power to Parliament.

Voting "no" to the European Constitution in 2005, it is close to Ségolène Royal, it hosts in September 2006 in the "Feast of the Rose" in his constituency.

Gala magazine publishes a portrait of this man with shoulder-length brown hair, thin and always elegant, titled "The Playboy of Ségolène" conversation pieces. Mr. Montebourg, claiming he was duped, assigns the magazine.

Invested candidate, Ségolène Royal is designated spokesman, but suspends the month: on Canal +, the new Minister of Productive Recovery was told that the only flaw of the socialist candidate was his companion, a … Francois Hollande. "We laughed with Ségolène", he relativizes years later.

Montebourg often attacked Francois Hollande, who owes him the nickname "Flanby". The deputy of Saone-et-Loire also spoke of "cowardice" about supporters of the "yes" to the European Constitution in 2005, before turning back at the express request of the then First Secretary.

Ardent opponent of multiple directorships, Montebourg becomes "believing but nonpracticing" by appearing at the cantonal elections in his department, which led him to the presidency of the General Council in 2008. In early 2011, he announced he will not seek a fourth term as an MP.

With primary theorist Olivier Ferrand (Terra Nova), the fiery MP Aubry threat to resign if he does not succeed in 2009 for organizing this new process. "I had my dress emerged avocado eaten by moths," he says. First secretary finally agreed.

Himself a candidate with a small team, Montebourg campaigned on the left wing, defending the "de-globalization" or, according to his many opponents, a neo-protectionism that dare not speak its name. Result: 17.2% of the vote. In December 2011, he created the stir by denouncing "a policy that Bismarck" Angela Merkel.

Happy white knight, he denounces the business federations PS Bouches-du-Rhone and Pas de Calais and demanded to DSK "apologize to all the left".

PS, some criticize this "preacher of morality," its "excesses in the attack." His third place in the primary, however, gives him the role of a kingmaker who choose to personally Francois Hollande. The presidential candidate will make his "special representative", in charge of a factory tour of France. He joins the transition services of a relative of Mr. Montebourg, Aquilino Morelle, now political adviser at the Elysée.

Separated father of two, Arnaud Montebourg is the companion of Audrey Pulvar journalist, with whom he filed a complaint for assault in the streets of Paris in March.

The group recorded a 28% increase in sales to 35.7 billion euros, higher than the 30.14 billion euros predicted by Thomson Reuters SmartEstimates.

The group said last week it had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately 3.8 billion euros, and net current of about 1.7 billion.

"These figures are not spectacular, but they are good," said one trader. The action was reported up 0.9% in transactions before trading.

The turnover of the trading subsidiary of the group rose 37% to 27.5 billion euros while the production of renewable energy generated sales up 7% to 617 million.

Since the beginning of the year, as E.ON has lost over 6%, impacted partly by its heavy exposure to nuclear power, while its main competitor RWE gained 18%.

Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan federal However limited the scope of these two complaints, finding that the offenses of incitement to fraud, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty were not founded ; es.

Stay the proceedings for deformation of agency activities relating to investment products in question, known as Cheyne and Rhinebridge.

The plaintiffs, including the Commercial Bank of Abu Dhabi, blame Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's losses related to bankruptcy Product Cheyne in August 2007. Investment product Rhinebridge him collapsed a year later, in August 2008.

In both cases, the plaintiffs accused the rating agencies to have worked with banks for financial products that have a triple A, the highest credit supposed to guarantee a free investment risk, whereas these derivative investments were backed in part on credit "subprime" high risk.

The Fitch is also concerned by the complaint Rhinebridge.

The decision of Judge Scheindlin was taken Friday but was released on Monday.

Tony Mirenda, a spokesman for Moody's, said the complaints were unfounded, and that still recent allegations would be considered inadmissible in turn. 

Standard & Poor's, John Piecuch, spokesman, said similarly that the latest complaints were inconsistent with previous court decisions.

The likely thrust of extremist parties in Greece, which could jeopardize the plan of assistance given to countries, markets further alarm that victory in the presidential election of Francois Hollande, whose program is no longer perceived as a threat by investors . "The week promises to be high risk, but paradoxically Greece weigh maybe more in the balance as the French election," said Valerie Plagnol, director of research at Credit Suisse.  

Unlike 1981, the arrival of the socialist candidate for the Elysee should however not destabilize markets, which first opened in Asia in mid-European night. The Paris Bourse certainly gives ground for several weeks, but this trend is common to all European financial centers, plagued by fears about the economy of the eurozone. And the cost of refinancing the public debt of France has not increased more between the two rounds of presidential elections.

No challenge to the Treaty on the financial stability

Paris has borrowed Thursday nearly 7.5 billion euros at rates down. "Mr. Holland should not undermine the Treaty on European financial stability, but rather add to it a component of growth. On this point, it is not alone in wishing that in Europe, which tends to reassure "said Ms. Plagnol.  

Long reluctant, Berlin is ready to work to "a growth pact for more competitiveness," the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, would also give this theme "at the center of the agenda" European. Mr. Holland on Sunday evening could have an exchange on these topics with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to one of his advisers.  

If revenues diverge, more tracks are already being considered: increase the borrowing capacity of the European Investment Bank (EIB), spend more European structural funds in the euro area, establish 'project bonds', the European bonds for a specific project, or authorize the European Stability Mechanism (MES) to help a struggling industry and not just a state.

For Laurence Boone, chief economist for Europe U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch, BofA, the alternation in France does not worry because "investors expect to conduct a moderate social policy".

Greece in the heart of concerns with the rise of extremist parties

Greece, whose people voted on Sunday for early elections, however crystallizes much more concern. Both sides pro-austerity, PASOK (Socialist) and New Democracy (right), who ruled together in a coalition since November 2011 collapsed in parliamentary elections Sunday, bringing together between 31 and 37% against more 77% in 2009, according to exit polls.

If they were confirmed, this collapse would make almost impossible the formation of a coalition government by both parties to continue the austerity dictated by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. "The country's creditors (IMF, EU and ECB) may at least temporarily suspend their aid," worries Stephane Deo at UBS. "The government can more quickly pay its civil servants and pensions, which will lead to very high tensions on financial markets," he warns.

In >>> Direct: Soon the results of the second round of the presidential election between Sarkozy and Holland

EDF and GDF will, from next year, reimburse their customers within 15 days of issuance of the annual bill or the subscriber's request, in case of overpayment exceeding 25 euros, according to a decree of April 18 published in the Official Journal (OJ). "During the contract, when the invoice based on energy consumption reveals an overpayment by the contractor less than 25 euros, the excess is carried forward to the next invoice, unless the consumer requests a refund" states that Order, which comes into force on 1 January 2013. "From this amount, the overpayment is refunded by the supplier," the statement said, adding that "the refund is made within fifteen days from the issuance of the invoice or the customer's request ".

Billing of the two suppliers is based on an estimate of consumption for customers who choose the monthly payment, with an annual bill of regularization based on actual consumption. "It has taken up several times to the plate and the publication of an official report to achieve this decree," said Bruno Lechevin, managing director of energy ombudsman, the daily Le Parisien on Friday which states that during the first quarter, 3.2% of complaints received by the Ombudsman were related to reimbursement of overpayments. "In 2011, EDF had made and pin: the utility reimbursement to amounts of less than 15 euros if the customers were demanding," said the newspaper. EDF now states on its website monthly installments if the client has paid a sum greater than its invoice regularization, the credit balance is refunded "by bank transfer within 15 days."

In May 2011, the supplier had agreed to reimburse "now" and automatically overpayments of all invoices to its customers after termination of their contract (move). The group previously had a policy not to refund overpayments of less than € 15.24 if customers were not doing the requests. Parliament passed a provision in the Law on Organization of the New Electricity Markets (Nome) of 7 December 2010 so that energy suppliers are now required to systematically repay overpayments to consumers.

The UK has not escaped the downturn. Its economy has officially fallen into recession earlier this year following a contraction of its economy for the second consecutive quarter, a surprise for analysts and bad news for the government of David Cameron.

According to one official estimate released Wednesday, the British economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012, after falling 0.3% last quarter. The country is thus technically back in recession, which was released in late 2009 after five straight quarters of decline in activity during the financial crisis.  

Despite very mixed economic indicators, most analysts were betting on a slight rise of 0.1% of GDP, which would have avoided the country to be in the same situation as the states of the eurozone such as Spain or Italy, also entered into a recession.

This performance-up against Prime Minister David Cameron in a difficult position: it should indeed revive criticisms about the draconian austerity policies of his government by the opposition Labor Party accused of having "killed growth" in the name of a struggle against deficits.

The pound is distributed sharply lower against the euro and the dollar after the announcement of the contraction of the UK economy. The London Stock Exchange remained, however, directed slightly up gaining 0.44% to 5,734,67 points to 0900 GMT.

Francois Brottes believes that the Competition Authority "issued an indictment against the policy of opening the French electricity market" in favor of the review of a decree implementing this law. 

The system "will strengthen the speculative nature of the electricity market in France and will further increase prices, since it will impact the electric bill of consumers to the tune of '200 to 500 million Euros per year, according to the Authority, "he says in a statement.

"A few days before an election critical to the future of France, it is urgent to suspend enforcement of the law Nome. Let the French can choose between two conceptions of e Energy: speculative, or public good, "he adds.

New organization of the French electricity market (Nome) allows alternative suppliers to buy electricity from EDF Nuclear, within an overall limit of 25% of the production capacity. Since 1 January, the resale price is set at 42 euros a megawatt hour.

Over the whole of 2011, the bank shows a loss of 9.2 billion euros, a result of massive writedowns in the third quarter, primarily goodwill.

Italy's largest bank by assets had already passed the annual dividend.

Earnings in the fourth quarter, beating consensus giving 30 million, compares with a profit of 321 million euros a year earlier. 

The ratio of Tier 1 capital was hard to 9.97% on a proforma basis, taking into account a difficult capital increase of EUR 7.5 billion performed in January 2012.

Former analysts rating agencies testified Wednesday in the Senate on their working conditions, reporting a dire shortage of manpower and intense competition among agencies that sometimes pushed to note without sufficient data .  

The Senate on Tuesday launched a mission of information on credit rating agencies and which audition until July consult experts, former employees of agencies, debt issuers and investors in France and abroad.

"Your question is daunting, watermark, you ask us: + Did you know what you did? +, Told senators who questioned Anwar Hassoune, who spent seven years at Standard & Poor's and three years at Moody's. "The answer is + not + always. There is never enough analysts, "responded Normale Associate Management, a graduate of HEC and Sciences Po, who says he experienced analysts for 35 to 45 cases each

. "It is humanly impossible, we had to follow two Credit Agricole, it is not possible!", he said. For him, the analysis of Crédit Agricole would require "a battalion of a dozen analysts with 15, 20, 30 years of experience, knowing all the ins and outs of each business" of this banking giant. "But this is not sustainable economically because each entry will cost 500,000 euros and 600,000, including bonus" and your "business is dead," he said.

Behind this problem is the business model of agencies, the high margins they achieve for their shareholders, analysts have estimated the former. "It is rightly said that it is outrageous that agencies emerge as significant margins," said Catherine Gerst, who worked at Moody's Paris from 1991 to 2000, first as an analyst before becoming CEO.  

Agencies who had "no obligation to reinvest in people," Ms. Gerst suggesting to create constraints of this type, for example to limit to 10 the number of entities to be processed by analyst. As for subprime ("subprime"), the agency had only two years of decline on these new products and noted "knowing full well they had no data" necessary, she lamented, explaining this fact by "too much competition between agencies."

The economy created 227,000 non-farm jobs last month, according to statistics from the Labor Department, and the unemployment rate remained at its lowest level in three years, 8.3%.

This is the first time since early 2011 that the new posts remain above 200,000 for three straight months.

The figures for December and January were also revised upward, from 61,000 in total.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected an average of 210.000 jobs created in February after the figure of 243,000 was originally planned for January.