Banking Industry: Forex manipulation further undermines trust in international banking

A new scandal undermining the reputation of international banking has been added to a long list of previous cases. Under the spotlight this time is a group of leading institutions in Europe and the US.
Analysts say a regulatory void underlies the accusations and subsequent multi-million dollar fines resulting from foreign exchange market manipulations.

As the British financial control authority issued one of the most expensive fines in its history, experts expressed the view that it may not be the last scandal in the sector.

Trust is now at a tipping point as investors consider changing their investment to other trading destinations.

American and British authorities, fined six international banks a total of around $6 billion – about 5.5 billion euros – for manipulating foreign exchange rates. JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays. and Royal Bank of Scotland confirmed their attempts to manipulate currencies, in which prices of daily transactions averaged five trillion dollars.
Read more: Forex manipulation further undermines trust in international banking | euronews, Business Middle East

EU-US Trade Negotiations: Chemical industry secretly manipulating US-EU trade negotiations

A leaked document from the December 2013 round of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations exposes the extent of chemical industry influence over secretive ongoing US-EU trade negotiations. Chemicals industry proposals to TTIP would have a chilling effect on the regulatory environment, slowing down the implementation of precautionary decisions on toxic chemicals, undermining democratic decision making and stifling the innovation of safer alternatives.

A report published today by ClientEarth and CIEL shows that the leaked proposal from lobby groups, the American Chemistry Council and the European Chemical Industry Council, would damage future protective legislation on toxic chemicals.

For years the US government and the chemical industry has complained about protective EU chemicals laws being a trade barrier, with some industry groups calling it the largest transatlantic trade barrier. The major aim of the TTIP is to minimise what it calls technical barriers to trade. Its actions could weaken the implementation of vital laws to protect people and the environment. 

“This proposal illustrates two huge and interrelated problems with TTIP,” says Baskut Tuncak, Staff Attorney for the Center for International Environmental Law, “the privileged position of industry to craft language in the trade agreement without public input, and the unlimited potential of TTIP to affect the ability of countries to regulate on toxic chemicals, energy and climate change, food and agriculture, and other critical issues.” 

“The overriding theme of the proposals is secrecy,” says Vito Buonsante, ClientEarth Lawyer. “The industry wants to restrict the transparency of information, which is essential if people are to make choices about what they expose themselves to. They also want to undermine the democratic process by putting decision making in the hands of industry dominated committees.”

The report also shows that the leaked proposals would have a particularly damaging effect on legislation concerning chemicals that interfere with hormonal systems, such as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs are found in everyday products such as sunscreens, deodorants and children's toys.

The ClientEarth’s and CIEL’s joint report is available at: http://www.clientearth.org/reports/health-and-environment/140310-acc-cefic-critique-ciel-clientearth.pdf  

Read more: ClientEarth - environmental lawyers | Chemical industry secretly manipulating US-EU trade negotiations (TTIP) [2463]

Pharmaceutical Industry: Do free samples influence the way doctors prescribe drugs?

A new study from Stanford University's School of Medicine found that doctors who are allowed to hand out free samples of expensive drugs prescribe those drugs more often than doctors who don’t have access to free samples. Dr. Alfred Lane, senior author of the report, talks with Hari Sreenivasan about the implications of the findings.

See more: Video: Do free samples influence the way doctors prescribe drugs? | Watch PBS NewsHour Online | PBS Video