Tough news for UK prosecutors yesterday, with a jury fully acquitting all 6 former brokers of Libor manipulation charges for their work with Tom Hayes – NYTimes and WSJ and Law360
The Fed wrapped up its January meeting today by staying pat on interest rates, but despite “weak global growth and wobbly financial markets,” the Fed again stressed its expected plan of “gradually” raising interest rates this year – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
The federal regulator investigating Theranos’ northern California lab issued its findings this week, noting that the operation “violated several clinical standards, including one it said posed a threat to patient safety that had to be immediately corrected.” Theranos has 10 days in which to correct the deficiencies or risk losing its certification – NYTimes and WSJ
Royal Dutch Shell shareholders have signed off on CEO Ben van Beurden’s $50 billion takeover of the BG Group, a sign—according to Breakingviews—that its betting on oil making its way back up before too long – NYTimes and WSJ
Some, however, even energy sector “big believers,” are hedging – WSJ
Bloomberg’s suggesting that corporate debt—all $29 trillion of it—is the real concern when it comes to the US sliding into recession, pointing to the more-than-800 downgrades of corporate bonds last year (including nearly 6% of all US corporate bonds through Q3) as a disconcerting sign of worsening debt profiles – Bloomberg
The Journal recounts the details emerging about prosecutors’ efforts to pierce the attorney/client privilege between Martin Shkreli and his personal lawyer, Evan Greebel, on their way to fraud charges last month – WSJ and Law360
Here’s a novel way to object to the SEC’s in-house courts: just ignore them – Bloomberg
For Pompeii, it was the Vesuvian ash that helped preserve daily life from AD 79. For England’s Must Farm site, it was the mix of an as-yet-unexplained fire and a marshy channel that captured remnants of village life from some 3000 years ago – NYTimes
