The People Controlling the World's Money

This week we see nations and businesses busying themselves as the world around them changed.

Nations at Odds

We begin this week in Greece with the continuing drama over debt with the IMF raising a red flag initially but later saying they expect Greece to make the $1.7 billion payment by 30 June as Athens continues to negotiate with creditors. Greece, however, wasn't the only country arguing over public funds this week as anti austerity marches took place in London with celebrities joining the masses. Russia didn't have a great week either with Europe extending economic sanctions by 6 months due to the crises in the Ukraine.

Outside of financial crises we saw Australia reveal this week that it would join the China lead infrastructure bank as a founding member while in the States SCOTUS upheld Obamacare after another legal battle over the wording in the law. But while disputes and economic quandaries were fought it was revealed that the NSA had been targeting the business world with security companies in particular in order to create malware that could bypass their defenses.

The Business World

The business world would be rocked further with WikiLeaks releasing more Sony emails and documents showing a deal made with Apple and settlements made. Controversy didn't end there with businessman Donald Trump entering the race to be US President and making surprising progress even after controversial statements about immigrants resulting in Univision dropping Trumps Miss USA pageant. But while some controversies boiled over others were dealt with head on as many large retailers stopped selling confederate flag related items after the tragic events in Charleston last week.

Finally we end the week with the digital world of business, in particular the new streaming music industry where new comer Tidal lost it's interim CEO just months after losing a previous CEO but it's wasn't all bad news when Apple was confronted by pop princess Taylor Swift in an open letter condemning their plans to not pay artists resulting in a turn around where Apple agreed to pay artists during the 3 month trial period.

What Happened? 2014 Business News

Business experienced the usual ups and downs in 2014 but it was the actions of high powered individuals that impacted entire nations.

Politics

Russia suffered severe economic sanctions for it's involvement in Crimea but it was the falling oil price, due to OPEC's decision not to cut production, that was the final blow making the most impact on Russia's oil driven economy along with the Rouple. The US government had a busy year with Ben Bernanke being grilled about the decisions leading to the AIG bailout and politics narrowly avoided another shutdown when a $1.1 trillion bill was signed at the last minute. Protests in Hong Kong's business district nearly crippled the region and ended up costing retailers millions while in South America Argentina defaulted on it's loans for a second time ignoring a US courts ruling.

In the world of taxes Frances ridiculous 75% tax on millionaires was dropped while in the States over 30,000 IRS emails previously thought lost were found regarding the accusation that the IRS was targeting individuals based on their political views. Parts of Europe implemented what was termed the Google tax in an attempt to squeeze more from foreign companies operating in Europe and finally it seems European nations really had it out for Google trying to have the internet behemoth split.

Companies

Some companies probably wished for a quicker end to the year with not one but two high profile incidents, MH370 and MH17, Malasian airlines stock took a massive knock and had to be suspended at one stage. GM was on Capital Hill due to the large number of recalls due to safety issues with their vehicles. The hacking of Sony Entertainment's network caused havoc with confidential documents being released in droves bringing speculation of possible sales of assets while a previously targeted company, Target, faced a lawsuit over last years holiday hacks that saw 110 million customer details stolen. Not everyone managed to escape their fate with more former Madoff aides heading to prison and Uber was in the spotlight after an exec wanted to snoop on a journalist to discredit her work.

It wasn't all doom and gloom with the technology world seeing Alibaba make it's grand listing with the largest tech IPO ever. Apple had an interesting year with successful new products like the iPhone 6 and it's new smart watch which isn't available just yet but it also ran into issues with an Apple employee class action lawsuit and was the unwilling participant in many "die-ins" staged in protest of police brutality. Burger King successfully acquired Canada's Tim Hortons in a move to cut it's tax exposure and minimum wages made the spotlight with Walmart claiming to do away with it.

Banks

Years after they sent the world economy into a tailspin the European Central Banks conducted a health test and found everything to be fine. However things weren't over with banks still facing billion dollar fines from the US and UK for their involvement in the Libor scandal.

JPMorgan faced a class action lawsuit over $10 billion of mortgage-backed securities and finally Barclays faced a suit by the SEC over "dark pools".

Money, who's in control?

Money kept it's momentum even with government interventions, policies and preventative measures.

The people in charge

Russia's actions over Crimea have landed it in hot water with the international community who have only one hand to play... sanctions. According to the US State Department Russia was hit with "Real Economic Pain" over it's handling of Crimea. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) contacted investments firms with exposure to Russia to make sure they were properly managing risk. Initial sanctions were met with defiance with some under sanction threatening to take their business elsewhere.

The Federal Reserves chairman, Janet Yellen, hinted at raising rates shaking markets around the world.

The Justice Department reached a $1 billion settlement with Toyota over it's response to consumer concerns.

Taiwan students took over Taiwan's legislature over a trade deal with China which they fear gives mainland too much influence.

Retail Therapy

Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, has confirmed it will list in the United States aiming to rise $10billion.

Labelux, the owners of Jimmy Choo, said it may float the business for £1billion but is still in talks with investments banks.

An investigation into the recent suicide of fashion designer L'Wren Scott reveals her company was in debt of $6.5million.

Currencies

Mt.Gox managed to find 200,000 bitcoins valued at $116million in an old format digital wallet.

Bitcoin's have been used to purchase a $500,000 Villa in Bali in what is considered the largest Bitcoin purchase ever.

A new £1 coin was introduced to prevent counterfeiting and is set to be introduced in 2017.

General

Unskilled and destitute workers have become hiring targets for the decommissioning of the Fukushima nuclear plant as finding skilled labour becomes more difficult.

BP bids $41.6 million to return to drilling in the gulf after it's disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.