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...such trouble at HSBC or Barclays, Monday's interim results presented challenges of a different kind. Both lenders leaned heavily on lucrative investment-banking units to soften the blow from bad debts in the commercial or retail arms of the groups. Owing in part to its purchase last fall of Lehman Brothers' U.S. operations, profits at Barclays Capital doubled in the first half of the year, to $1.7 billion. The group's charges for bad debt, meanwhile, leaped by a similar rate, to some $7.7 billion. Vital to the bank in coming years: reducing its reliance on highly cyclical investment...
...their efforts to expand, going without government bailouts during the depths of the crisis last fall won't have done either bank's prospects any harm. While Barclays and HSBC have both benefited from taxpayer loans or guarantees - part of a $2 trillion package of state and central-bank aid doled out to Britain's lenders - both "have worked hard on their balance sheets," says Simon Maughan, a banking analyst at MF Global brokerage in London. Having tapped Middle East investors last year in an effort to bolster its capital base, Barclays agreed in June to sell the investment unit...
...health officials are bracing for a resurgence of the new H1N1/09 flu virus this fall, when the influenza season kicks into high gear with the resurgence of cold weather. By October, the government hopes to have 120 million doses of vaccine ready to fight the new virus, which is currently spreading around the world in the first pandemic in more than 40 years. Already, H1N1 is hitting the southern hemisphere hard: Argentina has recorded more than 160 deaths from H1N1, second most after the U.S. That's because it's winter in the southern hemisphere, and flu infections tend...
...that means we can end up vitamin D-deficient, leaving us vulnerable to any number of infections. And spending more time indoors can also put us in the line of infection for the flu, particularly if we share enclosed spaces with others. School is in session during the fall and winter in the northern hemisphere, and classrooms are excellent vectors of infection for all illnesses, including the flu. (Read "Think H1N1 Is Bad Now? Wait Till Flu Season...
...contact. That alone shows just how transmissible this new virus is: we're dry kindling, and H1N1 is the match. But as with previous viruses in previous years, the real test for H1N1 - and for public-health officials who are planning their response to it - will come in the fall and winter...