JUST WHEN you thought it was safe to walk down Wall Street again without two Dobermans to repel the white-collar muggers, Allied Irish Banks brings new allegations of misdeeds against Bank of America and Citigroup.

OK, the purported transgressions took place a few years ago, before the big New York financial houses were cleansed and absolved by St. Eliot. It's only the revelations of supposed wrongdoing that are new.

But the claims made by Allied Irish last week in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, if true, offer new evidence that Wall Street operatives always have and always will act in the interests of 1) themselves and their bonuses 2) their firms and 3) their customers. In that order.

'Rogue trader' rips off French bank for $8.2bn

A ROGUE trader has been accused of defrauding one of France's largest banks to the tune of $8.2 billion, in what would be the largest trading fraud in history.

Turkey's renaissance and the need for cross cultural communication

Also, the European and American business culture is sometimes hard to digest for some of them. Turks in general want to know their business partners in person, whereas Europeans in general and Americans in particular think mainly about "let's do business". Not being familiar with each other's values and norms does not mean dislike for each other. And as a matter of fact, in the end, most business relations built then became sustainable relationships by now. But many hurdles have to be taken. That is for sure.

The Turkish way

The "Turkish way" of doing business, and more importantly, their business spirit and fine nose for entrepreneurship, can attribute to the European identity, merely because Turkish people are still open and willing, and their enthusiasm can work as a catalyst.

MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Extend Gains As Volatile Session Nears ...

Ahead of the opening bell, the government reported that U.S. consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% last month. The core consumer-price index, which excludes food and energy costs, climbed 0.3% in January, the biggest gain since June 2006 'It doesn't bode well for inflationary concerns; it's a nagging problem for the Fed, which may have to temper some of the expected rate cuts, which is putting a lid on stock prices,' said Robert Pavlik The CPI gains 'added to the slew of evidence that U.S. inflation rates are indeed creeping upward as we enter the new year,' said analysts at Action Economics.

Among the blue chips on the rise was Hewlett-Packard Co.

As was the case on Tuesday, telecommunications stocks led among the blue-chip decliners, with AT&T Inc.

Rule change opens whole new world to investors

Not everyone is as bullish.

Laura Wallace, managing director of the Coleford Investment Fund in Toronto, believes the Canadian market's recent performance has lulled investors into the mistaken belief that they don't need much foreign content. She says it's important to diversify - not just geographically, but by industry.

"A lot of industries just aren't available here," she says. "I'm referring to health care and large global pharmaceuticals, and consumer-staples companies. We focus on large multinational corporations, and we just don't have companies that size here at home."

Multinationals do business around the world - they give investors exposure to foreign markets and currencies without the risk of direct investment. It also means these companies have a better chance of doing well even if the American markets do not.

Glencore – the power behind the Xstrata throne

As global mining firms circle London-listed Xstrata, behind the headlines is one of the most powerful commodities companies in the world and two men seen among the sharpest in the business.

The men who run Glencore now, Chairman Willy Strothotte and Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg, may not be as famous but they have arguably been as successful.

Care about the environment? Eat less meat

If we were to cut back on eating meat, we might as well cut back on the amount of corn being farmed, which today is being more and more used in the bio fuel industry, because then we wouldn't use as many tractors, which emit tons of emmisions. There are so many things that we can do to save the environment, and I am certainly all for that, cutting back on the amount of gas and travelling I do/use, and turning off/unplugging my appliances when not in use, but something such as cutting back on the meat I eat will certainly not be something I will commit to. Growing up on a farm has taught me so much, lessons of hardships and turmoil, lessons which I would have never been able to learn of I were to have grown up as a 'city kid.' People in the cities do not realize how important the agriculture industry is to them, and one day if the criticism of farmers is to continue, farmers may disappear entirely.

Britain ‘seen as a soft touch’

First we're told immigrants took 30 per cent of the 2.7 million jobs created in the past decade. Then the official figure was increased to 40 per cent. Now it's 52 per cent – making Gordon Brown's promise of “British jobs for British workers" look pretty silly.