What's In The News: May 16, 2012

May 17, 2012

This is what's in the news for Wednesday May 16, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports Greece's future in Europe's common currency was in doubt after efforts to form a new government failed and the country's political turmoil set off a dramatic increase in bank withdrawals. The Wall Street Journal also reports BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) backed away from its ambitious spending plans that would have led the company to invest about $80B on new projects over the next five years Reuters reports Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) added new positions in GM (NYSE:GM) and Viacom (NASDAQ:VIAB) in Q1, and lowered its stake in Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) 33%. Bloomberg reports JPMorgan Chase's (NYSE:JPM) individual trades that led to a $2B loss weren't monitored by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which said it didn't expect to be notified about the positions. Finally, Bloomberg reports AIG (NYSE:AIG) CEO Robert Benmosche increased non-government-guaranteed residential and commercial-mortgage backed securities holdings by $11.1B since 2010 to $28.4B at the end of March.