The Irish State agency, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), which has incurred huge losses from its part-ownership of the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, South Dublin, cut its deficit in 2009 to €19m in 2009 from €213m in 2008. The agency is left with 34 Council/Executive Board members, 27 staff and interest accruing on its debt from its ill-fated 2006 property adventure.

New orders for US manufactured durable goods -  - items expected to last at least 3 years - -  in June fell  $2.0bn or 1.0% to $190.5bn, the US Census Bureau announced today. This was the second straight monthly decline and followed a 0.8% May decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.6%. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 0.7%. Transportation equipment, down four of the last five months, had the largest decrease, $1.1bn or 2.4% to $45.9bn. This was due to nondefense aircraft and parts, which decreased $1.8bn.

Eurozone Bank Lending Survey: The latest survey report published by the European Central Bank (ECB) today, shows that Irish banks report a fall in demand for business and household loans in Q2. Other Eurozone banks reported an increase in the net tightening of credit standards compared with the first quarter, for business and households.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; The IMF (International Monetary Fund’) said in a preliminary statement issued Wednesday on it annual assessment of the Chinese economy, that despite China’s decision to adopt a “flexible” exchange rate, the yuan/renminbi remains “substantially undervalued.”

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

The loans associated with the purchase of the former manufacturing plant site of the Irish Glass Bottle Company, at Ringsend, South Dublin,  which was sold for €412m in 2006, the craziest year of the Irish property bubble, have been transferred to NAMA.

Dr. Peter Morici says Washington is turning to the Bush tax cuts scheduled to lapse in January.

US job gains so far in this expansion have been atypically weak, especially considering the record depth of the employment downturn, according to Richard Berner, chief economist of US investment bank Morgan Stanley. He says assuming that the recession ended in June 2009, private non-farm payrolls have been flat over the past year, compared with a 2.3% gain in the first year of the past seven recoveries.  Clearly, much of that weakness is cyclical, reflecting the widely expected sub-par rebound.  In the MS view, however, structural culprits are also at work; of these, Berner says high and rapidly rising healthcare costs are one of the most important and certainly the most overlooked.  That’s long been a key factor why job gains will remain tepid for now.

European bank shares were boosted Tuesday by strong earning results, revised Basel rules and the flawed European stress-test results, which were released last Friday.

Irish manufacturing prices fell by 0.4% in June 2010 because of the weaker US dollar versus the euro -  - changes in the dollar rate are crucial because Irish manufacturing is dominated by US-owned firms.