The biggest – but by no means the only – example is Emirates, Dubai’s government-controlled carrier. It has more than $30 billion worth of planes on order from Airbus, including 53 of the double-decker A380, for which Emirates is by far the largest customer. Emirates also has placed 70 orders for Airbus’s forthcoming A350 widebody. And Airbus has outstanding orders from state-controlled leasing outfit DAE Capital totaling about $12.6 billion.

No surprise, then, that shares in Airbus parent European Aeronautics Defence & Space Co. fell more than 3% on Nov. 26 when the Dubai government asked to postpone debt repayments.

Boeing is considerably less-exposed than Airbus to potential turmoil in Dubai, but it still has plenty at stake. Emirates has about $4 billion worth of Boeing 777s on order, while DAE Capital and low-cost carrier Flydubai have a combined $16 billion on order from Boeing. As U.S. markets reopened on Nov. 27 after Thanksgiving, Boeing shares were down 1.2%

To make matters worse, the Nov. 26 glitches come a day after the LSE posted a 39% annual drop in net profits for the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2010. According to the bourse, net profits totaled £50.9 million ($84.3 million) vs. £83.7 million ($138.6 million) for same period last year. Revenues also dropped 9% compared to last year to reach £310.9 million ($514.7 million).

"The overall Group performance reflected market conditions depressed by the fall out from turmoil in financial markets last year and increased competition," LSE's Rolet said in a statement.

Stumbling market activity, particularly at the beginning of 2009, certainly has hurt the LSE's bottom-line. But competition has been the main driver of the bourse's dwindling profits. Since Europe liberalized its financial services sector, start-ups such as Chi-X and BATS Europe (a subsidiary of Kansas-based BATS) have been picking up market share (see graph below). That's predominantly down to cheaper running costs, more up-to-date technology, and a focus on flash trading, which allows financial players to make millisecond, high-volume trades.

For sure, competition has been nipping at the LSE's heels since 2008. But the latest results just show how much the start-ups are hurting London's venerable bourse. Further financial pain, including the LSE cutting its fees to hold on to business, is expected in the near future.

Source: ThomsonReuters -- Percentage of Market Share in London Listed Stocks (Based on Turnover)

Strategically, the three-way tie-up makes sense. Hershey, which already owns the license to produce Cadbury chocolates in the U.S., would gain access to faster growing emerging markets. The U.S. company also would get a foothold into the non-chocolate confectionary market through Cadbury's gum brands and Ferrero's ownership of Tic-Tacs. And Ferrero, whose sales are now focused on the Italian, German, and French markets, would get much greater global exposure.

Culturally, the three companies share similar values. Cadbury has a long heritage as a socially responsible employer. That's a focus Cadbury has tried to embed in its brands, such as premium organic chocolate maker Green & Black's. A big proponent of ethical sourcing, Cadbury has pledged that 25% of its Cadbury Dairy Milk global sales and 350 million Cadbury Dairy Milk bars will be Fairtrade certified in 2010.

Three-dimensional movies are much easier to make than when they first gained popularity in the 1950s. Cameras are no longer the size of refrigerators, and the additional cost compared to a traditional film is a relatively modest 15%. In addition, the number of theaters able to show 3D movies is rising, in part because studios are helping theater-owners finance the necessary digital equipment. Distributing a digital film costs less than distributing a traditional 35-millimeter film, and studios are using the savings to help theater owners make loan payments on the new equipment.

Avatar, directed by James Cameron of Titanic fame and costing nearly $500 million, should provide impetus for more theaters to upgrade to 3D. And there’s another benefit. Because viewers need to wear special glasses to watch a 3D movie, content pirates can’t make illegal copies by simply pointing a video camera at the screen, as they often do. The no-taping aspect “is an incidental but valuable benefit,” Gianopulos says.

Döpfner pleaded for stronger intellectual property rules, sarcastically portraying the current state of online journalism as “stupid old-school guys who are investing in quality content…and new-school guys who are stealing it.”

That statement annoyed Huffington. “ ‘Stealing’ is not a word you should be allowed to use. We are meticulous about copyrights.” Döpfner quickly added that he hadn’t meant to imply that the Huffington Post was among the offenders.

Döpfner’s point was that news and analysis by professional journalists, as opposed to the mostly unpaid bloggers on Huffington Post, is threatened by web sites which gather content from traditional publishers, generating advertising revenue while doing little original research. “If you want to sell beer for free, fine. But don’t take our beer and sell it to someone else,” Döpfner said.

He expressed optimism that consumers can be weaned from the expectation that news content on the Web is free. "For hundreds of years people have been paying for things they are interested in." Huffington replied that the idea that publishers can change consumer habits is “incredibly hubristic.”

“The ship has sailed, consumer habits have changed,” she said.

Döpfner chided Huffington about her use of unpaid bloggers. “If all our journalists were working for free, that would be great,” he said. “You can handle the negotiations.”

So far, so good. But there's a problem. Coke also wants singers to perform its theme tune 'Holidays Are Coming' and other Christmas carols as part of the viral ad campaign. Unfortunately, many of the 240-plus buskers -- who range from classical singers to rap artists -- have balked at flogging Coke's message. (Transport for London, which manages the Underground, says no one will have to perform a song or jingle if they don't want to).

According to the London Evening Standard, Michael Ball, a 47-year-old jazz guitarist, said:

"Not in a million years will I play some Coke jingle. Most buskers make half their annual income in December. Londoners are really up for it and generous at this time and we know what songs and music work. Do commuters really want to hear a corporate jingle from every busker? What a daft idea."

So will the campaign backfire? Probably not. Whether performers pump out 'Holidays Are Coming' won't matter that much after Coke secured the sought-after ad space on the Underground (used by millions of commuters each day). Still, it just goes to show that this time, Coke can't teach the world (of buskers) to sing.

The British firm's rejection of Kraft's hostile takeover isn't surprising. Under the proposal, the U.S. company is offering a cash-and-stock offer that values Cadbury at $16.5 billion. That's considerably less than most Cadbury shareholders had wanted, and mirrors the terms first offered to the company in late August. Since then, though, Cadbury's share price has jumped more than 30%, while Kraft's stock has fallen roughly 5%. No wonder, then, that Kraft's bid was quickly turned down.

So what next? Under Britain's so-called 'Put Up or Shut Up' rule, Kraft now has 28 days to convince Cadbury shareholders of the deal's value. Shareholders will then have an additional 60 days to make up their minds. Yet if market conditions don't change remarkably, Kraft will either have to walk away or increase its offer, particularly the cash component.

Unfortunately, its already-hefty debt burden makes any large-scale cash injection hard to justify. And convincing shareholders to take a less-than enticing offer will certainly be a tough sell. For Kraft, the questions now are: how much do we really want Cadbury? And how much are we willing to spend?

A survey released on Nov. 5 by The Banker magazine found that assets held by Sharia-compliant banks rose 28.6% in 2009 to $822 billion, while assets held by conventional banks grew only 6.8%.

True, Islamic finance still accounts for only about 1% of the global financial-services market, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But Sharia’s strict rules against speculation, hedging, and off-balance-sheet holdings are attracting investors worldwide. Already, some 50% of clients of Islamic financial institutions are non-Muslim, Anthony O’Sullivan, head of private-sector development at the OECD, said at a Nov. 4 conference in Paris on Islamic financing.

Just look at Renault's financial position. It posted a $4 billion loss in the first-half of the year, with global revenues falling almost 24% to $23.7 billion. That came after the French auto giant reportedly forked out $394 million last season on its Formula One team, according to Formula Money, which tracks the sport's finances.

Faced with such losses, it's easy to see why Renault may balk at paying multi-million dollar sums for a place at motor sport's top table. A high-profile scandal involving Flavio Briatore, Renault's former F1 chief, who ordered one of the team’s drivers to crash on purpose also hasn't helped.

On paper, Merkel’s Christian Democrats, the FDP and the Bavarian Christian Social Union have agreed to an ambitious program following their election victory Sept. 27. At the center are bigger-than-expected tax cuts for businesses and individuals. But UBS Economist Martin Lueck doubts whether Merkel will deliver fully on the tax cuts considering that the nation’s debt is already soaring because of stimulus spending. “The tax cuts are far from carved in stone,” Luecke says in a note to investors.

The new government is also unlikely to tamper with laws that make it hard to dismiss workers. Business has long pined for more flexibility to hire and fire employees, but weaker job protections are highly unpopular even among conservative voters. Merkel has made it clear she doesn’t plan to go there.

Moreover, Darling says, the decision to force RBS and Lloyds to sell branches equating up to 10% of the UK retail banking market will dramatically increase competition, another big win for the British taxpayer.

If anyone deserves credit for what promises to be a massive shakeup of British banking, it's outgoing European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Kroes is determined that Europe's state-funded banks have no advantage over their private sector rivals. Determined to promote competition, the EC has demanded the sale of 318 RBS branches and more than 600 Lloyds outlets over the next four years.

RBS will also sell its NatWest brand in Scotland, RBS Insurance and its card payment business, Global Merchant Services. And Lloyds will also part with its TSB brand in England, Wales and Scotland and mortgage broker Cheltenham & Gloucester, as well as the Intelligent Finance online business.

Lloyds, which is 43.5% government-owned, says it has no plans to join the Government Asset Protection Scheme (GAPS), which provides state insurance for past toxic loans. It will pay the government £2.5 billion ($4.1 billion) to cover the cost of the insurance it has received from the government since February. Instead, Lloyds plans to raise £21 billion ($34 billion), including a £13.5 billon ($22 billion) rights issue and a £7.5 billion ($12 billion) debt swap.

News was brighter from the Korean giants, No. 2-ranked Samsung and No. 3-ranked LG Electronics, both of which saw record handset shipments in the third quarter. But overall, according to data released today by market watchers Strategy Analytics and ABI Research, the cell phone market contracted by 4.4% to 6.5% in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2008. The prognosis for the fourth quarter is somewhat more optimistic: Strategy Analytics forecasts a return to year-over-year growth and ABI figures that sales for the year should end up only 4% to 5% lower than in 2008.

The news for sellers of telecom networks is far darker, though, underscoring that a recovery in consumer spending may be ahead of capex for big telcos. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) reported disappointing results on Oct. 30, and its stock was hammered, falling 11.5% in New York trading. The Franco-American telecom equipment and services provider said that its revenues fell 9.3% from the same quarter in 2008 and 5.6% from the second quarter of this year—even worse than the 6% decline reported by rival Ericsson, but better than the stomach-churning 21.2% third-quarter decline reported by Nokia's troubled Nokia Siemens Networks unit. Alcatel-Lucent lost €182 million ($268 million) for the quarter.

The outlook? Analysts agree that the fourth quarter should show improvement in sales of mobile phones—a lift to everyone from Nokia (NOK) to rebounding Motorola. But telecom isn't out of the woods yet, until operators start spending again on beefing up their networks—and consumers pile in to buy new handsets and scarf up new mobile services that push operators to upgrade capacity.

But mobile industry watcher Caroline Gabriel, in her always incisive newsletter, Rethink Wireless, offers a smart and interesting analysis of the reason for the delay. Gabriel says that Nokia is using the time to get more feedback from independent Maemo software developers and to fine-tune the device's user experience prior to delivery.

That might sound like a lame excuse, especially so close to launch, but Nokia's willingness to risk bad press and annoy customers underscores how crucial this product is to the company, which has been struggling to recapture momentum in smartphones lost to the likes of Apple (AAPL) and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIMM). Nokia blamed a shortfall in smartphone sales in part for its disappointing third quarter results announced Oct. 15.

It also highlights the growing strategic importance of Maemo in Nokia's product and technology roadmap. The open source operating system, based on the Debian distribution of Linux, first appeared in early form in 2005 in Nokia's intriguing but little-known N770 handheld tablet and officially debuted in the follow-up N800 in 2007. Now it's the linchpin of the company's drive to stay relevant at the high end of the smartphone market.

So what does this all mean? For one, venture capitalists are tentatively putting their toes back into the water, though many remain cautious. According to DowJones Venture Source's Arno Castanet, "investors [are] spending less, but spending wisely." Smaller investments focused on well-recognized growth markets is a trend. The top three European sectors garnering VC interest: IT ($425 million invested), Healthcare ($216 million), and energy/utilities ($296 million).

And without hyping the global recovery too much, the uptick in investment, particularly among start-ups, may bode well for the broader European economy. British companies, for instance, pocketed $393 million over 67 deals in the third quarter. Sure, that was just over 6% less than the same period last year, but still suggests investor appetite may be returning.

Yet problem areas remain. France, Switzerland, and Israel -- three countries that typically garner a lot of VC interest -- all reported a roughly 50% year-on-year drop in investment during the third quarter. So until investors return to these major European markets, talk of the Great Recession now being behind us is probably premature.

The good news is that the rate of decline is declining, but this release, along with a weak retail sales figure yesterday, may chill some of the recent euphoria that has sent sterling sharply up against the dollar. Sterling declined today on the release to $1.64. It was also down against the euro.

The stock market shrugged off the news with the FTSE 100 up more than 1% in morning trading on Oct. 23. Investors may interpret poor economic news as good for stocks because the bad data will make the Bank of England less likely to consider raising interest rates and more likely to continue with its purchases of bonds known as "quantitative easing."

To this observer, the economy feels somewhat better. Cab drivers, usually a good indicator, report that business is picking up. House prices have been rising. And a leading contemporary art dealer exhibiting at the Frieze art fair said that the market for her wares had been improving since May. Of course, none of this is much consolation to those who continue to lose jobs.