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From our special correspondent in Stockton (California)

Real estate staggers back to the United States. The improvement of the activity recorded since the spring of 2009 fade. If this trend continues, it is a worrying news for the economic recovery. Recession brutal voyage around the world last year is part of this key sector of activity which the U.S. bubble burst in spring 2006.

Since May 2006, average prices of properties in the U.S. plunged 30%. In some areas the fall was twice as strong. Over the last seven months, however, a rebound was observed: the average value of U.S. homes rose 3%, according to Case-Shiller index.

But signs of relapse increase. In January, for the third consecutive month, sales of new homes fell.During the winter, the United States have returned to the lowest levels ever recorded transaction. In turn, sales of old houses have, against all expectations, plunged in January to the lowest in seven months. "In terms of price … the pace of decline has stabilized yet. However, the recovery observed during the summer of 2009 did not last, "says David M. Blitzer, who calculates the index for Standard & Poor's.

The improvement in 2009 is largely explained by the massive intervention of federal authorities. In capitalist countries, 90% of U.S. mortgages find themselves de facto guaranteed by the Treasury. This is indeed the de facto owner of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two financial institutions specialized in buying and guaranteeing bank loans to housing.These agencies, nationalized in September 2008, received a new mission explicit Obama Administration: "Do everything to ensure that households can not pay their mortgage maturities could stay in their homes."

Uncle Sam has already spent 111 billion dollars to bail out the two institutions. This is just the beginning. Fannie Mae request 15.3 billion dollars more, having announced its tenth consecutive quarterly loss last week.And the bill could be much heavier in the end: quietly, just before Christmas, the Treasury said that the ceiling of direct aid from the federal government $ 200 billion initially set for Fannie and Freddie was up.

The upper classes affected

Another factor supporting the business about to disappear is the tax credit of between $ 6 500 to 8 000 dollars currently available to homebuyers. The purpose of this aid was initially scheduled to last fall. For fear of turning too sharp, these tax incentives were extended until the end of April. Nothing says that the Administration will continue beyond cash advance to savings account .

On the ground, the reality remains difficult for households. The number of properties seized by banks from borrowers who fell into default continues to climb.2.8 million homes have been taken last year. This year, the record will be beaten. The firm RealtyTrac expects 4.5 million seized in 2010. Optimists point to the stabilization of 9.5% "rate of late payment" mortgage loans in the fourth quarter. Still, the continued rise in defaults ending with seizures. The default rate is now higher than 5%. Equally alarming: the sharp deterioration of late payments by households belonging to a class yet considered less risky. The worst wave of default on subprime niche (highly indebted households) is certainly past.But the failure of the wealthier classes at record levels and is now approaching 10%.

This situation is equally problematic for banks whose balance sheets do not fully reflect the rising defaults on U.S. households trapped in unemployment and the collapse of their heritage. "Overall, we believe that U.S. banks have realized that a third of their losses on residential mortgages," said Robert McNatt agency Standard & Poor's.Financial institutions have beautiful long as possible seizures of homes, high unemployment and the proliferation of "strategic flaws" (see glossary below cons) continue to plumb their balance sheets.

GLOSSARY

• Hamp (or Affordable Home Modification Program)

Federal program encouraging banks to reduce rates and lengthen the duration of mortgage loans to households have at least 60 days late payment of their monthly payments.

The Treasury has set aside 75 billion dollars by 2012 to modify loans 3 to 4 million homes and avoid the seizure of their property and their expulsion. For a year, 830 000 borrowers have tried this program on an experimental basis.But 25% are again in arrears.

• Strategic Default

This is a practice that leads borrowers to stop paying their monthly mortgage lenders by personal choice or calculation, and not for reasons of loss of resources. The "strategic failure" is made safer in states like California or Arizona, where the bank can seize the house of the borrower and not its other assets.

• Under Water

For a home, it will return "under water" when the market value of their property has fallen below the amount of his debt to the bank. This applies to almost 10% of households in the United States who have subscribed to a mortgage.

Good news for European women: since the month of May 2009, their unemployment rate, usually systematically higher than men, for the first time fell below theirs. A sudden catch that unfortunately we can not impute to the crisis. The sectors of industry and construction, traditionally male, have been particularly affected by the decline in economic activity, while those within the tertiary sector, more investment by women were generally spared. But this statistic, although seemingly positive for women, also stresses that many sectors are overwhelmingly invested in either one or the other sex.

The report Grésy devoted to professional equality between men and women, has certainly highlighted the "tremendous progress" already observed in the field: women now represent France in 47% of the workforce in 2007, and this 83% are women 25 to 49 years who work. Above all, the mix has risen sharply among the most skilled trades. The social portrait of INSEE reports that young women who leave the education system with a level of training on average than that of boys, have become a large majority among the legal profession (there are now so many lawyers than lawyers), communication, or doctors.Even among the skilled trades to more technical nature, where they remain in low numbers, a trend is emerging: there are now nearly 40% of female engineers or technical managers fresh out of school, as against 9% among older !

A marked polarization in low-skilled occupations

But the picture is not all rosy. And it seems that both ends of the scale of qualifications is the rub. At the top level, the proportion of women remains marginal: 8% of women just sit on boards of directors of the 500 largest French companies, so that a bill is to introduce a quota for women in these bodies. And it's almost the same sound of a bell among the least skilled jobs."The mix has even declined," says Florence Chappert, special assistant to the department skills, work and employment Anact (National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions). "Among low-skilled occupations, trades polarization between men and women is sometimes even more pronounced among beginners in the former, confirming Insee.

Overall, if the girls were always reduced appetite for professional studies, they are still more likely to opt for health and social sectors or specialties Secretariat, when it run. For boys, it is instead the power-electronic outweighs their votes.Result: the construction workers are at 98% of men, those in process industries are at 76%, while, unsurprisingly, 98% of secretaries are women, and that 98% of home helps, 75% administrative workers of category C, 99% of childminders … If the cultural environment is of course a factor in explaining this distribution, Florence Chappert said he is not alone: "If we wanted a stronger proportion of men among the home support, this would require review and atypical partial schedules that are so frequent, often at the expense of women, and raise wages, "said she. Just as the introduction of female workers would necessarily lead to a mitigation of the harshness of the trade."However, there is no question of the mix at any price: the men and women can sometimes lose to find exactly the same positions.

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The journal "Gender and Labor Conditions of Anact

Like the Paris markets, U.S. stock markets opened in green on Friday, supported by the employment figures less bad than expected. The United States has in fact lost 36,000 jobs in February than in January and the unemployment rate the country has remained stable at 9.7% this month, according to the official report on employment released on Friday, while analysts expected a decline. The Dow Jones advance of 0.36% at 10,482 points, the S & P 500 rose 0.46% to 1128 points and the Nasdaq's 0.46% to 2303 points.

U.S. investors are reassured by the Prime Minister's announcement that China has promised a 8% growth for China this year.Thursday, Wall Street closed higher on a comfortable, supported by bearings recommendations.

In addition to the employment figures U.S., those of consumer credit in January, will be published in 21 hours.

As for currencies, the euro fell sharply Friday against a dollar backed by the release of employment figures in the United States, and reassuring the operators on the strength of the recovery of the world's largest economy now payday loans .In response, the Greek banks fell sharply by 8% on Monday in the Athens Stock Exchange.

The Greek banking system did not need this new. "Against the advice of the European Central Bank, the government is taking measures to protect households against seizure," said Ciaran O'Hagan, strategist at Societe Generale. "Suddenly, they stop lending. And as they have fewer filing with the flight of capital, a capital injection from the state is not impossible to run. "

While the Greek state is fighting to eliminate their deficits, the prospect darkens further the situation.

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Coup de theater in the German software company SAP. After learning, during a supervisory board that his contract was not renewed, the CEO, Leo Apotheker, has resigned with immediate effect Sunday night. He will be replaced as head of the group by the duo Co-CEOs Bill McDermott, who heads the field organization, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, responsible for product development.

"The new organization's executive committee will allow SAP to better align product innovation and customer needs.The new team will continue to lead SAP's strategy and focus on profitable growth, while offering innovations delivered in the course of 2010 to enhance the leading position of SAP in the market for enterprise software " says Hasso Plattner, co-founder and chairman of the supervisory board of SAP, in a statement no credit check payday loans .

Leo Apotheker was at SAP since 1998 and only the head of the company since April 2008. He is the founder of SAP France and was appointed Director General before the departure of his predecessor, Henning Kagermann, to ensure a smooth transition

He reproached his communication internally and externally and does not reflect the views of customers in its strategic choices.Especially, the directors have endorsed the delay by the group in the development of cloud computing, which is to enable small and medium-sized businesses access to software not installed on their networks, but via the Internet.

SAP reached in 2009 net profit down 4% to 1.8 billion euros.

A conference call will be broadcast on Monday at 14.30.

The first results of the survey of 102,000 employees of France Telecom are falling, and they are not in favor of the operator. "Felt generally very degraded", "weakening the physical and mental health of some employees'" work atmosphere tense, even violent "are some of the findings prepared by the firm specializes Technologia at the end of the investigation since mid-October in France Telecom. A summary of 75 pages which had access to the Associated Press was delivered Monday morning to both management and unions of the operator.

They were more than 80,000 employees of the group or 77.9% to the questionnaire prepared by Technologia, Workforce oldest in the company and the most experienced showing particularly concerned.

"A functional mobility badly accompanied"

The summary report shows the "strong concerns" of employees surveyed, with the consequence including the loss of the "pride of belonging to France Telecom" and "felt generally very degraded." They were in fact 96% say that proud of this membership cons only 39% today. The difficult working conditions, with a "weakening of the physical and mental health", mainly those in charge of sales and "interventions customers.

More generally, the investigation reveals a "functional mobility badly together," and a "geographical mobility of non-sensitive framework, thus confirming an earlier observation made by many employees.In total they are 55% declare themselves "somewhat dissatisfied" on a professional level, and 65% believed that their working conditions have deteriorated, according to the CFE-CGC.

Moreover, "social relations deteriorated" are found among non-executives, including a "major failure of management" and "working atmosphere tense, even violent.

"The diagnosis is indicative of the internal situation" responded Patrice Diochet the CFTC, adding hope that "this diagnosis is a detonator." "We must use this tool to put pressure on the ongoing negotiations on stress," he added.

Playing the card of transparency in anticipation of these results, France Telecom announced a total of 32 suicides among its members for two years. The operator has not yet made public its reaction.

The Paris Bourse breath on Monday following a sharp rise in a row Friday to U.S. unemployment figures. The improvement on the labor market in the United States did not establish a huge bullish consensus within the financial community. Factors support abound yet not: the rise of the dollar against major currencies has helped export values to hold their own game in the coast. But the recent outperformance of equity markets suggests that the good news on Friday was already included in prices.

At closing, the Paris Bourse shows a small decline of 0.17% to 3840 points. Even locations in London, which fell 0.22% and Frankfurt back from 0.57% to 5784 points.

More at 18h15.

The bank employees of Societe Generale were on strike Tuesday. Like their colleagues at HSBC France. In Defense or the Champs-Elysees, hundreds of them gathered to demonstrate. These disgruntled bankers do not resent the loss of their bonus. They are employees of the network who try to bend their leadership in wage negotiations. They also protest against new working arrangements introduced gradually in the agencies. If they are not heard, the mobilization of Tuesday could be repeated throughout the winter, prevent unions.

Lean months

The branch negotiations have so far failed. The French Banking Association (AFB, which concerns only part of the sector) proposing an increase of 1.5% of the conventional minimum, when the unions called for a general revaluation."These last months have been very difficult for employees, now that banks are profitable again, they must reward their employees," all argue their union representatives. A discourse that often encounters Department still concentrated on management costs during periods of low growth. For now, only BNP Paribas was able to complete an agreement with its unions. Elsewhere negotiations are ongoing.

They have taken a particularly difficult at Societe Generale, affected, in addition to the financial crisis, by a succession of setbacks: Kerviel affair, the uproar caused by stock options for executives … Wednesday, 8.5% of employees by management , 30% for CGT representative, went on strike. They call about 2% increase against the 0.7% proposed by management, embellished a stake of EUR 600.Frederick Oudéa, the new CEO of Societe Generale, is expected to manage this conflict, rare for a bank to the social body traditionally welded with its direction. Employees of HSBC France were also called the strike on Tuesday. "At least 600 people marched on the Champs-Elysees, notes Gerard Huger, the delegate CFTC. Management does not hear us, we will write to the headquarters in London, and organize new day of mobilizations in France. "Management has identified for its 6% share of strikers in Paris and 12.8% in the provinces.

In LCL, Crédit Agricole group, the unions expect one-day strike in January. Until then, they organize events December 2 at the last negotiating session with management. Side BPCE (Caisses d'Epargne and Banques Populaires), negotiations begin.