Despite the protests of Donald Trump, the US Federal Reserve raised its key rate by 0.25 percentage points. – up to 2.25–2.5%. This is the fourth increase in the base interest rate in the US since the beginning of the year and its maximum value since the beginning of 2008. Investors were waiting for such a decision, but hoped that the Fed would take a break next year - after the speech of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, the markets fell.

The US Department of Finance loses sanctions from EN+ and Rusal. Oleg Deripaska will have to completely refuse to control the companies The US Treasury announced that within 30 days it will relieve sanctions from EN+, Rusal and Eurosibenergo Oleg Deripaska. The transaction involves a complete refusal of Deripaska from control over companies. After the sanctions, the largest asset of the billionaire, Rusal, doubled.

At the end of November, real disposable income of Russians fell by 2.9% and for the first time in 2018 showed a minus for the entire period since the beginning of the year. The situation will not change in December, analysts assume, which means that 2018 will be the fifth consecutive year of falling revenues. Read more. The incomes of Russians in November decreased by 2.9% compared to November 2017, according to Rosstat data .

The US Treasury has notified Congress of its intention to end the sanctions imposed on En+, UC Rusal and OAO EuroSibEnergo within 30 days. Read more . The department explained its decision by the fact that the companies agreed to change the ownership structure and corporate governance, including reducing the share of Oleg Deripaska below 50%, reviewing the composition of boards of directors, and introducing regular audit and OFAC control over companies.

Unknown hackers have hacked the internal correspondence of EU diplomats over the past few years. Area 1, a company founded by former employees of the US National Security Agency (NSA), shared approximately 1,100 messages with the New York Times.

The price of bitcoin may have reached its bottom, according to analysts at Bloomberg. The cryptocurrency has been rising in price for the fifth trading session in a row and now costs more than $3,900 per unit. Read more . The short-term growth of the virtual currency for several days has already been observed this year - the last time this happened in September. However, the agency believes that the situation is different now.

Analysts at Alfa-Bank recorded the most pessimistic expectations of small businesses in the entire history of their surveys, follows from the semi-annual study "Pulse of Small Business", writes RBC. Entrepreneurs are afraid of a decrease in the purchasing power of Russians due to the increase in VAT, the weakening of the ruble and acceleration of inflation. More. The index of business expectations of entrepreneurs for the next six months decreased by 13 percentage points. to minus 54.

As part of the money laundering investigation, the first arrests were made through the Estonian branch of Danske Bank, reports Reuters . Estonian authorities have taken into custody 10 former employees of the bank. More. The Estonian state prosecutor said the country's police detained six people on Tuesday and four more on Wednesday morning. The prosecution believes that they knowingly transferred client funds that raised suspicions of involvement in money laundering.

The cost of tours next year will increase by 10-30%, said the executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia Maya Lomidze. You can save money by booking your tour early. More. Compared to 2018, prices will increase in almost all segments, Lomidze said. Tickets to Turkey will rise in price by 25-30%, but the return to the Egyptian market will help slow down the price growth, says Lomidze. The cost of tours to Europe will increase by an average of 10%.

What opportunities does the draft law on “sovereign runet” give the state On December 14, a draft law was submitted to the State Duma , which is called the "law on the sovereign Runet." In fact, this is a massive package of amendments to the law “On Communications” and “On Information”. We read the document and figured out exactly how the “sovereign Runet” could work if the bill was passed.

Almost a quarter of employers (23%) are going to lay off staff in 2019, according to a survey by Rabota.ru among 300 employers (available from The Bell). At the same time, 18% of respondents, on the contrary, intend to increase the number of employees. More. The greatest probability of cuts - in the food sector and in "media and marketing", the smallest - in companies providing services for business.

Elon Musk's The Boring Company launched the first underground tunnel under Los Angeles. It is seriously different from the concept that the businessman presented a year and a half ago. More. During the opening ceremony, Musk called the tunnel under the city of Hawthorne (part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area) "a real panacea" for traffic jams, which are like "acid for the soul." The tunnel is only for self-driving electric cars.

What opportunities give the state a bill on a "sovereign Runet" On December 14, a bill was submitted to the State Duma, which is called the "Law on Sovereign Runet." In fact, this is a massive package of amendments to the law “On Communication” and “On Information”. We read the document and figured out how exactly the “sovereign Runet” can work if the bill is accepted. Who proposed amendments?

The OPEC deal with Russia did not protect oil from a new fall Oil prices. Photo from Facebook OPEC The oil collapse continues, despite the agreement of the OPEC countries and Russia on reducing production. Oil prices have updated the annual minimum - at yesterday's auction, the Brent variety quotes fell by 6%, for the first time since October 2017, dropping below $ 56 per barrel; WTI fell in price by 8%, dropping to $ 46.12 per barrel.

Internal documents from the largest social network show that Yandex, Microsoft, Amazon, Spotify and other large technology companies received access to large amounts of user data from Facebook without the knowledge of the users themselves. In doing so, Facebook "exempted business partners from its usual privacy rules," writes The New York Times. The Microsoft Bing search engine, without the consent of the user, received the names of all his friends.