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.
