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Société Générale S.A. (French: [sɔsjete ʒeneʁal]), colloquially known in English speaking countries as SocGen (French: [sɔk ʒɛn]), is a French multinational universal bank and financial services company founded in 1864. It is registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense.

Société Générale is France's third largest bank by total assets after BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole. It is also the sixth largest bank in Europe and the world's eighteenth. It is considered to be a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.

From 1966 to 2003 it was known as one of the Trois Vieilles ("Old Three") major French commercial banks, along with Banque Nationale de Paris (from 2000 BNP Paribas) and Crédit Lyonnais. (Full article...)

The economy of the European Union is the joint economy of the member states of the European Union (EU). It is the second largest economy in the world in nominal terms, after the United States, and the third largest at purchasing power parity (PPP), after China and the US. The European Union's GDP is estimated to be $19.40 trillion (nominal) in 2024 or $28.04 trillion (PPP), representing around one-sixth of the global economy. In 2023, Germany, France and Italy were the three largest economies in the European Union, accounting for approximately 53.1% of the EU's total GDP. Germany contributed 24.3%, while France accounted for 16.4 and Italy for 12.4%. In the same year, the social welfare expenditure of the European Union (EU) as a whole was 26.8% of its GDP.

The euro is the second largest reserve currency and the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The euro is used by 20 of its 27 members, overall, it is the official currency in 26 countries, in the eurozone and in six other European countries, officially or de facto. The EU as a region has produced the world's second-highest number of Nobel laureates in the economics field. (Full article...)

"When I joined the conference, I was quite at sea as to what its outcome would be and frankly skeptical as to its prospects of success. During the first days sessions, Senator Aldrich was much inclined to discuss the possibilities of a full-fledged central bank on the European order-a model he seemed loath to abandon. But when the conference closed, after a week of earnest deliberation, the rough draft of what later became the Aldrich Bill had been agreed upon, and a plan had been outlined which provided for a "National Reserve Association", meaning a central reserve organization with an elastic note issue based on gold and commercial paper. This was not a central bank in the European sense. It was strictly a bankers' bank with branches under the control of separate directorates having superversion over the rediscount operations with member banks."

"In its main principles and in many important details the Aldrich Bill was closely akin to the plan proposed in the "United Reserve Bank of the United States," but there were quite a number of differences, with some of which I was in complete disagreement. For example, in regard to the question of control, I thought that somewhat large concessions should have been made to government influence and representation. Neither was I in full accord with the provisions regarding taxation, note issue, the uniform discount rate, the plan proposed for dealing with the 2 per cent government bonds, or the conditions attaching to the membership of state banks and trust companies. Moreover, the Senator had not yet agreed to a provision, which seemed to me of fundamental importance, that of giving the notes of the National Reserve Association the status of lawful reserve money when in the tills of member banks. The bill frankly followed the Republican doctrine of "keeping the government out of business;" but, as a starter, it was encouraging beyond all expectation. Indeed, the highest hopes seemed warranted that a most satisfactory piece of legislation could eventually be developed from it.

The results of the conference were entirely confidential. Even the fact that there had been a meeting was not permitted to become public."

—Paul M. Warburg, The Federal Reserve System, 1930

• ... that the studios of a California TV station were converted back into a movie theater after it went out of business?
• ... that the 2013 book Brick by Brick, about how The Lego Group reinvented itself, became a popular business text?
• ... that in 1990, Simon Rimmer bought an existing vegetarian restaurant with his business partner and taught himself to cook – in that order?
• ... that despite little formal education, Earnest Andersson was a successful inventor, businessman, amateur athlete, race car driver, pilot, photographer, radio operator, pro golfer, and composer?
• ... that developmental economist Michael Lipton showed that poor farmers were more resource efficient than rich farmers?
• ... that "gig" in "gig economy" comes from the slang term for individual appearances by performing artists?

January 31:

• 1902 - Nat Bailey, a Canadian businessman, founder of White Spot, was born on this day.

• ...that Gold Fixing is the procedure by which the price of gold is set on the London market by the five members of the London Bullion Market Association?

• ...that the Heroninos Archive contains examples of a complex and standardized system of accounting used in 3rd century Roman Egypt?

• ...that Jerry White, cofounder of the Landmine Survivors Network, delivered the 2005 commencement address at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business?

• ...that the melting and export of cents and nickels can be punished with a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisoned for a maximum of five years?

• ...that the Vatican City, has an Automated teller machine (ATM) with instructions in Latin?

• ... that the GDP deflator (implicit price deflator for GDP) is a price index measuring changes in prices of all new, domestically produced, final goods and services in an economy.

• ... that Paul Krugman introduced returns to scale to the field of international trade, now referred to as new trade theory?

• July 21: Technological University Dublin senior lecturer Dr Lorcan Sirr speaks to Wikinews on housing market in Ireland
• July 15: California governor signs new state budget, eligible Californians to get stimulus payments
• July 4: 130 OECD countries agree to back global corporate tax rate
• June 30: 'Each makes the other more difficult to recover from': University of Sussex professor L. Alan Winters speaks to Wikinews on trade, COVID-19, Brexit
• June 16: Wikinews interviews Victor Kline, leader of newly registered The New Liberals party in Australia
• April 23: Irish Finance Minister Donohoe criticises OECD's global minimum corporate tax rate
• April 17: People protest in Berlin against German Court overturning five-year rent cap
• March 5: Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces UK budget 2021
• February 10: Disney to shut down Blue Sky Studios, animation studio behind 'Ice Age'
• January 24: World Trade Organization declares US tariff hike illegal, rules in South Korea's favour