Eike Batista put his OGX oil company into the Brazilian version of bankruptcy protection, after talks collapsed with creditors to restructure $3.6 billion in bonds. OGX's colossal failure stems from vastly overestimating the amount of oil it could produce. It is Latin America's biggest corporate default to date. Rabobank, a Dutch mutual lender, was fined a total of $1 billion for rigging the benchmark LIBOR interest rate. It was the second-biggest of the penalties imposed on the five banks that have settled in the LIBOR scandal so far. Rabobank's chief executive resigned; he said he was unaware of what was going on. Stormy weather ahead Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank, one of the banks that has yet to settle with regulators over alleged LIBOR misdeeds, set aside another €1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) for potential legal costs. It faces a big claim in America that it mis-sold mortgage-backed investments. PricewaterhouseCoopers announced a conditional merger with Booz & Company, a smaller rival in the consultancy business. Booz was founded in 1914. In the 1950s it was the world's biggest firm of management consultants, later developing the concept of supply-chain management. Britain's economy grew by 0.8% in the third quarter compared with the previous three months, the fastest pace since the middle of 2010. On an annualised basis, GDP rose by 3.2%. Of the four main industrial categories, construction grew most, no doubt helped by the government's new mortgage-guarantee scheme for homebuyers. The Reserve Bank of India put up its benchmark interest rate again, by one-quarter of a percentage point to 7.75%. Inflation has risen steeply over the past few months, especially in foodstuffs. Onions, a staple of Indian cooking, now cost four times as much as they did this time last year. The central bank also took further steps to unwind the emergency measures it introduced in July, when the rupee plunged in currency markets. Apple's quarterly net profit dipped again, to $7.5 billion between July and September compared with $8.2 billion for the same period last year. Revenue was up a bit, at $37.5 billion. Although it sold lots more iPhones in the quarter, almost 34m, iPad sales hardly budged at 14.1m. Still, the company was confident that its latest product range would boost profits in the run-up to Christmas. Twitter kicked off its investor roadshow ahead of its IPO, holding meetings with hedge funds and portfolio managers to answer the inevitable questions about future profitability. The microblogging site has proposed a price range of $17 to $20 a share for its forthcoming flotation on the New York Stock Exchange. If the shares sell at the top of the range, Twitter could reap $1.6 billion from its listing. Like? Whatever Facebook reported solid quarterly earnings. Advertising on mobile devices now accounts for half its revenues, up from 14% in last year's third quarter; it is concentrating on improving the targeting of ads, rather than the quantity of them, to increase sales. Facebook also admitted for the first time that the number of American teenagers using it had declined; one recent poll found only 23% of teenagers listing it as the most important site. The chief executive of Teva Pharmaceuticals stepped down after sparing with the chairman over strategy. The world's biggest maker of generic drugs is based in Israel, where its recent announcement of 5,000 worldwide job cuts sparked a political row about the tax breaks it receives. Teva's share price has slid from its peak in 2010. Although it is best known for making generic drugs, the bulk of its profit comes from Copaxone, its proprietary treatment for multiple sclerosis. Teva's patent on it expires next May. Fiat cutits profit outlook for the year, reduced by a drop in revenue from Brazil, an important market for the Italian carmaker. Meanwhile Chrysler, Fiat's subsidiary in which it has a 58.5% stake, said net profit for the third quarter had accelerated by 22%. Fiat wants to consolidate control over Chrysler by buying the remaining shares it does not own, but it is being frustrated by the union trust fund that holds the shares. Car pile-up America's Treasury lost $9.7 billion on General Motors and $2.9 billion on Chrysler by rescuing them in 2009, according to an update. The government has recovered $35 billion from its bail-out of GM by selling shares and reducing its stake to 7%. For the government to break even the remaining shares it holds would need to be priced at just under $148; they now trade for around $36.