Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Fri 01.22.2010
Big Banks Have Already Figured Out The Loophole In Obama’s New Rules Big banks have already begun poking the holes in Obama’s new rules—holes they expect their banks to pass through basically unchanged. The president promised this morning to work with Congress to ensure that no bank or financial institution that contains a bank will own, invest in or sponsor a hedge fund or a private equity fund, or proprietary trading operations unrelated to serving customers for its own profit.
Opposition To Bernanke Growing In Wake Of Mass. Vote: Sanders HuffPost's Jeff Muskus and I polled as many senators as we could find Thursday after posting this story.The question: Would they commit to reconfirming Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. We found 26 senators in all. Half were undecided; one wouldn't say; three were outright nays; only nine were firmly in the aye column. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) summed it for many of her colleagues: The decision, she said, "gives me heartburn."
Hyperinflation, Money Demand, and the Crack-up Boom In the early 1920s, Ludwig von Mises became a witness to hyperinflation in Austria and Germany — monetary developments that caused irreparable and (in the German case) cataclysmic damage to civilization. Mises's policy advice was instrumental in helping to stop hyperinflation in Austria in 1922. In his Memoirs, however, he expressed the view that his instruction — halting the printing press — was heeded too late: Austria's currency did not collapse — as did Germany's in 1923. The crack up boom did not occur. Nevertheless, the country had to bear the destructive consequences of continuing inflation for many years. Its banking, credit, and insurance systems had suffered wounds that could no longer heal, and no halt could be put to the consumption of capital.
Stimulating Depression Through Government Spending “China’s lending curb sparks a rush for safety.” That’s how The Financial Times describes what happened yesterday. Investors were more moved by fear than by greed. Dow sold off 112 points. Gold dropped $27. The dollar and bonds were up. The first thing we note is that investors are idiots. They’re looking for safety in the wrong places. Sell gold? Buy the dollar? And bonds? It may be a good move in the short run…but this kind of safety is too dangerous for us. The second thing that comes to mind is a question: is this the beginning of the end? Today, stocks in Asia are still falling…presumably for the same reason. China is reporting such hot growth that the authorities will be forced to throw a bucket of water on it. At least, that’s what a lot of investors are thinking.
Geithner aired concern on bank limits-sources U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has expressed some skepticism behind closed doors about the broad bank limits proposed on Thursday by his boss, President Barack Obama, according to financial industry sources. The sources, speaking anonymously because Geithner has not spoken publicly about his reservations, said the Treasury chief is concerned the proposed limits on big banks' trading and size could impact U.S. firms' global competitiveness.
Obama's 'Volcker Rule' shifts power away from Geithner For much of last year, Paul Volcker wandered the country arguing for tougher restraints on big banks while the Obama administration pursued a more moderate regulatory agenda driven by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. Thursday morning at the White House, it seemed as if the two men had swapped places. A beaming Volcker stood at Obama's right as the president endorsed his proposal and branded it the "Volcker Rule." Geithner stood farther away, compelled to accommodate a stance he once considered less effective than his own.
The ‘Volcker Rule’ as a modern-day Glass-Steagall Reform could shake markets’ boom-and-bust cycle For Glass-Steagall in the 1930s, read the Volcker Rule for a new decade. Instead of the crude separation of commercial and investment banking, we will now see an equally crude split of the banking business from proprietary trading, hedge funds and private equity. Some salient points on Glass-Steagall are often missed. First, for decades, it worked. The US financial reforms of the 1930s helped to deliver decades of stable economic growth and reasonably stable growth in equity markets.
Senate Proposes Increasing U.S. Debt Limit to $14.3 Trillion The U.S. debt limit would be raised by $1.9 trillion to $14.29 trillion under an amendment proposed in the Senate. The chamber began debate yesterday on raising the debt ceiling for the fifth time in two years after lower tax revenue from the recession and higher stimulus spending boosted the calendar-year budget deficit to an all-time high last year. “If Congress does not enact this legislation, and soon, then the Treasury would default on its debt for the first time in history,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat.
GOP, Dems in "Death Embrace": U.S. Budget "About to Go Off a Cliff," Cal Prof Says Raise taxes or cut spending? Washington must take action on both fronts to curb U.S. debt or run the risk of a dollar crisis, according to a report by the Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States, a panel of bipartisan experts. "The Republican and Democrats are in a death embrace and about to go off a cliff," says Alan Auerbach economist at University of California at Berkeley. Not a member of the panel, Auerbach has studied the government debt for 15 years. He tells Tech Ticker the near-term "challenge is to take credible action on the deficit without damaging the economic recovery.
It's going to be tough when Chinese families have American house-boys Ah, Mr. Obama, there's that pesky will of the people again. The people of Massachusetts gave President Obama and his socialistic, government-takeover plans what amounted to a boot-kick to the groin. In a shocking upset, a senate seat in Mass. which had literally been "owned" by the Democrats for half a century went to a relatively unknown Republican named Scott Brown. Clearly, the Democratic majority in both houses are in jeopardy, particularly since many disheartened Dems will now retire. Two underlying reasons were responsible for the shocking Democrat defeat - unemployment and a fierce dislike of the Obama administration's bungling takeover of everything in sight, with emphasis on the puzzling private health system.
Is there gold in Fort Knox? Buried inside a 109,000-acre U.S. Army post in Kentucky sits one of the Federal Reserve's most secure assets and its only gold depository: the 73-year-old Fort Knox vault. Its glittering gold bricks, totaling 147.3 million ounces (that's about $168 billion at current prices), are stacked inside massive granite walls topped with a bombproof roof. Or are they? It's hard to know for sure. Few people have been inside Fort Knox, a highly classified bunker ringed by fences and multiple alarms and guarded by Apache helicopter gunships. When the U.S. finished building Fort Knox in 1937, the gold was shipped in on a special nine-car train manned by machine gunners and loaded onto Army trucks protected by a U.S. Calvary brigade. And the fort has been pretty much off limits since then. A U.S. Mint spokesman said in an email statement to MoneyWatch that the accounting firm KPMG, which audits the Mint, "has been present in the vault at Fort Knox." The Mint won't comment on exactly how much gold is in there, though.
US Mint Sales: 2010 Silver Eagles Explode on Release In what has become almost a weekly routine of late, the United States Mint again reported unimpressive sales according to their latest figures. A few bright spots did emerge, however. The most impressive gains come not from a numismatic item, but from the US Mint’s bullion coins. Recall that the bullion 2009 American Silver Eagles sold out on January 12th, with 2010-dated coins not appearing for sale until this last Tuesday. The situation left authorized purchasers with no silver bullion options for almost a full week.
Gold slides on dollar rise, fear that China may cool growth Gold futures extended their loss into a second session Thursday, pressured as Chinese inflation data fed expectations Beijing was moving to slow the country's growth, and by a rise in the U.S. dollar. Sapping demand for precious metals, often seen as an alternative to paper currencies, investors throughout much of the metals session bid up the U.S. dollar on concerns about sovereign debt and proposed U.S. bank restrictions.
Why Deflation Is Good for Precious Metals Among the myths being constantly circulated by gold-bears is that gold (and silver) only perform well in high-inflation environments. As with many of the pronouncements of the gold-bears, this is another case of them drawing conclusions based upon their own, faulty understanding of markets, history, and precious metals, themselves. To properly understand this issue requires understanding the true nature of money. While I have covered this issue in a previous commentary, this concept is so important, and so few people understand it that it is worth explaining this point again. The starting point is to list the four properties which all good “money” must exhibit.
A store of value
Evenly divisible
Uniform
Rare (or “precious”)
Gold: Something's Brewing Lease rates in the London bullion market have risen precipitously. Well, it's not so much that lease rates are rising - they're pretty cheap compared with their year-ago levels - it's more that forward rates are at historic lows. Forward rates determine the pricing of bullion transactions in the over-the-counter market. A decline in forward rates implies one of two things: There's either a scarcity of metal available for swap or lease transactions, or there's heavy forward selling. So, which is it? Well, we can gather some clues from the COMEX market. The latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show commercial accounts engaging in heavy selling and long liquidation. To boot, money managers have built their largest short position since August 2009 (and, if you're a contrarian, small speculators have taken up their strongest long position in a year and a half).
Money Magazine Still Hates Gold, So Buy It Over the last decade, it would have been possible for investors to make lots of money doing exactly the opposite of what Money Magazine has been telling their readers to do and one of the best examples of this can be found in their very consistent advice about gold. Put simply, the yellow metal has no place in a Money Magazine reader's investment portfolio, that is, if they want to RETIRE RICH like the happy couple in the magazine cover below.
Paper gold can not produce bullion: Jim Sinclair Because of paper gold, market games can be played. What cannot be done is for paper gold to produce bullion. The bullies can attack the paper gold market in unison, but they cannot create supply in real bullion with the ease of highly leveraged paper. The pros depend on the under-financed public to stampede under the pressure of fear of loss. Believe me, I used to run the locals (pros) all over the lot, and on occasion I got significant paybacks.
No bull stops for silver in 2010 It seems bullion analysts are now going for silver as they believe that silver will outperform gold in 2010. A report in I-Net Bridge, said if silver continues its upward trend, it could easily outperform gold during 2010. While the price of gold increased by more than 30% last year, silver prices increased by more than 60%. Many analysts said it is important for investors to include some silver as well as gold in their precious metals portfolio. In fact, at current levels silver looks extremely undervalued and it may trade as high as $25 per ounce in 2010.
Silver: The Race Is On What do the following items tell you? Price of silver falls by nearly 5% in one day. In less than 11 days the available stock of silver to cover paper shorts falls by nearly 15%. In the first few minutes of oveseas trade, silver begins to recover it's losses. The answer is that the race to own silver is on. From the US Government saying that it can't get enough blanks to make the silver eagle to the fact that silver stocks are continuing to decline rapidly since the first of the year, the signs are all pointing to an increase in the future. Allow me to point out what I am seeing and you can make up your own mind.
Celente: Banks gambling with taxpayer money
Inflation 101 We want all our readers to understand that inflation is a disaster for society and it only benefits the elite. In fact, we will go even further by stating that inflation is a hidden tax, an insidious crime against the public. It is the easiest way for any government to confiscate the savings of the public and for generations, wealth has been transferred in this manner. In our opinion, inflation is evil and the sole reason why human beings have become modern-day slaves. Remember, money is supposed to be a store of value, however due to reckless central bank-sponsored inflation, it can no longer fulfill this critical role.
Russia diversifies into Canadian dollars Russia’s central bank announced on Wednesday that it had started buying Canadian dollars and securities in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves. Analysts said the move could be a sign of increased diversification of emerging market central bank assets away from the dollar and into investments denominated in other commodity-linked currencies, such as the Australian dollar.
China Statement’s Missing Words May Signal Shift on Stimulus Seven missing words in a statement issued yesterday by China’s statistics bureau fueled speculation that the government will officially change its fiscal and monetary policy stance. The agency’s fourth-quarter economic growth announcement omitted a reference to maintaining a “moderately loose monetary policy” and a “proactive fiscal policy” in its outlook section. While Ma Jiantang, who heads the bureau, later cited the “moderately loose” pledge in a question-and-answer session with journalists, the written statement mirrored the same omission by Premier Wen Jiabao in a Jan. 19 report.
Japan, China, Greece and Geithner The bankruptcy filing of the Japanese -formerly national- airline JAL gets surprisingly little press beyond a litany of numbers. This may not be so wise, since the fact that the Japanese government lets the carrier go down is not exactly without meaning. Tokyo sends a message. And while that can vary from a strong message (we won't pay anymore) to a weak one (we can't pay anymore), there can be little doubt that the intended signal is that Japanese industries, even those too big or too beautiful to fail, may find themselves all alone when they get into trouble. And that is not what they've gotten used to over the past 20 years.
Roubini says China can't bring recovery alone Noted economist Nouriel Roubini said Thursday that expectations China can buoy the global economy on its own will meet with disappointment, adding that a glut of worldwide industrial capacity threatens recovery from the financial crisis. Roubini, who gained fame by predicting the current global recession, told a financial forum in Hong Kong that it would take "a decade if not a generation" before Chinese consumers are in a position to have a meaningful impact. "China cannot be the only engine of global economic growth," though its frenzied pace of development is offering some support for regional economies and commodity markets, he said.
The Risky Rich . . . (sovereign nations) Nouriel Roubini Today’s swollen fiscal deficits and public debt are fueling concerns about sovereign risk in many advanced economies. Traditionally, sovereign risk has been concentrated in emerging-market economies. After all, in the last decade or so, Russia, Argentina, and Ecuador defaulted on their public debts, while Pakistan, Ukraine, and Uruguay coercively restructured their public debt under the threat of default. But, in large part – and with a few exceptions in Central and Eastern Europe – emerging-market economies improved their fiscal performance by reducing overall deficits, running large primary surpluses, lowering their stock of public debt-to-GDP ratios, and reducing the currency and maturity mismatches in their public debt. As a result, sovereign risk today is a greater problem in advanced economies than in most emerging-market economies.
Goldman Expects to Keep Cake, Eat Same, Stick Public with Tab Dick Bove says that Obama's proposal will be good for Goldman Sachs because it will take away the prop trading from banks that have deposits, but will not affect Goldman Sachs who will once again eliminate more competition. So buy the stock. Hard to imagine anything short of Armageddon that would cause the word 'sell' to emanate from his bloviateness when he is talking his book. And Goldman Sachs says that it is 'unrealistic' to take away their place at the Fed's teats as a subsidy sucking bank holding company
Welcome back, Glass-Steagall In honor of the latest banking overhaul proposed by President Obama (with inflation fighter Paul Volcker to boot) I give you the following ditty. Sing it along to the tune of "Welcome Back, Kotter" -- a TV show that was popular just before Volcker became the chairman of the Fed! I call it "Welcome back, Glass-Steagall." I guess that makes Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs some of the Sweathogs. And poor Bank of America has to be Horshack.
Wall St's rout seen as onset of correction The sharp slide in U.S. stocks this week portends more trouble for Wall Street in the days ahead as investors worry if the recent rally is sustainable. With major indexes breaching key technical support levels on Wednesday, market technicians said Wall Street was likely to see the onset of a long-anticipated correction following a 70 percent run-up in the benchmark S&P 500 from March 2009. "This is the beginning of a correction. It's been brewing for months," said John Kosar, market technician and president of Asbury Research in Chicago. "There's more risk on the downside than opportunity on the upside here until we get a correction."
Wall Street's worst day in months Stocks tumbled Thursday after the Obama administration announced a proposal to increase regulation of the nation's biggest financial firms, including limiting the size and scope of their trading operations.
Lawmakers angry over bank closure Federal regulators received a verbal lashing Thursday from House lawmakers over the shutdown of a Chicago bank strongly tied to the local community and the government's handling of bank closings. Picking over the carcass of Park National Bank — a relatively healthy institution closed by regulators last October — were a House Financial Services subcommittee, bank executives and federal agency officials. Park National and tiny Citizens National Bank, based in Teague, Texas, were in comparatively good financial shape but were shuttered along with seven severely troubled banks under the same corporate umbrella, a bank holding company called FBOP Corp. The other banks were mostly in the West; the nine had combined assets of $19.4 billion.
Obama hammers Wall Street banks President calls for the biggest regulatory overhaul since the 1930s The global banking industry was thrown into turmoil on Thursday after President Barack Obama , responding to public rage over the financial crisis, proposed the most far-reaching overhaul of Wall Street since the 1930s. In reforms that could force the restructuring of some of the biggest names in US finance, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, Mr Obama promised that “never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail”.
New bank regulations, China, and the dollar.
Paul Volcker Prevails Paul Volcker, legendary central banker turned radical reformer of our financial system, has won an important round. The WSJ is now reporting: President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to propose new limits on the size and risk taken by the country's biggest banks, marking the administration's latest assault on Wall Street in what could mark a return -- at least in spirit -- to some of the curbs on finance put in place during the Great Depression.
The Return of the Safety Trade Barely a week ago, we called it the China Sneeze Play. Once again, world markets catch cold after China starts sniffling. Rumors abounded yesterday that the China Banking Regulatory Commission asked several banks to stop making loans. The CBRC’s chairman denied it, but then the Bank of China — one of the country’s biggest banks — announced it is curbing its lending.
Message of the Markets: Inflation Will Force the Fed's Hand, Crippling Recovery Until the past 24 hours, the stock market appeared to be pricing in a V-shaped economic recovery, an outlook also supported by a very steep yield curve. Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research, says these indicators speak to the recovery of the financial sector far more than that broader economy, where the message is still "indeterminate." The yield curve recently hit a record for steepness, meaning the difference between short- and long-term Treasury rates was as wide as it's ever been.
Obama Calls for Limiting Size, Risk-Taking of Banks President Barack Obama, tapping into voter anger over bank bailouts, called for limiting the size and trading activities of financial institutions as a way to reduce risk-taking and prevent another financial crisis. The proposals, to be added to an overhaul of regulations being considered by Congress, would prohibit banks from running proprietary trading operations solely for their own profit and sponsoring hedge funds and private equity funds. He also proposes expanding a 10 percent market-share cap on deposits to include other liabilities such as non-deposit funding to restrict growth and consolidation.
Is Obama the physician, or the embalmer? The gentlemen of the press (and the ladies, too) are mostly a decent sort, often a bit prideful and sometimes with not very much to be prideful about. They're comfortable only by running in a herd. Trying to think alone gives them a migraine. A fortnight ago, Scott Brown was merely a footnote to the ritual of selecting a successor to Teddy Kennedy, not worth the attention of respectable reporters, pundits or pollsters. Everyone in the herd was sure that "the Kennedy mystique," though tattered and frayed, would produce a suitable substitute to fill Teddy's size twelves.
Bank Supervisors in U.S. Impose Tougher Rules Without Overhaul U.S. banking supervisors are using existing authority to raise standards for capital, liquidity and risk management without waiting for the Obama administration and Congress to hammer out a new regulatory structure. Agencies led by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency this year are set to propose rule revisions that would increase the amount of capital large banks must set aside against the risk of trading losses, according to government officials. The revisions would follow recommendations of the Basel Committee, the global coordinator for banking regulations based in Switzerland.
Obama in declaration of war on Wall Street Dangerous populist flirtation with Glass-Steagall Markets nosedived on Thursday when Barack Obama set out broad new measures on financial regulation. The most significant of them is banning deposit-taking banks from proprietary trading that is “unrelated to serving customers”. This activity has generated politically incendiary profits for banks and bonuses for bankers. The timing was political: the president spoke on the day that Goldman Sachs announced fourth-quarter earnings of $4.95bn. Those of a more populist nature than Mr Obama – both on the left and on the right – will say that he comes late to the game.
Supreme Court Rolls Back Campaign Finance Restrictions By a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday rolled back restrictions on corporate spending on federal campaigns. The decision could unleash a torrent of corporate-funded attack ads in upcoming elections. "Because speech is an essential mechanism of democracy -- it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people -- political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it by design or inadvertence," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority.
Whitney Tilson makes a pretty simple, yet solid point against U.S. homebuilders. The U.S. has a massive oversupply of housing right now, as evidenced by the collapse of housing prices. Millions of additional foreclosures are on the way as well. Thus until the U.S. works off its massive oversupply of housing, it won't need any new houses for a long, long time. Thus there will be little work for homebuilders and their employees even if the economy is recovering.
FDIC’s WaMu role under investigation by Senate subcommittee A congressional subcommittee is investigating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s role in the seizure and sale of Seattle-based Washington Mutual Bank in September 2008, a court document shows. A document recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware as part of the Washington Mutual bankruptcy case shows that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) has subpoenaed the FDIC for documents related to the resolution of WaMu.
FDIC Chief Got Bank of America Loans While Working On Its Rescue Agency Grants Sheila Bair Retroactive Ethics Waiver on Mortgages Sheila Bair, one of the chief regulators overseeing Bank of America’s federal rescue, took out two mortgages worth more than $1 million from the banking giant last summer during ongoing negotiations about the bank’s bailout and its repayment. In the weeks between the closings on her two mortgage loans, Bair met with Bank of America’s chief negotiator in the bailout talks.
FDIC geared up for busy year of bank failures FDIC says expects failure rate to remain high in 2010 The U.S. agency charged with dismantling or selling off failed banks said it is equipped to deal with what it sees as a busy 2010, according to remarks to be delivered before Congress on Thursday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp expects that bank failures will remain elevated this year, said Mitchell Glassman, director of the FDIC's division of resolutions and receiverships.
Walking Away From Your Mortgage Is Morally Wrong And Financially Stupid, Says McArdle As millions of Americans begin to realize that it will be years if not decades before their houses are worth what they owe on them, there has been lots of talk about whether it's okay to just voluntarily walk away from your mortgage. I argued last week that, in some circumstances, it is okay -- because your mortgage is a business contract between you and a bank. As the contract makes clear, if you stop paying, the bank gets the house, and you lose your equity and credit rating. That seems like a fair trade, especially if you have tried to renegotiate the mortgage first. Our guest Megan McArdle, economics editor for The Atlantic, thinks this argument is wrong. First, Megan says, walking away from your mortgage voluntarily is often financially stupid: There are plenty of fees and costs associated with defaulting, and your credit rating will be destroyed for years.
Homebuilders Turn to Private Equity for Financing More than 40 U.S. homebuilders have teamed up with private equity firms to acquire and complete unfinished subdivisions as banks cut construction lending. The investments will pay off for the builders and their investors if the prices are low enough and the locations are in areas where demand is recovering, said Megan McGrath, a home building industry analyst at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York.
Small wonders Home sizes fall as builders, buyers embrace economic reality New-home buyers responded to the tough times in 2009 by opting for smaller houses, driving down the average size of a house built in the U.S. for the first time in 27 years. Data released Wednesday by the National Association of Home Builders found the average size of a new home that was completed in 2009 fell to 2,480 square feet from 2,520 square feet in 2008. The last time the average completed-home size fell by a statistically significant amount was 1982.
Pelosi: House won't support Senate health care bill, at least for now The Senate health care bill has too many unpopular provisions to win approval from the House at this time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. Pelosi's comment to reporters appeared to dash the chances that Democrats will take the easiest route for passing a health care bill: having the House approve the Senate version unchanged. "I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House," Pelosi said. "I don't see the votes for it at this time."
Pelosi doesn't have votes to pass health bill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she doesn't have the votes to pass the Senate's health reform bill as some rank-and-file Democrats signaled support for a scaled-down measure - one that deletes parts of both bills or breaks them into pieces, such as insurance industry reforms and Medicaid expansion. The comment marks a serious setback in efforts to pass President Obama's top legislative priority now that Democrats are one vote shy of enough to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
Rise in jobless claims signals bump in recover A surprising jump in first-time claims for unemployment aid sent a painful reminder Thursday that jobs remain scarce six months into the economic recovery. The surge in last week's claims deflated hopes among some analysts that the economy would produce a net gain in jobs in January and help fuel the recovery.
Jobless Claims in U.S. Unexpectedly Rise on Backlog More Americans than anticipated filed claims for unemployment benefits last week, reflecting a backlog of applications from the year-end holidays. Initial jobless claims rose by 36,000 to 482,000 in the week ended Jan. 16, the highest level in two months, from 446,000 the prior week, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The jump was due to an “administrative” accumulation from late December and early January holidays, and did not reflect “economic” reasons, a Labor Department spokesman said.
Jobless claims up, regional manufacturing dips The number of U.S. workers newly applying for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week and regional manufacturing slipped in January, hinting at some slowing in the pace of economic recovery. The Labor Department said on Thursday initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 36,000 to 482,000 last week as a backlog of applications from the holidays was processed. It was the third straight week that claims rose. Analysts had expected new claims to slip to 440,000. Separate data showed factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region slowed in January to a three-month low, while a gauge of economic prospects scaled a record high last month.
Tech job cuts hit 4-year high Planned job cuts at tech companies rose in 2009 for the second straight year, hitting the highest level in four years, according to a report released Tuesday. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reported that tech sector employers announced 174,629 job cuts in 2009. That's a 12.3% increase from cuts announced in 2008, and the highest total since 2005.
Toyota recall: 2.3 million cars Toyota Motor Sales USA is recalling 2.3 million vehicles to correct a problem that could cause the vehicles' gas pedals to stick. This new recall is separate from an on-going recall of 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to correct a problem in which the pedals could become stuck under a loose floor mat.
Cost of gas up 14 cents in the last three weeks Nationally, the average cost of a gallon of regular has risen to $2.74 The average price of regular gasoline in the United States is up 14 cents over a three-week period to $2.74. That's according to the national Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday. Analyst Trilby Lundberg says the average price for a gallon of mid-grade was $2.86. Premium was at $2.97.
The Greatest Threat of the 21st Century: Not AGW but Eco-Fascism As you freeze your butt off in a winter whose severity the politicised weather forecasters of the Met Office utterly failed to predict, and as you wonder how you can afford gas and electricity bills which have been grotesquely inflated by taxes and legislation designed to “combat global warming”, spare a thought for a fellow victim of eco-fascism who’s even worse off than you. In a week or so this poor man could be dead.
Air America Radio closing, filing for bankruptcy Air America Radio, a radio network that was launched in 2004 as a liberal alternative to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators, on Thursday shut down abruptly due to financial woes. The network once boasted hosts such as Al Franken and Rachel Maddow, but struggled from the outset, including multiple management shake-ups, a bankruptcy in 2006 and sale for $4.25 million the following year. Air America ceased airing new programs Thursday afternoon and said it will soon file to be liquidated under Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It began broadcasting reruns of programs and would end those as well Monday night.
Liberal talk radio Air America shuts down Air America, the liberal talk-radio network that launched with much fanfare in 2004, ceased operation on Thursday, whipped by the “difficult” economic climate that led to a drop off in local and national advertising revenue. The network, best known for hosting a show by Al Franken, a comedian who was elected as a US senator in 2008, was positioned as a counter to the strength of conservative radio embodied by well-known radio hosts including Rush Limbaugh.
Why Americans Should Care About the Debt Crisis in Greece Is Greece about to go bust? The Greek government says they don't need a rescue package but they are exploring all options to claw out of a mounting debt crisis to cover their near-term budget shortfall. Investors are still skeptical. Yields on Greece's benchmark 10-year bond are trading near record premiums to comparable German debt after briefly touching a record high on Wednesday. The cost of insuring that debt through credit default swaps is also near unprecedented levels. European Union officials say they are not worried about Greece defaulting and have refused to discuss talks of a bailout.
Sarkozy’s Three-Way NATO Bet France’s return to NATO’s integrated military structure after a 43-year absence last year brought to an end one of the exceptions françaises. It also helped frame the growing debate over whether to develop European defense more effectively or to seriously reform the Atlantic alliance. At first glance, it may seem that France chose NATO at the expense of the ten-year-old European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). But that interpretation takes too pessimistic a view of ESDP’s achievements over the past decade, and is based on a flawed understanding of the relationships between NATO and the European Union.
Haiti wants to move 400,000 out of capital Suburb picked to start; aid still backed up with 1,400 flights waiting PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's government on Thursday unveiled plans to move 400,000 earthquake victims to new settlements outside the destroyed capital. The first wave of 100,000 people were to be sent to transitional tent villages of 10,000 each near Croix Des Bouquets, a suburb north of Port-au-Prince, Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime told reporters.
Haiti to move 400,000 quake survivors to temporary camps Haiti says it will resettle 400,000 earthquake survivors from its stricken capital to temporary camps outside town. The chief of staff to President Rene Preval tells The Associated Press that the government is concerned about sanitary conditions in the hundreds of tent cities that have sprung up in Port-au-Prince since the Jan. 12 quake. Doctors have warned of outbreaks of disease among the hundreds of thousands in the overcrowded camps.
Russia says to start Iran nuclear plant in 2010 MOSCOW, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Russia will start up the reactor at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant this year, the chief of Russia's state nuclear corporation told reporters on Thursday. "2010 is the year of Bushehr," Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Moscow. "There is absolutely no doubt that it will be built this year. Everything is going according to schedule," he said. (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Conor Humphries)
Russia vows quick completion of Iran atom plant Russia's energy minister pledged Sunday a quick completion of Iran's first nuclear power station, two weeks after announcing the latest delay, but refrained from giving a specific time for its launch. The comment from Sergei Shmatko came after talks with Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi and as Iran's government announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants, in a major expansion of its disputed nuclear program. In mid-November, Shmatko said that technical issues would prevent engineers from starting up the reactor at Bushehr -- being built by Russian state contractor Atomstroyexport -- by the end of the year as previously planned.
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