Global Articles on what is going on...posted daily

[sandi66]

Saudi Shares Advance on Higher Confidence in Global Recovery

Share Business By Fiona MacDonald

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian shares rose in the week’s first day of trading, led by Saudi Arabia’s biggest bank and following European and Asian markets on improved confidence in a global economic recovery.

The Tadawul All Share Index advanced 0.3 percent to close at 6,583.78, its highest level since Oct. 15, 2008. The measure is up more than 7 percent this year as the economy of the world’s largest crude exporter benefits from higher oil prices.

Al-Rajhi Bank, the largest by market value in the kingdom, rose 0.3 percent to 77.75 riyals, its highest level since Feb. 20.

European stocks rose for a second week, sending the Stoxx Europe 600 Index to the highest level in more than seven weeks, as concern eased that Greece will fail to contain the region’s biggest budget deficit. Asian stocks rose, driving the MSCI Asia Pacific Index higher for a third week, as better-than-estimated U.S. jobs data and abating concern over Greece’s debt spurred confidence in a global economic recovery.

Crude oil for April delivery fell 87 cents to $81.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on March 12, the lowest settlement since March 4. Prices earlier touched $83.16, the highest level since Jan. 11. Oil dropped 0.3 percent this week and is up 73 percent from a year ago.

Savola Al-Azizia United Co., Saudi Arabia’s second-largest food producer, gained 1.1 percent to 36.7 riyals. Banque Saudi Fransi increased 0.7 percent to 46.7 riyals, rising for a second day.

The Saudi bourse is the only Arab exchange monitored by Bloomberg that is open on Saturdays.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fiona MacDonald in Kuwait [e-mail].

Last Updated: March 13, 2010 09:33 EST

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601013&sid=aoHBeemiP88Q

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Clarity sought in disbursement of funds on climate change




Transparency International wants G-20 documents to include global fight against corruption.






Bindu D. Menon

Berlin, March 13

With billions of dollars expected to flow into climate change initiatives across the globe, Berlin-based Transparency International (TI), at the recent Group-20 summit, advocated a transparent disbursement of public funds.

“The G-20 is asking for a lot of projects to have green components because we are all aware that there is a climate change issue. Now, these green components need to be transparent. Every time you have a global trend, you have money. And bigger the trend, bigger the money, because you have a lot of investors,” Mr Francois Valerian, Head of Private Sector Programme, TI, told a group of visiting journalists.

Climate change

Mr Valerian said climate change was perhaps the most complex global governance challenge the world had ever faced. The global response to climate change, he said, would demand unprecedented international cooperation, deep economic transformation and resource transfers on a significant scale.

“So I have to mention those three points---governance, regulation and prevention. Now we are also in the global effort that has to be undertaken to fight corruption, which we would like to see more in the G20 documents,” Mr Valerian said. He added that many of the institutions, governance processes and initiatives designed to mitigate and adapt to climate change were vulnerable to a broad range of corruption risks. They ranged from undue influence on policies and regulations, to misallocation of funds and manipulation of markets, reporting and verification mechanisms. TI comes out with the popular global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

Fast-track disbursements

“At a time when massive stimulus packages, fast–track disbursements of public funds and attempts to secure peace are being implemented around the world, it is essential to identify where corruption blocks good governance and accountability, in order to break its corrosive cycles,” said Ms Huguette Labelle, Chairperson, TI.

TI had at the G-20 summit earlier taken initiatives to promote transparency among countries in order to clamp down on so-called tax havens. In March 2009, Liechtenstein had agreed to revise its easy-going laws on secret bank accounts and to cooperate with foreign investigators trying to locate tax evaders. Other countries such as Singapore, Switzerland, Austria, Andorra and Monaco followed suit. The European Union is pushing for an ultimatum until March 2010, after which non-cooperative states will face sanctions.

www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/03/14/stories/2010031451470400.htm

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Eurozone Agrees To Bailout Greece

2010-03-13 15:15:39 (1 hours ago)
Posted By: Intellpuke

The eurozone has agreed a multibillion-euro bailout for Greece as part of a package to shore up the single currency after weeks of crisis, the Guardian newspaper has learned.

Senior sources in Brussels said that Berlin had bowed to the bailout agreement despite huge resistance in Germany and that the finance ministers of the "eurozone" - the 16 member states including Greece who use the euro - are to finalize the rescue package on Monday. The single currency's rulebook will also be rewritten to enforce greater fiscal discipline among members.

The member states have agreed on "co-ordinated bilateral contributions" in the form of loans or loan guarantees to Greece if Athens finds itself unable to refinance its soaring debt and requests help from the European Union, said a senior European commission official.

Other sources said the aid could rise to €25 billion (£22.6 billion), although it is estimated in European capitals that Greece could need up to €55 billion by the end of the year.

Germany, the E.U.'s traditional paymaster, but the most reluctant to come to the rescue of a fiscal delinquent in the current crisis, has played the pivotal role in organizing the rescue package, the sources added.

"There have been quite intensive preparations under the eurogroup. We have the ways and means to do it," said the senior official, asking not to be named because of the subject's sensitivity.

"It will be a coordinated approach of bilateral contributions [between E.U. governments] … A bilateral contribution can be a loan or a loan guarantee. The guarantees will facilitate the kind of funds potentially needed in this context."

The rules governing the operation of the single currency proscribe a bailout for a country on the brink of insolvency. Berlin, in particular, has been worried that any bailout of Greece could be challenged in its constitutional court.

The senior official said the agreement - which will not involve any contribution from the U.K. taxpaye - had been tailored to respect the bailout ban and avoid a supreme court challenge in Germany.

Alongside the financial relief package for Greece, the European commission is rushing through tougher rules for the eurozone, using powers conferred by the recently enacted Lisbon treaty to try to establish a system of rigorous "budgetary surveillance" of all 16 participating countries. The aim is a new regime of "reinforced economic policy co-ordination" in the E.U.

"This is the essential lesson that has to be learned from the Greek case," Olli Rehn of Finland, the new commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, told the Guardian (and four other European papers).

"The Greek case is a potential turning point for the eurozone," said Rehn in the interview. "If Greece fails and we fail, this will do serious and maybe permanent damage to the credibility of the European Union. The euro is not only a monetary arrangement, but a core political project of the European Union … In that sense, we are at a crossroads."

While ready to bail out the Greeks if only on terms of "rigorous conditionality", European leaders are hoping that the rescue will not be needed, that the draconian package of austerity measures announced by Prime Minister George Papandreou will be enough to calm the markets and stabilize the euro.

E.U. leaders are to rule next week on whether Papandreou is doing enough to slash the 12.7% budget deficit by four percentage points this year, part of his ambition to cut the deficit by 10 points over three years.

Rehn said he would unveil new proposals next month, enshrining a new single currency regime of "rigorous surveillance of national budgets" and that Eurostat, the E.U.'s statistical agency, would need to be given formidable new auditing powers over the books of eurozone member states, a demand that may be resisted by E.U. governments.

"That's the hard core of our proposal. [The surveillance] should be automatic," said Rehn. "We have an immediate corrective instrument for the Greek case, plus another framework to prevent new Greek crises."

Inside the commission, officials are confident that Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, supports the tough new regime being plotted. Schauble, who uses a wheelchair and is currently in hospital, and will not attend key meetings in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday.

Schauble enjoys a longstanding reputation as a European integrationist and is said to have played a central role in shaping the Greek bailout plans despite widespread hostility to any such moves in Germany.

Over the past week, he has sparked a major debate by calling for a European Monetary Fund to underpin the currency, and yesterday stoked more controversy by proposing that serial sinners in the eurozone could be expelled from the single currency club.

The EMF concept is for the long-term and a new rule enabling expulsion from the euro club would require the Lisbon treaty to be re-opened, a nightmare for most after laboring over it for almost nine years.

While senior figures in Brussels believe that Chancellor Angela Merkel and Schauble are intensely serious about establishing an EMF, they also suspect they are using the idea to assuage hostile public opinion in Germany and "prepare a short-term fire brigade operation for Greece".

Intellpuke: You can read this article by Guardian European editor Ian Traynor, reporting from E.U. headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in context here:

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/12/eu-agrees-greece-bailout


freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=24948

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China May Face ‘Massive’ Bank Bailouts After Stimulus Program

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- China may be forced to bail out banks that made loans for local-government projects under the unprecedented stimulus program unleashed in 2008, according to Citigroup Inc. and Northwestern University’s Victor Shih.

In a “worst-case scenario,” the non-performing loans of local-government investment vehicles could climb to 2.4 trillion yuan ($350 billion) by 2011, Shen Minggao, Citigroup’s Hong Kong-based chief economist for greater China, said yesterday.

“The most likely case is that the Chinese government will engineer a massive financial bailout of the financial sector,” said Shih, a professor who spent months researching borrowing by about 8,000 local government entities.

Chinese officials pledged this week to limit the risks posed by the investment vehicles, which circumvent restrictions on local-government borrowing to channel money into stimulus projects. Yan Qingmin, head of the banking regulator’s Shanghai branch, said March 5 that China plans to nullify guarantees provided by local governments for some loans.

Citigroup’s Shen said officials may keep monetary policy loose for longer than they should, boosting asset prices and building up overcapacity, to avoid the “squeeze” on investment vehicles that would trigger bad loans and bailouts.

“The risk is that inflation or asset bubbles force the government to withdraw their support to local governments much earlier than expected,” he said in a phone interview.

Stimulus Policies

In Shen’s worst case, commercial banks, lending because of explicit or implicit government guarantees rather than the quality of projects, see 20 percent of lending to the investment vehicles turn bad in 2011.

Premier Wen Jiabao is weighing when to exit crisis policies as property prices surge, inflation climbs and exports rebound, highlighting the risk of overheating in the world’s fastest- growing major economy, awash with cash from unprecedented lending in 2009.

Shih was more pessimistic than Shen in an interview on Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong yesterday. He said that if the central government stops lending to the entities now, the cost of a bailout may already be “in the neighborhood” of 3 trillion yuan.

The academic said that “the only credible action by the central government now is to allow a handful of these entities to go bankrupt -- so that the banks know that the central government means business when it says it’s withdrawing guarantees.”

‘Not So Serious’

In contrast, Jia Kang, the head of the research institute of China’s Ministry of Finance, said March 10 that the risks “may not be so serious as some people have claimed.”

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. President Yang Kaisheng said March 7 that the lender had inspected loans it extended to the financing vehicles in 2008 and 2009 and “so far didn’t find many big problems.”

Su Ning, a deputy governor at China’s central bank, said March 8 that a “fairly high proportion” of total lending last year went to the funding vehicles. Chinese banks extended a record 9.59 trillion yuan of new loans in 2009. Su sees “a big risk” from local-government guarantees for money borrowed to fund infrastructure projects that may not generate returns, he said in Beijing.

The investment entities have played a key role in channeling money to stimulus projects, often for urban development, Citigroup’s Shen said.

Zhou’s Concern

Central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said March 6 that while “many” of the financing entities have the ability to repay debt, two types cause concern.

One uses land as collateral, while the other can’t fully repay, meaning local governments may be liable, leading to “fiscal risks,” he told reporters in Beijing.

Regulators believe a few cities and counties may struggle with repayments in coming years because of debt ratios already exceeding 400 percent, a person with knowledge of the matter said in January. The ratio is of year-end outstanding debt to annual disposable fiscal income.

Chinese banks had 497 billion yuan of non-performing loans as of Dec. 31, accounting for 1.58 percent of advances, according to the banking regulator.

--Paul Panckhurst, Kevin Hamlin, Susan Li. Editors: Lily Nonomiya, Cherian Thomas

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Panckhurst in Beijing at [e-mail]

Last Updated: March 12, 2010 11:00 EST

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aIylss..voRM&pos=6

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Eurozone ‘to agree on Greek aid’

Reuters/Brussels

Eurozone finance ministers are likely to agree tomorrow on the principles and parameters of financial help to Greece, if it is required, but leave out any sums until Athens asks for them, an EU source said.

“I think we should be able to agree on principles of a euro area facility for co-ordinated assistance. The European Commission and the Eurogroup task force would have the mandate to finalise the work,” the senior EU source, with knowledge of the preparations, said.

“It would be the principles and parameters of a facility or mechanism, which then could be activated if needed and requested.”

British newspaper the Guardian reported its sources as saying the aid to be made available by the bailout could reach €25bn. Greece’s borrowing needs for the whole of 2010 total €53.2bn.

But the source said no numbers were likely at this stage.

“There is no agreed figure. You would have a framework mechanism and you would have blank spaces for the numbers because there has been no request (from Greece) yet,” the source said.

Finance ministers from the 16 countries using the euro, the Eurogroup, meet tomorrow in Brussels to discuss the Greek debt crisis and the country’s progress in introducing austerity measures necessary to regain the confidence of markets.

Greece has announced steps to reduce its budget deficit this year to 8.7% of GDP from 12.7% in 2009, triggering street protests and strikes but also reducing market concern over whether the country would be able to service its debt.

The source said that among the instruments considered to help Greece were both bilateral loans and loan guarantees.

“The preparations have been done under the Eurogroup by member states and the Commission. The Commission has done much of the technical work,” the source said. “The aim of the exercise so far has been to do the technical preparations, so that the political decision could be possible on Monday. Germany holds the key at the moment.”

Polls show that public opinion in Europe’s biggest economy Germany is strongly opposed to their country bailing out Greece, which has for years provided unreliable statistics about the true size of its deficit and debt, breaking EU budget rules.

In a move that is likely to alleviate German concerns about spending money on Greece, the Commission has said it would soon make a proposal for stronger economic co-operation between euro zone countries and tighter surveillance of their performance.

However, Germany’s finance ministry said yesterday it was not aware of any agreement by eurozone members to provide a multi-billion-euro bailout package for Greece.

The statement by a ministry spokesman followed a report by Britain’s Guardian newspaper that a multi-billion-euro bailout for Greece had been agreed as part of a package to support the euro.

The paper quoted a senior European Commission official as saying the 16 eurozone members had agreed on “co-ordinated bilateral contributions” in the form of loans or loan guarantees to Greece if Athens was unable to refinance its debts and asked the European Union for help.

The Guardian said agreement had been reached despite strong resistance by Germany. Berlin had played the pivotal role in organising the deal, the paper quoted other sources as saying.

“The Greek case is a turning point for the eurozone,” the Guardian also quoted EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn as saying.

“If Greece fails and we fail, this will do serious and maybe permanent damage to the credibility of the European Union. The euro is not only a monetary arrangement but a core political project of the European Union ... in that sense we are at a crossroads.”

Rehn said he would propose next month a regime of “rigorous surveillance of national budgets” including giving Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, big new auditing powers over the accounts of euro zone member states.

www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=348544&version=1&template_id=48&parent_id=28

[sandi66]

Iraqi vote signals shift from religious leaders

March 13, 2010 - By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer – 12 mins ago
BAGHDAD – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's political coalition took an early vote lead Saturday in the election's all-important battleground of Baghdad, pulling away from its two closest rivals in the latest indication that Iraqis want a moderate government instead of Shiite religious hard-liners leading the postwar nation.

Partial results released by the Independent High Electoral Commission showed the State of Law coalition with about a 60,000-vote edge nationwide over its main moderate challenger, the secular Iraqiya coalition. The Shiite fundamentalist Iraqi National Alliance was in third place.

The partial Baghdad vote was released amid utter disarray in the election commission's headquarters, where the results were flashed on big-screen TVs but yanked down moments later, only to be released yet again. It was the latest in a series of blunders marring the counting process as results have trickled out slowly.

The chairman of the electoral commission, Faraj al-Haidari, said preliminary nationwide results could be released as early as Sunday — a full week after the vote for a 325-member parliament that will choose a prime minister to form a government that will lead the country as U.S. troops prepare to go home.

Allegations of fraud also have plagued the ballot tally. The electoral commission said more than 2,000 complaints had been received as of Saturday but it gave no specifics, saying only that they would be investigated.

With 18 percent of the ballots counted in the province that includes the capital, al-Maliki's State of Law coalition had almost 159,000 votes, followed by the Iran-backed Shiite religious grouping the Iraqi National Alliance with about 108,000 and the moderate and secular Iraqiya coalition tallying about 105,000.

Baghdad is the largest prize in the vote, with just under a fifth of the total parliament seats up for grabs.

"We have promised the people of Baghdad and Iraq that the next four years will be the phase of construction and better economy, and we will live up to our promises," Haider al-Ibadi, a senior State of Law official, said after the capital's results were announced. "And we will join forces with any other political blocs that are committed to the same agenda."

So far, al-Maliki's coalition is leading in five of the 11 provinces where the vote has been partially counted. Iraq has a total of 18 provinces.

Nationwide, State of Law has so far amassed more than 357,000 votes, and Iraqiya was trailing with 295,400 votes. The INA was in third place with just over 280,500.

Outside Baghdad, all of al-Maliki's leads are in southern provinces where Shiite hard-liners were expected to bring stiff competition. The south is generally considered friendly turf for the INA, made up of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — two groups that are linked to Iran.

U.S. officials have long worried that religious hard-liners — especially those influenced by Iran — would take over the still-shaky government and undo much of the progress toward making Iraq a reliable ally in the Middle East.

Hakim al-Zamili, one of the INA's Sadrist candidates, played down al-Maliki's gains and said Iraqis still "are religious and they still respect religious parties."

Even so, al-Zamili acknowledged that some voters have grown tired of fundamentalist politicians.

"We should confess that some people have turned their back on these parties because they were disappointed by the performance of inefficient officials linked to religious parties," al-Zamili said.

Al-Zamili was one of two former government officials arrested and accused of allowing Shiite death squads to use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings, although the charges were dropped two years ago.

Al-Maliki broke off from the Shiite alliance more than a year ago in an effort to win support from a broader base. If his lead holds, it will serve as another, even bigger blow to religious leaders against whom he also fared well in last year's provincial elections.

Many experts have noted the rejection of nationalist, non-religious coalitions reflects Iraqi frustration with years of sectarian fighting as well as frustration over the past four years of religious parties to improve much needed government services.

"The voters have shown that they are fed up with the religious parties that failed to improve their life," said Nabil Salim, a political science professor at Baghdad University.

Iraqiya is led by one of al-Maliki's predecessors, former Premier Ayad Allawi, who is also Shiite. However, Iraqiya has attracted Sunnis who have similarly rejected their own religiously based politicians but remain suspicious of al-Maliki's continued, if lessened, ties to Iran.

Iraqiya officials kept up a drumbeat Saturday of fraud accusations — including discarded ballots and the failure of some provincial ballot boxes to be delivered to the counting center in Baghdad — that they alleged may have cost them votes.

"Our stance is that there were violations and we want the truth about them," said Iraqiya spokeswoman Maysoun al-Damlouji.

___

Associated Press Writers Ben Hubbard, Sameer N. Yacoub, Rebecca Santana and Katarina Kratovac contributed to this report.

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100313/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_83

4:46 PM ET

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Britain faces debt of Greek proportions

Finance » The deficit is growing alarmingly, the pound is faltering and upcoming elections cast doubt on the government's ability to push through needed austerity measures.
By Jane Wardell

The Associated Press

Updated: 03/12/2010 02:37:59 PM MST

London » Government debt is growing, as is the deficit. The economy is struggling to get out of recession and there is talk of spending cuts or higher taxes. The unions are on edge. And the currency is plummeting.

The country is not Greece -- but Britain, almost six times bigger, racking up debt even faster, and headed into a critical election.

The woes of Britain -- only recently a cocky symbol of the global boom times -- show that the troubles for Europe, and the West, extend far beyond the traditionally laggard countries of southern Europe.

Britain does have some factors in its favor: unlike Greece and its reliance on the common euro currency, it prints the currency in which its liabilities are denominated. It is also considered a surer bet for repayment, maintaining a triple-A credit rating.

But the approaching general election is complicating matters. Electoral campaigning is always a difficult time to extol the virtues of cutting spending on services such as roads and hospitals and raising taxes to tame an unruly deficit -- and the recent recession isn't making cash-strapped Britons more amenable.

Even worse, the growing fear is that neither Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour government nor the main opposition Conservative Party will win enough seats in the poll, likely to be on May 6, to form a majority government.

A parliament in which no party has majority of seats could be disastrous for the country's fiscal problems, with the government lacking the votes to push through austerity measures.

And debt is piling up at an alarming rate.

The British government borrowed 4.3 billion pounds ($6.44 billion) in January alone -- a staggering 97,199 pounds ($145,656) every minute -- ending 17 years of surpluses for the month and putting it on track for a record 178 billion pound (266.7 billion) budget deficit this year.

Economists warn Britain is on course to borrow the equivalent of 12.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2009/10 -- exceeding the 12.7 percent forecast in crisis-hit Greece and far above the average 6 percent for Europe.

Britan's debt to GDP ratio is forecast to reach 82 percent this year, almost double the level two years ago -- albeit well shy of the 123 percent in Greece.


Bailout pain » The huge deficit is partly due to big expenditure by the government to mitigate the impact of the global credit crisis and economic downturn. It has taken over two troubled mortgage lenders, and holds major stakes in two big banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. The Bank of England has poured 200 billion pounds into inflating the money supply, and 400 million pounds has been spent on an incentive program for new-car buyers.

So far, Britain has escaped too much scrutiny because of its differences from Greece, notably the healthy sovereign credit rating and the fact that much of its debt is long term. That gold standard credit rating allows Britain to borrow relatively cheaply on global financial markets.

But yields on government bonds have in recent weeks soared to among the highest in Europe while the British pound has taken a battering -- both signs of increasing worries about the country's public finances.

There are also concerns that Britain, like other advanced economies, entered the global crisis with its finances in a worse position than many developing nations that spent the last decade cleaning up their balance sheets.

Brian Coulton, Fitch Rating's head of Europe, Middle East and Africa sovereign ratings warned that Britain's credit profile has deteriorated in recent months and that the government's plans fall far short of what is needed.

The two major political parties have taken opposing sides on what many see as a Catch-22 for the country economic fortunes.

Brown's Labour Party maintains that cutting the stimulus now, via less spending and higher taxes, would help cut the deficit, but could send the economy back into a dreaded double-dip recession. Plus, there's the chance that recession-weary Britons won't stand for any more economic pain -- even in the name of eventual gain.


Union unrest » Commentators have been raising the specter of Britain's infamous "Winter of Discontent" in 1978-1979 when thousands of striking workers crippled essential services across the country -- and led to the election of Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher.

Mass walkouts in Greece in recent days have at times shut down public services, closing schools, customs and tax offices, halting public transport and grounding flights, in response to austerity measures. Britain's unions have lost much of their clout since the 1970s and are less likely to take the battle to the streets -- but will surely push their Labour allies hard to minimize cuts.

Brown promised to set out more detail on his debt-cutting plans in a pre-election budget set for March 24, offering a glimpse by announcing a pay freeze for senior public employees.

"We dare not risk the recovery," Brown said. "For our task above all else is to preserve and expand the jobs -- and lift the standards of life -- of the British people. We are weathering the storm, now is no time to turn back."

The Conservatives have sought to win over critics who argue that fiscal tightening won't endanger economic recovery if it is based on lower public spending, rather than higher taxation.

The party's Treasury spokesman George Osborne has pledged to announce a new budget within weeks if his party is elected, with spending cuts from the summer.



Election uncertainty » Until recently, that looked the most likely outcome for Britain with the Conservatives far ahead in election polls. But they have squandered that lead in recent months -- the latest Ipsos-Mori poll for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, published Feb. 26, puts the Conservatives at 37 percent, just 5 percentage points ahead of Labour.

The lack of a political majority would bring with it anticipated delays to any fiscal austerity programs and a loss of trust for international investors.

That has resulted in a vicious circle for the already weakened British pound, with worries about a hung Parliament adding to the effects of the government's economic stimulus plans.

As a contrast, the situation in the United States is not as dire, even though debt isn't exactly low. The deficit hit 9.9 percent of GDP last year, but the difference is that holders of U.S. Treasuries aren't so worried because they trust the U.S. economy is strong enough to generate revenue for the government. Investors also know that the U.S. government can quickly raise taxes, a longer process in a hung parliament.

www.sltrib.com/business/ci_14664401?source=rss

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France’s Lagarde Doubts Any Decision Next Week on Aid to Greece

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said she doubts European Union finance ministers will make any decision about a bailout of Greece when they meet in Brussels next week.

“Certainly there won’t be any decision made or any button pressed” at the March 15-16 meeting, she told reporters today in New York, where she was being honored by the Lycee Francais school.

EU finance ministers are set to discuss next week whether any Greek bailout should be funded by EU bonds guaranteed by euro-region governments or be in the form of loans from the 16 euro nations, three people briefed on preparations for the meeting said yesterday.

“Certainly we are not at the stage where we need to opt” for a specific course of action, Lagarde said today. “It’s far too important to force the issue.”

European officials are working on contingency plans for a Greek bailout, though German Chancellor Angela Merkel has so far refused to give the green light for any aid. Greek bonds stabilized in the past month as the EU said it would support Greece.

Lawmakers in Athens this month passed a 4.8 billion-euro ($6.6 billion) package to cut a deficit that was 12.7 percent of gross domestic product last year by 4 percentage points.

Greek Bond Yield

The yield on Greece’s benchmark 10-year bond fell 10 basis points to 6.25 percent yesterday. The euro rose to $1.3765 from $1.3681 in Frankfurt.

EU finance ministers will approve a “ready-to-use” package guaranteeing about 20 billion euros ($27.5 billion) of Greek debt at their meeting, France’s Le Figaro reported today, citing European Commission people it didn’t identify.

The German Finance Ministry denied any new agreement had been reached.

Elmar Brok, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats in the European Parliament, said there is “unity in the euro group on finalizing a package that can be used to help Greece.”

“Of course, there’s a contingency plan to help Greece,” Brok said in a phone interview yesterday, adding that “technical options” still have to be worked out.

Lagarde also predicted the European Union would act to ban a type of derivatives trading that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou blamed for deepening his country’s debt crisis.

European Commission President Jose Barroso said March 9 that the EU would consider banning “naked” credit default swaps on sovereign debt.

Lagarde said she “would suspect” EU regulators will end up implementing a ban on trading such instruments. “Some of them are just ludicrous and ridiculous,” she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Hertling in New York at [e-mail]

Last Updated: March 13, 2010 18:31 EST

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aMFzuoGbqVh0

[sandi66]

Petrofac Targets Iraq Oil After Asfari Raises Value (Update2)

By Brian Swint

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Ayman Asfari, the chief executive officer whose oil and gas engineering skills guided a fourfold increase in the value of Petrofac Plc within five years, is now preparing to tap Iraq’s energy boom.

Iraq, with estimated reserves of 115 billion barrels of oil, the world’s third-largest, is set to ramp up production as companies including BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. spend as much as $100 billion to develop fields awarded in contracts last year. A good chunk of that will go to contractors including Petrofac and larger U.S. rivals Baker Hughes Inc. and Halliburton Co.

“He’s passionate about his business model, which is about being a low-cost provider of quality engineering,” said Barclays Capital analyst Mick Pickup, who worked with Asfari on Petrofac’s initial public offering as a consultant at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “Iraq is the billion dollar question. Ultimately, there will be the whole infrastructure to build there. It will be big.”

Petrofac gained 39 pence, or 3.3 percent, to close at a record 1,240 pence in London trading. The company’s market capitalization rose above 4 billion pounds ($6 billion) this week, compared with a valuation of less than 1 billion pounds when the company went public in 2005.

Asfari, a Syrian-born engineer educated at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, has seen the value of his 16 percent stake rise to about 650 million pounds.

‘Growth Market’

“We see Iraq as a growth market,” Asfari, 51, said in an interview from the company’s London headquarters. “This is a natural place for our expansion. We’re working in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria, and it’s very easy for us to step out across the border.”

The largest U.K. oil and gas services company reached a record in London this week after it announced the spinoff of North Sea fields it owns into a new company. The shares may outperform peers because the company has kept costs under control and is positioned to win work in Iraq, investors and analysts said.

Asfari joined Petrofac in 1991 and led the company’s expansion into the United Arab Emirates, where it has a base in Sharjah. The private equity firm 3i Group Plc invested in 2002 and the company listed in London three years later. It now has more than 11,000 employees and offices in 24 countries.

North Sea Assets

Unusually for a services company, Petrofac has invested in oil and gas projects. It announced last week it will place its U.K. production assets in EnQuest Plc, a new company founded with Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum AB.

The company’s shares have gained 19 percent this year, compared with a 0.3 percent drop in the Dow Jones Europe Oil and Gas Index.

The company’s track record includes designing gas facilities for BP and Statoil ASA in Algeria, constructing and operating offshore wells for Dubai Petroleum and setting up gas plants for Petroleum Development Oman. The Middle East experience may give it an advantage, said Gordon Happell, an analyst at Aegon Asset Management in Edinburgh.

“Petrofac is well-placed because of their geographic exposure and their differentiated customer base,” said Happell, whose company oversees 42 million pounds of investment and owns Petrofac shares. “Provided they can support medium-term growth prospects with further contract awards, the valuation remains attractive.”

Order Backlog

Petrofac reported record orders of $7.3 billion last year as its operating margin rose to 12.1 percent, up from 10.7 percent in 2008. The order backlog was $8.1 billion as of Dec. 31. That’s before any work in Iraq, where Asfari said the company is pursuing several opportunities.

“The shares look to be good value,” said Ivor Pether, who helps manage $9.7 billion of assets at Royal London Asset Management, including Petrofac shares. “But pricing pressures will increase over time because of more aggressive tendering. They’re working with quite a high operating margin, and one would expect for it to be tough to improve from here.”

Samir Brikho, chief executive of Amec Plc and one of Petrofac’s main London-based rivals, said that competition is heating up. Amec’s share price has doubled since 2008.

“Iraq’s oil sector presents a significant opportunity and we are evaluating how we can best support our existing oil and gas clients in developing the future of Iraq’s oil and gas industry,” Brikho said in an e-mailed response to questions. “Competition for market share is evident among service providers.”

Cost Squeeze

Asian companies also have a chance to do well in Iraq after China National Petroleum Corp., Petroliam Nasional Bhd. and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. won contracts in Iraq, Royal London’s Pether said.

BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said he will push “very hard” to bring down services costs this year after trimming operating expenses by $4 billion in 2009. Shell’s Peter Voser aims to cut costs by $1 billion.

“We have to respond to the demands of our clients to remain competitive, and yes, they are squeezing costs, and we equally try to squeeze costs from our suppliers,” Asfari said. “This is a game where you have to continue to be competitive all the time.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Swint in London at [e-mail].

Last Updated: March 12, 2010 12:00 EST

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601104&sid=aW39Fqmnrx84

[sandi66]

Clayton returns from USDA Iraq service

Saturday, March 13, 2010
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) announced Wednesday that Michael Clayton, a district conservationist with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Princeton, has returned from a 16-month voluntary assignment in Iraq to help rebuild that country’s agricultural sector.

“The efforts of people like Michael are crucial for helping to create stable, democratic, and economically viable societies in countries like Iraq,” said John D. Brewer, FAS Administrator. “Whether their expertise is in forestry, soil and water conservation, food safety, agricultural extension and policy or veterinary services, volunteers like Michael are needed to contribute their specialized skills to help farmers, citizens, and the national and provincial government leaders of these two countries.”

Since 2007, USDA has deployed staff to Iraq for long- and short-term assignments. Presently, more than 30 Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) agricultural advisors or ministry experts are in Iraq. PRT advisors work on a variety of projects depending on the needs of the province. All projects are aimed at helping Iraq reconstruct the physical and institutional infrastructure of its agricultural sector.

Clayton served as a USDA PRT agricultural advisor on the Baghdad embedded-PRT South. Among his many accomplishments, Clayton helped rebuild the local poultry industry, enabled more than 1,000 disadvantaged farmers and their families to get clean drinking water, established a demonstration farm and nurtured farmer cooperatives.

This January, the U.S. Department of State presented Clayton with a meritorious honor award for his successful efforts to help Iraqis rebuild their agricultural institutions.

Born in Madisonville, Clayton currently lives in Princeton. He received his bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

In Iraq, PRTs are led by the U.S. Department of State and are typically composed of about 50-100 military personnel and several civilians. The PRT agricultural advisor is one of only a few civilians on the PRT; the others are State Department representatives and U.S. Agency for International Development field program officers.

In addition to PRTs, USDA has many activities and programs aimed at strengthening the capacity of the Iraqi government, rebuilding agricultural markets, and improving management of natural resources. Last year, more than 60 Iraqi government and university officials received advanced train-the-trainer agricultural extension education at five U.S. land-grant universities on subjects such as water resource management and soil analysis under the Iraq Agricultural Extension Revitalization Project (IAER).

Programs such as USDA’s Cochran Fellowship Program and the Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program have brought more than 60 Iraqis to the United States for short-term specialized training since 2005. These public and private sector policymakers, scientists, and veterinarians have upgraded their technical skills in a wide range of topics including techniques to control animal diseases, agricultural policy planning and budget management, and research in water resources, waste-water recycling and irrigation.

USDA has also used the Food for Progress (FFPr) Program to provide food assistance to Iraq. The FFPr program supports agricultural and economic development projects in developing countries that are emerging democracies and are introducing or expanding free enterprise in their agricultural sectors.

In 2005, USDA implemented an FFPr program in Iraq through the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) with a total value of $10.8 million. The funds were used to provide educational programs to members of the newly formed Iraq Poultry Producers Association, Iraqi bankers, and Iraqi poultry producers; and to establish the Iraq Poultry Fund, which provides credit guarantees to participating banks so Iraqi importers can fund purchases of imported grains and other commodities related to the poultry industry.

In early May, the USGC will hold a seminar in Jordan to inform more Iraqi importers and banks about the Iraq Poultry Fund to encourage use of the program.

For more information about volunteering to serve on a PRT, go to jobsearch.usajobs.gov/agency.aspx and select Foreign Agricultural Service. General information about USDA’s programs and activities in Iraq can be found at www.fas.usda.gov/country/iraq/development/iraq.asp

www.timesleader.net/articles/stories/public/201003/13/4GGT_news.html

[sandi66]

Greek woes push Aussie dollar higher

Eoin Blackwell From: AAP
March 14, 2010 11:14 AM

THE fallout from Greece's debt woes have helped propel the dollar to a 13-year high against the euro, experts say.

However, they also say that while the Australian dollar has become a proxy for the China growth story, the Greek crisis could spark another global financial meltdown.

The Australian dollar reached a 13-year high of 67.15 euro cents on Friday, while debate rages over how the European union should deal with Greece's sovreign debt that stands at 113.4 per cent of gross domestic product.

Currency traders are being left with little choice but to buy the Australian dollar because of the weak euro and lacklustre US and Japanese economies, says City University, London, professor of global political economy Roger Tooze.

Australia's strong economy and close ties to China are also two reasons investors are so keen to pour money into the Australia, he says.

"The collapse of Greece would be an enormous blow to the euro," said Prof. Tooze, who is a visiting professor at the University of Technology Sydney.

"A lot of people are putting money into Australia and the Aussie dollar as a sort of proxy for China.

"What you get is you're investing in China through Australia where the legal structures to protect you, structures you don't have in China."

National Australia Bank head of currency strategy John Kyriakopoulos said that while the crisis in Greece is undermining the euro, neighbouring european economies could also come under pressure.

He said that scenario would lead to a second global financial crisis (GFC), weaken global commodity prices and sap the energy from the resource-sensitive Australian dollar.

"You have to be careful because if you see a spreading of the debt crisis to somewhere like Spain, it could really shake the financial system," he said.

"If we had another GFC off the back of it, the Aussie is not necessarily going to go up on the back of it."

The economies of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain are at risk of being dragged down by any collapse in the Greek economy.

Ireland has an unemployment rate of 12.6 and Spain 19.4 per cent, and Portugal's public debt is expected to climb to 85.4 per cent of GDP this year, up from 76.6 per cent in 2009.

Mr Kyriakopoulos says he doesn't believe the European Union will let the Greek crisis spin out of control.

"I think the sovereign debt issues are on the radar screen, but I think Europe will deal with it because they want to preserve the euro.

"I think Europe will implement policies to cut their deficit, with consequences for growth."

While European leaders debated the formation of a European Monetary Fund (EMF) to act when the euro is threatened, Greece this week announced plans to save a total of 16 billion euros ($A23.91 billion) in 2010 through spending cuts and higher taxes.

Included in that package is an austerity package worth the equivalent of $A7.7 billion announced in February, which has angered unions and led to mass protest.

Athens is borrowing at high interest rates by selling government bonds to international markets, and needs to raise the equivalnet of $A80.7 billion this year.

Last week, the Greek government took $A7.47 billion from a 10-year syndicated bond issue, offering a 6.3 percent yield to offset market fears it could default on its massive debt.

German bonds of similar maturity offer roughly half that rate.

Earlier this week, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou called on the United States to act against speculators betting on Greece's demise.

"If the EU - still America's biggest trading partner - should falter, the consequences here would be palpable," Mr Papandreou said in a speech in Washington DC.

"Unprincipled speculators are making billions every day by betting on a Greek default. All this may sound a bit familiar to American ears."

www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/greek-woes-push-aussie-dollar-higher/story-e6frfkur-1225840510635?from=public_rss

[sandi66]

More cracks in the eurozone despite likely deal for Greece
Europe's leaders will do their best to put on a show of unity as early as Monday when they announce that they stand ready to help Greece recover from its financial disaster.

Published: 9:30AM GMT 14 Mar 2010

But the deal is just a thin veneer over permanent disagreements about how to run the European Union, and Brussels is about to embark on another round of damaging internal debate which will further distance it from the bloc's 500 million citizens.

Greece is the weakest but not the only member of the 16-country eurozone in deep trouble. It must borrow over 50 billion euros on the international markets this year or else it could go bust. The other countries that use the euro, led by Germany and France, are likely to say that their private banks will guarantee to help meet those financing needs should willing investors turn out to be in short supply. That, allied to a massive round of spending cuts inside Greece designed to reduce the budget deficit, should be enough to calm markets and stabilise the situation.

It won't stop Greeks from rioting, however. Just as in the UK, US and everywhere else, ordinary workers can't see why they have to swallow pay cuts, tax rises and cuts in services as a result of incompetent politicians and mendacious bankers. Greece's socialist government, recently elected, is suffering from internal dissent at the price to be paid for outside help. The deficit is more than four times higher than eurozone rules allow, but reducing it could be a dangerous process in a country plagued by social unrest and which was under military rule as recently as the 1970s.

As for the rest of the eurozone and the European Union, the big beasts of the continent - the UK, France and Germany - have never seen eye to eye on the level of economic oversight and political interference they would countenance from Brussels. It was hoped that the passage of the Lisbon Treaty, the reforms of the EU's rules and institutions just enacted after much pain, would still that debate and end internal wrangling for a decade.

Instead, Greece's problems, and those yet to be played out in full in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and elsewhere, have exposed the messy and inadequate compromises agreed for the co-ordination of vastly disparate economies. It hasn't worked; a new framework is required.

Britain, out of the eurozone and likely to avoid a direct role in the Greek solution, cannot hide from the renewed debate on institutional reform. The large percentage of the population opposed even to membership of the EU will again put pressure on a newly-elected (and probably Conservative) government to hold a referendum on the subject.

The Conservative leadership, which thought it had buried the subject for a while at least, will do its best to hide. The European Commission too will try to enact reforms that it says do not require a new treaty between member states, and hence could shorten the arguments. These will focus on more rigorous economic oversight and checking of statistics (Greece lied about the state of its finances for years), and a push for the restructuring of member economies. Brussels, under instruction from EU eurozone finance ministers, will draft "a European framework for co-ordinated assistance" that will be combined with proposals for "reinforced economic policy co-ordination". That will encounter resistance from France, which resists any greater interference from federal economic mandarins, and probably in Germany's constitutional court, which may take the view that even these changes breach the country's constitution.

In any case, such piecemeal reforms will not be good enough for Germany, the continent's largest economy, its most solvent and the most at risk of being asked to keep paying for its partners' bad housekeeping. Angela Merkel, the chancellor, has seen her standing dip dramatically in spite of recently winning an election - and this is in part a reflection of the deep anger among ordinary Germans at having to pay for Greece's shortcomings.

Wolfgang Shauble, her finance minister, has been the most vociferous so far in suggesting a totally new deal for the euro, and Mrs Merkel has said that a new treaty might be required.

The wheelchair-bound Mr Schauble, 67, is an unlikely revolutionary. He is the Protestant son of a conservative politician who worked first as a chartered accountant and later survived an assassination attempt by a psychotic opponent almost 20 years ago during an election rally.

But his proposal for a European Monetary Fund went off like a small bomb beneath the facade of unity that has protected the European single currency since it came into existence in January 1999. He said he would "present proposals soon" for a new eurozone institution with "comparable powers of intervention" to the Washington-based International Monetary Fund.

"We're not planning an institution that would compete with the IMF, but for the internal stability of the eurozone, we need an institution that has the experience and power of the IMF," Mr Schauble said. He admitted what everyone had acknowledged thus far only in private, that the EMF was needed because monetary union was "still incomplete".

Over the following days, Mr Schauble and other supporters of the plan slowly elaborated on what it would mean - and with each new detail came a new objection. For a country to be aided by a new EMF, Mr Schauble declared, "Strict conditions and a prohibitive price tag must be attached so that aid is only drawn in the case of emergencies that present a threat to the financial stability of the whole euro area."

More followed. "This effect should be further reinforced by excluding the country concerned from the decision-making process; aid must be the last resort."

The suggestion that Athens should have no involvement in setting the conditions for any EMF loan to Greece was hardly music to the Greek government's ears - nor to any other eurozone member that might run into trouble. But in the ultimate expression of German anger at the threat to the euro from the behaviour of countries like Greece, Mr Schauble went even further.

Not only would another Greece be stripped of economic and fiscal sovereignty, should it come cap in hand, but it could face the ultimate humiliation of being kicked out of the euro club. "Should a eurozone member ultimately find itself unable to consolidate its budgets or restore its competitiveness, this country should, as a last resort, exit the monetary union while being able to remain a member of the EU," he said.

So 17 years after the Treaty of Maastricht which created Economic and Monetary Union, Germany was thinking the unthinkable: how to chuck countries out.

France has so far been cool on the idea of an EMF. Paris has long supported greater control over policy on the euro by heads of government, giving politicians more opportunity to meddle with the currency and interest rates, but that is not the same as beefing up the powers and oversight of the European Central Bank - effectively the successor to the German Bundesbank.

After the Greek deal is announced then, it surely will not be long before France weighs in on Mr Schauble's plan, and then inevitably David Cameron, if he is British prime minister, and others will be forced to take a view.

Olli Rehn, the formerly footballing Finn who is the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, said this weekend: "The euro is not only a monetary arrangement but a core political project of the European Union... in that sense we are at a crossroads." But it has been reached just as Europe's leaders were hoping to park the car and enjoy the scenery.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/7436756/More-cracks-in-the-eurozone-despite-likely-deal-for-Greece.html

[sandi66]

Eurozone sups from poisoned chalice on rescue fund: analysts
March 14, 2010

Paris - The debt crisis in Greece is unleashing turmoil that analysts say could shake the eurozone to its foundations, even turning it from a castle of great expectations into a cooperative of great share-outs.

"The current crisis has reminded us that convergence is far from complete in Europe and has revived fears of ultimately divergent paths," analysts at Natixis bank wrote recently.

However, Germany, which to the surprise of many has promoted the idea of a European monetary fund to rescue troubled eurozone economies, has increasingly made clear that any such body would have to have ferocious powers and would use them.

On a broader landscape, some analysts now debate the possibility of an internal split in the European Union, with financially stronger northern countries washing their hands of responsibility towards weaker countries in the south.

"There is a risk that Europe will evolve into a two-class project in which financially pressed Southern Europe, in particular is left to fend for itself," said scholar Ian Lesser in an analysis for the German Marshal Fund of the United States.

"Across Europe, states will be left largely responsible for, and exposed to the consequence of, their own economic policies."

He warned that a decoupled southern Europe "will spell trouble in political and security terms," leaving Europe less able to confront "pressing strategic challenges emanating from the Mediterranean," notably regarding energy and migration.

Argument over the motives behind the need for and effects of a rescue fund goes to the root of some founding principles of the eurozone.

One of these holds that EU countries are committed to national responsibility for keeping their budgets within the rules, albeit under supervision. Another is that such discipline is vital to ever greater economic convergence, considered essential for the long-term success of a single currency zone.

There is also a deeper European Union political aim of convergence towards increased common prosperity.

Now Greece is fighting to escape a threat of bankruptcy and there is concern that if the operation loses credibility, Spain and Portugal might be the next to be thrust into severe difficulties.

The sudden debate over the outline idea for a rescue fund is causing some confusion and raising a pivotal question: would it weaken or strengthen the credibility of the 16-nation eurozone, and therefore its long-term future?

Some analysts point to what is a known as a "moral hazard" issue, meaning the risk of encouraging imprudent spending by governments on the assumption that their eurozone partners would always be ready with a safety net.

Some even go as far as to say that such a fund would be an admission of failure, a recognition that the rules and supposed penalties in the Stability and Growth Pact, intended to pull all eurozone members towards the high ground of public surpluses, have been breached and diluted to the point of disgrace.

www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Business%20Report&fArticleId=5389886

[sandi66]

Greece must work on issues before help: ECB member

(Reuters) - Greece should show it has taken steps to get its public finances in order before external help can be given, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said in an interview on Austrian television on Sunday.

Nowotny declined to comment directly on what will happen at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday where Greece will be the main topic.

But he said in principal all eurozone states must work on such problems first before external help is possible.

"When this is the case, then it is possible to apply external help measures," Nowotny told Austrian broadcaster ORF.

He said that members of the eurozone gained many benefits and so they also had important responsibilities.

"Those who are members of the club should keep to the rules," he said.

www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62D0MM20100314?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

[sandi66]

Market Commentary and Intraday News
China PM defends assertive trade, foreign policy
19 minutes ago

By CHARLES HUTZLER
Associated Press Writer

(AP:BEIJING) China vowed Sunday to remain alert to any renewed signs of economic crisis and forcefully defended its currency, trade and more assertive foreign policies as helping global rebalancing, not undermining it.

Premier Wen Jiabao repeatedly took issue with United States, whose relations with Beijing have soured in recent months. To U.S. criticisms that China keeps its currency undervalued and thus harms U.S. exports, Wen said Beijing opposed "finger-pointing or taking strong measures to force" a readjustment of the yuan. Likewise, he said the recent White House reception to Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sale to Taiwan "caused serious disturbance in relations."

"The responsibility does not lie with the Chinese side, but the United States," Wen said in a wide-ranging news conference, his only regular meeting with the media all year. "With mutual trust both countries can forge ahead, but with mutual suspicion both countries will fall behind."

Wen, who is No. 3 in the Communist Party hierarchy and chiefly responsible for the economy, dwelled on China's strong bounce-back from the world economic crisis and whether the current global recovery could be sustained. He cited high unemployment rates, debt crises in foreign nations such as Greece and high government deficits abroad, while at home, he said, there are worries about inflation and businesses' over-reliance on the massive stimulus and loans China used last year to keep the economy running.

"All of these may cause setbacks in the recovery of the global economy and may even cause a double-dip," he said.

Wen spoke following the closing of the annual session of the party-dominated national legislature, which earlier Sunday approved a blueprint to keep government spending high, though at half the rate of last year, to buffer any economic turbulence. Sizable increases were given to education, pensions and low-cost housing _ part of a yearslong effort by Wen and President Hu Jintao to more fairly spread the benefits of growth among rural and working-class Chinese.

A mild-mannered, grandfatherly and truly popular figure often called the "people's premier," Wen spoke frankly that economic ills left untended could threaten Communist rule. A particularly toxic combination, he said, were inflation, the rich-poor income gap and corruption _ all current problems.

"These will be strong enough to affect our social stability and even the stability of state power," he said.

Normally high security in Beijing was tightened further in the past two weeks for the National People's Congress and a meeting of the top government advisory body. After Wen's news conference, police dragged away and put into a van at least two people _ one of whom was complaining about a housing dispute _ as they tried to get the attention of officials and reporters outside the hulking Great Hall of the People. A third person, who said he was a teacher, was led away separately.

As the leadership's only news conference of the year, the government sometimes uses the event to send a message to the public and the world. This year, Wen sought to tamp down rising pressure from Washington, the European Union and other governments over currency and trade practices and beat back a perception that Chinese arrogance has grown apace with its global clout.

On the yuan, also called the renminbi, Wen said the currency was not undervalued, noting that even as global trade plummeted last year, U.S. and EU exports to China shrank at a lower rate. With more than $800 billion of its foreign exchange reserves invested in U.S. Treasury securities, Wen said the value of the U.S. dollar was a "big concern" and asked Washington to take unspecified steps to reassure investors.

He pronounced himself a staunch supporter of free trade, warning against protectionism and currency devaluations to boost exports as harmful to economic recovery.

"I believe that free trade not only promotes growth of the world economy. At the same time, it promotes harmony in the world and changes and improves people's lives," he said.

Wen also fired back at critics of China's performance at the last year's Copenhagen climate change conference. Asked why he skipped a meeting of some foreign leaders, including President Barack Obama, Wen said he was snubbed, having never been formally invited, and so sent a vice foreign minister instead.

"So far no one has given us any explanation about this and it still is a mystery," he said.

When asked if China would play a bigger role in international affairs, Wen said China is still a developing country, focused on improving living standards, and even when rich and powerful, it would not seek to dominate others. "China is a country that is focusing its energy on promoting development at home. It is important for us to have sound external conditions and a peaceful, stable environment," he said.


news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=6896969677069790

[sandi66]

EU prepares 25 bn euro rescue package for Greece: Report

14 Mar 2010, 1736 hrs IST, PTI

LONDON: The European Union nations are preparing a bailout package for Greece that could exceed 25 billion euro (USD 34.4 billion), a media report has said.

"The bailout fund - which could top 25 billion euro - would be made available if crisis-stricken Greece asked for help to tackle its 300 billion euro debt pile," the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The report said Germany and France would be the main supporters to the rescue package, which would be presented before the eurozone finance ministers as early as tomorrow.

So far, Greece has not sought help from its EU partners. However, an April and May deadline to repay debt back has pushed Greece to seek financing of around 20 billion euro on the bond market, the report said.

The Mediterranean country's deficit currently stands at four-times the amount allowed under EU rules. The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states, located primarily in Europe.

Talks to finalise details continued over the weekend. It is understood that because EU rules prohibit "bailouts", the package has been designed as a series of loans or loan guarantees, the Sunday Telegraph said quoting sources.

Greece has promised to cut its deficit from 12.7 per cent to 8.7 per cent this year while its long-term plan is to reduce the shortfall to below 3 per cent by 2012.

economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/EU-prepares-25-bn-euro-rescue-package-for-Greece-Report/articleshow/5682707.cms

[sandi66]

30 US banks bite dust in 3 months

14 Mar 2010, 1259 hrs IST, PTI

NEW YORK: The American banking sector continues to grapple with failures and on an average, ten banks are closing down every month.

This year, 30 banks have already collapsed and the numbers are expected to rise in the coming weeks.

A staggering 184 banks have folded up since the bankruptcy of the then Wall Street major Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

Going by the official data, four entities were shut down by the authorities last week. Park Avenue Bank, Statewide Bank and Old Southern Bank failed on March 12 while LibertyPointe Bank collapsed on March 11.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures deposits at over 8,000 American banks, said these four failures would cost the agency USD 208.2 million.

Small and medium banks are hit the most, since high unemployment levels are resulting in rising defaults. Despite a shaky labour market, the US economy has been growing at a healthy pace in the past few quarters.

Eight banks have gone belly up so far in March. Last month, seven entities failed while the count of collapses stood at 15.

economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International-Business/30-US-banks-bite-dust-in-3-months/articleshow/5682095.cms

[sandi66]

Pound Bears Bet More Than When George Soros Beat BOE (Update2

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Futures traders are more bearish than ever on sterling amid concern that the currency’s worst annual start in 13 years will continue as the U.K.’s budget deficit approaches the Greek shortfall that roiled the euro.

Wagers on the pound weakening against the dollar outnumber futures that profit on a rise by eight times more than when George Soros made $1 billion betting against the currency in 1992, the year Prime Minister John Major’s Conservative government was forced to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Sterling fell 19 percent that year.

The pound has lost 6.9 percent in 2010 on speculation a budget gap will skewer the currency: Either record borrowing will push debt costs higher and force policy makers to print more money to buy bonds, or lawmakers will cut spending too fast and trigger a new recession. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government estimates the deficit will hit 12.6 percent of gross domestic product, almost as high as the 12.7 percent in Greece that drove European leaders to consider a bailout.

“The risk of a U.K. double dip is substantial,” said Hans-Guenter Redeker, London-based head of foreign-exchange strategy at BNP Paribas SA, which predicts an additional 13 percent drop to $1.31 by the end of 2010. “Sterling is increasingly trading like an emerging-market currency with rising bond yields no longer working in favor of the currency.”

Ten-year gilt rates have climbed more than a percentage point in the past year, the fastest increase since mid-2004.

Lower Forecasts

BNP, whose Sept. 8 forecast for this quarter is closest to the mark in a Bloomberg survey, is now the most pessimistic of 36 strategists. After reducing their median prediction 2 percent in January, strategists cut it 3 percent this month, the quickest drop since September. Twenty-two strategists see the pound ending the year below 2009’s $1.6170 close.

Brown said March 10 the economic recovery is “still in its early stages and remains very fragile.” His Labour Party is locked in an election battle that may lead to the first Parliament stalemate in 36 years and reduce the chances of enacting his five-year plan to cut the shortfall to 4.4 percent of GDP, which Fitch Ratings already has called “too slow.”

Sterling was at $1.5051 today, down 0.1 percent for the past week. The currency slid 0.7 percent against the euro today to 91.13 pence, down 2.8 percent this year. The pound is the only one of 16 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg to weaken over the past six months against the euro.

Bullish Strategists

Strategists remain bullish on the pound even after cutting their forecasts. The median prediction of 35 analysts in Bloomberg’s survey calls for a 4.9 percent gain to $1.59 per pound by Dec. 31, down from a consensus of $1.67 on Jan. 28.

The pound’s drop may already reflect the deficit. At 4.098 percent last week, 10-year gilt yields are up 115 basis points in the past 12 months and were 103 basis points higher than German bund rates on Feb. 23, the biggest gap in more than four years.

Greek yields have risen as much as 139 basis points this year and closed at 6.25 percent last week. Gilt rates have risen no more than 22 basis points since Jan. 1, peaking at 4.23 percent on Feb. 22. British government debt was 55.8 percent of the economy in 2009, less than half of Greece’s 113.4 percent, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The U.K. isn’t facing a financial crisis in the “foreseeable future,” You-Na Park, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, wrote in a March 10 note to clients.

Helpful Drop

Erik F. Nielsen, Goldman Sachs’ chief European economist, said the pound’s 8 percent drop versus the dollar and 1.9 percent decline against the euro in six months will propel a recovery in the U.K. economy and help the currency reach $1.73 by August.

“People are very bearish on the U.K., probably more than they should be,” Nielsen said in a March 8 interview in Sydney.

British yields, the highest in the Group of 10, have risen as record debt sales of 225.1 billion pounds ($341 billion) in the fiscal year ending this month prompted investors to sell gilts. Foreigners sold a net 1.49 billion pounds of U.K. bonds in January, the most in nine months, central bank data show.

Higher yields usually shore up currencies by encouraging investments with cash from economies with lower borrowing costs.

“When yields go up in a country watched by the rating agencies, it doesn’t mean that people are more enticed to buy the currency,” said Stephen Jen, a London-based managing director at BlueGold Capital Management LLP. “It means there’s a risk premium being priced in. The U.K. has huge problems that are not being addressed while Greece’s problems have been addressed somewhat.”

‘Completely Over’

Investors bought 5 billion euros ($6.9 billion) of Greece’s debt this month as the government announced spending cuts and tax increases totaling 4.8 billion euros. The crisis is “completely over” and won’t hit other euro countries, former European Commission President Romano Prodi said in a interview on March 10.

Reining in the U.K. deficit may not be enough to save the pound, Mansoor Mohi-uddin, Singapore-based strategist at UBS AG, the world’s second largest currency trader, wrote in a Feb. 24 research note.

“If the next government was to prematurely curb the fiscal deficit after the elections, without the economy reaching a surer footing, the consequences for sterling, financial markets and public confidence would be grave,” Mohi-uddin said. In a worst-case scenario, the currency would fall to parity with the euro and to $1.05, the lowest level since 1985, he said.

More In Sync

Measured against a basket of G-10 currencies proportioned by how correlated they are with each other, the pound has fallen 38 percent since 1974, the worst performer after the New Zealand dollar and Swedish krona, Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes show. The pound and the euro are more in sync with each of the G-10’s currencies than the others, signaling they have the greatest effect on exchange rates.

Hedge funds and large speculators had 67,549 more bets the pound would decline against the dollar than contracts that profit from a rise as of March 2, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington show. Futures traders haven’t been that bearish since at least January 1986, as far back as CFTC data go.

The so-called net-short position has averaged 60,548 in the five weeks to March 9, compared with about 7,200 in October 1992, when Soros was profiting from the pound’s plunge.

Soros Vs Major

Two years earlier, the U.K. had joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, a euro precursor that required members to keep currencies within trading bands. Soros, who now oversees about $25 billion at Soros Fund Management LLC in New York, wagered that the U.K.’s growing deficit and falling dollar would make it impossible for the British to defend the pound with interest-rate increases and sterling purchases.

On Sept. 16, 1992, Prime Minister Major capitulated, allowing the pound to slide almost 24 percent that September, October and November, sterling’s worst three months since at least 1971. Black Wednesday, as the day became known, earned Soros’s Quantum Fund $1 billion on what he later told the Times of London was a bet “worth almost $10 billion.”

Prices for protecting Greek and British debt shows today’s shift in sentiment. Five-year credit-default swaps for Greece cost 2.92 percentage points last week, more than four times what U.K. debt insurance sold for, down from five times on Jan. 28.

U.K. bonds lost 2.8 percent in the year through March 12, even as Bank of England bought 200 billion pounds worth, equivalent to 89 percent of planned sales, indexes compiled by Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit show. Treasuries returned 0.6 percent in the same period.

The pound also is being weighed down by speculation the next government will be too weak to cut the deficit.

Poll Results

Polls show the campaign is tightening in advance of elections that must be held by June. A YouGov Plc survey in The Sun newspaper on March 10 showed the Conservatives with 36 percent support compared with 32 percent for Labour, the latest in a series of poll results giving neither side enough support for a parliamentary majority. The last U.K. election to end that way, in 1974, was followed by a 28 percent slide in the pound over the next two years.

Sterling’s weakness has done little to boost growth by making exports cheaper. U.K. factory production unexpectedly fell in January for the first time since August, a government report on March 9 showed. The trade deficit in the same period swelled to the widest in 17 months. Exports slumped even after sterling declined 30 percent on a trade-weighted basis since June 2007.

Weak Demand

“I’ve been waiting 40 years for an export-led U.K. recovery, and I haven’t seen one yet,” said Robin Marshall, director of fixed income in London at Smith & Williamson Investment Management, which oversees about $20 billion. “A weaker exchange rate isn’t going to be sufficient to drive a recovery when external demand remains weak.”

Policy makers are prepared to do “whatever seems appropriate” to prevent an economic relapse, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King told lawmakers Feb. 23. Adam Posen, a monetary policy committee member, said a day later the BOE may expand a program to buy government bonds with newly printed money if economic growth is weaker than expected.

Richard Howard, a managing director at Dallas-based money manager Hayman Advisors LP, said a drop of 14 percent to $1.30 per pound is possible.

“The U.K. is in a pretty precarious position,” said Howard, whose hedge firm earned $500 million betting on the U.S. subprime mortgage-market collapse. “The substantial currency devaluation hasn’t improved their trade position very much, and quantitative easing hasn’t kept the 10-year yield from creeping up. That is a dangerous sign.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Bo Nielsen in Copenhagen at [e-mail]; Lukanyo Mnyanda in London at [e-mail]

Last Updated: March 15, 2010 06:43 EDT

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601083&sid=anZYsKwNSuiY

[sandi66]

Chile and Peru: Latin America Local Bond and Currency Preview

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- The following events and economic reports may influence trading in Latin American local bonds and currencies today. Bond yields and exchange rates are from the previous session.

Chile: The nation plans to tap its copper savings funds and borrow in international debt markets to pay for an estimated $30 billion in reconstruction from the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the country on Feb. 27, President Sebastian Pinera said March 12.

The peso was little changed at 517.75 per dollar.

The yield for a basket of Chile’s 10-year peso bonds in inflation-linked currency units, called unidades de fomento, rose four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 3.3 percent, according to Bloomberg composite prices.

Peru: The economy grew 5.5 percent in January from the same month a year earlier, after growing 6.4 percent in December, according to the median estimate of seven economists in a Bloomberg survey.

The unemployment rate rose to 9 percent in February from 8.6 percent in January, according to the median estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The national statistics agency is slated to release both reports today.

The sol was unchanged at 2.8385 per dollar.

The yield on Peru’s 8.6 percent bond maturing August 2017 was unchanged at 5.07 percent, according to Citigroup Inc.’s unit in Lima.

Other prices in Latin American markets:

Argentina: The peso fell 0.1 percent to 3.8607 per dollar.

The yield on the country’s inflation-linked peso bonds due in December 2033 fell 57 basis points to 12.31 percent, according to Citigroup Inc.’s local unit.

Brazil: The real rose 0.1 percent to 1.7624 per dollar.

The yield on the zero-coupon, real-denominated bond due in January 2011 rose one basis point to 10.55 percent, according to Bloomberg prices.

Colombia: The peso declined 0.4 percent to 1,899.65 per dollar.

The yield on Colombia’s benchmark 11 percent bonds due July 2020 fell four basis points to 8.75 percent, according to Colombia’s stock exchange.

Mexico: The peso gained 0.2 percent to 12.5431 per dollar.

The yield on Mexico’s 10 percent bond due December 2024 fell four basis points to 7.97 percent, according to Banco Santander SA.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Jaramillo in Bogota at [e-mail]

Last Updated: March 14, 2010 23:00 EDT

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601009&sid=aJtog8y8K3w0

[sandi66]

As Iraq awaits poll results, talks on new government begin - Update

Posted : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:58:11 GMT

Baghdad - Intricate negotiations on forming a new Iraqi government gathered speed on Monday, ahead of the electoral commission's expected announcement of results from a tally of 60 per cent of the votes in last week's polls. If those results are announced as planned, they will be the most conclusive indication to date of what shape the new government is likely to take, just over a week after parliamentary elections widely seen as a key test of Iraq's stability ahead of the withdrawal of US combat troops by the end of this year.

Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) spokesman Judge Qassim al-Aboudi on Monday said he expected to announce early results from the vote, with 60 per cent of the votes counted. But similar announcements have in the past been followed by delays, in a chaotic process that has added fuel to mounting allegations of electoral fraud.

The IHEC received "more than 243 complaints from general voting in the country, and more than 74 complaints from voters abroad," al-Aboudi said, adding that "all the red-flag voting complaints received by the IHEC are still under investigation."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose State of Law coalition is leading in seven provinces, including Baghdad, which is by far the largest electoral prize in the race, sought to minimise the fraud allegations.

"Complaints presented to the commission are simple, and will not change the election's results," he said in a statement Monday.

Former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya, the main challenger to al-Maliki's bloc in the race so far with a lead in five provinces, was on Sunday night leading in the tense and disputed city of Kirkuk, with 61-per-cent of the votes there counted, the IHEC announced.

The Kurdistan Alliance, a union of the two parties that have for decades defined Iraqi Kurdish Politics, was running second in the city, the subject of a long dispute so potentially explosive that it has been left out of previous rounds of voting since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.

Iraqi Kurdish politician Khalid Shenawi on Sunday evening accused election workers, especially in predominantly Arab areas near the city, of electoral fraud, saying they had manipulated the vote in favour of Allawi's list.

The allegations set the stage for a possible battle over poll results in the city, which were in any case made provisional, subject to legal challenge, after Arab and Turkman politicians accused the Kurds of stacking voter rolls in their favour.

Many Iraqi Kurds hope Kirkuk will become the capital of an independent Kurdistan, but Arab and Turkman politicians view the city, and its nearby 10 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, as integral parts of Iraq.

Amid the controversy over the Kirkuk vote, Sami al-Askari, a close adviser to al-Maliki, said his coalition had begun talks on the formation of a new government, including with the Kurdish Alliance, whose overwhelming lead in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish provinces will likely give it a sizable bloc in the new parliament.

"Talks began in Baghdad through committees formed by the coalition after the end of the elections in order to agree on the general framework of the next government," al-Askari was quoted in the independent daily al-Mada as saying Monday.

www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314133,as-iraq-awaits-poll-results-talks-on-new-government-begin.html

[sandi66]

IMF finds "trillions" in undeclared wealth

15 Mar 2010

The amount of undeclared money languishing in offshore financial centres has always been difficult to quantify: the very nature of it being undeclared makes it hard to trace. But work by economists at the International Monetary Fund has shed new light on the cash involved, confirming it runs into trillions of dollars

Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, an economist for the IMF in Washington, said statistical information on Luxembourg, one of the largest offshore financial centres in Europe, illustrated the extent of the problem. He said: “Luxembourg is one of the few offshore centres that disclose detailed statistics on assets and liabilities held in the financial sector, which makes it invaluable to understand cross-border money flows.”

The latest available IMF figures show portfolio assets held by foreigners in Luxembourg to be worth $1.5 trillion at the end of 2008. But looking at statistics provided by the Luxembourg Government on portfolio investment liabilities for the country – the mirror image of the asset information held by the IMF – there is a big discrepancy. The investment liabilities in Luxembourg were $2.5 trillion – $1 trillion (€726bn) more than the assets reported.

Milesi-Ferretti said: “This is a huge difference, almost 40%, and is unlikely to be entirely accounted for by the fact that some countries do not report their portfolio investments or their destination to the fund.” China, Taiwan and many of the oil-exporting countries do not participate in the IMF’s survey.

The IMF found a similar discrepancy in the Cayman Islands data, whereby the $2.2 trillion in equity liabilities reported by the country, a British overseas territory, at the end of 2007 – the latest figures available – bears little resemblance to the $750bn of portfolio assets reported to the international organisation.

Taken together, the data for the two offshore centres alone shows at least $2 trillion remains unaccountable for. And the fact that many undeclared funds in offshore accounts are held in cash deposits, not in portfolio investments, means the sum is likely to be much higher.

Switzerland – the biggest offshore financial centre – has only a small discrepancy between what it reports as portfolio liabilities and what it reported to the fund as assets, but the Government admits to having at least $600bn in undeclared accounts.

Swiss finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz has said the Government wants to find a solution for the estimated $600bn-$700bn of undeclared assets in the country. Most of this money is held in cash. Undeclared money has become an increasingly contentious issue.

The G20 group of countries has launched initiatives to crack down on tax havens and UK Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms this year called offshore tax evasion “morally unacceptable”.
Fiona Fernie, tax investigations partner at accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward in London, said: “The tax climate is becoming harsher generally and the authorities have made it very clear that people who do not come forward will be penalised.”

As a result of the pressure, some offshore centres are taking action on undeclared money. Liechtenstein, which is believed to have at least €200bn ($276bn) of offshore money in its banking sector, has signed numerous bilateral tax information exchange agreements. It has also implemented innovative initiatives such as the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility with the UK. This allows UK citizens to be let off with lighter sanctions if they declare their offshore accounts in the principality.

Although the IMF is concerned about the undeclared assets held in offshore centres from a tax perspective, it is particularly concerned about how this money affects cross-border financial interaction and contributes to shocks in the global economy such as the recent credit crisis.

Milesi-Ferretti said: “The Cayman Islands were the largest foreign holder of private-label US mortgage-backed securities on the eve of the financial crisis. More information on the ultimate holders of these securities could clearly provide valuable insights on the transmission of the ‘sub-prime shock’ and the financial crisis more generally.”

The IMF believes the sum of the external assets and liabilities of what it calls small international financial centres – which includes all the offshore centres except Switzerland – is $18 trillion.

The figure is higher than those of big investing countries such as France, Germany or Japan and is a multiple of those of other large economies such as China.

Milesi-Ferretti said: “What is even more striking is that this number is likely to be an underestimation given the data problems with offshore financial centres.”

www.efinancialnews.com/story/2010-03-15/imf-finds-trillions-in-undeclared-wealth

[sandi66]

Stop nagging China to revalue -ex-EU chief Prodi

BEIJING, March 15 (Reuters) - Foreign pressure on China to let the yuan rise is counterproductive and doomed to fail, former European Commission President Romano Prodi said on Monday.
"The higher the rank of a politician who declares China must revalue the renminbi, the longer the delay will be in the possible revaluation. You can almost have a mathematical formula," Prodi told a European Union Chamber of Commerce lunch.
Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday rebuffed international calls for a stronger yuan, saying that China would steer its own course and denying that the currency is undervalued.
U.S. President Barack Obama urged China last Thursday to adopt a more market-oriented exchange rate -- code for letting the yuan strengthen.
"I don't know why these declarations are done. The moment you are becoming more and more assertive, like China is now, how can you accept that somebody from the outside dictates that the renminbi be revalued tomorrow?" said Prodi, a visiting professor at the China Europe International Business School.
"So if we go on with declarations, a revaluation will never happen," Prodi, a former prime minister of Italy, added.
He said China's accumulation of a large stockpile of U.S. Treasury bonds had translated directly into global financial power; Beijing could now demand a seat at the table so its voice was heard on issues that concern it.
"The G20 is a very concrete, political consequence of that," Prodi said.
Since the global credit crunch, the G20 group of developed and emerging economies -- of which China is a member -- has supplanted the Group of Seven rich industrial nations as the premier forum for coordinating international economic policy.

www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7791886&subject=economic&action=article

[sandi66]

Iraq Central Bank Plans To Rebase Dinar; No Time Fixed Yet

Monday, March 15, 2010

Iraq Central Bank Plans To Rebase Dinar; No Time Fixed Yet


Monday, Mar 15, 2010


Central Bank of Iraq is planning to rebase the Iraqi dinar but hasn't decided yet on the timing of the move, the bank said in a statement Monday.

"The Central Bank affirms its commitment to its strategic projects, particularly knocking three zeroes from the Iraqi dinar," the statement said.

"Despite the technical and logistical preparations for the project we have yet to decide on suitable timing to implement the project," it said. Choosing a suitable time wouldn't be linked to economic aspects only, but rather to the security situation as well, it added.

Separately, the bank's senior advisor Mudher Qasim told Dow Jones Newswires that knocking off the three zeroes would improve the value of the Iraqi dinar which is trading Monday IQD 1,170 against one US dollar.

If the rebase decision is taken it means a current 25,000 Iraqi dinar banknote will become IQD25, and a dollar will equal only 1.17 dinars.


The bank said that knocking off three zeroes from the dinar would "improve management of the currency and facilitate cash dealing." The decision was the result of debate with the economic commission at the Iraqi cabinet, it added.

Currency rebasings are usually monetarily neutral and are introduced to make commercial calculations easier and cheaper. Turkey, for example, knocked six zeroes off its lira currency in 2005. Russia did the same for its currency.

Qasim said one of the reasons for rebasing the Iraqi dinar is because the bank has managed to reduce the country's high rate of inflation. The inflation rate fell to 6.1% in December 2009 from a record high of 60% in late 2006.

In July 2004, the now dissolved U.S. civilian authority in Iraq decided to print the current Iraqi banknotes replacing those that used to bear the picture of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Iraqis then had three months to swap their old dinars with the new ones.

The central bank's advisor said that if the project was implemented the central bank would need to print new banknotes.

www.zawya.com/marketing.cfm?zi&p=/Story.cfm/sidZW20100315000097/iq/

articlesofinterest-kelley.blogspot.com/2010/03/iraq-central-bank-plans-to-rebase-dinar.html

[sandi66]

The Federal Reserve: The Greatest Scam in History (revision C) the Yellen Effect

March 15, 2010

Janet L. Yellen appears to be the favourite to replace Don Kohn, the outgoing vice-chairman at The Federal Reserve Board, an appointment that does not surprise us, however, her resume is a smorgasboard of academia without even a hint of a proper job.

This resume belongs to a person who went to school, then to university as a student and then back to university. This is the resume of an overgrown school kid who has spent a lifetime acquiring many academic certificates from educational institutions along the way and stayed in the academic world pontificating on whatever took her interest.

Now, unless you consider working for the Federal Reserve as a stint in the private sector, this lady has no experience whatsoever in working or running a real business. A mirror image of Ben Bernanke she has never mustered the courage to venture into the private sector and implement her theories for the benefit of an organization battling to survive and grow in the private sector.

Her theories remain unproven outside of the classroom and as they have remained theoretical only, there isn’t the hard won experience in the real world to support and give credit to her words. Every corporation and indeed every person in the United States of America will be and are being affected everyday by the actions of The Federal Reserve Board, the governance of which is entrusted to people who have never fixed so much as a wing nut to a Ford motor car.

Helicopter Ben has said that he will run the money printing presses for as long as it takes and now he has the assistance of Janet L. Yellen to shovel the money out of the doors in the belief that more money is the solution to a debt laden nation. The political courage to suck money out of the economy just does not exist as unemployment is high and the economy is fragile and will remain so for sometime to come. Should a double dip recession appear on the horizon then the drunk will be given yet another drink, well it almost worked in Zimbabwe.

Please forgive us for being old cynics as we cannot see anything in this resume to boost our confidence. This is her resume as published by The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, if we have missed a proper job then please correct us.

Janet L. Yellen took office as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on June 14, 2004. As a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, Dr. Yellen fully participates in the meetings and brings her District’s perspective to policy discussions in Washington.

Dr. Yellen is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley where she was the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics and has been a faculty member since 1980.

Dr. Yellen earlier took leave from Berkeley for five years starting August 1994 when she served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System through February 1997, and then left the Fed to become Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers through August 1999. She also chaired the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development from 1997 to 1999.

Dr. Yellen became a member of The Group of 30 in September 2009. She also serves on the executive committee of the Bay Area Council and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Yellen is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and has served as president of the Western Economic Association and vice president of the American Economic Association. She was also a Fellow of the Yale Corporation.

Dr. Yellen graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967, and received her PhD in Economics from Yale University in 1971. She received the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale in 1997, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brown in 1998, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Bard College in 2000.

An Assistant Professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1976, Dr. Yellen served as an economist with the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors in 1977 and 1978, and on the faculty of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1978 to 1980.

Dr. Yellen has written on a wide variety of macroeconomic issues, while specializing in the causes, mechanisms and implications of unemployment.

The Federal Reserve: The Greatest Scam in History (revision B)
posted on the 20th March 2009.

We first posted this article on 13th August 2007 when it appeared to us that the US Dollar along with the economy was heading into such dangerous waters that gold would be the beneficiary. At the time gold was trading at around $670/oz and it closed yesterday at $960 for a gain of $290 or 43.2%. Yesterday was the first time that we have seen the ‘C‘ word used as the Federal Reserve announced that it would be buying back $300 billion in longer-term Treasuries in order to assist the economic recovery. This move to buy these Treasuries is regarded by many as a last resort or a sign of panic as the turmoil in the financial markets reaches a crisis point.

Gold was languishing at the $890/oz level just prior to the announcement and then within the hour it rocketed to the $950/oz level as the news of the Feds action spread. Whether it be an article on Market Watch or a mention on the BBC World Service, news travels fast these days to every corner of the planet and investors react accordingly with startling results. A new government and a New Fed, not really, just more of the same but in increasingly larger doses. Todays action will turn out to be a defining moment for the US Dollar and recorded by historians as the beginning of its demise. Unfortunately the worst is yet to come so steel yourself for a force ten storm.

On 4th October 2008 we updated our original essay with the following excerpts;

If we fast forward to time now and read any newspaper the headlines are dominated with the fire fighting actions being implemented by the Federal Reserve with bankers and politicians in tow. From these bailouts we can only conclude that the dilution of paper money will continue with the pace of dilution accelerating, resulting in massive inflation and propelling the precious metals to higher ground. If you have the time, please read this article and then take a look at what’s happening around you and then find the time to question what you are doing and why you are doing it. Being too busy to organise your own affairs is a poor excuse. Just switch the television off for a couple of nights and clear your head, the way forward for you personally will become apparent.

The Federal Reserve: The Greatest Scam In History?



This is the original essay posted on 13th August 2007

The Federal Reserve was created in 1913-1914 in order to bring stability to the economy and yet almost every major crash, including the great depression, can be attributed to the Federal Reserve.

We are going to take a look at the history of the Fed and what prominent historical figures have said about the organisation.

Firstly, from 1837-1862 there was a system of national banks in the USA but then in 1913-1914 a consortium of 12 privately held banks got together and formed the Federal Reserve Bank, an entity that is not part of the US government. These banks then purchased notes from the US Mint for printing costs and lent them out through member banks charging interest.

The Federal Reserve came into being after its supporters paid for the Presidential campaign of US President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson signed the bill that transferred the US currency to twelve regional private banks Wilson regretted his decision later saying:

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

In 1933 President Roosevelt confiscated citizens gold and handed it to the Federal Reserve. At the very moment when Americans have needed to protect their wealth the most, the best store of wealth ever created, gold, was confiscated from American citizens and given to a un-elected conglomerate of private banks.

When the bill for the Federal Reserve was being considered, some brave politicians spoke out against its creation calling it “the strangest, most dangerous advantage ever placed in the hands of a special privilege class by any Government that ever existed” and Congressman Victor Murdock said, “I do not blind myself to the fact that this measure will not be effectual as a remedy for a great national evil – the concentrated control of credit.”

It even appears that one of the most important and most respected figures in American history disagrees with the Federal Reserve saying, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Jefferson also said, “I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies”

“Paper is poverty… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”

The Federal Reserve make no secret about the scam they are running as the Boston section of the Federal Reserve Bank said:

“When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover the cheque, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check there is no bank deposit on which that cheque is drawn. When the Federal Reserve writes a cheque, it is creating money.”

Perhaps the Fed can create money, but we strongly believe that wealth cannot be created. Wealth is simply transferred, it is not created and we challenge anyone to prove otherwise. The only time wealth was created was when the world was created, with all its resources, true wealth. So why hasn’t the Federal Reserve been disbanded?

Well as the Rothschild Brothers of London said in 1863; “The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it’s profits or so dependant on it’s favours, that there will be no opposition from that class.”

The great Henry Ford once said “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

The problem is, very few people understand the system at all. It is not taught in schools and even some of the most prominent financial analysts and fund managers really have no idea how the system works. They tend to define inflation as rising prices when in fact inflation occurs because of the expansion of the money supply. Or even link inflation with the economy doing well, saying, “we should raise interest rates as the economy did extremely well this month and we don’t want inflation getting out of hand”, or words to that effect.

What all people, not just investors, need to understand is that paper money is worthless. Gold and precious metals are the real money, the real wealth that cannot be created like its paper ghost.

Gold has been telling us for sometime that all is not well so listen up and put at least a small part of your wealth into precious metals or their associated stocks.

Discipline is about to return to a screen near you.



All the best.

www.gold-prices.biz/the-federal-reserve-the-greatest-scam-in-history-revision-c-the-yellen-effect/#more-1648



ty joye

[sandi66]

UPDATE: Iraq Ctrl Bank Plans To Rebase Dinar; No Time Fixed Yet

Monday, Mar 15, 2010

(Adds more quotes, details.)

By Hassan Hafidh

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

AMMAN (Dow Jones)--The Central Bank of IraqCentral Bank of Iraq is planning to rebase the Iraqi dinar but hasn't decided yet on the timing of the move, the bank said in a statement Monday.

"The Central BankCentral BankCentral Bank of Iraq
CBI affirms its commitment to its strategic projects, particularly knocking three zeroes from the Iraqi dinar," the statement said.

"Despite the technical and logistical preparations for the project we have yet to decide on suitable timing to implement the project," it said. Choosing a suitable time wouldn't be linked to economic aspects only, but rather to the security situation as well, it added.

Separately, the bank's senior advisor Mudher Qasim told Dow Jones Newswires that knocking off the three zeroes would improve the value of the Iraqi dinar which is trading Monday IQD1,170 against one US dollar.

If the rebase decision is taken it means a current 25,000 Iraqi dinar banknote will become IQD25, and a dollar will equal only 1.17 dinars.

The bank said that knocking off three zeroes from the dinar would "improve management of the currency and facilitate cash dealing." The decision was the result of debate with the economic commission at the Iraqi cabinet, it added.

Currency rebasings are usually monetarily neutral and are introduced to make commercial calculations easier and cheaper. Turkey, for example, knocked six zeroes off its lira currency in 2005. Russia did the same for its currency.

Qasim said one of the reasons for rebasing the Iraqi dinar is because the bank has managed to reduce the country's high rate of inflation. The inflation rate fell to 6.1% in December 2009 from a record high of 60% in late 2006.

In July 2004, the now dissolved U.S. civilian authority in Iraq decided to print the current Iraqi banknotes replacing those that used to bear the picture of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Iraqis then had three months to swap their old dinars with the new ones.

The central bank's advisor said that if the project was implemented the central bank would need to print new banknotes.

- By Hassan Hafidh; Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Co.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

15-03-10 1036GMT


www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZW20100315000097/Iraq%20Ctrl%20Bank%20Plans%20To%20Rebase%20Dinar;%20No%20Time%20Fixed%20Yet

[sandi66]

CBI sells $212.9m on Tue

16 March 2010
BAGHDAD: The Central Bank of Iraq's (CBI) dollar sales reached $212.910 million in its daily auction on Tuesday.

"The demand hit $16.490 million in cash, covered at an exchange rate of 1,183 Iraqi dinars per dollar, and $196.420 million in foreign transfers outside the country, covered at an exchange rate of 1,173 Iraqi dinars per dollar," according to a CBI news bulletin received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

None of the 16 banks that participated in today's session offered to sell dollars.

The Central Bank of Iraq runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.


© Aswat Aliraq 2010

www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZAWYA20100317054632/CBI%20sells%20$212.9m%20on%20Tuesday

[sandi66]

Lehman Had $39 Billion in Encumbered Cash Before Bankruptcy

By Linda Sandler

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The day before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, almost all of its $41 billion cash pool was tied up at bank lenders including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., according to a court-appointed examiner’s report.

After Bear Stearns Cos. failed in 2008, Lehman began to count obligatory deposits and collateral pledged to banks as cash, and to use those larger amounts in discussions with regulators and analysts and in public disclosures, examiner Anton Valukas said in his report on firm’s collapse.

Based on such representations, a memo from Buckingham Research Group analysts two days before Lehman’s Sept. 15, 2008, bankruptcy concluded: “Lehman remains well positioned in a ‘run on the bank scenario’” because of a $42 billion liquidity pool that would enable it to meet demands for cash.

Less than $2 billion of those assets were “readily monetizable,” Valukas said in his March 11 report.

“Liquidity is absolutely critical to the broker-dealer and investment bank holding company business model due to the fact that these financial entities are dependent on short-term secured financing to fund their daily operations,” Valukas said in the 2,200-page report. “Lehman knew that liquidity played a crucial role in its business model.”

He said there may be grounds for suing Lehman executives for “causing” the company to file misleading financial reports while its risks were rising.

Accounting Methods

Valukas’s report details other Lehman accounting methods that may have misled investors, including transactions that made $50 billion disappear from its balance sheet in a half year, and a way of valuing real estate investments that avoided writedowns by focusing on a project’s future prospects.

After Bear Stearns collapsed, Lehman was “widely regarded” as the investment bank second-most dependent on short-term financing for its daily operations, making it vulnerable if lenders pulled back, Valukas said, citing a June 2008 Morgan Stanley research report. At the time the fourth- largest investment bank, Lehman had estimated liabilities of $613 billion, including short-term repos, or agreements to repurchase assets, of $159 billion, or almost 26 percent of those obligations, according to the Morgan Stanley report.

Valukas cited a 2007 regulatory filing by Lehman that acknowledged “failures in our industry are typically the result of insufficient liquidity.” Bear Stearns was bought by JPMorgan for less than a tenth of its value after its money ran out.

“We are reading and analyzing the examiner’s report,” said Kimberly Macleod, a Lehman spokeswoman, declining to comment on specifics.

Encumbered Assets

Lehman’s use of encumbered assets to bolster cash began in June 2008, when Citigroup asked for a $2 billion deposit against trades it was settling and clearing for Lehman, and continued a week later when JPMorgan, Lehman’s main U.S. clearing bank, requested $5 billion in securities to meet revised margin requirements.

Lehman continued to count those amounts as liquid assets, taking the position that it was appropriate, even though the collateral was pledged to JPMorgan and it “understood” that a withdrawal of the deposit from Citigroup “would have an impact on Citi’s willingness to clear and settle trades for Lehman,” Valukas said.

In August, Lehman posted $500 million in collateral with Bank of America to secure its daytime exposures on trades for the investment bank, counting the amount in its liquidity pool “despite the fact that the collateral was subject to a security interest, was returnable to Lehman only on three days’ notice and was placed to ensure that Bank of America would continue its clearing operations,” Valukas said.

Security Deposit

As security for similar risks, Lehman deposited more than $800 million with HSBC Holdings Plc and an unspecified amount with JPMorgan in two accounts, according to Valukas. Again, Lehman counted these amounts as its own readily available cash, “even though JPMorgan required almost all of the funds in those accounts each morning to unwind the previous day’s tri-party repo trades,” the examiner said.

In September, JPMorgan sought and received more than $8 billion in cash as security for risks it was taking as Lehman’s bank, and the pledged money also was counted in Lehman’s cash, the examiner said.

At the end of the third quarter, Lehman reported that its liquidity totaled $42 billion compared with $48 billion in the second quarter, Valukas said. Those numbers didn’t fully reflect the drop in assets that could easily be converted to cash, according to Valukas’s findings.

SEC Unaware

Lehman’s primary regulator, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, was unaware of the extent to which Lehman was counting clearing-bank collateral in its liquidity pool until the day before Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, Valukas said.

New York-based Lehman collapsed that day with $639 billion in assets as lenders pulled back, making it the largest U.S. bankruptcy ever.

In a March 14 presentation to the SEC, Lehman described its liquidity pool as “primarily cash and cash equivalents and unencumbered, liquid, investment grade collateral,” according to the report.

Valukas said Lehman never told rating services or its shareholders and lenders that it was including so many deposits and pledges in its liquidity. In a July 2008 quarterly filing, it said its liquidity pool was intended to cover expected cash outflows for 12 months “in a stressed liquidity environment.” Those outflows included debt coming due, collateral calls related to Lehman’s derivatives contracts, and a “loss of repo capacity,” it said.

The bankruptcy case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 08-13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in New York at [e-mail].

Last Updated: March 19, 2010 00:01 EDT

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601127&sid=ajkomJKssN70

[sandi66]

The Goldsmiths—Part CXXXIII

Friday, March 19, 2010

By R. D. Bradshaw



Goldman Sachs, AIG, JP Morgan Chase and the other big Cabal banks and financial institutions are paying huge million dollar bonuses to employees/team players. Recently, there has been much public outcry, uproar and dissatisfaction in the matter. Among others, Seekingalpha.com has had a recent article addressing this concern. Even key people in Washington have become involved. The participating institutions all say that their people are as justified to receive the millions of dollars they receive annually just as much as ball players are justified for the millions they receive in the sports industry. But are they?



True, the sports players are getting fabulously wealthy for little or no brain power, other than being able to throw or hit a ball. But the reason is, per the Rothschild MO at Understanding Money and War XIV (at http://www.analysis-news.com), to keep the focus of the people’s minds and mentalities on frivolous things of no importance (as carried out on the American people by the Cabal owned, managed and directed entertainment and media sources in Hollywood and New York). The idea is that if the people are focused on a ball team, ball player, O. J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Tiger Wood or some other frivolous nothing they will not be watching the Rothschilds and other Cabal insiders busy stealing trillions of dollars.



Accordingly, the Cabal has made the public obsessed with frivolous pursuits of little value—like soap operas, ball games and ball players (thus, ball players have become extremely important). With public fanaticism, big ticket sales and huge advertising income, the teams are bringing in big bucks from the mesmerized public. Of course, with this fanaticism, athletes are cashing in with big salaries and bonuses.



Even Obama Joined in



Even the president weighed in on the question of bonuses to the Cabal players more than once in the summer of 2009. Just after the taxpayers made huge payments of money to AIG, Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, JP Morgan Chase, etc, the public was in an uproar when information surfaced that these taxpayer supported giants were simultaneously making huge bonus payments to their employees. Since there was much outcry from the ripped off public, over the bonuses, the politicians got in on the act to condemn the bonuses. Almost weekly, the president had sharp criticism and complaints about the bonuses.



The public outcry in June 2009 motivated Obama to name a special master on executive compensation. Rothschild relative and agent Kenneth Feinberg was named to oversee the payoffs going to the big Cabal banks receiving taxpayer bail outs. But some of the Cabal companies getting US taxpayer money were not happy with the scrutiny and public outcries so they repaid some part of their payoffs while continuing their big bonus payments to key employees.



After working the media for months on end with complaints, Obama changed his tune on the bonuses in early February 2010. Bloomberg had a story on Feb 10, 2010 by Julianna Goldman and Ian Katz on “Obama Doesn’t ‘Begrudge’ Bonuses for Blankfein, Dimon.”



Per this report, President Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay. Obama was quoted as saying that “I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen.” He added: “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”



It’s amazing that Obama could cry, moan and complain for months on end about the bad old banks making big bonus payments to their employees. But then, as soon as the public outcry was over and the people had gone back to sleep, Obama changed his tune and said well, the payments were justified since athletes were making big money.



But There are Differences



Consequently, Goldman, Morgan and the big Cabal banks say that their employees are as justified to receive multiplied millions annually as much as ball players are justified to receive their millions. On the surface, this sounds good. But is it? Well, the truth of the matter is that there are differences which the Cabal bosses do not want to talk about.



First the Cabal financial institutions are all on the public dole. This may or may not be true with athletes and ball teams. Being on the dole, the taxpayers annually shell out huge sums of money to the Cabal companies under various and sundry programs and gimmicks. Often they get huge grants from TARP and stimulus programs, as happened in the last couple of years. Otherwise, they regularly and often receive public grants, give aways and/or loan guarantees to promote their businesses, supposedly in foreign countries. This is why we have foreign aid--to benefit the Cabal banks and players.



Next, the Fed has been created to specifically work for and aid and assist big Cabal financial institutions. The Fed works with the Treasury to manipulate and control the money markets to benefit the Cabal and its insiders. Too, the Fed has a host of loan programs with very low interest rates (0 to .25%) which regularly funnel money to Cabal banks. Many of us, to include athletes for ball teams, must pay up to 79.9% interest per annum if we expect to get money from the Cabal banks while they pay almost nothing for it.



Last, the Cabal players are all connected by the strongest of ties which insure that they closely coordinate their work and inside moves to make profits for all the team players and the institutions which own and direct their work. This whole effort is one giant conspiracy which operates beyond national boundaries. These Cabal insiders may frequently change their names and their supposed public religions for deception purposes, but they are really the same in what counts.



The Players



Thus, the Rothschild Cabal has relatives and agents like Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan running the US Federal Reserve, Mervyn King running the Bank of England, Jean-Claude Trichet running the ECB, Jean Pierre Roth running the Swiss National Bank, Robert Zoellick running the World Bank, Dominique Strass-Kahn running the IMF, Aleksander Welfe running the Bank of Poland, etc. And what do these men have in common? Let me give you a clue. They are not connected by publicly professed religion, supposed citizenship or alleged nationality.



But there is more to come. There are people in Washington working full time for the Cabal and its insiders--like Robert Rubin, Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, Henry Paulson, Sheila Bair (of the FDIC), John E. Bowman (at OTS), Rahm Emanuel (chief of staff), David Axelrod (Obama aide), Peter Orszag (at OMB), Jon Leibowitz (of FTC), Alan Binder (Obama aide), Gary Gensler (at CFTC), Mary Schapiro (at SEC), Karen Mills (at SBA), Barney Frank (House Chair of Financial Services) and Senators to include: Jay Rockefeller/Roggenfelder, Charles Schumer, Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Arlen Specter, Joseph Leiberman, John Kerry/Kohn, Al Franken, Carl Levin, Frank Lautenberg, Benjamin Cardin, Ron Wyden, Bernard Sanders, Herbert Kohl and Russ Feingold. And what does this Washington team of national US leaders have in common?



Then there are the secret owners of at least ½ of the wealth in the world (to include the big banks and central banks in Western countries). These super-rich, Cabal fat cats include family dynasties like the Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, Bronfmans, Rockefellers/Roggenfelders, (banking) Lamberts, Cecils, Lazards, Warburgs, etc busy doing everything in their power to promote the overall Cabal interests and profit objectives. And what do they have in common? And how are they connected to the above stated people in Washington and those running the big banks?



To coordinate this whole conspiratorial motion, the Rothschild plutocrats in the City of London coordinate and run the whole shooting match. The participants, mainly with the big Cabal banks, are making absolute fortunes. They have so much money flowing in, from their profits and gain, that they are more than willing to let their Cabal connected agents and relatives working for them also share in the plunder and in the rip off of the sucker nations which have stupidly turned their money over to this gang of thieves.



Bottom Line



Repeatedly the question has been asked above—what do the various people and groups have in common which binds them together and assures that they will work 100% for Cabal profits and the common good of its participants and players?



Well, starting with the key people at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and the other big Cabal owned/controlled banks on to all of the above people named (the bosses of the big central banks, to the key movers and shakers in Washington, and to the dynastic families that own or control up to ½ of the wealth of the world today), they are all (except for Obama, Simpson, Jackson and Wood) connected by the strongest of ties. They may change their names and their publicly professed religions to fool the suckers; but they are all the same in what counts.



Unless the reader is awfully slow in brain power, this single fact of linkage should tell the world why the Cabal works together, 100%, day and night, to manipulate the financial markets. They have had many years of experience in collusion and conspiracy in ripping off and stealing from the nations which stupidly allow them to come in and take over their national monies.



Since we have stupidly turned our national money over to this gang of crooks and thieves, maybe they should be allowed to pay their insider employees bonuses of billions of dollars each year.



So why is that the people being ripped off waste their time and energy over the bonuses when the real problem is far bigger than the amounts involved in the bonuses? The real problem involves the stupid decision of our people to turn our money over to this gang of thieves to exploit and plunder. Like old man Mayer Rothschild said many years ago—Give him control of a nation’s money and he cared not who writes its laws. Why can’t people put two and two together and see what the problem is?

____________________________________________________________________



Back issues of the Goldsmiths, by the editor of the Analysis of News, can be accessed from a Google or Yahoo search engine by typing in “R. D. Bradshaw” Goldsmiths. Several hundred web sites can be found with the back issues and with translations to Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Polish, Chinese and other foreign languages. Finally, the “Archives-Goldsmiths” of this website (www.analysis-news.com ) has all of the Goldsmith articles issued to date.



Besides the revelations contained in the Goldsmiths’ articles, the work of the plutocratic financial market manipulators to conspiratorially manipulate and control the financial markets (to make more profits and install a world government under their management) is also addressed at length in the periodic analysis of the news and in other articles produced at www.analysis-news.com. This website has an article of interest to any person interested in understanding the market Manipulators. It is the Hidden Secret of the Manipulators, why they succeed and how to follow their manipulations.



Readers of the above articles are invited to visit www.analysis-news.com and become a subscriber to regularly read some of the material from the world of information which will further reveal how extensive the manipulation, control and dishonesty realities are in the financial, currency and commodity markets, not only in the US but indeed around the world.

news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1268978460.php

[sandi66]

Treasuries Set for Weekly Advance as Greek Crisis Spurs Demand

Friday, March 19, 2010

Treasuries headed for a weekly gain on increased demand for the safest securities amid mounting speculation that Greece will fail to secure financial aid from the European Union.

Benchmark 10-year notes snapped two weeks of losses after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou set a one-week deadline for the EU to compile a rescue package before the country goes to the International Monetary Fund. The difference between two- and 10-year yields was near the lowest since January after U.S. reports this week showed consumer prices stopped rising and producer prices fell. The Federal Reserve said on March 16 that rates will stay low for an “extended period.”

“There’s renewed jitters about Greece, and that has helped push some safe haven flows back into Treasuries,” said Nick Stamenkovic, a fixed-income strategist at RIA Capital Markets Ltd. in Edinburgh. “The Fed has signaled that they will keep monetary policy accommodative, and that’s helping to support the bond market.”

The yield on the 10-year note was at 3.67 percent as of 9:08 a.m. in London, according to BGCantor Market Data. The 3.625 percent security due February 2020 traded at 99 19/32. The yield has declined 3 basis points this week.

The spread between two- and 10-year yields, charted on the yield curve, was 2.71 percentage points, after shrinking to 2.70 percentage points yesterday, the least since Jan. 4.

‘Far From Resolved’

Papandreou said yesterday he may turn to the IMF to overcome Greece’s debt crisis unless European leaders agree to set up a lending facility at a March 25-26 summit. The IMF option has already been dismissed by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said it would show the EU can’t solve its own crises. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week the IMF may be the only answer.

“The Greek story is far from resolved,” Geoffrey Yu, a strategist at UBS AG in London, wrote in a note to clients. It will “continue to haunt the euro” and other risky assets.

U.S. consumer prices were unchanged last month, the first time prices had failed to increase since March 2009, the Labor Department said yesterday. Producer prices fell 0.6 percent in February, the Labor Department said March 17. Slower inflation helps preserve the purchasing power of debt’s fixed payments.

‘Remain Contained’

“We expect inflation to remain contained for the rest of this year given the slack in the economy and the headwinds to growth,” Curtis Arledge, chief investment officer of fixed income at New York-based BlackRock Inc., wrote in a note to clients. “We are more constructive on intermediate- to longer- dated Treasuries.”

The difference between yields on 10-year notes and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, a gauge of expectations for inflation known as the breakeven rate, was at 2.24 percentage points today, up from 2.23 percentage points yesterday, and down from this year’s high of 2.49 percentage points reached Jan. 11.

Demand for Treasuries was tempered as the U.S. prepared to sell a record amount of two-, five, and seven-year notes next week. The government will offer $44 billion of 2012 debt on March 23, $42 billion in five-year notes the following day and $32 billion of 2017 securities on March 25, the Treasury announced yesterday.

President Barack Obama has increased U.S. marketable debt to an unprecedented $7.41 trillion to fund a budget deficit the government predicts will swell to a record $1.6 trillion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

China Holdings

China, the largest holder of U.S. debt, said its foreign- exchange reserves are facing the “triple whammy” of a decline in the dollar’s purchasing power, falling Treasury prices and possible inflation in the long run, Yu Yongding, a former adviser to the nation’s central bank, wrote in a commentary published today in the China Daily newspaper.

China was a net seller of U.S. government debt in January for the third month, the longest such stretch since the end of 2007, a U.S. Treasury report showed March 16.

Capital losses on China’s foreign-exchange reserves, as measured by the Dollar Index, are “inevitable,” Yu wrote. China will only be able to recover its losses if the Federal Reserve implements an exit strategy from monetary expansion, Yu wrote. Such an exit is “doubtful,” he wrote.

To contact the reporters on this story: Matthew Brown in London at [e-mail]; Theresa Barraclough in Tokyo at [e-mail].

Last Updated: March 19, 2010 05:21 EDT

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601015&sid=at3lAABMg59o

[sandi66]

Latvian Minister Dismisses Resignation Call From People’s Party

By Milda Seputyte

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Latvia’s Culture Minister Ints Dalderis rejected a call from the People’s Party, which nominated him to the post, to leave the government and said he will remain in office until a general election in October.

Dalderis said he discussed the issue with Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and has his support, according to a television interview posted on the LNT Web site today. The minister also said he resigned from the People’s Party, which quit Dombrovskis’s coalition government two days ago.

The People’s Party said it was recalling its five Cabinet members after Dombrovskis refused to sign an agreement to delay tax increases this year and next and hold off on a reduction of the number of ministries to cut spending. The premier now controls 44 seats in the 100-member legislature with four independent deputies.

The Baltic nation turned to a group led by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund for a 7.5 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) rescue loan in 2008 after taking over its second-biggest bank. The government has passed budget cuts equal to about 10 percent of gross domestic product in an effort to comply with the terms of its credit.

The economy shrank a revised 16.9 percent last quarter after retail sales dropped by a third and the jobless rate approached 20 percent. Output slumped 18 percent last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Milda Seputyte in Vilnius at [e-mail]

Last Updated: March 19, 2010 05:20 EDT

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601095&sid=aGBhUAjLXS1I