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

[sandi66]

U.S. testing tax refunds on prepaid debit cards
Published: Thursday, January 13, 2011, 3:22 PM
Updated: Thursday, January 13, 2011, 3:43 PM
NEW YORK -- Low-income taxpayers who don't have bank accounts will be able to get their tax refunds this year on prepaid debit cards supplied by the government, the Treasury Department said today.

The department plans to send letters to 600,000 households next week, asking them to take part in a pilot program to put their tax refunds on the debit cards, which can be used to get money from ATM machines, pay bills or to buy goods and services from retailers.

The Internal Revenue Service is aiming to reduce the amount of paper it handles. To encourage taxpayers to file their returns electronically, for instance, the IRS is not mailing paper forms to taxpayers this year.

It will still be sending out refund checks but is seeking to reduce the number -- about 35 million were mailed in 2010 -- by encouraging direct deposit. For those without bank accounts, the debit cards will allow them to avoid check-cashing fees or costly refund anticipation loans and checks.

Direct deposit is also faster. It takes 10 days or fewer for the IRS to process a tax return and deposit a refund electronically. A mailed paper check may not reach a taxpayer for up to six weeks.

The new debit card, called MyAccountCard, is issued by Bonneville Bank, a community bank based in Provo, Utah. It will bear a Visa logo. Funds on the card are backed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. like regular bank accounts.

Treasury said it will test different fees as part of the pilot. Half the cards in the pilot will include no monthly fee, while the other half will carry a $4.95 monthly fee.

Cardholders won't have to pay service fees if they use the cards to withdraw money from ATMs in the MoneyPass network. All of the cards will carry a $2.50 fee for out-of-network ATM withdrawals, and a 50-cent fee for using out-of-network ATMs for balance inquiries.

There may also be a fee up to $4.95 for making in-person deposits on the cards, which can be done at retailers like Wal-Mart Stores, 7-Eleven, K-Mart and major drug store chains.

A second pilot started this week will notify tens of thousands of payroll card users that they can direct deposit their federal tax refund onto existing payroll cards.

Treasury said more than 1.7 million workers nationwide use payroll cards to receive and access their wages, often because they do not have bank accounts. The agency is working with payroll service provider ADP to notify payroll card users they can get tax refunds deposited onto those cards.

Using prepaid cards to receive tax refunds is not new: the nation's two largest tax preparers, H&R Block Inc. and Jackson Hewitt Tax Services Inc., have for several years offered their own versions of prepaid cards for their customers to receive their refunds. Individuals can also request that their refunds be deposited onto prepaid cards bought elsewhere, or onto payroll cards.

Still, the new Treasury-sponsored card is expected to appeal to taxpayers who have in the past used refund anticipation loans to get access to their tax refunds quickly.

These loans typically are offered by tax preparers to give their customers quick access to their refunds, but have been criticized for coming with exorbitant interest rates and additional fees. About 8 million taxpayers nevertheless used refund loans last year, mainly because they provide quick access to what is often the largest single infusion of funds during the year for low-income workers.

For the current tax season, refund anticipation loans -- often called "Rapid Refunds" -- will be even more expensive and harder to get than in the past. That's because the IRS has stopped using a code that told tax preparers whether individuals would receive their entire refund, or if some would be held back to cover back taxes, missed child support, student loan payments or other liens. Tax prep companies used the code, known as a debt indicator, as a sort of credit check for a population seen as high risk.

Since the IRS said in August that it would discontinue the code, much of the bank funding for refund loans has dried up. H&R Block and a large number of independent tax preparers have lost their funding. Jackson Hewitt and No. 3 tax preparer Liberty Tax Services Inc. will have loans available.

Some tax preparers who do not have refund loans are likely to promote refund anticipation "checks," which are actually temporary accounts opened to receive refunds. Consumer advocates say these also often have high fees attached.

Jean Ann Fox of the Consumer Federation of America, which has long discouraged taxpayers from using refund anticipation loans because of their high costs, was upbeat about Treasury's pilot program.

"This is a relatively low-fee card compared with others on the market," she said. "This is a better bet than paying about $30 for a refund anticipation check."

One factor that increases the appeal of refund loans and checks is going unaddressed in the Treasury program: Tax preparers typically allow customers who use those products to pay the cost of filling out their returns with their refunds.

The IRS has a program called Free File that allows taxpayers to file simple returns electronically, with software available at no cost to those who earn less than $58,000 a year, and makes electronic forms available for higher income earners. Taxpayers can also avoid preparation fees by taking advantage of volunteer tax-prep programs.

-- The Associated Press

www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/01/us_testing_tax_refunds_on_debi.html

[sandi66]

* CBI: Educate public on paying taxes
January 13th, 2011 05:54 pm · Posted in NEWS
CBI: Educate public on paying taxes
Posted: January 13, 2011 by CURRENCY NEWSHOUND – Just Hopin in Iraqi Dinar/Politics


Baghdad, Jan. 13 (AKnews) – The Iraqi Central Bank (ICB), stated on Thursday that the assumed value of taxs in the 2011 budget is amounted to 2.7 trillion Iraqi dinars, that is 3% of the state budget.
Muzher Mouhammed Saleh, the adviser of the ICB, told AKnews that the tax file is semi-disabled in Iraq due to the poor performance of tax planning services, and because the citizens avoiding to pay the fees of the state general tax.

Mouhammed expressed that if the Iraqi Finance Ministry wanted to activate the tax for the Iraqi people, then it should carry out educational and awareness operations about the importance of taxes in the construction of the country as an important financial resource for the government to finance its economic needs.

The taxes sector in Iraq was semi-disabled in recent years because of the tensed economic and security situations in the country that led to limiting the tax system to the sector of employees and traders only.

Reported by Saman Dazzayi
Rn/Ak/AKnews

theiraqidinar.com/2011/01/13/cbi-educate-public-on-paying-taxes/

[sandi66]

* Ministry of Oil: Approving the budget on the price of $73 a barrel would fill the budget deficit
January 13th, 2011 05:52 pm · Posted in NEWS
Ministry of Oil: Approving the budget on the price of $73 a barrel would fill the budget deficit
Posted: January 13, 2011 by CURRENCY NEWSHOUND – Just Hopin in Iraqi Dinar/Politics


01/13/2011
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad, Oil, Thursday, that approving the budget on the price of $ 73 per barrel would fill a deficit budget.

He said Jihad told (Voices of Iraq) that “this year will be better than last year in terms of productivity, which will increase about 200 thousand barrels per day,” noting that “the adoption of the budget on the price of $ 73 per barrel would fill a public budget deficit, considering that the current price of a barrel is $ 90. ” He added that “the current price of a barrel of 90 dollars will support Iraq’s financial income.”

It is expected the parliament approving the budget, financial, however, numerous objections prevented it, was brought back to the Council of Ministers to make adjustments to it and then approved, is scheduled to take place the first reading of the draft budget in the meeting of the House of Representatives on Thursday, to move through the next meetings for approval.

ar.aswataliraq.info

theiraqidinar.com/2011/01/13/ministry-of-oil-approving-the-budget-on-the-price-of-73-a-barrel-would-fill-the-budget-deficit/

[sandi66]

THE Bank of China has offered yuan trading to its US customers

January 13th, 2011 05:44 pm · Posted in NEWS

THE Bank of China has offered yuan trading to its US customers, a sign that China this year may increasingly promote the use of its currency in major financial centers.

The change at BOC means that customers can trade the Chinese currency in the United States for the first time.

The New York branch of China’s fourth-largest bank said it now lets companies and individuals buy and sell the yuan via accounts with its US branches, although US businesses and individuals can also trade the currency through Western banks.

“The authorities are promoting the use of the yuan in international trade, and this is another step in that direction, and this means we should see the growth of yuan trading in other regional centers across the world,” said Robert Minikin, senior currency strategist at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong.

The move is seen as another small step to redenominate trade in yuan after persuading Chinese mainland importers and exporters to reduce settling trade in the US dollar and striking trade settlement agreements with Russia, Brazil and other countries and regions.

Promoting the use of the yuan in international trade has gone from strength to strength in the past year thanks to a slew of measures taken by authorities.

Cross-border trade settlement in Hong Kong has grown rapidly from a monthly average 4 billion yuan (US$606 million) in the first half of 2010 to 68 billion yuan in October.

At the same time, Hong Kong’s yuan deposit base has expanded sharply since trade liberalization rules established in July, leading to the emergence of a rapidly growing offshore yuan and yuan-linked instrument market.

The step by BOC, while significant, is a baby one, mainly because the Chinese government still tightly controls the amount of yuan circulating outside the country and maintains trade settlement quotas.

In 2010, China ran a US$181 billion bilateral surplus with the US, and a total surplus of US$183 billion.

BOC’s website, which outlines details of holding yuan accounts, said it offers yuan savings, demand and time deposit accounts to business customers in New York and Los Angeles.

A savings account requires a minimum balance of the equivalent of US$5,000, while the minimum in demand deposit accounts is US$3,000.

The amount of US dollars that can be converted into yuan per individual account is a tiny 20,000 yuan per day – a cap similar to the one existing in Hong Kong – and means that the growth in the yuan deposit base would take time.

theiraqidinar.com/2011/01/13/the-bank-of-china-has-offered-yuan-trading-to-its-us-customers-2/

[sandi66]

* China allow its currency (RMB) yuan in direct investment abroad
January 13th, 2011 05:43 pm · Posted in NEWS
Economic Affairs 1/13/2011

Tokyo – 13-1 (KUNA) – China’s central bank announced today that China will allow domestic companies to invest directly in overseas and use (the yuan) is another step in the expansion of Last of the Chinese currency to the global economy.

The People’s Bank of China said in a statement dated the sixth of January as it allows immediately to qualified Chinese institutions and banks to carry out direct investments abroad, used (the yuan).

Has taken China’s second largest economy in the world various steps of the globalization of its currency (RMB) yuan amid growing possibility of lower U.S. dollar.

And China’s central bank raised last month from the commercial foundations of the yuan to cover 67 359 source in a sharp rise of 365 company while allowing foreign banks last August to participate in the Chinese bond market between banks.



theiraqidinar.com/2011/01/13/china-allow-its-currency-rmb-yuan-in-direct-investment-abroad/

[sandi66]

* Biden: U.S. will seek to resolve the issue of Kuwaiti reparations
January 13th, 2011 05:40 pm ·

Date: Thursday, 01/13/2011

Baghdad (news) .. Speaker confirmed the importance of strengthening cooperation relations with the United States to develop various aspects of life and paths of development and construction work in Iraq.

Nujaifi said in a statement received by the Agency (news) on Thursday during a meeting with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden: The Iraqi people look forward to the Government of a successful democracy can build the country and its reconstruction and contribute to raising the standard of living of the Iraqi citizen, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the United States will seek to resolve all outstanding issues, including the file of compensation claimed by Kuwait.

For his part, Biden said during the meeting: “We are confident that things in Iraq will be in good condition in the near future after the withdrawal of Iraq from Chapter VII UN Security Council members and are now looking positively to Iraq for a whole different outlook in the past.
Biden noted that the Iraqis worked hard and tough and they succeeded in their quest, and that the world has seen all the pride and appreciation.



theiraqidinar.com/2011/01/13/biden-u-s-will-seek-to-resolve-the-issue-of-kuwaiti-reparations/

[sandi66]

* Conscious / stability of the prices of food products and the currencies in the market today
January 13th, 2011 05:37 pm ·

Baghdad Chamber of Commerce announced on Thursday the movement of prices Products, foodstuffs, and local and imported goods displayed in the local markets and currencies.
A report issued today by the Chamber of And got (Agency Information / INA), a copy of That “the prices of food products has stabilized to a significant increase from what it was in the beginning of last month , While the prices of some Animal products intended for export in The dollar exchange rate.
The other is maintained at the level it was during the past month, except material Jasmine tea, with the price per kilo (4500) to JD (5000) JD

The report added, the Prices of food products settled on the rise The price per bag of rice from Weight (50 kg) was (51.50) dinars and lentils price per bag weighing (50) kg (77 500) to JD (83 125) dinars. And substance of hummus, with the price per bag weight (50 kg) of (60000) to JD (61 250) dinars, as well as material price of dried beans bag weight (50 kg) of (57 500) to JD (66 000) JD article where the price of beans per bag weight (50 kg) of (110 000) dinars (112 000) JD and flour as the price per bag weight (50 kg) of (33 055) Dinaraly (37 250) JD Carton and the high price of imported oil capacity (20 liters) of (33 166) to JD (35000) JD article tomato paste rose cartoons per capacity (12 Pack) from (22000) to one thousand dinars (22 750) JD, as well as material imported eggs rose cartoons per Capacity (Class 12) from (50000) to JD (56 250) JD

As Dropped the price per kilogram of domestic meat (beef and sheep) from (12,000) to JD (11 750) JD The price of imported chicken Fund capacity (10 hens) of the (28,800) dinars to (28 550) dinars. “

He explained, either to the sugar price has dropped the weight of the bag (50 kg) (65 800) dinars and the weight (1 / 2 kg) (73 800) dinars per box capacity (24) a bag. Either grain materials and products, bringing the price as follows flour Emirates / 1 kg / 950 dinars , Bag weighing 50 kg / 32 800 dinars, rice Emirates / 1 kg / 850 DT Bag weighing 50 kg / 25 027 dinars, mash fine and coarse grain / 1 kg / 14 800 JD / bag weighing 50 kg / -, 5000 dinars.

The prices of animal products intended for export has dropped the price of one piece of material Cowhide, from (17.976) to JD (17 222) JD and a sheep skin as well as material where the discount price of one piece of (37.00) to JD (37.83) DT.Where the price of leather cow / piece / 18 000

And buffalo skin / s 15 405 . Sheepskin / s / – 0.3583, and goatskin / s / – 0.2370, insisting ore / per / -, 829, insisting Makhdoom / per / -, 1200, goat hair / 1 kg / -, 500, wool Hlasp / 1 kg / -, 1000.

For gold and silver prices reached Average price for gold (- 0.48511) dinars per gram rounds (24), as well as silver grain price at a rate equal to the same period (780 666) fils per gram. Keep in the exchange rate of U.S. dollar in local markets to what it was for the previous period.



theiraqidinar.com/2011/01/13/conscious-stability-of-the-prices-of-food-products-and-the-currencies-in-the-market-today/

[sandi66]

Watchdog says US$45B Citigroup bailout was based on 'gut instinct'

By Marcy Gordon (CP) – 50 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government's US$45-billion bailout of Citigroup met the goal of restoring the market's confidence in the third-largest U.S. bank in the wake of the financial crisis and limited taxpayers' risk, a new watchdog report says.

The report was issued Thursday by the office of Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the US$700 billion bailout of the financial industry and automakers.

It found, however, that the government's decision to aid Citigroup in the fall of 2008 wasn't made coherently and seemed to be based on "gut instinct."

Also, the report says that by bailing out Citigroup, the government encouraged high-risk behaviour by signalling that big financial institutions would be protected from failing.

The financial overhaul law enacted last summer is designed to end "too big to fail" by giving regulators the power to shut down the largest institutions if they threaten to bring down the financial system.

"The ultimate cost of bailing out Citigroup and the other too big to fail institutions will remain unknown until the next financial crisis occurs," the new report says.

New York-based Citigroup was one of the hardest-hit banks during the credit crisis and the recession, and its bailout was one of the largest of the rescue program.

Of the $45 billion, $25 billion was converted to the government's ownership stake in the bank. Citigroup repaid the bailout. The Treasury Department says taxpayers made $12 billion on the bailout from the government's sale of its shares.

"We appreciate the report's conclusions that Treasury's investment in Citigroup was successful and ... that the government effectively limited risk to the taxpayer," Tim Massad, acting assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability, said in a statement.

Citigroup said it is a different company today.

"We have bolstered our financial strength, overhauled our risk management, reduced our risk exposures, defined a clear strategy and made Citi a more focused enterprise by returning to banking as the core of our business," the bank said in a statement.

Representative Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the incoming chairman of the House financial services committee, said the report confirms that the financial overhaul law doesn't end "too big to fail."

Bachus cited a statement by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Barofsky that while the law gives the government "better tools" and reduces the risk of failures, "in the future we may have to do exceptional things again" if there is another big shock to the financial system.

Geithner's statement is mentioned in the report.

www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jPzVAoig3M6GRHJPz81iCgxv-RZQ?docId=5646572

[sandi66]

China Inflation May Ease Yuan Pressure at Hu-Obama Summit
By Bloomberg News - Jan 13, 2011 11:00 AM ET

Rising inflation in China that is causing headaches for President Hu Jintao at home may help relieve tensions with the U.S. over the yuan as he prepares to meet President Barack Obama in Washington next week.

Prices are climbing faster in China than in the U.S., making Chinese goods less competitive, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said this week. Chinese officials may also seek to speed up gains in the currency, also known as the renminbi, to fight inflation, lowering the cost of imported U.S. goods such as Boeing Co. aircraft and Microsoft Corp. software.

Hu may seek the easing of a U.S. ban on technology exports, while Obama is likely to focus on access to Chinese markets, lower subsidies for companies and cooperation on North Korea. Meantime, the U.S. economic recovery and new Republican leaders in Congress who don’t see the yuan as a priority may also help make the issue less contentious, said Michael Paulus, who heads the Asia Public Sector Group at Citigroup Inc. in Hong Kong.

“That the renminbi is starting to get on a track that people feel somewhat comfortable with takes it off the front burner,” former Treasury official Paulus said in an interview. “The people at the White House and the Treasury and elsewhere will not try to downplay it, but not play it up either.”

Geithner, speaking in Washington on Jan. 12, said that while the yuan was still “substantially undervalued” the “fundamental forces that are pushing Chinese productivity growth and are pushing inflation higher will bring about the necessary adjustment in exchange rates.”

Factoring in rising prices, the erosion of Chinese companies’ advantage over U.S. rivals was equivalent to the yuan strengthening at an annual rate of about 10 percent, he said.

Trading Range

The yuan’s trading range, set each morning by the People’s Bank of China, is increasingly linked to political events between China and the U.S. Shares in the exchange-traded, New York-based WisdomTree Dreyfus China Yuan Fund gained 3.1 percent in the month leading up to a scheduled Oct. 15 release of a Treasury report on whether China manipulates its currency, which was delayed. Shares fell 1 percent over the next two weeks. In the first three days of this week the fund gained 0.51 percent.

Last year Obama and Congress pushed China repeatedly to speed up yuan gains amid historically high unemployment. The jobless rate reached a 26-year peak of 10.1 percent in October 2009, and is now at 9.4 percent.

Obama said after meeting Hu in November that China is spending “enormous amounts of money” to keep the yuan undervalued. Democrats in the House pushed through a measure, which never saw a vote in the full Senate, making it easier for U.S. companies to seek penalties against Chinese imports because of an undervalued currency.

New Congress

With a new Congress elected in November, the legislation must pass the House again. The Republican leaders of the panels in charge of trade and currency have other priorities.

Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican who now chairs the House Ways & Means subcommittee on trade, voted against the currency measure last year. David Camp, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the full committee, said in September that the currency measure was “not on my trade agenda.”

“We’re going to keep pressure on China to float their currency, but we are not going to look at China just through the viewpoint of currency,” Brady said in an interview last month. “We think there are broader issues and a broader relationship with them that we have overlooked.”

Stronger Yuan

The yuan has appreciated more than 3 percent since China ended a two-year peg to the dollar last June. High inflation in China -- prices in November rose 5.1 percent from a year earlier after falling for most of 2009 -- continues to “stealthily” erode China’s competitiveness as U.S. inflation stands at about 1 percent, Paulus said.

China’s exports rose 17.9 percent to $154.2 billion from a year earlier and imports climbed 25.6 percent to $141.1 billion, the customs bureau reported Jan. 10.

Economists including Dariusz Kowalczyk at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong, expect the yuan to gain because of the need to fight inflation and to improve the atmosphere for the Hu-Obama summit that begins Jan. 18.

Li Daokui, an adviser to China’s central bank, said last month that the yuan can strengthen at a faster pace if gains are “controllable.” Twelve-month non-deliverable yuan forwards rose for a fourth day yesterday to 6.4377, reflecting bets the currency will gain more than 2 percent in the coming year.

Stephen Roach

Stephen Roach, non-executive Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd., says that while the Obama administration “gets” the effect of price gains on the dollar-yuan exchange rate, the U.S. public and lawmakers may demand more action amid continued high unemployment and a bilateral trade deficit. New commercial deals for companies like Chicago-based Boeing and Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft may not placate Congress, he said.

A poll released Jan. 12 by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, found that 53 percent of 1,503 Americans surveyed from Jan. 5-9 said the U.S. should get tougher on China on the trade and economic fronts.

According to the poll, 47 percent of Americans consider China to be the world’s preeminent economic power, compared to 31 percent who say that title goes to the U.S. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

“From the U.S. point of view the domestic political dynamic is more aimed at China,” Roach said in an interview. “This trip is really going to be challenging.”

--Michael Forsythe. With assistance from Mark Drajem in Washington and Li Yanping in Beijing. Editors: Ben Richardson, Peter Hirschberg.

To contact Bloomberg News staff on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at [phone] or [e-mail]



www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-13/china-s-rising-inflation-may-ease-u-s-pressure-on-yuan-at-hu-obama-summit.html

[sandi66]

BMO: First Canadian Bank to Offer North American Corporate Clients Foreign Exchange Transactions in Yuan
- People's Bank of China grants licence that allows BMO clients to pay foreign suppliers directly in Yuan
- BMO's large corporate foreign exchange clients doing business in China will see an immediate cost savings
TORONTO, ONTARIO and BEIJING, CHINA--(Marketwire - Jan. 21, 2011) - BMO Financial Group (NYSE:BMO)(TSX:BMO) continues to build on its longstanding presence in China with the announcement today that it has obtained a licence that will allow its North American commercial clients the ability to make payments directly to Chinese companies in the Chinese Yuan (CNY).
The new licence, which was granted to BMO by the People's Bank of China, makes BMO the first Canadian bank to offer this capability. Under the terms of the licence, BMO's corporate clients can now pay their foreign suppliers directly in the local currency. It will also give BMO's commercial customers the capacity to more efficiently manage the day-to-day flow with their Chinese suppliers and clients, and negotiate in the local currency.
"This will mark a significant change in the way our global clients will do business in China from now on," said Jamie Thorsen, Global Head of Foreign Exchange Products and China Capital Markets, BMO Capital Markets.
"Ultimately, this new flexible payment capability will give our clients a competitive advantage. It is going to create significant cost savings, especially for our large, North American clients, who import from China and heavily rely on foreign exchange, global treasury management and trade finance products and services to grow and manage their business."
Until recently, international trade in China had always been settled in U.S. dollars. But now, with the goal of increasing usage of CNY in international trade settlements, the Chinese government has initiated a project known as Cross-Border CNY Settlement.
"This is an extremely timely development given the rising economic importance of China to the world economy," said Ms. Thorsen. "These evolutionary changes are creating extraordinary opportunities for our North American clients, who do business on the ground in China or intend to establish or expand their presence."
BMO has been building relationships in China, almost as long as the bank has been in business. The bank undertook its first foreign exchange transaction in support of trade with China in 1818. Over time, BMO has achieved an impressive list of firsts:
Highlights of BMO's "Firsts" in China:
In October 2010, BMO officially opened its new incorporated subsidiary, Bank of Montreal (China) Co. Ltd. (BMO ChinaCo). With local incorporation in China, BMO now has the flexibility to expand its product and service offerings for North American and Chinese clients.
First Canadian bank to establish an investment banking representative office in China.
First Canadian bank location in Guangzhou and Beijing to be granted a licence to provide RMB local currency service to both foreign and local companies in China.
First Canadian bank to offer derivative services.
First and only Canadian bank chosen as market maker for FX trading in China.
First Canadian bank to price and trade FX forwards.
First Canadian and first foreign bank to enter into arrangements with EBS (Electronic Brokering System) in China.
About BMO's Foreign Exchange Group
BMO's Foreign Exchange Group is a team of nearly 100 professionals based in eight cities around the world from Beijing to Chicago. The FX group holds a dominant position in the Canadian-dollar foreign exchange market and is top-ranked by large hedge funds and pension funds for institutional liquidity and pricing capacity. For more information, visit: www.bmocm.com/products/marketrisk/fx/.
About BMO Capital Markets
BMO Capital Markets is a leading, full-service North American financial services provider offering equity and debt underwriting, corporate lending and project financing, merger and acquisitions advisory services, merchant banking, securitization, treasury management, market risk management, debt and equity research and institutional sales and trading. BMO Capital Markets has over 2,000 employees operating in 26 locations around the world, including 14 in North America. BMO Capital Markets is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE:BMO)(TSX:BMO), one of the largest diversified financial services providers in North America with US$404 billion total assets and more than 38,000 employees as at October 31, 2010.
About BMO Financial Group in China
BMO Financial Group is the only Canadian bank with branches in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and was only the eighth foreign bank permitted to be headquartered in the capital. BMO also has a representative office in Taipei, Taiwan and an Investment Banking representative office in Beijing.
For more information, please contact
Media Contacts:
Beja Rodeck, Toronto
[phone]
[e-mail]
or
David Mu, Guangzhou
86-20-3815-0238
[e-mail]
or
Holly Holt, New York
[phone]
[e-mail]
or
Ronald Monet, Montreal
[phone]
[e-mail]

www.marketwire.com/press-release/BMO-First-Canadian-Bank-Offer-North-American-Corporate-Clients-Foreign-Exchange-Transactions-NYSE-BMO-1383715.htm

[sandi66]

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) October 20, 2010
Citigroup Declares Dividends on Preferred Stock


NEW YORK – The Board of Directors of Citigroup (NYSE:C) today declared dividends on preferred stock as follows:
6.5% Non-Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock, Series T, payable November 15, 2010, to holders of record on November 5, 2010. Holders of depositary receipts, each representing one-thousandth of a full convertible preferred share, will be paid $.8125 for each receipt held.
8.125% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series AA, payable November 15, 2010, to holders of record on November 5, 2010. Holders of depositary receipts, each representing one-thousandth of a full preferred share, will be paid $.5078125 for each receipt held.
8.40% Fixed Rate / Floating Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series E, payable November 1, 2010, to holders of record on October 20, 2010. Holders of depositary receipts, each representing one-twenty-fifth of a full preferred share, will be paid $42.00 for each receipt held.
8.50% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series F, payable December 15, 2010, to holders of record on December 3, 2010. Holders of depositary receipts, each representing one-thousandth of a full preferred share, will be paid $.53125 for each receipt held.
On February 27, 2009, at the time of the announcement of its public and private exchange offers, Citi announced the suspension of dividends on its Preferred Stock. Pursuant to the exchange offers, Citi offered to exchange up to $14,923,650,000 of its outstanding publicly-held Preferred Securities for Common Stock at a price per share of $3.25; 98% of the Preferred Stock elected to participate in the exchange offers. Dividends declared today will be paid on the Series AA, T, E and F Preferred Stock that remains outstanding.

www.citigroup.com/citi/press/2010/101020a.htm



I'd like to remind folks also, that Mano spoke of various Series that we may be involved in...

[travelbugaz]

Rand Paul introduces bill to audit Federal Reserve
Rand Paul follows through on campaign promise, files bill calling for audit of Federal Reserve


Wednesday January 26, 2011, 5:00 pm EST
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has followed through on a campaign promise by filing legislation calling for a full audit of the Federal Reserve.

Paul filed the bill Wednesday. It is similar to a measure pushed by his father, Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

Republican Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana signed on as co-sponsors of Paul's bill.

Paul, who said during his campaign last year that he would push for an audit of the Federal Reserve, said Wednesday the agency's monetary policies need a critical look.

The bill would remove restrictions now in place that prevent the Government Accountability Office from conducting Federal Reserve audits.

finance.yahoo.com/news/Rand-Paul-introduces-bill-to-apf-974384139.html?x=0

[travelbugaz]

Guilty plea entered by ex-Galleon employee in NYC
Ex-Galleon employee pleads guilty in NY, admits he gave billionaire founder inside information

Wednesday January 26, 2011, 3:26 pm EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- The government strengthened its case against Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam on Wednesday when two of his former employees pleaded guilty to insider trading charges, with one of them admitting he gave the one-time billionaire secrets about publicly traded companies.

Former Galleon portfolio manager Adam Smith, 38, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, charges which carry a potential penalty of up to 25 years in prison. He agreed to testify against Rajaratnam if prosecutors request it.

In return for Smith's cooperation, prosecutors said in court papers that they agreed not to further prosecute him for other crimes, including the destruction of computer records and documents in October and November 2009, in a case prosecutors say generated more than $50 million in profits.

In a second plea Wednesday, Michael Cardillo, 33, pleaded guilty to the same charges as Smith, saying he joined the insider trading conspiracy while employed at Galleon from 2003 through 2009, where he worked in the back office, as a trader and as a portfolio manager. Cardillo also was cooperating with the government in a bid for sentencing leniency.

Both men also agreed to give up any money they had made, and Cardillo agreed to testify at any trial if called.

Smith and Cardillo are among more than 15 people who have pleaded guilty in what prosecutors have called the biggest hedge fund insider trading case ever. In all, more than 25 people have been charged in the prosecution that marked the first significant use of wiretaps in an insider trading case. The investigation has led to another major probe of those in the securities industry who pass inside information along to hedge funds as legitimate research.

Rajaratnam has said he only made trades based on publicly available information. He had pleaded not guilty and remains free on $100 million bail.

The pleas came a week after Rajaratnam's co-defendant, Danielle Chiesi, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud in a plea deal that suggested she serve between 37 months and 46 months in prison. She had originally faced up to 155 years in prison. Charges against Rajaratnam carry a potential penalty of up to 185 years in prison.

Wiretaps were cited by prosecutors as among evidence they gathered against the bearded and bespectacled Smith, who was remorseful in his remarks before Judge John G. Koeltl.

"I knew what I was doing was wrong. I am forever remorseful about this terrible mistake," Smith said.

Smith said he spoke with Rajaratnam in May 2008, providing him with inside information about a potential acquisition of Vishay Intertechnology Inc., a chip maker based in Malvern, Pa.

"I did purchase securities based on that information, and I thought it likely that Raj Rajaratnam would do the same in his accounts," Smith said.

Smith said he participated from 2003 through 2009 in a conspiracy with Rajaratnam and other Galleon employees to share inside information about mergers and acquisitions as well as quarterly earnings announcements, business updates and other corporate events.

Among other information, Smith acknowledged obtaining inside information regarding Communications chip maker Integrated Device Technology Inc.'s June 2005 acquisition of Integrated Circuit; the July 2006 acquisition of ATI Technologies Inc. by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and the potential acquisition of Vishay.

Some information, he said, was obtained from an investment banker. He said he sometimes obtained quarterly revenue information ahead of its public announcement from an employee of Semiconductor maker Intersil Corp. and obtained Nvidia Corp.'s quarterly revenue information from a Nvidia employee ahead of its announcement.

As part of his plea, Smith acknowledged providing the information about the public companies to Rajaratnam.

Outside court, attorney Michael Feldberg said his client was a "fine young man."

"He made a mistake, confronted it, acknowledged it," he said. Sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 21.

During his plea, Cardillo said he was "very sorry for having acted as I did."

His sentencing was set for April 26, though it was expected to be postponed.

Outside court, attorney Marjorie J. Peerce said Cardillo was looking forwarding to getting on with his life with his wife and young children.

finance.yahoo.com/news/Guilty-plea-entered-by-apf-3054381115.html?x=0

[travelbugaz]

Davos leaders: Save the euro, and the planet
Davos decision-makers rally around the euro, eye electric cars and worry about the planet

January 27, 2011, 5:15 pm EST

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- France's president tried Thursday to save the reputation of Europe and its currency, battered by debt crises and worries about whether the continent is being steamrolled by speedier eastern economies.

The presidents of South Africa and Mexico, meanwhile, worked to save the planet, sharing notes on hosting climate talks and how to get the U.S. and China -- and the business community -- to invest in cleaner energy.

The overall mood at the World Economic Forum this year is more upbeat than the past two, but by no means celebratory. Thursday was no exception, as leaders, bankers and investors struggled for ideas to get Europe growing again.

As they spoke, a small explosion in a Davos hotel briefly disrupted the Alpine winter calm, unusual for this Swiss resort, blanketed in security during the annual forum. Windows were broken but there were no injuries, Swiss police said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy sought to shake the euro worriers awake, vowing that he and European partners will "never turn our backs on the euro" and calling it a linchpin of peace and prosperity. That gave an extra boost to the rebounding currency on world markets.

"The disappearance of the euro would be so cataclysmic that we can't even possibly entertain the idea," Sarkozy said.

Despite fears about the 17-nation currency's survival since the European Union and International Monetary Fund had to bail out debt-laden Greece and then Ireland last year, "the euro is still there," he said.

"Europe has had 60 years of peace and therefore we will never let the euro go or be destroyed. ... I speak as much for my German friends as I do for the French," he said.

European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet, apparently trying to smooth concerns about above-target inflation, praised the euro's long-term prospects at another Davos session.

"The euro delivered what had been asked from it, namely price stability," he said.

Increasingly, the talk among European leaders is of closer economic union -- instead of just monetary union. Trichet said he is pushing for bolder moves from EU leaders. "There is no time for complacency," he said.

The 2,500 participants at Davos can see the currency shock in their pockets, as hotels, restaurants and bars in the Swiss ski resort of Davos do business in francs, whose value has surged against the euro in recent months.

Swedish investor Jacob Wallenberg warned that Europe needs to act faster to stay competitive.

"We all see countries such as China, India, rapidly becoming much more competitive," he said. "It's not a matter of they're going to bypass us. They're going to run us over."

Environmental issues also came to the fore, with talk of electric cars and solar energy and China -- again -- "winning the green race."

In a panel discussion hosted by The Associated Press, U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said China "is going to leave us all in the dust" in the transition toward a more energy-efficient global economy.

The Chinese, she said, "are not doing it just because they want to save the planet. They are doing it because it's good for the economy."

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who hosted the last U.N. climate talks in Cancun, said, "I want to see the action" from the U.S. on reducing emissions. South African President Jacob Zuma, who hosts the next climate talks in Durban, said Washington cannot be left out of the clean energy game.

Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative and a member of President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said Thursday that solar power is, ultimately, the real game changer. Eventually, he said, the sun should be used to make not just electricity but also fuels.

Shai Agassi says one answer is electric cars. Agassi predicted to The Associated Press that before 2020, more people everywhere will be buying electric cars than those powered by gasoline. "It doesn't mean that oil is not necessary, but we're starting the way out," said Agassi, a former top executive for information giant SAP AG who launched his Better Place venture several years ago.

Oil isn't going away yet, however. Exxon Mobil Corp. signed a deal at Davos with Russia's biggest oil company, Rosneft, to develop oil and gas resources in the Black Sea, a new boost for Russia's lucrative energy sector despite concerns about the challenges of investing there.

Elsewhere at Davos on Thursday:

-- Africa emerged as the hot new continent for trade and investment. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was optimistic. So were Ethiopia's president, Zimbabwe's prime minister, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and business executives from South Africa, Egypt, India and many other countries.

--The head of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, said he hopes key commerce ministers meeting in Switzerland this week will commit to accelerating talks on a new global trade deal.

Matt Moore, Edith M. Lederer and Dan Perry contributed to this report.

finance.yahoo.com/news/Davos-leaders-Save-the-euro-apf-496847066.html?x=0

[travelbugaz]

British PM tells Davos: austerity is working


Thursday January 27, 2011, 7:17 pm EST
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron will tell fellow leaders at this year's World Economic Forum that austerity measures imposed by his government are already bearing fruit.

Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government has imposed a series of tough measures -- from tax hikes to budget caps -- to reduce the country's debt.

"Already we're making progress," Cameron said, in extracts released by his office ahead of the speech Friday to the annual gathering in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. "Not long ago we were heading toward the danger zone where markets start to question your credibility."

Cameron said Britain's triple 'A' credit rating had been saved and market interest rates had fallen -- though unemployment has also risen and thousands will see some form of state benefit cut.

"All this has happened not in spite of our plan to cut the deficit, but because of it. That's why we must stick to the course we have set out."

The message will be particularly keenly heard in other European countries, many of whom are trying to juggle crippling levels of public debt in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The Davos meeting's mood has improved since last year, but the 2,500 government and business leaders attending remained wary this week of the possibility that the global recession might return.

For Europe, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will mark opposing poles on the spectrum of economic recovery when they take the stage in Davos Friday.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will talk about priorities for the U.S. economy.

Developing country woes will be contrasted with speeches by leaders of developing economies such as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Mexico's Felipe Calderon.

Not far from the conference venue social activists are planning to use the occasion of the Forum to name and shame the corporation with the worst social or ecological record in 2011. The same event will see the launch of OpenLeaks, billed as a rival to the secrecy-spilling website WikiLeaks.

finance.yahoo.com/news/British-PM-tells-Davos-apf-2611047936.html?x=0

[travelbugaz]

At Davos, Geithner notes confidence about economy
US Treasury Chief Geithner: More confidence about economic expansion but not yet a boom

January 28, 2011, 8:14 am
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday that his country has more confidence now that there is a sustainable expansion -- but added that it is not a boom.

"There's much more confidence now that we've got a sustainable expansion," he said at the World Economic Forum, but added, "It's not a boom."

Citing six quarters of growth in the world's biggest economy, Geithner said the back of the financial crisis had been broken and that a recovery was under way, even though the jobless rate has been stubbornly high in the range of 10 percent.

"Unemployment only starts to fall when you see economies grow again. We're only a year-and-a-half into positive growth. As the economy continues this process of recovery, you'll see more people put back to work."

Looking back, he said that the U.S. "made some very substantial mistakes" in how it handled the its financial system pre-crisis and that the fallout would linger for a long time.

"We ran an indefensibly antiquated ... terrible financial oversight system," he said

"There's more confidence that we're going to avoid slipping back into recession. I think that confidence is justified," he said, citing economists who have forecast growth of between 3 and 4 percent this year and next for the United States.

He encouraged China and other emerging economies to "soften their link to the dollar."

Regarding Europe's efforts to reign in debts, he said: "I'm very confident that they will be able to do that."

"They have no alternative but to deliver on their commitment, he said. "They recognize that there is no alternative to the reforms they are taking."

The European debt crisis "had a significant impact (on the United States) in slowing the momentum of recovery at a delicate point."

finance.yahoo.com/news/At-Davos-Geithner-notes-apf-696288663.html?x=0

[travelbugaz]

FCIC report says the financial crisis was avoidable

On Thursday January 27, 2011, 10:43 am EST
The financial crisis, which wreaked havoc on the economy and sparked a painful recession, could have been avoided, according to a federal commission.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, in its final report on the causes of the crisis, said Thursday that federal authorities, who failed to curb reckless behavior on Wall Street, bear much of blame for the turmoil that erupted in 2008 and 2009.

"We conclude first and foremost that this crisis was avoidable," said Phil Angelides, the commission chairman, at a press conference in Washington.

The crisis was the result of "human action and inaction," he said, warning that it could be repeated "if we do not learn from history."

"In many respects, our financial system is unchanged from the eve of this crisis," he said. "We believe that much more needs to be done."

In the first official government review of the root causes of the crisis, the commission challenges the notion, expressed by many on Wall Street and in Washington, that the crisis could not have been foreseen.

"There were warning signs," the report says. "The tragedy is that they were ignored or discounted."

The crisis was also the product of "dramatic failures of corporate governance and risk management at many systemically important financial institutions," according to one of the report's nine conclusions.

The commission faults policies under both Presidents Bush and Obama, as well as actions taken by the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan and the current chairman, Ben Bernanke. Tim Geithner, the current Treasury Secretary who was president of the New York Fed during the crisis, and his predecessor, Henry Paulson, were also named in the report.

"As our report shows, key policy makers -- the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York -- who were best positioned to watch over our markets were ill prepared for the events of 2007 and 2008," the commission states.

The report also cites "a systemic breakdown in accountability and ethics" as a factor in the crisis. However, it states that "to pin the crisis on mortal flaws like greed and hubris would be simplistic."

"It was the failure to account for human weakness that is relevant to the crisis," the report reads.

The commission tells a familiar story of banks churning out trillions of dollars worth of poor quality home loans that were bundled into mortgage-backed securities, rubber-stamped by ratings agencies, and sold to unsuspecting investors around the world. As the housing market soured, those assets became worthless, leading to massive losses for banks and giving rise to a severe liquidity crisis.

The crisis was driven by the proliferation of "synthetic" securities, such as collaterized debt obligations, and the excessive use of leverage at many financial firms, the report finds. These and other practices were carried out in a "shadow banking system" the report says, which was almost entirely unregulated.

Some of the major operators in the shadow banking system included Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, which didn't survive the crisis, as well as heavyweights Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Citibank. The commission also faults the lending practices of commercial banks such as Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America, Wachovia and JPMorgan Chase.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored enterprises, were "the kings of leverage," the report says. By the end of 2007, according to the report, the companies had a combined leverage ratio of 75 to 1.

The report faults government officials for encouraging Fannie and Freddie to increase their exposure to the mortgage market. The firms were placed under government control in 2008, and many analysts worry that their liabilities will be borne by taxpayers.

AIG, the bailed out insurance giant, also features prominently in the report for its role in the crisis. AIG had to be rescued by the government in 2008 after it sold $79 billion worth of insurance contracts on mortgage-backed securities.

The report also criticizes the three main credit rating agencies -- Moody's, S&P and Fitch -- as "essential cogs in the wheel of financial destruction."

"Their ratings helped the market soar and their down-grades through 2007 and 2008 wreaked havoc across markets and firms," the report reads.

The report reflects the majority opinion of the commission, which is made up of 10 members appointed by Congress. Three commissioners, who were appointed by Republican lawmakers, issued a dissenting report.

Keith Hennessey, Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Bill Thomas argued that the majority report is simply a litany of things that went wrong, rather than a study of specific causes. They suggest that more government regulation may not have prevented the crisis because it was a global problem.

Peter J. Wallison, a commissioner who is a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, also dissented.

The commission, which was formed in 2009, held 19 days of hearings and interviewed more than 700 witnesses. The witnesses included officials from the Treasury, Wall Street executives and representatives from the main credit rating agencies.

The commission briefed reporters on the findings early Thursday morning before the report was officially released. Some of the conclusions were published Wednesday by the New York Times. The full report will be available to the public on the commission's website Thursday.

finance.yahoo.com/news/FCIC-report-says-the-cnnm-1378780482.html?x=0&.v=3

[sandi66]

New documents to Wikileaks show that the United States financed the opposition in Egypt
Friday, 28 K 2 2011 15:56 GMT
Alsumaria News / Baghdad
Documents showed a new company acquired the site and insiders and published in Norwegian, on Friday, that the United States paid more than $ 130 million to organizations advocating democracy in Egypt, as pointed out those documents that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak expressed his doubts about such funds.
And came in a telegram leaked issued by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on 6 December 2007 obtained by the site Wikileaks, and newspaper "Aftenposten" Norwegian "The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has allocated $ 66.5 million in 2008 and $ 75 million in 2009 programs for Egypt for democracy and good governance. "
As stated in another telegram published in the newspaper itself was also issued by the American embassy in Cairo on October 9, 2007 that President Hosni Mubarak was "very skeptical about the role of the United States to spread democracy in the country."
As stated in the telegram that "in spite of questioning the Egyptian president, the U.S. Embassy confirmed that U.S. government programs to help create democratic institutions and strengthen the voices of individuals in order to bring about change in Egypt."
The newspaper reported that documents have been published on its website that they got all the telegrams of American diplomacy, which leaked site Wikileaks and the 250-thousand documents, and confirmed that after the study and come to the conclusion that the United States has contributed directly to "build the forces that oppose the president," Mubarak.


translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ar&u=http://www.alsumarianews.com/ar/8/16618/news-details-Iraq%2520%26%2520world%2520news.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dnahrain%2Bnews%26hl%3Den%26prmd%3Divns&rurl=translate.google.com

[sandi66]

Wall Street’s Collapse to Be Mystery Forever

Commentary by Jonathan Weil

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- To get to the heart of what went wrong with the report released yesterday by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, check out its account on page 254 of how the largest investor in a cash fund managed by Bank of America suddenly pulled out $20 billion of its money in November 2007.

The withdrawal crippled the fund, which had $40 billion of assets at its peak, forcing Bank of America to step in and prop it up. The commission included a note about the episode in the back of its report.

“The identity of the investor has never been publicly disclosed,” it says. The note then referred readers to the source of the information: A couple of stories published in December 2007 by Bloomberg News and the New York Times.

And here I had thought the purpose of the commission’s inquiry was to uncover new facts that the public didn’t already know. Such as:

The identity of the mystery investor that single- handedly kneecapped Bank of America’s Columbia Strategic Cash Portfolio, once the largest cash fund of its kind in the U.S. The commission had subpoena power. It should have been able to get this information. It didn’t, though.

This, in journalistic parlance, is what we call a clip job. And that’s the trouble with much of the commission’s 545-page report. There’s lots of breezy, magazine-style, narrative prose. But there’s not much new information.

You can tell the writers knew they were sprinkling MSG on a bunch of recycled material, too, by the way they described their sources. The text and accompanying notes often seem deliberately unclear about whether the commission had dug up its own facts, or was rehashing information already disclosed in court records, news articles or other congressional inquiries.

Old News
For instance, we’re told how a former Bear Stearns hedge- fund manager, Matthew Tannin, sent an e-mail in April 2007 to colleague Ralph Cioffi that said: “Looks pretty d**n ugly.” (A few days later they told investors they were confident about their funds, which held subprime mortgage bonds.) The report cites the e-mail as the source for the quote. What it doesn’t say is that the e-mail came out in court records that were widely publicized in 2009.

The report does break some morsels of news. Before it imploded, Bear Stearns used to rely on “window dressing” to make its quarterly balance sheets look smaller. Moody’s Investors Service assumed a 4 percent annual increase in home prices to justify AAA ratings for mortgage-backed securities that later blew up. More such tidbits surely will emerge as reporters and bloggers plow through the report’s pages.

Stating the Obvious
The bulk of it, though, covers ground that was largely known, or at least not all that surprising. (I bought my copy at a local bookstore in Manhattan on Wednesday, the day before the commission’s intended release date, and spent the last two days reading it.)

The report’s conclusions were obvious: The financial crisis was man-made and avoidable.
Regulators and credit-rating companies blew it. Banks and homeowners borrowed too much.

Companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers had horrible governance. Ethics and accountability broke down. The government panicked when the crisis hit in 2008. And so forth.

The lack of new insights dovetailed with the commission’s non-confrontational approach. More than 700 people granted interviews, most behind closed doors. Only seldom did the panel issue subpoenas.

Ferdinand Pecora, the chief counsel who led the Senate Banking Committee’s landmark hearings on the 1929 stock market crash, wrote a memoir years later called “Wall Street Under Oath.” A good title for this week’s report would be “Wall Street on the Couch.” It remains to be seen whether the commission will make public all the investigative materials it accumulated, as the Pecora Commission did in 1934.

Predictable Failure
The FCIC’s failure was predictable from the start. To examine the causes of the financial crisis, Congress created a bipartisan panel of 10 political appointees led by Democrat Phil Angelides, a former California state treasurer. What was needed was a nonpartisan investigation directed by seasoned prosecutors (like Pecora was) who know how to cross-examine witnesses and get answers.

Whereas Pecora had no fixed deadline, Congress gave the crisis commission until December 2010 to complete its inquiry. Witnesses who didn’t want to cooperate fully could simply milk the clock. The panel got a budget of less than $10 million to investigate all the causes of the financial crisis. Lehman’s bankruptcy examiner got $42 million to produce a 2,200-page report on the failure of a single company.

This week’s report will serve a useful purpose. For anyone who doesn’t know much about the financial crisis, the book is a good, condensed version that’s worth reading, even if it doesn’t add much to the public’s body of knowledge.

“There is still much to learn, much to investigate, and much to fix,” the commission wrote in the preface to its report. That also would make a fitting epitaph.

noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ayZQBEkgQmK8


ty joye

[sandi66]

Thousands protest in Jordan

Protesters gather across the country, demanding the prime minister step down.


Last Modified: 28 Jan 2011 14:36 GMT



Thousands took to the street across Jordan demanding the prime minister step down[Reuters]

Thousands of people in Jordan have taken to the streets in protests, demanding the country's prime minister step down, and the government curb rising prices, inflation and unemployment.

In the third consecutive Friday of protests, about 3,500 opposition activists from Jordan's main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organisations gathered in the capital, waving colourful banners reading: "Send the corrupt guys to court".

The crowd denounced Samir Rifai's, the prime minister, and his unpopular policies.

Many shouted: "Rifai go away, prices are on fire and so are the Jordanians.''

Another 2,500 people also took to the streets in six other cities across the country after the noon prayers. Those protests also called for Rifai's ouster.

Members of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jordan's largest opposition party, swelled the ranks of the demonstrators, massing outside the al-Husseini mosque in Amman and filling the downtown streets with their prayer lines.

King Abdullah has promised some reforms, particularly on a controversial election law. But many believe it is unlikely he will bow to demands for the election of the prime minister and Cabinet officials, traditionally appointed by the king.

Rifai also announced a $550 million package of new subsidies in the last two weeks for fuel and staple products like rice, sugar, livestock and liquefied gas used for heating and cooking. It also includes a raise for civil servants and security personnel.

Record deficit

However, Jordan's economy continues to struggle, weighed down by a record deficit of $2bn this year.

Inflation has also risen by 1.5 per cent to 6.1 per cent just last month, unemployment and poverty are rampant - estimated at 12 and 25 per cent respectively.

Ibrahim Alloush, a university professor, told the Associated Press that it was not a question of changing faces or replacing one prime minister with another.

"We're demanding changes on how the country is now run," he said.

He also accused the government of impoverishing the working class with regressive tax codes which forced the poor to pay a higher proportion of their income as tax.

He also accused parliament as serving as a "rubber stamp'' to the executive branch.

"This is what has led people to protest in the streets because they don't have venues for venting how they feel through legal means," Alloush said.

english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011128125157509196.html

[sandi66]

... both articles copied below


Get Internet Access If Your Government Shuts It Down
www.pcworld.com/article/218155/get_internet_access_when_your_government_shuts_it_down.html
Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet
howto.wired.com/wiki/Communicate_if_Your_Government_Shuts_Off_Your_Internet



Get Internet Access If Your Government Shuts It Down
www.pcworld.com/article/218155/get_internet_access_when_your_government_shuts_it_down.html

Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down

Does your government have an Internet kill-switch? Read our guide to Guerrilla Networking and be prepared for when the lines get cut.



By Patrick Miller, David Daw, PCWorld Jan 28, 2011 6:50 pm



These days, no popular movement goes without an Internet presence of some kind, whether it's organizing on Facebook or spreading the word through Twitter. And as we've seen in Egypt, that means that your Internet connection can be the first to go.
Whether you're trying to check in with your family, contact your friends, or simply spread the word, here are a few ways to build some basic network connectivity when you can't rely on your cellular or landline Internet connections.

Do-It-Yourself Internet With Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi
Even if you've managed to find an Internet connection for yourself, it won't be that helpful in reaching out to your fellow locals if they can't get online to find you. If you're trying to coordinate a group of people in your area and can't rely on an Internet connection, cell phones, or SMS, your best bet could be a wireless mesh network of sorts--essentially, a distributed network of wireless networking devices that can all find each other and communicate with each other. Even if none of those devices have a working Internet connection, they can still find each other, which, if your network covers the city you're in, might be all you need. At the moment, wireless mesh networking isn't really anywhere close to market-ready, though we have seen an implementation of the 802.11s draft standard, which extends the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard to include wireless mesh networking, in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO laptop.



However, a prepared guerrilla networker with a handful of PCs could make good use of Daihinia ($25, 30-day free trial), an app that piggybacks on your Wi-Fi adapter driver to turn your normal ad-hoc Wi-Fi network into a multihop ad-hoc network (disclaimer: we haven't tried this ourselves yet), meaning that instead of requiring each device on the network to be within range of the original access point, you simply need to be within range of a device on the network that has Daihinia installed, effectively allowing you to add a wireless mesh layer to your ad-hoc network.

Advanced freedom fighters can set up a portal Web page on their network that explains the way the setup works, with Daihinia instructions and a local download link so they can spread the network even further. Lastly, just add a Bonjour-compatible chat client like Pidgin or iChat, and you'll be able to talk to your neighbors across the city without needing an Internet connection.

Back to Basics
Remember when you stashed your old modems in the closet because you thought you might need them some day? In the event of a total communications blackout--as we're seeing in Egypt, for example--you'll be glad you did. Older and simpler tools, like dial-up Internet or even ham radio, could still work, since these "abandoned" tech avenues aren't being policed nearly as hard.

In order to get around the total shutdown of all of the ISPs within Egypt, several international ISPs are offering dial-up access to the Internet to get protesters online, since phone service is still operational. It's slow, but it still works--the hard part is getting the access numbers without an Internet connection to find them.


Unfortunately, such dial-up numbers can also be fairly easily shut down by the Egyptian government, so you could also try returning to FidoNet--a distributed networking system for BBSes that was popular in the 1980s. FidoNet is limited to sending only simple text messages, and it's slow, but it has two virtues: Users connect asynchronously, so the network traffic is harder to track, and any user can act as the server, which means that even if the government shuts down one number in the network, another one can quickly pop up to take its place.

You could also take inspiration from groups that are working to create an ad-hoc communications network into and out of Egypt using Ham Radio, since the signals are rarely tracked and extremely hard to shut down or block. Most of these efforts are still getting off the ground, but hackers are already cobbling together ways to make it a viable form of communication into and out of the country.

Always Be Prepared
In the land of no Internet connection, the man with dial-up is king. Here are a few gadgets that you could use to prepare for the day they cut the lines.

Given enough time and preparation, your ham radio networks could even be adapted into your own ad-hoc network using Packet Radio, a radio communications protocol that you can use to create simple long-distance wireless networks to transfer text and other messages between computers. Packet Radio is rather slow and not particularly popular (don't try to stream any videos with this, now), but it's exactly the kind of networking device that would fly under the radar.



In response to the crisis in Egypt, nerds everywhere have risen to call for new and exciting tools for use in the next government-mandated shutdown. Bre Pettis, founder of the hackerspace NYC Resistor and creator of the Makerbot 3D printer, has called for "Apps for the Appocalypse," including a quick and easy way to set up chats on a local network so you can talk with your friends and neighbors in an emergency even without access to the Internet. If his comments are any indication, Appocalypse apps may be headed your way soon.

Tons of cool tech are also just waiting to be retrofitted for these purposes. David Dart's Pirate Box is a one-step local network in a box originally conceived for file sharing and local P2P purposes, but it wouldn't take much work to adapt the Pirate Box as a local networking tool able to communicate with other pirate boxes to form a compact, mobile set of local networks in the event of an Internet shutdown.

Whether you're in Egypt or Eagle Rock, you rely on your Internet access to stay in touch with friends and family, get your news, and find information you need. (And read PCWorld, of course.) Hopefully with these apps, tools, and techniques, you won't have to worry about anyone--even your government--keeping you from doing just that.

Patrick Miller hopes he isn't first against the wall when the revolution comes. Find him on Twitter or Facebook--if you have a working Internet connection, anyway.
David Daw is an accidental expert in ad-hoc networks since his apartment gets no cell reception. Find him on Twitter or send him a ham radio signal.

•See more like this:
•internet,
•network security
_________________________________________________________________________

howto.wired.com/wiki/Communicate_if_Your_Government_Shuts_Off_Your_Internet


Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet


Scenario: Your government is displeased with the communication going on in your location and pulls the plug on your internet access, most likely by telling the major ISPs to turn off service.
This is what happened in Egypt January 25 prompted by citizen protests, with sources estimating that the Egyptian government has cut off approximately 88 percent of the country's internet access. What do you do without Internet? Step 1: Stop crying in the corner. Then start taking steps to reconnect with your network. Here’s a list of things you can do to keep the communication flowing.
This article is part of a wiki anyone can edit. If you have advice to add, please log in and contribute.
Contents
[hide]
•1 Preventative measures
•1.1 Make your network tangible
•1.2 Broadcast on the radio
•1.3 Phone
•1.4 Fax
•2 Getting back online
•2.1 Find the privately-run ISPs
•2.2 Ad-Hoc Networking
•3 Get satellite access
•4 Packet Radio



Preventative measures
Make your network tangible
Print out you contact list so your phone numbers aren’t stuck in the cloud. Some mail services like Gmail allow you to export your online contact list in formats that are more conducive to paper, such as CSV or Vcard, and offer step-by-step guides on how to do this.
Broadcast on the radio
CB Radio: Short for "Citizens Band" radio, these two-way radios allow communication over short distances on 40 channels. You can pick one up for about $20-50 at Radio Shack and no license is required to operate it.
Ham radio: To converse over these radios, also known as "Amateur radios," you have to obtain an operator's license from the FCC. Luckily, other Wired How-To contributors have already explained exactly what you need to do to get one and use it like a pro.
Phone
Set up a phone tree: According to the American Association of University Women, a phone tree is "a prearranged, pyramid-shaped system for activating a group of people by telephone" that can "spread a brief message quickly and efficiently to a large number of people." Dig out that contact list you printed out and follow the steps on the AAUW website to spread the message down your pyramid of contacts.
Enable Twitter via SMS: Though the thought of unleashing the twitter fire hose in your text message inbox may seem horrifying, it would be better than not being able to connect to the outside world at all. The twitter website has full instructions on how to redirect tweets to your phone.
Alex Jones and infowars.com have a telelphone number for people to listen to his radio show by phone in case the internet goes down, or if you don't have internet. The phone in listen line is 512-646-5000.
Fax
If you need to quickly send and receive documents with lengthy or complex instructions, phone conversations may result in misunderstandings and delivering the doc by foot would take forever. Brush the dust off that bulky old machine, establish a connection by phone first with the recipient to make sure his machine is hooked up, then fax away.
Getting back online
While it might be relatively easy for a government to cut connections by leveraging the major ISPs, there are some places they wouldn't get to so readily, like privately-owned networks and independent ISPs.
Find the privately-run ISPs
In densely populated areas, especially CBDs and city suburbs there are multiple home WiFi networks overlapping each other, some secure some not. If there is no internet, open up your WiFi by removing password -- if enough people do this it's feasible to create a totally private WiFi service outside government control covering the CBD and you can use applications that run Bonjour (iChat on Mac for example) to communicate with others on the open network and send and receive documents. **needs more clarification
If you are a private ISP, it's your time to shine. Consider allowing open access to your wi-fi routers to facilitate communication of people around you until the grid is back online.
Return to dial-up?
Ad-Hoc Networking
Most wireless routers, PCs, laptops, and even some ultra-mobile devices like cell phones have the ability to become part of an "ad-hoc" network, where different "nodes" (all of the devices on the network) share the responsibility of transmitting data between one another. These networks can become quite large, and are often very easy to set up. If used properly by a tech-savvy person, such networks can be used to host temporary websites and chatrooms. There are many internet tutorials on the internet for ad-hoc networking, so feel free to google some.
Apple computers tend to have very accessible Ad-Hoc functionality built in, including a pre-installed chat client (iChat) that will automatically set up an Ad-Hoc "Rendezvous" chatroom between anybody on the network, without the need for an external service like AIM or Skype. Ad-hoc network hosting functionality is built in to the Wifi menu.
Windows computers have several third-party Ad-Hoc chat applications available (such as Trillian) and setting up an Ad-Hoc wifi network is almost as simple as on a Mac.
Linux operating systems, of course, have plenty of third-party apps available, and most distros have Ad-Hoc network creation support built in.
Get satellite access
You can have very, very slow internet if you have something similiar like an Iridium phone, which would allow you to do dial-up at 2400 baud, which at least gives you email. This will also work when your government has shut down GSM and telephone access, and will work pretty much anywhere on the planet. If you're in the right place, get yourself KA-SAT access (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KA-SAT) which is satellite broadband and will not be routed through any Internet exchange certain local governments may monitor or block (unless that government is part of EU or err... uncle Sam.
Packet Radio
Back to the 90s: there do exist short wave packet radio modems. These are also excruciatingly slow, but may get your email out.


This page was last modified 21:41, 29 January 2011 by fruttaman. Based on work by wwbsp, mymatecoxy, darkmagentarose and howto_admin.


ty joye

[sandi66]

No gold backing in new state banks or any other money system..

Sat, 01/29/2011 - 13:06

in Daily Paul Liberty Forum

the 50 states can and must set their own public state banks/banking and cut off the head of the snake..the snake being the non-federal no-reserve world money conterfeittting corporation since 1913

NO gold backing on the new currency..again.. No GOLD!… why?
the longest lasting currency in the history of the world was NOT backed by gold or silver...it was called the Tally Stick..a 3 ft. long piece of wood sliced down the middle longways..each time the stick was used notches were cut in BOTH sides to show the debit..it was a incredibly efficient system and lasted over 500 years! if not for the greedy parasitic international banksters IMO England would STILL be using it!
.anytime a currency is backed by gold the banksters quickly take control of that nations currency
THAT is why you hear so many money "egg spurts" saying how great a gold backed currency would be and i love Ron Paul but he is dead wrong about a gold backed currency for the reasons i explain here..and the main reason the media continues to let Ron Paul on TV IMO
also and the biggest reason for no gold backed currency is..
THE BANKSTERS OWN MOST OF THE WORLDS GOLD!
because the banksters own most of the worlds gold, that they stole or bought up with conterfeit paper federal reserve debt notes made out of thin air over the last 100 years..
if we backed a new currency with gold ?
the banksters would be back in control of our money and country by tomorrow morning!
yes the constitution says a gold backed currency and Congress shall coin money[congress would still coin money in my new state system..we go back to 90% silver coinage and 95% copper pennies and we go back to the dollar having the same buying power as it did in 1913 before the federal reserve began destroying the dollars value..
that is the one flaw now in the constitution IMO but…
the 50 states can legally create and issue their own currency by their state constitutions! they could even bring back the tally stick!
ANYTHING but private non federal not a part of our government in any way shape or form banksters controlling our money..ANYTHING!
the sooner we stop using the non-federal no-reserve counterfeit “money” [worthless paper soon good for starting fires to stay warm as in Wiemar Germany's 1930's super hyperinflation that destroyed the German Deutschmark] the faster we can take America back..
please contact your state treasurer/budget comptrollers and demand a state run public banking and new state currency..we MUST end the fed if America is to survive as a nation.. currency

Subject: the 50 states can and must cut off the head of the snake…
the snake is the private for profit DEBT MONEY non-federal reserve corporation..not a part of our government in any way, destrying our economy and jobs, by sending our manufacturing base overseas by design..you really believe the elite are that stupid? they know exactly what they are doing..turning us into a 3rd world banana republic to fit neatly into their new world order..make no mistake..these manufacturing jobs are gone and they are not returning unless we take back control of our currency/money from the private fed..

and here’s how we abolish the fed below..

‘the federal reserve is above the law and accountable to no one’ – Alan Greenspan on C-SPAN

a private for profit corporation that has NEVER paid one penny in taxes in 99 years[since its inception in 1913] and is above the law? in a nation of laws? huh?

make no doubt..we absolutely have been taken over by a group[cabal] of corrupt international banksters that create money out of nothing and run the U.S. and the world..but we the people and the 50 STATES CAN drive them out of America!.. its 1776 all over again..in 1776 it was King George and the banksters..this time its the banksters once again destroying our once late great nation..

“countless people will the hate the new world order and millions will die protesting against it”- H. G. Wells

trying to get the corrupt congressional critters in Washington to do anything is simply a waste of time now..Patriot Ron Paul will continue to try to audit and/or abolish the fed but sadly it will end in the usual dead end as the fed will continue to set up roadblocks to stop Dr. and Congressman Paul with the help of the complicit congressional puppets controlled by the non-federal reserve banksters..i don’t know about you but I’ve had enough of it!
I want my hi-jacked country back! I want Andy Taylor Mayberry sheriff’s again!

the answer to our nations economic woes and the answer to saving America lies at the states doorstep,
as America declines into a 3rd world banana republic..America is now the government spying on your emails and phone,spying and ratting out your neighbor,tattletale and 24/7 surveillance on everyone police state,
all by bankster and illuminist design.

.
we need this solution to go viral..we need 300,000,000 million Americans to contact their state treasurers/comptrollers,accountants and governors and demand their state break away from the financial deathgrip being applied by the private federal reserve banksters with their money counterfeiting operation since 1913
ie… contact those folks in each state who would be responsible for issuing the new state currency..

“i swear by the glory of God I will rout you banksters out” – Andrew Jackson

“the process of the creation of money is so simple it boggles the mind” – John Kenneth Galbraith

To state treasurers,commissioners,comptrollers and accountants of the 50 United States of America:
I present to you a incredibly easy and very workable solution to America’s [- N.Dakota who already have their own currency AND an incredible 3% unemployment]
financial crisis.47 of the 50 states are in financial straits..It simply doesn’t have to be this way..the 50 states are NOT beholden to the federal government!..THE STATES CREATED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! not the other way around!

we either do STATE banking or live as slaves to the international banksters running the private for profit,parasitic debt money non-federal no-reserve currency/money out of thin air counterfeiters presently controlling America’s AND nearly the entire worlds money systems since 1913…the federal reserve is a private corporation and NOT a part of the U.S. government in any way shape or form..the private federal reserve corporation is UNCONSTITUTIONAL.. the “fed” must be abolished if America is to survive as a nation..America and all 50 states[except N.Dakota] using private federal reserve DEBT notes,will continue to bleed jobs to 3rd world countries as long as the PRIVATE “fed” is in control of our currency.. ALL FIFTY STATES can legally create,issue,and control their own state notes/currency/money!

so why do we continue to be at the mercy of the private for profit fed?
this is sheer insanity!..
All the 50 states need are state of the art printing presses for the new state bills[all the new bills will look pretty much the same except for the 50 different states name on them and all 50 state notes will be accepted as currency in every state..

suddenly you have 50 states that are no longer slaves or beholden to the federal government or to the private for profit debt money federal reserve money counterfeiting corporation..

the treasurer and comptroller offices job,are to simply regulate how much currency needs to be created and inserted into each states economies and make money work for "we the people"..not against us,as the present parasitic private for profit fraudulent unconstitutional private non-federal reserve debt money system now does.

.
a simple answer to the money crisis that WILL absolutely get progressively worse as the feds debt note dollar becomes exponentially more worthless in the next 2 years as its value goes to zero,
just as the 8,000+ other paper fiat currencies in the history of the planet..
do you really believe inflation will suddenly stop after the last 98 years of non-stop inflation which has left the debt note dollar with the buying power of 2 cents now in 2011,
compared to the 1913 dollar?
1913…the first year of the private non-federal no-reserve corporation in charge of our currency..
this plan for a new money system IS the answer to America’s financial crisis and it WILL absolutely work..
N.Dakota is doing it right now this minute and they have an incredible 3% unemployment rate..nuff said..

all the 50 states must do is issue their own currency at 2% interest..
all the interest payments are returned into each states treasury/coffer to pay all the states bills..the currency does not have to be backed by anything..in fact its better if its not backed by gold as the banksters own most of the worlds gold,and the worlds banksters would be back in control of our new money by tomorrow morning..we simply let each of the 50 state governments issue the currency and we watch them like a hawk as the founding fathers told us repeatedly.

.
inflation would disappear and be a thing of the past with a new state run honest money system not controlled by international foreign banksters..
a dollar would buy a dollar worth of goods in 2011 and a dollar would buy the same amount of goods in 2050..just as a dollar in 1800 was worth the same as a dollar in 1912..112 years of the dollar and NO INFLATION !

every state would soon see a currency /budget surplus like N.Dakota enjoys right now as they have their own state run money system and unemployment would virtually disappear as we bring ALL manufacturing and good paying jobs back to America where it belongs..
we do not need one thing from the 3rd world..NOTHING

we can legalize hemp and make over 5,000 quality products with it,
including clothes,shoes and other high quality products Americans need and want, and we can grow ALL the food we need right here in the good ol USA!
we can end ALL the phony horrible wars including the phony drug war and the phony war on terror..
having to import food from China and other 3rd world countries is beyond insanity..

we CAN take America back w/o any violence whatsoever..
as soon as the police and military fully wake up to the truth about what is really happening in America and around the world, its all over for the NWO globalists destroying America’s economic engine by design

as soon as the 50 state notes begin to filter into the commerce system, [btw..the state notes will be accepted in all 50 states..having 50 different state notes[money] accepted in all 50 states would make it virtually impossible for the PRIVATE international foreign banksters to take back control of our money/currency again…]

we simply stop using the unconstitutional private federal reserve debt notes as the new state currency is put into the commerce system as the old debt notes are turned in for the new state notes and the 14 trillion dollar phony national debt is eliminated immediately.[you just can’t charge the populace interest on phony debt notes made out of nothing..its immoral and illegal..

the federal reserve will simply disappear all by itself as Americans stop using the feds debt notes..
we don’t need Congress to pass any law to eliminate the fed nor the President to sign an executive order to eliminate/abolish it either..all Congress must do is create the new coinage. as per the constitution…we go back to pre-1965 90% silver coin and copper pennies.
the fed is actually irrelevant in this situation as the 50 states have the upper hand over the federal government per the constitution!

if N.Dakota can issue their own currency,then you know the other 49 states can do the same!
prosperity will return to America in spades as small business will be able to compete with the mega corporations and 3rd world labor again
temp tariffs will need to be put in place until we get our economy going again..

under the present money system, America can not return to prosperity and can not create good new jobs and will in fact continue to bleed more jobs to 3rd world countries as long as the private non-federal reserve corporation is in control of our currency..it’s that simple..

www.dailypaul.com/node/155590

[sandi66]

Think Contrarian

By LAUREN R. RUBLIN | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Saturday, January 30, 2011

Meryl Witmer, Marc Faber, Mario Gabelli and Oscar Schafer share their investment picks for 2011 in the final installment of this year's Barron's Roundtable.

If you're looking for compelling investment ideas and insights into how to unearth them, you've come to the right publication. That is especially so in any week when stock pickers extraordinaire Meryl Witmer, Mario Gabelli and Oscar Schafer grace these pages together. Add Marc Faber, whose 30,000-foot view of the markets encompasses both hemispheres and all asset classes, and you've got yourself the handiest guide we know to making money in 2011.

On Jan. 10, the editors of Barron's were fortunate to get all four -- and the other six members of the Roundtable -- in the same room at the same time, to explore the prospects for the global economy, financial markets and a wide array of investments in the year ahead. This week's Roundtable issue, the last of three, features the picks of this formidable foursome, and their stock-picking strategies.

Meryl, a general partner at New York's Eagle Capital Partners, says it's a lot harder to find cheap stocks now that the market has rallied. That is why she and her team are prowling for companies recently released from bankruptcy protection -- a process that cleanses their balance sheets but wrecks their reputations. The more unloved they are, the more Meryl loves them -- and the opportunities they offer.

Mario, the big boss at Gamco Investors in Rye, N.Y., has a keen interest in break-ups, make-ups, spinoffs and split-ups -- the Page Six of corporate life. That's because deals are "one way for values to surface." Deal stocks like Fortune Brands and Sara Lee figure prominently among his picks for 2011, along with a novel play on shale gas and another on gold.

For Oscar, the value hound who runs New York's O.S.S. Capital, it's the catalyst that counts. What circumstance, or constellation of events, could turn an otherwise ordinary business into a growth machine? He homes in this year on companies returning to public hands after leveraged buyouts. Shares outstanding are limited, tax rates are low and management is cost-conscious -- an optimal set-up for outsized investment returns. Hertz is one such returnee, and his masterful analysis is worth reading twice.

As for Marc, a globe-trotting financial advisor, he's prone to big pronouncements. Nothing to get alarmed about -- just that all paper currencies are doomed and World War III has begun. When the shock wears off, however, you might be riveted by his thoughts on how to profit from great global shifts, as well as temporary dislocations in equity, currency and commodity prices. Think energy, gold and, yes, Japan.


online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970204331604576104252848553210.html?mod=BOL_twm_fs#articleTabs_panel_article%3D1

[sandi66]

Obama to Send Congress Multitrillion-Dollar Budget Likely to Show Cutbacks

By Roger Runningen -

Jan 30, 2011 12:35 PM

President Barack Obama will send a multitrillion budget to Congress on Feb. 14, administration spokesman Kenneth Baer said, setting up a conflict over spending that may dominate a divided Congress for the rest of the year.

The budget for fiscal 2012 is a political document that will put into precise language the administration’s priorities for increasing economic growth and creating jobs. Republicans who campaigned on promises to slash spending took control of the U.S. House of Representatives and reduced the Democrats’ majority in the Senate.

“The sooner Washington ends its dependence on more spending, the sooner our economy will see real growth,” Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said in yesterday’s weekly Republican radio address.

Obama says he’s ready to trim or eliminate programs, specifically mentioning community action grants to local governments, to allow spending increases for his priorities.

“We want to cut with a scalpel as opposed to a chain saw,” Obama said in an interview broadcast online by Google Inc.’s YouTube on Jan. 27. “Frankly, we’re just going to have to trim some of these programs.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Jan. 26 that U.S. budget deficit will widen this year to a record $1.5 trillion, partly because of the $858 billion tax-cut measure passed last month by Congress.

‘Daunting’ Challenges

“The U.S. faces daunting economic and budgetary challenges,” the report said.

In his Jan. 25 State of the Union address, the president proposed a five-year freeze on all annual appropriations for a savings of about $400 billion over a decade. It wouldn’t apply to defense, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest in the national debt.

As a result, the freeze would apply to 18 percent of the budget, or $663 billion, in the current 2011 fiscal year, the CBO said in an economic outlook published Jan. 26.

Republicans, and some Democrats, say the freeze doesn’t go far enough and are demanding big spending cuts as part of any deal to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which may be reached as early as March.

“We’re going to have to deal with the entitlements of Social Security, Medicare; we’re going to have to deal with the tax expenditures,” Senator Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Budget Committee, said on CNBC on Jan. 26.

Opening Offer

It’s “an opening offer in a very tough negotiation” to reduce the deficit, Alice Rivlin, former Federal Reserve vice chairman, said on the same program.

The budget will also provide the administration’s latest forecasts for economic growth, inflation and unemployment rate this year and next.

Obama will also provide details of proposals he highlighted in the State of the Union message, including the repair of roads, bridges and mass-transit systems and creation of an infrastructure bank to help pay for them.

He would add 100,000 teachers of science, engineering and mathematics within 10 years; make permanent a $10,000 tuition tax credit; replace education’s No Child Left Behind Law; increase research and development spending; provide high-speed wireless access to 98 percent of Americans in five years; abolish tax breaks for oil, gas and coal producers; and put 1 million advanced-technology vehicles on roads by 2015.

William Daley, the new White House chief of staff, said that President Barack Obama will lay out a “very substantial cut” to the budget and that the administration is “not open to refighting” the health-care law. Daley spoke in an interview on CBS television’s “Face the Nation” program.

www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-29/obama-to-send-multitrillion-dollar-budget-to-congress-on-valentine-s-day.html

[sandi66]

Boehner Says U.S. Default Would Be Finance ‘Disaster’ By Silla Brush

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner said today that a U.S. default would be a “financial disaster” and that the issue is not “even on the table.”

Boehner said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that the Obama administration must be willing to work with Republicans to cut spending if it seeks an increase in the government’s debt ceiling.

“I don’t think the American people will tolerate increasing the debt limit without serious reductions in spending and changes to the budget process so we can make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Boehner said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a Jan. 6 letter to congressional leaders that the U.S. government’s $14.29 trillion debt limit may be reached as soon as March 31 and “most likely” by May 16.

Boehner said he expected the U.S. House Appropriations Committee to make recommendations on spending cuts in the next 10 days and that legislation funding the government could come to a House vote during the week of Feb. 14. Boehner said he expected a separate vote on the question of raising the government debt ceiling.

“I think these are two opportunities that Congress has to deal with the administration to cut spending,” Boehner said.

William Daley, the new White House chief of staff, said in an interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation” that President Barack Obama will lay out a “very substantial” cut to the budget. Daley said any use of the debt ceiling for political leverage, “will run the possibility of spooking the markets.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Silla Brush in Washington at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kevin Costelloe at [e-mail]

Last Updated: January 30, 2011 12:01 EST
noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=aKMd1pzgK89Y

ty nalmann

[sandi66]

Citigroup CEO Criticizes High Bonuses - Report
Last update: 1/30/2011 10:51:32 AM

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Citigroup Inc. (C) Chief Executive Vikram Pandit sharply criticized high bonus payouts in the financial sector in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel to be published Monday.
"No-one wants to see the excesses that brought the financial system close to collapse," Pandit told the magazine.
Incentives should be oriented on long-term success and senior management should set a good example, he told Spiegel.
Pandit will get a salary of $1.75 million in 2011, up from the $1 salary that Mr. Pandit imposed on himself in early 2009.
Pandit views the current economic upturn as "still fragile," according to the Spiegel interview.
Magazine website: www.spiegel.de
-Frankfurt Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; 49-69-29725-500.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 30, 2011 10:49 ET (15:49 GMT)

custom.marketwatch.com/custom/tdameritrade-com/html-story.asp?guid={82195288-7a23-4227-bb84-9f12f908b7a5}

ty nalmann

[sandi66]

Medical examiner: Homicide victim John Wheeler died of 'blunt force trauma'

Toxicology "didn't play a role" in his death, officials said.

By CRIS BARRISH and ESTEBAN PARRA • The News Journal •

January 28, 2011

Homicide victim John P. Wheeler III, a former Pentagon official and presidential aide whose body was discovered Dec. 31 in a Wilmington landfill, was beaten to death in an assault, the Delaware medical examiner’s office announced today.

The official cause of Wheeler’s slaying was “blunt force trauma,’’ agency spokesman Karl Kanefsky said about a case that has drawn worldwide media coverage.


Police reiterated today that the case remains under investigation but acknowledge they cannot fill in critical gaps in the murder mystery.


Within hours of the grisly New Year’s Eve discovery, state pathologists had ruled that the 66-year-old New Castle resident was a homicide victim, but until today authorities had been mum on the cause of his death -- an unusual posture in Delaware, where such information is usually released promptly.


The four-week delay has helped fuel rampant speculation that Wheeler, a defense consultant and expert on chemical and biological weapons, was poisoned by enemies -- a theory that persisted in part because he was seen stumbling around Wilmington in the days before he died and officials said they were awaiting the results of toxicology tests.


Hal G. Brown, deputy director of the medical examiner’s office, said he did not know what medications or chemicals, if any, were in Wheeler’s system, but said the death certificate makes it clear that toxicology “didn’t play a role’’ in Wheeler’s death.


Brown said blunt force trauma describes the result of being struck with an object or a body part such as a fist. Brown added that Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Adrienne Sekula-Perlman, who handled Wheeler’s autopsy, met with police and prosecutors today about her conclusions.


Newark police are the lead agency on a multi-force investigation because the garbage truck that dumped Wheeler’s body at Wilmington’s Cherry Island Landfill was emptying debris it had collected at trash bins in Newark. The FBI is also assisting the probe.


Newark police spokesman Lt. Mark Farrall was mum Friday on the official word that Wheeler was killed in an assault. “I can’t comment on his injuries,’’ Farrall said.

Farrall said detectives still do not know how Wheeler got to Newark or how he got into the dumpster.


“We’re still attempting to determine how he made his way to Newark and who is responsible for his murder,” Farrall said. “How he got the injuries, I just don’t know.”


Jason Miller, spokesman for Attorney General Beau Biden, said their office could not comment on the “ongoing investigation.’’


Wheeler, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, led fundraising efforts in the 1980s to construct the Vietnam memorial and served as an adviser to the last three Republican presidents -- Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.


Most recently he worked part-time for the MITRE Corp., which provides systems engineering and information technology services to the government about issues such as aviation defense and intelligence.


Wheeler is believed to have been on a train from Washington, D.C., to Wilmington on Dec. 28, Newark police said.


A cabbie interviewed by The News Journal, however, said he picked Wheeler up at the train station on Dec. 29.


Video and witness accounts of Wheeler's behavior in the 48 hours before his body was found show him disoriented, carrying one of his dress shoes, and looking in vain for his car in a Wilmington parking garage blocks from where his vehicle was located.


On Dec. 30, Wheeler was captured on surveillance video at the Nemours building at 10th and Orange streets in downtown Wilmington, where he asked for train fare at the Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz law firm.


The last image of him that day was leaving the Nemours building and walking southeast on 11th Street, past and through the Hotel du Pont valet parking area. He continued southeast and crossed Market Street and was last seen in camera view at 8:42 p.m. walking toward the East Side, a low-income neighborhood known as a hot spot for crime.

www.delawareonline.com/article/20110128/NEWS01/110128028/Med.+examiner+releases+Wheeler+cause+of+death

[sandi66]

* Trade ministers urged to reinvigorate Doha negotiations

January 30th, 2011 04:00 pm · Posted in NEWS (Iraq & World Currency)
Saturday, January 29, 2011

Listen to the Article –

voice.dixerit.com/dailystarlbdix?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailystar.com.lb%2F%2Farticle%2Easp%3Fedition%5Fid%3D10%26categ%5Fid%3D3%26article%5Fid%3D124249 or tinyurl.com/64mbvt9


Reuters


DAVOS, Switzerland: Trade ministers meeting Friday must give negotiators in the long-running Doha talks the green light to make more concessions for a deal that all can sell to their voters, trade policy-makers said.

The European Union, the world’s biggest exporter, is hosting a dinner for trade ministers from the other key players – Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan and the United States – during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The seven will take stock of the Doha round. Members of the World Trade Organization have agreed to intensify the pace of negotiations, already in their 10th year, after the G-20 urged them to use 2011 as a window of opportunity to reach a deal.

“What we will try to get from ministers is acceleration,” said WTO director-general Pascal Lamy. He will not attend Friday’s dinner, but will take part in another meeting of some 25 ministers, including the seven, Saturday.

The host of Friday’s dinner, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, agreed further moves are needed by all players. “Everyone around the table realizes that if you negotiate it’s about give and take. There’s nothing bad about a compromise,” he told Reuters.

The Doha round was launched in late 2001 to boost the world economy and help poor countries prosper through trade.

While economists differ over the impact of opening markets in food, industrial goods from cars to chemicals, and services such as banking and law, several studies show that a new trade agreement could add hundreds of billions of dollars to the world economy, bolstering business sentiment.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told the annual World Economic Forum meeting that “2011 is the make or break year,” calling for more concessions by all sides to reach a deal.

The wide-ranging and complex talks have missed repeated deadlines and some negotiators say 2011 will go the same way, perhaps dooming the negotiations altogether.

But in recent months the talks in Geneva have moved up a gear and some believe the necessary trade-offs are now possible.

“There seems to be a general acceptance that what is needed to bring Doha to a successful conclusion is for the major countries to bring a little bit more to the table,” Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson told Reuters.



Emerson said Australia, one of the keenest proponents of a deal, does not believe that it is the one blocking agreement, but would consider further concessions as part of a final push.

“If it’s a matter of the demonstration of good faith and everyone bringing more to the table then Australia would be a willing participant in that,” Emerson said.

For instance Australia could consider making further cuts in its already low tariffs, or accepting binding restrictions on the role of AWB, the former monopoly exporter, he suggested.

In the end, the deal will require bilateral agreement between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies.

But it is much more complicated than that, with competitive exporters among the emerging economies wanting to boost South-South trade by opening markets as well.

Anabel Gonzalez, foreign trade minister of Costa Rica, said small export-reliant developing countries like hers believed that trade was an important means of development and access to markets in both rich and poor countries was vital.

Costa Rica wants a Doha agreement this year and is ready to play its part too, she told Reuters.

But there is no sign so far of progress narrowing gaps on proposals allowing developing countries to limit imports of food, which contributed to the collapse of a meeting of ministers to push for a deal in 2008, said Gonzalez, who was a top WTO agriculture official during that meeting.

“That continues to be a very contentious issue,” she said.

And in Geneva, representatives of poor countries called for an acceleration of negotiations on cotton that will lead to a big cut in U.S. trade-distorting subsidies. Many see such cuts as a touchstone of Doha’s ability to help developing countries.

The changing nature of world trade may also make it easier to open markets by cutting import duties, as global supply chains mean tariffs amount to a tax on your own business. “If you protect imports you will damage your exports,” Lamy told reporters.

theiraqidinar.com/2011/01/30/trade-ministers-urged-to-reinvigorate-doha-negotiations/

[sandi66]

State TV: Egypt President Announces New Government

Published January 31, 2011
| Associated Press

CAIRO -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak swore in a new Cabinet on Monday, replacing one dissolved as a concession to unprecedented anti-government protests.

In the most significant change, the interior minister -- who heads internal security forces -- was replaced. A retired police general, Mahmoud Wagdi, was named to replace Habib el-Adly, who is widely despised by protesters for brutality shown by security forces.

Still, the new Cabinet is unlikely to satisfy the tens of thousands of protests who have taken to the streets in cities across Egypt the past week demanding the ouster of Mubarak and his entire regime. When Mubarak announced the dissolving of the previous government late Friday and named his intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as his vice president, protesters on the streets rejected the move as an attempt by Mubarak, Egypt's authoritarian ruler of nearly 30 years, to cling to power.

The new line-up of Cabinet ministers announced on state television included stalwarts of Mubarak's regime but purged several of the prominent businessmen who held economic posts and have engineered the country's economic liberalization policies the past decades. Many Egyptians resented to influence of millionaire politician-moguls, who were close allies of the president's son, Gamal Mubarak, long thought to be the heir apparent.

In the new Cabinet, Mubarak retained his long-serving defense minister, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

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Egypt's most famous archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, was named state minister for antiquities, a new post.

www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01/31/state-tv-egypt-president-announces-new-government/

ty David

[sandi66]

BREAKING NEWS: FED JUDGE IN FLORIDA DECIDES STATES LAWSUIT OVER HEALTHCARE ..ruling expected 1pm eastern

Greta Van Susteren | January 31, 2011 11:50 AM

Federal Judge Vinson in Florida has made his decision whether the national health care law is constitutional or not...stand by for that decision..the decision release is expected about 1pm eastern....


**************

Second Judge May Declare Healthcare Reform Unconstitutional

Submitted by Marina Dimova on 2011, January 31 - 13:59

In the biggest legal challenge to federal authorities enacting any law, a judge from Florida may become the second one to declare President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law unconstitutional.

Judge Roger Vinson of the US District Court in Pensacola, Florida, will be ruling on a lawsuit initiated by the Governors and Attorneys General of 26 US states, almost all of whom are Republicans, while Obama is a Democrat.

The Pensacola case has more prominence than the two dozen lawsuits filed in federal courts over Obama’s new healthcare law, as the plaintiffs represent over half the US states.

There is no specific time given for Vinson’s ruling on the contentious reform law, and which may well reach the US Supreme Court, being unlikely to end the legal wrangling.

The healthcare overhaul while curbing costs, also seeks to expand health insurance to cover millions of uninsured Americans. According to officials of the administration, the new healthcare law is constitutional and was necessary for controlling the expected increase in healthcare costs.

Challenges to the law’s ‘individual mandate’ requiring Americans to start buying health insurance in 2014 or pay a penalty has been rejected by two other district court judges.

However, that central provision of the law was struck down by a federal district judge in Richmond, Virginia, last month, on grounds of inviting an ‘unbridled exercise of federal police powers’.

Vinson has suggested he will be ruling the individual mandate oversteps constitutional limits on federal authority, including invalidating the entire law, by agreeing to the Plaintiff states’ request for an injunction to stop implementation of the law.

visitbulgaria.info/15852-second-judge-may-declare-healthcare-reform-unconstitutional