Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Fri 01.29.2010
Senate agrees to record increase in debt limit to $14.3 trillion By Lori Montgomery - Washington Post The Senate agreed Thursday to raise the legal limit on government borrowing to $14.3 trillion, a historic high that would permit the Treasury Department to cover the nation's bills through early next year. The vote fell along party lines, with all 60 Democrats supporting and 39 Republicans opposing a plan to increase the cap by a record $1.9 trillion. The 40th Republican, Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, said his no vote was accidentally unrecorded. If lawmakers had approved a smaller increase, Democrats would have had to revisit the deeply unpopular topic of the soaring national debt before facing voters in November.
Experts See Another Global Dip Ahead By MARCUS WALKER Davos Attendees Pin Hopes on Emerging Economies, Saying Debt and Deficits Will Trouble U.S.; Sparring Over Bank Rules DAVOS—The global economic recovery could lose pace later this year, dashing hopes for a rapid escape from the deepest downturn of the postwar era, economists and investors said at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting at this Swiss ski resort. Heavy debts will weigh on governments and households in the U.S. and Europe for some time, while hopes for global growth will continue to rest on fast-developing countries such as India and China, predicted participants at the meeting's opening debate on the economy.
The Daily Show with John Stewart Elizabeth Warren, January 26, 2010 Congress' chief economic watchdog talks about her work overseeing the bank bailout.
Bullion coin sales fetch $1.7 bn for US Mint WASHINGTON (Commodity Online): The sale of bullion coins by US Mint reached a record high in FY 2009 when it approached $1.7 bn, nearly 80% of the last year's sales revenue, according to Edmund C Moy, United States Mint Director. US Mint in its annual report pointed out that bullion coins accounts for 58% of sles revenue in 2009 compared to 34% in 2008. The Mint was able to meet the demand for 22-karat gold and silver one-ounce bullion coins by the third quarter of FY 2009, the annual report said.
Why Buffett and Soros hate gold By Jim Sinclair Today I have received many emails concerning Mr. Soros’ dislike of gold. You may have noticed that Mr. Buffett and Mr. Soros seem to be in a PR contest for the position of spokesperson for the future of the USA. Many Americans erroneously see gold as anti-American and those that do not see a major future for the US dollar as traitors. You will recall Mr. Buffett’s recent entry into the railroad business was deemed by him and others as being a vote of absolute confidence in America’s continued economic recovery and its sustainability. It is sort of a quasi-competition for economic President of the USA.
Russia’s gold, Forex reserves dip by $5.8 billion MOSCOW (Commodity Online): Russia’s gold and foreign-exchange reserves for the first time in this year fell by $5.8 billion to $435.6 billion in the week ended January 22, said Central Bank. Reserves rose $500 million to $441.4 billion in the previous week. After reaching a record high of $597.5 billion in August 2008, reserves sank dramatically in late 2008 and early 2009 as the central bank spent more than $200 billion to support the struggling ruble.
Win With Silver Jeff Nielsen With the Olympics just days away, and with precious metals sitting at very attractive prices (following this utterly absurd move lower), this is the perfect time to point out that when "going for gold" one can often be better off taking home silver. As with many of the greatest, long-term investment opportunities, the reasons for investing in silver are numerous and obvious - and will (like all things) become much more obvious, in hindsight. The simplest place to start is with the patterns in price movement, and the reasons for those patterns.
Investors embracing platinum, palladium David Pett, Financial Post All hail the new king in the world of precious metals: platinum. After a year in which everyone seemed to be backing the truck up for gold, investors are turning their attention to platinum, an outperformer versus gold in 2009 that continues to offer better prospects for price appreciation. In the past month alone, platinum and its near cousin palladium have climbed as much as 12% and 15%, reaching a peak last week after getting a huge boost from the launch of two exchange-traded funds in the United States.
The Pelosi Fed Is the Dollar’s Worst Nightmare by Caroline Baum Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Within days of the Republican upset in the Massachusetts special election for the late Ted Kennedy’s seat, Barbara Boxer saw the way forward. “It is time for a change -- it is time for Main Street to have a champion at the Fed,” the three-term California Democratic senator said on Jan. 22. “Dr. Bernanke played a lead role in crafting the Bush administration’s economic policies, which led to the current economic crisis. Our next Federal Reserve chairman must represent a clean break from the failed policies of the past.”
Chavez Dangles Better Exchange Rate, With Caveat Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, offered to give private companies a preferential exchange rate to import goods provided they form joint ventures with his government. Chavez, seeking to boost production to emerge from an economic recession, said firms willing to work with the government can get a rate of 2.6 bolivars per dollar. Companies that don’t align with his administration will import finished goods and raw materials at 4.3 per dollar.
Bill Clinton Says Reward Bernanke, Advance Overhaul By Alison Vekshin and Ryan Chilcote Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said the Senate should confirm Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to reward him for responding to the financial crisis and owning up to mistakes. “Bernanke’s decisions have been very good, they have kept the American economy going and given us a chance to heal,” Clinton said today in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I think the beginning is to confirm and reward both his acknowledgement of past lax regulation and his service since the financial meltdown.”
State of the Union
Senate OKs 2nd term for Bernanke as Fed chief The Senate on Thursday handed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke a second term after a week of contentious and sometimes suspenseful debate. Easily approving the nomination with a 70-30 vote, the Senate rejected arguments by senators mostly at the political extremes on the left and right that Mr. Bernanke made fatal mistakes that led to the global financial crisis and great recession of the past two years. The Senate's action ensures that the former Bush administration economist, mild-mannered Princeton professor and expert on the Great Depression will steer the world's most powerful central bank for another four years.
Bernanke May Have Harder Fight Defending Fed After Confirmation By Scott Lanman Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Ben S. Bernanke, who won Senate approval for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman over a record number of opponents, may now have a tougher fight against threats to the central bank itself. Lawmakers are considering legislation to remove a shield from congressional audits of monetary policy and strip the Fed of bank-supervision powers, measures that Bernanke opposes.
Bernanke agonistes By William F. Shughart II - Washington Times Fed chairman's job is to manage money supply, period Bernanke repeating mistakes of the Great Depression President Obama pulled out all the stops to clinch Senate approval of his nomination of Ben S. Bernanke to a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Now that the president seems to have enough votes for his nominee in hand, news of yet another "Louisiana Purchase" may be grabbing headlines soon.
Save the Middle Class While Fixing Banks for Good Michael Pento While I'm disgusted with the level of banker's bonuses and with the obscene leverage practices financial institutions undertook, I do not think the answer to how we clean up them up now is to pile on yet more regulation. To be sure, banks that helped bring down the world economy and then subsequently got bailed out by the taxpayers should not be making billions of dollars in bonuses, especially while the middle class is suffering so greatly. And if we're going to keep the FDIC in effect, a certain amount of regulation is required to protect taxpayer-backed deposits. But the real remedy does not rest with government, as it was their consistent meddling with markets that engendered the crisis to begin with.
Blackstone CEO Says Banker Bashing Risks Recovery By Anne-Sylvaine Chassany and Eric Schatzker Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Banks may start to rein in lending, putting the economic recovery at risk, if politicians keep attacking them and regulatory uncertainty persists, Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive Officer Steven Schwarzman said. “Financial institutions will feel under siege and they will retreat,” Schwarzman said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Their entire world is being shaken and they’re being attacked personally,” he said. “We don’t need those financial institutions insecure.”
Obama's "Venezuelan-style" Policies Will Cause Stock Market Crash, Dick Bove Says by Peter Gorenstein - To paraphrase Miller Tabak equity strategist Peter Boockvar, a political science degree on Wall Street may be more important than a finance degree these days. Since the crisis created the need for unprecedented government intervention, stocks are influenced just as much by policy decisions as they are by fundamentals and valuations. Last week's announcement of the "Volcker Rule" and President Obama's digs at the "banker [who] puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain" in the State of the Union address are just the latest examples. Be afraid, Be very afraid.
Fed nods to Hill's economy concerns By Patrice Hill Treasury chief defends moves The Federal Reserve acknowledged concerns on Capitol Hill about consumers who are out of jobs and short on credit, saying Wednesday that it may continue programs to support mortgages, small businesses and consumers loans this year if financial conditions don't improve. The Fed's nod to senators, who say they have demanded that it pay more attention to middle-class problems in closed-door meetings with Chairman Ben S. Bernanke in recent days, came as prospects for Mr. Bernanke's confirmation to a second term continued to improve, with a vote on shutting off debate in the Senate scheduled for Thursday.
The Fed's Anti-Inflation Exit Strategy Will Fail By ALLAN H. MELTZER - WSJ Sooner or later the pressure to lend out excess bank reserves will be unstoppable. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has explained his exit strategy to prevent future inflation. The Fed recently began to pay interest to banks on the reserves they hold in their vaults. Using this new tool, it claims the ability to get banks to keep the money instead of lending it out, thus containing the money supply and inflation. I don't believe this will work, and no one else should. The exit strategy is incomplete. Proponents are guilty of practicing economics without prices. They never say what the interest rate on reserves must be to get banks to hold the approximately $1 trillion of reserves above the minimum they're legally required to hold. That's the critical question.
Senate permits gov't to borrow $1.9T more WASHINGTON (AP) -- Majority Democrats in the U.S. Senate muscled through legislation Thursday that would allow the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper in debt. Democratic leaders were able to prevail on the politically volatile 60-39 vote only because Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts has yet to be seated. Republicans had insisted on a 60-vote, supermajority threshold to pass the measure. An earlier test vote succeeded on a 60-40 vote. The measure would put the government on track for a national debt of $14.3 trillion, or about $45,000 for every American, and it served as a vivid reminder of the United States' dire fiscal straits.
What the New York Fed Bought in A.I.G.’s Bailout One more secret of the American International Group’s bailout became public on Wednesday: a list of the tens of billions of dollars in toxic assets that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York bought for 100 cents on the dollar from A.I.G.’s trading partners. Representative Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released the list after the committee’s hearing on the A.I.G. bailout, even though he said the New York Fed wanted to keep it under wraps until 2018. But Mr. Issa said it made little sense to keep the information private.
Geithner draws fire defending Fed on AIG bailout By TOM RAUM and DANIEL WAGNER - AP Democrats and Republicans alike pummeled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday over his role in the $180 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG Inc., venting public anger over Wall Street's return to prosperity while 10 percent of Americans are still jobless. Geithner, one of the original architects of the government's 2008 response to the financial crisis as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, defended the use of taxpayer money as necessary to head off "potentially catastrophic damage to the economy." But members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hammered away at why regulators allowed American International Group to pass on billions of the bailout money to big Wall Street banks that were business partners.
Note to Congress: You Gave Geithner a Pass by Peter Gorenstein Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner probably wouldn't characterize Wednesday's congressional testimony on the AIG bailout as "fun." Yet, it wasn't as grueling as it should have been. And, that's the fault of Congress. The Secretary spent much of the House hearing defending the decision to rescue the insurance giant, saying he takes "full responsibility, and great pride" in making the tough choices in those dark days. Many agree; saving AIG was, as he describes it, "terrible" and "tragic," yet necessary.
Geithner: 'I'll carry the burden' of AIG forever By David Goldman NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A day after facing furious lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told CNN on Thursday that he would forever "carry the burden" of the decision to bail out AIG but defended it as the government's only option. AIG was on the brink of collapse in September 2008 when Geithner, then the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, captained the troubled insurer's bailout.
The Danger behind the Fed's Exceptional Profits Mises Daily: by Mateusz Mac A few days ago, the Fed announced that it had "earned" a record-high amount of money in 2009. Then it turned $46 billion over to the Treasury. Here we are in the midst of a serious recession, with the unemployment rate high, the housing market still in a slump, and the stock market making only small steps toward recovery. In this climate, the Fed is making profits. That's impressive, isn't it? Unfortunately, the Fed's huge earnings are a signal that the economy is still in terrible shape and that its condition is worsening.
Obama pledges $8B for high-speed rail By Joseph Weber President Obama on Thursday awarded $8 billion in federal grants to start a nationwide high-speed rail system he hopes will create jobs and speed up U.S. travel. "There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains when we can build them right here in America," the president said at a town-hall meeting at the University of Tampa's Bob Martinez Sports Center in Florida, one 31 states that will receive grant money. The money is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is the largest investment in U.S. infrastructure since the Interstate Highway System was begun in the 1950s.
And So The Great Recession Continues
The Coming Obama Retirement Trap Has Started! Ron Holland . . . . Reports out of Washington indicate that new retirement annuities may be promoted by Obama aides. This is just the beginning! The question every successful American with substantial retirement assets must ask is "what will you do if our retirement funds are forced to become the buyer of last resort for US treasury obligations?" Unless you believe Congress and Washington bureaucrats will do a fair job of allocating and distributing your personal retirement assets between yourself and others, you must begin now to protect your assets.
Capitalist Fools Megan McArdle Commercial real estate is dominated by financial professionals, not hustlers looking for a quick flip. So why is the market about to melt down? Few places in New York are less likely to inspire grand dreams than Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the twin housing projects that sprawl across 80 acres of the Lower East Side. Built by MetLife in the 1940s, the project encompasses block after block of boxy brick apartment buildings and stolid public spaces, entirely barren of inviting corners or eye-catching detail. The critic Lewis Mumford dubbed it "the architecture of the Police State"; a slightly kinder motto might have been "What do you expect for $68.50 a month?"
U.S. 2009 Foreclosures Go Beyond Sun Belt States U.S. foreclosure actions firmly centered around Sun Belt states in 2009 but activity spread to previously insulated areas, and unemployment became the biggest driving factor, RealtyTrac said on Thursday. Cities in four Sun Belt states accounted for all top 20 foreclosure rates in 2009 among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, the Irvine, Calif.-based real estate data company said. California accounted for nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates, followed by Florida with eight, Nevada with two and Arizona with one, the company said in its Year-End 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.
Yet another try at foreclosure rescue By Tami Luhb NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Under fire for the low number of people receiving long-term mortgage help, the Treasury Department on Thursday announced new guidelines that will require applicants to provide all paperwork before getting a trial modification. The new policy will make it harder for troubled homeowners to start the process, but it should make it easier for them to qualify for permanent assistance under President's Obama foreclosure prevention plan.
House Price Recovery Just A Head Fake, Says Alpert, Especially In New York by Peter Gorenstein In the second half of 2009, house prices staged a surprising recovery, leading many to conclude that the housing bust was done. Keep dreaming, says Dan Alpert of Westwood Capital. The rise in the second half of 2009 was mainly the result of pent-up demand combined with a tax-break, subsidized mortgage rates, and other incentives. The housing market is still awash in excess inventory, and Alpert says this will eventually drive prices down to 8%-10% below the lows of early last year. The good news?
Las Vegas: Most foreclosures of any city in 2009 By Les Christie NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Cities in the so-called Sand States dominated the foreclosure rankings in 2009, with the 20 worst-hit metro areas residing in Nevada, Florida, California and Arizona. Las Vegas had the largest number of foreclosure filings of any city last year, with 12% of its households receiving at least one during the year, according to RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed homes. That was more than five times the national average.
RealtyTrac: S. Florida among top 10 for foreclosures in 2009 South Florida Business Journal The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area ranked among the top 10 U.S. metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates in 2009, according to a newly released report by RealtyTrac, the Irvine, Calif.-based online marketplace for foreclosures. The report found there were 172,894 properties with foreclosure filings in the local metro area, or one in every 14 homes. The rate was up 43.5 percent from 2008 and up nearly 200 percent from 2007. Florida accounted for eight of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates. Only California, with nine, had more.
Calif. had most metros with high foreclosures in 2009 Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal California accounted for nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates during 2009, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac. The Irvine company said California was followed by Florida with eight, Nevada with two and Arizona with one.
Obama to unveil new tax breaks to spur jobs growth, hike wages By Michael A. Fletcher - Washington Post In an effort to spur job creation, President Obama plans on Friday to unveil a $33 billion package of tax breaks aimed at encouraging businesses to hire new workers and give employees raises. The proposal would provide a $5,000 tax credit for each new worker hired in 2010, while subsidizing wage increases by reimbursing Social Security tax increases for businesses that expand their payrolls. The tax breaks would be capped at $500,000 per business, meaning that they would mostly benefit small firms, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the plan. The tax break on pay increases would apply only to workers making $106,800 or less.
Obama Aid Plans for `Strained' Middle Class Limited in Reach By Mike Dorning Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama vowed last night to help “strained but hopeful” middle-class Americans prevail over adversity. The aid programs he unveiled will be modest in scope and limited in impact, analysts said. These initiatives were a centerpiece of Obama’s first State of the Union address, which was aimed at helping him regain political momentum as he contends with an unemployment rate hovering at 10 percent and voter disaffection that cost his Democratic Party a Senate seat in Massachusetts this month.
$5,000 tax credit for each new job a big part of Obama's plan By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY President Obama's new effort to give tax credits to companies that create jobs is getting a cool reception from the nation's job creators. One sentence from his State of the Union address Wednesday night will become the focus of his visit to Baltimore today: a $5,000 tax credit for each job created on a net basis in 2010, up to $500,000 per company. The idea is to prod companies to hire more workers. They also can increase wages or hours and be reimbursed for their share of the additional Social Security payroll taxes. There's only one problem: Business groups say the credit won't do much to boost hiring.
Pelosi suggests maneuver to pass healthcare overhaul By Noam N. Levey - LA Times The speaker says the House should pass the Senate's version of the plan and then use 'budget reconciliation' to make changes that some lawmakers want. The procedure could circumvent a GOP filibuster. Reporting from Washington - Laying out a possible path to approving healthcare legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Wednesday that the House should pass the Senate's version and then use a process known as "budget reconciliation" to make the changes some lawmakers are demanding.
Rally For The Republic - Tom Woods Speaks! (Part 1/2)
Rally For The Republic - Tom Woods Speaks! (Part 2/2)
Wal-Mart reorganizes U.S. operations to help spur growth By Mae Anderson, AP NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, said Thursday it is realigning its U.S. operations in an effort to give more autonomy to executives in regional markets and reinvigorate U.S. growth. Wal-Mart is combining its U.S. realty, store operations and logistics divisions and reorganizing operations under three geographic business units headed up by regional presidents: West, South and North.
Appliance World shutters Denver-area stores Denver Business Journal - by Renee McGaw and Mark Harden Appliance World stores in the Denver area have been closed in the wake of the chain's parent company filing for bankruptcy protection three months ago. "Effective immediately, Appliance World stores are permanently closed," a notice on the retailer's website said Thursday. The chain has five metro-area stores, in Denver, Arvada, Aurora, Littleton and Highlands Ranch, plus one in Colorado Springs, according to the website.
Toyota's Tylenol moment By Alex Taylor III NEW YORK (Fortune) -- In the midst of its biggest recall ever, Toyota is grappling with an existential crisis. By suspending production and sales of eight models in the U.S. and recalling millions of vehicles, it is putting its business on hold for an indefinite amount of time while it attempts to correct its twin problems of sticky accelerators and faulty carpets. This is an especially difficult dilemma for the company, because it has built its reputation not on looks or performance or great deals, but upon quality and dependability.
Ford Halts Production of Vehicle in China By MATTHEW DOLAN - WSJ Ford Motor Co. has stopped production of a full-size commercial vehicle in China after discovering that the gas pedal used came from the supplier involved in the recall at Toyota Motor Co. The production halt affects the diesel version of its full-size Transit Classic commercial vehicle that Ford makes in China with one of its joint-venture partners, Jiangling Motors Corp., according to Ford spokesman Said Deep.
Tea Party Herds the Angry, Lands in Hot Water by Margaret Carlson Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Tea Party activists claimed a huge victory in Massachusetts when Scott Brown, a former Cosmopolitan centerfold driving a pickup, captured the hallowed seat of Ted Kennedy. In November, they claimed the scalp of Dede Scozzafava, the mainstream Republican forced to drop out of a special congressional election in New York when the tea partiers found her insufficiently conservative. Florida state senator Marco Rubio happily credits tea partiers for helping him pull ahead of the once-popular governor, Charlie Crist, for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Florida.
Why Class Warfare Will Dominate Obama's Presidency Rick Newman There are always haves and have-nots in America, and the poor always envy the rich. That means there's an ambient level of class warfare, even when times are good. The hostility intensifies when times are tough, which is obviously the case now. And we should probably get used to it, because Americans have good reason to get more angry, not less. The outrage makes sense. Since World War II, living standards have mostly risen, with each generation better off than the one that came before. The rising tide has continually lifted the middle class, and a lot of people felt satisfied as long as they felt they were getting ahead.
Geothermal-power site withdrawn again from BLM auction Denver Business Journal A 799-acre parcel of federal land in Colorado that’s slated for geothermal development will not be offered as planned in a scheduled lease auction on Feb. 11, the Bureau of Land Management’s Colorado state office said Thursday. The tract is near Buena Vista and Mount Princeton Hot Springs. “The parcel will undergo additional environmental review and analysis,” Greg Shoop, BLM Front Range District Manager, said in a statement. “We received several substantive comments in writing after our Jan. 14 public information meeting in Buena Vista that caused us to decide to further review the current stipulations on the parcel.”
The President's Nuclear Vision By JOE BIDEN - WSJ We will spend what is necessary to maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of our weapons The United States faces no greater threat than the spread of nuclear weapons. That is why, last April in Prague, President Obama laid out a comprehensive agenda to reverse their spread, and to pursue the peace and security of a world without them. He understands that this ultimate goal will not be reached quickly. But by acting on a number of fronts, we can ensure our security, strengthen the global nonproliferation regime, and keep vulnerable nuclear material out of terrorist hands. For as long as nuclear weapons are required to defend our country and our allies, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear arsenal. The president's Prague vision is central to this administration's efforts to protect the American people—and that is why we are increasing investments in our nuclear arsenal and infrastructure in this year's budget and beyond.
Environmentalism Not About the Earth But About Control, 2 By Frederick Meekins - CHCoffeehouse Those still not convinced should ask themselves before they run off and join such groups how much control they want to cede over their lives to the beneficence of the collective. For once one signs over the very right to ownership to one’s dwelling and possessions, where does it end? Willing to relinquish rights to the conjugal affections of your spouse to the group? Don’t snicker. In many cults, those not willing to surrender their spouses to the group are labeled as being insufficiently devoted to the group or “too individualistic” in orientation. Interestingly this allegation is invoked increasingly in the churches of today as they totter ever closer to the edges of apostasy and unbelief.
UN in secret peace talks with Taliban Julian Borger - guardian.co.uk Kabul envoy met top commanders in Dubai this month to discuss terms Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy this month to discuss peace terms, it emerged tonight. Regional commanders on the Taliban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura, sought a meeting with the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, and it took place in Dubai on 8 January. "They requested a meeting to talk about talks. They want protection, to be able to come out in public. They don't want to vanish into places like Bagram," the Reuters news agency quoted a UN official as saying, referring to the Bagram detention centre at a US military base outside Kabul.
EU signals last-resort backing for Greece By Tony Barber in Brussels and David Oakley in London The European Union made clear on Thursday it would not abandon Greece and let Athens’ mounting debt crisis jeopardise the eurozone, even as Germany and France played down suggestions they had already formulated an emergency rescue plan. “It’s quite clear that economic policies are not just a matter of national concern but European concern,” José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, told reporters in Brussels. According to high-level EU officials, Greece would in the last resort receive emergency support in an operation involving eurozone governments and the Commission but not the International Monetary Fund.
Greek Bonds Show Waning Faith It Can Avoid Bailout By Matthew Brown and Keith Jenkins Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Greece bonds and credit-default swaps show investors are starting to doubt that the nation can reduce the largest budget deficit in the European Union without help from outside. The nation’s government bonds are the world’s worst performers in January, losing 4.19 percent in local currency terms and extending their decline over the past three months to 10 percent, Bloomberg/EFFAS indexes show. Credit-default swaps tied to Greece trade at about the same levels as Dubai when it got a $10 billion bailout from Abu Dhabi in December.
Funds flee Greece as Germany warns of "fatal" eurozone crisis By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph Germany has triggered a near-panic flight from southern European debt markets by warning that there will be no EU bail-outs, even though it fears the region's economic crisis has turned dangerous and could prove "fatal" for the entire eurozone. The yield on 10-year Greek bonds blasted upwards by over 40 basis points to 7.15pc in a day of wild trading. Spreads over German Bunds reached almost four percentage points, by far the highest since Greece joined the euro, and close to levels that risk a self-feeding spiral. Contagion hit Portuguese, Spanish, Irish, and Italian bonds. George Papandreou, the Greek premier, said in Davos that his country had been singled out as the weak link in a "attack on the eurozone" by speculators and political foes. "We are being targeted, particularly by those with an ulterior motive."
No EU bailout for Greece as PM promises to 'put house in order' Greece's embattled prime minister, George Papandreou, has said his country must solve its deep-rooted budgetary problems itself, and warned that speculators were targeting Greece as the weak link in the eurozone. With Greek bonds again under ferocious pressure on the financial markets today, Papandreou said Athens was not expecting to be bailed out by the other 15 members of the single currency. "The problem we have is home-made," he said in a discussion on the future of the eurozone at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "We Greeks are responsible for putting our own house in order."
German bank chief rules out aid for crisis-hit Greece The head of the German central bank, Axel Weber, said that any aid for crisis-hit Greece at the European level would be counterproductive and impossible to justify politically. Weber, among the most influential members of the European Central Bank (ECB) board and one of the favourites to take over the presidency of the bank next year, said the ECB could not help one state when others were also struggling. "Politically, it would not be possible to tell voters that one country is being helped out so that it can avoid the painful savings that other countries have made," Weber told the Boersen Zeitung financial paper.
Europe Lays Plans for How to Bail Out Greece By STEPHEN CASTLE and MATTHEW SALTMARSH BRUSSELS — France, Germany and other European countries have begun discussing privately how they can come to the aid of fellow euro-zone member Greece, as doubts intensify over the country’s ability to get its budget under control. Despite public attempts to discourage such expectations, discussions are under way, although the shape or scale of a possible bailout package has yet to be determined, according to officials in several capitals, all speaking on condition of anonymity.
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