Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Wed 03.03.2010
Bill Gross: Markets Will Soon Discover How Sovereign Nations Can Go Bust Just Like Companies Vincent Fernando - BusinessInsider -- Bill Gross's knocks the halo off of sovereign bonds in his latest March outlook. He highlights how sovereign debt has been struck with more bad news than corporate debt lately. While sovereign credit used to be generally considered more secure than that of private companies, suddenly the default of nations such as Greece, the U.K., or even Japan seems on the table, while that of many strong corporates remains remote.
U.S. monitoring banks' sovereign risk exposures Karey Wutkowski WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators are closely monitoring banks' exposures to sovereign debt risk, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said on Monday. "You can be sure that regulators are looking at this very closely," Dugan, whose agency regulates the largest U.S. banks, said in an interview with Reuters Insider. "When there's any issue like this that is newly emergent and presents new kinds of risk, there are steps that we take to assess and monitor what is going on." Concerns about banks' concentrations of exposure to sovereign debt have risen since it was revealed that Greece's deficit was three times bigger than originally forecast, plunging the country into a debt crisis and raising concern the volatility could spread to other European countries such as Portugal and Spain.
Governor Christie: "Time to Hold Hands and Jump Off the Cliff" - Chris Christie For President? Mike (Mish) Shedlock -- In an amazingly candid appraisal of the sorry state of affairs in New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie laid it on the line in a speech to about 200 mayors at the New Jersey League of Municipalities. The speech is 24 minutes long and well worth a listen because it is both an honest admission of the problem, and a refreshingly accurate appraisal of what the solutions are. He chastised the legislature, unions, municipalities, and affordable housing initiatives while promising to do something about all of those.
Goldman-Greek Deal "Completely Scandalous" ... and Legal by Aaron Task - Tech Ticker At Goldman Sachs these days, it must seem like you can't sneeze without causing a scandal. The latest controversy centers around currency swaps Goldman brokered for Greece back in 2002. U.S. and EU regulators are probing the transactions, which critics say helped Greece hide the size of its deficits. Bloomberg reports Goldman made $1 billion underwriting Greek debt after the 2002 swap, which often wasn't disclosed to potential investors. Regulators are further investigating whether Goldman also sought to take advantage of its knowledge of Greece's true financial status by betting on credit default swaps, which have risen in value amid concerns about Greece's ability to pay its debts. Congress will hold hearings on the matter, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank has declared.
Goldman profits on both AIG's collapse, breakup By MARK DeCAMBRE - NY Post For Goldman Sachs, AIG -- and by extension, the American taxpayer -- is a gift that keeps on giving. A year and a half after Goldman pocketed billions of dollars that Uncle Sam funneled into American International Group when it was on the verge of collapse, Lloyd Blankfein's gold-plated investment bank is set to fetch as much as $100 million by selling off pieces of the insurance giant. Goldman is reaping fees from helping AIG unload billion of dollars worth of assets in an attempt to return the roughly $182 billion the insurer borrowed from average folk.
Power Elite Losing America? The Daily Bell - SilverBearCafe.com Dominant Social Theme: It is something the powers-that-be need to address. Free-Market Analysis: There are two areas of pushback an alternative media initiative such as the Daily Bell is apt to encounter. The first is that it is "conspiratorial" and the second is that its paltry insights will fall on deaf ears, as the mass of people are "asleep" or "sheep." How then to explain this American poll – taken by CNN of all outfits – showing that a MAJORITY of Americans believe the federal government "poses a threat to the rights of Americans?" And it's not just the poll. You should read the 300-plus comments beneath the tiny article if you want an earful, dear reader.
Greece’s Mirror Image in America BY ROBERT MORLEY - Trumpet.com Will California become the next Greece? What about Kentucky, or Florida, or Illinois, or Ohio, or Michigan, or North Carolina? On January 15, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was asked if Greece posed a threat to the monetary union. He replied that the crisis in Greece was greatly overstated. But he also said something else very alarming. He told reporters that if they wanted to worry about something, they should worry about California. While the world is focusing on a small country of 10 million in Europe, could an even more dangerous situation be developing in America?
Gold Hits Record High In Euros, Pound By REUTERS - NY Times NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gold rallied to a six-week high in dollar terms and hit record highs versus the pound and the euro on Tuesday, as uncertainty about Greece's debt and Britain's politics lifted demand for bullion as a hard asset. On the COMEX, the 1.7 percent gain was the sharpest in two weeks. Uncertainty over plans to tackle Greece's fiscal crisis and over what the next British election may mean for UK debt have heightened volatility in the European currencies, lifting interest in gold as an alternative asset, analysts said. "Currency volatility is by far the biggest factor supporting gold on Tuesday," said Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader at Chicago-based Integrated Brokerage Services. Gold has traditionally been used as a safe haven in times of economic and political uncertainty, as the metal's intrinsic value is not dependent on any paper currency.
Gold Dips for the First Day in Five as Euro Gains on Greek Plan By Glenys Sim -- March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Gold dropped for the first time in five days on speculation that Greece will unveil additional deficit cuts today, stemming a slide in the euro and cutting demand for the precious metal as a hedge. Bullion for immediate delivery fell as much as 0.2 percent to $1,132.80 an ounce, before trading at $1,132.95 at 10:01 a.m. in Singapore. Gold climbed to a six-week high of $1,137.72 yesterday as the euro and pound fell on concerns that the economic recovery in Europe may falter.
Marc Faber on gold and China
Why China's Rumored IMF Gold Purchase, J.S. Kim - SilverBearCafe.com If True, Would Be of Huge Significance A yet to be verified story from Rough & Polished, a Moscow based website, reported that China had "confirmed its decision to acquire 191.3 tons of gold auctioned by the International Monetary Fund." Of course, until official confirmation comes from China, no one will really know if this story is true or not. However, if true, here's why this story would be hugely significant to the gold market. One, such a purchase would give more validity to the theory that China, with a vested interest in the price of gold today, is willing to intercede and support gold prices whenever they are being attacked by the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England through their manipulation of fraudulent gold futures markets in London and New York.
Usher in credit cards backed by gold bullion FLORIDA, USA (Commodity Online): A new breed of credit cards backed by gold bullion is soon to become a reality in USA. Sweeping changes in credit card industry is set benefit not only consumers, but gold bugs too, who'll be able for first time to charge purchases against 'liquid gold.' In particular, Public Law 111-24, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 whose major provisions are effective February 2010, provides new legislation pertaining to credit cards which will make them not only easier to understand, but offer a "golden opportunity" for those who want to have a new credit card backed by gold, rather than dollars.
The Bottom Is In For Gold and Silver Prices! By: Julian Phillips & Peter Spina - GoldSeek.com The fall in the gold price from $1,215 has been $-rally driven. With the Eurozone wallowing in debt on its South side the relationship with the $ and gold has broken down. Long-term large investors are sitting on the sidelines clearly waiting for the right entry point. This body of large institutional buyers is now found in Europe as well as the East. U.S. based gold Exchange Traded Funds should follow once the rise in the gold price has started, not before.
Greece - From Hard Money to Fool's Gold By: Axel G. Merk - GoldSeek.com When Greece invented the Olympic Games in 776 BC, the top prize was an olive wreath, not gold. And in those days, Greece sought out the top runners, rather than compete for a discipline not approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC): governmental financial engineering. If we only brought the original Olympic spirit back, maybe we could solve the world’s challenges. During the ancient Games, Olympic Truce stopped wars to allow safe travel for athletes. Not long after inventing the Olympic Games, Greece was the world’s first country to establish democracy in 508 BC. Not long thereafter, after a series of finds, precious metals spread throughout Greece in the 5th century BC. The following centuries represented an era of price stability and resulting prosperity, not seen before, not since: after.
George Soros makes money out of gold bubble By David Lew - CommodityOnline.com Wise investors make money in gloom and boom. The best example for the wisest among investors is, perhaps, the billionaire global investor and fund manager George Soros. Soros recently predicted that gold—the hottest commodity on earth—is the biggest asset bubble. And Soros is piling his money into gold! Why is George Soros pouring money into gold when he is forecasting that the yellow metal is the ultimate asset bubble? Unlike many of us, Soros is a wise and clever investor. Soros is in fact making money out of his investment in gold, and he knows that the bubble bursts when it becomes too huge a balloon, and thus gold price is going to surge before it bursts.
Fake Tungsten Gold Found By: Trace Mayer, J.D. - GoldSeek.com When one goes to buy gold they want real gold, not some cheap substitute like a fake tungsten gold bar. There has been a lot of rumor, neither credible nor verifiable sources, about bars containing both gold, the Ancient Metal of Kings and tungsten, the ‘heavy stone’. Just like a $100 bill costs about $.04 to produce leading to a profit of $99.96 from such unethical currency production so likewise with the price of gold at $18,000 per pound and the price of tungsten around $25 per pound there is, for the unscrupulous, an opportunity for arbitrage.
Inflation Risk and the Mythical Gold Bubble by Rich Toscano and John Simon Inflation Risk We've explained many times our strongly-held conviction that in the years ahead, the dollar is going to lose a significant amount of purchasing power against things that people need to buy. A longer explanation for our reasoning can be found on the site -- just adjust for the fact that this was written in late 2008 and the dollar's fundamentals have deteriorated enormously since then.
Dollar Falls for Second Day on Bets Fed to Keep Rates Near Zero By Yasuhiko Seki and Ron Harui -- March 3 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell for a second day against the euro as traders increased bets the Federal Reserve will keep its target interest rate near zero to sustain a recovery in the world’s biggest economy. The U.S. currency weakened against 15 of its 16 major counterparts after Fed Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said interest rates should remain low until the economy picks up, which won’t happen “for some time.” South Korea’s won led Asian currencies higher as Greece’s efforts to repair its finances helped shore up demand for riskier assets.
US Dollar Money Supply Is Underreported James Turk March 1, 2010 – As the financial crisis has unfolded over the last two years, the Federal Reserve has been responding in a variety of unprecedented ways. Therefore, it is logical to assume that these never-before-used actions have altered long-established ways of viewing things. One area that has been impacted is the US dollar money supply. The quantity of dollars in circulation is being underreported by relying upon the traditional and now outdated definitions used to calculate M1 and M2. These ‘Ms’ are calculated and reported by the Federal Reserve based on the following guidelines that identify the several different forms of dollar currency used in commerce:
Excessive Currency Printing Is Not the Only Catalyst for Hyperinflation Paco Ahlgren - SeekingAlpha.com -- Many of my detractors insist that hyper-inflationary price increases are impossible in the current global economic environment because asset-classes are falling in value, and therefore price pressure is deflationary. Further, these critics claim that the only way to get to a hyper-inflationary scenario is for currency to get into the economy through the fractional reserve banking system. They contend that, since the velocity of money is extremely low, no currency is getting into the economy through banks, and therefore we cannot have hyperinflation. . . . Balderdash.
So help me out here. Fractional reserve banking and the existence of central banks haven’t been around for very long — relatively speaking. And yet empires have been collapsing from the results of hyperinflation for eons. How does that work?
Just because large asset classes are falling doesn’t mean all asset classes are falling. Have you seen the price of energy lately? How about gold? Have you been to the grocery store?
And what is the best indicator of coming inflation? That’s right: gold. . .
How Badly Do We Need China to Buy Our Debt? Clemens Kownatzki - SeekingAlpha.com The Department of U.S. Treasury announced the revised numbers of major foreign holders of U.S. Debt in their most recent update. Based on the new data, China - not Japan - was indeed the number one holder of U.S. Treasuries holding a total $894.8 billion worth of US. Treasury securities at the end of December 2009. Japan in second place held a total of $765.7 billion, $129 billion less than China. See both data for current and previous data in the charts below.
What the Future Holds for U.S. Treasuries Daryl Montgomer - SeekingAlpha.com . . . . While the Federal Reserve has frequently announced that the U.S. economy is in recovery, it has always followed this up with a statement about how it is going to keep interest rates low for a prolonged period of time. This would not be necessary in an economy that was actually recovering. When the Fed is talking out of both sides of its mouth, investors should pay attention to what it is doing and ignore what it is saying. A prolonged period of low interest rates is inflationary and this means long-term treasury rates will be going up. The only question is when.
Bill Gross Doesn’t Care What You Have To Say By Ari Weinberg - WSJ PIMCO bond guru’s monthly letter is usually good for a tidbit/modicum of insight into the mind of the one of the world’s most influential fixed income investors. Well, this month’s edition from Bill Gross entitled “Don’t Care,” offers a little less insight and a little more drivel than usual.
From Sovereign Wealth to Sovereign Debt BY RON FRASER - Trumpet.com How fast the world changes these days! Two years ago when the annual summit of those who move and shake the world economy convened in Davos, Switzerland, all the talk was about how the rich nations should employ their sovereign wealth funds. One of the gurus on a Davos panel that predicted at that time those funds would rocket from 2.5 trillion to 15 trillion by the year 2015 was the ceo of Lehman Brothers.
A German Bailout of Greece? REUTERS via Speigel.de Berlin Angered by Presumed Pressure from Speculators Rumors in the press of an impending German bailout of Greece are rampant -- despite repeated denials from Chancellor Merkel. Government advisors suspect speculators may be behind the headlines. Meanwhile, Greece has once again delayed a bond issue. The headlines have been confusing. "Germany Backs Greek Bailout," read the headline of one British paper in mid-February. "Germany to Lead Bailout of Greece," read another. More creatively, CNNMoney.com ran a story with the title "Germany May Put Lipstick on Europe's PIIGS," a reference to the list of southern European countries (plus Ireland) which are facing massive debt problems.
Spending, sovereign debt, "debates"
Greece, or How to Fool All the People All of the Time by Taki Theodoracopulos - Takimag.com Greece is a country that thrives on rumor. Hearsay has been a part of the Greek DNA since time immemorial. Even Plato remarked on it. Demagogues used rumor and gossip to silence their opponents, demagogism being a Greek word, after all. Greeks also thrive on the spoken word. As was the case of their ancestors, the power of the spoken word sometime drives out reason. As I write, I hear a lot of my fellow Greeks say some very unreasonable things. Such as, the Germans and the French conspired to embarrass us and take over our businesses and natural resources. Or, the EU was a plot against Greece from day one. The one I like the best is that Europe without Greece will cease to exist.
Treasury Swap Spread Smallest Since 1988 as Greece Creates Plan By Theresa Barraclough and Wes Goodman The U.S. interest-rate swap spread narrowed to the smallest since 1988 as Greece prepared to unveil measures to cut the European Union’s largest deficit, fanning optimism credit risk will be contained. The difference between the rate to convert fixed payments to floating and similar-maturity Treasuries over 10 years declined to 6.13 basis points yesterday, the lowest since at least 1988, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Reports today may show U.S. service industries expanded at a faster pace in February and companies cut fewer jobs.
European Debt Crisis AP - Speigel.de Greek Corruption Booming, Says Transparency International Corruption is widely regarded as one of the triggers of the Greek debt crisis threatening the euro common currency. A new study by Transparency International suggests that corruption is part of everyday life in Greece, and claims private households paid more than 780 million euros in bribes in 2009. The Greeks paid an average of 1,355 ($1,830) in bribes last year for public services such as speeding up the issue of driver's licenses and construction permits, getting admitted to public hospitals or manipulating tax returns, according to a new study by Transparency International, the Berlin-based global corruption watchdog.
Another Financial Crisis on the Way By MATTHEW JAFFE - ABCNews.com Nonpartisan Group Led by Nobel Winner Calls for Stronger Financial Reforms Even as many Americans still struggle to recover from the country's worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, another crisis – one that will be even worse than the current one – is looming, according to a new report from a group of leading economists, financiers, and former federal regulators. In the report, the panel, that includes Rob Johnson of the United Nations Commission of Experts on Finance and bailout watchdog Elizabeth Warren, warns that financial regulatory reform measures proposed by the Obama administration and Congress must be beefed up to prevent banks from continuing to engage in high risk investing that precipitated the near collapse of the U.S. economy in 2008.
Obama’s Problems — And Ours by Patrick J. Buchanan - the American Conservative We inherited the worst situation since the Great Depression. That is the reflexive response of President Obama to the troubles from which he has been unable to extract his country. Even before the inauguration, he says, there were projections of a $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009. That deficit is not my deficit. Presidents are usually blamed for deficits run while they are in office. But, in fact, presidents do not write budgets. Congress does. Presidents sign them. And the mammoth deficits of 2008 and 2009 came from budgets approved by a Congress run by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Did Sen. Barack Obama vote against those budgets? As for the troubles he inherited, the president has a point. From day one, he has had to deal with two wars, a financial crisis and an economy careening into recession.
Speculative Premium - And Why The Markets Will Crash Karl Denninger - SilverBearCafe.com Yes, I said CRASH, and I meant it. Why? The front-month contract opened up more than 8%. This, despite the fact that the earthquake was hundreds of miles away from the mines in Chile and there was zero damage to them. Some were offline for a few hours due to power failures, but none suffered any physical or structural damage, nor did their export points and the transportation network between the two. So why did price spike more than 8% even though all this was known by the market before it re-opened for trading? No part of the markets are trading on fundamental values, nor on forward business expectations. They are instead trading as "hot money" repositories where speculators rotate in and out of various instruments literally on a minute-by-minute basis. This is how crashes happen.
FDIC to Tap the Securitization Market By ANUSHA SHRIVASTAVA - WSJ NEW YORK—The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., seeking to rid itself of assets from failed banks, is tapping the securitization market with three new guaranteed deals totaling $4 billion. The first of these deals, expected to be sold this week, is a $1.8 billion offering, according to documents obtained by Dow Jones Newswires. The offerings pool assets held by failed banks that the agency has seized to protect depositors, including Franklin Bank in Houston and Corus Bank in Chicago. The FDIC took over Franklin in November 2008 and Corus in September 2009.
FDIC to grease mortgage market with $1.8 bln deal By Al Yoon NEW YORK, March 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is planning to sell $1.8 billion of guaranteed asset-backed debt, according to IFR, in what may be a step toward restoring confidence in securities closely tied to the financial meltdown. The debt will be backed by residential mortgage assets of failed banks seized by the FDIC, market sources said. The two-part deal is expected to sell this week via Barclays Capital, said IFR, a Thomson Reuters service.
Elizabeth Warren discusses Financial Regulatory Reform
Elizabeth Warren: "Just Take It," Said Hank Paulson to the Banks
Prudential Takes Control of Asian Insurance Market With Purchase of Foreign AIG Unit BY KERRI SHANNON, Money Morning -- London-based Prudential PLC showed its confidence in Asian market profitability by agreeing to buy American International Group Inc.'s Asian insurance-unit - AIA Group Ltd. The news follows AIG'S announcement Friday that it lost $8.9 billion last quarter and would continue to divest assets to repay its billions in debt. AIG was planning on an initial public offering for AIA Group in Hong Kong, but recognized a sale to Prudential as a better deal.
GOP's Bunning relents on jobless bill By Stephen Dinan - Washington Times The Senate on Tuesday passed a $10 billion short-term extension of unemployment benefits and other government aid after a Republican senator ended his nearly week-long blockade. Sen. Jim Bunning, Kentucky Republican, had come under withering fire from Democrats and some Republicans said he single-handedly halted unemployment benefits, federal subsidies for health insurance coverage, payments for doctors who treat Medicare patients and highway construction funding -- all of which expired over the weekend. Mr. Bunning had been insisting the Senate find $10 billion elsewhere in the budget to pay for extending those programs.
Dylan Ratigan: Goldman Sachs magic trick
ACORN Rebranding Strategy Resembles The KKK's By Matthew Vadum - The American Spectator ACORN's rebranding strategy has been tried before. The Ku Klux Klan used it, according to historian Michael Zak, author of Back To Basics For The Republican Party. Zak writes at BigGovernment.com: ACORN does indeed operate like the Mafia, but it more closely resembles another organization that began as an affiliate of the Democratic Party, the Ku Klux Klan. Aside from intimidating some bank executives, ACORN does not engage in violence, but like the KKK it has vote fraud as a top priority.
ACORN and the Ku Klux Klan by Michael Zak - BigGovernment.com Last week, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a crime syndicate dedicated to tightening the Democratic Party's grip on America, dissolved its national structure. Too much of ACORN's corruption had been exposed to public scrutiny for it to run its vote fraud and extortion rackets effectively. So, ACORN activists will have to soldier on in state-level organizations, such as New York Communities for Change and New England United for Justice in Massachusetts.
The latest on the Holder/DOJ national security cover-up By Michelle Malkin Conservative media outlets continue to chip away at the Holder stonewall on government-subsidized terror lawyers working at the DOJ. Quin Hilyer at the Washington Times sums up the latest and asks the questions that need to be asked:
DoJ lousy with detainee lawyers? Quin Hilyer - Washington Times Over at The American Spectator, the mysterious Prowler breaks new ground not just on the identities of the Justice Department lawyers who may have done (perfectly legal) work for suspected-terrorist detainees, but on why DoJ has been so unwilling to release any information on the issue. In particular, this is news to me: Ironically, say DOJ sources, while Holder and his staff continue to work hard to protect the identities of those attorneys who provided legal advice to suspected or convicted terrorists, several of the attorneys in question are believed to have been instrumental in the efforts of Human Rights Watch and CREW to leak to the media and Democrat supporters on Capitol Hill, the names of CIA interrogators of enemy combatants and suspected terrorists, as well as the locations of foreign-based U.S. secure holding facilities and various interrogation techniques used on terror suspects and enemy combatants.
Losing Money Isn't the U.S. Postal Service's Only Problem By BRUCE WATSON - DailyFinance.com While your mailman may brave rain, snow and dark of night to deliver your mail during the week, it's looking like he'll spend Saturdays watching cartoons. Faced with an estimated $7 billion shortfall in 2010, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is contemplating radical cuts that would slow down service, eliminate Saturday mail delivery, dramatically alter the post office's workforce, and raise the cost of postage.
Flood of Retirees Nudges Social Security to the Brink BY JEREMIAH JACQUES - Trumpet.com 'Congress fiddles while the budget burns.' New figures show that the Social Security trust fund' annual surplus was all but exhausted in 2009 as the recession steered hundreds of thousands of workers to retirement or claiming disability. The Congressional Budget Office had projected some time ago that it would operate in the red during 2010 and 2011, but the steeper economic downslide suggests that losses will be even greater than anticipated. "Things are a little bit worse than had been expected," said Social Security Administration Chief Actuary Stephen Goss. "Clearly, we're going to be negative for a year or two."
New formula to give fresh look at U.S. poverty By Amy Goldstein - Washington Post The Obama administration Tuesday embraced an alternative way of defining what it means to be poor, stepping gingerly into a long-running debate over whether to revise the method that has been used to measure poverty for decades. Under a "Supplemental Poverty Measure" announced by the Commerce Department, the government is augmenting, but not replacing, the formula that determines how many people are considered to be in poverty, taking into account a wider range of expenses and income to try to create a truer portrait of which Americans are financially fragile.
More consumers file for bankruptcy protection By Christine Dugas, USA TODAY The economic recovery effort has not slowed consumer bankruptcy filings. They surged 14% in February compared with a year earlier, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. The 111,693 cases filed last month also represented a 9% increase from January, the report said. "The debt-stress overhang from years of consumer spending has a more acute impact now because of troubling economic times," says Samuel Gerdano, American Bankruptcy Institute executive director. And that financial distress is driving more Americans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which — if approved — allows a court to discharge most unsecured consumer debt, including credit card bills.
Texas Gov. Perry Wins GOP Primary By LESLIE EATON - WSJ DALLAS—Texas Governor Rick Perry rode a wave of anti-Washington sentiment to victory Tuesday in the hard-fought Republican gubernatorial primary, beating U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Mr. Perry will avoid a runoff because Ms. Hutchison conceded, as it appeared almost certain he would get more than 50% of the vote. With 31 % of the state's more than 8,000 precincts reporting, he had 52%, while Ms. Hutchison had 31%.
WHY JERRY BROWN WANTS TO BE CALIFORNIA’S NEXT GOVERNOR We’ve known for years that Jerry Brown would run to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010, but the former two-term governor waited until Tuesday to make it official. In his announcement video, Brown promised not to raise taxes without voter approval, to transfer power from Sacramento to local governments and to generally restore California to its former glory.
Jerry Brown Announcement
As American as Apple Pie Unless It's Made by Mom By Joseph Lawler - the American Spectator In the latest abject failure of paternalism, New York City Department of Education regulators have banned homemade goods from bake sales to help curb youth obesity. Their reasoning? That they cannot control the portion sizes or nutritional information for homemade goods. So now at school bake sales well meaning parents and kids will sell Doritos, Fruit Roll-Ups, etc.
Starbucks's guns and lattes policy Richard Adams - Guardian.co.uk Not just a shot of expresso? Starbucks says it's happy for customers to openly display their guns in its US outlets Of the good reasons to avoid Starbucks – the over-priced, burned coffee or the crushing of independent competitors – here, in the US, is another: the danger of getting hit by bullets from customers' guns. The state of Virginia has allowed "open carry" of guns for many years, and reinforced by law since 2004, allowing the carrying or wearing of guns in public other than assault rifles. Individual stores and businesses retain the right to exclude guns from their premises – but Starbucks has decided not to exercise that right.
Employers checking credit history By ASSOCIATED PRESS Bad history can hinder job seekers ANNAPOLIS | It's hard enough to find a job in this economy, and now some people are facing another hurdle: Potential employers are holding their credit histories against them. Sixty percent of employers recently surveyed by the Society for Human Resources Management said they run credit checks on at least some job applicants, compared with 42 percent in a somewhat similar survey in 2006.
Apple Starts ‘Nuclear War’ in Smartphone Patent Fight With HTC By Susan Decker and Connie Guglielmo -- March 3 (Bloomberg) -- When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007, he said Apple Inc. had applied for more than 200 patents for the device and was ready to enforce them. Now, Apple is putting those words into action. Apple filed a patent-infringement complaint against Taiwan’s HTC Corp. yesterday, seeking to prevent U.S. imports of phones that run Google Inc.’s Android operating system. The decision to take the case to the International Trade Commission signals that Apple wants to curb HTC’s market share gains as quickly as possible, said Lyle Vander Schaaf, a patent lawyer with Bryan Cave LLP in Washington.
Obama to press: My arteries, my business By: Julie Mason - Washington Examiner The president is in Savannah today, getting in touch with Main Street -- and ignoring his doctor's admonishments about his cholesterol. From today's pool report: After another motorcade on two cleared highways and a few surface streets dotted with awestruck onlookers, POTUS made an unscheduled stop at 1:15 PM in lovely downtown colonial Savannah: brick townhouses, cobbled streets and iron balconies. Head of motorcade parked in a back alley as POTUS enjoyed the Southern cuisine of "Mrs Wilkes' Dining Room".
Ditched by your doctor - blame Medicare By Parija Kavilanz - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As a 21% cut in Medicare payment rates to doctors took effect Monday, eight of the 15 patients on Dr. William Schreiber's schedule are on Medicare. "I'm stuck," he said. "I have to see them. I don't have a choice" said Schreiber, a primary care physician based in North Syracuse, N.Y. "It's not a case of closing my doors to Medicare to get back at someone for cutting my salary. It's a case of economic survival."
President Obama to Say Democrats Will Use Reconciliation to Pass Senate Health Care Reform Fix, If Not Given Up or Down Vote Jake Tapper - ABC News -- White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will suggest that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial "reconciliation" rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill, as opposed to the 60 votes to stop a filibuster and proceed to a vote on a bill. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the president’s remarks direction on how health care reform will proceed.
Auto Giant Stumbles The End of the Toyota Legend By Gabor Steingart - REUTERS via Speigel.de Toyota used to be the star of the auto world. Now its reputation is in tatters after quality problems led to a series of fatal accidents and massive vehicle recalls. But the problems at the company started a long time ago, when the Japanese carmaker decided to emulate its American rivals. There are winners who look a lot like losers. One of them is Akio Toyoda. Until recently, the 53-year-old grandson of Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of Japanese carmaker Toyota, had every reason to be proud. Since last summer, he has been CEO of the biggest car company in the world. But the man who testified before a committee of the United States Congress in Washington last Wednesday came across as something of a tragic figure. His face illuminated by the photographers' flashlights, he read a statement in broken English that sounded like a declaration of surrender.
GM recalling 1.3 million vehicles DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co is recalling 1.3 million compact cars in North America to address a power steering problem that has been linked to 14 crashes and one injury, the company said on Tuesday. U.S. safety regulators opened an investigation on January 27 into approximately 905,000 Cobalt models in the United States after receiving more than 1,100 complaints of power steering failures. The complaints included 14 crashes and one injury. The recall covers the 2005-2010 model year Chevrolet Cobalt and 2007-2010 Pontiac G5 in the United States; 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit sold in Canada, and the 2005-2006 Pontiac G4 sold in Mexico, GM said in a statement.
Still With Obama, but Worried By STEVEN GREENHOUSE - NY Times ORLANDO, Fla. — The nation’s union leaders said on Tuesday that they were “appalled” at remarks made by President Obama condoning the mass firing of teachers at a Rhode Island high school. Coming the day after union presidents sharply complained to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. over stubbornly high unemployment, stagnant wages and the administration’s failure to do more to create jobs, the statement — voicing a rare vehemence toward a Democratic president — underlined the disillusionment of an important Democratic constituency. Because unions have been so crucial to the Democrats election after election, political experts say labor’s ambivalence, or worse, toward the Democrats could greatly deepen that party’s woes this fall.
Russia, EU Tackle Visa-Free Travel By Nikolaus von Twickel - The MoscowTimes.com A daunting amount of work is necessary to achieve visa-free travel between Russia and Europe, but Moscow is promising maximum cooperation with Brussels on that issue, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and new EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Wednesday. A European initiative to lift travel restrictions could be put into practice "in a short time," Lavrov told reporters at a joint news conference with Ashton, Interfax reported. "We are ready to introduce visa-free travel with Europe tomorrow," he said, adding that technical hurdles should be moved out of the way during expert consultations "in good time." Afterward, a time frame for agreements could be set. Ashton, who was on her first visit to Moscow, cautioned that the process was just beginning.
Obama's 'Reset' Winning Russian Hearts By Nabi Abdullaev - The MoscowTimes.com Russians' attitudes toward the West have improved greatly after sinking to a post-Soviet nadir following the 2008 Georgia war, thanks largely to U.S. President Barack Obama's readiness to engage in a dialogue with Moscow, analysts and Russian diplomats said Monday. The number of Russians who like the United States soared from a low of 31 percent in November 2008 to 54 percent in January, while the number who dislike the United States fell from 54 percent to 31 percent, according to a new survey by the independent Levada Center. The shift can be attributed to the election of a new U.S. administration and the subsequent shift in Washington's foreign policy, Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov told The Moscow Times.
"I felt I was entitled. I had worked hard. Money and fame made me believe I was entitled. I was wrong and foolish. I don't get to live by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me." -- Tiger Woods
"I'm the President." -- Barack Obama
Three words. Volumes of information. They are, of course, equals. Constitutional equals, as specifically provided by Article I (which creates the legislative branch) and Article II (which creates the executive branch) of the Constitution. The Article III crowd of constitutional equals, the federal judiciary, were correctly not at the table for the recent televised health care summit at the Blair House between the legislative and executive branches. Yet unmistakably, there was one person at this event who clearly considered himself superior to the others. When Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell noted that Democrats had used twice the time of Republicans as the televised summit proceeded, Obama responded thusly: "There was an imbalance in the opening statements, because I'm the President. And I didn't count my time in terms of dividing it evenly."
Latin America Spurns U.S. BY RON FRASER - Trumpet.com Latin American and Caribbean nations vote to keep the U.S. out of their affairs. The writing has been on the wall ever since certain populist leaders gained the upper hand in Latino politics. Long distracted by events in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East, America has too often ignored the nations that press against its own back door. Now they are clubbing together to form their own regional alliance to replace the Organization of American States (oas). The oas has, to this point, operated as the principle alliance of the Americas, incorporating Canada and the United States. The new alliance is slated to deny Canada and the U.S. a forum at regional summits south of the border. Washington's initial reaction to all this was to present a ho-hum attitude of seeming disinterest. Such an response to current developments in this strategic southern Atlantic/Pacific region will prove disastrous to the U.S.
EU completes trade talks with Peru and Colombia ANDREW WILLIS EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union has completed negotiations over controversial free trade agreements with Peru and Colombia, with member state and European Parliament approval now required. Announcing the news on Monday (1 March), the European Commission, which negotiates on behalf of European capitals, said the deal included manufactured products, agriculture goods, services, and investment. The agreement provides for a complete liberalisation of trade in industrial products and fisheries between the two sides, the EU executive body said in a statement.
Brussels to unveil economic plan for next decade RENATA GOLDIROVA EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - After a decade of the EU's failed efforts to become the world's most dynamic knowledge-based economy, Brussels is laying down a fresh economic vision based on innovation, education and digital technologies. However, it stops short of introducing sanctions to ensure national capitals this time stick to the plan. On Wednesday (3 March), the European Commission is set to adopt a 10-year economic strategy, dubbed Europe 2020, that warns of a "lost decade" should the 27-nation bloc continue "at a slow and largely uncoordinated pace of reforms."
The World from Berlin ddp - Speigel.de Is Obama's Vision of Nukes-Free World Naive? Barack Obama's pledge of a nuclear weapons-free world helped him secure the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The US president is expected to outline his nuclear strategy soon, entailing the elimination of thousands of American warheads and possibly the removal of weapons from Europe. German editorialists offer cautious optimism over the development. US President Barack Obama's claim in Prague nearly one year ago of "America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons" was one of the factors that led the Nobel Committee to bestow him with the prestigious peace prize. Obama the Superman, it seemed, could save the world.
Lion's Den: Crisis in Turkey By DANIEL PIPES - Jerusalem Post Turkey’s military has long been both the state’s most trusted institution. The arrest and indictment of top military figures in Turkey last week precipitated potentially the most severe crisis since Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded the republic in 1923. The weeks ahead will probably indicate whether the country continues its slide toward Islamism or reverts to its traditional secularism. The denouement has major implications for Muslims everywhere.
The Next and Even Bigger Quake Robert Morley - Trumpet.com Geologists say it is impossible to predict earthquakes. But there is a far more important lesson for America. Imagine seeing the mighty Mississippi River running backward—that is, uphill against the natural current. Such a phenomenon would probably be enough to make you stop whatever you were doing and take stock of exactly what was going on. This improbable event did happen. Over several weeks in 1811 and 1812, massive earthquakes struck New Madrid, Missouri. One startled boatman reported being pushed “four miles” upstream “at the speed of a fast horse.” Great upthrust faults created 10-foot waterfalls that gushed water in the wrong direction. Massive, earthshaking events tend to get people’s attention—both physically and spiritually. At least for a short time.
Tracking Earthquakes: Are They Related? by: Faith Mangan - FOXNews.com The 8.8 magnitude megathrust in Chile this past weekend which arrived just weeks after powerful tremors in Japan and Haiti has people wondering what's going on and if there's a connection between these earthquakes. In fact, the earth is constantly on the move:  in the last 8 to 30 days, more than 400 earthquakes have been recorded. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado tells Fox News that the quake this weekend in Chile was actually 500 times more powerful than Haiti, however we didn't see the kind of destruction as Haiti, because it didn't hit as close to the surface. Chile is also better prepared structurally due the fact the country experiences earthquakes more often.
Could Germany Soon Acquire Nuclear Weapons? By Brad MacDonald - Trumpet.com It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. At the height of the Cold War, the United States had roughly 7,000 nuclear warheads stationed in Europe. Today, America has about 200 B61 nuclear gravity bombs under the auspices of NATO on the Continent. These bombs may soon be up for grabs. When the Cold War ended, the security equation dictating Europe’s defense changed, and America slashed the number of nukes it had stockpiled there. With Russia no longer perceived as a nuclear threat, it wasn't long before some began calling on Washington to remove its few remaining nukes. The calls intensified with time. But officials in Washington and NATO were concerned about the message a comprehensive nuclear drawdown would send to Russia (as well as those formerly under the Kremlin's boot heel). So they ignored the requests and preserved the status quo. Until now.
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