Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

Tuesday 07.27.2010

Double-Dip Recession? One Reliable Measure Says It's Inevitable
By DAN BURROWS - DailyFinance.com
Economists as a group aren't particularly good at calling recessions. Perhaps Paul the Octopus, the psychic cephalopod who went eight-for-eight calling World Cup match winners, should weigh in on whether the U.S. economy is headed for a double-dip recession.
Unfortunately, in the real world of reason, an economic indicator with a perfect 40-year history of predicting recessions just said a double-dip is coming for sure.

Chavez threatens to halt sale of oil to U.S.
By Ian James AP - WashingtonTimes.com
Warns against attack by Colombia military
CARACAS, Venezuela | President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to halt oil sales to the United States if Venezuela faces any military attack by its U.S.-allied neighbor Colombia.
Mr. Chavez said in a speech to thousands of supporters that if there is an "armed aggression against Venezuela" from Colombia backed by the U.S., "we would suspend shipments of oil."
Mr. Chavez said that "we wouldn't send one more drop" of oil to the United States, which is the top buyer of oil from the South American country.

Latent Hyperinflation "Like Lighter Fuel on a Camp Fire"
By Rocky Vega - The DailyReckoning.com
07/26/10 Alexandria, Virgina - The Daily Reckoning perspective is one of "soft-core deflationism"É where the economy looks likely to experience both less recovery and more deleveraging than most prognosticators probably now anticipate.
Yet, an international panic, political or otherwise, could instead lead the nation onto an inflationary path. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph, himself a deflationist, looked yesterday at how historical precedents of inflation, and hyperinflation, also offer guidance for the future.
From the Telegraph:
"Each big inflation - whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US - starts with a passive expansion of the quantity money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck.

Hyperinflation is Your Future
Economic Rant - SilverBearCafe.com
It means printing worthless unbacked Monopoly money
That's what it means. Quantitative easing means HYPERINFLATION. This is theft. There is no mystery at all about inflation. There is only one case of inflation, and that is printing unbacked money. The Federal Reserve (which isn't federal and has no reserves) has devalued the dollar 95% since 1913 when they were formed illegally in direct violation of our Constitution. Right, our 1912 dollar is now worth 5 cents. Inflation is theft. This is exactly what communist Mugabe did to destroy Rhodesia. That prosperous once fine country is now poverty stricken one party dictatorship Zimbabwe.
World events are getting worse and worse by the day. Israeli and American troops are concentrated on the Iranian border. This will be the worst mistake America has ever made, even worse than the horrendous Iraqi war

The Coming Rise In Prices
Howard S. Katz - 321Gold.com
Last week I argued that the theory of a coming decline in prices just around the corner was a balloon full of hot air, and like all such balloons it was bound to sail into the atmosphere. So far from this "deflation" theory being true, it is a deliberate falsehood and in fact is a very good indicator that the exact opposite will happen.
The rationale (not the real reason) for the existence of the Federal Reserve is to combat what is called "deflation" and "depression" (both assumed to come causelessly out of nowhere and to be bad. The real reason for the Federal Reserve is to assist (and provide government support for) the bankers in their creation of money.

US Money Supply Prompts a Hard Goodbye
By The Mogambo Guru - The DailyReckoning.com
07/26/10 Tampa, Florida - The way that federal taxes are going up next year by huge percentages is Very Interesting News (VIN) for gold-bugs like me, and probably the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution, too, if they were still alive, as we all think that gold-as-money is the only "way to go" because it absolutely precludes rapid increases in the supply of money, which is important because increases in the money supply cause increases in prices, which is important if you think that paying $1,000 for a loaf of bread is important or if milk costs $2,000 per gallon, and pretty soon the rest of the world is going to wake up to that fact, too.

Soft-Core Deflationism
By Bill Bonner - The DailyReckoning.com
07/26/10 Paris, France - There are two major schools of thought on what is coming next ... and two renegade, home-schools too. There are those who believe we have a recovery ... though weak ... that will continue and eventually bring the economy back to health. This is the line of the Obama Administration and most mainstream economists.
Then, there are those who think the recovery will not come as planned ... and that the feds' efforts to spur a recovery - along with strong demand from Asia and the emerging markets - will lead to higher levels of inflation, destroying the dollar and bonds. This is what Marc Faber expects. He urges listeners to avoid going too heavily into cash, since it might be the number one victim of inflation. Instead, you'll do better in stocks and real estate, he says.

Gerald Celente: Wall Street Boys run the show
only Ron Paul has firm grasp

Gold May Advance as First Monthly Drop Since March Spurs Demand
By Kim Kyoungwha
July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, little changed, may gain on speculation that a drop in prices in July, the first monthly loss since March, is spurring some physical demand.
Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.2 percent to $1,185.65 an ounce and traded at $1,184.85 at 9:04 a.m. in Singapore. The metal touched a record $1,265.30 an ounce on June 21 and has weakened 4.6 percent in July. August-delivery futures in New York were also little changed at $1,187.90 an ounce.
"The regional physical markets are still seeing bargain hunting, which is helping to underpin values," David Wilson, an analyst at Societe Generale in London, wrote in a report yesterday. "The continued uncertainties in the markets are expected to sustain investment interest and we look for further price gains."

Gold's Slide Is Only Temporary
By RHIANNON HOYLE - WSJ.com $$
LONDON - Gold prices slid to a two-month low last week, but analysts and traders believe demand is robust enough to prevent an even sharper drop in prices in coming weeks.
After falling to $1,175 a troy ounce Tuesday, a 7% drop from the June high, gold prices rebounded modestly through the rest of the week to close at $1,187.70. The comeback occurred even as investor fear - often a key driver of gold prices - continued to ease.

Why do U.S. asset managers fear government confiscation of gold?
This is the first part of a proposed series of articles that looks at the possibility of the confiscation of gold by one government or more. Author: Julian D.W. Phillips - MineWeb
BENONI (GOLDFORECASTER.COM) -
Mr John Levin of HSBC in a recent gold conference pointed out that some top U.S. Asset Managers were fearful of the possibility of government confiscation of gold -(a story broken by Mineweb in early June - See: U.S. asset managers worried Obama could confiscate gold.) He explained, that on being told that the bank's U.S. vaults had sufficient space available for their gold he was told that they did not want their gold stored in the U.S.A. but preferably in Europe because they feared that at some stage the U.S. Administration might follow the path set by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 and confiscate all U.S. gold holdings as part of the country's strategy in dealing with the nation's economic problems.

Ron Paul: We Cannot Even Maintain the Zinc Standard
By Rocky Vega - The DailyReckoning.com
07/26/10 Alexandria, Virgina - The US Mint has had trouble keeping up with precious metal coin demand for most of this year, and it now appears the investigation into why that's the case may also consider the economics of penny and nickel production.
The US House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy has been looking into why there are backlogs at the Mint, especially with proof and uncirculated coins, and what can be done to improve the production process.
For quite some time it's been easy to find disclaimers such as this on the US Mint website: "Due to the continued, sustained demand for American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins, 2009-dated American Eagle Gold Proof Coins were not produced." The bullion coins are made available through authorized dealers and not directly through the Mint.

Bullion, coin dealers call for investigation of U.S. coin blanks supply
A congressional subcommittee has been asked to investigate the growing backlog in and foreign procurement of U.S. bullion and collectors' precious metals coin blanks manufactured by the U.S. Mint.
Author: Dorothy Kosich - MineWeb
Witnesses before and members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy have urged Congress to direct the U.S. Mint to buy U.S. manufactured blanks for gold and silver bullion coins and discontinue the practice of using Australian-made blanks.
Meanwhile, the Director of the U.S. Mint Edmond Moy told the subcommittee that, if the Mint can begin production by September, "we will be able to produce about 830,000 one-ounce silver American Eagle coins to meet collector demand for this product in the remaining months of 2010."

Economic Conflict Between China and the US May Reappear at Any Time
Written by Robert M Cutler - OilPrice.com
Political friction over economic issues between the US and China has faded for the time being, but its sources remain and may reappear at any time.
Currency issues have been at the center of relations between the US and China since the end of last year. Earlier this month the Obama administration chose not to name China as a ‘currency manipulator.’ Doing so would have opened the door to imposing heavy tariffs on Chinese imports. The next day, China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced that it would not divest its US Treasury holdings.

The US Mint Fraud
Bix Weir
One of the more disingenuous frauds the citizens of the United States are being subjected to these days is coming out of the US Mint. For over 2 years the Mint has been illegally rationing gold and silver American Eagles and now the Director of the U.S. Mint, Edmond Moy, is finally on the hot seat.
"A congressional subcommittee has been asked to investigate the growing backlog in and foreign procurement of U.S. bullion and collectors' precious metals coin blanks manufactured by the U.S. Mint."

Geithner urges ending tax cuts for the wealthy
By Christi Parsons and Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau
The Treasury secretary says allowing some Bush-era tax breaks to expire will not harm economic recovery and is 'the responsible thing to do.'
As the White House gears up for a fight to end controversial Bush administration tax cuts, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Sunday that allowing those targeted at the wealthy to expire is "the responsible thing to do" and would not deter economic growth.
President Obama's plan would end the tax cuts for only 2% or 3% of the highest-earning Americans, Geithner said, while sending an important message to the world about the U.S. commitment to fiscal austerity.

New regs raise bank deposit insurance, may cut fund fees
By John Waggoner, USA TODAY
Bank depositors will get more insurance, and mutual fund investors may pay lower fees in new regulatory developments Wednesday.
As part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed by President Obama on Wednesday, the $250,000 limit on federal deposit insurance will become permanent. It had previously been set to expire after 2013.
The bill also makes the $250,000 insurance limit retroactive to the six banks that failed between Jan. 1, 2008, and Oct. 3, 2008. The largest of those bank failures was IndyMac, which failed in July 2008 and had $19.1 billion in deposits.

SEC Watchdog Agrees with Issa:
Goldman Settlement Timing Is Fishy and Will be Investigated

Talk of Recovery Hides Collapse
by Bob Chapman - The International Forecaster
July 24 2010: Confidence by propaganda, election time coming, inflation by quantitative easing, major countries deep in debt, IMF could use interest rates to prick bubbles, massive injections of money must end and then return to the gold standard.
The talk of recovery pervades insider thinking. The major media worldwide plays the same refrain. This is a desperate attempt to befuddle the public with misdirected propaganda to preserve confidence in a system that is in a state of collapse. As CNBC leads the charge, loss of faith in the system grows with each passing day. In spite of control of the major media by elitists, talk radio and the Internet hammers away incessantly with the truth influencing more and more 24/7 worldwide. As a result of the success of the alternative media a good many investors realize we have a systemic credit crisis that has turned into a debt crisis as well. The residential real estate collapse is still collapsing with no end in sight. That has been joined by a commercial credit crisis, which has forced banks, Wall Street and corporate America to keep two sets of books - Europe and England as well.

Spain shines on stress test, Germany flunks
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph.co,uk
Europe's stress tests for banks have greatly reduced pressure on Spanish lenders but have so far done little to ease broader strains in the interbank credit markets.
Three-month Euribor rates have crept up to a one-year high of 0.889pc. The "Libor-OIS spread", watched as a key gauge of stress in the system, also nudged up to 26 basis points.
The refusal of some Landesbanken and German lenders to reveal exposure to EMU sovereign debt has raised suspicions that they have something to hide. Credit default swaps measuring bond risk jumped from 140 to 150 points for HSH Nordbank, with smaller rises for LB Berlin (154), West LB (127), Norddeutssche LB (125) and Deutsche Postbank (121).

Missouri to return $574,000 to Bankers Life customers
ST. LOUIS BUSINESS JOURNAL
Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan said Monday that $574,000 will be returned to more than 100 investors, many of them seniors, who suffered losses after their savings were mishandled by a former Bankers Life and Casualty Co. insurance agent.
The agent, James Otto, of Overland Park, Kan., was not registered to sell securities or give investment advice but he still gave advice to customers on how to manage their securities investments held at other firms, according to a cease-and-desist order from the state.

First State Bancorp faces delisting
NEW MEXICO BUSINESS WEEKLY
The parent company of First Community Bank said Monday that its stock was being delisted by NASDAQ, effective at the open of business Wednesday.
First State Bancorp made the announcement in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The stock closed at 36 cents per share Monday.
First Community lost $25.7 million in the first quarter, $110.5 million in 2009, and $153 million in 2008. It has been trying to raise capital to boost its reserves.

Industries Find Surging Profits in Deeper [JOB] Cuts
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ - NYTimes.com
. . . . Many companies are focusing on cost-cutting to keep profits growing, but the benefits are mostly going to shareholders instead of the broader economy, as management conserves cash rather than bolstering hiring and production. Harley, for example, has announced plans to cut 1,400 to 1,600 more jobs by the end of next year. That is on top of 2,000 job cuts last year - more than a fifth of its work force.
As companies this month report earnings for the second quarter, news of healthy profits has helped the stock market - the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is up 7 percent for July - but the source of those gains raises deep questions about the sustainability of the growth, as well as the fate of more than 14 million unemployed workers hoping to rejoin the work force as the economy recovers.

Impact the New Appraisal System is Having on the FHA Mortgage Market
Posted By: Rosemary Rugnetta
July 26, 2010 (FreeRateUpdate.com) - With FHA implementing new rules regarding appraisals, there is considerable discussion on how these rules are affecting appraisers and consumers. These new rules were set up in order to cut down on fraud while, at the same time, raising the quality of the appraisal. The impact that the new appraisal system is having on the FHA mortgage market depends on which group is discussing these changes.

Housing market still in basement
By Alan Zibel AP - WashingtonTimes.com
Many metro markets likely to see further home-value drops
Thought the housing crisis was over? Not quite.
Despite four years of falling prices and recent signs that they were finally bottoming out, homes are expected to lose still more value in many metro areas over the next year.
Parts of the country already pummeled by the housing crisis, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, will be hit hardest. But even some places that have rebounded or held up relatively well - including New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. - will suffer, too.

Supply of Homes Set to Grow
By ROBBIE WHELAN - WSJ.com (free)
Sales of new homes are near 47-year lows, yet the supply of new and existing homes is expected to grow in the months ahead as construction ramps up and a wave of foreclosed homes hits the market.
In June, new-home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 330,000 units, the Commerce Department said Monday. While that was up 23.6% from the all-time low of 267,000 in May, the June figures were the second lowest on record.

America's new debtor prison:
Jail time being given to those who owe
Martha C. White - WalletPop.com
Debtors prisons were federally abolished in the United States in the 1800's, yet in certain states, they seem to be making a comeback. Out of Minnesota come disturbing reports of Americans being thrown in jail due to outstanding bills -- sometimes for as little as $85. The Star-Tribune of Minneapolis profiles a number of people who say their debts got them jailed, including Joy Uhlmeyer a 57-year-old patient care advocate who was pulled over on her way home from visiting her elderly mother and put in jail for a night for missing a court hearing about unpaid debt.

Bankruptcy can save your house from foreclosure
By Les Christie, staff writer - CNNMoney.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Slick TV commercials and online ads tell delinquent borrowers that they can save their homes by filing for personal bankruptcy. But is it true -- or just too good to be true?
True!
Bankruptcy can bring foreclosure proceedings to a halt, end harassment from debt collectors, and give borrowers time to make up missed payments and reorganize their finances. In some cases, bankruptcy can also help mortgage borrowers save their homes permanently.

Gas prices creep up across the country
USAToday.com
NEW YORK (AP) - Drivers across the country woke up to higher prices at the gas pump on Monday, as retail gasoline rose overnight.
The average price of a gallon of unleaded regular gained half a cent from Sunday at $2.742, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.
In its weekly survey of gas pump prices released Monday afternoon, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said the average price for a gallon of regular rose 2.7 cents from a week ago, to $2.749. California drivers paid the most at $3.13 a gallon, while motorists in Gulf Coast states paid an average of $2.59.

US Faces Water Supply Crisis: Study
Written by Charlotte Dudley - OilPrice.com
A new study says climate change will take a "serious toll" on American water supplies in the coming decades, with the group behind the report calling on Congress to pass "meaningful legislation" to reduce global warming pollution.
The report, prepared by consulting firm Tetra Tech for Washington, DC-based global environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), was based on analysis of publicly available water use data and climate models. It found that 14 states face an extreme or high risk to water sustainability, or are likely to see limitations on water availability as demand exceeds supply by 2050.

Migrants sell up, flee Arizona ahead of crackdown
By Tim Gaynor - Reuters.com
PHOENIX, July 25 (Reuters) - Nicaraguan mother Lorena Aguilar hawks a television set and a few clothes on the baking sidewalk outside her west Phoenix apartment block.
A few paces up the street, her undocumented Mexican neighbor Wendi Villasenor touts a kitchen table, some chairs and a few dishes as her family scrambles to get out of Arizona ahead of a looming crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Rampant Racism in the Criminal Justice System
By BILL QUIGLEY - Counterpunch
The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African-Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people.
Saying the US criminal system is racist may be politically controversial in some circles. But the facts are overwhelming. No real debate about that. Below I set out numerous examples of these facts.
The question is - are these facts the mistakes of an otherwise good system, or are they evidence that the racist criminal justice system is working exactly as intended? Is the US criminal justice system operated to marginalize and control millions of African Americans?

Tancredo declares run against GOP
By Valerie Richardson - WashingtonTimes.com
Seeks Colorado governorship
Former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo made good on his high-noon ultimatum Monday by announcing that he would enter the Colorado governor's contest as a third-party candidate, essentially dashing the GOP's last hopes of winning the race.
"I am going to seek the nomination of the American Constitution Party for Governor of Colorado," said Mr. Tancredo in a statement.
Mr. Tancredo still must file papers with the Colorado secretary of state and register as a member of the American Constitution Party. Even so, the mere announcement of his candidacy appeared to doom any chance of victory for likely Republican nominee Scott McInnis while ensuring victory for the likely Democratic pick, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Schwarzenegger: No budget until he's gone?
By Shane Goldmacher - Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Nearly four weeks into the fiscal year without a budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested Monday that California might have to wait until his successor is sworn in next year to get a spending plan -- unless lawmakers give him everything he wants.
Schwarzenegger says the Legislature must curtail public pensions and change California's taxation and budgeting systems before he will sign a budget this year, his last as governor. He leaves office in January.

Google Updates Plans to Sell Applications to Federal Government
By AMIR EFRATI - WSJ.com - $
Google Inc. announced plans to sell special email, word-processing and other services to government agencies, keeping data generated by those applications in a system in the U.S. that is segregated from customers outside the government.
The move won't necessarily make the data more secure than it is for other users, Google executives said, but it accommodates the preferences of some federal agencies that are migrating to so-called "cloud computing" offerings and away from applications run on government servers. The Obama administration is pushing the shift to cut some of the federal government's $76 billion annual computing and software budget.

Ruling Lets Owners Alter iPhone Software
By BEN WORTHEN And AMY SCHATZ - WSJ.com (free)
Apple Inc.'s control over its iPhone and other devices via its iTunes store was undercut Monday by a federal ruling legalizing jailbreaking, or altering the devices to install unapproved software, a practice used now by a small number of customers.
The Library of Congress, which helps oversee copyright law, removed a legal cloud over altering of iPhones, iPads and iPods, to install and run software not purchased from Apple.
Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at Electronic Freedom Foundation, the digital-rights organization that pushed for the change, said the ruling could open the door for third-party app stores. "Innovators now know that there will be customers for them," she says.

India unveils prototype of $35 computer
By ERIKA KINETZ - WashingtonTimes.com
MUMBAI, INDIA (AP) - It looks like an iPad, only it's 1/14th the cost: India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 basic touchscreen tablet aimed at students, which it hopes to bring into production by 2011.
If the government can find a manufacturer, the Linux operating system-based computer would be the latest in a string of "world's cheapest" innovations to hit the market out of India, which is home to the 100,000 rupee ($2,127) compact Nano car, the 749 rupees ($16) water purifier and the $2,000 open-heart surgery.

GOOGLE TO JOIN FORCES WITH N.S.A.
By NWV News writer Jim Kouri - PPJ Gazette
An alleged intrusion into Google's immense cyber system has provoked the Obama White House to accelerate in plans for government monitoring of the Internet, something that should be triggering alarms throughout the nation, according to security experts.
According to the Obama White House, Google will now work with the National Security Agency (NSA) to stem a "crisis." However, more than a few Washington insiders are wary of such a partnership.
One political strategist points to a statement by President Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel: "Never let a crisis go to waste."
"Rahm Emanuel is a Chicago from-the-gut politician who is the last person you want having access to your personal information or monitoring your Internet activities," said political strategist Mike Baker. "This is a crisis that will be used against Americans not the Chinese."

North Korea Warns of Nuclear Response to Naval Exercises
By Bomi Lim and Bill Varner
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea said it would counter U.S. and South Korean joint naval exercises with "nuclear deterrence" after the Obama administration said the government in Pyongyang shouldn’t take any provocative steps.
North Korea will "llegitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces," the National Defense Commission said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

When Globalism Runs Its Course ...
The Year America Dissolved
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - CounterPunch
It was 2017. Clans were governing America.
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives' war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and
the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.

EU adopts trade sanctions against Iran
By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times
The move is aimed at pressuring Tehran to curb its nuclear program and return to talks. The sanctions may have greater effect than U.S. restrictions because of Iran's substantial trade with the EU.
Reporting from Beirut - The European Union formally adopted harsh and unprecedented restrictions on trade with Iran on Monday in an effort to pressure Tehran to comply with international demands to curb its nuclear development program, which Western governments and analysts believe is aimed at building nuclear weapons.
The sanctions bring the European Union closer to the United States' position on trade with Iran, though they are not as sweeping as the strict measures Washington has imposed banning almost all commerce with the Islamic Republic. Europe, however, has far more dealings with Iran than does the U.S., which cut off ties to 31 years ago, making the new restrictions potentially far more biting.

Heavy liability could sink small oil drillers
By Patrice Hill - WashingtonTimes.com
Bill puts American businesses at risk
One of the biggest of the big oil companies may be responsible for the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, but Washington's response to the BP PLC spill would give an advantage to such major oil companies while threatening to put their small competitors out of business.
Energy legislation that Senate leaders said they may take up this week would sharply raise or eliminate a $75 million cap on oil company liability for economic damage from spills - a change that poses no great threat to giants like BP, which is setting aside $10 billion out of its huge profits and assets to pay for claims related to the spill and has already paid out billions.

----- oil crisis -----

CNN: Spotters having trouble finding oil?
Coast Guard, NOAA reporting only what is on the SURFACE

BP exiles CEO to Siberia
BP's Hayward to step down, may be assigned to Russia
By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- BP PLC Chief Executive Tony Hayward will step down from his post in October and be reassigned to the company's joint venture in Russia, according to reports that surfaced as the oil major's board of directors held a pivotal meeting Monday.
Citing an unidentified official close to the matter, reports said Hayward has been lined up to take an unspecified job at TNK-BP, which is the joint venture in Russia.

BP's new CEO has Thunderbird pedigree
PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL - BY Mike Sunnucks
New BP CEO Bob Dudley is an alumnus of the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He serves on the Glendale graduate business school's board of fellows and on BP's board of directors.
Dudley is taking over for embattled CEO Tony Hayward, who is stepping down. Hayward and BP have been faulted for their response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and for their sometimes aristocratic statements and attitudes toward the spill.

BP's Russian partners back Bob Dudley to replace Tony Hayward as chief
BP's billionaire partners in Russia indicated they are willing to back their old adversary Bob Dudley as its new chief executive, as the oil giant's board met on Monday night to finalise a radical shake-up.
By Rowena Mason - Telegraph.co.uk
The endorsement will be a boost to BP, as it attempts to draw a line under its Gulf of Mexico oil spill by on Tuesday announcing the departure of chief executive Tony Hayward and revealing hefty impairment charges of up to $25bn (£16bn).
The board is expected to say that Mr Hayward will leave on October 1 to be replaced by the American managing director now in charge of BP's spill response unit.

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