Wkend New$-Hit List Reads with thoughts to Ponder
Today Dec 6th - Let’s start with Some Cold Weather Music for the early cold blanket across the US -Wintersong
1. Abu Dhabi shares gained the most since March and Dubai’s index rose for the first time in three days on investor speculation last week’s drop was overdone and the impact of Dubai’s debt problems would be limited
2. Kuwait Investment Authority, the nation’s sovereign-wealth fund, sold its stake in Citigroup Inc for $4.1 billion after helping the U.S. bank boost capital amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
3. Today, Obama will attempt to rally Senate Democrats on the Health Care plan with another trip scheduled to the hill. Reid seems to be four votes short of the 60 needed to pass this sweeping monster overhaul. The Republicans attempt to draw attention to the impact on the elderly and restore the home health services funding with an amendment failed yesterday. The public option and the abortion issue continues to be the biggest problems.
Tuesday, Obama is scheduling an economic speech focused on new ideas and plans to spur private hiring by business, with possible new incentives and job plans. Obama said in his Saturday radio and Internet address that the country is emerging from an “economic storm” and that he’s working to put people back on the payroll after a painful recession.
4. The Russian Nightclub Fire-(unfortunately a familiar one to the US 2003 Station Fire with both seemingly caused by Onstage pyrotechnics) More than 100 are killed and more than 130 injured at the Russian club. One hundred died from the Station fire, and more than 200 were injured
5. EPA Poised on declaration of endangerment of CO2`- Per the WSJ it seems the EPA may as early as Monday officially declare carbon dioxide a public danger by using the Clean Air Act, creating the stab that could mean regulation for emitters across the country. Why now??? Well folks, there’s always a reason and this looks to be a given to happen right before Obama heads to Copenhagen (where there’s a will-there’s a way to skin that cat)! While a decsion is needed to meet the new standards next year for auto emissions, this could well later affect “stationary sources”, such as utilities, refineries and chemical plants. The US Chamber of Commerce has said the endangerment declaration could spark litigation and regulation that could harm the economy(guess that’s no biggy). As per stated==>”With House legislation passed, a bipartisan Senate bill in the works, and strong EPA action a virtual certainty, the president goes to Copenhagen with a very strong hand to play,” Mr. Mendelson said.(his bird in the hand)
- The declaration would pressure US lawmakers to pass legislation on a climate bill (House passed one-Senate faces problems)
- EPA’s Ms. Jackson and President Obama’s energy and climate czar Carol Browner have said they would prefer Congress to take action but are prepared to move ahead in the absence of lawmakers crafting their own law
- If the EPA decided to move ahead with emission regulations for stationary sources such as utilities, new rules would likely be in place by 2012 and could set stringent emission standards to require firms to install the best available technology
6. Swaps and Derivatives, those weapons of mass destruction in the financial crisis~Well, the stampede may seem to have slowed, but the long trunk of this elephant is still around. Interesting piece from BL Friday, on the cost to New Jersey (one of many across the country), of $22,000.00 a day. Their interest rate swap, an agreement between borrowers to exchange fixed and variable-rate payments on a set amount of debt, was arranged in 2004 to protect taxpayers against rising borrowing costs, and now is a boomerang. These shall haunt the globe for a very long time==>Derivatives have created “unprecedented financial stress” for some of the 500 municipal issuers that sold variable-rate debt and purchased swaps from banks to lock in borrowing costs, according to an October report by Moody’s Investors Service.
7. Mish: Chicago Cannibalization-Mayor Daley’s Budget Eat’s 75% of a 75 Year Rainy Day Fund in One Year~
8. Decemeber 5th, by Barry Ritholz~ALL the charts in one place (10 posted) on Employment/UnEmployment-Highly suggest use link to view ALL
One as Example from:
Total Non-Farm Payroll (Scale: Millions of Workers)
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