Important News - Oct. 20
By Daniel at 20 October, 2009, 12:30 am
1) If you watch NOTHING ELSE - watch this about F&F
(actual CSPAN coverage - not a “joke” video).
Congress should be ashamed.
2) Yet another housing bailout on the way
Obama administration unveils plan to prop up state and local agencies that provide mortgages to first-time and lower-income homebuyers.
3) Overdraft fees: Senate gets tough
Senate leaders release their first take at curbing overdraft fees, which banks charge when consumers overdraw accounts.
4) $25 Billion for Imported Oil — In One Month! (Green Options Media)
That is correct — not million but billion, not in one year but in one month! That is how much the US spent on imported oil in September 2009.
For those concerned about the US economy or national security risks, T. Boone Pickens and data from the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) show us that foreign oil imports should be at the top of our list. We rely very…
5) Is the fiscal stimulus really “temporary”?
The “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009″ (ARRA), was rushed through Congress on the grounds that fast-acting and temporary measures were needed to counteract the recession….However, many of the provisions in the stimulus will not be temporary….All told, the Obama administration’s budget seeks to make at least 37% of ARRA’s spending and tax cuts permanent.
6) Moral Of Galleon Insider-Trading Bust: Only Fools Try To Beat The Street
It’s the myth that will never die.
Jim Cramer has made a career out of promoting it, as have countless other stock-picking gurus since the dawn of time.
What is this myth?
If only you “do your homework,” analyze those financial statements, (and listen to such-and-such a stock-picking guru), you, too, can pick stocks well enough to beat the pros.
7) October 2007 Shows Us How This Rally Ends (Minyanville)
This market looks all too familiar.
New York Times to cut 100 jobs
Newspaper will slash 8% of its newsroom staff by the end of 2009, asking staff to volunteer for buyouts before layoffs become necessary.
9) David Einhorn: The Lesson Of Lehman Is That There Shouldn’t Have Been A Lehman
Hedge-fund manager David Einhorn delivered a colorful speech at the Value Investing Congress in New York City today. He said that the government should break up JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.
11) Banks Tell Traders To Keep Attacking The Dollar
It’s no wonder the Dollar keeps taking a beating: Traders at banks are being told to keep hammering away at the poor greenback.
12) CME to allow gold as collateral for all exchange products
13) More currency (dollar) interventions by Peru and now even Bangladesh
14) Deficit soars in state’s unemployment fund
“ALBANY — New York has another financial problem: Its trust fund to pay the unemployed has dried up, and the state will owe the federal government $2.2 billion by year’s end to keep it running, state officials said.
The deficit doesn’t impact the unemployed getting their weekly checks, but it does mean the state will continue to borrow from the federal government to pay out the benefits. And that means higher taxes may ultimately be put on employers to pay back the debt.
“The bad economy, the recession, has caused a huge drain on the trust fund,” said Nancy Dunphy, deputy commissioner for employment security at the state Department of Labor.”
15) Stumbo: School funds could reduce state deficit
“FRANKFORT — Kentucky lawmakers might consider dipping into local school districts’ contingency funds to help balance the 2010-12 state budget, according to House Speaker Greg Stumbo.
Stumbo, a Prestonsburg Democrat, told The Courier-Journal in an interview that he has discussed the issue with Gov. Steve Beshear, who did not indicate his position.
“We do have a bunch of money that the schools have saved in their budgets, their ‘Rainy Day’ funds,” Stumbo said. “And there’s a pretty good sum of money there which will help us get through.”"
16) (New York) State Could Issue IOUs Before Year’s End
17) Scroll to near the bottom and see why Nathan’s Economic Edge says that your family owes over $1 million
….Not to worry. $1 million isn’t much
18) The Banks Are Not All Right (PAUL KRUGMAN)
But it’s not a simple case of flourishing banks versus ailing workers: banks that are actually in the business of lending, as opposed to trading, are still in trouble. Most notably, Citigroup and Bank of America, which silenced talk of nationalization earlier this year by claiming that they had returned to profitability, are now — you guessed it — back to reporting losses.
19) Banks earned billions from “toxic” portfolios in 3rd quarter(FT)
Investor appetite for high-yield investments has helped boost the “toxic” assets of Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and other banks. The rally allowed the banks to sell the assets or book accounting gains. “There were some assets that had lost too much value six months ago, and investors are recognizing that,” said Robert Smith, chief executive of Rangemark, which specializes in structured products. “Yet despite the rally, much of the collateral is broken, and banks and investors are still holding a lot of securities that even now may not have been sufficiently marked down.”
20) As crisis ebbs, focus turns to risk of China-U.S. ‘imbalances’
“Clearly global imbalances played some role in this crisis,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke after a speech Monday warning these imbalances may “reassert themselves” as international trade rebounds.
Before the crisis, which enveloped the U.S. in the worst recession since the 1930s, policymakers talked more than acted about the global gap between saving and borrowing countries, Bernanke said.
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