EU: Contagion
December 1st, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
Investors’ no-confidence vote in the aid package for Ireland may force European policy makers to expand their arsenal to fight the debt crisis threatening to tear the euro apart.
Options outlined by economists at Societe Generale SA and Barclays Capital include: Boosting the 750 billion-euro ($975 billion) temporary rescue fund or turning it into an asset- buying program; cutting interest rates on bailout loans; issuing joint bonds for the 16 euro nations or flooding the economy with cash from the European Central Bank.
All would be unprecedented, and none of Europe’s political leaders — dominated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel — has indicated the steps are being considered. Earlier this year, they struggled to cobble together the measures that investors and economists now say are proving inadequate to safeguard the euro and keep speculators at bay.
“You’ve had repeated interventions, but the markets are still selling in response,” said Andrew Balls, London-based head of European portfolio management at Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the world’s biggest bond fund. “Policy makers have to move beyond a country-by-country approach and think about the system-wide challenges.”
Investors punished Europe’s markets in the two days since Ireland became the second euro nation after Greece to get outside aid. Selling extended beyond “peripheral” countries including Portugal to core members of the euro area such as Italy and Belgium.
Dollar: Best-Returning Asset in November
December 1st, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
The dollar proved to be last month’s best investment, beating stocks, bonds and commodities, confounding officials around the world who said Federal Reserve policies would debase the U.S. currency.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against those of six major U.S. trading partners including the euro, yen and pound, rose 5.09 percent in November.
Delta Air Lines Hiring 1,000 New Flight Attendants; More Than 100,000 Applied
December 1st, 2010It’s only two orders of magnitude out of whack. Meh! Another one for the Recovery file folder.
Via: ABC News:
Delta Air Lines is having what might possibly be the most-popular job search in a long time: More than 100,000 people have applied for just 1,000 openings as flight attendants.
Part of the reason behind the huge turnout might be the nation’s persistently high unemployment rate, but the airline says that a lot of people just want to fly.
Fed to Name Recipients of $3.3 Trillion in Aid During Crisis
December 1st, 2010Update: Usage of Federal Reserve Credit and Liquidity Facilities
There is a lot of data here…
Usage of Federal Reserve Credit and Liquidity Facilities
—End Update—
Via: Bloomberg:
The Federal Reserve, under orders from Congress, plans today to identify recipients of $3.3 trillion in emergency aid the central bank provided as it fought the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The Fed intends to post the data on its website at midday in Washington to comply with a provision in July’s Dodd-Frank law overhauling financial regulation. The information spans six loan programs as well as currency swaps with other central banks, purchases of mortgage-backed securities and the rescues of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.
…
The data will probably show the magnitude of central bank support to companies including Bank of America Corp. and General Electric Co. after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. spurred a surge in private borrowing costs. Lawmakers demanded disclosure after the Fed approved aid dwarfing the federal government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
China Approves Fund That Will Invest In Foreign Gold ETFs, Opening Avenue For Millions Of Mainland Investors
December 1st, 2010Too bad this fund isn’t about taking delivery of physical metal from COMEX…
Via: ZeroHedge:
China has approved a fund that will invest in gold exchange-traded funds outside the country, opening the door to mainland China investors who face negative real interest rates on their bank deposits and want to hedge against inflation.
BitTorrent Based DNS to Counter U.S. Domain Seizures
December 1st, 2010I like it. I’m not yet able to believe the hype about how it supposedly, “Can’t be touched by any governmental institution,” but I’ll definitely be following developments.
Something like this needs to happen.
Via: TorrentFreak:
The domain seizures by the United States authorities in recent days and upcoming legislation that could make similar takeovers even easier in the future, have inspired a group of enthusiasts to come up with a new, decentralized and BitTorrent-powered DNS system. This system will exchange DNS information through peer-to-peer transfers and will work with a new .p2p domain extension.
In a direct response to the domain seizures by US authorities during the last few days, a group of established enthusiasts have started working on a DNS system that can’t be touched by any governmental institution.
Ironically, considering the seizure of the Torrent-Finder meta-search engine domain, the new DNS system will be partly powered by BitTorrent.
…
The new P2P-based DNS system will require users to run an application on their own computer before they can access the domains, but there are also plans to create a separate root-server (like OpenNIC) as a complimentary service. It’s worth noting that the DNS changes will only affect the new .p2p domains, it will not interfere with access to any other domains.
Today, I Want to Try to Sell You Some Soap
December 1st, 2010I noticed that a reader bought a gallon of Dr. Bronner’s Unscented soap on Amazon via Cryptogon. Most of you probably know about Dr. Bronner’s soaps, but I want to do a quick post about this just in case you’re unfamiliar with these products.
Dr. Bronner's Unscented Castile Liquid Soap
Some of the things I do with the Dr. Bronner’s Unscented liquid soap:
All around body wash
Shaving cream
Brush my teeth with it
Shampoo
Mix with baking soda, scrub the bathtub/toilet with it
Laundry detergent
Oh, yeah, you can use it to get your sprogs clean as well.
In short: Not only can you use this soap for just about any cleaning/washing/hygiene purpose, the product contains nothing that will kill you or your children. (These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.) That’s it! That’s my sales pitch to you.
Now, we use the baby/unscented stuff you see above, and add essential oils as necessary, but there are a variety of options for those of you who want the oil in there to begin with. There’s peppermint, eucalyptus, almond, rose, citrus, lavender and tea tree.
There are a variety of bar soaps available as well.
Thanks!
Airport Style Security Screenings… To Ride the Bus
November 30th, 2010GM Hiring 1,000 Engineers to Expand Electric-Vehicle Offerings
November 30th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
General Motors Co., the maker of the Chevrolet Volt gasoline-electric car, will hire 1,000 engineers in Michigan to help expand the automakers’ lineup of electric- drive vehicles.
The hiring will increase GM’s workforce of electric-vehicle engineers by 50 percent to about 3,000, said Rob Peterson, a spokesman for the Detroit-based company. GM, which plans to sell 10,000 Volts next year and 45,000 in 2012, is hosting a media event today to mark the start of production of the $41,000 car.
Mmm Hmm: U.S. Army Opens New Ground-Vehicle Energy Research Lab in Michigan
More Than 8 Million Drop Out of Credit Card Use
November 30th, 2010Via: AP:
More than 8 million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year. The decline stems from a combination of consumer choices and bank actions.
An analysis by credit reporting agency TransUnion found that use of general purpose credit cards bearing MasterCard or Visa logos, or issued by Discover or American Express, fell more than 11 percent in the third quarter, compared with the July to September period last year.
About 62 million people now have an active card, compared with 70 million a year ago.
The Chicago company found that consumers in the subprime category, or those with low credit ratings, were believed to be without cards mostly because they were shut down by banks after payments fell behind or balances were written off.
“One can quite reasonably infer that’s not voluntary,” said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit. Banks have written off record amounts of credit card balances in recent years.
But a significant portion of the decrease in card usage reflects decisions by cardholders to stop using credit, Becker said. “They’re simply either not purchasing as much or paying down balances.”
