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.
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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.
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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.”
NAB Computer Debacle Finally Fixed
November 30th, 2010*shaking head*
Via: PerthNow:
THE last of millions of National Australia Bank (NAB) customers left cashless and embarrassed by a massive computing failure have had their accounts restored.
NAB said today that the remaining 19,155 affected customers could now access money in their accounts – six days after the debacle began.
Accounts are all up to date, the bank says.
“This means that all customers are now able to transact as normal,” NAB said in a statement.
“NAB again wants to extend our sincerest apologies and thanks to our customers for their ongoing patience and understanding as we have worked to resolve these issues.”
Yesterday, NAB said nearly all of its customers had had their accounts restored and the remaining 19,155 would be fixed throughout the day.
Chaos erupted late on Wednesday when a corrupted computer file crippled NAB’s payment system, leaving affected customers without their pay until as late yesterday.
Bond Sales Tumbling in Worst Month Since Lehman Aftermath
November 30th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
Corporate bond sales worldwide are tumbling on concern Ireland’s debt crisis will spread across Europe as returns on the notes approach their worst month since credit markets froze two years ago.
Continuing to Monitor Euro Mess
November 30th, 2010Gold and the dollar are up sharply together this morning on the expanding freak out in Europe.
Via: Reuters:
The euro zone’s debt crisis deepened on Tuesday as investors pushed the spreads on Spanish, Italian and Belgian bonds to euro lifetime highs and Portugal warned of “intolerable risks” facing its banks.
The euro dipped below $1.30 for the first time since mid-September, immune to new attempts by European policymakers to calm markets hell-bent on testing the EU’s determination to shield its financially weak members and increasingly nervous about the possibility of future euro zone defaults.
Two days after the bloc approved an 85 billion euro ($111.7 billion) emergency aid package for Ireland, worries about contagion to Portugal and Spain persisted and the borrowing costs of large countries like Italy and France shot higher.
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Markets are already discounting an eventual rescue of Portugal although the government in Lisbon denies, as Irish leaders initially did, that the country needs outside aid.
While a Portuguese rescue would be manageable, assistance for its larger neighbour Spain would sorely test EU resources, raise deeper questions about the integrity of the 12-year old currency area, and possibly spread contagion beyond Europe.
Italy, the euro zone’s third largest economy, is now being referred to as “too big to fail” and “too big to bail”.
