Economic Summit to Focus on the Long Term
USA TODAY — World leaders converging in Washington D.C. this weekend will try to reverse the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, amid a change in the White House that leaves a key player on the sidelines. The agenda for the meeting of 20 top economies — among the most important summits of its kind since World War II — includes discussions of how to stimulate the slumping economy, impose more government control over lending and create more transparency within financial markets. Missing from the talks will be President-elect Barack Obama, who will assume a leading role in helping to solve these issues when he takes office. He declined to participate because President Bush, the man he will succeed, is the summit's official host. Obama has been wary of projecting presidential authority before his inauguration.
Atheists Launch Ads on D.C. Buses
Religion News Service reports that a new holiday ad from the American Humanist Association (AHA) declaring "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake" will be featured on buses in Washington, D.C., beginning Nov. 18. "We are declaring loudly and clearly an important part of the humanist ethical message," said Fred Edwords, director of communications for AHA. "All of us can have moral values as a natural result of who we are as a species and who we have become as a civilization." Other organizations have been running similar campaigns in other cities. Jan Meshon, president and founder of FreeThoughtAction, has helped launch billboard ads in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Kansas City, Mo., with several on the way in Denver and Colorado Springs.
Catholics Bishops Vow to Confront Obama on Abortion
The Associated Press reports that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Tuesday said that they will view the new presidential administration's passage of no-limits abortion rights "an attack on the church." Many present on Tuesday condemned the Catholic theologians and politicians who showed their support for Obama in spite of his abortion stance. "I cannot have a vice president-elect coming to Scranton to say he's learned his values there when those values are utterly against the teachings of the Catholic Church," Martino said. The Obama-Biden press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Diocese of Kansas City in Kansas said of such politicians, "They cannot call themselves Catholic when they violate such a core belief as the dignity of the unborn."
Government Opens Year with $237.2B Record Monthly Deficit
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government began the new budget year with a record monthly deficit in October of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system. The Treasury Department said Thursday that the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record. It was far bigger than analysts expected, over four times larger than the October 2007 deficit of $56.8 billion, and more than half the total for all of last year. The big surge reflected the government spending $115 billion to buy stock in the nation's largest banks. Those were the first payments made from the $700 billion government rescue program passed by Congress to deal with the most severe financial crisis to hit the country since the 1930s. The October deficit began a period in which economists are forecasting the red ink for the entire year could well hit $1 trillion, reflecting what many expect to be a severe recession, which will depress tax revenue, and the heavy costs of the financial system bailout.
Ø JJ Commentary: Huge debt was already a problem. Now it is a huge problem, an albatross permanently encumbering our once free-market system.
Retail Sales take Biggest Fall on Record in October
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Retail sales suffered a record decline in October, the Commerce Department said Friday. Sales slumped 2.8% last month to a seasonally adjusted $363.7 billion, largest decline since the data series began in 1992, Commerce said. This compared with a revised 1.3% fall in September. The largest previous decline was a 2.65% drop in November 2001, in the wake of the terrorist attacks. The decline in sales was led by a huge drop in auto purchases, but sales of all types of products, from furniture to clothing, fell as consumers retrenched. Excluding autos, retail sales fell 2.2%, also a record decline, underscoring the widespread weakness last month.
Jobless Claims Rocket to 7-year High
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits unexpectedly jumped last week to a seven-year high. The Labor Department said Thursday that jobless claims increased 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 516,000. That is the highest total since just after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and second-highest since 1992. Thursday's figure is the first time claims have topped 500,000 during the current economic slowdown. Jobless claims above 400,000 are considered a sign of recession. A year ago, claims stood at 338,000. The number of individuals continuing to seek unemployment benefits jumped 65,000 to 3.9 million in the week ended Nov. 1, the latest period for which data were available. Several companies recently have announced mass layoffs, including Morgan Stanley, General Motors, Ford Motor and Fidelity Investments.
More Business Declines/Layoffs, etc.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Investors on Wednesday got more evidence of just how bad consumer spending has been hurt: Electronics retailer Best Buy sharply cut its fiscal 2009 earnings outlook, and department store operator Macy's swung to a loss in the third quarter as sales dropped 7% Best Buy's same-store sales dropped 7.6% in October. Same-store sales are a closely watched performance indicator because they measures sales at existing locations rather than newly opened ones.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sun Microsystems says it will cut up to 6,000 workers, or 18% of its global staff, as sales of high-end servers have collapsed. The drastic move announced Friday highlights Sun's desperation to survive as an independent company. Sun's shares have fallen so steeply they've crossed an ominous threshold, driving the company's market value below its cash on hand. The company has been deeply wounded by the credit crunch, because customers can't get loans to buy expensive servers. A quarter of the Sun's business comes from the ailing financial services sector.
USA TODAY — Business has gotten so bad that the nation's restaurants are being forced to step waaaaaay outside the box to try to lure folks inside — or even online. Ruth's Chris Steak House has begun mailing out $25 — yes, $25 — gift certificates. McCormick & Schmick's this week launches a website to sell many of its menu items uncooked and ships them overnight anywhere in the U.S. Bad as it is now, 50% of restaurant owners say the economy will worsen over the next six months, says a National Restaurant Association survey.
USA TODAY — Business travelers may notice quieter hotels next year. Hotel forecasters have been busy revising their expectations in light of all the economic turmoil and an anticipated drop in business travel. One forecast suggests that U.S. hotels will fill the smallest percentage of rooms since the figure has been tracked. In its 2009 forecast — completed in September, but revised after the stock market collapsed in October — PKF Consulting of Atlanta expects hotels to fill an average of just 58.3% of rooms.
USA TODAY — Perhaps shoppers needed the diversion from October's economic woes. Whatever the reason, the financial downturn did not keep shoppers from indulging in their video game avocation, according to researcher NPD Group's monthly sales report . Overall, sales of console game systems, software and accessories rose 26% compared to October 2007.
October Foreclosures up 25% from a Year Ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Foreclosure activity in October rose 25% from a year earlier. Foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions — rose by 5% from September to 279,561 in October, according to Irvine, California-based research firm RealtyTrac. That means one in every 452 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in October. Years of lending to risky, or "subprime" borrowers that fueled the housing boom has created an unprecedented number of foreclosures due to the inability of many of those borrowers to pay their mortgages, particularly as interest rates reset and as plunging home values nationwide increasingly render properties worth less than the mortgage. Nevada posted the nation's highest foreclosure rate for the 22nd consecutive month in October, with one in every 74 housing units, or 14,483, receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — more than six times the national average. Arizona registered the second-highest state foreclosure rate. Filings were reported on 17,507 Arizona properties, an increase of 35% from the previous month and 176% from October 2007.
Treasury's Paulson Shifts Focus of $700 Billion Bailout
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration changed course on the $700 billion financial rescue package Wednesday, saying it would scrap plans to buy troubled assets and focus on directly injecting money into the nation's banking system. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government's shifting plans reflect an economy that is in far worse shape than it was just a few weeks ago. Reacting to the news, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 411 points to 8282.66 Wednesday. The Treasury Department has already started buying $250 billion in bank stock to infuse money into the troubled financial sector, but it previously said it was working simultaneously on a plan to buy troubled assets, such as bad mortgage loans, from bank balance sheets. That was the original intent of the legislation passed in early October. But Paulson, in an interview with USA TODAY, said, "You need to be able to change strategies as the facts change." He reiterated that he expects that taxpayers will eventually make money from the rescue plan. "By putting capital in, that is much more powerful and it goes a lot further."
Ø JJ Commentary: Do you get the sense that our government officials don’t really know what to do to stem the bleeding?
Regulators Nix Credit Card Debt Forgiveness Plan
WASHINGTON — Federal bank regulators have rejected a request by banks and consumer advocates for a program to let lenders forgive huge portions of credit card debt. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rejected the request for a special program that would allow as much as 40% of credit card debt to be forgiven for consumers who don't qualify for existing repayment plans. An unusual alliance of financial industry interests and consumer advocates, represented by the Financial Services Roundtable and the Consumer Federation of America, made the request to the Treasury Department agency on Oct. 29. It demonstrated the urgency of the situation in a deepening economic crisis: consumers — even those with strong credit records — defaulting at high levels on their credit cards, while banks battered by the credit crisis bleed tens of billions from the losses. The Financial Services Roundtable, which represents more than 100 large banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies, will "continue to look for ways to help consumers in these extraordinary times," said the group's senior vice president Scott Talbott.
Ø JJ Commentary: As we previously pointed out, this plan to forgive debt rewards those who rack up unconscionable, even ungodly, amounts of indebedness. The Bible tells us in several places to avoid debt.
Fannie, Freddie Join Citi, Others Trying to Halt Foreclosures
USA TODAY — The federal government and one of the country's largest banks are expanding their efforts to help homeowners with troubled mortgages avoid joining the millions of Americans who have already lost their homes to foreclosure. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee nearly 60% of all single-family home mortgages, said Tuesday that they will accelerate the process for modifying thousands of home loans. In addition, Citigroup announced it will expand its moratorium on foreclosures and initiate a new program to assist borrowers who may develop problems paying their mortgages. Both efforts show how the Bush administration and private lenders are scrambling to cope with an unprecedented wave of home foreclosures. The government is working on a plan to help as many as 3 million homeowners avert foreclosure.
Drop in Crude Oil Imports Helps Trim Trade Deficit to $56.5B
WASHINGTON — A record decline in the price of crude oil helped push the U.S. trade deficit down to its lowest level in nearly a year even though the deficit with China shot up to an all-time high. The Commerce Department said Thursday that the trade deficit fell 4.4% to $56.5 billion in September, smallest imbalance since October 2007. The better-than-expected improvement reflected a 15.7% drop in petroleum imports as the average price for imported crude oil dropped a record $12.41 per barrel and the volume of shipments fell to the lowest level in more than five years.
Ø JJ Commentary: While we’re applauding the decline of the trade deficit, let’s please note that it is still a very large deficit. Even at this lower rate, we’re talking about $678 billion a year. And this has been going on for year after year after year.
Interest Rates Soar as Credit Tightens in Mexico
MEXICO CITY — The Wal-Mart slogan in Mexico is the same as in the USA: Always low prices. Yet that doesn't apply to the store's credit cards, which carry a 69.6% annual interest rate. Such high rates are increasingly common in Mexico, and they are rising even further as banks worldwide tighten lending limits amid a worsening economic crisis. Some economists are worried it could send millions of Mexicans spinning into a cycle of debt, a situation that could hurt the United States, Mexico's largest trading partner. Up to now, Mexico's financial system has suffered less damage than that seen by U.S. banks because of tougher lending terms imposed after Mexico's own financial crash in the 1990s. However, the financial burden on Mexican families is getting steadily heavier. From January to September, average interest rates on bank credit cards in Mexico rose 10 percentage points to 41.78% — more than triple the rate in the U.S. rate.
World Bank Readies $100M in Loans for Developing Nations
The World Bank expects to lend $100 billion to developing nations whose economies are jeopardized by the global economic meltdown, Financial Times says. “You are seeing countries that had very good, sound macroeconomic programs – Mexico, Indonesia – that are in a position where ... they are not at financial risk but they are worried about ... getting financing,” World Bank President Robert Zoellick tells the paper. “These are the types of countries – Colombia, others – that we are offering as much support as we can.” Zoellick tells the Times that global trade is forecast to shrink in 2009. The last time that happened was 1982.
Deadly Stomach Bug More Common than Expected
ATLANTA (AP) — A nasty, sometimes deadly stomach bug is at least six times more common than was thought, researchers said Tuesday, based on a survey of hundreds of U.S. hospitals. The germ, Clostridium difficile, is resistant to some antibiotics and has become a regular menace in hospitals and nursing homes. Doctors say it plays a role in hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations each year, and that number has been growing. The latest study estimates that more than 7,100 American hospital patients are infected with it on any given day. That number is between 6.5 and 20 times greater than previous estimates, according to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. Researchers. The study suggests that about 13 per 1,000 hospital patients have the germ. The bacteria are found in the colon and can cause diarrhea and a more serious intestinal condition known as colitis. It can be deadly, particularly to the elderly, and has been blamed in outbreaks that have killed as many as 100 people at some hospitals. The most dangerous form is spread by spores in feces, and the spores are difficult to kill with most conventional household cleaners or antibacterial soap.
Longer, Taller Fencing Not Deterring Illegal Immigrants
NACO, Sonora - Mario Garcia Salcido and a friend left home in Culiacán for this dusty speck of a border town last week, headed for jobs in an Idaho milk-processing plant. They met up with the tallest obstacle the U.S. government has ever erected along the Mexican border: an 18-foot, mesh-metal fence west of here, with poles sunk deeply into concrete. Garcia hoisted his friend, who wouldn't identify himself, up the barrier, and in 20 minutes, they clambered into the United States illegally. An hour later, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested them for the third time in a month. Garcia and his friend say the tall fence won't deter future illegal immigrants. "Everybody can climb it. They cross by every manner," Garcia's 42-year-old friend said as he waited in Naco's Migrant Resource Center after being returned to Mexico. The United States is spending $700 million to build 670 miles of new fencing along the border, but lured by U.S. jobs with higher wages, immigrants are adapting. The large fences stretch in broken but growing segments across the 1,950-mile border. The fences are high enough to deter some would-be illegal immigrants. But the Border Patrol and immigrant-aid centers report that people are devising ways to scale the fences, be it by two-by-four ladders, tree limbs or rope - and some are injuring themselves in the process. "The border fence is a speed bump in the desert," Border Patrol spokesman Mike Scioli said. "It slows them down long enough for us to respond."
Increased Bombings in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of blasts struck Baghdad for the third consecutive day, killing nine people and wounding more than 30 others Wednesday, police said. The attacks underlined the fragility of recent security gains in the Iraqi capital. In the face of heightened violence in Baghdad, the Iraqi military said it was taking measures to curb "the increasing number of terrorist attacks" in the city. Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said the measures would include stepped up intelligence gathering and pre-emptive strikes on suspected extremists. The first of Wednesday’s car bombs ripped through a bustling section of downtown Baghdad during the Wednesday morning rush hour, killing four people and injuring 15 others. A second car bomb exploded near the Baidha secondary school in the Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Shaab in north Baghdad, but there were conflicting casualty reports from that attack.
Ø JJ Commentary: One has to wonder if the insurgents have become emboldened by Obama’s election, knowing that he wants to pull the troops out ASAP.
U.S. Rejects Scrapping Missile Defense Plans
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected a Russian suggestion that both countries scrap plans to place missile systems in Eastern Europe. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a televised interview with French journalists broadcast Thursday that Moscow was willing to reconsider deploying Iskander missiles in its westernmost region of Kaliningrad if Washington did not place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic. Medvedev announced Moscow's intention to deploy the missiles a day after the U.S. presidential election. It was "hardly the welcome a new American administration deserves," Gates said. "Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided."
Iran Test-Fires New Missile
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has successfully test-fired a new generation of its longer range surface-to-surface missile using solid fuel, making them more accurate than its predecessors, the defense minister announced Wednesday. Mostafa Mohammed Najjar said on state television that the Sajjil was a high-speed missile manufactured at the Iranian Aerospace department of the Defense Ministry. He said it had a range of about 1,200 miles. At that range it could reach Greece and Bulgaria in southeastern Europe, as well as easily strike arch-foe Israel. Najjar said the missile was a defensive weapon and not a response to threats against Iran. He didn't name any country but Israel has recently threatened to take military action against Iran to stop Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.
N. Korea Rejects Request for Nuclear Sampling
SEOUL (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday that it won't allow outside inspectors to take samples from its main nuclear complex to verify the communist regime's accounting of past nuclear activities. Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it never agreed to such sampling, contradicting statements by U.S. officials last month following a breakthrough deal about how to verify North Korea's list of nuclear programs the regime submitted in June under a disarmament pact. The conflicting statements could prove a new snag in the long, tortured process of nuclear disarmament on the Korean peninsula. North Korea has agreed to give up its nuclear weapons but has bickered with the U.S. over verification, with Washington insisting on strict measures to ensure Pyongyang is not hiding any active atomic programs. Sample-taking is believed to be a key means of nuclear verification.
N. Korea to Halt Border Crossings with S. Korea
SEOUL (AP) — North Korea ratcheted up its threats to sever ties with South Korea by announcing Wednesday that it will halt cross-border traffic next month and cut telephone lines inside the demilitarized zone over what it calls Seoul's confrontational stance. The North's military is taking action to "restrict and cut off all the overland passages" across the frontier beginning Dec. 1, the country's official Korean Central News Agency said. Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's conservative government took over in February, pledging to get tough with Pyongyang. North Korea has stepped up the rhetoric against the South in recent weeks, warning that it will attack South Korea and reduce it to "debris" if Seoul continues what it says are confrontational activities against the communist country.
Sudan President Announces Darfur Ceasefire
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — President Omar al-Bashir has announced a unilateral ceasefire by government forces in the war-torn Darfur region and is calling for rebels to join in peace negotiations. The announcement Wednesday launches a new push by the Khartoum government to show it is willing to make peace in Darfur, where at least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in fighting since 2003. Darfur's multiple rebel groups have so far dismissed the government peace moves, calling them insincere, and has not signed on to a cease-fire. Past cease-fires announced by Khartoum have collapsed.
U.N.: 100,000 Trapped, Troops Needed in Congo
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.'s most powerful body is close to approving 3,000 more peacekeeping troops for the world body's overstretched force in war-stricken areas of eastern Congo, diplomats said late Tuesday. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, called for an immediate cease-fire to urgently help "at least 100,000 refugees" cut off by fighting in rebel-held areas north of Goma in eastern Congo. After a two-hour closed-door meeting Tuesday, members of the 15-nation U.N. Security Council and the Congolese ambassador said broad agreement exists for beefing up the 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo. About 250,000 people in all have been displaced by fighting in eastern Congo. Ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of at least 500,000 Tutsis in neighboring Rwanda has fueled the fighting.
Fire in California Destroys 100 Homes
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters were racing early Friday to push back a wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed about 100 homes and a college dormitory in the tony community of Montecito, injured four people and forced thousands to flee the longtime celebrity hideaway. The fire broke out just before 6 p.m. Thursday and spread to about 2,000 acres — more than 3 square miles — within hours, destroying dozens of luxury homes and parts of a college campus in the foothills of Montecito, just southeast of Santa Barbara. About 5,400 of the community's 14,000 residents were evacuated and more could be forced to flee if the fire spreads, said Terri Nisich, a spokeswoman with the Santa Barbara County Executive Office. At Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts college nestled amid wooded rolling hills, some 1,000 students were caught off-guard by the rapidly moving flames and were moved from the cafeteria to the gym.
U.N. Sees Peril in Asia's Huge Brown Cloud
BEIJING — Thick brown clouds of soot, particles and chemicals stretching from the Persian Gulf to Asia threaten health and food supplies in the world, the U.N. reported Thursday, citing what it called the newest threat to the global environment. The regional haze, known as atmospheric brown clouds, contributes to glacial melting, reduces sunlight, and helps create extreme weather conditions that impact agricultural production, according to the report commissioned by the U.N. Environment Program. The huge plumes have darkened 13 megacities in Asia — including Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Cairo, Mumbai and New Delhi — sharply "dimming" the amount of light by as much as 25% in some places. Caused by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants, the brown clouds also play a significant role in exacerbating the effects of greenhouse gases in warming up the Earth's atmosphere, the report said. Some particles within the pollution cloud, such as soot, absorb sunlight and heat the air. That has led to a steady melting of the Himalayan glaciers, which are the source of most of the major rivers on the continent. The report also noted that health problems associated with particulate pollution, which include cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, are linked to nearly 350,000 premature deaths in China and India every year.
No comments:
Post a Comment