From ctmock at gmail.com Sat Apr 5 06:28:05 2008 From: ctmock at gmail.com (Carlos Mock) Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:28:05 -0500 Subject: [News] Stagflation Newsletter - April 5, 2008 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Stagflation By Carlos T. Mock, MD. Updated April 5, 2008 A choice can be implemented that tends to improve growth, but does it ignite systemic inflation? A choice can be implemented that tends to fight inflation, but how badly does it impinge growth? I predict that we?ll see stagflation in 2008. In modern times, it will be only after the central bank has used all possible tools to meet both goals, using the best quantitative measures it has at its disposal, for stagflation to occur. Major economic conditions of unusual proportion have already created near-crises on both fronts. Stagflation will occur because the central bank has rendered itself powerless to fix either inflation or stagnation. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/stagflation.html Your Lack of Money Ben Bernanke: Bear rescue not a bailout - Senators are told possible collapse was a threat to global financial system. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribunes. April 4, 2008. WASHINGTON ? The collapse of a big Wall Street firm was imminent and global markets were in no condition to accept the news calmly when Treasury Department and Federal Reserve officials met by conference call at 5 a.m. March 14. Their crisis-mode consultations, which led quickly to a rescue deal of Bear Stearns with $30 billion of government backing, was no bailout of wealthy investors; it was a desperation move to protect the broader economy, a top Treasury official told Congress on Thursday in a gripping session of testimony. "We judged that a sudden, disorderly failure of Bear would have brought with it unpredictable but severe consequences for the functioning of the broader financial system and the broader economy," said New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/ben-bernanke-bear-takeov er-not-bailout.html 80,000 jobs lost in March as unemployment hits 5.1% By James P. Miller. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 2:10 PM CDT, April 4, 2008. U.S. employers slashed 80,000 workers from their payrolls last month -- the third consecutive monthly decline and the biggest one-month drop in five years -- as the nation's increasingly troubled economy continued to slump, the Labor Department said Friday. Unemployment rose from February's 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, above the 5.0 percent level experts had been forecasting -- and also the highest jobless rate since September 2005. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/80000-jobs-lost-in-march -as.html Indian Firm may make offer for Motorola;s cell-phone division - Appliance-maker Videocon may bid By Wailin Wong. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 3, 2008. An interested buyer has emerged for Motorola Inc.'s beleaguered cell phone unit, but it's not one of the company's handset competitors or a marquee consumer electronics manufacturer. Meet Videocon Industries Ltd., a maker of home appliances that is little-known outside its native India but has global ambitions. The company's chairman, Venugopal Dhoot, told Bloomberg News he is in the early stages of evaluating a bid for Motorola's handset division. Dhoot did not specify the financial terms or other details of his offer. Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said the company does not "comment on rumor." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/indian-firm-may-make-off er-for.html ATA grounds flights and files for protection By Justin Baer in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 3 2008 19:13 | Last updated: April 3 2008 19:13. ATA Airlines on Thursday cancelled all its flights, fired most of its 2,230 employees and filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest casualty in a US commercial-aviation industry buffeted by record fuel costs, competition and ebbing demand. ATA also blamed its demise on FedEx, which pulled the carrier from an agreement to transport US military personnel and their families internationally. The airlift contract comprised most of ATA?s charter business. The shutdown dealt a blow to Southwest Airlines, which had reached a 2005 code-sharing agreement with ATA that allowed each carrier to book passengers on the other?s flights. Southwest had viewed the carrier as a springboard to its first international offerings. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/ata-grounds-flights-and- files-for.html Dell to shut down manufacturing plant By Richard Waters in San Francisco. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 1 2008 02:30 | Last updated: April 1 2008 02:30. Dell is to shut a manufacturing plant for what is believed to be the first time in its 24-year history as it struggles to slash costs and rebuilt its profit margins. The closure of the plant - which assembles PCs - is located in Austin, Texas, Dell?s headquarters, will result in the loss of some 900 jobs. The move is part of what Dell characterised as an attempt to wipe $3bn from its annual operating costs, which last year topped $50bn/Dell extends job cuts to aid turnround By Kevin Allison in Round Rock. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 3 2008 18:43 | Last updated: April 3 2008 18:43. Michael Dell, Dell chief executive, said on Thursday that the company planned to cut more than the 8,800 jobs announced previously as part of a plan to restore sales and profits at the struggling computer-maker. News of the additional cuts came as Mr Dell and other top executives updated Wall Street analysts about the progress of Dell?s turnround. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/dell-to-shut-down-manufa cturing-plant.html Channel 2 cuts from the top - Burns, Childers axed in dramatic newsroom purge By Phil Rosenthal. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 11:56 PM CDT, March 31, 2008. After years of telling viewers about job cuts in the steel industry, among automakers, in the airline business and elsewhere, it's now WBBM-Ch. 2 anchor Diann Burns' industry?the media?shrinking. It's now her job lost. Burns, reputed to be the city's highest-paid anchor, at $2 million per year, was part of the most dramatic single-day newsroom purge in Chicago TV history. Beyond its lead anchor, the CBS-owned station on Monday cast off lead sportscaster Mark Malone, longtime anchor-turned-health correspondent Mary Ann Childers, reporter Katie McCall, as well as several behind-the-scenes personnel. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/channel-2-cuts-from-top- burns-childers.html Gold and Commodities Oil $103.83 Silver Bullion $17.76 Gold Bullion $913 Platinum Bullion $ $2015 Dollar rallies on banking write-downs By Peter Garnham. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 1 2008 11:03 | Last updated: April 1 2008 11:03. The dollar rallied against European currencies on Tuesday as news of subprime related losses at two European banks fuelled the notion that the problems emanating from the current credit crisis would not be restricted to the US. Both UBS, the Swiss bank, and Germany?s Deutsche Bank announced substantial writedowns. ?Announcements of losses and mark-downs at Deutsche and UBS have soured the tone for European currencies after their strength on Monday,? said Adrian Schmidt at RBS. The dollar, which came close to hitting its record low of $1.5904 against the euro on Monday, rose 0.6 per cent to $1.5676 against the single currency, gained 1 per cent to SFr1.0034 against the Swiss franc and climbed 0.3 per cent to $1.9778 against the pound. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/dollar-rallies-on-bankin g-write-downs.html Corn prices surge to record levels as worries of shortfall grow By Stevenson Jacobs. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 4, 2008. NEW YORK ? Corn prices jumped to a record $6 a bushel Thursday, driven up by an expected supply shortfall that will only add to Americans' growing grocery bill and further squeeze struggling ethanol producers. Corn prices have shot up nearly 30 percent this year amid dwindling stockpiles and surging demand for the grain used to feed livestock and make alternative fuels including ethanol. Prices are poised to go even higher after the U.S. government this week predicted that American farmers, the world's biggest corn producers, will plant sharply less of the crop in 2008 compared with last year. "It's a demand-driven market and we may not be planting enough acres to supply demand, so that adds to the bullishness of corn," said Elaine Kub, a grains analyst with DTN in Omaha. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/corn-prices-surge-to-rec ord-levels-as.html Housing Fannie and Freddie drive home loans By Saskia Scholtes in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 2 2008 19:23 | Last updated: April 2 2008 19:23. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other government-sponsored mortgage companies have become the backbone of the troubled US mortgage market as purely private sources of finance have all but dried up. Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Home Loan Banks , a network of bank co-operatives founded during the Great Depression, provided 90 per cent of the financing for new mortgages at the end of 2007, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which regulates Fannie and Freddie. The increasing role of the government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs as they are known, reverses years of declining market share. Fannie and Freddie provide financing by buying mortgages and packaging them into securities. The FHLBs lend money to their member banks against mortgage collateral. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/fannie-and-freddie-drive -home-loans.html Surge in US bank borrowing from Fed By Krishna Guha in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 4 2008 00:48 | Last updated: April 4 2008 00:48. Bank borrowing from the Federal Reserve?s discount window surged in recent days, as primary dealers continued to draw still larger amounts of cash from their new emergency finance facility, figures released by the US central bank showed on Thursday. The Fed said bank borrowing from the discount window averaged $7bn in the week to April 2 ? a $6.5bn jump from the previous week. The total amount outstanding on April 2 was $10.3bn. Meanwhile borrowing from the new emergency finance facility for primary dealers - including investment banks that do not have access to the discount window - rose $5.2bn to average $38.1bn over the week, though the amount outstanding dipped to $34.4bn on April 2. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/surge-in-us-bank-borrowi ng-from-fed.html Financial Times Editorial Comment: Catching a US cold Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 2 2008 18:53 | Last updated: April 2 2008 18:53. After the credit squeeze are we heading for an affordability crunch? The UK housing market, resilient in the face of the global financial turmoil of the past six months, may have finally caught a dose of America?s economic flu. The question now is whether the property slowdown turns into a slump. Official data show a near 40 per cent year-on-year fall in mortgage approvals. The decision by First Direct, part of HSBC, to suspend new mortgage lending marks a serious reappraisal by one of the UK?s biggest lenders. Despite falls in the Bank of England?s base interest rate, and probable further easing to come, average interest rates on new fixed-rate mortgage deals have been rising. Tighter credit conditions have forced banks to withdraw products, reducing the number of mortgages available. Homeowners are finding it expensive to refinance debt. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/financial-times-editoria l-comment.html International Financial Times Editorial Comment: Nato closes ranks. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 4 2008 19:15 | Last updated: April 4 2008 19:15. President George W. Bush did not get everything he wanted from Nato?s summit that ended on Friday in Bucharest, but he got quite a bit. Washington secured alliance support for US missile defence plans in Europe ? implying agreement there is a threat from Iran that warrants the scheme. He did not win an immediate offer for Ukraine and Georgia of membership action plans ? the final stage before alliance membership ? but got a pledge the two countries? destinies lie with Nato and a promise to look again at the question before the year is out. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/financial-times-editoria l-comment-nato.html Mugabe opts for run-off election By Alec Russell, Southern Africa Correspondent. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 4 2008 19:23 | Last updated: April 4 2008 19:23. Zimbabwe was braced on Friday night for weeks of political turmoil after President Robert Mugabe backed hardliners in his Zanu-PF party and opted to fight a run-off presidential race against the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. In a further sign of a hardening of the party?s stance, it also said it would demand a recount in 16 parliamentary constituencies. On Wednesday the electoral authorities conceded Zanu-PF had lost control of parliament to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/mugabe-opts-for-run-off- election.html Mugabe loses control of parliament By Alec Russell, Southern Africa Correspondent. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 1 2008 19:44 | Last updated: April 2 2008 19:27. President Robert Mugabe?s Zanu-PF party lost control of Zimbabwe?s parliament on Wednesday for the first time since independence 28 years ago in a humiliating setback for the veteran autocrat even as the opposition declared it had also unseated him from the presidency. Four days after unofficial figures from Saturday?s elections indicated the Movement for Democratic Change was sweeping to victory, the authorities finally conceded defeat in the parliamentary race and issued official results giving the MDC a slender majority in the lower house. This marks the most significant turning point in Zimbabwe since it won independence from Britain in 1980 and ceased to be Rhodesia, as it was known in the colonial era. But the MDC was not celebrating on Wednesday night as it waited for Mr Mugabe to react to its claims that it had won an outright victory in the presidential poll. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/mugabe-loses-control-of- parliament.html China On Asia: China in too deep to gloat over subprime By Geoff Dyer in Shanghai. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 4 2008 16:20 | Last updated: April 4 2008 16:20. Given all the financial troubles that the US is facing, you might expect the Chinese authorities to indulge in a spot of schadenfreude. Having sat through all those lectures about the need to liberalise financial markets and the importance of letting foreign investment banks do their stuff on Chinese turf, a certain amount of quiet satisfaction might be in order. Indeed, as one Chinese official put it the other day: ?The subprime market is very complicated. Chinese banks are not nearly sophisticated enough to make those sorts of mistakes.? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-asia-china-in-too-dee p-to-gloat-over.html Mess-o-potamia Al-Maliki halts raids on militia By Liz Sly. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 3:35 AM CDT, April 5, 2008. BAGHDAD ? As the dust settles on the inconclusive battle of Basra, only one thing has become clear: The problems of Iraq are still a long way from being solved. Instead, the country appears headed for a new phase in the 5-year-old war, one in which the country's dominant Shiite factions battle it out for power and influence. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday declared a "freeze" on raids against the Mahdi Army. This effectively concluded the humiliating climbdown he was forced to make after sending the Iraqi army into Basra to take on what he called "criminal gangs," only to see much of southern Iraq and Baghdad engulfed by a violent backlash from the powerful Mahdi Army loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/al-maliki-halts-raids-on -militia.html National New financial rules won't stop bad choices BY STEVE HUNTLEY. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. April 1, 2008. Various experts on the economy have expressed the view that if only the Federal Reserve had had more power and oversight authority, it could have detected the looming housing/credit crisis and prevented or at least eased the troubled times we find ourselves in. That notion is incorporated to some degree in the Bush administration's proposed overhaul of the nation's financial regulatory apparatus announced Monday. Yet how realistic is that? No one needed a Ph.D. in economics or an arsenal of government regulations to see more than a year ago that a dangerous bubble and a get-rich-quick mentality were inundating the housing market. Newspapers carried stories of speculators buying and reselling homes at big profits in a matter of days, and in some spectacular cases, within hours. Home prices skyrocketed and everyone bet on the come. Sound mortgage practices went out the window as buyers and lenders -- and the speculators who gobbled up these mortgages as investments in the arcane derivative markets -- gambled that next year's higher price could cover this year's suspect financing. Here's a startling statistic: There was no down payment on 29 percent of the mortgages originated in 2007. Is it any wonder we're hearing that millions lost this wild bet and are now stuck with mortgages worth more than the value of their homes? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-financial-rules-wont -stop-bad.html Bush Whacking Financial Times Editorial Comment: Paulson?s gamble. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 31 2008 19:10 | Last updated: March 31 2008 19:10. It must have been tempting to aim for a quick, crowd-pleasing goal, such as the introduction of hanging for those who sell or repackage subprime mortgages. But Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, certainly does not plan to fight the last war. His long-awaited blueprint for streamlining the US financial regulatory system is not a knee-jerk response to the credit crisis. That is a relief, given the current clamour for Something To Be Done. It may even be a step in the right direction. Mr Paulson?s proposal is to widen the regulatory net and give greater powers to a smaller number of regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, is to merge with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Insurers could opt for federal regulation rather than state regulation. The Federal Reserve would acquire more power to curb risk-taking by investment banks, although this power is intended only to be used when the overall stability of the financial markets is under threat. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/paulson-says-shake-up-ma y-take-many.html Bush appears out of touch on U.S. economic woes By Sheryl Gay Stolberg. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: April 3, 2008. WASHINGTON: The first hint that President George W. Bush might be detached from the nation's economic woes was in February, when he conceded that he had not heard about predictions of $4-a-gallon gasoline. Then Bush went to Wall Street to warn against "massive government intervention in the housing markets," two days before his administration helped broker the takeover of the investment bank Bear Stearns. Now Bush is in Eastern Europe, one of eight foreign trips he is taking this year. As he delivered his farewell address to NATO on Wednesday, Senate Democrats and Republicans were scrambling to produce a bill to help struggling homeowners, the kind of government intervention Bush had cautioned against. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/bush-appears-out-of-touc h-on-us.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - Bush's fear of regulating. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: April 3, 2008. To understand the White House's blueprint for regulating the financial markets, start with what the Bush administration did not do. It did not offer America a plan to respond to the ongoing credit crisis or to the Federal Reserve's dramatic intervention to prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns. It certainly did not provide a roadmap for avoiding this sort of meltdown in the future. The Fed's role in the Bear debacle has put taxpayers at risk of having to shoulder big losses, but the administration's so-called regulatory reform does not address what the Bear mess made obvious: if something goes badly wrong in under-regulated or unregulated corners of the financial markets, it could topple the whole system. In fact, the blueprint was mostly developed before the current financial crisis and accordingly comes across as outdated. The message of the administration's proposals is that the markets will - and should - return to where they were before the near-collapse of Bear Stearns. It's doubtful whether many of its suggested policies would have been apt even in that earlier context. It's indisputable that they are inapt now. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_04.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - Wasting and wanting at the Pentagon. Copyright byh The International Herald Tribune. Published: April 2, 2008. If ever there was an indictment of the wanton ways that the Pentagon wastes money, a new report by U.S. government auditors is it. Dozens of the Pentagon's most costly weapons programs are billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. President George W. Bush and a far-too-compliant Congress have already wasted more than $600 billion on the disastrous Iraq war. Since Bush took office, the Pentagon's weapons acquisition budget has doubled from $790 billion in 2000 to $1.6 trillion last year. Now, in stark terms, we see that an unseemly percentage of that money has gone to wasteful cost overruns and delays. Even when weapons systems are finally delivered, investigators say, far too many fail to deliver the capabilities promised. One example: the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile recorded four failures in four flight tests in 2007. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_03.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - More flimflam on warming. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 30, 2008. On April 2, 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Air Act empowered the Environmental Protection Agency to address greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. The ruling instructed the agency to determine whether global warming pollution endangers health and welfare - an "endangerment finding" - and, if so, to devise emissions standards for motor vehicles. One year has passed, and despite repeated promises from President George W. Bush and the EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, nothing has happened. Last week, Johnson notified Congress that he had discovered new regulatory complexities and decided against immediate action. Instead, he planned to offer an "advanced notice of proposed rule-making," which requires a laborious bureaucratic process that would almost certainly stretch beyond the end of Bush's term. Johnson appears to have tried to do the right thing. He ordered his staff to write an endangerment finding and craft regulations limiting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from vehicles. In December, according to congressional testimony from senior EPA officials, he sent the whole package to the White House. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_31.html Bush housing official resigns By Daniel Pimlott in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 31 2008 17:12 | Last updated: March 31 2008 17:12. The top housing official in the Bush administration resigned on Monday at a crucial point in government efforts to deal with rising foreclosures. Alphonso Jackson, who has run the Department of Housing and Urban Development since 2004, said he was stepping down for personal and family reasons. His resignation comes after the housing authority in the city of Philadelphia recently filed a suit against him alleging that he tried to punish the agency for blocking a deal involving a friend of his. The FBI has also been investigating his relations with a friend who was paid by the department as a construction manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/bush-housing-official-re signs.html Indecision 2008 The Top Ten Craziest Things John McCain Has Said While You Weren't Watching By Cliff Schecter. Copyright by Alternet,org. Much of McCain's madness has been lost in the fog of the ongoing battle for the Democratic nomination -- so here's a recap of what you've missed. John McCain has been saying a lot of downright nutty things lately. You've probably come across some of them, such as his admitted lack of knowledge about economics or his excitement at the prospect of remaining in Greater Mesopotamia for the next ten decades. Yet, alas, much of his craziness has been lost in the fog of the ongoing battle between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. So here's a recap of some nuggets of wisdom you may have missed -- from McCain's mouth to Bellevue's Ears. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/top-ten-craziest-things- john-mccain-has.html Obama?s fundraising puts heat on Clinton By Edward Luce in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 3 2008 18:45 | Last updated: April 3 2008 18:45. Barack Obama?s record-breaking online fund-raising continued in March, netting $40m (?20m, ?25m) from almost half a million donors in spite of his defeats to Hillary Clinton in Texas and Ohio at the start of the month. Mrs Clinton?s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, which is estimated to have raised only half of Mr Obama?s total in March, on Thursday said that her opponent had been outspending her by four-to-one in Pennsylvania, which holds the next primary election on April 22. The Clinton campaign, which is projected to win Pennsylvania although some polls show her lead narrowing, estimated that Mr Obama would continue to outspend her by two-to-one in TV advertising in the less than three weeks remaining. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obamas-fundraising-puts- heat-on-clinton_04.html Obama says Clinton should stay in race 'as long as she wants' - Says nominee should be settled come June By Mike Dorning. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 9:21 AM CDT, March 30, 2008. JOHNSTOWN, Pa. ? Barack Obama rejected suggestions from his allies that rival Hillary Clinton should end her presidential campaign, saying Saturday that she should "stay in as long as she wants." The Illinois senator told reporters that fears that the prolonged primary battle is dividing the Democratic Party are "somewhat overstated." Even so, Obama argued that the Democratic Party must quickly settle on a nominee after the final primary votes are cast on June 3 so Democrats can quickly shift to the general election campaign that presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona already has begun. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-says-clinton-shoul d-stay-in-race.html Hillary Clinton cannot let go of her dream By Sally Bedell Smith. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 2 2008 18:26 | Last updated: April 2 2008 18:26. Hillary Clinton?s chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination are now anywhere from 5 per cent to 20 per cent. By rights she should be flat on her back, declared the loser by technical knockout. But not only is she standing; she is plunging ahead with a dogged ferocity. In spite of Barack Obama?s clear advantage in the popular vote and committed delegate tallies ? a mathematical dominance unlikely to be reversed even if he loses most of the remaining primary contests ? Mrs Clinton says she is being bullied by the ?big boys? and vows to stay in the race until the Democratic convention. Her relentless campaign has inspired reporters variously to compare her, with a mixture of admiration and horror, to the Terminator, a zombie, a cyborg and Anton Chigurh, the malevolent killer in No Country for Old Men. Even the coughing spasms that have seized her with alarming frequency these past few months have become an emblem of her fortitude. After she muscled her way through a foreign policy address, The New Yorker praised her ability to ?suppress the coughing through sheer will?. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/hillary-clinton-cannot-l et-go-of-her.html In Clinton's worldview, lying is OK if it gets her votes By Leonard Pitts. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 1, 2008. "It was just my imagination, once again, running away with me." ?The Temptations, 1971. In a way, it's unfair to single out Hillary Clinton for lying. They all do it, after all. Eight years ago, John McCain, conductor on the Straight Talk Express, swore he saw nothing wrong with South Carolina flying the Confederate battle flag atop its statehouse. He later acknowledged this was a lie. Last week, St. Barack Obama called for passage of legislation "I put forward with my colleague Chris Dodd" to help homeowners threatened by foreclosure. The Washington Post says Obama's co-authorship of the bill came as news to Sen. Dodd. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-clintons-worldview-ly ing-is-ok-if-it.html Clintons? tax details made public By Edward Luce in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 4 2008 22:52 | Last updated: April 4 2008 23:28. Hillary and Bill Clinton have earned $109m since they left the White House in 2000, according to tax returns released by the Clinton presidential campaign on Friday. The records, which Barack Obama had been pressing Mrs Clinton to release since the start of the campaign, reveal that the former First Lady is by far the wealthiest of the remaining candidates and the second-richest after Mitt Romney, who dropped out in February. Between 2000 and 2006, the couple paid $33.7m in taxes and gave away $10.25m to charity. ?The Clintons have now made public 30 years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service,? said a Clinton spokesman, on Friday. ?None of her presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information.? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/clintons-tax-details-mad e-public.html Chicagoland Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - 10 tips for Stroger on hiring watchdog. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. April 2, 2008. As part of his election campaign, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger promised to hire an independent inspector general, someone to investigate corruption in county government without fear or favor. While he's a bit late in keeping his promise, he's made some promising steps. An independent panel, filled with solid names, has been set up to recommend a new inspector general, to replace the current one, who has deep ties to the Stroger family. The panel was allowed this week to hire its own executive search firm, after some resistance from a Stroger ally on the County Board. The annual salary for the new inspector general has been increased more than 50 percent to $150,000, a move designed to attract talent to the job. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-sun-times-editor ial-10-tips-for.html Chicago Tribune Editorial - The new taxspeak. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 2, 2008. Hearing Donna Dunnings?she of the loathsome 1 percent sales tax increase, she of the breathtaking 12 percent pay raise?explain Cook County's need for still more new tax revenues touched our hearts. We realized how much we've been missing the late John Stroger. He was better at this. When John Stroger was president of the County Board, he was candid about his desire for more tax revenues to sustain his vast patronage army. Example: On Jan. 6, 2005, Stroger explained why he wanted new taxes from people who owned cell phones, pagers and other telecommunications devices. Why them? Stroger's candid rationale in its entirety: "We would like to get their money from a tax." Asked what mergers of redundant offices, consolidations of duties or other spending reforms he would execute to lower the burden on taxpayers, Stroger just smiled and said nothing. John Stroger, sadly, is no longer with us. His son Todd has his father's old job. Donna Dunnings?John's niece, Todd's cousin?is Cook County's chief financial officer. Really, though, she's much more than that. Todd isn't always dialed in; some county wags refer to Donna as "President Dunnings." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-tribune-editoria l-new-taxspeak.html Chicago Tribune Editorial - Emil Jones and a recall Vote. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 4, 2008. A constitutional amendment to let voters fire inept state officeholders is almost halfway to the Nov. 4 general election ballot. There appears to be strong support in the Illinois House. Whether such an amendment is approved for a ballot slot by the May 4 deadline rests primarily with Senate President Emil Jones and his fellow Senate Democrats. For too long those Democratic senators have been inexplicably willing to let Jones, their leader, enable the frantic antics of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-tribune-editoria l-emil-jones.html Gov replies -- but he never answers BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. March 30, 2008. Talk about ?must-see TV.? Thursday on NBC5?s 5 p.m. newscast, veteran reporter Phil Rogers did a story on Gov. Blagojevich that ought to be required viewing for every student of crisis management and every student of journalism. If you are an aspiring crisis manager, then what follows is a textbook case of how not to handle questions about a difficult subject. And if you are an aspiring journalist, it is a superb study in how even the most relentless reporter can?t, short of waterboarding, make an unwilling public official give a straight answer to a direct question. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/gov-replies-but-he-never -answers.html Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Keep kids' museum out of Grant Park. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. April 4, 2008. Building a children's museum in Grant Park is still a bad idea. And the folks who say it's a bad idea are still not racists, whatever Mayor Daley may say. On Thursday, Daley signaled that he's ready to walk right over the objections of children's museum critics. His Chicago Park District and the museum forged ahead by applying for a zoning change to build the $100 million museum. Daley has the votes to push the plan through the City Council, despite complaints from Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) and residents of the nearby high-rises. And Daley knows that if they continue to yap, he can do again what he's now done twice -- tar them as a bunch of bigots afraid of little black children. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-sun-times-editor ial-keep-kids.html Technology Apple's iTunes the No. 1 music seller, besting Wal-Mart by Eric Benderoff at 12:45 p.m. and updated at 2:15 p.m.. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 3, 2008. Apple just released an announcement confirming it is the nation's top seller of music, passing Wal-Mart. The source is NPD Group's Music Watch Survey, which said Apple surpassed Wal-Mart in overall music sales in both January and February. In 2007, Apple passed Best Buy to become the nation's second largest music seller. ?We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world,? said Eddy Cue, Apple?s vice president of iTunes, in the press release. ?We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone.? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/apples-itunes-no-1-music -seller-besting.html Financial Times Editorial Comment: Software wars. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 3 2008 19:10 | Last updated: April 3 2008 19:10. Allegations of committee-stuffing, the outcome of votes overridden by political appointees, a final decision that many involved consider tainted: this may sound like a discredited election in some third world country. But it is actually a description of an ugly fight over international technical standards that wrapped up this week. Microsoft came out on top, but at the cost of tarnishing its reputation and the credibility of an important back-room process that oils the wheels of many global industries. The setting of technical standards is not meant to make for such good spectator sport. But it is inevitable that commercial and political interests will encroach on territory best left to the technical experts. That has been the case with Microsoft?s pursuit of standards recognition for the document formats contained in the latest version of its Office software. Microsoft?s PC software is already a de facto standard, but without formal recognition from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) there was a risk governments and other big customers would have started to turn to an alternative that already had international support, the ODF standard backed by IBM. Microsoft got what it wanted ? though only after pulling every lever it could to swing early opposition in its favour. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/financial-times-editoria l-comment_04.html Immigration Rules to Be Waived for Border Fence By EILEEN SULLIVAN. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 10:58 AM CDT, April 1, 2008. WASHINGTON - The Bush administration plans to use its authority to bypass more than 30 laws and regulations in an effort to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest U.S. border by the end of this year, federal officials said Tuesday. Invoking the two legal waivers -- which Congress authorized -- would cut through bureaucratic red tape and sidestep environmental laws that currently stand in the way of the Homeland Security Department building 267 miles of fencing in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, according to officials familiar with the plan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the waivers had not yet been announced. The move would be the biggest use of legal waivers since the administration started building the fence, and it would cover a total of 470 miles along the Southwest border. Previously, the department has used its waiver authority for two portions of fence in Arizona and one portion in San Diego. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.bloodspot.com/2008/04/rules-to-be-waived-for- border-fence.html GLBT Chicago Free Press Editorial: Act like an Owner. Copyright by The Chicago Free Press. April 2, 2008. On April 9 hundreds of Illinoisans are journeying to the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield to participate in Equality Illinois? Lobby Day. The main topic of the day, of course, is support for Rep. Greg Harris? civil unions bill. If passed, the bill would give gay and lesbian couples all of the rights and responsibilities the State of Illinois gives straight married couples. It?s not marriage?not in name and not in the eyes of the federal government?but until we win that, and we will, it gives gay and lesbian couples and their families some sorely needed benefits and legal clarity. If the bill passes and is signed by the governor, Illinois would become the first state in the country?s heartland?the first state not on the East Coast or the West Coast?to pass such a measure. It would be an historic occurrence. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/civil-union-lobby-day-ne ars.html A simple request from Illinois State Representative Greg Harris. He is an openly gay state rep and a personal friend of mine and mentor. Please help him in his efforts to pass a Civil Unions Bill. This would help bring the LBGTQ community closer towards the equal rights we deserve. Another way you can help is to forward this to all your freinds and family. Heck send it to people you don't know :) and ask them all to do the same. Subject: Help me pass civil unions, take action now on www.CivilUnionsIllinois.org. I am writing to ask for your help with my efforts to pass a Civil Unions bill in Illinois. I have worked on this since the day I took office, and now that we are getting close to success, I am pulling out all the stops asking friends to help get us to the finish line. I know you are busy, but if you could take a few seconds to help me, I would really appreciate it. Please click on www.CivilUnionsIllinois.org and send a free, instant message to the legislature in support of the civil unions bill I have authored. You can read more about the legislation and the pressing need for civil unions on www.CivilUnionsIllinois.org. I have worked hand in hand with groups across the State such as Equality Illinois, Lambda Legal, PFLAG, ACLU and others to reach out to their members. We have a Facebook.com group where 8,000 Illinois students have joined the effort. Now I need your help to send a message to my colleagues asking them to support Civil Unions. Please take 3 simple steps to help pass civil unions! http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/simple-request-from-illi nois-state.html GLBT seniors? needs grow as Baby Boomers age By Matt Simonette. Copyright by The Chicago Free Press. April 3, 2008. http://www.chicagofreepress.com/node/1562 ?Throughout our community, something is happening,? said Phil Hannema, of the Chicago chapter of the Prime Timers, an organization for gay and bisexual seniors. He said the Prime Timers? membership numbers have been climbing recently. As of the beginning of March, they had just over 200 members, according to Hannema, who?s been with the group for four or five years. There is some concern, in fact, that the group might outgrow Ann Sather Restaurant, the location of its monthly dinner. ?We?re growing up a great deal,? said Hannema, who thinks the membership increase is because ?the Baby Boomers are coming along (now). Even on our board, we?re starting to see some younger members. There?s a lot of new energy coming in.? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/glbt-seniors-needs-grow- as-baby-boomers.html Appointment of Agent to Control Disposition of Remains By Roger McCaffrey-Boss. Copyright by Gay Chicago Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss. April 1, 2008. A peripodic review of changes in the estate planning laws, tax laws and updating your powers of attorney are essential if you want your estate plan to continue to meet your needs. The following are three points that I think relevant for 2008. Appointment of Agent To Control Disposition of Remains. Pursuant to the new Disposition of Remains Act, effective Jan. 1, 2006, unless a decedent has left directions in writing for the disposition of the decedent?s remains as provided in the Crematory Regulation Act, only certain persons, in the priority listed, have the right to control the disposition, including cremation, of the decedent?s remains. None of them listed include your LGBT partner. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/appointment-of-agent-to- control.html Health Care Genetic Link Tied to Smoking Addiction By SETH BORENSTEIN. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 6:11 AM CDT, April 3, 2008. WASHINGTON - Scientists have pinpointed genetic variations that make people more likely to get hooked on cigarettes and more prone to develop lung cancer -- a finding that could someday lead to screening tests and customized treatments for smokers trying to kick the habit. The discovery by three separate teams of scientists makes the strongest case so far for the biological underpinnings of nicotine addiction and sheds more light on how genetics and lifestyle habits join forces to cause cancer. "This is kind of a double whammy gene," said Christopher Amos, a professor of epidemiology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and author of one of the studies. "It also makes you more likely to be dependent on smoking and less likely to quit smoking." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/genetic-link-tied-to-smo king-addiction.html Paternity tests for sale over counter - DNA kits cost $30 at store, plus $120 for lab results in 3-5 days By Ylan Q. Mui. Copyright by The Washington Post. 11:07 AM CDT, March 30, 2008. For years, women have been able to go to the drugstore to answer a question: pregnant or not? Now science has taken testing a step further, and those same drugstore shelves are stocking kits to answer another, equally pressing question: father or not? The Identigene DNA paternity test was rolled out at Rite Aid stores nationwide this month and sells for $29.99 ? plus $119.99 for laboratory processing. Identigene promises results that are at least 99 percent accurate in three to five days. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/paternity-tests-for-sale -over-counter.html Experts Now Recommend Hands-Only CPR By STEPHANIE NANO . Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 9:09 PM CDT, March 31, 2008. NEW YORK - You can skip the mouth-to-mouth breathing and just press on the chest to save a life. In a major change, the American Heart Association said Monday that hands-only CPR -- rapid, deep presses on the victim's chest until help arrives -- works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults. Experts hope bystanders will now be more willing to jump in and help if they see someone suddenly collapse. Hands-only CPR is simpler and easier to remember and removes a big barrier for people skittish about the mouth-to-mouth breathing. "You only have to do two things. Call 911 and push hard and fast on the middle of the person's chest," said Dr. Michael Sayre, an emergency medicine professor at Ohio State University who headed the committee that made the recommendation. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/experts-now-recommend-ha nds-only-cpr.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - Pushing for an AIDS vaccine. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 30, 2008. Back in 1984, U.S. health officials, flush with excitement over discovery of the virus that causes AIDS, predicted that they would have a vaccine ready for market within three years. Now, after almost a quarter century of struggle, the effort has crashed. No one knows whether a vaccine to prevent the disease will ever be possible. At a conference at the National Institutes of Health last Tuesday, AIDS experts assessed how to proceed after the failure of the most promising vaccine candidate in two large clinical trials last year. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_300.html Other Lunch with the FT: Isabel Allende By Richard Waters. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 4 2008 23:12 | Last updated: April 4 2008 23:12. A former brothel on an eerily still backstreet of Sausalito seems an appropriate place to meet one of Latin America?s foremost magical realists. Outside, the azaleas and camellias are starting to flower, and the absolute clarity of the northern Californian light gives an extra sharpness to the building?s renovated cedar shingles. It feels like you?ve stepped into an Edward Hopper painting. The ethereal calm is matched perfectly by the poised stillness of the receptionist at Isabel Allende?s office. I know who she is. In fact, I?ve just read about her. She is Juliette, the one who married for love and ran away to Greece, bringing up her two sons while running an idyllic cliff-top restaurant. Then she was widowed, returned to California and offered up her womb as a surrogate mother ? not once but twice, though the second attempt ended in failure and a childless Lori had to accept that the three stepchildren already in her life were enough. But that?s another story. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/lunch-with-ft-isabel-all end_05.html Humor New! Carlos now has an online store. Order your books directly from Carlos and have them signed and dedicated. http://www.carlostmock.com/catalog/ In Pride (orgullo), Carlos T. Mock, MD Www.carlostmock.com Author: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table. Author: The Mosaic Virus ? Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a Lammie from The Lambda Literary Foundation Author: Author: Papi Chulo ? Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a Lammie from The Lambda Literary Foundation -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ctmock at gmail.com Sat Apr 12 18:13:34 2008 From: ctmock at gmail.com (Carlos Mock) Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:13:34 -0500 Subject: [News] Lost in Baghdad Newsletter - April 12, 2008 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Lost in Baghdad By Carlos T Mock, MD. . April 10, 2008. President George W. Bush and his bunch of neo-conservative allegations that the ?surge? of US troops in Iraq has worked are nothing more than hogwash. The multi-sectarian conflict caused by the occupation has not been stopped and success?which is an ever-shifting concept?is no closer than before the surge started. General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, spent two days on Capitol Hill saying absolutely nothing??the surge will work when it does.? But when he was pressed for a timetable, he could give none. Violence is down, but from catastrophic levels that have wrecked the country, displaced one in six Iraqis, and driven the rest into hiding. The perception that the violence is down is more a reflection on press coverage than actual responses to the ?surge?. The lower levels of killing have taken second fiddle to the catastrophic economical realities of our country?most of which is caused by the cost of the war itself. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/lost-in-baghdad.html Frustrated Senators See No Exit Signs By Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks. Copyright by The Washington Post. Wednesday, April 9, 2008; Page A01. Asked repeatedly yesterday what "conditions" he is looking for to begin substantial U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq after this summer's scheduled drawdown, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said he will know them when he sees them. For frustrated lawmakers, it was not enough. "A year ago, the president said we couldn't withdraw because there was too much violence," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). "Now he says we can't afford to withdraw because violence is down." Asked Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.): "Where do we go from here?" Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said: "I think people want a sense of what the end is going to look like." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/frustrated-senators-see- no-exit-signs.html Patience is not a policy By Steve Chapman. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 10, 2008. When he was the Democratic leader in the Senate, George Mitchell ruefully reflected that his job had given him "the best-developed patience muscle in Washington." The war in Iraq has done similar things for the rest of us. But the strengthening program is by no means done. Gen. David Petraeus was on Capitol Hill this week explaining why we need to keep on exercising forbearance, and keep on, and keep on. By his reckoning, and that of Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, the administration's policy of escalation has been a success. Violence has come down, political reconciliation is under way, and the Iraqi government is showing more initiative. Heck, Crocker marveled, you even see the newly designed Iraqi flag in all parts of the country, not just some. We poured in more troops, we accomplished what we set out to do, and now we can start bringing our troops home?which, after all, was the whole point of the surge announced by President Bush 15 months ago. Right? Wrong. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/patience-is-not-policy.h tml Your Lack of Money ?Shocking? GE results show size of crisis By Francesco Guerrera and Justin Baer in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 11 2008 12:57 | Last updated: April 11 2008 19:04. General Electric underlined the depth of the global financial crisis on Friday, announcing its worst quarter in five years and slashing full-year forecasts. The news, described as ?shocking? by a senior GE executive, combined with data showing that US consumer confidence was at a 26-year low to send shares lower. The S&P 500 fell 2 per cent in New York to 1,332.83./General Electric profits slump By Justin Baer in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 11 2008 12:57 | Last updated: April 11 2008 16:31. General Electric stunned investors with its first quarterly profit drop in five years, as last month?s capital markets upheaval forced unexpected writedowns on the value of some securities, and warned that full-year earnings would miss its forecast. The results triggered a broader sell-off on some the world?s stock markets amid concern that GE?s dreary outlook reflected deteriorating economic conditions. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/general-electric-profits -slump.html US consumer confidence hits 26-year low By Chris Bryant. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 11 2008 16:22 | Last updated: April 11 2008 16:22. The soaring cost of basic foodstuffs and weakening labour market sent US consumer confidence spiralling to a 26-year low this month compounding the gloomy outlook for the US economy. Consumer confidence as measured by the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey fell to 63.2 in mid-April, from 69.5 in March, the lowest since 1982 and much weaker than a reading of 68 forecast by economists. One-year inflation expectations jumped by 4.8 per cent, their highest since October 1990, and up from 4.3 per cent in March. ?Consumers would appear to be buying into the stagflation theme,? John Ryding, chief US economist at Bear Stearns said. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-consumer-confidence-h its-26-year-low.html Struggles grow for retailers - Economy's slide sends more stores into bankruptcy By Sandra M. Jones. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 12, 2008. It's a tough time to be a retailer, and it's expected to get tougher. Wickes Furniture Co. and Bombay Co. have gone out of business. Levitz Furniture is liquidating. Sharper Image Corp. and Lillian Vernon Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. And now Linens 'n Things Inc. is said to be facing Chapter 11 bankruptcy as early as next week. Americans appear to be in no mood to shop. A day after the nation's retailers posted the worst March sales performance in 13 years, confidence among U.S. consumers sank to a 26-year low, according to one measure, as they worry about the value of their homes and the chances of losing their jobs. Until recently, home stores have borne the brunt of the economic downturn. Now the troubles are spreading throughout the mall. "Anybody dealing with the consumer this year is going to be very challenged," said Gerald Hirschberg, director at Standard & Poor's Rating Services. "Really only the top luxury retailers may come away from this relatively unscathed." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/struggles-grow-for-retai lers-economys.html Frontier files for bankruptcy By Reuters and FT reporters. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 11 2008 09:43 | Last updated: April 11 2008 09:43. Frontier Airlines Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, citing unexpected problems with its credit card processor, but said it would operate its flights normally. The low-cost carrier?s move to operate normally despite its troubles sets it apart -- at least for now -- from four small struggling U.S. airlines that said last week that they would stop flying. Record fuel prices, along with a steadily weakening U.S. economy, have put the brakes on the airline industry?s recovery from a long downturn. Low-cost airlines, even some big ones, are beginning to feel the effect. Last week, Aloha Airlines, Champion Air, ATA Airlines and Skybus Airlines all said they had shut down operations. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/frontier-files-for-bankr uptcy.html Lehman closes $1bn funds By Dan Pimlott. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 10 2008 13:52 | Last updated: April 10 2008 13:52. Lehman Brothers, the fourth biggest US investment bank, said that it had liquidated three investment funds in its first quarter after ?market disruptions?. The value of the assets held by these funds was about $1bn. Lehman said it had also bought some ?deteriorated assets? from certain funds for $800m. Both sets of assets were included in the company?s earnings report on 29 February, and are now managed in its capital markets fixed income business. Lehman said that the funds were among various private equity or other alternative investment funds with third party investors that were typically organised as limited partnerships, but that it did not include in its results. It said that typically it could offer support to these funds but was not obliged to do so. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/lehman-closes-1bn-funds. html WaMu gets $7bn injection from investors By Deborah Brewster in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 8 2008 15:46 | Last updated: April 8 2008 15:46. Washington Mutual, the largest savings and loan group in the US, will get a $7bn cash infusion from investors to boost its capital and cover losses arising from its subprime mortgages. WaMu said on Tuesday it would raise the money by issuing 176m shares to an investment vehicle led by private equity group TPG and including several of WaMu?s existing investors. The shares will be priced at $8.75 - a discount to Friday?s closing price of $10.15. It would also issue 55,000 shares of convertible preferred stock, with an exercise price of $8.75. The group said it expected to make a loss of $1.1bn in the first quarter, and it would cut its quarterly dividend to one cent a share, from 15 cents, which would amount to $490m in capital saved. It would write off $1.4bn in loan losses, it said. In the fourth quarter, it reported its first quarterly loss since 1997. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/wamu-gets-7bn-injection- from-investors.html Citigroup offloads Diners Club By Francesco Guerrera in New York and Chris Hughes in London. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 7 2008 21:49 | Last updated: April 7 2008 21:49. Citigroup?s chief executive moved on Monday to streamline the troubled financial services conglomerate by selling the Diners Club International credit card network to Discover for $165m. The decision to sever the 27-year tie with Diners comes as Vikram Pandit and his lieutenants conduct a review that could lead to up to 25,000 job losses across global operations, say people close to the situation. Diners, which handles $30bn in transactions a year, had given Citigroup the ability to compete with large credit card networks. A sale was part of Mr Pandit?s efforts to divest marginal businesses and free up resources for core activities, executives said. Ed Eger, head of international cards at Citigroup, said the decision was ?consistent with Citi?s efforts to streamline its businesses to focus on what Citi does best?. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/citigroup-offloads-diner s-club.html Gold and Commodities Oil $112.21 Silver Bullion $17.77 Gold Bullion $926 Platinum Bullion $ $2020 Financial Times Editorial Comment: IMF releases an Instability Report. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 8 2008 19:30 | Last updated: April 8 2008 19:30. The International Monetary Fund has had a strange credit crunch. Like a mighty navy rendered impotent because all of the fighting is inland, the IMF has been impotent: all of the liquidity and solvency problems have hit individual banks, rather than the countries it is set up to rescue. That makes its policy and monitoring efforts, such as Tuesday?s Global Financial Stability Report , all the more important. The report gives a snapshot of the credit squeeze ? problems spreading beyond subprime to other debt markets, feedback loops as credit problems hurt house prices and investment, resilient emerging markets ? and updates its estimate of ultimate US debt losses to $945bn. The IMF offers a list of sensible, although not especially new, policy actions for the public and private sectors. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/financial-times-editoria l-comment-imf.html Housing Pending US home sales hit fresh low By Chris Bryant in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 8 2008 16:26 | Last updated: April 8 2008 16:49. Pending home sales fell to a new record low in February as slumping house prices and tighter lending standards continued to persuade buyers to shun the housing market. The news came as the International Monetary Fund estimated losses stemming from the US mortgage and credit crisis could hit almost $1,000bn. The National Association of Realtors?s index of pending sales of previously owned homes fell 1.9 per cent to 84.6 in February after the previous month?s reading was revised slightly higher to 86.2. The new figure was the lowest reading since records began in 2001 and compared with a consensus forecast for a decline of only 0.7 per cent. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/pending-us-home-sales-hi t-fresh-low.html Chicago housing market makes winners, losers - Housing market here has winners -- it comes down to location BY SANDRA GUY sguy at suntimes.com. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. April 6, 2008. Noelle Gaffney has lived through the South Loop's boom and its slowdown. She profited from being a pioneer in the neighborhood 20 years ago, selling her first two homes just as the market was getting hot and making robust profits on them. In 2001, she enthusiastically bought a condo under construction. But she's struggled for three years to sell the 2,040-square-foot duplex-style home. Gaffney, who already bought and moved into a nearby town home, first put the condo on the market at $725,000, including parking. She dropped the price to $640,000 in 2006. She found no buyers, and so she took it off the market and has rented it for the last two years. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-housing-market-m akes-winners.html International Police, Protesters Clash in North Egypt By PAUL SCHEMM. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 3:19 PM CDT, April 7, 2008. MAHALLA EL-KOBRA, Egypt - Egyptian police attacked protesters who tore down a billboard of President Hosni Mubarak in a northern city Monday in the second day of violence fueled by anger over low wages and rising prices. In another sign of dissatisfaction with the U.S.-backed government, the country's most powerful opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said it was reversing a decision to participate in local elections Tuesday because of mass arrests of its members in recent months. Prices of cooking oil, rice and other staples have nearly doubled since the beginning of the year and there are widespread shortages of government-subsidized bread throughout the country of 76 million people. Nearly 40 percent of Egyptians live under the internationally defined poverty line of $2 a day. Complaints that the government is not doing enough to help the poor have turned simmering dissatisfaction with repression and lack of economic opportunity into rare open unrest. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/police-protesters-clash- in-north-egypt.html China Financial Times Editorial Comment: Playing with fire. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 8 2008 19:13 | Last updated: April 8 2008 19:13. China is feeling the heat. Instead of a smooth series of positive images ahead of the Beijing Games, the grand plans for a world tour by the Olympic torch have produced a new international sport: extinguishing the flame as a pro-Tibet protest. At the weekend there were damaging scenes of a squad of Chinese attendants jostling demonstrators in London. After the disruption of the torch?s progress through Paris comes the sight of protesters on the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. These are not reasons to curtail the tour. On the contrary, the ?journey of harmony? is a valuable chance to give Beijing vivid proof that significant swathes of international opinion deeply oppose the recent crackdown. The protests gain added power ahead of the torch?s trip through Tibet itself. The opportunity for political expression that comes from taking the torch around the globe is an innovation from 2004, when the games returned to Athens. But the modern Olympic movement has long had a complex relationship with politics. The first tour of the torch came in the run-up to the 1936 Olympiad, as part of the Nazi propaganda which made Berlin the most notorious games of recent times. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/financial-times-editoria l-comment_09.html Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - 'Journey of Education' is a lesson for China. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. April 8, 2008. China is beset by a public relations nightmare of its own making. As host of this summer's Olympic games, China has sent the Olympic torch on a 130-day relay journey, only to be humiliated by chaotic human rights protests all along the way. In Paris on Monday, scuffling between police and protesters grew so dangerous that the torch had to be snuffed out and carried by bus. In London the day before, a team of Olympic torch bearers only barely managed to keep the flame alive, dodging protesters -- one of whom just missed with a fire extinguisher -- with the help of more than 2,000 police officers. Around the world, the chant was heard: "Shame on China." Shame on China, indeed. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-sun-times-editor ial-journey-of.html Tibet protests force Beijing into IOC talks By Roger Blitz and Jimmy Burns in London, Ben Hall in Paris and Richard McGregor in Beijing. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 7 2008 09:21 | Last updated: April 8 2008 01:06. Beijing officials are to hold urgent talks with senior members of the Olympic movement about the torch relay, as concern grows among International Olympic Committee members over the effect of pro-Tibet protests on the games. The proposed discussions follow a second consecutive day of disruption for the torch relay in Europe. Protests by hundreds of pro-Tibetan campaigners and some French politicians against Chinese human rights abuses yesterday forced organisers to cut short the Olympic torch?s 28km trip through Paris. IOC insiders ruled out routes being curtailed or cancelled, but one said talks with Beijing would cover ?how the integrity of the torch can be maintained?. One said the backlash against China?s action in Tibet was in danger of casting a ?stain on the Olympic movement?. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/tibet-protests-force-bei jing-into-ioc.html Bush to attend Olympic opening ceremony By Demetri Sevastopulo and Daniel Dombey in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 9 2008 06:23 | Last updated: April 9 2008 06:23. President George W. Bush will not skip the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing to protest the Chinese government crackdown on protestors in Tibet, according to a senior US official. Ambiguous comments from the White House sparked speculation on Tuesday that Mr Bush might be considering a boycott of the opening ceremony. Asked several times whether the president was considering attending only the sporting events, Dana Perino, White House spokeswoman, replied: ?I would not put it that way?. A senior official later told the Financial Times that Mr Bush was not considering skipping the opening ceremony. He said the president had ?made clear in recent discussions with foreign leaders that he is not interested in skipping the opening ceremony?. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/bush-to-attend-olympic-o pening-ceremony.html Mess-o-potamia Financial Times Editorial Comment: Adrift in Baghdad. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 9 2008 19:31 | Last updated: April 9 2008 19:31. The claims made by President George W. Bush and an increasingly reedy chorus of neo-conservative boosters for the ?surge? of US troops in Iraq have long been ludicrous. The multi-sided ethno-sectarian conflict fuelled by the occupation has not been ?turned around? and strategic success ? whatever that now means ? is nowhere in prospect. General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, does not make such claims; nor does he go out of his way to deflate them. He wants more time for the strategy, a pause in the drawdown of troops after the five brigades of surge reinforcements depart in the summer. But there are no signs the surge can deliver enduring gains. It is not even clear how much longer it can keep Iraq in its present holding pattern, a bloodsoaked gridlock of militia rule fragmenting the country. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/financial-times-editoria l-comment_10.html Militants Kill 17 Afghan Road Workers By AMIR SHAH. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 11:47 AM CDT, April 8, 2008. KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants killed 17 road workers in Afghanistan's lawless south Tuesday, part of a spike in violence that left 40 people dead over two days. Sixteen other construction workers were wounded in the attack in Zabul's Shinkay district, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. Afghan and international security forces responding to the ambush killed seven militants and wounded 12, he said. Road-building is a key part of Afghan reconstruction and many projects are in remote, insurgency-plagued areas. Militants have targeted work crews in roadside bomb attacks, ambushes and kidnappings. In January, militants in eastern Nuristan province beheaded four road construction workers. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/militants-kill-17-afghan -road-workers.html Hundreds Flee Fight in Shiite Stronghold By ROBERT H. REID. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 4:20 PM CDT, April 7, 2008. BAGHDAD - Hundreds of people fled fighting in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold Monday as U.S. and Iraqi forces increased pressure on anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who faces an ultimatum to either disband his Mahdi Army or give up politics. Al-Sadr's aides said he would only dismantle the powerful militia if ordered by top Shiite clerics -- who have remained silent throughout the increasingly dangerous showdown. Although al-Sadr holds considerable influence through the Mahdi fighters -- estimated at up to 60,000 -- political exile for his movement would shatter his dream of becoming the major power broker among the country's Shiite majority. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/hundreds-flee-fight-in-s hiite.html Iran steps up uranium enrichment By Anna Fifield and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 8 2008 13:07 | Last updated: April 8 2008 15:42. Iran has started installing an additional 6,000 advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at its main nuclear facility, President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad declared on Tuesday, in a move that will heighten western fears about Tehran?s nuclear intentions. The extra equipment will enable Iran to triple its enrichment capacity. In theory, analysts say this means Tehran could produce three nuclear weapons a year if all the centrifuges were working efficiently, though Iran insists its programme is purely for peaceful energy production. ?Today, the process of installing 6,000 new centrifuges at the facility in Natanz has started,? Mr Ahmadi-Nejad said on Tuesday during a visit to the plant to mark national nuclear technology day. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/iran-steps-up-uranium-en richment.html National Airlines Fare Poorly in Quality Survey By JENNIFER C. KERR. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 3:47 PM CDT, April 7, 2008. WASHINGTON - Low-cost carriers AirTran, Jet Blue and Southwest took the top three spots in a national survey of airline quality, while the industry overall hit its lowest rating in the nearly two decades of the study. The poor ratings come at a time of rising fuel prices and increasingly fed-up consumers. At the bottom of the list released Monday were Comair, American Eagle and in last place: Atlantic Southeast Airlines. The past year "was the worst year ever for the U.S. airlines," said Brent Bowen, a study co-author and professor at the Aviation Institute at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. "Overall operational performance and quality declined once again to the lowest level that it's ever been." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/airlines-fare-poorly-in- quality-survey.html New cancellations deepen US airport chaos By Kevin Allison in San Francisco, Hal Weitzman in Chicago and Daniel Pimlott in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 10 2008 19:06 | Last updated: April 10 2008 19:06. Chaos gripped US airports for a third straight day on Thursday as the government?s top transportation watchdog called for changes to airline safety oversight, citing an ?overly collaborative? relationship between airlines and their regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration. Calvin Scovel III, the US transportation department?s inspector general, made his comments before Congress as American Airlines cancelled 900 flights to perform safety checks, stranding thousands of air passengers. American Airlines had been forced to cancel more than 1,400 flights on Tuesday and Wednesday to ensure that its fleet of MD-80 jets was in compliance with government ?airworthiness directives?. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-cancellations-deepen -us-airport.html American cancels another 1,500 flights By Kevin Allison in San Francisco, Hal Weitzman in Chicago and Daniel Pimlott in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 10 2008 19:06 | Last updated: April 11 2008 00:57. American Airlines cancelled 570 flights on Friday, setting up US airports for a fourth day of chaos and bringing the number of flights cancelled by the carrier this week to more than 3000. The cancellations, coming after 900 on Thursday, brought further chaos to US airports, as AA raced to perform safety checks. The cancellations came after Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways pulled flights after officials announced spot inspections of all US airlines? safety paperwork. Airlines have been under increased scrutiny since early March, when details surfaced of a congressional investigation into claims that the Federal Aviation Administration, the regulator, had permitted Southwest Airlines to fly aircraft that were not compliant with airworthiness standards. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/american-cancels-another -1500-flights.html Bush Whacking Fraud Loophole Documents Delayed By LARA JAKES JORDAN. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 8:24 PM CDT, April 7, 2008. WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has delayed delivering documents to Congress explaining how a multibillion-dollar loophole exempting overseas work from scrutiny was slipped into a rule intended to crack down on fraud in government contracts. A House panel will hear April 15 from White House and other administration officials about the loophole, which drew protests from Democrats and Republican lawmakers alike and been disavowed by Attorney General Michael Mukasey. "If this loophole was a bureaucratic mistake as some in the administration have claimed, then our requests should be easy to meet," Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in a statement Monday. "This should be simple. Someone in the administration made this change and it should be easy to explain why. A delay only raises more questions." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/fraud-loophole-documents -delayed.html Indecision 2008 Religious logic - Copyright by The Chicago Tribune, April 12, 2008 By the logic that Barack Obama supported his pastor's thoughts by not leaving his church, all those who continue to go to Catholic churches support pedophiles. --Darwin Corrin Chicago ?Reagan Democrats? switch allegiance By Edward Luce in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 11 2008 20:04 | Last updated: April 11 2008 20:04. Neil Samuels is typical of many Democrats in Bucks County, Pennsylvania ? a picturesque suburb of northern Philadelphia. A former Republican, Mr Samuels is one of thousands who have switched loyalties and turned Bucks County into a majority Democratic zone for the first time in living memory. ?Ronald Reagan once said: ?I didn?t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left me?,? says Mr Samuels, who is deputy chair of his county?s Democratic party. ?Well I didn?t leave the Republican party. The Republican party left me.? The sharp trend away from the Republican party is not confined to Bucks County. Fuelled by disaffection with the Iraq war, the Bush administration?s alleged mismanagement of the US economy and its departure from fiscal conservatism, Pennsylvania as a whole has shifted from being a swing state into a Democratic state over the past few years. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/reagan-democrats-switch- allegiance.html McCain in battle to keep his cool By Andrew in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 10 2008 18:54 | Last updated: April 10 2008 18:54. It was the telltale sign that John McCain was getting mad. During the last few Republican presidential primary debates, when his battle with Mitt Romney became increasingly rancorous, a forced smile would spread across the Arizona senator?s face every time his opponent went on the attack. Asked about the expression by a reporter later, he described it as a ?defence mechanism? to mask feelings of anger and frustration. Mr McCain has been battling to control his infamous temper since childhood, when schoolmates nicknamed him ?McNasty? and ?Punk?. Now, as he prepares to carry the Republican banner into November?s election, critics are questioning whether his fiery temperament could be a liability as commander-in-chief. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/mccain-in-battle-to-keep -his-cool.html Slams at Obama show Smiley is out of touch By LAURA WASHINGTON LauraSWashington at aol.com. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. April 7, 2008. The suits at PBS must perspire profusely when they consider the latest from Tavis Smiley on the subjects of Sen. Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Smiley, the PBS talk show host and public television's Numero Uno black guy, is a vociferous and cagey Obama critic. On a recent HBO broadcast, Smiley took up the Obama conversation and made one of the most outlandish utterances I've ever seen on TV -- we'll come back to that momentarily. Lately, black folks have been buttonholing me with one or another variation of the same question: "What's the deal with Tavis? Why is he dogging out my man Obama?" Well, boys and girls, Mr. Smiley has had a problem with Sen. Obama for quite a while. It all goes back to Smiley's February 2007 State of the Black Union confab at Hampton University in Virginia. Every year, Smiley hosts a series of discussions with some of the biggest names in black America. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/slams-at-obama-show-smil ey-is-out-of.html Outpouring of hate greets Obama column BY ANDREW GREELEY. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. April 9, 2008. I was swept away last week by an avalanche of hate mail, far more than I usually receive (and favorable mail usually outnumbers the contentious). The first letter asserted the pope was coming to America this month to dispose of priests like me. The second said the writer had left the church because of me and priests like me, especially the archbishop of Boston (name not given). The third suggested I was part of the Jewish-Communist conspiracy against the church and the United States. Another argued I had failed in my priestly duty because I had not revealed the names of secret pedophile priests to the church and the police. My crime was a column I had written recently in which I argued that the outrageous resentment toward Sen. Obama by some columnists has poisoned the current political campaign. Naomi Schaefer Riley of the Wall Street Journal had said the senator had joined Trinity United Church of Christ because he was a radical at Harvard and wanted the support of that large congregation when he ran for political office. Professor Thomas Sowell accused him of hypocrisy because when he decided to run for office he found it useful to present an image as a "post-racial" black. As one who knew the facts about the senator's life and counts him as a friend, I rose to his defense. Both writers, I asserted, bore false witness and displayed the kind of personal resentment that President Kennedy encountered and that created the atmosphere in which real crazies would kill him and his brother. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/outpouring-of-hate-greet s-obama-column.html Funding scandal may damage Quinn?s campaign for mayor. Copyright by The Chicago Free Press. April 9, 2008. NEW YORK?Christine Quinn was widely thought to have a shot at becoming New York?s first female and openly gay mayor. But that bid may be complicated by revelations that the New York City Council, under her leadership, allocated millions of dollars to fake organizations. Quinn admitted this week that the council has appropriated some $17.4 million dollars since 2001 to groups that didn?t exist. Quinn, considered a likely Democratic mayoral candidate for the race to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg next year, has tried to make open government a hallmark of her agenda. With federal and city investigators now looking into the fake funding and other council finance issues, she could end up paying the political consequences. Quinn, who is in her third year as speaker of the 51-member council, is the third council speaker since 1989, when the position was created. It is widely considered to be the second-most powerful seat in city government, largely because of its influence over budget matters. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/funding-scandal-may-dama ge-quinns.html Clinton move ?too little too late? By Edward Luce in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 7 2008 19:18 | Last updated: April 7 2008 23:16. Hillary Clinton?s decision to remove Mark Penn as her chief strategist on Sunday came too late to save her campaign and amounted to too little to restructure it, Democrat officials have said. In spite of being demoted, Mr Penn, who has so far billed Mrs Clinton for $13m (?8.26m, ?6.52m) worth of campaign work, will stay on as her consultant, pollster and direct mail provider. Mr Penn, who was undone by a meeting last week with the Colombian ambassador in his role as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, the public relations company, was originally due to be demoted in early January following Mrs Clinton?s poor third place showing in the Iowa caucuses, which kicked off the nominating season. But the former first lady?s unexpected victory in New Hampshire five days later saved Mr Penn and others, including Patti Solis Doyle, her campaign manager, who was eventually removed in February. Had Mrs Clinton lost New Hampshire, she would have radically restructured her campaign, say insiders. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/clinton-move-too-little- too-late.html Bill Clinton Visits Puerto Rico, Rich in Culture and Delegates By Eli Saslow. Copyright by The Washington Post. Tuesday, April 8, 2008; Page A01. BARCELONETA, Puerto Rico, April 7 -- The four sound trucks filed onto potholed streets at 8 o'clock Monday morning, weighed down by the 800-pound speakers rigged to their roofs. They drove past the pineapple plantations, past the black-sand beaches, past the multicolored tiendas downtown. All morning, the trucks blasted the same short message, as if repetition might make it more believable: "S?! Bill Clinton est? aqu?!" Yes, a few hours later, Bill Clinton did come to this farming town 1,200 miles from the U.S. mainland, bringing with him the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. The former president walked into the humid courtyard of a university to a drumroll from boys banging on steel garbage cans, past security guards in Hawaiian shirts and women dancing to salsa music, to make the case for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/bill-clinton-visits-puer to-rico-rich-in.html Chicagoland Chicago Tribune Editorial - The Jone$ solution. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 7, 2008. Democrats in the Illinois Senate have found their perfect solution to their governor's projected $750 million budget shortfall. They want to . . . spend an additional $678 million, give or take. Perhaps, unlike Senate President Emil Jones and his Democrats, this is not how you resolve a money shortage in your household. Perhaps, unlike Jones and his Democrats, you are disinclined to ramp up your spending to nearly double your shortage. Perhaps too, unlike Jones and his Democrats, you are not so maddeningly tormented by House Speaker Michael Madigan that you'd even consider a stunt this foolish. The Senate Democrats like to think they're in the select and senior chamber. They resent Madigan, who frequently outmaneuvers them, the way Hillary resents Barack. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-tribune-editoria l-jone-solution.html Technology Yahoo rejects Microsoft?s $42bn offer By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 7 2008 12:13 | Last updated: April 7 2008 18:47. Yahoo has positioned itself for the endgame in its battle with Microsoft by issuing its strongest rejection to date of its rival?s $42bn takeover offer. However, analysts said the rhetoric from both sides suggested a negotiated settlement might happen, with Microsoft offering a deal worth more than its initial $31 a share. Yahoo?s swift response to Microsoft?s move to set a deadline on Saturday of three weeks to conclude an agreement came in the form of a ?Dear Steve? letter to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft?s chief executive, from his Yahoo counterpart, Jerry Yang, and Roy Bostock, chairman of the board. It said Microsoft was still substantially undervaluing Yahoo, whose board had received significant support from shareholders. It said they were impressed by projected revenues in a three-year financial and strategic plan unveiled last month. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/yahoo-rejects-microsofts -42bn-offer.html Immigration Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Close door on bad wall idea. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times . April 8, 2008. Homeland Security is bulldozing along with plans to expand a border wall. Security czar Michael Chertoff has issued waivers to bypass environmental laws to speed construction of 470 miles of fence from California to Texas. The wall threatens the environment and wildlife, including the ocelot, the jaguarundi and migratory birds. It also would cut through federally protected wilderness areas. In response, conservationists have petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the REAL ID Act, which allows Homeland Security to grant such waivers, is unconstitutional and violates federal environmental laws. But let's not pretend. A wall won't end illegal immigration. As the saying goes: "Build a 50-foot wall and someone will build a 51-foot ladder." "Coyotes" -- immigrant smugglers -- will find a way above or around. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-sun-times-editor ial-close-door.html GLBT HIV/AIDS Lobby Days: 120 travel, call for sound policies by Amy Wooten. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-04-09. The eighth annual HIV/AIDS Lobby Days was a ?huge success,? according to the event's organizers. Over 120 people rallied in the rotunda of the State Capitol on April 2, calling for sound HIV/AIDS policies. Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with this year's ?Mission: Possible? theme, HIV/AIDS advocates spoke to their state legislators about critical pieces of HIV/AIDS legislation. Joining the advocates during the rally were state Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria, and Reps. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, and Cynthia Soto, D-Chicago. AIDS Foundation of Chicago's Jim Merrell, who organized the event, told Windy City Times that Lobby Days was extremely successful this year. In addition to the rally, roughly 75 advocates were trained April 1. That evening, AFC also honored HIV/AIDS activists for their hard work during an awards ceremony. Advocate Marla Francisco, a client representative for an HIV consortium, was given the 4th annual Mary Dixon Advocacy Award. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/hivaids-lobby-days-120-t ravel-call-for.html Unmarried Couples - Unequal Legal Rights. Copyright by Gay Chicago Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss. April 8, 2008. There are many examples where LGBT couples are not afforded the same legal rights as are afforded married couples: The estate of one partner who dies may be subject to sizable federal estate taxes, while married spouses can leave everything to their spouse free of federal estate tax. One partner who is not a natural or adoptive parent has no legal rights to the other partner?s children, even if they have lived together for many years. A LGBT partner has no rights to their partner?s pension or social security benefits. A surviving partner has no right to inherit any of their lover?s property unless they are specifically provided for in either a will, joint tenancy ownership, named beneficiary of an IRA or life insurance policy or beneficiary under a living trust declaration. LGBT couples who plan a long-term relationship should consider all the estate planning and retirement needs for their relationship. As only about one-quarter of all adults die with a valid will such an oversight could be disaster for the surviving partner. Along with naming a partner in a will all couples need to review who holds title to what property and who is listed as the beneficiary of insurance policies, annuities and retirement plans. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/unmarried-couples-unequa l-legal-rights.html Views: Thomas Beatie's pregnancy: What does it change? by Yasmin Nair. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-04-09. Thomas Beatie, a transgender man who has retained his female reproductive organs and is six months pregnant, recently appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Let me be clear at the outset: I support Beatie's decision. I also think it's remarkably brave of him to be public about his decision. It takes a lot to be out as a transgender person, even in famously liberal Oregon, but to be a pregnant man in public goes beyond the pale. Sure, I could have done without all the gendered rhetoric, as when his wife said, ?He's going to be the father; I'm going to be the mother. It doesn't change how I feel about him as the husband.? This will be a family with a father who gives birth to his child. But this will not, apparently, be a feminist family. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/views-thomas-beaties-pre gnancy-what.html PlanetOut agrees to sell magazine business for $6 million by Steven E.F. Brown. Copyright by The San Francisco Business Times. April 9, 20008. Gay and lesbian media portal PlanetOut Inc. agreed to sell its magazine and book publishing business to Here Networks for $6 million in cash. San Francisco-based PlanetOut signed a letter of intent with Regent Releasing, an affiliate of New York-based Here, which is a gay and lesbian television network. A formal agreement should be done by April 30 and the deal should close by August 31. The price in the letter of agreement is $6 million, with $1 million coming on April 30 or sooner, if the agreement is finished earlier. Other $1 million payments will be made on the 15th of the month from May through September. The letter, signed by PlanetOut CEO Karen Magee and Regent CEO Paul Colichman states: "The funds shall be treated as prepaid advertising, to be applied as the marketing occurs." The ads must run by March 31, 2009. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/planetout-agrees-to-sell -magazine.html Kennedy reignites ENDA controversy By Andrew Miga. Copyright by The Associated Press. April 9, 2008. WASHINGTON?Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is jumping into the middle of an uproar within the gay community whose causes he has long championed. The Massachusetts Democrat is leading a push in the Senate for a federal ban on job bias against gays, lesbians and bisexuals?but not transsexuals, cross-dressers and others whose outward appearance doesn?t match their gender at birth. ?We will strongly oppose it,? said Roberta Sklar, of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. ?Leaving transgender people out makes that a flawed movement.? The House in November approved the bill, written by openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), despite strong protests from many gay rights advocates that it didn?t cover transgender workers. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/kennedy-reignites-enda-c ontroversy.html Obama Talks All Things LGBT With The Advocate By Kerry Eleveld. Copyright by The Advocate. April 10, 2008. In an exclusive Chicago sit-down with The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld, Democratic front-runner Barack Obama discusses "don't ask, don't tell," the Reverend Wright, and what he would do for LGBT Americans if he becomes president. Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama has been weathering a small storm lately in the LGBT community for being too tight-lipped with gay and lesbian news media. Unlike his rival Hillary Clinton, who's given interviews to Logo and several local papers since appearing on the cover of The Advocate last fall, the Illinois senator has talked only once, to The Advocate, to address the Donnie McClurkin controversy. But last week his campaign offered our magazine an exclusive sit-down in Chicago with the man who may well become the next president of the United States. To some extent, it symbolizes the brilliance of a protracted primary contest where candidates continually pivot and adjust in order to engage ever more voters. Had the race stopped cold in the snows of New Hampshire, gays and lesbians would have been left with one interview of record for each Democratic candidate in total. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-talks-all-things-l gbt-with.html Obama favors repealing 'don't ask, don't tell' policy Copyright by The BY ASSOCIATED PRESS. April 10, 2008. WASHINGTON---- Barack Obama says if elected president he will not require that his Joint Chiefs of Staff be opposed to the ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy that prevents gays from serving openly in the military. The Democratic presidential front-runner favors repealing the policy, which was instituted during the Clinton administration. He said his priority for the Joint Chiefs will be that they make decisions to strengthen the military and keep the country safe, not their position on the policy. ''I would never make this a litmus test for the Joint Chiefs of Staff,'' Obama said in an interview with The Advocate, a gay newsmagazine. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-favors-repealing-d ont-ask-dont.html Exhibit documents war Nazis waged against gays By Eric Tucker. Copyright by The Associated Press. April 9, 2008. SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. ? In Nazi Germany, some gay men were castrated and prosecuted under draconian laws prohibiting homosexuality. Others were subjected to crude medical experiments designed to "correct" their sexual orientation. Gay men in concentration camps were singled out with distinctive pink triangle badges and assigned backbreaking labor that often killed them. A traveling exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum uses photographs, documents and artwork to chronicle the Nazis' arrests and persecution of tens of thousands of gay men. The exhibit, which recently ended its run at the University of Rhode Island, gives voice to what its curator describes as "one of the lesser-known stories of the Nazi era." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/exhibit-documents-war-na zis-waged.html Clinton talks with Philly gay paper; Obama refuses By Nedra Pickler. Copyright by The Associated Press. April 10, 2008. WASHINGTON?Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would defend gay rights as president and eliminate disparities for same-sex couples in federal law, including immigration and tax policy. Clinton said states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts are extending rights to gay couples ?and the federal government should recognize that and should extend the same access to federal benefits across the board. I will very much work to achieve that.? Clinton?s comments came in an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News that was posted on its website April 3. Clinton said she and her husband have many gay friends that they socialize with when they get the chance. ?I?ve got friends, literally, around the country that I?m close to. It?s part of my life,? she said. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/clinton-talks-with-phill y-gay-paper.html Transitioning into inclusion at Michigan By Jennifer Vanasco. Copyright by The Chicago Free Press and Jennifer Vanasco. April 9, 2008. Seventeen years after Nancy Burkholder was ejected from the Michigan Womyn?s Music Festival because she was outed as a transwoman, people on the Michigan Internet forums are still talking about transgender inclusion in the lesbian community. I find this amazing. And when I say ?amazing,? I mean it in a good way. One of the things I like best about Michigan is how seriously issues are taken that have long been dropped from mainstream discussions?it?s a place and a community where feminism is still important, where gender is still important, where academic topics like power dynamics, degrees of oppression and social conditioning are discussed, debated and lived. Because women who attend Fest and transwomen who want to attend all feel so strongly about it, the ?womyn-born-womyn only? policy is one that?s painful for all sides. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/transitioning-into-inclu sion-at.html Health Care States fear plant could become next marijuana By Jessica Gresko . Copyright 2008 Associated Press. April 8, 2008. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? On Web sites touting the mind-blowing powers of Salvia divinorum, come-ons to buy the hallucinogenic herb are accompanied by warnings: "Time is running out!" and "stock up while you still can." That's because this species of salvia is being targeted by lawmakers concerned that the inexpensive and easy-to-obtain plant could become the next marijuana. Eight states including Illinois have placed restrictions on Salvia divinorum, and 16 others are considering a ban or have previously. "As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one," said Florida state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, who has introduced a bill to make possession of Salvia divinorum a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison. On Jan. 1, Salvia divinorum became a Schedule I substance in Illinois. Possession or sale is a felony, with legal consequences as severe as those for heroin or LSD. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/states-fear-plant-could- become-next.html Drugmaker hid contraceptive data - Company to wield FDA approval as shield from lawsuits By Gardiner Harris and Alex Berenson. Copyright by The New York Times . April 6, 2008. For years, Johnson & Johnson obscured evidence that its popular Ortho Evra birth control patch delivered much more estrogen than standard birth control pills, potentially increasing the risk of blood clots and strokes, according to internal company documents. More than 3,000 women and their families have sued the company, saying use of the Ortho Evra patch caused heart attacks, strokes and, in some cases, death. But because the Food and Drug Administration approved the patch, the company is arguing in court that it cannot be sued by women who claim they were injured by the product?even though its old label inaccurately described the amount of estrogen it released. This legal argument is called pre-emption. After decades of being dismissed by courts, the tactic now appears to be on the verge of success, lawyers for plaintiffs and drug companies say. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/drugmaker-hid-contracept ive-data.html Other When is it time for Senior drivers to give up their car keys? By Jay Hamburg. Copyright ? 2008, Orlando Sentinel. April 6, 2008. Ray Reynolds, a 76-year-old retired minister from Orlando, is on a mission to force folks his age to face a question they hate to hear, much less discuss openly with family or friends. How old is too old to drive? Reynolds doesn't have a quick answer to what he calls a "firestorm" issue for older drivers, many of whom fear the loneliness and anger that follow when a spouse or child wrests away their car keys. Still, that doesn't stop the soft-spoken man from posing the question at public meetings, buttonholing listeners or gently prodding the conversation when surrounded by other seniors, as he was recently at an exercise class in Winter Park. "I don't want to be a hazard on the road," Reynolds said to members of his water-aerobics class at the Crosby YMCA Family Center. "And I do want seniors to begin to think about this." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/when-is-it-time-for-seni or-drivers-to.html New! Carlos now has an online store. Order your books directly from Carlos and have them signed and dedicated. http://www.carlostmock.com/catalog/ In Pride (orgullo), Carlos T. Mock, MD Www.carlostmock.com Author: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table. Author: The Mosaic Virus ? Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a Lammie from The Lambda Literary Foundation Author: Author: Papi Chulo ? Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a Lammie from The Lambda Literary Foundation -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ctmock at gmail.com Sat Apr 19 10:31:59 2008 From: ctmock at gmail.com (Carlos Mock) Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:31:59 -0500 Subject: [News] I'm Bitter Newsletter - April 19, 2008 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I Am a Bitter Man. Posted on April 15th, 2008 by Stephen Pizzo. Copyright by News for real. I am a bitter man. I admit it. I?m neither proud or happy about it. But it?s not my fault, either. Eight years ago I was annoyed, but I wasn?t bitter. Being annoyed with government is the natural state of the governed. It?s the catalyst that keeps politicians paranoid about what we?re up to out here while they, hopefully, try to do enough things right to get our vote next time around, even if resentfully.m But bitter is a different kind of catalyst. It?s the emotion that freed these former colonies from Britain. It?s the emotion that motivated American blacks to come together in the 1960s and demand an end to segregation, once and for all. At the turn of the century in Russia bitterness caused the Russian people to put an end to careless, self-indulgent, wasteful monarchy. Before that, in France, bitterness among the peasantry caused a whole lot folks to loose their heads ? literally. In short, bitterness is a motivator ? maybe the motivator when it comes to the forcing of social tipping points. So, while I?m bitter that this administration has turned me bitter, I am crystal clear on the reasons why I?m bitter: ...... Those are the reasons I?m bitter. And it you?re one of those folks Hillary and McCain keep assuring me are ?not bitter,? I have only one question for you: What the hell?s wrong with you? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-am-bitter-man.html Your Lack of Money Krugman: America is feeling bleak? By Paul Krugman. Copyright by the International Herald Tribune. Published: April 14, 2008. The Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan has been tracking American economic perceptions since the 1950s. On Friday the center released its latest estimate of the consumer sentiment index - and it was a stunner. Americans are more pessimistic about their situation than they have been for more than a quarter century. Meanwhile, a recent Pew report found that the percentage of Americans saying that they're better off than they were five years ago is at its lowest level in 44 years of polling. What's striking about this bleak mood is that by the usual measures the economy isn't doing that badly - at least not yet. In particular, the official unemployment rate of 5.1 percent, though rising, is still fairly low by historical standards. Yet economic attitudes are worse now than they were in 1992, when the average unemployment rate was 7.5 percent. Why are we feeling so down? Our bleakness partly reflects that most Americans are doing considerably worse than the usual economic measures let on. The official unemployment rate may be relatively low - but the percentage of prime-working-age Americans without jobs, which isn't the same thing, is historically high. Gross domestic product is up, but the inflation-adjusted income of the median family is probably lower than it was in 2000. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/krugman-america-is-feeli ng-bleak.html Survey reinforces US manufacturing gloom. By Chris Bryant in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 17 2008 15:58 | Last updated: April 17 2008 15:58. An index of regional factory activity slumped to its lowest level in seven years this month, painting a grim outlook for the US manufacturing sector as domestic economic demand continued to slow. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve index of manufacturing conditions fell to -24.9 from -17.4 in April, marking a fifth consecutive monthly decline. Economists had forecast a slight uptick to a reading of -15 after a dramatic improvement in the New York Fed?s Empire State manufacturing index earlier this week. An index of new orders in the Philadelphia region decreased from -9.3 to -18.8 while the employment index retreated from -4.7 to -11.1, a third negative reading in four months. However, the prices paid index moderated a fraction, declining to 51.6 from 54.4. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/survey-reinforces-us-man ufacturing.html Merrill cuts jobs as writedowns top $6bn By Ben White in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 17 2008 13:44 | Last updated: April 17 2008 13:44. Merrill Lynch on Thursday said it lost $1.97bn in the first quarter and planned to cut around 4,000 jobs after writing down the value of mortgage related assets, leveraged loans and other holdings by more than $6bn. The grim results, which trailed analyst expectations, marked the second straight losing quarter for Merrill and underscored the stiff challenge facing John Thain, chief executive, in moving the brokerage house past the worst of the credit squeeze. Despite the loss and fresh writedowns, Mr Thain said Merrill would not need to raise any new capital beyond the $12bn it has already received from sovereign wealth funds and other outside investors. ?Despite this quarter?s loss, Merrill Lynch?s underlying businesses produced solid results in a difficult market environment,? said Mr Thain. ?The firm?s $82bn excess liquidity pool has increased from year-end levels, and we remain well capitalised. In addition, our global franchise is positioned strongly for the future, and we continue to invest in key growth areas and regions.? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/merrill-cuts-jobs-as-wri tedowns-top-6bn.html JPMorgan profits halve to $2.4bn By Francesco Guerrera in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 16 2008 13:59 | Last updated: April 16 2008 13:59. JPMorgan Chase saw profits halve in the first quarter of the year as continued trouble in the mortgage, home equity and leveraged loans markets forced it to take more than $5bn in writedowns and provisions. The results, which were in line with analysts? expectations, underline the on-going challenges faced by Wall Street banks as the credit crunch continues to take its toll. However, Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer, said that neither the tough market conditions nor JPMorgan?s recent acquisition of Bear Stearns would prevent it from pursuing other takeover opportunities. JPMorgan has been linked to a number of regional banks such as SunTrust and Washington Mutual. His comments came as JPMorgan reported net income of $2.4bn, a 50 per cent fall on the first quarter of last year, on revenues of $17.9bn, a 9 per cent decline on the same period a year ago. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/jpmorgan-profits-halve-t o-24bn.html Citi reports $5.1bn loss on new writedowns By Ben White in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 18 2008 13:50 | Last updated: April 18 2008 13:50. Citigroup on Friday said it lost $5.1bn in the first quarter following fresh writedowns of $13bn on troubled assets and a spike in credit costs. Vikram Pandit, chief executive, blamed the loss on a continuation of the ?unprecedented credit and market environment? and confirmed plans to slash costs including the sale of non-strategic assets. Mr Pandit plans to cut Citi?s cost base by up to 20 per cent, a goal that will likely include significant reductions in the bank?s 370,000-strong workforce./Citi?s $5.1bn loss highlights depth of crisis By Francesco Guerrera and Ben White in New York Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 18 2008 13:50 | Last updated: April 18 2008 20:52. Citigroup underlined the plight of financial firms squeezed by the credit crunch and the slowing US economy on Friday by announcing a $5.1bn quarterly loss, nearly $16bn in writedowns and 9,000 job cuts. But its shares rallied in New York, rising 4.5 per cent to end Friday?s session at $25.11, amid investors? hopes that it had absorbed the biggest blows from the crisis and was moving to slash costs and shrink its balance sheet. The first quarter results missed Wall Street expectations and showed losses or sharp falls in profits across Citi?s portfolio of retail, commercial and investment banking businesses. The losses at the consumer and investment banking divisions prompted Fitch to downgrade its credit rating one notch to AA-. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/citi-reports-51bn-loss-o n-new.html Wachovia moves into loss and cuts dividend. By Ben White in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 14 2008 02:37 | Last updated: April 14 2008 13:32. Wachovia, the fifth largest US bank by market value, confirmed on Monday it planned to raise $7bn in capital through a public offering as it slashed its dividend and slumped to a first quarter loss. The bank also made a $2.8bn provision to cover losses on mortgage-related investments. Ken Thompson, Wachovia?s chief executive officer, blamed higher credit costs and continued disruption in capital markets for a $350m, or $0.20 a share, first quarter loss compared with a profit of $2.3bn or $1.20 a share in the first quarter of last year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected Wachovia to earn 40 cents per share. Shares in Wachovia shares fell $2.84 or more than 10 per cent on Monday to $24.97. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/wachovia-moves-into-loss -and-cuts.html Gold and Commodities Oil $115.46 Silver Bullion $17.88 Gold Bullion $917 Platinum Bullion $ $2050 Oil and rice race to record levels By Chris Flood. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 18 2008 18:04 | Last updated: April 18 2008 18:19. Oil extended its record breaking run this week, pushing above the $116 level, while petrol, copper, tin and rice also reached new peaks. Panic buying drove Thai rice prices, the global benchmark to $1,000 a tonne this week as importers struggled to secure supplies. Key exporting countries have imposed export restrictions, leading to widespread concerns about supply shortages and the potential for widespread social unrest. US prices followed Thai rises to record levels with CBOT May rough rice futures up 2 per cent to $24.36 a hundredweight on Friday, leaving prices 16.6 per cent higher on the week. . In energy markets, Nymex May West Texas Intermediate hit a record $116.10 a barrel on Friday before easing back to trade 60 cents higher at $115.46, up 4.8 per cent this week. Tightening in the US market helped drive the price higher after the Energy Information Administration announced unexpectedly large declines in crude and petrol stocks. ICE June Brent added 42 cents at $112.85 a barrel, up 4 per cent this week. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/oil-and-rice-race-to-rec ord-levels.html US food and energy costs soar By Chris Bryant in Washington DC. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 15 2008 14:49 | Last updated: April 15 2008 14:49. Soaring energy and food bills spurred another jump in US producer prices last month, putting further strain on industries struggling to pass on rising costs to penny-pinching consumers. However, the news was partially offset by a welcome boost for the manufacturing sector after a surprising rebound in regional factory sentiment from the previous month?s record low. Prices at the factory gate rose 1.1 per cent in March, almost twice the 0.6 per cent rate forecast by economists and compared with an increase of 0.3 per cent last month. The increase was largely driven by surging food and energy costs with the price of finished energy goods climbing 2.9 per cent while food goods increased by 1.2 per cent. Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, rose by 0.2 per cent, in line with expectations, and much lower than a rate of 0.5 per cent in February. Core inflation has risen 2.7 per cent in the past year, the fastest rate since July 2005. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-food-and-energy-costs -soar.html Euro approaches $1.60 mark By Peter Garnham. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 16 2008 10:45 | Last updated: April 16 2008 11:12. The euro hit a record high against the dollar and the pound on Wednesday after data showed eurozone inflation hits its highest level since the introduction of the single currency. Official figures showed the eurozone?s harmonised index of consumer prices rose from an annual rate of 3.5 per cent in February to 3.6 per cent in March. The European Central Bank - in contrast to the Federal Reserve and Bank of England - has steadfastly refused to cut rates in response to signs that the fallout from the credit crisis was spilling over into the real economy. Instead, the ECB has maintained that rising price pressures were a greater threat to economic stability than slowing growth. These contrasting stances on monetary policy have pushed the euro to a series of record highs against the dollar and the pound in recent months. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/euro-approaches-160-mark .html G7 fears sudden slide in main currencies By Krishna Guha and Chris Giles in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 13 2008 15:31 | Last updated: April 13 2008 18:52. The Group of Seven industrialised nations has signalled shared concern over the danger of a disorderly slide in the dollar and sterling, following bouts of extreme weakness in the two currencies in recent months. The warning came in a new sentence of the G7 communiqu?, which said ?there have been at times sharp movements in major currencies, and we are concerned about their possible implications for economic and financial stability?. The G7 pledged as before to ?monitor exchange markets closely and co-operate as appropriate?. This is the biggest shift in the G7 language on currencies since the Boca Raton summit in February 2004. It signals the emergence of a new consensus on the risks posed by extreme currency weakness following months of disagreement between economies with appreciating and depreciating currencies. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/g7-fears-sudden-slide-in -main.html Housing Illinois Average Rates 4/19/2008 - 10:46 PM 30 Yr Fixed 5.88% 15 Yr Fixed 5.45% 30 Yr Fixed Jumbo 7.19% 15 Yr Fixed Jumbo 6.42% Treasury sell-off hits housing recovery hopes By Michael Mackenzie and Saskia Scholtes in New York and Krishna Guha in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 18 2008 23:16 | Last updated: April 18 2008 23:16. US mortgage rates soared this week after a dramatic sell-off in the Treasury market that hit housing sector recovery hopes even as it suggested investors were growing more confident in the medium-term US economic outlook. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose as high as 3.85 per cent on Friday from less than 3.50 per cent last week as investors sold bonds on expectations that the Federal Reserve could soon end its rate-cutting cycle. The Fed sees the rise in yields as signalling increased market confidence in US economic prospects. However, mortgage rates also moved higher, making it more expensive to buy homes and less likely that existing homeowners will be able to refinance mortgages. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/treasury-sell-off-hits-h ousing-recovery.html US Foreclosure Filings Jump in March By J.W. ELPHINSTONE. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 3:12 AM CDT, April 15, 2008. The onslaught of homes facing foreclosures has yet to ebb, a research report showed Tuesday, with bank repossessions skyrocketing last month as more troubled homeowners mailed in their keys and walked away. And the worst isn't over: the wave of adjustable-rate loans resetting to higher rates will crest in May and June. And that's expected to push more homeowners into default and foreclosure in the third and fourth quarters of this year, according to RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, Calif. "Once we're through that batch of loans, the worst will have been worked through the system," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president of marketing. The number of U.S. homes receiving at least one foreclosure filing jumped 57 percent in March to 234,685, compared with 149,150 properties a year earlier. Filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-foreclosure-filings-j ump-in-march.html Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - The wrong way on housing. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 14, 2008. Whoever coined the slogan "as American as motherhood and apple pie" forgot one item: homeownership. Politicians have long championed housing investment to the point of excess, and the ongoing mortgage meltdown has given a new urgency to that impulse. That's how we got the muddle-headed housing bill that the U.S. Senate passed overwhelmingly on Thursday. When economic troubles arise, our leaders in Washington are eager to show they are determined to fix the problem. This is not quite the same thing as fixing the problem; advertising their good intentions is usually sufficient for political purposes. This package fits that bill. Given that the federal government is running a big deficit even before it lays out some $150 billion for tax rebates and other forms of economic stimulus, now is not the time to run up more debt. But the measure that Democrats and Republicans joined together to support would cost up to $20 billion. They don't propose to pay for it with revenue increases or spending cuts elsewhere in the budget, which is the only way to avoid swelling the deficit. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-sun-times-editor ial-wrong-way.html Why financial regulation is both difficult and essential By Martin Wolf. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 15 2008 18:41 | Last updated: April 15 2008 18:41. Nice try; no cigar. That was my reaction to the attempt of the banking community to forestall additional regulation, by recommending ?a suite of best practices to be embraced voluntarily?. It was also the reaction of the policymakers meeting in Washington over the weekend. More regulation is on its way. After frightening politicians and policymakers so badly, even the most optimistic banker must realise this. The question is whether the additional regulation will do any good. In an interim report on ?market best practices?, the Institute for International Finance, an association of bankers, offers devastating self-criticism.* Here then are some of the weaknesses it identifies: ?deteriorating lending standards by certain originators of credit?; a ?decline of underwriting standards?; an ?excessive reliance on poorly understood, poorly performing and less than adequate ratings of structured products?; and ?difficulties in identifying where exposures reside?. Would you buy a voluntary code from people who describe their own mistakes in this brutal manner? I thought not. There are two powerful additional reasons for not doing so. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-financial-regulation -is-both.html International What follows American dominion? By Richard Haass. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 15 2008 18:21 | Last updated: April 15 2008 18:21. The unipolar era, a time of un precedented American dominion, is over. It lasted some two decades, little more than a moment in historical terms. Why did it end? One explanation is history. States get better at generating and piecing together the human, financial and technological resources that lead to productivity and prosperity. The same holds for companies and other organisations. The rise of new powers cannot be stopped. The result is an ever larger number of actors able to exert influence regionally or globally. It is not that the US has grown weaker, but that many other entities have grown much stronger. A second reason unipolarity has ended is US policy. By both what it has done and what it has failed to do, the US has accelerated the emergence of new power centres and has weakened its own position relative to them. US energy policy (or the lack thereof) is one driving force behind the end of unipolarity. Since the first oil shocks of the 1970s, US oil consumption has grown by some 20 per cent and, more important, US imports of petroleum products have more than doubled in volume and nearly doubled as a percentage of consumption. This growth in demand for foreign oil has helped drive up the world price from just over $20 a barrel to more than $100 a barrel. The result is an enormous transfer of wealth and leverage to those states with energy reserves. US economic policy has played a role as well. President George W. Bush has fought costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, allowed discretionary spending to increase by 8 per cent a year and cut taxes. The US fiscal position declined from a surplus of more than $100bn in 2001 to an estimated deficit of about $250bn in 2007. The ballooning current account deficit is now more than 6 per cent of gross domestic product. This places downward pressure on the dollar, stimulates inflation and contributes to the accumulation of wealth and power elsewhere in the world. Poor regulation of the US mortgage market and the credit crisis it spawned have exacerbated these problems. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-follows-american-do minion.html Republicans hit at US deal with N Korea By Demetri Sevastopulo and Daniel Dombey in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 16 2008 01:36 | Last updated: April 16 2008 01:36. Senior Republicans on Tuesday criticised a tentative US deal with North Korea that would allow Pyongyang to avoid revealing the full extent of its nuclear programmes as part of a broader agreement towards denuclearising the Korean peninsula. Christopher Hill, the senior US envoy on North Korea, last week briefed the House on a deal that would see North Korea ?acknowledge?, in a secret document, US allegations about nuclear proliferation to Syria and a possible rudimentary uranium-enrichment programme. Under the deal, still being finalised, North Korea would provide a full declaration of only its plutonium programme, which produced the nuclear weapon it tested in 2006. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/republicans-hit-at-us-de al-with-n-korea.html Cubans Line Up for Cell Phone Service By WILL WEISSERT. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 6:29 PM CDT, April 14, 2008. HAVANA - Lines stretched for blocks outside phone centers Monday as the government allowed ordinary Cubans to sign up for cellular phone service for the first time. The contracts cost about US$120 (euro76) to activate -- half a year's wages on the average state salary. And that doesn't include a phone or credit to make and receive calls. But most Cubans have at least some access to dollars or euros thanks to jobs in tourism or with foreign firms, or money sent by relatives abroad. Lines formed before the stores opened, and waits grew to more than an hour. "Everyone wants to be first to sign up," said Usan Astorga, a 19-year-old medical student who stood for about 20 minutes before her line moved at all. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/cubans-line-up-for-cell- phone-service.html China China?s economy races on despite storms By Richard McGregor in Beijing. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 16 2008 07:49 | Last updated: April 16 2008 17:55. China?s economy grew by 10.6 per cent in the first quarter, compared with the first three months of 2007, despite widespread disruption from ice storms and power cuts to industry and transport in January and February. The gross domestic product rise, which was above a market consensus of just above 10 per cent, means that Beijing is likely to continue tightening monetary policy in the coming months, while its big trading partners loosen credit. After the release of the figures, the People?s Bank of China, the central bank, raised the proportion of deposits that large commercial banks must keep with it by 0.5 percentage points to 16 per cent ? the 16th such increase since mid-2006. Growth in the first quarter was down slightly compared with the final three months of 2007, when it stood at 11.7 per cent, mainly due to the slowing pace of export growth and the impact of severe weather. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chinas-econ