Grand Theft Economics
The Lebanon Daily Star
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:53 EST
Group wins bid to develop west Qurna as Baghdad signs up slew of big contracts
Baghdad - An ExxonMobil-led consortium has beaten rival Russian, French and Chinese groups to bag initial rights to develop Iraq's West Qurna field, the Oil Ministry said, adding momentum to Iraq's bid to unlock its oil riches. With reserves of 8.7 billion barrels, West Qurna is among the prized Iraqi fields eyed by Western oil majors as they face flat or lower output at home and stiff competition from Chinese and Indian oil companies in bidding for oilfields elsewhere.
"The consortium led by ExxonMobil, which includes Shell, won the contract to develop West Qurna Phase One oilfield," Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said.
The initial deal was signed in Baghdad on Thursday but needs Cabinet approval before it can be finalized.
The 20-year contract is part of a raft of deals Iraq is close to formalizing in a bid to catapult itself to the world's third largest oil producer after decades of war and economic decline.
Agence France-Presse
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:56 EST
New York - Bailed out insurance giant AIG on Friday announced a profit of 455 million dollars in the third quarter, a massive turnaround from a 24.4 billion dollar loss in the same period last year.
The earnings from group, the largest recipient of US government aid during the financial crisis, were better than expectations.
Excluding special items, the profit was 2.85 dollars per share, compared with a market forecast of 1.98 dollars per share.
It was the second consecutive quarterly profit for American International Group after the prior quarter's earnings of 1.8 billion dollars.
Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:33 EST
Think it's keen to be green? Not if you're California's Pacific Gas & Electric, according to a recent report.
Utility provider PG&E, in documents filed with the state, is seeking a five percent rate increase for its most energy-efficient customers. The increase is reportedly so the company can give it's highest-volume customers a price break.
"[The] company, with profits up 4.6 percent in the third quarter of this year, said they're just trying to be fair," California blog Mission Local noted.
"It's necessary to avoid the continued shifting of costs associated with utility services to a limited set of residential customers," PG&E spokesperson told blogger Heather Duthie.
That "limited set of residential customers" the company refers to are those who use between 131 and 300 percent of average customers, Mission Local added. Under the proposal, they can expect future savings between 2.5 and 5.7 percent on their electric rates.
Xinhua
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:09 EST
British Airways (BA) said on Friday that it plans to cut a further 1,200 jobs after reporting a heavy loss in the first-half of its financial year.
The further job cut means that the airline will have shed a total of 4,900 positions by March 2010.
The company suffered a loss before tax of 292 million pounds (about 485 million dollars) for the six months to the end of September, compared with profits of 52 million pounds a year earlier. It is also the first loss in first half of its financial year.
The first half of BA's financial year is usually stronger because it covers the summer holiday season. BA said revenue over the six-month period was down by 13.7 percent to 4.1 billion pounds, compared with 4.75 billion pounds in the same period of 2008.
Neil Irwin
The Washington Post
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:13 EST
© AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Job recruiters wait at a booth at a holiday job fair at Skyline College in San Bruno, Calif.
More than one in 10 members of the American workforce were unable to get a job in October, the Labor Department said Friday, the first time in nearly three decades that the unemployment rate has soared into double digits.
The unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent, department said, up from 9.8 percent in September, the highest level since 1983. Employers also continued slashing jobs, though at a slower rate than September, showing that even though the economy is expanding, the job market remains dismal.
The crossing of that symbolic 10 percent barrier is likely to weigh on both the psychology of American consumers and the urgency of efforts in Washington to prop up the job market.
The Associated Press
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:41 EST
Unemployed and desperate, a 19-year-old Sheboygan man is trying to sell one of the only things he owns - his name. Calvin Gosz has put the rights to give him a new name on eBay.
He said if people can have a name like Mercedes for free, "why wouldn't McDonald's pay for me to have Ronald McDonald as a name?" Gosz said he moved to Wisconsin from Florida in September. He's filled out more than a dozen job applications, but so far no luck.
Of his decision to go on eBay, he said, "I guess it just kind of goes to show the desperation of some people to try and get some money if they can't find work."
Al Yoon
Reuters
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:52 EST
© Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi
A woman takes a brochure detailing how homeowners can make their mortgage payments more affordable at the Fannie Mae booth set up at the Housing Rescue Fair, part of the National Urban League's Economic Empowerment Tour, in Dallas, Texas June 13, 2009.
New York - Fannie Mae, the largest provider of funding for U.S. home loans, said on Thursday bad mortgages and a federal foreclosure prevention program left it with a $18.9 billion loss, forcing it to tap the Treasury again to plug a hole in its net worth.
Fannie Mae (FNM.P) (FNM.N) , seized by the government last year, said the quarterly loss stemmed from $22 billion in credit-related expenses. These included charges on mortgages it bought out of securities as it modified loans under President Barack Obama's foreclosure prevention plan.
The company also boosted its provision for credit losses in future quarters, and said it expects those impairments to increase this quarter and through 2010.
The assessment is dire for the housing market that has appeared to post a fragile recovery over the past several months with a rebound in home sales and prices in some regions.
Matthew Goldstein and Jonathan Stempel
Reuters
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:47 EST
New York - Fourteen people were charged with fraud and conspiracy in a dramatic widening of an insider trading scandal that has ensnared hedge fund managers, top Silicon Valley executives and a bevy of white-shoe advisers.
In complaints that read like scripts for the TV series The Sopranos, investigators alleged suspects dropped off bags full of cash, used prepaid cellphones to dodge wiretaps, and used nicknames such as "the Greek" and "the Octopussy."
"Some of the defendants -- taking a page from the drug dealer's playbook -- deliberately used anonymous, hard-to-trace, prepaid cellphones in order to avoid detection," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a news conference on Thursday.
"When sophisticated business people begin to adopt the methods of common criminals, we have no choice but to treat them as such," he added.
Nick Timiraos
The Wall Street Journal
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:44 EST
© Associated Press
Fannie Mae plans to allow homeowners facing foreclosure to stay in their homes and rent them for up to one year as part of the latest effort to help troubled borrowers while keeping a glut of foreclosed properties from hitting the housing market.
The Deed for Lease Program, which Fannie plans to roll out on Thursday, will offer borrowers who fail to complete or don't qualify for a loan modification or other workout to deed their property to the lender in exchange for a lease. Borrowers-turned-tenants will be able to sign leases of up to 12 months and will pay market rents, which in most cases are lower than the cost of mortgage payments.
Xinhua
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00 EST
The Russian economy, which had been developing at high speed prior to the global financial turmoil and economic downturn, has suffered severe losses in the crisis. Nonetheless its prospect remains uncertain at present.
President Dmitry Medvedev estimated that Russia's 2009 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may decline 7.5 percent compared with that of 2008.
Statistics showed that Russia's GDP contracted 10 percent in the first nine months this year. Though monthly GDP has continued to grow starting from June, none of the growth rates was higher than 0.5 percent.
Meanwhile Russia's industrial production declined 13.5 percent from January to September, with the process industry plunging 19.1percent.
One good news may be the high inflation that once bothered Russia has somewhat relieved. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin estimated that the inflation rate might be lowered to less than 9 percent this year.
However, lowering inflation rate turned out to have been followed by shrinking consumption.
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