Grand Theft Economics
Reuters
Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:10 EST
© Unknown
Lloyd Blankfein
The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which has attracted widespread media attention over the size of its staff bonuses, believes banks serve a social purpose and are doing "God's work".
In an interview with London's
Sunday Times newspaper, Lloyd Blankfein also said he believed big profits and bonuses at banks were a sign that the world economy was recovering.
"We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. We have a social purpose," the head of Goldman Sachs [GS 175.00 3.22 (+1.87%) ] told the paper.
Comment: Evidently loaning money at 'lofty' interest rates is Goldmans idea of being nearer to their god.
Tavia Grant
The Globe and Mail
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:38 EST
© The GLobe amd Mail
Self employed consultant Tracey White working in her home office.
The jobs market is frozen.
More than 43,000 Canadian jobs vanished in October, suggesting that after two consecutive months of gains, companies are waiting for more signs of a sustained recovery before they begin hiring again.
Canada's unemployment rate rose to 8.6 per cent, up from 8.4 per cent a month earlier, and a continued trend to self-employment shows the cold job market is forcing many to create their own work.
But behind the bleak headline number that was released by Statistics Canada Friday, there is a subtle shift in the wind.
The economy has now added full-time jobs for two months in a row as part-time work receded, suggesting there are at least some signs of optimism. Also, higher-paying jobs were created in October in areas such as construction, while positions were shed in the lower-paying retail sector.
Megan Woolhouse
The Boston Globe
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:35 EST
Credit card companies are rushing to increase interest rates to historic highs of more than 30 percent, cut credit limits, and add new fees, even for customers who pay their bills on time.
Lenders are making the moves in advance of tougher federal regulations for credit cards scheduled to take effect on Feb. 22. The new rules will limit how companies can modify credit card agreements, specifically prohibiting them from retroactively raising interest rates and fees on existing balances.
US Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the Financial Services Committee and is a leader in the effort to revamp credit card policies, said banks have "abused'' the nine-month period granted them to re-tool their practices.
MarketWatch
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:12 EST
A California-based bank that focused on the Chinese-American market was the largest of five failures on Friday that cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1.5 billion.
United Commercial Bank of San Francisco, whose parent company was UCBH Holdings Inc., was shut down by federal banking regulators late Friday, along with four other banks. The shutdown of the five banks brings the number of bank failures for 2009 to 120.
The 63 U.S. branches of United Commercial were set to reopen Saturday under the ownership of Pasadena, Calif.-based East West Bancorp Inc. United Commercial, which specialized in serving the Chinese community throughout the U.S. and American companies doing business in China, had assets of $11.2 billion and deposits of $7.5 billion as of Oct. 23.
Lucia Mutikani
ABC News
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:38 EST
The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly jumped to 10.2 percent last month, a 26-1/2-year high, adding to pressure on the Obama administration to do more to tackle unemployment even as signs of recovery mount.
The Labor Department said on Friday that employers cut 190,000 jobs in October, more than the 175,000 markets had expected but fewer than the 219,000 jobs lost in September. Job losses for August and September were revised to show 91,000 fewer jobs were lost than previously reported, taking some of the sting out of the report.
While the revisions hinted at some improvement, economists had expected the jobless rate to rise to 9.9 percent from September's 9.8 percent. A wider gauge of labor-market slack that includes unemployed Americans who have given up looking for work hit a record 17.5 percent.
Comment: Note that this 10.2 percent unemployment rate is obtained after much distortion to make it look better.The alternative and more reliable figure at
Shadow Government Statistics is currently about 22 percent.
Ben Webster
Times of London
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:05 EST
A world treaty on climate change will be delayed by up to a year and is likely to be watered down because countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions are refusing to commit to legally binding reductions.
British officials preparing for next month's UN summit in Copenhagen said the best that could be hoped for was that national leaders would make "political agreements" on emission cuts and payments to help poor countries to adapt to climate change. These agreements would be non-binding, however, and could later be revised or rescinded by national parliaments.
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.
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