Britain may lose its top-level credit rating at Standard & Poor’s for the first time as the government’s finances deteriorate amid the worst recession since World War II.
The outlook was lowered to “negative” from “stable” because of the nation’s increasing “debt burden,” S&P said in a statement today. The pound fell the most in almost a month against the dollar. Stocks and bonds slid, and the cost of insuring debt against default rose.
Britain would become the fifth western European Union nation to lose its rating because of the economic slump, following Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain. The U.K. plans to sell a record 220 billion pounds ($343 billion) of bonds in the fiscal year through March 2010 as the recession cuts revenue and forces the government to raise spending.
You're going to love this one. According to Ernst & Young, Obama's majorly hyped tax incentive he's planning on plugging, which gives an incentive to offshore outsource your job, all of those offshore outsourcing companies will not be affected in the least. Nice huh? All U.S. corporations have to do is create a separate business entity and then contract with that entity to offshore outsource your job.
Can you spell LOOPHOLE?
Domestic business process outsourcing (BPO) units providing services to the American companies will not be affected by the proposed decision of US President Barack Obama to discourage outsourcing by imposing taxes, said global consultancy firm Ernst & young.
Who can forget those beyond incredible job creation projection numbers of the Stimulus Bill. 3.5 million jobs, 4 million jobs, the promise was high and never mind spending almost a trillion dollars for these jobs. Recently the Council of Economic advisers issued a report on job creation from the Stimulus, at the same time, the White House claimed to have saved 750,000 jobs by August, 2009.
So, what's the catch? There is no real world, real data on the truth of these claims and there may never be.
We still have theoretical calculations on job creation, based on Stimulus spending as a ratio of GDP, and thus indirectly jobs.
As corporate bankruptcies climb, more and more of the pension burden is falling onto the shoulders of taxpayers.
The deficit at the federal agency that guarantees pensions for 44 million Americans more than doubled in the last six months to a record high, reaching $33.5 billion, largely as a result of the surging number of bankruptcies among companies whose pensions it must now take over.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, as of October, had faced a shortfall of $11 billion. But the combined effect of lower interest rates, losses on its investment portfolio and the increase in the number of companies filing for bankruptcy protection resulted in a deepening of its estimated deficit, officials said Wednesday.
...
Bloomberg is reporting the Obama administration is considering stripping the SEC of some regulatory power and giving that oversight to the Federal Reserve.
The Obama administration may call for stripping the Securities and Exchange Commission of some of its powers under a regulatory reorganization that could be unveiled as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said.
The proposal, still being drafted, is likely to give the Federal Reserve more authority to supervise financial firms deemed too big to fail. The Fed may inherit some SEC functions, with others going to other agencies, the people said. On the table: giving oversight of mutual funds to a bank regulator or a new agency to police consumer-finance products, two people said.
This is priceless. The Fed announced today that it was potentially expanding its balance sheet and the Term-Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) to include toxic ("legacy") CMBS. The Fed hopes to jump start the CMBS market with this move.
On March 23, 2009, the Federal Reserve announced that it would evaluate extending the list of eligible collateral for TALF loans to include certain legacy securities. The objective of the expansion is to restart the market for legacy securities and, by doing so, stimulate the extension of new credit by helping to ease balance sheet pressures on banks and other financial institutions. Tuesday’s announcement marks the first addition of a legacy asset class to the list of eligible TALF collateral.
GM, after receiving billions in U.S. taxpayer money, is repaying Americans by offshore outsourcing their jobs. Canadian auto workers are raising hell (and it was not even their taxpayer money) about it, trying to get limits on imports.
The Canadian Auto Workers union says Ottawa must make sure General Motors of Canada doesn't import any more vehicles from offshore countries if the government wants to protect jobs here and assure protection of public investment in the teetering automaker.
As talks for worker concessions continue in Canada, Detroit-based parent GM Corp. – which is seeking billions of dollars in public loans – has revealed to the U.S. Congress it plans to start importing small cars from China within two years. Union officials in both countries say the move will kill jobs in North America.
My pal Bonddad is going to have to stop writing posts entitled, "Housing is Nowhere Near a Bottom", because at the rate we are going, housing will be at ZERO starts and permits within a year!
We just got 10% of the way closer, because permits fell from 511k to 494k. and starts fell from a revised 510k to 458k!
Calculated Risk and I agree that the bottom in housing starts almost has to happen this year, because we're running out of positive integers....
With even a watered down bill trying to stop the most brazen loan shark practices of credit card companies, the industry is now planning to retaliate. From the New York Times:
to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.
Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.
The article goes on trying to claim those predatory practices are only those riskier borrowers but all of America knows that's not the case.
Note most companies saying this are TARP recipients.
These same companies are expected to rake in $20 billion dollars on late fees and penalties this year.
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