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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

US govt officials to visit Detroit automakers

The US government's "working group" on the automobile industry was expected in Detroit Monday for talks with representatives of troubled US automakers seeking government help and their unions, an administration official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the groups would meet with top managers of General Motors and Chrysler as well as with leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union as they try to chart a way to restructure the two companies to avoid bankruptcy.
The announcement came after GM's auditors last week voiced "substantial doubt" about the struggling automaker's ability to survive a collapse of global auto sales amid a deepening recession.
GM chief executive Rick Wagoner has repeatedly warned that the largest US automaker would likely be unable to survive a bankruptcy filing because consumers would be unwilling to buy GM's vehicles.

GM is funding its operations with 13.4 billion dollars in emergency loans from the US government and said last month it will need an additional 22.6 billion in government aid if it is to survive.
But on Friday, it denied reports that it was considering a prepackaged reorganization financed by the government under the "Chapter 11" provisions of the US bankruptcy code as a solution to its financial woes.
However, two top Republican senators on Sunday called for struggling General Motors to seek bankruptcy rather than fresh government aid as the best path to long-term recovery.
"I think the best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11," John McCain, President Barack Obama's vanquished foe in last year's election, told "Fox News Sunday."
"They reorganize, they renegotiate their union-management contracts and come out of it a stronger, better, leaner and more competitive automotive industry," he said.
Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate's banking committee, said the government should stop propping up the US auto industry as well as giant banks such as Citigroup.
"Subsidization of anything for very long never works," he said on ABC's "This Week."

"The automobile business, those companies, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, they're in deep trouble. We know that. I've suggested they go into Chapter 11. That's where they belong.
"And they could reorganize. We could get money in place for them. We could do it if they did it and did it right. Short of that, the UAW will run those companies and run them into the ground."
Meanwhile, the Canadian Auto Workers announced a tentative deal with GM on Sunday to freeze wages and pensions, and cut paid vacations, as part of GM's North America restructuring.
In the United States, the United Auto Workers last month reached an outline deal to allow Ford to restructure its 13.2 billion dollar obligation to a trust fund for retirees' health care benefits.
A similar agreement is expected shortly at GM and Chrysler because the UAW union maintains similar contracts at each of the Detroit Three.
One influential Republican, House of Representatives minority leader John Boehner, said bankruptcy was not an option for GM.
"I don't think they could survive bankruptcy. Hopefully, they'll be able to come to an agreement with all of their stakeholders before they get to that point," he said on CBS program "Face the Nation."
But Boehner added: "I don't think the government should put any more money there until General Motors shows that they can be a viable company for the long term ... Anything short of that is just throwing good money after bad."

[Sigma Forex Practice Accounts]

Learn And Develop your trading skills with Sigma platform!

A Free practice account is a great way to experience the Forex market without risking any money.

For Novice Traders
For those who did not trade in the forex market before can get accustomed to following a market, and open themselves to a whole new way to invest, and it also gives them the chance to understand how the trading platform works.

For Regular Traders
For those who are familliar with trading in forex market, a practice account can help them to get use to the particular characteristics of the Forex market or our trading platform.

For Experienced and Professional Traders
A practice account can even help experienced and professional traders as they can test and practice their trading strategies without risking capital.
Generally the Demo Account has the same capabilities of the real account, the only difference between them is that the real account is with real money and the practice account is with virtual money.

Open Now A Free $ 500'000 Account With Sigma Forex and discover a whole new way to invest.
Sigma Account allow you to open Micro, Mini and Standard lot through only one account and trade in Forex Market
In order to register for a practice account, please Download Sigma Forex Platform and open new account as illustrated below and you will have unlimited access to our Platform for the next 30-days.

If you have any problem regarding Sigma Practice Account you can see User Guides or click on the Live Chat button on the right menu and our customer support staff will help you through the process.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Is US looking to retool detention policy?

WASHINGTON – More than four years after launching its wide-ranging war on terror, the US is still struggling with the issue of how to handle the conflict's prisoners.
Detaining captives without trial, as the US is doing at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, results in continuing, bitter, international criticism. Yet trying them is fraught with difficulty, as lengthy proceedings against admitted Al Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui have shown.
The administration's defenders say that dealing with an amorphous foe demands an ill-defined detention policy, and that there aren't any serious alternatives. Critics say that may not be the case - and that the issue is blackening the nation's name overseas.

"In a general way, the world just sees the US as this powerful entity intent on stepping on other people's rights for the sake of its own security," says Thomas Carothers, director of the democracy and rule of law project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Last weekend, reports in the British press indicated that US officials have asked the British government for advice concerning methods of closing the Guantánamo camp and repatriating its detainees.
London has launched controversial attempts to return terror suspects to home countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Lebanon, Jordan, and Libya have signed pacts promising that they will not abuse these returnees.
Publicly, US officials say that there are no immediate plans to close the Guantánamo installation, but that the US obviously will continue to weigh what to do with its approximately 500 inmates, for the long term.
"Hopefully, over the years, we will find a way to either release them to their country of origin or they will declare that they no longer want to kill us," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Colleen Graffy said in a broadcast interview on Sunday.
In recent months the Guantánamo prison has attracted an increasing amount of international attention - unwelcome attention, in the White House's view.

Release of voluminous data about the detainees to the Associated Press, per a Freedom of Information Act request, has made some Guantánamo detainees seem like hapless victims - though others indeed have come across as committed terrorists. And a UN Commission on Human Rights report issued last month alleged that torture occurs at Guantánamo, and said that the camp should be closed without delay.
However, UN officials involved in this report never actually visited Guantánamo, notes Nile Gardiner, a security policy fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Guantánamo's long-term future should be decided by US security needs, says Gardiner.
"At present there are no serious alternatives being proposed," he says. "It remains the best option in a highly complex global war."
Meanwhile, the sentencing trial of Mr. Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man charged in the US in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, remained on hold as of publication time.
US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema halted the trial on Monday, and threatened to remove the death penalty as a possible sentence, following the disclosure that a government lawyer had improperly shared testimony with witnesses.
Moussaoui has admitted being a member of Al Qaeda, and being a part of a conspiracy aimed at flying airplanes into US buildings. But he has said his role was to be in a follow-on attack, and that he had no part in Sept. 11.
His legal proceedings have dragged on for years, in part due to his own behavior. Analysts said the latest glitch seemed an inexcusable error on the part of the government lawyer, veteran Federal Aviation Administration attorney Carla Martin.

[Sigma Forex Practice Accounts]

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Current Economic and Financial Challenges

The economy suffers from a severe lack of aggregate demand, both from families and businesses – a problem that is driven by a slumping job market, where 3.6 million jobs have been lost in just over a year – the largest number as a fraction of total employment in more than a quarter century and the largest number in absolute terms in over a half century. This problem is made worse by a contraction of demand from many of our key trading partners.
Businesses, facing or projecting fewer customers for their goods and services, are laying off workers or cutting back on their hours or wages, causing families to further reduce their demand and businesses to respond with more layoffs and cutbacks.

This dynamic is made worse by a financial system that is unable to provide the credit necessary for recovery. You can see this across America as families find it difficult to get the financing they need to buy new houses and cars while businesses have trouble lining up the credit necessary to meet payroll.
The contraction in credit is causing more job losses and further declines in business activity, which, in turn, is adding more pressure on the financial system.
Both our economic and financial problems are being compounded by problems in our housing market, where a record 2.5 million families faced foreclosure last year, undercutting overall home prices, shrinking Americans' real estate wealth by $2.8 trillion from its peak, causing further reductions in demand, more layoffs and a greater credit squeeze that threatens another round of foreclosures.

You can see the scale of the damage in last Friday's announcement that the Gross Domestic Product, the broadest measure of the nation's output of goods and services, dropped at a 6.2% annual rate during the final quarter of last year. That was its worst performance in more than a quarter century, and the third worst in more than a half century.
In addition to a deepening recession and financial troubles, the Obama Administration inherited the worst fiscal situation in modern American history, with a federal budget deficit of $1.3 trillion, equal to nearly 10% of GDP – the largest that the nation has faced since World War II – not counting the economic recovery or other legislation undertaken by the Obama Administration.
And we begin our time in office after a long period in which our government was unwilling to make the long-term investments required to meet critical challenges in health care, energy and education.
This is the reality that we face today. These are the challenges that shape both the American economy and the Administration's strategy. I want to outline for you today the President's program for addressing these challenges.
Let me start with our immediate response to the acute problems confronting the country.

[Sigma Forex Practice Accounts]

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Toxic Assets

The financial crisis is creating a boom for independent analysts who are being hired by banks and investors scrambling to put a number on the value of some of the trillions of dollars of toxic assets that continue to plague the global financial system.
EDITOR’S CHOICE

One of the US government’s priorities now is tackling these assets, backed by mortgages and other consumer loans.
The creation of some form of “bad bank” that would buy them is one of the possible financial clean-up plans that is under consideration.

The valuation experts, who could play a key role in these plans, range from big accountancy firms to small start-ups that have been set up by former investment bankers.
“There are many, many people looking for some kind of independent view on the value of the toxic assets they own,” says Arturo Cifuentes, a structured finance specialist in New York. “Investors used to rely on banks and credit ratings. Both these sources have lost credibility.”
Analysts at Barclays Capital estimate that, based on the amounts of troubled assets identified in recent government bail-outs of Citigroup and Bank of America, the value of toxic assets that needs to be tackled by some kind of government plan ranges from $1,900bn to $2,800bn.
Valuation experts are being paid by banks’ boards, by investors such as large pension funds and by small university endowments and insurers to come up with some estimate as to what these assets are worth.

[Sigma Forex Practice Accounts]