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While the dominant topic of conversation when discussing margin hikes (or reductions) usually reverts to silver, ES (stocks) and TEN (bonds), what everyone so far is ignoring is the far more critical topic of real margin risk, in the form of roughly $600 trillion in OTC derivatives. The issue is that while the silver market (for example) is tiny by comparison, it is easy to be pushed around, and thus exchanges can easily represent the illusion that they are in control of counterparty risk (after all, that was the whole point of the recent CME essay on why they hiked...

Just because the US is having so much success convincing the world its debt is money good (but don't anyone dare count the $6+ trillion in GSE debt to the total US debt), the good old US of A has now decided to backstop the debt of... Egypt. Bloomberg reports: "Egypt plans to raise $1 billion by selling Eurobonds this year to diversify borrowing and finance a widening budget deficit after its economy was rocked by the worst political crisis in 30 years. The five-year bonds will be backed by a U.S. “sovereign guarantee,” Finance Minister Samir Radwan said by...

TO: ALL APPROVED MORTGAGEES SUBJECT: FHA Refinance of Borrowers in Negative Equity Positions On March 26, 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) announced enhancements to the existing Making Home Affordable Program (MHA) and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) refinance program that will give a greater number of responsible borrowers an opportunity to remain in their homes. These enhancements are designed to maintain homeownership by providing borrowers, who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their home, opportunities to refinance into an affordable FHA loan. This opportunity allows borrowers who...

Jul 15, 2010 - Introduced in House. This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House for consideration. This is the latest version of the bill currently available on GovTrack. HR 5741 IH 111th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 5741 To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed...

About the George W. Bush Presidential Center The George W. Bush Presidential Center will be the centerpiece of President and Mrs. Bush's ongoing commitment to improving our nation and the world. It will examine the ideals and principles that guided President Bush's major decisions throughout the defining years of his presidency. The Center will be a platform from which world-class scholars can build upon these principles—contributing vital new ideas to shape current and future public policy debates. Live Streaming Video starting at 2pm Central time

BREAKING: Comprehensive List of Taxes In House Democrat Health Bill From Ryan Ellis on Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:20 PM H.R. 3962, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" has been introduced--all 1990 pages of it. This gargantuan beast contains thirteen new tax hikes. Here they all are, with description and page number (PDF version): *** Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by...

WASHINGTON - During consideration of H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee voted to pass an amendment offered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions. The Waters amendment adds to the CFPA Oversight Board 5 representatives from the fields of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced mortgages" to join Federal banking regulators in advising the...

Washington (AP) - President Barack Obama has named a former Freddie Mac executive to head the federal housing commission. The White House on Monday named David Stevens as assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The position requires Senate confirmation and would put Stevens in charge of the government's housing mortgage-insurance program. Stevens now is the head of Long and Foster Companies, a real estate and mortgage firm. He previously worked at World Savings bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. At Freddie Mac, Stevens was a senior vice president in charge of affordable lending, sales and marketing.

ORANGE COUNTY, FL -- A Catholic student group is facing hazing charges after a worshiper allegedly used force while trying to rescue a communion wafer from a student leader smuggling it out of Mass. Catholics consider the consecrated wafer, the Eucharist, among the most sacred objects in the world and believe it becomes the 'Body of Christ' through transubstantiation. Student Government Senator Webster Cook filed the hazing charges with University of Central Florida administrators shortly after he admitted violating church rules by bringing the Eucharist home from Mass on June 29, then holding it hostage for one week in a...

More than two years after the October 1929 stock market crash and in the depth of the ensuing depression, a commission originally established by the Republican-chaired Senate Banking and Currency Committee to prepare the party's official defense for the upcoming presidential election finally began in March 1932 to examine the causes of the market crash and to recommend reforms to prevent future recurrences...SNIP... The implosion of Rubinomics It was Robert Rubin, special economic assistant to Clinton and later Treasury secretary, who worked out what has come to be known as Rubinomics, the strategy of dollar hegemony through the promotion of...

The US Treasury said Thursday it had struck a series of agreements with big sovereign wealth funds based in Abu Dhabi and Singapore on investments in US markets. The agreements covering investment principles were hammered out following a meeting here between US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Abu Dhabi and Singapore government officials. "We had a good discussion today on the issues surrounding sovereign wealth funds. Singapore and UAE have long-established, well-respected funds and are showing real leadership by joining with us today," Paulson said. The agreements encourage sovereign wealth funds to be more transparent and to base their investment...

BEIJING — A state-owned Chinese financial firm wants to change its deal to buy into Bear Stearns Co. following the takeover of the troubled Wall Street bank, the chairman of the Chinese firm's parent said Monday. Citic Securities Co. wants to make a "technical adjustment" in its deal, said Kong Dan, chairman of Citic Group, talking to reporters during a meeting of China's legislature. He gave no details but denied an earlier media report that quoted him as saying the deal was canceled. Citic agreed in October to invest $1 billion in Bear. The U.S. firm was to make a...

Mosul (AsiaNews) - The Chaldean archbishop of Mosul is dead. Archbishop Faraj Rahho was kidnapped last February 29 after the Stations of the Cross. His kidnappers have given word of his death, indicating to the mediators where they could recover the body of the 67-year-old prelate. "It is a heavy Cross for our Church, ahead of Easter", Rabban al Qas, bishop of Arbil, tells AsiaNews in response to the news.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors looking for signs of a crack in the credit markets are turning their attention to a corner of the debt market that's been feeding the leveraged buyout frenzy. Banks used to finance buyouts mainly with loans on their balance sheets, but are now packaging and selling that debt to investors using instruments called "collateralized loan obligations" (CLOs) that group various loans together to diversify risk. For example, debt issued by the $5.6 billion private-equity purchase of rental company Hertz (HTZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is now in the hands of more than 200 CLOs. Similarly, HCA...

--I can say with confidence that this forecaster has never seen the likes of this: a Category 4 (130 knots, or 240 kph) hurricane over the northern Arabian Sea. The wind speeds are estimated (as of 0600 Hours GMT) by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). A look at full-disk infrared imagery (from the India Met. Dept.--IMD) helps to afford better perspective on TC Gonu and South Asia:

An 85 year old wonderful lady is being taken off her ventilator tomorrow and she will either breathe on her own or face eternity. She is alert and conscious, and her family is torn over a decision to have a trache tube inserted or just let her pass if she cannot breathe without the machine. Please pray for her, and pray for her family facing the hardest decision of their lives.

SHANGHAI, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Fuyao Group Glass Industries Co. Ltd. (600660.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), China's biggest auto glass maker, is set to bid for North American glass making assets of Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research), two sources familar with the matter said. Automotive Component Holdings LLC, a parts subsidiary of Ford, is discussing the sale of glass manufacturing operations and other assets as part of the U.S. auto maker's restructuring. Fuyao has held two rounds of talks with Ford and has been selected to submit a final bid for the glass assets, a source told Reuters. The...

Inflation ain't what it used to be. That's long been true in the sense that the inflation rate is now a lot lower than it has been for most of the decade. But it's newly true in a different sense: The Fed has a new way of measuring inflation. In its most recent Humphrey-Hawkins report, released last Thursday, the Federal Open Market Committee said it was changing its primary measure of inflation. Instead of forecasting the rate of increase in the Consumer Price Index, the FOMC is now forecasting the rate of increase of an inflation measure contained in the...

GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A woman died of exhaustion after working a 24-hour shift at a Chinese handicraft factory, following weeks of 15-hour days, state media reported Thursday. The 30-year-old migrant worker, He Chunmei, fell into a coma and died last Friday after working for 24 hours at the Guangzhou Huaxin Handicraft Factory in southern Guangdong province, China Daily reported. A co-worker said factory employees had been ordered to work 15 hours a day since Oct. 24, to complete orders ahead of a planned move to a new location. He's brother, He Maojun, who also works at the...

In a 1996 interview with The Boston Phoenix, Peggy Kerry admitted, "Alexandra's advice during a 1990 Christmas dinner influenced the senator's decision to vote against a Gulf War resolution" - according to a Boston Globe report that same year. The anecdote is reminiscent of President Jimmy Carter's admission during a 1980 debate with then-challenger Ronald Reagan that he consulted his then-13-year-old daughter Amy on nuclear proliferation issues. Carter's admission fueled his reputation for incompetence on foreign policy issues and helped cause his defeat. Alexandra Thorne Kerry was just 16 years old when she persuaded her father to vote against the...