ELYAC Realty- Paulson: crisis happens once or twice in 100 years

WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called the financial crisis now plaguing the world economy a “once or twice” in a 100 years event, even as he warned Thursday against imposing too-strict regulations to prevent a repeat calamity.

Paulson’s remarks follow pledges by world leaders attending last week’s emergency economic summit to begin an overhaul of the world’s financial regulatory system.

With the next summit slated for the spring, the work on fleshing out details for the Herculean task will fall to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama and his new Treasury secretary.

Paulson, whose boss President George W. Bush leaves office on Jan. 20, acknowledged that the financial crisis was caused by many factors including “government inaction and mistaken actions, outdated U.S. and global financial regulatory systems, and by the excessive risk-taking of financial institutions.”

Still, he cautioned against the U.S. and other countries developing a too-onerous regulatory response.

“If we do not correctly diagnose the causes, and instead act in haste to implement more rather than better regulations, we can do long-term harm,” Paulson said in a speech in Simi Valley, Calif.

Earlier this week, lawmakers blasted Paulson for his handling of a $700 billion financial bailout package to help ease the crisis and restore stability and confidence to unhinged markets.

Paulson on Thursday again defended his management, including his decision last week to officially abandon the original rescue strategy: buying rotten mortgages and other bad debts from banks to free up their balance sheets and get them to lend more freely.

“By proactively addressing the problems we saw coming and being pragmatic enough to change strategy in the face of changed facts and despite the inevitable criticism — we prevented a far worse financial crisis,” Paulson insisted.

Focusing the bailout program on infusing billions into banks — and possibly other types of companies — to pump up their capital and bolster lending to customers was deemed a faster and more effective approach to stabilizing the financial system than the original centerpiece of the plan, he said.

“There was no playbook for responding to a once or twice in a hundred year event,” Paulson argued, saying he needed to shift strategy to respond to worsening financial and economic conditions.

Paulson again said he believed the Bush administration has taken the necessary steps to prevent a financial market collapse, but he cautioned that it will take time for markets and lending conditions to return to normal.

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ELYAC Realty- Officials: Autos bailout vote put off until Dec.

Officials: Autos bailout vote put off until Dec.

Dems will insist Big Three come up with a plan to transform industry

BREAKING NEWS

msnbc.com news services

updated 11:07 a.m. PT, Thurs., Nov. 20, 2008

WASHINGTON – Congressional officials say Democratic leaders have decided to put off a bailout vote for the auto industry until December and will insist that the Big Three first come up with a plan showing how the money would help transform their industry.

An announcement is expected later in the day in the Capitol, where top Democrats in the House and Senate have been meeting. The officials who described the developments did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose them.

The big auto companies — General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC — have been seeking government loans totaling $25 billion to stay in business until spring. Critics want to make sure the companies will use the money to transform their industry into one that is more competitive.

Earlier, news reports said four senators had reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill to assist the struggling automotive industry.

U.S. automakers GM, Ford and Chrysler have been pleading for $25 billion in emergency government aid to weather a steep business downturn. The CEOs of all three companies testified before two congressional committees this week, but came away empty-handed.

The White House favors using $25 billion already authorized and appropriated through the Energy Department to provide loans for ailing automakers.

Democratic leaders in Congress have argued for carving out $25 billion from the $700 billion financial rescue fund.

Earlier, at a news conference in Detroit, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said the Bush administration and Congress need to come to an agreement on aid for the domestic auto industry because “inaction is simply not an option.”

Gettelfinger acknowledged there is disagreement about how aid should be given, but “both the Bush administration and congressional leaders agree that immediate assistance is needed, and the cost of not acting would be devastating.”

Gettelfinger says without help, one or more of the Detroit Three automakers could collapse by the end of this year, and “the costs that would come from this are just too great.”

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ELYAC Realty- U.S. jobless claims jump to 16-year high

U.S. jobless claims jump to 16-year high

Data are more evidence of a rapidly weakening labor market

The Associated Press

updated 8:03 a.m. PT, Thurs., Nov. 20, 2008

WASHINGTON – New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market expected to get even worse next year.

The government said new applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 from a downwardly revised figure of 515,000 in the previous week. That’s much higher than Wall Street economists’ expectations of 505,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

That is also the highest level of claims since July 1992, the department said, when the U.S. economy was coming out of a recession.

The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, was even worse: it rose to 506,500, the highest in more than 25 years.

In addition, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment insurance rose sharply for the third straight week to more than 4 million, the highest since December 1982, when the economy was in a painful recession.

Those figures partly reflect growth in the labor force, which has increased by about half since the early 1980s.

The figures likely will cause some economists to increase their projections for the unemployment rate this year. Many already expect unemployment to reach 7 percent by early next year and 8 percent by the end of 2009.

The rate in October was 6.5 percent, and last year the rate averaged 4.6 percent.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday released projections that the jobless rate will climb to between 7.1 percent and 7.6 percent next year, according to documents from the Fed’s Oct. 29 closed-door deliberations on interest rate policy.

Initial claims have been driven higher in the past several months by a slowing economy hit by the financial crisis, and cutbacks in consumer and business spending.

Economists consider jobless claims a timely, if volatile, indication of how rapidly companies are laying off workers. Employees who quit or are fired for cause are not eligible for benefits.

Several companies announced mass layoffs in the past week, including Citigroup Inc., Union Pacific Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.

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• U.S. inflation hits 17-year high

ELYAC Realty- A list of all Big Name Stores that are Closing down!

Circuit City stores …

Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide are to be shuttered

Lane Bryant,, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 store
nationwide

Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January

Cache will close all stores

Talbots closing down all stores

J. Jill closing all stores

GAP closing 85 stores

Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down

Levitz closing down remaining stores

Bombay closing remaining stores

Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January.

Whitehall closing all stores

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.

Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ (New Brunswick )

Macys to close 9 stores after January

Linens and Things closing all stores

Movie Galley Closing all stores

Pacific Sunware closing stores

Pep Boys Closing 33 stores

Sprint/ Nextel closing 133 stores

JC Penney closing a number of stores after January

Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.

Wilson Leather closing down all stores

Sharper Image closing down all stores

K B Toys closing 356 stores

Loews (not Lowe’s) to close down some stores

Dillard’s to close some stores.

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ELYAC Realty- Dems seek to lower auto bailout expectations

Dems seek to lower auto bailout expectations

Heads of Detroit ‘Big Three’ make little headway in building support

The Associated Press

updated 11:54 a.m. PT, Wed., Nov. 19, 2008

WASHINGTON – Top Senate Democrats suggested Wednesday that a bill to rescue Detroit’s Big Three automakers was stalled and challenged the Bush administration to take steps to save the industry if congressional efforts falter. The White House quickly rebuffed the suggestion.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada sought to lower expectations of reaching a deal on the $25 billion proposal before Congress quits for the year.

While he told the Senate he still hoped lawmakers could agree to an auto deal in the “next day or two” of the current lame-duck session, he added: “If we can’t do it here legislatively, I would hope that the secretary of Treasury would listen loud and clear because they could take this into their own hands and do what I think is appropriate from their perspective.”

Responded White House press secretary Dana Perino: “There’s no appetite for that.” She said it was up to Congress to act.

Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was even more downbeat, calling the possibility of reaching agreement “remote.”

“I don’t see how in the next few days this is going to move forward,” Dodd told reporters. Still, he added, “That does not mean that there are not opportunities.” He suggested that the Federal Reserve could possibly step up to the job.

The difficulties of striking a deal on the package before a new president and a new Congress with expanded Democratic majorities take office appeared to be too great to overcome. The deadlock persisted even as the heads of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler returned for a second day to plead for relief and as their congressional backers urged colleagues not to punish them for past mistakes.

General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner told the House Financial Services Committee that collapse of the U.S. auto industry could lead to a loss of 3 million jobs within the first year and ripple throughout communities around the nation.

In sometimes contentious testimony, Wagoner was pressed on when GM would run out of money if the loans weren’t extended.

He said he couldn’t say precisely, but that the company now was burning through “$5 billion each month.”

Still, with the $25 billion emergency package, “We think we have a good shot to make it through this,” Wagoner said. He said he anticipated that, if the package is approved, GM would qualify for about $10 billion to $12 billion of the money.

President George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress have been reluctant to use the Treasury Department’s $700 billion financial bailout program to finance the loans.

The White House wants Congress to draw the $25 billion from an Energy Department program established to encourage production of fuel-efficient cars.

Perino said Wednesday the administration supports legislation to authorize just that, but will not go along with the proposal by Democratic leaders that an additional $25 billion be taken from the government’s existing $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund.

“The purpose of the $700 billion was clearly intended for financial institutions, and we wanted to keep that whole,” Perino said.

If Congress quits without taking any action, “then the Congress will bear responsibility for anything that happens in the next couple of months during their long vacation,” Perino said.

During a hearing Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., asked the three auto chiefs seated at the witness table before him to raise their hands if they had come to Washington on commercial airliners. No hands went up. Then he asked if any planned to sell their corporate jets. Again, no hands went up.

Sherman and Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., told the auto executives they were having a hard time justifying to their constituents bailing out companies whose chiefs fly around in expensive private jets.

Ackerman said there was “a delicious irony in seeing private jets flying into Washington D.C. and people coming off them with tin cups in their hands.”

A Senate vote on an automotive bailout plan, which would also extend jobless benefits, could come as early as Thursday, but it clearly lacks the necessary support to advance.

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ELYAC Realty- Tech Companies, Long Insulated, Now Feel Slump

The technology industry, which resisted the economy’s growing weakness over the last year as customers kept buying laptops and iPhones, has finally succumbed to the slowdown.

In the span of just a few weeks, orders for both business and consumer tech products have collapsed, and technology companies have begun laying off workers. The plunge is so severe that some executives are comparing it with the dot-com bust in 2000, when hundreds of companies disappeared and Silicon Valley lost nearly a fifth of its jobs.

October “was like turning a switch,” said Robert Barbera, chief economist at the Investment Technology Group, a research and trading firm. “Everything pretty much shut down.”

After industry leaders like Intel and Nokia warned of slowing sales this week, investors aggressively sold technology stocks. On Friday, the Nasdaq composite index, which is full of technology names, fell 5 percent. Advanced Micro Devices and eBay both dropped more than 10 percent.

Tech companies directly account for about 4 percent of the nation’s employment. And globally, companies and governments spend about $1.75 trillion on technology a year, according to Forrester Research. But the industry’s importance to the world economy is larger than its size might suggest. Technology has fueled many of the productivity gains of the last two decades. And about half of the capital spending by corporations goes toward technology products, according to Moody’s Economy.com.

As struggling businesses cut back on spending of all kinds, a slowdown in tech proved inevitable.

During the dot-com crash, technology companies were victims of Internet hype that they helped create. Once the enthusiasm faded, so did the boom-era sales on software and infrastructure equipment.

However, consumer enthusiasm for products like video games, wireless phones and high-definition televisions helped the industry recover.

This time around, the tech sector finds itself at the mercy of a double-barreled slump in both corporate and consumer spending caused by the housing decline and the economic crisis on Wall Street. Technology companies are also feeling the effect of frozen credit markets as business and government customers struggle to finance computer and software purchases that can run to millions of dollars.

“We have never seen anything like this in history,” said William T. Coleman III, a Silicon Valley veteran who founded the software maker BEA Systems and is now chief executive at a start-up called Cassatt.

Best Buy, the leading electronics retailer, declared this week that “rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior” had fostered the worst conditions in its 42-year history, and its main rival, Circuit City Stores, filed for bankruptcy protection. Nokia, the world’s largest maker of cellphones, predicted Friday that global sales of handsets would fall in 2009, which would be only the second decline ever.

Technology giants like Intel, which makes chips for personal computers and servers, and Cisco Systems, which makes network equipment, warned that revenue was plummeting at rates last seen in 2001.

Dozens of start-ups, like the messaging service Twitter and the electric carmaker Tesla Motors, have been cutting staff members as they prepare for a slow economy.

And on Friday, Sun Microsystems, a leading maker of computers used by financial services companies, announced that it would lay off as many as 6,000 employees, or 18 percent of its work force.

The turnaround has been as sudden as it is severe. Until late September, a number of large technology companies maintained an optimistic stance, despite the obvious distress in the global economy.

Cisco was the first large technology company to reveal its sales data from October, noting a 9 percent fall in sales compared with the same month last year. On Nov. 5, Cisco, which is based in San Jose, cautioned that because of a “completely different environment,” revenue in its current quarter could plummet as much as 10 percent – a major reversal from the 7 percent growth that Wall Street had been expecting.

Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, followed this week, warning that sales in the fourth quarter could fall as much as 19 percent compared with the same period last year.

Even Google, an advertising juggernaut that many analysts said they believed would weather a downturn better than other companies, is now feeling the impact.

About eight weeks ago, the company’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, told reporters, “My guess is that the drama is in New York and not here.” A month later, Google surprised Wall Street when it reported strong financial results for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, sending its shares up 10 percent.

But Google’s stock has dropped 16 percent since, as the same analysts who were upbeat about its results have since cut their revenue and profit forecasts. This week, its shares dipped below $300 for the first time in three years, well below their $742 peak. And the company, known for its torrid hiring and free-spending on employee perks, has begun the most serious belt-tightening in its 10-year history.

“We don’t know as managers how long the crisis goes,” Mr. Schmidt said last week.

For all the gloom, the tech industry is still far healthier than Wall Street. Unlike the banks, many technology companies are flush with cash. Cisco has close to $27 billion; Google, $14 billion; and Apple, $24 billion. It is likely that some of these funds will go toward acquiring struggling competitors. “The guys that aren’t as strong will be good pickings,” Mr. Coleman said.

Powered by technology, Silicon Valley has stood out as a bright spot for jobs in the United States, with employment growing at about 2 percent a year while national employment slowed. Through 2007, the region continued to add 20,000 jobs, although that positive trend has started to change.

“With this now having become a worldwide event, it’s clear that the job losses will come,” said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

Given the unpredictability of the current economy, the industry’s past experience will only go so far, said Chris Cornell, an economist with Economy.com. “It would be a tragic mistake for C.E.O.’s who did a great job fighting the last recession to think the same tactics will work this time,” he said.

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ELYAC Realty- Paulson: Troubled assets won’t be purchased

Paulson: Troubled assets won’t be purchased

U.S. to use proceeds of $700 billion plan to bolster banking system directly

msnbc.com news services

updated 10:51 a.m. PT, Wed., Nov. 12, 2008

WASHINGTON – In a stunning turnabout, the Bush administration Wednesday abandoned the original centerpiece of its $700 billion effort to rescue the financial system and said it will not use the money to purchase troubled bank assets.

“Our assessment at this time is that this (the purchase of toxic assets) is not the most effective way to use funds,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told a news conference.

Paulson said the administration will continue to use $250 billion of the program to purchase stock in banks as a way to bolster their balance sheets and encourage them to resume more normal lending.

But he was noncommittal about direct support for the auto industry, saying it was a “critical industry” but that the bailout plan was not designed for them.

Asked about a Democratic congressional leadership plan to rush financial aid to the industry, Paulson cautioned that “any solution has got to be leading to long-term viability” for the automakers.

Stocks slid broadly, partly because Paulson’s comments at a news briefing underscored the extent of the problems in the financial system. Investors also were concerned that the Treasury will be investing more taxpayer dollars into the banking sector, which will dilute the value of existing shareholders, said Rudy Narvas, senior analyst at 4Cast Ltd. in New York.

Aides to President-elect Barack Obama have been playing down reports of tension with the Bush administration over help for the stricken auto industry.

Struggling General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are seeking $25 billion in additional assistance on top of $25 billion in federal loans approved in September to help them develop more fuel-efficient cars. GM reported last week that it lost $2.5 billion in the latest quarter and does not have enough cash to make it through 2009, raising the prospect of a potential bankruptcy filing. Company executives say they are determined to avoid bankruptcy.

Democratic congressional leaders plan to push for emergency legislation to bail out the  automakers, possibly by amending the $700 billion rescue program,

Paulson on Wednesday said that non-financial firms as well as banks may need additional cash infusions but that he saw “implementation difficulties” aiding companies that were not federally regulated.

Paulson said the administration was looking at a major expansion of the program into the markets that provide support for credit card debt, auto loans and student loans. He said 40 percent of U.S. consumer credit is provided through selling securities that are backed by pools of these loans.

“This market, which is vital for lending and growth, has for all practical purposes ground to a halt,” Paulson said.

Paulson said the massive bailout effort, the largest in U.S. history, was showing results but that more efforts were needed given the most severe downturn being faced in housing.

“Our financial system remains fragile in the face of an economic downturn here and abroad,” Paulson said. “Market turmoil will not abate until the biggest part of the housing correction is behind us. Our primary focus must be recovery and repair.”

Paulson said some of the bailout money also should be used to support efforts to keep mortgage borrowers from losing their homes because of soaring default levels.

He said a proposal to use some of the funds to guarantee mortgages that have been reworked to reduce monthly payments for borrowers is an approach the administration continues to discuss. But he indicated it would not be a part of the rescue program because it went beyond the intent of the legislation Congress passed on Oct. 3.

Asked about what he had in mind to expand the rescue effort to support credit card and other types of consumer debt that is backed by selling securities, Paulson said it would probably take weeks to design the new program and more time to get it implemented, a possible sign that any such proposal would have to be put into place by the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Paulson said this weekend’s first-ever summit of leaders of the Group of 20 major industrial and developing countries needs to focus first on how to repair the financial system as a way to bolster the global economy.

Paulson also praised a new set of guidelines issued by the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators, saying that they addressed a crucial issue of making sure that banks continue to lend at adequate levels.

The guidelines urge institutions to continue lending to credit worthy borrowers and to work with mortgage borrowers to avoid defaults. In addition, the guidelines encourage the banks to set dividend payments for shareholders and compensation for executives with the current crisis in mind.

The guidelines address criticism that banks obtaining funds from the rescue plan are simply using the money to replenish their balance sheets and make acquisitions rather than lending more money to businesses and consumers.

“If underwriting standards tighten excessively or banking organizations retreat from making sound credit decisions, the current market conditions may be exacerbated, leading to slower growth and potential damage to the economy,” the regulators said in a joint statement.

The Fed, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Office of Thrift Supervision said all financial institutions were expected to follow the new guidelines, even those not receiving federal assistance.

In addition to the $250 billion committed to the purchase of bank stock, the Bush administration this week allocated another $40 billion toward a $150 billion bailout of troubled insurance giant American International Group.

That leaves only $60 billion of an initial $350 billion approved by Congress under the bailout bill. To access the second $350 billion, this administration or the next will have to make a request to Congress for the money.

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ELYAC Realty- To MBA, or Not to MBA?

If you’re thinking of getting an MBA, you’re not alone. According to the MBA Association, more than 100,000 new MBAs enter the work force every year.

A master’s degree in business administration is considered a prerequisite in some fields, particularly for anyone who is on the executive track. But is it beneficial for everyone? Is it necessary to spend a significant chunk of time — and a substantial financial investment — to get an MBA?

A wise investment
Over the last several years, the demand for MBAs has remained steady. In a 2007 survey by the Graduate Management Admissions Council, recruiters indicated they were competing to hire qualified MBA graduates.

The number of positions recruiters intended to fill with MBAs grew by 18 percent in both 2006 and 2007.  Those recruiters stated they were willing to pay 84 percent more to MBA degree holders than to an employee who held an undergraduate degree.

“I think getting the MBA played a great role in my life and career and helped shape what I do now,” declares Jeffrey Swedarsky, founder and director for DC Metro Food Tours, a Virginia-based company.

“I utilized my newfound knowledge to start my own business,” Swedarsky says. He agrees, however, that not everyone’s experience is the same. “I believe not all MBAs are created equal. Mine was from a top 20 school, and the name recognition and reputation put me a step ahead.”

Going to graduate school while working a full-time job might seem counterintuitive, but Kirk Imamura, president of recording facility Avatar Studios in New York, believes it can make it easier financially.

“One way I made the investment less burdensome was to have my employer pay part of it,” Imamura explains. “I did the program in two years with no breaks. This makes the experience more valuable because you can apply concepts immediately.”

Attending business school can also be a valuable way to network with new industry contacts. Today’s classmate can be tomorrow’s hiring manager, recruiter or valuable inside contact for an opportunity.

Mark Phelan, assistant manager at Sodaro Estate Winery in Napa, Calif., is convinced his MBA made a difference between good and great. “The enthusiastic networking I did in that environment is what made the difference between having an expensive piece of paper and putting my knowledge and skills to good use.”

Not having an MBA can definitely be a liability. Just ask Troy McClain, who was a contestant on the first season of “The Apprentice.” McClain remembers the moment where he and fellow contestant Kwame Jackson were under review by Donald Trump. “Looking at a man with a high school diploma, versus another with an MBA from Harvard, the choice was obvious,” McClain recalls. “I was fired.”

Just say no
Although an MBA can clearly enhance a stellar résumé and educational background, there are concerns that it may not be a great return on investment for everyone. With new graduates saturating the job market — and a volatile financial sector — MBAs are no longer a guaranteed golden ticket to professional advancement.

“Aside from providing a fundamental understanding of accounting and finance, the courses were a waste of time,” says Benjamin Atkinson, director of risk management at New Jersey-based PeopleLink LLC. “My own reading provided me with vastly more useful and timely information; my professors weren’t even aware of some of the current writings on these subjects.” Atkinson eventually abandoned his quest for an MBA. “I’d hire business experience over a business degree, every time,” he declares.

Though pursuing the degree may not be a waste of time for everyone, some professionals have wondered if the investment of time and tuition makes the MBA a worthwhile goal.

Dave Taylor, a Colorado-based new media and management consultant, isn’t sure his MBA has a substantial impact. “I have to say that the knowledge I gained in terms of business fundamentals has been useful, but I don’t believe that having an MBA has, per se, helped my career,” he summarizes. “It seems more important to have experience with new media than to have a piece of paper or credential.”

Should you stay or should you go?
If you’re on the fence about whether to pick the MBA career path, take a moment to ponder these points before you make the leap:

Think it through. If you recently completed an undergraduate program, and are unsure about your next step, don’t rush into an MBA program. Work in your industry for a few years. Get some practical experience and a professional perspective.
Research your field. Don’t get an MBA simply because it’s icing on the cake. Make sure it acts as a springboard to advancement in your field.  There are a number of specialized MBA programs tailored for different industries, including human resources, information technology and property management.
Talk to your employer. Many companies offer tuition reimbursement, or will pay for part or all of an MBA for their employees. Talk to your employer and see what costs they can cover. If it’s not an existing part of your benefits package, see if you can negotiate it as a perk at your next performance evaluation.

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ELYAC Realty- Google Uses Web Searches to Track Flu’s Spread

Google Uses Web Searches to Track Flu’s Spread

SAN FRANCISCO – There is a new common symptom of the flu, in addition to the usual aches, coughs, fevers and sore throats. Turns out a lot of ailing Americans enter phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors.

That simple act, multiplied across millions of keyboards in homes around the country, has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks, called Google Flu Trends.

Tests of the new Web tool from Google.org, the company’s philanthropic unit, suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In early February, for example, the C.D.C. reported that the flu cases had recently spiked in the mid-Atlantic states. But Google says its search data show a spike in queries about flu symptoms two weeks before that report was released. Its new service at google.org/flutrends analyzes those searches as they come in, creating graphs and maps of the country that, ideally, will show where the flu is spreading.

The C.D.C. reports are slower because they rely on data collected and compiled from thousands of health care providers, labs and other sources. Some public health experts say the Google data could help accelerate the response of doctors, hospitals and public health officials to a nasty flu season, reducing the spread of the disease and, potentially, saving lives.

“The earlier the warning, the earlier prevention and control measures can be put in place, and this could prevent cases of influenza,” said Dr. Lyn Finelli, lead for surveillance at the influenza division of the C.D.C. From 5 to 20 percent of the nation’s population contracts the flu each year, she said, leading to roughly 36,000 deaths on average.

The service covers only the United States, but Google is hoping to eventually use the same technique to help track influenza and other diseases worldwide.

“From a technological perspective, it is the beginning,” said Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive.

The premise behind Google Flu Trends – what appears to be a fruitful marriage of mob behavior and medicine – has been validated by an unrelated study indicating that the data collected by Yahoo, Google’s main rival in Internet search, can also help with early detection of the flu.

“In theory, we could use this stream of information to learn about other disease trends as well,” said Dr. Philip M. Polgreen, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Iowa and an author of the study based on Yahoo’s data.

Still, some public health officials note that many health departments already use other approaches, like gathering data from visits to emergency rooms, to keeping daily tabs on disease trends in their communities.

“We don’t have any evidence that this is more timely than our emergency room data,” said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, assistant commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in New York City.

If Google provided health officials with details of the system’s workings so that it could be validated scientifically, the data could serve as an additional, free way to detect influenza, said Dr. Mostashari, who is also chairman of the International Society for Disease Surveillance.

A paper on the methodology of Google Flu Trends is expected to be published in the journal Nature.

Researchers have long said that the material published on the Web amounts to a form of “collective intelligence” that can be used to spot trends and make predictions.

But the data collected by search engines is particularly powerful, because the keywords and phrases that people type into them represent their most immediate intentions. People may search for “Kauai hotel” when they are planning a vacation and for “foreclosure” when they have trouble with their mortgage. Those queries express the world’s collective desires and needs, its wants and likes.

Internal research at Yahoo suggests that increases in searches for certain terms can help forecast what technology products will be hits, for instance. Yahoo has begun using search traffic to help it decide what material to feature on its site.

Two years ago, Google began opening its search data trove through Google Trends, a tool that allows anyone to track the relative popularity of search terms. Google also offers more sophisticated search traffic tools that marketers can use to fine-tune ad campaigns. And internally, the company has tested the use of search data to reach conclusions about economic, marketing and entertainment trends.

“Most forecasting is basically trend extrapolation,” said Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist. “This works remarkably well, but tends to miss turning points, times when the data changes direction. Our hope is that Google data might help with this problem.”

Prabhakar Raghavan, who is in charge of Yahoo Labs and the company’s search strategy, also said search data could be valuable for forecasters and scientists, but privacy concerns had generally stopped it from sharing it with outside academics.

Google Flu Trends avoids privacy pitfalls by relying only on aggregated data that cannot be traced to individual searchers. To develop the service, Google’s engineers devised a basket of keywords and phrases related to the flu, including thermometer, flu symptoms, muscle aches, chest congestion and many others.

Google then dug into its database, extracted five years of data on those queries and mapped it onto the C.D.C.’s reports of influenzalike illness. Google found a strong correlation between its data and the reports from the agency, which advised it on the development of the new service.

“We know it matches very, very well in the way flu developed in the last year,” said Dr. Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org. Dr. Finelli of the C.D.C. and Dr. Brilliant both cautioned that the data needed to be monitored to ensure that the correlation with flu activity remained valid.

Google also says it believes the tool may help people take precautions if a disease is in their area.

Others have tried to use information collected from Internet users for public health purposes. A Web site called whoissick.org, for instance, invites people to report what ails them and superimposes the results on a map. But the site has received relatively little traffic.

HealthMap, a project affiliated with the Children’s Hospital Boston, scours the Web for articles, blog posts and newsletters to create a map that tracks emerging infectious diseases around the world. It is backed by Google.org, which counts the detection and prevention of diseases as one of its main philanthropic objectives.

But Google Flu Trends appears to be the first public project that uses the powerful database of a search engine to track a disease.

“This seems like a really clever way of using data that is created unintentionally by the users of Google to see patterns in the world that would otherwise be invisible,” said Thomas W. Malone, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. “I think we are just scratching the surface of what’s possible with collective intelligence.”

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ELYAC Realty- Critics say new federal mortgage plan not enough

WASHINGTON – Once again, the government has offered another plan to help troubled homeowners. Once again, critics say it doesn’t go far enough. The plan announced Tuesday by federal officials and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sounds sweeping in its approach: Borrowers would get reduced interest rates or longer loan terms to make their payments more affordable.

But there’s a catch. The plan focuses on loans Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee. They are the dominant players in the U.S. mortgage market but represent only 20 percent of delinquent loans.

Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said the plan “falls short of what is needed to achieve wide-scale modifications of distressed mortgages.”

With the government spending billions to aid distressed banks, “we must also devote some of that money to fixing the front-end problem: too many unaffordable home loans,” Bair said in a statement.

Democrats on Capitol Hill aren’t satisfied, either. “When the loan is chopped up into a million pieces and any investor can block a modification from happening, a program like this will only scratch the surface of the mortgage crisis,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

The economic crisis is still unnerving Wall Street. Stocks fell again as investors found few industries safe from the consumer spending slump. With Starbucks Corp. and luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. both posting disappointing quarterly results, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down nearly 180 points.

The financial crisis took on a new dimension on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for “emergency and limited financial assistance” for the battered auto industry and urged the outgoing Bush administration to join lawmakers in reaching a quick compromise during a postelection session of Congress.

The new mortgage assistance plan was announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seized control of Fannie and Freddie in September, and other government and industry officials.

Officials say they hope the new approach, which takes effect Dec. 15, will become a model for loan servicing companies that collect mortgage payments and distribute them to investors. These companies have been roundly criticized for being slow to respond to a surge in defaults.

James Lockhart, director of the housing finance agency, urged investors to “rapidly adopt this program as the industry standard.”

Still, government officials had no estimate of how many homeowners would be able to qualify. Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee nearly 31 million U.S. mortgages, or nearly six of every 10 outstanding. But they have far lower overall delinquency rates — under 2 percent.

To qualify, borrowers would have to be at least three months behind on their home loans and would have to owe 90 percent or more than the home is worth. Investors who do not occupy their homes would be excluded, as would borrowers who have filed for bankruptcy.

Qualified borrowers would get help in several ways: The interest rate would be reduced so that they would not pay more than 38 percent of their gross income on housing expenses. Another option is for loans to be extended to 40 years from 30, and for some of the principal to be deferred, interest-free.

Though lenders have beefed up their efforts to aid borrowers over the past year, their action hasn’t kept up with the worst housing recession in decades.

More than 4 million American homeowners, or 9 percent of borrowers with a mortgage, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Indeed, Tuesday’s announcement comes too late for Troy Courtney, a 44-year-old San Francisco police officer.

He moved out of his home in Mill Valley, Calif., earlier this month — taking his children, three dogs and one cat with him — after failing at several attempts to get a loan modification or a short sale. A short sale occurs when the lender agrees to receive less than the loan is worth.

Courtney worked overtime and tapped into his retirement account to try to catch up with two loans on his home. But in the end, he couldn’t persuade Countrywide Financial, which managed the loan for Wells Fargo, to modify the loan.

“I feel like I missed the boat,” he said of the new efforts to help more homeowners. “I’m just mad at the whole system.”

One reason the problem has been so tough to solve for borrowers such as Courtney is that the vast majority of troubled loans were packaged into complex investments that have proved extremely hard to unwind.

Deutsche Bank estimates more than 80 percent of the $1.8 trillion in outstanding troubled loans have been packaged and sold in slices to investors worldwide. Most of those loans won’t likely be helped by the new plan.

The rest are “whole loans,” which are easier to modify because they have only one owner.

Still, after more than a year of slow and weak initiatives, there seems to be a serious effort among major retail banks to get at the heart of the credit crisis: falling U.S. home prices and record foreclosures.

Citigroup said Monday it is halting foreclosures for borrowers who live in their own homes, have decent incomes and stand a good chance of making lowered mortgage payments.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. last month expanded its mortgage modification program to an estimated $70 billion in loans, which could aid as many as 400,000 customers. The bank already has modified about $40 billion in mortgages, helping 250,000 customers since early 2007.

Starting Dec. 1, Bank of America Corp. plans to modify an estimated 400,000 loans held by newly acquired Countrywide Financial Corp. as part of an $8.4 billion legal settlement reached with 11 states in early October.

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ELYAC Realty- Fannie Mae Loses $29 Billion on Write-Downs

Fannie Mae Loses $29 Billion on Write-Downs

All the profits, and then some, that Fannie Mae reaped as home prices soared in recent years vanished in a mere three months, the mortgage giant said on Monday, leaving many analysts wondering where the red ink will end.

The numbers are staggering. Fannie Mae lost $29 billion during the third quarter, more than it earned from 2002 to 2006. So many homeowners are falling behind on their mortgages that Fannie Mae could seek tens of billions of dollars in government handouts next year.

But the broader implication of the grim results – the first since Fannie and its sister company, Freddie Mac, were seized by the government in September – is that home prices could continue to fall.

With home values falling across much of the nation, Fannie Mae said that it was bracing for billions of dollars in additional losses and that it may need more than the $100 billion that the Treasury Department has pledged to keep the company afloat.

The hole at Fannie could get even worse if the economy confronts a deep, prolonged recession, as many economists predict. Of particular concern is the hostile reception the company is getting in the capital markets. Since the government guaranteed certain kinds of debt issued by banks last month, investors have shunned Fannie and Freddie debt that comes due in more than a year because those debts do not have an explicit federal guarantee.

Herbert M. Allison, who was appointed chief executive of Fannie by regulators, is taking a far darker view of the company’s prospects than his predecessor, Daniel H. Mudd, who presided over the near total wipeout of shareholders.

The $29 billion third-quarter loss eclipsed the $28.1 billion the company earned from 2002 through 2006, and was more than 20 times the loss Fannie Mae reported for the third quarter of 2007. Most of the new red ink reflected a $9.2 billion charge for credit expenses and a $21.4 billion write-down of deferred tax assets that are valuable only if the company makes a profit.

“Credit losses are rising, and need for reserves is still increasing,” said Moshe Orenbuch, an analyst who follows Fannie and Freddie for Credit Suisse. “This is bad news, not just for Fannie, but for the whole economy. The message from these results is that we’re going to continue seeing housing problems for at least a year.”

Fannie Mae said the number of loans in its portfolio that were in foreclosure or delinquent by more than three months jumped to 1.72 percent in the third quarter, up from 0.78 percent a year earlier. Furthermore, the company estimates that home prices have fallen 9.7 percent from their peak in the second quarter of 2006 and will fall a total of 19 percent before hitting bottom.

Steve Persky, the chief executive of Dalton Investments in Los Angeles, said the stark drop in home prices and rise in delinquency rates suggest that Fannie Mae could suffer steep losses in the coming months and that the government will have to inject significant capital into the company.

“Prices are going to decline and losses grow for the foreseeable future,” he said. “If they are talking about taking money now, it means they are eventually going to take more than we probably expected over the long run.”

It is unclear how much money the Treasury Department might have to put into the companies. Fannie Mae said it now has $9.3 billion of capital after its write-downs. But the company said it would have a capital deficit of $46.4 billion if it calculated its securities on a “fair value basis,” or according to what they would fetch in the market.

A spokeswoman for the Treasury declined to comment on Fannie’s results. The Treasury has said it would invest as much as $100 billion each in Fannie and Freddie through preferred shares, though it has not put in any money yet. The government has also said it would lend as much money as the companies need.

Policy makers are relying on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The companies are supporting the financing of about 70 percent of all home loans being made. When other federal agencies like the Federal Housing Administration are included, the government’s share of the mortgage market climbs to as much as 90 percent.

Bush administration officials have said they would like Fannie and Freddie to step up their acquisitions of home loans to support the real estate market. The Treasury Department had said it wanted each company to amass a mortgage portfolio of $850 billion.

But Fannie said on Monday that it had not been able to increase its portfolio much because of weaker demand for mortgage securities, tighter lending standards and weaker demand for its long-term debt from investors, particularly foreigners. The company’s portfolio of loans and securities stood at $744.7 billion at the end of September, up less than 1 percent from June.

So far, the government’s support for Fannie and Freddie has not reduced mortgage rates, as some had hoped. The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate loan was 6.2 percent last week, little changed from late August before the government took over the companies.

“The fact that these companies have not been buying mortgages in size, and that mortgage rates are higher than before these companies were taken over, shows that the government has failed to achieve its goals,” said Howard Shapiro, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton.

Analysts say the government might have to explicitly guarantee debt issued by Fannie and Freddie to give it the same status as bank debt to allay the concerns of investors. The government might also have to amend or waive a restriction that bars the companies from increasing their total debt by more than 10 percent from the level at the end of June.

Pressure is also building on the two companies to do more to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. Fannie Mae said on Monday that the majority of its loan workouts have been done through its “Home Saver” program, under which the company provides personal loans to delinquent borrowers so they can catch up with their missed payments. The company also helps borrowers by extending their loans, reducing their interest rates or temporarily lowering monthly payments.

Advocates for homeowners and some policy makers have said Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and private mortgage companies need to do more to lower monthly payments either permanently or for an extended time. Studies show that as many as 50 percent of borrowers who receive a loan modification, but not a reduction in payments, default again.

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ELYAC Realty- What Crisis? Some Hedge Funds Gain

ELYAC Realty- What Crisis? Some Hedge Funds Gain

By ELYACRealty

Bernard V. Drury is a rarity on Wall Street: a hedge fund manager who is making money rather than losing it.

While most hedge funds are sinking into red this year and unsettling the markets in the process, a handful of them are posting spectacular gains. Mr. Drury’s fund, for instance, is up 60 percent since Jan. 1.

How did he do it? Mr. Drury, a former grain trader, is not giving away his secrets. He relies on proprietary computer models to chart tides in the markets and to ride the prevailing currents.

But however smart or lucky the moneymakers have been, a few bad trades can end any hot streak. Despite Wall Street’s reputation as a place of big money and bigger egos, many of the winners are reluctant to boast, particularly given the gaping losses threatening some rivals.

“There’s going to be, naturally, a lot of forms of disillusionment with hedge funds,” said Mr. Drury, who opened his fund, Drury Capital, in 1992.

Indeed, gloomy talk of an industry shakeout is getting louder as returns at most funds sink lower. Over the last few months, some funds have been forced to dump stocks and bonds because their investors want their money back. Wall Street traders worry that another big wave of withdrawals in mid-November could further unsettle the markets.

All of which makes the big winners stand out even more. Hedge fund returns, on average, are down 20 percent. But one in every 50 funds is up more than 30 percent – an astonishing performance, considering the broad stock market is down even more than that.

Winners include trend-followers like Mr. Drury; market-spanning macro funds, which dart in and out of an array of markets and bet on everything from Apple Inc. to zinc; and niche players that are buying insurance policies or making loans to small companies.

Some of this year’s stars are familiar names on Wall Street. For instance, a fund managed by John Paulson, who reportedly was paid $3.7 billion in 2007 after betting against the subprime mortgage market, has gained nearly 30 percent this year in his largest fund, investors say.

But some of the other moneymakers are not well known, and could benefit as competitors close and investors look for new places to park their money. Hedge-fund traders who make a killing are often lionized within the industry. One good year can vault a small player to the big leagues.

But with so many funds down – only one in three has made any money this year – the price of admission to the winner’s circle has fallen. A showing that would have been considered dismal only a year ago is now viewed as a standout success. Traders even joke that down 10 percent is the new break-even. Actually making money is all the more rare.

“This year, anything north of 10 percent is spectacular,” said Pierre Villeneuve, managing director of the Mapleridge Capital Corporation, a $750 million hedge fund in Canada that is up 18 percent.

Other funds with big winnings include R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management; Conquest Capital Group; MKP Capital Management; the Tulip Trend Fund, run by Progressive Capital; and funds run by John W. Henry & Company.

Never before have so many funds been down. In 5 of the last 10 years, fewer than 15 percent of hedge funds lost money. Even in the worst year, 2002, 31 percent finished down, according to estimates from HedgeFund.net, a unit of Channel Capital Group. This year, some 70 percent of hedge funds had lost money from Jan. 1 through the end of September.

To a degree, hedge funds are hostage to their stated investment strategies, and investors judge them accordingly. Funds that specialize in convertible bonds and stocks, for example, are among the worst performers this year because those markets have been hard hit in the financial crisis.

Losers include well-known traders like Kenneth C. Griffin, who runs the Citadel Investment Group; Lee S. Ainslie, head of Maverick Capital; and David Einhorn, the head of Greenlight Capital, who called attention to the troubles at Lehman Brothers before many others.

Still, funds that specialize in investment strategies that have suffered could come out looking good if they manage to post even modest gains. For instance, Exis Capital, a $150 million fund that trades stocks, is up 9 percent this year, even after the fund’s manager took their 50 percent fee, according to investors. The average stock fund, by comparison, is down 22 percent, according to estimates from Hedge Fund Research. In commodities trading, Touradji Capital Management is up 11 percent even as its competitor, Ospraie Management, was forced to liquidate a large fund.

At some hedge fund companies, this year’s performance is mixed. Trafalgar, a hedge fund in London, manages 10 funds. Three are down, but two – a volatility fund, and “special situations” fund – are up more than 20 percent, according to an investor.

Trafalgar declined to say what special situations it had pounced on. Volatility funds, a category that is broadly doing well, focus on trading options and try to profit when the markets swing wildly as they have lately.

Lee Robinson, co-founder of Trafalgar Asset Managers, said his firm’s success set it apart from competitors.

“Every investor is going to say, ‘What did you do in September ‘08, what did you do in October ‘08?’ and if you were down significantly, you’re going to have trouble raising money,” Mr. Robinson said. “The most important question is not, ‘How much money am I getting back?’ it’s ‘Do I get my money back?’ “

Several managers who are doing well did not want to brag at a time when so many of their industry colleagues were struggling.

“You don’t do victory laps,” said Adam Stern, a partner at AM Investment Partners, whose volatility fund is up 6.75 percent this year. “It’s a very sad time for a lot of people. People worked very hard, and they’re losing a lot of money and net worth.”

Marek Fludzinski, one of this year’s winners, remembers what it was like to be a loser. Mr. Fludzinski, the chief executive of Thales Fund Management, was among the computer-loving quantitative fund managers who suffered in 2007, when his fund lost 8 percent. Investors immediately began asking for their money back, so Mr. Fludzinski shut the $1.6 billion fund and started anew.

Now his computer-driven fund, created in May, has grown to $350 million from $80 million in assets and is up 14 percent.

Mr. Fludzinski said the important factor in running a hedge fund these days was simply surviving.

“Don’t do something that will kill you,” said Mr. Fludzinski, who uses a database with 14 years of prices on thousands of stocks to try to spot patterns like the forced selling of stocks.

Marc H. Malek, a former UBS trader who manages $611 million, is up 44 percent in his macro fund. But even as new investors approach his company, Conquest Capital, the firm is also receiving redemption requests from investors who want their money back, Mr. Malek said. Investors are pulling cash from wherever they can.

A growing number of troubled hedge funds are temporarily refusing to give investors their money back by freezing their funds, in industry parlance. But others are profiting from the waves of panic that have convulsed the markets this year.

Roy Niederhoffer, founder of R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, whose more famous brother, Victor, made and then lost a fortune trading, is up more than 50 percent. To predict how investors will behave, Roy Niederhoffer, who majored in neuroscience at Harvard, delves into psychological research.

But Mr. Niederhoffer does not need much research to tell him that some investors chase winners. With his fund soaring, investors are piling on. His assets under management have climbed to $2 billion, from $700 million earlier this year.

Still, Mr. Niederhoffer is not planning any celebrations.

“The greatest danger at a time like this is hubris,” he said. He has banned fist-pumping victory poses on his trading floor.

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ELYAC Realty- Obama to center stage, promises action on economy

By NEDRA PICKLER and TERENCE HUNT, Associated Press Writers Nedra Pickler And Terence Hunt, Associated Press Writers Fri Nov 7, 6:00 pm ET

CHICAGO – Inheriting an economy in peril, President-elect Obama warned on Friday that the nation faces the challenge of a lifetime and pledged he would act urgently to help Americans devastated by lost jobs, disappearing savings and homes seized in foreclosure. But the man who promised change cautioned against hopes of quick solutions.

“It is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in,” Obama said at his first news conference since winning the presidency on Tuesday.

The No. 1 priority, Obama said, is to get Congress to approve an economic stimulus plan that would extend jobless benefits, send food aid to the poor, dispatch Medicaid funds to states and spend tens of billions of dollars on public works projects. If the plan is not approved this month, in a special session of Congress, Obama said that “it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States.”

In his first appearance since a jubilant election-night celebration, Obama sought to project an air of calm and reassurance to a deeply worried nation. He stood in a presidential-like setting with an array of eight American flags and a lectern showing a presidential seal above the words “The Office of the President Elect.” The stage behind him was lined with advisers he had summoned, his economic brain trust.

Almost 20 minutes late to his first meeting with reporters, Obama spoke for just 20 minutes and broke no ground with new policy announcements or disclosures of who would be in his Cabinet. In lighthearted moments, he joked about seances with dead presidents and the appeal of animal shelter dogs that are “mutts like me.”

Constrained by the fact he will not take office until Jan. 20, Obama deferred to President Bush and his economic team on major decisions. “The United States has only one government and one president at a time,” he said.

Declaring he would not respond to issues “in a knee-jerk fashion,” Obama declined to say how he would deal with Iran, whose president sent a letter of congratulations to Obama. “I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won’t be until January 20th,” he said.

A new jobless report offered no comfort. The unemployment rate climbed to a 14-year high in October,and 10.1 million people were out of work. In Detroit, General Motors reported a huge third-quarter loss and said it may run out of cash next year. Ford planned more job cuts after burning through billions of dollars of its own.

While standing back as long as Bush is president, Obama said his advisers would keep close watch on the administration’s efforts to unlock frozen credit and stabilize financial markets. Obama said he wanted to make sure the Bush administration was “protecting taxpayers, helping homeowners and not unduly rewarding the management of financial firms that are receiving government assistance.”

Obama spoke after he and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met privately with economic advisers to discuss ways to stabilize the economy.

“We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we’re going to have to act swiftly to resolve it,” Obama said.

He said he was confident that “a new president can have an enormous impact,” but he tempered that optimism by adding, “I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead.”

“Immediately after I become president, I will confront this economic challenge head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity,” Obama said.

“Some of the choices that we’re going to make are going to be difficult,” he said. “It is not going to be quick. It’s not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in.” But he said he was confident the country could do it.

Obama left the door open to the possibility that economic conditions might prompt him to change his tax plan that would give a break to most families but raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 annually.

“I think that the plan that we’ve put forward is the right one, but obviously over the next several weeks and months, we’re going to be continuing to take a look at the data and see what’s taking place in the economy as a whole,” Obama said.

Democratic congressional leaders want to pass a broad economic aid package in a postelection session later this month, but prospects appear dim because of Bush’s opposition.

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader, said the House wouldn’t reconvene for a postelection session unless Bush did an about-face and drops his opposition. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., isn’t sure such a package could get through the Senate either, he added.

“Clearly there’s no point in us doing something if the administration’s going to take a position that they’re not going to sign something,” Hoyer said.

If Congress and Bush can’t come to terms on a stimulus bill this fall, lawmakers have spoken with Obama’s team about a Plan B: The new Congress could quickly pass an economic aid package when it reconvenes in early January, readying it for Obama’s signature as his first official act after being inaugurated, Democratic leadership aides said.

That measure would probably be just the first installment of a broader package, including a middle class tax cut, that Congress could pass separately after Obama is in the White House.

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ELYAC Realty- AIG repays more of $85 billion Fed loan

AIG repays more of $85 billion Fed loan
Friday November 7, 1:01 pm ET
By Ieva M. Augstums, AP Business Writer

AIG repays more of $85 billion Fed loan as possible change in original loan terms loom CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — American International Group Inc. reduced the amount it owes the U.S. government by another $2.3 billion as the insurer continues to use the Federal Reserve’s new commercial-paper-funding program.

The updated figures come as reports circulated Friday that New York-based AIG may receive less stringent loans terms.

Shares of AIG jumped 27 cents, or 14.4 percent, to $2.14 in afternoon trading.

The Wall Street Journal said Friday that federal officials were considering a possible change in the terms of an $85 billion loan made to AIG in September.

AIG spokesman Joseph Norton declined to comment on the report. Federal Reserve Bank of New York spokesman Andrew Williams also declined to comment.

Figures released by the Federal Reserve Thursday showed that as of Wednesday, the government has loaned AIG $81.2 billion under two emergency facilities that were to help the company stave off bankruptcy. That figure was $83.5 billion a week ago.

In September, the Fed said it would provide AIG a two-year, $85 billion loan at an interest rate of about 11.5 percent. In return, the government received a 79.9 percent stake in AIG and the ability to remove senior management.

The central bank later said it would loan the company an additional $37.8 billion.

Last week, AIG said it would be able to access up to an additional $20.9 billion under the new commercial-paper-funding-facility program.

In total, the government has put about $144 billion at AIG’s disposal.

By using the commercial-paper program from the Fed, AIG has been able to reduce the amount it had borrowed under the original $85 billion line of credit, Norton said.

As of Wednesday, AIG’s borrowings under the $85 billion credit facility totaled $61 billion, down from about $65.5 billion a week ago. The total paydown in the past two weeks totals $9.1 billion.

In addition, AIG has drawn $19.9 billion under the $37.8 billion lending agreement, he said. That amount is up $2.2 billion from a week ago.

Although Norton would not provide details of the amounts borrowed under the new commercial-paper-funding facility, he did say the decrease in the $85 billion facility is “due primarily to AIG’s access” to the program.

On Oct. 3, AIG said it would sell off certain business units to pay off the $85 billion loan. The company, however, said it plans to retain its U.S. property and casualty and foreign general insurance businesses. It also plans to keep an ownership interest in its foreign life-insurance operations.

Since then, no deals have been announced.

More details may be announced Monday, when AIG reports third-quarter results.

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ELYAC Realty- After big jump, pending home sales fall, again

After big jump, pending home sales fall, again

Index declines by more-than-expected 4.6%, still above year-ago levels

The Associated Press

updated 9:04 a.m. PT, Fri., Nov. 7, 2008

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WASHINGTON – Pending U.S. home sales fell more than expected in September, after posting a big jump in the previous month.

The National Association of Realtors said Friday that its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell 4.6 percent to a reading of 89.2. That’s down from an upwardly revised August reading of 93.5.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a September reading of 90.6.

The index was 1.6 percent above year-ago levels. It sunk to a record low of 83 in March, and stood at 87.8 in September 2007.

The reading should provide a preview of October’s existing home sales numbers when the Realtors group releases them on Nov. 24.

Home sales are considered pending when the seller has accepted an offer, but the deal has not yet closed. Typically there is a one- to two-month lag before a sale is completed.

The U.S. has been coping with the worst housing recession in decades, and many in the real estate and mortgage industries are poring through each month’s data for signs of a bottom.

An index reading of 100 is equal to the average level of sales activity in 2001, when the index started.

National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun highlighted one positive sign: The pending sales index has been above year-ago levels for two straight months, though prices continue to sink.

Yun noted sales increases in California, Florida, Long Island, Boston, Minneapolis, Denver and Washington, D.C. Much of that gain, however, likely comes from buyers who are snapping up foreclosed properties at discounted prices.

The Realtors group forecasts U.S. home prices will rise slightly next year to a median of $200,800 after two consecutive years of declines. It forecasts existing home sales will pick up next year to 5.3 million after sliding to a projected 5 million this year.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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ELYAC Realty- Employers cut 240,000 jobs in October

Employers cut 240,000 jobs in October

Nation’s unemployment rate jumps to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent

The Associated Press

updated 9:10 a.m. PT, Fri., Nov. 7, 2008

WASHINGTON – The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, far worse than economists expected and stark proof the economy is deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace.

The new snapshot, released Friday by the Labor Department, showed the crucial jobs market quickly eroding. The jobless rate zoomed to 6.5 percent in October from 6.1 percent in September, matching the rate in March 1994.

Unemployment has now surpassed the high seen after the last recession in 2001. The jobless rate peaked at 6.3 percent in June 2003.

October’s decline marked the 10th straight month of payroll reductions, and government revisions showed that job losses in August and September turned out to be much deeper. Employers cut 127,000 positions in August, compared with 73,000 previously reported. A whopping 284,000 jobs were axed in September, compared with the 159,000 jobs first reported.

So far this year, a staggering 1.2 million jobs have disappeared. Over half the decrease occurred in the past three months alone.

The unemployment report was worse than expected, and was accompanied by more bad news from the auto sector.

Ford Motor Co. reported dismal third-quarter results and announced plans to cut more than 2,000 additional white-collar jobs, and General Motors said it lost $2.5 billion in the third quarter and could run out of cash in 2009.

Yet Wall Street investors appeared to take it in stride. The Dow Jones industrial average was up sharply after steep losses in the previous two sessions.

About 10.1 million people were unemployed in October, an increase of 2.8 million over the past year. A year ago, the unemployment rate stood at 4.8 percent.

President Bush said the dismal employment figures reflect “the difficult challenges confronting the economy” and urged the country to have patience, saying a flurry of unprecedented government measures — including a $700 billion financial bailout package — will take time to work.

“I understand that Americans deeply concerned about the challenges facing our economy, but our economy has overcome great challenges before, and we can be confident that it will do so again,” Bush said.

The employment market is much weaker than economists expected. They were forecasting the unemployment rate to climb to 6.3 percent in October and for payrolls to fall by around 200,000.

“The U.S. recession is deepening,” said Michael Gregory, economist at BMO Capital Markets Economics. The final quarter of this year is getting off to a “particularly ugly” start, he said.

Job losses were widespread, reflecting the mounting carnage from a trio of crises — housing, credit and financial.

Factories cut 90,000 jobs, the most since July 2003. Construction companies got rid of 49,000 jobs with heavy losses in home building. Retailers cut payrolls by 38,000. Professional and business services reduced employment by 45,000. Financial activities cut 24,000 jobs, with heavy losses in mortgage banking and at securities firms. Leisure and hospitality axed 16,000 positions.

All those losses more than swamped some gains elsewhere, including in the government, as well as in education and health care.

Racing to assemble his new Democratic Cabinet, President-elect Barack Obama was scheduled to huddle with economic advisers Friday. His team has been in close contact with the Bush administration to pave the way for a smooth hand-off of power.

All the economy’s woes — a housing collapse, mounting foreclosures, hard-to-get credit and financial market upheaval — will confront Obama when he assumes office early next year. And, the employment situation is likely to get worse.

Many expect the jobless rate to climb to 8 percent, possibly higher, next year. In the 1980-1982 recession, the unemployment rate rose as high as 10.8 percent before inching down.

The grim numbers spurred calls from Democrats on Capitol Hill to provide fresh relief. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats, in a lame-duck session later this month, will push to enact another round of economic stimulus of around $100 billion, possibly including provisions to create jobs through big public works projects.

White House press secretary Dana Perino appeared to suggest that additional action may not be needed.

“Today’s employment numbers are a stark reminder of how critical it is we keep focused on utilizing the tools we now have to return our country to the strong job creation we had in recent years,” Perino said. “We know what the main problems are tight credit and housing markets and we have the tools to solve them.”

The economy has lost its footing in just a few months. It contracted at a 0.3 percent pace in the July-September quarter, signaling the onset of a likely recession. It was the worst showing since 2001 recession, and reflected a massive pullback by consumers.

As U.S. consumers watch jobs disappear, they’ll probably retrench even further, spelling more trouble for the sinking economy.

That’s why analysts predict the economy is still shrinking in the current October-December quarter and will contract further in the first quarter of next year. All that more than fulfills a classic definition of a recession: two straight quarters of contracting economic activity.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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• Employers cut 240,000 jobs in October
• Unemployment Rate at 14-Year High After Big October Losses

ELYAC Realty- Oil steady at $61 after 2-day plunge

Oil steady at $61 after 2-day plunge
Friday November 7, 3:40 am ET
By Alex Kennedy, Associated Press Writer

Oil steady at $61 in Asia after 2-day plunge on fears US recession worse than expected SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices were steady near $61 a barrel Friday in Asia, pausing after a two-day plunge, but vulnerable to another steep fall as evidence of a severe U.S. recession continues to mount.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery was up 38 cents at $61.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late afternoon in Singapore. Oil prices overnight fell $4.53 to settle at $60.77 after dropping $5.23 the previous day.

“There’s a lot of gloom and doom right now,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “Mounting bad news on the economic front is negatively affecting oil.”

A slew of grim economic news Thursday led traders to dump oil on concerns over weakening demand for crude products, such as gasoline.

The number of Americans continuing to draw unemployment benefits surged to a 25-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, and the U.S. retailers saw their sales plummet last month to the weakest October level since at least 1969.

The bad news sparked a sell-off in equity markets as well. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 4.9 percent Thursday, while Asian markets were mixed Friday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average fell 3.6 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 3.1 percent.

“Oil continues to trade in lockstep with stock markets,” said Shum. “More bad news could push oil into the $50s.”

Oil prices have fallen nearly 60 percent since peaking at $147.27 a barrel in mid-July.

The dollar retreating after a sharp rally Thursday gave some support to oil prices in Asia. The dollar surged after the European Central Bank cut its key rate by half a percentage point to 3.25 percent, joining the Bank of England, Swiss and Czech central banks as they confront a looming recession.

Commodities such as oil are used as a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar. When a central bank cuts interest rates, it tends to weaken that nation’s currency, meaning the dollar typically trades higher against it.

The euro gained to $1.2762 on Friday from 1.2681 on Thursday while the dollar was steady at 97.40 yen.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 0.9 cent to $1.35 a gallon. Heating oil gained 0.6 cent to $1.95 a gallon while natural gas for December delivery fell 5.4 cents to $6.93 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, December Brent crude rose 15 cents to $57.59 on the ICE Futures exchange.

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ELYAC Realty- Obama inspires historic victory

• Story Highlights
• NEW: Sen. Barack Obama to voters: “This is your victory”
• NEW: Sen. John McCain congratulates Sen. Barack Obama
• Obama projected to win Virginia, a traditionally Republican state
• Supporters in Chicago cheer “Yes, we did”

(CNN) — Barack Obama told supporters that “change has come to America,” as he addressed the country for the first time as the president-elect.

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America — I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you — we as a people will get there,” Obama said in Chicago, Illinois.

Police estimated that 125,000 people gathered in Grant Park to hear Obama claim victory.

Obama said he was looking forward to working with Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin “to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.” Watch as Obama addresses the country »

McCain on Tuesday urged all Americans to join him in congratulating Sen. Barack Obama on his projected victory in the presidential election.

“I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face,” McCain said before his supporters in Phoenix, Arizona.

“Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much, and tonight, I remain her servant,” he said.

McCain called Obama to congratulate him, Obama’s campaign said. Watch McCain concede »

Obama thanked McCain for his graciousness and said he had waged a tough race.

President Bush also called Obama to congratulate him.

Bush told Obama he was about to begin one of the great journeys of his life, and invited him to visit the White House as soon as it could be arranged, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

With his projected win, Obama will become the nation’s 44th president and its first African-American leader.

Supporters in Chicago cheering, “Yes, we can” were met with cries of “Yes, we did.”

More than 1,000 people gathered outside of the White House, chanting, “Obama, Obama!”

Obama’s former rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton said in a statement that “we are celebrating an historic victory for the American people.” iReport.com: Share your Election Day reaction with CNN

“This was a long and hard fought campaign but the result was well worth the wait. Together, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and a Democratic Congress, we will chart a better course to build a new economy and rebuild our leadership in the world.”

The Illinois senator is projected to pick up a big win in Virginia, a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since 1964. Watch how this election is history in the making »

Obama also is projected to beat McCain in Ohio, a battleground state that was considered a must-win for the Republican candidate. Watch more on Obama’s Ohio win »

Going into the election, national polls showed Obama with an 8-point lead.

Obama will be working with a heavily Democratic Congress. Democrats picked up Senate seats in New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia, among others. Read about the Senate races

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell held onto his seat in Kentucky.

CNN’s Ed Henry said there were lots of long faces in the lobby of the McCain headquarters at the Arizona Biltmore hotel as McCain allies watched returns showing Senate Republicans losing their seats. Watch what McCain says about the race »

Voters expressed excitement and pride in their country after casting their ballots Tuesday in what has proved to be a historic election.

Poll workers reported high turnout across many parts of the country, and some voters waited hours to cast their ballots. Read about election problems

Reports of minor problems and delays in opening polls began surfacing early Tuesday, shortly after polls opened on the East Coast.

The presidential candidates both voted early in the day before heading out to the campaign trail one last time. Watch Obama family at polls »

Tuesday also marked the end of the longest presidential campaign season in U.S. history — 21 months.

As McCain and Obama emerged from their parties’ conventions, the race was essentially a toss-up, with McCain campaigning on his experience and Obama on the promise of change. But the race was altered by the financial crisis that hit Wall Street in September.

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• U.S. on Brink of History as Barack Obama and John McCain Await Election Day Results

ELYAC Realty- Young voter turnout likely sets new record

Young voter turnout likely sets new record

About 50 percent of those ages 18-28 voted, early reports show

By Melissa Dahl

Health writer

msnbc.com

updated 3:22 p.m. PT, Wed., Nov. 5, 2008

Young Americans can finally shake off their reputation for civic apathy. Young people appear to have voted in higher numbers than ever before, preliminary reports show. And analysts say this demographic’s heavy tilt toward Barack Obama was a determining factor in his historic victory.

An estimated 24 million Americans ages 18 to 29 voted in this election, an increase in youth turnout by at least 2.2 million over 2004, reports CIRCLE, a non-partisan organization that promotes research on the political engagement of young Americans. That puts youth turnout somewhere between 49.3 and 54.5 percent, meaning 19 percent more young people voted this year than in 2004, estimates John Della Volpe, the director of polling for the Harvard Institute of Politics. And that’s a conservative estimate, Della Volpe says.

“It looks like the highest turnout among young people we’ve ever had,” says Della Volpe, adding that 12 percent more Americans in the overall electorate voted. The youth share of the vote also rose to 18 percent — a one-percent increase over the last three presidential elections.

“But I think one of the biggest stories is not so much the turnout but the balance of Obama versus McCain among young people — it’s pretty extraordinary,” says Peter Levine, the director for CIRCLE.

Exit polls show 66 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 preferred Obama and 32 percent preferred McMain. The gap closed among those ages 30 to 44 who preferred Obama 52 percent to McCain’s 46 percent. Among those ages 45 to 64, the vote was fairly evenly split between the candidates. Fifty three percent of voters 65 and older leaned toward McCain, compared to 45 percent who supported Obama.

“The reason he won the majority (of the overall vote) was the strong showing from voters 18 to 29. If you subtracted some of their turnout, or if you raised the voting age to 21, it’s a much closer race — or maybe he loses.”

‘Driving force’
Della Volpe estimates that Obama won the youth vote by 8.3 or 8.4 million — and he won the overall popular vote by about 8 million.

“Young people, no question, were the driving force behind this election,” Della Volpe says.

In North Carolina, Obama won the youth vote by nearly 50 points, with 73 points over John McCain’s 27. He lost every other age group in that state. “That turned the state from red to blue,” Della Volpe says. (NBC News has not yet projected a winner in the close presidential race in North Carolina.)

That same kind of wide margin also applied to Indiana, where he won the youth vote 63 to 35 — and again, lost every other age group. “And this is a state where John Kerry lost the youth vote in 2004,” says Della Volpe. Overall, Obama won 4 1/2 times the number of youth votes Kerry won in 2004.

“The difference is the margins — that’s what Obama deserves credit for,” Della Volpe says. “Young people were going to turn out anyway. He took that passion, that excitement, and really mobilized it.”

For Democratic party or only Obama?
Historically, young voters have never before been so solidly united under a single party, says Levine. In fact, the trend for years — here in the U.S. and internationally — has been for younger voters to consider themselves more independent. The question now is: Was it truly a tilt toward the Democratic party, or did the excitement belong solely to Obama?

“Young people have in at least the last 10 years have been pretty resistant to identify with any party,” Levine says. “I think it’s an open question whether Obama will try to and whether Obama will succeed in translating his support to the party.”

There is a possibility that these young people will continue to align themselves with the Democratic party. A comparable election is when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1984, gaining a large chunk of the youth vote; most of those young people continued to consistently vote Republican decades later.

This election season seems to have seen a surge in young people eager to immerse themselves in political involvement, perhaps especially those involved in campaigning efforts for Obama. Sarah Crisman of Dallas, 29, has spent the better part of the last 19 months devoted to the Obama campaign. And now that the election is over, she doesn’t plan to stop her volunteer efforts.

In February 2007, Crisman joined what was then a 100-person meet-up group for Obama, which by Election Day had ballooned into Obama Dallas, a 7,500-person strong grassroots volunteer organization to help campaign for the now president-elect. At an election party Tuesday night, the group’s leaders announced that the organization had a new name: The Progressive Center of Dallas.

“We’re not just going to twiddle their thumbs; we’re going to stay together, we’re going to keep moving, we’re going to keep working,” Crisman says. “It’s not over. This has changed my life; I’m not going to let this die out.”

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• Young voter turnout likely sets record

ELYAC Realty- Obama turns to building administration

CHICAGO – After eight years of Republican rule, Barack Obama turned Wednesday to the task of building a Democratic administration to lead the country out of war and into the financial recovery that he promised.

Pressing business came at him fast, with just 76 days until his inauguration as the 44th president.

Obama chose Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a fellow Chicago politician, to be his White House chief of staff, his first selection for the new administration, Democratic officials said Wednesday.

If Emanuel accepts, he would return to the White House where he served as a political and policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. Emanuel is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives as the Democratic Caucus Chair.

Two campaign officials said the appointment of a chief of staff was not expected for at least a day.

Kerry seeking spot
Several Democrats also said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the party’s 2004 presidential nominee, was actively seeking appointment as secretary of State in the new administration.

James Steinberg, a former Clinton adviser, remained a top contender for National Security Adviser. Susan Rice, another former Clinton aide, could be considered for that job or another senior post.

Obama also relies heavily on three foreign policy experts on his campaign staff who are likely to end up in the White House or State Department. Those three aides are Mark Lippert and Denis McDonough, both former Senate aides, and Ben Rhodes, Obama’s foreign policy speech writer.

With wars under way in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama might consider keeping Robert Gates on as Secretary of Defense. He might also consider tapping former Navy secretary Richard Danzig, a close adviser.

Obama issued a written statement announcing that his transition team would be headed by John Podesta, who served as chief of staff under Clinton; Pete Rouse, who has been Obama’s chief of staff in the Senate; and Valerie Jarrett, a friend of the president-elect and campaign adviser.

The officials who described the developments did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss events not yet announced.

Emanuel moves up
After leaving Bill Clinton’s White House, Emanuel turned to investment banking, then won a Chicago-area House seat six years ago. In Congress, he moved quickly into the leadership. As chairman of the Democratic campaign committee in 2006, he played an instrumental role in restoring his party to power after 12 years in the minority.

Emanuel maintained neutrality during the long primary battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, not surprising given his long-standing ties to the former first lady and his Illinois connections with Obama.

With hundreds of jobs to fill and only 10 weeks until Inauguration Day, Obama and his transition team confronted a formidable task complicated by his anti-lobbyist campaign rhetoric.

The official campaign Web Site said no political appointees would be permitted to work on “regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.”

But almost exactly one year ago, on Nov. 3, 2007, candidate Obama went considerably further than that while campaigning in South Carolina. “I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House,” he said of lobbyists at the time.

Because they often have prior experience in government or politics, lobbyists figure as potential appointees for presidents of both parties.

Ten weeks
The president-elect had breakfast with his wife and daughters, then left his house for a workout at a nearby gym. Aides said he intended to visit his campaign headquarters later in the day to thank his staff.

Obama has less than three months to build a new administration. But his status as an incumbent member of Congress presents issues unseen since 1960, when Democrat John F. Kennedy moved from the Senate to the White House.

The Senate is scheduled to hold a post-election session in two weeks, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a news conference Wednesday to reinforce her call for quick action on a bill to stimulate the economy.

That places Obama in uncharted territory — a president-elect, presumably first among equals among congressional Democrats. Yet his and their ability to enact legislation depends almost entirely until Inauguration Day on President Bush’s willingness to sign it.

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• Oh, The Irony
• In the Choice of Cyphers for Vp and Hatchet Men for Chief of Staff…:

ELYAC Realty- Prophet Mohammed film The Message set for remake

“The Messenger of Peace”, to be shot around the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, was originally a 1977 Hollywood film made by Moustapha Akkad and starring Anthony Quinn.

It is often applauded by Muslims as an example of how commercial Western cinema can respect Islam.

Producer Oscar Zoghbi, who worked on the original, said: “We have only the utmost respect for Akkad’s work but technology in cinema has advanced since the 1970s and this latest project will employ modern film techniques in its renewal of the first film’s core messages.”

Executive producer of the new movie, Hajja Subhia Abu Elheja, said: “Since 9/11, Islam’s image has suffered tremendously.

“Now more than ever it has become important to bridge the gap of understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims.”

“It is telling that only one great historical film has ever been made about Islam, a religion with 1.5 billion followers, whereas Christianity has been the subject of over 30.”

The film’s scriptwriter Ramsey Thomas, said: “In the 21st century there is a real need for a film that emotionally engages audiences on the journey that led to the birth of Islam.”

In the original Message, Mohammed was not seen or heard. Instead Syrian-born director Akkad signified the Prophet’s presence with light organ music and occasionally framed the film from the prophet’s point of view.

Two versions of the film were shot – one in Arabic and one in English. The remake will be only the second English-language film of its kind ever made.

Akkad, who was the executive producer behind Hollywood’s Halloween horror films, was killed in a suicide bomb attack on a luxury hotel in Jordan in 2005.

Portrayals of Mohammed have sparked anger in recent years – Danish cartoons of him in 2006 triggered protests by Muslims in many countries.

Random House US recently cancelled the publication of The Jewel of Medina, a book about one of Mohammed’s wives, over fears it would offend Muslims.

It was also pulled in the UK when publisher Martin Rynja’s house was targeted in a firebomb attack.

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• 1970s-era Prophet Muhammad film set for remake
• Hollywood film on prophet’s life set for remake

ELYAC Realty- The global financial storm rolled across the Persian Gulf

Few banks have done as much twisting and turning in the past 18 months as Barclays. The British bank has picked its way through global banking turmoil and is emerging in one piece — just about.

But Barclays shareholders have paid a price for management’s determination to retain the bank’s independence and reject funds from the British government. Two Gulf investors stepped in instead, buying £3 billion ($4.94 billion) of reserve capital instruments. The 14% coupon compares with the 12% on preferred stock other banks are issuing to the U.K. government.

Associated Press

The London headquarters of British bank Barclays, in London, Friday Oct. 31, 2008.

Barclays also has placed £4.3 billion in mandatory convertible notes with investors. They pay a 9.75% coupon and will convert at 153 pence, a 22.5% discount to Barclays’ average stock price Wednesday and Thursday.

Those numbers aren’t quite as punitive as they look. The coupon on the RCIs is tax deductible so Barclays says the net cost is closer to 10%. But when the attached warrants are priced, that climbs back to 13%.

Barclays does spare itself the months it would take to get an orthodox rights issue off the ground. And it ends up with a Tier 1 ratio of about 11.3%. While not as robust as Credit Suisse’s 13.7%, that is stronger than the other European banks that haven’t taken state funds.

Barclays believes this is a competitive advantage, coupled with having Lehman Brothers’ U.S. assets under its belt and an enhanced emerging-market footprint in a much consolidated industry. But as the global economy slows, Barclays still has plenty more bullets to dodge before that position can start to pay off.

The global financial storm rolled across the Persian Gulf

According The Wall Street Journal, The global financial storm rolled across the Persian Gulf on Sunday, as Kuwait’s central bank guaranteed bank deposits and cobbled together a hasty bailout for one of the country’s largest banks.

By Oil prices down more than 50% from their July highs, The Gulf now looks suddenly vulnerable at the same time as international and local investors are pulling back sharply after the Gulf had seemed relatively immune to the current crisis.

High oil prices have allowed state and private investors across the Gulf to funnel billions of dollars into property markets, infrastructure projects and, more recently, foreign-exchange speculation. In particular, many foreign and local investors earlier in the summer made speculative currency trades, betting that regional governments would drop their currency pegs with the dollar to help tame rising domestic inflation.

International investors — many of whom simply opened up local bank accounts in anticipation of a strengthening of regional currencies if they abandoned their peg to the dollar — rushed out of those trades late in the summer and early last month when it was clear governments weren’t going to act.

Chart courtesy of WSJ

That left many banks strapped for cash, and scrambling for ways to make new loans. When international borrowing seized up last month, the region found itself stuck in its own credit crunch.

But it was currency trades — not bad loans — that plunged Kuwait into a banking bailout on Sunday. Gulf Bank said defaults by counterparties on bad euro-dollar derivatives contracts forced the bank to seek government intervention.

The bailout further roiled Kuwait’s stock market, which fell 3.5%, adding to losses that have pushed the country’s main market index down 19% this year. Other regional markets fell sharply as well.

Companies, banks and individuals have been burned by sharp moves in global currency markets as fears of economic distress prompt an unwinding of trades that have depended on borrowed money. The dollar and the yen have both soared against nearly every other global currency over the past month as investors became convinced that a world-wide recession was looming. This has been particularly problematic because investors have bet heavily on emerging-market currency positions.

Several governments even took dramatic pre-emptive moves, funneling billions of dollars of cash into their relatively small but liquidity-starved banking systems. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia promised $40 billion in lending facilities to banks that needed cash. The United Arab Emirates pledged a sweeping three-year guarantee on domestic bank accounts and promised to back up interbank lending.

Much of the Gulf has budgeted for much lower oil prices. Gulf states, on average, need prices above $47 a barrel to keep from running budget deficits. But some states are more vulnerable than others: Bahrain’s so-called break-even price is $75 a barrel, compared with Saudi Arabia’s $49 and Kuwait’s $33, according to the International Monetary Fund. The speed of crude’s tumble — to about $64 a barrel — has unnerved officials despite the apparent cushion. At an emergency meeting on Friday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries hastily decided to cut output by 1.5 million barrels a day, the biggest single cut in almost eight years.

Real-estate markets in Dubai is now a clear slowdown. Speculators, especially those who were financing their property investment, have largely fled the market.

Gulf Bank Customers Rush for Deposits After Currency Losses

According to Bloomberg today, Customers rushed to withdraw money from Gulf Bank KSC, Kuwait’s second-biggest bank, after clients defaulted on currency contracts and the central bank was forced to guarantee deposits. In the first signs of a bank run in the Persian Gulf, some Gulf Bank customers demanded money in a panic.

Gulf Bank may have losses of as much as 200 million dinars ($746 million) on the trades, Ibrahim Dabdoub, chief executive officer of National Bank of Kuwait SAK, said yesterday. Gulf Bank had assets of 5.09 billion dinars at the end of March and deposits of 3.2 billion dinars, according to Bloomberg data. It has 44 branches across Kuwait, its Web site says.

Central Bank Governor Sheikh Salem al-Sabah said yesterday that Gulf Bank lost money on currency derivatives after the euro declined against the dollar, state news agency KUNA reported. Gulf Bank will absorb the losses until it can work out an agreement with clients.

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