Bhutto In Ultimatum To Musharraf Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has told President Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule now or there would be a ’long march’ of opposition supporters from Lahore to Islamabad.... Read Full Article Iranians Will Attend Regional Conference, May Meet With Rice The conference in Egypt is intended to explore ways to quell the relentless violence in Iraq.... Read Full Article Prime Minister Dissolves Serbia’s Government Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has dissolved the government and called for new elections.... Read Full Article Insider Trading Is Disputed At Trial Of Ex-Chief Of Qwest DENVER, March 20 (AP) ? The former chief executive of Qwest Communications, Joseph P. Nacchio, deceived investors and the public when he secretly sold $101 million in stock before its share price fell... Read Full Article Wal-Mart Profit Up 4% The retailer said net income in the fourth quarter rose to $4.1 billion as its focus on low prices paid off. International growth also helped lift profit and sales.... Read Full Article |
Encourage NewsUnboxed: Can You Become a Creature of New Habits?Brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can encourage a way to innovation.Read Full Article EU may declare Bank’s £50bn money market rescue ’Out’The centrepiece of the Government’s plan to unclog Britain’s money markets could be disrupted by European regulators because it falls foul of state-aid rules, competition lawyers said yesterday. The Bank of England’s scheme to free up Britain’s home loan market by injecting £50 billion into the banking sector risks contravening the rules because it gives unfair advantage to British banks over rivals, experts say. Anthony Woolich, head of competition for LG, the business law firm in London, said: “It seems to me that this is prima facie state aid because this scheme gives banks operating in the UK an advantage over other European banks operating outside the UK.” Mervyn King, the Bank’s Governor, unveiled the bonds-for-mortgages plan this week to try to encourage banks to resume lending to each other. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, said it was hoped that the move would revive the mortgage market. However, last night lawyers gave warning that because it was primarily British banks that stood to gain from the rescue package, and because of the duration of the scheme, the plan was sure to raise eyebrows in Brussels. The Treasury has denied that the scheme contravenes state-aid rules because the funding is available to all financial institutions that have a franchise in the UK, and not just British banks. Yet lawyers argued that it was clear that the plan was designed to help to address the growing crisis in Britain’s housing markets. They also pointed out that it was the heads of Britain’s biggest banks who met Gordon Brown and Mr King before the announcement of the £50 billion plan. If the European Commission were to find that the package breaches its rules, it could order that the loans be paid back more quickly than expected, and at penal rates of interest. The six biggest British banks have all undertaken to use the Bank facility. HBOS yesterday completed the creation of securities backed by £9 billion of home loans - which would qualify for the swap arrangement. Another leading competition lawyer, who declined to be named, said: “You can argue that it’s a general attempt to improve the system in general and everyone can participate, but in reality it’s a measure aimed at helping the British banking sector.” The Commission said it was staying in constant contact with the Government as the Bank rescue plan comes into effect. One Brussels source last night said: “Even if the Commission does not think that the measures amount to state aid, it will want all the details to make absolutely certain.”Read Full Article What’s credit got to do with the price of rice?Now that the Bank of England has got off its high horse and decided to support British banks in much the same way that the European Central Bank has been supporting Spanish and German banks since last August, governments around the world are finally committed to publicly funded financial workouts. This is the “Plan B” that I have described here – the inevitable next stage in the credit crunch, once it became apparent that a market-based solution was doomed to fail. Now that Plan B has swung fully into action, global credit conditions should gradually return to normal in the months ahead. The bad news is that “normal” does not mean anything like the conditions that have prevailed in the world financial system and the global economy during the past few years.<br/> <br/> Three lasting changes in the world economy are likely to result from the credit crunch. First, the US economy, which should start to recover this summer in response to fiscal and monetary stimulus, will no longer be powered by housing and consumption, but mainly by exports and manufacturing. Secondly, the British and European economies, which are 12 to 18 months behind the US in a broadly similar monetary cycle, will only now begin to experience an economic slowdown and housing slump as serious as the one that has almost ended in the US. So, while the credit crunch may be in its final stages globally, its economic impact will probably be far more noticeable from now on in Britain and Europe than in the United States.<br/> <br/> Thirdly, the emerging economies of Asia and other developing regions will no longer enjoy export-led growth as consumption in America and Europe becomes structurally weaker. If the developing countries are to continue growing rapidly – and I believe that they will – they must rely on domestic consumption, infrastructure investment and their own home-grown property booms.<br/> <br/> These three fundamental shifts in the world economy are by now widely recognised. There is, however, another apparent consequence of the credit crunch that is less understood and is causing consternation and anxiety, especially in China and other developing countries. This is the upsurge in oil, food and commodity prices, many of which have almost doubled since the credit crunch began last August, even though the causal linkage between soaring commodity prices and a collapsing supply of credit remains obscure. If anything, the credit-induced slowdown in global economic growth and consumption since last August should have weakened demand for commodities and therefore pushed down prices. Yet the reality is that commodity prices have recently leapt higher every time the global banking system was hit by some new shock.<br/> <br/> As a result, China and other emerging countries, which last year were preparing to boost domestic consumption to compensate for weaker exports to the US, are now more worried about inflation and are raising interest rates to try to slow their domestic growth. This is potentially a very dangerous development for the world economy, which increasingly relies on domestic demand from Asia, the Middle East and Russia. This unexpected policy tightening by emerging nations also explains why stock markets fell far harder in Asia than in America and Europe in the first quarter of this year.<br/> <br/> Why, then, has a global collapse in credit created a boom in commodity demand? The short answer is that nobody knows. A common explanation in the media is that soaring commodity prices reflect a global panic about inflation, as the Federal Reserve Board supports the US banking system by printing money and slashing interest rates.<br/> <br/> This explanation does not pass muster for at least three reasons. First, because US inflationary pressures are already subsiding as a result of the credit crunch and the associated fall in house prices and employment. Secondly, because the ECB and the Bank of England show no sign of imitating the Fed’s expansionary monetary policies, yet commodity prices are soaring in sterling and euros as well as dollars. Thirdly, because the commodities rising fastest – such as rice, wheat and pork – cannot be used as long-term stores of value and so must reflect the balance of supply and demand for instant use, rather than fears about loose monetary policy and its possible effects on inflation many years ahead.<br/> <br/> What, then, has suddenly boosted demand for agricultural commodities and how might this be related to the credit crunch? A possible explanation is that the rise in prices itself has triggered a self-sustaining upward spiral of demand, in which investors, wholesalers and final consumers want to buy more of a commodity each time its price rises and this leads to more hoarding and still higher prices. Such self-sustaining price trends are normally rapidly reversed because value-oriented investors and commodity producers start to trade against the trend, selling more each time the price rises. In present conditions, however, it is harder than usual for speculators to trade against the rising price trend, because bank lending has dried up. Several American grain wholesalers, for example, have been pushed towards bankruptcy because they have sold futures against grain supplies they bought in advance from US farmers and have then been unable to finance these temporary “short positions” until the next harvest comes along.<br/> <br/> By draining liquidity in this way from all financial markets, the credit crunch has exacerbated trend-following behaviour among investors, promoted stockpiling throughout the global supply chain and encouraged hoarding by consumers. This financially driven process, rather than a sudden increase in Chinese and Indian appetites, has probably been the main cause of this year’s shortfall in global food supplies.<br/> <br/> Similar influences may explain other surprising linkages that have suddenly emerged between financial markets. Since the credit crunch’s start, commodity prices have developed an uncanny correlation with the euro/dollar exchange rate (see chart) and this currency trend, in turn, has been powerfully correlated to two other momentum-driven trends – the collapse in US Treasury bond yields and the widening of credit spreads.<br/> <br/> If all these trends are driven ultimately by lack of liquidity in global financial markets, they are all likely to turn at about the same time, or in a fairly tight sequence - and this process may now be starting. The trend in credit spreads began to reverse in mid-March after the Bear Stearns rescue – and last week, more or less on cue, the predominant direction of the US bond market seemed to switch from lower to higher bond yields. If this rise in US bond yields proves sustainable, the overwhelming currency momentum against the dollar and in favour of the euro may also start to reverse. If that reversal occurs, the trend in commodities should soon follow and the panic about inflation in China and other emerging economies should start to subside. At that point, we will finally be able to say that the worst of the global credit crunch is over.Read Full Article Who’s to blame for the housing market slowdown?The blame for stock market fluctuations has been pinned on young men. The testosterone hormone encourages traders (mostly male) to take greater risks, according to new research.Read Full Article States Look to Tobacco Tax for Budget HolesThe tobacco industry counters that smokers already bear an unfair tax burden and that increases encourage cross-border purchases and bootlegging.Read Full Article External News for: encourageThinspiration: Do Web Sites Encourage Anorexia? - FOXNewsThinspiration: Do Web Sites Encourage Anorexia?FOXNewsThese sites provide an online community to swap tips on how to fast, disguise disordered eating, and generally "encourage" anorexia (though people don't ...and more »Thinspiration: Do Web Sites Encourage Anorexia? - FOXNewsThinspiration: Do Web Sites Encourage Anorexia?FOXNewsThese sites provide an online community to swap tips on how to fast, disguise disordered eating, and generally "encourage" anorexia (though people don't ...and more »Hunters encourage to shoot deer with green ear tags - WEAU-TV 13Fox11online.comHunters encourage to shoot deer with green ear tagsWEAU-TV 13The DNR is encouraging hunters to shoot those deer. He says if you get one, they need to be tested for Chronic Wasting Disease, as a requirement for deer ...DNR installs deer carcass dumpstersWQOW TV News 18all 101 news articles »Thinspiration: Do Web Sites Encourage Anorexia? - FOXNewsThinspiration: Do Web Sites Encourage Anorexia?FOXNewsThese sites provide an online community to swap tips on how to fast, disguise disordered eating, and generally "encourage" anorexia (though people don't ...and more »Hunters encourage to shoot deer with green ear tags - WEAU-TV 13Fox11online.comHunters encourage to shoot deer with green ear tagsWEAU-TV 13The DNR is encouraging hunters to shoot those deer. He says if you get one, they need to be tested for Chronic Wasting Disease, as a requirement for deer ...DNR installs deer carcass dumpstersWQOW TV News 18all 101 news articles »Obama, NFL players encourage kids to exercise - ProFootballTalkUSA TodayObama, NFL players encourage kids to exerciseProFootballTalkAll of the NFL's Thanksgiving weekend games will be used to showcase the league's efforts to combat childhood obesity and encourage exercise.Obama and Dallas Cowboy demarcus Ware pitch volunteerism and fitnessDallas Morning Newsall 243 news articles » |
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