The Cynical Economist

France seizes €36bn of pension assets – Asset managers will have the chance to get billions of euros in mandates in the next few months for the €36bn Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR), the French reserve pension fund, after the French parliament last week passed a law to use its assets to pay off the debts of France’s welfare system.

Hungary Follows Argentina in Pension-Fund Ultimatum, `Nightmare’ for Some – Hungary is giving its citizens an ultimatum: move your private-pension fund assets to the state or lose your state pension.

Europe’s Ominous Reckoning - What you need to know about Ireland’s economic crisis is that it’s not about Ireland: a small country of slightly more than 4 million people and an economy of roughly $200 billion. It’s about Europe. For decades, Europe has pursued two great political projects. One is the democratic welfare state, designed to improve economic justice through various social safety nets. The other is European unity, symbolized by the creation in 1999 of a single currency — the euro — now used by 16 countries. The fact that both contributed to Ireland’s troubles suggests that Europe could be on the brink of a broader crisis.

Silver Prices Surging on Near-Record Demand – The price of silver is surging and so is business at many coin dealers across the country.

Gold will fall to $ 1000 – Some guy believes gold’s role as a safe haven will diminsh as the global economic recoveries solidifies.

China’s Lion Fund to Raise up to $500 Million for Gold ETFs - Lion Fund Management Co. will raise up to $500 million in China to invest in overseas exchange- traded funds backed by gold, the first in the country be approved to do so, a company executive said today.

WikiLeaks plans to release a U.S. bank’s documents – The founder of whistle-blower website WikiLeaks plans to release tens of thousands of internal documents from a major U.S. bank early next year, Forbes Magazine reported on Monday.

GM Shows Off Baojun 630 for China – “We carefully studied the market and customers,”said Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group. “Quality, design, fuel economy and durability were made a focus to appeal to local car buyers, particularly first-time buyers in the nation’s second- and third-tier markets.”

Home Prices in U.S. Cities Rose Less Than Forecast – Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose in September at the slowest pace in eight months, showing the latest slump in sales is destabilizing housing. LOL good job are doing those forecasters!

States Weigh Cap-and-Trade Market Spanning North America – California, New Mexico and 10 U.S. Northeastern states may try to create a North American carbon market on their own now that President Barack Obama has given up on cap-and-trade legislation that stalled in Congress. The banksters and the ruling class are desperate to find more ways to make the population of the US slaves

`Real Bad’ Cash Jam May Make Michigan Towns Borrow or Default By March – Cities and towns across Michigan have seen property-tax collections plunge as much as 20 percent in the past year, the steepest drop since a 1994 state tax rewrite, forcing scores of communities to choose by March whether to borrow to pay bills or risk default on bonds.

For Tottering States, Bankruptcy Could Be the Answer – The federal government still seems a long way from the disaster, but some state governments aren’t.

READ THIS: Local Governments Told to Buy New Street Signs – Federal Highway Administration Is Ordering Local Governments to Buy New Street Signs That They Say Are Easier to Read

Why populism isn’t popular – Most working- and middle-class Americans simply don’t care about economic inequality.

Union Drops Health Coverage for Workers’ Children – The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements.

The Federal Pay Freeze, In Context

How much do you earn in two weeks? - Port Authority Police Department Sgt. John Farrell recently raked in a mind-boggling $30,000 in just 16 days while working for the cash-starved agency at Kennedy Airport — thanks to 227 hours of overtime, PAPD insiders told The Post. So if you thought that the pay freeze will save taxpayers money…you were wrong

Attorney General Eric Holder Travels to Switzerland to Lobby For World Cup in US – Geee the most urgent problem for the AG is lobbying  for US to  host soccer games…

Taxicab confessions – In a shocking taxicab confession, a hack accused of overcharging nearly 4,000 passengers testified before a city judge that crooked cabbies conduct informal crime summits in cab garages to exchange new and devious ways to rip off customers.

Cables Obtained by WikiLeaks Shine Light Into Secret Diplomatic Channels – A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats.

Leaked Cables Reveal True US Worldview – The leak of over 250,000 American diplomatic cables could prove highly embarrassing for the US State Department. The documents reveal what US diplomats really think of other countries, and their worldview is incredibly dark at times. Relations with several countries are likely to suffer as a result.

Ireland Wins $113 Billion Aid; Germany Drops Threat on Bonds – “People are now going to focus on Portugal and it’s probably also going to need some help,” saidAxel Merk, president and chief investment officer of Merk Investments LLC in Palo Alto, California. “We’ll maybe see some relief in markets, but governments need to show they’re getting their economies in shape.”

Portugal Denies Report on Bailout, Approves Budget – Portugal denied on Friday a news report that it is under pressure from most euro zone countries and the European Central Bank to seek a bailout.

Spain Depends on Budget Cuts to Stem Contagion by Luring Local Bond Buyers – Spain, which has the euro region’s third-highest budget deficit, says it won’t adopt new measures to protect itself from Europe’s worsening debt crisis after cutting the central government’s budget gap by almost 50 percent and taming regional spending.

Can the Euro Still Be Saved? - The countries of the euro zone are hopelessly divided over the question of how to save the currency in the long term. Bailouts for individual countries like Ireland and Greece can only be a temporary solution. Meanwhile, an internal paper drawn up by the German government has revealed Berlin’s plans for forcing private-sector investors to take their share of losses in future crises.

Al Simpson speaks out against debt committee  critics, political climate - You don’t want to listen to the right and the left – the extremes,” he said. “You don’t want to listen to Keith Olbermann and Rush Babe [Limbaugh] and Rachel Minnow [sic] or whatever that is, and Glenn Beck. They’re entertainers. They couldn’t govern their way out of a paper sack — from the right or the left. But they get paid a lot of money from you and advertisers — thirty, fifty million a year — to work you over and get you juiced up with emotion, fear, guilt, and racism. Emotion, fear, guilt, and racism.

Rich Americans Ditch Home Ownership For Renting – “I wanted to protect ourselves from prices going down,” says Lee, who is a managing director at a major bank. “I didn’t want to be an owner anymore.” Lee wouldn’t disclose what he’s paying, but similar two-bedroom apartments in the building usually rent for $11,000 a month. Damnnnn! The rent in NY is too damn high! This guy was right…

492 Days From Default to Foreclosure – Banks can’t foreclose fast enough to keep up with all the people defaulting on their mortgage loans. That’s a problem, because it could make stiffing the bank even more attractive to struggling borrowers.

Talk of $100 Oil Returns as Options Jump Most in 3 Months - Oil’s return to $100 has become the biggest bet in the crude options market.

Holiday sales encouraging, but are shoppers done? – Discounts, particularly early-morning specials, were deep enough that many shoppers say they bought more than they had planned. But some say that means they’re done, and they spent less than last year.

Best Buy Sells Overpriced HDMI Cable For More Than Many TVs – Cable for $700? Thank God the shipping will be free…

Everyday investors wonder if market is rigged – Wild fluctuations, Madoff scandal, ‘flash crash’ have them pulling their money. LOL You bet, they are rigged

Citing deficit, Obama to freeze federal worker pay – President Barack Obama will announce a two-year pay freeze for federal employees Monday, a move White House officials say is the first of many difficult decisions that must be made to reduce the nation’s mounting deficit.

Public employee pensions – We can’t afford them.

Military Pegs Hourly Air Force One Cost at $181 000, as Obama Sets Travel Record – The average American could buy a house for the amount of money it takes to run Air Force One every hour.

`12 Days of Christmas’ items’ cost nears $100,000 – Trying to buy the 364 items repeated in all the song’s verses — from 12 drummers drumming to a partridge in a pear tree — would cost $96,824, an increase of 10.8 percent over last year, according to the annual Christmas Price Index compiled by PNC Wealth Management.

The Fiscal Trap – Now suppose quantitative easing is “successful” in the way the Fed intends, taking inflation close to the average 2.4 percent rate of the last two decades and government borrowing costs back to their two-decade average of 5.7 percent. To get an idea of what happens to the budget, assume this transition happens over three years, so that by 2013 interest rates are back to “normal.” This “return to normal” will mean the government’s interest costs will rise to $847 billion by 2015 and $1.15 trillion by 2019.  Written by Lawrence B. Lindsey is president of the Lindsey Group and a former governor of the Federal Reserve.

GM’s union recovering after stock sale – Taxpayers and investors not as fortunate as UAW

German minister says full employment ‘possible soon’ – “Germans are in an expansionary mood. We’re investing again, we’re consuming again, people are doing well and people are spending again,” he said. Really? If you are the second biggest exporter in the world I suggest that Germany should worry that the people in other countries don’t spend as they used to…

Will the next fiscal crisis start in Washington? – By Sheila C. Bair chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. – We are F[](|<#D

EU rescue costs start to threaten Germany itself – The escalating debt crisis on the eurozone periphery is starting to contaminate the creditworthiness of Germany and the core states of monetary union.

Europeans Clash on Bailout – The European Union’s executive arm, the Brussels-based EU Commission, floated a proposal on Wednesday to double the size of Europe’s €440 billion ($588 billion) bailout fund for euro-zone governments, but the idea was dismissed by Germany, according to people familiar with the situation.

Ireland’s pension reserve funds to be spent on banks – UP to €15 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, set aside when the Celtic Tiger was still roaring, is likely to be used to recapitalise three of the country’s banks

What Ireland proves: The need for a world without bailouts - Standing on Dublin’s Merrion Street on Thursday, I could just as well have been in Buenos Aires in 2003, Ankara in 2000, Lagos in 1989 or Kingston in 1979.

BP oil spill incident commander dies in small plane crash – Jim Black, a BP incident commander for the company’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill response team, died in a small plane crash near Destin, Fla., on Tuesday night, the company confirmed

Black Friday Sales Rise, But Only Slightly – Black Friday sales rose only slightly from a year ago even though more shoppers visited stores, retail traffic monitor ShopperTrak said Saturday, setting the stage for another uncertain holiday season for retailers

Customers swarm electronics outlets as Nov. 30 eco-subsidy deadline approaches (in Japan) – In particular, flat-screen televisions are seeing high demand, with November seeing nearly six times the sales from a year earlier. Many models have already gone out of stock at stores, forcing some customers to wait on backorders of as much as three months.

Kissinger figured big in secret deal – As U.S. national security adviser, Henry Kissinger in 1970 pressed Tokyo to follow through on a secret agreement to hold behind-the-scenes talks on scaling back textile exports to the United States, declassified documents show.

America’s Standard of Living is About to Fall Off a Cliff – This is an outgrowth of the effects of free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing. We have lost 8.5 million jobs over the last ten years to this destructive process. We have seen more than 42,000 manufacturing plants leave the country as well. There are now more than 17 million Americans unemployed and the U6 official government unemployment figures 17%. If you remove the bogus birth/death ration, the real figure is 22-5/8%.

Caterpillar to Issue Yuan-Denominated Bond – Caterpillar, the US-based manufacturer of earth-moving equipment, is marketing a two-year 1 billion renminbi bond to institutional investors in Hong Kong, becoming the first foreign industrial multinational to issue debt in the Chinese currency. Are we becoming England from 1880′ s – an ailing empire and is  China transforming into what was US at that time – a new born world superpower?

Europe a financial powder keg – Europe is sinking ever deeper into a crisis of confidence that its leaders seem unable to stop, threatening the region’s political and social stability.

Gloom, anger spreads as European economies teeter – Anger and fear about Europe’s seemingly unstoppable debt crisis coursed through the continent Wednesday. Striking workers shut down much of Portugal, Ireland proposed its deepest budget cuts in history and seething Italian and British students clashed with police over education cuts.

Czechs Whisper Euro Opt-Out – The 12 countries that have joined the European Union since 2004 are all obliged by international treaty to eventually adopt the euro, but with the euro struggling and euro zone countries faltering, Czechs have started a whisper campaign to get a permanent exemption from the rule. The Eurozone is so bad that countries with obligations to join the Euro are abandoning ship as fast as they can..But on the other hand – the euro is struggling against which currency? Against the US dollar, the Japanese yen, or against the Zimbabwean dollar and Tanzanian Shilling?

THE DAILY EXPRESS: JOIN OUR CRUSADE TO PULL BRITAIN OUT OF THE EU

Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP, Co-President of the EFD group

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The U.S. is not falling behind – In large measure, the loss of American competitiveness is nothing more than an inevitable process of others catching up — first Western Europe and Japan (as late as 1960, Japan’s GDP per head was just 15% that of the U.S.; now it is 71%), then others…

What to Do When the FBI Raids Your Hedge Fund: Jonathan Weil – Is it possible for a hedge fund to profit off its own imminent collapse? A little role-playing exercise shows it’s not only possible — it’s preordained.

Hormel fourth-quarter net income rises 17 per cent – The company cited strong sales for its Jennie-O Turkey Store and refrigerated foods divisions

Hormel hands out $16.3 million in bonus checks – Hormel Foods Corp. doled out today(11-24-2010) a record $16.3 million in profit sharing to its plant employees. Way to go Hormel! Hormel paid their employees 14 days worth of  pay without making them actually work. But who would refuse to work for such a generous company, if asked anyway!

Maligned state is actually saving the rest of us – Can everyone please stop talking total nonsense about the California budget?

Full-body scanners popping up at courthouses – Taking a trip during the holidays isn’t the only time that people might get a full-body scan to pass through security. People heading to court to testify, get a restraining order, pay a ticket or answer criminal charges could also face a full-body scan at courthouses.

Next step for body scanners could be trains, boats, metro – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.

TIP OF THE SPEAR – Must-read: The airport security story you won’t see anywhere else

Empty promises on health care will haunt Obama – Barack Obama is only halfway through his term, but it’s not too early to ask: What is the biggest whopper he has told as president? So far, the hands-down winner is…

Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter – The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever.

Taxes and benefits most important to Americans – Americans are most concerned about keeping their money out of the government’s hands this holiday season, indicates a new Gallup poll.

The Curse of a Shrinking Labor Force – We don’t just have fewer jobs than we used to. We also have fewer people who even want a job.

Bailout for Spain would empty European coffers, analysts warn – Bailout for Spain would require ‘whopping €420bn’, say analysts, amid fears that as yet undeclared debts could bring the country to its knees

Is the Game Rigged? Matt Taibbi Talks About Insider Trading on Wall Street

Muni-Bond Issuers May Face Default `Crunch’ as Stimulus Ebbs, Lehmann Says – Municipal-bond issuers, whose default rate slowed this year, may face more failures in 2011 as federal economic-stimulus aid declines and budget pressures jeopardize debt payments, said Richard Lehmann, publisher of Distressed Debt Securities Newsletter.

Insurers May Lose $4 Billion on Municipal-Bond Investments, Moody’s Says – U.S. property and casualty insurers, a group that includesAllstate Corp. and American International Group Inc., may lose as much as $4 billion from holdings in municipal bonds, Moody’s Investors Service said.

China Inflation `Volcano’ May Prove Too Hot for Controls After Cash Surge – “Quantitative easing in the U.S. puts China’s seat to the fire because it forces more inflationary pressure onto them,” said Diana Choyleva, a Hong Kong-based economist at Lombard Street Research Asia. “They cannot avoid what they need to do,” which is raise rates or let the yuan strengthen, she said.

From China Daily
By Su Qiang and Li Xiaokun

St. Petersburg, Russia – China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.

Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.

“About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies,” Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.

The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.

The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.

“That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries,” he said.

Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.

The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.

Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China’s Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.

Putin has called for boosting sales of natural resources – Russia’s main export – to China, but price has proven to be a sticking point.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who holds sway over Russia’s energy sector, said following a meeting with Chinese representatives that Moscow and Beijing are unlikely to agree on the price of Russian gas supplies to China before the middle of next year.

Russia is looking for China to pay prices similar to those Russian gas giant Gazprom charges its European customers, but Beijing wants a discount. The two sides were about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters apart, according to Chinese officials last week.

Wen’s trip follows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s three-day visit to China in September, during which he and President Hu Jintao launched a cross-border pipeline linking the world’s biggest energy producer with the largest energy consumer.

Wen said at the press conference that the partnership between Beijing and Moscow has “reached an unprecedented level” and pledged the two countries will “never become each other’s enemy”.

Over the past year, “our strategic cooperative partnership endured strenuous tests and reached an unprecedented level,” Wen said, adding the two nations are now more confident and determined to defend their mutual interests.

“China will firmly follow the path of peaceful development and support the renaissance of Russia as a great power,” he said.

“The modernization of China will not affect other countries’ interests, while a solid and strong Sino-Russian relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries.”

Wen said Beijing is willing to boost cooperation with Moscow in Northeast Asia, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in major international organizations and on mechanisms in pursuit of a “fair and reasonable new order” in international politics and the economy.

Sun Zhuangzhi, a senior researcher in Central Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new mode of trade settlement between China and Russia follows a global trend after the financial crisis exposed the faults of a dollar-dominated world financial system.

Pang Zhongying, who specializes in international politics at Renmin University of China, said the proposal is not challenging the dollar, but aimed at avoiding the risks the dollar represents.

Wen arrived in the northern Russian city on Monday evening for a regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government.

He left St. Petersburg for Moscow late on Tuesday and is set to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday.

Agencies and Zhou Wa contributed to this story.