McALVANY INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY

Fri 10 Oct 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008

Posted by admin under McAlvany Intel Briefing
No Comments

BLOOMBERG

Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland, won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to resolve international hostilities, returning the award to its traditional aim of honoring people who work to end conflicts.

The cost of borrowing in dollars in London for three months rose as cash injections and interest-rate cuts by 10 major central banks failed to thaw a credit freeze that put stocks on course for their worst week in 30 years.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. may force Pacific Investment Management Co. and other sellers of credit-default swaps to make the biggest-ever payout in the $55 trillion market.

General Electric Co. profit declined for a third straight quarter, eroded by lower earnings at its finance arm during the deepest U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Morgan Stanley dropped for a fifth day after Moody’s Investors Service said it may reduce the U.S. investment bank’s credit rating on concern the financial crisis threatens earnings and investor confidence.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations meet facing a breakdown in investor confidence in their ability to end the credit freeze endangering the global economy.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC may be forced into bankruptcy by slowing economies and dwindling U.S. auto sales, Standard & Poor’s analyst Robert Schulz said.

AP Top Stories

John McCain is hammering Barack Obama over his association with former 1960s radical William Ayers in a new TV ad.

The steel mills and coal mines of western Pennsylvania helped fuel the nation’s economic engine. Today, old factory shells and boarded-up storefronts stand as bleak reminders of those once-prosperous times.

The Bush administration is nearing a decision to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist and may do so as early as Friday in a bid to salvage faltering nuclear disarmament talks, The Associated Press has learned.

The credit crisis has shattered U.S. consumers’ faith in financial institutions, including a stunning loss of confidence in the Federal Reserve, and that is likely to trigger the biggest drop in consumer spending in more than three decades and a deep recession, according to a survey released on Friday.

The U.S. government is weighing guaranteeing billions of dollars in bank debt and temporarily insuring al U.S. bank deposits, in a bid to unfreeze bank lending and staunch massive losses in equity markets, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of anti-Taliban tribal leaders in a Pakistani region on the Afghan border Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

NATO announced Friday its troops would from now on target Afghanistan’s opium trade directly in an effort to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars of drug money financing the Taliban insurgency.

Leaders of Thai anti-government protests were granted bail Friday after surrendering to police and immediately vowed new rallies, raising fears of mounting turmoil days after deadly street clashes.

Oil prices slumped Friday to one-year lows under 80 dollars per barrel, striking 75 dollars in London, amid a global equities meltdown that sparked fears over demand for energy, traders said.

BBC

Peruvian cabinet ministers are poised to tender their resignation to the country’s president over an alleged scandal over oil concessions.

Gordon Brown has called for the recent falls in the price of oil to be passed on to UK consumers.

The fallout from the economic downturn could be a significant threat to mental health, according to a survey. House repossession was rated as the event most likely to cause mental health problems.

The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study. It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

WorldNetDaily

Sen. Barack Obama designated a personal aide as his direct contact for the 2007 Kenyan presidential campaign of Raila Odinga, who later was appointed prime minister after his election loss was followed by widespread, deadly violence that destroyed or damaged 800 Christian churches, according to e-mails obtained by WND senior staff writer Jerry Corsi during a trip to Kenya.

McDonald’s officials confirmed today to WND that Richard Ellis, who had been named to the “gay” chamber board after McDonald’s contributed $20,000 to the organization, “made a personal decision to step down” [following a boycott of the chain organized by the pro-family American Family Association] after he accepted a new position with McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada.

Treasury officials were today flying out to Reykjavik for emergency talks after Gordon Brown declared diplomatic war on Iceland.

Fear that a hobbled banking sector may set off another Great Depression could force the U.S. government and Federal Reserve to take the unprecedented step of buying a broad range of assets, including stocks, according to one of the most bearish market analysts.

After the Texas Department of Public Safety estimated 2 million of its 16 million licensed drivers are illegal aliens, the state is denying illegals access to IDs and driver’s licenses. Texas is now requiring applicants to prove legal citizenship status before they can receive or renew their driver’s licenses.

Chief Executive magazine’s most recent polling shows that GOP presidential candidate John McCain is the preferred choice for CEOs. Moreover, 74 percent of the executives say they fear that an Obama presidency would be disastrous for the country.

Thu 9 Oct 2008

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Posted by admin under McAlvany Intel Briefing
No Comments

BLOOMBERG

Political organizers in Columbus, Ohio, said they got some puzzled looks last week when they began approaching people at bus stops and offering them rides to the nearest polling site.

Ukrainian President Yushchenko dissolved parliament and called an early general election on Dec. 7, the second in as many years, after lawmakers missed a deadline to form new government.

U.S. and U.K. universities continue to dominate an annual ranking of the world’s top 200 higher education institutions, with Harvard heading the table for the fifth year running, Yale in second place and Britain’s Cambridge and Oxford third and fourth, respectively.

The cost of borrowing in dollars for three months in London soared to the highest level this year as coordinated interest-rate reductions worldwide failed to revive lending among banks for any longer than a day.

Iceland’s government seized control of Kaupthing Bank hf, the nation’s biggest bank, completing the takeover of a banking industry that collapsed under the weight of foreign debt.

FerroChina Ltd., a Chinese steelmaker, said it is unable to repay loans totaling $104 million because of the “current economic crisis,” and a further 4.52 billion yuan in loans and notes may also be at risk.

American International Group Inc., the insurer taken over by the government, may access $37.8 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in addition to the $85 billion loan that helped it stave off bankruptcy.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet is opening up the floodgates as the credit crisis threatens to cripple the region’s banking system.

AP Top Stories

News that the Bush administration is considering taking ownership stakes in a number of U.S. banks helped restore a relative calm over global financial markets Thursday.

The United States pushed NATO allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan’s thriving heroin trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening insurgency against the troubled international military mission.

Finance ministers from the world’s top economies faced calls for action after an emergency round of interest rate cuts and government support for ailing banks won only muted market support.

Barack Obama has built a 4-point lead over rival John McCain in the race for the White House, aided by growing support from women and independent voters, according to a poll.

Treasury Secretary Paulson said a recently approved financial bailout bill gives him wide authority to inject capital into the banking system and would not rule out having Treasury take an ownership position in banks if necessary.

N. Korea has reportedly deployed more than 10 missiles on its west coast for what appears to be an imminent launch, and diplomats said the North has barred U.N. monitoring.

Two doctors went on trial accused of being part of an Islamist cell trying to murder people “wholesale” by carrying out car bomb attacks in central London and at a packed Scottish airport.

John McCain pitched a $300 billion plan to help struggling homeowners on Wednesday as he tried to erode an advantage held by Democratic rival Barack Obama on economic issues.

A Thai court dropped charges of insurrection against the main leaders of a protest movement bidding to topple the government, two days after the worst street unrest in Bangkok for 16 years.

A suicide attack struck a police complex in Islamabad and a roadside bomb killed 10 people in Pakistan’s northwest on Thursday, underscoring the growing threat posed by Islamist militants.

Finance chiefs from the world’s richest nations are set to meet in Washington for a crucial but uncertain meeting at a time of unprecedented fear about the global financial system.

New applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week from a seven-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, though they remain at elevated levels that indicate recession.

BBC

The two US journalists who went missing in Lebanon a week ago were detained in Syria on Thursday for illegal entry, the Syrian foreign ministry has said. They will be handed over to the US embassy in Damascus following the completion of “necessary measures”.

The US treasury secretary has warned some banks will still fail despite the $700bn rescue package to shore up the financial system.

The European Commission has unveiled proposals to give more rights to consumers shopping online across the borders of the 27-nation EU. The proposals aim to boost online shopping in Europe to allow people to take advantage of cheaper prices during the economic crisis.

Hamas officials in Cairo say they will meet representatives of the rival Fatah movement this month to discuss the timing of fresh Palestinian elections.

Perfect secrecy has come a step closer with the launch of the world’s first computer network protected by unbreakable quantum encryption at a scientific conference in Vienna. Quantum systems use the laws of quantum theory, which have been shown to be inherently unbreakable.

WorldNetDaily

Speaking out as William Ayers becomes an increasingly controversial figure in the presidential campaign, a woman charges the former Weather Underground radical locked her in his attic apartment when both were college students and intimidated her into having sex with his brother and his black roommate.

Mass. - A federal court decision approving mandatory public school instruction for children as young as kindergarten in how to be homosexual is being allowed to stand, drawing a description of “despicable” from the parent who unsuccessfully challenged his school district’s “gay” advocacy agenda.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the nation needs a $150 billion economic stimulus package that “can’t wait,” and Congress may need to return this year.

Wed 8 Oct 2008

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Posted by admin under McAlvany Intel Briefing
No Comments

BLOOMBERG

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama collided over regulation, taxes and the financial crisis in last night’s debate, holding back on the personal attacks that have intensified in the campaign’s recent weeks.

For Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the financial crisis that is costing his government $200 billion may also provide an unexpected opportunity to expand his country’s influence.

A Japanese scientist and two Americans won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for research that has turned a luminous green substance first found in jellyfish into one of the most important tools in bioscience.

The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and four other central banks lowered interest rates in an unprecedented coordinated effort to ease the economic effects of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The yen rose to a three-year high against the euro and gained versus the dollar as interest-rate cuts by global central banks failed to boost confidence, encouraging investors to sell higher-yielding assets.

Britain’s banks will get an unprecedented $87 billion government lifeline and emergency loans from the central bank after the freeze in credit markets threatened to bring down the financial system.

Wachovia Corp. is bracing for a split that may give most of the bank to Wells Fargo & Co. with Citigroup Inc. taking the rest, as regulators prod the suitors to end their takeover fight.

ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch financial-services firm, agreed to buy more than $5.24 billion of retail deposits held by U.K. customers of two Icelandic banks for an undisclosed amount.

Iceland’s government scrapped plans to nationalize Glitnir Bank hf, the country’s No. 3 lender, and put the company into receivership under the control of the state regulator.

AP Top Stories

Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Eastern European leaders to shift their military efforts from Iraq to Afghanistan, where their forces are more urgently needed.

The International Olympic Committee will retest doping samples from the Beijing Games to check for traces of a new blood-boosting drug.

In its bleakest forecast in years, the International Monetary Fund said the world economy was set for a major downturn with the United States and Europe either in or on the brink of recession.

China cut interest rates and lowered banks’ required reserves on Wednesday as part of a coordinated drive by global central banks to halt a free-fall in world financial markets.

Russia has completed a troop pullback from buffer zones outside the breakaway region of South Ossetia, the Georgian Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

Supporters of ousted South African president Thabo Mbeki threatened Wednesday to split from the ruling African National Congress, accusing its leaders of abandoning democratic ideals.

Germany - The world’s only recipient of two full arms in a transplant appeared in public to talk about the success of the procedure, calling the feeling of being whole again “indescribable”.

Americans’ retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress’ top budget analyst estimated Tuesday.

BBC

Police have raided a private hospital in Nigeria where they suspect new-born babies were being sold to traffickers. Four people - two nurses and the hospital’s owners - have been arrested in connection with the “baby farm”, police said.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in several Peruvian cities to protest against the rising cost of living and low wages.

Protesters seeking to force the Thai government to resign say they will continue their demonstrations, a day after violent clashes in Bangkok.

There is no hard evidence that circumcision protects gay men from HIV, research shows. African trials have shown circumcision cuts the likelihood of female to male HIV transmission by up to 60%.

Pupils at a school in Italy are replacing all their text books with computers for a year - in what is being described as a unique experiment.

Dubai’s stock market has dropped by more than 10%, adding to substantial losses over recent days amid fears of a faltering property market.

WorldNetDaily

Specialist agents for Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, trained to pose as Muslim extremists, are leading two hand-picked SAS units to seek and destroy a secret bomb-making factory in Baghdad, according to a report.

Hundreds of educators have endorsed a letter opposing the “demonization” of Williams Ayers – the domestic terrorist who helped launch Barack Obama’s political career, and whose relationship with the Democratic presidential candidate continues to be major controversy – arguing that frequent reports of his involvement in domestic bombings are “designed to intimidate free thinking and stifle critical dialogue.”

The United Auto Workers union launched a $3 million advertising campaign on Tuesday to spur Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, with less than a month to the election.

Christians are gathering on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to fast and pray all week. Leaders say they are humbly calling upon God in a time when our country needs it the most.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that she and John McCain would impose a spending freeze on the national budget and review every federal agency to ensure it was needed.

A new government study of ethanol fuels found that they don’t increase tailpipe emissions, but that mileage does go down when gas contains as much as 15 percent or 20 percent alcohol.

Tue 7 Oct 2008

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Posted by admin under McAlvany Intel Briefing
No Comments

BLOOMBERG

A 38-year-old waitress, had her doubts about Barack Obama after reading wild Internet rumors that he trained with al-Qaeda terrorists as a child. She’s voting for him anyway.

A U.S. military aircraft was forced to land in Iran after violating the Persian Gulf nation’s airspace, the state-run Fars news agency said.

Barack Obama and John McCain will take their long-distance name-calling to a more intimate, and perhaps awkward, setting tonight: a close-quarters, town-hall debate.

The Federal Reserve will create a special fund to purchase U.S. commercial paper after the credit crunch threatened to cut off a key source of funding for corporations.

Iceland sought a $5.43 billion loan from Russia, pegged the slumping krona to a basket of currencies and took control of its second-biggest bank to stem a collapse of the financial system.

The U.K. government may invest at least $79 billion in three of the country’s biggest banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, to bolster capital depleted by mortgage-related losses, three people with knowledge of the situation said.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the New York-based investment bank that has fired about 4,000 workers since March, notified some former employees that severance payments were cut off because of the company’s bankruptcy.

AP Top Stories

Two Japanese citizens and an American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries that help explain the behavior of the smallest particles of matter.

Using a fan to circulate air seemed to lower the risk of sudden infant death syndrome in a study of nearly 500 babies, researchers reported Monday. Placing babies on their backs to sleep is the best advice for preventing SIDS, a still mysterious cause of death.

Democrat Barack Obama has a narrow 3-point lead in the U.S. presidential race on Republican John McCain less than a month before the election, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll.

Britain will hold more talks with banks this week over a possible multi-billion pound injection of public funds, an industry source said as the credit crisis tightened its grip on Europe’s main financial center.

Australia stunned markets with its steepest interest cut in 16 years Tuesday and investors expected that other central banks would follow suit in a coordinated move to combat the global credit crisis. The Bank of Japan, alone among the biggest central banks, signaled it may not join a campaign of rate cuts to contain a crisis that has put the world’s financial system in greater peril than at any time since the 1930s Great Depression.

An Iranian news agency said on Tuesday that a U.S. military aircraft had unintentionally violated Iranian airspace and been forced to land in Iran, but later allowed to leave.

Average household heating fuel costs this winter will be 15 percent higher than last year, with heating oil and natural gas users taking the biggest hit due to more expensive crude oil and colder weather than last winter, the government’s top energy forecasting agency said Tuesday.

South Korea’s foreign minister played down on Tuesday the notion that North Korea delivered an ultimatum when it held talks last week with a visiting U.S. envoy who was trying to save a floundering nuclear disarmament deal.

World stock markets stabilized Tuesday despite a tumbling banking sector across Europe, as Asia pulled back from the brink on the prospect of cuts to global interest rates, dealers said.

Thai police fired tear gas Tuesday to try to disperse anti-government protesters blocking parliament, injuring 116 people as months of political turmoil boiled over, police and medics said.

The UN food agency cast doubt Tuesday on the potential of biofuels to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while warning that their development threatens food security.

Scientists have discovered a gene mutation linked to the most common cause of blindness in the developed world, holding out the prospect of better treatments and perhaps eventually a cure.

BBC

Convicted Canadian pedophile Christopher Neil has appeared in a Thai court on a new count of child abuse.

The economic downturn in many countries is likely to worsen as the financial crisis continues, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.

Scientists say they have developed a safer blood test that can tell a women if her unborn baby has Down’s syndrome.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said the security forces have arrested a group of alleged Islamist militants linked to Israeli intelligence.

WorldNetDaily

Those worried about Iran&#