McALVANY INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY

Wed 12 Nov 2008

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Tue 11 Nov 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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BLOOMBERG

Barack Obama spoke with President Bush about the urgency for aid to U.S. automakers at a private White House meeting, aides to the president-elect said.

Britain’s three main political parties promised tax cuts for businesses and consumers to help soften the impact of the recession, suggesting government borrowing will rise.

Deadly, diarrhea-causing germs are making hospital patients sick at an accelerating rate, researchers said today at a conference in Orlando.

General Motors Corp., burning cash as U.S. sales slide, is being pushed closer to bankruptcy as it waits to learn whether the auto industry will win a new round of government loans.

Russia’s ruble fell the most in two months and stocks tumbled after the central bank indicated it may scale back its defense of the currency as officials grapple with the worst financial crisis since the 1998 devaluation.

The revised bailout of AIG marks a new phase in the government’s effort to shore up financial markets: It’s the first time cash from the rescue fund Congress created last month has been committed to a failing company.

Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann said governments should give up stakes in banks after state-led bailouts help calm financial markets.

Citigroup Inc. and mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to cut home-loan payments for hundreds of thousands of borrowers facing foreclosures.

AP Top Stories

Eighty-year-olds with clogged arteries or leaky heart valves used to be sent home from their doctors and pills to try to ease their symptoms. Now more are getting open-heart surgery, with remarkable survival rates rivaling those of much younger people, new studies show.

Weak economic readings from China, Japan and Britain and a grim corporate outlook worldwide reinforced fears of a prolonged recession, prompting investors to look to a world leaders’ summit for solutions. President-elect Barack Obama plans to try a more regional approach to the war in Afghanistan including possible talks with Iran, Washington Post reported, citing security advisers to Obama.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin suggested in an interview broadcast on Monday that she might run for higher office in 2012 if the right opportunity presents itself. Switzerland said it had not passed Swiss-based account details of U.S. clients of UBS bank to the United States, which is seeking the information as part of a tax probe that may threaten Swiss bank secrecy.

Sunnis and Shi’ites made an emotional reach across the sectarian divide, reopening a Baghdad bridge between the two communities closed since a 2005 stampede, the deadliest incident of the war. Global institutional investors holding more than $6 trillion in assets pushed policymakers to hash out a binding agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote clean technology.

South Korea’s intelligence agency rejected a Japanese television report that N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il had suffered a second stroke, with the South playing down further speculation about Kim’s hold on power. Europe marked the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I, with the handful of surviving veterans at the vanguard of commemorations for the fallen of the “War to End All Wars”.

French police raided alleged anarchist cells in three cities and arrested at least 10 suspects following a series of sabotage attacks on the country’s high-speed rail network. Taiwan’s former president Chen Shui-bian was arrested on Tuesday as prosecutors sought to detain him in connection with a long-running corruption probe, officials said.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe looked set Tuesday to push ahead with a new government, sidelining opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after the latest failed regional mediation effort. NASA scientists said the Phoenix Mars lander went silent because of a lack of sunlight needed to power its batteries, the five-month mission has produced a mother lode of scientific data.

China said Tuesday its trade surplus hit a monthly all-time high of 35.2 billion dollars in October, as exports remained strong despite the global economic turmoil. The Agriculture Department on Monday lowered its forecasts for this year’s U.S. corn and soybean harvests, pushing up the prices of both commodities.

BBC

More evidence has emerged that babies born from frozen embryos are healthier than those that develop from fresh embryos, researchers say.

The world’s newest “super microscope” is fired up and ready to go. At Isis in Oxfordshire it will allow scientists to see things 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.

WorldNetDaily

Hamas held a meeting in the Gaza Strip several months ago with aides to President-elect Barack Obama, but the terror group was asked to keep the contacts secret until after last week’s elections, according to a senior Hamas official.

Seattle-based Starbucks said profit in the quarter fell 97 percent.

Drug-related bloodshed killed more than 4,400 people across Mexico this year – a body count that has already exceeded the U.S. military death toll of 4,192 in the
Iraq war.

Representatives of President-elect Barack Obama recently told Syrian officials that Obama supports ending their county’s isolation and that as president he would work to bring Damascus into the international community.

President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require a controversial new system of justice.

Mon 10 Nov 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

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BLOOMBERG

At least 25 Iraqis were killed in bombings in a crowded Baghdad market, the deadliest attack in the capital since June.

Russia began an investigation into an accident on a nuclear submarine during trials in the Pacific Ocean that killed 20 people, the deadliest incident since the sinking of the Kursk eight years ago.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on governments around the world to coordinate tax and spending policies to shore up a slowing world economy, his strongest signal yet that he will cut tax in the U.K.

AIG Inc. got a $150 billion government rescue package, almost doubling the initial bailout of less than two months ago as the insurer burns through cash at a record rate.

Crude oil climbed more than $3 a barrel and metals rose after China announced a $586 billion stimulus package that may spur economic growth and consumption of raw materials.

Circuit City Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy amid rising competition from Best Buy Co., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and online electronics retailers.

GLG Partners Inc., the hedge fund founded as a unit of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said adjusted profit and assets under management dropped in the third quarter after most of its 48 funds lost money.

D. Carnegie & Co. AB, the 205-year- old Swedish investment bank, had its license revoked by the country’s regulator and will be put under supervision of the national debt office.

General Motors Corp. was downgraded to “sell” at Deutsche Bank AG, which set a share-price estimate of zero, and was cut to “underweight” at Barclays Capital.

AP Top Stories

The government on Monday provided new financial assistance to troubled insurance giant American International Group, including pouring $40 billion into the company in return for partial ownership.

Have a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator? Don’t keep your iPod earbuds in your shirt pocket or draped around your neck — even when they’re disconnected. A study finds that some headphones can interfere with heart devices if held very close to them.

Deutsche Post (DHL) will spend more than planned and cut an additional 9,500 jobs to turn around its U.S. express business, which has been hit by the global economic crisis and hurt third-quarter earnings.

Less than one week after his historic victory, U.S. President-elect Obama heads to Washington to learn firsthand from President Bush about the challenges that await him on January 20.

Since 2004, the Pentagon has used broad, secret authority to carry out about 12 attacks against al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, The New York Times reported.

There were fresh calls on Sunday for the Bush administration to help stalled U.S. automakers, but Democratic and Republican officials said taxpayers cannot repeatedly support business rescues.

Just one month into the fiscal year, the federal budget deficit has already reached $232 billion, according to estimates released Friday.

BBC

US mortgage finance firm Fannie Mae has reported a significant increase in third-quarter losses in the wake of the slowing housing sector. Losses hit $28.99bn in the three months to 30 September from a loss of $1.4bn a year earlier, largely due to a tax-related charge of $21.4bn.

The sheer physical effort involved in breastfeeding may leave babies with stronger lungs well into childhood, researchers suggest.

Emirates Airline has reported a 88% drop in its net profit for the half year to 30 September, out largely down to higher oil prices.

WorldNetDaily

A civil rights organization in Kansas has launched a campaign to designate Nov. 4 as a national holiday, commemorating the election of Barack Obama as president.

The official website of President-Elect Barack Obama, Change.gov, originally announced that Obama would “require” all middle school through college students to participate in community service programs; but after a flurry of blogs protested children being drafted into Obama’s proposed youth corps, the website’s wording was softened.

President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

US President-elect Barack Obama intends to push a comprehensive program of social and economic reform beyond an immediate emergency stimulus package, Rahm Emanuel, the next White House chief of staff, indicated on Sunday.

The economic crisis will not stop President-elect Barack Obama from expanding health care, overhauling education and energy policy, and passing a middle-class tax cut soon after he takes office in January, senior aides said on Sunday.

A group of hundreds of prominent Israeli rabbis this week urged President-elect Barack Obama to “implement the will of God” during his upcoming presidency by ensuring the entire state of Israel remains under Jewish sovereignty.

UK - The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech.

Democrat Henry Rivera, a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, is expected to head President-elect Barack Obama’s FCC transition team, a move that has sparked fear in media circles that the Fairness Doctrine may return to silence conservative talk radio.

Secret enclaves of al-Qaeda extremists based in London, Birmingham and Luton are planning mass-casualty attacks in Britain, according to a leaked Government intelligence report.

Fri 7 Nov 2008

Friday, November 07, 2008

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BLOOMBERG

President-elect Barack Obama should act quickly to name a new leader for the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency that has drawn fire for not doing enough to regulate markets and protect investors, lawmakers said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will seek to add a tax cut to an economic stimulus measure Congress will consider early next year, her spokesman said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a Middle East settlement will come about soon, insisting talks over the last year had laid the basis for peace.

The U.S. unemployment rate climbed to 6.5%, the highest level since 1994 as payrolls tumbled, signaling that the economic slump inherited by Barack Obama will last well into his first year as president.

Ford Motor Co., with U.S. sales shredded by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, posted a third-quarter operating loss of $2.98 billion and said it used up $7.7 billion in cash.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, strapped for cash as sales plunge, are seeking $50 billion in federal loans to help them weather the worst auto market in 25 years, a person familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. Treasury opened a probe to identify any improper trading by investors in the 2 percent two- year-note maturing Sept. 30, 2010 and the 3 1/8 percent five- year note maturing Sept. 30, 2013.

AP Top Stories

The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, stark proof the economy is almost certainly in a recession.

The Bush administration, in the midst of a wide review of its war strategy in Afghanistan, is likely to recommend soon to the incoming Obama administration that the U.S. push for further expansion of the Afghan army as the surest path to an eventual U.S. withdrawal.

A U.N. official and a peacekeeping officer say Angolan troops are fighting alongside Congolese soldiers battling rebels outside the eastern provincial capital of Goma.

A hurricane watch has been issued for parts of Cuba as Paloma continues barreling toward the Cayman Islands.

President-elect Obama was to meet his economic advisers as new U.S. jobless figures underlined the enormity of the task confronting him to stabilize an economy that is shedding jobs fast.

The Treasury Department is preparing to open its $700 billion bailout package to companies outside the traditional banking sector, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

European leaders will propose new rules for global finance on Friday to help counter an economic slump underscored by fresh figures showing U.S. unemployment at a 14-year high.

Suspected U.S. drones fired missiles into a Pakistan border region on Friday killing 13 militants, including five foreigners, officials said, the latest in a series of strikes that has infuriated Pakistan.

Russia will study Washington’s proposals on an anti-missile system and on how to find a replacement for a key nuclear arms reduction treaty.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged African leaders gathered in Nairobi to stop the rot in eastern DR Congo or face a regional crisis, even as fresh fighting erupted and thousands were displaced.

World leaders thrashed out ways of combating the global financial crisis on Friday as plunging profits in the airline industry underscored fears of a protracted recession.

A senior Chinese envoy left Taiwan after a historic visit that paved the way for closer cooperation between the former bitter rivals, but which was marred by huge protests that left scores injured.

BBC

A study of 62,000 children shows both head and burn injuries before the age of two are linked with almost double the risk of ADHD diagnosis by age 10.

The UK has recorded the highest number of cocaine users in the EU for the fifth year running, a report suggests.

The demise of some of China’s ruling dynasties may have been linked to changes in the strength of monsoon rains, a new study suggests.

WorldNetDaily

The Jewish Temples never existed and Israel has been working to “invent” a Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem, the chief Palestinian negotiator asserted.

Christians who have been persecuted by Hindu militants in 12 Indian states could face more bloodshed after another Hindu activist, Rashtriya Swayamsevak, was reportedly shot dead by Maoists this week.

Obama’s campaign headquarters in Lake City, Fla., has posted a victory sign in its window stating, “To God be the glory. Great things he has done. Obama, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”

Enthusiastic about Barack Obama’s election, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated the president-elect today. “I congratulate you on being able to attract the majority of votes of the participants of the election. As you know, the opportunities provided by the Almighty God, which can be used for elevation of nations, or God forbid, for their collapse, are transient.”

TX - Some Houstonians are stocking up. They are concerned some gun laws are going to tighten up now that President-elect Obama is on his way to the White House.

Unpublished polling data indicated that the Democratic President-elect got somewhere between 67 percent and 90 percent of the Muslim vote, probably nearer the higher end.

The Florida Family Association says its campaign to protect parents and their children from sex and violence on television and in magazines could become harder under the coming Barack Obama administration.

Thu 6 Nov 2008

Thursday, November 06, 2008

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BLOOMBERG

The Bank of England led European central banks in reducing borrowing costs to counter the worst financial crisis in almost a century, cutting its key rate by 1.5 percentage points to the lowest level since 1955.

European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet said he can’t rule out a further reduction in interest rates after today’s half-point cut because the global financial crisis may lead to an extended economic slump.

Macy’s Inc., Target Corp. and Gap Inc. posted October sales declines after the Wall Street meltdown and accelerating job losses discouraged consumer spending heading into the holiday-shopping season.

Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity firm, posted the biggest quarterly loss in 18 months as a public company as the financial crisis eroded the value of the businesses and real estate it has acquired.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged in New York trading after saying it may be in default of some loans if it can’t raise capital, threatening its ability to keep operating “as a going concern.”

AP Top Stories

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday all but conceded that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by a year-end deadline is no longer possible.

A series of bomb blasts across Baghdad killed six people and injured more than 20 others Thursday, police said, in the fourth consecutive day of heightened violence in the Iraqi capital.

A suicide bomber attacked a gathering of anti-militant Pakistani tribesmen, killing nine and wounding 45 in a northwestern region where the military has clashed with insurgents for months.

Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s No.1 automaker, warned operating profits will sink to a 13-year low this year, as other carmakers sought more state help to ride out a financial crisis that is crippling demand and squeezing credit around the globe.

Israel said U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s stated readiness to talk to Iran could be seen in the Middle East as a sign of weakness in efforts to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

Foreign forces have killed seven civilians in an air strike in northwest Afghanistan, officials said, a day after the Afghan president said warplanes had killed 40 civilians in the south.

More than 71 million Americans tuned in to see Tuesday’s climax to the historic U.S. presidential campaign on television, far more than watched prime-time returns from the last two White House races, figures released on Wednesday showed.

Eleven people were killed by a suspected terrorist blast that ripped through a minibus in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz, security forces were quoted as saying by Russian news.

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou made history Thursday when he became the island’s first leader to meet with a senior Chinese official since the end of a civil war in 1949.

In a puzzling twist, women who have a history of migraine headaches are far less likely to develop breast cancer than other women, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

The efficiency of U.S. workers slowed sharply in the summer as a huge pull back by American consumers threw the national economy into reverse.

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped slightly last week, while the number of people continuing to receive benefits reached its highest level in more than 25 years, the government said.

BBC

The Prime Minister of Peru, Yehude Simon, says he will not negotiate with authorities in the southern Tacna region while violent protests continue. He has declared a state of emergency after reports that three people have been killed and dozens injured in protests over the past week.

Probiotics could be used to protect critically ill patients from developing pneumonia, according to scientists.

The Treasury Department has announced it will teach “Islamic finance” to U.S. banking regulatory agencies, Congress and other parts of the executive branch today at 10 a.m. in Washington, D.C. – but critics say it is opening a door to American funding of Islamic extremism. According to its announcement, the “Islamic Finance 101″ forum is “designed to help inform the policy community about Islamic financial services, which are an increasingly important part of the global financial industry.”

WorldNetDaily

A terrorist group is distributing flyers in Iran calling for young volunteers to join the Lebanese Hezbollah to carry out suicide operations against the “Global Arrogance” – also known as the United States.

UK - A computer game in which players assume the role of a suicide bomber and try to kill as many men, women and children as possible has provoked outrage. A senior Labour MP said Kaboom: The Suicide Bombing Game, which is freely available to all age groups on the internet, ‘devalues human life’ and should be banned.

The Hamas terrorist group believes the election of Sen. Obama is an “historic victory” for the world and an opportunity to change U.S. foreign policy toward engagement with America’s foes.

Indianapolis - Lines were long and tempers flared not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown to control the crowd.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev could resign from his post in 2009 to pave the way for Vladimir Putin to return to the Kremlin, Vedomosti newspaper reported.

Decisions by voters in Florida, Arizona and California to join residents of 27 other states with constitutional protections for traditional marriage have prompted threats of violence against Christians and their churches.

Under Government plans to monitor internet traffic, raw data would be collected and stored by the black boxes before being transferred to a giant central database. It is further evidence of the Government’s desire to have the capability to vet every telephone call, email and internet visit made in the UK.

Wed 5 Nov 2008

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

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BLOOMBERG

Barack Obama’s top priority will be appointing a Treasury secretary and White House chief of staff. The leading candidates: two Clinton administration stalwarts, Lawrence Summers and Representative Rahm Emanuel.

Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev said he would deploy new missiles in Europe, confronting the U.S. hours after Barack Obama won the American presidential election.

Credit markets are still creaking even after the biggest decline on record in the rate banks say they charge each other to borrow dollars.

Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 157,000 jobs in October, the most in almost six years, a private report based on payroll data showed today.

GMAC LLC, the financing arm of General Motors Corp. gripped by a cash squeeze, posted its fifth straight loss and said its mortgage unit may not survive.

Sellers of credit-default swaps on bonds sold by Glitnir Banki hf may pay almost $2 billion to settle contracts triggered when the Icelandic government took control of the bank last month.

AP Top Stories

Global stock markets, which have surged more than 20 percent in just over a week, clung to those gains on Wednesday as investors assessed the economic problems facing U.S. president-elect Barack Obama and the international fallout of a new administration.

Two U.S. states rejected proposals to limit abortion rights while others said no to gay marriage, in a mixed message over contentious social issues as Americans elected their first black president.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday proposed extending the presidential term in Russia from four to six years in his first state-of-the-nation speech since being elected in March.

Mexico’s powerful interior minister, head of the government’s bloody battle against drug gangs, died along with at least eight others in a spectacular plane crash Tuesday during evening rush hour in central Mexico City.

Dozens of rockets were fired at Israel on Wednesday after Israeli military operations in Gaza killed six Palestinians, in the most serious incidents since a fragile truce went into effect in June.

ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, on Wednesday doubled its fourth-quarter output cut to 30 percent as the global financial crisis undercuts demand, sending its share price plunging.

BBC

Kenya has declared Thursday a public holiday to celebrate the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency. Mr. Obama’s father was from Kenya and his victory has prompted jubilation across the country.

French scientists say they have found a drug that tricks the body into burning off fat even when on a high-fat diet. The drug SRT1720 - a chemical cousin of red wine extract resveratrol - targets the protein SIRT1, which is thought to combat ageing, Cell Metabolism reports.

European leaders have hailed the triumph of Democrat Barack Obama in the US presidential election.

Leaders across the Middle East have congratulated Barack Obama and given him a cautious welcome on his election as the next US president. Israel said he was committed to its security, while the Palestinians urged him to work for a peace deal. Iraq’s foreign minister said he did not expect a quick US troop disengagement.

Governments in South Asia have given a warm reaction to Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential election.

Cosmetics containing tiny “nano” particles are being used widely despite unresolved issues surrounding their safety, a consumer watchdog warns.

WorldNetDaily

U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter has rejected an emergency appeal for the court to halt the tabulation of the 2008 presidential election results until Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama documents his eligibility to run for the office, according to an attorney who brought the action that challenges the Illinois senator’s standing in the race. However, the issue isn’t going away, at least for now, since Souter set a schedule for a response from Obama to the challenge from attorney Philip J. Berg.

Voters in Washington endorsed by a 59 percent to 41 percent margin a plan that makes the state the second in the union to allow residents to choose to die. According to the campaign group NoAssistedSuicide.com, measure I-1000 legalizes assisted suicide and redefines suicide as a medical treatment.

Voters in Colorado have denied that the unborn are “persons,” rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment.

Democrats celebrated the re-election of Washington state’s Gov. Chris Gregoire and wins in two open gubernatorial contests, including the election of the first woman governor of North Carolina. Republicans said they were lucky to hold onto three incumbent governorships amid a national Democratic onslaught. At the end of an Election Day in which 11 governorships were decided, the Democrats won seven.

Florida voters made their state the 28th to install in its constitution a definition of marriage limited to one man and one woman, with Arizonans and Californians following suit.

Connecticut - beginning on Nov.12. The state Supreme Court’s Oct. 10 decision legalizing same-sex marriage will officially become effective.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday defended the so