David Butler Wrote:GE downgraded...Did you place that bet then Jan ?

General Electric debt rating cut

US conglomerate General Electric had its debt rating lowered by ratings agency Standard and Poor's.

Its rating has been cut from AAA, the highest rating, to AA+. The action may make it more expensive for GE to borrow in the future.

The downgrade is significant because GE is viewed as a barometer of the health of the US economy.

GE last month cuts its dividend, a move it said would save it $9bn a year as it sought to shore up its finances.

"While no one likes a downgrade, this review and rating reaffirm the relative strength of the company," said GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt.

GE's finance unit GE Capital has been hit because it makes a wide variety of loans, including mortgages, that have since seen their value plummet.

The economic downturn has also hit its industrial unit, which makes aircraft engines, home appliances, light bulbs and wind turbines.

The ratings downgrade means that S&P now considers GE less likely to pay back its debts. However, the agency considers GE's outlook stable.

"We are prepared to fund the company as a double-A, but we will continue to run GE with the disciplines of a triple-A," Mr Immelt said.

The company said it did not expect any impact on the way it funds itself from the ratings downgrade.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7940191.stm

Peter Lemkin Wrote:JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to ask you, given the increasingly global connections of our banks and other multinational corporations, the issue of how you remedy a crisis in one country. For instance, I heard last night on C-SPAN the hearing that Congressman Kucinich had of the bailout. He had an oversight hearing yesterday. And he questioned the Treasury Department over the fact that the bailout money has been going to banks that, in some cases, are then using the bailout money to invest overseas, a $6 billion—

MICHAEL PARENTI: Right.

JUAN GONZALEZ: —investment in Dubai, an $8 billion investment in a company in China—

MICHAEL PARENTI: China, I was just going to say, right.

JUAN GONZALEZ: —I think by Bank of America, so that—and Kucinich was asking, what are we doing giving money to bailing out banks who say they can’t lend in the United States, but then they use the money in investments abroad? How do you reconcile the global connections of these companies with the need in one particular country to stem the financial crisis?

Quote:JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to ask you, given the increasingly global connections of our banks and other multinational corporations, the issue of how you remedy a crisis in one country. For instance, I heard last night on C-SPAN the hearing that Congressman Kucinich had of the bailout. He had an oversight hearing yesterday. And he questioned the Treasury Department over the fact that the bailout money has been going to banks that, in some cases, are then using the bailout money to invest overseas, a $6 billion—

MICHAEL PARENTI: Right.

JUAN GONZALEZ: —investment in Dubai, an $8 billion investment in a company in China—

MICHAEL PARENTI: China, I was just going to say, right.

Quote:We have less than 100 months to alter our behaviour before we risk catastrophic climate change, and the unimaginable horrors that this would bring.

Magda Hassan Wrote:Every clound has a silver lining :congrats:. I just came across info (maybe old though 2002) from the Centre for Public Integrity http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/399/ that Richard Armitage has between $500,000 to 1million in GE stocks. Rumsfeld too. Boo hoo.

David Guyatt Wrote:What does this tell you, if anything? To me it suggests the focus is moving to the southern hemisphere and the west is being completely drained of its wealth and assets to achieve a new southern alignment.

Could it that our northern climes are so thoroughly trashed that they are beyond salvage and that those in the know are aware of this? This is highy speculative and CT obviously, but I do wonder sometimes.

David Guyatt Wrote:Prince Charles in a speech given in Brazil yesterday warned of the catastrophe that awaits the world if it doesn’t tackle climate change. He warned that

Quote:We have less than 100 months to alter our behaviour before we risk catastrophic climate change, and the unimaginable horrors that this would bring.

Where did he get 100 months from? That seems far too precise a figure to have been simply grabbed from thin air. There must be a believable and influential study (or studies?) that he is quoting from.

Quote:China’s Premier Wen ‘Worried’ on Safety of Treasuries (Update2)

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- China, the U.S. government’s largest creditor, is “worried” about its holdings of Treasuries and wants assurances that the investment is safe, Premier Wen Jiabao said.

“We have lent a huge amount of money to the United States,” Wen said at a press briefing in Beijing today. “I request the U.S. to maintain its good credit, to honor its promises and to guarantee the safety of China’s assets.”

White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers, asked about Wen’s remarks, said overseas “confidence” in Treasuries would be hurt without the administration’s steps to end the economy’s decline. President Barack Obama is relying on China to sustain buying of Treasuries amid record amounts of debt sales to fund a $787 billion stimulus package.

“China’s purchases of American debt have been one of the few bolts keeping the wheels on the global economy,” said Phil Deans, a professor of international affairs at Temple University in Tokyo. “If China stops buying, where does Obama’s borrowing to fund his stimulus come from?”

Treasuries declined after Wen’s remarks, before recouping the losses later. Yields on benchmark 10-year notes rose as high as 2.96 percent, from 2.85 percent late yesterday, and were at 2.83 percent at 12:27 p.m. in New York.

Loss on Treasuries

Treasuries have handed investors a loss of 2.7 percent in yuan terms this year, according to Merrill Lynch & Co.’s U.S. Treasury Master index. Chinese investors increased their holdings of the bonds 46 percent to $696 billion in 2008, according to U.S. Treasury data.

“Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets,” Wen said after the annual meeting of the legislature. “To be honest, I am a little bit worried.”

Summers said that taking “austerity” measures would be even worse for the economy and financial markets, which he said he tracks “very closely.” Answering questions after a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, he said it’s “fiscally responsible” to implement measures in the near term that will restore longer-term growth.

China should seek to “fend off risks” as it diversifies its $1.95 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves, Wen said. Yu Yongding, a former adviser to the central bank, said in an interview on Feb. 10 that the nation should seek guarantees that its Treasury holdings won’t be eroded by “reckless policies.”

Quote:U.S. would need more borrowing if deflation sets in: Summers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would have to increase its borrowing if deflation sets in and the economy collapses further, White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said on Friday.

"If deflation sets in, if the GDP (gross domestic product) collapses further, if the consequences of that collapse for the financial system and even just the insured parts of the financial system, if that happens, the magnitude of the federal borrowing as large as it is today will be dwarfed, will be far, far larger," he said at the Brookings Institution.