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U.S. Concrete President and Chief Executive Officer to Step Down

March 30, 2011

HOUSTON, TX–(Marketwire – March 30, 2011) – U.S. Concrete, Inc. ( NASDAQ : USCR ) today announced that Michael W. Harlan, President and Chief Executive Officer, will step down in 2011 after leading the Company for the past four years. Mr. Harlan will remain with the Company in his current role while the Board of Directors conducts a search for his replacement. 

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Buying A New Home Makes Less Sense After Foreclosure Crisis

March 23, 2011

WASHINGTON — A new home, the dream of many would-be buyers, makes less and less financial sense in many places. A wave of foreclosures has driven down the cost of previously occupied homes and made them even more of a comparative bargain. By contrast, new homes have become more expensive. The median price of a new home in the United States is now 48 percent higher than that of a home being resold, more than three times the gap in a healthy housing market. Such a disparity can be a drag on the economy. New homes represent a small fraction of sales, but they cause economic ripples, bringing business to construction and other industries. Sluggish new-home sales deprive the economy of strength. “A lot of people are saying, ‘If I can get a great deal on a home already on the market, why go through the headaches of getting a new home?’” says Mark Vitner, a senior economist with Wells Fargo. “There’s a relatively small group of people who have the credit, have the down payment and are secure in their jobs that can go out and buy new.” The gap is widening because prices of previously occupied homes are falling fast, pulled down by waves of foreclosures and short sales. A short sale occurs when a lender lets a homeowner sell for less than is owed on the mortgage. New homes aren’t directly affected by such sales. The median price of a new home – the price at which half the homes sell for more and half sell for less – has risen almost 6 percent in the past year to $230,600, even though last year was the worst for sales in nearly a half-century. Slowed by those higher prices, new-home sales have plummeted over the past year to the lowest level since records began being kept in 1963. The government provides fresh data on new-home sales Wednesday. By contrast, sales of previously occupied homes have fallen almost 3 percent in the past year. Prices have dropped more than 5 percent. In February, the median price for a resale was $156,100, according to the National Association of Realtors. That adds up to a price difference of $74,500, or 48 percent, the highest markup in at least a decade. In healthier markets, a new home typically runs about 15 percent more, according to government data. Home prices and sales still vary sharply among metro areas. Cities with more foreclosures tend to have more resale homes that have languished on the market and are priced at a bargain. That makes new homes in those areas comparatively expensive. In Atlanta, for instance, where foreclosures accounted for one in every 23 homes sold last year, the median price of a previously occupied single-family home was $109,900, about 12 percent lower than a year ago, according to the Georgia data firm Smart Numbers. The median price of a new home was more than twice that. “That’s as much of a difference as we’ve ever seen,” said Steve Palm, president of Smart Numbers. “New homes can’t compete, and that means jobs.” An average of three jobs and $90,000 in taxes are created for each home built, according to the National Association of Home Builders. In some areas, older homes were more expensive before the housing market bust. That was especially true in urban neighborhoods with little or no room left to build on. But now, buyers get their pick even in some of the trendiest places. That’s what Robert Rost is finding in central Phoenix. Rost doesn’t want to commute far to his job. He’s been looking for a home for about five months but can’t find new properties in the neighborhoods where he wants to live. “I don’t want to commute 45 minutes to an hour a day one-way,” the 38-year-old computer engineer says. Homebuilders have taken notice. Residential construction has all but come to a halt. Builders broke ground last month on the fewest homes in nearly two years. And building permits, a gauge of future construction, sank to their lowest in more than 50 years. Many builders are waiting for new-home sales to pick up and for the glut of foreclosures and other distressed properties to be reduced. But with 3 million foreclosures forecast this year nationwide, a turnaround isn’t expected for at least three years. Don Eyler, who has owned E and R Construction in Terre Haute, Ind., for three decades, blames the banks. He says people are still interested in having a custom-built home but can’t finance the purchase. Tighter credit has made it harder to get larger loans. Eyler typically built eight homes a year before the housing boom and bust. Now, he’s averaging just about five. And he’s making less profit on each. “We hope we can stay in business until it gets better, but the turning point is this year,” Eyler says. “If it doesn’t change, we’ll have to do something different.” Contributing to higher new-home prices is the rising cost of building materials. Fewer new homes sold means fewer jobs added to an economy struggling with 8.9 percent unemployment. About 2.2 million overall construction jobs have disappeared since the housing boom went bust. That’s nearly a third of the people the industry employed in January 2007. Workers in residential construction have fared even worse than other construction employees. Homebuilders cut nearly 1.3 million jobs in that time, or 39 percent of total payrolls. Besides generating jobs in construction and other fields, new-home purchases tend to help the economy because buyers are more likely to buy new furniture, appliances and other amenities. There’s also the psychological factor. In good times, most homes rise in value. But new homes historically have risen faster – by an additional 1.5 percent a year, according to Realtors and census data. When homes appreciate in value, people feel they have more money. So they spend more. “When you have more net worth, especially in your home, you feel richer,” says Chris G. Christopher Jr., senior principal economist at IHS Global Insight. ___ AP Business Writers Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington and Alex Veiga in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Joseph E. Stiglitz: A Balanced Debate About Reforming Macroeconomics

March 22, 2011

The most remarkable aspect of the recent conference at the IMF on Macro and Growth Policies in the Wake of the Crisis was the broad consensus that the macroeconomic models that had been relied upon in the past and had informed major aspects of monetary and macro-policy had failed. They failed to predict the crisis; standard models even said bubbles couldn’t exist — markets were efficient. Even after the bubble broke, they said the effects would be contained. Even after it was clear that the effects were not “contained,” they provided limited guidance on how the economy should respond. Maintaining low and stable inflation did not ensure real economic stability. The crisis was “man-made.” While in standard models, shocks were exogenous, here, they were endogenous. There was even remarkable consensus about many elements of policy in responding to the crisis: fiscal policy can work; we need to be wary of empirical studies based on circumstances markedly different from the current situation (where households are overleveraged, where interest rates have reached the zero lower bound, etc.). There were large areas of consensus for the longer run: central banks will focus on more than just inflation, especially financial stability; but there will be a real challenge in developing an integrated approach. The ultimate objective of a central bank is to stabilize the real economy, and financial and price stability both need to be seen as instruments toward this and other ultimate objectives. In achieving real stability, much stronger financial regulation will be required — both because of agency issues and the pervasiveness of externalities, self-regulation cannot be relied upon. Real stability will require a full range of tools for capital account management, including cross-border regulations on capital flows. While the crisis has brought into focus the inadequacies of the standard macroeconomic models and the policy tenets that were derived from them, not surprisingly other aspects of conventional wisdom, related to growth, were also discussed. Again, there was a surprising consensus that industrial policies have played an important role in enhancing growth (though other policies, like “rule of law” and macroeconomic stability are also important). The discussion went well beyond the tired critique of “picking winners” to a more insightful analysis, based on the well-known and documented externalities associated with learning and development, instances in which markets on their own do not necessarily work well. Perhaps the major failing of some of the earlier models was that, while the attempt to incorporate micro-foundations was laudable, it was important that they be the right micro-foundations. This crisis, like so many earlier crises, was a credit crisis; but few of the macroeconomic models modeled credit; neither banks (perhaps particularly surprising in models used by central banks) nor securitization was typically incorporated into the analysis. While in normal times, credit and money may be highly correlated, this is not so in the usual times surrounding crises, which is when we need to turn to models for guidance. Fortunately, there has been a great deal of modeling of banks and credit creation; the task ahead is to incorporate the insights of these models into the kinds of macro-models being used by policymakers. In any meeting such as this, it’s worth noting what was not discussed, or only mentioned briefly. The fact that countries with central banks that were not independent performed so much better than some of those that were — partly because the latter were “cognitively captured” by the financial markets that they were supposed to regulate — should perhaps lead to rethinking of doctrines concerning central bank independence. Standard models not only don’t provide a good explanation of the origins of a crisis, such as the one Europe and America are experiencing, they also don’t adequately explain the slowness of the recovery. After all, the human and physical assets that existed before the crisis are still here; indeed, in a real sense, having corrected the distortions associated with the crisis, output should be higher. Yet, for years, output has remained substantially below its potential. And it’s even the case for the United States, which long prided itself on having flexible labor markets. Many of those who had been advocates of the old policies, while seeing their limits, cautioned about letting the pendulum swing too far to the other side: inflation had been a serious problem in the past, so in focusing on other variables, it was important not to lose sight of the risks which high and variable inflation can impose; self-regulation clearly failed, but it can still be part of an overall regulatory scheme; capital flows bring benefits, and these should not be lost sight of. In short, the conference made an important contribution in invigorating a balanced debate about reforming macroeconomics. Crossposted from iMFdirect .

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Tripped Up At The Finish Line: The Perils Of Unemployment After 50

March 16, 2011

WASHINGTON — Americans are more pessimistic than ever about their retirement prospects, with 27 percent of all workers saying they are “not at all confident” about retirement, according to a yearly survey released Tuesday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute , a nonpartisan think tank. That’s a 5 percent increase from a year ago. What’s worse is that some of the people who should be looking forward to retirement the most don’t even want to think about it. Jayne Dunn, 55, said she’s been out of work since December 2008, when she lost her job as a landscape designer in Cheshire, Conn. She described her job search as “demeaning, demoralizing, just desperately awful” and said thoughts of retirement are forbidden. “You just don’t do that,” she said. “You just think kind of day to day.” Dunn told HuffPost she’s already used up the $5,000 that remained in her 401k when she tapped it in 2009. The EBRI survey found that 34 percent of workers said they’d dipped into savings to pay basic expenses in the past year. Americans Dunn’s age are less likely to lose their jobs than younger folks. But once they lose their jobs, they are more likely to be out of work for a long, long time. The unemployment rate for Americans ages 55 and up stands at just 6.4 percent, compared with 8.9 percent for the population as a whole. But according to the AARP Public Policy Institute, the average jobless spell lasts 45.5 weeks for Americans older than 55, compared with 35.2 weeks for those younger than that. As of October, according to the Congressional Research Service , more than one in 10 unemployed workers older than 55 had been jobless for longer than 99 weeks, which is the cutoff point for unemployment benefits in the hardest-hit states. Just 6 percent of unemployed workers younger than 35 have been out of work that long. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among displaced workers — people who lost their jobs after three years with the same employer — folks older than 55 were much less likely than their younger counterparts to have found new jobs between 2007 and 2010. Many long-term jobless in their fifties say unspoken age discrimination is the reason they can’t find work. Bonnie Krewson of Folsom, Calif., told HuffPost she passed the two-year mark of her unemployment spell on Sunday. Krewson, a 58-year-old former office administrator, said that when she does manage to get an interview, she feels her age is as large an obstacle as her lack of a college degree. When she recently interviewed for an administrative position at a law firm, she said, “I just felt they were going to want to hire somebody a little younger.” She said she’s applied for jobs at places like Home Depot, Sam’s Club and In-N-Out Burger, but almost never gets an interview. Several big retail stores, including Home Depot and Target, require online job applicants to disclose their age . (Walmart, which owns Sam’s Club, does not.) Krewson said her job search has been demoralizing. “It’s making me feel like, ‘What is wrong with me?’” she said. “People tell me all the time, ‘It’s not you, per se. The difference is you’re now competing against 10 times as many people and more than half of those are probably going to have better qualifications.’” Her unemployment benefits ran out in February, Krewson said, so her only monthly income is $190 from General Assistance and $200 in food stamps. Even with the occasional help from family members, she said she doesn’t have enough to cover expenses. She’s got no savings. As for retirement, she said, “I’m really not trying to think about it, although it’s always in the back of my mind.” Sandra Lazzinnaro of West Milford, N.J., told HuffPost she’d worked as a flight coordinator for the past 25 years when she lost her job in November 2008. Now, she said, she works two days a week as a bartender. She said she’s now studying to become a paralegal after spending her entire career in aviation. She recently turned 50. “They could keep telling us 50 is the new 40, but now when it comes to trying to find work … I had to throw out 27 years of experience and reinvent myself. It’s pretty scary,” she said. “We’re in a full-fledged depression. They’re just telling us we’re coming out of a recession, but we’re really not.” As for comfortable retirement, Lazzinnaro said, “I’m thinking it’s like a pipe dream that’s never going to happen.” Dunn, the former landscape designer, is also studying up for a career change. She said she’s taking business classes and wants to start a food pantry that emphasizes confidentiality and dignity for its clients. She said she homed in on her new career goal the moment a volunteer at a food pantry (where Dunn herself previously volunteered) took back from her a can of unsweetened applesauce that pushed her allotment above the 10-pound limit for a single person. “It was the last thing I put on the scale and they took it back out,” she said. “My opinion is, there’s a more dignified way to do that.” Instead of worrying about her retirement, Dunn said she’s focused entirely on getting her business going and is in the midst of a grant-writing effort. “It just feels like that’s what I would love to do for the rest of my life,” she said.

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Scott Paul: We’re Number Two: Why America Is Losing its Lead in Manufacturing and How We Can Get it Back

March 16, 2011

When IHS Global Insight revealed this week that China has passed the United States to lead the world in manufacturing output, the response from some in government and manufacturing was to quibble with the data. The correct response is to develop a national manufacturing strategy , so that we can once again lead the world in manufacturing, which is a position we’ve held for 110 years. Why a strategy? Well, Germany has one. China has one. South Korea has one. In fact, every other industrialized nation has a network of currency, trade, tax, investment, innovation and skills policies that promote domestic manufacturing. We stand alone in allowing our jobs to be freely outsourced overseas. Our economic and training policies spur on a service and financial sector economy at the expense of investments in manufacturing. First, let’s consider the data on the size of manufacturing. Manufacturing accounts for one-third of China’s economic output. For most of our industrial competitors, the number is somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. In America, manufacturing accounts for less than 13 percent of our GDP , and that figure is falling every year. The rate of growth in manufacturing in China has averaged over 20 percent per annum over the past three years. In the U.S., despite a recent rebound, that figure is only 1.8 percent. We’ve shed 50,000 factories and 5.5 million manufacturing jobs over the past decade. Meanwhile, one company in China — Foxconn — created more manufacturing jobs last year than the entire U.S. economy. So many in industry are quick to blame America’s manufacturing woes on labor and regulation. They couldn’t be more wrong. The fact is, average compensation of an American manufacturing worker, including benefits, is a little over $32 per hour. In Germany, the figure is $48 per hour. Yet Germany’s manufacturing base is thriving. Germany has a trade surplus. German unions sit on company boards and make joint decisions about capital investments and corporate strategy. Plus, much of what we manufacture is not labor intensive; it’s capital intensive. Investing in human capital will make us more productive, and it will grow manufacturing. Why does being number one in manufacturing matter so much? First, manufacturing jobs are simply not replaceable. Workers who lose their manufacturing jobs end up in jobs that pay far less. The tax base shrinks. The demand on government services grows. Here’s a startling fact: if states would have held their share of manufacturing jobs over the past decade, there would be no state-level budget crises, even in California . Manufacturing drives innovation in our nation, because two-thirds of private sector R&D and 90 percent of patents come from manufacturing. As researchers at the Harvard Business School have ably demonstrated , when production leaves, innovation follows. It’s why we we’re in the embarrassing and unenviable position of importing solar, battery, and wind technologies that we invented in America a generation ago, as we seek to jumpstart clean energy manufacturing in our nation. Finally, it is arrogant, elitist, discriminatory, and foolish to suggest that young people should not enter manufacturing, yet that’s what experts tell us every day. We need an educational system that does not warehouse kids who want vocational careers. We need our business schools to teach managers how to “reshore” work rather than follow the race to the bottom. Fortunately, there is a way forward. We’ve put forward a plan to keep it made in America that has broad support from the American people–right, left and center. It’s common sense. This new Congress is in its third month, yet no bill to create American manufacturing jobs has been sent to the President’s desk. America likes an underdog, and that’s exactly what blue collar work is these days. It’s about time our political leaders in Washington discovered that. Otherwise, there may be some long days ahead on the campaign trail for the President in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

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Dan Dorfman: More Outrage Coming at the Pump

March 13, 2011

Ugh! If you’re planning a getaway for the July 4 weekend, there’s a chance you may have to shell out another $1 to $1.25 a gallon at the gas pump. That essentially is one of the ugly travel scenarios that emerges from a current analysis of future oil prices from Roubini Global Economics, headed by Nouriel Roubini, one of the country’s more prominent economic bears. First, let’s look at the background of this unhappy prospect, which emanates from the volatile Middle East. Thanks to promises of billions in “benefits” to an aroused populace and a strong police hand, Saudi Arabia’s widely anticipated “day of rage” — a day of threatened mass protests — never came to pass last Friday as the monarchy of the world’s largest oil exporter managed to quell student calls for widespread demonstrations throughout the country in a push for Democratic reform. But there’s no escape for the roughly 200 million U.S. drivers, who are experiencing their own days of rage at the gas pump. The agonizing figures tell the story. The average price at the gas pump is now $3.53 a gallon, according to the website GasBuddy.com, up from $3.43 the past week, $3.12 a month ago and $2.78 a year earlier Saudi Arabia may have evaded Friday’s day of rage, but not so oil traders, says Hong Kong trader Selwyn Ortz. The reason, he explains: a lot of them were long oil, had touted the idea that Friday would be a big day for crude in wake of the expected Saudi protests, an event, some thought, that could mark the start of a rise that would drive oil to $200 a barrel. Alas, oil was a mediocre performer that day, falling slightly to a shade above $100 a barrel. That decline largely reflected an earthquake in Japan, which is bound to depress its oil demand, at least temporarily. Meanwhile, the sharp gain in oil prices in recent months and the threat of more uprisings have prompted investment firms throughout Wall Street to reassess where oil prices are headed, given their significant impact on the economy. Roubini Global Economics is one of those firms currently immersed in the process of looking at future oil prices. Preliminarily, its research team has come up with three scenarios, all nasty and each of will thin your wallet and undoubtedly create more days of rages, as explained to me by Shelley Goldberg, Roubini’s director of global resources and commodities strategy. The first scenario — to which the firm accords a 50% probability — calls for oil prices to stay about where they are now and assumes the Saudis, OPEC and the rest of the world will make up any shortfalls. Such a scenario. of course, would suggest that higher prices at the pump — now up to $4 to $4.50 a gallon in growing parts of the country — will be maintained. Roubini’s second scenario — given a 35% probability — pegs oil at $120 a barrel, a price, it’s assumed, that will hold. Based on the rule of thumb that every $10 hike in a barrel of oil is equivalent to about a $0.25-a gallon rise at the pump, $120 oil would theoretically lift the price of gas by $0.50 a gallon from current levels. Prospects of an even bigger jump — an additional $1 to $1.25 a gallon, or maybe higher — are inherent in Roubini’s third scenario, $140 to $150 a barrel oil or perhaps more. This one gets a 10% to 15% probability. The higher end of the $120-$150 range, Goldberg explains, factors in such worrisome possibilities as: –A double-dip recession –Regime upheavals in such OPEC AND non-OPEC countries as Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Oman and Sudan –A toll on Mideastern infrastructure, notably refineries, pipelines, ships and transportation routes –Enough supply disruptions that the lost oil cannot be made up by OPEC and Saudi Arabia –Significant demand destruction, such as people begin to stop driving or drive less and industry stops producing or produces less Goldberg also sees stepped-up efforts to achieve more production and supply through the exploration of more expensive oil, namely via oil sands, tar sands and deep offshore wells. No one. of course, knows what’s going to happen in the Mideast, but Goldberg figures the dye has been cast. “Higher prices will become the new norm,” she says. Steven Kopits, the managing director of Douglas-Westwood, Ltd., a leading provider of global energy services research, offers also raises the specter of another recession, noting that’s what will occur whenever spending on oil and gasoline exceeds 4% of GDP, which it will do with oil at $90 a barrel. In conjunction with this, he tells me, 10 of the last 11 recessions since World War II took place during periods of sharply rising oil prices and six of the past seven since 1973. The bottom line: More outrage is on the way at the gas pump. What do you think? E-mail me at Dandordan@aol.com.

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GGP’s New CEO Looks To Transform REIT’s Portfolio

March 10, 2011

Three months into the job, Sandeep Mathrani, the newly appointed CEO of General Growth Properties, has embarked on a plan that would shrink the giant shopping centers owners’ portfolio and strengthen its strongest performing properties. Mathrani, previously president of the retail division at Vornado Realty Trust, held his first quarterly conference call this past week and sketched out GGP’s plans going forward. “It’s time to roll up my sleeves…

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Retail Watch: Big Lots Rolling Out More Stores in Higher-End Locations

March 9, 2011

Big Lots Inc. is boosting its plans for new store openings this year, looking to spend $50 million to cover opening 90 new stores. That would be 10 more new stores than opened last year. And more so than in the past couple of years, the discount retailer is looking at opening in higher-end locations. Speaking on an investor call this past week, Charles W. Haubiel II, legal and real estate, general counsel and corporate secretary for the discount…

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Bank Watch: Bank Failures Reach 23 for the Year

March 3, 2011

One more bank failed in the past week, bringing the total number of U.S. bank failures for 2011 to 23. Valley Community Bank, St. Charles, IL, was closed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation – Division of Banking, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) as receiver. The FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with First State Bank of Mendota, IL, to acquire essentially all of its…

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Manufacturing activities in the U.S may have reached a new record this past month…

March 1, 2011

Manufacturing activities in the U.S may have reached a new record this past month…

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2011 Brings a Resurgent CMBS Market, More CRE Liquidity

February 23, 2011

CMBS activity has flourished in the past few weeks with more than $6.5 billion in new securitization coming to market. In addition, Freddie Mac brought two multifamily-backed offerings totaling $1.86 billion to market. The activity in February alone is almost two-thirds of all CMBS deals offered last year – and for some is reminiscent of 2007 when commercial mortgage-backed securities offerings were at their peak, which has the commercial real…

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Daniel Dicker: Why Gasoline Costs Are Too Damn High

February 21, 2011

The U.S. is being fooled to believe that the gas prices we see on TV and in newspapers aren’t actually so bad. But they are. Relatively, they are much worse now than they were in the past, and are likely to get even worse as spring and summer approach. We watch the TV and look in the newspapers, see that crude oil is selling for $87 dollars a barrel and think: “yeah, those are high prices, but I remember when oil was over $100 dollars, even $120 and $140 dollars a barrel — this doesn’t seem so bad yet.” But you’re being fooled. You’re being fooled because the price that the newspapers and television are referring to is the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, traded at the New York Mercantile Exchange (where I traded for 25 years). This financial benchmark has been used to set the price for virtually all of global oil for the past 25 years — even though there are hundreds of other specific grades of crude oil in the world, extracted from ground, water and stone, and delivered in hundreds of local markets across the globe. But the market for this one local grade of sweet crude, delivered at Cushing in Oklahoma has dominated the financial world of global oil for so long, it has also come to set the physical prices for real oil virtually everywhere else — until a few weeks ago. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has disconnected with crude markets everywhere else and no longer represents the “real” prices of crude, or in other words, the real prices that are being charged at the pump to you and me. Take a look at some other physical benchmarks and their recent prices: Dubai and Oman sour crude is trading at $99 a barrel, Mars sour — a U.S. grade from the gulf coast — has traded at $96, Brent Crude from the North Sea is at $104 and Louisiana Light Sweet, a very similar grade to WTI delivered only 700 miles south in Port Arthur has recently traded at $106! What’s fascinating is that WTI has historically been much, much more expensive than ANY one of these other grades. The reasons that WTI no longer “works” — at least temporarily — as a global benchmark is two fold: Physically, Cushing is filled to the brim with supply and because it is small and landlocked, it is difficult to ship incoming crude further south. Financially, the WTI contract has become nothing more than a trading and investing ping-pong ball of asset managers, index investors, ETF’s, energy hedge funds and individual traders, all stuck long in a market that won’t react positively to Middle East unrest and a general commodity price spike — a spike that is overtaking every other grade of crude out there. I outline the mechanisms of all of this in my upcoming book Oil’s Endless Bid , but the bottom line is this — While financial oil may be subject to the whims of big money investors and traders, the gasoline market is far more insulated — and delivered in New York Harbor where no such physical constraints exist as in Cushing. So, gas isn’t being held back by the WTI disconnect — its pricing at the pump is a solid 40 cents a gallon higher than the “advertised” price of crude oil that’s going out to the world would suggest, up to $3.18 a gallon nationally, according to the Lundberg survey. And this is just the beginning. As unrest continues to heat up in the Middle East, and as the physical and financial roadblocks to WTI clear up — as they must — the financial benchmark at the NYMEX is much more likely to again represent where the rest of global oil is currently pricing — well above $100 a barrel and indeed closer to $110. And that means more pain — much more pain — at the pump as the summer approaches.

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Raymond J. Learsy: It’s All About The Money. Jamie Dimon’s Big Pay Hike While Foreclosing the Homes of Our Servicemen

February 19, 2011

It was always about the money, but over the past few years that truism has descended into a miasma of self interested perversity that has begun to put the entire game at risk with more and more of the nations economically disenfranchised sensing that they have become powerless in a system that looks only after the well heeled and well connected. The disparity between have and have not’s escalating to a degree that earlier generations of Americans post the Civil War, would not have tolerated. The level playing field that was America, even with the occasional pothole, was a system in which Americans believed in and in and in which they took comfort and pride. With the financial events of the past few years, and with the insatiable self-engorgement of the financial sector and a complicit or haplessly blind government, forever coming to the financial sectors rescue at the expense and risk to the nation at large, trust in our institutions has been profoundly shaken. Rather than enough being enough and to add insult to injury, we are given another ignoble example of the tone deafness and the disregard with which the system now works Over the past days we have learned that J.P. Morgan Chase, the nation’s second largest bank, increased its CEO Jamie Dimon’s 2011 payout by more than 50% of the initial value of the one Mr. Dimon received in 2010 (“JPMorgan Gives Dimon a $17 Million Payday” NYT 02.17.11) .- Yes, I know, some ballplayers get paid more. But they don’t have the ability of wrecking peoples lives by foreclosing on their homes as our government shovels our rescue money to the very same financial institutions who do, all the while covering their bonuses and salaries. We, at the very least, have the choice of going to the ball park or not,- Certainly, under Dimon’s stewardship J.P. Morgan Chase brought home the bacon, making some $17.4 billion in profit, a gain of 48 percent from the year before. Big numbers deserve a big salary, or so we are told. After all, it’s all about the money, Right? Well, maybe. First of all it’s not hard to make big money if you have access to virtually cost free money at the Fed window, or vast pools of money from your depositors accounts insured by you and me through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) giving Morgan almost limitless chips to speculate in the oil market (thereby helping to push oil prices ever higher without ever having to say thank you to us when we pay at the pump), or engaging in such community enhancing banking services as that reported by Reuters (“JP Morgan holds dominant LME copper stock position-Telegraph” 12.05.10) that JP Morgan Chase “holds between 50 and 80 percent of the 350,000 tonnes of copper held in London Metal Exchange warehouses.” Not to speak of extensive dallying in the silver market and on. Certainly these forays into money making commodity speculation must have held much of Mr. Dimon’s attention. Clearly he was too busy to notice, or perhaps he didn’t care (not much money here) when, in breach of law, members of our military on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan were being dispossessed of their homes by J.P. Morgan in contravention of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and while more than 4500 servicemen were being overcharged on their mortgages and/or threatened with foreclosure. All the while the servicemen had tried to protect their rights in the courts trying to get J.P Morgan to obey the law (NYTimes Frank Rich Op-ed 02.12.11). A thimble of the money pouring into the J.P. Morgan’s oil and copper trades could have easily accommodated a workout with our servicemen permitting them and their families to have a fragment of continuum in their lives. Yet, in spite of the public opprobrium at J.P. Morgan’s abrogation of its basic societal banking responsibilities, – it clearly wasn’t about the money in sufficient degree to garner the attention of Mr. Dimon and his entourage. That our soldiers were being stripped of their homes on Jamie Dimon’s watch and to J.P. Morgan’s shame clearly didn’t figure in the compensation committee deliberations. Enterprise reputation and its mandate to being responsible tillers of the business soil doesn’t come into play. You see, in this day and age and sadly more than ever before, it’s all about the money.

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Andrew Sum: Ignore the Teen Employment Problem at Your Peril

February 18, 2011

In reviewing the findings of the recently released national report on employment and unemployment developments in the U.S. for January 2011, one might have encountered a sense of double vision in examining the findings for the nation’s teenagers (16-19 years old). In January 2011, only 25.7 percent of the nation’s teens (16-19 years old) were employed, continuing the steep decline in teen job opportunities over the past few years and decade. During that same month, the unemployment rate for the nation’s teens (seasonally adjusted) also was 25.7%. Thus, perfect equality existed between the teen employment rate (E/P) and the unemployment rate of teens in that same month. An identical result prevailed in the previous calendar year (2010) when the teen annual average E/P ratio and their unemployment rate were again exactly equal at 25.9%. This was the first time since the end of World War Two when these two key teen labor market variables came into equality. The 25.9% teen employment rate in 2010 marked the fourth consecutive annual drop in their employment rate. The modest growth in overall payroll employment levels during the past year did nothing for improving teen employment. Aggregate teen employment continued to fall for the fourth consecutive year and helped drive up their official unemployment rate to just under 26%, the highest it has been in the past 62 years for which CPS unemployment rates are available, another record high. Limited employment prospects for teens have pushed more than a million of them out of the labor force over the past few years (a 1.4 million decline since 2007) helping keep their unemployment rate artificially low. The magnitude of the decline in teen employment over the past decade (2000-2010) is mind boggling. In 2000, slightly over 45% of the nation’s teens were employed. The teen employment rate declined very sharply during the recession of 2001 and the largely jobless recovery of 2002-03, falling by between 8 and 9 percentage points. Teens benefitted very little from the national job growth that took place from 2003-2006, with their E/P ratio staying largely unchanged over this period. Over the next four years, their employment rate would fall steadily and steeply from 36.9% to 25.9%, a decline of 11 percentage points, far exceeding that of any other age group (See Chart 1). Every major demographic and socioeconomic group of teens has experienced declining employment rates over the past decade. Yet, in 2010 and all preceding years, both the employment rates and unemployment rates of teens differed often widely across gender, race-ethnic, educational attainment, and family income groups. Teenage males have performed worse than females in the labor market, and both Blacks and Hispanics trail considerably behind White, non-Hispanics. Low income minorities fare the worst by far in obtaining any type of employment. The deep deterioration in teen employment over the past decade will have severe adverse consequences for them and the rest of the nation in the future. Teen employment is highly path dependent. The more teens work this year, the more likely they are to work next year. Cumulative work experience in the teen years influences the employability, wages, and training experiences of these youth in their early to mid-20s. National research also has shown that higher teen employment for women and men has been associated with lower teen pregnancy rates, a lower tendency for men to drop out of high school, and reduced delinquency behavior. Higher employment also raises the annual incomes of teens and young adults, thereby increasing federal and state tax revenue and reducing a number of cash and in-kind transfers. Improved teen employment is thus a win, win, win, win proposition for the youth themselves, for their communities, the nation as a whole, and for national and state governments. We ignore this problem at our peril.

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Video: Mubarak Resigns as Egypt President; Protesters Cheer

February 11, 2011

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president of Egypt and handed power to the military, bowing to the demands of protesters who have occupied central Cairo for the past three weeks demanding an end to his 30-year rule. Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement in a statement on state television today. Bloomberg’s Margaret Brennan and Lara Setrakian report. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Sanguine Announces Additions and Changes in Management

February 10, 2011

PASADENA, CA–(Marketwire – February 10, 2011) – Sanguine Corp. ( OTCBB : SGUI ) is pleased to announce that it has appointed Frank Marra as the President of the Company. Mr. Marra has spent the past two years serving as the President of the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Sanguine Lifesciences Corp.

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Questioning Credibility of Greenback Weakness Over the Past Few Days

January 20, 2011

Questioning Credibility of Greenback Weakness Over the Past Few Days

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Big News Overseas as CBRE, JLL Vie for Control of $87 Bil. in Global Assets

January 20, 2011

The news flooding Europe’s financial newspapers this past week is that Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBRE) has been in exclusive talks for two weeks negotiating a deal to acquire all or a portion of ING Groep NV’s ING Real Estate Investment Management, whose property portfolio is valued at more than $87 billion. As of Sept. 30, CBRE already had $35.7 billion of commercial real estate under management. Fully combining the two entities…

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Big News Overseas as CBRE, JLL Vie for Control of $87 Bil. in Global Assets

January 20, 2011

The news flooding Europe’s financial newspapers this past week is that Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBRE) has been in exclusive talks for two weeks negotiating a deal to acquire all or a portion of ING Groep NV’s ING Real Estate Investment Management, whose property portfolio is valued at more than $87 billion. As of Sept. 30, CBRE already had $35.7 billion of commercial real estate under management. Fully combining the two entities…

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Corporate Partner Steven Guynn Joins King & Spalding in New York in Continued Worldwide Growth of Firm’s Transactional Practices

January 19, 2011

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – January 19, 2011) –  International law firm King & Spalding today announced the addition of veteran corporate partner Steven D. Guynn to its New York office, the latest move in the firm’s expansion of its transactional practices. Guynn is the twelfth transactional partner worldwide, and the fifth in New York, to join King & Spalding in the past eight months. 

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Weak Dong could hit Vietnam’s real estate market

January 17, 2011

Vietnam’s real estate prices have risen this past year, but a number of factors have recently brought uncertainty to the market.

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Poly Plant Project, a Leader in Polysilicon Production Technology and Equipment, Names Jan Maurits President

January 4, 2011

BURBANK, CA–(Marketwire – January 3, 2011) – Poly Plant Project, Inc. (PPP), worldwide provider of advanced polysilicon production process technology and polysilicon production equipment solutions used to produce high-purity polysilicon for the solar industry and semiconductor industry, today announced that Jan Maurits will become president of the company effective January 1, 2011. Mr. Maurits will succeed Jesse Chen, Ph.D., who announced his retirement. Dr. Chen has served as president of Poly Plant Project, Inc. for the past two years.

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10 Fads From The Last 10 Years

December 29, 2010

It’s hard to say if any of the fads of the past decade will be as memorable as, say, the Hula Hoop or Frisbee. But like every decade, the 2000s (which, technically, started in 2001) had its fair share of interesting trends: from risky investment strategies to inexplicable crazes over pieces of colorful of rubber.

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NY Times: ‘Troubling Prospect’ After Bank Blocks WikiLeaks

December 26, 2010

The whistle-blowing Web site WikiLeaks has not been convicted of a crime. The Justice Department has not even pressed charges over its disclosure of confidential State Department communications. Nonetheless, the financial industry is trying to shut it down. Visa, MasterCard and PayPal announced in the past few weeks that they would not process any transaction intended for WikiLeaks. Earlier this month, Bank of America decided to join the group, arguing that WikiLeaks may be doing things that are “inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments.”

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U.S. Allowed American Companies To Do Business With Blacklisted Nations

December 24, 2010

Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has granted special licenses allowing American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found.

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U.S. Identifies Best Places For Solar Projects

December 16, 2010

LOS ANGELES — A draft plan identifying prime areas for solar energy projects on public lands in the Southwest was released Thursday by the Interior Department in an effort to speed up development. The draft identifies 24 so-called solar energy zones in California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona that have the highest potential for solar development with the fewest environmental impacts. The plan announced during a conference call in Washington, D.C., also proposes to open an additional 21 million acres of land to potential solar development. “The steps taken today help ensure that the United States will lead the world in energy technologies critical for meeting our energy goals and for sustaining economic growth,” said Henry Kelly, principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy with the Department of Energy. Federal officials said there will be a 90-day public comment period and a series of public meetings in the Southwest, as well as Washington. The final report, which aims to reduce conflicts and delays later in the process, will be released in 2011, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The solar industry welcomed the draft report, which had been in the works since 2008. “This announcement builds on the solar industry’s momentum over the past year surpassing all of last year’s growth through the third quarter, as well as the approval of the first eight utility-scale solar projects on public lands,” said Rhone Resch, the head of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “To put this in perspective, 74,000 permits were issued for oil and gas drilling on public lands over the past twenty years.” Congress in 2005 gave the Interior Department a goal to approve 10,000 megawatts, or about 5 million homes’ worth during peak hours, of renewable energy on public lands by 2015. Although the Bureau of Land Management opened federally owned lands in 2005 to solar development, an examination of records and interviews of officials by The Associated Press showed the program operated a first-come, first-served leasing system that quickly overwhelmed its small staff. The system also enabled companies, regardless of solar industry experience, to squat on land without any real plans to develop it. Increasing the approval of solar projects has been a key goal for the Obama administration. The Interior Department identified 14 of the most promising solar projects on federally owned land on a list to be fast-tracked. Federal officials predict that solar projects could one day contribute up to 24,000 megawatts of electricity – enough to keep 16 million homes powered at peak use. Conservationists poring over the draft report’s estimated 10,000 pages said they are pleased the federal government is finally outlining a program to more quickly approve good solar projects. The Department of Energy on Thursday also announced efforts to fund up to $50 million to test and demonstrate cutting-edge solar technologies. Many environmentalists, like Alex Daue, renewable energy coordinator at The Wilderness Society, however, said they are concerned about the proposal to open additional acreage beyond the vetted zones. “The opportunity here is to speed responsible development and limit impact,” he said. “Why not focus on areas with the best chance of success and the least environmental impact?”

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Lloyd Chapman: Elimination of Loopholes for Pentagon Contractors Could Create Thousands of Jobs

December 11, 2010

The elimination of a potentially fraudulent Pentagon subcontracting program could help spur job creation by increasing the amount of federal subcontracting dollars available for middle class firms. The Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP) was established over 20 years ago with the stated mission of increasing subcontracts for small businesses. The American Small Business League (ASBL) has long maintained that the program actually allows large defense contractors to circumvent small business subcontracting goals. As established, the program eliminates subcontracting reports available to the public, the media, and Congress, as well as eliminating all penalties for non-compliance with subcontracting goals. The ASBL estimates that elimination of the CSPTP would redirect approximately $10 billion a year in additional subcontracting opportunities for middle class firms. Research conducted by the ASBL has shown that over the past 21 years, small businesses have been defrauded of more than $200 billion in federal subcontracts due to the CSPTP. When first coming into office, President Obama estimated that every billion dollars spent on federal infrastructure projects would create 40,000 jobs. Based on these estimates, ending the CSPTP would create roughly 400,000 new jobs. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , small businesses are responsible for more than 90 percent of all net new jobs, 50.2 percent of the non-farm private sector workforce, 50 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 90 percent of exports and innovations. In October, five members of the House of Representatives, lead by Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) requested the U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO) to investigate and evaluate the CSPTP to determine if the program was meeting its stated goals. After being in place for over two decades, the CSPTP has never been evaluated by the Pentagon or any federal agency. This program has done the antithesis of what Congress said it would. It needs to be eliminated and investigated to determine how much fraud has occurred over the past 21 years. If President Obama and Congress were serious about job creation, they would end programs like the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program and ensure that federal contracts meant for small businesses actually go to middle class firms who create over 90 percent of all new jobs.

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Investors Need To Adjust Strategies In Sideway Markets

December 11, 2010

For the us stock market the past ten years have earned the title the lost decade The next ten years probably will not be much different The market will likely set record highs and multiyear lows but index investors and buyandhold stock collectors will find themselves not far from where they started We are in a Cowardly Lion market whose occasional bursts of bravery are ultimately overrun by fear that leads to a subsequent decline

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Google Fails To Close Groupon Deal

December 4, 2010

Google Inc.’s multibillion-dollar bid to acquire local deals site Groupon Inc. ended Friday as the two sides broke off talks, according to a person familiar with the matter. Negotiations between the two companies heated up over the past week but Groupon’s board, many of whom are investors, was divided on whether to accept Google’s offer. The company continued to consider remaining independent and pursuing an IPO in the future, people familiar with the matter have said.

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Lesbian Landmark To Welcome Men During Bad Economy

November 26, 2010

Guests lounge around the pool at Pearl’s Rainbow, soaking up the sunshine and tropical vibes typical of a Southernmost guesthouse. Not a man is in sight — and that’s the way these vacationers like it. But over this Thanksgiving weekend, Key West’s only lesbian-exclusive resort is going “all welcome.” The decision was made public about the same time Pearl’s Rainbow was honored in October by Curve, the best-selling lesbian magazine, as the guesthouse that had the greatest impact on lesbian culture over the past 20 years.

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Video: Rio Police Take Over Crime Stronghold Amid Urban Unrest: Video

November 26, 2010

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — Rio de Janeiro police took over one of the city’s biggest crime strongholds in a televised raid with Navy tanks and armored cars after five days of unrest. Rio’s police force has taken back slums, or favelas, from organized crime control in the past two years as the former Brazilian capital prepares to stage the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympics. Bloomberg’s Cecilia Tornaghi reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Video: Rio Police Take Over Crime Stronghold Amid Urban Unrest: Video

November 26, 2010

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — Rio de Janeiro police took over one of the city’s biggest crime strongholds in a televised raid with Navy tanks and armored cars after five days of unrest. Rio’s police force has taken back slums, or favelas, from organized crime control in the past two years as the former Brazilian capital prepares to stage the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympics. Bloomberg’s Cecilia Tornaghi reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Has the CMBS Market Finally Turned the Recessionary Corner?

November 11, 2010

For the past 12 months, activity in the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market has been ever so slowly building momentum. U.S. CMBS loan delinquencies declined last month for the first time in 33 months. The market is also finally seeing…

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Video: Obamas Honor Diwali With Candle-Light Service, Dancing

November 8, 2010

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama met with school children and attended a candle-lighting service and dance performance honoring Diwali, the festival of lights, this past weekend in Mumbai. They joined young children in a dance dedicated to the Indian region’s fishing traditions. Bloomberg’s Deirdre Bolton reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Video: Jekyll Island Forum Prompts Fed to Consider History

November 8, 2010

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and other current and former officials met this past weekend in Jekyll Island, Georgia, to discuss the Fed’s origins and decisions and, at times, their relevance to the more-recent financial crisis and last week’s expansion of record monetary stimulus. Bloomberg’s Michael McKee reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Don Hutson: The Massive Price of ‘Negotiaphobia’

November 1, 2010

Our research and experience have convinced us that “negotiaphobes” in America have left enough money on the table to pay off our National Debt! Why is it that today so many people are reluctant to engage in negotiations? Working with business professionals on six continents has shown that this reluctance to engage in negotiations in both our professional and personal lives is due to a desire to avoid confrontation, a lack of skill in the negotiation process, and a willingness to be a victim and simply live with an (often dysfunctional) status quo. Negotiaphobia is a disease that can be treated. This treatment is simple and it involves learning the various negotiation strategies and the skills to deploy them. Our book, ” The One Minute Negotiator ,” shares an E-A-S-Y three-step process which will get you on the road to fighting back your fears as you become mentally ready to engage and succeed in negotiating for your desired outcomes. We examine this simple yet innovative process below. The E in E-A-S-Y stands for engage … asking yourself “Is this an encounter where a negotiation is possible?” Many people miss these opportunities, as the people they deal with mask them by saying things like, “Of course there is a $20 dollar set up fee.” We all see the big negotiations like tax and health care reform, but we miss the ones such as a drop fee on a rental car. These “small” ones are the exchanges we can do something about and they do impact our discretionary income, and thus our quality of life. Once there appears to be the opportunity to negotiate, the second aspect of this initial step is to quickly review the four viable negotiation strategies presented in a clear 2X2 matrix form in the book. These strategies are avoidance (reactive and low cooperation), accommodation (reactive and high cooperation), competition (proactive and low cooperation) and collaboration – sometimes called win-win (proactive and high cooperation). Each of these four strategies has its place in the various negotiations we face on a daily basis. The “A” in E-A-S-Y prompts negotiators to assess their natural tendencies to use each of the four strategies, as well as the probable tendencies of the party they are negotiating with to follow one of the paths. To assist readers in assessing their own tendencies, The One Minute Negotiator includes a 20-Question self-assessment scale in its fifth chapter. This easy and fun tool can also be downloaded for no charge at www.theoneminutenegotiator.com. We propose that the best read on what strategy someone will use in negotiating with you is how they have negotiated with you in the past. This is the other dimension of negotiaphobia; lack of adaptability. Most people are one-trick ponies as they use the same approach every time. For people we have not negotiated with in the past one of the best reads on behavior is their interaction style. Drivers tend to come out in a very competitive stance, but do not overlook the possibility of winning them over to a collaborative approach. Expressives embrace the idea of win-win collaboration, but they rarely have the attention span to do so. “Strategize” is the third-step in the E-A-S-Y treatment process. Based on the significance of the situation, one’s own tendencies, and the expected strategy to be deployed by the other side or sides, a person now carefully selects their opening and fall-back strategies. The fall-back strategy is a lot like having an umbrella with you. If you have an umbrella in your brief case or your golf bag it rarely ever rains, but leave it in the trunk of your car and prepare to get drenched. On the issue of significance, you should not just look at this one encounter, but look for long-term potential. Some deals, like buying a car, are usually one-offs that push you toward competition. There are other instances where a small opportunity today, if handled collaboratively, could lead to a much larger and recurring deal into the future. Engage, Assess, and Strategize combine to form the “Y” in our acronym… “Your one minute drill.” This is where on a regular basis you automatically cycle through the first three steps as you face any negotiation. This one-minute reflection should become an automatic and very powerful tool to make you a more effective negotiator. We recognize that many negotiations take longer than a minute; some hours, months and even decades. The EASY process, however, will be your guide to get your head in the game for each negotiation encounter. Our personal and coaching experiences clearly show that most negotiations are won or lost before the first words of communication between parties even take place. We know that if you follow the E-A-S-Y process you will have more success and less stress in all areas of your life!

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Anoop Singh: Investing in a Rebalancing of Growth in Asia

October 25, 2010

Continuing my travels through Asia for the launch of our October 2010 Regional Economic Outlook: Asia and Pacific , I am writing to you today from Singapore. In my last post , I focused on the near-term outlook and challenges for Asia. Today, I turn to the key medium-term challenge–the need to rebalance economies in the region away from heavy reliance on exports by strengthening domestic sources of growth. This is against a backdrop of the need to rebalance global growth that was emphasized over the weekend by the ministers of the Group of Twenty industrialized and emerging market countries. Heavy reliance, arguably over-reliance, on exports is a common challenge across Asia. Yet, the policies to address it will differ among the countries in the region. Much of the public discussion focuses on ways to increase consumption, and this is something the IMF has written about extensively in the past. But the role of investment in rebalancing growth is equally important and something that should not be overlooked. Current gaps in investment Across the region, investment could play a bigger role in driving growth in three respects. Overall investment appears low in some parts, but not all, of Asia. This tends to be more of an issue for the leading economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Elsewhere in the region, such as the newly industrialized economies (Hong Kong SAR, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan Province of China) and Japan, aggregate investment is in line with comparable countries outside the region. But, the composition of investment is skewed toward exporters and capital-intensive firms, which crowds out domestically-oriented and labor-intensive enterprises. In addition, rapid growth across the region has stretched existing infrastructure close to the point where it severely constrains activity. Boosting investment What are the main reasons for this situation, and what can be done about it? Two important factors seem to be at play. First, investment in many regional economies has been subdued over the past decade or so. This reflects lower returns, greater uncertainty and mixed perceptions about the ease of doing business particularly since the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. However, financial constraints also played a role. In particular, small and medium enterprises, as well as firms operating in the services sector, appear to have limited access to financing, including in Japan and Korea. In these cases, modernizing the ways banks extend credit (including more risk-based financing) or make it easier to restructure the finances of small and medium enterprises, can help reduce the impediments to investing in the services sector. The second important factor concerns shortfalls in infrastructure, which also suppress private investment spending. This is most pronounced in the ASEAN region and low-income economies. With most infrastructure in the region provided by governments, greater private participation through public-private partnerships may help address critical bottlenecks while also reducing pressures on public coffers. Policy actions under way The good news is that several countries are already taking steps in the right direction. Japan and Korea are improving the financial infrastructure for smaller and more service-oriented firms through reforms in collateral laws and creating a market for distressed corporate assets. Indonesia and Malaysia have taken steps to improve the business environment by easing restrictions on foreign investment in the services sector and creating ‘one-stop shops’ for investors to reduce administrative delays. And many countries, including low-income ones, are making greater use of public-private partnerships to promote critical investment in infrastructure. Clearly, it will take time and steadfast implementation of reforms to boost investment and, in turn, rebalance Asia’s growth. But the strength with which shock waves from the financial crisis hit markets across Asia–from India to Japan–also remind us that Asia’s economies will be the primary beneficiaries of strengthening their domestic engines of growth. The time has come to invest in a rebalancing of growth in Asia. From iMFdirect blog

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Video: TARP’s Massad Says PPIP Helped Restart Mortgage Markets: Video

October 22, 2010

Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) — Tim Massad, acting administrator of the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, talks with Bloomberg’s Mark Crumpton about the Public-Private Investment Program. The PPIP, a government program aimed at reviving the mortgage-backed securities market returned more than triple what stocks or bonds gained in the past year. (Source: Bloomberg)

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AlliedBarton Security Services Expands Healthcare Team With the Promotion of Michael Dunning to Director of Healthcare Quality Assurance

October 21, 2010

CONSHOHOCKEN, PA–(Marketwire – October 21, 2010) – AlliedBarton Security Services, www.alliedbarton.com , the industry’s premier provider of highly trained security personnel, announces the promotion of Michael Dunning to the new position of Director, Healthcare Quality Assurance. Dunning, who has been employed at AlliedBarton for the past five years, was previously Account Manager at the Atlanta Medical Center where he served as Director of Security and Emergency Management.

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DH Capital Announces Team Promotions and New Headquarters

October 12, 2010

NEW YORK, NY and BOULDER, CO–(Marketwire – October 12, 2010) –  DH Capital, LLC (“DH Capital”), an investment banking firm serving companies in the Internet infrastructure and communications sectors, is pleased to announce the promotions of two members of the firm. Adam Lewis is now a Managing Director and Michael Kramer is now a Vice President. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Kramer joined DH Capital in 2007 and have been integral to the execution of each of the firm’s M&A transactions and private capital placements over the past three years. 

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DH Capital Announces Team Promotions and New Headquarters

October 12, 2010

NEW YORK, NY and BOULDER, CO–(Marketwire – October 12, 2010) –  DH Capital, LLC (“DH Capital”), an investment banking firm serving companies in the Internet infrastructure and communications sectors, is pleased to announce the promotions of two members of the firm. Adam Lewis is now a Managing Director and Michael Kramer is now a Vice President. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Kramer joined DH Capital in 2007 and have been integral to the execution of each of the firm’s M&A transactions and private capital placements over the past three years. 

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Video: Daniel Tenengauzer Doesn’t See a Currency War: Video

October 11, 2010

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — Daniel Tenengauzer, head of emerging-market currency and rates strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, talks about the International Monetary Fund annual meeting this past weekend, where world finance chiefs failed to narrow differences over exchange rates. Tenengauzer, speaking with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack,” also discusses China’s currency policy. (Source: Bloomberg)

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