German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to employees of German carmaker Opel.
Her promise came in a speech to Opel autoworkers the day after U.S. President Barack Obama warned General Motors and Chrysler that they had limited time to "restructure in a way that would justify an investment of additional taxpayer dollars."
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Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) converted to Catholicism on Sunday and celebrated his new faith with some close friends at the hot spot Café Milano.
number of unemployed in Germany grew to 3,58 Millionen . these were 78.000 more than a year ago, 
Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks.
Switching from a heavy reliance on bonds, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation decided to pour billions of dollars into speculative investments such as stocks in emerging foreign markets, real estate, and private equity funds. ...
Analysts expressed concern that large portions of the trust fund might have been lost at a time when many private pension plans are suffering major losses. The guarantee fund would be the only way to cover the plans if their companies go into bankruptcy.
And who was responsible, exactly?
Charles E.F. Millard, the former agency director who implemented the strategy until the Bush administration departed on Jan. 20, dismissed such concerns. Millard, a former managing director of Lehman Brothers, said flatly that "the new investment policy is not riskier than the old one." ...
Asked whether the strategy was a mistake, given the subsequent declines in stocks and real estate, Millard said, "Ask me in 20 years. The question is whether policymakers will have the fortitude to stick with it."
Notes Talking Points Memo's David Kurtz: "A finance professor who had previously advised the agency not to make the switch away from bonds compared the move to an insurance company writing policies to cover hurricane damage and then investing the premiums in beachfront property."
TPM's Josh Marshall, meanwhile, sees the move not as incompetence but possibly as part of a more general move by the Bush Administration to push more money into the stock market (a la their failed Social Security 'private accounts' bid).
"The [Fund] decided to put most of its $64 billion of reserves into stocks," Marshall notes. "And already by September 2008, i.e., before the bottom really fell out on Wall Street, the stock portfolio had already lost 23%. That percentage must be much higher today.
"One of the big drives behind Social Security privatization was the desire to find more money -- in the case of Social Security, a lot more money -- to keep the fires burning on Wall Street," he adds. "Not just more fees for the people handling the money, but more money to keep pushing asset values higher. This looks like the same thing just using slightly different means."
Official used to be NYC City councilman, NY Post columnist
Exactly who was Millard? He used to be a Republican City Councilman from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and was tapped by then-NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to head the Economic Development Corporation in 1995.
He also wrote syndicated columns for the New York Post, such as this piece maligning the lawyer for a terrorist, Omar Abdel Rahman, who he called a "terror-aiding lawyer."
DOHA, Qatar – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi stormed out of an Arab summit on Monday after denouncing the Saudi king and declaring himself "the dean of Arab rulers."
Gadhafi disrupted the opening Arab League summit in Qatar by taking a microphone and criticizing Saudi's King Abdullah, calling him a "British product and American ally."
When the Qatari emir tried to quiet him, the Libyan leader and current Africa Union chairman insisted he be allowed to speak.
"I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam (leader) of Muslims, and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level," Gadhafi said.
A mysterious boom and light occurred over the skies of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va., on Sunday night, but just what caused the phenomenon is still unknown.
Calls from local residents to 911 began coming in at around 9:45 p.m. EDT, with some people reporting their doors and windows rattled when the boom went off, according to reports from WVEC-TV.
Similar reports in the past often have turned out to involve meteors, which can explode in the atmosphere to create a loud noise and bright flash of light that streaks across the sky. However, often times the source of events like this are not determined.
In a recent scientific first, meteorite fragments of an asteroid that was spotted in space before it exploded over the African desert in October were recently recovered and examined by scientists.
The jury is still out as to what caused Sunday's event.
Local National Weather Service meteorologists have been in touch with the U.S. Navy, Air Force and NASA, but have not heard back these sources and don't know whether they are actively investigating the cause of the boom, said Wakefield NWS forecaster Jeff Lewitsky.
"The only thing we know for sure at this point is that it wasn't meteorologically related," Lewitsky told SPACE.com.
Lewitsky said meteorologists have looked back at their radar and lightning strike data during the time period and didn't find anything that could explain the event. He also said they had received no more reports on the incident and no photos of the light streak have come in.
Officials at Norfolk International Airport had received reports of the light and explosion, but hadn't observed anything out of the ordinary at the airport, according to WVEC-TV.
The National Weather Service told WVEC-TV that the reports of the light and the bang were coming in from Maryland to North Carolina.
The National Weather Service released a statement at 11:17 p.m. Sunday:
"Numerous reports have been called in to this office and into local law enforcement concerning what appeared to be flashes of light in the sky over the Suffolk/Virginia Beach area. We are confident in saying that this was not lightning ... and have been in contact with military and other government agencies to determine the cause. So far ... we have not seen or heard of any damage from this and will continue to inquire as to the cause."
The White House forced out General Motors’ chairman and instructed Chrysler to form a partnership with the Italian automaker Fiat within 30 days as a condition for a new round of aid to be detailed Monday.
(CNN) -- Automaker Peugeot fired its chief executive on Sunday, replacing Christian Streiff with Philippe Varin, currently the CEO at Corus, an Anglo-Dutch steelmaker.
Peugeot is Europe's second biggest carmaker
"Given the extraordinary difficulties currently faced by the automotive industry, the Supervisory Board decided unanimously that a change in the senior leadership position was necessary," said Thierry Peugeot, chairman of the PSA Peugeot Citroen supervisory board.
"I am confident that under the leadership of Philippe Varin, the Group will be able, with all the teams, to unlock its potential."
Varin will officially take over Peugeot's top post on June 1, but will begin "familiarizing himself" with operations starting next month.
Roland Vardanega, a member of the managing board, will act as interim chairman until Varin assumes his new job.
Peugeot, Europe's second biggest automaker, posted a loss of €343 million, or $456 million, in 2008 and also expects to lose money in 2009.Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi lambasted the International Criminal Court on Sunday as representing a "new form of world terrorism" that wanted to recolonise developing countries.
"It is a known fact that all Third World countries are opposing the so-called ICC," the recently elected chairman of the 53-nation African Union told a press conference at the AU headquarters here.
"This is the case right now. This court is against the countries colonised in the past and they want to recolonise now. It is a practice of a new world terrorism that is not below the standard of the other terrorism."
Kadhafi's condemnation followed a call by Arab foreign ministers on Saturday on the Hague-based ICC to annul its arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir.
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The Home Secretary is to pay back parliamentary allowances claimed for pay-per-view television services, reportedly including two adult films.
Jacqui Smith said she "mistakenly" claimed for the TV package while billing for an internet connection.
The Sunday Express claims the £67 Virgin Media bill included two 18-rated features viewed last April.
At Congressional hearings on Tuesday, Timothy F. Geithner asked for more authority to take over nonbank financial institutions, officials said.
http://www.n-tv.de/1125763.html
The German Bank suggests an positive outlook for 2009 id est to have black digits on the roll again. The banking sector will have great difficulties this year again declared Joe Acreman in the business-report.
The German bank thinks a return into the profit-zone is possible if the world economy doesn't collapse more than expected and a new shock like the collapse of Lehman doesn't occur.
"Currently, we don't see a necessity to get us new cash" declared Acreman who will give up his job in two-o-ten.
The German Bank had a minus last year for the first time since ww2. It was a loss of 5.7bio euro. Especially in the fourth quarter corrections in the retail-related-sector made a huge drop-out. The institute tried to reduce risk-related business since last year.
The crisis had consequences for Acreman's wage also. His bonusses shrank to 1.4 mio euro - a tenth of what he got the year b4. Thus the Swiss-born Acreman isn't top earner among German board members anymore.
In the Fox News segment, widely aired on the Internet, Mr. Gutfeld said the Canadian military “wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white capri pants.”
“Isn’t this the perfect time to invade this ridiculous country?” he said. “They have no army.”
[....]
“I didn’t even know they were in the war. I thought that’s where you go if you don’t want to fight — you go chill in Canada,” he said.
WBAL in Baltimore reported today that Jenna Bush's Secret Service detail vehicle was towed due to six unpaid parking tickets. A second Secret Service vehicle was also ticketed.
Bush and her hubby, Henry Hager, moved to Baltimore after their wedding, where she is a school teacher, and he is employed by Constellation Energy.
Big deal, right? Well, according to the Secret Service's web site, Jenna Bush is not entitled to Secret Service detail as she is over age 16. So...why are our tax dollars paying for at least two Secret Service vehicles to be dispatched to Jenna?
WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve's chairman and the secretary of the treasury are making a rare joint appearance at a congressional hearing, ostensibly to take a scolding over the handling of bonuses at AIG, the giant insurance company that has become the symbol of reckless risk-taking on Wall Street. Full Story»
Obama Administration Careening Towards Disaster (And Taking the Country With It) -- Dave LindorffMichelle Bachmann: The Obama Administration is “Foreign,” “Nefarious,” “The Enemy”By: Blue Texan Monday March 23, 2009 10:29 am | |
I'm starting to believe Michelle Bachmann isn't actually a real politician at all, but instead, an unusually gifted performance artist who's engaged in a brilliant post-modern parody of an insane wingnut.
Over the weekend, she gave a radio interview to Assrocket, and here's how she describes her blogging and social media outreach as a member of Congress.
"I’m a foreign correspondent on enemy lines and I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington."
This is beyond unhinged. It sounds like a press release from Stormfront.
Let's imagine for a moment the Faux News/National Review/InstaMalkin/RedState freak out if, say, Debbie Wasserman Schultz gave a radio interview with Kos in 2005 and referred to the Bush administration and the GOP congress as an evil, foreign enemy.
In der Nato spricht sich offenbar eine Mehrheit der Mitgliedstaaten für den dänischen Ministerpräsident Rasmussen als nächsten Generalsekretär des Bündnisses aus. In Kopenhagen ist es längst kein Geheimnis mehr, dass es Rasmussen ins Ausland zieht. Es ist sein zweiter Anlauf nach Brüssel.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican whose mother-in-law founded the Special Olympics, has some more understanding words for Democratic President Barack Obama, who apologized for his offhand remark described by his own spokesman as a "thoughtless joke."
The California governor, who's been saying some very positive things about Obama and his programs, including at one of the new president's California town hall sessions last week, said everybody in public life says things they regret and must apologize for.
Schwarzenegger says he knows that despite Obama's late-night TV joke about Special Olympics, "I know where his heart is at." The governor did not say at that point where the president's heart is at, but the context implied he thought it was at a good place. Later, Schwarzenegger said the president's heart "is at the right place. He loves Special Olympics."
George Weber, a reporter whose voice had been a steady presence on ABC radio for more than a dozen years, was found dead in his brownstone apartment in Brooklyn on Sunday, the police said.
George Weber
The death has been ruled a homicide. The police said they found Mr. Weber’s body about 9 a.m. on Sunday. He had been stabbed, but no weapon was found, the police said.
Chavez seizes Venezuela's ports
Federal takeover sees troops deployed to air and maritime ports.
President Barack Obama says the US must have an "exit strategy" in Afghanistan, despite sending more troops there.
Demonstrators protested against job cuts at a factory in Trollhattan. A national icon, the carmaker is facing hard times and an unsympathetic government.
