Lunes 15/11/10, Empire State Mfg. Service

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Ataques frescos al QE2 del Fed

Los republicanos en pleno arremeten contra el QE2 del Fed, igualmente los economistas con tendencia republicana. Ellos estan lanzando una campania esta semana para que Bernanke no aplique la compra de $600 billones.

Imprimir dolares no es un substituto de una politica fiscal adecuada para promover el crecimiento.

La preocupacion es que si viene Noviembre del 2012 y la economia no repunta, Obama y los democratas presionaran al Fed para que siga tomando mas medidas.

Son varios economistas que estaran firmando el manifiesto oponiendose al Fed, lo que insisten que esto no tiene nada que ver con la politica.

Fresh Attack on Fed Move
GOP Economists, Lawmakers Call for Abandoning $600 Billion Bond Purchase

By PETER WALLSTEN And SUDEEP REDDY
WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve's latest attempt to boost the U.S. economy is coming under fire from Republican economists and politicians, threatening to yank the central bank deeper into partisan politics.

A group of prominent Republican-leaning economists, coordinating with Republican lawmakers and political strategists, is launching a campaign this week calling on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to drop his plan to buy $600 billion in additional U.S. Treasury bonds.


Former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, above, is among economists urging Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, top, to drop plans for big new bond purchases.
."The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed's objective of promoting employment," they say in an open letter to be published as ads this week in The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

The economists have been consulting Republican lawmakers, including incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and began discussions with potential GOP presidential candidates over the weekend, according to a person involved.

The increasingly loud criticism of the Fed comes as some economic officials outside the U.S. are criticizing the central bank's move to effectively print money, which has the side effect of pushing down the dollar on world currency markets. President Barack Obama last week defended the Fed. The move to buy more bonds, known as quantitative easing, "was designed to grow the economy," not cheapen the dollar, he said.

The Fed, despite frequent criticism from both parties, has enjoyed considerable independence from politicians on monetary policy for the past three decades. Organizers of the new campaign predicted the Fed will increasingly find itself caught in the political crosshairs, though. A tea party-infused GOP is eager to heed voters' rejection of big-government programs, and conservatives say a new move by the Fed to essentially print more money make it ripe for scrutiny by the incoming Republican House majority and potentially an issue in Mr. Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.

"Printing money is no substitute for pro-growth fiscal policy," said Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who has been privy to early discussions with the group of conservatives rallying opposition to the Fed plan. He said the signatories to the letter "represent a growing chorus of Americans who know that we should be seeking to stimulate our economy with tax relief, spending restraint and regulatory reform rather than masking our fundamental problems by artificially creating inflation."

The Fed faces potential pressure of a different sort from the left as well. Some prominent Democratic congressmen, including the current chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, have endorsed the quantitative-easing move.

But if the economy continues to disappoint as November 2012 approaches, the White House and Democrats in Congress may be pressing the Fed to do more to sustain the recovery as well.

Some prominent liberal economists, including Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, already have challenged the efficacy of quantitative easing, arguing that more fiscal stimulus is needed to restore the economy to health.


Signers of the new manifesto criticizing the Fed include: Stanford University economists Michael Boskin, who was chairman of President George H. W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers and John Taylor, a monetary-policy scholar who served in both Bush administrations; Kevin Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former Congressional Budget Office director and adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign; David Malpass, a former Bear Stearns and Reagan Treasury economist who made an unsuccessful run for a U.S. Senate seat from New York; and William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and a board member of e21, a new conservative think tank seeking a more unified conservative view on economic policy.

A spokeswoman for the Fed said Sunday, "The Federal Reserve...will take all measures to keep inflation low and stable as well as promote growth in employment." She noted that the Fed "is prepared to make adjustments as necessary" to its bond-buying and "is confident that it has the tools to unwind these policies at the appropriate time."

"The Chairman has also noted that the Federal Reserve does not believe it can solve the economy's problems on its own," she added. "That will take time and the combined efforts of many parties, including the central bank, Congress, the administration, regulators, and the private sector."

Criticism of the Fed broke out amid the unpopular bailout of Wall Street and the Senate fight over Mr. Bernanke's second term early this year. The critiques had ebbed until its new move to buy bonds. But last week, potential GOP presidential candidate Sarah Palin delivered a stinging speech on the move and then, in a Facebook post, criticized Mr. Obama for defending the Fed.

Last Tuesday evening, about 20 economists and others met over sea bass at the University of Pennsylvania Club in Manhattan and hashed out a broad strategy. Mr. Ryan, who has gained notice for a plan to balance the federal budget through deep spending cuts, joined the group as they discussed ways to encourage the GOP's new House majority to unite behind what they describe as a "sound money policy."

"We talked about the importance of the right being outspoken and unified on this," said a participant. Mr. Ryan couldn't be reached Sunday.

Over the weekend, organizers began discussions with possible GOP presidential candidates, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Tuesday, Mr. Boskin and another signer, Paul Singer, head of hedge fund Elliott Management, will brief GOP governors at a conference in San Diego.

"It is unfortunate that economists are over-hyping this and trying to politicize it," said Bob McTeer, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a backer of the Fed's latest step. Mr. McTeer, a fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning think tank, added: "What populists on the right and the left have in common is a distrust of the establishment, and to them the Fed personifies the establishment."

To fight a deep recession provoked by a global financial crisis, the Fed has been keeping its target for overnight interest rates near zero since December 2008, and bought $1.7 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt and mortgage securities to push down long-term interest rates, hoping to spur borrowing and spending. That program ended in the spring. With unemployment at 9.6%, well above its mandate of "maximum sustainable employment," and inflation running under its target of a bit below 2%, the Fed policy committee voted to resume bond-buying to try to move inflation up a bit and unemployment down.

Signatories to the letter criticizing the Fed insisted they aren't trying to undercut the central bank's independence.

"It's fair to have a public debate about what the right monetary policy is," Mr. Holtz-Eakin said. "I'm a long way away from being comfortable with the idea of the Congress running monetary policy."

[admin]

Ataques frescos al QE2 del Fed

Los republicanos en pleno arremeten contra el QE2 del Fed, igualmente los economistas con tendencia republicana. Ellos estan lanzando una campania esta semana para que Bernanke no aplique la compra de $600 billones.

Imprimir dolares no es un substituto de una politica fiscal adecuada para promover el crecimiento.

La preocupacion es que si viene Noviembre del 2012 y la economia no repunta, Obama y los democratas presionaran al Fed para que siga tomando mas medidas.

Son varios economistas que estaran firmando el manifiesto oponiendose al Fed, lo que insisten que esto no tiene nada que ver con la politica.

Fresh Attack on Fed Move
GOP Economists, Lawmakers Call for Abandoning $600 Billion Bond Purchase

By PETER WALLSTEN And SUDEEP REDDY
WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve's latest attempt to boost the U.S. economy is coming under fire from Republican economists and politicians, threatening to yank the central bank deeper into partisan politics.

A group of prominent Republican-leaning economists, coordinating with Republican lawmakers and political strategists, is launching a campaign this week calling on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to drop his plan to buy $600 billion in additional U.S. Treasury bonds.


Former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, above, is among economists urging Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, top, to drop plans for big new bond purchases.
."The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed's objective of promoting employment," they say in an open letter to be published as ads this week in The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

The economists have been consulting Republican lawmakers, including incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and began discussions with potential GOP presidential candidates over the weekend, according to a person involved.

The increasingly loud criticism of the Fed comes as some economic officials outside the U.S. are criticizing the central bank's move to effectively print money, which has the side effect of pushing down the dollar on world currency markets. President Barack Obama last week defended the Fed. The move to buy more bonds, known as quantitative easing, "was designed to grow the economy," not cheapen the dollar, he said.

The Fed, despite frequent criticism from both parties, has enjoyed considerable independence from politicians on monetary policy for the past three decades. Organizers of the new campaign predicted the Fed will increasingly find itself caught in the political crosshairs, though. A tea party-infused GOP is eager to heed voters' rejection of big-government programs, and conservatives say a new move by the Fed to essentially print more money make it ripe for scrutiny by the incoming Republican House majority and potentially an issue in Mr. Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.

"Printing money is no substitute for pro-growth fiscal policy," said Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who has been privy to early discussions with the group of conservatives rallying opposition to the Fed plan. He said the signatories to the letter "represent a growing chorus of Americans who know that we should be seeking to stimulate our economy with tax relief, spending restraint and regulatory reform rather than masking our fundamental problems by artificially creating inflation."

The Fed faces potential pressure of a different sort from the left as well. Some prominent Democratic congressmen, including the current chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, have endorsed the quantitative-easing move.

But if the economy continues to disappoint as November 2012 approaches, the White House and Democrats in Congress may be pressing the Fed to do more to sustain the recovery as well.

Some prominent liberal economists, including Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, already have challenged the efficacy of quantitative easing, arguing that more fiscal stimulus is needed to restore the economy to health.


Signers of the new manifesto criticizing the Fed include: Stanford University economists Michael Boskin, who was chairman of President George H. W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers and John Taylor, a monetary-policy scholar who served in both Bush administrations; Kevin Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former Congressional Budget Office director and adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign; David Malpass, a former Bear Stearns and Reagan Treasury economist who made an unsuccessful run for a U.S. Senate seat from New York; and William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and a board member of e21, a new conservative think tank seeking a more unified conservative view on economic policy.

A spokeswoman for the Fed said Sunday, "The Federal Reserve...will take all measures to keep inflation low and stable as well as promote growth in employment." She noted that the Fed "is prepared to make adjustments as necessary" to its bond-buying and "is confident that it has the tools to unwind these policies at the appropriate time."

"The Chairman has also noted that the Federal Reserve does not believe it can solve the economy's problems on its own," she added. "That will take time and the combined efforts of many parties, including the central bank, Congress, the administration, regulators, and the private sector."

Criticism of the Fed broke out amid the unpopular bailout of Wall Street and the Senate fight over Mr. Bernanke's second term early this year. The critiques had ebbed until its new move to buy bonds. But last week, potential GOP presidential candidate Sarah Palin delivered a stinging speech on the move and then, in a Facebook post, criticized Mr. Obama for defending the Fed.

Last Tuesday evening, about 20 economists and others met over sea bass at the University of Pennsylvania Club in Manhattan and hashed out a broad strategy. Mr. Ryan, who has gained notice for a plan to balance the federal budget through deep spending cuts, joined the group as they discussed ways to encourage the GOP's new House majority to unite behind what they describe as a "sound money policy."

"We talked about the importance of the right being outspoken and unified on this," said a participant. Mr. Ryan couldn't be reached Sunday.

Over the weekend, organizers began discussions with possible GOP presidential candidates, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Tuesday, Mr. Boskin and another signer, Paul Singer, head of hedge fund Elliott Management, will brief GOP governors at a conference in San Diego.

"It is unfortunate that economists are over-hyping this and trying to politicize it," said Bob McTeer, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a backer of the Fed's latest step. Mr. McTeer, a fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning think tank, added: "What populists on the right and the left have in common is a distrust of the establishment, and to them the Fed personifies the establishment."

To fight a deep recession provoked by a global financial crisis, the Fed has been keeping its target for overnight interest rates near zero since December 2008, and bought $1.7 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt and mortgage securities to push down long-term interest rates, hoping to spur borrowing and spending. That program ended in the spring. With unemployment at 9.6%, well above its mandate of "maximum sustainable employment," and inflation running under its target of a bit below 2%, the Fed policy committee voted to resume bond-buying to try to move inflation up a bit and unemployment down.

Signatories to the letter criticizing the Fed insisted they aren't trying to undercut the central bank's independence.

"It's fair to have a public debate about what the right monetary policy is," Mr. Holtz-Eakin said. "I'm a long way away from being comfortable with the idea of the Congress running monetary policy."

[admin]

+43

Empire manufacture -11.1, fue 15.7 en Setiembre, no good.

Sales retail suben 1.2%, sin autos +0.4% mucho mejor a lo esperado. Buenas noticias.

[admin]

+27

Muy mal las cifras de la manufactura en el area de New York.

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Oil up 85.44

Au down 1,364, futures cu up 3.91

Euro down 1.3644

+30

[admin]

EMC adquirira Isilon por $2.25 billones

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Massey decidira la proxima semana si la compania se pondra a la venta.

Massey Energy's Board Said to Decide Next Week on Whether to Pursue Sale
By Jeffrey McCracken and Mario Parker - Nov 14, 2010 10:38 PM ET


Massey Energy Co.’s board of directors plans to meet next week to decide if the company should put itself up for sale after inquiries from potential buyers, said three people with knowledge of the matter.

The Nov. 21 to Nov. 23 meeting, scheduled as a regular annual review of the coal producer, will focus on whether Massey should formally begin a sale process, said the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private. Board members haven’t reached a decision, the people said.

While Massey is open to a sale at a compelling price, the board has yet to receive a specific offer that it considers appropriate, the people said. The Richmond, Virginia-based company has a market value of about $4.8 billion and is run by Chief Executive Officer Don Blankenship, 60, who began his career with the company as an office manager in 1982.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. is among the companies that have expressed interest in buying Massey, two of the people said. Massey’s board and advisers question whether competitor Alpha -- with a market value of only $5.85 billion -- has the cash or can issue enough shares to acquire Massey, those people said.

ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, also contacted Massey to express interest, one person said.

Massey’s directors could delay a decision on whether to put the company up for sale, according to three people. The board has ruled out taking Massey private at this time, the people said.

Jeff Gillenwater, a Massey spokesman, declined to comment. Representatives of ArcelorMittal and Alpha didn’t immediately return messages. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported ArcelorMittal and Alpha’s interest in Massey.

Other Inquiries

Most of the inquiries Massey received were expressions of interest if the company started an auction process, according to the people. Many of the calls came earlier this year, after the April 5 accident at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, West Virginia, where 29 people died in the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in 40 years.

The company’s stock has fallen 14 percent since the fatal blast after surging 30 percent this year prior to the accident. Massey last month reported a net loss of $41.4 million for the third quarter, citing lower productivity amid increased regulatory scrutiny.

Several of the calls came from international companies, said the people. Coal India Ltd., the world’s largest coal producer, is considering a Massey Energy mine for its first asset purchase in the U.S., to help the state-run company meet demand from power stations and steel mills, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said last week.

Coal Demand

Massey, the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia, owns 2.8 billion tons of reserves, 1.3 billion of which are metallurgical coal, used to produce steel. Benchmark prices for that grade of coal have soared to $209 a metric ton for the three-month contract ending Dec. 31, 62 percent higher than a year earlier, driven by demand from China and India.

Coal prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange have soared 37 percent this year to $67.47 a ton on Nov. 12, as the global economy rebounds from the most severe recession since the 1930s.

The company was put on the block in 2007 when outside investor Third Point LLC won board seats after a four-month proxy fight. Alpha had the leading bid then, and Massey decided not to complete the deal. That led to Third Point head Daniel Loeb and then-colleague Todd Swanson quitting the board.

“Shareholders would have been much better served by a decision to follow through with an attractive business combination with a competitor,” Loeb and Swanson wrote in a letter of resignation to Blankenship.

Blankenship has been criticized by investors and government officials after the West Virginia blast. The CtW Investment Group, which works with pension funds that own Massey shares called for his resignation and President Barack Obama said the explosion was “triggered” by a failure of management and government oversight.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeffrey McCracken in New York at jmccracken3@bloomberg.net; Mario Parker in Chicago at mparker22@bloomberg.net

[admin]

China le gana a India como el pais con mas estudiantes en US.

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AA +1.33%

APC +2.41%

BP +1.49%

RIG +1.31%

TTM +1.79%

MEE +2.08%

F +3.62%

MOT +2.25%

AMD +1.83%

CSCO +0.65%

AIG +0.88%

BVN +0.19%

C +0.70%

FAS +0.93%

EDC +0.82%

SCCO +0.16%

[admin]

AAPL +0.53%

+20

Caterpillar: la mineria es el futuro, hemos restaurado nuestro nivel de empleados a los niveles de antes de la crisis. Dice Oberhelman (CEO)

Oil up 85.30, Au down 1,363, euro down 1.3630

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Solo un susto.

Los inventarios de negocios subieron 0.9%

El Dow Jones se debilita, parece que el vapor no esta muy caliente hoy dia.

Buenos soportes por parte de las fusiones y adquisiciones.

+23.16

[admin]

Yields up 2.85%

+21.46

Au up 1,367, futures cu up 3.90

VIX down 20.15

Oil up 84.98

[admin]

Downgrades para MON y AKAM por eso estan a la baja.

AAPL paso a la baja.

EGO, NE y BVN a la baja, pero el oro esta recuperando algo.

+28.34

[admin]

MEE +2.09%

Yields bajando 2.84%

Oil up 85.18

Euro down 1.3618

Yen down 82.84

CAT al alza a pesar de sus adquisiciones

+35.69

No olvidemos que las ventas retail estuvieron buenas.

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BORN +6.91%

F +2.85%

+34.51