NEWS,24.03.2013

Cyprus faces moment of truth

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades headed to Brussels on Sunday for emergency talks with the island's international creditors in a bid to avert bankruptcy in a crisis that is again threatening the stability of the wider eurozone.The clock is ticking for the tiny country after the European Central Bank threatened to halt emergency funding if there is no deal by Monday, a day before Cyprus's banks are due to reopen after a 10-day shutdown.Cyprus and its creditors are trying to nail a deal that will restructure the island's banks and deliver up to €6bn from bank deposits in order to resurrect an agreement for a bailout worth up to €10bn."Unfortunately, the events of recent days have led to a situation where there are no longer any optimal solutions available. There are only hard choices left," European Union economics head Olli Rehn warned Saturday. He acknowledged that Cypriot leaders faced hard choices to try to limit the damage from the blow to its bloated banking sector, after a firestorm of protest over the EU plans to impose a special levy on bank customer deposits that caused global concern. Rehn said he welcomed "progress" made towards meeting the EU-IMF demands but said it was essential that an agreement was reached on Sunday night. "The negotiations are at a very delicate stage. The situation is very difficult and the time limits are very tight," Cypriot government spokesperson Christos Stylianides said after Anastasiades left on a special flight for Brussels.Anastasiades meets at 13:00 GMT with ECB head Mario Draghi, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, EU president Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem, sources told AFP.Dijsselbloem will then gather finance ministers from all 17 currency partners from 17:00 GMT for what is likely to prove yet another sleepless night in snow-covered Brussels. The sums involved are a pittance compared to Cyprus's closest ally Greece, which needed hundreds of billions all told in the eurozone's first bailout three years ago.But with Cypriot banks in lockdown already for 10 days and the ECB threatening to pull the rug out from under Nicosia on Monday, the fallout from the current crisis could infect other troubled economies."We have learnt down the years that even little problems can become intractable," said Holger Schmieding, chief economist with Germany's Berenberg Bank. "There's just no telling what can unfold in this type of situation."German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also warned that if Cyprus was to stay in the eurozone it had to meet the terms of the rescue package."The eurozone countries want to help Cyprus, but the rules must be respected, the aid must be relevant and the programme must tackle the problems at their root," he told the Welt am Sonntag.Cypriot reports suggested officials had made progress with EU and IMF representatives, having agreed a 20% haircut on Bank of Cyprus and a 4% levy on other banks.Private channel Mega TV said the final stumbling block might not be settled before Sunday's meetings.A radical restructuring of the island's second largest lender Laiki (Popular Bank) will see all deposits over €100 000 put into a "bad bank" where they will be tied up for years and may never be fully recovered.But negotiations stumbled on EU-IMF demands for a substantial levy on deposits above the same threshold in the Bank of Cyprus to avoid it facing similar restructuring. It holds more than a third of all deposits.The haircut would take the form of a bond or share swap in a bid to get the measure through parliament, after MPs flatly rejected an earlier plan for a levy on all deposits.Cyprus negotiators had been desperate to avoid the Bank of Cyprus being subjected to the same bitter pill imposed on Laiki.A threat to Bank of Cyprus's pension fund sparked an angry march on parliament by bank staff on Saturday and a threat of industrial action.The Cypriot economy is reeling from the prolonged bank closure, imposed for fear of a run by panicked depositors, which has seen many businesses accept only cash transactions.Overnight, vandals spray-painted the front of Anastasiades' Nicosia party headquarters with slogans including "Kleftes" Greek for "thieves" and "Get out."

Cyprus bailout talks go to the wire

Cyprus still had no final agreement early on Sunday on the terms of a bailout deal to save its eurozone economy from imminent bankruptcy as its leaders braced for make-or-break talks in Brussels.Cypriot officials huddled with EU and IMF representatives until nearly midnight (22:00 GMT) on Saturday in a bid to find a way to meet their conditions for unlocking €10bn in desperately needed emergency loans by a Monday deadline.The so-called troika of the EU, IMF and European Central Bank is demanding that Cyprus raise €5.8bn in return and shrink its bloated financial sector.Privately run Mega TV said the government had reached agreement with troika representatives on most elements of a deal but that the final stumbling block might not be settled before the crunch 17:00 GMT talks between President Nicos Anastasiades and EU chiefs.EU Economy and Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed the "progress" made by Cyprus towards meeting the troika's demands and vowed "intensive work and contacts" through the night to try to a reach deal before the Brussels meeting."It is essential that an agreement is reached by the Eurogroup on Sunday night," Rehn said.The Cypriot parliament has already approved a painful package of banking reforms and there was reluctant consensus on a raft of other revenue-raising measures to put to eurozone ministers.A swinging restructuring to the island's second largest lender Laiki (Popular Bank) passed by MPs on Friday will see all deposits over €100 000 put into a "bad bank" where they will be tied up for years and may never be recovered in full.But negotiations stumbled on troika demands for a substantial levy on deposits above the same threshold in Bank of Cyprus the island's largest lender with more than a third of all deposits to avoid it being subjected to a similar restructuring.Mega TV said the government had finally agreed to a 20% haircut on Bank of Cyprus and a 4% levy on other banks, the latter to pay for the €600m Laiki pension fund lost in its restructuring.It said the haircut would be in the form of a bond or share swap in a bid to get it through parliament.MPs flatly rejected an earlier plan for haircut on bank deposits when it was put to them last Tuesday.The Cyprus president has invited all the island's party leaders to accompany him to Brussels in a bid to convince eurozone ministers that there will be no repetition of that defeat.Mega TV said the remaining sticking point was over whether Bank of Cyprus should absorb the "good bank" carved out of Laiki or they should remain two separate lenders as argued for by the government. The EU's Rehn acknowledged that Cypriot leaders had faced hard choices to try to limit the damage to the island's economy from the blow to its huge banking sector. "Unfortunately, the events of recent days have led to a situation where there are no longer any optimal solutions available," he said."There are only hard choices left." Cyprus negotiators had been desperate to avoid Bank of Cyprus being subjected to the same bitter pill imposed on Laiki.Laiki economist Yiannis Tirkides said that savings hived off into the bad bank would be "blocked" for years while it absorbs the lender's non-performing loans, which he put at about 30% of all Laiki lending.The threat to the bank's pension fund sparked an angry march by bank staff on parliament on Saturday and a threat of industrial action."If you don't secure our pension fund, we will go on strike from Tuesday," when branches are finally scheduled to reopen after a closure of more than a week, banking union chief Loizos Hadjicostis said.The strike threat was a serious one for an economy reeling from the prolonged bank closure that has seen many businesses accept only cash transactions.The streets of Nicosia were otherwise largely deserted on Saturday, as anxious residents waited to see which way the crisis turns."People don't know if they will have money tomorrow or the day after," said Yiorgos Andoniou, a jobless 57-year-old."We are in this situation because... we were living beyond our means for 25 years and now the bill has come," said a woman identifying herself as Catherine."Eventually we'll tighten our belts and go back to the practical and hard-working people that we were before."

Cyprus in last-ditch bailout talks

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades entered emergency talks with the island's international creditors Sunday seeking to avert bankruptcy in a crisis that is again threatening the stability of the wider eurozone.The clock is ticking for the tiny country after the European Central Bank threatened to halt life-support funding if there is no deal by Monday, a day before Cyprus's banks are due to reopen after a 10-day shut down.Cyprus and its creditors are trying to nail a deal that will restructure the island's banks and deliver up to €6bn from large bank deposits in order to resurrect an agreement for a bailout worth up to €10bn."Unfortunately, the events of recent days have led to a situation where there are no longer any optimal solutions available. There are only hard choices left," European Union economics head Olli Rehn warned on Saturday. He acknowledged that Cypriot leaders faced hard choices to try to limit the damage from the blow to its bloated banking sector, after a firestorm of protest over the EU plans to impose a special levy on bank customer deposits that caused global concern.Rehn said he welcomed "progress" made towards meeting the EU-IMF demands but said it was essential that an agreement was reached on Sunday night."The negotiations are at a very delicate stage. The situation is very difficult and the time limits are very tight," Cypriot government spokesperson Christos Stylianides said.Anastasiades's cortege complete with police escort entered EU headquarters in Brussels shortly after 14:00 (13:00 GMT), an AFP correspondent said. That followed a pit-stop in Athens on a special plane laid on by the European Commission, the Cypriot government said in a statement. Anastasiades was to meet with ECB head Mario Draghi, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, EU president Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem and Rehn, sources told AFP.Dijsselbloem will also bring in the finance ministers from all 17 currency partners from 17:00 GMT for what is likely to prove yet another sleepless night in snow-covered Brussels. One of those, France's Pierre Moscovici, said on television before leaving for Brussels that it was time to put an end to "casino economy" practices on Cyprus."If we don't, it's you, it's me, it's all of us who will be left picking up the tab," Moscovici said.The volume of Cyprus sovereign aid is a pittance compared to Nicosia's closest ally Greece, which needed hundreds of billions all told in the eurozone's first bailout three years ago.But with Cypriot banks in lockdown already for 10 days, the fallout from the current crisis could infect other troubled economies."We have learnt down the years that even little problems can become intractable," said Holger Schmieding, chief economist with Germany's Berenberg Bank. "There's just no telling what can unfold in this type of situation."German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also warned that if Cyprus was to stay in the eurozone it had to meet the terms of the rescue package."The eurozone countries want to help Cyprus, but the rules must be respected, the aid must be relevant and the programme must tackle the problems at their root," he told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.Cypriot reports suggested officials had made progress with EU and IMF representatives, having agreed a 20% haircut on Bank of Cyprus and a 4.0% levy on other banks.A radical restructuring of the island's second largest lender Laiki Popular Bank will see all deposits over €100 000  put into a "bad bank" where they will be tied up for years and may never be fully recovered.But negotiations stumbled on EU-IMF demands for a substantial levy on deposits above the same threshold in the Bank of Cyprus to avoid it facing similar restructuring. It holds more than a third of all deposits.The haircut would take the form of a bond or share swap in a bid to get the measure through parliament, after MPs flatly rejected an earlier plan for a levy on all deposits.Cyprus negotiators had been desperate to avoid the Bank of Cyprus being subjected to the same bitter pill imposed on Laiki.A threat to Bank of Cyprus's pension fund sparked an angry march on parliament by bank staff on Saturday and a threat of industrial action.

Israel must ease new Gaza restrictions

Two Israeli rights groups demanded on Sunday that Israel lift fishing restrictions imposed on Gaza after militants fired two rockets across the border, slamming them as "collective punishment."Israel on Thursday halved the area in which Palestinian fishermen are permitted to work, closed the Kerem Shalom goods terminal and imposed restrictions on people wanting to leave the territory after two rockets hit southern Israel, causing damage but no casualties.The move, which saw the fishing zone cut from six nautical miles to three, was condemned by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem as well as by Gisha, which campaigns for Palestinian freedom of movement."The decision to once again reduce the fishing range in response to missile fire by armed groups constitutes collective punishment imposed on fishermen for the actions of others," said a statement from B'Tselem.It said Israel's duty to protect its citizens "cannot justify the harsh damage to fishermen who have done nothing wrong"."B'Tselem calls on the military to rescind its latest decision and the restrictions imposed on fishermen in the Gaza Strip in the past years, and to permit fishing in the 20 nautical miles range, as was set under the Oslo agreements."In a letter to Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, Gisha director Sari Bashi said it was "the second time in less than a month" Israel had blocked civilian travel and goods transfer in response to rocket fire and urged him to lift the restrictions."In the last month, there appears to be a new policy toward the Gaza Strip, in which Israel is openly restricting civilian movement to and from Gaza, not because of a concrete security necessity, but rather as a punitive step taken against the civilian population in direct response to fire by combatants," she wrote.The group condemned the rocket fire as "a blatant violation" of international law, but also noted Israel's obligation to avoid harming civilians, saying the recent steps were "entirely unacceptable".Israel on Friday resumed full diplomatic ties with Turkey after apologising for a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza aid flotilla which left nine Turkish activists dead.As part of the deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "to work on improving the humanitarian situation" in the Palestinian territories in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan brokered by US President Barack Obama on a landmark visit.The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad on Sunday slammed the Israeli apology as "poisonous."It was an "imaginary victory for Turkey and a poisoned apology from Israel... which came under pressure from US President Barack Obama," Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batsh said in a statement on the group's Facebook page.Batsh said the apology was an Israeli attempt to "renew military, security and political cooperation with Turkey... and to prevent it from improving any further than necessary its relationship with the Islamist dimension: Iran and Egypt.""The suggestion that this is a victory for Turkey is one of lies. It will not result in lifting the blockade on Gaza the one who will benefit is the Zionist enemy," he said.

NY's Bloomberg predicts more gun checks

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg predicted on Sunday that pressure from the American public would eventually force the US Congress to expand background checks for gun buyers, even though the measure faces an uncertain fate in the Senate.As Bloomberg launched a $12m national advertising campaign aimed at prodding members of the Senate to support expanded background checks, he said the measure's widespread popularity would trump gun-rights groups like the powerful National Rifle Association that oppose it."If 90% of the public wants something and their representatives vote against that, common sense says they are going to have a price to pay for that," Bloomberg said on NBC's Meet the Press. A top NRA executive predicted that the self-made billionaire' s efforts would change few minds. "He can't buy America," NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said on the same programme.Lawmakers are scaling back President Barack Obama's ambitions for sweeping gun control measures, which took on a new urgency after the 14 December school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six adults.Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid effectively ruled out an assault weapons ban last week, and limits on high-capacity ammunition clips also are likely to fall short.Gun-control advocates say a system of expanded background checks would be the single most effective way to reduce gun violence across the country. Opinion polls show that more than 90% of all American voters and 85% of gun owners support it.While such a measure could pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, it faces long odds in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold the majority."I don't think their bill will pass the Senate and even if it does it won't pass the House," Republican Senator Tom Coburn said on C-SPAN.The NRA argues that expanding existing background checks to cover the 40% of gun sales that are now exempt would only create more hurdles for law abiding citizens and do little to deter criminal purchases. The NRA instead wants the federal government to step up prosecutions under existing gun laws and boost security in schools.Bloomberg acknowledged that a national ban on assault weapons is less popular with the public and is unlikely to succeed in Congress.Several states, including New York, have passed assault-weapons bans of their own but others like Colorado, which tightened its gun laws recently, have not restricted the military-style rifles that are popular with gun owners."I think the feeling right now around assault weapons, at least in Colorado, is that it's so hard to define what an assault weapon is," Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper said on CNN's State of the Nation. "There's a lot of questions whether the 10-year federal ban that existed made a difference," Hickenlooper said. "It's a tough sell."

NEWS,10.12.2012

Slight gains on Wall Street

Wall Street moved higher amid promising data on China's economy, fuelling hopes that the world's second-largest economy is gathering steam again. China offered better-than-expected data on both industrial output and retail sales, welcomed by a market that is on tenterhooks about US budget talks aimed at avoiding the US$600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to kick in on January 1. "China hit that trough and is starting to see an acceleration of growth," Tom Wirth, who helps manage US$1.6 billion as senior investment officer for Chemung Canal Trust, in Elmira, New York, told Bloomberg News.Meanwhile, no details were offered on yesterday's meeting between US President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner about an agreement to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff  and a potential recession for the world's largest economy.A study by the US National Intelligence Council, however, predicted that China's economy will take over the top spot from the US before 2030.In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.25%, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.16%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.31%.Better-than-expected November sales data for McDonald's lifted its shares 1.3%, following a dismal October during which sales declined for the first time in nine years. Global sales at restaurants open at least 13 months increased 2.4% last month. "One month does not a trend make ... but it's a nice sign to see them rebound after a horrible October," ITG Investment Research analyst Steve West .Investors are eyeing a two-day meeting by Federal Reserve policy makers starting tomorrow. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index eked out a 0.1% gain from the previous close. It is at the highest level in 18 months, according to Bloomberg. National benchmark stock indexes also rose in London, Paris and Frankfurt. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's unexpected announcement over the weekend that he plans to resign soon after lawmakers approve his budget plan later this month sent the nation's stocks and bonds lower. Italy's FTSE MIB stock index dropped 2.2%, while the yield on the country's 10-year bond was last up 29 basis points at 4.82%. Elections may be held as early as February one to two months earlier than expected. European political and financial leaders today pressed for the next Italian government to hold fast on the reforms initiated by Monti. Still, the uncertainty may increase wariness among investors. "The underlying cracks within the euro zone are actually widening," Georg Grodzki, head of credit research at Legal & General Investment Management in London, told Bloomberg. "Investors will be reading Italian politicians' lips very, very closely."

Berlusconi lashes out at foreign leaders

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has reacted angrily to negative comments from foreign politicians and media about his decision to run as a candidate to lead Italy for the fifth time, calling it an offensive interference in domestic affairs.He said in a statement that he had always been a "convinced supporter of Europe" and that the comments criticising him were "out of place" and "offensive not so much to me personally but to the free choice of the Italians".He suggested that the "interference" in Italian affairs may be an attempt to weaken the share price of Italian companies and make them easier takeover targets.The current Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has been attempting to reassure rattled financial markets that Italy will not be left adrift following his surprise decision to resign from - and Berlusconi's return to frontline politics.Monti's weekend announcement that he will quit after Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party withdrew its support for his technocrat government pushed up Italy's borrowing costs and prompted a stock market sell-off on Monday."I understand market reactions. They need not be dramatised," Monti told reporters in Oslo where he attended the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union and where other EU leaders queued up to praise him.The former European Commissioner said he was confident the elections would produce a responsible government "which should be in line with the huge efforts already pursued by Italy... markets should not fear a decision-making vacuum".He added: "Let me remind markets that the current government has not left - it's fully in charge and will be so until a new government comes in after the elections."The campaign for a vote expected in mid-February is likely to be fought over Monti's reform agenda, which Berlusconi, his predecessor as prime minister, said had condemned Italy to recession and forced him to reluctantly run for a fifth term.European leaders were anxious to stress that any new government must stick to Monti's economic reform agenda."Monti was a great prime minister of Italy and I hope that the policies he put in place will continue after the elections," said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in Oslo.There were similar comments from policymakers ranging from French President Francois Hollande to the head of the European bailout fund Klaus Regling and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos warned that instability in Italy could spill over and put Spain's fragile public finances at risk of further turmoil.Attention is now focused on whether Monti will enter politics himself, either as a candidate or by endorsing one of the centrist forces that have backed his reforms and made more or less explicit pleas for him to run."I'm not considering this particular issue at this stage. All my efforts are being devoted to the completion of the remaining time of the current government," he said in Oslo.Monti has repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the rise of populist, anti-European forces in the region and said he hoped such forces would not dominate the Italian election campaign.Monti's decision to resign once the 2013 budget is approved, probably before Christmas, has brought forward to February an election that had already been expected in March or April at the latest. Opinion polls suggest Berlusconi has little chance of re-election, and he has struggled to reassert a previously undisputed domination of rival factions and courtiers in his deeply divided centre-right party. In contrast, his enemies in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) under Pier Luigi Bersani hold a strong lead and are likely to form the next government on a broadly pro-European platform, largely in line with Monti's agenda.Bersani who hopes that the former European Commissioner will stay on in some capacity, possibly as Italy's president said on Monday that "precisely because Monti should still be able to be of service to this country, it would be better for him to stay out of the (election) contest" .Berlusconi's strategy appears designed to ensure he retains influence in the next parliament with a substantial voting bloc that, among other things, can protect his business and personal interests .After several weeks of calm, markets bridled at the prospect of Berlusconi's return to lead the centre right, just over a year after a financial crisis drove the scandal-plagued billionaire from office to be replaced by Monti's technocrats. Berlusconi's reappearance and the prospect of a messy anti-Monti election campaign has galvanised attention in Italy and abroad, reawakening memories of the financial and sexual scandals that peppered the media magnate's last government.Not that such memories have had much chance to slumber. This week the prosecutor in Berlusconi's trial for allegedly having sex with a juvenile prostitute accused the 76-year-old of delaying tactics after the young woman failed to appear as a witness.The Roman Catholic Church made outspoken and thinly veiled criticism of the former premier that could influence the PDL's conservative voting base."What leaves one astonished is the irresponsibility of those who think of arranging things for themselves while the house is still burning," the head of the Italian bishops' conference, Angelo Bagnasco, told the Corriere della Sera.French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici also weighed in."The direction that Italy has been going in for the last year and a half is a solid direction, there is no reason to worry," he said."Berlusconi is returning to politics, but I'm convinced that he will not return to power," he said.With a new government likely to be formed in a few months, Italy's European partners have now started to look more closely at Bersani, the overwhelming victor in a centre-left primary election last month.A no-frills former communist who is close to Italy's unions, Bersani has promised to stick to Monti's promises on fiscal discipline.While Italy's election laws are likely to give Bersani a strong majority in the lower house, the complicated rules may make it more difficult for him to take control of the Senate, posing a possible risk to the formation of a stable government.Whoever wins will have to confront a severe recession, record unemployment and a ballooning public debt expected to surpass 126% of gross domestic product this year.

Concerns over Japan's economy

On Monday confirmed that the world's third-largest economy shrank in the three months to September, stoking fears the country is slipping into a recession.Financial turmoil in Europe, a strong yen that has dented exports and a painful diplomatic row with major trade partner China have dented Japan's economy, dousing hopes it had cemented a recovery after the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster.Some economists have warned the current quarter is likely to see another contraction, meaning two successive quarters of negative growth that would reflect a technical recession.On Monday, official data confirmed earlier figures that showed Japan's economy shrank 0.9% in the July-September quarter, or down 3.5% on an annualised basis.Revised figures from the Cabinet Office also showed the nation's growth in the previous quarter was essentially flat, further underscoring recession fears.Separate data released Monday showed Japan's current account surplus was down about 30% on-year to ¥376.9bn ($4.56 billion) in October, although the latest figure beat market expectations for a ¥218bn surplus, according to Dow Jones Newswires.The current account is the broadest measure of Japan's trade with the rest of the world, including exports, tourism and overseas income.Japan's current account surpluses have been hit by a slowing global economy and a spike in fuel imports due to the shutdown of most of the country's nuclear reactors following last year's disaster which triggered a major atomic crisis.Last month, Tokyo approved $10.7bn in fresh spending to help boost the limp economy, more than double a package announced in October.The new package was announced as the nation prepares for December 16 elections which are expected to see Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Democratic Party of Japan defeated by the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party led by Shinzo Abe.Abe has vowed to spend heavily on public works and pressure the Bank of Japan into launching aggressive monetary easing measures to boost growth if his party wins the election.The BoJ has unveiled two policy easing measures in recent months as its counterparts in the US and Europe launched major moves to counter slowing growth.The yen has been weakening as speculation grows that the BoJ will usher in further easing measures after its policy meeting this month, with the central bank's closely-watched Tankan corporate sentiment survey due this week. "The BoJ will have no choice but to consider additional monetary easing in case its own Tankan survey shows worsening in near-term corporate sentiment," said RBS Securities chief Japan economist Junko Nishioka. 

China one of the most unequal nations

 

China's wealth gap has widened to a level where it is among the world's most unequal nations, a Chinese academic institute said in a survey, as huge numbers of poor are left behind by the economic boom.China's Gini coefficient a commonly used measure of inequality - was 0.61 in 2010, the Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance said, well above what some academics view as the warning line of 0.40.A figure of 0 would represent perfect equality, and 1 total inequality."Currently, China's household income gap is huge," said the institute, founded by the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and the Institute of Financial Research, which operates under China's central bank."The Gini coefficient is as high as 0.61, rare in the world."China's growing wealth gap is a major concern for Communist authorities, who are keen to avoid public discontent that could lead to social unrest in the country of 1.3 billion people.In a sign of the sensitivity surrounding the issue the government has not released an official Gini coefficient for the country as a whole for more than a decade, since it put the statistic at 0.412 in 2000.A figure of 0.61 would put China at the top of a list of 16 countries by 2010 Gini coefficient on the World Bank website. The largest set of figures available on the site is for 2008, covering 47 countries and headed by Honduras on 0.613.The Global Times newspaper, which reported the latest survey results on Monday, said China's wealth gap had reached an "alarming" level.But the research centre played down its own findings, saying such a phenomenon was common in rapidly developing economies.It called on the government to use its vast financial resources to support low-income earners in the short term, while improving education to help address the imbalance in the long term."The Gini coefficient certainly points to the serious issue of income inequality," the director of the Chengdu city-based centre Gan Li said."But more importantly about the interpretation of the figure is that it does not necessarily indicate imbalance in China's economy," he said, adding it was normal for greater resources to flow to developed areas."There's no need to make a big fuss about it."The government-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimated China's Gini coefficient at nearly 0.47 in 2005.Another research institute, the Centre for Chinese Rural Studies, in August put the Gini coefficient at around 0.39 for rural residents last year, but gave no figure for the overall national level.

NEWS,02.11.2012

How many presidential campaign ads is too many?

It's 6:10pm on a Thursday in October, just days before the US elections. Before the clock hits 6.29pm, 11 political ads will have aired on the local NBC channel in Columbus, Ohio.One tells voters that Democratic President Barack Obama has not proposed a legitimate economic plan for the country.Another suggests that policies of Republican candidate Mitt Romney would undermine the future for America's children.Yet another says Romney would effectively deny many women crucial cancer screenings by proposing cuts to Planned Parenthood.The very next ad calls Obama an extremist on abortion who supports leaving babies "out to die."Ohio is being inundated with such dueling ads in the final days before the November 6 presidential election, as Obama and Romney both look to the state's 18 electoral votes as a crucial step toward the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.The presidential race is now a fight in eight or so politically divided "swing" states, but nowhere more so than Ohio.Amid the chaos of the campaign's closing days, the state has become an arena for credibility-stretching banter, and a testing center for the growing science of political advertising.New research predicts that total spending in this election could reach $US6 billion , making it the most expensive in US history.The campaigns and free-spending independent groups have poured close to $US1 billion into political ads - many of those ads directed at Ohio - and have given analysts a high-profile chance to examine some simmering questions about such ads.Among them: How many ads is too many, before viewers tune them out? And what do campaign ads lead voters to do, exactly?Election-year political ads are a meticulously studied subject, and increasingly are used to target specific groups and encourage specific outcomes.Some research, for example, suggests that pro-Democrat ads are particularly effective at swaying voters' opinions, while pro-Republican ads typically are more effective at getting party supporters to show up at the polls.For all the analysis that has been done on campaign ads, academic and commercial research has yielded few answers on the precise impact that ads have in determining who wins an election.That is especially true, analysts said, in the type of advertising free-for-all that Ohio residents are seeing on their televisions now - wave after wave of ads with overlapping and similarly dark, daunting messages.Campaign ads became tiresome long ago for many Ohio residents, but some viewers figure that the ads must be working, or the campaigns wouldn't keep running them."I think poorly of those ads and don't think they work, but there are so many of them I think it must be not so," said JoAnne Harvey, a Columbus small business owner who, as an undecided female voter, is much coveted by both campaigns.In a reflection of how so many ads can essentially nullify one another, Harvey and another dozen Ohioans interviewed generally could not recall the details of a single campaign ad that stood above the others.Those who could acknowledged that they weren't sure which side the ad was meant to benefit.Political advertising has become a multibillion-dollar market that some television station sales managers predict soon could be a year-round category of advertising.It has become increasingly sophisticated in "micro-targeting," the art of going after specific groups of viewers.For example, Democrats have been found to be more frequent television watchers than Republicans, and Democrats candidates in 2008 ran more than twice as many ads as Republicans during science-fiction shows, reality dating programs and telenovelas, according to research by Washington State University professor Travis Ridout and others.Those programs as well as talk shows and court shows tended to skew Democratic in viewership while crime and sports programs skewed Republican, Ridout's study found.But does the science of political advertising work?One study completed last month found Obama's ads moving voters away from Romney, while Romney's ads were much more likely to encourage Republicans to vote, rather than shift preferences among voters.The findings were based on a survey of more than 2,300 registered voters who said they were independents or not deeply committed to one party.They were shown one or several of the campaigns' ads by the research software company Qualtrics and the research firm Evolving Strategies."Romney doesn't seem to have a lot of ability to have people moving in and out of the independent pool, but he has a lot of room to change the equation in determining who turns out to vote," said Adam Schaeffer of Evolving Strategies.If the targets of this year's ads are any guide, the presidential election will be decided by middle-aged and older white women, according to a survey of more than 1,000 buying agencies done by STRATA, a software firm whose systems help air some $US50 billion worth of ads a year.The question is whether the barrage of ads - the vast majority of them attacking a candidate, rather than promoting one will become so overwhelming that they provoke a backlash.Such ads "did work on me at first, and then I became a lot more cynical and realized that a lot of it is political warfare," said Harvey, who added that she voted for Obama in 2008 but was leaning toward Romney now."It seems almost epidemic; they can't stop now that they've started."A rule of thumb in advertising is that an ad needs to be viewed at least three times and up to 10 to be effective, said STRATA Chief Executive John Shelton."There's no question that once you start to go over (10), you start to, well, at least bore people," he said. "Then they might tune out. Then they might actually get ticked off."Barbara Berry, a healthcare professional and Obama supporter from Columbus, said she pre-records TV programs and skips ads."I don't pay attention anymore," she said.Since late August, more than 915,000 presidential campaign ads have aired on broadcast and national cable TV, according to the Wesleyan Media Project. In Columbus during October, ads by the campaigns and outside groups aired more than 7,000 times."Some of them just disappear in the noise," said Dan Bradley, general manager at the Columbus NBC affiliate WCMH-TV.Each presidential campaign has been producing about a dozen new ads a week, basing them on daily news events a practice that ensures that most of the ads have a short shelf life.Romney in particular tends to place and replace ads at the spur of the moment, often in response to the news of the day.Obama's campaign runs two ad tracks: one that changes every one or two days, the other every couple of weeks.Ads this year "just seem to be rushed," said John Geer, a political ad researcher at Vanderbilt University.It's "almost like they've fallen prey to the fact that the campaigns have so much money, and the ability to make all these ads."

New York fuel 'panic' grows even as ports open

A third day of "panic buying" of gasoline among Sandy-struck New York area motorists on Friday has prompted action from authorities.The US government waived the Jones Act barring foreign-flagged vessels from carrying fuel between US ports in a bid to boost supplies from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would temporarily lift tax and registration requirements on tankers docking in the New York Harbor, which had just reopened to oil vessels.While the waivers sent benchmark New York gasoline futures 2% lower, they will do little to address the biggest obstacle to getting fuel to consumers: the power outages that have shut nearly two-thirds of the service stations in the New Jersey and New York City area and are still hindering service at major oil terminals and refineries along the harbour.Faced with the prospect of another day of hunting for fuel or losing out on business, New York City cab driver Mohammad Sultan parked his yellow taxi at a Hess station on Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn at midnight on Thursday so he could be first in line when a rumoured fuel shipment arrived at 6 am.At 9 am with 180 vehicles behind him, the pumps were still empty. Officials said the number of cabs on the road by Friday morning was down 24% from last week."Because of the gas problem, there are thousands of yellow cabs sitting around wasting time and money," Sultan said.There were some signs that the complex New York Harbor network of storage tanks and pipelines was finally returning to service after Sandy dealt it a direct hit, crippling the ability to fuel the nation's most dense consumer population.The region's biggest pipeline, Colonial, restarted much of its northern line, and an oil tanker carrying 2 million gallons of gasoline docked overnight in Newburgh, New York, 60 miles north of New York city. Other ships were finally offloading cargoes in the harbor after being stuck at anchor for the past week.But those measures were cold comfort for residents stuck in hours-long queues, often with no guarantee that supplies would be available when they got to the front of the line or that enough power would be restored to get more stations open.The situation is wearing on New Yorkers. Juliana Smith, a full-time student, spent 2-1/2 hours in line to fill two five-gallon containers on Friday, an hour more than on Thursday."It's psychotic," she said. "People are angry. We have no power. No heat. We need gas for the generator and our Ford Explorer, which is a monster."Prices at the pump have remained steady despite the shortages, motorist group AAA said, averaging just below $4 a gallon in New York City, 2 cents lower than last week.However, on Long Island, where only a third of all stations were working, average gasoline prices jumped 5 cents from a day earlier.But online, Craigslist users started offering gasoline at as much as $15 a gallon to motorists and homeowners not wishing to brave the lines.There were signs the situation could improve in the coming days as wholesale markets begin to work again.Colonial Pipeline, a 5,500-mile (8,900-km) network that runs from the Gulf Coast refining center up the eastern seaboard, said late on Thursday it had resumed fuel deliveries at its Linden facility in New Jersey, the terminus of the line.It expects to pump around 700,000 barrels a day into the area, which is a normal volume, spokesman Steve Baker said.Fuel barge shipments into New York Harbor will be allowed on Friday, the Coast Guard said, if they have a place to offload.Environmental Protection Agency waivers for clean diesel and gasoline specifications, granted earlier this week, should make it easier for suppliers to meet demand in the days ahead.News of the Jones Act waiver sent NYMEX gasoline prices sharply lower. The December RBOB contract fell 6 cents, or 2.3%, to close at $2.5736 a gallon, just below where it was trading last week prior to Sandy's arrival.Rates to charter fuel tankers to the Northeast nearly doubled as traders scrambled to sell to the region, where supplies were constricted by the closure of two New Jersey refineries that make up one-third of the region's capacity.The Phillips 66 Bayway refinery in New Jersey, known as "the gasoline machine" by oil traders, may be shut for weeks due to flood damage, although the company has said internally it is "optimistic of restarting soon," a source familiar with operations said. The company has said that a decision on when to reopen will be made "once all assessments are complete."Phillips' Linden fuel terminal was supplying only emergency response vehicles as of Friday afternoon.

Obama, Romney return to attack

President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney went back on the attack on Thursday, breaking a storm-induced campaign truce to hit the road and pound home their closing messages in the final stretch of a tight battle for the White House.With five days left until Tuesday's election, Obama received an endorsement from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, resurrected his 2008 "change" slogan and said he was the only candidate who had actually fought for it.Romney criticised Obama as a lover of big government who would expand the federal bureaucracy.National polls show the race deadlocked, and Obama and Romney will spend the final days in eight swing states that will decide who wins the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the White House.Obama made Wisconsin the first stop on a four-state swing on Thursday that also took him to rallies in Nevada and Colorado before going to Ohio for the night. Romney had a full day of campaigning across Virginia."You may be frustrated at the pace of change, but you know what I believe, you know where I stand," Obama told a crowd of 2 600 people on an airport tarmac in Wisconsin, a state that is a vital piece of his electoral strategy. "I know what change looks like because I've fought for it."At a rally in Doswell, Virginia, Romney criticised Obama's comment that he would like to consolidate government agencies that deal with business issues in a new department under a secretary of business."I don't think adding a new chair to his Cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street," Romney said.Jobs will again be the focus of fierce debate on Friday when the government releases the unemployment figures for October. Any big change from the 7.8% number in September could potentially sway voters.Obama and Romney had put campaigning on hold for several days as the historic storm Sandy pounded the eastern seaboard, leaving a trail of destruction and forcing Obama to turn his attention to storm relief.That pause produced some unexpected political benefits for Obama, who won warm praise from Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Romney supporter, and he spent days directing federal relief efforts in a show of presidential leadership that largely sidelined Romney.New York's Bloomberg a Republican-turned-independent who did not back a candidate in 2008 endorsed Obama and cited the Democrat's record on climate change, an issue that has gained more attention since the storm.Bloomberg said Obama had taken significant steps to reduce carbon consumption, while Romney had backtracked on earlier positions he took as governor of Massachusetts to battle climate change. Obama said he was "honoured" by the backing of Bloomberg, who flirted with White House runs in the past.On their first day back on the trail, both Obama and Romney returned to political attacks but struck a slightly more positive tone than usual in trying to woo undecided voters and push their own supporters to vote.In Doswell, Romney proclaimed his faith in the future and said, "The American people have what it takes to come out of these tough times."In Wisconsin, Obama drew distinctions with Romney but dropped his usual reference to "Romnesia" the term he uses to describe what he calls Romney's tendency to shift positions.Obama has a somewhat easier path to 270 electoral votes than Romney, fueled primarily by a small but steady lead in the vital battleground of Ohio a crucial piece of any winning scenario for either candidate - and slight leads in Wisconsin, Iowa and Nevada.Barring any surprises elsewhere, Obama can win a second term by capturing the Midwestern bastions of Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, and his schedule was aimed at shoring up his safety net there.Obama plans to visit Ohio on each of the last four days of the campaign, and plans two more trips to Wisconsin and Iowa. He will conclude his campaign on Monday night with rock singer Bruce Springsteen in Iowa, where a 2008 caucus win launched his run to the presidency.So far, Obama has planned just one visit each in the final days to Florida and Virginia, where most polls give Romney a slight lead. Romney will hit Wisconsin and Ohio on Friday, and New Hampshire, Iowa and Colorado on Saturday.Romney plans to finish up his campaign on Monday night in New Hampshire, the state where he launched his bid last year.Romney's campaign has aired ads in recent days in the Democratic-leaning states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Minnesota, hoping to put them in play after polls showed the races tightening but Obama still ahead.The campaign said Romney would visit Pennsylvania on Sunday, marking his first campaign visit since the nominating convention to one of his new target states. A win in Pennsylvania would be a crippling blow to Obama, but most public polls still show Obama leading there.Romney aides said the moves into those three new states were a sign of their growing momentum, although Obama aides described them as a desperate ploy to find new paths to 270 electoral votes.A  online poll on Thursday showed the race remained effectively deadlocked, with Obama at 47% to Romney's 46%. Most national polls showed roughly similar results.Most swing-state polls have found Obama clinging to slender leads in five of the eight most heavily contested states - Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire. In most polls, Romney has a slight lead in Florida, while Virginia and Colorado were effectively tied.Online poll on Thursday showed Obama with a 5-point lead in Virginia, and 2-point leads among likely voters in both Ohio and Florida. Romney led by 1 point in Colorado in the polls.

NEWS,01.11.2012

Bloomberg endorses Obama over climate change

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed US President Barack Obama for a second term, citing the importance of Obama's record on climate change.The endorsement follows the devastating blow dealt to the New York area by superstorm Sandy."Our climate ischanging,""And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City andaround the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be given this week's devastation should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action."Bloomberg said Obama had taken significant steps to reduce carbon consumption, whereas Republican challenger Mitt Romney had backtracked on earlier positions he had taken as governor of Massachusetts to battle climate change.Obama 'honoured' The nod from Bloomberg, a Republican turned independent, comes after Obama won praise from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, for his quick reaction to the storm."I'm honored to have Mayor Bloomberg's endorsement," Obama said in a statement."I deeply respect him for his leadership in business, philanthropy and government, and appreciate the extraordinary job he's doing right now, leading New York City through these difficult days."'Divisive populist agenda' But Mayor Bloomberg also criticised Obama in his article, accusing him of embracing a "divisive populist agenda".He also said Obama had "devoted little time and effort to developing and sustaining a coalition of centrists, which doomed hope for any real progress on illegal guns, immigration, tax reform, job creation and deficit reduction".However, Bloomberg concluded that on a number of issues dear to him, Obama stood closer to him than Romney, who he chastised for changing some of his positions - including his policy on climate change."If the 1994 or 2003 version of Mitt Romney were running for president, I may well have voted for him because, like so many other independents, I have found the past four years to be, in a word, disappointing," Bloomberg said.'Work not yet done' Obama returned to the campaign trail for the first time in four days on Thursday, declaring "our work is not yet done" and reviving his successful 2008 campaign slogan: change.The president, who won the White House four years ago thanks in part to his themes of "hope" and "change," had largely avoided the same themes until now.Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, sought to portray himself as the new candidate of change, Obama aimed to reclaim that mantle in a neck-and-neck race with just five days to go before Election Day on November 6."I know what change looks like because I've fought for it," Obama told a crowd of some 2,600 on an airport tarmac in Wisconsin, one of a handful of battleground states that will determine the winner of the election.Obama said Romney's proposals to reduce regulations for banks and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans were examples of policies that had led to the economic problems that he inherited when he became president in 2009.'Salesman' Romney "Governor Romney has been using all his talents as a salesman to dress up these very same policies that failed our country so badly - the very same policies we've been cleaning up after for the past four years - and he is offering them up as change," Obama said."Well, let me tell you Wisconsin, we know what change looks like. And what the governor is offering sure ain't change."The Romney campaign, boosted by their candidate's surge in the polls over the past month, dismissed Obama's arguments."We've said all along this election is a choice between the status quo and real change  change that offers promise that the future will be better than the past," said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg."President Obama's misguided policies and broken promises have let down millions of Americans, and we can't afford four more years like the last four."Obama conceded that he had not been able to make progress on all the changes he promised in 2008, but he noted as he repeatedly does that he ended the war in Iraq, repealed a policy that prevented gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, and ordered the US mission that killed Osama bin Laden.Keeping a slightly more positive tone, Obama drew distinctions with Romney without being as aggressive as he has been in recent weeks.He did not mention the word "Romnesia" - the term he has used to delight crowds when describing what he says are Romney's tendencies to shift positions.But he kept up strong criticism of his opponent. Obama portrayed the Republican challenger as someone who would not bring bipartisanship to Washington - a promise Obama also made four years ago and has had trouble keeping.Superstorm Sandy Obama, who has focused his campaign primarily on appealing to middle class Americans, also used a section of his speech to praise the record of former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who has become the top surrogate for Obama in the final days of the campaign.The remarks were Obama's first at a political event since Sandy devastated parts of the eastern United States earlier this week.The president spent three days off the campaign trail to oversee the response effort.Obama opened his remarks with a nod to the suffering experienced by those affected by the storm, and aides said he would be briefed about the recovery process throughout the day.Meanwhile, Romney returned to campaign attacks against Obama, hitting the Democrat for proposing more governmentbureaucracy.Romney returns to Obama criticism Romney swept into must-win Virginia looking to increase turnout among Republican voters in a conservative area of the state to help offset the Democrats' advantage the northern area.Virginia went for Obama in 2008 but may flip for the Republican this year."Turnout here makes a big difference," Romney told a crowd gathered inside a window and door factory.The former governor of Massachusetts had not mentioned Obama's name in two days of events this week as he toned down campaign rhetoric while Americans along the East Coast reeled from the superstorm Sandy.But with the recovery now under way, Romney resumed his standard campaign fare of singling out the president for criticism.He leaped on a comment that Obama made in an interview aired by MSNBC on Monday in which the president said he would like to create a new government agency headed by a "secretary of business' to try to help businesses create jobs."I've said that I want to consolidate a whole bunch of government agencies. We should have one Secretary of Business, instead of nine different departments that are dealing with things like giving loans to SBA (the Small Business Administration) or helping companies with exports," Obama had said.This comment bolstered Romney's charge that the president wants to expand government rather than boost the private sector."I don't think adding a new chair to his cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street," Romney said.The race for the White House remained effectively tied on Thursday, with Obama backed by 47% of likely voters and Romney supported by 46% in a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll. That margin has been constant in the online poll for three days running and is statistically insignificant.

No fuel as NY pumps run dry

 

Drivers and homeowners scrambled to secure fuel for their cars and generators in the US Northeast on Wednesday as storm-hit petrol stations started to run dry.More than half of all petrol service stations in the New York City area and New Jersey were shut because of depleted fuel supplies and power outages, frustrating attempts to restore normal life, industry officials said.Reports of long lines, dark stations and empty tanks circulated across the region, with some station owners unable to pump fuel due to a lack of power. Others quickly ran their tanks dry because of intensified demand and logistical problems in delivering fresh supplies.The lack of working petrol stations is likely to compound travel problems in the region, with the New York City subway system down until at least Thursday and overland rail and bus services severely disrupted. Homeowners running back-up generators during the power cuts may also run short of fuel.“I don’t have any lights and need this gasoline for my generator,” said Abdul Rahim Anwar at a Getty service station in Gowanus, Brooklyn, as he put two full jerry cans into his trunk.Tempers flared as a queue of at least 30 cars spilled down the street, with drivers blaring horns, shouting and getting out of their cars. Pump attendant Nadim Amid said the station had already run out of regular gasoline and only had a tiny amount of super unleaded and diesel left. One driver, a doctor who asked not to be named, said she had driven from New Jersey, where half of all businesses and homes are still without power. More than 80% of filling stations in the state were unable to sell gasoline as of Wednesday morning, said Sal Risalvato, head of the New Jersey Gasoline, Convenience, Automotive Association.“It’s going to be an ugly few days until we can see both power and supplies restored,” Risalvato said. Petrol stations on New York’s Long Island and the city borough of Staten Island also reported shortages, while lengthy lines were seen in the borough of Queens. Commuters may see higher prices at the pumps in the coming days, though oil traders said it will also dampen demand for fuel and increase stockpiles in the region.A source at the US Environmental Protection Agency said it has received a request from a state hit by the storm to waive a clean gasoline requirement to help ease increase supplies. Gas but no power, power but no gasKevin Beyer, president of the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association in Smithtown, New York, estimated that less than half of all stations were able to sell fuel from Wednesday morning.“I have gas in the ground but no power. For many others they’re facing the opposite problem, with power but no gasoline. For the few stations that are lucky enough to have both they’ve got huge lines out front,” Beyer said.Beyer estimated it could take until the end of next week to get all fuel stations operating again.The problem is not a severe shortage of fuel in the Northeast, but widespread power outages and the storm-related logistical problems of getting the fuel from refineries and terminals to those who need it.Jenn Hibbs, an account director at marketing firm Marden-Kane in Garden City, Long Island, said there was only one fuel station open within 16km of her house. Friends were sharing tips on Facebook about where they could get fuel, but two lines for gas leading to the service station were both over half a mile long.“It’s making people think about whether they can get to work, whether they have enough gas in the tank to get there and back,” Hibbs said.

Obama, Romney get back to campaigning

President Barack Obama returned to full-force campaigning on Thursday, ending a three-day pause to manage the federal response to the historic storm that battered the East Coast. He holds slim leads in many of the key US battleground states five days before the 6 November election.Polling, however, also shows Obama locked in a tie nationwide with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who tempered his criticism of the president this week to avoid the appearance of seeking political advantage in the midst of a natural disaster.Both candidates faced a day of trying to strike the right tone in an intensely stressful race.Battleground statesObama's lead in a majority of the nine so-called battleground states could determine the outcome. Those states are neither reliably Republican nor Democratic, giving them outsized importance in the US system for choosing the president. The winner is not the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide but the one who manages to accumulate at least 270 electoral votes in state-by-state contests. Those votes are determined by a combination of a state's population and representation in Congress.Despite a Romney surge nationwide after the three presidential debates, polling shows Obama holding on to leads in enough of the all-important swing states - most notably Ohio - to win at least the necessary 270 electors. No Republican candidate for the White House has ever won the election without capturing Ohio.Both candidates are battling to win over the thin slice of the electorate that remains undecided while ensuring that their supporters go to the polls. SandySuperstorm Sandy was bound to hurt turnout in hard-hit New Jersey and New York, but both are heavily Democratic, and it was unlikely to have a significant effect on results. Election officials were promising every effort to have polls open or direct voters to alternative locations where necessary.This week's storm, and the federal government response to the devastation, could serve to cause voters to make up their minds.The contest between Obama and Romney, at heart, has been an argument over the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans.Obama believes Washington can have a positive effect. Romney believes the government should become much smaller and, therefore, collect much less in taxes.Obama has been given high marks, even from some of his harshest Republican critics, for his handling of this week's storm crisis and the dispatch of massive federal aid to victims. Romney has been forced to answer questions about his earlier campaign statements that the key federal emergency relief organisation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency or Fema, should turn its role over to the states.Heavy travelAs his campaign resumes, Obama will try to make up for lost time with a heavy travel itinerary in the coming days, including rallies on Thursday in Wisconsin, Nevada and Colorado.Obama spokesperson Jennifer Psaki said the president remains focused on the storm recovery, but must resume campaigning because of the "reality" of Tuesday's election and the need to continue making the case for Americans to give him four more years in the White House.The partisan sniping continued this week from the candidates' surrogates and their running mates. Much of it focused on Romney's new television and radio ads in critical Ohio that suggest automakers General Motors and Chrysler are adding jobs in China at the expense of workers in the Midwestern swing state. Vice President Joe Biden said the spots were "one of the most flagrantly dishonest ads I can ever remember".Obama's campaign planned to keep pressing its criticism of the ads as it seeks to block Romney's prospects for a breakthrough in Ohio and other Midwestern states where the auto industry is deeply important to the economy, the most important issue in the 2012 election.The Republican ticket hasn't backed away from the ad. Running mate Paul Ryan said in a statement that "American taxpayers are on track to lose $25bna s a result of President Obama's handling of the auto bailout, and GM and Chrysler are expanding their production overseas".FactsIn fact, Chrysler is adding 1 100 jobs to its plant in Toledo, Ohio. It's also adding production facilities in China as demand for cars there grows. Because of trade rules, it's easier for companies to build cars for the Chinese market in China. It's also more efficient. Japanese automakers, for example, have plants in the US to meet American demand.Romney was campaigning Thursday in Virginia, while Ryan was appearing at events in Nevada and Colorado.Biden had two events scheduled in Iowa. Obama was starting his day in Wisconsin, making up an event that was cancelled earlier in the week because of the storm. He had a rally planned later in Las Vegas, as well as Boulder, Colorado, a heavily Democratic area.More than 19 million people have already voted in the presidential, either by mail or in person. No votes will be counted until 6 November, but some key states are releasing the party affiliation of those who have voted.Democrats have an edge in votes cast in battleground states Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Republicans have an advantage in Colorado.

NEWS,31.10.2012

'The entire country's been watching,' Obama tells Sandy victims

US President Barack Obama and Republican Governor Chris Christie have been touring storm-stricken parts of New Jersey, taking in scenes of flooded roads and burning homes in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.The huge storm crashed ashore on Monday, crippling transportation, knocking out power for millions and killing at least 60 people in nine states with a massive storm surge and rain that caused epic flooding.Obama and Christie, riding in the Marine One presidential helicopter, got an aerial view of some of the hardest-hit areas of the New Jersey shoreline, and afterward the president promised to cut through red tape to help storm victims.From the air in and around the gambling resort of Atlantic City, Obama saw whole streets underwater, beachfront homes swamped by flooding and piers partially blown away.He also saw the still-burning remnants of about eight homes set on fire during the storm, the biggest to hit the US mainland in generations."If your homes aren't too badly damaged we can hopefully get you back in," Obama told residents at an evacuation shelter in the town of Brigantine."The entire country's been watching. Everyone knows how hard Jersey has been hit.""We're not going to tolerate any red tape. We're not going to tolerate any bureaucracy," Obama said.Despite being a top surrogate for Obama's rival Mitt Romney in the November 6 election, Christie has kept up his praise for Obama for federal support during and after the devastating storm.Today he only good words for the Democratic president. "I want to thank the president for being here today," he said.Federal Emergency Management Administration director Craig Fugate is also travelling with Christie and Obama. Sandy has killed at least 60 people in the US Weather warnings remain in place as the centre of the storm moves across Pennsylvania towards Canada The government says the storm may be the most expensive in US history Some 5.9 million properties remain without power Large sections of NYC remain submerged by floodwater Many transport services - including most of the NYC subway - are out of action The New York Marathon will go on Sandy is causing more havoc as it moves north toward Canada. Flooding warnings are in effect in the Great Lakes region and heavy snow has been falling in the Appalachian mountains.Remnants of the storm churned slowly over Pennsylvania on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. Winter storm warnings were in effect from southwestern Pennsylvania to eastern Tennessee.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a media conference mandatory evacuations in the city would not be lifted until the affected buildings had been inspected. He said bridges and tunnels - except for the George Washington Bridge - would be restricted to high-occupancy vehicles for the next several days.Bloomberg also announced a relief package for small business for whom "the storm represents an enormous challenge". He said the package included access to loans of up to $US10,000.Bloomberg said that tap water in NYC had been "tested again and again and again" and was safe to drink.He confirmed that the New York Marathon would go ahead as planned, saying it was a "great event for New York" and he believed those who had died would want it to be held.Asked if he believed there was a link between storms such as Sandy and climate change he said it was safer to assume a link "the consequences of making a mistake in one direction are pretty severe".The New York Stock Exchange reopened on Wednesday US time after being closed for two days. Packed buses took commuters to work with the subway system halted after seawater flooded its tunnels.More than half of all petrol stations in the New York City area and New Jersey were shut, with many running dry.John F Kennedy and Newark airports reopened with limited service after thousands of flights were cancelled, leaving travellers stuck for days.New York's LaGuardia Airport, the third of the airports that serve the nation's busiest airspace, was flooded and remained closed.Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the storm may be the most expensive in US history."Now we are looking at flooding on Lake Erie, possibly Lake Michigan," Napolitano said."We're looking at secondary flooding downstream as rivers fill with the remnants of Sandy and the water has to go somewhere."We are now in recovery mode - response and recovery - we are moving large amounts of resources into the affected areas."It will be one of the most, probably if not the most, extensive and expensive (storms) in our nation's history."One disaster-modeling company said Sandy may have caused up to $US15 billion in insured losses.The storm killed 27 people in New York state, including 22 in New York City, and six each in New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Five other states reported fatalities.Sandy killed 69 people in the Caribbean last week as a hurricane before it slammed into the US east coast with winds of about 130km/h and pushed inland.Battered by a record storm surge of nearly 4.2 metres, large sections of New York City remained submerged under several feet of water on Wednesday.In the city's borough of Staten Island, police used helicopters to pluck stranded residents from rooftops.Across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey, members of the National Guard helped residents pump floodwater from their homes, the city said on Twitter.Chest-high floodwaters rushed into the streets in a flash on Monday night just after the power went out, and by Wednesday morning the water was still knee high in many areas of Hoboken.National Guard vehicles patrolled the streets but emergency vehicles were scarce, witnesses Some 5.9 million homes and businesses in several states remained without power on Wednesday morning, down from a high of nearly 8.5 million, which surpassed the record 8.4 million customers who went dark from last year's Hurricane Irene.In New Jersey, Christie said it could take seven to 10 days before power was restored statewide.In the southern half of Manhattan, a quarter of a million residents remained without power after a transformer explosion at a Consolidated Edison substation on Monday night and the flooding of another. Citywide, some 760,000 customers lacked power on Wednesday.

Hurricane Sandy Disrupts Food Distribution, 'Thousands Of Trucks' In Limbo

 

Thousands of truckloads of food that were headed for stores in the Northeast are stuck on roadsides and in warehouses following the crippling blow Hurricane Sandy dealt to the nation's food distribution system.Though the system is struggling in the face of uncertainty, no one who spoke to HuffPost on Tuesday was concerned about short-term food shortages or a storm-related increase in prices across the region. Still, the hurricane demonstrates just how complex and vulnerable the networks are that deliver America's food supply. "I've got thousands of trucks that are sitting on the East Coast," said Ed Chouinard of Perishable Distribution Solutions (PDS), a nationwide network of meat and perishable cargo delivery trucks based in Chicago. "For our clients, it's almost entirely a question of whether or not they have power, and right now we're calling around everywhere [in New York and New Jersey] and no one's open." Experts and food distributors declined on Tuesday to speculate on the impact Sandy might have on food industry bottom lines, noting that suppliers had ample warning about the coming storm and price gouging on staples like food is illegal. Nonetheless, they were eager to see supply lines return to normal.Chouinard said his company typically delivers New York-bound meat to two wholesale meat markets, the Hunts Point Market and the Brooklyn Market -- neither of which had restored power on Tuesday."I gotta make a decision this afternoon about whether my drivers should leave Chicago with today's shipment," Chouinard said, "but I don't think we're going to be shipping today. We'll reassess later in the week." For residents in some of the most devastated areas, like the Jersey Shore and parts of Queens, N.Y., the PDS meat delivery interruption is just one in a series of food deliveries stalled by the storm, many of which were bound for supermarkets and restaurants that have yet to reopen. Preparations made before the storm, however, mean there is little chance of an outright food shortage, Chouinard said."Most of the grocery stores will have a lot of inventory and backup generators," said Chouinard. "Most warehouses have one or two weeks worth of inventory. But people don't shop much for food if they've got no power. There's more likely to be a surge in demand when the power comes back on, because then everyone's restocking. But there won't be a shortage."New York City had reopened some of its bridges by Wednesday afternoon, though the Holland and Hugh Carey Tunnels remained closed, according to the New York Department of Transportation. Many sections of lower Manhattan remained without power, leaving stores and restaurants unable to safely store food -- even if trucks managed to deliver it.In New Jersey, parts of many major highways remained closed on Tuesday afternoon. At one section of the New Jersey Turnpike near the hard-hit Jersey Shore, entire railroad cars had even been swept onto the highway by the storm surge. Two and a half million people -- or 62 percent of the state -- lost power during the storm. The storm's effect in the Garden State was also evident in the number of supermarkets forced to close during the storm -- the popular regional chain ShopRite listed 97 locations in New Jersey that closed due to the storm. By late Tuesday, some had reopened, including a ShopRite in Garwood, N.J. According to Westfield, N.J. resident Sara Soriente, the store was open "and stocked with not just food, but also ice and firewood."In Pennsylvania, more than 400 roads were still closed on Tuesday afternoon. West Virginia, which was hit by blizzards due to Sandy, had shut down parts of the major highway across the top of the state on Tuesday, along with more than 30 other routes.Large-scale road closures greatly impact food distribution systems, said Charley Wilson, VP of corporate communications at major food distributor Sysco. The company, which supplies products mainly to healthcare facilities, restaurants and schools, has been working around the clock to prepare clients for the storm, Wilson said, "to make sure they had enough staples in advance. You hope that holds them until we can get back on the roads."Wilson said dangerous road conditions, not power outages, were the biggest hindrance to Sysco deliveries in the tri-state area on Tuesday. "As soon as we've been given the signal that there's safe passage and flooding is receding, we'll begin the process of getting food to our partners whether they have power or not," he said. He added that the company has been working closely with disaster relief agencies, "to make sure we're some of the first responders and we're ready to go back in as soon as it's safe."But even quick responses and good planning are no match for the threat posed to perishable foods by a prolonged power outage, said Cary Miller of Food Industry News, a trade publication. A veteran consultant for food services, Miller said that even after power is restored and streets are cleared, "the host of sanitation issues that food service operations will be facing are paralyzing" including repairs, flood clean-up and food safety. When it comes to compromised food, however, it's not just restaurants and supermarkets that need to take precautions against food-borne illnesses. Individuals also need to be extra vigilant, both during and after a power outage, to ensure that food at home is kept cold enough to prevent the spread of bacteria, especially for meat. On Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie released a series of food storage guidelines for residents affected by the storm.But as people in the tri-state area worry this week about delivering, buying, and storing food, in parts of New York City, the food industry was back in business almost immediately following the storm. On Tuesday morning, many bodegas, grocery stores and restaurants in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, opened their doors to customers, in spite of fallen trees that had destroyed cars and storefronts during the night.“We anticipated there might be problems getting food delivered and ordered extra supplies last week,” said Mike Saadi, the owner of Bergen Bagels on Myrtle Avenue, while serving up bagels to a long line of Pratt Institute students. “Everyone needs bagels during a storm,” Saadi said.An Associated Supermarket in Brooklyn was also open and well stocked on Tuesday morning. Fedelia Edwin, an assistant manager, said that while the storm halted a delivery of about 2,000 cases of food from New Jersey, it wasn't enough to deplete stocks. "We still have enough to make it through the rest of the week at least," she said.In Manhattan, the Fairway grocery store on 74th Street and Broadway was crowded with shoppers browsing the aisles, many of whom left with just one or two bags of groceries. Bread, milk, produce, and canned goods were all well stocked, although meats and Grade-A large eggs were harder to come by.Carol Gordon carried about three pounds of ground beef in her shopping basket, a purchase she decided to make when she saw the depleted meat section. “I hadn’t thought about trucks not being able to come in,” she said. “We’re spoiled on the Upper West Side, but this is the worst I’ve seen it. And it’s naive to think we could not be affected.”

US storm damage set to cost $20bn

Bill Keogh, president of disaster estimator Eqecat, confirmed the company's estimates of $5bn to $10bn in insured losses and $10bn to $20bn in total losses from Hurricane Sandy, which came ashore in New Jersey late on Monday and swept northward, knocking out power for more than eight million customers and shutting down four major cities."We think that's about right. ...It will be among the 10 to 15 most damaging storms" that have hit the United States, he told Bloomberg television.He said the assessments on real damages from wind and flooding-related losses and the costs of business shutdowns will take some time to collect."At this stage we're really just getting out facts from the ground... That will take a while."Fitch Ratings said that aside from physical damage from winds and flooding, it expects significant insurance claims from companies over lost business."While many lines of insurance will be affected, including property and auto, there is the potential for significant business interruption and contingent business interruption losses related to the flooding as the affected areas work to restore power and resume operations following the storm," Fitch said."The massive storm is impacting a wide variety of businesses in densely populated areas, including retail, corporate offices, transportation, manufacturing, and energy plants."Economists at IHS Global Insight said they expect the physical losses to top the $15bn of Hurricane Irene of last year."With Sandy being a much larger storm, it is likely to end up causing more flooding damage than its 2011 peer which would increase total damage estimates," said IHS economists Gregory Daco and Nigel Gault in a report on the storm."The commercial shutdown of the East Coast is likely to result in gross domestic product losses that may outweigh infrastructure damages," they added.While some losses to economic production will be recovered in rebuilding spending, they said, not all can be regained.Combining all of the disruptions from Sandy, they said, "early estimates point toward total economic losses of around $30bn to $50bn."That was still small compared to the $120bn in economic damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US Gulf of Mexico coastline in 2005, but still enough to reduce the economic growth rate in the fourth quarter by 0.6% points, they said.