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Risks to China's banking system from the bond market in China. China's bond market has grown rapidly to 25.5 trillion yuan or $4.1 trillion yuan, especialy in the period following the stimulus. But it is not similiar to bond markets in developed countries, the U.S., Japan and France. It has a patchwork of regulators, is closed to foreign investors, and does not offer protections to investors. It also lacks an effective ratings system. Most bonds are held and traded by the banks, which concentrates the risks in the banking system. In developed countries the risks are spread out among investors. Bond markets offer the advantage of reducing dependence on banks for lending but with banks holding most of the bonds in China, including that of local governments, the risks if bond issuers default are concentrated in the banking system.

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Pier Luigi Bersani from the northern Emilio Romagna region, head of the centre-left Democratic party, is the leading candidate for prime minister in Italy's 2013 elections. His party has 37.8% support in a recent poll. The Democratic party has an electoral alliance with the SEL Left, Ecology and Freedom party, which has 5.1% in the poll. Berlusconi's People of Freedom party has 18.2% support and the antiestablishment party of Beppe Grillo, the Five Star Movement has 20% support. Prime minister Mario Monti is being encouraged to run by business and centrist parties. Bersani said in an interview, he will continue Monti's policies if elected. He says he supports greater flexibility so that policies do not focus only on austerity, at the same time he will respect the committments Italy has gven to the EU and move forward with pro-competition actions.

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The WPost editorial says more money may be needed in the future than the $50 billion the government has already committed to GM. A lot of the basic steps have been taken in the Obama restructuring, closing brands and dealerships, cleaning up the balance sheet, bringing costs and benefits in line with foreigh nonunion plants. But, says the Post. the auto task force wanted to see 16 plants closed, the agreement will close 14 plants and three of them will be idled instead of shut down, with GM paying maintenance and other costs. Breakeven is at 10 million vehicles per year market but this depends on GM's market share. If the market at 9.5 million vehicles per year at present shrinks further in 2010, and GM's market share faces more pressures from competition, the prospects of GM making money will dim.

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Chadwick Matlin's review of NYT's Ross Sorkin's book "Too Big To Fail," tells the story of Fuld's cockiness, overconfidence, whats the right word? He got into a fight with his ROTC officer as a student writes Sorkin in his new book. And there he is turning down offers from a Korean bank, Barclays and Bank of America - making the wrong decision each time- because he did not recognize the danger Lehman was in and had an inflated view of Lehman, helped by staffers. Perhaps says Matlin, encouraged by the people that he surrounded himself with. A anecdote in the book is cited that shows Fuld in New Delhi asking Treasury Secretary Paulson if he could get clearance from Russia for his flight to cut 5 hours of flying time, and Paulson telling him he couldn't get that for himself.

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President Obama is acutely aware of Republican concerns of waste as the government increases spending to support the economy. He told the US Conference of Mayors, that "if there are wasteful projects" he would "call them out on it." He also said the preceding administration had paid too little attention to urban problems. His years as a community organizer in the urban environment of Chicago gives him aunique perspective of waht is happening on the ground level in cities across the country. Mayors spoke with Cabinet secretaries during their visit to the White House, and had avariety of projects in mind from new community health centers, new water towers, sewage treatment plants. Republican Mayors are also responding positively to the stimulus, now that the money is there, Mayors like Patrick McCrory of Charlotte, N.C., support finding the best way to use the money.

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Demand from China and the Middle East alone will increase by about 2 million barrels a day this year, with another 2 million barrels a day increase from other growing economies, the U.S., Europe and Japan not changing much. This will drive prices according to the International Energy Agency. Supply is not growing enough, consider Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, which have stagnant production levels and increasing demand. Price volatility has been a feature of oil markets with so much uncertainty, including uncertainty of non-OPEC production so that OPEC alone cannot determine oil price levels. Economic crises in the the US and Europe and prospects of a recession have so far not affected oil prices. If demand continues to grow in places like India, China and the Middle East, then prices will continue to remain high.

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Could it be that Russia apart from its support for South Ossetia and Putin's dislike of Sashkavili also had other goals in mind. If alternative supplies were available of natural gas to be shipped from the Caspian area countries to western Europe would this give Europe some independent sources of natural gas, when at this time Gazprom is the major source of natural gas to Western Europe. By acting decisively against Georgia Russia pretty much kills off the idea of additional pipelines that compete with Russian supply and Russia could build its own pipelines and ship the region's natural gas by buying it from these countries. There may be much more to the Russian action than mere cold war type moves because Russia is keen on building itself up economically seeing the growth in the Asian countries.

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Are these questionable assumptions by Fields that they can't find a way to get the Fiesta Econetic to the USA. THe pound is weakening against the dollar and may hit $1.50 by some estimates, and the cost of making the diesel engines in the UK can't be that much more than manufacture in the USA that it would be economically not possible to bring it here or make it here or in Mexico. Even if it sales in modest numbers wouldn't it show that at 65 mph the Fiesta Econetic shows that Ford has cars the give big mileage in its lineup. And about the popularity of clean diesel who can be sure that things won't change as the Europeans sell these cars here? This maybe Kiley's point that there are risks to Ford by not bringing these cars to the American market.

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Dubai has been on a borrowing binge the likes of which has rarely been seen in the middle east. It has no oil and gas reserves of its own. Then how is it financing all this investment? Through international debt markets. Standard and Poors estimates that at then end of last year Dubai government debt was 42% of its GDP, compared with 22% in Bahrain still high ad only 2.9% in Abu Dhabi. Would a sovereign fund of Abu Dhabi come to its rescue in a crunch if credit is frozen and no acess possible. Dubai is one of the United Arab Emirates and this is possible but this would mean that much less capital that can be accessed by western companies. And still most of the huge projects would be left incomplete or put on hold.

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Fairclough describes the experience of Poland inside the EU, but with its own currency, the zloty. Poland's per capita GDP measured by purchasing power was half the EU average in 2006, it is about two thirds in 2011. Growth is expected at 4% for 2011. Poland manufactures goods using lower to medium technological inputs, such as furniture, shoes, and processed foods. The zloty has declined in value by 25% since 2008. This gives Poland a competitive edge in exports. Additonal factors are cited by one manufacturer of furniture, Forte Manufacturing, as helping it remain competitive- ability to close one of five plants, investing in improved machinery to increase productivity, quality and just-in-time deliveries, computer guided machinery, and ability to run his plants on weekends. Central bank governor, Mr. Belka, points to competitiveness as a critical factor for comfort in the eurozone. Limiting budget deficits to 3% of GDP, and the Maastricht criteria isn't all it takes. Also needed is modernizing and improving the economy, and modernizing the banking sector, says Belka. Poland does not have the debt problems of some eurozone countries because of a constitutional limit on government borrowing and deficits. Belka says Poland benefits from having its own monetary policy, ability to adjust interest rates, the zloty able to depreciate against the euro, and not having to share in cost of bailouts. There is considerable opposition in neighboring Slovakia for having to bear the cost of bailouts. Recent surveys show declining support for adopting the euro in Poland- a Sept 2011 poll showed support at 29% compared to 38% in mid-2010, opposition increased from 47% to 53%, in a poll conducted by the Polish Finance Ministry. Risks for Poland are that 75% of the country's banking assets are owned by foreign financial firms, and the potential for a spread of the eurozone slowdown with lower demand. ...

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China had a trade deficit of $7.3 billion in February 2011. Experts say February is not a typical month because of the Chinese New Year.

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Breakdown of negotiations between Greece and EU finance ministers led by Dijisselbloem of the Netherlands on February 16, 2015. Dijisselbloem says the best way forward is for Greece to take a 6 month extension of the current program, because more time is needed to work out the details. Finance minister Varoufakis of Greece says Greece should not have to make cuts that are clearly recessionary. The bailout ends on Feb. 28. Without an agreement reached Greece loses access to 7.2 billion in funds from the EU, needed to make repayments due in March.

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Proposals by economists Rajan, Stein and Kashyap on financial catastrophe insurance, and bonuses held in escrow, as corrective measures after learning from the 2008 global financial crisis.

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German banks have the largest exposure in Europe to Spain- $139.9 billion in 2012. Of this $45.9 billion is exposure to Spanish banks, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The Landesbanks in Germany have a large exposure in covered bonds to Spain, which are covered by collateral in the form of residential mortgages that have lost value and could lead to losses. At the same time they are not likely to default says Leef Dierks of Morgan Stanley, because they are used as collateral to borrow from the ECB. Some of these cedulas or jumbo covered bonds are trading at 52 cents on the dollar, according to Mr. Dierks. Geman banks have limited loss absorption capacity says Moody's. Moody's has reduced Germany's outlook to "negative" from "stable" for this reason, and warned Germany could lose its triple A credit rating.