LyrArc Article Gist
The stock market rally appears to have legs with the increase in revenue growth for the fourth quarter. But what supports this other than the Fed's bond buying, which suppresses the true cost of capital, is a question posed by analysts. Add to that transfer payments such as unemployment and other benefits which help sustain consumer spending levels, but are temporary measures. Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research says GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2011 could be more than 5% year on year. The question is whether this is pulling growth forward from later years, so that larger dips could be expected ahead? Brokerage firm LCM Commodities says transfer payments from the government to consumers were 16-18% of personal consumption expenditures between 1995 and 2007. This has jumped to 22% by the end of 2010.

LyrArc Article Gist
Mr Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext, who will be the CEO of a combined NYSE-Deutsche Bourse, took pains to emphasize that it is a merger, a business combination arrangement, not an acquisiton. Because Deutsche Bourse current stock market value is $15 billion compared with about $10 billon for NYSE Euronext, Deutsche Bourse shareholders will get 60% of the combined company. The issues of ownership, the name of the new company and the headquarters and management team, are sensitive ones because the NYSE has traditionally been a symbol of America's role in the world of finance. American lawmakers want to see NYSE appear first in the new name to symbolize America's position in the world of finance. For this reason Deutsche Bourse will not appear first, and the headquarters will be dual headquarters in New York and Frankfurt.

LyrArc Article Gist
An analysis done for the Wall Street Journal by real estate portal Zillow.com, shows the median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22% in 2010 on properties purchased with conventional mortgages. Banks favor higher down payments today because it reduces the chances of delinquencies. Median down payments were at about 20% in 1990, then the payments declined in the nine cities Zillow looked at: Chicago, Stockton, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa. The drop went as far as 4% in 4th quarter 2006, and in some places close to zero. Experts say these are the markets where more home buyers are under water. A 2009 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis shows that buyers with smaller down payments are more likely to default in unfavorable economic situations. A contributing cause of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis was the very low down payments. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairwoman Sheila Bair, says she supports minimum 20% down payments....

LyrArc Article Gist
Condoleeza Rice, personally worked with Ayman Nour and other opposition figures during a visit to Cairo to promote democratic process in Egypt. Michael Gerson who was also present at that meeting in June 2005, writes about it in the Washington Post Feb 2, 2011. This is a really rare instance of a Secretary of State supporting dissent in this manner. She says here that the unsettling and the unfamiliar, the turbulence of a transition to democratic processes is preferable to the false stability of autocracy. Such a false stability can be seething with malignant forces and deep animosities which surely spell trouble in the future, and as Rice puts it, find a footing when autocrats suppress democratic voices. Rice calls into serious question the whole policy of the US to seek stability at the expense of democracy in the Middle East, more than it does in any other region and in sharp contrast to its policies in Eastern Europe. See the link to Karen Elliott House, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and a Pulitzer prize winner for covering the Middle East ( Feb. 15, 2011, WSJ), and the link to Elliott Abrams, former deputy national security advisor to President George W. Bush (Wash. Post Jan 28, 2011), for reasons why this is totally out of touch with conditions in the Middle East, and simply sets up problems for the future. The founding principles of 1776 are a better guide to conducting US foreign affairs and can be trusted to serve the country well....

LyrArc Article Gist
How the efforts of former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, as head of the National Democratic Institute, and Senator John McCain, chairman of the International Republican Institute, to push for democratic processes in Egypt, failed to get the support of the Obama administration. Both wrote to Mr Mubarak in July 2010, asking that international monitors be allowed to observe the election in November 2010. The National Democratic Institute, is a US organization training Egyptians to be election monitors. After the renewal of martial law for another 2 years by Mubarak in May 2010, The Egypt Working Group, a bipartisan body of human rights activists, neoconservative policy makers and Mideast experts, was growing alarmed about the crackdown by Mubarak on anyone seeking transparency in the elections. It sent letters to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in April and May 2010, saying the Mubarak move to rig the elections was dangerous as the young people in Egypt were increasingly agitated. The administration acted as if it was taken by surprise by the situation in Egypt, when respected leaders like Albright were cautioning the administration about the situation in Egypt from early 2010. Before and after the protests, the Obama administration was slow to support democratic processes in Egypt, and failed to take a clear consistent stand supporting the freedom of expression of the Egyptian people....

LyrArc Article Gist
New York Governor Cuomo proposes to merge the state's Insurance and Banking Departments, and the Consumer Protection Board, into a new Department of Financial Regulation. Cuomo says this is necessary to give New York a more efficient and modern regulatory framework. Governor Cuomo's aides say a single regulator is needed for effective regulation compared to the patchwork of agencies that has existed for so long. The new agency would also be empowered to oversee hedge funds.

LyrArc Article Gist
The eight member panel of experts led by a retired judge gets high marks from the youth movement, and all oppositon parties. All have a good grasp of the legal theory to build a good system of democratic processes with checks and balances and necessary protections. The chief of the panel, Tareq-el-Bishri, is a retired senior judge, and an author of a book titled: "Egypt: Between Disobedience and Decay." Bishri wants to see prosecutions done in civilian courts, and wants a balance of power between government institutions. Members of the Youth Movement say they encouraged military leaders to setup the tasks of writing a new constitution in several steps, the first being rewriting the key articles and holding an up or down referendum. It was felt that a better constitution would emerge once elections were held, and enough time and debate could occur for the new constitution.

LyrArc Article Gist
Liz Rappaport of the Wall Street Journal interviews Neil Barofsky, inspector general of the U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program. Barofsky is asked what is his biggest failure. He says the biggest failure is the failure of TARP to preserve home ownership. He goes on to say that the biggest nonfinancial cost of TARP is "too big to fail." And he warns that the there will be another bubble because of all the money that is going into the housing, commodities and other markets. The next blow he says could be much more signifcant for the U.S. economy. Is Fed chairman Bernanke listening?

LyrArc Article Gist
The Egyptian military announced the names of a eight member Constitutional Committee. The committee will be given the task of rewriting six articles of the constitution. These articles relate to presidential term limits, judicial oversight of elections, and parts related to curbing the president's powers to amend the constitution and restrict civil liberties, including sending civilians to military tribunals. The committee is asked to come up with recommended rewriting of these articles in 10 days. Reports say the constitutional changes will then be put to a popular referendum. The committee will be led by Tareq al-Bishry, who is a retired judge and a prominent historian. Mr Bishry and a Cairo University law professor, Atef al-Bana, are thought to be followers of a modern Islamic school of thought. Other members are Sobhi Saleh, a popular member of the Muslim Brotherhood who represented Alexandria in parliament from 2005 to 2010. About the selection of the committee, Abdel Yousef, a senior official of ElBaradei's National Association for Change, says the names are a good sign from the military. See the heart rending account of Sobhi Saleh and a prison set on fire from which he makes his way out after his arrest during the protests. The account is by Nicholas Kulish in the New York Times, Feb 4, 2011....