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Standard & Poor's lowered the long-term debt ratings of France's BNP Paribas bank from double-A to double-A minus. S&P said the BNP Paribas bank was "more vulnerable to adverse conditions than had been previously anticipated."

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Many small, high growth companies in China have listed on US stock exchanges through back-door mergers with shell companies. The questionable practice are in the "reverse takeover" market for Chinese listings. It involves networks of accountants, lawyers and bankers helping to bring these Chinese companies into US stock markets. Some of these companies have minimal revenues, questionable accounting and no clear corporate governance. By mid 2010 about 340 Chinese companies were listed on US stock exchanges and were using small largely unknown US auditing firms, who were contracting the work back out to local Chinese firms, according to the SEC's chief accountant. The SEC is conducting an investigation into this practice. The House Financial Services Committee is looking into this, especially because it is feared that with the interest in Chinese listings there is the opportunity for self-dealing and potential fraud. Says Rep. Chris Lee: "I don't want this to be a junior Madoff scandal."...

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New regulatory changes will cost US credit card issuers $25 billion in lost revenues, according to an estimate by the Boston Consulting Group.

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Compared to the beginning of 2008 Fannie Mae's shares have fallen 61% and Freddie Mac's shares have fallen 65%. Congress has failed to overhaul regulatory supervision of the 2 companies that are now supposed to with the Federal Housing Administration support the mortgage markets. They are government chartered companies that provide the bulk of the finding for USA home mortgages. They own or guarantee about $5.2 trillion of home mortgages, or roughly half of all loans outstanding. The two have suffered combined losses of $11 billion in the 9 months ending march 31, 2008. There is no effective regulation of the 2 companies. The House has passed legislation creating a new regulator for the 2 companies and the Senate will vote probably this week on similiar legislation. The new regulator would have powers to increase the capital requirements of the 2 companies.

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For the three months ended May 1, 2009, Dell reported adrop of 23% in revenue over prior year and a 63% decline in profits. Laptop revenue decline 20%, and desktop revenue decline 34%. The division that sells to larger companies showed a31% revenue decline.

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The 2010 Taurus with its muscular styling appears aimed at individual drivers than to families. The price will still keep it from becoming aFord product aimed at the mass market that the original Taurus once targeted. Prices start at $25,995 and can go up to $40,000 when you had an array of high tech features like an anti collision system. Its more than the segment leader Chevy Impala. Says the editor in chief at Edmunds.com, Ford may be chasing the original Taurus fans, who are now much older. Ford sold 52,667 Taurus cars in 2008, and marketing chief Farley expects an increase from that but has modest expectations.

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Safety violations at American Airlines. The FAA imposes fines for failure to follow proper drug testing procedures, failure to perform necessary maintenance. The FAA says even after being alerted American flew planes for 10 more flights with defective autopilots, in all 58 flights were made without proper maintenance.

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Kevin Warsh was appointed by George W. Bush in 2006 as Fed governor. He was the youngest governor in Fed history at that time at age 35 years. His education is public schooling in California, a degree in public policy at Stanford and a law degree from Harvard. His term at the Fed was 2006 to 2011. During the financial crisis he gained experience, and after term at Fed was lecturer at Stanford Business School, and scholar at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. Warsh was considered by DJT for the position of Fed chair but was considered to lack enough experience compared to Powell who was made Fed chairman. In 2026 Warsh 56 years old and with more experience was considered by DJT as the top choice when Hassett was retained at the National Economic Council NEC.

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Biden's ultimate faith in the fairness of the American cause and the American people gets him two big wins with the $280 billion semiconductor bill, and the $369 billion climate change action bill. Biden says about this when many had given up hope- "The work of government can be slow and frustrating, and sometimes even infuriating. Then the hard work of hours, days and months from people who refuse to give up pays off. History is made. Lives are changed." With Europe at war and struggling to get through the winter with gas rationing it was up to America to lead the way as the world faces ever increasing floods, fires and heat waves that affect food supply and environment. And Schumer? The New York Democrat asked about the effort quoted his father who passed away last year. "As my late father said: you need to persist. God will reward you." For months Mr. Manchin a critical vote in the US Senate had opposed the Democrats proposed bills. Then Senators Mark Warner of Virginia, Chris Coons of Delaware, John Hickenlooper of Colorado took a different approach. They did not openly criticize Mr. Manchin, and appealed to his sense of history, his zeal for playing a leading role in a high stakes legislative deal. Schumer and Biden were willing to make some concessions for fossil energy now that with the war in Ukraine the US needed to export LNG to Europe to replace Russian supplies. China and India were still going to be using fossil fuels after COP26 and after the pandemic induced lower growth. The US had to find a different approach some fossil fuel concessions would make it possible to use it as abridge towards the larger goal of getting ahead on renewable energy in a big way. This opened the way for a deal that centrists could support.  ...

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Cem Ozdemir, Baden-Wurttemberg State Premier, with roots in Turkey born in Stuttgart area (parents came to Germany in the 1960's). Cem Ozdemir is exceptional in his popularity in an affluent German state. The 2026 state election campaign was run with focus on Ozdemir, and he did well in his debate with the CDU leader in the state. He led his party to over 30% of the vote. A third of working class voters gave the AfD their vote and it made it to 19% of the vote. The CDU came in second with a half percentage point below the Greens at 29.5%. Ozdemir was pre school educator and has a degree in psychology before he joined the Greens party. Under Chancellor Schroeder he was domestic spokesperson, and under Chancellor Scholz in 2024 he was Agriculture Minister.

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Connor Hellebuyck US ice hockey goalie who turned in 41 saves for the 2-1 win by US over Canada at Olympics in Milan 2026. He had a 96% saved percentage in the Olympics and a 92% saved percentage for the Winnipeg Jets for last 3 seasons. And yet he struggled in some periods when he was not at his best. No one knew he would turn in his best performance ever at this game.