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Mr. Cain Thaler

Stock advice in actual English.

Feds Raid Trenton, NJ Exercising Search Warrants

Federal agents raided City Hall in New Jersey’s capital on Thursday, one day after they swarmed the home of the city’s mayor, as well as those of his brother and a campaign supporter.

“The FBI is executing search warrants at various offices at Trenton City Hall, pursuant to an ongoing investigation,” FBI Public Affairs Officer Barbara Woodruff said.

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Former ACORN Institutional Component Charged With Tax Violation

The former Texas ACORN chapter has a new name and a scheme to collect donations and divert them for political use in a way that abuses tax laws governing charitable organizations, according to a Washington-based public interest group.

Cause of Action, a nonprofit taxpayer watchdog, charged in a letter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that the tax-exempt Texas Organizing Project (TOP), formed from the ashes of scandal-ridden ACORN, is using money funneled to it by a closely associated group called the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund for political activity.

The fund gave nearly 80 percent of its revenues — approximately $640,000 — to the advocacy group in 2010, leading Cause of Action officials to believe its reason for being is to raise charitable donations to send to TOP, which is permitted to fund political activity. TOP has used its website to solicit support for Mary Ann Perez, a Democrat running for state representative.

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Russia, China Veto Syria UN Resolution

UNITED NATIONS – Russia and China again vetoed a Western-backed U.N. resolution Thursday aimed at pressuring President Bashar Assad’s government to end the escalating 16-month conflict in Syria.

The 11-2 vote, with two abstentions from South Africa and Pakistan, was the third double veto of a resolution addressing the Syria crisis by Damascus’ most important allies.

The defeat leaves in limbo the future of the 300-strong U.N. observer mission in Syria, which was forced to suspend operations because of the intensified fighting. Its mandate, to monitor a cease-fire and implementation of international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan, expires Friday.

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who sponsored the Western-backed draft, said he was “appalled” at the third double veto of a resolution aimed at bringing an end to the bloodshed in Syria and creating conditions for political talks. The resolution had threatened sanctions if the Syrian regime didn’t quickly stop using heavy weapons.

“The consequence of their decision is obvious,” he said. “Further bloodshed, and the likelihood of descent into all-out civil war.” Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011, most of them civilians.

“The consequence of today’s action is the situation will continue to deteriorate,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters.

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APC, Government Fail To Settle Tronox Suite

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and its Kerr-McGee unit failed to settle a $25 billion lawsuit brought by the U.S. and Tronox Inc. and a trial will resume next week, a lawyer said. Anadarko fell as much as 5.2 percent.

“There is no settlement agreement and we’re going to be resuming trial” on July 24, John Hueston, a lawyer for the U.S. and Tronox said today in a phone interview. Hueston declined to comment on whether further settlement talks were possible, or potential amounts discussed in the talks, which have been going on since at least July 12.

Anadarko remains “committed to resolving the Tronox litigation through informal negotiations or other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms,” John Christiansen, a company spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. He said that the trial is set to resume July 24, as previously scheduled, and declined to comment on the status of the negotiations, saying they are confidential.

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Union Pacific CEO: Economy To Keep Growing

The economy continues to grow slowly, and the upswing should continue through the rest of the year, Jack Koraleski, Union Pacific CEO, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday.

Koraleski spoke hours after Union Pacific (UNP) posted record second-quarter earnings.

For the quarter, the railroad’s net income rose to $1 billion, or $2.10 per share from $785 million, or $1.59 a share, a year before.

Operating revenue rose 7 percent to $5.2 billion, in line with estimates.

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Battleground States Bombarded With Political Attack Ads

Behind newspaper headlines and TV news chatter about Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital and President Barack Obama’s record on managing the economy is a heavy bombardment of attack advertising.

At mid-summer, more than a month before either major party stages its nominating convention, each side’s message can be summarized simply.

Republicans cast Obama as an old-style politician who has traded “hope and change” for harsh attacks in order to mask his incompetence in turning around the economy. Democrats cast Romney as the personification of what’s wrong with the economy in the first place – a financial wizard whose expertise is not at creating jobs but rather at reaping dubious profits at the expense of middle-class workers.

Those advertisements aren’t seen in vast areas of the country, including huge population centers such as California and New York whose leanings in the presidential race don’t appear in doubt. Instead, they air principally in a handful of swing states that the Obama and Romney campaigns are battling over, including Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Colorado, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia.

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Harry Reid Complains About Campaign Finance Law

Because the law of diminishing returns is apparently not something he understands, here’s Harry Reid to tell you why you’re too stupid to not be controlled by ad money purchasing bad commercials that you’ll probably mute.

Washington (CNN) — When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, pronounced this week that “17 angry old white men will wake up and realize they’ve just bought the country,” after the elections, he echoed the distaste many Americans feel at the secrecy surrounding the flood of money pouring into campaigns.

Political experts estimate $6 billion will be spent during the 2012 presidential elections — a large chunk of it via anonymous donors thanks to a Supreme Court ruling which allows unlimited corporate campaign donations. That’s enough money to give 6/7ths of the world’s population $1 each. Politicos and even comedians have made much ado about the influence of anonymous super rich donors and well heeled super PACs, groups that can raise money from a number of sources and spend unlimited amounts independent of and in support of political campaigns.

Democrats on Capitol Hill bemoaned failed efforts this week at forcing out of the shadows political campaign donors who give more than $10,000 to independent groups. Republicans called Democratic efforts a disingenuous attempt to silence critics by going “after the microphone instead, by trying to scare off the funders,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, long an advocate of campaign donations as a form of free speech.

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Broke California To Build High Speed Rail…On Other’s Dime Of Course

Los Angeles (CNN) — California is poised to become home to the nation’s first truly high-speed rail system with Gov. Jerry Brown’s signing Wednesday of a law authorizing the first leg of construction for a line that will eventually connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.

California will issue $2.6 billion in bonds, with the federal government providing an additional $3.2 billion, to build the initial segment of the high-speed rail between Merced and the San Fernando Valley on the north side of Los Angeles, officials said.

The high-speed rail project was part of a transportation bill signed by Brown that calls for general improvements to the state’s rail system involving a total of $4.7 billion in state funding matched with $7.9 billion in federal and local funds, officials said.

“This legislation will help put thousands of people in California back to work,” Brown said at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, according to a news release. “By improving regional transportation systems, we are investing in the future of our state and making California a better place to live and work.”

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Syria May Collapse Overnight

U.S. policymakers are bracing for a potential “collapse” of the power structure inside Syria, as the Obama administration closely monitors the intensifying violence in the capital.

Following a bomb attack that left several Syrian regime officials dead, a State Department source forwarded to Fox News an assessment from an independent Middle East analyst who monitors social media in the region and provides occasional guidance to the department.

“Tweet trends on #Damascus indicate something will collapse in #Syria next 36 hours,” the message said. “Looks a lot like Tripoli did a year ago.”

The note was a reference to the atmosphere in Libya’s capital before Muammar Qaddafi’s regime was overthrown, and Qaddafi was captured and killed.

It’s unclear whether Damascus has entered such a period, but the capital saw an unprecedented attack Wednesday on Bashar Assad’s regime, when a bomb ripped through a high-level security meeting and killed at least three officials.

Syrian TV confirmed the deaths of Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, 65, a former army general and the most senior government official to be killed in the rebels’ battle to oust Assad; Gen. Assef Shawkat, the deputy defense minister who is married to Assad’s elder sister; and Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister who died of wounds suffered in the attack.

Also wounded were Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar and Maj. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiar, who heads the National Security Department. State TV said both were in stable condition.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking alongside British Defense Minister Philip Hammond on Wednesday, said the escalating violence indicates that the rebels feel emboldened and that the government of Assad is suffering “probably some fragmentation around the edges” as it struggles to keep a grip on power.

The bombing was the harshest blow to the government’s inner circle in the 16-month uprising.

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Awlaki Family, Others Sue US For Illegally Killing US Citizens

Relatives of three U.S. citizens killed in drone strikes in Yemen last year, including radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, are suing the U.S. government for targeting the terrorism suspects “without due process.”

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Wednesday, claims that the killings of U.S. citizens al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and operative Samir Khan were unconstitutional. Khan was the publisher of the terror magazine Inspire.

The complaint, prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Constitutional Rights, was filed against four senior national security officials: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, CIA Director David Petraeus and senior commanders of the military’s Special Operations forces, Adm. William McRaven of the Navy and Lt. Gen. Joseph Votel of the Army.

The lawsuit says: “The U.S. practice of ‘targeted killing’ has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, including many hundreds of civilian bystanders. While some targeted killings have been carried out in the context of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many have taken place outside the context of armed conflict, in countries including Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Sudan, and the Philippines.”

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Spanish Bank’s Earnings Will Be Rough, With Toxic Assets Getting Marked Down

MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish banks’ earnings for the first half of the year, which start on Thursday with Bankinter, are likely to be marked by a continued cleanup of toxic real estate assets which will hit profits.

Although Bankinter is not fully representative of the sector, as it is less exposed to the property market than the rest of Spanish lenders, the medium-sized bank will report a halving in net profit on Thursday, a Reuters poll forecasts.

Euro zone finance ministers will discuss on Friday the conditions attached to the release of up to 100 billion euros ($122 billion) in aid for Spain’s banks, loaded with bad loans following a 2008 property crash and ensuing recession.

The government has demanded banks write down losses of more than 80 billion euros on around 184 billion of repossessed property and bad loans to developers, as well as sound real estate assets, through two laws passed before the country sought European aid for its lenders.

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Shell In Talks To Buy Out Anadarko’s Mozambique Assets

Oh my, yes…

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) has started discussions with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) over a bid for the U.S. producer’s gas assets in Mozambique, where energy companies are looking to tap the largest discoveries in a decade, according to people familiar with the situation.

Europe’s biggest oil company has begun informal talks with Anadarko about a deal for some or all of its 36.5 percent stake in the Rovuma-1 offshore gas fields, though Anadarko is reluctant to sell before further results of exploration in the area are known, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private.

A Royal Dutch Shell Plc deal for Rovuma-1, where an Anadarko-led group has found natural gas equal to as much as six times the U.K.’s existing reserves, would bring the Anglo-Dutch company’s capital and expertise to bear on a complex energy project.

Anadarko hasn’t begun a formal auction process for the stake, which could fetch about $8 billion based on the price Thai energy company PTT Exploration & Production Pcl (PTTEP) offered for the U.K.’s Cove Energy Plc, which holds 8.5 percent of the same fields, they said. Shell this week dropped a plan to buy Cove after its shares more than doubled in a bidding war with PTTEP.

“Big oil certainly see significant resource potential out of East Africa, with Mozambique today offering the largest prize,” said Theepan Jothilingan, an oil analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. “It will be advantageous if you have one of them coming in on the development of the liquefied natural gas project and from that perspective Shell fits the bill. Anadarko will look to scale down at the right price.”

Anadarko shares rose 81 cents, or 1.1 percent, to close at $72.63 in New York, while Shell’s London shares gained 0.6 percent to 2,216 pence.

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Irony: Tobacco Settlement Bonds Will Default If Smoking Continues To Decline

New York, July 12, 2012 — Nearly three-quarters of senior tranches of the tobacco settlement bonds will default should cigarette consumption in the US continue on its current rate of annual decline, says Moody’s Investors Service in a new report. Specifically, the rating agency finds that if the decline in consumption continues at a 3% – 4% pace, as Moody’s projects, bonds constituting 74% of the aggregate outstanding balance of all the tobacco settlement bonds will default.

The finding is consistent with current ratings on the tobacco settlement bonds, 79% of which are rated at B1 or below, says Moody’s in the new report “Sustained Decline in Cigarette Consumption Rates Will Cause Many Tobacco Settlement Bonds to Default.”

“Characteristics that lead bonds to be vulnerable to a lower rate of decline include high leverage, long bond maturity, and low cash reserves,” says Irina Faynzilberg, a Moody’s Vice President-Senior Credit Officer and Manager.

In the report Moody’s presents consumption break-even decline rates for the bonds, which estimate the rate of decline that would lead a particular bond to default.

Moody’s finds that 15 tranches representing 33% of the rated bond balance have an annual consumption decline break-even in the 2%-3% range, while 27 tranches representing 41% of the aggregate rated outstanding balance for all tobacco bonds, have an annual consumption decline break-even in the 3% – 4% range. The analysis assumes a constant rate of decline for the duration of the bonds’ life.

Moody’s calculates the break-evens for cigarette consumption decline rates by conducting iterative cash flow analyses to determine the default threshold for each rated bond, holding all other inputs constant. The default threshold is the highest constant annual decline rate for cigarette consumption at which each bond fully amortizes by its final maturity date without a payment default.

Moody’s notes that although it does not assign ratings based on consumption breakevens, they do closely correlate with ratings.

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Bernanke’s Full Remarks

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Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Shelby, and other members of the Committee, I am pleased to present the Federal Reserve’s semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress. I will begin with a discussion of current economic conditions and the outlook before turning to monetary policy.

The Economic Outlook
The U.S. economy has continued to recover, but economic activity appears to have decelerated somewhat during the first half of this year. After rising at an annual rate of 2-1/2 percent in the second half of 2011, real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 2 percent pace in the first quarter of 2012, and available indicators point to a still-smaller gain in the second quarter.

Conditions in the labor market improved during the latter part of 2011 and early this year, with the unemployment rate falling about a percentage point over that period. However, after running at nearly 200,000 per month during the fourth and first quarters, the average increase in payroll employment shrank to 75,000 per month during the second quarter. Issues related to seasonal adjustment and the unusually warm weather this past winter can account for a part, but only a part, of this loss of momentum in job creation. At the same time, the jobless rate has recently leveled out at just over 8 percent.

Household spending has continued to advance, but recent data indicate a somewhat slower rate of growth in the second quarter. Although declines in energy prices are now providing some support to consumers’ purchasing power, households remain concerned about their employment and income prospects and their overall level of confidence remains relatively low.

We have seen modest signs of improvement in housing. In part because of historically low mortgage rates, both new and existing home sales have been gradually trending upward since last summer, and some measures of house prices have turned up in recent months. Construction has increased, especially in the multifamily sector. Still, a number of factors continue to impede progress in the housing market. On the demand side, many would-be buyers are deterred by worries about their own finances or about the economy more generally. Other prospective homebuyers cannot obtain mortgages due to tight lending standards, impaired creditworthiness, or because their current mortgages are underwater–that is, they owe more than their homes are worth. On the supply side, the large number of vacant homes, boosted by the ongoing inflow of foreclosed properties, continues to divert demand from new construction.

After posting strong gains over the second half of 2011 and into the first quarter of 2012, manufacturing production has slowed in recent months. Similarly, the rise in real business spending on equipment and software appears to have decelerated from the double-digit pace seen over the second half of 2011 to a more moderate rate of growth over the first part of this year. Forward-looking indicators of investment demand–such as surveys of business conditions and capital spending plans–suggest further weakness ahead. In part, slowing growth in production and capital investment appears to reflect economic stresses in Europe, which, together with some cooling in the economies of other trading partners, is restraining the demand for U.S. exports.

At the time of the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), my colleagues and I projected that, under the assumption of appropriate monetary policy, economic growth will likely continue at a moderate pace over coming quarters and then pick up very gradually. Specifically, our projections for growth in real GDP prepared for the meeting had a central tendency of 1.9 to 2.4 percent for this year and 2.2 to 2.8 percent for 2013.1 These forecasts are lower than those we made in January, reflecting the generally disappointing tone of the recent incoming data.2 In addition, financial strains associated with the crisis in Europe have increased since earlier in the year, which–as I already noted–are weighing on both global and domestic economic activity. The recovery in the United States continues to be held back by a number of other headwinds, including still-tight borrowing conditions for some businesses and households, and–as I will discuss in more detail shortly–the restraining effects of fiscal policy and fiscal uncertainty. Moreover, although the housing market has shown improvement, the contribution of this sector to the recovery is less than has been typical of previous recoveries. These headwinds should fade over time, allowing the economy to grow somewhat more rapidly and the unemployment rate to decline toward a more normal level. However, given that growth is projected to be not much above the rate needed to absorb new entrants to the labor force, the reduction in the unemployment rate seems likely to be frustratingly slow. Indeed, the central tendency of participants’ forecasts now has the unemployment rate at 7 percent or higher at the end of 2014.

The Committee made comparatively small changes in June to its projections for inflation. Over the first three months of 2012, the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose about 3-1/2 percent at an annual rate, boosted by a large increase in retail energy prices that in turn reflected the higher cost of crude oil. However, the sharp drop in crude oil prices in the past few months has brought inflation down. In all, the PCE price index rose at an annual rate of 1-1/2 percent over the first five months of this year, compared with a 2-1/2 percent rise over 2011 as a whole. The central tendency of the Committee’s projections is that inflation will be 1.2 to 1.7 percent this year, and at or below the 2 percent level that the Committee judges to be consistent with its statutory mandate in 2013 and 2014.

Risks to the Outlook
Participants at the June FOMC meeting indicated that they see a higher degree of uncertainty about their forecasts than normal and that the risks to economic growth have increased. I would like to highlight two main sources of risk: The first is the euro-area fiscal and banking crisis; the second is the U.S. fiscal situation.

Earlier this year, financial strains in the euro area moderated in response to a number of constructive steps by the European authorities, including the provision of three-year bank financing by the European Central Bank. However, tensions in euro-area financial markets intensified again more recently, reflecting political uncertainties in Greece and news of losses at Spanish banks, which in turn raised questions about Spain’s fiscal position and the resilience of the euro-area banking system more broadly. Euro-area authorities have responded by announcing a number of measures, including funding for the recapitalization of Spain’s troubled banks, greater flexibility in the use of the European financial backstops (including, potentially, the flexibility to recapitalize banks directly rather than through loans to sovereigns), and movement toward unified supervision of euro-area banks. Even with these announcements, however, Europe’s financial markets and economy remain under significant stress, with spillover effects on financial and economic conditions in the rest of the world, including the United States. Moreover, the possibility that the situation in Europe will worsen further remains a significant risk to the outlook.

The Federal Reserve remains in close communication with our European counterparts. Although the politics are complex, we believe that the European authorities have both strong incentives and sufficient resources to resolve the crisis. At the same time, we have been focusing on improving the resilience of our financial system to severe shocks, including those that might emanate from Europe. The capital and liquidity positions of U.S. banking institutions have improved substantially in recent years, and we have been working with U.S. financial firms to ensure they are taking steps to manage the risks associated with their exposures to Europe. That said, European developments that resulted in a significant disruption in global financial markets would inevitably pose significant challenges for our financial system and our economy.

The second important risk to our recovery, as I mentioned, is the domestic fiscal situation. As is well known, U.S. fiscal policies are on an unsustainable path, and the development of a credible medium-term plan for controlling deficits should be a high priority. At the same time, fiscal decisions should take into account the fragility of the recovery. That recovery could be endangered by the confluence of tax increases and spending reductions that will take effect early next year if no legislative action is taken. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that, if the full range of tax increases and spending cuts were allowed to take effect–a scenario widely referred to as the fiscal cliff–a shallow recession would occur early next year and about 1-1/4 million fewer jobs would be created in 2013.3 These estimates do not incorporate the additional negative effects likely to result from public uncertainty about how these matters will be resolved. As you recall, market volatility spiked and confidence fell last summer, in part as a result of the protracted debate about the necessary increase in the debt ceiling. Similar effects could ensue as the debt ceiling and other difficult fiscal issues come into clearer view toward the end of this year.

The most effective way that the Congress could help to support the economy right now would be to work to address the nation’s fiscal challenges in a way that takes into account both the need for long-run sustainability and the fragility of the recovery. Doing so earlier rather than later would help reduce uncertainty and boost household and business confidence.

Monetary Policy
In view of the weaker economic outlook, subdued projected path for inflation, and significant downside risks to economic growth, the FOMC decided to ease monetary policy at its June meeting by continuing its maturity extension program (or MEP) through the end of this year. The MEP combines sales of short-term Treasury securities with an equivalent amount of purchases of longer-term Treasury securities. As a result, it decreases the supply of longer-term Treasury securities available to the public, putting upward pressure on the prices of those securities and downward pressure on their yields, without affecting the overall size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. By removing additional longer-term Treasury securities from the market, the Fed’s asset purchases also induce private investors to acquire other longer-term assets, such as corporate bonds and mortgage backed-securities, helping to raise their prices and lower their yields and thereby making broader financial conditions more accommodative.

Economic growth is also being supported by the exceptionally low level of the target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent and the Committee’s forward guidance regarding the anticipated path of the funds rate. As I reported in my February testimony, the FOMC extended its forward guidance at its January meeting, noting that it expects that economic conditions–including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run–are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014. The Committee has maintained this conditional forward guidance at its subsequent meetings. Reflecting its concerns about the slow pace of progress in reducing unemployment and the downside risks to the economic outlook, the Committee made clear at its June meeting that it is prepared to take further action as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery and sustained improvement in labor market conditions in a context of price stability.

Thank you. I would be pleased to take your questions.

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Bernanke Gives Nothing To QE3 Beggars

(AP) WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy has weakened and the Federal Reserve is ready to take further action to bolster growth if conditions don’t improve, Chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional panel Tuesday. But Bernanke provided no clues about what steps the Fed might take or whether any action was imminent.

Investors were hoping Bernanke would signal that the Fed was ready to launch another round of bond purchases, which aim to drive down long-term interest rates and encourage more borrowing and spending.

Bernanke is delivering his mid-year report on the economy to the Senate Banking Committee. He’ll testify Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee.

His report comes as job growth has slumped, manufacturing has weakened and consumers have grown more cautious about spending.

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What LCD Price Fixing Settlement Means For You

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — For more than eight years, many of the world’s biggest technology manufacturers allegedly colluded to inflate prices for the liquid crystal display (LCD) screens used in televisions, computer monitors, and laptops. Last week, three of them agreed to a $571 million settlement, the latest in a string of deals with payouts that now top $1.1 billion.

Here’s the irony: None of this will actually lower the prices consumers pay for gadgets, analysts predict. LCD prices crashed through the floor in recent years, and price tags have already plunged for items like big-screen TVs.

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Artic Ice Melting Could Lower Gas Prices

CNN) — Most Americans think of the Arctic as an icy, distant place; beautiful, remote and teeming with wildlife, but unrelated to their daily lives. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This summer, big doings on America’s northern doorstep will have enormous consequences to the economic, strategic and environmental future of the nation. Yet we are unprepared for the challenges and opportunities.

What happens in the Arctic as ice melts there could soon cheapen the cost of the gas you buy and products you purchase from Asia. It could help make the nation more energy independent. It could draw our leaders into a conflict over undersea territory. It is already challenging Washington to protect millions of square miles filled with some of the most magnificent wildlife on Earth, and native people whose culture and way of life is at risk as a squall line of development sweeps across the once inaccessible top of the planet.

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Is GM’s Latest Volt Ad Pretty ‘Gay’? Probably…

Sorry, they just dangled that one out there, like low hanging fruit.

Gay and lesbian consumers prefer fuel-efficient cars, account for 5% of new car purchases and have average household income in the six figures — more than that of heterosexual households, according to a recent marketing survey.

So it’s little surprise that General Motors ran a gay-themed advertisement last month for the Chevrolet Volt, the type of car studies show gay and lesbian consumers tend to like.

GM didn’t count on the ad drawing national attention.

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Detroit-Canadian Crossing Shut Down After Bomb Threat

A bomb threat has shut down the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor tonight, the second time in a week an international crossing between the two cities has been threatened.

The threat came in at 7:22 p.m. to Detroit police and triggered the shutdown, as well as a 1,000-yard security zone around the bridge, said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Justin Westmiller and Detroit police.

It is unclear when the bridge would reopen.

“The Ambassador Bridge does have information that there was some kind of a threat called in, and it came from the American side,” Alan Upchurch, spokesman for the Detroit International Bridge Company told the Free Press tonight.

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Moody’s Downgrades Italian Banks

Milan, July 16, 2012 — Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded by one to two notches the long-term debt and deposit ratings for 10, and the issuer ratings for 3, Italian financial institutions, prompted by the weakening of the Italian government’s credit profile, as captured by Moody’s downgrade of Italy’s government bond rating to Baa2 from A3 on 13 July 2012. The long-term debt and deposit ratings of one bank were affirmed.

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