From @BreakingNews Twitter Feed:
Market sources: The Costa Concordia could cost maritime insurers Lloyds of London up to $1bn, the largest insurance loss from a single wreck
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Monthly Archives: January 2012
A Sinking Ship Is the Least of Carnival’s Problems: Read the Consumer Complaints
One can spend hours reading these complaints…Can they really be this bad?
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Comments »Why Is ‘Europe’ a Dirty Word?
Published: January 14, 2012
QUELLE horreur! One of the uglier revelations about President Obama emerging from the Republican primaries is that he is trying to turn the United States into Europe.
“He wants us to turn into a European-style welfare state,” warned Mitt Romney. Countless versions of that horrific vision creep into Romney’s speeches, suggesting that it would “poison the very spirit of America.”
Rick Santorum agrees, fretting that Obama is “trying to impose some sort of European socialism on the United States.”
Who knew? Our president is plotting to turn us into Europeans. Imagine:
It’s a languid morning in Peoria, as a husband and wife are having breakfast. “You’re sure you don’t want eggs and bacon?” the wife asks. “Oh, no, I prefer these croissants,” the husband replies. “They have a lovely je ne sais quoi.”
He dips the croissant into his café au-lait and chews it with zest. “What do you want to do this evening?” he asks. “Now that we’re only working 35 hours a week, we have so much more time. You want to go to the new Bond film?”
“I’d rather go to a subtitled art film,” she suggests. “Or watch a pretentious intellectual television show.”
“I hear Kim Kardashian is launching a reality TV show where she discusses philosophy and global politics with Bernard-Henri Lévy,” he muses. “Oh, chérie, that reminds me, let’s take advantage of the new pétanque channel and host a super-boules party.”
“Parfait! And we must work out our vacation, now that we can take all of August off. Instead of a weekend watching ultimate fighting in Vegas, let’s go on a monthlong wine country tour.”
“How romantic!” he exclaims. “I used to worry about getting sick on the road. But now that we have universal health care, no problem!”
Look out: another term of Obama, and we’ll all greet each other with double pecks on the cheek.
Yet there is something serious going on. The Republican candidates unleash these attacks on Obama because so many Americans have in mind a caricature of Europe as an effete, failed socialist system. As Romney puts it: “Europe isn’t working in Europe. It’s not going to work here.”
(Monsieur Romney is getting his comeuppance. Newt Gingrich has released an attack ad, called “The French Connection,” showing clips of Romney speaking the language of Paris. The scandalized narrator warns: “Just like John Kerry, he speaks French!”)
But the basic notion of Europe as a failure is a dangerous misconception. The reality is far more complicated.
Read the rest here.
Comments »BREAKING: Huntsman to Quit GOP Race
WASHINGTON (AP) – Jon Huntsmanwill withdraw Monday from the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Campaign officials tell The Associated Press Huntsman will endorse Mitt Romney at an event in South Carolina on Monday morning.
The former Utah governor placed third in last week’s New Hampshire primary despite devoting much of his campaign resources to the state. He had already acknowledged that expectations for him in South Carolina’s primary this week will be “very low.”
Read the rest here.
Comments »Brady/Tebow NFL Playoff Game Gets Highest Ratings in 18 Years for $CBS
CARNIVAL CRUISE (CCL) INVESTORS BRACE FOR CARNAGE
Costa Concordia: “It is Unbelievable”
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAPK3HpI7Q0 603 500]
Comments »Amateur Video Captures Terror Felt By Those Evacuating the Sinking Ship
AMATEUR VIDEO: Shocked Costa Concordia Passengers Escape Sinking
Scotland’s ‘Explosive’ Push to Secede from the UK
By The Week’s Editorial Staff | The Week – Fri, Jan 13, 2012
Scotland’s first minister promises to hold a referendum on Scottish independence. Could it really succeed?
Scottish nationalists have dreamed of independence for centuries, and now, Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond is really trying to pull it off. Salmond has announced plans to hold a referendum in fall 2014 on breaking away from the United Kingdom, setting off a week of friction between Edinburgh and London. Will Scotland and the U.K. really part ways? Here’s what you should know:
What exactly is Scotland’s relationship to the U.K.?
More than 300 years ago, Scotland and England were joined by the Act of Union that formally created the U.K. (the two nations, though separate, had already been ruled by one king for more than a century). Today, Queen Elizabeth II is still Scotland’s head of state. Scotland has a government, legal system, and parliament of its own, in addition to representatives in the U.K. Parliament.
And Scotland wants independence?
Some Scots do. Such talk has been percolating ever since 1707, when the U.K. was formed. But over the centuries, there didn’t seem to be much chance that the split would actually happen. Now, says Alex Massie at The Daily Beast, “for the first time since Bonnie Prince Charlie led an army of Highland Scots into England in 1745, the survival of the United Kingdom is in doubt.”
What’s driving this latest push?
In the 1980s, conservative Tories failed to deliver a promised referendum to establish a Scottish assembly and faced a brutal backlash from voters. The Labor party didn’t want to make the same mistake, and in 1997, a referendum passed leading to the creation of the Scottish Parliament. There, resurgent Scottish national sentiment has thrived. One major driver: The common wisdom that unity with its larger neighbor was essential for Scotland’s prosperity has eroded over the last few decades, particularly as Scotland’s heavy industry declined.
But why now?
Last May, Salmond’s Scottish National Party won 69 of Parliament’s 129 seats. It was “a thumping, astonishing victory” when you consider there are five parties in the system, Massie says, and the seemingly clear and overwhelming mandate made a referendum on independence “inevitable.” Indeed, it makes perfect sense that this would be happening now, says Heather Horn at The Atlantic. Europe is in the grip of a painful economic crisis, and “nationalism surges as economies stagnate.”
Read the rest here.
Crusie Ship Captain Abandoned Ship, Left Passengers On Board to Perish
Investigators now believe the ship was dangerously close to the shore and hit a rock that the captain claims was unmarked.
The captain of the ship, Francesco Schettino, is now in custody, facing possible charges with manslaughter and abandoning his ship.
Schettino was detained by authorities and questioned along with the ship’s first bridge officer, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. ANSA said the captain could face criminal charges.
The agency reported that Schettino could be charged with abandoning ship since he reportedly left the stricken vessel about 12:30 a.m., while many passengers didn’t get safely off the ship until 6 a.m.
There are also reports in the Italian press that Schettino took the Costa Concordia close to the harbor of Giglio island many times in the past so his passengers could take photographs.
The captain’s lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, said Schettino was taken to the Grosseto jail, but argued that the captain was a hero.
“I would like to say that hundreds of people owe their life to the captain of the Costa Concordia’s skill in an emergency,” the lawyer said. “You have to be very good to bring a ship like this which is 117,000 tons and 300 meters long, which is sinking after a collision, close to land to allow for easy rescue so as to save so many people. I think the maneuver was brilliant from a nautical point of view.”
Harrowing tales of chaos ensued for several hours as the crew and passengers tried to scramble to safety.
Comments »Nearly 1 Million Workers Vanished Under Obama
By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 01/12/2012 04:29 PM ET
Initial jobless claims unexpectedly jumped by 24,000 last week to 399,000 as more workers lost their jobs, the Labor Department said Thursday. At the same time, the economy continues to lose workers.
In the 30 months since the recession officially ended, nearly 1 million people have dropped out of the labor force — they aren’t working, and they aren’t looking — according to data from Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the past two months, the labor force shrank by 170,000.
This is virtually unprecedented in past economic recoveries, at least since the BLS has kept detailed records. In the past nine recoveries, the labor force had climbed an average 3.5 million by this point, according to an IBD analysis of the BLS data.
“Given weak job prospects, many would-be workers dropped out of (or never entered) the labor force,” noted Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute in her analysis of the BLS jobs report issued last Friday. “That reduces the measured unemployment rate but does not represent real improvement.”
According to the BLS, the “labor force participation rate” — the ratio of the number of people either working or looking for work compared with the entire working-age population — is now 64%, down from 65.7% when the recession ended in June 2009. That’s the lowest level since women began entering the workforce in far greater numbers several decades ago.
If you adjust for this drop, the unemployment rate would be close to 11%, instead of the official 8.5%.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Your World in Five Minutes (video)
Drink up life; always smell the roses !
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGnrT0F-Igs 450 300] Comments »Banks Turn to Gaming to Engage Younger Demographic
IMF Warns Over Global Housing Price Plunge
A Harry Dent Interview on a Peak Spending Decline
How Damaging is ECB Imposed Austerity ?
Billionaire Backers of 2012 Presidential Election
Money, as we know, talks.
And in this Presidential Primary season it’s not just talking, it’s filibustering.
The new Super PACs ushered in by a pair of federal court rulings allows for single donors whether individuals or unions or companies to make unlimited contributions.
Super PACs aren’t allowed to coordinate directly with the campaigns, but many are making their feelings known.
Three billionaires have made no secret of their support of specific candidates: Meet Sheldon Adelson. The casino king has a net worth of $21.5 billion.
According to Forbes, his company, the Las Vegas Sands, has scored by developing casino properties in Singapore and Macau. But you may be familiar with his American properties — the Venetian and the Palazzo , both in Vegas. He’s also known for developing Comdex, the marquee computer conference event.
Adelson is the son of a taxi driver and dropped out of the City College of New York. His donation of five million to Newt Gingrich helped resuscitate the Speakers’ campaign after the Iowa Caucus.
Then there’s Jon Huntsman Senior, the father of candidate Jon Huntsman, who founded Huntsman Chemical. He has a net worth of more than $1.5 billion.
Huntsman — the company — was once the largest privately held chemical company in the nation, and Huntsman Senior built it acquisition by acquisition.
Spiking oil prices forced the billionaire to sell just under half the company, but he turned that around last year, taking the company public. His investments in the Super PAC backing his son is said to be in the millions.
Finally, Foster Friess, the mutual fund king, is the major financial backer of a Super PAC supporting Rick Santorum. Friess founded his own management firm, Friess Associates, which grew to a nearly $16 billion fund under the name Brandywine. In the 1990’s, it was a top performer posting average annual gains of 20 percent.
Friess is a long time donor to social conservative causes that Santorum has championed. More information on Super PACs and their donors will be made public at the end of the month.
We’ll report on all those numbers, even the wealthy folks contributing to the President’s re-election campaign.
Read more: http://trade.cc/zdf#ixzz1jXphPuoE
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