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Nations see dip of dollar as threat to economies

U.S. pushes China on yuan

Patrice Hill

The Washington Times

8:44 p.m., Wednesday, October 6, 2010

While the United States has been fussing at China for gaining an advantage in trade by depressing the value of its currency, other nations — while agreeing about China — are increasingly focused on the falling dollar and concern that the U.S. may be doing the same thing.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Wednesday stepped up U.S. demands that China stop closely controlling the value of its currency and allow it to rise against the dollar, suggesting that the Asian giant may be violating its pledge last year to move toward freer exchange rates with other Group of 20 economic powers.

"We have moved aggressively to do our part to help bring the world out of crisis," said Mr. Geithner, noting Congress' enactment of strict new regulatory reforms on Wall Street this summer, and a big drop in the U.S. trade deficit since 2008 as a result of greater savings and less spending by U.S. consumers.

While not mentioning China specifically in his speech to the Brookings Institution, Mr. Geithner pointed to what he described as other "major economies" with chronic large trade surpluses and undervalued currencies, in an unmistakable reference to the Asian giant.

European nations echoed Mr. Geithner's criticism in a separate forum with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Brussels, and called on China to allow more rapid appreciation of its currency, the yuan or renminbi. That prompted a strong rebuke from the Chinese leader.

"Do not work to pressurize us on the renminbi rate," he said. "Yes, we are going to proceed with the reforms," but he suggested the bigger problem for the world economy was the recent large drop in the U.S. dollar, which is the world's main reserve currency.

Mr. Wen warned of dire consequences if China were to abandon its gradual currency reform and allow a rapid rise of the yuan.

"Many of our exporting companies would have to close down, migrant workers would have to return to their villages," he said. "If China saw social and economic turbulence, that would be a disaster for the world."

But the United States. received strong backing in its dispute with China from an important quarter — the International Monetary Fund. In a report Wednesday, the IMF urged China and other Asian nations with large trade surpluses to stop devaluing their currencies, rely less on exports for growth and encourage more consumer and business spending at home.

While the IMF expects the world economy to keep growing this year — led by double-digit growth in China and other developing countries — it warned that the resumption of distorted trade patterns that prevailed before the recession could undermine the economy once again.

The recovery is "neither strong nor balanced and runs the risk of not being sustained," said Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist. He added that the threat of a downward deflationary spiral in the United States, Japan and other developed nations remains viable.

Renewed economic weakness in the United States this summer — and the Federal Reserve's vow to fight a relapse into recession with even looser money policies — set off a rapid drop in the dollar against other free-floating currencies. Since August, the dollar has lost 8 percent of its value against the euro, and is down by 5 percent against major world currencies.

The dollar's rapid decline has provoked a chain reaction in other countries, ranging from a decision by Australia not to raise interest rates this week to a forceful intervention in currency markets to support the dollar by Japan and a dramatic move by the Bank of Japan to slash interest rates to zero this week.

Because the U.S. dollar is the world's dominant currency, it is taking center stage along with the spat with China at the run-up to an IMF meeting in Washington this weekend as well as a G-20 meeting planned in Seoul next month.

Brazil's finance minister created ripples in financial circles by suggesting last week that the decline of the dollar was setting off an "international currency war." Brazil itself has imposed taxes on hot money coming across its border in an attempt to stem the rapid rise of its own currency, the real.

With the U.S. and most other nations vowing to offset weakness in their own economies by trying to increase exports, some analysts fear that the kind of competitive devaluations that erupted during the Great Depression could be in the offing.

"Beggar thy neighbor is back," said Harm Bandholz, economist at Unicredit Markets. He said the U.S., Japan and United Kingdom are all deliberately weakening their currencies to try to gain an advantage in trade. The Obama administration has set the goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years.

But Raghav Subbarao, analyst at Barclays Capital, says he doesn't see a currency war on the horizon just yet, though he expects the G-20 meeting to be especially tense as nations sound off about their currency grievances..

"It would clearly be impossible for every country to follow a policy of competitive devaluations simultaneously," he said, but the temptation is there because the U.S. and other developed nations seem to have reached the limits of using fiscal and monetary policies to try to stimulate their economies.

With interest rate already at or near zero, "governments are increasingly turning to exchange rate policy as a means to maintain or improve their competitive positions," he said. That means the risks of a currency war, "although quite low, are increasing," he said.

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=69016&sitesection=ndnsubss&VID=102316

Vucci/APSome of Hillary Clinton's advisors see her as Obama's 2012 running mate, Bob Woodward says.

An Obama-Clinton ticket could be in the cards in 2012, Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter Bob Woodward said Tuesday.

And in a surprise twist, Vice President Biden would take over Secretary of State Clinton's post, keeping the Obama administration's talent intact, Woodward told CNN.

"It's on the table," Woodward revealed. "Some of Hillary Clinton's advisers see it as a real possibility in 2012."

Political insiders have talked about the Clinton-Biden switch for months as a way to build excitement among the Democratic base. But it never has been clear before if the idea has been kicked around in the White House.

"President Obama needs some of the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with during the 2008 primaries," so the switch is "not out of the question," Woodward said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/10/06/2010-10-06_obamahil_ticket_on_the_table.html#ixzz11Zi4brfW

Moss trade to Vikings close

Contract extension the key

Monique Walker and Shalise Manza Young

  Globe Staff / October 6, 2010

A day after Moss didn’t have a catch in a game for the first time since the 2006 season, rumors swirled the receiver is on the trading block and may be headed to Minnesota.

The Patriots and Vikings have been in trade talks for a while, and as of last night were close to a deal if Moss and the Vikings can agree on a contract extension, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports said on WEEI’s “Planet Mikey Show’’ last night.

A Patriots official responded by saying simply, “There’s no trade.’’ Efforts to reach Moss’s agent, Joel Segal, were unsuccessful.

The Vikings and Moss have yet to talk about a contract extension, but late last night ESPN cited sources saying the trade will be completed today.

Segal asked the Patriots for a trade on Moss’s behalf after New England’s Week 1 win over Cincinnati, the Herald reported. After that game, Moss, 33, broke his summer-long silence with a passionate but bizarre news conference in which he stated his desire to remain with the team and his willingness to leave the organization if he didn’t get a new contract before the end of this season.

Moss addressed many issues at the news conference, including his contract.

“If you do a good job . . . you want to be appreciated. I don’t think me, personally, I’m appreciated,’’ he said that day. “I want to let you all know, I want to let the fans — the real fans — of the New England Patriots know that I’m not here to start any trouble. I’m going to play my last year out on my contract, and as I’ve said time and time again since I signed my first contract here, I want to be here in New England. It’s a great group of guys here, a well-coached group here, and I never said I want to leave New England.

“But I just think, from a business standpoint, this probably will be my last year here as a Patriot. And I’m not retiring, I’m still going to play some football.’’

Glazer said he didn’t think the trade was the result of the Patriots having any problems with Moss, but rather a chance for them to get something for the receiver, as he is in the last year of his contract.

Moss has not received permission from the Patriots to negotiate with another team, according to the NFL Network, but a deal could be done without that, however.

The Vikings (1-2) are in desperate need of a big-play threat with star receiver Sidney Rice out for at least the first half of the season because of offseason hip surgery.

Another Vikings game-breaker, receiver Percy Harvin, was plagued by migraines during training camp. He has 12 catches, 106 yards, and one touchdown in three games this season, but Harvin doesn’t extend the field like Moss, who has just nine receptions in four games, but has 139 receiving yards and three touchdowns, the type of home-run hitter quarterback Brett Favre has been pleading for.

The Vikings tried to acquire receiver Vincent Jackson from the Chargers two weeks ago but couldn’t reach an agreement with San Diego.

If a trade goes through, it would return Moss to the team that drafted him in the first round out of Marshall in 1998. It also would create a rather interesting matchup Oct. 31 when the Vikings come to Gillette Stadium.

On Monday night, Moss was frequently on the field, but quarterback Tom Brady looked his way just once, on a fake spike at the close of the first half. The pass went off Moss’s fingertips in the end zone.

Moss rejuvenated his career with the Patriots when he arrived via a trade from the Raiders in 2007. He signed a three-year, $27 million contract at the end of the ’07 season that ends after this season. In the offseason, Moss fired his longtime agent, Tim DiPiero, and signed with Segal.

Moss trade to Vikings close

Contract extension the key

Monique Walker and Shalise Manza Young

  Globe Staff / October 6, 2010

A day after Moss didn’t have a catch in a game for the first time since the 2006 season, rumors swirled the receiver is on the trading block and may be headed to Minnesota.

The Patriots and Vikings have been in trade talks for a while, and as of last night were close to a deal if Moss and the Vikings can agree on a contract extension, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports said on WEEI’s “Planet Mikey Show’’ last night.

A Patriots official responded by saying simply, “There’s no trade.’’ Efforts to reach Moss’s agent, Joel Segal, were unsuccessful.

The Vikings and Moss have yet to talk about a contract extension, but late last night ESPN cited sources saying the trade will be completed today.

Segal asked the Patriots for a trade on Moss’s behalf after New England’s Week 1 win over Cincinnati, the Herald reported. After that game, Moss, 33, broke his summer-long silence with a passionate but bizarre news conference in which he stated his desire to remain with the team and his willingness to leave the organization if he didn’t get a new contract before the end of this season.

Moss addressed many issues at the news conference, including his contract.

“If you do a good job . . . you want to be appreciated. I don’t think me, personally, I’m appreciated,’’ he said that day. “I want to let you all know, I want to let the fans — the real fans — of the New England Patriots know that I’m not here to start any trouble. I’m going to play my last year out on my contract, and as I’ve said time and time again since I signed my first contract here, I want to be here in New England. It’s a great group of guys here, a well-coached group here, and I never said I want to leave New England.

“But I just think, from a business standpoint, this probably will be my last year here as a Patriot. And I’m not retiring, I’m still going to play some football.’’

Glazer said he didn’t think the trade was the result of the Patriots having any problems with Moss, but rather a chance for them to get something for the receiver, as he is in the last year of his contract.

Moss has not received permission from the Patriots to negotiate with another team, according to the NFL Network, but a deal could be done without that, however.

The Vikings (1-2) are in desperate need of a big-play threat with star receiver Sidney Rice out for at least the first half of the season because of offseason hip surgery.

Another Vikings game-breaker, receiver Percy Harvin, was plagued by migraines during training camp. He has 12 catches, 106 yards, and one touchdown in three games this season, but Harvin doesn’t extend the field like Moss, who has just nine receptions in four games, but has 139 receiving yards and three touchdowns, the type of home-run hitter quarterback Brett Favre has been pleading for.

The Vikings tried to acquire receiver Vincent Jackson from the Chargers two weeks ago but couldn’t reach an agreement with San Diego.

If a trade goes through, it would return Moss to the team that drafted him in the first round out of Marshall in 1998. It also would create a rather interesting matchup Oct. 31 when the Vikings come to Gillette Stadium.

On Monday night, Moss was frequently on the field, but quarterback Tom Brady looked his way just once, on a fake spike at the close of the first half. The pass went off Moss’s fingertips in the end zone.

Moss rejuvenated his career with the Patriots when he arrived via a trade from the Raiders in 2007. He signed a three-year, $27 million contract at the end of the ’07 season that ends after this season. In the offseason, Moss fired his longtime agent, Tim DiPiero, and signed with Segal.

45-Year-Old Man Arrested for Shooting Teen Over Saggy Pants

April Thompson 5:43 PM CDT, October 4, 2010

FAST FACTS:

• Argument erupts over saggy pants
• Police say 45 year old man shot at 17 and 16 year olds
• 17-year-old hit in the buttocks

(Memphis 10/4/2010) - In the 4400 block of Whiteside a show down over pants down.

Police say on the South Memphis street corner, 45-year-old Kenneth Bonds pulled out a gun and fired at a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old, after an argument.

The topic was the teenagers' sagging pants.

According to the police report, the teens said they were walking when Bonds began yelling at them to pull their pants up.

The teens said they called Bonds fat and told him to shut up.

They say that's when Bonds appeared with a silver handgun.

They started running and Bonds started shooting, hitting the 17-year-old in the buttocks.

The teens were taken to the hospital by a family member who called police.

Kenneth Bonds was arrested for aggravated assault.

At the North Memphis home were Bonds grew up, his grandmother said its not like her grandson.

"He's a nice person. He is my oldest grandson. Comes by to see about me," says his grandmother.

Neighbors say Bonds was visiting friends when he had the confrontation with the teens.

Police say Bonds admitted to shooting the 17-year-old after an argument.

The teen hit by the gunfire is expected to be o.k.

Kenneth Bonds' previous arrest history mostly involved traffic offenses.

He is out of jail on $25,000 bond and will be back in court October 11th.

Shultz to Obama: 'You're out of your mind'

Former secretary of state blasts Afghan withdrawal date

Ben Birnbaum

The Washington Times

11:48 p.m., Monday, October 4, 2010

George P. Shultz

Reagan-era Secretary of State George Shultz blasted President Obama Monday night for his scheduled July 2011 date to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

EDITORIAL: The cliche president

Change turns out to be the same old policies

The Washington Times                                                                                   6:13 p.m., Friday, October 1, 2010

President Barack Obama waves to the crowd at a rally at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wis., Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Obama sat down last week with "Good Morning America" for a long and exclusive interview in which he announced that his administration was no longer working for "change" to solve America's problems. "My administration is going to specifically focus on training 10,000 new math and science teachers," he said. With a brutal midterm smackdown looming, Mr. Obama is desperate enough to break out the cliches.

Consider how the local-community-organizer-turned-national-schools-chancellor opined that "we can't spend our way out" of education problems. Without skipping a beat, he went on to provide a long list of ways he thinks we need to increase spending on schools. This is a well-worn tactic. President Carter raised federal schools spending and boosted the number of public school employees. President Reagan increased federal schools spending and added to the number of public school employees. President George H.W. Bush did the same thing. President Clinton raised spending along with his promise of 100,000 new teachers. The most recent former White House resident, George W. Bush, enthusiastically embraced the same effort.

When Mr. Carter was inaugurated, state, local and federal governments spent about $65,000 on a complete K-12 education. By the time Mr. Obama raised his right hand, that inflation-adjusted amount had grown to nearly $150,000, in part because nearly twice as many school employees were involved in each child's education. Yet national test scores didn't budge.

Each "education president" could proudly claim that the achievement of nothing was a vast improvement over having done nothing and achieved less. That's exactly what Mr. Obama argues about his stimulus - a plan cribbed in large measure from his presidential predecessors. From the beginning, Mr. Obama promoted green energy to the forefront of this spending scheme. And indeed, each of his five predecessors signed off on the same kind of regulatory favoritism, financial subsidy and tax breaks meant to move America toward biofuels, wind and solar power, and whatever other esoteric energy sources are currently popular, from algae-based jet fuel to zebra-dung barbecue briquets. Despite decades of spending, planning and more spending, it is unclear whether the 21st-century "green energy economy" will actually arrive anytime during the 21st century.

Mr. Obama's political advisers have been signaling the move to a cliche presidency for some time. Last month, Mr. Obama proposed a blueprint for increased infrastructure spending to boost the ailing U.S. economy. Each of Mr. Obama's five most recent predecessors either proposed or signed into law similar boosts in transportation spending whether the economy was growing or shrinking. Each time, plans did just enough of nothing to leave the next president in dire need of yet more transportation spending.

Until voters decide that achieving something is more important than doing something, cliches are all we are going to get

Mon Oct 04 07:50am PDT

How Carlos Boozer really broke his right hand

Kelly Dwyer

Carlos Boozer joined the Bulls in a sign-and-trade deal this offseason.

Damen Jackson/Icon SMI

CHICAGO (AP) -- Bulls forward Carlos Boozer, one of Chicago's top offseason acquisitions, broke his right hand after tripping over a bag at his home and could miss two months.

Boozer fractured the fifth metacarpal bone in his hand Saturday and will have surgery Tuesday. He was evaluated by team physician Dr. Brian Cole and hand specialist Dr. Marc Cohen of Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, one of the nation's top sports medicine centers.

"It was just dark. My doorbell had rang and I tripped over a bag, tried to brace myself and it popped. I jumped back up, opened the door and my hand was still a little bit numb,'' Boozer told reporters at a Bulls practice Sunday evening.

Boozer said it was a bag he'd had at training camp.

"I went back to my place, hadn't unpacked the bag yet, came around the corner, running to get the door and fell over it,'' he said. "I'm 265, 5 percent body fat. I'm heavy, man. I guess I had to brace myself and my weight just collapsed the bone right there.''

Boozer spent the previous six years with Utah and averaged 19.5 points and 11.2 rebounds last season before joining the Bulls in a sign-and-trade deal.

A two-time All-Star, Boozer has a five-year deal worth about $75 million. The Bulls were counting on him to team with Joakim Noah for a solid inside game, while also giving star point guard Derrick Rose an option on the pick-and-roll.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/nba/10/03/bulls.boozer.ap/index.html#ixzz11QSkCx6y

Troubled W. Pa. city lays off 9, plus police dog

Wed Sep 29, 9:08 pm ET

JEANNETTE, Pa. –The financial situation is so bad in one western Pennsylvania city that even its police dog has been laid off. Jeannette City Council on Tuesday voted to lay off nine workers of the city's 47 workers effective Oct. 5. They include three of the city's 12 police, including Officer Justin Scalzo who handles the city's drug-sniffing dog, Wando.

Police Chief Brad Shepler said the layoffs come at a time when the city is seeing a boom in drug trafficking. Shepler's department is also losing its two meter maids and a secretary.

The other layoffs involved trash collectors and public works employees.

The city has a projected $440,000 budget shortfall. Some of the workers could be called back if finances improve.

Platt/GettyHomeless advocates defend storage program, which allows homeless families to store furniture and other personal items.

Taxpayers shelled out $8.5 million last year to store furniture for the city's homeless - a program welfare officials admit could be done for less.

Now their goal is to do it cheaper, not to eliminate the perk, which is required by the state.

"We hope to reduce the cost," said city Human Resources Administration spokeswoman Connie Ress.

Officials collected bids this summer to hire one storage company for the job - replacing the current system that lets homeless clients find storage and bill the city. Last year's $8.5 million bill for 6,300 clients was $1 million more than 2008's, according to HRA, due mostly to the city's growing homeless population.

Ress estimates the agency will save $1 million by streamlining the process.

The storage service, which is paid for with federal, state and city funds, began in 1985. HRA and homeless advocates defend the program, which allows homeless families to store furniture and other personal items, saying it saves taxpayers money in the end.

"It's economical in the long run, so they don't have to buy [the items] all over again," said Patrick Marquee of the Coalition for the Homeless.

The city paid $15.7 million to 31,000 people last year to help them "establish a home" and spent about $1 million more in moving fees.

HRA said this assistance is necessary because families that have to spend money on furniture and moving costs are more likely to end up back in shelters.

"It's one of those emergency needs the state requires," Ress said.

Government waste groups were on the fence about supporting the storage program, saying they don't condone throwing out people's furniture but question why the city isn't using its own space to store items cheaply.

"The choice of whether you take someone's belongings and toss them because they are homeless is tough," said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste.

"Once the decision is made, it's incumbent on the government to make sure it's done in the most cost-effective way."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/04/2010-10-04_doling_out_85m_to_mind_storage.html#ixzz11QCWNMUh

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-just-kids-partnership-20101004,0,914267,full.story