Wednesday, March 4, 2009

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AIG Filings: $12 Billion Exposure To More Losses Top
AIG, the insurer controlled by the US government, still faces billions of dollars in potential losses on credit guarantees it provided for complex subprime mortgage securities, in spite of its $62bn fourth-quarter loss and regulatory efforts to unwind its holdings, company filings show. The difficulties the authorities face in dealing with AIG spilled into the open on Tuesday as Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, expressed anger with the company in an appearance before the Senate budget committee. More on AIG Bailout
 
Sherri Shepherd To Star In Lifetime Comedy Pilot Top
Sherri Shepherd may be pulling double duty. Lifetime has ordered a pilot for an untitled multicamera comedy to star the comedian and "The View" co-host. The project, loosely based on Shepherd's experiences, was originally developed for the CW during the 2007-08 development season. Dave Flebotte penned the script about a woman who contends with her husband's infidelity and his illegitimate child when she allows the child and mother to move in with them. More on Sherri Shepherd
 
Ari Melber: Michael Steele's Heavy Handed Hip Hop Top
"Are there any conservatives in the house?" thundered Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican Party. He was getting funky, to use the GOP's new vernacular, as he scanned the hotel ballroom for young conservatives: "Young people in the house, stand up!" Turning to serious matters, Steele urged his allies to acknowledge their party's mistakes, while salting the message with millennial slang. "Tell America: 'We know the past, we know we did wrong-- my bad .' " Escalating the banter, master of ceremonies Michelle Bachmann, a 52-year-old Minnesota Congresswoman most famous for suggesting an investigation of Barack Obama's "anti-American views," took the mic from Steele and proclaimed, "You be da man!" Twice. Who needs SNL when you have CPAC ? This cultural flailing might seem like little more than fodder for the late-night shows, but it also reinforces the demographic conundrum facing Republicans. And no, I'm not just talking about race. Steele is the first African-American chairman of the GOP, a striking development that remains forever overshadowed by its catalyst, the election of President Obama. Leading a party pales next to leading the country, of course, but even if Steele had a bigger job, there are no silver medals for breaking barriers. You don't remember Larry Doby , do you? So Steele soldiers on, sans street cred, in pursuit of those voters Obama won so convincingly. (More on who they are in a minute.) The strategy, Steele told the Washington Times, is a "hip-hop makeover" for Republicans. And he meant it. In the past few weeks, Steele has reached out to the President via rap lyrics; advocated conservative principles in a television debate with Chuck D., star of the politically charged hip-hop group Public Enemy and, in a sign that Steele may be on to something, provoked a challenge for a freestyle rap battle from Stephen Colbert. Yes, Proposition Eight can finally meet Eight Mile . Now who exactly is this all for? The media coverage has focused, predictably, on black voters. A Sunday article in the Boston Globe asked whether Steele can "lure minorities" to the GOP, while pundits have scoffed at the idea the Republicans would out-organize Barack Obama in black communities. Yet Steele is not just targeting black voters--the Democrats' most reliable voting bloc long before hope was trendy. He is focused on young voters, who flocked to Obama in the largest demographic shift of the 2008 election. The new chairman has said so directly, too: "Where we have fallen down in delivering a message is in having something to say, particularly to young people." And he is right--about the problem, anyway. In 2004, John Kerry won voters under 30 by nine points, and lost every other age group. Last year, Obama won those young voters by a staggering 34 points . (And he lost voters over 45). If Obama can hold those voters' support, and keep them backing Democrats in Congress, the Republicans really would have no national future. Young voters back Obama's policies, sure, but many also appreciate his youthful style and new-school "brand." For this generation, by default, hip-hop is the shared cultural experience. (See the top albums of the last decade, for example.) Obama's comfort with that culture, and endorsements from its leaders, has earned him generational credibility. When Obama channeled Jay-Z on the campaign trail to brush the "dirt" of petty attacks off his shoulders, young people knew exactly what he meant. Older television pundits did not get the reference. Some even conceded their confusion while blasting the gesture as "contemptuous," (as the Washington Post reported at the time). Obama invoked hip-hop deftly and accurately. He played on the theme that being tough does not mean you respond to every attack. Just as Jay-Z confidently brushes away his enemies, and hip-hop culture scolds the "haters" who pillory successful people, Obama signaled that his political approach--transcending trench warfare and pessimistic snark--was cool, current and strong. Now contrast that to Steele's gimmicky foray into dusty LPs. Here is his debut in the NewYork Times after assuming the chairmanship: " 'It's going to be an honor to spar with [Obama],' he said, before throwing down the gauntlet to Mr. Obama with a quotation from... a rap song by Kool Moe Dee: 'How ya like me now?' " First of all, what is he talking about? How does the president like a former lieutenant governor now that he's become chairman of the opposition party? It doesn't even make sense. Second, the album is twenty-two years old, so this reference does not exactly resonate with young people. The spectacle got more awkward when Steele offered Bobby Jindal some "slum love" for doing a "friggin' awesome job" as governor of Louisiana, in an ABC radio interview. As the Wonkette blog pointed out, this mess of a shoutout was actually coaxed out of Steele, based on his proclivity for questionable slang. All this heavy-handed hip-hop may make him "da man" for fellow travelers like Rep. Bachman. To young people, Steele just looks like he's fronting . In the end, however, this is all still a welcome trend. For decades, our national politics were fueled by a supposed cultural backlash from older whites--from Willie Horton and the White Hands to the Pledge of Allegiance and the Confederate Flag--which Republicans exploited and relayed through a range of cultural tropes. Democrats used to nervously compete on this turf. Just last year, in fact, an old-school consultant flanked by the battle flag was chiding Obama to drop the urban "elitism" and get rural. Now the turntables have turned, as the GOP chairman might say. It is Republicans who are frantically remixing their message for cultural appeal, targeting a new generation of voters who speak a different language. And the Democrats, led by Obama, have found their rhythm. -- This column originally ran in The Nation .
 
Joseph A. Palermo: Mr. Gekko Goes to Washington Top
The person the United States Senate appointed to chair the panel to oversee the massive federal bailouts of the financial services industry, Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren, reported that the first $350 billion installment of the "Troubled Asset Relief Program" (TARP) was victim to a taxpayer rip-off to the tune of $78 billion. Now, I'm not an economist or a lawyer, but that fact sounds to me like someone, somewhere, somehow needs to go to jail. American International Group (AIG), which never should have been allowed to consolidate into such a monstrous conglomerate in the first place, is now "too big to fail" and holds hostage the nation's state and municipal employees' pension plans. This giant insurance-slash-brokerage-slash-investment-slash-commercial-slash-"financial services" company now holds a gun to the head of the U.S. Treasury demanding cash just like an armed robber in a stocking mask robbing a local 7-11. It's understandable that the AIG "brand," after extorting $162 billion in taxpayer money, now makes the names "Enron" and "Philip Morris" sound sweet. AIG should follow Blackwater's lead and "re-brand" itself. I suggest "Xee." Just because AIG, Citicorp, and other financial oligopolies hold in their grubby little hands grandma's monthly pension check doesn't mean they should get away with dictating to the country the terms of their welfare program. The federal government should nationalize them forthwith, their executives should be fired (and possibly jailed), and the companies broken up and restructured into entities akin to a public utility. PERIOD. Beginning in the earliest days of the Reagan Administration, the "greed is good" ethic came to dominate our culture, and continues to rule our political discourse. It defines what is possible and impossible, what can be accomplished and what cannot be. It tells us whether President Barack Obama can "succeed" or "fail." We still live in an era where Gordon Gekko, a filmmaker's fictional character from twenty-two years ago, gives us more truth about what is really going on today than all of the yakking heads on CNBC and the blathering on the editorial pages of Businessweek and the Wall Street Journal . Said Mr. Gekko: "The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own." What Mr. Gekko exposes is the predatory (and ultimately self-defeating) nature of wealth-accumulation in this country. It is notable that according to the American Film Institute's list of the top fifty movie villains, Gordon Gekko, a Wall Street trader, ranks twenty-sixth, ten places higher than the sadistic murderer in David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Frank Booth, a kinky killer who inhaled amyl nitrate through a plastic mouthpiece while he cut people to pieces. And it should therefore come as no surprise that Americans are outraged at CEOs who fly into Washington on corporate jets after skiing in Vail only to hold a gun to the heads of U.S. congressional representatives to shake down working people for billions of their hard-earned dollars; billions that could be used to build hospitals and schools and mass transit and renewable energy technologies. In the 1930s, the last time anything remotely like what is happening now took place, the ruling elite denounced as a "class traitor" Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Today, we're hearing a lot of squawking from the Republican Right about how it would be just peachy for the nation if President Obama's economic recovery plan "fails." The de facto leader of the Republican Party, radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh, along with other high priests and priestesses of the GOP, are simply giddy at the prospect that their fellow Americans will continue to suffer impoverishment, unemployment, and misery because it will somehow translate into votes in 2010 and 2012. Is there any better proof that modern Republican ideology is nothing more than a twisted hybrid of phony Kulturkampf and Gordon Gekko's all-consuming greed? Wishing for Obama to fail might be the stupidest thing the Republicans have done since the day Joseph McCarthy thought he had struck political gold by accusing the U.S. Army of harboring communists. Meantime, Karl Rove toils mightily as a one-man George W. Bush "Legacy Project." He's busily rewriting the history of the 2000s by airbrushing out facts and figures from the Bush years as efficiently as Josef Stalin's apparatchiks used to airbrush out former comrades who fell into disfavor. Rove is behaving like a totalitarian to the bitter end. It's pathetic that the corporate media find him "entertaining" or "knowledgeable" enough to help him get away with this most un-American of pursuits. And he's succeeding. Through repeating, mantra-like, a simple set of falsehoods about Bush's "legacy" Rove, with the help of Roger Ailes and others, is slowly shifting the discourse his way. Before you know it, they'll be people clamoring to put George W. Bush's face on Mount Rushmore. And Rove is falsifying the historical record while ducking Congressional subpoenas, writing his eight-figure Blagojevich-type book, commenting on current affairs for the mainstream media, and speaking to any group willing pay him $25,000. He is truly a Renaissance Man. Republicans: Be Careful What You Wish For. Given the (long view) progressive trajectory of American history, it's far more likely that if the Republicans are successful in blocking Obama's agenda the country will move in an even more Left-Liberal direction. If Republicans don't have the good sense to join Obama in crafting his relatively mild set of economic reforms they'll end up obstructing efforts upon which the survival of the middle class depends. In their pursuit to cripple a Democratic administration for short-term partisan gain, as William Kristol and other geniuses have advocated, they will have no role in finding a constructive solution to the biggest crisis that has confronted the United States in seventy years. Such political hubris will push the nation leftward, toward more progressive regulation and reform. The American people will not rush into the waiting arms of the GOP after their material conditions deteriorate even more. They've figured out for the most part that Republican fiscal and economic policies will only bring them more misery and destitution. And America's middle class has never in its history decided to collectively commit suicide. More on Financial Crisis
 
An Elevator Jam Ruins A Life Top
Working late one Friday evening, I left my office in the McGraw-Hill building in New York's Rockefeller Center and smoked a cigarette. Then I walked back into the building, past the guy polishing the marble floor -- the same guy I'd seen for 15 years -- and went into the elevator. I pushed the number "43". On the way up, I felt a jolt; the lights dimmed for a second. After a while, I realised the elevator had stopped moving, so I rang the emergency bell. I was irritated because I was on deadline. I was a production manager for Business Week and had to get the magazine out. I waited for someone to answer, but nobody did. So, I pushed the button again. I thought about yelling but I was embarrassed. I didn't want to make a fuss, so I just left the bell ringing and waited.
 
Cipriani Chaos: Restaurant Empire "Collapses Like A Souffle" Top
THE troubles pile up for Giuseppe Cipriani, who's been partying in Uruguay and Italy while his New York restaurant empire collapses like a souffle.
 
Tina Fey On Fallon: Motherhood, Bad Hair And Boogers (VIDEO) Top
Tina Fey joined Jimmy Fallon for his second show and talked about how her toddler Alice indirectly writes parts of "30 Rock." The two discussed how busy they are now versus when they just thought they were busy doing "Saturday Night Live," Fallon showed a 2000 clip from a Weekend Update test the pair filmed and they admired their horrible hair of years past. Fey also joked about the various ways she knows she's a mom. "There so many things that I do now that I'm like, I'm a MOM now. Like, when your kid hands you their boogers, and you take it." WATCH: More on Tina Fey
 
California Emissions Battle Nears Climax, Other States Anxious Top
Under President Bush, the EPA denied California's request to let the state require cleaner cars for its residents. Upon taking office, President Obama asked his environmental team to reconsider that decision, and their decision is nearly upon us. A public hearing this Thursday will be of great interest to two governors -- Schwarzenegger of California and Granholm of Michigan . The Wall Street Journal sets up the conflict: Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday she is "not sure" the Obama administration will let California regulate automobile greenhouse-gas emissions and said she believes the administration would prefer a single national standard governing the industry's fuel economy and emissions levels. The new EPA has repeatedly indicated its willingness to roll back Bush-era decisions, and administration officials such as climate-and-energy boss Carol Browner and EPA chief Lisa Jackson are proponents of letting California tighten emissions rules. EMANUEL: "DAY OF RECKONING" Automakers, naturally, are opposed to the California waiver, because it would allow individual states to demand higher fuel efficiency and if a big state were to suddenly get strict -- say, California -- the industry would have to get on the stick and design a new round of cleaner cars. Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff, seems to think that any stress in meeting tougher standards would be the auto industry's just desserts . From the Washington Post: "Here's the other thing, I think, that people should see in both GM as well as the others," Emanuel said. "They never invested in . . . alternative-energy cars, they got dependent on big gas guzzlers. . . . We have a day of reckoning of making sure that we have a policy on energy independence." NOT JUST CALIFORNIA And if the EPA were to allow California to regulate fuel economy for itself, it wouldn't be the only state automakers would have to watch. A state representative in Iowa has introduced a bill that would bring Iowa's fuel economy standards in line with those proposed in California, according to the Des Moines Register. There is a public hearing today on the bill: Under the bill, the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission would set emissions standards for most passenger vehicles beginning with the 2011 model year. The standards would be based on a law in California that requires tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases from cars and light trucks to be cut 22 percent by 2012 and 30 percent by 2016. More on Cars
 
Book: The Secret History Of Bear Stearn's Boiler Room Top
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Years from now, when academics search for causes of the stock market crash of 2008, they will focus on the pivotal role of mortgage-backed securities. These exotic financial instruments allowed a downturn in U.S. home prices to morph into a contagion that brought down Bear Stearns a year ago this month - and more recently have brought the global banking system to its knees. More on Bear Stearns
 
Patricia Handschiegel: The New Power Girls: Women Who Know How To Get Something Started in Business Top
If there's one thing I've noticed about the new modern women entrepreneurs and executives, it's that they know how to get something going. Be it party, an event, a great meeting, family gathering, or excellent networking opportunity, they're aces at pulling things together. This includes incredible start-up companies. Power Girls know how to take an idea to launch. In fact, they've got a knack for it. Joining the likes of high profile entrepreneurs like Rupert Murdoch, Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks and hundreds of thousands of others, successful women today know exactly what it takes to move projects from start to finish. Like architects of concepts and ideas, they've got an innate ability to see the vision, map out its foundation and ultimately, execute. "It's a bit of a no-brainer," said one female founder while hiking Runyon Canyon this past month. "It doesn't mean it's easy. You just learn to follow the formula." For Cake House founder (and my sister!) Marie Handschiegel, it was just a simple move to create cakes for family and friends on her free time while building technique (and prospective clients). Family Wealth Matters' Alexis Neely puts an emphasis on establishing the right legal structure and finding the right support. Sortingwithstyle.com's Sayeh Pezeshki has a smart, focused that includes strategies like list-making and extensive research. "When I started my company, I didn't just think 'I want to have a lot of sales,' said Pezeshki. "I thought of where I see the business in one year, third year, fifth year, and so on." Regardless of how they go about it, Power Girls have an inherent talent for getting the job done. It's something I can relate to being on my second startup . It started out as a thought, then, as I researched the market, it began formulating into an idea. Shortly after, it moved into becoming a plan which eventually was executed and 9 was born. Time and time when I speak on panels and at conferences, I constantly say "it's not about the idea so much as the execution." Small, calculated steps are the ticket to a successful business launch. "Trademarking our name has been the single most important thing I did. The protection it has offered has allowed me to promote The Budget Fashionista without worrying about someone 'stealing' the idea," shared founder/CEO Kathryn Finney. "I wrote a list of everything I needed before I officially launched," adds Pezeshki. "You want to make sure you launch right, not just for the sake of launching." It's a strategy that many of the women entrepreneurs and executives I've met and know: Take an idea, do the research homework, establish a plan, and execute. Repeat again and again as necessary from everything to launching a new initiative, a product roll-out, or even a second company. They know how to find the right tools to make their vision a reality, from a great web design firm like Delicious Design to solid marketing companies to advisors and beyond. Most of all, they have a positive attitude. In fact, it was the one element nearly every woman on the New Power Girls email subscription list cited as important to launching a successful startup. "A mentality and attitude for success is a must," added Neely. When it comes to making business dreams a reality, Power Girls get it.
 
China Stimulus Package Spurs Stock Surge Top
LONDON — Stock markets in Europe and Asia rebounded Wednesday amid mounting hopes that China will soon announce a big stimulus package that could help limit the length and depth of the recession in the industrialized world. A legislative meeting starts Thursday in China and top of the agenda is what the government can do to lift growth rates, which have fallen in the wake of the global economic downturn. As one of the few major economies still expanding, China is being closely watched amid hopes its demand and trade can help the world weather the most severe global slowdown in decades. Chinese shares led Wednesday's advance, with Shanghai's index jumping more than 6 percent to close at 2,198.11. "Obviously, this unusual rally suggests that investors are overly optimistic about what to expect from the legislature. They think the government will do more to boost spending to stimulate the economy," said Peng Yunliang, an analyst with Shanghai Securities in Shanghai. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average was up 61.24 points, or 0.9 percent, to 7,290.96, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 297.27, or 2.5 percent, to 12,331.15. South Korea's Kospi climbed 3.3 percent to 1,059.26. Markets in Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand also gained. Australia's index shed 1.6 percent. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares recovered from six-year lows to rise 66.42 points, or 1.9 percent, to 3,578.51, while Germany's DAX was up 99.38 points, or 2.7 percent, at 3,790.10. The CAC-40 in France was 54.05 points, or 2.1 percent, higher at 2,608.60. U.S. futures pointed to a higher open for Wall Street on Wednesday. Dow futures rose 119, or 1.8 percent, to 6,788 and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures gained 14.3, or 2.1 percent, to 704. After a choppy session, the Dow closed Tuesday at 6,726.02, its lowest close since April 1997, while the S&P closed at 696.33, 52 percent below its peak of October 2007. Despite Wednesday's rebound around the world, the markets remain in a jittery mood ahead of Thursday's interest rate decisions from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England and Friday's closely-watched U.S. jobs report for February. "The mood in equity markets is still bleak but we need to be aware that sentiment-emotion is looking rather extreme, not that fundamentals look in any way supportive," said Neil Mackinnon, chief economist at ECU Group. Sentiment around the world was ravaged this week with the news that American International Group Inc. posted the biggest quarterly loss in corporate history, and HSBC Holdings PLC slashed its dividend and revealed it needed to raise nearly $18 billion from shareholders. And the warning from Ben Bernanke, the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, that U.S. banks may need more government cash injections to stay afloat did not help matters either. Oil prices rose, with benchmark crude for April delivery up $1.62 to $43.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added $1.50 to settle at $41.65 overnight. In currencies, the dollar fell rose 1.4 percent to 99.35 yen while the euro fell 0.4 percent to $1.2504. ___ AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
 

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