Weekend News 13/9
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a0rUk_Z9tY.s&refer=exclusive
April 9 (Bloomberg) — Kim Jong Il’s missile launch over Japan is giving Prime Minister Taro Aso a much-needed boost in opinion polls before elections he must call by September.
Aso’s public support rating rose 9.4 percentage points from last month in a Nippon Television survey completed April 5, the day North Korea fired its rocket. A separate Yomiuri poll gave him a statistically insignificant 1.1 point increase.
Less than two months after his approval rating sank below 10 percent, Aso is gaining at the expense of the opposition. Support for Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa as a “suitable prime minister” dropped 5.3 points in the TV poll after his top aide was charged with campaign-funding violations.
“Aso is gaining confidence,” said Hirotada Asakawa, a political analyst and author of a book on Ozawa, 66. “Media coverage of missile defense preparation impressed the public Aso was doing well,” and an economic-stimulus package is “also raising his power” with his party’s lawmakers, Asakawa said.
The prime minister will look to build on his momentum in the next two days by extending sanctions against Kim’s regime and announcing a 15.4 trillion yen ($154 billion) stimulus package to help revive the world’s second-largest economy.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aqPEtxa1cSag&refer=exclusive
The overhaul, dubbed the “Big Bang” because it’s considered a cataclysmic shift for the market, aims to bring a fresh set of standards to existing and new trades.
The 2,054 entities that have signed up, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association in New York, will agree to abide by the committee’s decisions and auctions that determine the value of underlying securities. The auctions effectively set the size of the payout when borrowers default.
April 8 (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and the eight other banks that have dominated the credit-default swaps market for a decade are now ceding some power to their clients as regulators push for transparency.
Pacific Investment Management Co., Elliott Management Corp. and three other investment firms will join 10 dealers this week on a committee that will make binding decisions for the first time on how contracts are settled. Such decisions have influenced payouts and, at times, had the potential to almost double the amount investors made or lost.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aazS4bEfFmzs&refer=exclusive
April 8 (Bloomberg) — Den Black, a retired General Motors Corp. engineering executive, says he’s worried and angry. The government-supported automaker is going bankrupt, he says, and he’s sure some of his retirement pay will go down with it.
“This is going to wreck us,” said Black, 62, speaking of GM retirees. “These pledges from our companies are now garbage.”
As the biggest U.S. automaker teeters near bankruptcy, workers and retirees like Black are bracing for what may be $16 billion in pension losses if the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has to take over the plans, according to the agency. As many as half of GM’s 670,000 pension-plan participants might see their benefits trimmed if that happened, an actuary familiar with the company’s retirement programs estimates.
The possibility that GM might dump its pension obligations is likely to intensify debate over the treatment of executives of companies that receive U.S. aid. GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner, ousted by the Obama administration last month, may receive $20.2 million in pensions, according to a regulatory filing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=amapXbrj4430&refer=exclusive
The Baltic Dry Index, the benchmark for commodity-shipping costs, fell for a 20th straight day yesterday, extending its loss from a year ago to 81 percent.
April 8 (Bloomberg) — China’s shipbuilding industry may be about to get a bailout — from its customers.
The government may force state-owned shipping groups to buy more vessels as foreign carriers scrap orders, according to Steve Man, an HSBC Holdings Plc analyst in Hong Kong. That risks increasing costs and overcapacity among shipping lines grappling with a collapse in global trade.
“They ‘encourage,’ but my thinking is it’s more of a directive,” said Man. “It hurts every player in the industry and creates excess capacity that will take longer to absorb after an upturn.”
A collapse in shipping rates led to a worldwide 95 percent decline in new vessel orders in March, according to Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker.
China’s biggest shipbuilders, who construct more than 70 percent of dry-bulk carriers, haven’t won an order since October, according to Morgan Stanley. The stimulus may worsen the overcapacity that contributed to the Baltic Dry Index’s biggest decline in more than two decades.
U.S. Navy Seals freed heroic Capt. Richard Phillips Sunday by killing the pirates holding him hostage in a dramatic end to the five-day high seas standoff that riveted the world.
One of the four pirates, reportedly just 16 years old, gave himself up before the shooting started and could face the first American piracy trial in two centuries.
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japan, war with your favourite enemy is good for popularity..
cdo’s, someone is deciding who gets what and how much, and probably when..
gm, pensions gone and thats the start only i would say..for me, gm is going with a formal bankrupcy without doubt
bdi, a very important indictator, until that goes up..its not over
the captain gets freed and the flag is set for land operations to “fix the problem”
401
