Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/260446043?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, November 4, 2012
Market Watch 5th November 2012 - Treasury Risk, Cash, Debt ...
The world was focused last week on Hurricane Sandy and the US Presidential election. The Tories were defeated on a vote on the EU budget which could total ?1 trillion over its lifetime ? the rebel Tories are seeking cuts, while the French are looking for the budget (or the CAP element of it) to remain stable if not increase; these tensions, thrown on top of the ongoing banking crisis, won?t help the plight of the Eurozone.
The outcome of the US election is important beyond the US. Obama seems to be ahead, especially after his handling of the hurricane crisis this week. Romney also has attracted criticism for his lack of specifics in his economic plan. He wants to increase defence spending and cut taxes?but didn?t specify how these would be counteracted (in a country already running a significant deficit). My acid test would be much more basic ? who wants a private equity guy running a country? Having seen them in practice, they tend to be ruthless in their pursuit of the goal of making money ? but running a country requires a little more empathy. Two recent articles in the Sunday papers highlighted the growth in the gap (and attitude) between the top 1% (who have seen their wealth increase over the past few years) and the rest. It?s recipe for disaster in a social context.
2013 is shaping up to be a very significant year politically, socially and, therefore, economically. With a new US presidential term, new EU budget talks, German elections, establishment of a new banking union (with the attached conditions which won?t be palatable to some) and growing nationalism around Europe (which was inevitable, if undesirable), the ability of economies to bounce back will be dependent on the emergence of political leadership with vision beyond national boundaries.
Won?t be boring, that?s for sure!
Market Review
Eurozone. October inflation eased slightly to 2.5% from 2.6% a month earlier but unemployment rose to 11.6% ? a new record high ? in September. Manufacturing PMI also fell from 46.1 in September to 45.4 in October. This is the 15th month in a row for this figure to fall.
UK. Manufacturing PMI fell from 48.1 to 47.5 while one house price index showed prices up 0.6% in the month of October but down by 0.9% on the same time last year. A construction survey showed a reading just above 50 (signalling expansion) but it was met with some guarded optimism.
USA. The US added another 171,000 jobs in October while there was also an upward adjustment of 84,000 to the number of jobs created in August and September. The Conference Board consumer confidence reading jumped from 68.4 in September to 72.2 ? its highest level since February 2008. Construction spending was up 0.6%. Mortgage applications were down last week while labour costs rose by a modest 0.4% in Q3. Finally factory orders were up by 0.2% in September.
Foreign Exchange
EUR was slightly weaker against GBP and ended the week at EUR/GBP0.8010 but it lost 1c again against USD to EUR/USD1.2835.
Interest Rates
3-year Euro interest rates were back 5bp to 0.58% as the recent increases on the back of some optimism on the Euro banking situation abated again. UK 3-year rates were down 3bp at 0.77% and US 3-year rates were also down (by 4bp) at 0.48%.
Training ADVANCED ? Treasury Risk ? Monday 12th November 2012
Source: http://www.treasurysolutions.ie/market-watch-051112/
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Saturday, November 3, 2012
Holidaysafe Travel Insurance Blog: What to do when facing Travel ...
What to do when facing Travel Chaos
The recent wave of destruction and chaos caused by Hurricane Sandy has left many travellers flabbergasted and totally stranded. On the whole, natural disasters like Sandy don?t happen very often, but when nature strikes it usually makes everyday life come to a complete standstill, and any unfortunate tourists simply have to ride out the storm and wait to return home.
If you face travel disruption, there are certain things you can do;
- If the airline cancels your flight they must offer you a refund of your airfare or re-route you ASAP.
- Make sure your Visa hasn?t expired because of the unexpected delay, if you are physically unable to leave there is little you can do about this, but you could ask the English Embassy in your location for support and advice.
- If you invested in travel insurance, you may be able to make a claim, just make sure you keep all your documentation, and obtain something from the airline proving/explaining the delay. Remember you can always ring your provider for advice, but please note that every policy differs and yours may not cover delay or natural disasters.
- You can always visit the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) website, which will always have up to date travel information.
- If you booked a package holiday, you can contact ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) and check out Package Travel Regulations to make sure you know your rights.
- Other useful websites include CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) and ATOL(Air Travel Organisation Licensing).
Explore what the world has to offer with Holidaysafe
Source: http://blog.holidaysafe.co.uk/2012/11/what-to-do-when-facing-travel-chaos.html
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Chevron profit down on reduced output, weak refining
(Reuters) - Chevron Corp posted earnings on Friday that were much lower than expected as maintenance exacerbated a decline this year in oil and natural gas production, and shares of the second-largest U.S. oil company slid 2.5 percent.
Third-quarter production fell to 2.52 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 2.60 million bpd a year earlier. With a fourth-quarter bounce expected, Chevron expected 2012 production to average about 2.6 million bpd, or 97 percent of its original 2.68 million bpd target.
Increasing output from the wellhead is a struggle for many big oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell. With oil and gas assets tightly controlled by the countries where they are located, the majors are left to drill in pricier areas on land and offshore.
Smaller U.S. oil company Hess Corp, on the other hand, delivered on Friday a strong increase in profits and production owning to its interest in the Bakken oil basin in North Dakota, and a resurgent Libya operation.
For Chevron, the third quarter was marred by a huge fire at its Richmond refinery in California that damaged the crude unit there and now expected to be repaired in the first quarter. However, the company said this had a limited impact on third-quarter earnings, which were hit hard by weak marketing margins.
Overall, third-quarter net income fell to $5.25 billion, or $2.69 per share, from $7.83 billion, or $3.92 per share, a year earlier. Earnings dropped 17 percent to $5.1 billion in the oil and gas production business and plunged 65 percent to $689 million in the refining, or downstream, operation.
"Downstream was the primary culprit behind the miss," Simmons & Co analysts said in a note to investors.
The reported profit included about $600 million from an asset sale gain, offset by a negative foreign exchange impact, they said. Leaving out certain items, Chevron earned $2.55 per share, compared with the analysts' average estimate of $2.83, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Chief Executive Officer John Watson said that, apart from heavy planned oilfield maintenance, pricing for its output was also weaker. This was in part because of the oversupplied U.S. market for natural gas liquids, while the average Brent oil price of $110 per barrel was down $2 from a year before.
A storm cut into Gulf of Mexico production, while planned maintenance in Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom caused the majority of the production decline outside the United States, according to Chevron.
One downstream bright spot was that Chevron's smaller North American refineries in British Columbia and Salt Lake City were running discounted crude piped in from the Bakken, said Mike Wirth, executive vice president for downstream and chemicals.
A large spread between U.S. oil prices and international benchmark Brent has emerged due to the combination of a surge in North American oil production along with subdued U.S. demand and the limited ability to ship it out to international markets.
"On this crude disconnect, it is like real estate," Wirth told analysts on a conference call. "It is location, location, location, and our large coastal refineries are distant from where these advantages really are."
More broadly, Wirth said he was pessimistic about near-term demand for refined products based on the sales figures he saw in Asia and elsewhere.
Shares of Chevron were down 2.5 percent at $108.67 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Lisa Von Ahn and Tim Dobbyn)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chevron-profit-drops-lower-oil-production-maintenance-123955662--finance.html
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Pitch Me ? | Bang2Write
Wow! London Screenwriters Festival 2012 happened ? and brilliant it was, as ever. Top marks to the team and to the delegates for making it happen.
Being immersed in that pool of talent got me thinking. I heard loads of pitches during the Script Labs and the Pitchfest and?I was asked several times whose work I liked and I facilitated a couple of meetings between people while I was there. This lead me to consider whether I could do this for more writers and scripts I like.
I get asked all the time about people?s work and whose I like, but of course I am generally limited to what I see via B2W and LSF ? And reading for hire or for contests and initiatives, I don?t always end up reading the *types* of stories I would necessarily choose to watch myself.?That?s why I started ?Girls On Film? for London Screenwriters? Festival ? but looking at the submissions, it soon became clear that though there were LOTS of great writers around with fab scripts featuring female protagonists and antagonists, not least the 7 finalists, there were still quite specific things I was looking for in terms of story, structure, genre as well as characters.?So I won?t be launching Girls On Film again BUT I still want to know where all the good scripts and writers are but time is also at a premium for me, so this is what I?m going to do instead:
I want your LOGLINES.
?25-60 words of story goodness, depicting your character and what s/he is up against and why. From there, if I like your logline, then I will request your One Page Pitch and first ten pages. If I like THOSE, then I?ll ask to read your whole script. After that, I?ll give you some brief feedback via email and if it?s a ?Recommend? I?ll see if I can facilitate some reads or meetings for you from industry people. So:
1)??? Write your logline in an email ? Don?t forget your title and what it is (ie. TV or film)
2)??? Send it to Bang2write@aol.com, subj line: B2W LOGLINE. (Please do not tweet me with it or leave it on the Facebook page or anywhere else online).
3)??? Closing date for this round: Midday (GMT), Fri 30th, Nov 2012 (so you?ve got just under a month!)
NOTE:
- Please make sure you check out what I am looking for AND am not looking for (below) as I have some very specific thoughts on what I?m looking for ? and not looking for! Don?t waste your time!
- I?m, looking for loglines from DEVELOPED screenplays, not first drafts. Sorry!
- It?s free and you don?t have to use the Bang2write script reading service to access this opportunity.
- It might lead to nothing or it might lead to something, if only a contact somewhere. You?ll either think it?s worth a try or you won?t. I have no scary agenda other than identifying which writers and scripts I like and NO, I won?t be suggesting writers pay me to get their scripts ?ready for market? or anything suss like that. I?m simply trying to find scripts or writers that I can get behind.
- Please ensure you actually have a script if you?re submitting, ?cos if I ask for it, I?ll want it quickly, I won?t want to wait months.
- Please send loglines in the first instance ONLY ? unsolicited Scripts, One Pagers & Script Excerpts sent will be deleted unread.
- The deadline for this is Midday, November 30th 2012.
Thanks. Any other questions, check the FAQ.
Your logline should relate to a script that is either:
- A feature of 80-100 pages
- A TV Pilot of 60 pages
- A TV sitcom of 30 pages
If your script is not one of the above, please do not send me your logline.
Want logline tips? Then check out the Logline Bundle in The Required Reading List. Don?t panic ? you?ve got plenty of time to hone those loglines.
Got a question? Please check the FAQ first before emailing me.
WHAT I?M LOOKING FOR:?
Genre-wise:
- High concept stories
- Features and TV with a strong genre identity, including cross-genres and sub-genres
- ?Man In A Box? aka Contained Thriller like BURIED, OPEN WATER or MAN ON A LEDGE
- Political/Conspiracy Thrillers (TV or film), in the style of movies like NO WAY OUT and ENEMY OF THE STATE, preferably set in the UK
- Horrors outside the usual groups of characters entering the Lion?s Den
- New ways of looking at Science Fiction worlds, particularly urban Science Fiction (ie. TERMINATOR) or Science Fiction as allegory (DISTRICT 9, PROMETHEUS)
Character-wise:
- Female protagonists and antagonists
- Believable Anti-Heroes/Heroines
- Scripts with positive representations of ethnic minorities, disabled characters and sub groups like teenage parents
- Biopics or stories featuring famous women, or the women BEHIND famous men (preferably featuring the UK as well in some way)
- Positive representations of Teen characters and well-represented Child characters
- Well-drawn characters in general, a step away from the ?usual? (ie. Gay Best Friend, Know-It-all Kid, Zany Leader, Hardcore Hottie, Helpless Victim, etc)
Structure/Story-wise:
- Tightly structured genre features with a strong hook that follow the Hollywood model (but are still set in the UK)
- True Stories, preferably feel good/?against all odds? stories (NB. about real people we can look up online)
- TV pilots that follow the ?story of the week? vs the serial element UK model of approximately 6-8 episodes per series
- Traditionally structured comedies and sitcom
- Found Footage stories
- Mockumentary/ fake documentaries
- Well-constructed Non-linearity with proper narrative ?throughlines? (rather than flashbacks, dream sequences et al for style, think BOURNE SUPREMACY, THE CROW or SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE)
- Intelligent, low budget creature features that have something to say about the notion of ?monsters? or ?aliens?
- Siege, Invasion or Exodus stories
- Stories about the impact of Natural Disasters on ?little people?, cut off from help for some reason
- Devastating, out of the left field hit-you-between-the-eyes endings like SE7EN or THE MIST
WHAT I AM NOT LOOKING FOR:
- Adaptations ? even if you own the rights
- TV Serials
- Web series
- Biopics or stories featuring famous men
- ?True? Stories (ie. tenuous ?based on a true story? claims like WOLF CREEK)
- Revenge Thrillers
- Courtroom dramas
- Stories featuring superheroes
- Women In Peril Thrillers
- Rape stories (even responsible rape stories, like THE GENERAL?S DAUGHTER or THE ACCUSED)
- Weepies or stories that are a downer in general
- Comedy that draws on the much-mined dysfunctional family/odd couple scenarios
- Surreal Comedy
- Comedy set in flat shares
- Horrors in the style of SAW or any other ?torture porn? film
- Cancer stories (even stories of survival against the odds)
- Stories about depression or other psychiatric issues
- Stories about youth offending, suicide or drug addiction
- Gangster films
- Science Fiction worlds we?ve seen LOTS of times already ? ie. Intergalactic space wars or exploration like in Star Wars or Star Trek; people who have evolved in some way like X MEN; Time Travellers and their companions in the style of DR WHO and TORCHWOOD.
- Stories containing Vampires, Zombies & Werewolves
- Stories containing racist or sexist stereotyping, even for comedic value or to challenge said stereotypes in some way
- Dialogue-led scripts or scripts that emphasise dialogue for some reason (ie. Aaron Sorkin ?rapid fire?-style dialogue or DAWSON CREEK-style teen speak).
Remember ? I?m looking for DEVELOPED work, not first drafts please. But by all means, use the above to ?kick start? *that* script you?ve been meaning to write ? I?ll be doing more calls in 2013 once you?ve had chance to give it a polish!
Good luck!
Source: http://www.bang2write.com/2012/11/pitch-me.html
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Gloves, off: Obama accuses Romney of ?massaging' facts in Jeep ad
HILLIARD, Ohio--President Barack Obama accused Mitt Romney on Friday of "massaging the facts" over a TV ad the GOP challenger produced that insinuated Chrysler was making plans to send Jeep manufacturing jobs to China.
"When you try to change the facts just because it's convenient to your campaign, that's not change.Trying to massage facts, that's not change," Obama told a lively crowd of about 2,800 supporters here at the Franklin County Fairgrounds.
"We've been seeing this out of Gov. Romney and his friends over the last few weeks right here in Ohio," the president continued. "You've got folks that work at the Jeep plant who've been calling their employers worried, asking, Is it true? Are our jobs being shipped to China? And the reason they're making these calls is because Gov. Romney's been running an ad that says so. They said, That's not true. Everybody knows that's not true. The car companies have told Gov. Romney to knock it off."
The Romney campaign ad in question says Obama "took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy, and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China," suggesting that the president's policies will result in Chrysler closing an Ohio Jeep plant. Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne called the claim "inaccurate" and said there were no plans to transition the manufacturing operations currently in place overseas.
The Obama campaign responded swiftly to the ad when it first aired last weekend and Vice President Joe Biden called it "an outrageous lie," but this is the first time Obama has mentioned it directly at a campaign rally.
In a statement, Romney's campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg defended the commercial.
"President Obama took the auto companies into bankruptcy," Henneberg said. "His mismanagement of the process has exposed taxpayers to a $25 billion loss. And these companies are expanding production overseas."
Ohio is considered one of the most important battleground states in this election cycle, one that could determine the outcome of the race and where one in eight jobs is tied to the auto industry. The Obama campaign has focused much of its messaging on attacking Romney for opposing federally-backed loans to struggling auto companies during the recession before undergoing a managed bankruptcy.
"I understand that Gov. Romney's had a tough time in Ohio because he was against saving the auto industry," Obama said Friday. "And it's hard to run away from that position when you're on videotape saying the words, 'Let Detroit go bankrupt.'"
"He's a liar!" a man in the crowd shouted, leading others to shout "Liar! Liar!"
"You don't scare hardworking Americans just to scare up some votes," Obama added. "That's not what being president's all about."
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Health News - Trickle-Down Anxiety: Study Examines Parental ...
Parents with social anxiety disorder are more likely than parents with other forms of anxiety to engage in behaviors that put their children at high risk for developing angst of their own, according to a small study of parent-child pairs conducted at Johns Hopkins Children?s Center.
Authors of the federally funded study say past research has linked parental anxiety to anxiety in children, but it remained unclear whether people with certain anxiety disorders engaged more often in anxiety-provoking behaviors. Based on the new study findings, they do. A report on the team?s findings appears online ahead of print in the journal Child Psychiatry and Human Development.
Specifically, the Johns Hopkins researchers identified a subset of behaviors in parents with social anxiety disorder ? the most prevalent type of anxiety ? and in doing so clarified some of the confusion that has shrouded the trickle-down anxiety often seen in parent-child pairs.
These behaviors included a lack of or insufficient warmth and affection and high levels of criticism and doubt leveled at the child. Such behaviors, the researchers say, are well known to increase anxiety in children and ? if engaged in chronically ? can make it more likely for children to develop a full-blown anxiety disorder of their own, the investigators say.
?There is a broad range of anxiety disorders so what we did was home in on social anxiety, and we found that anxiety-promoting parental behaviors may be unique to the parent?s diagnosis and not necessarily common to all those with anxiety,? says study senior investigator, Golda Ginsburg, Ph.D., a child anxiety expert at Johns Hopkins Children?s Center and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
The Hopkins team emphasizes that the study did not directly examine whether the parents? behaviors led to anxiety in the children, but because there is plenty of evidence they do, the researchers say physicians who treat parents with social anxiety should be on alert about the potential impact on offspring.
?Parental social anxiety should be considered a risk factor for childhood anxiety, and physicians who care for parents with this disorder would be wise to discuss that risk with their patients,? said Ginsburg.
Anxiety is the result of a complex interplay between genes and environment, the researchers say, and while there?s not much to be done about one?s genetic makeup, controlling external factors can go a long way toward mitigating or preventing anxiety in the offspring of anxious parents.
?Children with an inherited propensity to anxiety do not just become anxious because of their genes, so what we need are ways to prevent the environmental catalysts ? in this case, parental behaviors ? from unlocking the underlying genetic mechanisms responsible for the disease,? Ginsburg says.
The researchers analyzed interactions between 66 anxious parents and their 66 children, ages 7 to 12. Among the parents, 21 had been previously diagnosed with social anxiety, and 45 had been diagnosed with another anxiety disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The parent-child pairs were asked to work together on two tasks: prepare speeches about themselves and to replicate increasingly complex designs using an Etch-a-Sketch device. The participants were given five minutes for each task and worked in rooms under video surveillance.
Using a scale of 1 to 5, the researchers rated parental warmth and affection toward the child, criticism of the child, expression of doubts about a child?s performance and ability to complete the task, granting of autonomy, and parental over-control. Parents diagnosed with social anxiety showed less warmth and affection toward their children, criticized them more and more often expressed doubts about a child?s ability to perform the task. There were no significant differences between parents on controlling and autonomy-granting behavior.
Prevention of childhood anxiety is critical because anxiety disorders affect one in five U.S. children but often go unrecognized, researchers say. Delays in diagnosis and treatment can lead to depression, substance abuse and poor academic performance throughout childhood and well into adulthood.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Co-investigators on the study were Meghan Crosby Budinger and Tess Drazdowski.?
Founded in 1912 as the children's hospital at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Johns Hopkins Children's Center offers one of the most comprehensive pediatric medical programs in the country, with more than 92,000 patient visits and nearly 9,000 admissions each year. Hopkins Children?s is consistently ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation. Hopkins Children?s Center?is Maryland's largest children?s hospital and the only state-designated Trauma Service and Burn Unit for pediatric patients. It has recognized Centers of Excellence in dozens of pediatric subspecialties, including allergy, cardiology, cystic fibrosis, gastroenterology, nephrology, neurology, neurosurgery, oncology, pulmonary, and transplant. Hopkins Children's Center is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2012. For more information, please visit www.hopkinschildrens.org?
MEDIA CONTACT: Ekaterina PeshevaEMAIL: [email?protected]
PHONE: (410) 502-9433
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