MORE than half of Chinese people questioned in a poll believe China and America are heading for a new “cold war”.
The finding came after battles over Taiwan, Tibet, trade, climate change, internet freedom and human rights which have poisoned relations in the three months since President Barack Obama made a fruitless visit to Beijing.
According to diplomatic sources, a rancorous postmortem examination is under way inside the US government, led by officials who think the president was badly advised and was made to appear weak.
In China’s eyes, the American response — which includes a pledge by Obama to get tougher on trade — is a reaction against its rising power.
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The cost of insuring Spanish and Portuguese government debt against default via credit default swaps hit new records Monday, while the cost of insurance for Greek debt also rose, according to CMA DataVision. The spread on five-year Portuguese credit default swaps rose from 227 basis points late Friday to a record 244.06 basis points Monday. That means it would cost $244,060 a year to insure $10 million of Portuguese government debt against default for five years. The five-year Spanish CDS spread rose to a record 172.9 basis points from 166.5 late Friday. The Greek CDS spread widened to 426 basis points from 407.5 Friday.
via Portugal, Greece, Spain default worries rise – MarketWatch.
Facing what could become a bruising primary battle, appointed U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is embracing one of President Obama’s best known communist appointees, former green jobs czar Van Jones.
The Hill reports Gillibrand will share the stage with Jones at a panel discussion sponsored by the Advocacy Project at the Harvard Club in New York. Jones, a self-described “communist,” was pushed out of the Obama administration five months ago following the embarrassing revelation that he was a 9/11 “truther” who had signed a petition accusing the U.S. government of orchestrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
via » Ex-Moderate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Embraces Communist Van Jones – Big Government.
Marc Faber discusses America’s unsustainable debt load in this interview with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg TV. An amusing observation: the GDP growth from each $1 of new total debt has dropped from $0.25 to -$0.60. Also some much deserved Bernanke and Krugman bashing. Why it is so difficult to realize that the only way out of the crisis is to cut corporate and sovereign debt, we don’t understand. Ah yes, because for that to happen, equity values across virtually all of the US economy would be wiped out… And that would destroy the myth that there is any real equity value in America.
via Marc Faber: If The U.S. Was A Corporation, Its Credit Rating Would Be Junk | zero hedge.
Independent voters see Pres. Obama in a negative light by a nearly 2-1 margin, according to a new Marist College survey, while almost half of voters say he has failed to meet their expectations.
The poll, conducted Feb. 1-3, showed just 44% of registered voters approving of Obama’s job as president. 47% disapprove. But among indie voters, Obama’s approval rating sits at a terrible 29%, while his disapproval rating is at 57%.
Obama’s 44% job approval rating is the lowest he has scored in any non-internet poll since moving into the WH, according to a review of data compiled by Pollster.com.
And while GOPers strive to avoid attacking Obama personally, for fear of offending voters who see him in a favorable light personally, even that aura of invincibility is wearing off. Independent voters view Obama negatively, too, by a 39% favorable to 52% unfavorable margin. All registered voters still see Obama favorably by a 50%-44% margin, but that’s down 5 points in just 2 months.
Here comes the China liquidity post-sugar high crash. In comments published tomorrow no, not an Art Cashin brain teaser, a senior government economist said that surging money supply is leading to inflation. Yet, since in China apparently you can be half pregnant preferably with one and a half boys, the recommendation from the government is to increase reserve requirements instead of interest rates. The implication is that it is only a matter of time before both end up getting hiked.Market News reports that National Bureau of [True and Unmanipulated] Statistics chief economist Yao Jingyuan said “Money supply is too big and that’s leading to excess liquidity.” Yet Yao Jing said he would “prefer reserve hikes to rate hikes because rate hikes could cause hot money to flow back.”
No WAY is Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis going to be the only one to answer for the acquisition of crappy Merrill Lynch and its crappy bonuses, “a person close to Lewis’s defense team” who may or may not be Ken Lewis himself tells Charlie Gasparino today on the Daily Beast. NO WAY will he be a scapegoat, alone, for the people who twisted his arm to go through with the Merrill deal by telling him he would be fired if he didn’t. “If this thing goes to trial you can expect both Paulson and Bernanke to be on the witness list.” If he’s going down, he’s bringing them down, too. Bringing them down to Chinatown.
via Ken Lewis: If I’m Going Down, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke Are Coming Down With Me — Daily Intel.
Snow, heavy in some locations, continues to fall from West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Coast. Look for the snow to wind down from west to east late this afternoon and early evening putting the final touches on this historic event.
Widespread totals of a foot to over two feet have been reported in portions of southern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, northern Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, southern New Jersey and the District of Columbia. Localized amounts have topped 30 inches.
As the low pushes off the coast it will continue to strengthen which will result in very strong winds near and along the coast. Gusts of 40 to 50 miles per hour will be likely along the coasts from the Tidewater of Virginia north to the Jersey shore.
via Storm watch, Tornadoes, Thunderstorms, Weather News – weather.com.
In 2007, the most comprehensive report to date on global warming, issued by the respected United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made a shocking claim: The Himalayan glaciers could melt away as soon as 2035.These glaciers provide the headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers and lifelines for the more than one billion people who live downstream. Melting ice and snow would create mass flooding, followed by mass drought. The glacier story was reported around the world. Last December, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund, an environmental pressure group, warned, “The deal reached at Copenhagen will have huge ramifications for the lives of hundreds of millions of people who are already highly vulnerable due to widespread poverty.” To dramatize their country’s plight, Nepal’s top politicians strapped on oxygen tanks and held a cabinet meeting on Mount Everest.
URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 545 PM EST FRI FEB 5 2010 DCZ001-MDZ013-016-060645- /O.EXA.KLWX.BZ.W.0001.100206T0300Z-100207T0300Z/ /O.EXT.KLWX.WS.W.0006.000000T0000Z-100206T0300Z/ DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA-PRINCE GEORGES-CHARLES- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…WASHINGTON…WALDORF 545 PM EST FRI FEB 5 2010 …WINTER STORM WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING… …BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 PM EST SATURDAY… THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARD WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 PM EST SATURDAY. THE WINTER STORM WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING. PRECIPITATION TYPE…HEAVY SNOW. ACCUMULATIONS…WIDESPREAD STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 20 TO 30 INCHES…WITH SOME LOCATIONS IN EXCESS OF 30 INCHES.
via National Weather Service Watch Warning Advisory Summary.
