| AP Business NewsBrief at 4:11 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush's chief negotiator on an economic aid deal said Sunday the Senate should quickly get behind a plan or risk drawing the resentment of a frustrated public. The president and House leaders have agreed on a proposal to provide tax rebate checks to 117 million families and give businesses $50 billion in incentives to invest in new plants and equipment. The goal is to help head off a recession and boost consumer confidence. French Bank Says Trader Hacked Computersnews://newsclip.ap.org/D8UEFUI00@news.ap.orgPARIS (AP) _ Societe Generale said Sunday that a trader who evaded all its controls to bet $73.5 billion _ more than the French bank's market worth _ on European markets hacked computers and "combined several fraudulent methods" to cover his tracks, causing billions in losses.
Dan Gainor on Fox Biz Discussing Media’s Coverage of Subprime ...
Business & Media Institute Director Dan Gainor appeared on the Fox Business Network December 6 to discuss how the media is choosing sides in the subprime housing problem. "All throughout this whole year and actually if you go back in the last year and before [the media] have been pointing out that the lenders are the bad guys...CBS News who actually did an okay report last night, then the example they use is someone who has a 6.6% adjustable rate adjusting up to 9.6%, they've got a house the size of a mansion and they've got horses." Gainor said the important thing that journalists fail to do is to get both the lenders and the home buyer's viewpoints. In the special report "Debt: Who'$ Responsible?," the Business & Media Institute and Culture and Media Institute pointed out that the media consistently blames business while ignoring the role of personal responsibility.
Size matters for future of Rock
Unlikely as it may sound, banks Bradford & Bingley, Alliance & Leicester and building society Nationwide are likely to be feeling envious of Northern Rock. While these mortgage lenders struggle to raise any funds from the money markets to finance their lending, Northern Rock has not only been promised a bond issue of at least £30bn - and possibly much more - but also that it will be backed by a government guarantee. All other things being equal, this would give Northern Rock the ability to outgun all its rivals by expanding aggressively and sweeping up a big share of the mortgage market. That kind of expansion arguably represents the best way of ensuring that taxpayers get their money back: the more business it does, the higher the profits and the better the cash flow to fund a debt repayment.
Subprime Borrowers: Not Innocents
A simple look at the blunt reality reveals that borrowers themselves should assume primary responsibility for the current subprime crisis. Millions of borrowers, all over the country, knowingly signed mortgage contracts they cannot now afford to honor. Provided that lenders did not engage in force or fraud—and there's no particular evidence they did so on a large scale—borrowers should do whatever they can to live up to the contracts they signed. The policies of lenders and government certainly helped the current crisis develop—but ultimately, do not absolve borrowers of responsibility for their debts. And in most cases, the mortgage lenders not only are innocent of the predatory practices borrowers complain about but also are feeling the pain right along with them.
At sea on the newest Queen
This Queen Victoria did have its share of bad luck, but that aside, I preferred it to the Queen Mary 2, which I accompanied on its maiden voyage to the Caribbean in 2004.
The Victoria's signature black and red livery and elongated bow identify it immediately as a Cunard ship, but it is no mini-Mary.
Yet the two ships share a common trait: elegance. If Cunard can't yet replicate the graciousness of the 1930s in this age of inelegance, those who sail its ships -- myself included -- hope it keeps trying.
Let the others have their casual dress, free-choice dining and rock climbing. Formality is fine with me, and, flaws and all, a Cunard voyage is special.
Only the most superstitious -- or the most ardent Camilla bashers -- could blame the problems of this voyage on the Duchess of Cornwall, even if the champagne bottle did fail to break at the christening.
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