AG's Scratchin' Post

[Alex G]

Earlier this week, Amnesty International issued a 28-page report entitled "Iraq: Civilians under fire," Emigrate.co.uk News notes of the report "thousands of Christians, as well as many members of the Sabean Mandaean religion, Yazidis and women and girls, being targeted for un-Islamic behavior. Amnesty International said that many of these people are at risk of being killed."

Iraq: Civilians under fire
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/002/2010/en/c9dc5d8d-95fa-46e4-8671-cd9b99d0378c/mde140022010en.pdf

[Alex G]

Edge of oil spill creeps closer to La. coast

[Alex G]

Fed: Things Are Getting Better. But They're Still Bad.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/04/fed_things_are_getting_better.html#more

Here, more or less, is what the Fed's open market committee said today in its monthly statement:

The jobs picture is getting better. People are spending a bit more money, and companies are buying more stuff.

But there's a difference between getting better and good. And we're still a long way from good: Unemployment is still high, it's tough to get a loan from the bank, and employers aren't in a hurry to hire more people.

We think unemployment's going to stay high and inflation's going to stay low for a while yet.

So we're going to keep America flooded with so much money that banks are willing to give each other overnight loans for little or no interest. And we'll probably make sure it stays that way for an extended period of time.

Nine of us on the committee agree on this stuff. One of us thinks we should stop saying we're going to keep things this way for an extended period. He's worried that we may be fueling another bubble with all this easy money.

By the way, financial markets are basically working again, so we're winding down those special programs we started when things were super crazy. We know everybody's interested in what we're going to do with that trillion dollars of mortgage bonds we bought recently. But we're not going to say anything about when or how we're going to unload those.

[Alex G]

Three Reasons The Euro Crisis Matters For The U.S.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/04/three_reasons_the_euro_crisis.html#more

1. The crisis could mean fewer U.S. jobs.

The crisis could hurt U.S. exports to Europe, which in turn would mean fewer U.S. jobs. When the euro falls against the dollar, American products get more expensive in Europe. What's more, if the debt problems spill over into Europe's broader economy, Europeans will buy less stuff overall -- including less American-made stuff. About a fifth of our exports go to Europe.

2. The U.S. is the biggest funder of the IMF, so taxpayers are on the hook for a chunk of the IMF bailouts.

Rep. Mark Kirk, who worked for the World Bank during Mexico's 1982 debt crisis, now sits on the House Appropriations Committee that oversees IMF funds. He's called for Congressional hearings on the IMF's ability to handle a broader European collapse, this morning's New York Times reports.

3. Europe's problems are a reminder that, sooner or later, the bell may toll for us.

Here's how the economist Ken Rogoff put it on All Things Considered yesterday:

We Americans, you know, love to borrow. And Greece was doing that merrily for years, and then wham, they got hit. And I don't think our day of reckoning will look like this, but it will come when we have to face higher interest rates, we have to tighten our belts, and we might think it's not so easy when it happens to us.
Rogoff also talked about this issue when he was on the Planet Money podcast back in February.

"If the United States thinks this can't happen here, think again," he said. "When the investment community loses faith in you, it can happen so fast."

[Alex G]

Wanna Buy A Mortgage Bond?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/04/wanna_buy_a_mortgage_bond.html#more
April 29, 2010

For the first time since the wheels came off the housing market a few years back, somebody's selling a mortgage-backed bond that isn't backed by the U.S. government.

Not surprisingly, this bond -- which answers to the name "Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2010-H1" -- is made up of some very low-risk mortgages.

Basically, it's the opposite of some of the crazy mortgage-backed bonds sold during the boom (sorry, Toxie), which were full of loans to borrowers with weak credit and little or no home equity.

Calculated Risk points out a few of the key details on the new bond:

It includes 253 mortgages, with an total principal balance of about $238 million

The average loan-to-value ratio is 53%

Borrowers' weighted FICO score is 768

The bond was created by Citigroup and a real estate company called Redwood Trust.

For a little more news on the mortgage-bond front, check out this Bloomberg News story on a new set of indexes that will track the performance of mortgage-backed bonds issued in 2006 and 2007.

These indexes make the market for mortgages more transparent. They also make it easier for people to speculate on mortgages.

[Alex G]

Chevron demands "Crude" filmmaker hand over footage

Chevron Vs. Filmmaker

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/arts/27arts-CHEVRONVSFIL_BRF.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

A documentary filmmaker says he will fight a request by Chevron to turn over hundreds of hours of footage he shot for a documentary about pollution in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Chevron says the material may be useful in lawsuits accusing it of damaging the environment there. The filmmaker, Joe Berlinger, whose documentaries include “Paradise Lost” and “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,” said he had been served with a request from Chevron for more than 600 hours of unused footage for his 2009 documentary “Crude.” The movie, seen in a scene above, chronicles Ecuadoreans who sued Texaco, which is now owned by Chevron, saying the companies’ practices at the Lago Agrio oil field resulted in the contamination of their drinking and bathing water. Mr. Berlinger, who is scheduled to appear in United States District Court in Manhattan on Friday, said Chevron’s request violated his First Amendment rights. If Chevron obtained his footage, he said, “It would have a serious chilling effect on these kinds of investigative films.” Randy M. Mastro, a lawyer representing Chevron, said the company “simply seeks here outtakes relating to the access this filmmaker was given to film the plaintiffs and their lawyers, government officials and supposedly independent experts’ meetings with the plaintiffs and their lawyers.”

[Alex G]

Oil Spill Estimates Raised Fivefold

VENICE, La.—The Coast Guard said it found a significant new oil leak from a sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday. Separately, crews conducted a test burn to prevent the oil from spreading further. ...

The US Coast Guard has said five times as much oil as previously thought is leaking from a well beneath where a rig sank in the Gulf of Mexico last week.

Rear Admiral Mary Landry said 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day were now thought to be gushing into the sea 50 miles (80km) off Louisiana's coast.

A third leak had also been discovered at the site, Adm Landry said.

Earlier, a Coast Guard crew set fire to part of the oil slick, in an attempt to save environmentally fragile wetlands.

The "controlled burn" of surface oil took place in an area about 30 miles (50km) east of the Mississippi river delta, officials said.

Weather forecasters have meanwhile warned that changing winds could drive the oil slick ashore by Friday night.