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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (11214)	8/31/2004 12:28:02 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

add Clinton and Rubin the architects of present debacle of several years

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (11214)	8/31/2004 1:38:09 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

WTO rules against U.S. ´Byrd amendment´ trade law - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 4:51:00 PM WTO rules against U.S. 'Byrd amendment' trade law - UPDATE 1 WASHINGTON (AFX) -- The World Trade Organization has dealt another blow to U.S. trade policy In a ruling issued Tuesday, the Geneva-based WTO sided with foreign countries upset about a trade law enacted by Washington that allows U.S. companies to share in part of the proceeds of U.S anti-dumping laws The U.S. collects fines against foreign exporters found to be selling products in the U.S. at artificially low prices. The so-called Byrd amendment -- named for its principal sponsor, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. -- gives U.S. companies that requested or supported the fines the right to receive some of the payments The amendment has been controversial since it was first approved in 2001. Foreign companies have argued that the law is unfair because it amounts to a form of double punishment -- namely, they have to pay the fine and their competitors grow richer The WTO said that eight countries -- Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Communities, India, Japan, Korea and Mexico -- are entitled to impose varying levels of sanctions on U.S. goods to recoup duties paid to U.S. companies. The level of sanctions that the countries can impose is more than $150 million, according to the European Union The main beneficiaries of the fines have been the U.S. steel industry and other metals industries, as well as pasta makers. A total of $231 million was distributed to U.S. companies in 2001 and $330 million in 2002, the E.U. said The WTO's measure will drive up the cost of U.S. goods overseas, making consumers less likely to buy them "I hope the U.S. will now take action to remove this measure, thus avoiding the risk of sanctions," said E.U. trade commissioner Pascal Lamy in a prepared statement A spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that the U.S. would comply with the WTO ruling and said that the Bush administration "will work closely with Congress to do so in a way that supports American jobs and American workers." Past efforts to repeal the Byrd amendment stalled in Congress. President Bush is on record as favoring overturning the law

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (11214)	8/31/2004 2:50:32 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Analysis: Soundview´s demise nearly complete Tuesday, August 31, 2004 6:43:33 PM CHARLES SCHWAB 19:43:33 Analysis: Soundview's demise nearly complete NEW YORK (AFX) -- The demise of Soundview is almost complete Known most recently as Schwab Soundview Capital Markets after a series of mergers, what's left of it is now being sold off and wrapped up by Charles Schwab , less than a year after the discount brokerage bought the firm. As Schwab sells the banking and technology assets to UBS , the question is what value, if any, is left in the once-hot Soundview research assets Since the deal was first reported to be in the works last week, analysts suggested the value, even at up to $300 million as initially reported, reflected the firm's declining fortunes The UBS purchase price of $265 million in cash "reflects little, if any, value left in the Soundview franchise." Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Matt Snowling said last Friday, before it was clear that the Soundview's research assets weren't even included in the deal "I'm pretty surprised [that the research division wasn't sold], because Soundview always billed itself as a research company," Octavio Marenzi, President and Chief Executive of Celent Communications, a Boston-based financial-services consulting firm, said Tuesday When Schwab acquired Soundview in January, it hyped the purchase as adding research to its institutional offerings to help generate business and commissions, and largely downplayed the trading and banking assets Yet eight months later, when Schwab announced the sale of the Schwab Soundview Capital Markets unit, details of the research assets' fate merited a single sentence: "Schwab plans to exit its institutional research operations in the near future." "UBS is a very strong research house globally and probably had no need for Soundview's analysts," Marenzi added Now it's not clear anyone else does, either Analysts didn't see fit Last year, Schwab set plans to buy Soundview Technology Group, billed as a research company serving institutional clients, for about $345 million in cash. It's not entirely surprising that the two firms did the deal, given that one of the founders of Soundview in its original incarnation, Wit Capital, was Ronald Readmond, previously a vice chairman of Schwab "Soundview will immediately bolster our institutional research offering and grow this vital part of our business," Lon Gorman, vice chairman of Schwab, said on a conference call to announce the pact It was accepted that Schwab's strategy was to provide research to institutions, which would then trade through Schwab and generate commissions But the deal never sat well with analysts or investors, and its problems were widely believed to have contributed to Chief Executive David Pottruck's departure earlier this year. The acquisition has since been deemed dubious for Schwab, with many analysts saying that the company's real strength remained its brokerage business "Schwab, like so many others since 'Analystgate' in 2002, appears to be falling for the same mirage -- that indie research is a path to commission share accumulation," Prudential analyst David Trone said at the time. Friedman Billings' Snowling added that Schwab had good intentions to attempt to buoy its capital markets business by offering research, but the effort fell short "Schwab wasn't willing to spend the money to make it competitive with bigger shops. Last year they had 25 analysts, and now they're down to 10 or 15," he elaborated Now, with the somewhat surprising news that the research operations aren't involved in the UBS sale, it's unclear what value the research operations have A Schwab spokesman said Tuesday the company is "considering all options" to exit the research business, but hasn't decided whether it will sell the operation or just wrap it up Former Wall Street darling Once seen as pioneering force in the markets during the Internet boom by incorporating novel stock marketing techniques and specializing in independent technology research, Soundview has changed missions and owners over the years. Soundview started life as Wit Capital, a company formed by entrepreneur Andrew Klein to distribute shares of his Wit Beer microbrewery over the Internet, and eventually expanded into an investment bank favored by technology startups, as well as a respected research firm In its earliest incarnation, the company was moving at Internet speed to build an investment bank aimed at opening up the IPO process to individual investors. It even staged a successful initial public offering in 1999 under its original name, Wit Capital But the firm struggled recently against waning interest in tech stocks and growing competition as regulators reached a settlement with established Wall Street investment banks Once public, Wit Capital paid $320 million in early 2000 to buy Soundview, the research firm spun off from Gartner Group in the mid-1980s. The combined firm changed its name to Wit Soundview In May 2000, Wit Soundview paid roughly $300 million in stock to buy investment bank E-Offering from E-Trade , with the rights to distribute IPOs, follow-on offerings and other investment banking deals to E-Trade clients for up to five years. Wit Capital also transferred its online retail brokerage customers to E-Trade as part of that deal Soundview's push into investment banking dried up with the IPO market, and soon Wit Soundview repackaged itself once again into Soundview Technology Group, which was eventually sold to Schwab Wit Capital's founder Klein did not return a phone call and e-mail seeking comment about the fate of the company he founded Perhaps he's too busy running his latest venture: Soleil Securities, a network of independent analysts based in New York, formed to provide independent research under last year's Wall Street analyst settlement

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (11214)	8/31/2004 3:53:20 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Fed to skip hikes 2 of next 4 meetings, market says Tuesday, August 31, 2004 7:28:53 PM WASHINGTON (AFX) -- The Federal Open Market Committee is likely to raise the federal fund rate at its September and December meetings, but not in November or February, financial markets predicted Tuesday. Following worse-than-expected but still relatively strong reports on consumer confidence and Chicago-area business sentiment, the fed funds futures market at the Chicago Board of Trade was pricing in 80 percent odds of a rate hike to 1.75 percent at the Sept. 21, meeting, down marginally from 84 percent earlier. There's a 76 percent chance of a rate hike to 2 percent at either the November or the December meeting, according to the December futures contract. The odds of a rate hike to 2.25 percent in February dropped below 50-50 to 47 percent after the disappointing data.