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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Vosilla who wrote (120042)	9/6/2012 8:51:12 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 149317

Most of GA is deep south. Atlanta is a totally different animal. It has also changed a lot demographically now a white minority probably going through an adjustment period. NC textile industry got slammed also home prices topped several years after FL and the big metro areas up there were suddenly way more expensive than the big cities in FL or Atlanta might have hurt relos thinking of NC the past 2-3 years as prices have continued plummeting.. Textiles are still big in NC? I didn't know that.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (120042)	9/6/2012 9:11:10 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Finally. The markets are going to rally big tomorrow off this news esp if we have a good employment report. Huge Step Taken by Europe’s Bank to Abate a Crisis By JACK EWING and STEVEN ERLANGER Published: September 6, 2012 150 Comments FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank on Thursday took its most ambitious step yet toward easing the euro zone crisis, throwing its unlimited financial clout behind an effort to protect Spain and Italy from financial collapse. Mario Draghi, the president of the central bank, won nearly unanimous support from the bank’s board to buy vast amounts of government bonds, a move that would relieve investor pressure on troubled countries but also effectively spread responsibility for repaying national debts to the euro zone countries as a group. The decision propels political leaders farther down the uncertain and winding road toward a Europe with centralized control over government spending and economic policy, instead of a collection of nation states that sometimes seem to share little more than a currency and a slumping regional economy. Mr. Draghi demonstrated once again that he may be Europe’s most powerful leader, perhaps the only one capable of brokering an accord among politicians whose national concerns and mistrust of one another have allowed the crisis to boil for two and a half years. But there is a risk once again that monetary policy is moving faster than political leaders are able to create the institutions, such as a European bank supervisor, needed to ensure the survival of the common currency. For the central bank itself, the pledge on Thursday to buy bonds from sovereign states, in conjunction with a fund financed by governments in the 17 European Union nations that use the euro, is a major evolution from its original narrow mandate to restrain inflation. The bank and Mr. Draghi had the quiet support of all European leaders in taking this latest action, aimed at keeping bond speculators from driving Spain and Italy into budget-blowing borrowing costs. “The euro is irreversible,” he repeated several times Thursday. Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, voiced her approval during a visit to Spain on Thursday — a crucial victory for Mr. Draghi. But among German political leaders and citizens, widespread fear remains that they might some day wind up paying the bill if any country defaults on debt held by the central bank. The bond-buying plan immediately reduced the financial pressure that had been building on Spain and Italy, even though those countries have not sought protection. The effective interest rate on Spanish 10-year bonds fell below 6 percent for the first time since May, and the corresponding Italian bond fell below 5 percent for the first time since April. American and European stock indexes also rose. The central bank’s program will not solve the deep structural problems of the euro, Europe’s common currency. But it will buy time for the political leaders of the 17-nation euro zone to follow through on their past promises to discipline each others’ spending more closely and work harder to relax labor regulations and barriers to business creation that are regarded as impediments to growth. “It takes away from the table an important risk in the short term,” said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a former member of the European Central Bank’s executive board. “Now I think the ball is in the hands of the governments.” The central bank will buy bonds on open markets, without setting any limits, in contrast to an earlier bond-buying program that proved too hesitant to be effective. The bank said it would act only after countries agreed on certain conditions with the euro zone rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. That fund, known as the E.S.M., would buy bonds directly from governments, taking responsibility for imposing the conditions, while the central bank would intervene in secondary markets. The backing of Ms. Merkel comes despite complaints from within her own coalition government — and from the head of the country’s central bank, the Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann. A former Merkel aide, Mr. Weidmann was the sole dissenting voice on the European Central Bank’s board against the bond-buying plan. “He regards such purchases as being tantamount to financing governments by printing bank notes,” the Bundesbank said in a statement. Ms. Merkel’s concern was that a bond speculators’ run on Italy and Spain, the third- and fourth-largest economies in the euro zone, would overwhelm the European bailout funds. And that, she worried, would pose a fundamental crisis for the euro union, possibly sinking the currency. 1 2 Next Page » nytimes.com