The European Central Bank scrambled to head off a potential financial crisis on the region’s money markets, after signs that liquidity was drying up. Thursday by making an emergency injection. This liquidity injection was designed to ensure that money markets continued to function and did not succumb to a credit freeze. The Federal Reserve followed suit although in far less dramatic fashion. The ECB did not offer any detailed explanation for its move, which caught markets by surprise, but simply said it was now seeking to ‘assure orderly conditions in the euro money market’. However, it came as several financial institutions, such as BNP Paribas, admitted they had suffered significant losses as a result of investments linked to the credit markets. Many of these are linked to problems in the US subprime mortgage sector. It also came amid signs that liquidity has recently evaporated from parts of the European inter-bank market, pushing overnight borrowing rates sharply higher. Ed Marrinan, head of credit strategy at JPMorgan, said: ‘This appears to be a prudent, pre-emptive step to head off any possibility of liquidity problems.’ The FTSE, the leading UK stock index, lost 1.83 per cent, while Germany’s […]
WASHINGTON — Global warming is forecast to set in with a vengeance after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be hotter than 1998, the warmest year on record, scientists reported on Thursday. Climate experts have long predicted a general warming trend over the 21st century spurred by the greenhouse effect, but this new study gets more specific about what is likely to happen in the decade that started in 2005. To make this kind of prediction, researchers at Britain’s Met Office — which deals with meteorology — made a computer model that takes into account such natural phenomena as the El Nino pattern in the Pacific Ocean and other fluctuations in ocean circulation and heat content. A forecast of the next decade is particularly useful, because climate could be dominated over this period by these natural changes, rather than human-caused global warming, study author Douglas Smith said by telephone. In research published in the journal Science, Smith and his colleagues predicted that the next three or four years would show little warming despite an overall forecast that saw warming over the decade. ‘There is … particular interest in the […]
NEWARK, N.J. — A tire importer said Thursday it would recall 255,000 Chinese-made tires it claims were defective because they lack a safety feature that prevents tread separation. The recall involves half the number of tires that the importer, Foreign Tire Sales Inc., had identified in June as possibly posing a risk. The models involved are steel-belted radial replacement tires for pickups, vans and sport utility vehicles that consumers bought from early 2004 through mid-2006, Foreign Tire Sales said. The small company, based in Union, was ordered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in June to recall as many as 450,000 tires that it bought from Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. since 2002. ‘Consumers should know that the affected tires meet all federal motor vehicle safety standards. But we went the extra mile by testing them and determining that they did not meet our standards, which are more rigorous,’ Richard Kuskin, president of Foreign Tire Sales, said in a statement. Hangzhou Zhongce said it fully cooperated with NHTSA and ‘has not found any evidence that the … tires at issue contain any structural defects or are missing any safety features.’ The recall is among […]
A team of scientists in Canada has suggested that raising children on diet foods and drinks could inadvertently turn them into obese adults. They said that children’s bodies learn to connect the taste of different foods and drinks with whether they are high or low in calories, and if they only have diet food and drink this connection becomes distorted leading them to overeat as they develop into adults. The study will be published in the journal Obesity and is the work of sociologist Dr David Pierce and colleagues from the University of Alberta. ‘Based on what we’ve learned, it is better for children to eat healthy, well-balanced diets with sufficient calories for their daily activities rather than low-calorie snacks or meals,’ said Pierce. He and his team showed that feeding young rats low calorie substitutes of food and drink led them to overeat, whether they were lean or genetically obese. Eating too many calories is more of a health risk for obese animals. However, older, adolescent rats that were also fed low calorie substitutes of their regular food and drink did not overeat. The researchers concluded that the older rats did not overeat because by […]
WASHINGTON — One of Congress’ more obscure priorities — the upkeep of the nation’s infrastructure — has gained urgency in the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. But the job of rebuilding it might be easier for engineers than politicians. On Wednesday, key lawmakers pledged to push for billions of dollars in funding to repair U.S. transportation infrastructure when Congress returns next month from its summer recess. But they will run into plenty of political obstacles. For one, the number of structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges — more than 150,000 or about one-fourth of the nation’s bridges — would require an enormous investment: $65 billion, or perhaps more. That’s more than the Department of Homeland Security expects to spend next fiscal year. For another, while lawmakers have pledged to spend more on bridge maintenance, the Democratic-written transportation appropriations bill, even without the additional money, already faces a presidential veto threat in a clash over its cost. An increase in the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax, a potential funding source, appears to be a non-starter at a time when pump prices are high and an election is looming. And it might be difficult to keep the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
