Clipmarks | JICWyllie's 'i-increase' clips

Deflation Threat Returns as Asset Markets Decline

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:11:45 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his global colleagues fight the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, one danger is looming larger by the day: deflation.

With asset markets tumbling, commodity prices plunging the most in 50 years and banks keeping a tighter grip on credit, the ingredients for a sustained period of falling prices are coalescing.

The deflation scenario might go like this: Banks worldwide, stung by $588 billion in writedowns related to toxic assets -- especially mortgage-related securities -- will further reduce the flow of credit, strangling growth. That will push house prices lower, forcing additional losses and making banks even more reluctant to lend. As the credit crisis worsens, businesses will find it almost impossible to raise prices.

Oil, copper and corn drove commodities toward their biggest weekly decline since at least 1956 on Oct. 3, with the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials tumbling 10.4 percent. T

Tags: economy, currencies, i-deflation, i-risks, i-increase

One in four mammals risks extinction

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:55:56 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

A quarter of the world's mammals are threatened with extinction,

nd the destruction of habitats and hunting are the major causes.

The report, the most comprehensive to date by 1,700 researchers, showed populations of half of all 5,487 species of mammals were in decline.

"Mammals are declining faster than we thought -

Of the 4,651 mammals for which scientists have data, 1,139 species were under threat of extinction. Schipper said the data was far broader than the previous review of mammals in 1996.

"Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions,"

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Five percent of species were recovering because of conservation efforts,

The report focused on mammals but the situation for some other types of animals and plants is even worse, according to the IUCN,

An updated "Red List" said that 16,928 species, or 38 percent, were threatened out of a total of 44,838.

Tags: environment, i-extinction, i-increase, i-record, i-reported, i-forecast

European banks tumble on credit fears

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:36:50 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.ft.com

European financial stocks cratered on Monday, as worries about the extent of the crisis in the sector deepened after finance ministers failed to reach a consensus on how to react.

“The banking system doesn’t work any more. It is just broken. Banks are arriving at a recession with no capital and the central bank is the lender of only resort. People are just unsure about what to do,” said Robert Quinn, European equity analyst at Standard and Poor’s.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Q&A: Markets and the US election - Sep-30

Editorial comment: Europe’s banking confidence crisis - Oct-01

Insight: Seeds sown in murky finance - Oct-01

Lex: Icelandic banks - Oct-01

UBS to cut 2,000 more jobs - Oct-01

Lex: Irish banks - Sep-30

Dizzying falls across the sector came across the continent

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-losses, i-insolvancy, i-increase, i-accelleration, i-record

Post card from the tipping point

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:23:33 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Did I just say, global mass action made possible by a change of attitude. Here is the attitude changer.

Clip Source: www.architectureweek.com

[Video]

Please take a moment to look at this great short animation

"Most striking is that, despite years of effort, carbon dioxide emissions are increasing at an alarming rate of 3.5% a year — faster than the 2.7% predicted by the IPCC in their worst case scenario, and miles ahead of the 0.9% annual rise in the 1990s. Worst still, current measures have been based on a middle-ground IPCC scenario. Pep Candell from the Global Carbon Budget told me that this was 'astonishing'."

The animation and the latest annual carbon report both highlight this essential truth: climate change is now everyone's problem.

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-extinction, i-increase, i-record, i-consequences

Global carbon emissions rising rapidly

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:37:31 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

The Global Carbon Project said in its report carbon dioxide emissions from mankind are growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the 1990s, despite efforts by a number of nations to rein in emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

India would soon overtake Russia to become the world's third largest CO2 emitter, it says.

"What we are talking about now for the first time is that the absolute value of all emissions going into the atmosphere every year are bigger coming from less developing countries than the developed world," said the project's Australia-based executive director Pep Canadell.

"The other thing we confirm is that China is indeed now the top emitter,"

He said CO2 concentrations could hit 450 ppm by 2030 instead of 2040 as currently predicted. They are just above 380 ppm at present.

The rapid rise in emissions meant the world could warm faster than previously predicted, said professor Barry Brook,

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-emissions, i-increase, i-record

Exclusive: The Methane Timebomb

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:17:51 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: In climate change terms, these releases are 'The Big One'. And it is happening, now.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

The Arctic region as a whole has seen a 4C rise in average temperatures over recent decades

Tags: environment, methane, i-climate change, i-risks, i-increase

Wall St. Goliath Teeters Amid Fear of Wider Crisis

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 09:17:39 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Adding urgency to the meeting were growing concerns that other big financial institutions like the insurance giant American International Group and the nation’s largest brokerage firm, Merrill Lynch, might face a similar crisis and also need billions of dollars in capital to strengthen their businesses. The group discussed the financial condition of other firms beyond Lehman and the overall state of the markets.

The spreading troubles were the latest sign that even the government’s extraordinary interventions into private enterprise during the last year have not been enough to halt the unraveling of storied companies that were widely viewed as unassailable until recently.

Whatever the outcome, there is a growing consensus on Wall Street that the government may not be able to save every big firm whose failure would pose a risk to the system.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“Investors are like hyperactive first graders playing musical chairs,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-crisis, i-risks, i-increase

Butterflies fight losing battle with climate change

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:40:37 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Butterflies are declining because they have become trapped in small pockets of countryside, unable to escape the effects of climate change,

the break-up of suitable butterfly habitats by urban spread and agriculture is driving the "staggering" declines.

Britain has seen some of the greatest losses of butterfly diversity in Europe.

This is because the heavy fragmentation of their habitats means they have too far to fly before reaching another suitable area of countryside.

Speaking before the conference, Dr Wilson warned that butterflies could be an early indicator of the fate in store for other insects, animals and plants as the climate warms. British temperatures have risen by between 1C and 1.5C since the 1970s.

Tags: environment, insects, i-climate change, i-extinction, i-risks, i-increase

Electronic smog 'is disrupting nature on a massive scale'

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:29:19 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Mobile phones, Wi-Fi systems, electric power lines and similar sources of "electrosmog" are disrupting nature on a massive scale, causing birds and bees to lose their bearings, fail to reproduce and die, a conference will be told this week.

Dr Warnke, a lecturer at the University of Saarland, in Germany, adds that the world's natural electrical and magnetic fields have had a "decisive hand in the evolution of species". Over millions of years they learned to use them to work out where they were, the time of day, and the approach of bad weather.

His research has shown that bees exposed to the kinds of electrical fields generated by power lines killed each other and their young, while ones exposed to signals in the same range as mobile phones lost much of their homing ability.

Tags: environment, i-extinction, i-risks, i-increase

Brazil: Deforestation rises sharply as farmers push into Amazon

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:51:54 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Concerns over the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest resurfaced at the weekend after it emerged that deforestation jumped by 64% over the last 12 months, according to official government data.

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research this week said that around 3,145 square miles - an area half the size of Wales - were razed between August 2007 and August 2008.

With commodity prices hitting recent highs and loggers and soy farmers pushing ever further into the Amazon jungle, satellite images captured by a real-time monitoring system, known in Brazil as Deter, showed that deforestation was once again on the rise after three years on the wane.

Brazil's push to expand its economy and develop the Amazon region is posing increasing threats to Brazil's natural resources. They accuse the government of retreating from its promises to defend the Amazon rainforest, which has been decimated since the 1970s by a mixture of logging, cattle ranching and soy farming.

Tags: environment, forests, i-deforestation, i-increase

Bank of England to show no mercy as firms go under

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:24:01 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

The Bank of England is expected to ignore pleas for a cut in rates this week, despite warnings that the number of companies set to go under in Britain this year could reach 17,000.

The cost of borrowing should remain at 5 per cent even though figures – collated from official statistics for the first six months of 2008 – show that failures among companies could rise by a staggering third over last year's total of 12,507.

There's worse to come, insolvency experts warn. Figures for the 1990s show that company failures do not seriously escalate until the second and third year of a recession. Britain has yet to officially lurch into recession, defined as two quarters of negative economic growth.

Tags: economy, currencies, i-interest rates, i-policy, i-consequences, business, i-insolvancy, i-increase

Credit crunch: List of at-risk US banks increases sharply as lenders' profits shrink by 87%

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:14:27 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

An official "watch list" of potentially troubled US banks has lengthened from 90 to 117 as the credit crunch wreaks havoc throughout the financial industry.

the quarterly list was the longest since mid-2003 and is asking its members to increase contributions to a dwindling bail-out fund.

So far this year, nine US banks have collapsed including California's IndyMac Bancorp, the third largest failure of a high-street bank since the FDIC was created 75 years ago.

Profits at US banks fell 87% to $5bn in the second quarter.

Chastening times have taken their toll on the FDIC's resources. Its bail-out fund has dwindled from $53bn to $45bn. At 1.01% of insured deposits, this is below its target level of 1.15%. Under a "restoration plan" banks will be asked to increase their contributions.

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-losses, i-increase

Revealed: the massive scale of UK's water consumption

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:09:32 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Each Briton uses 4,645 litres a day when hidden factors are included

The scale of British water consumption and its impact around the world is revealed in a new report today, which warns of the hidden levels needed to produce food and clothing.

The UK has become the sixth largest net importer of water in the world,

Only 38% of the UK's total water use comes from its own resources; the rest depends on the water systems of other countries, some of which are already facing serious shortages.

Average household water use for washing and drinking in the UK is about 150 litres a person daily, but we consume about 30 times as much in "virtual water", used in the production of imported food and textiles;

People in poorer countries typically subsist on 1,000 litres of virtual water a day;

A meat and dairy-based diet consumes about 5,000 litres of virtual water a day while a vegetarian diet uses about 2,000 litres.

Tags: environment, fresh water, i-demand, i-increase, i-record, i-consequences

Surge of bond deals lifts credit risk premiums

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:27:30 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.ft.com

Multi-billion dollar debt sales from AIG and Citigroup led a sudden wave of US bond deals last week that lifted corporate credit risk premiums across the market – in contrast to an improving picture in Europe.

However, these market moves mask a rapidly worsening picture for European economies and credit markets versus the US, which some analysts see as a bigger trend that will gather pace.

Stephen Dulake, European credit strategist at JPMorgan Chase, calls this change “macro risk reversal”.

“Europe is becoming increasingly more risky than the US,” he said.

“Negative economic surprises in our in-house index are at a four-year high in Europe and we’re seeing accelerating profit warnings across industrial sectors.”

the worse outlook for Europe does not mean an entirely positive outlook for the US. “Many risks still hang over the credit markets, including a slow but deliberate deterioration in fundamentals,” say analysts at Lehman Brothers.

Tags: economy, financial markets, i-losses, i-risks, i-increase

Inflation set to reach 7 per cent, warns Chelsea

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:04:25 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Soaring food, rent and petrol bills mean that the average UK householder could face annual retail inflation of 7 per cent, according to a new report to be published tomorrow by the Chelsea Building Society.

Darren Stevens, a Chelsea director, said that recent price increases could double the annual inflation for all goods and services by the end of the year to 7 per cent, pushing it to the highest level for 17 years.

The Bank's Governor, Mervyn King, predicted that inflation would peak at 5 per cent at least and that gross domestic product growth is likely to hover around zero for the next year. He avoided saying "recession", but warned that the economy required a "painful" adjustment.

Financial markets took this as a sure sign that the UK is heading for recession and that interest rate cuts will come sooner rather than later, prompting sterling's sharp falls.

Tags: economy, currencies, i-inflation, i-increase, i-record, i-forecast