Moody’s puts big banks on review for downgrade

Posted on February 18th, 2012

 

 

 

114 financial institutions in 16 European countries on review as well

Michael Kitchen and Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

MADRID (MarketWatch) — Moody’s Investors Service triggered fresh worries for investors after placing 17 major global financial firms review for potential downgrades due to the euro-zone crisis and other issues, as well as putting more than 100 European financial institutions on review.

The global capital markets “are confronting evolving challenges, such as more fragile funding conditions, wider credit spreads, increased regulatory burdens and more difficult operating conditions,” Moody’s said in a statement late Wednesday.

“These difficulties, together with inherent vulnerabilities such as confidence-sensitivity, interconnectedness, and opacity of risk, have diminished the longer term profitability and growth prospects of these firms,” the ratings firm said.

Among those 17 firms with global capital markets operations, Moody’s said Credit Suisse Group AG (US:CS), Morgan Stanley (US:MS), and UBS AG (US:UBS) could see their long-term ratings cut by up to three notches, while Barclays PLC (US:BCS), BNP Paribas SA (FR:BNP), Citigroup Inc. (US:C), Credit Agricole SA (FR:ACA), Deutsche Bank AG (US:DB), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (US:GS), HSBC Holdings PLC (US:HBC) (HK:5), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (US:JPM) , Macquarie Group Ltd. (AU:MQG), and Royal Bank of Canada (US:RY) could see ratings altered by up to two notches.

Banks facing a possible one-notch move were Bank of America Corp. (US:BAC), Nomura Holdings Inc. (JP:8604)(US:NMR), Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (US:RBS) and Societe Generale SA (FR:GLE) .

The long-term reviews generally involved the firms’ holding and major operating entities, Moody’s said.

Meanwhile, Moody’s also put 114 financial institutions in 16 European countries on review for possible downgrade due to the euro-zone crisis and “the deteriorating creditworthiness of euro area sovereigns.” Several of those were included in the list of 17 firms with global reach.

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-02-16/industries/31062313_1_rating-by-two-notches-investors-service-royal-bank

Posted in Banks, Economy, Solid Principles, U.S. Stock Market, Wall Street | Tagged as: , , , , , , ,

Chris Christie vetoes gay marriage bill

Posted on February 18th, 2012

By TIM MAK and MACKENZIE WEINGER

Just hours after the measure landed on his desk, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday vetoed a bill legalizing gay marriage.

Christie, a Republican, wrote in his veto message that he favors a statewide voter referendum on the issue.

“Today, I am adhering to what I’ve said since this bill was first introduced – an issue of this magnitude and importance, which requires a constitutional amendment, should be left to the people of New Jersey to decide,” he wrote, according to the letter posted by the Asbury Park Press.

“I continue to encourage the Legislature to trust the people of New Jersey and seek their input by allowing our citizens to vote on a question that represents a profoundly significant societal change.

This is the only path to amend our State Constitution and the best way to resolve the issue of same-sex marriage in our state,” the governor added.

On Thursday, the New Jersey state Assembly voted 42-33 in favor of a bill recognizing same-sex marriage. The state Senate had passed a similar measure Monday, 24-16.

The legislature has until January 2014 to muster enough votes for an override.

In Washington state on Monday, Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a measure making the state the seventh in the nation, along with the District of Columbia, to allow same-sex marriage. The other states are New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont.

The Washington law will take effect on June 7.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73025.html#ixzz1mlrzeRXs

 

Posted in Politico, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , , ,

Gingrich slams rivals for backing out of Georgia debate

Posted on February 18th, 2012

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – Newt Gingrich slammed his Republican rivals Friday for refusing to appear in a nationally televised debate from his home state of Georgia, a state the former House speaker has made central to his strategy of getting his struggling presidential bid back on track.

Gingrich made his remarks at a rally in the congressional district he represented for 20 years, speaking to a few hundred supporters.

He planned several campaign stops across Georgia on Saturday with Herman Cain, a fellow Georgian and former contender for the GOP nomination who has since endorsed Gingrich.

CNN was forced to cancel the debate, scheduled to take place in Atlanta on March 1, after Mitt Romney declined to participate. Rick Santorum quickly followed suit.

The cancellation was a blow to Gingrich, who is banking on a strong showing on Super Tuesday, March 6, in Georgia, Ohio and eight other states holding contests that day.

“The average Georgian is going to say, the average Ohioan is going to say, `Let me get this straight. They won’t come here to debate but they want my vote?”‘ Gingrich said, adding, “Anybody who’s afraid of debating Newt Gingrich isn’t going to be in very good shape to debate Barack Obama.”

Gingrich, whose sole win came in South Carolina’s primary Jan. 21, conceded winning Georgia was “crucial” to sustaining his presidential bid. His candidacy has struggled since Romney soundly beat him in Florida Jan. 31 and Santorum won contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on Feb. 7.

Gingrich also criticized ads run by a super PAC supporting Romney’s candidacy.

The ads by Restore Our Future, which is run by former Romney advisers, have been harshly critical of Gingrich and the millions the group spent on the ads contributed to his defeat in Florida and Iowa. Restore Our Future is currently running ads in Michigan and Arizona, which hold primaries Feb. 28, as well as several Super Tuesday states.

“You can’t hide behind millions of dollars in negative ads and think you’re going to win the presidency,” Gingrich said. “I think there is a declining impact of totally false ads, and I think you’re going to see as Romney applies the same technique at Santorum, a general revulsion against this kind of purely negative campaigning.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/18/gingrich-slams-rivals-for-backing-out-georgia-debate/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz1mlkNIPbX

 

Posted in 2012 Presidential Election Coverage, 2012 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Caucuses & Primaries, Fox News, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Republican Presidential Race, Rick Santorum, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,

Mitt Romney rallies in Maine

Posted on February 11th, 2012

Mitt Romney is locked in a race with Ron Paul to win the caucuses on Sat.---AP Photo

By TIM MAK | 2/10/12 8:32 PM EST

PORTLAND, Maine — Mitt Romney on Friday held his first town hall meeting in nearly a month, slamming President Barack Obama’s decision to alter his policy requiring certain religious groups from distributing contraception to their employees as part of their health benefits.

“Today, [Obama] did the classic retreat. Only it wasn’t a retreat at all, it was another deception,” said Romney. “It was the same thing that happened with the rest of Obamacare, when he said, oh, we’re not going to tax individuals, we’re just going to tax those companies that provide medical devices to individuals… It’s just disingenuous and deceptive.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72746.html#ixzz1m6TkwWbu

Posted in 2012 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Caucuses & Primaries, Mitt Romney, Politico, Republican Presidential Race, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , , , ,

Catholic Bishops: Obama’s Solution ‘Is Unacceptable’

Posted on February 11th, 2012

By Terence P. Jeffrey

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement late on Friday declaring that the small alteration President Barack Obama had announced earlier in the day to a regulation that would force all health-care plans in the United States to cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives–including those that cause abortion–is ‘unacceptable” because, among other things, it does not protect the freedom-of-conscience rights of secular for-profit employers, or secular non-profit employers, or religious insurers, or self-insured religious employers, or individual Americans.

The alteration President Obama described Friday says merely that insurance companies providing coverage to employees of religious institutions that object to sterilization, contraception or abortifacients will have to provide free coverage for these things to the employees rather than explicitly include them among the benefits covered by the premiums charged to the religious employer.

The regulation will still require individual Americans and private-sector employers to buy, and insurers to provide, insurance coverage that pays for sterilizations, contraception and abortifacients–even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.

Read More @……

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/catholic-bishops-obamas-solution-unacceptable

Posted in Abortion, Barack Obama, Health Care, Pro-Life, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , , , , ,

“A Battle the President Can’t Win “

Posted on February 4th, 2012

Writing in this weekend’s Wall Street journal, former Reagan speech writer and current opinion columnist , Peggy Noonan, drops a rhetorical bombshell when she says that the Dept. of Health and Human Service’s Sec’y Kathleen Sibilius’ administrative ruling that Catholic Hospitals and other institutions must offer health care plans that offer abortion and contraceptive products may have just caused Obama to lose the election.

Because the ruling needed Obama to sign off on it before it could be implemented, the President has just gone on record that he has flip-flopped on his earlier promise that he would not violate the “conscious clause” that allows the Catholic Church and it’s affiliates to follow Church teaching on the sanctity of human life.

Mz. Noonan believes that a significant percentage of this nation’s 35 million Catholic voters are outraged by this intrusion by a ham-fisted government into their private lives and into the practice of their faith.

For my own part, I could see this coming from the outset of the legislative circus that surrounded the passage of this un-Constitutional bill. Whatever his promises were at the time, I felt certain that as soon as he thought that the bill was out of the limelight for a sufficient period of time for the American people to forget about some of it’s especially toxic provisions, that Obama would allow this long anticipated assault on Catholics to be launched with a vengeance.

As to why he would do this nine months before a Presidential election…only Obama can answer that question.

Having said that, I am very grateful for the timing of this ruling and the President signing off on it when he did. It gives the Republican Presidential candidates plenty of time to incorporate this issue into upcoming debates and to make sure the voters know full well that, whatever their religious denomination, they will not be allowed to follow their consciences in this mater of the rights of the pre-born, if this law is not repealed.

So now its up to Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul to use this issue as one more in a long list of reasons why Barack Obama needs to be ushered out of the Oval Office in January 2013.

~~John Cronin~~

His decision on Catholic charities makes Romney’s big gaffe look trivial

BY PEGGY NOONAN

What a faux pas, how inept, how removed from the essential realities of America. Yes, I’m referring to President Obama. But let’s do Mitt Romney first.

He’s taken heavy fire for his interview with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, in which he said, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.”
Every criticism has been true. It was politically inept, playing into stereotypes about Republicans and about his own candidacy. It was Martian-like in its seeming remove from the concerns of everyday citizens. We’re in a recession here! It was at odds both with longtime American tradition and with rising conservative concern over …

Read more @…….http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html?mod=WSJ_topnav_opinion

Posted in 2012 Presidential Race, Abortion, Barack Obama, Caucuses & Primaries, Debates, Health Care, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Pro-Life, Republican Presidential Race, Republicans, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Solid Principles, Wall Street Journal | Tagged as: , , , , , ,

Solid Principles Podcast – Episode 45 (Luis Fortuño)

Posted on February 3rd, 2012

 Solid Principles Podcast: Episode 45

2/3/2012

Fortuño Who?: When Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño issued his endorsement to Mitt Romney, it also increased speculation of Fortuño becoming a prospective VP candidate in the 2012 Republican Presidential Race.

On this edition of Solid Principles we present an unabridged interview with Fortuno from 2010, on the topic of Puerto Rico Statehood, and Hispanic Republicanism.


DOWNLOAD, add the RSS Feed or get it from iTunes / Stitcher

Posted in 2012 Presidential Election Coverage, Podcast | Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

Deficit Again Expected to Top $1 Trillion

Posted on January 31st, 2012

By KRISTINA PETERSON And DAMIAN PALETTA

WASHINGTON—The federal budget deficit likely will top $1 trillion for the fourth consecutive year in fiscal 2012 as the economy continues to grow at a sluggish pace, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted Tuesday.

Congress’s official budget scorekeeper projected a sober outlook in its semi-annual report Tuesday, forecasting that the unemployment rate will remain above 8% both this year and next year and above 7% until 2015. The economy will see a “continued slow recovery” as real gross domestic product grows 2% this year, measured from the fourth quarter of the previous calendar year, and by 1.1% next year.

The federal budget deficit is expected to decrease modestly, but the CBO said its outlook hinged on policy and budget choices lawmakers face this year.

For example, the deficit will grow by $3.1 trillion over 10 years if spending cuts and tax increases are allowed to go into effect at the end of this year. If they are halted, the deficit would grow by roughly $11 trillion over the next 10 years.

The federal budget shortfall likely will clock in at $1.1 trillion in fiscal year 2012, down slightly from the $1.3 trillion deficit in the previous fiscal year, the CBO projected. Over the next few years, the expected deficits drop significantly, averaging 1.5% of GDP between 2013 and 2022, compared with the fiscal-year 2012 deficit, which is expected to be 7% of GDP.

Read more @http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204740904577194872392678482.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Posted in Budget, Congress, National Debt, Solid Principles, Wall Street Journal | Tagged as: , , , , ,

Insert the Gingrich Tiger Eyed Lawsuit

Posted on January 30th, 2012

 

TMZ REPORTS: Newt Gingrich is being sued by the company which owns the rights to the 1982 song, “Eye of the Tiger” — claiming Newt had no right to use it as part of his campaign. 

As predicted: When It Comes to Music, Republican Candidates Can’t Get Enough ‘Cease-and-Desist’ by Solid Principles

“Political activism within the music community has held an uncanny ability to always stand on the left side of political idealism. Historically, musicians seem quite happy to be blissfully ignorant about its rather cozy relation to the Left. Forgetting to learn this important characteristic, will continue to give Republican campaigns grief henceforth.”

Posted in Music, Newt Gingrich | Tagged as: , , ,

The Prospect of Puerto Rico as the 51st State?

Posted on January 27th, 2012

Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño appearing at the 2011 CPAC Convention.

GOP Presidential candidates Romney & Gingrich appeared today at the Hispanic Leadership Network (HLN), and both expressed support for the concept of a plebiscite addressing Puerto Rican Statehood. It was Romney however that supported an outcome to that of Statehood for Puerto Rico.

“… I expect the people of Puerto Rico will decide that they want to become a state and I can tell you that I will work with [Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno] to make sure that if that vote comes out in favor of statehood, that we will go through the process in Washington to provide statehood to Puerto Rico.”  - Mitt Romney

The event also was the base for the announcement of Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño’s endorsement for Romney, and so brings a chance to revisit the Solid Principles produced Audio Documentary ‘United States Plus One – The Prospect of Puerto Rico as the 51st State‘ from 2010. Around that time HR.2499 (the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2010) passed the House 223 – 169, which barely gathered a whimper of press.  The prospect of America gaining a new state would normally be newsworthy, yet H.R.2499 missed out. Meanwhile, decade old perceptions of Democratic gerrymandering, and opinions based on the 1993 and 1998 failed plebiscites re-surfaced.

One the participants interviewed for the project was Govenor Fortuño himself, and through this investigation, what I thought I knew about Puerto Rico, was not what it appeared to be. More than anything, the plebiscite has the ability for focusing further attention onto Hispanic voters within the GOP, and challenging the stereotypical depiction of the Democratic Party holding a monopoly over this voting base.

Read More at Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich Pressed on Puerto Rico Statehood in South Florida ABC News

Posted in 2012 Presidential Election Coverage, 2012 Presidential Race, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,