Sallie Mae spent $900,000 lobbying the federal government in 4th quarter - up 43% from same period a year ago -

Reading - Sallie Mae spent $900,000 lobbying the federal government in 4th quarter - up 43% from same period a year ago -

Student lender Sallie Mae spent $900,000 lobbying the federal government in the fourth quarter, with the overhaul of the country's student aid program among the issues it focused on.

The amount was up 43 percent from the $630,000 the company spent in the period a year earlier, and 14 percent higher than the $790,000 it spent in the third quarter of 2009, according to a report it filed with the House clerk's office.

Sallie Mae, formally known as SLM Corp., has a critical interest in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The bill would cut private lenders from the federal student loan program and have the government originate all loans.

The Congressional Budget Office has said the move would save taxpayers an estimated $87 billion, money that could then be used to help boost funding for Pell Grants, which go to the neediest students.

The bill was passed by the House last fall before getting bogged down in the Senate. Democrats now want to hitch it to the health care bill being fast-tracked in Congress.

Between October and December, Sallie Mae also lobbied officials on matters including credit card practices and 529 college savings plans, which let families invest money for college and take distributions tax-free.

Among the officials Sallie Mae lobbied were the special assistant and chief of staff to the Education Department's chief financial officer.

For 2009, the company spent a total of nearly $3.5 million on lobbying, compared with $3.2 million in 2008.

The figures do not include work by individual lobbying firms Sallie Mae may have also hired.

Shares of Sallie Mae closed up 20 cents at $12.55.

Read more -http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EGLB400.htm

Study finds 55 percent of newspaper stories are "Placed" - driven by some form of public relations -

Reading - Study finds 55 percent of newspaper stories are "Placed" - driven by some form of public relations -

Today Crikey launches an investigation six months in the making. Spinning the Media is an investigation in conjunction with the University of Technology (UTS) Sydney into the role PR plays in making the media.

Under UTS’ Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) head Wendy Bacon (a Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist herself…) more than 40 students have got up close and personal with the sticky end of the spin cycle. They’ve had to analyse, critique, question and then pick up the phone to ask the hard questions of the media and its reliance on public relations to drive news.

Hard questions, because this is what came out in the wash: after analysing a five-day working week in the media, across 10 hard-copy papers, ACIJ and Crikey found that nearly 55% of stories analysed were driven by some form of public relations. The Daily Telegraph came out on top of the league ladder with 70% of stories analysed triggered by public relations. The Sydney Morning Heraldgets the wooden spoon with (only) 42% PR-driven stories for that week.

Many journalists and editors were defensive when the phone call came. Who’d blame them? They’re busier than ever, under resourced, on deadline and under pressure. Most refused to respond, others who initially granted an interview then asked for their comments to be withdrawn out of fear they’d be reprimanded, or worse, fired.

But to their credit, some editors were quite candid. Chris Mitchell, editor in chief of The Australian, told UTS student Sasha Pavey:

“It’s very difficult I think, given the way resources have drifted from journalism to public relations over the past 30 years, to break away as much as you really want to … I guess I’m implying, the number of people who go to communications school and go into PR over the years has increased and the number in journalism has shrunk even more dramatically.”

Given the grim state of some of these papers, and the deep cuts to their workforces of late, in some ways it’s surprising the 55% isn’t higher. But as Bacon and Pavey write today:

Our investigation strongly confirms that journalism in Australia today is heavily influenced by commercial interests selling a product, and constrained and blocked by politicians, police and others who control the media message.

These are uncomfortable questions, but you’d be hard pressed to find a member of the media that doesn’t think they’re worth asking.

Read more - http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/03/15/over-half-your-news-is-spin/

Lehman's $642Mil bankruptcy FEES - advisors and consultants get hefty compensation for cleaning up the books -

Reading - Lehman's $642Mil bankruptcy FEES - advisors and consultants get hefty compensation for cleaning up the books -

Unraveling the biggest-ever U.S. bankruptcy case isn't cheap.

A report released Thursday by the examiner in the Lehman Brothers Chapter 11 case exposed the games the defunct investment bank's executives played to stay in Wall Street's good graces.

The report showed auditors at Ernst & Young were less than vigilant in their vetting of Lehman's financial reports, and that bankers including JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) hastened the firm's demise by aggressively seizing collateral.

The report, by Anton Valukis of Chicago law firm Jenner & Block, was 15 months in the making and cost at least $38 million, going by the latest fee schedule Lehman's estate filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That's just a drop in what is shaping up as a very large bucket for the fees of professional services firms in the case. Through January, Lehman's bankruptcy estate had paid out $642 million to 28 law firms, advisers and consultants, according to a filing with the SEC last month.

Stephen Lubben, a law professor at Seton Hall University's law school in Newark, N.J., said the estate could end up spending $900 million or more on professional fees by the time its case wraps up.

At the same time, the Lehman report cost less than half as much as the examiner reports for Enron -- another large, complicated, high-profile case -- and was issued much sooner after Lehman's bankruptcy filing. That could help plaintiffs seeking to recover Lehman losses.

"The Lehman case is much like the Enron case," said Lynn LoPucki, a law professor and bankruptcy expert at UCLA, referring to the big energy trading company that filed for Chapter 11 protection in December 2001. "People were waiting for the examiner report in the Enron case, and it ended up serving as the basis for lots of civil suits."

The promptness of the Valukis report will give the many aggrieved parties in the Lehman case ample time to pursue claims against the company's officers, business partners and others, LoPucki said. The statute of limitations for claims filed by a bankruptcy trustee is two years, which means many Lehman cases will have to be filed in the next six months.

Lehman filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sept. 15, 2008, leaving creditors with billions of dollars in losses.

The biggest beneficiaries of the cleanup effort include the firm overseeing Lehman's restructuring, Alvarez & Marsal, and Lehman's lead counsel, Weil Gotshal & Manges. Alvarez & Marsal had received $233 million through January and Weil Gotshal $150 million, according to Lehman's filing.

Other big fee takers include Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, the lead counsel for Lehman's creditors committee, with $42 million, and Duff & Phelps, which served as a financial adviser to examiner Valukis. It has received $30 million.

Lehman has also paid French investment bank Natixis $8 million for derivatives consulting, pay czar Kenneth Feinberg's law firm $568,000 for fee examination and art consultant Kelly Wright $47,000.

All those sums come out of Lehman creditors' hide, for now. But by establishing facts that can be used in both civil and criminal litigation, the 2,200-page report will likely more than make up for its costs.

Enron creditors recovered some $5 billion in the so-called MegaClaims litigation against big banks and brokerages. Those payments include a 2008 settlement with Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) for $1.66 billion and 2005 settlement under which JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay at least $982 million.

Banks, auditors and others can expect to face suits in the Lehman case, Lubben said. "The litigation could stretch on for years," he said.

Read more -http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/12/news/companies/lehman.fees.fortune/?section=magazines_fortune

Lehman’s “materially misleading” accounting - "They cooked the books" -

Reading - 2,200 page investigative-report detailing Lehman’s “materially misleading” accounting - "They cooked the books" -

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If this doesn’t convince you that the Timothy Geithner knew about the securities shenanigans that were going on at Lehman, than I don’t know what will.

Keep in mind, that Geithner ran Lehman through 3 “stress tests” prior to bankruptcy; all of which Lehman failed, and yet, nothing was done. Anton R. Valukas–the examiner who wrote the 2,200 page investigative-report which was released on Thursday– has provided plenty of information detailing Lehman’s “materially misleading” accounting and “actionable balance sheet manipulation.”

In other words, they cooked the books.

Read more -http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24980.htm

How Bad was 2009 for you? - The world’s billionaires saw their wealth GROW by 50 percent last year -

Reading - How Bad was 2009 for you? - The world’s billionaires saw their wealth GROW by 50 percent last year -

One Billion Dollars is stacked on 12 standard pallets, altogether 10 million 100 USD notes

2009 will be remembered by millions of ordinary people as the year they lost their job, their house, or the prospect of an education. For the rich, however, it was a bonanza.

The world’s billionaires saw their wealth grow by 50 percent last year, and their ranks swell to 1,011, from 793, according to the latest Forbes list of billionaires.

The combined net worth of these 1,011 individuals increased to $3.6 trillion, up $1.2 trillion from the year before. On average, each billionaire had his or her wealth increase by $500 million.

Four hundred and three billionaires reside in the United States. They constitute just 0.00014 percent of the country’s total population, but control 8 percent of the national wealth. Each of these individuals holds over 300 million times more wealth than the average US resident.

The list included 21 hedge fund managers, who as a group more than made up for whatever losses they incurred in 2008. Some of them, including James Simons, John Arnold, and George Soros, raked in profits during both the collapse and the market recovery.

Topping the list of wealthiest hedge fund managers was John Paulson, at $32 billion. Paulson made billions in 2008 by betting that the housing market would collapse, and billions more through the stock market recovery of 2009.

Only one of the 21 hedge fund managers on last year’s Forbes list fell off. This was Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group, who was arrested last year on charges of insider trading.

Hedge fund managers James Simons, John Arnold, and David Tepper got average returns of 62, 52, and 31 percent, respectively, between 2008 and 2010. David Tepper made $2.3 billion over the past year, while John Paulson’s wealth grew by $6 billion.

The number of US billionaires grew to 403, up from 359 last year. The Asia-Pacific region had 234 billionaires, up from 130 the last year. Europe has 248 billionaires, despite having twice the population of the United States.

The 1,011 people on this list command a phenomenal amount of personal wealth. Their holdings are larger than the gross domestic products of every country besides China, Japan, and the United States. The wealth of the 403 US billionaires could more than cover the 2008 US federal deficit, with money left over for the states.

While the number of billionaires on the list is just short of the all-time high of 1,125 reached in 2008, it represents a phenomenal rebound. At this rate, the number of billionaires will once again hit record levels next year.

Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican telecommunications tycoon, moved up to the first position on the list at $53.5 billion, beating out Americans Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Warren Buffet ($47 billion). The wealth of all three men rose dramatically. Over the last several years Slim Helú made roughly $27 million a day compared with the average daily income of $16.50 for Mexican workers.

The rich in India and China gained among the most. “For the first time, mainland China has the most billionaires outside the US,” Forbes said in its statement. “US citizens still dominate the ranks, but their grip is slipping.”

The hedge fund managers and financiers on the list benefitted directly from the bank bailout, which transferred huge sums of public funds into the accounts of the largest financial companies. But the billionaires in every other industry were the indirect recipients the government’s wealth transfer program also.

The Wall Street Journal, commenting on the figures, wrote, “How did the world’s rich get so much richer? Stock markets…. In short, what the stock market had taketh, the stock market hath giveth back–-at least to the billionaires.”

But the stock market recovery itself is no accident; it was the direct outcome of policies pursued by both US political parties. The bailout has been financed by a policy of fiscal austerity and high unemployment. The rapid increase in the wealth of the billionaires is the result of the impoverishment of tens of millions; it is the other face of mass unemployment, poverty, utility shutoffs, and foreclosures.

Aside from direct government handouts to the banks and super-rich, the major driver of the recovery of corporate profits—and thus the stock market—was productivity growth and corporate downsizing.

In 2009, the unemployment rate rose from 7.7 to 10 percent, three million jobs were lost, and wages fell dramatically. Millions of families lost their homes and became dislocated. But productivity, the amount of output that is produced from each hour of work, rose by 7 percent.

The money freed up through the destruction of social programs, higher employee output, and corporate restructuring has found its way into the pockets of the people on Forbes’ list.

Read more -http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18083

If O's 2011 budget were put into effect as proposed, the U.S. would add $9.8 T to debt - $5.6 T in interest alone -

Reading - If O's 2011 budget were put into effect as proposed, the U.S. would add $9.8 T to debt - $5.6 T in interest alone -

If President Obama's 2011 budget were put into effect as proposed, the U.S. federal government would add an estimated $9.8 trillion to the country's accrued debt over the next decade, according to a preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.

Of that amount, an estimated $5.6 trillion will be in interest alone.

By 2020, the agency estimates debt held by the public would reach $20.3 trillion, or 90% of GDP. That's up from 53% of GDP in 2009.

Research done by economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart has shown that such high levels of debt can cause a drag on economic growth.

The CBO cited two big contributors to the jump in debt.

One is the president's proposal to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the majority of Americans. The other is the proposal to protect middle- and upper-middle-income families from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

Together those proposals would cost $3 trillion between 2011 and 2020.

"It points out the unwillingness of the administration to raise the revenues to pay for the size of government being proposed," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a deficit watchdog group.

If Congress doesn't act, all of the Bush tax cuts are slated to expire at the end of this year and there will be no protection from the AMT.

But current law is not politically realistic, many say. That's why the administration prefers to compare the cost of its proposals to what lawmakers are likely to do -- namely, extend tax cuts and fix the AMT.

Hence, the White House Budget Office estimates that under the president's proposals, $8.5 trillion would be added to the country's accrued debt over the next decade, or $1.3 trillion less than the CBO estimate.

Either scenario is unsustainable, Bixby said.

The administration has also called the budget trajectory unsustainable and the president has created a fiscal advisory commission to recommend ways lawmakers can get annual deficits down to 3% of GDP by 2015.

That's well below where it would be under the president's budget, according to estimates from both the CBO and the White House. And while his proposals would chip away at deficits in the next few years, they start to climb again thereafter. By 2020, the annual deficit as a percentage of GDP will be 5.6%, according to the CBO. The White House estimates it will be 4.2%.

But there is no guarantee the fiscal commission's recommendations will be adopted by lawmakers.

The CBO notes that its estimates incorporate the Administration's revenue and spending assumptions for policies such as health reform and climate change, because the agency didn't have sufficient details from the White House about those policies to do its own analysis.

A full analysis of the president's budget will be published later in the month, the CBO said.

Reading more -http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/05/news/economy/cbo_obama_budget/index.htm?hpt=T2

GM to Reinstate 661 Dealers out of the 1,100 who sought arbitration seeking to stay with GM -

Reading - GM to Reinstate 661 Dealers out of the 1,100 who sought arbitration seeking to stay with GM -

General Motors executives said Friday that 661 dealerships out of the 1,100 seeking to stay with GM will receive letters giving them the option to remain with the company.

GM last year told 2,000 dealerships it would revoke their franchise agreements in October 2010 as part of its restructuring. The company has said it needs to make the cuts to keep the remaining showrooms healthy.

Roughly 1,000 dealers sought arbitration.

The U.S. automaker will begin sending letters notifying some of the dealers who appealed closure that they now have the option remain with GM.

GM now has 5,500 dealerships; prior to bankruptcy it had 6,200.

The U.S. Treasury owns 60 percent of GM after the 2009 bankruptcy restructuring.

The dealerships have said they were treated unfairly and have been appealing the decision to shut them for months.

Read more -http://www.cnbc.com/id/35727441

New Mexico State Police Ordered to Write Tickets or Face Punishment

Watching - New Mexico State Police Ordered to Write Tickets or Face Punishment

German MPs suggest cash-strapped Greece should sell islands - Maybe the USA should sell a few too? -

Reading - German MPs suggest cash-strapped Greece should sell islands - Maybe the USA should sell a few too? -

Greece should sell some of its uninhabited islands to raise cash to avoid bankruptcy, two German parliamentarians from Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition suggested on Thursday.

"The Greek state must sell stakes in companies and also assets such as, for example, unpopulated islands," Frank Schäffler, a member of parliament for the pro-business Free Democrats, told the Bild daily.

Marco Wanderwitz, an MP for Merkel's own conservative Christian Democrats, said Athens should provide collateral for any money it receives from theEuropean Union to help it out of its debt crisis.

"In this case, certain Greek islands also come into question," added Wanderwitz.

"We give you cash, you give us Corfu," the Bild commented.

Greece has around 6,000 islands off its coast, of which only 227 are inhabited, according to the country's National Tourism Office website.

The cash-strapped country Wednesday launched a fresh round of draconian austerity measures in a bid to rein in a ballooning budget deficit that is more than four times above EU limits.

The Socialist government increased sales, tobacco and alcohol taxes and cut public sector holiday allowances to save €4.8 billion ($6.5 billion), equal to about two percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Pensions in the public and private sector were also frozen.

Merkel is set to hold talks with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday to discuss the situation in Greece.

Read more -http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20100304-25667.html

Hotshot, 'Extra Small' Condoms for 12-Year-Old Boys Go on Sale -

Reading - the Hotshot, 'Extra Small' Condoms for 12-Year-Old Boys Go on Sale -

Called the Hotshot, the condom has been produced after government research showed 12 to14-year-olds did not use sufficient protection when having sex.

The study, conducted on behalf of the Federal Commission for Children and Youth, interviewed 1,480 people aged 10 to 20.

The Hotshot condoms, which cost 7fr60 (£4.70) for a packet of six, have been created by Lamprecht AG, a leading condom manufacturer in Switzerland.It showed more 12 to 14-year-olds were having sex, in comparison with the 1990s.

The company has said the UK would be "top priority" if they expanded abroad, considering that it has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe.

Nysse Norballe, a spokesman for the company, said: "At the moment we are only producing the Hotshot in Switzerland. But the UK is certainly a very attractive market since there is a very high rate of underage conception. The UK would definitely be top priority if we marketed abroad."

A standard condom has a diameter of 2ins (5.2cm) in comparison with the Hotshot's diameter of 1.7ins (4.5cm). Both are the same length – 7.4ins (19cm).

According to a German study of 12,970 13 to 20-year-olds, a quarter said a standard condom was too large.

Family planning groups and the Swiss Aids Federation campaigned to have the Hotshot produced after a number of studies, including the government study researched at the Centre for Development and Personality Psychology at Basel University.

Nancy Bodmer, who headed the research, said: "The result that shocked us concerned young boys who display apparently risky behaviour. They have more of a tendency not to protect themselves. They do not have a very developed sexual knowledge. They do not understand the consequences of what they are doing and leave the young girls to take care of the consequences.

"The results of this study suggest that early prevention makes sense."

The age of consent in Switzerland is 16, although if the age difference is not more than three years there will be no punishment. Other concessions exist if the older person is not more than 20 or believed the younger person to be at least 16.

The Swiss initiative comes as the UK government announces an overhaul of its teenage pregnancy strategy after new figures showed conception rate among 18s were not falling fast enough.

The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe.

In 1999, the government pledged to halve the teenage conception rate within 10 years.

But data released last week from The Office for National Statistics shows it has clearly failed to make any significant impact.

Read more -http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7361181/Extra-small-condoms-for-12-year-old-boys-go-on-sale-in-Switzerland.html