- Obama Approval Drops by Double Digits in Ohio Poll
- Geithner Urges Quick Action on Rules Revamp; Fed’s Role Debated
- US Senators Have Second Thoughts On Taxing Health Benefits
- Swiss Vow to Block UBS From Providing Data to U.S.
- Old Merrill Quickly Disappears Inside BofA
- Goldman, Morgan Stanley Threatened by CFTC Review
- Greenberg Logs Victory in AIG Case, for Now at Least
- Junk Bonds Are ‘Incredibly Dangerous’ After Rally, Peters Says
- GM seeks to cut off 38 dealers that rejected ‘wind-down’ offer
- Pickens Scales Back Ambitious Wind Farm
- Lear aims for quick exit from Chapter 11 protection
- Deadline for Boston Globe Bids Is Postponed
- Google launches OS – calls out Microsoft
- Las Vegas Sands May Raise $2 Billion in IPO of Macau Assets
Obama Approval Drops by Double Digits in Ohio Poll – Bloomberg
A new poll found that President Barack Obama’s approval rating has dropped by 13 percentage points from two months ago in Ohio, traditionally a critical swing state in presidential elections.
The survey by Quinnipiac University released today showed 49 percent of Ohio voters approved of Obama’s job performance, down from 62 percent in a May 6 poll. The disapproval figure for Obama in the new poll was 44 percent, up from 31 percent in the May survey….
Geithner Urges Quick Action on Rules Revamp; Fed’s Role Debated – Bloomberg
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged lawmakers to quickly pass legislation enacting President Barack Obama’s overhaul of U.S. financial rules, as Democrats pushed back on plans to expand the Federal Reserve’s powers.
“He gave a very strong argument to move quickly on it while we have the political will to make it happen,” Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, said yesterday after a two-hour, private meeting with Geithner and members of the House Financial Services Committee in Washington……
US Senators Have Second Thoughts On Taxing Health Benefits – Wall Street Journal
Senate Democrats are increasingly resistant to proposals to tax some employer-provided health benefits, threatening already fragile bipartisan negotiations over legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said that public polls conducted over the July 4 congressional recess and reviewed by senators are causing lawmakers to have second thoughts about limiting the tax exclusion for employer health plans…..
Swiss Vow to Block UBS From Providing Data to U.S. – NY Times
The Swiss government said Wednesday that it was prepared to seize U.B.S. client data rather than allow the bank to hand it over to the United States to settle a tax case.
U.B.S. has refused a demand from U.S. authorities that it turn over the names of 52,000 American clients, arguing that to do so would be illegal under Swiss banking secrecy laws and would open it to prosecution at home. The U.S. Justice Department in February sued U.B.S., saying it suspected the bank of helping wealthy Americans hide billions of dollars in secret offshore accounts…..
Old Merrill Quickly Disappears Inside BofA – Wall Street Journal
Merrill Lynch & Co. spent decades building one of Wall Street’s premier investment banks. Undoing that work has taken just months.
Merrill has lost at least 18 veteran investment bankers since the firm agreed to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. in September, thinning its senior ranks. Those who have left include health-care banker Alan Hartman, who recently worked on Pfizer Inc.’s $68 billion purchase of Wyeth, and William Rifkin, Merrill’s co-chairman of mergers and acquisitions. Eric Heaton, Merrill’s treasurer and a longtime financial-services banker, defected to Deutsche Bank AG with his team in February……
Goldman, Morgan Stanley Threatened by CFTC Review - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley may never have the same leeway in commodities as they did when oil reached a record $147 a barrel last year.
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission will consider greater regulation of oil, gas and other energy markets at hearings this month. It plans to review exemptions to trading limits that since the 1990s allowed Goldman and Morgan to build multibillion-dollar ventures in futures, swaps and over-the- counter markets.
“They’re very significant swaps participants, and they’re very significant dealers for over-the-counter swaps in the commodities market,” said Dan Waldman, former general counsel of the CFTC and a senior partner at Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington. “If their ability to do some of that business was limited, they’d have to find other ways to reduce their risk or reduce the size of their commodity swaps books.”….
Greenberg Logs Victory in AIG Case, for Now at Least – Bloomberg
Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg won a resounding, though not absolute, victory over American International Group Inc. when a jury said his current firm didn’t have to hand over $4.3 billion to the giant insurer he once led.
The verdict Tuesday came just more than five hours after jurors got the case, following a three-week trial in federal court in Manhattan that featured volumes of documents and spanned about four decades of history between AIG and Starr International Co., a onetime affiliate that Mr. Greenberg heads….
Junk Bonds Are ‘Incredibly Dangerous’ After Rally, Peters Says – Bloomberg
The “massive” rally in junk bonds sold by the most debt-laden companies makes the market “incredibly dangerous,” said Greg Peters, head of credit strategy at Morgan Stanley.
The extra interest investors demand to own high-yield, high-risk debt implies a default rate of 13 percent this year, slightly less than forecast, even as average debt relative to earnings surges to an 11-year high, Peters said today in a conference call with clients. About 42 percent of junk-rated companies have at least six times more debt than earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, he said…..
GM seeks to cut off 38 dealers that rejected ‘wind-down’ offer – USA Today
General Motors, which has been trying to shrink a dealer network it says it has been spending more than $2 billion a year to subsidize, has asked for bankruptcy-court approval to cut off contracts with 38 dealers who refused its offer to “wind down” their businesses with GM’s help.
Unlike Chrysler, which trimmed its dealer network in bankruptcy court by rejecting franchise agreements, GM had sought to cut its 6,000-store network primarily through “wind-down” deals…..
Pickens Scales Back Ambitious Wind Farm – NY Times
In a sign of the difficulties facing the development of wind energy, the legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is suspending plans to build the world’s largest wind farm.
Over the near term, Mr. Pickens instead plans to build three or four smaller wind farms, at a cost of some $2 billion. He said that he was unsure whether he would ever revive the giant wind project in the Texas Panhandle that has been on the drawing board for years…..
Lear aims for quick exit from Chapter 11 protection – Financial Times
Lear Corporation filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday – marking one of the biggest failures yet of an automotive supplier – after agreeing a debt restructuring plan with most of its creditors.
The company, which makes car seats, electrical systems and electronics for carmakers including General Motors and Ford Motor, said it would continue doing business while in reorganisation and that it hoped to exit Chapter 11 protection quickly…..
Deadline for Boston Globe Bids Is Postponed – NY Times
The New York Times Company will accept initial bids for The Boston Globe through late July, postponing a deadline that had been set for Wednesday, according to people briefed on the bidding….
Google launches OS – calls out Microsoft – CNNMoney
Google Inc. is planning to hit Microsoft Corp. where it hurts by challenging the software giant’s dominance in the world of computer operating systems.
The search firm said late Tuesday that it will begin offering its own operating system, called Chrome, in the second half of 2010….
Las Vegas Sands May Raise $2 Billion in IPO of Macau Assets – Bloomberg
Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino operator controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, may raise at least $2 billion selling shares in Hong Kong as it seeks to restart construction of a resort project in Macau.
The company will decide this month whether to list its Macau assets, President Michael Leven said today in Singapore. A share sale is among five or six options being considered to help raise between $3 billion and $4 billion, Adelson, the company’s chairman, said at a separate briefing…..
