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$822,000 Worker Shows California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway -
(www.bloomberg.com) The numbers are even larger
in California, where a state psychiatrist was paid $822,000, a highway patrol
officer collected $484,000 in pay and pension benefits and 17 employees got
checks of more than $200,000 for unused vacation and leave. The best-paid staff
in other states earned far less for the same work, according to the data. Rising
employee expenses are crowding out other priorities for state and local
governments and draining resources for college tuition, health care, public
safety, schools and other services, Schwarzenegger said in an e-mailed response
to questions. “California spends most of its money on salaries, retirement
payments, health care benefits for government workers, and other compensation,”
said Schwarzenegger, 65, who replaced Davis as governor. “State revenues are up
more than 50 percent over the past 10 years, but still we’ve had to cut
spending on services because so much of that revenue increase went to increases
in compensation and benefits.”
UBS to Charge Bank Clients for Franc Deposits Starting Next
Week - (www.bloomberg.com) UBS AG (UBSN), Switzerland’s biggest bank,
said it will start charging financial institutional clients for cash balances
held in Swiss francs, adding to measures imposed last year to control inflows
into clearing accounts. The charge, which will be communicated individually to
clients within days, will be levied from Dec. 21, the Zurich- based lender said
in a notice to bank clients via the Swift system yesterday and made available
by UBS. The company cited “continued prevailing market situation affecting the
Swiss franc” for the move. The franc weakened against the euro. UBS has been
levying a “temporary excess balance fee” since August 2011 in cash clearing
accounts where net inflows were above a certain undisclosed threshold. Credit
Suisse Group AG, the second-biggest Swiss bank, said last week it would start
imposing negative rates on cash clearing accounts in francs and other
currencies above a certain threshold as of yesterday.
Spain’s Weakened Banks Shackle Builders’ Drive for Growth
Abroad - (www.bloomberg.com) Spanish builders find themselves increasingly
dependent on foreign banks as they seek growth abroad to weather the worst
property slump on record. “We are having more difficulties with access to
credit,” said Susana Monje, chief executive officer of Grupo Essentium,
a construction firm based near Madrid that
turned to Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG for backing to
win a contract in India this year. “There’s a label for
Spanish companies and if you have that label, then you have it more difficult.”
Spanish builders such as Essentium and Actividades de Construccion & Servicios SA are
paying the price for the frail state of the country’s banking system as they
seek to tap growth abroad to compensate for a collapsed market at home. While
helping fuel a housing boom before the bubble burst in 2008, lenders have since become reluctant to
support the construction industry’s growth ambitions, instead focusing on
reducing domestic real estate losses and cutting lending risks.
Obama
Prepares To Kick Out Fannie's Ed DeMarco - (www.zerohedge.com) The man who singlehandedly
fought the administration over the idea of converting Fannie and Freddie into
the latest taxpayer-funded handout machine, FHFA head Ed DeMarco, and refused to write down Fannie and Freddie home loans in
yet another Geithner-conceived debt forgiveness scheme, whose cost like any
other non-free lunch will simply end being footed again by yet more
taxpayers (what little is left of them), appears to have lost the war, and
with the second coming of Obama appears set to be replaced as head of the FHFA.
The WSJ reports that "The White House
has begun preparations to nominate a new director to lead the agency that
oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as early next year, according to
people familiar with the discussions. This would pave the way for President Barack
Obama to fill what has become one of the most important economic policy
positions in Washington." And so the impetus for as many as possible to
default on their mortgage in a wholesale scramble to obtain debt forgiveness,
will soon take the nation by storm.
Berlusconi Calls Spread a ‘Scam,’ Says Monti Beholden to
Germany - (www.bloomberg.com) Former Premier Silvio
Berlusconi said Italy’s bond yield difference with Germany is
a “scam” and Prime Minister Mario
Monti’s policies have made the economy worse than when he was in
power. “Monti’s government has followed the Germany-centric policy that Europe has
tried to impose on other states and it has produced a crisis that is much worse
than when we were in power,” the 76-year-old billionaire said in an interview
today on Canale 5 television, controlled by his Mediaset SpA (MS) broadcast company. Berlusconi
said the excessive focus on the difference between Italian bonds and comparable
German bunds was used to bring down his government a year ago. That gap reached a euro- era record 575.6
basis points on Nov. 9, 2011, days before he resigned and Monti was appointed
to lead an unelected government of non-politicians.
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