Madoff
Haunts Yeshiva as University Slides to Junk: Muni Credit - (www.bloomberg.com) Yeshiva
University lost about $100 million when Bernard
Madoff,
a trustee, was revealed to be a fraud in December 2008. While Madoff left the
board and is in prison, Yeshiva is still struggling. The school warned that its
chronic budget deficits may worsen after failing to produce an annual financial
report on time. The move led Moody’s Investors Service to cut its rating this
month to an unprecedented four levels below investment grade, spurring
investors to sell Yeshiva debt. “It’s about their management,” said Emily
Schwarz, an analyst at Moody’s in New York who focuses on higher education. “I
don’t see the market being the main concern. They really have a real niche.
They are the Jewish university of New York.”
Ukrainian
Clashes Turn Deadly Amid Third Night of Violence - (www.bloomberg.com) Ukraine’s
anti-government protests claimed their first victims as police were granted new
powers to tackle demonstrators at another mass rally in Kiev this evening. After a third night of
street violence, two bodies with gunshot wounds were found at a medical point
set up by activists, Interior
Ministry spokesman
Serhiy Burlakov said. The opposition later said five had died. As the U.S.
announced it would annul visas of persons linked to violence last year, the
opposition said talks with the authorities yielded nothing. “I am extremely
concerned about the dramatic developments in Ukraine and the reports of several
deaths in Kiev,” North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders
Fogh Rasmussen said in an e-mailed statement. “It is urgent that all parties
engage in a real dialogue, show restraint and avoid any further escalation.”
Silicon
Slopes Beckon as US Buyers Shun Costly Homes - (www.bloomberg.com) The
allure of Silicon Valley never grabbed Steve Brain. While
well-paying jobs sometimes tempted the Seattle-based engineer, the Bay Area’s sky-high home prices always broke the spell. In the end, Brain
was lured by a job -- inUtah -- where real estate was more reasonable.
He and his family traded their tree-lined street for panoramic mountain views
and a job near Provo in 2012. Moving to California that year, even when U.S. home
affordability was at a record, would have meant paying double for a smaller
place, he said. “The value just wasn’t there,” said Brain, 44. “I had to start
thinking about where that put us by retirement. Throwing another couple million
into housing just didn’t make sense.”
Megaprojects
a megaheadache for oil bosses - (www.reuters.com) Giant
oil and gas extraction projects will be giving oil industry executives
headaches to match for the years ahead as delays, cost overruns and increasing
risks call for new strategies to manage them. The sheer scale and complexity of
such projects is threatening to outgrow the ability of even the largest oil
companies to manage them. They have emerged as the central topic for debate as
oil executives gather on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum this week in
the Swiss alpine resort of Davos. Almost all the top companies have seen huge
delays and broken budgets at projects ranging from record-breaking Australian
liquefied natural gas (LNG)
schemes to the enormous and a technically challenging Kazakhstan oilfield in
the freezing Caspian Sea.
Loan
Surge Above Par Putting Investors at Risk: Credit Markets - (www.bloomberg.com) More
speculative-grade U.S. loans are trading above par than at any time since May,
exposing investors who are funneling record amounts of cash into the debt to
greater risks as rising prices encourage borrowers to refinance at lower interest
rates.
Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc. and KKR &
Co.-controlled First Data Corp. are among at least 30 companies seeking to
reduce rates on $31 billion of bank debt as more than 80 percent of
leveraged-loan prices exceed 100 cents on the dollar, according to JPMorgan
Chase & Co. That’s up from 40 percent at the beginning of October,
according to a report from the New York-based lender last week.
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