KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Thursday November 27 Housing and Economic stories

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thursday November 27 Housing and Economic stories

Russia puts losses at up to $140 billion from Western sanctions, oil price fall: minister - (www.gmanetwork.com) Lower oil prices and Western financial sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis will cost Russia around $130-140 billion a year - equivalent to around 7 percent of its economy - Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday. His comments are the latest acknowledgement by Russian policymakers that sanctions restricting borrowing abroad by major Russian companies are imposing heavy economic costs. But in Siluanov's view, the fall in oil prices is the bigger worry. "We're losing around $40 billion a year because of geopolitical sanctions, and about $90 billion to $100 billion from oil prices falling by 30 percent," he told a news conference. "The main issue that affects the budget and economy and financial system, this is the price of oil and the fall in monetary flows from the sale of energy resources."

Budweiser Is In Huge Trouble – (www.businessinsider.com) Budweiser is quickly losing its status as the most iconic beer brand in America. A recent company study found that 44% of drinkers aged 21 to 27 have never tried the brand, reports Tripp Mickle at The Wall Street Journal. Budweiser is the third-most-popular beer brand in America, behind Bud Light and Coors Light. It has recently also been challenged by craft beer, which is hugely popular with the millennial set. At the brand's peak in 1988, it was selling 50 million barrels of beer a year. That number has declined to 16 million barrels. To "stop the free fall," the company has decided to double down and advertise only to millennials, The Journal reports. "It means February’s Super Bowl ads will feature something more current than last year’s Fleetwood Mac," Mickle writes. "It means less baseball and more raves with DJ group Cash Cash."

Brazil Bribery Probe Threatens Petrobras’s Debt Financing - (www.bloomberg.com) The widening corruption probe at Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) is threatening to impair its ability to finance the world’s biggest oil investment plan. The state-controlled producer, which delayed releasing third-quarter earnings because of an investigation into alleged bribery involving contracts, said Nov. 13 it plans to publish unaudited statements within a month. Bank of America Corp. said Petrobras may have difficulties borrowing in international debt markets until it provides results that have been audited. The producer’s funding costs based on its benchmark bonds reached a 14-month high last week after police arrested officials at construction companies that allegedly formed a cartel to win contracts, including 59 billion reais ($23 billion) from Petrobras. While the company can turn to state development bank BNDES in the short term, it won’t be enough to cover the $12 billion a year in financing that Petrobras says it needs, Oppenheimer & Co. said.

How the EU Plans to Turn $26 Billion Into $390 Billion - (www.bloomberg.com) The European Union is planning a 21 billion-euro ($26 billion) fund to share the risks of new projects with private investors, two EU officials said. The new entity is designed to have an impact of about 15 times its size, making it the anchor of the EU’s 300 billion-euro investment program, according to the officials, who asked not to be named because the plans aren’t final. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is due to announce the three-year initiative this week. The commission will pledge as much as 16 billion euros in guarantees for the vehicle, which will also include 5 billion euros from the European Investment Bank, the officials said. Loans, lending guarantees and stakes in equity and debt will be part of its toolbox, with the goal to jumpstart private risk-taking so that stalled projects can get off the ground.

Twitter "Hedge Fund Manager" Anthony Davian Sentenced To 4 Years 9 Months In Federal Prison - (www.zerohedge.com) Over a year ago we reported that one of Twitter early and most aggressive self-promoters, Anthony Davian, was busted for what was at the time financial Twitters' the first Ponzi Scheme. Today, we can close the case on Athony Davian. As SIRF reports, "Anthony Davian, a once-prolific presence on social media who held himself out as a iconoclastic hedge fund manager prior to his August 2013 indictment on a series of fraud charges, was sentenced several hours ago in a Cleveland courtroom to four years and nine months in federal prison."

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