Who? What? CIC stands for the Chinese Investment Corporation. CIC is a sovereign wealth fund for the Chinese Government that is buying up natural resources all over the world. Yesterday it was announced that CIC is buying a 15% interest in AES, an American based power generation company:
A CIC unit will buy 125.5 million in new shares for $12.60 each, or $1.58 billion, Arlington, Virginia-based AES said today in a statement. CIC will own about 15 percent of the power company. AES also signed a letter of intent to sell a 35 percent interest in its wind-power operations to CIC for $571 million.
The emphasis on that last sentence was mine. Of course AES executives are spinning this as a great thing for the company:
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
Considering today's double digit unemployment rate, I thought looking at government run employment programs of the past might be a good place to start. PBS, (a really crappy video site, no embedding) has a documentary of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal jobs program, online. Click below to watch:
Despite every effort from Washington, the American consumer continues to repair his/her balance sheet. The federal government has repeatedly gone back to what it knows and teased us with goodies (like cash4klunkers) in an effort to get us to spend money we don't have on things we don't need, but those days appear to be over.
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. consumer credit fell in September for an eighth straight month, the longest series of declines on record, as thousands of Americans lost their jobs and banks tightened access to loans.
Here is the full Fed Reserve Release G.19. Remember, these consumer credit numbers don't include mortgages. The Great De-Leveraging continues on a seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted basis.
Consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 6 percent in the third quarter of 2009. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 10 percent, and nonrevolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 3-3/4 percent. In September, consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 7-1/4 percent.
This is surprising because I thought Cash for Clunkers would increase non-revolving credit. But the level are still high. How long will this continue?
Things are going from bad to worse at the mortgage giant Fannie Mae. They posted an $18.9 Billion loss in Q3, forcing them to borrow another $15 Billion fro the taxpayer. That raises the bailout total to $60.9 Billion, and counting.
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. state and local government pensions are underfunded by $1 trillion and may need to seek federal guarantees for their debt, according to Orin Kramer, chairman of New Jersey’s Investment Council.
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Pension underfunding eventually will make it impossible for some governments to raise money in bond markets and will require federal intervention through explicit or “implied guarantees” of municipal debt, Kramer, 64, said in an interview today at Bloomberg News headquarters in New York.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
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