| Credit Crunch
With so much at stake, it is probably not surprising that a few sponsors of money market funds have stepped in to provide capital support if needed... The issue is the funds' exposure to commercial paper issued by structured investment vehicles - which are rapidly losing their raison d'etre. SIVs, it turns out, are exposed to a whole lot more refinancing risk than anyone supposed. And the unravelling of the SIV sector is hard to contain neatly. That is made worse because, since SIVs do not benefit from vast back-up lines of credit, they have to move fast to sell assets if their troubles become too pronounced." November 15 - Bloomberg (Christopher Condon and Rachel Layne): "A short-term bond fund run by General Electric Co.'s GE Asset Management returned money to investors at 96 cents on the dollar after losing about $200 million, mostly on mortgage-backed securities.
Rojas's Rcrd Lbl: Free Song Downloads and Hold the Ad Clutter
In a FAQ on the site, Rojas and company ask people who syndicate tracks to outside blogs to take the whole widget rather than just host MP3s themselves. "We support the site and pay our artists through advertising and sponsorships, and the only way we can do that is if people visit the site or embed our widgets," the FAQ pleads. Rcrd Lbl isn't the first company to offer music promotion and downloads in a blog format; nor is it the first to offer ad-supported song downloads. Free download service SpiralFrog launched two months ago with a small handful of major labels agreeing to let it represent their catalogs. The company has been heavily criticized however for the Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions it places on downloaded tracks, as well as for its incompatibility with Apple's ubiquitous iPod.
TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads
Who thinks we need a law to make English the official language of government. What American legislature is conducting business in some other language? And then he says that bureaucracy is destructive, after suggesting we bureaucratize the speaking of English. Dear, oh dear. But, too much talk about issue! Must talk about horse races! Gingrich says Romney has more delegates than anyone–I think that's wrong, actually! Yes. I am right. Here's the delegate count. Note Romney's use of Enron accounting. Also note that this story comes from ABC News! You'd think maybe someone there would tell Stephanopoulos that his own news division has a different answer. Gingrich thinks the "open" Hillary is better than the "austere" Hillary, and that it was strange to identify herself with LBJ.
Contractor loses La. scholarship account data dating back to 1998
BATON ROUGE, La. -- A Boston-based contractor hired to store and safeguard state scholarship and college savings account data lost most of those records _ including bank account numbers and student and parent Social Security numbers _ during a move, officials say. "We certainly don't want to create any panic. But people should be aware and take the necessary steps," said Melanie Amrhein, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance. "This is backup data off of a mainframe that contains sensitive personal information." Special equipment and software and "sophisticated computer skills" would be needed to get the compressed records from the TOPS scholarship program, START Saving Program, and Free Application for Federal Student Aid, according to a notice posted on the Internet.
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
Get Alan Shearer..Sir John Hall has backed Mike Ashley's decision to snub the dream ticket management combination of Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer. DAILY STAR: Mark Hughes last night refused to rule out becoming Newcastle's next manager. Also: Steve Sidwell is joining Sunderland on loan with a view to a permanent move from Chelsea...John Terry expects to be cleared today to resume full training - just a month after breaking a bone in his foot. DAILY MIRROR: Mark Hughes is ready to accept an offer from Newcastle this week to succeed Sam Allardyce as manager. Also: The Newcastle United job is going to a Geordie boy according to sacked manager Sam Allardyce - Wigan boss Steve Bruce...Kieran Richardson gave Harry Redknapp a real taste of how unpleasant life is up north.
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