TODAY'S INTEL

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Tony Robbins Economic Warning *NEW*

BLOOMBERG

King Abdullah of Jordan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington and discussed the direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The productivity of U.S. workers fell more than previously estimated in the second quarter, pushing up labor costs and showing the slowdown in growth will limit profits.

Initial jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 472,000 in the week ended Aug. 28, in line with the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Applications exceeded the 463,000 average so far this year.

Anglo Irish Bank said Aug. 31 it needs about $32.1 billion in state funding, equivalent to about two-thirds of this year’s tax revenue. Standard & Poor’s, which last week cut the country’s credit rating to AA-, said the state may have to inject as much as 35 billion euros.

Governor Schwarzenegger says he’s not ready to call lawmakers into special session to eliminate a $19.1 billion deficit before the state runs out of cash.

Residents of Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, continued a strike over higher food and utility prices for a second day as police patrolled the city’s streets.

Gold climbed for the third day this week in New York on speculation that investors will seek an alternative to stocks.

Burger King agreed to be acquired by 3G Capital in a deal valued at $4 billion including debt, giving the New York investment firm control over the second-largest U.S. hamburger chain.

The EU may limit so-called naked short sales of shares and government debt, which it says can cause a “disorderly market and possible systemic risks.”

Hurricane Earl strengthened today, bearing down on North Carolina with winds of 145 miles per hour, prompting school closures, coastal evacuations and emergency declarations.

AP Top Stories

The top US military commander in Afghanistan says the sometimes strained relationship between the US and Afghan President Hamid Karzai is solid.

The cap that ended BP's three-month oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico was set to come off Thursday as a prelude to raising a massive, failed piece of equipment and preparing for a final seal on the broken seafloor well.

American officers are taking up posts at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport to help identify potential terrorists or other high-risk passengers heading to the United States.

Fed Chairman Bernanke told a panel investigating the financial crisis that regulators must be ready to shutter the largest institutions if they threaten to bring down the financial system.

Dismal conditions in flood-hit areas in southwest Pakistan could force thousands of Pakistanis and Afghan refugees to cross the border into Iran, the U.N. refugee agency warned.

Afghan President Karzai condemned an air strike by NATO-led forces which he said killed 10 campaign workers for this month's election, as U.S. Defense Secretary Gates arrived for talks.

Automaker GM plans to begin courting investors for its initial public offering immediately after the November 2 U.S. midterm congressional elections, two sources familiar with the plans said.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said he had gone public to deny rumors he was gay and in a relationship with an aide because he and his wife were fed up of the allegations.

Russia - President Medvedev ordered law enforcement agencies to prevent speculators driving up food prices after the worst harvest in years and pledged help to ensure affordable food staples.

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose unexpectedly in July, an industry group said, suggesting a tax credit-related housing market decline was close to bottoming.

U.S. mortgage rates fell in the past week to the latest in a series of record lows as yields on government debt dropped, according to a survey released on Thursday by Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. mortgage finance company.

BBC    

Chilean miners trapped underground receive their first hot meal in 26 days, as NASA experts arrive at the mine site.

Brazilian police have arrested almost the entire local council in the southern city of Dourados, leaving an unprecedented power vacuum.

The governor of Afghanistan's central bank has told the BBC he will not allow the country's largest commercial bank to collapse. His comments follow the resignation of the top two executives of Kabul Bank, amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

WorldNetDaily

A former Boise Police officer charged with sexually abusing several infants has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The transit agency in San Francisco, which just weeks ago doctored a poster for the movie "The Other Guys" to remove guns from the hands of stars Will Ferrell and Mark Walhberg, now is displaying an ad for a gun rights conference that shows a woman holding a shotgun and looking through a curtain.

Family advocates are raising questions about the apparent absence of the nation's new federal "hate crimes" law in a series of cases that have involved attacks based on sexual orientation and have left several people dead, including two young children. "Quite obviously the major threat to a homosexual comes from their own same-sex partner ... will these incidents of same-sex domestic abuse be considered hate crimes?" asked Diane Gramley, chief of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania. "These individuals were targeted because of their 'sexual orientation' so why wouldn't these incidents qualify as a hate crime?" she asked.

Just days before it attended President Obama's summit in Washington this week, the Palestinian Authority honored the families of the perpetrators of some of the notorious terrorist attacks targeting Israeli civilians.

Weekly Intel Summary *NEW*

** Failed Bank List **

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