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A group of wealthy pro-Republican hedge fund managers is backing efforts to legalise same-sex marriage in four US states that will vote on the issue in November, as the party’s more socially liberal donors try to regain ground ceded to social conservatives.
The campaign to win same-sex ballots in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington has received financial support from Paul Singer, the hedge fund billionaire who is one of the party’s biggest donors, and Cliff Asness, the founder of AQR Capital Management…
change is happening - corporate political power does not want to be left behind…
[hmmm…so maybe that horrid bailout not such a bad thing there?…]
(via Gold price hits six-month trough as dollar surges - FT.com)
Gold fell to the lowest point in almost half a year as investors exchanged the metal for more liquid dollars.
Spot gold in London fell to $1,523 a troy ounce, the weakest since July and down almost $400 from a nominal record reached this year.
The reversal has spooked investors searching for havens. The largest gold exchange-traded fund, held by individual investors and the biggest hedge funds alike, has unloaded 44 tonnes, or 3 per cent of its hoard, this month.
The latest fall came as the year ends and some traders, including banks, sought to raise cash. They turned to dollars, which Thursday rose to a 15-month high against the euro.
“When you have an environment of a stronger dollar and people looking for the most liquid thing they can put money into, that pressures gold,” said Hayden Atkins, senior analyst at Macquarie in London…
![(via $200 Million in Vanished Cash Turns Up at JP Morgan — Daily Intel)
For the past month, investigators have been looking up and down Wall Street for over $200 million in customer money, lost in the collapse of MF Global, the brokerage firm that used to rule the commodities business. (MF Global also used to be run by Jon Corzine, former New Jersey governor.) Well, the authorities had to cross the Atlantic, but they found the money. All the millions were sitting in the British branch of JPMorgan Chase.
How did they get there? The Times reports that in the days preceding MF Global’s tumultuous collapse, they overdrew an account with JPMorgan, and may have patched up that debt with consumer funds. Since that would be illegal and immoral, it’s possible that the firm hid its tracks. The results of the investigation are still pending, and may now have to include JPMorgan itself. If the bank didn’t “question the source of the cash,” it too would be at fault.
MF Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 31st, and in the hearings that followed, it emerged that around $600 million in customer cash had up and vanished. And now, even though $200 million of it has turned up, it’s not clear if customers can get it back. In the meantime, former CEO Corzine has been called in for congressional questioning.
Money Found In Britain May Belong to MF Global [NYT]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvepkfutdg1qz5q5oo1_250.jpg)
(via $200 Million in Vanished Cash Turns Up at JP Morgan — Daily Intel)
For the past month, investigators have been looking up and down Wall Street for over $200 million in customer money, lost in the collapse of MF Global, the brokerage firm that used to rule the commodities business. (MF Global also used to be run by Jon Corzine, former New Jersey governor.) Well, the authorities had to cross the Atlantic, but they found the money. All the millions were sitting in the British branch of JPMorgan Chase.
How did they get there? The Times reports that in the days preceding MF Global’s tumultuous collapse, they overdrew an account with JPMorgan, and may have patched up that debt with consumer funds. Since that would be illegal and immoral, it’s possible that the firm hid its tracks. The results of the investigation are still pending, and may now have to include JPMorgan itself. If the bank didn’t “question the source of the cash,” it too would be at fault.
MF Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 31st, and in the hearings that followed, it emerged that around $600 million in customer cash had up and vanished. And now, even though $200 million of it has turned up, it’s not clear if customers can get it back. In the meantime, former CEO Corzine has been called in for congressional questioning.
The United States lost its top-notch AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s on Friday in an unprecedented reversal of fortune for the world’s largest economy.
S&P cut the long-term U.S. credit rating by one notch to AA-plus on concerns about the government’s budget deficits and rising debt burden. The move is likely to raise borrowing costs eventually for the American government, companies and consumers…
Iran has bought large amounts of gold in the international market, according to a senior Bank of England official, in a sign of how growing political pressure has driven Tehran to reduce its exposure to the US dollar.
Andrew Bailey, head of banking at the Bank of England, told an American official that the central bank had observed “significant moves by Iran to purchase gold”, according to a US diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks and seen by the Financial Times.
