Isaac's remnants bring rain to drought-hit Midwest

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Reuters
September 2, 2012

Joshuah Durette and Farrell Torres make their way to their home in a rowboat in the Olde Towne area after Hurricane Isaac passed through Slidell, Louisiana August 30, 2012. REUTERS-Michael Spooneybarger

Joshuah Durette and Farrell Torres make their way to their home in a rowboat in the Olde Towne area after Hurricane Isaac passed through Slidell, Louisiana August 30, 2012.

Credit: REUTERS/Michael Spooneybarger

(Reuters) - The remnants of Hurricane Isaac brought rain to drought-stricken parts of the lower U.S. Midwest on Saturday after the storm killed at least 30 people on its trek across the Caribbean and Louisiana and Mississippi, authorities said.

Arctic ice is in a death spiral and the implications are enormous

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Arctic ice is in a death spiral and the implications are enormous

 | AUGUST 30, 2012

 

 

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Arctic ice is in a death spiral and the implications are enormous

 

 I'm sharing my space this week with climatologist Paul Beckwith because an enormous cyclone blew over the North Pole all this month -- an event that has kept scientists around the world up at night.

It’s very rare for there to be such a storm in the summer. In the past a storm like this would arise in winter and blow snow around on top of a thick ice cover. This summer, over thinner ice, the wind creates large waves which, combined with warm temperatures of air and water, are causing havoc with a keystone of the global climate.

Arctic ice physically reflects most of the incoming solar radiation harmlessly back into space, keeping the surface temperatures cold. When water replaces the melting ice it absorbs much, much more sunlight and thus increasingly heats up the ocean and atmosphere. This extra heat melts even more ice in a vicious heat amplifying feedback cycle.

No computer models predicted this and the implications of ice loss are enormous.

Public sector banks: Troubles continue

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Business Standard
Shishir Asthana, Mumbai, August 31, 2012

The Mahapatra Committee recommendations could erode a large portion of public sector banks' net worth

Public sector banks are in trouble and have betrayed this fact by objecting to the recommendations made by Reserve Bank of India’s committee on loan restructuring. The Mahapatra Committee set up by the central bank had suggested the abolition of regulatory forbearance while recasting debt after two years. If implemented, this would mean that all restructured loans will have to be classified as NPAs (non-performing assets).

Credit rating agency Crisil has revised its loan recast figure to Rs 3.25 lakh crore for 2012-13 which is a sharp rise from Rs 2.18 lakh crore for 2011-12. Nearly 80 per cent of these loans are in the books of public sector banks.

To read the rest of this story, visit business-standard.com.

Barclays New Boss is Not Like Bob Diamond; JPMorgan Still Working on Whale Probe: Roundup

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New York Observer
Patrick Clark, 8/31/12

New Barclays boss Antony Jenkins is the only CEO of a global universal bank without a background in investment banking, and according to Bloomberg, the low-profile retail banker is everything that former CEO Bob Diamond wasn’t. Mr. Jenkins, the first in his family to attend university, started his career at Barclays in 1983 and, after a stint at Citi, returned in 2006. Barclays chairman Marcus Agius, expected to step down in the wake of the Libor scandal now that the task of replacing Mr. Diamond is complete, said that Mr. Jenkins stood out in a competitive field of candidates, according to The New York Times. Former U.K. financial services chief Paul Myners told Bloomberg that there were “probably less than four credible candidates, two of whom I know were approached and turned it down almost without any serious consideration.”

Serious Fraud Office investigating Barclays payments to Qatar

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The Guardian, 29 August 2012

Barclays faces criminal investigation into payments made to Qatar Holding after bank sought emergency funding in 2008

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Barclays is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office over payments made to Qatar Holding in 2008. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian
 

The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into payments made after Barclays tapped Middle Eastern investors for emergency funds in 2008.

Bloomberg View: Getting to the Bottom of Libor

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Bloomberg Business Week
August 30, 2012

The headquarters of Barclays, right, in the Canary Wharf business district of London

Photograph by Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

The headquarters of Barclays, right, in the Canary Wharf business district of London

The global investigation into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate has so far done a good job of exposing how bankers corrupted one of the world’s most important financial indicators. Now authorities need to take a giant step further: make banks release the data needed to determine how much damage was done and who should bear the most responsibility.

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