Fed's Santomero: Economy will survive Katrina
Santomero said that he still thinks the U.S. economy will grow at a 3.5% to 4% rate this year. He said the economy faces challenges from housing, high oil prices and the effects of the hurricane.

Ozone Layer Has Stopped Shrinking, U.S. Study Finds
An analysis of satellite records and surface monitoring instruments shows the ozone layer has grown a bit thicker in some parts of the world..

Bush: U.S. Must Protect Iraq From Terror
President Bush on Tuesday answered growing anti-war protests with a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields that he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

Quick Overview

• Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday the Bush administration has decided to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help refiners meet any shortfalls because of Hurricane Katrina, news services reported.
  
  

• The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.3% in the second quarter, down from 3.8% in the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
  
  

• Manufacturing growth in the Chicago unexpectedly contracted from 63.5 to 49.2 in August, its first contraction in more than two years, the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said in its monthly report issued Wednesday.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
• Crude oil supplies were down 1.5 million barrels last week to 321.4 million barrels.
• Supplies of unleaded gasoline were down 500,000 barrels
• Heating oil supplies were up 1.7 million barrels.
  

• Japans Industrial production was down 1.1%.
  

• Canada's GDP was up 0.2% in June and up 2.7% from a year ago.
  

• Germany's unemployment rate improved in August from 11.5% to 11.4% -- 4.728 million people are out of work.
  

• The increase in second quarter GDP in the Euro zone was revised down from 1.2% to 1.1% from a year ago.
  

When the levee breaks
It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

Nagin: Entire City Will Soon Be Underwater
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is "very upset" that an attempt to fix the breach in the levee at the 17th Street canal has failed, and he said the challenges that the city is facing have "escalated to another level."...Nagin said the sandbagging was scheduled for midday, but the Blackhawk helicopters needed to help did not show up. He said the sandbags were ready and all the helicopter had to do was "show up."

Quick Overview

• The after-effects of Hurricane Katrina sent crude oil prices to a new record near $71 a barrel Tuesday as fuel traders braced for damage assessments of the storm on oil and gas rigs and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Gulf Coast, news services reported.
  
  

• Estimates of Hurricane Katrina’s economic damage were still coming in Tuesday, and ranged from $9 billion to as high as $26 billion, news services reported.
  
  
  

• Surging crude oil prices led to record demand for ethanol (Sugar, Corn, etc. ?) in June, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information administration. The U.S. production of ethanol reached a record 343 million gallons, or 249,000 barrels per day in June, higher than the previous record of 245,000 set in February of this year.
  
  
  
  
• The number of orders placed with U.S. factories fell 1.9% in July to $387.8 billion, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday..
  

• The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index increased from 103.6 to 105.6 in August, stronger than expected.
  

• Retail sales in Australia were down 1.0% in July.
  

• Retail sales in the U.K. showed another decline for the sixth consecutive month.
  

• Household spending in Japan was down 3.5% in July. Retail sales in July were down 2.2% and the unemployment rate rose from 4.2% to 4.4%.
  

• The U.S. poverty rate rose in 2004 for the fourth year in a row, driven by an increase in poor whites, the government said today.
  

• Surface trade among the U.S., Canada and Mexico rose 7.2% in June to $59.4 billion from a year earlier, the Department of Transportation reported.

• Dow Jones Newswires said that the coffee warehouses in New Orleans are under two feet of water, however it’s not clear how much actual damage there is.

Quick Overview

• Crude oil prices jumped to over $70 a barrel for the first time in overnight trading in response to Hurricane Katrina, which blew through the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend and made landfall into Louisiana and Mississippi early Monday. However many of this morning's price moves did not survive the day.

• An important natural-gas pipeline hub in Louisiana reopened Monday after closing due to Hurricane Katrina. The Henry Hub was closed Sunday. Returning personnel found no significant damage, owner and operator Sabine Pipe Line LLC said on its site Monday.

• The Bush administration said it would consider loaning crude oil from the government's emergency stockpile, if requested by U.S. refiners facing delayed shipments due to the Hurricane.
  
  

• With the peak shipping season in full force, intermodal container traffic for the week ended Aug. 20 was the highest week ever on record, the Association of American Railroads said.
  
  

• The USDA's good to excellent crop rating for:
  Corn was 52%, up from 50% a week ago.
  Soybeans were 53%, up from 52% a week ago.
  Cotton was 65%, up from 63% a week ago.
  

• Lumber closed up its $10 daily limit to $280.20 with many expecting bigger lumber demand after Hurricane Katrina.
  

• GDP in the Philippines was up 1.4% in the second quarter and up 4.8% YoY.
  

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Bot
CptPokr is a robot. Unlike the other icons at the table, there is no human placing his bets and playing his cards. He is controlled by WinHoldEm, the first commercially available autoplaying poker software. Seat him at the table and he will apply strategy gleaned from decades of research. While carbon-based players munch Ding Dongs, yawn, guzzle beer, reply to email, take phone calls, and chat on IM, CptPokr (a pseudonym) is running the numbers so it will know, statistically, when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

Where has all the money gone?
Paul Bremer, the American pro-consul in Baghdad until June last year, kept a slush fund of nearly $600 million cash for which there is no paperwork: $200 million of this was kept in a room in one of Saddam’s former palaces, and the US soldier in charge used to keep the key to the room in his backpack, which he left on his desk when he popped out for lunch.

Foreign markets leave U.S. in the dust
Zero in on a major city with a stock exchange: Paris. Tokyo. Toronto. Sydney.
Not to be overlooked: Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark, Mexico, Peru, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Russia, and Slovakia.

Quick Overview

• Greenspan on Friday cautioned Americans against thinking the value of their homes and other investments will only go higher, saying "history has not dealt kindly" with that kind of optimism.
  

• The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment dropped from 92.8 to 89.1 in August – weaker
  

• Mexico's central bank pushed interest rates lower on Friday for the first time in over three years to give the soft economy a boost, now that inflation is under control. YoY
  

• Consumer prices in Canada were up 2.0% in July - less than expected.
  

• GDP in the U.K. increased 0.5% in the second quarter and 1.8% YoY.
  

• Japans consumer prices were down 0.1% in July and down 0.3% YoY.
  

• Hong Kong's GDP was up 3% in the second quarter and up 6.8% YoY..
  

Anti-Aging Hormone" Found in Mice; May Help Humans Researchers have dramatically increased the life spans of mice by up to 30 percent by genetically engineering them to overproduce a protein called klotho. The gene regulates production of klotho protein, which the study team says works like an anti-aging hormone. Kotho is involved in the suppression of insulin-signaling pathways -- a process...

U.S. Mint confiscates 10 rare gold coins
The U.S. Mint seized 10 Double Eagle gold coins from 1933..
The coins, which are so rare that their value is almost beyond calculation, are public property, he said.

Housing debate: Is boom still on or is it flattening?
On Tuesday, some analysts said the boom was definitively going south, based on a report from the National Association of Realtors that sales of existing homes slipped 2.6 percent from June to July.

Yesterday, however, the Commerce Department reported that new-home sales hit a record high last month, up 6.5 percent from June. That sent some pontificators the opposite way, saying the boom lives on.

What's going on? Is a housing "bubble" about to burst or not?

Rolling Blackouts Cut Power in California
Sweltering late-summer heat and the loss of key transmission lines Thursday forced power officials in Southern California to impose rolling blackouts, leaving as many as half a million people without power for an hour at a time, officials said.

Quick Overview

• The number of U.S. workers filing for initial unemployment benefits fell by 4,000 to 315,000 for the week ended Aug. 20, the Labor Department reported Thursday
  
  
  

• YoY Consumer prices in Germany were up 1.9% in August.
  

• Japan's exports were up 4.3% in July and imports were up 11.6%.
  

• The International Cocoa Organization upped the 2004-2005 world cocoa production shortfall from 44,000 tons to 106,000 tons. They expect 2004-2005 world net production to total 3.16 million tons and world grindings to total 3.27 million tons.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. Commerce Department said that new home sales were at an annual rate of 1.41 million units in July, up 6.5% from June's rate and stronger than anticipated. So far in 2005, new home sales are up 8% from a year ago.
  

• The New York Federal Reserve Bank said it has called a Sept. 15 meeting of top banks to discuss the risks of credit derivatives.
  

• China expects to push steadily forward with reforms of the Yuan to guarantee the country's economic and financial stability, a top government economist said on Wednesday.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Crude oil supplies were up 1.8 million barrels to 322.9 million barrels.
  Unleaded gasoline supplies were down 3.2 million barrels .
  Heating oil supplies were up 900,000 barrels.
  
  

• U.S. Durable goods orders were down 4.9% in July, the largest monthly drop in over a year. Exclusive of transport, orders fell 3.2% for the month.
  

• An index of U.K. factory orders fell from -20 to -29 in July, the lowest in almost two years.

• U.S. existing home sales were at an annual rate of 7.16 million units in July, down 2.6% for the month.
  

• Mexico's trade deficit narrowed to $619 million in July as high oil prices lifted export revenues.
  

• Canada's composite index of leading indicators rose 0.3% in July to 205.2.
  

• An index of services in Japan increased 1% in June.
  

• South African gold production in the second quarter of 2005 fell by 2.4 percent versus the first quarter and by a significant 18 percent on a year-on-year basis when compared to the second quarter of 2004, the Chamber of Mines said on Tuesday.
  

Boom and bust at sea
How long can the good times last for the shipping industry?

The Baltic Exchange's dry index—covering bulk-cargo rates on the world's 23 busiest sea routes—hit 6,200 in 2004, up from below 900 in 2001. Container shipping and other cargo rates also increased.