Pension Officers Putting Billions Into Hedge Funds
Faced with growing numbers of retirees, pension plans are pouring billions into hedge funds, the secretive and lightly regulated investment partnerships that once managed money only for wealthy investors.

Math + science = innovation, but US lags in the equation
Behind these moves lurks the fear that many young Americans are abandoning math and science at a time when students in emerging countries like China and India are mastering the subjects. China graduated 500,000 engineers last year, and India 200,000, compared with 70,000 in the United States, according to the National Academy of Sciences study.

Newmont Mining's gold predictions
MOORE: Five hundred US dollars an ounce?
LASSONDE: Oh well passed that. I believe that by early next year you are going to see five twenty five and down the road even a lot higher than that.
MOORE: What is a lot higher?
LASSONDE: The question is gold prices will have three zeros after the first number.
MOORE: Three zeros?
LASSONDE: Ah huh.

How powerful is the Federal Reserve?
With Bernanke about to take over, time for a reality check

'Black Friday' tepid; Wal-Mart a winner
The official holiday shopping season appears to have gotten off to a lukewarm start, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that monitors retail sales. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was one bright spot in the crowd, reporting its sales exceeded expectations.

Brokerage Firm Hack Endangers Investors
St. Louis-based Scottrade, one of the nation's largest private online stock brokerage houses, has alerted its customers that a hacker break-in may have compromised the security of an untold number of accounts

Scenes From A Bush Thanksgiving
Dubya pouts, Cheney scowls, no one brings pie -- and why is Rove looking at Barb that way?

Quick Overview

• Consumer prices in Germany were down 0.5% in November..
  

• YoY Hong Kong's GDP was up 8.2% in the third quarter.
  

• The European Union will cut its sugar subsidies by 36% and stop paying producers three times the world price. This is expected to be phased in over the next four years. Australia's sugar cane growers will benefit from the European Union agreeing to cut sugar subsidies, an industry spokesman said.
  

Foreign central banks add U.S. debt in week-Fed
Foreign central banks purchased more U.S. debt in the latest week, investing more money in Treasury and government-sponsored agency securities, Federal Reserve data showed on Friday.

Chart of the day

New York Stock Exchange "Volume" Advance Decline Line (Cumulative Daily Volume Breadth)

This chart is generated by subtracting the NYSE Composite "Volume" declines from that days "Volume" advances. The blue line plots the cumulative total.

Quick Overview

• The stock market was supported by a positive reading on the University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment. The index increased to 81.6 this month from 74.2 (a 13 year low) in October vs. 81.0 expected.
  

• The number of U.S. workers filing initial unemployment benefits rose by 30,000 to 335,000 last week, the Labor Department said.
  

• Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds rose by $1.64 billion to $829.60 billion in the latest week -- the Investment Company Institute said.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were up 400,000 barrels to 321.8 million.
  Supplies of unleaded gasoline were up 200,000 barrels
  Supplies of heating oil supplies were up 1.3 million barrels.
  Supplies of natural gas were down 8 billion cubic feet to 3.274 trillion cubic feet. YoY supplies are down 1%.
  

• The USDA said that world sugar production will be 144.2 million tons in 2005-2006, 3.6 million tons less than total use.
  

• Because of a NAFTA deadline, the U.S. has agreed to remove the 16.4% tariff on Canadian lumber, not right away. The U.S. wants to appeal the NAFTA decision as long as it can.
  

• YoY Mexico's trade deficit widened to $631 million in October from $564.
  

• YoY Japan's current account surplus shrank 28.8 percent in October,
  

• Canada's index of composite leading indicators was up 0.5% in October
  

• Brazil's central bank cuts its benchmark interest rate for the third consecutive month, despite higher-than-expected inflation.
  
  

• Gold mining company Placer Dome Inc. on Wednesday said its board is recommending shareholders reject a $9.2 billion takeover bid by Barrick Gold Corp.

Quick Overview

• Ben Bernanke, said Congress should limit the massive holdings of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an effort to limit any danger their debt poses to the overall economy.
  
  

• Holiday sales at U.S. retailers may rise 6% over last year, up from an earlier 5% forecast, according to the National Retail Federation, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday
  
  

• The average U.S. retail price of diesel fuel fell for the fourth straight week, declining 8.9 cents to $2.513 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday.
  
  

• The South African Chamber of Mines said that gold production totaled 72.4 tons in the recent quarter, down 15% YOY.
  
  

• The USDA said that as of October 31st, there were 15.52 million pounds of frozen bellies in storage, down 3% from a year ago. Frozen pork totaled 443.9 million pounds, up 5% YoY.
  
  

• The USDA said that there were 1.14 billion pounds of frozen orange juice concentrate in cold storage, down 25% YoY.
  

• The Commerce Department said that retail sales over the Internet totaled $22.3 billion in the recent quarter, up 26.7% YoY. Internet sales now account for 2.3% of total retail sales.

How the Media Can Restore Credibility They should be accessible. "Isolation impairs accountability," says Philip Seib, author of a book on reporting in the cyber era. An Ivory Tower mentality keeps news away. It's easier to track down Dick Cheney in his undisclosed location than to get your local news anchorperson on the phone. Too few newspapers and almost no broadcast outlets make it easy for their readers, listeners and viewers to contact their employees, whether to correct an error or suggest a story idea. Some newspaper websites don't even list their main phone number! Every newspaper by-line should carry its writer's direct phone number and email address, and they should be required to return their messages.

China stocks copper in Shanghai, prepares to cover LME positions
China is believed to have to scramble to meet the LME's requirement to deliver physical copper to approved LME warehouses. The futures contracts Liu traded will fall due on December 21, according to media reports.

China's welfare push to help economic rebalancing

White House used 'gossip' to build case for war

U.S. Press for Reform Prompts Talk of Showdown at the U.N.

Bush Discusses Murtha and Says Progress in Iraq is 'Amazing'

How the Bush administration got spooked

Quick Overview

• The New-York based Conference Board said its index of leading indicators rose 0.9 to 137.9 in October after a downwardly revised 0.8 percent decline in September.
  

• Canada's retail sales were down 0.9%, but up 5.5% YoY.
  

• YoY Indonesia's GDP was up 5.3% in the third quarter.
  

• Mexican retail sales rose 5.2 % in September.
  
  

• The Bank of Japan should move to a policy of raising interest rates soon and should be proactive in communicating to markets how it will go about such a policy shift, a Japanese business lobby said.
  
  
  

• Venezuela and Argentina bolstered ties on Monday with energy and commerce deals after their presidents discussed Venezuela's entry into the South American Mercosur trade pact and alternatives to U.S. proposals for the region.

• Gasoline pump prices continued to drop in the two weeks ended Friday, declining 18 cents to an average $2.27 a gallon for all grades, analyst Trilby Lundberg reported in her latest survey on Sunday.

• General Motors plans to close nine North American plants and cut 30,000 jobs in an effort to trim costs, news services reported Monday

• Rail freight traffic fell for the week of Nov. 12, however intermodal continued to rise compared to the same week last year , the Association of American Railroads reported.

We Must Hold the Scoundrels Accountable
Bush’s public support has plummeted. A majority of Americans believe Bush lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction and now they doubt his integrity. Trapped in their lies, Bush and Cheney are lashing out at critics, proving once again the truth of Samuel Johnson’s 18th century observation that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Senate committee passes spyware bill
A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that would outlaw the practice of remotely installing software that collects a computer users' personal information without consent.

<How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball'
The senior BND officer who supervised Curveball's case said he was aghast when he watched Powell misstate Curveball's claims as a justification for war.

Global shipping: Challenges ahead
As on January 1, 2005, the world trading fleet was made up of 46,222 ships, with a combined 597,709,000 gross tonnes. The vast bulk of the fleet was made up of: general cargo ships (18,150), tankers (11,356), bulk carriers (6,139), passenger ships (5,679) and container ships (3,165). Other ship types accounted for 1,733 vessels.