Investigation of Motive Enhance China Japan Bond Purchase

Tokyo – Japanese Finance Minister said Thursday Yoshihiko Noda, the government is monitoring closely China’s increased purchases of Japanese government debt and will check in Beijing about his motivations.”We are giving careful attention” to the recent increase in purchases related to China against the Japanese government bond (JGB), “Noda said in a session of the parliamentary committee of financial problems, reported Dow Jones Newswires.

“I do not know the true intention” regarding China’s increasing appetite for JGB.But Tokyo plans to “work together closely (with Beijing) and assesses the point,” he said.China, in July, buying Japanese bonds worth 583.1 billion yen (6.9 billion dollars), Japan’s finance ministry said Wednesday, when the Asian giant will continue to increase purchases of Japanese debt.

This figure is higher than the value of securities purchased in June, 456.7 billion yen.The news came after the yen, Wednesday, 15 highest-reaching new year against the dollar. Currency traders said the yen berdenomiasi China’s purchase of property, even by itself too small to boost the yen, it can support the increase in the currency indirectly.

For the first half of this year, China bought debt worth 1.73 trillion yen, almost seven times over a full year’s record of about 253.8 billion yen in 2005.In May alone China investors buy Japanese government bonds net worth 735.2 billion yen.China seeks to diversify its investments out of the big bucks and Europe since the beginning of the financial crisis.Most bonds are purchased by the government of China is estimated to be used to manage foreign currency reserves.

This increase is in conjunction with the re-doubt recovery in the United States and Europe, and indicates China’s store more foreign currency reserves which as a result continues to expand into the Japanese bonds are relatively stable.With approximately 95 percent is held by domestic investors, the risk did not pay the debt of Japan is considered much smaller than the countries hit by the-debt, even though its public debt approaching 200 percent of gross domestic product, the highest among developed countries.

China’s foreign exchange reserves have swelled in recent years, soaring to a record 2.454 trillion dollars at the end of June.These reserves, has become the world’s largest, grew 15.1 percent from a year ago, China’s central bank said in its website.One way Beijing is diversifying its investment through an independent wealth fund China Investment Corp., which handles about 300 billion dollars and has invested heavily in resource companies.(AFP)

Some Companies using criminal records or bad credit reports for job screening tactics challenged as illegal

WASHINGTON Companies using criminal records or bad credit reports to screen out job applicants might run afoul of anti-discrimination laws as the government steps up scrutiny of hiring policies that can hurt blacks and Hispanics.A blanket refusal to hire workers based on criminal records or credit problems can be illegal if it has a disparate impact on racial minorities, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The agency enforces the nation’s employment discrimination laws.”Our sense is that the problem is snowballing because of the technology allowing these checks to be done with a fair amount of ease,” said Carol Miaskoff, assistant legal counsel at the EEOC.

With millions of adults having criminal records – anything from underage drinking to homicide – a growing number of job seekers are having a rough time finding work. And more companies are trying to screen out people with bankruptcies, court judgments or other credit problems just as those numbers have swollen during the recession.Just ask Adrienne Hudson, a single mother who says she was fired from her new job as a bus driver at First Transit in Oakland, Calif., when the company found out she had been convicted seven years earlier for welfare fraud.

Hudson, 44, is fighting back with a lawsuit alleging the company’s hiring practice discriminates against black and Latino job seekers, who have arrest and conviction rates far greater than whites. A spokesman for First Transit said the company does not comment on pending litigation.”People make mistakes,” said Hudson, who is black, “but when they correct their mistake, they should not be punished again outside of the court system.”

Justice Department statistics show that 38 percent of the U.S. prison population is black, compared with about 12 percent of the general population. In 2008, African-Americans were about six times more likely to be incarcerated than whites. The incarceration rate for Latinos was 2.3 times higher than whites.If criminal histories are taken into account, the EEOC says employers must also consider the nature of the job, the seriousness of the offense and how long ago it occurred. For example, it may make sense to disqualify a bank employee with a past conviction for embezzlement, but not necessarily for a DUI.

Most companies tend to be more nuanced when they look at credit reports, weeding out those applicants with bad credit only if they seek senior positions or jobs dealing with money. But if the screening process weeds out more black and Hispanic applicants than whites, an employer needs to show how the credit information is related to the job.

About 73 percent of major employers report that they always check on applicants’ criminal records, while 19 percent do so for select job candidates, according to a 2010 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.The same survey found that almost half of major companies conduct credit checks for some job candidates, such as those who would be in a position of financial trust. Another 13 percent perform credit checks for all potential workers.

Last fall, the EEOC sent a strong message to employers when it filed a class-action lawsuit against Freeman Companies, a Dallas-based events planning firm, alleging the company discriminated against blacks, Hispanics and males by rejecting job seekers based on credit history and criminal records. Freeman has denied the charges.The growth of online databases and a multimillion dollar background check industry have made it easy for employers to find out reams of information about potential hires. Companies see the checks as another way to weed out unsavory candidates, keep a safe work environment and prevent negligent hiring claims.

“Past indiscretions may be an indicator of future behavior, especially in the criminal context,” said Pamela Devata, a Chicago employment lawyer who has represented companies trying to comply with EEOC’s requirements.Devata said employers nationwide have seen the EEOC become more active in investigating employer hiring practices. The scrutiny has caused many companies to reevaluate their screening process and move to a case-by-case standard.

Ariela Migdal, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project in New York, said a person might have a blemish that has nothing to do with the job he or she is seeking. And records sometimes are inaccurate or not updated to reflect that someone arrested later had charges dropped or a conviction overturned or expunged, she said.”Somebody with an old conviction that has been rehabilitated doesn’t have any greater likelihood of committing a crime, so its irrational to use that against them,” Migdal said.

Ron Heintzman, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said he’s seen dozens of job candidates disqualified “for reasons that were just ridiculous.” His union, with 13,000 members in First Transit, is paying for the lawsuit that Hudson filed last month against the company which operates bus service in Oakland and several other major cities.

In Hudson’s case, she was fired after just two days on the job as a bus driver because of a 7-year-old felony welfare fraud conviction. The conviction was later dismissed under California law, but her lawsuit, filed in federal court last month, claims the company has a policy to deny employment no matter how old the conviction, the applicant’s prior work history or whether it is related to the job.

(This version CORRECTS name of American Civil Liberties Union.)(AP)

President Barack Obama welcomed China's announcement Saturday that it will allow a more flexible exchange rate for its currency

BEIJING  President Barack Obama welcomed China’s announcement Saturday that it will allow a more flexible exchange rate for its currency, saying it would help protect the economic recovery.The announcement by China’s central bank suggested a possible break from the yuan’s two-year peg to the U.S. dollar – a source of friction between the two countries – but ruled out any large-scale appreciation.The People’s Bank of China mentioned no specific policy changes, though markets will be watched closely Monday for the announcement’s effects. Chinese officials have said all along that reforms of the yuan, also known as the renminbi, or “people’s money,” will be gradual.”It is desirable to proceed further with reform of the RMB exchange rate regime and increase the RMB exchange rate flexibility,” the central bank said in a statement posted on its website.

The announcement, timed just before President Hu Jintao’s trip to the G-20 summit in Toronto, Canada, follows warnings from Beijing earlier this week against making its currency policies a main focus of the meeting.Beijing kept the yuan frozen against the dollar to help Chinese manufacturers compete amid weak global demand. It faces pressure from the United States and other trading partners who contend the yuan is undervalued.

“China’s decision to increase the flexibility of its exchange rate is a constructive step that can help safeguard the recovery and contribute to a more balanced global economy,” Obama said in a statement.U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called the move an “important step.””But the test will be how far and how fast they let the currency appreciate,” he said.The European Commission also welcomed the decision, saying it would help achieve more sustainable global economic growth, reduce trade imbalances and strengthen the stability of the international financial system.

But the announcement is unlikely to satisfy critics in the U.S. Congress, who argue that an undervalued Chinese currency gives China’s exporters an unfair advantage, costing millions of American jobs.”This vague and limited statement of intentions is China’s typical response to pressure,” Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. “Until there is more specific information about how quickly it will let its currency appreciate and by how much, we can have no good feeling that the Chinese will start playing by the rules.”

Signs that a global economic recovery has taken hold have prompted speculation that China would begin letting the yuan resume a gradual appreciation against the U.S. dollar that began in 2005 but was halted abruptly in 2008 as the global financial crisis took effect.Since then, the yuan’s value has remained at roughly 6.83 to $1, although it is formally pegged to a basket of currencies that includes the U.S. dollar.

“It definitely sounds significant. They’re saying they’re going to press forward,” Stephen Green, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai, said of Saturday’s statement.”We didn’t ever think they were going to do a big one-off, so it looks like that’s not going to happen,” he said. “We’re going to see more movement around a basically stable exchange rate until the global economy is basically healthier. The proof will be in the pudding on Monday.”

Chinese officials have warned that any adjustment to the exchange rate is not other countries’ concern.The director of the international department of the People’s Bank of China, Zhang Tao, told a news conference Friday that Chinese leaders will not discuss the yuan at the G-20 summit.

Saturday’s statement pointed to economic growth both inside and outside China as a reason for the increase in exchange rate flexibility.”The global economy is gradually recovering. The recovery and upturn of the Chinese economy has become more solid with the enhanced economic stability,” the central bank said.However, it indicated no major policy changes, adding: “The exchange rate floating bands will remain the same as previously announced in the interbank foreign exchange market.”(AP)

Melissa Etheridge and her partner have announced their separation. In a statement Thursday

NEW YORK Rocker Melissa Etheridge and her partner, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels Etheridge, have announced their separation. In a statement Thursday, they asked for “consideration and respect for our family as we go through this difficult period.”

The two held a commitment ceremony in Malibu, Calif., in 2003. Tammy Etheridge, 35, gave birth to twins – a son, Miller, and a daughter, Johnnie Rose – in 2006. The couple used an anonymous donor from a sperm bank.The 48-year-old singer shares custody of daughter Bailey Jean and son Beckett with former partner Julie Cypher. Musician David Crosby was the sperm donor for the children, who were delivered by Cypher.

Melissa Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004.(AP)

grenade exploded in front of a Bangkok Bank branch in central Bangkok Saturday night, leaving one person slightly injured

BANGKOK, Feb. 27  grenade exploded in front of a Bangkok Bank branch in central Bangkok Saturday night, leaving one person slightly injured.According to an anonymous policeman at the scene, a man on a motorcycle passed by and threw a hand grenade toward the branch bank at Silom road, Bangrak district, at about 9:30 p.m., but only hit the tree in front of the bank and exploded.

One man got minor injury and has been sent to the nearby Leart Sin Hospital, the policeman said. The glass doors and windows of the bank were shattered by the wave of the explosion.Dozens of policeman at the scene are carrying out investigation.According to Bangkok Post online, another grenade was also found at the Bangkok Bank’s Rama II branch at about 10 p.m. and police disposed of the grenade before it exploded.(Xinhua)

World markets fell Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve unexpectedly raised interest rates for emergency bank loans

LONDON  World markets fell Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve unexpectedly raised interest rates for emergency bank loans, triggering fears that regular borrowing costs could also move higher soon, slowing the recovery in the world’s largest economy.The central bank said Thursday it will bump up the “discount” lending rate by one-quarter point to 0.75 percent effective Friday, part of a pullback of the extraordinary aid it provided to fight the financial crisis.Although the Fed said the step should not be seen as a signal that it will soon boost interest rates for consumers and businesses, markets were spooked.After sharp drops in Asia, Germany’s DAX stock index was down 0.2 percent at 5,671.28 and Britain’s FTSE 100 was flat at 5,326.84. France’s CAC-40 fell 0.2 percent to 3,742.09.Wall Street was also expected to fall on the open. Dow Jones industrials futures were down 50 points at 10,325.00 and Standard & Poor’s 500 futures were 8.2 points lower at 1,097.40.

Growing optimism about the strength of the U.S. economy had helped boost the Dow Jones industrial average rise by 3 percent over the past three days. But the surprise Fed announcement after Wall Street trading closed left traders wondering whether the so-called “exit strategy” from a loose monetary policy could come faster than expected and stifle U.S. consumer demand.”It begs the questions of why this was not done, or at least signaled at a regular Federal Open Market Committee meeting,” said Marc Ostwald, strategist at Monument Securities in London.”It certainly is the case that the Fed wants to see how money markets function without so much of the liquidity life support that the Fed has been providing, and as such one can term this a form of ‘kite flying’,” said Ostwald.The Fed move, which doesn’t change consumer borrowing rates, also helped boost the U.S. dollar and push the euro below nine-month lows – a sign traders may be turning away from higher-risk investments, analysts said.The euro fell to $1.3504 from $1.3529 late Thursday after trading at nine-month lows below $1.3400. After rising against the Japanese yen, the dollar was flat at 91.75 yen.

The euro has been under pressure in recent months over worries about the debt problems of Greece and other countries in Europe, such as Portugal and Spain. Although the EU said it was committed to helping Greece in case of a default, it did not provide any concrete plans for a bailout but limited itself to demand more spending cuts.Economic data in Europe, meanwhile, failed to shore up investor sentiment. The purchasing managers’ survey of the eurozone, an economic indicator published by Markit research group, was stable in February, suggesting the recovery from recession has stagnated somewhat.A rise in the manufacturing reading offset a drop in the services sector, providing “little hope that the much-needed domestic recovery is beginning to materialize,” said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics in London.Markets in China and Taiwan are closed this week for the Lunar New Year holiday.Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng stock index led decliners, diving 528.13, or 2.6 percent, to 19,894.02 while Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average dropped 212.11, or 2.1 percent, to 10,123.58.”As the dollar strengthens, we see less appetite for riskier assets such as Asian stocks.” said Jit Soon Lim, head of equity research for Southeast Asia for Nomura in Singapore. “We’re bullish on the region’s economic growth, but bearish on risk.”

South Korea’s Kospi declined 27.29, or 1.7 percent, to 1,593.90. India fell 1 percent and Indonesia dropped 0.5 percent.Singapore’s stock measure retreated 0.9 percent despite an increase of the government’s 2010 economic growth forecast to between 4.5 percent and 6.5 percent from 3 percent to 5 percent.In the U.S. on Thursday, the Dow rose 83.66, or 0.8 percent, to 10,392.90 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 7.24, or 0.7 percent, to 1,106.75. The Nasdaq composite index rose 15.42, or 0.7 percent, to 2,241.71, its fifth straight advance.Oil prices slid to near $78 a barrel after the Fed’s rate hike sent the U.S. dollar higher.Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 90 cents at $78.16 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added $1.73 to settle at $79.06 on Thursday.(AP)

Facebook, Twitter Will Face More Hacker Attacks in 2010

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McAfee said that social networking sites will become “increasingly vulnerable to attacks that spread malicious applications on their networks.” Criminals Internet users would abuse the trust of their friends on social sites, and make them activate the links that should be treated with more heart caution.

Companies based in California is also predicted there will be increasing security threat to the bank and also increase the attachment to an e-mail that contains software destructive nature.

G.M. to Decide Saab’s Fate Next Week

DETROIT  General Motors said it could decide next week to close its Saab Automobile unit after the Swedish company that planned to buy the brand backed out.It was the third time in less than two months that a sale of a G.M. brand has been called off, reflecting the difficulty of selling underperforming divisions in the midst of a global sales slump.G.M. said on Tuesday that its board planned to determine next week what to do with Saab. Closing the brand, as G.M. initially planned to do if it could not find a buyer, is a strong possibility, two people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the board had not made its decision.

The other options for G.M. are to seek another buyer or keep Saab, though both those steps are considered less likely.

When Penske Automotive terminated its deal to buy Saturn in September, G.M. immediately announced that the brand and its dealerships would close.Koenigsegg, which agreed to buy Saab in June, issued a statement attributing its decision to G.M.’s moving too slowly.“The time factor has always been critical for our strategy to breathe new life into the company,” Koenigsegg said. “Unfortunately, delays in closing this acquisition have resulted in risks and uncertainties that prevent us from successfully implementing the new Saab business plan.”Officials at G.M, who were caught off-guard by the deal’s collapse, denied responsibility. “We negotiated in good faith and we met all our timing obligations under the agreement,” a G.M. spokeswoman, Renee Rashid-Merem, said.

“We’re obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase,” G.M.’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, said in a statement.Three weeks ago, G.M. backed out of a deal to sell its European operations, Adam Opel, to a Canadian parts supplier and Russian bank.It has a tentative deal to sell Hummer to a Chinese industrial machinery manufacturer, but the Chinese government has not given its approval.Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Company spent nearly a year shopping around its Swedish brand, Volvo, before entering into exclusive talks with the Chinese carmaker Geely last month.

John Casesa, an auto analyst with the firm Casesa Shapiro Group, said the collapse of the Saab and Saturn deals was more a symptom of the state of the automobile industry than of any missteps by G.M.“Saab is a weak brand in a market where there are no buyers,” Mr. Casesa said. “Car companies are in no mood to buy anything and financial sponsors aren’t able to buy anything. Saab wouldn’t be an easy sale in a good market.”Saab, which filed for bankruptcy protection in Sweden in February, has been a perennial money-loser and is among G.M.’s smallest brands, with sales of 93,000 vehicles worldwide last year.

It is on pace to sell fewer than 10,000 vehicles in the United States this year.Closing Saab would cost G.M. considerably less than it is spending to shut down Saturn, analysts said, and failing to sell Saab is not expected to affect G.M.’s post-bankruptcy recovery.G.M. paid $600 million for half of Saab in 1990 and $125 million for the rest in 2000. Terms of the deal with Koenigsegg have not been revealed, but it was contingent on $600 million of financing from the European Investment Bank and Swedish government guarantees.Joran Hagglund, the Swedish secretary of state for industry, said on Tuesday that it was too early to know if it was the end of the line for Saab, but he said that there was no chance of the government stepping in.David Jolly contributed reporting from Paris.

Movies Come Back to St. Marks Place

Next week, Theater 80 will fire up its film projectors for the first time in 15 years, when comic caper film The Brooklyn Heist begins its two-week run at the famed revival house. We asked The Brooklyn Heist director Julian Mark Kheel about how this unique booking came about, and why Theater 80 is the perfect venue for his satiric tale of three very different sets of New Yorkers all plotting to rob the same pawnshop owner…on the same night.

Sometimes small problems lead you to great solutions.  A few months ago, we were looking for a theater just to hold a private screening of The Brooklyn Heist for our New York cast and crew who hadn’t had a chance to see the film yet. Our producer Michael Cecchi was looking at theaters, but most movie theaters in New York have no character—they’re too big and commercial and impersonal.  We knew we wanted somewhere special to debut this film, not just a giant multiplex.

One day, Mike was walking by Theater 80, which he knew very well from their time with the Pearl Theatre Company, and decides on a whim to stop in and see what they’re up to with the space.  That’s when we first found out that Lorcan [Otway], who is the son of the original owners of Theater 80, was considering turning Theater 80 back into a movie house. He had begun researching the high definition projection system that would be needed, but it was an expensive endeavor. But once Lorcan saw the trailer for The Brooklyn Heist, he loved it, the projection system was ordered, and suddenly we were booked not just for a cast and crew screening but an entire run of the film.

Co-writer Brett Halsey and I both spent our post-college years living in New York, writing together and struggling as artists, and one of the greatest things we discovered about the city is the huge variety of people from all walks of life who live here.  Since The Brooklyn Heist is all about people from different worlds colliding, it seemed only logical that New York—and specifically Brooklyn—would be the place they’d all be.

When we decided to write a caper film, one of our big inspirations was Dog Day Afternoon, the 1975 film directed by Sidney Lumet.  It feels like the robbery in that film is an event that could only happen in New York, from the characters played by Al Pacino and John Cazale to the mobs of people witnessing the hold-up from outside the bank.I feel the same way about The Brooklyn Heist—a heist like this one with characters like these could only happen in New York.

Caper and heist films are such an established part of the history of cinema.  Filmmakers have been making them forever and audiences have been watching them forever, probably because they’re fun to make and fun to watch.  So when we wanted to “play” with a genre and explore long established stereotypes for laughs, we knew that a heist film would give us a ton of material to work with.

I love the old cliché about filmmaking that it’s like trying to eat an elephant a spoonful at a time. That rings very true to me because the toughest part of directing is being able to see the ‘big picture’ while you’re working on just one specific shot, maybe even one specific moment.  In a short film that task is easier because the “big picture” is only 10 minutes long, but in a feature, seeing the whole thing in your mind while still staying in the moment is a much bigger challenge.  And because of the different genres within The Brooklyn Heist, making this film was like trying to eat five elephants of varying colors, shapes, and sizes, and keeping track of which elephant you were supposed to be eating on any given day and how it would mix together with the other elephants.  So this feature presented its own special mix of problems, as well.

The other difference between making a feature versus a short is simply time, and by that I mean time on the set.  The pressure to get everything done on time is much more intense on a feature.  On a short film you’re usually working with a cast and crew who is donating their time, or at least providing it at a very low cost for one or two days.  But of course no one can afford to donate their time for weeks and weeks on end—everyone’s gotta eat somehow.  So on a feature it quickly becomes apparent that every minute on set is costing a lot of money and you’ve got to stay on track, especially on an independent film where’s there’s no studio to cover the costs if you go over budget.  But at the same time, you can’t let the costs distract you from the artistic side of the endeavor.  So it’s a balancing act that changes every day.