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HEADLINE Economic, Financial & Global News...
every weekday, to keep you better informed.

Tuesday 07.17.2012

Gold looks bullish, to reach $1,840/oz
by year end: Goldman Sachs
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): New York based global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs Group is maintaining a bullish view on gold and lists a year-end forecast of $1,840 an ounce.
"As we look forward, our U.S. economists forecast subdued growth and further easing by the Fed, which should push the market's expectations of real rates back down and gold prices back to our 6-month forecast of $1,840/toz," the American bank added.

'Gold to hit $2000/oz in a year'
VIENNA (Commodity Online): Gold prices are likely to reach $2000 an ounce in 12 months, said Erste Group Bank AG, one of the largest financial services providers in Central and Eastern Europe.
According to the bank, gold is yet to peak, bolstered by low real interest rates and the desire for secure, sustainable forms of savings and investments
As the Federal Reserve will continue its zero interest policy until at least 2014, real interest will continue to be negative, laying the ground for gold price to climb higher.

Gold Climbs As U.S. Retail Data
Increase Stimulus Speculation
By Glenys Sim - Bloomberg.com
Gold advanced after data showed that U.S. retail sales unexpectedly declined last month, increasing speculation that the Federal Reserve will take more steps to shore up the world's biggest economy.
Spot gold climbed as much as 0.4 percent to $1,596.25 an ounce, and was at $1,595 at 9:42 a.m. in Singapore. August- delivery bullion gained as much as 0.3 percent to $1,596 an ounce on the Comex in New York, and traded at $1,594.50.

Gold to focus on possibility
of QE this week: Standard bank
LONDON (Commodity Online): The gold market is likely to spend much time this week focused on the prospects for further U.S. quantitative easing, as traders scrutinize a heavy slate of economic data and congressional testimony on the economy from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gold to play along physical markets soon: Barclays
LONDON (Commodity Online): The next potential trigger to drive gold prices higher may be how fiscal policy makers intend to deal with the "fiscal cliff" in early 2013, which leaves gold in the hands of the physical market in the near-term, said Barclays Capital in a research note.
Gold prices had held up well ahead of the FOMC meeting in June, but only temporarily, before they tumbled below $1600/oz, a new low for the month as the Fed decided to continue its programme to extend the average maturity of its securities (ie, Operation Twist) and amid dollar strength and weaker-than-expected macro data.

Dollar Weak Before Bernanke Senate Testimony
By Masaki Kondo and Kristine Aquino - BusinessWeek.com
The dollar weakened against most of its major peers amid speculation Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will hint at further monetary easing in testimony before Congress today.
The greenback slid for a third day versus the euro after an unexpected drop in U.S. retail sales rekindled speculation the Fed will introduce additional steps to support the world's largest economy. The 17-nation euro was 0.2 percent from the lowest in more than three years against the pound before German data that may signal deteriorating confidence among investors.

The Trillion-Dollar Question
By Mark Reeth - The Motley Fool.com
Sequestration, the automatic budget cuts for various U.S. government programs, is no laughing matter for major defense contractors. If Congress doesn't act to stop the cuts from taking place, they will begin in June 2013 and reduce the U.S.' defense budget over the next 10 years by $492.3 billion. And that would be on top of around $500 billion already slashed over the next 10 years. While many government defense contractors are exposed to the budget cuts, one company that may have more to lose than any other is Northrop Grumman.

World economy heads for another perfect storm
The International Monetary Fund's latest "World Economic Outlook" makes for chilling reading. A perfect storm in which all parts of the world economy go down together seems fast to be gestating somewhere out in the mid-Atlantic.
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
True enough, the IMF has not reduced its forecasts of world growth for this year and next by very much — just 0.1 and 0.2pc respectively — but it notes some key downside risks, and it is not just the problems of the eurozone it is talking about this time either. Already struggling to return to growth, the UK needs these new pressures like a hole in the head.
To the all too familiar economic threats posed by the eurozone must now be added the approaching "fiscal cliff" in the US, whose own nascent recovery is in any case fast losing momentum, and the evident slowdown in emerging markets.

Moody's downgrades 13 Italian banks
Moody's cut its rating for 13 Italian banks this evening, citing the weakened borrower standing of the Italian government after its credit grade was downgraded last week.
By AFP - Telegraph.co.uk
The ratings fell by one to two notches, with Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo both falling to Baa2 from A3.
"Today's actions follow the weakening of the Italian government's credit profile," Moody's said in a statement.
"Along with the increase in the risk of sovereign bond defaults, the downgrade of Italy's long-term ratings to Baa2 also indicates a similarly increased risk that the government might be unable to provide financial support to its banks in financial distress."

Spain debt costs to stay high in wake of austerity plan
By Nigel Davies
MADRID | Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:07pm EDT
(Reuters) - Spain's borrowing costs are likely to stay high on Tuesday when it tests investor appetite for its debt for the first time since announcing more austerity last week, suggesting markets remain unconvinced it can avoid a European bailout.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy unveiled a package of savings and tax hikes worth 65 billion euros ($80 billion) over the next two and a half years, in a bid to demonstrate that Madrid can control its finances. But market doubts have kept its debt costs elevated.

Senate report criticizes HSBC for money laundering,
inadequate monitoring
By Brady Dennis - WashingtonPost.com
The U.S. affiliate of global banking giant HSBC was for years a haven for foreign money laundering, drug-trafficking money and potential terrorist financing activities, largely because of the bank's woefully inadequate monitoring practices, according to a 340-page Senate report scheduled for release Tuesday.
The report chastises the bank's primary U.S. regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, for failing to take more aggressive enforcement measures against the bank after the OCC became aware of illicit activities.

HSBC faces grilling over US money laundering
By STEPHEN FOLEY - Independent.co.uk
Murderous Mexican drug cartels, financiers of terrorist organisations, tax exiles with Cayman Island bank accounts, and suspicious Russians who claimed to be in the used car business – all of them used HSBC to launder money through the United States, according to a damning Congressional report out today.
Executives from the British bank face a roasting in front of a Senate panel after a months-long investigation into lapses across the company over the last decade, when huge imports of US banknotes from Mexico and suspicious quantities of travellers cheques failed to raise the red flags they ought to have.

What We Really Need to Be Asking About JPMorgan
By Matt Koppenheffer - TheMotley Fool.com
JPMorgan Chase's (NYSE: JPM ) "London Whale" is still on the tip of everyone's tongue. That's as it should be since the debacle has already cost the bank close to $6 billion.
But, if we step back for a moment, the question we should be asking is: Why does JPMorgan's chief investment office -- the source of the rapidly metastasizing trade -- have an investment portfolio of $323 billion in the first place? Or, in other words, why is JPMorgan trading its deposit base rather than making loans?

Criminal Inquiry Shifts To JPMorgan's
Mispricing Of Hundreds Of Billions In CDS:
Is Dimon The Next Diamond?
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
On the last day of May, when we first learned via Bloomberg that there was even the scantest likelihood that JPM may have been massaging its CDS marks within the (London-based of course) CIO organization - the backbone of hundreds of billions in notional exposure, and thus a huge counterfeited benefit to trader bonuses and corporate earnings - we wrote, "The Second Act Of The JPM CIO Fiasco Has Arrived - Mismarking Hundreds Of Billions In Credit Default Swaps" in which we explained precisely how this activity would and did take place, precisely why other traders caught doing the same are on the verge of being thrown in jail, precisely why everyone else does it, and precisely why the biggest CDS self-reporting and client/banker owned-organization (this is where images of Libor should appear), MarkIt, may well be implicated in everything - very much in the same way that the BBA is the heart of Lie-borgate.

Barclays just the first of many: finance expert
Bartlett Naylor, a financial expert and the former chief of investigations for the US senate banking committee. He says Barclays may be just the first big bank to be caught in the latest scandal.

NY, Conn. probing banks over Libor manipulation
Reuters - NYPost.com
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has launched a probe into possible manipulation of the Libor benchmark international lending rates by global banks, his spokesman said on Sunday.
Schneiderman, along with Connecticut's Attorney General George Jepsen started the investigation six months ago into the possible rigging of Libor, the London interbank offered rate, New York Attorney General spokesman James Freedland told Reuters.

Barclays boss told me to change Libor, says banker
Jerry del Missier tells MPs he believed he was acting on Bank of England's instruction when he manipulated interest rates in 2008
By Jill Treanor, Guardian.co.uk
A former senior Barclays executive has justified his decision to order his staff to manipulate interest rates during the 2008 banking crisis because he believed he was acting on the instruction of the Bank of England.
Jerry del Missier also spread the blame throughout the bank by revealing that its compliance department had been told about the instruction to reduce the Libor level, and that no action was taken.

Former Barclays executive insists
Bob Diamond instructed him to cut Libor
Jerry del Missier told MPs he spoke directly to former chief executive before instructing staff to cut bank's Libor submission
By Jill Treanor, Guardian.co.uk
Jerry del Missier, a former top Barclays banker, revealed that he spoke directly to his former boss Bob Diamond before instructing staff to cut the bank's submission to Libor.
He also revealed that the bank's compliance department was informed that traders were going to attempt to manipulate the crucial interest rate.
In evidence to MPs following his resignation as chief operating officer of Barclays, Del Missier was adamant that Diamond instructed him to cut the Libor rate following a conversation with Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England.

Geithner yawned at epic fraud
By Charles Gasparino - NYPost.com
Tim Geithner had evidence of a financial crime of epic proportion — so he wrote a memo.
That's about the only way you can sum up the then-New York Fed boss' actions several years ago, when he was confronted with fairly compelling evidence that banks under his direct supervision were manipulating Libor — a key benchmark of global finance.
The Libor scandal has become pretty big news, with Barclays ousting its CEO and agreeing to pay a large fine even as it cooperates with civil and criminal law-enforcement authorities now investigating other big banks.

Libor scandal riles Calpers chief investment officer
(Reuters) - The biggest U.S. public pension fund will seek damages if it finds it has been hurt by the Libor scandal, its chief investment officer said on Monday.
Suspected manipulation by global banks of Libor benchmark international rates shows the financial services industry cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of long-term investors like the California Public Employees' Retirement System and any misdeeds uncovered in Libor probes need to prosecuted, said Joe Dear, who oversees the assets of the $233 billion pension fund.

Eliot Spitzer - LIBOR Mega scandal (total corruption)

Q&A: What the LIBOR scandal might mean
for the leveraged loan market
By Steve Miller - LeveragedLoan.com
Syndicated loans are, perhaps, the credit product most associated with LIBOR. Not only are virtually all loans set to a spread over LIBOR, but so are liabilities backing CLOs, the market's essential funding source over the past decade.
Portfolio managers say Barclays' recent admission that it attempted to manipulate the rate has led to an overwhelming amount of calls and e-mails from senior management, liability holders, and investors. The questions break down into four main categories. Here's a rundown and some early views based on conversations with participants (though the comments are admittedly speculative):

Libor Lie – A Black Swan?
By Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
The Libor interest rate rigging scandal is being called the biggest financial fraud in history. Libor is a key interest rate that is used globally to set as much as $800 trillion in transactions. It is used to set interest rates for things such as credit cards, student loans, mortgages, corporate bonds and hundreds of trillions of dollars in derivatives. Libor stands for the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate. It is supposed to be an estimate of what it would cost for some of the biggest banks in the world to borrow money from one another. Sixteen global banks are involved in setting the rate, three of which are in the U.S. (JP Morgan, B of A, and Citi.) It was recently revealed by Barclays Bank (in the UK) that this key interest rate quoted by most of these banks was nothing more than a gigantic rate rigging scheme.

Libor: They all knew – and no one acted
Regulator's claim it knew nothing thrown into doubt as documents show authorities were told of rate-rigging in 2008
By BEN CHU - Independent.co.uk
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic failed to act on clear warnings that the Libor interest rate was being falsely reported by banks during the financial crisis, it emerged last night.
A cache of documents released yesterday by the New York Federal Reserve showed that US officials had evidence from April 2008 that Barclays was knowingly posting false reports about the rate at which it could borrow in order to assuage market concerns about its solvency.

Goldman Sachs and the $580 Million Black Hole
By LOREN FELDMAN - NYTimes.com
THE business deal from hell began to crumble even before the Champagne corks were popped.
The deal, the $580 million sale of a highflying technology company, Dragon Systems, had just been approved by its board and congratulations were being exchanged. But even then, at that moment of celebration, there was a sense that something was amiss.

Clouds gather over money market funds
By Steve Johnson - FT.com
In March, a European Commission green paper raised the spectre of the continent's money market funds being forced to scrap their cherished constant €1-a-share structure and instead adopt the variable pricing model common to the rest of the asset management industry.
If the doommongers are to be believed, a different branch of Europe's governing apparatus may achieve exactly the same effect.

When bankers get nervous, watch out
As economies worldwide weaken, the pressure is rising on the world's central bankers for dramatic action that will ultimately do more damage. When that happens, the gold rally is on.
By Bill Fleckenstein - Money.MSN.com
World stock markets remained under pressure over the last week due to the ongoing dysfunction in Europe and -- not to be underestimated -- the fact that the world economy is slowing down dramatically (which should not come as a shock to anyone who reads this column).
I think at this point it is worth discussing the worldwide response by central banks to this macro-deterioration.​ As my longtime readers know, I have absolutely no respect for any of the idiots who run central banks. They are always wrong. Repeat: they are always wrong.

Epic Santelli Rant On 'Un-American'
Federal Reserve/Treasury Incompetence
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Stunned at the sheer ineptness and lack of due diligence in the Libor-rigging details that are being uncovered specific to Geithner's Treasury and Bernanke's Fed, CNBC's Rick Santelli reflects on just how unbelievable TARP was in this context. "Hurry up, let's spend three quarters of a trillion dollars; how much due diligence did they do for our role as taxpayers in basically bailing out the banking system? Obviously zero!" and this as they knew these very-same banks were manipulating rates. Opining on the un-Americanism of jet-skis and outsourcing, Rick states unequivocally "what's un-American is we now have the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Treasury taking heightened importance in regulating us in the future through Dodd/Frank. Shame on their legislation!" Meanwhile, those very same un-American Treasury staff (who we are supposed to trust with the future of our banking system and implicitly the economy we pre-suppose) have just been caught soliciting prostitutes and breaking conflict-of-interest rules.

FOIA docs reveal Treasury officials
cited for soliciting prostitutes, accepting gifts
By Bob Cusack - TheHill.com
Treasury Department officials have been cited for soliciting prostitutes, breaking conflict-of-interest rules and accepting gifts from corporate executives, according to the findings of official government investigations.
The revelations of unethical behavior at Treasury are detailed in little-noticed documents posted this month on governmentattic.org, which publishes agency responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

US Treasury Curve 1990-2012 In Its Full 3-D Glory: Redux
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Just under two years ago, when we mocked then Morgan Stanley's analyst Jim Caron's call for a surge in long-dated yields on the back of an improvement in the economy (not something more realistic like the Fed losing all control of the TSY curve), we penned "Visualizing The Past Of The Treasury Yield Curve, And Deconstructing The Great Confusion Surrounding Its Future" in which we said that contrary to pervasive expectations of a bull steepener, the treasury curve would continue flattening more and more, until the whole thing would become one big pancake. Today, we have decided to revisit that post: in short - Jim Caron was fired by Morgan Stanley as head of rates following 3 consecutive years of bad calls starting in 2009 (only to be rehired in June as a Portfolio Manager... oops), while our view that sooner or later the 2s30s will be 0 bps is over one third complete.

Amibroker - 3D US Yield Curve Trip

Europe 2012—The Revival of the Nazi Vision
Today's euro crisis is forcing the final pieces into place for the ultimate fulfillment of the grand Nazi vision of 1942.
By Ron Fraser - TheTrumpet.com
United States of Europe, Ten Nations, EU Empire, German Dominance, German Empire—all these terms have been used on more than one occasion by a multiplicity of media in past months to describe the European Union. All infer that the EU has become an imperial entity dominated by Germany.
That the world remains largely ignorant to the fact of one white-haired patriarch having prophesied this would be the case—even when Germany lay in abject defeat at the close of World War ii—is rather sad. Particularly when one considers that he even prophesied that the seventh resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire would be catalyzed by a great financial crisis, such as we see rampant in Europe today!

Jamie Dimon Questions Ben Bernanke on New Bank Rules

Wall Street falls, bond yields near record lows
By Wanfeng Zhou
NEW YORK | Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:15pm EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. government bond yields flirted with record lows, oil prices rallied and the dollar fell to a one-month low against the yen on Monday after weak U.S. retail sales data fed bets a faltering economy would prompt more stimulus from the Federal Reserve.
Wall Street stocks ended down, although Citigroup's better-than-expected earnings limited losses. The S&P 500 has fallen in seven of the last eight sessions, weighed by concerns about economic growth.

U.S. Economy Appears Weaker as Retail Sales Slump
AP - DailyFinance.com
WASHINGTON -- The outlook for the U.S. economy appeared dimmer Monday after a report that Americans spent less at retail businesses for a third straight month in June.
The report led some economists to downgrade their estimates for economic growth in the April-June quarter. Many now think the economy grew even less than in the first quarter of the year, when it expanded at a sluggish 1.9% annual rate.
Spending in June fell in nearly every major category -- from autos, furniture and appliances to building, garden supplies and department stores. Overall, retail sales slid 0.5% from May to June, the Commerce Department said.

Paul Craig Roberts on Bob Chapmans prediction
on the crash of the US economy

Let Unsound Money Wither Away
Mises Daily: by Joseph T. Salerno
Chairman Paul and members of the subcommittee, I am deeply honored to appear before you to testify on the topic of fractional-reserve banking. Thank you for your invitation and attention.
In the short time I have, I will give a brief description of fractional reserve-banking, identify the problems it presents in the current institutional setting, and suggest a potential solution.

600,000 federal workers at risk if sequester goes through
By Jeremy Herb and Carlo Munoz - TheHill.com
The Topline: As many 600,000 federal jobs could be lost if the automatic cuts through sequestration take effect, according to a new study being released Tuesday by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
In a study last year, the AIA found that more than 1 million defense-related jobs could be at risk if the $500 billion cut to defense and non-defense spending through sequestration occurred. Now the defense industry trade group is coming out with a new study looking at the broader implications of the sequester to both defense and non-defense industries.

Bankrupt Hawker Beechcraft seeks court OK
of $5.3M in executive bonuses
By John Bringardner - LeveragedLoan.com
Nine top Hawker Beechcraft executives will receive an aggregate bonus of up to $5,328,000 if the company completes a sale of its assets or a standalone restructuring and exit from Chapter 11, according to a proposed compensation plan the company filed today with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
Another 31 management-level employees could see an aggregate payout of up to $1.9 million under the plan.

'Lost Generation' of Homeowners May Just Be on Hold
By Meghan Walsh - BusinessWeek.com
Blase Hennessy is about halfway through a three-year residency in internal medicine at Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, with full-time job offers already wafting in. Last spring the 27-year-old flirted with the idea of buying a condo for the duration of his residency, figuring he could sell it and make a few bucks if the job market pulls him out of Columbus. Then he learned his landlord had paid $200,000 for the one-bedroom roughly five years ago. And that for almost two years it had sat on the market listed for only $150,000. "When I saw that, I said, 'Forget it,'" Hennessy says. "It's just too scary." Today he rents the unit instead.

San Bernardino County's Loan Seizures Would Destroy Its Mortgage Market Just as Housing Starts to Recover
By David John - Heritage.org
The drive to force mortgage investors to refinance loans where the homeowner owes more than the house is currently worth (often know as underwater mortgages) is reaching absurd levels. In the latest example, California's San Bernardino County is exploring using eminent domain to seize certain mortgages and require the investors that own them to accept refinancing that reduces the amount of the mortgage.
Not only would this be a complete misuse of eminent domain, raising substantial constitutional issues and the prospect of years-long litigation, but it would hurt the very people the proposal is supposed to help.

Property tax first-quarter revenue down, seen sliding more
(Reuters) - Local property tax revenue fell 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012 versus a year ago and likely will keep sliding in the coming quarters, a report said on Monday.
Local property tax revenue, often the most important source of income for local governments, had firmed during the previous two quarters, the Albany, N.Y.-based Rockefeller Institute said. It noted that it can take at least three years to factor in a downturn in housing prices.

Foreclosure review program befuddles borrowers
By Anna Louie Sussman
NEW YORK | Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:06pm EDT
(Reuters) - Nothing about the letter that Keturah Miller received late last year indicated it could be worth as much as $125,000 to her. So she put it aside, forgetting about it for months until she stumbled across it while cleaning.
Miller, 34, a family liaison worker with the New York City Department of Education, read it over four times. It still made no sense to her.
"I can read the words, but the meaning of what they're saying? That's the confusing part for me," she said.

Many more homeowners
using Obama refinance plan: regulator
(Reuters) - The number of underwater homeowners refinancing through an Obama administration anti-foreclosure program has picked up sharply since its expansion late last year, according to figures a housing regulator released on Monday.
More than 78,000 home loans were refinanced using the expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program, nicknamed HARP 2.0, during the first five months of 2012, more than for all of 2011, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

Can Eminent Domain Save the Housing Market?
By Dan Caplinger - Fool.com
The housing crisis has confounded experts for years, despite the best efforts of private parties and public governments. Now, though, a new proposal would use the government's power to take property with compensation in order to simplify restructuring mortgage loans. The proposal has drawn strong comments as proponents and opponents debate whether it can actually get the housing market moving forward.
A quick fix to the housing crisis?
In the past four years, investors and ordinary Americans alike have increasingly looked to the government for solutions to some of the biggest problems facing the nation. From the financial crisis to health care and housing, the government has been instrumental in exercising its power at critical times, and while those of different political ideologies would disagree about the results, few could argue that the government hasn't taken more dramatic steps recently than it has in the past. Yet the checks and balances on government power built into the fabric of the nation represent one of the biggest distinctions of the U.S. from its world peers.

The New Artisan Economy
Manufacturing jobs aren't coming back. Neither are construction jobs. America's workers need to learn some new skills to stay ahead.
By Ray Fisman - Salon.com
The recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-09 has been so anemic that the average American would probably be surprised to hear that the recession has officially ended. TheNational Bureau of Economic Research declared that it was over by June 2009, but the economy hasn't exactly come roaring back. In the 12 months that followed, GDP grew by a modest 2.5 percent, less than one-half of the bounce following the two previous recessions (in 1974-75 and 1981-82) that pundits often compare to the most recent one.

Shame on the News: Pols Get to Edit Their Quotations
By Peter Z. Scheer - Truthdig.com
The New York Times reports that it is now commonplace for everyone from campaign advisers to the Treasury Department to edit and approve quotes before journalists allow themselves to print them. Keith Olbermann calls it "appalling," and that's being nice.
Journalists are supposed to fight for the truth on behalf of their readers, not sniff around for table scraps from politicians.

Will the ILLUMINATI BOMB the London 2012 Olympics -
WARNING to humanity!

GOP Scuttles Law-of-Sea Treaty
By Keith Johnson - WSJ.com
Senate Democrats' hopes of passing the Law of the Sea Treaty sank Monday, when a pair of Republican senators announced their opposition to ratification.
Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire penned a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) saying, "we have concluded that on balance this treaty is not in the national interest of the United States."

Curiosity piqued for Mars landing
New, riskier propulsion system poised for rover's arrival
By Cory Brown-The Washington Times
NASA officials said Monday they will be taking their most sophisticated swing yet at answering the age-old question of whether there is life on Mars, with Curiosity, the space agency's newest Red Planet rover, set for a high-risk/high-reward landing in three weeks.
Curiosity will make its final approach to the Martian surface Aug. 6 at 1:31 a.m. EST, NASA administrators said in a briefing for reporters. However, this mission will not feature the airbag "bounce" landing that has defined previous NASA missions. Curiosity is using a newer and riskier propulsion system to land.

Are PCs Going Extinct?
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool - DailyFinance.com
PC makers better learn to start thinking outside of the box.
Computer sales continue to slip, especially closer to home, as companies cautiously watch their spending and consumers flock to "good enough" tablets and smartphones for their basic computing needs.
That isn't just an opinion. Studies back it up, and the earnings reports out of the big PC makers later this month will likely confirm the trend.

Persian Gulf Incident Could Heat Up Crude Prices
By Paul Ausick - 247WallSt.com
A US Navy supply ship fired on a small boat of the cost of Dubai after the boat failed to respond to warnings and continued its rapid approach toward the Navy ship. The New York Times reports that one person on the small boat was killed. A Navy spokesman emailed a statement that included the following information:

Britain's Intelligence Chief Warns
Iran Closing on Bomb, Predicts Israeli Attack
NewsMax.com
The head of Britian's intelligence service warned that Iran will acquire a nuclear weapon by 2014 at the latest, and predicted a military strike may be the only way to prevent such a calamity.
Sir John Sawers, head of Britain's MI6, told a group of civil servants Friday that Iran is on the path to acquiring a weapon and predicted Israel will act to stop her.

Assad receives last warning
to stop moving his WMD: Top generals defect
DEBKAfile
Several high-placed generals bolted Bashar Assad's inner circle Sunday, July 17, including such key figures as two security services chiefs who were operations commanders of the Alawite Shabiha militia plus the former head of Syria's chemical and biological administration who took six other generals with him. They all fled to Turkey and defected. A fourth senior general from another security service was assassinated in Aleppo. This is reported exclusively by DEBKAfile's military sources.
The loss of the generals orchestrating the pro-Assad paramilitary Shabiha's savage crackdown on the opposition has seriously weakened Assad's protective circle of trusties and reduced his military and security options.

Into Syria without Arms
Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations
NEW YORK – Much of the debate over what to do in the Middle East tends to pit realists against idealists. Bahrain is a classic case, as is Saudi Arabia and, for that matter, Egypt: calls for the United States and other countries with interests and influence in the region to stand up for democracy and human rights run up against concerns that national-security interests will suffer if pro-Western authoritarian regimes are ousted. European and US policymakers often attempt to square the circle with a compromise policy that is inconsistent and satisfies no one.

Syria refusing visas for Western aid workers: U.N.
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA | Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:22pm EDT
(Reuters) - Syria is refusing visas to Western aid workers, hampering United Nations efforts to expand further its humanitarian operation to meet growing needs in the conflict-torn country, a senior U.N. aid official said on Monday.
Some 1.5 million people require assistance in Syria amid escalating violence and "political failure" to resolve the crisis, John Ging told reporters in Geneva.
Insecurity remains a tremendous challenge as fighting prevents aid agencies from reaching increasingly hungry and desperate civilians in flashpoint areas including Homs, he said.

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