Eeyores News and view

Dollar Declines as Nations Mull Reserve Currency Alternatives
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar weakened beyond $1.43 against the euro for the first time in 2009 on bets record U.S. borrowing will undermine the greenback, prompting nations to consider alternatives to the world’s main reserve currency.
The euro gained for a fourth day versus the dollar as the Russian government said emerging-market leaders may discuss the idea of a supranational currency. The pound rose to the highest level since October and the Canadian dollar traded near an eight-month high on speculation signs of a recovery in U.S. and U.K. housing will spur higher-yield demand.
“There’s been a lot of talk out of Russia about a new global currency, and that’s contributing toward this latest bout of dollar weakness,” said Henrik Gullberg, a currency strategist in London at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s largest currency trader. “These latest comments are just adding to the general dollar weakness we’ve seen recently.”
The dollar slid 1.1 percent to $1.4317 per euro at 4:21 p.m. in New York, from $1.4159 yesterday. It touched $1.4331, the weakest level since Dec. 29. The dollar depreciated 1.1 percent to 95.54 yen, from 96.59. The euro traded at 136.77 yen, compared with 136.78.
Sterling rose as much as 0.9 percent to $1.6596, the highest level since Oct. 30, while the Canadian dollar advanced 1.2 percent to C$1.0806, near the strongest level since Oct. 3.
Pending sales of existing homes in the U.S. climbed 6.7 percent in April, the National Association of Realtors said today. The median forecast of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.5 percent gain. Banks in the U.K. granted 43,201 home loans that month, the highest level in a year, the Bank of England said.
Russia on Currency
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may discuss his proposal to create a new world currency when he meets counterparts from Brazil, India and China this month, Natalya Timakova, a spokeswoman for the president, told reporters by phone today. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 meeting in London in April included studying a supranational currency.
“We need some kind of universal means of payment, which could create the basis of a future international financial system,” Medvedev said in a June 1 interview with CNBC. “Naturally, because of the crisis in the American economy, attitude to the dollar has also changed.”
Regional reserve currencies are an “unavoidable” part of “regionalizing” the global financial system, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said in Moscow today.
The Dollar Index, which ICE uses to track the currency’s performance against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc, fell as much as 1 percent to 78.33, the lowest level since Dec. 18.
‘Opportunity to Sell’
“The market is looking for the opportunity to sell the U.S. dollar,” said Jack Spitz, a managing director for foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. “It took decades for the euro to be established. I can only imagine how long it would take for the BRIC countries to put together a currency.”
There’s no replacement currency for the dollar in the short term, Guo Shuqing, former head of China’s foreign-exchange administrator, said in an interview with the Financial Times for an article published yesterday.
The Dollar Index reached 89.62 on March 4, the highest level since 2006, as the global recession spurred investors to take refuge in Treasuries notes and bills.
Demand for the record amount of debt the U.S. is selling will remain sufficient, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview today with state media outlets in China.
Chinese ‘Understanding’
The Chinese have a “very sophisticated understanding” of why the U.S. government is running up deficits, said Geithner in Beijing, pledging to rein in borrowing later. The U.S. will “do everything that is necessary” to preserve confidence in the nation’s financial markets, he said.
The dollar also declined on speculation “smaller” central banks started today’s selling of the greenback, said Sebastien Galy, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York.
“If people believe that there is official pressure behind it, then obviously it puts pressure on euro-dollar on the upside,” Galy said. “Small central banks have an incentive in doing something because if they’re the first movers, they will not suffer by far as much as the big ones.” Galy predicted the euro may reach $1.4360 today, a peak last reached in December.
The euro fell earlier versus the yen as Europe’s jobless rate rose in April to the highest level in almost 10 years. Unemployment in the 16-member euro region increased to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in March, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today.
ECB’s Rate
The European Central Bank will keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 1 percent on June 4, according to the median forecast of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The ECB said last month it would buy 60 billion euros ($86 billion) of covered bonds.
The euro’s rally against the dollar may be entering its “last stage,” and investors would likely benefit from selling the euro against the greenback, according to UBS AG, the world’s second-biggest foreign-exchange trader.
Europe’s currency is poised to weaken toward $1.30, analysts led by Mansoor Mohi-uddin, Zurich-based chief currency strategist at UBS, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. The analysts reiterated forecasts for the euro to trade at $1.40 in one month’s time and then drop.
“We remain positive on the U.S. dollar and think that the greenback is likely in its final stage of weakness,” the analysts wrote. “Equity and bond flows have the potential to surprise and could lend support to the dollar.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3X76sjV801Y&refer=worldwide

Obama says Iran's energy concerns legitimate
By NANCY ZUCKERBRODThe Associated PressTuesday, June 2, 2009 3:40 PM
LONDON -- President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful.
In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, Obama also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it to set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.
"Without going into specifics, what I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations. On the other hand, the international community has a very real interest in preventing a nuclear arms race in the region," Obama said.
The comments echo remarks Obama made in Prague last month in which he said his administration would "support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections" if Iran proves it is no longer a nuclear threat.
Iranian state television described the news as Obama recognizing the "rights of the Iranian nation," a phrase typically used to refer to Iran's nuclear program.
The president has indicated a willingness to seek deeper international sanctions against Tehran if it does not respond positively to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program. Obama has said Tehran has until the end of the year to show it wants to engage.
"Although I don't want to put artificial time tables on that process, we do want to make sure that, by the end of this year, we've actually seen a serious process move forward. And I think that we can measure whether or not the Iranians are serious," Obama said.
Obama's interview offered a preview of a speech he is to deliver in Egypt this week, saying he hoped the address would warm relations between Americans and Muslims abroad.
"What we want to do is open a dialogue," Obama told the BBC. "You know, there are misapprehensions about the West, on the part of theMuslim world. And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West."
Obama leaves Tuesday evening on a trip to Egypt and Saudi Arabia aimed at reaching out to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. He is due to make his speech in Cairo on Thursday.
Obama sounded an optimistic note about making progress toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although he offered no new ideas for how he might try to secure a freeze on new building of Israeli settlements. The United States has called for a freeze, but Israeli leaders have rejected that.
Asked what he would say during his visit about human rights abuses, including the detention of political prisoners in Egypt, Obama indicated no stern lecture would be forthcoming.
He said he hoped to deliver the message that democratic values are principles that "they can embrace and affirm."
Obama added that there is a danger "when the United States, or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060200947_pf.html

Government mistakenly posts list of U.S. nuclear sites
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of government and civilian nuclear facilities and their activities in the United States, but a U.S. official said Wednesday the posting included no information that compromised national security.
The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Obama to Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive."
Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the document had been reviewed by a number of U.S. agencies and that disclosure of the information did not jeopardize national security. He said the document is part of an agreement on nuclear material inspection under the IAEA's nuclear nonproliferation effort.
"While we would have preferred it not be released, the Departments of Energy, Defense and Commerce and the NRC all thoroughly reviewed it to ensure that no information of direct national security significance would be compromised," LaVera said in a statement.
An Energy Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly, said none of the sites on the list is directly part of the government's nuclear weapons infrastructure.
Included in the report, however, are details on a storage facility for highly enriched uranium at the Y-12 complex at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and some sites at the Energy Department's Hanford nuclear site in Washington state, this official acknowledged.
The publication of the list was first reported in an online secrecy newsletter Monday. The document had been posted on the Government Printing Office website, but has since been removed from that site.
In a statement, the Government Printing Office said Wednesday: "Upon being informed about potential sensitive nature of the attachment in this document, the Public Printer of the United States removed it from GPO's website pending further review. After consulting with the White House and Congress, it was determined that the document, including sensitive attachment, should be permanently removed from the website."
The GPO said it processes and produces approximately 160 House documents during the two-year congressional cycle, and the list was received by the agency in the normal process and produced under routine operating procedures.
The document includes both government and civilian nuclear facilities, all of which have various levels of security, including details and the locations of the nation's 103 commercial nuclear power reactors, information readily available from various sources.
For instance, there are nuclear reactors at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh. This facility is currently working on research into what happens when there are accidents with the nuclear reactors. The project started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2012, according to the document.
There are "zero" national security implications to the publication of this document, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. Aftergood found the document on the GPO website and highlighted it in his online bulletin.
"I regret that some people are painting it as a roadmap for terrorists, because that's not what it is," Aftergood said.
"This is not a disclosure of sensitive nuclear technologies or of facility security procedures. It is simply a listing of the numerous nuclear research sites and the programs that are underway," Aftergood said. "And so it poses no security threat whatsoever."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-03-nuclear-sites-list_N.htm

Does the 2nd Amendment protect .50-cals?
This issue will almost certainly see a lot more litigation; this opinion is clearly based on Heller and yet bases its result on invalid assumptions. .50 caliber weapons are declared to be "unusual and dangerous", and "assault weapons" have "such a high rate of fire and capacity for firepower that it's function as a legitimate sports or recreational firearm is substantially outweighed by the danger that it can be used to kill and injure human beings."In truth, of course, .50 caliber weapons are only moderately unusual; they are very popular for long-distance sport shooters and have been manufactured for civilian use for years. There are almost no crimes committed with these rifles, so in practice, their manufacture for civilian sale is not especially dangerous.The situation with assault weapons is similar. Assault weapons are simply ordinary semiautomatic rifles that happen to be designed for something other than hunting. They are used and possessed peacefully by millions of people, as well as being useful for self-defense in the home. It would be very difficult to conceive of a way that assault weapons would not pass the "common use" test from Heller, at least when before an honest judicial panel that has been presented with the proper evidence.
http://triggerfinger.org/weblog/entry/7692.jsp

Collector puzzled over seizure of his vintage war plane by customs agents
Posted by Anita Debro -- Birmingham News June 03, 2009 5:45 AM
Mark Almond/Birmingham NewsClaude Hendrickson III says he wants to fly the Douglas AD-4N Skyraider in air shows and eventually donate it to the Southern Museum of Flight.A vintage airplane collector said Tuesday that government agents have impounded his rare 1952 military aircraft he imported from France last fall and are threatening to destroy the plane because of a missed step in bringing it into the country.
Claude Hendrickson III said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized his Douglas AD-4N Skyraider about six weeks ago at the Bessemer Municipal Airport hangar he leases.
"(ICE) basically said we smuggled the plane into the country. My question is how do you smuggle this into the country," Hendrickson asked pointing to the single-engine aircraft that was commonly used as an attack bomber during the Vietnam War.
Hendrickson's Skyraider is believed to be one of only four of its kind that remain in the U.S.
The airplane, which Hendrickson bought for $100,000 last May, since its seizure has been moved to another hangar at the Bessemer Airport.
Hendrickson said he is not allowed to fly the plane or perform any work on it until ICE agents release it.
ICE spokesman Temple Black on Tuesday declined comment on the case and forwarded questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Birmingham.
Officials in the U.S. Attorney's Office declined specifics on the matter, but said "ICE continues to investigate the case."
Hendrickson said he was not trying to bring the plane into the country illegally. He said he believed he followed all steps to import the plane.
The 48-year-old businessman hired attorneys Joe Lassiter and Anthony Johnson. Hendrickson said his attorneys on Tuesday met with lawyers in the U.S. Attorneys in Birmingham regarding the plane.
Hendrickson said he has been advised that ICE had 60 days to file any criminal charges against him. He said the plane has already been impounded for about 45 days.
MISSED PAPERWORK:
Hendrickson, who lives in Shelby County, said he was in Texas on business when federal agents seized the plane at the Bessemer Airport in May.
He flew into the airport as soon as he heard about the seizure and briefly met with ICE agents.
Hendrickson said ICE agents told him then that he had failed to fill out a form required by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives when he imported the plane into the states from France.
Hendrickson said he was unaware he had to register the plane with ATF since he removed the aircraft's artillery while it was still in France.
Hendrickson did register the plane with the FAA.
The FAA issued a certificate of registration on the airplane in September 2008, according to the agency's Web site. The registered owner of the aircraft, according to the FAA, is Dixie Equipment LLC, the business Hendrickson owns.
IN HONOR OF FATHER:
Hendrickson's father, Claude F. Hendrickson Jr., is a retired captain in the Navy. The elder Hendrickson flew planes like a Skyraider during his service.
It was his father's service as a Naval pilot that sparked the younger Hendrickson's fascination with airplanes. The younger Hendrickson owns several vintage military aircraft that he houses in Bessemer including the exact SNJ-4 warbird his father flew during his time in the military.
He and his father made the trip to France last year for the Skyraider. After inspecting the aircraft, the two men hired a pilot to fly a 15-day trip to get the plane from Europe to Buffalo, N.Y.
The Hendricksons planned to enter the plane in air shows across the country. Hendrickson already flies several of his military planes in air shows.
The younger Hendrickson said once the Skyraider had made a successful run in air shows, he planned to donate the aircraft in his father's honor.
"Ultimately, my intentions from the beginning have been to fly this plane for five to 10 years in air shows and then donate it to the Southern Museum of Flight in my father's name."
Now, Hendrickson worries that the government will destroy the vintage aircraft.
"I just don't get it," Hendrickson said. "This is a part of American history. It is of no danger to the government."
News staff writer Robert K. Gordon contributed to this report.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/06/collector_puzzled_over_seizure.html