The UK economy contracted 1% between September and November, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has estimated.

This fall followed after a 0.8% drop in the three months to the end of October, said the think tank.

Indicating that the rate of output decline is "accelerating", the NIESR now expects a fall of more than 1% in the last three months of the year.
Official data showed that the economy shrank 0.5% from July to September.
But it will not be until January that the Office for National Statistics reports on the final quarter's GDP.
If it reports a decline for the three months to December, then the UK will be in officially in recession under the generally accepted definition of two consecutive quarters of decline.
The NIESR says it has a good track record in forecasting GDP growth in advance of the official figures.
'Real risk'
The latest data from NIESR is just the latest indication that the UK economy is most probably falling into a recession.
The main problem the government needs to address very urgently is the availability of bank credit,
NIESR
Martin Weale, the director of NIESR, said that the government would need to put more equity into the banking system so that it was better capitalised.
And he warned that things would not get better soon.
"I would not be terribly surprised if output continued to fall until 2010," he told BBC News.
The government has predicted a short, sharp recession, with recovery in mid-2009.
NIESR said the recession was likely to be deeper than first thought.
"The Government faces the real risk that, despite the [stimulus] measures it took in last month's Budget, output will fall more sharply than it expected to the end of next year," it said.
"The main problem that it needs to address very urgently is the availability of bank credit, and further interest reductions are unlikely to have much effect."
In addition to the recent cuts in interest rates, the Bank of England and the government have given the UK's banking sector billions of pounds in loans to try to restore lending levels to normal.
In response, banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS have all announced measures to increase lending to small firms.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also warned last week that the UK faces a "severe" economic downturn in 2009.
The Paris-based body predicted that economic output in the UK will fall by 1.1% next year, more than any other major G7 country.
It added that unemployment in the UK will likely rise significantly to over 8% by end of 2009 from 5.5% in 2008.

Charlotte Street in New York City's South Bronx was once the epicenter of urban blight. No longer. Now single-family homes line the strip and boats si

Charlotte Street in New York City's South Bronx was once the epicenter of urban blight. No longer. Now single-family homes line the strip and boats sit in driveways.

apocalyptic nightmare version of urban life.
Weed-choked, junk-filled lots flanked the three-block stretch. Burned out tenement buildings punctuated the sky, and abandoned cars littered the landscape.
The street, like much of the rest of New York City's South Bronx, had fallen to epic lows by the late 1970s. The area had disgorged nearly two-thirds of its population as living conditions declined and arson fires raged. Some landlords, unable to find tenants, torched their properties for insurance money. Other blazes were set by junkies, while still more were set by residents of public housing trying to get moved into nicer apartments.
See photos of the devastation
"Charlotte Street was burning," says Genevieve Brooks, a former resident. "Every day, I'd see the fires and smell the smoke. I slept with my shoes by my bed at night because you never knew if your building was next."
Just three miles away, at Yankee Stadium, is where Howard Cosell uttered his famous line: "There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning."
No longer.
0:00 /3:26From bombed out slum to suburbia
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In the three decades since Cosell introduced the world to the plight of the Bronx during the 1977 World Series, Charlotte Street has morphed into a haven of single-family ranch houses accented by backyards flourishing with fruit trees and flowers. Boats sit in driveways and above-ground swimming pools are common. It's a slice of suburbia in one the country's most urban -- and poor -- counties.
What happened to the Charlotte Street that President Carter called "the worst slum in America?" Or the Charlotte Street that President Reagan visited during a 1980 campaign swing? The one he compared -- unfavorably -- with London after the Blitz.
One of the greatest real estate turnarounds ever.
"Charlotte Street is thought of as quite a success story, particularly considering its context: It rose, phoenix-like, out of the ashes," says Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard's Joint Center for Urban Studies.
Baby steps
One of the primary catalysts was Brooks, who had moved to Charlotte Street from South Carolina in the 1960s, when the neighborhood was racially mixed and thriving. But as the 1970s dawned, she watched the deterioration take hold.
When she asked her landlord about maintaining her building, he dismissed her. "He told me I should move to Queens, or Park Avenue," she remembers. "I could have left. But I was single at the time, no children, so I didn't have as much to lose."
Instead, she knocked on neighbors' doors and asked if they noticed the change. When they said "yes," she formed a tenants association. Then she helped form a block association to lobby the city to pick up trash and abandoned cars, and to crack down on crime.
"We went down to the cellars and bagged tons of garbage, brought it upstairs and got Sanitation to pick it up," she remembered. "The kids were excited about sweeping the streets. I would give them money for snacks. They would ask, 'Miss Brooks can we sweep the street today?'"
Bigger strides
By 1974, tired of the small scale efforts, a host of neighborhood volunteers formed a group they called the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes to lobby for improvements throughout the community.
"There was a tremendous amount of community action," says former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer. "That was the secret ingredient. The community refused to give up. They needed allies. They needed people who took the decline of the South Bronx as personally as they did."
One of those people was urban planner Ed Logue, who was hired in 1978 to run a city agency called the South Bronx Development Office. The city was trying to erase the shame of its worst slums, and to do that Logue knew he would need the assistance of local organizations. The Desperadoes, headed by Brooks, were ready to step into the breach.
Brook's and Logue's vision was to go to the rotted core -- Charlotte Street -- and work outward. But most everyone advised them to rebuild starting from the healthy fringes. They wanted single-family homes; critics wanted density and multi-family dwellings, saying it would promote a lively, safe neighborhood and attract merchants.
"The conventional wisdom was that no one would invest their life savings in such a devastated area," says Julie Sandorf, who worked with the MBD and is now president of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, a New York City-based charity.
Brooks, though, knew most of the families in the area were African Americans from the South, Caribbean blacks and Puerto Ricans, and she was convinced that the long home-owning traditions of these groups would help make a community of single-family homes work.
So she and Logue focused on convincing the Local Initiatives Support Corp., a newly launched nonprofit that had a $10 million grant from the Ford Foundation to assist burgeoning neighborhood revivals.
"There was so much devastation in the Charlotte Street area, it needed a big infusion of dollars," Brooks remembers. "We were in the financial disaster stage."
Convincing skeptics
LISC was indeed interested in assisting in the South Bronx, but the foundation had its doubts about the plan. "People at LISC were skeptical about the notion of doing single-family homes in the South Bronx," says CEO Michael Rubinger. "It was thought to be a crazy idea."
But Logue and Brooks dazzled then-director Anita Miller with a vision of white picket fences. She agreed take a gamble and put up the $125,000 the groups needed to purchase two model homes.
Those first three-bedroom, two-bath ranch homes were manufactured in Pennsylvania and trucked over the George Washington Bridge one night in 1983. Sandorf and her husband were on site waiting for the trucks. The first people they saw was a rough looking street gang -- whom Logue had hired to secure the grounds.
Still, Sandorf says, her husband was a little spooked. "He kept asking, 'Where are all the lights?' I had to tell him all those buildings are abandoned. There are no lights."
The homes were priced at about $50,000, and they sold like hot cakes. "We got more than 600 applications from potential buyers in the first three weeks," says Sandorf.
Within three years, 92 homes would be built on the street and the area re-christened Charlotte Gardens. About 90% of the buyers were from the Bronx, according to Sandorf; many were low-income.
Homeownership was made possible by discounting the houses: Each property sold for between $50,000 and $59,000 even thought it cost an average of $110,000 to build. The difference was funded through federal dollars, but the City of New York and various foundations also helped subsidize buyers.
"The houses in Charlotte Gardens were very deeply subsidized," says former borough president Ferrer. "But it wasn't just city money: That provided a stimulus for financial institutions who were reluctant to lend. We told the banks they had to get involved, they had to get up here and lend. Some admitted they had to eat crow: They never expected the complex to succeed."
Shining example
But succeed it did. Original buyers invested and stayed; fewer than a dozen homes out of the 92 have ever been sold. Plus, while the rest of the country is being wracked by foreclosures, Charlotte Gardens has lost just one home to the plague.
"The selling of Charlotte Gardens is the extreme opposite story of what happened in the recent real estate debacle," Sandorf says. "It is a shining example of how to do it right. House buyers were carefully selected and vetted. They were subjected to strict credit checks and homeownership counseling."
Property values, too, have soared. Homes that originally went for $50,000 now sell for ten times that -- when one is available. Currently, there is only one for-sale sign on all of Charlotte Street. The owners, who are original, have retired and are moving to Florida. They listed the property for $459,000 -- which is still inexpensive by New York standards. Just across the river, in Manhattan, buyers pay that for a studio apartment.
"Sales are so rare that finding comparables to make an accurate appraisal is very hard," says Tina Gordon, the Century 21 real estate agent for the property.
Genevieve Brooks and her husband were one of the few to sell their home. Several years ago, they retired and returned South Carolina, where they have family. But they still come back often to visit friends in Charlotte Gardens.
"We didn't know what we were doing when we started, but we did know we had to do this ourselves," she says.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: THIRD QUARTER 2009 (ADVANCE ESTIMATE)

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: THIRD QUARTER 2009 (ADVANCE ESTIMATE)

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and propertylocated in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009,(that is, from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by theBureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP decreased 0.7 percent. The Bureau emphasized that the third-quarter advance estimate released today is based on sourcedata that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 5). The"second" estimate for the third quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on November 24,2009. The increase in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected positive contributions frompersonal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment, federal governmentspending, and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP,increased. The upturn in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected upturns in PCE, in privateinventory investment, in exports, and in residential fixed investment and a smaller decrease innonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by an upturn in imports, a downturn in state andlocal government spending, and a deceleration in federal government spending. Motor vehicle output added 1.66 percentage points to the third-quarter change in real GDP afteradding 0.19 percentage point to the second-quarter change. Final sales of computers subtracted 0.11percentage point from the third-quarter change in real GDP after subtracting 0.04 percentage point fromthe second-quarter change.______________________FOOTNOTE.--Quarterly estimates are expressed atseasonally adjusted annual rates, unless otherwise specified.Quarter-to-quarter dollar changes are differences between these publishedestimates. Percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and areannualized. “Real” estimates are in chained (2005) dollars. Price indexesare chain-type measures. This news release is available on BEA’s Web site along with the Technical Note and Highlightsrelated to this release.______________________ The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents,increased 1.6 percent in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 0.5 percent in the second.Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 0.5 percent inthe third quarter, compared with an increase of 0.8 percent in the second. Real personal consumption expenditures increased 3.4 percent in the third quarter, in contrast toa decrease of 0.9 percent in the second. Durable goods increased 22.3 percent, in contrast to a decreaseof 5.6 percent. The third-quarter increase largely reflected motor vehicle purchases under the ConsumerAssistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 (popularly called, “Cash for Clunkers” Program).Nondurable goods increased 2.0 percent in the third quarter, in contrast to a decrease of 1.9 percent inthe second. Services increased 1.2 percent, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent. Real nonresidential fixed investment decreased 2.5 percent in the third quarter, compared with adecrease of 9.6 percent in the second. Nonresidential structures decreased 9.0 percent, compared with adecrease of 17.3 percent. Equipment and software increased 1.1 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 4.9percent. Real residential fixed investment increased 23.4 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 23.3percent. Real exports of goods and services increased 14.7 percent in the third quarter, in contrast to adecrease of 4.1 percent in the second. Real imports of goods and services increased 16.4 percent, incontrast to a decrease of 14.7 percent. Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment increased 7.9 percentin the third quarter, compared with an increase of 11.4 percent in the second. National defense increased8.4 percent, compared with an increase of 14.0 percent. Nondefense increased 6.8 percent, comparedwith an increase of 6.1 percent. Real state and local government consumption expenditures and grossinvestment decreased 1.1 percent, in contrast to an increase of 3.9 percent. The change in real private inventories added 0.94 percentage point to the third-quarter change inreal GDP after subtracting 1.42 percentage points from the second-quarter change. Private businessesdecreased inventories $130.8 billion in the third quarter, following decreases of $160.2 billion in thesecond quarter and $113.9 billion in the first. Real final sales of domestic product -- GDP less change in private inventories -- increased 2.5percent in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 0.7 percent in the second.Gross domestic purchases Real gross domestic purchases -- purchases by U.S. residents of goods and services whereverproduced -- increased 4.0 percent in the third quarter, in contrast to a decrease of 2.3 percent in thesecond.Disposition of personal income Current-dollar personal income decreased $15.5 billion (0.5 percent) in the third quarter, incontrast to an increase of $19.1 billion (0.6 percent) in the second. Personal current taxes increased $4.8 billion in the third quarter, in contrast to a decrease of$119.1 billion in the second. The quarterly pattern of taxes reflected a much smaller decrease in federalwithheld income taxes in the third quarter, based on the quarterly pattern of wages and salaries and aleveling off of the effects on withholding rates from the Making Work Pay Credit provision of theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. (For more information, see the Technical Note.) Disposable personal income decreased $20.4 billion (0.7 percent) in the third quarter, in contrastto an increase of $138.2 billion (5.2 percent) in the second. Real disposable personal income decreased3.4 percent, in contrast to an increase of 3.8 percent. Personal outlays increased $148.2 billion (5.8 percent) in the third quarter, compared with anincrease of $8.2 billion (0.3 percent) in the second. Personal saving -- disposable personal income lesspersonal outlays -- was $364.6 billion in the third quarter, compared with $533.1 billion in the second.The personal saving rate -- saving as a percentage of disposable personal income -- was 3.3 percent inthe third quarter, compared with 4.9 percent in the second. For a comparison of personal saving inBEA’s national income and product accounts with personal saving in the Federal Reserve Board’s flowof funds accounts and data on changes in net worth, go to http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp.Current-dollar GDP Current-dollar GDP -- the market value of the nation's output of goods and services -- increased4.3 percent, or $150.3 billion, in the third quarter to a level of $14,301.5 billion. In the second quarter,current-dollar GDP decreased 0.8 percent, or $26.8 billion.

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, NEW YORK-NORTHERN NEW JERSEY: JUNE 2009

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, NEW YORK-NORTHERN NEW JERSEY: JUNE 2009Area prices rose 0.5 percent in June; down 0.6 percent over the year- largest drop since 1955

Retail prices in the greater New York area, including NorthernNew Jersey and Southwestern Connecticut, as measured by the ConsumerPrice Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), increased 0.5 percent inJune, after edging up 0.2 percent in each of the prior three months.Michael L. Dolfman, Regional Commissioner of the U. S. Department ofLabor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, said that the June rise waslargely due to higher energy prices. The increase was partly offsetby price declines in apparel and shelter. For the 12 months ended inJune 2009, the CPI-U decreased 0.6 percent, the largest over-the-yeardrop since 1955. The index for all items less food and energy rose1.9 percent. With the New York-Northern New Jersey CPI-U at 237.172 in June(1982-84=100), $23.72 was required to purchase what $10 could in the1982-84 base period. The purchasing power of the dollar was 42.2cents in 1982-84 dollars and 14.6 cents in 1967 dollars. In June,the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers(CPI-W) was 231.916, up 0.7 percent. The CPI-W fell 0.8 percent overthe year. On a 1967 base, the June CPI-W was 660.322. Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly,month-to-month changes may reflect the impact of seasonal influences.The New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Conn.-Pa.consolidated area comprises the five boroughs of New York City,Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and OrangeCounties in New York State; Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer,Monmouth, Middlesex, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Unionand Warren Counties in New Jersey; Fairfield County and parts ofLitchfield, New Haven and Middlesex Counties in Connecticut; and PikeCounty in Pennsylvania.

NEW DELHI: India will miss the power capacity addition target for the 11th Five Year Plan, Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde made this
admission while addressing media persons at the annual economic editors conference on Wednesday. “We have performed much better in terms of new capacity addition in the 11th Plan as generation capacity worth 18,235 MW has already been commissioned till early October 2009. However, due to various project-related delays, the entire planned target for the plan period may not materialise,” Mr Shinde said. The 11th Plan (2007-12) has set a 78,700 MW capacity addition target. The government is now hopeful that 11th Plan may end with a capacity addition of just 62,374 MW, about 20% below the original target for the plan. “We are still hopeful that with best efforts another 12,000 MW of capacity could be added by 2012,” the minister said. Deputy chairman of planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, too, said that capacity addition would be short of target by around 8,000 MW. In the previous five years plans also, the power capacity addition have fallen short of targets by as much as 50%. On distribution sector reforms, Mr Shinde said that the restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme should make a difference. He also announced setting up of a new company, Energy Efficiency Services (EESL), for implementing energy efficiency projects all across the country. The company will be set up with an initial equity capital of Rs 190 crore to be provided by four power sector PSUs — NTPC, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and Power Grid — in equal amount. It would leverage its equity to raise another Rs 700-800 crore for implementing energy efficiency projects and providing constancy services. The overall size of the market for energy efficiency projects and services in India is estimated at Rs 74,000 crore and till now, only 5% of the market has been tapped. An improvement of 20% energy efficiency can result in avoided capacity addition of around 30,000 MW that amounts to an avoided investment of Rs 1,20,000 crore.

were lower in Asia on Thursday as traders took stock of weak fundamentals in the market, analysts said

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, shed 34 cents to 80.06 dollars a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for December delivery slipped 53 cents to 78.36 dollars. Prices eased after breaking through the 80-dollar mark in New York on Wednesday, reflecting concerns over weak demand, analysts said. "The fundamentals of the markets are still weak... and there are no signs of steadily growing demand," said Jason Feer, Asia-Pacific vice-president of energy market analysts Argus Media in Singapore. He added that data released by the US Department of Energy (DoE) on Wednesday showing an unexpected dip in US crude reserves was "overall not that much" in the larger scheme of prices. The DoE announced that crude reserves in the world's largest energy consumer sank by four million barrels in the week ending October 30, surprising analysts, who were expecting a rise.Oil prices have climbed as commodities gained a boost from gold futures, which have struck a series of record highs. The price of gold surged to a peak in the wake of the International Monetary Fund's massive sale of the precious metal to India. Gold and other commodity prices have climbed in recent months amid a move away from the dollar, which has been slumping. The move accelerated last month on a report that Gulf states may stop using the greenback for oil trading.

According to a new study by Bentley Coffey and Patrick McLaughlin, women in the legal profession with more masculine-sounding names, like Cameron or Kelly, have better odds of becoming judges than women with feminine names. The study focused on women in South Carolina, but as an ABA Journal article reports, it may support the general theory that women with masculine names have more successful law careers. One of the study's authors was so convinced by the results that he named his daughter Collins.
Many parents, affected by such research have started wondering about consequences of baby naming. The name you choose for your children can affect his "Google-ability". A new survey of 2,000 elementary school teachers in Germany finds that your children's names may also affect how teachers perceive them. An overwhelming majority of the teachers surveyed associate "traditional" names with positive character traits and non-traditional names with weak performance and bad behavior.
Astrid Kaiser, who conducted the study, said, "The names with positive connotations are all traditional German ones. The Wall Street Journal also reports that new parents may be choosing more "unique" names for their children in the interest of making them more prominent in Google searches. While a name like "Jason Smith" is easily swallowed up in the search-engine depths, a first name like "Kohler" or "Stella" is more likely to land your kid on the front search page.
For people prone to vanity searching -- punching their own names into search engines -- absence from the first pages of search results can bring disappointment. That's because people increasingly rely on search engines to find things they want to read, music they want to hear, people and companies they want to do business with. U.S. Internet users conduct hundreds of millions of search queries daily. About 7% of all searches are for a person's name, estimates search engine Ask.com. More than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by executive networking firm ExecuNet.
It's true that "Google-ability" can be valuable in everything from dating to job hunting to marketing your brand or product. If so, then we're going to see a revolution in the power of Google to influence a life. In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves -- or their offspring -- to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking sites' member lookup functions.
Some people have taken measures to boost their visibility online, including creating listings in professional directories and paying companies to help them appear more prominently in search results. Parents-to-be routinely plug baby names into search engines to scout out the online competition.
Some people in similar straits have used services that can help generate more prominent placement for them in search results. Krishna De, a personal branding and marketing consultant in Dublin, signed up with Ziggs Inc. in 2005 after she left a corporate career and set out on her own. At the time, results for the Hindu deity Krishna crowded out links to her site.
Ziggs tries to get profile pages individuals create with it to appear high in search results, and for a $4.95 monthly fee buys ads that appear along search results on sites such as Google's to link to a client's profile. "If you're not found in search results, people start to wonder why," says Ziggs CEO Tim DeMello. So name consultant may be the next career and what about finding 'Wilson Gandhi", or 'Osama Rajeev" as names of CEOs?
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Recovery Act Coalition to Hold Press Briefing Ahead of October 30 State-Data ReleaseOctober 23, 2009 6:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- States for a Transparent and Accountable Recovery (the STAR Coalition) will hold a press briefing for news media to prepare reporters for the massive release of Recovery Act data coming out on October 30th.
Date: Tuesday, October 27th( )
Time: 1:00 pm Eastern
Call: 219-509-8020
Code: 287971
"The 2009 Recovery Act is the most transparent federal spending bill in U.S. history and October 30th will mark by far the largest release of stimulus data yet," said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, who will moderate the briefing.
The data to be released on October 30th will cover all non-federal contracts and all loans and grants made under the Recovery Act; it will include many times more data than the federal contracts that were reported October 15th.
The STAR Coalition, visible at www.AccountableRecovery.org, is a national network of groups working at the state and local level to ensure that Recovery Act spending is accountable and effective.
The STAR Coalition includes leading national groups working in green jobs, smart growth, good government, unemployment insurance, community organizing, state economic policy, and equitable development.
The press conference and follow-up materials from the STAR Coalition will provide the news media with an "experts Rolodex" of spokespeople from Coalition groups that have been monitoring Recovery Act data and who will be poring over the October 30th release.
The STAR Coalition has some overlapping membership and a cooperative relationship with the Coalition for An Accountable Recovery, which held a similar media briefing ahead of the federal data that was released on October 15th.
Contact Michelle Lee, 202-232-1616 ext 210 or mlee@goodjobsfirst.org
SOURCE States for a Transparent and Accountable Recovery
Copyright 2009 PR Newswire
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China's manufacturing sector grew inOctober at its fastest rate in 18 months,

China's manufacturing sector grew inOctober at its fastest rate in 18 months, a survey has suggested.Thepurchasing managers index (PMI) from the state-sanctioned China Federation ofLogistics and Purchasing rose to 55.2 from 54.3 in September.The survey isa further sign of the strength of the recovery in the Chinese economy, whichgrew at an annual rate of 8.9% between July and September.Many majoreconomies are only just starting to grow after long recessions.Any figureabove 50 in the survey indicates growth in the manufacturing sector.Octoberis the eighth month in a row that the sector has expanded, after six months ofdecline.Government support"These figures show that China's economicgrowth will accelerate in the future," said Zhang Liqun, an economist at theState Council Development Research Center.He added that the economy wouldlikely grow by 9.5% in the final three months of the year.China's strongrecovery has been aided by government stimulus packages, similar to those put inplace by other major world economies.At the end of 2008, the governmentannounced a 4 trillion yuan ($586bn; £355bn) stimulus plan involving increasedspending on infrastructure, such as rail and roads, to boost the domesticeconomy as exports slumped."China's recovery has been impressive, but hasbeen heavily reliant on government-directed investment," said Brian Jackson atthe Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong.But economists believe that evenwithout state aid, China's economy will now enjoy robust growth."Externaldemand will provide an additional source of support for growth in the monthsahead," said Mr Jackson, before adding that the government may begin scalingback its support "from early 2010".Jing Ulrich at JP Morgan added that,"while public investment may moderate in the months ahead, private real estateinvestment, consumer spending and export demand should drive growth in thecoming months."Figures released last week showed that the US economy grewby an annual rate of 3.5% between July and September, its first expansion inmore than a year.Germany, France and Japan all returned to growth betweenApril and June.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Nine subsidiaries of FBOP Corp.,

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Nine subsidiaries of FBOP Corp., a multistate holding company that included California National Bank of Los Angeles, succumbed Friday to the nationwide banking crisis, bringing to 115 the number of banks closed by regulators so far this year.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said the nine banks in California, Illinois, Texas and Arizona that made up the privately held FBOP were taken over by U.S. Bancorp (USB, Fortune 500) of Minneapolis. The banks, which had combined assets of $19.4 billion and deposits of $15.4 billion, will open Saturday as U.S. Bank branches.The nine banks are Bank USA N.A. of Phoenix, California National Bank of Los Angeles, San Diego National Bank of San Diego, Pacific National Bank of San Francisco, Park National Bank of Chicago, Community Bank of Lemont in Lemont, Ill., North Houston Bank in Houston, Madisonville State Bank in Madisonville, Texas, and Citizens National Bank of Teague, Texas.Together, the nine banks had 153 offices.0:00 /2:50FDIC insured deposits are securevidConfig.push({videoArray: ["/video/fortune/2009/09/29/f_bair_fdic_deposits.fortune.json"], collapsed:false});Customers of failed banks are protected, however. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which has insured bank deposits since the Great Depression, currently covers customer accounts up to $250,000.Customers of the failed bank can access their money over the weekend by writing checks or using ATMs or debit cards. Checks will continue to be processed, and borrowers should make mortgage and loan payments as usual.The FDIC said it entered into a loss-share transaction with U.S. Bank on $14.4 billion of the $18.2 billion in combined purchased assets. Under that arrangement, the agency said U.S. Bank will share in the losses on the asset pools covered in an effort to maximize returns on the assets by keeping them in the private sector."This transaction is consistent with the growth strategy that we have outlined many times in the past, which includes enhancing our existing franchise through low-risk, in-market acquisitions," said Rick Hartnack, vice chairman of consumer banking for U.S. Bancorp, in a statement.Starting in 1981 with one bank -- First Bank of Oak Park, Ill., from which the firm takes its name -- owner Michael Kelly built FBOP through acquisitions into the nation's 46th largest bank-holding company, according to Federal Reserve data, with more than $18 billion in assets.But FBOP was hit hard in September 2008 when Treasury took over Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), the government-sponsored mortgage investors. Treasury's decision to wipe out those firms' preferred stock left numerous banks and insurers nursing losses.FBOP has also been hurt by its longtime focus on commercial real estate. FBOP posted a loss of $708 million for 2008. By the end of June, FBOP's resources had dwindled so low that the firm ranked below 98% of similar bank holding companies in terms of tier 1 leverage ratio, a measure of bank capital.In August, FBOP signed a so-called written agreement with the Fed that gave it a schedule to raise capital, improve risk management and reduce its concentration of commercial real estate loans. The bank was to submit a capital plan within 30 days.The biggest of FBOP's banks was California National, the nation's 101st largest. It had assets of $7.1 billion, and 66 branches throughout the greater Los Angeles area.The bank failure count for 2009 is still far from 1989's record high of 534 bank closures which took place during the savings and loan crisis. There are about 8,000 banks in the nation, and an average of 10 banks have failed per month this year, nearly four times the number that failed in 2008, and the highest tally since 1992 when 181 banks failed.This year's failures have already reduced the FDIC's insurance fund to below $10 billion from $45 billion a year ago. Friday's closure will cost the FDIC an estimated $2.5 billion.After factoring in expected closures, the agency says its insurance fund is in the red and will remain there through 2012. Over the next four years, the agency expects bank closures will cost $100 billion.The insurance fund also carried a negative balance during the savings in loan crisis.In September, the FDIC discussed how to raise money to restock the fund last and proposed that banks prepay their deposit insurance premiums for the next three years

CNNMoney.com readers how President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package has helped them -- or hasn't.

CNNMoney.com readers how President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package has helped them -- or hasn't.View photoshelpinIs stimulus g you?Quick VoteHow strong is any economic recovery in your area?Very strongSmall signs of a reboundNo recovery hereor View resultscnnad_createAd("264122","http://ads.cnn.com/html.ng/site=cnn_money&cnn_money_position=220x200_ctr&cnn_money_rollup=business_news&cnn_money_section=quigo¶ms.styles=fs","200","220");NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Obama administration said Friday that stimulus has created or saved 640,000 jobs so far.But what does that mean exactly? Have that many people been hired? Here's a quick guide to understanding just what those numbers mean:1) How are the jobs calculated? It isn't as simple as "one person hired equals one job created," or even "one person retained equating to one job saved."The government instructed stimulus recipients to report jobs created or saved as "full-time equivalents." If that sounds complicated ... it is.Full-time equivalents are calculated by adding up the total number of man hours being funded by stimulus for the duration of the contract. That number is then divided by the total number of hours a regular full-time employee would work during the same time period.For example, say a contractor received a one-year stimulus contract and used those funds to hire a technician for 40 hours a week and an electrician for 20 hours a week for the full year. In addition, the contractor hired a surveyor to work 40 hours a week for six months. In the end, the three employees worked a combined average of 80 hours a week over the course of the year, so the company would have reported that it created two jobs.Keep in mind, the government's tally only includes those jobs created directly as a result of stimulus projects and activities. It does not include any jobs that may have been saved or created from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's $288 billion of tax relief. The total also excludes jobs indirectly created by stimulus, like companies that make materials for a stimulus-funded bridge.2) How long do the jobs last? Some of the jobs last for the complete duration of the stimulus contracts, which vary in length from a month to several years. But many of the jobs are temporary positions and last for just weeks.A number of jobs were already in place before the Recovery Act was signed, and stimulus recipients reported that they were able to save those jobs as a result of the stimulus money. Most of those jobs don't have a fixed timeframe, and those positions could be retained after the stimulus money runs out if the employers are able to keep the saved employees on their payrolls.In the end, it depends on the nature of the job and the stimulus project to determine how long the jobs will last.3) What kind of jobs has stimulus created or saved? The full reports have not yet been released, but an early glimpse at the data show that stimulus has created or saved jobs from a wide variety of industries.50 Best Jobs in AmericaFor private companies that received money directly from the government, most of the jobs that were saved or created were construction jobs for highway, building or nuclear facility dismantling projects. But some of the biggest non-construction job creators came from other fields, like people hired to process and deliver turkey to food banks or oceanographers in the Gulf of Mexico.4) Who reports the data? Any business, state or local government that has received stimulus funds directly from the federal government is required to report on how many jobs they saved or created.Those "prime recipients" of stimulus funds often send the money to "sub-recipients." In the case of stimulus money that went to state and local governments, those sub-recipients include schools, construction companies and hospitals. In most cases, the prime recipients report on job creation on behalf of the sub-recipients, but in some cases both report separately.The government is not allowed to change the reports in any way in order to maintain a certain level of transparency. If errors are found in the data, the government agencies can suggest that changes be made, but cannot actually change the data themselves.5) What is the cost breakdown? The whole Recovery Act is $787.2 billion. That breaks down into two broad categories: spending and tax relief. Of the $499 billion in spending provisions, $159 billion has been spent so far. Of the $288 billion in tax relief, $189 billion has made its way out the door.Since the jobs reporting only comes from the spending portion, it is impossible to know the true cost to taxpayers for each job created or saved. But based on the spending portion, taxpayers paid about $248,000 per job created.Do you have a job because of the $787 billion stimulus package? We want to hear from people whose jobs have been created or saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Please e-mail your stories to CNNMoney.com and you could be part of an upcoming article. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here. First Published: October 30, 2009: 2:57 PM ET

China's manufacturing sector grew inOctober at its fastest rate in 18 months,

China's manufacturing sector grew inOctober at its fastest rate in 18 months, a survey has suggested.Thepurchasing managers index (PMI) from the state-sanctioned China Federation ofLogistics and Purchasing rose to 55.2 from 54.3 in September.The survey isa further sign of the strength of the recovery in the Chinese economy, whichgrew at an annual rate of 8.9% between July and September.Many majoreconomies are only just starting to grow after long recessions.Any figureabove 50 in the survey indicates growth in the manufacturing sector.Octoberis the eighth month in a row that the sector has expanded, after six months ofdecline.Government support"These figures show that China's economicgrowth will accelerate in the future," said Zhang Liqun, an economist at theState Council Development Research Center.He added that the economy wouldlikely grow by 9.5% in the final three months of the year.China's strongrecovery has been aided by government stimulus packages, similar to those put inplace by other major world economies.At the end of 2008, the governmentannounced a 4 trillion yuan ($586bn; £355bn) stimulus plan involving increasedspending on infrastructure, such as rail and roads, to boost the domesticeconomy as exports slumped."China's recovery has been impressive, but hasbeen heavily reliant on government-directed investment," said Brian Jackson atthe Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong.But economists believe that evenwithout state aid, China's economy will now enjoy robust growth."Externaldemand will provide an additional source of support for growth in the monthsahead," said Mr Jackson, before adding that the government may begin scalingback its support "from early 2010".Jing Ulrich at JP Morgan added that,"while public investment may moderate in the months ahead, private real estateinvestment, consumer spending and export demand should drive growth in thecoming months."Figures released last week showed that the US economy grewby an annual rate of 3.5% between July and September, its first expansion inmore than a year.Germany, France and Japan all returned to growth betweenApril and June.

The price of shares for all 28 firms on China's new Nasdaq

The price of shares for all 28 firms on China's new Nasdaq-style stock market more than doubled when it opened for trading for the first time on Friday.The ChiNext stock market is designed to attract financing for small to medium sized enterprises.The 28 listed companies are almost all privately-owned outfits, in contrast with the state-owned firms that dominate China's main stock market.China is home to 10 million small and mid-sized companies.Trading suspendedTwo of the biggest winners were Chengdu Geeya Technology, a digital equipment provider, which saw shares jump by 210%, and film studio Huayi Bros Media which rose by 148%.The surge in share prices was so dramatic that by the midday break trading had to be temporarily suspended by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which hosts the new index.Six companies on ChiNext are in biotech or pharmaceuticals, and others are in information technology, energy efficiency, telecoms, medical equipment, entertainment and electronics.The Chinese government has talked for more than a decade about creating a Nasdaq-style market to promote technology and other new industries, but its launch was repeatedly delayed.Regulators are reviewing more than 100 applications for ChiNext and industry officials estimate that at least 1,000 firms are preparing to float shares on the market next year.

“Sonata In Primeval Sounds,”

Dada artist Kurt Schwitters’s classic “Sonata In Primeval Sounds,” also called “Ursonate,” is performed by vocalists Andy Laties and Rebecca Migdal, and percussionist Eric Blitz, with GLOVE, John Landino (tronbone, trumpet, cello), and Denis Luzuriaga (synths), plus special guests, invented-instrument-makers Mitch Ahern (electoluxopipeophone, crutch)and Pronoblem (bass, board, cane, clarinet), on September 25th at 9pm as part of GonzoQuest’s Final Fridays Open Mike Night series. The open mike, interspersed with “Ursonate” movements, features performance poets, artists with slideshows, and musicians. GonzoQuest is located at Paper City Studios, 80 Race Street, 3rd Floor, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Snacks and drinks provided: a five dollar donation is requested. Phone Andy Laties at 413-230-4913 or email alaties@aol.com for further info.Urchestra’s electronic press release is here.Audio of performance on July 31 is here.Published in 1932, Kurt Schwitters’s “Sonata In Primeval Sounds” is the granddaddy of sound-art poems: a 45-minute nonsense opus that develops 26 abstract themes in classical sonata format. Andy Laties’s rousing participatory interpretations were honored in Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art’s major “Art In Chicago 1945-1995″ retrospective. GonzoQuest is a comics journalism publisher and reality travel company encouraging community economic development through self-expression.Andy Laties on Kurt Schwitters & Dada is here.Tags: Add new tag, Andy Laties, Denis Luzuriaga, Eric Blitz, Glove, John Landino, Mitch Ahern, Pronoblem, Rebecca Migdal, Schwitters, Sonata in primeval sounds, Urchestra, UrsonateAndy_Laties @ September 16, 2009

Those banks don't have to submit plans

The government's "pay czar" expects compensation plans for additional employees at the seven companies getting the biggest bailouts to be in place by year's end, while the Federal Reserve will soon start its own work on banks' pay practices.Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury Department official overseeing compensation at the seven bailed-out companies, said Monday that he hopes "to come up with consensual plans" for highly paid employees beyond the top 25 at each firm.Feinberg already has announced plans to slash pay for the top 25 executives at the seven companies: Bank of America Corp., American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., General Motors Co., GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial. Now he is working on designing compensation structures for 75 additional employees at each one, ranking 26 through 100.For those executives, Feinberg intends to set up a general plan within six weeks to govern their 2009 pay, he said in a speech at a conference on executive pay organized by the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.Then comes the next goal: A program for 2010 compensation packages for the top 25 executives at the seven companies, hopefully within the first quarter of the year, Feinberg said.The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, will soon begin work to get a broad picture of U.S. banks' pay practices, part of a larger effort to crack down on plans that encourage irresponsible risk-taking by employees, a Fed official told the conference.Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo, the central bank's point man on the issue, said the Fed plans to "commence shortly" a so-called "horizontal" review to compare and contrast information across the nation's biggest banks. Supervisors at the Fed's regional banks, staff at the Fed's headquarters in Washington and other financial regulators will take part in the review.Fed officials previously have said they don't anticipate making the results of such a review public, unlike "stress" tests conducted earlier this year to determine how big banks would fare if the economy were to take a turn for the worse.Tarullo's remarks came as the Fed supervisors met Monday with executives of the top 28 U.S. banks to discuss the Fed's compensation initiative."In discussions across the country, we are communicating our plans and expectations to these firms, with particular attention to beginning this information gathering," Tarullo said.The goal is to ensure that banks integrate their pay practices "completely" into their schemes for managing risk, he said in response to a question. The Fed's work eventually will be coordinated with other federal bank regulators.Under the Fed plan, the 28 biggest banks — including Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo & Co. — will develop their own plans to make sure compensation doesn't spur undue risk taking. If the Fed approves, the plan would be adopted and bank supervisors would monitor compliance.At smaller banks — where compensation is typically smaller — Fed supervisors will conduct reviews. Those banks don't have to submit plans.The Fed's goal is to make sure compensation policies for executives, traders, loan officers and other employees don't spur reckless gambles that could endanger the bank and the broader financial system.Feinberg reaffirmed in his speech that he was reluctant to use the authority he has to "claw back" compensation at any company that received money from the $700 billion bailout program and still hasn't paid it back.Use of the power to take back compensation should be very narrow and limited to "egregious cases" of executive benefits, he said. Clawbacks aren't planned to be part of the current discussions with the companies on the 75 additional employees, he told reporters after his speech.Feinberg also said he was surprised that his directives for cutting pay at the seven companies, which take effect this month, were "fairly well received for what they are designed to accomplish."Under the plan, the seven companies must cut their top executives' average total compensation — salary and bonuses — in half. Cash salaries for the top 25 highest-paid executives will be limited in most cases to $500,000 and, in most cases, perks will be capped at $25,000.At issue is Wall Street's longtime pay system that rewards those who make the sort of high-risk bets that triggered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Only a year after the financial crisis peaked, the biggest banks are already making billions of dollars again placing risky bets with help from cheap government loans and other federal subsidies.If those bets were to go bad, the loss to taxpayers could be immense. That's led some critics to call on the government to ban big commercial banks from trading risky securities — or shrink them so their collapse wouldn't jeopardize the economy.The Obama administration has resisted such calls, opting instead to seek the authority to take over and wind down large banks that get into serious trouble.

The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements

While Israel was moving in the right direction in its offer to restrict but not stop the settlements, Clinton said, its offer "falls far short" of U.S. expectations.Clinton said her earlier praise of Israel's offer, during a stop in Jerusalem, had been intended as "positive reinforcement." But her comment drew widespread criticism from Persian Gulf ministers who interpreted it as a U.S drawback on settlements, which have been the main obstacle to a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.In a sign of U.S. eagerness to calm Arab concerns, Clinton is extending her trip by one day to fly to Cairo to meet with President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday, her staff announced. She had been scheduled to return to Washington on Tuesday.Clinton's comments in Jerusalem on Saturday appeared to reflect a realization within the Obama administration that Netanyahu's government will not accept a full-on settlement freeze and that a partial halt may be the best lesser option. Her appeal on Saturday seemed designed to make the Israeli position more palatable to the Palestinians and Arab states.Clinton had traveled to the region only reluctantly, concerned her visit might be seen as a failure, according to several U.S. officials. She agreed to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders after pressure from the White House, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking.During a photo-taking session Monday with her Moroccan counterpart, Clinton was asked by a reporter about the Arab reaction, and she responded by reading from a written statement that appeared designed to counter the skepticism about the Obama administration's views on settlements."Successive American administrations of both parties have opposed Israel's settlement policy," she said. "That is absolutely a fact, and the Obama administration's position on settlements is clear, unequivocal and it has not changed. As the president has said on many occasions, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."Clinton's tweaking of her earlier remarks appeared to satisfy at least some of the Morocco meeting attendees. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Monday that "we have heard her say something completely different from that statement in line with previous statements, so we are happy that such a position was highlighted and brought back to the right line and right now we will see how things will go."Malki added that "we completely appreciate the sincere efforts made by President Barack Obama and his team to take this issue as a top priority and to try to deal with it from day one."In her recalibrated comments Monday, Clinton also called on the Israelis to do more to improve "movement and access" for Palestinians and on Israeli security arrangements.She added, however, that Israel deserved praise for moving in the right direction."This offer falls far short of what we would characterize as our position or what our preference would be," she added. "But if it is acted upon, it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and would have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their growth."In her statement to reporters, Clinton also stressed that the Palestinian authorities deserved credit for what she called "unprecedented" steps to improve security in the West Bank and praised the Palestinians for progress in training their security forces.On Monday evening, Clinton met with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council, plus officials from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Morocco. Clinton also flew Monday to the south-central city of Ouarzazate for an audience with King Mohammed VI, then returned to Marrakech for talks with foreign ministers of several Persian Gulf nations.Clinton was expected to meet separately with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who has rejected U.S. appeals for improved Arab relations with Israel as a way to help restart Middle East peace talks.After taking office in January, Obama buoyed Palestinian hopes for progress toward establishing a Palestinian state with his outreach to the Muslim world and an initially tough stance urging a full freeze to all settlement construction.But after making little headway with the Israelis in recent months, Clinton urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in a face-to-face meeting in Abu Dhabi on Saturday to renew talks, which broke down late last year, without conditions. Abbas said no, insisting that Israel first halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands the Palestinians claim for a future state.Then, at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Saturday in Jerusalem, Clinton praised Netanyahu's offer to curb some settlement construction, saying it was an unprecedented gesture.That statement provoked a chiding by Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib. Jordan and Egypt also issued statements Sunday critical of the latest U.S. approach.