Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- A trade group whose members include Lockheed Martin Corp., Dow Chemical Co. and General Motors Corp. is pressing Congress to help close a record $200 billion deficit in U.S. pensions created by this month's global stock-market collapse.

The Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets is kicking off a lobbying effort today to delay provisions of the Pension Protection Act that it says will force companies to drain cash flow to comply with funding rules set to take effect next year.

``This will be real money that companies will have to come up with,'' said Judy Schub, managing director of the Bethesda, Maryland-based group, which represents 110 of the nation's largest retirement plans holding almost half of U.S. assets. ``The law will be forcing people to be taking money out of operations at the worst possible time.''

Lockheed, Ryder Drain Cash as Crisis Hammers Pensions

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve agreed to provide $30 billion each to the central banks of Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore, expanding its effort to unfreeze money markets to emerging nations for the first time.

The Fed set up ``liquidity swap facilities with the central banks of these four large systemically important economies'' effective until April 30, the central bank said yesterday in a statement. The arrangements aim ``to mitigate the spread of difficulties in obtaining U.S. dollar funding.''

Fed Opens Swaps With South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore

Uncle Sam has a new name on Wall Street — Sugar Daddy. Bonuses for investment bankers and traders are projected to fall by 40% this year. But analysts, compensation consultants and recruiters say the drop would be much more severe, perhaps as much as 70%, had it not been for the government's efforts to prop up the financial firms. "Year-end pay on Wall Street will be higher than it would have been had it not been for the government and mergers," says Alan Johnson, a leading compensation consultant. "You would expect it to be down much more."

Johnson predicts the average managing director at an investment bank, a title typically earned around eight years on the job, will receive a bonus of $625,000. That's down from nearly $1.1 million last year, but it is still 15 times the income of the average American household. Top bankers could receive as much as $1 million. Even a bond trader just out of business school could see his or her bank account enriched by as much as $170,000 this Christmas. "The firms have had an extremely difficult year," says Joan Zimmerman, a Wall Street career coach. "But they can't afford to lose talent either."

How Washington's Wall Street Bailout Will Boost Bonuses

When out-of-control federal spending runs smack into sluggish tax revenues, red ink splashes all over Washington. In September, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the deficit this year would be $407 billion, a sum that reflected the $168 billion economic stimulus package approved by President Bush in February and the estimated $188billion spent for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2008. Add to that the $700 billion financial bailout package passed in October, plus another economic stimulus package likely to take shape in the coming months that could cost as much as $175 billion, and you're talking about an all-inclusive fiscal 2008 deficit exceeding $1 trillion.

You won't likely see such huge numbers leading the networks' evening newscasts because deficit talk is akin to Washington wonk speak.

A far bigger concern is the national debt — the total of what we've cumulatively borrowed to finance those yearly deficits. Sometime around 2020, according to projections offered by Walker's foundation, the U.S. debt will be equal to or greater than annual gross domestic product.

Does Anyone Care About a Trillion Dollar Deficit?

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his Latin American allies on Saturday to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from U.S. banks, warning of a looming U.S. economic crisis.

Chavez: Pull Reserves From US: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Congress and the Senate have passed the bill. Thats great!

---

* CAFE Standard: Increase fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 for new cars and trucks
* Renewable Fuels Standard: Multiple-source domestic biofuels mandate with environmental safeguards
* Plug-in hybrid/electric vehicle tax credit and advanced vehicle incentives
* Repeal of $21 billion in tax subsidies for gas and oil companies (H.R. 6), international tax loophole closed, rollback of 2005 Energy Act tax breaks
* Renewable Electricity Standard: 15% by 2020 (4% may be efficiency)
* Efficiency Standards: new appliance and building standards
* Renewable Production Tax Credit and other incentives: extends existing PTC, funds renewable research, provides renewable energy bonds for power providers
* Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training Program
* Incentives for small business development of renewable energy technology
* Carbon Capture and Sequestration: R&D and clean coal incentives

Energy Independence and Security Act passes

Don't buy BRK.A, it is too expensive right now. :)

--------

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc , the conglomerate built by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, could be overvalued, Barron's reported on Sunday.

Barron's estimates that Berkshire is worth about $130,000 a share, about 10 percent below the current level.

Berkshire stock closed on Friday at $143,000, up 38 percent from its 12-month low of $103,800 hit on February 27.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway overvalued: Barron's: Reuters Business News - MSN Money

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is showing early signs of stagflation as growth threatens to stall while food and energy prices soar, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Sunday.

In an interview on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Greenspan said low inflation was a major contributor to economic growth and prices must be held in check.

"We are beginning to get not stagflation, but the early symptoms of it," Greenspan said.

Greenspan sees early signs of U.S. stagflation: Reuters Business News - MSN Money

Schultz says "the second biggest danger is owning U.S. dollars in any form, (it) has crashed and going much lower ... use dollar rallies to exit dollars or sell short ... This is not a time to seek profits, but to protect what U have ... Portfolio diversification is essential in troubled times."
Schultz's favored currencies: "In order of preference: Swiss Franc, Australian dollar, Euro, Canadian dollar."

Schultz is a trader and his specific market advice is nuanced. He writes: "Direction of global stock markets uncertain. Balance stock holdings between long and shorts to counterbalance draw-down risks, and/or hedge exposure via puts, futures, or bear funds ... Exposure to gold shares and bullion should be a minimum of 35-45% of your total portfolio, with at least 10% in physical gold bullion and coins, and/or very rare coins ... "

On gold, he writes: "The public is still not in the gold market. They will be in 2008 as the derivatives and credit crises bring down more financial institutions (amid recession) and eyes will be opened, via pain. While Rome burns, gold will smash through its old unadjusted-for-inflation $850 high on the way to $1,600, & who knows how far beyond ..."

Commentary: Veteran editor declares 'A financial tsunami is upon us'

Interesting thoughts on the Fed.

G Edward Griffin - Creature From Jekyll Island A Second Look at the Federal Reserve