MacroScope

Citigroup, the third largest U.S. bank, is actively soliciting donations from its employees for its political action committee (PAC) or fundraising group. In a letter to staff obtained by Reuters, the bank stressed the importance of the upcoming presidential and Congressional elections, urging staff to give to Citi’s PAC. From the letter:

Our Government Affairs team already does a great job promoting our positions on important issues to lawmakers, but there is one thing that each of us can do to enhance their efforts: contribute to Citi’s Political Action Committee (PAC).

Citi PAC is one of the most effective tools we have to amplify the voice of the company in Washington and enhance our profile with lawmakers.  The PAC provides the resources to help suport government officials who share our views on key policy objectives and who understand the impact various policy decisions may have on overall economic investment and growth.

Said a Citi spokesperson:

Citi PAC is funded by the voluntary, personal contributions of its employees. The PAC contributes to candidates on both sides of the aisle that support a strong private sector and promote entrepreneurship.

The firm, which was forced to alter its plans to raise dividend payments following weak results from the Federal Reserve’s bank stress tests earlier this month, is also offering some professional incentives for those employees who are willing to open their wallets.

As the usual end-of-year predictions roll in, perhaps the safest bet was captured this tweet from Bajaji Sridharan:

Since everyone is making predictions for 2012, here’s my prediction — 90%+ of all the 2012 predictions will be wrong.

It was another way of expressing a sentiment eloquently phrased by the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith – and frequently quoted by Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher – on the commonalities between economics and the stars. Galbraith wrote:

Henrique Meirelles, Brazil’s highly rated central bank president, gave unusual insight into current thinking at the International Olympic Committee in a speech in Oxford the other night.

Diverging from his main theme on Brazil’s remarkable journey from economic basket case to emerging market superpower, Meirelles said that he had gone to Copenhagen last month as part of Rio de Janeiro’s successful bid for the 2016 Olympics. The reason: The IOC asked him to come.

Meirelles said that the IOC knew that Brazil currently had all the conditions needed to host the Games, but wanted to know about how predictable it was that this would carry through over the next seven years. “They wanted to know what is really happening,” he said.