Richard Baum

How can mainstream news organizations retain (or regain) their audience's trust in skeptical world where almost anyone with an Internet connection can be a publisher? That's the topic a panel of industry experts will address tonight at the Thomson Reuters heaquarters in Times Square. We'll be live blogging the event here from 7pm ET.

The panel comprises: Andrew Alexander, ombudsman, The Washington Post; Michael Oreskes, senior managing editor, The Associated Press; Lisa Shepard, ombudsman, National Public Radio; and Dean Wright, global editor of ethics, innovation & news standards, Reuters. Jack Shafer, editor-at-large for Slate, is the moderator.

If you'd like to put a question to the panel, leave it in the comments box below and we'll ask a selection on your behalf.

 By Kevin Drawbaugh and Rachelle Younglai
WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Offshore funds would have to register with U.S. regulators under an amendment added to a bill mandating more oversight of private capital pools under debate on Tuesday in a U.S. congressional committee.

The bill would force hedge funds and private equity funds to register with regulators to bring more transparency to a segment of the financial world that is only loosely policed.

Passage of the bill by the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee was expected, possibly on Tuesday or Wednesday, as the panel works its way through a handful of fairly noncontroversial pieces of legislation in a broad push for U.S. financial regulatory reform after the global crisis.

Democratic Representative Paul Kanjorski amended his own registration bill to add offshore funds, saying it would help regulators get a better grasp of financial system risks.

"There is a common psychology to use the Cayman Islands to hide funds. The whole point of these bills is to get a large enough understanding of the total amount of capital that the systemic risk regulator should be aware of," said Kanjorski, whose bill also exempts venture capital funds from registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis in decades, congressional Democrats and the Obama administration are trying to tighten regulation of banks and capital markets.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro warned broadly at a Wall Street conference on Tuesday against too many exemptions and said she would work with Congress to avoid creating new carve-outs that "could come back to haunt investors in later years."

The Financial Services Committee was also expected on Tuesday to work on bills to beef up the SEC and certain investor protection standards.

The push for reform faces stiff opposition from banking industry lobbyists and Republicans. It is making incremental progress in the House, where Democrats are in firm control.

The outlook is unclear in the Senate, where political parties are more closely split and lawmakers are still far apart on fundamental financial reform issues.

The committee delayed action on Tuesday on legislation that would impose federal government oversight for the first time on the insurance industry, possibly the most contentious of the four proposals being handled by the panel this week.

Now regulated at the state level, the nation's 6,000 insurers are divided on the proposal to set up a National Insurance Office inside the Treasury Department. It would gather data on the industry and represent the United States in international insurance discussions.

The office would not regulate the industry. But some opponents of federal regulation fear the office is a first step toward that. Some large insurers favor federal regulation.

Debate and a vote on the bill were scheduled for this week, but committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Democrat, postponed it.

"I'm not going to bring it up ... I believe that within a fairly short period of time we'll be able to bring up the insurance bill," Frank said at the opening of a two-day committee working session.

Frank said concerns were raised about the insurance bill by members of Congress and state regulators. "They are obviously not trying to hold it up forever and they won't be allowed to ... We will ultimately produce a product," Frank said.

(Editing by Andrew Hay)
((kevin.drawbaugh@thomsonreuters.com, +1 202 898 8390, +1 202 488 3459 (fax)))

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Republicans urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to roll back "Buy American" provisions of this year's economic stimulus package that they said were delaying public works projects and costing American jobs.

"Clearly these provisions are creating problems for our domestic companies and employees that must be addressed," Representative Wally Herger said at a "roundtable" Republicans organized to hear industry concerns about the measure.

Representative Kevin Brady urged the White House to exempt state, county and city governments from the Buy American requirement "so that we can get those dollars working, create these jobs, get these projects in place and move this economy."

The Republicans said they held their event because Democratic leaders of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee refused to hold a hearing on the issue.

The Buy American provision included in the $787 billion economic stimulus act requires all public works projects funded by the bill use only U.S.-made goods.

As a result, many local jurisdictions receiving Recovery Act funds are faced with ensuring that their projects comply with the Buy American mandate.

That's not as simple as it sounds because many products contain components from around the world.

The Buy American mandate has "had a devastating impact on municipal procurement and especially in the U.S. water and wastewater market," said Dawn Kristof Champney, president of the Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association.

Communities that had projects ready to go have had to go back to the drawing board, she said.

Tom Pokorsky, president of Aquarius Technologies, estimated the number of water and wastewater projects in the United States was down about 30 percent this year, the worst he has seen in his three decades in the business.

RETALIATION FEARS
"I think it's because, in fact I know it's because projects were delayed awaiting stimulus money and then they were delayed awaiting interpretation of the rules for Buy American, which still aren't complete," Pokorsky said.

It will be at least a few more weeks before the White House budget office finishes drafting final rules for the Buy American provisions, a spokesman for the office said.

Groups calling for changes in the Buy American provisions include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Emergency Committee for American Trade, which together represents most of the biggest U.S. companies.

They said they feared other countries would retaliate by passing their own "buy domestic" provisions, as Canadian cities are threatening to do because their firms are being shut out of U.S. stimulus projects.

"What we're seeing now is that Buy American rules aren't creating American jobs, they're destroying them ... Government officials at all levels are confused by what is required to be in compliance with the Buy American mandate," said John Murphy, a vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Eric Beech)
((doug.palmer@thomsonreuters.com; +1 202 898 8341; Reuters Messaging: doug.palmer.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: USA BUYAMERICAN/

Thursday, 08 October 2009 17:24:56RTRS [nN08540791] {C}ENDS

By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan deferred a decision on Wednesday on withdrawing support for corporate finance after the government pressed the central bank to consider the economic cost of its retreat from credit markets.

Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii kept up the pressure after the BOJ announcement, saying the central bank's view of the economy was too rosy.

The BOJ had been tipped to announce it would end corporate bond purchases and other measures used to cushion the shock of the financial crisis, joining other central banks in rolling back their emergency response to the turmoil of the past two years.

Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the decision could be taken at the next meeting on Oct. 30 or even later, and suggested the debate was more about the timing of the exit.

"What to do about various emergency measures in place now is a technical issue," Shirakawa told reporters after the BOJ's two-day policy review at which it kept interest rates on hold at 0.1 percent.

The decision is largely inconsequential for the corporate finance market which has mostly recovered from the crisis.

But the political pressure on the central bank meant the outcome may define its relationship with a new government, still fumbling with the levers of power in the world's second largest economy.

Although Japan's economy crawled out of its worst ever recession in the second quarter, the government is worried about rising unemployment, particularly among small firms that employ about 70 percent of the country's workforce.

"It is not a matter of whether the temporary measures are having their intended effect but whether the BOJ's possible exit will give the impression to markets that the bank is moving towards tightening," said Seiji Adachi, senior economist at Deutsche Securities.

Shirakawa appeared to acknowledge those concerns.
"There's no change in our stance of keeping interest rates very low and providing ample liquidity to markets," he said.

RECOVERY
The BOJ upgraded its view on the economy, saying it was recovering and maintained its assessment that financial conditions were increasingly showing signs of improvement.

Fujii disagreed.
"The BOJ is looking at financial and other conditions in its own way, but it would be right to judge the situation as more severe overall than it thinks," he told a news conference.

The overt pressure raises questions about how the government, formed six weeks ago after an election ended half a century of almost uninterrupted Liberal Democrat rule, would deal with the BOJ which formally became independent a decade ago.

"I think the BOJ yielded to the pressure and thought it wasn't the time to send a signal that they will withdraw stimulus," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at SJS Markets in Hong Kong.

The perception that a central bank is bowing to political pressure could make it difficult to manage market expectations and eventually undermine confidence in the currency.

Shirakawa dismissed any suggestion the central bank had yielded to the government, which sends finance ministry representatives to BOJ board meetings.

"They said the government will respect the BOJ's independence based on rules stated in the BOJ Law, and said it hopes to closely communicate with the central bank," he said.

Shirakawa had signalled an exit strategy was being worked out, telling reporters at a Group of Seven meeting of financial leaders on Oct. 3 that corporate finance needed less policy support as credit markets had improved significantly.

The Nikkei business daily reported on Oct. 6 that the BOJ was considering ending its outright buying of commercial paper and corporate bonds at the end of this year and was likely to decide by Oct. 30, the date of its next review.

The central bank came under pressure from government officials not to move too soon.

Fujii said last week he was concerned that the economy was still unstable. National Strategy Minister Naoto Kan and Banking Minister Shizuka Kamei also urged the central bank to consider the economic cost of its decision after Nikkei report.

"Japan's economy has only just begun showing signs of picking up. What we need to do is to patiently maintain easy monetary conditions to achieve sustained economic growth," Shirakawa said.

"On the other hand, there is a general understanding that what to do about measures in place to deal with the post-Lehman crisis is a different issue from debates about an exit strategy," he said.

"We will review these steps in line with improvements in financial markets."

Debt issuance has come back to life and credit spreads have shrunk considerably since the BOJ stepped into the corporate finance markets.

The cost of insuring a basket of Japanese companies' debt with credit default swaps has shrunk to around 115 basis points from its peak of 550 basis points in March.
For a graphic on credit conditions, click on: http://r.reuters.com/sew63f

($1=89.64 Yen)

(Additional reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Dayan Candappa and Rodney Joyce) ((hideyuki.sano@thomsonreuters.com; +81 3 6441 1827; Reuters Messaging: hideyuki.sano.reuters.com@reuters.net))

By Giuseppe Fonte and Caren Bohan
PITTSBURGH, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday there was broad support for its vision to build a more stable global economy and crack down on banks' risky behavior, although G20 countries were still hashing out the details.

U.S. President Barack Obama, hosting his first Group of 20 summit on the same day he chaired the United Nations Security Council, laid out a broad agenda that included reshaping the world's economy, reforming financial regulation and tackling climate change.

The White House said regulatory overhaul was the top priority for the G20 and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he expected to leave the two-day meeting with a firm schedule for implementing reform. [ID:nWEN4027]

Geithner said the challenges facing the global economy "don't respect national borders, and nor can the solutions come from individual countries acting on their own."

"Financial risk and leverage is going to flow where the rules are most lax, but the consequences of failure will be felt globally," he added.

The summit also looked likely to generate an agreement on phasing out fossil fuel subsidies as part of combating global warming, although the timetable was vague. [ID:nN24469250]

The G20 groups the major rich and emerging nations and has become the primary forum for fighting the global economic crisis because it brings in fast-growing countries such as China that are increasingly vital to international commerce.

But it also fuses together a mix of countries with different priorities and different approaches to
solving some of the toughest economic problems.

Some of those divisions were apparent earlier on
Thursday when German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the U.S. drive to rebalance the global economy risked distracting the G20 from a more urgent need for market regulation.

WISH LISTS
With unemployment high in many G20 countries, leaders face intense political pressure to speed up the economic repairs. Merkel faces an election on Sunday and others are facing votes next year.

Aides were still grappling over the precise wording for a statement to be issued at the summit's conclusion on Friday detailing the G20's commitments.

France and Germany want curbs on bonuses in the financial sector that they say fostered huge risk-taking and helped cause the turmoil that shoved the world economy into recession.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said his
country wants to play a part in crafting global rules to rein in "excessive money-making games."

A Canadian official told Reuters the G20 would outline pay principles at this meeting but it was up to each country to enforce its own rules.

Emerging markets like Brazil want the G20 to put more emphasis on reforming the International Monetary Fund to give them greater say over lending decisions.

The United States, the world's largest economy and the epicenter of the global crisis, wants G20 countries to commit to reducing reliance on U.S. consumers by boosting consumption in exporting countries, such as China, while encouraging debt-laden nations such as the United States to save
more.

China has given only qualified support for the idea of policing global imbalances.

Rich countries were pressing big developing nations on Thursday to increase domestic demand but it was still an open issue, an Italian diplomat said.

RULES OF THE ROAD
Protesters ran through an area about a mile (1.6 km) from the cordoned-off convention center where the G20 was meeting, throwing rocks at police and smashing shop windows as officers in riot gear used pepper gas, pellet-filled "beanbags" and batons to disperse them.
Police recruited from around the United States backed up Pittsburgh's force and camouflage-clad soldiers were stationed in and around the security perimeter.
The sheer volume of problems the two-day summit is set to address prompted low expectations for any near-term action.
There was broad consensus that tougher, coordinated regulation was needed to avoid a repeat of the two-year crisis that cost millions of people their jobs and forced governments to put up trillions of dollars in taxpayer money to prop up a faltering financial system.
"We do know that unless we all have greater rules for the road, money can fly and transfer anywhere," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "So if there are weaker rules in one place but everyone else is taking concerted efforts, you don't have a defense against what happened happening again."

G20 leaders were keen to show their resolve to repair the financial system had not faded now that the global economy appeared to be pulling out of its downturn with greater force than many economists had predicted.
In another sign of increasing stability, major central banks announced they planned to scale back massive injections of U.S. dollars into their banking systems that were part of efforts to shore up crisis-hit economies.

"We are out of recession but not out of the crisis," Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, said on CNBC.

Amid the sessions on managing risk, sustainable consumption and lessons from the recession, it's refreshing to see that the World Economic Forum has carved out time to discuss the world of literature at its "summer Davos" meeting in Dalian, China. The aim of its panel on "Great Books for a Globalized World" is to ask, which classic and contemporary books from different cultures are essential for developing the personal values and professional philosophies of future leaders?

We asked one of the participants in the panel, Xie Youshun, professor of Chinese literature at the Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou, China , to give us his list. It's published below, right above the box where we invite your suggestions for essential reading for future leaders.

1. New History by Chien Mu
2. Nineteen Lectures on Chinese Philosophy by Mou Zongsan (aka Mou Tsung-san)
3. Heavy Body (collection of essays) by Liu Xiaofeng, Shanghai Renmin Press 1999
4. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
5. China 1957 (novel) by You Fengwei, Shanghai Wenyi Press 2001
6. Representations of the Intellectual by Edward Said
7. Face and Peach Blossom (2004 novel, aka "Renmian Taohua") by Ge Fei
8. The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus
9. Gates of Eden, by Morris Dickstein
10. The Lesson of this Century by Karl Popper

Listen up, true believers. Disney's deal to buy Marvel for $4 billion opens up the possibility of Uncle Walt's gang going head-to-head with the creations of Stan Lee.

Click here for four of our favorite smackdowns, and leave your own nominations in the comments section.

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