FDIC Considers Borrowing From Treasury to Shore Up Deposit Insurance

WASHINGTON -- Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said Friday her agency may tap its $500 billion credit line with the U.S. Treasury to replenish its deposit insurance fund, though she appeared cautious about doing so.

"We are carefully considering all options" including borrowing from the Treasury, Ms. Bair said Friday after a speech in Washington.

Ms. Bair has already warned banks that they may face an assessment increase to bolster the fund. Friday, she said there are also other little-known options available to the agency, including requiring banks to prepay assessments. The FDIC board of directors will meet at the end of this month to consider how to replenish the fund, she said.

Ms. Bair appeared cautious about resorting to the Treasury credit line, saying there are different views on when it should be used. She said some believe it should be reserved for emergencies only, rather than for covering losses that are already known.

Congress acted earlier this year to allow the FDIC to borrow as much as $500 billion from the Treasury if the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the White House believe it is warranted. Otherwise, the agency can borrow up to $100 billion.

The financial crisis has clobbered the FDIC's deposit insurance fund, forcing the agency to impose a special assessment on the industry to rebuild the fund. Ninety-two banks have failed so far this year. The deposit insurance fund fell by $2.6 billion to $10.4 billion during the second quarter, after 24 banks went bust.

In a speech at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, Ms. Bair strongly cautioned the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, against expanding market-to-market accounting rules to bank deposits and loans.

Currently, banks are required to write down certain securities to market values when they become impaired. FASB is proposing to extend that to other bank assets, such as loans and deposits.

Ms. Bair said the move would create more volatility for bank balance sheets, exacerbating the financial crisis, with no measurable improvement in transparency.

"Marking banking assets to market prices doesn't make sense," she said.

Ms. Bair argued that policy makers, after the extraordinary government interventions of the past year, need to work now to dispel assumptions that certain "too big to fail" companies will be bailed out. She said larger, riskier firms should face higher capital charges. She also repeated arguments for creating a process to wind down teetering nonbank financial firms similar to the FDIC's system for resolving banks.

"The process is harsh. It is painful. But it works," she said, by sending "a strong message that investors and creditors face losses when banks fail."

By JESSICA HOLZER

Uncle Sam Eyes Vehicle Tracking Tax

A Member of Congress proposes to use taxpayer money to fund the development of technology to track motorists as part of a new form of taxation. US Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) introduced H.R. 3311 earlier this year to appropriate $154,500,000 for research and study into the transition to a per-mile vehicle tax system. The “Road User Fee Pilot Project” would be administered by the US Treasury Department. This agency in turn would issue millions in taxpayer-backed grants to well-connected commercial manufacturers of tolling equipment to help develop the required technology. Within eighteen months of the measure’s passage, the department would file an initial report outlining the best methods for adopting the new federal transportation tax.

“Oregon has successfully tested a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fee, and it is time to expand and test the VMT program across the country,” Blumenauer said in a statement on the bill’s introduction. “A VMT system can better assess fees based on use of our roads and bridges, as well as during times of peak congestion, than a fee based on fuel consumption. It is time to get creative and find smart ways to rebuild and renew America’s deteriorating infrastructure.”

In 2006, the Oregon Department of Transportation completed its own study of how to collect revenue from motorists with a new form of tax that, like the existing fuel excise tax, imposes a greater charge on drivers the more that they drive. The pilot project’s final report summed up the need for a VMT tax.

“Unfortunately, there is a growing perception among members of the public and legislators that fuel taxes have little to do with road programs and therefore should be considered ‘just another form of taxation,’” the March 2006 report stated. “By itself, this situation appears to be preventing any increases in fuel tax rates from being put into effect.”

The money diverted from the fuel excise tax on non-road related projects must be made up for with a brand new VMT tax, the report argued. Merely indexing the gas tax to inflation or improvements in fleet gas mileage was rejected as “imprecise.” Instead, the report urged a mandate for all drivers to install GPS tracking devices that would report driving habits to roadside Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) scanning devices.

Blumenauer is a long-time advocate of bicycling and mass transit in Congress. Many of his largest campaign donors stand to benefit from his newly introduced legislation. Honeywell International, for example, is a major manufacturer RFID equipment. The company also happens to be the second biggest contributor in the current cycle to Blumenauer’s Political Action Committee (PAC), the Committee for a Livable Future. Another top-ten donor, Accenture, is a specialist in the video tolling field.

H.R. 3311 awaits a hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. A copy of the bill is available in a 170k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: HR 3311

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Furthest star system discovered 13billion light years from Earth

Amazing images from the Hubble Telescope's newest camera have provided scientists with a glimpse of the most distant galaxies ever found.

Three groups of astronomers, including one team led by Andrew Bunker from Oxford University, analysed 'the most sensitive picture yet' captured by the Wide Field Camera 3, which works at wavelengths beyond the visible (the infrared).

A composite image shows the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in the southern sky where the oldest galaxies have been discovered using infra-red imaging

They discovered what they believe to be galaxies 13billion light years away, when the universe was only around 700million years old and less than five per cent of its current age.

To give some perspective, the light left these galaxies 8billion years before our own Sun and Earth had even formed.

'The universe started out as a cloud of gas,' Dr Bunker explained.

'The gas is mostly hydrogen and if you shine light through it some is absorbed. With the most distant galaxies, all the visible light has been absorbed so they are invisible to the human eye.

'The light is stretched or red-shifted. What gets through is infrared light, only visible using special equipment.'

Dr Bunker's team compared observations made of the same small patch of the southern sky, called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field from 2004 with the new images made in August and September this year.

They found some galaxies suddenly appeared when looking at the infrared data, suggesting their vast age.

'The exciting thing is that there are fewer of these very distant galaxies than you would expect,' Dr Bunker said.

Watch this space: Here, you can see one of the most distant galaxies ever found slowly appear as you go from visible light on the left to infrared on the right

Gas in the early universe was neutral but was ionised or 'fried' early on, which is the state it is in today. Ionisation is where electrons are freed from their atoms like in plasma screens.

It can be ionised through the huge heat created in star formation but Dr Bunker said the lack of distant galaxies suggests this isn't the answer.

'There simply aren't enough stars,' Dr Bunker said.

'Are there fainter galaxies out there we haven't found yet? The new James Webb telescope may be able to answer this. Or perhaps our understanding of the mechanics of the universe is flawed?'

'This is the first big result from Hubble after the enormously successful Space Shuttle mission to put on new instruments and repair old ones.'

The James Webb Telescope will launch in 2014 and succeed the now aging Hubble Telescope. The Webb telescope's primary mirror, which has a 20ft diameter, also has a collecting area which is almost six times larger.

By Claire Bates

美國‧紐約設計師創紀錄‧20萬張房門卡建酒店

（美國‧紐約）如果冰窖酒店、機艙酒店、火車酒店你都住膩了，不妨試試紐約的鑰匙卡酒店！

美國紐約設計師伯格以20多萬張房門卡為材料設計成的假日酒店近日在紐約隆重開張。

這家新奇的鑰匙卡酒店主要是為了慶祝知名連鎖集團假日酒店全球1200家酒店經過整修後重新開業。

這家位於紐約曼哈頓南街的鑰匙卡假日酒店佔地約37平方米，接待大、臥室和衛生間全是利用酒店中常見的房門鑰匙卡搭建而成的。酒店內設臥室、浴室和大堂，還配備有小傢俱。

伯格說：“這是一項有關房門鑰匙卡堆疊的最大挑戰，無論在建造時間上還是規模上，都是一大突破，完全由手工堆疊而成。”

據悉，在酒店正式運營前，伯格還將利用房門卡搭建一個獨立的紐約帝國大廈的複製品，展示在酒店的大廳中。

伯格是世界上第一個打破用房門鑰匙卡建高樓紀錄的人。1992年，17歲的伯格因用房門鑰匙卡建起一座4.45米高的塔樓而聞名。此後，他10餘次打破自己創下的紀錄。

中國‧指無根據不負責任‧促美糾正軍事威脅論

（中國‧北京）中國國防部週四（9月17日）指出，華盛頓視中國擴大軍備可能危及美國在太平洋的軍事勢力是“毫無根據以及不負責任的”。

官方新華社引述國防部發言人胡昌明指出：“中國軍事發展對於區域和全球的和平與穩定，向來都是一項正面因素。”

美國國防部長蓋茨週三（9月16日）表示，美國海軍艦以及太平洋空軍基地面對中國軍事先進化的新威脅。

新華社引述胡昌明指出，中國一貫奉行防禦性國防政策，走和平發展道路，指美國的言論是毫無事實根據，亦極之不負責任，要求美方尊重事實，採取切實措施糾正錯誤言論，停止破壞兩軍關係的行為。

新加坡‧地鐵內跳鋼管舞罰500新幣

（新加坡）地鐵內跳鋼管舞，代價是500大元（馬幣1200令吉）！

一名青年搭地鐵，竟把列車內的扶桿當成鋼管，戴著隨身聽大跳鋼管舞，引起其他乘客不滿。

阻礙乘客行動

SMRT發言人指出，地鐵乘客，包括小孩，都不允許在列車內跳舞，因為不僅阻礙其他乘客的舉動，也可能會導致其他乘客受傷。

“在快捷交通系統法令下，任何騷擾他人或對他人造成困擾的乘客，可判罰款高達500元。”

27歲的工程師助理蕭理中投訴，他是看到一名青年把列車的扶桿當成鋼管，在眾目睽睽下，握住扶桿繞圈圈的跳舞，於是拍下整個過程。

蕭理中說，他是在週五（9月4日）清晨6時左右，乘搭地鐵朝裕廊西的方向，而青年是在萊佛士地鐵站上車。

“當時列車內原本很靜，可是青年一上來，他的隨身聽立即傳出搖滾音樂，沒想到他居然抓住扶桿跳起舞來！”

畫面中的青年打扮時髦，身穿鮮橙色T恤和黑色牛仔褲，右手腕和左手臂都戴著護罩。他一進入列車，就把包包放在門邊，然後握著扶桿，先是蹲下來，開始起舞。

邊跳舞邊照窗

青年邊跳舞邊照玻璃窗，非常滿意自己的表演。

根據畫面，青年先在扶桿繞了一圈半，停頓了一會，照照大門玻璃窗上的自己，顯得很滿意，又換個方向繞了一圈半，然後用撩人的姿勢看著窗里的自己，開始扭腰擺臀，又開始踢腿，好像在表演給大家看。

蕭理中說，列車抵達歐南園地鐵站時，青年拿起之前放在門邊的包包下車。

中國‧國慶超強保安現漏洞‧北京血案震驚中央

（中國‧北京）中國即將迎來國慶60週年，北京繁榮市區在森嚴保安中，於週四（9月17日）傍晚仍發生嚴重的持刀傷人血案，造成2人死亡、14人受傷，包括遊客，震驚中央高層。

鑑於新疆連續發生騷亂，北京對60週年國慶實施超過奧運會的安保措施，不僅啟動三道治安防線，逾萬名巡警、特警每天在市面巡邏。當局還發動“人民戰爭”，動員140萬安保志願者組成“群防群治力量”，在大街小巷布防。但繁榮市區的前門仍發生惡性兇案，令人震驚。

案發後，北京警方已啟動一級加強巡邏防控方案，在全市各主要繁華地區均已配備了武裝執勤力量，加大治安管理力度，確保遊客和群眾安全。

中央政法委書記周永康在12日表示，維護首都穩定是當前壓倒一切的政治任務。

與此同時，為了加強安保工作，北京首都機場也將從9月20日起啟用面相識別門禁系統進行工作人員證件查驗，這是中國最先啟用面相識別系統的機場。

新華社報導，北京首都機場這次採用的面相識別系統，能在1秒鐘內完成被檢人員面部特徵識別，並能與相關數據進行比對，快速準確核實被檢人員身份，能有效防止不法份子以冒用證件、偽造證件等方式混入機場控制區。

曾多次滋事
警指疑犯醉酒行兇

新華社報導，週四在北京鬧市發生的斬人案，警方已查明，疑犯是因為醉酒而行兇。

報導指，經北京市公安局各警種、各部門連夜開展工作，現已基本查明，當日在宣武區大柵欄持刀傷人的犯罪嫌疑人張健飛，是在醉酒狀態下持刀行兇。

報導指，46歲的張健飛為吉林人，在原籍曾多次酗酒滋事。目前正在醫院治療的14名傷者均無生命危險。

有消息者，行兇者是3名男子，他們持刀見人就捅，傷者多為老弱婦孺，不少是遊客。目擊者稱，警方拘捕兩人，一人逃脫。但官方指兇手只有一名男子，當場被捕。

逾千武警、公安在事後抵達現場，並封鎖附近多個主要街道，截至週五（9月18日）凌晨仍未解封。

驚動中央領導人

由於這次血案發生於中共17屆四中全會召開期間，地點又是保安森嚴的鬧市區，事件驚動中央領導人。北京市長郭金龍、公安局長馬振川事發後趕往現場視察。

新華社引述北京警方表示，事發在傍晚6時54分，一名男子手持10多厘米長的水果刀，在前門大柵欄商業區附近殺出，見人即亂斬，街上民眾和遊客見狀慌忙走避。

新華社稱，數十名路人走避不及被砍傷而被送往附近醫院搶救，其中兩人經搶救後不治，他們均為保安員。據指出，傷者中最少包括4名遊客。

據悉，兇案現場距離天安門廣場只有不到500米。

目擊者：一片混亂血灑滿地

目擊者稱，現場鮮血淋漓，怵目驚心，荷鎗實彈的公安武警把現場多條街道封鎖，數百遊客被逼滯留在外，無法返回酒店。

另一名目擊過程的遊客表示，兇案發生時現場一片混亂，近百名警察、保安員及武警從四面八方衝到現場，遊客和行人則驚慌向外走避C多輛救護車隨後趕到，現場地面留下多灘血，有在場途人當場被嚇至痛哭。

有附近學校已經通知學生週五停課。

有北京網友表示，事件令他們十分害怕，安全感下降，有人一度懷疑事件由“恐怖份子”或是“新疆人”所為。不少人說，在國慶期間會減少出門，不去前門等人多聚集的地方。

去年8月9日，北京奧運會開幕後的第一天，北京也曾發生離奇命案，美國男子排球隊教練的外父遊覽鼓樓時，突遭一名浙江男子用利器殺死，其美籍妻子及一名中國籍女導遊也身受重傷；兇徒隨後從鼓樓跳下自殺身亡。

大柵欄老店集中遊客多

大柵欄（北京人讀做“大石臘兒”），是北京前門外一條著名的商業街。位於天安門廣場以南，前門 大街西側，全長275米。作為一條有數百年歷史的老商業街，共有11個行業的36家商店，其中有不少國內外聞名的老字號，如經營中藥的同仁堂、經營布疋綢 緞的瑞蚨祥、經營布鞋的內聯陞、經營醬菜的六必居，還有一品齋、步瀛齋等。

2008年7月，大柵欄復修後開放作為步行街，已成為遊客到北京必去之處，現在每日平均客流量15萬至16萬人。

中共建政60週年之最：
‧20萬民眾參與遊行，較建政50週年時增加6萬人
‧號稱世界閱兵史上最大規模直升機編隊將飛越天安門
‧首批戰鬥機女飛行員集體亮相，並將飛過天安門
‧10萬中、小學生參加背景組字，所表現圖案為歷屆最多
‧解放軍參與閱兵人數未公佈，但稱將涉最多軍種、最多軍車
‧當局出動80萬人維護北京安全，建政以來罕見
‧煙花燃放創多個第一，它的規模之多、形態之特別和藝術設計均首次出現