Oanda FX Activity measure of FX Volatility

http://fxtradeinfocenter.oanda.com/charts_data/fxactivity

DARPA: ‘Significant decline’ in U.S. science, tech degrees ‘harming national security’

http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/smart-takes/darpa-significant-decline-in-us-science-tech-degrees-harming-national-security/3412/

DARPA: 'Significant decline' in U.S. science, tech degrees 'harming national security'

 

Linus Torvalds signs with Microsoft, Internet in US declines, FSA Raids DBFX execs, online banking needs ‘manhattan project’, sec watches porn, and other news

http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/the-linux-distillery/38031 linux signs with Microsoft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7508945/Facebook-linked-to-rise-in-syphilis.html facebook rise in syphillis

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/31/broadband.south.korea/?hpt=C2 internet in US sucks

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7086719.ece Staff at Disneyland Paris, the most popular tourist attraction in Europe, are considering industrial action to improve their working conditions after the suicides of three employees since the start of the year.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/big-secs-porn-problem/story?id=10193518 sec watches porn as economy tanks

http://consumerist.com/2010/03/delta-erroneously-charged-my-credit-card-wont-give-me-refund.html Delta Erroneously Charged My Credit Card, Won't Give Me Refund

http://consumerist.com/2010/03/my-mcdonalds-sets-30-minute-dine-in-time-limit.html 30 minute limit at mcdonalds

http://www.tampabay.com/features/consumer/pinellas-womans-verizon-fight-shows-why-pins-should-be-shared/1076677 It should go without saying, but the last thing a grieving daughter should have to do is battle the phone company over disconnecting her deceased father's service.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/03/06/controversy_clouds_new_rules_on_lead_removal/ 90% of contractors did not pass epa lead removal test

http://wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1894237 online banking isn't as safe as you think

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article7072942.ece fsa raids homes od dbfx execs

http://att.pissedconsumer.com/att-overbilling-20100116168007.html att overbilling

British notice tent cities in US as byproduct of housing crisis

Europe unlikely to join any new yuan offensive

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62S2L520100329

Europe unlikely to join any new yuan offensive

'Hedge Fund' Took Them for $8M, Family Says

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/03/30/25973.htm SACRAMENTO (CN) - A family says three men ran a bogus hedge fund that cheated them of $8 million. They say the Black Card Group may never have existed at all, that if it did exist it's in default, and that its directors, Ethan Conrad, Frank Sim and Harrold Pressly, spent their money on luxury vehicles and resort property.

It's Official - America Now Enforces Capital Controls

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/its-official-america-now-enforces-capital-controls It couldn't have happened to a nicer country. On March 18, with very little pomp and circumstance, president Obama passed the most recent stimulus act, the $17.5 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (H.R. 2487), brilliantly goalseeked by the administration's millionaire cronies to abbreviate as HIRE. As it was merely the latest in an endless stream of acts destined to expand the government payroll to infinity, nobody cared about it, or actually read it. Because if anyone had read it, the act would have been known as the Capital Controls Act, as one of the lesser, but infinitely more important provisions on page 27, known as Offset Provisions - Subtitle A—Foreign Account Tax Compliance, institutes just that. In brief, the Provision requires that foreign banks not only withhold 30% of all outgoing capital flows (likely remitting the collection promptly back to the US Treasury) but also disclose the full details of non-exempt account-holders to the US and the IRS. And should this provision be deemed illegal by a given foreign nation's domestic laws (think Switzerland), well the foreign financial institution is required to close the account. It's the law. If you thought you could move your capital to the non-sequestration safety of non-US financial institutions, sorry you lose - the law now says so. Capital Controls are now here and are now fully enforced by the law.

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Dollar Losing Carry-Trade ‘Allure,’ Morgan Stanley’s Leven Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601083&sid=aYsCpvi9m4H8 March 31 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar is losing its popularity as a funding currency in the carry trade, in which investors buy higher-yielding assets with amounts borrowed in nations with low interest rates, according to Ronald Leven, a senior currency strategist at Morgan Stanley.

Study Finds Americans Rely on Library Computers for Internet Access

http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/750590

Study Finds Americans Rely on Library Computers for Internet Access

Downtown NYC Towers Empty as Best Market Falters

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a3NKXZe6aJPE&pos=11 March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Downtown Manhattan, where demand for office space began to surge three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is about to lose its spot as the best- performing U.S. market.

Vacancies may exceed 14 percent of the area's 87 million square feet by late 2011, empty space that's equivalent to four Empire State Buildings and the highest rate since 1997, according to property broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc. That doesn't include the 4.4 million square feet of offices in two towers now under construction at the World Trade Center site. Those are scheduled for completion in 2013.

Supply fears start to hit Treasuries

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c51fbbce-3908-11df-8970-00144feabdc0.html The bond vigilantes are finally flexing their muscles. A long period of stability for the US government bond market showed signs of cracking this week as a lack of investor appetite for new debt sent the benchmark 10-year yield to its highest level since last June.

Negative Swap Spreads Indicative of Treasury Glut, Bianco Says

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-26/negative-swap-spreads-indicative-of-treasury-glut-bianco-says.html

Negative Swap Spreads Indicative of Treasury Glut, Bianco Says

 

Bloomberg news from the traderstartpage.com

Bloomberg

• MARKETS
  
• JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Muni Bid Conspirators
  
• Greenspan Calls Treasury Yield Increases `Canary in Mine' for Higher Rates
  
• Stocks in U.S. Lose Gains Amid Concern Over Tensions on Korean Peninsula
  
• Unemployment Rises in 27 U.S. States, With Records Set by Florida, Georgia
  
• Bernanke's Exit Strategy Will Give More Prominent Role to Fed Asset Sales
  
• Borrowing Costs to Rise as Companies Refinance $283 Billion, Moody's Says
  
• AB InBev Pits Madonna Against Paris Hilton as Brewer Splurges on Marketing
  
• Tsakos Energy May Buy Two Deepwater Drilling Rigs for $1 Billion, CEO Says
  
• Obama Calls Nuclear Arms Deal With Russia `Most Comprehensive' in Decades
  
• Kentucky Ends Cornell's NCAA Tournament Run; Butler Upsets No. 1 Syracuse
  
• New York Helicopter Commute for $200 a Day Signals Revival on Wall Street
  
• Buffett Backs Toys Gone `Green' as Parents Sniff Out Plastic at Wal-Mart
  
• Recalls Triple as Electronics Run Cars, Catching Regulators `Unprepared'
  
• Anheuser-Busch InBev Pits Madonna Against Paris Hilton in Marketing Blitz
  
• Fortescue Returns Crushing Rio Tinto in Outback Where China Finds Its Ore
  
• Brenntag Said to Narrow IPO Price Range
  
• JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in Muni Bid-Rigging
  
• Tea Party Advocates Who Scorn Socialism Want a Government Job
  
• Half of U.S. Home Loan Modifications Default Again
  
• IMF Drafted by EU for Greece in Bid to Support Euro
  

www.traderstartpage.com

UPDATE:Industry Group Urges CFTC To Change Retail Forex Plan

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100323-711436.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The self-regulatory group for the futures industry is urging the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to rethink its controversial proposal to reduce the amount of borrowed funds retail investors can use for trading foreign exchange contracts.

In a letter sent this week to the CFTC, the National Futures Association said the CFTC should "reject a 'one size fits all' approach to establishing security deposit requirements." The NFA's own rules currently permit leverage of 100 to 1 for major currencies and 25 to 1 for the more exotic variety, but the CFTC is proposing a leverage cap at 10 to 1 for all currencies.

Under such a drastic shift in the rules, a customer who normally puts up a security deposit of $1,000 cash to trade a notional amount of $100,000 would now only be able to control a contract size of $10,000.

"Based upon currency risk and volatility factors, NFA believes that security deposit requirements should recognize differences between certain currencies," National Futures Association Senior Vice President Thomas Sexton wrote to the CFTC. "Therefore, NFA recommends that the Commission adopt an approach similar to NFA's current requirements that applies a different percentage to separate currency categories or groupings based on currency risk and volatility factors."

The NFA is one of thousands of groups and individuals who have raised major questions about the CFTC's retail foreign exchange regulatory proposal in the past few months.

The proposed new rules on leverage for retail forex traders is part of a broader plan to bring sweeping new regulations to the industry, including enhanced capital requirements and disclosure rules.

If the new rules on leverage were approved by a majority vote of commissioners at the CFTC, investors would be required to put up more capital in their accounts or scale back their positions.

The NFA in its letter was careful not to outright bash the CFTC's leverage proposal as many others have done.

In fact, the NFA acknowledged that there are legitimate public policy concerns to justify rules governing security deposit requirements and those concerns also led the NFA last February to tighten its own rules on retail forex leverage.

The 2009 rule changes came, the NFA said, after experience suggested that firms offering higher leverage were more often the subject of complaints, while two other firms offering leverage at 50 to 1 were never the subject of any enforcement actions.

Such statistics indicate that "higher leverage ratios can lead to abuses," the NFA wrote, but that capping leverage at 100 to 1 or less also still allows firms to compete internationally.

The leverage section of the CFTC's proposed rule has been vigorously opposed by everyone from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and major foreign exchange dealers to individual investors who have sent thousands of letters of protest to the CFTC. Most have argued that such a strict leverage rule will kill the U.S. market and force traders overseas where some markets may be less regulated.

The comment period on the proposal expired on Monday, and now the CFTC must decide how to proceed.

The NFA encouraged the CFTC to craft a policy on leverage that is flexible and would allow regulators to periodically review and adjust the requirements based on market developments.

-By Sarah N. Lynch, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6634; sarah.lynch@dowjones.com