Financial World: August 2009

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Tom Vilsack was selected by President-elect Barack Obama December 17, 2008, to be the 30th secretary of the Department of Agriculture. Vilsack is the former governor of Iowa and previously served as a state senator and mayor. (See “Road to the White House.”)

Vilsack’s confirmation hearing took place January 14, before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

The Department of Agriculture, established 1862 (elevated to Cabinet in 1889)

Mission: The United States Department of Agriculture provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science and efficient management.

Duties: The department operates more than 300 programs in farm aid, food safety, nutrition, sustainable development of rural communities, expanding global markets for agricultural and forest products and services and many other tasks.

Staff: More than 100,000 employees

History: The department was established by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 when farmers made up more than half the country’s population. The secretary of agriculture was elevated to the Cabinet in 1889.

International engagement: The Foreign Agricultural Service is responsible for the department’s international activities. Market development, trade agreements and negotiations, collection and analysis of statistics and market information, export credit guarantees and food aid programs are some of the activities that fall into the service’s purview.

Fun fact: According to the statistics released by the department in 2000, the average American drinks 87.4 liters of milk each year.

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The Honourable Tony Clement

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The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, today recognized Parry Sound-based Crofters Food Ltd. as a Canadian Innovation Leader for their novel approach in the production of organic food.
"The Government of Canada believes that investments in science and technology are investments in Canada's future," said Minister Clement. "Our ideas, innovation and inventiveness ensure our long-term economic competitiveness. Today, I am proud to recognize Crofters Food, a successful Canadian firm, as a Canadian Innovation Leader."
Crofters Food has been producing organic jams, preserves and spreads since 1989. With a well-equipped laboratory and exacting technological standards, Crofters Food is the largest organic jam manufacturer in North America. The jams, rather than being boiled in open kettles, are processed in specialized, vacuum-evaporation equipment. Not only is the boiling point lower, preserving the nutritional value and colour of the fruit, but all ingredients are carefully sourced and subjected to laboratory testing for antioxidants and chemical residues.
A Canadian Innovation Leader is a small- or medium-sized enterprise (SME) that demonstrates specific advances in research and development within its industrial sector. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) created the Canadian Innovation Leader Certificate Program to recognize Canadian firms that have successfully developed and applied innovative technologies.
"Investing in science and technology is critical for developing highly skilled people and improving the long-term competitiveness of Canadian firms," said NRC President Dr. Pierre Coulombe. "That's why the NRC Industrial Research Assistance program (NRC-IRAP) is helping innovative Canadian businesses like Crofters Food grow stronger, faster and bigger."
"Crofters Food performs gas chromatographic testing for herbicides and pesticides, as well as testing to ensure the presence of antioxidants. We use processing and laboratory equipment that few manufacturing companies in North America are running," said Gerhard Latka, founder of Crofters Food. "With the help and support of NRC-IRAP, we have fine-tuned both production technology and our product development and quality monitoring programs."
About NRC and NRC-IRAP
The NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) provides a range of both technical and business-oriented advisory services along with necessary financial support to qualified innovative Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises.
The program is delivered by a field staff of 240 professionals in more than 100 communities across Canada. NRC-IRAP is committed to working with small and medium-sized enterprises while they realize their full potential, turning knowledge and innovation into strategic opportunities, jobs and prosperity for all Canadians.

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Harvest Your Stock Market Losses

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Harvest your stock market losses
"We have been aggressively harvesting tax losses for our clients over the last year or two, and of course the market environment has assisted us with that," says Gregg Fisher, president of financial advisory firm Gerstein Fisher.
"Those losses can be used to offset capital gains in the future, and if you think capital gains rates might be higher in the future, those losses become even more valuable," he says.
And for clients who still like the battered stock they just sold, no problem. IRS rules allow an investor to buy the asset back after 31 days.
0:00 /4:34Fixing the 401(k)
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Cash in some winners
There's also a tax strategy for those with gains in their portfolio.
A number of advisers are urging their more affluent clients to sell some of those appreciated assets in order to lock in the gain, and to pay the capital gains tax while it's only 15%, before it rises to 20% in 2011.
These investors can also buy back the same shares after 31 days if they still want to own the stock.
Invest in municipal bonds
Many advisers are also recommending that clients put a bigger chunk of their cash into tax-free municipal bonds.
Although many states are facing severe financial difficulties because of the recession, "We like munis right now because even during the Great Depression the default rate was less than 4%, and we're not in a Great Depression," says Mark Brown, a managing partner at Brown & Tedstrom, a financial planning and advisory firm.
"In a normal recession, less than one-tenth of 1% has been the historical default rate." He adds that their prices have fallen over the past six months, making them even more attractive.
Divide and conquer
Even as tax rates rise, you'll probably be paying less on capital gains than on ordinary income.
Sean Cunniff, a research director in TowerGroup's brokerage and wealth management service, is recommending that investors take advantage of that gap by favoring fixed-income investments (which pay interest that is taxed as ordinary income) in your tax-deferred accounts and putting equity investments with big potential long-term capital gains into taxable accounts.

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American International Group,

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Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman and chief executive of International Lease Finance Corp., the aircraft leasing company owned by American International Group, is in early discussions to purchase a portion of ILFC's aircraft portfolio and start a new leasing company, according to people familiar with the matter.
Any potential deal is at the "preliminary stage," these people said, and would require government and AIG approval, but proceeds from the sale would go to pay down AIG's debt obligations tied to the company's government bailout. Mr. Hazy and his management team plan to stay on at ILFC for now and a mid-September AIG board meeting is scheduled to discuss the potential deal, according to a person familiar with the details.
One of AIG's stellar assets, ILFC has been on the block for a nearly a year, but has yet to find a buyer. The company is saddled with $30.7 billion in debt, $2 billion of which is slated to come due in October. A potential deal to sell ILFC to Greenbriar Private Equity and Onex Partners has been put on hold as AIG's new chief executive re-evaluates the company's sales strategy, according to people familiar with the matter.
That could allow Mr. Hazy to move ahead with his plan to carve out a piece of the company and start a new firm outside government and AIG supervision. Mr. Hazy is a co-founder of ILFC, which now owns about 1,000 aircraft, most of which are leased to commercial airlines world-wide. ILFC is the largest customer of Boeing Co.'s upcoming 787 Dreamliner, with 74 planes on order.

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The Canadian Government Plans

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The Canadian government plans to issue up to US$3 billion of bonds in its first global debt offering in more than 10 years, a finance department spokesman said Friday.
It will be of "benchmark size" and the issuance will happen "shortly", the spokesman, Jack Aubry, said. He wouldn't provide a clearer timeline. The launch and pricing are subject to market conditions, he said.
The government has mandated four lead managers for the offering. They are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets.
The government is issuing the bonds to supplement its foreign exchange reserves and for current and future lending by the International Monetary Fund.
"The global bond issue will diversify the government's sources of foreign currency financing," Aubry said.
News of the planned issuance promoted speculation the government was getting ready to intervene in the currency market, in the wake of concerns expressed by Bank of Canada officials about the strong Canadian dollar. The Bank hasn't intervened in foreign exchange markets since 1998.
Aubry wouldn't comment directly on the speculation, saying only that the department doesn't comment on the Canadian dollar's levels.
However, economists at TD Securities and Scotia Capital said issuing U.S.-dollar bonds for the purpose of intervening in the currency market would result in a stronger, not a weaker, Canadian dollar.
"If currency intervention is the desired goal, then swapping the proceeds back into Canadian dollars would be required and that would have the opposite effect of encouraging Canadian dollar appreciation," Scotia Capital economist Derek Holt wrote in a report.
Eric Lascelles, chief economist and rates strategist at TD Securities, said the government possibly wants to restart its foreign currency borrowing program because the outstanding supply of foreign currency bonds has fallen off sharply over the past year.
The government could also be trying to rebuild U.S.-dollar reserves after paying roughly US$7 billion to bail out General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, Lascelles said in a report.
-Nirmala Menon, Dow Jones Newswires; 613-237-0668; nirmala.menon@dowjones.com
(Don Curren in Toronto contributed to this report.)

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The Colombian Pilot

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HIGUEY.- Unidentified shooters executed two men near a Higüey sugar cane field Saturday night, close to the place where a small plane which brought 160 packages of cocaine from Colombia had landed that morning.
The Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) said Wandy Guerrero, 24, and Juan Cedeño, 37 were reportedly killed execution style after a dispute over possession of the drugs near the batey Baiguá, 20 kilometers from Higüey.
The Colombian pilot Antonio David Gaviria Villa told investigators he brought 160 packages of the drug picked up by seven people who arrived in Baiguá driving SUVs.
It said Gaviria, being held in La Romana prior to be taken for arraignment in the next few hours, tried to flee after landing and delivering the drugs, but the SUV stalled in a ditch, forcing him to remain in the isolated zone, where he was captured the authorities.
The DNCD added that the plane, a blue and white kit model type Mayi, displayed a Colombian Dominican Republic, santo domingo
Yes, this story not clear. They know and have the Pilot. He knows and is snitching the other 7 who drove down in the SUV. But, don't know the killers? 160 kilos was and not is worth the lives of two humans. Sad in this world humans die for this white flake and over this pathetic narcotic . Truth be told NO GOVERMANENT in the world wants to stop the production of this narcotic and or the importation and or trafficking of this drug. Tooo many jobs will be lost in the clean up process and not to mention the financial burden on all Countries to assist rightfully to conspire with the one force (USA) who truely wants to STOP this EMPIRE of burden that destroys familys and communities. But, USA should have thought about this drug before creating and distributing it to our soldiers as guenie pigs then later snatched away due to its affects and scared of life with African-Amerians raping precious Caucasion women. Therefore, became illegal and wanted it controlled and it's distribution.

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Financial World

The Honourable Tony Clement

Harvest Your Stock Market Losses

American International Group,

The Canadian Government Plans

The Colombian Pilot

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