The ECB Is Investigating An Accusation That It Broke Its Own Rules When Lending Money To Spanish Banks

BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Central Bank (ECB) is checking whether it may have contravened its own strict rules by lending to Spanish banks on overly generous terms, an ECB spokeswoman said on Sunday.

German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag, citing the results of its own research, said that banks had borrowed funds from the ECB and taken a haircut of 0.5 percent even though the creditworthiness of the Spanish T-bills they provided as collateral should have required the ECB to apply a haircut of 5.5 percent.

The rating of some paper should have made them completely ineligible as collateral for the ECB, the newspaper added.

"The ECB is investigating the matter," the bank spokeswoman said.

At issue is nearly 80 billion euros ($102.8 billion) worth of 18-month T-bills the newspaper said had been wrongly classified as carrying a top-notch A rating whereas many are rated only as B by leading rating agencies Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's.

"Dealings with certain Spanish government bonds casts doubt on the quality of the ECB's risk management... because the bonds pledged by the banks as security meet the central bank's requirements only in part," Die Welt am Sonntag said.

If the bonds were downgraded, the affected banks could have to produce other collateral amounting to as much as 16.6 billion euros in value, Die Welt said.

Like other conservative German media outlets, the newspaper has been critical of the ECB's efforts to combat the euro zone crisis, especially its offer to buy unlimited amounts of debt from struggling countries such as Spain under certain conditions to help reduce down their borrowing costs.

($1 = 0.7785 euros)

(This story corrects the second paragraph to make clear haircuts, not interest rate, reduced)

(Reporting by Frankfurt bureau, writing by Gareth Jones; editing by Jason Neely)

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Now At Walmart: Gingerbread Oreos

Here’s one bit of early Christmas merchandise that we’re not going to complain about. For once. Hitting shelves now, only at Walmart, introducing… gingerbread-flavored Oreos.

We haven’t been able to get our hands on the cookies yet, but consensus around the Consumerist virtual “office” is that this is one Oreo novelty flavor that we would actually be interested in eating. … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/11/02/now-at-walmart-gingerbread-oreos/

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Joining Together Credit Card Bills The Correct Way

Bringing together consumer debt comes into play a new range of shapes and forms. Absolute confidence the things your overall pacificdebt.com|pacificdebt consolidation|pacificdebt|pacificdebt loansoverall credit score is therefore how very good involving credit debt you have, you’ll be able to obtain a lending product which can suit your specifications. The following are some frequent strategies that [...]

The post Joining Together Credit Card Bills The Correct Way appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/27/joining-together-credit-card-bills-the-correct-way/

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This Guy Drop-Tests iPad Mini & Google Nexus 7 So You Don?t Have To

If you’re in the market for a tablet this holiday season, especially one for one of your butterfingered kids or your accident-prone parents, you’ll probably want to know how well Apple’s new iPad Mini and the Google Nexus 7 survive when dropped on the ground.

The folks at AndroidAuthority did some drop-testing this morning in front of the scenic Hong … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/11/02/this-guy-drop-tests-ipad-mini-google-nexus-7-so-you-dont-have-to/

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Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

Here are five of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness.

Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/11/02/consumerist-friday-flickr-finds-166/

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BBC Hit By Another Sex Abuse Scandal As It Refuses To Name Senior Politician Linked To Pedophile Ring

BBC

The BBC, and in particular, it's flagship news program, Newsnight, have been rocked by a huge scandal in recent weeks after it was revealed a Newsnight segment on the alleged sex crimes of late BBC star Jimmy Savile was cancelled.

The scandal has led many to question exactly why the segment — which detailed a number of alleged sexual attacks by Savile, once one of the UK's most revered TV personalities — wasn't shown. Whispers of a cover-up were widespread, and many believe that senior management will be forced to step down after scandal.

With this hanging over it, last night Newsnight stepped into another major sex abuse scandal. The show was due to air a number of serious allegations against a former high level British politician and a horrific pedophile ring that operated in children's homes. Anticipation was extremely high after a journalist who worked on the show revealed the investigation on Friday morning:

But when the show aired, something strange happened — the show ran the accusations, yet never actually named the politician.

Viewers took to Twitter to voice their anger. Why didn't Newsnight name names?

Sources have told the Telegraph that Newsnight decided not to name the politician for legal reasons (the UK has particularly tough libel laws). Regardless, it didn't take long for Twitter users to out the suspect — while we won't publish the name ourselves, you should be able to find one major suspect's name without too much hassle.

What this all means for Newsnight is anyone's guess — they may well face legal ramifications — and in the wake of the Savile scandal, it all looks very strange.

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Deep Underground, 'Pump Train' Teams Are Working To Clear NYC's Subways

mta subway pump train

New York City's subways were devastated by Hurricane Sandy, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority has embarked on the long road to get things up, running and back to normal.

It has huge, diesel-powered "pump trains" that are working on the subway tunnels. Deep underground, crews are pumping all that water back into the Hudson River. Each of the three pumps on the trains remove 1,500 gallons of water per minute.

"Everyone is working around the clock. Workers. Management. Nobody's standing around," hydraulic worker Tommy Dropp tells the New York Daily News.

The MTA recently posted some photos of a pump train at the Cranberry Street Tunnel, which takes the A and C trains between Brooklyn and Manhattan under the East River.

At the Cranberry Tube, workers connect water lines to the pump room.

The lines are brought down the tracks into the darkness.

They're deep in Cranberry Street Tunnel, which connects the A and C lines from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Apple?s Non-Apology Smacks Of Same Arrogance That Took Down RIM, Nokia

It was not long ago that RIM and Nokia were kings of the mobile world. In both cases, arrogance had seeped in to such a large degree that not only did these companies fail to innovate at the pace required, they totally ignored the threats posed by Apple and Google.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/11/02/apples-non-apology-smacks-of-same-arrogance-that-took-down-rim-nokia/

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Orbitz Insists The Flight I Took Was Actually Canceled, Withholds $133

You know those paranoid sci-fi stories where everything the protagonist thought he knew about reality starts to come apart at the seams and he has to question whether he really is married to Sharon Stone or maybe he’s really trapped on an island with that Hobbit guy? Well, that’s what Orbitz is doing to Devin (well, maybe not the Sharon … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/11/02/orbitz-insists-the-flight-i-took-was-actually-canceled-withholds-133/

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