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...fact that Obama is now calling for even tougher measures may make it even tougher to attract votes from Republicans or finance-friendly Democrats like Tim Johnson of South Dakota, where Citigroup (like most card issuers) has chartered its credit-card division. But Republicans haven't shown much inclination to cast votes to help Obama get anything done. And even if there were still 60 Democrats in the Senate, the health care saga demonstrated the difficulty of keeping them all on board without watering down the legislation, infuriating the party's base and ultimately disgusting the electorate through extended exposure...
This week the largest financial firms in the nation have been reporting how they did in the last three months of 2009. In two words: not good. Citigroup and Bank of America lost roughly $8 billion and $5 billion, respectively. The credit-card and mortgage businesses of JPMorgan Chase, which reported their earnings last week, were a disappointment. Wells Fargo posted a profit, but nonperforming loans and related charge-offs both jumped. Morgan Stanley turned a profit in the fourth quarter, but it was less than what analysts expected. Even earnings growth at Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs somewhat slowed...
Worse, some analysts say that even the banks' recently deflated earnings are likely stronger than they would have been without government help. Banks have been reporting that consumer credit is improving, with fewer individuals falling behind on their mortgage or credit-card bills. But programs like the government's Home Affordable Modification Program are allowing some borrowers to skip mortgage payments and temporarily lower their bills. If that is the main reason banks are reporting fewer bad loans, that improvement may not last...
...never-ending debate between residents of Shanghai and Beijing about which city is superior, one Beijing trump card has always been proximity to the countryside. In Shanghai, Beijingers point out smugly, you can drive for three hours and still be trapped in urban sprawl. In the capital, not much more than an hour on the road gets you out into the stark, sparsely populated beauty of the Western Hills, with the Great Wall thrown in as a bonus. Sadly for Beijing partisans, they will be less able to rely on that argument in future, because from now on Shanghaiers will...
...assess how well our brains are working. And slick marketing makes it hard to tell what's good from what's gimmicky. "There is not enough evidence that paying for a $100 fitness program gets you better results than a free game of chess or learning a new card game or bridge strategy, when it comes to improving your memory," says P. Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry and geriatrics at Duke University and head of the school's new mental-fitness lab. (See 10 myths about dieting...