MORNING BRIEFS

Asian markets slip ahead of U.S. earnings reports
Asian-Pacific markets mostly dipped Monday as investors awaited earnings reports from U.S. companies. South Korea's Kospi Composite fell 0.4%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.9%. China's Shanghai Composite slid 0.6%, Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.4% and Singapore's Straits Times Index was up 0.6%. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday. The Wall Street Journal (12 Oct.)

*we'll see just how much rigging these gangsters do to cover of this fact.
Banks likely to take huge write-downs on mortgage servicing
Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo marked up mortgage-servicing rights in the second quarter and are faced with the prospect of having to take substantial write-downs on the contracts. "We're very bearish on MSR valuations," said Paul Miller, a banking analyst at FBR Capital Markets. "They are overvalued. There are higher costs associated with the servicing, and we're very concerned about it." The banks control more than half the MSR market, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Bloomberg (11 Oct.)

*leave it to the government to tax you now but give you your reward three years from now. Gotta love it! IJIOTS!
Full benefits of health care bill wouldn't come for years
Even if U.S. President Barack Obama's plan for health care overhaul makes its way through Congress and then onto his desk for signature this year, Americans will have to wait several years to enjoy full benefits of the measure. Some cuts in Medicare and tax increases to pay for the plan would take effect immediately. But families with low and medium incomes would not get tax credits to help with insurance premiums until 2013. USA TODAY (11 Oct.)

*and my personal favorite. We'll all just stop trading you morons. Aruba, here I come.
Policymakers consider taxing financial transactions
The Economic Policy Institute suggested taxing financial transactions, such as stock trades but not consumer transactions, to raise as much as $150 billion annually in the U.S. Lawmakers, labor unions, the International Monetary Fund and others support taxing financial transactions as a way reduce budget deficits or fund initiatives, such as health care. Many economists warned that such a tax might have unintended consequences for markets. The Wall Street Journal (10 Oct.)

*pension funds STUPIDLY trusted wall street to give them the safest and best advice. Now pensioners are paying the price as much as taxpayers.
Huge losses throw public pension funds into crisis
Losses of $1 trillion on investments by U.S. state and local pension funds covering police officers, teachers and other government employees are forcing managers of the retirement plans into a difficult choice. They must either try to boost returns by taking on even riskier investments or start cutting benefits. An analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers concludes that within an average of 15 years, public pension funds will have less than half of the money needed to pay promised benefits. The Washington Post (11 Oct.)

China to increase role of futures markets
China intends to increase the role of its commodity markets in setting prices, government officials said. The government is concerned about the way international futures markets set prices. "We have a long-term goal of increasing our influence in terms of pricing, but to do that we have to create conditions and do it step by step," said Jiang Yang, chief policymaker of the futures industry and assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The Wall Street Journal (12 Oct.)

Canada posts surprise improvement in job market
Unemployment in Canada dropped from 8.7% to 8.4% during September, the first decline since fall 2008, Statistics Canada reported. The improvement was led by some of the hardest-hit areas of the economy, including manufacturing and construction. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (12 Oct.)