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NSA Spying Scandal: Obama Puts In Place PR Damage Control

NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | As the NSA spying scandal spreads, the White House is profusely working on damage control. Last night it reported that no final decision has been made, but many officials are already talking of cutting the NSA wings in some way. To reinforce this message, yesterday President Obama came off as special guest on Fusion, a new cable channel for millenials and a highly anticipated television release. Also, Senate intelligence committee chair Diane Feinstein, who used to be a loyal defender of NSA activities, called for a total review of its powers.




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OPEN DEBATE: Nominal Stability- Christy Romer ‘strikes’ again

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | Friday evening Christina Romer gave the Sumerlin Lecture at Johns Hopkins University. The lecture was called “Monetary Policy in the Post-Crisis World: Lessons Learned and Strategies for the Future.” She touches on many bases, some suspect, like when she says  “Financial stability is job number one of any central bank. Without that-nothing else matters”. Saying “Nominal stability” would have been closer to the thruth.


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U.S. Spying on EU: Is White House Damage Control Version Credible?

NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | According to the White House, during the almost 5 years that the NSA was eavesdropping EU leaders, Obama had no clue. How can the leader of the most powerful economy in the world, who commands drone attacks and missions to the outer space, not know that their intelligence services are monitoring its European partners?





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EM markets are likely to enjoy supportive conditions

LONDON | By Barclays analysts | EM markets are likely to enjoy supportive conditions over the next few weeks. The resolution of the US government shutdown, expectations of QE tapering pushed further into 2014, the emergence of some EM re-coupling to stronger global manufacturing and still-attractive EM valuations should all be helpful factors. Liquidity considerations are likely to become a less important market driver, and higher-yielding EM assets, particularly in EM credit, should attract further support where bottom-up fundamentals allow.