Gainesville pastor’s plan to burn Quran draws protest in Afghanistan
While hundreds of Muslims in Afghanistan protested a Florida pastor’s plan to burn the Quran on the 9/11 anniversary, a Jacksonville man visited Gainesville on Monday in hopes of heading off more local, national and international turmoil.
Mikhail Muhammad said he was trying to get a message to Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center.
“I wanted to avert disaster – I didn’t want to see any bloodshed in Gainesville,” said Muhammad, a Muslim who heads the state and Jacksonville chapters of the Black Panther Party.
Muhammad and five companions were protesting outside the church on Labor Day morning when police arrived. They agreed to leave, disappointed that Jones wouldn’t meet with them about Saturday’s planned burning of the Muslim holy book.
Thousands of miles away, in Kabul, Afghans responded by railing against the United States and calling for President Barack Obama’s death.
A crowd of about 500 chanted “Long live Islam” and “Death to America” as they listened to fiery speeches from members of parliament, provincial council deputies and Islamic clerics who criticized the U.S. and demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country. Some threw rocks when a U.S. military convoy passed, but speakers shouted at them to stop and told police to arrest anyone who disobeyed.
Dove World Outreach Center intends to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, but has been denied a permit to set a bonfire.
The church made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said “Islam is of the Devil.” Earlier this year, the 50-member church put up signs declaring “No Homo Mayor” in reference to Gainesville’s newly elected mayor, Craig Lowe, who is openly gay.
“We know this is not just the decision of a church. It is the decision of the president and the entire United States,” said Abdul Shakoor, an 18-year-old high school student who said he joined the protest after hearing neighborhood gossip about the Quran burning.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning Dove World Outreach Center’s plans, saying Washington was “deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups.”
Violence opposed but feared
Back in Jacksonville Monday afternoon, Muhammad said the Black Panther Party, made up mostly of Muslims, opposes a violent reaction to the Quran-burning. But he fears a local riot could erupt.
“I came as a peace-maker and to warn Terry Jones,” Muhammad said. “I would love to sit down with him.”
An official with the church, whom Muhammad would not identify, told him a meeting may be possible before Saturday.
Jones told The Times-Union via e-mail that Muhammad and others are welcome to protest, but he will not alter course.
“We have no problem with their right to protest and their freedom of speech,” he said. “It will by no means influence or change our plans.”
Muhammad said Black Panther members from around the state, including at least 20 from Northeast Florida, will be in Gainesville on Saturday if the burning occurs.
Despite the desire for peace, Muhammad said he understands the anger of protesters in Afghanistan.
“If I were burning a Bible, there would be Christians protesting right in front of my door,” he said.
Protesters who gathered in front of Kabul’s Milad ul-Nabi mosque raised placards and flags emblazoned with slogans calling for the death of Obama, while police looked on. They burned American flags and a cardboard effigy of Jones before dispersing peacefully.
Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and demand it, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad, be treated with the utmost respect.
Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is considered deeply offensive.
In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Newsweek later retracted the story.
Times-Union staff writer Jeff Brumley contributed to this report by The Associated Press.
0 CommentsNewsWatch: Obama unveils $50 bln infrastructure plan
By MarketWatch
MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE
President Barack Obama unveils a $50 billion plan to upgrade the nation’s roads, airports and railways, choosing a Labor Day rally in Milwaukee to announce the administration’s latest proposal to revive the economy.
See full story.
Stocks to watch: Casey’s, Phillips-Van Heusen
Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Tuesday’s session are Casey’s General Stores Inc., Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., and Flow International Corp. U.S stock markets are closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
See full story.
Short week to have some economic impact
Investors will likely focus on consumer credit and jobs in the holiday-shortened week ahead.
See full story.
In charts: What we learned about the economy
A look at the week’s economic indicators, including the smaller-than-forecast decline in nonfarm payrolls in August.
See full story.
July’s trade balance data may unravel mystery
A fresh set of trade data to be released will be eagerly cross-examined by economists after last month’s report proved a cipher.
See full story.
MARKETWATCH COMMENTARY
In the late 1990s, as Silicon Valley’s tech industry headed into boom-land, so too did New York City, writes Therese Poletti.
See full story.
MARKETWATCH PERSONAL FINANCE
In this week’s Realty Q&A, a retiree says his only debt is his $94,000 mortgage, and he wonders whether he should tap his 401(k) to pay off that bill. Lew Sichelman offers some advice.
See full story.
Obama unveils $50 bln infrastructure plan
By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — President Barack Obama unveiled Monday a $50 billion plan to upgrade the nation’s roads, airports and railways, choosing a Labor Day rally in Milwaukee to announce the administration’s latest proposal to revive the economy.
The proposal includes an overhaul of the nation’s highways, bus and rail systems, and air-traffic controls.
“All of this will not only create jobs now, but will make our economy run better over the long haul,” Obama said to an audience of mostly labor-union members and their families gathered at a fairground to celebrate Labor Day.
“This is a plan that will be fully paid for and will not add to the deficit over time — we’re going to work with Congress to see to that,” the president added.
Obama unveils new infrastructure plans
President Obama unveils a new plan to upgrade American infrastructure, bring the country’s highways and railroads into the 21st Century while creating jobs.
The public-works plan is part of a larger effort to provide more jobs and help the economic recovery. That larger plan, to be announced Wednesday in Cleveland, would build upon projects and investments already underway through the Recovery Act, White House officials said.
Amid other signs the economy is sputtering, the latest unemployment figures released Friday showed unemployment at 9.6% in August, from 9.5% in July.
Read the latest about unemployment figures.
The plan calls for investments over six years. Part of the money would fund an infrastructure bank to invest in projects critical to the economy, while also providing jobs.
The bank would unite private, state and local capital “to invest in projects that are most critical to our economic progress,” a departure from “the federal government’s traditional way of spending … through earmarks and formula-based grants” allocated more through geography and politics than value, a White House statement about the plan said.
“Instead, the Bank will base its investment decisions on clear analytical measures of performance, competing projects against each other to determine which will produce the greatest return for American taxpayers,” it said. It would focus on “the smartest investments,” Obama told the Milwaukee audience.
The plan calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, building or maintaining 4,000 miles of railways, and constructing or refurbishing some 150 miles of airport runways along with a new air navigation system to cut travel times and airport delays.
As part of the longer-term plan, the government also said it aims to integrate high-speed rail “on an equal footing into the surface transportation program,” to ensure a commitment to high-speed rail system; and to streamline and prioritize transportation investments through consolidation of different programs now in place.
It is unclear how many jobs the public-works plan would create. According to news reports, White House officials declined to estimate the total cost of the plan, saying only the initial $50 billion would be a substantial portion of it. It was also unclear whether the plan would get support from Republicans.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in an appearance on NBC’s Today Show on Monday the infrastructure plan “will put people back to work immediately” and garner bipartisan support.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
The Fed: Bernanke’s helicopter could move to new altitude
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — In an all-out effort to get the economy moving again, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may be getting ready to take his money-creating helicopter to a new altitude.
Bernanke earned the moniker “Helicopter Ben” after the then-Fed governor referenced Milton Friedman’s famed “helicopter drop” favorably in a 2002 speech outlining how the Fed could defeat deflation.
(Friedman had argued hypothetically that a central bank could drop currency from a helicopter to stimulate spending.) See external link to Bernanke’s 2002 speech.
Fed split on move to bolster economy
As the economic recovery showed signs of sputtering, at least seven of 17 Fed officials spoke against or expressed reservations about a plan to alter the way the Fed manages its huge portfolio of securities before the move was approved on Aug. 10. Jon Hilsenrath discusses. Also, Jenny Strasburg discusses a Chinese sovereign-wealth fund in talks to invest a large sum of money in a hedge fund devoted to profiting from ‘Black Swan’ market swoons.
Nearly eight years on from that speech, Alan Greenspan’s successor is due Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern to deliver another vital keynote at the Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., with the straightforward title, “The Economic Outlook and the Federal Reserve’s Policy Response.”
See Federal Reserve page on MarketWatch.
In many ways, Bernanke’s tenure as head of the world’s most important central bank has followed the playbook outlined in that 2002 speech — that to combat deflation, or a sustained negative inflation rate, the Fed would first take nominal interest rates to virtually zero and then take extraordinary action, such as buying government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.
Interest rates have been set between zero and 0.25% since December 2008, and the Fed has purchased $1.4 trillion worth of mortgage and $300 billion worth of Treasury securities. In early August, the Federal Open Market Committee took a baby step toward further quantitative easing by deciding to hold the size of the Fed’s balance sheet constant through reinvesting principal repayments from mortgage securities into Treasurys.
See story on last FOMC decision.
See story on FOMC divisions over new policy.
Deflation would be problematic mostly by raising real, inflation-adjusted interest rates, according to Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
While there aren’t current indicators of deflation — consumer prices in July climbed 1.2% from year-earlier levels -from Bernanke’s perspective, that’s by design; outlined in the 2002 speech, the central bank chief says it’s better to avoid deflation preemptively then to wait for deflation to arrive.
And as the economy is showing new signs of wilting – jobless claims reaching 500,000, regional manufacturing gauges are sluggish, consumer spending is limp — a slow-growth period could be a breeding ground for deflation, said James Glassman, senior economist at JPMorgan Chase.
“The economy is surely not in good shape — the odds of a double dip are a long ways from zero,” said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s, who noted that the economy did not enjoy its normal bounce coming out of the recession.
“It’s a half-speed recovery — a lazy U,” Wyss said.
Bernanke’s comments on the economic outlook will be scrutinized closely, particularly since the Fed downgraded its view earlier in the month. A speech delivered by non-voting Fed member Narayana Kocherlakota insisted that the FOMC was primarily acting on publicly available data on real GDP, unemployment and inflation and not by any yet-to-be-revealed insights.
See full story.
Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America, said the markets want to know how high the hurdle is for further Fed action.
“The market will be listening to nuances — what will lead them to another round of quantitative easing,” Levy said.
“We know the Fed isn’t there yet,” added Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto.
While most economists don’t think the economy will fall back into a recession, many agree that the growth rate is not going to be strong enough to meet the Fed’s objective to get the unemployment rate lower.
With unemployment hovering just below 10%, Bernanke’s view on the labor market also will be key, and whether the Fed chief shares the view of Kocherlakota that the labor market is weak because of mismatches between the technical level of the jobs available and the skills of the American workforce.
Investors will also want to know if he shares the view of Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher that the slowdown is due to a lack of confidence in Washington on the part of business leaders.
Bernanke, though the most important, isn’t the only speaker at the Jackson Hole event.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet is a mainstay of the annual gathering, and economists use the event to present their latest research to the high-profile crowd.
Greg Robb is a senior reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
City buys Jacksonville Jaguars tickets again, but will give them to charities
After one year on the sidelines, Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton can slap one of those “season ticket holder” bumper stickers on the front door of City Hall.
The city will pay $43,000 to purchase Jacksonville Jaguars football tickets this year and use the tickets primarily for local charities.
Staff from two elementary schools that jumped two letter grades on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test will go to tonight’s preseason home opener against the Miami Dolphins as guests of the mayor. City Council President Jack Webb donated tickets to the Police Athletic League.
The tickets were sliced from the budget last year, but Webb said not having the city buy tickets sends a bad message about Jacksonville’s commitment to the team.
The council and the mayor’s staff will split 48 tickets and eight skybox passes for each home game, as they have every year but last since the team started play in 1995.
“It’s an investment in the team,” said Adam Hollingsworth, Peyton’s chief of staff.
Peyton helped convene a group of business leaders last year when poor attendance made Jacksonville the national poster child for empty seats and television blackouts. That group has help create Team Teal, led by former Jaguar star Tony Boselli, to sell season tickets and build excitement around the team.
A New York Times article last fall coined Peyton “cheerleader in chief” and the city kicked in $150,000 to help throw “the ultimate tealgate party” for a December game against Indianapolis. A ticket drive for that matchup made it the lone game shown on local television.
Peyton visited the Jaguars’ practice this month to promote season ticket sales and the team announced this week it was about 3,000 short of eliminating blackouts for the season.
In a new naming rights deal with EverBank, Peyton agreed to waive the city’s $4 million take and allow the Jaguars to keep the money.
The city owns the stadium, now called EverBank Field, and its agreement with the team gives it access to a suite. Last year, council President Richard Clark led the charge to stop buying the tickets in an effort to cut the city budget.
Clark said Friday that now that he is more familiar with the Jaguars operations and given the civic push to sell season tickets, he supports the city buying them if they are used for charity or attracting business.
Clark was one of two council members criticized for leaving the Aug. 10 council meeting early after voting to approve the EverBank deal to have dinner at a Southbank restaurant with Jaguars officials and backers. He later apologized.
The city used to use the tickets for employees, family and friends, but Hollingsworth and Webb said they will be restricted for charity and potential business partners.
“It can’t be a perk,” Webb said.
Webb said he’ll be asking fellow council members to suggest local charities that could be rewarded with the tickets,
Jacksonville woman has made custom caps for 350 celebrities, including 5 presidents
The first celebrity to get one of Fathiyyah Muhammad’s custom-made denim caps was Louis Stokes, a Democratic congressman from Ohio.
Since then she’s met and given caps to some 350 celebrities – including five presidents – in Jacksonville. The most recent big shot was Tim McGraw, who she says is absolutely dreamy.
“I tell you. If I was 50 years younger I’d give Faith [Hill, McGraw's wife] a run for her money,” Muhammad said.
McGraw is handsome, to be sure, and nice. But he’s also a country singer, and Muhammad loves country music, which plays nonstop on a radio in her office off Golfair Boulevard. How could she not like him?
Chances are, if McGraw still has that cap and were to take a close look at it, he’d see an inscription Muhammad put on it: “Only in America.”
In some ways, that might be a tidy way to sum up her own story: black female, huge country music buff, convert to Islam, tea party supporter, Obama voter, no apologies. Only in America? Spend a little time with Muhammad and she might just make you see it that way – it’s that persistence that’s led to her success getting her caps into so many famous people’s hands.
Muhammad knows some people might be surprised about her background and interests.
“I’m everything you’re not supposed to be,” she said.
The longtime conservative Republican – there’s a hat on her desk already made for Fox News host Glenn Beck, should he come to Jacksonville – voted for Barack Obama because she wanted to see history made. But if Sarah Palin had been at the top of the Republican ticket? Well then, she would’ve a different historic result.
Muhammad has met Obama and Palin, by the way. She’s given both caps that she and her husband, James, made, and then posed with them for photos.
She’s still waiting for her picture with Palin to arrive from an official photographer. When it does, it will join hundreds of others she’s collected, showing her with celebrities from George Burns to LL Cool J – all of them wearing her handmade hats.
This is not just about meeting important people, though.
Instead, she said, it’s proof to her – and her children – how great this country really is.
“It shows that the American dream is alive and obtainable. If I can take some old jeans, cut them up and make a hat, this old lady who didn’t even finish high school, imagine what you can do with an education, all the opportunities we have.”
Muhammad, 72, was known as Virgie Washington when she grew up in the Yamacraw neighborhood of Savannah.
That’s where her conservative beliefs were forged. The neighborhood was poor, but the people living there, white and black, would do anything to avoid going on relief, she said. And if they were to take help, they couldn’t wait to get off of it.
She moved to New York City at 17, without a high school degree, itching to see what was beyond Savannah. In the mid-1960s, she moved on to San Francisco (friends of hers were hippies, she said, but she most definitely was not). Her travels then took her back to New York, to Miami and on to Texas.
That’s where she met the man she would marry, at a talk to introduce people to Islam. He appealed to her, eventually, and so did the religion he spoke of.
“Everything made sense,” she said. “The universality of it – no one is superior to any other, no matter what their calling in life is.”
She converted to Islam, and James Muhammad gave Virgie the name Fathiyyah, which means successful and victorious.
For decades she has worn scarfs on her head and dressed modestly, as her religion asks. Muhammad said some have perverted its meaning: “Those terrorists, we know they’re going straight to hell. That’s not the teaching of Islam.”
In 1980, the Muhammads moved to Jacksonville to be close to her hometown. She had taken a government-offered course on tailoring, which she then taught her husband. So they opened an alterations shop they now run from the garage of their Northside home.
Within a couple of years, she decided to start making caps for celebrities, using donated pairs of jeans.
James Muhammad accompanies her on her missions, and has seen her wait hours backstage or by the back door, seen her brave Secret Service agents and police barricades.
“She’s steadfast,” he said. “I don’t know how many times we’ve been told to move here, go there, get out, and she just stands there. Sometimes the Jacksonville police just go, well, OK. I don’t know how she does it, but she does it.”
Muhammad insists she gets to most people with simple persistence, not connections. But Gary Dickinson, vice chairman of the Republican Party of Duval County, is a friend, and has helped her meet President George W. Bush and Palin.
Dickinson first noticed Muhammad years ago, angling to get close to Bill Clinton under the watchful eye of the Secret Service. She made it.
“I haven’t spoken with her yet,” he said, “but I’m sure she got in and got a hat to Barack Obama.”
She did, of course. And that’s a feat that again impressed her daughter, Kamia Snead, who was also in Metropolitan Park when the presidential candidate came to Jacksonville. She never got close to him in the overflowing park, though.
“I said, ‘Mom, you never cease to amaze me. How did you get that picture of Obama? What, I have to start hanging out with you again?’ “
Snead, 33, is a musician and actor in Jacksonville. She called her mother a self-made person: “She refused to be like anybody else. She cut her own niche. She sees the dream and she dreams herself into the next situation.”
Her parents were never wealthy, but, she said, they gave her a childhood like no other. She’s got pictures to prove it: New Edition, the Dixie Chicks, Mick Jagger, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and others.
“She told me you, too, can be a celebrity, you can be a star,” said Snead. “All you have to do is try. You can be anything in America. Only in America. It’s the land of dreams.”
That’s a theme that runs through Muhammad’s life: Only in America. That’s even the name of her alterations company, and she puts those words on many of her caps.
“What makes us different from other countries is that we can disagree but we don’t kill each other, we don’t bomb polling places,” Muhammad said. “What can I say? I love America.”
matt.soergel@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4082
0 CommentsObama-Tea Party faceoff set up in Colorado
By Robert Schroeder and Russ Britt, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The stage was set Tuesday for a November faceoff between President Barack Obama and the Tea Party, as the president’s handpicked candidate for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat will go up against the choice of the burgeoning Republican faction, media reports said.
Incumbent Michael Bennet, appointed to the seat vacated when Ken Salazar was named Obama’s Interior Secretary, narrowly beat a challenge by former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. Fox’s local station in Denver, KDVR, declared Bennet the winner over Romanoff with 76% of the precincts reporting late Tuesday. Bennet held a 54% to 46% lead.
Meanwhile, Republican Ken Buck won his own close contest over former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton. KDVR declared Buck, a prosecutor, the winner with 74% of the precincts reporting, as he held a 52% to 48% lead over Norton. Buck is the favorite of Tea Party activists.
Republicans view Colorado’s race as a good shot at picking up a Senate seat this year. Before Salazar’s election to the seat, it was held by Democrat-turned-Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Read more on MarketWatch’s Election Blog.
Romanoff, left; Bennet, right
“I think the Republicans in November will have a very modest advantage, given the national trends,” says Denver-based pollster Floyd Ciruli.
Bennet faced a serious threat from Romanoff, but apparently beat back the challenge once voters headed to the polls. In a Denver Post poll conducted July 27-29, Romanoff closed a double-digit deficit to Bennet and held a lead of 48% to 45% among likely Democratic primary voters.
Romanoff had been endorsed by former President Bill Clinton and called for creating jobs through investing in infrastructure and alternative energy sources. Bennet said the U.S. needs a comprehensive energy policy and that small businesses should have expanded access to credit.
The Republican race was also a nail-biter, with recent polls showing leads for both Buck and Norton. Both wanted to repeal the newly enacted health-care law and promised to cut federal spending.
Former Sen. Stevens dies in plane crash
Ted Stevens of Alaska, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, dies Tuesday in a plane crash.
Buck has the backing of Sen. Jim DeMint, whose Senate Conservatives Fund has also endorsed Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle, who is challenging Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid in Nevada.
“Ken is great on all of our issues,” says DeMint on the fund’s Web site. “He’s opposed to earmarks, he supports a balanced-budget amendment, he has pledged to repeal ObamaCare, he supports a term-limits amendment, he’s pro-life, pro-gun and pro-family.” A former lieutenant governor, Norton was backed by Sen. John McCain.
Obama won Colorado in the 2008 presidential election by more than eight percentage points. In 2004, the state went for George W. Bush over John Kerry.
Connecticut’s McMahon to face Blumenthal
Also on Tuesday, voters in Connecticut, did as expected and handed Linda McMahon, the former chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!wwe/quotes/nls/wwe
(WWE
14.64,
-0.39,
-2.59%)
, the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd.
McMahon was comfortably ahead of former Rep. Rob Simmons and financial commentator Peter Schiff with 81% of the precincts reporting, the Hartford Courant said on its Web site. McMahon held a 49% to 29% lead over Simmons, her closest challenger.
She now will face off against Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who ran unopposed for his party’s nomination.
Robert Schroeder is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
Russ Britt is the Los Angeles bureau chief for MarketWatch.
Economic Report: German industrial production sees unexpected slip
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Industrial production in Europe’s largest economy fell in June, but the unexpected decline isn’t likely to have put a major dent in Germany’s second-quarter economic growth, economists said Friday.
The German economics ministry said industrial production fell by an adjusted 0.6% in June and was up 10.9% compared to the same month last year. Economists had forecast a 0.7% monthly rise. Manufacturing output declined by 0.9%.
Although disappointing, the drop follows a 2.9% monthly rise in May. Industrial production over the second quarter still rose by a robust 5%, topping the 1.8% gain seen in the first quarter and possibly adding a full percentage point to second-quarter gross-domestic-product growth, said Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics.
ECB’s Trichet: Euro-zone economy gaining steam
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet told reporters the ECB’s decision to keep euro-zone interest rates steady in August took into account moderate inflation and economic data showing growth in the second and third quarters.
The euro
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd
(EURUSD
1.3163,
-0.0022,
-0.1669%)
weakened slightly in the wake of the data to change hands at $1.3165 versus the dollar in subdued activity ahead of U.S. July jobs data.
Read more about the currencies market.
Germany will release its first estimate of second-quarter GDP growth on Aug. 13. On the same day, Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, will also publish its first estimate of euro-zone second-quarter growth.
On Thursday, the ministry said June manufacturing orders rose by a stronger-than-expected 3.2% compared to the previous month.
Given the strong orders growth, there’s little evidence that Germany’s manufacturing momentum is set to take a hit at the beginning of the third quarter, said Peter Vanden Houte, economist at ING Bank in Brussels.
“While today’s figures came in weaker than expected, the German growth locomotive is definitely not slowing down,” Vanden Houte said.
McKeown said German second-quarter GDP probably expanded by 1.2%, but cautioned that the industrial recovery is likely to slow in coming months, while decelerating global demand and a stronger euro also offer headwinds.
A manufacturing-led surge is likely to see Germany outpace its euro-zone peers. Italy’s statistics agency on Friday estimated that second-quarter GDP grew by 0.4% compared to the first three months of the year.
William L. Watts is a reporter for MarketWatch in London.
Economic Report: German industrial production sees unexpected slip
Letters from readers: Test for political newcomers
NEW CANDIDATES
Some tests
Political newcomers should be given a chance when they earn it. They must be on the same wavelength on key critical issues.
The following are my criteria:
- Have a genuine concern for the welfare of all Americans, not just the rich and famous.
- Have shown a willingness to consider policies not popular with his or her own party.
- Have indicated a desire to do what the people want even if not popular with the party.
- Have demonstrated a sense of honesty and fairness in prior employment endeavors.
- Have shown success in the businesses or other jobs held prior to running for office.
- Be willing to stand up against divisive and caustic policies.
DURIE BURNS
Orange Park
RANGEL’S ETHICS
Lesson in term limits
The sad thing about U.S. Rep, Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is that he was still in office after 40 years!
Term limits! We need term limits so the people can have a hand in controlling out-of-control politicians. There is no logical reason to keep a person in office that long, put them in a position to be that powerful, to have the ability to do things that are underhanded and lean toward the illegal side.
Term limits, folks! Let’s make them leave office after a reasonable length of time. If eight years is good enough for the president, why not all the other politicians?
DONALD G. DISHMAN
Jacksonville
REPLY: A CHRISTIAN NATION
“We” refers to everyone
I would like to respond to a letter writer’s statement that we are “a nation founded on faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence contains the phrase “… separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.”
The Constitution has no reference to God, Jesus or Christianity. We are a nation founded on equality and tolerance.
But, of greater concern is the phrase in the letter, “We allow those of other faiths to sit on our City Council.”
The first three words of the Constitution are “We, the People.” It does not say, “We, the Christians” or “We, the atheists.”
The City Council is all-inclusive of the people of Jacksonville.
Do we “allow” Christians on the City Council? Of course not; we “include” them on the City Council, as all members should be included, no matter their beliefs.
STEVE MANIS
Atlantic Beach
STADIUM DEAL
Out of sync
City budget “crisis”? You betcha!
A 9 percent increase in your property taxes? Coming soon!
The usual childish (but apparently effective) threats of library closings, policing cutbacks and unmown park lands? Sure thing!
So why not just give Wayne Weaver $4 million of municipal revenue to which he is not entitled? Let the little people cough it up in more taxes and unjustifiable “fees.”
DAVID DEFORREST
Jacksonville
AIRPORT SCREENING
Oh, the absurdity
I just returned from an airline trip to Canada, which exposed me to the comic opera called airline passenger screening.
It was amazing how adept the screeners were at locking the door after the horse got away.
All of the items in the screener’s repertoire were aimed at catching the stupid terrorist who did not read newspapers or watch TV.
As I was being screened here in Jacksonville, I informed the screener that I had a total knee replacement on the left knee and four stainless screws in my right leg due to a fracture of my tibia and fibula some seven years ago.
The diligent screener had me stand with my arms extended and scanned me numerous times with the handheld wand. Finding nothing suspicious, the screener then had me roll down the tops of my trousers so he could test for explosive residue in my underwear.
The real guffaw in this scenario is that I am a 73-year-old white male and a Marine Corps veteran.
My fear is that the screeners ignore the innovator who has dreamed up a new and better mouse trap.
NewsWatch: CEO Hayward may go as BP board meets: reports
By MarketWatch
MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE
BP PLC Chief Executive Tony Hayward appears to be on his way out of the troubled oil company even as efforts resume to permanently kill the blown-out well that has been pouring crude into the Gulf of Mexico since late April.
See full story.
European markets may welcome stress test results
Test results likely to inspire opening gains on Monday, even if the credibility and rigor of the tests continue to generate controversy.
See full story.
Second quarter gets no respect
The second quarter is getting no respect. Only a few weeks ago, the quarter was strutting along the beach. Now even economists are kicking sand in its face.
See full story.
Private sector must drive economy now: Geithner
Treasury secretary says investment expanding, job growth returning.
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U.S. stocks upbeat on earnings, cautious on data
The stock market is in a better, yet still risky place as Wall Street readies for an even larger flood of corporate results in the days ahead.
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MARKETWATCH COMMENTARY
Motorola’s stock has been on a tear lately, but the good times may not last for the smart phone maker, writes Therese Poletti.
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MARKETWATCH PERSONAL FINANCE
More help is on the way for unemployed homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments, thanks to funding tucked into the financial reform legislation signed by President Obama on Wednesday.
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