financial crisis in U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. commission created by Congress to investigate the financial crisis has scheduled its first public hearings for January 13 and 14, more than a year since the crisis shook banks and capital markets worldwide.

Barack Obama

No witnesses were named by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in a statement distributed on Tuesday. It said the 10-member panel will hold hearings throughout 2010 -- a period in which the Senate will be debating regulatory reforms.

Deliberations by the commission could spark interest in the debate in the Senate Banking Committee over reforms. The House of Representatives on December 11 approved a comprehensive bill to tighten government bank and financial market oversight.

In September, inquiry commission Chairman Phil Angelides told Reuters that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson might be among witnesses called to testify.

He said the panel had a short list of possible witnesses, including executives from Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch, as well as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG.

Angelides is a Democrat and former California state treasurer. He said the panel would also look at credit rating agencies and regulators.

Support and Resistance of ForexGen platform

One thing to remember is that support and resistance levels are not exact numbers. Often times you will see a support or resistance level that appears broken, but soon after find out that the market was just testing it. With candlestick charts, these "tests" of support and resistance are usually represented by the candlestick shadows.
Notice how the shadows of the candles tested the 2500 resistance level. At those times it seemed like the market was "breaking" resistance. However, in hindsight we can see that the market was merely testing that level.

Financial crisis

The financial crisis is not over yet - that is the stark warning from Premier Wen Jiabao.
Beijing still has much work to do to sustain economic growth, Wen told Xinhua News Agency yesterday.
He also cautioned about asset price bubbles - especially in the property sector - saying the problem will be one of the central government's main tasks next year.
"The property sector made a fast recovery this year, but at the same time home prices have risen too quickly in certain areas and cities, making Beijing highly concerned."
Measures will be taken to cool down the overheated property market. They include taxes and differentiated interest rates to combat speculation.
The government will crack down on developers who hoard land in the hope of bigger profits, said Wen, adding it will expand the development of low-cost housing with preferential policies.

Ending of the Dollar Trade

One can usually assume that any talk of the carry trade is in reference to the Japanese Yen. In this case, however, it is the Dollar that is being driven by a shift away from the popular strategy of borrowing in one currency and investing the proceeds in assets dominated in another. In explaining the recent Dollar rally, analysts have tended to focus on the pall of risk aversion that has descended upon global capital markets, coupled with the spread of the credit crisis from the US to the rest of the world. While these are certainly contributing factors, perhaps they should also look at the repatriation of Dollars that were initially sent abroad over the last decade in search of loftier returns. Hedge funds and other institutions, including those based outside of the US, took advantage of record-low interest rates to borrow Trillions of Dollars and invest them abroad.