One of the Markets Best Bargains

Not too much has changed in Seth Klarman's portfolio over the past few months, according to his recent SEC filings. His top five positions have remained the same during the third quarter. Klarman's Baupost Group did sell more than half of his large stake in paper producer Domtar (NYSE: UFS - News), and he added two new positions in Alere (NYSE: ALR - News), and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: REGN).

We also recently learned that Klarman will be returning 5% of the fund's capital to investors over the remainder of the year as he is finding few good investment opportunities. It is extremely rare for fund managers to return money to investors, since they make money on assets under management. However, this is just one of the reasons that Klarman's moves are always worth watching. Not only is he successful, but his honesty even at his own expense makes him a pretty unique figure in this industry.

Finding valueOne of my favorite methods of finding discounted stocks is by using Ben Graham's Net Current Asset Value model (NCAV). Whereas book value measures assets less liabilities, NCAV is a bit more complex. Graham's value screen includes only current assets such as cash, inventory, and accounts receivable, then subtracts all liabilities. Basically, the idea is to look for companies that trade near or below a conservatively calculated liquidation level if the company were to go out of business or liquidate. Graham liked to buy stocks that trade at near two-thirds or less of their NCAVs. Many of the companies in Klarman's Baupost portfolio are on my radar. However, there is one of special interest: Audiovox (Nasdaq: VOXX - News)

Audiovox doesn't quite meet Graham's exact specifications, but it is certainly near levels where he might pull the trigger and buy it. The company does a little bit of everything in the consumer electronics space with products such as car stereo speakers, iPod docks, satellite radio kits, camcorders, and digital picture frames. Many of the products are value-added or "me too" products that give consumers a less expensive option than brand name electronics from Sony (NYSE: SNE - News) or Panasonic cash advance to savings account. With American consumers still recovering from the recession, these off-brand products should continue to stay popular.

In addition, the reemergence of Ford (NYSE: F - News) and General Motors (NYSE: GM - News) should help Audiovox drive sales of their aftermarket car stereo products. Audiovox continues to gain traction with dealerships who install these products.

The valuationWhile I believe the fundamentals of the company are strong, it is the valuation that really makes the company attractive. Audiovox trades at a price-to-book ratio of just 0.4 and has $73 million in cash and short-term investments with just $14 million in debt.

The company has a market capitalization of about $158 million, so if you wanted to buy the entire company today, not only would you get a strong business but just about 40% of the value of the company handed to you as well in the form of cash and short-term investments.

As of Monday's close, the stock was trading at $6.87, which is just about 74% of its NCAV of $9.25. So the stock only misses Graham's threshold of 66% by a few percentage points. However, in a market that has increased by more than 12% since the beginning of September, that is about as good of a valuation as I can find, and I like the business as well.

I believe Klarman saw the same value that Graham would see in Audiovox when he made the purchase. While I would never recommend buying a company because it could be an acquisition target, when I see a reasonable business at such an inexpensive valuation the potential can't be dismissed. In addition, the company's strong cash position in terms of its market capitalization provides a nice cushion under the business. But don't take my word for it, take Seth Klarman's.

Andrew Bond owns no shares in the companies listed. Ford Motor is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @Bond0 or on his RSS feed. Try any of our Foolish newsletters today, free for 30 days. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

One of the Market's Best Bargains

One More Game Device (but This One’s Tiny)

With Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 duking it out for dominance of the video game console market, can there possibly be any room for yet another machine?

Steve Perlman, a well-known Silicon Valley inventor and entrepreneur, thinks there is. His strategy is to make a game system without game discs.

His OnLive game service works by keeping all of its games in the cloud. Consumers can stream the games to their PCs after installing a browser plug-in. Starting in December, users will be able to stream games to their televisions using a $99 box not much bigger than a cigarette package that taps a high-speed Internet connection, the company said two weeks ago.

OnLive faces considerable obstacles. Working against it are an initially limited inventory of games, a well-established console business run by corporations with deep pockets and a resistance among consumers to add one more box to their home entertainment systems.

“Being tied to physical media is gradually dying away,” Mr. Perlman said. “With OnLive, you can’t copy a game. This is piracy-free delivery for publishers.”

But Mr. Perlman, who was the head of the group that created Apple’s QuickTime video compression software and the developer of what would become Microsoft’s WebTV product, says he has some advantages.

A proprietary compression technology developed by OnLive shrinks the size of the game programs during transmission, which allows the games to stream quickly and still play in full high-definition resolution, Mr. Perlman said. The technology eliminates the stuttering, stalling or lowered resolution all too typical of users’ experiences when they try to stream a movie to a TV or PC.

“The low latency of the video compression scheme makes a game look like it’s appearing instantaneously,” Mr. Perlman said.

The box costs so little to make that “we could give it away,” Mr. Perlman said in a talk last year at Columbia. Indeed, he envisions TV makers incorporating his software right into their sets. As all games are held at the company’s data centers the service can be upgraded without the need for the consumer to buy new hardware.

Mr. Perlman, who was also behind the fabled Silicon Valley start-ups General Magic, Moxi and Rearden Steel, has attracted investments from an unusual set of powerful companies, including AT&T, British Telecom, Time Warner and Autodesk business cards.

But his company still needs to prove itself with consumers. Since the service began in earnest in June, about two million gaming sessions have been logged, but Mr. Perlman would not say how many users the service has. OnLive hopes to attract gamers with titles like Borderlands, Mafia II and Shaun White Skateboarding. Coming titles include Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Red Faction: Armageddon, and Duke Nukem Forever. The company hopes to expand its offerings from 35 titles today to 50 by Christmas, with some available on the same day the disc is first sold for other consoles.

Consumers can preview a game free — “the publishers compensate us for that,” Mr. Perlman said — rent it for a few days or buy the right to use it for at least three years. Beginning next month, OnLive will offer a flat-rate plan similar to that used by Netflix.

Because games are streamed, the prices for owning them will be typically $10 less than the cost of a physical disc of the same game, Mr. Perlman said.

The $99 TV interface box comes with a game controller. Players can also use a standard U.S.B. keyboard or mouse to control games.

The company’s video game offerings may only be a stalking horse in an effort to offer other revenue-generating cloud-based services. “I think that there is a huge potential for many other value-added services, such as videoconferencing, secure computing and Internet TV,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, which may explain the interest of its equity partners.

While OnLive will initially attract those who do not own a console game system, Mr. Pachter said that it was important for the service to begin now, before the next round of console upgrades from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

“These guys have a first mover advantage, much like Netflix has,” Mr. Pachter said. “We’ll see if they can sustain the advantage.”

One More Game Device (but This One’s Tiny)

GM says IPO grows to $23.1 billion

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — General Motors Co. said Friday that its public offering grew to $23.1 billion after underwriters exercised their rights to buy a big chunk of the auto maker’s stock.

GM  announced that the underwriters exercised in full their overallotment options to purchase an additional 71.7 million shares of common stock from the selling stockholders. At $33 each, that’s $2.37 billion.

The underwriters also bought an additional 13 million shares of mandatory convertible junior preferred stock from GM, for a total of $650 million.

White House lauds GM IPO

The head of the White House task force on the auto industry called General Motors’ offering a fair value for the company and for taxpayers. Video courtesy of Reuters.

The convertible offering was done at the same time as the common-stock sale, which returned GM to the stock market after the U.S. government’s bailout and a controversial bankruptcy reorganization.

The exercise of the overallotment options brings the total offering size to $23 payday loan online.1 billion, according to GM. Before the overallotments, the auto maker had raised just more than $20 billion.

Just counting the common-stock portion, GM’s offering goes down as the second largest in U.S. history, behind Visa Inc.’s  2008 IPO, which raised $19.65 billion.

Including proceeds from the convertible offering, the deal set a new record, surpassing a $22.1 billion IPO earlier this year by Agricultural Bank of China .

Morgan Stanley , J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. , Bank of America Merrill Lynch  and Citigroup Inc.  were the main underwriters of the offerings.

Several other investment banks, including Barclays Capital , Credit Suisse Group , Deutsche Bank AG  and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.  were underwriters on the IPO as well.

GM says IPO grows to $23.1 billion

Poland keeps interest rate at 3.5 percent

WARSAW, Poland – Poland's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 3.5 percent on Tuesday for the 17th consecutive month, in line with market expectations, to avoid a sharp appreciation in the currency.

Many economists are forecasting that the national bank will hold the reference rate unchanged at 3.5 percent until the end of 2010. However, a hike is expected at some point because the national economy is growing at an estimated 3.5 percent this year and is expected to pick up its pace even further next year.

There are fears that raising rates too soon could cause the currency, the zloty, to strengthen too much. A rate hike would likely attract a surge of capital from investors fleeing turmoil elsewhere and in search of higher returns as interest rates in many major economies remain extremely low.

That would push up the zloty and hurt Polish exporters who sell their goods in Germany and elsewhere.

In announcing its decision, the bank's monetary policy noted those factors. It also mentioned "the still limited inflationary and wage pressure in the Polish economy" as a reason for its decision to keep rates at what is a record low for Poland flat iron.

The ex-communist nation has shown strong economic growth since joining the European Union in 2004, and was the sole European country to avoid recession during the global downturn. However, it faces a number of challenges, perhaps the most troubling of them being a growing deficit. Business people also complain of the country's bad roads, which make it hard to transport goods, and stifling bureaucracy and regulations — a relic of the communist era.

Also Tuesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the leader of the pro-business governing Civic Platform party, announced a government plan for a new law that would cut regulations and make it easier for entrepreneurs to start companies. The bill must still go to parliament.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects that interest rate has remained at the current level for 17 months, not 18.)

Poland keeps interest rate at 3.5 percent

Ixtlán de Juárez Journal: Growing a Forest, and Harvesting Jobs, in Mexico

IXTLÁN de JUÁREZ, Mexico — As an unforgiving midday sun bore down on the pine-forested mountains here, a half-dozen men perched across a steep hillside wrestled back mounds of weeds to uncover wisps of knee-high seedlings.

Freeing the tiny pines that were planted last year is only one step of many the town takes to nurture the trees until they grow tall, ready for harvesting in half a century. But the people of Ixtlán take the long view.

“We’re the owners of this land and we have tried to conserve this forest for our children, for our descendants,” Alejandro Vargas said, leaning on his machete as he took a break. “Because we have lived from this for many years.”

Three decades ago the Zapotec Indians here in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico fought for and won the right to communally manage the forest. Before that, state-owned companies had exploited it as they pleased under federal government concessions.

They slowly built their own lumber business and, at the same time, began studying how to protect the forest. Now, the town’s enterprises employ 300 people who harvest timber, produce wooden furniture and care for the woodlands, and Ixtlán has grown to become the gold standard of community forest ownership and management, international forestry experts say.

Mexico’s community forest enterprises now range from the mahogany forests of the Yucatán Peninsula to the pine-oak forests of the western Sierra Madre. About 60 businesses, including Ixtlán, are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council in Germany, which evaluates sustainable forestry practices. Between 60 and 80 percent of Mexico’s remaining forests are under community control, according to Sergio Madrid of the Mexican Civic Council for Sustainable Forestry.

“It’s astounding what’s going on in Mexico,” said David Barton Bray, an expert on community forestry at Florida International University who has studied Ixtlán.

The Mexican government plans to showcase its success in community forestry at the global climate talks in Cancún next week. Despite fractious negotiations over reducing carbon emissions, talks on paying developing countries to protect their forests have moved further ahead than most other issues.

In developing countries, where the rule of law is weak and enforcement spotty, simply declaring a forest off-limits does little to prevent illegal logging or clearing land for agriculture or development. “Unless local communities are committed to conserving and protecting forests it’s not going to happen,” said David Kaimowitz, a former director of the Center for International Forestry Research, or Cifor, who is now at the Ford Foundation. “Government can’t do it for them.”

A recent Cifor study reported that more than a quarter of the forests in developing countries are now being managed by local communities. The trend is worldwide — from China to Brazil.

In Ixtlán, under Zapotec traditions, all decisions about the forest and its related businesses are made by a (mostly male) general assembly of 390 townspeople. These “comuneros” are required to contribute their labor as needed to the forest and its enterprises.

“You can see the harmony,” said Francisco Luna, the secretary of the committee in charge of the forest and its businesses hair dryers. “For us to live in peace, we have to respect all the rules.”

Many of the problems that beset other forests in Mexico, like illegal logging and deforestation, rate barely a shrug here. Pedro Vidal García, a longtime forester in Ixtlán who now works for the Rainforest Alliance, laughed when he was asked about illegal logging in the 48,000 acres of forest the community owns.

“Anybody who tries their own illegal business is harshly judged,” he said. “The assembly is very tough.” A comunero who dares to work as a guide to illegal loggers or hunters is branded a traitor and could lose all property rights.

Rule by an assembly of equals based on ancestral customs can make running a business unwieldy. “It takes a long time to agree,” said Mr. García, whose father was one of the generation that sold their livestock to set up the community’s first sawmill. “The assembly can turn emotional, or technical.”

Last year, the community’s businesses made a profit of about $230,000. Of that, 30 percent went back into the business, another 30 percent went into forest preservation and the final 40 percent went back to the workers and the community where it pays for things like pensions, a low-interest credit union and housing for students studying in the state capital. Most of the enterprise’s foresters and managers are the university-educated sons and daughters of the older comuneros.

It is an odd business mixture, acknowledged Alberto Belmonte, who is in charge of finding new markets for the furniture and lumber that Ixtlán and two neighboring towns produce. “Pure simple socialism, which is what the communities have, and an idea of capitalism, where we say, ‘You know what? We have to be profitable.’”

Many of Ixtlán{minute}s plain pine pieces are sold to the state government, and the factory is busy filling an order to furnish a children’s home with bunk beds and lockers. Mr. Belmonte has plans to jazz up design and crack the Mexico City market.

Julio García Gómez, 31, a sawmill worker, came back to Ixtlán five years ago from New Jersey, where he was working illegally, to raise his young family. The pay here has gone up since he returned, he said, “because of the equipment, because of the training.”

While a self-sustaining business, Ixtlán is still a work in progress. Nongovernment organizations, as well as the Mexican government, all provide financing and advice. And even the strongest advocates of community forestry acknowledge that it is not the answer to protecting forests everywhere. It works best in areas that produce quality timber, Mr. Bray said.

But it is a huge improvement on what came before.

“Things are working,” said Francisco Chapela, an agronomist who first came to Oaxaca 30 years ago and now works for the Rainforest Alliance in Mexico. “Forest management is a big success,” he continued. “If you look at old aerial photographs and compare it with what is now, the forest is increasing here.

“A lot of jobs have been created and a lot of money has come to the communities.”

Ixtlán de Juárez Journal: Growing a Forest, and Harvesting Jobs, in Mexico

GMs Wall Street return marks US auto rennaissance

NEW YORK (AFP) – The triumphant return of General Motors to Wall Street less than 18 months after its bankruptcy marks a renaissance in the US auto industry, even though Detroit faces tough competition with Asian rivals and an uncertain outlook in Europe.

GM, Ford and Chrysler were among the hardest hit by the 2008 collapse in US auto sales amid the worst economic downturn in decades.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost at the Detroit Three automakers and their suppliers which had just begun to reap the rewards of years of painful restructuring when the crisis hit.

While Ford managed to stay afloat thanks to a massive loan it obtained shortly before the credit crunch, GM, Chrysler and a host of suppliers were forced to seek tens of billions in emergency aid from the US government.

Crushed under the weight of their debts and a collapse in sales, GM and Chrysler were steered through government-financed bankruptcies in June and July of 2009.

GM emerged as an essentially nationalized company with the US government anxious to reduce its 61 percent stake. Chrysler emerged under the direction of Fiat -- which obtained a 20 percent stake in exchange for sharing its technology -- and the US government retained an eight percent stake.

But while sales have remained at historically low levels, they have nonetheless begun to rebound. And radically lower cost-structures and a renewed focus on product design have allowed GM, Ford and Chrysler to make a sharp turn back to profitability.

"We may be at much lower sales volume than historically but health is much stronger," said Jeff Schuster, a JD Power analyst.

"It's evident with earnings numbers, GM's in particular."

GM posted a profit of 4.8 billion dollars through the first nine months of the year and is expected to end the year in the black for the first time since 1994 after having accumulated more than 86 billion dollars in losses from 2005 through 2008.

Ford's share price is at its highest point in nine years after posting its sixth straight quarterly profit last month and Chrysler is expected to launch an IPO late next year.

The market reaction to GM's initial public stock offering was resounding.

Amid strong investor demand, the Detroit, Michigan-based firm priced its shares at 33 dollars a piece before the stock market opened, in a sale that could net as much as 23 outdoor fireplace cheap.1 billion dollars across all stock classes.

Although the final value of the sale may not be known for weeks, strong-demand clauses could send it beyond the current IPO record of 22.1 billion dollars set by the Agricultural Bank of China in July.

The IPO will allow the US government to slash its stake in GM from 61 percent to as little as 33 percent, recouping 11.7 billion dollars for US taxpayers.

"It seems as if investors are viewing the auto stocks as a one-way bet right now because they think that the industry is at the bottom of the cycle and there is a lot of promise," said Jeremy Anwyl, head of automotive site Edmunds.com.

"Car companies have high fixed costs and profits could skyrocket as sales increase, given that they are already profitable."

But Anwyl cautioned that several significant risks remain.

"There is a gap in GM's product introduction cadence because it squeezed the development pipeline to save cash during the financial crisis," he said.

"GM's management team is still untested and the company's track record of profitability is anything but long."

Europe is also a trouble spot because of its weak economy, he said, especially since GM has not yet tackled meaningful restructuring there to address overcapacity, labor costs and the limited growth inherent in a mature market.

And the largest US automaker -- which shed a number of storied brands and shut down scores of factories -- is not expected to regain the title of top-selling global automaker which it lost to Toyota in 2008 after a 77 year reign.

While Toyota has been hit by a strong yen and a series of mass recalls which damaged the Japanese automaker's once stellar reputation, Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia have made a strong play to fill in any gaps in the critical US market.

Yet GM stands to benefit from its spectacular growth in China, where it sells more vehicles than in the United States through its partnership with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC).

GM's Wall Street return marks US auto rennaissance

Japan Is Pushing Organized Crime Out of Business

TOKYO —When the toasts are raised here next year at the opening of the world’s tallest communications tower, yakuza gangsters will not be celebrating.

The yakuza, as members of Japan’s criminal underworld are known, are banned from the construction of the 2,080-foot tower, developers say.

“The mob cannot come here,” said Toru Hironaka, a lawyer who leads a legal team retained by the tower’s developers to bar crime syndicates from the construction project.

The ban is part of a nationwide effort by the Japanese government and the business community to sever the deep-rooted ties between organized crime and corporate Japan, especially in the construction industry.

As part of the national crackdown, on Thursday a top crime boss of Japan’s largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, was arrested on charges of extorting 40 million yen ($480,000) from a construction company in the western city of Kyoto, police officials said.

The man arrested, Kiyoshi Takayama, 63, had been seen as the syndicate’s de facto leader after its official boss was imprisoned in 2005 for possessing firearms, which are illegal in Japan.

“Organized crime is threatening Japan’s entire economy,” Kohei Kishi, director of the organized crime division of Japan’s National Police Agency, said in recent interview. “And they have deep roots in construction.”

The National Police Agency and other government departments are pressuring businesses of various sorts to stamp out mafia links, which police officials describe as more entrenched in corporate Japan than in the United States.

The country’s finance ministry, for example, has directed banks to step up safeguards to prevent money laundering, cut off loans to mob-related companies and deny bank accounts to individuals with known gangster ties.

The big target, though, is Japan’s 30 trillion yen ($362 billion) construction industry, where the yakuza have long run rampant. In the 1990s, at the peak of yakuza involvement with construction, police estimate that gangs pocketed at least 2 to 3 percent of all construction spending in Japan.

Many experts say Japan’s crackdown efforts are long overdue. The crime syndicates now operate with such sophistication that Jake Adelstein, who has written extensively about Japanese organized crime, calls the yakuza “Goldman Sachs with guns.”

Across Japan, almost 83,000 gangsters operate in 22 crime syndicates, according to police data, that contribute to a mob-controlled economy worth an estimated 20 trillion yen ($242 billion) a year.

. In the construction industry, the yakuza’s influence dates back to at least Japan’s extensive rebuilding after the devastation of World War II, when the mob helped supply cheap labor to contractors, aiding in the breakup of worker strikes and the enforcement of labor compliance.

A modern-day yakuza boss pressures developers to pay “protection money” to cover construction projects — as in the case in Kyoto — or use front companies to win lucrative construction or procurement contracts, police say.

In a 2007 police survey of 3,000 construction companies in Japan, 34 percent of respondents said they had been approached by the yakuza with requests for payments or business in the last year.

Sometimes it is the developers that reach out to the yakuza — to muscle reluctant owners into selling their land, for example. In 2008, the president of a big real estate company, Suruga, resigned after police arrested members of a front company that Suruga had hired to evict occupants from a Tokyo building. Banks quickly recalled their loans from Suruga, and the company went bankrupt.

“The construction industry was once tolerant of yakuza involvement,” said Hiroshi Inuzuka, a lawyer and adviser to the nationwide Federation of Construction Contractors, a trade group payday loan lenders. “A good project manager was expected to smooth over ‘local relations,’ which involved working with the yakuza so there would be no trouble,” he said.

The industry’s anti-yakuza effort, which began in 2008, has shifted away from the past focus on going after the crime gangs themselves. Now the emphasis is on monitoring companies and imposing tougher penalties on ones that do business with the mob.

In April, the federation advised its members to adapt a clause in all contracts that would void obligations if a contractor was found to have links with the yakuza.

The new Tokyo tower — which is called the Tokyo Sky Tree — has become a prominent symbol of the crackdown. Companies involved include the railroad operator Tobu Railway and the Obayashi Corporation, one of Japan’s biggest contractors.

In late 2008, the companies working on the Sky Tree teamed up with local businesses to form an anti-yakuza committee. It is one of more than 100 similar committees that have been formed here in the past few years.

Mr. Hironaka, the tower’s anti-mob lawyer, says movement to and from the construction site is closely monitored by guards and with closed-circuit video. Contracts are scrutinized to make sure that no construction equipment or materials — not even boxed lunches or gloves for workers — come from companies with mob affiliations.

“The site is water-tight,” Mr. Hironaka said. “It will take a lot to get past all that.”

Locals governments, whose public works projects account for the bulk of construction spending in Japan, have also joined the campaign to extract the yakuza from the building business. Next month, Tokyo is set to ban any company or individual affiliated with the yakuza from city contracts — from office supplies to public works — along with threats of penalties and public disclosure for companies found to have mafia ties.

Morio Umeda, who runs a public anti-yakuza advice center in Tokyo and runs seminars for companies on dealing with the yakuza, says inquiries are rising as more companies try to sever ties with the mob. In 2009, similar advice centers across the country received more than 4,200 consultations about organized crime from companies in construction or real estate, about 12 percent of total consultations.

“I tell them that they should not be afraid, that they should go to the police even if they are warned not to,” said Mr. Umeda, a former anti-yakuza officer with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. “But especially at busy construction sites, it can sometimes be difficult to be aware of who’s coming and going.”

And the mob is threatening to fight back. Last month, police say a gunshot was fired into the wall of a construction site linked to Takenaka Corporation, one of Japan’s biggest general contractors, the fourth shooting at construction sites in Tokyo this year. Although no one has been hurt, the shootings have resonated in a country where guns are almost unobtainable for everyone except gangsters.

Those close to the yakuza call the attacks a sign of desperation.

“It’s the ice age” for organized crime, said Yukio Yamanouchi, a former legal adviser to the Yamaguchi-gumi, who still defends members of organized crime.

“They looked for new earnings in the mainstream economy, but that’s triggered a backlash,” Mr. Yamanouchi said. “Now, some yakuza are worrying where their next meal will come from.”

Japan Is Pushing Organized Crime Out of Business

Obama Wimps Out on Tax Cuts

NEW YORK – The president is ready to compromise on the Bush tax cuts and extend them for the rich. Eric Alterman wonders why Obama can’t manage to defend a campaign position that’s both popular and fiscally sound.

It’s happening again. Barack Obama is punching the Republicans in the fist with his face. Almost in spite of themselves, Democrats won the public-opinion battle over extending the Bush tax cuts for Americans making a quarter of a million a year or more with strong majorities supporting their position. They did not have the nerve to hold this vote before the election, and now the nervous nellies appear to be getting ready to throw in the towel (or at least most of it). President Obama, on the other hand, ran for office on a pledge to extend the existing tax rates for families making less than $250,000 a year, while letting the tax cuts for those making over that number expire. The number of Americans lucky enough to earn this kind of money constitutes barely more than 2 percent of the population, though one can imagine they provide a much more impressive proportion of the funds that go into financing election campaigns, whether directly or by stealth.

But with the tax cuts poised to expire Dec. 31, The Washington Post reports that “Obama has opened the door to a compromise with Republicans, signaling a new willingness to accept tax breaks for the wealthy.” He is doing this, meanwhile, as the Republicans continue to stand united against the extension of unemployment benefits for Americans making not $250,000 a year, but nothing.

Put the words “Obama” and “compromise” into a Google search and the result is, I’m not kidding, almost 9 million hits. Why is this? White House senior adviser David Axelrod told The Huffington Post that “we have to deal with the world as we find it.” And from where and whence did this “world” arrive? The Post reports, “In the days after the election, that cold reality appeared to have overtaken the harsh rhetoric of the campaign trail. A consensus was quietly emerging on taxes, with key lawmakers and senior aides saying both parties were preparing to accept a temporary extension of all the cuts to defuse a brutal, drawn-out fight.”

Put the words “Obama” and “compromise” into a Google search and the result is, I’m not kidding, almost 9 million hits.

Whenever I see a sentence in the passive tense, I know a reporter is trying to hide something. This “cold reality” and “consensus” that emerged as if by magic—what’s up with them? Nobody will say. It appears to this reader, however, that the Republicans stood united by their unpopular original support of the Bush tax cuts, which will likely bust the budget, costing $700 billion over the next decade, while the Democrats do not even know how to defend a popular position that is both fiscally sound and democratically responsive. Instead of his clear, popular campaign position, Obama is now ready to extend the tax cuts for the rich for two or three years “but he does not want to play a game of legislative chicken that risks letting all the cuts expire,” according to the Post no fax needed payday loans. Since the Republicans are happy to play chicken with the economy, however, they will win, as they have done in almost every fight they’ve had with Obama, despite his having had (and lost) at least a semblance of veto-proof Democratic minority.

Some Democrats have other ideas. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee, wants an up or down vote just on tax cuts for middle-class voters. Chuck Schumer, (D-NY), Wall Street’s favorite senator, is willing to raise the level at which the tax cuts stay in place from $250,000 to $1 million a year. Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) wants to let the cuts for the rich lapse and replace them with $65 billion worth of targeted tax cuts for business.

But Nancy Pelosi isn’t playing. The woman whom Democrats have allowed Republicans to demonize as just this side of Che Guevara is the only top Democrat who is still sticking with Obama’s crystal-clear campaign promise. She notes, “It’s too costly. It’s $700 billion. One year would be around $70 billion. That’s a lot of money to give a tax cut at the high end. And I remind you that those tax cuts have been in effect for a very long time, they did not create jobs.”

And AFL-CIO head Rich Trumka calls the Democrats’ willingness to play ball in the face of repeated Republican recalcitrance “absolutely insane.” Sounding like an old-fashioned blast from the past (of just two years ago), he insists, “We need to expose the rank hypocrisy of those calling for these millionaire tax cuts—which would add hundreds of billions to the deficit. These are the same elected officials who say we can’t afford to maintain benefits for the jobless—and should cut Social Security and Medicare for working families and seniors in the name of so-called deficit reduction.”

But these are the kind of people Obama has spent most of his presidency running away from—real Democrats who embraced the words of candidate Obama, rather than the guy who apparently thinks he did not work hard enough during the past two years to make nice to Republicans. Naturally, the lying commie/Nazi/Muslim/anti-Semitic, white-hating Indonesian blames himself.

If the richest among us have any gratitude, they will undoubtedly pour a portion of their likely tax cuts back into Republican fundraising efforts. If the past two years prove anything at all, there’s no better investment.

Eric Alterman is a Distinguished Professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College, a senior fellow of the Center for American Progress and media columnist for The Nation. His newest book, Kabuki Democracy: The System vs. Barack Obama, is available for preorder.

Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

Obama Wimps Out on Tax Cuts

Amy Hoaks Home Economics: Stop home water leaks before they really cost you

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Left unchecked, water leaks can be your home’s worst enemy.

“Water is one of the most destructive things to a house,” said David Tamny, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors. “It can account for so many things going wrong in a structure.”

'Green' house goes luxury A "green" house in Marin County, Calif., is an experiment in eco-friendly suburban living. • Mortgage rates after Fed's bond buys • Housing bust has changed buyers • The housing crisis in 1933, and today • • A 15-year mortgage isn't for everyone • More homeowners opt to quit paying mortgage • Refinancing mistakes to avoid • A cash-in refinance can cut mortgage costs • Getting remarried -- with a reverse mortgage • Record-low mortgage rates -- who cares? • Dream kitchen on a budget • Tap free money for home-energy upgrades • Say goodbye to McMansions   • Let the home savings flow   • The latest technology for your home   • Five red flags when buying short-sale homes • The retirement houses of tomorrow See the entire MarketWatch Guide to Real Estate

Water damage is the second-most-common cause of damage in homes, following fires, said Scott Spencer, worldwide appraisal and loss-prevention manager for insurer Chubb Group.

Problems to a foundation, for example, can develop when rainwater isn’t draining away from the building. And hidden water issues lurking indoors can develop into mold problems.

Leaks that aren’t obvious often produce the biggest issues. “If your bathtub or shower is leaking, you’re going to recognize that quickly and take steps to fix it. The hidden problems, people don’t know to fix,” Tamny said. As a result, they tend to worsen over time.

Still, if you know what to look for, it’s not difficult to identify water leaks before they flood into bigger — and more expensive — headaches. In addition to watching for spikes in your water bill, which could indicate leaky fixtures, look out for problems in the following places.

1. The roof

Your roof can last many years, but it’s important to regularly check on its condition, Spencer said, “especially after a traumatic event like a hailstorm or a windstorm.” Identifying a roof leak quickly can limit the amount of repair work needed and limit the spread of mold.

Also, you should make a visit to the attic at least once a year, said David Lupberger, home-improvement expert for ServiceMagic.com, which connects consumers with home-improvement specialists. “Make sure that it doesn’t smell musty or moldy,” he said.

Most roofing contractors will offer free roof inspections, but remember, their objective is to find something wrong so they can fix it, Spencer said. Another option is to hire a home inspector, Tamny said. The cost of home-inspection services varies, but if you just want the roof looked at, ask for a partial inspection, which will help keep the expense down.

Skylights also can be vulnerable to leaks because of their location and the challenges they present in installation, according to Chubb. Inside the house, check for any staining in the skylight area, which could be caused by a build up of condensation fast cash advance.

2. The basement

The best way to prevent problems in the basement starts outside, Lupberger said.

“Every spring and fall you should be cleaning your gutters and downspouts, and you want to make sure that water is not puddling next to your foundation,” he said. “Then, walk around the house and make sure there aren’t low points next to the foundation. Ninety percent of water in the basement is due to improper drainage.”

Crawlspaces should also be checked on occasion for signs of mold. “Liquid water is only one part of the equation,” Tamny said. Humidity can also be destructive, and lead to mold. For that reason, be mindful when setting a humidifier. “Humidity in the house should never be above 50%. The colder it gets, the lower the humidity should be,” he said.

3. Bathroom and kitchen

Because of the frequency with which people use their bathrooms, it’s likely that problems will be spotted early. Still, there are preventive steps you can take so problems don’t have a chance to develop.

The shower and bath area is a vulnerable place for water leaks, making it important to proactively replace the caulk around fixtures every couple of years, Spencer said.

Also, replace broken toilet flappers (the rubber part in the tank that seals the drain) and address leaky fixtures, said Jimmy Carter, senior director of corporate field services for American Leak Detection.

If you hear water running when the bathroom isn’t being used, you could have a problem, he said.

In the bathroom and the kitchen, regularly feel the pipes under sinks to make sure there aren’t any leaks, Spencer said. As the weather turns cooler, one of the “fast and furious” water leaks that homeowners encounter occurs when a pipe freezes and bursts, he said. To prevent that, never turn the heat below 55 degrees, he said. On particularly cold days, leave the bottom vanity open so there are no extremely cold temperatures near the pipes.

“Be particularly aware of those water fixtures on exterior walls of the home,” Spencer said, since those walls will be colder.

4. Appliances

Check washing-machine hoses to make sure they’re not loose fitting or aged. You may see a bulge in the washer’s rubber hose when it’s starting to wear, Carter said. Hoses become brittle and often require replacing every five to seven years, according to Chubb.

Also keep an eye on your water heater, which Spencer said is a “classic source of damage from water loss.” Age matters; water heaters typically have a lifespan of 10 to 12 years, he said.

Check the silver plate mounted on the water heater, which includes manufacturer information, he said. Look for evidence of leaks around the pipes and at the base of the water heater, as well as rust on any of the parts, according to Chubb.

Amy Hoak's Home Economics: Stop home water leaks before they really cost you

Hot News: Stocks to Watch: Retailer earnings in focus

Factbox: Outcome of the Seoul G20 summit

SEOUL (Reuters) – World leaders said they would work to tackle global economic "tensions and vulnerabilities" that have raised fears of currency wars and trade protectionism as they wrapped up a Group of 20 summit in Seoul on Friday.

Following is a summary of what was decided:

GLOBAL IMBALANCES: Ironing out rifts between export-rich countries and debt-laden consumer nations has become the G20's cornerstone. Leaders had already agreed on a "framework" for balanced growth, and submitted medium-term economic plans for IMF review to ensure they do not clash, and the final summit communique did not go much further.

In Seoul, Washington had to give up on getting others to agree to numerical targets for current account deficits and surpluses. Instead, G20 leaders instructed their finance ministers to draw up a set of "indicative guidelines" to measure large current account imbalances, in consultation with the IMF, but left the details to be discussed in the first half of next year.

CURRENCIES: Foreign exchange rates are central to the imbalances debate. The United States and others have cajoled China to allow its yuan currency to rise faster and accuse Beijing of keeping it undervalued to gain a trade advantage.

But Washington faced a tougher time making that case when many of its allies view the Fed's easy money as a means to weaken the dollar.

The leaders vowed to move toward market-determined exchange rates and shun competitive devaluations, a repeat of a commitment made at a G20 finance ministers meeting last month.

But, in a nod to the growing clout of developing economies such as Brazil, G20 said those emerging economies with increasingly overvalued exchange rates that face an undue burden of adjustment would be justified in taking "carefully designed macro-prudential measures" -- code for capital controls -- to counter capital inflows.

At previous G20 summits, leaders have haggled over whether to include a line in the closing statement singling out China for keeping its currency undervalued, but once again this did not happen small personal loans.

FINANCIAL REGULATION: World leaders signed off on a "Basel III" agreement to raise the quality and quantity of bank capital, the centerpiece of their reforms following the financial crisis. They also be endorsed of the Financial Stability Board's proposals to tighten supervision of the over-the-counter derivatives market and reduce reliance on credit rating agencies.

However, they did not significantly advance the rest of their regulation agenda.

The G20 endorsed a series of broad recommendations by the Financial Stability Board to regulate banks judged "too big to fail" but, with disagreement over issues such as whether such institutions should be subject to further capital surcharges, said more work needed to be done on devising specific measures.

TRADE: Slow-growing advanced economies all want to export their way to economic health, which is the root of the tensions over currencies and imbalances. Leaders made broad pledges not to pursue protectionist policies and to work toward concluding the long-stalled Doha round of trade liberalization talks.

In a blow for the hosts, South Korea and the United States failed to seal a long-stalled free trade agreement, mainly due to disagreement over access for U.S. carmakers to the lucrative South Korean automobile market.

IMF

Leaders endorsed a package of reforms thrashed out by their finance ministers last month to reform the International Monetary Fund to reflect a shift in the balance of global economic power.

Under the deal, more than 6 percent of voting shares at the Fund will shift to dynamic developing countries such as China, which will become the third-biggest member of the 187-strong Washington-based lender. (Writing by Alex Richardson, Editing by John Chalmers)

Factbox: Outcome of the Seoul G20 summit

What Chinese Consumers Can Teach Americans

Yeah yeah, we're supposed to be angry at China for keeping their currency artificially low, sending us too much cheap stuff, and bouncing back from the global recession faster than we did. Foot stomp. There. I'm mad.

[See 20 industries where jobs are coming back.]

Now that I've gotten my Chinese tantrum out of the way, I can appreciate an insightful new study by consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which recently surveyed 15,000 Chinese consumers in 49 cities to find out how they shop (and how McKinsey's clients can better market to them).

China may have the world's most fascinating economy. It's growing at near-double digit rates, and it recently displaced Japan as the world's second-largest economy. Every day China disproves long-held tenets of capitalism, creating vast amounts of wealth despite the kind of Communist government that isn't supposed to be able to accomplish such things. China's domineering government can build world-class infrastructure overnight, putting the aging transit systems and energy grids of Europe and the United States to shame. It even builds brand-new "pop-up cities" to help fuel its economic boom--whether people arrive or not.

China's boom may very well conceal an artificially inflated economy that falls back to earth sooner or later. But whether you agree or disagree with its policies, China is becoming too influential to ignore--and so are its consumers. Keep in mind, consumerism as we know it in the West is practically brand new in China. Yet that's why it's interesting to watch how the Chinese approach the kind of materialism that has clearly gotten the West into trouble. China's booming middle class is rapidly acquiring the kind of disposable income that middle-class shoppers in Europe and America take for granted. And for now, most Chinese consumers are still uncorrupted by easy credit, must-have marketing, and other double-edged attributes of affluent societies. While they have their own values and cultural touchpoints, Chinese consumers today are also similar to Americans in the 1950s and '60s: Somewhat naive and probably too trusting, yet buoyant, proud, and fueled by optimism.

[See 10 new things we can't live without.]

So how do they shop? Some Chinese habits are quite familiar. They research products on the Internet and pay a lot of attention to word-of-mouth recommendations. But they're also careful and deliberate about spending, which is why McKinsey says they're "among the world's most pragmatic consumers." Policymakers in Washington actually think Chinese shoppers are too pragmatic, and they're pushing China to adopt policies that would encourage more domestic spending, so that the world economy relies less on over-indebted Americans to buy everything in sight. But you could also argue that American consumers addicted to spending should shop more like the Chinese. Here are four Chinese shopping habits that Americans could learn from:

Chinese consumers don't gorge on debt. China's financial system isn't yet geared to consumers, and credit is a lot harder to get than it is in the West. Yet even as it becomes available to higher-income consumers, they're not biting business cards. "Consumers elsewhere tend to trade up as they get wealthier," according to the McKinsey report. "Some start relying on credit, often spending more than they can afford. Not in China. Consumers there remain very concerned about financial stability and spend within their means." It will be interesting to see if Chinese consumers retain that discipline as their nation gets wealthier. They seem to be off to a good start.

[See why American workers need to toughen up.]

If they "trade up" to more expensive goods, they also "trade down" on other things to help pay for the indulgence. McKinsey's survey found that in three-quarters of urban households, Chinese consumers said they had traded up in at least one product category--buying a more expensive product or brand than they used to buy. But the majority of those people also spent less on other products to finance the upgrades. Many white-collar men spent more on restaurant meals, for instance, often to impress clients or business colleagues. But most of those big spenders also cut back on things like personal-care products or snacks, to balance out the spending. More than 80 percent of trade-up demand for higher-quality clothing and shoes came from working-class people trying to craft a more impressive professional image--and they, too, gave up a variety of other things to pay for it. Such tradeoffs might seem like an obvious choice--except we all know how hard it can be to give up even small luxuries, once we've gotten used to them.

They budget first and buy second (or don't buy at all). McKinsey reports that the typical Chinese family determines how much it can afford to spend, then lists the things it wants to buy, and finally holds a "beauty contest" to determine which products on the wish list are most appealing. Those are the ones they buy. Many Americans budget just as carefully, but far too many of us buy extra stuff anyway, because we feel entitled to it or it just makes us feel better. It's second-nature in America to push a cart through the aisles of Target or Home Depot, filling it with little things we never intended to buy, or even thought of before we got to the store.

[See how the middle class is shrinking.]

They spend months researching purchases. Many Chinese families in the market for a computer spend three to six months deciding which model to buy, visiting a store four or five times to check out the offerings. Other big-ticket items get just as much scrutiny, and Chinese shoppers also deliberate carefully over everyday things like food, drinks, and health and beauty items. Many shopping trips, in fact, are just for research, with nobody actually buying anything. Western-style marketers, no doubt, will work hard to make Chinese shoppers less careful and more impulsive--and McKinsey does in fact report that "emotional" purchases are on the rise. The race is on to see if we become more like them, or persuade them to become more like us.

Twitter: @rickjnewman

What Chinese Consumers Can Teach Americans

EPA says 50 Michigan oil spill sites clean

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – Federal officials say crews have finished cleanup at 50 sites in Michigan where a pipeline break spilled more than 800,000 gallons of oil.

Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency briefed hundreds of people at a meeting Monday night in Battle Creek.

WWMT-TV says EPA official Mark Durno reports 17 sites in the Kalamazoo River system are still being cleaned, while 24 others are being monitored.

The spill from an Enbridge Inc. pipeline happened in July near Marshall easy to get unsecured personal loans. Much of the cleanup has been finished, but the EPA says some operation and maintenance will continue.

The pipeline runs from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario.

___

Online:

Environmental Protection Agency information on spill: http://www.epa.gov/enbridgespill

EPA says 50 Michigan oil spill sites clean

Obama to ease U.S.-India export controls, boost trade

MUMBAI (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will announce the easing of U.S. controls on exports to India when he addresses business leaders here on Saturday in a move to boost trade between the two countries, the White House said.

Obama, who kicked off a 10-day tour of Asia with a big push for U.S. business with India, will address a business summit to showcase American goods as U.S. businesses finalize deals worth around $10 billion with India that will support 54,000 jobs back home, White House aide Michael Froman told reporters.

Some 20 deals are in the pipeline, including previously announced transactions involving General Electric (GE.N) and Boeing (BA.N), although details on a $4.5 billion sale by Boeing of C-17 military transport planes were still being ironed out.

Outlining a series of measures to ease export controls, Froman said the president will support Indian membership of four key global nuclear nonproliferation regimes.

"This really includes India as a major player in a non-proliferation world...and it recognizes the nature of the strategic relationship we now have with India," he said payday loans.

The four regimes are the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australian Group, which aims to reduce the spread of chemical and biological weapons, and the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multinational effort to control the transfer of conventional arms and dual-use technology.

Obama will also remove almost all of the remaining Indian defense and space organizations from a list of entities maintained by the U.S. government to curb proliferation, and relax so-called dual-use rules for Indian firms that regulate technology with both civil and defense applications.

"We will end up treating India similar to other close allies and partners other than as a country of concern," Froman said.

(Reporting by Alister Bull, editing by Andrew Marshall)

Obama to ease U.S.-India export controls, boost trade

Monetary stimulus, EU crisis plan frame ECB meet

FRANKFURT (AFP) – The European Central Bank will have plenty to talk about after its monthly governing council meeting on Thursday, even if it keeps its main lending rate unchanged at 1.0 percent, as expected.

ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet will have time to comment, if he wishes, on monetary policy differences with the US Federal Reserve and proposals for a eurozone crisis resolution mechanism.

With the ECB looking to unwind exceptional stimulus measures where it can, Fed preparations for a second round of so-called Quantitative Easing suggests the institutions have come to a fork in the road to recovery.

QE2, as markets call the Fed's likely next move, would see the US bank resume massive stimulus spending not seen since the depths of the 2007-09 economic crisis.

The Fed announced Wednesday that it will purchase 600 billion dollars of long-term US bonds -- essentially printing money -- to boost a weak recovery. It said it would buy around 75 billion dollars of US government bonds a month, a scale not seen since the depths of the economic crisis.

In Frankfurt, the ECB is trying to slowly wean dependent eurozone banks off unlimited supplies of central bank cash as the 16-nation economy advances with a bit more vigour.

"Trichet will be questioned about differences in monetary policy stance between the two sides of the Atlantic," Ernst & Young senior economist Marie Diron said.

RBS economist Nick Matthews said he was looking for a comment along the lines that Trichet "considers it important that US authorities have confirmed their strong dollar position vis-a-vis other major floating currencies."

But with Fed officials set to climb on board QE2, the euro has climbed to 1 instant payday loan.40 dollars -- not exactly a strong level for the US currency.

The future of a disputed ECB programme to buy government debt from banks is another question because although such purchases have ground nearly to a halt in recent weeks even as financial market pressure on some countries has resurfaced.

Greece, Ireland and Portugal could still have to turn to a European Union rescue package for help, and "journalists will likely attempt to garner further thoughts from Trichet on this given the renewed widening of periphery spreads," Matthews said.

He was referring to a widening gap in the cost of borrowing between benchmark Germany and heavily indebted countries on the eurozone's rim.

In London meanwhile, the Bank of England will keep its main lending rate at a record low 0.50 percent on Thursday, analysts said, while recent better economic growth there made a British version of QE2 less likely.

Finally, another key theme of the Frankfurt press conference "is likely to be the ECB's reaction to the decision by EU leaders to amend the Lisbon treaty and announcement of a permanent crisis resolution mechanism," Matthews said.

"Trichet has already publicly stated his discontent ... in particular to the watering down of plans to quasi-automatically impose economic sanctions" on countries that breach EU limits on deficits and debt.

That effectively leaves the decision to punish profligate EU governments in the hands of politicians who may take other considerations on board beyond the purely economic.

Monetary stimulus, EU crisis plan frame ECB meet

Voters carry anxiety, disappointment to the polls

The millions of Americans voting in midterm elections Tuesday were not always sure what they wanted, or even whom. But many knew they were unhappy — uneasy about the economy, frustrated with the direction of the country and dissatisfied with politics.

On an Election Day that seemed a long way from 2008, disappointment was the theme.

"I'd like to find somebody to blame," said Kimberly Abrudan, a customer service manager who had voted at a Delaware charter school for Democrat Chris Coons for Senate. "It would make things a lot easier. But I'm not convinced that it's any one man."

Abrudan said she voted for Barack Obama and felt let down that he had not been able to bridge the partisan divide and bring Americans together. If she could speak to the president in private, she conceded, "I might shake him around a bit."

The sentiment was not hard to find across the country in an election that took place against a backdrop of persistently high unemployment, no sign of real improvement in the economy and politics roiled by division.

[Upshot: Midterm elections live blog 2010]

Vicki Goode of Boyle County, Ky., had voted for Obama as well, and said she felt disappointed by his first two years in office and by what she characterized as a legislative logjam in Washington.

"I expected more sweeping change," she said after voting for Jack Conway, the Democratic candidate for Senate, over tea party-backed Republican Rand Paul.

Goode owns a gift store called Magnolia Cottage. Fewer people are buying gifts than they did two years ago, and those who come in aren't browsing as much — just finding what they want and buying that one thing. Her husband was out of work for 16 months.

Just about everywhere, this election felt far removed from the last. Two years ago, after all, there was no tea party. Now it's a force in American politics. Two years ago, the nation was in financial shock. Now hard times are all too familiar.

"You still have a lot of people out of work," said James Price, a lawyer in Indianapolis who voted a straight Republican ticket. "We're losing a lot of jobs. We have massive amounts of debt."

In Denver, there were those like Josie Hart-Genter, who said the administration had done exactly what it promised to — expand health care and pass an economic stimulus bill — and were proud. And those like Javier Flores, who wished Obama had been more aggressive on gay rights.

Just after sunrise, voters trickled into the elections office in downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., a city dotted with boarded-up storefronts and "For Sale" signs on empty homes.

[Related: ABC News cuts ties with Breitbart on election day]

Alan Satterwhite, a technology executive, said he was not worried about his own job but was concerned about the broader economy and blamed Congress for it. He voted for conservative candidates but said he was frustrated with both parties.

"No one is stepping forward with collaboration, and that needs to change," he said.

Change from the change: It was another demand voiced by voters around the nation Tuesday, even some who had embraced Obama's call for "Change We Can Believe In."

In the intervening two years, American politics was buffeted by turmoil — town hall meetings that devolved into shouting matches, persistent questions about the motives of leaders on both sides. Enough to spawn an entire rally in the name of restoring sanity Same day payday loans.

Charles Voirin, who lives in St. Petersburg and is close to retirement, had seen enough.

He was frustrated that the president had not been more assertive during his first two years. But then he was disappointed in the crop of candidates all around this year. He said he wants more moderates.

"There are more extremes on both sides," he said. "We're getting nothing done."

Others were more blunt in assigning blame, pointing fingers at the top.

"He's going to bankrupt this country," said Paul Edwards, a retired naval engineer in Indianapolis. He was angry that his health care costs are rising and said he disliked Obama's overhaul. The president says it will reduce costs in the long term, but Edwards is having none of it.

"I worked hard for 30 years, and all I see is my money being eaten up by somebody who thinks he knows how to spend it better than me," Edwards said.

Obama had plenty of supporters.

"I think it took a long time for us to get into the situation that we are," said LaVeeda Garlington, an attorney who voted a straight ticket in Silver Spring, Md., for Democrats, including Gov. Martin O'Malley. "It's going to take a long time to get out."

While she said she didn't agree with all the decisions the White House had made in two years, "it was a pretty full plate that the current administration inherited, and I think they need time to try to work it through."

[Related: Meg Whitman insists she doesn’t have buyer’s remorse]

Bill Gray, a registered Republican in San Francisco, put it in fewer words: "This poor guy. He just got stuck with it."

And then there was Benzo Jones of Las Vegas, who called himself a case study for what's wrong with the world right now: He is renegotiating his home loan, has neighbors struggling to keep jobs and is trying, so far without success, to get a small business loan for the Web design business he runs with his wife.

"But I don't blame Obama for that," said Jones, who was voting for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid over his Republican challenger, Sharron Angle. "I blame the banks, and I blame their greedy nature in terms of not opening up their lines on small business."

Jim Krostoski of New Britain, Conn., was ready to give someone else a try. He voted for Linda McMahon, the former professional wrestling executive running as a Republican for Senate, because he believed business people might have a better shot at getting it right than career politicians.

McMahon was never a darling of tea party voters — she beat their candidate in the Republican primary — but generally has their support. Krostoski said he thought the tea party had a chance to make a real difference in politics.

"They are angry voters and people who maybe want a change, so if they see someone different, let's give them a shot," he said. "I mean, these guys now can't get it right. Maybe somebody can."

___

Associated Press writers Pat Eaton-Robb, Ben Evans, Oskar Garcia, Tamara Lush, Karen Mahabir, Ivan Moreno and Tom Murphy contributed to this report.

Other popular stories on Yahoo!: • America's Happiest Companies • Hilarious video of Randy Moss goes viral • Emma Watson 'emotional' about financial worth discovery

Voters carry anxiety, disappointment to the polls

Hot News: California unveils greenhouse gas trading plan

Oil rises to near $82 as China manufacturing grows

BANGKOK – Oil prices rose to near $82 a barrel Monday in Asia as regional stock markets jumped on news that growth in Chinese manufacturing picked up pace in October.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 42 cents at $81.85 a barrel at late morning Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 75 cents to settle at $81.43 on Friday.

The pickup in Chinese manufacturing suggests that China's economic recovery remains on track, bolstering expectations that its demand for crude will offset weakness in advanced economies.

The figures boosted Asian stock markets which were mostly higher Monday.

Crude has been stuck in a range of about $80 to $83 a barrel for the past week, as traders and investors wait for the Federal Reserve to say what it will do to stimulate the U No teletrack payday loans.S. economy.

Expectations the Fed will Wednesday announce a Treasury bond buying program to pump money into the ailing economy were reinforced by lackluster third quarter U.S. growth figures released last week.

In other energy trading on the Nymex, heating oil was up 1 cent to $2.25 a gallon. Gasoline dropped 2 cents to $2.06 a gallon and natural gas added 6 cents to $4.10 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent crude was up 9 cents at $83.24 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange in London.

Oil rises to near $82 as China manufacturing grows