President Barack Obama says he doesn’t take it personally when people say they hate him. And the thing he dislikes most about being president is the constant, intense scrutiny.
“The people who dislike you don’t know you. The folks who hate you, they don’t know you,” Obama said Sunday in an interview broadcast during Fox’s pre-game coverage of the Super Bowl. “What they hate is whatever funhouse mirror image of you that’s out there. They don’t know you.”
Asked by Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly whether his critics annoyed him, Obama said: “By the time you get here, you have to have had a pretty thick skin. If you didn’t, then you probably wouldn’t have gotten here.”
The 14-minute, live interview sought Obama’s views on a range of timely matters, including the unrest in Egypt and the ultimate fate of the new health care law. O’Reilly also probed Obama on lighter topics, including which team would win the NFL championship game and the worst part of his job.
Obama lamented anew about “being in the bubble.” He is followed practically everywhere by staff, Secret Service agents and the media.
“It’s very hard to escape,” said Obama, seated in the Blue Room of the White House. “Every move you make . and over time, you know, what happens is is that you feel like you’re not able to just have a spontaneous conversation with folks. And that’s a loss. That’s a big loss.”
Asked what surprised him after he took office, Obama said it’s that he’s never asked to solve an easy problem.
“I think that the thing you understand intellectually but that you don’t understand in your gut until you’re in the job . is that every decision that comes to my desk is something that nobody else has been able to solve,” he said. “The easy stuff gets solved somewhere by somebody else. By the time it gets to me, you don’t have easy answers.”
Obama said he has to use his best judgment knowing that “you don’t have perfect information and you know that you’re not going to have a perfect solution.”
A liberal, Obama denied that he’s begun a shift to the political middle following the “shellacking” Democrats suffered in the November elections _ the party lost control of the House and has a slimmer majority in the Senate _ and as he lays the groundwork for an expected campaign for re-election in 2012.
“I’m the same guy,” Obama said. “And my practical focus, my common-sense focus is how do we out-innovate, out-educate, out-build and out-compete the rest of the world? How do we create jobs here in the United States of America? How do we make sure that businesses are thriving . but how do we also make sure ordinary Americans can live out the American dream because right now they don’t feel like they are?”
O’Reilly asked Obama three times whether the job had changed him before he acknowledged that it had. Obama said his hair is grayer and that “I’m basically the same guy as when I came in” to office. O’Reilly then said that some of Obama’s friends have said Obama is not as light or spontaneous as he once was, to which Obama agreed.
“I would say that’s probably true. There’s no doubt that the weight of this office has an impact,” he said.
As for the game, Obama declined to choose between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers poor credit personal loans.
“Here’s the thing, once my (Chicago) Bears lost, I don’t pick sides,” he said. Green Bay defeated the Bears to get to the Super Bowl.
But he and his wife, Michelle, were throwing a party and Obama, an avid basketball player, said he’d be watching.
“I know football and I will watch the game. What happens is I schmooze with everybody when they come, give them a little bit of time. But once the game starts they can just sit down and watch the game. I’ll be sitting there with them but I don’t want them coming up and chitting and chatting.”
About 100 people were expected, including celebrities Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, the husband-and-wife part-owners of the Miami Dolphins. Elected officials from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were also invited, including Pennsylvania Sens. Robert Casey, a Democrat, and Pat Toomey, a Republican, and Wisconsin Rep. Reid Ribble, a Republican who represents Green Bay.
The menu featured beer from each state: Hinterland Pale Ale and Amber Ale from Wisconsin, and Yuengling Lager and Light, brewed in Pennsylvania, along with plenty of calorie-laden football fare: bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza, Buffalo wings, potato salad, chips and dips, salad and ice cream, according to the White House.
Asked about the crisis in Egypt, Obama said the country has been forever changed by the huge pro-democracy protests that began Jan. 25. He also played down prospects that the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned political and religious group in Egypt with strains of anti-U.S. ideology, would take a major role in any new government.
On health care, Obama said a federal judge in Florida who recently struck down the entire law “was wrong.” That judge said the requirement that nearly everyone have health insurance is unconstitutional. A different judge who reached the same conclusion in a separate case voided only that requirement. Judges in two other cases upheld the law.
It’s generally accepted that the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final word. Obama gave an indirect answer to O’Reilly’s question about whether he’s prepared for the law to “go down.” Obama said only that he doesn’t want to spend the next two years “refighting the battles of the last two years.”
The Fox News Channel host, a frequent Obama critic who called him “Robin Hood Obama” in a September 2008 interview during the presidential campaign, opened Sunday’s meeting by thanking Obama and his administration for assisting two Fox reporters who’d gotten “roughed up” in Cairo.
“Those guys could have died and I just want everybody to know the State Department really saved them,” O’Reilly said.
The Obama administration has had a contentious relationship with Fox, with some officials accusing it of operating like a wing of the Republican Party.
But O’Reilly was not quite as combative Sunday.
“I enjoy talking to you,” O’Reilly said in closing. “I disagree with you sometimes. I hope you think I’m fair to you. I try to be, but I wish you well in the next two years.”
Schlumberger’s fourth-quarter net income jumped 31 percent, the company reported Friday, as demand for oilfield services surged around the world along with the price of energy.
Oil prices have moved consistently higher since last summer. A barrel of oil now costs more than $90.
The energy industry, after slumping during the recession, is aggressively bumping up production to meet demand and major oil producers need companies Schlumberger to manage drill sites across the globe.
The company’s shares have been climbing since last summer as well, and before the market opened Friday, the stock rose nearly 2 percent to $86.80.
Schlumberger has had to grow with major producers and last year spent $11 billion to acquire Smith International Inc.
It was the time that Smith’s operations were reflected over an entire quarter and during the past three months, the company contributed revenue of $2.49 billion and pretax operating income of $275 million.
Schlumberger Ltd., based in Houston, earned $1.04 billion, or 76 cents per share, for the final three months of the year. That compares with $795 million, or 65 cents per share, in the year-ago period payday loan lenders. Revenue increased 58 percent at $9.07 billion.
Excluding special charges, Schlumberger said it would have earned $1.16 billion, or 85 cents per share, in the quarter.
Analysts typically exclude special charges and had predicted earnings of 78 cents per share on revenue of $10.1 billion.
Oilfield services revenue climbed 16 percent to $6.01 billion.
Schlumberger said that 2010 was the second-biggest demand increase in the past 30 years and most forecasts call for that trend to continue.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency expects oil demand this year will rise to 89.1 million barrels a day, up from 87.7 million barrels a day in 2010.
For the full year, Schlumberger said it earned $4.27 billion, or $3.38 per share, compared with $3.13 billion, or $2.59 per share in 2009.
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The AP’s Michelle Chapman contributed to this report in New York.
Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods outside of the volatile transportation category rose by the largest amount in eight months in November. Factories saw demand increase for computers, appliances and heavy machinery.
The Commerce Department says total orders for durable goods dropped 1.3 percent, a decline that reflected sagging demand for aircraft and autos. But excluding transportation, orders rose 2 .4 percent, the best showing since last March.
The widespread gain outside of transportation was an encouraging sign that factories will be ramping up production and hiring more workers in coming months.
Monsanto Co. said Wednesday that Pierre Courduroux will become the company’s next chief financial officer on Jan. 1.
Courduroux, 45, is currently Monsanto’s finance lead for global seeds and traits business. He replaces Carl Casale, who is leaving at the end of the year to become president and CEO of Minneapolis-based CHS Inc.
“Pierre understands our business, has proven financial expertise, and applies that to executing on our strategic vision,” chief executive Hugh Grant said in a statement savings account payday advance.
Courduroux, a native of Clermont-Ferrand, France, joined Monsanto in 1990. He also previously served as CFO for the company’s global vegetable business.
Italian economist Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, one of the intellectual architects of the euro and a member of the European Central Bank’s first executive board, has died. He was 70.
Padoa Schioppa, economy minister under Premier Romano Prodi, died Saturday night after suffering a heart attack during a dinner in Rome with friends, according to one of those present, his one-time deputy Vincenzo Visco.
The unexpected death stunned Italy’s political and business elite, who remembered him as a passionate promoter of the European project and its single currency.
“He was among those who knew how to translate the European ideal into concrete and learned analyses and projects, giving in particular a lasting contribution to the birth of the euro and the eurozone,” Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said.
During his seven year term at the ECB, Padoa Schioppa was one of the six members charged with guiding the euro through its first vital years after being introduced in 11 member nations on Jan. 1, 1999.
“He contributed decisively in the early years of the euro to the reputation of the ECB as a major actor in international and European cooperation,” ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said in a statement. The eurozone, he said, “is losing a man of reflection, of action and of vision, fully dedicated to European unity.”
Prior his appointment to the ECB, Padoa Schioppa held many prestigious posts in the Italian business and banking world. He first gained international recognition as the director-general for economic and financial affairs at the European Commission 1979-1983.
In 1993 he became deputy director-general of Banca d’Italia faxless payday loans. He surprised many in 1997 when he moved to Consob, Italy’s stock market watchdog. As chairman he fought to introduce reforms in the Italian stock market particularly those to clamp down on insider trading.
More recently, the Greek government tapped him to help deal with the country’s debt crisis and Fiat Industrial named him to the board just last week.
But it was his role in shepherding in the euro that made his mark.
Schioppa was the executive board director with special responsibility for international relations, payment systems and banking supervision. He traveled widely lecturing in important financial centers from New York to Tokyo and Beijing advocating the importance and potential of the euro.
An ardent supporter of the European project, the trilingual Schioppa acknowledged the challenge that lack of political union presented to the euro. He repeatedly argued that “a strong currency requires a strong economy and a strong polity, not only a competent central bank.”
With the euro well on its way, Prodi named Padoa Schioppa economy minister after winning the 2006 elections and tasked him with the difficult job of trying to revive Italy’s zero-growth economy. It was a post he held until Prodi lost to Premier Silvio Berlusconi in 2008.
Padoa Schioppa, educated in Milan and Massachusetts, was married with three children.
Funeral arrangements weren’t immediately announced. Rome’s mayor offered city hall for the wake, noting that Padoa Schioppa’s death was a loss for the entire nation.
Bank of England policy maker Adam Posen said policy makers shouldn’t “overreact” to inflation, which may slow below 1 percent in two years.
The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee “would only make things worse by making policy looking in the rear-view mirror, trying to make up for past mistakes,” Posen said in a speech today in Billericay, England. “If we allow for even just some exchange-rate pressure upwards on prices over this period as well, underlying U.K. inflation has stayed well below target.”
U.K. inflation has exceeded the government’s 3 percent limit for nine months, and an increase in value-added tax on sales in January may add to prices in 2011. Posen said Britain’s economy still has a “large” amount of slack in the aftermath of the recession and the largest government budget squeeze since World War II will slow inflation.
“Neither our forecast nor our policy going forward should overreact reflexively to that above-target inflation, even though it will persist for the next few months after the coming VAT rise,” Posen said.
Posen’s analysis leads him “to a forecast for U.K. inflation well below that of the November Inflation Report, and more importantly a forecast that at the target horizon of two- plus years, annual CPI inflation will be significantly below target (perhaps by 1 percent or more),” he said.
Price Expectations
Consumer prices rose 3.3 percent from a year earlier in November, the highest since May. Consumers’ inflation expectations reached a two-year high in November in a GfK NOP Ltd. survey for the Bank of England released today.
The large amount of slack in the economy will still curb consumer-price gains, Posen said.
“Financial crises in advanced economies do not destroy enough productive capacity to offset the disinflationary fall in demand,” he said. “For the U.K. today, this would suggest that a sizable output gap still exists, exerting downward pressure on inflation, all else equal.”
The bank’s nine-member committee kept its bond-purchase plan unchanged at 200 billion pounds ($312 billion) this month and held its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.5 percent. Minutes of the central bank’s Nov. 4 decision showed policy makers split three ways, with Andrew Sentance calling for higher rates to combat inflation and Posen pushing for more stimulus to sustain the recovery. The rest voted for no change.
Minutes of this month’s decision are due Dec. 22.
Stocks ended Wednesday on a positive note after a batch of economic reports offered hope that the U.S. economy was improving.
Incomes rose last month and consumer spending climbed for a fifth month. That raised hopes that shoppers will hit the malls in droves the day after Thanksgiving, the start of the holiday shopping season.
At the same time, fewer people claimed unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the labor market is recovering.
“There are fundamental signs that the economy is turning a corner,” said John O’Donoghue, co-head of equities at Cowen & Co.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged 150.91, or 1.4 percent, to 11,187.28.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 17.62, or 1.5 percent, to 1,198.35. The Nasdaq composite index rose 48.17, or 1.9 percent, to 2,543.12.
The upturn marked an abrupt reversal from Tuesday, when an exchange of artillery fire between North and South Korea led nervous investors to sell stocks and dash into gold, Treasurys and other assets often used as hiding spots. Investors also shrugged off a steep fall in new home sales and manufacturing orders.
Tim Speiss, chair of the wealth advisory group at EisnerAmper, said investors were right to focus on the improved signs in employment and consmer spending, which are far more important to an economic resurgence than home sales or manufacturing orders.
“If we don’t have strong consumer spending in this economy, we’re in trouble,” said Speiss. “When there’s spending, manufacturing will increase to meet that demand.”
The government said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell 34,000 to 407,000 last week. That was much better than the 435,000 new claims economists had expected.
A separate report showed that Americans’ incomes rose 0.5 percent last month, slightly better than expected. Their spending rose 0.4 percent, up slightly from September.
Safety assets moved lower as investors became more willing to take on risk. Treasury prices edged lower, pushing their yields higher. The yield on the 10-year note rose to 2.92 percent from 2.77 percent Tuesday. Gold fell to $1,375 an ounce, down from $1379.
Investors largely dismissed downbeat reports that showed declines in sales of manufactured goods and new home sales. Orders for durable goods fell 3.3 percent, while new home sales and median home prices both fell last month. Sales of single-family houses slid 8.1 percent, the fourth time the rate has dropped in the past six months.
In corporate news, Tiffany & Co. also reported a rise in profit, fueled by strong sales of jewelry in the U.S. and overseas. Tiffany shares rose 5.3 percent to $61.33. Shares of fellow high-end retailer Coach Inc. also rose 3.7 percent to $56.63.
U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. They will reopen for half-day sessions on Friday.
A two-day internal study mission focused on projects and companies that have earned the Sacramento region bragging rights wraps up Friday in Folsom.
Some of the “firsts” event participants learned about included the region’s status as the top place in the state for green job growth, and its claim to the world’s largest solar power system on the roof of a movie theater. The region can also lay claim two of the largest solar power systems in the country — at Aerojet and Intel Corp.
In addition, Los Rios Community College District will have the first regional education center on a University of California campus — the Sacramento City College Davis Center at UC Davis West Village. The center is expected to open in spring 2012.
The region’s business and community leaders are used to traveling as a group out of state — and at times out of the country — to study what other places have done right in economic development and other topics of interest. The second annual Sacramento Regional Internal Study Mission again invited leaders to stay home to study this region’s assets and opportunities.
The goal is for business and community leaders to look inward, learn more of what the region has to offer and become better able to sell others on Sacramento’s strong points.
This year’s study mission is focused on sustainable communities, energy and agriculture; clean-energy technology; education; agri-tourism; and health care.
Participants from a variety of industries, government, education and nonprofits traveled together by bus to tour a few highlights in Sacramento and El Dorado counties. Destinations included California State University Sacramento, Folsom Lake College, El Dorado Hills Town Center, the American River Parkway, Intel’s Folsom campus and Soil Born Farms.
Some participants fully immersed themselves in the study mission by staying overnight at Lake Natoma Inn in Folsom.
The event is organized by the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has made several changes in the management structure at its Air Quality Division.
Ira Domsky was named director of information technology and a science adviser. He had been acting director since January. Domsky has been with the department for 26 years and previously served as deputy director.
Eric Massey, who has been with ADEQ for 11 years as a manager of air quality compliance and permitting, was named director cash advance loan. He had been acting deputy director since January.
Trevor Baggiore will become the division’s new deputy director. He has been with the department for nine years.
Lawmakers ripped into BP chief Tony Hayward on Thursday, accusing him of being ill-prepared for congressional testimony and not cooperating with an investigation into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
In Hayward’s first congressional appearance since the April 20 disaster, lawmakers wanted to know if BP had cut corners in an effort to save money in the run up to the explosion.
Questions during the 7-1/2 hour hearing, which included two recesses, focused on the well’s design and the measures taken while BP was attempting to seal it before it exploded.
"Did BP make a fundamental misjudgment" in using one long piece of well casing instead of many shorter pieces, as other oil companies said they would have done, asked Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
"I wasn’t involved in that decision," replied Hayward, saying that the single piece was better for the well’s long-term stability.
Waxman produced transcripts from BP’s engineers saying that the single casing was "unlikely to be successful." Waxman said BP went ahead with it anyway to save $7 to $10 million.
Hayward said he was "not prepared to draw conclusions about this accident until the investigation is complete."
"This is an investigation," said Waxman. "Are you cooperating with other investigations? Because they’re going to have a hard time reaching a conclusion if you stonewall them, which it appears you are doing today."
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., wanted to know how much it would have cost BP to perform additional tests on the cement in the well.
"I cannot say," said Hayward.
Dingell also wanted to know how much it would have cost to circulate a heavier drilling mud through the pipes, which may have prevented the explosion.
"I cannot say," replied Hayward, again.
"We thought we’d have more candid responses to our questions," said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. " You’re the CEO, you headed exploration, you know what’s going on."
Criticizing Hayward for his lack of answers became a theme of the meeting.
"Clearly Mr. Hayward is not prepared to answer the questions," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. "Any one of us could do a better job."
Apology flap
Barton may have been trying to deflect criticism after an earlier incident in which he called BP’s agreement to set up a $20 billion fund for spill victims "a shakedown" by the Obama administration, and apologized to BP.
The comment drew immediate criticism, with Rep. Edward Markey saying the fund is "the American government working at its best," and both the White House and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. issuing statements blasting Barton.
There were reports some Republican lawmakers from Gulf states were asking him to resign as ranking member of the committee, and Republican leaders issued a statement saying "Congressman Barton’s statements this morning were wrong."
Barton later retracted his apology to BP and said he was sorry for using the term shakedown.
"BP is responsible for this accident, should be held responsible, and should in every way do everything possible to make good on the consequences," he said. "If anything I’ve said this morning has been misconstrued in an opposite effect, I want to apologize."
Hayward gets emotional
Tensions in the hearing were apparent before Hayward began testifying, when he was was interrupted by a woman shouting unintelligibly, her face and hands painted with oil.
After a brief struggle with police, she was removed from the room and arrested. U.S. Capitol Police say the woman was charged with unlawful conduct.
Hayward began his testimony by waiving his right to legal counsel.
He struck an emotional tone in his prepared remarks, acknowledging the loss of life and apologizing to residents of the Gulf Coast.
"When I learned that 11 men had lost their lives in the explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon, I was personally devastated," he said. "I want to offer my sincere condolences to their family and friends."
He went on to talk about the Gulf Coast economy and environment.
"I want to speak directly to the people who live and work in the Gulf region: I know that this incident has profoundly impacted lives and caused turmoil, and I deeply regret that," he said.
Hayward had been criticized previously for a sometimes callous approach to the disaster, especially the comment a few weeks back that he’d "like his life back" and that the "environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest."
In opening statements short on bluster and long on details, lawmakers outlined a series of steps BP took in the lead-up to the explosion that appeared to put cost above safety.
"Why would a team be sent home before performing a test?" on the well, asked Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., referring to one of the decisions in question. "BP had several warnings, but instead of treating the well with caution, it seems BP was only interested was completing the well quickly and cheaply."
The well exploded 59 days ago, killing 11 workers. Millions of gallons of oil are still spewing into the Gulf, resulting in what some are calling the worst environmental disaster in American history.
According to congressional documents and interviews with workers on the rig when it exploded, it appears BP chose faster, cheaper techniques for drilling this well, sometimes against the advice of their sub-contractors.
Hayward said there was "no evidence of reckless behavior," contradicting President Obama, who referred to the company’s "recklessness" during Tuesday night’s address to the nation.
Hayward also said no BP employees have been laid off as a result of the accident, and that he did not believe cost cutting led to the explosion.
"If there’s any evidence that anybody put costs above safety I will take action," he said.
"I can’t believe you said that," retorted Waxman. "Of course there’s evidence."
– CNN staff contributed to this report
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