The US Federal Reserve Board has decided to bail out American International Group by lending it $85 billion in order to prevent its collapse and a consequent negative impact on the global financial market.

In an unprecedented move, the Federal Reserve Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to come up with a rescue package of $85 billion for AIG in return of which the federal government will acquire a 79.9% stake in the company. The bail out action was initiated so that the nation’s largest insurer could be saved from bankruptcy. Such a situation which would have proved disastrous not only for the US financial markets but across the globe since AIG has around $1.1 trillion in assets and 74 million clients in 130 nations.

The federal rescue of AIG marks the latest turn in a series of events which began last year with the chaos in the housing market. The mortgage meltdown prompted the federal government to step in with a bail out package for the twin mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However the chaos soon spread further to financial markets this until this week big Wall Street names like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapsed while others like Merrill Lynch ceased to exist as independent entities.

US federal regulators banned the import of 28 drugs into American markets after reports that their producer, the Indian pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy had failed to maintain the required manufacturing standards.

The US Food and Drug Administration revealed that imports were being suspended as manufacturing lapses had been reported at two of the Ranbaxy’s pharmaceutical plants in India, one at Dewas and the other at Paonta Sahib.

However the FDA clarified that the import ban was more of “a preventive action” and that drugs on the list posed no harm to consumers. Moreover the drugs were not in any way sub-potent or contaminated and patients taking them were urged not to stop their medication all of a sudden. The agency distinguished between the products and the manufacturing process, saying that the former did not possess any defects and the lapses reported related only to the manufacturing process.

Ranbaxy Laboratories is the biggest pharmaceutical company in India and one of the top ten generic drug makers in the world. The drugs which have been listed under the import ban include various antibiotics and antivirals besides medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, seasonal allergies and acne. Except for oral capsules of the antiviral drug ganciclovir, All the rest were manufacture by other companies and were available in US markets.

The passage of Hurricane Ike through the Gulf coast of Texas caused major damage to parts of the region’s shrimping industry which has already been hit hard by high fuel prices and overseas competition.

On Saturday, as Hurricane Ike blew over the coast, shrimping boats were tossed onto the roadways and docks were destroyed by the powerful gales. Even though many shrimp catchers had tied their boats to safe harbors, the hurricane caused severe damage to pockets of shrimping industry like in Galveston where the float docks, the ice houses and the places where the shrimp were off-loaded have been badly hit.

The Texas shrimping industry is a significant component of Gulf Coast fishing. In 2007 the Texan shrimp harvest stood at 32 tons which was valued at $144.5 million according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However industry experts say that the hurricane alone is unlikely to have a major impact on the prices of shrimp per pound at Central Texas supermarkets.

In recent times, the Gulf Coast shrimping industry has been reeling under the impact of rising prices of diesel which is essential to power the boats. The industry has also been badly affected by huge supply of shrimp from overseas fleets. However the good news, according to veterans of the business, is that shrimping is best after a powerful storm.

The McClatchy Co announced another round of job lay offs on Tuesday which would cut down its workforce by an additional 10% in an attempt to save about $100 million annually.

The ten percent cut in jobs announced by McClatchy is expected to affect around 1150 full-time employees who belong to different papers like The Sacramento, Modesto and Fresno Bees. According to the company spokesperson, almost half of the lay offs will be in the shape of voluntary buy-outs and the company is expected to incur an additional $20 million bill in severance costs. McClatchy decided to bring about job cuts in order to cut costs and the restructuring of the workforce is expected to save the company around $100 million a year.

Furthermore, McClatchy has decided to cut its shareholder dividend by half and has fixed the new figure at 9 cents a share. the move is expected to save the company around $7.5 million per quarter. According to latest reports, McClatchy has almost 82 million shares outstanding.

Like many other publications of the US newspaper industry, McClatchy too has been hit hard by falling revenues from advertisements. McClatchy announced that its consolidated revenue for August this year fell by 15.7% and advertising revenue was down by 17% from the same period last year.

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill which seeks to open newer areas along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts for offshore drilling of oil and natural gas. However drilling will be allowed only 50 miles or further from the shore and will be subject to the particular state’s approval of energy development off its shore.

The bill has been strongly pushed by the Democrat Party which has recently come around to opening up newer coastal areas for offshore oil drilling as a way to reduce dependence on foreign fuel. The party is also in favor of heavily taxing the large energy companies and then using the billions of dollars collected to promote alternative fuel and energy efficiency.

However the Republican Party opposed the bill on grounds that the 50 mile-coastal buffer effectively imposed a ban on future energy development as most of the oil reserves were within 50 miles of the shorelines. Moreover the Party was against introducing any more taxes and believed that the bill was merely being used by Democrats as an excuse to obtain political cover now that they had realized the need to raise domestic production of oil in order to offset high prices of foreign fuel.

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