Forex Investment

IT WAS an unexpected message from the other side of the world.

The request to museum officials in Glasgow was simple but heartfelt: Return the skulls of our forefathers.

More than a century after the remains were brought back by Scottish missionary Robert Bruce from Mer Island, off the Australian coast, and following two years of negotiations, the island’s inhabitants yesterday got their wish.

The skulls were handed over in a solemn ceremony to representatives of the remote community of 450 people in the Torres Strait.

They had been lodged in Glasgow’s museum archive for decades and never displayed.

Archie Graham, Glasgow City Council’s executive member for culture, said: “It’s time to right this wrong. I’m pleased that after all this time, these remains will be returned with the dignity and respect that should be afforded them.”

Mr Graham added that he hoped the act of returning the remains would go some way to “healing the very obvious wounds felt by the peoples of the Torres Strait”.

The skulls of five tribesmen were acquired by Mr Bruce in 1898. They had been bought as part of an anthropological study carried out by Professor Alfred Haddon, a Cambridge University academic.

Initially travelling to the area to study marine zoology, Professor Haddon had become fascinated with the rapidly vanishing customs and ceremonies there.

He returned with a team of scientific experts, using some of the earliest film-making and sound-recording technology to document the islanders’ lives. The skulls were later brought to Glasgow.

Pat Allan, the local authority’s world culture curator, said the skulls had been measured and studied as part of research

examining potential links between evolution and culture.

She explained: “In those days, museums were seen as having two purposes: one was to display the bounty of the British Empire, the other was to create an archive for study and research.”

As a token of appreciation, the Mer islanders presented Mr Graham with a colourful feathered dhari traditionally worn as war head-dress.

Ron Day, chairman of the Mer Island community council, said the return of the remains was of great significance to his people: “The true meaning of this act is very hard to explain in a logical sense. Our culture is based on spirituality and to us that is the mechanism that made our community run and exist.

“It has particular significance for me, as some of the remains belong to one of my ancestors.”

Although the location of the skulls has not been a secret, the Mer islanders were helped by the Australian government, which has a team in Britain who examine museum archives looking for items that may have been taken without permission.

The skulls will now be returned to Australia for examination. The islanders have yet to take a final decision on what should be done with them. A HISTORY OF RETURNING RELICS

GLASGOW council has a history of returning relics and remains to the indigenous groups that they were taken from over the past centuries.

The best-known instance was the return of the Ghost Dance shirt to the Lakota Sioux native Americans from South Dakota. The sacred item had been taken from the body of a dead native American during the massacre of Wounded Knee in 1890 and brought to Glasgow in 1892.

Over the past 17 years, the council has also returned human remains to the Mount Morgan community of Northern Queensland and three preserved Maori heads and a human femur were given back to New Zealand.

A council spokesman said that every consideration was given to requests from indigenous populations: “We’re very clear that where there is a good strong moral case for returning an item - where human remains are concerned for instance - we will look very closely at it.”

He said that given Glasgow had almost a million artefacts in its museums it was unlikely that a “handful of requests” from indigenous cultures for items “would empty their archives”.

The market looks set for a weak open on disappointing earnings and Bear Stearns’ hedge fund news. Nasdaq futures are 12.2 points below fair value, the S&P 500 is down 7.7 and the Dow down 51.6 points.

Overall and core consumer prices rose 0.2% in June. Core CPI rose 2.2% vs. a year earlier, still a little high for the Fed’s taste. Housing starts rose last month, but downward revisions and a big drop in building permits wipe out positive feelings.

The economic data didn’t have much impact on stock futures they were too busy paying attention to the flood of earnings.

Intel () last night beat profit forecasts but shares are trading down 5% on weak gross margins. The chip giant’s outlook was so-so and the company said it might cut capital spending. That could hurt chip-gear makers today after big gains on Tuesday.

Yahoo () also is trading notably lower in the pre-open. The Internet giant met lowered views for flat profit. But its outlook was weak. Google (), which reports on Thursday, traded down slightly.

Pfizer (), the world’s No. 1 drug maker, missed profit and sales views amid a showing for its Lipitor cholesterol fighter. So shares are expected to open lower.

United Technologies () edged past views and raised its 2007 profit guidance. But shares of the diversified manufacturer, which has surged in recent days, are trading slightly lower.

Bear Stearns () is trading lower after the Wall St. bank said that two hedge funds bet heavily on subprime debt are virtually worthless. Bear shares have been under pressure for several weeks since news of the funds woes became clear.

The hedge funds’ near collapse raises has added to broader financial market concerns about subprime woes and risk in general. Businesses are having trouble selling debt while banks are finding resistance as they try to set up loans for the private equity clients. Cheap, easy credit has fueled the buyout boom, and an end to that could chill the overall stock market rally.

However, deal talk continues to swirl around retail giant Macy’s (). Shares are shooting up on a report that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs are mulling a $24 billion, $52-a-share bid.

Pharmaceutical Product Development () met Q2 profit views but warned for the 2nd half. Shares are pointed sharply lower.

American Standard (), which makes everything from air conditioners to kitchen fixtures, fell short of profit views. Shares, which had jumped to a new high on Tuesday, were trading lower.

Investors will pay close attention to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s congressional testimony at 10 a.m. ET.

At 10:30 a.m., the gov’t releases U.S. oil inventory data with crude prices around $75 a barrel.

After the close, eBay () and IBM () report results.

WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve moved Tuesday to impose tough new restrictions meant to curb unfair and deceptive home-lending practices and prevent a recurrence of the meltdown in subprime mortgages this year.

By a 5-to-0 vote, the Fed approved a plan that would tighten provisions meant to protect borrowers and apply them to a far larger share of home loans - whether from banks, mortgage companies or other lenders - than under current regulations.

The proposed rules underscore the more assertive role the Fed is now prepared to take in regulating lending, a big shift from the central banks approach in the past. In general, the rules are meant to deter unscrupulous lenders from persuading people that they can afford loans that ought to be out of their reach. By extension, the rules are also intended to keep would-be buyers from deceiving themselves about the debt burdens they can shoulder.

“Our goal is to promote responsible mortgage lending, for the benefit of individual consumers and the economy,” said the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke.

“We want consumers to make decisions about home mortgage options confidently, with assurances that unscrupulous home mortgage practices will not be tolerated.”

The plan includes provisions that would require more extensive disclosures, restrict advertising and make it harder to lend to borrowers with little or no documentation and a questionable ability to repay.

It would also allow borrowers, in some circumstances, to sue lenders who violated the rules.

The Fed acted under provisions of the Truth in Lending Act and the Home Ownership Equity Protection Act of 1994. In the past, it had been quite cautious about using its authority to clamp down, and the rules were last revised in 2001.

Details of the proposed rules, which could take effect next year after a period for public comment and possible revisions, can be read on the Feds Web site, www.federalreserve.gov.

In “four key protections,” the Fed listed these:

Creditors would be barred from lending without documenting a borrowers ability to repay the loan.

Creditors would have to verify a borrowers income and assets.

Prepayment penalties would be restricted.

Creditors would have to establish escrow accounts for taxes and insurance.

“Unfair and deceptive practices have harmed consumers and the integrity of the home mortgage market,” said a Fed governor, Randall Kroszner. “We have listened closely and developed a response to abuses that we believe will facilitate responsible lending.”

The action puts the Fed a step ahead of the Congress, which is considering its own steps to tighten restrictions on the home loan industry. A bill put forward by Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives, would expose mortgage brokers and lenders to legal liability if borrowers are unable to repay.

The Fed did not go as far as proposals by some consumer groups, which sought, for example, an outright ban on prepayment penalties.

What the Fed has been hearing in recent months is a complex blend of personal hardship and dire news for the country as a whole, as waves of foreclosures have swamped the housing market and threatened to mire the economy in a recession.

The housing boom of the first several years seems almost as distant as the boom in technology stocks, but economists have warned that the fallout from the housing slump could be much worse than that from the dot-com bubble.

Many homebuyers whose little slice of the American dream has turned into a nightmare were undone by “teaser rates” dangled in front of “balloon mortgages.” When the tempting original rates were supplanted by much higher rates built into the loan, many homeowners could not make the monthly payments.

Those personal misfortunes - whether the result of individual misjudgment, excessive optimism, shady lending or all of those - have mushroomed into a national problem.

The situation is further complicated by the subsequent packaging and reselling of subprime mortgages in ways that are so arcane that even some bankers acknowledge they are befuddled by them.

(AP)The nation’s top energy official hailed on Friday the innovation behind chemical giant DuPont Co.’s new $100 million bioengineering joint-venture with multinational agri-processor Tate & Lyle PLC to produce a new biology-based polymer.

The Loudon plant is churning out a product derived from corn that the companies say can directly replace and improve upon petroleum-based ingredients in everything from carpets to clothes to cosmetics, saving energy and using renewable resources at the same time.

The work that will be done here is on the leading edge of a biotechnology revolution, which I believe will change the way we power our cars, our trucks, our homes and our businesses, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said during a formal opening ceremony.

The plant is expected to make 100 million pounds of its bio-product annually. The plant may not reach full capacity for another year, but it already has shipped 85 rail cars of its bio-product since November.

Up to this point, we have been focused on recycling products and putting that back in other products, said Jeffrey S. Lorberdaum, CEO of carpetmaker Mohawk Industries. This is allowing us to take the next step in environmental sustainability.

By the fall, Mohawk will be marketing a line of carpet made entirely from the bio-ingredient from the Loudon plant.

DuPont and Tate & Lyle say their corn-based propanediol, or Bio-PDO, will find new uses because it helps fabrics take dyes more brilliantly, carpets become naturally stain resistant, face creams be gentler to the skin, and airplane de-icers biodegrade.

It is the most significant invention since nylon, DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles Chad Holliday Jr. said in an interview with The Associated Press. The Wilmington, Del.-based company invented nylon in 1935.

The functionality of this product is what really differentiates it, Iain Ferguson, chief executive of London-based Tate & Lyle, told the AP. That gives us something which has a real edge.

The Loudon plant, about 35 miles south of Knoxville, uses corn sugar or glucose from an adjoining Tate & Lyle ethanol plant. An E. coli bacteria modified by DuPont scientists breaks down the glucose through a fermentation process much like making beer.

The result is a clear liquid compound that might be used in a quickly growing range of products, including fabrics, cosmetics, liquid detergents, boat hulls, ski boots and runway de-icers.

Brent Erickson, an executive vice president at the Biotechnology Industry Organization in Washington, D.C., said that while DuPont and Tate & Lyle are not alone, the commercialization of their Loudon plant was a significant development in what he termed the third wave of a biotech revolution that began 20 years ago in medicine and then agriculture about a decade ago.

It has gone beyond the doctor’s office into consumer goods and other products that we never imagined, he said.

Holliday and Ferguson said they have factored rising corn prices, driven in part by growing demand for biofuels, into their equation.

Steven Mirshak, president of the DuPont-Tate & Lyle Bio-Products joint venture, said the price of the companies’ Bio-PDO base is similar to nylon. A chemical version of the product was discovered in the 1940s but was too expensive to make.

But with our new process using biology, we are able to produce PDO at a cost point where we can develop direct applications of its use in a variety of markets, he said, replacing petroleum counterparts.

Corn-based substitutes for petroleum are good for the environment, but experts have said they also contribute to a rise in global food import costs, making it harder for developing countries to feed their populations.

Holliday said DuPont brings an unusual perspective to the corn supply situation. The company also owns the major corn seed brand Pioneer and is devoting considerable resources to increasing its productivity.

Every time you get something like this where you get a price increase, you get further investment in agricultural production, Ferguson said. And there is clearly considerable further potential to raise the yields.

What better way to follow up a summary and analysis of forex markets with a commentary on how they will perform in 2007! Specifically, how will the USD perform in the coming year? Economists and investors alike are basking in the decline of the Dollar in 2006. The current account deficit is projected to grow at an even slower rate this year as US exports become more competitive, and investors are earning spectacular returns upon repatriating gains achieved on foreign investments. Meanwhile, with the US economy slowing and subsequent predictions that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates to facilitate a soft landing, it looks like more of the same for the USD in 2007. However, the Fed will have to balance a loosening of monetary policy with pricier imports that will result from the declining dollar. In addition, while the laws of economics dictate the USD should fall further, the laws of financial markets (if they can be called laws) may indicate that it has already fallen too much. BusinessWeek reports: Currency analysts at JPMorgan Chase estimate that, based on long-term influences, including country-by-country differences in productivity, prices, interest rates, and risk, the greenback is now about 10% undervalued. Read More: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_03/b4017032.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives