Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the recent turmoil in world financial markets underscores the need for greater transparency in hedge funds, a key aim of Germany’s presidency of the Group of Eight leading nations.
- Credit investors are overcompensating for their years of complacency by “shunning deals with innovation and added risk,” S&P analysts said in a report today.
- David Kelly, an economic adviser at Putnam Investments LLC, says worries about a slower housing market and losses on subprime mortgages have been blown out of proportion by Wall Street.
- Crude oil rose after a report showed orders for US-made durable goods rose more than expected last month, easing concern that loan defaults will slow economic growth.
- Sugar is falling 1% on speculation that a global surplus will overwhelm demand next year and that lower energy prices will reduce the value of ethanol made from sugar cane.
- Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most influential foreign-policy experts in the Democratic Party, threw his support behind Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy, saying the Illinois senator has a better global grasp than his chief rival, Hillary Clinton.
- US three-month Treasury bill yields rose for a fourth day as demand eased for the safest government securities.
- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will propose tax breaks to help Americans pay for health insurance and incentives for states to craft their own programs to make sure everyone gets coverage.

NY Times:
- The headquarters of Google Inc.(GOOG) is increasingly popular among US presidential candidates as a fund-raising destination.

USA Today:
- More Americans with varying levels of wealth are giving it to relatives or charitable causes while they’re still alive.

Washington Post:
- What Credit Crunch?

Financial Times:
- Vulture funds, or seekers of distressed securities, are poised to pick through dead or wounded companies and securities. A net flow of $20 billion into distressed-securities funds in the first half of 2007 was double the entire amount for 2003-2006, citing Hedge Fund Research data.

Reuters:
- Robert Merton, the Nobel Prize winner who co-founded the failed hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management, said his new firm plans to start and asset management business and open new hedge funds.