Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- S&P Says End in Sight for Writedowns on Subprime.
- The SEC abandoned a tactic for ferreting out potential insider trading at hedge funds, after the nation’s biggest business lobby called the method “unduly burdensome.”
- House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd unveiled plans to increase government efforts to prevent foreclosures.
- Carlyle Group said creditors plan to seize the assets of its mortgage-bond fund after it failed to meet more than $400 million of margin calls on mortgage-backed collateral that plunged in value.
- Markit Group shelved plans to create an index that would have allowed investors to bet on the $200 billion market for securities backed by auto loans.
- Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both propose significant changes to the tax code that would add to its complexity. His plan emphasizes income redistribution, while hers seeks to change Americans’ behavior.
- Brazil’s currency and local bonds tumbled after the government imposed a tax on foreigners’ purchases of local debt to slow a rally that has driven the currency up 61% in the past three years.
- Miners Top MBAs as Metal Boom Makes Geologists Scarce.

Wall Street Journal:
- EA’s(ERTS) Take-Two(TTWO) Saga Turns Hostile. Offer Is Made to Holders Of ‘Grand Theft’ Maker; Other Bidders Playing?
- DirecTV to Start On-Demand.
- Google(GOOG) to Unveil New Ad Service for Web Publishers.
- Goldman(GS) to Join the SPAC Field. Move to Underwrite Blank-Check IPOs Comes With Twist.
- How US Beat 1970s by Lowering Capital-Gains Taxes.

Social Science Research Network:
- Do hedge funds profit from mutual fund distress?

AppleInsider:
- Apple TV DVR interface revealed in patent filings.

Reuters:
- Nokia(NOK) has paid Qualcomm(QCOM) around $1 billion over 15 years for full access to the US chip maker’s early mobile technology patents.

Interfax:
- Russian economic growth could slow as global money markets tighten and Russia’s banks and companies find it harder to borrow and refinance their debts. Net capital outflows from Russia may have reached $15 billion to $20 billion in the first two months of the year, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.

Xinhua:
- China’s textile and garment exports in February dropped 32.9% from the previous month, largely due to weakening US and European demand and the severe winter storms, customs authorities said.

Arab News:
- Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs at the Arab League Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Tuwaijri has dismissed the idea that any GCC state, except Kuwait, would cut its currency link with the US dollar.