Friday, December 05, 2008

STOCKS FALL - RISE TODAY

CNN NEWS VIDEO
http://edition.cnn.com/video/

YAHOO NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video

MIDEAST CONFLICT NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/1874;_ylt=A0wNcxFdg6xIgbkAwD6z174F

ABC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461

FOX NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3074

FOX BUSINESS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3045

AP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2529

BBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2918

REUTERS VIDEO NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2704

AFP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3091

CNBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3245

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI DEC 05,2008

09:30 AM -44.50
10:00 AM -140.10
10:30 AM -201.19
11:00 AM -170.12
11:30 AM -215.54
12:00 PM -147.43
12:30 PM -134.04
01:00 PM -161.12
01:30 PM -105.13
02:00 PM -27.40
02:30 PM -34.45
03:00 PM +169.02
03:30 PM +179.24
04:00 PM +259.18 8635.42

S&P 500 876.07 +30.85

NASDAQ 1509.31 +63.75

GOLD 756.8 -8.4

OIL 41.76 -2.13

TSE 300 8117.03 +59.21

CDNX 684.31 -13.55

S&P/TSX/60 494.62 +6.08

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

Economy sheds 533,000 jobs in NOV,Most since 1974.
WERE THE JOBS WERE CUT:
Service Providing:370,000
Godds Producing:163,000
Retail trade:91,000
Manufacturing 85,000
Construction:82,000
Leisure/Hospitality:76,000
Healthcare added 34,000 jobs in NOV and 369,000 in past 12 months.
NOV jobless rate:Whites 6.1%,Blacks 11.2%,Hispanic 8.6%,Male 6.5%,Female 5.5%
Unemployment rose to 10.3 MILLION in nov.
1.9 MILLION lost jobs since start of recession in DEC 2007.
Long term unemployed has risen by 822,000 in 12 months.
NOV work week-0.1 hours to 33.5 hours.
7.3 MILLION part-time workers due to economic situation.
Energy and commodity stocks weaker today.

Dow -98 points at 4 minutes into trading today.
Dow -222 at low today.
Dow +11 at high today.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS

Dow -257 points at low today.
Dow +310 points at high today.

5.5 BILLION SHARES TRADED TODAY.
Dow +3.4% today.
S&P 500 +3.8% today.
Nasdaq +4.4% today.
29 of 30 Dow stocks up today.
INDICES THIS WEEK
Dow -1.9%
S&P 500 -2.0%
Nasdaq -1.7%
Q3 mortgage delinquincies ,foreclosure rates hit record.
FED buys $5 BILLION of Fannie,Freddie,FHLB debt.
10 yr treasury note falls more than a point as stocks rally.
30 yr treasury bond falls over 2 points.
Major stock Indexes down roughly 3% this week.
Crude oil dips to 4 1/2 yr low,down 70% since July high.
Congress reluctant to approve Auto bailout quickly.

Stocks surge as investors bet on consumer spending DEC 5,08 By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks jumped on Friday as investors bet that a steep drop in oil prices will boost consumer spending, lifting retail stocks and offsetting government data showing half a million jobs were lost in November.Investors snapped up shares of discounter Wal-Mart (WMT.N) and iPod maker Apple Inc as oil slid below $41 a barrel to its lowest level in nearly four years and set aside early jitters stemming from a dismal November employment report.Wal-Mart Stores Inc's stock shot up nearly 6 percent, making it one of the Dow's top-weighted advancers. The S&P Retail Index (.RLX) gained 4.4 percent. Apple (AAPL.O) helped lift the Nasdaq 100 as the stock climbed nearly 3 percent to $94.00.It means more discretionary spending for consumers, who are starting to feel better about themselves because they don't have to drop $100 every time they want to fill up their tank, said Angel Mata, managing director of listed trading at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. All of this is starting to feed together. That's what counting for this rally and for the strength we've had all this week.A government report showed that U.S. employers cut payrolls by 533,000 in November, the weakest performance in 34 years, while the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, the highest reading since 1993. For details, see [nN05444819]The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 259.18 points, or 3.09 percent, to end at 8,635.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) climbed 30.85 points, or 3.65 percent, to 876.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) rose 63.75 points, or 4.41 percent, to 1,509.31.For the week, the Dow fell 2.2 percent, the S&P 500 lost 2.3 percent and the Nasdaq slipped 1.7 percent.

Financial-sector shares also advanced after Hartford Financial (HIG.N) increased its 2008 profit forecast and said that it has enough capital to withstand further deterioration in the markets. The stock more than doubled to $14.59. The S&P financial index (.GSPF) gained nearly 9 percent.Shares of Boeing (BA.N), a Dow component, managed to overcome early losses despite news it may delay its new 787 Dreamliner further. Boeing added nearly 1 percent to $39.53.Investors continued to fret, though, about the fate of the U.S. auto industry, with executives of the Big Three car makers, including General Motors (GM.N), back on Capitol Hill to plead again for a $34 billion government rescue.GM shares slipped 0.7 percent to $4.08, while Ford (F.N) rose 2.3 percent to $2.72 as Washington considered whether to lend the automakers a helping hand.Rep. Barney Frank warned that it would be an unmitigated disaster if a big U.S. automaker is allowed to collapse.Volume on the NYSE was fairly healthy with about 1.62 billion shares changing hands, not far below last year's daily average of 1.90 billion. In contrast, on the Nasdaq, about 2.24 billion shares traded, above last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.Advancers outpaced decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by a ratio of about 7 to 3, while on the Nasdaq, about two stocks rose for every one that fell.(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Return to $1 gas? Energy prices evaporate DEC 5,08
By MARK WILLIAMS, AP Energy Writer Mark Williams,

AP – Regular unleaded gasoline sells for $1.32.9 per gallon at a Valero station Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, in … COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.A gallon of gasoline can be had for 50 cents less than it cost just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 gas.Granted, gas prices are a long way off from that magic number last seen in March 1999 when prices were at 97 cents a gallon, according to motor club AAA. Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.But consider what has happened since July 11 when a barrel of oil hit a record $147.27 and a gallon of gas was $4.117 on July 17. In less than five months, oil has fallen 72 percent.Just this week, in which the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that the U.S. is in recession, oil has fallen 25 percent.On Friday, light, sweet crude for January delivery settled at $40.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down by nearly $3 per barrel. Prices fell as low at $40.50, levels last seen in December 2004.Gasoline futures for January delivery tumbled to 90 cents.For gas prices to get close to a $1, oil prices probably would need to fall another $10 a barrel — something that would have been impossible to fathom during the first part of this year as oil prices soared near $150 per barrel.Just seeing that 1 up there is just hard to imagine, said Kevin Keating, 65, an attorney as he filled up his Volvo S60 at a station in Phoenix that advertised prices at $1.67. Wasn't that long ago that we worried about the 4 being up there.

Prices in New York City are well above the national averages, but still well off their highs of nearly $5 this summer.When gas prices are OK, we make a little profit, said Mamady Kourouma, 36, a cab driver from Guinea who paid $2.41 a gallon at a station in Chelsea.With wages stagnant, home prices plummeting and foreclosure rated soaring, dollar-a-gallon gas may help mom fill up in the family minivan and cab drivers in New York City, but prices that low also would truly speak to how rotten the economy has become.The economy at that point worldwide would be in a serious, serious deterioration, said Geoff Sundstrom, spokesman for AAA.Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, said Thursday on his blog that retail prices could fetch $1.25 a gallon soon in parts of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.Already, some parts of the country are seeing prices around that level. The Web site gasbuddy.com, where motorists can post local gas prices, motorists can fill up for $1.29 in Neelyville, Mo., a village of about 500 people near the Arkansas state line.The jobs number suggests that demand for gasoline, which has been running well below year-ago levels even with the cheaper prices in the last several weeks, will fall even more in early 2009 as work-related driving plummets, said Kloza.I believe that January 2009 will represent the most challenging and ugly economic month of my lifetime, and my first memory is of Sputnik, Kloza said. There is plenty of reason to suspect Kloza is right. Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people has increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate is up 1.7 percentage points. The meltdown in financial markets has crushed lending, the Detroit 3 are on the brink of bankruptcy without a big government bailout. Friday's report was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. If there is a plus side it is that the unemployment rate did not climb to the 6.8 percent level economists were expecting. Kloza does not believe prices will make it to a $1. Gas prices neared a dollar last time on Dec. 18, 2001, three months after the terrorist attacks and the country in its last recession, when prices hit $1.08 a gallon. Though the weak gasoline prices point how bad the economy is, they also could help it turnaround. Kloza figures the U.S. gasoline bill at $1.75 per gallon average will be about $20.5 billion this month, down about $16 billion a year ago. Five years ago, the bill was $17.2 billion. That could be one important spur to some kind of economic recovery, Sundstrom said. In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures tumbled 6.83 cents to settle at 90 cents. Heating oil slid 8.26 cents to $1.4265 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery shed 24.7 cents to sell at $5.77 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, January Brent crude slipped by $2.42 cents to $39.86 on the ICE Futures exchange. AP Energy Writers Ernest Scheyder in New York and Chris Kahn in Phoenix contributed to this story along with Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, and Alex Kennedy in Singapore.

Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years DEC 5,08 By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer.

AP – Minnie Lawrence, right, works with training career coach Latrisha Payne on how to find employment at … WASHINGTON – Skittish employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.The new figures, released by the Labor Department Friday, showed the crucial employment market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid clip, and handed Americans some more grim news right before the holidays. The net loss of more than a half-million jobs was far worse than analysts expected.As companies throttled back hiring, the unemployment rate bolted from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent last month, a 15-year high.

These numbers are shocking, said economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economics Advisors. Companies are sharply reacting to the economy's problems and slashing costs. They are not trying to ride it out.The unemployment rate would have moved even higher if not for the exodus of 422,000 people from the work force. Economists said many of those people probably abandoned their job searches out of sheer frustration. In November 2007, the jobless rate was at 4.7 percent.The U.S. tipped into recession last December, a panel of experts declared earlier this week, confirming what many Americans already thought.Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate rose by 1.7 percentage points. More evidence that the labor pain is far from over came Friday when General Motors Corp. said it will lay off another 2,000 workers as it cuts shifts at three car factories starting in February due to slowing demand for their products.President George W. Bush, who used the word recession for the first time to describe the economy's state, pledged Friday to explore more efforts to ease housing, credit and financial stresses.There is still more work to do, Bush said. My administration is committed to ensuring that our economy succeeds.President-elect Barack Obama said the dismal job news underscored the need for forceful action, even as he warned that the pain could not be quickly relieved.

There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis ... and it's likely to get worse before it gets better, Obama said. At the same time, this ... provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children, investing in clean energy solutions to break our dependence on imported oil, and making an early down payment on the long-term reforms that will grow and strengthen our economy for all Americans for years to come.To provide relief, the Bush administration will continue to concentrate on ways to bust through a credit jam that is feeding prominently into the economy's problems, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told The Associated Press in an interview. We're going to stay focused on that like a laser, he said.

Elsewhere Friday, the Mortgage Bankers Association said a record one in 10 American homeowners with a mortgage were either at least a month behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of September. The percentage of loans at least a month overdue or in foreclosure was up from 9.2 percent in the April-June quarter, and from 7.3 percent a year earlier.On Wall Street, stocks slid. The Dow Jones industrials were down 130 points in afternoon trading.Job losses last month were widespread, hitting factories, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and others industries. The few places where gains were logged included the government, education and health services.The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, wasn't as steep as the 6.8 percent rate they were expecting. Taken together, though, the employment picture clearly darkening.The job reductions were the most since a whopping 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.All told, 10.3 million people were left unemployed as of November, while the number of employed was 144.3 million. Gary Cope, 33, this week lost his communications job at Roanoke, Va.-based high-tech research and development company Luna Innovations Inc. Cope was called into a meeting first thing Thursday morning with two administrators and a human resources representative. Their message: He was being laid off, for financial reasons, effective immediately. He left with a box of his belongings and about two months' severance. As Cope walked out the door, all he could think was, I have a 3-year-old son and I'm a single dad.I came home and did my initial pity party, then I got myself together, talked to my family and went right to work rewriting his resume and sending it out, Cope said. My family has been very supportive, they've let me know I'll get through this and they won't let me drown.

Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse. Employers cut 403,000 jobs in September, versus 284,000 previously estimated. Another 320,000 were chopped in October, compared with an initial estimate of 240,000. Employers are slashing costs as they cope with sagging appetites from customers in the U.S. and in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles. The carnage —including the worst financial crisis since the 1930s — is hitting a wide range of companies. In recent days, AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. announced layoffs. Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors and Ford Motor Co. returned to Capitol Hill Friday to again ask lawmakers for as much as $34 billion in emergency aid. Workers with jobs saw modest wage gains. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.30 in November, a 0.4 percent increase from the previous month. Over the year, wages have grown 3.7 percent, but paychecks haven't stretched that far because of high prices for energy, food and other items. Worn-out consumers battered by the job losses, shrinking nest eggs and tanking home values have retrenched, throwing the economy into a tailspin. As the unemployment rate continues to move higher, consumers will burrow further, dragging the economy down even more, a vicious cycle that Washington policymakers are trying to break. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected ratchet down a key interest rate — now near a historic low of 1 percent — by as much as a half-percentage point on Dec. 16 in a bid to breathe life into the moribund economy. Bernanke is exploring other economic revival options and wants the government to step up efforts to curb home foreclosures. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whose department oversees the $700 billion financial bailout program, also is weighing new initiatives such as tapping the second half of that rescue money to ease the economic crisis. Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over his first two years in office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed to have a package ready on Inauguration Day for Obama's signature. The measure, which could total $500 billion, would bankroll big public works projects to create jobs, provide aid to states to help with Medicaid costs, and provide money toward renewable energy development. At 12 months and counting, the recession is longer than the 10-month average length of recessions since World War II. The record for the longest recession in the postwar period is 16 months, which was reached in the 1973-75 and 1981-82 downturns. The current recession might end up matching that or setting a record in terms of duration, analysts say. The 1981-82 recession was the worst in terms of unemployment since the Great Depression. The jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982, just as the recession ended, before inching down.

Given the current woes, the jobless rate could rise as high as 8.5 percent by the end of next year, some analysts predict. Still, the unemployment rate often peaks after a recession has ended. That's because companies are reluctant to ramp up hiring until they feel certain the recovery has staying power.

Deal on climate package left to EU leaders
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today DEC 5,08 @ 09:23 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Environment ministers from across the European Union met on Thursday (4 December) without reaching agreement on some of the thorniest issues bedevilling negotiations over the bloc's mammoth climate and energy package.The negotiations have reached a crucial phase, French environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo, whose country currently chairs the six-month rotating EU presidency, told reporters in Brussels. We have got 90 percent of the way there. The hardest points - the other 10 percent - are best left to the heads of state and government to conclude, he said.But hiding within that 10 percent are some of the most recalcitrant sticking points between EU member states.The issues are unlikely to sink the deal, but green groups fear that in order to get over the hump, the French EU presidency is willing to let the package be weakened substantially, all but sideline the input of the European Parliament and leave any final deal to be thrashed out by the heads of state and government next week at the European Summit.

Environment commissioner Stavros Dimas, also in attendance at the meeting, put on a brave face, saying: We have made such great progress, but nevertheless outlined the outstanding issues. Worries that the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) will result in the relocation of production and job losses - a process referred to as carbon leakage - remain a large stumbling block. The commission also said issues surrounding the Clean Development Mechanism are a battleground too - what part of EU-domestic emissions reductions can be pawned off to developing countries via the Kyoto Protocol's CDM architecture.Mr Dimas added that a last obstacle to a deal was the monies that the EU will commit to the third world to assist them adapt to climate change.Much of eastern Europe, led by Poland, which still depends for much of its energy production on coal - the dirtiest of energy sources - want special recognition of this fact and free allocation of emissions permits for their power generation sector.Germany for its part, wants free allocation of permits for energy intensive industries, such as steel and cement. Heading into the economic crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel has turned from a climate package booster into one of its biggest critics, and she is backed in this by many German socialists as well.

Indicative of the lack of importance accorded the meeting was how ministers from Poland and Germany did not attend the meeting, setting deputies in their stead.One potential compromise, loathed by environmentalists, would see the national leaders agree at the summit next week to a method of identifying those sectors at risk of carbon leakage and then award them free emissions permits.

Polish veto unlikely

Poland meanwhile is sending out the message that they believe they are on track to a solution.On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters: I think that we are close to a version acceptable for Poland ... a version that will allow us to avoid a veto.Commissioner Dimas hinted on Thursday that some amount of money from revenues in the ETS could be reimbursed back to Polish households if the system proved to indeed raise electricity prices. More radical would be a delay of the ETS in Poland for some years.French President Nicholas Sarkozy is set to visit Gdansk on Saturday and meet with the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Romania. The Poles have said they are expecting a present from the French leader at the meeting.There could not be a worse time for the EU to backtrack on the commitments that it made last year. The talk led by some recalcitrant EU countries is now all about competitiveness, protectionism and creating loopholes to avoid meeting climate responsibilities, said a coalition of green groups, including Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and WWF, in a statement reacting to the morass. If the EU does not get its act together, the whole world stands to suffer the consequences, said the statement.One environmentalist was spitting mad at how key issues had been sloughed off for heads of state to agree on - a level widely conceded to be closer to industry than the commission or the parliament and at which everything must be agreed unanimously.

They're shoving everything under the carpet, that's clear, he said. With the unanimity required, co-decision has become a joke. It's an affront to the parliament. I don't know why they don't stand up for themselves.Following the European summit, the parliament then must approve the package as a whole on 17 December.

McCreevy: Irish No should be respected
LUCIA KUBOSOVA Today DEC 5,08 @ 09:25 CET


Irish EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy has argued that the negative result of his country's referendum on Europe's Lisbon treaty should be respected, admitting that the No campaign had won the argument against the might of media and most politicians. We live in a democracy. Mr [Declan] Ganley decided that he was going to front a campaign to get the Irish people to vote No. He was singularly successful in that against the might of all the political parties in Ireland, Mr McCreevy said in an interview with Hot Press magazine.Referring to Declan Ganley, the founder of the Libertas group, which emerged before the June vote to fight against the treaty ratification in Ireland, Mr McCreevy said that Mr Ganley had won the argument because the Irish people listened to him more than anybody else.The outspoken commissioner, responsible for internal market affairs, also argued that Ireland's referendum results should be taken as a true indication of voters' opinion as the turnout suggested that a considerable segment of treaty opponents were those who had failed to vote in last year's general election.The referendum saw 53.4 percent of participants casting their vote against the Treaty while 46.6 percent voted in favour, in a 53.1 percent turnout.People did take the issue very seriously. So that has to be respected, said Mr McCreevy, just days before the Irish government is expected to tell other member states that it is planning to hold a new vote on the Lisbon treaty next year.

At this year's final meeting of EU premiers and presidents on 11-12 December in Brussels, Irish Taoisheach Brian Cowen is expected to suggest that Dublin could organise a new referendum if it wins a declaration covering the key concerns of voters.The statement should include a clarification about the country's exclusive right to choose its tax and family law policy and maintain its strong principle of neutrality. Mr Cowen will also require a change in the package of institutional reform included in the treaty by re-introducing the right for every country to keep its member in the European Commission, the EU's key regulatory body. Mr McCreevy, Ireland's current commissioner, was widely blamed himself for playing a part in the Lisbon defeat, when, ahead of the June referendum on the treaty, he remarked on the complexity of the document.In an interview for EUobserver last May, Mr McCreevy admitted he had only read a simplified version of the treaty and did not expect many other politicians and ordinary people to enjoy reading the legal document. I would predict that there won't be 250 people in the whole of the 4.2 million population of Ireland that have read the treaties cover-to-cover. I further predict that there is not 10 percent of that 250 that will understand every section and subsection.But is there anything different about that? said the commissioner, adding: Does anyone read the finance act? referring to the lengthy documents he drew up when he was finance minister in Ireland.Following the June vote, Martin Schultz, the Socialist leader in the European Parliament called on the commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, to have a tough word with Mr McCreevy for such disappointing remarks, adding: That is an arrogance that we cannot put up with.But in the interview published on Thursday, the Irish commissioner said he does not regret the remarks.

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