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The legalized conflict between Citi and Wells Fargo over Wachovia at least shows there are assets worth fighting over, without federal succor

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by Dean Foust

For Washington policymakers, the prospect of a grinding, slow-motion legal fight betwixt Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) in the place of the spoils of troubled Wachovia (WB) is clearly unnerving. In a period when the markets assume to come more unhinged with both excessively day, regulators apprehension that a protracted battle in the courts could case an acceleration in public bank runs. That explains the news reports on Monday, Oct. 6, that officials from the Federal Reserve were brokering a compromise that would extreme point through Citigroup and Wells Fargo carving up Wachovia’s assets.

If there’s any silver lining in the battle betwixt Citigroup and Wells Fargo—and silver linings are hard to come by these days—it is this: The skirmish could better convince the markets that the current panic surrounding banks has gone too far and that even troubled banks like Wachovia have a strong franchise that’s worth bidding for. Plus, if Wachovia is split, taxpayers won’t have to foot the billions in federal assistance that the original Citigroup deal included.

"Wells Fargo transactions has performed a positive service to the banking industry," Nancy Bush, an independent bank analyst in New Jersey, wrote in a note to clients on Monday morning. "This will mark a turnery point for the industry and for the stocks."

If Bush is right, that could mean the era of regulators forcing troubled banks into shotgun marriages—with no recovery for investors in banks such as Wachovia or investment firms approve Bear Stearns—could subsist coming to a close. And the Wells Fargo act, which Wachovia’s board embraced on Oct. 3, prompting Citigroup to demand, could convince investors that in quest of all the bad loans and soured investments these firms are sitting in succession, acquirers are getting a steal.

As Wachovia CEO Robert Steel has argued to Wall Street, only one-quarter of the bank’s lend portfolio consists of the troubled mortgages made in its Golden West subsidiary. Excluding those mortgages—admittedly, no small feat—and a smaller portfolio of troubled construction loans, and the majority of Wachovia’s portfolio consists of old-fashioned consumer loans to customers with whom the the usurer’s has generally had a slow relationship.

Consider that Wells Fargo’s bid for Wachovia (BusinessWeek.com, 10/3/08)—$15 billion, with not one government assistance—is roughly seven times what Citigroup agreed to pay (BusinessWeek.com, 9/29/08) for Charlotte-based Wachovia’session banking operations the weekend before. And Citigroup’sitting bidding included some government assistance. Analysts note that Citigroup’sitting response—a lawsuit, rather than a higher pray—suggests the New York institution isn’t determination to bid more, and the litigation could simply have being a legal maneuver to try to extract a "breakup" absolute title from Wells Fargo.

But the Solomon-like compromise offered by the agency of regulators—a split-up by geography, with Citigroup taking Wachovia’s Northeast branches and Wells Fargo getting everything else—could be plenty to appease Citigroup. The institution would get billions in low-cost deposits that provide it through a relatively steadfast source of funds.

If analysts are reform that the Wells Fargo-Citigroup battle marks the high-water mark in the current banking crisis, that doesn’face to face mean that the remaining banks can rest easy. In her alert to clients, Bush notes that she’s trial from "multitude in the industry" that regulators have started to observe beyond the current crisis and are assessing the prospects for other surviving banks—including many regional and local banks that engorged themselves attached real estate loans—and don’t like what they see.

Bush believes that if and when the present storm passes, regulators are lull going to use their powers of persuasion to force more shotgun marriages between surviving banks. The goal: to flow weak management teams through of the assiduity and put more of the industry’sitting assets into the hands of managers who have proven themselves most genius at intriguing risk. That means that even if Wells Fargo’s $15 billion gambit does serve to stabilize the market, the mergers could continue for years to come.

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This exigency started in the U.S., but investors have seen huge losses overseas. It may be too late, however, to repatriate assets

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Spanish stockbrokers talk at the Madrid stock traffic on Sept. 30, 2008. Pedro Armestre/AFP/Getty Images

by means of Ben Steverman

It doesn’t seem fair. The popular financial exigency started in the U.S., but stock markets in the rest of the nature have felt more punishment.

That’s not to say that American investors haven’t felt the effects of the global sell-off, which accelerated on Oct. 6. U.S. investors hold spent years shifting coin into booming overseas markets, but now that strategy is backfiring while overseas stocks tumble.

The MSCI EAFE Index (EFA)—an abbreviation on this account that Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australasia & Far East—is off 36% this year, while the Standard & Poor’session 500, the broad U.S. index, is down 28% by comparison. Stocks in emerging markets such being of the class who China, India, and Russia have performed even worse, with human being adjust, the Vanguard Emerging Markets index (VWO), right side 45%.

Adding to American investors’ global investing woes is a rise dollar. If U.S. investors buy equities priced in a foreign currency such as the euro, they benefit when the dollar weakens—that it has during the term of the past scarcely any years—but are hurt when the dollar gains ground. The euro has fallen almost 16% from its peak of $1.60 this summer.

Overseas losses deepened without interruption Oct. 6 on new evidence that the financial acme is spreading worldwide, especially to banks in Europe.

While the U.S. has approved a $700 billion bailout plan for its financial industry, "It’sitting pretty evident Europe has to make a coordinated effort to do something about the financial markets" as well, says Madelynn Matlock, portfolio manager of the Huntington International Equity Fund (HIEAX).

Economists have been worrying about a U.S. slowdown for the past year, except many professional investors now also reckon upon a global slowdown. That’s showing up in the post markets’ belonging to performance. "One can build the case that the U.S. is farther along in this economic slowdown,"says Wasif Latif, who handles equity investments at USAA. One theory holds that "if we are quicker to go into the slowdown, we are quicker to master out of it," he says.

Managers of U.S. international equity funds have racked up huge losses in the accomplished hardly any months, and investors have responded by pulling their money out. According to TrimTabs Investment Research, investors have yanked $48 billion from international equity funds in this way far this year, with $31.7 billion in fund outflows since the beginning of September.

On Oct. 6 overseas losses mounted amid a steep sell-off in Europe. London’s FTSE 100 Index tumbled 7.85%, while Germany’sitting DAX Index dropped 7.07%. The S&P 500 fell 3.85% after battling back from even steeper losses earlier in the day. In reaction, many expect Asian indexes to overthrow further when they open attached Oct. 7.

For years, professional investment advisers in the U.S. have urged clients to diversify holdings by including some exposing. to international stocks. Is it time to make different this information?

Experts on international investing assert selling foreign holdings is probably a mistake at this point.

"It’s a little tardily now. The horse is out of the barn," says Rob Lutts, miscarry of Cabot Money Management. "If you didn’t execute a purpose earlier this year, hang in there. It’s going to be a rough next couple months."

However, portfolio managers say many foreign stocks are now trading at bargain levels. "There are tremendous opportunities exhausted there," says Aaron Visse, portfolio manager of the Kensington Global Infrastructure Fund. "Stocks are not commercial on fundamentals. In many cases, fundamentals are really being thrown out the window."

Huntington’s Matlock agrees, saying: "Fundamentals just now are not playing a role in this market." However, she isn’t sure when investors will stop panicking and look at fundamental measures analogous proceeds potential or economic growth.

"There’sitting a rub of confidence in the fiscal system," she says. "There is plenty of cash used up there. It’s just not being deployed."

Nor are investors sure by what mode well fundamental measures will hold up in the middle of a global slowdown.

Of particular concern, several market experts say, are emerging markets like Brazil and Russia that are dependent on commodities. "The emerging markets are not all the same," Visse says.

However, quite emerging markets have a common problem. In a time of crisis, investors "pull money out of high-risk areas," Lutts says. And poorer emerging markets are seen as much riskier than rich, developed nations.

The U.S. is suffering from a glut of housing, resurrection unemployment, catastrophic losses in its financial sector, to a great height fuel prices, and weak consumer confidence. The odd created being is that, as the financial conjuncture spreads around the world, many investors look to see the U.S. as a relatively safe haven.

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The blue cut chips from index sank under 10,000 amid deepening worries touching the financial crisis. Markets in Europe and Asia also tumbled

by Will Andrews and Karyn McCormack

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U.S. stocks finished sharply lower Monday, but a glance at the closing numbers doesn’t even begin to tell the story of further another nerve-wracking day on Wall Street.

At one point during the sitting, the big three U.S. indexes posted losses of 8% or greater — some ugly echo of the Sept. 29 market rout, that resulted in the greatest one-day percentage losses for market benchmarks since 1987. The Dow fell as much as 800 points during the session, driving it below 10,000 for the first interval since October, 2004, before the late-session upswing. But in the eventual hour of trading, buyers jumped in — accompanied by a notable increase in trading volume — trimming the market’s outsized losses virtually in half.

Still, the closing numbers were ugly, and served as a reminder of the excruciating volatility investors have had to endure in recent weeks amongst investor worries about the hale condition of the financial system and credit markets — and the rising likelihood of a U.S. recession.

Call Monday’s action in U.S. markets a half-meltdown.

On Monday, the blue-chip Dow Jones pertaining average fell 369.88 points, or 3.58%, to 9,955.50. The broader S&P 500 alphabetical table of references cast 42.34 points, or 3.85%, to 1,056.89. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index tumbled 84.43 points, or 4.34%, to 1,862.96.

Monday’s rout brings the Dow’s loss by reason of the year to well-nigh 25%. The S&P 500 is now into a denser consistence 28%, while the Nasdaq has lost parsimoniously 30% this year.

One-day chart of DOW

The U.S. VIX equity mutability index, the stock market’sitting favored “fright gauge,” hit a renewed cycle tyrannical of 58.24 earlier before retreating back to 52.05.

U.S. rectitude markets joined a worldwide sell-off fueled by fears that government makers may not be able to cure the delicate global economy anytime at so early an hour. “We’re really in an emotional sell-off state,” says Alex Paris, president of Barrington Research, an economic and investment research sinewy in Chicago. “It’session hard to take for identical the bottom, but we’re in the bottoming train.”

Market watchers are worried that the U.S. government’session fiscal rescue plans won’t stop the economy from falling into a recession. “I was hoping it won’t stop us from having negative GDP produce, but it’s not enough to keep [the economy] from flexure into a positive downturn,” Paris says.

However, Paris believes the economy is in the maturing stages of a downturn, as the housing and auto industries have struggled for the utmost three years, rather than the beginning of one. Usually, the stock market moves higher before the administration recovers. And with stocks now at a “throw-away stage” — he says he’s planning to slowly invest in high-quality stocks like General Electric (GE), that is trading at just 10 times estimated earnings.

Bonds moved higher Monday as the Fed moved to add liquidity to the fiscal system. The 10-year note rallied 34/32 to 104-14/32 in the place of a yield of 3.46%, while the 30-year bond soared 57/32 to 108-01/32 for a yield of 3.98%. No major U.S. economic reports were scheduled for Monday.

The U.S. dollar director rallied on speculation the European and U.K. central banks will cut interest rates. Gold futures were higher in a flight to safety.

Crude oil futures skidded below $90 per barrel on prospects of lower challenge, ending down $6.32 to $87.56 a barrel, an eight-month low.

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GE has its share of challenges, more of which are laid out in this recent posting by my colleague, Jena McGregor. But I was encouraged a couple of days ago when I interviewed Michael Idelchick, the vice president of advanced technology for GE Global Research. That’s the central research and unravelling organization that by reason of decades has pushed the case in technology for aviation, medical equipment, and manliness generation. I asked if GE is cutting back on R&D as a result of its financial troubles. His reply: “We innovate in altogether cycles, and we step quickly the company for the long haul. There’s no slowing down.” That’s the answer I wanted to hear. I’ve seen Intel, Cisco, and IBM invest aggressively during downturns in the past and get rewarded for it then relating to housekeeping growth and demand picked up once more.

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The median price of a single-family house sold in King County slipped to $415,000 last month, the lowest price in again than two years.

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks sales, says the last time the median price was lower was in March 2006. Median means half of homes sold for greater quantity, half for inferior.

A year ago, in September 2007, houses in King County were selling for a median recompense of $450,000, the service uttered. The one-year cost drop is 7.78 percent.

But that’s each improvement over August, which time the year-over-year drop hit double digits — more than 11 percent — for the first time. Some say the local real-estate market peaked in August 2007, and brokers had been predicting year-over-year performance would start to improve — or at the least the declines would be smaller — in September.

The median condo-sale price in King County in September fell 9.3 percent from a year earlier, from $299,900 to $272,000, the service reported.

Closed sales in September were down more than 25 percent.

Sifting through the bad news, real-estate agents found a expectancy in a 4 percent year-over-year increase in the digit of total pending protect and condo sales. That suggests there could be an increase in closed sales when fourth book of the pentateuch; census of the hebrews are come in for this month and November.

In Snohomish County, the middle demand price of a house fell 9.7 percent, to $332,000, the MLS said, though the median condo worth was up 2.5 percent over September 2007, to $246,000.

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The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 integral part dropped to the low of 9,916.21 within the first 30 minutes, losing 556.88 points or 5.32 percent, before shedding losses to reach above the 10,000 cross shortly after.

The broader Topix index of all primitive section shares blood-thirsty 54.68 points, or 5.47 percent, to as low considered in the state of 944.37, before recovering.

The massive sell off came after the Dow Jones Industrial Average hem as much as 800 points Monday, slipping below the key psychological level of 10,000 for the first fit season since 2004.

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Australia's central bank cut its benchmark cash rate by the largest volume since December 1994. That shifted investors' focus to other central banks, from Europe to Japan, for their answers to a U.S. summon for a "forceful and coordinated" reaction to kickstart anaemic bank lending.

U.S. light crude since November delivery was $2.40 higher at $90.21 a barrel at 1:44 a.m. EDT, the first rise in five trading days.

That came after it fell to an eight-month low of $87.56 a barrel on Monday, the first time under $90 since early February.

London Brent crude rose $1.87 to $85.55 a barrel.

"This is lawful a retiring redemption after the sell-off of previous sessions. People are still very worried about the lookout for the international economy," said David Moore, a merchandise analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

A exigency that began through the overheated U.S. property market and the $11 trillion U.S. mortgage market was still rocking boldness worldwide, with Sweden, Austria and Denmark following Germany's head by offering blanket deposit guarantees to depositors.

Iceland meanwhile gave regulators sweeping powers to oversee a faltering banking system as its currency fell 30 percent.

In the United States, more steps to shore up banks and ease pressure on the credit markets could be coming, following the $700 billion bailout bill last week.

Oil prices bring forth tumbled from a peak above $147 a barrel in July as high fuel prices and the fallout from the financial pinch slow oil demand in most honorable position consumer the United States and other industrialized countries.

Oil interrogation in China, which helped firing a 6-year rally in commodities, faculty of volition be key. Analysts are attention in opposition to signs the crisis is hitting consumption there.

China will skip gasoline imports in October for a second successive month debt to heavy domestic stockpiles and a pitch in demand, traders said.

And members of agriculturist group OPEC worried about the drop in the price of oil to around $90 a barrel, Iraq's oil minister told Reuters in an interview.

News that Mexico's state-owned oil fellowship Pemex was evacuating four offshore oil platforms due to tropical rage Marco could be changed to supportive for prices.

(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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The focus shifted to other central banks, from Japan to Europe, for their answers to a call from U.S. officials for a "forceful and coordinated" global reaction to kickstart anaemic bank lending.

Despair that such a solution had not yet been found weighed on some markets. Investors soured in particular on South Korea's ability to weather the violence.

But equities across Asia rallied after the Australian central bank cut its benchmark cash vilify by the agency of 100 basis points, the first move of that magnitude since December 1994. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan stock index gained 0.6 percent.

"If the indigence is there to get rates down toward something that's more neutral, in consequence why dilly dally? Get it done in one go," said Brian Redican, an economist at Macquarie. "It'session a affability other central banks should avail one’sitting self of careful note of."

The furious sell-off in global equities in recent weeks and the deepening freeze in loan markets has made this week's Group of Seven vivid nations' confluence in Washington even more important.

"The key issue is coordination of policies, since individual country policies aimed at shoring up confidence of domestic institutions have power to actually exacerbate systemic risk by altering relative risk betwixt countries," said Ashley Davies, a currency strategist with UBS in Singapore.

Speculation is swirling that China, with U.S. bonds making up the lion's share of its $1.81 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the world's biggest stockpile, could have a key role to play in any global replication.

But Liu Mingkang, the country'sitting banking regulator, denied that Beijing might ride to America's rescue by pumping cash into the United States.

SELL-OFF

In the second full day of global mercantile after the U.S. Congress approved a $700 billion bailout intended to reassure markets, it was clear that whatever reassurance had been delivered was insufficient.

Instead, a crisis that began with the overheated U.S. property market was still rocking confidence worldwide.

Japan'session Nikkei index of leading shares was down 2.0 percent after earlier falling to its lowest level since December 2003.

Even after late-day gains, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed into disfavor 3.5 percent on Monday, capping its biggest four-day points loss since September 2001.

Looking to avoid in posse trouble spots in the global storm, investors turned against South Korea, worried about the country's relatively high level of transgression.

The South Korean won dropped 5.7 percent to the lowest in more than seven years to counter-poise the dollar, in the face of assurances from the government that Asia's fourth-largest economy was not facing a currency crisis.

Emerging markets, which had gained mightily from the surging global extent in the continue three years, were sucked into the whirl. Trading was halted in markets as far afield as Brazil and Russia which time stocks plunged.

Mexico's peso sank to its weakest horizontal since the circulation was allowed to waft in the mid-1990s, and public securities plunged.

"We are in a state of panic. Markets are out of control," said Bertrand Delgado, an economist at IDEAglobal who covers Latin America.

Brazil's government unveiled a confusion of new housekeeping, the latest in a series of steps aimed at insulating the country'session financial system from the global high character strait. The form of sovereignty will issue a decree allowing the central bank to acquire lend portfolios of weak and mid-sized local banks if needed.

FROZEN CREDIT

The banking upheaval that began adhering Wall Street has effectively shut into disgrace interbank and other loan markets, pushing industrialized countries closer to recession. Conditions remained poor for interbank lending.

Fed fund futures have priced in a probability of a 75 basis-point cut by the U.S. central bank this month.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher, considered an inflation hawk, declared capital markets were in "semi-panic".

"What I'm more worried about is how dysfunctional the universe has turn to and what we, as the lender of hold out resort, need to practise to encourage the liquidity to flow," he said.

Even as Sweden, Austria and Denmark followed Germany's lead by the agency of offering improved deposit guarantees to depositors, investors from Tokyo to London continued to slash hazard and positioned themselves for a further tightening of money due.

Oil prices implacable below $90 a barrel and have dropped nearly 40 percent from their peak, pushed take down with other article of merchandise prices by worries about a looming recession.

With the U.S. presidential election less than a month away, the campaign remained overshadowed by the debate about how to rise in hostility before the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

Richard Fuld, the head of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, told Congress that banking regulators knew exactly how the failed investment bound was pricing its distressed assets and about its liquidness in the months before its collapse.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus worldwide; Editing by Jean Yoon)

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The steep declines came in the first full session since the U.S. Congress approved a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, as lending came to a indirect halt and investors shifted their converging-point to the crumbling outlook by respect to the dispensation and profits.

But the market cut almost moiety its losses in the final hour of the sitting, as traders speculated the sell-off may trigger a coordinated global response to melt credit markets. The Dow plummeted like much to the degree that 800.06 points — a enter intraday point drop for the blue-chip average — as it slid 7.75 percent to its session low at 9,525.32. By the closing bell, though, the Dow had recovered 430.18 points to end down 3.6 percent. The S&P financial sector sub-index, which had earlier been down more than 8 percent, closed into a denser consistence 4.2 percent.

The energy sector skidded as the price of oil dropped to an 8-month low below $88 a barrel steady expectations that a recession will further hamper global fuel demand.

Wall Street'session drop was part of a breakneck global sell-off, which led to trading being halted in Russia, Brazil and Peru. The emergency extrication of two bombastic European banks and a move by dint of. several European governments to guarantee bank deposits intensified fears that the credit crisis can not be contained.

"We're clearly in the panic girth now. We've tipped over from bear market to panic," said John Schloegel, vice president of investing. strategies for the sake of Capital Cities Asset Management in Austin, Texas.

"We're past the bailout now and focused back on fundamentals again and the fundamentals don't look good. People are starting to come to grips with third-, fourth- quarter proceeds. If the supertanker of the U.S. economy is at a complete standstill, which it might be, that has not been adequately discounted yet," he said.

The Dow Jones industrial average malignant 369.88 points, or 3.58 percent, to 9,955.50. It was the first term the Dow closed below 10,000 since October 2004.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index skidded 42.34 points, or 3.85 percent, to 1,056.89, as long as the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 84.43 points, or 4.34 percent, to 1,862.96.

For the year to date, the Dow is along the course of about 25 percent, the S&P 500 is down 28 percent and the Nasdaq is down 29.8 percent.

BANK OF AMERICA EXTENDS SLIDE AFTER BELL

After the closing bell, in that place was more tough news for the banking sector. Bank of America cut its profits divided, unveiled plans to sell $10 billion of new stock and said third-quarter return was cut in half from a year ago.

Bank of America warned that credit quality continued to weaken during the station and said the economy has moved to a "recessionary environment." Shares of Bank of America, which had fallen 6.6 percent to $32.22 during the regular session, lay prostrate another 7 percent in after-hours drive a bargain.

In the latest development in the reshaping of the U.S. financial landscape, a person companionable with the position said

Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup Inc were in talks to end their high-stakes battle over troubled Wachovia Corp. The increasingly severe dispute, which flared through the weekend, has drawn in U.S. government officials in an attempt to broker a composition.

Wells Fargo slipped 2.7 percent to $33.64, Wachovia shares dropped 6.9 percent to $5.78 and Citigroup fell 5.1 percent to $17.41.

Among shares of energy companies, Chevron Corp lost 3.2 percent to $76.84. An alphabetical table of references of oil services companies fell 7.8 percent. U.S. front-month crude tumbled $6.07, or 6.5 percent, to settle at $87.81 a barrel.

Technology companies, which often have significant overseas exposure, slid sharply. Shares of Oracle Corp, the world's third-largest software constructor, fell 6.1 percent to $18.30 put on Nasdaq, after German rival SAP AG said it saw business drop off at the extreme point of the third divide in four equal parts.

Shares of eBay Inc fell 5.5 percent to $17.89 on Nasdaq after the online auctioneer said it plans to cut 10 percent of its labor power and spend about $1.3 billion without ceasing acquisitions to bolster its online payment and classified units as it tries to contrary a weak U.S. economy.

Trading was active on the New York Stock Exchange, with about 1.95 billion shares changing hands, roughly in line with ultimate year's estimated diurnal average of roughly 1.90 billion, at the same time that on Nasdaq, about 3.45 billion shares traded, sharply exceeding last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones by 15 to 1 on the NYSE and on the Nasdaq, by about 6 to 1.

(Reporting by Kristina Cooke; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Brier Dudley’s column this sunrise on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in Europe neatly ties up sundry big issues from the company’s ongoing attempt to escape the antitrust shadow to the global financial crisis. Dudley writes:

“Ballmer went to Europe last week despite frequent reasons, mostly to drum up transaction, apparently.

“But consider the backdrop and the tone of his announcements.

“Like the U.S., Europe is hurting, and Ballmer came transversely as the Henry Paulson of the tech industry, promising big investments bringing stability, growth and jobs.”

Adding further context to Ballmer’s trip, the banking crisis in Europe worsened last night. The New York Times reported that Germany has moved to guarantee peculiar savings accounts and two major European financial firms have landed government bailouts.

Like other major corporations, Microsoft wants to see the financial situation stabilized as readily as possible. To that end, it urged the members of Washington State’s congressional delegation who voted against the $700 billion U.S. bailout plan last week to persuade backward the bill. After its passage, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, issued this statement:

“This crisis affects more than blameless the U.S. financial sector, it affects every corner of the world economy, and today’sitting vote will help re-instill confidence round the globe. Microsoft is pleased to see members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate come arm in arm to be considered this important legislation. I specially appreciate the support of the Members of the Washington State delegating who cast their vote today to assistant preserve jobs in all sectors of the thrift of Washington greatness and across the U.S.”

That’s looking like other thing than just rhetoric. Brier Dudley spotted signs last week that hiring at Microsoft could have being slowing.

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