Fourth Critical Finance Studies Conference ? All that is Solid for ...

Money Menace

FOURTH CRITICAL FINANCE STUDIES CONFERENCE

15-17 August 2012
Call for Papers
Essex Business School, University of Essex
Colchester, UK

??In what is broadly called commentary, the hierarchy between primary and secondary text plays two roles which are in solidarity with each?other. On the one hand it allows the (endless) construction of new?discourses. The dominance of the primary text?..is the basis for an open possibility of speaking. But on the other hand the commentary?s?only role, whatever the techniques used, is to say at last what was?silently articulated ?beyond?,?in the text. By a paradox which it always displaces but never escapes, the commentary must say for the?first time what had, nonetheless, already been said, and must?tirelessly repeat what had, however, never been said.? (Foucault, 1981: 55-56)

Critical Finance Studies Conference

Studying finance critically is playing with / being played by the?normative forces of financial apparatuses; risking one?s self in the?course of producing radically novel ways of thinking and comprehending?finance and, ultimately, of creating new possibilities of life. With this in mind the Fourth Annual Critical Finance Studies conference?will be held this year at the University of Essex, Essex Business?School, August 15th -17th. With a conference gap in 2011 and with a financial crisis that is still on the agenda, and perhaps even?stronger than ever, even compared with 2008, we have decided to devote?this year?s conference to the ongoing financial crisis.

The Financial Crisis? futures and pasts re-interpreted

We strongly encourage papers that contribute to our ongoing?collaborative research project that seeks to engage finance in new and?critical ways and from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. This is especially important when trying to understand the current??financial situation?, e.g. how people in everyday work and life are?affected, how the environment is affected, how theories cope and adapt?in the face of a protracted crisis, and how politicians, professional bodies and professionals respond to or promote change or not. We?encourage papers that tackle these sorts of issues and, with this in mind, the conference is organized around three sub-streams: an open?stream on theory, method, and critique; a stream on financial?imaginaries/imagining finance; and a stream on sustainability/finance (see below for more details). The conference finale will comprise a semi-public and interdisciplinary panel in order to, we hope, create some interesting debates, and inspire new thoughts and create new?possibilities of life.

Papers should be submitted to the allocated convenor for each sub-theme. We encourage and welcome passionate academic work in different?stages and forms, but they all need to be developed enough so that the?audience can be intellectually challenged and involved in discussions. The deadline for an extended abstract (about 1000 words) is 15th April?2012. A review panel will announce their decision of acceptance within?two weeks from the deadline. Accepted papers should be submitted in their final form by 1 July 2012.

The conference is organised by Dr Ann-Christine Frandsen at Essex Business School, Essex University in collaboration with Dr Thomas Bay?Stockholm University (Forslund and Bay, 2009). The venue will be at?the University of Essex, Colchester Campus. The conference language will be English. Discussants will be appointed ? introducing papers,?chairing sessions, involving participants.

Open Stream: Theory, Method, and Critique

Convenors: Jason Glynos, Department of Government, University of Essex ljglyn@essex.ac.uk & Ann-Christine Frandsen, Accounting Group, Essex Business School, frandsen@essex.ac.uk

We invite papers in finance studies that provoke critical engagement?with current practices, open up pathways for effective political mobilization and socio-economic transformation, or sketch out possible counter-visions entailing alternative practices and forms of?governance. The open stream is designed to catch contributions that?tackle issues that fit the conference theme but do not necessarily fall neatly into one of the titled streams. For example: How might?critical engagements with finance tell us something about the way?markets are performed in other areas of economic life? What forms of subjectivity might different finance practices promote? How should we?think the connections between finance and other sectors of the?economy? What role should key concepts such as merit and remuneration, surplus labour, speculation, technology, and competition play in how we theorize and imagine finance?

The politics of financial reform draws on a range of characterizations, diagnoses, and prognoses of the recent financial?crisis. Such ?problematizations? matter because they set in train path dependencies that invite us to problematize those problematizations?themselves. Some, for example, seek to avoid heaping blame onto a few?individual ?bad apples?, one of the most trenchant narratives repeatedly and insistently articulated in the mass media. Some seek to?avoid locating the fault with finance as such. Others argue that the?financial crisis should be understood as a hubris-induced elite debacle rather than a systems accident or fiasco (Engelen et al 2011).?The tension between explanatory and interpretive dimensions in these?problematizations is never far from the surface, but what is clear is?that the way finance is characterized, problematized, and contested?has consequences for citizens and for policy makers, not least because?of the sorts of futures they open up or close down. This raises issues?about how different theoretical perspectives and methodological techniques shape the way we characterize, problematize, and contest?financial practices and associated policy and media representations at?elite and popular levels; or about how different sorts of critique emerge, relate, and interact with one another, for example, normative?and ideological forms of critique.

We encourage the submission of papers that draw on poststructuralist, post-marxist, psychoanalytic, Deleuzian, Foucauldian, and other?traditions, and that explore a range of theoretical, methodological,?and critical issues linked to the analysis of finance. What forms of innovative, progressive, and sustainable banking and finance do such?perspectives enable us to imagine? What role should experiment play in?these efforts to conjure alternative visions? How should these experiments be financed? What innovative means of critique are?available to citizens living in democratic polities with a tightly?coupled nexus of elites in politics-finance-media? What role should music, film, television, social networking platforms, and other media?play in facilitating both the process of critique and the conjuring of?counter-visions of finance practice and governance?

Stream 2: Financial Imaginaries/Imagining Finance

Convenor: Christian de Cock, Management Group, Essex Business School cdc@essex.ac.uk

A key area of concern in this stream is the ?imaginary of finance?, the semiotic system that gives meaning and shape to the economic field?in which finance is embedded. Empirically we encourage the submission?of papers that explore how, despite the convulsions of 2008 and their continuing reverberations, this imaginary has remained pretty much?intact anno 2012 (in that we have witnessed over and over again the re-articulation of established themes and genres). Established financial imaginaries have no doubt proved extremely powerful in shaping the thoughts and perceptions of key political and economic decision makers?and it would be interesting to learn more about the mechanics of this.?Theoretically we encourage papers that can enrich and develop the notion of ?imaginary? itself within a financial context. Examples could include Lacan?s (Real-Symbolic-Imaginary) or Iser?s (Real-Fictive-Imaginary) triad.? We also encourage the submission of papers that can offer new ways of imagining finance. Following Yusoff and?Gabrys (2011), we see imagination as ?a way of sensing, thinking, and?dreaming the formation of knowledge, which creates the conditions for material interventions in and political sensibilities of the world?.?What are the conditions of possibility to change dominant framings of?the financial imagination? Can we re-imagine the organization of finance as an ethical, societal, and cultural problem? Can we open up?a generative space of unknowing which can create the possibility to?take us beyond the seemingly eternal dialectic of economic catastrophe and ?business as usual?? These are just some of the questions you may?help formulate answers to.

Stream 3: Sustainability / Finance

Convenor: Steffen B?hm, Management Group, Essex Business School and interdisciplinary Centre for Environment and Society, University of?Essex, steffen@essex.ac.uk

Finance is arguably at the heart of what might be called the global capitalist economy, which is geared towards ever increasing growth of?production and consumption. A whole host of critics and social movements have pointed to the unsustainable nature of this self-referential system, and particularly its negative environmental?consequences. Specifically, financial service industries have been repeatedly accused of funding environmentally very damaging extractive industry projects (such an open pit mining, oil tar sands, etc),?contributing to the creation of speculative bubbles of commodity?markets (e.g. leading to higher basic food prices), and endangering the livelihood of indigenous and other communities (threatened by?global industries invading their land, for example), to name but a few?of the grievances that have been articulated. We are seeking contributions that map, evaluate and expand such critiques of finance?and its problematic relation to sustainability.

On the other hand, however, finance increasingly likes to portray itself as part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. The?financial services industry has arguably made some efforts to positively contribute to issues such as climate change (e.g. through?carbon disclosure), land grab and livelihoods in developing countries (e.g. through the Equator Principles) and environmental protection in?more general terms (e.g. through the UN Global Compact). While some?might accuse such initiatives as ?hot air? or even ?greenwash?, which?often lack real power and impact, there are more concrete efforts to?offer sustainable finance solutions, ranging from microfinance to carbon offsetting, from community finance to payments for?environmental services. What should we make of this move of finance??going green? and ?ethical?? What empirical evidence is there to?suggest that such finance approaches to solving environmental and?social issues are actually working?

Overall, then, we encourage submissions that problematize the relationship between sustainability and finance in its broadest sense.?We are not only interested in critiques of current finance approaches to sustainability, but particularly encourage studies of how groups?and communities can use money and finance in novel ways to live more?sustainable lives. We are hence keen to explore the ways of how finance can make a contribution to another possible world.

For any general enquiry about the conference please contact Ann-Christine Frandsen. Any specific questions related to one of the?streams each please contact relevant convenor

Organising committee: (Alphabetic order)
Professor Steffen B?hm
Professor Christian de Cock
Dr Ann-Christine Frandsen
Dr Jason Glynos
Dr Pik Liew
Dr Sumohon Matilal
Chloe Warren ? Marketing Officer, EBS

Organiser: Ann-Christine Frandsen Essex Business School, University of Essex, Colchester Campus, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK

Phone: +44 (0)1206 87 869 809

Email: frandsen@essex.ac.uk

To find out more about Essex Business School visit: http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs

In Collaboration with

Thomas Bay, Stockholm University

References:

D. Forslund and T. Bay, (2009). ?The eve of critical finance?studies?.? Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization. Vol. 9(4),?pp. 285-299.

M. Foucault, (1981). ?The Order of Discourse? (Inaugural Lecture at the College de France, given 2 December, 1971). In R. Young (ed),?Untying the Text: a Post-Structuralist Reader.? London: Methuen, 1981,?pp. 48-78.

Dr Steffen B?hm | Professor in Management and Sustainability | Essex Business School | University of Essex | Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK | Rm?5NW.4.4 | Tel. +44(0)1206 87 3843 | http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/staff/profile.aspx?ID=727
http://steffenboehm.net

**END**

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Banner Ads ? The Advantages Of Using Banner Advertising To ...

Today advertising has become essential for any type of online business. When it comes to internet business, banner advertising makes all the difference and defines if your company will be profitable or failing. There are different banner ads online. You can add it with graphical features that can be used for enticing more prospects to the website. However, the simplicity of use and attractiveness of banner ads made some people to overuse it significantly until it got boring. This article aims to research some remarkable facts about banner ads and to show you how it can be used avoiding making your prospects bored.

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Wi patiently waits his turn to win

BC-GLF--Pebble Beach, 4th Ld-Writethru,1256Wi maintains the lead as Tiger chargesAP Photo CABM130, CAER122, CABM127, CAJC119, CAJC103, CAJC125, CAJC126, CAER115Eds: New approach. With AP Photos.By DOUG FERGUSONAP Golf Writer

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) ? Coming off an early bogey that put him eight shots behind, Tiger Woods was in a bunker to the left of the 13th fairway at Pebble Beach when he cut a 9-iron too much, sending it right of the green toward deep rough.

The ball caromed off a mound and onto the green and started rolling. And rolling. When it finally settled a foot below the hole, and the gallery's cheers grew increasingly louder, Woods hung his head and smiled.

He went from possible bogey to unlikely birdie.

And with five birdies in a six-hole stretch, he went from the periphery of contention to the thick of it Saturday in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, another step toward showing his game is on the way back.

"Looked like I was having a tough time making par, and I was making birdie, and off we go," Woods said. "Sometimes, we need those types of momentum swings in a round, and from there, I made some putts."

If nothing else, he made it interesting going into the final round of his PGA Tour debut.

Charlie Wi played bogey-free at Spyglass Hill for a 3-under 69 to build a three-shot lead over Ken Duke, who had a 65 on the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula.

Woods had a 5-under 67, his best Saturday score on the PGA Tour since the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and climbed within four shots of the lead. It's the closest he has been to a 54-hole leader on the PGA Tour since the 2010 Masters.

Saturday at Pebble is all about the stars, as CBS Sports traditionally devotes its coverage to celebrities, from Ray Romano to Bill Murray dressed in camouflage while throwing a football to former San Francisco 49ers lineman Harris Barton.

Sunday will have some star power of its own.

Not only is Woods in the penultimate group ? right in front of two players who have never won on the PGA Tour ? he will be in the same group as longtime nemesis Phil Mickelson, who had a 70 at Pebble Beach despite playing the par 5s in 1 over.

Still in the mix is two-time Pebble Beach champion Dustin Johnson, former world No. 1 Vijay Singh and three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, who was two shots off the lead at one point until a sloppy finish at Spyglass for a 72.

Wi is 0-for-162 on the PGA Tour and now has to face his demons of self-doubt ? along with a familiar force in golf.

Woods couldn't convert a share of the third-round lead with Robert Rock two weeks ago in Abu Dhabi, but he is showing an upward trend. He has given himself a chance to win on the back nine of his last four stroke-play tournaments.

With a new swing, it's starting to look like the old Tiger.

"But the scenario doesn't change," Woods said. "The ultimate goal is to win a golf tournament."

That's something Wi has never done. He was at 15-under 199, and he has a 54-hole lead for only the second time on tour. He had a one-shot lead at Colonial last year and was runner-up to David Toms.

This time, Wi will be in the last group with someone in a familiar spot. Duke is winless in 142 starts.

The last two weeks haven't been too kind to 54-hole leaders, either. Kyle Stanley lost a five-shot lead at Torrey Pines, and Spencer Levin blew a six-shot lead the following week in the Phoenix Open. Both were going for their first PGA Tour win.

Your turn, Charlie.

"I haven't really thought about that," Wi said, when asked if it were a blessing or a burden to be in front. "But I enjoy being in the lead. It's a lot more fun than trying to come from behind. I know that tonight is going to be very exciting, and I'm sure I won't sleep as well as if I'm in 50th place. But that's what we play for, and I'm really excited."

Woods was at 11-under 203, having lost some momentum on the front nine at Pebble by missing a few fairways and hitting some ordinary wedge shots. He closed with seven pars.

Mickelson was at 9-under 205, along with Johnson and Hunter Mahan. Harrington was at 206, while another stroke back were Singh and Geoff Ogilvy.

Wi is No. 175 in the world, while Duke is at No. 258. They have combined for 304 starts without a win. Right behind them are Woods and Mickelson, who have combined for 18 majors and 110 PGA Tour wins.

"It's really fun, especially when the big guys are up there," Duke said. "That's when everyone is out there watching. If you do perform well and play well, they will be watching you, as well. It's going to be fun."

With a short burst of birdies, it looked as though Woods was having a blast.

He rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the 14th, and then had a 25-foot putt up the slope on the 15th. One of the amateurs in his group had a similar putt, so Woods was able to look at the break. He learned well, extending his left arm as he often does before the putt drops. And it did.

Woods made good birdie putts from 20 feet on the 17th and 8 feet on the 18th, where he also got a small break. Not wanting to hit driver in the first place because he couldn't reach in two, he came out of the shot. It looked like it might go out-of-bounds until it hit a CBS spotter and settled behind the bunkers.

Woods made an easy birdie on the par-5 second, but that was hit. He had to save par on the short par-4 fourth from a bunker, and didn't give himself enough good looks the rest of the way.

No matter. He moved up the leaderboard, higher than he has been in some time on this tour.

Woods played in the final group two weeks ago in Abu Dhabi, tied for the lead with Rock, and he had his poorest day striking the ball and finished in a tie for third. Woods played in the final group at his Chevron World Challenge at the end of last year and birdied the last two holes to beat Zach Johnson.

Woods doesn't distinguish between tours, or even official events. Winning is winning. Losing is losing. All he sees at the moment is progress, and it's hard to deny it.

"My bad days and bad shots are not as bad as they used to be," Woods said.

Wi is making his own brand of progress, getting more comfortable with his swing and being in contention. He talks often about the demons in his head, which is typical of most any golfer.

"I'm sure I'll be fighting my demons all day tomorrow and it's how I handle myself tomorrow," Wi said. "It's not what other players are doing. How I handle myself tomorrow is going to be the outcome of the tournament."

DIVOTS: Joseph Bramlett, playing on a sponsor's exemption, made an albatross on the 11th hole at Spyglass when he holed out from 187 yards with a 6-iron. He negated that with two double bogeys and shot 73. ... Among the amateurs to make the cut were Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who is playing Pebble Beach for the first time.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-02-11-Pebble%20Beach/id-82e3a18b1ae2472e8b4b27451bfc7fbf

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Obama budget: New spending with recycled tax ideas (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The White House is focusing on re-election themes such as jobs and public works projects in President Barack Obama's new budget blueprint while relying on familiar but never enacted tax increases on the wealthy and corporations to reduce future deficits after four years of trillion dollar-plus shortfalls.

Obama's 2013 budget, set for release Monday, is the official start to an election-year budget battle with Republicans. It's unlikely to result in a genuine effort to address the $15 trillion national debt or the entrenched deficits that keep piling on to it. But it will serve as the Democrats' party-defining template on this year's election stakes.

The president's plan is laden with stimulus-style initiatives: sharp increases for highway construction and school modernization, and a new tax credit for businesses that add jobs. But it avoids sacrifice with only minimal curbs on the unsustainable growth of Medicare even as it proposes a 10-year, $61 billion "financial crisis responsibility fee" on big banks to recoup the 2008 Wall Street bailout.

This budget plan, administration officials say, borrows heavily from Obama's recommendations in September to a congressional deficit "supercommittee" that was assigned to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings as part of last summer's default-avoiding budget and debt pact. The panel deadlocked and left Washington to struggle with bruising across-the-board spending cuts that kick in next January.

Even before the budget comes out, House-Senate negotiators were working over the weekend on proposals to pay for renewing jobless benefits and Obama's 2 percentage point cut in the Social Security payroll tax due to expire Feb. 29.

Proposals such as requiring a $100 per-takeoff fee on airlines and private jet owners, auctioning broadcast spectrum, and raising pension guarantee insurance premiums are in the mix as negotiators seek $160 billion or more in deficit savings to pay for a 10-month extensive of the payroll tax cut and federal jobless benefits.

The president's budget plan predicts a deficit of $1.3 trillion for 2012 and a $901 billion deficit in the 2013 budget year, which starts Oct. 1. It claims deficit savings of more than $4 trillion over a decade, mixing $1 trillion already banked through last summer's clampdown on agency operating budgets with $1.5 trillion in higher tax revenues reaped from an overhaul of the tax code.

An additional $1 trillion, more or less, would come from war savings, a move that budget watchdogs call an accounting gimmick, especially because the administration also wants to devote some of those savings to pay for $476 billion in road and bridge projects over the coming six years.

The budget also futilely asks Congress to adopt a "Buffett Rule" guaranteeing that households with a yearly income of more $1 million pay federal taxes equal to at least 30 percent of it. Billionaire financier Warren Buffett has made headlines proposing the idea, saying that it's unfair for him to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Republicans say the new tax would push investors into sending money overseas where it would be taxed less. Recycled proposals to curb tax breaks for oil and gas producers are also a dead letter on Capitol Hill.

The administration plan is sure to get a chilly reception from Republicans dead set against tax increases but more than willing to tackle rapidly spiraling Medicare spending.

Last year, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., upended the Capitol with his Medicare plan. He wanted to gradually replace the current system in which the government pays doctor and hospital bills with a voucher-like plan that would have government subsidizing purchases of health insurance. Scalded Republicans are likely to press a less dramatic version this year.

"The Obama approach is simply more debt, more taxes, and more blaming others," Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said in the Republican radio address Saturday. "This will not be a proactive budget built to promote fiscal responsibility and future prosperity. Rather, it appears we'll see a bloated budget that doubles down on the failed policies of the past."

Democrats controlling the Senate appear unlikely to offer a budget at all, for a third straight year. Instead, they are already planning to use last year's budget pact to determine the size of the pie and divide it into 12 annual appropriations bills that set the day-to-day budgets for Cabinet agencies. The move allows 16 Senate Democrats facing re-election to avoid having to make difficult votes on taxes and spending.

The constraints on federal agencies are real: the first outright cut to the Pentagon since the post-Cold War "peace dividend" of the early 1990s; a freeze in spending for medical research at the National Institutes of Health; and a decision to scrap two NASA missions to Mars later this decade.

In a fact sheet released Friday, the White House promoted small-bore initiatives such as a 19 percent increase in "advanced manufacturing" research and development, tax breaks for manufacturers, and $300 million for a program to improve child care and better prepare children for entering school.

The plan offers several breaks to college students and their parents. It would extend an up to $10,000 tax credit for college costs, forestall for one year a looming spike in student loan interest rates and keep the maximum Pell Grant for poor college students at $5,635.

Obama planned to promote the budget at a campaign-style appearance Monday in the Virginia suburbs. The White House is delaying its release until the president's appearance.

While the budget was still being kept under the wraps over the weekend, some of the details have leaked out or been teased by the White House, including a $39 million plan revealed Saturday to better enforce trade rules and bolster inspection of imports at U.S. borders.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120211/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_budget

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Researchers probe 200-year-old shipwreck off RI

Engineers Robin Littlefield, left, and Amy Kukulya, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, prepare an underwater robot in Stonington, Conn., Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, to be lowered into Long Island Sound to explore a shipwreck thought to be the USS Revenge, commanded by navy hero Oliver Hazard Perry. The Revenge sank in 1811 after striking a reef. (AP Photo/David Klepper)

Engineers Robin Littlefield, left, and Amy Kukulya, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, prepare an underwater robot in Stonington, Conn., Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, to be lowered into Long Island Sound to explore a shipwreck thought to be the USS Revenge, commanded by navy hero Oliver Hazard Perry. The Revenge sank in 1811 after striking a reef. (AP Photo/David Klepper)

Researchers lower a underwater robot into Long Island Sound off the Westerly, R.I., coast Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, to explore a shipwreck thought to be the USS Revenge, commanded by navy hero Oliver Hazard Perry. The Revenge sank in 1811 after striking a reef. (AP Photo/David Klepper)

Craig Harger. left, and Charlie Buffum stand on a dock Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012 in Stonington, Conn., before sailing into Long Island Sound where they a shipwreck thought to be the USS Revenge, commanded by navy hero Oliver Hazard Perry. The Revenge sank in 1811 after striking a reef. (AP Photo/David Klepper)

WESTERLY, R.I. (AP) ? For two centuries it rested a mile from shore, shrouded by a treacherous reef from the pleasure boaters and beachgoers who haunt New England's southern coast.

Now, researchers from the U.S. Navy are hoping to confirm what the men who discovered the wreck believe: that the sunken ship off the coast of Rhode Island is the USS Revenge, commanded by Oliver Hazard Perry and lost on a stormy January day in 1811.

"The Revenge was forgotten, it became a footnote," said Charlie Buffum, a brewery owner from Stonington, Conn., who found the shipwreck while diving with friend Craig Harger. "We are very confident this is it."

On Wednesday, Buffum and Harger braved the raw weather of Block Island Sound to accompany the researchers as they surveyed the wreck site. The Navy ? along with help from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ? is using high-tech sensor equipment to map the site, a first step toward retrieving possible artifacts.

If they're successful, they will illuminate a critical episode in the life of one of the nation's greatest naval officers. Perry is remembered as the Hero of Lake Erie for defeating the British navy in the War of 1812. He was famous for reporting simply "we have met the enemy and they are ours" after the decisive Battle of Lake Erie in 1813.

Two years earlier, the Revenge and its 25-year-old commander were en route from Newport, R.I. to New London, Conn., when the ship hit a reef in heavy fog. The area is infamous for its rocky, tide-swept reefs that lurk just beneath shallow waters.

When the Revenge struck the reef, Perry ordered the crew to dump some of the ship's cannons to lighten the load. The mast was cut. But it wasn't enough to free the ship.

The crew abandoned the Revenge, and not a single man died. But Perry's career was almost scuttled along with his ship.

The South Kingstown, R.I., native was court-martialed, and though he was exonerated, his career languished. Until he was posted to the Great Lakes.

"He was a rising star," said David Skaggs, a professor emeritus at Bowling Green State University who has written a book on Perry. "But then his ship runs aground. Running a ship aground is not a helpful thing for your career."

Harger and Buffum found the shipwreck six years ago after beer-fueled bull sessions in Buffum's brewery. Both men were experienced recreational divers. Buffum was fascinated by Perry and by shipwrecks off the Rhode Island coast.

They obtained an underwater metal detector and calculated the Revenge's likely resting place by analyzing currents and the location of the reef.

"We knew where he was going, we knew the area," said Harger, of Colchester, Conn. "We sat around in Charlie's brewery talking about where it might have gone."

They dived twice in the area and left empty-handed. The metal detector didn't even turn up a fish hook. The third dive was the charm.

"I look ahead and see this long cylindrical thing," recalled Buffum.

It was a cannon.

Harger and Buffum kept their find a secret for five years as they searched the site for more artifacts. They turned up additional cannons and other items they believe came from the ship. The wooden timbers had vanished long ago.

They remain convinced they found the Revenge. After all, they said, no other ship carrying cannons from that period is known to have sunk in the area.

The Navy won't accept their theory until they have evidence that the remains laying 10 to 15 feet underwater are indeed the Revenge.

"We were of course interested immediately when we heard," said George Schwarz, an underwater archaeologist with the U.S. Navy's History and Heritage Command, which oversees the identification and management of sunken naval vessels. "If it is the USS Revenge, then it's 200 years old and it's an incredibly important part of American history."

On Wednesday, Schwarz and engineers from Woods Hole used a torpedo-shaped underwater robot to survey the wreck site. The data will take time to analyze, Schwarz said. Depending on the results, the Navy may return with divers to search for artifacts that might bear the ship's name or other evidence of its identity.

Naval shipwrecks remain the property of the Navy, but Schwarz said it's possible that any salvaged artifacts could one day be on display at a local museum.

Buffum and Harger said they're not looking to profit from their discovery, or earn a minor mention in a history book.

"This is just about pure fun," Harger said.

Their find already has inspired the latest addition at Buffum's brewery.

"We've just come out with 'Perry's Revenge,'" Buffum said. "It's dark and stormy."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-02-09-Shipwreck/id-dd6ddb652cb043b1a00e366449747eaa

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China economy shows strain as policy shift eyed (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China betrayed signs of spluttering domestic demand on Friday as imports crumbling to their lowest in more than two years and weaker-than-forecast bank lending signaled to investors that policymakers would soon make a fresh bid to bolster growth.

China's economic expansion struck a 2- year low of 8.9 percent in the last three months of 2011, extending a steady slowdown that had prompted the government in the autumn to switch policy settings to support growth. It has gently eased monetary and fiscal conditions since.

Now more is needed.

"I think that liquidity conditions are too restrictive. The economy is slowing down and liquidity conditions are restrictive," said Yao Wei, China economist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong.

A fall of 15.3 percent in imports in January compared with January 2011 was the lowest reading since August 2009, while exports fell 0.5 percent over the same period, the worst showing since November 2009, customs data showed on Friday.

That was followed by data from the People's Bank of China showing that new lending was less than 75 percent of the level expected -- a big surprise for a financial system that typically sees its biggest lending splurge of the year in January.

"That supports our view that there should be more RRR cuts," said Kevin Lai, an economist at Daiwa in Hong Kong, referring to the bank reserve requirement ratio. A cut in reserves would release cash into the economy.

"We expect there should be four this year, so we expect the next one very soon," Lai said.

The combination of data points raises numerous worries even though Lunar New Year holidays fell in January, which can make it difficult to interpret economic figures.

First, that the domestic demand which has shielded the world's second-largest economy from slackening exports is not as resilient as thought. Second, that China's ability to support a frail global economy by absorbing more imports is undermined.

And third, that weaker-than-expected lending is a function of banks being at their limit of credit creation, meaning the central bank will need to expand the range of policy tools beyond cuts in the reserve requirement ratio and use of open market operations if it is to effectively boost the supply of credit.

"The trade data, especially imports, show that domestic demand is slowing quite rapidly. But the lending data is more indicative of that right now, the capacity to ease liquidity conditions is not as great as people thought," said Yao.

"Right now the binding constraint is not the required reserve ratio, but the loan-to-deposit ratio."

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GRAPHIC: China trade data http://link.reuters.com/ked55s

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Lunar New Year distortions will make policymakers wary of any hasty reaction. Most analysts expect them to assess January and February data combined before deciding whether the current policy of gentle easing should be intensified.

The week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in January this year and in February last year, typically sees factories shut or run at half speed during the period.

But seasonal factors alone do not convince every economist that January is a one-off distortion, especially for trade.

"A fall of over 15 percent in January cannot be entirely explained by the Lunar calendar, and adds weight to the view that economic output is slower than headline indicators might suggest," said Ren Xianfeng, an economist at IHS Global in Beijing.

Exports to the European Union, China's top export market, fell 3.2 percent in January from a year earlier, the first decline since February last year, the data shows.

Exports to the United States rose 5.5 percent in January from a year earlier, slowing from December's 11.9 percent rise and marking the weakest pace since February last year.

The big imports drop combined with a smaller exports drop left China with a trade surplus of $27.3 billion in January, its biggest in six months and confounding expectations of a further narrowing.

Realisation that January would produce a bigger trade surplus may well have held the central bank back from reducing the RRR that month, when many economists had expected a cut.

It cut bank reserves by 50 basis points to 21 percent on Dec 5, a move economists believe was a response to rare capital outflows from China in the fourth quarter of 2011.

China's monetary policy essentially targets a level of overall money supply which is affected by external capital flows and internal credit creation.

So broad M2 money supply growth of 12.4 percent in January -- the slackest pace of expansion since May 2001 -- has reignited expectations that the central bank will seek to boost credit before long.

"The weak data may reflect the softening lending demand from the real economy, which is slowing down on slackening demand at both home and abroad," said Jiang Chao, analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.

"But we cannot ignore the uncertainties stemming from the Chinese New Year effect and should better wait for the February data to call it a trend."

EXTERNAL UNCERTAINTY

Other figures on Friday showed China's current account surplus shrank in 2011, offering Beijing fresh evidence to show critics of its currency policy that it is relying less on external demand.

Chinese leaders can point to the figures next week at a summit with European Union officials in Beijing, as can Vice-President Xi Jinping, widely expected to be China's next leader, who visits Washington on Tuesday.

Xi is likely to hear calls in the United States next week that Beijing allow the currency to rise at a faster rate. The EU is also likely to make such calls when it meets China's leaders.

However, a Reuters poll this month suggested such hopes may be dashed. It showed that China is expected to slow the pace of yuan gains to help exporters cope with the slowdown in global demand growth.

China's economic growth slowed steadily throughout 2011. But the slope of the slowdown was shallow enough for the consensus to emerge that a hard economic landing will be avoided, even though many private-sector economists forecast that 2012 will see the slowest pace of expansion in a decade.

The first quarter of 2012 is widely expected to mark the bottom of China's economic downswing. Signs from the most recent purchasing managers index survey showed a slight expansion of the factory sector in January.

And analysts are wary about forecasting a cut in the RRR too soon, since data on Thursday showed annual inflation spiked to a consensus-busting 4.5 percent in January.

"Taken at face value, today's trade data should push policy makers to loosen policy further. This may well happen if February year-on-year exports data is still as low but we believe there will be a large rebound to double-digit levels," Yu Song, China economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a note to clients.

Zheng Yuesheng, statistics chief with the customs administration, told state radio such a rebound was likely.

"Exports and imports in February, before seasonal adjustment, will see a sharp rise," Zheng was quoted as saying.

(Reporting by Nick Edwards)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120210/bs_nm/us_china_economy

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