Intelligence Community Career Fair

The U.S. Intelligence Community,an integrated network of agencies working for national security,is holding a virtual career fair on Tuesday,March 16 from 10a.m.-8p.m. ET.They seek a culturally diverse,technically savvy workforce of U.S. citizens in a number of fields.At the fair,you may explore careers,chat with recruiters and apply for openings in fields including Cybersecurity/Information Assurance,Foreign Languages,Law Enforcement and many others.Among agencies on hand will be the Central Intelligence Agency,FBI and National Security Agency.Those interested may register at www.ICVirtualFair.com

Citigroup's Continued Appeal

Citigroup continues to be seen as an attractive holding by many investors.By one measure,65% had a positive reaction to the firm.CEO Vikram Pandit says they've scaled back on proprietary trading,or trading that banks do for their own profit,and support the idea of a regulator who will impose capital requirements.We need global coordination on regulation and derivatives transparency.U.S. consumer credit remains an issue,in Mr.Pandit's opinion.
Citigroup is now focused on being a bank,not a financial supermarket,Mr.Pandit said.We're only as big as what is required to serve our clients in a competitive market.Citi still owes the U.S. government 25 billion dollars.The bank,which gets most of its deposits overseas,will only issue 15 billion dollars of debt this year,versus 85 billion in 2009,Vikram Pandit noted.The company has been shedding non-core holdings in an attempt to emerge from near-catastrophic damage brought on by amassing toxic assets.Since the market low of last March 8,Citigroup shares have risen from 1.05 to 3.56,as of the opening bell this morning.

BlackRock Viewpoint

Consumers spent a little more money last month,feeling a little better about the jobs they hold,notes Bob Doll,Vice-President and Chief Equity Strategist at BlackRock.We're seeing an improvement in business conditions,improving revenue and will add some jobs soon,but we've got to get past the tightening concerns,the Greek problem.There are more bad debts out there,and that means a sub par recovery.It will be slower than normal:two steps forward,and one step back.
The economy and markets can handle small rate increases.There are political worries,but manufacturing is doing pretty well and inflation is contained.We need to see some job growth.That would be the next step in a normal recovery.The rising price of oil is a sign of global economic recovery.
I've been impressed by the recent mergers and acquisitions,and I think there are a bunch more to come.It will spread lots of different places.I think we'll see continued mixed data,but leaning to the positive.My view is that European growth will be slow.They've got some punching to do to get out of the mess,Mr.Doll believes.
BlackRock,which acquired Barclays' iShares funds,has more than a trillion dollars under management.

Budget Jeopardizes Student Health

In Frederick County,Maryland,school health rooms are staffed by health technicians,and these are supervised by registered nurses.Today,when an RN leaves her position,she is not being replaced for budgetary reasons.That means the RN's job must be done by the remaining nurses.RNs have gone from supervising two schools each to supervising three to four schools.As well,five schools lack a full-time health technician.When an HT isn't there,a school administrator mans the health room,rather than someone trained in the health culture.Such is the situation in this economic downturn as described by Dr.Barbara Brookmyer,Chief Public Health Officer,as she addressed a recent Board of Education meeting.She pointed out how serious this was for diabetic children,who need ongoing help with medication,glucose monitoring and so on.
BOE member Daryl F. Boffman said he was appalled that society has come to this point.Board President Kathryn B. Groth noted that some schools aren't close to an ambulance,so it could take some time for a professional emergency response.Dr.Brookmyer,who was supported by several of the school health staff who also attended the meeting,pleaded for the BOE to raise the issue with the County Commissioners,who control the purse strings.It was a scene undoubtedly being played out across the cash-strapped country,if not the developed world.

What BlackRock Sees

The tone of regulators in the U.S. and Europe is pretty consistent:a more secure banking system with more capital,according to Laurence Fink,CEO of BlackRock,the world's largest money manager.In Europe,they're talking about Basel III,with lots of capital,and it's similar in the U.S.Most certainly banks are more reluctant to lend, because they're not certain about capital requirements in the future.Corporations are not hiring;not building factories;and not buying equipment.Huge pools of money are sitting in banks and corporations.This is the problem we're seeing today in our economy.They're seeing what the new regulations will be.
BlackRock is seeing increased appetite for mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.We're seeing renewed interest in equities,as opposed to fixed income.We're not concerned about our competition at all,Mr.Fink insisted.The etf market needs a lot of liquidity and research.It is our belief the etf market will continue to grow from both institutions and individual investors.
There's a healing in commercial real estate going on,Mr.Fink believes,but not fast enough.He's not terribly worried about it,although some of the regional banks will be destabilized.The Federal Reserve is aware of this.
Mr.Fink is one of the more forthright executives in the financial industry.His colleague at BlackRock,Bob Doll,follows the same path of openness.

El Tiempo Latino Openings

El Tiempo Latino,a publication of The Washington Post,has multiple openings in bilingual sales.These positions have offer high earnings potential and excellent benefits.They are for organized,self-motivated,energetic team players with excellent people skills.Those interested may submit resumes to kris@eltiempolatino.com

Special Access:With the Central Banker

Ben Bernanke,Chairman of the Federal Reserve,testified before the House Financial Services Committee last week,strongly defending the Fed's role in supervising the largest financial institutions.He also reflected on the current economic situation,including inflation and the structural deficit.We're not expecting inflation to rise in the near or medium term,Mr.Bernanke said.Employers are seeing slow wage growth and strong productivity gains.Unit labor costs are falling and there is weak demand,discouraging price increases.It's conceivable long term debt could directly or indirectly affect the economy by causing a loss of confidence.
The Federal Reserve still retains 1.25 trillion dollars of mortgage-backed securities.We think our holding them will keep mortgage rates down,even though we are ending new purchases.The very high vacancy rates in rental properties are keeping rents down.
Stripping the Fed of supervisory authority,in light of the recent crisis,would be a grave mistake.Large institutions need to be seen as a whole,the wide range of activites of a complex international financial firm.The Fed has a range of multidisciplinary skills for consolidated oversight.The Fed is the one institution with the full breadth of skills.The Fed of course made errors,but we were hardly alone in that respect.
We've learned that regulations need to be tougher;we have changed our approach to one of tougher risk assessment.We've increased capital requirements and scrutiny of executive compensation.You have to be careful not to restrict hedging activity,which involves securities purchases.We would implement regulations as part of our overall risk assessment of the company,whether the company has adequate management capabilities to manage those risks.A lack of strong controls would be grounds for the supervisor to require changes or elimination of those activities.If you can get market discipline to bear on firms,that would help the regulators,Mr.Bernanke told the committee.
Ben Bernanke was recently reappointed and confirmed for another four-year term as Chairman,despite distrust of the Fed by some members of Congress.Congress feared disrupting financial markets by denying his reappointment,among other considerations.