DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A fierce storm left dangerous ice, heavy snow and vicious winds in its wake as it slogged eastward Wednesday, snarling traffic and closing hundreds of schools from the Upper Midwest through New England.

More than a foot of snow was expected in parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, where the National Weather Service warned of “extremely dangerous blizzard conditions” and near whiteout driving conditions. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph could build snow drifts between 8 and 15 feet tall. Parts of New England also girded themselves for bone-chilling wind gusts and snow accumulations of up to a foot.

via My Way News – Heavy snowfall, wind pounding Midwest, New England.

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Former Bank of England policy maker Willem Buiter said Greece may be the first major country in the European Union to default on its debts since the aftermath of World War II.

“It’s five minutes to midnight for Greece,” Buiter, who will join Citigroup Inc. as its chief economist next month, said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. “We could see our first EU 15 sovereign default since Germany had it in 1948.”

via Former BOE Official Buiter Says Greece May Be First EU Default – Bloomberg.com.

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And all three new concepts are MAJOR changes to everything that has been put on the table so far. If they can figure out how to keep the Medicare expansion revenue-neutral (truly), it might be time for everybody to keep an open mind about this latest compromise.

Under the tentative Senate deal, the federal Office of Personnel Management would negotiate with private insurers to offer national non-profit health plans similar to those offered to federal employees.

Liberal Senate negotiators, who backed the public option as a way to create more competition for insurers, agreed to drop their support in exchange for allowing people aged 55 to 64 to “buy in” to the Medicare health plan for the elderly, which now begins at age 65.

The deal includes a provision that would require insurers to spend 90 percent of revenue from premiums on medical services, which could crimp their profits.

via Obama praises Senate healthcare deal | Reuters.

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So it is official, if not a surprise: keep interest rates low enough for long enough and banks will behave in very silly ways.

That makes one more reason to expect further bubbles as part of the cost of recovering from the last one, which was in turn part of the cost of repairing the damage done by the bubble before that.

via Reuters.com.

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The weather in Cuba is much nicer. – KSM, leader of the group of five Al Qaeda terrorists heading to the Big Apple.

If the men accused of plotting the September 11 attacks wonder what conditions they might face when they are moved to New York from Guantanamo Bay for trial, they can expect solitary confinement, 23-hour-a-day lockdowns, constant video surveillance and almost no visitors.

via Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com.

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Moody’s Investors Service said the top debt ratings on the U.S. and the U.K. may “test the Aaa boundaries” because public finances are worsening in the wake of the global financial crisis.

“The deterioration has been pretty severe,” said Pierre Cailleteau, managing director of sovereign risk at Moody’s, in a Bloomberg Television interview in London. “We expect a pretty strong policy response in the next couple of years in order to keep the debt in the Aaa range. We expect them to bend but not to break.”

The U.S.’s debt burden will climb to 97.5 percent of gross domestic product next year from 87.4 percent, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast in June. National debt in the U.S. climbed to $7.17 trillion in November. The U.K.’s public debt will swell to 89.3 percent of the economy in 2010 from 75.3 percent this year, according to the OECD.

“There has been a huge increase in debt-to-gross-domestic- product ratios as a result of the crisis,” said David Keeble, head of fixed-income strategy in London at Calyon, the investment-banking unit of Credit Agricole SA. “It’s right that there should be a lot of attention and pressure on these numbers.”

via U.K., U.S. Top Aaa Ratings Tested by Debt Burdens, Moody’s Says – Bloomberg.com.

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Not a bad idea but where will the money come from?

Additionally, the emerging agreement calls for Medicare to be opened to uninsured Americans beginning at age 55, a significant expansion of the large government health care program that currently serves the 65-and-over population.

via AP sources: Dems reach deal to drop gov’t-run plan – Yahoo! Finance.

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