President Barack Obama made an opening offer in what could be a long negotiation with corporate America on Wednesday, putting forward his first clear plan to cut the corporate tax rate.Though it has little chance of becoming law in an election year with Congress deeply divided on fiscal issues, Obama’s plan aligns him roughly with the Republican presidential challengers and could minimize the corporate tax rate as a political issue.

The president proposed cutting the top corporate rate to 28 percent from 35 percent, addressing a long-standing gripe by U.S. corporations that the rate is too high.Though thanks to tax breaks many companies pay nowhere near the top U.S. corporate rate of 35 percent, the statutory top U.S. rate makes it the world’s second-highest after Japan’s.In return for lowering the tax rate on businesses, Obama’s plan calls for broadening the corporate tax base by ending a number of tax breaks, some spelled out earlier in his budgets.The plan tries to reverse tax incentives for corporations to relocate jobs and research overseas, while giving domestic manufacturing operations bigger tax breaks.

Obama’s plan was immediately criticized as inadequate by some business groups, while others said the plan was a step in the right direction, but short on details.I would say : We are only at the starting point of corporate tax reform…

A few months ago economists were all but certain the US economy would slow sharply at the start of this year, with many warning that recession risks were growing. That pessimism has been shaken off by a string of surprisingly solid data that paint a picture of an economy with building momentum. The jobs market is picking up, manufacturing is accelerating and the service sector is also flexing its muscle – good news for President Barack Obama, who faces an election battle in November.

The main reason for this newfound optimism is rising employment, which should help support the consumer spending that drives two-thirds of US economic activity.Employers added 243,000 new jobs in January, the most in nine months, and the jobless rate dropped to a three-year low of 8.3 per cent. This is a great figure to start with …

Nobel economist Paul Krugman, who has pushed for years for more aggressive policies to spur growth, let a notable ray of light into his latest New York Times column, coupled as it was with a reminder that the economy remained depressed. “It’s not hard to see how this recovery could become self-sustaining,” he wrote.

Lets Expect the best from Future

US President Barack Obama is leading over his potential Republican challenger Mitt Romney by six points.Obama remains a polarizing figure, with Americans closely divided on whether he deserves re-election as well as on many aspects of his performance in office.

Obama said that he deserves to be re-elected for the second term given that his administration has successfully led the nation in revival of its economy.Romney, who won his third primary state over the weekend, is the front runner among the four Republican presidential candidates. The poll was conducted last week.Obama leads Romney 51 per cent to 45 per cent among registered voters.

Whatever the case may may be : The best person will Win :::

God Bless America …

The power sector saw merger and acquisition deals worth a combined $ 174.4 billion globally in 2011, a 16 per cent growth vis-a-vis the previous year, according to a report. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ annual review of M&A deals in the global power sector, the total deal value in the power sector was up 16 per cent from $ 150.5 billion in 2010 at $ 174.4 billion in 2011. The number of deals went down to 583 in 2011 from 670 in the preceding year.
Various reasons have been cited for consolidation in the sector. These included companies looking at gaining a larger presence in growth markets and strong international interest in infrastructure assets.

Deal activity in the Americas saw a surge in 2011, contributing $ 58 billion to total M&A activity. A mix of divestment, repositioning and market growth imperatives continue to make for potentially buoyant power deal conditions. But a pick-up remains stalled as concerns about the euro zone crisis and economic growth persist.

Friday’s downgrades of France and Austria mean the European Financial Stability Facility has just four triple-A-rated guarantors left: Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg.

Standard & Poor’s already has warned that if it downgraded one or more of these six countries, it also would downgrade the EFSF, although it has yet to do so. What does that mean for Europe’s bailout facility, which on Tuesday plans to sell €1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) of six-month bills?

Euro-zone member states said Friday that they would explore ways to keep the EFSF’s triple-A rating. But that looks tricky. One way would be to accept a lower lending capacity; the removal of France and Austria reduces the triple-A backing of the EFSF to €271 billion from €440 billion.

While the EFSF so far has issued only €21 billion of bonds and bills to fund loans to Portugal and Ireland, more commitments may lie ahead, including a second bailout for Greece, funding for bank recapitalizations and support for other member states. It already is clear that the €440 billion cap is a barrier to the EFSF being a truly effective crisis firewall.

To retain the full capacity and rating would require the four remaining triple-A states to increase their guarantees. That is likely to be politically difficult: Parliamentarians in Finland, the Netherlands and Germany are some of the most vocal in their opposition to providing more bailout cash. And these countries are likely to be even more protective of their own credit quality, having escaped a downgrade.

So the euro zone might just have to accept a lower-rated EFSF. Would that matter? The EFSF still would have two triple-A ratings, from Moody’s and Fitch, at least for now. But investors might start to worry that other ratings firms will cut the EFSF. Funding costs could rise, hampering the EFSF’s ability to support troubled countries. Last year, the yield gap on the EFSF’s 2.75% bond due in 2016 rose to nearly 2.2 percentage points over German debt, before falling back to 1.5 points. And demand for its debt from outside the euro zone has waned. This month’s three-year issue saw 76% of bonds sold into the currency bloc, versus 37% for its debut issue a year ago.

Ideally, a bailout facility that isn’t prefunded and that needs to be able to tap markets in times of turmoil should have no question marks against it. For the EFSF, the question marks are stacking up.

New Hampshire’s presidential primary may be the news of the day but talk to any Republican strategist and it’s clear that the Granite State vote is only the appetizer to South Carolina’s main course in 11 days. The Republican primary race will come to a fork in the road in South Carolina. A win by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the Palmetto State effectively ends the GOP nomination fight. A loss by Romney likely means a protracted primary fight that continues through Super Tuesday on March 6.

“Romney wins unless something huge happens.South Carolina is the first state that actually believes they are voting for a president and not electing a state party chair or sending a message. That attitude will significantly help Romney.”

I just have one thing to pray whatever happens : “God Bless AMERICA”

There are signs of potential stability in the housing market and U.S. banks are probably being helped by that.This week , Traders initially focused on heavy losses in European bank shares, led by UniCredit (CRDI.MI). Italy’s largest bank has lost more than 30 percent of its value this week after it priced a share offering meant to shore up its ravaged balance sheet.

Mostly people think that , Bank stocks “can do well in the very long term, they are cheap stocks, but they are cheap for reasons that will not go away any time soon”.

But this week US banks outperformed and I hope this will straighten the Wall street ….

Thousands of foreign pilgrims and Palestinian Christians, some in Santa hats, gathered at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity Saturday to pray for peace at the place where Jesus was born.Loudspeakers blared carols in Arabic and a Palestinian cleric in a festive purple robe pleaded for peace in the Holy Land and in the wider Middle East.

I pray : All the prayers of the pilgrims will be accepted and Peace will prevail all over the world.May the Holy star show all the humanity path to peace and prosperity…

Merry Christmas

MPM & Associates LLC. is a thirty year old firm, with experience in all aspects of Campaign Development. We have over 40 years of experience collectively in developing the tools to help your campaign grow in the right direction. In Our Website you can find more details about our services. We would be delighted to share our collective abilities, with you and your professionals, with one common goal, of growing your campaign.

MPM & Associates focuses on building strong, efficient organizations, developing an overall funding strategy and position the client for long-term organizational stability and achievement of its vision. We listen carefully, plan thoughtfully and act creatively to maximize the impact of your organization’s philanthropic initiatives. Our role is to help your organization raise money. Whether you and your organization need occasional support or long-term support, MPM & Associates offers comprehensive counsel and analysis on campaign feasibility and planning, development staffing, volunteer responsibilities, and donor information systems.

Please visit us @ www.mpmassociates.com

Send us an E-mail Read more…

MPM & Associates focuses on building strong, efficient organizations, developing an overall funding strategy and position the client for long-term organizational stability and achievement of its vision. We listen carefully, plan thoughtfully and act creatively to maximize the impact of your organization’s philanthropic initiatives. Our role is to help your organization raise money. Whether you and your organization need occasional support or long-term support, MPM & Associates offers comprehensive counsel and analysis on campaign feasibility and planning, development staffing, volunteer responsibilities, and donor information systems.