NPR 2009-04-03

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Wrapping up his first international summit meeting, President Barack Obama hailed agreements reached by world leaders at the now-concluded G20 Summit in London. Mr. Obama spoke¹ shortly after G20 leaders reached agreement to providing an additional 1.1 trillion dollars in financing to deal with the global economic crisis through the International Monetary² Fund. "After weeks of preparation and two days of careful negotiation³, we have agreed on a series of unprecedented⁴ steps to restore growth and prevented crisis like this from happening again.” President meanwhile downplayed the fact that other leaders at the now-concluded summit largely rebuffed his bid for substantial new stimulus⁵ spending. Summit participants also announced the creation of a supervisory body to identify problems in the global financial system and declared a crackdown on tax havens⁶ and hedge funds.

Federal prosecutors⁷ have announced an indictment⁸ to against former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The 52-year-old Blagojevich is accused of scheming to trade President Barack Obama's former US Senate seat, in exchange for money or favors among other crimes. Blagojevich's brother, two former aides and two businessmen have all reportedly been indicted⁹ on corruption¹⁰ charges.

The former head of Insurance giant AIG says the company collapsed¹² because of poor management after he retired¹³. Hank Greenberg who led AIG for nearly 40 years has told a Congressional committee he had nothing to do with the problem that led to the company’s collapse¹¹. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.

Hank Greenberg built AIG into the largest insurance company in the world. When he was pushed out in 2005, it was with 170 billion dollars. As Chief Executive, he created the Financial Products Division which made huge profits by selling risky¹⁴ insurance products called “credit default swaps¹⁵”. That was the business that brought the company down, but Greenberg blames the executives who ran it after he left. "I think they got greedy. I think they rode considerably¹⁶ more businesses than they should have. When they lost the AAA rating after I left the company that should have been a signal to discontinue writing credit default swaps and hedge the book." Greenberg also faults the US government for its 180-billion-dollar bailout of AIG, saying it could have worked out a better deal. Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.

The number of consumers falling behind on their mortgages has been going up for some time now, but it appears more borrowers are also falling behind on payments for consumer and home equity¹⁷ loans. American Bankers Association says the fourth quarter delinquency rate was just under 3.25% across different types of so-called closed-end consumer loans including auto/home equity and boat & RV loans.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 216 points to end the session at 7,977. The NASDAQ also gained ground today, rising 51 points to end the day at 1, 663. Standard & Poor's 500 closed up 23 points ending the session at 834 points. This is NPR.

According to the federal government, there was a spike¹⁸ last year in deaths from crashes of air medical, air taxi and tour flights. However, the National Transportation Safety Board says the major US airlines suffered no accident fatalities¹⁹ in 2008 for a second straight year. There were also no fatal crashes involving smaller commuter²⁰ airlines. The NTSB in its preliminary accident statistics says there were 56 so-called on-demand flight accidents in which 66 people were killed in 2008. That’s the highest number of fatalities in some eight years. The nation did suffer its deadliest air crash in seven years in February of this year when a regional airliner²¹ crashed into a house near Buffalo²² killing²³ a total of 50 people.

Researchers at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts have used a genetically²⁴ engineered virus to make a battery electrode. The technique could lead to more environmentally-friendly batteries. NPR's Joe Palca has more.

To find new materials for battery electrodes, engineers typically rely on strategies called heat and beat. Heat materials to high temperatures and beat them with exotic chemicals to see if they'll develop properties that will make them good in batteries. The new approach uses a much gentler mixture of molecular²⁵ biology and nanotechnology. The MIT researchers used a genetically engineered virus to form a tiny scuffled lithium iron phosphate. The virus was also capable of attaching a carbon nanotube to the scuffling so electricity could move in and out of it. The researchers say the electrode is as efficient as the best battery electrode on the market and can be made at room temperature without toxic²⁶ chemicals. The research appears in the Journal Science. Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.

Crude oil future prices rose $4.25 a barrel today to end the session at $52 a barrel in New York.