Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Roseanne Barr has filed the official paperwork necessary to run for the Green Party nomination for president of the United States.

Barr filed her paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 25. Her filing creates a four-way race for the Green nomination, which is to be decided at the Green Party Nomination Convention in July.

The comedian tweeted Thursday, “I am running for Green Party nominee for POTUS. I am an official candidate. I am4 the Greening of America & the world. Green=peace/justice.”

‘I will run until the convention in July in Baltimore, I fully expect Jill Stein 2b the nominee & I will support her, but till then-I’ll serve,” Barr continued in several tweets that followed her announcement.

Barr’s platform, as detailed in a tweet, is a promise to institute “#Europeanstyle” single payer healthcare within the first 100 days of her term, and to forgive all credit card and mortgage debt “by kicking out the FED-those who all this fake debt is owed.”

In May 2010, in a campaign announcement, Barr outlined a more detailed platform. “First, to make war illegal and legalize hemp and marijuana. Second, change the demographics of government to include more women. Third, outlaw–how do we say this politely–outlaw bull. Yes, that’s it. Outlaw bull.”

On the Green Party website, Barr expressed her support for the Occupy Wall Street Movement and said, “Both the Democratic and Republican parties are bought and paid for by corporate America and cater to the needs of the highest bidder as opposed to the people the claim to represent. I cannot be bought.”

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Wall Street opened lower Friday after a report showed that the U.S. economy expanded less than forecast..

Just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 33 points, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index was flat and the NASDAQ was up by about 6 points.

Weighing on stocks was a report that showed the U.S. economy expanded at 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter, less than the 3 percent that had been projected.

In Europe the Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.7 percent as investors await word on developments on the region’s sovereign debt crisis. European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said authorities are “very close” to reaching an agreement on private-sector involvement in a Greek debt swap.

Despite those words of optimism, the dismal growth of GDP in the U.S. was keeping investors cautious. The health and growth of the U.S. economy is a very important and leading indicator of economic growth worldwide. As analysts like to say, “when the U.S. sneezes, the world catches a cold.”

In corporate news, Ford fell after reporting numbers that missed estimates. Starbucks shares slipped despite reporting better than expected numbers, and Juniper Networks plunged after the second biggest maker of computer networking equipment forecast sales and profits that missed estimates.

In commodities, oil was unchanged at $$99.60 a barrel, gold rose $4.70 to $1,725 a troy ounce and silver was up a few pennies at $33.63.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Wall Street opened mixed to lower Friday morning following earnings reports from General Eclectic and Google that disappointed.

Just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat, the S&P 500 Index was down 3 points and the NASDAQ fell 9 points.

Weighing on stocks was an earnings report from Dow component General Electric. Shares of GE dropped more than 2 percent after the largest U.S. conglomerate reported roughly flat profit from continuing operations, and revenues that missed estimates.

Meanwhile, Internet giant Google tumbled more than 8 percent, or 52.38, to 586.66, after the search engine reported quarterly profit and revenue that missed Wall Street estimates. Google blamed the shortfall on declining search advertising rates.

Microsoft shares rose 3 percent after decent earnings, and IBM rose $4.87 to $185.45 after giving a strong outlook on a strong earnings report.

Investors are still keeping a close eye on developments in Europe regarding the sovereign debt crisis.

Greece and its private bondholders were “converging toward” a long-awaited debt swap deal, with an initial agreement coming as early as Friday that would prevent a default from Greece.

In commodities, oil was trading off $1.19 to $99.20 a barrel, and gold was down $1.20 to $1,652.90 a troy ounce.

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Atlanta, GA, United States (AHN) – Oh how the tall and mighty have fallen.

Atlanta’s tallest building, Bank of America Plaza, a tower bought at the market peak, has been struggling with rising vacancy rates and a heavy debt load.

A foreclosure date has been set for the storied tower. According to a public notice, the building will go up for auction on Feb. 7.

The foreclosure auction comes three months after owner BentleyForbes Group LLC, a Los Angeles real estate firm, defaulted on its $363 million mortgage.

Since then, the company has been in negotiations to restructure its debt.

According to a statement from BentleyForbes, the company “remains committed to work with its financial partners” to stabilize the capital structure of the 55-story, 1,024-foot tower.

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Rome, Italy (AHN) – Italy’s borrowing rate came down slightly at its latest bond auction, but still remained high with investors worried over the eurozone debt crisis.

Interest rates on 10-year bonds dropped by only 0.5 percentage points from the yield prices on debt auctioned in November. However, economists said that the important thing was that there were still buyers willing to invest in Italy’s government bonds.

The Italian government auctioned off $8.96 billion worth of medium and long-term debt on Thursday with interest rates of 6.98 percent on 10-year bonds.

There was better news for the costs of short and medium-term borrowing with interest on new three-year debt falling to 5.62 percent from 7.89 percent paid last month. It auctioned $11.8 billion of short-term debt on Wednesday.

It will have to auction more bonds to raise enough money within the next few months to repay $208 billion in debt between February and April.

It does not help that the euro has lost value. After the auction, the euro fell in value in currency pair trading to its lowest level against the dollar in 15 month at $1.287 before rising to end at $1.29 on Thursday.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Treasury Department sold $13 billion in 30-year bonds Wednesday at a record low yield of 2.925 percent.

Despite the debt security having the lowest yield on record, investors in the U.S. and around the world still have a hearty appetite for the long bond.

Bidders offered to buy 3.05 times the amount of debt sold, compared to an average of 2.81 times at the last four comparable auctions.

Indirect bidders, those that include global central banks, bought 32.5 percent of the sale, compared to 36.1 percent on average.

Direct bidders–domestic money managers–purchased another 21.2 percent, versus an average of 19.5 percent.

Following the oversubscribed and highly successful auction, the broader bond market continued the rally.

Yields on 10-year notes, which move in the opposite direction to prices, fell 5 basis points to 1.92 percent.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The United States-European Union summit here ended without any fiscal help emerging from the U.S. as ambassadors from both sides provided a read-out of the meeting while the host president brushed aside chances of any news-making headlines emerging.

President Barack Obama, along with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, did not address a news conference but made post-summit statements in the White House Roosevelt Room.

Obama noted that “much has changed” since the last EU summit in Portugal last year. “What hasn’t changed is the fundamental bonds” between the U.S. and EU, he said.

Playing down the idea of there being news from the meetings, Obama said, “These aren’t always the most dramatic meetings because we agree on so much; that sometimes it’s hard to make news,” stressing fundamental bonds of freedom, democracy, law and free-market economies.

Without announcing any concrete measures to help out the European debt crisis from across the Atlantic, the President highlighted its “huge importance” to the U.S. economy, saying the U.S. “stands ready” to help Europe to resolve the debt crisis.

“You know, if Europe is contracting or if Europe is having difficulties, then it’s much more difficult for us to create good jobs here at home because we send so many of our products and services to Europe,” Obama said.

During the regular daily press briefing in the Brady room, White House spokesman Jay Carney also stressed that Europe needed to shoulder the responsibility.

Carney said, “Europe has the resources and capacity to deal with it and they need to act decisively and conclusively to resolve this problem.”

At a post-summit press conference at the Foreign Press Center, William Kennard, U.S. ambassador to the EU, reiterated American reluctance to move International Monetary Fund (IMF) or other international mechanisms to help Europe.

“I want to be very clear there was no discussion about the U.S. increasing its commitment to the IMF or making any other financial obligation to the EU. That was not a part of this discussion,” said Kennard.

On the other hand, both Barroso and Rompuy said that Europe wasn’t alone in dealing with debt problems.

“We, the European Union and the United States, have the strongest trade and economic relationship in the world. And we therefore both need to take strong action to address near-term growth concerns as well as fiscal and financial vulnerabilities,” Rompuy said.

“The world economy has not yet been able to absorb and overcome all the effects of the 2008 financial crisis,” Barroso said, adding, “We face the common challenge of bringing debt under control, while re-launching growth and creating new jobs. We all know this is not an easy task.”

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks celebrated Veteran’s Day will a strong rally.

Helping markets advance was a report that showed a better than expected rise in the Consumer Confidence Index and a vote in Italy on its debt reduction plan.

At 3 p.m., with just an hour left in trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 266 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 23 points and the NASDAQ jumped 53.

Stocks have had a rocky week as the main focus continued to be on the mounting eurozone sovereign debt crisis. But reports that Italy and Greece have come to an agreement for new governments and leaders in both of their financially countries added some much needed positive sentiment to battered global markets.

U.S. stocks cheered as the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer confidence rose to a better than expected 64.2 percent in November, the highest reading since June.

Bond markets were closed in honor of Veterans Day, but equity and commodity markets were brisk and booming. Oil is quickly approaching the $100 a barrel mark, last trading at $99. Gold was up a little more than a dollar after steep losses on Thursday. The yellow metal was last quoted at $1,789 a troy ounce.

Gold is expected to find interest next week as investors remain cautious over the Europe debt deal and the U.S. “supercommittee” charged with federal spending cuts.

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Madrid, Spain (AHN) – In a span of just a little over one year, Spain has suffered a third debt rating downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service. The rating agency on Tuesday cut Madrid’s rating by two levels to A1 from Aa2.

Moody’s also kept a negative outlook for Spain as it reduced the ranking to the fifth highest investment grade.

On Oct. 7, Fitch gave Spain the same level of rating on the same day the rating agency downgraded Italy’s debt rating, while Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s rating on Oct. 14 to the fourth-highest investment grade.

Moody’s attributed the downgrade to Spain’s continued vulnerability to market stress that drove up the cost of borrowing. It also cited Spain’s weak growth prospects amid the spreading threat of the eurozone debt contagion to members of the 17-member currency bloc.

The rating agency also pointed to the lack of a credible solution to the zone’s current sovereign debt crisis, which reduces confidence in the eurozone’s political cohesion and restoration of growth prospects.

Along with the downgrade, Moody’s said it expects Spain’s gross domestic product to expand in 2012 by only 1 percent, lower from a previous forecast of 1.8 percent.

On news of the downgrade, yield for Spain’s 10-year bonds rose to 5.38 percent on Wednesday from 5.36 percent the previous day.

Spain’s Treasury questioned Moody’s decision, arguing that the downgrade was not justified by economic data but was based more on market tension over the euro crisis. Moody’s hinted in July that any downgrade would likely be by only one notch.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will join a gathering of European Union finance ministers in Poland on Friday to talk about global economic recovery.

U.S. federal reserve authorities have earlier said that part of the country’s market unease is due to the European sovereign debt crisis, even as they believed that Europe could solve the debt crisis.

US authorities said they would want to see Europe come up with a more decisive action on the matter.

Last Friday the Group of Seven main industrial powers’ finance ministers and central bankers also met in Marseilles wherein the key focus of talk was the crisis in Europe. The G-7 meetings are now held almost weekly.

The Treasury reported Geithner is attending the summit at the invitation of the Polish

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