News Links: Ron Paul Only GOP Hopeful with Positive Twitter Following

Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul may be trailing in the polls, but he is the only politician with positive Twitter buzz, according to a new study.

Less than one year out from Election Day 2012, voters remain overwhelmingly pessimistic about the economy, and their concerns are taking a toll on President Obama’s re-election chances. Just 41 percent of Americans think Mr. Obama has performed his job well enough to be elected to a second term, whereas 54 percent don’t think so.

In a sign that it may be pushing off an IPO after Groupon’s lackluster performance, rival LivingSocial has raised $176 million in a new round of funding, according to a new SEC filing. Reports of the new funding first surfaced in the New York Times a few weeks ago. Bloomberg reports that the new round values the company at $6 billion.

TouchType, the London-based company behind the popular SwiftKey Android applications, has raise $2.4 million (£1.5 million) in Series A funding in a round led by Octopus Investments.

Chemicals found in a Wyoming town’s drinking water likely are associated with hydraulic fracturing, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday, raising the stakes in a debate over a drilling technique that has created a boom in natural-gas production.

Bankers don’t have much to smile about but Lloyds Banking Group has managed to have a giggle – the taxpayer-owned bank is running staff training at the Comedy School. To share the joke, here are the top ten wise-cracks about bankers

File this one under surprising, a German court has ruled in favor of Motorola in their lawsuit with Apple. Back in April, Motorola filed two patent-infringement lawsuits against the Cupertino based company’s iOS devices. The mobile giant claimed Apple had infringed on one of their core cellular communications patents related to data packet transfer technology. If the ruling is upheld (we all know there will be an appeal), Apple will be forced to either remove the technology or pay a hefty licensing fee to Moto.

Ökonomen grosser Schweizer Banken rechnen nicht mit einem Ende des Euro

Hat Rumänien ein CIA-Geheimgefängnis im eigenen Land geduldet? Berichte deutscher Medien, die das nahelegen, sorgen für Unruhe im politischen Berlin. Die Grünen fordern nun Aufklärung der Vorwürfe

This is Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s third presidential bid, but never before has he gone negative the way he has in recent weeks on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Paul is spending $429,000 on television ads – a whopping amount, more than almost any other candidate – and much of that is in this 60-second buy in Iowa. The ad is brutal, highlighting Gingrich’s flip-flops and payments from Freddice Mac. When asked about it last week in New Hampshire, Paul said, "It’s nothing personal." But, as for other politicians who’ve served under Gingrich’s leadership, it kind of is.

Last time we reviewed the ECRI call for a recession we noted Lakshman Achuthan saying it will be obvious in retrospect and usually their calls are 6-ish months early – i.e. the data has to be revised down the road to reflect reality.  Wall Street has been mocking this call of late as the "meh" data continues to come in domestically, rather than data points that signal recession.

Countries using single currency will pursue side-agreement to end crisis after David Cameron’s refusal to yield sovereignty

Since the global financial crisis began in 2007, Chairman Bernanke has striven to save Wall Street’s biggest banks while concealing his actions from Congress by a thick veil of secrecy. It literally took an act of Congress plus a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Bloomberg to get him to finally release much of the information surrounding the Fed’s actions. Since that release, there have been several reports that tallied up the Fed’s largess. Most recently, Bloomberg provided an in-depth analysis of Fed lending to the biggest banks, reporting a sum of $7.77 trillion. On December 8, Bernanke struck back with a highly misleading and factually incorrect memo countering Bloomberg’s report. Bloomberg has-to my mind-completely vindicated its analysis