Fiscal crisis looms as Obama starts Term II; Senate full of women; Obama win boosts gun stocks; China awaits next-gen leader; In India, Tweets can spell trouble

1 Looming fiscal crisis as Obama starts Term II (Jackie Calmes & Peter Baker in The New York Times) Newly re-elected, President Obama moved quickly to open negotiations with Congressional Republican leaders over the main unfinished business of his term — a major deficit-reduction deal to avert a looming fiscal crisis — as he began preparing for a second term that will include significant cabinet changes.

Mr. Obama, while still at home in Chicago at midday, called Speaker John A. Boehner in what was described as a brief and cordial exchange on the need to reach some budget compromise in the lame-duck session of Congress starting next week. Later at the Capitol, Mr. Boehner publicly responded before assembled reporters with his most explicit and conciliatory offer to date on Republicans’ willingness to raise tax revenues, but not top rates, together with a spending cut package.

“Mr. President, this is your moment,” said Mr. Boehner, a day after Congressional Republicans suffered election losses but kept their House majority. “We’re ready to be led — not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. We want you to lead, not as a liberal or a conservative, but as president of the United States of America.” 

Corporate America and financial markets for months have been dreading the prospect of a partisan impasse. Stocks fell on Wednesday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closing down 2.4%. The reasons for the drop were unclear, given that stock futures did not drop significantly on Tuesday night as the election results became clear. Analysts cited fears about the economic impact of such big federal spending cuts and tax increases, but also about new economic troubles in Europe. 

2 Senate full of women (San Francisco Chronicle) The election on Tuesday of five new women to the US Senate, four of them Democrats, will bring to 20 the number of “Gentle ladies” in Congress’ upper chamber. With the retirements of Republican Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Olympia Snowe, the steady increase in numbers of Senate women was expected to stop in 2012.  Not so, and the women elected in campaign 2012 are a diverse lot in background and ideology.

Just over a quarter-century ago, in 1986, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, became the first woman elected to the Senate whose spouse had not served before her in Congress.  The “year of the women,” 1992, brought Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to the Senate, where they continue to serve.

Washington, California and New Hampshire are the three states in which women hold both US Senate seats.  With the election of two Democratic women to the US House of Representatives, New Hampshire became the first state to have an all-women congressional delegation.

3 Obama win boosts gun stocks (Western Australia Today) The re-election of Barack Obama sparked a heavy sell-off on global share markets, but there was one beacon of hope for investors - guns. As investors headed for the exits on concerns that the US could be plunged back into recession if politicians can't find a way to repair the national budget, the stock prices of gunmakers soared on Wall Street.

While the overall market was down more than 2%, shares in Smith & Wesson shot up 7.7%. Sturm, Ruger & Co, which bills itself as the only full-line manufacturer of American-made firearms, jumped 5.4%, while stocks in Cabela's, a gun retailer, added 1.54%.

During the second presidential debate last month, Obama appeared to endorse a push for a ban on assault weapons if he were to win a second term. Firearm sales have grown at 10% annually since Obama's election in 2008, compared with a 7% rate from 2001 to 2007, according to Benchmark Co. While shares in gunmakers rose, Wall Street banks slumped on fears of tougher regulation during Obama's second term. Shares of Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup dropped 5%, Bank of America lost 6% and Morgan Stanley fell 7% in midday trading on Wednesday.

4 China awaits next-gen leader (Straits Times) China's ruling Communist Party kicked off its all-important national congress on Thursday morning, an event set to produce the country's new generational leadership for the next decade. A somewhat lighthearted mood prevailed as 2,268 delegates started arriving and posing for photos outside the Great Hall of the People in capital Beijing despite the heavy security and chilly weather.

But the 18th Party Congress is a serious affair. Held every five years, the event will bid goodbye to outgoing President Hu Jintao and his leadership team, take stock of the country's progress under his charge since 2002 and chart its future direction under incoming leader Xi Jinping. The real political excitement comes a day after the congress ends next Wednesday when Mr Xi's new leadership line-up will be unveiled to the world.

Reuters reported that security was especially tight on Thursday around the Great Hall and Tiananmen Square next door, the scene of pro-democracy protests in 1989 that were crushed by the military. Police dragged away a screaming protester as the Chinese national flag was raised at dawn.

5 Social media as a shop window for hiring (Raj Samani on BBC) With greater emphasis during job applications to review social media profiles, and peoples' online personas, one has to ask the question whether this merely provides a false sense of the true value an individual can provide to a prospective employer. Especially considering that any such shop window offered by prospective employees may well have been manipulated using known psychological influencing techniques to garner the exact response they are seeking.

Undoubtedly, this approach to building a digital representation of our social ties does represent significant value. However, each of us should place a degree of caution in simply making assumptions based on the numbers represented. Does someone with more Twitter followers, or LinkedIn recommendations represent a better hire or more knowledgeable in their field than someone that does not use these tools, or worse still has a smaller following/number of endorsements?

Of course not, but unfortunately with a greater emphasis placed on automated screening of prospective employees, it does appear to be a growing trend. This does not mean that such indicators do not have any merit; indeed as an indicator they are remarkable tools. But, as with most third-hand information, an integrity check should always be undertaken.

6 In India, Tweets can spell trouble (Amit Agarwal in The Wall Street Journal) The Internet has basically given us a sort of mini printing press where what we say is instantly published to our followers and subscribers. Conversations are no longer limited to that closed circle of friends, and what you say or share is preserved forever. In India, it is becoming increasingly clear that the political class is actively watching what is being written in the online space, and some will try to suppress criticism.

Earlier this year, Aseem Trivedi was detained and his website was suspended because of his anti-corruption cartoons. In West Bengal, a professor was arrested after he forwarded an email that contained a cartoon apparently mocking the state’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The charge was “sending offensive messages through communication services.”

The country was in for a bigger surprise when it was reported that a Twitter user in Pondicherry was arrested for writing an allegation in tweet about finance minister P. Chidambaram’s son. The BBC reported that he was charged under Section 66A of India’s IT Act, the same that was used in the arrest of the Bengal professor. The section essentially says that a person who electronically sends a message deemed grossly offensive, menacing, false, or with the purpose of causing annoyance, can be punished with a prison term of up to three years and a fine.

India and China are Asia’s biggest powers and many analysts love to draw comparisons between the two. Our neighbor has better infrastructure and growth prospects but the one area where we always had an upper hand is free speech. Unfortunately, that advantage seems to be waning.