A floating cube in Copenhagen shows video from the current Climate Conference. (Peter Dejong/AP)

On today's Planet Money:

Our own David Kestenbaum is currently on route to Copenhagen where he will be spending several days reporting at the UN Climate Change Conference. David gives us an early windup of what he expects to be looking out for, including details on how much money countries plan on putting up to modernize energy economies across the globe. Plus, one very passionate delegate from the Solomon Islands.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Music: Nelly's "Hot In Herre." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Another victim of the Dubai credit crisis. (Global Voyager/Flickr)

By Caitlin Kenney

The trendy W Hotel in Manhattan's Union Square was auctioned off yesterday for just $2 million. The purchase price is cheap, but the new owner of the hotel, LEM Mezzaine, will also be responsible for any defaulted loans that are in line ahead of its debt. The hotel was owned by Dubai World's private-equity arm, Istithmar World Capital, which paid $282 million for the property in 2006. This fall the company defaulted on $117 million of its debt. As the WSJ (subs req'd) reports the hotel was "the first major property asset of Dubai World to be foreclosed on since the government-owned fund's problems boiled over in late November."

Last month, Dubai World, a company owned by the government of Dubai, announced it was hoping to delay payment on $26 billion in debt. The stock market there has slumped since the announcement.

Continue reading "Dubai World Crisis Hits Union Square " >

By Daniel Costello

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner today used his authority to extend the $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, until Oct. 3, 2010.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Geithner said the administration was winding down its use of the controversial bailout fund but wanted the continued flexibility provided by the funds.

Under the law created last year at the height of the financial crisis, the program was set to end on Dec. 31 unless the administration requested a near-automatic extension.

Geithner told the congressional leaders that "the recovery of the financial system remains incomplete. And near-term shocks to that system could undermine the economic recovery we have seen to date."

By David Kestenbaum

Danish officials are worried people may be buying and selling more than carbon credits at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen.

According to the Copenhagen Post, the city council distributed postcards to hotels urging visitors for the climate talks to "Be sustainable: DON'T BUY SEX."

Some sex workers are striking back. The Copenhagen Post reports:

"A group of prostitutes has decided to offer free sex to delegates taking part in UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in protest against the city's attempt to dissuade conference participants from visiting brothels."

I'll be at the climate talks this week, covering the carbon credits side of things.

By Daniel Costello

Shares of U.S. health insurers rose on Wednesday after Congressional leaders agreed to move away from creating a government-run insurance plan long viewed as damaging to the insurance industry.

Gains were likely muted by new measures in the deal that would expand Medicare eligibility to younger adults and new requirments for insurers to spend a certain amount of premiums on medical costs.

One provision would require the insurance companies to spend 90 percent of premium revenue on medical services and costs. Such measures, known as medical loss ratios, are closely watched by Wall Street to gauge company profitability.

By Daniel Costello

Britain announced plans Wednesday to impose a one-time tax of 50% on bankers' bonuses in a move that is sure to inflame the controversy surrounding resurgent banking bonuses on both sides of the Atlantic.

The British chancellor, Alistair Darling, presented the idea in front of a rowdy Parliament, saying the ban would only apply to those receiving bonuses of more than $40,000 U.S. dollars.

The Treasury estimates that the measure -- which comes into immediate effect and runs until April 5 next year -- will affect 20,000 bankers. It's estimated that 5,000 bankers earn more than one million pounds sterling, or $1.6 million. In a surprise, the government said the new levy will be paid by banks rather than individual bankers.

Continue reading "Morning Report: British Bankers Get A Bonus Haircut; AOL On Its Own Once More" >

Climate art in Copenhagen ( Collectif Argos)

By David Kestenbaum

This time tomorrow I'll be on a plane to Copenhagen to cover the climate talks. I've mostly been focused on the economics and politics of the thing. It occurred to me today I have no idea what it will actually feel like to be there.

Then I found this amusing insider video tour of the Bella center where the negotiators are taking place. It's the Guardian's environment editor John Vidal walking around the place narrating as he goes, and at one point being forced to turn the camera off. There's a spaceship-like feel to the place.

The Guardian stirred up a fuss today by publishing a leaked draft agreement. But I don't think the contents are much of a surprise.

By Daniel Costello

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged Irvine, Calif.-based Brookstreet Securities Corp. and its President and CEO Stanley C. Brooks with fraud for "systematically selling risky mortgage-backed securities to customers with conservative investment goals." The agency said the "fraud cost many Brookstreet investors their savings, homes, or retirement cushions, and eventually caused the firm to collapse."

The SEC alleges that Brookstreet and Brooks developed an internal program through which the firm's registered representatives sold particularly risky and illiquid types of Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs) to more than 1,000 seniors, retirees, and others for whom they were unsuitable. The SEC further alleges that Brookstreet continued to promote and sell risky CMOs to retail investors even after Brooks received numerous indications and personal warnings that these were "dangerous" investments that could become worthless overnight. One trader even called Brookstreet's program a "scam." Finally, in a last-ditch effort to save Brookstreet from failing during the financial crisis, Brooks allegedly directed the unauthorized sale of CMOs from Brookstreet customers' cash-only accounts, causing substantial investor losses.

Brookstreet Securities Corp, based in Irvine, California, had more than 650 independent contractor brokers before it closed in 2007.

By Caitlin Kenney

Listener Thomas Youngs steered us to this Washington Post article about former bailout boss Neel Kashkari. It caught Youngs' eye because he remembered our interview with Kashkari's old classmate last October.

It's a great read about Kashkari's attempt to recover from his time as head of the federal bailout, a position he resigned last May. Here's a taste of Kashkari talking about step one of his "detox," building a shed:

"Seven hundred billion was a number out of the air," Kashkari recalls, wheeling toward the hex nuts and the bolts. "It was a political calculus. I said, 'We don't know how much is enough. We need as much as we can get [from Congress]. What about a trillion?' 'No way,' Hank shook his head. I said, 'Okay, what about 700 billion?' We didn't know if it would work. We had to project confidence, hold up the world. We couldn't admit how scared we were, or how uncertain."

At the Home Depot checkout counter, Kashkari pays $157 for his lumber. He loads it onto his truck and drives into the Tahoe National Forest, climbing to 6,500 feet. The paved road turns to dirt at his cabin.

He rounds a corner and there stands the shed, in an old horse corral. He began designing it in his mind on Christmas Eve when incoming Treasury secretary Tim Geithner asked him to stay for the new administration. Kashkari didn't have anything to store in a shed but he knew, right then, that he needed to build it:

Continue reading "Neel Kashkari's 'Washington detox'" >

By Daniel Costello

After years of downsizing, General Motors Co. said this morning that it does not plan any job cuts in the immediate future.

"We have no plans for that right now," Mark Reuss, the company's new president of North America, said this morning in a call with reporters. "We are going to be focused on generating revenue, and we are not going to save our way into any kind of successful activity doing that."

The news is a turnaround from comments made last month by former President and CEO Fritz Henderson who said GM still had too many hourly workers and could slash some of the 6,000 to 7,000 workers currently on layoff. This year, GM has cut about 13,000 hourly workers as part of its court-ordered restructuring

Here is some audio from the call with Mark Reuss and Susan Docherty, the new vice president of sales, service and marketing.