Saratoga company's eye telescope wins OK

In a decision cheered by advocates for the visually impaired, federal regulators Tuesday approved a Saratoga company's first-of-a-kind implantable eye telescope for elderly people with an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration.

The device made by VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies is aimed at about 750,000 people in the United States who have the most severe and untreatable form of the disease, which causes a blind spot in the center of their vision.

"This innovation has the potential to provide many people with an improved quality of life," said Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approved VisionCare's device.

Getting the FDA's approval is a big moment for privately held VisionCare, which has been developing the telescope for more than a decade. In 2006, an FDA advisory panel recommended the telescope not be approved because of concerns about its usefulness and safety. But after VisionCare did more studies, the panel unanimously gave the device its blessing.

Although VisionCare has raised $59 million since it was founded in 1997, it has no other products on the market and has consistently lost money. Now the company is planning to roughly double its work force of 23, and "we hope to turn a profit after we launch the product," said Chet Kumar, VisionCare's vice president for business and market development.

Even though most of the approximately 8 million people suffering from the disease in this country won't qualify to be treated with the device, advocates for patients suffering from the ailment hailed the FDA's approval.

"It's very exciting," said Dan Roberts, founding director of Macular Degeneration Support, a group he founded after he was diagnosed with the illness. "The product needs to be given a chance — anything that is going to give the patients better sight until we have a cure, anything that's going to give hope."

Dziem Nguyen, a supervisor at the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center, also was enthusiastic.

Noting that most of the center's patients suffer from age-related macular degeneration, she called the FDA's action "really good news to our folks here."

The ailment, which primarily afflicts the elderly, damages the center of the retina — or macula — which is the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. The result is deteriorated sight in the center of the visual field, causing blurriness and eventually an inability to recognize faces, read or watch television.

The FDA limited VisionCare's telescope to people 75 or older, whose disease has progressed to a severe state. The device — which is about the size of a pea — is implanted in an outpatient procedure behind the colored portion of the eye known as the iris after the patient's own lens is removed.

By magnifying vision by 2.2 times to 2.7 times, depending on which model is used, the device projects visual images away from the damaged macula and onto the surrounding healthy retinal tissue. It is placed in only one eye, since the patient's other eye is needed for peripheral vision.

In a study involving more than 200 patients implanted with the device, the FDA said, 75 percent "improved their level of vision from severe or profound impairment to moderate impairment."

Although the device is approved for people with advanced wet or dry age-related macular degeneration, patients need to consult with a specialist and be tested to determine whether they are good candidates for the surgery.

In some cases, the implantation can distort the cornea's clarity, the FDA said. As a result, the federal agency is requiring VisionCare to conduct follow-up studies on patents outfitted with the telescope.

How Economics Explains the Evolution of Soccer Tactics

Does economic theory have anything to offer a coach in the World Cup? And if it did, would Diego Maradona have cared?

So asks the Times’ Economix blog in a post titled “What Economists Can Teach World Cup Coaches,” by Jack Ewing. As Ewing points out, German economists have noted a pattern by which particular soccer tactics that are indomitable for a certain period of time are eventually overcome and ultimately made obsolete by a new set of tactics. That pattern, they theorize, follows the evolution of financial strategies over time — and may explain the current success of conservative, defense-based footballing tactics. To read all about it, go to the Economix blog.

These small-bank stocks are good values now

Tiny financial services companies could see big benefits from new regulations

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Every Friday afternoon for the past year, it's been the small-bank death watch: Which U.S. bank would federal regulators seize next?

In 2009, it was 140 banks stretching from Florida to Washington state. The number is 85 and counting so far this year, including two failures announced late Friday.

Yet with federal banking reform moving ahead this week, shares of the smallest community banks are a good bet on any recovery in the credit cycle, say money-managers and industry analysts, who are becoming more bullish about a turnaround for banks with assets of $1 billion or less. See how financial stocks fared on Friday.

"We're in value territory for the right banks," said Michael Natzic, senior vice president of Stone & Youngberg's Community Bank Group, which tracks 60 California banks. "The strong will continue to get stronger and the weak will get weaker."

Branching out

Like their larger peers, tiny community banks have been struggling under the weight of the massive credit crunch. Since the end of 2007, when the U.S. recession took hold, the SNL Small Bank Index is down 36% as of June 24, compared to a 14% decline for the S&P Small Cap 600 Index and a 23% drop for the Russell Microcap Index.

Yet lately small bank stocks have been gaining traction. So far this year, the SNL Bank Index is up 14%, outpacing the 2% gain for the S&P Small Cap Index and a 3% gain for the Russell Microcap Index.

Investors and analysts who specialize in microcap banks say the ones that will emerge from the economic downturn in stronger shape are the banks that didn't make too many loans on speculative construction of commercial buildings, strip malls, or housing developments.

Debt pressure

For others, the picture is more ominous. Sinking commercial real estate projects have hammered bank profits, forcing companies to write-off bad loans and to allocate capital to shore up loan-loss reserves. For some banks, bad loans have become overbearing and regulators have moved in.

Moreover, many small banks are trying to pay back TARP monies, while commercial real estate vacancies and loan defaults are both still high.

G-20 leaders to discuss economy, global rebalancing, capital

Canadian prime minister says he 'seriously doubts' G-8 will be replaced by G-20

TORONTO (MarketWatch) -- The U.S., Europe and other G-20 countries are expected to spend Saturday and Sunday sparring over the proper timing for withdrawing fiscal stimulus packages, the need to rebalance global growth and the necessity for banks to hold more capital as a cushion against future economic disasters.

There is hope among members that the countries can get closer to reaching a consensus by the time leaders have their next meeting in Seoul, Korea in November on how much capital banks around the world should hold to ensure they can survive future financial crises.

"There is much more consensus that the global system was under-capitalized," said Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney in a radio interview. "It [new capital standards] will apply equally to Canadian banks as it does to American banks, European banks, Japanese banks and emerging-market banks."

Carney added that Toronto has been a useful summit already to help "push people" to make some decisions and restrict the range of discussion about what capital levels each country's institutions should have.

However, Simon Johnson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management professor and a former International Monetary Fund economic counselor, believes that the capital requirements G-20 leaders will agree on fall short of what is necessary to protect against future economic crises.

"Most indications are that they will seek tier-one capital requirements in the range of 10%-12%, which is what Lehman had right before it failed," Johnson wrote recently. "How would that help?"

G8 won't fade away: Harper

The G-20 includes 19 major economies plus the European Union, and encompasses more than three-fourths of global output and two-thirds of the population. It includes the G-8 -- America, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Britain - a group that met in Huntsville, Canada, on Friday. In addition to the G8 countries, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and South Korea, are members of the G-20.

On Saturday, after the conclusion of the G-8 summit in Hunstville, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Group of 8 world leaders known as the G8 is an essential organization that will not disappear, responding to assertions that the organization will be replaced by the year-and-half old Group of 20 world leaders.

"I think there is greater understanding of the necessity of like-minded advanced countries who can exchange views in much less formal setting and who can quickly bring resources to bear on certain world problems," Harper said to reporters. "The G-20 has done an amazing job in year and half, of responding to the economic crisis. But there are limits to what we can discuss and what we can achieve in a group of 20, which leads to much less informal discussion and much less commonality of purpose."

Goldman told to pay creditors in Bayou scam $20.6M

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has been ordered to pay $20.6 million to scammed investors who say the investment bank should have known about the Ponzi scheme pulled off by the collapsed Bayou Hedge Funds.

A three-person arbitration panel of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority held two of the bank's units, Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing and Spear Leeds & Kellogg, liable in the dispute.

Stamford, Conn.-based Bayou collapsed in 2005, after the firm's then-CEO Samuel Israel III and Chief Financial Officer Daniel Marino admitted they lied about the company's profits and set up a fake accounting firm to falsify audits.

The $20.6 million award represents the money Bayou deposited into its accounts at Goldman, said attorney Ross Intelisano of Rich & Intelisano LLP, a New York firm that represents investors in securities cases. Goldman handled all of the hedge fund's trading between 1999 and 2004, when it stopped trading altogether, he said.

The fraud totaled about $250 million. The victims were mostly individuals who invested relatively modest amounts, about $300,000 to $500,000, he said. They were promised annual returns of 10 percent to 12 percent.

The Goldman money, when added to other funds recovered, will result in the investors getting back a total of about half of what they lost, according to Intelisano.

The case, heard by the FINRA panel, centered on the Bayou investors' claim that Goldman either knew or should have known of the deception, because it had marketing materials claiming consistent investment gains as well as account records showing losses.

"They should have done an investigation," said Intelisano. "They would have discovered, at least, that there was something wrong."

"We are disappointed with the award and are considering our options," said Goldman spokesman Ed Canaday.

Arbitration cases are rarely overturned, however. Intelisano maintains that the award will encourage other brokers and clearing houses to act if there is an indication their clients engage in questionable activity.

"I don't think that this is the last time that someone's going to steal money at a hedge fund," he said. "Now the firms that clear all those trades will have to pay more attention."

Israel and Marino pleaded guilty in 2005 to conspiracy, investment adviser fraud and mail fraud. Israel was sentenced to 20 years in jail for his role in the scheme, then staged his own suicide in 2008 in an attempt to avoid serving the time. He turned himself after a month on the lam.

Firing attack in Jinnah Hospital lahore Emergency ward

News Alert!
The resources say at least 12 peoples killed in the firing on the jinnah hospital emergency wards to day night. From some days lahore is in under the terrorist. On Friday 28 may, near about 80 peoples are killed in the firing on the two Masjid's of the Ahmedi's group. Some resources says that there are two reasons on the attack of the jinnah hospital, one is that some peoples which are arrested for relation on friday blast, whose are admitted in the jinnah hospital lahore and other says that 28 may injured are admitted in the emergency ward, so terrorist want attack on them. But one thing is clear that some thing is not happening good in punjab, specially Lahore.

Deadly Cyclone Laila slams into India, causing mudslides and power outages

Hyderbad, India
The death toll from a powerful cyclone that slammed into southeastern India, toppling power lines and triggering landslides, has climbed to 23, a top official said Friday.

The storm plunged a large swath of coastal Andhra Pradesh state into darkness when it hit Thursday packing strong winds of 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour. The storm made landfall near the coastal town of Bapatla, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Hyderabad, and waves as high as 9 feet (3 meters) lashed the coast.

Even before the cyclone hit, some parts of the state had received up to 1 foot (32 centimeters) of rain. Officials said at least 23 people have died since Wednesday when heavy rains began. At least 55 fishermen were reported missing, although authorities had ordered fishing vessels to stay in port.

State welfare agencies evacuated more than 50,000 people from low-lying villages ahead of the storm.

The latest deaths included four people killed in a landslide near the city of Vijaywada late Thursday night, state revenue minister Dharmana Prasad Rao said. Another four deaths were reported in nearby Nellore, Guntur, and Prakasham districts.

Strong winds uprooted trees, power lines and billboards, blocking roads in many places. Nearly a dozen towns and more than 1,400 villages in six districts were hit by power outages, state officials said.

More than 10,000 people died when Andhra Pradesh was struck by its worst cyclone in 1977.

In northern India, a powerful thunderstorm Thursday caused 10 deaths. Six died when their homes collapsed near the town of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh state, officials said.