Even as U.S. government debt swells to more than $16 trillion, Treasuries and other dollar fixed- income securities will be in short supply next year as the Federal Reserve soaks up almost all the net new bonds.The government will reduce net sales by $250 billion from the $1.2 trillion of bills, notes and bonds issued in fiscal 2012 ended Sept. 30, a survey of 18 primary dealers found. At the same time, the Fed, in its efforts to boost growth, will add about $45 billion of Treasuries a month to the $40 billion in mortgage debt it’s purchasing, effectively absorbing about 90 percent of net new dollar-denominated fixed-income assets, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.Enlarge image
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building stands in Washington, D.C., U.S. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergEnlarge image
Barack Obama, US president, warned of “prolonged negotiations.” Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergEnlarge image
Walt Disney sold a record amount of debt last week at the lowest interest cost it’s ever paid. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/BloombergEven after U.S. public borrowings outstanding grew from less than $9 trillion in 2007 as the U.S. raised cash to pay for spending programs designed to pull the economy out of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, rising demand coupled with a drop in net supply means bonds will be scarce.“The shrinking amount of bonds in the market is lowering rates and not just benefiting the Treasury, but providing lower rates for private-sector decision-makers as well,” Zach Pandl, a senior interest-rate strategist in Minneapolis at Columbia Management Investment Advisers LLC, which oversees $340 billion, said in a Nov. 30 telephone interview. “The Fed is not creating this scarcity to help out the Treasury, it’s primarily to get the economy going.”
Olive Garden owner Darden said its second quarter earnings will be worse than expected, blaming penny-pinching consumers and Obamacare. 
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A blog about energy and the environment.Go to Blog »The study prepared by NERA Economic Consulting for the Energy Department, said that domestic prices would not rise sharply as a result of exports and that export revenue would generally help most Americans.Energy companies have proposed more than a dozen projects to export gas in liquefied form to Europe and Asia, where the fuel is typically three to four times more expensive than in the United States. The Obama administration has been cautious on whether to embrace large exports of gas out of concern that consumers who rely on gas for heating and cooking could see their utility prices rise. Higher exports could also raise costs to manufacturers that now benefit from the nation’s glut of cheap gas, like chemical and fertilizer manufacturers.But the huge gas export terminals, which cost billions of dollars to set up, would also generate thousands of construction jobs, spur further development of natural gas fields and generate lucrative export earnings.The administration has only approved one export terminal so far, by Cheniere Energy in Louisiana, saying it was waiting for the results of the economic study before making decisions on the rest of the projects.Now that the report has been finished, most observers expect more projects to get the green light.The report found that higher exports would actually generate more economic benefits. Noting that gas exports could produce up to $47 billion in new economic activity in 2020, when many new terminals would be up and running, it said, “Welfare improvement is highest under the high export volume scenarios because U.S. consumers benefit from an increase in wealth transfer and export revenues.”Only a decade ago, it appeared that the country’s domestic gas supplies were drying up and that huge amounts of expensive gas in liquefied form would have to be imported from Trinidad, Africa and the Middle East. But over the last few years, a technological revolution has occurred in shale gas fields across the country, driven by hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. That has produced a glut that has driven the price of natural gas down by two-thirds since 2008.
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Carlos Portillo (center) leads Best Buy workers in a cheer at a Burbank, Calif., store in preparation for Black Friday. 
In August, Apple won a $1.05 billion patent-infringement verdict in a jury trial against Samsung in San Jose. U.S. Photographer: Jerome Favre/Bloomberg“HTC is not entitled to special treatment, especially when it has recognized the general sufficiency of the protective order and the integrity of Samsung’s outside counsel,” Grewal wrote.In August, Apple won a $1.05 billion patent-infringement verdict in a jury trial against Samsung in San Jose. U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh scheduled a Dec. 6 hearing for Apple’s bid for a permanent U.S. sales ban on eight Samsung smartphone models and the Tab 10.1 tablet computer. She will also consider Samsung’s bid to get the verdict thrown out based on claims of juror misconduct.Samsung had argued the terms of the licensing agreement are “highly relevant” to Apple’s request for an order blocking U.S. sales of Samsung smartphones. Before today, lawyers for Apple said HTC was willing to provide a copy of the accord with the financial terms redacted.