Economy
Related: About this forumWeekend Economists Merry Little Christmas December 23-26, 2011
Last edited Mon Dec 26, 2011, 04:59 AM - Edit history (1)
Well, what could we possibly feature this weekend?
What else? Our artistry will comprise carols and the Grand Masters' nativity of hope scenes. Our topic will be bringing Enlightenment (get it) to the world, and the change of the seasons.
I myself approach this season in every possible way except "religious". I sing in a Baptist choir, where the theme was that Xmas was nice, and the star was bright, but the whole point is the Cross (capital C) and Easter. A case of brutal torture and inhumane death--just the sort of thing to celebrate in a war-mongering culture!
Well, as a mother and a pagan at heart, I truly think birth is the whole point. The one true miracle, available to most people, and each birth is a promise, a potential, a gift. To a family, a nation, the world.
?w=640 
That's MY story, and I'm sticking to it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Demeter
(85,373 posts)I did look at the bankchecker site and saw that the bank that financed our conversion is technically insolvent...I wonder if it will be curtains in the new year...
Po_d Mainiac
(4,183 posts)Banks that have failed in the past, understated their troubled assets by 40-60%
http://banktracker.investigativereportingworkshop.org/banks/
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)5 being highest
for several years. I have only 3 mos of expenses in it, tho, now.
which STILL makes it much healthier than BOA, which now holds my mortgage.
Well, actually Fannie Mae has the mortgage that BOA sold to it that Countrywide sold to BOA....sigh.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)...Christmastime music began with the litanies, or musical prayers, of the Christian Church. An early historian wrote that in approximately 100 A.D., the Bishop of Rome urged his people to sing "in celebration of the birthday of our Lord." By 400 A.D., priests would stroll around their parishes on Christmas Eve singing these Latin hymns.
St. Francis of Assisi is credited with being the "Father of Caroling." Only church officials had been encouraged to sing carols prior to the time of St. Francis. In 1223, however, the saint placed a creche (miniature Nativity scene) in a hermitage at Greechio, Italy. After this, many churches began displaying such scenes at Christmas and soon, people began to act out the events of the Holy Night. The actors composed Christmas carols to sing during their Nativity plays and, later, would stroll through the streets still singing. In that manner, did street-caroling come to be.
By the Middle Ages, wandering minstrels were traveling from hamlet to castle performing their carols. Later still, villages had their own bands of "waits." Waits were originally watchmen who patrolled the streets and byways of the old walled cities, keeping guard against fire and singing to while away the night hours. During the holiday season, the waits would include carols in their repertoires. Not everyone was delighted with this display of musical entertainment, however, and many townspeople complained, declaring they would rather get a good night's sleep than have somebody singing under their windows. Eventually the term was used to describe groups of musicians who sang and played at various civic events during the Christmas season.
The word "carol" derives from a Greek dance called a choraulein, which was accompanied by flute music. The dance later spread throughout Europe and became particularly popular by the French, who replaced the flute music with singing. Originally, people performed carols on many occasions during the year. By the 1600s, carols involved singing only and Christmas had become the chief holiday for these songs...
http://www.novareinna.com/festive/xmascarols.html
Demeter
(85,373 posts)"Good Christian Men, Rejoice" was originally a very old Latin Christmas song called
In Dulci Jubilo. John Mason Neale translated the words around the middle
of the 1800s. The melody is believed to be German in origin and dates from
the 1300s or earlier.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" is an old English rhyme and dates at least as far back
as the 1500s. It is a carol of which the British people are particularly fond.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" ("A rose has sprung up"
, most commonly translated to English as "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" or "A Spotless Rose", is a Christmas carol and Marian Hymn of German origin.
The text is thought to be penned by an anonymous author, and the piece first appeared in print in the late 16th century. The hymn has been used by both Catholics and Protestants, with the focus of the song being Mary or Jesus, respectively.[1] In addition, there have been numerous versions of the hymn, with varying texts and lengths.
The tune most familiar today appears in the Speyer Hymnal (printed in Cologne in 1599), and the familiar harmonization was written by German composer Michael Praetorius in 1609.[1]
The English translation "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" was written by Theodore Baker in 1894.[2] A translation of the first two verses of the hymn as "A Spotless Rose" was written by Catherine Winkworth and this was set as a SATB anthem by Herbert Howells in 1919[1] and Philip Ledger in 2002.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)THEY USED TO GIVE OUT "FREE" CHINA AND SMALL APPLIANCES?
We are told to appease the market gods or face eternal financial damnation...At first it seems as if these markets are humanoids onto which we project our feelings. Yet, on closer inspection, it’s more like we have ascribed to them god-like powers. We are told to appease the market gods or face eternal financial damnation. As President Obama warned Europe recently, they must “muster the political will” to “settle markets down.”
Why do we worship these angry market gods?
Trading has been around for as long as humans. We, no doubt, increased our chances of survival through trading what we had more of for what we needed or wanted. The more complex our societies became the more markets grew. At some point during the Renaissance, markets emerged that traded money as well as goods, as city-states and nations sought ways to fund wars. But these markets were far from god-like. Sovereign nations ruled supreme and money-lenders had to do their bidding if they hoped to be repaid or in some cases, if they hoped to avoid execution. Even Adam Smith didn’t suggest that financial markets had god-like powers. In fact, these markets seemed more like petulant children throwing tantrums as they puffed up tulip bubbles, South Sea bubbles, railroad bubbles and periodic financial panics.
When the mother of all financial crashes struck in 1929, it seemed as if markets would forever lose their god-like status. A consensus emerged that financial speculation was a major cause of the Great Depression, and tight controls were established during the New Deal to teach these petulant children a lesson they would never forget.
They forgot. We forgot.
After WWII, a new generation of economists emerged who worshiped the markets and detested any and all government interference. For these true believers, markets were infallible, blessed by what they called the “efficient markets” theory. Financial markets, they claimed, always got prices right. They always provided the best allocation of society’s scarce resources, and most importantly, they undermined bad government decisions. And all of this happened without any guidance and without anyone exercising any control whatsoever. These great autonomous and anonymous forces of modern economies ruled supreme and that was absolutely wonderful, according to these worshipers– praise the lord! Led by economist Milton Friedman, these market apostles undermined any and all regulations that were put in place during the Great Depression to contain the diabolical impacts of markets run wild. “Let them run wild,” we were told, “and we’ll get an economic boom to make all boats rise.” Starting with President Carter, each and every president unleashed financial markets more and more until the financial sector towered over the global economy. Not only were the new financial market gods, bigger and more powerful than ever before, but the new high priests -- our financial elites -- earned millions of dollars, then hundreds of millions, and then billions as they collected modern-day tithes from all of us for tending to the financial gods. While markets were said to be intermediaries between our savings and needed investment, the financial elites became the intermediaries between our money and their own pockets...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)As the fourth quarter draws to a close, a spate of unexpectedly good economic data suggests that it will have some of the fastest and strongest economic growth since the recovery started in 2009, causing a surge in the stock market and cheering economists, investors and policy makers.
In recent weeks, a broad range of data — like reports on new residential construction and small business confidence — have beaten analysts’ expectations. Initial claims for jobless benefits, often an early indicator of where the labor market is headed, have dropped to their lowest level since May 2008. And prominent economics groups say the economy is growing three to four times as quickly as it was early in the year, at an annual pace of about 3.7 percent.
But the good news also comes with a significant caveat. Many forecasters say the recent uptick probably does not represent the long-awaited start to a strong, sustainable recovery. Much of the current strength is caused by temporary factors. And economists expect growth to slow in the first half of 2012 to an annual pace of about 1.5 to 2 percent...“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to see a slowdown over the course of next year,” Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told reporters last week. “Not only do we have the European crisis spilling over and hurting U.S. trade and confidence,” he said, but the United States economy also faces “homegrown shocks.”
There are two reasons for the renewed pessimism. First, economists say that temporary trends increased growth in the fourth quarter and may not continue into next year. Second, the economy faces significant headwinds in 2012: some from Europe’s long-lingering sovereign debt crisis, and some from domestic cutbacks beyond the control of President Obama, whose campaign would like to point to a brightening economic picture, not a darkening one. Even the Federal Reserve is predicting that the unemployment rate will remain around 8.6 percent by the time voters go to the polls in November...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The crisis should be recognised for what it really is: a class war waged on workers in Europe. The people who gave us the eurozone crisis are working around the clock to redefine it in order to profit politically. Their editorials - run as news stories in media outlets everywhere - claim that the euro crisis is a story of profligate governments being reined in by the bond market. This is what is known in economics as a "lie". The eurozone crisis is most definitely not a story of countries with out of control spending getting their comeuppance in the bond market. Prior to the economic collapse in 2008, the only country that had a serious deficit problem was Greece. In the other countries now having trouble financing their debt, the debt to GDP ratio was stable or falling prior: Spain and Ireland were actually running budget surpluses and had debt to GDP ratios that were among the lowest in the OECD...The crisis changed everything. It threw the whole continent into severe recession. This had the effect of causing deficits to explode since tax revenues plummet when the economy contracts and payments for unemployment benefits and other transfer programmes soar. Spain was hit especially hard by this contraction because it had a huge housing bubble. This bubble fuelled an enormous construction boom that went bust after the crash...Ireland saw its debt explode because it got stuck with a huge bill from bailing out its free-wheeling bankers. It is possible that its financial system could have been kept intact at a lower cost to taxpayers by forcing creditors to take losses.
............................................
The story here is of the incredible failure of the European Central Bank (ECB) to take any steps to rein in the housing bubbles across Europe before they grew so large that their inevitable collapse would lead to economic wreckage across the continent. This failure might make a good argument for punishing the ECB (maybe the pensions of their senior staff should be slashed), but this is absolutely not a story of government profligacy...Even after the collapse, the ECB has exacerbated the debt problem with its wrong-headed policies. The ECB could end the debt crisis at any time by acting as a lender of last resort, as central banks are supposed to do in a crisis. This would mean making a commitment to guarantee the bonds of the heavily indebted countries. That would immediately end the runs that Spain and Italy and now other countries are seeing on their debt. Expecting positive actions from the ECB to end the crisis might be asking too much from this institution, but at least it should not be taking measures that actively make the crisis worse. For example, in the spring, it raised its overnight lending rate from 1 to 1.5 per cent, ostensibly to counter concerns about inflation.
While the US Federal Reserve has kept the overnight lending rate at zero since the early days of the crisis, the ECB has never allowed the rate to go below 1 per cent. To lower long-term interest rates, the Fed has bought up close to $3tn worth of government bonds. The ECB bond purchases have been an order of magnitude lower. The dampening impact of the ECB's policies on growth worsens the debt situation of governments across Europe....Furthermore, the ECB's commitment to capping eurozone inflation at 2 per cent makes it almost impossible for the southern European countries to regain competitiveness. They would have to see years of deflation for their economies to again be able to compete with Germany and other northern European countries.
Again, the crisis of Italy, Spain and other heavily indebted countries is absolutely not a story of the market disciplining profligate countries; it is a story of countries victimised by the mismanagement of the ECB. To claim that it is just a case of the bond market exerting its discipline would be like saying that a sailor who died of thirst and starvation after pirates tore up his sail, smashed his motor and stole his lifeboat was just a victim of the sea. It is only because the ECB pirates have wrecked these nations' economies that they are now so vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the bond market. People should recognise this process for what it is: class war. The wealthy are using their control of the ECB to dismantle welfare state protections that enjoy enormous public support. This applies not only to government programs like public pensions and healthcare, but also to labour market regulations that protect workers against dismissal without cause. And of course, the longstanding foes of Social Security and Medicare in the US are anxious to twist the facts to use the eurozone crisis to help their class war agenda here. The claim that the countries in Europe are just coming to grips with the reality of modern financial markets is covering up for the class war being waged on workers across the globe. The assertion that this crisis is about market discipline should not appear in a serious newspaper, except on the right side of the opinion page.
Dean Baker is co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, based in Washington DC. He is the author of several books, including Plunder & Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy, The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich, Get Richer, The United States Since 1980 and The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)O come, O come, Emmanuel is the mid-19th Century translation by John Mason Neale and Henry Sloane Coffin of the Latin text "Veni, veni, Emmanuel". It is a metrical version of a collation of various Advent Antiphons (the acrostic O Antiphons), which now serves as a popular Advent hymn. Its origins are unclear, it is thought that the antiphons are from at least the 8th Century, but "Veni, veni Emmanuel" may well be 12th Century in origin. The text is based on the biblical prophecy from Isaiah 7:14 that states that God will give Israel a sign that will be called Immanuel (Lit.: God with us). Matthew 1:23 states fulfillment of this prophecy in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Date: 1420 Medieval
There Is No Rose of Such Virtue is an updated version of the English carol Ther Is No Ros'.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/there-is-no-rose-of-such-virtue-english#ixzz1hQ6ruxDA
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The population of the United States grew this year at its slowest rate since the 1940s, the Census Bureau reported on Wednesday, as the gloomy economy continued to depress births and immigration fell to its lowest level since 1991. The first measure of the American population in the new decade offered fresh evidence that the economic trouble that has plagued the country for the past several years continues to make its effects felt. The population grew by 2.8 million people from April 2010 to July 2011, according to the bureau’s new estimates. The annual increase, about 0.7 percent when calculated for the year that ended in July 2011, was the smallest since 1945, when the population fell by 0.3 percent in the last year of World War II. “The nation’s overall growth rate is now at its lowest point since before the baby boom,” the Census Bureau director, Robert M. Groves, said in a statement.
The sluggish pace puts the country “in a place we haven’t been in a very long time,” said William H. Frey, senior demographer at the Brookings Institution. “We don’t have that vibrancy that fuels the economy and people’s sense of mobility,” he said. “People are a bit aimless right now.”
Underlying the modest growth was an immigration level that was the lowest in 20 years. The net increase of immigrants to the United States for the year that ended in July was an estimated 703,000, the smallest since 1991, Mr. Frey said, when the immigrant wave that dates to the 1970s began to pick up pace. It peaked in 2001, when the net increase of immigrants was 1.2 million, and was still above 1 million in 2006. But it slowed substantially when the housing market collapsed, and the jobs associated with its boom that were popular among immigrants disappeared. “Net immigration from Mexico is close to zero, and we haven’t seen that in at least 40 years,” said Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center. “We are in a very different kind of immigration situation.” Mr. Passel said that the bulk of the reduction in recent years had been among illegal immigrants, adding that apprehensions at the border are just 20 percent of what they were a decade ago. (The Census Bureau does not ask foreign-born residents their status, but Mr. Passel believes the count includes most people here illegally. )
A lagging birth rate also contributed. Births in the United States declined precipitously during the recession and its aftermath, down by 7.3 percent from 2007 to 2010, according to Kenneth M. Johnson, the senior demographer at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. There were slightly over four million births in the year that ended in July, the lowest since 1999. Economic trauma tends to depress births. In the Great Depression, the birth rate fell by a third, Mr. Johnson said. It is unclear whether the current dip means that births are being delayed or that they are foregone, as they were in the Depression, he said.
DO TELL! WANKERS
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Greece’s creditors are resisting pressure from the International Monetary Fund to accept bigger losses on holdings of the indebted nation’s government bonds, said three people with direct knowledge of the discussions. Lenders want the 70 billion euros ($91 billion) of new bonds the government will issue in return for existing securities to carry a coupon of about 5 percent, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private.
The IMF is pushing for creditors to accept a smaller coupon in order to reduce Greece’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio to 120 percent by 2020, a key element of the Oct. 27 agreement by European Union leaders, the people said. National Bank of Greece SA’s Chairman Apostolos Tamvakakis told shareholders in a meeting in Athens today that he hopes talks on the debt swap will end soon.
Greece’s debt will balloon to almost twice the size of its economy next year without a write-off accord with investors, the IMF said on Dec. 13. The IMF and EU leaders are trying to bring the country’s debt down to a sustainable level...As part of Greece’s 130 billion-euro second bailout, investors would take a 50 percent hit on the nominal value of 206 billion euros of privately owned debt. Exchanging bonds for securities with a 5 percent coupon would leave investors with a 65 percent loss in the net present value of their holdings of Greek government debt, the people said.
Seniority Agreement
Both sides have agreed that the new bonds should be governed by English law and that private bondholders should have the same seniority after the swap as the IMF and the European Financial Stability Facility, two of the people said. The sides have also agreed that the deal should include collective action clauses that would ensure lenders participate in the swap, the people said...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The U.S.’s AAA rating will probably be cut by Fitch Ratings by the end of 2013 unless lawmakers are able to formulate a plan to reduce the budget deficit after next year’s congressional and presidential elections. “Without such a strategy, the sovereign rating will likely be lowered,” New York-based Fitch said in a statement today. “Agreement will also have to be reached on raising the federal debt ceiling, which is expected to become binding in the first half of 2013.” Fitch assigned a negative outlook on the U.S. in November after a congressional committee failed to agree on budget cuts. The rating firm forecast federal public-debt will exceed 90 percent of gross-domestic-product by the end of the decade unless the government addresses rising health and social security spending through tax increases or reductions in expenditures.
“The debt situation is a slow moving train wreck,” said Jason Brady, a managing director at Thornburg Investment Management Inc., which oversees about $73 billion from Santa Fe, New Mexico. “The risks are apparent, but the benefits or strengths are also apparent. The strength of the U.S economy, the strength of the U.S financial system, is more apparent right now.” The U.S.’s probability of a downgrade is greater than 50 percent over two years, Fitch said Nov. 28 in a statement. Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service said Nov. 21 that the so-called supercommittee’s inability to reach an agreement didn’t merit downgrades because the inaction will trigger $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts.
“The high and rising federal and general government debt burden is not consistent with the U.S. retaining its AAA status even with its other fundamental sovereign credit strengths,” Fitch said. Treasuries have returned 4.1 percent since the S&P cut the U.S. to AA+ from AAA on Aug. 5, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data. The S&P 500 Index has gained 4.5 percent”...
mbperrin
(7,672 posts)They're the ones that should be having to come up with trillions lost because they rated shit as AAA.
Besides, don't we have a lot of missiles and such lying around now that we're out of Iraq? Time to hit some REAL terrorists!
I can't tell if I'm being sarcastic or not...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Unfortunately, I don't think there will be any start of the goodness, even if there is a second term.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)...Ancient Midwinter festivities celebrated the return of the Sun from cold and darkness. Midwinter was a turning point between the Old Year and the New Year. Fire was a symbol of hope and boughs of greenery symbolized the eternal cycle of creation.
The term "Xmas" instead of "Christmas" is Greek in origin. The word for "Christ" in Greek is "Xristos." during the Sixteenth Century, Europeans began using the first initial of Christ's name...the "X" of "Xristos"...in place of the word "Christ" as a shorthand version of the word "Christmas." Although early Christians understood that the "X" was simply another form for the name of Jesus Christ, later Christians, who had no knowledge of the Greek language, mistook "Xmas" as a sign of disrespect. Eventually, however, "Xmas" came to be both an accepted and suitable alternative to the word "Christmas."
Many of today's Christmas traditions were celebrated centuries before the Christ Child was born. The Twelve Days of Christmas, blazing fires, the yule log, the giving of gifts, carnivals or parades complete with floats, carolers who sing while going from house to house, holiday feasts and church processions are all rooted in the customs observed by early Mesopotamians.
Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of the New Year. The Mesopotamians worshipped many gods, the chief of whom was Marduk. Each year as winter arrived, it was believed that Marduk would battle the Monsters of Chaos. In order to assist Marduk during his struggle, the Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. They called this celebration Zagmuk and the festivities lasted for twelve days.
The King of Mesopotamia would return to the Temple of Marduk and swear his faithfulness to the god. The tradition called for the King to die at the end of the year and then return with Marduk to battle at his side. To spare their King, the Mesopotamians utilized a "mock" king. A criminal was chosen and dressed in royal clothes. He was given all due respect and the privileges of a true king but, at the end of the celebrations, the "mock" king was stripped of the royal garments and then put to death, thus sparing the life of the real monarch.
The ancient Persians and Babylonians celebrated a similar festival which they called the Sacaea. Part of that celebration included the exchanging of places within the community...slaves would become masters and the original masters were obliged to obey the former slaves' commands.
In Scandinavia during the winter months, the Sun would disappear for great lengths of time. After thirty-five of such dark days, scouts would be dispatched to the mountain tops to await the return of this life-giving heavenly body. When the first light was espied, the scouts would hurry back to their villages bearing the good news. In celebration, a great festival would be held, called the Yuletide, and a special feast would be served around a fire burning with the Yule log. Huge bonfires would also be lit to celebrate the welcome return of the Sun. In some areas, people would tie apples to the branches of trees as a reminder that Spring and Summer would eventually return.
The ancient Greeks held ceremonies similar to those of the Zagmuk and Sacaea festivals. The purpose of this feast was to assist their god Kronos, who would battle against the god Zeus and his army of Titans.
Members of the pagan order have always celebrated the Winter Solstice...the season of the year when days are shortest and nights longest. It was generally believed to be a time of drunkenness, revelry and debauchery. The pagan Romans called this celebration Saturnalia, in honor of their god Saturn. The festivities began in the middle of December and continued until January 1st. On December 25th, "The Birth of the Unconquerable Sun" was celebrated, as the days gradually lengthened and the Sun began to regain its dominance. It is a general pagan belief that the Sun dies during the Winter Solstice and then rises from the dead. With cries of "Jo Saturnalia!", the Roman celebration would include masquerades in the streets, mangificent festive banquets, the visiting of friends and the exchange of good-luck gifts known as Strenae...or "lucky fruits." Roman halls would be decked with garlands of laurel and green trees, adorned with lighted candles. Again, as with Sacaea, the masters and slaves would exchange places.
Saturnalia was considered a fun and festive time for the Romans, but Christians believed it an abomination to honor such a pagan god. The early converts wanted to maintain the birthday of their Christ Child as a solemn and religious holiday...not one of cheer and merriment, as was the pagan celebration of Saturnalia.
As Christianity spread, however, the Church became alarmed by the continuing practice among its flock to indulge in pagan customs and celebrate the festival of Saturnalia. At first, the holy men prohibited this type of revelry, but it was to no avail. Eventually, a decision was made to tame such celebrations and make them into a festive occasion better suited to honor the Christian Son of God.
According to some legends, the Christian celebration of Christmas was invented to compete against the pagan festivals held in December. The 25th was sacred not only to the Romans, but also to the Persians whose religion of Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that period in time. The Church was, however, finally successful in removing the merriment, lights and gifts from the Saturanilia festival and transferring them to the celebration of a Christian Christmas.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The word Wassail refers to several related traditions; first and foremost wassailing is an ancient southern English tradition that is performed with the intention of ensuring a good crop of cider apples for the next year's harvest. It also refers to both the salute 'Waes Hail', the term itself is a contraction of the Middle English phrase wæs hæl, meaning literally 'good health' or 'be you healthy' and to the drink of wassail which is a hot mulled cider traditionally drunk as an integral part of the wassail ceremony.
In the cider-producing counties in the South West of England (primarily Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire) or South East England (Kent, Sussex and Essex, Suffolk) wassailing refers to a traditional ceremony that involves singing and drinking the health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive. The purpose of wassailing is to awake the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn. The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements. A wassail King and Queen lead the song and/or a processional tune to be played/sung from one orchard to the next, the wassail Queen will then be lifted up into the boughs of the tree where she will place toast soaked in Wassail from the Clayen Cup as a gift to the tree spirits (and to show the fruits created the previous year). Then an incantation is usually recited such as variant of:
Here's to thee, old apple tree,
That blooms well, bears well.
Hats full, caps full,
Three bushel bags full,
An' all under one tree. Hurrah! Hurrah!
Here’s to thee, old apple-tree,
Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow,
And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!
Hats-full! Caps-full!
Bushel, bushel sacks-full!
And my pockets full, too! Hurra![
Wassail the beverage is a hot, mulled punch often associated with Yuletide. Historically, the drink was a mulled cider made with sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and topped with slices of toast. Modern recipes begin with a base of wine, fruit juice, or mulled ale, sometimes with brandy or sherry added. Apples or oranges are often added to the mix. While the beverage typically served as "wassail" at modern holiday feasts with a medieval theme most closely resembles mulled cider, historical wassail drinks were completely different, more likely to be mulled beer or mead. Sugar, ale, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon would be placed in a bowl, heated, and topped with slices of toast as sops.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Banks gorged on €489.19bn of cheap loans offered by the European Central Bank (ECB) - but the gargantuan refinancing effort still failed to decisively address the raging debt crisis. ....
---FIRST RULE OF HOLES APPLIES HERE----
A total of 523 banks scrambled to take up the ECB’s offer to exchange illiquid assets for cut-price funding in the first of two three-year refinancing operations. The record half-trillion euro take-up – which was far greater than the market had expected – initially triggered a “sugar rush” of euphoria as the move was hailed as a decisive “game changer”. But stock markets fell as economists and financiers recognised that while the imminent danger of another credit crunch had been averted, the threat of sovereign defaults had not.
Nick Matthews, at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: “While the action is very important to help stabilise the situation and reduce the funding risk for the banks, it is unlikely to bring about a turning point in this crisis as the problems are much greater than those in the banking sector and has other political and economic dimensions.”
Chris Wheeler, bank analyst at Mediobanca, said: “It’s helpful. It’s more than a sticking plaster, although it’s by no means the solution longer term.”
Aside from the lending frenzy, fresh data reinforced fears of Europe’s rapidly deteriorating economies. Italian GDP contracted 0.2pc in the third quarter – a drastic reversal of the 0.3pc growth of the previous quarter. The figures suggest that, taken with Italy’s tough new austerity measures, the country may be pushed into its fifth recession since 2001. Consumer confidence across the eurozone has fallen sharply in December. The European Commission said its monthly sentiment survey showed confidence dropped to a reading of -21.2 from -20.4 in November, the sixth straight month of decline...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)European banks borrowed enough cash from the European Central Bank at its first three-year offering to refinance almost two-thirds of the debt they have maturing next year amid concern that markets will remain frozen....
...By flooding the banking system with cheap money, policy makers are attempting to stave off a looming credit crunch by encouraging banks to maintain lending. Politicians, including French President Nicholas Sarkozy, are also pushing the banks to use the cash, which is borrowed at a current interest rate of 1 percent, to purchase higher-yielding southern European sovereign debt, thereby forcing down borrowing costs in the region.
Barclays Plc estimates the lending will inject 193 billion euros of new money into the system, with 296 billion euros accounted for by maturing loans...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)On Dec. 26th, the night after Christmas, Venus and the slender crescent Moon will gather for a jaw-dropping conjunction in the western sky.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)...how the world has changed since the end of the gold standard and why the sovereign debt crisis is centered in the euro zone...
WONKY EXPLICATION
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Christmas means "Christ's Mass" and is the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth and baptism. Although December 25th is generally accepted as being the time when the Christ Child was born, the exact date has never been chronicled with any degree of accuracy. There is neither scriptural nor secular evidence to establish the exact moment.
One thing is relatively certain, however, the event did not take place in December. Since the child was born when shepherds were "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night" (Luke 2:8), it is unlikely that shepherds in Israel would have been sleeping outside with their flocks during the month of December. In Winter, the herders would have led their sheep outside only during the daylight hours...the nights would have been far too cold.
It is known that during the very early Christian centuries, the birth of the Christ Child was not celebrated in any manner. However, tradition dictates that the occasion has been commemorated since 98 A.D.
In 137 A.D., the Bishop of Rome ordered that the birthday of Jesus Christ be observed as a solemn feast.
In 350 A.D., Julius I (another Bishop of Rome) selected December 25th as the observance of Christmas.
This date was made official in 375 A.D., when it was formally announced that the birth of Jesus would be honored on this day...the announcement also allowed some of the older festivities (such as feasting, dancing and the exchange of gifts) to be incorporated into the observance of Christmas. The use of greenery to decorate homes continued to be prohibited as pagan idolatry but, over the centuries, this too became an accepted custom of the festivities.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The "Coventry Carol" is a Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew. The carol refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod orders all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed. The lyrics of this haunting carol represent a mother's lament for her doomed child. It is the only carol that has survived from this play.
It is notable as a well-known example of a Picardy third. The author is unknown. The oldest known text was written down by Robert Croo in 1534, and the oldest known printing of the melody dates from 1591.[1] The carol is traditionally sung a cappella. There is an alternative setting of the carol by Kenneth Leighton.
The only manuscript copy to have survived into recent times was burnt in 1875.[2] Our knowledge of the lyrics is therefore based on two very poor quality transcriptions from the early nineteenth century, and there is considerable doubt about many of the words. Some of the transcribed words are difficult to make sense of: for example, in the last verse "And ever morne and may For thi parting Neither say nor singe" is not clear. Various modern editors have made different attempts to make sense of the words, so such variations may be found as "ever mourn and say", "every morn and day", "ever mourn and sigh". The following is one attempted reconstruction.
Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny Child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
O sisters too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Herod, the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight,
All young children to slay.
That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever mourn and sigh,
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)"Good King Wenceslas" is a popular Christmas carol about a king who goes out to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen (the second day of Christmas, December 26). During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. The legend is based on the life of the historical Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia (907–935), known in the Czech language as Svatý Václav.
In 1853, English hymnwriter John Mason Neale wrote the "Wenceslas" lyrics, in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore, and the carol first appeared in Carols for Christmas-Tide, 1853. Neales' lyrics were set to a tune based on a 13th century spring carol "Tempus adest floridum" ("The time is near for flowering" first published in the 1582 Finnish song collection Piae Cantiones.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)"The Holly and the Ivy" is an English traditional Christmas carol. The carol contains intermingled Christian and Pagan imagery, with holly and ivy representing Pagan fertility symbols. Holly and ivy have been the mainstay of English Christmas decoration for church use since at least the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when they are mentioned regularly in churchwardens’ accounts (Roud 2004). Holly and ivy also figure in the lyrics of the "Sans Day Carol". The music and most of the text was first published by Cecil Sharp. Sir Henry Walford Davies wrote a popular choral arrangement that is often performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and by choirs around the world.
There are indications in other manuscripts that in ancient English village life there was a midwinter custom of holding singing-contests between men and women, where the men sang carols praising holly (for its "masculine" qualities) and disparaging ivy, while women sang songs praising the ivy (for its "feminine" qualities) and disparaging holly. (More of the men's songs have been recorded and survived than the women's, as in the examples above. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holly_and_the_Ivy ) The resolution between the two was under the mistletoe. These three plants are the most prominent green plants in British native woodland during the winter, and for this reason they earned respect from the early country-dwellers and a place in their traditions...European Holly (Gaelic: cuileann) was sacred to druids who associated it with the winter solstice, and for Romans, holly was considered the plant of Saturn. European Holly has always traditionally had a strong association with Christmas.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)Celine Dion-Oh Holy night
Another version...
12/21/11 Rufus Wainwright Brings “Minuit, Chrétiens” To Fallon
On episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Rufush Wainwright sang “Minuit, Chrétiens,” the French version of the Christmas song “O Holy Night,” with the Roots backing him up in a distinctly non-Rootsy way.
http://stereogum.com/910252/rufus-wainwright-brings-minuit-chretiens%E2%80%9D-on-fallon/video/
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)This is best heard with headphones and at slightly high volume.
Bjorling was considered one of the finest Tenors alive, he died way too young.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Michael Olenick: The Administration Likes Foxes in Charge of Henhouses – Proof that OCC Foreclosure Reviews Are a Sham
“There Goes the Neighborhood,” which ran on 60 Minutes last Sunday, is a must-see piece. Scott Pelley walks through a pillaged house in Cleveland, slated for demolition in a county neighborhood stabilization program. This abandoned house is owned by Structured Asset Investment Trust 2003-BC11. An investor reports lists the property as “in foreclosure” despite no court filing. Ohio is a judicial foreclosure state, so a foreclosure filing requires a lawsuit, but there isn’t one.
According to the prospectus, Trust 2003-BC11 was underwritten by Lehman Brothers. Aurora Loan Services is the Master Servicer, though the entire trust was passed to sub-servicers. Specifically Chase, Option One, Ocwen, and Wells Fargo serviced 30.46%, 29.47%, 26.84%, and 12.19% of the loans.
The Murrayhill Company is the Credit Risk Manager. According to the prospectus Murrayhill “will monitor and advise the servicers with respect to default management of the mortgage loans.” Later, the prospectus clarifies “The Murrayhill Company, a Colorado corporation .. will monitor and make recommendations to the Master Servicer and the Servicers regarding certain delinquent and defaulted Mortgage Loans…”
Murrayhill literally wrote the book on how Aurora should deal with defaults for Trust 2003-BC11, then took upon themselves to the obligation to monitor that same book...MUCH MORE AT LINK
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Today, we doff our caps to the folks at the European Central Bank. They’ve pulled off the perfect heist.
The euro-feds have opened the valves…turned on the spigots…and let nearly a half trillion euros worth of liquidity flow directly into the very same banks that have proven they can’t be trusted with a penny.
But that’s how a zombie system works. The living give. The monsters get. And since, at this stage of the credit cycle, the living don’t have much to give, the feds turn on the printing presses. Then, from whom does the money come? Gotta come from someone, no? That’s right… When you borrow it, it comes from the people who lend it. When you tax it, it comes from the taxpayers. But whom does it come from when you just print it up?
Well, at first it appears to come from no one. Nobody reaches in his pocket and finds fewer dollars. Nobody’s pocket has been picked. But how could that be? Nothing comes from nothing. You add a zero to a zero and you still have a zero.
And yet, the zombie banks now have 489 billion more euros in their vaults.
Read more: The Perfect Heist: Why Government Theft Continues to Go Unnoticed http://dailyreckoning.com/the-perfect-heist-why-government-theft-continues-to-go-unnoticed/#ixzz1hS6QcuVI
Demeter
(85,373 posts)A legal battle in London has revealed that a conglomerate controlled by Anil Ambani, the Indian telecoms tycoon, used a Mauritius-based fund to make covert investments in one of its own companies, triggering calls in India for a full investigation.
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/QNOF27/WH2F8/TUHEPJ/HYPJ1H/T3/t?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=23
bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)I love traditional carols and most especially the medieval-sounding - Good King Wenceslas and God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" among my favorites...
And I may have written this last year at this time - the "true meanings of Christmas" for me is that every child born - no matter where or to whom - is precious and entitled to our love and true care ...born in a stable? to refugees? to parents fleeing the "lawful" authority of the King? poor? - no matter. In every child lies the hope of the world.
Happy Solstice to all. May we see a new and glorious morn in 2012 ...
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)I gotta say, this newfangled live phone cam streaming technology is off the hook. Now anyone with an Android and an unlimited data plan can stream amazing embedded protest footage from anywhere to anyone–all of it in real time. Forget CNN’s 24-hour cable news revolution. This is CWNN–the Class War News Network.
Last Saturday I was at home in Venice, California, glued to the screen watching a live Ustream feed from Manhattan, where a few thousand protesters gathered to celebrate the three-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street and to march on Times Square. It was being broadcast by the hardworking citizen journos of wearetheother99, and was packed with all sorts of class-war action you’d never see on TV: kettling maneuvers; cops on scooters trying to ram protesters just like those Ahmadinejad protest goons on bikes, with some dude on the street yelling “get off the bike, pussy!”; and a bunch of brutal and seemingly random arrests, including a close-up of a couple of cops tackling a biker and punching him in the face because he wouldn’t let got of his bicycle. There were some great scenes of protesters sprinting through stalled Manhattan traffic, trying to frantically outflank a police line moving in to pin them down on some narrow street–all while the camera guy narrated the action: “The police vehicles just can’t get in. There’s too many cars. The people are running too quickly and they’re too dispersed….I’m not sure how long I can keep running. My legs are really cramping up.”
While all this was going on, the NYPD was apparently busy targeting certain protesters for extraction. At some point the, the stream caught the tail end of what people on the scene described as a targeted arrest of a pacer–someone who had been chosen to keep the protest march on track and lead it along a certain route. Apparently the guy had been tazed, and you could see him being carried away to a paddy wagon while a couple of mounted cops kept the crowd away. Without someone in the driver’s seat leading the group, the procession quickly ground to a halt, and people stood around squabbling about which way they should go. If the NYPD’s goal was to slow down and fragment the march, then that one targeted arrest worked like a charm.
Speaking of disruption and the jamming of information…
Remember how in November, Bloomberg and the NYPD got a lot of heat from the city’s media establishment for the arrest rampage they unleashed on journalists covering the eviction raid on Liberty Plaza? Cops arrested more than two dozen accredited journalists from major news outlets, including the New York Post, NPR, AFP and The Associated Press. Hell, cops even clubbed a couple of reporters for the baggertarian rag The Daily Caller. As a result, New York’s police commissioner made a big show of issuing an order that instructed police officers not to interfere with journalists covering OWS.
But clearly that was just for show.
Because this month the NYPD has gone out of its way to harass and arrest journalists covering OWS, especially targeting live streamers and indie journalists who can’t be counted on for propaganda support like the mainstream folks. According to Free Press’ Josh Stearns, who has been maintaining a list of journalists arrested while covering the Occupy Movement across the country, at least five journalists and seven live streamers were arrested by the NYPD in the first half of December....MANY INCIDENTS SINCE...You gotta wonder if these intimidation tactics against journalists and news media will work to stifle coverage like it has in the past. Or will it backfire, creating shared grievances and experiences between journalists and protesteRs, and solidifying media’s sympathy for the Occupy movement?
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The CIA said Friday its internal watchdog found nothing wrong with the spy agency's close partnership with the New York Police Department. An internal CIA investigation found nothing improper with the agency's partnership with police in New York City. The agency's inspector general concluded that no laws were broken and there was "no evidence that any part of the agency's support to the NYPD constituted 'domestic spying'," CIA spokesman Preston Golson said.
The inspector general decided to do a preliminary investigation after a series of stories by The Associated Press revealed how after the 9/11 attacks the CIA helped the NYPD build domestic intelligence programs that were used to spy on Muslims. A CIA officer also directed intelligence collection and reviewed reports, according to former NYPD officials involved. The revelations troubled some members of Congress and even prompted the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, to remark that it did not look good for the CIA to be involved in any city police department. Thirty-four lawmakers have asked for the Justice Department to investigate but so far that request has gone nowhere.
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has maintained the NYPD's relationship with the CIA was proper. Under an executive order, the CIA is allowed to assist local law enforcement. "Operating under this legal basis, the CIA has advised the police department on key aspects of intelligence gathering and analysis that have greatly benefited our counterterrorism mission and protected lives in New York City," Kelly said earlier this year.
David Buckley, the CIA's inspector general, completed his review in late October. It's not clear if his report opens the door for other municipal police departments nationwide to work closely with the CIA in the war on terror....AND THERE'S STILL MORE--AND THIS IS USA TODAY!
Demeter
(85,373 posts)President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign returned campaign contributions from Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., according to a Democratic official. Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee refunded the money from the former New Jersey governor out of an abundance of caution, said the official, who requested anonymity. Republicans have criticized the president for keeping contributions from the head of a firm that collapsed and filed for bankruptcy. (OH, IT WASN'T TO PAY FOR THE LAWYERS?--DEMETER)
Corzine, 64, and his wife, Sharon Elghanayan, each contributed $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee and $5,000 to Obama’s campaign, the maximum amounts that individuals are allowed to give, said the official. Corzine, who testified before a congressional panel about MF Global’s bankruptcy and $1.2 billion in missing customer funds, has been one of Obama’s top fundraisers this election cycle. In April, Corzine hosted a fundraiser for Obama at his Manhattan home. Corzine was one of 41 donors who bundled more than $500,000 this year for Obama’s re-election effort, according to documents released by the campaign Oct. 14. So-called bundlers arrange for contributions from other people and funnel the money to campaigns. Obama’s campaign doesn’t plan to return those bundled donations and will evaluate other contributions from MF Global employees on a case-by-case basis, according to the Democratic official....
“While he (OBAMA) returned the money after enormous political pressure, this still doesn’t change the fact that Corzine was the architect of the failed stimulus project,” said Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. “If this was anything more than a political PR stunt, he would give back the full $500,000 that Corzine bundled from Wall Street.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)YOU WON'T KNOW WHETHER TO LAUGH OR CRY...LIKE LEMONADE WITHOUT THE SUGAR AND SPIKED WITH HALLUCINOGENS....
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)they range from trite and sugary insipid to downright psychopathic...and yet, people sing and listen to them (probably as captives of elevator music).
In Colonial America there were no Christmas celebrations. As recently as 100 years or so ago, such observances were declared illegal in many parts of the United States, including most of New England, being defined as pagan and a reproach to the Lord. (Today, it is against the law in some areas to display any Christmas symbols that are not pagan in nature...the erecting of nativity scenes, for example, are banned in some regions of America. Ironically, New England being one such area).
In Puritan Massachusetts, anyone caught observing the holiday was obliged to pay a fine. Connecticut also enacted a law forbidding the celebration of Christmas...and the baking of mincemeat pies. A few of the earliest settlers, however, did celebrate Christmas, but it was far from a common holiday during the Colonial era.
Prior to the American Civil War, the North and South were divided on the issue of Christmas as much as they were on the question of slavery. Many Northerners considered it sinful to celebrate Christmas since Thanksgiving was a much more appropriate holiday. In the South, however, Christmas played an important role in the social season. Perhaps not surprisingly, the first three American States to declare Christmas a legal holiday were located in the South: Alabama in 1836; and Louisiana and Arkansas, both in 1838.
In the years following the Civil War, Christmas traditions began to filter across the country. Children's books played a vital role in spreading the customs of Christmas celebrations, particularly the tradition of trimmed trees and gifts delivered by Santa Claus. Sunday School Classes encouraged participation in such celebrations. The emergence of women's magazines also played an important part in promoting the festival of Christmas, by suggesting various ways to decorate for the holidays, as well as supplying instructions on how to make such decorations.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Far too often, the "modern" Xmas carol is linked to some "modern" entertainment and the usual marketing...aimed at children.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)
Hotler
(11,420 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)meanwhile, duty calls...back for more fun later, I hope!
hamerfan
(1,404 posts)And hoping (yes, the eternal optimist here) that 2012 is a good one for us all.
hamerfan
xchrom
(108,903 posts)
i've always thought of my self as a christmas christian -- as a opposed to an easter christian.
i know i'm supposed to think of myself as an easter christian -- but it just never took with me.
and now -- i'm much more of of a pan theist -- in my out look.
great theme! love all the madonnas. it appeals to my strong Marian/Mother Earth sensibilities.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)The persistent rise in Spain's unemployment rate is pushing more workers into seeking employment abroad. A favorite destination these days is Germany, which boasts historically low jobless figures and nearly three percent growth despite the economic crisis. This is the reason why 2,400 Spaniards packed their bags between January and June and took a flight out to the European powerhouse.
This number represents a 49 percent rise compared with the same period last year, according to data released by Germany's federal department of statistics. The agency attributes this returning phenomenon ? Spanish migration to Germany was markedly strong in the 1960s ? to the euro-zone crisis and the economic downturn in European Union peripheral countries.
For that same reason, there has also been a sharp rise in Greek immigration to Germany, although Greece formally has less unemployment than Spain: 18 percent, versus 22 percent here. Nevertheless, Greek migration to Germany grew 84 percent in the first half.
It is likely that Spanish arrivals will continue to grow in the near future thanks to recruiting campaigns carried out here over the summer by German chambers of commerce with the goal of finding young engineers. German Chancellor Angela Merkel herself said that one of the most industrially advanced powers in the world will need around 100,000 graduates in this field to make up for an ageing population over the next decade.
bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)for me, this is THE female solo version - I can't say it better than one of the comments on youtube: "The high note emerges like a revelation."
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Great data from the BLS comparing hourly compensation for manufacturing. The second chart looks at the benefits component of the hourly cost.
The data are from 2010 and sensitive to exchange rate movements. We will post a follow-up chart in the next few days looking at the 2009-10 change in hourly compensation, breaking out the changes in wage and benefits versus the FX component. Stay tuned!
I DON'T SEE A LISTING FOR THE NORTH POLE ELVES...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)AS winter approached, a retired secretary here named Carol Bonner was putting snow tires on her car when she noticed that her back-right rim was bent. Ms. Bonner took the car to Otto’s Auto Body Shop and got bad news: the work was going to run her $244 — more than half of her $417 monthly pension check. Without a credit card or enough saved up to replace the rim herself, Ms. Bonner, who is 61 and cares for her sister Jane, who is disabled, did the only thing she could do: she went down to the Bank of Cattaraugus and took out a $300 loan. The bank, in a reversal of the usual process, had bailed her out before. A few years ago, when Ms. Bonner fell behind on her property taxes and was forced to sell her home, the bank’s president, Patrick J. Cullen, who held the mortgage on the house, had his son Thomas buy it. Thomas Cullen, who lives in Chicago, never intended to live there. Ms. Bonner and her sister were able to stay as renters. “The whole thing was incredible,” Ms. Bonner said the other day, a single pine branch hanging in her living room in lieu of a full Christmas tree, which she could not afford. “I just didn’t realize there were people like that in the world, people who would help you. Especially,” she said, “a banker.”
This has not exactly been a time of great love for bankers. Amid the continuing foreclosure crisis and Occupy Wall Street’s campaign against “the 1 percent,” it is easy to forget that not all banks are complicated giants, trading in derivatives and re-hypothecating valueless collateral. The Bank of Cattaraugus, for example, is by asset size the state’s smallest bank (one branch, eight employees, no credit default swaps) and yet it plays an outsize role in this hilly village an hour south of Buffalo: housing its deposits, lending to its neediest inhabitants and recently granting forbearance on a mortgage when the borrower, a bus mechanic, temporarily lost his job after shooting off his finger while holstering his gun. If it sounds old-fashioned, it is. It’s not the kind of bank you’ll find anymore in New York City, where multiple branches and capitalizations counted in 10 figures are the norm. With $12 million in total assets, the Bank of Cattaraugus is a microbank, well below the $10 billion ceiling that defines small banks. It exists in a seemingly different universe from the mammoth banks-turned-financial-services-conglomerates, like Citigroup ($1.9 trillion in assets) or JPMorgan Chase ($2.25 trillion).
With obvious exceptions, business at the Bank of Cattaraugus hasn’t changed much since 1882, when 20 prominent residents — among them a Civil War surgeon and a cousin of Davy Crockett — established the bank to safeguard townsfolk’s money and to finance local commerce. In its 130-year history, the bank has rarely booked a profit for itself in excess of $50,000. Last year, Mr. Cullen said, it made $5,000. He and his officers are industry anomalies: bankers who avoid high-risk and high-growth tactics in order to reinvest in their community’s economy. “My examiners always ask me, ‘When are you going to grow?’ ” said Mr. Cullen, a Cattaraugus native who is 64 and has the prosperous stoutness of a storybook banker. “But where is it written I have to grow? We take care of our customers. The truth is we probably couldn’t grow too much in a town like this.” While it faces many of the same regulations that govern larger banks, it operates according to an antiquated theory of the business: that a bank should be a utility, like the power company, and serve as a broker between savers and borrowers in its community.
..........................................................................................................................
SMALL banks have been dying for 20 years. In 1990, there were 12,000 banks nationwide with assets of less than $10 billion; now, there are 7,350. The country’s top five banks have, meanwhile, grown relentlessly: In 1995, they held 11 percent of all deposits; last year it was 34 percent. For several years, the small-banking sector has been pinched on one side by the rising costs of compliance and technology, and on the other by historically low interest rates (which cut into lending margins). In the last year, though, anger over big banks’ fees and mortgage lending practices has turned consumers against the mega-banks, and smaller institutions have been the beneficiaries....The publisher Arianna Huffington has been behind the Move Your Money Project, which encourages people to take their money out of big banks and deposit it in local financial institutions. (Slogan: Invest in Main Street, Not Wall Street.) Ms. Huffington produced a video based on the Christmas banking classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” to support the campaign. BankTransferDay.org similarly claims to have persuaded 400,000 people to switch their funds from big banks to not-for-profit credit unions. Occupy Wall Street, which has pretty much turned “bank” into a four-letter word, has deposited nearly $500,000 into Amalgamated Bank, a big small bank in New York City owned by the labor union Unite Here. Edward Grebow, Amalgamated’s president, posted signs in his branches supporting the movement and marched with its members in October. Perhaps as a result, the number of new checking accounts at Amalgamated has doubled in the months since it took on Occupy Wall Street as a customer. But the increased business came at a delicate moment for the bank: under new rules passed in the wake of the subprime lending meltdown, Amalgamated was forced to raise fresh capital. In September, the bank sold a 40 percent stake in its business to two giants of the private-equities markets: Wilbur L. Ross Jr., a billionaire investor, and Ronald W. Burkle, a California supermarket magnate...
MORE WARMTH AND GOODNESS AT LINK
Demeter
(85,373 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)While Europe's leaders were wrestling with the problem of who will bail out whom last week, the world's other two major trading blocs, the US and China, were gearing up for a potentially damaging trade war.
As China slapped punitive import taxes on gas-guzzling American cars, and stepped up its rhetoric against the US, complaining about what it said were US subsidies, some Beijing-watchers read it as a sign that the government is so alarmed about a looming economic slowdown that it is casting around for someone to blame.
The tariffs, ranging from 2% to 21.5%, will be levied on imports of SUVs and cars with engines of 2.5 litres or more, hitting the US car giants.
It's not hard to see why China is lashing out. Evidence is mounting that just a few months after Beijing was fretting about its economy overheating and taking action to tame rampant food prices, the most pressing concern now is a so-called hard landing.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Since the times of Oscar Wilde it has been known that a map without the island of Utopia on it is a map “not worth even glancing at”. Despite that, the journey of Iceland from the darling of late capitalism to a project in true democracy suggests that a map without Utopia is not only unworthy of our attention, but is also a hoax conjured up by a defective cartography. Whether the markets like it or not, the lighthouse of Utopia has begun flashing faint warning signals to the rest of Europe.
Iceland is not Utopia. It is known that there can be no kingdoms of liberty within the Empire of necessity of late capitalism. But it is a recognition of a dramatic absence. Iceland is proof that capital does not own all the truth there is to this world, even when it aspires to control all the maps we can lay out.
With its decision to halt the wheel of tragedy of the markets, Iceland has set a precedent that could threaten to break the back of late capitalism. For now, this small island, which is doing what was claimed to be too unreal to be possible, does not seem to be sinking into chaos, though it does seem to be sinking into an information blackout. How much information are we getting from Iceland and how much on the loans to Greece? Why has Iceland gone off the pages of some of the media that should be telling us what is happening out there in the world?
A constitution drafted by citizen assemblies
So far it has been the birthright of those in power to define what is real and what is not, what can be thought and done and what can not. The cognitive maps deployed in order to understand our world have always had obscure corners where lies the barbarism that upholds the dominions of the elites. Those unmapped shadows of the world usually go with the elimination of their opposite, the island of Utopia. Walter Benjamin has already put it in writing: There is no document of civilisation that is not at the same time a document of barbarism.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Purchasing demand for Chinese goods has slowed a tad in the United States as higher manufacturing and shipping costs are prompting US retailers to turn to cheaper destinations in a bid to crank up profit margins.
Though most of the new orders are believed to be flowing into emerging economies, many retail industry experts still say that China still has the best brand equity in the US.
"Retail executives have told me that some low end orders are being routed to countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh," says Erik Autor, the International Trade Counsel for the National Retail Federation (NRF), the world's largest retail trade association. "There might be some empirical data on it but I am yet to see it," he says.
The US Commerce Department, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Trade Representative and the Toy Industry Association, some of the agencies that provide data on the retail trade in the US, also did not have any figures to support the claim that manufacturing is being routed to newer locations.
Tansy_Gold
(17,857 posts)from Chiquita (who always looks like she's guilty of something even when she isn't)
from Moby (who loves having his picture taken and will pose indefinitely)
from Biscuit (who is both camera and holiday tree shy)
and from Miss Mattie (who would rather lie contentedly by the front door and watch for invading rabbits than just about anything)
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)A couple of thrift store stuffed animals.
Sir Rosco grabbed his, and dashed into the back yard, and was throwing it in the air, pouncing on it, and throwing it some more. Just running around like the nut lovable nut he is.
By the time I drank some coffee, and decided to video it to post here, he was all done.
Merry Holidays to all!
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)I forget how excitable little ones are for Christmas and presents, leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.
Such fun, but I need a nap, lol!
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)We got back from a party last night, and my wife had recorded the movie, and we watched it, again, last night. And it brought back a few memories.
They filmed the movie in Cleveland back in the early 80's, in the neighborhood we used to hang out in. And, they filmed part of "The Deer Hunter" a few blocks away also.
It was during the heart of the Reagan recession, I was laid off, but making a lot of money off the books otherwise. Needless to say, we had a lot of time and alcohol on our hands. We were hanging out, just checking the filming out. And drinking. The studio had just put down a lot of artificial snow in the neighborhood, to make it look all Christmassy. One of my drinking buddies, drove a city pick-up truck, with a snow plow on the front, and said, "Watch this".
They were getting ready to shoot a scene, and he jumped in his truck, went around the barricades, dropped his plow, and plowed all the snow off the street, with a lot of mad directors and such chasing him down. They never did catch him, and we just went back to the bar and continued our recreation.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)After son got the grandkids and took them back to their house, spouse and I drove around Dayton. Some once-fine houses and factories are now in shambles, or completely torn down. Yet nearby, are many half-million dollar houses. Who can afford these McMansions nowadays, and what kind of jobs do these people have assuming they live in Dayton where so many jobs have been off-shored.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)I took the Kid to not one, not two, but 3 movies today: Joseph, Prince of Dreams, Prince of Egypt, and a British version of A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sims, from 1951. This is the first time I've seen her content in I don't know how long. And then we were invited to the neighbors for a dinner party.
As a result, I've gotten nothing done since finishing the paper route at 12:30 this morning....
But I do want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Better New Year. (Because if it gets any worse, there will be blood in the streets).
I'd like to add: since the conversion to DU3, I rarely venture beyond the ghetto of our special interest, even into the forum. I think this new regime is stifling.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The holly green, the ivy green
The prettiest picture you've ever seen
Is Christmas in Killarney
With all of the folks at home
It's nice, to know, to kiss your beau
While cuddling under the mistletoe
And Santa Claus you know, of course
Is one of the boys from home
The door is always open
The neighbours pay a call
And Father John before he's gone
Will bless the house and all
How grand it feels to click your heels
And join in the fun of the jigs and reels
I'm handing you no blarney
The likes you've never known
Is Christmas in Killarney
With all of the folks at home
Christmas in Killarney is wonderful to see
Listen to my story and I'll take you back with me
The holly green, the ivy green,
The prettiest picture you've ever seen
Is Christmas in Killarney
With all of the folks at home
It's nice, to know, to kiss your beau
While cuddling under the mistletoe
And Santa Claus you know, of course
Is one of the boys from home
The door is always open
The neighbours pay a call
And Father John before he's gone
Will bless the house and all
How grand it feels to click your heels
And join in the fun of the jigs and reels
I'm handing you no blarney
The likes you've never known
Is Christmas in Killarney
With all of the folks at home
The door is always open
The neighbours pay a call
And Father John before he's gone
Will bless the house and all
How grand it feels to click your heels
And join in the fun of the jigs and reels
I'm handing you no blarney
The likes you've never known
Is Christmas in Killarney
With all of the folks at home
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)Way too much going on, and I have no time to venture reading anything else in DU3.
Thanks for all you do for the Weekend thread!
bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)paragraph 4 - even LBN seems thin to me.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)That's okay, since we haven't even scratched the surface of the Christmas Carol cache.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Luis de Guindos considers that there will negative GDP growth this quarter and in the first quarter of next year
Spain’s new Minister for the Economy and Competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, has confirmed that the country will fall back into recession as two quarters will see negative growth, for the last quarter of this year and first quarter of next.
He made the revelation during the swearing in of the top civil servants in his Ministry.
The Minister said that the key to get out of this situation was to ‘look for more sustainable growth and a large capacity to compete’.
Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_33154.shtml#ixzz1heh2V4LB
kickysnana
(3,908 posts)Took Auntie to close her bank account of 35 years that they had started charging a fee if you did not use your debit card 15 times a month. When we got in there they said well they were making exceptions for over 65 but when she called in late November no such deal was put forth so she transferred her SS to a no fee bank she can roll to.
Put in an online order for pizza but we got done early and Auntie did not want to go look at Christmas lights so I stopped in and asked them to start the order while I went next door to the thrift bread store. While I was gone their computer system crashed, in the store and online and the clerk, first week, forgot to tell them in all the chaos so when I got back we still had to wait while they made the pizza. One fellow had to leave when his order was not ready and they stopped taking phone orders until everything reset. The manager wasn't sure how to ring up gift cards but figured it out so I assume everyone there was new. Oh the memories of working fast food.