Economy
Related: About this forumSTOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 3 August 2012
[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 3 August 2012[font color=black][/font]
SMW for 2 August 2012
AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 2 August 2012
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Dow Jones 12,878.88 -92.18 (-0.71%)
S&P 500 1,365.00 -10.14 (-0.74%)
Nasdaq 2,909.77 -10.44 (-0.36%)
[font color=red]10 Year 1.48% +0.01 (0.68%)
30 Year 2.55% +0.01 (0.39%) [font color=black]
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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center][font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]
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Tansy_Gold
(17,860 posts)Kluger was actually sentenced in June.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/05/matthew-kluger-insider-trading-record-sentence_n_1569693.html
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)I read "Idiot America" a few weeks ago.
Where we used to have the best education system in the world, the whack-jobs have taken over, and turned ignorance and stupidity into a virtue.
The future of this country is screwed nine ways to Sunday.
Tansy_Gold
(17,860 posts)Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Along with a box of other lefty books.
I think it will get better circulation there.
tclambert
(11,085 posts)Or somethin'. I'm not gonna actually look it up, 'cause I got the freedom to not bother lookin' stuff up, too. Anyways, freedom of religion means I get to believe any stupid nonsense someone who never heard of science dreamed up 5,000 years ago. Or that the preacher says they said, 'cause we're not gonna actually bother reading our holy books, either.
Besides, stupid people win all the arguments 'cause we won't change our minds no matter how much "evidence" or "facts" or "reason" you smarty-pants educated types try to bring into it. We can ignore all that. And when we make stuff up that ain't even close to true, you gotta waste time tryin' to verify it ain't true, finding multiple credible sources to cite. And then we still won't admit it's not true. Ha. We win.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)And I was born 8 months later. Exactly.
kickysnana
(3,908 posts)all the rest take 9 months.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Good. Grumpiness loves company.
Hugin
(33,140 posts)I'm going to post my one and only video, ever.
TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)2 thumbs up! 
Demeter
(85,373 posts)We invest billions to create a functioning city. How do we create local businesses that won't be tempted to pack up our jobs and leave town? Americans face a unique challenge in solving the climate crisis. Unlike other Western countries and Japan, where population is projected to be relatively constant, the U.S. population is set to grow by at least 100 million—and likely 150 million—people by 2050. Where and under what conditions these people live present serious challenges to sustainability planning. American cities today are so spatially and economically unstable that anything beyond superficial sustainability planning is impossible.
Alternatively, we can radically change existing community and regional planning strategies to more sustainably house and serve the growing population. Fortunately, emerging approaches are capable of helping with this shift. One involves building local economies that anchor capital in place through community, worker, or public forms of ownership—so-called green community wealth strategies. By linking such stabilizing forms of economic organization to democratic forms of local, regional, and national planning, cities can regain the capacity to target jobs and investment to specific locations.
A good starting point is a clear understanding of America’s “throwaway city” habit. Simply put, as jobs move in and out of cities in uncontrolled ways we literally throw away housing, roads, schools, hospitals, and public facilities—only to have to build the same facilities elsewhere at great financial, energy, and carbon costs. All the while, the instability makes it impossible to carry out coherent transportation and high-density housing planning.
The most dramatic examples are places like Detroit and Cleveland, where the devastated landscape in many areas looks like bombed-out World War II cities. But these cases are not exceptional. Of the 112 largest U.S. cities in 1950 with populations over 100,000, 56—fully half of them—had experienced population decline by 2008. The people moved elsewhere, where all the usual facilities had to be built anew to serve them—and, built under conditions that were inherently likely to be subject to future instability and disruption...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has what he says is an informed explanation for why Mitt Romney refuses to release additional tax returns. According a Bain investor, Reid charged, Romney didn't pay any taxes for 10 years.
SO? YAWN.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)On April 27, 2012, I first wrote about possible insider trading and nepotism at The Washington Post, alleging that one way The Washington Post Company has been depleting the corporation of money and resources has been through dividend payouts and stock buybacks which benefit the Graham family.
On May 11, 2012, Ryan Chittum wrote a stunning piece supporting the same argument with respect to The Washington Post: "Dividends, share buybacks and an anti-paywall stance help bleed the paper dry."
Chittum further stated:
Much of that money is being squandered to appease the short-term interests and cash needs of shareholders, who very much include the Graham family, which controls the voting shares of the Post...
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Mittens know how to spend his tax money.
Then, they can merge with The Washington Times, and create a new company called Moon Mittens Publishing.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)What shall we do for the Weekend? Anybody got an idea?
and how did Friday sneak up on me like that?
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)With all the debate, I thought I'd check with a friend who is the definitive source of expertise. I e-mailed him the question last night, and got a prompt reply, especially since he's on a 6 month vacation, traveling North America. He's formerly the Chief Accountant for one of the largest corporations in the world (pre-CFO days), and has been CEO of several multi-nationals. He currently has accounting firms in four different Florida cities.
First, my question to him:
I'm having an argument with someone over Rmoney's tax returns. And
you're just the guy who can settle it.
Hypothetically, if Romney paid zero taxes (legally) for the last 10
years or so, I say to lessen his embarrassment, and scandal, that he can
have his accountants sanitize his previous returns by filing amended
returns, dropping a shitload of deductions, credits, and exemptions and
whatever else he claimed (legally), and pay a shitload of taxes to cover
it all up. Then, the amended returns become the official, legal returns,
and for all legal purposes, the previous returns never existed.
This is assuming that the previous returns were not fraudulent.
Who is right?
---------------And his reply:
Not so easy an answer....
First....he can only go back three years so the prior seven would not be
changed.
Second....yes ....he can file amended returns for the three years and he
does not have to take his justified deductions.....but.....it would have
to be done carefully so it would not be discovered by critics that he
filed a frivolous return......and have them attack his ploy of trying to
cover up to get elected. Also, the Firm that prepared them would have to
worry about filing false returns.....if they knew what he was
doing.......
Third.....The IRS would probably not attack the phony returns since he
would be paying more than he has to pay........
Fourth.....It is possible that the IRS would accept the prior seven
years returns adjusted but it would have to publish the facts....not
likely.
Several other problems come to mind........talk about
flipflopping.....wow...........
------------------------------------------------------
Just for the record, even with his corporate background, he's a down to earth guy, who's always identified with the blue collar. And, he hates Romney's guts. I never asked him, but with his background, he probably knew George Romney well.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Whiskey River in New Port Richey, Fl.
Be on time. Otherwise, I'll eat all the crab cakes.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Have to figure out before 5:00 outfit.
And don't you DARE eat all those Crabcakes.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Let alone the clothes, jewelry or makeup....
xchrom
(108,903 posts)
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)Sisters, from the movie White Christmas
P.S. This is my annual bonding weekend with my sisters, and my daughter. We are heading to Cincinnati tomorrow and Sunday.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)You have fun with your family this weekend!
xchrom
(108,903 posts)
European markets are going in the sharply opposite direction of yesterday.
Yesterday stocks got crushed after Mario Draghi failed to instantly activate any mechanism to suppress borrowing costs for peripheral countries.
Today they're surging. Perhaps markets are looking at his statements in a new light?
Spain was up 1.4%. Italy is up 2.88%! Germany is up 1.33%.
US futures are up as well.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-august-3-2012-8#ixzz22Tt40Of6
Po_d Mainiac
(4,183 posts)Have 'pledged' to discuss implementing a plan to discuss cutting spending by a few $B Euro's (or maybe it's $13B Euro's) if they can get enough people through the riots and barricades to plan where to hold the discussions.
The EURO is now Drahgied (saved for the weekend) as are the equity markets. This will work till Monday when everyone but the HFT's realize they've been Zucked
Demeter
(85,373 posts)They must have broken out the 100 proof stuff. It has an "Eat, drink and be merry" frenzy to it.
Tansy_Gold
(17,860 posts)That one isn't a Thomas Kinkade, though, I don't think. . . . . 
Po_d Mainiac
(4,183 posts)Sounds like a Sanduskyism
xchrom
(108,903 posts)OKYO (AP) -- Toyota raised its sales target for this year to a record 9.76 million vehicles and reported a strong recovery in quarterly profit Friday, underlining its bounce back from a disaster plagued 2011.
Toyota Motor Corp. said April-June profit zoomed to 290.3 billion yen ($3.7 billion) from 1.1 billion yen the year before. Its new sales target would represent a 23 percent increase from the 7.95 million vehicles sold in 2011, and is 180,000 vehicles more than Toyota's last forecast in February.
The car maker's quarterly sales soared nearly 60 percent to 5.5 trillion yen ($70.5 billion), rebounding from a sales crash that all Japanese automakers suffered after the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in March last year.
Toyota said quarterly vehicle sales nearly doubled from the year before to 2.3 million vehicles as sales rose in regions including North America, Europe, Japan and the rest of Asia. The regaining of U.S. market share is crucial for Toyota as that is where it makes the bulk of its profits
Demeter
(85,373 posts)...If any single person is responsible for Wall Street banks becoming too big to fail it’s Sandy Weill. In 1998 he created the financial powerhouse Citigroup by combining Traveler’s Insurance and Citibank. To cash in on the combination, Weill then successfully lobbied the Clinton administration to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law that separated commercial from investment banking. And he hired my former colleague Bob Rubin, then Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury, to oversee his new empire.
Weill created the business model that Wall Street uses to this day — unleashing traders to make big, risky bets with other peoples’ money that deliver gigantic bonuses when they turn out well and cost taxpayers dearly when they don’t. And Weill made a fortune – as did all the other executives and traders. JPMorgan and Bank of America soon followed Weill’s example with their own mega-deals, and their bonus pools exploded as well.
Citigroup was bailed out in 2008, as was much of the rest of the Street, but that didn’t alter the business model in any fundamental way. The Street neutered the Dodd-Frank act that was supposed to stop the gambling. JPMorgan, headed by one of Weill’s protégés, Jamie Dimon, just lost $5.8 billion on some risky bets. Dimon continues to claim that giant banks like his can be managed so as to avoid any risk to taxpayers.
Sandy Weill has finally seen the light. It’s a bit late in the day, but, hey, he’s already cashed in. You and I and millions of others in the United States and elsewhere around the world are still paying the price...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Last fall, when the first wave of speculative attacks on the euro system was under way, I noted the peculiar safe-haven status of Denmark, which was able to borrow at much lower rates than seemingly comparable euro countries like Finland, even though Denmark's currency is pegged to the euro.
I argued that this reflected the extra flexibility Denmark gains from having its own currency. Even though it has no intention of printing money to finance the government, the fact that it could do that in the face of a liquidity squeeze is apparently worth a lot.
The first wave of attacks subsided after the European Central Bank began lending large sums to banks with sovereign debt as collateral, an indirect way of buying the debt itself. This bought the euro around seven months, which European leaders squandered. And now we're back in crisis — and Denmark's safe haven status is even more extreme. How extreme? Nominal interest rates are now negative! The central bank charges private banks 0.2 percent to hold deposits, and the interest rate on two-year government debt is -0.23 percent.
The first question to ask here is why everyone doesn't just hold stacks of currency instead, to achieve at least a zero yield? I guess the answer must be storage costs — the cost of renting a vault to hold all that paper, plus I guess there's the risk of mice eating the stuff or something. Those costs can't be very large, but I guess they're enough to make a small negative yield possible...I'm finding it ever harder to spin out plausible scenarios in which the euro survives.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)There has been plenty to criticize about President Obama’s handling of the economy. Yet the overriding story of the past few years is not Mr. Obama’s mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way — and who now, having blocked the president’s policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed. And this week’s shocking refusal to implement debt relief by the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — a Bush-era holdover the president hasn’t been able to replace — illustrates perfectly what’s going on.
Some background: many economists believe that the overhang of excess household debt, a legacy of the bubble years, is the biggest factor holding back economic recovery. Loosely speaking, excess debt has created a situation in which everyone is trying to spend less than their income. Since this is collectively impossible — my spending is your income, and your spending is my income — the result is a persistently depressed economy. How should policy respond? One answer is government spending to support the economy while the private sector repairs its balance sheets; now is not the time for austerity, and cuts in government purchases have been a major economic drag. Another answer is aggressive monetary policy, which is why the Federal Reserve’s refusal to act in the face of high unemployment and below-target inflation is a scandal. But fiscal and monetary policy could, and should, be coupled with debt relief. Reducing the burden on Americans in financial trouble would mean more jobs and improved opportunities for everyone.
Unfortunately, the administration’s initial debt relief efforts were ineffectual: Officials imposed so many restrictions to avoid giving relief to “undeserving” debtors that the program went nowhere. More recently, however, the administration has gotten a lot more serious about the issue. And the obvious place to provide debt relief is on mortgages owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored lenders that were effectively nationalized in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration. The idea of using Fannie and Freddie has bipartisan support. Indeed, Columbia’s Glenn Hubbard, a top Romney adviser, has called on Fannie and Freddie to let homeowners with little or no equity refinance their mortgages, which could sharply cut their interest payments and provide a major boost to the economy. The Obama administration supports this idea and has also proposed a special program of relief for deeply troubled borrowers.
But Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the agency that oversees Fannie and Freddie, refuses to move on refinancing. And, this week, he rejected the administration’s relief plan.
Who is Ed DeMarco? He’s a civil servant who became acting director of the housing finance agency after the Bush-appointed director resigned in 2009. He is still there, in the fourth year of the Obama administration, because Senate Republicans have blocked attempts to install a permanent director. And he evidently just hates the idea of providing debt relief. Mr. DeMarco’s letter rejecting the relief plan made remarkably weak arguments. He claimed that the plan, while improving his agency’s financial position thanks to subsidies from the Treasury Department, would be a net loss to taxpayers — a conclusion not supported by his own staff’s analysis, which showed a net gain. And it’s worth pointing out that many private lenders have offered the very kinds of principal reductions Mr. DeMarco rejects — even though these lenders, unlike the government, have no incentive to take into account the way debt relief would strengthen the economy. The main point, however, is that Mr. DeMarco seems to misunderstand his job. He’s supposed to run his agency and secure its finances — not make national economic policy. If the Treasury secretary, acting for the president, seeks to subsidize debt relief in a way that actually strengthens the finance agency, the agency’s chief has no business blocking that policy. Doing so should be a firing offense...
westerebus
(2,976 posts)So the entire economic policy of the current administration is at a stand still?
That would indicate an incompetence on the order of magnitude only found in the previous administration.
If it's not incompetence, one might surmise a tacit understanding of giving the devil his due.
Then there is always the Corzine defense of never intending harm.
Oh what a wicked web...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)no great changes should be expected in competence or results.
Tansy_Gold
(17,860 posts)Again, this is something that always defies my comprehension: If an entity, either a government or a business, is solvent and self-sustaining, WHY does it need to borrow? I can understand borrowing for capital improvements that may be beyond the entity's current cash on hand. This is similar to the home mortgage and serves as an acquisition of an asset. But borrowing to fund daily operations??? What advanced economy does this????
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Aries
Confusion may arise today as fast as you can gain clarity. Every question you answer just peels off another layer of the growing onion. Seeking positive solutions may feel like a hopeless battle. However, it's good to remember that with strength and determination, Hercules was able to defeat the Hydra who grew two new heads each time one was cut off. You can be the hero of your own world if you summon your courage from the wellsprings within.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)
Demeter
(85,373 posts)After 2 1/2 years of incremental crisis management and false starts, a bargain is beginning to emerge between Europe’s politicians and central bankers over how to calm bond markets and end the debt tumult that threatens the euro’s survival.
The European Central Bank sketched out its side of the deal yesterday, offering to buy Italy’s and Spain’s bonds on the market as long as the euro governments’ bailout fund makes purchases directly from the two countries’ treasuries and ties them to tough conditions.
ECB President Mario Draghi offered only a glimpse of the new strategy, with the actual interventions weeks or months away and a host of obstacles standing in the way before Europe can claim to be on a path out of the crisis that emerged in Greece in late 2009. Investors looking for a quicker fix pushed down the euro, European stocks and bonds of at-risk countries.
“All of the announcements, if transferred into actual activity, would be close to the big bazooka approach that the markets are looking for,” said Charles Diebel, head of market strategy at Lloyds Banking Group Plc in London. “Market disappointment is hardly surprising in this context but we may well find this lays the groundwork for the grand plan in coming weeks.”
OH REALLY! IT LOOKS MORE LIKE THAT OLD 60'S SLOGAN: BURN, BABY, BURN.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)How bad do conditions have to get before the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank take new steps to support economic growth? We are about to find out.
Despite ample evidence that the economy is weakening, the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, and the Fed policy committee decided on Wednesday not to undertake any additional monetary stimulus. Then, on Thursday, the E.C.B. also punted. Its president, Mario Draghi, not only failed to deliver on the bold action he signaled last week when he said that he would do “whatever it takes” to save the euro, he failed to deliver on any action, even a token clip in the E.C.B.’s benchmark interest rate.
Instead, he said that central bank purchases of government bonds in Spain and Italy would depend on those countries’ adherence to commitments to restructure their budgets and economies — an echo of the self-defeating austerity arguments advanced by Germany in the face of deepening recession. While Mr. Draghi expressed readiness to intervene, he did not outline how or when the aid would be delivered, sowing doubt instead of confidence...
...All of which raises the question: What are Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Draghi waiting for? Slower growth? Higher unemployment? Lower output?
MORE HAND WRINGING AT LINK--NYT EDITORIAL
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Knight Capital Group Inc fought for survival on Thursday after a $440 million trading loss caused by a software glitch wiped out much of its capital, forcing Knight to seek new funding as its shares plunged as much as 80 percent in two days.
Many of the company's biggest customers, including TD Ameritrade, the No. 1 U.S. retail brokerage by trading volume, and fund giants Vanguard and Fidelity Investments, stopped routing orders through Knight. One of the biggest fears is that the company will collapse, landing trading clients and creditors with losses.
"They have about 48 hours to shore up confidence," said James Koutoulas, head of an advocacy group for former customers of failed brokerages MF Global and Peregrine Financial.
Knight said it is "actively pursuing its strategic and financing alternatives," raising the likelihood the firm will be sold or face bankruptcy because of the loss, which is about four times its annual net earnings, and the subsequent damage to its business as customers and others question its stability. As one of the leading market makers in U.S. stocks, Knight is among the firms that are critical to smooth, orderly trading. Market makers match orders from buyers and sellers and often provide liquidity by stepping into the market themselves. The speed at which Knight has unraveled has been particularly unnerving for investors and markets. It resulted from problems with the firm's trading software that sent bogus, rapid-fire trades into the market for 45 minutes on Wednesday and left Knight with big losses on numerous stocks it bought at inflated prices.
"This is like a nuclear reactor or aircraft," said Roy Niederhoffer, whose R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management uses Knight. "There has to be some way of seeing the state of the whole system." He said that there was "no excuse" for Knight failing to stop its systems before the glitch had endangered the firm.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)A government investigation into insider trading in Japan has extended onto the trading floors of some of the largest Wall Street companies, including Goldman Sachs, UBS and Deutsche Bank. A governing party committee has asked regulators to scrutinize suspicious trading activity before at least 12 public offering announcements over the past three years, said Tsutomu Okubo, head of the financial affairs committee of the Democratic Party. The committee has been working with regulators to stiffen insider trading laws in Japan.
Among the trades being investigated are those made by Goldman clients who bet against All Nippon Airways just days before the airline's stock offering last month. A company's share price tends to drop when a new share issuance is announced, especially by a struggling company, because it dilutes shares without much prospect of a boost to business from the capital that is raised.
The push for more disclosure came as Japan's Financial Services Agency metered out a strikingly lenient censure of Nomura for leaking sensitive information to clients ahead of public share offerings. Nomura has been issued a business improvement order under which it would be required to take measures to bolster its internal compliance, and periodically report to regulators on its progress, the agency said in a statement Friday. Two top executives of Nomura, the largest investment bank in Japan, have already resigned after acknowledging that in three cases, its sales staff had tipped off its mutual fund customers about stock offerings that the bank was handling for its corporate clients. Some experts had called for far stricter measures, including temporary termination orders for Nomura's offending businesses.
The country's financial services minister, Tadahiro Matsushita, said that while he called on Nomura to ''bear heavy responsibility'' over its repeated leaks of information, the agency also saw Nomura's management reshuffle as a sign the firm was prepared to clean up its act. He strongly hoped Nomura ''will press ahead with reforms to rebuild its company structure fundamentally,'' Mr. Matsushita told reporters. The Nomura scandal has further undermined faith in Japanese stock markets, experts say, which remain some of the world's most depressed after the global financial crisis.
''The reckless pursuit of short-term profits by a handful of actors is destroying the reputation and value of the entire market,'' said Mr. Okubo, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. bank, received formal inquiries from investigators pressing their probe into the possible rigging of a key international lending benchmark. The bank received subpoenas and requests for information from the U.S. Department of Justice, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and U.K. Financial Services Authority, the firm said yesterday in a filing. Bank of America also said regulators have asked whether the company properly oversaw vendors who sold identity-theft protection products to its customers.
Inquiries involve “submissions made by panel banks in connection with the setting of London interbank offered rates and European and other interbank offered rates,” Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America said in the filing.
Regulators have queried at least a dozen banks worldwide about their roles in setting Libor, the most widely used benchmark for interest rates, affecting more than $360 trillion in financial products. U.S. prosecutors are preparing to file charges later this year against traders from banks involved in a bid-rigging scheme to manipulate Libor, a person with knowledge of the case has said.
Bank of America said it’s cooperating with regulators and that it has been named as a defendant, along with other Libor- setting banks, in lawsuits from investors who may have incurred losses on assets tied to the benchmark...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)...The house is just one of more than 1,000 which his company, American Residential Properties, has acquired since 2008 in Phoenix, Las Vegas and California. ARP bought the house for roughly half its peak selling price of more than $300,000 in a “short sale”: in essence, a sale forced on the owner to avoid foreclosure. After carpet cleaning and repainting it was quickly rented for $1,300 a month, about half what the original owner had been paying for a mortgage.
Investors like Mr Schmitz are an important part of why America’s long-suffering housing market may at last have turned the corner. Their purchases have helped shrink the glut of vacant, foreclosed homes (see chart 1). Meanwhile, the stock of new homes for sale is the lowest on record. That has revived construction: housing starts in June were the highest since 2008, up 9% since December (see chart 2), and the shares of companies that build homes have risen sharply. GDP expanded at a tepid 1.5%, annualised, in the second quarter, according to a government announcement on July 27th. Housing was one of the bright spots, contributing 0.2 percentage points to that growth.
This is a welcome change. Housing is typically one of the most powerful engines in the early stages of recovery, with purchases of homes revving up spending on furniture, carpets and garden landscaping. Until the middle of last year, though, it had had the reverse effect on the recovery. Even now its share of GDP, at 2.7%, is half the average of the past 30 years, never mind the boom of 2006. Macroeconomic Advisers, a consultancy, reckons housing will make a substantial contribution to growth this year and next.
Still, this upturn in housing is different from the boom. Back then, private and government-backed lenders, convinced that home prices would never fall, were eager to help Americans achieve their dream of homeownership by lending on ever easier terms. The proportion of households that own their own home rose from 65% in 1995 to 69% in 2006. Since then it has fallen back to 65.5%, and Laurie Goodman, an analyst with Amherst Securities, reckons it would be 63.3% after excluding 2.8m homeowners who are in, or probably heading towards, foreclosure....
Roland99
(53,342 posts)Roland99
(53,342 posts)July jobs data show some improvement in hiring
Unemployment rate ticks up to 8.3% from 8.2%
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/july-jobs-data-show-some-improvement-in-hiring-2012-08-03?dist=beforebell
Employment outside the farm sector grew by 163,000 workers in the month, the Labor Department said. This is the fastest pace of job growth since February.
...
The gain in July was concentrated in the service sector. Factory employment also increased
...
Government employment slipped. Private-sector payrolls rose by 172,000 in the month.
The payrolls count over the prior two months was revised lower by a cumulative 6,000.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)8/3/12 WHY YOU SHOULD BE “ENRAGED” AT THE TARP BANK BAILOUT
You remember the government’s “Troubled Asset Relief Program,” don’t you? TARP for short. You should. It sucked up $700 Billion of your money.
After the liar-loan, robo-signing, exotic derivatives fueled housing bubble finally imploded in 2007, the federal government created TARP to ostensibly “save” the banking system which in turn was supposed to save us all from being thrown back into a new, post modern Neanderthal age of hunter gatherers.
The U.S. Treasury Department wrote a report last month patting itself on the back saying that TARP worked. It was a success. It helped stop widespread financial panic and helped prevent what could have been a “devastating collapse” of our financial system, said the report although millions who lost their jobs, homes and careers might argue such a collapse did indeed occur.
A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. A financial system collapse is when both of you lose your jobs, can’t find new ones because no one is hiring, can’t make the mortgage payments and the bank comes to foreclose on both houses and you both - along with your respective families - end up sitting outside on the lawn in the rain with all your worldly possessions around you.
Neil Barofsky doesn’t see TARP as a success for the most part. In fact he thinks you, the American taxpayer should be hopping mad and not getting over it. From December 2008 to March 2011 Mr. Barofsky, a formal federal prosecutor was the man chosen to be the special inspector general of TARP, charged with protecting against abuse and fraud in the program.
He has a new book out about his experiences during that time called Bailout in which he writes the American people should be “enraged by the broken promises to Main Street and the unending protection of Wall Street.”
That’s what he wrote. The unending protection of Wall Street.
more...
http://www.skyvalleychronicle.com/FEATURE-NEWS/WHY-YOU-SHOULD-BE-ENRAGED-AT-THE-TARP-BANK-BAILOUT-PROGRAM-1076343
westerebus
(2,976 posts)A: A form of copulation.
Q: What is the morning after pill?
A: The White House.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)8/3/12 TrimTabs CEO Turns 100% Bearish, Warns of ‘Dark, Nasty’ Outlook
Just one week ago, European stocks had their best 1-day advance in over 8 months, celebrating the fact that ECB President Mario Draghi said he'd do "whatever it takes" to keep the Eurozone and its common currency intact. Whether it was a statement of the obvious, a calculated ploy, or a watershed moment of resolve is still being debated, but what is certain is that traders everywhere got a sudden case of the munchies when their appetite for risk came back with a vengeance.
As wonderful as this rally was to most investors, reliance like this on central bankers to solve our problems is just one of the reasons why Charles Biderman, founder & CEO of TrimTabs Investment Research, says he's "100% bearish" right now. "Basically what I am saying is that the black swan is aloft and ready to pounce and kill the Bernanke put," Biderman says in the attached video. "We could be 200% bearish if I really thought the world would come to an end tomorrow."
Biderman is hardly a perma-bear but has come to the realization that rampant money printing, enormous government debt and deficits, and artificially inflated asset prices have fostered a system that's destined to implode.
"No one wants to think that we need to do something real other than just talk about printing money or easing or something," he warns, predicting that we're heading into "a very dark, uncomfortable, nasty place." Cheerful stuff, but there's more. "The federal government spends an extra $100 billion a month more than it collects in tax revenues," he points out, "and it prints or borrows the difference."
Even on the political front, signs of hope are not to be found with Biderman who says we'd see "very little will change whether a democrat or republican is in the White House."
video at link, appx 5 minutes
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/inside-mind-100-market-bear-132824067.html
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)The biannual fiscal plan presented by the Spanish government to the European Commission includes tax hikes and spending cuts worth 102.149 billion euros over the next two-and-a-half years.
The plan, which was filed a week late, calls for budget cuts worth 13.118 billion euros this year, 38.956 billion next year and 50.075 billion in 2014.
The measures include the tax hikes and spending cuts approved two weeks ago by the government. These include an increase in the standard and reduced value-added tax rates, which the administration estimates will bring in 19.8 billion euros through to 2014. The government also approved eliminating the Christmas bonus payment for civil servants and a freeze in public sector hiring.
The new aspects of the plan include a further five billion euros in spending cuts on health and education at the regional level. These will come on top of the 10 billion euros in cuts in these two areas already announced by the administration, which include lower spending on medicines and an increase in the number of pupils per classroom...
/... http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/08/03/inenglish/1344009208_398400.html
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday did not rule out seeking further assistance from Europe’s rescue funds but insisted he needed more details of the European Central Bank’s pledge to intervene in the open market and other non-conventional measures to relieve pressure on the sovereign debt of distressed Europe nations before deciding on his next move...
... Draghi’s lack of immediate action caused Spanish stocks and bond prices to plunge on Thursday. Spain’s risk premium continued to shoot up on Friday, hitting 617 basis points before it narrowed again. At 4.30pm, the spread between the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond and the Spanish equivalent stood at 542 basis points, down 51 basis points on Thursday’s closing level. The blue-chip Ibex 35 index was up 5.14 percent at 6,701.10, recovering the ground lost on Thursday.
Asked at a news conference if he would consider asking the ESM and EFSF to buy Spanish government bonds in the market, Rajoy said. “I will do what I always do; act in the best interest of Spaniards.
“What I want to know is what are these (non-conventional) measures, find out what they mean, know what they are aiming to do, find out if they are suitable, and then in the light of the circumstances, we will take one decision or another; but I haven´t taken any decision,” the prime minister added.
/... http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/08/03/inenglish/1344005405_597906.html
xchrom
(108,903 posts)The yield on Spain's 10-year bonds dropped to 6.8% late on Friday after topping 7.4% earlier in the day.
Greece, Portugal and Ireland all had to seek international bailouts when their borrowing costs stayed above 7%.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Spanish and Italian government bonds surged on Friday, as investors bought in anticipation of an eventual intervention by the European Central Bank to curb those countries' borrowing costs even though no action was expected for at least a month.
ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday indicated the ECB may start buying government bonds again, but not before September, and only if countries asked to use the euro zone's rescue funds and accepted strict conditions and supervision.
Comments by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy that he was ready to do what is best for Spain spurred speculation the country may be inching closer to asking for EU aid.
A source said separately that Spain would not decide whether to apply for several weeks.
"I think people have read that to suggest he may ask for a bailout," one trader said.
Ten-year Spanish government bond yields fell 30 basis points on the day but at 6.95 percent - yields were still close to levels considered unsustainable over the long-term. Ten-year Italian yields shed 27 bps to 6.06 percent.
/... http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/03/markets-bonds-euro-idUSL6E8J3P3U20120803?rpc=401
xchrom
(108,903 posts)The strongest and toughest creatures out there that no one has been able to subdue yet, the inexplicable American consumers, are digging in their heels though the entire power structure has been pushing them relentlessly to buy more and more with money they don’t have, and borrow against future income they might never make, just so that GDP can edge up for another desperate quarter.
But it’s been tough.
Despite the Fed’s insistence that inflation is “contained,” or its periodic fear-mongering about deflation, consumers have been hit with rising costs. Tuition has been ballooning—up 21% in California in 2011 alone! Student loan balances exceed $1 trillion. Some parents who are still paying for their own student loans are now watching their kids piling them up too [read.... Next: Bankruptcy for a whole Generation].
Healthcare expenses have seen a meteoric rise. And so have many other items that cut deep into the average budget.
Read more: http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2012/8/2/is-the-inexplicable-american-consumer-rebelling.html#ixzz22VCBSe68
Warpy
(111,255 posts)Wages have never kept pace with inflation, not even the liar rate the government admits to. The consumer economy was kept on life support for decades by credit cards with ludicrously easy repayment terms (those laughably low minimum payments) and seemingly endless credit. Now the creditors themselves are hurting, the easy repayment has gotten a lot tougher, and wages have actually declined in purchasing power year by year.
The only way to keep consumers spending, to keep Social Security robust, and to keep government programs funded is to raise wages at the bottom.
And rags like Business Insider still haven't managed to get it.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)wankers
Demeter
(85,373 posts)MEANING...SPECIAL DEAL APPLIED FOR ROMNEY, NO DOUBT, THAT A REAL TAXPAYER WOULD NEVER QUALIFY TO GET.
ROMNEY TOOK THE BAIT...WHAT A MAROON. NOW HE HAS TO REFUTE THE CLAIM. DEMANDING TO KNOW THE WHISTLEBLOWER'S NAME ISN'T HIS PREROGATIVE.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)SO THE NATION IS SAFE FOR 35 DAYS...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)the madness continues.
Roland99
(53,342 posts)We are like the Europeans of a hundred years ago, who knew that the web of alliances and ethnic rivalries in the Balkans all but guaranteed a fast-spreading and ruinous war but could not foresee precisely that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand would be the actual trigger. Likewise in late 1939 and early 1940 when the European powers had declared war on one another but done nothing on the ground, the term “Phoney War” briefly defined what would later prove quite real and devastating.
Americans understand that Barack Obama came into office knowing that something needed to be done about jobs, and unlike what say a Bill Clinton would have done, he didn’t drop health care or even two-track his efforts, he simply ignored the jobs situation, without the slightest realization that the uncertainty created by his health care initiative would compound the problem by actually discouraging employers from hiring and retaining workers. We also understand that quite outside Mr. Obama’s control, the European experiment of monetary union sans fiscal union is poised to unravel in an economic catastrophe perhaps never before equaled on the face of the Earth. Everyone is aware that the one solution is for the European Central Bank to print a lot more Euros so that the unsustainable debt of the PIIGS nations can be repaid in diluted fiat, but everyone is also aware that Germany holds the power to veto the idea and has memories of Weimar hyperinflation that assure the veto’s staying power. China is secretly in bad shape, but because she keeps her secrets well, it will be Europe that collapses first. Once Europe goes south, the economies of the world will decouple from one another in earnest, and in the aftermath the demagogues turned dictators will probably bring back war too.
Meanwhile, back home it’s been easy to see that the work Americans have always done in a thriving economy is either absent or spurious or will not be sustainable in a global economic slump like we’ve never seen before. Housing is prostrate, with what little interest there is in new housing propped up by a moribund banking system that secretly holds foreclosed homes off the market as “shadow inventory” instead of clearing them and allowing actual price discovery.
....