STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 15 August 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 15 August 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 14 August 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 14 August 2012
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Dow Jones 13,172.14 +2.71 (0.02%)
[font color=red]S&P 500 1,403.93 -0.18 (-0.01%)
Nasdaq 3,016.98 -5.54 (-0.18%)



[font color=red]10 Year 1.73% +0.02 (1.17%)
30 Year 2.83% +0.02 (0.71%) [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
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[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]

[mrdmk]

1. Rec for the cartoon

[Demeter]

2. I like yesterday's best

It really put the century into perspective.

[Demeter]

3. Libor Rigging Can Be Prosecuted Under U.K. Law, SFO Says

WELL, THAT'S A RELIEF!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-30/libor-manipulation-covered-by-u-k-law-fraud-prosecutors-say.html

U.K. fraud prosecutors will investigate the manipulation of Libor and other interest rates after deciding that existing British criminal law covers the conduct involved.

U.K. law provides the basis to bring charges, David Green, the director of the Serious Fraud Office, said today in a statement. The U.K. joins the U.S. in criminally investigating how derivatives traders and rate submitters colluded to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor.

The SFO probe began after Barclays Plc (BARC) was fined a record 290 million pounds ($455 million) by U.K. and U.S. authorities, and British politicians called for a criminal investigation. The U.K. Financial Services Authority, which levied the fine along with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Justice Department, didn’t have the power to file criminal interest-rate manipulation charges.

The SFO won’t be starting the case from scratch. The agency has received regular briefings from the FSA on its civil investigation and a compilation of findings from the U.S. The SFO was told by the U.K. Treasury it would be given additional funds to take on the case after Barclays admitted its employees tried to manipulate rates for profit...

[Demeter]

4. MF Global Trustees Differ Over Amount Customers Will be Repaid

WHO ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE? NOT LOUIS FREEH!

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/mf-global-trustee-expects-customers-will-recoup-cash-in-the-90-range/?ref=business

An MF Global trustee damped hopes that customers would recover all of their missing money from the bankrupt brokerage firm, telling lawmakers on Wednesday that a $1.6 billion gap remained. In testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee, James W. Giddens predicted that clients could recoup in the "90 percent range" of their cash. Mr. Giddens, the trustee tasked with plugging the gap in customer money, has so far retrieved about 80 percent of the funds. "We'd very much like to pay every customer 100 percent, however, it will be a time-consuming, difficult and uphill battle," he told lawmakers. Mr. Giddens also updated lawmakers on his concern about wrongdoing at the top rungs of MF Global.

His warnings came in stark contrast to testimony from another MF Global trustee, Louis Freeh, who is responsible for making the firm's creditors whole. In written testimony for the hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Freeh referred to the $1.6 billion gap as an "alleged shortfall." Mr. Freeh, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who did not attend the hearing because of a conflicting commitment, said he believed "all of the customers of MF Global Inc. eventually will be made whole."

The dueling statements stem from the divergent missions of the two trustees, who have spent months clawing over a limited pool of assets. Bankruptcy law is fuzzy as to which group takes priority. Mr. Giddens, in charge of unwinding the brokerage arm of MF Global, must return money to customers who suffered a shortfall when the firm collapsed last Oct. 31. But Mr. Freeh, as the advocate for creditors like banks and other companies, is pursuing more than $2 billion in claims against the brokerage unit. That pursuit could give Mr. Freeh the incentive to forecast a happy ending for MF Global customers. If the customers come up short, then Mr. Freeh's effort might be seen as an aggressive attempt to deprive clients of their money. But Mr. Giddens noted that the $2 billion or more in claims had forced him to keep a cushion of cash on hand that otherwise would belong to customers. The demands, he said, "stand as a very significant impediment."

"We appreciate Mr. Freeh's apparent support and confidence in our ability," Mr. Giddens said, but he cautioned that the hunt for cash could yield mixed results.

Mr. Freeh based his calculation on the ever-growing number of assets that Mr. Giddens has collected in recent weeks - and the hope that various courts would allow the funds to go to customers. It is even possible that Mr. Giddens will recover an amount in excess of the shortfall...

[Demeter]

5. House GOP waiting on Postal Service drop-dead date to move on reform bill

OUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK...

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1007-other/242269-lawmakers-uncertainty-over-post-office-finances-delaying-reform-bill

The House has left Washington without passing a fix to the Postal Service, and Republicans now say they are not likely to bring the issue to the floor until after November’s elections.

House Republicans acknowledge that postal reform could be a tough vote for some of their members, with the issue not breaking down as cleanly along ideological lines as subjects such as the Bush-era tax rates the House voted on just before leaving for recess. But sponsors of the House GOP postal bill suggest another factor at play as well: Lawmakers don't know exactly when the Postal Service might hit a doomsday date when they wouldn't be able to deliver the mail. With mail volume declining, the Postal Service is currently losing $25 million a day, and recently defaulted on a $5.5 billion payment, earmarked for future retiree benefits, to the U.S. Treasury. The agency has another payment of roughly the same size due at the end of next month, which it also says it won’t be able to pay.

But postal officials have added that, at least in the short-term, that default won’t affect their ability to deliver the mail and pay their employees.

And with Congress having a habit of waiting to act until a deadline looms, that could give the House even less incentive to bring the bill to the floor before their members face voters in November...

WANKERS

[Demeter]

6. Euro zone action inches forward in game of chicken

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/08/06/uk-eurozone-chicken-idUKBRE87507G20120806

"After you."

"No, after you."

The euro zone is inching towards a new plan to tackle its debt crisis in a three-dimensional game of chicken among all the main players...The European Central Bank's heavily qualified offer last week to step in and buy bonds to bring down the borrowing costs of Spain and Italy was the latest gambit in this game. Each of the main protagonists - the central bank, the countries under pressure, EU paymaster Germany, and governments already under a bailout programme - is angling for others to make the first move and carry the brunt of the cost.

There is also a game of chicken between the ECB and bond market investors, who have driven the 17-nation currency area to the brink of dislocation due to a lack of confidence in its policymakers' ability to overcome the crisis. Draghi sought to intimidate speculators out of betting against the single currency, saying European monetary union was "irrevocable" and it was pointless to short the euro.

Expect things to get worse in the markets, in political arm-wrestling and perhaps on the streets of Athens and Madrid before decisive action is forthcoming in late September.

Spain and Italy had hoped the ECB would step in to support them on the basis of their existing austerity measures without having to endure the political stigma of applying for a bailout. But the ECB, the only federal institution capable of rapid and massive intervention, is willing to act only if Spain first requests assistance and accepts strict policy conditions and surveillance, and if euro zone governments commit their own money by activating their rescue funds. "The Spanish seemed to think they could get a free ride from the ECB without conditions. That was never going to happen," said a senior euro zone policymaker, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has now opened the door to requesting help, saying he will take a decision in "what I believe to be in the best interest of the Spanish people" once he knows what is ECB was prepared to do and on what terms.

Italy, with a bigger debt mountain but a far better budget position, strong domestic savings and more robust banks, is hoping its borrowing costs will fall once the ECB intervenes to back Spain, without having to request a programme itself. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti sought to nudge Rajoy in that direction when they met last week, diplomats said, although he is aware of a risk that if Madrid gets a bailout, markets may speculate that Italy will be next, and turn their fire on Rome...

MORE CLOAK AND DAGGER AT LINK

[Demeter]

12. What the Habsburg Empire can tell us about breaking up the euro zone

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/13/what-the-habsburg-empire-can-tell-us-about-breaking-up-the-euro-zone/

For the past week, much of Germany has gone on vacation—including Chancellor Angela Merkel—which means that the crisis in the euro zone has been put on temporary hold until Wednesday. Oh, sure, Spain is still in trouble and the continent is mired in recession and it’s not clear whether European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi’s plan to hold the euro zone together will even work. But, for the time being, the panicky headlines have gone into remission. So, we’ll just have to occupy ourselves with this dire policy brief (pdf AT LINK) from Anders Åslund of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Like many analysts, Åslund believes that a dissolution of Europe’s currency union would be utterly disastrous. But he thinks that breaking up the euro would be far more disastrous than most economists assume. To explain, he takes a short jaunt through history. WARNING: PETERSON INSTITUTE! RIGHT WING WANKERS! His paper starts by noting that there have been plenty of currency unions in Europe over the past century. Czechoslovakia was technically a currency union that broke up (relatively painlessly, it turned out). But the three examples most relevant to the euro crisis, Åslund argues, are the breakup of the Habsburg Empire in Austria-Hungary in 1918, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the breakup of Yugoslavia. All of those were total economic fiascos:

All three ended in major disasters, each with hyperinflation in several countries. In the Habsburg Empire, Austria and Hungary faced hyperinflation. Yugoslavia experienced hyperinflation twice. In the former Soviet Union, 10 out of 15 republics had hyperinflation.

The combined output falls were horrendous, though poorly documented because of the chaos. Officially, the average output fall in the former Soviet Union was 52 percent, and in the Baltics it amounted to 42 percent. According to the World Bank, in 2010, 5 out of 12 post-Soviet countries—Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan—had still not reached their 1990 GDP per capita levels in purchasing power parities. Similarly, out of seven Yugoslav successor states, at least Serbia and Montenegro, and probably Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, had not exceeded their 1990 GDP per capita levels in purchasing power parities two decades later. Arguably, Austria and Hungary did not recover from their hyperinflations in the early 1920s until the mid-1950s.

Many economists have dismissed these examples as irrelevant, Åslund writes, by arguing that these were all very different situations from the current euro zone. After all, the former Yugoslavia was wracked by war. The post-Soviet economies were going through wrenching changes in the transition away from communism. Surely no one thinks Germany would have the same problems as post-Soviet Russia, right? Yet Åslund argues that these examples are surprisingly relevant. Those three currency unions all involved a centralized payments system that had built up large imbalances and were then disrupted by a chaotic exit. Once the currency unions started coming undone, there was no mechanism for an orderly exit. New national banks formed and quickly started issuing their own currency, and the competition between banks generated hyperinflation. It’s not hard, Åslund writes, to envision a similar scenario for the breakup of the euro.

Estimates of how gruesome a euro crack-up would be seem to vary widely. Citigroup’s Willem Buiter says a euro zone split would “trigger a global depression that would last for years, with GDP likely to fall by more than 10 per cent.” Others suggest even bigger losses, with an economic collapse of up to 9 percent in the first year alone. But Åslund wonders if these estimates might even be too optimistic. Because the euro zone’s centralized banking system has no mechanism for allowing countries to leave, he argues, a breakup is likely to trigger the sort of hyperinflation that plagued the Habsburgs, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

In fact, he argues, if even one country left — whether a troubled country like Greece or rich country like Finland — that would trigger a chain reaction that would eventually split the whole euro zone: “The exit of any single country from the EMU, at the present time when large imbalances have been accumulated, would likely lead to a bank run, which would cause the EMU payments system to break down and with it the EMU itself.” Bad news. In the end, Åslund argues, if euro zone members really, absolutely have to split up, they should do so as quickly as possible, and everyone should act together at once. Unfortunately, that’s unlikely — any breakup would inevitably be a slow, reluctant process. And that’s the worst of all worlds, since it would involve competing currencies causing havoc in the areas that are still using the euro. So, Åslund concludes, “the Economic and Monetary Union must be maintained at almost any cost.” Fixing the euro zone’s structural problems won’t be easy. But they might be preferable to ending up like the Habsburgs. Something for Merkel to consider, perhaps, when she returns from vacation on Wednesday to deal with the ongoing euro crisis.

[Demeter]

13. From Krugmania to Draghia: Five ways to save the euro zone BY EZRA KLEIN

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/from-krugmania-to-draghia-five-ways-to-save-the-euro-zone/2012/06/06/gJQAPMBcIV_blog.html?wprss=rss_ezra-klein

So you’d like to save the euro zone from total annihilation, would you? Then it might be worth taking a stroll through this new report (pdf http://schekman.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/rapport-emu-roads-to-survival-5-juni-2012.pdf ) from the analysts at ING, who outline six possible endgames for the euro zone. The report starts with the premise that fiscal austerity has become, in author Mark Cliffe’s words, “too big to succeed.” At this point, most European countries only seem to be making things worse through big budget cuts and tax hikes. That’s paralyzing economic growth, which is making it harder and harder for countries to rein in their debts. “The required austerity to meet mandated budget deficit targets has become unrealistically large,” ING says.

Okay, so what’s the alternative? How can Europe start growing again? ING takes us through six scenarios, options ranging from “Austeria” (austerity!) to “Krugmania” (this is, we can only assume, Paul Krugman’s dream scenario). Here’s the graph, with an explanation for each scenario below:

?uuid=loiHlq_fEeGArNq3bQ53wA

SEE DISCUSSION AT LINK

[Demeter]

16. Maybe the Eurozone should take an extended vacation

Say....50 years?

[Demeter]

7. Kangaroos, Bananas and the Rule of Law LESSON IN ETYMOLOGY

http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/kangaroos-bananas-and-the-rule-of-law.html



Kangaroo Court : An unfair, biased, or hasty judicial proceeding that ends in a harsh punishment; an unauthorized trial conducted by individuals who have taken the law into their own hands, such as those put on by vigilantes or prison inmates; a proceeding and its leaders who are considered sham, corrupt, and without regard for the law.

The concept of kangaroo court dates to the early nineteenth century. Scholars trace its origin to the historical practice of itinerant judges on the U.S. frontier. These roving judges were paid on the basis of how many trials they conducted, and in some instances their salary depended on the fines from the defendants they convicted. The term kangaroo court comes from the image of these judges hopping from place to place, guided less by concern for justice than by the desire to wrap up as many trials as the day allowed.

Banana Republic : In practice, a banana republic is a country operated as a commercial enterprise for private profit, effected by the collusion between the State and favoured monopolies, whereby the profits derived from private exploitation of public lands is private property, and the debts incurred are public responsibility. Such an imbalanced economy reduces the national currency to devalued paper-money, hence, the country is ineligible for international development-credit, and remains limited by the uneven economic development of town and country.[5]

Kleptocracy, government by thieves, features influential government employees exploiting their posts for personal gain (embezzlement, fraud, bribery, etc.), with the resultant government budget deficit repaid by the native working people who "earn money”, rather than “make money”. Because of foreign (corporate) manipulation, the kleptocratic government is unaccountable to its nation, the country’s private sector–public sector corruption operates the banana republic, thus, the national legislature usually are for sale, and function mostly as ceremonial government.

Rule of Law : In 1215, Archbishop Stephen Langton gathered the Barons in England and forced King John and future sovereigns and magistrates back under the rule of law, preserving ancient liberties by the Magna Carta in return for exacting taxes. This foundation for constitution was carried into the Constitution of the United States.

An early example of the phrase "rule of law" is found in a petition to James I of England in 1610, from the House of Commons:

Amongst many other points of happiness and freedom which your majesty's subjects of this kingdom have enjoyed under your royal progenitors, kings and queens of this realm, there is none which they have accounted more dear and precious than this, to be guided and governed by the certain rule of the law which giveth both to the head and members that which of right belongeth to them, and not by any uncertain or arbitrary form of government....[..]

Among the first modern authors to give the principle theoretical foundations was Samuel Rutherford in Lex, Rex (1644). The title is Latin for "the law is king" and reverses the traditional rex lex ("the king is the law&quot .

[Fuddnik]

10. My father used to tell a story from his younger days.

He got locked up in the County Jail for fighting. The first night you were there, the other inmates convened a Kangaroo Court, and tried and convicted you for "breaking into jail". You were then fined all of your cigarettes, commissary, etc.

[Demeter]

8. US drops investigations of Goldman Sachs ILARGI

http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/kangaroos-bananas-and-the-rule-of-law.html

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/gold-a11.shtml

The US Justice Department announced Thursday evening it was ending a one-year criminal investigation and would not file charges against the giant Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs or any of its employees.

In April 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a voluminous report on the role of major banks, federal regulators and credit rating firms in the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and ensuing financial crash of September 2008.

Of the report’s 640 pages, 240 pages, or 40%, were devoted to a detailed examination of Goldman Sachs' deceptive practices in marketing mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. The report alleged that Goldman bilked clients by selling them mortgage-backed securities without informing them that the bank itself was betting the investments would fail. [..]

In its statement released Thursday, the Justice Department said it had conducted “an exhaustive review of the report,” but concluded that “based on the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the report.”

There is not a shred of credibility in this assertion. In the course of its investigation, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations amassed 56 million pages of memos, documents, prospectuses and emails. The section of its report on Goldman Sachs gave chapter and verse, provided dates and named names, to meticulously document how the bank defrauded its clients by selling them mortgage securities while betting against the same investments, without telling them it was doing so.

“We are pleased that this matter is behind us,” a bank spokesman said Thursday of the Justice Department decision.

Also on Thursday, Goldman revealed in a regulatory filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had informed the bank it had ended a separate probe of a $1.3 billion subprime mortgage deal stemming from 2006, and had decided to take no action. This was an about-face by the SEC, which had notified the bank last February that it planned to pursue a civil action in relation to the Goldman security.

The SEC decision to drop the investigation comes as regulators are approaching a statute of limitations deadline for mortgage securities issued before 2007.

I really like that last line, don't you? US regulators need to do one thing and one thing only: hold off investigations and prosecutions long enough for the statute of limitations on any and all criminal activity involved to expire. Easy as pie. What do these guys get paid?

Ironically, US Attorney General Eric Holder, at around the same time he decided NOT to charge Goldman Sachs, made sure he took the time to go public and denounce the Sikh temple shooting as 'an act of terrorism, an act of hatred, a hate crime'. Dear Eric, always has time for the proper semantics. Especially when attention needs to be averted from elsewhere. Sure, maybe what Goldman did was not an act of terrorism. But not even a crime, Eric? Or are there other priorities in play here?


Five Senior Goldman Sachs Execs Gave $130K To 'Obama Victory Fund' WHILE Eric Holder Was Deciding Whether To File Criminal Charges

http://dailybail.com/home/report-five-senior-goldman-sachs-execs-gave-130k-to-obama-vi.html

[The Government Accountability Institute] argues that the Obama administration’s decision to not go after Big Finance is due to senior DOJ leadership — Holder, Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, Associate Attorney General Tony West, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Deputy Attorney General James Cole and Deputy Associate Attorney General Karol Mason — who “all came to the DOJ from prestigious white-collar defense firms where they represented the very financial institutions the DOJ is supposed to investigate.”

The report details how Holder and Breuer both came to the DOJ from Covington & Burling, a “top-tier Washington law firm” with a client list that includes financial firms like Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, CitiBank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ING, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wilmington Trust.

GAI said that President Obama’s decision to choose Holder, “a white-collar defense attorney from Covington,” as his attorney general, over a “more fiery prosecutor,” appears to have sent “a subtle signal to the financial community” that this administration isn’t going to actually do anything, despite the harsh words.

As one of many examples of where Holder’s DOJ could have gone after Wall Street but failed, GAI cites how Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin “proposed that the DOJ criminally investigate Goldman Sachs for its handling of the Abacus 2007-AC1 transaction” in an April 2011 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report.

In that 635-page report, Levin and his staff — who are Democrats — recommended that Holder’s DOJ investigate potential crimes committed. Levin’s subcommittee and the Federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission both made formal referrals to the DOJ for investigation – and Forbes magazine ran an article with the headline, “Criminal Charges Loom for Goldman Sachs After Scathing Report.”

Nothing happened. But, over the course of the rest of 2011, Obama went on a massive fundraising drive down Wall Street. “By the fall of 2011, Obama had collected more donations from Wall Street than any of the Republican candidates, and employees at Bain Capital had donated more than twice as much to Obama as they did to [Mitt] Romney, the firm’s founder,” GAI wrote in its report.

“In the weeks before and after the Senate report on Goldman Sachs, several Goldman executives and their families made contributions to Obama’s Victory Fund and related entities and some contributors maxed out at the largest individual donation allowed, $35,800.”

“Five senior Goldman Sachs executives wrote more than $130,000 in checks to the Obama Victory Fund,” GAI continued. “Two of these executives had never donated to Obama before and had previously only given small donations to individual candidates.”

But wouldn't you know, there are still, from time to time, guys turning up that haven't been initiated into the revolving door racket yet. Oh well, we have ways....

[Fuddnik]

11. If we had an AG (and his boss) who really believed in the rule of law.

There is no statute of limitations under the RICO statutes. There is clearly an ongoing Continuing Criminal Enterprise. I know plenty of people who were convicted under it. But, they weren't bankers or donors.

[Demeter]

15. No Statute of Limitations Is GOOD

Now we have to find a good candidate.

[Demeter]

9. Obama Administration Needs to Tap, Not Stiff-Arm, Wall Street Whistleblowers By Eileen Foster

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH, EILEEN.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-obama-administration-needs-to-tap-not-stiff-arm-wall-street-whistleblowers-20120809#ixzz23US5zY00

Testifying recently before a Senate panel, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hailed progress in "repairing and reforming" the financial sector since the passage of the Wall Street reform act two years ago. Geithner's sunny take sits awkwardly with the recent news that large international banks conspired to "fix" the LIBOR, the interbank loan rate, and that a leading American bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, lost almost $6 billion of dollars on botched trades – revelations that, as former Sen. Chris Dodd (of Dodd-Frank fame) wrote last month, "makes the strongest case ... for strong oversight of Wall Street."

But why, four years after large banks brought our economy to the brink of disaster, are we still reading about fraud, deceit, and reckless gambling by leading banks? The answer is partly that Wall Street has done everything in its considerable power to shred financial reform. But another big reason is that the Department of Justice has failed, inexplicably, to tap into the intelligence that financial whistleblowers like myself have tried to offer them.

As a Countrywide Home Loans executive in 2007, I supervised fraud investigators and reported to federal regulators and the company’s Board of Directors. That year, our investigations showed that commission-hungry Countrywide loan officers routinely forged borrowers’ signatures and doctored income and asset statements.

We opened many of these investigations on whistleblowers’ tips. Later I learned that many of those reporting or challenging fraudulent practices were transferred, demoted, harassed or fired in reprisal. To suppress whistleblowers and their concerns, Countrywide directed them to report their allegations to the suspect officials’ managers. It was a trap, and the system was rigged. Instead of taking action, the managers would then share the information with the suspects themselves, who would then hit back at the whistleblowers...

[Demeter]

14. this week's segment of Bill Black's Financial and Fraud Report.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8686

VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT AT LINK

[Demeter]

17. Poll Finds Financial Advisors Firmly in Romney Camp

http://www.financial-planning.com/news/fsi-poll-finds-independent-advisor-support-romney-campaign-2680340-1.html

Independent financial advisors are strong supporters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in his presidential bid, a new survey has found. The poll, conducted by the Financial Services Institute (FSI), found that 81% of advisors said they back Romney, though they are more evenly split in their prediction of which candidate will win. Of the 2,348 advisors polled, 53% said they believe Romney will win, with the remaining 47% looking ahead to a second term for President Obama...The survey respondents are also predicting, by a 70% to 30% margin, that Republicans will take control of the Senate in the November election. Democrats currently hold 53 seats, to Republicans' 47. Twenty-three of the 33 seats in play this November are currently held by Democrats, and of those, seven contests are considered toss-ups, according to a recent analysis by the Cook Political Report. Just three of the Senate seats currently held by the GOP could go to either party, the analysis found...

By a substantial margin, the economy and jobs are the main area of concern weighing on advisors' minds, with 63% of respondents saying those issues will be their primary consideration when they cast their ballot this fall. The national debt rated a distant second as a concern, with 21% advisors ranking that issue as their chief voting priority. Single-digit percentages of the respondents identified foreign affairs, health care or national defense as their greatest concern...Asked about the respondents' tilt toward Romney, Paulitz said that the survey speaks more to advisors' concerns and convictions about the appropriate regulatory climate for their business than a partisanship among the cohort. "What you see is a group of incredibly politically astute people who make their decisions based on what is best for their clients and for their businesses," Paulitz said. "I think it's less about party affiliation and more about supporting individuals who they believe will help their clients earn more and save more for retirement, and who will help their businesses thrive in a healthier regulatory environment."

A majority of the advisors polled expect equities to perform neutrally and look ahead to a flat economy for the remainder of the year. Almost all of the respondents anticipate an increase in capital gains tax rates. "Independent financial advisors have a unique viewpoint of the intersection of politics and the economy," FSI President and CEO Dale Brown said in a statement. "This poll shows the economy and taxes are weighing heavily on the minds of advisors and in the planning they do for their clients," Brown said. "They are bracing themselves and their clients for a stagnant economy and an increase in capital gains taxes." The 95% of advisors who expect an increase in capital gain rates are looking ahead to the looming sunset of the Bush-era tax cuts, which will expire at the end of year unless Congress and the White House can reach an agreement to renew them. Obama has called for the renewal of the tax cuts for all but the top-earning taxpayers, while Republicans have argued that the current rates should be extended for all Americans. Given the pitched rhetoric both sides have used to defend their positions in an election year, the advisors that the FSI polled don't hold out much hope that a consensus can be reached. "The advisors see the pending, end-of-year Bush-era tax relief ending, and are not optimistic about Congress and the White House finding a solution," FSI spokesman Chris Paulitz wrote in an email.

The FSI also asked about a proposal advanced by the Department of Labor that would expand the definition of "fiduciary" to cover financial professionals providing advice to retirement plans. An overwhelming majority, 89% of advisors polled, said that they oppose that effort, which the FSI has been lobbying vigorously to defeat. Additionally, nearly three-quarters of the advisors said that their business model entails a shift toward fees and away from commissions.

[Demeter]

18. China’s Bear Market Lures Foreign Bids as Locals Pull Funds

FOOLS RUSH IN...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/china-bear-market-lures-record-foreign-bids-as-locals-pull-funds.html

International money managers are lining up to buy stocks in mainland China at a record pace, even as a third year of equity losses spurs local investors to empty trading accounts like never before.

While overseas firms were granted $6.9 billion of quotas to purchase mainland securities since December, more than in any full year since the government program began, the number of Chinese stock accounts containing funds dropped by 788,000 to 56.3 million in the year to Aug. 3, the most for a 12-month period. A record 110 million are empty or frozen, according to regulatory data compiled by Bloomberg.

Foreign funds from Taiwan Life Insurance Co. to Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management Co. say the 54 percent discount for companies in the Shanghai Composite Index to their 10-year average, and the lowest valuations relative to MSCI Inc.’s developing-nations measure make China shares irresistible. Local individuals, companies and institutions, which hold about 99 percent of mainland shares, are turning more bearish as the world’s second-largest economy slows.

“The value story is clearly emerging in China,” Kim Jun Sung, the chief investment officer for equities at Samsung Asset Management Co., which oversees about $100 billion and received a $150 million quota to buy mainland securities in 2010, said in an Aug. 7 interview in Seoul. “The economic outlook continues to be negative so the catalyst for growth is not yet there.”

MORE

[Demeter]

19. Knight $440M Trading Loss Said Linked to "Dormant Software"

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-14/knight-software

Knight Capital Group Inc. (KCG)’s $440 million trading loss stemmed from an old set of computer software that was inadvertently reactivated when a new program was installed, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Once triggered on Aug. 1, the dormant system started multiplying stock trades (LVLT) by one thousand, according to the people, who spoke anonymously because the firm hasn’t commented publicly on what caused the error. Knight’s staff looked through eight sets of software before determining what happened, the people said...

[Demeter]

20. Investors Bet on Short-Term Equity Bounce, BofA Survey

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/investors-bet-on-short-term-equity-bounce-bofa-survey-shows.html

Global investors are betting on a short-term bounce in equities, boosted by expectations that the European Central Bank will engage in so-called quantitative easing by the year end, a Bank of America Corp. (BAC) survey showed.

The Merrill Lynch Risk & Liquidity indicator, which combines readings of risk appetite, investor time horizons and cash holdings, jumped to 35 this month from 31 in July, the sharpest increase since February. Allocations in euro-area equities climbed to the highest since May 2011.

“The promise of policy stimulus has erased fears of global recession,” wrote BofA strategists Michael Hartnett and Gary Baker in the report to clients dated today. “But high cash levels, cautious equity allocations and disdain for banks suggest investors would prefer to bet on a short-term bounce rather than a major inflection point in the investment cycle.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) has risen for five-straight weeks and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) has climbed for 10 amid speculation central banks from China to the U.S. will announce further stimulus measures to support growth. ECB President Mario Draghi has pledged to defend the euro and this month said the bank may buy government debt in conjunction with bailout funds...

I'M THINKING LEMMINGS....

[Demeter]

21. Spanish PM says no decision on bailout request until European Central bank reveals plans

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/spanish-bank-borrowing-from-european-central-bank-up-to-record-463-billion-in-july/2012/08/14/ca3c8796-e60c-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html

Spain’s Prime Minister remains tight-lipped on whether he has decided to ask for more financial aid for his country, repeating instead Tuesday that he would wait until the European Central Bank outlines its plans and conditions for buying government bonds before making a move.

“As long as we don’t know what decision the ECB is going to make, we won’t be making one either,” Mariano Rajoy told reporters Tuesday after meeting with King Juan Carlos at the monarch’s summer residence in Palma de Mallorca...

[Demeter]

22. Whose Plan Destroys Medicare — Obama’s or Romney-Ryan’s? By Robert Reich

THERE'S A DIFFERENCE IN OUTCOMES?


http://www.nationofchange.org/whose-plan-destroys-medicare-obama-s-or-romney-ryan-s-1344957549

Stumping in Florida today, Mitt Romney charged President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will “cut more than $700 billion” out of Medicare. What Romney didn’t say was that his running-mate’s budget — approved by House Republicans and by Romney himself — would cut Medicare by the same amount. The big difference, though, is the Affordable Care Act achieves these savings by reducing Medicare payments to drug companies, hospitals, and other providers rather than cutting payments to Medicare beneficiaries.

The Romney-Ryan plan, by contrast, achieves its savings by turning Medicare into a voucher whose value doesn’t keep up with expected increases in healthcare costs — thereby shifting the burden onto Medicare beneficiaries, who will have to pay an average of $6,500 a year more for their Medicare insurance, according an analysis of the Republican plan by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Moreover, the Affordable Care Act uses its Medicare savings to help children and lower-income Americans afford health care, and to help seniors pay for prescription drugs by filling the so-called “donut hole” in Medicare Part D coverage.

The Romney-Ryan plan uses the savings to finance even bigger tax cuts for the very wealthy.

Spread the word. Don’t allow the GOP to get away with this demagoguery.

[xchrom]

23. midweek -- i shall play a little tune.....

[Demeter]

28. You do realize that Pan and his pipes

were believed to induce panic?

[xchrom]

31. I do. Is it working? Nt

[Demeter]

35. We'll find out in an hour or so...

I'm less grouchy today, although still as far behind as ever.

The weather is tolerable, and the Kid is going away for the day....

[xchrom]

36. well, good. i take relief where ever i can find it.

and after this summer -- tolerable weather is a good thing.

[Tansy_Gold]

47. We had rain last night

Enough of a storm that it woke the dogs and they woke me at 1:00. How much rain we got, I don't know, but there were still small puddles on the patio at 4:30 when the alarm went off and I let the dogs out.

But I was so exhausted I crawled back into bed after they came in and I actually went back to sleep until 6:00. Now I'm two hours behind schedule. . . .

[xchrom]

48. after 2 nights of very, very little sleep -- i woke at 1a.m. -- but went back to bed

and slept on and off til 6:00a.m.

glad you got rain -- sorry about the sleep.

[DemReadingDU]

39. That is a lovely Melody, n/t

[xchrom]

24. NASSIM TALEB WARNS: Stay Out Of The Investment Industry

http://www.businessinsider.com/nassim-taleb-investment-industry-2012-8



Nassim Taleb – the man behind the term "black swan" – just published a new paper taking aim at Wall Street titled Why It is No Longer a Good Idea to Be in The Investment Industry.
Taleb explains how as funds have become more and more concentrated among a growing group of investment managers he calls the "spurious tail," it has basically become impossible to be successful in the industry by putting in the work.
You just have to get lucky.
The reason for this is that the track records of successful managers are increasingly characterized by huge wins resulting from "spurious performance," according to Taleb, which has allowed them to "rise to the top for no reasons other than mere luck, with subsequent rationalizations, analyses, explanations, and attributions."


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nassim-taleb-investment-industry-2012-8?op=1#ixzz23cDJ7ZCb

[Demeter]

27. Insider Trading and Fraud are Called "Luck"?

Who could have guessed?

[DemReadingDU]

49. Luck? Bad luck.

[xchrom]

25. Farm Equipment Maker Deere Whiffs On Earnings,, Falls 5%, And Blames Slowing Foreign Economies

http://www.businessinsider.com/deere-earnings-2012-8

Farm equipment maker Deere has whiffed on earnings.
The company reported EPS of $1.98 vs. estimates of $2.31.
Sales of $9.59 billion were basically in line with estimates.
Shares are off about 5% in pre-market.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/deere-earnings-2012-8#ixzz23cE3CC4J

[xchrom]

26. There's Something Very Peculiar And Worrisome About California's Latest Tax Data

http://www.businessinsider.com/california-tax-data-2012-8

Now I'm Wondering "What's Going on in California?"
My change in perspective come from looking at California State Finances for July 2012.
Compared to Budget
Total Revenues: -$475 million (-10.1%)
Income Tax: $12 million (0.4%)
Sales Tax: -$295 million (-33.5%)
Corporate Tax: $57.1 million (27.4%)
Compared to 2011
Total Revenues: -$468.8 million (-10%)
Income Tax: $156.2 million (5%)
Sales Tax: -$390.7 million (-40%)
Corporate Tax: -$26.4 million (-9.1%)
What the Numbers Tell Us
Typically, July is a month when California revenues go on vacation, as the month accounts for about one dollar of every $20 deposited in the General Fund. (Only October has lower revenue volume.)

Despite those low expectations, July’s revenues were $475 million, or 10.1%, below estimates.


Read more: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/08/retail-sales-rise-not-in-california.html#ixzz23cEjj1Pi

[xchrom]

29. Israel Sees Month Of Conflict In Possible Iran War

http://www.businessinsider.com/israel-sees-month-of-conflict-in-possible-iran-war-2012-8

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - War with Iran would probably turn into a month-long conflict on various fronts with missile strikes on Israeli cities and some 500 dead, Israel's civil defense minister said in an interview published on Wednesday.

"There is no room for hysteria. Israel's home front is prepared as never before," Matan Vilnai, a former general who is about to leave his cabinet post to become ambassador to China, told the Maariv daily.

The interview coincided with Israeli media reports over the past week suggesting that Israel might attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the U.S. presidential election in November.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday that Washington does not believe Israel has made a decision on whether to strike.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/israel-sees-month-of-conflict-in-possible-iran-war-2012-8#ixzz23cFcVR9m

[rusty fender]

53. Why don't they just wait for a couple more

earthquakes to hit Iran?

[Demeter]

30. Hidden History: America’s Secret Drone War in Africa

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/somalia-drones/all/

More secret bases. More and better unmanned warplanes. More frequent and deadly robotic attacks. Some five years after a U.S. Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle flew the type’s first mission over lawless Somalia, the shadowy American-led drone campaign in the Horn of Africa is targeting Islamic militants more ruthlessly than ever.

Thanks to media accounts, indirect official statements, fragmentary crash reports and one complaint by a U.N. monitoring group, we can finally begin to define — however vaguely — the scope and scale of the secret African drone war. The details that follow are in part conjecture, albeit informed conjecture. They outline of just one of America’s ongoing shadow wars — and one possible model for the future U.S. way of war. Along with the counterterrorism campaigns in Pakistan, Yemen and the Philippines, the Somalia drone war demonstrates how high-tech U.S. forces can inflict major damage on America’s enemies at relatively low cost … and without most U.S. citizens having any idea it’s even happening.

Since 2007, Predator drones and the larger, more powerful Reapers — reinforced by Ravens and Scan Eagle UAVs and Fire Scout robot helicopters plus a small number of huge, high-flying Global Hawks — have hunted Somali jihadists on scores of occasions. It’s part of a broader campaign of jet bombing runs, naval gun bombardment, cruise-missile attacks, raids by Special Operations Forces and assistance to regional armies such as Uganda’s. In all, air raids by manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft have killed at least 112 Somali militants, according to a count by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Fifty-seven innocent civilians also died in the raids, the nonprofit Bureau found. The dead jihadists have included several senior members of al-Qaeda or the affiliated al-Shabaab extremist group. In January, a drone launched three Hellfire missiles at a convoy near Mogadishu and killed Bilaal al-Barjawi, the mastermind of the 2010 bombing in Kampala, Uganda, that claimed the lives of 74 soccer fans.

In an escalating secret war, drones are doing an ever-greater proportion of the American fighting...It wasn’t until relatively recently that U.S. drones were permanently stationed in East Africa. The military and CIA have operated armed versions of General Atomics’ one-ton Predator since 2001, but early on the remote-controlled warplanes were in high demand and short supply. Afghanistan and later Iraq monopolized the drones. That was a big problem for the small U.S. force in East Africa struggling to keep tabs on increasingly radical, and dangerous, Somali militants. “The largest gap is knowledge,” Navy Rear Adm. Tony Kurta, former commander of U.S. troops in Djibouti, told Danger Room in 2009. In 2003, Joint Special Operations Command resorted to spending six months sneaking SEALs into Somalia by submarine to painstakingly plant disguised surveillance cameras — all to capture just a fraction of the images a drone could acquire in a single mission....

FIVE VERY LONG PAGES IN THIS EXPOSE

[Demeter]

37. FBI raids homes of Occupy protesters in Oregon and Washington By Tom Carter

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/fbir-a13.shtml

Over the last month, heavily armed “domestic terrorism” units of the FBI used battering rams and stun grenades to conduct early-morning raids on the homes of political protesters in Seattle and Olympia, Washington and Portland, Oregon. On July 25, three homes were raided in Portland alone and, since July 10, as many as six homes have been raided.

These raids are only the latest in an emerging pattern of similar raids conducted by the Obama administration in order to terrorize, suppress and chill political dissent, in flagrant violation of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

“The warrants are sealed,” FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele told the Oregonian newspaper, “and I anticipate they will remain sealed.” Steele described the raids as part of an “ongoing violent crime” investigation, which is related to the recent Occupy May Day protests, during which a number of minor acts of vandalism allegedly took place....According to the Oregonian, a search warrant was left behind during one of the raids (available here). The warrant indicates that the agents were seeking, among other items, “anti-government or anarchist literature or material” and “documentation and communications related to the offenses, including but not limited to notes, diagrams, letters, diary and journal entries, address books, and other documentation in written or electronic form.”

In one of the raids, eyewitnesses reported as many as 80 agents in body armor, wearing military fatigues, and armed with assault rifles participating in the raid. No arrests were made in any of the raids, but as many as six protesters have been subpoenaed to appear before grand juries.

MORE

[Demeter]

38. This is why voting in November will be exquisite torture

and why there are no good choices

[Demeter]

32. Warning: Get Your Money Out: 'All Legal Bank Deposit Protections Are Now Officially Gone'

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/warning-get-your-money-out-all-customer-deposits-in-the-united-states-are-now-the-legal-property-of-jp-morgan-goldman-sachs-megabanks_08122012

Former money manager Ann Barnhardt, who in November of 2011 made the decision to cease operations of her brokerage firm and return funds to her customers citing “systemic” problems within the entire financial industry, has issued a new warning about the stability of US banks and the safety of individual deposit accounts.

The warning, stemming from a recent federal appeals court ruling surrounding customer funds lost during the 2007 collapse of Chicago futures broker Sentinel, indicates that individuals who lose deposited funds because a financial institution improperly manages that money, even if those funds are supposed to be “segregated” from other operations of the firm, are essentially left with no recourse if the firm goes belly-up. According to the court, a misallocation of those customer funds, “is not, on its own, sufficient to rule as a matter of law that Sentinel acted ‘with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud’ its customers.”

The implications of the ruling, according to Barnhardt, will affect the monies of all private individuals who have seen their deposit accounts wiped out in the collapse of firms like John Corzine’s MF Global and put all deposit account holders in the country at risk should their bank be faced with a financial windstorm:

The NFA in collusion with the banksters, government and judiciary have achieved their goal. The entire concept of “customer segregated funds” is officially, completely, legally dead...
Guys, it is OVER. I know that many of you are still cowering in normalcy bias, unable to deal with reality, unable to face the world as it is, but you have GOT to snap out of it. The marketplace is DESTROYED. You CANNOT be in these markets. All legal protections are now officially gone.

MORE

[Demeter]

34. What is Money When the System Collapses?

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/what-is-money-when-the-system-collapses_12292009

Economist Mike Shedlock defines money through the eyes of Austrian economist Murray N. Rothbard as “a commodity used as a medium of exchange.”

“Like all commodities, it has an existing stock, it faces demands by people to buy and hold it. Like all commodities, its price in terms of other goods is determined by the interaction of its total supply, or stock, and the total demand by people to buy and hold it. People buy money by selling their goods and services for it, just as they sell money when they buy goods and services.”

What is money when the system collapses and the SHTF?

In disaster situations, the value of money as we know it now changes, especially if we are dealing with a hyperinflationary collapse of the system’s core currency. This article discusses money as a commodity in an event where the traditional currency (US Dollar) is no longer valuable. In a collapse of the system, there will be multiple phases, with the first phase being the “crunch”, as discussed in James Rawles‘ book Patriots. The crunch is the period of time directly preceding a collapse and the collapse itself.

Traditional Currency: Initially, the traditional currency system will maintain some value, though it may be rapidly depreciating in buying power. For those with physical, non-precious metal denominated currency on hand (paper dollars, non-silver coins), spending it as rapidly as possible is the best approach. It is during the crunch that ATM machines around the country will run out of currency as people aware of the rapidly devaluing dollar will be attempting to withdraw as much money as possible. This immediate increase in money supply, coupled with the population’s general knowledge of the currency depreciation in progress, will lead to instant price increases for goods, especially essential goods. If your physical cash has not been converted into tangible assets, this would be the time to do so. Acquiring as much food, fuel, clothing and toiletry items as possible would be the ideal way to spend remaining cash before it completely collapses to zero, as it did in the Weimar inflation in 1930′s Germany, or Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation in recent years.

Precious Metals: During the initial phase of the ‘crunch’ precious metals will be a primary bartering tool, but this may not last long. The old survivalist adage “you can’t eat your gold” will become apparent very quickly. In a total breakdown of the system, food, water and fuel will be the most important tangible goods to acquire. Consider someone who has a two week or one month supply of food on hand. Do you believe they would be willing to part with that food for some precious metals? The likely answer is no. There will be almost no bartering item that one would be willing to trade their food for once it is realized that food supply lines have been cut. That being said, since most will not barter their food, not even for fuel, the next recognized medium of exchange by merchants, especially those selling fuel, will be precious metals. For the initial crunch, silver coins, especially recognizable coins like 90% silver quarters, dimes and half dollars, along with one (1) ounce government mint issued silver coins like US Silver Eagles, will be accepted by some, probably most, merchants. For those trying to flee cities to bug-out locations, silver coins of the aforementioned denominations may be a life saver, as they can be used to acquire fuel. While we recommend having gold, as well, the issue with gold is that its value is so much higher than that of silver, that breaking a one ounce gold coin into 10 pieces just to buy a tank of gas will not be practical. It is for this reason that having silver on hand is highly recommended. Packing at least $25 – $50 of silver coins in each bug-out bag would be a prudent prepping idea. In a total SHTF scenario, silver and gold may eventually break down as a bartering unit, as contact with the “outside” world breaks down. One reason for this, is that the fair value price of precious metals will be hard to determine, as it will be difficult to locate buyers for this commodity. This, however, does not mean that you should spend all of your precious metals right at the onset of a collapse. Precious metals will have value after bartering and trade is reestablished once the system begins to stabilize. Once stabilization begins, the likely scenario is that precious metals will be one of the most valuable monetary units available, so having plenty may be quite a benefit. At this point, they could be used to purchase property, livestock, services and labor.

Water: Water is often overlooked as a medium of exchange, though it is one of the most essential commodities for survival on the planet. Had individuals in New Orleans stockpiled some water supplies during Hurricane Katrina, much of the loss of life there could have been avoided. For those bugging out of cities, it will be impractical to carry with them more than 5 – 10 gallons of water because of space limitations in their vehicles. Thus, having a method to procure water may not only save your life, but also provide you with additional goods for which you can barter. An easy solution for providing yourself and others with clean water is to acquire a portable water filtration unit for your bug-out bag(s). While they are a bit costly, with a good unit such as the Katadyn Combi water filter running around $150, the water produced will be worth its weight in gold, almost literally. This particular filter produces 13,000 gallons of clean water! A Must have for any survival kit. Because we like reserves for our reserves, we’d also recommend acquiring water treatment tablets like the EPA approved Katadyn Micropur tabs. If your filter is lost or breaks for whatever reason, each tablet can purify 1 liter of water. In our opinion, the best chemical water treatment available.

Clean water is money. In a bartering environment, especially before individuals have had time to establish water sources, this will be an extremely valuable medium of exchange and will have more buying power than even silver or gold on the individual bartering level.

Food: In a system collapse, food will be another of the core essential items that individuals will want to acquire. Survival Blog founder James Rawles suggests storing food for 1) personal use 2) charity 3) bartering. Dry goods, canned goods, freeze dried foods can be used for bartering, but only if you have enough to feed yourself, family and friends. They should be bartered by expiration date, with those foods with the expiration dates farthest out being the last to be traded. You don’t know how long the crunch and recovery periods will last, so hold the foods with the longest expiration dates in your possession if you get to a point where you must trade. Baby formula will also be a highly valued item in a SHTF scenario, so whether you have young children or not, it may not be a bad idea to stockpile a one or two week supply. (For parents of young children, this should be the absolute first thing you should be stockpiling!). In addition to water, baby formula may be one of the most precious of all monetary commodities.

Another tradeable food good would be seeds, but the need for these may not be apparent to most at the initial onset of a collapse, though having extra seeds in your bug-out location may come in handy later.

Fuel: Fuel, including gas, diesel, propane and kerosene will all become barterable goods in a collapse, with gas being the primary of these energy monetary units during the crunch as individuals flee cities. For most, stockpiling large quantities will be impractical, so for those individuals who prepared, they may only have 20 – 50 gallons in their possession as they are leaving their homes. If you are near your final bug-out destination, and you must acquire food, water or firearms, fuel may be a good medium of exchange, especially for those that have extra food stuffs they are willing to trade. Though we do not recommend expending your fuel, if you are left with no choice, then food, water and clothing may take precedence. For those with the ability to do so, store fuel in underground tanks on your property for later use and trading.

Firearms and Ammunition: Though firearms and ammunition may not be something you want to give up, those without them will be willing to trade some of their food, precious metals, fuel and water for personal security. If the system collapses, there will likely be pandemonium, and those without a way to protect themselves will be sitting ducks to thieves, predators and gangs. Even in if you choose not to trade your firearms and ammo during the onset of a collapse, these items will be valuable later. As food supplies diminish, those without firearms will want to acquire them so they can hunt for food. Those with firearms may very well be running low on ammunition and will be willing to trade for any of the aforementioned items...

Clothing and Footwear: We may take it for granted now because of the seemingly endless supply, but clothing and footwear items will be critical in both, the crunch and the phases after it. Having an extra pair of boots, a jacket, socks, underwear and sweaters can be an excellent way to acquire other essential items in a trade. As children grow out of their clothes, rather than throwing them away, they will become barterable goods. It is recommended that those with children stock up on essential clothing items like socks, underwear and winter-wear that is sized a year or two ahead of your child’s age.

Additional Monetary Commodities: The above monetary units are essential goods that will be helpful for bartering in the initial phases of a collapse in the system. As the crunch wanes and recovery and stabilization begin to take over, other commodities will become tradeable goods. In A Free Falling Economy Makes Bartering Go Boom, Tess Pennington provides some other examples of items that will be bartering goods during and after a crunch including, vitamins, tools, livestock, fishing supplies, coffee and medical supplies Another important monetary commodity after the crunch will be trade skills. If you know how to fish, machine tools, hunt, sew, fix and operate radioes, fix cars, manufacture shoes, or grow food, you’ll have some very important skills during the recovery period.

I'M IMAGINING ALL THE GLUTEN-FREE, FOOD-PHOBIC CALIFORNIA STYLE NEUROTICS....

[DemReadingDU]

52. Nothing to worry about

Spouse says armageddon isn't coming

[Demeter]

57. The real Question is: What Has Value?

And that depends on the person and the situation. Sustaining life and health comes first, then comfort, then "consumerism".

We'll know it's a crisis when "consumerism" disappears as a hobby/entertainment/way of life.

[DemReadingDU]

54. and after taking out money, where to put it?

Guess that is in Demeter's other post...
put money in water, food, underwear, shoes, clothing, tools, alcohol, coffee, silver and gold

[Demeter]

56. Antibiotics and sustainable technology

wind, water, solar, chemistry, metallurgy, paper manufacture, agriculture. Houses that will last a couple centuries, maybe. Mulching toilets. Arable farmland with onsite water.

[xchrom]

33. Standard Chartered Faces Fed Probes After N.Y. Deal

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/standard-chartered-faces-fed-probes-after-n-y-deal.html

Standard Chartered Plc (STAN), having settled a New York money laundering probe for $340 million the day before it was to defend its right to operate in the state, still faces federal inquiries over claims it helped sanctioned nations including Iran illegally funnel money through the U.S.

Regulators including the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve, Justice Department and Manhattan District Attorney declined attempts at a global settlement, said two people familiar with the matter. A coordinated effort was already in progress before New York’s unilateral deal, announced yesterday by financial regulator Benjamin Lawsky, one of the people said.

The agreement doesn’t take into account all of the bank’s alleged violations, including those involving nations such as Sudan, said one of the people, who added that September is the earliest a universal deal may be reached. Shares of the bank rose as much as 5.1 percent in London today as the New York settlement removes one immediate risk to the U.K.-based bank.

“From the bank’s perspective, they needed to get this behind them,” Ann Graham, director of the Business Law Institute at Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, said of the New York agreement. “Had this action gone forward, the potential was that they could lose their license to operate in New York, and that would have been devastating to their operations.”

[Roland99]

40. US Futures slightly lower

[font color="red"]S&P 500 -0.2%
DOW -0.2%
NASDAQ -0.1% [/font]

[Roland99]

41. Today's Reports

[Roland99]

43. Aug Empire State Index >>>>

* Aug. Empire State reading below forecast of 5.0
* Aug. Empire State index -5.9 vs. 7.4 in July
* Aug. Empire State first negative since last Oct.

[Roland99]

44. July Consumer Prices >>>>

* Core CPI up 0.1% in July
* U.S. consumer prices unchanged in July
* Food price index up 0.1% in July
* Energy price index down 0.3% in July <<--- hunh?

[just1voice]

59. Sure thing, those numbers are just so MF-ing believable, LOL

You've been around long enough to know what a lie those numbers are too. I don't understand why people feel compelled to recite worthless govt numbers. I could post similar inanities like "we're at war" and "let's look forward" but it adds nothing to anything.

I know you think you're providing some service to people but I just can't take the insanity of repeating the same lies over and over again. The financial system is a total fraud now, it has been for at least 4 straight years since it collapsed in 2008. Watch or read Taibbi, Keiser, Amy Goodman, Moyers or even Paul (fraudonomics) Krugman, they all know.

Anyway, I don't mean anything personal, it's just the corrupted data that does nothing but perpetuate the fraud.

[Demeter]

61. It's good to know what the current lie is

[Roland99]

45. July Industrial Capacity Utilization >>>>

* Capacity utilization up to 79.3% from 78.9%
* Gain in production as forecast in economist poll
* Industrial production climbs 0.6% in July

[xchrom]

42. Five Reasons Why Crisis Persists

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10805-five-reasons-why-crisis-persists


William Masden, left, a retired production worker at General Electric's Appliance Park, and Jerry Carney, president of Local 761 of the IUE-CWA union, at the union's headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, December 5, 2011. Manufacturers like GE are hiring again, but for a new generation of blue-collar workers, even those protected by unions, the price of employment is likely to be lower wages stretching to retirement. (Photo: Angela Shoemaker / The New York Times)

This crisis is not going away. Officially begun late in 2007, nearly five years later, no end is in sight. Trillions in government-funded bailouts and interventions failed to do the trick. The private sector's hyped resilience disappeared. "Recoveries" proved weak, uneven and short-lived. The president who rode the crisis into power risks being ridden out by its persistence.

It is difficult to imagine and impossible to count all the costs of this persistence. Consider, just for examples, (1) damaged physical and mental health of the unemployed, (2) rising anxiety about increasingly insecure jobs and benefits, (3) strained and destroyed relationships, (4) interrupted or aborted educations and (5) lost skills and job connections. Consider, too, the gross inefficiencies (tens of millions of unemployed alongside trillions in unused raw materials, tools, equipment, offices, factories and stores; millions of empty homes alongside millions of people rendered homeless by the crisis).

Five major reasons shape this crisis's persistence. First is the exhausted purchasing power of the US working class. Capitalist employers raised profits by replacing workers with computers since the 1970s and by relocating production jobs to lower wages abroad. Later, they likewise exported white-collar and service jobs. The previous century's history of steadily rising real wages ended and thereby threatened the rising consumption which had created ever more jobs in capitalism's virtuous cycle. Starting in the 1970s, that cycle turned and became vicious instead. Real wages stopped rising as jobs dried up. For a while, rising workers' debts papered over the vicious cycle. But eventually, the combination of rising debts and stagnating wages exhausted the working class' purchasing power. Today, workers' real wages continue to stagnate or fall and they cannot sustain more debt. Since big business, the banks, the Fed, Republicans and Democrats have done nothing to deal with the basic real wages problem in the US economy, the crisis persists.

Second, large nonfinancial corporations, in their competitive rush to low-wage investments in China and elsewhere, have created yet again excessive capacity to produce creating more pressure on already-depressed US workers' real wages. They cannot sell all their automobiles, electronics, and so on. So, they reduce hiring - which only worsens their selling problems. They accumulate hoards of cash for which they cannot find profitably productive outlets. They blame politicians - yet, make sure those politicians say and do nothing about the wage problem or the irrationality and social irresponsibility of those corporation's self-defeating capacity-building investments. So, the crisis persists.

[Roland99]

46. fwiw, it's a miracle that Appliance Park is still open there

for YEARS GE wanted to close that plan or even sell it to a foreign mfr.

It's managed to stay open all this time but it's a far cry from the probably about 15,000 people that used to work there before robotics and globalization.

[DemReadingDU]

50. Similar story in Dayton with GM

Mostly a ghost town now. Some of those manufacturing plants are torn down. Others are empty waiting for a buyer to revitalize the area. A few are actually still in business, but with a skeleton crew because other work now done by robotics.

[xchrom]

51. Wave of Suicides Shocks Greece

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/economic-crisis-triggers-wave-of-suicides-in-greece-a-850129.html

On July 16, a businessman and father of three hanged himself in his shop on the island of Crete. A 49-year-old man from Patras was found by his son. He had also hanged himself. On July 25, a 79-year-old man on the southern Peloponnese peninsula hanged himself with a cable tied to an olive tree. On August 3, a 31-year-old man shot himself to death at his home near Olympia. On August 5, a 15-year-old boy hanged himself in Pieria. And, on August 6, a 60-year-old former footballer self-immolated in Chalcis.

These are also reports from Greece, reports that, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with the economy. They come together to form a grim statistic, raising questions of what is triggering the suicides and whether the high incidence is merely a coincidence.
Or do people see suicide as a way out of the crisis that has taken hold of their country and their lives? Are they bowing out before things get even worse? Germany and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are opposed to a new bailout package for Athens. The country faces a shortfall of at least €40 billion ($49 billion). Greece could very well be officially bankrupt by the fall.

Greece, a country whose Orthodox Church does not condone suicide, has always had one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe. But now, there were 350 suicide attempts and 50 deaths in Athens in June alone. Most of the suicides were among members of the middle class and, in many cases, the act itself was carried out in public, almost as if it were a theatrical performance.

[DemReadingDU]

55. There have been a few suicides around this area

Mostly middle-age men, can't find a job, have no money. It's very sad.

And children too, from bullying.

Something is terribly wrong in our culture.

[Roland99]

58. I'm not far away myself if I keep wading into the pit of GD

I really gotta stop doing that.

[Tansy_Gold]

60. Try this

Oh, I know it's not perfect, and I know our choices are between bad and horribly indescribably terrible, but this is the WAY to do it.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/101748936

[Fuddnik]

62. You'll really want to if you read this. Death by stupidity.

Warning: Suicide by excessive laughter and puking is hazardous to your health.


http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/boehners-office-says-president-avoiding-personal-responsibility-for

[Demeter]

64. No wonder the Onion is losing me

Reality cannot be satirized anymore.

[Roland99]

65. Thanks, Tansy and Fudd...needed that!

[Hotler]

63. $170 million in aid to drought stricken farmers.

FUCK the republican farmers. Rat fucking bastards all of them.