STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 29 August 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 29 August 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 28 August 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 28 August 2012
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Dow Jones 13,102.99 -21.68 (-0.17%)
S&P 500 1,409.30 -1.14 (-0.08%)
[font color=green]Nasdaq 3,077.14 +3.95 (0.13%)



[font color=black]10 Year 1.63% 0.00 (0.00%)
30 Year 2.75% 0.00 (0.00% [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."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent




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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]

[Demeter]

1. They forgot the slaves, serfs, war, torture of the non-whites, and mercs

That cartoon scenario would be too progressive for the GOP teaparty.

Oh, and the slums and workhouses and orphanages.

And the PRinces, Kings and Emperors.

[AnneD]

16. I am reminded of the words of one of the greatest Republican Presidents....

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
Abraham Lincoln

Saving the best for last.......

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Abraham Lincoln

I read these words, look at Lincoln and his action, then look at Mitt. The man isn't worthy to carry Lincoln's boots, mush less smart enough to pour piss out of his own boots, even with the instructions written on the heal. The only thing he is good at is stealing other peoples money.

And as you know, Obama does't get a pass from me either; but that is for another day.

[Demeter]

2. GM’s dead Volt?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gms-dead-volt-2012-08-28?siteid=YAHOOB

The Chevy Volt was supposed to revolutionize the American auto industry. Former General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner practically staked the company’s future on it.

Now the Volt is on hold. What went wrong?

IT'S TOO SMALL TO COST THAT MUCH--DEMETER

GM has suspended production of the all-electric car for a month so they can retool the plant to make more Chevy Impalas. But not many are buying the company’s explanation or the car, for that matter. So far this year, GM has sold about 11,000 Volts — far less than hoped and planned for by the auto maker. The market has spoken: Most Americans simply are not ready for an electric car from Detroit...

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DETROIT OR ELECTRIC CARS--IT HAS TO DO WITH THIS INFERIOR PRODUCT!--DEMETER

GM temporarily suspends Volt production

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gm-temporarily-suspends-volt-production-2012-08-28

General Motors GM -1.32% said that it plans to temporarily suspend production of the battery-powered Chevrolet Volt due to high inventory levels, according to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. GM plans to stop production at its primary Volt plant, located in Hamtramck, Mich., from Sept. 17 to Oct. 12. The shutdown will be the second this year for the Volt due to weaker-than-expected demand. The automaker will use the down time to prepare for assembly of the 2014 Chevrolet Impala. The plant also produces the Chevrolet Malibu. Shares of GM were down 1% at $21.08, but have climbed 4% since the beginning of the year.

[Demeter]

3. Circles Of Friends In Cheyenne, Wyo.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/participationnation/2012/08/28/159915212/circles-of-friends-in-cheyenne-wyo?ft=1&f=1001

The mission of Circles Wyoming, part of a national anti-poverty movement, is "to build intentional, diverse and long-term relationships as people move from barely surviving to thriving."

Trained "intentional friends" are matched with someone who is looking to escape poverty, explains Director Tim Thorson. They do everything "from having coffee once a month to talk about financial goals to going to the gym together ... things that any friends would do."

Staff helps keep the relationships meaningful, Thorson says, "because these particular friendships are across lines of economic class and involve role modeling and coaching as well as having fun."

ISN'T THAT SPECIAL? OF COURSE, RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE, IMPLEMENTING UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER, AND SOAKING THE RICH WOULD DO THE SAME, FOR EVERYONE...DEMETER

[Demeter]

4. HERE'S THE NGO (I'M TRYING TO SEE IF IT'S "CHRISTIAN")

http://www.connectionscorner.org/Circles-Model/

ACTUALLY, IT'S MUCH WORSE. IT HAS THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE...

AND FAR TOO MANY BUSINESS MAJORS.

[Demeter]

5. Computer Troubles Freeze United Airlines' System, Bringing A Cascade Of Delays

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/28/160203793/computer-troubles-freeze-united-airlines-system-bringing-a-cascade-of-delays

SHADES OF THE NET!

Many travelers using United Airlines faced delays Tuesday, but they weren't connected to Hurricane Isaac. Instead, the airline's computer network crashed, leaving large parts of its system paralyzed Tuesday afternoon.

First noted around 2:15 p.m. EDT, the problems persisted until about 6:30 p.m. EDT, when the airline tweeted that it is "in the process of resuming operations and rebooking customers."

The snarl of airline traffic led the Federal Aviation Association to halt arrivals at airports in Newark, N.J.; Houston, and San Francisco. The order to stop those arrivals has now been lifted, according to The Florida News Journal.

News of the outage spread quickly via Twitter and other outlets. The FAA said that problems affecting United's airport computers seemed to be largely resolved by 5:30 p.m. EDT, but many passengers will see their travels disrupted well into Tuesday night — particularly with many Gulf Coast-area airports closed because of Hurricane Isaac...

[BadgerKid]

18. Was stranded earlier this year by UA

for similar issues. I'm not impressed.

[Demeter]

26. Welcome to SMW! Always Encouraging to see a new name!

It sounds like UA has a systematic problem...

[Tansy_Gold]

38. I refuse to fly United

I have had such terrible experiences with them.

[DemReadingDU]

45. I refuse to fly

It is rare that I ever fly anyway. I think last trip was 7 years ago.

[Tansy_Gold]

47. I'm a "rare bird" too. ;-)

Son in Seattle, daughter in NJ, other family in Chicago, and me in AZ, so if I wanta see anyone, it's up up and away. But I don't like it.

[Demeter]

6. Bill Black's Financial and Fraud Report: Fraud-lympics: Kansas GOP Moves Way Right

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

VIDEO AT LINK

[Demeter]

7. A Taxing Blog: Romney’s Management Fee Conversions

http://victorfleischer.com/archives/306

Two and Twenty. Private equity fund managers are compensated in two primary ways: management fees and carried interest. The management fee, traditionally two percent annually, is paid to the managers to cover overhead, salaries, and so forth. The carried interest, traditionally twenty percent, is a share of the profits from the underlying investments. My paper Two and Twenty described the typical arrangement. Management fees are taxed at ordinary income rates; carried interest is often taxed at capital gains rates. I focused in the article on why the carried interest portion is better viewed like bonus compensation and should be taxed at ordinary income rates.

Management Fee Conversion. Current law on carried interest is already a sweetheart tax deal for private equity, but why not make it better? Private equity folks are not the type to walk past a twenty-dollar bill lying on the sidewalk. In the 2000s it became common for private equity fund managers to “convert” their management fees into carried interest. There are many variations on the theme, but here’s how many deals worked: each year, before the annual management fee comes due, the fund manager waives the management fee in exchange for a priority allocation of future profits. There is minimal economic risk involved; as long as the fund, at some point, has a profitable quarter, the managers get paid. (If the managers don’t foresee any future profits, they won’t waive the fees, and they will take cash instead.) In exchange for a minimal amount of economic risk, the tax benefit is enormous: the compensation is transformed from ordinary income (taxed at 35%) into capital gain (taxed at 15%). Because the management fees for a large private equity fund can be ten or twenty million per year, the tax dodge can literally save millions in taxes every year.

The problem is that it is not legal. Because the deals vary in their aggressiveness, there is some disagreement among practitioners about when it works and when it doesn’t. But in my opinion, and the opinion of many tax practitioners, the practices that were common in the private equity industry in the 2000s became very, very questionable, and it’s unlikely that they would have stood up in court.

Fund VII. Gawker today posted some Bain documents today showing that Bain, like many other PE firms, had engaged in this practice of converting management fees into capital gain. Unlike carried interest, which is unseemly but perfectly legal, Bain’s management fee conversions are not legal. If challenged in court, Bain would lose. The Bain partners, in my opinion, misreported their income if they reported these converted fees as capital gain instead of ordinary income. Here’s one example, from Bain Capital Fund VII LP (2009), pp. 13-14 (see here). In any given year, the manager (Bain) can waive its management fees, and allocate the fees instead to a particular investment in the fund. If that investment appreciates in the future, the general partner (Bain) takes a “Priority Profit” off the top. While Bain did not waive its fees for this fund in 2009, it had done so earlier in the life of the fund, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. (5% of its total holdings of Bombardier Recreational, for example, came from fee conversions — making the fee conversions alone worth about $7 million in 2009).

To be clear, there is some economic risk, and presumably this is how Bain’s tax counsel justified its reporting. The economic risk is that the priority profit must come from future profits, presumably from the investment to which the converted fee is allocated. On the other hand, the managers get to choose which investment in the portfolio they want to skim, and they are in a good position to know which investments are safest. Because the fees come off the top, they are not subject to real investment risk, but only the limited risk that even their best investments will decline in value, every single quarter, for the rest of the life of the fund. Even in 2009, an iffy year for Fund VII, the priority profit share increased in value by $3.8 million.

(UPDATE: Here’s another example. Bain Capital Fund X LP reported that it converted $338 million as of the end of 2009. At a 20% tax rate differential, that $67 million in taxes unpaid. Plus deferral.)

Bottom line: Mitt Romney has not paid all the taxes required under law.

[Demeter]

10. Why Mitt Romney Gets Squeamish About Mormon Tithing (LOSING MORMON VOTE)

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/why-mitt-romney-gets-squeamish-about-mormon-tithing?akid=9281.227380.lczYWU&rd=1&src=newsletter699979&t=13





Some weeks ago, I suggested one of what I suspect are several reasons why Mitt won’t release his taxes had to do with his Mormon tithe.

Add in the practice–which even an outsider like me saw when I lived in UT and worked for a predominantly Mormon company in the 1990s–of gossip about tithing, notably whether Mormon colleagues tithed pre- or post-tax. That’s another reason why Reid may have a better sense of what Mitt’s tax practices look like than DC pundits might guess on face value.

Finally, though, there’s this. If one of the reasons Mitt is hiding his tax returns does have to do with under-tithing (as the returns Mitt released may suggest), and not just his business practices and tax shelters, remember that both CO (2.15%) and especially NV (over 5%) have larger Mormon populations than average. Nate Silver considers NV the state with the biggest return on investment per voter (CO is 6th). These are lean Democratic states that Mitt might need to win if Obama’s attacks on Bain outsourcing continue to turn the race in the manufacturing swing states (though if Mitt doesn’t win FL and VA, it may be moot anyway). Driving down the Mormon enthusiasm for Mitt might be one way to boost Obama’s chances.

MORE DISCUSSION AND THE WHOPPING CONCLUSION:

Too much time as a Private Equity looter has fried Mitt’s brain about what is public and what is private.

[Demeter]

8. Van Jones: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

http://www.alternet.org/environment/van-jones-hope-best-prepare-worst?akid=9276.227380.2W2qlO&rd=1&src=newsletter699502&t=9&paging=off

"We are entering the tough terrain of an unforgiving new century. But there is a path forward," says Jones in this excerpt from Greg Pahl's book, "Power from the People." The following excerpt is from Power from the People: How to Organize, Finance, and Launch Local Energy Projects by Greg Pahl, published by Chelsea Green.

...........................................................................................

This book rests an optimistic message on a pessimistic premise.

The sobering underlying thesis is that human civilization is already in big trouble—both ecologically and economically. And things are set to get much worse. The hopeful underlying message is that we still have the capacity to pull good outcomes from even the most frightening scenarios.

The paradox is this: Only by recognizing how much worse things can get can we muster the energy and creativity to win a better future. In that regard, the book you hold in your hands is not just an action guide; it is a survival guide.

The Bad News Is Very Bad

At this late date, there is no point in mincing words about the impending series of calamities. The global production of oil will soon peak, ending forever the era of cheap crude. The resulting price spikes and fuel shortages could throw all of industrial society into an ugly death spiral. Worse still: We have seen only the earliest examples of the kind of biblical disasters—the super-storms, wildfires, floods, and droughts—that climate experts predict are in the pipeline, even if we cease all carbon emissions immediately...

[Demeter]

9. Not-For-Profit Hospitals Make Billions—and Provide Little Charity Care

http://www.alternet.org/labor/not-profit-hospitals-make-billions-and-provide-little-charity-care?akid=9276.227380.2W2qlO&rd=1&src=newsletter699502&t=19&paging=off

Not-for-profit hospitals are almost entirely tax exempt, in part because of the expectation they will provide free or low-cost “charity care" to those in need. But a report released this week by a research arm of California Nurses Association / National Nurses United found that California not-for-profit hospitals are reaping huge tax benefits while providing minimal charity care.

Many people don’t realize that not-for-profit institutions can accumulate profits. They can; the profit cannot be disbursed to individual owners or stockholders but rather is supposed to be reinvested for the good of the community. With hospitals, that is generally assumed to include the provision of charity care to uninsured or low-income people. But while 11 states, including Texas and Alabama, mandate specific levels of charity care, California and the federal government do not.

As a result, not-for-profit tax breaks for well-known California hospitals–including Cedars Sinai, Kaiser Permanente and Stanford University--dwarf the level of charity care provided. Overall, the 196 hospitals surveyed received $3.3 billion in 2010 state and federal tax exemptions and spent only $1.4 billion on charity care--a gap of $1.8 billion. Three-quarters of the hospitals got more dollars in tax breaks than they spent on charity care. Half spent less than 2.46 percent of their operating expenses on charity care.

The tax breaks hurt financially strapped counties and towns; according to the report, California counties and municipalities lost about $1 billion in tax revenue they would have otherwise collected in 2010. Public budgets suffer when large institutions don’t pay taxes, and budget crunches are often taken out on public workers, as well as those who rely on the services they provide. Counties or cities also end up essentially picking up the tab for health care when impoverished patients can’t pay and hospitals either deny care–diverting the patients elsewhere–or insist on billing. The report notes that California counties and towns paid $450 million in 2010 to for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals for care for people who could not pay their medical bills. ..

[Demeter]

11. Taxes Avoided by the Rich Could Pay Off the Deficit By Paul Buchheit

http://www.nationofchange.org/add-it-taxes-avoided-rich-could-pay-deficit-1346074084

Conservatives force the deficit issue, ignoring job creation, and insisting that tax increases on the rich wouldn't generate enough revenue to balance the budget. They're way off. But it takes a little arithmetic to put it all together. In the following analysis, data has been taken from a variety of sources, some of which may overlap or slightly disagree, but all of which lead to the conclusion that withheld revenue, not excessive spending, is the problem.



1. Individual and small business tax avoidance costs us $450 billion. The IRS estimates that 17 percent of taxes owed were not paid, leaving an underpayment of $450 billion. In way of confirmation, an independent review of IRS data reveals that the richest 10 percent of Americans paid less than 19% on $3.8 trillion of income in 2006, nearly $450 billion short of a more legitimate 30% tax rate. It has also been estimated that two-thirds of the annual $1.3 trillion in "tax expenditures" (tax subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes) goes to the top quintile of taxpayers. Based on IRS apportionments, this calculates out to more than $450 billion for the richest 10 percent of Americans.

2. Corporate tax avoidance is between $250 billion and $500 billion. There are numerous examples of tax avoidance by the big companies, but the most outrageous fact may be that corporations decided to drastically cut their tax rates after the start of the recession. After paying an average of 22.5% from 1987 to 2008, they've paid an annual rate of 10% since. This represents a sudden $250 billion annual loss in taxes. Worse yet, it's a $500 billion shortfall from the 35% statutory corporate tax rate.

3. Tax haven losses range from $337 billion to $500 billion. The Tax Justice Network estimated in 2011 that $337 billion is lost to the U.S. every year in tax haven abuse. It's probably more. A recent report placed total hidden offshore assets at somewhere between $21 trillion and $32 trillion. Using the lesser $21 trillion figure, and considering that about 40% of the world's Ultra High Net Worth Individuals are Americans, and factoring in an annual 6% stock market gain based on historical records, the tax loss comes to $500 billion.

4. That's enough to pay off a trillion dollar deficit. Reasonable tax changes could pay it off a second time:

(a) A non-regressive payroll tax could produce $150 billion in revenue. Get ready for some math. The richest 10% made about $3.84 trillion in 2006. A $110,000 salary, which is roughly the cutoff point for payroll tax deductions, is also the approximate minimum income for the richest 10%. A 6.2% tax paid on $1.43 trillion ($110,000 times 13 million payees) is about $90 billion. The lost taxes on the remaining $2.41 trillion come to about $150 billion.

(b) A minimal estate tax brings in another $100 billion. The 2009 estate tax, designed to impact only the tiny percentage of Americans with multi-million dollar estates that have never been taxed, returns about $100 billion per year.

(c) A financial transaction tax (FTT): up to $500 billion. The Bank for International Settlements reported in 2008 that annual trading in derivatives had surpassed $1.14 quadrillion (a thousand trillion dollars!). The Chicago Mercantile Exchange handles about 3 billion annual contracts worth well over 1 quadrillion dollars. One-tenth of one percent of a quadrillion dollars could pay off the deficit on its own. More conservative estimates by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Chicago Political Economy Group suggest FTT revenues of a half-trillion dollars annually.

Add it all up, and we've paid off the deficit, almost twice. More importantly, the avoided taxes and a few other sensible taxes could provide sufficient revenue for job stimulus without cutting the hard-earned benefits of middle-class Americans.

[Demeter]

12. Bold New Labor Call for a ‘Maximum Wage’ By Sam Pizzigati

http://www.nationofchange.org/bold-new-labor-call-maximum-wage-1346075517

With Labor Day fast approaching, what better time to reflect about those Americans who earn the least for their labor? These Americans — workers paid the federal minimum wage — are now taking home just $7.25 an hour. On paper, minimum wage workers are making exactly what they made in July 2009, the last time the minimum wage bumped up. In reality, minimum wage workers are making less today than they made last year — and the year before that — since inflation has eaten away at their incomes. And if we go back a few decades, today’s raw deal on the minimum wage gets even rawer. Back in 1968, minimum wage workers took home $1.60 an hour. To make that much today, adjusting for inflation, a minimum wage worker would have to be earning $10.55 an hour. In effect, minimum wage workers today are taking home almost $7,000 less over the course of a year than minimum-wage workers took home in 1968.

Figures like these don’t particularly discomfort our nation’s most powerful. We live in tough times, their argument goes. The small businesses that drive our economy, we’re informed, can’t possibly afford to pay their help any more than they already do. But the vast majority of our nation’s minimum wage workers don’t labor for Main Street mom-and-pops. They labor for businesses that no average American would ever call small. Two-thirds of America’s low-wage workers, the National Employment Law Project documented last month, work for companies with over 100 employees on their payrolls. The 50 largest of these low-wage employers are doing just fine, even with the Great Recession. Over the last five years, these 50 corporations — outfits that range from Wal-Mart to Office Depot — have together returned $175 billion to shareholders in dividends or share buybacks. And the CEOs at these companies last year averaged $9.4 million in personal compensation. A minimum wage worker would have to labor 623 years bring in that kind of pay.

So what can we do to bring some semblance of fairness back into our workplaces? For starters, we obviously need to raise the minimum wage. But some close observers of America’s economic landscape believe we need to do more...Larry Hanley, the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, sits on the AFL-CIO executive council, the American labor movement’s top decision-making body. Earlier this month, Hanley called for a “maximum wage,” a cap on the compensation that goes to the corporate execs who profit so hugely off low-wage labor. This maximum, if Hanley had his way, would be defined as a multiple of the pay that goes to a company’s lowest-paid worker. If we had a “maximum wage” set at 100 times that lowest wage, the CEO at a company that paid workers as little as $15,080 — the annual take-home for a minimum wage worker — could waltz off with annual pay no higher than just over $1.5 million.

During World War II, Amalgamated Transit Union president Hanley points out, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for what amounted to a maximum wage. FDR urged Congress to place a 100 percent tax on income over $25,000 a year, a sum now equal, after inflation, to just over $350,000. Congress didn’t go along. But FDR did end up winning a 94 percent top tax rate on income over $200,000, a move that would help usher in the greatest years of middle-class prosperity the United States has ever known. Throughout World War II, FDR enjoyed broad support from within the labor movement — and the general public — for his pay cap notion. Now’s the time, Hanley believes, to put that notion back on the political table. We need, he says, “to start a national discussion about creating a maximum wage law.”

Hanley may just have started that discussion, just in time for Labor Day.

[Demeter]

13. Iceland to Apply New Rules Before Capital Controls Are Removed

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-27/iceland-to-apply-new-rules-before-capital-controls-are-removed.html

Iceland will apply “prudential rules” to reduce risks associated with unrestricted capital movements before the government removes capital controls blocking as much as $8 billion from leaving the economy, the central bank said.

“The pertinent ministries, the central bank, and the Financial Supervisory Authority will begin to formulate such rules in their final form, including proposing legislative amendments where appropriate,” Reykjavik-based Sedlabanki said in a statement on its website. The suggested rules “should limit foreign exchange risk in the financial system, as well as limiting foreign currency liquidity risk; furthermore, they will, in combination, limit the banks’ potential for excessive growth.”

Sedlabanki wants parliament to impose a financial tax that limits capital movements and reserve requirements on foreign financing. The central bank also called for rules to curb liquidity risk with financial institutions’ foreign-currency denominated balance sheets, and for regulations that limit on Icelandic lenders’ ability to accept deposits from other countries...The country imposed capital controls in 2008 after the krona plunged as much as 80 percent against the euro offshore. The controls blocked as much as $8 billion in kronur assets from leaving the economy, according to Arion Bank hf. Iceland’s $13 billion economy will expand 2.4 percent this year, the IMF said April 17. That compares with a 0.3 percent contraction in the 17-member euro area, the fund said.

[Demeter]

14. In Spain, financial crisis feeds expansion of a parallel, euro-free economy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-spain-financial-crisis-feeds-expansion-of-a-parallel-euro-free-economy/2012/08/27/53ed3552-e00f-11e1-a19c-fcfa365396c8_story.html

Psychologist Angels Corcoles recently taught a seminar about self-empowerment for women, and when she finished the organizers handed her a check with her fee. The amount was in hours, not euros. But Corcoles didn’t mind. Through a citywide credit network that allows people to trade services without money, the 10 hours Corcoles earned could be used to pay for a haircut, yoga classes or even carpentry work.

At a time when the future of the euro is in doubt and millions are unemployed or underemployed with little cash to spare, a parallel economy is springing up in parts of Spain, allowing people to live outside the single currency.

In the city of Malaga, on the country’s southern Mediterranean coast just 80 miles from Africa, residents have set up an online site that allows them to earn money and buy products using a virtual currency. The Catalonian fishing town of Vilanova i la Geltru has launched a similar experiment but with a paper credit card of sorts. It implements a new currency worth slightly more than the euro when it is used at local stores. In Barcelona, the country’s second-largest city after Madrid, the preferred model is time banks, which allow people to trade their services in hours without the involvement of money.

“This is a way for people who are on the fringes of the economy to participate again,” said Josefina Altes, coordinator of the Spanish Time Bank Network.

Similar projects are popping up in Greece, Portugal and other euro-zone countries with troubled economies....

...“Instead of just being a desperate way for people to survive a horrible economic crisis, this is part of the cooperatives, credit unions, community banks, organic farms and recovering factories — the alternate economy — that the Occupy movement is groping towards,” North said.

[Demeter]

15. SO, THE 99% SET UP AN ALTERNATE MONEY, AND ALTERNATE WORK

AND LET'S SEE WHAT THE 1% CAN DO ABOUT THAT.

[Tansy_Gold]

17. Remember, remember

Mondragón.

[Roland99]

39. Valencia Follows Catalonia In Demanding EUR3.5 Billion Bailout

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/dominoes-resume-tumbling-valencia-follows-catalonia-demanding-eur35-billion-bailout

Spain is hotting up again. Just a day after Catalonia's beggars-are-choosers moment, Valencia is making headlines with its rear-view mirror demands for a bailout:

*VALENCIA NEEDS FUNDS TO COVER PAST YEARS' SPENDING: OFFICIAL
*VALENCIA NEEDS OVER EU3.5BLN FROM SPAIN REGIONS FUND: OFFICIAL
*VALENCIA TO NEGOTIATE AID AMOUNT WITHIN WEEKS, OFFICIAL SAYS

[Demeter]

19. 60 Years of American Economic History, Told in 1 Graph

In the 60 years after World War II, the United States built the world's greatest middle class economy, then unbuilt it. And if you want a single snapshot that captures the broad sweep of that transformation, you could do much worse than this graph from a new Pew report, which tracks how average family incomes have changed at each rung of the economic ladder from 1950 through 2010.

Here's the arc it captures: In the immediate postwar period, America's rapid growth favored the middle and lower classes. The poorest fifth of all households, in fact, fared best. Then, in the 1970s, amid two oil crises and awful inflation, things ground to a halt. The country backed off the postwar, center-left consensus -- captured by Richard Nixon's comment that "we're all Keynesians now" -- and tried Reaganism instead. We cut taxes. Technology and competition from abroad started whittling away at blue collar jobs and pay. The stock market took off. And so when growth returned, it favored the investment class -- the top 20 percent, and especially the top 5 percent (and, though it's not on this chart, the top 1 percent more than anybody).

And then it all fell apart. The aughts were a lost decade for families, and it's not clear how much better they'll fare in the next.

None of this is new history.But it's helpful to have a crisp layout of what's changed.

[Demeter]

20. Patented Fraud PART 1

In order to understand the world of structured finance, you have to come to a new way of thinking. You have to learn to look at the world from a banker’s perspective and not through an average consumer’s perspective. In the world of structured finance, one is dealing with cash flows on a global scale. A good article on this point of view is revealed in a recently publicized report called “Trade-Off: Financial System Supply-Chain Cross-Contagion: a study in global systemic collapse”... To more fully understand the systems one is dealing with when looking at the global economy from this perspective, you realize that the amount of information required to engineer finance at this level is staggering. There needs to be a way to handle the information flow. In order to handle it, integrated computerized systems have been developed to crunch the numbers required.

This is what the Information Technology boom of the 1990’s was all about. In 1998, the US Court of Appeals issued its State Street ruling (149 F.3d 1368). For the first time in history, business processes, heretofore adjudged trade secrets, became patentable. Now, fifteen years later, the whole banking and money processes supporting the enunciated relationships in the “Trade-Off” article above are patented. Not in a single patent, but in a series of interconnecting patents. These inter-related patents and their attendant Trade Marks and Service Marks map out a virtual world of relationships and sideways associations. This map of the entire real world is mimicked inside of a computer and is manipulated. It is “Six Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon” writ large. AI, Artificial Intelligence or, more aptly, expert reasoning software (ERS) is integrated into it as well giving the machine a large measure of control over what happens on an economic daily basis worldwide.

This computer and information technology system is the only way to handle the information flows required to manage a global economy. All of these patents, trademarks and service marks are listed in the US Patent and Trademark Office. No single patent is, by itself, nefarious but when you start interconnecting a few you catch a whiff of the potential for nefarious activities. Interlink a few more, and you see indications this interlocking technology can be bent to the will of men, and we all know that the will of men, especially high level men of banking, is totally and utterly corrupted, if not outright evil. When you start to see how interconnected the patented systems of automation work, and when you realize the voracious hunger for virtual money this virtual world had for these Mortgage Backed Securities and their derivatives, you realize Wall Street and the Mortgage Banking Industry released a hungry machine upon the United States and the world. Everything from origination to securitization to inter-member trading, to foreclosure, and the collection of deficiency judgments is highly automated and seamlessly interlinked. And this is just the part dealing with your home mortgage.

It seems, this “Shadow Banking System”, this virtual world imagined in this old IBM commercial has learned how to make real money. Not only that, a strong argument can be made that it has been waging economic warfare upon the real world for many years now. Your very lives have become poker chips for the global banker casino.

Ken Dost, a mechanical engineer with 25 years in architecture and clean room engineering, had his formally successful American life was destroyed by bank shenanigans. He has spent the last five years picking apart this interconnected world of structured finance. It is his research into the patented software and their attendant trademarks and service marks which reveals the malice of forethought of the banking elite. The take down of America was planned and patented. If you want to know what really happened, follow the map in his head...Over the next few weeks, we shall be revealing to you samples of this map, connecting some dots and showing you how your life is being manipulated by a computer as well as showing you how these patented business processes can be manipulated to the evil intent of evil men.

http://blog.chinkinthearmor.net/?p=1111

[Demeter]

21. PART 2: FEDISCOPE – Counting Cards at the Wall Street Casino

Anyone involved in the Casino industry will tell you that people will go to extraordinary lengths to “game the system”. Counting cards, while not illegal, is highly frowned upon and casino security are trained to spot the card counters. Once spotted, the counter is politely asked to leave, sometimes by brutal bouncers. There is very little difference between the Casinos in Vegas and the Casino on Wall Street. One major difference is, bending the rules and outright cheating is not only condoned on Wall Street, but if you are one of the “market makers” it is expected. In Vegas, everyone knows the odds favour the house. On Wall Street, not only do the odds favour the house, but the dealers at the table have their own con going as well.

Case on point is FEDISCOPE, a patented business system invented by Bruce Tuckman of New York and assigned to and operated by Barclay’s Capital, Inc., also of New York.. This patented business system is described as “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR INTEREST RATE PREDICTION”. Here is the abstract:

In one aspect, the invention comprises a computer-implemented method for predicting interest rates, comprising the steps of: electronically receiving data describing one or more Fed fund futures rates to obtain adjusted data regarding the one or more Fed fund futures rates; and electronically determining data regarding one or more expected Fed fund target rates. In another aspect, the invention comprises a system for predicting interest rates comprising: one of more processors operable to determine probability distribution data for one or more Eurodollar rates based on Eurodollar futures option data; one or more processors operable to link said probability distribution data for one or more Eurodollar rates to overnight forward Fed funds rate data; and one or more processors operable to link said forward Fed funds rate data to expected Fed funds rate data.

As you dive deeper into the patent, you find yourself swimming in even more arcane terms of art which can become even more confusing than the abstract. Here are some examples:

Eurodollar rates are quoted for standard maturities of one month, three months, one year, etc. LIBOR is an example of particular Eurodollar rate. LIBOR is an acronym for the London Interbank Offer Rate. It is the rate that large non-US banks charge other large non-US banks for dollar denominated loans. The LIBOR rate incorporates a risk premium due to political and credit risk and is usually slightly higher than the Fed funds rate.

And

The FEDISCOPE uses Eurodollar futures options to determine the probability distributions of Eurodollar rates; Fed funds versus LIBOR basis swaps (…) to link Eurodollar rates to overnight forward Fed funds rates and an estimate of the risk premium to link forward Fed funds rates to expected Fed funds rates.

And

The FEDISCOPE is a tool that: (1) uses the prices of short-term fixed income securities to infer the probability distributions of the Fed funds target rate at various future dates; and (2) identifies relative value trades arising from differences between personal views about these probabilities and those implied by market prices. […] the FEDISCOPE uncovers not only the expected Fed funds target rate but also its entire probability distribution. Second, the FEDISCOPE combines, in an internally consistent manner, prices from all of the following markets: Fed fund futures, Eurodollar futures, Fed fund versus LIBOR basis swaps, and options on Eurodollar futures. Third, the FEDISCOPE adjusts market prices so that the interest rate risk premium is not mistakenly interpreted as an expectation of a rising Fed funds target rate.

And

[…] the invention comprises a computer-implemented method for predicting interest rates.

It goes on and on to describe the problems this patented business system is designed to solve. So what does all of this mean? It means Mr. Bruce Tuckman of New York, New York figured out a way to count cards and he was so successful at it that Barclay’s Capital, also of New York, pays him an ongoing fee to use this system and method to predict differential interest rates so they can use it and bet accordingly.

Jim Cramer of Money Matters often talks about how you have to have an edge if you expect to win on Wall Street. Patents like this clearly give the holders an edge. Is it legal? Ask the regulators. Is it cheating? Ask the regulators. Is counting cards cheating? Ask the Pit Bosses who watch the tables like a hawk trying to catch anyone who may try. Get caught counting cards and watch how quickly you are asked to leave the casino and never come back.

Perhaps the reason people like Mr. Bruce Tuckman of New York are allowed, even encouraged to develop systems like this is because it is the Barclay’s casino who stands to benefit. Who knows? Remember though. Suckers like you and me don’t stand a chance. The odds always favour the house.

http://blog.chinkinthearmor.net/?p=1117

[Demeter]

22. PART 3: Kiss the Ring and You Will Succeed

In case you have never been involved in the process of bringing an innovative product (IP) to market, here’s how it works:

1. you have to have a patent that is fairly young. Patent protection only lasts so long. If your patents get to be much over ten years old and you haven’t gotten funding, the Vulture Capitalists begin to refer to your deal as being “long in the tooth”. The longer the tooth, the lower the chances anyone will give you funding. Once patent protection expires, the technology is lost forever. No one will ever fund it.
   
   
2. You must be willing to assign your patents to the Vulture Capitalist. It’s your IP they are interested in, not you, not your business acumen. If you aren’t willing to give up your IP, you can forget funding.
   
   
3. In addition to placing your IP up for sale, you have to be willing to give up a significant portion of the equity in your company. By significant portion, think along the lines of 90%, especially if this is your first time. If you have been down the road before and you are a proven winner, there is a chance you can negotiate a better deal. No matter what, if you aren’t willing to give up significant portions of your equity, you can forget funding.
   
   
4. Money breathes life into a company. You get the equipment and people you need to produce your widget and bring it to market. This is a dangerous time for you as an entrepreneur, especially if developing your technology requires a lot of capital. The MBA’s and the engineers take over and it is not uncommon for the developer of the technology to be pushed aside into a ceremonial role with no responsibilities.
   
   
5. The final step in all of this is the IPO, the initial public offering. This is the stage where the Vulture Capitalists get out. They sell their equity position to the Street and your stock is traded on whatever board they sell to. If you haven’t already, you now lose control of your company. You have stockholders to satisfy and they are a steely eyed bunch if there ever were.

But what about your IP? Where did that go? It went to the banks. How did that happen? Well, you don’t think the Vulture Capitalists used their money to fund your little operation did you? Some, certainly, but a great deal of what they used was other people’s money. Who are those other people? The banks. And what was the price to get the bank involved? Your IP.

According to Ken Dost, the researcher whose work this series is based upon, Bank of America, while holding some 600 patents of their own, also holds some 55,000 patents belonging to other companies. JP Morgan, Citi and Goldman Sachs hold similar numbers. Why would these banks hold the rights to so many other companies’ intellectual property? It’s the price they charge for funding. The banks know that if you hold a company’s IP, you don’t need to own stocks to control what the company does. If you control the rights to the intellectual property you control the company.

Louis Brandeis, probably the most brilliant jurist this country has ever produced, wrote a series of essays for Harper’s Magazine in 1913 called “Other People’s Money and How Bankers Use It”. In 1914 it was turned into a little book which is still available. Here is the synopsis from Wikipedia:

The book attacked the use of investment funds to promote the consolidation of various industries under the control of a small number of corporations, which Brandeis alleged were working in concert to prevent competition. Brandeis harshly criticized investment bankers who controlled large amounts of money deposited in their banks by middle-class people. The heads of these banks, Brandeis pointed out, routinely sat on the boards of railroad companies and large industrial manufacturers of various products, and routinely directed the resources of their banks to promote the interests of their own companies. These companies, in turn, sought to maintain control of their industries by crushing small businesses and stamping out innovators who developed better products to compete against them.

In the fall of last year, a group of Swiss scientists, in a study called “The Network of Global Corporate Control”, demonstrated that nearly all of the world’s economic activity is dominated by a group of elite financial institutions who have interlocking directorships. Some of these financial institutions are:

Barclays
State Street
JP Morgan Chase
Deutsche Bank
Bank of New York Mellon
Goldman Sachs
Bank of America

The more things change, the more they stay the same. In 1913, just before the fall of the US Government to the banking cabal known as The Federal Reserve, Louis Brandeis warned us about the interlocking directorship between the large banking concerns, their large industrialist partners and how together they stifle competition and innovation. In this study, it is pointed out that the same thing still goes on only now it is on a global scale.

Give me control of a nation’s currency and I care not who makes its laws.

Give me control over the intellectual property of the major industries of the world and I care not who owns them.

Give me an interlocking directorship, and I own it all.

There is a war going on. They want you to believe the blame should fall on a scapegoat – the man who bought more house than he could afford, a foreign country who defies the US, minorities who cross the border illegally and suckle up to the welfare teat. They are not your enemy. The true enemy is this interlocking directorship which controls it all.

My question is, what are you going to do about it?

http://blog.chinkinthearmor.net/?p=1122

[Demeter]

23. Preliminary Conclusions

1. We need to clean out the patent office and dismantle the shadow banking system as well as the TBTF banks and the 1%.

It's truly like the Borg, but it's a Borg that only admits 1% of the world into its cabal. The rest of us are food, raw materials for profit. There can't be anything more undemocratic than that.

2. Where does the cannibalism of LTCM, MFGlobal, Peregrine, etc come in? Granted: they were hedge funds, granted: they were fraudulent, granted: they were stealing from the rich....was it policing by the TBTF?

I think this needs some major research and analysis...and I think I have a theme for the weekend....but do I really want to undertake something this big?

[Demeter]

24. Wall Street Granted Another Brief Reprieve

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/wall-street-granted-another-brief-repreive/

Wall Street received a brief but important reprieve on Monday, as federal regulators quietly postponed another set of new rules. At first, when regulators announced their action, the delay went undetected. In a statement on Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission instead highlighted how it approved a package of reforms that would bring clarity to derivatives trading, one of the foggiest corners of Wall Street. But buried in the 254-page document, the agency also granted a separate extension for some rules. The agency's decision was reached behind closed-doors -- rather than at a public meeting in Washington. The ruling also came at the urging of the financial industry. In the final version of the rule, the agency acknowledged that members of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a trade group comprising several big banks, "have requested that the commission align the compliance dates" of several rules.

The various rule changes stem from the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul law, passed in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The derivatives industry was at the center of the storm, producing billions of dollars in losses across the financial industry.

The delay is limited yet significant. Wall Street now has until Jan. 1, instead of October as initially planned, to adopt a battery of standards. The move grants the financial industry additional time to comply with rules that, for example, will require firms to verify that their trading partners meet certain "eligibility standards" and to confirm that they recommend trading strategies "in the best interests" of their clients. The move represented the latest stalling of the C.F.T.C.'s derivatives overhaul. In June, the agency proposed a plan to give some banks until Dec. 31 to adopt internal control requirements. Other standards, including antifraud and manipulation measures, remain on track to kick in this fall. While the extra few months will not alter the regulatory landscape, some Wall Street critics argue that the banks have had plenty of time to comply with Dodd-Frank. The law was enacted in 2010.

For its part, the C.F.T.C. notes that it unanimously adopted crucial new measures for derivatives trading on Monday. Under the plan, in a "timely and accurate" way, banks must confirm and value so-called swaps trades, a common type of derivatives contract. The standards, the agency said, will help settle disputes about the value of derivatives trades and, in turn, diminish uncertainty in the event of future financial calamities.

When the American International Group, the giant insurance company, nearly toppled in 2008, concerns swirled about the vagaries of its swaps portfolio. It took months to resolve the disputes.

"The 2008 financial crisis brought to light how large financial institutions, including AIG, had valuation disputes and other problems regarding documentation standards," Gary Gensler, the agency's chairman, said in a statement on Monday. "These rules will directly address many of those issues, highlighting issues for senior management and regulators at an earlier stage."

[Demeter]

25. Thoughts to Consider

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods."

-H. L. Mencken
- (1880-1956) American Journalist

[westerebus]

37. With holding the rule changes until after the (s)election.

Calling the CFTC regulators is the equivalent to calling the Congress statesmen.

[Demeter]

27. That's as far as I'm going, today

It's paper day, and the schedule is full. See you all later!

[xchrom]

29. ...

[xchrom]

28. ann romney?!?! that tired piece?

[DemReadingDU]

46. lol!

[xchrom]

30. Profits At China's Biggest Steelmaker Fall 53%—And The Wost Is Yet To Come

http://www.businessinsider.com/baosteel-profits-fall-53-2012-8

Another day, another story of Chinese corporate profits getting decimated.
This time it's Baosteel, which is China's largest steelmaker.
According to Reuters, first half profits fell 53%, and the company says that Q3 is going to be the worst quarter yet.
What we're seeing again and again is surging costs hammering margins, even when raw material prices have not been particularly bad.
The chairman of Baosteel's board of directors, He Wenbo, said at the same online conference that steel prices were unlikely to stage any recovery in the second half of 2012, adding that despite the rapid fall in iron ore prices, domestic steel firms were still facing "huge cost pressures".


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/baosteel-profits-fall-53-2012-8#ixzz24w22xqyD

[xchrom]

31. While Everyone Looked The Other Way, Climate Change Hit A Dire Milestone

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-day-the-world-went-mad-2012-8

Yesterday was August 28th 2012. Remember that date. It marks the day when the world went raving mad.

Three things of note happened. The first is that a record Arctic ice melt had just been announced by the scientists studying the region. The 2012 figure has not only beaten the previous record, established in 2007. It has beaten it three weeks before the sea ice is likely to reach its minimum extent. It reveals that global climate breakdown is proceeding more rapidly than most climate scientists expected. But you could be forgiven for missing it, as it scarcely made the news at all.

Instead, in the UK, the headlines concentrated on the call by Tim Yeo, chair of the parliamentary Energy and Climate Change Committee, for a third runway at Heathrow. This sparked a lively debate in and beyond the media about where Britain's new runways and airports should be built. The question of whether they should be built scarcely arose. Just as rare was any connection between the shocking news from the Arctic and this determination to increase our emissions of greenhouse gases.
I wonder whether we could be seeing a form of reactive denial at work: people proving to themselves that there cannot be a problem if they can continue to discuss the issues in these terms.

The third event was that the Republican party in the United States began its national convention in Tampa, Florida – a day late. Why? Because of the anticipated severity of hurricane Isaac, which reached the US last night.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-day-the-world-went-mad-2012-8#ixzz24w37Jgxv

[bread_and_roses]

40. It is beyond madness - collective suicide - and those new mpg standards?

President Mellifluous touting his new standards, and the peeps cheering.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/28-8

Published on Tuesday, August 28, 2012 by Common Dreams
New Mileage Standards Encourage More Gas-guzzling, Not Less: Report
- Common Dreams staff

The Obama administration finalized new fuel economy rules Tuesday, boasting new requirements that are slated to double fuel efficiency of new cars and trucks sold in the US over the next 13 years; however, environmental scientists at the Center for Biological Diversity warned Tuesday that the new numbers are misleading in the complex regulations. Due to loopholes in the plan, total greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks will actually increase from 2017 through 2025 and over the long term.

It's too depressing to quote anymore - loopholes, smoke and mirrors - you get the drift.

[xchrom]

42. ...

[xchrom]

32. Lufthansa staff to go on strike

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19407525

Cabin staff at German airline Lufthansa are to go on strike, possibly as early as Thursday, after wage talks broke down this week.

"We'll strike tomorrow at the earliest," said the head of the UFO labour union, Nicoley Baublies.

The union and the airline have been at loggerheads over the past year over the amount of hours worked at its hubs and low-cost airlines.

Loss-making Lufthansa has said it will cut 3,500 jobs.

[Fuddnik]

48. UFO's have unions?

[xchrom]

49. Why not? Superior intelligence & all that. Nt

[westerebus]

51. this ^^

[bread_and_roses]

33. "Gem of a New Novel Goes Right After the Decadence and Heartlessness of Corporate Capitalism"

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/dave-eggers-gem-new-novel-goes-right-after-decadence-and

Truthdig [1] / By Chris Hedges
comments_image
Dave Eggers' Gem of a New Novel Goes Right After the Decadence and Heartlessness of Corporate Capitalism
August 27, 2012 |

Dave Eggers’ gem of a book, “A Hologram for the King,” is a parable about the decadence, fragility and heartlessness of late, decayed corporate capitalism. It is about the small, largely colorless men and women who serve as managers in our suicidal outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and the methodical breaking of labor unions. It is about the lie of globalization, a lie that impoverishes us all to increase corporate profits.

“A Hologram for the King” tells the story of Alan, a lackluster 54-year-old consultant who is desperately trying to snag one final big contract in Saudi Arabia for Reliant, a corporation that is “the largest I.T. supplier in the world,” to save himself from financial ruin. Alan has come to realize that managers like him who made outsourcing possible will be discarded as human refuse now that the process is complete, left to wander like ghosts—or holograms—among the ruins. And Eggers’ novel is a subtle, deft and poignant look at the horrendous toll this corporate process takes on self-esteem, on family, on health, on community and finally on the nation itself. It does so, like parables from Greek tragedy or George Orwell, by finding the perfect story to make a point that is universal.

[xchrom]

34. +1

[xchrom]

35. Suddenly California Has The Hottest Job Market In The Country

http://www.businessinsider.com/suddenly-california-has-the-hottest-job-market-in-the-country-2012-8

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- California, which sent a delegation to Austin last year to find out how the Lone Star State had beat it in employment growth, surged ahead of Texas to lead the nation in job creation for the last two consecutive months.
California added 365,100 nonfarm jobs in the year ending in July, a 2.6 percent increase and the state’s largest 12-month gain since 2000. Texas picked up 222,500, or 2.1 percent, according to U.S. Labor Department statistics. California also outpaced Texas the prior month.
Texas led California in job creation in 18 of the last 24 months, since August 2010, the first month both states posted employment gains following the longest recession since the 1930s. The latest numbers show that California has defied comparisons with financially troubled Greece, including a joking reference by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earlier this month.
“What these new figures do is drive a stake through these weak Republican talking points,” said Gil Duran, a spokesman for California’s Democratic governor, Jerry Brown. “California jobs are coming back at a higher rate here. We hope that happens everywhere.”


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/suddenly-california-has-the-hottest-job-market-in-the-country-2012-8#ixzz24wDjXGDL

[xchrom]

36. China Got Slammed Again Last Night — Hits New Post Crisis Lows

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-got-slammed-again-last-night--hits-new-post-crisis-lows-2012-8

China keeps getting slammed.
Down about 1%.
New post-crisis lows.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-got-slammed-again-last-night--hits-new-post-crisis-lows-2012-8#ixzz24wEENlAk

[Roland99]

41. Germany's Merkel: Treaties forbid ESM bank license

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/germanys-merkel-treaties-forbid-esm-bank-license-2012-08-29?siteid=rss

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday reiterated opposition to calls to grant the euro-zone's permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, a banking license, saying such a move is prohibited under European Union treaties, news reports said. A license would give the fund access to funding from the European Central Bank, allowing it to leverage its firepower. But such calls have met stiff opposition from ECB President Mario Draghi and Germany. Merkel, speaking after a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in Berlin, praised Italy for implementing a range of economic reforms. Merkel said the measures would help bring down Italian borrowing costs.

[Roland99]

43. July Pending Home Sales >>>>

* U.S. JULY PENDING HOME SALES +12.4 PCT FROM JULY 2011
* U.S. JULY PENDING HOME SALES INDEX +2.4 PCT (CONSENSUS +1.0 PCT) TO 101.7, HIGHEST SINCE APRIL 2010 - REALTORS

[DemReadingDU]

44. Ohio Jon Husted fires Mont. Co. election board members

8/28/12 Husted fires Mont. Co. election board members


Secretary of State Jon Husted fired the two Democrats on the Montgomery County Board of Elections on Tuesday for rejecting his statewide early voting schedule, raising the stakes in a white-knuckle standoff between Republicans and Democrats over voting hours.

Husted, a Republican, dismissed Thomas Ritchie, Sr., and Dennis Lieberman in a letter Tuesday, saying they willfully violated state election law. Ritchie and Lieberman had voted to add weekend voting hours to those in Husted’s directive and refused to rescind their action as Husted’s office requested.

Husted wrote Tuesday, “Board members are free to express their discontent with any Directive or Advisory issued, but they cannot disobey them. Your dismissal is not about differing views; it is about you violating the law by not following a Directive. He concluded: “I find no pleasure in taking this action and I thank you for your service.”

Ritchie and Lieberman told the Dayton Daily News they weren’t surprised by the news and were meeting with attorneys to discuss legal action.

“He may have fired me, but he declared war on the Montgomery County electorate, on the people of our community,” Lieberman said. “We’re going back to the [Ken] Blackwell days.”

more...
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/local/husted-fires-democratic-mont-co-board-members/nRMBp/


previous posting
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1116&pid=20866




This presidential election is of 1% by the 1% and for the 1%

[Roland99]

50. 'Real' Homeownership Rate at Nearly 50-Year Low

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014211623