STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 30 August 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 30 August 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 29 August 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 29 August 2012
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Dow Jones 13,107.48 +4.49 (0.03%)
S&P 500 1,410.49 +1.19 (0.08%)
Nasdaq 3,081.19 +4.05 (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
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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
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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. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Back to black

http://www.economist.com/node/21560886

The Treasury squashes hopes that the agencies may ever be private again...SINCE 2008 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, America’s two housing-finance giants, have been on life support, spared from insolvency by an intravenous drip of taxpayer cash. Lately, however, the companies have shown signs of life: earlier this month both reported their biggest profits since being forced into “conservatorship” four years ago.



That has sent a frisson through investors clutching preferred shares issued back when the companies minted money by using their quasi-governmental status to borrow cheap and buy or guarantee most residential mortgages in America. Between March and early August, many of Fannie’s old preferred shares, which now trade over the counter, jumped from around $1.50 to more than $3 (still a fraction of their $25 par value).

Several factors explain the turn in the companies’ fortunes. As home prices have stabilised, unemployment has gradually declined and troubled loans have been restructured or written off, the two have set aside ever smaller provisions for loan losses. In the second quarter Fannie reversed some prior provisions, adding $3 billion to the bottom line. More importantly, mortgages issued after 2008 now make up more than half of the companies’ portfolios. Thanks to stricter underwriting terms and slowing home-price falls, those mortgages sport far lower loan-to-value ratios and delinquency rates than “legacy” mortgages issued during the bubble years of 2005-08. As a result, both companies are firmly back in the black. Fannie recorded a $7.8 billion profit in the first half of this year, compared with a loss of $16.9 billion in all of 2011. Her sibling earned $3.6 billion, against a loss of $5.3 billion.

Under the terms of the original bail-out, the Treasury invested just enough each quarter in senior preferred shares to cover the companies’ losses and to keep their net worth above zero. In return the companies pay the Treasury a 10% dividend on those shares. Perversely, to distribute those dividends both companies have routinely had to draw even more cash from the government. But in the second quarter, neither had to. That has begun to bring down the net cost of the bail-out, from a peak of $151 billion at the end of 2011 to $142 billion now. A decade from now, the administration reckons the tally will be just $28 billion...The good news had one unwelcome side-effect, however. With profits now exceeding their dividends, the companies’ net worth began to grow, arousing hope that one day dividends might resume on their old shares. On August 17th the Treasury drove a stake through those hopes, announcing that rather than pay a 10% dividend, the companies would henceforth simply send every penny of profit its way. For those who did not get the message, the Treasury rammed it home: the move underlined that they “will not be allowed to retain profits, rebuild capital, and return to the market in their prior form.” Fannie’s old preferred shares promptly sank back to about $1.

While the companies’ status as public utilities now appears crystal clear, the federal government’s long-term role in housing finance is as muddy as ever. In the short run, it is indispensable. Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Housing Administration, another government agency, currently back some 90% of newly originated mortgages. In the long run, Democrats and Republicans agree that Fannie and Freddie should be wound down, but concur on little else. The Obama administration has proposed several options for a smaller federal role in backstopping mortgages: the companies’ regulator is exploring how to draw private insurers into the mortgage market via loss-sharing arrangements with Fannie and Freddie. Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans want to wind both companies down, but have not specified any remaining role for government. As with every policy of consequence in America, the fate of Fannie and Freddie must await the election.

[Demeter]

5. Mortgage customers of 5 large banks get big offers to lower their payments

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/08/mortgage_customers_of_five_lar.html

Thousands of homeowners nationwide are getting jaw-dropping offers from five of the largest mortgage lenders. The unsolicited letters and phone calls from Chase, Ally/GMAC Mortgage, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America are the mortgage equivalent of winning the lottery even when you weren't playing. The banks are offering customers no-strings-attached deals to drastically reduce their interest rates and, in some cases, slice tens of thousands from their principal. Customers don't have to apply, sign tons of paperwork or pay any closing costs or any fees.

"Someone who is getting something out of the blue could feel this is too good to be true," said Dan Tierney, spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General's Office.

However, the offers are part of the five banks' settlements with federal and state regulators earlier this year. In Ohio, the five companies agreed to commit $90 million in interest savings for borrowers who refinance and $102 million to reduce the principal and payments on homeowners' loans...

[Demeter]

2. Greece plans "special economic zones" to boost growth

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/28/us-greece-economy-zones-idUSBRE87R09820120828

Greece plans to set up "special economic zones" to attract private investment and help lift its debt-laden economy out of depression, the government said on Tuesday.

The zones would offer investors tax and administrative advantages. Athens is already in talks with the European Commission to get approval for the move, Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis told a news conference.

"We believe these zones will boost the real economy by creating a special regime to attract investment and generate exports," Hatzidakis said....


OTHERWISE KNOWN AS COLONIES?

[Demeter]

3. Why Neil Barofsky’s Book “Bailout” Matters

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/08/in-bailout-neil-barofsky-reveals-the-key-lie-of-the-obama-administration.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Neil Barofsky’s new memoir, Bailout, is not just a great read, it’s also a very important story about what happened after the financial crisis. Barofsky, who was the Special Inspector General for TARP, was in a vantage point to view the entirety of the Obama policy apparatus, from the use of TARP to pad bank balance sheets to Treasury’s PPIP program to the reorganization of the auto industry to the housing crisis. And he doesn’t disappoint, packing the story full of flashy anecdotes which give more than any book I’ve read a sense of what it’s like to be in DC in a powerful position where your goal is not to get along with the actors controlling the status quo. The book paints the atmosphere in DC’s melange of agencies, bureaucracies, and Congressional halls as a mix between the drudgery and petty bureaucracy of Office Space and the world-cleaving tension of Too Big to Fail. As a Congressional staffer, I worked a bit with Barofsky’s office, so I’m going to give a slightly different perspective on the book than what you might have read elsewhere. You see, what very few have picked up on, even those who liked this book, is that it’s essentially a story about the importance of Congressional oversight in reigning in corruption, and the problems of our imperial Presidency.

By way of background, it’s helpful to understand why Barofsky was even in DC and what his job actually was. As it turns out, the US government has a variety of mechanisms for preventing corruption. The one relevant to this story is the Inspector General position, which is a standard oversight “ombudsman” style operation that pretty much every government agency has. These officials are supposed to oversee their departments, writing reports about their activities and ferreting out problems and corruption. IGs tend to report their findings to Congress (usually to the special subcommittee on oversight for each specific committee), and Congress then takes action (or not). Barofsky was the Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, a position created by a skeptical Congress when Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson asked for $700 billion to buy toxic assets on the balance sheet of various banks.

To put it simply, this is the book that explains that in fact, yes, your suspicions of what Treasury was up to are correct. It’s not a series of hints and parsing of statements of various high level officials, it’s a straightforward account by a watchdog who fought with Geithner via bureaucratic tricks, the press, in Congress, and in meetings with Treasury and DOJ personnel. Throughout Barofsky’s 27 months in office, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and Neil Barofsky’s office worked together to attempt to reign in the worst of Treasury’s abuses.

The book is a memoir, and it starts just before Barofsky went to Washington as SIGTARP, recounting briefly his career in the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. The Southern District is an office with jurisdiction over Wall Street, a track record of effective high profile white collar prosecutions, and a strong bipartisan alumni network. Barofsky talks about one of his cases going after the narco-terrorist cartel in Colombia, or FARC, and how he jousted with various government agencies – the DOJ and the State Department – to push the case forward in the face of bureaucratic stubbornness. Barofsky came dangerously close to being assassinated by the cartel, as he learned later. At one point during the case, while on the Amtrak train, he noticed a man staring at his computer screen, and it turned out to be Joe Biden. Biden told him that the biggest obstacle to enforcing international narcotics laws was not corruption or traffickers, but “the United States State Department.” It’s these little nuggets that are the heart of the book. For instance, at one point, Barofsky notes that if you see the media reporting on a high profile arrest of a criminal, it’s most likely that the FBI leaked the arrest to the press, since the agency is a notorious manager of its own self-important image. Barofsky also discusses another case, of a fraudulent commodities company called Refco, which introduced him to the complexities of the modern financial system, including the repo market. Barofsky presents himself, accurately, as a straight shooter New York Southern District prosecutor, someone who dislikes DC and just wants to do his work going after bad guys...

MORE

[Demeter]

4. Deposit flight from Spanish banks smashes record in July

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9504911/Deposit-flight-from-Spanish-banks-smashes-record-in-July.html

Spain has suffered the worst haemorrhaging of bank deposits since the launch of the euro, losing funds equal to 7% of GDP in a single month. Data from the European Central Bank shows that outflows from Spanish commercial banks reached €74bn (£59bn) in July, twice the previous monthly record. This brings the total deposit loss over the past year to 10.9%, replicating the pattern seen in Greece as the crisis spread.

It is unclear how much of the deposit loss is capital flight, either to German banks or other safe-haven assets such as London property. The Bank of Spain said the fall is distorted by the July effect of tax payments and by the expiry of securitised funds...Julian Callow from Barclays Capital said the deposit loss is €65bn even when adjusted for the season: “This is highly significant. Deposit outflows are clearly picking up and the balance sheet of the Spanish banking system is contracting.”

Economy secretary Fernando Jimenez Latorre said Spain is in the eye of the storm right now with the “worst falls” in economic output yet to come in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, the Spanish statistics office said the economic slump has been deeper than feared, with lower output through 2010 and 2011. The economy slid back into double-dip recession in the third quarter of last year, three months earlier than thought.

[Demeter]

6. Where the Mob Keeps Its Money

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/where-the-mob-keeps-its-money.html?pagewanted=2&_r=4&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all

THE global financial crisis has been a blessing for organized crime. A series of recent scandals have exposed the connection between some of the biggest global banks and the seamy underworld of mobsters, smugglers, drug traffickers and arms dealers. American banks have profited from money laundering by Latin American drug cartels, while the European debt crisis has strengthened the grip of the loan sharks and speculators who control the vast underground economies in countries like Spain and Greece...Mutually beneficial relationships between bankers and gangsters aren’t new, but what’s remarkable is their reach at the highest levels of global finance. In 2010, Wachovia admitted that it had essentially helped finance the murderous drug war in Mexico by failing to identify and stop illicit transactions. The bank, which was acquired by Wells Fargo during the financial crisis, agreed to pay $160 million in fines and penalties for tolerating the laundering, which occurred between 2004 and 2007.

Last month, Senate investigators found that HSBC had for a decade improperly facilitated transactions by Mexican drug traffickers, Saudi financiers with ties to Al Qaeda and Iranian bankers trying to circumvent United States sanctions. The bank set aside $700 million to cover fines, settlements and other expenses related to the inquiry, and its chief of compliance resigned....ABN Amro, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Lloyds and ING have reached expensive settlements with regulators after admitting to executing the transactions of clients in disreputable countries like Cuba, Iran, Libya, Myanmar and Sudan.

Many of the illicit transactions preceded the 2008 crisis, but continuing turmoil in the banking industry created an opening for organized crime groups, enabling them to enrich themselves and grow in strength. In 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, an Italian economist who then led the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told the British newspaper The Observer that “in many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks at the height of the crisis. “Interbank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities,” he said. “There were signs that some banks were rescued that way.” The United Nations estimated that $1.6 trillion was laundered globally in 2009, of which about $580 billion was related to drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime.

A study last year by the Colombian economists Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía concluded that the vast majority of profits from drug trafficking in Colombia were reaped by criminal syndicates in rich countries and laundered by banks in global financial centers like New York and London. They found that bank secrecy and privacy laws in Western countries often impeded transparency and made it easier for criminals to launder their money....

AND HE GOES ON IN GREAT DETAIL

*********************************************************

Roberto Saviano is a journalist and the author of the book “Gomorrah.” He has lived under police protection since 2006, when he received death threats from organized crime figures in Italy. This essay was translated by Virginia Jewiss from the Italian.

[Demeter]

7. Revolt of the Rich

SO THE RICH ARE REVOLTING? THIS IS NEWS?

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/

...the super-rich and the corporations they run would secede from the nation state. I do not mean secession by physical withdrawal from the territory of the state, although that happens from time to time—for example, Erik Prince, who was born into a fortune, is related to the even bigger Amway fortune, and made yet another fortune as CEO of the mercenary-for-hire firm Blackwater, moved his company (renamed Xe) to the United Arab Emirates in 2011. What I mean by secession is a withdrawal into enclaves, an internal immigration, whereby the rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its well being except as a place to extract loot. Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it. If one can afford private security, public safety is of no concern; if one owns a Gulfstream jet, crumbling bridges cause less apprehension—and viable public transportation doesn’t even show up on the radar screen. With private doctors on call and a chartered plane to get to the Mayo Clinic, why worry about Medicare?

Being in the country but not of it is what gives the contemporary American super-rich their quality of being abstracted and clueless. Perhaps that explains why Mitt Romney’s regular-guy anecdotes always seem a bit strained. I discussed this with a radio host who recounted a story about Robert Rubin, former secretary of the Treasury as well as an executive at Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup. Rubin was being chauffeured through Manhattan to reach some event whose attendees consisted of the Great and the Good such as himself. Along the way he encountered a traffic jam, and on arriving to his event—late—he complained to a city functionary with the power to look into it. “Where was the jam?” asked the functionary. Rubin, who had lived most of his life in Manhattan, a place of east-west numbered streets and north-south avenues, couldn’t tell him. The super-rich who determine our political arrangements apparently inhabit another, more refined dimension.

To some degree the rich have always secluded themselves from the gaze of the common herd; their habit for centuries has been to send their offspring to private schools. But now this habit is exacerbated by the plutocracy’s palpable animosity towards public education and public educators, as Michael Bloomberg has demonstrated. To the extent public education “reform” is popular among billionaires and their tax-exempt foundations, one suspects it is as a lever to divert the more than $500 billion dollars in annual federal, state, and local education funding into private hands—meaning themselves and their friends. What Halliburton did for U.S. Army logistics, school privatizers will do for public education. A century ago, at least we got some attractive public libraries out of Andrew Carnegie. Noblesse oblige like Carnegie’s is presently lacking among our seceding plutocracy...In both world wars, even a Harvard man or a New York socialite might know the weight of an army pack. Now the military is for suckers from the laboring classes whose subprime mortgages you just sliced into CDOs and sold to gullible investors in order to buy your second Bentley or rustle up the cash to get Rod Stewart to perform at your birthday party. The sentiment among the super-rich towards the rest of America is often one of contempt rather than noblesse.

Stephen Schwarzman, the hedge fund billionaire CEO of the Blackstone Group who hired Rod Stewart for his $5-million birthday party, believes it is the rabble who are socially irresponsible. Speaking about low-income citizens who pay no income tax, he says: “You have to have skin in the game. I’m not saying how much people should do. But we should all be part of the system.” But millions of Americans who do not pay federal income taxes do pay federal payroll taxes. These taxes are regressive, and the dirty little secret is that over the last several decades they have made up a greater and greater share of federal revenues. In 1950, payroll and other federal retirement contributions constituted 10.9 percent of all federal revenues. By 2007, the last “normal” economic year before federal revenues began falling, they made up 33.9 percent. By contrast, corporate income taxes were 26.4 percent of federal revenues in 1950. By 2007 they had fallen to 14.4 percent. So who has skin in the game?

AND THE DISGUSTING CONTINUES

**********************************************************

Mike Lofgren served 16 years on the Republican staff of the House and Senate Budget Committees. He has just published The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.

[Demeter]

8. Quotes of the Day...from Tolstoy

“The essence of all slavery consists in taking the product of another’s labor by force. It is immaterial whether this force be founded upon ownership of the slave or ownership of the money that he must get to live.”


“Man must not check reason by tradition, but contrariwise, must check tradition by reason.”

[Demeter]

9. We’re All Anarchists Now By Joel Bowman (TOLD YA SO)

http://dailyreckoning.com/were-all-anarchists-now/

...Were he still alive, Leo Tolstoy, a self-described “spiritualist anarchist,” would be 184 years old today. The world of 2012 could learn a lot from this towering, 19th Century intellectual. For one thing, Tolstoy understood well the anarchist attitude of “live and let live,” and he spent a good many words railing against The State and its brutal, oppressive nature. Tolstoy’s ideas on civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. He saw government for what it really is, “an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.” At heart, Tolstoy was a lover, not a hater. In his most famous work, War and Peace, he wrote:

“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.”

This is not the kind of “warm and fuzzy” sentiment one might expect from an anarchist, at least not given the currently and widely misunderstood definition of the word. The term “anarchist,” for the average voter, is a pejorative used to describe jackbooted hooligans rampaging through the streets, hurling Molotov cocktails through Starbucks windows and generally making a nuisance of themselves. In point of fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The word has been hijacked and, in accordance with the Newspeak of our time, has come to mean the exact opposite of that for which what it stands. This is a convenient confounding of the definition, one that serves directly the goals of The State, the brutish institution that presides over the enslavement of individuals within a given border and, not infrequently, declares wars against those living within foreign borders...Properly understood, the term anarchy, which derives from the Greek anarchia, literally translates an, “without” + arkhos, “ruler.” Freedom from being owned…enslaved…forced against one’s will. Freedom to act voluntarily. Freedom to associate with whomever one so desires and under whatever conditions he or she sees fit…provided they do not diminish the ability of another to enjoy the same freedom.

Tellingly, when one looks around today and sees who has the guns, the clubs, the Tasers and the jackboots…when we identify correctly those who wield the power to tax, detain, imprison, torture and to commit the lives of young men and women to battle…when we realize who badgers businesses, hampers trade, regulates progress, debases monies, and claims private property for their own ends, we see, emblazoned right there on the perpetrators’ uniforms, the bold, unmistakable badge of The State. And yet, curiously, it is to The State that most people look for protection against these very same evils. Tragically propagandized individuals are left to wonder, for example, who will safeguard them against theft and violence…if not for the institution that relentlessly steals and aggresses against them. They entrust the course of justice to an institution that daily and obscenely perverts it. And they surrender unto The State all the liberties and opportunities they wouldn’t dare be caught without.

How is that working out, you ask?...The State is the problem, Fellow Reckoner, NOT the solution. After five years (and counting) of grinding deepening recession, it’s time to change tack. Far from being something to fear anarchy is, in many ways, the natural solution to our troubles. Anyone who doubts this will have trouble reconciling the fact that 99% of their most critical life decisions are made in a private state of anarchy. We’re all anarchists, for example, when it comes to choosing a mate. At the risk of belaboring the point, imagine for a second if the government claimed the right to tell you whom to marry. What do you think would happen to the quality of human relationships under such a regime? Now imagine the government chose your friends for you too, scheduled your social events, dinner parties and planned your weekends. Imagine a panel of bureaucrats assigned you a hobby of their choosing, prescribed for you a television channel and allotted you a specific time to watch it. Imagine the Minster of Gastronomy chose your restaurant for you, made your menu selections and decided on your wine. What do you suppose might happen to your overall quality of life? Few, if any, people would tolerate such intrusions on their personal liberties. And with good reason! Who would want to consummate a state-imposed marriage or, worse still, impose that obligation on an unwilling, state-selected partner? Decent individuals reserve — and, should the need arise, will defend — their right to chose these things for themselves. When it comes to the most important things in life, when it comes to our family and friends and to deciding how we spend the precious time we have with them, we’re all anarchists. It’s high time we took the statist shackles off the rest of our lives and started acting like it.

[Demeter]

48. Anarchist scaremongering at the Republican Convention

http://libcom.org/blog/anarchist-scaremongering-republican-convention-27082012

If you have been reading the mainstream internet news recently, you could be forgiven for thinking that there is an impending large scale anarchist insurrection about to take place in Florida. This week sees the start of the annual Republican convention in Tampa Bay. To say that there is a ‘security operation’ underway is an understatement.

Over the last week, the various news outlets in the US have had access to a leaked report from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The report claims to have ‘intelligence’ that anarchists (a catch all term for anyone who may protest) are planning serious public disorder. Although, seemingly not enough evidence to actually arrest anyone before they get to Tampa bay. The report suggests that anarchists are planning on closing down, or even ‘blowing up’ bridges in and around the Tampa Bay area in an attempt to disrupt the convention. It also claims that anarchists are planning to occupy hotels, and close down radio stations. The report goes on to say that they believe explosives, Molotov cocktails, and acid-filled eggs will be used against the police.

The coast guard has issued notice that for the duration of the convention, boats will have only limited access to certain bridges, and that people will be banned from ‘loitering’ within 50 yards of bridges. As part of a $50 million security operation, there are 3,500 extra police officers brought in from around Florida, as well as 1,700 national guardsmen being deployed around Tampa Bay. Eight foot steel fences will be erected around the venue as well as around other ‘key’ buildings, and there will be hundreds of plain clothes officer mingling with protesters.

The 1,700 bedded Orient Road jail in Tamp has been completely emptied, and prisoners re-located around the state, on the orders of Sherriff David Gee. Sherriff Gee has posted on the local police website that:

Quote:

“To the agitators and anarchists who want only to bring a dark cloud to this event, let me be clear: criminal activity and civil disturbances will not be tolerated and enforcement actions will be swift.”

The police will be riding around in armour plated tank like vehicles (as in the picture above) and will be flying several unmanned reconnaissance drones above the city. The only actual evidence of any ‘wrongdoing’ so far, has been the finding of a pile of bricks and pipes on a nearby building roof. The police believe these items were to be used by anarchists as there was some anarchist graffiti nearby.

Should you wish to see the kind of ridiculous state propaganda that is doing the rounds, here it is:

[Demeter]

10. UPDATE: Alleged LAPD Beating Victim: The Gruesome Photo

http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/27/brian-mulligan-lapd-lawsuit-photo-police-brutality-banker/



YVES SMITH SAYS: This happens every day and is usually met with a collective yawn — because they deserved it, right? We only know of this case because it happened to a rich white banker.

ANARCHISTS BEWARE!

http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/27/brian-mulligan-lapd-lawsuit-photo-police-brutality-banker/

...Although the LAPD claims officers beat and arrested Mulligan after he became violent and threatening ... prosecutors declined to file charges. Our sources say prosecutors believe the photos are "clear evidence of excessive force." Indeed, Mulligan already filed a $50 million claim against the City of L.A.

TMZ first reported, Mulligan claims two LAPD cops beat him senseless after wrongfully detaining him ... claiming he resembled a person suspected of attempted car theft. Mulligan claims the officers took him to a hotel against his will and when he tried to leave officers brutally attacked him.

Mulligan's lawyers, J. Michael Flanagan and Valerie Wass, tell TMZ cops at the scene conceded Mulligan was NOT under the influence of drugs and they described him as “calm, lucid, and cooperative." They tell TMZ, "Mulligan had committed no violations of law and was not arrested. No drugs were found during a search of his person or his vehicle, and the officers found absolutely no evidence of drug use by Mulligan."

Flanagan and Wass say cops also engaged in a cover-up, telling us, "The two officers who inflicted the injuries on Mulligan subsequently concocted a police report in an attempt to justify their use of excessive and deadly force and to obtain a filing of criminal charges against Mulligan."

[AnneD]

11. This is not one case.....

But one of many. What will it take to get Eric Holder off his duff and start earning that outrageous paycheck he gets?

[DemReadingDU]

12. Since this was a rich white banker

Eric Holder probably will get off his duff because the elites don't want this to happen to any more of their wealthy friends. It doesn't look good to have a rich white banker beaten to a pulp, it might set off a stampede of the common man to go after even more of the rich white bankers.

edit to correct logic

[DemReadingDU]

13. Matt Taibbi: Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital

8/29/12 Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital
How the GOP presidential candidate and his private equity firm staged an epic wealth grab, destroyed jobs – and stuck others with the bill

The great criticism of Mitt Romney, from both sides of the aisle, has always been that he doesn't stand for anything. He's a flip-flopper, they say, a lightweight, a cardboard opportunist who'll say anything to get elected.

The critics couldn't be more wrong. Mitt Romney is no tissue-paper man. He's closer to being a revolutionary, a backward-world version of Che or Trotsky, with tweezed nostrils instead of a beard, a half-Windsor instead of a leather jerkin. His legendary flip-flops aren't the lies of a bumbling opportunist – they're the confident prevarications of a man untroubled by misleading the nonbeliever in pursuit of a single, all-consuming goal. Romney has a vision, and he's trying for something big: We've just been too slow to sort out what it is, just as we've been slow to grasp the roots of the radical economic changes that have swept the country in the last generation.

The incredible untold story of the 2012 election so far is that Romney's run has been a shimmering pearl of perfect political hypocrisy, which he's somehow managed to keep hidden, even with thousands of cameras following his every move. And the drama of this rhetorical high-wire act was ratcheted up even further when Romney chose his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin – like himself, a self-righteously anal, thin-lipped, Whitest Kids U Know penny pincher who'd be honored to tell Oliver Twist there's no more soup left. By selecting Ryan, Romney, the hard-charging, chameleonic champion of a disgraced-yet-defiant Wall Street, officially succeeded in moving the battle lines in the 2012 presidential race.

much more!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829

[goodword]

27. Should Be Required Reading

for every voting American.

[Tansy_Gold]

29. Indeed. And a welcome to you

To DU and to the SMW!

[xchrom]

14. well we made it to thursday -- here's some rosemary clooney for you

[xchrom]

15. Major Corporations Are Adjusting For The 'Pauperization Of Europe'

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pauperization-of-europe-2012-8

It started on Monday. “Poverty is returning to Europe,” said Jan Zijderveld, head of Unilever’s European operations, in an interview.
The British–Dutch consumer products company, third largest in the world, was adjusting its commercial strategy to this new reality, he said, by redeploying to Europe what worked in poor countries of the developing world.
Now the stars of the industry are affirming it. “The logic of pauperization,” L’Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon called it on Wednesday.
“If Spaniards are down to spending on average €17 per shopping trip, I can’t sell him detergent for half of his budget,” Zijderveld explained. “In Indonesia we sell individual packages of shampoo for 2 to 3 cents and still earn a fair amount.”


Read more: http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2012/8/29/the-pauperization-of-europe.html#ixzz251if6iZM

[Demeter]

42. This is a time when I really Want to Let the Invective and Blasphemy Fly

but it wouldn't be right, not for us. We are the victims, not the perps.


"Earning a fair amount"


So much more important than anything else on the planet, like justice, freedom from want, equality of opportunity, fairness...any of those truly christian and democratic values (small letters, not the registered trademark kind).

I'm going to be sick now.

[xchrom]

16. CITI: Europe's Losses Are 'Unquantifiable'

http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-europes-losses-are-unquantifiable-2012-8

Feel like every day Europe is juggling hot potatoes? You are not alone. As the following graphic summary from Citi's Matt King (whose insight into Europe, liquidity conduits, shadow banking and a comprehensive picture of modern financial "innovation" has rapidly become second to none) shows, the hot potatoes are getting hotter by the minute, and are flying ever faster and higher. But the kicker: King has the best punchline on Europe we have yet encountered: "Losses are unquantifiable" Q.E.D.
Passing The Potato
Europe - and no less most of the developed world - is caught in a self-reinforcing deleveraging process.

[Demeter]

43. It's quantifiable

Just count the 99% and multiply by infinity.

[tclambert]

17. I've figured out what's wrong with this thread.

It depends way too much on facts. You're letting fact-checkers dictate to you. The Romney campaign recently explained how wrong that is. Much better to just make shit up.

[xchrom]

19. ...

[DemReadingDU]

38. FoxNews: Paul Ryan’s speech is full of lies!

How long will this writer be writing for Fox News?


8/30/12 Paul Ryan’s speech By Sally Kohn

to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.
.
.
Ryan may have helped solve some of the likeability problems facing Romney, but ultimately by trying to deceive voters about basic facts and trying to distract voters from his own record, Ryan’s speech caused a much larger problem for himself and his running mate.

more...
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/

[DemReadingDU]

39. The Most Dishonest Convention Speech ... Ever?

The Most Dishonest Convention Speech ... Ever? Jonathan Cohn
I’d like to talk, instead, about what Ryan actually said—not because I find Ryan’s ideas objectionable, although I do, but because I thought he was so brazenly willing to twist the truth.

At least five times, Ryan misrepresented the facts. And while none of the statements were new, the context was. It’s one thing to hear them on a thirty-second television spot or even in a stump speech before a small crowd. It’s something else entirely to hear them in prime time address, as a vice presidential nominee is accepting his party’s nomination and speaking to the entire country.

1) About the GM plant in Janesville.
2) About Medicare.
3) About the credit rating downgrade.
4) About the deficit.
5) About protecting the weak.

more...
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106730/ryan-most-dishonest-convention-speech-five-lies-gm-medicare-deficit-medicaid

[tclambert]

53. Ryan said Republicans want to protect the weak?

He accidentally used the wrong verb. Instead of "protect" he must have meant "torment" or perhaps "eat."

[Demeter]

44. You are exactly right, tclambert

I blame my training in the hard sciences and engineering. I can't deal with lies. Nor damn lies. And as for statistics, I can sort the wheat from the compost.

And Romney should be jailed under RICO for the financial crimes he's committed.

[xchrom]

18. Marlene Dietrich Where have all the flowers gone

[xchrom]

20. Consumer Spending In U.S. Probably Rose By Most In Five Months

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-30/consumer-spending-in-u-s-probably-rose-by-most-in-five-months.html

Consumer spending in the U.S. probably climbed in July by the most in five months, economists said before a report today.

Household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, rose 0.5 percent last month after being little changed in June, according to the median estimate of 76 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Rising purchases suggest consumers bounced back last month after scrimping in June and May, which may set the stage for faster third-quarter economic growth. Even so, costlier gasoline and a jobless rate that has exceeded 8 percent since early 2009 threaten to limit spending gains in the second half of 2012.

“Households spent a little bit more in July, which is encouraging given that over the previous few months spending pretty much stagnated,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London. “If we jump forward, I get a bit worried again. I don’t really expect there to be big improvements in household spending in the next few months.”

[xchrom]

21. Euro-Area Confidence Drops, German Jobless Increases: Economy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-30/euro-area-confidence-drops-more-than-forecast-to-3-year-low-1-.html

Economic confidence in the euro area fell more than economists forecast in August as leaders struggled to rein in the sovereign debt crisis and the region’s slump deepened.
An index of executive and consumer sentiment in the 17- nation euro area dropped to 86.1 from 87.9 in July, the European Commission in Brussels said today. That’s the lowest since August 2009. Economists had forecast a decline to 87.5, the median of 26 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed. In Germany, jobless claims rose for a fifth month in August.

European consumers and executives are growing more pessimistic about the outlook as officials try to contain the debt turmoil that’s showing little sign of abating. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy meets with French President Francois Hollande today as he considers seeking a second European bailout.
“The economy might have contracted slightly more than previously forecast in the third quarter,” said Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “We still expect the economy to stabilize toward year-end but for that to happen, indicators would have to improve over the coming months. The problem is that the core of the euro area is weakening as well, pushing the economy deeper into recession.”

[xchrom]

22. WORLD STOCKS DROP AMID SIGNS EUROZONE IN RECESSION

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-30-07-42-59

PARIS (AP) -- World stock markets slid Thursday after a survey suggested the eurozone is in recession and as a modest pickup in the U.S. dashed hopes for more stimulus from the Federal Reserve.

A successful bond sale in Italy - which eased concerns that the country's borrowing rates are spiraling out of control - wasn't enough to buoy markets, although the euro made modest gains. The currency shared by 17 countries rose 0.1 percent to $1.2547.

In afternoon trading in Europe, Germany's DAX was down 0.8 percent to 6,952. The FTSE index of leading British shares, meanwhile, fell 0.2 percent to 5,733, and France's CAC-40 dropped 0.5 percent, to 3,3396.

Trading has been light this week as investors anticipate Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech Friday at an economic symposium that they hoped would indicate Washington is preparing more measures to jump-start the economy. But news that the American economy was picking up damped those expectations. On Wednesday, the Fed's "Beige Book" survey of economic sentiment was fairly positive and the country revised up its growth figures for the second quarter.

[xchrom]

23. FRENCH RETAILER CARREFOUR TO CUT STAFF, WAGES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_EARNS_CARREFOUR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-30-06-32-49

PARIS (AP) -- Carrefour will have to cut staff and wages but won't retreat from its model of offering everything from vegetables to dishwashers under one roof, new CEO Georges Plassat said Thursday, as the French retailer announced as loss of (EURO)31 million ($39 million) in the first half.

Europe's largest retailer by sales has struggled in recent years, hit hard by the economic crisis but also flawed management that led to rising costs, higher prices and a now-abandoned plan to rebrand some stores as high-end. Plassat has been called in to turn around the operations - not the first time the company has tried to reverse course in recent years.

Known as "Georges the Cleaner" for his penchant for ruthless cost-cutting, Plassat did not disappoint Thursday at his first presentation of results as the company's chief executive. He promised to root out waste, to cut 500 to 600 jobs with a buy-out plan and to rethink compensation with an eye to reducing bonuses - all while drawing laughs from analysts and journalists for his biting if oblique references to the follies of his predecessors.

On the other hand, he vowed not to cede on what he called the raison d'etre of the company: providing one-stop shopping in large hypermarket stores. He repeatedly said the company needed to retrench and simplify in the areas where it has historically succeeded: providing low prices in big box stores that are generally outside cities.

[xchrom]

24. ITALY BORROWING RATES DROP AGAIN IN BOND AUCTION

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_ITALY_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-30-05-52-24

ROME (AP) -- Italy has paid lower rates to easily sell (EURO)6.5 billion ($8.15 billion) in treasury bonds, the third auction this week that saw the country's borrowing rates drop amid increased investor confidence in the country.

Italy's central bank said Thursday it sold five-year bonds at a 4.73 percent rate, compared with the 5.29 percent rate it paid at the last such auction in July. Ten-year bonds were sold at a 5.82 percent rate, down from 5.96 percent. Demand on the five-year bond was 1.46 times the amount on offer, while demand for the 10-year bond was 1.42 times the amount on offer.

Borrowing rates for Italy and Spain have dropped sharply in recent weeks amid expectations the European Central Bank will approve a plan to buy those countries' government bonds.

[xchrom]

25. to miss demeter & mistress tansy -- thanks for all the threads -- we do appreciate it

[Demeter]

46. You are welcome

It's a twofer, actually. I did it for myself, and because I didn't want all that research to go unused, I put it out there for anybody in the world who wants to see it.

...and the more I do this, the more I fear my head will explode...

[Tansy_Gold]

50. I consider these threads. . . .

. . . the safety release valve.

[DemReadingDU]

26. Video: Robert Reich explains How did Romney get so obscenely rich

appx 3 minutes

8/30/12
Robert Reich ‏@RBReich Romney is no businessman. He's a financier. He didn't get rich the old-fashioned way. He exploited tax loopholes.

&list=UUExmL8PAa1O93bUIYN7BJ_A&index=26&feature=plcp

[xchrom]

31. +1

[Demeter]

45. And that was after getting his seed money from gangsters

and his profits from stealing people's livelihoods.

[xchrom]

28. China to buy 50 Airbus planes for $3.5bn

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19419526

China has signed a deal to buy 50 planes worth $3.5bn (£2.2bn) from Europe's Airbus.

The agreement is part of a slew of trade deals signed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the start of a two-day visit to China.

An agreement on Airbus plane assembly in China was also signed, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Thursday his country would continue to invest in the EU.

[xchrom]

30. Valencia ups bailout request from Spain government

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19422198


Valencia has said it will need a bigger bailout from Spain's central government that it previously expected.

The region will ask for 4.5bn euros (£3.6bn; $5.6bn), more than had been suggested when it first made the plea earlier this summer, a spokeswoman confirmed.

This week, debt-ridden Catalonia also asked for a bailout of 5bn euros.

A 18bn-euro public fund was set up by Madrid to aid its 17 autonomous regions, which are in deep debt.

[Roland99]

32. US Futures sagging

[font color="red"]S&P 500 -0.4%
DOW -0.3%
NASDAQ -0.4% [/font]

[Roland99]

33. Today's Reports

[Roland99]

34. Unemployment claims >>>>

* U.S. weekly jobless claims flat at 374,000
* Four-week claims average rises 1,500 to 370,250
* Continuing claims decline 5,000 to 3.32 million

[Roland99]

35. Personal Consumer Expenditures >>>>

* PCE inflation index increases less than 0.1%
* Personal income climbs 0.3% in July
* U.S. consumer spending rises 0.4% in July

[xchrom]

36. SPAIN Workers’ cooperative defies crisis

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/2601741-workers-cooperative-defies-crisis

Unemployment is non-existent in Marinaleda, an Andalusian village in southern Spain that is prosperous thanks to its farming cooperative. In a country in the grip of austerity, the village mayor, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, heads a grassroots resistance movement.

Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, made the headlines recently by leading a "forced expropriation" of food stuffs from several supermarkets.

Aided by his allies in the Andalusian Farmers' Union (SAT), the food was then distributed to the most needy. Clearly, the mayor of Marinaleda stands out among Spanish politicians.

Sánchez Gordillo is a historic leader of the Farm Workers' Union (SOC), the backbone of the current SAT. He has been the mayor the little village, which numbers fewer than 3,000 people and is in the Seville region, since 1979. There, thanks to the participation and support of the local population, he launched a unique political and economic experiment which turned the village into a kind of socialist stronghold in the midst of the Andalusian countryside.

[Tansy_Gold]

41. Mondragón, mis amigos.

[DemReadingDU]

37. Jon Stewart - We Built It

8/29/12

The Republican National Convention theme "We Built It" resonates with those ignoring government's hand in helping to create the stable conditions aiding entrepreneurship.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-august-29-2012/rnc-2012---the-road-to-jeb-bush-2016---we-built-it

[Demeter]

47. Not to mention the daily input from "Labor"

without whom, there would be no America, and no profits (and therefore, no GOP).

That does it! General Strike!

[xchrom]

40. STOCKS FALL AS CONSUMER SPENDING FAILS TO IMPRESS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WALL_STREET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-30-09-50-18

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are opening lower, with investors underwhelmed by news of higher consumer spending.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 76 points to 13,031. The Standard & Poor's 500 is down nine to 1,402. The Nasdaq is down 19 to 3,062.

The government says that consumer spending rose in July after holding steady in June and falling in May. Separately, retailers like Target and Costco are reporting that they beat analysts' predictions for August sales.

Investors could be worried that gas prices, which hit a national average of $3.80 per gallon this week, will force customers to cut back on shopping.

The government also says that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits was unchanged last week. But the four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, increased.

[Demeter]

49. Time for the Close-of-Europe Fairy Dust!

to see if the fall below 13K can be avoided one more day....

Is it a triple witching weekend?

GTG, see you tomorrow!

[DemReadingDU]

51. DOW 13,000.71

[AnneD]

52. Please someone give me a virtual smack up side the head....

I put my hand in the crazy and went on a general discussion thread here. It turned out to be nothing more than a Rah Rah thread.

How could I be so foolish as to think they wanted to have an honest discussion. Fuddnick, can I borrow Sara or Roscoe for a few moments. I have some wounds that need their special attention.

Lesson remembered.

[Fuddnik]

54. Sure.

But, the trick is, to take the dogs with you for protection before you wade in.

[AnneD]

56. Well smack me upside the head again.....

Why didn't I think of that

[Tansy_Gold]

55. ...

[AnneD]

57. I feel better already....

Thanks.

[bread_and_roses]

58. Well this AM cruising through the LBN threads ...

I've seen Michael Moore excoriated and Media Benjamin/ Code Pink sniffily criticized for alleged failings to fall in line. You are in good company.

[Fuddnik]

59. It's something ain't it?

You either have 100% faith, or you die.

I personally think MM is being an optimist. The wing-nuts are drunk with power, hatred, and racism, and they're highly motivated and mobilized. Even more compelling, is the countrywide purges and election theft machinery already in place. Their hatred for Obama is so intense, that they'll crawl through broken glass to vote for a guy they absolutely can't stand.

[AnneD]

60. This is the point I keep trying to emphasise...

all the electoral maps that show Obama ahead don't mean squat if he cannot turn out the vote. His corporate cabinet choices, his poor negotiation skills, and the lack of any substantial leadership on his part while the middle class is being robbed and beaten senseless have turned off most folks that voted for him the last time. Fear of the other candidate doesn't fire people up and get them to the polls. But hey, what do I know...I only cut my teeth on elections since childhood, politics is a blood sport at family gatherings, and I have performed every duty in a campaign short of being on the ticket.