STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 3 January 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 3 January 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 2 January 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 2 January 2013
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Dow Jones 13,412.55 +308.41 (2.35%)
S&P 500 1,462.42 +36.23 (2.54%)
Nasdaq 3,112.26 +92.75 (3.07%)


[font color=green]10 Year 1.84% -0.01 (-0.54%)
30 Year 3.04% -0.01 (-0.33%) [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
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.



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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. 'We Reacted Immediately to Symptoms of Crisis' (ICELAND)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/icelandic-economy-minister-explains-reaction-to-finance-crisis-a-869351.html

Interview with Iceland's Economy Minister: In late 2008 and early 2009, all three of Iceland's major banks collapsed amid the financial crisis. Now, the country is experiencing economic growth once again and unemployment is falling. Economy Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson explains to SPIEGEL how it was done....

SPIEGEL: Four years after Iceland's banks collapsed, the country has managed to overcome its financial crisis. How did you do it?

Sigfusson: We haven't reached our destination yet, but we are on the right track. We have growth again: 2.7 percent this year and up to 3 percent next year. The unemployment rate is decreasing and above all the budget deficit has sunk from an unfathomable 14 percent in 2008 to about 1.5 percent in this year. In the upcoming budget we expect only 0.3 percent and in the year after a small surplus.

SPIEGEL: What can European crisis managers learn from the experience of your small country?

Sigfusson: We are not going to preach to Europe that we have found the cure all. But it was important that we didn't wait, but that instead we reacted immediately to symptoms of the crisis. In order to remedy the deficit, an increase in taxes to raise revenue was unavoidable, but savings measures were also necessary. We needed a mix of both and the strong conviction in preserving our welfare system.

SPIEGEL: What can you recommend to countries in crisis like Greece?

Sigfusson: First security for society. Then the lower and middle income classes must be protected from austerity measures. Their purchasing power must be maintained so that their consumption can contribute to the revitalization of the economy. Internationally that is often overlooked.

MORE

[Demeter]

2. Rule of Law index: U.S. Ranks Low In Access To Justice Compared To Other Wealthy Nations

LIKE ICELAND, WHICH JAILED ITS BNKSTERS.....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/rule-of-law-index-2012_n_2200765.html

Access to justice is a core American value. But a new survey of the rule of law across the globe finds that the U.S. ranks surprisingly low relative to its high-income peers in terms of access to legal counsel in civil disputes and equal protection under criminal law.

The "Rule of Law Index," released Wednesday by the independent World Justice Project, found that in some categories the U.S. even ranks below some developing nations, such as Botswana and Georgia. In an interview with The Huffington Post, the survey's authors said the problems in the U.S. are primarily due to unequal access to justice based on race and class.

"In the U.S., socioeconomic level matters," said Alejandro Ponce, chief research officer for the World Justice Project. "Poor people are at a disadvantage in all these situations, as are ethnic minorities."

In the category of criminal justice, the U.S. ranked 26th among 97 countries, and in the bottom 20 percent of wealthy nations -- dragged down by low scores in the subcategory of equal protection.

In the civil justice category, the U.S. got dinged because it lags behind in providing access to disadvantaged groups, the survey found. "Legal assistance is frequently expensive or unavailable, and the gap between rich and poor individuals in terms of both actual use of and satisfaction with the civil court system is significant. In addition, there is a perception that ethnic minorities and foreigners receive unequal treatment."

MORE

[tclambert]

4. We could improve our rating if we just . . .

arrest George W. Bush and Richard "Dick" Cheney for war crimes. How can you let people boast about their war crimes and go free if you respect the rule of law?

[Demeter]

7. Then we'd have to arrest the banksters, Poppy and Obama, too

Unfortunately, I see no downside here.

We'd be mending the great tear in the Rule of Law that Nixon's pardon created.

[tclambert]

41. September 8, 1974 was the day the Rule of Law in America died.

[Demeter]

3. Welcome to the Future of Your Health Insurance. It Sucks.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/11/i-have-seen-the-future-of-your-health-insurance-it-sucks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

There have been numerous reports about the shortcomings of Obamacare which its boosters have either ignored or shouted down. And troublingly, the attitude is often “I got mine” as in “My kids are now covered under my policy” without questioning what the narrow and broader issues are.

Well, I’ll tell you I got mine too. My current policy, which on paper is actually quite good, has a lifetime cap. Under the ACA, it is grandfathered and the cap is removed. And I’m still here to tell you that the future sucks. This deal enriches Big Pharma and the health insurers at the expense of the public at large. And the result of that will be a worsening of the already lousy health care system in the US. And I can give you a feel for what your future is likely to look like. It’s not pretty.

Let’s start with some of the inaccurate praise heaped on the ACA:

It covers the uninsured. No, it only cover some of the uninsured. The CBO scored the ACA as leaving 30 million still uninsured as of 2022.

It will cover people with preexisting conditions. Um, maybe, until you need costly care. The ACA preserved a loophole you can drive a truck through: insurers can continue to cancel policies in the case of “fraud or intentional misrepresentation” as they do now. And the bar for fraud, per established case law, is remarkably low. Forgetting to tell your insurer about a past ailment, no matter how minor, qualifies. Say you forget to tell your new insurer that you had acne or a concussion in your teen years. That will more than do. Insurers NOW frequently go over the records of people who have costly conditions or major surgeries with a fine toothed comb looking for ways to rescind policies. For instance, in 2010, Reuters reported:

WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.

WellPoint appears to have overstepped by using pretty much any weak excuse to rescind policies. But the low standards of the fraud out mean that there’s still plenty of room to drop coverage, particularly for patients over, say, 35, who have enough of a medical history that they can easily forget a minor ailment that their insurer finds and uses to ditch them. Remember, most people who undergo a medical bankruptcy had insurance.

Your health care will be (mainly) covered. Hahaha. I know high functioning people (as in couples where both spouses had advanced degrees, and one was on the board of a major medical devices company) who’ve been stuck with huge hospital bills. They’d thought everything was covered, and somehow items that were in the tens of thousands (in one case, totaling $75,000) wasn’t. And then there’s the “out of network” problem, highlighted this weekend by a New York Times story of parents who had a baby that had trouble sleeping and the pediatricians they saw were at a loss. The doctor who specialized in that sort of problem didn’t accept insurance. While he was able to help the baby, the parents had to foot all of the $650 bill.

Health insurer profit margins are capped. That is technically accurate but substantively misleading. The health insurer have been engaged in price gouging over the last two decades. Health insurers as of the early 1990s spent 95% of health care premiums on medical expenditures. They now spend less than 85%. The ACA requires them to spend 80% on health care costs. So the bill institutionalizes an egregiously fat profit margin.

Now if that doesn’t sober you up, consider a few more factoids: the ACA does indeed extend insurance to a large pool of formerly uninsured, and subsidizes insurance to lower income individuals. This should increase demand for health care services. At the same time, more and more doctors are opting out of taking insured patients, largely because they can’t stand the cost and hassle of fighting insurers to get paid. For instance, dermatologists want to do Botox and dermapeels, not acne. Endocrinologists are converting their practices to anti-aging. In New York City, it used to be not too difficult to find a pretty good primary physician. That is no longer true. When my old MD quit practicing (while I was overseas), the insane array of referrals I got for his replacement would make for a Woody Allen movie...

[bread_and_roses]

5. The rich are dancing in the streets - which tells us ...

... just exactly how lousy the fiscal cliff deal was for the rest of us. All the real wealth was protected. And they know it.

[just1voice]

6. Shssssss, the propagandized masses are celebrating a supposed political win

They'll probably stop stomping their feet as soon as they see their taxes have gone up.

[Demeter]

8. I think the 1% thinks they can roll Congress, still

since they got the taxes on estates lowered. We will have to fight for every inch of progress. Unfortunately, Obama isn't a fighter. He's Predator Drone...prefers to sneak up and blast the helpless.

If the cap comes off social security, then we will see a true shift in power.

[Demeter]

9. Innovation without change

[Demeter]

10. The Bill Of Rights Has A Very Bad Week By Charles P. Pierce

Of course, while everyone in Washington, and the courtier press that serves them, were endlessly droning on and on about the Gentle Fiscal Incline, the Bill Of Rights closed out 2012 by having one of the worst weeks it's had in the two centuries of its existence. But the courtier press paid that little mind, possibly because selling out the Bill Of Rights was done on a "bipartisan" basis, and the denizens of the various Green Rooms would endorse cannibal murder if both parties agreed to subsidize it.

First came the revolting vote on the reauthorization of FISA. Time was, and not that long ago, that the whole idea of a secret court issuing secret warrants was enough to raise hackles all on its own...Now the old FISA regulations seem like they were drafted by George Mason, compared to what keeps getting reauthorized in the Senate. This latest thing was to reauthorize the truly spooky FISA Amendments that were passed in 2008 when the president, in one of the actions he's taken that really was a naked sellout of his previously enunciated principles, joined with a Senate majority to immunize the telecommunications companies that had participated in the Bush Administration's lawlessness regarding wiretapping, as well as to authorize sweeping new wiretapping powers far beyond those against which the companies were being immunized. What the president did is not excused by the fact that he was running for president at the time. This wasn't a flip-flop he took because he wanted to be elected. This was a flip-flop he took because he wanted to do some things once he was elected. This year, as those amendments came up for reauthorization, what we had was a genuine horror show, and it was made worse by the awful debate that preceded the vote. There was enough boogedy-boogedy coming from the Democratic side to embarrass John Bolton. Glenn Greenwald already has written at length on this, but one comment from the now-inexcusable Dianne Feinstein is worthy of further comment:

"This is an effort to make that material public, and I think it's a mistake at this particular time because it will chill the program, it will make us less secure, not more secure...I know where this goes, it goes to destroy the program. I don't want to see it destroyed."

In other words...no, wait, there are no other words. This is the argument of a totalitarian. You can't know what we're doing to protect you, even if we're doing it to you, because then we can't protect you and you will be killed by bad people and it will be your own fault. Somewhere in East Germany, an elderly ex-bureaucrat is getting a thrill up his leg and doesn't know why.

Later, came the release of some FBI documents in which it seemed to indicate at least an unacceptable level of involvement by federal law enforcement in the crackdowns by local authorities on the various outposts of the Occupy movement. The hooley on the Left, which is going on vigorously over in the LG&M saloon, seems to center on whether or not federal authorities directed the activities of the local cops, or whether they simply provided logistical and intelligence support. (There's also a great deal of swatting at Naomi Wolf, on which I will pass, thanks a lot.) To me, this is a distinction without a difference. You don't have to go back too far -- COINTELPRO, which began in 1956, and the CISPES busts in the 1980's -- to see how local and federal law enforcement can work together, at arms-length or closer, if necessary, to crack down on inconvenient political movements. The FBI opened a file on Fred Hampton in 1967. Through COINTELPRO, it sowed disinformation in Chicago, and it placed a mole named William O'Neal in the Black Panther Party hierarchy. (O'Neal eventually became Hampton's bodyguard and, it is claimed, dosed Hampton with a barbituate on the night of his death.) On December 4, 1969, Hampton was murdered in his bed by officers of the Chicago Police Department. Eventually, his family sued, and won a settlement, from both the local and federal governments.

Did it ultimately matter whether or not the FBI was "directing" operations here, or whether it was merely part of an overall program?

Not to Fred Hampton.

Moreover, the documents also seem to indicate that the FBI was coordinating with the banks and the financial institutions as regards to the burgeoning Occupy movement. This, also, would not be unprecedented. The FBI always has been willing to do private favors for the powerful, and it rarely works out well. If I can dip into my other life for purposes of historical comparison, at the behest of Francis Cardinal Spellman, FBI agents working the point-shaving scandals in New York college basketball in the 1950's deliberately declined to investigate players at Catholic universities. And, in 1987, at the request of the management of the Boston Red Sox, Margo Adams, the inamorata of third-baseman Wade Boggs, was invited to what was described as an "informal" chat with the FBI because the affair was causing dissension in the clubhouse.

Rule Number One For Daily Living: There is no such thing as an "informal" chat with the FBI.

There is no question that the coordination between federal and local law-enforcement has grown tighter over the past 11 years. Anyone who's been to a political convention since 2004 knows that. There are federal programs by which hayshaker police chiefs can get their hands on a ludicrous level of weaponry, and the federal government in general has played a significant role in the militarization of local police departments. It is hardly a conspiracy theory at this point to say that, if the local gentry wanted the local police to clear out the drum circles, then the feds would be more than happy to help out. The difference between local and federal law enforcement is passing thin right now. And the most important point is that, say, the Oakland police work for the people of the city of Oakland. The feds work for me, and for every other citizen in the country. If the Oakland PD goes out and busts heads on its own, then that's a matter for the citizens of Oakland. If, however, the FBI helps them do it, and helps them in any way, they're doing it on my nickel, and I get to tell them they should knock it off. Suppose some of the Occupy people who got their heads busted want to take the local police who did it into federal court. Wouldn't the involvement, at whatever level, of the FBI compromise the administration of justice in that case? (That's a real question. I don't know nearly enough law to answer it.) There's enough in those documents to warrant a serious congressional investigation. There's enough still left in the Bill Of Rights to demand one.

Read more: Should Auld Civil Liberties Be Forgot - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/bad-week-for-the-bill-of-rights-123112#ixzz2GvBfXtTo

[Demeter]

11. U.S. Internet Users Pay More for Slower Service

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-27/u-s-internet-users-pay-more-for-slower-service.html?utm_source=Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=199c16ba81-DD_1_2_131_2_2013&utm_medium=email

...In 2004, the Lafayette,LA utilities system decided to provide a fiber-to-the-home service. The new network, called LUS Fiber, would give everyone in Lafayette a very fast Internet connection, enabling them to lower their electricity costs by monitoring and adjusting their usage...Push-back from the local telephone company, BellSouth Corp., and the local cable company, Cox Communications Inc., was immediate. They tried to get laws passed to stop the network, sued the city, even forced the town to hold a referendum on the project -- in which the people voted 62 percent in favor. Finally, in February 2007, after five civil lawsuits, the Louisiana Supreme Court voted, 7-0, to allow the network.

From 2007 to mid-2011, people living in Lafayette saved $5.7 million on telecommunications services. Since Lafayette went down this path, other communities have followed. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a group that advocates for municipal fiber networks, these community-owned networks are generally faster, more reliable and cheaper than those of the private carriers, and provide better customer service. It’s not free. Fiber connection costs $1,200 to $2,000 a house. It can take two to three years for revenue from any given customer to offset the upfront investment. But then the fiber lasts for decades. Municipal networks are seeing more than half of households adopt the service. And scores of communities are discovering that the networks bring new jobs.

Since the city utility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, began offering fiber-to-the-home, some businesses in Knoxville -- a hundred miles to the northeast -- have been adding jobs in Chattanooga. Yet when the utility tried in 2011 to expand its fiber services to towns outside Chattanooga, the area’s private carriers initiated a lobbying assault and defeated a bill in the state legislature that would have allowed the expansion...Also in 2011, six Time Warner lobbyists persuaded the North Carolina legislature to pass a “level playing field” bill making it impossible for cities in that state to create their own high-speed Internet access networks. Time Warner, which reported $26 billion in revenue in 2010, donated more than $6.3 million to North Carolina politicians over four years. Eighteen other states have laws that make it extremely difficult or impossible for cities to provide this service to their residents...Still, other experiments are under way. In 2009, when Google Inc. announced it would conduct a fiber-to-the-home pilot project, more than 1,100 communities applied. The Kansas City area, the winner, is now enjoying the launch of a fiber network -- the fastest and most reliable way to access the Internet.

Internet access, like electricity, is crucial to the economic and social health of the country. Electricity, however, is provided by largely reliable, taxpayer-supported entities, and no one seems to think the country would be better off if a purely private, wholly deregulated operator were in charge. Such a company might decide to provide service only in New York, Washington and other big cities, at very high rates for those who could afford it, and refuse to serve small towns and less- successful areas...

[Demeter]

14. This is exactly what happened in the 1880s

This is exactly what happened in the 1880s, when privately owned electric companies served big cities and the homes of the rich, and everyone else intermittently if at all. By the mid-1920s, 15 holding companies controlled 85 percent of the nation’s electricity distribution, and the Federal Trade Commission found that the power trusts routinely gouged consumers...In response, thousands of communities formed their own electrical utilities. Now more than 2,000 U.S. communities, including Los Angeles, San Antonio and Seattle provide their own power. And electricity is a regulated public utility.

Why don’t Americans apply this same thinking to communications?

After the Great Depression, the Federal Communications Commission was given the job of providing the U.S. with a high- quality communications system at reasonable rates. For 50 years, the state oversaw the development of phone service. Providers were prohibited from entering into other businesses and were obliged to serve the public on nondiscriminatory terms. Anyone could make a phone call to anyone else. ..

THIS IS A MUST READ!

[xchrom]

12. bon jour!

[Demeter]

22. Sacre Bleu! My eyes!

It's gray and cold here...17F at 10 AM. Good thing it was warmer while I was throwing paper until half past midnight....

You should see my purple balaclava, X. It would make you run screaming for the exit. It's only suitable for the dark, or maybe bank robberies....

[xchrom]

25. ...

no bank robberies for you, young lady!

[xchrom]

13. ADP JOBS REPORT DESTROYS ESTIMATES AT 215K

http://www.businessinsider.com/december-adp-jobs-report-2013-1

The ADP jobs report is a preview of the official Non-Farm Payrolls report, which comes out tomorrow.
ADP says 215K private sector jobs were created in December.
That's 50% higher than the 140K that was expected.
It's also a huge beat vs. last month.

[Demeter]

23. And ADP is always so accurate (NOT)

[xchrom]

15. Gap Shares Are Surging

http://www.businessinsider.com/gap-acquisition-and-share-buyback-3-2013-1



t's a busy morning already for Gap investors. Shares are already up more than 5 percent in pre-market trading.

The company said same store sales rose 5 percent in December from a year ago, alleviating concerns that retail sales were especially weak this Christmas.

Growth figures nearly across the board were favorable compared to last year, per the release:

Gap North America: positive 2 percent versus negative 4 percent last year


*** i don't shop gap any more

[xchrom]

16. A Former U.S. Attorney Is Heading To Court To Solve Ancient Greece's Most Legendary Death

http://www.businessinsider.com/socrates-death-heads-to-court-2013-1


The Death of Socrates

Despite the recent spate of gun violence to grip the city, some of Chicago's top attorneys plan to spend their time arguing a 2,400-year-old free speech case.

Dan Webb of Winston and Strawn and Robert Clifford, the former chair of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation will represent Socrates Jan. 31 in the Windy City while former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald will represent the city of Athens, Greece, The ABA Journal reported Wednesday.

The Chicago lawyers are taking a stab at the trial and re-trying the case as part of a fundraiser for the National Hellenic Museum.

Socrates, a famed philosopher, was tried and executed in Athens in 399 B.C.E. after city leaders became upset with his teachings and the effect they were having on society, according to the University of Missouri Kansas City.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/socrates-death-heads-to-court-2013-1#ixzz2GvHRESsE

[xchrom]

17. Jobless claims decline for the first time in five months{spain}

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/01/03/inenglish/1357217770_834534.html


Jobless claims in Spain fell for the first time in five months in December but that failed to camouflage what has been a dire year for the domestic labor market, with the sagging economy shedding over 2,000 jobs a day in 2012.

According to figures released Thursday by the Labor Ministry, the number of people signed up at employment offices as being out of work declined by 59,094 from November to 4.848 million.

For the year as a whole, the ranks of the unemployed were swelled by 426,364, an increase of 9.64 percent over a year earlier, while the number of people affiliated to the Social Security system declined by 797,240, a rate of 2,162 per day, to 16.422 million. There are now less than two workers contributing to the Social Security system for every single pensioner drawing benefits from it

December is normally a good month for the labor market, particularly the services sector, due to seasonal hiring for the Christmas holiday period. Jobless claims in the services sector declined by 49,438 and were down by 13,683 in the case of first-time jobseekers. Unemployment increased in construction and industry. The Labor Ministry said the December figures were the best for this month in the current statistical series.

[xchrom]

18. Foreign Minister plans to clip Gibraltar's wings at EU meeting

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/01/03/inenglish/1357212935_373728.html

The governing Popular Party is set to take the offensive in Spain's long-running dispute with Gibraltar in 2013. Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo plans to slowly but steadily dismantle the concessions granted to the British overseas territory by the previous Socialist government that the PP feels have strengthened The Rock's sovereignty without Spain receiving the benefits it had expected in return.

The foreign minister's opening gambit will be to try and have Gibraltar International Airport excluded from the so-called Single European Sky legislation. The directive was scheduled to be approved under Cyprus's tenure of the rotating EU presidency but was delayed and will now be handled under Ireland's watch. The matter will be on the agenda at the next meeting of EU transport ministers.

The veto on Gibraltar's airport was lifted in 2006 after a meeting of the Trilateral Forum between Madrid, London and Gibraltar.

The Córdoba Accord of 2006 lifted restrictions on Gibraltar's airport - including a ban on flights over Spanish airspace - in return for the creation of a jointly owned company to provide airport services.


***they don't have bigger problems?

[xchrom]

19. Fiscal cliff: US urged to tackle budget deficit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20897566

US politicians have been urged to do more to sort out the budget by the two largest credit rating agencies.

The warning comes despite the US narrowly agreeing a deal to stave off the US "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax rises worth $600bn (£370bn).

Rating agency Moody's said lawmakers would need to take additional steps to lower the ballooning budget deficit.

Rival agency Standard and Poor's added: "Washington's governance and policymaking had become less stable."


***to be lectured by the likes of moody's

[xchrom]

20. Starbucks to open first Vietnam store next month

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20896489


Starbucks, the world's biggest coffee-shop company, is set to open its first store in Vietnam next month as it continues expanding in Asia.

The cafe will be in Ho Chi Minh City, the company said in a statement, with partner Hong Kong's Maxim Group.

Starbucks has seen growth stagnate in the US prompting it to open thousands of stores in China and Asia Pacific.

Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer in the world behind Brazil.

[xchrom]

21. LG launches first next-generation OLED 55in television

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20888689

LG has launched a 55in (140cm) OLED TV - kickstarting a battle over the next-generation of high-quality screens.

OLED - which means organic light-emitting diode - is more energy efficient than LCD (liquid crystal display) and plasma-based alternatives.

LG's model will be sold in South Korea first with other markets, including Europe, to follow thereafter.

Both LG and Samsung announced 55in OLEDs last year, but LG is the first to make its available.

[Demeter]

24. I will never buy anything made by LG again

I have a broken cell phone, and a broken refrigerator made by them. Both far too new to be in this state.

[xchrom]

26. Euros discarded as impoverished Greeks resort to bartering

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/02/euro-greece-barter-poverty-crisis


Stall-holders at a bartering market in the central Greek city of Volos, where shoppers use Tem coupons to exchange services or products. Photograph: Despoina Vafeidou /AFP/Getty Images


It's been a busy day at the market in downtown Volos. Angeliki Ioanitou has sold a decent quantity of olive oil and soap, while her friend Maria has done good business with her fresh pies.

But not a single euro has changed hands – none of the customers on this drizzly Saturday morning has bothered carrying money at all. For many, browsing through the racks of second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and homemade jams, the need to survive means money has been usurped.

"It's all about exchange and solidarity, helping one another out in these very hard times," enthused Ioanitou, her hair tucked under a floppy felt cap. "You could say a lot of us have dreams of a utopia without the euro."

In this bustling port city at the foot of Mount Pelion, in the heart of Greece's most fertile plain, locals have come up with a novel way of dealing with austerity – adopting their own alternative currency, known as the Tem. As the country struggles with its worst crisis in modern times, with Greeks losing up to 40% of their disposable income as a result of policies imposed in exchange for international aid, the system has been a huge success. Organisers say some 1,300 people have signed up to the informal bartering network.

[Demeter]

36. This is the way to undo globalism and the 1% tyranny

Take away their power to generate and control the money supply.

[Demeter]

27. The Gift that Keeps on Giving : the Fiscal Cliff Subthread

http://www.nationofchange.org/congress-and-fiscal-cliff-1357140145

Congress and the “Fiscal Cliff” By Karl Grossman

As the New Year began, the newspaper Newsday ran an editorial headed “Congress Made This Mess” with a subhead declaring that the “fiscal cliff” is a “metaphor for failure.” It was accompanied by a cartoon depicting the dropping of a ball—labeled “dysfunction—alongside the Capitol Dome.”

“So the new year may start off much like the old ended, with an epic failure to govern,” opined Newsday.

No matter what may happen about the “fiscal cliff,” the U.S. Congress is now widely seen as deeply dysfunctional. This past summer, Gallup reported that its polling showed only one-in-10 Americans “approve the job Congress is doing.” This tied, it noted, with the “all-time low” of 10 percent approval in a Gallup poll the year before “as the lowest in Gallup’s 38 year history of this measure. Eight-three percent disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job.” Much of this has to do with the public perception—an accurate one—that most members of Congress are bought and paid for notably via campaign contributions by special interests. Indeed, making the rounds of the Internet in recent years has been the posting: “Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we could identify their sponsors.” And then there’s this repeated posting: “Now I understand! The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for various groups of animals. We are all familiar with a Herd of cows, a Flock of chickens, a School of fish and a Gaggle of geese. However, less widely known is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows…an Exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls. Now consider a group of baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Believe it or not…. a Congress! I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington! Look it up. A group of baboons is a congress.”

A very low opinion of the U.S. Congress is not new in America. Over a century ago, Mark Twain wrote: “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” Twain also said that “there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.” Decades later, Will Rogers said: “The country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.” Milton Berle, yet later, said: “You can lead a man to Congress, but you can’t make him think.”

But now confidence in and respect for Congress has reached a nadir. And the perception matches reality. For example, the 112th Congress, which ended this week, “is set to go down in American history as the most unproductive session since the 1940s,” wrote Amanda Terkel last week on The Huffington Post. It passed slightly more than 200 bills that became law. This is “far less than the 80th Congress (1947-1948) which President Harry Truman infamously dubbed the “Do-Nothing Congress” which passed 900 bills that became law.” Part of the problem is what has been termed “congressional stagnation”—a theory holding that the U.S. Congress has become stagnant as a result of the continuous re-election of nearly all of its incumbents. Indeed, notes the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington: “Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection. With wide name recognition, and usually an insurmountable advantage in campaign cash, House incumbents typically have little trouble holding onto their seats.” Also, making members of Congress ever more the instruments of special interests with money is the ever-skyrocketing cost of campaigns—mainly for political TV commercials.The Center for Responsive Politics notes that the 2012 election campaign was the “most expensive election in U.S. history”—costing $6 billion. Much of that, more than $2 billion, involved the presidential race. “House and Senate candidates combined will spend about $1.82 billion.” And “congressional races are being affected by the huge increase in outside spending.”...“In the new campaign finance landscape post-Citizens United, we’re seeing historic spending levels spurred by outside groups dominated by a small number of individuals and organizations making exceptional contributions,” said Sheila Krumholz, director of the Center for Responsive Politics. As Alex Gibney, maker of the documentary “Casino Jack and the United States of Money,” has said, we have “a system of legalized bribery in Washington.” This reflects directly on the low, low level of Congress doing anything—and, when it does, mainly serving special interests.

Change—major change—is desperately needed!

[Demeter]

29. Who Won in the Fiscal Cliff Deal? The lawyers won.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13651-who-won-in-the-fiscal-cliff-deal

...Well, not just the lawyers. The lawyers, the doctors, the dentists, the middle managers, the advertising executives, the whole MBA crowd. Who won in the fiscal cliff deal were all those individuals making between $113,700 and $400,000 per year. For couples the numbers will be slightly higher, but still in the lower six figures. They’re the ones who will pay the least in new taxes. The headline outcome of the fiscal cliff deal was that taxes will go up only on individuals who make more than $400,000 per year (and couples that make more than $450,000). For those top earners the marginal tax rate on that part of their incomes that is over $400,000 ($450,000 for couples) will revert to the 1990s level of 39.6%. For the past decade it’s been just 35%.

But a fuller analysis of the fiscal cliff deal reveals that Social Security taxes are going up for all workers on their first $113,700 of income. For the vast majority of workers, this is all of their income. For most American workers, the FICA Social Security tax they pay will rise from 4.2% to 6.2%.

The sweet spot of the fiscal cliff deal is the lower six figure income range. People with incomes in this range don’t usually think of themselves as rich. In fact, politicians consistently pander to them, since these are the vocal, educated, politically-engaged professionals who can make or break their careers. Nonetheless, these six figure professionals are in the top 20% of America’s income distribution. They’re not rich, but they’re comfortable. They’re not the people who need a tax break. They’re the people who want a tax break.

The fiscal cliff deal is not a bad deal. But it’s not a progressive deal. It’s a deal for the comfortable, not a deal for the struggling and the poor. Those of us with good jobs and advanced degrees can be satisfied. For the 80% of Americans who don’t, it’s just more bad news.

[Demeter]

30. 8 Corporate Subsidies in the Fiscal Cliff Bill, From Goldman Sachs to Disney to NASCAR

http://truth-out.org/news/item/13648-eight-corporate-subsidies-in-the-fiscal-cliff-bill-from-goldman-sachs-to-disney-to-nascar

Throughout the months of November and December, a steady stream of corporate CEOs flowed in and out of the White House to discuss the impending fiscal cliff. Many of them, such as Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, would then publicly come out and talk about how modest increases of tax rates on the wealthy were reasonable in order to deal with the deficit problem. What wasn’t mentioned is what these leaders wanted, which is what’s known as “tax extenders”, or roughly $205B of tax breaks for corporations. With such a banal name, and boring and difficult to read line items in the bill, few political operatives have bothered to pay attention to this part of the bill. But it is critical to understanding what is going on.

The negotiations over the fiscal cliff involve more than the Democrats, Republicans, the middle class and the wealthy. The corporate sector is here in force as well. One of the core shifts in the Reagan era was the convergence of wealthy individuals who wanted to pay less in taxes – many from the growing South – with corporations that wanted tax breaks. Previously, these groups fought over the pie, because the idea of endless deficits did not make sense. Once Reagan figured out how to finance yawning deficits, the GOP was able to wield the corporate sector and the new sun state wealthy into one force, epitomized today by Grover Norquist. What Obama is (sort of) trying to do is split this coalition, and the extenders are the carrot he’s dangling in front of the corporate sector to do it.

Most tax credits drop straight to the bottom line – it’s why companies like Enron considered its tax compliance section a “profit center”. A few hundred billion dollars of tax expenditures is a major carrot to offer. Surely, a modest hike in income taxes for people who make more than $400k in income and stupid enough not to take that money in capital gain would be worth trading off for the few hundred billion dollars in corporate pork. This is what the fiscal cliff is about – who gets the money. And by leaving out the corporate sector, nearly anyone who talks about this debate is leaving out a key negotiating partner.

So without further ado, here are eight corporate subsidies in the fiscal cliff bill that you haven’t heard of:

1) Help out NASCAR
2) A hundred million or so for Railroads
3) Disney’s Gotta Eat
4) Help a brother mining company out
5) Subsidies for Goldman Sachs Headquarters – Sec. 328 extends “tax exempt financing for York Liberty Zone,” which was a program to provide post-9/11 recovery funds. Rather than going to small businesses affected, however, this was, according to Bloomberg, “little more than a subsidy for fancy Manhattan apartments and office towers for Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Corp.” Michael Bloomberg himself actually thought the program was excessive, so that’s saying something. According to David Cay Johnston’s The Fine Print, Goldman got $1.6 billion in tax free financing for its new massive headquarters through Liberty Bonds.

6) $9B Off-shore financing loophole for banks
7) Tax credits for foreign subsidiaries
8) Bonus Depreciation, R&D Tax Credit

MORE DETAIL AT LINK

[Demeter]

32. After the Battle Over the Cliff, the Battle Over the Debt Ceiling By Robert Reich

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13652-the-ongoing-war-after-the-battle-over-the-cliff-the-battle-over-the-debt-ceiling

...The battle over the fiscal cliff was only a prelude to the coming battle over raising the debt ceiling – a battle that will likely continue through early March, when the Treasury runs out of tricks to avoid a default on the nation’s debt. The White House’s and Democrats’ single biggest failure in the cliff negotiations was not getting Republicans’ agreement to raise the debt ceiling.

The last time the debt ceiling had to be raised, in 2011, Republicans demanded major cuts in programs for the poor as well as Medicare and Social Security. They got some concessions from the White House but didn’t get what they wanted – which led us to the fiscal cliff. So we’ve come full circle.

On it goes, battle after battle in what seems an unending war that began with the election of Tea-Party Republicans in November, 2010. Don’t be fooled. This war was never over the federal budget deficit. In fact, federal deficits are dropping as a percent of the total economy. For the fiscal year ending in September 2009, the deficit was 10.1 percent of the gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in America. In 2010, it was 9 percent. In 2011, 8.7 percent. In the 2012 fiscal year, it was down to 7 percent...

[Demeter]

34. Obama's Tax Threshold Concession Bodes Ill for Debt Ceiling Talks By Dean Baker

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13664-obamas-tax-threshold-concession-bodes-ill-for-debt-ceiling-talks

The president won re-election promising to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000. Now he's already capitulating.

There are three points that people should recognize about the fiscal cliff deal that appears to have been agreed by President Obama and the Republicans in Congress.

The first is the simple and obvious point that we have gone over the cliff. There was no deal approved by Congress and signed by President Obama before the 1 January deadline. This is important because the budget reporting on the "fiscal cliff" repeatedly asserted that the country and the economy faced dire consequences from not having a deal reached by this deadline. They repeatedly asserted that we risked a recession, grossly misrepresenting forecasts from the Congressional Budget Office, and others predicted the consequences of leaving higher tax rates and large spending cuts in place for the whole year....There was also the prediction that the financial markets would melt down if there was no deal approved by the deadline. While the markets are not yet open, they actually rallied on the last day of 2012 on the news that the outlines of a deal had been agreed, even though the deadline would almost surely be missed. In other words, the financial markets responded as many of us non-insiders predicted. As long as it was clear that a deal would be forthcoming, they didn't give a damn about the fiscal "cliff" deadline. Chalk this one up as yet another example of the experts – the people who report on the budget and the economy for the Washington Post and other major news outlets – not having a clue.

The second point has to do with the substance of the deal. For those who wanted to see key programs like social security and Medicare protected, this deal is pretty good news. The hare-brained idea of raising the age of Medicare eligibility to 67 seems to be off the table. The plan to cut social security benefits by an average of 3% by changing the indexation formula for the cost of living adjustment is also, at least temporarily, off the table. The deal also continues the period of extended unemployment benefits, ensuring that 2 million unemployed workers will continue to receive checks.

On the revenue side, President Obama gave in to some extent, raising the threshold for applying the Clinton era tax rates to $450,000, compared to the $250,000 level he had touted during his campaign. This is a gift of roughly $6,000 to very rich households, since it means even the wealthiest people will have the lower tax rate applied to $200,000 of their income. Perhaps more importantly, it continues the special low tax rate for dividend income, with the richest of the rich paying a tax rate of just 20% on their dividend income. The resulting loss of revenue from these concessions is roughly $200bn over ten years, or about 0.5% of projected spending during this period. By itself, this revenue loss would not be of much consequence; what matters much more is the dynamics that this deal sets in place.

This is the third point. President Obama insisted that he was going to stick to the $250,000 cut-off requiring that the top 2% of households, the big winners in the economy, go back to paying the Clinton era tax rates. He backed away from this commitment even in a context where he held most of the cards. We are now entering a new round of negotiations over extending the debt ceiling where the Republicans would appear to hold many of the cards....

A RECOUNTING OF THE SINS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PROMISE-BREAKING FOLLOWS...

[Demeter]

35. What Progressives Can Learn From Public Education’s ‘Fiscal Cliff’

http://www.alternet.org/education/what-progressives-can-learn-public-educations-fiscal-cliff?akid=9888.227380.l1mOw1&rd=1&src=newsletter770394&t=22&paging=off

The ideological hard-heartedness permeating our country’s political leadership hit public ed two years ago. There's much to learn from how it played out there...Public education’s fiscal cliff already happened. The “austerity bomb” Paul Krugman warns us of in the New York Times was already dropped on public schools at least two years ago. And what impact the sequestration has on education is, in comparison, a ground assault. This is not to make light of the 8 percent cut to education the sequester demands.

These cuts would likely have immediate negative effects on specialized programs such as career and technical education, Native American students, and students whose parents work on military bases or federal land. They could adversely affect funding of early childhood education (Head Start). They would eventually take a chunk out of the federal government’s Title I funding of school districts that serve the nation’s poorest children. And they would eventually significantly reduce funding for special education, a chronic need the federal government has never funded to the levels it promised.

What the austerity measures represent, however, is a much bigger and more urgent issue than the direct effects of the actual cuts. After all, the feds pick up less than 10 percent of the tab for the country’s education, and education amounts to less than one percent of the total federal budget. What the cuts represent is the continuation of something bigger and more intentional — not a “shared sacrifice” or “necessary budget balancing” — but an ideological hard-heartedness that permeates our country’s current political leadership.

In other words, don’t believe the handwringing expressed by Republicans, and many Democrats, about the effects of the nation’s budget deficit on “future generations.” These are not people who care about the future generation, at least judging by what they’ve been doing to schoolchildren who are, well, the future generation....The good folks at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities have kept on top of the funding trends and have observed that, for the 2012-13 school year, elementary and high schools were receiving less state funding than in the previous school year in 26 states, and “in 35 states school funding now stands below 2008 levels — often far below.” CBPP analysts found that the cuts were by and large ideologically driven. Because states relied heavily on spending reductions in response to the recession, rather than on a more balanced mix of spending cuts and revenue increases, funding for schools and other public services fell sharply. Their conclusion was that “this level of budget-cutting is unnecessary and results, in part, from state and federal actions and failures to act.”

...What has happened to American public schools is now becoming every American’s problem....

YOU MIGHT EVEN CALL IT "THE PROBLEM OF THE 99%": TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

[xchrom]

31. Own a plug-in car or a Nascar track? Then you're a fiscal cliff winner

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/02/fiscal-cliff-deal-tax-breaks


President Obama and Nascar champion driver Tony Stewart at the White House in April. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images


Much has been said about what the fiscal cliff bill – passed among much congressional huffing and puffing and emo legislative drama – will do for the middle class. We all know by now that it will wipe out dreaded tax hikes that would have descended like locusts after the Bush-era tax cuts were supposed to end.

But as you go through each of the 157 pages of the American Taxpayer Relief Act, the idea of the middle class as a special interest seems a little, well, provincial for the world's putatively greatest legislative body. How about Puerto Rican rum distributors? Rescuers of trapped miners? Nascar owners? People who own plug-in electric vehicles? Are they not people too, with an equal right to special tax breaks to protect them from the vagaries of the Internal Revenue Service? Congress, apparently, answers with a resounding yes: damn the austerity, and full speed ahead with a tax break in every pot.

Collect your tax break and pass go: here's the full list of those eligible for custom-fitted tax breaks:

People who have children.

People who take a deduction based on their home mortgages. (Usually very large mortgages).

First-time homebuyers in the District of Columbia.

[Demeter]

37. 4 Painful Political Lessons from the Fiscal Cliff Debates

http://www.alternet.org/4-painful-political-lessons-fiscal-cliff-debates?akid=9887.227380.1bHf9Y&rd=1&src=newsletter770072&t=15&paging=off

We’ve avoided, for the moment, a self-made trap. Now, of course, we’re on to the next one...Now that the House has passed the Senate compromise bill, the full spate of tax increases and spending cuts that went into effect yesterday will be shut off (though the sequester was just suspended for a couple of months)... I don’t mean to be a downer, but any relief you feel should be analogized to how much better you feel when you stop banging a hammer on your head. We’ve avoided, for the moment, a self-made trap. Now, of course, we’re on to the next one—the debt ceiling, which really is a cliff in that to go over it (can you “go over” a ceiling?) is to default.

The resolution of the fiscal cliff was much as I and others predicted—a very short trip over the cliff—more of a bungee jump, really. As we said, once House R’s could label a vote for the compromise a net tax cut, enough of them could vote for it. In fact, one of their leaders, Dave Camp (R-MI) sold the measure to his caucus as the “largest tax cut in American history.” So, did we learn anything from the episode in reckless governing? Here’s my list, but these are more things we already knew than things we learned:

1) It’s become a cliché to observe the dysfunctionality of our political system. The problem—which has existential implications—is that the system cannot diagnose, prescribe, and thus it cannot self-correct. To the contrary, it is becoming increasingly efficient at inflicting wounds. The most important question in politics right now is: how did Congress become the biggest threat to the economy and what can be done about it? I actually have a pragmatic, actionable answer to that….read on.

2) Republicans don’t care about deficit reduction. They care about protecting the wealthy (I told you this is stuff we knew) which worsens the deficit. Their talking points suggest they want to cut spending, reduce entitlement s and shrink government, but for the most part—there are notable exceptions*—they don’t have actual proposals to do so...They worked hard in this debate, and with some success, to shield the wealthy from higher tax liabilities, while never uttering a peep about the expiration of the payroll tax cut, which only bumped up paychecks below $110,000, and thus meant nothing to their funders. But they managed to raise the threshold on the income tax rate increase to $450,000 (from $250,000) and to ensure that the estate tax would only hit the top 0.2% of estates, instead of the top 0.3% (!) that the D’s were seeking. This is a predictable outcome of a political system with no effective firewalls between big money and politics. And while I and others have understandably raised eyebrows about the relatively light revenue number in the bill ($600 billion in new tax revenue over 10 years), when you think about it in that light, you’ve got to the give the President (and VP!) a lot of credit for pushing as hard as they did. It’s true the public was very much with them, but the sad truth is that all American politicians must pay attention to big money.

{*One exception is the desire by some to move to Ryan-style premium support for Medicare, which may be specific but is a) politically implausible and b) a cost-shifter, not saver.}

3) The fiscal debate has killed the economic debate. Economists traditionally worry about “crowding-out”—when government borrowing sucks up too much private capital, leads to higher interest rates, and crowds out more productive private borrowing. That hasn’t happened. Instead, there’s been a different type of crowding out that has been far more damaging to the economy....Mindless debt and deficit hysteria—driven neither by the numbers nor the real fiscal pressures but by ideology to shrink government by reducing its safety net and social insurance functions—has crowded out Keynesian policies to offset the near term demand shortfall and investment policies to offset the failure of the market to make adequate investments in public goods, R&D, education, and the economic mobility of the least advantaged. This may be a slightly pessimistic way of putting it, but not by much. The President and his team understand the need to offset the current output gap (as does the Federal Reserve), invest in public goods, and plot a course toward debt stabilization when a bona fide recovery kicks in. But, to put it mildly, they have had trouble breaking through. And one can certainly and fairly question whether they try hard enough.

4) Interestingly, the administration has a chance to make a real difference in this area while at the same time dealing with the Congressional threat noted above: do not negotiate with the Republicans on the debt ceiling....The debt ceiling seems like an insurmountable problem, but I’m reminded of what the noted philosopher Donny Rumsfeld used to say in such cases: “if you can’t solve a problem, make it bigger.” This isn’t just a debt ceiling debate. It’s a chance to shut down a dynamic wherein Congress (i.e., Congressional Republicans) doesn’t solve economic problems, it creates them. By over-riding them, blowing past them, ignoring them as irrelevant, and refusing to negotiate on the basis of the chief executive’s Constitutional responsibility to maintain the nation’s creditworthiness, the President can deal a fatal blow to these dangerous obstructionists. To do so would not only make a big positive difference to today’s politics and economy. It would be a precious gift to posterity.



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

Jared Bernstein joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in May 2011 as a Senior Fellow. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. Follow his work via Twitter at @econjared and@centeronbudget.

[xchrom]

28. Did Zero Dark Thirty have secret links to CIA? US Senate vows to find out

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jan/03/senate-cia-zero-dark-thirty


Back to the tape … CIA officials admit briefing film-makers Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, but insist Zero Dark Thirty is just 'dramatisation'. Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters and Matt Carr/Getty Images

The controversy surrounding the fact-based terrorist drama Zero Dark Thirty looks set to continue as the US senate intelligence committee launched an investigation into the relationship between the film's makers and CIA officials. The committee will probe whether Zero Dark Thirty's director and writer were granted "inappropriate access" to classified material.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and scripted by Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty charts the nine-year hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and climaxes in the successful raid on Bin Laden's compound in May 2011. CIA officials have admitted briefing the film-makers on the project but insist that the finished picture is "a dramatisation" as opposed to a historical record.

Reuters reports that internal documents, released in response to a freedom-of-information request, already show that Michael Morell – the CIA's then deputy director and now acting chief – met with the film-makers. A Pentagon email also claims that Mark Boal was briefed by the CIA "with the full knowledge and full approval/support" of Leon Panetta, the former CIA director and subsequently US secretary of defence.

The senate investigation will be headed by Democrat senator Dianne Feinstein who last month joined two other senators in lambasting Zero Dark Thirty's depiction of torture. Feinstein, Carl Levin and John McCain claim that the film is "grossly inaccurate" in its suggestion that coercive interrogation tactics were instrumental in gathering information about Bin Laden's whereabouts.

[xchrom]

33. Irish exporters record net jobs gain

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2013/0103/breaking33.html

Exporting companies recorded a net jobs gain of 3,804 last year, the highest such increase seen since 2006, according to Enterprise Ireland.

In an end-of-year statement issued today, the agency said total direct employment in the exporting companies it supports stood at 172,473 at the end of 2012. This came as 13,642 new jobs were created by firms supported by Enterprise Ireland and 9,838 were lost.

Launching the statement, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, said 2012 was “a very important year for Ireland and for the Irish economy” which had witnessed “a very significant fightback”.

The jobs created last year came mainly in software, internationally-traded services, food and machinery and equipment. Positions lost were mostly in construction-related companies.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

38. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (01/03/2013)

ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (01/03/2013)

Link: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20122533.htm

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending December 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 372,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 362,000. The 4-week moving average was 360,000, an increase of 250 from the previous week's revised average of 359,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending December 22, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 22 was 3,245,000, an increase of 44,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,201,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,224,250, an increase of 6,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,217,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 495,588 in the week ending December 29, an increase of 40,459 from the previous week. There were 540,057 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.
....

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending December 22 were in Ohio (+8,795), Michigan (+6,641), Pennsylvania (+5,530), Kentucky (+4,745), and Massachusetts (+4,330), while the largest decreases were in California (-11,789), West Virginia (-473), Florida (-450), Arizona (-192) and South Dakota (-186).

-- -- -- --

Good afternoon, Freepers and DUers alike. I ask you to put aside your differences long enough to read this post. Following that, you can engage in your usual donnybrook.

I have been posting these numbers every week for at least a year. They are just numbers, and I post them without regard to the consequences. I welcome people from Free Republic to examine the numbers as well. They paid for the work just as much as members of DU did, so I invite them to come on over and have a look. "The more the merrier" is the way I look at it.

I do not work at the ETA, and I do not know anyone working in that agency. I'm sure I can safely assume that the numbers are gathered and analyzed by career civil servant economists who do their work on a nonpartisan basis. Numbers are numbers, and let the chips fall where they may. If you feel that these economists are falling down on the job, drop them a line or give them a call. They work for you, not for any politician or political party.

The word "initial" is important. The report does not count all claims, just the new ones filed this week.

Note: The seasonal adjustment factors used for the UI Weekly Claims data from 2007 forward, along with the resulting seasonally adjusted values for initial claims and continuing claims, have been revised. These revised historical values, as well as the seasonal adjustment factors that will be used through calendar year 2012, can be accessed at the bottom of the following link: http://www.oui.doleta.gov/press/2012/032912.asp

[DemReadingDU]

39. Geithner Said to Plan Departure Before Debt Ceiling Deal

1/3/13 Geithner Said to Plan Departure Before Debt Ceiling Deal

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to leave the administration at the end of January, even if President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans haven’t reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, according to two people familiar with the matter.

more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-03/geithner-said-to-plan-departure-before-debt-ceiling-deal.html

[Demeter]

40. Here's your hat, what's your hurry?

Timmy must be thinking he can avoid that next well coming up.

He never paid up his taxes...what will the poor thing live off?