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Tansy_Gold

(17,815 posts)
Wed Jan 16, 2013, 09:51 PM Jan 2013

STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 17 January 2013

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 17 January 2013[font color=black][/font]


SMW for 16 January 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 16 January 2013
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Dow Jones 13,511.23 -23.66 (-0.17%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,472.63 +0.29 (0.02%)
Nasdaq 3,117.54 +6.76 (0.22%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.82% +0.01 (0.55%)
30 Year 3.01% +0.02 (0.67%) [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 - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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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=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]


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STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 17 January 2013 (Original Post) Tansy_Gold Jan 2013 OP
The CFPB’s New Stealth Usury Law on Mortgages and Why It’s Desirable Demeter Jan 2013 #1
What’s Inside America’s Banks? Demeter Jan 2013 #2
10 outrageously lavish CEO perks Demeter Jan 2013 #3
CEO perks... AnneD Jan 2013 #47
Traders warn Germany on HFT licensing Demeter Jan 2013 #4
Nasdaq plan to offer algorithmic trading denied by U.S. regulator Demeter Jan 2013 #5
In latest debt-ceiling move, Treasury to tap Thrift Savings Plan money Demeter Jan 2013 #6
Hmmmm... AnneD Jan 2013 #49
Retailers Fear Payroll Tax Will Cut Consumer Spending Demeter Jan 2013 #7
Dell Said to Be in Buyout Talks With Private-Equity Firms Demeter Jan 2013 #8
401(k) breaches undermining retirement security for millions Demeter Jan 2013 #9
The endgame approaches: Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #10
“purifying” of US DemReadingDU Jan 2013 #23
No more "free $ lunch". Radical Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #38
Euroland Strengthening--Euroland Rapprochement with BRICS? Demeter Jan 2013 #29
Reports of the death of the EU are also greatly exaggerated. Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #39
Wal-Mart Plans to Hire Any Veteran Who Wants a Job Demeter Jan 2013 #11
Walmart runs a 70% employee turnover rate for their first year. Fuddnik Jan 2013 #27
Aha! I thought there was a catch to it. Demeter Jan 2013 #30
How long before they start fragging management? Fuddnik Jan 2013 #42
I was thinking the same thing.... AnneD Jan 2013 #50
Kapitalism at it's finest. Fuddnik Jan 2013 #54
Got to give testimony against Datacard in the early 1980's on this. kickysnana Jan 2013 #46
The next fiscal fight: From cliff to ceiling-debt ceiling serves no useful purpose; should be abolis Demeter Jan 2013 #12
JPMorgan Seen Facing U.S., U.K. Actions on Whale Trades Demeter Jan 2013 #13
JPMorgan Chase Sees Profits Rise, Halves CEO's Salary For London Debacle Demeter Jan 2013 #14
JPMorgan settles lawsuit against "Whale" boss Demeter Jan 2013 #15
Muddy Waters & The Stones - Baby Please Don't Go xchrom Jan 2013 #16
Very cool + apposite! n/t Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #20
in my youth - i spent some very well spent hours at the checkerboard lounge in chicago. xchrom Jan 2013 #32
One is forever young... I discovered this on my way through Andalusia the other day: Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #40
Sweet! I'm a fan. Nt xchrom Jan 2013 #44
Bank of America profits fall after bad debt charges xchrom Jan 2013 #17
Former PP treasurer had up to 22 million euros in Swiss bank account xchrom Jan 2013 #18
Yeah, but, Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #26
Germany rejects Rajoy request for stimulus measures xchrom Jan 2013 #19
ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (01/17/2013) mahatmakanejeeves Jan 2013 #21
Central Bank governor issues warning to banks over distressed mortgages{ireland} xchrom Jan 2013 #22
Irish GDP predicted to rise by 1.6% this year xchrom Jan 2013 #24
Study questions size of US-China trade deficit xchrom Jan 2013 #25
I guess all of our jobs are out in the world too. Fuddnik Jan 2013 #41
hw the walmart labor struggle is going global xchrom Jan 2013 #28
Morning, everyone! Demeter Jan 2013 #31
bon jour! xchrom Jan 2013 #33
How about a Tuareg theme, Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #43
The Tinariwen bass player--- ---rocks the Casbah!!!!!! westerebus Jan 2013 #55
Tajikistan tries WTO for prosperity path xchrom Jan 2013 #34
World Bank cuts Japan estimate due to isle row xchrom Jan 2013 #35
Public handouts to the poor to be cut{japan} xchrom Jan 2013 #36
Quickest way to kill an economy. Whoohoo. n/t kickysnana Jan 2013 #45
Willie Nelson - Funny How Time Slips Away xchrom Jan 2013 #37
Ah, time! Over here in the Old World Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #48
Besos besos... AnneD Jan 2013 #51
Well, you know,... just trying to lend a hand (watching your back), Ghost Dog Jan 2013 #53
It's true - we have no real Long View. xchrom Jan 2013 #52
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
1. The CFPB’s New Stealth Usury Law on Mortgages and Why It’s Desirable
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 01:19 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/the-cfpbs-new-stealth-usury-law-on-mortgages-and-why-its-desirable.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

With the looming debt ceiling pigfight consuming a lot of financial media bandwidth, some important stories are not getting the attention they warrant. One is on the hard fought and finally settled qualified mortgage rules just finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin in a new post describes how the new QM rules are a defacto usury law for the 21st century. Despite his good discussion of the QM and the history of usury laws, however, he peculiarly does not explain why usury laws are a good thing. Perhaps it seems obvious, given the explosion of economically unproductive consumer debt since they’ve effectively been eliminated.

Let me give you the reason why well designed usury laws are desirable, then I’ll turn the mortgage-related issues specifically.

One of things that early economists agreed on was the necessity and importance of usury laws as a foundation of a healthy, productive economy. Their reasoning was simple. Lenders would tend to seek out the highest return they could get, in light of repayment risk. Even a very successful business or venture could afford only so much in the way of interest payments on borrowers. If creditors could lend at any rate to any borrower, they would prefer wealthy speculators (in those days, aristocrats with gambling habits) to loans that would support trade and enterprise.

And we’ve seen how lending has followed that pattern. Consider credit cards. Levitin points out that usury laws were vitiated between 1978 and 1982. Even so, banks (which at that point still held credit card loans on their balance sheets) were somewhat restrained in their behavior until later in the 1980s. They all stuck with a maximum interest rate of 19.8% and charged annual fees. The fees were critical to the pricing structure, since it meant that credit card companies made money on every type of customer: one that used the card only sporadically, say for airplane tickets or when he was caught without cash, the one that used cards regularly but paid off his balance in full every month, and ones that ran balances occasionally. Banks did not find it attractive to have customers carry balances all the time; even at 19.8% (with higher risk free interest rates than in the early-mid 2000s), perma borrowers were seen as risky and default-prone.

The market saw a race to the bottom when no-fee cards were introduced. Suddenly, the intermittent-use customers were money-losers and the “pay in full” types not so attractive. The banks began to seek out customers who’d use their card to run occasional balances or become credit addicts, and they changed their fee structures and interest payment schedules to suck more out of them before the ones who couldn’t get out of their borrowing tar pit went under for the final time. We saw a variant of this pattern in “private label” (non Fannie, Freddie, FHA) mortgages, in which lenders sought out higher interest rate, non-Fannie and Freddie loans. For the most part, they kept the ones on balance sheet that they thought were higher quality (home equity loans, “jumbo” loans) and securitized the rest. We know how that movie ended. A small private label MBS market developed, became speculative, and hit the wall at the turn of the millennium; the second go at a private label market started in 2003 and helped set off the global financial crisis (note bad MBS were not sufficient to create that scale of calamity; credit default swaps increased the level of financial exposure to a significant multiple of the value of real economy loans made). What has been stunning about the period after the crisis is the failure to do anything to address the defects of the private label market. There’s a reason the mortgage market is still on government life support; investors were burned badly and won’t consider these investments unless real reforms were made, and the so-called sell side has fought those reforms tooth and nail (it also does not help that despite widespread misrepresentation of the quality of mortgages in SEC documents and other marketing materials, that they few investors who have pursued litigation have found it costly and difficult to obtain redress due to various legal and practical impediments, and the fact that regulators and prosecutors have made only token efforts in this arena)....MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
2. What’s Inside America’s Banks?
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:14 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/whats-inside-americas-banks/309196/#

Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as “black boxes” that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank’s financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms... The financial crisis had many causes—too much borrowing, foolish investments, misguided regulation—but at its core, the panic resulted from a lack of transparency. The reason no one wanted to lend to or trade with the banks during the fall of 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed, was that no one could understand the banks’ risks. It was impossible to tell, from looking at a particular bank’s disclosures, whether it might suddenly implode. For the past four years, the nation’s political leaders and bankers have made enormous—in some cases unprecedented—efforts to save the financial industry, clean up the banks, and reform regulation in order to restore trust and confidence in the American financial system. This hasn’t worked. Banks today are bigger and more opaque than ever, and they continue to behave in many of the same ways they did before the crash.

Consider JPMorgan’s widely scrutinized trading loss last year. Before the episode, investors considered JPMorgan one of the safest and best-managed corporations in America. Jamie Dimon, the firm’s charismatic CEO, had kept his institution upright throughout the financial crisis, and by early 2012, it appeared as stable and healthy as ever. One reason was that the firm’s huge commercial bank—the unit responsible for the old-line business of lending—looked safe, sound, and solidly profitable. But then, in May, JPMorgan announced the financial equivalent of sudden cardiac arrest: a stunning loss initially estimated at $2 billion and later revised to $6 billion. It may yet grow larger; as of this writing, investigators are still struggling to comprehend the bank’s condition. The loss emanated from a little-known corner of the bank called the Chief Investment Office. This unit had been considered boring and unremarkable; it was designed to reduce the bank’s risks and manage its spare cash. According to JPMorgan, the division invested in conservative, low-risk securities, such as U.S. government bonds. And the bank reported that in 95 percent of likely scenarios, the maximum amount the Chief Investment Office’s positions would lose in one day was just $67 million. (This widely used statistical measure is known as “value at risk.”) When analysts questioned Dimon in the spring about reports that the group had lost much more than that—before the size of the loss became publicly known—he dismissed the issue as a “tempest in a teapot.” Six billion dollars is not the kind of sum that can take down JPMorgan, but it’s a lot to lose. The bank’s stock lost a third of its value in two months, as investors processed reports of the trading debacle. On May 11, 2012, alone, the day after JPMorgan first confirmed the losses, its stock plunged roughly 9 percent.

The incident was about much more than money, however. Here was a bank generally considered to have the best risk-management operation in the business, and it had badly managed its risk. As the bank was coming clean, it revealed that it had fiddled with the way it measured its value at risk, without providing a clear reason. Moreover, in acknowledging the losses, JPMorgan had to admit that its reported numbers were false. A major source of its supposedly reliable profits had in fact come from high-risk, poorly disclosed speculation. It gets worse. Federal prosecutors are now investigating whether traders lied about the value of the Chief Investment Office’s trading positions as they were deteriorating. JPMorgan shareholders have filed numerous lawsuits alleging that the bank misled them in its financial statements; the bank itself is suing one of its former traders over the losses. It appears that Jamie Dimon, once among the most trusted leaders on Wall Street, didn’t understand and couldn’t adequately manage his behemoth. Investors are now left to doubt whether the bank is as stable as it seemed and whether any of its other disclosures are inaccurate....

Some four years after the crisis, big banks’ shares remain depressed. Even after a run-up in the price of bank stocks this fall, many remain below “book value,” which means that the banks are worth less than the stated value of the assets on their books. This indicates that investors don’t believe the stated value, or don’t believe the banks will be profitable in the future—or both. Several financial executives told us that they see the large banks as “complete black boxes,” and have no interest in investing in their stocks. A chief executive of one of the nation’s largest financial institutions told us that he regularly hears from investors that the banks are “uninvestable,” a Wall Street neologism for “untouchable.” That’s an increasingly widespread view among the most sophisticated leaders in investing circles. Paul Singer, who runs the influential investment fund Elliott Associates, wrote to his partners this summer, “There is no major financial institution today whose financial statements provide a meaningful clue” about its risks. Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the SEC, lamented to us in November that none of the post-2008 remedies has “significantly diminished the likelihood of financial crises.” In a recent conversation, a prominent former regulator expressed concerns about the hidden risks that banks might still be carrying, comparing the big banks to Enron. A recent survey by Barclays Capital found that more than half of institutional investors did not trust how banks measure the riskiness of their assets. When hedge-fund managers were asked how trustworthy they find “risk weightings”—the numbers that banks use to calculate how much capital they should set aside as a safety cushion in case of a business downturn—about 60 percent of those managers answered 1 or 2 on a five-point scale, with 1 being “not trustworthy at all.” None of them gave banks a 5...

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
3. 10 outrageously lavish CEO perks
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:26 AM
Jan 2013
http://money.msn.com/investing/10-outrageously-lavish-ceo-perks

While many Americans continue to struggle with shrinking pay, the sputtering economy hasn't slowed the gravy train in corner offices.

The value of CEO perquisites -- goodies like personal use of the corporate jet, cars and drivers, gyms and extra retirement contributions -- jumped 8.6% in 2011, the most recent full year of data available, says a recent study by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm. (Visit the firm at equilar.com). CEOs at Fortune 100 companies got a median $248,638 worth of perks. In other words, in perks alone CEOs got almost five times the U.S. median household income, which shrunk 1.5% to $50,054 in 2011. (CEO pay was also up lot, rising 6.6% to $9.6 million at Standard & Poor's 500 ($INX) companies, says Equilar.)

"Giving out more perks to executives while most employees are struggling with stagnant pay, cuts in benefits and unemployment adds insult to injury," says Jennifer O'Dell, of the Laborers' International Union of North America.


Boards are so generous that perks alone can add up to more than what most people make in a lifetime, points out Stephen Lerner, a former union organizer for the Service Employees International Union. Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com (AMZN) and Larry Ellison at Oracle (ORCL), both multibillionaires, each got more than $1.5 million for home security alone. "It is obscene," says Lerner, who adds, "CEOs are the new royalty."

But this is more than a social issue. Because perks aren't generally linked to performance, they do nothing to motivate execs to create value for shareholders, the supposed purpose of high executive pay. Combined with excessive pay, generous perks can signal poor corporate governance, which can lead to poor stock performance.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
47. CEO perks...
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 01:46 PM
Jan 2013

in addition to salary long ago crossed the point where it directly effects a companies bottom line (profits to be divided among shareholders). This is where share holders need to fire the boards or start a class action law suit against these thieves.

I always vote in the shareholder elections of the few stocks I have but I won't hold my breath.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
4. Traders warn Germany on HFT licensing
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:32 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b87f4ac4-5e62-11e2-8780-00144feab49a.html#axzz2HvgVd3LT

...A proposal to licence financial market participants is a centrepiece of German plans for tighter regulation of high-frequency trading, or HFT – the use by automated traders of computer algorithms to generate trades in tiny fractions of seconds. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is moving unilaterally to place tighter curbs on HFT in advance of a pan-European overhaul of regulation, which is expected to take at least two more years. HFT has been blamed by some for bringing more instability to financial markets, and their role has been more closely examined by authorities globally after a series of high-profile incidents, such as the “flash crash” in the US in 2010.

But plans to oblige HFT traders to register in Germany, going beyond existing stock exchange laws, are being criticised as excessive by exchange groups including Deutsche Börse, and the FIA European Principal Traders Association, which groups Europe’s high-frequency traders. They warn that over-zealous regulation would drive trades away, possibly to less transparent venues.

HFT strategies are involved in about 40 per cent of trades through Deutsche Börse, which says high-speed trading plays a considerable role in narrowing spreads and improving market liquidity. The German parliament is holding a public hearing on Wednesday, at which exchanges and traders are expected to air their views on planned regulation.

Deutsche Börse says the bill would force many market participants to set up a branch or subsidiary in Germany to be able to register. It also says the requirement would hit any firms that use algorithmic strategies and not just high-frequency trading. Rainer Riess, managing director of Deutsche Börse and deputy chairman of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, said the group was “very concerned” and warned such a registration requirement “would be an own goal for Germany’s financial centre”. About 70 per cent of trading on Xetra, Deutsche Börse’s cash equities platform, involves traders from outside Germany. Mark Spanbroek, general secretary of FIA EPTA, said: “We have to be very careful not to go from no regulation to over-regulation . . . This kind of rule will drive traders from the transparent environment of an exchange into less transparent over-the-counter transactions.” In a submission to German lawmakers Christoph Boschan of Börse Stuttgart, a regional exchange, said: “There is a danger that foreign market participants will withdraw from the German financial centre due to the high costs.”

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
5. Nasdaq plan to offer algorithmic trading denied by U.S. regulator
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:36 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/14/us-nasdaq-sec-idUSBRE90D0ZH20130114

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's proposal to offer algorithmic trading services that would compete against similar services offered by broker-dealers has been denied by a U.S. regulator.

The exchange operator did not prove it would not have a competitive advantage over broker-dealers offering similar products if its proposal was granted, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a filing dated January 11.

The SEC also highlighted other concerns, including the need for appropriate risk controls for the algorithmic orders, which electronically execute large stock orders over a specific time for specific securities and are generally aimed at institutional investors....

On May 1, Nasdaq proposed a rule change to the SEC that would allow the exchange to offer three algorithmic order types, aimed at achieving the performance of specific benchmarks: volume weighed average price, time weighted average price and percent of volume. Once placed, Nasdaq would direct the orders to an application, operated by the exchange but licensed from a third-party provider, to process the benchmark orders. The orders would then be executed within Nasdaq's system. Nasdaq said the orders would be considered a functional offering of the Nasdaq stock market and subject to Nasdaq's obligations and responsibilities as a self-regulatory organization...

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
6. In latest debt-ceiling move, Treasury to tap Thrift Savings Plan money
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:38 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-latest-debt-ceiling-move-treasury-to-tap-thrift-savings-plan-money/2013/01/15/01d23d86-5f66-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_story.html

The Treasury Department said Tuesday it would begin tapping civil service retirement funds because Congress has not raised the federal debt ceiling, the latest reminder that time is running out before the government is at risk of defaulting on the national debt.

The action will allow the government to spend $156 billion that otherwise would have been invested in the federal Thrift Savings Plan. As a result of that action and others the Treasury is taking, Congress has until between mid-February and early March to raise the $16.4 trillion debt limit.

So long as the debt ceiling is raised on time, federal workers and retirees should not be affected....

MORE

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
49. Hmmmm...
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 02:21 PM
Jan 2013

Isn't that what airlines did before they declared banktuptcy? Or is it just a threat to make the Congress give them more money to piss away. They can't call up and threaten with Wall Street collapse like they did last time.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
7. Retailers Fear Payroll Tax Will Cut Consumer Spending
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:41 AM
Jan 2013
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324442304578236082677460750.html

...A temporary cut in Social Security withholdings gave Americans hundreds of extra dollars to spend over the past two years. But Congress allowed that break to expire during the wrangling over the fiscal cliff, meaning that Social Security taxes have reverted to 6.2% of salary from the temporary 4.2%....
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
8. Dell Said to Be in Buyout Talks With Private-Equity Firms
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:44 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-14/dell-is-said-be-in-buyout-discussions-with-private-equity-firms.html

Dell Inc. (DELL), the personal-computer maker that lost almost a third of its value last year, is in buyout talks with private-equity firms, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The shares surged.

The company is discussing going private with TPG Capital and Silver Lake, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. A deal could be announced as soon as this week, one person said. The discussions could fall apart because firms may not be able to line up the needed financing or resolve how to exit the investment in the future, the people said.

Several large banks have been contacted about financing an offer, one of the people said. The computer maker had a market value of $18.9 billion as of Jan. 11.

Taking the company private could help Dell, the third- largest PC maker, accelerate efforts to revive growth and cope with competition without quarter-by-quarter scrutiny from public shareholders. Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell, 47, has been using acquisitions to sell more products to businesses as consumers shun PCs in favor of tablets and smartphones, including devices that run Apple Inc. and Google Inc. software...

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
9. 401(k) breaches undermining retirement security for millions
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:47 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/401k-breaches-undermining-retirement-security-for-millions/2013/01/14/f54a0e90-5e70-11e2-8acb-ab5cb77e95c8_story.html?hpid=z1

A large and growing share of American workers are tapping their retirement savings accounts for non-retirement needs, raising broad questions about the effectiveness of one of the most important savings vehicles for old age.

More than one in four American workers with 401(k) and other retirement savings accounts use them to pay current expenses, new data show. The withdrawals, cash-outs and loans drain nearly a quarter of the $293 billion that workers and employers deposit into the accounts each year, undermining already shaky retirement security for millions of Americans.

With federal policymakers eyeing cuts to Social Security benefits and Medicare to rein in soaring federal deficits, and traditional pensions in a long decline, retirement savings experts say the drain from the accounts has dire implications for future retirees.

“We’re going from bad to worse,” said Diane Oakley, executive director of the National Institute on Retirement Security. “Already, fewer private-sector workers have access to stable pension plans. And the savings in individual retirement savings accounts like 401(k) plans — which already are severely underfunded — continue to leak out at a high rate.”

MORE
 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
10. The endgame approaches:
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:48 AM
Jan 2013

... The United States certainly believed that the rest of the world would have an interest in keeping its economy on artificial respiratory assistance ad infinitum but it is likely that they don’t believe it any more today. As regards the rest of the world, the final chapters of the US crisis (major political crisis, decisional paralysis, near miss of the fiscal cliff, perspective of a payment default in March, and always the incapacity to implement the least structural solution) convinced it of the imminence of a collapse, and all the players are on the look-out for the least sign of a swing to extricate themselves, conscious that by doing so they will precipitate the final collapse.

Our team considers that in the context of the extreme tensions - both domestic political and world financial tensions - induced by the next raising of the US debt ceiling in March 2013, the signs will not be lacking to cause the disappearance of US treasury bonds’ last purchasers, a disappearance which the Fed will no longer be able to compensate for, resulting in an increase in interest rates which will propel American indebtedness to astronomical levels, leaving no hope of ever being repaid to creditors who will prefer to throw in the towel and let the dollar collapse… a collapse of the dollar which will de facto correspond to the first genuine solution, painful certainly but real, for US indebtedness.

It’s for this reason also that our team anticipates that 2013, the first year of the World-Afterwards, will see a setting up of this “purifying” of US and world accounts. All the players are tending towards this step whose consequences are very difficult to predict but which is also an unavoidable solution to the crisis taking into account the United States structural incapacity to set up genuine debt-reduction strategies...

/... http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-71-is-available-United-States-March-June-2013-Unpluggig-the-world-s-sick-man-last-impact-phase-of-the-global_a13066.html

... It will be a somber year for the United States, as it loses its status as the sole superpower and finds itself unable to influence the construction of a new global governance. For if all players are desperately seeking a way to gain the upper hand in the game, only those countries and regions prepared for the shockwaves can even hope to influence the emergence of the “world after.” Alliances of any kind (CELAC, UNASUR, MERCOSUR, ALBA, CAN, ALADI, NAFTA, OAS, AU, NEPAD, SADC, COMESA, ECOWAS, UEMOA, CEMAC, the Arab League, EU, EFTA, ASEAN, APT, EAC, BRICS, CASSH, Eurasian Union, etc.) all reflect such attempts, but they are all more or less advanced, more or less homogenous, and more or less resistant to the coming storm.

Euroland, born in the crisis and strengthening with each wave like a tidal power plant, Asia, and South America are better equipped to become the big winners in the “reshuffled” world, while the old powers, like the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, etc., are failing to adapt to the multi-polar, post-crisis world and find themselves utterly destitute. There is an extraordinary open world game afoot, one providing numerous opportunities to those willing to seize them. This is evident in the Middle East, where populations are taking the opportunity to change the region in accordance with their aspirations; in the BRICS, where their advancing pawns approach declining powers; and in Europe, where each attack by the crisis creates the energy to adapt to the challenges of tomorrow.

The economic situation (recession) and geopolitics (major tensions in the Middle East, but also in Asia (1), etc.) make 2013 a difficult and dangerous period, with mishaps likely, making stable regions that benefit from this state of affairs more attractive by comparison. Everything is relative, of course, but global violence in 2013 figures to make Euroland one of the few havens of peace, stability, and comfort… and for investors it will be one of the few regions offering some visibility for the future (2). This will create a powerful engine for exiting the European crisis in 2013.

A rapprochement of Euroland with BRICS, another future-bearer group of countries, would weigh in favor of the necessary (3) reforms in global governance. The next G20 summit in September in St. Petersburg, outside of Western influence for the first time, is the last opportunity to address issues paramount to global governance, including the international monetary system’s reform. For in 2014, the best-adapted regions are already making their way in the “world after”...

/... http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-70-is-available-2013-the-first-steps-in-a-chaotic-world-after_a12826.html

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
29. Euroland Strengthening--Euroland Rapprochement with BRICS?
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:53 AM
Jan 2013

Whatever they are smoking, I'd stay away from it.

As a famous American humorist once said (almost), reports of the death of the US are greatly exaggerated.

What WILL happen is the dethroning of the 1%. Because anything else is impossible. This would be a good thing for everyone, even the Elite.

 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
39. Reports of the death of the EU are also greatly exaggerated.
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 10:44 AM
Jan 2013

It's just that, I reckon, the world's had its fill of bullies for a while...

What are we smoking? Not crack, anyway. And not, what's it called, meth, either. Just the usual homegrownweed &, around here, Moroccan hash (local political-police-military-mafia-controlled) which has been improving in quuality recently... But I did notice on my recent journey to the mainland, France & UK, that there's some good shit out of the likes of the Lebanon, Afganistan and elsewhere Africa once again on the market...

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
11. Wal-Mart Plans to Hire Any Veteran Who Wants a Job
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:49 AM
Jan 2013

I THINK I'D RATHER STAY IN THE MILITARY...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/us/wal-mart-to-announce-extensive-plan-to-hire-veterans.html



Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, will announce Tuesday a plan to hire every veteran who wants a job, provided that the veterans have left the military in the previous year and did not receive a dishonorable discharge.

The announcement, to be made in a speech in New York by William S. Simon, the president and chief executive of Wal-Mart U.S., represents among the largest hiring commitments for veterans in history.

Company officials said they believe the program, which will officially begin on Memorial Day — May 27 this year — will lead to the hiring of more than 100,000 people in the next five years, the length of the commitment.

“Let’s be clear: Hiring a veteran can be one of the best decisions any of us can make,” Mr. Simon will say in his keynote speech to the National Retail Federation, according to prepared text. “These are leaders with discipline, training and a passion for service.”

MORE

Fuddnik

(8,846 posts)
27. Walmart runs a 70% employee turnover rate for their first year.
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:38 AM
Jan 2013

Figure they would hire over 100,000 new employees for a year anyway.

Now, add in a $7,000 per veteran-employee tax credit. How much does Mallwart stand to benefit from this? $700 million.

Real patriots, huh. Now what's this about a budget deficit?

First vets get screwed by the government. Then they get sold into voluntary servitude.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
50. I was thinking the same thing....
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 02:35 PM
Jan 2013

until I heard about the tax break. And I might add, I bet they take out a 'dead peasant' insurance policy on those military workers. If they get called up and killed, what a win-win for WalMart.

Good God what has happened to America.

Fuddnik

(8,846 posts)
54. Kapitalism at it's finest.
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 06:16 PM
Jan 2013

I also heard that they're starting a "Buy American" campaign. Which can only mean one thing. We're now a wholly owned subsidiary of China. So China = Amerika.

kickysnana

(3,908 posts)
46. Got to give testimony against Datacard in the early 1980's on this.
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 01:11 PM
Jan 2013

They would promise you if you worked 60 hours a week no overtime, no benefits that they would hire you on in 30, then 60, then 90, etc etc days. It took me three days to figure out it was a scam and it was a hellish place to work so I left but I had managed to get some people to talk to me. Right after that management got wind of my questions and said that they would fire anyone who talked about ANY company business. No talking except on breaks, even questions about the work had to be discussed in private. (Evidently the answers depended on who was asking?) My immediate supervisor said that if I worked during my breaks off the clock I would be hired on permanent quicker.

Anyway a tech school classmate stayed on for just over 12 months with promises not kept, so finally he sued them for something because they were never going to make him full time, give him overtime or benefits. Perhaps it was the overtime. At that time we had some actual laws to protect workers. He was getting as many people as he could to make affidavits about what was promised and what actually happened.

The rate at that time was $7500 for any employee staying 35 days in 1985 dollars. There was NO incentive to hire permanently. There were about 30 of us in that department. They were hiring technicians to do entry level assembly. They could because of the recession. They made a tidy little sum off of that scam.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
12. The next fiscal fight: From cliff to ceiling-debt ceiling serves no useful purpose; should be abolis
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:55 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21569423-debt-ceiling-america-serves-no-useful-purpose-and-should-be-abolished-cliff

AMERICA sidestepped one fiscal disaster at the turn of the year when Barack Obama and Congress agreed to keep most tax rates from rising. A much bigger one is as little as five weeks away, when the Treasury Department runs out of legal authority to borrow. Failure to raise the “debt ceiling”, Mr Obama has warned, would force the government to default on its obligations. Republicans say they need some sort of leverage to drag a spendthrift president to the negotiating table. They have a point, but the debt ceiling is a dangerous tool with which to make it.

The debt ceiling is a peculiarly American anachronism. Until a century ago, Congress approved bond issues one at a time. Between 1917 and 1941 it consolidated those approvals into a single debt limit. The result is that America’s legislature can approve a budget that includes a deficit without approving the issuance of debt necessary to fund that deficit.

A weapon of mass financial destruction

Most of the time, the debt ceiling has been an annoyance, affording whichever party was out of power the opportunity to extract concessions before allowing normal borrowing to resume. It may even have done some good by raising the political price of deficits. But as American politics has become more polarised, it has become an instrument of mass financial destruction. In the summer of 2011 Republicans openly used the threat of default to force Mr Obama and Democrats into a deficit-cutting deal. The episode prompted one credit-rating agency to strip America of its triple-A rating. Republicans, furious that in the recent tussle over the “fiscal cliff” they caved in on tax increases and have no spending cuts to show for it, are spoiling for another fight. Defiant Democrats are floating crackpot responses such as issuing a $1 trillion coin to avoid the debt ceiling (see article) or invoking the 14th amendment to the constitution, which they say forbids default.

The Treasury could try to soften the blow of hitting the debt ceiling by making interest payments on its debt the priority while leaving some other bills unpaid. Yet that would still wreak havoc. The federal government now borrows nearly 30 cents of every dollar it spends. Failure to raise the debt ceiling would force immediate spending cuts equal to 6% of GDP. Not only would that threaten to send the economy back into recession. It would also deprive doctors, pensioners, contractors and millions of others of money needed to meet their own obligations, setting off a chain reaction of defaults...Nor would the sanctity of the debt be guaranteed. Disgruntled creditors could challenge the legality of prioritising interest payments; populists could demand that Chinese bondholders be paid last, not first. One miscalculation could leave the Treasury without enough money to make an interest payment. Even a few days’ default would roil the global financial system, which relies on Treasuries in countless transactions. The mere possibility could incite skittish investors to dump their holdings, driving up interest rates.

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
13. JPMorgan Seen Facing U.S., U.K. Actions on Whale Trades
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 07:58 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-14/jpmorgan-seen-facing-u-s-u-k-actions-on-whale-trades.html

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is set to face new actions from U.S. and U.K. bank regulators as early as today for botched trades that cost the company more than $6.2 billion last year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Reserve, which have been investigating the loss, may release some of their findings today, three people familiar with the matter said. The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority, which has also been informally looking into whether traders intentionally mismarked some of their positions and tried to cover up their losses, may open an official investigation, according to one of the people.

Regulators have yet to punish New York-based JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank, for lapses in risk oversight that Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, 56, has called “egregious.” It isn’t clear whether the Fed and OCC’s announcement will also include sanctions, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the matter hasn’t been made public.

The OCC is preparing a cease-and-desist order requiring New York-based JPMorgan to fix internal controls that contributed to its wrong-way bet on credit derivatives, a person familiar with the matter said last month...

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
14. JPMorgan Chase Sees Profits Rise, Halves CEO's Salary For London Debacle
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 08:02 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/16/169538915/jp-morgan-chase-sees-profits-rise-halves-ceos-salary-for-london-debacle?ft=1&f=1001



JPMorgan Chase reports that its profits were up 53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 — but CEO Jamie Dimon's pay will be cut in half, after the bank lost billions of dollars on risky bets made in its London office. The incident tarnished the reputation of Dimon, who had successfully steered his bank through the recent financial crisis.

"This past year has been a bruising one for Dimon," as NPR's Steve Henn reports for our Newscast unit:

"Lax oversight of trading operation in London resulted in enormous losses by the bank. A single trader nicknamed Voldemort or the London Whale placed multibillion-dollar bets on complex synthetic derivatives. When those bets went bad, the bank lost billions. An internal investigation placed the blame at Dimon's feet and now the board has cut his compensation in half, to just over $11 million."

The company says that the bets made by trader Bruno Iksil cost it $6.2 billion in nine months, Bloomberg reports. JPMorgan Chase said its net income was $5.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012. And the company praised Dimon for the way he handled the mess that emerged from the bad investments. As NPR's Marilyn Geewax reported last October, Dimon told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations that "I should have caught it ... I didn't."

He added that making mistakes — and learning from them — is part of capitalism.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
15. JPMorgan settles lawsuit against "Whale" boss
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 08:03 AM
Jan 2013
http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-jpmorgan-settles-lawsuit-against-whale-boss-source-181704240--sector.html



LONDON (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co has reached an out-of-court settlement over its lawsuit against the former boss of Bruno Iksil, the trader known as the "London Whale" for huge bets he took that cost the bank $6.2 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.

Javier Martin-Artajo, who was Iksil's immediate supervisor, had been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed at London's High Court on October 22.

JPMorgan said last July it was seeking to claw back pay from those people it held responsible for the losses. Details of the action against Martin-Artajo were not released.

A source familiar with the lawsuit said on Wednesday the case against Martin-Artajo had now been settled.

MORE

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
32. in my youth - i spent some very well spent hours at the checkerboard lounge in chicago.
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:59 AM
Jan 2013

amazing, stunning blues acts appeared there all the time.

they're in hyde park now --

 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
40. One is forever young... I discovered this on my way through Andalusia the other day:
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 11:02 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.canalsuralacarta.es/directo/ver/flamenco-radio

Real "Flamenco" - or is it "Muladí/Mojarabe"? .

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
17. Bank of America profits fall after bad debt charges
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:19 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21059208

Bank of America has reported a big fall in quarterly profits after it had to take another financial hit on bad mortgage debt.

The second-largest bank in the US made a net profit of $732m (£457m) in the last three months of 2011, down from $2bn a year earlier.

Revenues fell 26% to $19.6bn

Bank of America's latest one-off charges dating back to the US housing market collapse of 2007 and 2008 totalled more than $5bn.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
18. Former PP treasurer had up to 22 million euros in Swiss bank account
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:23 AM
Jan 2013
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/01/16/inenglish/1358364800_349394.html


The former treasurer of the ruling conservative Popular Party, Luis Bárcenas, had a bank account in Switzerland with an average balance of 15 million euros, according to an ongoing investigation into the kickbacks-for-contracts Gürtel scandal in which a number of high-ranking PP officials have been implicated.

The latest development in the corruption probe emerged from a request for information sent to the Swiss authorities by the judge investigating the case, Pablo Ruz.

After Bárcenas was officially implicated in the Gürtel probe in 2009, the former PP senator withdrew the funds from the account, transferring them to another one in the name of a company called Tedesul.

The initial account was with a branch of Dresdner Bank in Geneva in the name of a Panamanian company called Sinequanon, controlled by Bárcenas.
 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
26. Yeah, but,
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:35 AM
Jan 2013

fear not: The investigating magistrate here will no doubt quickly find reasons why (s)he should rule that there is clearly insufficient evidence to justify proceeding with this and/or any other similar cases involving powerful Spanish politicians and offshore sludge...

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
19. Germany rejects Rajoy request for stimulus measures
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:26 AM
Jan 2013
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/01/16/inenglish/1358355750_836176.html

German Economy Minister Philipp Rösler on Wednesday rejected calls for extraordinary measures to boost growth in Germany.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called on Germany and other “creditor” euro-zone countries for measures to boost activity in the single-currency area.

Rösler was speaking a day after the German federal statistics office said the domestic economy shrank on a quarterly basis by 0.5 percent in the last three months of 2012 as the austerity drive in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland reduced the appetite for German exports. The German Economy Ministry on Wednesday cut its growth forecast for this year to 0.4 percent from 1.0 percent. Annual growth in 2012 was 0.7 percent.

“There will be no stimulus packages financed by debt,” Rösler told a news conference in Berlin. The minister attributed the crisis to “excessive indebtedness,” which he said is being successfully remedied.

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,886 posts)
21. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (01/17/2013)
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:31 AM
Jan 2013

Title: ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (01/17/2013)

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20130077.htm

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending January 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 335,000, a decrease of 37,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 372,000. The 4-week moving average was 359,250, a decrease of 6,750 from the previous week's revised average of 366,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending January 5, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 5 was 3,214,000, an increase of 87,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,127,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,195,750, a decrease of 6,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,201,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 555,708 in the week ending January 12, an increase of 2,360 from the previous week. There were 525,422 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.
....

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 5 were in New York (+37,189), Georgia (+15,354), North Carolina (+13,606), California (+8,691), and Texas (+8,669), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-12,536), New Jersey (-5,530), Oregon (-5,471), Ohio (-4,915), and Kentucky (4,257).

-- -- -- -- --

Good morning, 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 the number every week for at least a year. I seriously do not care if the week's data make Obama look good. 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

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
22. Central Bank governor issues warning to banks over distressed mortgages{ireland}
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:32 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0117/1224328950591.html

The banks will be required to raise more capital if they do not begin dealing with distressed mortgages, the governor of the Central Bank has said.

Addressing an Oireachtas committee yesterday, Prof Patrick Honohan said there were approximately 100,000 cases of loans in distress and the Central Bank had been putting pressure on the banks to put in place “a machine” to process them.

He said that once the machine was in place, the Central Bank “can and will” then require the banks to deal with prescribed numbers of cases.

If the banks failed to do this, the Central Bank would require them to raise more capital, as not dealing with the loans would affect the risk position of the banks.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
24. Irish GDP predicted to rise by 1.6% this year
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:34 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0117/1224328949474.html


The economy will grow by 1.6 per cent in 2013, according to the Irish Quarterly Economic Outlook published by Merrion Stockbrokers yesterday.

Growth in gross domestic product is expected to be 1 per cent for 2012, with increases of 1.6 and 2.8 per cent recorded in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Merrion believes that the Government’s effort to reduce unemployment could be a “slow process”. The report cites emigration and a contraction in the construction industry as the main reasons behind a weak labour market. With unemployment forecasted to be 14.8 per cent in 2012, Merrion states that this could fall to 14.3 per cent this year and to 13.5 per cent in 2014.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
25. Study questions size of US-China trade deficit
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:35 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0117/1224328949479.html

The US trade deficit with China is much smaller than official data suggest, according to a year-long study that transforms the global picture of trade imbalances between countries.

In a joint study, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organisation have for the first time highlighted the flaws in labels such as “made in China” and “made in Germany” by tracking the origin of components and services rather than final products.

The OECD and WTO said their investigation into how goods and services are actually produced highlighted the folly of trade barriers. Angel Gurría, head of the OECD, said: “We have to think about goods and services as ‘made in the world’, forcing a radical change in how we need to look at trade flows.”

According to the joint study, the US trade deficit with China in 2009 was not $176 billion but $131 billion – or 25 per cent lower – because much of the value of “Chinese” electronic exports include parts sourced from other countries. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013)

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
28. hw the walmart labor struggle is going global
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:39 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.nationofchange.org/how-walmart-labor-struggle-going-global-1358353103

“Workers of the world unite!” says the traditional slogan of the Industrial Workers of the World. The Wobblies, since their founding in 1905, have envisioned a global union capable of waging a worldwide general strike. By its height in the 1920s, the union was capable of mobilizing hundreds of thousands of workers. But while the Wobblies never fully realized international unity among workers, there is new promise for its vision today — thanks not to a union, but to a union-busting corporation: Walmart.

What started as a warehouse workers’ strike in California late last year has grown into a global struggle against the world’s largest private employer. The 2.1 million Walmart workers constitute the third-largest workforce in the world, following the U.S. Department of Defense and the People’s Liberation Army of China. And they are revolting.

Over 1,000 workers in Walmarts throughout Argentina went on strike on December 21, in solidarity with OUR Walmart workers in the United States, reported Josh Eidelson for The Nation. Those strikes, in turn, built on a December 14 global day of action when workers from Walmart stores in 10 different countries took to the streets in marches, rallies and protests against Walmart’s attempts to silence outspoken workers. Small cadres of workers from Uruguay, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom delivered letters to their countries’ respective corporate offices demanding an end to worker repression. The Chilean Walmart workers union expressed full solidarity with their North American counterparts and the Chilean government has already, for the next two years, banned the Walmart subsidiary Lider from bidding on government contracts due to its anti-union posturing — bad-faith bargaining, unfair firings and harassment of workers. Elsewhere in the world, Walmart workers actually tend to be unionized at a much higher rate than U.S. workers, and UNI Global Union Alliance has served as a clearinghouse for the international protests by trade unionists in support of the North American efforts.

In Brazil, more than 200 trade unionists from Força Sindical, UGT and CUT — the country’s largest unions — blocked the main entrance to a São Paulo Walmart while chanting, in Portuguese, “The Walmart dictatorship will end.” The spread of international solidarity follows Black Friday protests at over 1,000 U.S. stores that threw Walmart executives into the media spotlight for the company’s low wages, difficult working conditions and dangerous facilities.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
31. Morning, everyone!
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 09:56 AM
Jan 2013

The weekend approacheth. I have a couple of niggling ideas for a theme, but I'm always open to suggestions of something better...

 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
43. How about a Tuareg theme,
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 11:25 AM
Jan 2013

Last edited Thu Jan 17, 2013, 11:58 AM - Edit history (2)

and/or pertaining to other peoples of the latest 'war' zone?...

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté - Debe live at Bozar



Tinariwen - Live at Womad





/... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuareg & http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuareg

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
34. Tajikistan tries WTO for prosperity path
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 10:08 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/OA18Ag01.html

Tajikistan's recent accession to the World Trade Organization has been mostly driven by its government's desperate attempts to attract foreign investment to its remittance dependent economy, while potential greater economic benefits for the country remain uncertain.

Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed the accession deal in Geneva on December 10, 2012, and the lower house of Tajik parliament was reported on January 9 to have ratified the deal and fast-tracked it to the upper house for final approval to complete the internal ratification procedure, which is expected to finish by April.

Tajik leaders seem upbeat on their country's imminent membership of the world trading body. Rakhoman hailed the move


as a "landmark event" in his country's history, while Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sharif Rahimzoda forecasts "increased trade and prosperity" for the impoverished and landlocked country.

WTO officials led by chairman Pascal Lamy were keen to welcome Tajikistan as the organization's 159th member and expressed hope that Tajikistan's accession would translate into greater growth and more jobs for the country. They believe that WTO membership will accelerate necessary economic reforms in the country and will "send a clear signal to all its partners that Tajikistan is willing to play by global rules".

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
35. World Bank cuts Japan estimate due to isle row
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 10:14 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20130117a1.html


WASHINGTON — The World Bank announced it has slashed its economic growth forecast for Japan to 0.8 percent this year from an earlier estimate of 1.5 percent, due partly to the negative impact of Tokyo's territorial dispute with Beijing.

"In Japan, the current dispute with China (over the Senkaku Islands) is sapping growth, while the country's huge fiscal debt requires attention," the World Bank said Tuesday in its latest Global Economic Prospects report.

"Assuming that relations with China improve during the course of 2013, output is expected to gradually strengthen, but to expand by only 0.8 percent in 2013, before strengthening toward 1.5 percent by the end of the forecast period," the semiannual report said.

The World Bank projects Japan's economy to grow 1.2 percent in 2014, as measured by inflation-adjusted gross domestic product, down from the previous estimate of 1.5 percent. For 2015, it forecasts a 1.5 percent expansion, the first time the bank has released its growth projections for that year.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
36. Public handouts to the poor to be cut{japan}
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 10:17 AM
Jan 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20130117a2.html

Welfare minister Norihisa Tamura said Wednesday that welfare payments to the poor will be cut across the board, reflecting a government panel's finding that some are receiving more money each month than what low-income workers spend on average.

He spoke to reporters in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, after the panel, under the Social Security Council, reported its findings.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry as well as the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, New Komeito, will decide the rate of reduction by the end of this month in the process of compiling the state budget for fiscal 2013, starting in April.

During the campaign for the general election last month, the LDP vowed a 10 percent cut in welfare payments, which have not changed since fiscal 2004.
 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
48. Ah, time! Over here in the Old World
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 02:11 PM
Jan 2013

Last edited Thu Jan 17, 2013, 02:55 PM - Edit history (2)

we reckon we know all about that. We wonder, sometimes, at the apparant lack of any handle on that concept and reality over there in the "New World", though. However, from much reading, eg. the sheriff's(1) monologue in Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men", Howard Zinn's "People's History&quot 2), Oliver Stone's latest doc.(3). and a long etcetera... one begins to reach the conclusion that... you guys are beginning to learn... in spite of yourselves.


(1): " Although many attribute an Arabic origin, an Anglo-Saxon etymology is the correct one.

SHERIFF - Old English. "A sheriff is etymologically a 'shire-reeve,' that is a 'county official.' The term was compounded in the old English period from 'scir,' ancestor of modern English 'shire,' and 'gerefa,' 'local official, a word based on 'rof' 'assembly' which survives as the historical term 'reeve.' It was used for the 'monarch's representative in a county.'" From the "Dictionary of Word Origins: the Histories of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words" by John Ayto (Arcade Publishing, New York, 1990). - http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_the_word_sheriff "

(2): http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html

(3):



Besos. Kiss kiss.


Edit: And, Point of Order: ... If you follow the above link and/or view the above video, if you're in the USA and maybe plenty of other places, you're going to see a 27 minute RT interview with Oliver Stone + compadres. Which is definitely worth paying attention to. Here in Spain, EU, however, the link provides us with access to the entire documentary series... Una verdadera gozada, compañer@s.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
51. Besos besos...
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 03:04 PM
Jan 2013

Haven't heard from you in a while. Always like your posts, esp the music. Things are ok in Gulag USA. We are limping along. If it were not for RT, BBC, Democracy Now and the internets, we wouldn't know what was going on in the real world.

 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
53. Well, you know,... just trying to lend a hand (watching your back),
Thu Jan 17, 2013, 04:14 PM
Jan 2013

amig@s.

Nb. Two subjects Stone doesn't touch in the doc.:

(1): 1898: The "Spanish-American" Wa - unprovoked (ah! apart from the role of Mr. Randolph Hearst and his media 'empire') aggression (now 'normal', it seems);

(2): WWII: Price paid by UK in exchange for USA's (eventual, & thanks very much) participation: "Empire Imperial Power".

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