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Tansy_Gold

(17,817 posts)
Wed Mar 13, 2013, 09:14 PM Mar 2013

STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 14 March 2013

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 14 March 2013[font color=black][/font]


SMW for 13 March 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 13 March 2013
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Dow Jones 14,455.28 +5.22 (0.04%)
S&P 500 1,554.52 +2.04 (0.13%)
Nasdaq 3,245.12 +2.80 (0.09%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.94% +0.01 (0.52%)
30 Year 3.17% +0.02 (0.63%)[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]


34 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 14 March 2013 (Original Post) Tansy_Gold Mar 2013 OP
Cartoon makes me think of the joke with the punchline Demeter Mar 2013 #1
Jokes, Folks! (Don't get me started! Too Late!) Demeter Mar 2013 #2
Hey, you heard it! I thought that was just between me and the Californian Ghost Dog Mar 2013 #3
Put a noose on that rope, and you have the middle class Golden Parachute. Fuddnik Mar 2013 #4
How Deadbeat Banks Pushed Detroit To The Brink Demeter Mar 2013 #5
Lessons for Detroit in a City’s Takeover Demeter Mar 2013 #10
Big Bank Immunity: When Do We Crack Down on Wall Street? By Dean Baker Demeter Mar 2013 #6
US Companies Keeping Even More Money Offshore Demeter Mar 2013 #7
BUDGET BLATHER: A compendium of recent articles Demeter Mar 2013 #8
Political will holds up European state asset sales Ghost Dog Mar 2013 #9
India's production strength a mirage xchrom Mar 2013 #11
DJIA going for ten? Roland99 Mar 2013 #12
DOW'S WINNING STREAK SHORES UP MARKETS xchrom Mar 2013 #14
Why not? It's not real anymore Demeter Mar 2013 #18
Which is why real people don't care. Tansy_Gold Mar 2013 #29
Please check out IGZ siligut Mar 2013 #33
And it did it! Roland99 Mar 2013 #34
Japan and Philippines align strategic interests xchrom Mar 2013 #13
Who Is Poor? By THOMAS B. EDSALL Demeter Mar 2013 #15
SHARP DROP IN US HOMES LOST TO FORECLOSURE IN FEB xchrom Mar 2013 #16
One more meeting this week, tonight Demeter Mar 2013 #17
damn...i'm cold just reading your post. nt xchrom Mar 2013 #20
Australia adds 71,500 jobs, the biggest jump since 2000 xchrom Mar 2013 #19
Bank behaviour harming capitalism, says IoD xchrom Mar 2013 #21
The Housing Market Is Experiencing Some 'Dangerous Foreclosure Flare-Ups' xchrom Mar 2013 #22
Happy Pi Day! DemReadingDU Mar 2013 #23
ooooh Pi! nt xchrom Mar 2013 #25
This Date in 2012 Demeter Mar 2013 #32
Land prices rising even after year of record drought xchrom Mar 2013 #24
Workers aged 65 or older approaches the one million mark{uk} xchrom Mar 2013 #26
Could Obama's Deficit-Reduction Plan Get Any More Centrist? xchrom Mar 2013 #27
Robert Rubin Caused the Deficit Demeter Mar 2013 #28
ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (03/14/2013) mahatmakanejeeves Mar 2013 #30
Like Lucifer in Heaven Demeter Mar 2013 #31
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
1. Cartoon makes me think of the joke with the punchline
Wed Mar 13, 2013, 11:57 PM
Mar 2013

"No, I'm a Frayed Knot!"

If you haven't heard it before:


Pieces of String
Two pieces of string walk into a bar and the bartender looks at them suspiciously. He says "Sorry, boys, we don't serve your kind here." So the pieces of string walk out again.

They're sitting in the gutter outside and feeling really thirsty when one piece of string says "Hey! I've got an idea to get me into the bar."

So he starts twisting and turning, wriggling this way and that, pulling out a few threads here and there. His mate's looking at him and thinks he's gone completely nuts.

Then the piece of string walks back into the bar. The bartender looks at him a little suspiciously again and says "Here, you're not a bit of string, are you?"

The piece of string replies "No, I'm a frayed knot."

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
2. Jokes, Folks! (Don't get me started! Too Late!)
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 12:09 AM
Mar 2013
http://www.americanaccent.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=8

One of the best ways to study English is through jokes. Stories can be long and complicated, and by the time you get to the end, you realize that you missed some crucial element in the very beginning, so the whole book doesn't make any sense. With a joke, however, you read a couple of lines and either you get it or you don't.

A guy walks into a bar with a newt on his shoulder. "What do you call that?", asks the bartender. "I call him Tiny, because he's my newt!" (read it out loud)

A skeleton walks into a bar and says, "Gimme a beer, and a mop."

A soccer ball walks into a bar. The bartender kicked him out.

A magician walks down an alley and turns into a bar.

A neutron walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender sets the beer down and says, "For you, no charge!"

Charles Dickens walks into a bar and orders a martini. The bartender asks, "Olive or twist?"

A man walks into a bar ... says, "Ow!"

A mushroom walks into a bar and the bartender says "We don't serve your kind here." and the mushroom says - "Why not? I'm a fungi."

Descartes walks into a bar. The bartender asks, "Would you like a beer?" Descartes replies, "I think not", then disappeared.

A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.

A pony walks into a bar and coughs, "Hey, COUGH. Gimme a bu COUGH a beer COUGH. The bartender serves him and says, "What's with your voice?" The pony says, "Nothing, I'm just a little hoarse."

A guy walks into a bar with jumper cables. The bartender says, "You can come in, but don't start anything!"

A priest, a rabbi, a nun, a doctor, an engineer and a blond walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Hey, what is this, some kind of a joke?"

A professor walks into a bar and orders a double martinous. The bartender says, "you mean a double martini?" The professor says, "If I want more than one I'll ask for it."

An Irishman walks out of a bar. Hey, it COULD happen!

A dyslexic guy walks into a bra.

A man walks into a bar and says, "Give me a beer before problems start!" Again, the man orders a beer again saying, "Give me a beer before problems start!" The bartender looks confused. This goes on for a while, and after the fifth beer the bartender is totally confused and asks the man, "When are you going to pay for these beers?" The man answers, "Ah, now the problems start!"

A man tried to pay for a drink with a $5 bill. The bartender says "you can't use that here." The man says "Why not?" The bartender says "because this is a singles bar."

A blind man walks into a bar with his seeing eye dog. He lifts the dog up and swings him around over his head by the tail. The bartender says "Hey, man! What are you doing?" He says, "Oh, I'm just looking around."

After a Beer Festival in London, all the brewery presidents decided to go out for a beer. Corona's president sits down and says, "Señor, I would like the world's best beer, a Corona." The bartender takes a bottle from the shelf and gives it to him. Then Budweiser's president says, "I'd like the best beer in the world, give me 'The King Of Beers', a Budweiser." The bartender gives him one. Coors' president says, "I'd like the best beer in the world, the only one made with Rocky Mountain spring water, give me a Coors." He gets it. The guy from Guinness sits down and says, "Give me a Coke." The other brewery presidents look over at him and ask, "Why aren't you drinking a Guinness?" and the Guinness president replies, "Well, if you guys aren't drinking beer, neither will I."

A man walks into a bar and the bartender asks him "What'll you have?". The guy answers, "A scotch, please". The bartender hands him the drink, and says "That'll be five dollars", to which he replies "What are you talking about? I don't owe you anything for this". A lawyer, sitting nearby and overhearing the conversation, then says to the bartender, "You know, he's got you there. In the original offer, which constitutes a binding contract upon acceptance, there was no stipulation of remuneration". The bartender's not impressed, but says to the guy, "Okay, you beat me for a drink. But don't ever let me catch you in here again". The next day, same guy walks into the bar. Bartender says, "What the heck are you doing in here? I can't believe you've got the audacity to come back!". The guy says "What are you talking about? I've never been in this place in my life", to which the bartender replies "I'm very sorry, but it's uncanny. You must have a double." To which the guy replies "Thank you! Make it a scotch."

A man goes into a bar with a giraffe, they both get a couple of rounds in. When they get up to leave they're extremely drunk and the giraffe passes out and falls over. The man opens the door, about to leave by himself, when the bartender stops him suddenly and says, "Hey! You can't leave that lyin' there!" The man turns around and slurs, "Don't be silly, that's not a lion, that's a giraffe!"

MORE BAR JOKES AT LINK
 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
3. Hey, you heard it! I thought that was just between me and the Californian
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 01:00 AM
Mar 2013

I met in the detox clinic on Mallorca!

Muh.



Oz:



4:04pm: James Packer says politicians should curb their rhetoric on foreign workers during the federal election campaign, saying the current debate damages the nation’s reputation abroad.

The billionaire casino boss also gave Bob Carr his endorsement, saying whoever won the federal election should put the foreign minister in charge of Sino-Australian relations.

...

3:57pm: The Australian dollar surged today as startlingly strong jobs data led the market to almost abandon any chance of further rate cuts, sending bonds yields flying to the highest since April last year.

...

Yields on three-year government debt shot 19 basis points higher to reach 3.14 per cent, the highest since April last year and the biggest daily increase since July. That was also the first time yields rose well above the 3 per cent cash rate since July 2011.

...

3:35pm: Our market has come under increasing pressure with our miners seemingly under attack today, despite the US markets’ spectacular jump in retail sales while hitting its ninth consecutive day gain in a row,

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets-live/markets-live-rate-cut-hopes-fade-20130314-2g1oc.html#ixzz2NUI5q3s9
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
5. How Deadbeat Banks Pushed Detroit To The Brink
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 06:13 AM
Mar 2013
http://www.nationalmemo.com/how-deadbeat-banks-pushed-detroit-to-the-brink/

This week, Michigan will attempt to finalize the assignment of an emergency financial manager for the troubled city of Detroit, essentially taking fiscal control from the duly elected city government. The new manager will have authority over a wide array of policies to balance the city budget, including unilaterally reworking wages and benefits in municipal labor contracts, firing entire staffs of city agencies, and selling off public assets. It’s not hard to see this plan as union busting sanctioned by the state. Amid a sea of public protests, the Detroit City Council will appeal the emergency manager’s installation at a hearing on Tuesday, but Mayor Dave Bing has resigned himself to the prospect.

Detroit faced major challenges even before the Great Recession, with the loss of manufacturing jobs in the auto industry and the hollowing out of the urban core (“white flight” into the ring suburbs robbed Detroit of its tax base going back several decades). The financial crisis and subsequent economic crash sent these problems into overdrive. But lately a new meme has arisen from supporters of the emergency manager ruling: Scapegoating the citizens of Detroit by characterizing them as a bunch of tax cheats. A report in the Detroit News asserted that only half of city property owners pay their property taxes, leaving $246.5 million uncollected annually. This figure represents the highest rate of unpaid property tax among major U.S. cities.

Rather than demonizing “deadbeat” homeowners, however, we should examine who actually evades responsibility for paying taxes on those properties. Detroit has been ravaged by an unending foreclosure crisis. Predatory loans trapped borrowers into monthly mortgage rates they couldn’t pay, with lenders particularly targeting lower-income minority areas like Detroit. Many of those homeowners are gone now, evicted from their properties. It is a pattern that has sunk property values, making the high property tax rates in Detroit even more unsustainable. But it also has turned banks into the real deadbeats, depriving the city of revenue. In a foreclosure, the property reverts back to the bank, which then becomes responsible for all maintenance and upkeep, as well as any fees. Some banks simply ignore these responsibilities and refuse to pay taxes or keep the vacant property in good order. The more clever banks stick evicted homeowners with the bill.

Across the country and particularly in Detroit, banks have engaged in “walkaways,” where they start foreclosure proceedings but then find them too costly to complete. They choose not to finish the legal steps to foreclosure, leaving the properties vacant. Banks that walk away from homes do not have to notify the city, or even the borrower, that they have abandoned the foreclosure process. Borrowers kicked out of their homes then find themselves still responsible for property tax payments. We know this kind of behavior has occurred all over the country, leaving foreclosure victims stuck with the “zombie title” to an old property for years. And Detroit is ground zero for the phenomenon. A 2010 report of the Government Accountability Office found 500 bank walkaways in just four Detroit zip codes. It’s impossible to know the real number of bank walkaways in Detroit without a house-to-house study. Nevertheless, we know of the staggering number of vacant homes in Detroit, particularly in the neighborhoods ringing downtown. Someone is responsible for those properties, and it’s probably the bank. And we know that banks have a financial incentive to cut and run from cities like Detroit, starving their budgets and creating a cascade of blighted properties in their wake. So while it’s easy to blame Detroit’s financial troubles on deadbeat homeowners, the more appropriate parties to blame may well be the deadbeat banks.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
10. Lessons for Detroit in a City’s Takeover
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 06:57 AM
Mar 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/us/lessons-for-detroit-in-pontiacs-years-of-emergency-oversight.html?_r=0

PONTIAC, Mich. — The mayor here has no decision-making power. The City Council still holds meetings every Thursday night, though no official business can be conducted. Afterward, the council members are locked out of City Hall until morning, escorted from the building by a janitor. As Detroit, a major American city in financial disarray, braces for what oversight by an emergency manager appointed by the State of Michigan may soon mean, one need look no further than Pontiac, a place that has been guided by emergency managers for the past four years. Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration is expected on Thursday to announce an emergency manager for Detroit.

A variety of oversight boards and receivers have stepped in — with mixed results — when the nation’s cities have teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. In Michigan alone, 21 emergency managers have been assigned to save cities and other government entities in the last quarter century, but few places have seen change as sweeping as that in Pontiac. Unfettered by normal checks, balances and the pressures of getting re-elected, emergency managers here have overhauled labor contracts, sold off city assets and privatized nearly every service Pontiac once provided to citizens. Its police force has been outsourced to the county. Its Fire Department belongs to a nearby township. The city’s payroll, once numbering more than 600 workers, now amounts to about 50 public employees. Even parking meters have been sold. All this, and more cuts may be coming, all on the way to balancing the books.

“It’s not really a city anymore,” said Steve Swift, a Pontiac resident. “There’s nothing left now.”

Some say Pontiac’s sprint toward solvency is attracting new businesses, improving services, saving the city. But while supporters believe emergency managers, unencumbered by political infighting, are freed to make the tough decisions that local governments cannot make on their own, critics consider the entire notion of an outside manager anti-democratic, handing all-encompassing authority over the fate of a place to someone whose sole goal is to cut costs. If anything, Pontiac’s path — a long, swerving course, of which the final results are not yet fully known — has shown that the effectiveness of an emergency manager may hinge most of all on the individual appointed.

“An emergency manager is like a man coming into your house,” said Donald Watkins, a city councilman. “He takes your checkbook, he takes your credit cards, he lives in your house and he sleeps in your bed with your wife.” Mr. Watkins added, “He tells you it’s still your house, but he doesn’t clean up, sells off everything and then he packs his bag and leaves.”


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

In 2009, the same year Pontiac’s jobless rate reached 30 percent, the city’s projected deficit hit $12 million and state officials stepped in, just as they have now in Detroit, and appointed the first of three emergency managers who have run this city ever since. Instantly, there was resistance. An early deal that sold the Silverdome, once valued at $22 million, for only $583,000 helped forge a deep distrust of the outside managers. The city’s first two emergency managers each resigned after little more than a year. Without question, Pontiac is different from Detroit and the experience here may not be easily replicated in a larger city. Detroit, the state’s most populous city, with more than 700,000 residents, has more daunting financial woes and is in a less affluent county.

It remains to be seen how Louis H. Schimmel’s tenure will be remembered. Appointed in September 2011, Mr. Schimmel, the third in Pontiac’s string of emergency managers, quickly unleashed a flurry of privatization deals that even he sounds surprised at having accomplished over the last 18 months. A Pontiac native with decades of experience in municipal finance, he was previously assigned to rehabilitate the finances of two other Michigan cities — Ecorse in the 1986 and Hamtramck in 2000. Mr. Schimmel, now 76, has gutted the Pontiac city government, outsourcing garbage collection, animal control, vital records and street maintenance. Many people still working in City Hall are employed by outside companies. Together, Mr. Schimmel and his predecessors have slashed Pontiac’s annual spending to $36 million from $57 million and erased nearly all of its long-term debt. Mr. Schimmel wants to cut an additional $6 million from the budget in the next two months...While Mayor Leon B. Jukowski has an arrangement of being paid $100,000 as a consultant to Mr. Schimmel, whose $150,000 salary comes from city coffers, Pontiac’s council members have not been involved in the reshaping of their city. They have opposed privatization efforts at every turn....


“Pontiac is getting its heartbeat back,” said Robert Karazim, a new resident who owns apartment and retail space downtown. “It isn’t a ghost town anymore.”


With his work nearly finished, Mr. Schimmel said that he plans to hand Pontiac back over to city officials before summer, just in time for primary elections.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
6. Big Bank Immunity: When Do We Crack Down on Wall Street? By Dean Baker
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 06:18 AM
Mar 2013
http://www.nationofchange.org/big-bank-immunity-when-do-we-crack-down-wall-street-1363098432

The Wall Street gang must really be partying these days. Profits and bonuses are as high as ever as these super-rich takers were able to use trillions of dollars of below-market government loans to get themselves through the crisis they created. The rest of the country is still struggling with high unemployment, stagnant wages, underwater mortgages and hollowed out retirement accounts, but life is good again on Wall Street. Their world must have gotten even brighter last week when Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justice Department may have to restrain its prosecutors in dealing with the big banks because it has to consider the possibility that a prosecution could lead to financial instability. Not only can the big banks count on taxpayer bailouts when they need them; it turns out that they can share profits with drug dealers with impunity. (The case immediately at hand involved money laundered for the Mexican drug cartel.) And who says that times are bad?

It’s hard to know where to begin with this one. First off, we should not assume that just because the Justice Department says it is concerned about financial instability that this is the real reason that they are not prosecuting a big bank. There is precedent for being less than honest about such issues. When Enron was about to collapse in 2002 as its illegal dealings became public, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who was at the time a top Citigroup executive, called a former aide at Treasury. He asked him to intervene with the bond rating agencies to get them to delay downgrading Enron’s debt. Citigroup owned several hundred million dollars in Enron debt at the time. If Rubin had gotten this delay Citigroup would have been able to dump much of this debt on suckers before the price collapsed. The Treasury official refused. When the matter became public, Robert Rubin claimed that he was concerned about instability in financial markets.

It is entirely possible that the reluctance to prosecute big banks represents the same sort of fear of financial instability as motivated Robert Rubin. In other words, it is a pretext that the Justice Department is using to justify its failure to prosecute powerful friends on Wall Street. In Washington this possibility can never be ruled out. However there is the possibility that the Justice Department really believes that prosecuting the criminal activities of Bank of America or JP Morgan could sink the economy. If this is true then it make the case for breaking up the big banks even more of a slam dunk since it takes the logic of too big to fail one step further. Just to remind everyone, the simple argument against too-big-to-fail is that it subsidizes risk-taking by large banks. In principle, when a bank or other company is engaged in a risky line of business those who are investing in the company or lending it money demand a higher rate of return in recognition of the risk.

However, if they know that government will back up the bank if it gets into trouble then investors have little reason to properly evaluate the risk. This means that more money will flow to the TBTF bank since it knows it can undertake risky activities without paying the same interest rate as other companies that take on the same amount of risk. The result is that we have given the banks an incentive to engage in risky activity and a big subsidy to their top executives and creditors. If it turns out that we also give them a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to criminal activity then we are giving these banks an incentive to engage in criminal activity. There is a lot of money to be gained by assisting drug dealers and other nefarious types in laundering their money. In principle the laws are supposed to be structured to discourage banks from engaging in such behavior. But when the attorney general tells us that the laws cannot be fully enforced against the big banks he is saying that we are giving them incentive to break the law in the pursuit of profit. Our anti-trust laws are supposed to protect the country against companies whose size allows them inordinate market power. In principle, we would use anti-trust law to break up a phone company because its market dominance allowed it to charge us $10 a month too much on our cable. How could we not use anti-trust policy to break up a bank whose size allows it to profit from dealing with drug dealers and murderers with impunity?
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
7. US Companies Keeping Even More Money Offshore
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 06:21 AM
Mar 2013
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-companies-keeping-even-more-money-offshore-2013-3

U.S. companies are keeping more of their profits offshore, choosing overseas tax havens amid talk in Washington about closing corporate tax loopholes, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The business newspaper said its analysis of 60 big American companies had found that they had collectively parked a total of $166 billion offshore last year. That shielded more than 40 percent of their annual profits from U.S. taxes, the report said. Each of the 60 companies chosen for the analysis had held at least $5 billion offshore in 2011, according to The Journal.

The list included Abbott Laboratories, whose store of untaxed overseas earnings rose by $8.1 billion, to $40 billion, the paper said. The increase exceeded the pharmaceutical maker's net income of $6 billion.

Industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. boosted its store of untaxed earnings held by its offshore subsidiaries and earmarked for foreign investment by $3.5 billion last year to $11.6 billion, a rise equal to the company's annual profit, excluding a pension adjustment, The Journal said.

The practice is a result of U.S. tax rules that allow companies to not pay taxes on profits earned by overseas subsidiaries if the money is not brought back to the United States, the report pointed out.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
8. BUDGET BLATHER: A compendium of recent articles
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 06:33 AM
Mar 2013
Dueling budget plans debut in Congress

http://news.yahoo.com/dueling-budget-plans-debut-congress-005342080--business.html

President Barack Obama's charm offensive to end Washington's budget wars hit a bump on Tuesday when Republicans and Democrats in Congress offered up vastly different plans to slash long-term deficits.

The competing budgets, both unlikely to get through Washington's divided government in their current form, raised fresh doubts about Congress reaching a compromise on taxes and spending, which polls consistently show the public wants more than any specific plan.

Instead, they appeared crafted to appeal to their respective party bases...."These were two ideological documents. They are both bargaining positions," said David Brown, a policy analyst at Third Way, a centrist think tank in Washington.
Brown added that for a budget compromise to be reached in coming months, Obama will have to convince the public of the need to reform "entitlement" programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, although not necessarily as drastically as the Ryan budget requires... WATCH THAT IDIOT, FOLKS, AND ANY THIRD WAY CRACKPOT

Liberal Democrats fear Obama may give away too much on budget

http://news.yahoo.com/liberal-democrats-fear-obama-may-away-too-much-231019289--business.html

As President Barack Obama tries to improve relations with Congress, it is not only Republicans who are wary of him but also some Democrats, who on Tuesday warned the president not to compromise their liberal principles in return for a budget deal. At a lunch with Senate Democrats, Obama said it was critically important to work with Republicans in order to reach a "grand bargain" to reduce the country's budget deficit, according to lawmakers.

"Of course some of us responded by saying 'Yes. But what is in that grand bargain?' We don't want to start whacking away at Social Security," Iowa Senator Tom Harkin told reporters after the lunch.

The liberal Democrats are worried Obama wants to use a less generous inflation index to calculate increases in Social Security retirement benefits. The lower index, known as the chained consumer price index, takes into account changes in consumer buying habits and could trim spending, and thus retirees' benefits, by $130 billion over 10 years.

Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, called the lower inflation index a "stupid" idea.

"I think the much better approach is how to bring more revenue into the system," Sanders told Reuters after the lunch. "There are ways to address these problems without cutting benefits. That is the case I made to the president," he said.

When asked how Obama responded to their concerns, Harkin said the president said things were open for negotiation.
AS IF HE'D ACTUALLY NEGOTIATE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO PAY THE BILLS AROUND HERE....

Obama: Gap Between Parties May Be 'Too Wide' for a Grand Bargain on Budget

...Before meetings with GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate today and Thursday, President Obama signaled pessimism about the prospect of reaching a grand bargain in the ongoing budget negotiations. He said there is not an "immediate debt" crisis and that, ultimately, there might just be too much space between the two parties to reach a deal.

"Ultimately, it may be that the differences are just too wide. It may be that, ideologically, if their position is, 'We can't do any revenue,' or, 'We can only do revenue if we gut Medicare or gut Social Security or gut Medicaid,' if that's the position, then we're probably not going to be able to get a deal," the president told me.

"That won't … create a crisis," he said. "It just means that we will have missed an opportunity. I think that opportunity is there and I'm going to make sure that they know that I'm prepared to work with them. But, ultimately, it may be better if some Democratic and Republican Senators work together."

OR NOT
 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
9. Political will holds up European state asset sales
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 06:45 AM
Mar 2013

(Reuters) - With Europe's stock indexes hitting their highest since before Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, privatisations could be a boon to the region's debt-laden governments, but while markets are no longer weak, politicians are still not willing.

Countries across Europe, including Italy and France, are sitting on trillions of dollars worth of assets, and the sale proceeds could help limit unpopular spending cuts or tax rises, if politics were that simple.

"The politics are quite relevant because there can be significant public backlash. Pursuing that kind of agenda, even when markets are good, is not necessarily attractive politically," said a financial industry source with experience of privatisations.

"We don't expect the flood gates to suddenly open."...

/... http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/uk-state-asset-sales-idUKLNE92D00820130314

European stocks rose to an almost five-year high and metals advanced as policy makers gathered in Brussels for a two-day summit. U.S. Treasuries fell, while a gain in equity-index futures signaled the Dow Jones Industrial Average will extend the longest rally since 1996.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.5 percent to the highest level since June 2008 at 6:05 a.m. in New York. Futures on the Dow Average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.2 percent. Aluminum, nickel and copper led industrial metals higher. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose two basis points to 2.05 percent. Australia’s dollar strengthened to a one-month high versus its U.S. counterpart after payrolls climbed the most in almost 13 years.

European Union leaders indicated in a draft statement that they may grant countries such as France, Spain and Portugal extra time to bring down deficits. U.S. jobless claims probably remained near a six-week low last week, economists said before a Labor Department report today.

“The risk-on sentiment is backed on the fact that tail- risks in Europe have diminished,” said Alessandro Bee, an economist and fixed-income strategist in Zurich at Bank Sarasin & Cie AG, which manages the equivalent of $104 billion. “Economic indicators in the U.S are trending up and there’s expectations central banks will keep their accommodative policies.” ...

/... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-14/aussie-dollar-gains-on-jobs-japan-stocks-rise-oil-retreats.html

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
11. India's production strength a mirage
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:02 AM
Mar 2013
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-04-140313.html


NEW DELHI - After two continuous months of contraction, India's Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for January finally gave some cause for cheer as it expanded by 2.36% annual rate, the fourth increase during the past 10 months of the current financial year 2012-13.

Even so, while this growth rate was higher than what was achieved in January 2012 (0.97%) and double what the market was expecting (a 1.2% annual growth rate), the overall growth rate for the period April-January was a mere 1% compared to the 3.4% achieved during the same period in the previous year.

As is their wont, the government spokespersons for the umpteen time proclaimed that the worst for the economy is over. Planning



Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, speaking to NDTV Profit, expressed his happiness at the number and said that, ''the numbers fits in with the signals we have been getting ... have to see how fast the turnaround happens."

He also foresaw a turnaround in the economy earlier this year and trashed the 5% advance estimate of GDP growth released by India's Central Statistical Organization (CSO), stating that the CSO failed to see the green shoots that he and his team were able to see, only to resign to his fate once the third-quarter GDP data was released. The next couple of months' data will confirm whether what he is seeing is a green shoot or a withering weed.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
14. DOW'S WINNING STREAK SHORES UP MARKETS
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:07 AM
Mar 2013
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-14-06-28-27

LONDON (AP) -- Another record close on the Dow Jones index helped shore up markets Thursday ahead of the release of U.S. jobless claims.

The Dow has now risen for nine straight sessions, its longest winning run since 1996. Many stock indexes around the world have risen in the slipstream of the Dow's advance to multi-year highs, too.

Investors will later be monitoring weekly U.S. jobless claims figures to see if the recent labor market improvement continues. The consensus in the markets is that claims remained around the 350,000 mark last week.

"There does not appear to be too many doubters that today's weekly jobs numbers will provide even more ammunition for the bulls," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor.

siligut

(12,272 posts)
33. Please check out IGZ
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 01:11 PM
Mar 2013

This stock has no profile, history or news. It has risen 3,328.57% today.

IGZ (Listing Market NYSE Arca N (IGZ) -NYSEArca
120.00 116.50(3,328.57%) 12:37PM EDT

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=IGZ&ql=1


I have investments for my retirement, I am not rich by any means and I am going to get old.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
13. Japan and Philippines align strategic interests
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:04 AM
Mar 2013
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-140313.html

SINGAPORE - Japan and the Philippines recently launched joint initiatives in security cooperation to reinvigorate their strategic partnership. Seven decades after Japan's invasion of the Philippine archipelago, Tokyo announced the donation of 10 new patrol ships valued at US$11 million each to the Philippine Coast Guard. The



unprecedented gesture reflected a renewed vibrancy in bilateral ties.

Japanese and Filipino diplomats and maritime officials met in Manila on February 22 to discuss maritime cooperation in the South China Sea, maritime security and safety, anti-piracy measures, fisheries and marine scientific research.

The bilateral engagement has been driven by two key strategic factors: 1) a common perception that China represents an existential threat, and 2) domestic political and economic considerations by the Philippine government.

With the return of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to power, Japan is shadowing the United States with its own ''pivot'' to Southeast Asia. Manila, which is currently bolstering partnerships with various regional allies to strengthen its defense capabilities, is poised to play a vital role in Tokyo's nascent strategic realignment.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
15. Who Is Poor? By THOMAS B. EDSALL
Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:08 AM
Mar 2013
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/who-is-poor/

There are three ways of defining poverty in America: the official Census Bureau method, which uses a set of income thresholds that vary by family size and composition; an experimental income-based method called the Supplemental Poverty Measure that factors in government programs designed to help people with low incomes; and a consumption-based method that measures what households actually spend. By defining poverty according to different criteria, these three methods capture surprisingly different populations of men, women and children. In a perfect world, these three methods would all tell us to do the same thing to alleviate poverty, but it’s not like that. Each method suggests a different approach toward how our government should direct its poverty-fighting resources.

According to the two income-based methods of calculation, poverty is increasing; according to the consumption-based method, it is decreasing. Confusingly, I am afraid, both the official method and the consumption method of defining poverty suggest that we should shift benefits away from the elderly and increase programs serving poor children and their families, but the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which is also income-based, does exactly the opposite. Needless to say, these three methods and their distinct outcomes have led to substantial disagreement among policy experts and social scientists. The lack of definition in our definition of poverty is part of the problem; it helps to answer the question of how the richest country in the history of the world could have so many people living in a state of deprivation. The lack of definition in our definition of poverty is part of the problem.

  • Let’s go over this a bit. Start with the two alternative measures of poverty based on income. The official definition was established in 1963 by the Kennedy Administration and uses as a point of reference the average dollar value of all the food needed for a week, times three. Income is calculated on a pre-tax basis including earnings, unemployment benefits, Social Security, disability, welfare, pensions, alimony and child support. The poverty threshold is set at the point at which a family would have to spend more than a third of its income on food.

  • The second income-based method of calculating poverty, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, is also published by the Census. It was first released in 2011. The S.P.M. adds together cash income, tax credits (in particular, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the benefit most important to the working poor), plus the value of in-kind benefits used to pay for food (food stamps), clothing, shelter and utilities, and then subtracts taxes paid, work expenses (including child care), out-of-pocket medical costs and child support paid to another household.

    The differences in the results of these two income-based measures are readily apparent in Fig. 1, a chart published by the Census. The bar on the right represents the S.P.M., and the bar on the left represents the official method.


    U.S. Census Bureau

    The poverty rate for poor children, under the official measure, is 22.3 percent; under the S.P.M. it is only 18.1 percent. The rate of poverty for those 65 and older is 8.7 percent under the official measure, but it nearly doubles to 15.1 percent under the S.P.M. If the S.P.M. were adopted as the official measure used by government agencies to define poverty, millions of poor children would either lose, or face reductions in, benefits from means-tested programs, while millions of those over the age of 65 would qualify for government assistance....

  • The consumption method of measuring poverty — which was the subject, to some extent, of a column I wrote on Jan. 30 about the so called hidden prosperity of the poor — finds a substantial decline in the over-all rate of poverty, especially among the elderly. The consumption-based method, which was disparaged in an email to the Times by Shawn Fremstad of the Center for Economic and Policy Research as “not ready for prime time,” is vigorously defended by Bruce D. Meyer and James X. Sullivan, economists at the University of Chicago and Notre Dame respectively. They argue in a series of papers that both the official and supplemental methods overestimate the level of poverty among those 65-plus for two reasons: “because older Americans are more likely (than other age groups) to be spending out of savings and using assets (like homes and cars) that they own” and because the two income-based measures of calculating poverty overstate the rate of inflation. By Meyer and Sullivan’s computations, consumption poverty among those 65 and older has fallen by 83 percent since 1980 to just 3.2 percent in 2010...

    Measures ignoring the family’s cost of medical care not only understate the incidence of poverty for all groups but greatly understate the poverty rates of the demographic group that has the largest average out of pocket medical expenses, the elderly. James Firman, president and C.E.O. of the National Council on Aging, told me that the official poverty measure is “grossly inadequate” because “it does not account for the 20 to 40 percent of total income that the elderly must pay out of pocket for health care, thus underestimating the poverty level among those 65 and older.” Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Boston College Center for Retirement Research, warned that many are convinced the elderly have it relatively easy because the official and most publicized poverty measure “does not take into account their high medical costs.” According to Munnell, credit card debt is rising faster among the elderly than other groups because of demands to pay growing medical fees and premiums just when higher and higher percentages of those reaching retirement age do not have defined benefit pension plans to provide support. Social Security, according to Munnell, which provides the average retired worker $15,168.36 a year, “plays a bigger and bigger role” as pensions diminish.

    All three methods of measurement may undercount the poor. Kathryn Edin, a professor of public policy and management at Harvard’s Kennedy School, said in a phone interview and in a series of emails that a major problem with all three attempts to measure poverty is that the poverty level has no real empirical basis — it is not a good measure of how much it takes to survive nor is it a relative measure meant to reflect what is required for social inclusion in the society. The poverty level is most certainly too low. Most people can’t actually live on incomes that hover around the poverty threshold.

    MUCH MORE STICKY WICKET AT LINK
  • xchrom

    (108,903 posts)
    16. SHARP DROP IN US HOMES LOST TO FORECLOSURE IN FEB
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:11 AM
    Mar 2013
    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FORECLOSURE_RATES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-14-06-29-43

    LOS ANGELES (AP) -- While the nation's foreclosure woes persist, new data show they're easing amid a resurgent housing market, rising home prices and efforts by some states to buy homeowners more time to avoid losing their homes.

    The number of U.S. homes repossessed by lenders last month fell 11 percent from January and declined 29 percent from February last year, tumbling to the lowest level since September 2007, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

    Some states continued to see sharp increases in homes lost to foreclosure last month, including Washington, Wisconsin and Iowa. But home repossessions declined both on an annual and monthly basis in a majority of states, including past foreclosure hotbeds such as California, Georgia and Arizona.

    All told, 45,038 U.S. homes completed the foreclosure process in February. That's less than half of the 102,000 homes lost to foreclosure in March 2010, when home repossessions peaked, according to the firm's records, which go back to January 2005.
     

    Demeter

    (85,373 posts)
    17. One more meeting this week, tonight
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:12 AM
    Mar 2013

    Somebody stop me before I volunteer again.

    It's still below freezing: 19 F, windchill of 12F. With DST, it's dark, too. Unfortunately, I have to go out in it....if I have enough clothing for the job...

    Good luck, everyone! I have a feeling we are going to need it today.

    xchrom

    (108,903 posts)
    19. Australia adds 71,500 jobs, the biggest jump since 2000
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:26 AM
    Mar 2013
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21781493

    Australia added 71,500 jobs in February, a huge jump and the biggest rise in total employment in more than a decade.

    Full-time employment jumped by 17,800 and part-time employment was up by 53,700, said the Bureau of Statistics.

    There was also a rise in the total workforce, which comprises those in work plus those looking for it. The unemployment rate remained at 5.4%.

    Analysts said the data was a sign that economic conditions were improving.

    xchrom

    (108,903 posts)
    21. Bank behaviour harming capitalism, says IoD
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:29 AM
    Mar 2013
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21775429

    A business leaders' group has blasted the "unacceptable" levels of banker bonuses, saying it is hurting the reputation of capitalism itself.

    "Shareholder value has been destroyed, capitalism has been given a bad name," said Simon Walker, director-general of the Institute of Directors (IoD).

    "Yet vast rewards packages are still being handed out," he added.

    It comes after more than 500 workers at Barclays and RBS were revealed to have earned more than £1m last year.

    xchrom

    (108,903 posts)
    22. The Housing Market Is Experiencing Some 'Dangerous Foreclosure Flare-Ups'
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 07:52 AM
    Mar 2013
    http://www.businessinsider.com/realtytracs-february-foreclosure-report-2013-3

    February foreclosure filings increased 2 percent month-over-month (MoM) in February, according to the latest foreclosure report from RealtyTrac. These include default notices, auctions, and real estate owned (REOs) properties. But filings were down 25 percent from a year ago.

    One in every 849 homes received a foreclosure filing in February, down from a foreclosure rate of one in every 869 homes the previous month.

    "The U.S. foreclosure inferno has been effectively contained," according to Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. "But dangerous foreclosure flare-ups are still popping up in states where foreclosures have been delayed by a lengthy court process or by new legislation making it more difficult to foreclose outside of the court system."
    Foreclosure flare-ups

    In Washington for instance, foreclosure activity was up for the 10th straight month, rising 2 percent MoM, and up 123 percent from a year ago. It now has the nation's fifth highest foreclosure rate, for the first time since RealtyTrac began reporting on foreclosures in 2005.




    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/realtytracs-february-foreclosure-report-2013-3#ixzz2NVwPqh87
     

    Demeter

    (85,373 posts)
    32. This Date in 2012
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 10:01 AM
    Mar 2013

    The tornado (in March!) roared through the village 10 miles west of me. For 90 minutes I had the grandpuppy, a cat, a bunny rabbit with an immune disorder, the Kid and my neighbor from California huddled in the half-bath.

    The neighbor was particularly overwrought. Since she's Michigan-born, it's more PSTD from several California earthquakes and fires....

    It beat freezing to death, is all I'll say.

    xchrom

    (108,903 posts)
    24. Land prices rising even after year of record drought
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 08:16 AM
    Mar 2013
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/13/land-prices-rising-even-after-year-of-record-drought/




    American farmers may have suffered an historic drought last year, but the price of their land is skyrocketing.

    In Iowa, the US’s biggest producer of corn, the land prices jumped 24 percent in 2012 and and have gained 63 percent over the last three years, according to a study by Iowa State University.

    The drought and heat wave last year may have severely damaged crops, but ironically it has made crop land ever more valuable.

    The higher prices for crops helped compensate for lower yields, for one thing.

    xchrom

    (108,903 posts)
    26. Workers aged 65 or older approaches the one million mark{uk}
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 08:25 AM
    Mar 2013
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2013/mar/13/workers-aged-65-older-increasing


    Sid Prior was working at the Wimbledon B&Q branch at the age of 91. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

    en years ago there were 500,000 people in work who were over the retirement age of 65. Now that figure is approaching the one million level, with a rise of 270,000 since 2009, a period marked by a deep slump, brief recovery and a prolonged period of flat-lining. Half the total increase in employment during the past three years has been in 65-plus age bracket.

    In one respect, this is excellent news. The increase in life expectancy means we are all going to be expected to work longer in order to make our pensions go further. Rising employment among the over-65s is just what the government wants to see.

    There is one drawback, pointed out by Martin Beck of Capital Economics. The increase in jobs for older workers has come at the expense of younger workers, with employment for the 18-24 age group falling by 150,000 over the last three years. In effect, companies have been saying to those just out of school and university: We don't want you, we want your granny.

    This matters for two reasons. The first is that there is plenty of evidence that long periods of unemployment for a young person leave scars for life. Second, employing more older workers is a mixed blessing when it comes to productivity, because while they older workers tend to be experienced and reliable, they are also slower to pick up new ideas and techniques than younger workers.

    xchrom

    (108,903 posts)
    27. Could Obama's Deficit-Reduction Plan Get Any More Centrist?
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 08:30 AM
    Mar 2013
    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/could-obamas-deficit-reduction-plan-get-any-more-centrist/273994/

    That's the question David Brooks asked Ezra Klein a few weeks ago when the two talked about what to do with the sequester. Brooks said he wished President Obama would do something "Clintonesque," like "what [former Treasury Secretary] Robert Rubin would describe."

    Well, as Klein readily pointed out, it's no mystery what Rubin thinks. He co-authored the long-term debt plan the Center for American Progress put out, which called for $1.8 trillion in new revenues and $385 billion in Medicare savings. Taken together with the spending caps from the Budget Control Act, it all adds up to a one-to-one ratio (approximately) of spending cuts to revenue increases.

    Rubin touted the same kind of balanced approach to deficit reduction during his talk today with David Wessel of the Wall Street Journal at The Atlantic Economy Summit. In particular, Rubin thinks the additional cuts the Obama administration has proposed -- $400 billion in Medicare savings, $200 billion in non-health, and $130 billion from chained CPI (which includes another $100 billion in increased revenue) -- are the right kind of cuts. The wrong kind of cuts are, unfortunately, the cuts we're getting right now: the sequester. Those cuts take non-defense discretionary spending -- things like education, research, and infrastructure -- far below its lowest level since 1970. Instead, Rubin thinks we need to pair Obama's smarter cuts with some smarter revenue increases, if only to take the pressure of deficit reduction off of public investment. He said those revenue increases should be somewhere around $600 billion from cutting tax expenditures, which, together with the revenue from the fiscal cliff deal, would only amount to $1.2 trillion of the $1.8 trillion Rubin originally wanted.

    As you can see in the chart below, Rubin's plan to replace the sequester is almost evenly split between cuts and revenue increases.

    mahatmakanejeeves

    (56,897 posts)
    30. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (03/14/2013)
    Thu Mar 14, 2013, 09:29 AM
    Mar 2013

    Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

    Read more: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20130431.htm

    UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

    SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

    In the week ending March 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 332,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 342,000. The 4-week moving average was 346,750, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 349,500.

    The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent for the week ending March 2, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 2 was 3,024,000, a decrease of 89,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,113,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,098,250, a decrease of 28,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,126,500.

    UNADJUSTED DATA

    The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 315,356 in the week ending March 9, a decrease of 20,324 from the previous week. There were 340,102 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.
    ....

    The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 2 were in California (+11,720), New York (+7,900), Missouri (+2,722), Kansas (+1,419), and Washington (+813), while the largest decreases were in Massachusetts (-4,193), North Carolina (-1,146), Connecticut (-913), Michigan (-909), and Florida (-726).

    == == ==

    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

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