STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 30 May 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 30 May 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 29 May 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 29 May 2013
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Dow Jones 15,302.80 -106.59 (-0.69%)
S&P 500 1,648.36 -11.70 (-0.70%)
Nasdaq 3,467.52 -21.37 (-0.61%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.11% -0.03 (-1.40%)
30 Year 3.26% -0.02 (-0.61%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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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=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.










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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]

[tclambert]

1. The Postal Service would get fixed in a minute if Democrats controlled Congress.

For some reason, Republicans want to destroy the Postal Service. Two reasons, really: 1) They can't stand that any part of the government actually works (USPS has for 238 years), and 2) They want to privatize it, so some enterprising Republican business execs can take it over and extort profits from any American who wants to mail anything. (Rates would likely double while service declines.)

Democrats in Congress would take one look, say, "Your costs per piece of mail has gone up, and your postage rates are way lower than in other countries. Okay, you can go up to 50 cents for a stamp. Oh, and here's all that retirement money back that you overpaid." In Canada, a first class stamp costs about 63 cents and hasn't crushed their economy, so it's likely we could survive a 50 cent stamp. In Germany, Britain, and Japan, it's even higher.

[Demeter]

2. It's not like anyone mails anything nowadays, anyway

I don't go through 20 stamps in a year. Of course, I've lost most of my family...and the rest I do email, instead.

[Tansy_Gold]

10. It's the packages

The postal service has been privatized by shifting the profitable small package and overnight shipping to UPS, FEDEX, etc. And then they piggyback off each other and the stockholders get a cut. Uncle Sam is just the sugar daddy.

I probably use 50-60 actual stamps a year, but I do all my small business shipping via USPS. It's lots cheaper, I can go into the post office and use the automated kiosk 24/7, and I'm not giving anything to the very friendly rip-off artist at the UPS store who was actually going to charge me a $5.00 fee just for weighing an envelope. "If I put it on the scale I'm going to print the postage for it, and there's a $5.00 fee." Uh, no, not gonna happen.

[DemReadingDU]

13. We must be helping to keep the Post Office in business

Seems like we mail something every week. Cards to the grandkids for birthdays and holidays, a few bills that I never setup for electronic billing, and miscellaneous rebates, etc. I've noticed some small items that used to be delivered by UPS, now come to my house via the mailman.

[AnneD]

29. I use the mail alot...

We mail notices to parents for school, which relays important information. It is the cheapest way to ship to many places that private sources won't deliver to. I got my passport at my local post office, it is a cheap place to get money orders if you can't get to a bank. Some things just don't have the impact that mail does (like letters and packages to overseas military or care packages to college students). The USPS is a bargain and part of our nation's infrastructure. I think this is an essential service that any government should provide for its population.

Not everyone has computer access, especially those in rural areas or the elderly and poor. In a small town, the post office and the library are your links to the outside world. A lack of these services further isolates you.

[DemReadingDU]

35. I know several people who do not have a computer

They still write all the checks for their bills, and send hand-written notes to their friends. The post office and a library should always be in a community. But alas, sometimes, they get closed down.

[Demeter]

3. Look at that NIKKEI Go!

So much for Abenomics.

[Fuddnik]

12. Ho Lee Fuck!

Down over 700 pts!

Dow futures say Ho Hum

[Demeter]

4. Modern Business Practice Explained

[Demeter]

5. How Did the IRS Get Investigatory Authority, Anyway?

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16596-how-did-the-irs-get-investigatory-authority-anyway

...an understanding of the true history of IRS scandals -- as documented in the mid-1970s Church Committee reports -- might better inform our understanding of this contemporary story. An early foreshadowing of problems to come came in 1942. Morris Ernst -- a lawyer, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, and political ally of FDR -- suggested that the attorney general conduct “aggressive action” in the form of tax return audits to go after anti-interventionist groups. To his consternation, no one in the Roosevelt administration was interested in the idea. Even J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, an organization heavily involved in monitoring and attempting to discredit President Roosevelt’s foreign policy critics, avoided it because using tax records was too public and, hence, too risky

By 1951, the IRS’s responsibilities began to morph and it started to tackle new issues such as organized crime. Early that year, the Kefauver Committee, which was established to look into issues involving organized crime, criticized the IRS for failing to enforce tax laws in this area. As a result, the IRS moved headlong into investigating racketeering, making use of a federal wagering tax law in an attempt to cut into the revenues of the Mafia itself. When Dwight Eisenhower became president, IRS funding was reduced and the agency had to cut back on its organized crime investigations. But after 1957 and the infamous bust of leading Mafiosi during a summit meeting in Apalachin, New York, the IRS resumed its work in racketeering cases. The IRS’s intelligence function was centralized with the new Kennedy administration’s focus on organized crime. IRS agents would henceforth make use of paid informants, undercover agents, and electronic surveillance (i.e. wiretaps), all of which led to abuses. Most of the scandals under Kennedy were initiated improperly by the IRS’s coordinator for organized crime. It was also under the Kennedy administration that IRS officials resumed, albeit indirectly, catering to the political interests of their superiors. In November 1961, President Kennedy criticized the extremist John Birch Society and the virulently anti-communist Minutemen, but noted that as long as they followed the tax laws of the United States the federal government could not interfere with them. He added as an aside, however, his confidence that the IRS investigated tax law violations. This public statement led IRS officials to create in 1961 a so-called "test audit program" of political action organizations. Looking at both right and left-wing groups, the IRS sought to determine if the groups’ activities warranted their holding tax-exempt status. By 1963, IRS officials planned to expand the program to include 10,000 tax-exempt organizations “of all types” with the backing of the president. But the effort never really got off the ground and ultimately died when the White House lost interest in the issue. When investigating this, the Church Committee found no serious abuses except insofar as the IRS was bending to political pressures.

By 1969 the IRS bureaucracy expanded to include something called the Special Service Staff after Congressional committees and the White House expressed discontent that large political groups were not obeying tax laws. President Nixon’s aide Tom Charles Huston -- the man whose failed plan to coordinate intelligence operations in the White House led to the formation of the White House plumbers and hence Watergate -- suggested that Nixon use the IRS to target left-wing groups to see if they were complying with tax laws. This Special Service Staff, under pressure from the White House, created a special office to look at “activists” and “ideologies.” The Staff had lists of activists that they received from the FBI and Justice Department and they targeted political groups for audits based on political activities. In doing this, they bypassed normal IRS procedures. Some 8,000 individuals and 3,000 groups were targeted secretly by the IRS not for tax law violations but for engaging in First Amendment-protected political activity. Targets included the Ford Foundation, the Head Start Program, and the Urban League. The Special Service Staff was abolished only in mid-1973, when it was discovered by incoming IRS commissioner Donald Alexander. By 1969 the IRS Intelligence Division, after years of targeting organized crime, began targeting political corruption and gathered information beyond violations solely of tax law. Under Operation Leprechaun (named for the green ink in IRS informant files), the Justice Department and IRS agents investigated political corruption in Florida and collected information on the sexual and drinking habits of targets, used illegal electronic surveillance, and broke into the office of a congressional candidate to remove tax-related records. This all occurred, the Church Committee concluded, as a result of a lack of oversight within the IRS and the lack of a system of controls in their use of informants.

Beyond these serious IRS scandals, tax return information was also freely shared with both the FBI and CIA, who wanted the information to discredit targets. FBI officials requested about two hundred separate tax returns for use in their illegal COINTELPRO operations. Under the FBI’s Key Activist Program, FBI agents acquired the tax returns of dozens of New Left activists, and the IRS asked for no explanation as to the FBI’s interests or plans. FBI officials wanted to have those activists who failed to pay taxes face “considerable consternation, [and] possibly jail sentences,” including a college professor in the Midwest whom FBI officials feared would lead protests. FBI officials also targeted Martin Luther King, Jr., and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference via the COINTELPRO. They hoped to use the IRS’s list of SCLC donors to send them phony SCLC letters warning that the organization was being investigated for tax fraud. This, they hoped, would dry up the funding of King’s group and thereby neutralize it. Students for a Democratic Society was similarly targeted, but because it had not been granted tax-exemption status the IRS donor lists could also be released to the Nixon White House. Even the CIA (illegally) received IRS tax information though non-official channels that it would use to its advantage. CIA officials were interested in the tax returns of Victor Marchetti, a former CIA agent turned critic of the agency. They were also interested in the returns of Ramparts magazine, which was writing exposes of CIA activity. Wanting this information had only one purpose: discrediting critics...

AND THAT BRINGS US TO THE PRESENT DAY...SEE LINK

[Demeter]

11. Obama to nominate James Comey to lead the FBI

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-pn-james-comey-fbi-20130529,0,3916079.story

President Obama plans to nominate James B. Comey, a former senior Justice Department official who famously challenged a secret eavesdropping program during the George W. Bush administration, to replace Robert S. Mueller III as director of the FBI, officials said Wednesday.

Comey, 52, threatened to resign as deputy attorney general rather than give his consent to the secret interception of international calls routed through the United States. Bush had authorized the domestic surveillance effort after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In March 2004, Comey and Mueller rushed to a hospital room where Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was gravely ill. They stood firm when Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, and Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, tried to convince Ashcroft to sign a legal extension of the warrantless wiretapping program. Because of Ashcroft's illness, Comey was acting attorney general. The incident helped cement Comey’s reputation as a principled lawyer who would not bend the law just to please his superiors in the White House.

FBI and Justice Department officials said Comey and Lisa Monaco, now the White House counter-terrorism advisor, were interviewed in April about the FBI director's job and were the two top candidates. The White House will seek to win Senate confirmation for Comey before the congressional recess in August. Mueller, who has served as FBI chief since 2001, is set to retire in September.

Comey stepped down from the Justice Department in 2005 — a year after the hospital room showdown — and became general counsel to Lockheed Martin Corp. More recently, he has been in private practice.

[Demeter]

6. 9 Things You Should Know About the New Farm Bill

http://www.alternet.org/food/9-things-you-should-know-about-new-farm-bill?akid=10489.227380.6Nzv6V&rd=1&src=newsletter846370&t=21&paging=off

The House and Senate will vote soon on the new bills -- but there are important differences.
May 20, 2013 |



This week, both the House and Senate Agriculture committees adopted their versions of the 2013 Farm Bill. This is the latest move in the long-running attempt to pass a “normal” 5-year farm bill to replace one that was last passed in 2008. Several attempts to pass a farm bill in 2012 were unsuccessful and the farm bill that is currently in effect is a short-term extension that expires in September 2013.

There are some significant differences between the House and the Senate, in both what their bills actually contain and in the process used to get them through the committee. Both sides had an abbreviated process, skipping the normal step of conducting a series of hearings to explore various issues before writing the bill. But the Senate Agriculture Committee took the streamlining even further, managing to discuss, amend and pass its version of the bill in a little under three hours on Tuesday. The House Agriculture Committee finished theirs in a marathon session that took most of the day, wrapping up just before midnight Wednesday night.

Now each bill (HR 1947 and S 954) has to go to the floor for the whole body to vote on. The Senate is going first, with leadership claiming they will do the Farm Bill as early as next week. The full House may see their bill in June.

Here are some key differences between the two versions and things to look out for when the bills are on the floor:

1. Fair Markets for Farmers:

2. Country of Origin Labeling:

3. Food Safety: IMPORTS AS WELL AS DOMESTIC

4. Organic:

5. Nutrition Safety Net: Not surprisingly, both committees took big swipes at the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) that provides a nutrition safety net for lower-income people. More than half of the overall savings found in the House bill were created by cutting SNAP by $20 billion. These cuts were five times bigger than the still-too-large $4 billion cut by the Senate committee. The cuts would squeeze people off SNAP largely by making it harder for people to qualify for the program. This was a topic of fierce debate in the House committee and will be a major issue on the House floor. Last year, the full House never voted on the Farm Bill, in large part because of controversy over food stamps.

6. Commodity ProgramS: Both the House and Senate bills end direct payments to farmers raising commodity crops and shift them towards crop insurance instead of government commodity programs...

7. Conservation: INCLUDING BEES DYING OFF

8. Beginning Farmers and Local Food:

9. House Amendment Attack’s States Ability to Regulate Food and Agriculture: An amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) would effectively overturn state laws that set food and agriculture standards that are higher than federal rules. The broad measure is an attack on laws passed by states to establish more humane livestock rules (the purported aim of the amendment) but would also prevent states from setting stronger food safety rules, agriculture product standards, protections against invasive pests or livestock diseases or conceivably even efforts to label GE foods. Federal law should set a floor not a ceiling on what local citizens want in the food and farming systems; this language must be removed as the Farm Bill moves forwards...

MORE DETAIL AT LINK

Patty Lovera is assistant director at Food and Water Watch.

[Demeter]

7. The new farm bill is an economic disaster

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/26/farm-bill-economic-disaster

Just when you think Congress can't get any dumber, it crafts a $1tn farm bill that harms the poor and promotes unhealthy food...As members of Congress have negotiated over various amendments and riders to the bill, they've set an impressively consistent trend: they mix good ideas and bad ideas and combine them to create the absolutely worst possible policies. Elements of the farm bill, as it stands, will cut food stamps to the poor and the previously incarcerated, thus increasing poverty and possibly crime; add to the growing obesity crisis by encouraging chemical sugar substitutes; push genetically modified food at the expense of public health with the so-called "Monsanto Protection Act"; and support factory farming at the expense of sustainable food production with abusive crop subsidies. That's quite a lot of damage to wreak with a single law, but this Congress certainly seems up to the challenge.

The farm bill will set US food policy for 2014 to 2023, encompassing everything from agriculture to food stamps. The food stamps show the worst decision-making. Conservatives are apparently annoyed that Americans are using more food stamps. That much is true. Food stamp usage has grown by at least 70% since the financial crisis in 2008, with a record 47.8 million people relying on food stamps in order to afford their weekly grocery bills. This is costing the government $74.6bn. Members of Congress - whose average pay is $174,000 a year are outraged by this. As they enjoy over $4.6bn in subsidized healthcare, travel and other government perks subsidized by taxpayers, these lawmakers bemoan the waste of government spending on the poor. They pledge fiscal discipline – pinching every taxpayer penny – on the backs of people living below the poverty level, as the lawmakers themselves count on up to $1.2bn in retirement benefits. So it is that these beacons to financial restraint, surrounded by a $6bn bubble of government-subsidized comfort, have succeeded in cutting food stamp help to the poor by about $20.5bn in this bill. They've also planned to eliminate food stamps – for life – for anyone who was ever convicted of a crime, which will disproportionately hurt the urban poor (pdf). Some lawmakers argued the SNAP, or food stamp, program should be cut because of the trend of food stamp users buying things like energy drinks – a trend that continues, not incidentally, due to the low availability of fresh and healthy food in poor areas. Ironically, while they cut the government help to the poor, some of these lawmakers are the personal beneficiaries, to the tune of thousands of dollars, of government farm subsidies.

Yet they still ask: why do we need food stamps at all? There is an economic recovery, some lawmakers argue, why aren't more people buying their own food? This is perhaps the most damaging and revealing idea of all. The "recovery" so far consists primarily of vaporous paper money – inflated stock prices and bounding home prices that provide a "wealth effect" but don't actually fatten anyone's bank accounts or pay anyone's bills. In fact, the rise in food stamp use is neither anomalous nor abusive. It makes perfect sense. Poverty goes up in recessions and in weak recoveries like this one. About 12 million people are out of work. Only about 58% of the population is employed, which is around the lows of the early 1980s recession, and which also has not changed appreciably for around three years. Long-term unemployment is a persistent problem, with 40% of all unemployed people out of work for six months or longer – at which point many employers arbitrarily deem them unemployable. Poverty has been rising steadily since 2008 – just like the use of food stamps...

MORE SENSE AT LINK

[Demeter]

8. For Real Economic Recovery, Government Must Stop Favoring Banks Over Homeowners

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16631-housing-crisis-continues-government-favors-banks-over-people

We're now in the sixth year of the economic collapse and the home foreclosure crisis persists. It continues to drag down families, destroy wealth, weaken communities and prevent economic recovery. Inadequate government response has led to a long-term economic crisis that could have been avoided. With good policy, more losses can still be avoided and the economy can begin a real recovery. According to a 2010 report by the Center for Responsible Lending, 2.5 million homes completed the foreclosure process between 2007 and 2010. The 2011 report by the Center for Responsible Lending found that the country was not even halfway through the foreclosure crisis. In total, the Federal Reserve estimates that $7 trillion in home equity was lost from American households between 2006 and 2011 due to the housing crisis.

The crisis of foreclosure and lost wealth is not over. Every three months, 250,000 new families enter the foreclosure process. According to a May 2013 report of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), more than 13 million homes are still underwater, which increases the risk of foreclosure.

This crisis could have been averted through government policy that placed the needs of people, rather than those of the bankers, first. Because that hasn't happened yet, people are coming together and demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) start holding the big banks accountable. The Home Defenders League, a coalition of local groups that are fighting foreclosure, held a series of actions at the DOJ last week.

In this article, we describe what individuals can do to protect themselves and what local and federal governments can do to resolve the foreclosure crisis and place the nation on a path of economic recovery for everyone, not just for the wealthy....

SEE LINK FOR DETAILS

[Demeter]

9. Congress’s Average I.Q. Expected to Rise in 2015 by Andy Borowitz

Last edited Thu May 30, 2013, 11:07 AM - Edit history (1)

I THINK HE GIVES MICHELE BACHMANN TOO MUCH CREDIT...

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/05/congress-average-iq-expected-to-rise-in-2014.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20%28130%29

The average I.Q. of a member of the House of Representatives is expected to rise sharply in 2015, experts said today.

The experts, who indicated that they were “cautiously optimistic” about the development, said that the gains were most likely to be made in the Midwest.

The expected rise in I.Q. could mean that the average congressperson would have a greater grasp of basic concepts in math and science, including the law of evolution, as well as addition and subtraction.

The last time a branch of the federal government experienced such a significant increase in average I.Q., experts said, was the executive branch in 2009.

[xchrom]

14. Once Again, The US Consumer Is Expected To Save The Day

http://www.businessinsider.com/once-again-the-us-consumer-is-expected-to-save-the-day-2013-5

***SNIP

But no worries. Why bother with manufacturing when US personal consumption remains firmly above 70% of the GDP.



The conventional wisdom goes that if the consumer is happy and in a spending mood, the US economy should grow. And given the ongoing rally in housing and stocks, American consumers seem quite happy indeed. Consumer sentiment hit a post-recession high this month (chart below). Now we just have to see if this happiness translates into sales.



Given these improvements in consumer sentiment, nobody seems to care much about the silly manufacturing slowdown. The consensus seems to be that the US consumer will come to the rescue once again.

[xchrom]

15. Don't be fooled by the false economic recovery

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/29/economic-recovery-not-real



After five years of unemployment, government deficits and financial struggle, every American wants to call it a recovery and call it a day. That's why some optimistic economic data this week seem to have messianic importance, in the ever-optimistic belief that higher consumer confidence and rising home prices will deliver us from economic evil.

But if evil has one power, it is the power of illusion, to mask reality. And, in this case, that is also the power of the positive economic data.

Take the consumer confidence numbers, which are measured every month by the Conference Board and act as one of the more foolish hinges on which to hang our hopes. Consumer confidence in May jumped to 76.2, on a scale of 100. In the popular interpretation, that indicates that consumers believe the economy is improving.

It's also an object lesson in the silliness of believing in the validity of consumer confidence. As history shows, countries and people have long been confident when they had no reason to be.

[DemReadingDU]

19. The power of illusion to mask reality

I get so irritated with people who think the economy is recovering. They just don't see that we are living in PonziWorld.

[xchrom]

16. making a million an hour means never having to say you're sorry

http://www.nationofchange.org/making-million-hour-means-never-having-say-you-re-sorry-1369801992

(Note: A version of this book review featured on Truthdig last week.) Les Leopold’s latest book, “How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour: Why Hedge Funds Get Away With Siphoning Off America’s Wealth,” is necessary, alarming and really funny. His talent for deconstructing complex financial terms and topics constitutes a public service. What he reveals in a sardonic and appropriately irreverent tone, is more ominous. We exist in a political-economic system that allows people who manufacture nothing and bet on everything to control the financial destinies of the rest of the population with impunity, and make stupendous amounts of money doing it. Because, as Leopold writes, “Making a million an hour means never having to say you’re sorry.”

That inanity is what makes Leopold’s book so timely, especially now, when the powers-that-be are pretending we’re back to our pre-2008-financial-crisis status—and that’s a good thing. Hey, the stock market's hitting all-time highs—that’s never happened ahead of a major catastrophe before!

His “handbook” approach to a pretty arcane topic is hilarious and horrifying. His lively chapters are divided so that they read like a twelve-step Capitalists Anonymous program on how to achieve wealth nirvana. There’s Step 2, “Take, Don’t Make,” which asks how can these hedge fund managers who create absolutely nothing tangible be rewarded so outrageously for it? There’s Step 7, “Don’t Say Anything Remotely Truthful”—well, that speaks for itself. And Step 9, “Bet on the Race After You Know Who Wins,” gets to the heart of how these managers, who inspire a plethora of reverential business magazine profiles and books, aren’t doing anything particularly daring or even smart. Hell, it’s not hard to find the bodies if you’re the one burying them.

Leopold opens with comparisons of wealthy categories of humans from top entertainers to sports legends to CEOs (including bank CEOs). Only then does he reveal the ones who warrant the book’s title—the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent elite hedge fund managers who bag billions of dollars per year, and millions of dollars per hour, making 100 times more than the top bank and insurance CEOs. Some even approach $2 million an hour such as David Tepper did in 2009, or John Paulson did in 2010 (well, $2.4 million an hour).

[xchrom]

17. Exclusive - Europe plans major scaling back of financial trading tax

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/30/uk-eu-tax-idUKBRE94T0FX20130530

(Reuters) - European countries plan to scale back a proposed financial transactions tax drastically, initially imposing a tiny charge on share deals only and taking much longer than originally intended to achieve a full roll-out.

While yet to be formally proposed, the sweeping revisions would mark a victory for banks and trading organisations which have lobbied furiously against a scheme aimed at making them contribute to the costs of the financial crisis.

But the move also reflects big practical problems in collecting the revenue and political divisions over the tax, which has encountered legal challenges from London and caused concern even among the 11 euro zone countries backing it.

A redesigned levy would raise only about one tenth of what was once targeted, officials who have worked on the matter told Reuters, removing the claws from a proposal initially championed by Germany and France.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

18. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (05/30/2013)

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20131050.htm

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending May 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 354,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 344,000. The 4-week moving average was 347,250, an increase of 6,750 from the previous week's revised average of 340,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent for the week ending May 18, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 18 was 2,986,000, an increase of 63,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,923,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,986,500, a decrease of 11,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,998,000.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 317,732 in the week ending May 25, an increase of 13,653 from the previous week. There were 346,260 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.
....

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 18 were in South Carolina (+1,263), Tennessee (+1,191), Missouri (+785), Michigan (+634), and Massachusetts (+610), while the largest decreases were in California (-16,334), Georgia (-1,802), Illinois (-1,198), Kentucky (-902), and Ohio (-623).

== == == ==

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.

Another increase this week. 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

[Roland99]

20. US Futures up slightly. Unemployment claims up. GDP growth revised down.

one of these things is not like the others...

[Demeter]

33. But they are all lies, by definition

lies, damn lies, STATISTICS

[Roland99]

37. 87% of all statistics are made up on the fly

and every time I have a 50/50 chance of getting something right, I'm 100% wrong!

[xchrom]

21. China's Shuanghui to buy US pork producer for $4.7bn

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22712637

The biggest pork firms in China and the US plan to join forces in a $4.7bn (£3.1bn) deal that aims to feed the world's most populous country.

China's Shuanghui International has agreed to pay cash for the Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, which including debt, values the firm at $7.1bn.

The deal will be the largest takeover of a US company by a Chinese rival.

It also highlights the growing power of Chinese firms and their desire to secure global resources.

[rusty fender]

30. I don't eat meat, but if I did

I would not buy it from a Chinese company. They cut more corners than a teenage driver!

[xchrom]

22. Japan's Nikkei dives a further 5%

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22714353

Japan's Nikkei index dived a further 5% on Thursday to hit a five-week low, amid predictions of a bigger correction from some analysts.

The fall means the Nikkei has lost 8.3% since reaching a five-and-a-half-year high just a week ago.

Trading in Tokyo has been volatile amid concerns over global growth and the future of US stimulus measures.

Japanese government officials have played down the significance of the falls, suggesting they are "temporary".

[Hotler]

23. Good morning everyone. Just dropped in say hi.

Have a good day.

[xchrom]

25. hey you!

[bread_and_roses]

32. Hi!!!

good to see you, Hotler

[Demeter]

34. He's alive!

That's me...the humidity is so high, it even makes MY straight-as-stick hair curl...

[xchrom]

24. Bon Jovi waive concert fee in crisis-hit Spain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22712497

The US rock star Jon Bon Jovi has revealed that his band have waived their fee at a concert in Madrid next month, given Spain's economic crisis.

The unusually cheap tickets have already sold out. They were on sale for between 18 (£15) and 39 euros,

This compares to tickets for their UK concerts, which start at the equivalent of 14 euros but rise to the equivalent of 99 euros for the top seats.

There were fears many Spanish fans would not be able to afford tickets.

[xchrom]

26. Brussels eases Spain’s deficit target for this year to 6.5 percent of GDP

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/29/inenglish/1369834893_547583.html

The European Commission on Wednesday confirmed that Spain will be given more time to reach its deficit-reduction targets as a result of the weak state of the economy.

The goal for this year was set at 6.5 percent of GDP, compared with the figure of 6.3 percent requested by the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The initial target was 4.5 percent of GDP, down from 7.0 percent in 2012, excluding the 40-billion-euro European bailout to recapitalize Spanish banks.

Spain was also given another two years to bring the budget deficit back within the European Union ceiling of three percent of GDP. The administration now has until 2016 to do so, when the shortfall is expected to be 2.8 percent of GDP. This will be achieved progressively with the goal for 2014 set at 5.8 percent of GDP and at 4.2 percent in 2015.

The concessions reflect the deterioration in economic activity and the fact the government had complied with the structural adjustments demanded of it for last year.

[xchrom]

27. OECD sees jobless rate in Spain rising to 28 percent this year

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/29/inenglish/1369830651_165724.html

Unemployment in Spain is expected to rise to more than 28 percent this year before stabilizing, while the fiscal deficit is expected to slightly drop in by the end of the year and remain at those levels the following year, according to the latest economic forecasts released on Wednesday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The OECD figures are in contrast to many projections made by the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, including estimates that unemployment will drop to 26.7 percent in 2014 from the current 27.2 percent.

The agency expects economic output to decline 1.7 percent this year, compared with a government forecast of a contraction of 1.3 percent, before returning to growth of 0.4 percent in 2014. The fiscal deficit, excluding the European bailout to clean up the banking system, is expected to narrow from 7.0 percent last year to 6.9 percent this year.

“Boosting growth should be the government’s number one policy priority,” the report states. “The government should aim to meet its fiscal consolidation targets in structural terms, but to let the automatic stabilizers operate fully.”

[xchrom]

28. The challenges facing Spain's toxic bank

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/28/inenglish/1369741193_424081.html

For the last year or so, most of the 65 properties that make up the La Secuoya vacation complex in Almeria, Andalusia, have been occupied by around 40 families, gypsies who had been living in caves in nearby Almanzora. La Secuoya, built by a British property developer using a seven-million-euro loan from failed savings bank Bancaja, is among hundreds of such developments - many of which have also been occupied - along Spain's coastline, victims of the collapse of a construction boom that has sent prices tumbling by up to 40 percent since 2007.

Around 500 kilometers away, in a 12-story office block on Madrid's central Paseo de la Castellana thoroughfare, are the offices of Sareb, the so-called "bad" bank set up last year by the state to take over some 90 billion euros' worth of failed real estate projects like La Secuoya from the nationalized lenders - Bankia, Catalunya Banc, NCG Banco, Banco Gallego, Banco de Valencia, Banco Mare Nostrum, Ceiss, Liberbank and Caja 3.

According to Sareb, its holdings also include 76,357 vacant and 6,293 rented homes, along with 14,859 plots of land. The institution also owns property development loans for 61,702 finished and 3,924 projects under construction. Sareb's assets, which it bought at discounts of up to 63 percent, are valued at 50 billion euros.

The bad bank has not only taken over the loan that La Secuoya's promoter has failed to pay back, but will also have to deal with the demands of buyers who paid but have not been able to take possession of their property.

[Demeter]

31. I wish I could say I'm off to see a wizard

but I'm just going to start work early, in hopes of avoiding the afternoon heat...

I'm back...it's humid. It's supposed to cool off as the week progresses, even if it doesn't get any drier.

[AnneD]

36. Interesting note on the Gold Market.....

This is a real must listen to. One of the best explanation of what is going on in the PM market.

http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/episode-449-max-keiser-731/

[jtuck004]

38. The Federator -

http://projects.wsj.com/games/thefederator/

[Demeter]

39. Cute! But probably pointless

since it doesn't include any corruption....

[jtuck004]

40. Ha. True dat. n/t