STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 28 August 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 28 August 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 27 August 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 27 August 2013
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Dow Jones 14,776.13 -170.33 (-1.14%)
S&P 500 1,630.48 -26.30 (-1.59%)
Nasdaq 3,578.52 -79.05 (-2.16%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.71% -0.04 (-1.45%)
30 Year 3.69% -0.06 (-1.60%) [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.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.








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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Demeter]

1. I have a SCREAM!

Give us back our rights, liberties, and country. Go float 12 miles out to sea--with or without a boat.


I survived another board meeting. It was strange. I think everyone who showed (two didn't) was weary from the unrelenting humidity. The sky was rather green when we finished, but there's no tornado warning....yet. It's awful enough for one. Just not enough energy in the sky, I expect.

Also survived the annual safety inspection, furnace inspection and ac inspection.
also was accepted into the University Choral Union.

Didn't make much money, though. Oh, well, can't have everything!

[westerebus]

5. So you're sayin their pipes are good..

and the university likes the sound of your pipes even better. Congratulations!

[AnneD]

19. You ...

are on a roll today. What did they put in your Wheaties?

[westerebus]

26. I'm on a stay at home vacation this week.

All the many annoying "to dos" that have been piling up are being done.

Simplifying one's life is not uncomplicated.

[bread_and_roses]

12. Congrats on the Choral Union!

I love choral music. I am very glad for you.

[Demeter]

24. Thanks

I'm holding off on celebration until after the first year, when I decide if I want to endure it again. It's rather like joining a cult. So many simple things have evolved into cults, lately. It is a worrisome development.

[Demeter]

2. We’re All Still Hostages to the Big Banks By ANAT R. ADMATI

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/opinion/were-all-still-hostages-to-the-big-banks.html?_r=0

NEARLY five years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers touched off a global financial crisis, we are no safer. Huge, complex and opaque banks continue to take enormous risks that endanger the economy. From Washington to Berlin, banking lobbyists have blocked essential reforms at every turn. Their efforts at obfuscation and influence-buying are no surprise. What’s shameful is how easily our leaders have caved in, and how quickly the lessons of the crisis have been forgotten. We will never have a safe and healthy global financial system until banks are forced to rely much more on money from their owners and shareholders to finance their loans and investments. Forget all the jargon, and just focus on this simple rule.


Mindful, perhaps, of the coming five-year anniversary, regulators have recently taken some actions along these lines. In June, a committee of global banking regulators based in Basel, Switzerland, proposed changes to how banks calculate their leverage ratios, a measure of how much borrowed money they can use to conduct their business. Last month, federal regulators proposed going somewhat beyond the internationally agreed minimum known as Basel III, which is being phased in. Last Monday, President Obama scolded regulators for dragging their feet on implementing Dodd-Frank, the gargantuan 2010 law that was supposed to prevent another crisis but in fact punted on most of the tough decisions. Don’t let the flurry of activity confuse you. The regulations being proposed offer little to celebrate.

From Wall Street to the City of London comes the same wailing: requiring banks to rely less on borrowing will hurt their ability to lend to companies and individuals. These bankers falsely imply that capital (unborrowed money) is idle cash set aside in a vault. In fact, they want to keep placing new bets at the poker table — while putting taxpayers at risk. When we deposit money in a bank, we are making a loan. JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest bank, had $2.4 trillion in assets as of June 30, and debts of $2.2 trillion: $1.2 trillion in deposits and $1 trillion in other debt (owed to money market funds, other banks, bondholders and the like). It was notable for surviving the crisis, but no bank that is so heavily indebted can be considered truly safe. The six largest American banks — the others are Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — collectively owe about $8.7 trillion. Only a fraction of this is used to make loans. JPMorgan Chase used some excess deposits to trade complex derivatives in London — losing more than $6 billion last year in a notoriously bad bet.

Risk, taken properly, is essential for innovation and growth. But outside of banking, healthy corporations rarely carry debts totaling more than 70 percent of their assets. Many thriving corporations borrow very little. Banks, by contrast, routinely have liabilities in excess of 90 percent of their assets. JPMorgan Chase’s $2.2 trillion in debt represented some 91 percent of its $2.4 trillion in assets. (Under accounting conventions used in Europe, the figure would be around 94 percent.) Basel III would permit banks to borrow up to 97 percent of their assets. The proposed regulations in the United States — which Wall Street is fighting — would still allow even the largest bank holding companies to borrow up to 95 percent (though how to measure bank assets is often a matter of debate). If equity (the bank’s own money) is only 5 percent of assets, even a tiny loss of 2 percent of its assets could prompt, in essence, a run on the bank. Creditors may refuse to renew their loans, causing the bank to stop lending or to sell assets in a hurry. If too many banks are distressed at once, a systemic crisis results. Prudent banks would not lend to borrowers like themselves unless the risks were borne by someone else. But insured depositors, and creditors who expect to be paid by authorities if not by the bank, agree to lend to banks at attractive terms, allowing them to enjoy the upside of risks while others — you, the taxpayer — share the downside. Implicit guarantees of government support perversely encouraged banks to borrow, take risk and become “too big to fail.” Recent scandals — JPMorgan’s $6 billion London trading loss, an HSBC money laundering scandal that resulted in a $1.9 billion settlement, and inappropriate sales of credit-card protection insurance that resulted, on Thursday, in a $2 billion settlement by British banks — suggest that the largest banks are also too big to manage, control and regulate. NOTHING suggests that banks couldn’t do what they do if they financed, for example, 30 percent of their assets with equity (unborrowed funds) — a level considered perfectly normal, or even low, for healthy corporations. Yet this simple idea is considered radical, even heretical, in the hermetic bubble of banking. Bankers and regulators want us to believe that the banks’ high levels of borrowing are acceptable because banks are good at managing their risks and regulators know how to measure them. The failures of both were manifest in 2008, and yet regulators have ignored the lessons.

MORE

Anat R. Admati, a professor of finance and economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is the author, with Martin Hellwig, of “The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong With Banking and What to Do About It.”

[Demeter]

3. Can we call this market "Summers Slump"?

Now is the summer of our discontent made obvious by this son named Larry....

Now is the Summers of our discontent
Made inglorious chairman by this son of Hawaii;
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with iron bands,
Our bruisèd arms strung up for monuments,
Our stern alarums charged into civil meetings,
Our dreadful marches to hateful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front,
And now, instead of mounting barbèd steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them--
Why I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity.
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determinèd to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunk prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To set my brother Democrats and the GOP
In deadly hate the one against the other;
And if the People be as true and just
As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Janet closely be mewed up
About a prophecy which says that G
Of George's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul -- here Janet comes!


I wish I were better able at parody....

[Demeter]

4. Feds: Bank chairman used bailout money to buy luxury condo Isolde Raftery

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/feds-bank-chairman-used-bailout-money-buy-luxury-condo-8C11017155

A bank chairman from Missouri pleaded guilty on Tuesday to lying about how he used bailout money given to banks during the 2008 economic crisis. Rather than using the federal funds to stabilize his small bank, court records say, the chairman spent about a third of the money on an oceanfront condo in Florida. Darryl Layne Woods, 48, of Columbia, Mo., could be sentenced up to a year in prison and may also have to pay a $100,000 fine. Lying to federal officials about how the money was spent is a misdemeanor crime.

Court records do not say whether Woods will be charged with misusing the money, which came from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

“At a time when many other Americans were losing their homes, he was siphoning off public funds to buy a luxury vacation condo in Florida,” Tammy Dickinson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District, said in a statement. “These federal funds were intended to help stabilize the economy during a fiscal crisis. Instead, this disgraced business leader took advantage of the situation to benefit himself and other bank executives, then lied to federal investigators in an attempt to hide his scheme.”

Court records say that Woods, the chairman of Mainstreet Bank in Ashland, Mo., had located the Fort Myers, Fla. condo and started negotiating on a price between July 2007 and Sept. 2008. Several months later, in November 2008, the bank’s holding company, Calvert Financial Corporation, which Woods also headed, applied for TARP money. The bank received $1.04 million. That winter, on Feb. 2, 2009, Woods closed on the condo, paying $381,500 that he had transferred from the bank. One week later, when TARP administrators asked how he had spent the more than $1 million, he failed to disclose that he had bought a luxury condo for himself and other executives.

A sentencing date for Woods has not been scheduled.

Property records show that the 3-bedroom, 2-bath condo was sold in March 2013 for $408,000.

[xchrom]

6. There Goes The Indian Rupee Again

http://www.businessinsider.com/usdinr-passes-68-2013-8

India's rupee continues to be the most hated currency in the world.

It's been talking non-stop, and it's doing so again today.

Via XE.com, the US dollar just surpassed 68.00 against it for the first time.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/usdinr-passes-68-2013-8#ixzz2dG9to48i

[xchrom]

7. 2 Reasons Brazil's Central Bank Is Expected To Raise Key Interest Rate

http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-central-bank-meeting-preview-2013-8

Earlier this year we saw Brazilians take to the streets to protest poor public services and rising costs. The erosion of income by higher inflation is certainly a deep rooted issue in Brazil.
Then there's the weakness in the Brazilian real, down 20% against the greenback. The real is now one of the worst performing major emerging market currencies.

Consumer prices in Brazil slowed to 6.27% in July, led by a marked cooling in the price of food and transportation. While the overall level is still high, it is within the upper end of the central bank's range.

Though July's headline number suggests inflation is now trending down, the central bank will have to factor in weakness in the Brazilian real which will only add to inflation concerns.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-central-bank-meeting-preview-2013-8#ixzz2dGAkwaO9

[Demeter]

18. They don't want the India treatment

Last edited Wed Aug 28, 2013, 08:20 PM - Edit history (1)

[xchrom]

8. Computer Science Professor Explains How Phone Call Metadata Can Be More Revealing Than Content

http://www.businessinsider.com/metadata-can-be-more-revealing-than-content-2013-8

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the U.S. government over the National Security Agency's bulk collection of U.S. telephone records under the "business records clause" of the Patriot Act, received some strong backing on Monday.

The NSA program that collects metadata — details including telephone numbers dialed, telephone numbers of incoming calls, and the duration of calls — is ostensibly aimed at combating terrorism without violating Americans' Fourth Amendment right to a reasonable expectation of privacy.

On Monday Edward W. Felten, a professor of computer science and Director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), argued that the NSA is building a database that could reveal some of the most intimate secrets of American citizens.

“Calling patterns can reveal when we are awake and asleep; our religion, if a person regularly makes no calls on the Sabbath or makes a large number of calls on Christmas Day; our work habits and our social aptitude; the number of friends we have, and even our civil and political affiliations,” Mr. Felten wrote in a legal brief filed in support of the ACLU's case.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/metadata-can-be-more-revealing-than-content-2013-8#ixzz2dGBTNxsP

[xchrom]

9. Dubai Market Tumbles Again, Emerging Market Currencies Slide, Gold Continues to Climb

http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-august-28-2013-8

Earlier in the day, the big Mideast stock markets were getting obliterated for the second straight day.
Dubai was down over 6%, with Saudi Arabia close behind.

Now things have stabilized a little bit, as Dubai is now off 2%, and Saudi is flat.

But the Syria-driven market jitters are still the big theme, as oil briefly surged this morning, and gold continues to climb. It's now at $1427.

Meanwhile, several of the weak emerging market currencies that everyone is beating up on continue to fade. The rupee is at a new low. So is the Turkish lira.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-august-28-2013-8#ixzz2dGCl77MZ

[Demeter]

16. Who wants ringside seats to another global Mideast conflagration?

Anybody who can is cashing out and getting far away...now that O got his draft notice from AIPAC and the Military/Intelligence complex.

[westerebus]

27. It's as if Dick Cheney never left.

The shadow government is alive and well.

[xchrom]

10. SYRIA SINKS STOCKS AS OIL SPIKES, RUPEE DIVES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-28-05-04-09

BANGKOK (AP) -- The growing likelihood of Western military action against Syria pummeled global stock markets Wednesday and sent the price of oil soaring. India's rupee, already under pressure from the country's deteriorating economic and financial situation, fell dramatically.

Fears that the U.S., Britain and other countries are gearing up to confront Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians rose after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. military stands ready to strike against Syria if President Barack Obama gives the order.

"Investors are sort of battening down the hatches a bit. I get the sense that this looks like a situation that is likely to be with us for a while," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. "One reason the market has started to fall is that people are thinking this may not be a one-off blip that will only last a week. The stakes have been raised by the use of chemical weapons," he said.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.3 percent to 6,424.57 in early trading. Germany's DAX shed 0.6 percent to 8,197.45. France's CAC-40 fell marginally to 3,968.13. Stocks in the U.S. looked set for a slight recovery after sharp losses Tuesday. Dow Jones futures rose 0.2 percent to 14,785. S&P 500 futures rose 0.2 percent to 1,631.70.

[xchrom]

11. Bitter Euro Truths: Crisis Could Damage Merkel's Campaign

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/euro-crisis-threatens-to-upset-merkel-s-re-election-campaign-a-918678.html

When a politician is planning a campaign lie, he has to be able to rely on one thing: No one in his own party must come out with the truth prematurely. The Social Democrats adhered to this rule in the 1976 election, when then Chancellor Helmut Schmidt promised higher pensions and then announced sharp cuts after the election. And the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) also closed ranks in 1990, the year of German reunification, when then Chancellor Helmut Kohl appeared on market squares throughout the country to announce that taxes would not be raised. It was a promise that, as we now know, was followed by the strongest postwar increase in taxes and other charges.

Current Chancellor Angela Merkel was still an up-and-coming member of the eastern German CDU and Kohl's eager pupil, so it came as no surprise that she urged her party's executive committee to stay the course on Greece at all costs last week. "There is too much talk in Europe about debt haircuts," the chancellor told her party's executive committee at a meeting last Monday.

But after SPIEGEL had reported two weeks ago that the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, had new doubts about Greece's bailout program, the debate over additional aid packages or debt forgiveness was reignited. This would be extremely dangerous, the chancellor told CDU MPs, as it would create "uncertainty in the markets." In other words, she was saying, it was critical to maintain discipline in the debate.

Less than 24 hours later, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble appeared on a campaign stage in Ahrensburg, a town in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, and said: "There will have to be another (bailout) program in Greece."

[xchrom]

13. Schäuble's Honesty: Transparency Poses Risks in Euro Crisis

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/euro-crisis-can-require-politicians-to-hold-their-tongues-a-919060.html

In a time when people wrote in autograph books and not on Facebook walls, one sentence from the 18th- and 19th-century German poet Matthias Claudius became immortalized: "Say not all that you know, but know all that you say." That would be a good lesson for those politicians who are handling the euro crisis. Absolute honesty, which many are now demanding of the German government after its most recent comments on Greece, is simply not wise.

Of course politicians should not lie or twist the facts. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has been guilty of the latter over the last week. First he stated publicly what many have long accepted as obvious -- that Greece will need a third bailout package. Amid the ensuing uproar, Schäuble defended himself with the following words: "The German government states what it knows at each point in time."

Such words are not credible. Schäuble certainly didn't suddenly become aware yesterday that Greece needs more money, yet he's only talking about it now. In the European Union, such small-step approaches to problem solving are unavoidable.

The euro crisis has bound Europe together in a common fate -- the Germans, Finns and Dutch putting billions of euros on the line for Greeks, Portuguese and Irish. Yet political institutions in the EU and euro zone remain weak. That's why in the past, virtually all member states, from southern Europe through to Germany and France, flagrantly disregarded the bloc's rules on sovereign debt limits. They knew there was no reason to fear sanctions when they spent beyond their means. The rules have since been strengthened. But the EU still has no real government, its parliament has severely limited powers and real policy-making occurs almost exclusively on the national level.

[xchrom]

14. Syria fears keep oil price high as markets slide

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23860841

The possibility of military action against Syria has continued to shake up markets.

While the price of oil surged higher on Wednesday, share markets have fallen.

The price of gold has also climbed, as risk-averse investors look for safe-havens, while shares in airlines dropped on the looming threat of higher fuel costs.

Brent crude oil hit a six-month high above $117 a barrel, and has risen by 4% this week.

[xchrom]

15. US house prices continue strong growth

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23848717

Growth in US house prices remained strong in June, according to a closely watched survey.

The Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller index showed that prices were 12.1% higher in June compared with a year earlier.

The index measures single-family home prices across 20 cities, and found price rises in all of them.

But the pace of growth was slightly below the 12.2% annual growth rate measured for May.

[xchrom]

17. Japan's pump-primed recovery proves US deficit hawks wrong

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/26/japan-recovery-us-deficit-hawks

Many of the people who ridicule efforts at using government spending to boost the economy and create jobs like to turn to Japan to warn countries from following that route. After all, Japan's budget deficit last year was more than 10% of GDP. That would be more than $1.6tn in the US economy today. Its gross debt is more than 245% of GDP. That would imply a debt of almost $40tn in the United States, which would mean a debt of $125,000 for every man, women, and child in the country.

Those are the sorts of numbers that policy types in Washington find really scary. Fortunately for the Japanese people, the folks currently running their economy are more interested in sound economic policy than pushing scare stories about debt and deficits. Rather than rushing to reduce the deficit, Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, went in the opposite direction. He deliberately increased spending to create jobs.

He also appointed a new head of Japan's central bank who is committed to raising the inflation rate. Japan has been suffering from near-zero inflation, or even deflation, since the collapse of its stock and housing bubbles in 1990. Abe's pick as head of the central bank has committed the bank to raising the inflation rate to 2%. Implicit in this commitment is the notion that the bank will buy up as many Japanese government bonds as needed to reach its inflation target.

In other words, the bank is prepared to print lots of money.

[Demeter]

25. But did the jobs increase?

Or just the stock market?

[DemReadingDU]

20. Wall Street’s greatest enemy: The man who knows too much

8/28/13 David Dayen: Wall Street’s greatest enemy: The man who knows too much
What Michael Winston knows about corporate crimes will horrify you. That's why financial giants want to destroy him

You may know Michael Winston’s story from a series of articles by Gretchen Morgenson in the New York Times, or from a celebrated Frontline episode, “The Untouchables,” about the lack of prosecutions on Wall Street. He was a Ph.D. who rose to the corporate elite, with stints at Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, Motorola and Merrill Lynch. He was recruited to mortgage originator Countrywide Financial with the promise that it wanted to become the “Goldman Sachs of the Pacific,” a full-service global financial corporation.

“They talked about the importance of ethics and principles, and they said they heard I was a high-integrity guy,” Winston tells Salon, noting his father had a vanity plate that read “HONOR.” Winston initially succeeded as enterprise chief leadership officer at Countrywide, getting promoted twice in 14 months and building a team of 200 working on corporate strategy.

But he could not ignore the rot at the heart of the company’s profitmaking approach.

So now, a successful high-level executive for 30 years, he has been embroiled in seven years of lawsuits with Countrywide and the company that bought it, Bank of America. His determination to speak out against multiple violations of law at Countrywide earned him retaliation, and eventually, he was frozen out of corporate boardrooms, unable to find a new job. He won a jury verdict in his case, but after two and a half more years of fighting, an appellate court reversed the ruling in highly unusual circumstances.

“I keep hearing about whistle-blower protections,” he tells Salon, exasperatedly. “It certainly didn’t happen for me.”

Now, Bank of America wants to gouge Michael Winston one last time, demanding an interest payment on money awarded to him that he never received. “Thus far, the person who did the right thing got punished, and the person who did the wrong thing got rewarded,” Winston said. The chilling case shows that the greatest enemy for Wall Street is the man or woman who actually tries to expose its secrets.

more...
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/28/wall_streets_greatest_enemy_the_man_who_knows_too_much/

[AnneD]

21. The drought in Texas continues....

It is so bad that cows are giving powdered milk and we have 3 year old ducks that don't know how to swim. All the water siphoned off for fracking and Rick Perry's prayers to God have not helped.

These are a list of Texas counties that have some type of restrictions. We got some rain in Houston, but it was soaked up. We have been almost mosquito free this summer, that is how dry it has been.

http://www.tceq.texas.gov/drinkingwater/trot/droughtw.html

[Demeter]

30. Have you gone home, AnneD?

I thought you were contemplating emigration.

[AnneD]

31. Being home in Texas......

Is really making me rethink things. Canada or Washington/Oregon area is still looking appealing.

[Demeter]

22. For all of us

[Demeter]

23. The important battle this fall will be over the debt ceiling, not a government shutdown

http://news.yahoo.com/the-important-battle-this-fall-will-be-over-the-debt-ceiling--not-a-government-shutdown--211201263.html

Some conservative lawmakers are threatening to shut down the government rather than fund the president’s health care law when it comes time to pass a required spending bill this fall, but House Republican leaders are looking instead to the upcoming vote to raise the debt ceiling as their opportunity to attack Obamacare. The federal government is expected to reach its borrowing limit in October, and Congress will be asked to vote to increase the ceiling. Republican leaders see the vote as a better opportunity to squeeze concessions out of President Barack Obama than another necessary vote to set spending levels. But Republicans face one major problem: Obama has said unequivocally that he is not open to negotiating when it comes time to raise the debt ceiling, a position that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew echoed on Tuesday.

STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THAT JOKE BEFORE

“The president has been very clear. We are not going to be negotiating over the debt limit,” Lew said during an interview on CNBC’s "Squawk Box." Lew reiterated the statement when asked if Obama will demand a “clean” debt ceiling increase, with no strings attached. Obama first made the statement during a closed meeting with congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill in July, where he assured them the issue of a debt limit hike was not open to discussion.

Congressional Republicans apparently think the president is bluffing. Despite his call for a clean increase, they are planning to present a list of demands before the vote to raise the debt limit. During a conference call with members of the House Republican conference last Thursday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Speaker John Boehner told members to prepare for a fight over the debt ceiling that includes demands to curb the health care law and budget cuts greater than or equal to the increase in the debt limit.

On the Affordable Care Act, Republicans intend to request a one-year delay of the individual mandate to buy health insurance, a key piece of the law. They pointed to legislative victories in the past that were tied to debt limit increase votes, such as the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the Congressional Review Act of 1996, according to a House leadership aide.

This week, Boehner suggested that he sees the debt ceiling vote as a better vessel to promote the party’s agenda than a bill to keep the government running.

“What I’m trying to do here is to leverage the political process to produce more change than what it would produce if left to its own devices,” Boehner said during a Republican fundraiser in Boise, Idaho, on Monday while discussing the forthcoming debt ceiling debate, according to the Idaho Statesman. “We’re going to have a whale of a fight.”

TWO ASPIRIN AND A TICKET TO VENEZUELA, PLEASE!

[jakeXT]

28. Wall Street bonuses to top 2009

Compensation consultant says Wall Street year-end bonus pay could reach $23 billion, the highest since the financial crisis.

FORTUNE -- Well, this ought to make Henry Paulson very sad.

The nation's five biggest banks are on track to pay out $127 billion in total compensation, including at least $23 billion in bonuses, this year. That's up from the $114 billion the banks shelled out to their employees in 2009. It translates to $149,472 per full-time employee for 2013, and is roughly triple the pay of the average American. The figures come from financial filings and the calculations of a top Wall Street compensation consultant.

In an article in Tuesday's New York Times, Paulson said he was disappointed by the size of the bonuses banks paid in the wake of the financial crisis and subsequent bailout. The former Treasury Secretary says he was dismayed about the timing of the large 2009 bonuses. He believes the payouts turned the public against the government's Wall Street bailout, but I don't think it was ever that popular, bonuses or not.

Paulson has, at other times, more generally criticized Wall Street pay. In his book, On the Brink, Paulson said he would regularly "go off" in partner meetings at Goldman Sachs (GS), where he was the CEO before heading to the Treasury Department in 2006, about compensation. He told CNBC in 2010 that he used to tell fellow Goldmanites, "I hope you all understand . . . . people don't like you," when conversations about bonuses would come up. But Paulson took home nearly $102 million in his last three and a half years at Goldman, including a $18.7 million cash bonus for the first half of 2006 alone, so, you know, way to really set an example, Hank

The Times says banks paid $140 billion in bonuses in 2009. But the paper almost certainly means total compensation, including salary and benefits (the $114 billion previously cited is for the top five banks only). It also says that bonuses peaked in 2009, which, too, appears to be wrong. According to this table from the New York comptroller's office, Wall Street bonuses totaled $22.5 billion in 2009. That was down, again according to the NY comptroller, from 2006, when banks paid $34 billion. Last year, Wall Street firms paid out $20 billion in year-end payouts

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/08/28/wall-street-bonuses-2/?iid=HP_LN

[adirondacker]

29. Awesome toon!

Keep up the Great work! (long time SMW lurker)