Weekend Economists Simplify Everything! October 25-27, 2013

[Demeter]

Last Weekend, we danced around the issue of simplicity, literally.

The truth is, it takes a lot of intelligence, creativity, experience and some very complex reasoning to get to simplicity, or as scientists and engineers would call it, the Elegant Solution:

elegant solution:

The word elegant, in general, is an adjective meaning of fine quality. Refinement and simplicity are implied, rather than fussiness, or ostentation. An elegant solution, often referred to in relation to problems in disciplines such as mathematics, engineering, and programming, is one in which the maximum desired effect is achieved with the smallest, or simplest effort. Engineers, for example, seek the elegant solution as a means of solving a problem with the least possible waste of materials and effort. The elegant solution is also likely to be accomplished with appropriate methods and materials - according to the Elegant Solution Organization, duct tape is not likely to be part of an elegant solution, unless, of course, the problem involves taping ducts.

http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/elegant-solution

Well, maybe not. I used duct tape to mend a vacuum cleaner hose cheaply, quickly and effectively. Not "elegant" in the artistic meaning of the word, but it got the job done, and will keep doing so, indefinitely.



Perhaps we shall reserve "elegance" for the original design, which ought to be simple and effective enough to NOT need repair by something as tawdry as duct tape. A vacuum cleaner, of course, is a kind of kludge....nothing like a simple, elegant solution.

kludge (informal or slang word)
alternate spelling: kluge

1. an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfill a particular purpose.
In Computing: a machine, system, or program that has been badly put together.

verb

1. use ill-assorted parts to make (something).
"Hugh had to kludge something together"

However, duct tape itself is a supremely elegant design...

Elegance is a synonym for beautiful that has come to acquire the additional connotations of unusual effectiveness and simplicity. It is frequently used as a standard of tastefulness particularly in the areas of visual design, decoration, the sciences, and the esthetics of mathematics. Elegant things exhibit refined grace and dignified propriety.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elegance

Did you know duct tape comes in high-fashion colors for crafts? And people have made prom dresses and other clothing out of duct tape? (and at a cost comparable to the real thing, at today's prices for duct tape).



Duct tape prom dress could win Kansas teen $5,000

http://www.komonews.com/news/offbeat/Duct-tape-prom-dress-could-win-Kansas-teen-5000-160412155.html

How did I get off on this tangent?

Well, it wasn't simple, that's for sure. But that's what you get, from a Generalist's brain....

[Fuddnik]

1. Simple plans for simple people.

[Demeter]

3. Precisely, Fuddnik!

The reason why engineers seek the elegant solution is so that even the most incompetent person alive cannot misuse, destroy, or hurt himself or others with the end product. Even more elegant is a design which has no dangerous steps in its manufacture or its disposal...

Product liability is a management's concern....engineers just want the thing to work, every time, all the time.

[Demeter]

2. No banks failed (yet)

Is it that the economy is so dead, so flat on its back, that even a bank can't fail? Or is it the new management that can't do its job?

One thing about politics...seldom does anyone ever even THINK of an elegant solution.

Take Obamacare....PLEASE!

[Demeter]

4. A note on definitions

Obamacare is not in any sense of the word "elegant"

It isn't even a kluge.

Even its website isn't a kluge.

Obamacare is FUBAR: Fucked up beyond all repair.

End of sermon.

[bread_and_roses]

10. Amen, Sister (n/t)

[Demeter]

5. JPMorgan Chase Settles With Housing Regulator For $5.1 Billion

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/25/240831251/jpmorgan-chase-settles-with-housing-regulator-for-5-1-billion?ft=1&f=1001

JPMorgan Chase announced that it reached a $5.1 billion settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is a conservator for the mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The WSJ explains:

"The pact with the Federal Housing Finance Agency includes $4 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging the bank misled Fannie and Freddie about the quality of securities J.P. Morgan and two other banks it later acquired had sold to the housing-finance giants during the housing boom. The deal also includes $1.1 billion to settle separate demands from Fannie and Freddie that J.P. Morgan buy back loans that the housing-finance companies said had run afoul of their underwriting standards.

"'This is a significant step as the government and J.P. Morgan Chase move to address outstanding mortgage-related issues,' said FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco. Resolving the outstanding lawsuit 'provides greater certainty in the marketplace and is in line with our responsibility for preserving and conserving Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's assets on behalf of taxpayers.'"

This deal is one part of a greater settlement said to be worth $13 billion... the bank has reached a tentative deal that would "settle civil charges related to wrongdoing by some of its units just before and during the housing crisis."

"Today's settlements totaling $5.1 billion are an important step towards a broader resolution of the firm's MBS-related matters with governmental entities, and reflect significant efforts by the Department of Justice and other federal and state governmental agencies," JPMorgan Chase said in a statement.

Just before the news of the $5.1 billion settlement broke, Bloomberg reported that the $13 billion deal had hit a snag, because Chase was wanted to make the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. "liable for part of the payment."

Update at 6:44 p.m. ET. Probably Not A Deterrence:

John C. Coffee Jr., the Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law at Columbia University, explained to our Newscast unit that this case is about the government claiming fraud, saying that JPMorgan or the companies it later bought had sold portfolios to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae without revealing just how toxic the mortgage-backed securities in them had become.

Coffee said, however, that this may not do anything to deter future shady behavior. To do that, Coffee said, the government has to target individuals as well.

"This is a cost that ultimately will be borne by the shareholders and the shareholders of JPMorgan are too dispersed and diffused to take meaningful collective action against management," Coffee said.

[Demeter]

6. ‘General Contractor’ Named to Fix Health Web Site By ROBERT PEAR (OBAMACARE)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/us/politics/general-contractor-named-to-fix-health-web-site.html

In an abrupt shift, the Obama administration on Friday named a “general contractor” to fix the troubled Web site of the federal health insurance marketplace, and said the repairs would be completed by the end of next month.

In addition, Jeffrey D. Zients, President Obama’s troubleshooter for the marketplace, said that investigators had found bugs in the software that powers the site. That finding differs from the original explanation about the problems that have crippled the Web site. Administration officials initially said that the difficulties occurred because the number of people trying to use the site far exceeded their expectations, and they played down other factors.

Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the general contractor that would fix the Web site was Quality Software Services. Mr. Zients said the company would “manage the overall effort,” like a general contractor on a home improvement project. The company “will prioritize the needed fixes and make sure they get done,” Mr. Zients said.

“The HealthCare.gov site is fixable,” said Mr. Zients, a management expert named as troubleshooter on Tuesday. “It will take a lot of work. A lot of problems need to be addressed. But let me be clear. HealthCare.gov is fixable.”
“By the end of November,” he said, “HealthCare.gov will work smoothly for the vast majority of users.”

That self-imposed deadline comes just two weeks before the Dec. 15 deadline for people to sign up for insurance that takes effect on Jan. 1. The open enrollment period continues until March 31. People who go without insurance after that date may be subject to tax penalties. However, the chaos and confusion with the federal marketplace have prompted some Democrats and many Republicans to suggest that the penalties should be deferred or the enrollment period extended.

The designation of a project coordinator represents a radical change in management of the federal insurance marketplace. Until now, the Medicare agency, led by Marilyn B. Tavenner, was the quarterback, or system integrator, trying to coordinate the work of dozens of contractors. The lack of coordination was evident at a Congressional hearing on Thursday, where several technology contactors said that they had performed their assignments, but that no one had tested the whole system until the last two weeks of September.

Quality Software Services already performs several major roles in the federal insurance marketplace. It built a “data services hub,” or pipeline, that transmits data back and forth between federal and state insurance exchanges and federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security. The company also developed an “identity management” tool used as part of a registration system that requires consumers to create password-protected accounts before buying health insurance on the federal exchange. In addition, it was one of several companies that tested the capabilities of the federal marketplace before it opened on Oct. 1.

Quality Software Services was acquired in September 2012 by the UnitedHealth Group. The parent company also owns one of the nation’s largest insurance companies.

The federal insurance marketplace serves consumers in 36 states, including Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.

[Ghost Dog]

16. "Quality Software"... Hmmm... "Crony Software"?

WASHINGTON – A UnitedHealth Group Inc. subsidiary accepted partial blame Thursday for the poor initial performance of the website designed to sign up millions of Americans for insurance under the federal health care overhaul. But an officer of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth’s Optum unit said at a congressional hearing that the company fixed its problems quickly and also warned the government about computer coding problems by other contractors...

... Thursday’s hearing was called to bring the website’s principal private contractors — Optum, CGI Federal Inc., Serco Inc. and Equifax Work Solutions — to account for their roles in the growing angst of Americans trying to buy coverage. “We understand the frustration many people have felt,” Optum Vice President Andrew Slavitt told a packed hearing room.

In 2012, Optum acquired Quality Software Services Inc., which the government paid $85 million to help build the $500 million health care website...

... Slavitt said Quality Software — known as QSSI — successfully delivered a data services hub that verifies customer information, such as citizenship, by sending computerized queries to various government databases. Where it tripped up was in the early operation of a registration and access management tool to let people establish Health.gov accounts and shop for insurance plans...

/... http://www.startribune.com/business/229192391.html

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnitedHealth_Group#Legal_issues

In 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating the conduct of UnitedHealth Group's management and directors, for backdating of stock options. Investigations were also begun by the Internal Revenue Service and prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, who subpoenaed documents from the company. The investigations came to light after a series of probing stories in the Wall Street Journal in May 2006, discussing apparent backdating of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stock options by UHC management. The backdating apparently occurred with the knowledge and approval of the directors...

... In June 2006, the American Chiropractic Association filed a national class action lawsuit against the American Chiropractic Network (ACN), which is owned by UnitedHealth Group and administers chiropractic benefits, and against UnitedHealth Group itself, for alleged practices in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)...

... In February 2008, New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced an industry-wide investigation into a scheme by health insurers to defraud consumers by manipulating reasonable and customary rates. The announcement included a statement that Cuomo intended "to file suit against Ingenix, Inc., its parent UnitedHealth Group, and three additional subsidiaries."...

... On January 15, 2009, UnitedHealth Group announced a $350 million settlement of three class action lawsuits filed in Federal court by the American Medical Association, UnitedHealth Group members, healthcare providers, and state medical societies for not paying out-of-network benefits...

[Demeter]

7. 10 things Obamacare won’t tell you-The health exchanges, central to the law, are its biggest mystery

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-health-exchanges-wont-tell-you-2013-09-27?siteid=YAHOOB

1. “You might want to avoid signing up right away.” D'OH!

2. “Yes, some workers are being required to use exchanges — but not these exchanges.”

3. “Expect to be confused.”

4. “Don’t bother asking our staff for recommendations.”

5. “Blue states do it better.”

6. “Abuse our honor system at your peril.”

7. “You’ll still pay for this, even if you don’t use it.” NSS!

8. “We’re a magnet for hackers and con artists.”

9. “You might not be able to keep your doctor.”

10. “Competition is for the greater good — except when there aren’t any competitors.”

DETAILS AT LINK

[Demeter]

8. Sorry, I'm falling asleep at the keyboard

See you Saturday!

[Fuddnik]

9. So is my wife.

Too many margaritas with dinner.

But the fish tacos were awesome!

[bread_and_roses]

11. I am delighted to see the word "elegant" used in this context

It was many years ago, and I won't vouch for it after all these years, but that's how I recall "Small is Beautiful." As an elegant revelation. Reminder to self - I should reread it.

Another word - a very simple one - but one that has lost it's "elegant" meaning is the word "nice" - so overused that the careful speaker/writer avoids it.

But it used to mean:

nice
[nahys] Show IPA
adjective, nic·er, nic·est.
1.
pleasing; agreeable; delightful: a nice visit.
2.
amiably pleasant; kind: They are always nice to strangers.
3.
characterized by, showing, or requiring great accuracy, precision, skill, tact, care, or delicacy: nice workmanship; a nice shot; a nice handling of a crisis.
4.
showing or indicating very small differences; minutely accurate, as instruments: a job that requires nice measurements.
5.
minute, fine, or subtle: a nice distinction.

It would be "nice" (#1) to use the word to convey "great accuracy, precision, skill, tact, care, or delicacy" (#3) but that has become impossible due to its run amok use in every possible application conveying #s 1 & 2

[bread_and_roses]

12. The simplest potato soup

The background to this is that it was a ferociously cold night, and I was craving a hot, brothy soup. I had very few ingredients in the pantry. Though I was pretty poor at the time, I lived only about four blocks from a grocery store and was not quite so poor I could not have gone out and bought something. It was just too cold; I was too tired. So I made do.

I thought this was delicious, but then I love potatoes. I have made it several times since, when I'm alone, and it suits my mood and the weather. But it is really only for either a true potato lover or a very hungry person.

1 large Idaho potato, cut in medium chunks
1/2 small yellow cooking onion, diced fine
couple TBs butter
salt
pepper (preferably fresh ground, but whatever you have will do)
2 c. water

saute the onion in the butter till golden
add potato, salt to taste, and 2 c. water
simmer slowly for a good while - the potato should start to disintegrate and turn the broth milky

correct for salt, add black pepper to taste
pour into a mug and sip slowly from a big spoon while it is hot hot hot. Some good bread with good butter is good if you have it.
Very comforting on a cold night

[Ghost Dog]

21. Nice. If you have potatoes you can always fill

the stomach, ward off the pangs of the Great Hunger(*)...

I'd also recommend preparing a mash or purée by steaming the chunks of potato together with the chopped onion plus things like carrot, brocoli, whatever if you have veg. Maybe add some herbs, bay leaf (laurel), mint...

Steam (keeps in more nutrients & more flavor) to the minimum point where the veg. is still quite firm but mashable. Mash with lashings of butter (or olive oil) and, yes, salt & black pepper. Maybe some nutmeg.

For more protein mix in the contents of a small can of tuna, perhaps in a tomato sauce...

___
(*) - Clay is the word and clay is the flesh
Where the potato-gatherers like mechanised scarecrows move
Along the side-fall of the hill - Maguire and his men.
If we watch them an hour is there anything we can prove
Of life as it is broken-backed over the Book
Of Death? Here crows gabble over worms and frogs
And the gulls like old newspapers are blown clear of the hedges, luckily.
Is there some light of imagination in these wet clods?
Or why do we stand here shivering? ...
... We will wait and watch the tragedy to the last curtain,
Till the last soul passively like a bag of wet clay
Rolls down the side of the hill, diverted by the angles
Where the plough missed or a spade stands, straitening the way.
A dog lying on a torn jacket under a heeled-up cart,
A horse nosing along the posied headland, trailing
A rusty plough. Three heads hanging between wide-apart legs.
October playing a symphony on a slack wire paling...
... A man is what is written on the label.
And the passing world stares but no one stops
To look closer. So back to the growing crops
And the ridges he never loved.
Nobody will ever know how much tortured poetry the pulled weeds on the ridge wrote
Before they withered in the July sun,
Nobody will ever read the wild, sprawling, scrawling mad woman's signature,
The hysteria and the boredom of the enclosed nun of his thought.
Like the afterbirth of a cow stretched on a branch in the wind
Life dried in the veins of these women and men:
'The grey and grief and unloved,
The bones in the backs of their hands,
And the chapel pressing its low ceiling over them.
Sometimes they did laugh and see the sunlight,
A narrow slice of divine instruction.
Going along the river at the bend of Sunday
The trout played in the pools encouragement
To jump in love though death bait the hook.
And there would be girls sitting on the grass banks of lanes.
Stretch-legged and lingering staring -
A man might take one of them if he had the courage.
But 'No' was in every sentence of their story
Except when the public-house came in and shouted its piece.
The yellow buttercups and the bluebells among the whin bushes
On rocks in the middle of ploughing
Was a bright spoke in the wheel
Of the peasant's mill.
The goldfinches on the railway paling were worth looking at -
A man might imagine then
Himself in Brazil and these birds the birds of paradise
And the Amazon and the romance traced on the school map lived again.
Talk in evening corners and under trees
Was like an old book found in a king's tomb.
The children gathered round like students and listened
And some of the saga defied the draught in the open tomb
And was not blown...

- The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh

[bread_and_roses]

13. Out of curiosity, I decided to google "simple living"

This was one of the first sites I came upon. I don't have time to explore it thoroughly tonight - or probably even this weekend, alas - but I liked the first two paragraphs.

However, I don't like them as much as I do the simpler, far more elegant "less is more" - which really does sum it up.

http://simplicitycollective.com/start-here/what-is-voluntary-simplicity-2

Voluntary simplicity, or simple living, is a way of life that rejects the high-consumption, materialistic lifestyles of consumer cultures and affirms what is often just called ‘the simple life’ or ‘downshifting.’[1] The rejection of consumerism arises from the recognition that ordinary Western-style consumption habits are degrading the planet; that lives of high consumption are unethical in a world of great human need; and that the meaning of life does not and cannot consist in the consumption or accumulation of material things. Extravagance and acquisitiveness are accordingly considered an unfortunate waste of life, certainly not deserving of the social status and admiration they seem to attract today. The affirmation of simplicity arises from the recognition that very little is needed to live well – that abundance is a state of mind, not a quantity of consumer products or attainable through them

.

I would offer the disclaimer that it is only "a state of mind" if one actually does have the security in the basics: good food, a clean warm home, health (including medicine if it is needed to keep one at one's healthiest possible), access to information, community, nature.

cont:

Sometimes called ‘the quiet revolution,’[2] this approach to life involves providing for material needs as simply and directly as possible, minimizing expenditure on consumer goods and services, and directing progressively more time and energy towards pursuing non-materialistic sources of satisfaction and meaning.[3] This generally means accepting a lower income and a lower level of consumption, in exchange for more time and freedom to pursue other life goals, such as community or social engagements, more time with family, artistic or intellectual projects, more fulfilling employment, political participation, sustainable living, spiritual exploration, reading, contemplation, relaxation, pleasure-seeking, love, and so on – none of which need to rely on money, or much money.[4] ...voluntary simplicity is predicated on the assumption that human beings can live meaningful, free, happy, and infinitely diverse lives, while consuming no more than a sustainable and equitable share of nature.[5]

[xchrom]

14. A Frightening New 'Shadow Consensus' Is Emerging On The Future Of The American Economy

http://www.businessinsider.com/new-shadow-consensus-on-the-economy-emerges-2013-10

***SNIP

ISI Chairman Ed Hyman pegs the odds that the economy appears to accelerate over the next six weeks at 60%.

However, he says a frightening new "shadow consensus" is emerging that economic acceleration will never come.

In a note to clients, Hyman describes the scenario:

Growth remains at around +2.0% -- odds 35%. Under this scenario, which is becoming the shadow consensus, nominal GDP would be +3.0%.

Revenues for S&P companies would be +4.0%, reflecting global growth. Profits would increase +4.0% (flat margins), and EPS would increase +5.0% with stock buybacks.

So earnings a year from now would be $112, which with a P/E of 18 -- which as calculated from Graham and Dodd’s equation -- would put the S&P at 2016.

Inflation remains tame. Central banks remain accommodative. We "never" have another recession. So, Plan B would be just fine for asset prices.

Continued monetary easing, continued stock market gains, and a continued lackluster economic recovery. In short: more of the same.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-shadow-consensus-on-the-economy-emerges-2013-10#ixzz2ip2lxdWb

[Demeter]

34. Nobody's Putting anything into this economy....so WHY should they expect any output?

Furthermore, there's so many little fiddles to siphon off what residual growth the economy may inadvertently produce, in this extractive economy, that the whole damn thing will continue to shrink for the foreseeable future.

[xchrom]

15. What The Financial Services Industry Could Look Like In 17 Years

http://www.businessinsider.com/financial-advisor-insights-october-25-2013-10

The size of the financial markets hasn't grown in the last six years even as the industry has tried to grow, reports Matt Lynch of the Tiburon Strategic Advisors. This has been complicated by other industry trends like 1. Increased expectation for a fiduciary standard. 2. Shrinking pool of advisors that has to deal with "intergenerational transfer of wealth." 3. The growth of "women as a major market" when women advisors market up only 30% of the industry. 70% of widows change financial advisors within a year of their husbands' deaths. 4. Increasing social diversity. 5. Changing technology.

This leads Lynch to posit two 2030 growth scenarios. The first is the "continued growth in the wealth management business" that is "driven by independent advisors, online tools and advice companies, and emerging international markets." The financial industry will have consolidated through mergers and acquisitions. The second sees the industry lose the trust of consumers, prompting them to turn to a self-service model that excludes "advisors and major financial institutions."

He projects four major outcomes. 1. "Leading fee-based financial advisors increasingly will dominate the market. 2. "Retail banks will continue to lose power." 3. "Wirehouses will embrace the fee-based channel and direct resources into acquisition and organic growth of registered investment advisors." 4 "Direct distribution models are also likely to grow as consumers continue to embrace technology to help them meet their financial services needs."

***i think financial outlook scenarios should be given from behind bars.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/financial-advisor-insights-october-25-2013-10#ixzz2ip3UlKXi

[xchrom]

17. JPMorgan Reaches A $5.1 Billion Settlement With The FHFA Over Mortgage Claims

http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-reaches-fhfa-settlement-2013-10

This is less than was previously expected. It was reported that the bank may have to pay $6 billion.

From the press release [.PDF]:

Washington, DC – The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, today announced it has reached a settlement with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and related companies for $ 4 billion to address claims of alleged violations of federal and state securities laws in connection with private-label, residential mortgage-backed securities (PLS) purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Under the terms of the agreement, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will pay approximately $2.74 billion to Freddie Mac and $1.26 billion to Fannie Mae to resolve certain claims related to securities sold to the companies between 2005 and 2007 by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. and Washington Mutual.

In separate settlements, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. resolved representation and warranty claims with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac related to single-family mortgage purchases by the two companies. Under the terms of the agreements, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank N.A. will pay a total of approximately $1.1 billion -- $670 million to Fannie Mae and $480 million to Freddie Mac.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-reaches-fhfa-settlement-2013-10#ixzz2ip4OFiJR

[Hugin]

20. Hmm... What about the relief JPM was supposed to pay consumers?

Youknow, the little people?

[Demeter]

35. This is only a piece of the $13 billion

They lumped it together for publicity purposes, but it gets spread out over various plaintiffs...

[xchrom]

18. Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis: Puerto Pobre

http://www.businessinsider.com/puerto-ricos-debt-crisis-puerto-pobre-2013-10



A heavily indebted island weighs on America’s municipal-bond market
ALTHOUGH investors are now less jittery about a possible default by the American Treasury, they are rightly still nervous about a drama unfolding in the market for state and local debt. Since May, yields on bonds issued by Puerto Rico, a self-governing American territory, have shot up to between 8% and 10%, despite their (barely) investment-grade rating and tax-exempt interest.

Puerto Rico carries outsized importance in America’s almost $4 trillion municipal-debt market, which includes bonds issued by states and other local authorities as well as by cities. The island’s current debt, between $52 billion and $70 billion (depending on how it is measured), is the third-largest behind California’s and New York’s, despite a far smaller and poorer population. In America’s 50 states the average ratio of state debt to personal income is 3.4%. Moody’s, a ratings agency, puts Puerto Rico’s tax-supported debt at an eye-watering 89% (see chart).

Puerto Rico’s debt has long been a staple of American municipal-bond funds because of its high yields and its exemption from federal and local taxes--of particular appeal to investors in high-tax states. That let Puerto Rico keep borrowing despite its shaky economic and financial condition, until Detroit’s bankruptcy in July alerted investors to the threat of default by other governments in similar penury.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/puerto-ricos-debt-crisis-puerto-pobre-2013-10#ixzz2ip54WZA7

[xchrom]

19. This Potent New Beer From Scotland Has A 67.5% Alcohol Content

http://www.businessinsider.com/new-beer-on-the-block-packs-a-wallop-at-675-abv-2013-10



After debuting the world's strongest beer at 65% ABV one year ago, Scottish brewery Brewmeister has released an even stronger version.

It's called Snake Venom, and it contains a massive 67.5% alcohol by volume. (Vodka, in comparison, is typically 80 proof, or 40% alcohol). The brewery decided to manufacture an even stronger beer after some customers complained its first attempt was too weak, Scotland's Daily Record reported.

Brewers Lewis Shand and John McKenzie said they didn't want Armageddon, now the world's second-strongest beer, to have an overwhelming taste, so they made it oily. This time around, they didn't try to disguise the sharp taste of the alcohol in Snake Venom. It's so strong the beer comes with a yellow health warning stuck to the bottle's neck.

The pair brewed Snake Venom with smoked peat malt and two varieties of yeast, according to Fox News, and reached such high alcoholic content by freezing the mixture several times during the fermentation process.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-beer-on-the-block-packs-a-wallop-at-675-abv-2013-10#ixzz2ip9NtAJd

[Demeter]

36. How can that possibly qualify as beer?

[xchrom]

22. The Sharp, Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-sharp-sudden-decline-of-americas-middle-class-20120622

Every night around nine, Janis Adkins falls asleep in the back of her Toyota Sienna van in a church parking lot at the edge of Santa Barbara, California. On the van's roof is a black Yakima SpaceBooster, full of previous-life belongings like a snorkel and fins and camping gear. Adkins, who is 56 years old, parks the van at the lot's remotest corner, aligning its side with a row of dense, shading avocado trees. The trees provide privacy, but they are also useful because she can pick their fallen fruit, and she doesn't always­ have enough to eat. Despite a continuous, two-year job search, she remains without dependable work. She says she doesn't need to eat much – if she gets a decent hot meal in the morning, she can get by for the rest of the day on a piece of fruit or bulk-purchased almonds – but food stamps supply only a fraction of her nutritional needs, so foraging opportunities are welcome.

Prior to the Great Recession, Adkins owned and ran a successful plant nursery in Moab, Utah. At its peak, it was grossing $300,000 a year. She had never before been unemployed – she'd worked for 40 years, through three major recessions. During her first year of unemployment, in 2010, she wrote three or four cover letters a day, five days a week. Now, to keep her mind occupied when she's not looking for work or doing odd jobs, she volunteers at an animal shelter called the Santa Barbara­ Wildlife Care Network. ("I always ask for the most physically hard jobs just to get out my frustration," she says.) She has permission to pick fruit directly from the branches of the shelter's orange and avocado trees. Another benefit is that when she scrambles eggs to hand-feed wounded seabirds, she can surreptitiously make a dish for herself.

By the time Adkins goes to bed – early, because she has to get up soon after sunrise, before parishioners or church employees arrive – the four other people who overnight in the lot have usually settled in: a single mother who lives in a van with her two teenage children and keeps assiduously to herself, and a wrathful, mentally unstable woman in an old Mercedes sedan whom Adkins avoids. By mutual unspoken agreement, the three women park in the same spots every night, keeping a minimum distance from each other. When you live in your car in a parking lot, you value any reliable area of enclosing stillness. "You get very territorial," Adkins says.

Each evening, 150 people in 113 vehicles spend the night in 23 parking lots in Santa Barbara. The lots are part of Safe Parking, a program that offers overnight permits to people living in their vehicles. The nonprofit that runs the program, New Beginnings Counseling Center, requires participants to have a valid driver's license and current registration and insurance. The number of vehicles per lot ranges from one to 15, and lot hours are generally from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Fraternization among those who sleep in the lots is implicitly discouraged – the fainter the program's presence, the less likely it will provoke complaints from neighboring homes and churches and businesses.



Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-sharp-sudden-decline-of-americas-middle-class-20120622#ixzz2ipBQ1vEp
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[xchrom]

23. Why The GOP Really Wants To Decimate Food Stamps

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-gop-really-wants-to-decimate-food-stamps-2013-10

The way the program to provide the poor with the bare minimum of daily nutrition has been handled is a metaphor for how the far right in the House is systematically trying to take down the federal government.

The Tea Party radicals and those who either fear or cultivate them are now subjecting the food-stamp program to the same kind of assault they have unleashed on other settled policies and understandings that have been in place for decades.

Breaking all manner of precedents on a series of highly partisan votes, with the Republicans barely prevailing, the House in September slashed the food-stamp program by a whopping $39 billion and imposed harsh new requirements for getting on, or staying on, the program. The point was to deny the benefit to millions

Hardly any other federal undertaking – with the exception of the Affordable Care Act – has attracted more hostility from the far right than the food-stamp program. As recently as the mid-Sixties, actual hunger and starvation existed in this country on a significant scale, particularly in the Deep South and Appalachia. In 1967, Robert F. Kennedy took a widely covered trip to the Mississippi Delta, where he was quite evidently shocked at the sight of listless babies with distended bellies who were unresponsive to his touching them or trying to get them to laugh. That same year, a group of doctors took a foundation-sponsored trip to Mississippi and reported, "In child after child we saw: evidence of vitamin and mineral deficiencies; serious untreated skin infestation and ulcerations; eye and ear diseases, also unattended bone diseases secondary to poor food intake; the prevalence of bacterial and parasitic diseases. . . ."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-republicans-war-on-the-poor-20131024#ixzz2ipEH2hBw


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-republicans-war-on-the-poor-20131024#ixzz2ipE8Xzkn

[bread_and_roses]

29. How I hate them

There is no other word. I try not to hate. I do believe it is better for one's "soul" not to hate. I wish to live the peace I want to see in the world. But my resolve fails in the face of denying food to the hungry. Literally taking the food out of the mouth of babes. As has already been done with WIC.

That anyone in this country would support someone who wants to deny food to anyone speaks to a culture so depraved, so psychopathic that it is beyond redemption.

[xchrom]

24. Here's Who Actually Owns The Federal Reserve

http://www.businessinsider.com/who-actually-owns-the-federal-reserve-2013-10

Good question here in the Ask Cullen page. I get this one a lot so it’s worth some detailed explanation.

First, it helps to understand what the Fed really is. The Federal Reserve System was modelled after the New York Clearinghouse that existed in New York during the 1800′s and 1900′s. As its name states, the New York Clearinghouse was just a big clearinghouse where many of the big banks would come to settle their interbank payments. Unfortunately, it wasn’t broad enough to handle the scope and complexity of the US banking system so these regional clearinghouses were deficient in dealing with banking crises and liquidity issues. The Fed System took this private model and ramped it up into a public/private hybrid model to create a national clearinghouse for interbank payments. You don’t hear much talk about this on a daily basis, but that’s really what the Fed is – it’s just a big clearinghouse to help smooth the payments system. All the other stuff it gets attention for (like monetary policy) is just a sideshow to this primary purpose it’s serving – to maintain a healthy functioning payments system.

But the Fed is a weird entity when it comes to “ownership”. It exists due to an act of Congress. But it is also considered an independent entity because it is not part of the Executive or Legislative branches of government. The Fed exists because Congress created it, but it doesn’t enact policy measures with any Congressional or Presidential approval. Politically, this makes it a very independent entity.

The Regional Fed banks are arms of the Fed system that serve like regional versions of the NY Clearinghouse. One thing that muddies this discussion on “ownership” is the issuance of stock by the regional Fed banks to the member banks. This stock pays a fixed 6% dividend and gives the banks a claim on the Fed’s annual profits. But let’s keep this in the right perspective. Last year the Fed earned $90.5B. Of this, $1.6B was paid out in dividends. The remaining $88B was remitted back to the US Treasury. While the US Treasury doesn’t technically own shares in the Federal Reserve the Fed is required to remit its profits at the end of the year back to the Federal Government. As you can see, remittance often dwarfs any dividends paid back to the banks. In other words, the US Treasury is the recipient of most of the Fed’s profits.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/who-actually-owns-the-federal-reserve-2013-10#ixzz2ipFhBimV

[xchrom]

25. Bank Born Out of Black Death Struggles to Survive

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/monte-paschi-born-out-of-black-death-struggles-to-survive.html



Siena, the medieval city renowned for its Palio horse races, is home to the world’s oldest bank. Within its aging walls lies a distinctly 21st-century tale of devastation wrought by local politicians and global financiers.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, Italy’s third-largest lender, is struggling to survive as it seeks to repay a second bailout or face nationalization. Its downfall proved a boon to global investment banks. They offered merger and investment advice to executives beholden to politicians that helped wipe out 93 percent of Monte Paschi’s value. Then they sold it complex derivatives that hid, even worsened the losses.

Efforts to rescue the 541-year-old lender have cost Italian taxpayers 4.1 billion euros ($5.6 billion). The investment banks, including Merrill Lynch & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), earned more than $200 million in fees from 2008 through 2011, filings and deal memos show.

“These international banks come to exploit, and Italy is vulnerable,” said former Senator Elio Lannutti, who heads Adusbef, a consumer group for Italian bank customers. “On one side, there’s the local incompetence, and on the other side the bad faith of the international investment banks.”

[xchrom]

26. Global Trade Flows Show Exports Are No Magic Bullet

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-25/export-slowdown-threatens-world-economy.html

When HSBC Holdings Plc’s economists from around the world recently pooled their forecasts, virtually all had a similar source of growth in mind for the region they monitored: exports.

The impossibility of every nation being able to sell more than it buys means some of the analysts must be wrong -- unless the rest of the solar system becomes a source of demand for the globe’s products, Stephen King, HSBC’s chief economist, told an Oct. 16 conference in London, flashing a slide of the planets.

“Export claims are just far too optimistic,” said King, a former U.K. Treasury official.

The bet on trade is flopping for companies and policy makers who had hoped it would power recoveries held back by weak domestic demand. This week alone, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Unilever (UNA) complained of sliding overseas buying and data showed global trade volumes fell in August by the most since February.

[xchrom]

27. Lawmaker Squabbles Cost U.S. 1.75 Million Jobs: Cutting Research

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/lawmaker-squabbles-cost-u-s-1-75-million-jobs-cutting-research.html

The mounting polarization of U.S. politics imperils the U.S. economy, robbing it of jobs and investment.

So warns economist Marina Azzimonti of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, who created an index to measure the tone of political debate and its impact on hiring, investment and general economic growth.

“Polarization significantly discourages investment, output and employment,” she said in the study released last week by the regional Fed bank. “Moreover, these declines are persistent, which may help explain the slow recovery since the 2007 recession ended.”

Azzimonti’s political polarization index is based on a search of news stories to measure the coverage of lawmaker disagreement from January 1981 to April 2013. It climbed after recession ended in 2009 and peaked toward late 2012. At the time, politicians were trying to resolve the so-called fiscal cliff, which would have inflicted tax increases and spending cuts on the economy.

[unhappycamper]

28. The first time I ever saw duct tape was in Nam.

It was used to patch holes in choppers. We called it 100-mile-an-hour-tape.

[DemReadingDU]

30. Taibbi: Nobody Should Shed a Tear for JP Morgan Chase

10/25/13 Nobody Should Shed a Tear for JP Morgan Chase

A lot of people all over the world are having opinions now about the ostensibly gigantic $13 billion settlement Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan Chase have entered into with the government.

The general consensus from most observers in the finance sector is that this superficially high-dollar settlement – worth about half a year's profits for Chase – is an unconscionable Marxist appropriation. It's been called a "robbery" and a "shakedown," in which red Obama and his evil henchman Eric Holder confiscated cash from a successful bank, as The Wall Street Journal wrote, "for no other reason than because they can and because they want to appease their left-wing populist allies."

Look, there's no denying that this is a lot of money. It's the biggest settlement in the history of government settlements, and it's just one company to boot. But this has been in the works for a long time, and it's been in the works for a reason. This whole thing, lest anyone forget, has its genesis in a couple of state Attorneys General (including New York's Eric Schneiderman and Delaware's Beau Biden) not wanting to sign off on any deal with the banks that didn't also address the root causes of the crisis, in particular the mass fraud surrounding the sale and production of subprime mortgage securities.

more...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/nobody-should-shed-a-tear-for-jp-morgan-chase-20131025

[xchrom]

31. SEC Goes Fishing for Fraud in Puerto Rico

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-25/sec-goes-fishing-for-fraud-in-puerto-rico.html

Many municipal-bond funds own at least some debt issued by the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico because the tax advantages and high yields boost returns. So it was interesting to find an article in the Bond Buyer reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission is “probing” some mutual funds because they invest in Puerto Rican debt. According to a letter from the SEC’s San Francisco office obtained by the newspaper, the agency is checking whether funds “are adequately disclosing the risks involved.” The SEC is also asking for the funds’ “policies and procedures used to value portfolio positions,” including “copies of the most recent stress test” and “Value-at-Risk analysis.”

This seems odd. The SEC’s mission is to protect investors from fraud and misleading information. But any prospective investor can check what a mutual fund is holding before deciding to buy shares. If the SEC thinks risks aren’t being adequately disclosed, it should go after the issuers of the debt, not the bond funds. It also isn’t the SEC’s job to second-guess the risk models of mutual funds, even if the widespread holdings of Puerto Rican debt constitute a systemic threat to the financial system. There are other agencies of the U.S. government with that responsibility, including the Federal Reserve and the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

I do hope those other agencies are looking into the risks posed by Puerto Rican debt. The Economist magazine is now comparing Puerto Rico to Greece. This isn't a stretch: An inappropriate currency union and a poor business climate have produced chronic underemployment and a poverty rate of 45 percent. Despite regular monetary transfers from the mainland, the local government has run large budget deficits for years -- something the 50 states aren't allowed to do. The result is a tax-supported municipal debt burden equal to almost 90 percent of personal incomes, although it should be noted that Puerto Rican residents pay no federal taxes.

If Puerto Rico does end up restructuring its tax-supported general-obligation bonds, it might spark a panic affecting many other instruments. For one thing, the territory, like many municipal bond issuers, also issues debt backed by dedicated income streams such as tolls and hospital fees. These revenue bonds have a different credit profile than the general-obligation debt, but that subtlety might be lost on many investors spooked by talk of default and restructuring. (Just look at what happened in Michigan after Detroit declared bankruptcy.) Other U.S. territories, such as Guam and the Virgin Islands, might become unfairly stigmatized because of Puerto Rico. The worst-case scenario would be a general run on municipal borrowers as investors search for mutual funds that aren’t exposed to the troubled island.

[DemReadingDU]

32. Jon Stewart Goes on Epic Smackdown over $13 billion fine

10/24/13 Jon Stewart Goes on Epic Smackdown Against CNBC, FBN 'F*ck All Y'all!'

Jon Stewart does not often dip into the shenanigans of the financial world, but when he does, it's certainly something to see. And he set his sites Wednesday night on financial networks CNBC and Fox Business Network for their incredibly hyperbolic outrage over JP Morgan paying a settlement fine of $13 billion. Business analysts are calling the settlement a "shakedown and a jihad." Stewart took it one step further, suggesting "it's like if the Holocaust had sex with slavery while the last ten minutes of Human Centipede watched!" Stewart pointed out how JP Morgan anticipated potential litigation issues and set aside a rainy day fund. "And guess what? It's raining, motherfucker!" He mercilessly mocked the two networks for their unqualified defense of anyone and everything in the business world, and ended the segment with an impassioned "Fuck all y'all!"

appx 10 minutes

&feature=youtu.be&t=1m36s

[AnneD]

57. It was ....

a fantastic smack down!

[antigop]

33. What do we want to grow into?

http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/what-do-we-want-to-grow-into.html

Which means there's an urgent need for ideas about what to do in case growth does not return. But there are no such ideas. Turns out that the Spend! and the Cut! sides of the controversy are one and the same. The only real discussion should be whether we do or do not need growth, but instead the discussion is about how much growth is needed. And the answer to that is indentical for both sides: as much as we can.

The only good thing about all this is that if and when it becomes clear that there is no growth left in the system, all its one-dimensional advocates, from both the Spend! and the Cut! parties, will disappear into a great void. They have no idea what to do without growth. There is no economics class that teaches them, and they don't have the brains to come up with an answer themselves. Indeed, perhaps it's even true that a "not necessarily growth" situation, simply of its own accord, selects for other "leaders". That power hungry psychopaths, in all the various degrees to which they float to the top of the dungheap, are wiped out and alienated by such a situation.

That could be a very good thing. It's on the way there, however, that we will see unimaginable damage, mayhem and bloodshed. The forever and always growth classes have an iron grip on everyone's lives. If only because everyone believes them. Still, just because they can't change their ways and views doesn't mean you can't. You can see quite easily that, in a material sense, you have more than enough already. And many of you have clued in to the destruction ever more growth brings to your children's living world (not to mention their brains). Unfortunately, quite a few then fall for the "more growth, but more greener" delusion. Or some steady state one (we don't do steady, we don't stand still).

When you get down to the heart of it, the only reason we need more growth is to pay off our debts. Which we owe largely to the same small group of rich, psychopathic and powerful that incessantly repeat the "need for growth" message, and makes sure it's the only message available out there. But we will have to have the discussion some day, and it won't be initiated by the people and powers that rule our societies today; that one's up to us.

[jtuck004]

41. The most important sentence in this article...

When you get down to the heart of it, the only reason we need more growth is to pay off our debts.

A debt-based society like ours, that we have been building on since roughly 1980, is simply indentured-servitude that you can never leave, even when your debt is repaid.

The people who say we had/have to save the thieving big banks from failing else we come apart are not just wrong, they are playing the role of what Malcom X would have called the "house negroe", in which they work harder to save the Master's house from burning than their own, or, by extension, their neighbors.

Had we let them go under, properly investigated them and put the guilty in jail, there would have been millions less families who would have lost their homes in foreclosure, hundreds of millionaires (Mi$$ RobMe) and a few billionaires would have had less money they didn't earn, and we would have found ourselves in, roughly, 1976 in economic terms, ready to deal with the problem of inflation like adults, instead of acting like a bunch of children at the candy store, with certain decay in our future.

[Demeter]

37. I have to go run a Halloween Party

I inherited it on Tuesday...at least the work is done. So when I collapse for dinner, nobody gets hurt.

I will try to get back to post tonight.

But good job, Weekenders! looks good!

[Demeter]

38. The Most Inelegant Stuff is Political

[Demeter]

39. Elegance is wasted on some

[jtuck004]

40. DIY Crate Projects: How To Reuse Pallets And Wood Containers

Pallets, those ubiquotous platforms used to ship everything from food to construction materials, are one of the most common waste products in American industry. About 40 percent of all hardwood harvested in the U.S. is used for pallets, and about 20 percent of all wood waste in U.S. landfills is from tossed pallets, according to research conducted by the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products at Virginia Tech University. Add wooden crates used to ship products like wine, bread and produce to the mix, and you're talking about a whole lot of wood waste.

To reduce wood use, many companies are turning to pallets and shipping crates made from other materials such as plastic, metal and even cardboard. Others offer take-back programs for used pallets to make recycling easier, but a staggering amount of pallets and shipping crates still find their way into American landfills each year. Luckily, unwanted pallets and shipping crates are often offered up by businesses at little or no cost - making them a great source of low-cost, high-quality wood for home decor projects.

So, add something new to your reuse repertoire, and "rescue" unwanted pallets and shipping crates from businesses in your area for use in new furniture, garden accessories, storage solutions and more - saving you money and making use of something that would have otherwise gone to waste. To get you started, Earth911 assembled this list of 12 cool household items you can make from used pallets and shipping crates - no matter what your level of handiness. Not sure how to source your pallets and crates? Scroll through to the end of our slideshow for tips.

Slide show here.

[hamerfan]

42. Musical Interlude (sort of)

Jack White builds a simple electric guitar:

[bread_and_roses]

43. The real - and marvelously simple - solution to Zombie Apocalypse

http://boingboing.net/2013/10/14/zombiesvsanimals.html#.UmZ4zF-n9f0.facebook

Zombies vs. animals? The living dead wouldn't stand a chance

National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski explains how nature would deal with a zombie outbreak: brutally, and without quarter.

Almost every land genus- maybe every, I'm not enough of a biologist to be sure - has it's part in dispatching the undead. Good photos of some iconic critters.

[bread_and_roses]

44. "Denmark Is the Happiest Country on Earth! You'll Never Guess Why"

"Denmark Is the Happiest Country on Earth! You'll Never Guess Why" - well, I think we could guess

http://www.alternet.org/world/denmark-happiest-country-earth-youll-never-guess-why

Last month, Denmark was crowned the happiest country [2] in the world.

... The happiest countries have in common a large GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy at birth and a lack of corruption in leadership. But also essential were three things over which individual citizens have a bit more control over: A sense of social support, freedom to make life choices and a culture of generosity.

bold emphasis added

The categories, with explanation of one

Denmark supports parents

Health care is a civil right -- and a source of social support

Gender equality is prioritized

Biking is the norm

Danish culture puts a positive spin on its harsh environment

Here's how Danish people turn lemons into spiced mulled wine: Ever heard of the concept of hygge? While some would define it as cultivated coziness, hygge is often considered the major weapon in combatting the dreary darkness that befalls the Nordic country over the winter. In a place where the sun shines fewer than seven hours during the height of the winter solstice -- a level of darkness that can (and does) stir depression and sad feelings -- the concept of a cozy scene, full of love and indulgence, can help to mitigate some of the season's worst psychological effects.

After all, both strong social connections and many of the indulgent foods associated with hygge -- such as chocolate, coffee and wine -- are mood boosters.

Danes feel a responsibility to one another

[xchrom]

45. Retail Sales Probably Slowed on Auto Slump: U.S. Economy Preview

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-27/retail-sales-probably-slowed-on-auto-slump-u-s-economy-preview.html

Retail sales probably stalled in September as Americans shied away from auto showrooms, indicating the economy was cooling ahead of the partial federal shutdown, economists said before reports this week.

Economists forecast no change in purchases, the worst reading in six months, after a 0.2 percent advance in August, according to the Bloomberg survey median ahead of Commerce Department figures due Oct. 29. Sales excluding motor vehicle dealers may have increased 0.4 percent in September, a sign other merchants had more success luring customers.

Faster hiring and wage growth are needed to spur demand that may have weakened further in October as the 16-day government shutdown caused consumer sentiment to falter. Other reports may show manufacturing cooled, job gains decelerated and inflation remained tame, giving the Federal Reserve reason to maintain stimulus at this week’s meeting.

“Consumers are spending at a slow pace,” said Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in Pittsburgh. “We have an economy that is expanding, but handicapped by policy mistakes that cause consumers and businesses to be cautious.”

[xchrom]

46. {color me skeptical}NOT HAPPY WITH WORK? WAIT UNTIL YOU'RE 50 OR OLDER

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AGING_AMERICA_JOB_SATISFACTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-10-27-08-53-40

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Not happy with your job? Just wait.

A study by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 9 in 10 workers who are age 50 or older say they are very or somewhat satisfied with their job. Older workers reported satisfaction regardless of gender, race, educational level, political ideology and income level.

Consider Oscar Martinez.

If Disneyland truly is the happiest place on earth, Martinez may be one of its happiest workers.

Never mind that at 77, the chef already has done a lifetime of work. Or that he must rise around 3 a.m. each day to catch a city bus in time for breakfast crowds at Carnation Café, one of the park's restaurants. With 57 years under his apron, he is Disneyland's longest-serving employee.

"To me, when I work, I'm happy," said Martinez, who's not sure he ever wants to retire.

[bread_and_roses]

52. I'm with you, X - This is the spin they're going to push

Why, look at these healthy, happy Octogenarians breaking pavement on a road crew! Hauling those trash cans! That cashier, seventy-two if she's a day and on her feet for eight hours!

Didn't see any of them in the article, did we?

The vampires want to raise the retirement age again - when we should be lowering it - and so I predict we'll see a lot of these stories.

And where are our Labor Unions and allied Progressives calling for lowering the age and raising the benefits?

The AFL-CIO has called for raising the benefits at least
http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/The-99-Percent-Solution-to-the-Retirement-Security-Crisis

But nowhere am I seeing calls to lower the age - perhaps I've missed them?

But it does not surprise me - our so-called "progressive" orgs are so timid, so in-the-box ....

[xchrom]

47. Central Bankers Have Gone Wild, And The World Is In Code Red

http://www.businessinsider.com/code-red-world-2013-10

I wasn't the only person coming out with a book this week (much more on that at the end of the letter). Alan Greenspan hit the street with The Map and the Territory. Greenspan left Bernanke and Yellen a map, all right, but in many ways the Fed (along with central banks worldwide) proceeded to throw the map away and march off into totally unexplored territory. Under pressure since the Great Recession hit in 2007, they abandoned traditional monetary policy principles in favor of a new direction: print, buy, and hope that growth will follow. If aggressive asset purchases fail to promote growth, Chairman Bernanke and his disciples (soon to be Janet Yellen and the boys) respond by upping the pace. That was appropriate in 2008 and 2009 and maybe even in 2010, but not today.
Consider the Taylor Rule, for example – a key metric used to project the appropriate federal funds rate based on changes in growth, inflation, other economic activity, and expectations around those variables. At the worst point of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, with the target federal funds rate already set at the 0.00% – 0.25% range, the Taylor Rule suggested that the appropriate target rate was about -6%. To achieve a negative rate was the whole point of QE; and while a central bank cannot achieve a negative interest-rate target through traditional open-market operations, it can print and buy large amounts of assets on the open market – and the Fed proceeded to do so. By contrast, the Taylor Rule is now projecting an appropriate target interest rate around 2%, but the Fed is goes on pursuing a QE-adjusted rate of around -5%.



Also, growth in NYSE margin debt is showing the kind of rapid acceleration that often signals a drawdown in the S&P 500. Are we there yet? Maybe not, as the level of investor complacency is just so (insert your favorite expletive) high.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/code-red-world-2013-10#ixzz2ivmNZeeY

disclaimer: i have no idea what any of this means.

[Demeter]

51. Me neither, X

I just know I am exhausted...so much for that "Ode to Work" for the Over-the-Hill gang....

[xchrom]

48. GOLDMAN: Halfway Through Earnings Season, Here's How Corporate America Is Looking

http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-q3-earnings-season-update-2013-10

The S&P 500 is trading at all-time highs.

And halfway through third quarter earnings reporting season, it looks like the underlying fundamentals — earnings per share — are set to post new records as well.

"At $26.85, 3Q 2013 EPS is on track to establish a new quarterly and trailing four-quarter high," says Goldman Sachs strategist Amanda Sneider. "Trailing four-quarter EPS totals $102.13. Despite more sales misses than usual, aggregate sales results are in line with expectations."

Sneider outlines the three biggest takeaways from Q3 earnings reporting so far in a note to clients: &quot 1) 3Q earnings positively surprise, driven by Financials and higher than expected margins; (2) Revenues have been in line with expectations and trailing four-quarter margins remain stable despite positive surprises in 3Q; (3) Negative revisions to 4Q EPS estimates."



The chart at right shows that while consensus fourth-quarter estimates among Wall Street analysts are deteriorating as companies guide expectations downward, the upside surprise to third-quarter estimates so far more than makes up for worse Q4 numbers.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-q3-earnings-season-update-2013-10#ixzz2ivudHuoq

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-q3-earnings-season-update-2013-10#ixzz2ivuTOWfz

[xchrom]

49. Yellen will start Fed confirmation meetings next week

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24679733


White House officials say the have submitted the paperwork necessary to confirm Janet Yellen as the next head of the Federal Reserve.

Ms Yellen will meet US Senators next week as part of the process to install her as the next head of the central bank.

Officials say they are confident that she will secure the 51 Senate votes needed to confirm her position.

However, the hearings are expected to be contentious.


***i believe rand paul has placed a hold on her confirmation.

[DemReadingDU]

50. 'Saturday Night Live' Mocks Obamacare Website

10/26/13 'Saturday Night Live' Mocks Obamacare Website (Video appx 4 minutes)
Saturday Night Live took on Obamacare in its cold open, where Kate McKinnon impersonated Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/saturday-night-live-mocks-obamacare-651110

[Demeter]

53. I'm useless this week--sorry. I think I know why there are no banks failing, though

Our local bad bank has just been sold...I think there are a lot of shotgun marriages, under Cease and Desist letters, between shaky banks and their bigger, better-funded brothers. A sort of pre-emptive FDIC merger....

[hamerfan]

54. Musical Interlude II

Strawman by Lou Reed.
03/02/1942 - 10/27/2013/ RIP, Lou and thanks for the music.

[bread_and_roses]

55. Elegantly simple: Trees key to sustainable communities

Not the ONLY key, of course - and perhaps not everywhere (desert? seashore?) , but confirms the instinct so many of us have that nature in our environment is not optional, that concrete and neon warrens are not life-sustaining.

http://blogs.planning.org/sustainability/2013/10/23/in-planning-sustainable-communities-trees-are-the-key/

Planning and urban forestry professionals understand the bottom-line value that properly placed and well-tended trees bring to every community.

Many in their sleep can check off the boxes on the list of important benefits city trees provide, like managing stormwater runoff, mitigating climate change causes and impacts, increasing home values and business activity, and improving community resilience in times of natural disaster.

But when it comes to looking at the concept of “sustainability” in its broadest interpretation, trees are the key to so much more.

Simply put, planning sustainable places revolve around enriching the lives of individuals. As part of this charge for complete sustainability, the goal must be access for all people — regardless of their background or economic standing — to trees, green spaces and the numerous benefits they provide.

[bread_and_roses]

56. From under-the-bus Greenwald - it's simple

http://www.alternet.org/media/goodbye-free-press-europe-erupts-over-us-spying-nsa-chief-says-government-must-stop-media

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)

Goodbye Free Press? As Europe Erupts Over US Spying, NSA Chief Says Government Must Stop the Media
The Guardian [1] / By Glenn Greenwald [2]

There are three points worth making about these latest developments.

• First, note how leaders such as Chancellor Angela Merkel [11] reacted with basic indifference when it was revealed months ago that the NSA was bulk-spying on all German citizens, but suddenly found her indignation only when it turned out that she personally was also targeted. That reaction gives potent insight into the true mindset of many western leaders.

• Second, all of these governments keep saying how newsworthy these revelations are, how profound are the violations they expose, how happy they are to learn of all this, how devoted they are to reform. If that's true, why are they allowing the person who enabled all these disclosures –Edward Snowden [12] – to be targeted for persecution by the US government for the "crime" of blowing the whistle on all of this?

... • Third, is there any doubt at all that the US government repeatedly tried to mislead the world when insisting that this system of suspicionless surveillance was motivated by an attempt to protect Americans from The Terrorists™? Our reporting has revealed spying on conferences designed to negotiate economic agreements [14], the Organization of American States, oil companies [15], ministries that oversee mines and energy resources [16], the democratically elected leaders of allied states, and entire populations in those states.

Can even President Obama and his most devoted loyalists continue to maintain, with a straight face, that this is all about Terrorism?

More at link, including Gen Alexander's desire to "come up with a way of stopping it" - "it" being all the reporting on the leaks.