STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 11 February 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 11 February 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 10 February 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 10 February 2014
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Dow Jones 15,801.79 +7.71 (0.05%)
S&P 500 1,799.84 +2.82 (0.16%)
Nasdaq 4,148.17 +22.31 (0.54%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.67% -0.02 (-0.74%)
30 Year 3.65% -0.03 (-0.82%)[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.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.








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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]

[Ghost Dog]

1. Bitter winter of discontent. Long, hard and cold.

... The economists were either so bad at predicting the downfall of the economies in the world prior to the crash, or otherwise they did their darnedest to pull the wool over the eyes of the rest of the public (everyone but the banksters and the policy-makers; after all they were in on the secret, weren’t they?). There’s hardly anyone that would openly admit that the economy is going to get better, is there? Do people still believe that or is it all still media hype with a whole load of spin to get us to vote them back into position of power and authority so the scheming can continue?

Government policies won’t change as we are so far now down the river that any amount of paddling up the proverbial creek will have little effect on what is going to be a bitter time of discontent. At one time the discontent only lasted for a winter, but, now it’s here to stay. It’s going to be a bitter winter of discontent. Long, hard and cold. The policy makers won’t change because they haven’t got an answer and they won’t change because they are still pandering to the banksters and shoring up the stock markets in the hope that there will be MOAR.

The polices undertaken by the governments of the entire western world have heightened inequalities in society. Inequalities of wealth, between men and women, between the old and the young. The economies of those countries cannot right themselves because of the inequality that exists between people; the’ haves and the have-nots’ has never been a more fitting description. But, inequalities will lead to further reductions in demand. The rich get richer, hoarding their wealth and they stop spending; the poor have no money left as we listen to government leaders pontificating and vociferating about how the ‘coffers being empty’.

Governments have reacted like we all watch them do when there is a tsunami, an oil-spill or an earthquake. They stand and watch from their offices and then when it’s too late they put their wellies on and hop into a helicopter to fly over the disaster zone. It’s too late now. The poor will have to get used to looking on as the rich accumulate more. The former will have to adjust their standard of living, as the ultra-high-net-worth individuals add another $2 trillion to their wealth in 2013 (up to $30 trillion now). The poor are the 90% that own just 13% of the world’s wealth. Peanuts.

Why would governments take that into consideration? We don’t even go to vote these days as much as we used to. We have given up. Giving up means they have won.

/... http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-02-10/stiglitz-%E2%80%9Csick%E2%80%9D

[Demeter]

2. Not a reason to post another word--that said it all.

Still, one must try...to make change, up to the point of death.

[Demeter]

3. Thank you anonymous People for the Valentine Hearts!

They are the best kind (non-fattening).

[DemReadingDU]

25. Appreciate your time posting all these interesting articles, and the WEE too!

and thanks to xchrom too!

[Demeter]

4. It is with regret that I announce we have a Theme for WEE already

We will have a retrospective of the late Shirley Temple, dead at age 85. Friday is Euchre Night, so if it doesn't get snowed out again, expect a late start to the thread.

[Demeter]

5. The Global Fight Against Corporate Rule

http://www.thenation.com/article/177930/global-fight-against-corporate-rule?page=0,0

Activists are challenging rules that grant corporations the right to sue governments. BECAUSE GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS ARE INTERFERING WITH THEIR PROFITS!

Over the past several decades, multinational corporate Goliaths have helped to write and rewrite hundreds of rules skewing tax, trade, investment and other policies in their favor. The extraordinary damage these policies have caused has become increasingly apparent to the communities and governments most directly affected by them. This, in turn, has strengthened the potential of a movement that’s emerging to try to reverse the momentum. But just like David with his slingshot, the local, environmental and government leaders seeking to revise rules to favor communities and the planet must pick their battles carefully.

One of the most promising of these battles takes aim at an egregious set of agreements that allow corporations to sue national governments. Until three decades ago, governments could pass laws to protect consumers, workers, health, the environment and domestic firms with little threat of outside legal challenge from corporations. All that changed when corporations started acquiring the “right” to sue governments over actions—including public interest regulations—that reduce the value of their investments. These rights first appeared in little-known bilateral investment treaties. Twenty years ago, corporate lawyers embedded them in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Today, more than 3,000 trade and investment agreements and even some national investment laws grant foreign investors these powers.

The Obama administration is attempting to insert similar anti-democratic investor protections in new trade and investment agreements with countries that border the Pacific and with the European Union. Hoping to expedite the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), congressional leaders introduced fast-track trade promotion legislation on January 9 that would severely limit Congress’s ability to amend such agreements. The widely anticipated move set off a storm of protest from unions, environmentalists, liberal members of Congress and others, and will likely remain a high-profile fight in the coming weeks.

The forces aligned against these proposed agreements are not alone. Activists across the globe are developing creative and increasingly effective strategies to push back against investor assaults on their communities, environment and national sovereignty. An important front has opened up in El Salvador, where a multinational firm is using investor powers to sue the government over the “right” to mine gold. This case represents an extreme assault on democracy, as local communities, the majority of the Salvadoran public and the Salvadoran government all oppose the gold mining. But what’s happening in El Salvador is not an anomaly. There are crucial battles brewing in several other Latin American countries—including Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador—as well as in other parts of the developing world. At the very least, these struggles should give the Obama administration pause as it considers the next round of trade agreements. But what makes them so strategic—and promising—is that powerful citizen groups are persuading governments to take up the challenge. As they do, they are building momentum in a broad global fight against investor rights.

MUST READ!

[Demeter]

6. 15 Things Everyone Would Know If There Were A Liberal Media

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/08/10/15-things-everyone-would-know-if-there-were-a-liberal-media/

SUMMARIZES OUR BEAT...

[Demeter]

7. Stiglitz: “Sick”!

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-02-10/stiglitz-%E2%80%9Csick%E2%80%9D

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate and Professor at Columbia University believes that the US economy was and still is sick. He believes that it will remain sick because of bad choices that have been made from 2008 onwards:

“Soon after the global financial crisis erupted in 2008, I warned that unless the right policies were adopted, Japanese-style malaise — slow growth and near-stagnant incomes for years to come — could set in.”

The right policies have not been adopted. Financial institutions are still not doing much more than speculating, rather than investing. Imbalances are rife and inequalities abound. We hardly need to look very far to see that nothing is changing except (maybe) getting worse.

Stiglitz states today in an interview with CNBC:

“On both sides of the Atlantic, GDP is likely to grow considerably faster this year than in 2013. But, before leaders who embraced austerity policies open the champagne and toast themselves, they should examine where we are and consider the near-irreparable damage that these policies have caused.”

Stiglitz believes that downturns in the economy come to an end at some point in time. Although perhaps, what might be true in this case is that policies have done nothing EXCEPT to exacerbate and render the problem almost irreparable. Economics is not clear-cut and no, it can’t be made better by adding A and B and ending up with C. But, what can happen, even in simple math, is that A plus B ends up with the result Z. We are right down there at the bottom with the simple math the governments have been doing. The policies that have been implemented will not and have not made the downturn in the economy shorter. They have not cushioned the landing to make it easier. Stiglitz calls the damage as a result of the policies ‘long-standing consequences’. The situation has simply got worse. We are not even at a point where we are back to levels of growth that we were seeing before 2007 and the financial crisis. The truth is the financial crisis hasn’t ever come to an end and it certainly hasn’t seen things getting any better. Whether it be in Europe or in North America, the figures speak for themselves.

• Germany, which is considered to be the best of a bad bunch in the EU, has only seen a 0.7%-growth rate over the past six years, on average.

• There needs to be no finger pointed (we all know) at Greece as the country that has performed the worst since the economy has shrunk by 23%. Yet, the Troika congratulates itself on the good job done at stopping the country going under. Perhaps we just don’t have the same set of values any more.

• The US is still underperforming by 15% had it grown at the same rate as it was prior to the crisis.

• If that’s not enough to convince anyone, median real income in the USA is below levels that were attained in 1989.

• You would have to go back 40 years to see full-time male-worker median salaries at the level they stand at today.

The economists were either so bad at predicting the downfall of the economies in the world prior to the crash, or otherwise they did their darnedest to pull the wool over the eyes of the rest of the public (everyone but the banksters and the policy-makers; after all they were in on the secret, weren’t they?). There’s hardly anyone that would openly admit that the economy is going to get better, is there? Do people still believe that or is it all still media hype with a whole load of spin to get us to vote them back into position of power and authority so the scheming can continue?

Government policies won’t change as we are so far now down the river that any amount of paddling up the proverbial creek will have little effect on what is going to be a bitter time of discontent. At one time the discontent only lasted for a winter, but, now it’s here to stay. It’s going to be a bitter winter of discontent. Long, hard and cold. The policy makers won’t change because they haven’t got an answer and they won’t change because they are still pandering to the banksters and shoring up the stock markets in the hope that there will be MOAR. The polices undertaken by the governments of the entire western world have heightened inequalities in society. Inequalities of wealth, between men and women, between the old and the young. The economies of those countries cannot right themselves because of the inequality that exists between people; the’ haves and the have-nots’ has never been a more fitting description. But, inequalities will lead to further reductions in demand. The rich get richer, hoarding their wealth and they stop spending; the poor have no money left as we listen to government leaders pontificating and vociferating about how the ‘coffers being empty’. Governments have reacted like we all watch them do when there is a tsunami, an oil-spill or an earthquake. They stand and watch from their offices and then when it’s too late they put their wellies on and hop into a helicopter to fly over the disaster zone. It’s too late now. The poor will have to get used to looking on as the rich accumulate more. The former will have to adjust their standard of living, as the ultra-high-net-worth individuals add another $2 trillion to their wealth in 2013 (up to $30 trillion now). The poor are the 90% that own just 13% of the world’s wealth. Peanuts.

Why would governments take that into consideration? We don’t even go to vote these days as much as we used to. We have given up. Giving up means they have won.

[Demeter]

8. Six Questions for Federal Reserve "Chair" Janet Yellen

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-02-11/six-question-federal-reserve-chair-janet-yellen

The Federal Reserve Board “Chair” is appearing before Congress on Tuesday to go through the usual charade of questions and answers regarding US monetary policy. Janet Yellen has politely let the Committee know that she is neither Chairman nor Chairwoman, this even though the statute clearly says that she is the “Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.” Below follows some questions that members of Congress ought to ask Yellen, along with the answers she might make were Chair Yellen sufficiently honest and informed to respond directly. Special thanks to Rep. Mick Muvaney (R-SC), one of the few honest men in Washington.

1) The Debt Ceiling
2) Remittances to Treasury
3) The Volcker Rule
4) A Housing Recovery
5) Unwinding QE? Really?
6) What’s the Frequency Janet?

Q: Madam Chair Yellen, can you describe for the Committee just why you think that low interest rates are good for the US economy and how you believe that depriving savers and investors of positive returns on their assets is somehow beneficial to society?

A: Well, as a first principle you must realize that the model of political economy within the Fed and the FOMC today is no longer a classical liberal model as prevailed in the days of Bagehot. We are not even following what you might describe as a neo-Keynesian or Progressive model that we saw in the 1930s. No, today at the Fed we are following a purely socialist and authoritarian allocation model that ignores market forces and instead seeks to prevent asset deflation at all costs. Going back to my first response, the whole point of this exercise is to preserve the ability of the US Treasury to borrow new cash in the markets. If we have to annihilate savers and investors to achieve this objective, so be it, but the implicit if not explicit policy of the FOMC today is to subsidize debtors via a forced wealth transfer from savers. Some call this “financial repression,” but remember we at the Fed are all about saving the world from catastrophe today – even if our policy choices make the problems facing us tomorrow or next week even more horrific. If we were to really allow interest rates to rise, the market for Treasury debt would seize up and the financial markets would implode. We cannot allow that because Congress is incapable of dealing with the nation’s fiscal problems. We at the Fed are the platonic guardians of the global financial system. And our logic is undeniable….


IT'S HARD READING, SLOGGING THROUGH, BUT WORTH THE EFFORT, AS IT TRANSLATES EVENTS INTO MINDSETS.

[Demeter]

9. China Gold Buying Surges 41% To 1,176 Tonnes In 2013

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-02-10/china-gold-buying-surges-41-1176-tonnes-2013

THE QUESTION IS: WHAT WILL CHINA DO, WHEN IT OWNS ALL THE AVAILABLE GOLD IN THE WORLD?

RUMOR IS, THEY ARE SELLING IT TO INDIA, WHICH I FIND UNLIKELY AS A LONG-TERM STRATEGY.

COULD THE CHINESE INSTITUTE A GOLD-BACKED CURRENCY AND SHUT OUT THE BANKSTERS FOREVER?

HAS ANYONE THOUGHT THIS OUT, AT ALL?

[Demeter]

10. A Renewed Discourse on Inequality By Jed Morey

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/21708-a-renewed-discourse-on-inequality

Corporate personhood and the civil and criminal protections it affords, accompanied by the ability to craft legislation and pour unlimited funds into the political process, exacerbate inequality and destroy principles.

Suddenly, it is in vogue to discuss economic inequality. The idea of inequality and how it is interpreted today is relatively new in human history and has its roots in the Enlightenment period. By the same token, the discourse surrounding it is old enough to have evolved greatly since this period to the form it enters in the public consciousness via the mainstream broadcast media today. As usual, now that the quicksand is up to our chins, we have decided it's time to start looking for help.

In many ways, having a rational conversation about economic inequality is like trying to have a rational discussion about climate change. Both have reached a consensus within their respective scientific communities that these issues are influenced by human behavior. Problematically, both are also highly charged and emotional matters being debated in high definition by a shallow pool of uniformed talent that panders to the lowest common intellectual denominator among us.

Many of the themes examined by Enlightenment philosophers, scientists and scholars remain highly relevant and are worth revisiting. These figures attempted to define the role of man in civil society, which was revolutionary thinking as Western civilization emerged from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. From the mid-17th to the mid-19th centuries, philosophers such as Descartes, Locke and Rousseau, scientists from Newton to Darwin and writers such as Dostoevsky, Dickens and Melville created enduring masterpieces that challenge our concepts of liberty, democracy and the rights of man to this day...

MORE

[Demeter]

11. How Ransomware turns your computer into a bitcoin miner

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/10/how-ransomware-turns-your-computer-bitcoin-miner-linkup?CMP=ema_565

Security researchers have identified a new type of “ransomware” which blocks internet access and turns users’ computer into a bitcoin miner pending payment of a ransom. The malware, named by researchers at Emsisoft as “Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Linkup”, differs from previous examples of ransomware. “It does not directly lock your computer or encrypt files,” the researchers explain. “Instead, Linkup blocks internet access by modifying your DNS and can also turn your computer into a bitcoin mining robot.”

When an infected computer loads up any page, they are taken to a fake website which accuses them of having viewed “child pornography” and demands payment of a €0.01 fine. The “payment” is taken by the user inputting a credit card number, making it extremely unlikely that the malware developers will limit themselves to just one cent; Emsisoft describes it as “most likely a blatant lie”. Once installed, the malware also attempts to download bitcoin-mining software. When installed, the software uses the computer’s processor to perform the energy-intensive tasks used to mine for bitcoin, which runs the risk of damaging the machine and will certainly run up a large electricity bill.

“In the case of Linkup, the most important thing to understand about bitcoin mining is that if a hacker can get more computing power, he can earn more bitcoins,” Emsisoft writes.

“That’s why in addition to blocking internet browsing, Linkup also attempts to connect your computer to a bitcoin-mining botnet, which can combine the computing power of multiple infected computers to earn new bitcoins for whoever is behind the attack.”

But while Linkup is a fearsome combination of different types of malware, it’s not the most dangerous to recently hit the internet. Cryptolocker, the virus which recently forced a US police department to pay an £800 ransom in bitcoins, has a number of features which render it more concerning than Linkup. Cryptolocker’s modus operandi is to encrypt the victim’s hard drive, and then ask for money – usually two bitcoins – to decrypt it. Because the files really are encrypted, simply removing the virus won’t help, unlike with Linkup. But the most dangerous thing of all is that many variants of Cryptolocker actually keep their promise, and unlock the files when payment is received. Whereas victims of Linkup have a simple challenge, those infected with Cryptolocker have a much harder decision: do they pay up at all?

[Demeter]

12. States Reaping Budget Benefits Of Ending Bush Tax Cuts For Richest Americans

http://www.alternet.org/economy/states-reaping-budget-benefits-ending-bush-tax-cuts-richest-americans?akid=11489.227380._2IK71&rd=1&src=newsletter956615&t=9





Across the country, state budget writers are on firmer ground as 2014 begins because Congress raised taxes on investments and the richest Americans when they compromised over the now-forgotten “fiscal cliff” standoff in late 2012.

In recent weeks, national news organizations have reported that governors and legislators in blue and red states are jockeying over how to spend better-than-expected revenues. In ultra-red Kansas and deep-blue New York, governors on opposite ends of the spectrum want to expand early childhood education. In Democrat-majority California, Gov. Jerry Brown is looking at a putting extra cash into a rainy day fund while legislators want schools and safety nets restored. In other states, the recovery has led to calls for more spending on job training, public health, cheaper higher education, roads and tax cuts.

The reasons for the better-than-expected revenues are a mix of factors: higher income tax revenues, growing sales tax revenues, and conservative budget forecasting—prompting the press reports that revenue forecasts are being exceeded. But where reporters generally stop explaining what’s behind the revenue surge is noting that 2013’s big bump in state revenues—5.7 percent nationally—mostly came from ending some Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and Wall Street investments.

MORE

[Demeter]

13. 5 Ways Rich People's "Entitlements" Cheat You and Me

http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-ways-rich-peoples-entitlements-cheat-you-and-me?akid=11489.227380._2IK71&rd=1&src=newsletter956615&t=5





The word 'entitlement' is ambiguous. For working people it means "earned benefits." For the rich, the concept of entitlement is compatible with the Merriam-Webster definition: "The feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges)." Recent studies agree, concluding that higher social class is associated with increased entitlement and narcissism.

The sense of entitlement among the very rich is understandable, for it helps them to justify the massive redistribution of wealth that has occurred over the past 65 years, especially in the past 30 years. National investment in infrastructure, technology, and security has made America a rich country. The financial industry has used our publicly-developed communications technology to generate trillions of dollars in new earnings, while national security protects their interests. The major beneficiaries have convinced themselves they did it on their own. They believe they're entitled to it all.

Their entitlements can be summarized into four categories, each of which reveals clear advantages that the very rich take for granted.

1. Income: Mocking Our 'Progressive' Tax System
2. Wealth: Trillions in Financial Gains, Zero Tax
3. Financial Transactions: Trillions in Speculative Purchases, Zero Tax
4. Subsidies: Alms for the Rich

Cheated

There's more. A regressive payroll tax, an almost nonexistent estate tax, the lower capital gains rate on carried interest for investment managers, trillions socked away in tax havens -- all involve tax avoidance by wealthy Americans who feel entitled to their privileged positions.

Entitlements for the rich mean cuts in safety net programs for children, women, retirees, and low-income families. They threaten Social Security. They redirect money from infrastructure repair, education, and job creation. And the more they take from us, the greater their belief that they deserve the wealth we all helped to create...

DETAILS AT LINK

[Demeter]

14. Today's comics

[xchrom]

15. Small Businesses Get Further Delay for Obamacare Coverage

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-10/small-businesses-get-further-delay-for-obamacare-coverage.html

Employers with fewer than 100 workers won’t have to provide health insurance until 2016 under Obamacare, as the administration said it would again delay a key requirement of the health law.

Larger firms have to cover at least 70 percent of the workforce starting next year, the Internal Revenue Service said in a rule issued yesterday.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act envisioned as a cornerstone of its expansion of U.S. insurance coverage that employers with 50 or more workers would be required to provide health benefits to their employees. Under pressure from business groups, the Obama administration has weakened that requirement since July, first by delaying enforcement of the mandate until 2015. Many firms will have even more time under the new regulation.

[xchrom]

16. State Dinner for Hollande Opening for Business Diplomacy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-11/state-dinner-for-hollande-opening-for-business-diplomacy.html

Let others talk about Francois Hollande’s love life and which designer Michelle Obama is wearing.

When President Barack Obama and the first lady greet guests at the White House for tonight’s state dinner honoring the French president, the conversation will turn to the business of diplomacy and the diplomacy of business.

Along with cabinet members, ambassadors and celebrities, a state dinner brings together executives from companies ranging in size from multinational corporations to family-owned firms.

It’s an “overwhelming” experience, said Charlie Woo, 62, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based MegaToys and a leader in the Chinese-American business community who attended the 2011 state dinner for China’s then-president, Hu Jintao.

[xchrom]

17. UAW Vote at Volkswagen Confronts Union Aversion in South

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-11/uaw-vote-at-volkswagen-confronts-union-aversion-in-south.html

Growing up in Tennessee, all Justin King ever heard about labor unions was that they were bad.

This week, after three years working at the Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, King said he will vote to join the United Auto Workers, and the prospect of a union win has officials across the South on edge. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has tried to talk Volkswagen out of going along, warning that the vote will discourage other companies from investing in the state where only 6.1 percent of the workforce was in a union in 2013.

“What I’ve told them is our concerns are your long-term objectives,” Haslam told the editorial board of the Tennessean newspaper Feb. 5 about his talks with Volkswagen. “You’ve been saying you need to cut the costs of producing the vehicle and you want a better supply network close to you. And I’m not certain how the UAW helps either one of those.”

For decades, the South has been able to capitalize on its lower wages and lack of labor unions to lure companies and jobs from northern states. The UAW vote, which would make the Volkswagen plant the first foreign-owned car factory in the U.S. with a labor union, threatens to change that, and both sides are working hard to steer the outcome their way.

[xchrom]

18. Yellen Says Recovery in Labor Market Is ‘Far From Complete’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-11/yellen-says-recovery-in-u-s-labor-market-is-far-from-complete-.html

Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen said more work is needed to restore the labor market to health and pledged to maintain her predecessor’s policies to ensure a return to full employment and stable prices.

While growth has picked up, “the recovery in the labor market is far from complete,” Yellen said today in the text of remarks to the House Financial Services Committee. “I am committed to achieving both parts of our dual mandate: helping the economy return to full employment and returning inflation to 2 percent while ensuring that it does not run persistently above or below that level.”

Yellen, 67, delivered her first public remarks as Fed chairman as policy makers pursue plans to gradually scale back the unprecedented bond-purchase program she helped put in place. She repeated the Fed’s outlook for further reductions in “measured steps” and that asset purchases are not on a “pre-set course.”

Treasuries fell and stock futures remained higher. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in March was up 0.2 percent to 1,797.80 at 8:35 a.m. in New York. The yield on the 10-year note rose four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 2.71 percent.

[Demeter]

27. Maintaining her predecessor's policies will ensure that NO recovery EVER happens

C'mon, Janet!

Too bad "predecessor" Bernanke isn't actually dead. His death might free up some mesmerized minds....

[xchrom]

19. Farm Profits Seen Falling as Five-Year Crop Boom Ends

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-11/farm-profits-seen-falling-as-five-year-crop-boom-ends.html

A waning boom in U.S. crop prices may cut annual farm profits from record levels in recent years, denting demand for Deere & Co. (DE) tractors and Monsanto Co. (MON) chemicals, economists said ahead of a government report today.

Flat demand for corn to make ethanol and fewer exports to China may halt gains in farmland values after a 37 percent jump since 2009, leaving farmers with less to invest. The farm law President Barack Obama signed last week also will cut government spending on agriculture, further eroding profit.

“We’re looking at an era of about three, four, five, years of reduced profitability in agriculture,” Matthew Roberts, an agricultural economist at Ohio State University in Columbus, said in an interview. Without significant disruptions to crop production, “by 2015, 2016, farms that expanded very rapidly over the last few years could be vulnerable, and we would see the first significant farm failures.”

The slump in the value of U.S. crops will erode prosperity in Corn Belt states, harming rural business and, if sustained, may lead to a wave of farm failures for the first time in a generation, Roberts said.

[xchrom]

20. Fed Researcher Thinks Banks Are Getting Lazier

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-10/fed-researcher-thinks-banks-are-getting-lazier.html

I enjoyed this blog post by the New York Fed's João A.C. Santos, and this related paper by Santos and two other authors,1 about how banks are getting lazier about lending. The story is that in recent years there's been a trend toward market-based pricing in bank loans to large investment-grade companies: Instead of saying "you can borrow at Libor plus 1 percent," banks will tell those companies "you can borrow at Libor plus your one-year credit default swap spread."

This looks win-win. The advantage of this for borrowers is that it's cheaper: "Market-based pricing loans have interest rate spreads that are approximately 32 basis points lower than those on similar standard loans" at origination, and continue to be cheaper over time:2



The advantage for banks is equally obvious: It reduces the risk of their loans. They avoid the risk that what looked like a safe credit at origination will turn out to contain uncompensated risks, because the compensation will automatically shift with the risk. As the authors put it, "market-based pricing adjusts loan interest rates according to the evolution of borrower CDS spreads and in essence it gives the lender a long exposure to a credit default swap on the borrower."

Except that's not actually the advantage for banks: The researchers look at the data and find that they "do not appear to support the hypothesis that the additional protection market-based pricing offers lenders against borrower default risk explains why banks are able to extend these loans at lower interest rates." I am not absolutely convinced by this?3 But anyway.

[xchrom]

21. Shirley Temple Black, Child Star Who Turned Diplomat, Dies at 85

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-11/shirley-temple-black-child-star-who-turned-diplomat-dies-at-85.html

Shirley Temple Black, the child actor who lifted America’s spirits and Hollywood’s profits during the Great Depression with tunes such as “On the Good Ship Lollipop,” then left the spotlight at 21 for a life of political service and limited celebrity, has died. She was 85.

She died yesterday at her Woodside, California, home, according to an e-mailed statement from Cheryl J. Kagan, a spokeswoman for the family.

Decades before the label “child star” became a portent of later-life dysfunction, Shirley Temple showed that talented toddlers could survive, even thrive. Dimpled, curly-haired and prodded by her mother, she sang and danced her way into movies beginning at age 4.

At 6, she won a miniature Academy Award. Her licensed dolls and clothing were big sellers. Restaurants nationwide served an alcohol-free drink named for her, usually consisting of ginger ale, grenadine and a cherry.

[xchrom]

22. Danske Bank Faces Broader Probe of Bond Price Fixing in 2009

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-11/danske-bank-faces-broader-probe-of-bond-price-fixing-in-2009-1-.html

Denmark’s public prosecutor may expand its probe of Danske Bank A/S (DANSKE) after it accused the lender and six of its employees of bond price manipulation.

“It’s clear that we also need to look into whether this requires a broader investigation or whether it’s an isolated case,” Public Prosecutor Hans Fogtdal said yesterday in a phone interview.

The Danish Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime “brought accusations against Danske Bank of price manipulation under particularly aggravated circumstances,” Denmark’s biggest lender said on Friday. The trades, conducted in February and March 2009, raised mortgage bond prices in a way that “harmed customers at Realkredit Danmark A/S,” Danske’s home-loan unit, the crime squad said.

The six employees, whom Danske has suspended, face a maximum of four years in jail, according to Fogtdal. Business Minister Henrik Sass Larsen said he would consider tightening regulatory requirements if the Danske case reveals a need to do so, Borsen reported.

[xchrom]

23. Sweden’s Banks Face Tougher Standards to Counter Currency Risks

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-10/sweden-s-banks-face-tougher-standards-to-counter-currency-risks.html


Sweden’s banks, already Europe’s best capitalized, face even tougher rules as Finance Minister Anders Borg says reining in household borrowing is key to preventing the krona’s appreciation.

The krona “is a concern” and “it’s important that we monitor its development,” Borg said today in the city of Norrkoeping, Sweden. His government now targets policies that make monetary tightening unnecessary and take pressure off the exchange rate, he said.

“It’s key that we dare to have a slightly tougher discussion surrounding our banks,” Borg said. “The other side of the coin is that if we have indebtedness that is too high and some financial stability risks, well, then the Riksbank becomes more careful and the interest rate a bit too high and the krona a bit too strong.”

Borg has imposed some of the world’s strictest capital requirements on Swedish banks, arguing the measures are needed to protect taxpayers. The nation is grappling with an overheated housing market as private debt loads approach 180 percent of disposable incomes. Capping risks through bank regulation will ease pressure on the krona and help exporters, he said today.

[xchrom]

24. 5 WAYS CHINA'S SLOWDOWN WILL RIPPLE ACROSS GLOBE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-11-07-02-52

- COMMODITIES

China's voracious appetite for commodities propelled a boom in Australia and emerging economies in Africa and Latin America. With revenues down, exporters are cutting jobs and governments are tightening their spending.

The International Monetary Fund has reduced its 2014 growth forecasts for South Africa, Brazil, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Caterpillar Inc. has cut 13,000 jobs, blaming slower Chinese growth and weak spending by miners, and says it will cut more.

Hardest-hit might be poor countries in Africa or Latin America that might have to cut ambitious plans for spending on education and other social programs.

- FOREIGN COMPANIES

Global companies have long seen China as one of their most promising markets, and most frustrating.

China is the biggest market for Volkswagen AG and some other automakers. Yum Brands, the U.S.-based operator of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell, already gets half its revenue from China. But U.S. and European companies are being squeezed by tougher competition and by Beijing's efforts to limit access to promising industries such as clean energy

[xchrom]

26. Robert Reich: Wall Street is crippling itself!

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/11/robert_reich_wall_street_surged_after_the_jobs_report_slumped_partner/

The stock market surged Friday after the lousy jobs report. The Dow soared 160 points Friday, while the S&P 500, and Nasdaq also rose.

How can bad news on Main Street (only 113,000 jobs were created in January, on top of a meager 74,000 in December) cause good news on Wall Street?

Because investors assume:

(1) The Fed will now continue to keep interest rates low. Yes, it has announced its intention of tapering off its so-called “quantitative easing” by buying fewer long-term bonds in the months ahead. But it will likely slow down the tapering. Instead of going down to $55 billion a month of bond-buying by April, it will stay at around $60 billion to $70 billion.

(2) The slowdown in the Fed’s tapering will continue to make buying shares of stock a better deal than buying bonds – thereby pushing investors toward the stock market.

(3) Continued low interest rates will also continue to make it profitable for big investors (including corporations) to borrow money to buy back their own shares of stock, thereby pushing up their values. Apple and other companies that used to spend their spare cash and whatever they could borrow on new inventions are now focusing on short-term stock performance.