Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Tansy_Gold

(17,817 posts)
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 08:49 PM Mar 2014

STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 5 March 2014

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 5 March 2014[font color=black][/font]


SMW for 4 March 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 4 March 2014
[center][font color=green]
Dow Jones 16,395.88 +227.85 (1.41%)
S&P 500 1,873.91 +28.18 (1.53%)
Nasdaq 4,351.97 +74.67 (1.75%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.70% +0.05 (1.89%)
30 Year 3.65% +0.06 (1.67%) [font color=black]


[center]
[/font]


[HR width=85%]


[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]


[/center]



[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

[/center]


[center]

[/center]


[HR width=95%]


[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
[center]
Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
[/center]





[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
[center]
Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


[/center]



[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
[center]
LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center]




[div]
[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.








[HR width=95%]


[center]

[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]


43 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 5 March 2014 (Original Post) Tansy_Gold Mar 2014 OP
Bitcoin bank Flexcoin closes after hack attack Demeter Mar 2014 #1
I wonder... AnneD Mar 2014 #35
Bernanke Starts to Cash In (Gets $250K to Speak in the United Arab Emirates) Demeter Mar 2014 #2
ORIGINAL SOURCE: Bernanke says Fed could have done more during crisis Demeter Mar 2014 #3
US sues Sprint for allegedly overcharging on wiretaps Demeter Mar 2014 #4
Police Hide Use of Cell Phone Tracker From Courts Because Manufacturer Asked Demeter Mar 2014 #5
Greg Palast | Christie and Koch in Cahoots? Time to Subpoena Committee for Our Children's Future Demeter Mar 2014 #6
Citigroup says U.S. probing its anti-money laundering controls Demeter Mar 2014 #7
BOE Seeks Derivatives Pact to Prevent a Repeat of Lehman Cascade Demeter Mar 2014 #8
CHINA'S CNOOC licensed to seek Arctic oil IN ICELANDIC WATERS! Demeter Mar 2014 #9
Detroit asks bankruptcy court to OK new deal to end swaps Demeter Mar 2014 #10
Envy Versus Anger PAUL KRUGMAN Demeter Mar 2014 #11
He's right about that, anyone who's really aware of the situation is furious Warpy Mar 2014 #33
One of the nicest perks of my pension... AnneD Mar 2014 #36
sorry gang, I just don't have the strength I used to have Demeter Mar 2014 #12
Quotes for the day Demeter Mar 2014 #13
How cold is it? The OFFICIAL REPORT! Demeter Mar 2014 #16
Internet Psychology 101: Swearing and Name-Calling Shut Down the Ability to Think and Focus jtuck004 Mar 2014 #14
IMO, swearing is to RELIEVE pain Demeter Mar 2014 #15
ITA.... AnneD Mar 2014 #37
As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap By Paul Craig Roberts FROM OCTOBER Demeter Mar 2014 #17
As I have suspected all along.... AnneD Mar 2014 #41
Repo, Baby, Repo: How Unregulated Banking Triggered the Crash of '08 By Mike Whitney Demeter Mar 2014 #18
China Is Headed For Its First Domestic Bond Default — And Here's Why That's A Good Thing xchrom Mar 2014 #19
London Gold-Fix Banks Accused Of Manipulating Benchmark Used In $40 Trillion Metal Market xchrom Mar 2014 #20
ANALYSTS: Russia Unlikely To Pull Back In Crimea xchrom Mar 2014 #21
Embattled Turkish Prime Minister: 'I'm Ready To Quit Politics Unless My Party Wins' Upcoming Electio xchrom Mar 2014 #22
Morgan Stanley May Sell Its Swiss Private Bank xchrom Mar 2014 #23
The Bank Of Japan Is Pumping Like Mad xchrom Mar 2014 #24
Japan Is Worried That Western Sanctions On Russia Would Hurt Tokyo xchrom Mar 2014 #25
Bernanke Harbors Regret on Main Street’s View of Bailout xchrom Mar 2014 #26
YEAH, HE'S AN ABSOLUTE FAILURE AS A LIAR Demeter Mar 2014 #30
How much did he get for that speech.... AnneD Mar 2014 #38
BOE Suspends Employee as Notes Show Currency Concerns From 2006 xchrom Mar 2014 #27
Technology May Soon Get You To Be A Bigger Tipper DemReadingDU Mar 2014 #28
Obama Budget Raises $276 Billion From U.S. Multinationals xchrom Mar 2014 #29
Just had a bowl of home-made strawberry-rhubarb over vanilla ice cream Demeter Mar 2014 #31
Which reminds me.... Fuddnik Mar 2014 #34
Temple oranges are my favorite! DemReadingDU Mar 2014 #39
99 cents a pound! Demeter Mar 2014 #40
Take notes, this will be on the final! Demeter Mar 2014 #32
I read the subject line, and thought it said ' Take notes, this will be on fruit!' DemReadingDU Mar 2014 #42
I could do that Demeter Mar 2014 #43
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
1. Bitcoin bank Flexcoin closes after hack attack
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 09:39 PM
Mar 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/04/bitcoin-bank-flexcoin-closes-after-hack-attack



Bank admits it does not have resources to cover loss of 896 bitcoin worth £365,000 stolen in raid ... A bitcoin bank has been forced to close after hackers stole 896 bitcoin, worth £365,000, in an attack on Sunday. The company shut its website and posted a statement on Tuesday morning detailing the loss.

“On March 2nd 2014 Flexcoin was attacked and robbed of all coins in the hot wallet,” the statement read. “As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately.”


Not all of the company’s assets were stolen. In line with best practices for running a bitcoin financial service, Flexcoin held some bitcoins in “cold storage”, keeping them on devices not connected to the internet. Those bitcoins are safe, but only users who explicitly requested their bitcoins be held in cold storage (and paid a 0.5% fee) benefit.

“Users who put their coins into cold storage will be contacted by Flexcoin and asked to verify their identity,” the statement continues. “Once identified, cold storage coins will be transferred out free of charge. Cold storage coins were held offline and not within reach of the attacker. Flexcoin will attempt to work with law enforcement to trace the source of the hack.”


Flexcoin attempted to impose a more conventional banking system over the top of the bitcoin network, enabling instant free transfers between Flexcoin customers while still allowing them to spend money in the wider bitcoin community.

Just six days ago, the company was boasting that it was unscathed by the closure of MtGox, once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange....The same day the company came clean about its losses, a second bitcoin firm, Poloniex, also admitted that 12.3% of its reserves had been stolen by hackers. Poloniex is a bitcoin exchange, and the company has committed to operating at a fractional reserve until it can replenish the losses itself.

“I sincerely apologize for this,” Poloniex’s owner wrote in a statement, “and I am very grateful to the many people who have already expressed their support and belief in my character. I take full responsibility; I will be donating some of my own money, and I will not be taking profit before the debt is paid.”


Flexcoin’s closure follows that of MtGox’s, blamed on hackers stealing 750,000 bitcoins by exploiting a bug known as “transaction malleability”. Several other bitcoin businesses, both high- and low-profile, have gone under. Services including Bitcoinica, Inputs.io and MyBitcoin have all been hacked, each losing thousands of bitcoins.



I SINCERELY DOUBT THAT THE THIEVES WILL GET ANY PROFIT OUT OF THIS THIEVERY...WHO WOULD REDEEM OR ACCEPT THEIR BITCOINS? IT MAY BE A CLEVER WAY OF DESTROYING THE WHOLE NON-GOVERNMENTAL FIAT CURRENCY MOVEMENT, HOWEVER.

MY BRO SENT SOME ADDITIONAL INFO:


another one bites the dust...(Hey, hey) another one bites the dust -‏

Now the once mighty can become humble again. Committed to operating as a fractional exchange – it makes some of the libertarian claims for Bitcoin ring a little hollow to hear an exchange forced to admit that. It’s kind of like when the big kids show up, bust up the cub scouts’ bake sale, then run off with the cash and the cookies too.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
35. I wonder...
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 01:42 PM
Mar 2014

every now and again, we have some dumb crook holding up a convenience store and take off with pocket change, maybe some beer and lottery tickets. They do not realize that the numbers are recorded and the first time they try to cash those scratch off tickets, they get some shiny silver bracelets for their effort.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
2. Bernanke Starts to Cash In (Gets $250K to Speak in the United Arab Emirates)
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 09:45 PM
Mar 2014

POOR TIMMY STILL HAS TO "WORK" FOR HIS LOOT... "He is currently writing a book about the response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. In March 2014 he is to become president of Warburg Pincus, a Wall Street private equity firm"...WIKIPEDIA


http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/03/bernanke-starts-to-cash-in-gets-250k-to.html

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank could have done more to fight the country's financial crisis and that he struggled to find the right way to communicate with markets, reports Reuters.

"We could have done some things on the margin to mitigate somewhat the crisis," Bernanke, 60, said on Tuesday in his first public speaking engagement since he stepped down in January after eight years heading the Fed.

"Although we have been very aggressive, I think on the monetary policy front we could have been even more aggressive."


Yup, that's right, Bernanke now thinks he should have printed even more money.This wasn't enough:



Bernanke received at least $250,000 for his appearance at the financial conference staged by National Bank of Abu Dhab, the UAE's largest bank, according to sources familiar the matter, reports Reuters.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
3. ORIGINAL SOURCE: Bernanke says Fed could have done more during crisis
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 09:51 PM
Mar 2014
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bernanke-says-u-set-3-093333943.html

...Bernanke said he could now speak more freely about the crisis than he could while at the Fed - "I can say whatever I want" - and in remarks to over 1,000 bankers and financial professionals in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, he made clear that he had regrets.

The United States became "overconfident", he said of the period before the September 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers. That triggered a crash from which parts of the world, including the U.S. economy, have not fully recovered.

"This is going to sound very obvious but the first thing we learned is that the U.S. is not invulnerable to financial crises," Bernanke said.


As the Fed provided tens of billions of dollars of emergency aid to the U.S. financial system, Bernanke said he felt the central bank was in a "terrible" political situation because it could be accused of bailing out institutions unfairly.

He also said he found it hard to find the right way to communicate with investors when every word was closely scrutinized.

"That was actually very hard for me to get adjusted to that situation where your words have such effect. I came from the academic background and I was used to making hypothetical examples and ... I learned I can't do that because the markets do not understand hypotheticals."

He concluded that he should "try to simplify the message, but not simplify too much".


Ultimately, Bernanke said, he wished the U.S. economy could have recovered faster but "we did good in a very complicated situation and in a very complex political situation, and the result is what it is."


YOU JUST KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THAT BEN, SO YOU CAN GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP...
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
4. US sues Sprint for allegedly overcharging on wiretaps
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 09:52 PM
Mar 2014
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57619850-94/us-sues-sprint-for-allegedly-overcharging-on-wiretaps/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

GUESS THE COST PLUS CONTRACT DIDN'T GO AS FAR AS THEY THOUGHT...

The government claims Sprint "inflated its charges by approximately 58 percent," which amounts to more than $21 million in overpayment... "Under the law, the government is required to reimburse Sprint for its reasonable costs incurred when assisting law enforcement agencies with electronic surveillance," Sprint spokesman John B. Taylor told CNET. "The invoices Sprint has submitted to the government fully comply with the law."

In the complaint, the government asks for triple damages and unspecified civil fines.


THIS COULD BE THE END OF A MUTUALLY-SATISFYING RELATIONSHIP...
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
5. Police Hide Use of Cell Phone Tracker From Courts Because Manufacturer Asked
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 09:58 PM
Mar 2014
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/police-hide-use-cell-phone-tracker-courts-because


It appears that at least one police department in Florida has failed to tell judges about its use of a cell phone tracking device because the department got the device on loan and promised the manufacturer to keep it all under wraps. But when police use invasive surveillance equipment to surreptitiously sweep up information about the locations and communications of large numbers of people, court oversight and public debate are essential. The devices, likely made by the Florida-based Harris Corporation, are called “stingrays,” and unfortunately this is not the first time the government has tried to hide their use.

So the ACLU and ACLU of Florida have teamed up to break through the veil of secrecy surrounding stingray use by law enforcement in the Sunshine State, last week filing a motion for public access to sealed records in state court, and submitting public records requests to nearly 30 police and sheriffs’ departments across Florida seeking information about their acquisition and use of stingrays (examples LINK AT OP).

Also known as “cell site simulators,” stingrays impersonate cell phone towers, prompting phones within range to reveal their precise locations and information about all of the calls and text messages they send and receive. When in use, stingrays sweep up information about innocent people and criminal suspects alike...The power of stingrays, and the lengths to which police will go to conceal their use, are demonstrated by an ongoing case in Florida, State v. Thomas. As revealed in a recent opinion of a Florida appeals court, Tallahassee police used an unnamed device — almost certainly a stingray — to track a stolen cell phone to a suspect’s apartment. (The case’s association with stingrays was first pointed out by CNET’s Declan McCullagh in January). They then knocked on the door, asked permission to enter and, when the suspect’s girlfriend refused, forced their way inside, conducted a search, and arrested the suspect in his home. Police opted not to get warrants authorizing either their use of the stingray or the apartment search. Incredibly, this was apparently because they had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the company that gave them the device. The police seem to have interpreted the agreement to bar them even from revealing their use of stingrays to judges, who we usually rely on to provide oversight of police investigations.

When the suspect’s lawyer tried to ask police how they tracked the phone to his client’s house, the government refused to answer. A judge eventually forced the government to explain its conduct to the lawyer, but only after closing the courtroom to the public and sealing the transcript of the proceedings so the public and the press could never read it. Only later, when the case was heard on appeal, did the most jaw-dropping fact leak out. As two judges noted during the oral argument, as of 2010 the Tallahassee Police Department had used stingrays a staggering 200 times without ever disclosing their use to a judge to get a warrant. Potentially unconstitutional government surveillance on this scale should not remain hidden from the public just because a private corporation desires secrecy. And it certainly should not be concealed from judges. That’s why we have asked the Florida court that originally sealed the transcript to now make it available to the public. And that’s also why we have asked police departments throughout Florida to tell us whether they use stingrays, what rules they have in place to protect innocent third parties from unjustified invasions of privacy, and whether they obtain warrants from judges before deploying the devices.

Although secret stingray use has increasingly been exposed by the press (and by the ACLU), public details are still scant. Our new work in Florida is part of national efforts to understand how law enforcement is using these devices, and whether reforms are needed to protect our privacy from law enforcement overreach.


 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
7. Citigroup says U.S. probing its anti-money laundering controls
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 10:03 PM
Mar 2014
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/03/citigroup-disclosures-idUKL1N0M00QF20140303

A federal grand jury is probing Citigroup Inc, including its Banamex USA affiliate, over compliance with the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering requirements, the company said in an annual filing on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The probe includes subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. The company also said Banamex USA had received a subpoena from the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Citigroup disclosed on Friday that it had discovered at least $400 million in fraudulent loans in its Banamex subsidiary in Mexico and said employees might have been involved in the apparent crime.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
8. BOE Seeks Derivatives Pact to Prevent a Repeat of Lehman Cascade
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 10:05 PM
Mar 2014

CAN SOMEONE LEND ME AN A IRONY METER? MINE JUST BROKE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-04/boe-seeks-derivatives-pact-to-prevent-a-repeat-of-lehman-cascade.html

The Bank of England is seeking a global pact among banks to suspend default clauses in some derivatives contracts during a crisis, in a bid to ward off bank death spirals that cascade through the financial system.

The U.K. central bank wants lenders and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association Inc., an industry group, to agree to temporarily halt claims on banks that become insolvent and need intervention, Andrew Gracie, executive director of the BOE’s special resolution unit, said in an interview.

“The entry of a bank into resolution should not in itself be an event of default which allows counterparties to start accelerating contracts and triggering cross-defaults,” Gracie said. “You would get what you saw in Lehmans -- huge amounts of uncertainty and an uncontrolled cascade of closeouts and cross defaults in the market.”

Regulators and central banks around the world have grappled with banking reforms aimed at keeping public money safe during a financial crisis, since the fall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008 prompted governments to prop up failing lenders to prevent economic disaster. The Financial Stability Board, which brings together regulators and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations, has ranked banks and insurers by their potential to cause a global meltdown and demanded bigger financial cushions to avert a repeat of the 2008 credit freeze. The G20 has also drawn up guidelines aimed at harmonizing the powers available to regulators to wind down a crisis-hit bank.


I SUPPOSE BANNING DERIVATIVES CONTRACTS IS NOT ON...

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
9. CHINA'S CNOOC licensed to seek Arctic oil IN ICELANDIC WATERS!
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 10:07 PM
Mar 2014

JUST WHEN YOU THINK THERE'S A SMART PLACE IN THE WORLD....

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-03/04/content_17319412.htm



China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), the country's largest offshore oil and gas developer, has become the first Chinese firm licensed to look for oil in the Arctic, a landmark step for overseas energy exploration for the world's second-largest economy.

CNOOC has partnered with Iceland's Eykon Energy in an application for a license to explore oil and gas resources in Arctic waters since last June.

On Jan 22, Iceland's national energy authority, Orkustofnun, granted the new offshore license to the Chinese company as an operator with a 60 percent share, to Eykon Energy with a 15 percent share and to Petoro Iceland AS with a 25 percent share, the company told China Daily on Thursday...

LOTS MORE AT LINK

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
10. Detroit asks bankruptcy court to OK new deal to end swaps
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 10:09 PM
Mar 2014
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/04/usa-detroit-bankruptcy-idUSL1N0M102F20140304

Detroit on Monday asked a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to approve its third try at ending controversial interest rate swaps, laying out a plan that would cost the city just $85 million.

The cost to terminate the hedging deals with UBS AG and Merrill Lynch Capital Services is less than the city's previous proposals, which were rejected by Judge Steven Rhodes, who is overseeing the city's historic municipal bankruptcy case, as being too costly for the broke city.

In a court filing, Detroit said the investment banks agreed to vote for city's debt adjustment plan, a move that could help the city force the plan on dissenting creditors.

THE JUDGE WANTS KEVIN ORR TO FIGHT THE CONTRACTS AS THE FRAUDS THEY ARE....BUT KEVIN IS A LOVER, NOT A FIGHTER....
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
11. Envy Versus Anger PAUL KRUGMAN
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 10:13 PM
Mar 2014
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/envy-versus-anger/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Suddenly, or so it seems, inequality has surged into public consciousness — and neither the one percent nor its reliable defenders seems to know how to cope. Some of the reactions are crazy — it’s Kristallnacht, they’re coming to kill us — with the craziness quite widespread; notice how many billionaires, plus of course the Wall Street Journal, rallied around Tom Perkins. But even the saner-sounding voices evidently have a hard time wrapping their minds around the notion that anyone might find 21st-century finance capitalism a bit, well, unfair. A case in point: this article by Arthur Brooks, the president of the American Enterprise Institute. Brooks is deeply worried about changing popular attitudes toward wealth:

According to Pew, the percentage of Americans who feel that “most people who want to get ahead” can do so through hard work has dropped by 14 points since about 2000. As recently as 2007, Gallup found that 70 percent were satisfied with their opportunities to get ahead by working hard; only 29 percent were dissatisfied. Today, that gap has shrunk to 54 percent satisfied, and 45 percent dissatisfied. In just a few years, we have gone from seeing our economy as a real meritocracy to viewing it as something closer to a coin flip.


And how does he see this sea-change in attitudes? Why, it must be about growing envy of the rich, which is a terrible thing. But the polling data don’t say anything about envy: when people say that they have lost their belief that hard work will be rewarded, they aren’t saying that they are envious of the rich; they’re saying that they have lost their belief that hard work will be rewarded. To the extent that people have negative feelings about the one percent, the emotion involved isn’t envy — it’s anger, which isn’t at all the same thing. Envy is when you have negative feelings about rich because of what they have; anger is when you have negative feelings about the rich because of what they do.

Think about it: Did the Occupy protests focus on how the one percent lives? Does muckraking journalism obsess over lifestyles? Yes, everyone knows about Mitt Romney’s car elevator, but it was the dorkiness rather than the luxury that made it a story. Actually, considering just how much the lives of the super-elite have diverged from those of ordinary Americans, it’s kind of amazing how few articles there have been salaciously describing parties in the Hamptons and all that. No, what’s really driving most of the ire is the sense that many of the rich didn’t actually earn that position, that they grew rich at the rest of America’s expense.

And what has happened since 2007 that might justify such a belief? Um, how about all those .01 percenters who were boasting about what a great job they were doing, but turned out to be leading us into a catastrophic financial crisis? What about the much-admired leaders who assured us that Wall Street was doing great stuff, and turned out to be totally clueless? Or what about the remarkable fact that since the crisis, profits have soared, while workers’ incomes have stagnated?



People aren’t envious, they’re angry — and with good reason.

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
33. He's right about that, anyone who's really aware of the situation is furious
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 12:31 PM
Mar 2014

and some of those bastards will be lucky to leave life with their heads still attached to their shoulders.

I'm grateful to my dad for leaving me enough to live on. I'm even more grateful that I didn't get enough to ruin my life.

I wouldn't want to be a one percenter for anything, living in "homes" that are actually a series of very private hotels, having to deal with staff, losing contact with their children being brought up by nannies, and always feeling inadequate because some other billionaire has more.

Envy? Not a chance in the world. I am outraged by a government that allowed them to do what they have done to working people. I do think we need to claw it back or this country is finished.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
36. One of the nicest perks of my pension...
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 02:05 PM
Mar 2014

aka guaranteed annuity, is that I can designate a beneficiary. I guess since most teachers are women, this was their way around having poor starving orphans raised by the state. Hubby and I are playing the odds: I am his beneficiary but my daughter is my beneficiary. Granted she will only get half of pension but it is for life. It is a darn site more than she will ever get from the ex and a hell of a lot more than I will get from Mom. With inflation, it may not be much, but it might be a house note, food or clothing for the grand children I may never meet, or help for her. Of course, she will not know about the indexed funds in her account until later in life (and she is in for a shocker-we got a 25% return on hers last year-I am a decent fund manager). She will not be a 1% er, but she won't be destitute. Hopefully I have given her enough economic 'smarts' and have changed our family tree as my Mom changed ours.

Kudos to your far sighted Dad, I am sure he is never far from your thoughts. I hope my daughter remembers me with the same fondness for both giving with a warm hand and leaving her with a little something extra.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
12. sorry gang, I just don't have the strength I used to have
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 10:18 PM
Mar 2014

this is as far as I'm going, tonight. maybe, if it ever warms up, I can post more in one go.

Demeter, posting from Narnia, where it's always winter and never Xmas....

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
13. Quotes for the day
Tue Mar 4, 2014, 10:25 PM
Mar 2014

"We become slaves the moment we hand the keys to the definition of reality entirely
over to someone else, whether it is a business, an economic theory, a political
party, the White House, Newsworld or CNN." - B.W. Powe, Towards A Canada Of Light

"The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison
the channels of public information.

With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public
but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and
his group more money or more power." - Henry A. Wallace

"Propaganda is as powerful as heroin; it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity
to think." - Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
16. How cold is it? The OFFICIAL REPORT!
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 07:25 AM
Mar 2014
New index confirms it: This winter is miserable

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_WINTER_MISERY_INDEX?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

DETROIT (AP) -- A new winter misery index confirms what many Americans in the Midwest and East know in their all-too-chilled bones: This has been one of the harshest winters of our lifetimes. And nowhere has been hit harder, relatively, than Detroit.

Sure Chicago, Indianapolis and Philadelphia and Moline, Ill., are in the midst of their third most extreme winters in more than 60 years. But Detroit, a city that is trying to crawl out of bankruptcy, is also slogging through what so far is the most extreme winter it has had since Harry Truman was president, at least, according to a winter extremity index created by a National Weather Service meteorologist Barbara Mayes Boustead. The index is based on cold temperatures and snowfall. And so far Detroit has had more than 6 1/2 feet of snow and 100 days when the thermometer plunged below the freezing mark. Of two dozen cities studied, Detroit alone is in the middle of its harshest winter since 1950...Boustead, a former Detroit-area resident who now works in Omaha, Neb., created the index a couple years ago to judge the severity of winters. Omaha, by the way, is the only city in two dozen metro areas that Boustead examined that is not having an "extreme" or "severe" winter. It's merely average.

Boustead uses daily high and low temperatures and daily and accumulated snowfall to come up with a winter index that's equivalent to the way meteorologists categorize hurricanes and tornadoes. Officially, it is called the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index...New York, Milwaukee and Duluth are in the midst of their fourth harshest winters. Also having top-10 harshest winters are Minneapolis-St. Paul in Minnesota; Louisville, Ky.; Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and Cheyenne, Wyo. The idea is to put winter in context. This winter seems unusually harsh because it has been a while since the late 1970s and early 1980s when severe winters were far more frequent. People have short memories. Plus, for almost three-quarters of the places studied the winter of 2011-2012 was the mildest on record, Boustead said.

But why Detroit?

Just bad geography and luck. Much of the cold and snow this winter is because of a change in the jet stream that has funneled frigid air south from the Arctic "right down the alley" through Detroit, Hilberg said. The winter index keeps going, until the cold, snowy weather stops. And that's at least a couple weeks away, according to forecasts...

OR A COUPLE OF MONTHS, BUT SINCE NOBODY CARES ABOUT DETROIT....WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?
 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
14. Internet Psychology 101: Swearing and Name-Calling Shut Down the Ability to Think and Focus
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 04:23 AM
Mar 2014

...
Two professors of science communication at the University of Wisconsin, Madison – Dominique Brossard and Dietram A. Scheufele – wrote in the New York Times last year:

In a study published online last month in The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, we and three colleagues report on an experiment designed to measure what one might call “the nasty effect.”

We asked 1,183 participants to carefully read a news post on a fictitious blog, explaining the potential risks and benefits of a new technology product called nanosilver. These infinitesimal silver particles, tinier than 100-billionths of a meter in any dimension, have several potential benefits (like antibacterial properties) and risks (like water contamination), the online article reported.

Then we had participants read comments on the post, supposedly from other readers, and respond to questions regarding the content of the article itself
...

The results were both surprising and disturbing. Uncivil comments not only polarized readers, but they often changed a participant’s interpretation of the news story itself.


So someone puts a story out there, you can affect how that is see by a reader by your comments.

And a paid troll is born...

Ritholtz
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
15. IMO, swearing is to RELIEVE pain
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 07:20 AM
Mar 2014

and prevent physical violence. Which allows the rational brain room to work.

90% of everything is crap, and 100% of the social "sciences", in my experiences, and that includes economics theory.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
37. ITA....
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 02:11 PM
Mar 2014

Hit your thumb with a hammer and see how much better you feel after a tirade of curse words. I would rather someone curse at me than hit me (spoken as a bedside Nurse). I work on the 'pressure cooker letting off steam' theory of human behavior.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
17. As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap By Paul Craig Roberts FROM OCTOBER
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 07:51 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36621.htm

The year 2014 could be shaping up as the year that the chickens come home to roost.

Americans, even well-informed ones, don’t know all of the mistakes made by neoconized and corrupted Washington in the past two decades. However, enough is known to see that the US has lost economic and political power, and that the loss is irreversible.

The economic cost of this lost will be born by what remains of the middle class and the increasingly poverty-stricken lower class. The one percent will have offshore gold holdings and large sums of money in foreign currencies and other foreign assets to see them through.

In the political arena, the collapse of the Soviet Union presented Washington with the grand opportunity to reallocate the Pentagon budget to other uses. Part of the reduction could have been returned to taxpayers for their own use. Another part could have been used to improve worn out infrastructure. And another part could have been used to repair and improve the social safety net, thus insuring domestic tranquility. A final, but perhaps most important part, could have been used to begin repaying the Treasury IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund from which Washington has borrowed and spent $2 trillion, leaving non-marketable IOUs in the place of the Social Security payroll tax revenues that Washington raided in order to fund its wars and current operations.

Instead, influenced by neoconservative warmongers who advocated America using its “sole superpower” status to establish hegemony over the world, Washington let hubris and arrogance run away with it. The consequence was that Washington destroyed its soft power with lies and war crimes, only to find that its military power was insufficient to support its occupation of Iraq, its conquest of Afghanistan, and its financial imperialism.

Now seen universally as a lawless warmonger and a nuisance, Washington’s soft power has been squandered. With its influence on the wane, Washington has become more of a bully. In response, the rest of the world is isolating Washington....

THIS IS THE REAL STATE OF THE UNION....READ IT CAREFULLY, AND WEEP

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
41. As I have suspected all along....
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 05:12 PM
Mar 2014

Homeland Security purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, enough ammunition to fight the Iraq war for 12 years, has its own para-military force and 2,700 tanks. If you think the “terrorist threat” in America warrants a domestic armed force of this size, you are out of your mind. This force has been assembled to deal with starving and homeless people in the streets of America."

It wasn't this that sent chill down my spine, it was the fact that HS have built all these detention camps that scare the crap out of me. Now I live on a border state and I haven't seen that many dangerous illegals in the neighborhood, so I reach the conclusion as to the purpose long ago.

Many people deride some conservatives as paranoid when they first started talking about it. I come from the point that all politics is circular/not parallel.


 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
18. Repo, Baby, Repo: How Unregulated Banking Triggered the Crash of '08 By Mike Whitney
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 08:01 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36623.htm

“Repo has a flaw: It is vulnerable to panic, that is, ‘depositors’ may ‘withdraw’ their money at any time, forcing the system into massive deleveraging. We saw this over and over again with demand deposits in all of U.S. history prior to deposit insurance. This problem has not been addressed by the Dodd-Frank legislation. So, it could happen again.”
–Gary B. Gorton, Professor of Management and Finance, Yale School of Management (lifted from Repowatch)


October 23, 2013 "Information Clearing House - Subprime mortgages did not cause the financial crisis, nor did the housing bubble or Lehman Brothers. The financial crisis originated in a corner of the shadow banking system called the repo market. That’s where the bank run occurred that froze the secondary market, sent prices on mortgage-backed assets plunging, and pushed the financial system into a death spiral. In the Great Crash of 2008, repo was ground zero, the epicenter of the global catastrophe. As analyst David Weidner noted in the Wall Street Journal, “The repo market wasn’t just a part of the meltdown. It was the meltdown.”

Regrettably, the Federal Reserve’s nontraditional monetary policies (ZIRP and QE) have succeeded in restoring the repo market to it’s precrisis level of activity, but without implementing any of the changes that would have made the system safer. Repo is as vulnerable and crisis-prone today as it was when the French bank PNB Paribas stopped redemptions in its off-balance sheet operations in 2007 kicking off the tumultuous bank run that would eventually implode the entire system and push the economy into the deepest slump since the Great Depression. By failing to rein in repo, the Fed has ensured that financial crises will be a regular feature in the future occurring every 15 or 20 years as was the case before banks were more strictly regulated and government backstops were put in place. Repo returns us to Wild West “anything goes” banking.

Why would the Fed be so reckless and pave the way for another disaster? We’ll get to that in a minute, but first, let’s give a brief explanation of repo and how the system works.

Repo is short for repurchase agreement. The repo market is where primary dealers sell securities with an agreement for the seller to buy back the securities at a later date. This sounds more complicated than it is. What’s really going on is the seller (primary dealers) are getting short-term loans from money market funds, securities firms, banks etc in order to maintain a position in securities in which they’re suppose to make markets. So, repo is like a loan that’s secured with collateral. (ie–the securities) It is a “funding mechanism”.

What touched off the Crash of 2008, was the discovery that the collateral that was being used for repo funding was “toxic”, that is, the securities were not Triple A after all, but subprime mortgage-backed gunk that would only fetch pennies on the dollar. So, when PNB Paribas stopped redemptions in its off-balance sheet operations on August 9, 2007, the rout began. Cash-heavy investors (like money markets) turned off the lending spigot, which reduced trillions of dollars of MBS to junk-status, precipitated massive fire sales of distressed assets that were dumped on the market pushing prices further and further down wiping out trillions in equity and reducing the financial system to a smoldering pile of rubble. That’s why the Fed stepped in, backstopped the system with explicit guarantees for both regulated and unregulated financial institutions and set about to reflate financial asset prices to their precrisis highs.

Newly appointed Fed chairman Janet Yellen summarized what happened in the panic in a speech she gave earlier this year. She said:

“The trigger for the acute phase of the financial crisis was the rapid unwinding of large amounts of short-term wholesale funding that had been made available to highly leveraged and/or maturity-transforming financial firms.”


In other words, the crisis began in repo. Unfortunately, Wall Street has fended off all attempts to fix the system, because repo is a particularly lucrative area of activity. And we are talking serious money here, too. Tri-party repo alone–which is a small subset of the larger repo market–represents “about $1.6 trillion in outstanding repos daily.” That means that the prospect of a big dealer dumping his portfolio of securities on the market at a moment’s notice igniting another panic, is never far away.

Why do banks borrow in the unregulated, shadow system instead of conducting their business in the light of day where regulators can check the quality of the underlying collateral, oversee the various transactions on public trading platforms, and make sure that capital requirements are maintained? It’s because the banks want to deploy all their capital, leverage up to their eyeballs and play fast-and-loose with the rules. Here’s what the New York Fed has to say on the topic:

“One clear motivation for intermediation outside of the traditional banking system is for private actors to evade regulation and taxes. The academic literature documents that motivation explains part of the growth and collapse of shadow banking over the past decade…

Regulation typically forces private actors to do something which they would otherwise not do: pay taxes to the official sector, disclose additional information to investors, or hold more capital against financial exposures. Financial activity which has been re-structured to avoid taxes, disclosure, and/or capital requirements, is referred to as arbitrage activity.” (“Shadow Bank Monitoring“, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, September, 2013)


In other words, the banks are conducting their operations in the shadows because it’s cheaper. That’s what this is all about. Here’s more from the same report:

“While the fundamental reason for commercial bank runs is the sequential servicing constraint, for shadow banks the effective constraint is the presence of fire sale externalities. In a run, shadow banking entities have to sell assets at a discount, which depresses market pricing. This provides incentives to withdraw funding—before other shadow banking depositors arrive.”




...The point is, had the system been adequately regulated with the appropriate safeguards in place, there would have been no fire sales, no panic, and no crisis. Regulators would have made sure that the underlying collateral was legit, that is, they would have made sure that the subprime borrowers were creditworthy and able to repay their loans. They would have made sure that repo borrowers (the banks) had sufficient capital to meet redemptions if problems arose. And regulators would have limited excessive leveraging of the securitized assets. Regulation works. It provides safety, stability, and security as opposed to panic, bankruptcy and severe recession which is the scenario that Wall Street’s profiteers seem to prefer....

MORE MISERY AHEAD--PREDICTIONS AT LINK

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
19. China Is Headed For Its First Domestic Bond Default — And Here's Why That's A Good Thing
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 08:31 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-to-see-first-onshore-bond-default-2014-3

***SNIP

A silver-lining

But the bond default might actually be a good thing. "A normal economy needs defaults to better price bonds and other debt products," writes Ting.

We have previously pointed out that this can actually help investors have more information to better price risk.

"If you talk to anyone in China, if you talk to them about the prospect of a financial crisis, the first thing out of their mouths will be that the government will never let that happen," Patrick Chovanec at Silvercrest Asset Management told Business Insider in January. "And until you shake that belief you won't have efficient allocation of resources."

"At some point the financial system does have to turn the corner, where there's real risk and there's real pricing of risk," Chovanec added.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-to-see-first-onshore-bond-default-2014-3#ixzz2v5hTWNqD

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
20. London Gold-Fix Banks Accused Of Manipulating Benchmark Used In $40 Trillion Metal Market
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 08:34 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-london-gold-fix-banks-accused-of-manipulation-in-us-lawsuit-report-2014-05

LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays <BARC.L>, Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> and three other banks have been accused in a lawsuit of manipulating the London gold fix, a benchmark used throughout the $20 trillion market for the metal, Bloomberg reported.
Kevin Maher, a New York resident who says he bought and sold gold and gold futures and options, sued in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, the report said, alleging the five banks overseeing the century-old benchmark colluded to manipulate it.

According to the report, Maher is seeking to represent a class of all investors who, from 2004 to now, held or traded gold and gold derivatives that were priced based on the gold fix or who held or traded COMEX gold futures or options.

In a statement, Deutsche said it believed the suit was without merit and that the bank "will vigorously defend against it". Barclays declined to comment. The other banks involved in the fix - ScotiaMocatta, Societe Generale <SOGN.PA> and HSBC <HSBA.L> - could not immediately be reached for comment.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-london-gold-fix-banks-accused-of-manipulation-in-us-lawsuit-report-2014-05#ixzz2v5iJ4lRr

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
21. ANALYSTS: Russia Unlikely To Pull Back In Crimea
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 08:38 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.businessinsider.com/analysts-russia-unlikely-to-pull-back-in-crimea-2014-3

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia is unlikely to pull back its military forces in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, analysts and former Obama administration officials say, forcing the United States and Europe into a more limited strategy of trying to prevent President Vladimir Putin from making advances elsewhere in the former Soviet republic.

It's an unsettling scenario for President Barack Obama, who is under pressure to show he has leverage over Putin in a deepening conflict between East and West. The threat of economic sanctions, along with a series of modest measures that include canceling trade talks with Moscow and suspending plans to attend an international summit in Russia, have so far done little to persuade the Russian leader to pull his forces back from Crimea.

"I'm not optimistic they're going to leave," said Michael McFaul, who served as Obama's ambassador to Russia until just last week.

McFaul, in an interview on MSNBC, said he was expressing his personal view, not speaking on behalf of the administration. White House officials have condemned Russia's military maneuvers in Crimea as a violation of international law and insist they would oppose any long-term occupation of the region.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/analysts-russia-unlikely-to-pull-back-in-crimea-2014-3#ixzz2v5j4mBiW

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
22. Embattled Turkish Prime Minister: 'I'm Ready To Quit Politics Unless My Party Wins' Upcoming Electio
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 08:41 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.businessinsider.com/turkish-prime-minister-to-quit-politics-unless-his-party-wins-upcoming-elections-2014-3

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he was ready to step down if his ruling party, in power since 2002, failed to win key local elections later this month.

"I am ready to quit politics unless my party emerges winner in the elections" scheduled for March 30, said Erdogan, who is battling a damaging corruption investigation which poses the greatest challenge yet to his 11 years in power.

The Turkish strongman, who has dominated the country's political scene for more than a decade, remained in a defiant mood.

He said the number of supporters filling election rallies indicated a backlash against that corruption charges targeting his government.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/turkish-prime-minister-to-quit-politics-unless-his-party-wins-upcoming-elections-2014-3#ixzz2v5jyP3V5

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
23. Morgan Stanley May Sell Its Swiss Private Bank
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 08:44 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-morgan-stanley-weighing-sale-of-swiss-private-bank-source-2014-05

ZURICH (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley <MS.N> is weighing the sale of its private bank in Switzerland which manages roughly 10 billion Swiss francs ($11.28 billion) in assets, a source close to the matter told Reuters.
The U.S. bank is looking at several options, one of which is an outright sale, the person said on Wednesday.

International banks including Standard Chartered <STAN.L> have been offloading Swiss operations for reasons including the need to raise funds or because private banking is no longer core to their operations.

Morgan Stanley has made changes to how it has organized its private bank in Asia, for which Switzerland was originally intended as a platform to expand, according to the source.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-morgan-stanley-weighing-sale-of-swiss-private-bank-source-2014-05#ixzz2v5kgpt2W

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
24. The Bank Of Japan Is Pumping Like Mad
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 08:47 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-japan-is-pumping-like-mad-2014-3

The Bank of Japan has been injecting lots of liquidity into the financial system over the past year in an effort to stop deflation and raise the CPI inflation rate to 2% on a sustainable basis. January’s monetary base was up 56% y/y. So far, the BOJ can take credit for boosting the inflation rate to 1.4% during January from -0.9% last March. However, it did edge down over the past two months.
The core CPI inflation rate (excluding food & energy) has been positive for the past four months through January, when it was 0.6%. That’s still awfully low, but it beats the 55 consecutive months of negative readings from January 2009 through July 2013.



Read more: http://blog.yardeni.com/2014/03/boj-is-pumping-like-mad-excerpt.html#ixzz2v5lLC2T3

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
25. Japan Is Worried That Western Sanctions On Russia Would Hurt Tokyo
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 09:04 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-japans-embrace-of-russia-under-threat-with-ukraine-crisis-2014-05

TOKYO (Reuters) - Russia's incursion into Ukraine is setting off alarm bells in Tokyo, where officials worry that any push by Japan's Western allies to impose economic penalties will undermine its drive to improve relations with Moscow.
While U.S. President Barack Obama and other G7 leaders of advanced economies talk of sanctions or other punitive responses, Japanese officials say ties with Moscow remain on track.

There has been no change in the direction of economic and resource diplomacy between Japan and Russia, Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday.

In reality, "they are in a state of shock", one diplomatic source close to the situation said, referring to Japanese officials. "It is a big pain in the back for the Japanese government."



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-japans-embrace-of-russia-under-threat-with-ukraine-crisis-2014-05#ixzz2v5pk6bRL

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
26. Bernanke Harbors Regret on Main Street’s View of Bailout
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 09:14 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-04/bernanke-says-u-s-economy-seeing-progress.html

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank should have explained more effectively that bailouts during the financial crisis were aimed at helping people outside the finance industry.

“My natural inclinations, even if it weren’t for the legal mandate, would be to try to help the average person,” Bernanke said today in his first public remarks since leaving the Fed in January, referring to the central bank’s mandate from Congress to ensure full employment and stable prices. “The complexity though arises because in order to help the average person, you have to do things -- very distasteful things -- like try to prevent some large financial companies from collapsing.”

Bernanke guided the economy through the financial crisis that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the longest recession since the Great Depression -- events that he characterized in a speech today in Abu Dhabi as “very, very dark hours.” He responded with some $3.3 trillion in emergency lending to financial institutions, including aiding the rescue of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
38. How much did he get for that speech....
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 02:24 PM
Mar 2014

Or per Blazing Saddle "You use your mouth better than a $20 whore."

I am surprised the Saudis haven't cut his hands off-at least that is what they do to thieves. And once they find out that they were robbed.....

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
27. BOE Suspends Employee as Notes Show Currency Concerns From 2006
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 09:42 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-05/boe-suspends-staff-member-as-it-probes-currency-manipulation.html


The Bank of England suspended a staff member and published records showing concerns about risks of benchmark currency-rate manipulation were raised in meetings as early as July 2006.

The BOE is probing allegations officials condoned practices at the heart of a widening rigging scandal involving traders at the world’s largest banks. It said today the investigation has found no evidence to date its employees were involved in collusion.

The central bank requires staff “to follow rigorous internal control processes,” according to the statement. The suspended individual, who wasn’t named, is being investigated and “no decision has been taken on disciplinary action.”

The minutes released today chronicle meetings of the Chief Dealers’ Subgroup of the Foreign Exchange Joint Standing Committee through February 2013. The group was formed in 2005 to bring together central bank officials with spot traders to discuss market issues.

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
28. Technology May Soon Get You To Be A Bigger Tipper
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 09:46 AM
Mar 2014

audio at link, appx 4 minutes

3/5/14 Technology May Soon Get You To Be A Bigger Tipper

You're probably used to rounding up the bill on your taxi ride or dropping a buck in a jar at the coffee shop. Now, new high tech ways to pay nudge you to tip more generously and more often.

Molly Moon Neitzel has seen this firsthand at her Seattle, Wash., shop, Molly Moon Homemade Ice Cream. Last year, she installed a type of iPad-based cash register made by Square at one of her six shops. When customers pay with a credit card for their scoop, the cashier flips the iPad around so customers can swipe their cards. Before they can sign their names, they're presented with a screen that suggests tip amounts. The options at Molly Moon are $1, $2, $3 or no tip.

You physically have to hit "no tip" — and feel like a jerk — if you want to be stingy. The system is smart. If you buy only one cone, it will give you whole dollar tip suggestions. However, if you buy scoops for, say, an entire little league team, Square suggests percentage tips. This might sound insignificant, but Neitzel says her staff at the store using Square noticed they were quickly making more in tips — 50 percent more.

more...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/03/05/283917108/technology-may-soon-get-you-to-be-a-bigger-tipper


xchrom

(108,903 posts)
29. Obama Budget Raises $276 Billion From U.S. Multinationals
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 09:51 AM
Mar 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-05/obama-budget-raises-276-billion-from-u-s-multinationals.html

President Barack Obama is proposing more tax increases for U.S. multinational corporations, seeking ways to prevent them from avoiding taxes by exploiting gaps in international law.

In the fiscal 2015 budget proposed yesterday, the Obama administration seeks to generate $276 billion over the next decade from what it calls loophole-closing in the international tax system. The revenue -- 75 percent more than was sought through such changes in last year’s budget plan -- would be used to reduce corporate tax rates.

Among those affected by the revisions would be pharmaceutical companies looking to relocate to Ireland, technology companies selling cloud-based services outside the U.S., and non-U.S.-based companies borrowing money in the country.

The Obama plan isn’t likely to move forward in a divided Congress that can’t agree on the broad outlines of tax policy, let alone the details. The proposals instead set down a marker in the corporate tax debate, said Manal Corwin, national leader of the international tax practice at KPMG LLP in Washington.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
31. Just had a bowl of home-made strawberry-rhubarb over vanilla ice cream
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 11:39 AM
Mar 2014

still warm.

For a few moments, it was Spring!

Fuddnik

(8,846 posts)
34. Which reminds me....
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 01:07 PM
Mar 2014

The Plant City strawberries should be hitting the shelves right about now.

On my way back from Dear Old Dads, I stopped and got a big bag of Temple Oranges. There's only about a 2 week window for getting them, but they're delicious.

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
39. Temple oranges are my favorite!
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 03:17 PM
Mar 2014

They are the best tasting and so very juicy. Our area in Ohio has not had them for a couple years, but last week i found them at a specialty food store. YUM!

P.S.
Temple oranges have seeds, but to me, the flavor and juice are worth it!

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
42. I read the subject line, and thought it said ' Take notes, this will be on fruit!'
Wed Mar 5, 2014, 05:23 PM
Mar 2014

strawberries, rhubarb, oranges


Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Economy»STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wed...