STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 18 March 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 18 March 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 17 March 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 17 March 2014
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Dow Jones 16,247.22 +181.55 (1.13%)
S&P 500 1,858.83 +17.70 (0.96%)
Nasdaq 4,279.95 +34.55 (0.81%)

[font color=red]10 Year 2.69% +0.03 (1.13%)
30 Year 3.63% +0.03 (0.83%)[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]

[cheapdate]

1. Impressive. Thanks for the info. n/t

[Demeter]

14. Tansy starts a thread every market day

Welcome to SMW and come back often! Post them, if you've got them.

[Demeter]

2. Poor old DiFi

They always hurt the one they love...

[Warpy]

3. Yeah, gotta love the expression on Merkel's face

as she passes the box of tissues.

[Demeter]

4. GM recalls 1.5 million more vehicles; CEO says 'terrible things happened'

AND THIS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IS WHY THERE'S FINALLY A WOMAN RUNNING A MAJOR UNIONIZED CORPORATION IN THE USA....SO SHE CAN CLEAN IT ALL UP FOR THE NEXT RICH WHITE GUY BOSS THAT COMES ALONG....

http://news.yahoo.com/gm-recalls-another-1-5-million-vehicles-300-153217073--sector.html

General Motors Co announced new recalls of 1.5 million vehicles on Monday and in a virtually unprecedented public admission by a GM chief executive, Mary Barra acknowledged the company fell short in catching faulty ignition switches linked to 12 deaths.

"Something went wrong with our process in this instance, and terrible things happened," she told employees in a video message posted online. Barra said the company is changing how it handles defect investigations and recalls.

In the last two months, GM has recalled more than 3.1 million vehicles in the United States and other markets. The actions started with last month's recall of more than 1.6 million vehicles for faulty ignition switches. The latest recalls cover airbag wiring harnesses, brake parts and other components across several models. The Detroit automaker said on Monday it would take a $300 million charge in the first quarter, primarily to cover the costs related to the ignition-switch recall and the three new recalls.

Barra previously apologized for GM's failure to catch the faulty ignition switches sooner. In Monday's video, she said GM is "conducting an intense review of our internal processes and will have more developments to announce as we move forward."

The decade-long process that led to last month's ignition-switch recall of such older GM models as the 2005-2007 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2003-2007 Saturn Ion has led to government criminal and civil investigations, congressional hearings and class-action lawsuits in the United States and Canada. All ask why GM took so long to address a problem it has said first came to its attention in 2001....MORE

[jtuck004]

7. 12 deaths. She's close, except it may be more like 303, except...

There has been a new study by the U.S. Govt which found the airbags failed to deploy in 303 fatal accidents.

Here.

However, further analysis reveals that a fair portion of those may not be related to the ignition switch.

So...

...
At this point, it remains unclear how many deaths are attributable to the GM ignition switch flaw. It's possible that the number of total deaths may be far fewer than the 303 claimed by the Friedman Research/CAS study we covered earlier (although it may climb back past that number once deaths across all models are included), though it's likely still higher than the 12 to 13 cases thus far acknowledged by GM. With this latest turn, though, the issue becomes cloudier and cloudier.

Here.

Still a big corp trying to minimize liability.

[Demeter]

5. But...but...but, you can't "Cheney" a heartless federal program!

[Demeter]

6. New doomsday poll: 99.9% risk of 2014 crash: Black-swan crisis warning for now through mid-April

NOT JUST ASTROLOGERS WITH THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-doomsday-poll-999-risk-of-2014-crash-2014-03-15?siteid=YAHOOB

Global risks are accelerating. This is our fourth major poll update of industry leaders: A critical review of their warnings from early last year when we first predicted a 87% risk of a crash: Bernanke’s Fed saw an “unsustainable bubble” ... Gross: “credit supernova” ... Gundlach: “kaboom ahead” ... Ellis: “Don’t own bonds” ... Shilling: “shocker” ... Roubini: “Prepare for perfect storm” ... Shiller: “Irrational exuberance is back” ... Schiff: “Doubling down” on “doomsday” prediction ... InvestmentNews’ warning 90,000 advisers: “tick, tick ... boom!”

A few weeks later the crash risk was up to 98%. Then a dramatic preholiday uptick in investor sentiment. America’s collective unconscious tired of negativity after a Halloween headline: “Economic guillotine dead ahead.” A week later, 2014 became the “Year of the Boom.” Bank of America’s chief strategist screamed: “Bet on the bulls now.” The Great Gatsby spirit was celebrating the holidays: “Even old grumpy Dr. Doom, celeb economist Nouriel Roubini, began humming a happy tune all over television: “A global recovery is going to occur, get into equities.”

What really happened? Fed politics. Short-term, Larry Summers withdrew as a candidate for the Fed chairman’s job. Dark cloud lifted as Janet Yellen become the pick. Wall Street cheered, Bernanke’s easy-money printing presses would not screw up their year-end bonuses. Plus Main Street was mentally exhausted, tired of the bad news, relentless political drama. We needed a holiday break...By Thanksgiving, “irrational exuberance” was accelerating in full holiday tilt: Headline: “Shiller’s hot P/Es will power a roaring bull till 2017,” and 2014 got branded the “Katy Perry market!” A week later, a Thanksgiving headline added: “10 reasons to be a bull in 2014.”

But long term? What’s really ahead for America in 2014? Warning, something bigger is hiding in the deep shadows of our collective brain. At a recent lunch with an old friend, one of the world’s more successful commodities traders, he confirmed that “something” was dead ahead. But not just another brief statistical shift in sentiment. Not a medium-term volatility shift. America, the world, are in a historic transition, a paradigm shift, a mysterious upheaval that few will grasp till it moves further along...

STAY TUNED, SAME BATTY TIME, SAME BATTY CHANNEL...

[Demeter]

8. Working Without Pay A Reality For Much Of Greece's Labor Force

NO NEED TO LOOK FOR A BLACK SWAN EVENT...THE EAGLE HAS ALREADY LANDED, AND IS FEASTING ON THE FLESH OF MILLIONS....

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/15/283995626/working-without-pay-a-reality-for-much-of-greeces-labor-force?ft=1&f=1001

For nearly 30 years, Nikos Aivatzidis got up at the crack of dawn to drive from his home in central Athens to his human resources job at Hellenic Shipyards, near Greece's port of Piraeus.

"I'd walk into the entrance and marvel as I watched 6,000 or 7,000 people heading into work with me," he says. "This place was like its own city."

Now this place is deserted. Many of the roughly 1,000 workers still officially on the payroll stopped showing up after the company stopped paying them in April 2012. But Aivatzidis holds on. On a recent morning, the 51-year-old father of three and his 38-year-old wife, Alexandra Tsitoura, pull up their 9-year-old Fiat outside an empty office building. Tsitoura also works at Hellenic Shipyards. Together, she and her husband used to make around $3,000 a month.


As they get out of the car, they're greeted by a pack of stray dogs, looking for food.

"My co-worker used to feed them," Aivatzidis says. "But she stopped coming to work."

Aivatzidis keeps coming in hopes that he and his wife will eventually get paid. And he has another reason for showing up at the shipyard at least twice week.

"I can't quit this job because I will lose my severance pay after 30 years of work," he says. "I can't justify that."

About 20 percent of Greek workers are trapped in the same dilemma. Many, like Aivatzidis, hold on because they know finding another job at a time when the unemployment rate is 28 percent is virtually impossible....

[Demeter]

9. On the Wrong Side of Globalization By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ

IS THERE A RIGHT SIDE TO GLOBALIZATION?

ASIDE FROM FEEDING THE HUNGRY, AND PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE, I INSIST THERE ISN'T. EXCEPT A FREE AND EQUAL-ACCESS, NEUTRAL INTERNET.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/on-the-wrong-side-of-globalization/

... Right now, there are trade proposals in the works that threaten to put most Americans on the wrong side of globalization. The conflicting views about the agreements are actually tearing at the fabric of the Democratic Party, though you wouldn’t know it from President Obama’s rhetoric. In his State of the Union address, for example, he blandly referred to “new trade partnerships” that would “create more jobs.” Most immediately at issue is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which would bring together 12 countries along the Pacific Rim in what would be the largest free trade area in the world. Negotiations for the TPP began in 2010, for the purpose, according to the United States Trade Representative, of increasing trade and investment, through lowering tariffs and other trade barriers among participating countries. But the TPP negotiations have been taking place in secret, forcing us to rely on leaked drafts to guess at the proposed provisions. At the same time, Congress introduced a bill this year that would grant the White House filibuster-proof fast-track authority, under which Congress simply approves or rejects whatever trade agreement is put before it, without revisions or amendments.

Controversy has erupted, and justifiably so. Based on the leaks — and the history of arrangements in past trade pacts — it is easy to infer the shape of the whole TPP, and it doesn’t look good. There is a real risk that it will benefit the wealthiest sliver of the American and global elite at the expense of everyone else. The fact that such a plan is under consideration at all is testament to how deeply inequality reverberates through our economic policies. Worse, agreements like the TPP are only one aspect of a larger problem: our gross mismanagement of globalization. Let’s tackle the history first. In general, trade deals today are markedly different from those made in the decades following World War II, when negotiations focused on lowering tariffs. As tariffs came down on all sides, trade expanded, and each country could develop the sectors in which it had strengths and as a result, standards of living would rise. Some jobs would be lost, but new jobs would be created.

Today, the purpose of trade agreements is different. Tariffs around the world are already low. The focus has shifted to “nontariff barriers,” and the most important of these — for the corporate interests pushing agreements — are regulations. Huge multinational corporations complain that inconsistent regulations make business costly. But most of the regulations, even if they are imperfect, are there for a reason: to protect workers, consumers, the economy and the environment. What’s more, those regulations were often put in place by governments responding to the democratic demands of their citizens. Trade agreements’ new boosters euphemistically claim that they are simply after regulatory harmonization, a clean-sounding phrase that implies an innocent plan to promote efficiency. One could, of course, get regulatory harmonization by strengthening regulations to the highest standards everywhere. But when corporations call for harmonization, what they really mean is a race to the bottom. When agreements like the TPP govern international trade — when every country has agreed to similarly minimal regulations — multinational corporations can return to the practices that were common before the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts became law (in 1970 and 1972, respectively) and before the latest financial crisis hit. Corporations everywhere may well agree that getting rid of regulations would be good for corporate profits. Trade negotiators might be persuaded that these trade agreements would be good for trade and corporate profits. But there would be some big losers — namely, the rest of us.

These high stakes are why it is especially risky to let trade negotiations proceed in secret. All over the world, trade ministries are captured by corporate and financial interests. And when negotiations are secret, there is no way that the democratic process can exert the checks and balances required to put limits on the negative effects of these agreements.

The secrecy might be enough to cause significant controversy for the TPP. What we know of its particulars only makes it more unpalatable. One of the worst is that it allows corporations to seek restitution in an international tribunal, not only for unjust expropriation, but also for alleged diminution of their potential profits as a result of regulation. This is not a theoretical problem. Philip Morris has already tried this tactic against Uruguay, claiming that its antismoking regulations, which have won accolades from the World Health Organization, unfairly hurt profits, violating a bilateral trade treaty between Switzerland and Uruguay. In this sense, recent trade agreements are reminiscent of the Opium Wars, in which Western powers successfully demanded that China keep itself open to opium because they saw it as vital in correcting what otherwise would be a large trade imbalance....

[Demeter]

10. Obama imposes sanctions on 11 Russians, Ukrainians over Crimea

OOOH! I BET THEY'RE SCARED!

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-imposes-sanctions-11-russians-ukrainians-over-crimea-135032806.html

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday slapped sanctions on two top aides to President Vladimir Putin and nine other people linked to Russia's military incursion into Crimea as tensions increased between the two countries over the Ukraine crisis.

Facing one of his toughest foreign policy tests yet, Obama made clear the United States was prepared to impose more sanctions if Russia formally annexed Crimea in response to a weekend referendum in the region that Washington and its allies called illegitimate.

"Going forward, we can calibrate our response based on whether Russia chooses to escalate or to de-escalate the situation," Obama said.

The sanctions were the most visible sign of U.S. anger at Russia's attempt to absorb the Crimea region in southern Ukraine, reflecting the deepest plunge in U.S.-Russian relations since the Cold War. Senior administration officials told reporters the penalties were the most comprehensive sanctions applied to Russia in more than two decades. Republican Senator John McCain, however, said Obama did not go far enough when the president cited so few individuals and no businesses...



...Obama's order freezes any assets in the United States and bans travel into the country of seven ranking Russian government officials and four individuals identified as Crimea-based separatist leaders. Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, who fled Kiev after bloody protests against his rule, was among those sanctioned. The United States also reached into Putin's inner circle by naming presidential aide Vladislav Surkov and adviser Sergei Glazyev. Steven Pifer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said Surkov was a long-time Putin assistant and that Glazyev had been the Kremlin's point person on Ukraine over the past year...Russia's deputy prime minister, Dmitri Rogozin, and two state Duma deputies, Leonid Slutsky and Yelena Mizulina also were targeted...Putin himself was not sanctioned. A senior Obama administration official said it would have been highly unusual and extraordinary to target a head of state... The European Union also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 21 Russian and Ukrainian officials on Monday....


THEY ARE MAD, I TELL, MAD AS HATTERS...

[Demeter]

13. Ukraine: U.S. Takes Off-Ramp, Agrees To Russian Demands

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/03/ukraine-us-pulls-back-agrees-to-russian-demands.html#more

There was another phone call today between Secretary of State Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. The call came after a strategy meeting on Ukraine in the White House. During the call Kerry agreed to Russian demands for a federalization of the Ukraine in which the federal states will have a strong autonomy against a central government in a finlandized Ukraine. Putin had offered this "off-ramp" from the escalation and Obama has taken it.

The Russian announcement:

Lavrov, Kerry agree to work on constitutional reform in Ukraine: Russian ministry

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/16/us-ukraine-crisis-lavrov-kerry-idUSBREA2F05Y20140316

(Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed on Sunday to seek a solution to crisis in Ukraine by pushing for constitutional reforms there, the Russian foreign ministry said.

It did not go into details on the kind of reforms needed except to say they should come "in a generally acceptable form and while taking into the account the interests of all regions of Ukraine".
...
"Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov and John Kerry agreed to continue work to find a resolution on Ukraine through a speedy launch of constitutional reform with the support of international community," the ministry said in a statement.

The idea of "constitutional reform" and the "interests of all regions" is from the Russians as documented in this Russian" non-paper". http://newsru.com/pict/big/1638517.html The non-paper describes the process of getting to a new Ukrainian constitution and sets some parameters for it. Russian will be again official language next to Ukraine, the regions will have high autonomy, there will be no interferences in church affairs and the Ukraine will stay politically and militarily neutral. Any autonomy decision by the Crimea would be accepted. This all would be guaranteed by a "Support Group for Ukraine" consisting of the US, EU and Russia and would be cemented in an UN Security Council resolution. It seems that Kerry and Obama have largely accepted these parameters. They are now, of course, selling this solution as their own which is, as the "non-paper" proves, inconsistent with the reality.

Here is Kerry now suddenly "urging Russia" to accept the conditions Russia had demanded and which Kerry never mentioned before:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/white-house-urges-putin-back-down-crimea

Secretary of State John Kerry called on Moscow to return its troops in Crimea to their bases, pull back forces from the Ukraine border, halt incitement in eastern Ukraine and support the political reforms in Ukraine that would protect ethnic Russians, Russian speakers and others in the former Soviet Republic that Russia says it is concerned about.

In a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, their second since unsuccessful face-to-face talks on Friday in London, Kerry urged Russia "to support efforts by Ukrainians across the spectrum to address power sharing and decentralization through a constitutional reform process that is broadly inclusive and protects the rights of minorities," the State Department said.

Obama has given up. His empty threats had now worked and he now has largely accepted the Russian conditions for the way out of the crisis. The U.S. plot to snatch the Ukraine from Russia and to integrate it into NATO and the EU seems to have failed. Russia taking Crimea and having 93% of the voters there agree to join Russia has made the main objective of the U.S. plans, to kick the Russians out of Sevastopol and thereby out of the Middle East, impossible. The Russian (non public) threat to also immediately take the eastern and southern provinces from the Ukraine has pushed the U.S. into agreeing to the Russian conditions mentioned above. The only alternative to that would be a military confrontation which the U.S. and Europeans are not willing to risk. Despite the anti-Russian campaign in the media a majority of U.S. people as well as EU folks are against any such confrontation. In the end the U.S. never held the cards it needed to win this game.

...Should all go well and a new Ukrainian constitution fit the Russian conditions the "west" may in the future well be allowed to pay for the monthly bills Gazprom will keep sending to Kiev...It will take some time to implement all of this. What dirty tricks will the neocons in Washington now try to prevent this peaceful outcome?

SOME POKER PLAYING, CHESS-STRATEGIST PRESIDENT, NO?

[Ghost Dog]

15. Let's hope this is the case. But see next post. n/t

[Ghost Dog]

16. LEAP/E2020: US reaction for survival: trigger a cold war to make it easier to annex Europe

http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-83-is-available-Global-systemic-crisis-escalation-in-the-US-reaction-for-survival-trigger-a-cold-war-to-make-it_a15801.html

Global systemic crisis-escalation in the US reaction for survival: trigger a cold war to make it easier to annex Europe

BUILD A TRAP TO DIVERT EUROPE AWAY FROM IT’S OWN DESTINY

When, in November 2013, Russia asked the EU for tripartite negotiations on the Ukraine’s free trade agreements with its two neighbours in order to find areas of common ground for all parties directly concerned (1), what was at stake was stability, integrity and independence for the Ukraine and that it should remain as the natural link between Europe and Russia.

But neither Baroness Ashton, nor Mr. O’Sullivan (2), in charge of the European External Action Service, nor Mr. Fule who, at the head of the Directorate General for Enlargement, spends his time trying to integrate everything that moves in Eastern Europe (3), didn’t want that. On the contrary, they have forced the Ukraine to “choose sides” (4), thus creating the conditions subsequent to the inevitable events which we know: the Ukraine has in fact chosen… and the country, logically, has entered a dramatic and bloody process of decision which is only just begun. Baroness Ashton and Mr. O’Sullivan have literally set a trap for the Ukraine… and Europe.

Five months later and the damage is huge: over 100 dead (5), the Ukraine is left with an unelected government brought to power by extreme right-wing factions (6), relations between the EU and Russia are broken, the Ukraine and Russia are on the verge of a war that isn’t far from being a war between Europe and Russia (7), the Russian military have retaken control of their Crimean assets, the US fleet is cruising in the Black Sea waters (8), the US army has set itself up in Europe again (in Poland, Lithuania and Romania (9)), the media, excited by blood, are a pure propaganda machine determined to push politicians and citizens into war, the EU-Ukraine free trade Treaty is about to be signed, against Russian interests, by Washington and a non-elected Ukrainian government (10) (if the same method is used for the TTIP, Washington and Baroness Ashton will have signed it in April at the latest), the West is preparing to deny the legitimacy of the Crimean referendum which will aggravate the crisis and continue to ask questions on the West’s democratic struggle… (11)

From a European point of view, what a significant political and diplomatic failure! Working to rebuild the Iron Curtain in 2014 and isolate Europe from all the current dynamics in these famous emerging countries to which Russia binds us, just as the Ukraine binds us to Russia (12).

MASS ATTACKS ON EUROPE

Unfortunately, beyond a failure, this should also be seen as the result of an all-out attack on the European construction project, a project whose two main goals since the beginning have been peace through cooperation, the sharing of interests and the continent’s independence by the force which, de facto, brought about its union.

The current attack is, in fact, along the lines of that conducted against the Euro in 2010, in the knowledge that in breaking the common currency and taking into account the technical impossibility of returning to national currencies, Europe would find itself de facto integrated in the Dollar zone. This time, Europe resisted and saved its currency… at the price of enormous weakness, especially political.

The TTIP and the attempts to make us urgently sign this obscure Treaty that no one wants, seemed to have the particular objective of putting politicians under economic supervision (even more so than Europe under US supervision). Whatever the case, it would actually create a huge EU-US free trade zone using Dollars and formally annexing Europe to the Dollar zone. Here again, the tools of European independence are targeted, in this particular case its judicial arsenal for trade protection, guaranteeing Europeans’ economic interest, qualitative competitiveness and health. And the methods to obtain the signature of this treaty at any price are, on their own, proof of deep dishonesty.

CAUSE A NEW IRON CURTAIN TO FALL ON EUROPE

And we have seen nothing of what Washington and Brussels would be capable of in this area. The Ukrainian crisis was probably triggered for no other reason than, ultimately, to force us to buy US shale gas (13), to sign the TTIP (without which the former can’t be sold in Europe (14)) and to justify a renewed increase of American-NATO military budgets (15) thanks to the restarting of a Cold War between the West and emerging nations (except for this detail that it’s the West which will be on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain this time).

(...)

----------
Notes :

1 Source: Le Monde, 05/03/2014.

2 Issue number three of the European External Action Service...

3 Did you know that ? Georgia as well. Source : EuropeanVoice, 29/11/2013.

4 Source : Le Monde, 05/03/2014

5 Source : KyivPost, 11/03/2014.

6 Source : CNN, 06/11/2014.

7 Especially since the EU is doing everything to annex the Ukraine by accelerating the signing of the Association Agreement – which must wait the election of a proper government but which ultimately will be signed in the meantime by the nonelected government in place (source: Radio Ukraine, 26/02/2014) because the next legitimate government could well be pro-Russian again; but also in EU integration – one agreement can hide another and negotiations with Georgia especially are going in this direction, so why not the Ukraine (source : Messenger, 06/03/2014).

8 … and the U.S. Army has shown up again in Europe after so many efforts to dislodge it. Source : Chicago Tribune, 12/02/2014.

9 Source : Ouest-France, 12/03/2014.

10 This article of the 12/03/2014 in EUBusiness has the merit of being clear: "the new Ukrainian leadership will probably sign the much awaited political agreement with the EU next week, announced the interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk following a conversation with the White House"… The EU is there for the taking, we feared it was being taken by the extreme right, its worse: it's in the process of being taken by a foreign power. But the most amazing is that of 28 governments, of which most (but not all) are democratic governments accountable to their people, not one will repeat it. A US trap, EU treachery… and the European political elite who go to bed… just like the French elite went to bed in 1940. Don't even mention the Nationalists of all colours who infest national political life short of discussions on the sovereignty of nations… and don't have the slightest criticism either to make on the hijacking of the European agenda by the US (even if it was for the best, but it's obviously for the worse). But if we look at the Western-Ukrainian sympathies, they must have the hope of taking back power (a small provincial governorate here and there) in the next configuration.

11 The Soviet bloc collapsed without bloodshed thanks to Mikael Gorbachev; it's a remarkable fact in history that an empire withdrew quietly. The US doesn't give the impression of falling into line with the same dignity unfortunately. After the financial approach (after the colossal bailout in 2009, the famous $700 billion TARP, which turned the banking crisis into a country crisis, then the US Fed's quantitative easing in 2010 and 2012 especially, which have driven the whole planet into widespread indebtedness), the US has raised the tone by attacking Europe (with the collaboration of certain European elite) and attempting a takeover of the continent.

12 In fact the Ukraine is a strategic link between Europe and Russia and, therefore, between Europe and the emerging countries. LEAP knows how important it was to bring Europe closer to the BRICS, which is even why we launched the Euro-BRICS process in 2009, aimed at bringing Europe to its true destiny given its nature: its contribution to the emergence of a multipolar world. If Europe fails to play this role, there is a risk of polarization in the world, between the West and the emerging nations. But polarization needs walls… which is well and truly being rebuilt for us… in the same place as 25 years ago. Undoubtedly the Western elite haven't much imagination… or they haven't learnt much from their history books. If they had, they would have known that wars are rarely cold and that it's better not to begin to play this kind of game.


13 Source : The Guardian, 05/03/2014.

14 Shale gas is an unconventional gas, that's to say that its price has escaped indexation to that of oil, which is a competitive advantage of course, an advantage not given to it since it can't be exported. This is how the considerable investment made by the US to become a gas exporting power will only be crowned with success thanks to the signature of these famous transatlantic and trans-pacific free-trade Treaties for which Washington is literally prepared to kill. Source : Office of Fossil Energy.

15 The huge cuts imposed on the US military budget by Congress in recent days and the ensuing panic in the Pentagon's corridors will not have escaped our readers' attention. Source: USNews, 24/02/2014.

Dimanche 16 Mars 2014

http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-83-is-available-Global-systemic-crisis-escalation-in-the-US-reaction-for-survival-trigger-a-cold-war-to-make-it_a15801.html

[Demeter]

17. OMG that's depressing

and trying to "annex Europe" is just the sort of bullshit that Obama and the Globalists would delude themselves into trying.

And then the entire West would collapse. Because there are no means and no damn reason for ordinary people to survive or put up with such Rube-Goldbergesque overhead and complexity and the Corporateraping and pillaging that would ensue.


Rachel Maddow has some interesting aspects of the situation:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/oil-corporations-key-to-leverage-over-russia-198496835575

[DemReadingDU]

27. Interesting info in those leap2020 postings, thanks for posting them. n/t

[Ghost Dog]

35. You're very welcome. n/t

[Hotler]

33. I have no hope. I see no............

I can't find a smilie for how I feel these days. Take care and be safe my friends.

[Ghost Dog]

34. Be well-informed, thoughtful, and true-to-your-heart.

¿What more can I recommend?

Listen to, and if you find your way, play: make music, dance, poetry, theater, images, whatever:

Be creative.

[Demeter]

11. Compare the NSA’s Facebook Malware Denial to its Own Secret Documents

THE LATEST SNOWDEN / GREENWALD / ET AL. REVELATIONS

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/

[Demeter]

12. FROM ANOTHER INTERCEPT POST

[xchrom]

18. European shares dip with investors wary of Ukraine, Fed

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/18/uk-markets-global-idUKBRE9920LO20140318

(Reuters) - European shares dipped and the safe-haven yen rose as investors kept a wary eye on the standoff over Crimea and a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting starting later on Tuesday.

The FTSEurofirst 300 slipped at the open, after stocks gained in Asia and on Wall Street on Monday.

The yen gained but stayed below recent peaks against the dollar and gold, also sought in times of market tension, fell.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order approving a draft treaty on "adopting the Republic of Crimea into the Russian Federation". He was due to address a special joint session of the Russian parliament on the issue later, aides said.

[xchrom]

19. Euro zone posts smaller trade surplus in January

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/18/uk-eurozone-economy-trade-idUKBREA2H0JE20140318

(Reuters) - The euro zone's trade balance swung to a much smaller than expected surplus in January compared to a year ago, data showed on Tuesday, as imports fell and exports rose only modestly.

The 18 countries using the euro had an external trade surplus, unadjusted for seasonal swings, of 900 million euros (752.7 million pounds) in January, well below economists' expectations for a surplus of 12 billion euros.

January's reading was still above the 5.4 billion euro deficit in the same month of last year, but was less impressive when compared with the 13.8 billion euro surplus in December.

Non-seasonally adjusted exports rose by 1 percent on the year in January after a 4 percent growth in December, while imports dropped 3 percent, following a 1 percent increase in December, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said.

[Demeter]

20. Funny pages

AND A SPECIAL OFFERING FOR SOME OF DU:

[xchrom]

21. German court confirms legality of euro zone bailout scheme

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/18/uk-germany-eurozone-court-idUKBREA2H00W20140318

(Reuters) - Germany's Constitutional Court confirmed on Tuesday the legality of the euro zone's bailout fund, upholding a preliminary ruling from the height of the debt crisis in 2012 that gave an initial green light to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

The court reiterated that the 700 billion euro ($975 billion) fund did not violate the rights of the Bundestag lower house of parliament to decide on budgetary matters as long as the lower house of parliament had sufficient oversight powers over the ESM.

"The result is clear: the constitutional complaint...is inadmissible and on top of that unfounded," said the president of the court, Andreas Vosskuhle, standing to read the verdict along with his red-robed colleagues in the courtroom.

"Despite the liabilities assumed, the budgetary autonomy of the German Bundestag is sufficiently safeguarded," he told the court in Karlsruhe in south-western Germany.

[xchrom]

22. Spain Q1 GDP growth seen 'at least the same' as Q4 - Economy Minister

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/18/uk-spain-growth-idUKBREA2H0FV20140318

(Reuters) - The Spanish government expects first quarter growth to be 'at least the same' as fourth quarter growth of 0.2 percent, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Tuesday.

"We still don't have all the indicators for the first quarter .. but the government expects the economy to continue to strengthen and growth to be at least the same as in the previous quarter," he said at an event in Madrid.

Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter from the third, its second quarterly expansion in a row.

[xchrom]

23. Thai government lifts Bangkok emergency, crisis far from over

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/18/uk-thailand-protest-idUKBREA2H06J20140318

(Reuters) - Thailand is lifting a state of emergency in Bangkok, taking a step to restore some confidence as anti-government protests subside, though the crisis has entered a new phase with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra besieged by legal challenges.

The protesters, mainly from Bangkok and the south, have been trying since November to oust Yingluck and rid the country of the influence of her brother, self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was toppled by the army in 2006.

The government imposed a state of emergency two months ago, but largely resisted taking heavy-handed action, though 23 people have been killed during the unrest, most in shootings and grenade blasts.

The protests have waned in recent weeks and are now mostly confined to Lumpini Park in Bangkok's central business district and a few other sites.

[xchrom]

24. thursday

[Demeter]

30. Uh....X, I don't think it's Thursday yet

Nice as that would be....

[xchrom]

31. lol! no -- just a reminder...nt

[xchrom]

25. Apple, Microsoft Hoard Cash – US Taxpayers Pay the Bill

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/18

In recent years, America’s technology giants have increased profits to epic levels. So you’d think this good fortune would prove a boon to the fragile American economy.

In theory, a river of tax dollars from America’s cash-rich technology firms ought to contribute towards a significant reduction of the US $17.5 trillion debt mountain.

Only it hasn’t quite worked out that way.

Today, the 1,067 biggest non-financial firms in the United States, according to Moody’s the credit rating agency, have amassed cash and liquid investments totalling $1.48 trillion – a sum equivalent to the entireeconomy of Spain.

Of this $1.48tn corporate cash mountain, 22% is held by just four companies. Combined; Apple, Microsoft, Google and Cisco Systems retain $331bn in cash, with $255bn held in foreign subsidiaries sheltered from US tax.

Cash mountains

But instead of this cash sitting idly in a Bermudan bank vault, new research by the Bureau shows that a substantial amount of the tech giants’ offshore cash is in fact lent to the US government.

[xchrom]

26. Holi 2014: The Festival of Colors

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/03/holi-2014-the-festival-of-colors/100699/

This week Hindus around the world celebrate Holi, the Festival of Colors. Holi is a popular springtime celebration observed on the last full moon of the lunar month. Participants traditionally throw bright, vibrant powders at friends and strangers alike as they celebrate the arrival of spring, commemorate Krishna's pranks, and allow each other a momentary freedom -- a chance to drop their inhibitions and simply play and dance. Gathered here are images of this year's Holi festival from across India. See also India's 'High' Holiday. [24 photos]

[xchrom]

28. US factory output rebounds in February

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26588653


US factory output rebounded in February, helped by a recovery in car and consumer goods manufacturing.

Output rose by 0.8%, from January - the biggest gain since August last year.

The gain nearly reversed the 0.9% decline in January, which resulted, in part, from extreme cold weather across many parts of the country.

Analysts said the figure suggested that manufacturing activity was likely to pick up pace in the coming months as weather conditions improve.

[xchrom]

29. Why This Week's Fed Decision Is So Unusual And Interesting

http://www.businessinsider.com/fomc-interesting-2014-3

What's unusual and interesting about the meeting is that there is the potential for both a hawkish and a dovish surprise.

He explains:

The potential dovish surprise would be either a downward revision to GDP and inflation growth, showing a slower tendency to return to the twin mandate targets (however defined). This would make more concrete the view that the economy continues to face substantial headwinds over an extended period. The argument against is that it is hard to see the new evidence that makes a downward revision so compelling, especially when data have been hard to read on a cyclical basis. They could also make clear that they see full employment as far away from current levels, rather than the baseline which is that we are some distance from it – the more concrete, stronger the dovish thrust.

...

On the hawkish side, it would be a very hawkish surprise for the Fed not to change the language of forward guidance away from the 6.5%. This would suggest that the FOMC could not find agreement on a language change, and would be viewed as suggesting as more vigorous loyal opposition. Similarly, but less likely, any reference to the pickup in wages, even to say the gains are welcome, would be a hawkish surprise. Any ambiguity on the view that there is a lot of labor market slack – even to say that the Fed is trying to assess with more precision the extent of slack would be a hawkish shift from the confidence that the labor force would respond with additional supply to additional demand.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fomc-interesting-2014-3#ixzz2wJmfibvK

[xchrom]

32. INFLATION TUMBLES TO 1.1% FROM 1.6%

http://www.businessinsider.com/consumer-price-index-february-2014-3

Consumer prices rose 0.1% in February, matching January's pace and the consensus forecast of market economists.
The year-over-year change in the consumer price index, however, slipped to 1.1% from 1.6%. Economists were expecting a slightly smaller drop to 1.2%.

Consumer prices excluding food and energy also rose 0.1% in February, matching January's pace and the consensus estimate, while the year-over-year core inflation rate remained unchanged at 1.6%.

Medical care prices rose 0.3% in February, while owners' equivalent rent climbed 0.2%.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/consumer-price-index-february-2014-3#ixzz2wJorRjdW