STOCK MARKET WATCH - Friday, 3 February 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 3 February 2012[/font]

SMW for 2 February 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 2 February 2012
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Dow Jones 12,705.41 -11.05 (-0.09%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,325.54 +1.45 (0.11%)
Nasdaq 2,859.68 +11.41 (0.40%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.82% 0.00 (0.00%)
30 Year 3.00% +0.01 (0.33%)




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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
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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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Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]


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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]

[Fuddnik]

1. Hey!! First wreck!

Probably not the last of the week-end.

[rfranklin]

2. Doesn't count if you do it before midnight....

Because this post is in the future and you're not there yet.

[Demeter]

3. That depends on Schroedinger, doesn't it?

or maybe which time zone you are in...

Or...it could be Groundhog Day!

[Fuddnik]

25. How's his cat doing, anyway?

You can't check.

[Tansy_Gold]

28. WHOOOOOSH!

(There is no smiley for "well THAT went right over my pointed little head&quot

[Demeter]

29. Here you go, TG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat

Economics and quantum physics....same subject, different days....

[tclambert]

73. I'm uncertain if I like quantum physics jokes.

But aren't space-time wormholes part of the theory of General Relativity?

Or, as the Doctor explains it:

[Demeter]

4. Can the Schneiderman-Infused Financial Fraud Unit Prosecute Vikram Pandit?

THAT'S THE UMPTY-UMP TRILLION $ QUESTION, ISN'T IT?

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/01/can-the-schneiderman-infused-financial-fraud-unit-prosecute-vikram-pandit.html

By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can reach him at stoller (at) gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at@matthewstoller.

There are two underlying structural problems with the new(ish) Federal task force on financial fraud. One, it is the policy of the administration to protect the banking system’s basic architecture, which means the compensation structure and the existing personnel who run these large institutions. Any real investigation into the financial collapse will inevitably lead to the collapse of this architecture. Thus, any real investigation will be impeded when it begins to conflict the basic policy framework of the Obama administration. And this framework is set by Obama. It’s what he believes in. He made this clear in his first State of the Union, when he said a priority of the administration was to ensure that “the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times.”

Two, Obama personally believes in the legitimacy of the existing banking institutional framework and he strongly suspects that no crimes were committed. He has hired a raft of people – including Jack Lew, Tim Geithner, Eric Holder, Larry Summers, and so on and so forth – who agree, and has implemented policies such as Dodd-Frank that assume as much. His administration genuinely believes that mortgage fraud has been a top priority of theirs, as I showed this morning. These people aren’t stupid, they aren’t without principles, and they aren’t electorally driven. They are ideologues. They really believe in a neoliberal political economy, where government throws money at the economy through private channels and private channels do with it whatever they think best. As Jonathan Alter, who is as close as you can get to the administration’s emotional spokesperson, explains in a column titled “For Obama, Pro-business Populism is no Oxymoron”:

The president, channeling John F. Kennedy’s famous inaugural address, framed it almost as a patriotism question: “Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.”

The response to this is often: Who is the president to tell me where or how to run my business? But he’s not. He’s simply saying he’ll offer you tax advantages when your interests are aligned with the nation’s, and he won’t when they aren’t. (italics are mine)

The Obama administration’s posture is not passive because Obama is weak, it is passive because President Obama and his administration believe passivity towards business interests is the appropriate role of government. Schneiderman does not believe this, he wants to govern. And that’s why he wants this Federal task force, because the Federal government has more resources and tools (including legal authority, personnel, jurisdiction, and documents) that he needs to do a reasonable job explaining to the country through the use of the Justice system what happened in the multi-trillion theft and why. But he is coupled, as co-Chair, with several of these people who, as Matt Taibbi puts it, might “in an ideal world… be targets of their own committee’s investigation.” This makes it very difficult to consider how they could possibly work well together, with such misaligned interests...There is a possible a collision coming, because the two parties have contradictory objectives. For now, the administration probably believes that this is a good political talking point, and nothing more. Perhaps the task force will go after a few mid-level people, or not, but it isn’t really going to cause any major problems for them. Schneiderman for his part has already said he’d walk away publicly if he is impeded in his investigation, as Dave Dayen noted in his terrific series of articles on the whole episode. As just one example, Jonathan Weil keeps wryly pointing out that Vikram Pandit at Citigroup may be guilty of violating Sarbanes-Oxley.

In February 2008, two months into his job as CEO, Pandit certified in Citigroup’s 2007 annual report that the company’s internal controls were effective. Eight days before he did that, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had sent him a seven-page letter detailing all sorts of ways in which Citigroup’s controls were inadequate.

The statute seems pretty clear to me, though I’m not a lawyer. The criminal statute says that CEOs must certify financial statements of their companies, and “that information contained in the periodic report fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the issuer”. If a CEO certifies false statements it’s a million dollar fine and up to 10 years in jail. If a CEO willfully certifies false statements it’s a five million dollar fine and up to 20 years in jail....

[Demeter]

5. Lanny Breuer, Task Force Leader, Doesn’t Bother Showing Up For Mortgage Fraud Press Conference

By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can reach him at stoller (at) gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @matthewstoller.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/01/lanny-breuer-task-force-leader-doesnt-bother-showing-up-for-mortgage-fraud-press-conference.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Eric Holder has come out with details on the task force. But first, let’s look at a smoke signal. At this press conference announcing the task force, Holder had to apologize for Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, one of the key leaders of the investigative unit. Breuer, you see, couldn’t make it to the press conference because he was traveling. That’s how important this task force is to Breuer, so important that his travel schedule couldn’t brook interference. Such a bureaucratic snub has been no doubt noticed by the various underlings at the DOJ and the US Attorney offices.

Ok, let’s go to the substance.

I am pleased to report that this Working Group has considerable Department resources behind it as it builds on activities that have been underway through the broader Task Force. Currently, 15 attorneys, investigators, and analysts – here at Main Justice and throughout our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices – are supporting the investigative efforts that this Working Group will be focusing on going forward. And the FBI has assigned 10 agents and analysts to work with the group immediately. In the coming weeks, another 30 attorneys, investigators, and support staff from U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will join the Group’s work. So that’s a total of 55 people, 10 of whom are FBI agents. Let’s do a few comparisons. During the Savings and Loan crisis, Bill Black reminds us that there were about a thousand FBI agents working on the various cases. That’s one hundred times the number of people working on a scandal that is about forty times larger and far more complex. To put it another way, let’s say that this scandal cost the American public $5-7 trillion in lost home equity. That’s about $100 billion of lost home equity per person assigned to this task force. If someone stole $100 billion a corporation, like say, if somehow Apple’s entire cash hoard which is roughly that amount, suddenly disappeared, I’m guessing that the FBI would assign more than one person to the case. Another comparison might be Enron, which had 100 FBI agents assigned to the case. Or the stress tests. Remember this?

"For the last eight weeks, nearly 200 federal examiners have labored inside some of the nation’s biggest banks to determine how those institutions would hold up if the recession deepened."

Yup, roughly four times as many people were assigned to conduct sham stress tests as are assigned to investigate the causes of the financial crisis and prosecute the people responsible. So we see that this is a not a serious deployment of government resources to unmask a complex economy-shaking financial scheme. It just isn’t. And as if to emphasize this, Breuer didn’t even show up to the press conference announcing it. And finally, the fissures I warned about are already beginning to appear. Here’s more of what Holder said.

On Tuesday night, the President referenced this initiative, asking us to, “hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.”

That is precisely what we intend to do. And the good news is that we aren’t starting from scratch.

Over the past three years, we have been aggressively investigating the causes of the financial crisis. And we have learned that much of the conduct that led to the crisis was – as the President has said – unethical, and, in many instances, extremely reckless. We also have learned that behavior that is unethical or reckless may not necessarily be criminal. When we find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, we bring criminal prosecutions. When we don’t, we endeavor to use other tools available to us – such as civil sanctions – to seek justice. My number one to commitment to the American people is that we will continue to devote significant resources to combating financial fraud and be as aggressive and creative as we can be in holding accountable those who, in violating the law, contributed to the financial crisis.

For example, in just the last six months, the Department has achieved prison sentences of 60, 45, 30, and 20 years in a variety of financial fraud cases charging securities fraud, bank fraud, and investment fraud. And, just last month, I announced the largest fair lending settlement in history, resolving allegations that Countrywide Financial Corporation and its subsidiaries engaged in a widespread pattern or practice of discrimination against minority borrowers from 2004 through 2008.

.......

Now on to the other news of the week, which is a $25 billion settlement for foreclosure fraud, which is supposedly done along the lines of a narrow release just for robosigning. I haven’t seen the language, and until I do, I wouldn’t be comfortable describing it as a narrow release. But if it is, then it isn’t a real shift in the landscape. The banks simply don’t want to pay that much for so little, and they’ll probably end up gaming the financing so that they claim to have paid $25 billion by engaging in loan modifications and principal write-downs they would have engaged in already. And if it’s a broader release, it seems unlikely to be something the recalcitrant state AGs would agree to....

MORE AT LINK

[Fuddnik]

26. Who's going to hold the Administration accountable?

This is nothing more than foot-dragging, cover-up, and collusion in the crimes. A way to prevent a meaningful investigation and allow business to continue as usual.

No wonder people like William Black call this whole thing a cruel joke.

[zogofzorkon]

37. The Administration is accountable

It is who it is accountable to that is the problem and don't think for even a second that cruel jokes are something they don't delight in.

[Demeter]

6. The Internet’s Unholy Marriage to Capitalism

http://monthlyreview.org/2011/03/01/the-internets-unholy-marriage-to-capitalism

John Bellamy Foster (jfoster @ monthlyreview.org) is editor of Monthly Review, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, and author (with Brett Clark and Richard York) of The Ecological Rift (Monthly Review Press, 2010). Robert W. McChesney (rwmcches @ uiuc.edu) is Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and author of The Political Economy of Media (Monthly Review Press, 2008) and (with John Nichols) The Death and Life of American Journalism (2010).

The United States and the world are now a good two decades into the Internet revolution, or what was once called the information age. The past generation has seen a blizzard of mind-boggling developments in communication, ranging from the World Wide Web and broadband, to ubiquitous cell phones that are quickly becoming high-powered wireless computers in their own right. Firms such as Google, Amazon, Craigslist, and Facebook have become iconic. Immersion in the digital world is now or soon to be a requirement for successful participation in society. The subject for debate is no longer whether the Internet can be regarded as a technological development in the same class as television or the telephone. Increasingly, the debate is turning to whether this is a communication revolution closer to the advent of the printing press. The full impact of the Internet revolution will only become apparent in the future, as more technological change is on the horizon that can barely be imagined and hardly anticipated.2 But enough time has transpired, and institutions and practices have been developed, that an assessment of the digital era is possible, as well as a sense of its likely trajectory into the future....

What is striking, as one returns to the late 1980s and early 1990s and reads about the Internet and its future, is that these accounts were almost uniformly optimistic. With all information available to everyone at the speed of light and impervious to censorship, all existing institutions were going to be changed for the better. There was going to be a worldwide two-way flow, or multi-flow, a democratization of communication unthinkable before then. Corporations could no longer bamboozle consumers and crush upstart competitors; governments could no longer operate in secrecy with a kept-press spouting propaganda; students from the poorest and most remote areas would have access to educational resources once restricted to the elite. In short, people would have unprecedented tools and power. For the first time in human history, there would not only be information equality and uninhibited instant communication access between all people everywhere, but there would also be access to a treasure trove of uncensored knowledge that only years earlier would have been unthinkable, even for the world’s most powerful ruler or richest billionaire. Inequality and exploitation were soon to be dealt their mightiest blow.

The Internet, or more broadly, the digital revolution is truly changing the world at multiple levels. But it has also failed to deliver on much of the promise that was once seen as implicit in its technology. If the Internet was expected to provide more competitive markets and accountable businesses, open government, an end to corruption, and decreasing inequality—or, to put it baldly, increased human happiness—it has been a disappointment. To put it another way, if the Internet actually improved the world over the past twenty years as much as its champions once predicted, we dread to think where the world would be if it had never existed...

NOW, THESE GUYS OUGHT TO GET OUT OF THE IVORY TOWER MORE OFTEN

[Demeter]

7. BT set to launch ‘ultrafast’ internet

“Ultra-fast” broadband using direct fibre-optic connections will become available to most British homes and businesses next year, after a significant technological breakthrough by BT, the telecoms group

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/0QSDPP/16DO7C/06MUC/DWQQ1B/SP2I3Z/FW/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=2

MEANWHILE, WE HAVE A CHOICE BETWEEN COMCAST AND AT&T'S YAHOO...

[Demeter]

8. Stephen King - It's time to re-examine inflation targeting

There is something odd about the enduring enthusiasm among central bankers for inflation targeting. The pursuit of price stability, after all, was supposed to be the best way of delivering overall economic stability. Yet, despite the widespread adoption of inflation targets, the developed world succumbed in 2008 to the biggest economic and financial crisis in generations.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/ZE9K33/EXUK3X/WH2F8/16ZIQM/YB4JPB/RF/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=2

THAT'S BECAUSE THEY CHEATED, STEVE, THEY ALL LIED IN THEIR TEETH AND STOLE AND DEFRAUDED AND....

[Fuddnik]

27. Fiber optic is sweet.

I had it for a couple of years with Verizon FIOS. But they kept working overtime to figure out ways to screw you and overcharge you, so I switched to cable internet. It's not super fast like Verizon was. More kind of half-fast.

I wish someone else would offer fiber in the area.

[dixiegrrrrl]

32. Lucky you.

I have a choice between a poorly rated cable company and my current Frontier dsl, both of which refuse to upgrade their wiring,

[Demeter]

9. SNB’s Jordan vows to continue radical intervention

Swiss National Bank acting chairman Thomas Jordan tells FT: “There should be absolutely no doubt whatsoever about the capability of the SNB to maintain the minimum exchange rate.”


Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/XYEWFF/HYTI7R/YGZ3O/16ZIQK/2ODP8F/CM/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=2


WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY? SOMEBODY'S TRYING TO PLAY WITH THE SWISS FRANC?

[Demeter]

11. Credit squeeze threatens eurozone recovery

Squeeze strengthens case for cuts in ECB’s main interest rate, currently at record low of 1%. But central bank will probably not rush

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/30IO6Z/Z87P0/YBVVXN/5VENFB/RF/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=2

[Demeter]

12. Boost for top manufacturing nations

Purchasing manager surveys show many economies are recovering but outlook for southern eurozone remains bleak

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/30IO6Z/Z87P0/YBVVXN/HYLO8U/RF/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=2

DON'T WORRY...TRUTH WILL OUT, EVENTUALLY. WE ARE ALL DOOMED.

[Demeter]

13. Ex-Credit Suisse traders charged over security pricing

David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui admit overstating the value of certain mortgage securities

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/U17U1Y/1O51V/KQ338W/97J1UY/LE/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=2

[Demeter]

33. SNB head warns of political fallout after crisis

Thomas Jordan, acting chairman, says bank has come under domestic political pressure over the potential cost of further interventions

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/L98RGH/SUO9T/WT00WU/KQBM8F/E4/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=3

[Demeter]

10. US to end Afghan combat operations US GIVES UP ANOTHER POINTLESS WAR

Shift to training and advisory role to start in middle of next year and be complete by the end of 2013, says defence secretary

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/30IO6Z/Z87P0/YBVVXN/IIT0OS/RF/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=2

THE WELL IS FINALLY RUNNING DRY...UNLESS, OF COURSE, THE CORPORATIONS WANT TO ANTE UP FOR ONCE...

[Demeter]

14. Apple's Ethical Blindness Selects for Criminal Suppliers in Fraud-Friendly Nations William K. Black

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/apples-ethical-blindness-_b_1244410.html

MASSIVE ANALYSIS OF NYT ARTICLE AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES DETAILS LEADS BILL BLACK TO CONCLUDE:

To sum it up, the Apple official who said that America does not produce the type of engineers Apple needs was speaking the truth. What we are observing is the essence of a Gresham's dynamic in which bad ethics drives good ethics out of the market.

Two aspects of this Gresham's dynamic are obscene, and both are produced by neoclassical economics dogma. Calling this process "creative destruction" is baseless and dishonest. It is the fraudulent destruction of honest businesses, professions, and labor. The Gresham's dynamic is bad for China and bad for the U.S. It is also outrageous that the World Trade Organization (WTO) ignores this non-tariff barrier to free trade and treats efforts to fight anti-employee control fraud as suspect. A few years ago, the World Bank was finally embarrassed into admitting that its purported index of economic freedom was flawed because it treated compliance with International Labor Organization (ILO) rules preventing labor abuses as a denial of economic freedom. The WTO should rule that anti-employee control fraud is impermissible and that nations that permit such frauds with virtual impunity are in violation of their WTO obligations and are subject to sanctions.

Asia's network of fraudulent suppliers of goods and services located in fraud-friendly nations is the greatest barrier to successful competition from (more) honest U.S. suppliers. Viewed today, the network's crushing advantages appear natural. That network, however, is the product of hundreds of individual firms that became large over the last 25 years by engaging in anti-employee control fraud with impunity. It is revealing that such frauds remain the norm decades after the creation of the network. Defrauding and putting the health and lives of workers at undue risk remain defining, core practices of the members of the network. Other factors contributing to the creation of the network include governmental subsidies, particularly by China, Taiwan, and South Korea, the education of large numbers of engineers in these nations, the removal of traditional trade barriers, and widespread anti-public control fraud (tax evasion and tax fraud) by the suppliers.

I repeat my earlier caution -- firms that are anti-employee control frauds are likely to commit other forms of control fraud. Apple and its Western counterparts have driven the creation of an Asian network of fraudulent firms that has distorted international trade, hollowed out U.S. manufacturing, and created a bizarre hybrid: quasi-communist crony capitalism. It boggles the mind that theoclassical economists celebrate the corrupt result as the essence of creative destruction. The network is corrupt. It will not play by the rules. Firms like Apple help create the perverse incentives that encourage the network to cheat. Surviving U.S. manufacturing firms are whipsawed by the powerful Gresham's dynamic that the frauds produce. U.S. firms and workers are constantly pressured to reduce wages and workforce to try to compete with the foreign frauds. This is the "Road to Bangladesh" strategy that has caused U.S. working class wages to stall for decades. Europe is retreating along this same road at an even more rapid rate. The Gresham's dynamic tilts the world in favor of fraudulent firms operating in fraud-friendly nations. It also tilts the world against workers in the developed world.

[Demeter]

15. Ohio Tries to Escape Fate as a Dumping Ground for Fracking Fluid

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-02/ohio-tries-to-escape-fate-as-a-dumping-ground-for-fracking-fluid.html

The millions of gallons of chemical- laced wastewater that fracking produces must flow somewhere, and Ohio is trying not to be that place.

The oil and natural-gas drilling boom spurred more permits for disposal wells there during the past two years than during the previous decade combined. The volume injected into them was on a near-record pace last year, according to the Department of Natural Resources, and more than half was from out of state. That included 92.6 percent of the water sent to a Youngstown well closed last year after 11 nearby earthquakes.

“We have become in Ohio the dumping ground for contaminated brine,” state Representative Armond Budish, the House Democratic leader, said at a Jan. 26 forum in Columbus. “We didn’t prepare adequately for the potential for earthquakes and other environmental problems.”

Now, Ohio is considering tightening regulations governing wells in response to the temblors and seeking to stem out-of- state fluid shipments. It’s an example of the challenges U.S. states face as they try to enjoy hydraulic fracturing’s economic boost while avoiding its side effects....

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POISONING THE EARTH WITH EVERLASTING RADIOACTIVITY, AND POISONING THE WATER TABLE OF THE CONTINENT....IS NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL.

[Tansy_Gold]

16. ...

FUCKERS!!!

[Hotler]

60. Yeah! A bunch of fuckers. n/t

[Demeter]

17. I Don't See How This Can Continue

THAT MAKES TWO OF US

http://economistsview.typepad.com/timduy/2012/01/i-dont-see-how-this-can-continue.html

The European unemployment numbers are out. The story from the Financial Times:

Unemployment in the 17 euro countries climbed to 10.4 per cent in December, with the November rate revised upwards to the same rate, setting a fresh record since the introduction of the single currency in 1999. So-called “peripheral” members such as Spain and Greece recorded the highest rates, of 22.9 per cent and 19.2 per cent respectively.

By contrast, national data from Germany, the eurozone’s bulwark, showed joblessness declined in January to 6.7 per cent, the lowest level since reunification in 1991.

And a picture is worth a thousand words:

http://economistsview.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b33869e20167616dd78e970b-500wi


Perhaps France and Italy can hang on while relative wage deflation increases competitiveness with Germany, but conditions in the periphery look downright dire. And note that years of austerity have done little to help Greece and Ireland. I don't see the same medicine working in Spain or Portugal either. It is no wonder that Greece is looking for very substantial reductions in its debt, and it seems inevitable that Portugal will come to the same conclusion sooner or later. The great disparity in unemployment rates is another factor that leaves me pessimistic on the ultimate outcome of the Euro experiment. We need real fiscal transfers, and soon. More carrot with stick.

For now, however, market participants are focused on the salutary effects of the ECB's LRTO (not to mention expectations for another round of QE from the Fed). Have these efforts eased conditions enough to allow for a Portuguese restructuring or even Greece's exit from the Euro? Or have market participants and European policymakers been drawn into a dangerous path of complacency? Thinking aloud, do current market conditions embolden German politicians to think they can finally cut Greece loose with little or no consequences to the rest of Europe? Would this indeed be the case? I have trouble believing in the "orderly exit" story, but perhaps the can has been kicked far enough down the road that it can happen.

[Tansy_Gold]

19. Has anyone ever tried austerity for the fucking rich? n/t

[Demeter]

30. France: 14th July 1789

It worked pretty well, too. I found this handy list of dates:

http://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution/timeline.htm

Principal Dates and Time Line of the
French Revolution
First phase: Harvests have failed and starvation stalks France, the peasantry are in open and continuing revolt across the country.

June-July 1788: Insurrection at Grenoble.
8th August 1788: Louis XVI convokes État-général on suggestion of former finance minister Jacques Necker, to hear grievances.
5th May 1789: Opening of the État-général at Versailles.
17th June 1789: Representatives of the tiers état form a National Assembly swearing not to leave until a new constitution is established.
23rd June 1789: King rejects Resolutions of the tiers etat.
9th July 1789: National Assembly declares itself Constituent Assembly.
12th July 1789: Necker is dismissed. 50,000 citizens arm themselves with pikes and form National Guard.
14th July 1789: Armed citizens storm and capture the Bastille.
15th July 1789: Lafayette appointed Commander of National Guard.
17th July 1789: ‘Great Fear’ begins as peasants revolt across France.
5-11 August 1789: National Assembly decrees abolition of feudalism.
26th August 1789: National Assembly decrees Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
5th October 1789: Women lead delegation to King in Versaille demanding bread. After scuffles, they are fobbed off by the King.
6th October 1789: King returns to Paris.
2nd November 1789: Constituent Assembly decrees expropriation of Church property.
16th December 1789: National Assembly legislates for departments, etc.
28th January 1790: Removal of civil disabilities against Jews.
13th February 1790: Suppression of religious orders and vows.
19th June 1790: Abolition of nobility and titles.
14th July 1790: Civil Constitution, subordinating the Church to the civil government, inaugurated by Louis XVI.

and so forth

[Ghost Dog]

39. 5-11 August 1789: National Assembly decrees abolition of feudalism.

26th August 1789: National Assembly decrees Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

...

Early 21st Century: UK-USA: Revocation of the above Rights. Restoration of Feudalism.

[dixiegrrrrl]

63. Early 21st Century: UK-USA: Revocation of the above Rights. Restoration of Feudalism.

bingo.

[Tansy_Gold]

43. Given our SMW penchant for invoking FRSPs. .. .

That's pretty much what i was thinking of.

Glad to see we're all still thinking along the same lines.


Carry on!

[DemReadingDU]

40. The can has been kicked again and again

and again and again

When this global Ponzi implodes, the crash will be epic

[Demeter]

18. Moves in Bond Inquiry Are 1st Successful Criminal Case Related to Meltdown

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204740904577196810277469348.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Federal prosecutors unveiled criminal charges against three former Credit Suisse Group AG employees, providing a window into the way traders allegedly invented inflated values for mortgage bonds during the financial crisis.

Two of the three men pleaded guilty to criminal charges of conspiracy, admitting they attempted to conceal the scheme from managers in a bid to boost their bonuses.

The guilty pleas mark the first successful criminal case against Wall Street in relation to the financial meltdown...

[Tansy_Gold]

22. Can you provide names, etc? NEVER MIND

Last edited Thu Feb 2, 2012, 11:12 PM - Edit history (1)

Link is to WSJ and I don't have a subscription. I'd like to add these asswipes to the SWM front page.


ETA -- I got it off the FT link.

[Demeter]

20. Bundesbank sinks deeper into debt saving Europe

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9055142/Bundesbank-sinks-deeper-into-debt-saving-Europe.html

Germany's Bundesbank has entirely exhausted its stock of private assets and run up a quarter of a trillion euros in liabilities propping up the eurozone system, testing the political limits of EMU solidarity in Germany...The operations are part of the European Central Bank's 'TARGET2' network of automatic payments between the national central banks of the Euroland club. The Bundesbank has already provided €496bn (£413bn) to countries in trouble, chiefly Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

"This is reaching the danger point. It is already one and a half times the total budget of the German government," said Professor Frank Westermann of Osnabrück University. "If any of the crisis countries exits the euro or if there is an EMU break-up, the Bundesbank bears extreme risks."

The Bundesbank - the dominant body in the euro system - used to keep a stock of €270bn of private securities (refinance credit) before the start of the financial crisis. This was depleted last year as it sold assets to meet growing demands on the TARGET2 scheme.

Once the debt drama began to engulf the bigger economies, the Bundesbank was forced to borrow money to meet its obligations to offset capital flight, since it refused to sell its stash of gold. It now owes €228bn to German banks...MORE

DEFINITION OF INSANITY APPLIES HERE

[Demeter]

21. The perils of Mario Draghi's €1.5 trillion blitz By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100014543/the-perils-of-mario-draghis-e1-5-trillion-blitz/

The raging debate over Mario Draghi’s credit rescue has refused to die down...A disturbingly large number of credit experts warn that the ECB life-line is not the "game-changer" that the markets seem to think, cannot in itself can save Euroland, and may prove counter-productive – perhaps soon. This is not what I suggested in my Monday column. Since I have a special affection for the monetarist camp, I tilted to their view in that the ECB has indeed carried out a coup and may have pulled Europe of spiralling depression, just in the nick of time. (This does not mean it can ever save monetary union in its current structure, but that is another matter.) Yet we are in uncharted waters, so here is the critique of the other side.

Alberto Gallo from RBS said Draghi’s €489bn loans to banks at 1pc for three years (LTRO) is having all kinds of toxic side-effects, which is disturbing given that the Financial Times splashed today that the banks may draw down another €1 trillion at the second LTRO in late February The banks are certainly stepping up purchases of Club Med and Irish sovereign bonds, the so-called Sarkozy "carry trade". They also bought 62pc of the latest debt issue by the EFSF rescue fund in January, up from a quarter in the previous issue.

"Most peripheral banks now hold more government bonds than their equity, which makes them a levered option on sovereign risk. While earning more carry, banks holding more sovereign bonds than others also pay more in funding. The economics of the sovereign carry do not work in the medium term," he said.

The shortfall on the banks’ core Tier 1 capital ratios outweighs the extra yield from the sovereign bonds. That will aggravate the credit crunch over time. Mr Gallo expects €5 trillion in deleveraging by European banks before it is over. While the banks are buying more sovereign debt, they are cutting credit to the rest of the economy, with falls of 2.4pc in Italy and Portugal in December, and 0.8pc for the eurozone as a whole. The whole LTRO scheme increases "debt cross-holdings and systemic risk", and ultimately lowers recovery rates for creditors. Mr Gallo thinks the next spasm of the crisis may hit as Italy redeems €97bn in February and March, and Spain redeems €30bn, with Portugal sliding into ever deeper debt as the economy contracts violently.

MORE

ANY WAY YOU SLICE IT, IT'S STILL INSANE

[Demeter]

23. Survey of Banks Shows a Sharp Cut in Lending in Europe By JACK EWING

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/business/global/european-banks-cut-lending-sharply-at-end-of-2011-ecb-data-show.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

Banks in the euro area cut lending sharply at the end of 2011, according to data published Wednesday, raising concern that Europe was on the verge of a credit crisis that could lead to a deeper recession than expected...A quarterly survey of commercial banks by the European Central Bank showed a surge in the number of institutions that were becoming more restrictive about who they lent to, because the banks themselves were having trouble raising money and were under pressure from regulators to reduce risk. The survey, which covered the last three months of 2011, provided more evidence of the harmful effect that the sovereign debt crisis was having on the banking system. It also somewhat validated the European Central Bank policy of providing big emergency loans to euro area banks in an attempt to stave off a full-blown lending drought.

“A credit crunch would tip the euro zone back into a severe recession,” Marie Diron, an economist who advises the consulting firm Ernst & Young, said in a statement.

There is also evidence that the problems in Western Europe are spilling over into the developing economies of Eastern Europe. For example, lending to Poland from outside the country fell by $12 billion, the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, reported last week. The decline is surprising because Poland’s economy continues to grow briskly. It suggests that hard-pressed West European banks have started withholding resources from their subsidiaries in Eastern Europe.

“It is obvious that we see a deleveraging, a retrenching process unfolding,” Thomas Mirow, the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said in an interview last week. He said the figures from the Bank for International Settlements showed “this is not just perception but reality.” The reconstruction bank provides credit to support the development of free markets in the former Soviet bloc.

In December, the European Central Bank radically expanded lending to euro area banks, providing 489 billion euros ($643 billion) at 1 percent interest for three years. Previously, the central bank offered loans for no more than about a year. That infusion of cash has been credited with easing the strain of the sovereign debt crisis. It will offer another round of three-year loans at the end of this month, a move that analysts expect to further guard against a credit crisis. Still, some warned that the situation remained perilous.

“For the sovereign crisis to truly abate, we need to see that governments are able to deliver austerity, and the economies can still grow in the face of it,” Karen Ward, senior global economist at HSBC, wrote in a note to clients. It would be wrong to assume that the central bank lending was “a panacea for the euro zone sovereign crisis,” she wrote...MORE

DRAINING THE LIFEBLOOD OUT OF THE ECONOMY TO KEEP THE EURO AFLOAT...

[Demeter]

24. "MONEY QUOTE" from Philip Pilkington

"It was a stupid move by a politician long known for his tactlessness."


http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/philip-pilkington-are-the-irish-people-to-blame-for-reckless-borrowing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

....so many politicians qualify for that encomium....

[Demeter]

31. The experts' view on the euro's future: it doesn't have one

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-experts-view-on-the-euros-future-it-doesnt-have-one-6298180.html

The eurozone cannot survive in its current form – that is the alarming prediction of top economists and politicians of all political hues, among them the former Chancellors Alistair Darling, Nigel Lawson and Norman Lamont.

In interviews and articles for The Independent today, the experts were asked for their short-term and long-term predictions for the future of the euro. While most believe the eurozone may well survive the current Greek debt crisis – especially given the political will invested in preventing a disorderly default – none is confident that the contagion could be contained, and most believe the new European Fiscal Compact agreed in principle on Monday is unsustainable as it would take key financial powers from national governments – and their electorates.

Many of the politicians and economists criticised the rush to austerity being imposed on Greece and Italy, suggesting it would be counter-productive by depressing growth, and said the competitive imbalances between eurozone members would be impossible to overcome. They suggested the ultimate consequence of the crisis would be a much smaller eurozone with Germany at the centre and countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italy and Ireland on the outside.

The only strong note of optimism was sounded by Olli Rehn, vice president of the European Commission responsible for the euro, who predicted the currency would emerge stronger from the crisis. "We are undertaking nothing less than an economic reformation of Europe," he said. "Step by step, we are creating financial stability and the conditions for sustainable growth and job creation."

[Ghost Dog]

71. Part of the "economic reformation of Europe" will be job-creative stimulation folllowing austerity.

Of necessity (and public demand - read, civil unrest).

You will see that re-regulation of the FIRE sector is already in progress, and EU institutions are changing quite rapidly, considering...

So, the Euro can survive.

[Demeter]

34. Bernanke adopts caution on US recovery

US Federal Reserve chairman said the pace of the economic recovery remains “frustratingly slow” and “the sluggish expansion has left the economy vulnerable to shocks”

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/L98RGH/SUO9T/WT00WU/DW30UL/E4/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=3

[Demeter]

35. US unemployed see glimmers of hope

‘It’s getting better. A year ago people were just panicked. Now that panic is subsiding’ says woman who has been jobless for two years

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/L98RGH/SUO9T/WT00WU/EXPC1J/E4/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=3

[hamerfan]

36. I doubt

the "glimmer of hope" outlook. I think people are just getting used to the idea that we're screwed and are adapting to it.

[InkAddict]

62. My FTE gig lasted all of 88/90 days, and I'm tired of the lies,

excuses, and inferences that employer's problems (probably in providing healthcare insurance coverage) would just go away if some of us would. I've decided to follow AnneD's path to stress-free enlightenment. Never having learned in my younger years, I've taken up knitting and now have an alpaca scarf and hat--small accomplishments in garter stitch--and will now tax by brain into learning how to make socks with four needles or by loom. I've not found that Zen-like zone that AnneD gets into yet, being just an impatient beginner, but I swear it will come after I watch those DVD's and youtube tutorials for the zillionth time. Yup, there's just a glimmer of hope that I WILL control the yarn.

[Tansy_Gold]

66. The Zen of Knitting

This is the advice of one Tansy Gold and is qualified with the ever Zen-like admonition from Po'd Mainiac -- YMMV.

Buy three or four skeins of inexpensive worsted weight yarn and a pair of single-pointed knitting needles of some medium size between 6 and 8.

Cast on about 25 stitches.

Knit in garter stitch (knitting each row, no purling) until you finish the skein. If you screw up and have to rip it out and start all over, do so. Check frequently that you still have 25 stitches per row, not more, not less. Check that your edges are even, your rows the same width, no stitches dropped or split or added. Do not move on to any other stitches or projects until you can comfortably and automatically knit a full skein to the end.

Learn to purl. To practice the purl stitch to Zen, take another skein of yarn and cast on 22, 26, 30 stitches -- a multiple of four, plus 2. Proceed in 2 x 2 ribbing -- k2, p2, k2, p2, ending with the same you started with; then reverse the next row, p2, k2, p2, k2, etc. -- until you can comfortably and automatically and Zennishly complete an entire skein in 2 x 2 ribbing.

Knitting and purling are the two stitches, and when you have reached Zen mastery of them, then you can go on to the finer and fancier points, such as adding, decreasing, YO, cabling, etc.

These two exercises give mastery of the two basic stitches -- all others are just variations on these two -- as well as confidence in being able to maintain a pattern.

After that, the Zen just flows, back and forth, from yarn to fingers to soul and back again.

[Demeter]

69. I hope you find FTE to your needs and joy

and single-payer is the way for the nation to go. Unfortunately, that means just about everyone in elected office has to go, first.

[AnneD]

72. When you have to ....

think about colors, adding and dropping stitches, etc, it is not that meditative. I get zen when I am knitting a muffler, wash cloths, rug squares, bibs-the simple stuff. I need to get over the my knitting is precious don't ever use it or lose it thingie. Dish washing cloths are my theraphy for that.

Congrats on you accomplishments. That is productive work and what nice things to show for your time. The only regret I have is not being able to blog and knit at the same time, but then that is not defragging your mental hard drive no is it. You are doing more than I do.

BTW, you never control the yarn, you just shape it. Relax, it will come in time.

[zogofzorkon]

38. Reminds me of "light at the end of the tunnel" Westmoreland 1967 n/t

[xchrom]

41. good morning...

[Demeter]

42. Morning, x!

Friday, at last!

[xchrom]

45. we've made it this far!

[xchrom]

44. America's Disastrous Public Sector Construction Spending Plunge

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/02/02/america_s_disastrous_public_sector_construction_plunge.html



Note that these are year-on-year changes, not levels. We built less in 2007 than we built in 2008, then we built even less in 2009, then we built even less in 2010. By 2011 it inched up a tiny bit. So what happened with public sector construction during this time? Well:



Instead of surging in 2008 and 2009 like it should have, spending on public sector projects decelerated. But it's hard to orchestrate a huge surge on short notice so perhaps that's forgiveable. But by 2010 and 2011 when there should have been plenty of time to begin executing projects mapped out in 2009, spending was tumbling.

What we basically should have done was create a giant slush funds for construction projects. The global investment community lost faith in U.S. mortgage-backed securities and wanted to plow money into super low-yield U.S. treasury bonds. We should have let them do so, and then used the capital raised to create construction slush funds for mayors and governors to tap. Plenty of states and cities would have ended squandering the money on white elephant nonsense, but all things considered it makes sense for state and local elected officials to at least try to spend money in sensible ways. But more to the point, waste is a relative concept. Most people don't know how to operate a crane properly. To have a skilled worker and his specialized machinery employed on a low-value project is wasteful in the sense that they could have been employed instead on a high-value project. But the lowest-value project of all is for the worker to be watching The Price Is Right and feeling depressed while the crane sits around idle. When private construction spending is plummeting, the rules of thumb about what constitutes a wasteful use of resources look different.

[Demeter]

46. We Can Now See the True Cost of Globalization

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/29/observer-editorial-global-capitalism-bad

When Karl Marx called for the workers of the world to unite, it seems unlikely he had in mind an iPhone boycott. But suggestions for just such a campaign in the US have thrown the spotlight on possible abuses at firms producing goods for hi-tech giant Apple, urging the public to think again about what happens at the other end of the production pipeline that leads to its swish, minimalist stores. Stung by the criticisms, Apple boss Tim Cook told his staff last week: "We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain," and the company is now inspecting scores of factories, providing the latest evidence that the public is no longer willing to ignore the dark underbelly of world capitalism.

Before the Great Crash, critics of globalization were isolated on the loony fringe: tear-gassed in Seattle and whacked with truncheons in Prague, as the west's leaders gathered to congratulate themselves on reaping the benefits of unfettered world trade. When the Asian financial crises of the 1990s toppled governments and forced one desperate country after another into mass impoverishment and emergency bailouts by the International Monetary Fund, the west's leaders – even many on the left – explained it away as a result of shoddy governance or poor economic management, instead of a devastating side-effect of globalization. And even after the financial shock waves rippled out from the American housing market in 2007 and caused catastrophic collateral damage in countries across the globe, and the deepest world recession since the 1930s, many felt that a few tweaks to bank capital rules, and sharper teeth for financial regulators, would fix the system.

Yet two things have derailed world leaders' attempts to get back to business as usual. The first is that in many countries, more than four years on from the start of the credit crisis, millions of people still wait for economic recovery to take hold. Growth is sickly or non-existent; unemployment is rising; the only people who seem to escape are a tiny, super-rich elite...And the second reason it is still not business as usual is that there has been a growing chorus of discontent from far beyond the corridors of power. From the Indignados in Spain, who have espoused the cause of the 50% of young Spaniards now out of a job, to the Occupy movements that have sprung up in New York, London and scores of other cities around the world, to the villagers in Guangdong, China, protesting against government land-grabs, many thousands of discontented citizens are making their anger felt about the way the system has failed them. The demands of these inchoate groups may not be fully formed; but they have noisily identified the fact that there is something deeply wrong with today's world economic system, which puts unfathomable riches in the hands of an unaccountable elite, while millions are trapped in unemployment and poverty.

The focus on youth unemployment and inequality at the annual talkfest in Davos last week was a clear indication that the power-brokers in the global economy are finally realizing that something has gone badly awry. The truth is that the neo-liberal consensus, with its promise of economic "freedom", has failed to deliver. The opening-up of China and India over the past 20 years has lifted millions of people out of poverty. But inequality here and in other developing countries remains shameful, and shouldn't be left unchallenged. At the same time, average workers in most of the major rich economies, including the UK, have seen the real value of their wages shrivel away, as they have found themselves in competition not just with their neighbors, but with workers many thousands of miles away. Yet if the system fails the average worker in the west, it fails even in its own terms, because it undermines consumer demand, and chokes off economic growth. The rich elite who have been the big winners over the last 50 years may be big-spenders, but they still park much of their wealth in Switzerland.

MORE

[Demeter]

48. Corporations Have No Use for Borders By Chris Hedges / Truth Dig

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30390.htm

What happened to Canada? It used to be the country we would flee to if life in the United States became unpalatable. No nuclear weapons. No huge military-industrial complex. Universal health care. Funding for the arts. A good record on the environment. But that was the old Canada. I was in Montreal on Friday and Saturday and saw the familiar and disturbing tentacles of the security and surveillance state. Canada has withdrawn from the Kyoto Accords so it can dig up the Alberta tar sands in an orgy of environmental degradation. It carried out the largest mass arrests of demonstrators in Canadian history at 2010’s G-8 and G-20 meetings, rounding up more than 1,000 people. It sends undercover police into indigenous communities and activist groups and is handing out stiff prison terms to dissenters. And Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a diminished version of George W. Bush. He champions the rabid right wing in Israel, bows to the whims of global financiers and is a Christian fundamentalist.

The voices of dissent sound like our own. And the forms of persecution are familiar. This is not an accident. We are fighting the same corporate leviathan. “I want to tell you that I was arrested because I am seen as a threat,” Canadian activist Leah Henderson wrote to fellow dissidents before being sent to Vanier prison in Milton, Ontario, to serve a 10-month sentence. “I want to tell you that you might be too. I want to tell you that this is something we need to prepare for. I want to tell you that the risk of incarceration alone should not determine our organizing...My skills and experience—as a facilitator, as a trainer, as a legal professional and as someone linking different communities and movements—were all targeted in this case, with the state trying to depict me as a ‘brainwasher’ and as a mastermind of mayhem, violence and destruction,” she went on. “During the week of the G8 & G20 summits, the police targeted legal observers, street medics and independent media. It is clear that the skills that make us strong, the alternatives that reduce our reliance on their systems and prefigure a new world, are the very things that they are most afraid of.”

The decay of Canada illustrates two things. Corporate power is global, and resistance to it cannot be restricted by national boundaries. Corporations have no regard for nation-states. They assert their power to exploit the land and the people everywhere. They play worker off of worker and nation off of nation. They control the political elites in Ottawa as they do in London, Paris and Washington. This, I suspect, is why the tactics to crush the Occupy movement around the globe have an eerie similarity—infiltrations, surveillance, the denial of public assembly, physical attempts to eradicate encampments, the use of propaganda and the press to demonize the movement, new draconian laws stripping citizens of basic rights, and increasingly harsh terms of incarceration....Those who seek to discredit this movement employ the language of nationalism and attempt to make us fearful of the other. Wave the flag. Sing the national anthem. Swell with national hubris. Be vigilant of the hidden terrorist. Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver, responding to the growing opposition to the Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway pipelines, wrote in an open letter that “environmental and other radical groups” were trying to “hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda.” He accused pipeline opponents of receiving funding from foreign special interest groups and said that “if all other avenues have failed, they will take a quintessential American approach: sue everyone and anyone to delay the project even further.”

No matter that in both Canada and the United States suing the government to seek redress is the right of every citizen. No matter that the opposition to the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines has its roots in Canada. No matter that the effort by citizens in the U.S. and in Canada to fight climate change is about self-preservation. The minister, in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry like the energy czars in most of the other industrialized nations, seeks to pit “loyal” Canadians against “disloyal” Canadians. Those with whom we will build this movement of resistance will not in some cases be our own. They may speak Arabic, pray five times a day toward Mecca and be holding off the police thugs in the center of Cairo. Or they may be generously pierced and tattooed and speak Danish or they may be Mandarin-speaking workers battling China’s totalitarian capitalism. These are differences that make no difference...This is why the Occupy Wall Street movement is important. It targets the center of power—global financial institutions. It deflects attention from the empty posturing in the legislative and executive offices in Washington or London or Paris. The Occupy movement reminds us that until the corporate superstructure is dismantled it does not matter which member of the native elite is elected or anointed to rule. The Canadian prime minister is as much a servant of corporate power as the American president. And replacing either will not alter corporate domination. As the corporate mechanisms of control become apparent to wider segments of the population, discontent will grow further. So will the force employed by our corporate overlords. It will be a long road for us. But we are not alone. There are struggles and brush fires everywhere. Leah Henderson is not only right. She is my compatriot.

[Demeter]

50. Social Justice Quiz 2012: Thirteen Questions By Bill Quigley and Sam Schmitt

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30386.htm

1. The combined pay of the 299 highest paid CEOs in the US is enough to support how many median salary jobs? 45,000? 83,000? 102,325?
   
   
2. The median net worth of black households in the US is $2,200. What is the median net worth of white households in the US? $4,400? $44,000? $97,000?
   
   
3. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development issues a national survey every year listing fair market rents for every county in the US. HUD also suggests renters should pay no more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. In how many of the USA’s 3068 counties can someone who works full-time and earns the federal minimum wage pay 30% of their income and find a one-bedroom apartment at the fair market rental amount?
   19? 368? 1974?
   
   
4. How much must the typical U.S. worker earn per hour to rent a two-bedroom apartment if that worker dedicates thirty percent of his income, as HUD suggests, to rent and utilities? $9.39? $14.63? $18.46?
   
   
5. The wealthiest 1 percent of the US has a net worth which is how many times greater than the median or typical household’s net worth? 50? 150? 225?
   
   
6. Which of these countries puts the highest percentage of their people in jails and prisons?
   China? Iran? Iraq? Germany? Russia? USA?
   
   
7. In 2012, the US will pay out about $620 million for old age Social Security benefits to 45 million families. How much is budgeted for military spending by the US in 2012? $310 billion? $620 billion? $836 billion?
   
   
8. The US is number one in the world in military spending. How much more does the US spend compared to the top 15 countries in the world in military spending?
   
   More than any 2 other countries combined? More than any 5 other countries combined? More than all the rest of the 15 top military spending countries combined?
   
   
9. How many people in the world live on less than $1.25 a day? 150 million? 500 million? Over 1 billion?
   
   
10. How many people in the world live without electricity? 500 million? One billion? One and half billion?
    
    
11. The US government donates over $30 billion a year in official development assistance (foreign aid) to poor countries. Where does that rank the US government in percentage of giving among the richest 23 countries?
    First? Tenth? Nineteenth?
    
    
12. The US government donates over $30 billion a year to poor countries. How much do US consumers spend on pets and pet supplies each year? $10 billion? $30 billion? $67 billion?
    
    
13. The poverty rate among children in the US is over 20 percent. How does US compare with the rest of the 30 nations surveyed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development? First? Tenth? Twenty-sixth?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2012:

1. The combined pay of the top 299 CEOs is enough to support 102,325 average jobs. Source: Corporate Paywatch.
   
   
2. The median net worth of white households in the US is $97,900. Source: Economic Policy Institute.
   
   
3. Except for eleven counties in Illinois and another eight in Puerto Rico, there is no county in the US where a one bedroom fair market rate apartment is available to a person working full-time at the minimum wage. Source: The National Low Income Housing Coalition.
   
   
4. The typical worker must earn $18.46 an hour to rent a two bedroom apartment. Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition.
   
   
5. In the last numbers reported, the top 1 percent had net worth 225 times greater than the median or typical household’s net worth, the highest ever recorded. Source: Economic Policy Institute.
   
   
6. The rate of incarceration per 100,000 people is: USA 730, Russian 534, Iran 334, China 122, Iraq 101, and Germany 86. Source: International Centre for Prison Studies, University of Essex.
   
   
7. $836 billion. Over $713 billion on military programs and another $123 for veterans affairs. Source: US Office of Management and Budget, Fiscal Year 2012. AND THAT'S JUST WHAT THEY WILL ADMIT TO!
   
   
8. The US spends $100 billion more on our military than the next highest 15 countries combined. More than China, UK, France, Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, India, Italy, Brazil, South Korea, Australia, Canada and Turkey combined. Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2011 Yearbook.
   
   
9. 1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day. Source: United National Development Program, Human Development Report 2010.
   
   
10. One and half billion people, more than one of every five people in the world, live without electricity. Source: United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 2011.
    
    
11. US government ranks 19th out of 23 countries in assistance to poor nations, giving about two-tenths of one percent of US gross national income to poor countries. Source: Global Issues: Foreign Aid for Development Assistance.
    
    
12. US consumers spend $67 billion each year on pets, pet products and services. Source: US Census Bureau 2012 Statistical Abstract.
    
    
13. The US poverty rate among children ranks the US 26th among 30 nations in the rate of poverty among children. Source: Poverty among children. OECD.
    
    *************************************************************************
    
    Bill teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and works with the Center for Constitutional Rights. Sam is a law student at University of Montana School of Law. A version of this with full sources is available. You can reach Bill at [e-mail]

[xchrom]

47. Spanish economy shed 9,000 jobs a day in January

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Spanish/economy/shed/9000/jobs/day/in/January/elpepueng/20120202elpeng_12/Ten

Spain's labor market continued to hemorrhage jobs at the start of the year as the economy headed toward a double-dip recession in part fueled by an austerity drive.

The Labor Ministry said Thursday the number of jobless claims in January climbed 177,470, or by 3.2 percent, from December to 4.559 million as the economy shed an average of about 9,000 jobs per working day in the month. At the same time, the number of people signed up with the Social Security declined by 283,700 to below 17 million for the first time since the current statistical series began in 2005.

Reuters quoted Cortal Consors' economist Estefanía Ponte as saying the figure indicated a jobless rate of around 23.6-23.7 percent. According to the National Statistics Institute's Active Population Survey released last week, unemployment at the end of last year stood at 22.85 percent, more than double the average in the European Union.

"Apart from the deep economic crisis this country is experiencing, the labor reforms introduced by the previous government have failed to avoid layoffs being the main response mechanism to a fall in demand," the secretary of state for employment, Engracia Hidalgo, said.

[Fuddnik]

49. Michael Hudson: Doomsday Scenario. What happens when banks control the economy.

Last edited Fri Feb 3, 2012, 03:06 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.alternet.org/economy/153971/doomsday_scenario%3A_what_happens_when_banks_control_the_economy/

Doomsday Scenario: What Happens When Banks Control the Economy?
Banks weren't meant to be in control of our economy and our governments. How did it get like this and how can we restore sanity to our banking system?
February 1, 2012 |


In medieval times, wealthy bankers lent to kings and princes as their major customers. But now it is the banks that are needy, relying on governments for funding – capped by the post-2008 bailouts to save them from going bankrupt from their bad private-sector loans and gambles.

Yet the banks now browbeat governments – not by having ready cash but by threatening to go bust and drag the economy down with them if they are not given control of public tax policy, spending and planning. The process has gone furthest in the United States. Joseph Stiglitz characterizes the Obama administration’s vast transfer of money and public debt to the banks as a “privatizing of gains and the socializing of losses. It is a ‘partnership’ in which one partner robs the other.” Professor Bill Black describes banks as becoming criminogenic and innovating “control fraud.” High finance has corrupted regulatory agencies, falsified account-keeping by “mark to model” trickery, and financed the campaigns of its supporters to disable public oversight. The effect is to leave banks in control of how the economy’s allocates its credit and resources.

If there is any silver lining to today’s debt crisis, it is that the present situation and trends cannot continue. So this is not only an opportunity to restructure banking; we have little choice. The urgent issue is who will control the economy: governments, or the financial sector and monopolies with which it has made an alliance.

(snip) long.

[Roland99]

51. January U.S. jobs rise 243,000; jobless rate 8.3%

Markets are exuberant!

[Roland99]

53. Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles To Fresh 30 Year Low

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/record-12-million-people-fall-out-labor-force-one-month-labor-force-participation-rate-tumbles-

*that* ain't good.

We have a seriously large % of our working population not working and not looking for work.

Are we seeing extended families moving in together to save costs?

There's a societal change afoot, methinks.

[xchrom]

52. CBO: How Hosed Are We?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/cbo-how-hosed-are-we/252375/

The latest Budget and Economic Outlook is out from the CBO, and boy is it grim reading. The projections continue to deteriorate, largely because the recession has been longer and deeper than the CBO projected. We can now expect $1 trillion deficits even past Obama's first term.



Aha! You want to say. "It's mostly the fault of George Bush and his nefarious tax cuts for the rich!"

If only it were so simple. The ten year cost of the Bush tax cuts is $2.8 trillion, but only about a quarter of that is for the taxes on high earners; the rest is for tax breaks affecting those making less than $250,000 a year. Moreover, "extend tax policies" also assumes that we fix the AMT to prevent it from hitting middle-income voters. That costs another $800 billion over 10 years--about the same as the "tax cuts for the rich".

In other words, the lion's share of that money is going to the middle class, not the rich. To close the deficit, we're going to have to soak them.

[Demeter]

54. Halt in Iran oil could push crude up 30%: IMF

http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/12096

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Wednesday that global crude prices could rise as much as 30 per cent if Iran halts oil exports as a result of United States (US) and European Union (EU) sanctions.

If Iran halts exports to countries without offsets from other sources it would likely trigger an 'initial' oil price jump of 20 to 30 per cent, or about US$20 to US$30 (S$25 - S$38) a barrel, the IMF said in its first public comment on a possible Iranian oil supply disruption.

The IMF highlighted the risks of rising tensions over Iran sanctions in a note on Wednesday sent to deputies from G-20 countries who met in Mexico City last week.

The price impact caused by a cut in Iranian exports could be exacerbated by below average oil stocks in many countries, the result of tight oil market conditions through much of last year, the IMF said.

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THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT, ISN'T IT? IT'S A TWO-FER: SCREW THE IRANIANS AND THE REST OF THE WORLD BESIDES.

YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CRUDE EXPLODES 20-30%?

THE MAYANS WERE RIGHT.

[xchrom]

55. Soaking the Poor, State by State

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/soaking-poor-state-state

You have heard, perhaps, that rich people in America are egregiously overtaxed. And the poor? They're the lucky duckies! Why, 47 percent of Americans pay no taxes at all!

(This is not true, of course. Many poor and elderly Americans pay no federal income tax, but they pay plenty of other taxes.)

Still and all, it's true that the federal income tax is indeed progressive. Conservatives are right about that—though it's not as progressive as it used to be, back before top marginal rates were lowered and capital gains taxes were slashed in half. But conservatives are a little less excited to talk about other kinds of taxes. Payroll taxes aren't progressive, for example. In fact, they're actively regressive, with the poor and middle classes paying higher rates than the rich.

And then there are state taxes. Those include state income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and fees of various kinds. How progressive are state taxes?

Answer: They aren't. The Corporation for Enterprise Development recently released a scorecard for all 50 states, and it has boatloads of useful information. That includes overall tax rates, where CFED's number crunchers conclude that in the median state (Mississippi, as it turns out) the poorest 20 percent pay twice the tax rate of the top 1 percent. In the worst states, the poorest 20 percent pay five to six times the rate of the richest 1 percent. Lucky duckies indeed. There's not one single state with a tax system that's progressive. Click the link to see how your state scores.

[Roland99]

56. EURUSD Tumbles On Rumor Of Papademos Resignation, Eurogroup Meeting Delay

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/eurusd-tumbles-rumor-papademos-resignation-eurogroup-meeting-delay

EURUSD longs just got punk'd again, with the EURUSD surging to over 1.32 on the fake BLS number (1.2 million labor force decline, whatever, with ), when it collapsed by 100 pips as the news we tweeted earlier that Greek PM Papademos may resign today throwing the entire Greek bailout out of the window, if his talks for further austerity fail. From Kathimerini: "Papademos is expected to meet PASOK’s George Papandreou, New Democracy’s Antonis Samaras and Giorgos Karatzaferis of the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) on Saturday. The three politicians will have to agree on measures that will satisfy Greece’s lenders and pave the way for a new bailout. Sources told Kathimerini that the troika is demanding that the minimum wage of 751 euros per month (gross) be reduced and that labor costs in the private sector drop by 25 percent in a bid to help Greece regain competitiveness. Skai TV and radio reported on Friday that should the leaders fail to agree a deal, he will tender his resignation on Monday." And just to make the confusion complete, Jean Claude Juncker just announced there would be no Eurogroup meeting on February 6. So while the market is celebrating the rotation of banker jobs with minimum wage jobs, Greece may be on the verge of blowing up Europe.

[DemReadingDU]

57. Karl Denninger: Employment Report: Blatant And Outrageous Lies

2/3/12 Employment Report: Blatant And Outrageous Lies

There are times when one questions a report as possibly being wrong or in error, and then there are times when one has to raise a flag and say "This is an intentionally false picture being presented by a government agency."

I'm in the latter camp with this one, and it is rare for me to brand something as not possibly wrong and in error, but intentionally fraudulent.


more, and charts too
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=201459

[DemReadingDU]

58. already posted above

2/3/12 Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles To Fresh 30 Year Low

edit to delete

[girl gone mad]

70. Gotta agree with Denninger on this one.

[Roland99]

59. Jan. ISM services index 56.8%

[Hotler]

61. Got a dusting of snow last night here in the Denver area.....

I think I'll go out and sweep off the walks.
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Opps! looks like I'll need the shovel. 12 inches.

[Roland99]

64. BofA, JPM Chase Sued by New York Over MERS

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101443381

[Fuddnik]

65. Finally.

[Tansy_Gold]

67. Time to

And then wait to see if anything actually happens.

[Amonester]

68. gRRREAT TOON! ROFL!

eDIT: "oups!"

[Hotler]

74. I don't need no snow tires. I don't need to clear my windows.

Fucking idiots. Cars that have no business been out stuck at both ends of my block and none have snow tires.

[Tansy_Gold]

75. Take care, Hotler

I saw elsewhere on DU it is snowing a shitstorm in Denver.

You be careful out there!

(And same to any lurkers in the Mile High!)


(It only got to mid 60s here today.)

[Hotler]

76. Yes, it is a big dumping of snow here.

I bet I got about 20-inches here at my house.. We used to winter camp here when I was in Boy Scouts. I was born here and learned early how to drive in it. I learned with a 2-wheel drive pickup with good studed snow tires (not all season) with 300lbs. in the back and did just fine. Now I have a 3/4 ton 4-wheel drive with snows on all four with 300lbs in the back and do really well. The people that are getting stuck 50ft. out of their diveway are the ones with worn out plain jane radials. Even all-season tires are worthless in anything over an 1/2 inch of snow around here, mud & snow tires are iffy also. You need a true snow tire like Blizzak's to be prepared. Tansy I'm doing fine and I'm being safe. Thanks for caring. You guys are the best intertube friends ever. I wish we lived closer to each other so we could get together for food & drink.