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Tansy_Gold

(17,817 posts)
Sun May 11, 2014, 08:47 PM May 2014

STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 12 May 2014

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 12 May 2014[font color=black][/font]


SMW for 9 May 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 9 May 2014
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Dow Jones 16,583.34 +32.37 (0.20%)
S&P 500 1,878.48 +2.85 (0.15%)
Nasdaq 4,071.87 +20.00 (0.00%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.62% +0.01 (0.38%)
30 Year 3.45% +0.02 (0.58%) [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 - 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=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.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.








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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]


34 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 12 May 2014 (Original Post) Tansy_Gold May 2014 OP
There IS a scandal in Benghazi Demeter May 2014 #1
Michigan man found guilty in $46 million Ponzi scheme Demeter May 2014 #2
Why Is Michigan Govt. Trying to Derail Detroit-Area's Urban Farming Movement? Demeter May 2014 #3
There must be some corporate money behind this. tclambert May 2014 #4
A major fresh/seawater port, ample water, flat, fertile land, going cheap Demeter May 2014 #5
REFORM VOW LIFTS CHINA STOCKS, OTHER MARKETS MUTED xchrom May 2014 #6
Promises, promises Demeter May 2014 #10
it's monday. dancing would fly in the face of monday. xchrom May 2014 #11
It was a pleasant surprise Demeter May 2014 #16
ENERGY BILL CAUGHT UP IN KEYSTONE XL DISPUTE xchrom May 2014 #7
FRANCE'S HOLLANDE: AWAITING SIEMENS' ALSTOM OFFER xchrom May 2014 #8
EU MOVES TO BROADEN UKRAINE SANCTIONS LIST xchrom May 2014 #9
It is to laugh Demeter May 2014 #13
Chris Hedges: We're Losing the Last Shreds of Legal Rights to Protect Ourselves from Oligarchy Demeter May 2014 #18
Few people pay attention DemReadingDU May 2014 #29
Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto, Tansy_Gold May 2014 #33
REPORT: VIETNAM, CHINA VESSELS FIRE WATER CANNONS xchrom May 2014 #12
Europe Stocks Rise; Sky Deutschland Jumps on BSkyB Talks xchrom May 2014 #14
Draghi Drives ECB Toward Stimulus Even as Economy Grows xchrom May 2014 #15
America on the Move Becomes Stay-at-Home Nation for Millennials xchrom May 2014 #17
When Washington Took On Wall Street By Alan Brinkley Demeter May 2014 #19
What Piketty Leaves Out By Robert Kuttner Demeter May 2014 #20
Moscow Bond Traders Watch as Crisis Sinks Volumes: Russia Credit xchrom May 2014 #21
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE Demeter May 2014 #27
Europe Deflation Risk Seen by 74% in Global Investor Poll xchrom May 2014 #22
Japanese Dump Most Euro Bonds on Record Amid Ukraine Tension xchrom May 2014 #23
Iran Nuclear Deal Takes Shape With Powers Poised to Expand Ties xchrom May 2014 #24
Yuan Global Push Doubted as Taiwan Deposits Idled: China Credit xchrom May 2014 #25
Multinational companies illegal diversion of funds stymies African development xchrom May 2014 #26
The First One is Especially for Tansy Gold (and me) Demeter May 2014 #28
Expanding Influence: EU Parliament Has More Power Than You Think xchrom May 2014 #30
10 things CEOs won’t tell you Demeter May 2014 #31
Number 11. Fuddnik May 2014 #34
How the Euro Was Saved Demeter May 2014 #32
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
1. There IS a scandal in Benghazi
Sun May 11, 2014, 08:56 PM
May 2014

it has to do with the US picking sides and the CIA arming "their" rebel group....but the GOP will never go there.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
2. Michigan man found guilty in $46 million Ponzi scheme
Sun May 11, 2014, 09:05 PM
May 2014
http://www.freep.com/article/20140510/NEWS06/305100051/1001/rss01



An insurance salesman has been convicted in a $46 million investment scheme involving more than 800 families.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Miles says 43-year-old David McQueen of Byron Center was convicted in federal court in Grand Rapids of six counts of mail fraud, six counts of money laundering and three tax counts stemming from a Ponzi scheme that spanned three years.

McQueen faces up to 20 years in prison on each fraud and money laundering count.

Authorities have said money was collected from investors and invested in a company that turned out to be a fraud. McQueen was accused of keeping $100,000 a month for himself, while payments were made to some investors with cash from others.

Victims included unsophisticated elderly investors.

Investors were sent account statements showing investments were growing.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
3. Why Is Michigan Govt. Trying to Derail Detroit-Area's Urban Farming Movement?
Sun May 11, 2014, 10:48 PM
May 2014
http://www.alternet.org/environment/bizarre-why-michigan-govt-trying-derail-detroit-areas-urban-farming-movement?akid=11794.227380.afIo10&rd=1&src=newsletter990986&t=13&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Michiganders who raise chickens, goats and ​honey ​bees on their residential property have had their right to keep livestock stripped away by the state’s Agriculture and Rural Development Commission, which says they are not protected by the same laws as commercial farms. Urban parts of Michigan, particularly Detroit, have been enjoying a renaissance of small-scale farming in recent years. Much of it has been in the form of community farms, residents providing food for themselves, and small entrepreneurs who sell fresh eggs, dairy, honey, and produce to their neighbors, sometimes off the books. Commission Chair Diane Hanson said that the state’s previous agricultural management rules “were not suitable for livestock in urban and suburban areas.” Now, properties not zoned for agricultural use with 13 or more residences within an eighth of a mile or another residence within 250 feet may be required to cease keeping livestock if asked by local authorities.

Many urban and suburban farmers had assumed that the state’s Right to Farm Act, made law in 1981, extended to those who raise livestock in residential areas and allowed ​them to have livestock without being considered a nuisance, as long as the rules of the Act were followed. The law was originally written to protect farmers from residential encroachment impacting their agricultural operations.​​ This ruling not only has backyard farmers upset, it has been met with opposition from environmental groups. The state’s chapter of the Sierra Club says that the new changes will effectively remove all protections for those raising animals on urban lots or on small acreages....


Burgeoning Movement is Threatened

Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, has been the driving force behind the urban-farming boom in the state. The city, which has been suffering from blight and decay for many years, has seen more than a third of its residential homes abandoned, burned down, or gutted by scavengers over the past few decades. However, among the city’s ruins are some 30,000 acres of rich soil, which are fed by water and roadway infrastructures plenty robust for proper irrigation and food distribution. Now, within the city’s limits, you’ll find everything from modest bungalows with attached hen houses, to fields owned by anti-hunger charities, to educational and community farms. A 300-acre woodlands is being planted on Detroit's East Side. There are plans for the city to host large commercial farming enterprises jumping on the organic, regional and other niche food bandwagons. While urban farms can't compete with rural farms in terms of price per acre, they can compete through product differention and value. Entreprenuers in the Detroit metropolitan area have touted small farms that specialize in hard-to-get ethnic foods and pharmaceutical-grade herbs.

What effect this law will have on urban farming within Detroit's city limits is not known. While there are many advocates for animal husbandry within the city, owning and raising farm animals is illegal within its limits. Still, it's not uncommon to see chicken coops or animal pens in the yards of homes. The city has so many real problems these days that it probably looks the other way. Moreover, Detroit's government is contemplating the employment of goats and sheep to graze on the overgrown turf in the city's numerous empty lots. Allowing this, however, would require changes to the city's urban agriculture ordinance...In the suburbs, also suffering from the state’s drawn-out recession, and in many areas elsewhere in the state, this entrepreneurial movement is also starting to take hold. Roadside stands with locally grown food are sprouting along the metropolitan area’s “mile roads” and boulevards. People sell organic eggs over Craigslist, sometimes delivering them right to the buyer's door.

MORE--NO COMMENT

Cliff Weathers is a senior editor at AlterNet, covering environmental and consumer issues. He is a former deputy editor at Consumer Reports. His work has also appeared in Salon, Car and Driver, Playboy, and Detroit Monthly among other publications. Follow him on Twitter @cliffweathers.

tclambert

(11,080 posts)
4. There must be some corporate money behind this.
Mon May 12, 2014, 12:10 AM
May 2014

Snyder and the Republicans in the Michigan legislature wouldn't make a move unless business lobbyists "asked" them to. By "asked," of course, I mean somebody must be getting campaign contributions out of it. But the Supreme Court said corporate money doesn't cause corruption, so don't call it that.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
5. A major fresh/seawater port, ample water, flat, fertile land, going cheap
Mon May 12, 2014, 06:44 AM
May 2014

Detroit was just WASTED on the 99%....of COURSE the Kochs and others want it! All that infrastructure, going to waste...

Detroit was a city where ordinary people OWNED single family homes. They weren't necessarily fancy, not usually large, but they served several generations of striving immigrants well, giving them a boost into the middle class and savings. And the public schools were once the pride of the nation. Buses ran every 10-15 minutes throughout the city. People weren't crammed cheek and jowl in tiny apartments, with paper thin walls and kids on every side. It was a civilized place. Until the rentiers started to prey upon the poor, and the Capitalists started shipping jobs out: first to the suburbs, and then overseas.

The 1% want to make an easy fortune, gutting the middle class and poor, dispossessing them, stealing and reselling their patrimony. There's no better place than Detroit, the least spoilt of the gutted Big Cities of the USA, in which to do that.

Let those poor people get a way to at least feed themselves, and the jig is up. You'll never get them to give up and leave, or die.

The 1% feel the same way about the REST of the state, too.

There's a reason why I came home to Michigan, after seeing a lot of other places....




This amazing Disney film came out in 1967, during the Long Hot Summer that saw Detroit in flames...

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
6. REFORM VOW LIFTS CHINA STOCKS, OTHER MARKETS MUTED
Mon May 12, 2014, 06:49 AM
May 2014
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-12-04-59-17

BEIJING (AP) -- Stocks in China and Hong Kong soared Monday on promises of financial reform but markets elsewhere were subdued after a record close for the Dow Jones industrial average.

China's Shanghai Composite jumped 2.1 percent to 2,052.87 after the Cabinet promised in an announcement late Friday to allow local governments to issue bonds and to streamline the approval process for initial public stock offerings. It gave no details, but the news also boosted Hong Kong's market with the Hang Seng up 1.8 percent to 22,261.61.

Other markets were more subdued despite a rebound in U.S. tech stocks which pushed the Dow to a record close on Friday. Tensions between the West and Russia over the future of Ukraine continue to provide a negative backdrop for investment sentiment.

Pro-Russian insurgents who organize autonomy referendums in two regions of eastern Ukraine say about 90 percent of voters have backed their calls for sovereignty. The Ukrainian and Western governments have condemned the balloting as a sham and a violation of international law.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
16. It was a pleasant surprise
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:03 AM
May 2014

It's better to fly in the face of Monday, than to have Monday splattered all over one's face, like a pie thrown by a paid stooge...

I used to face every Monday like that....I got a lot of pie that way.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
7. ENERGY BILL CAUGHT UP IN KEYSTONE XL DISPUTE
Mon May 12, 2014, 06:51 AM
May 2014
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SENATE_KEYSTONE_PIPELINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-12-03-08-36

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Days after President Barack Obama touted executive actions aimed at increasing energy efficiency, a bill with similar goals is expected to fall victim to partisan gridlock in the Senate.

A bipartisan bill to promote many of the same efficiency goals Obama touted Friday in California is expected to go down in defeat Monday amid a dispute over the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Co-sponsored by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the energy bill would tighten efficiency guidelines for new federal buildings and provide tax incentives to make homes and commercial buildings more efficient.

The measure is widely popular in the Senate and easily cleared a procedural hurdle last week. But then politics - and the dispute over the Keystone XL pipeline - intervened.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
8. FRANCE'S HOLLANDE: AWAITING SIEMENS' ALSTOM OFFER
Mon May 12, 2014, 06:53 AM
May 2014
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_FRANCE_ALSTOM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-10-07-30-12

BERLIN (AP) -- President Francois Hollande says France is awaiting a detailed offer from German industrial conglomerate Siemens for France's Alstom, but won't prejudge the outcome of a potential takeover battle with General Electric Co.

Hollande says GE's offer for the energy-related businesses of engineering company Alstom isn't good enough, though Alstom favors it. Siemens is considering making an offer for its power-generating business.

Hollande said Saturday after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that France is "particularly attentive" to implications for jobs, locations and where decisions are made.

Merkel said the matter is a business decision "in which, at least from the German side, we're not interfering" but indicated Berlin would view a deal positively "if it brings advantages."

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
9. EU MOVES TO BROADEN UKRAINE SANCTIONS LIST
Mon May 12, 2014, 06:54 AM
May 2014
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EU_UKRAINE_?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-12-06-09-17

BRUSSELS (AP) -- European Union foreign ministers are considering adding more people to its Ukraine sanctions list but are not expected to go beyond visa bans and asset freezes before the May 25 elections in the east European nation.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Monday before an EU foreign ministers' meeting it is essential to show Moscow the bloc is ready to step up measures "depending on Russia's attitude toward the elections" in Ukraine.

He joined other ministers in dismissing Sunday's referendums in parts of eastern Ukraine as shams of democracy, saying "they are illegal by anybody's standards."

To date, the EU has ordered visa bans and asset freezes for 48 people. Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said there was room to add more people to that list before considering tougher action.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
13. It is to laugh
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:00 AM
May 2014

The 1% knows how to crush the apparently powerless 99%, but they are too fearful to do a proper job on other 1%ers, especially when they don't hold all the cards...

Meanwhile, the 99% are finally getting the message, and sharpening their plowshares into swords..


Robert Reich: 6 Principles Populists on the Right and Left Both Agree On

http://www.alternet.org/economy/robert-reich-6-principles-populists-right-and-left-both-agree?akid=11786.227380.dX430w&rd=1&src=newsletter990439&t=4&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

...a new populism on both the left and the right. While still far apart, neo-populists on both sides are bending toward one another and against the establishment... Republican populism is growing, as is the Democratic version, because the public wants it. And it’s not only the rhetoric that’s converging. Populists on the right and left are also coming together around six principles:

1. Cut the biggest Wall Street banks down to a size where they’re no longer too big to fail. Left populists have been advocating this since the Street’s bailout now they’re being joined by populists on the right. David Camp, House Ways and Means Committee chair, recently proposed an extra 3.5 percent quarterly tax on the assets of the biggest Wall Street banks (giving them an incentive to trim down). Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter wants to break up the big banks, as does conservative pundit George Will. “There is nothing conservative about bailing out Wall Street,” says Rand Paul.

2. Resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act, separating investment from commercial banking and thereby preventing companies from gambling with their depositors’ money. Elizabeth Warren has introduced such legislation, and John McCain co-sponsored it. Tea Partiers are strongly supportive, and critical of establishment Republicans for not getting behind it. “It is disappointing that progressive collectivists are leading the effort for a return to a law that served well for decades,” writes the Tea Party Tribune. “Of course, the establishment political class would never admit that their financial donors and patrons must hinder their unbridled trading strategies.”

3. End corporate welfare – including subsidies to big oil, big agribusiness, big pharma, Wall Street, and the Ex-Im Bank. Populists on the left have long been urging this; right-wing populists are joining in. Republican David Camp’s proposed tax reforms would kill dozens of targeted tax breaks. Says Ted Cruz: “We need to eliminate corporate welfare and crony capitalism.”

4. Stop the National Security Agency from spying on Americans. Bernie Sanders and other populists on the left have led this charge but right-wing populists are close behind. House Republican Justin Amash’s amendment, that would have defunded NSA programs engaging in bulk-data collection, garnered 111 Democrats and 94 Republicans last year, highlighting the new populist divide in both parties. Rand Paul could be channeling Sanders when he warns: “Your rights, especially your right to privacy, is under assault… if you own a cellphone, you’re under surveillance.”

5. Scale back American interventions overseas. Populists on the left have long been uncomfortable with American forays overseas. Rand Paul is leaning in the same direction. Paul also tends toward conspiratorial views about American interventionism. Shortly before he took office he was caught on video claiming that former vice president Dick Cheney pushed the Iraq War because of his ties to Halliburton.

6. Oppose trade agreements crafted by big corporations. Two decades ago Democrats and Republicans enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement. Since then populists in both parties have mounted increasing opposition to such agreements. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, drafted in secret by a handful of major corporations, is facing so strong a backlash from both Democrats and tea party Republicans that it’s nearly dead. “The Tea Party movement does not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” says Judson Philips, president of Tea Party Nation. “Special interest and big corporations are being given a seat at the table” while average Americans are excluded.

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
18. Chris Hedges: We're Losing the Last Shreds of Legal Rights to Protect Ourselves from Oligarchy
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:26 AM
May 2014
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/were-post-constitutional-era?akid=11777.227380.84Xwes&rd=1&src=newsletter989243&t=16

The U.S. Supreme Court decision to refuse to hear our case concerning Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which permits the military to seize U.S. citizens and hold them indefinitely in military detention centers without due process, means that this provision will continue to be law. It means the nation has entered a post-constitutional era. It means that extraordinary rendition of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil by our government is legal. It means that the courts, like the legislative and executive branches of government, exclusively serve corporate power — one of the core definitions of fascism. It means that the internal mechanisms of state are so corrupted and subservient to corporate power that there is no hope of reform or protection for citizens under our most basic constitutional rights. It means that the consent of the governed — a poll by OpenCongress.com showed that this provision had a 98 percent disapproval rating — is a cruel joke. And it means that if we do not rapidly build militant mass movements to overthrow corporate tyranny, including breaking the back of the two-party duopoly that is the mask of corporate power, we will lose our liberty.

“In declining to hear the case Hedges v. Obama and declining to review the NDAA, the Supreme Court has turned its back on precedent dating back to the Civil War era that holds that the military cannot police the streets of America,” said attorney Carl Mayer, who along with Bruce Afran devoted countless unpaid hours to the suit. “This is a major blow to civil liberties. It gives the green light to the military to detain people without trial or counsel in military installations, including secret installations abroad. There is little left of judicial review of presidential action during wartime.”


Afran, Mayer and I brought the case to the U.S. Southern District Court of New York in January 2012. I was later joined by co-plaintiffs Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, journalist Alexa O’Brien, RevolutionTruth founder Tangerine Bolen, Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir and Occupy London activist Kai Wargalla...Later in 2012 U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest declared Section 1021(b)(2) unconstitutional. The Obama administration not only appealed — we expected it to appeal — but demanded that the law be immediately put back into effect until the appeal was heard. Forrest, displaying the same judicial courage she showed with her ruling, refused to do this. The government swiftly went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. It asked, in the name of national security, that the court stay the district court’s injunction until the government’s appeal could be heard. The 2nd Circuit agreed. The law went back on the books. My lawyers and I surmised that this was because the administration was already using the law to detain U.S. citizens in black sites, most likely dual citizens with roots in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen. The administration would have been in contempt of court if Forrest’s ruling was allowed to stand while the federal authorities detained U.S. citizens under the statute. Government attorneys, when asked by Judge Forrest, refused to say whether or not the government was already using the law, buttressing our suspicion that it was in use.

The 2nd Circuit overturned Forrest’s ruling last July in a decision that did not force it to rule on the actual constitutionality of Section 1021(b)(2). It cited the Supreme Court ruling in Clapper v. Amnesty International, another case in which I was one of the plaintiffs, to say that I had no standing, or right, to bring the NDAA case to court. Clapper v. Amnesty International challenged the secret wiretapping of U.S. citizens under the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The Supreme Court had ruled in Clapper that our concern about government surveillance was “speculation.” It said we were required to prove to the court that the FISA Act would be used to monitor those we interviewed. The court knew, of course, that the government does not disclose whom it is monitoring. It knew we could never offer proof. The leaks by Edward Snowden, which came out after the Supreme Court ruling, showed that the government was monitoring us all, along with those we interviewed. The 2nd Circuit used the spurious Supreme Court ruling to make its own spurious ruling. It said that because we could not show that the indefinite-detention law was about to be used against us, just as we could not prove government monitoring of our communications, we could not challenge the law. It was a dirty game of judicial avoidance on two egregious violations of the Constitution.

In refusing to hear our lawsuit the courts have overturned nearly 150 years of case law that repeatedly holds that the military has no jurisdiction over civilians. Now, a U.S. citizen charged by the government with “substantially supporting” al-Qaida, the Taliban or those in the nebulous category of “associated forces” — some of the language of Section 1021(b)(2) — is lawfully subject to extraordinary rendition on U.S. soil. And those seized and placed in military jails can be kept there until “the end of hostilities.”.....The government, by ignoring the rights and needs of ordinary citizens, is jeopardizing its legitimacy. This is dangerous. When a citizenry no longer feels that it can find justice within the organs of power, when it feels that the organs of power are the enemies of freedom and economic advancement, it makes war on those organs. Those of us who are condemned as radicals, idealists and dreamers call for basic reforms that, if enacted, will make peaceful reform possible. But corporate capitalists, now unchecked by state power and dismissive of the popular will, do not see the fires they are igniting. The Supreme Court ruling on our challenge is one more signpost on the road to dystopia. It is capitalism, not government, that is the problem. The fusion of corporate and state power means that government is broken. It is little more than a protection racket for Wall Street. And it is our job to wrest government back. This will come only through the building of mass movements.

“It is futile to be ‘anti-Fascist’ while attempting to preserve capitalism,” George Orwell wrote. “Fascism after all is only a development of capitalism, and the mildest democracy, so-called, is liable to turn into Fascism.”


MORE

Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, writes a regular column for Truthdig every Monday. Hedges also wrote 12 books, including the New York Times bestseller “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012)," which he co-authored with the cartoonist Joe Sacco. Hedges's most recent book is "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle."


xchrom

(108,903 posts)
12. REPORT: VIETNAM, CHINA VESSELS FIRE WATER CANNONS
Mon May 12, 2014, 06:58 AM
May 2014
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_VIETNAM_CHINA_OIL_RIG?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-12-05-50-14

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- State media say a Vietnamese patrol boat has exchanged water cannon fire with Chinese vessels near an oil rig recently positioned by China in disputed waters.

Two journalists for the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported they witnessed the exchange Monday in the South China Sea.

It was the first reported incident since last Wednesday in a tense standoff at the oil rig, which is surrounded by dozens of Chinese vessels. Both sides have accused the other of ramming ships.

The newspaper said the Vietnamese vessel displayed a banner in Chinese urging Beijing to withdraw the rig.

It said Chinese ships fired water cannons first, after which the Vietnamese ship responded.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
14. Europe Stocks Rise; Sky Deutschland Jumps on BSkyB Talks
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:01 AM
May 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/europe-stock-index-futures-rise-after-posting-weekly-gain.html

European stocks rose, as mining companies advanced, and Sky Deutschland AG rallied after British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc said it’s in talks to buy the company. U.S. index futures and Asian shares outside Japan rose.

A gauge of commodity producers gained to a one-month high as JPMorgan Chase & Co. recommended buying shares in miners on signs of a recovery in Chinese demand. Sky Deutschland jumped the most in three months. Logitech International SA added 5 percent as Credit Suisse Group AG advised buying the stock. Alstom SA added 2.9 percent after a report that Siemens AG may improve its offer for the company’s energy unit.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.3 percent to 339.64 at 10:54 a.m. in London. The equity benchmark gained for the fourth straight week last week as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers are ready to take action in June. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.2 percent today, and the MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index rose 0.5 percent.

“Markets could be in for a little bit more smooth sailing in the next months,” said Allan von Mehren, chief analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Equities have underperformed other markets because correction risk was very high. Now the global economy is accelerating, central banks are dovish, companies are making acquisitions, and it’s hard to see what could keep the market down from here.”

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
15. Draghi Drives ECB Toward Stimulus Even as Economy Grows
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:03 AM
May 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-11/draghi-drives-ecb-toward-stimulus-even-as-economy-grows.html


The euro-area’s fastest economic growth in three years probably won’t be enough to stop Mario Draghi from easing monetary policy.

Even with data this week predicted to show the expansion accelerated in the first quarter, the European Central Bank president looks set to push ahead with measures that could range from rate cuts to liquidity injections. Inflation stuck at less than half the ECB’s goal points to a revival that is still too slow, according to economists from UniCredit SpA to UBS AG.

“A slightly stronger economy isn’t going to change much,” said Marco Valli, chief euro-area economist at UniCredit in Milan, who expects the ECB to cut both the benchmark and the deposit rate in June. “The ECB is becoming increasingly intolerant of low inflation.”

Draghi is fighting to prevent a prolonged period of subdued price gains from derailing the recovery in the 18-nation currency bloc before it becomes entrenched. His declaration last week that officials are “comfortable” with taking action in June suggests a new policy response is imminent.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
17. America on the Move Becomes Stay-at-Home Nation for Millennials
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:05 AM
May 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/america-on-the-move-becomes-stay-at-home-nation-for-millennials.html

Ryan Yang could have taken a job in a New Jersey DNA sequencing laboratory after graduating from college last year. Instead, the 23-year-old lives with his family in Queens, New York, still unemployed and searching.

With the expense of commuting or relocating, “I thought about it and it just didn’t seem right,” said Yang, a biology major who rejected the job 50 miles away in Piscataway to look for opportunities closer to home. “If I was previously living in New Jersey, I think I would have taken that job in a heartbeat.”

Yang belongs to the age group, adults under 35, that’s traditionally the most mobile part of an American work force constantly on the move since the 19th century. Now, that’s changing as members of the millennial generation, the estimated 85 million born from 1981 through 2000, prove less restless than their forebears. The standstill may be holding back recovery in the labor and housing markets.

“They remain stuck in place,” said William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who specializes in migration issues. “The recent slowdown is really an interaction of demographics and a continued housing- and labor-market freeze. Millennials are mired down, very cautious about buying a home or moving to new areas.”
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
19. When Washington Took On Wall Street By Alan Brinkley
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:30 AM
May 2014
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/06/pecora-201006


Nearly 80 years ago, on Capitol Hill, Ferdinand Pecora forced J. P. Morgan Jr. and other “banksters” to reveal the corruption that had fueled the Great Depression—bringing shame on the financial industry and resulting in new laws to curb abuses. Today, with Republicans having threatened to block reform and Goldman Sachs fighting fraud charges, the author looks back at the Pecora Commission hearings, which riveted America, and asks why there is no comparable investigation now....

J.P. Morgan Jr. was terrified. He was the most famous and arguably the most powerful banker in the United States, and also among the most secretive. But in May 1933, in the aftermath of the greatest financial crisis in the history of the United States, he was being called to testify before the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency to explain how the catastrophe had occurred. Morgan dreaded the prospect, in part because it was a painful reminder of his famous father’s unhappy experience testifying before the 1912 Pujo Committee, which had investigated the “money trust” (and was partly responsible for the creation of the Federal Reserve Board). The elder Morgan, mercilessly interrogated, had died shortly after the hearings. Many of his associates, not least his son, had blamed his death on his public humiliation.

Now it was the younger Morgan’s turn. Known to friends and associates as Jack, he was 65 years old and semi-retired. He feared that he might not be able to answer the committee’s questions, and he was even more afraid that he might lose his temper. His partners rehearsed Jack Morgan for days, peppering him with hostile and insulting questions. In the meantime, the Morgan bank’s powerful lawyer, John W. Davis, tried to keep the committee at bay. A onetime Democratic presidential nominee, Davis had helped pass a New York law barring any investigation of private bankers, and he argued in court that the Morgan bank was therefore entitled to privacy. But the U.S. Senate passed a resolution requiring the bank to open its books. The bank reluctantly complied and agreed to let Morgan testify.

He was to be questioned by Ferdinand Pecora, a former prosecutor who was now the special counsel to the committee. Pecora was known to be tough and unrelenting, and the prospect of his cross-examination attracted enormous publicity. There was front-page coverage on newspapers across the country. A large and eager crowd swarmed the Senate Office Building. “They thronged about the door and packed the corridor nearing the committee room,” The New York Times reported, “so that in the morning those who had business inside had to fight their way through. Only a large detail of policemen and a rope prevented a similar scene in the afternoon, and even motorcycle policemen wearing cartridge belts and revolvers were called to police the room.”

Pecora’s questioning of Morgan was only partly an effort to tease out information about the bank’s internal practices. Pecora knew that the enigmatic quality of the Morgan bank had given rise to myriad conspiracy theories and a broad popular belief that the bank exercised a malign and hidden global power—as Goldman Sachs and other banks are seen by some to exercise today. Pecora also hoped to stoke the public’s wrath toward the financiers, whom most Americans held responsible for the Wall Street crash. And he knew how to deploy both menace and ridicule. But Morgan swallowed his fear and marched into the packed room, “massive and dignified, but less grimly masterful than his father, in a manner which could not fail to be impressive,” the Times noted.

“I state without hesitation,” Morgan said at the conclusion of his carefully written opening statement, “that I consider the private banker a national asset and not a national danger.” Pecora had an impeccable sense of timing. He almost immediately asked Morgan a single question: “What is your business or profession?” When Morgan replied, “Private banker,” the audience burst into laughter. His humiliation was only just beginning.


A GOOD READ
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
20. What Piketty Leaves Out By Robert Kuttner
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:35 AM
May 2014
http://prospect.org/article/what-piketty-leaves-out

Despite some losses to financial capital during the Great Depression, the more powerful era of equality in the U.S. began during World War II...

We have many reasons to be grateful to Thomas Piketty. His justly celebrated book makes it impossible to deny that the concentration of income and wealth are again approaching Gilded Age levels, far beyond what is required for incentive and efficiency. For the past 15 years, Piketty and his colleagues have put together the most comprehensive data set on inequality ever assembled. Now, in Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Piketty addresses his subject as a well-educated intellectual, not a myopic number-cruncher. He is as likely to rely on novelists Jane Austen and Honoré de Balzac as on economist Simon Kuznets for insights on social class and inherited wealth, and the tale he tells reconnects the economic with the political. The prose is precise, but this is just not a technical tome, and the fine translation by Arthur Goldhammer renders the text in clear, idiomatic English.

As an economic historian, Piketty begins by rebutting the theorem propounded by Kuznets in the mid-1950s that early capitalism increases inequality as vast fortunes are made and redoubled but that mature capitalism tends to diffuse its benefits. Piketty demonstrates that Kuznets was extrapolating from a special case in the history of capital, and his optimism was premature. Rather, wealth in a capitalist economy tends to concentrate absent exceptional circumstances. More on those exceptions in a moment. Wealth concentrates for several, mutually reinforcing reasons. First, income on capital tends to grow faster than gross domestic product. If interest, dividends, and other returns to capital (“rents,” in classical usage) grow at 5 percent or 6 percent, as they have on average for more than two centuries, but GDP only grows at 1 percent or 2 percent, then the rich get richer and wealth becomes more concentrated over time. Second, the very wealthy are able to realize higher returns than the merely moderately wealthy, because they have access to well-paid advisers, insider knowledge, and techniques such as hedge-fund investing, flash trading, and other plays not available to the ordinary small investor. Third, inequality of wealth and income tend to be mutually reinforcing.

Piketty is also superb at demolishing several conceits that together make up the ideology of conservative economics. The idea that workers and capitalists are paid according to their skills or the marginal value of their product, Piketty says, is valid only as a gross generalization and is more like convenient myth: The labor market “is a social construct based on specific rules and compromises.” Education does not solve the problem of rising inequality because education is not its main source. Top executives, he writes, increasingly “have the power to set their own remuneration.” In a market system, monopoly profits are supposed to be competed away. But much extreme entrepreneurial wealth that appears to be justly earned is the function of rigged rules and the innovations by others in the public domain. Bill Gates, as Piketty notes, “enjoyed a virtual monopoly in operating systems” and relied on the research of thousands of unsung scientists and engineers.

The only exception to a relentless trend of wealth concentration that dates to at least the French Revolution, Piketty says, is the “historical accident” of the period between 1914 and 1945. But it is here, just when the story gets interesting, that he often loses focus. If something happened during those three decades that altered the tendency of inequality to concentrate, we need to know just what occurred—politically as well as statistically—and how the exceptional period of greater equality might be replicated. Was it inevitable that capitalism should revert to its long-term trend? Or could the right policies grounded in the right politics once again bend it toward a distribution that looked more like that of the postwar boom? What transpired between 1914 and 1945 that changed the trajectory of inequality? Two world wars, inflation, depression, the rise of fascism, Bolshevism, the New Deal—and the triumph of the democracies at a moment when domestic power alignments made possible more egalitarian policies than usual. All this affected inequality via the loss of a lot of inherited wealth and the weakening of finance as a class. Then in the postwar era, we saw the strengthening of labor and of public institutions dedicated to more generally shared prosperity. Piketty, however, chooses to emphasize one aspect of this history—the destruction of wealth....

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
21. Moscow Bond Traders Watch as Crisis Sinks Volumes: Russia Credit
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:44 AM
May 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-11/moscow-bond-traders-watch-as-crisis-sinks-volumes-russia-credit.html


Russian bond traders are sitting out the deepening crisis with Ukraine as foreign investors pull their cash and losses accumulate.

Secondary-market bond volumes on the Moscow Exchange slid 43 percent in April to 759 billion rubles ($22 billion), the biggest year-on-year drop since at least 2010, according to data on the bourse website. South African trading dropped 24 percent to 1.39 trillion rand ($134 billion) last month from a year earlier, Johannesburg Stock Exchange figures show.

The collapse in trading coincides with escalating turmoil as the U.S. and European allies slap sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle amid the crisis in Ukraine, threatening to help push Russia into a recession. While bonds have slumped, rising volatility has fueled stock-exchange volumes as investors speculate about whether specific companies and their owners would be targeted for penalties.

“People don’t want to realize the losses suffered in the selloff because of the crisis,” Olga Naydenova, an analyst at BCS Financial Group in Moscow, said by e-mail on May 8. “So bond volumes drop.”
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
27. PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
Mon May 12, 2014, 08:04 AM
May 2014

I walked the puppy this morning and got a chance to look around.

The flowering trees took a severe hit during the abnormally long, abnormally cold winter.

I've lost at least 2 roses of long standing from the protected part of my garden, and I doubt that the peach tree will have many flowers (there are a couple of buds, I think, still left, but I'll be lucky to get any fruit. I still have last year's crop, ready for 1 glorious pie, in the freezer...) It is alive and leafing out nicely, at least. That means hope for next year.

The crabapples are trying, but it seems erratic which ones will make it, and which are half-dead. Some appear untouched.

It might be a good year to plant more fruit trees, in the hopes that lightning will wait a few years. I'm definitely going to have to plant more roses.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
22. Europe Deflation Risk Seen by 74% in Global Investor Poll
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:47 AM
May 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-11/europe-deflation-risk-seen-by-74-in-global-investor-poll.html

Financial professionals are optimistic about the global economy, just not as fervent about it as they were at the start of the year. That’s the message from the latest Bloomberg Markets Global Investor Poll, which shows concern about risks ranging from the turmoil in Ukraine to the threat of deflation in Europe.

Forty percent of respondents in the survey of Bloomberg customers say the global economy is improving, another 43 percent say it’s stable, and only 12 percent say it’s deteriorating. Still, the enthusiasm has cooled: 59 percent thought the economy was improving in the last edition of the poll, in January; that was the highest reading since the world emerged from recession in 2009.

“I wouldn’t say investors are nervous, but they’re skeptical,” says Jack Ablin, who helps manage $66 billion in assets as chief investment officer of BMO Private Bank in Chicago.

The poll, conducted quarterly since late 2009, samples the opinions of traders, bankers and money managers who subscribe to the Bloomberg Professional service. Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, collected responses from 594 customers from April 22 to 24. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points and is weighted to reflect the global distribution of Bloomberg users.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
23. Japanese Dump Most Euro Bonds on Record Amid Ukraine Tension
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:48 AM
May 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/japan-sold-record-1-96-trillion-yen-euro-currency-bonds-in-march.html

Japanese investors sold a record amount of euro-denominated long and medium-term bonds in March, Ministry of Finance data showed today.

Money managers in Japan made net sales of 1.96 trillion yen ($19.2 billion), capping four months of reductions, the Tokyo-based Ministry of Finance said today. That’s the longest stretch of sales since the 10 months ended December 2011, during the euro region’s sovereign-debt crisis. Last year, Japanese investors bought a net 5.39 trillion yen of such bonds.

Europe’s economies may face headwinds after President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in March, setting off the most intense confrontation between Russia and the U.S., along with its European allies, since the Cold War. Tensions simmered after pro-Russian groups hailed a large majority in favor of secession in a referendum they organized yesterday in eastern Ukraine that the government in Kiev dismissed as illegitimate.

“The situation in Ukraine may have played a part,” Ayako Sera, a Tokyo-based market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Ltd., said in reference to euro debt selling. “It’s possible Japanese money will be forced to go back into some of the higher yielding countries in the region going forward. The global hunt for yield is likely to continue for some time.”

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
24. Iran Nuclear Deal Takes Shape With Powers Poised to Expand Ties
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:51 AM
May 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-11/iran-nuclear-deal-takes-shape-with-powers-poised-to-expand-ties.html

Diplomats will start drafting a final accord this week to resolve a decade-long standoff with Iran that would rescind oil and banking sanctions in return for limits on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

The five days of scheduled talks in Vienna will be the longest round of haggling since November, when diplomats agreed to a temporary accord. U.S., Russian and Iranian officials have said drafting should begin this week to meet a July 20 target.

“The parties to the negotiation are somehow condemned to succeed,” Francois Nicoullaud, a policy analyst and France’s former ambassador to Iran, said in an interview. “On the Western side, there is no real Plan B.”

A stream of diplomats, including the Austrian and Swedish foreign ministers, and international companies have headed to Iran over the past few months. Six hundred energy companies attended a Tehran investment conference last week. Russia and Iran are negotiating multiple technology and energy trade agreements.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
25. Yuan Global Push Doubted as Taiwan Deposits Idled: China Credit
Mon May 12, 2014, 07:53 AM
May 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-11/yuan-global-push-doubted-as-taiwan-deposits-idled-china-credit.html

Yuan deposits in Taiwan that surged fivefold in the past year are mostly sitting idle, according to global banks who say more investment options are needed to make the renminbi a global currency.

Credit Suisse Group AG estimates that about half of the 268 billion yuan ($43 billion) of savings on the island are re-deposited at Bank of China’s Taipei branch, while only 7 percent is used for loans. The territory’s sales of yuan notes, known as Formosa bonds, were 1.5 billion yuan this year, while Taiwan has yet to receive a qualified investor quota allowing it to invest the funds in China’s onshore market.

“Many banks were very proactive in building up a liquidity pool in the shortest time, betting that there will be a corresponding regulatory development in the end,” said Raymond Yeung, a Hong Kong-based economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “The critical question is how to deploy the huge amount of deposits sitting on only one side of the balance sheet.”

Taiwan’s case shows the difficulty global financial centers including London, New York and Singapore will have in making full use of yuan deposits as China’s government takes an ad hoc approach to lifting capital controls. While Asia’s largest economy is seeking to boost the global role of the yuan, foreign investors must apply for quotas to invest in onshore bond and stock markets.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
26. Multinational companies illegal diversion of funds stymies African development
Mon May 12, 2014, 08:02 AM
May 2014
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/11/multinational-companies-illegal-diversion-of-funds-stymies-african-development/

More than $60bn (£36bn) has been illegally siphoned out of Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania over 10 years, with most of it squirrelled away in tax havens, according to a report by financial transparency campaigners.

Washington-based group Global Financial Integrity (GFI) said the “enormous amounts of money” drained out of the countries equates to more than double the international aid money they receive and is stymieing efforts to lift millions of people out of poverty.

GFI’s report, published on Monday, said most of the funds are lost through multinational companies illegal misinvoicing the value of imported or exported goods. It means that importers pretend to pay more for goods than they actually pay and the extra money is slipped into offshore bank accounts. In one notable case an American company invoiced for plastic buckets at $972 each.

“We are talking about a huge drainage out of these countries,” GFI president Raymond Baker said: “People are making millions and millions at the expenses of the world’s poorest people.”
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
28. The First One is Especially for Tansy Gold (and me)
Mon May 12, 2014, 08:22 AM
May 2014




That's what comes of jumping the gun...wait until the copays start piling in...


And This One Is For Elizabeth Warren!

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
30. Expanding Influence: EU Parliament Has More Power Than You Think
Mon May 12, 2014, 08:40 AM
May 2014
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-continuously-growing-power-of-european-parliament-a-968365.html

It is a sunny Monday evening in April and there is but a single item on the European Parliament's agenda: that of not being taken seriously. In the body's Strasbourg headquarters, a 200,000 square meter (2.2 million square foot) building with 1,133 offices that go unused 321 days a year, it is time for the "One-Minute Speeches." Every member of parliament has 60 seconds to say whatever they like. It is a privilege written into parliament's Rules of Procedure.

Among those to speak is Catherine Stihler, a member of Britain's Labour Party. With a trembling voice, she commemorates a certain John Muir, born on April 21, 1838 in Scotland. He is, she says, the father of the modern-day environmental movement. She is followed by the German representative Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, who also holds Greek citizenship. He represents the business-friendly Free Democrats -- and his political career is in doubt after it was revealed in 2011 that he plagiarized parts of his Ph.D. thesis. He holds up a walking stick and a woolen cap and says that they belonged to a Greek pensioner who killed himself in response to the austerity measures imposed by Europe. "Show a bit of sympathy!" he exhorts his listeners. Finally, an independent Austrian parliamentarian, Hans-Peter Martin, steps up to the podium to warn his colleagues about another Austrian member of parliament, Martin Ehrenhauser, who, he claims, has been hacking the private email accounts of European lawmakers.
The speakers are careful to fix their gaze in front of them, though hardly anybody is listening and most of the chairs in the plenary hall are empty. Later, their staff will load videos of their one-minute speeches onto YouTube so that voters back home can watch the important speech their representative just delivered.

The mini-speeches mark the standard beginning to another week at the European Parliament, a body that Germany's Constitutional Court recently argued was not yet a true parliament.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
31. 10 things CEOs won’t tell you
Mon May 12, 2014, 08:41 AM
May 2014

1. My pay is rising much faster than yours.

2. The higher my pay, the lower my productivity. DUH!

3. The pay’s great, but my job security isn’t so hot.

4. I’ll cash out at the first opportunity.

5. Even my own executives doubt me… WITH GOOD REASON

6. …but I’m chummy with my auditors. PROTECTING THE REAR

7. I belong to a boy’s club I THINK WE KNOW THAT ALREADY

8. Activist shareholders pull my strings. JUST THE WRONG ACTIVISTS, AND THE WRONG STRINGS

9. The public is on my case on Twitter WHAT PRICE DATA NOW?

10. I know you don’t trust me. AND HE DOESN'T CARE.

https://secure.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-ceos-wont-tell-you-2014-05-09?pagenumber=10


 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
32. How the Euro Was Saved
Mon May 12, 2014, 08:50 AM
May 2014
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f6f4d6b4-ca2e-11e3-ac05-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=published_links/rss/home_us/feed//product&siteedition=uk

To the astonishment of almost everyone in the room, Angela Merkel began to cry. “Das ist nicht fair.” That is not fair, the German chancellor said angrily, tears welling in her eyes. “Ich bringe mich nicht selbst um.” I am not going to commit suicide. For those who witnessed the breakdown in a small conference room in the French seaside resort of Cannes, it was shocking enough to watch Europe’s most powerful and emotionally controlled leader brought to tears. But the scene was even more remarkable, those present said, for the two objects of her ire: the man sitting next to her, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the other across the table, US President Barack Obama. It would be the low point in a brutal, recrimination-filled night, one many participants would recall as the nadir of the three-year eurozone crisis. Mr Sarkozy had hoped his leadership of the Group of 20 summit would cement his standing on the global stage en route to re-election. Instead, everything was falling apart.

Greece was imploding politically; Italy, a country too big to bail out, appeared just days away from being cut off from global financial markets; and Ms Merkel, try as Mr Sarkozy and Mr Obama might, could not be convinced to increase German contributions to the eurozone’s “firewall” – the “big bazooka” or “wall of money” they believed had to grow dramatically to fend off attacks by panicking bond traders. Instead, a cornered Ms Merkel threw the French and American criticism back in their faces. If Mr Sarkozy or Mr Obama did not like the way her government ran, they had only themselves to blame. After all, it was their allied militaries that had “imposed” the German constitution on a defeated wartime foe six decades earlier.

“It was the point where clearly the eurozone as we know it could have exploded,” said a member of the French delegation at Cannes. “It was the feeling [that with] the contagion, at this point, you were on the brink of explosion.”


And yet less than a year after that November 2011 night, the existential crisis for Europe’s single currency would, for all intents and purposes, be over. The markets that once threatened to tear the euro apart would be tamed and the seemingly endless series of all-night emergency summits would come to an end. When the history of the eurozone crisis is written, the period from late 2011 through 2012 will be remembered as the months that forever changed the European project. Strict budget rules were made inviolable; banking oversight was stripped from national authorities; and the printing presses of the European Central Bank would become the lender of last resort for failing eurozone sovereigns. Next week, European voters will go to the polls to render a verdict on what EU leaders created over those 12 months. If opinion polling is any indication, their judgment will be harsh: anti-EU parties are poised for unprecedented gains from France to Finland, Athens to Amsterdam.

Over the course of the past six months, the Financial Times has interviewed dozens of participants in those decisions to tell the full story of how this new eurozone was created. From mid-level bureaucrats to prime ministers, they tell an unsettling tale of accidents, near misses and seemingly foolhardy brinkmanship. But in the end, these same leaders appear to have prevailed. The euro has been saved. The Europe they have created, for good or for ill, will be their legacy.


WHAT FOLLOWS IS A SERIES OF VIGNETTES, SHOWING HOW INCREDIBLY TINY THESE PEOPLE ARE: TINY IN THEIR INTELLECTS, THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF ANYTHING, THEIR CAPACITY TO GROW AND CHANGE, THEIR STATEMANSHIP, JUST ABOUT ANY QUALITY ONE EXPECTS AND NEEDS IN A LEADER.

AND PETTY. MY GOD, THEY ARE PETTY.

THEY THINK MONEY IS THE ANSWER TO ALL THEIR PROBLEMS....BUT NOT ANYONE ELSE'S; LIKE THE PEOPLE THEY ARE PUTATIVELY LEADING...

YOU KNOW FROM THE OPENING, THIS ISN'T GOING TO END WELL.
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