STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 20 May 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 20 May 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 19 May 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 19 May 2014
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Dow Jones 16,511.86 +20.55 (0.12%)
S&P 500 1,885.08 +7.22 (0.38%)
Nasdaq 4,125.81 +35.23 (0.86%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.54% +0.04 (1.60%)
30 Year 3.38% +0.05 (1.50%)[font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
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]

[Demeter]

1. Annual Meeting tonight!

Our condo association will hold its annual meeting and election of 4 board members tonight. Demeter is bringing the food....

[Fuddnik]

2. Kevorkianesque?

[Demeter]

3. You are insulting my wheels, man

2002 Impala...my father's last car. It expresses him (at least, it runs). I've put $2000 in repairs in the last year, when it hit 100,000k. That's what free cars cost...

[Demeter]

4. You were prescient, Fuddnik

Hot thread outside of here this week:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024972263

Noah's Ark rides again.

[Fuddnik]

23. I'll probably catch that episode tonight.

Or today.

I DVR them and watch them when I can. I watched 2 episodes lat night, and I think this weeks show is all I have left.

[Demeter]

5. Monday's Funnies

The only logical answer to that is: BOYCOTT! TRUST-BUSTING is so last century...

[xchrom]

6. CHINA WARNS US CYBER CHARGES COULD DAMAGE TIES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_US_CYBERSPYING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-06-31-52

BEIJING (AP) -- China on Tuesday warned the United States was jeopardizing military ties by charging five Chinese officers with cyberspying and tried to turn the tables on Washington by calling it "the biggest attacker of China's cyberspace."

China announced it was suspending cooperation with the United States in a joint cybersecurity task force over Monday's charges that officers stole trade secrets from major American companies. The Foreign Ministry demanded Washington withdraw the indictment.

The testy exchange marked an escalation in tensions over U.S. complaints that China's military uses its cyber warfare skills to steal foreign trade secrets to help the country's vast state-owned industrial sector. A U.S. security firm, Mandiant, said last year it traced attacks on American and other companies to a military unit in Shanghai.

The charges are the biggest challenge to relations since a meeting last summer between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Sunnylands, California.

[Demeter]

7. Grilled Geithner: It's What's for Lunch

The brickbats are flying! A compilation by bobswern of Daily Kos makes an exhaustive list to date:

Krugman on Geithner: He was “…all for bailing out banks but against bailing out families…”

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/19/1300352/-Krugman-on-Geithner-He-was-all-for-bailing-out-banks-but-against-bailing-out-families?detail=email

Then there’s the oft-quoted (amongst fellow Democrats) economist Brad DeLong’s huuuge “WTF!” on the entire propaganda trip that Geithner’s now on; just checkout the headlines of an entire series of overwhelming, literary ballistic missiles that DeLong’s fired off over the past week on Timmy: see HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. (Truly amazing! Don’t think I’ve ever seen DeLong go off like this before.) Even Jared Bernstein, Vice President Biden’s former economic advisor, agrees with DeLong.

And, most recently, Felix Salmon, over the weekend: “Tim Geithner, unreliable narrator,” “You can’t trust what you read in his book.”

There were many other pundits that had (and are still having) “WTF” moments over the past week concerning Tim Geithner’s fictional autobiography.

As of the publication of Monday’s NY Times, we now know that Paul Krugman’s joined that list, too.

As far as calculating the true costs of our country's bailout of Wall Street's concerned, all I can say about that is: it was and IS about a hell of a LOT more than the just the TARP program. In fact, I don't think we'll even come close to knowing the full answer to that question for at least a generation or two. But, as I've noted it many times in previous posts here, this entire episode in our country's history has facilitated and, concurrently, downright institutionalized the greatest financial pillaging of a society in human history.

Springtime for Bankers PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/opinion/krugman-springtime-for-bankers.html?hpw&rref=opinion&_r=0

By any normal standard, economic policy since the onset of the financial crisis has been a dismal failure. It’s true that we avoided a full replay of the Great Depression. But employment has taken more than six years to claw its way back to pre-crisis levels — years when we should have been adding millions of jobs just to keep up with a rising population. Long-term unemployment is still almost three times as high as it was in 2007; young people, often burdened by college debt, face a highly uncertain future.

Now Timothy Geithner, who was Treasury secretary for four of those six years, has published a book, “Stress Test,” about his experiences. And basically, he thinks he did a heckuva job.

He’s not unique in his self-approbation. Policy makers in Europe, where employment has barely recovered at all and a number of countries are in fact experiencing Depression-level distress, have even less to boast about. Yet they too are patting themselves on the back.

How can people feel good about track records that are objectively so bad? Partly it’s the normal human tendency to make excuses, to argue that you did the best you could under the circumstances. And Mr. Geithner can indeed blame much though not all of what went wrong on scorched-earth Republican obstructionism.

But there’s also something else going on. In both Europe and America, economic policy has to a large extent been governed by the implicit slogan “Save the bankers, save the world” — that is, restore confidence in the financial system and prosperity will follow. And government actions have indeed restored financial confidence. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting for the promised prosperity...

Andrew Ross Sorkin, Timothy Geithner, and the Three Card Monte Model of Propaganda YVES SMITH

...Sorkin uses this device to make the story of Geithner’s (by implication) unfairly hostile reception as due to his association with the unpopular TARP. Huh? The TARP was designed by Hank Paulson’s Treasury and depended on Obama, as leading Presidential candidate, whipping for it aggressively in Congress after its initial defeat to secure its passage. It was most decidedly not Geithner’s baby.

The focus on TARP (and to a lesser degree, Lehman) allows Sorkin to omit mention of actions that were clearly Geithner’s doing, including: his fighting Sheila Bair tooth and nail on resolving the clearly insolvent Citigroup; his decision to pay AIG credit default swaps counterparties 100 cents on the dollar; his defense of the failure to haircut AIG employees’ pay; Treasury’s acceptance of intransigence by AIG’s CEO, Robert Benmosche; his refusal to use $75 billion in TARP that Paulson’s Treasury had courteously left aside for homeowner relief; the clearly too permissive “stress tests,”; Geithner’s Treasury allowing banks to repay TARP funds early rather than rebuild their balance sheets (get this: because they were eager to escape very limited restrictions on executive pay); Treasury letting banks repay TARP warrants at an unduly cheap price until Elizabeth Warren’s Congressional Oversight Panel caught them out; his cynical policy of “foaming the runway,” as in using what were billed as homeowner relief programs merely to attenuate foreclosures and thus spread out bank losses, which had the secondary effect of wringing more money out of already stressed borrowers before they were turfed out of their homes. And this is far from a complete list of Geithner’s actions that favored banks over the public at large.

Sorkin instead tries to use the TARP to epitomize that Geithner has been treated unfairly. After all, the TARP was a success! [/div ]

LIES, UPON LIES, UPON LIES....JUST LIKE THE WHOLE TREASURY PLAN WAS

Charges of Lies Swirl Around Tim Geithner’s New Book, “Stress Test” By Pam Marten

http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/05/charges-of-lies-swirl-around-tim-geithner%E2%80%99s-new-book-%E2%80%9Cstress-test%E2%80%9D/

Tim Geithner, former head of the New York Fed during the lead up to the Wall Street melt down, then Secretary of the Treasury in President Obama’s first term, is undergoing his own version of a big bank stress test: does he have the capital to survive the storm he has stirred up with his new, revisionist history book, Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises.

Geithner’s book has barely made it to the bookstore shelves (it’s slated for official release today) and already he’s been called a liar by R. Glenn Hubbard, Dean of the Columbia Business School; Geithner is effectively calling author Ron Suskind a liar in the book; and the book’s attack on Neil Barofsky, former Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has warranted a strong response from Barofsky where he says he doesn’t believe former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson made the remarks that Geithner has attributed to him against Barofsky.

Politico’s MJ Lee explains the ruckus between Hubbard and Geithner. Hubbard was the head of the Council of Economic Advisers during the presidency of George W. Bush and advisor to Mitt Romney during his 2012 campaign. Geithner says in the book that Hubbard told him “Well, of course we have to raise taxes — we just can’t say that now.” Hubbard told Politico this statement “just happens to be a lie.”

Geithner’s looming dispute with Ron Suskind stems from Confidence Men, a book by Suskind published in 2011. The book portrays Geithner as ignoring a directive from President Obama to wind down the teetering behemoth, Citigroup. Instead, Geithner approved the massive bailout package to the insolvent company. In Stress Test, Geithner says no such order ever came from the President, writing that the President “never told me to pursue that path.”

To determine just who is telling the truth in the Suskind-Geithner version of the Citigroup saga, our previous review of Geithner’s appointment calendars for 2007 and 2008 when he was Citigroup’s regulator at the New York Fed might prove instructive. During 2007 and 2008, as Citigroup entered a death spiral resulting from a decade of obscene executive pay, off balance sheet debt, toxic assets and mismanagement, Geithner hobnobbed with Citigroup executives, holding 29 breakfasts, lunches, dinners and other meetings, including one very odd luncheon with Citigroup’s former Chairman and CEO, Sandy Weill. ... MORE

Barofsky explains as follows in his book:

“For a good chunk of our allotted meeting time, Elizabeth Warren grilled Geithner about HAMP, barraging him with questions about how the program was going to start helping home owners. In defense of the program, Geithner finally blurted out, ‘We estimate that they can handle ten million foreclosures, over time,’ referring to the banks. ‘This program will help foam the runway for them.’

“A lightbulb went on for me. Elizabeth had been challenging Geithner on how the program was going to help home owners, and he had responded by citing how it would help the banks. Geithner apparently looked at HAMP as an aid to the banks, keeping the full flush of foreclosures from hitting the financial system all at the same time. Though they could handle up to ‘10 million foreclosures’ over time, any more than that, or if the foreclosures were too concentrated, and the losses that the banks might suffer on their first and second mortgages could push them into insolvency, requiring yet another round of TARP bailouts. So HAMP would ‘foam the runway’ by stretching out the foreclosures, giving the banks more time to absorb losses while the other parts of the bailouts juiced bank profits that could then fill the capital holes created by housing losses.”

The evidence that this is exactly what the plan was is buttressed by the thousands of homeowners who have reported that modifications were promised, they had completed the paperwork, months or even years went by, then with no warning they were foreclosed on by their bank. They were the foam under the landing gear of a hijacked plane and a lunatic control tower.

[xchrom]

8. WHY IS THE LATEST CHINA SPY CASE SO SIGNIFICANT?

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CHINA_CYBERSPYING_QA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-04-13-27

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration has brought unprecedented criminal charges against five officials in the Chinese military for hacking into private U.S. companies' systems and stealing trade secrets. It was the first time the U.S. has revealed any evidence the Chinese government was going after American companies' private information for economic gain.

Q. What happened?

A. A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh charged five Chinese military officials with hacking into six U.S. companies' systems, conducting economic espionage and stealing trade secrets. The targeted companies are leaders in the nation's nuclear power, metals and solar products industries: Alcoa World Alumina, the nation's largest producer of aluminum; Westinghouse Electric Co., one of the world's leaders in the development of nuclear power technology; Allegheny Technologies, a large metals company; U.S. Steel Corp., the largest steel company in the U.S.; United Steelworkers Union, the biggest industrial labor union in the U.S.; and SolarWorld, which makes solar products.

Q. Why is it significant?

A. The indictment is the first of its kind. It fulfills a longtime Obama administration promise to bring charges against nation-state hackers.

The U.S. has brought economic espionage charges against individuals before, but this is believed to be the first time the U.S. has accused members of a foreign government's military with hacking into U.S. companies without ever stepping foot in the country. The U.S. has long been concerned about cyber threats coming from China. The Chinese government has said there should be no finger-pointing without evidence.

[xchrom]

9. KOCH BROTHERS GROUP PREPARES TO FIGHT DETROIT DEAL

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DETROIT_BANKRUPTCY_KOCH_BROTHERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-03-02-04

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group supported by the Koch brothers, has launched an effort to torpedo a proposed settlement in the Detroit bankruptcy case, potentially complicating chances for completing the deal just as its prospects seemed to be improving.

The organization, formed to fight big government and spending, is contacting 90,000 conservatives in Michigan and encouraging them to rally against a plan to provide $195 million in state money to help settle Detroit pension holders' claims in the case, a key element of the deal.

The group has threatened to run ads against members of the Republican-controlled Legislature who vote in favor of the appropriation before the state's August primary. An initial legislative vote may come this week.

Using public money for Detroit's case "is very toxic, especially to out-state and Republican, conservative-leaning individuals," said Scott Hagerstrom, director of the Americans for Prosperity's chapter in the state. "Even out-state Democrats, why send any more money to Detroit? Certainly other areas of the state have needs."

[DemReadingDU]

10. Credit Suisse pleads guilty in US tax evasion case

5/20/14 Credit Suisse pleads guilty in US tax evasion case
Credit Suisse bank pleads guilty in federal tax evasion case, agrees to pay $2.6B
European bank Credit Suisse AG pleaded guilty Monday to helping wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes through secret offshore accounts and agreed to pay about $2.6 billion to the U.S. government and regulators. The Justice Department said it was the largest penalty imposed in any criminal tax case. It is also the largest bank to plead guilty in more than 20 years. The settlement resolves a yearslong criminal investigation into allegations that Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, recruited U.S. clients to open Swiss accounts, helped them conceal the accounts from the Internal Revenue Service and enabled misconduct by bank employees. The case is part of an Obama administration crackdown on foreign banks believed to be helping U.S. taxpayers hide assets.

Law enforcement officials said a criminal charge was necessary to account for the bank's pattern of misconduct, which spanned decades and included a lack of cooperation with investigators and the destruction of critical documents. But the deal was also structured in such a way as to allow the bank to continue operating. The penalties will be paid to the Justice Department, the Federal Reserve and the New York State Department of Financial Services. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was criticized last year after telling Congress that large banks had become hard to prosecute, appeared to foreshadow the guilty plea in a video message earlier this month in which he said no financial institution was "too big to jail."

"A company's profitability or market share can never and will never be used as a shield from prosecution or penalty," Holder told a news conference Monday. "And this action should put that misguided notion definitively to rest."

more...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/credit-suisse-pleads-guilty-us-013242236.html

[xchrom]

11. EU ACCUSES 3 BANKS OF MARKET FIXING

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_BANK_CARTEL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-06-04-33

AMSTERDAM (AP) -- The European Commission's top competition regulator has accused JPMorgan, HSBC and Credit Agricole of colluding to manipulate the price of financial products - "derivatives" - linked to interest rates.

Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Tuesday the banks will now have a chance to respond to his preliminary findings. If the Commission ultimately concludes they have broken the law, it can impose a maximum fine of up to 10 percent of their annual turnover.

In December 2013, the Commission levied fines totaling 1.04 billion euros ($1.42 billion) on Barclays, Deutsche Bank, RBS and Societe Generale as part of the same case, which covers 2005-2008. They were granted a reduction in their fine for cooperating in a settlement.

[xchrom]

12. THAILAND'S ARMY DECLARES MARTIAL LAW, DENIES COUP

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/thailands-army-declares-martial-law-denies-coup

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's powerful army declared martial law Tuesday and deployed troops into the heart of Bangkok in a dramatic move it said was aimed at stabilizing the Southeast Asian country after six months of turbulent political unrest. The military insisted a coup d'etat was not underway.

The surprise, pre-dawn operation, which places the army in charge of public security nationwide, came amid deepening uncertainty over the nation's fate and one day after the caretaker prime minister refused to step down in the face of long-running anti-government protests.

Although soldiers entered multiple television stations to broadcast the army message, life in the vast skyscraper-strewn metropolis of 10 million people remained largely unaffected, with schools, businesses and tourist sites open and traffic flowing as usual.

In front of one of the country's most luxurious shopping malls, bystanders gawked at soldiers in jeeps mounted with machine guns who briefly diverted traffic. The mood wasn't tense; passers-by stopped to take cell phone pictures of the soldiers.

[Demeter]

13. Are Private Banks Unconstitutional? By Ellen Brown

http://truth-out.org/news/item/23781-are-private-banks-unconstitutional

The movement to break away from Wall Street and form publicly-owned banks continues to gain momentum. But enthusiasts are deterred by claims that a state-owned bank would violate constitutional prohibitions against “lending the credit of the state.”... Currently the nation’s only state-owned depository bank, the Bank of North Dakota has been a stellar success and has been going strong ever since 1919. In Green vs. Frazier, 253 U.S. 233 (1920), the US Supreme Court upheld the bank’s constitutionality against a Fourteenth Amendment challenge and deferred to the state court on the state constitutional issues, which had been decided in the state’s favor.

In the nineteenth century, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, and Indiana all had their own state-owned banks. Some were extremely successful (Indiana had a monopoly state-owned bank). These banks, too, withstood constitutional challenge at the US Supreme Court level...The Constitution nowhere gives private banks the power to create the national money supply – and today, private banks are where virtually all of our circulating money supply comes from. Congress ostensibly delegated its authority to issue money to the Federal Reserve in 1913; but it did not delegate that authority to private banks, which have only recently admitted that they do not lend their depositors’ money but actually create new money on their books when they make loans. In the Bank of England’s latest Quarterly Bulletin, it states:

Whenever a bank makes a loan, it simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.

This broad exercise of the money power by private banks is nowhere to be found in our federal or state constitutions, but courts have managed to get around that wrinkle. In Constitutional Law in the United States, Emlin McClain summarizes the case law like this:

A state cannot, even for the purpose of borrowing money, exercise the sovereign power of emitting paper currency (Craig v. Missouri). But this prohibition does not interfere with the power of a state to authorize banks to issue bank notes in the form of due-bills or of similar character, intended to pass as currency on the faith and credit of the bank itself, and not of the state which authorizes their issuance.

The anomalous result is that state-chartered banks are able to issue credit that passes as currency, while state governments are not. But so the cases hold, and they apply to public banks as well as private banks....When enough people understand that private banks rather than governments create our money supply, imposing interest and fees that constitute an enormous unnecessary drain on the economy and the people, we might wake up to a new day in banking, finance, and the return of local economic sovereignty.



Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the best-selling Web of Debt. In The Public Bank Solution, her latest book, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her websites are Web of Debt, Public Bank Solution, and Public Banking Institute.

[AnneD]

29. Thus North Dakota.......

takes care of most credit cards. I am a firm believer that all banks should be nationalized. Rather the people benefit from all those fees and interest.

[xchrom]

14. THAI STOCKS SINK AS MARTIAL LAW DECLARED

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-05-48-25

HONG KONG (AP) -- Thailand's stock market fell and the currency wobbled Tuesday after the military declared martial law in what it called an attempt to stabilize the country's precarious political situation. Stocks elsewhere around the globe were mixed as markets drifted in the absence of major economic news.

The benchmark SET index in Bangkok was down 1.2 percent at 1,393.99. The dollar spiked to about 32.65 baht before easing to about 32.54 baht.

Bangkok remained calm after Thailand's military took control of public security nationwide, surrounding police headquarters in the capital as they broadcast the announcement before dawn from multiple television stations. It requested TV channels run by opposing political camps to suspend broadcasts.

The move, which the military insists is not a coup, follows months of anti-government demonstrations and a refusal by the caretaker prime minister to step down.

[Demeter]

16. Maybe, this will distract the felons from their games in EU and USA...

it's a vain hope, but all I can offer....

Good morning, hail and farewell, X!

I'm off to battle the world and then the Annual Meeting....

[xchrom]

17. SALLY FORTH!11 and don't forget your tiara

[Demeter]

30. I don't think that's Demeter, X

It's flattering, but...

[DemReadingDU]

15. Rogue trader Jerome Kerviel says he won't return to France to serve sentence

5/17/14 Rogue trader Jerome Kerviel says he won't return to France to serve sentence
Convicted former banker due to report to a police station by Sunday but refuses to cross border from Italy after walk from Rome

A French rogue trader facing three years in jail for carrying out one of the biggest trading frauds in history appealed to the French president on Saturday, a day before the deadline to begin serving the sentence.

Jerome Kerviel, who almost took down his bank, Societe Generale, with €4.9 billion (£4bn) in losses, has been on a months-long pilgrimage back to France after meeting Pope Francis. The bronzed and bearded former trader stopped his return just short of the border on Saturday.

Kerviel, convicted in 2010, insists he was the victim of a system that allowed his illegal trades as long as they made money for his bank. An appeals court threw out a fine equal to his losses, but upheld his prison sentence.

Kerviel is supposed to report to start his sentence by Sunday or be considered a fugitive. He said he was appealing to President François Hollande to intervene and offer immunity for anyone who might testify on his behalf.

"I will wait for François Hollande's response on the Italian side," Kerviel said just yards from the French-Italian border near the Riviera town of Menton. "If they want to come and get me, let them come."

more...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10838324/Rogue-trader-Jerome-Kerviel-says-he-wont-return-to-France-to-serve-sentence.html

[xchrom]

18. OBAMA TO HOST CEOS WHOSE FIRMS ARE INVESTING IN US

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_INVESTMENTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-07-17-31

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is hosting executives from 11 foreign and U.S.-based companies that have chosen to open new plants or relocate overseas operations in the United States. The gathering Tuesday is designed to illustrate growing interest in the United States by firms capable of creating high-paying jobs.

Obama is showcasing the effect of an improving economy on job growth during a congressional election year that finds the public still anxious about employment and financial wellbeing.

"The rest of the world is seeing the benefits of `Made in America,' and for good reason," said Jeff Zients, a top Obama adviser and director of the National Economic Council. "Our competitive advantage is very clear."

White House advisers said an effort by Obama to streamline U.S. outreach to foreign companies has resulted in $18 billion in new business investments in the United States in 17 different states and territories. They said the program, called SelectUSA, has helped nearly 500 businesses since October.

[Demeter]

31. Just what we don't need....carpetbaggers

[xchrom]

19. CREDIT SUISSE CASE CALLED WARNING TO FOREIGN BANKS

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/credit-suisse-case-called-warning-foreign-banks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Credit Suisse AG's guilty plea and $2.6 billion payment in a high-profile case brought by the Justice Department are being held out as a warning to foreign banks believed to be helping U.S. taxpayers conceal assets.

Culminating a yearslong criminal investigation, Switzerland's second-largest bank pleaded guilty Monday to helping wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes through secret offshore accounts. Credit Suisse was the largest bank to plead guilty in more than 20 years.

The settlement resolves the investigation into allegations that Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, recruited U.S. clients to open Swiss accounts, helped them conceal the accounts from the Internal Revenue Service and enabled misconduct by bank employees.

The case is part of an Obama administration crackdown on foreign banks believed to be helping U.S. taxpayers hide assets. Justice Department officials said their investigations into secret bank accounts held by Americans in Switzerland and other countries likely will bring forth additional resolutions.

[xchrom]

20. LAWMAKERS PLAN INITIAL VOTE ON DETROIT BANKRUPTCY

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_XGR_DETROIT_BANKRUPTCY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-07-35-38

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan lawmakers are preparing for an initial vote on bills to give $195 million in state money to help Detroit emerge from bankruptcy while keeping the city under state oversight for decades.

The Republican chairman of a House committee plans to vote on the 11-bill package Tuesday but says he may wait a day because a number of changes are being made. City unions oppose provisions in the bills that aren't part of a deal brokered with bankruptcy mediators.

The legislation commits $194.8 million to help prevent steeper cuts to retiree pensions and the sale of pieces at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Foundations and the museum have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, too.

Gov. Rick Snyder says he wants the bills on his desk in June.

[xchrom]

21. CHINA GIVES PUTIN A DIPLOMATIC BOOST

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_RUSSIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-06-12-10

SHANGHAI (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin met Tuesday with China's president in a diplomatic boost for the isolated Russian leader but the two sides had yet to agree on a widely anticipated multibillion-dollar natural gas sale.

Putin, shunned by the West over Ukraine, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a start of a two-day meeting on Asian security with leaders from Iran and Central Asia. The Russian leader is hoping to extend his country's dealings with Asia and diversify markets for its gas, which now goes mostly to Europe.

Russia has been negotiating for more than a decade on a proposed 30-year deal to supply gas to China. Officials said they hoped to complete work in time to sign a contract while Putin is in Shanghai. But Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Tuesday it wasn't finalized.

"Significant progress has been reached on gas, but there are issues that need to be finalized regarding the price," Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies. He said a contract could be signed "at any moment."

[xchrom]

22. UN SAYS FORCED LABOR $150 BILLION-A-YEAR BUSINESS

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/un-says-forced-labor-150-billion-year-business

GENEVA (AP) — Trafficking, forced labor and modern slavery are big business generating profits estimated at $150 billion a year, the U.N. labor agency said Tuesday.

The report by the International Labor Organization finds global profits from involuntary workers — an estimated 21 million of them — have more than tripled over the past decade from its estimate of at least $44 billion in 2005.

ILO Director Guy Ryder said his agency's report Tuesday calls attention to the need "to eradicate this fundamentally evil, but hugely profitable practice as soon as possible."

Two-thirds of the profits come from sexual exploitation, it says, and one third is the result of "forced economic exploitation" that includes domestic and agricultural workers.

[DemReadingDU]

24. Pam Martens: Banking Deaths - Why JPMorgan Stands Out

5/19/14 Banking Deaths: Why JPMorgan Stands Out
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The series of strange deaths has brought unwelcome attention to the fact that mega banks like JPMorgan Chase are allowed to secretly collect life insurance proceeds on the lives of their employees, and former employees, without disclosing the amounts to the families, or the public, or their shareholders. (Other corporations are likewise engaged in this practice.) The payments are a closely guarded secret between the companies and the insurers who collect the lucrative premiums.

The death benefits among all U.S. corporations may now exceed $1 trillion and are growing annually. The practice is called Bank-Owned Life Insurance (BOLI) where banks are involved and Corporate-Owned Life Insurance (COLI) for other corporations. As we reported last month, just four of Wall Street’s largest banks (JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup) hold a total of $68.1 billion in Bank-Owned Life Insurance assets. According to Michael Myers, an expert on BOLI and COLI and a partner in the Houston, Texas law firm McClanahan Myers Espey, L.L.P., those assets could potentially mean that just these four banks are holding $681 billion in face amount of life insurance on their workers, or possibly even more.

The cash buildup in the policies (mostly universal or whole life) is recorded as tax free income to the company and the death benefit is also received tax free. While the banks are not required to publicly report the number of workers they insure, or the life insurance amount per individual, or breakout the income they derive annually from deaths (it’s typically lumped in with numerous other items as “other income”) they do report in public filings to regulators the cash value amount and the year over year growth in cash value. As of December 31, 2013, JPMorgan held $17.9 billion in BOLI assets and had reported a gain of $686 million in the cash buildup. (The $17.9 billion in BOLI assets could represent as much as $179 billion or more in life insurance in force on employees, past and present.)

Key man insurance is an easily justifiable life insurance product for a business. That’s where the company insures the lives of its key principals whose loss would have a very real financial and operational impact. But BOLI and COLI have become known as dead peasant insurance because many companies are taking out policies on employees in bulk, often including rank and file workers. And there is evidence that companies grouse when workers have the temerity not to die as projected.
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Wall Street On Parade decided to seek the details on the life insurance held by JPMorgan by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with its Federal bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with the New York State Department of Insurance, now bundled into the New York State Department of Financial Services. The OCC told us that it had documents responsive to our request but it would not provide them to us because they are “privileged or contains trade secrets, or commercial or financial information, furnished in confidence, that relates to the business, personal, or financial affairs of any person,” or relate to “a record contained in or related to an examination.” (See OCC Response to Wall Street On Parade’s Request for Banker Death Information)

More shocking, the New York State regulator said it “does not have any of the records” – nothing, zip. This is the same state that watched the U.S. taxpayer bail out AIG, an insurance company headquartered in New York City, to the tune of $182 billion because of reckless insurance practices involving credit default swaps. (See NYS Department of Financial Services/NYS Insurance Dept Response to Freedom of Information Law Request by Wall Street On Parade Seeking Information on Life Insurance Held by JPMorgan on Employees Lives.)

And there is a growing amount of anecdotal evidence that dodgy things are happening with the billions invested in mortality bets on bank workers. Reports are surfacing that the banks have opened “separate accounts” and are personally managing the assets instead of paying out the premiums to an insurance company to manage. Ina Drew, the head of JPMorgan’s Chief Investment Office, reported on March 15, 2013 to the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that her office was managing $9 billion of the company’s corporate owned life insurance portfolio. The Chief Investment Office is the division that lost $6.2 billion trading exotic derivatives in London with depositor funds from the FDIC insured bank in the U.S.

more...
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/05/banking-deaths-why-jpmorgan-stands-out/

[Demeter]

32. Jesus, Mary and Joseph! More than enough reason for the faked suicide or two

[Ghost Dog]

34. Hmmm. I wonder if one could take out this kind of insurance

not just on employees but on any significant person in one's life... eg. on my ex-, who still owes me a lot of money and personal posessions she's not returning...

[Demeter]

35. You might have to incorporate.

And you would have to pay the premiums....not sure. It would make an interesting part of any divorce decree...I'd get one on my ex, too.

[xchrom]

25. Trans-Pacific Partnership talks to intensify as key players remain divided

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/20/trans-pacific-partnership-talks-to-intensify-as-key-players-remain-divided/

Asia-Pacific trade ministers said Tuesday they would intensify talks on a vast trans-Pacific free trade agreement, but offered no clue on when a final accord would be reached.

At the end of a two-day meeting in Singapore, ministers and chief negotiators of the 12 putative member economies of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) remained divided on key issues.

“We have decided on a pathway of intensified engagement over the coming weeks on market access and rules,” they said in a statement.

Chief negotiators would meet again as a group in July while ministers would continue to engage each other bilaterally, the statement said.

[xchrom]

26. UK inflation rises for first time in 10 months in April

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/20/uk-britain-inflation-idUKKBN0E00N120140520

(Reuters) - British inflation rose in April for the first time in 10 months, but as the increase was partly due to a late Easter holiday, which pushed up transport costs, it was unlikely to alter interest rate expectations.

Official data also showed that growth in house prices eased in March, potentially tempering concerns about a bubble brewing in the property market although some more up-to-date surveys have shown prices picking up again.

The consumer price index rose more than expected to an annual rate of 1.8 percent in April, from 1.6 percent in March, which had been its lowest level in more than four years, the Office for National Statistics ONS said.

It was the first rise in the CPI since June 2013 and above a Reuters poll forecast for inflation of 1.7 percent in April.

[xchrom]

27. German watchdog sees disturbing evidence in forex probe

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/20/uk-germany-regulator-idUKKBN0E012G20140520

(Reuters) - Germany's financial watchdog has discovered clear evidence that reference currency rates were manipulated by some market participants, but said international investigations into the matter were far from over.

Regulators globally are looking at traders' behaviour on key benchmarks, spanning interest rates, foreign exchange and commodities. Eight financial firms have been fined billions of dollars for manipulating reference interest rates, and the probe into the largely unregulated $5.3 trillion-a-day (3.1 trillion pounds) foreign exchange market could prove even costlier.

Watchdog Bafin's head of banking supervision Raimund Roeseler said discoveries made so far in the forex probe were worrying but the investigation required much more time before reaching any final conclusions.

"There were clearly attempts to manipulate prices, that’s what was disturbing," Roessler said on Tuesday at the regulator's annual news conference, adding market participants had attempted to manipulate daily fixing rates for a number of different currencies.

[DemReadingDU]

28. Frontline tonight - Part 2

5/20/14 How the U.S. Gov’t Turned Silicon Valley Into a Surveillance Partner
In Part Two, premiering tonight, producer Martin Smith investigates Silicon Valley’s role in the dragnet. How did the nation’s biggest tech companies react when the government asked them to turn over data on millions of ordinary Americans? And what do companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo! really know about you?

check local listing for time of broadcast
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/united-states-of-secrets/how-the-u-s-govt-turned-silicon-valley-into-a-surveillance-partner/


5/13/14
Watch Part One of United States of Secrets, which tells the inside story of how the U.S. came to spy on millions of Americans
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/pressroom/press-release-united-states-of-secrets-how-the-government-came-to-spy-on-millions-of-americans/

appx 2 hours


related Frontline documentaries
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/united-states-of-secrets/

[kickysnana]

33. Declaring this mixed feeling day.

We won the 2018 Super Bowl, from NOLA. Even our newscasters predicted it would be NOLA. It is there 300th anniversary. Our logo is lame. Not a sports fan but a taxpayer and we have a shiny new stadium that they said would draw money here.

They put the baby mastodon Lyuba on display all 4' 3" of her. She is 42,000 years old. Yea science. Poor baby.

NASA has a flying saucer. NASA is DOD now and heading corporate.

It is a muggy 80 degrees here, but the van is back in the shop.

The Human Society of the US sent me a small cooler pack to entice me to donate. Cannot seem to preempt the futile attempts to get blood out of a turnip.

Watched the "7 Dwarfs of Auschwitz" a Hungarian Jewish family of classical music performers who were saved by being tortured for 8 months by Joseph Mengala. The last one died in Israel in 2000, and they said nothing about family.

Al Jazeera was talking about the ongoing cyberwarfare and what would be next for escalation (because we have no effective diplomats?)

etc..etc...etc