STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 22 August 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday 22 August 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 21 August 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 21 August 2014
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Dow Jones 17,039.49 +60.36 (0.36%)
S&P 500 1,992.37 +5.86 (0.29%)
Nasdaq 4,532.10 +5.62 (0.12%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.40% -0.02 (-0.83%)
30 Year 3.19% -0.04 (-1.24%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
http://tools.investing.com/market_quotes.php?
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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.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.








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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]

[ret5hd]

1. #1 !!!

[Demeter]

3. I must be missing some context there.

Can you interpret this cartoon for me? Other than which finger the kid is holding up....but why? And who is manziel?

[Crewleader]

4. Back to school cartoon I thought

til I see it's about a football player named Manziel flipping off another football player. Oh well, school started here...and I remember all the naughty Johnny jokes, and my son's named John but I loved how Drew Litton the cartoonist made the school teacher so sweet and smart....Thanks Demeter for asking, I'll remove it.

[Fuddnik]

28. Manziel was the most hyped, over-rated pick in this years NFL draft. And a real asshole.

And of course my Browns had to draft him.

Since the draft he's been photographed drinking and partying in Vegas. One pic was him in the restroom of a nightclub rolling up a $20 bill (There's only one reason to be doing that, but for you novices, he getting about to snort some coke).

Then the rookie got rattled by the Redskins Sat. night, and after getting sacked, he flipped of the whole bench, who were laughing at him. Just wait until he gets to Pittsburgh.

[DemReadingDU]

29. signed with a four-year, $8.247 million contract

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Browns-sign-Johnny-Manziel-to-8247-million-deal.html



I read your subject line, and thought it said prick, lol

[Crewleader]

5. What Does the Fed Have to do With Social Security? Plenty

August 21, 2014

The Threat of Raising Interest Rates


by DEAN BAKER

Most of the people who closely follow the Federal Reserve Board’s decisions on monetary policy are investors trying to get a jump on any moves that will affect financial markets. Very few of the people involved in the debate over the future of Social Security pay much attention to the Fed. That’s unfortunate because the connections are much more direct than is generally recognized.

The basic story of Social Security’s finances is that, while the program is entirely sound for the near future, the program is projected to face a shortfall in the decade of the thirties. Under current law, at that point it would be necessary to reduce benefits from their scheduled level, unless additional revenue can be raised.

Of course the answer from those on the right is to cut benefits, and the sooner the better. Progressives, along with most of the public, would like to see the current benefit level maintained and possibly increased. Most workers are approaching retirement with little other than Social Security to support them, which means that cuts from currently scheduled benefit levels will mean serious hardship for many.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/21/what-does-the-fed-have-to-do-with-social-security-plenty/

[tclambert]

6. Update on former site of Wixom Ford plant.

Since I live nearby, I have occasionally mentioned what has happened or people have planned for the site of the former Ford Wixom Assembly Plant. The five million square foot plant produced over six and a half million cars over fifty years and employed thousands of workers at a time, tens of thousands over the years. It closed in 2007, and former Governor Granholm (D-MI) tried with various incentives to entice other companies to take over the plant. For a couple of years, two green energy companies, Xtreme Power and Clairvoyant Energy planned to move in to parts of the plant, wanting to take advantage of the transportation, electrical, and industrial infrastructure of the aea for their manufacturing. But they never got the help from the federal government they needed, so that project fizzled. In 2012, Ford began tearing down the plant. Demolition took about a year to complete.

Last month, they started construction of a new building on the site. Today I saw a sign that said it will be a new Menards store. Menards is a big box home improvement store, kind of like Lowes or Home Depot. We have multiple Lowes and Home Depots in the area (within five or six miles), but this will be first Menards in my area (the nearest right now is about 18 miles away). Menards will employ many people, but not thousands, and not making the kind of money auto assembly workers used to make.

I see this as something of a microcosm of what has happened to manufacturing in America. It has turned into less of a job provider, and the new jobs are lower paid retail jobs.

[DemReadingDU]

20. Former sites of GM auto plants near Dayton, Ohio

The Dayton area used to employ tens of thousands with good paying jobs in the auto industry making trucks, suvs, and various auto parts. Hardly anything remains. One huge plant has been completely torn down, and a casino is rising in its place. Another huge plant is allegedly going to be re-used for a Chinese auto glass manufacturer to employ a few hundred with low-paying wages. Other plants are shut down, no prospects for the future.

It is so sad to drive around those once vibrant areas that were full of well-kept houses and supporting small businesses, to see that those areas are now blighted with boarded up houses, houses torn down, and closed businesses. There are not enough good paying jobs, so people are working 2 and 3 part-time jobs to make ends meet.

I could go an and on, but it's depressing.

[Demeter]

7. 36,000 Madoff Victims Have Not Received a Dime in Restitution; 1,129 Fully Reimbursed

http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/08/36000-madoff-victims-have-not-received-a-dime-in-restitution-1129-fully-reimbursed/


On May 5, 2014, Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee in charge of finding and distributing Madoff’s swindled funds to investors released this statement in a press release announcing the fourth interim distribution of funds to victims: “…1,129 accounts will be fully satisfied following the fourth interim distribution. All allowed claims totaling $925,000 or less will be fully satisfied after the distribution.” Just eight days later, Richard Breeden, the Special Master that’s working on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice to distribute a separate pool of funds to Madoff’s victims reported that more than 36,000 claimants have filed documents with his office indicating that they haven’t yet received a dime of restitution. Yes, 36,000 people from all over the globe. That’s bad enough but the story goes downhill from there. Almost six years from the date that Bernard Madoff turned himself in as the largest Ponzi fraudster in the history of finance, the U.S. Department of Justice is still scratching its head over just how much money Madoff actually ripped off from investors and puzzling over how to divvy up its inadequate pot of money.

We know for certain that the Justice Department was stunned to learn that 36,000 claimants said they hadn’t received a dime because in a November 18, 2013 press release, Breeden indicated that he was going to begin accepting claims from “approximately 11,000 investors whose assets came into Madoff Securities indirectly through feeder funds, investment partnerships, bank commingled funds, family trusts or other pooled investment accounts. As a result, we expect approximately 12,000 direct and indirect investors will be eligible for a recovery…” Instead of receiving 11,000 claim forms, Breeden received 51,700 with 36,000 of those reporting zero restitution.

The Justice Department’s idea was to help Madoff’s victims who weren’t eligible under the pool of funds administered by the court-appointed trustee, Irving Picard. The Securities Investor Protection Act, which governs Picard’s distributions, requires that the customer must have held a direct account in his/her own name at a broker-dealer that was a member of SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) to be eligible to make a claim when the firm fails. Because many of Madoff’s victims gave their money to hedge funds, banks and funds of funds who co-mingled the money with many other investors and then placed the money with Madoff under the fund’s name, those investors to a large degree have seen little restitution. One primary reason their claims have been denied by Picard revolves around the decision, upheld by the court, to return only original principal deposited – not fictitious profits shown on the statement. Since there was not going to be adequate funds to pay fictitious profits, this seemed like a good idea at the time. The problems emerged when a pooled fund account was deemed – on a total account basis – to have withdrawn more principal than deposited; even when thousands of investors in the fund may have never withdrawn a dime, if the fund account as a whole had withdrawn more principal than it had deposited on behalf of all investors, the claim was denied as it was deemed a net winner....If you add the 43,500 claims received by Breeden from brand new filers together with the 16,519 claims previously filed with Picard, we are looking at 60,019 people stating that they were victims of Madoff’s fraud. Of that 60,019, there are 36,000 people who have not received a dime; 1,129 who have been made completely whole by Picard up to an amount of $925,000. And out of the 60,019, almost six years after Madoff turned himself in, only 2,518 claims have been approved for payment.

............................................................................


The only consistent message here is that the U.S. financial regulatory structure is just as bad at delivering fraud restitution as it is at detecting fraud. It’s time for another Senate Committee to begin to function like Carl Levin’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (already buried under exponentially accelerating Wall Street fraud investigations) and hold new hearings on the Madoff fraud. Key questions for this hearing are as follows: why did it take over five years to learn that 36,000 Madoff claimants have not received a dime of restitution. Why was JPMorgan Chase, which was charged with two felonies for aiding and abetting the Madoff fraud, given a deferred prosecution agreement and allowed to settle for chump change. It was agreed by both the Justice Department and Picard that JPMorgan Chase (and/or its predecessor banks) stood at the very center of the fraud as Madoff’s key business bank for more than 20 years watching hundreds of billions of dollars being washed between accounts. And yet, this is what JPMorgan paid in settlement funds: $1.7 billion to the U.S. Justice Department to compensate victims of the fraud; another $543 million to Picard’s trustee fund to compensate victims; and a $350 million fine to the regulator of national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency....sends a chilling message around the globe that the U.S. is not a safe place to invest.

MUCH MORE AT LINK....WHAT A COLLOSAL FUSTER CLUCK

[xchrom]

8. JACKSON HOLE: Here's The Program Schedule For The Kansas City Fed's Economic Policy Symposium

http://www.businessinsider.com/jackson-hole-economic-symposium-schedule-2014-8

Thursday, August 21, 2014
6 p.m.
Opening Reception and Dinner

Host: Esther George
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City


Friday, August 22, 2014
Chair: Peter Blair Henry
Dean, Stern School of Business,
New York University

8 a.m.
Opening Remarks
Janet L.Yellen
Chair,
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

8:30 a.m.
Churn and the Functioning of Labor Markets

Authors: Steven J. Davis
Professor,
University of Chicago

John Haltiwanger
Professor,
University of Maryland

Discussant: Richard Rogerson
Professor,
Princeton University



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jackson-hole-economic-symposium-schedule-2014-8#ixzz3B7GDBz7r

[xchrom]

9. European Markets Are Down, US Futures Are Up

http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-august-22-2014-2014-8

European markets are in the red early Friday.

Here's the scorecard:

Britain's FTSE 100 is down 0.01%.

France's CAC 40 is down 0.44%.

Germany's DAX is down 0.19%.

Spain's IBEX is down 0.10%

Italy's FTSE MIB is down 0.30%.

Asian markets closed mixed with Japan's Nikkei down 0.30% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.43%.

U.S. futures are up with Dow futures up 7 points and Nasdaq futures up 2 points.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-august-22-2014-2014-8#ixzz3B7Ggt7W7

[xchrom]

10. Janet Yellen Made One Of The Great Calls Of The Summer

http://www.businessinsider.com/janet-yellens-noise-call-2014-8

Janet Yellen will speak on Friday at the Jackson Hole economic symposium, where she's likely to give a thorough assessment of the state of the labor market, as she sees it.

The overwhelming consensus is that she'll acknowledge some improvement in the labor market, but she'll identify enough "slack" in the system, so as to warrant continued easy policy from the Fed.

In the meantime, it's worth giving Yellen credit for a call she made at the beginning of the summer.

Back at her press conference in June, she was asked about about some CPI reading indicating rising inflation. She responded:

"I think recent readings on CPI index have been a bit on the high side but I think it's the data we're seeing is noisy. Broadly speaking inflation is evolving in line with the committee's expectations."



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/janet-yellens-noise-call-2014-8#ixzz3B7HHaGaD

[xchrom]

11. The Judge In The Argentina Vs. Hedge Funds Case Just Exposed A Big Weakness

http://www.businessinsider.com/griesa-does-not-rule-argentina-in-contempt-2014-8

When Judge Thomas Griesa called Argentina and its lawyers into a special hearing today, the word was that he would likely find the country in contempt of Court.
But he didn't, and it's not hard to understand why.

If Griesa ruled that Argentina was in contempt and fined the country, Argentina would likely just ignore the whole thing or say the ruling was unfair.

And then what? Then Griesa has shown that his Court toothless.

He can't make Argentina pay the group of hedge funds to which it has owed over $1.3 billion in sovereign bonds for the last decade plus; he can't get the country back to negotiating table as things stand; and he can't stop Argentina from passing a domestic law to change the jurisdiction of the bonds in question from New York City to Buenos Aires, where he's really got no power whatsoever.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/griesa-does-not-rule-argentina-in-contempt-2014-8#ixzz3B7JhWR9O

[Demeter]

17. Busted flush! I sure hope Singer's paid him off already

because otherwise, Griesa won't collect his performance bonus.

What a travesty! Another nail in the coffin of American Economic Imperialism.

[xchrom]

12. Airlines and Petrofac lead FTSE lower

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/22/uk-markets-britain-stocks-idUKKBN0GM0JU20140822


(Reuters) - Britain's top equity index slipped back from three-week highs on Friday, with shares in airline companies hit by worries about disruption caused by possible volcanic activity in Iceland.

Oil and gas services group Petrofac (PFC.L) also underperformed, falling 1.4 percent after the company said its chairman had resigned.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index .FTSE was down by 0.1 percent, or 8.29 points, at 6,769.37 points. The London stock market is closed for a public holiday on Monday.

Airlines were among the worst performers, with easyJet (EZJ.L) falling 1.6 percent while International Consolidated Airlines Group (ICAG.L) - which owns British Airways and Iberia - retreating 0.9 percent due to the Iceland situation.

[xchrom]

13. BANK OF AMERICA SETTLEMENT LIKELY TO BENEFIT FEW

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BANK_OF_AMERICA_SETTLEMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-08-21-17-35-11

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bank of America's record $16.65 billion settlement for its role in selling shoddy mortgage bonds - $7 billion of it geared for consumer relief - offers a glint of hope for desperate homeowners.

The settlement requires the second-largest U.S. bank to reduce some homeowners' loan balances, provide new loans to low-income buyers and address areas of neighborhood blight.

But consumer advocates say relatively few people will be helped relative to the devastation triggered by the mortgage bonds, which fueled the worst financial crisis since the 1930s and threw millions of homes into foreclosure.

Only a fraction of homeowners would be eligible for refinancing under the settlement. And the process by which people would qualify and receive aid could drag on for years, with payouts set to be completed as late as 2018.

[xchrom]

14. YELLEN SPEECH AWAITED FOR ANY HINT ON RATE TIMING

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_YELLEN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-08-22-07-20-26

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two days after the Federal Reserve revealed an intensifying internal debate over interest rates, Chair Janet Yellen will address the annual Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with investors seeking any clear hints of when it will start raising rates.

The subject of Yellen's remarks Friday will be labor markets, which is the theme of this year's gathering of central bankers. Minutes of the Fed's July 29-30 meeting released Wednesday showed that officials engaged in a sharp debate over whether to raise rates sooner than expected if the economy keeps strengthening.

Some officials, the minutes said, thought the Fed would need "to call for a relatively prompt move" to begin raising short-term rates from record lows, where it has kept them since the financial crisis struck in 2008. Otherwise, they felt the Fed risked overshooting its targets for unemployment and inflation.

In the end, the Fed made no changes at the July meeting. It approved, 9-1, maintaining its current stance on rates. But the minutes pointed to a distinct division among officials over the timing of an increase.

[xchrom]

15. Buffett’s Lapses Highlight Growing Pains With Compliance

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-22/buffett-s-lapses-highlight-growing-pains-with-compliance.html

The world’s greatest investor could use some help with record keeping.

In the past two weeks, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it missed filing deadlines for investments in Dow Chemical Co. and wallboard maker USG Corp. The latter resulted in an $896,000 penalty.

Buffett, 83, has boasted for years about running Berkshire with a shoestring staff and delegating responsibilities to the heads of operating units like Geico and railroad BNSF. Yet the mistakes raise questions about whether his management approach is suited to an era of increased reporting requirements.

“These are some of the growing pains that come from having a trust-based culture in a world that requires compliance procedures,” Brian Tayan, a researcher at Stanford Graduate School of Business who has studied Berkshire’s governance, wrote in an e-mail. “Shareholders have to make the assessment of whether these filing violations matter to them.”

[xchrom]

16. BofA Credited in U.S. Deal for Other Firms’ Consumer Aid

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-22/bofa-credited-in-u-s-deal-for-other-firms-consumer-aid.html

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) can get credit toward its record $16.7 billion settlement of U.S. mortgage probes without doing a thing.

The lender, which jumped the most in 15 months in New York trading yesterday after agreeing to resolve government claims, pledged $7 billion in consumer relief in the deal. Some of that may be satisfied as borrowers get mortgage help from firms that bought their loans or servicing rights from the bank, according to terms on the Justice Department’s website. That can even apply to assets the bank already sold.

Past U.S. settlements with big banks were criticized by investors and lawmakers after the companies got credit for borrower relief that might have occurred anyway or left other firms bearing the cost. Bank of America’s shares rose 4.1 percent after the government announced the settlement, ending what the firm has called its last big legal bout from the housing bust.

“It’s not just that they’re getting credit for stuff they would do otherwise, this is getting credit for something somebody else is doing,” Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, which advocates for financial services in low-income communities, said of the settlement. “We’re happy if it’s more likely homeowners get a modification, but it’s not clear how much of that is more than what would’ve occurred anyway.”

[xchrom]

18. Argentina’s Peso Weakening at Fastest Pace Since January

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-22/argentina-s-peso-weakening-at-fastest-pace-since-january.html

First came the default, then a proposed debt swap aimed at circumventing a U.S. court ruling that could normalize Argentina’s relations with foreign investors. Now traders foresee a devaluation for the second time this year.

Argentina’s peso sank 1.3 percent this week to 8.3932 per dollar, the biggest drop since the government devalued the currency 15 percent in the week ended Jan. 24. In the black market, where Argentines go to avoid government limits on purchases of U.S. currency, the peso weakened to a record 13.95 per dollar.

Argentines are demanding more hard currency after the government proposed exchanging overseas debt into notes governed by local law. The plan means it’s less likely President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will negotiate a deal with holdout creditors that would lift the court order that has prevented the country from servicing its obligations, according to Bank of America Corp. Prolonging the default would then restrict Argentine borrowers’ access to international markets, putting pressure on policy makers to allow the peso to weaken as dollars become scarce.

“The default, and now this initiative, lower expectations that they could come to an agreement in January,” said Belen Olaiz, an economist at Abeceb.com, an economic research firm in Buenos Aires. “This whole situation generates expectations of a devaluation because you’ll have little foreign currency inflows.”

[xchrom]

19. BofA Seeks to Prove Buffett Right After U.S. Settlement

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-21/bofa-seeks-to-prove-buffett-right-after-record-settlement.html

Billionaire Warren Buffett has predicted Bank of America Corp. (BAC) will become a profit powerhouse once it finally resolves legal battles that have sapped funds and distracted managers. Now we’ll find out if he’s right.

Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan yesterday settled what he has called the firm’s last big fight over faulty home loans, reaching a record deal for almost $16.7 billion to end U.S. probes of mortgage-bond sales that fueled 2008’s financial crisis. Since he took control in 2010, the bank has agreed to more than $70 billion in deals to resolve claims from the housing bust.

If the surge in litigation does abate, investors inured to years of unpredictable earnings can focus squarely on the underlying performance of businesses at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank. Moynihan, 54, has blamed past disappointments on legal costs and related distractions.

[Demeter]

21. The Fed's Track Record: $389,863 Spent For Every Job Created… AT BEST

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-21/feds-track-record-389863-spent-every-job-created%E2%80%A6-best

...The Fed’s balance sheet has expanded over $2.4 trillion since the Great Recession allegedly ended. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that ALL of the money involved in the Fed’s balance sheet expansion during this period went towards creating jobs in the US economy. Indeed, let’s take it a step further and say that the Fed is directly responsible for every single job created since June 2009 when it continued printing money by the billions to help the “recovery.”

We realize that we’re ignoring population growth, folks who dropped out of the jobs market, and a slew of other factors in this analysis. But the point of this exercise is to grant any and all issues in favor of the Fed. The reason we’re doing this is because the results are terrible enough even under circumstances in which every issue is decided in the Fed’s favor. One can only imagine who awful the results would look if one were to include these other issues which would raise the amount of money spent per job created. Having said that, consider the following…

The US recession allegedly ended in June 2009. At that time, 140,196,000 people were employed in the US and the Fed’s balance sheet was roughly $2 trillion.

As of July 2014, 146,352,000 Americans were employed and the Fed’s balance sheet was $4.4 trillion.

So, based on our assumptions (that ALL of the Fed’s money went towards the real economy and that the Fed is responsible for every job created since June 2009 when the recession ended), this means the Fed spent $2.4 trillion to create 6,156,000 jobs. That’s $389,863 spent PER JOB CREATED.

Now, the odds that the 6.1 million jobs created since June 2009 pay anywhere NEAR this amount in salary is next to zero. And bear in mind, our analysis is based on key assumptions ALL of which are in favor of the Fed. The reality is that the Fed has spent vast amounts of money and has very little to show for it. Even if you give the Fed the benefit of the doubt that all of its money has gone into the real economy to create jobs, this a colossal waste of money. The Fed’s efforts, if they were meant to help Main Street, have been a colossal failure. If they were not intended to help Main Street, then the Fed is lying.

[Demeter]

22. Celente - Email Exposes Scary Economic Collapse In The US

(STOLEN FROM CREWLEADER...BRING YOUR GOOD STUFF HERE!)

Celente: “Right now we are hearing two stories. One is being fed to us by the White House, the Fed, and the other vested business interests in the financial world that keep telling us about an economic recovery. But then when you get into the real world, it’s a whole different story....The desperation is really beginning to show. On Taco Bell’s new ‘dollar menu,’ everything will actually cost a dollar. And look at the big merger and acquisition news this week. We see a couple of those big dollar stores are merging. This is what America has become -- one cheap buck. The U.S. has collapsed from a thriving middle class society and now we are down to a ‘dollar.’ So when you look at the real world, and put aside the stock market surging and the constant lies and propaganda coming out of the mainstream media, we are seeing a great deal of hardship and suffering going on.”

Eric King: “Gerald, you continue to receive firsthand emails and accounts about how bad the economy really is. You recently received the following email from an individual in the furniture business that is really shocking.”

“I read your comments on King World news on the state of the economy. I think you underestimated the severity of the decline we are experiencing. I am the sales manager for very old, well known, furniture company. For the past 15 years we have employed a sales staff of six very experienced sales people. They all earned between $75,000 - $90,000 per year. We saw 30-50 people a day. Now we see 3 people a day, and our TOP sales person earns less than $30,000. They would all leave if they had a place to go. All of our sales staff has owned homes for over 20 years and all are facing foreclosure. I am sure we will be closed before Christmas.

The economy hasn't slowed down, it has stopped. I am sure we are very close to a total financial collapse. We are facing very scary times. The cure for obesity is right around the corner.” (Hunger).

Eric King: “Gerald, they were seeing 30 - 50 people a day, and now they are now down to 3 people a day. The business has collapsed. When you read something like that from somebody who is at the street level, what are your thoughts?”

Celente: “It’s a tragedy. It’s the mass layoffs that you are seeing that are hitting not only the manufacturing sector, but the high tech sector as well. The layoffs are coming from companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and a lot of this has to do with globalization. The more jobs that are off-shored, the less manufacturing and productivity we have in the states. Whether it’s on the manufacturing end or on the intellectual end, so many jobs are being off-shored. So the worst is yet to come because the real pain is going to come when interest rates go up. There is no doubt about it. They cannot sustain the economy with record low interest rates. They cannot sustain the economy with trillions of dollars of quantitative easing. How are they going to sustain it when they taper off the rest of the QE and interest rates go up? And that is going to shake America.

Look at what’s going on in Ferguson, Missouri. Read the language and how they refer to it: ‘A struggling midwest city.’ Struggling? Oh yes, it used to be middle class. And you can just multiply that city times thousands in the U.S. that have been gutted. Yes, we have ‘struggling’ cities -- thousands of them throughout the United States. Also, Chinese factory orders just fell to a 3-month low in August, and Europe is slipping into recession. And when we circle back to the United States, the news is that the Fed is supposedly going to be raising interest rates because ‘They have largely exhausted their ability to improve economic conditions.’


Let me get this straight, the Fed has dumped trillions and trillions of dollars into one scheme after another, we have record low interest rates to juice the economy, and it hasn’t worked. So as the person who sent us that very sad email noted, even with all the stimulus, the economy is completely imploding in many areas and we are nearing total financial collapse.

[DemReadingDU]

23. Trillions in schemes for the banksters

Those trillions would have been more wisely spent in keeping our factories employed with workers.

[Hotler]

24. Wow! That cheered me up.....n/t

[Demeter]

25. For that, you'd need heavy pharmaceuticals

or a major mental impairment....

There is no reason on earth to be cheery, any more. Not until a few well-deserved trials, imprisonments or deaths occur. Or a coup. legitimate or not.

[Hotler]

27. Alittle weed and some good sippin tequila works for me, except

I can't smoke weed cause they do random drug test where I work.

[Hotler]

26. House arrest. Well isn't that special.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice convicted of corruption was spared on Thursday the further embarrassment of having to write her court-ordered apologies to every judge in the state on photos of herself in handcuffs.

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/ex-judge-must-say-shes-sorry-just-not-in-cuffs