STOCK MARKET WATCH -- 21 April 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 21 April 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 20 April 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 20 April 2015
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Dow Jones 18,034.93 +208.63 (1.17%)
S&P 500 2,100.40 +19.22 (0.92%)
Nasdaq 4,994.60 +62.79 (1.27%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.89% +0.03 (1.61%)
30 Year 2.56% +0.03 (1.19%) [font color=black]


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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.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts







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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]

[tclambert]

1. What do the .2% use their extra money for? It really doesn't improve their standard of living.

Once you get above about $100 million, your standard of living is pretty much whatever you want. It seems like the excess is just for playing status games, and the money is just for keeping score. You have $4 billion? Well, he has $6 billion, so he's winning! You bought an original Rembrandt? Well, he bought 3 Congressmen! Try to keep up!

[Hugin]

4. They are hoarders.

We found some cat poop in the closet during the clean up... I'll be needing that.

[Demeter]

5. They buy people and power to run the world on their terms

or try to.

[DemReadingDU]

19. Ohio Estate Tax was repealed in 2013 by Gov Kasich

This was a huge gift to the wealthy's family. The Ohio Estate Tax money was used by communities as a bonus to their general operating fund. When the estate tax was repealed, large rich communities lost millions. Smaller communities lost a few thousand. Anyway, our community used the money to fix our roads. So now our community had to pass a levy to generate additional taxes to fix our roads.



additional info about the Ohio Estate Tax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_estate_tax

[tclambert]

21. I think they buy government influence as a means to score more points in the money game.

They might call it an investment in politics. Most of them do expect to make a profit on it. Buy a congressman, get a tax break worth a hundred times the "donation."

The Koch brothers are willing to spend millions on politics, but they expect to see the Keystone XL pipeline approved, and environmental regulations gutted, and maybe a few billion in government subsidies for their oil-related operations. Maybe then they can move their score a few billion closer to Bill Gates on top of the leader board.

[Demeter]

2. Detroit, Stockton bankruptcies may flag wider problems: Fed's Dudley

YA THINK?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/14/us-usa-fed-municipals-bankruptcy-idUSKBN0N51BG20150414

The municipal bankruptcies in Detroit and Stockton, California, may foretell more widespread problems in the United States than is implied by current bond ratings, a top Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday.

"While these particular bankruptcy filings have captured a considerable amount of attention, and rightly so, they may foreshadow more widespread problems than what might be implied by current bond ratings," New York Fed President William Dudley said at a closed-door workshop on Chapter 9, the part of the U.S. bankruptcy code covering local government insolvencies.

"We need to focus our attention today on addressing the underlying issues before any problems grow to the point where bankruptcy becomes the only viable option," he added, according to a text of his speech.

Dudley, whose Fed district includes the debt-stricken U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, did not mention by name any municipalities or states that risked going the way of Detroit and Stockton. But he highlighted the difficulties some jurisdictions face when they issue debt to finance operating deficits, and when they under-fund public pensions.

In Chicago, for example, unfunded pension liabilities for the city, the board of education and other local governments that draw taxes from it exceed $35 billion, according to the Civic Federation, an independent fiscal watchdog. The city, which received a warning last week from ratings agency Standard & Poor's, has $8.3 billion in general obligation bond debt and frequently uses debt to close budget shortfalls.

Puerto Rico, meanwhile, is struggling with more than $70 billion in total debt and must overcome opposition from local lawmakers as well as demands from investors for extra security as it attempts to sell more debt.

Dudley said borrowing to pay off a current year operating deficit is inconsistent with running a balanced budget, leaves the municipality with no new asset, and is "equivalent to asking future taxpayers to help finance today's public services." Unfunded pension liabilities are estimated to be as high as several trillion dollars, Dudley said.

"At a certain point, the debt service burden clashes with maintaining a sufficient ongoing provision of services to forestall people from voting with their feet," he said.

"This may occur well before the point that debt service capacity appears to be fully exhausted," Dudley added. "In other words, the prioritization of cash flows to debt service may not be sustainable beyond a certain point."

[Demeter]

3. The Economist explains How a living wage is calculated

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/04/economist-explains-4

...As part of his plan to govern on behalf of all Chicagoans, Mr García proposed to raise the city's minimum wage: from the current $8.25 per hour rate to $15 per hour. That rise would match the increase planned for Seattle, which began pushing its minimum wage toward $15 with an initial bump on April 1st (from $9.47 to $11). Both Chicago and Seattle plan to raise their minimum-wage rates well above the federal minimum, currently $7.25 per hour. That is intentional; the architects of Seattle's minimum intend it to be what is commonly called a "living wage". But what, precisely, is that?

Advocacy for living wages has emerged as concern has grown that legal minimum wages (a policy fixture in many rich economies for much of the last century) are too low. Minimum wages are flat rates in most of the nations and jurisdictions that have them. In America, at the federal level, the minimum wage allowed is $7.25 an hour (£4.90) for adults. States may set higher rates (and quite a few do). Britain's minimum for those 21 and older is £6.50 an hour ($9.60). In China, the minimum varies by district or city from about 9 to 17 yuan ($1.50 to $2.75). America's national minimum wage can only be increased by an act of Congress, and the current rate remains well below its inflation-adjusted peak of nearly $11 an hour in 1968. The British minimum wage is raised regularly, by contrast, based on recommendations from the Low Pay Commission, an independent body made up of representatives from business, unions and academia. British wage rises nonetheless tend to fall short of cost-of-living increases. Few would dispute that America's federal minimum wage is inadequate to cover necessities in much of the country, grossly so in households with multiple dependents. In Britain, according to the Living Wage Foundation, the minimum wage is estimated to be about 20% too low, or 30% short in London. Economists are divided over whether minimum wages have benign effects on employment. Yet, there is broad (though occasionally grudging) agreement that moderate increases lift the working poor out of poverty and can reduce dependence on the government.

Why some economists oppose a minimum wage

Estimates of what constitutes a living wage necessarily vary by location and household type. In calculating its living wage figure, the Greater London Authority (GLA) uses two separate approaches to compute a "poverty threshold figure", each of which incorporates local conditions in London. The first surveys the cost of living in London in order to compute a "low cost but acceptable" household budget, which is used to determine the poverty-threshold wage. A second approach calculates the threshold wage based on London's income distribution; the threshold is the wage which allows a household to have an income 60% that of the median. In 2014 the first approach yielded a wage of £7.65 while the latter gave £8.25, for an average of £7.95. The GLA then adds 15% as insurance against unforeseen events, giving a living wage of £9.15. In other areas, like Seattle, the emphasis is on living costs alone. There, medical costs and childcare for households with children must be factored in, along with the lowest reasonable estimates for housing, access to transportation, services and education, and an assurance of a sustainable pension at the end of a working lifetime. The Alliance for a Just Society takes this basis and adds a 10% margin for debt repayment and savings to get its estimate. On this basis, it calculates a living wage of $15.99 an hour for a single-adult household in Washington State, and of $20.02 an hour per adult for a household with two adults and two children. Seattle's mayor, Ed Murray, suggests $21 an hour as the living minimum for any household. American living wages are generally higher than those in Britain, because more public services are provided to Britons through the state.

In some cities living wages are promoted by advocacy groups interested in getting firms to adopt the rate voluntarily. In London, firms and local governments who meet criteria set out by the GLA can earn accreditation and public praise. Public pressure seems to be having an effect on employers; McDonald's, which recently announced its intention to raise the wages paid in franchises it controls, has been the target of intense criticism by living-wage advocacy groups. Yet advocates are increasingly hoping that living-wage estimates will influence the setting of legal minimum wages. They seem to be making headway. Over a dozen states added or increased their minimum wage rates in 2014. Sceptical economists may half-welcome the momentum as an opportunity to observe how the increases affect employment, poverty and productivity, but those workers fortunate enough to earn a living-wage paycheque will surely appreciate advocates' progress.

[Demeter]

6. 4 surprising reasons why clean energy is gaining on fossil fuels

I DON'T KNOW WHY IT'S SURPRISING

http://grist.org/climate-energy/4-surprising-reasons-why-clean-energy-is-gaining-on-fossil-fuels/

future historians may look back on 2015 as the year that the renewable energy ascendancy began, the moment when the world started to move decisively away from its reliance on fossil fuels. Those fuels — oil, natural gas, and coal — will, of course, continue to dominate the energy landscape for years to come, adding billions of tons of heat-trapping carbon to the atmosphere. For the first time, however, it appears that a shift to renewable energy sources is gaining momentum. If sustained, it will have momentous implications for the world economy — as profound as the shift from wood to coal or coal to oil in previous centuries.

Global economic growth has, of course, long been powered by an increasing supply of fossil fuels, especially petroleum. Beginning with the United States, countries that succeeded in mastering the extraction and utilization of oil gained immense economic and political power, while countries with huge reserves of oil to exploit and sell, like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, became fabulously wealthy. The giant oil companies that engineered the rise of petroleum made legendary profits, accumulated vast wealth, and grew immensely powerful. Not surprisingly, the oil states and those energy corporations continue to dream of a future in which they will play a dominant role.

“Fossil fuels are our most enduring energy source,” said Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources, in April 2013. “They are the driving force of economic development in the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and for much of the developed and developing world [and] they have the capacity to sustain us well into the future.”

But new developments, including a surprising surge in wind and solar installations, suggest that oil’s dominance may not prove as “enduring” as imagined. “Rapidly spreading solar technology could change everything,” energy analyst Nick Butler recently wrote in the Financial Times. “There is growing evidence that some fundamental changes are coming that will over time put a question mark over investments in old energy systems.”

Normally, transitions from one energy system to another take many decades. According to Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba, the shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil each took 50 years. The same length of time, he has argued, will be needed to complete the transition to renewables, which would leave any green energy era in the distant future. “The slow pace of this energy transition is not surprising,” he wrote in Scientific American. “In fact, it is expected.”

WELL BY MY RECKONING, IT'S BEEN 50 YEARS...AND WE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN THERE SOONER IF RONALD REAGAN HADN'T BEEN SUCH A TOOL. AUTHOR'S REASONS:

1) The world is taking climate change seriously
2) There’s a sea change in Chinese energy behavior
3) Clean energy is taking hold in developing countries
4) The price of renewables is falling

ADD REASON #5: THE OIL AND FOSSIL FUEL BARONS HAVE BEEN GREEDY, ABUSIVE, LAWBREAKING, WARMONGERING, NATION-VIOLATING SOBS.

[Demeter]

7. Russia denies striking gas deal to net Greece €5bn

Kremlin says it has not reached an agreement to provide a €5bn sweetener to Athens for a planned gas pipeline that runs through the country...

WELL, NOT YET, MAYBE

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11546965/Russian-gas-deal-will-net-Greece-5bn-and-turn-the-tide.html

Russia has denied providing up to €5bn to Greece for a planned gas pipeline, in a move that would significantly ease Athens' cash crisis.

According to reports in Der Spiegel, Moscow was ready to provide advanced payment to Greece in assent for its "Turkish Stream" project.

The magazine quoted a senior Syriza minister saying the deal would "turn the tide" for the debt-stricken country, and could be signed as early as Tuesday.

However, the Kremlin later denied it had reached an agreement for any financial aid in advance of future profits from the pipe's transit fees.

[Demeter]

8. The NSA’s Fight To Keep Its Best Hackers

http://www.defenseone.com/management/2015/04/nsas-fight-keep-its-best-hackers/110401/?oref=d-river

Even with flexible hiring authorities, the agency is losing its elite employees to deep-pocketed cyber-security firms....

AND THEN, THERE'S THE SNOWDEN REVELATIONS...AND PERSECUTION

http://www.defenseone.com/management/2015/04/nsas-fight-keep-its-best-hackers/110401/?oref=d-river

The National Security Agency is probably among the best-equipped parts of the federal government at recruiting, training and staffing an elite team of cybersecurity professionals.

Thanks to Congress, the agency has been granted significant leeway in bypassing the sluggish federal hiring process to onboard staff quicker and greater latitude to pay new recruits retention bonuses and provide other perks.

But even that’s not enough to stop some top-level technical talent from jumping ship.

“We’re throwing the kitchen sink at them from our standpoint,” said NSA’s human resources technical director, John Yelnosky. “And they’re writing in to us, as they leave NSA, in their exit interviews, ‘I’m leaving to double my salary.’”...It stings all the more as most depart after they’ve undergone extensive, specialized NSA training....“A typical parting thought is, ‘I love NSA, I love the mission, I love the people, I love the opportunity, I love the work … I can’t afford to stay here.”...The federal pay scale, excluding locality pay and other add-ons, tops out at $130,000.

Other factors may be at play for those sought-after millennials.

“They want great technology; they want good spaces to work in; they want lots of development opportunities; they really want and expect all of those things,” Yelnosky said. “And there are employers who are more advanced than we are in providing that whole package.”

[Demeter]

9. Russia's Economy Steps Back from the Brink By Leonid Bershidsky

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-17/russia-s-economy-steps-back-from-the-brink

It's been fascinating to watch the Russian economy adjust to sharply lower oil prices. With a little help from the central bank, the country's recession might not be as bad as previously thought...After an initial period in which the ruble plummeted and inflation surged -- with food prices up 15.4 percent from a year earlier in December -- the Russian central bank's response is turning things around. A sharp increase in short-term interest rates, currently at 14 percent, has stabilized the ruble and might even be getting consumer prices under control.

The episode has taken a toll on Russian living standards. In the first quarter of 2015, inflation-adjusted incomes were down 1.4 percent from a year earlier. Retail sales dropped 6.7 percent -- and individual stores, such as the M Video electronics chain, reported even steeper declines. Imports were particularly hard hit, thanks to the impaired buying power of the ruble: In January and February, they were down 37.9 percent from a year earlier. The government's finances haven't fared well, either. Standard & Poor's predicted Friday that Russia's fiscal deficit will rise to 4.4 percent this year, higher than the 3.7 percent the government predicts.

Still, there are signs that a cheaper ruble might be helping some Russian producers compete with imports. True, industrial production was down 14.6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, with the garment industry -- which depends heavily on imported inputs -- taking the steepest plunge. Yet Russian food production was up 3.5 percent, suggesting that import substitution might not be just President Vladimir Putin's pipe dream.

One question is whether a resurgent ruble will cut off any homegrown recovery. It's the world's best-performing currency so far this year, having gained almost 16 percent against the U.S. dollar. That said, policy makers don't want it to rise much more. Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukaev says he considers 50-odd rubles per U.S. dollar a fundamentally justified rate, and central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina said Friday that the central bank is ready to lower its key interest rate, a move that would help put a lid on the ruble's rise.

That's exactly what analysts want. They warn that the ruble is overbought and is starting to erode the competitive advantage Russia gained through devaluation. They'd also like to see the central bank buying foreign currencies to keep the exchange rate down and bolster its reserves, which stopped falling in mid-March and stand at $354.1 billion. The bankers are clearly on the same wavelength with the regulator here: After Nabiullina's remarks, the ruble started falling, losing about 1.5 percent against the dollar. All told, Russia's performance is leading some forecasters to be a bit more more optimistic about the depth of its recession. Standard & Poor's now predicts a 2.6 percent decline in economic output, close to what Goldman Sachs expects and lower than Bloomberg's consensus forecast of a 4.05 percent contraction.

Despite being surprisingly tolerant of Putin's cynical policies, Russians are not going to lie down and await an economic collapse. They've learned a thing or two since the Soviet Union's collapse about how to handle crises, and no matter how loudly they complain (a national trait), these skills are not going away.

NOW THERE'S A TOTALLY UNJUSTIFIED SLAM AT PUTIN....AND THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE.

[Demeter]

10. ADB to speed up loan procedures

THE US-RUN, JAPAN HEADED ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK RESPONDS TO COMPETITION FROM THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: AIIB!

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002094943

The Asian Development Bank has compiled a reform plan, the main pillar of which is to substantially speed up procedures for extending loans, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The improved efficiency in extending loans is aimed at quickly responding to robust demand for infrastructure development in fast-growing Asian countries.

While the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank plans to offer loans to emerging economies through swift decision-making, the ADB has been under fire for its bureaucratic culture and slow loan procedures, and therefore its reform was urgently needed.

[Demeter]

11. GREEK Government takes state bodies' cash reserves to meet needs

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_20/04/2015_549264

With pressure growing on state coffers as cash reserves run low without any immediate prospect for the release of rescue loans, the government on Monday signed a legal degree obliging state bodies, with the exception of pension funds, to transfer their reserves to the Bank of Greece for the state’s use.

The move, issued in the form of a presidential decree which does not require a parliamentary vote, indicated that the government is close to running out of cash. It dictates that all state bodies, ranging from hospitals to local authorities, must move their cash reserves to the central bank, but noted that pension funds were strictly exempt from the obligation. Regional authorities were said to be planning legal action against the decree. The move is expected to tap around 1.2 billion euros, meaning that the government will likely be able to pay civil servants’ salaries and pensions this month.

But the initiative will not solve Greece’s financial problem, which will rear its head again in May when the country must make further repayments to the International Monetary Fund, one of its three creditors.

The government is hoping that a Eurogroup summit due on May 11 will lead to the release of 1.9 billion euros in profits from Greek bonds held by the Eurosystem on the secondary market. European officials have already indicated that a eurozone summit due to take place this Friday in Riga, Latvia, will be no more than an opportunity to take stock of progress in negotiations between Greece and its creditors which have been moving slowly. The talks, which had been taking place in Brussels, have been based in Paris over the past few days...

YOU KNOW IN YOUR HEART, THIS CANNOT END WELL. DRAINING THE LAST BIT OF PRIVATE SAVINGS, PUBLIC RESERVES, AND CASH OUT OF GREECE FOR GREEDY GERMAN BANKSTERS DEMANDS...

[Demeter]

12. Greece's Main Creditors Said to Be Unwilling to Allow Euro Exit

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE, SHORT OF ARMED OCCUPATION, HOW THEY ARE GOING TO STOP IT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-17/greek-creditors-search-for-scenarios-to-prevent-euro-exit

Greece’s major creditors are not ready to let the country drop out of the euro as long as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shows willingness to meet at least some key demands, according to two people familiar with the discussions...Chancellor Angela Merkel will go a long way to prevent a Greek exit from the single currency, though only so far, one of the people said. Every possibility is being considered in Berlin to pull Greece back from the brink and keep it in the 19-nation euro, the person said.

For all the foot-dragging in Athens, some creditors are willing to show Greece more flexibility in negotiations over its finances to prevent a euro exit, the second person said. The red line is that the Syriza-led government shows readiness to commit to at least some economic reform measures, said both people, who asked not to be named discussing strategy.

“Our view is that Greece is not going to exit the euro,” Stephen Macklow-Smith, head of European equity strategy at JPMorgan Asset Management in London, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Friday. While both sides have “very entrenched positions” in the negotiations, “if you look at the way the euro-zone crisis has developed, in every case what you’ve seen is in return for firm action you get concessions.”

The brinkmanship has sent Greek government bonds heading toward their worst week since Tsipras’s election in January at the head of an anti-austerity coalition. While the public rhetoric has escalated amid a standoff over releasing the last tranche of aid, creditors are willing to cut Greece some slack, the second person said.

Euro-area finance ministers are next due to discuss progress on Greece at their meeting on April 24 in the Latvian capital, Riga. Greece’s government remains confident an interim agreement with its creditors allowing disbursement of bailout funds can be reached by the end of April, a Greek official told reporters in Athens on Friday.

“We’re of the view that Greece will hold to the commitments it made to the institutions,” Georg Streiter, Merkel’s deputy spokesman, said when asked about the chancellor’s stance.

A deal won’t be ready by April 24 and could come together in the following weeks, Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters in Washington. “I don’t believe in this game-of-chicken rubbish,” Dijsselbloem said. “We don’t know what the risks are.”

[Demeter]

16. ECB Is Studying Curbs on Greek Bank Support

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-21/ecb-said-to-study-curbs-on-greek-bank-support-as-unease-grows-i8qy1abe

The European Central Bank is studying measures to rein in Emergency Liquidity Assistance to Greek banks, as resistance to further aiding the country’s stricken lenders grows in the Governing Council, people with knowledge of the discussions said.

ECB staff have proposed increasing the discounts imposed on the securities banks post as collateral when borrowing from the Bank of Greece, the people said, asking not to be named as the matter is private. While adjusting these so-called haircuts hasn’t been formally discussed by the Governing Council, it may be considered if Greece’s leaders fail to quickly convince euro-area finance ministers they can reform their economy and secure bailout funds, one of the people said. Greek bank stocks slid.

Greek lenders are mostly locked out of regular ECB cash tenders while the country’s government, which holds talks with euro-area partners in Riga this week, tussles with its creditors over the much-needed aid payments. Instead, the banks currently have access to about 74 billion euros ($79 billion) of emergency funds from their own central bank -- an amount that has been rising and which will be reviewed this week.

There’s “no doubt” that the ECB is losing patience with Greece, said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Credit Agricole CIB in Paris. “Greek banks will need more funding before long, so in a way larger haircuts or a lower ELA cap are equivalent.”

THERE'S NO DOUBT THAT THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE INSANE ASYLUM

[Demeter]

13. Central banks prepare to flood FX markets with euros

ABANDON EURO! ABANDON SHIP! AND AS THE SS EURO SINKS SLOWLY IN THE WEST...

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/04/20/us-markets-euro-reserves-idINKBN0NB0WH20150420

Central banks keen to steer clear of negative-yielding assets in a rapidly depreciating currency could cut the foreign exchange reserves they hold in euros by a hundred billion dollars or more, analysts estimate. The near year-long slide in the euro and the move below zero of many euro zone government bond yields has driven a shift by official institutions, among the world's most conservative investors, on how they manage their $11.6 trillion of FX reserves. Several analysts, mostly in conjunction with bearish forecasts on the euro, said they expect central banks' euro-denominated reserves to fall below 20 percent of overall holdings over the coming quarters from around 22 percent. A continued decline in the euro's value against the dollar will account for much of that, but outright selling could still run into a 12-figure sum - a significant flow out of the single currency and a major force for further weakness.

"This shift could amount to as much as $104 billion per year," according to estimates from Goldman Sachs.

The latest International Monetary Fund data show that global FX reserves fell by 3.1 percent, or $383 billion, in the second half of last year to $11.6 trillion. Around two thirds of that was due to valuation effects from the euro's 11.7 percent fall in that period, according to JP Morgan. The euro's share of all reserves fell to 22.2 percent, the lowest since 2002. Stephen Jen, manager of the SLJ Macro hedge fund in London, reckons that will fall by a further 2-4 percentage points in coming quarters, equating to a reduction of roughly $240-$480 billion. About half of that would be valuation effects and half active divestment, meaning central banks could be dumping euro assets worth up to $240 billion onto the market.

"Reserve divestment from the euro will be powerful," Jen said. "Central bank reserve managers don't like negative yields."

The European Central Bank's commitment to flood the financial system with over 1 trillion euros through an 18-month long bond-buying program to choke off the threat of deflation has had an instant and massive impact.

The euro has tumbled towards parity with the dollar and bond yields across the region have sunk to the lowest in history, in many cases below zero.

[Demeter]

14. ECB's Draghi confident on return of growth

AFTER ALL, HE'S BET THE FARM ON IT....

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/20/us-ecb-policy-growth-idUSKBN0NB1D420150420

The European Central Bank is confident that euro zone growth will become more robust and that inflation will return to its medium-term target "without undue delay," ECB President Mario Draghi said.

Writing in the central bank's 2014 annual report, Draghi said that he could "envisage with confidence that the weak and uneven recovery experienced in 2014 will turn into a more robust, sustainable upturn – and that inflation will return without undue delay to the ECB's objective of below, but close to, 2 percent over the medium term".

The annual report also looked at the potential impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

While euro zone banks' exposure to Russia was "sizeable" in some countries, there was unlikely to be a systemic risk to the euro area as a whole, the ECB said.


IT'S A TOSSUP WHETHER THE EURO OR THE GREEK NATION-STATE FALLS FIRST, IT LOOKS LIKE

[Demeter]

15. Germany Rebuts Lew-Bernanke Criticism of Current Account Surplus

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-17/germany-rebuts-lew-bernanke-criticism-of-current-account-surplus



The leaders of Germany’s economy fired back at U.S. criticism of their swelling current-account surplus, arguing it reflects the strength of their companies and the weakness of the euro rather than a lack of domestic demand.

“It would be absurd to discuss whether German competitiveness should be reduced to narrow the current-account surplus,” Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said in Washington on Friday.

There has been a drumbeat of complaints this month from the U.S. that the surplus, now topping 7 percent of gross domestic product, is a fault line in the global economy and that Chancellor Angela Merkel needs to pare it by stimulating demand at home. Both the U.S. Treasury Department and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke have made that case, implying criticism of Germany’s bias towards tight fiscal policy.

“Stronger demand growth in Germany is absolutely essential, as it has been persistently weak,” the U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said in the department’s semiannual report on foreign-exchange policies, which it published last week.

Bernanke used his recently begun blog to say “in a slow-growing world that is short aggregate demand, Germany’s trade surplus is a problem.” He advised Merkel’s government to act to raise infrastructure spending and wages.

“The fact that Germany is selling so much more than it is buying redirects demand from its neighbors (as well as from other countries around the world), reducing output and employment outside Germany at a time at which monetary policy in many countries is reaching its limits,” Bernanke said.

Cheaper Products

Also speaking in Washington, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble blamed the surplus on exchange rates as a declining euro makes products from companies such as carmaker Volkswagen AG cheaper in the international marketplace.

“When I have to defend the surplus, which I do sometimes these days, I point out that the exchange rate contributes to the surplus,” Schaeuble said.

Weidmann said “the depreciation of the euro of course plays a role because German products have become cheaper abroad as a consequence.”

BEGGAR THY NEIGHBOR, SCHAEUBLE....AND YOU WON'T HAVE ANY!

[Demeter]

17. Hillary Promises to Get Everyday Americans Foreign Money By Andy Borowitz

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/hillary-promises-to-get-everyday-americans-foreign-money


Delivering a stirring populist message at a campaign appearance in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton vowed that as President she would help everyday Americans obtain large cash payments from foreign governments.

“Like a lot of everyday Americans, many of you are struggling to pay your bills,” she told an audience here. “As President, I will work tirelessly to help you make ends meet—by getting foreign governments to pay you.”

MORE

[MattSh]

18. Not exactly satire though...

Every time some country with oil sells it to a country that needs oil, or some country that makes electronic gadgets sells them to a country that wants them, using US dollars, Wall Street gets a cut, and the US Treasury gets a cut. Plus the value of the dollar remains artificially inflated, which benefits the average US citizen.

[DemReadingDU]

20. Ten Wonderful Things I'm Grateful For (Irony Alert)

4/21/15 Being grateful boosts your happiness. Ten wonderful things I'm grateful for.
By Charles Hugh Smith

Since every volume on the nearly endless shelf of pop psychology self-help books recommends working up some gratitude as the key to happiness, I've conjured up a list of what I'm grateful for. (Please turn your irony setting on.)

1. I'm grateful that our choice of president has been reduced to two equally detestable dynasties or their proxies. This greatly simplifies the process of selecting a warmongering figurehead for the Empire and its bankers.

2. I'm grateful that I can watch a full spectrum of entertainment, ranging from depraved to dreadfully unfunny on any device at anytime. This white noise helps block out any troubling clarity of thought or urge to ask what I might feel if I wasn't constantly distracted.

3. I'm grateful that there are so many opportunities to borrow money, because if I couldn't borrow more, I might miss an astounding opportunity to consume more of something I don't really need.

4. I'm grateful that every food item in the store now contains sugar in one form or another, or a sugar substitute. This simplifies the process of maintaining my addiction to sugar, as all I need to do is eat anything produced by Corporate America's food sector.

5. I'm grateful I live in a country where the government can trample on the rights of its citizens behind a thin veil of legitimacy. After all, what terrible thing might happen if the government couldn't arrest those horrible people tearing up their front yard lawn to plant a vegetable garden?

6. I'm grateful for our national obsession with fostering phony self-esteem that has no basis in accomplishment, dedication or sacrifice for others, as the self-absorbed, entitled populace will still feel good about themselves as the bloated, dysfunctional status quo implodes.

7. I'm grateful that we have institutionalized moral hazard as the unspoken law of the land, so financiers can gamble billions of dollars without worrying about the potential losses, as they know the taxpayers will foot the bill while they get to keep any gains.

8. I'm grateful our financial markets are now dominated by Federal Reserve manipulation, high frequency trading and dark pool shadow banking. This guarantees that all we commoners need to do to make a lot of money playing the stock market is to buy the dips.

9. I'm grateful that money can buy political influence so transparently, as this informal auction is open to anyone with tens of millions of dollars who wants to protect and expand their wealth and power.

10. I'm grateful that our mainstream media is owned by a handful of corporations, as the homogenized message they broadcast is reassuringly uniform. If every outlet is repeating that unemployment and inflation are low and the rising stock market is making us all wealthier, it must be true.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogapr15/gratitude-irony4-15.html

[Demeter]

22. I'm grateful for aspirin, alcohol, and escapist fiction

and Spring, of course!

Cool, cloudy, VERY windy, with little spats of rain...I have to check and see if the fruit trees I planted are flowering...the ones in pots at the garden centers are. My three front-yard roses broke bud...they all survived the winter! I will have to check on the back ones....I wonder if I still need waders back there?

I have a very contentious board meting tonight, during which I will have to try to teach remedial civics to a bunch of over-educated morons, who think that a condominium's house rules override the US constitution....and that I will sue to drive the point home that it does not. The defamation of character tort that they are going to face after the injunctive relief proceedings should be a good lesson in practical fiduciary responsibility. If they make every mistake in the book, I could demand in compensation that the association place a lien on their units to pay court costs and damages, foreclose on them and throw them out in the street....hey, it could happen, and a nicer set of people for it cannot be found outside of Wall St...

What do you want to bet they wimp out? They haven't even consulted an attorney...

So I am asking for good thoughts, strength and moral support, and the superhuman ability to conduct this business without resorting to physical assault, which might be the only truly effective means of driving the point home...I have a lawyer on call, for suing their asses, already. Tonight is the turning point.

[Demeter]

23. Well, isn't that interesting! DJIA down at close

17,948.85 down 86.08