STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 24 February 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 24 February 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 23 February 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 23 February 2012
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Dow Jones 12,984.69 +46.02 (0.36%)
S&P 500 1,363.46 +5.80 (0.43%)
Nasdaq 2,956.98 +23.81 (0.81%)



[font color=green]10 Year 1.99% -0.04 (-1.97%)
30 Year 3.13% -0.04 (-1.26%) [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
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS



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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]

[Tansy_Gold]

1. There were a lot of really good cartoons today

But given that I had brought up the Spanish Inquisition this morning -- and not the John Cleese/Monty Python version -- I thought this one was appropriate.

So Newt is paying himself from the campaign funds -- that man really is some ethically challenged scum, ain't he?

The feeling of weirdness, of something hovering just over the horizon or, in my case, just on the other side of the mountain, remains.

[Demeter]

2. Apple bows to investor demands over board

Apple has bowed to investor demands to give shareholders greater influence over the election of directors, a move that will make it far harder for other leading US companies to ignore calls to improve corporate governance standards.

The technology giant had disregarded a shareholder vote at last year’s annual meeting calling for the change, but faced renewed pressure from Calpers, the largest US public pension fund, to introduce majority voting for seats in the boardroom at Thursday’s meeting.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/WT4E4C/4VXHZ/NJLMJ1/NJ0YDB/RF/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=23

[Demeter]

3. Neil Barofsky on Taxpayer Subsidies to the Mortgage Settlement

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/neil-barofsky-on-taxpayer-subsidies-to-the-mortgage-settlement.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Neil Barofsky, former Special Inspector General of the TARP, weighs in on the mortgage settlement at Bloomberg. One intriguing little aspect of this deal is the degree to which the Administration, particularly HUD, is frustrated that its PR efforts are landing with a thud. I’ve been told of HUD efforts to push back against my post, “The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement,” as well as an important article by Shahien Nasiripour at the Financial Times on how the administration’s mortgage modification program HAMP would wind up providing taxpayer subsidies to the settlement.

The Bloomberg reporter Erik Schatzker mentions how HUD has disputed the Financial Times reporting and Barofsky explains why the FT got it right.

VIDEO REPORT AT LINK

[Demeter]

4. Will Expiration of Tax Break Render Much of Mortgage Settlement Moot?

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/will-expiration-of-tax-break-render-much-of-mortgage-settlement-moot.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Even though the mortgage settlement deal was without a doubt massively lawyered from the bank end, and should have received similar levels of scrutiny from the Federal and state officials, a major fly in the ointment may have been overlooked. The tax rule allowing a reduction in mortgage debt not to be counted as income expires at the end of this year. As the Seattle Times explains (hat tip Lisa Epstein):

Before 2007, all cancellations of debt by creditors — whether on auto loans, personal loans or mortgages — were treated as taxable events under the federal tax code. If you owed $200,000, but paid off only $150,000 through an agreement with the lender, the $50,000 difference would be ordinary income, taxable at regular rates.

Under the debt-relief law for qualified homeowners, you can avoid taxation on forgiven mortgage amounts up to $2 million if married filing jointly, or $1 million for single filers. To be eligible, the debt must be canceled by a lender in connection with a mortgage restructuring, short sale, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or foreclosure. The transaction must be completed no later than Dec. 31…

Picture this scenario: You negotiate for months with your lender, realty agents and potential buyers. Finally you pull together a short-sale package calling for the bank to forgive $100,000. But the deal runs into hitches and doesn’t go to closing until after the Dec. 31 expiration date. Now your house is gone, your credit is shot, you’re looking for a place to rent, and the IRS demands taxes on your phantom “gain” of $100,000 on the sale.

The Seattle Times article estimates the odds of renewal of this program at less than 50%, since Republicans claim a two-year extension would cost $2.7 billion and would help deadbeats...Consider how this interacts with the mortgage settlement deal. $10 billion of the total headline amount of $25 billion is to come from mortgage mods, which the Administration expects to come to a much bigger number in actual value, since banks are expected to get a credit of only 50% for mods of securitized mortgages. Since the Administration estimates that 85% of the mods would be on mortgages not on bank balance sheets, that would give a total value of $18-$19 billion. Another “up to $7 billion” is for “forbearance of principal for unemployed borrowers, anti-blight measures, short sales, and transition assistance.”

Look at the timetable. The mortgage deal is supposed to be finalized by the end of the month and submitted to court for approval by a Federal judge. We have been told the great unwashed public won’t see the actual terms prior to its submission. Given that various press leaks have indicated that some items are less nailed down than the officialdom would have your believe, there is good reason to think the court filing will come after the planned date of the end of this month....What happens as of December 31? What borrowers will remain interested in short sales and principal mods if they will be hit with large tax bills? The benefit of the mod will take place over time, but the adverse tax consequences will be immediate. With the old tax rules in place, foreclosure is likely to wind up being the least bad of poor choices for most underwater borrowers who are under financial stress. Even if they would like to reduce the damage to their credit record via a short sale, the tax consequences may make that unaffordable.

MORE AT LINK, SEVERELY EDITED

[jtuck004]

5. How we provide opportunity to the unemployed and those in poverty...

Last edited Thu Feb 23, 2012, 11:54 PM - Edit history (2)

(The original title referred to a frog, but it puts me in mind of a college student with a degree and no job, or a hungry parent knowing the the kid won't get enough to eat even with the max of $21 in food stamps for each person for the week).

Thank you for your work with SMW, btw. It's nice to go to a place where everybody knows your...well, your Internet name, anyway.

[Tansy_Gold]

6. Revenge of the frogs? n/t

[snot]

7. That is hilarious . . . and a perfect metaphor for how the 1% has kept the rest of us occupied . . .

. . . and for what might eventually result.

[jtuck004]

8. The 99% App. Available for download in our store. n/t

[Tansy_Gold]

27. This is why I dislike having so many economists in charge

And so few sociologists and social psychologists.

Tweaking a formula based on a theory (of the variety known as "a hunch&quot may have very different results when applied to a population of living, breathing, THINKING people.



But I'm a sociologist, so what do I know?

[happyslug]

33. There is an old rule of Business, never leave a Lawyer, Accountant or an Economist in charge.

Last edited Fri Feb 24, 2012, 02:25 PM - Edit history (2)

Lawyers (which I am one), Accountants (Which is my undergraduate degree) and economists are "Experts" to give advice and tell people what is the result of their decisions, but the decisions have to be made by people NOT tied up with the the study of the law or of money. I also advise my clients as to what they can do and what will be the legal ramifications of the the result of their decisions, but then I tell them they have to live with the results. lawyers, Accountants, Economists and engineers (I have several in my families) should NOT be making the final decisions in anything. They all get to hung up over their training and their expertise to be a good generalist, which is what you need to be to run any type of organization.

[Demeter]

9. I'm going on hiatus for Friday SMW

I think I need a mental break before I have a mental break, if you catch my drift.

I also need a theme for the Weekend...and I really don't feel like doing the Watergate anniversary. Something frothy, escapist, and hopeful.

I'd like to think I won't repeat myself...but vitality is at a low right now, as is mental functioning...

[Fuddnik]

10. Something frothy?

Nah. The thought of Santorum is too gross.

[Demeter]

11. How about beer?

That's frothy, lots of rousing drinking songs....everyone has an opinion. We could play a drinking game, even. Get really smashed.

[Fuddnik]

12. Best idea I've heard all month.

I'll make a run to the liquor store.

[Po_d Mainiac]

22. ayuh

As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.

[AnneD]

26. Didn't Ben Franklin also say....

that beer was proof that God loves us?

[Po_d Mainiac]

50. yes, no, maybe...n/t

[Po_d Mainiac]

13. The largest domestically owned brewer in the country.

What is the Boston Beer Company, Alex.

The oldest and now second largest is Yuengling.

[DemReadingDU]

18. I heard it is Yuengling

1/17/12 Yuengling Is Now America's Largest Brewer
Did Yuengling suddenly get bigger than Miller or Bud? Nope. Both are now foreign-owned. According to AdAge, Yuengling has recently surpassed Sam Adams' Boston Beer Company as the largest U.S.-owned brewer that manufactures all its beer in the U.S.

http://consumerist.com/2012/01/yuengling-is-now-americas-largest-brewer.html

[Po_d Mainiac]

19. It wood appear u is correct

[xchrom]

14. beer!

[FarCenter]

42. Here's the Gas Buddy of beer

http://www.saveonbrew.com/beer-deals-list

[xchrom]

44. bass pale ale for 12.99 at the harris teeter! nt

[Loge23]

20. Tastes like a Weekend theme?? (eom)

[TalkingDog]

37. Beer Barrel Polka!

[Hotler]

47. I vote beer. Ales are good also. (IPA) n/t

[xchrom]

15. good morning everyone

[xchrom]

16. Woman Pleads Guilty to Scamming Nigerian Scam Artists

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2012/02/23/scammed_scammers_australian_woman_steals_money_from_nigerian_online_racketeers.html

Australia's Courier Mail brings us this rather ironic piece of news to brighten our day: An Australian woman nearly made off with more than $30,000 after pulling her own scam on a bunch of Nigerian scam artists.

Sarah Jane Cochrane-Ramsey pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of aggravated robbery and will be sentenced next month for her failed attempt at online robbery. The 23-year-old apparently signed up as an "agent" for the car-selling Internet scam back in March 2010, allowing the Nigerians to deposit the dirty money from their "sales" straight to her Australian account. Under the agreement, she would keep 8 percent and then transfer the rest to a Nigerian account. Instead, she kept all of the cash, most of which she reportedly spent on herself.

Perhaps even more curiously, Cochrane-Ramsey told the judge Thursday that she had no idea that she was involved in any scam besides her own, denying herself the defense that she was somehow attempting to give her fellow scammers a taste of their own medicine. She was caught when the car buyers who were being ripped off went to the police, who traced the cash back to Cochrane-Ramsey's account.

[DemReadingDU]

17. How many Nigerian scam artists have ever pled guilty?

[xchrom]

21. Buffett Reveals Warts as He Prepares Annual Letter

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-24/buffett-warts-revealed-as-billionaire-prepares-his-annual-letter.html

Warren Buffett bought oil stocks near the peak of an energy boom, declined to spend $35 million on a growing television station and swapped a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) stake for a shoe company he later said was worthless.

In each case, shareholders of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire were charged or deprived of at least $1 billion. And in each case, Buffett apologized in writing.

“A friend once asked me: If you’re so rich, why aren’t you smart?” Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman, said in a letter accompanying the 1996 annual report. The billionaire, describing a bet on USAir, told readers at the time, “You may conclude he had a point.”

Buffett’s self-criticism is part of a leadership style that has helped him build a company with 270,000 workers and draw crowds of more than 20,000 to hear him speak. Buffett, 81, who’s scheduled to release his annual shareholder letter tomorrow, relies on his public persona as well as his record to set standards for Berkshire staff and retain investors in good years and bad.

[Tansy_Gold]

25. the image that conjures. . . .

[xchrom]

29. old men in rain coats

where is johnny carson when you need him...

[Tansy_Gold]

30. or Tyrone

[xchrom]

31. oh i loved him! -- him and ruth were SO funny!

[xchrom]

23. European Banks May Tap ECB for $629 Billion Cash

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-24/banks-in-europe-likely-to-tap-ecb-for-629-billion-cash-in-boost-for-bonds.html

Euro-area banks may tap the European Central Bank next week for almost as much three-year cash as they did in December in an operation that could prolong a rally in bond markets.

Financial institutions will ask the ECB for 470 billion euros ($629 billion) in three-year funds for allotment on Feb. 29, the median of 28 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey shows. While that’s less than the record 489 billion euro take-up at the first tender on Dec. 21, it may increase total cash in the system by more than 300 billion euros, said Luca Cazzulani, a senior fixed-income strategist at UniCredit SpA (UCG) in Milan.

“Part of the increase will likely be parked, at least temporarily, in the sovereign-bond market and support mainly the performance of Italian and Spanish bonds,” said Cazzulani. Still, “expectations are at a pretty high level, which creates some room for disappointment,” he said. “Gross demand below 400 billion euros would likely put upward pressure on spreads in the short term.”

Italian and Spanish bonds have risen since the ECB’s first three-year loan, suggesting banks are investing at least some of the money in higher yielding assets. That’s helped ease concern about a credit crunch and won governments time to agree on measures to contain the sovereign debt crisis.

[Roland99]

24. Again, US futures rather flat. Europe lackluster. But EURUSD on steroids!

[Po_d Mainiac]

28. Coin melt values

1942-1945 Nickel $1.9923
1916-1945 Mercury Dime $2.5615
1946-1964 Roosevelt Dime $2.5615
1916-1930 Standing Liberty Quarter $6.4038
1932-1964 Washington Quarter $6.4038
1916-1947 Half Dollar $12.807
1948-1963 Franklin Half Dollar $12.8076
1964 Kennedy Half Dollar $12.8076
1965-1970 Half Dollar (40% silver) $5.2369
1878-1921 Morgan Dollar $27.3878
1921-1935 Peace Dollar $27.3878
1971-1976 Eisenhower Dollar (40% silver) $11.1978
...............................

1909-1982 Cent (95% copper) $0.0249058 249.05% above face value!
1946-2012 Nickel $0.0560829 112.16% above face value!

[xchrom]

32. Kenneth Cole wants to take company private

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/24/financial/f042728S51.DTL&type=business

Fashion designer Kenneth Cole wants to take Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. private, and is offering to pay about $148.5 million to buy the shares in the company that he doesn't already own.

The company's stock jumped 77 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $13.84 in Friday premarket trading.

Cole, who serves as chairman and chief creative officer, currently holds about 47 percent of the stock and 89 percent of its voting power.

The offer would give stockholders $15 per share in cash, a 15 percent premium to the company's Thursday closing price. The deal values the whole company at $280 million.

A letter Cole sent to the company said that he won't move forward with the deal unless it's approved by a special committee of independent directors.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/24/financial/f042728S51.DTL#ixzz1nJGJgZ8U

[AnneD]

34. Morning Marketeers....

and lurkers. Our house hold gas demand is about to go down again. There are 2 ladies at the school that live further out than I and they started car pooling this week. I will probably be joining them next week. If that doesn't work out, Hubby said he was giving up his car and taking the bus. I will drive him in (we do not live far and he is sure to arrive on time) but he will save parking and lots of gas. If my car pool doesn't work out, I still get the car which uses less fuel. Fuel has gone up so much that it is worth looking at alternatives. Sounds like win-win to me.

If anything will put out the little embers of a recovery we have going (if indeed there is a recovery starting), it will be fuel costs. There is no reason for the surge in prices other than speculation of a disruption of supply, the potential of war, or my fav-the decoupling of the oil to the USD.

All the fracking, using tar sands (a net energy gain of zero), or off shore drilling will change this equation. The 1% are trying to squeeze the last bit of money from us. I won't even speculate what area they will go for next. They seem to be chasing that last dollar in a zero sum game.

Happy hunting and watch out for the bears.

[DemReadingDU]

38. Great plan!

Gas is getting so expensive, it is rumored the price may hit $5 per gallon this summer. Yikes!


I wish I lived in a walking community, where I could walk to the grocery, doctor, dentist, library, etc. A bicycle would help though, but they need maintenance. The older I get, the less I want to maintain.

[AnneD]

54. I hear you...

after your 30's all it is is maintainance, maintainance,maintainance.

[xchrom]

35. Brussels says NO to Spain's request for an easier deficit target

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_33822.shtml

Brussels has made it clear to Spain that it wants them to publish their budgets for this year before it enters into any discussion on relaxing deficit targets.

Mariano Rajoy had been hoping to get the budget deficit for the end of this year changed ahead of the budgets which will be given at the end of March, after the Andalucía elections. Spain’s deficit target for the end of 2012 is 4.4%, but Rajoy thinks they will only be able to get somewhere above 5%.

The European Commission also wants to hear Spain’s explanations why there was also a deviation last year, when 6% was the target and it came in at about 8%.

Deputy President of the Commission and responsible for economic matters, Olli Rehn, said that there would be no flexibility in the deficit reduction targets for Spain this year, and the target for the year end remains at 4.4%, until the new Government presents information in the 2012 with more adjustments.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_33822.shtml#ixzz1nJMSdMoO

[xchrom]

36. Deposit Flows Show Money Leaking From S. Europe to Germany

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-24/bank-deposit-flows-show-money-leaking-to-germany-from-spain-euro-credit.html

Money is leaking out of banks in southern Europe as customers scoop deposits out of Greece, Spain and Italy to move cash to less indebted nations such as Germany.

Greece (TODETOGR)’s total deposits plunged 28 percent from the peak in June 2009 to 169 billion euros ($225 billion) at the end of December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In Spain (TODETOES), deposits slid 5 percent in the five months through November to 934 billion euros, the least since April 2008. Italian (TODETOIT) banks held 974 billion euros in November, the lowest in 18 months.

Deposits in Germany (TODETODE) have climbed by almost 10 percent since May 2010, when Greece was granted its first bailout. Deposits have risen every month except five since the end of 2009, and reached 2.15 trillion euros at the end of 2011, Bloomberg data show. The deteriorating growth outlook in the euro region risks exacerbating those flows, according to Dario Perkins, an economist at Lombard Street Research in London.

“The biggest systemic risk is if people lose confidence in keeping their euros in Spain, Portugal or Italy,” Perkins said. “It makes sense to put your cash into Germany just to be safe and that’s where the real systemic danger lies. That contagion isn’t priced in, and bank deposits are the place we’d spot it.”

[xchrom]

39. Greece to proceed with bond offer

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0224/breaking24.html

Greece's government will make a formal offer today to holders of government debt to take part in a swap for new securities, a government official said.

A bank recapitalisation provision will be submitted to parliament tomorrow and attached to a bill on prior actions which is required for a second bailout package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, the official, who declined to be named, told reporters in Athens.

The new bailout moved forward yesterday when Greek MPs voted to proceed with a bond swap designed to cut the country’s national debt by up to €107 billion. However, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi told the Wall Street Journal that Greece remained a risk and that its leaders must demonstrate their readiness to execute the plan. “It’s hard to say if the crisis is over,” he said.

Germany is facing pressure to expand Europe’s bailout fund as global powers press for a big increase in its firepower before they boost the resources of the International Monetary Fund.

[xchrom]

40. Central Bank names chief economist

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0224/breaking31.html

?ts=1330097461
Lars Frisell will take up his new role with the Central Bank on June 1st.

The Central Bank has appointed Lars Frisell as its director of economics and chief economist.

Mr Frisell will take up his new role on June 1st. He is currently chief economist at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, a position he has held since 2009.

He has also worked with the Swedish central bank, in roles such as deputy head of the financial stability department and head of the macroprudential and financial markets division.

Mr Frisell has also held a number of research roles at the Riksbank, European Central Bank and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, and is a member of the Basel committee on banking supervision.

[DemReadingDU]

41. Ian Welsh: Justified Pessimism

A few snippets...

2/23/12 Justified pessimism is not, in fact, pressimism. It is realism.

I find the “be happy” crowd odd. We have, in the past few years, seen millions of Americans and Europeans impoverished and lose their homes. We are seeing a wave of austerity in the 1st world which has and will impoverish many millions more.

I’m not interested in happy talk. Never have been. I am not interested in “reasons to be optimistic” or “reasons to be pessimistic”. I am interested in the most likely scenarios and questions of what can be done to change the likely course of event so fewer people suffer and die.

Finally, I have nothing but contempt for most of the current generation of intellectuals, thinkers, and members of any elite. They have demonstrably failed their job, if their job is conceived as serving the truth and looking after the common weal: of telling people what they need to hear and finding a way to make them understand.

And I look the scudding storm clouds, and I feel the wind whip around me and it is to these signs and others I attend, not the fools crying “life is good! It’ll be ok!” No, it will not be ok.

http://www.ianwelsh.net/justified-pessimism/



A beer weekend, or perhaps something stronger is needed.



Edit - Ian Welsh has posted a few additional comments at the link. Well worth the time to read them in addition to his entire posting at the link.

[bread_and_roses]

53. he's new to me - thanks

looks interesting - and I sure agree with this

Finally, I have nothing but contempt for most of the current generation of intellectuals, thinkers, and members of any elite. They have demonstrably failed their job, if their job is conceived as serving the truth and looking after the common weal: of telling people what they need to hear and finding a way to make them understand. Some have fought the yeoman’s good fight, and lost and there is honor in that, but most did not even fight. Instead the spewed lies and reaped the rewards. They were complicit with the political and economic elites, they took their share of the loot, a petty pence, and wrote what would please their masters. They will be exorciated by history, but in the current day, they have their silver gripped firmly in their hands, as they lope behind and before their masters, making the world safe for oligarchy, poverty and the new despotism of the modern security state.

my emphasis added - and on edit, I sure as hell hope there is a future history for them to be excoriated as they deserve - but my rational self tells me that ship sailed without us a long time ago - they've made it impossible. I have no hope. I see no future.

[xchrom]

42. Irish economy to grow by 0.9%

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0224/breaking9.html

?ts=1330097539
Exports are forecast to grow by 3.4 per cent in 2012, and 3.8 per cent in 2013, down from 6.3 per cent in 2011.

The economy will grow by a modest 0.9 per cent this year, according to the latest forecast from the State think tank the Economic and Social Research Institute.

However, if the outcome this year is weaker than this, it may affect the Government’s budgetary targets, one of the authors of the institute’s latest Quarterly Economic Commentary, published today, said.

Prof Joe Durkan, at a press briefing yesterday, said that if growth this year were to be 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product, it would put the Government’s targets in danger.

The European Commission yesterday predicted 0.5 per cent growth for the Irish economy in 2012.

[xchrom]

45. Lloyds delays turnaround goals after huge loss

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/24/uk-lloyds-idUKTRE81N00220120224

(Reuters) - Part state-owned British bank Lloyds pushed back key targets of its turnaround plan and warned a tough economic outlook would hit revenues this year after it plunged to a 3.5 billion pound loss in 2011.

Lloyds, 40 percent owned by the government after a state bailout during the 2008 financial crisis, said on Friday it no longer expected to meet goals to boost income and achieve a return on equity of over 12.5 percent by 2014, although it added its "medium-term" recovery plan remained on track.

Banks across Europe have been posting billions of dollars in losses as the euro zone sovereign debt crisis has eroded the value of their government bond holdings and hit their bond trading businesses, and as they strive to meet tough new rules aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2007-9 banking crisis.

Rival Royal Bank of Scotland, 82-percent owed by the British government after a similar bailout in 2008, on Thursday reported a 2011 loss of about 2 billion pounds.

[xchrom]

46. PRECIOUS-Gold holds near $1,780/oz, eyes second monthly gain

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/24/markets-precious-idUKL4E8DO4GV20120224

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Gold prices held just below $1,780 an ounce in Europe on Friday, supported by gains in the euro and expectations that monetary policy will remain loose in key economies, but was struggling to maintain traction after this week's already hefty price climb.

Silver rallied to a fresh five-month high after breaking a key technical level, meanwhile.

Spot gold was at $1,778.34 an ounce at 1037 GMT against $1,779,79 late on Thursday, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down $5.70 at $1,780.50.

The euro hit a 2-1/2-month high against the dollar, building on hefty gains it made a day earlier after improved German business sentiment data, and on lingering relief over an agreement for a second bailout of Greece.

[Hotler]

48. Po, I see you got your hand slapped over in Good Reads for....

being disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive etc. I saw nothing wrong with your post. Some jurors need to get a thicker skin.

[Po_d Mainiac]

51. The jury was stacked

I'm innocent of at least one of those charges! Maybe?

[Loge23]

55. Well maybe, but...

you probably just gave TG a great idea for her next new piece!

[Tansy_Gold]

62. What did I miss?

I HATE it when people talk about me and I don't know what's going on!

Oh, and I had one of those little mustard seed things. It was a charm for my charm bracelet, only instead of being made of glass, it was plastic, and it got all scratched up by the other charms. I think I threw it away.

[Loge23]

63. A new idea for jewelry.

I apologize for the blind reference!
It seems that Po suggested a new use for Mr. Summer's canastas.
Apparently, his suggestion - as reasonable as it may have been - was not taken.
I was thinking earrings.

[AnneD]

56. At least you are safe....

In the Ghetto.....cue up Elvis someone.

I don't often venture out amid the happy talkers and candidate hawkers. I like to keep it real.

Edited to add: I read your comment. You owe me a monitor. Zang!

I don't think Tansy can work with something that small. But I do remember years ago mustard seeds were a popular Christiian symbol and they had little glass beads with a mustard seed inside. That might work. How say you Tansy?

[girl gone mad]

57. I thought your comment was too polite. n/t

[Po_d Mainiac]

61. u'r right

his canastas should first be bronzed and then castrate him.

[Fuddnik]

60. A victim of soicumstance!

I missed the post, but noticed it was removed.

[Po_d Mainiac]

49. Lord James speeketh..A $15T mystery, or whacked out former banker?

Hmmm

Full text under the viewer

more

http://bullionbullscanada.com/us-commentary/24220-the-15-trillion-money-laundering-mystery

[Hotler]

52. Maybe this is the bad juju that some of us

has been feeling blowing in the wind lately.

[Roland99]

58. NYSE Volume At New Decade Low

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/nyse-volume-new-decade-low

Both NYSE and ES (e-mini S&P futures) volumes were the lowest of the year so far. This is the lowest non-holiday trading day on the NYSEVOL (from Bloomberg) since its data began a decade ago and eyeballing ES volumes, this appears to be one of the lowest ever volumes of the last few years. For those who think this is irrelevant as the market's price has risen and so total USD volume remains approximately equal - wrong! Today is the lowest USD volume day since the mid 2009 (which tended to coincide with holiday trading volumes around July 4th) - making today's USD trading volume less than 50% of their 2004-2007 average!

A proxy for total USD trading volume - NYSE Volume multiplied by the S&P 500 is at decade low levels for a non-holiday period...

[Fuddnik]

59. Close it out with, "My Friend Dahmer".

Now, here's some bad Juju for you.

http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2012/02/derfs_masterful_graphic_novel.html