Weekend Economists Go for the Gusto February 24-26, 2012

[Demeter]

As promised, this is our drinking edition of the Weekend Economist, and we are featuring



I have cracked open my can of Molson Ice (I know, but it's cheap and not as thin as some) to sooth weary mind and muscles and to get into the spirit of the thing. Let you know if I actually finish it....

We shall explore as many aspects of the brew as we can discover on Google. Given the nature of the economy today, we are going to need it.

What are you drinking this weekend, and why?

[Demeter]

1. THE FDIC ISN'T DRINKING--THEY'VE SHUT DOWN TWO BANKS ALREADY

Central Bank of Georgia, Ellaville, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Ameris Bank, Moultrie, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of Central Bank of Georgia.

The five branches of Central Bank of Georgia will reopen during their normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Ameris Bank...As of December 31, 2011, Central Bank of Georgia had approximately $278.9 million in total assets and $266.6 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Ameris Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and Ameris Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $192.8 million of Central Bank of Georgia's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $67.5 million. Compared to other alternatives, Ameris Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Central Bank of Georgia is the tenth FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was The First State Bank, Stockbridge, on January 20, 2012.


The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) approved the payout of the insured deposits of Home Savings of America, Little Falls, Minnesota. The bank was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the FDIC as receiver. The FDIC was unable to find another financial institution to take over the banking operations of Home Savings of America. The FDIC will mail directly to depositors of Home Savings of America checks for the amount of their insured money....As of December 31, 2011, Home Savings of America had $434.1 million in total assets and $432.2 million in total deposits. The amount of uninsured deposits will be determined once the FDIC obtains additional information from those customers.

The FDIC as receiver will retain all the assets from Home Savings of America for later disposition. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $38.8 million. Home Savings of America is the eleventh FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Minnesota. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Patriot Bank Minnesota, Forest Lake, on January 27, 2012.

[CatholicEdHead]

8. Little Falls?

That is in the central part of the state just north of St Cloud. It is a pretty Republican area but also one of the higher poverty areas of the state, rural and forested. It can also be a weekend area for people from the Twin Cities (though not as many lakes around there as other parts of the state). I am guessing the housing market got them with lower income houses and weekend cabins.

[Demeter]

32. $106.3 M TOTAL LOSS for the 2nd half, $157.6M for all of February

Last edited Sun Feb 26, 2012, 09:19 AM - Edit history (1)

Yeah, that recovery is cooking along...where would we be without it?

[hamerfan]

2. First rec!

[Demeter]

3. Bank of America Breaks With Fannie Mae By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

I FOUND THIS POSTED IN LBN THIS MORNING, AND IT'S SO FUNNY (I SWEAR, HADN'T TOUCHED A DROP, DESPITE SEVERE PROVOCATION) I JUST HAD TO ADD IT TO THE THREAD

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/business/bank-of-america-breaks-with-fannie-mae.html?_r=1

Bank of America said Thursday that it would no longer sell new mortgages to Fannie Mae, underscoring tensions in a fight between giants of the home loan market over billions in losses in the housing bubble. The latest move represents a major escalation in a protracted legal battle over how many defaulted mortgages Bank of America will have to buy back from Fannie because the original loans had not conformed to proper underwriting standards, market experts said.

“In mortgage circles, it’s pretty big,” said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication. “It would be fairly extreme for a small or midsized lender to do this, but for a major lender, it’s very extreme.”

As one of the large government-sponsored mortgage finance enterprises, Fannie Mae takes mortgage loans from banks and packages them into securities that can be sold to investors or held on their own balance sheet. Fannie Mae backs about 40 percent of all mortgages in the United States. Bank of America was Fannie’s third-largest provider last year, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The bank originated $156.1 billion in mortgages last year, of which $37.7 billion were sold to Fannie, the trade publication said. Bank of America insisted its customers would not be hurt by the decision, and said it can make up for the loss of Fannie as a backer by turning to Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae, other government-sponsored mortgage buyers; the private sector; and by deploying its huge balance sheet. “This decision will not affect the credit available to our customers, and we will rely on other sources of liquidity to continue to ensure we are lending to our customers and supporting the housing market recovery,” said Lawrence Di Rita, a spokesman for Bank of America. He added that the bank would continue to participate in assisting homeowners, including through the federal government’s loan modification program.

Bank of America agreed in January 2011 to buy back $2.5 billion in soured mortgages from Fannie and Freddie, but that deal left the door open to future claims from Fannie. Bank of America also reached an $8.5 billion deal with private investors to cover repurchase claims last June, but that accord is the subject of another legal fight. Bank of America does not break out how much it has faced in claims from each company, but it has recorded losses on $9.2 billion worth of loans made from 2004 to 2008 that were later acquired by Fannie and Freddie. Mr. Cecala said that while consumers should not feel the effects of the move in terms of access to credit, the absence of Fannie Mae as a backer could make Bank of America’s mortgage terms and rates less competitive in the future. A spokesman for Fannie Mae declined to comment.


Bank of America ranked as the nation’s second-largest originator of home loans for all of 2011, with an 11.6 percent market share, but by the fourth quarter it had slipped into fourth place behind Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Wells, in particular, has been an aggressive competitor, picking up much of the slack in the market and now accounting for one out of every four mortgage originations. Bank of America, once the nation’s largest bank by assets, has been steadily shrinking its balance sheet, and now ranks second to JPMorgan Chase. Many of its problems stem from the disastrous 2008 decision to buy Countrywide Financial, a subprime mortgage lender that caused Bank of America to record more than $30 billion in losses. Investors are concerned that Fannie and Freddie, along with private investors, will force Bank of America and other giant mortgage lenders to repurchase tens of billions in mortgages that later defaulted, arguing they were not made with adequate documentation or proof of income, or otherwise failed to conform to proper underwriting standards. Bank of America and its competitors have argued that many homeowners defaulted because of unemployment, the weak economy and other factors, not errors in the origination process. Still, repurchase fears weighed on Bank of America shares in particular last year, and at one point Bank of America’s stock fell below $5 a share. Its shares closed at $8.02 on Thursday, up 7 cents.

[Demeter]

4. India call centres 'used in US debt collection fraud'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17126565

Indian call centres were used to swindle millions of dollars out of Americans, say US federal officials. Callers from the Indian centres posed as "phantom debt" collectors who targeted people who had applied for small online loans. The Federal Trade Commission said two-California based firms and their owner had made $5m (£3.2m) from the fraud. FTC officials said this was the first case of its kind as more than 10,000 people across the country were cheated.

"We think we have a really serious problem," said C Steven Baker, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Midwest Region, in Chicago. (WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE, STEVE?) "As economies have globalised, so has fraud."

Payday loans

A US court has frozen the assets of California-based firms American Credit Crunchers LLC, Ebeeze LLC and their owner, Varang K Thaker. They have been charged with violating the FTC Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, though no criminal charges have been filed. Mr Thaker allegedly withdrew thousand of dollars that had been paid into the companies' accounts by victims of the fraud.

Mr Baker said it was not clear if the operation was directed from California or India. He said authorities had received more than 4,000 complaints about debt-collection schemes in recent years. The callers used personal data on their victims obtained from payday loan websites - which usually extend small, short-term loans at high interest rates to borrowers. More than 20 million calls may have been made over the past two years, Mr Baker said, with collectors using aggressive and threatening language to demand payment for debts that did not exist.

"Nobody actually owed them a dime," Mr Baker said.

David Vladeck, director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau, said: "Consumers should not be pressured into paying debt they don't remember owing. Legitimate debt collectors must provide consumers with both written information about the debt, and instructions for protecting themselves if they don't think they owe the debt."

IN OTHER WORDS, BE AN ICELAND, NOT AN IRELAND! GOOD ADVICE FOR ALL NATIONS AND PEOPLES!

[Demeter]

5. Monsanto Agrees To Pay Up $93 Million In Agent Orange Settlement

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/02/24/147370124/monsanto-agrees-to-pay-up-93-million-in-agent-orange-settlement?ft=1&f=1001

...preliminary agreement to settle an "Agent Orange" related class-action lawsuit filed against the Monsanto Company. We reported yesterday that Monsanto agreed to settle a case over pollution claims made on behalf of current and former residents of the small town of Nitro, West Virginia.

In a written statement today Monsanto says it's agreeing to pay up to $93 million dollars. $84 million of that would go toward medical monitoring for residents ($21 million up front and up to $63 million over 30 years). The company also is agreeing to spend up to $9 million to professionally clean homes in the affected area, which includes an estimated 4500 houses.

Putnam Circuit Court Judge Derek Swope will now give the agreement a thorough review before giving the deal his final approval.

WAIT UNTIL THE VIETNAMESE HEAR ABOUT THIS!

[Warpy]

6. The only thing I missed when I realized I couldn't drink was beer

and no, even Birrell, probably the best of a bad lot of near beer, is just not the same as my own kickass dark homebrews. I loved Porter, liked stout, and loathed lagers.

That doesn't mean I was ever much of a drinker. Even when it didn't trigger a migraine, half a pint would get me convinced I was the most gorgeous thing who ever lived and that everybody in the world loved me. I was the original cheap date.

Most people are put off when they realize I don't drink. What they need to know is that I would if I could and what I would drink is glorious, sudsy beer.

[Demeter]

9. Well, I hope you can survive this weekend without getting bent out of shape

sorry to hit a sore spot...

[DemReadingDU]

15. There's always virtual beer!

p.s. I don't drink either

[Tansy_Gold]

19. I don't drink either, and I really don't like beer at all

Two glasses of wine makes me tipsy, but I've never needed wine to believe I'm the most gorgeous, most fascinating, most (whatever) thing that ever walked the earth.

I really tried to like beer when I was in college the first time, but it never took.

So I'll just sit here with a virtual copita of Tío Pepe and a dish of salted almonds and be quite happy.

[Demeter]

7. With Sale, Phila. Reporters Fear Loss Of Integrity

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/24/147295946/with-sale-phila-reporters-fear-loss-of-integrity?ft=1&f=1001

Philadelphia's financially troubled newspapers — the jointly owned Inquirer and Daily News — may be sold for the fourth time in six years. Circulation and advertising are down. A new set of layoffs has been announced, and the papers' newsrooms are about to be combined with the news site Philly.com.

But reporters and editors there are outraged by something else: the actions of their own publisher to influence their coverage of the company's sale.

Publisher Greg Osberg, who is also the CEO of parent company Philadelphia Media Network, has this month killed two stories about the sale and cut elements of a third story. Meanwhile, the leading bid appears to come from a group of powerful figures who are frequent subjects of their reporting.

"There's a whole trust issue now," says Wendy Ruderman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News. "We're terrified, just terrified, that we're going to step on more land mines and not be able to do our jobs. And then we're not journalists anymore. We're not."

TELL ME ABOUT IT! OUR FEATURE STORY THURSDAY WAS THE 4TH RABID SKUNK FOUND ON THE WEST SIDE OF TOWN....

[Fuddnik]

24. Newt and Santorum get lost?

[Demeter]

10. I'm going to go cook for the Kid, before I get too inebriated (or depressed by the news)

Carry on, I shall return!

[CatholicEdHead]

11. For good beer head to Wisconsin

I consider Beer is to Wisconsin as Wine is to California. The local microbrews are amazing, some you have to jump the border to get as they only sell them in WI. The smaller ones are bar-centric, many bars have their own microbrews.

[Demeter]

33. Ann Arbor has some microbreweries and they go on tour

but it's always Wednesday nights, which is paper night, so I can't go. Who in their right mind goes drinking in the middle of the week, anyway?

[Po_d Mainiac]

12. Gotta pull a draft from the local keg

http://www.oakpondbrewery.com/

[Po_d Mainiac]

13. troubleshooting beer

SYMPTOM: Feet cold and wet.
FAULT: Glass being held at incorrect angle.
ACTION: Rotate glass so that open end points toward ceiling.

SYMPTOM: Feet warm and wet.
FAULT: Improper bladder control.
ACTION: Stand next to nearest dog, complain about house training.

SYMPTOM: Beer unusually pale and tasteless.
FAULT: Glass empty.
ACTION: Get someone to buy you another beer.

SYMPTOM: Opposite wall covered with fluorescent lights.
FAULT: You have fallen over backward.
ACTION: Have yourself leashed to bar.

SYMPTOM: Mouth contains cigarette butts.
FAULT: You have fallen forward.
ACTION: See above.

SYMPTOM: Beer tasteless, front of your shirt is wet.
FAULT: Mouth not open, or glass applied to wrong part of face.
ACTION: Retire to restroom, practice in mirror.

SYMPTOM: Floor blurred.
FAULT: You are looking through bottom of empty glass.
ACTION: Get someone to buy you another beer.

SYMPTOM: Floor moving.
FAULT: You are being carried out.
ACTION: Find out if you are being taken to another bar.

SYMPTOM: Room seems unusually dark.
FAULT: Bar has closed.
ACTION: Confirm home address with bartender.

SYMPTOM: Taxi suddenly takes on colorful aspect and textures.
FAULT: Beer consumption has exceeded personal
limitations.
ACTION: Cover mouth.

SYMPTOM: Everyone looks up to you and smiles.
FAULT: You are dancing on the table.
ACTION: Fall on somebody cushy-looking.

SYMPTOM: Beer is crystal-clear.
FAULT: It's water. Somebody is trying to sober you up.
ACTION: Punch him.

SYMPTOM: Hands hurt, nose hurts, mind unusually clear.
FAULT: You have been in a fight.
ACTION: Apologize to everyone you see, just in case it was them.

SYMPTOM: Don't recognize anyone, don't recognize the room you're in.
FAULT: You've wandered into the wrong party.
ACTION: See if they have free beer.

SYMPTOM: Your singing sounds distorted.
FAULT: The beer is too weak.
ACTION: Have more beer until your voice improves.

SYMPTOM: Don't remember the words to the song.
FAULT: Beer is just right.
ACTION: Play air guitar.

[Po_d Mainiac]

14. Beer sense

Heard yesterday that scientists for HHS suggested that men should temper their beer consumption, considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. That's right, drinking beer makes men turn into women.

To test the finding, 100 men were fed 6 long necks/day for 4 weeks. At the end of the experement 100% of the men gained weight, and talked excessively without making sense. 9 outa 10 also became overly emotional, couldn't drive, and failed to think rationally.

60 subjects began to argue over nothing and refused to apologize when wrong.

No further tests are scheduled.

[Fuddnik]

18. That's OK

I always wanted to be a lesbian.

[DemReadingDU]

16. Ohio FBI Website Hacked

2/24/12 Ohio FBI Website Hacked

Hackers claiming allegiance to the loose-knit Anonymous movement have claimed responsibility for vandalizing an Ohio FBI partner website, replacing its homepage with the video for rap hit "Gangsta's Paradise."

The hackers said Friday that they were responsible for defacing the website of the Dayton, Ohio-based chapter of Infragard, a public-private partnership for critical infrastructure protection sponsored by the FBI.

The Ohio site was replaced with the video for Coolio's 1995 rap hit and a profane message attacking Infragard as a "sinister alliance" between corporations and law enforcement.

Anonymous has promised weekly hacks as the amorphous group continues its campaign against law enforcement worldwide.

The FBI did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
http://abc.daytonsnewssource.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wkef_vid_5315.shtml

[Fuddnik]

17. I got an early start.

I was in the garden, clearing a spot to plant sweet potatos. Dig for half an hour, have a beer. Dig another half hour, have another beer. Dig 10 more minutes. Screw it, have another beer.

What? It's only noon? Well it's 5:00pm in Moscow or Uzi-becki-becki-stan or somewhere.

Luckily, I have a fridge in the garage that is still full of beer from our turducken feast last month. When the party ended, I had more beer left than when I started. It's magic. Like supply-side economics.

[Demeter]

20. My tolerance tonight is worse than usual

The can is only half empty, and I'm nodding off.

Being several hours short on sleep and working like a fiend probably didn't help, either.

I'm going to take a little nap, and when the beer hits bottom, post some more...

[InkAddict]

21. Musical Interlude while buying a round....

Hi folks...thanks for the cheerful vibes last week...I survived a visit to two Urgent Cares, a spiffy new community hospital, and the big ER/house downtown after the squad ride. Yay! I've now got a few extra pieces-parts that won't scare the TSA should I EVER again be able to afford a plane ticket. Suffice it to say I can't afford to drink, smoke, gamble, engage in afternoon delite, eat cheesecake, donuts, or bacon. I hear that a new study says cocoa has lots of polyphenols and a small daily ration is A-ok. I also appear to have more holes in my bod than a voodoo dolly on a bad hair day. Did I say I survived - ???

Haha - To Life!

[CatholicEdHead]

22. Good companion video

[DemReadingDU]

27. Yay, isn't technology great!

That was a frightening experience, So happy you doing so much better!

[Demeter]

34. I'll Drink to That! Congratulations on your survival and wishes for a speedy recovery!

Don't do that again, okay! We can't take much stress anymore.

I did have chocolate (with whipped cream) for breakfast, and with the assist of such jet fuel, did 2 hours of housework (barely scratched the surface in the kitchen. Time for more beer.)

[hay rick]

23. Drinking mama juana this weekend.

Spending week in Dominican Republic with wife, 3 sisters-in-law, and assorted other relatives. Slow internet connection but glorious beach. We'll survive.

[hamerfan]

25. Musical Interlude

Koko Taylor. Beer Bottle Boogie:

[hamerfan]

26. Musical Interlude

George & Garth. Beer Run:

[Loge23]

63. I like beer

It makes me a happy fellow.
Let's all sing along.....

[xchrom]

28. happy beer morning to all

[xchrom]

29. Greek farmers offload crops at cost price

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GREECE_POTATO_BATTLE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-25-06-41-47

KATERINI, Greece (AP) -- Hammered by the financial crisis that has led to ever diminishing income, a group of residents in northern Greece have joined forces with potato farmers to slash consumer prices and ensure producers can get their crop to markets by cutting out the middle man.

Hundreds of families turned up Saturday in this northern Greek town to buy potatoes at massively reduced prices, sold directly by producers at cost price. They lined up in cars and with bicycles, on foot and with scooters to collect their bags of spuds from a truck that flung its doors wide open and was doing a roaring trade in the parking lot of a local courthouse.

Farmers say it costs about 20 cents ($0.27) to produce a kilogram (2 pounds) of potatoes, but that wholesalers will only buy them for 10-12 cents to get the crop to supermarkets, where they sell for about 60-70 cents a kilogram. Faced with making a loss, many producers say they have been unable to even get their products to the market.

Greece's severe financial crisis, now entering its third year, has seen pensions and salaries slashed and led to skyrocketing unemployment of over 20 percent. More and more people have been turning up at soup kitchens run by the church or local aid groups, and homelessness has been increasing.

[Demeter]

35. Yep. All the Middlemen Are Gonna Get Cut Out

and have to do some real work for a change.

An enterprising truck owner could make a potato run and (assuming fuel costs don't kill him) actually make a small profit...

[Demeter]

37. Greece sets stage for Friday bond swap

http://news.yahoo.com/greece-pores-over-bailout-laws-amid-protests-011659515.html

Greece took its first step towards reaping urgently needed funds agreed in a 130-billion-euro rescue package on Thursday as its parliament endorsed a bond swap for private holders of its debt. The swap, in which investors trade bonds for lower-value debt, is to be launched on Friday with the aim of slicing 100 billion euros off liabilities worth 160 percent of national output that have brought the country to the brink of a chaotic bankruptcy...

Greece's second bailout since 2010 was sealed by euro zone finance ministers on Tuesday, averting the threat of a chaotic default next month but doing little to allay doubts about the country's long-term financial and social stability....In Berlin, a senior official of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democrats said lawmakers due to vote on the bailout on Monday would make it dependent on the International Monetary Fund taking part as planned. European and IMF sources have told Reuters the Fund could contribute 13 billion euros in new money on top of 9.9 billion still unpaid from the first bailout. SO, THEY CHEAT ON THE FIRST BAILOUT TO FORCE A SECOND ROUND OF PAIN? BASTARDS!

The Greek government says the bond swap must be completed by March 12, before a March 20 deadline when 14.5 billion euros of debt repayments fall due....Private investors holding about 200 billion euros of Greek bonds will take a loss of 53.5 percent in the face value of their holdings and a real loss of 73-74 percent. The legislation says investors get at least 10 days to consider the transaction and creates so-called "collective action clauses" (CACs), which force all bondholders to proceed with the swap once it has won a specified level of approval. According to the law, the swap will go ahead once 50 percent of bondholders have responded to the offer and the CACs will be activated once a two-thirds majority of that quorum has voted in favour of the swap.

...Doctors and health workers joined a wave of public anger over tough budget cuts demanded as the price for the bailout, launching a 24-hour strike over pay cuts. Hospitals were maintaining a minimum level of service. A 3-hour nationwide work stoppage is a planned for next Wednesday and left-wing parties opposed to the austerity package are gaining in opinion polls before elections likely in April. "Greece is the first colony of the euro zone," said Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Left Coalition party, complaining that new arrangements under which foreign inspectors will monitor national finances was a humiliating loss of sovereignty. Government ministers maintain the only alternative would be bankruptcy and ejection from the euro single currency zone...

SO, JUST COSMETIC PROTESTS FROM THOSE STILL WORKING...

[xchrom]

38. the hot mess just keeps getting hotter and messier. nt

[Demeter]

40. G20 must protect the IMF from Europe

At this weekend’s G20 meeting, European countries are likely to press for an increase in the International Monetary Fund’s resources as a means to bolster the firewalls against the eurozone debt crisis. The other G20 members must resist such pressure until Europe starts showing more signs that it's getting its act together.
Read more >>

http://link.ft.com/r/VKY5JJ/L965JP/B49CK/97YGS5/R3ZNTH/7V/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=24

THIS WOULD BE SCREAMINGLY FUNNY, IF IT WEREN'T UNBEARABLY SAD, WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT PRIORITIES...

[Demeter]

50. Athens told to change spending and taxes

Reforms are price Greece has agreed to obtain a €130bn bail-out and avoid default that Athens feared would throw society into turmoil

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/2SRI11/EX1OXJ/PNGIU/DW9OL8/HYH4QE/CM/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=24

[xchrom]

30. Berkshire Profit Declines 30% on Derivatives

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-25/berkshire-profit-declines-30-as-gains-narrow-on-derivatives.html

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) said fourth- quarter profit fell 30 percent on smaller gains from Warren Buffett’s portfolio of derivatives.

Net income declined to $3.05 billion, or $1,846 a share, from $4.38 billion, or $2,656, a year earlier, Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire said today.

Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer, is investing in stocks and acquisitions as Berkshire generates earnings. The derivatives bets, made in prior years on long-term gains stocks and the solvency of borrowers, produced more than $2 billion of earnings in the fourth quarter of 2010.

“These are contracts that don’t expire for another 10 or 15 years and might fluctuate a lot every quarter,” said David Kass, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Buffett is “not really bothered by the volatility short term,” said Kass, in an interview before results were released.

[xchrom]

44. Buffett Says He’s ‘On the Prowl’ for Large Acquisitions to Build Berkshire

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-25/buffett-says-he-s-on-the-prowl-for-large-acquisitions-to-build-berkshire.html

Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said he’s “on the prowl” for large acquisitions after the company’s biggest subsidiaries posted record earnings in 2011.

Berkshire is seeking “to purchase some large operations that will give us a further boost,” Buffett said today in his annual letter to shareholders. “We now have eight subsidiaries that would each be included in the Fortune 500 were they stand- alone companies. That leaves only 492 to go. My task is clear, and I’m on the prowl.”

Buffett’s letters are reviewed by investors for insight into his views on the economy, markets and corporate governance. Since last year’s letter, Buffett acquired a lubricants maker, invested $5 billion in Bank of America Corp. and took a stake of more than $10 billion in International Business Machines Corp. as he bet on a rebound of the U.S. economy and shunned bonds with interest rates near record lows.

Bonds and other bets tied to currencies are “among the most dangerous of assets” because of the risk of inflation and low interest rates, Buffett, 81, said in an adaptation of his letter published Feb. 9 on Fortune magazine’s website.

[Demeter]

80. Berkshire has found Buffett’s successor

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/berkshire-has-found-buffetts-successor-2012-02-25

Warren Buffett, the 81-year-old chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said Saturday that Berkshire’s board has found his successor as CEO. In his annual letter to shareholders, Buffett said the Berkshire board has had “a great deal of exposure” to the unnamed successor, whose “managerial and human qualities” he said the board admires. He said Berkshire also has two “superb” back-up candidates.

Buffett didn’t identify the person.

“When a transfer of responsibility is required, it will be seamless, and Berkshire’s prospects will remain bright,” Buffett said. Still, Buffett said the news doesn’t imply he and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger “are going anywhere.” Munger is 88. “We continue to be in excellent health, and we love what we do,” Buffett said. Buffett also said Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, the company’s two investment managers who came on board last year, “have outstanding investment skills and a deep commitment to Berkshire...Each will be handling a few billion dollars in 2012, but they have the brains, judgment and character to manage our entire portfolio when Charlie and I are no longer running Berkshire,” he said.

In the annual report following Buffett’s letter, the Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire reported net income last year of $10.3 billion, a 21% drop from $13 billion a year earlier. Total revenue rose to $143.7 billion from $136.2 billion. Insurance premiums earned rose to $32.1 billion from $30.7 billion while revenues of railroad, utilities and energy businesses climbed to $30.8 billion from $26.4 billion. Its per-share book value last year rose 4.6%, outperforming the 2.1% gain of the S&P 500 with dividends included, Berkshire said.

Buffett said Berkshire’s major businesses did well last year, with each of its five largest non-insurance companies, including Lubrizol and MidAmerican Energy MDPWK +2.14% , posting record operating earnings. He said combined the businesses earned more than $9 billion pre-tax in 2011. He said unless the economy weakens in 2012, each of those five should again set a record, with aggregate earnings “comfortably topping $10 billion.” Berkshire in September bought Lubrizol, a global producer of additives and other specialty chemicals. Buffett said Lubrizol will have many opportunities for “bolt-on” acquisitions in the specialty chemical field. He said he also expects the “overwhelming majority” of Berkshire’s future capital commitments to be in the U.S., with record spending again this year....MORE

[xchrom]

31. Indonesia, Malaysia beat growth expectations

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NB25Ae01.html

MONTREAL - Both Indonesia and Malaysia, two countries that export more to the dynamic Asian markets than they sell to the lethargic countries of Europe and America, surprised consensus growth estimates to the upside for the fourth quarter of 2011.

Indonesia grew 6.5% year-on-year, marking the fifth consecutive quarter where growth exceeded 6.4%. Growth for the whole year 2011 also came in at 6.5%, up three-tenths of a point over 2010


and significantly above the 5.7% average for the second half of the last decade.

A month ago, Moody's increased its credit rating of Indonesia's sovereign debt to "Baa3", which is the lowest investment-grade rung. This came a month after Fitch raised Indonesia to its own lowest investment-grade rating of "BBB-". Standard & Poor's will likely follow suit in the near future.

In Malaysia, industrial production in December rose 3% year-on-year, driven by manufacturing and the electricity sector. The 5.2% growth in Malaysia's economy in the fourth quarter was down from 5.8% in the third quarter and 7.2% in the second, but still robust due to still strong domestic demand.

[xchrom]

92. Thailand Best After China Among Emerging Markets

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/thailand-proving-best-after-china-among-global-emerging-markets.html

During 10 turbulent years in Thailand, Kittiratt Na-Ranong tackled jobs ranging from president of the stock exchange to manager of the national soccer team, an underperforming outfit nicknamed the War Elephants.

Now, Kittiratt, 54, has taken on a task with significant implications for fund managers such as Templeton Emerging Markets Group Executive Chairman Mark Mobius, for market-leading companies such as Intel Corp. (INTC) and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and for consumers of the world’s most important staple food, rice, Bloomberg Markets reports in its March issue.

As deputy prime minister and finance minister, Kittiratt says, his task is to convince investors that the government can build defenses to prevent the recurrence of floods that last year inundated thousands of factories critical to global supply chains as well as a swath of the paddies that supply 29 percent of international rice shipments.

“We have learned from the pain and will not let this happen again,” he says.

As the waters slowly receded, they laid bare this Southeast Asian nation’s extraordinary economic importance to the rest of the world.

[xchrom]

36. Schäuble concedes third Greek bailout on the cards

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0225/1224312374474.html

GERMAN FINANCE minister Wolfgang Schäuble has admitted that Greece is likely to require a third bailout, days before Bundestag MPs vote on Berlin’s contribution to the second €130 billion package.

Government and opposition MPs complained yesterday that they are being asked to vote again on a multibillion-euro package with too little information.

Mr Schäuble and chancellor Angela Merkel are confident of their own Bundestag majority to back Germany’s second Greek contribution on Monday.

Opposition parties have also signalled their readiness to vote in favour.

[Demeter]

39. So much for German Discipline

They can dish it out, but they can't take it. Would they rather have an uncontrolled global collapse?

[xchrom]

41. i have this idea that austrian/chicago/german schools of economics have failed

so badly -- and all these big whigs -- that's all they know -- now they are flailing -- trying to nail anything they can.

i think they're lost.

[Demeter]

47. German bank chief hits at Greek debt deal

Lenders in France, Germany, the UK and Belgium report billions in losses in the fourth quarter after writing down sovereign bond holdings

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/KQ8ZDY/1O51V/DW9OTW/AMNVKU/KI/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=24

[xchrom]

51. +1

[Demeter]

53. Marshall Auerback: German Economic Striving at the Expense of Workers and Neighbors Will Backfire

http://www.alternet.org/story/154231/german_economic_striving_at_the_expense_of_workers_and_neighbors_will_backfire?page=entire

The export-obsessed Germans have created an economic race-to-the-bottom in which no one can win. But there's a better way...Unemployment in Germany is now at a 20 year low and the country’s economy seems to be impervious to the strains afflicting its neighbors in the economic periphery- notably, Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain. So shouldn’t everyone else be copying Germany’s model? In a recent speech in Berlin, Angel Gurría, the secretary general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of 34 developed countries, gave Germany a big thumbs up, saying that the country’s “growth model has been so successful in navigating through the stormy waters of the crisis.” But hold on a minute. Germany’s model is badly flawed. And because it impoverishes workers, the model will ultimately be a drag on the European economy. Contrary to conventional wisdom, building economic growth by squeezing workers is not a recipe for success. Here’s why.

Who Needs a Mini Job?

The Germans have always been obsessed with export competitiveness. In the period before the euro, they would devalue the Deutschmark so that they could increase the sales of their products to their neighbors. Once the Germans lost control of the exchange rate by signing up to the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), they couldn’t perform this trick anymore. They had to manipulate other “cost” variables in order to sell goods cheaply. So starting in 2002, they focused on wage suppression and cutting into the social safety net for workers through something called the Hartz package of “welfare reforms,” named after Peter Hartz, a key executive from German car manufacturer Volkswagen. Unlike the American Henry Ford, who created good, well-paying jobs because he knew that having a secure middle class was essential to having a market for his cars, Peter Hartz views the relationship between wages and the economy very differently. In his view, squeezing workers is the way to keep a country “competitive.” The Hartz reforms have been extremely far-reaching in terms of the labor market policy that had been stable for several decades. Bill Mitchell and Ricardo Welters noted that while the reforms appeared to be successful in early 2003, with lots of jobs created, there was a downside: “From the bottom of the cycle, in mid-2003, employment grew much less quickly than in previous upturns. And much of the rise took the form of ‘mini jobs’ – part-time posts paying no more than €400 a month, regardless of hours.” The “reforms” actually decreased regular employment. Workers got stuck with so-called “mini/midi” jobs – a new form of low wage part-time employment. Such jobs were hailed as “flexible” and “efficient” by their champions, while detractors noted that they were part-time jobs characterized by heightened insecurity, lower wages, and poorer working conditions. I'VE HEARD THIS BEFORE, IN THE USA

Floyd Norris of the NY Times captures this trend well in a recent piece on “Germany and the rest of Europe”:

“Not all is rosy in the German labor market. Felix Hüfner, an O.E.C.D. senior economist in charge of the German desk, told me that he was worried about the fact that about two-thirds of younger German workers did not have permanent jobs. Instead, they have ‘fixed-term contracts,’ which make it easier for companies to let them go when the contracts end. Germany may, he said, be in danger of becoming a ‘two-class society,’ with most older workers in a protected group and most younger ones outside of it.”

In the wake of Germany's ill-conceived reforms, the private saving caches that were accumulated over years of hard work for many will have been reduced significantly as wages stagnate and millions of citizens (the youth of today) will be without work experience and adequate skills. Over the last 30 years, neoliberals have typically framed discussions of western economic policy as arguments against the power of labor unions and their embrace of “inflexible” working practices. Policies based on such arguments tend to transfer profits from workers to employers, which in turn results in a massive rise in corporate profitability, but a corresponding impoverishment of the middle class and rising income inequality. This systematic redistribution of income – aided and abetted by governments in a number of ways through privatization, outsourcing, pernicious welfare-to-work, and industrial relations legislation -- has been one of the building blocks of the global economic crisis. And Germany has been at the forefront of this via the Hartz reforms.

Germany could move away from the obsession with exports and instead promote growth based on domestic investment in things like education, technology, infrastructure, and the creation of decent jobs. But the Maastricht Treaty, one of the founding treaties of the European Union, places explicit limits on the ability of member governments to spend. Sadly, this is a highly self-defeating strategy, because during recessions, the private sector cuts spending and tries to increase savings, moving the government balance further into deficit territory as automatic payments like unemployment benefits kick in that are meant to stabilize the economy. The so-called “Stability and Growth Pact” limits government deficits to 3% of GDP, and overall public debt levels are restricted to 60% of GDP. This has led to increased unemployment and high private debt throughout the eurozone. Germany has responded to these restrictions by championing wage cuts, demolishing working conditions, and abandoning job security. The theory is that given the structure of the euro, the only way that these nations can become export competitive is to squeeze workers, however painful. But here’s the rub: labor productivity may be rising strongly. But workers have less money in their pockets, and so they can’t afford to buy anything. That’s not a formula for long-term economic growth. The German economic model leads to a “race to the bottom” as far as wages go. Germany, as the exporting nation in the EU, constantly has to drive down domestic wages to ensure that the exports remain internationally competitive. Everybody works harder, but people have less money to spend. Meanwhile, Germany chastises its neighbors for their “profligacy” but relies on their “living beyond their means” to produce a trade surplus that allows its government to run smaller budget deficits. For now, people in Greece and Italy buy the German exports because they are cheap, but they certainly can’t embrace Germany’s economic model because it’s ultimately self-defeating. If the exporting nation continues to drive wages down, then products become increasingly expensive. And there’s another problem. In order to retain higher profit margins, German manufacturers will almost certainly migrate to lower cost manufacturing centers if unions fail to stop “deregulation” of the kind which simply lowers their take home pay further. In this scenario unemployment numbers in Germany will go up. Instead of hurting its neighbors and hurting itself in the process, the Germans might look back in history and see that there are better ways of doing business.

If Americans had adopted a similar “beggar thy neighbor” philosophy after emerging victorious from World War II, the German economy could not have recovered. But the victorious Americans did not preach austerity, despite the fact that Germany had clearly lived well beyond its real resource limits during the War. Even after the devastation that Germany caused as a result of its misguided territorial ambitions and heinous ethnic policies, the Marshall Plan, the large-scale American program to aid Europe, sought to build the German economy rather than to destroy it. The Germans were faced with a massive destruction of public and private infrastructure and knew that a return to very fast economic growth was necessary to minimize the damage and contain it in historical time. The upshot of the Marshall Plan was a period of unparalleled economic growth in Europe. That’s the ideal that should guide economic policy makers going forward.

*****************************************************************************************

Marshall Auerback is a market analyst and commentator.

[Demeter]

42. Politico: Schneiderman Caved to Administration Pressure on Mortgage Settlement...

Politico: Schneiderman Caved to Administration Pressure on Mortgage Settlement, Did Not Get Tighter Release for Abandoning Opposition

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/politico-schneiderman-caved-to-administration-pressure-did-not-get-tighter-release-for-abandoning-opposition.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

If you were following the mortgage settlement negotiations, it was very clear than the decision of New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman to abandon his role as the de facto leader of the opponents of the agreement, join a Federal task force to investigate mortgage abuses, and go silent on where he stood on the negotiations put the dissenters in disarray and enabled the Administration to push the deal over the line.

While this blog has repeatedly pointed out that Tom Miller, the Iowa attorney general and leader of attorneys general in the settlement negotiations, is not the most credible source, the flip side is that the description of the release in the Administration’s own propaganda website strongly suggests that the release of bank liability is broad, rather than narrow, as deal cheerleaders claimed.

If you take this section of an article at Politico, “HUD boss jumps into mortgage melee,” (hat tip reader Deontos) at face value, you can only draw damning conclusions about New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman’s role:

Schneiderman, whose Lower Manhattan office overlooks Zuccotti Park where the Occupy movement began, felt like he was being strong-armed by Donovan and wasn’t shy about sharing his dissatisfaction. In late August, The New York Times reported that Schneiderman had come “under increasing pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices.”

That did it for [HUD Secretary Shuan] Donovan, according to people close to him. Worried that the settlement was in danger of falling apart, he woke up at 5 a.m. the next morning and sketched the outline of what would emerge as the final compromise plan.

A bit later he called Schneiderman, who immediately began re-arguing his case for holding banks accountable.

Donovan stopped him: “Look, hear me out, I want to get past this,” he said, and proposed creating a special panel to probe wrongdoing by banks, to be co-chaired by Schneiderman. He also promised to limit the scope of any releases granted to the banks and rewrote his draft.

Miller, who clashed with Schneiderman over the releases, said Donovan didn’t make many changes but was artful enough to sell it as a compromise to the New York attorney general, who wanted to seal the deal.

“Essentially what Shaun did was let Eric take credit for shaping the release,” Miller said, “credit that wasn’t factually correct.”

[bread_and_roses]

74. Schneiderman's sell-out has been among the more depressing developments lately ...

... he was considered a champion by Progressive forces in the State, who worked hard for his election ... just another example of the utter futility of trying to fix this broken system by spending our energies on one or another reformer/champion/savior ... there is one thing and one thing only that will bring change to this utterly corrupt and corrupting system, and that's putting enough people in the streets to bring the machine to a halt.

That's why "Occupy" has it right. When enough people are willing to camp out everywhere - the utility companies, the insurance companies, the hospitals and courthouses and capitals - we'll get somewhere -

[bread_and_roses]

79. "Don’t Tell Us It’s Not a Class War"

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/25-5

Don’t Tell Us It’s Not a Class War
by Gerald Caplan

The entire world seems to be one huge advertisement for The Shock Doctrine. Naomi Klein showed in her revelatory book how the corporate-political-military-media complex exploits crises to further impose their harsh right-wing agenda – even when they themselves created the crisis. In a sane world, the economic meltdown and deep recession of the past four years would have led at minimum to stringent regulation of financiers and speculators plus programs to assist their victims. But in this world, you have to be nuts to believe in a sane world.

In reality, everything that’s happened in the past several years has gone to further empower and enrich the 1 per cent (or maybe the 5 per cent) at the expense of the rest of us ...

as examples
Greece
Spain
Canada
and of course ...

Finally, in the United States, where the President is hysterically accused of inciting class war every time he hiccups, the old pinko has just announced that he wants to lower the top corporate tax rates significantly. Take that, you greedy 1 per cent!

[Demeter]

82. This whole Greek "Crisis" Is Just Messing with Ignorant Minds

so that the rubes can be picked clean. It's a Big Con Game, and we are the targets...there will be no default declared, because then the banks would all go down in a blaze of glory, but instead, little ordinary people will be hounded to death for the sins the banksters committed, and for the zombie banks' bottom lines.

There is only one solution for the People....and it's not a peaceful one.

[Demeter]

43. Charles Eisenstein: It's Time for A Better Narrative

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/charles-eisenstein-time-better-narrative/71231?utm_source=newsletter_2012-02-10&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_teaser_71231&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_57

Our actions are determined by our beliefs. And our beliefs are shaped by the stories we tell ourselves. So what happens when the stories we tell ourselves are inaccurate? The short answer is, we find ourselves engaging in actions that aren't aligned with our best interests.

Charles Eisenstein has made a profession out of studying the intersection of economics and philosophy. And he thinks that over the past several generations, enabled by an unprecedented subsidy of abundant cheap energy, our society has become so far decoupled from natural laws that it has adopted a paradigm of thinking (or "stories&quot dangerously irrelevant to the future we face. As resource scarcity increasingly expresses the natural forces that applied to our grandparents' generation and those prior, we are still living under a mindset that assumes predictable, endless growth. Think about it: Most people reading this and nearly all of our national leaders have come of age in one of the most, if not the most, extraordinary economic periods in history. The exploitation of petroleum fields ushered in a global prosperity never before dreamed of. Decoupling gold from the dollar has allowed those living in the US to increase debt much, much faster than GDP for the past forty years. This behavior is empirically unsustainable -- but to almost all of us, it feels "normal," because it's all we've known.

And it's coming to an end.

The power elite is very much trapped in their obsolete paradigms. Across the political spectrum, everyone’s solution is we have got to reignite economic growth. So when housing starts rise, that's trumpeted as great news. No one really bothers to mention that we already have like double the housing capacity per capita that we did in the 1950’s. There is something like 19 million vacant units. As long as we are starting to build new houses then that is going to be employment and everything is going to be okay. They are trying to squeeze a little bit more growth out of the system. But as you mentioned, it comes at a higher and higher cost.

It's very much like an alcoholic. In the early days you can maintain the addiction quite easily. Maybe you will have to take a second mortgage out on your house, you will have to lie to your boss a little bit but you can kind of hold things together. Eventually, things fall apart. Eventually, it is your liver. And you can only get that next fix at greater and greater cost. Now, to extend the metaphor to our system, we have gotten all of the easy oil. We have depleted all the easy resources and the ones that we can easily escape the consequences of. Up until now, or up until recently, if you are creating industrial pollution, radioactive waste, etc., etc. social turmoil, well you can move away from it. you can move to a gated community, you can escape it. Well, today it is becoming impossible. The consequences are invading even the fortresses of the wealthy in various forms and if we want to keep growth going there is not that much more of nature that we can convert into product and not much more human relationship that we can convert into services. What we can convert comes at a much, much higher cost. You have to excavate the Alberta tar sands and devastate that Ecosystem. You have to clear cut the forests the fifth time or sixth time and they aren’t really recovering anymore, trees are dying everywhere and we just – the planet can’t take much more of that.

The other thing sometimes economists will say is we can grow the economy of services instead and we can actually have economic growth with less energy because of miniaturization and other technological innovations. So energy really isn’t a constraint and I think that to meet that objection you have to kind of extend the peak argument to include community as well and understand that a lot of the growth and services come at the expense of things people once did for each other and that technology -- just like in the material realm and the social realm -- technology has extended the reach of monetized services.

For example, people never used to pay for communication, now we pay for almost all of our communication. People never used to pay for entertainment but now we pay for almost all of our entertainment. Even when my father was a child he says that in his suburban neighborhood, his whole neighborhood, every Sunday, would get together with guitars and sing folk songs. To imagine that happening in my neighborhood today is ridiculous because we all buy all of our entertainment. There is almost nothing that we don’t pay for anymore.

What is happening is there is just not that much room for economic growth. We are never going to go back to the normal of the 50s and 60s when like there were years where there was like 7 or 8% GDP growth. No way. Now we are having trouble getting up to 2.5% and that is just not enough to allow lending. The banks would rather just sit on their money. Why would you lend it to build a widget factory when the market for widgets is flat.

The money is stagnating as excess reserves. No matter how much they create it is, as Keynes said, like loosening your belt in hopes you will get fat.

So, what to do about it? Change our guiding stories and, in many cases, look to historical models that have demonstrated success. And realize that 'wealth' will be increasingly defined not by the dollars in your bank account, but by social capital:

The only thing that you could invest in that can survive such a transition would be to invest in your community, to create a reservoir of gratitude out there -- to be someone who is valuable to other people, who has valuable resources, valuable skills which you share.

This interview makes a deep exploration of what we as a society value today, and how that perception may likely evolve in the years to come. It's heavy on philosophy, and touches on the spiritual, too. It's not our typical fare for these podcasts, but certainly a worthwhile perspective to consider.

PODCAST AT LINK

[Demeter]

45. Berlusconi Victorious: Court Ends Corruption Case

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/25/147406739/berlusconi-victorious-court-ends-corruption-case?ft=1&f=1001

A Milan court ended a corruption trial against Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday, ruling that the statute of limitations had run out on the case and essentially handing Italy's former premier another victory in a long string of judicial woes he has faced. The billionaire media mogul wasn't in court when the three judges read out their verdict after about two hours of deliberation. Defendants in Italy aren't required to attend their trials. Berlusconi had denied any wrongdoing. He was accused of paying a British lawyer David Mills $600,000 to lie during two 1990s trials to shield the politician and his Fininvest holding company from charges related to his business dealings.

Berlusconi's lawyers successfully argued that the case should be thrown out because the statute of limitation had run out. It is "useless to comment," prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale told reporters as he left the courtroom. Prosecutors had demanded conviction and a five-year sentence. One of Berlusconi's lawyers, Piero Longo, indicated that the defense team was less than elated with the decision because it would have preferred a verdict of acquittal, Sky TG24 TV said.

The three-judge panel began its deliberations on Saturday after Berlusconi's defense made its closing statements, arguing that Berlusconi should be cleared of corruption...By prosecutors' calculations, the statute of limitations on Berlusconi's case should have expired by July. Evidently the court didn't agree. But even the prosecutors' time frame would not have allowed for the two levels of appeal required to finalize any verdict. The trial was suspended many times due to Berlusconi's obligations as premier and during a period when parliament had granted him immunity, complicating the calculation. In Italy, the clock on the statute of limitations continues to tick even after a trial begins...

Berlusconi has faced dozens of trials in Milan, mostly for his business dealings. He has either been acquitted or seen the charges expire under the statute of limitations.

[Demeter]

46. Apple yields to governance reform call

US group, which faced pressure from US fund Calpers, is to adopt a policy that any director not receiving majority shareholder support must resign

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/KQ8ZDY/1O51V/DW9OTW/2OIH7E/KI/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=24

[Demeter]

48. AIG bullish on earnings capacity

Insurer expected to generate sustainable profits in the coming years, having built up large tax credits that can be offset against future earnings

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/KQ8ZDY/1O51V/DW9OTW/VL5N6G/KI/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=24

[Demeter]

49. Madrid presses EU to ease deficit targets

The Spanish economy is forecast to contract 1 per cent, compared with a prediction three months ago of 0.7 per cent growth

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/2SRI11/EX1OXJ/PNGIU/DW9OL8/NJ0IF4/CM/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=24

[Demeter]

52. Why I Broke Up With Bank of America

THIS IS A BANK WITH A MILLION STORIES...HERE IS ONE OF THEM

http://www.alternet.org/story/154247/why_i_broke_up_with_bank_of_america?page=entire

"Someday the workers will take possession of your city hall, and when we do, no child will be sacrificed on the altar of profit!" – Mary Harris “Mother” Jones

Last November, 2011, I finally made the move to ditch the corporate bank account I’ve had since I was eight years old and opened an account at a local, sustainable bank. So did thousands of Americans during Bank Transfer Day, resulting in over $4 billion dollars moved out of big banks and into credit unions...This year on International Women's Day, March 8th, I plan to join the women of the 99% at Break Up Bank of America actions. The Women Occupy Call to Action is an inspiring statement of solidarity with the Occupy Movement and with the thousands of homeowners across the country who have been affected by home foreclosure. Women Occupy is supporting the women-led campaigns of Public Citizen and Rainforest Action Network, to hold Bank of America accountable for the predatory economic policies that are destroying our families and communities. On March 8th activists in dozens of cities from NYC to LA are planning to occupy Bank of America branches by staging Super(s)hero Showdowns against Bandit of America, holding Really REALLY free markets to show what a feminist gift economy can look like, creating Walk in Our Shoes displays with pairs of shoes to illustrate the real people impacted by home foreclosure, job loss, and environmental destruction, and other creative tactics. Plus Women Occupy is asking people to cancel their big bank accounts on March 8th and move their money to local banks or credit unions. Not that another reason is needed to move your money, but why not do it on a big day of action and in solidarity with the 51% of the 99%: women?!

Since its inception in the early twentieth century, International Women’s Day has been rooted in the struggle for economic justice, growing out of local demonstrations by women workers demanding shorter hours, better pay, voting rights, and an end to discrimination. Women have long been the prime targets of predatory bank policies and economic collapse: women are 32% more likely than men to receive sub‑prime mortgages and Latina and African-American women borrowers are most likely to receive sub‑prime loans at every income level. Women make up 51% of the world’s population but 70% of the world’s poor. We perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the food, but earn 10% of the income and own less than 1% of the world’s property. Our work continues to be unpaid, underpaid and undervalued, making us invisible to economic indicators and ineligible for the rewards reaped by the most “productive” members of society. It’s time we turned the tables and started going after the big banks! And what better suspect than the biggest of the big banks – Bank of America?

Why target Bank of America? As of June 2010, Bank of America had $88 billion worth of foreclosed homes in its portfolio — more than any other mortgage servicer in the country. In order to please investors they even started kicking people out of homes faster than other banks, instead of working with them to refinance or restructure their mortgages. Despite having higher average credit scores than men, women are more likely to receive subprime mortgages that leave them vulnerable to home foreclosure. Bank of America had a hand in the worst of the subprime lending excesses, providing financing to four of the five largest subprime lenders during the years prior to the crash. Together, these firms issued over $320 billion in subprime loans from 2005 through 2007, a disproportionate number of which went to women who would have qualified for traditional loans with far lower costs. B of A is the official bank of the US military and has branches by or on many bases, which allows them to entice military personnel to take out loans at usurious rates. Personal loans made to soldiers for a few thousand dollars can actually keep them indebted for the rest of their lives. Last May, Bank of America paid $22 million to settle charges of improperly foreclosing on active-duty troops. The list of reasons goes on and on - there's even a published list of 10 reasons to hate Bank of America. And what's the ask of Bank of America? Activists are asking that Bank of America be regulated and break up into smaller, safer pieces that won’t take America down with them if they fail. B of A can invest in the planet and stop funding coal projects that are polluting our communities and ruining the climate. B of A can pay the statutorily required 35% corporate income tax instead of draining the government of revenue through off-shore tax shelters, loopholes, and scams. Instead of endless home foreclosures, B of A could help stabilize the housing market and revitalize the economy by reducing principal for all underwater homeowners to current market value. This would end the foreclosure crisis, reset the housing market, pump billions of dollars back into the economy, and create 1 million jobs a year.

Moving our money is one of the powerful ongoing direct actions that has come out of the growing Occupy movement. Let’s escalate our individual efforts by coordinating actions at Bank of America in solidarity with the existing campaigns targeting BofA coordinated by Rainforest Action Network, Public Citizen, and others. And let’s ask our cities, organizations, and other institutions to divest from big banks and invest in local economy and sustainability. Together we can send a loud message to Wall Street and big banks: not with our money, not on our dime!

******************************************************************************************

Rae Abileah is the co-director of CODEPINK Women for Peace and is a member of Women Occupy. She lives in San Francisco, CA, and can be reached at rae[at]codepink.org.

[Demeter]

54. Is Congress Going to Double the Interest on Your Student Loan?

http://www.alternet.org/story/154251/is_congress_going_to_double_the_interest_on_your_student_loan?page=entire

Millions of young people may have a much harder time paying for an education. Unless Congress acts soon, millions of college students could see the interest rate on their federal student loans double this summer—adding $5,000 to the cost of an education for students who pay off their loans in 10 years, and around $11,000 over 20 years. Yet Republicans are claiming that keeping those rates low costs too much and isn't the federal government's job. Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the Higher Education Subcommittee, even argued that it's unnecessary for any student to borrow money to go to college in the first place....Of course, that's entirely divorced from the reality students face today. “We've seen massive state divestment from education,” Rich Williams, higher education advocate at US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), an independent research and advocacy group, told AlterNet. “That's on top of a bad economy which has caused families to have fewer resources, and then of course the dialogue around Occupy Wall Street and the reality of student loan debt--it becomes clear to anyone paying attention, that in this economy we cannot double the interest rates on student loans."

Back in 2006, Democrats ran on a promise to cut interest rates on student loans in half during the midterm election—a midterm that swept them back into power in Congress. They kept the promise—sort of. But deficit hawks whining about the cost of the measure kept them from cutting those rates on all federal loans, or making those cuts permanent. What they actually did was enact a plan, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, in 2007 that sliced the interest students pay on the subsidized Stafford loans, from the 6.8 percent it had been fixed at a few years earlier, down to 5.6 percent in 2009-2010, 4.5 percent in 2010-2011, and now to 3.4 percent. But the cut expires this summer, so next year's borrowers would once again face interest rates of 6.8 percent. Students with families making under $40,000 a year—those who can least afford to see their interest rates jump--are the primary beneficiaries of the subsidized Stafford loan, which is awarded based on need and lent directly from the government. Stafford loans make up almost half of all federal student loans, and help families who are often not eligible for the Pell grants that help the neediest students. Meanwhile, the government, which now lends money directly to students rather than subsidizing banks and student lenders like Sallie Mae to do so, is able to borrow at a significantly lower rate than 6.8 percent or even 3.4 percent. So, as Libby Nelson at Inside Higher Ed explained -- and contrary to what Republicans on the Congressional Education and the Workforce Committee say--the government is actually making money by lending to students....The government now keeps the difference, channeling some of the profits into financial aid programs and most of the rest toward deficit reduction (with some even flowing to administration priorities like early childhood education, as in the 2009 healthcare law). Once more direct and bank-based loans are consolidated, and when the student loan interest rate increases to 6.8 percent next year (when a several-year effort to halve the rate ends), federal student loans will become even more lucrative for the government.

The justification for charging higher interest on these loans is that it covers the risk of default by the borrower. But there is almost no way for borrowers to escape paying back their loan – thanks to the bankruptcy bill of 2005, student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy cases. The government can garnish wages, and even Social Security payments. There's almost no way for the government not to collect on a student loan, yet even supposedly forward-thinking outlets like the New America Foundation fall victim to the argument that the government needs protection from defaulting borrowers, and that rates should return to higher levels. Indeed, a recent Wall Street Journal article reported, “After paying the companies that actually collect the loans and other costs, the U.S. Department of Education expects to recover 85 percent of defaulted federal loan dollars based on current value.” That's an extraordinary number, the Journal noted—banks often retrieve less than 10 percent of the value of overdue credit cards, for example. The government might actually benefit from students who go into default. Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org told the Journal that the government would make a full $6,522 more in interest on a $10,000 loan that goes into default if it had been paid back in full in 10 years, and $2,010.44 more than if it had been paid back in 20. There's little need, then, for the government to make a chunk of interest in order to be protected from students who might go into default. Alan Collinge of Student Loan Justice told the Journal that there's a "perverted incentive" for the government to let loans default.

Williams pointed out to AlterNet that the federal government didn't get into the student lending business to make a profit, but rather to promote education as a social good for all. “In the Civil Rights era, America decided that making sure every student had access to a quality education regardless of financial barriers, they decided it was worth federal government investment,” he said. And when the Obama administration decided to stop subsidizing big banks and big lenders like Sallie Mae and NelNet and start lending money directly to students, it was in part to protect them from the predatory practices of those big lenders, as well as to save money, an estimated $61 billion over 10 years that won't be captured by banks. It's worth noting, as well, that many of the big banks that make a killing on private student loans and still have billions of government-subsidized student debt on their books, are able to borrow money from the government through the Federal Reserve's discount window at nearly no interest at all. Why, then, are young people, who aren't guilty of trashing the economy but remain the victims of a rate of unemployment nearly twice that of the rest of the population, expected to pay more?

Obama has called for a one-year extension of the 3.4 percent interest rate for students, which he claims will save 7.4 million student loan borrowers an average of $1000, but members of Congress are going further. The House and Senate have introduced legislation that would keep the rate fixed at 3.4 percent and doesn't include an expiration date. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, one of the cosponsors of the Senate bill, said, “At a time of rising college costs and unsustainable student debt, it is essential that we do all we can to make college affordable for students and working families. The productivity and strength of our economy depends upon a well-educated work force. It is a great waste of intellectual capital when an increasing number of high school graduates are not able to afford a higher education. Further, our nation suffers, as do millions of families, when students graduate college deeply in debt." ...Of course, even if Congress does pass an extension, temporary or not, of the lowered interest rate, all that will do is keep the student debt bubble, which is now over $1 trillion, slightly smaller. It will do nothing to reduce the size of the debt students are already carrying, as it only applies to new loans, and it does nothing to reduce the cost of tuition or help those indebted students find work after school so they can pay down their debt. Student debt remains at a crisis point, and any step the federal government can take to help keep it low, while not a solution, will have a real impact on millions of young people, and through them, the U.S. economy.

***********************************************************************************

Sarah Jaffe is an associate editor at AlterNet, a rabblerouser and frequent Twitterer. You can follow her at @seasonothebitch.

[Demeter]

55. Going to have it out with Reality now

See you all later this evening....how I wish there was no stuff about Greece, Germany, the Euro, or mortgage fraud and all those issues were settled satisfactorily...think how many fraudsters would be in jail.

It would be heaven on earth. We could work on real improvements.

[Hotler]

56. A buddy of mine has a four month old German short-haired pointer...

My buddy brews his own beer. He has been brewing Porter lately. He also keeps some cheap Bush lite and Bud lite around. The dog is a real sweetheart and a love muffin. Pour the dog some Porter and she loves it. Pour the dog some Bush or Bud and she won't even go near it. Smart dog.

That reminds me of a bird dog story. I worked in machine shop for awhile and we had a customer that came in all the time to get parts done. One day he came in and was all down and sad. I asked him why he was so sad. He said he just paid bigs bucks for a good bird dog for hunting and had to turn around a spend a bunch more at the vet because the dog had a bad case of worms. I said it sounds like you got yourself more of a fishing dog than a hunting dog. He didn't like that much.

[xchrom]

57. ...

[Fuddnik]

65. The Legendary Fudd was a real boozehound.

When he was a pup, I spilled a beer on the deck, and he lapped it up. After that, you could never leave a beer unattended, because he would either knock it over and drink it, or outright steal it. If he got a bottle, he could roll over on his back, hold it in his paws, and drain it.

[Hotler]

72. A toast to Fudd.

[Demeter]

83. Hear, Hear!

[xchrom]

91. ...

to Fudd!

[xchrom]

58. German tax collectors volunteer for duty in Greece

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/25/uk-eurozone-germany-greece-idUKTRE81O0F520120225

Reuters) - More than 160 German tax collectors have volunteered for possible assignments in Greece to help the struggling Mediterranean country gather tax more efficiently, the Finance Ministry in Berlin said on Saturday.

The offer risks fuelling resentment among Greeks who have already reacted angrily to earlier German calls for the appointment of a "budget commissioner" to monitor the Greek government's management of its finances.

German media published news of the possible tax advice mission two days before the German parliament is due to vote on whether to endorse a new 130 billion euro ($175 billion) bailout package for Greece.

International lenders say the public debt burden that forced Greece to seek a bailout two years ago has burgeoned partly because many Greeks evade the tax net.

[Demeter]

59. ARE THEY ALL FRICKING INSANE???

Don't answer that. I don't want to know.

Are they bringing the Panzerwagen with them?

Don't answer that, either.

[xchrom]

60. ...

[Loge23]

66. Maybe they'll bring bier!

According to our friend at theoatmeal.com, when beer hits the brain:
- It hits the cerebral cortex first which makes you more talkative and less inhibitive. This will help open up the hold-outs as to what they really made last year!
- When alcohol hits the hippocampus, it causes memory loss and exaggerated emotions: The alleged tax cheat will forget how much they made and begin to feel an overwhelming sense of patriotism to his/her beloved Greece!
The cerebellum keeps you balanced, when alcohol hits it you lose coordination: Makes it hard to maintain your post in front of the money box.
When alcohol reaches your medula (controlling breathing and heart rate), you're really in trouble: And therein lies the #1 reason that Germans may want to bring bier with them to help collect taxes in Greece.

(What time is it? All this talk about beer.....)

[hamerfan]

61. Musical Interlude

Asylum Street Spankers. Beer:

[Demeter]

62. German beer songs (and some that aren't)

http://www.experienceproject.com/song_meanings.php?a=German+Beer+Drinking+Song&t=a

[Loge23]

64. No insightful economic news, but there's this:

I found this to be enlightening and entertaining, but then again I'm a cheap date.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/beer

[hamerfan]

67. Musical Interlude

While this song doesn't specifically mention beer, it's certainly related.
Pink Floyd. Comfortably Numb:

[hamerfan]

69. Musical Interlude, corollary

Clapton/Winwood. Can't Find My Way Home:

[hamerfan]

68. Musical Interlude

Psychostick. Beer:

[Demeter]

70. Beer I Have Drunk and Enjoyed

Well, there are the Japanese brands: Kirin, Sapporo, and Ichiban. Not too bitter, pleasantly effective alcohol levels, go well with tempura and sushi.

There's Karlsberg's Elephant beer, a very pricy import, but strong enough to take down an elephant.

Pilsner Urquel, the Czech beer that gave pilsner to the world.

Killian's Red is good, very smooth.

Molson's has gone downhill since it sold to Coors...they are messing with the recipe.

As for the standard American brands, they are too watery and sour...

I've had some micro-brewed, but wasn't impressed enough to get the name...

[DemReadingDU]

73. I never knew there were so many beers

[Demeter]

84. Those are only the ones that I've Tried and LIKED

There are probably thousands more.

[hamerfan]

71. The definitive song!

Tom T Hall. I Like Beer:

[xchrom]

75. buongiorno

[xchrom]

76. i'd like to call everyone's attention to this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002350286

Article: Why Obama shouldn’t start crowing over jobless numbers

"Not only has new job creation not kept up with population growth over the last several months, but the U.S. population has been inflated by the federal government's policy of inviting about 1 million legal immigrants annually and issuing work permits to them. Today, there are several competing bills on Capitol Hill that would significantly increase the numbers of non-immigrant workers who arrive on H-1B visas or, worse yet, eliminate the existing cap"

http://www.lodinews.com/opinion/columnists/joe_guzzardi/article_de32683b-4258-5b61-b675-e810fa520300.html



*** some very good reality based graphs and arguments.
centrists not faring well.

[Demeter]

88. This Week in Poverty: Deal on Unemployment Benefits Leaves Out Poorest

http://www.thenation.com/blog/166435/week-poverty-deal-unemployment-benefits-leaves-out-poorest

Unemployment Insurance and Poverty

Congresswoman Barbara Lee, co-chair of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, voted against the recent extension of unemployment benefits because it shortened the maximum number of weeks a jobless worker could qualify.

“Instead of scaling back unemployment benefits we need to be adding weeks to help people get by when there continues to be four workers in line for each job,” said Lee.

She makes a hell of a point.

While most of the media have focused on the Democrats “pretty much getting what they wanted,” it has given short shrift to what this deal means for the long-term unemployed, currently at near-record levels, with 43 percent of unemployed people jobless for more than six months. Under the new deal they will receive fewer weeks of unemployment benefits than were available between the end of 2009 and last year, with the maximum reduced from ninety-nine weeks to seventy-three weeks by September 2012...MORE

[xchrom]

90. the poor -- the growing numbers of poor -- for now are fucked.

then there's gonna come a time when the poor will not be ignored -- and the prisons won't offer the answers they used to.

you cannot poverty and not expect repercussions -- well, other than the official expressions of 'SURPRISE'.

[Hotler]

97. I wish that times was tomorrow. Tens of thousands of people in the streets......

in every state. So many people the cops would have no choice except to joins us in taking a stand against the PTB. I do have some hope.

[Fuddnik]

99. Which is why they inserted certain provisions into the NDAA.

The PTB are getting squirmey. And they don't think they can completely trust the police any more.

[Demeter]

77. New Citigroup Looks Too Much Like the Old One: Jonathan Weil

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-24/new-citigroup-looks-too-much-like-the-old-one-commentary-by-jonathan-weil.html

Two years ago, Citigroup Inc. (C) embarked on one of those feel-good corporate-image campaigns, aimed at showing a skeptical public that it could be trusted again. Citigroup was a “fundamentally different” company from what it had been during the financial crisis, it promised, a mantra its executives have repeated ever since.

“The new Citi has a clear strategy,” Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said in a February 2010 video on the company’s website. “We’re going to stand for the financial- services company that practices responsible finance. Making sure we’re transparent. Making sure we’re honest.”

Oh, well. Last week, Citigroup agreed to pay $158.3 million to settle a civil complaint by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, accusing the company and its CitiMortgage home-loan unit of defrauding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. By itself, that wouldn’t be big news. The payment is small for a company with $1.9 trillion of assets. And the government has accused Citigroup of fraud many times before.

What makes this case different -- and so galling -- is that some of the alleged misconduct was ongoing as recently as last year, well after the company’s 2008 taxpayer bailouts. All this might have stayed under wraps, too, were it not for a CitiMortgage employee, Sherry Hunt, who filed a federal whistle- blower complaint against the company last year. Hunt was awarded $31.7 million, or 20 percent of the settlement proceeds agreed to last week, after the government intervened in her lawsuit and resolved the case....MORE

[Demeter]

78. Bankers escape big penalties in FDIC failed bank cases

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/23/us-insight-bankers-idUSTRE81M1S420120223?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=56943

Like many banks engulfed by the mortgage crisis, First National Bank of Nevada specialized in risky home loans that didn't require borrowers to prove their incomes. When the housing bubble burst, First National got crushed in 2008 under the weight of bad loans that it could no longer resell to investors.

Last year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued two former senior executives of the defunct bank for alleged negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, hoping to recover nearly $200 million in losses that it tied directly to those executives' decisions. The two men denied wrongdoing and settled for $40 million.

But they didn't pay a dime.

Instead, the federal agency - which is better known as a regulator that seizes control of failing banks and provides deposit insurance for consumers than for its prosecutorial endeavors - is still fighting in court to collect that money from Catlin Group Ltd., a Lloyd's insurance syndicate. Catlin provided an equivalent of malpractice insurance to First National's executives, but the insurer denied liability for the executives' alleged mistakes.

The case illustrates complex legal maneuvering as the FDIC steps up efforts to pick through the detritus of the financial crisis, and to recoup at least some of the nearly $87 billion costs to its deposit insurance fund from the collapse of about 400 federally insured banks between 2008 and late 2011. The First National Bank failure cost the fund $900 million....MORE

[Demeter]

85. Responding to Critics, S.E.C. Defends ‘No Wrongdoing’ Settlements

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/s-e-c-chairwoman-defends-settlement-practices/?ref=business

The chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission defended the agency’s record of settling fraud cases with Wall Street companies, saying on Wednesday that she believed the agency’s practices “clearly have deterrent value,” even though firms were often charged repeatedly for violating the same securities laws.

Mary L. Schapiro, the S.E.C. chairwoman, added that repeat offenders remained a problem because “people have short memories” on Wall Street. That forces the commission to bring many of the same types of cases “so that people don’t forget that they have these obligations and that somebody is watching and somebody is willing to hold them accountable.”

The remarks, at a news media breakfast, were the first by Ms. Schapiro to address the issue since a federal district judge refused last year to approve a commission settlement of fraud charges involving Citigroup....MORE

DEFINITION OF INSANITY APPLIES HERE

[Demeter]

86. Chris Whalen: JPM and the Banks Have the MF Global Money And the Status Quo Is Protecting Them

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/02/chris-whalen-jpm-has-mf-global-money.html

"But please, to our friends in the Big Media, could we stop saying that we don't know the location of the missing $1.6 billion of client funds from MF Global? The money is safe and sound at JPM and other counterparties. As with Goldman Sachs et al and American International Group, the banks have been bailed out at the cost of somebody else. And the various agencies of the federal government are complicit in the fraud...

The effort by former New Jersey governor and MF Global CEO Jon Corzine to save his firm by stealing customer funds seems to warrant further discussion, yet instead we have silence...

So why is it that the Large Media have such trouble reporting this story? The fact seems to be that the political powers that be in Washington are protecting JPM CEO Jamie Dimon from a possible career ending kind of stumble with respect to MF Global."

Chris Whalen, Institutional Risk Analyst


Chris Whalen at The Institutional Risk Analyst lays out the entire MF Global scandal in a few plain words, taking the Wall Street demimonde to task in the process.

It is nice to see that someone who occasionally appears on the mainstream media can tell the truth on this. Usually one has to look for sources overseas, small cafes, and the occasional economic maverick to hear what really happened.

But in quiet whispers, the Street knows the truth, that the money was stolen, not once but twice. And even these hard cases are shocked. The first time by MF Global and from the very top, and then afterwards in the courts and the regulatory bodies that used the bankruptcy to take the funds from the customers and give them to the creditors.

And it does stink to high heaven. But the clean up men are giving the evidence a thorough scrubbing while justice waits, Chicago-style.

It has placed a chill on those trading in the US markets. Even they are frightened of such lawlessness. They can't help but wonder, who's next? And how far will they go?


Please distribute this as widely as possible.

"Where is the lost customer money? At JP Morgan Chase and other banks, or course. See, "How JP Morgan and George Soros Ended Up with MF Global Customer Money", www.clearingandsettlement.com.

So why is it that the Large Media have such trouble reporting this story? The fact seems to be that the political powers that be in Washington are protecting JPM CEO Jamie Dimon from a possible career ending kind of stumble with respect to MF Global. By stuffing the commodity customers of the broker dealer via an equity bankruptcy resolution supervised dutifully by SIPIC, JPM and Soros apparently get to benefit at the expense of the commodity customers of MF Global. This situation stinks to high heaven and everyone on the Street we've spoken to about the matter knows it. As the article above notes:

"Rather than being treated as a bankruptcy of a commodities brokerage firm under sub-chapter IV of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy law, MF Global was treated as an equities firm (sub-chapter III) for the purposes of its bankruptcy, and this is why the MF Global customer money in so-called segregated accounts "disappeared".

The effort by former New Jersey governor and MF Global CEO Jon Corzine to save his firm by stealing customer funds seems to warrant further discussion, yet instead we have silence.

Here's a question: When is Corzine going to be indicted for securities fraud and other high crimes and misdemenors? The answer seemingly is that the Obama Justice Department is afraid to go there. Thus the fraud at MF Global continues and Washington does nothing to inconvenience the banksters as customer funds are expropriated.

But please, to our friends in the Big Media, could we stop saying that we don't know the location of the missing $1.6 billion of client funds from MF Global? The money is safe and sound at JPM and other counterparties. As with Goldman Sachs et al and American International Group, the banks have been bailed out at the cost of somebody else. And the various agencies of the federal government are complicit in the fraud."

Chris Whalen, The Institutional Risk Analyst

"But where says some is the king of America? I’ll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter...that in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

"And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that."

Lord Acton

[Demeter]

87. How JP Morgan And George Soros Ended Up With MF Global Customer Money

http://www.clearingandsettlement.com/2012/01/how-jp-morgan-and-george-soros-ended-up-with-mf-global-customer-money/

In recent testimony before a Congressional committee, MF Global’s former chief Jon Corzine as well as other MF Global executives said repeatedly the didn’t know where the failed brokerage firm’s $1.2 billion of missing client money was. In fact, MF Global executives knew exactly what happened to the money, as do the regulators who oversaw the firm’s bankruptcy. The so-called segregated customer funds were repeatedly, and legally (through re-hypothication), used as collateral for MF Global loans for 100:1 leveraged bets on European sovereign debt.

Rehypothication is the 800lb gorilla (Editor’s note: make that the 2,000 lb gorilla)...

A substantial portion of MF Global’s commodity clients cleared their transactions through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Comex, owned by CME Group (ticker: CME). The question now looming over CME’s stock is whether the company will be liable for customer losses, as the Commodity Customer Coalition, a group that says it represents some 8,000 investors—including many hedge funds–with exposure to MF Global are not going down without a fight.

Rather than being treated as a bankruptcy of a commodities brokerage firm under sub-chapter IV of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy law, MF Global was treated as an equities firm (sub-chapter III) for the purposes of its bankruptcy, and this is why the MF Global customer money in so-called segregated accounts “disappeared”. In a brokerage firm bankruptcy, the customers get their money first, while in an equities firm bankruptcy, the customers are at the end of the line, meaning MF Global’s creditors, namely J.P. Morgan and other trading counterparties, got their money first, just as AIG’s CDS (credit default swap) counterparties (mainly Goldman Sachs) got their money first when the U.S. government bailed out AIG.

To add further insult to injury for MF Global clients, the firm reportedly unloaded hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of securities to Goldman Sachs, and others, who then reportedly flipped these securities within a day to George Soros funds.

What the debacle implies is that nothing has really been learned from the 2008 financial crisis, and that there really is no safety in any paper investment when push comes to shove. Brokers and investment banks are effectively running leveraged ponzi schemes running in the trillions of USD with your collateral then refuse to offer you liquidity on the collapse of the trade because they won’t face a brokerage. This has very wealthy individuals as well as non-too-big-to-fail market participants seriously reconsidering the risks of regulatory malfeasance during such systemic “black swan” events. In such cases, be prepared for commodities and equity brokers, investment and commercial banks to “freeze” your funds, enforced by central banks or other regulatory authorities–i.e., a de facto banking holiday, while not only will your purchasing power be reduced by currency devaluations, but you will also be asked to again bail out the banksters with your tax money.

[xchrom]

81. Crook: Greek Deal Leaves Europe on Road to Disaster

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-23/greek-deal-leaves-europe-on-the-road-to-disaster-clive-crook.html

If Europe’s new plan for Greece succeeds, nobody will be more surprised than the politicians who designed it. At best, the arrangement is a holding action, one that fails yet again to deal with the much larger confidence crisis facing the euro area.

The deal announced on Tuesday starts with private lenders. Their representatives agreed to accept even bigger losses on Greek government bonds than previously discussed. The bonds’ face value will be cut by 53.5 percent, and they’ll pay a low interest rate, starting at 2 percent then rising later. Altogether, this reduces their net present value by about 75 percent, far more than deemed necessary just weeks ago.

If enough private lenders go along, that triggers the inter-governmental side of the plan: new official loans to cover Greece’s ongoing budget deficit and replace debt coming due. The terms include a lower interest rate on bailout loans as well as various other kinds of European Union taxpayer subsidy, folded in with greater or lesser degrees of stealth. The European Central Bank and national central banks, for example, will pitch in by channeling back to Greece the “profits” they have made on Greek bonds bought at deep discounts to face value. The International Monetary Fund is going to take part, too. Exactly how still isn’t clear.
Drawing Board

If too many private lenders opt out, it’s back to the drawing board. Ditto if voters in Greece force the government to renege on promises to cut the minimum wage, make advance debt- service payments into an externally monitored account, change the constitution to prioritize debt repayment, accept oversight of public accounts by an on-site team of EU officials, and more.

[Demeter]

89. Well, the beer I started Friday is nearly gone...

told you I was a cheap date.

Going off to visit some orchid exhibit in E. Lansing....I think this Weekend shows why we shouldn't drink and post (not too much posting gets done) but I had a good time with it, and apparently, so did a lot of us. And god knows, we needed it.

See you all next week! Or, on the Stock Market Watch.

[xchrom]

93. Hardware Startups Look to China

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39750/?p1=A2

Shenzhen, China, is a long way from Silicon Valley. But for startups that want to create the next iPhone, it may be the best place to get their businesses off the ground.

That's the thinking behind Haxlr8r, a new hardware-focused startup accelerator that is about to begin its first round of incubation by investing in nearly a dozen startups making hardware ranging from electronic toys to a device that manages household energy usage. Created by venture capitalist Cyril Ebersweiler, the program will provide seed funding along with a three-and-a-half-month program that will introduce startups to factory and industry contacts and offer guidance.

Most of the Haxlr8r program will take place in China, since access to local factories should make hardware development cheaper and easier, though the tail end, which includes a demo day to show off the companies' products to investors, will be set in the Bay Area.

Haxlr8r's launch comes at a propitious time for hardware entrepreneurs. Traditionally, creating a hardware company is very time-consuming and expensive, and startup incubators have mainly focused on software development, which is typically far cheaper and faster. But cheaper electronics components, crowdsourced funding platforms like Kickstarter, and the popularity of 3-D printers and DIY electronics kits like Arduino and Adafruit make the idea of building a physical electronic product seem more within reach. "I think we're at a very exciting moment," Ebersweiler says.

[xchrom]

94. Canada looking for Irish workers

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0226/breaking9.html

A delegation from western Canada is visiting Dublin this week in an effort to recruit thousands of workers for the construction and related trades.

The delegation, which includes representatives of the British Columbia Construction Association, Alberta Construction Association and senior officials from the British Columbian Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation hope to identify sources of skilled labour.

The delegation will beholding talks with the Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs, the Department
of Education and Skills, Fás, the Construction Industry Federation, the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, the Dublin Institute of Technology and the National Apprenticeship Advisory Committee of Fás.

It will also be attending the Dublin Working Abroad Expo/Jobs Fair next week.

They are a projected 335,000 job opportunities arising in British Columbia and Alberta between now and 2014, especially in construction. The biggest demand relates to carpenters, electricians, welders, plumbers, heavy equipment operators and millwrights.

[xchrom]

95. a little eddie izzard comedy to go with your beer

[xchrom]

96. Eddie Izzard Dress to Kill - War

[Hotler]

102. Thanks for post Eddie. He is way funny.

a British version of George Carlin.

[xchrom]

98. Eddie Izzard Jesus Vs The Dinosaurs

[Hotler]

101. ....

First time I've heard Eddie. Nice looking boots he has on (I mean that, they're hot.). I'll have to show those to the dominatrix I visit once a month. She keeps me line when the juries on Du can't. wink, wink

[Hotler]

100. Guinness & molasses beer bread

I've made this a bunch of times. Real easy and real good. Here is the link.
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/guinness_bread_with_molasses/
enjoy.

[xchrom]

103. Yay! That is SO good! Nt