STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 29 February 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

It's Leap Year Day!



[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 29 February 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 28 February 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 28 February 2012
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Dow Jones 13,005.12 +23.61 (0.18%)
S&P 500 1,372.18 +4.59 (0.34%)
Nasdaq 2,986.76 +20.60 (0.69%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.94% +0.04 (2.11%)
30 Year 3.07% +0.04 (1.32%) [font color=black]


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

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS



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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[rfranklin]

1. First rec! Fuck the Republicans!

Have a great Wednesday!

[Warpy]

2. Second rec! Fuck 'em again!

I do love that cartoon. Next they can do "GOP Workers' Rights" as galley slaves, whip cracking overhead and some poor slob dead across the oar.

[Uben]

3. Third rec, triple fuck em!

he he

[Fuddnik]

4. 6th Rec, and fuck the horses they rode in on too!

[tclambert]

20. There's that bestiality Santorum was worried about!

[bread_and_roses]

29. Not the horses! And why are Yves and Taibbi "stupid?"

Not the horses, Fudd! I'm sure that "Dogs against Romney" would embrace their Sister and Brother servants of two-legs, knowing that if that Borg had a horse he'd abuse it too. (horse as well as dog and cat lover here - though I do admit, there is something very rounded and "whole" about the phrase that has tempted me to use it too - "F you and the car you drove in with" just doesn't have the same satisfying ring - proving once again - as do our metaphors, myths, poetry - that our emotions are tuned to the natural, not the mechanical.)

As for the question - arises from an OP just below SMW that I clicked on by accident with my shaky morning hands.

[Demeter]

35. I saw that, too

I guess it's a case of the predator vs. the idealists/rule of law folk.

The poster is in the first category (or has no particular qualms about letting vampire squid feed on the populace),

while most of us and our sources are in the other, and demand that we act according to our BEST principles....not the profit/greed motive.

Shaky hands?!! Not enough coffee, or too much? Try some solid food, too.

[Fuddnik]

36. Yeah, the limos they rode in on would make more sense, just don't have that ring to it.

As for the question, I generally agree with Taibbi and Yves on about everything.

[bread_and_roses]

40. I do too -

generally agree with Taibbi and Yves on just about everything - with the qualifier that I don't always "understand" everything - especially from Yves - Taibbi, writing for a general ignoramous like me, spells everything out. but what I understand, I generally agree with.

[Demeter]

5. 7TH Rec, and they are doing the job themselves, with their own money

We can just sit back and enjoy the show. If you like that kind of thing.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report from one precinct in Michigan

7 people paid for 14.66 hours to collect 155 ballots: 3 Democratic primary, the rest GOP.

It's training for the Big One in November....

Piece of cake. We had 4 new people, and they're all good. The elderly poll workers who really can't hack the hours and the details any more are nearly all gone.

Mitt won, despite the big push by Santorum to get Democrats to vote for him to punish Mitt for nay-saying the auto bailout....when every single one of the GOP did the same thing!

[Demeter]

6. Germans volunteer for Greek tax mission

Federal states have recruited about 160 experts to serve under EU and IMF initiative to improve tax administration in Greece

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/16Y1YA/XBAN6/FKJZJN/TUMUBT/36/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

THEY'D BETTER GET HAZARDOUS DUTY PAY

[AnneD]

51. Now THERE is a recipe for disaster.....

Which reminds me of a joke...

Defination of heaven..
Where all the policemen are English, all the mechanics are German, and all the chefs are Italian.

Defination of hell..
Where all the policemen are German, all the mechanics are Italian, and all the chefs are English.

[Fuddnik]

75. And don't forget....

When your gecko is broken,
You have a reptile dysfunction.

[AnneD]

92. I don't know.....

if I should give you a crocodile smile or shed crocodile tears....good one.

[Demeter]

7. Draghi must be wary of Ltro elixir’s power

Risk that loan level will change his reputation from ECB president who created breathing space for eurozone to the one who spoilt bankers


Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/16Y1YA/XBAN6/FKJZJN/30Q0ZC/36/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

WHAT DO YOU CALL AN ARMLESS, LEGLESS MAN AT THE BANKSTER'S DOOR?

MATT (DRAGHI)

[Demeter]

8. G20 insists eurozone must help itself

Draft communiqué says group will consider boosting IMF funds in April depending on how much eurozone has done to boost defences

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/16Y1YA/XBAN6/FKJZJN/L9O9FX/36/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

THIS IS THE THEORY OF DISPLACEMENT, IN LIVE ACTION

[Demeter]

16. Jean Pisani-Ferry: Eurozone countries must not be forced to meet deficit targets

Economic history teaches us that financial crises have long lasting, if not permanent, negative effects . Most European countries have already lost several percentage points of GDP and it seems wise to expect a second recession to do the same. Ollie Rehn, the European Commission's vice-president, has good reasons to require action. However, demanding adherence to the 2013 targets has two major drawbacks.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/2SRI11/ZGKUKI/87I64/7AK6KV/AM3XBR/KI/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

[Demeter]

9. Obama pressed to open emergency oil stocks

US administration is coming under growing pressure to cool petrol prices by releasing supplies, but critics warn against acting too early

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/16Y1YA/XBAN6/FKJZJN/U151GU/36/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

HANGING A HEDGE FUND SPECULATOR A DAY WOULD BE MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE, AND SATISFYING!

[Demeter]

10. Ford chief warns of car ‘global gridlock’

Chairman of US giant urges more integration with other forms of transport as vehicle numbers forecast to hit 4bn worldwide by 2050

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/R3AE0I/1O51V/ORTYLE/8ZFZ70/36/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

DOES ANYBODY ELSE FIND THIS A RIDICULOUS PROJECTION? WHERE WOULD ALL THE GASOLINE TO RUN THEM COME FROM?

[bread_and_roses]

32. I heard this reported on NPR and was screaming at the radio -

I was driving with NPR on - screaming at the radio - furious with National Propaganda Radio as usual for simply reporting this insanity without a question, without raising the spectre of the environmental cost - not just the gas - the raw materials, the emissions, the junk to be disposed of. Or, for that matter, the human cost of such a world. Goddess, I hate them.

[Demeter]

37. Well, NPR still walks a fine political line

Until the Revolution, Congress is still an enemy-occupied encampment.

[Demeter]

11. Wells Fargo set for further expansion

The US group plans to increase the size of its wealth and insurance units through acquisitions as well as buying more assets from European banks

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/R3AE0I/1O51V/ORTYLE/PF2FNI/36/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

LET THE CANNIBALISM--SECOND COURSE--BEGIN

ISN'T WELLS FARGO THE NEW CIA BAG BANK, WITH ALL THE MONEY-LAUNDERING AND DRUG MONEY AND SO FORTH?

[Hotler]

109. Yes! n/t

[Demeter]

12. Lloyds and RBS eye €15bn ECB loans

Britain’s two part-nationalised banks plan to tap the European Central Bank’s special three-year funding scheme for a combined amount of about €15bn, on a par with some of the eurozone’s largest banks, at Wednesday’s ECB auction, which analysts forecast will raise €500bn for European lenders

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/R3AE0I/1O51V/ORTYLE/R3Z3UU/36/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

[Demeter]

39. Banks borrow €530bn from ECB lending scheme

The European Central Bank on Wednesday injected €530bn into the eurozone financial system as more than 800 European lenders sought to take advantage of cheap three-year funding.

Consensus median forecast had predicted banks would tap about €500bn from the second phase of the ECB’s longer-term refinancing operation, which offers lenders an interest rate of just 1 per cent.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/8P1R88/MS0RQY/LSLXF/FKRWRW/8ZFJ6B/T3/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

BUBBLES, TINY BUBBLES...ALWAYS BLOWING BUBBLES

KILL THE ZOMBIE BANKS! STOP FEEDING THEM OUR FUTURES AND OUR PRESENT LIVING STANDARDS!

[Demeter]

57. ECB’s Second Three-Year Loan May Be Last

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/ecb-s-second-tranche-of-three-year-loans-may-be-the-last-as-crisis-abates.html

The European Central Bank may decide all good things must come to an end after today’s allocation of long-term loans.

The ECB’s three-year lending may approach a total of 1 trillion euros ($1.35 trillion) when the second Long Term Refinancing Operation is allocated at 11:15 a.m. in Frankfurt. Banks will ask for 470 billion euros, according to the median of 28 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey, after taking 489 billion euros at the first tender in December. While the flood of three-year cash has been credited with fueling a rally on Europe’s crisis-roiled bond markets and safeguarding the region’s banks, the ECB will be reluctant to issue a third tranche, according to Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG. Doing so would fan tensions among ECB policy makers and reduce pressure on governments and banks to fortify balance sheets themselves, the analysts said.

“There will only be another LTRO if markets really turn sour again,” said Gilles Moec, co-chief European economist at Deutsche Bank in London and a former Bank of France official. “If we stay on the current course in markets, there is no necessity to risk dissent.”

AND WHO CONTROLS THE MARKETS, MAKING THEM DANCE LIKE MARIONETTES?

[Demeter]

58. Hi, I’m from the IMF. I’m here to help.

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/02/hi-im-from-the-imf-im-here-to-help/

As I mentioned yesterday, the results of the third EU-IMF mission to Lisbon to assess Portugal’s implementation of its €78bn bailout were to be release today. Amongst mounting speculation that the country is struggling to meet the specified targets, remembering it only met the 2011 targets by using one-off pension transfers from banks to the state , the report appears relatively positive.

The program is on track, but challenges remain. Policies are generally being implemented as planned and economic adjustment is underway. In particular, the large fiscal correction in 2011 and the strong 2012 budget have bolstered the credibility of Portugal’s front-loaded fiscal consolidation strategy. Financial sector reforms and deleveraging efforts are advancing, while steps are taken to ensure that credit needs of companies with sound growth prospects are met. Reforms to increase competitiveness, growth, and jobs have also progressed, although many reforms still await full implementation. The broad political and social consensus that is underpinning the program is a key asset.

Looking ahead, the Portuguese economy will continue to face headwinds. In 2012, trading partner import growth is expected to weaken further, while domestic demand adjusts, and unemployment and bankruptcies are rising. As a result, GDP in 2012 is expected to decline by 3¼ percent, following a fall of 1½ percent in 2011. In 2013, a slow recovery should take hold, mainly supported by private investment and exports. External adjustment is proceeding.

The fiscal deficit target for 2012 remains within reach. The deficit target of 4.5 percent of GDP is expected to be met with current policies, provided that downside risks to the economic outlook do not materialize. To contain fiscal risks, the government needs to strengthen measures to prevent arrears accumulation and implement a strategy to settle existing arrears. The government has also agreed an adjustment program with the autonomous region of Madeira and will continue to reform state-owned enterprises, further strengthen tax administration, and streamline public administration.

Further progress on protecting the banking system and ensuring orderly deleveraging has been made. The rules for providing public capital to banks have been clarified, and plans to ensure that capital buffers of individual banks meet end-June 2012 targets are being finalized. Given the recent monetary policy decisions by the ECB, banks’ liquidity constraints are expected to ease further. Furthermore, the authorities are considering a range of measures to mitigate funding strains for sound companies, including appropriate measures to discourage ever-greening of doubtful loans. Any such steps should avoid risks on public finances. Developments will be kept under close review to ensure that the inevitable deleveraging does not deprive dynamic enterprises of credit.

The issue is, however, that just like Greece, the 2013 target for a return to growth appears highly optimistic given recent data. While core Europe is scheduled to have a ‘mild’ recession, the latest figures from the OECD show Portugal’s economy shrank by 2.6% YoY in the fourth-quarter 2011. On top of that, the attempt by the government sector to reduce spending and raise taxes at a time when the private sector is also attempting to deleverage in an environment where the external sector does not provide a surplus is leading to the same outcomes we have seen in Greece:

Rising unemployment:



Falling industrial output:



Which ultimately means, as the latest figures from Portugal’s national bank show, the level of debt in the economy continues to grow while the economy deflates:

At the end of 2011, the non-consolidated debt of the non-financial sector amounted to around EUR 715 billions, corresponding to 418% of GDP (402% in 2010).

At that time, the non-consolidated debt of the non-financial public sector was of EUR 236 billions (138% of GDP). The consolidated Maastricht public debt3 net of deposits of the central government corresponded to 99% of GDP.

At the end of 2011, the non-consolidated debt of the non-financial private sector amounted to EUR 479 billions, representing 280% of GDP (281% in 2010). Private corporations registered a level of indebtedness of 178% of GDP (177% in 2010) while for private individuals the level was 103% of PIB (104% in 2010). The level of debt of private individuals in 2011 represented 121% of disposable income

The latest economic climate indicators from statistics Portugal also clearly show the problem:



So is it a surprise that the IMF’s report appears highly optimistic ? Not really. The IMF has an atrocious record of predicting the outcomes of Europe and the effectiveness and success of its own programs. Here is what Dominique Strauss-Kahn had to say about Europe’s future back in early 2010:

The head of the International Monetary Fund believes Greece will resolve its debt crisis without an IMF bailout, and today dismissed fears that other European nations will be engulfed by the crisis.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn insisted this morning that other eurozone countries with large public deficits would not be forced into the same predicament as Greece. Speaking to Reuters in Nairobi, Strauss-Kahn said the wider European economy was still strong – despite fears that Greece might default on its debts. While the IMF is poised to assist Greece if needed, Strauss-Kahn remains confident that Europe’s leaders could resolve the issue.

“The eurozone wants to deal with the problem itself, and I can understand that,” he said. “I think they can do it … and we’re just here to help.”

Strauss-Kahn also argued that those who claim that Spain or Ireland could suffer a debt default are simply trying to “scare” the financial markets.

“We have a problem with Greece. We don’t have a problem with Spain to date. The eurozone has to deal with the Greek problem. They are doing this,” said Strauss-Kahn.

“No one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow morning but there’s no reason why the spillover to Portugal or to Spain will take place,” he added.

And speaking of Spain:

Spain ended 2011 with its strained public finances in much worse shape than first thought, with the public deficit 8.51 percent of output, way above the 6.0-percent target, Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro said Monday.

Missing the 2011 target will make it harder for Spain to meet its public deficit goal for this year of 4.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product as it seeks to get nearer to the EU ceiling of 3.0 percent.

The public deficit — the broad shortfall between spending and revenues — was 9.3 percent in 2010.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government said shortly after it came to power in December that the 2011 public deficit would be around 8.0 percent, far above the 6.0-percent target agreed with Brussels by Spain’s previous socialist government.

The government has announced spending cuts of 8.9 billion euros ($11.5 billion), frozen public sector wages, and hiked taxes on income, savings and property to bring in 6.3 billion euros as part of efforts to rein in the deficit.

The Bank of Spain is predicting the economy will shrink by 1.5% in 2012, but with unemployment over 20% and still rising it is likely that we are seeing overly optimistic estimates.

So once again we appear to be seeing the effects of backwards policy in Europe. There is no doubt that periphery Europe requires structural reform but to attempt it while also forcing highly deflationary policy on a country is a recipe for economic disaster. The blame for the failure of the Greek IMF/EU program has been able to be pushed back onto Greece for its lack of implementation, but Portugal is another story. Portugal is the “model student” yet, as far as I can see from the data, the program is heading down a very similar path because any plan based around “austerity first, reform second” while servicing existing debts has a funny way of killing the patient before the medicine kicks in.

Given recent comments by Mario Monti, I am fairly sure he understands this. Let’s hope he has convinced the rest of Europe to change strategy before Italy gets the dreaded knock on the door. “Hi, I’m from the IMF , I’m here to help”.




[Demeter]

60. FROM THE COMMENTS

This is going to play out badly given the macro conditions; little growth, rising unemployment, falling industrial production. I’d say it’s more likely to be “Hi we’re the Troika, and we’re here to buy your assets at fire sale prices”, but don’t worry we’ll look after you.

[Demeter]

13. Axa plans €2bn property lending drive

One of Europe’s largest insurers plans to accelerate investment as regulatory pressures curtail bank financing across the continent

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/R3AE0I/1O51V/ORTYLE/AM3M5K/36/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

[AnneD]

59. Woo hoo.....

Finally got my money out of AXA last month. Most of my 403B funds were there.

It was like pulling teeth. When I got the paper work to take to my broker, it was incrediable. One sheet had, and I kid you not, over 15 signatures of people notified that the account was being closed. When I gave it to my broker , I told him it looked like a robosigned mortgage.

I admit, I never lost money through them, but it was because I made the choices that proved to be profitable (early into China, Russia, Brazil) and commodities. Their fees did not hurt me because I paid attention. The last few years I was in an indexed fund and maintained my gains. At some point, especially when you pay attention, you realize you can do better. Now, I want as little SM exposure as possible. It is a rigged casino with no hope of legal redress for criminal activity. In other words, there is no sheriff in Dodge.

I have my funds liquid, liquid, liquid. The market is going up to lure in the chumps for the shakedown. Cover your assets folks and don't buy all this happy talk.

[bread_and_roses]

87. I am glad for you - my own assets are too skimpy to worry about, lol

Lilly of the Field, that's me. Though I expect we'll mostly all be brown and scraggled stalks by the time this is all over. We had some assets, once - not a lot, but some. Life happened, though. Though neither spendthrift nor irresponsible nor high-risk rollers ... things happened.

And that, my friends, is among the problems with expecting individuals to "provide for themselves" for a retirement that covers basic needs. I'm not talking luxury condos in Fla - I'm talking Elders with the bare minimum for a decent quality of life. That should be part of our "commons." Like education. Like food and shelter security. Like health care.

But then, I'm preaching to the choir here on that subject.

If our pusillanimous, bought-and-sold so-called "Liberals" or "Progressives" in the public realm (whether "expert," or "pundit," or "politician&quot had any smarts or ethics, they would be calling for a retirement age of no more than 55, with substantively increased SS, and the taxes on the Oligarchs to make that happen. Think how many jobs would open up if everyone who wanted to and probably should retire at that age could? Even

on edit - i somehow posted this incomplete, and am adding rest so it makes sense

...even Even 55 is high for our hard -laborers, for instance - road crews, sanitation workers, home-health aides. Think of the payroll taxes going into SS if we actually provided adequate home and for those who need it, institutional care for the elderly, and for adults and children with disabilities. Think of the payroll taxes going into SS if we were addressing our infrastructure needs and creating all those construction jobs. If we hired enough teachers and aides and RNs for our schools.

But instead, Gov 1% here in NY and some others (*cough*cough*) "on our side" want to crush the wages and pensions of our workers. And I don't exclude people like Krugman and Olberman (what happened to him anyway?), who make a fine show of fulminating or "loyal opposition-ing" but never propose anything that would actually shake up the paradigm. They too, serve their purpose for the 1%, a `la Chris Hedges.

[AnneD]

100. I don't have much....

I work in public education-that should tell you where I am at financially. For many, it is not what you make but how you spend what you make. Now if you are making the minimum wage in this country, then you have an income problem. But over than, you might have a spending problem. Of course there are mitigating circumstances like health problem and marital problems. Government can't help on the marital side, but there should be decent healthcare for all and Obama fell far from the mark, granting exception, exclusions etc. The only winners on that were the insurance companies....Thanks a lot Obama

They (meaning the corps) are always trying to seperate you from your cash. If it isn't sweet talk, aka advertising, it is theft by law(aka mortgage fraud settlement, MF Global, interest rates that are usary). The sooner you learn that lesson the better off you will be.

But the main way to get is not to spend what they want you too. I am basically a hippie and hubby is from India. I live below my means. It is a good rule of thumb to live on 80% of what you make and save 20%. Being debt free, or nearly is the way to go.

I have made major mistakes with my money but I learned from them and was able to recover. But I am keenly aware that others have not been so lucky. One day too, I may be in trouble and know full well there will be no safety net for me.

[Demeter]

14. Ireland calls vote on European treaty WARNING! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

Ireland will hold a referendum on Europe’s new fiscal treaty, Enda Kenny, the taoiseach, said on Tuesday, setting the stage for the first popular vote on the German-led plan for stricter budget discipline across the region.

After joining 24 other EU states last month in agreeing the pact for stricter budget discipline, Mr Kenny sought advice from the state’s lawyer on whether a vote was necessary and told parliament that on balance, a referendum would be required.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/J0VG55/MS09RQ/87I64/U1OSM9/2OE4RF/7V/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=28

[Demeter]

15. Barclays faces block on tax schemes

Barclays has been blocked from implementing two “highly abusive” tax schemes that could have cost the Treasury £500m, despite the bank’s commitment to a new code of practice in which it pledged not to engage in tax avoidance

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/L96DMQ/CWSVD/L9UDAE/KQ6FR0/GX/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=27

YOU KNEW IT WAS A BANKSTER WHEN YOU AGREED TO THE DEAL, WHY SHOULD YOU BE SURPRISED?

[Demeter]

17. Lawrence Summers: US tax system needs rebuilding

Leaders in both parties should commit themselves to the goal of tax reform for growth, fairness and deficit reduction. They should acknowledge that every tax expenditure or special break has to be on the table. They should ensure their staffs are compiling a large inventory of options

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/XYEWFF/VL5S5O/SUO9T/305LEV/FKTXOP/QR/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=26

NOW THERE'S SOMEBODY WHO DESERVES ALL THE SCORN YOU CAN HEAP ON HIM

[Tansy_Gold]

31. All I have to do is see his name in print

If it's not announcing his arrest and indictment, I just shake my head in disgusted amazement that ANYONE listens to this loon.

No offense to loons.

[Po_d Mainiac]

68. Think, my hidden post..... and earrings

[Tansy_Gold]

73. But I never got to SEE

Your hidden post.

[Demeter]

78. Po could repost it here...he's among friends

Pretty please? I didn't see it either.

[Po_d Mainiac]

98. DU mailed it 2 ya

[AnneD]

101. Ever time I see the name Larry Summers...

or see him quoted; my ass twiches.

[girl gone mad]

106. Can't stomach the article, but let me guess..

he's pushing that neolib wet dream, a VAT tax for the US?

[Demeter]

18. Dalio takes hedge crown from Soros

Ray Dalio has overtaken George Soros as the world’s most successful hedge fund manager after his Bridgewater Pure Alpha fund made $13.8bn for investors last year

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/XYEWFF/VL4178/4VXHZ/8ZDVH7/TUM0ER/AZ/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=28

[Demeter]

19. AIJ Tokyo Asset Management: Billions In Customer Funds Are Missing

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/02/aij-tokyo-asset-management-billions-in.html

This is more Madoff than Corzine, but the song of unforeseen counterparty risk remains the same....The Japanese regulators have decided to take a closer look to see how many more of the 299 asset management firms have funding problems like this. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til its gone?

Wall Street Journal Japan
Missing Funds at AIJ: Watchdogging Japan
By Kana Inagaki and Phred Dvorak
February 24, 2012, 1:53 PM JST

The revelation that billions of dollars may have gone missing from client funds managed by a little-known Tokyo asset management firm highlights a sobering fact about Japanese financial regulation: It’s pretty spotty.... Japan’s financial watchdog Friday said investigators were looking into the alleged disappearance of “most of” the 183 billion yen, or about $2.3 billion, in pension-fund assets managed by AIJ Investment Advisors Co. Details are sketchy: regulators haven’t said exactly how much is supposedly lost, how many clients AIJ had, nor even whether they suspect foul play. But we do know that if AIJ was doing anything wrong, the chances of its being caught out by Japan’s regulators were pretty slim.

Investment managers like AIJ are required to submit business reports to regulators once a year, Japan’s Financial Services Agency says. If those regulators suspect problems, they can carry out hearings. And some companies actually conduct voluntary audits of their own businesses. (AIJ was not one of them.) A firm involved in dubious activity would need to be fairly unlucky to find itself caught in the net of one of the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission’s annual audits. The regulator conducted inspections of 15 investment managers in the year ended March 2011. Since there were 299 such firms in total, the chances of getting audited were about one in 20.

The FSA says it’s now going to do an audit of all 263 firms that have similar investment-management mandates to AIJ’s...According to Japan’s Nikkei daily, AIJ may have misled clients for years, claiming they had cumulative returns as high as 240%.

It all makes for a fairly bleak spell for Japanese financial regulators. After all, the discovery of pension funds missing at AIJ comes only months after camera-maker Olympus Corp. admitted to it successfully hid more than $1.5 billion in losses for 13 years.

[Demeter]

22. Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo in Nuclear Crisis

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/world/asia/japan-considered-tokyo-evacuation-during-the-nuclear-crisis-report-says.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2


...The investigation by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a new private policy organization, offers one of the most vivid accounts yet of how Japan teetered on the edge of an even larger nuclear crisis than the one that engulfed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. A team of 30 university professors, lawyers and journalists spent more than six months on the inquiry into Japan’s response to the triple meltdown at the plant, which followed a powerful earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that shut down the plant’s cooling systems. The team interviewed more than 300 people, including top nuclear regulators and government officials, as well as the prime minister during the crisis, Naoto Kan. They were granted extraordinary access, in part because of a strong public demand for greater accountability and because the organization’s founder, Yoichi Funabashi, a former editor in chief of the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun, is one of Japan’s most respected public intellectuals.

An advance copy of the report describes how Japan’s response was hindered at times by a debilitating breakdown in trust between the major actors: Mr. Kan; the Tokyo headquarters of the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, known as Tepco; and the manager at the stricken plant. The conflicts produced confused flows of sometimes contradictory information in the early days of the crisis, the report said. It describes frantic phone calls by the manager, Masao Yoshida, to top officials in the Kan government arguing that he could get the plant under control if he could keep his staff in place, while at the same time ignoring orders from Tepco’s headquarters not to use sea water to cool the overheating reactors. By contrast, Mr. Funabashi said in an interview, Tepco’s president, Masataka Shimizu, was making competing calls to the prime minister’s office saying that the company should evacuate all of its staff, a step that could have been catastrophic.

The 400-page report, due to be released later this week, also describes a darkening mood at the prime minister’s residence as a series of hydrogen explosions rocked the plant on March 14 and 15. It says Mr. Kan and other officials began discussing a worst-case outcome if workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant were evacuated. This would have allowed the plant to spiral out of control, releasing even larger amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere that would in turn force the evacuation of other nearby nuclear plants, causing further meltdowns. The report quotes the chief cabinet secretary at the time, Yukio Edano, as having warned that such a “demonic chain reaction” of plant meltdowns could result in the evacuation of Tokyo, 150 miles to the south. “We would lose Fukushima Daini, then we would lose Tokai,” Mr. Edano is quoted as saying, naming two other nuclear plants. “If that happened, it was only logical to conclude that we would also lose Tokyo itself.”...Mr. Funabashi said, it was the Japanese government’s failure to warn its people of the dangers and the widespread distrust it bred in the government that spurred him to undertake an independent investigation. Such outside investigations have been rare in Japan, where the public has tended to accept official versions of events. He said his group’s findings conflicted with those of the government’s own investigation into the accident, which were released in an interim report in December. A big difference involved one of the most crucial moments of the nuclear crisis, when the prime minister, Mr. Kan, marched into Tepco’s headquarters early on the morning of March 15 upon hearing that the company wanted to withdraw its employees from the wrecked nuclear plant...

BUT IT'S ALL BETTER NOW, AND EVERYBODY'S TELLING THE TRUTH...RIIIIGHT!

THAT EARTHQUAKE BROKE OPEN THE CONSPIRACY THAT IS OR WAS JAPAN, INC. THE FALLOUT HAS BEEN ONGOING, AND I EXPECT, MAY CONTINUE FOR SOME TIME, UNTIL THE WHOLE ROTTEN MESS REVOLUTIONIZES THE CULTURE.

[Demeter]

43. China nuclear protest builds steam

Anhui province in eastern China has responded to public complaints about a nuclear reactor by asking the central government to halt construction

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/62J2KB/T10SH/5VX0W3/TUMCGN/T3/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

CHINA, BECOMING A DEMOCRACY IN SPITE OF ITSELF...

[Demeter]

55. Gloom, doom — and Lester Brown's 'Plan B'

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fe20120226sh.html

Brown — whose latest book, 2011's "World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse," has just come out in Japanese — is president of the Washington- based Earth Policy Institute and one of the world's top environmental policy experts..."When Bloomberg lays $50 million on the table and says 'Coal has got to go,' he reaches people that environmentalists can't. He's one of the most successful businessmen of his generation, so this kind of action is exciting," Brown observed. But Brown is excited about more than just the death of coal. "More fundamentally, carbon emissions in the U.S. are declining. They have dropped 7 percent in the last four years. That started out as a result of the economic downturn, but it's continuing. The two principal sources of carbon emissions are coal plants and burning gasoline, and we're making enormous progress on both fronts," he noted.

New regulations are one source of change and people's preferences are another, according to Brown. "Fuel-efficiency standards are going up. The ones now on the books mean that new cars sold in 2025 will use half as much gasoline as cars made in 2010. In fact, cars in 2025 will have to average 56 miles per gallon [23.8 km per liter], and today's Toyota Prius is rated at 50 mpg [21.3 kpl], so the new standards are pretty ambitious," Brown explained.

At the individual level, too, the demographics of automobile use are changing, he noted. "The number of cars in the U.S. is actually beginning to decline, and even if it's only by 2 or 3 percent it's a trend. Young people are not part of the car culture in the same way older generations were, when cars were part of our socializing. Now young people socialize with smartphones and the Internet," he observed.

"On the other end of the age spectrum, the baby boomers are beginning to retire, and when people retire their gasoline consumption drops between 30 and 50 percent because they end their daily commute," he pointed out. "I'm really bullish on the potential for cutting carbon emissions, and I don't think the analysts have picked up on this yet, partly because they deal with economic models — so they miss some social trends," Brown added. "Once it becomes clear that the U.S. is cutting its carbon emissions at a pretty substantial rate — a reversal of direction which is not the common view the world has of the U.S., or indeed Americans have — I think that's going to affect how the world thinks. It will change perceptions worldwide."

MORE

[tclambert]

21. I'd like to see one more stock market number in this post: the DJIA when Obama took office.

Ozymandias used to include the numbers when W. Bush took office as a reference.

DJIA closed at 7949 on 1/20/2009
Nasdaq: 1477
S&P 500: 831.95

[bread_and_roses]

33. I'm afraid I don't see the point

Unless it is to show how fat and happy the 1%ers have grown under Obama.

[Demeter]

38. It's proof of how effective the Fed and Treasury Have been at Re-inflating the Global Bubble

and gives us a target for the next time it all goes pear-shaped.

(or, it's subtle Obama propaganda, for the easily fooled)

[tclambert]

108. It will help as a response to Republicans who say Obama wrecked the stock market

which they will say during the general election. They're already saying it. Mitt just recently said Obama hasn't helped people get jobs at all, despite the declining unemployment numbers. I know, I know, they don't really respond to facts or reality, but some of those all important swing voters may.

[xchrom]

23. leap year morning

[DemReadingDU]

24. a whole extra day!

I should use it to clean up this house. Nah.

[xchrom]

26. beer o'clock arrives early on this day!

[Roland99]

53. One thing not taking a leap (up or down) is the market

Europe lackluster, US futures unsure.

[xchrom]

56. not to worry! merkel will propose to sarkozy today and all will be well! nt

[Fuddnik]

61. She better take a bath first!

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/waiter-spills-tray-of-beers-on-german-chancellor

[xchrom]

62. ...

wunderbar!

[Demeter]

66. The REAL Eau de Cologne!

[xchrom]

67. ...

[Roland99]

103. Too bad Shrub wasn't there to help wipe off the mess!

[Demeter]

104. He'd Use His Tongue, You Know

I don't think anyone could stand that

[xchrom]

25. Japan says it may cancel F-35 order if prices rise

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/28/financial/f232447S55.DTL&type=business

Japan may cancel its multibillion-dollar plans to buy dozens of F-35 stealth fighter jets from the United States if prices continue to rise or delays threaten the delivery date, its defense minister said Wednesday.

Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka said failure by manufacturer Lockheed Martin to deliver on time at current price levels would force Tokyo to consider switching to a different aircraft.

Japan announced late last year that it would purchase 42 F-35 jets in a deal expected to cost more than $5 billion. The next-generation fighter is set to become the centerpiece of the U.S. military and allied air forces around the world, but the program has been plagued by delays and its cost overruns.

Japan hopes to receive its first F-35s in 2016, at a cost of about $120 million per plane.

"I think we will reach a formal agreement before the summer," Tanaka told a session of Parliament. "If we cannot reach an agreement at that time, this would create a great deal of uncertainty for our national defense and preparedness. We would naturally have to view the possibility of canceling our plan or selecting another aircraft."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/28/financial/f232447S55.DTL#ixzz1nm0PpoOe

[Demeter]

27. Upper classes 'more likely to lie and cheat'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9109391/Upper-classes-more-likely-to-lie-and-cheat.html

Members of the upper classes are more likely to lie, cheat and even break the law than people from less privileged backgrounds, a study has found....Psychologists suggested that the findings could help explain the origins of the banking crisis - with self-confident, wealthy bankers more likely to indulge in reckless behaviour...In contrast, members of the "lower" classes appeared more likely to display the traditional attributes of a gentleman.

It suggests that the traditional notion of the upper class “cad” or “bounder” could have a scientific basis...Overall the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that those from richer or powerful backgrounds appeared greedier, more likely to lie in negotiation and more likely to cheat. Being in a higher social class – either by birth or attainment – had a “causal relationship to unethical decision-making and behaviour”, they concluded.

Dr Piff concluded that having an elevated social rank were more likely to display “self focused” behaviour patterns than those from more modest backgrounds, were less aware of others, and were less good at identifying the emotions of others..."On the one hand, lower-class individuals live in environments defined by fewer resources, greater threat and more uncertainty," he said. "It stands to reason, therefore, that lower-class individuals may be more motivated to behave unethically to increase their resources or overcome their disadvantage." A second line of reasoning, however, suggests the opposite prediction: namely, that the upper class may be more disposed to the unethical. "Greater resources, freedom, and independence from others among the upper class give rise to self-focused social cognitive tendencies, which we predict will facilitate unethical behaviour...

I WISH I HAD KNOWN THIS IN MY YOUTH...I WOULD NEVER HAVE MARRIED SUCH A NARCISSIST

[AnneD]

102. Ever wonder why there are so many Indian tribes in Oklahoma????

aside from being a relatively God forsaken piece of real estate (except for the Cherokee Tribal lands in the east), the plan was to put all the opposing tribes in a small geographic area with few resources. It was thought that with scarce resources, the tribes would kill each other and thus solve the Indian Problem.

But a funny thing happened. All tribes have a cooperative/communal system. Everyone shares what is in the pot. It extended out to all tribes. The boundries are still there, but sharing is a way of life. The Indians thrived. The Cherokee developed a school system for their own children. The schools were so good that settler children were sent to the Cherokee Tribal School System for a superior education (Cherokee Female Seminary and Talequah Boarding School).

This education came in handy when oil was discovered. All of the Cherokee state congressmen and lawyers made sure the oil companies did not walk off with all the mineral rights and royalities. They prevented a major theft of resources. They also won redress in the SCOTUS.

When there is limited resources, it is instinct to pull togather. Only the uberwealthy can be seen as such social misfits. They would be voted out of the tribe.

[xchrom]

28. Oil Surge to Record Endangers Europe’s Growth Dash: Euro Credit

http://sfgate.bloomberg.com/SFChronicle/Story?docId=1376-M044LT1A1I4H01-64GRKVLQDP36D95S1UOCCVL68H

Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- If growth is the answer to Europe’s debt crisis, then oil is the question.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who lowered interest rates at his first two monthly meetings as head of the ECB since November, may struggle to keep borrowing costs down as oil reaches a record when calculated in euros. Crude is up more than 30 percent in the past six months in the single currency, reaching a record 81.85 euros ($110) a barrel this week.

“Rising oil prices will present another challenge to the ECB and it may make it less likely for it to cut rates at a pace the market is pricing,” said Mohit Kumar, the head of European fixed income strategy at Deutsche Bank AG in London. “I’m not saying the ECB will raise rates anytime soon. It tends to be more sensitive to inflation than the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England.”

European Commission President Jose Barroso said this week that “growth is the answer” to the economic woes that have driven Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal into recession. Inflation-linked debt suggests investors are starting to anticipate faster inflation, demanding the highest premium since August to own regular 10-year German securities rather than bunds with interest payments tied to consumer prices.

The yield on 10-year index-linked bunds has declined from minus 0.11 percent at the start of the year to minus 0.20 percent, while Germany’s 10-year borrowing cost is little changed at 1.82 percent. The 10-year breakeven rate, a gauge of inflation expectations derived from the gap between index-linked and regular bonds, climbed to 1.85 percentage points last month, the most since August. It was at 1.65 percentage points today, compared with an average of 1.58 points in the past six months.

[Demeter]

30. Co­lo­ni­al­ism in Africa helped launch the HIV epidemic a century ago

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/colonialism-in-africa-helped-launch-the-hiv-epidemic-a-century-ago/2012/02/21/gIQAyJ9aeR_story.html?hpid=z6

Without “The Scramble for Africa,” it’s hard to see how HIV could have made it out of southeastern Cameroon to eventually kill tens of millions of people, according to a new book by Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin...We are unlikely to ever know all the details of the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But a series of recent genetic discoveries have shed new light on it, starting with the moment when a connection from chimp to human changed the course of history.

We now know where the epidemic began: a small patch of dense forest in southeastern Cameroon. We know when: within a couple of decades on either side of 1900. We have a good idea of how: A hunter caught an infected chimpanzee for food, allowing the virus to pass from the chimp’s blood into the hunter’s body, probably through a cut during butchering.

As to the why, here is where the story gets even more fascinating, and terrible. We typically think of diseases in terms of how they threaten us personally. But they have their own stories. Diseases are born. They grow. They falter, and sometimes they die. In every case these changes happen for reasons.

For decades nobody knew the reasons behind the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But it is now clear that the epidemic’s birth and crucial early growth happened during Africa’s colonial era, amid massive intrusion of new people and technology into a land where ancient ways still prevailed. European powers engaged in a feverish race for wealth and glory blazed routes up muddy rivers and into dense forests that had been traveled only sporadically by humans before...

FASCINATING DETECTIVE STORY IN THE STYLE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES OR TEMPERANCE BRENNAN

[xchrom]

34. For Leap Day Only, A Rare Newspaper Goes To Print

http://www.wbur.org/npr/147572689/for-leap-day-only-a-rare-newspaper-goes-to-print

?t=1330476466&s=4
A man reads a copy of the satirical newspaper La Bougie du Sapeur (The Sapper's Candle), published every leap day, in a Parisian cafe on Feb. 29, 2008. The paper's tagline is "without reproach." - A man reads a copy of the satirical newspaper

At newsstands across France on Wednesday, readers will delight to a humorous broadsheet published every four years on leap day.

At news shops in Paris and around France, readers look forward to their copy of La Bougie du Sapeur every Feb. 29. Published since 1980, the satirical journal is now in its ninth edition. Its title, which translates as "sapper's candle," is taken from an old French comic-book figure who was born on that fateful last day of February.

Jean d'Indy is the editor and publisher of La Bougie du Sapeur. He says it's not hard to find humor in the news.

"We try not to be naughty; we just try to be funny," he says. "But we are not funny. Life is funny. So, it's the way of seeing life which is funny."

[Demeter]

41. Indian growth falls to 6.1%

India’s weakening economy grew 6.1 per cent in the quarter to the end of December, the slowest in three years, deepening fears about the country's growth prospects.

A slowdown in manufacturing, mining and agriculture has accelerated the shift of Asia’s third largest economy to lower growth after a failed push to hit double-digits.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/U15LSS/GYN7Q/XH2LV1/QNAV42/1G/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

[Demeter]

42. Democrats grow confident of House win

Party needs to take 25 seats to reverse defeat by the Republicans who swept to power on wave of Tea Party anger at President Obama

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/62J2KB/T10SH/5VX0W3/JE81FG/T3/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

IF THE DEMOCRATS CAN'T TAKE 25 SEATS IN THIS ECONOMY, WE ARE TOAST.

[Demeter]

44. Portugal on right track, say lenders

International ‘troika’ says Lisbon on course to meet terms of €78bn bail-out and clears way for next tranche, but warns it must step up reforms

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/62J2KB/T10SH/5VX0W3/SP70BY/T3/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

YOU'RE NEVER GOOD ENOUGH FOR A BANKSTER.....

[Demeter]

45. US to keep grip on helm of World Bank

With an election looming this year, the White House is insisting it will choose the financial institution’s new president to succeed Robert Zoellick
Read more >>

http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/62J2KB/T10SH/5VX0W3/C4UJEX/T3/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

THAT'S A REALLY BAD MOVE, BARRY. WHY DON'T YOU FIRE THAT PISSANT GEITHNER AND GET SOME GOOD ADVICE?

[Demeter]

46. Dimon dismisses regulatory threat

US finance’s most vocal critic of new regulation shrugged off impact of reform during an investor day at the company

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/H60H77/XHXH1T/RP6QL/ORT9WG/HYBPSB/XL/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

[Demeter]

47. Apple joins exclusive $500bn club

iPhone maker joins an elite group of US companies to reach a half-trillion-dollar valuation, becoming the world’s most valuable company

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/H60H77/XHXH1T/RP6QL/ORT9WG/30QX76/XL/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

[Demeter]

48. Insider trading probe broadens to pharma stocks

FBI widens investigation from tech stocks with 300 people under scrutiny over hedge fund deals linked to drug approval and takeovers

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/H60H77/XHXH1T/RP6QL/ORT9WG/30QXAT/XL/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

I'M NOT SAYING INSIDER TRADING ISN'T IMPORTANT, BUT WHY IS IT MORE IMPORTANT THAN, SAY, MORTGAGE FRAUD? IS IT BECAUSE THE 1% AREN'T NEEDING MORTGAGES?

[Demeter]

49. Intelligent Energy fundraising nets $30m

Money will be used to help the fuel cell technology provider build a portfolio of consumer electronics products and expand operations in India

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/P75VYY/HYBYDZ/IEP5S/ZGZHAY/4C9KAN/B7/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

[DemReadingDU]

50. Janet Tavakoli: The habitual filching of customers' funds (MF Global)

2/28/12 MF Global: Crime, Comedy and the Cover-Up by Janet Tavakoli
MF Global's October 2011 bankruptcy was the eighth largest bankruptcy by assets in the United States. James Giddens, the bankruptcy trustee, issued a press release on February 6 stating that his investigation found that money from customer accounts that was supposed to be segregated was improperly used to fund MF Global's daily activities.

Improper transfers of customer money occurred regularly in amounts under $50 million before MF Global's bankruptcy. MF Global wasn't caught, because it put the money back before customers knew it was missing. On January 30, 2012 the Wall Street Journal did a hilariously bad job of reporting when its front page article stated that a "person close to the investigation" said that as a result of chaotic trading in the week before MF Global's October 31 bankruptcy, customers' money "vaporized." Money doesn't vaporize. It's true that tracing money transfers can be tedious, but that's why we call it work.

The habitual filching of customers' funds -- even if the funds are later replaced -- goes way beyond sloppy bookkeeping. It goes way beyond bad judgment. Just because MF Global got away with it for a long time before it blew up in its face doesn't mean one can call it sloppy bookkeeping and have any reasonable person believe it. If federal investigators and law enforcement people want to make public statements like this, one should investigate corruption in their ranks. They seem to be providing undeserved excuses as a trial balloon to see if it will fly. Nice try, but it's not working.

more...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/mf-global-crime-comedy-an_b_1306018.html


2/29/12 But Nobody Committed Any Crimes! (MF Global) by Karl Denninger
Habitual. Got that? It's kinda like me filching your car every night at 3:00 AM and returning it at 5:00. You don't miss it, as you don't need to go to work until 7:00. Arguing that MF Global did nothing punishable under these circumstances is an open invitation by you to similarly "borrow" your car, right? After all, you're not using it at that moment in time, and I will bring it back before you need it again (well, right up until I smash it into a tree anyway..... kinda like what happened with MF Global eh?)

more...
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=202715

[Demeter]

52. WOW!

The hits just keep on coming....Corzine, behind bars...NOW!

[Roland99]

54. Temporary Embezzlement

surely *that's* legal for the 1%

[FarCenter]

71. Embezzlement is such a harsh word -- it's called "rehypothecation"

[Demeter]

76. That is Exactly True! Thank you for the insight

I wonder if this can be percolated into any regulatory or legislative brain....

[DemReadingDU]

64. Excellent 3-minute video of Janet Tavakoli

2/23/12 Excellent 3-minute video of Janet Tavakoli at this link

One author takes us through her chronicles of the global financial crisis. Bill Moller sits down with Janet Tavakoli, author of The New Robber Barons.

If you let fraud go unpunished, you set yourself up for the next bigger financial failure

http://www.firstbusinessnews.com/videos.php?video=fbc680d72f3148eb91170ab6b011a52a

[Demeter]

63. Cathy O’Neil: Economists Don’t Understand the Financial System (Quelle Surprise!)

MATHBABE STRIKES AGAIN!

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/cathy-oneil-economists-dont-understand-the-financial-system-quelle-surprise.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

A bit more than a week ago I went to a panel discussion at the Met about the global financial crisis. The panel consisted of Paul Krugman, Edmund Phelps, Jeffrey Sachs, and George Soros. They were each given 15 minutes to talk about what they thought about the Eurocrisis, especially Greece, the U.S., and whatever else they felt like. It was well worth the $25 admission fee, but maybe not for the reason I would have thought when I went. I ended up deciding something I’ve suspected before. Namely, economists don’t understand the financial system, and moreover they don’t get that they don’t get it. Let me explain my reasoning.

The panelists all were pretty left-leaning guys, and each of them talked about how the U.S. government should stimulate the economy in one way or another. Krugman kept saying that hey, this isn’t too hard, we’ve seen financial crises before, and this is no different: we should immediately pass a massive stimulus package, that’s the one and only thing that we should be discussing. Sachs was very consistently saying we should do something else: namely, start planning long-term for the future. He focused on the percent of tax dollars going into infrastructure and basic education and research. Phelps also wanted stimulus, but he consistently referred to his own economic models in how exactly it should work. I didn’t completely follow his train of thought. Soros was the most interesting of the four, in my opinion. He started by saying that we should all acknowledge that, as nice as it would be to think we can model the economy and feel control over the situation, this is a pipe dream and we should get used to not really knowing what will happen when we do one thing versus another. He suggested that we should instead work together to develop a theory, or perhaps even an philosophy, that assumes uncertainty itself. He ended by saying that, even with the three colleagues on the panel with him, who are essentially all united in thinking we need to be proactive, his ideas are essentially being ignored...The rest of the evening essentially consisted of everyone ignoring Soros and arguing about how Keynesian they all were and how exactly different kinds of stimulus would work and which way they should use 2% of GDP to jumpstart the world’s economy. So basically exactly what Soros said would happen...

...Overall, the evening brought me back to the credit crisis, and working at D.E. Shaw, when Larry Summers was consistently quoted at the firm as saying that the “magical liquidity fairy” needed to come and “spread some magical liquidity dust” in the markets to make everything better. No, I’m not kidding...I’m left thinking that they (the economists) are so entranced with their simplified world view that still don’t understand what actually fucked up the world in 2007 and 2008, namely the CDO market’s implosion. Message to Krugman: this is not exactly like other financial crises, because it’s partly caused by complexity, and nobody seems to have the balls to fix it. The problem is that the financial system has been allowed to get so complicated and so rigged in favor of the people with information, that normal people, including homeowners, credit card users, politicians, and regulators have been left in the dark, and many of the little guys are still stuck in ludicrous contracts left over from the outrageous securitizations that took place in the CDO market...What is especially enraging is how these same economists are still the experts that people turn to to help figure out how to get out of this mess, when they don’t actually understand the mess itself. Why else would a large audience be willing to pay $25 a piece to hear them talk about this? Why else would Obama be considering Larry Summers to lead the World Bank?

As an aside: please, Mr. President, do not let Summers lead the World Bank. He does not understand the system well enough to lead it. And he is too arrogant to admit what he doesn’t know. I can introduce you to a bunch of people that may be less imposing but are more informed, more ethical, and wiser. Give me a call any time and we can chat and form a short list of candidates...

[xchrom]

72. +1 -- there is something to be said for old ledger book business accounting.

and now we know that the big computers they use can introduce their own chaos into the system.

[Demeter]

79. Never confuse accounting with economics!

It's like the difference between science and science fiction.

[xchrom]

84. ...

[Tansy_Gold]

99. Or as the inimitable Mr. Twain is alleged to have said --

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightning bug and lightning."





Tansy Gold, former cost accountant

[xchrom]

65. Airlines roll back latest fare hike attempt

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-airlines-roll-back-20120228,0,3143474.story?track=rss

The fourth attempted fare hike of the year has unraveled over the last few days, as low-fare airlines declined to match the increase initiated by United Airlines.

The latest fare increase was sparked last week when United raised domestic round-trip fares by $4 to $10. Soon after, Virgin America, Delta Air Lines, US Airways and American matched the increase. Airline industry officials have defended the higher fares, citing rising fuel prices.

But Rick Seaney, founder of farecompare.com, said the latest increase failed primarily because it was not matched by low-fare airlines, including JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines, the nation's largest carrier of domestic passengers.

A third attempted hike, initiated by Delta in January, failed when other airlines declined to match the increase.



*** that's the whole article

[Demeter]

69. US GDP revised up to 3%

The US economy grew slightly faster than previously thought in the final quarter of 2011 in another encouraging sign of stable recovery.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis revised its initial estimate of annualised growth in the fourth quarter from 2.8 per cent up to 3 per cent, ahead of market expectations of an unchanged estimate

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/7AR76C/WH2F8/MSLQLN/EXL1YU/KI/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=29

[xchrom]

70. Pandit Fast Money With Hedge Funds Proves Dead End

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/pandit-fast-money-with-hedge-funds-proves-citigroup-dead-end-with-spinoffs.html

Vikram Pandit knows one way to make big money in hedge funds: sell them.

In July 2007, Pandit sold Old Lane Partners LP to Citigroup Inc. (C) for $800 million and pocketed $165 million for his stake. Then he took over the bank’s in-house hedge-fund group, now called Citi Capital Advisors, or CCA. He became chief executive officer of the whole company just five months later.

For Pandit, the hedge-fund business was a sprint to riches. For Citigroup, it’s been a slog, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its April issue. When Pandit, 55, was promoted in December 2007, CCA managed $59 billion in hedge funds, private- equity pools and real estate. In 2007, it earned net income -- from fees charged to clients and gains on its own money -- of $672 million.

After the financial crisis, Citigroup closed some funds -- it won’t say how many -- and investors fled others. As of mid- February, it managed $18.6 billion. The last time Citi told shareholders how CCA performed was the first quarter of 2008, when the unit lost $509 million. Four of Citi’s seven biggest hedge funds have underperformed their indexes since they started, according to investors. Five of the seven lost money in 2011.

Pandit persevered. Since 2008, he has opened or purchased at least six new funds. In the third quarter of 2011, he invested $800 million of the bank’s own money -- not cash from investors or clients -- into CCA, even as traders from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and other banks were jumping ship to start their own hedge funds in advance of the Volcker rule.

[xchrom]

74. Hong Kong’s Basement-Gate Points to Shaky Future: William Pesek

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-28/hong-kong-s-basement-gate-points-to-shaky-future-william-pesek.html

Washington had Watergate, Italy Bunga Bunga-gate, London Murdoch-gate. Now, Hong Kong brings us Basement-gate.

It’s a scandal that many of us outside the city of 7 million might find hard to fathom. Henry Tang, the favorite to be Hong Kong’s next leader, has an illegal basement. In my mind, that’s only a problem if you are storing drugs, trafficking humans or evading taxes. For Hong Kong residents squeezed by surging rents and living costs, Tang’s underground aerie, which he built without a government permit, is outrageous enough.

Even as poverty in Hong Kong rises, Tang’s hidden wonderland contains a Japanese-style sauna, well-stocked wine cellar, dance studio and theater, according to local media. Tang’s claims that it’s just a storage space -- one twice the size of more than 90 percent of private homes in the city -- and that it’s all his wife’s fault didn’t help.

The basement is really a metaphor for the tensions pulsing below Hong Kong’s surface. Its people are pushing back as Beijing foists an unpopular chief executive on the city. Tang personifies one of the biggest gripes among locals: how China and the city’s elite lord over the place and ignore growing social, political and economic fissures 15 years after the U.K. handed Hong Kong back to China.
Chinese Proxy

The city’s 99 percent deserve more consideration from the billionaires who tower over the place, Li Ka-shing included. Predictably, Hong Kong’s richest man and his vast business interests support Tang ahead of the March 25 coronation, errr, election. Billionaires don’t tend to bite the hands that feed them -- like the billionaires in Beijing.

We often think of China’s 1 percent as business moguls running energy and real-estate companies. There’s money in politics, too. The wealthiest 70 members of China’s legislature added almost $90 billion to their bank accounts last year, according to Hurun Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy. The 2011 increase is more than the combined net worth of all 535 members of the U.S. Congress, the president and his Cabinet and the nine Supreme Court justices. Really, if this value-investing stuff doesn’t work out, Warren Buffett could always see about getting a Chinese passport and enter government.

[Demeter]

80. underground aerie?

This is translated, right? I doubt they intended the oxymoron...

[xchrom]

83. i caught that myself.

it's a shame because i don't think it's written in chinese first.

maybe i'm wrong.

[xchrom]

77. Irish Seek to Tempt Millionaires With Visa Bonds

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/ireland-seeks-to-tempt-millionaires-with-bonds-giving-visas-to-investors.html

Ireland plans to sell a bond with a different kind of coupon: a resident’s visa.

Under proposals to be laid out next month, the government will offer the visas to investors who spend at least 2 million euros ($2.7 million) on a new “low-interest” security, 1 million euros on property or invest in an Irish company. The sale is aimed at people from outside the European Union (EURR002W) who need permits to live and work in the 27-member bloc.

“You might have businesspeople in China or in Brazil or in various non-EU countries who would like to be entitled to come and reside here,” Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter said in an interview in Dublin. “The scheme has great potential.”

The proposal is among the more unusual in a wave of initiatives to win investment as Ireland seeks to rebuild its economy and markets after one of the biggest banking collapses in history. The government is also offering finders’ fees for people bringing in jobs and tax breaks for executives moving to the country, one of three euro members that sought an international bailout during the European debt crisis.

Ireland is undertaking an “international charm offensive,” Prime Minister Enda Kenny said after former U.S. President Bill Clinton hosted a meeting in New York on Feb. 9 to drum up interest in Ireland among investors. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping this month visited the country.

Kenny said yesterday Ireland will hold a referendum to ratify the European agreement on a new rescue fund.

[Demeter]

81. I'm speechless

[AnneD]

107. I might consider ....

buying a residential visa to Iceland but that is it. We need a guillotine smilie.

[Demeter]

82. U.S. Cuts Iran Cash Pipeline

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203833004577251751961073104.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

Treasury Said to Disrupt Dubai-Based Bank Tehran Used to Evade Sanctions..The U.S. Treasury Department disrupted a Dubai-based banking operation that Washington believes had become Tehran's primary conduit for evading international sanctions and processing its oil sales, according to people briefed on the operation.

The effort was particularly sensitive because the targeted institution in the United Arab Emirates is partly owned by the local government of Dubai, a close U.S. ally. The chairman of the bank, called the Noor Islamic Bank, is the son of Dubai's ruler.

In mid-December, Noor agreed to close off what the people briefed on the operation characterized as Iran's single-largest channel for repatriating foreign-currency oil receipts—

DON'T WORRY, THERE WILL BE OTHERS, AND NOT RUN BY FRIENDLY "ALLIES"

WHAT ASININE POLICIES THIS ADMINISTRATION FOLLOWS...AT THE BEHEST OF MULTINATIONALS WHO DON'T SHOW ANY FEALTY TO US.

[Demeter]

85. Wikileaks Reveals Privately Run CIA’s Dirty Secrets (Update 2)

http://gizmodo.com/5888440/wikileaks-reveals-private-cias-dirty-laundry-updating-live

Wikileaks has published five million emails from Stratfor, an intelligence company based in Texas that, looking at their practices, appears to be America's very own privately run CIA. According to Wikileaks, their deals would also include the use of privileged information to make money in financial markets...Wikileaks says that the emails also reveal the creation of a parallel organization called StratCap. Apparently, this organization would use Stratfor network of informants to make money in financial markets. Wikileaks claims that the emails show how then-Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz and Stratfor CEO George Friedman put StratCap in motion in 2009.

AGAIN WITH THE GOLDMAN--THOSE GUYS REALLY GET AROUND

Update: Stratfor CEO has resigned following this clusterfuck. It seems the company's security hasn't been fixed yet, at least according to Anonymous: MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

86. Much As I Love to Indulge My Addiction

and enjoy making up for yesterday's lost posting time, I am starving.

And tonight is paper night.

There's a HUGE low pressure over us, bigger than a hurricane, but passing very quickly into New England (watch out, Po!). It brought some rain and warmer temperatures. At least the winds of the last two days are abating...the best winter gear I bought this year was a ski-mobile mask and a waterproof, fuzzy-lined, 100% polyester storm coat. It's like wearing a furry plastic bag..stops the rain, stops the wind, but tends to overheat under exercise...

Quite a kaleidoscope of news today! Very entertaining.

[xchrom]

88. have a good day, miss demeter!

[xchrom]

89. Frankfurt Airport Strike Expands Transport Minister Warns of 'Disastrous Consequences'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,818058,00.html

German aviation union GdF has said it will expand its intermittent strike actions at Frankfurt Airport on Wednesday. Around 200 ground workers have already been striking in recent days at the airport, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights. Now, the union has asked air traffic controllers in the tower to join them in solidarity on Wednesday between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. local time. German airline Lufthansa and the airport's operator said they would seek a court injunction against the strike expansion.

With the air traffic controllers' solidarity strike, the union is seeking to increase pressure by causing the cancellation of hundreds more flights at Germany's most important airport. "The step is meant to show solidarity with the GdF members in the struggle against Fraport," the union said in a statement, referring to the company that operates Frankfurt Airport.

However, German Transportation Minister Peter Ramsauer has warned that an expansion of the strike to the control tower could lead to "disastrous consequences" for air traffic -- and not only within Germany, but also around the world.

The strike began with around 200 ground workers who manage taxiways and the so-called "apron" (the paved area next to the terminal and hangars) walking off the job. They are responsible, in part, for guiding planes to their final park position. Airport officials claim the union is demanding large wage increases running as high as 50 to 70 percent and shorter working hours. Negotiations between Frankfurt Airport and the GdF union collapsed on Friday.

[Fuddnik]

90. OK, who shit in the oatmeal?

Gold, silver and Dow all plunged at about 10:30.

[DemReadingDU]

93. What happened for the declines?

Did Bernanke say something wrong this morning?

[Po_d Mainiac]

95. Has he evah said/done anything right?

Right for evryone but the bankster cartel that is.

He should join Jabba the Summers in the bronzing vat

[Po_d Mainiac]

94. That wood be the bernank

No announcement of QE..which with oil and R2K at current levels, no surprise..

The metals will slowly claw their way back up, but the equities markets may correct hard. At best look for them to tread water till the next announced printing from the squids ink hut.
YMMV

[xchrom]

91. Spain flexes muscles in tug-of-war with Brussels over deficit target

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/02/28/inenglish/1330457220_494748.html

Spain on Tuesday put pressure on the European Commission to agree to a softer deficit target for this year before the end of this week when it plans to unveil the basis for the 2012 state budget.

However, Brussels’ response indicated that under its protocol, the process of renegotiating a new target could take weeks.

Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro on Monday revealed that the budget deficit for last year came in at 8.5 percent of GDP, 2.5 percentage points above target. The government wants some leeway on the 2012 deficit goal of 4.4 percent of GDP in order not to exacerbate the coming recession. A spokesman at the office of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Tuesday confirmed officially for the first time that Madrid was in talks with Brussels on softening the target.

The secretary of state for public administrations, Antonio Beteta, said Tuesday the government wants to announce its spending limit for this year on Friday, and needed to agree the deficit target with the Commission in order to do so. The spending limit is the first step in drawing up the budget.

[Demeter]

96. TODAY'S MUST READ So, how can bankers live with themselves?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/joris-luyendijk-banking-blog/2012/feb/17/how-can-bankers-live-with-themselves


...A little while ago I put this to a financial recruiter. I'll call him Philippe. Philippe is working with the well-paid bankers everyone else seems so angry with. They come to him when they want to move to a new job, or he poaches them on behalf of banks or financial firms. Being at the high end of the industry he has extensive conversations with clients about their motives, fears and ambitions.

So how can they live with themselves?

"They feel unjustly singled out", said Philippe. "What I hear is: look, nobody would run a bank with the intention of wrecking it, would they? Banks lent to people who couldn't repay. But nobody forced these people to take out loans that they must have known were far beyond their means. Banks may have been enablers, but in the end it was reckless individuals who did this. But what politician is going to blame this crisis on his voters, some of who must have been among the reckless borrowers? Much easier to heap it all on the bankers." This is a common refrain in the City, where people like to compare themselves to "over-enthusiastic waiters", in the recent words of one CEO. "Then again", Philippe continued, "many of my clients simply don't seem to care a whole lot about what the general public think. These are extremely well-educated and multilingual professionals. Many are in mixed marriages with kids who have lived on two or three continents. These people don't belong anywhere and don't feel beholden to any national project. They want to pay as little in tax as they can, and they want to be safe. That's it. Rule of law is very important for them.' AS LONG AS IT'S APPLIED IN THEIR FAVOR, I SURMISE...

That's London and those are Philippe's clients. They sound almost like the crew of "spaceship finance", don't they? The ship happens to have landed in London for now, but can take off any time. Philippe said: "A highly educated professional in the City of London has much more in common with a peer in Hong Kong, New York City or Rio de Janeiro, than with a monolingual, mono-cultural teacher or nurse somewhere up in Birmingham or Manchester. Solidarity for the new global elite is not geography-based or tied up with a state."

Knowing this was for the Guardian, he added with a mischievous smile: "This is where the left seems lost. It insists on solidarity across the nation, with higher tax rates for rich people to help their less fortunate countrymen. But this solidarity is predicated on a sense of national belonging, to which the left is allergic; national identity comes with chauvinism and nationalism, and creepy rightwing supremacists. It's quite ironic how postmodernists and many contemporary social thinkers on the left will tell you that all sense of belonging is a construct, tradition is invented and nations are simply fantasies or imagined communities. Well, the global financial elite agrees."

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

Anthropologist and journalist Joris Luyendijk ventures into the world of finance to find out how it works

[Demeter]

97. "over-enthusiastic waiters"

[xchrom]

105. That was very telling. Nt