STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, March 2, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, March 2, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON March 1, 2011

Dow 12,058.02 -168.32 (-1.40%)
Nasdaq 2,737.41 -44.86 (-1.64%)
S&P 500 1,306.33 -20.89 (-1.60%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.42 +0.02 (+0.53%)
30-Year Bond 4.50 +0.02 (+0.40%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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Handy Links - Market Data and News:Economic Calendar    Marketwatch Data    Bloomberg Economic News    Yahoo! Finance    Google Finance    Bank Tracker    
Credit Union Tracker    Daily Job Cuts

Handy Links - Economic Blogs:
The Big Picture    Financial Sense    Calculated Risk    Naked Capitalism    Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong      Bonddad    Atrios    goldmansachs666    The Stand-Up Economist

Handy Links - Government Issues:
LegitGov    Open Government    Earmark Database    USA spending.gov

Handy Links - Videos:
The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class    Charlie Rose talks with Roubini    Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
    William Black: This Economic Disaster    Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn

Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren
Dishonorable Mention: former House majority leader, Tom DeLay

Bush Administration Officials Charged = 1
Name(s): Richard Lopez Razo

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 11

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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.

Read more: du

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Today's Reports

Mar 02 07:00 MBA Mortgage Index 02/25 NA NA +13.2%
Mar 02 07:30 Challenger Job Cuts Feb NA NA -46.1%
Mar 02 08:15 ADP Employment Change Feb 160K 165K 187K
Mar 02 10:30 Crude Inventories 02/26 NA NA 0.822M
Mar 02 14:00 Fed's Beige Book Mar

http://www.briefing.com/Investor/Public/Calendars/EconomicCalendar.htm

[Pale Blue Dot]

19. Mortgage Applications Dip Despite Rate Drop

Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week and refinance activity declined even as interest rates dipped, an industry group said Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity fell 6.5 percent in the week ended Feb. 25.

MBA said the figures do not include an adjustment for the Presidents Day holiday.

The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications decreased 6.5 percent, while the gauge of loan requests for home purchases was down 6.1 percent.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/41864723

[Pale Blue Dot]

20. Announced U.S. Job Cuts Rose 20% From Year Ago, Challenger Says

Employers in the U.S. announced more job cuts in February than in the same month last year, led by a surge at government agencies.

Planned firings increased 20 percent to 50,702 last month from February 2010, the first year-over-year gain since May 2009, according to a report today from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Announcements at federal, state and local government offices almost tripled from last year.

“More job cuts at the federal level are expected in the months ahead as pressure mounts to cut costs and rein in the soaring national debt,” John A. Challenger, the outplacement company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Dismissals of government workers may contribute to a slowdown in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy. Combined with the highest gasoline prices in two years, the threat of a pause in purchases may already be causing retailers, which had the second-biggest number of announcements last month, to pare payrolls, said Challenger.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-02/announced-u-s-job-cuts-rose-20-from-year-ago-challenger-says.html

[Fuddnik]

32. A recovery we can believe in!

Just wait for the always wrong ADP report comes out, and everything will be hunky-dory again.

[Po_d Mainiac]

35. Does anyone believe

ADP employment and the consumer confidence reports anymore? (Other than that LIESman buffoon on CNBS)

[Pale Blue Dot]

48. Speaking of which...

Private sector employment posted fifth straight monthly gain in February: ADP

U.S. private sector employment rose more than expected in February, posting a gain for a fifth straight month.

Private sector employment increased by 217,000 from January to February on a seasonally adjusted basis, ADP Employment Report said on Wednesday. Markets had expected the US private sector employment to increase by 175,000 in February.

“The recent pattern of rising employment gains since the middle of last year was reinforced by today’s report, as the average gain from December through February (217,000) is well above the average gain over the prior six months (63,000),” said ADP.

A significant part of employment growth in February came from the services sector, where jobs rose by 202,000, recording an increase for thirteen months in a row.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/117943/20110302/adp-non-farm-employment-us-private-sector-employment-unemployment.htm#ixzz1FSRllSxO

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil rises near $100 after surprise US supply drop

SINGAPORE – Oil prices rose to near $100 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as a report showed U.S. crude and gasoline supplies unexpectedly dropped last week, suggesting demand may be improving.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 27 cents at $99.90 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.66 to settle at $99.63 on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude for April delivery was down 9 cents to $115.33 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories fell 1.1 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had forecast an increase of 1.6 million barrels. Inventories of gasoline fell 4.9 million barrels and distillates fell 1.4 million barrels, the API said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[Demeter]

49. You wouldn't think the Daytona 500 used that much petrol

[Po_d Mainiac]

65. It's all the Camper/Coaches in the parking lot..n/t

[Pale Blue Dot]

50. Here's a link to the oil price chart

Follow that, and you know what the Dow is doing.

http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/t?s=CLJ11.NYM&lang=en-US®ion=US&width=300&height=180

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. U.S. Stock-Index Futures Climb; Salesforce.com, Apple Advance

March 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures rose before a report on private sector hiring provides the latest update on the strength of the recovery in the world’s largest economy.

Apple Inc. gained as the maker of iPod media players prepares to unveil the latest version of its iPad tablet computer. Salesforce.com Inc. climbed 1 percent as Canaccord Genuity Corp. recommended buying the shares. MetLife Inc. sank 4.2 percent in after-hours trading yesterday after saying it will sell shares.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring this month climbed 0.2 percent to 1,303.8 at 10:36 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased 0.2 percent to 12,041 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures added 0.2 percent to 2,315.

The S&P 500 posted its first drop in three days yesterday as concern that rising energy costs will hurt the economic recovery overshadowed the fastest manufacturing growth since 2004. The gauge slid 1.7 percent last week as anti-government uprisings in Libya pushed oil prices higher.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aC6MaS5ArxC0

[Po_d Mainiac]

40. Huh? Looks red across the board..

The U$D is also down against most of the worlds currencies. The DX is within a cent of the 6mos low.

Warning: This could be hazardous to people that require food or rely on petroleum products for heat and transportation

[Po_d Mainiac]

46. And then the light changed

[Demeter]

4. First Rec! Morning, PBD!

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. Turkey Bonds Are Biggest Losers in Worst Rout Since 2008

The biggest selloff in emerging- market debt since 2008 is hitting Turkey hardest as unrest in the Middle East threatens to widen the country’s current-account deficit and boost inflation.

The nation’s foreign-currency bonds have dropped 7.9 percent since the end of October, leading a slide in developing- nation debt, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Government securities in lira lost 10 percent for dollar-based investors in the period as the currency touched an eight-month low. Credit- default swaps on Turkey jumped to 174 basis points from 133, the biggest advance among 16 emerging markets, CMA prices show.

Political turmoil from Libya to Oman is lifting the cost of oil imports and curbing demand from a region that buys about 27 percent of Turkey’s exports. The January trade gap was 78 percent wider than the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, government data showed yesterday. Interest-rate cuts since December aimed at narrowing the shortfall by depreciating the lira have dented the appeal of fixed-income assets on concern inflation may jump from a record low.

“Rising oil prices could hit oil importers like Turkey pretty hard, and the country is dependent on portfolio inflows to finance the current-account deficit,” Kevin Daly, who helps oversee about $6 billion as an emerging-market money manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Plc in London, said in a Feb. 25 phone interview. “So when you’re running somewhat of a questionable monetary policy and investors are concerned about the downside risks, it’s a tricky situation.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-01/turkey-is-biggest-loser-in-worst-emerging-bond-rout-since-2008-on-mideast.html

[tclambert]

64. Turkey bonds? Is that like pig futures?

Bacon. BBQ ribs. Spiral-cut ham. Those right there are your pig futures.

[Pale Blue Dot]

6. Food Crisis Not as Bad as 2008 Because of Rice Price, OECD Says

A global food crisis on the scale of what happened three years ago isn’t recurring because a jump in the cost of rice, a staple for half the world, has lagged behind that for other grains, according to the OECD.

Rice futures traded on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 3 percent in the last 12 months, compared with 60 percent for wheat and 93 percent for corn. World milled-rice output will rise 2.4 percent to a record 451.7 million metric tons in 2010-2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts, helping keep stockpiles near the highest in seven years.

Rice prices almost tripled in the 20 months to April 2008, contributing to a worsening in world hunger that meant a record 1.02 billion people were deemed by the United Nations to be undernourished in 2009. That figure fell to 925 million people last year, the first decline in 15 years, as food costs dropped and economic growth lifted incomes.

“The scale of the problem is not as bad for large parts of the world as it was in 2008,” said Ken Ash, the trade and agriculture director at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. “With two-thirds of the world’s hungry largely reliant on rice as a staple, rice prices have not increased and supplies are relatively strong.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-02/global-food-crisis-was-worse-in-2008-when-rice-costs-rose-more-oecd-says.html

[Demeter]

7. Threat of Benefit Cuts in Wisconsin Prompts Wave of Sudden Retirements

http://www.alternet.org/story/150068/threat_of_benefit_cuts_in_wisconsin_prompts_wave_of_sudden_retirements?page=entire

Many public employees have been advised that if they don't get out quickly, they stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits they were counting on for retirement.

...Across the state, record numbers of public employees are requesting retirement papers. Many, like Donnelly, have been advised that if they don't get out quickly, they stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits they were counting on for retirement.

The effect on the state could be devastating. The number of people retiring from the public sector in the next two weeks could easily dwarf the 12,000 lay-offs the governor has threatened, if Senate Democrats don't return to pass his bill ending collective bargaining for public employees...

[Demeter]

8. 5 Economic Ills That Demand We Go Beyond What We Think Is Possible

http://www.alternet.org/story/150073/vision%3A_5_economic_ills_that_demand_we_go_beyond_what_we_think_is_possible?page=entire

...There are only two possibilities: either we act to expand the boundaries of the possible, or we suffer the consequences.

Consider these five prime economic challenges:

Economic Recovery and the Budget. We are told by Beltway solons of both parties that the prime malady harming the economy is the budget deficit. But nobody can explain how fiscal austerity will promote economic recovery. On the contrary, the more we cut, the more we retard economic recovery and the more we remove the cushions that make the recession slightly more bearable for regular people. Out here in the real world, the problem isn't the deficit; it's the recession, the high rate of joblessness and the stagnant earnings. The solution? Significantly more public investment to get the economy on a faster road to recovery and to generate more and better jobs. In the short run, the deficit increases. But over time the economy grows faster and the debt burden recedes...

The Health System. Once recovery comes and tax receipts return to something like normal (assuming that the right doesn't further gut the tax code), America doesn't have a deficit problem; we have a health system problem ...Every other wealthy nation insures everyone for about 10 percent of GDP. Our system leaves out some 50 million people, and costs 17 percent of GDP. That's a difference of seven percent of GDP, far more than the structural budget deficit. The solution? National health insurance, of course; or if you'd like to sound more like motherhood and apple pie, Medicare for All. Polls show that large majorities of Americans support it. But in mainstream politics, national health insurance is considered beyond the left edge of the possible (makes you wonder who controls mainstream politics.)

The Banking/Housing Mess. Seven million Americans are on a path to foreclosure, one home in three has more mortgage debt than the value of the home, and housing values declined last year in 18 of the top 20 metro areas. Home ownership as a ticket of lifetime asset accumulation is being denied to the next generation...The Administration's relief program, the Home Affordable Modification Program or HAMP, is voluntary to the banks. It is helping less than one out of ten homeowners in trouble. Stronger medicine to keep people in their homes is rejected because it would force banks to recognize losses. So foreclosures continue and housing prices continue to sag. The solution: give bankruptcy judges the power to order reductions in mortgage principal owed. Use leverage on banks rescued by government to insist on deep refinancings, so that distressed homeowners are not forced onto the street. In the long run, banks would incur less loss, neighborhoods would be less blighted...

...MORE..

None of these alternative policies is extreme. They are simply impossible given the present constellation of American politics.

[Loge23]

24. Add the current war on Education to that list

Though not a direct economic challenge, the current attack on public education (and the narrowing approach to private) also presents an opportunity for expanding the boundaries of possibility.
Noted idiot Mitch Daniels, current Governor of Indiana, is on record as stating that increasing class size really doesn't matter if a "great" teacher is holding court. This is the thinking these days. Let's just throw in the towel on even trying to provide a quality educational experience publicly and start shifting this responsibility to private schools - all the better if they are "Christian" private schools (my snark).
The economic disaster that will come from this de-evolved thinking is as severe as any of the significant challenges listed in this article. We're already seeing it. The tarnished silver lining is that we won't need educated people to work service jobs and eventually run factories - once we run full circle and begin to challenge the other third-world countries at their own game of low-cost manufacturing.
What an awful mess we're in.

[Demeter]

9. How You Can Boycott the Kochs

http://www.alternet.org/story/150078/how_you_can_boycott_the_kochs?page=entire

...Their major holdings are very difficult to boycott -- other than the promotion of clean energy and environmental laws, you may be stuck buying their energy products, directly or indirectly. However, they do produce some consumer products that you should put to memory to NEVER purchase again...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/08/24/895947/-Boycott-Koch-Products

(Georgia-Pacific products)

Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity fair napkins
Zee napkins
Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes
All Georgia-Pacific lumber and building products *more detailed list below*

(INVISTA Products)*more below*

Lycra
Stainmaster Carpet

[Robbien]

60. Justices Scalia and Thomas promoted and attended a Koch brother event

I didn't see this posted on DU, but the Supremes added their names as promotion for a conservative political event held by the Koch brothers. At this event they attended and hobnobbed and strategised electoral policy with Koch and their guests.

The Supremes don't feel this is any conflict of interest.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/judicial/146395-a-pressing-need-for-a-judicial-code-of-ethics

[Demeter]

10. FDIC Chief: Banks That Are "Too Big to Fail" Should Be Downsized

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/509625/fdic_chief%3A_banks_that_are_%22too_big_to_fail%22_should_be_downsized/#paragraph2

Speaking at a finance summit this week, FDIC Chief Sheila Bair said giant, multinational banks that are considered "too big to fail" should be forced to either restructure or prove they could be easily broken up during a financial crisis. "If they can't show they can be resolved in a bankruptcy-like process... then they should be downsized now," she said. "There is no reason in the world why they should get some special treatment backstop that other businesses in this country don't have."

Reuters:

Multinationals will need to set up more foreign subsidiaries and realign their legal structures to make it easier for regulators to liquidate them if necessary, Bair told the Reuters Future Face of Finance Summit....

She also said investors need to accept that they will get lower returns from banks that hold higher capital and run safer operations.

The aim of orderly liquidation is to avoid a repeat of 2008, when the Bush administration bailed out American International Group and other firms but not Lehman Brothers. Lehman's bankruptcy virtually froze capital markets.

The "living will" requirement mandated by last year's Dodd-Frank financial reform law is also designed to end the idea that some firms are too big to fail. It would put the greatest burden on banks with complex businesses and big international presences such as Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Avoiding a repeat of 2008 is certainly a worthy aim. To that end, big banks will have to file plans with U.S. regulators by year end detailing "how they can be closed down if they face a liquidity crisis."

That's great and all, but the question remains: why aren't the big bank executives who helped created the 2008 disaster already in jail?

[Demeter]

11. Michael Moore: We Face a Global War on the Middle Class

http://www.alternet.org/story/150061/michael_moore%3A_we_face_a_global_war_on_the_middle_class?akid=6580.227380.1oTXt5&rd=1&t=12

...Canada isn't like the United States - it's still a first world country, where corporations are supposed to exist to benefit people, not the other way around. They don't just have universal health care - they even have something called the Investment Canada Act, which says multinationals like Vale can only invest in Canadian industries if it will benefit all of Canada. I know, crazy!

The mine in Thompson used to be run by Inco, a Canadian corporation that made peace with unions and shared the wealth. When Vale bought Inco in 2006, they signed a contract with the government setting out what they would do to benefit Canadians.

Immediately afterward, Vale violated the contract and went on the attack - forcing miners in Sudbury, Ontario out on the longest strike in their history. And now in Thompson they're trying to shut down the smelting and refining operations that have made the city a major economic hub of the province. Meanwhile, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper - think of George W. Bush with a Canadian accent - is actually helping Vale do this to their fellow citizens, with a giant $1 billion government loan which Vale is using to move jobs out of Thompson. Moreover, the largest institutional investor in Vale is Blackrock, an investment firm which in turn is owned by several of America's bailed-out banks ... including Bank of America.

So this is about one thing and one thing only: killing the social contract of Canada. Vale and the Harper government don't want a future where Brazil gradually becomes more like Canada. Instead, they want a future where Canada becomes Brazil. And not just Canada: the corporations' plan is that the Third World will become the Only World.

That's why people everywhere need to support Thompson. As Niki Ashton - the MP who represents Thompson and the second-youngest woman ever elected to the Canadian Parliament - says: "It Was Flint Yesterday, It's Us and Wisconsin Today, and Tomorrow It's Going to Be Everyone."...

[Demeter]

12. Tax the Rich: Minnesota's Governor Teaches Scott Walker A Lesson

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12410

...across the border from Wisconsin in Minnesota, Democratic Governor Mark Dayton has proposed an alternative idea: Raise taxes on the rich to help close the budget gap. Dayton's budget plan would increase taxes to 10.95 percent on Minnesota families earning over $150,000 a year (or single adults earning more than $85,000). He would also add an additional 3 percent surtax on the superrich - those earning more than $500,000 - for the next 3 years.

Even raising taxes on the rich to these levels would only cut Minnesota's budget deficit in half, and Dayton has also proposed cutting the state workforce by 6 percent and removing 7,200 childless adults from Minnesota Care, moves that should be fought by progressives. Nevertheless, Dayton's "Tax the Rich" plan shows that there is nothing inevitable about the limited option of breaking public unions proposed by Scott Walker and some other GOP governors.

If a similar tax hike on the rich were proposed in Wisconsin, it would raise $600 million, far more than the savings to be had from Walker's assault on public workers.

As one would expect, Dayton's plan has met with opposition from the Republicans who control Minnesota's legislature. "This is a feeble and pathetic attempt at going back in time to raise taxes and increase spending," said Kurt Zellers, Minnesota's Republican House Speaker...

[tclambert]

63. Damn that Robin Hood! He steals from the rich and blah, blah, blah!

That's how Republicans hear it. Or if they hear "gives to the poor," it just makes them mad.

Seriously, I don't understand how the Republicans expect to pay for any government program if they only tax the poor, who have no money. If you want to pay for something, you have to get the money from people who have money. Robbing from the poor to give to the rich just doesn't work.

[Demeter]

66. They Don't Want to PAY for It

They want to STEAL it! There's no romance in commerce. Piracy, now that's romantic!

[Demeter]

13. US Uncut's Anti-Austerity Protests Hit Bank of America

http://www.truth-out.org/us-uncuts-anti-austerity-protests-start-small-strong-against-bank-america68108

...Bank of America (B of A) is the first corporation to be targeted by US Uncut, the transatlantic offspring of the United Kingdom-based anti-austerity group UK Uncut, which held its first demonstration to protest corporate tax evasion in late 2010.

As a voice at the megaphone of the Portland protest said, "The United States does not have a deficit problem. The United States has a revenue problem." According to a 2008 report by the Government Accountability Office, 25 percent of the biggest corporations pay no federal income tax. B of A, the recipient of $45 billion in bailout funds, shuttles its would-be tax dollars into 115 offshore tax havens. Meanwhile, budget deficits are cited as justification for pay freezes for public workers and cuts to heating assistance programs, Social Security, and other social safety nets.

"The $3 in my wallet is more than ExxonMobil, GE and Bank of America paid in taxes last year, combined," said Carl Gibson, founder of the first American Uncut group, US Uncut Mississippi, in a release prior to the February 26 protests.

"There's a direct connection between corporate tax dodging and what's happening to real people's lives," said Gibson. "Because of overseas tax havens and other tax loopholes, US corporations are making profits in America but barely paying taxes here. If we close those loopholes, we wouldn't have to be cutting back on firefighters, library hours and student loans."

In its first weeks, the movement remains small but is already getting noticed. In Washington, DC, about 100 Uncut demonstrators closed down the B of A branch where their protest was staged. Boston organizer Chris Priest estimated turnout there at around 50...

[Demeter]

14. US awards first deepwater permit post-Gulf spill

http://www.alternet.org/rss/breakingnews/508696/us_awards_first_deepwater_permit_post-gulf_spill/?akid=6585.227380.OKbg-W&rd=1&t=19

...Michael Bromwich, head of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy, said the permit was approved for US firm Noble Energy after a thorough vetting process and marked "a significant milestone" for Gulf operations.

"Noble Energy's application has met the requirements of our new safety regulations and information requirements," Bromwich said in a conference call with reporters.

"This means among other things that Noble Energy has met new requirements to show that it is prepared to deal with a potential blowout and potential for a worst-case discharge scenario."

Bromwich said there were seven applications pending.

"We are moving forward with deepwater drilling," he said, underscoring that all applications would be determined on "a well-by-well basis."...

[Demeter]

15. Oil groups seek Libyan rebels’ assurances

International oil companies are starting to reach out to Libya’s opposition to try to obtain guarantees for the security of their operations, executives have said

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/BLH300/0G3ZOS/06MUC/72HWYM/TPD5DT/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=2

[Demeter]

16. Autocratic leaders miss the point

Rulers hope to pay their way out of trouble, but for the first time in decades Arabs are clamouring for political rights and accountable government – not just benefits, says Roula Khalaf

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/BLH300/0G3ZOS/06MUC/72HWYM/D48L8Y/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=2

[xchrom]

17. recommend -- on for the moment -- probably won't last? nt

[Pale Blue Dot]

18. Why Obama is a pro-business president (by William Daley)

Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email [e-mail] to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/75f62250-4441-11e0-931d-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1FRbCrdQw

President Barack Obama has always believed that America succeeds when business succeeds. He has a deep, abiding commitment to doing what is necessary to strengthen our economy and make America more competitive. That is why, having spent decades in government and business myself, I was amazed to see the critical comments George Buckley, chief executive and chairman of 3M, made in the Financial Times this week, when he dubbed the president as “anti-business”.

As a government our responsibility is to lay the foundations for the private sector to thrive; indeed, that is at the heart of our strategy for growth. We are reforming America’s schools so that businesses can hire the world’s most skilled and talented workers – with solutions driven not from Washington, but from across the country. We are training 100,000 new maths and science teachers. And we are both making college more affordable and revitalising our community college system, so that America continues to not only have the best universities in the world, but also the highest college graduation rates.

Our administration is also upgrading our transportation and communication networks so businesses can move goods and information more quickly and cheaply. And we are redoubling our commitment to the research and innovation that is central to our long-term prosperity, including a proposal to enhance and permanently extend the research and development tax credit for businesses. We have also proposed reforms to address the very immigration problem Mr Buckley described. The president has said clearly that he does not believe in a system that forces students on a visa to leave the country after they earn an advanced degree, which means we train our competition.

Even as we lay this foundation, we are working to knock down barriers that make it harder to compete, from the tax code to the regulatory system – starting with a new government-wide review of regulations. If there are rules that needlessly stifle job creation and economic growth, we will fix them.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/75f62250-4441-11e0-931d-00144feab49a.html#axzz1EZFIPrur

:puke:

[DemReadingDU]

21. this is a test

edit: Still having issues logging in. WTF is going on?
Is it because of TimeWarner RoadRunner?

[Fuddnik]

30. Looks like somebody made an omelet out of DU's eggs (servers)

From what I'm seeing on other sites, it's all over the world. Intermittent and to varying degrees.

[skoalyman]

38. I've noticed it too on a couple of other sites

it was like the sites were experiencing heavy traffic,Then crashed.:tinfoilhat:

[Hawkowl]

54. I freaking hate that guy

I will be voting left wing on the presidential ticket in 2012.

[neverforget]

68. we noticed Daley. Maybe it was Bernanke, Geithner and Summers

that gave it away.

FWIW I always thought America succeeds when it's PEOPLE succeed.

[bread_and_roses]

22. WI budget: crush workers, destroy the environment, kill the poor, feed the rich

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/02

When the Governor's budget was unveiled at 4:00 p.m., it became quite clear why the Governor feared his constituents. No Wisconsinite will be unaffected by the bill. He cuts funding for schools and local governments by $1 billion, Medicaid and Badger Care by $500 million, ends state aid for recycling, expands school choice, gets rid of phosphorus rules that keep lakes and rivers clean, and cuts programs that poor college-bound students. He hands out $82 million in corporate tax breaks -- on top of the $100 million already approved -- while at the same time he takes away $42 million in tax credits for the poorest Wisconsinites.

Of course, this is literally insane. The mind reels. Meanwhile, in NY, we have our own mini-version in the D sitting in the Gov's seat who will not extend a tax on the rich to keep schools funded.

[xchrom]

43. whether republican or democrat -- the neoliberals are in charge.

theirs is the only narrative being told.

[Festivito]

23. Debt: 02/28/2011 14,194,764,339,462.64 (UP 57,223,240,589.93) (Mon, UP big.)

(Good day.)
NSLookup could work.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 9,565,541,417,510.14 + 4,629,222,921,952.50
UP 54,201,582,504.95 + UP 3,021,658,084.98

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 311-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.21 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,210.63 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.63, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 311,465,792 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $45,574.07.
A family of three owes $136,722.22. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 21 reports in the last 30 to 31 days.
The average for the last 21 reports is 6,583,427,420.63.
The average for the last 30 days would be 4,608,399,194.44.
The average for the last 31 days would be 4,459,741,155.91.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 251 reports in 365 days of FY2010 averaging 6.58B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
There were 103 reports in 151 days of FY2011 averaging 6.15B$ per report, 4.19B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 692 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 15.1 and 17.8T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
02/28/2011 14,194,764,339,462.64 BHO (UP 3,567,887,290,549.56 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,651,794,027,380.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
FY2011 +0,633,141,308,570.90 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,530,440,911,446.22 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
02/07/2011 -000,024,110,721.58 ---- Mon
02/08/2011 +000,098,708,298.02 ------------*******
02/09/2011 +000,070,875,766.12 ------------*******
02/10/2011 -016,083,331,993.98 -
02/11/2011 -000,131,455,172.80 ---
02/14/2011 -001,050,366,540.96 -- Mon
02/15/2011 +048,146,191,309.44 ------------**********
02/16/2011 +000,114,208,468.26 ------------********
02/17/2011 -011,510,944,063.77 -
02/18/2011 +000,193,465,100.84 ------------********
02/22/2011 +000,575,498,293.73 ------------******** Tue
02/23/2011 +000,604,643,024.49 ------------********
02/24/2011 -006,532,296,295.79 --
02/25/2011 +025,792,712,781.54 ------------**********
02/28/2011 +054,201,582,504.95 ------------********** Mon

94,465,380,758.51 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4752382&mesg_id=4753430

[Festivito]

67. Debt: 03/01/2011 14,172,957,589,856.62 (DOWN 21,806,749,606.02) (Tue, DOWN some.)

Debt: 03/01/2011 14,172,957,589,856.62 (DOWN 21,806,749,606.02) (Tue, DOWN some.)
(Good day.)
An afternoon at the mall.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 9,562,563,775,550.10 + 4,610,393,814,306.52
DOWN 2,977,641,960.04 + DOWN 18,829,107,645.98

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 311-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.21 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,210.55 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.63, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 311,472,992 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $45,503.01.
A family of three owes $136,509.02. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 20 reports in the last 30 to 28 days.
The average for the last 20 reports is 3,155,735,547.65.
The average for the last 30 days would be 2,103,823,698.44.
The average for the last 28 days would be 2,254,096,819.75.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 251 reports in 365 days of FY2010 averaging 6.58B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
There were 104 reports in 152 days of FY2011 averaging 5.88B$ per report, 4.02B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 691 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 15.1 and 17.7T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
03/01/2011 14,172,957,589,856.62 BHO (UP 3,546,080,540,943.54 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,651,794,027,380.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
FY2011 +0,611,334,558,964.90 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,468,007,329,093.35 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
02/08/2011 +000,098,708,298.02 ------------*******
02/09/2011 +000,070,875,766.12 ------------*******
02/10/2011 -016,083,331,993.98 -
02/11/2011 -000,131,455,172.80 ---
02/14/2011 -001,050,366,540.96 -- Mon
02/15/2011 +048,146,191,309.44 ------------**********
02/16/2011 +000,114,208,468.26 ------------********
02/17/2011 -011,510,944,063.77 -
02/18/2011 +000,193,465,100.84 ------------********
02/22/2011 +000,575,498,293.73 ------------******** Tue
02/23/2011 +000,604,643,024.49 ------------********
02/24/2011 -006,532,296,295.79 --
02/25/2011 +025,792,712,781.54 ------------**********
02/28/2011 +054,201,582,504.95 ------------********** Mon
03/01/2011 -002,977,641,960.04 --

91,511,849,520.05 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4753520&mesg_id=4753582

[Demeter]

25. House votes for $4bn cuts to avert shutdown

The US House of Representatives approved legislation that will fund the government until March 18, avoiding a federal shutdown this week

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/BLH300/0G3ZOS/06MUC/72HWYM/GK0B0R/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=2

[Demeter]

26. Ambani criticises Singh on economy

India’s richest man has challenged the government of Manmohan Singh to be far bolder in its approach to building India into a leading economy and world power

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/BLH300/0G3ZOS/06MUC/72HWYM/LQZ0ZS/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=2

[Demeter]

27. US car sales gather speed as buyers return

The pace of sales accelerated in February in spite of rising petrol prices, as consumers unleashed pent-up demand at dealerships after two years of holding back

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/ZBNA90/WH2F8/ZBFVOY/5CPJL5/FW/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=2

[Demeter]

28. M Stanley target of Chinese hackers

Morgan Stanley was among the targets of a sophisticated hacking campaign from China that penetrated more than 100 western businesses and was disclosed last year by Google

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/ZBNA90/WH2F8/ZBFVOY/18RE3O/FW/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=2

[Demeter]

29. Bright Food highest bidder for Yoplait stake

The Chinese group has emerged as the highest bidder for the 50 per cent stake in the global yoghurt brand that has been put up for sale by its private equity owner, according to people familiar with the deal

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/ZBNA90/WH2F8/ZBFVOY/YH9DR8/FW/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=2

CHINESE YOGURT, YUM

[Fuddnik]

31. I guess it's ok if you don't feed it to your dogs.

New Yoplait melamine-flavored light yogurt.

Is decomposition a safe weight-loss plan?

[Po_d Mainiac]

36. + 100's n/t

[Demeter]

33. Foreclosing the Foreclosers, Early-American Style

http://www.truth-out.org/foreclosing-foreclosers-early-american-style68136

Memo to Tea Party: The major social battle raging during the time of the American Revolution was over the proper uses of money and credit. Not getting government out of the economy....


O. Max Gardner III, a patrician lawyer in Shelby, North Carolina, has started a movement for resisting home mortgage foreclosures.

In what Reuters describes as “legal jiu jitsu,” Gardner teaches techniques for using a bank’s lumbering hugeness to enable people to stay in their homes long after banks want them gone. He’s not alone. A foreclosure resistance movement has gained national traction in the past year. The Times has reported on local sheriffs’ refusals to evict, and in an especially pointed act of guerilla theater, Patrick Rodgers of Philadelphia recently turned the tables on Wells Fargo by starting a foreclosure against the bank’s local mortgage office. According to ABC News, the bank had not paid Rodgers a court-ordered judgment it sustained in the process of failing to respond to his demand under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) for information about his mortgage. Rodgers thought his foreclosure gesture would at least get the bank’s attention.

The foreclosure resistance movement understandably disconcerts those who are concerned above all about fulfilling legal contracts and taking what the Tea Party-connected right calls “personal responsibility” for the inability to make mortgage payments. Yet the resistance has strong precedents in the same founding-era America to which the Tea Party constantly appeals. Conflicts not between American colonists and the British government but between small-scale American debtors and big-time American creditors illuminate struggles that continue today.

It can be hard to envision an early America seething with conflict between ordinary, hardworking Americans, stifled in their efforts to get ahead, and the rich, predatory Americans who stifled them. Prevailing historical fantasies of pre-Revolutionary America conjure a modestly thriving yeomanry, along with craftsmen, small businesspeople, and merchants participating together in a representative civics. In this fantasy, income and wealth disparities look minor and manageable; slavery and women’s subjugation are terrible deviations from an ethos of liberty shared more or less democratically by free Americans of all types. The main problem for everyone is the restrictive influence of the British elements in government. The rosy narrative has it that a revolution dedicated to freedom of trade and thought and the proposition that all men are created equal will launch this society on a grand progress, embattled but irresistible, toward a democracy that includes everybody...

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

The possibly startling fact is that the major social battle raging before, during, and after the American Revolution was over the proper uses of money and credit in American life. For ordinary people of the period, these were hardly abstractions. The only real money in 18th-century America was metal — silver and gold coin from England, Spain, and Mexico — and for long, terrible periods, money was rarely seen by ordinary people. Small farmers and artisans, wanting to survive and improve their lot, had to borrow. Merchants, gaining access to metal through imperial trading networks, used their money to make money, becoming lenders. Well before the Revolution, Americans defined themselves in practical terms either as “debtors” — poor and working people in small-scale enterprise — or “creditors” — well-heeled merchants growing their money by lending it.

Workings of the debtor-creditor relationship will sound unpleasantly familiar. Merchants had the money supply conveniently sewn up. Small farmers and artisans had to post the land and shops they hoped to develop as collateral for the credit they needed. Merchants might set interest rates as high as twelve percent — per month. Default, often predictable at the loan’s outset, subjected borrowers to foreclosures, which in bad times were epidemic. Families became indigent while their land, tools, and homes were snapped up at bargain prices, often by the merchants themselves, who speculated in land as well, and were building immense parcels. The rich got richer.

Is it any wonder that ordinary people viewed this disastrous economic predicament not as some incidental fallout from vigorous free-market competition, but as an egregious, systemic injustice with political, moral, even spiritual implications? They were being held back, exploited, and even ruined by a monopoly on money and credit. And unlike today’s populist right, founding-era Americans did not imagine that government’s simply leaving markets alone would create new and exciting opportunities for them. They believed their governments should make laws to restrain the overwhelming power of the creditors’ metal and protect those who labored and produced goods from those who planned dynasties of descendants living in luxurious idleness.

And remember: unless people had property in excess of certain amounts, they couldn’t vote. Whig elites — the ones who became patriot leaders, lionized today — axiomatically equated the right of representation with property. It took even more property to run for office. Legislatures erected counties to ensure that representation favored the rich and the cities. They placed cash fees on every imaginable transaction, paralyzing working people’s efforts to pursue legal recourse and enriching lawmakers’ friends and families appointed as collectors and administrators. Roads and other infrastructure built at public expense (and by coerced labor taxes) served the merchant interest, not the people’s. Hardly an embryonic American democracy, representative colonial governments were monopolized by forces that small-scale debtors and tenant farmers could only view as a creditor conspiracy to exploit their labor, prevent their participation, and take what stuff they had.

So they organized in vociferous protest...

[Demeter]

34. Archive for the ‘Foreclosure 411’ Category RESOURCE LINKS

http://www.newdeal20.org/category/foreclosure-411/

[Demeter]

37. Financial terrorism suspected in 2008 economic crash Pentagon study sees element TINFOIL ALERT!

WHAT? FRAUD, THEFT AND CRONYISM ISN'T A SUFFICIENT CAUSE? PULL THE OTHER ONE...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/28/financial-terrorism-suspected-in-08-economic-crash/

Evidence outlined in a Pentagon contractor report suggests that financial subversion carried out by unknown parties, such as terrorists or hostile nations, contributed to the 2008 economic crash by covertly using vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system. The unclassified 2009 report “Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses” by financial analyst Kevin D. Freeman, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, states that “a three-phased attack was planned and is in the process against the United States economy.”

While economic analysts and a final report from the federal government's Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission blame the crash on such economic factors as high-risk mortgage lending practices and poor federal regulation and supervision, the Pentagon contractor adds a new element: “outside forces,” a factor the commission did not examine. “There is sufficient justification to question whether outside forces triggered, capitalized upon or magnified the economic difficulties of 2008,” the report says, explaining that those domestic economic factors would have caused a “normal downturn” but not the “near collapse” of the global economic system that took place.

Suspects include financial enemies in Middle Eastern states, Islamic terrorists, hostile members of the Chinese military, or government and organized crime groups in Russia, Venezuela or Iran. Chinese military officials publicly have suggested using economic warfare against the U.S.
Michael G. Vickers, assistant secretary of defense for special operations, said the Pentagon was not the appropriate agency to assess economic warfare and financial terrorism risks. (Associated Press)Michael G. Vickers, assistant secretary of defense for special operations, said the Pentagon was not the appropriate agency to assess economic warfare and financial terrorism risks. (Associated Press)

In an interview with The Times, Mr. Freeman said his report provided enough theoretical evidence for an economic warfare attack that further forensic study was warranted.
.......................................................

Paul Bracken, a Yale University professor who has studied economic warfare, said he saw “no convincing evidence that ‘outside forces’ colluded to bring about the 2008 crisis.”

“There were outside players in the market” for unregulated credit default swaps, Mr. Bracken said in an e-mail. “Foreign banks and hedge funds play the shorts all the time too. But suggestions of an organized targeted attack for strategic reasons don’t seem to me to be plausible.”

IN OTHER WORDS, FOREIGN RUNNING DOGS ATE THE BANKSTERS HOMEWORK...

[xchrom]

44. what lies won't they concoct? next it'll be sun spots. nt

[Demeter]

39. BP Fund Lawyer to Refuse 100,000 Gulf Spill Disaster Claims

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/01-3

Vast majority of 130,000 unsettled claims do not have adequate documentation, says Ken Feinberg


"Here is the problem that I continually have to address … roughly 80% of the claims that we now have in the queue lack proof," Feinberg told foreign reporters in Washington. "That is a huge number."

Feinberg did not rule out settling claims in the future, but he added: "The claims that were denied had woeful, inadequate or no documentation to speak of."

He indicated that BP is unlikely to pay out more than the initial $20bn (£12.3bn)agreed for the compensation fund in a meeting at the White House last summer. "I am cautiously optimistic that $20bn will be enough," he said.

Any funds remaining from the $20bn would revert to BP under an agreement with the White House, Feinberg said: "My understanding is that if $20bn is sufficient and there is money left over it is retained by BP. That is not on my watch, that is not my responsibility."

The Obama administration, state governments, and local businesses have grown increasingly frustrated with Feinberg's handling of the claims process. Since August, Feinberg has paid out nearly $3.6bn to some 168,000 individuals and businesses in the Gulf.

WELL, THAT'S ALL RIGHT THEN. AFTER ALL, THESE FOLK SHOULD HAVE ALL THEIR PAPERS IN ORDER...

[Demeter]

41. QE2 Sparks an Orgy of Speculation By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27588.htm

...Let's be clear, any lender that anticipates a default rate of 50% or more, is just a con-artist bent on ripping people off. Period. The reason why so many young people have returned to college in the first place is because they swallowed that bunkum about a "high-paying job waiting for them after they graduate". Baloney. That's a bigger load of horsecrap than that other myth that "No one ever lost money on real estate".

So, whether it's subprime auto loans, student loans, LBOs, mortgage-backed securities or junk bonds; the Fed's malign and meddlesome influence can be seen throughout. And to what end; more borrowing, more speculation, more asset bubbles? Is that the goal?

Whether QE pumps liquidity directly into the financial system or merely exchanges one asset for another is beside the point. The fact is, the Fed has changed investors expectations, and in doing so, triggered another boom in debt-instruments and other exotic securities. That's increasing instability and making a crisis-prone system even more wobbly. It would be much better to enact a second round of fiscal stimulus targeting the sectors of the economy that are in greatest distress, the labor and housing markets. By extending unemployment benefits, providing funding for the shortfall in state revenues, and creating jobs programs aimed at rebuilding dilapidated infrastructure, the congress could reassert its control over economic policy and deliver money directly where it's needed rather than "trickling" it down through the financial system. (The Fed's method) Another slug of stimulus would have the added benefit of reducing bulging inventories and boosting demand. That would lead to more investment and hiring, in other words, a virtuous circle.

If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that the market is not a self-correcting mechanism that eventually finds its own equilibrium. That's nonsense. The housing and labor markets need help, and not the kind of bubble-help that Bernanke has in mind. The government has a role to play when people are out of work and the economy's on the ropes. It's just a matter of seeing what needs to be done and doing it.

THIS IS A MUST READ SNAPSHOT OF OUR PRESENT ECONOMIC SNAFU AND GOOD OLE UNCLE BEN'S HOME-MADE RECIPES FOR DISASTER...

[Demeter]

42. AND FOR A BROADER EXPOSE: The Perfidy of Government: Evidence v. Denial By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27589.htm

ANOTHER MUST READ

[xchrom]

45. +1

[Hotler]

47. k&r n/t

[Demeter]

51. Central banks risk turning recovery into failure

Just imagine that the developed world’s central banks raise interest rates this year. Would this be a welcome sign of success, signalling the beginnings of a sustained economic recovery? Or would it represent the most monumental of policy failures?

Many central bankers are becoming increasingly trigger-happy. The Bank of England is more and more hawkish by the minute. The European Central Bank has an intense dislike of all things inflationary, whatever their source. Even the Federal Reserve is feeling the pressure, continuously being forced to deny that inflation “over there” in the emerging world is the result of printing money “over here” in Washington.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/A1TNOO/C509YQ/87I64/8ABKQG/UUYY8R/7V/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=2

THIS HAS GOT TO BE A "PLANT" FOR UNCLE BEN. HIS BUDDIES AREN'T GOING TO GIVE HIM ANY MORE ROPE. NOW, IF THEY JUST FINISH THE JOB....

[Roland99]

52. 11:53 - Oil breaks $101/bbl easily...edit - now well past $102.

Dow 12,047 -11 -0.09%
Nasdaq 2,747 +10 +0.37%
S&P 500 1,307 +0 +0.02%
GlobalDow 2,186 -9 -0.41%
Gold 1,439 +8 +0.52%
Oil 101.59 +1.96 +1.97%



edit:

Oil 102.13 +2.50 +2.51%

[Roland99]

53. M2 Chart

?&chart_type=line&graph_id=&category_id=&recession_bars=On&width=630&height=378&bgcolor=%23B3CDE7&graph_bgcolor=%23FFFFFF&txtcolor=%23000000&ts=8&preserve_ratio=true&fo=ve&id=M2&transformation=lin&scale=Left&range=Max&cosd=1980-11-03&coed=2011-02-14&line_color=%230000FF&link_values=&mark_type=NONE&mw=4&line_style=Solid&lw=1&vintage_date=2011-03-02&revision_date=2011-03-02&mma=0&nd=&ost=&oet=&fml=a&fq=Weekly%2C%20Ending%20Monday&fam=avg&fgst=lin

[Demeter]

55. The Alternative Market Project Has Been Launched!

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-alternative-market-project-has-been-launched?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%

Why choose to participate in a system that doesn’t work? A system that is designed to drain the people of wealth instead of enriching them and their lives? A system that is constructed upon irrational principles, faulty laws, and unstable values? A system on the verge of collapse?

This is the question that the Alternative Market Movement (AMM) poses to the American citizen. Why continue living under an economic structure that is poised to erupt, threatening you, your family, and your ability to provide a meaningful future for them? Would anyone voluntarily choose to live under the barrel of a gun their entire lives?

The only plausible answer is that most people participate in our current destructive financial system because they feel there are no other options. AMM plans to change this by offering a new choice, one which presents a solid foundation, an honest and legitimate sense of community, self sufficiency, and sound trade backed by tangible commodities instead of unsustainable debts. We will work to help each and every individual achieve greater independence and to connect with other like-minded participants in a newer, liberty based market. This market will be facilitated and administrated by communities themselves, away from bureaucracy, corporate influence, and overt regulation. It will serve the interests of the average man and woman, and not the interests of globalism and elitist hierarchy.

We believe wholeheartedly in the framework of Constitutional Law, and that no government or supranational entity has the right to overstep Constitutional boundaries for any reason, regardless of supposed intentions or mandates. We do not recognize the self proclaimed authority of corporately created and managed entities such as the Federal Reserve, the IMF, or the World Bank. We are fully opposed to the practice of fractional reserve banking, fiat currency, central banking, and other fraudulent financial Ponzi schemes. We stand against the forced centralization of countries and cultures and the erasure of national sovereignty. We believe that the first step in defending against such economic and political manipulation is to create an alternative system that safeguards the values of free markets and free peoples. We are a natural extension of the Liberty Movement which is already making great headway in American society today.

Our goal is not to centralize authority in this movement, but to encourage individual awareness, and individual action. We hope to provide the knowledge and tools necessary to make it possible for anyone, from the average working American, to the successful private business owner, to become their own leader, taking actions in their own neighborhoods and towns with the purpose of forming viable trade networks, eventually decoupling and shielding themselves from the diseased economy currently in place.

The root ideology of our mission could be expressed as follows:

Provide for yourself and others those human necessities which the corrupt establishment cannot or will not.

Through this, you make the damaging system unneeded and obsolete. Eventually, the establishment will have to come after you, openly exposing its tyrannical nature, or it will have to conform to you. In either case, you benefit.

To help Americans forward with this strategy of self determinism and economic independence, we are launching the Alt-Market website. We hope it will become a useful medium for the expansion of trade networks as well as a source of in-depth knowledge on numerous practical skills which are valued in a poor economic environment. Ultimately, we plan to move our efforts away from the internet and into cities across the country, where we will hold workshops and conventions designed to give people hands on training, as well as a forum to meet other like-minded free market proponents face to face.

Visit us at Alt-Market, and set a higher economic standard for yourself, your town, your state, and your country. It all begins when our participation in rigged establishment system ends…

http://www.alt-market.com/

IT'S SO CRAZY, IT JUST MIGHT WORK

[Demeter]

56. JP Morgan Purposely Downplayed Litigation Risk That Spiked 5,000% Last Year...

JP Morgan Purposely Downplayed Litigation Risk That Spiked 5,000% Last Year & Is Still Severely Under Reserved By Over $4 Billion!!! Shareholder Lawyers Should Be Scrambling Now

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jp-morgan-purposely-downplayed-litigation-risk-spiked-5000-last-year-still-severely-under-re

GOSSIPY RANT FULL OF NUGGETS

[Demeter]

57. What Do China’s Economy and GM’s Sales Have in Common?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/what-do-china%E2%80%99s-economy-and-gm%E2%80%99s-sales-have-common

Both look great until you dig deeper into the data.

China measures its GDP based on any kind of economic activity, not end sales. If China chooses to build a skyscraper to the moon, it will count as economic growth even if the whole thing collapses two days after completion. In fact, China has been using this ploy for years. As ZeroHedge has noted one of the more staggering activities the People’s Republic has engaged in is actually blowing up buildings and then constructing new buildings on the property in order to maintain its economic “miracle.” ZeroHedge notes that the below building was actually blown up BEFORE it was competed in a kind of GDP “two for one” deal...

In this context, China’s GDP “miracle” needs to be taken with a LARGE grain of salt. Do I actually know what REAL GDP is there? No. But I know for certain it’s not what China claims.

What’s this got to do with GM’s auto sales? GM engages in similarly confusing growth numbers...

[Demeter]

58. How this $83 fountain pen helped save a family home from foreclosure

http://floridaforeclosurefraud.com/2011/03/how-this-83-fountain-pen-helped-save-a-family-home-from-foreclosure/

In these days of robo-signers and rocket-dockets, you can easily imagine losing your family home at the stroke of a pen—based on the signature on a perjured affidavit, or the order of a hurried judge—but how often have you heard of a home saved by the stroke of a pen?

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

The secret fraud we uncovered

What dark secret had we uncovered that sent the bank running for cover? Simple: we found that they had filed with the court an “original note” that was, in fact, a forgery. My client had gone to the courthouse herself to view the so-called original note, and when she opened the court file, she made a stunning discovery: her signature at the bottom of the page was in blue ink.

Blue ink signatures can be fakes, too

There’s a common misconception that blue-ink signatures can’t be faked. I’ve had at least one judge tell me that she knew the note in the court file was the original because it was signed in blue ink. This isn’t true, of course—blue ink signatures can be faked, too—but this common misconception among judges and defense lawyers alike makes the blue ink signature the holy grail of frauds. Those forgers who know how to fake blue-ink notes know that they will withstand all but the most clever of challengers. In this case, however, they got busted.

Meet the fountain pen collector

My client, a former paralegal, happened to be a fountain pen collector. For signing legal documents, she had a particular pen that she always used: an Oriental Red, Expert II Waterman pen, which she always kept loaded with blue Waterman ink. But when she got to the closing, the notary refused to let her use that blue-ink pen to sign the documents. Black ink only, he told her, it photocopies better. She was, to put it mildly, pretty upset. That’s exactly why she wanted to use blue ink, so she could tell the photocopies from the originals. But the notary refused to notarize anything but a black-ink signature and she relented.

So imagine her surprise when she saw the bank’s “original note” was in blue ink. Imagine the bank’s surprise when they learned the notary had insisted on black ink—after they went to the trouble of creating a so-called original with a blue-ink signature they must have duplicated from a high-quality scan. Faced with the prospect of proof, at trial, that their “original” was a fake, they opted instead to drop the case. Victory!...I know at least one lawyer who has worked for foreclosure mills in the distant past. He tells me the foreclosure mills easily can, and often do, generate high-quality fakes in many cases. But in this case they got tripped up by someone who knew what she signed and knew what to look for.

There are two lessons to be learned here: first, don’t roll over. If you look carefully, and know what to look for, you just might find something terribly wrong with your own foreclosure case. Second, if you find something worth fighting about, dig in and do it, because when push comes to shove, many of these foreclosure mills will rather surrender than fight a losing battle.

[DemReadingDU]

62. My oh My

What these crooks won't do for fraud.



I think my DU address issue is finally resolved.
Yay!

[Demeter]

59. A Microcosm of the Market Manipulation in the US and the Repeated Failure of Ideology

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2011/02/microcosm-of-widespread-market.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+JessesCafeAmericain+%28Jesse%27s+Caf%C3%A9+Am%C3%A9ricain%29


I am seeing this same sort of 'gaming the markets' across many markets and stocks that the author notes below, especially in those markets amenable to leverage and electronic manipulation such as indices driven by futures, options markets, and ETFs which more closely resemble carney games than investment vehicles.

There has always been some element of this, but it is starting to become predominant and is driving out the honest trade and investment which cannot compete, in the same manner that the mortgage frauds corrupted and distorted a major sector of the economy and drove out conventional investment, regulation, checks and balances, regulatory oversight, and finally common sense.

It is getting to be a bit much, and is going to end badly. It will end badly because, like the shadow economy which has been crafted by the same makers, it is hollow, a facade, set up for the benefit of a few who transfer wealth to themselves from the many. As someone wrote to me today:

"There aren’t really many good options for people who just want to save some money for retirement and live their lives in the meantime. Not even social security or pensions for 30-year veteran teachers are safe from pirate raids and partisan deconstruction. Everything else available to the ordinary retail and retirement saver has become a Wall Street killing floor."

This is no accident. This is no error in judgement. This is not philosophy. It is a calculated white collar crime, that has co-opted many elements of society. It hides behind slogans like 'small government' and 'libertarianism' and 'free markets' but its real intent is to subvert the law and corrupt the processes of the economy and society. It is a type of financial coup d'etat.

[Ghost Dog]

61. Trade unions 'dare' EU to hold referendum on economic pact

Today @ 17:43 CET http://euobserver.com/9/31910

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Angry at economic governance proposals by EU leaders that aim to push down wages, public sector unions have "dared" governments to hold referendums over a 'Competitiveness Pact' currently being hashed out behind closed doors.

"Which of these EU government leaders dares to put the Competitiveness Pact, which goes so very far in asking for legal or constitutional changes to enforce budget deficit targets, to a referendum asking the people if they agree or not?" Jan Willem Goudriaan, the head of the European Public Service Union, told EUobserver after reading a leak of the outlines of a radical eurozone reform plan.

The blueprint, drafted by commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and discussed on Monday (28 February) in Brussels by diplomats, is a shopping list of demands including: keeping down wages across the eurozone; reducing public services; constitutional changes limiting government borrowing; and moving away from labour-based taxation towards consumption-based taxation.

...

Although the document makes mention of "respecting national traditions of social dialogue and industrial relations" the proposals represent an unprecedented interference by the EU in the collective bargaining process.

/Many more details... http://euobserver.com/9/31910

--
Officials familiar with the new proposals said senior aides to both presidents had consulted with all 17 governments to come up with a compromise plan that could be agreed at a special March 11 eurozone summit.

Diplomats who have seen the plan, called “enhanced economic co-ordination in the euro area”, said the new measures were grouped into three clusters: competitiveness, employment and public finances.

Among the competitiveness proposals is a monitoring system for wage and productivity levels that would force countries to lower employment costs if they rose too quickly.

...

One controversial German proposal that is not part of the Barroso-Van Rompuy plan is the co-ordination of corporate taxes – which raised hackles in Ireland.

/... http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b9fe5320-4296-11e0-8b34-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1FT6KBHux