STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, July 11, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday July 11, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON July 8, 2011

Dow 12,657.20 -62.29 (-0.49%)
Nasdaq 2,859.81 -12.85 (-0.45%)
S&P 500 1,343.80 -9.42 (-0.70%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.01 -0.02 (-0.53%)
30-Year Bond 4.29 -0.01 (-0.19%)

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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 = 12

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http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/UujOq3gqyAqwl8jz..kO2w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O3E9ODU7dz05NTA-/

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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

[xchrom]

1. morning everyone!

:donut:

[Demeter]

4. ooooh

Must not kill self gardening in July...must not kill self gardening...

[xchrom]

8. no -- you must not!

heat stroke is unbecoming!

[Demeter]

13. Not heat stroke--I ache all over

hoping the aspirin kicks in soon...if we'd had anything like a spring this year, I'd be in good form by now.

[xchrom]

31. ah! -- so what are you doing now?

is it maintenance or are you starting to bring some in?
did you put in corn?

[Demeter]

34. Cleanup. I have to rebuild a retaining wall that fell down (learning curve)

and move some stuff that got too big for its spot...

couldn't do anything last year, between the board meetings and the lousy weather.

[xchrom]

36. the weather where you are just isn't something i recognize anymore.

i was raised in peoria, ill. but nothing seems to be the way i remember it.

[Demeter]

40. Well, it's definitely July now

90 and 90. Art Fair weather.

[xchrom]

54. lol! i remember that. nt

[Hotler]

65. Try ibuprofen. Take two they are small.

I think it works batter than aspirin for bone, muscle and joint pain. It worked for me (600mg) when I had a broken pelvis and femur. I still have no hope and see no future.

[Demeter]

67. Women are recommended to use aspirin

Tylenol is a no-no. Ibuprofen only good for cramps, really.

[Hawkowl]

70. What about Naproxen?

I know several women who swear by it.

[Demeter]

2. Where The Money Went

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/where-the-money-went/

Somehow I missed the BEA’s very useful page tracking the Recovery Act and how it is translated into taxes and spending. (Thanks to the commenter who mentioned it). It’s especially useful for thinking about what the Obama stimulus really involved — and what it didn’t.

http://www.bea.gov/recovery/

Look at the peak quarter of stimulus (pdf) http://www.bea.gov/recovery/pdf/arra_table_01b.pdf , which was the first quarter of 2010. I’m going to rearrange the categories a bit. Here’s how I read it: at annual rates (in other words, actual numbers in the quarter were only 1/4 as large), the total budget impact was $357 billion. Of that, we had:

Tax cuts and refundable tax credits: $151 billion
Aid to individuals (mainly unemployment insurance and food stamps): $70 billion
Aid to state and local governments: $103 billion
Everything else: $33 billion

Note that the aid to individuals was basically safety net, and the aid to state and local was about mitigating spending cuts rather than spending expansion. Basically, this was at best an attempt to beef up automatic stabilizers....So much for “we tried Keynesian policies and they didn’t work.”

[xchrom]

3. asia: China shares up, Hong Kong dragged down by bank stocks

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/11/markets-hongkong-china-stocks-update-idUKL3E7IB0EI20110711

HONG KONG, July 11 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares declined broadly as turnover hit its lowest in six weeks on Monday after disappointing global economic data, but strength in defensives helped China shares eke out gains on average turnover.

Investors continued to short Chinese banks, which have a large weighting in benchmark indexes, and show a reluctance to put money in the financial sector.

"The U.S. jobs debacle and this ongoing euro zone problem is really not creating an environment where funds want to get in," said a Hong Kong-based trader, who added long-only funds were receiving money from investors but fund managers were more keen to sit on cash at the moment.

After data on Friday showed the U.S. economy added a much lower than expected 18,000 jobs in June, Chinese data over the weekend showed inflation at a 3-year high and a wider trade surplus than expected , stoking fears that China's central bank could take further steps to stem higher capital inflows that have increased price pressures.

[Demeter]

14. Both Asia and Europa Down at the Moment

Can we expect a bloodbath closer to home?

[xchrom]

25. who knows -- every time i think enough rope has been extended -- there seems to be more. nt

[xchrom]

26. Say no to 'Sino'? By Chan Akya *interesting read

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/MG12Cb02.html

The most recent scandal around Sino-Forest (ticker symbol TRE.TO) has once more dented the reputation of Chinese companies on global stock markets. Besides playing on the generic fears of corporate governance in Chinese companies, the company's volatility may also have longer-term consequences on capital raising by Chinese companies on their home turfs of Shanghai and Hong Kong, let alone mulling overseas listings in Canada and the United States.

If the issue actually steamrolls into a market-wide shutdown, that would leave Chinese companies over-reliant on borrowing from corrupt banks in their local market, in turn accentuating the negative spiral that appears to have taken hold over the past 10 years.

The rum thing in all of this is the exceedingly large amounts of


capital that are available in China and Hong Kong: many global companies ranging from Glencore to Prada and Samsonite have listed their shares in Hong Kong recently to benefit from the local capital depth. The fact that Chinese companies cannot tap into the same pool of capital is quite a statement in itself.

As the graph from Yahoo! Finance makes clear, this has been a roller coaster ride for a few weeks. The main reason for the prominence of the story was two stories: firstly the publication of a damning research report by a firm called Muddy Waters, and secondly the revelation in the Wall Street Journal that Paulson & Co, one of the world's biggest hedge funds, had lost over $550 Million in its holding.

[xchrom]

28. Conoco faces rising Bohai Bay spill costs

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/MG12Cb01.html

HONG KONG - United States oil company ConocoPhillips China (COPC) and state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) may face compensation demands for damage caused by oil spills off China's northeast coast far higher than the 200,000 yuan (US$31,000) penalty announced last week, China's top ocean watchdog and legal experts said.

COPC and CNOOC, the country's biggest offshore oil producer by capacity, last week apologized for the oil leaks - one month after their operations 50 kilometers off the northern coast of Shandong province started to pollute 840 square kilometers of Bohai Bay.

"Compensation can climb to 200 million yuan for 1,000 hectares


<10 square kilometers> of affected area," according to a Shandong official.

The State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China's top ocean watchdog, is now investigating the role of ConocoPhillips, which operated the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, and assessing possible damage to the environment. The nearly landlocked Bohai Bay is bounded by Liaoning (adjoining North Korea), Hebei and Shandong provinces, plus Tianjin, the country's sixth-largest city and home to the port that serves Beijing.

[xchrom]

38. Inflation in China accelerates to a three-year high

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/07/consumer-price-inflation-in-china-accelerates-to-three-year-high-of-55-percent-in-june-.html

China’s inflation rate jumped to a three-year high in June, adding to the risk that fast-rising consumer prices pose to the world’s second-largest economy.

The country’s consumer price index climbed 6.4% from June of last year, compared with a 5.5% rate posted in May, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Saturday.

The index was driven mostly by soaring food prices, which rose 14.4% from a year ago compared with 11.7% in May.

China is facing a shortage of pork, by far the nation’s most widely consumed meat, while crop harvests have been hurt by floods and prolonged droughts.

[xchrom]

57. The mystery of the Chinese consumer

http://www.economist.com/node/18928514

LILY LI wears a lanyard with a little plastic card around her neck, even at weekends. It is a badge of honour: it shows that she has a white-collar job. (She is a secretary at Access Asia, a retail-research company in Shanghai.) She uses Apple earphones for the cheap Chinese mobile phone in her pocket, so it looks as if she owns an iPhone. And she drives to work, though it takes four times longer than public transport, just to show off her little car.

After decades of deprivation and conformism, Chinese consumers regard expensive consumer goods as trophies of success. In public, they show off. In private, they pinch pennies. The owner of a gleaming new BMW will drive around for half an hour to avoid a 50 cent parking fee. And she will hesitate to spend much on interior decoration, because only her family sees the inside of her flat.

By some forecasts China will be the second-largest consumer market in the world by 2015, not far behind America. Chinese people already buy more cars than people in any other country: 13.5m last year to Americans’ 11.6m. China is on its way to becoming the biggest luxury-goods market. The central government made an increase in domestic consumption one of the priorities of its latest five-year plan.

[xchrom]

64. China Doctors Earning $300 a Month Flock to Drug Companies Tripling Wages

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-10/china-doctors-earning-300-a-month-flock-to-drug-companies-tripling-wages.html

Mao Mengjia gave up a career as a doctor in China because he could make more money selling medicine than prescribing it.

Mao, 26, tripled his income after quitting his job at a hospital in northeastern China to work as a medical sales representative in 2009. As many as 14,000 physicians like Mao will join foreign pharmaceutical companies over the next five years, according to Aon Corp. (AON)’s Shanghai-based human resources advisory firm.

The new recruits will sell medicines made by companies from New York-based Pfizer Inc. (PFE) to Paris-based Sanofi in the world’s fastest-growing major drugs market. Their career-switch is curbing the supply of doctors that China’s government wants in rural and regional areas, where inadequate medical care is hampering efforts to cut infant mortality and prevent diabetes.

“The pay for new doctors is low, which makes it hard to survive,” said Mao, who was one of 30 to graduate in 2005 from the medical college he attended in Dalian, 460 kilometers (286 miles) east of Beijing. Nine of his classmates have jobs in pharmaceutical sales, he said.

[Demeter]

5. The European project is doomed without reform By James K. Galbraith

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/07/galbraith-eurozone-reform-or-breakup.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=creditwritedowns

The collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989 and of the USSR in 1991 have become walled off in Western minds as events from an alien time and place. But they should remind us that the architecture of human governments is not eternal. Communism was once a powerful threat to its capitalist rivals. But when circumstances change, the bright hopes of an age are prone to crash in disillusion.

Europe was a bright political project at the formation of the European Community and again when it expanded at the end of the Cold War. Its purpose was not so much power as peace: truly a noble vision. But that noble project was built on an end-of-history economics, on frozen-in-time free-market notions and on dogmatic monetarism linked to arbitrary criteria for deficits and public debt. In the wake of a global financial meltdown, these no longer serve. Unless they are abandoned soon, they will doom Europe as surely as communism doomed the empire of the East.

Flawed construction

Europe's structure is also suspended between two stable formations: the federated nation state and the international alliance. This in-between structure is called a confederacy, and it is something that was tried and which failed in North America on two occasions, most recently in 1865...The South lost the US Civil War, in part, because it left too much power in state hands, and so could not in the end raise the funds or the men required to keep its armies in the field. And following defeat, it took almost 70 years - until Roosevelt's New Deal in 1933 - before sufficient measures were taken to begin to overcome the dire poverty and economic stagnation of that region. This history too has been walled off in modern minds...The distinctive European combination of millenarian economic ideas and unstable political structure faced a powerful shock from the global meltdown. With vast holdings of toxic US assets, investors sought to cut their losses by selling weak and small sovereigns: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain....Therefore what happened was a solvency crisis of the banks, as always happens in debt crises.

It was true in the 1980s, when the Reagan administration, no less, felt obliged to prepare a secret plan to nationalize all the major New York banks should a single major Latin American debtor declare default. It was true in 2008-09, when preventing the imminent collapse of Bank of America, Citigroup and others trumped all other US policy concerns. It is obvious that the entire recent thrust of European policy has been to find ways to paper over the problems of Europe's banks: with phony stress tests, with new loans, with loud talk, with denunciations of profligacy in Greece or anywhere else - with anything except an honest examination of what lies at the heart of the problem....MORE AT LINK



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

James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government-Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin. His next book, Inequality and Instability, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

This article originally appeared at the Deutsche Welle website.

[Demeter]

18. George Soros: True Europeans now need a ‘plan B’

The European Union was brought into existence by what Karl Popper called “piecemeal social engineering”. A group of farsighted statesmen, inspired by the vision of a United States of Europe, recognised that this ideal could be approached only gradually, by setting limited objectives, mobilising the political will needed to achieve them, and concluding treaties that required states to surrender only as much sovereignty as they could bear politically. That is how the postwar Coal and Steel Community was transformed into the EU – one step at a time, understanding that each step was incomplete and
would require further steps in due course.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/8P1R88/7AAMNY/FDFZE/72OKTM/MSQ2HF/ID/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=11

[Demeter]

6. EAT SLUGS, MURDOCK! Hunt opens door to referral of BSkyB bid

Jeremy Hunt moved closer to blocking News Corp’s bid for British Sky Broadcasting as he opened the door for an unexpected referral of the proposed deal to the Competition Commission. It emerged that the UK culture secretary is writing to the regulators who have been offering him advice on the proposed bid, Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading, asking if the dramatic events of the past week would cause them to change the advice on the deal they gave him in June

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/CTBPCC/TUUT01/87I64/PRQHTY/XHLYAA/28/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=11

NOT ONLY SHOULD MURDOCK NOT GET THE BSKYB; HIS EMPIRE SHOULD BE DISMANTLED, AND HIS CLOSEST ASSOCIATES, INCLUDING CHILDREN, JAILED.

[xchrom]

9. Nick Clegg urges Rupert Murdoch to drop BSkyB bid

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/11/uk-newscorp-clegg-idUKTRE76A1QR20110711

(Reuters) - News Corp head Rupert Murdoch should drop his plans to take full control of pay TV operator BSkyB, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Monday.

"Do the decent and sensible thing, and reconsider, think again about your bid for BSkyB," Clegg told BBC News after meeting representatives of victims of phone hacking by News Corp's News of the World newspaper.

[Demeter]

15. Dow Jones chief under hacking pressure

Les Hinton, chief executive of Dow Jones, is being blamed by people close to News Corp, for failing to get to grips with the News of the World phone hacking scandal when he was in charge of Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper group

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/UXDMSS/C44WR3/3CWTA/18TZ2V/TU3MSX/N9/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=10

COULDN'T THEY FIND ANYONE LESS TAINTED FOR THE JOB?

[Demeter]

27. Satire: A Letter from Rupert Murdoch By Andy Borowitz

SATIRE

Where I Stand on the News Corporation Scandal

Dear Friends,

As details of the scandal surrounding my company, News Corporation, have emerged in recent days – including employees hacking into mobile phones and bribing the police – my defense has been consistent: I had no idea what was going on.

Now, I’m sure many of you are wondering, how could I, Rupert Murdoch, one of the most powerful men in the world, have no idea what is going on? The answer, my friends, is simple: I get all of my information from my own newspapers. If you relied on News of the World, The Sun, and The New York Post for your information, I can assure you that you wouldn’t have a clue what was going on, either.

Some of you aren’t buying this argument. You maintain that a media titan like me would get his information from sources beyond newspapers – like TV, for example. Well, that’s true. But in my case, the only TV I watch is the Fox News Channel. So not only do I not know what is going on around me, I know nothing about the theory of evolution, global warming, or President Obama’s birthplace.

If you still don’t believe that I know nothing, here’s a final piece of evidence: I paid $500 million to acquire MySpace. Case closed....

*********MORE AT LINK*****************

Your friend,

Rupert

[xchrom]

19. BSkyB shares plunge as News Corp bid mired in uncertainty

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/11/bskyb-shares-plunge-news-corp-bid

BSkyB shares tumbled again on Monday after News Corporation's bid to take control of the broadcaster was plunged into uncertainty.

In early, volatile trading in London BSkyB shares fell as low as 695p, a fall of more than 7% – wiping another £800m off the value of the company. This brought BSkyB's share price below Rupert Murdoch's original offer price of £7 a share – which had appeared unreasonably low before the phone-hacking scandal struck his News Corp empire.

"At £7 per share, the City is telling you that the BSkyB takeover is off," said Louise Cooper, market analyst at BGC Partners. Alex DeGroote, analyst at Panmure Gordon, estimated that there is now only a 10% chance of the deal being successful and dubbed it a "political hot potato".

The selloff was sparked by the news that culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is asking for fresh advice from Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) about News Corp's takeover bid for BSkyB. This development, which came as Labour leader Ed Miliband pushed for a House of Commons vote on the issue, appears to increase the likelihood of Hunt referring the deal to the Competition Commission.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

62. I know a game we can play!

[Demeter]

68. That's so cruel to the poor slug.

[xchrom]

7. europe: FTSE dragged lower by global growth worries

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/11/markets-britain-stocks-idUKL6E7IB0JW20110711

LONDON, July 11(Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 fell on Monday as the wounds inflicted by a sluggish global economic recovery refused to heal, following weak data from the U.S. and China in the past few days and ahead of the second-quarter earnings season.

London's blue chip index shed 21.32 points or 0.4 percent at 5,969.26 by 1056 GMT.

The index extended Friday's 1.1 percent fall and held below the key 6,000 level, after jobs data from the United States which one trader described as "shockingly weak".

U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower Wall Street open with the June employment index due for release at 1400 GMT, following on from Friday's non-farm payrolls.

[xchrom]

10. GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks, euro fall on Italy debt contagion woes

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/11/markets-global-idUKL6E7IB0FM20110711

(Reuters) - World stocks hit one-week lows and the euro slid across the board on Monday as intensifying concerns that Italy could be the next victim of the euro zone debt crisis prompted an emergency meeting of top European officials.

Fresh signs of tension in Italy's government and problems for Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti -- trusted by financial markets to cut spending -- prompted a sell-off in the country's government bonds. Italy has the euro zone's highest sovereign debt ratio relative to its economy after Greece.

A weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report on Friday and data showing China's import growth fell to its slowest pace in 20 months also encouraged investors to sell their risky assets.

"Investor sentiment is on the back foot this morning. Nobody knows where this is going to stop and when the next domino will fall," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, strategist at Charles Stanley.

[xchrom]

12. Italian bailout fears grow as bond yields soar

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/11/italian-bailout-fears-grow

Fears that Italy will be forced to seek a bailout sent Italian government bonds falling on Monday, as Europe's most senior finance ministers gathered to discuss the ongoing eurozone debt crisis.

The euro also dropped sharply, as City traders and analysts warned that Italy could be close to becoming the fourth member of the eurozone to require financial help. The concern was shared in Europe's stock markets, where shares also lost ground.

The yield, or interest rate, on an Italian 10-year government bond jumped to 5.4%, closer to the 7% level which is generally seen as unsustainable.

"What will really concentrate the mind of the finance ministers will be the recent upward trend in Italian government bond yields," said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities. "What would keep me awake at night if I was a European finance minister is that we are only about 2% away from a potential disaster scenario."

[Demeter]

21. US hedge funds bet against Italian bonds

Funds increase short positions in Europe’s largest bond market amid the highest yields since October 2002 and growing fears over country’s ability to finance itself

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/VKY5JJ/0886P5/T10SH/S3JGSO/VLUW6T/9A/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=11

[xchrom]

30. man. things are THICK! nt

[DemReadingDU]

46. Italy sure is making the news lately, n/t

[Demeter]

47. They've got a little list...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhlUT-FHLtA

[Turbineguy]

59. There seems to be

some sort of brand new crisis.:sarcasm:

[Roland99]

52. Like vultures circling overhead.

[Ghost Dog]

79. I'd been expecting the end-game to start in September.

Might come sooner.

[DemReadingDU]

85. I think sooner, but it is always later

The way U.S. keeps doing the extend and pretend, this game could go on for quite some time.

[Hawkowl]

71. We should have let the banks fail

It would have wiped out these predatory hedge funds. They are destroying the world.

[Demeter]

72. No Argument With that on THIS Thread.

[xchrom]

56. Italy's finances Pub skittles, the Italian version

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/07/italys-finances-0

THE metaphor of choice during the euro-area crisis has been that of dominoes falling. First came Greece, then Ireland, and then Portugal; next in line would be Spain. The fear now, with Italian government bonds suffering another day of widening spreads, is that contagion will strike less predictably. Less like dominoes, in other words, and more like pub skittles.

The latest jitters about Italy, whose debt ratio is second only to Greece’s in the euro zone, seem to have been sparked by speculation about the future of Giulio Tremonti, the Italian finance minister. But the inability of euro-area policymakers to resolve Greece’s debt crisis, and this week’s Moody’s downgrade of Portugal, have not helped. Spreads between Italian ten-year bonds and German Bunds have today hit another euro-era record. Domestic financial institutions have been hit, too: shares in Unicredit, a big bank, were suspended today after a sharp fall, and credit-default-swap spreads on Generali, an insurer, have surged as well.

If Spain has long been considered too big to fail, then a full-blown Italian debt crisis would be cataclysmic. The country’s bond market is the third-largest in the world, after America’s and Japan’s. That has been seen as a source of a comfort: bond investors find it hard to avoid a market that big and liquid. But it is also a source of widespread financial infection.

[xchrom]

16. Defaulting rescued Argentina. It could work for Athens too

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/10/european-debt-crisis-argentina-imf

Protesters on the streets of Athens this summer have been brandishing banners depicting a panicky helicopter airlift. Not Saigon at the height of the Vietnam war, but Buenos Aires in 2001, when Fernando de la Rúa fled from the roof of his presidential palace to escape riots in the streets.

Argentina, stuck in a painful recession since 1998, had done everything the International Monetary Fund had told it to do. After several bailouts, the government imposed wave after wave of eye-watering austerity measures, as prescribed by the "Washington consensus", and sought a voluntary restructuring with its private sector creditors, all of which will sound familiar to the Greeks.

Yet the economic crisis continued to worsen. In December 2001, as the government slapped a limit on cash withdrawals – the so-called corralito – to prevent a destabilising run on the banks, the IMF effectively pulled the plug, saying it could not complete the latest of many reviews of Argentina's economic policies – a condition of it receiving continued financial support. "Within a month of this announcement," as a subsequent internal IMF review put it, "economic, social and political dislocation occurred simultaneously".

[xchrom]

63. Italy Orders Short Sellers to Disclose Positions

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-10/consob-may-ban-restrict-naked-short-selling-at-meeting-sunday-night.html

Italy’s market regulator moved to curb short selling after the country’s benchmark stock index fell the most in almost five months and bonds tumbled on investor concern the nation may be the next crisis victim.

Consob ordered yesterday that short sellers must reveal their positions when they reach 0.2 percent or more of a company’s capital and then make new filings for each additional 0.1 percent. The measure takes effect today and runs through Sept. 9. The FTSE Italia All-Share Financials Index fell 0.8 percent as of 9:50 a.m. to the lowest in at least two years.

Europe’s finance ministers are meeting in Brussels today to seek ways to shore up Greece and defend the region’s other heavily indebted nations. The premium investors demand to hold Italy’s debt over German bunds hit a euro-era high of 267 basis points today.

“Italy cannot afford to pay the interest rates it’s paying right now,” Andrew Bosomworth, a fund manager at Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an interview on Bloomberg Television today. “Its debt is unsustainable if we project into the future these sorts of interest rates levels, so we do need something to change -- be that a policy response, be that a change in attitudes in the markets.”

[Festivito]

11. Debt: 07/07/2011 14,343,021,925,343.11 (UP 76,355.88) (Thu, UP some.)

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 49-billion dollars. Good day.)
What a pain is this new computer is - yuck.
(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)
= 9,749,919,434,766.85 + 4,593,102,490,576.26
UP 1,077,509,146.64 + DOWN 1,077,432,790.76

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 312-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.20 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,201.08 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.60, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ 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 312,394,592 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 $45,913.16.
A family of three owes $137,739.47. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 20 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 20 reports is -81,214,169.94.
The average for the last 30 days would be -54,142,779.96.

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$/day.
There were 189 reports in 280 days of FY2011 averaging 4.13B$ per report, 2.79B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 563 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.3 and 17.3T$.
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)
07/07/2011 14,343,021,925,343.11 BHO (UP 3,716,144,876,430.03 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 +0,781,398,894,451.40 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,018,609,273,124.15 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
06/14/2011 -005,676,305,314.31 --
06/15/2011 +005,724,686,785.42 ------------*********
06/16/2011 -004,915,287,264.64 --
06/17/2011 -003,280,766,773.26 --
06/20/2011 -001,398,167,502.39 -- Mon
06/21/2011 -005,323,373,908.56 --
06/22/2011 +008,838,427,845.80 ------------*********
06/23/2011 -003,583,724,883.29 --
06/24/2011 +001,084,698,810.36 ------------*********
06/27/2011 -002,470,523,317.36 -- Mon
06/28/2011 -005,425,153,798.63 --
06/29/2011 +007,017,747,779.06 ------------*********
06/30/2011 +003,977,538,029.63 ------------*********
07/06/2011 +006,618,560,773.63 ------------********* Wed
07/07/2011 +001,077,509,146.64 ------------*********

2,265,866,408.10 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=4911352&mesg_id=4911647

[Festivito]

93. Debt: 07/08/2011 14,343,010,710,537.58 (DOWN 11,214,805.53) (Fri, DOWN a little.)

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 49-billion dollars. Good day.)
Funeral tomorrow, memorial next day, sad news today.
(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)
= 9,749,084,964,821.45 + 4,593,925,745,716.13
DOWN 834,469,945.40 + UP 823,255,139.87

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 312-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.20 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,201.01 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.60, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ 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 312,401,792 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 $45,912.06.
A family of three owes $137,736.19. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 20 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 20 reports is -81,172,566.37.
The average for the last 30 days would be -54,115,044.25.

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$/day.
There were 190 reports in 281 days of FY2011 averaging 4.11B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 562 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.3 and 17.2T$.
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)
07/08/2011 14,343,010,710,537.58 BHO (UP 3,716,133,661,624.50 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 +0,781,387,679,645.80 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,014,969,761,817.50 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
06/15/2011 +005,724,686,785.42 ------------*********
06/16/2011 -004,915,287,264.64 --
06/17/2011 -003,280,766,773.26 --
06/20/2011 -001,398,167,502.39 -- Mon
06/21/2011 -005,323,373,908.56 --
06/22/2011 +008,838,427,845.80 ------------*********
06/23/2011 -003,583,724,883.29 --
06/24/2011 +001,084,698,810.36 ------------*********
06/27/2011 -002,470,523,317.36 -- Mon
06/28/2011 -005,425,153,798.63 --
06/29/2011 +007,017,747,779.06 ------------*********
06/30/2011 +003,977,538,029.63 ------------*********
07/06/2011 +006,618,560,773.63 ------------********* Wed
07/07/2011 +001,077,509,146.64 ------------*********
07/08/2011 -000,834,469,945.40 ---

7,107,701,777.01 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=4914356&mesg_id=4914400

[Demeter]

17. EU stance shifts on Greece default

European leaders are for the first time prepared to accept that Athens should default on some of its bonds as part of a new bail-out plan for Greece that would put the country’s overall debt levels on a sustainable footing

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/XYEWFF/300C2P/GYN7Q/V1NOG4/TU3M9S/HK/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=10

[Demeter]

20. US banks set for lacklustre reporting season

A raft of economic and regulatory worries weigh on banks’ profits, leaving investors in search of fresh signs of optimism after a challenging quarter

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/VKY5JJ/0886P5/T10SH/S3JGSO/NJ9VPA/9A/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=11

[Demeter]

22. Pfizer gets $800m boost for Lipitor

Pfizer set to earn $800m from extended rights to sell top-selling cholesterol treatment after developing version to treat just a few thousand children

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/VKY5JJ/0886P5/T10SH/S3JGSO/TU35BR/9A/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=11

[xchrom]

23. fuckin great*** Tony Hayward in talks to buy Iraqi oil fields

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/10/tony-hayward-iraqi-oil

Tony Hayward, the former BP chief executive, is in talks to acquire control over a controversial exploration business centred on Iraq whose boss was fined £1m last year in London for insider dealing.

The Vallares investment vehicle just launched by Hayward and financier Nat Rothschild is discussing a possible reverse takeover of Genel Enerji, a big oil producer in Kurdistan, northern Iraq.

That company is headed up by Mehmet Sepil who incurred a fine by the Financial Services Authority for insider dealing around a potential deal – that later fell apart – with UK stock market- listed Heritage Oil. Vallares was not willing to confirm the negotiations with Genel but sources said the two sides were in early talks about an injection of cash in return for Vallares control. Hayward would act as a full-time chief executive of the business which would be able to use the Vallares stock market listing to raise more money in the City.

[Demeter]

24. US leaders still confident of debt deal

White House and congressional leaders shrug off a breakdown in talks aimed at striking a plan to cut $4,000bn from the country’s deficit

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/7AA79Y/3CWTA/YHU2BK/PFJAL0/OS/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=11

[Demeter]

29. MORE NEWS THAN YOU CAN STAND (AT LEAST, MY LIMIT HAS BEEN REACHED)

Devastating US unemployment numbers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkuSonZNCzY&feature=player_embedded

[fasttense]

60. Thanks for the post a very interesting discussion.

As a small farmer, I'm constantly coming up against stupid regulation that prevent me from selling farm produce (which of course is designed to keep from competing in a free market with the Agri-businesses). One of the most annoying and useless was that I couldn't get a permit to sell eggs because I washed my eggs in a house that had a goldfish.

But I can understand why these stupid permit rules are not what is holding back our economy. If I had more customers, I could sell much more eggs and build a separate house (with no gold fish) to wash eggs. I could then get my investment back in the separate house from the sale of many more eggs. But I don't have a huge market because people have no money in their pockets to buy my free range eggs because they don't have jobs. So they buy the white 5 week old eggs, of doubtful quality, at the grocery store for half the price instead of buying mine because they can't afford them. It's all a big circle that goes around and around. But I understand why the real problems is a major lack of jobs and not minor stupid regulations.

Thanks for posting the link.

[Demeter]

32. Record one in six Americans now on food stamps as depression escalates

http://www.naturalnews.com/032939_food_stamps_depression.html

[Demeter]

33. Trade deals are no deal for US

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/07/10/trade_deals_are_no_deal_for_us/

...Yet even after losing 682,000 jobs to NAFTA since it took effect in 1994, and 2.4 million to China since it joined the World Trade Organization, Washington continues in its blind faith that somehow these trade deals are good for us. This summer Congress is expected to take up three new trade deals - with Korea, Panama, and Colombia. These trade pacts are bad for American workers, bad for our domestic economy, and bad for democracy.

Consider the impact on just one industry - textiles. In recent years Korea has carefully targeted $21 billion in government subsidies in order to capture a larger share of the technical textile industry, which supplies high-tech fibers for aerospace and for products like Kevlar. This is an industry still dominated by US manufacturers. The trade deal would immediately remove tariffs for Korean imports entering the United States, but would gradually phase out tariffs on US goods entering Korea over many years. This would create an immediate 15 percent competitive advantage for most Korean textiles and other products.

How many American jobs will be lost? According to the National Textile Association, 40,000 in textile-related industries alone. In all, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the pending Korean and Colombian trade deals are likely to cost us 214,000 jobs...

[plumbob]

58. AND while we spend billions quartering troops there for half a century

plus. Yes, any economy would do better without the drag of a huge military which produces nothing but pieces of paper marked 'paid' to profiteers.

[Demeter]

35. US Tops in Debt

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html

[xchrom]

37. Veterans face high unemployment after military service

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-veteranjobs-20110711,0,3234204.story

Unemployment among recently returned veterans, already in double digits, is poised to get worse as more soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The jobless rate for veterans who served at any time since September 2001 — called Gulf War-era II veterans — was 13.3% in June, up from 12.1% the month before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In June 2010 it was 11.5%.

The difficulties veterans face in finding work was in evidence Sunday at the Hiring Our Heroes job fair at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, where more than 1,000 veterans converged to meet with employers and seek work. The veterans also got a peek at newlyweds Prince William and Catherine, who dropped by the fair as part of their tour of the Golden State.

"It just so happens that there are a lot of people out there and there aren't enough jobs," said Pavel Ksendz, a 25-year-old Culver City resident who joined the Army in 2003, right after graduating from high school. After serving for four years, including 14 months in Iraq, Ksendz recently applied for a job as a janitor in Santa Monica, only to be told there were 59 other applicants.

[Demeter]

39. Banking Has Become Our State Religion By Eric Margolis

Banking Has Become Our State Religion

In 1922 Greek armies trying to conquer western Anatolia were routed by Turkey’s military leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Greeks were uprooted from Ionian coastal areas.After this debacle, Greek officers took three former prime ministers, a general and two other politicians who had led the Turkish-Greek War and shot them. Greeks cheered...Many Greeks today must be wishing to see similar punishment inflicted on their politicians who were responsible for the nation’s bankruptcy and staggering $500 billion debt. For decades, Greece’s conservatives and Socialist parties alike bought votes by dishing out the very cushy, do-nothing government jobs, high pensions, and benefits that brought Greece to its knees. Call it state sponsored laziness.

In 2010, the second shoe of the 2008 US financial crisis hit Europe. Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain came under financial attack, showing the alarming degree to which uncontrolled, run amok banks and money men had poisoned Europe’s economic waters by speculation and outright gambling...After intense debate, Greece’s EU partners and the International Monetary Fund just staved off Greece’s impending default on its maturing debt by a $165 billion loan. But Athens must soon make more huge payments. The EU aid package piles more debt onto Greece’s already mountainous debts – just as President Barack Obama is doing in the US...The Papandreou government is praying the EU will come up with another $150 billion euros to keep Greece going for two more years. Germany and the EU’s wealthy northern members are furious at Greece and reluctant to pay for its profligacy. But there is no way Greece can generate enough money by cost-cutting and asset sales to pay off its debts. Some form of default seems inevitable, as this column has been saying for over a year. The recent EU rescue package merely postpones default-day.

Calls for Greece to ditch the EU, restore the old drachma, then devalue it are mistaken. Greece manufacturers and exports little of high value. Feta, olives and tour packages won’t pay off Greece’s debts. Leaving the EU would collapse Greece’s banks and end mammoth EU agricultural aid...Greece is using the same scare-tactics that the supposedly too-big-to-fail insolvent US banks employed in 2008: “if I go down, I’ll take everyone with me.” In this case, it’s Europe’s big banks. Three big French banks, BNP, CréditAgricole, SociétéGénéral, hold large chunks of Greece’s debt. If Greece defaults, goes the hue and cry, French, German, Swiss, and Belgian banks may crash...

Greece’s only viable solution is to renege on its debts, go bankrupt like Argentina did, and start afresh. Europe’s banks will no doubt be shaken, but they will survive the jolt, just as the US banking system survive 2008. Time for Europe’s banks to get these bad debts off their balance sheets. Rescue funds should be focused on Spain and Italy, if necessary...No wonder Greeks are so angry. They must pay for the sins of their politicians and the bankers, whose bonus payments have reached an all-time high. The current EU rescue package for Greece is really about rescuing the banks, not Greek citizens...

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

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles appear in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times and other news sites in Asia.

[Pale Blue Dot]

41. No reports today.

[Pale Blue Dot]

42. Oil falls below $95 after weak US jobs report

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell below $95 a barrel Monday in Asia amid signs the U.S. economy is struggling.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was down $1.33 to $94.87 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude gave up $2.47 to settle at $96.20 on Friday.

In London, Brent crude shed 87 cents to $117.46 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department said that employers added the fewest jobs in nine months and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in June, undermining investor optimism that the world's biggest economy was improving.

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

[Pale Blue Dot]

43. U.S. Stock Futures Decline as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, General Motors Fall

U.S. stock futures declined, indicating that the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will fall for a second day, as investors speculated that Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis will spread to Italy.

U.S. banks from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) to Bank of America Corp. (BAC) dropped in early New York trading as Italian and Spanish government bonds tumbled. Alcoa Inc. (AA) retreated 1.3 percent in German trading. General Motors Co. (GM) fell 1.5 percent after Renault SA predicted declining sales in Europe this year.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in September fell 1 percent to 1,328.2 at 7:33 a.m. in New York. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 91 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,524.

“It seems investors are going through countries and issues one by one. First it was Greece, then Portugal and Spain; they’re now having a go at Italy, which had been kind of forgotten for a while,” said Michael Jorgensen, an equity strategist at Nykredit Markets, in Copenhagen.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/u-s-stock-futures-decline-as-jpmorgan-goldman-sachs-general-motors-fall.html

[Demeter]

44. The Evils of Unregulated Capitalism By Joseph E Stiglitz

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/20117714241429793.html

Remedy for the US economy: end the wars, rein in military and drug costs, and raise taxes - at least on the very rich.

Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology - the belief in free and unfettered markets - brought the world to the brink of ruin. Even in its hey-day, from the early 1980s until 2007, US-style deregulated capitalism brought greater material well-being only to the very richest in the richest country of the world. Indeed, over the course of this ideology's 30-year ascendance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stagnate year after year. Moreover, output growth in the United States was not economically sustainable. With so much of US national income going to so few, growth could continue only through consumption financed by a mounting pile of debt.

I was among those who hoped that, somehow, the financial crisis would teach Americans (and others) a lesson about the need for greater equality, stronger regulation, and a better balance between the market and government...Alas, that has not been the case...On the contrary, a resurgence of right-wing economics, driven, as always, by ideology and special interests, once again threatens the global economy - or at least the economies of Europe and America, where these ideas continue to flourish. In the US, this right-wing resurgence, whose adherents evidently seek to repeal the basic laws of mathematics and economics, is threatening to force a default on the national debt. If Congress mandates expenditures that exceed revenues, there will be a deficit, and that deficit has to be financed...Rather than carefully balancing the benefits of each government expenditure program with the costs of raising taxes to finance those benefits, the right seeks to use a sledgehammer - not allowing the national debt to increase forces expenditures to be limited to taxes.

This leaves open the question of which expenditures get priority - and if expenditures to pay interest on the national debt do not, a default is inevitable. Moreover, to cut back expenditures now, in the midst of an ongoing crisis brought on by free-market ideology, would inevitably simply prolong the downturn...A decade ago, in the midst of an economic boom, the US faced a surplus so large that it threatened to eliminate the national debt...Unaffordable tax cuts and wars, a major recession, and soaring health-care costs - fueled in part by the commitment of George W Bush's administration to giving drug companies free rein in setting prices, even with government money at stake - quickly transformed a huge surplus into record peacetime deficits...The remedies to the US deficit follow immediately from this diagnosis: put America back to work by stimulating the economy; end the mindless wars; rein in military and drug costs; and raise taxes, at least on the very rich.But the right will have none of this, and instead is pushing for even more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, together with expenditure cuts in investments and social protection that put the future of the US economy in peril and that shred what remains of the social contract...Meanwhile, the US financial sector has been lobbying hard to free itself of regulations, so that it can return to its previous, disastrously carefree, ways.

But matters are little better in Europe....There is an alternative...Do we really need another costly experiment with ideas that have failed repeatedly? We shouldn't, but increasingly it appears that we will have to endure another one nonetheless.

MORE AT LINK

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

Joseph E Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University, a Nobel laureate in economics, and the author ofFreefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy.

[Demeter]

45. Several Inconvenient Truths About The Debt Ceiling And "Deficit Reduction" By Tyler Durden

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/several-inconvenient-truths-about-debt-ceiling-and-deficit-reduction

Bill Buckler presents an amusing compendium of facts, let us call them inconvenient truths, in the latest edition of his newsletter, some of which would make for entertaining anecdotes if presented at the Biden "deficit cutting" talks, which also, and very paradoxically, aim to cut US debt by increasing it.

• Not one penny of US debt has been repaid for 51 years: the last time US government funded debt actually decresed on a year-over-year basis was 1960
  
  
• 97% of today's funded debt has been accumulated since August 1971 - the end of the Bretton Woods era by Nixon, and the terminal delinking of all fiat currencies from any and all hard assets, ushered in the era of modern-day hyper-debt insolvency
  
  
• Obama projects 2.5% Fed Funds rate in budget calculations through 2020. Average Fed Funds rate since 1980: 5.7%; Since 2008: 0.00%, If average 5.7% rate was used, projected US deficit would increase by another $4.9 trillion by 2020
  
  
• Obama projects 4.2% growth rate over next 3 years. If a normal growth rate of 2.5% is used, deficits would increase by another $4 trillion by 2020
  
  
• The US government borrows 40-50 cents for every dollar it spends. A balanced budget would mean cutting government spending in half.
  
  
• Implementing a balanced budget would not reduce current debt outstanding. It would merely stop it from growing.
  
  
• Over the past three fiscal years US debt grew by over $1.5 trillion per year: this is more than three times the record annual debt increase in any previous year in US history
  
  
• Last night deficit reduction targets were cut from $4 trillion to $2 trillion over the next decade, in exchange for a $2.4 trillion debt ceiling hike, which will last the Treasury until the next presidential election. Said otherwise, the Treasury needs to fund a $2.4 trillion hold over the next 15 months. Over a decade this come to $20 trillion: ten times more than the proposed deficit reduction.

And the most inconvenient truth of all:

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is said to have been precipitated by the Lehman failure in 2008 which froze inter-bank lending on a global basis and almost brought down the system. It is said to have been prevented by a massive and global increase in new money creation. In reality, had economic nature been left alone to take its course, there is a good chance that the world would be fast emerging from its financial black hole by now. At a minimum, most of the malinvestments would have been discounted to the point where they would no longer act as a dead weight on future savings and investment.

Economic “miracles” (so-called) have happened before. The US emerged from a deep recession in 1920-21 because the government and the central bank did NOT interfere. Germany emerged from the actual physical rubble of WW II for exactly the same reason. So, to a lesser extent, did Japan. In all these cases, debts which could not be repaid were not held on life support by central banks, they were written off. In all these cases, creditors took very severe “haircuts” indeed while many debtors literally had to start again from scratch. In all these cases, the LACK of government impediments or government largesse meant that a recovery took place in a much shorter time frame than would otherwise have been the case.

Economic distortions today are HUGELY bigger than they were then. That means that the recession will be deeper and the recovery phase possibly longer. But until it is allowed to begin, there is no way out.

None of the above will be noted anywhere by the great diversionary media spin machine over the next two weeks, since July 22 is the date by which Congress says it needs to pass the debt ceiling legislation so it can get it to Obama's desk for his signature by August 2.

[Demeter]

48. Sanders: Obama Proposal Would Impoverish 250,000

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/170543-sanders-obama-proposal-impoverishes-250000-people

The Social Security Administration estimates that a proposal floated by the Obama administration would put 245,000 people into poverty, according to an analysis released by liberal senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Saturday.

That level of impact would be felt by 2050 if a proposal to change the way inflation is measured is adopted, Sanders announced. The change to the way SSA would calculate the Consumer Price Index has been floated in debt ceiling talks between Congress and the White House. The White House has suggested revising CPI for both the tax code, in order to generate more revenue, and for benefits.

Social Security Administration’s Office of Retirement Policy estimated that by 2030, according to the report prepared for Sanders, there would be 173,400 more people living in poverty in the United States. Benefits for those who are 80-89 would drop by $960 a year. Benefits for women would fall by 3.5 percent overall while men’s benefits would drop by 2.9 percent. By 2050, seniors in the 80-89 age bracket would see benefits fall by $1,200 a year.

"I am especially disturbed that the president is considering cuts in Social Security after he campaigned against cuts in 2008," Sanders said. "The American people expect the president to keep his word." This week Sanders demanded that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) join House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in flatly ruling out any benefit cuts to Social Security as part of the debt deal...Reid in the past has said Social Security does not need to be reformed for decades. While Social Security is expected to be unable to pay full benefits by 2036, it is not a major driver of the budget deficit. Republicans want the program reformed now because they fear otherwise that as 2036 approaches massive tax hikes that could stall the economy would be demanded by senior citizens.

See also:- U.S. Rescue May Reach $23.7 Trillion, Barofsky Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aY0tX8UysIaM

: U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies, said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

[TalkingDog]

66. According to a musical mate of the Spousal Unit, Capitalism isn't bad,

it's Greed Capitalism that's the problem.

We spent the rest of the weekend wondering what the markers were for "Greed Capitalism" versus the "good" kind.

[Demeter]

69. In a Word, Corruption

Bailouts for the big guys, bupkis for the people.

[Hawkowl]

73. Capitalism the game

If you think of Capitalism as a game, say baseball, then a few things immediately come to my mind. First we need rules, enforced by umpires, second salary caps so one team can't suck all the money out of the system and make it non-competitive, and thirdly the players (labor) needs a strong union to share in the profits/ have decent wages.

Markets can't function without even handed rules, just punishments, strong unions, and require more than a handful of companies (the more the better). I think in order for capitalism to yield the most benefits, companies would only be allowed to get to a certain size before they were either nationalized or broken into multiple companies.

What we have now is a handful of corporations (which are really a handful of families hiding behind the wall of limited responsibility) literally buying the government and setting all the rules. It's as if Steinbrenner owned both the Yankees, and all the umpires as well as controlled the payouts to all the other owners.

[Demeter]

74. Yeah, well that's NOT Capitalism--It's Oligarchy

Anyone can play at capitalism--with a level playing field and uniform regulation.

[Hawkowl]

75. Indeed

I do not believe that the ideal Capitalism exists--at least for very long in nature. I think human nature will quickly corrupt any "fair" game of Capitalism. Stated another way: humans are born cheaters. And given that, a small group of the worst cheaters will always come to dominate the game in a short time frame. That is why I firmly believe that Socialism is the only way to go forward if humanity is to make any further progress.

[Demeter]

76. Socialism can be gamed, too. Ask the Russians

[Hawkowl]

84. That was Communism

True Socialism is a mix of privately held businesses and government owned companies. I would add that Socialism alone is not enough. It must be coupled with a democracy and a robust impartial court system to counter the power of the oligarchs and their greed.

You can see we really have none of this right now.

[TalkingDog]

87. Which is exactly the endpoint we arrived at.

There is NO difference between "greed" capitalism vs any other kind.

Which is why I'm pretty much with you on Socialism.

[Demeter]

49. Multi-Billion-Dollar Terrorists And The Disappearing Middle Class By James Petras

TERRORISM FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS

The US government (White House and Congress) spends $10 billion dollars a month, or $120 billion a year, to fight an estimated “50 -75 ‘Al Qaeda types’ in Afghanistan”, according to the CIA and quoted in the Financial Times of London (6/25 -26/11, p. 5). During the past 30 months of the Obama presidency, Washington has spent $300 billion dollars in Afghanistan, which adds up to $4 billion dollars for each alleged ‘Al Queda type’. If we multiply this by the two dozen or so sites and countries where the White House claims ‘Al Qaeda’ terrorists have been spotted, we begin to understand why the US budget deficit has grown astronomically to over $1.6 trillion for the current fiscal year.

During Obama’s Presidency, Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment has been frozen, resulting in a net decrease of over 8 percent, which is exactly the amount spent chasing just 5 dozen ‘Al Qaeda terrorists’ in the mountains bordering Pakistan.

It is absurd to believe that the Pentagon and White House would spend $10 billion a month just to hunt down a handful of terrorists ensconced in the mountains of Afghanistan. So what is the war in Afghanistan about? The answer one most frequently reads and hears is that the war is really against the Taliban, a mass-based Islamic nationalist guerrilla movement with tens of thousands of activists. The Taliban, however, have never engaged in any terrorist act against the territorial United States or its overseas presence. The Taliban have always maintained their fight was for the expulsion of foreign forces occupying Afghanistan. Hence the Taliban is not part of any “international terrorist network”. If the US war in Afghanistan is not about defeating terrorism, then why the massive expenditure of funds and manpower for over a decade?

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

50. Reality Calls--Have a Good Day, Everyone

or at least, better than expected

[Roland99]

51. Futures - Lookin' mighty ugly out there!

DJIA INDEX 12,488.00 -127.00
S&P 500 1,323.50 -18.30
NASDAQ 100 2,378.50 -30.0

[Demeter]

53. The Moneysburg Address

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/the-moneysburg-address.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Remarks rumored to have been delivered by Justice Antonin Scalia at an Opus Dei gathering on July 4, 2011

Eleven score and fifteen years ago our Incorporators brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in free markets, and dedicated to the proposition that all corporate persons are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great financial and legal crisis, testing whether those markets, or any markets so conceived and so dedicated, can long remain totally free. We are met on an inflated balance sheet of that crisis. We have come to extend a mighty portion of assets, as a book value preserving holding place for corporate persons who finessed enormous fortunes through beggaring men and women so that those corporate persons might prosper. It is altogether fitting and proper that we, the free market acolytes of corporate persons, should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot hypothecate — we cannot market rate — we cannot estimate – these assets. The financially engineered persons, living free on the indebtedness and taxes of men and women, are the true heroes who innovated here. They have hypothecated and traded these derivatives far beyond our poor imaginations to do more than extend and pretend. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us their nominal trustees, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work that they who morally hazarded and secreted away so much have thus far so nobly advanced. It is for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining — that from these free and mighty and untaxed persons we take increased devotion to that cause for which every day they insist on the last full measure of Constitutional personhood — that we here highly resolve that these legal persons shall not have incorporated in multiple jurisdictions in vain — that our free markets, under Mammon, shall have a new birth of corporate freedoms — and that government of the persons, by the persons, for the persons shall not perish from the earth.

http://philadelphians2.50megs.com/scalia-opus_dei.html

[xchrom]

55. +1

[xchrom]

61. Earnings Growth Returns to Norm, Shares Still Cheap

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-10/profits-climbing-to-51-year-average-as-s-p-500-multiples-at-crisis-levels.html

Earnings growth in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is climbing back to the average rate since the 1960s as the U.S. economy recovers, even with equity valuations stuck near credit-crisis levels.

Companies in the S&P 500 are poised to boost net income by 19 percent in 2011, including a 13 percent gain in the second quarter, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The gain will push profits back in line with their average increase of 6.9 percent over the last 51 years, data compiled by Brockhouse & Cooper Inc. and Bloomberg show. At the same time, the index is trading for 13.5 times projected 2011 earnings, 7.8 percent less than the average since the start of 2006.

The gap between earnings and shares is bolstering bulls who say equities will keep rallying as prices catch up to profits. Skeptics say reduced stimulus spending, Europe’s debt crisis and China’s efforts to curb inflation signal the 99 percent rally in the S&P 500 since March 2009 has gone too far. A report showing employers in the U.S. added 83 percent fewer jobs in June than economists projected heightened concern the economy is slowing.

“The fact that valuations have not returned to normal is simply that people are prejudiced against stocks,” said David Kelly, who helps oversee about $445 billion as chief market strategist for JPMorgan Funds in New York. “Earnings growth has been spectacular. People who are buying stocks today are buying an undervalued asset.”






***profiting from disaster if you ask me.

[Demeter]

77. How Marriner Eccles saved America (SIS SENT ME THIS)

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/51046418-82/eccles-economy-president-federal.html.csp

Seventy-eight years ago next month, a banker from Ogden, Utah, went to Washington. He was one of 48 experts summoned by the Senate Finance Committee to advise the Congress on the profound economic turmoil that came to be known as the Great Depression. None of the 47 earlier witnesses could answer categorically what was wrong with the economy or how to fix it...Marriner Stoddard Eccles, a slim man of small stature, began his testimony by stating his credentials: president and owner of 26 banks and one trust company, vice president of one of the largest sugar companies in the country, president of a multistate dairy concern, president of the largest Intermountain construction company and one of the builders of the Boulder Dam, among many other enterprises...In 38 pages of testimony, he shocked the senators by not only precisely listing the failures of the economy, but laying out a five-point plan for fixing it.

He began, “In the mad confusion and fear brought about by our present disordered economy, we need bold and courageous leadership more than at any time in our history for the reason that our industrial revolution has made necessary a new economic philosophy, a new business point of view and a fundamental change in our social system.” He went on to say that “the operation of our money world … has failed to be our servant … and instead is our tyrant and master.” Eccles got right to the point: “We must correct the causes of the depression rather than deal with the effects of it!” He proceeded to demonstrate that the key problem in the economy was the reduced “velocity” of money. The economy didn’t have enough money circulating to raise the economy out of the doldrums.

Now on the edge of their seats, the senators were further jolted when Eccles began outlining his bold plan for mending the economy: First, unemployment relief by direct aid to the states and a program of federally financed public works projects to provide economic stimulus. Second, a bank deposit guarantee program. Third, agriculture subsidies and an allotment program. Fourth, a federally guaranteed farm mortgage program...His final point was probably the most sensational for the time, as it would be even today: Cancel the World War I allies’ war debt, close the gold desk of the Federal Reserve, provide for a more equitable distribution of wealth, enact a high income and inheritance tax, provide a national child labor law, minimum wage, unemployment insurance and old age pension laws. Establish a national economic planning board. All this from a successful capitalist? A banker/industrialist? A Mormon? A Republican? Not many senators dozed through his testimony.

Eccles must have made his points, though, as several months later he was invited to join the Roosevelt administration as an assistant Treasury secretary. Within months, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Eccles to become a governor of the Federal Reserve Board, to which he replied, “I would Not! … unless fundamental changes are made in the (Fed).” With FDR’s blessing, Eccles rewrote the 1935 Federal Reserve Act, created the Fed as we know it today, and became the first chairman of the reorganized Federal Reserve Board....His New Deal policies were radical for the time. He was espousing Keynesian economics before Keynes. He was for a balanced budget, but it had to include a balanced economy. To Eccles, this meant that you built surpluses during the good times to pay for deficit spending in the bad times...What would today’s Great Recession be without the policies put in place some 70 years ago by New Dealers like Marriner Eccles, including Social Security, unemployment insurance, the FDIC, Fed monetary policies, etc.? We doubt we would be calling it a recession. More likely the Great Depression II.

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

Laraine Blackham teaches history, civics, and English at Woods Cross High School. Steve Blackham is a retired home builder and history buff.

[Demeter]

78. THE NEANDERTHAL REPLY: BIS Says Central Banks Need to Start Increasing Rates to Contain Inflation

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-26/bis-says-central-banks-need-to-start-increasing-rates-to-contain-inflation.html

Central banks need to start raising interest rates to control inflation and may have to act faster than in the past, the Bank for International Settlements said.

“Tighter global monetary policy is needed in order to contain inflation pressures and ward off financial stability risks,” the BIS said in its annual report published yesterday in Basel, Switzerland. “Central banks may have to be prepared to raise policy rates at a faster pace than in previous tightening episodes.”

While policy makers in Asia and Latin America are already raising borrowing costs to damp price pressures, rates remain near record lows in the world’s largest developed economies. Central banks in the U.S., U.K. and Japan have signaled they intend to keep that stimulus in place for some time, with only the European Central Bank moving to gradually tighten credit as inflation risks increase.

“Global inflation pressures are rising rapidly as commodity prices soar and as the global recovery runs into capacity constraints,” said the BIS, which acts as a central bank for the world’s central banks. “These increased upside risks to inflation call for higher policy rates.”

IF SPECULATORS WERE SHUT OUT...AND THERE WOULDN'T HAVE TO BE MASSIVE INTEREST RATE INCREASES TO DO THAT.

[Demeter]

80. SEC OKs Circuit Breakers for All Stocks

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303339904576405953936008310.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved an expansion of safeguards aimed at preventing another "flash crash," allowing exchanges to implement a circuit breaker for every U.S. stock.

U.S. stock exchanges intend by Aug. 8 to implement temporary trading halts for securities not already covered by circuit breakers that were put in place a year ago after the May 6 "flash crash."

During the flash crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 1,000 points in about 20 minutes, and some share prices plunged as low as one cent.

Exchanges and regulators are debating the format for a new and more flexible system of limits geared to replace the circuit breakers, but broadening the existing plan will afford protection to more stocks while the new program is finalized....

YEAH, THAT WILL FIX....ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

[Hawkowl]

90. It does signal their expectations though! nt

[Demeter]

81. Quelle Surprise! DoJ Pushing State AGs to Whitewash Servicing Abuses; Failure to Investigate Confirm

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BETRAYAL...

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/quelle-surprise-doj-pushing-state-ags-to-whitewash-servicing-abuses-failure-to-investigate-confirmed.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

The latest report by Shahien Nasirpour at Huffington Post confirms two things you’ve heard here and on some other sites following this sorry affair: first, that Tom MIller, Iowa attorney general who is leading the 50 state attorneys general negotiations on mortgage abuses, is a liar, and second, that any settlement will be a whitewash.

Actually, we already knew Miller was a liar. Shortly after the effort was launched, Miller promised that “”We will put people in jail.” He then started walking that back. Not only did he tell Bloomberg that they were NOT pursuing criminal charges, but per an e-mail:

I was w/ a European documentary maker this weekend who spoke to Miller a few days ago and said Miller relayed the fraud isn’t so bad, everything will be worked out .. the standard line; he’s already made up his mind. He doesn’t want those European governments demanding their money back. The meeting is a photo-op setup because the too-big-to-fail crowd is scared of put-back liability and shorts; they’re working hard to make it appear they’re doing something to quiet everybody down.

Note this message was sent BEFORE MIller made the “jail the baddies” promise that MIller recanted. And it indicates that this entire affair was intended to be an exercise in kabuki theater rather than anything remotely resembling a real investigation...That brings us to MIller’s second lie. After a staffer ‘fessed up that no investigations were being undertaken, Miller maintained that extensive examinations were underway. That, as Nasiripour indicates, confirming earlier intelligence via Gretchen Morgenson, is complete crap (emphasis ours):

According to sources familiar with the ongoing state and federal probes, state and federal officials have wasted months not digging into the details of the foreclosure crisis, yielding little of value in court and undercutting the lenders’ incentive to strike a settlement of greater benefit to homeowners and taxpayers.

The investigators have yet to gather many documents, conduct depositions or assemble tallies of aggrieved homeowners. They don’t yet have a good handle on the number of wrongful foreclosures, the amount of fraudulent documents filed in local courts or the volume of legal instruments processed by so-called “robo-signers,” the agents that lenders employed to process foreclosure filings en masse without examining the underlying paperwork.

“The evidence a prosecutor would use is not in the possession of the prosecution,” said one person familiar with the ongoing settlement talks.

Even Richard Shelby, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, and a long-standing critic of Wall Street, is not happy with the lack of investigations:

We need a full-fledged investigation,…There’s no substitute for a thorough investigation and finding of fact

**********************************MORE*********************************

If you are as upset with this as I am, call your state attorney general and give him a piece of your mind. You can find their phone numbers here:

http://crimeshouldntpay.com/callagtoday

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

82. Beautiful People.

[Demeter]

83. AS IF IT WAS NEEDED: More Proof That Obama is Herbert Hoover

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/more-proof-that-obama-is-herbert-hoover.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Not only is Obama assuring that he will go down as one of the worst Presidents in history, but for those who have any doubts, he is also making it clear that his only allegiance is to the capitalist classes and their knowledge worker arms and legs.

You don’t need to go further than the first page of today’s New York Times for proof. The Grey Lady has realized rather late in the game that automatic stabliizers and emergency programs have been propping up the economy, and the fact that they are soon to disappear will be more than a bit of a downer. Apparently it is now OK for Pravda to make that shocking revelation from Moody’s (the source of the key data in the article) because the budget debate is so far advanced that the executioner has already started the downward swing of his axe; the only question is whether he will get a clean kill of the average citizen’s economic wellbeing or whether it will be a protracted, messy death. From the New York Times:

An extraordinary amount of personal income is coming directly from the government.

Close to $2 of every $10 that went into Americans’ wallets last year were payments like jobless benefits, food stamps, Social Security and disability, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. In states hit hard by the downturn, like Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, residents derived even more of their income from the government.

By the end of this year, however, many of those dollars are going to disappear, with the expiration of extended benefits intended to help people cope with the lingering effects of the recession. Moody’s Analytics estimates $37 billion will be drained from the nation’s pocketbooks this year.

The article also points out that people who are on the verge of being broke typically need to spend the money they get from the government as quickly as they receive it, which leads to a high multiplier effect, estimated at 2:1. Duh!

Other self inflicted wounds are just as bad, however:

In terms of economic impact, that is slightly less than the spending cuts Congress enacted to keep the government financed through September, averting a shutdown.

The other front page article, appallingly, shows Obama, rather than the Republicans, pushing for $4 trillion in deficit cuts:

Mr. Obama, meeting with leaders from both parties at the White House, bluntly challenged Republicans a day after Speaker John A. Boehner pulled back from a far-reaching agreement aimed at saving as much as $4 trillion over 10 years, officials briefed on the negotiations said. The meeting ended after an hour and 15 minutes with little progress, but the two sides agreed to resume talking Monday, and every day after that, until a deal is done.

White House officials said Mr. Obama was still determined to pursue the boldest package possible — one that would require new tax revenue as well as cuts in Medicare and other entitlement programs — but he faces steadfast opposition from Republicans and growing qualms among Democrats.

And per Politico, suddenly the Republicans are looking comparatively sane:

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is likening the current battle over whether to raise the debt ceiling to the 2008 bailout of Wall Street.

Though he conceded that it may be a “bad analogy,” the No. 2 House Democrat said the passage of the Troubled Asset Relief Program under President George W. Bush was an instance where Congress came together to act amid an economic crisis.

“It was a Republican president, a Republican secretary of the Treasury, and a Republican-appointed head of the Federal Reserve asked a Democratically led Congress to act because the administration said we had a crisis and the alternative of not acting would be catastrophic,” Hoyer said Wednesday to reporters.

“My suggestion to my Republican friends is that they do the same,” he added…

Congress needs to act with that same urgency now, he said, to raise the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling.

“If Congress has the will to do so, we could pass a debt limit extension within 24 hours,” he said. “We need to come to an agreement … Republicans need to put everything on the table.”

Even knowing how dedicated to bad ends Obama is, I still feel like I’ve walked into a parallel universe. He’s now determined to make these horrific entitlement cuts a sign of his manhood. This is “Change” for sure, to a more brutal, grasping, dog eat dog society, all administered by self serving elites. They will in the end reap the whirlwind they are creating, but not before it mows a path of destruction through our social order.

[Hawkowl]

86. This could very well end the Republic

When Herbert Hoover did this, the opposition was a leftist, (Democratic) opposition. Now, it is ostensibly a Democratic president proposing austerity, the opposition is decidedly fascist (Republicans).

When presented with only two choices, a desperate population will reflexively choose the alternative. We are in serious peril.

Maybe instead of paralleling Herbert Hoover's administration, we should be thinking more along the lines of the Wiemar Republic of Germany.

[Tansy_Gold]

88. You can always vote for me.

But it seems the time has not come for the idea of an issue-based campaign. People are too wrapped up in what Obama is doing to screw us over and not wrapped up enough in doing something -- ANYTHING -- to stop him.

I've been holding his feet to the fire -- at least here on DU -- since shortly after he was elected. I've been vilified, laughed at, called names, etc., etc., etc. And I've replied pretty much with my infamous I.T.Y.S. rubber stamp.

Are you all getting the emails from MoveOn and Boldprogressives and all those other groups who want your money to sponsor "progressive" candidates? Well, folks, here's the candidate who doesn't want your money. She just wants your words. Words telling all your friends to vote for her, to come to her blog, to do anything you can to promote a candidate who will stand on the real progressive issues.

www.TansyGold2012.blogspot.com


Now, are you with me or against me?



TG, TT

[Hawkowl]

89. Works for me

If you are not on the ballot in Washington, I'll write you in :)

[wovenpaint]

91. You have my vote, Tansy!

:hi:

I'm with you!
:yourock:

[Po_d Mainiac]

92. +'s for the Lady of the Desert n/t