STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, October 10, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday October 10, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON October 7, 2011

Dow 11,103.12 -20.21 (-0.18%)
Nasdaq 2,479.35 -27.47 (-1.11%)
S&P 500 1,155.46 -9.51 (-0.82%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.07 +0.08 (+4.02%)
30-Year Bond 3.01 +0.07 (+2.28%)

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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://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/mEL2pafiYGbDot83hDKl4g--/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

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. No reports today.

Instead, go discover a country and begin a systematic genocide of the indigenous population. ;-)

[Po_d Mainiac]

47. How about Texas? n/t

[Ishoutandscream2]

71. Ah, not funny

nt

[Demeter]

2. Now THAT'S A Perfect Cartoon!

Morning!


Here's another...but I said it first!

[DemReadingDU]

26. Good one!

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Oil near $84 on better than expected US jobs data

SINGAPORE – Oil prices rose to near $84 a barrel Monday in Asia after better than expected U.S. jobs data and signs Europe may move to protect its banks from a sovereign debt crisis.

Benchmark crude for November delivery was up 95 cents at $83.93 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed 39 cents to settle at $82.98 in New York on Friday.

Brent crude was up 20 cents at $106.08 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

The Labor Department said Friday that the U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs last month, more than economists had forecast. Analysts have been concerned in recent months that a sluggish job market could portend a recession in the second half.

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

[HowHeThinks]

33. Why would those events........

have any bearing on the price of crude oil? I thought it was all about supply and demand? You know, the "free market" and all. :shrug:

[Demeter]

36. When the Consumer's Supply of Dollars Increase

The oil speculators demand more of them.

So, yes, you are correct, but it isn't the supply of oil that's been determining its price, not since at least W.

[AnneD]

43. Psst.....

most folks need gas to get to work. Gas demand has been depressed here in the US. They are hoping good job numbers means an increase in demand. Speculation has been driving the price of gas for some time now.

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. U.S. Stock Futures Rise on Merkel Bank Pledge

U.S. stock futures gained, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will extend last week’s rally, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders will do “everything necessary” to ensure that banks have adequate capital.

General Electric Co. (GE), the world’s third-biggest supplier of wind turbines, increased 1.4 percent in Germany. Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP), the maker of programmable semiconductors, jumped 2.3 percent.

S&P 500 futures expiring in December advanced 15.1, or 1.3 percent, to 1,170 at 11:07 a.m. London time. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3 percent to 11,212.

Merkel joined French President Nicolas Sarkozy to persuade investors they can stamp out the debt crisis roiling global markets. At a joint press conference in Berlin, Sarkozy set a Nov. 3 deadline to devise a plan to recapitalize banks, get Greece on the right track and fix Europe’s economic governance.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-09/u-s-stock-index-futures-advance-after-merkel-pledges-support-for-banks.html

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. European Mission Accomplished: Everyone Is Now Thoroughly Baffled With Bullshit

Some time ago we suggested that in lieu of actual practicable solutions (and a promise to recapitalize several trillion worth of insolvent banks absent some magic money printing tree or gold coin defecating unicorn, is so stupid only the market ramping vacuum tube algos can believe, if only for a few hours), the only thing left for Europe's leaders is to baffle absolutely everyone with relentless bullshit. Judging by the following Bloomberg news screencapture, they have now succeeded.

Presented without further snark.



http://www.zerohedge.com/news/european-mission-accomplished-everyone-now-thoroughly-baffled-bullshit

[xchrom]

14. ya gotta love crazy. nt

[AnneD]

48. Morning Marketeers....

:donut: and lurkers. We had a great weekend. It rained the whole weekend. We got 3-5 inches. Most of the time we would have flooding but we are so dry the ground soaked it up like a biscuit to gravy.I mean the bayous barely went up. I can almost hear the plants sighing with relief. And it was the good rain too...soft day as the Irish would say. We are hoping for more. The city estimates we have lost at least 40% or more of our trees and we will have to spend 4 million to remove the dead trees.

I saw hubby and daughter off to India for the nephews wedding this weekend. Hubby will be in India for 6 weeks and my daughter will be there for 2. And I am at home with the pets. I don't mind. I promise myself every year to learn something new. This year I chose to learn the Ukulele. I got a nice inexpensive soprano uke or flea as I call it. I have mastered 5 cords in under 2 weeks. It has proven to be very fun and easy. I have kept this hidden from most of my music friends (because they have years of experience and I am a neonate). But what a joy it is to make my own music. One friend found out.At the time I had learned 3 cords. He reassured me that many a famous musician had made a career with three cords or less.:evilgrin: See what I face.

Well, back to work.

Happy hunting and watch out for the bears and remember...the revolution will not be on television.

[xchrom]

54. morning Miss AnneD -- have fun w/ the uke -- that is awesome.

:hi:

[AnneD]

61. I have already mastered several song...

mainly campfire classics, but hey when the power goes out that is what you would play. I have Clementine, Kumbaya, Kookaburro, Down in the Valley. I have a few advanced songs I am working on. It is coming along nicely. I look forward to heading home to practice. It is such a happy non threatening instrument.

I hope one day to make it to the factory in Maui to pick up one made to order. Believe it or not...my hubby would understand THAT trip and would be happy to send me off.:spray:

[xchrom]

62. ooooh -- i love that -- what a nice hubby! nt

[AnneD]

64. As many times...

as I have seen him off to buy sitars in India, I figure he owes me.:evilgrin:

[xchrom]

65. n-i-i-c-e.

:thumbsup:

[Ghost Dog]

68. Confound it..!

Sun Tzu, Art of War
http://www.west-meet-east.com/edusuntsu1.htm#ch1

[Syrinx]

6. Wasn't it today, October 10, that "Anonymous" promised some mischief?

[Demeter]

7. This?

http://coto2.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/anonymous-promises-to-take-nyse-offline-on-oct-10/

[Syrinx]

8. I reckon that would be it. Yes.

[DemReadingDU]

89. 'Anonymous' takes down NYSE.com for 1 minute

10/10/11 'Anonymous' takes down NYSE.com for 1 minute
"Hactivists" take down NYSE.com as an extension of the 'Occupy Wall Street'


4:07 p.m. CDT, October 10, 2011
Anonymous' call for a massive attack on the New York Stock Exchange's website was met Monday -- but very, very briefly.

A group calling itself Anonymous, a name used by disparate groups of online "hactivists," threatened to take down NYSE.com at 3:30 p.m. ET today as an extension of the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations that have continued into a fourth week.

The website was slow and then unavailable from about 3:35 p.m. to around 3:37 p.m, after which it returned to normal. Keynote, an Internet monitoring company, confirmed that NYSE.com slowed down during that time. Another tracking site, downforeveryoneorjustme.com, also registered a brief outage.

more...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-anonymous-takes-down-nysecom-for-1-minute-20111010,0,1627656.story

[bread_and_roses]

9. "Recession Officially Over, U.S. Incomes Kept Falling"

When you read the article your head spins - or at least mine did - at the twists and turns of definitions and study conclusions - if you took it alone, having no other background - were you from Mars, say, and had no notion of reality on the ground - I don't think you'd have a clue as to whether we have a "recession", a "downturn," a "recovery," a possibility of "another recession" ... which, I suppose, suits TPTB quite well. Keep the hoi polloi confused and muddled.

this was posted by "alp227" in LBN - shamelessly stolen

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/us/recession-officially-over-us-incomes-kept-falling.html?_r=1

Recession Officially Over, U.S. Incomes Kept Falling
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — In a grim sign of the enduring nature of the economic slump, household income declined more in the two years after the recession ended than it did during the recession itself, new research has found.

Between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, according to a study by two former Census Bureau officials. During the recession — from December 2007 to June 2009 — household income fell 3.2 percent...

... even though the unemployment rate fell slightly...the number of people outside the labor force — neither working nor looking for work — has risen

... In the recession, the average length of time a person who lost a job was unemployed increased to 24.1 weeks in June 2009, from 16.6 weeks in December 2007, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the end of the recession, that figure has continued to increase, reaching 40.5 weeks in September, the longest in more than 60 years.

The economists said the recession ended in June 2009...

... From June 2007 to June of this year, they said, median annual household income declined by 7.8 percent for non-Hispanic whites, to $56,320, and by 6.8 percent for Hispanics, to $39,901. For blacks, household income declined 9.2 percent, to $31,784.

Unbelievable.

edit to note: meant to add that the "D" word is of course never mentioned

[DemReadingDU]

10. NYT did mention Depression, just yesterday

10/9/11 The Depression: If Only Things Were That Good
By DAVID LEONHARDT

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/sunday-review/the-depression-if-only-things-were-that-good.html?_r=1

[Demeter]

11. Panic of the Plutocrats By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/opinion/panic-of-the-plutocrats.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper

YOU REALLY OUGHT TO READ THE WHOLE THING...

...The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

Last year, you may recall, a number of financial-industry barons went wild over very mild criticism from President Obama. They denounced Mr. Obama as being almost a socialist for endorsing the so-called Volcker rule, which would simply prohibit banks backed by federal guarantees from engaging in risky speculation. And as for their reaction to proposals to close a loophole that lets some of them pay remarkably low taxes — well, Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the Blackstone Group, compared it to Hitler’s invasion of Poland. And then there’s the campaign of character assassination against Elizabeth Warren, the financial reformer now running for the Senate in Massachusetts. Not long ago a YouTube video of Ms. Warren making an eloquent, down-to-earth case for taxes on the rich went viral. Nothing about what she said was radical — it was no more than a modern riff on Oliver Wendell Holmes’s famous dictum that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” But listening to the reliable defenders of the wealthy, you’d think that Ms. Warren was the second coming of Leon Trotsky. George Will declared that she has a “collectivist agenda,” that she believes that “individualism is a chimera.” And Rush Limbaugh called her “a parasite who hates her host. Willing to destroy the host while she sucks the life out of it.”

What’s going on here? The answer, surely, is that Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is. They’re not John Galt; they’re not even Steve Jobs. They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens. Yet they have paid no price. Their institutions were bailed out by taxpayers, with few strings attached. They continue to benefit from explicit and implicit federal guarantees — basically, they’re still in a game of heads they win, tails taxpayers lose. And they benefit from tax loopholes that in many cases have people with multimillion-dollar incomes paying lower rates than middle-class families. This special treatment can’t bear close scrutiny — and therefore, as they see it, there must be no close scrutiny. Anyone who points out the obvious, no matter how calmly and moderately, must be demonized and driven from the stage. In fact, the more reasonable and moderate a critic sounds, the more urgently he or she must be demonized, hence the frantic sliming of Elizabeth Warren.

So who’s really being un-American here? Not the protesters, who are simply trying to get their voices heard. No, the real extremists here are America’s oligarchs, who want to suppress any criticism of the sources of their wealth.

[Demeter]

12. Tomgram: Andy Kroll, America's Lost Decade

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175450/tomgram%3a_andy_kroll%2c_america%27s_lost_decade/

...The Tea Party movement has, until now, gotten the headlines for its anger, in part because the well-funded right wing poured money into the Tea Party name, but it’s an aging movement. Whatever it does, in pure actuarial terms it's likely to represent an ending, not a beginning. Occupy Wall Street could, on the other hand, be the beginning of something, even if no one in it knows what the future has in store or perhaps what their movement is all about -- a strength of theirs, by the way, not their weakness.

It’s true, as many have pointed out, that they don’t have a list of well thought out demands, but the demand to have such a list is just their elders trying to bring them to heel. The fact is, they don’t have to know just what they’re doing, any more than a writer or filmmaker has to understand the book being written or the film shot. It’s not a necessity. It’s not the price of admission. If there’s one thing that’s obvious and heartening, as my friend, the novelist Beverly Gologorsky, said to me while we oldsters circumnavigated the park, “The overwhelming feeling I have is that no one here is planning to go home any time soon.”

[Demeter]

15. Marines Heading to Wall Street to Protect Protesters

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october032011/marines-wall-st-tk.php

This is a war against people who are utilizing their constitutional rights.

...There are many sayings associated with the United States Marine Corps, and most have something to do with honor and decency and respect for the right things. Sure, many people disapprove of this band of warriors due to the nature of their business, but I personally see it differently, and it would be impossible to do otherwise, as I was once a member of this military group.

At any rate, I like the way Haynes looks at it:

"That’s the type of support that may make an NYPD cop think twice before he decides to go all Tiananmen Square on a group of teenage girls, armed with chalk and cardboard signs (maybe it’s because they are spelled properly?).

"The Occupy Wall Street movement may have thought it broke new ground when the NYC Transit Union joined their movement, but that ground just tipped the Richter Scale with news that United States Army and Marine troops are reportedly on their way to various protest locations to support the movement and to protect the protesters."

[Demeter]

18. WHERE THE 99% GET THEIR POWER

http://www.nationofchange.org/where-99-percent-get-their-power-1318173459

...unlike the WTO protests—whose motivation was unclear to many Americans—the demonstrations now spreading virally from Wall Street immediately strike a chord: we all know that neither our economy nor our government is working for the benefit of the 99 percent...The #OccupyWallStreet movement is powerful because it is naming the source of the crisis—something that the political establishment had been unwilling to do.

The protests are giving the unemployed, the uninsured, the evicted, indebted students, homeless veterans, and would-be retirees a place to break out of their isolation. OccupyWallStreet shows that millions share their hardships and are standing up. Transforming shame, self-doubt, and isolation into solidarity unleashes enormous power.

But there’s more that makes OccupyWallStreet powerful. It is respectful, inclusive, and egalitarian. Protesters invite police to join them, noting that they, too, are part of the 99 percent. When Troy Davis was executed, a rally of supporters marched to lower Manhattan to a warm welcome by the OccupyWallStreet protesters. Even former tea party members have gotten involved....

[Demeter]

17. Confronting the Malefactors By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/opinion/krugman-confronting-the-malefactors.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear, but we may, at long last, be seeing the rise of a popular movement that, unlike the Tea Party, is angry at the right people...What can we say about the protests? First things first: The protesters’ indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right.

A weary cynicism, a belief that justice will never get served, has taken over much of our political debate — and, yes, I myself have sometimes succumbed. In the process, it has been easy to forget just how outrageous the story of our economic woes really is. So, in case you’ve forgotten, it was a play in three acts.

In the first act, bankers took advantage of deregulation to run wild (and pay themselves princely sums), inflating huge bubbles through reckless lending. In the second act, the bubbles burst — but bankers were bailed out by taxpayers, with remarkably few strings attached, even as ordinary workers continued to suffer the consequences of the bankers’ sins. And, in the third act, bankers showed their gratitude by turning on the people who had saved them, throwing their support — and the wealth they still possessed thanks to the bailouts — behind politicians who promised to keep their taxes low and dismantle the mild regulations erected in the aftermath of the crisis...


SEE ALSO: Unsavvy People

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/unsavvy-people/

[Tansy_Gold]

73. "Unsavvy People" made me want to throw up. n/t

[Tansy_Gold]

72. I did read it -- and Krugman STILL DOESN'T GET IT.

I know, I know, I know. Who am I, the lowly Tansy Gold, to dispute the esteemed Nobel-laureate Dr. Krugman?

Dr. Krugman has no clothes on. He's stark buck-nekkid. His ass is hanging out for all the world to see.

The uber rich, the banksters, the Wall Street "titans" are not by any means quaking in their boots. Regardless what Rand Paul or Ron Paul or, for that matter Les Paul says -- Mr. Paul, also known interestingly enough as the "Wizard of Waukesha," died in 2009 and so probably won't be weighing in on the OWS and spin-off actions -- it's business as usual on Wall Street and the banksters are quite content.

They know -- as indeed most of the protesters and the protesters' supporters do not -- that there is no threat to their status quo. The rabble can make all the demands they want, occupy the parks, and issue all the eloquent manifestos (manifesti?) they want, but they are no threat to the banksters or to the status quo. Mr. Obama is cozily nestled in the banksters' pockets, as are the judges and justices. the congresscritters and senators.

The far right has been building this infrastructure for a long long long time. That's why and how they have the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to serve as mouthpieces for the real powers. The moneyed powers behind the Limbaughs and Hannitys, et alia, know that the hoi polloi is easily frightened and will fall in line behind TPTB readily and without question. The moneyed powers know that regardless how much potential power the 99% have, they will not use it. Because most of the 99%ers are beholden to the 1%ers, the banksters, the mortgage holders, the 401(k) holders, the pension fund managers, the social security administration. All of those elements of the 1% have been carefully engineered to keep the 99% in line. To keep them just comfortable enough that they have something to lose and don't want to risk it.

The 1% actually learned the lessons of 1789 and 1918 very well. They learned that you can only take so much from the 99% before they reach a breaking point and say enough is enough. The sans-culottes who followed Robespierre were desperate, truly desperate people. They did not have bread, meaning, they could not feed their families. We have hunger here in the U.S., but we do not have whole cities of starving peasants. We have 10% official unemployment, perhaps 20% unofficial, and perhaps another 10% underemployed, but our freeways are still clogged with automobiles, 60-70% of the workforce is sustainably employed. As a populace, we are far, far, far from desperate.

Is there outrageous disparity in wealth and income? Of course there is. Is it all horribly unfair and immoral and unethical and anathema to what we were taught was the underlying principle of the grand American experiment in equality? Sure.

But who is really DOING anything about it? Is OWS threatening to do anything other than camp out in the cold, roughly the equivalent of holding their breath, until they turn blue? Do you really think the banksters give a flying fuck?

Krugman invokes Ayn Rand's John Galt with a bit of mockery, but the fact remains that under Galt's fictitious leadership, the far right wing ideologues DID SOMETHING. They brought the system to a halt. They put their wooden shoes into the gearbox (sabotage). They conveniently dropped a pipe into the switching mechanism ("The Train"). I don't see anyone in OWS or its mushrooming offspring either doing anything like that or suggesting it or advocating it.

Will it all fizzle out with nothing accomplished? Probably. This is no Arab spring. The government forces know they're not threatened and they are not going to retaliate with military intervention. No one's life is on the line, and if a few protesters are arrested, it makes for good media and we know who's in charge of the media. It sure as fucking hell ain't OWS, SMW, or DU.

The revolution will not come peaceably and it will not come from voices shouted in the park. It will come either violently or with a real change of strategy. Not an Obama-esque facade of change but with a real "take this job and shove it" or "we're mad as hell and not gonna take it any more" or "There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."

Unless the machine is stopped, nothing else will change. No one is even trying to stop the machine. Certainly not Paul Krugman.


Except, maybe in her own small and ineffectual way,

Tansy Gold

[Demeter]

76. Patience, Grasshopper

Imperial Rome wasn't destroyed in a day. This is the beginning of the end, and while the banksters may not be threatened, they feel threatened. Because they are threatened, by the withdrawal of the consent of the governed.

[Tansy_Gold]

79. No, Demeter, they do NOT feel threatened.

Their hired mouthpieces SAY they feel threatened, but what threat do the protesters wield? They have not threatened so much as a boycott of the banks.

Look, all the talk about privatizing social security, of cutting benefits, all that shit, it's just like the blather about abortion and gays and guns and so on. It's rhetoric to keep the masses under control. But it's also a very real and tangible threat, and it works. There are too many of us dependent on socail security -- a dependency carefully engineered by TPTB -- and we respond to that threat with the appropriate fear. IF THEY ACTUALLY DID IT, people might actually react. So they just use the threat, and it works.

The left has never gone for the fear factor, even though there much more to be feared from the right than from the left. The banksters are NOT afraid. Trust me, they are not. And they won't be until tangible threats are made. Real threats.

Afraid of losing "the consent of the governed"??? Oh, give me a big fucking break. They are afraid of no such thing. They have their goons in place, just as they did in Pal Beach and Waukesha. The elections are rigged, the courts are rigged. There isn't a damned thing for them to be afraid of, certainly not a polite, non-destructive protest.





TG

[DemReadingDU]

82. Until

as spouse said recently, until some nut goes ballistic and starts shooting and killing a few of those banksters. Then the fear will show, because any bankster could be next.

[Tansy_Gold]

93. But that's an individual threat, not a threat to The System

The System could and would survive even an assassination of a major bankster or two or four. The System is big enough and powerful enough and extensive enough that even if one or two banksters fall to a ballistic nutcase, The System goes on. The System survived 9/11. The System would survive a major political assassination.

And OWS isn't going to make that kind of threat anyway; they're not stupid, and they aren't violent, and that isn't part of the package. OWS is not al-quaeda. I suspect OWS would denounce and decry any lone nutcase who tried something like that. I certainly would. First of all, it's wrong on every level. All the guillotine humor aside, I for one do not advocate violence of any sort.

But second of all, it's counter-productive. It invites more retaliation, more repression, more control, more "security." I think OWS knows this, and besides, OWS is, as I said already, not by its nature violent. If it were, it would have issued that kind of threat by now.

There are threats that do not involve violence to idividuals, however. The most effective would be threats to The System. None of those threats are being made or even contemplated or talked about or examined. I sometimes wonder if anyone is even IMAGINING them.



TG

[DemReadingDU]

95. The entire system is unsustainable

We've been living in this huge global financial Ponzi bubble. And as all bubbles, it will implode. Very few people talk about it because the kaboom will be so big it will affect everyone around the world.

It's too depressing to discuss, and that's why no one talks about it.

As Hotler would say "I have no hope. I see no future"

:(

[Tansy_Gold]

96. Actually, the banking system is very much sustainable.

But the banking system is not the economy.

The economy, like soylent green, is people.


However, the banking system can take the economy to the brink and for a while -- maybe even a long while -- hold it in a status quo there. Then, eventually, something will happen to push it over the brink.

We are nowhere near that brink yet.




TG

[Hotler]

84. Bud White please report to Wall St..

A few bankers need a talking to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7UDkPAO5I

[Tansy_Gold]

97. No, the left needs a John Galt n/t

[Ghost Dog]

100. The traditional weapon: industrial action, strikes

that hold firm to the very end

stop the machine.

[Tansy_Gold]

101. Ding Ding Ding! We have a Golden Glob winnah! n/t

[Ghost Dog]

102. Yup. 'Way I see it

(and you, I see you do: And Not only you and I, Tansy)...

[Hotler]

103. I'm going to repost this thread in GD

just because I'm pissed, feeling mean and ornery and the crowd in GD doesn't read SMW. Hope you folks don't mind.

[xchrom]

13. monday -- need i say more?

:donut:

[Demeter]

20. I'm trying vainly to deal with it, myself

I just don't want it to be Monday. I can't handle it.

Tuesday, now Tuesday promises to be more interesting...and doable.

[xchrom]

25. personally -- i've never found there to be much Good in a monday.

the phone calls begin again, mail resumes after a day off{bills seem to like mondays}, the resumption of work traffic...

yes, Good just seems to go missing in monday.

[xchrom]

16. in the vein of more mumbo jumbo - This week’s data may prove better crystal ball

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-weeks-data-may-prove-better-crystal-ball-2011-10-09

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Like a moped on a highway, the U.S. economy is moving but at a frustratingly slow pace.

Sure, the U.S. isn't going to see the Ferrari-like growth that China enjoys as that nation industrializes, but a Ford Fiesta-pace would be nice. And while Wall Street was relieved by data released Friday showing 103,000 jobs created in September, the figures hardly point to an economy revving on all engines. See charts on jobs data

“The September jobs report was better than expected, but can hardly be described as strong,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

That said, the jobs data isn’t a great predictor of future activity. Over the last decade, the correlation between nonfarm payrolls and where monthly GDP is six months later is 53%, according to Haver Analytics using the monthly GDP compiled by Macroeconomic Advisers over the last decade.

[Demeter]

23. Chinese economy more like firecracker than Ferrari

big flash, sharp noise, then pffft!

And even a Ferrari needs oil, gas, and an expensive mechanic, none of which China has.

[xchrom]

29. i don't know what the bad news from china will be -- but you just know it's coming.

the different news items posted by you and others about china just gives a creeping feeling.

[AnneD]

49. I think those...

empty cities they are building might come more to light. Maybe everyone leaving the farm might be a problem in a nation of how many billion. Who will grow the food, I mean you can only fake just so much milk and soy sauce....just like assets such as money. At some point it has to be backed by something besides meadow muffins.

[xchrom]

19. europe: Italy Industrial Output Rises Most In a Decade

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-10/italian-industrial-output-increased-most-in-more-than-decade-in-august.html

Italian industrial output rose the most in more than a decade in August, suggesting the economy avoided a contraction in the third quarter even as it grappled with contagion from Europe’s debt crisis.

Output advanced 4.3 percent from July, when it dropped a revised 0.3 percent, Rome-based statistics office Istat said today. Economists had expected an increase of 0.2 percent, according to the median of 18 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Output climbed 4.7 percent from a year earlier on a workday-adjusted basis.

“The upswing is at odds with the clear downward trend in industrial activity in Italy and it has to be seen more as a technical correction rather than as the harbinger of a solid rebound,” Annalisa Piazza, an economist at Newedge Strategy in London, said in a note to investors. “That said, it will help GDP growth” and allow the economy to avoid shrinking in the third quarter, she added.

Gross domestic product rose 0.3 percent in the second quarter from the three months through March, when it increased 0.1 percent. Italy’s credit rating has been lowered by the three main rating companies, starting with Standard & Poor’s on Sept. 19. Rising borrowing costs and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s “fragile” government mean that Italy may struggle to cut Europe’s second-biggest debt burden, at about 120 percent of GDP, S&P said.

[xchrom]

21. Erste Slumps After Forecasting $1.1B Loss

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-10/erste-to-keep-state-capital-as-writedowns-cause-net-loss.html

Erste Group Bank AG (EBS), eastern Europe’s second-biggest lender, fell the most in more than two years in Vienna trading after saying that it expects to post a full-year loss of 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) this year.

Erste wrote down the value of its Hungarian and Romanian units by a combined 939 million euros, the Vienna-based bank said in a statement today. Erste won’t pay a dividend for 2011 and shelved for at least a year a plan to repay 1.2 billion euros of aid from the Austria government.

The writedowns come as Hungary’s government forces lenders to take losses on Swiss-franc denominated mortgages and introduced a banking tax last year. That will lead to Erste’s first full-year loss since 1988 and compares with analysts expectation for net income of 980 million euros, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“We have taken radical action in our balance sheet to prepare Erste Group for a prolonged period of uncertainty,” Chief Executive Officer Andreas Treichl said in the statement. “The measures taken today will turn a profit of around 700 million euros for the first three quarters of 2011 into a loss.”

[Demeter]

24. Wow. So that's what Truth looks like Naked

America's still too prudish.

[xchrom]

27. ...

:spray:

[AnneD]

51. We need to dedicate this subthread to....

Sally Rand, the other Rand. Never has the naked truth been so artfully concealed.

[Demeter]

77. Too many Rands

I knew I should of stayed in bed.

[xchrom]

22. Russia in Talks to Buy Spanish State Debt

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-10/russia-in-talks-to-buy-spanish-state-debt-medvedev-aide-dvorkovich-says.html

Russia’s government, holder of the world’s third-largest reserves, discussed buying Spanish sovereign debt at a meeting with Finance Minister Elena Salgado, said Arkady Dvorkovich, the Kremlin’s top economic adviser.

Salgado met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister, and their talks included the question of possible purchases of bonds issued by the euro- area’s fourth-biggest economy, Dvorkovich said today at a conference in Moscow.

“We are waiting for a European declaration of a concrete, clear strategy to exit the crisis,” Dvorkovich said. “If this strategy will require help from Russia and other BRICS countries, we are ready to extend support.”

Finance ministry and central bank officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa met last month before the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting to discuss coordinating policy as Europe reels from a sovereign debt crisis. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking yesterday at a joint briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said European leaders will deliver a plan on recapitalizing banks by the Nov. 3 Group of 20 summit.

[xchrom]

41. Poland's election: Tusk triumphs Four more years of Civic Platform

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/10/polands-election-tusk-triumphs

DONALD TUSK has become the first Polish prime minister in history to be democratically re-elected for a consecutive term, exit polls show. Mr Tusk's centrist Civic Platform took 39.6% of the vote, followed by the national conservative Law and Justice on 30.1%, the liberal Palikot Movement on 10.1%, the agrarian PSL (Civic Platform's junior coalition partner) on 8.2%, and the socialist SLD on 7.7%, the survey by TNS OBOP said. Turnout was a paltry 47.7%.

At the last general election in 2007, Civic Platform took 41.5%, Law and Justice 32.1%, the SLD 13.2% and PSL 8.9%. Turnout was a record 53.9%. Since then the government's slow pace of change has disappointed impatient liberal voters. Some punished Mr Tusk by turning to the new Palikot Movement for its pledges to initiate progressive lifestyle bills, secularise the state and cut the red tape that holds back Poland's admirable, hard-working small businesses

The surprisingly bad result for Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice came after the former prime minister made anti-German remarks in a newly published book. Official results may bring him a better score, but he is unlikely to win, as some of his supporters had dreamed he would.

[xchrom]

45. MPs question RBS and Lloyds TSB cash machine rules

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mps-question-rbs-and-lloyds-tsb-cash-machine-rules-2368289.html

Two of Britain's largest banks have been told by MPs to justify their restrictions on basic account customers using rivals' cash machines.

The influential Treasury Select Committee has written to the chiefs of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking expressing their concern at the policy.

Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie said he was concerned that it would exclude basic bank account customers from the majority of the UK's free cash machine network.

Mr Tyrie wrote: "Your decision has major implications for access to universal banking customers and appears to target vulnerable customers who are most at risk of financial exclusion."

[xchrom]

28. Corporate Profit Rebound Loses Steam

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-09/corporate-profits-set-for-slowest-growth-since-2009-with-forecasts-dimming.html

This year’s rebound in corporate earnings is losing steam as slower economic growth and greater strain on consumers threaten sales and profit margins at companies from Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) to Google Inc. (GOOG)

Earnings per share for the Standard & Poor’s 500, excluding financial companies, rose 14 percent in the third quarter, the smallest gain since the end of 2009, analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg show. That compares with 19 percent in the second quarter and 20 percent in the first. Analysts have begun reducing forecasts for the current quarter and beyond. S&P 500 futures rose today, indicating the index will extend last week’s rally.

Chipmaker Texas Instruments and air conditioner maker Ingersoll Rand Plc are among companies that have lowered their guidance because of faltering demand. With U.S. unemployment stuck above 9 percent, political squabbling about the government debt ceiling and a downgrade of the nation’s credit rating, confidence has been sapped, said Matt McCormick, who helps manage $4 billion with Bahl & Gaynor Inc. in Cincinnati.

“What started in August as a crisis of confidence hasn’t been resolved,” McCormick said. “This is a grind-it-out economy. We’re in a situation where it’s still going to take several years to rebuild our economic house.”

[xchrom]

30. asia: Chinese Know Highest Quality Comes With Lowest Prices in Hong Kong: Retail

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-09/chinese-know-highest-quality-comes-with-lowest-prices-in-hong-kong-retail.html

Pan Jingdan traveled more than 40 miles to shop in Hong Kong during China’s Golden Week holiday. Unlike the thousands of Chinese tourists who lined up outside luxury goods stores, she stuffed her bags with shampoo, cosmetics and Unilever’s Dove shower gel.

“It’s so much cheaper here, especially if you buy at the local pharmacies,” said Pan, a 23-year-old property agent from the southern Chinese city of Dongguan who regularly visits Hong Kong’s Sheung Shui district. “The quality is also better. China is a country full of fakes.”

Hong Kong retail sales, boosted by mainland Chinese tourists, surged 26 percent to HK$264 billion ($34 billion) in the eight months through August. Visitors from the mainland, whose spending power has been boosted by the yuan’s climb, account for 67 percent of the city’s tourists and are also the biggest group of spenders, James Tien, chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said Oct. 7.

“Mainland Chinese would also stock up on lower-value items like toothpaste and shampoo, because just like luxury products, they’re significantly cheaper in Hong Kong,” Matthew Marsden, director of consumer and retail research at Daiwa Capital Markets, said in an interview. “They’re also more assured of quality and authenticity when they shop here.”

[xchrom]

31. China Companies Evading Owner Rule With U.S. Listings Frustrate Regulators

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-09/china-companies-evading-rule-with-u-s-listings-stump-regulators.html

A common corporate structure that has allowed dozens of Chinese companies to get listed on U.S. exchanges is drawing increased scrutiny from American audit regulators.

Chinese Internet companies such as Sina Corp. and Baidu Inc. have used so-called variable interest entities, or VIEs, to work around Chinese restrictions and seek foreign investors since 2000. Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission is also asking questions about the structure, said Paul Boltz, a Hong Kong-based partner at Ropes & Gray LLP, who cited comment letters the agency sent to six companies since December. Judith Burns, an SEC spokeswoman, declined to comment.

The heightened attention may add to investors’ caution regarding Chinese stocks trading in North America. Sino-Forest Corp. (TRE) among other companies has been buffeted this year by allegations of accounting abuses and fraud, burning investors including John Paulson, the billionaire whose hedge fund said in June it lost $468 million on Sino-Forest. The company, which doesn’t use a VIE, has denied the allegations.

[xchrom]

42. Sinopec to Buy Daylight Energy for $2.1 Billion

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/sinopec-to-buy-daylight-energy-for-2-1-billion/

Sinopec of China agreed on Sunday to buy Daylight Energy, a Canadian oil and natural gas producer, for about $2.1 billion in cash, as Chinese companies increasingly flock to Canada’s oil-rich resources.

Under the terms of the deal, Sinopec’s international exploration and production arm will pay 10.08 Canadian dollars ($9.70) a share. That is more than double Daylight’s closing price of 4.59 Canadian dollars on Friday, and 43.9 percent above the 60-day weighted average trading price.

That high premium reflects China’s continuing hunger for oil and natural gas resources to power its growth. Sinopec, formally known as the China Petroleum and Chemical Company, has been among the most active of Chinese oil companies in pursuing acquisitions to increase its holdings.

[Demeter]

32. INTERESTING IDEA: Taxing Nothing: Make Owners of Vacant Property Pay

http://www.nationofchange.org/taxing-nothing-make-owners-vacant-property-pay-1318085585

Virtually all forecasters are now projecting the unemployment rate to remain high for years into the future. This is the result of the political deadlock in Washington, where the Republican leadership has made it clear that it will oppose any further measures to create jobs. If nothing happens in Washington, then state and local governments are left to fend for themselves. Unfortunately state and local governments have two serious disadvantages in the job creation effort relative to Washington. They can’t run deficits, since most are required to balance their budgets. And, they can’t just print money like the Federal Reserve Board.

As a result, the range of action for state and local policymakers is limited to what they can pay for. With the recession sharply curtailing revenue, that doesn’t leave much money for inventive job-creating agendas. These governments can raise taxes, but there is a limit to how much taxes can be increased without sending business into neighboring states, even if the political will exists. However, there is one tax that state and local governments can raise without fear of losing businesses or people. They can tax vacant properties. This is an especially desirable tax in the current economic situation since the real estate bubble created a glut of both residential and non-residential property in much of the country. Having housing units or commercial properties sit idle does no one any good. People could be living in the housing units and the commercial properties could offer new jobs in stores and offices.

The problem is that property owners often have difficulty coming to grips with the new market environment. They saw the run-up in prices of the bubble years and they expect that these prices will soon return. Rather than accept a lower price to sell or rent their vacant properties, they are waiting for prices to return to their bubble peak. As a result, these pie-in-the-sky property owners are holding property that returns them no income. And, the whole economy suffers as a result of not deriving any value from these idle structures. A vacant property tax would help these property owners to see reality. By providing an additional incentive to actually use vacant property this tax can both raise a substantial sum of money and bring down the cost of renting housing and commercial property.

SEE MECHANICS OF PLAN AT LINK

Unlike most taxes, all the side effects from this tax are positive. If property owners don’t want to pay the tax, then they can just rent out their property. Or they may sell the property off to someone else who actually plans to use it. Either outcome would push down residential and commercial rents. In some cases property owners may not be able to pay the tax and simply give up the property. That is unfortunate, but it is better that the property be in the hands of someone who can use it productively than have it just sit idle...This is a tax without a serious downside. When you tax something, you expect to get less of whatever it is you are taxing. In this case we are taxing nothing – valuable property being left idle. We want less of that. The tax is easy to collect and it encourages people to do what we want them to do. It might even be possible to get politicians to consider it.

[xchrom]

35. i posted that in GD the other day & i set off a rash of anti-tax sentiment.

i think he's mostly talking about properties that sit idle -- for what seems like forever.

i can think cities right off the top of my head -- where blocks are unoccupied -- for what seems to be no good reason.

[Demeter]

37. A lot of the property owned by the City of Detroit

was forfeit for unpaid taxes...and that had been going on since the 1967 riots, at least.

[xchrom]

40. indeed. -- i used to go there once in a while --

many, many years ago -- i wouldn't know my way now.

[Demeter]

44. If Urban Renewal Had Worked, It wouldn't have happened

But Urban Renewal was designed to serve somebody other than the people who lived there.

[xchrom]

53. +1

[former9thward]

52. Vacant property is taxed. It is called the property tax.

[plumbob]

56. Yep, but just like income taxes which are too low, not taxed enough

to make them worth doing something with.

92% income tax rate on highest earners when I was a child. No one paid it, of course, nor were they supposed to - instead, they invested so that they would have write-offs.

Vacant property should have a higher tax rate than unoccupied property, because it has negative effects on the property around it - lowers values, harbors homeless, provides canvas for vandals of all sorts, and so a vacancy tax just charges the owner for the damage he's doing. There's a 50,000 square foot former Gibson's store located just a few blocks away, vacant since 1972, boarded up, and broken into constantly by kids, the homeless, drug dealers, and vandals. Numerous fires have been set, all the air conditioning units have been stolen from the roof, and the parking lot is cratered like the moon.

All because the owner of the building who inherited it when his dad committed suicide, is just sure it's worth millions (although no sale in 39 years would indicate otherwise), lives in a weekly rental apartment and drives his dad's old 71 deVille. Why should he be allowed to clutter up the neighborhood and create crime and danger?

[xchrom]

57. ...

:thumbsup: well said.

[former9thward]

67. Every city in the country has vacant property that owners have walked away from.

And there is no money to do anything with it. What you propose would only increase this problem. I am afraid you don't understand property economics.

[plumbob]

74. Maybe not. I own several dozen rental properties, including 3

apartment complexes. I earned an economics degree in 1975, and I taught economics for two decades.

But I may not know anything at all.

Why should one man living in weekly rental driving a 40 year old car be allowed to hold our neighborhood hostage with his rotten shell of a building?

[Demeter]

78. Get your local government to condemn it and take over by eminent domain

That is what the law was intended for.

[plumbob]

86. He's current on his taxes, and he boards it back up when broken into.

Here in west Texas, we'd have to build something over it to take it by eminent domain. As it is, he can hold onto it forever. This is one of the towns where it's perfectly legal to drill an oil well 50 feet from someone's bedroom window, whether they approve or not. The mineral owner is entitled to access, and the surface owner is entitled to $500 or so in one-time damage payments.

[Demeter]

91. Another reason not to live in Texas

Even if he pays the taxes, it's a public nuisance.

Put a park there instead....miniature golf, etc....?

[former9thward]

81. Please use your economics degree to tell us why every

major city in the country has vacant property on its hands. Please use your degree to tell us why this proposal will not make the problem even worse. Why aren't people lining up to get this property from the city so they can do something "useful" with it?

[plumbob]

85. The city does not own it. Because it is a wreck of a building, taxes

are very low, and the guy who inherited it has had it on the market for 40 years for $5,000,000. A building the same size for an HEB store was built blocks away last year for $2,000,000. He has turned down a $1,000,000 offer several times in the last 5 years.

This is why there is vacant property - there is no financial penalty to the owners. In fact, they are often rewarded with low evaluations, which makes it easy to keep and do nothing with. If there were a stiff vacancy tax attached, they could either do something with it or sell it to someone who would.

That's opportunity cost.
Ruining my property which is properly taken care of and being a general crime magnet for the area is a negative externality.

The unpaid vacancy tax would allow the city to take it for taxes and auction it. Either way, my proposal improves things by increasing the cost of holding empty property.

BTW, in the same way, a 92% tax rate for top earners would so the same - increase government revenues if the earners did nothing, or force the earners to invest in tax-deductible enterprises which would improve the economy. That's the main difference between the 50s and now - the cost of holding money is negligible now and was expensive then.


In micro terms, the property is being held above market cost - obviously - it hasn't sold for the asking price in 40 YEARS. In this case, the owner is willing to pay the nearly zero cost of holding the property in case he gets a single outlier who would pay his price. Demand does not change in this example. By increasing the cost of holding versus selling, he lowers his price to the actual market, and the buyer does something with the building.

Any other questions?

[former9thward]

88. Actually you answered a question I did not ask.

I can't comment on the property you specially mention because I know nothing about it. What I want to know is what are cities, in general, going to do with all of the vacant property they currently own because owners have walked away from them. I think a vacancy tax would just increase this problem. The cities have no money to do anything with the properties. Just look at Detroit.

[Tansy_Gold]

98. I think there are two different categories of property at issue

One is property that the owners have walked away from, taxes have not been paid, the city (or other taxing authority) takes possession but can't do anything with it because there is no money to do so.

The other is property that is owned but not put to use, is allowed to deteriorate and blight a neighborhood while the owner pays minimal taxes. The proposal is to, if I understand correctly, to tax these intentionally vacant properties at a higher rate than if they were occupied and maintained.

Here's a suggestion -- if Mr. Owner has the property listed for sale at $5,000,000 then that should be the basis for taxation. After all, that's what he thinks it's worth, so why not tax it at that valuation. If he thinks it should only be taxed at a value of $50,000, then he should have it listed for sale at that price. Can't have it both ways, Mr. Tax Cheat.



TG

[xchrom]

34. south asia: Sensex Gains a Second Day on Europe Optimism; Tata Motors, Infosys Climb

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-10/sensex-index-gains-a-second-day-as-european-concerns-ease-infosys-climbs.html

Indian stocks rose for a second day as concern eased the European debt crisis may escalate and hurt local exporters after the leaders of Germany and France pledged to shield banks.

Tata Motors Ltd., the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, jumped to a two-month high. Infosys Ltd., the software maker that gets 21 percent of its sales from Europe, rallied for a third day.

The BSE India Sensitive Index, or Sensex, gained 324.69, or 2 percent, to 16,557.23 at the 3:30 p.m. close in Mumbai. Companies in the gauge trade at 14 times future profits, down from 21.5 times in March 2010. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. advanced 1.9 percent to 4,979.60 and its October futures settled at 5,000.

“Global factors are determining Indian share movements,” Ajit Dayal, Chairman of Quantum Asset Management Ltd., said in an interview with Bloomberg UTV today. “Indian investors do not need to worry about local factors. In terms of valuations, it’s a very good time to continue buying into Indian shares.”

[Roland99]

38. Dexia gets $122 billion of state guarantees

Dexia gets $122 billion of state guarantees
Belgian retail arm to be nationalized as bank battles funding crisis
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dexia-gets-122-billion-of-state-guarantees-2011-10-10?link=MW_home_latest_news

Beleaguered European lender Dexia SA on Monday agreed to the nationalization of its Belgian retail banking arm as part of a new rescue package for the group that also includes 90 billion euros ($122 billion) of state funding guarantees.

The French-Belgian bank, which has already been bailed out once earlier in the financial crisis, said it will sell its Belgian unit to the state for €4 billion in a deal that will slash the size of its balance sheet.

The governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg will also provide a 10-year guarantee on the group’s funding up to a maximum of €90 billion.

...

Belgium will be responsible for 60.5% of the guarantee, while France is providing 36.5% and Luxembourg the remaining 3%.

[Roland99]

39. Two More European Banks Nationalized Following Dexia's Example

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/two-more-european-banks-nationalized-following-dexias-example

[Demeter]

46. You Tease! You could at least post the names of the banks

...Danish Max Bank and Greek Proton Bank just handed the keys to their HQs to their primary regulators, with the management teams quietly riding off into the sunset. They are the lucky ones: in a few months it won't be nearly as easy to find "nationalization" funding and keep your depositors away from the "tar and feathers" toolshed....

WHICH IS WHY I CAN'T UNDERSTAND BANKSTERS NOT DOING SO EN MASSE, GETTING OUT WHILE THE GETTING IS GOOD...

THAT'S A PRETTY GRIM REPORT ON PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE BANKING IN EUROPE, BY THE WAY.

[Roland99]

80. sorry bout that...not feeling well today so I got lazy

:)

[Demeter]

92. Oh Dear, Not the Flu, I Hope?

Chicken soup, rest, and get well soon!

[Roland99]

99. allergies made worse by a solid weekend of rain.

back at woik today!

[bread_and_roses]

50. Woo hoo - I see we're off to the races this AM...

... of course, sometimes the races go like this

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/65453/bizarre-bourbon-won-by-maiden-animal-spirits

You have to watch the video to know what I'm talking about (note - I am NOT jesting at the spill - the horse may not make it. And according to the article, the front-runner "shied from ... whip" Fucking troglodyte racing - still in the dark ages, pretending it's OK to flog an animal - already running it's heart out)

Note that the eventual winner near back of herd at beginning of race.

In racing, the horses are the slaves, the jockeys the overseers, the backstretch the non-organized workers, the owners the Oligarchs. More analogies in this one race alone than I have time to list.

[Hotler]

55. It's so fucked up. God damn it's fucked up. k&r eom.

[DemReadingDU]

60. Dow up +266

nothing makes sense

[Tansy_Gold]

75. It makes perfect sense.

If you remember that the DJIA is completely and totally and absolutely disconnected from "the economy" and what you are watching is sort of like "World Series of Roulette," it makes perfect sense.

[DemReadingDU]

83. Perfect sense for the speculators

Rallying up the markets, getting out the gains, before the next big downturn.

[Tansy_Gold]

94. Exactly. n/t

[xchrom]

58. Co. finds ship full of silver in Atlantic

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODYSSEY_MARINE_EXPLORATION_SHIPWRECK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-10-10-10-56-44

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A sea exploration company said Monday it has discovered a ship filled with silver 8,000 feet beneath the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. said it found the remains of the SS Mantola, which sank on Feb. 9, 1917. It was torpedoed by German submarine U-81.

The ship was insured to carry silver worth 110,000 British pounds when it sailed in 1917. That value would mean that the ship could hold as much as 600,000 ounces of silver based on silver prices in 1917. Odyssey will retain 80 percent of the value of the silver that's recovered. At current market prices, that much silver would be worth more than $19 million.

The company is planning a recovery expedition that's planned to start next spring. It said its share of the proceeds will contribute significantly to funding its future operations.

[Tansy_Gold]

59. Good morning, all.

This will be a short quick post.

I haven't read any of the above linked articles, so I may way out in left field, but can someone please tell me what the OWS and other O protests hope to accomplish? I know, I know, I know what they want, but how are they going to get it? "We demand!" is fine, but what's their, ". . . or else!" alternative? What are they gonna do if the banksters don't cave?

Good on the rain, AnneD. I believe the Navajo call that "female" rain.

First art show of the season yesterday was good. Exhausting venue as far as setting up and tearing down and hauling everything to and from the parking area, but nice customer traffic and respectable sales. Gorgeous weather, I might add.


And now it's back to the usual grind.




TG

[AnneD]

63. Glad the show went well...

I know many a folk that it is their bread and butter. I always patronize those shows. Have you ever thought of coming to Houston?

[Ghost Dog]

70. Female Rain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwzgNiYjqss

(Last time I posted this, it rained torrentially on this island, around this time of year.

Would sure be welcome.)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

66. Kick the Good News!

:woohoo:

[tclambert]

69. It's Columbus Day. I thought the markets would be closed.

You know, in honor of Columbus risking sailing off the edge of the world and instead discovering a whole new completely uninhabited continent where no human being had ever set foot before. (Just ignore those reddish/brownish people over there.) Okay, what he really did was introduce two horrible plagues to the indigenous population--smallpox and white people. (The second one caused even more destruction than the first.) But still, he invented the butter knife. That's worth celebrating, isn't it?

[AnneD]

87. I can see the tee shirt now......

My daddy went to greet Columbus and all I got was this pox covered tee shirt. God, I could make a killing on the rez...literally.:evilgrin:

[Hotler]

90. Anne go to your room.

:spank: