Gone With the Wind Weekend Economists August 27-29, 2010

[Demeter]

I got home VERY late and the Kid is screaming at me that she wants to go to the library--which will be closed by the time dinner is ready....so I'm just going to open the thread, start dinner and then come back.

Where is America, and our economy? Gone with the wind.

How do we get it back? The answers are blowing in the wind.

The wind brought us Katrina, forest fire, and they call the wind Maria.

All this trouble we are in seems to have come from the Windy City--not to point fingers, I'm just saying...

So let's skewer the blow-hards and pray for a puff of fresh air as we survey the week's windstorm and add up the damages.

Post them if you've got them!

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fTh2GffJsM&feature=player_embedded

That's the beautiful Tara's Theme.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Demeter]

52. Mark Fiore's Magical Tax Cut Fairies

http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-tax-cuts-republicans-extending-bush-tax-fairies-animated-video-mark-fiore-animation

[Demeter]

74. TODAY'S DILBERT

[Demeter]

2. Sheila Gave the FDIC the Weekend Off

No bank failures tonight.

[Po_d Mainiac]

4. No one will take her IOU's n/t

[Demeter]

5. Very Likely

And she can't do anything with the loss-sharing stuff, either.

[Po_d Mainiac]

3. 10 Practical Steps That You Can Take To Insulate Yourself (At Least Somewhat) From The Coming Econom

snip

But before I get into what people need to do, let's take a minute to understand just how bad things are getting out there. The economic numbers in the headlines go up and down and it can all be very confusing to most Americans.

However, there are two long-term trends that are very clear and that anyone can understand....

#1) The United States is getting poorer and is bleeding jobs every single month.

#2) The United States is getting into more debt every single month.

When you mention the trade deficit, most Americans roll their eyes and stop listening. But that is a huge mistake, because the trade deficit is absolutely central to our problems.

Every single month, Americans buy far, far more from the rest of the world than they buy from us. Every single month tens of billions of dollars more goes out of the country than comes into it.

That means that every single month the United States is getting poorer.

more at link
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/10-practical-steps-that-you-can-take-to-insulate-yourself-at-least-somewhat-from-the-coming-economic-collapse

[Demeter]

6. SMILE! YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA!

A look at the US economy in series of snapshots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbbCGNqgkQs&feature=related

Tara theme with words. (If you are getting tired of Tara, post something else!)

[Demeter]

7. Import surge slows US recovery

Fears of a faltering US recovery were realised on Friday when revised figures showed that economic growth in the second quarter was weaker than previously thought.

Gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 1.6 per cent in the second three months of the year, commerce department figures showed. That was slower than the 2.4 per cent estimate provided a month ago, reflecting a wider trade gap and weaker inventory investment.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/C5NIFL/3CWTA/FX1G06/JIN8BO/MQ/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=27

[amandabeech]

133. Manufacturing and services have been offshored so much

that any increase in demand is bound to result in imports.

It is ironic that increased economic activity may be counter-productive to the economy as a whole.

[Demeter]

8. Surprise slowdown in US credit card losses

US credit-card losses are falling faster than expected, with the six largest card issuers expected to earn nearly $10bn more this year than predicted, says a study by Moody’s.

Historically, US credit-card write-offs have tracked the unemployment rate. But for the first time in a decade, loans considered uncollectible by lenders are falling faster than the jobless rate, prompting analysts to revise earnings models.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/6VQ7ST/HI3M9/0GKEK5/D4QP3K/36/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

9. SEC vows more actions over crisis

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has vowed to bring more high-profile enforcement actions against Wall Street over the financial crisis, following last month’s $550m settlement with Goldman Sachs.

US regulators told the Financial Times the SEC’s contentious civil fraud case against the bank over the sale of mortgage-backed securities was an example of the type of high-profile action its revamped enforcement division was working on.

Read more >>

http://link.ft.com/r/73UJGG/ZBWO4W/SUO9T/A7FUY2/3OMIKJ/LE/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

10. US chains beef up meals to lift profits

Fast-food chains in the US are rolling out more expensive premium products after two years of relentless focus on lower priced meals in the hope of recouping profit margins surrendered during the recession of 2008 and 2009.
McDonald’s is selling a “smokehouse deluxe” burger in Canada priced at more than US$5.00 at close to 100 restaurants in the province of Ontario.
Burger King, meanwhile, has been selling its “BK fire-grilled ribs” meals for $8.99 in the US for the past three months. On their own, six-rib portions retailed for $5.69 and eight-rib servings for $7.19.

Read more >>

http://link.ft.com/r/XYEWFF/3OY0FY/XBAN6/JIB8UM/QFH07X/28/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[Demeter]

13. Buffett’s Berkshire to buy out Wesco

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has offered to buy the remaining shares it does not already own in Wesco Financial, a subsidiary managed by the billionaire investor’s longtime business partner, Charles Munger
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/EWPIMZ/VTVRG/BMN18V/PRTCIN/6C/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=27

[Demeter]

26. US tax swoop faces banking backlash

The US Treasury is close to issuing rules to force banks worldwide to hand over up to 5m Americans’ account de­tails in an assault on tax evasion that financial institutions say is unworkable

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/C5NWJV/52KB7/40E9B6/ZB24TH/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[mbperrin]

53. Crooks always want to discourage enforcement of laws.

That they bothered to squeal is a sign that it's bad for them.

Yep, that's good for us.

[MattSh]

131. Shitibank is absolutely salivating over this...

Most overseas bank will just refuse to open accounts worth less than $1 million or two. Most European banks will not open an account for me already, an American living in Europe. This will put the other 10% off limit to me too. This will force more business into the arms of Shitibank and Bank of Amerika, etc.

This is just what Shitibank and Bank of Amerika want. Less competition. Then can then screw not only the poor and the middle class, but the near rich too. That means more contributions to all the corrupt politicians in DC from all the corrupt bank too. It's a WIN/WIN! For the banks and politicians. I doubt if anyone else will benefit though.

And I have much trouble with the thought that foreign governments and foreign corporations are supposed to be enforcing US laws. If the US can't enforce it's own laws, why should someone else?

[Demeter]

142. Try INGDirect

I bet they would let you open account. You only need US bank for anchor...never need to use it once you are set up.

[MattSh]

130. Actually try this one...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a45955ea-b076-11df-8c04-00144feabdc0.html

if you don't want to register on the FT site.

[DemReadingDU]

141. no need to register

Enter the title or the url of the article in Google and you can read its full content.
This works for Wall Street Journal articles too.

[Demeter]

28. Activist pension funds to target boards

Large activist pension funds are to launch a campaign to shake up underperforming US companies, using new rules due to be agreed on Wednesday that allow shareholders to directly nominate board directors

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/EWPWRP/87I64/5CQ97Z/18ZWCO/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[Demeter]

72. Their Investors’ Voice

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/opinion/28sat3.html

NYT TUT-TUTS

[Demeter]

39. Bovis Homes back in the black

The housebuilder is to renew paying a dividend after returning to profit in the first six months of the year, helped by lower financing costs and higher prices

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/9ZSC3E/NRHD3/HDTLHF/IYFPFR/QR/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=24

[Demeter]

44. A Big Surprise: Troubled Assets Garner Rewards MUST BE READ TO BE NOT BELIEVED

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/business/27toxic.html?_r=1&hpw



American taxpayers are already poised to make unexpected billions from rescuing the nation’s banks. Now, they could reap another sizable profit from a government program devised to purge troubled real estate assets from the financial system.

The Obama administration made the so-called Public-Private Investment Program a centerpiece of its plan to help unlock the frozen credit markets in the spring of 2009, when a lack of buyers for complex mortgage securities threatened the health of the nation’s banks and put a drag on lending.

Under the program, the government provided matching funds and ultracheap loans to investment firms like AllianceBernstein and Oaktree Capital that agreed to buy mortgage securities from banks and other financial institutions.

Taxpayers stood to share in any of the profits, though the prospects of such a windfall were seen as secondary to the goal of unclogging the markets....


WHAT LIE WILL THEY THINK UP NEXT?

[girl gone mad]

45. I can't believe they're still pushing this lie..

when they've been called on it so many times.

Oh, what am I saying? Yes I can believe it!

[Demeter]

50. I.R.S. Plan to Uncover Companies’ Tax Strategies

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/business/25taxes.html?_r=1&hp

Every year, thousands of the nation’s largest corporations are required to report to the I.R.S. whether they have reduced their tax bills by using questionable accounting strategies.

They have to supply an estimate of how much they might owe if those strategies failed to withstand an audit.

They even have to set aside enough money to pay the government if their claims are found to be improper.

But the corporations are not obliged to reveal precisely what those uncertain tax positions are — and if the I.R.S. does not manage to ferret them out and challenge them before the three-year statute of limitations expires, the companies can keep the money.

Now, the Internal Revenue Service is calling an end to the game. Beginning next year, the agency plans to mandate that corporations also provide a brief description of their uncertain tax positions and their rationale, offering essentially a road map for its auditors....

LOOKING GLASS POLICY!

[Demeter]

64. Stock Swing Still Baffles, With an Ominous Tone (MAY'S FLASH CRASH)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/business/23flash.html?src=me&ref=business

...15 weeks later, the authorities are still looking for it. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission plan to issue a final report on their findings in September...

...Mr. Donovan, a man with a runaway chuckle who works alone out of the (Nanex, an obscure data company in the suburbs of Chicago) company’s office in Santa Barbara, Calif., poses a theory that a small group of high-frequency traders was trying to introduce delays into the nation’s fractured stock-market trading system to profit at the expense of others. Clogging exchanges or otherwise disrupting markets to gain an advantage may be illegal...

[Demeter]

65. Fed Loses Bid for Review of Bailout Disclosure Ruling

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-23/u-s-appeals-court-refuses-to-review-disclosure-ruling-on-fed-bailouts.html

An appeals court refused to reconsider a decision compelling the Federal Reserve Board to release documents identifying banks that might have failed without the U.S. government bailout.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals in New York, in a docket entry dated Aug. 20, denied a May 4 request by the Fed to review a three-judge panel’s unanimous March 19 decision requiring the agency to release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program begun primarily after the 2008 collapse of Bear Stearns Cos.

Unless the court stays its decision, the Fed will have seven days to disclose the documents. In the event of a stay, the central bank and the Clearing House Association LLC, an organization of 20 commercial banks that joined the Fed in defense of the lawsuit, will have 90 days to petition the Supreme Court to consider their appeal. The Clearing House has already said it will ask the high court to rule on the case....

[Demeter]

103. U.S. Deficit Really $202 Trillion, Kotlikoff Says By Peter Gorenstein

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26242.htm

VIDEO AT LINK

[Demeter]

104. Morgan Stanley Says Government Defaults Inevitable

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26244.htm

Investors face defaults on government bonds given the burden of aging populations and the difficulty of increasing tax revenue, according to a Morgan Stanley executive director....

Rather than miss principal and interest payments, governments may choose a “soft” default in which they pay back debts with devalued currencies resulting from faster inflation or force creditors to take lower returns, Mares said in an interview.

Borrowing costs for so-called peripheral euro-region nations from Greece to Ireland surged today, resuming their ascent on concern that governments won’t be able to cut their budget deficits. Standard & Poor’s lowered Ireland’s credit rating yesterday on the rising cost of supporting nationalized banks.

Population trends may be a better predictor of the ability to meet obligations rather than debt as a percentage of gross domestic product, which doesn’t reflect governments’ available revenue and is “backward-looking,” Mares wrote.

While the U.S. government’s debt is 53 percent of GDP, one of the lowest ratios among developed nations, its debt as a percentage of revenue is 358 percent, one of the highest, the report said. Italy has one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios, at 116 percent, yet has a debt-to-revenue ratio of 188, Mares said.

[Demeter]

68. This month's Tax stories

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/theres-no-surprise-quite-like-a-tax-surprise-2010-08-27?siteid=YAHOOB

[Demeter]

69. BofA loses bid to end investor lawsuits on Merrill

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100827/bs_nm/us_bankofamerica_lawsuit

A Manhattan federal judge refused to dismiss shareholder lawsuits against Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and various executives and directors over the purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co during the 2008 financial crisis and disclosures about Merrill's losses and bonus payouts.

U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel issued his 140-page ruling late on Friday afternoon. Nine days earlier, the largest U.S. bank and former Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis denied civil fraud charges made in a separate lawsuit by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo over the merger.

Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton said the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender was reviewing the ruling. Lawyers for bank shareholders in the lawsuits did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

[Demeter]

70. Bernanke says Fed to act if needed (BE STILL, MY BEATING HEART! WHAT A HERO!)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100828/bs_nm/us_usa_fed_bernanke

...he said the Fed has sufficient ammunition left and could support growth by purchasing more government debt or by promising to keep rates exceptionally low for a longer period than currently priced in by financial markets. "The committee is prepared to provide additional monetary accommodation through unconventional measures if it proves necessary, especially if the outlook were to deteriorate significantly," Bernanke told a Fed conference, held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Bernanke's comments, in an address to an annual conference of global central bankers hosted by the Fed, came as the government reported the economic growth rate in the second quarter was weaker than it had originally estimated. Bernanke made clear that the U.S. central bank has not decided what would prompt additional easing. "At this juncture, the committee has not agreed on specific criteria or triggers for further action," he said.

"The overall tone was one of watch and wait," Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius wrote in a note to clients, "despite ongoing signs that U.S. economic activity has not only dropped below its potential growth rate but has a significant probability of weakening further."...

[Demeter]

78. More Debate on QE / NAKED CAPITALISM

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/08/more-debate-on-qe.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

...The intensity of the battle over Bernanke’s reappointment and the partial victory for the Audit the Fed movement are tangible signs that the Fed’s aggressive action during the crisis has led to a hard pushback from Congress. Part of it may be deserved loss of faith in an organization that utterly failed to see the crisis coming and refused to exercise any control over banks; another may be that Congress recognizes full well that the Fed was acting as an extralegal, off-balance-sheet funding vehicle for the Treasury, meaning a route for circumventing normal budgetary processes. So if the Fed were to balloon its balance sheet to, say, $5 trillion, my sense is that there would be enough concern about the scale of Fed operations, particularly if the problem is a lingering economic malaise rather than a crisis, to produce concern in some quarters and lead to Congressional prodding (recall, by contrast, that the 2009 QE was implemented when banks still were on the ropes). So the fear of political action may also be playing into how the Fed views this issue.

The problem (which many economists and analysts will readily acknowledge) is that QE is being used as a stand in for fiscal policy, and it is a not so hot second best in an economy where firepower was already deployed to spare banks pain and prop up asset values. And in the US, stimulus was not well targeted, in addition to being half-hearted...

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And to me, the most compelling reason to be against QE is that policymakers will nevertheless hope it might be effective if used again. They will therefore refrain from trying more politically difficult, but more promising course, namely, restructuring debts and using government spending to cushion the impact, with a keen focus on measures that will restore competitiveness and reduce our trade deficit.

[Po_d Mainiac]

95. I don't care what the problem is

If it's medical, without the proper diagnosis, the patient ain't going to heal. And may actually get worse.

If it's mechanical, the problem doesn't go away, but a ton of money may be spent replacing perfectly good components.

If it's economic, failing to understand and admit to the cause, destines the patient to excessive pain and may cause death. At the same time a ton of money was wasted. (That it was money that hasn't even been earned yet is another story altogether)

Bumhanky is having a great time playing the role of Southern Plantation owner ignoring of the bole weevils running through the cotton fields and Sherman's Army less than a days march away.

One has to wonder if he actually believes he has any viable options left other than running his last horse to death to avoid the coming onslaught?
YMMV
edit for typo

[Demeter]

71. What's with all the "divorce porn"?

http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/08/27/divorce_porn/index.html


We are being inundated by stories about marital splits at the same time that the actual divorce rate is declining...

...The divorce rate in America is at a 30-year low. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the current divorce rate at 3.5 per 1,000, down 8 percent in the last five years, 16 percent since 2000, and a staggering 34 percent since its peak in 1979. Roughly 20,000 fewer American couples are divorcing every year as compared with a decade ago....

NO MENTION ABOUT HOW FAR THE MARRIAGE RATE HAS FALLEN...

In the past, researchers have suggested that the declining divorce rate might be a reflection of the fact that a growing number of couples live together without marrying. (There are also significant, complicating demographic changes to take into consideration.) The bottom line, though, is that we don't have the data or the historical perspective to say for sure...

[Demeter]

75. The Plunge in July New Home Sales Was Not Due to the Expiration of the Tax Credit

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-plunge-injuly-new-home-sales-was-not-due-to-the-expiration-of-the-tax-credit?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+beat_the_press+%28Beat+the+Press%29

In an article reporting on the plunge in new home sales reported for July, the NYT wrongly told readers that "July was the first month that home buyers could no longer qualify for a tax credit of as much as $8,000, which analysts said may have contributed to the decline." The end of the tax credit was a major factor in the plunge in existing home sales reported on Tuesday, but not the drop in new home sales.

The existing homes series refers to the closings on existing home sales. These sales were typically contracted 6-8 weeks earlier. While the homes that were closed in June likely qualified for the homebuyers tax credit, this would not be true of the existing homes that closed in July.

However the new home sales refer to contracts signed for selling new homes. May, not July, was the first month in which contracts would not qualify for the tax credit.

[Demeter]

105. Housing Holocaust: Existing Home Sales Plunge, Market Follows By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26229.htm

Don't look now, but someone just pushed the housing market off a cliff. The National Association of Realtors announced on Tuesday that the sales of existing homes fell a staggering 27.2 percent to a seasonably adjusted rate of 3.83 million units. This is the lowest number of sales since 1995. The reaction on Wall Street has been swift, shares plunged in a wild sell-off that pushed stocks down more than 100 points in a matter of minutes. US Treasuries rallied on the news sending bond yields lower as jittery investors sought safety from the ongoing avalanche of dismal economic data. The 10-year slid to 2.49% while the 2 year note dipped to 0.46%. Bond yields are a gauge of investor pessimism. At present, confidence in the management of the economy is at its nadir.

Analysts expected that housing sales would suffer after the Obama administration's First-time Home-buyer credit expired in April, (Deals had to close by the June 30 deadline) but they hadn't expected a real estate holocaust ending in sales that are a paltry 25% of their peak in 2005. Most experts surveyed anticipated sales in the 2.65 million per annum range, not 3.83 million! The shocking drop in sales has added 2.5 months to the massive stockpile of unsold homes that is presently clogging the system and threatens to send prices into freefall. The pace of existing home sales is now slower than any time on record.

This latest housing smackdown will put more pressure on homeowners who are already in arrears or trying to decide whether its in their interest to make payments on a $300,000 mortgage for a house that is currently worth only $150,000. Expect foreclosures to rise sharply. 24% of all mortgages already have negative equity. That's 11.2 million loans. According to housing expert Charles Hugh Smith:

"Since there are about 47 million outstanding mortgages, and 24 millions homes owned free and clear (no mortgage), then we can calculate that free-and-clear owners hold about a third of the $16.5 trillion in home equity -- roughly $5.3 trillion. That leaves about $1.2 trillion in equity spread amongst the 47 million homes with mortgages.....

[Demeter]

79. The Continued Stealth Takeover of the Courts

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/08/the-continued-stealth-takeover-of-the-courts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29


In case you’ve managed not to notice, the old saw, “the best government money can buy” increasingly applies to our legal system. In ECONNED, I describe briefly how a well funded “law and economics” movement which had corporate backing, including from the extreme right wing that was systematically trying to move America to the right, sought to incorporate ideas from neoclassical economics into the practice of law. It was seen as “off the wall” at the time, but has proven depressingly effective.

A more obvious effort is simply to get judges in place that will deliver the verdicts you want. A Mother Jones article, “Permission to Encroach the Bench,” (hat tip reader Francois T) discusses how already big ticket battles over state supreme court seats are likely to rocket to a new level of priciness:

For a down-ballot category that even well-intentioned voters pay little attention to, judicial races are astonishingly expensive. In 2004, $9.3 million was spent in the race for a single seat (pdf) on the Illinois Supreme Court. That’s higher than the price tag of more than half the US Senate races in the nation that year. In 2006, three candidates for chief justice in Alabama raised $8.2 million combined.

But those sums could look paltry compared to the spending likely to be unleashed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. In all, 39 states elect judges—and with the stakes including everything from major class actions to zoning and contract cases to consumer protection, workplace, and environmental issues, corporations have always taken a major interest in those races. The US Chamber of Commerce, Forbes reported in 2003, has devoted at least $100 million to electing judges sympathetic to its agenda. “No organization has had more success in the past 10 years of judicial elections,” says James Sample, a professor at Hofstra University who studies judicial reform issues. “Its winning percentage would be the envy of any sports franchise.” Citizens United has essentially wiped out not just federal restrictions on campaign spending, but many state-level regulations as well, Sample notes, and that’s “going to increase the ability of corporations, and to a much lesser extent unions, to engage in electioneering that is basically aimed at winning particular cases.” And given the low profile of these races, it may not take that much to sway that outcome, notes Bert Brandenburg, executive director of the advocacy group Justice at Stake. “A judicial election is a better investment for anyone spending money” than, say, a congressional campaign....this isn’t merely having judges who will provide the opinions big business wants. We now have a court running roughshod over basic elements of procedure. The last bastion of defense of the individual is being gutted, to the point where even the forms of the law will be ignored if that’s what it takes to produce the outcome the big money interests need.

And to remind us why that puts us all at risk, consider this defense of the reason of the law from Roger Bolt’s screenplay about Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons:

More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get at the Devil?

Roper: I`d cut down every law in England to do that.

More: Oh! (advances on Roper) And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you –where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) This country’s planted thick with laws –man’s laws, not God’s –and if you cut them down –and you’re just the man to do it –d`you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? (Quietly) Yes, I`d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety`s sake.

AND ELENA KAGAN IS A GOLDMAN SACHS ALUMNA!

[Demeter]

80. Portrait of HAMP / A FIREDOGLAKE SERIES

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/08/23/portrait-of-hamp-failure-it-makes-your-financial-situation-worse/

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/08/24/portrait-of-hamp-failure-destroying-credit-ratings/

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/08/25/portrait-of-hamp-failure-banks-rule-borrowers-pay-the-price/

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/08/26/portrait-of-hamp-failure-strangled-by-the-bureaucracy/

"foreclosures are described as lose-lose-lose, as it is a loss for the borrower who can often pay some profitable amount to stay in the home, a loss for the creditor who gets a recovery value of half to two thirds the normal value of the house, and a loss for the community as foreclosures drag down their neighbor’s values. In this situation, after a credit bubble, it’s an additional loss (four losses!) for the macroeconomy, as people can’t move to pursue new opportunities, prices are held at inflated rates by bondholders and servicer to keep balance sheets high and the excess leverage drag the economy to a standstill."

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/david-dayens-portrait-of-hamp-failures/

[Demeter]

98. Program for Struggling Homeowners Just a Ploy to Enrich Big Banks

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26251.htm

The Treasury Dept.'s mortgage relief program isn't just failing, it's actively funneling money from homeowners to bankers, and Treasury likes it that way.

The Treasury Department's plan to help struggling homeowners has been failing miserably for months. The program is poorly designed, has been poorly implemented and only a tiny percentage of borrowers eligible for help have actually received any meaningful assistance. The initiative lowers monthly payments for borrowers, but fails to reduce their overall debt burden, often increasing that burden, funneling money to banks that borrowers could have saved by simply renting a different home. But according to recent startling admissions from top Treasury officials, the mortgage plan was actually not really about helping borrowers at all. Instead, it was simply one element of a broader effort to pump money into big banks and shield them from losses on bad loans. That's right: Treasury openly admitted that its only serious program purporting to help ordinary citizens was actually a cynical move to help Wall Street megabanks.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has long made it clear his financial repair
plan was based on allowing large banks to "earn" their way back to health. By creating conditions where banks could make easy profits, Getithner and top officials at the Federal Reserve hoped to limit the amount of money taxpayers would have to directly inject into the banks. This was never the best strategy for fixing the financial sector, but it wasn't outright predation, either. But now the Treasury Department is making explicit that it was—and remains—willing to let those so-called "earnings" come directly at the expense of people hit hardest by the recession: struggling borrowers trying to stay in their homes...

MUCH MUCH MORE

[Demeter]

81. An Autopsy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/an-autopsy-of-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac/

[Demeter]

82. Dodd vs. Warren shows that government is broken

http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/index.html?story=/tech/htww/2010/08/24/dodd_and_elizabeth_warren&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%2520Newsletter%2520%2528Not%2520Premium%2529_7_30_110

The senator says the professor can't be confirmed, so Obama, with two majorities, should compromise...

[mbperrin]

96. Dodd is a perfect example of what is wrong with politics as structured.

He's also a conniving, selfish, hard-hearted, on-the-take bastard who cares only for his own very short term interest, since even a termite won't eat all the way through a wall for fear of detection and extermination. Dodd is not quite that bright, but he certainly is powerful.

Did I mention I just don't care for Dodd?


Elizabeth Warren is great, and I have been using her as a source in my economics classroom for more than a decade.

[Demeter]

86. 28% of Ga. mortgages underwater

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2010/08/23/daily38.html?surround=lfn

...Negative equity remains concentrated in five states: Nevada, which had the highest percentage negative equity with 68 percent of all of its mortgaged properties underwater, followed by Arizona (50 percent), Florida (46 percent), Michigan (38 percent) and California (33 percent).

[Demeter]

99. Georgia's tax structure doesn't bring in enough money to pay for services

http://www.times-herald.com/opinion/Georgias-tax-structure-doesnt-bring-in-enough-money-to-pay-for-services-12644

AND THEY AREN'T THE ONLY STATE IN THAT POSITION

[Demeter]

87. Opinion: USA a failed state? It may be closer than you think

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/296444

There’s only one common factor in the failure of great nations: Mismanagement. The USA is heading down a well traveled road to its own Armageddon. Rome, China, Russia, the British Empire and others have all been there before.
The Caligula- like state of the US as a corporate entity is hardly a secret. Caligula made his horse a god, the US media has made dis-informative demagogues gods. Any factually inaccurate piece of information has a fairly good chance of becoming accepted as gospel truth in this environment.
The political environment is utterly incapable of governance without melodrama. The GOP doesn’t listen, and the Democrats apparently don’t learn. The ultra-constipated movement of legislation regularly brings actual government to an actual standstill, it just carries on by inertia until someone condescends to pass an appropriation.
Economically the nation’s a disaster area, and the only notable growth in employment is for press release writers who don’t particularly care what they write or why they write it...

[Demeter]

100. David Rosenberg: Prepare For Another 4-5 Million Job Cuts

In his morning note, David Rosenberg warns of more economic bloodletting ahead.

The article in yesterday’s WSJ titled Specter of Layoffs Stalks Wall Street really resonated with us. As we said in yesterday’s note, the size of the securitized loan market has shrunk 60% in the past two years. Balance sheets, production, order books and staffing requirements are all rightsizing to this new semi- permanent landscape of reduced credit availability.

In fact, we could see a situation where another 4 to 5 million jobs could be shed in the United States — and in the three sectors that were, and remain, the most affected by the housing crisis and financial collapse.

For example, historically, the construction industry employed three workers for every housing start. Today, that ratio is closer to 10. This could easily mean that we see 3 to 4 million construction jobs being lost going forward, barring a major revival in the housing market, which isn’t happening.
The ratio of employees in the financial sector to outstanding private sector credit is at a new and lower level that would warrant around a workforce 500,000 lower than is the case today — just to get to productivity ratios that prevailed in the pre-bubble era. And the third sector, which is the fiscally-challenged state and local government segment, for payrolls there to mean revert to the level commensurate with the ever-declining level of public spending would also mean roughly 500,000 employment cutbacks. No doubt there are other sectors that will provide some offset in health and education and even manufacturing, but it took 25 years for these areas combined to rise five million and something tells us that the downsizing that is left in the housing, financial and state/local government sectors will occur in a much shorter period (and the latter too, if what happened recently in New Jersey is any indication, the social contract with public sector unions will soon go the way of the dodo bird)."

Note that the year-on-year trend in layoff announcements, after a brief period of declines, is now re-accelerating in the three above-mentioned affected sectors. For the first time since late 2007, the financial sector posted no hiring announcements in each of the last two months and this has also been the case in three of the past four months in the real estate sector. Government sector hiring announcements, as an aside, have plunged 75% from year-ago levels. The signs are already there — get ready for another downleg in employment as the jobless claims are now suggesting — especially as it pertains to this 33 million or 25% chunk of the total workforce.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/david-rosenberg-prepare-for-another-4-5-million-job-cuts-2010-8#ixzz0xvWeUG2c

[Lucky Luciano]

112. I read Rosie's note every day. Very valuable yet free.

They make it free because it gets a lot of exposure for his small firm Gluskin Sheff that he joined after his former employer, Merrill had TARP constraints on compensation.

"Breakfast With Dave" is well worth the daily read!

[DemReadingDU]

121. Where do we sign up to read "Breakfast With Dave" ?

Is this a link you go to every day? If so, what is the link?
Or an email that you receive every day? If so, how do I register?
Thanks!

[Lucky Luciano]

132. Google his name and Gluskin Sheff.

Should be easy to find from there. He is very much a realist about the economy, but most here will not like his supply side solutions. Bear in mind his main audience is the investor class. That said, this week he did say that even if you don't like Krugman, you are doing yourself a disservice by not paying attention to him. Basically, both he and Krugman agree on the current state, but disagree on how to repair the state. Rosenberg's analyses are very thoughtful and he really picks apart the economic data that comes out each week.

[Demeter]

102. State Department details Blackwater violations of U.S. laws

The company formerly known as Blackwater violated U.S. export control laws nearly 300 times, ranging from attempts to do business in Sudan while that country was under U.S. sanctions to training an Afghan border patrol official who was a native of Iran, the State Department said Monday.

The alleged violations were spelled out in documents released Monday by the State Department as part of a $42 million settlement with Blackwater that will allow the company, now known as Xe Services LLC, to continue receiving U.S. government contracts.

The agreement appears to spell the end of a three-and-a-half-year, multi-agency federal probe into Xe Services' unauthorized exports of defense technologies and services. While elements of the case were presented to a federal grand jury, the company and its currently serving officers have avoided criminal prosecution.

The State Department said Monday that Xe Services' alleged violations, while widespread, "did not involve sensitive technologies or cause a known harm to national security." Additionally, it said, they took place while Xe "was providing services in support of U.S. government programs and military operations abroad."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/23/99561/state-department-details-blackwater.html#ixzz0xvXPIVP9


NO WORRY--IT'S JUST A WRIST SLAP!

[Demeter]

106. Yes Folks, Hindenburg Omen Tripped Again By Steven Russolillo

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26226.htm

The Hindenburg Omen reared its ugly head late last week, signaling more doom and gloom as stocks plod along amid the dog days of summer.

The Omen, a technical indicator which uses a plethora of data to foreshadow a stock-market crash, was tripped again on Friday, marking the second time since Aug. 12 it has occurred. (It also came close on Thursday, but one of its criteria fell short.)

The latest trigger has prompted the Omen’s creator, Jim Miekka, to exit the market. “I’m taking it seriously and I’m fully out of the market now,” Miekka, a blind mathematician, said in a telephone interview from his home in Surry, Maine. “I would’ve probably stayed in until the beginning of September,” depending on how the indicators varied. “That was my basic plan, until the Hindenburg came along.”

The Omen has been behind every market crash since 1987, but significant stock-market declines have followed only 25% of the time. So there’s a high likelihood that the Omen could be nothing more than a false signal.

But that isn’t stopping Miekka from taking any chances, especially as September, typically the market’s worst-performing month, sits only one week away....

[Demeter]

125. GRAPHIC PORN FROM JESSE'S

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2009/10/speculative-bubble-in-equities-and-case.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JessesCafeAmericain+%28Jesse%27s+Caf%C3%A9+Am%C3%A9ricain%29

STATISTICS FOR UNBELIEVERS

[Demeter]

126. A second Great Depression is still possible BY Thomas Palley

http://blogs.ft.com/economistsforum/2009/10/a-second-great-depression-is-still-possible/

FROM OCTOBER, AND STILL TRUE TODAY! ANOTHER GREAT CLUB FOR CONVINCING THE UNBELIEVERS.

[Demeter]

127. Fed Authorized 100% Payout by AIG on CDS

TIMMY DID IT! AIG WAS GOING FOR 40%, BUT NOT TIMMY!

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/10/fed-authorized-100-payout-by-aig-on-cds.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

[Demeter]

128. ANOTHER OCTOBER NUGGET: Goldman Lobbies Senate, Says Full Transparency Sucks

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/10/27/goldman-lobbies-senate-says-full-transparency-sucks/

[Demeter]

11. OIL CAN (OR CANNOT?)

Notes on the dirtiest, most lucrative business around... the one we always go to bat for, guns blazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t4g_1VoGw4

[Demeter]

12. $3m paper loss on Svanberg's BP shares

BP’s chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg is nursing a paper loss of almost £2m ($3.1m) after the spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/EWPIMZ/VTVRG/BMN18V/18ZDU1/6C/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=27

[Demeter]

37. Bacteria gorge on BP gulf oil plume

Bacteria are feasting on the oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico – breaking down the residue of the BP spill more quickly than scientists had anticipated – according to a first intensive investigation of microbial activity after the Deepwater Horizon blow-out

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/40IO4Y/EKRAI/FX115N/D4QFW5/36/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[JDPriestly]

54. I'm wondering whether and if so how the fact that the bacteria are feeding on

oil will change the environment of the ocean in that Gulf.

I suspect that there is often some oil seepage in the ocean, and for years, tankers cleaned their tanks by just dumping oil into the ocean. But what will happen when so many bacteria are eating away at so much oil. Will it change the acidity of the ocean?

I have a worm bin. I've had it for about a year and a half. I started with a few worms, but now, the bin is just teeming with worms.

What will happen if the ocean starts to just teem with bacteria that has fed on oil. Oil in that quantity may be bringing substances into the environment that have not been there in such quantities in recent times.

That the bacteria is eating the oil does not comfort me at all. It just creates a great deal of uncertainty in my mind.

[Demeter]

55. In the Absence of Food, the Bacteria Go Dormant or Die

Unless they adapt to eating all the plastic trash in the ocean...which is a petroleum product...or infect the fish in the sea with some horrible disease...


Welcome to Darwin's world, where change has consequence! Because it's actual change.

The bacteria eating the oil break it down into smaller molecules--I can ask my chemical engineering sister and BIL which ones might be the result.

Smaller is better, because it becomes more useful and less toxic to other forms of life...

I can't see the results of digestion being acidic. I can see more ammonia-like compounds, which would be base and thus counteract any acidity. After all, ammonia-based fertilizer is a product of petroleum, too. Or if it's overwhelming, we will begin to resemble Jupiter's moon with its ammonia seas...

I'll ask her next time we call.

[JDPriestly]

93. Thanks. I would like to know what we can expect.

[Demeter]

83. My sister thinks the bacteria would produce CO2

which would acidify the oceans....she's looking it up.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129475847

She says the bacteria would use up the available oxygen for digesting the oil, creating a dead zone that won't support fish, but with time and hurricanes and waves stirring up the water, more oxygen will return to the ocean....slowly.

[JDPriestly]

94. That's what I suspected -- acidity and using up oxygen. That's bad,

really, really bad. But I don't have a sense of what the proportion of oil is to the size of the ocean there. I'm not sure we will ever know how much oil spilled, how much is continuing to leak.

[Joe Chi Minh]

110. Oh, but they say that this special strain of bacterium doesn't use up as much oxygen...

In the newspaper I read, it was couched in very vague terms. In fact, my impression was that it was precisely the kind of publicity material large corporations/governments would routinely produce in such a situation.

The saying, 'to pour oil on troubled waters' springs to mind, but using it in this context, to describe an attempted quelling of the public furore, would perhaps be a mite insensitive.

[Demeter]

113. Well, there are anarobic bacteria that thrive in the absence of Oxygen

I think exposure to oxygen actually kills them. But whether anything the MSM says is true or not, I withhold judgment until I see who the source is.

[Demeter]

60. BP frozen out of Arctic oil drilling race

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/25/bp-arctic-greenland-oil-drilling

British energy giant BP forced to abandon hopes of Greenland exploration owing to tarnished reputation from Gulf oil spill...

The company confirmed tonight that it was no longer trying to win an exploration licence in Greenland, despite earlier reports of its interest. "We are not participating in the bid round," said a spokesman at BP's London headquarters, who declined to discuss its reasons for the reverse.

The setback, which follows the announcement this week of a major find in the region by British rival Cairn Energy, is the first sign that the Gulf of Mexico disaster may have permanently damaged BP's ability to operate – not just in US waters, but in other environmentally sensitive parts of the world.

Today the bureau of minerals and petroleum in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, confirmed that the names of successful bidders for future exploration licences would be announced in the next couple of weeks.

The bureau refused to comment on widespread rumours that it had specifically decided not to consider BP as a result of the recent Macondo well disaster in the US. However, senior sources confirmed to the Guardian that both the Greenland government and BP had agreed it would be inappropriate for the company to be involved. "With the Greenpeace ship already harassing Cairn off Greenland — a company which has an exemplary safety record – everyone realised it would be political madness to give the green light to BP," one source said...

[Demeter]

14. CAR TALK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RjJKxsamQ

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

[Demeter]

15. China’s SAIC shows interest in GM float

The notion that the “new GM” might attract prominent foreign shareholders such as SAIC should come as no surprise for a company that sold 72 per cent of its vehicles outside the US last year

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/EWPIMZ/VTVRG/BMN18V/8AKJ6W/6C/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=27

[Demeter]

33. Toyota to make the Prius noisier

The Japanese carmaker is set to sell a device that can be installed in the Prius to simulate the sound of a motor and warn pedestrians that the ultra-quiet car is approaching

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/EWPWRP/87I64/5CQ97Z/S3GCLP/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[Demeter]

62. Rising from the ashes in Detroit

http://www.economist.com/node/16846514

WHAT a difference 15 months makes. On June 1st 2009 General Motors applied for Chapter 11 protection, triggering the largest industrial bankruptcy in American history. This week the carmaker filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission to pave the way for an initial public offering before the end of the year.

On August 12th the firm unveiled net earnings of $1.3 billion for the three months to June, its second quarterly profit in a row and its best since 2004. GM also announced that it had secured a $5 billion revolving credit line and that its chief executive, Ed Whitacre, would soon depart. The former boss of AT&T took over at GM only last December, but the bankers handling the IPO feared that, at 68, he might not be around for the long haul. His replacement will be another former telecoms executive, Dan Akerson.

GM’s IPO is coming sooner than expected and perhaps sooner than the company would have wished. But it will serve some pressing needs. First, it is expected to raise $12 billion-16 billion (the first of several rounds of fund-raising). That will allow GM to start paying back some of the $50 billion it received from American and Canadian taxpayers. Second, the sale of shares will reduce the American government’s 61% stake. GM is desperate to jettison the “Government Motors” stigma, which it believes is costing it sales. Finally, the IPO will help President Barack Obama, who is anxious to show voters that the rescue of GM and Chrysler, its smaller Detroit rival, has worked out better than anyone expected. The bail-out remains unpopular and congressional elections are only two-and-a-half months away.

Nobody can be sure what would have happened if GM and Chrysler had been allowed to go under. But rivals, including Ford, which managed by the skin of its teeth to avoid bankruptcy, feared that a collapsing GM would take down with it America’s highly-integrated network of car-parts suppliers. That, in turn, would have threatened the whole car industry....

LIKE THAT HASN'T HAPPENED ALREADY...WORTH A READ

[Demeter]

16. HI TECH, TRASH TALK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llIbjC49Fjs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ

[Demeter]

17. Google to compete with Skype

Google unveils a feature that will enable its Gmail users to call landlines and mobile phones from their e-mail inbox, broadening the search group’s growing array of communication products and creates a potent rival to Skype
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/RNVPOU/CWSVD/18DILT/YHV519/GX/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

20. Dell to ratchet up its bid in battle for 3Par

Dell is preparing to make an improved bid within days for data storage company 3Par that is “competitive” with Hewlett-Packard’s rival $1.6bn offer, according to people with knowledge of Dell’s plans

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/RNVPOU/CWSVD/18DILT/WL07PI/GX/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

21. Apple plans major television push

The US company is close to securing deals with News Corp’s Fox and Disney’s ABC television networks to offer digital downloads for 99 cents ahead of the launch of a device to stream shows

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/RNVPOU/CWSVD/18DILT/UU6ANM/GX/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

29. Facebook’s ‘value’ soars as investors seek pre-IPO stake

Facebook is now worth as much as $33.7bn based on secondary market transactions, giving the privately held company an implied valuation greater than the market capitalisations of publicly traded internet stalwarts such as Ebay and Yahoo

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/EWPWRP/87I64/5CQ97Z/9ZD952/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[Demeter]

31. DO IT YOURSELF WIND GENERATOR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UPe6A_UVPc

[DemReadingDU]

46. How to Make an Inexpensive Vertical Wind Turbine - Part 2

Good stuff!
At the end, the dog gets a close-up view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24LSnATIZhw&annotation_id=annotation_677293&feature=iv

[Demeter]

49. Oh Dear!! Is the Doggie Okay?

I'm afraid to look.

[DemReadingDU]

51. oh sure!

dog just curious! I think they sense not to get that close.
:)

[Demeter]

34. iPad wrestles with sumo fat finger problem

The tablet computer is about to come to the rescue of Japan’s burly sumo wrestlers, whose beefy digits are ill-suited to wrestling with tiny smartphone handsets

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/EWPWRP/87I64/5CQ97Z/FXS3IQ/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[Demeter]

73. Cyber stalker crackdown 'thwarted' by service providers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11118152


Efforts to crack down on cyber stalking are being thwarted because internet service providers will not take action, according to victims' groups....

[Demeter]

85. Blockbuster to file bankruptcy in September

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38873287/ns/business-retail/

In a report on the Times website, the sources said the pre-planned Chapter 11 filing would be used to restructure a debt load of nearly $1 billion. A planned bankruptcy allows the debtor to work with creditors about payment terms ahead of the filing.

Sources said the bankruptcy would take five months. During that time, the company would be able to shed some costly leases of its worst-performing stores. The source said Blockbuster would close 500 to 800 outlets.

Movie studios, the Times reported, want the Dallas-based company to succeed so it can be a viable competitor to Netflix and Redbox.

Netflix's success already contributed to the downfall of video rental chain Movie Gallery, which filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time earlier this year. The company, which also owns Hollywood Video, is in the process of closing its remaining 1,050 stores.

Blockbuster also has been closing hundreds of unprofitable stores during the past two years. It still lost $65.4 million during the first three months of this year.

[Demeter]

101. Computers that read minds are being developed by Intel

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7957664/Computers-that-read-minds-are-being-developed-by-Intel.html

New technology could allow people to dictate letters and search the internet simply by thinking, according to researchers at Intel who are behind the project.

[Demeter]

18. NOT SO INNOCENTS ABROAD--EUROPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW7jjtNDA_8

[Demeter]

19. Santander suspends BHP insider trading suspect

The Spanish bank said it had suspended a derivatives analyst charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading related to the $39bn BHP Billiton bid for PotashCorp

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/RNVPOU/CWSVD/18DILT/HDR1WO/GX/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26


I GET A KIND OF SICK JOY POSTING STUFF ABOUT HOW MEAN OTHER COUNTRIES ARE TO THEIR WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS, BE THEY BANKSTERS OR OTHERWISE COMMITTING FRAUD AND EMBEZZLEMENTS.

[Demeter]

24. Chirac poised to avoid graft trial

Settlement being discussed in which former president and the centre-right UMP party would pay compensation for allegedly misusing money by creating phoney jobs

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/C5NWJV/52KB7/40E9B6/M9UGEJ/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

25. Ireland attacks ‘flawed’ S&P move

In an unusual outburst, Dublin accuses rating agency of ‘flawed’ analysis of country’s debt position after it follows Moody’s and the IMF in warning about Ireland’s long-term outlook

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/C5NWJV/52KB7/40E9B6/M9UGIK/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

76. Irish debt downgrade raises fears of international deflation spiral

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/irish-debt-downgrade-raises-fears-of-international-deflation-spiral-2062136.html


...The additional premium that investors are demanding to hold Irish debt over its German equivalent soared to 346 basis points, the highest level for three months...



Specifically, S&P argues that the costs associated with Anglo Irish Bank will push Ireland's net national debt toward 113 per cent of GDP in 2012, well above the European norm.

S&P has increased its estimate of the cumulative total cost to the Irish government of providing support to the banking sector from about €80bn (£65bn) to €90bn....



The Irish Treasury has refused to put a final price tag on its bank rescues before the year end, because the new state-owned "bad bank" will only then have completed its purchase of toxic assets from the financial sector. Markets are unhappy with that approach...



The danger – also faced by Spain and Greece – is that the very austerity programmes designed to solve the budget deficit may actually make matters worse by raising unemployment and depressing tax revenues, creating a vicious deflationary circle.

Critics of the UK's Coalition Government also point to these examples to illustrate the downside of deficit reduction. The IMF said in May that Ireland might have to make even deeper budget cuts if her growth is slower than anticipated...

[Demeter]

27. Ifo puts German business on a ‘summer high’

Business confidence index edges higher, with second-half growth expected to remain ‘brisk’, despite concerns about the broader eurozone and US economies
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/C5NWJV/52KB7/40E9B6/RNBCJR/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

56. German Bank Levy Seen Eating Into Sector Profits

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100825-710614.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Germany's new bank levy will eat into the sector's profits from the 2011 financial year onward, and several analysts Wednesday said they will lower their bank earnings forecasts because of it.

The levy will be "a substantial amount and will be noticeable in earnings, especially for wholesale banks with only a small portion of customer deposits," Merck Finck analyst Konrad Becker said.

M.M. Warburg analyst Andreas Plaesier said consensus estimates for German banks' 2011 pretax profits would drop 3%-7% as a result of the levy. Based on the 2009 consolidated balance sheets, Becker estimates that Deutsche Bank AG (DB) would have to pay a bank levy of up to EUR450 million and Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) in the area of EUR220 million. For Deutsche Postbank AG (DPB.XE), Germany's largest retail bank by customers, this figure would be around EUR27 million and for Aareal Bank AG (ARL.XE) it could be about EUR4.8 million, according to a Dow Jones Newswires calculation based on the 2009 balance sheets.

The levy also takes into account the banks' profits or losses, with the maximum fee being 15% of net profit. If a bank posts a loss, the fee would be 5% of the amount it would have had to pay if it had made a profit....

IMPRESSIVE AND REAL REFORM!

[Demeter]

36. Iceland defiant over mackerel catches

Iceland’s fishing industry has vowed to press ahead with its bumper mackerel catch in spite of an escalating dispute over the fish that threatens to damage the country’s bid to join the European Union
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/40IO4Y/EKRAI/FX115N/GKJPK2/36/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[Demeter]

40. Eurozone austerity takes toll on growth

The eurozone’s rapid growth spurt lost momentum in August with a robust performance by Germany failing to make up for a weaker pace of expansion in France and near stagnation elsewhere in the 16-country region

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/73UJGG/RNCSE8/MJTKN/D4P3HY/C5ESEB/B7/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=24

[Demeter]

43. Greek government to kill off payouts to dead claimants

The Greek government discovered that it might have wasted hundreds of millions of euros by continuing retirement benefits after recipients died. "We are obliged to announce that some people in this country have been drawing pensions, though they may have died years ago," said Deputy Labor Minister George Koutroumanis. The government is working on a registry of pensioners so it can put a stop to payments to the dead.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/26/greece-pensions-dead-claimants

[Demeter]

22. FAIR TO MIDDLING EAST

EARTH WIND AND FIRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12dw_BgFAeM

[Demeter]

23. Dubai World plans $19bn asset sale

The move of the state-owned holding company aims to repay $14.4bn of its debt, the terms of which it is looking to restructure

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/RNVPOU/CWSVD/18DILT/267KB9/GX/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=26

[Demeter]

63. Nakheel repays Dh2.5bn debt to trade creditors

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100823/NATIONAL/708229882/1138/OPINION

DUBAI // Nakheel has paid back Dh2.5 billion of the Dh4 billion it owes to trade creditors in a sign that it is making progress with its restructuring plans.

The developer needs to confirm agreements from at least 95 per cent of trade creditors for its restructuring to be approved.

In March, Nakheel said it would repay construction contractors and other creditors 40 per cent of their debts in cash, and the remaining 60 per cent in the form of a tradeable sukuk, a sharia-compliant bond, with annual returns of 10 per cent for five years.

A Nakheel spokesman confirmed yesterday that Dh2.5bn in payments had been made. Ali Lootah, Nakheel’s chairman, gave optimistic comments about the company’s future, and said he did not expect to sell off assets or cancel projects.

Nakheel plans to restart work on at least six of its stalled projects by early October. Those furthest advanced, such as Jumeirah Park, Al Furjan, Jumeirah village and Jumeirah Islands Mansions, are likely to be revived first.

[Demeter]

77. India, the Rent-a-Womb Capital of the World

http://www.slate.com/id/2263136/

You can outsource just about any work to India these days, including making babies. Reproductive tourism in India is now a half-a-billion-dollar-a-year industry, with surrogacy services offered in 350 clinics across the country since it was legalized in 2002. The primary appeal of India is that it is cheap, hardly regulated, and relatively safe. Surrogacy can cost up to $100,000 in the United States, while many Indian clinics charge $22,000 or less. Very few questions are asked. Same-sex couples, single parents and even busy women who just don't have time to give birth are welcomed by doctors. As a bonus, many Indians speak English and Indian surrogate mothers are less likely to use illegal drugs. Plus medical standards in private hospitals are very high (not all good Indian doctors left in the brain drain)...

But the usual empowerment vs. exploitation debate eludes something much more fundamental that the surrogate industry reflects about India. India has leap-frogged several stages of development and zoomed straight into a service economy. Indians stock call centers and tech help lines where Westerners can get their questions answered efficiently. In these centers, Indian youths temporarily adopt new personal identities by using Western names and accents—another, milder way that Indians act as "surrogates," or substitutes for Westerners. The country is romanced by the idea of selling human capital as its next great commodity. So surrogacy resonates not as an old problem of exploiting the poor but as an inevitable part of the "new India," where the locals provide much needed services for the new global economy. This kind of forward-thinking economic liberation dovetails with an ideology of personal freedom. "I think women should be free to choose what they do with their bodies," says Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, a fertility specialist in Mumbai. "We shouldn't treat them as stupid just because they are poor."

This appeal to modern ideals of self-determination make sense to members of the "new India" like Dr. Malpani and his clients. The problem is that the surrogates are not members of this India. Alan Greenspan writes that "India is fast becoming two entities: a rising kernel of world-class modernity within a historic culture that has been for the most part stagnating for generations." The surrogates tend to hail from this "historic culture," which is essentially semi-feudal and pre-industrial. It is this gap that allows for exploitation in surrogacy and other industries to happen, and it is the gap—not surrogacy itself—that is the root of the problem.

To exercise one's freedom meaningfully requires information and education, and many surrogates are deeply ignorant about what the procedure entails. It is not uncommon for surrogates to authorize contracts with a thumbprint as opposed to a signature because they are illiterate. Even those who are literate often aren't able to read the contracts, which tend to be written in English. Lack of technological understanding among rural Indians also breeds misconceptions about surrogacy. Many, for example, thought that it would be necessary to sleep with another man in order to conceive. Even the pricing structure of surrogacy perpetuates social inequality: Many religious Indian surrogacy clients would prefer for their child to be birthed by an upper-caste brahmin, so high-born surrogates can get paid up to double...

[Demeter]

30. CHINATOWN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU9p1WRfA9w

[Demeter]

32. China fund bond sale faces criticism

The domestic arm of China’s main sovereign wealth fund completed its first bond sale, raising Rmb40bn ($5.9bn) from the interbank market as it prepares to help recapitalise some of the world’s largest banks

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/EWPWRP/87I64/5CQ97Z/5C4YZ7/CM/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[Demeter]

35. Pretoria defends China’s Africa policy

South Africa’s trade minister embraced China’s surging investment in Africa, saying that Beijing was not pursuing a neocolonial policy and its growing interest in the continent would bring huge benefits

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/40IO4Y/EKRAI/FX115N/UU62UE/36/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=25

[Demeter]

38. TPG plans launch of renminbi fund

The US group joins western private equity companies in rushing to raise renminbi-denominated funds from Chinese investors that will allow them to make local currency investments

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/9ZSC3E/NRHD3/HDTLHF/NS1H13/QR/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=24

[Demeter]

41. China launches death penalty rethink

China’s top legislature is considering a proposal to abolish the death penalty for a range of non-violent economic crimes, including animal smuggling, tax evasion and forgery

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/73UJGG/RNCSE8/MJTKN/D4P3HY/9ZDED8/B7/t?a1=2010&a2=8&a3=24

[Demeter]

42. China warns of a decade-long shortfall in grain production

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-08/27/content_11211092.htm

China's food security is at risk because of a likely shortfall in its ability to produce grain for the next 10 years, the government said. The nation doesn't have enough water or farmland to meet is grain-output targets, said Zhang Ping, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission.

[Demeter]

57. Geely Auto records net profit of $118 mln, up 35% in H1

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2010-08/25/c_13462078.htm

China's leading auto maker Geely announced Wednesday that the company earned 805 million RMB (about 118 million U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2010 for its shareholders, up 35 percent year-on-year.

The company, which was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2005, achieved a sales turnover of 9.24 billion RMB (some 1.36 U.S. billion U.S. dollars) in the six months ending on June 30. The figure represents an increase of 55 percent from the same period last year.

With 195,734 units of Geely vehicles sold in the first half of 2010, Geely is confident it will achieve the 400,000 target set for the whole year despite increasing competition in both domestic and overseas markets.

Already the country's leading private car maker, Geely plans to invest considerable resources to further strengthen its export business, through "continued improvement in distribution capabilities and revamping of its manufacturing arrangements in major export markets and the introduction of more tailor-made models for the exports market."

[Demeter]

61. Scrutiny for Chinese Telecom Bid

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/business/global/23telecom.html?ref=global

Warning about a potential threat to national security, eight Republican lawmakers have asked the Obama administration to scrutinize a bid by one of the biggest corporations in China to supply telecommunications equipment to Sprint Nextel in the United States.

In a letter sent last week to top administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and the director of national intelligence, Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., the senators expressed concern over claims that the company had sold equipment to the regime of Saddam Hussein and had a close business relationship with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran.

The senators also said the company, Huawei Inc., had close ties to the People’s Liberation Army in China...

RED-BAITING. IT'S SO LAST CENTURY! WHY NOT ADDRESS EMPLOYMENT ISSUES?

[Demeter]

47. GOODNIGHT, ALL, SLEEP WELL

SEE YOU IN THE MORNING! The Kingston Trio: They Call The Wind Maria

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8e9F8PV-m4

And now that damn cat is yowling at me to go to bed. Nag, nag, nag. I'm gonna run away from home someday.

[bvar22]

48. "And everybody has a share" shouted Milo...

..as American Bombs began falling on their own base.

[Grinchie]

119. Tastes like Cotton...

[bvar22]

134. Hi Grinchie!

I'm glad to see someone else remembers Catch-22.

I thought Milo Minderbinder & his "everybody has a Share" scam was uproariously HIGH Comedy.
NOBODY would believe that shit!

That was BEFORE the RICH used their smooth talking "Centrist" Democrats to SELL "Free Trade" and the Giant "Invisible Hand" to a gullible America.

"Free Trade" IS an exact "Everyone has a Share" Milo scam.

[Grinchie]

136. We had brilliant moviemakers back in the day...

Ones that were not afraid to ruffle the feathers of the Mainstream Media and actually tell a frightening story about society.

We watched Soylent Green again the other night, and I was amazed at how contempory this movie feels, especially since we are in the midst of a food crisis, environmental crisis, and a crisis of ethics and governmental control.

On a more current note, I recently watched a video posted here about the wage crisis that has plagued the labor market for the past 10 years or so. The speaker repeated the Mantra of "Increased Productivity" by the American Worker, and it dawned on me. If the American Worker is so darned productive, then the products of his labor should actually cost us less in the long term, and he should be paid more for that increased productivity. Instead, we see flat to diminishing wages for the middle class, and prices remain just high enough to keep the mule chasing after the carrot on a stick.

I have finally come to the conclusion that this so called "Increased Productivity" is nothing more than a codeword for outsourcing the actual production of goods to Developing Countries and hiring the locals at exponentially lower wages, then shipping the crap back in a container for some big box mart operation.

Do we as Americans really need to import Duct Tape made in China? That is just one example of the idiocy of Corporate America, but it's a good one. After the entire production cycle is finished, what is the True Cost of that roll of Duct Tape in terms of packaging, shipping, and job destruction.

Perhaps the Report from Iron Mountain is not the hoax that the powers that be would like us to think it is. After all, we have two Wars rampaging on far away continents, and it seems like the reporters would rather not be bothered to travel their for a first hand look. Nor do we see any accountability as to where the immense sums of Monopoly Money are going and for what purpose.

My only regret is that people do not see the Social Disease that literally demands they become part of the Rat Race, which entagles them further into a tar baby of associated liabilities and debt slavery. My regret is that most Americans are so unhappy that they perceive Medical Insurance as a necessity, since their unhappiness is the unrecognized driver for physical illness. Instead of performing a modest amount of self education into Biochemistry, Pollution, and Nutrition, they rely on a Doctor pushing pills to make everything right.

I think the biggest obstacle to the mass awakening of the people of the world is the ongoing malnutrition peddled by our Agribusinesses that deplete the soul and the spirit from millions of Americans, causing them to be Addled, lethargic, Obese, Violent, Psychotic and otherwise generally ill.

The trouble is that everyone expects immediate results, but life doesn't work that way when it comes to Health. It takes months or even years to recover from the effects of poor nutrition and Corporate indoctrination.

Catch-22 is a classic. It captures the essence of Capitalism run amok.

[bvar22]

138. Increased Productivity....

..is code for "MORE Work for LESS Pay."

Its a GOOD thing only if you are a member of the Ownership Class.

The Working Class USED to benefit from Increased Productivity.
Up until about 25 years ago, the Ownership Class shared the booty by giving LABOR a piece of the Productivity Pie (higher wages), but those days are long gone.

NOW, Cutting Wages, Reducing Benefits, requiring workers to train their insourced low wage replacements, and requiring workers to assume the additional duties of Laid Off Workers without a pay increase are the popular ways of "Increasing Productivity".

[Grinchie]

140. Strangely, I work for No Pay, and am extremely productive

I escaped the Rat Race and now work only my my own pleasure and enjoyment. There is nothing more liberating than owning 100% of your own life, and performing the work applicable to the day as it evolves.

The ability to adapt to each day has been lost on Corporate America and Americans see this as normal. The people of the world mostly just take for granted that working in a cubicle every day is a "Good Job", as long as it makes them enough money to get the illusion of independance.

The reality is that Humans are not machines, and we definately have biochemical realities that drive us in subtle ways. We are capable of incredible amounts of work of the most varied and complicated sort, yet we insist on making everyone a "Specialist", and avoid teaching them all the things that actually create the Environment for critical thought and invention. People need time off to recharge the cellular energy store and rejuvenate from the depletion of heavy labor.

Couple that lack of adequate rest periods with malnutrition, and we have the end result of a sick populace, unable to function at optimal levels.

As an agriculturalist, I spend a great deal of time in the field. There is a great lesson to be learned in managing a large tract of land in a way that doesn't deplete it, and the natural systems and their annual changes are distinct to one that has the time to observe it. I have changed the face of the earth single handedly, and I do it all with a machete and a shovel 99% of the time. Corporate America demands we use Power tools and "High Productivity" gizmo's to work the land, but my experience is that I am better off with the old ways. I work at my own pace, I don't destroy things too quickly as I could with a power tool, I don't need ear plugs, I don't breathe unhealthy fumes, I don't get Reynauds Sysndrome from excessive vibration, I can hear the birds, or the wind pick up and disturb the canopy. Most of all, I don't consume the crap that all the power tools they insist we must use to support them.

If I need a field mowed, I'll hire someone to do it -- They need the money invariably. I don't need a mower at all.

People spend days in a work environment so sterile, that it is no wonder they devour distractions like Glenn Beck and Faux News like candy.

The biggest injustice weighing on Americans is the inability to travel back 75 years and do some simple farm labor like hoeing a field, picking some apples, planting some seeds. It's just not that sexy to do these things for urban dwellers, and they pay the price by being totally dependant on the system for everything.

I was walking through my lower 40 yesterday -- Out of water and looking forward to getting back base camp. Suddenly, in the middle of the most wild forest, the ground was littered with Lilikoi fruit, fallen from a vine hidden in the forest canopy. These things were HUGE! I sat down and feasted on this wonderful, random occurence and was refreshed enough to continue on my survey of my "Wild" property.

While Enron may have brought me down years ago, I am very thankful of the early warning it gave me to restart my life in a more sustainable fashion. We are 8 years ahead of the curve in regards to coping with the upcoming collapse of the Ponzi Scheme, and I hope that it won't be too bad for the folks that remain in denial.

We are no longer fearful, but are prepared for come what may. No need to horde canned goods or ammo, just hording books, hand tools, whet stones, files and other things that one needs to make things, sharpen things, and plant things..

Oh,

Believe it or not, I just saw "V for Vendetta - 2006" for the first time last week. I have no clue how it escaped me for so long. It was a little too close to home in regards to Governmental behavior for us, but overall, a great movie.

[Demeter]

58. The Dangers of Agricultural Speculation

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,713456,00.html

...Prices are no longer determined solely by real quantities of supply and demand. The speculative use of financial capital also drives up prices, and creates price spikes. None of this would be terribly serious if prices would simply continue to rise gradually. The unpredictable ups and downs are the problem, because they inhibit investment...

SPIEGEL: From a moral standpoint, it's hardly justifiable to gamble on the scarcity of food products.

Braun: That is certainly a question we have to ask ourselves. If the prices reflect as much excessive speculation as we assume, the additional increase in prices is costing millions of people their health or even their lives, because they can simply no longer afford their staple foods.

SPIEGEL: What can be done to curb such speculation?

Braun: We have to establish a club of the key grain exporting countries. Its members should establish a reserve at the global level, a true world grain reserve, as well as a virtual granary...

[Demeter]

59. Power struggle threatens to paralyse IMF (WHAT A PITY)

http://www.smh.com.au/business/power-struggle-threatens-to-paralyse-imf-20100826-13sw9.html


A power struggle threatens to throw the International Monetary Fund into disarray unless a compromise is reached soon between the United States and Europe over how to give more say to emerging powers.

The United States wants Europe to give some of the seats it occupies on the 24-member board of the global lender to emerging market countries to reflect their growing global economic weight.

Europe has balked at the idea of yielding some of the nine chairs it holds because it is divided over how to do it....

There are concerns in Washington that the IMF might become irrelevant and lose its legitimacy if it fails to change with the times and become fully representative of both rich and poorer nations...

IMAGINE INDIA AND CHINA AND KOREA AND SOUTH AFRICA AND BRAZIL, AND VENEZUELA, ALL HAVING A SAY...OR INDONESIA, WHICH HAS A SCORE TO SETTLE, THANKS TO TIMMY'S MISHANDLING DURING A RECENT CRISIS...I'M DROOLING IN ANTICIPATION!

[Demeter]

66. SOUTH OF THE BORDER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj0zGxDxXVM

Santana - Song of the Wind

[Demeter]

67. Air carrier Mexicana to suspend operations indefinitely

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/airline-mexicana-to-suspend-operations-on-saturday-2010-08-27?siteid=YAHOOB

Mexico's oldest airline Mexicana de Aviación will suspend operations on Saturday, with its parent company late Friday saying that it's unable to provide services to passengers as it grapples with financial troubles...

[Demeter]

84. Bernanke Ponders the "Nuclear Option" By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26254.htm

...The markets have been holding on by their fingernails hoping that Bernanke will bail them out. But it's going to take more than the usual promise of low interest rates for an "extended period" to boost enthusiasm. Wall Street is looking for the "big fix", a trillion dollar resumption of the Fed's bond purchasing program (QE) to pump up flaccid asset prices, electro-shock demand, and raise consumer inflation expectations. The big banks and the brokerage houses want Bernanke to rout the Cassandras and the gloomsters and pump some adrenalin into sluggish indexes. The Fed chairman promised to help.....but not just yet, which is why the markets continue to seesaw.

Bernanke takes the threat of deflation seriously. His earlier speeches laid out a deflation-fighting strategy that is so radical it would shock the public and Wall Street alike. Here's an excerpt from a speech he gave in 2002 which illustrates the Fed boss's willingness to move heaven and earth to fend off the scourge of pernicious deflation:

Ben Bernanke: “My thesis here is that cooperation between the monetary and fiscal authorities in Japan could help solve the problems that each policymaker faces on its own. Consider for example a tax cut for households and businesses that is explicitly coupled with incremental BOJ purchases of government debt – so that the tax cut is in effect financed by money creation. Moreover, assume that the Bank of Japan has made a commitment, by announcing a price-level target, to reflate the economy, so that much or all of the increase in the money stock is viewed as permanent.

Under this plan, the BOJ’s balance sheet is protected by the bond conversion program, and the government’s concerns about its outstanding stock of debt are mitigated because increases in its debt are purchased by the BOJ rather than sold to the private sector. Moreover, consumers and businesses should be willing to spend rather than save the bulk of their tax cut: They have extra cash on hand, but – because the BOJ purchased government debt in the amount of the tax cut – no current or future debt service burden has been created to imply increased future taxes.

Essentially, monetary and fiscal policies together have increased the nominal wealth of the household sector, which will increase nominal spending and hence prices....from a fiscal perspective, the policy would almost certainly be stabilizing, in the sense of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio....

Potential roles for monetary-fiscal cooperation are not limited to BOJ support of tax cuts. BOJ purchases of government debt could also support spending programs, to facilitate industrial restructuring, for example. The BOJ’s purchases would mitigate the effect of the new spending on the burden of debt and future interest payments perceived by households, which should reduce the offset from decreased consumption. More generally, by replacing interest-bearing debt with money, BOJ purchases of government debt lower current deficits and interest burdens and thus the public’s expectations of future tax obligations." (Some Thoughts on Monetary Policy in Japan, Governor Ben S. Bernanke, The Federal Reserve Board Tokyo, Japan, May 31, 2003)

Yikes! This is monetization writ large. Anyone who thought Bernanke lacked cohones should reread this passage. The Fed chair is prepared to launch the most radical intervention in history, monetary Shock and Awe. But will the bewhiskered professor be able to persuade congress to follow his lead, after all, the fiscal component is critical to the program's success. They're two spokes on the same wheel. Here's how (I imagine) it would work: Congress passes emergency legislation to suspend the payroll tax for two years stuffing hundreds of billions instantly into the pockets of struggling consumers. The Fed makes up the difference by purchasing an equal amount of long-term Treasuries keeping the yields low while the economy resets, employment rises, asset prices balloon, and markets soar. As the economy accelerates, the dollar steadily loses ground triggering a sharp increase in exports and sparking a vicious trade war with foreign trading partners. Then......it's anyone's guess? Either Bernanke's "nuclear option" succeeds in resuscitating the comatose economy or foreign holders of dollars and dollar-backed assets dump their gargantuan trove of US loot in a pile and set it ablaze. It's all a roll of the dice.

[Demeter]

88. Why Democrats Should Propose a “People’s Tax Cut” By Robert Reich

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26249.htm

...So instead of playing defense, Democrats should go on the attack.

Accuse Republicans of being shills for the rich.

And don’t stop there. Do tax jujitsu. In addition to ending the Bush tax cut for the rich, put forward another proposal for growing the economy that cuts taxes on lower-income Americans.

Democrats should propose eliminating payroll taxes on the first $20,000 of income, and making up the revenue loss by applying payroll taxes to incomes above $250,000.

This would give the economy an immediate boost by adding to the paychecks of just about every working American. 80 percent of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes. And because lower-income people would get most of the benefit, it’s likely to be spent.

It would also give employers an extra incentive to hire because they’d save on their share of the payroll tax. And most of the incentive would be directed toward hiring lower-income workers – who have taken the biggest hit on jobs and pay during the recession....

[Demeter]

89. Corporate America, it's Time to Spread the Wealth By Michael Hiltzik

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26250.htm

Businesses are sitting on a record hoard of cash, but they're not using it to hire workers or pay existing ones better wages. Broadly distributing the fruits of economic growth is the only way to sustain that growth.
Corporate America must be in a bad way. Job growth has stagnated, the prospects for hiring, at least in the near term, seem grim, and the polls of top executives sound universally glum.

And yet, operating earnings of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index jumped 38.4% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters, and companies are sitting on an estimated $1.8 trillion in cash -- by some measures, a record mound of cash.

Somebody's making money in this economy. Unfortunately, it's not the middle class or the working class. And that's our real problem.

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

That was the theme of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal quoting several business owners marveling at the dearth of applicants for skilled job openings. But you had to do some math to find a clue to why this might be.

One business was looking to pay $13 an hour for machinists. That works out to about $27,000 a year (assuming vacation is paid for), or about the federal poverty line for a family of five.

Now, it's possible that the business owner couldn't possibly afford to pay a penny more. Or he might be thinking that with unemployment nosing 10% he could try bidding down. But the article also quoted him saying his company could grow sharply if it only had the personnel, so perhaps he should consider bidding up.

The idea that only a shrinking proportion of American workers deserves a solid middle-class income seems to have become ingrained in parts of the business community over the last few years. That was the thought behind the punishing Southern California grocery lockout and strike of 2003-04, when the supermarket chains pressed for a wage and benefit system on which it would be difficult if not impossible to raise a family. (They got their way for new employees.)

How has that worked out? The share price of Safeway Inc., the owner of Vons and Pavilions and one of the chief drivers of the dispute, has barely budged since January 2004. The company swung from a profit of $560 million in 2004 to a loss of roughly $1 billion last year, a performance it largely blames on the crummy economy.........

[Po_d Mainiac]

139. The cost of every single imported item would crush the average consumer.

Anthony Ward's cocoa play would score big time. Fuel prices would sky rocket. All forms of commodities would become a safe haven from the worthless U$ greenback.

The US would never be able to crank up exports fast enough to stem the implosion. Not only did the jobs get exported, but so did the machinery. What didn't leave was trashed beyond repair, or so worn as to be useless as scrap.

That can, being kicked down the road, would become a IRD with the explosive capacity of a dozen :nukes:

Ferget needing a wheelbarrow full of Jackson's to buy a gallon of gas. It would require a ten yard dump body.

[Demeter]

90. Why another fiscal stimulus won't do By Mohamed A. El-Erian

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605262.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

THE CHIEF PIMP AT PIMCO BLATHERS ON...HE HAS A LOT OF NERVE, GIVEN THE ETHNICITY OF HIS NAME, TO MAKE SUCH PRONOUNCEMENTS...

[jtuck004]

91. Maybe if I was an economist, or...

After reading It Takes a Pillage, 13 Bankers, Bailout Nation, others about the financial crisis, and looking at all the money that was loaned (about $15 trillion) and spent (about $3.5 trillion) to make sure they could keep their jobs, and create new ones at the banks, I am left with a question -

If spending ~$3 trillion at banks created new jobs, why would it not work now in the larger economy? Maybe if I was an economist, i would understand. Or maybe I just need to be a machinist, 'cause THEN I WOULD UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS OF ENGINEERING A BIG SCREW.

[bread_and_roses]

92. Theme strikes the perfect elegaic note - and a Civil War reference from Glen Ford

in many ways. Just as "GWTW" was an idealized version of a slave-holding South, the "prosperity" and "middle-class" so many mourn was always built on blood and destruction - and always excluded large swaths of the US, most particularly African Americans and other minorities but also poor rural white Americans. We went from Robber Barons/Gilded Age to Depression to War and then to Post-War Dominance and the perception of a solidly middle-class society even as post-war the rebuilding Europe was creating a society with a much stronger safety net (which is not to minimize the degree to which Europe also built its wealth on the destruction, oppression, devastation of "Third-World" countries - when was it Belgium finally got out of the Congo?)

But still, that notion of a great wind destroying what was and blasting the social/economic/political landscape is apt to our present mostly-unheralded (excepting those here, of course) crisis. And the sense of mourning is apt too - because there were times when we thought we were making progress, thought our ordinary on-the-ground efforts would bear fruit, that "the system" itself was amenable to change - and even small victories.

This great wind has blasted any remnants of that "hope" that many of us had managed to cling to. How ironic that it took an Obama. We are now left as pathetic as the hungry Scarlett grubbing in the dirt for roots.

This column makes it as bleakly plain as possible:

We Are Cornered: There's No Way Out Without a Fight

by Glen Ford

There is no cavalry coming over the ridge to save the people from massed capital. Certainly not the Democrats, whose self-caged left wing now finds its marginalized encampments under lockdown by their own president's hostile patrols, while the GOP and its Tea Party irregulars howl from the circling darkness. That's what happens when progressives maneuver themselves onto the same side of the battlefield as Goldman Sachs, as they did with abandon in 2007-08, deliriously fighting their way into a cul-de-sac in which they are now surrounded.

The leftish brigades rallied to a commander who styled himself an incarnation of Abraham Lincoln, but turned out to be a General George McClellan, the Union's first commander of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan was great at rousing the troops and putting his army on parade, but constantly overestimated his Confederate adversaries and, in Lincoln's final estimation, refused to fight. The political roots of his reluctance to crush the Confederacy became clear after his dismissal when, in 1864, he challenged Lincoln on the Democratic "peace" party's ticket. McClellan never really wanted to win the war, or, at the very least, saw victory in a very different way than Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.

...

Obama and finance capital began an early, thoroughly vetted, and white hot love affair that was anchored in mutual contempt for those who would challenge the rule of money. He has delivered the highest return on corporate campaign investment in the history of bourgeois democracy, allowing Wall Street to pocket at least $12 trillion in return for contributions of less than $1 million per investment house. (Goldman Sachs was top giver, at $994,795.) Obama was BP's biggest political campaign recipient: $71,000, an investment that boosted the corporation's value by billions -- albeit temporarily -- when the president opened up offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Obviously, Goldman Sachs and BP considered Obama a "greater good," in terms of their interests, than John McCain. And they made out like bandits, confirming their assessment of Obama's immense value to their side in the class war. The question is, how in the hell did lefties conclude that Big Capital's and Big Oil's "greater good" candidate was also the progressive side's fountain of Hope -- or even a "lesser evil" -- in 2008? Both camps placed their bets on Obama, but only one side could possibly win.

"Only one side could possibly win" - and we lost. That it was Obama who turned our "hope" into a hardee-har-har moment is a grief I can't seem to get beyond. I guess I don't have Scarlett's resiliency. I have no idea where we go from here, or how we get there.

[Demeter]

97. EXCELLENT FIND!! LINK?

[bread_and_roses]

107. here it is - I forgot to copy it

the rest of the article is well-worth reading too

http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content/we-are-cornered-theres-no-way-out-without-fight

[Joe Chi Minh]

108. I don't want to take the wind out of your sails, but that intro was a bit long-winded, wasn't it?

[Demeter]

109. Happy Saturday to You, Too

Not long enough, but the best I could do under the circumstances. Got any Brit wind-type songs to recommend?

[Joe Chi Minh]

111. That's an interesting question, Dem. I'll muse on it and hope for the best,

though after a quick cast-about in my mind, I'm not very hopeful.

The best I can come up with, I think, is the Lord's command to Elijah, at I Kings 19: 11-13, which I find sublimely beautiful:

11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

I imagine the passage (the original!) would be in the Tanakh, but can't reference it.

Just two songs I vaguely remember, though neither are English, I think: The Wayward Wind by Patsy Klein, and also the Aussie, Frank Ifield. Also the Westward Wind, which I can't remember at all, other than the name. Sorry nothing more interesting, but then, "the wind bloweth where it listeth'!

[Demeter]

114. The Wayward Wind performed by Patsy Kline

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFuzHbM9EEc

[DemReadingDU]

120. Nice!

[Joe Chi Minh]

137. Thanks for these. I've playing a lot of Donovan lately, but this one

by Patsy led me back to Blue Moon of Kentucky, in which she does fantastic yodels. It had been wiped from my Favourites when I had to reinstall all my software.

[Demeter]

115. Donovan – Catch the Wind

http://acousticguitarists.net/2010/04/25/donovan-youtube-catch-the-wind/

[Demeter]

116. Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)

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

[Demeter]

117. AGAINST THE WIND

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akIVjTFd-Zg

this must be a TV theme song--it's a lovely folk tune, in any event.

[Demeter]

118. Scorpions - Wind Of Change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RjJKxsamQ

[bread_and_roses]

123. Westron Wind, When Wilt Thou Blow?

A poem - one that has moved me since I came across it when I was in High School. It's not a song, per se, but I am sure it's been sung. It's very old, I believe:

Westron Wind, When Wilt Thou Blow?

Westron wind, when wilt thou blow
That small rain down can rain?
Christ, that my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again!

Anonymous

Well, it didn't take long to find it as a song:

from Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westron_Wynde

Westron Wynde is an early 16th century song whose tune was used as the basis (cantus firmus) of Masses by English composers John Taverner, Christopher Tye and John Sheppard. The tune first appears with words in a partbook of around 1530, which contains mainly keyboard music. Historians believe that the lyrics are a few hundred years older ('Middle English') and the words are a fragment of medieval poetry. In the medieval time, they were sung by troubadours.

The words of the original were decidedly secular:

'Westron wynde, when wilt thou blow,
The small raine down can raine.
Cryst, if my love were in my armes
And I in my bedde again!'

Recovering the original tune of Westron Wynde that was used in these Masses is not entirely straightforward. There is a version that uses the secular words, but with rather different notes:

[DemReadingDU]

122. Why Economic Growth in the United States Cannot Happen

8/27/10 Why Economic Growth in the United States Cannot Happen
Posted by Joaquin

So, you cut back on your lifestyle; performed a so un-Greek personal austerity reset but your credit card balance is still creeping up; or perhaps you are slowly burning through your savings; or you are at the end of the line; abandon ship. Whatever, you have a lot of company out there.
Why is it so hard to make ends meet these days? The days of living high on the credit hog are over and we all have to get small but in the end, we still have to make ends meet; we have to pay for food, pay for utilities, buy gas, etc. How to make that work?

We all bought a lot of stuff during those days of easy credit. Debt driven demand drove up the value of lots of things. Homes increased in value so much that they became a kind of income harvested through a home equity line of credit. Autos got big and powerful again making them unaffordable to buy and operate now that we have to live within our means. Cell phones replaced land lines and cost a lot more; especially when everyone in the family has to have one. Maybe you have a home that you cannot sell and you are stuck living 20 miles or more from your workplace and your car is fast reaching the point when you will need a new one just to get to work.

We are all waiting, waiting for the economic reset so that things are valued in a way that makes sense to people's lives and salaries but it won't happen because it can't happen. The assumption made by economists is that we structured our lives around having credit available and we need to restructure; but that is not enough, our society has also structured itself around what freewheeling credit bought us and that we cannot afford anymore. Unsellable homes built far away from work places requiring unaffordable transportation to get to work where a pay cut is more likely than a pay raise. Our society has to restructure itself if we are to make the adjustments needed to live in the reality of today's economy.

Perhaps you noticed that food is getting more expensive even as everyone worries about deflation. The same economists are trying to drive inflation up because it means no deflation. Mr. Bernanke is fueling up his helicopter just now for a new round of "quantitative easing"; Ben is going to guarantee that there is no reset; that homes remain over priced and that our lives cannot get on to whatever it is they are supposed to be. The powers that govern cannot or do not have the will to restructure the economy and our society but expect us to restructure our lives just the same.

It is time to ask some questions and get some answers. Who was doing the thinking when the government started giving corporate America incentives to offshore our best highest paying jobs to India and China? The deflation of wages due to offshoring is exactly the kind of dynamic that is crushing the American middle class. Who was doing the thinking when American agriculture was outsourced to Mexico with the help of NAFTA? Who sold NAFTA as free trade instead of what it is, a corporate land grab south of the border? What interests of American farmers in such a thing? How is it that higher education is now only affordable for the very rich? How is it that our public education system has sunk to the point where schools are in some cases limited to four days a week? How is it that with one of the worst and most unaffordable healthcare systems that we get health care reform giving us still the worst and most unaffordable healthcare system?

My family Doctor has over a million dollars in student loans to payoff; he currently works as an indentured servant for healthcare insurance companies. It is happening to all of us; our debts are turning us all into indentured servants of the banksters. I went to a public University where Tuition cost $1200 a year. In forty years that cost for the same public University in 2009 was $27,000 a year a 2250% increase! Inflation since then was 417%. Why then doesn't it cost just $5,000 a year to go to my old school? The answer is student loans; the ability to pay high tuition inflated tuition prices to a ridiculous extent; more than five times than it should be. With freewheeling credit anyone can become an indentured servant; why wouldn't corporate America want that? Now, what will happen if the Universities have to reduce their tuitions? Do you think my old school; the University of California is going to reduce its tuition in light of the state's financial condition? Not going to happen.

The United States has closed its manned rocket program. In a few months, after retiring the shuttles, the U.S. will no longer have the capability of taking people to or from the International Space Station. The country that put people on the moon can't fly anymore. There is only a hope that private industry will somehow find its way into orbit but meanwhile the Russians do it for us. They are laughing, they won the space race after all. The United States is going backwards, a regression that will become permanent if something isn't done about it.

Without government stimulus money, I happen to know that the county responsible for the rural road that I live on won't be able to repave it. It will eventually turn to gravel and potholes impassable by anything without four wheel drive, four hooves, or fat bike tires; perhaps an old Model A Ford could do it but not the neighbor's Prius. This is the fate of America, a regression to a time very much like the late forties if we are lucky.

http://agonist.org/joaquin/20100827/why_economic_growth_in_the_united_states_cannot_happen


Interesting comments at the link

[Demeter]

124. Waiting for Mr. Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29sun1.html

If President Obama has a big economic initiative up his sleeve, as he hinted recently, now would be a good time to let the rest of us in on it...


READ IT ALL, IT JUST GETS BETTER! GET OUT THE LONG KNIVES--AND BBQ SAUCE!

[Demeter]

129. All Debt is Not Created Equal: Government Debt is NOT the Same as Private Debt

TODAY'S ECONOMICS LESSON COURTESY OF Marshall Auerback, an investment strategist and analyst who writes for New Deal 2.0.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=103&topic_id=556139&mesg_id=556139

a traditional mistake in which analysts seek to analogise the expenditures of government with that of a private household or business. The government is sovereign. This fact gives to government authority that households and firms do not have. In particular, government has the power to tax and to issue money. The power to tax means that government does not need to sell products, and the power to issue currency means that it can make purchases by emitting IOUs. No private firm can require that markets buy its products or its debt. Indeed taxation creates a demand for public spending, in order to make available the currency required to pay the taxes. No private firm can generate demand for its output in this way. Neither of these statements is controversial; both are matters of fact. Nor should they be construed to imply that government should raise taxes or spend without limit. However, they do imply that federal budgeting is different from private budgeting, and should be considered in its proper, public context.

It simply means that the government does not “need” money to “fund” its operations. It seems counter-intuitive, but the public actually needs the government’s money to pay its taxes rather than the government needing taxes to pay for highways, bridge repairs, schools, national defense, etc. For the household, paying back debt means they have to sacrifice current consumption (spending). For the government, no such financial constraint is imposed. Its ability to spend now is independent of how much debt it holds and what is spending was yesterday. That situation can never apply to a household or business firm.

Because the government is the only entity that gets to create money, it can “buy” whatever is for sale in terms of its money merely by providing that money to the public, which opens up a huge range of policy options. Putting this in concrete terms, the government–‘buys’ a new highway or a new aircraft carrier, as long as the construction materials and workers’ wages can be paid for in its own currency.

Where does the government get the money? The government creates this money by crediting bank accounts. It creates money with the stroke of a computer keyboard. New money is an entry on a spreadsheet, nothing more...

[DemReadingDU]

135. It appears the link is incorrect

I've been looking, but can't find the correct link to the article.

[Demeter]

143. Sorry, Tripped Over My Own Fingers--Try This

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/10/all-debt-is-not-created-equal-government-debt-is-not-the-same-as-private-debt.html

[DemReadingDU]

145. Great!

Thanks for all the weekend articles!

[Demeter]

144. And that's a wrap, folks

Hope you enjoyed some windy times here!