Weekend Economists Shake, Rattle and Roll March 11-13, 2011

[Demeter]

A thousand apologies. It was a busy day and night. For everyone, but especially the Japanese, who are wondering what they did to deserve their fate.

50's Music: "Shake Rattle & Roll" - Elvis Presley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZy91NcM3Po

So let us combine the rock and roll theme, the Japanese earthquake, and the financial news for this weekend, when we are again inflicted with that modern curse: Daylight Savings Time, between Saturday and Sunday.

[Demeter]

1. ONLY TWO BANKS FAILED

SHIELA DIDN'T DO MUCH SHAKING (ON THE OUTSIDE, AT LEAST):

Legacy Bank, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was closed today by the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Seaway Bank and Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois, to assume all of the deposits of Legacy Bank.

The sole branch of Legacy Bank will reopen on Saturday as branch of Seaway Bank and Trust Company..As of December 31, 2010, Legacy Bank had approximately $190.4 million in total assets and $183.3 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Seaway Bank and Trust Company agreed to purchase approximately $165.9 million of Legacy Bank's assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

The FDIC and Seaway Bank and Trust Company entered into a loss-share transaction on $120.0 million of Legacy Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $43.5 million. Compared to other alternatives, Seaway Bank and Trust Company's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Legacy Bank is the 25th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the third in Wisconsin. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Badger State Bank, Cassville, on February 11, 2011.

The First National Bank of Davis, Davis, Oklahoma, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with The Pauls Valley National Bank, Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, to assume all of the deposits of The First National Bank of Davis.

The sole office of The First National Bank of Davis will reopen under normal business hours beginning Saturday, March 12, as a branch of The Pauls Valley National Bank...As of December 31, 2010, The First National Bank of Davis had approximately $90.2 million in total assets and $68.3 million in total deposits. In addition to paying a premium of 7.5% to assume all of the deposits of the failed bank, The Pauls Valley National Bank agreed to purchase approximately $28.5 million of The First National Bank of Davis' assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $26.5 million. Compared to other alternatives, The Pauls Valley National Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. The First National Bank of Davis is the 24th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Oklahoma. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was The First State Bank, Camargo, on January 28, 2011.

TOTAL FOR THE NIGHT $70 MILLION....

[Demeter]

19. Awesome: Wisconsin Firefighters Shut Down Bank That Funded Walker

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/515607/awesome%3A_wisconsin_firefighters_shut_down_bank_that_funded_walker/#paragraph3



Everybody knows the GOP's biggest weakness is money, so why not hit 'em in the sweet spot? That's what many amazing Wisconsin firefighters did yesterday when they collectively began withdrawing their funds from Madison's M&I Bank -- whose executives and board members were among the highest donors to Governor Scott Walker's campaign.

Heeding a call by Firefighters Local 311 President Joe Conway to 'Move your money,' union members withdrew over $100,000 from the bank, with some reports stating that number is as high as $192,000. Either way, it was a hefty enough chunk of change that M&I shut its doors and closed for the day at 3PM.

This is a very simple, very peaceful way to inflict some serious damage on the money-grubbers; super kudos to the Firefighters Union.

Anecdoctally -- 'M&I Bank received $1.7 billion in bailout money via President George W. Bush's Troubled Assets Relief Program. The bank was acquired by the Bank of Montreal in December of 2010 for $4.1 billion in stock,' reports Dane101.

[midnight]

63. K&R

[Demeter]

2. AIG offers $15.7bn to buy back securities from Fed

American International Group has offered $15.7bn in cash to buy back a portfolio of mortgage-backed securities from the Federal Reserve

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/9Z8VE4/K91WR/HDA688/WLQDV6/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[Demeter]

36. AIG Offers To Buy Back Securities From New York Fed For $15.7 Bln - Update

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/BreakingNews.aspx?Node=B1&Id=1573386

Insurance giant American International Group Inc. (AIG: News ) said Thursday it has offered to pay $15.7 billion in cash to repurchase a portfolio of mortgage backed securities from a Federal Reserve rescue fund. The securities were acquired by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or FRBNY as part of AIG's bailout in 2008. AIG said in a regulatory filing that it has offered to buy all the residential mortgage backed securities or RMBS owned by Maiden Lane II LLC. The facility was set up by the Fed in 2008 to help AIG alleviate the liquidity challenges in its securities lending program by purchasing about $20.5 billion of RMBS.

AIG said it is offering to purchase all of the approximately 800 RMBS owned by Maiden Lane II in a single transaction. The company added that it will close the transaction promptly after the Fed accepts the offer. The move is part of AIG's efforts to repay the bailout money it received from the U.S. government. AIG was bailed out in 2008 with a total federal government aid that rose to $182.3 billion in March 2009 after four credit lines were given, following losses caused by housing-linked assets.

AIG noted that if the Fed accepts its offer, the loans made by the Fed to Maiden Lane II will be repaid in full, with interest, and the Fed will realize a profit of about $1.5 billion on its residual equity interest in Maiden Lane II. AIG also said that the total outstanding assistance to the company from the U.S. government will be reduced by about $13 billion, to a total of about $26 billion.

AIG said, "If accepted, this offer will substantially reduce the amount of outstanding government assistance to AIG; help AIG ensure that the U.S. government recoups all of the money it has invested in AIG; and guarantee that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York earns a profit on its interest in Maiden Lane II while reducing the amount of AIG-related assets on the FRBNY's balance sheet."...The Treasury currently holds 92 percent of AIG's common stock, which it plans to sell later in the year.

AIG closed Thursday's regular trading session at $36.48, down $0.63 or 1.70 percent on a volume of 2.87 million shares. However, in after-hours, the stock gained $0.80 or 2.19 percent to $37.28

I SMELL SKULLDUGGERY AFOOT

[Po_d Mainiac]

45. Like that house of turds should still exist

They'll dump the tranched stuff of value then let ML2 have the rest back after the next bankruptcy

[Demeter]

3. Former McKinsey partner ‘owed’ Rajaratnam

Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey partner, testified that he shared client secrets with Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of Galleon Group, because he felt obligated to him after agreeing to accept $500,000 a year in consulting fees

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/9Z8VE4/K91WR/HDA688/JIA0P0/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[Demeter]

4. AOL cuts 20% of workforce

AOL will let go 900 workers as the company refocuses on producing content and integrates staff from last month’s $315m acquisition of the Huffington Post

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/9Z8VE4/K91WR/HDA688/18F9ME/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[Demeter]

5. BofA under fire over staff home-loss subsidies

The Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered Bank of America to include a proposal in its proxy statement that calls for eliminating a form of compensation that protects executives from falling house prices when they relocate

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/9Z8VE4/K91WR/HDA688/9ZHUIY/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[Pale Blue Dot]

15. Hacker Collective Anonymous To Release Documents Proving Bank Of America Committed Fraud This Monday

After Julian Assange crashed and burned in his threat to release documents that expose fraud at Bank of America, many thought he had been only bluffing, and that BofA is actually clean. Not so fast. A member of the hacker collective Anonymous, which singlehandedly destroyed "hacker defense" firm HB Gary, who goes under the handle OperationLeakS "is claiming to be have emails and documents which prove "fraud" was committed by Bank of America employees, and the group says it'll release them on Monday" reports Gawker. As to the contents of the possible disclosure: ""He Just told me he have GMAC emails showing BoA order to mix loan numbers to not match it's Documents. to foreclose on Americans.. Shame." If indeed this makes the case against BofA' foreclosure practices stronger, it certainly explains why the banking consortium is scrambling to arrange a settlement, and also why Bank of America recently split off its $2 trillion in mortgages into "good bank" and "bad bank" entities.

As a "teaser", the Anonymous member released a November 1, 2010 email between two Balboa Insurance (a BAC subsidiary) employees, which while not proving any fraud, indicates he/she does indeed have access. The timeline on the email makes sense as it is a few weeks prior to the original disclosure that Wikileaks would expose BofA. Perhaps the Assange team merely handed off its materials to Anonymous, which has previously demonstrated its solidarity with the Australian on various occasions.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/hacker-collective-anonymous-release-documents-proving-bank-america-committed-fraud-monday

[Demeter]

16. I Really think Assange was out of his league---

He didn't (doesn't) know what he's got and what to do with it. He needs an expert analyst (like Yves Smith) to sort it out and present it to the world in a coherent, understandable fashion.

[Demeter]

6. Anadarko considers Algeria assets seizure

Anadarko Petroleum has considered seizing the foreign assets of Sonatrach to enforce judgment if it wins a claim against its Algerian partner over an oil windfall tax

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/9Z8VE4/K91WR/HDA688/S3D46C/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[Demeter]

7. Oil price surges on Saudi protest fears

When the demonstrators refused to leave eyewitnesses said the police fired on them with rubber bullets and percussion bombs

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/ZBNLIB/JQU4J/BM6LCP/RNK56L/YT/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[Demeter]

8. Market jitters as Spain credit downgraded

The euro falls against the dollar and stock markets slide after Moody’s downgrades Spain’s sovereign credit rating, reviving investor fears about weaker eurozone economies

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/ZBNLIB/JQU4J/BM6LCP/S3D4O3/YT/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[Demeter]

9. Japan PM hit by donations scandal

Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister, received Y1m in political donations from a foreign resident, according to a report in a Japanese newspaper, a claim that will add to pressure on his embattled government

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/ZBNLIB/JQU4J/BM6LCP/EWOBJM/YT/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[Demeter]

10. IRONY ALERT! US warns Russia over investor risk

The US vice-president has warned Russia it risks scaring away investors unless it moves to strengthen the rule of law and introduce political reforms

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/ZBNLIB/JQU4J/BM6LCP/6V1NKB/YT/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=11

[kickysnana]

12. Now that is funny. n/t

[Demeter]

11. Back in the Morning! Keep posting!

[bread_and_roses]

13. "Time for a Main Street Contract"

Rose Ann DeMoro

Executive Director, National Nurses United, AFL-CIO and California Nurses Association
Posted: March 10, 2011 06:40 PM

Bargaining for the USA: Time for a Main Street Contract for the American People

... It wasn't public workers or high school students or single mothers on Medicaid who plundered public treasuries or caused the meltdown on Wall Street. Talk of shared sacrifice is hollow when all the blame and concessions are forced on working families and those who can afford it the least.

The attack on collective bargaining and unions was always part of a larger game for politicians like Scott Walker, other governors, many in Congress, and their legion of corporate sponsors, to escalate the transfer of our nation's wealth and resources to the bankers and the other elites...

...
• Jobs at living wages, with a new national policy based on re-investing in America.
• A good, affordable education.
• Guaranteed health care for all.
• A secure retirement, with the ability to retire in dignity.
• Decent shelter and protection from hunger.
• The right to collectively organize.
• A just taxation system where corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share.
• Restoring the promise of our founding -- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

How unutterably pathetic that here, in the "richest country in the world," we have to demand that everyone have at least "decent shelter and protection from hunger."

[Demeter]

28. That Was Covered in Newt's "Contract On America"

and it's still in full force...

[bread_and_roses]

14. "Make Rich Pay Their Share" - and a note on NPR

The Crisis is Our Unwillingness to Make Rich Pay Their Share
by John Hallinan

U.S. corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash -- trillion, not billion. The same people who shipped millions of jobs overseas, caused the financial crisis, and pay themselves multimillion-dollar bonuses every year are now sitting on a mountain of cash. Yet both state and local governments feel the need to give them more tax cuts. To what end? So they can create more profits and sit on bigger piles of cash, so they can play monopoly as they buy each other out, or so they can give themselves even bigger bonuses? There is no indication that they are interested in doing anything to spur the economy.

In December we heard the Republicans tell us that people making over $250,000 per year couldn’t afford a 4 percent tax increase, and it would be terrible for the economy to increase their taxes. Thirty years ago they were paying 70 percent in taxes. Now they pay half that, but a 4 percent increase is just too much to bear.

Now we are told that state workers making $40,000 to $60,000 per year are stealing the state blind. The same workers who for the last two years have taken over a 3 percent pay cut in the form of furloughs are now told they haven’t sacrificed enough. Now they must forfeit 7 percent or more of their pay, and give up their right to negotiate their future. What is appalling is the state workers were willing to give up the money to help out the state. All they asked was to keep their right to negotiate. Yet the wealthiest in our country aren’t willing to give up anything to help our country out of the financial mess they created.

Now, over at Alternet, Bill Moyers, Michael Winship have an article defending reporting on public broadcasting. I listen to NPR in the car - years and years and years of listening. And though I've been particularly busy these past few weeks and have not heard more than a snippet here or there, I do not, in all my years of listening, recall hearing figures such as above when some right-wing bloviator R or DINO comes on with talk of cutting taxes for the rich or Corps. Instead, some usually mealy-mouth Dem is called on for an "opposite view" (usually just a scraps and bones view), making the issue always one of Rs vs Ds.

Obviously, I don't hear every story. But FAIR did a study - oh, way back now - thaeh wasn't pretty. I don't see much evidence that anything has changed. They serve our corporate masters well by keeping the frame of the "debate" very narrow. I cannot get very excited about the (remote, I think) possibility of their demise. Either we have a public broadcasting system totally free of corporate sponsorship and totally independent of political favor or we have nothing. So be it, as far as I am concerned.

[Demeter]

17. The Master Key By BOB HERBERT

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/opinion/12herbert.html

The United States is not racked with the turmoil that is shaking the Arab world, or the tragic devastation that has hit Japan. We are not in a state of emergency. We’re in a moment when it is possible to look thoughtfully at the American landscape and take rational steps to ensure a better, more sustainable future.

But we’re not doing that. The big news out of Washington this week was Representative Peter King’s Muslim witch hunt. Policy makers at all levels of government are talking austerity — sometimes sensibly, but most often mindlessly. Creative ideas regarding energy, education, jobs and so forth have trouble even getting a hearing.

Now comes Senator John Kerry hoping to buck the frustrating tide with a modest proposal. He mentioned in a speech in January that through most of its history America could build things — not just manufacture goods, but build the infrastructure that is required for a nation to be great: “We built a transcontinental railroad. We built an interstate highway system. We built the rockets that let us explore the farthest edge of the solar system and beyond.”

But that time has passed, and it’s not an overstatement to say that unless we atone for our infrastructure sins the high tide of American greatness will have passed as well. How is it, for example, that we don’t already have in place the infrastructure policies to support the vast potential of the green energy market, projected to surpass $2 trillion by the end of this decade?
...Senator Kerry will introduce legislation next week to create a federal infrastructure bank — officially, the American Infrastructure Financing Authority — to provide loans and loan guarantees to large, essential infrastructure projects. The loans will be seed money used to leverage other sources of funding....



Maybe that’s what’s missing today. The ability to imagine.

[Fuddnik]

25. Was anybody still awake 30 seconds after Kerry started speaking?

I said a few days ago, that Washington and the States lacked that "vision thing".

Take high speed rail for example. I think it's a no brainer. We need it, and the air traffic system is getting bloated. But, Washington has used it as a pork barrel project instead of an essential infrastructure improvement. They expect people to go all "ooh, and aah" over a Tampa to Orlando high speed rail project. If anybody has ever driven I-4 across there, they might. But nobody else would.

Look at the 1950's when they unveiled the Interstate Highway System. They had plans. They had charts and maps. They didn't say, "We're building this cool new highway from Chicago to Detroit". They said "This is what it will look like 30 years from now when we finish it". There was a vision. A plan.

[Demeter]

27. I Think I Can Say, Without Fear of Correction

"THERE IS NO VISION, THERE IS NO PLAN"

There's just overwhelming greed and total psychopathy, a hunger that can never be satisfied because all they eat is the junk food of wealth and power to hurt and destroy.

[Demeter]

18. Republicans Parrot Big Banks: Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Is Just A ‘Shakedown’

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/03/10/fraud-shelby-settlement/

In the wake of the “robo-signing” scandal — which involved the nation’s biggest banks approving foreclosures without ensuring due process for homeowners or even having the proper documentation — 50 state attorneys general, along with federal bank regulators and the Department of Justice, developed a settlement under which the banks would use tens of billions of dollars to modify mortgages, instead of having to litigate. The banks, predictably, are pushing back on the notion that they should have to pay anything for their mortgage malfeasance.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan publicly whined that the settlement might involve his bank helping underwater homeowners, while other bank executives told Politico (anonymously, of course) that the settlement amounted to a “naked shakedown by regulators.” “How can (the Obama administration) be business-friendly and sign-off on something like this?” an executive asked.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) this week criticized “fraudulent mortgage actors,” but instead of following his lead, other Republicans are parroting the banks’ rhetoric and standing in opposition to the settlement:

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL): Shelby called the proposed settlement “nothing less than a regulatory shakedown.” “Setting aside for a moment the attempt to end-run Congress, I question whether removing $30 billion in capital through a backdoor bank tax is the best way to jump-start lending,” Shelby added.

House Republicans: House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), along with four other members of his party, wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner that said “the breadth and scope of the draft settlement proposes raise significant concerns that the Administration and state agencies are attempting to legislate through litigation.”

As Credit Slips’ Adam Levitan pointed out, the Republicans are fundamentally mischaracterizing the settlement, particularly when they say that it is some backdoor form of regulation. “The banks have to decide if they would prefer to buy peace with the AGs or litigate. That’s the banks’ choice. And that means that claims that this is sub rosa regulation are ridiculous,” he wrote.

Republicans have regurgitated banking industry talking points before as justification for opposing help for troubled homeowners, and currently, House Republicans are trying to “pull the plug” on the administration’s foreclosure prevention efforts. Scaremongering about the proposed settlement — which, if anything, lets the banks off too easy — is simply one more indicator that Republican lawmakers in Congress are fundamentally uninterested in grappling with the foreclosure crisis.

THE COMMENTS ARE EVEN MORE ENLIGHTENING--SEE LINK

[Demeter]

20. How to Feed the World's Hungry: Ditch Corporate-Controlled Agriculture

http://www.alternet.org/story/150158/groundbreaking_new_un_report_on_how_to_feed_the_world%27s_hungry%3A_ditch_corporate-controlled_agriculture?page=entire

..."To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient farming techniques available. And today's scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production in regions where the hungry live," says Olivier de Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Agroecology is more or less what many Americans would simply call "organic agriculture," although important nuances separate the two terms.

Used successfully by peasant farmers worldwide, agroecology applies ecology to agriculture in order to optimize long-term food production, requiring few purchased inputs and increasing soil quality, carbon sequestration and biodiversity over time. Agroecology also values traditional and indigenous farming methods, studying the scientific principals underpinning them instead of merely seeking to replace them with new technologies. As such, agroecology is grounded in local (material, cultural and intellectual) resources.

A new report, presented today before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, makes several important points along with its recommendation of agroecology. For example, it says, "We won't solve hunger and stop climate change with industrial farming on large plantations." Instead, it says the solution lies with smallholder farmers. The majority of the world's hungry are smallholder farmers, capable of growing food but currently not growing enough food to feed their families each year. A net global increase in food production alone will not guarantee the end of hunger (as the poor cannot access food even when it is available), an increase in productivity for poor farmers will make a dent in global hunger. Potentially, gains in productivity by smallholder farmers will provide an income to farmers as well, if they grow a surplus of food that they can sell.

With its potential to double crop yields, as the report notes, agroecology could help ensure smallholder farmers have enough to eat and perhaps provide a surplus to sell as well. The report calls for investment in extension services, storage facilities, and rural infrastructure like roads, electricity, and communication technologies, to help provide smallholders with access to markets, agricultural research and development, and education. Additionally, it notes the importance of providing farmers with credit and insurance against weather-related risks...

[burf]

32. I don't see that happening

anytime soon. First they must take on Monsanto and the other large Ag corporations and then what about all the farm land that countries like China have bought up in Africa and South America. They certainly aren't going to just walk away from those investments when they have growing populations and in China's case, have screwed up their own land due to over farming and pollution.

Then there's always the problem of water. I read an article the other day, don't remember where, that talked about water wars.

Good to see you out and about Demeter. I feared we were without a WEE weekend there for a while. BTW, blowing snow and 5 above this morning. Wind chill is -20. We are thinking of moving south this year. Getting too old for this shit!

[Demeter]

34. OMG! Where are you poor folks?

We actually got above freezing yesterday...

I was playing hooky. I had the afternoon off, for once, and so went to Burlington Coat factory (and bought enough winter clothing for the next 5 winters, I hope...everything I had is wearing out or I hate it so much I'd rather go outside naked than wear that old thing one more time...)

Then we had a sumptuous dinner with guests, and I took my neighbor to the monthly Euchre game so she could learn...she did well, for a complete tyro amongst the card sharks. I was not embarrassed.

And then got home around 11, started up the old weekend and called it a day...

At least, I won't have to go coat shopping for a few years. And given what I fear is coming down in the near future, I probably wouldn't be able to find such quality at such good prices for several years.

Now I can get rid of my U of M blue and gold stuff....warm, but tedious, and permanently stained with newsprint...

AND AS FOR MONSANTO:

Their business is unsustainable. Even their customers are disenchanted. And they can't expect the armies of the Free World to protect their business interests for much longer, either.

It's the Tipping Point. We are hitting a whole bunch of them, all at the same time. All the foolish, excessively complicated and over-expensive "modern" business techniques, unnecessary technology inexpertly supplied, and purely evil psychopathic personalities will implode.

Whether anything will be left too sustain human life anywhere on the planet...that is a question on which I have no opinion, and less hope day by day.

[burf]

40. We are about

65 miles SE of Fargo ND.

It's not at the end of the earth, but you can see it from here.


Another problem is the number of folks who are skilled in the craft of farming and willing to put up with all that farming entails. The average age of a farmer in now something in the neighborhood of 60. Most kids don't want to follow in the parents footsteps cause all they see is a seven day a week job where mom, or both mom and dad, have to work in town so they can farm. One thing many don't see is dad at one of their basketball of football games cause he's home milking the cows or planting or combining or whatever. They want no part of it.

I know guys about my age (59) whose farms are paid for that are taking out loans against said farm to keep milking cows cause the prices received for milk don't pay for the costs of feed. When you ask them why, they come back with "what else am I gonna do?". The other day I got 15 gallons of diesel and a half a tank of gas for the pick and it was $108. Fertilizer for this spring is absolutely nuts. But, what you gonna do?

Farming, if you're gonna do it, you better love it. And have a wife that loves it too.

[Demeter]

42. Sending Warm Wishes and Thanks for the Farming

I hate to think where we would be without people who do their jobs for sound reasons...

[burf]

43. It gives me the daily

opportunity to question my sanity!

Have a great day!

[Demeter]

46. Apt description of my own life

Same to you!

[BobbyBoring]

55. I love the bumper sticker that sez

"If you think crime doesn't pay try farming"

[Demeter]

21. Another Earth-Shaking Musical Interlude

Beatles - Twist & Shout (live in 65)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6TIEkB4_F8

[Demeter]

22. For the Younger Generation:

Metro Station - Shake It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wjFahULCK8

[Demeter]

23. For Game Boys and Girls

Nine Inch Nails - Quake - Main Theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv5Jvr2Fp48

[Demeter]

24. Used Most Effectively in Heath Ledger's "A Knight's Tale"

We Will Rock You (Queen Rocks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlFZ2w0RV-8

[Demeter]

29. A Country Flavor

Easton Corbin - Roll With It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I37vM8u1zrY

[Demeter]

30. A British Flavour

Oasis - Roll With It, Live GMEX 97

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9KX8732sJ0

[Demeter]

31. A Blues Flavor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWptXUblA4E

[Demeter]

26. Emergency Declared at Japanese Nuclear Plant

WORSE THAN CHERNOBYL, THEY SAY

http://www.truthout.org/emergency-declared-japanese-nuclear-plant68399

...Some 3,000 people were told to leave a 2-mile radius around the Fukushima No. 1 plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power and located in Fukushima Prefecture, after a mechanical failure in the cooling system, government officials said.

The plant is designed to shut down safely after an earthquake, but its emergency diesel generators, needed to run water pumps, were not working. American experts on reactors of the Fukushima design said, though, that technicians at the plant would have several hours to restore power before any significant damage resulted.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said pressure inside one of six boiling water reactors at the Fukushima plant had risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal, according to The Associated Press. Yuichi Nagano, the deputy manager of Tokyo Electric Power's Washington office, said the plant was planning to release slightly irradiated vapor to reduce the pressure. The nuclear safety agency said the radioactive element in the vapor would not affect human health...

WE WILL PAUSE TO CONSIDER THE FOLLY OF NUCLEAR POWER IN GENERAL UPON THIS PLANET WE LIVE ON, AND THE ULTIMATE STUPIDITY OF PUTTING REACTORS ON MAJOR FAULT LINES...

[Demeter]

33. Military Cutbacks Won't Fix Deficit by: Paul Krugman

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, MR. KRUGMAN, STFU! NOTHING SHOWS A MAN'S IGNORANCE MORE THAN PUTTING IT ON PUBLIC DISPLAY IN THE NYT.

http://www.truth-out.org/military-cutbacks-wont-fix-deficit68386

I am baffled by the argument that the United States can incur big savings by ending the war in Afghanistan and, more generally, by cutting bloated defense budgets. I’ve mostly been hearing this from liberals, and indeed this is a variation of a debate that has continued for years.

Now, I am not endorsing our current levels of defense spending. The nation’s military buildup following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was outrageous. The United States was hit by a handful of men wielding box-cutters (or something similar — I am aware that’s not certain), and we responded by buying a lot of heavy tanks and later invading a country that had nothing to do with the attack.

So, yes, the United States spends a lot of money, unnecessarily, on defense. In fact, this is almost surely the most wasteful part of the federal budget, mainly because politicians are afraid to say no to the military for fear of being called unpatriotic. Aside from the question of whether the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are too expensive to fight — invading Afghanistan made sense in 2001, but I have no idea what we’re doing there now — it has long been clear that the United States military is still warding off threats that haven’t existed since the fall of the Soviet Union.

But despite all that, this fact remains: Defense spending isn’t at the heart of the government’s current budget woes. President Obama’s budget calls for defense spending to decrease slightly to 3.4 percent of gross domestic product by 2016. (By comparison, in the 1950s, defense spending took up half the federal budget.) One could make the case that the number should be closer to 2 percent, but implementing cuts in defense would not help us to avoid being forced to make hard choices in areas like health care.

By all means, the United States should try to crack down on waste in the defense sector. However, we must realize that doing so would be of only modest help in fixing the budget gap. For evidence, look to the graphic on this page showing defense spending as a share of G.D.P. in the United States, according to the government...

MR KRUGMAN IS BEING DISINGENUOUS, AT BEST, AND A DAMN NUISANCE.

[Demeter]

35. SEC chairman: Former general counsel should not have worked on Madoff fallout

SO, WHERE WAS HIS BOSS, MADAME CHAIRMAN?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/10/AR2011031005818.html

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary L. Schapiro said Thursday that, in hindsight, former general counsel David M. Becker, who inherited part of a Bernard Madoff investment account, should have stayed out of the agency's work on the Madoff bankruptcy.

Responding to criticism that she mismanaged a conflict of interest by allowing Becker to participate in the matter, Shapiro testified that she relied on Becker, an experienced lawyer, to handle any ethical issues after he told her about the account in 2009.

"Do I wish now that he had been more sensitive to the potential of this issue to raise an appearance of a conflict? Yes, I wish it hadn't happened," Shapiro said.

"I wish that Mr. Becker had recused himself, absolutely," she added.

THERE'S A WORD FOR WOMEN LIKE THAT...AND IT ISN'T A NICE ONE. BACKSTABBER!

Schapiro promised the SEC would learn from the experience.

"I've worked so hard the last two years to try to put this agency back on the right path and to earn the trust of the public, and you're right, a small thing like this, not so small thing . . . can really set us back, and it's not fair to 3,800 hardworking employees," she said.

GET OUT THE HANKIES. THIS IS TURNING INTO A CHICK FLICK. (I HATE CHICK FLICKS)

[Po_d Mainiac]

56. This was planned

The revelations come just as the SEC is begging for additional staf., READ: financing for staff. (Maybe a few will be worth something) Which won't happen with this cloud overhanging.

The PTB must be ecstatic. :grr:

[Demeter]

37. Tokyo, Osaka Exchange Tie-Up Too Late, Too Local as Mergers Engulf Markets

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-10/tokyo-bourse-merger-with-osaka-exchange-too-late-too-local-investors-say.html

A merger between Japan’s two biggest stock markets may not be enough to strengthen the new exchange’s position as competition for global investment money heats up.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange Group Inc., which runs the world’s second-largest equity market, is considering merging with smaller domestic rival, Osaka Securities Exchange Co., TSE President Atsushi Saito said yesterday. Japan is losing to its regional rivals and the acquisition may be too late to change that, said Masahiko Ejiri, a fund manager at Mizuho Asset Management Co.

“The optimum timing for them to merge was about 20 years ago, when Tokyo was a giant,” said Ejiri, a Tokyo-based fund manager at Mizuho Asset, which oversees the equivalent of $41 billion. “Also they only look at the inside of Japan. They don’t care about foreign investors. If Tokyo were to merge with a stock exchange in Asia, that would be much more powerful.”

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average has plunged about 73 percent from its 1989 peak, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index has surged about 30-fold since December 1990. Tokyo has less than half the number of listings than in Hong Kong and China, which is challenging Japan’s ranking as the No. 2 equity market.

Osaka Exchange President Michio Yoneda said the bourse is prepared to finalize a deal within three months if it is to happen, according to Masahiro Yada, a spokesman. The Osaka bourse operates a derivatives trading system with Nikkei 225 Stock Average futures and the Jasdaq Securities Exchange Inc., a market for start-up companies.

WITH THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE DIFFICULTIES, I'D SAY THE IDEA WAS DEAD IN THE WATER...INDEFINITELY

[Demeter]

38. IMF Says Global Bank Regulation Is Failing, Handelsblatt Reports

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-10/imf-says-global-bank-regulation-is-failing-handelsblatt-reports.html

AS YVES SMITH SAYS: QUELLE SUPRISE!

An International Monetary Fund report shows that regulators haven’t gone far enough in taming potential financial-market excesses since the economic crisis began, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported.

Banks remain too big and their businesses even more complex even after efforts to curb their latent capacity to rock the financial system, according to the IMF report that is published today, the newspaper said.

“We are at the moment even less well-prepared than when the crisis erupted in 2007,” Handelsblatt cites the report as saying. Co-written by IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard, the document also says investors are switching to financial institutions that are less regulated, such as hedge funds, in search of profit, creating new risks for the financial system.

THAT'S WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU WASTE YOUR EFFORTS REARRANGING DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC.

[Demeter]

39. The Plan to Steal Everything and Sell the People into Slavery By Michael Hudson and Jeffrey Sommers

STOLEN FROM JACKPINE RADICAL

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27664.htm

On Wednesday evening, in a veritable Night of the Long Knives, Wisconsin's integrity was brutally murdered on the floor of the state Capitol in Madison. On 9 March, integrity and trust built up over a century was obliterated as Wisconsin state senators quickly reversed course and cleaved its budget "repair bill" in half. Financial items require a quorum, thus, collective bargaining was split off from the budget repair bill and voted on separately so as to permit its being voted on now. Even so, this still broke the state's open meeting law requiring 24 hours' notice to ensure transparency. Instead, the Wisconsin senate Republicans pulled out this new legislation without advance notice and began voting, leaving only a stunned Democratic legislator, Peter Barca, to read the open meeting law out loud to prevent the senators from voting. The senate voted over his objections anyway.

The Wisconsin brand has always centered on integrity. This was really about the only distinctive comparative advantage the state could lay claim to. Now, it is gone. With collective bargaining abolished, huge issues remain beyond labor. The privatization of public assets is now on the agenda, with the yet-to-be-voted-on budget repair bill.

Wisconsin is a state that invented Progressive Era Republican rule in the 19th and early 20th centuries under such progressive populists as Robert LaFollette. Under their tenure, rent-seeking from the public domain and similar insider corruption were checked by a strong public sector anchored in integrity. The state's long history of reforms nurtured a prosperous middle class and made it a model of clean government, solid infrastructure, trade unionism and high value-added industry managed by socialists and the LaFollette Progressives.

Fast-forward to Scott Walker today. Representing a new breed apart from Wisconsin's earlier Republicans, he is seeking to re-birth the asset-grabbing Gilded Age. A plague of rent-seekers is seeking quick gains by privatizng the public sector and erecting tollbooths to charge access fees to roads, power plants and other basic infrastructure.

Economics textbooks, along with Fox News and shout radio commentators, spread the myth that fortunes are gained productively by investing in capital equipment and employing labor to produce goods and services that people want to buy. This may be how economies prosper, but it is not how fortunes are most easily made. One need only to turn to the 19th-century novelists such as Balzac to be reminded that behind every family fortune lies a great theft, often long-forgotten or even undiscovered.

But who is one to steal from? Most wealth in history has been acquired either by armed conquest of the land, or by political insider dealing, such as the great US railroad land giveaways of the mid 19th century. The great American fortunes have been founded by prying land, public enterprises and monopoly rights from the public domain, because that's where the assets are to take.

Throughout history the world's most successful economies have been those that have kept this kind of primitive accumulation in check. The US economy today is faltering largely because its past barriers against rent-seeking are being breached...

MUST READ FOR ECONOMICS AND POLITICS AND LAW AND SOCIOLOGY AND...

[bread_and_roses]

47. Excellent article. (n/t)

[Demeter]

41. The News Hasn't Been This Depressing in Ages

So many green shoots, blasted by the frigid rigidity of people who know better, but are still refusing to learn from experience...or heed the lessons of history.


THIS TIME, LIKE EVERY OTHER TIME, IT'S NOT DIFFERENT! IT JUST ISN'T. NOBODY CAN SUSPEND THE LAWS OF GRAVITY OR OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR SO THAT CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS CAN PROFIT THEREBY. THE PSYCHOPATHS CAN'T REDESIGN THE UNIVERSE JUST ON THEIR "AUTHORITY" AND WHIM.

And the bitching and kvetching at DailyReckoning.Com! They are getting exactly what they asked for, and they aren't at all satisfied...how people can have such a good grasp of the basics, and yet try to balance a RubeGoldbergian belief system upon it...it reminds me of a certain religion which has basically thrown out its founder, who preached universal love, in favor of a whole lot of Exeptionalism for themselves, and universal hate for anybody else...

[DemReadingDU]

44. It's not different this time.

So many things going on, that the tipping point must be near. Eventually, it will implode, it's unsustainable.

[Demeter]

49. Daily Reckoning, Like Rats on a Sinking Ship

advises everyone to leave the US for other lands (which simply don't have that all-valuable American "expertise" and will therefore pay handsomely for the Great White Fathers to fix their pathetic little nation-islands up, ala Robinson Crusoe, or maybe Henry Morgan...).

They screwed that up with the Ugly American Schtick, IMO...

The sooner the rats leave, the sooner we can fix the place up.

[Fuddnik]

53. Back in the 90's they were suggesting people should move to.

Guata-fucking-mala.

Shows where Bonners head is at. Way up his ass.

I suggest they move someplace that still has cannibals. They know how to prepare Great White Fathers.

[Demeter]

57. Guatemala still comes up

Also Argentina. Nothing like Europe, though, or Africa, or the Orient.
Frankly, after the Bush wars, I'd hate to be a gringo in South or Central America....

Oh, and Costa Rica! Now THERE'S a safe spot for your nearest and dearest...yourself, your capital, and your family, too!

[Po_d Mainiac]

59. We've logged close to a half year in C.A. over the last decade

If you interact with the locals as their equal, you get along fine. If you play the 'Ugly American', they will shit back.

[Demeter]

60. But not as a semi-permanent Resident (and future Overlord), I'll Wager

[DemReadingDU]

62. My sister wants to move to Roatan

Roatan, an island near Honduras
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roat%C3%A1n

[Po_d Mainiac]

80. We just don't act like repuke's. n/t

[Demeter]

48. Anybody Capable of Finding or Remembering Other Tunes of This Theme?

I confess, I only knew two of them before google...and I'm running out of key words to search.

Not to make light of the outright suffering in Japan, but I for one need some kind of light-hearted distraction. I haven't heard from my exchange student in Osaka, yet...she has two kids.

[burf]

50. Wasn't there one

A whole lotta shakin' goin' on? Or something like that.

[Demeter]

51. Perfect! A bit before my time (I was in diapers)

Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Going on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifEc-RazQlY

[Fuddnik]

54. Well, they've got a big fire.

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

[Demeter]

58. I wonder if there were any songs about TMI or Chernobyl?

Pinkard & Bowden - Three Mile Island

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

Three Mile Island - Seven Nation Army.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=112RzcKC6f4

Three Mile Island - Paint it black. (Napton festival.) I GUESS IT'S THE BAND NAME...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVhx-1H40q0&feature=related

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl Theme Song

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

Новый год (the children of chernobyl)

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

[Demeter]

52. Watch "Inside Job" On Line!

http://www.archive.org/details/inside_job_2010

[DemReadingDU]

61. That's a great documentary!

Bookmarking to watch again

[jtuck004]

66. Now says bad gateway. Darn it, too slow. n/t

[Demeter]

64. There's a Serious Problem With Kicking Over the Traces, Breaking Routine

It's so very hard to force oneself back into harness.

I've been watching the Japanese nuclear catastrophe like a slow-moving train wreck through a telescope. Horrified.

[Fuddnik]

67. Pathetic nooz coverage.

I was looking for updates before bed last night. CNN had an "expert" physicist from Jawja Tech, talking about how overly safe these new reactors were, and it was just one big happy party at that nuke plant.

I got the distinct feeling I was watching Richard Nixon sell a used car. And these marks on CNN were buying.

[burf]

71. I have finally got to the point

of its either AlJazz or RT. I had CNN on for a while yesterday and it had more commercials than most infomercials I have seen.

I am continually amazed at the number of people in this country who are paid significant sums of money to talk for a living. Some of whom have little or no expertise on a subject, but they don't let that little tidbit stop them.

BTW, the winds have slowed and its already +18. Gonna head out soon to fire up the skidsteer and move some snow. Oh, the joy of winter!

[Demeter]

65. I have heard from my Japanese "daughters"

They and their families are all right. Let's hope they stay that way.

[Demeter]

68. Sweden Opens Door to CoCos as Banks Face 2013 Buffer Deadline

THE FIRST FISH HAS BEEN HOOKED--AND IT'S A KEEPER!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-07/sweden-opens-door-to-cocos-as-banks-face-2013-buffer-deadline.html

Sweden’s biggest banks will probably be allowed to use contingent convertible bonds to help them meet capital requirements by 2013 that policy makers say will be among the world’s strictest.

“We absolutely think there may be a role to fill for CoCos,” Martin Noreus, deputy director of the banking and securities department at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, said yesterday in an interview in Stockholm. “We know there is a big interest from the industry and the banks.”

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision will this week discuss allowing CoCos to count toward additional capital demands for systemically important banks. Oswald Gruebel, the chief executive officer of Switzerland’s biggest lender UBS AG (UBSN), has warned against using contingent convertible bonds to boost capital, arguing regular shareholders may sell their holdings as CoCos dilute stock values upon conversion. Noreus said Sweden is following the debate in Europe.

“It is potentially a good way to meet some part of the capital requirement,” Noreus said. “There is a lot of speculation that the requirement” for systemically important banks “will be met by CoCos; if that is the case from Basel, then we have to listen to what our fellow countries in the European Union think about this.”

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

69. EU lawmakers ban "speculative" derivatives trades

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/07/uk-eu-shortselling-idUKTRE7265Q820110307

EU lawmakers have approved a ban on some trading in debt insurance derivatives from 2012 to curb what some policymakers say is speculation that deepens the euro-zone debt crisis. Monday's vote marks the first milestone in bringing the hotly-disputed measure onto the bloc's statutes.

The European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee approved by a 34-to-8 vote a draft law from the European Union's executive European Commission. The broad, cross-party majority means the assembly is in a strong position to negotiate with EU states, who have joint say on the final version of the measure. EU finance ministers, who have been split over key elements, meet next week.

Green Party lawmaker Pascal Canfin, who is steering the measure through the assembly, said sovereign debt speculation is still causing chaos in the euro zone.

"Banning uncovered credit default swaps (CDS), which allow market players to speculate on sovereign debt of European countries, would be a major step forward," Canfin said.

Hedge funds and other investors have been accused of using so-called naked CDS to bet on falls in government bond prices...MUCH MORE

[Demeter]

70. Derivative Trades Last Year Rose the Most Since 2003 as Commodities Surged

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-07/global-derivatives-trading-rose-25-in-last-year-exchange-federation-says.html

Global derivatives trading on exchanges rose the most since 2003 last year as volume for contracts listed to commodities surged, the World Federation of Exchanges said.

Volume rose 25 percent to 22.4 billion contracts last year, according to a statement from the Paris-based trade group, which has 52 members that list a total of 45,000 stocks around the world. Commodity derivatives trading rose 34 percent, with Chinese exchanges making up more than half of that volume, according to the report.

“Reforms in regulation of over-the-counter derivatives markets are causing participants to shift some of their risk transfer activities to exchange-traded derivatives,” Ronald Arculli, chairman of WFE and chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., said in the statement.

Investors are turning to exchange-listed derivatives instead of private, customized over-the-counter transactions, Arculli said in the statement. The outstanding notional amounts of OTC contracts fell by 13 percent from June 2009 to June 2010, WFE said, citing data from the Bank for International Settlements.

Futures trading increased 35 percent last year to 11.2 billion contracts while options trading rose 16 percent to 11.1 billion, according to WFE. Volume was 17.8 billion in 2009, WFE said....MORE

[Demeter]

72. Saudi Arabia's `Day of Rage' Lures Record Bets on $200 Oil: Chart of Day

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-07/saudi-arabia-s-day-of-rage-lures-record-bets-on-200-oil-chart-of-day.html

Options traders are betting more than ever that crude oil is heading to $200 a barrel as some websites call for a “Day of Rage” in Saudi Arabia and anti- government protests spread in the Middle East and North Africa.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows open interest, or the number of outstanding contracts, for “call” options to buy New York crude for June delivery at $200 a barrel. The number has escalated, along with crude futures, to the highest since the options started trading in July 2009 amid worsening civil unrest in Libya and rare demonstrations in Saudi Arabia.

“If you look at the volatility and increase in money for call options in the last month or so, it does suggest that market participants are now more worried about the upside,” said Yingxi Yu, a Singapore-based commodity analyst with Barclays Plc. “People are also quite concerned about protests spreading across different parts of the region.”

Saudi Arabia produced 9.71 million barrels a day in 2009, one-third of OPEC output and almost six times as much as Libya, according to BP Plc’s Statistical Review of World Energy. Websites have called for a nationwide “Day of Rage” on March 11 and March 20, Human Rights Watch said Feb 28. Protests in five of the kingdom’s eight immediate neighbors have prompted King Abdullah to boost spending on housing, social welfare and education to curb unrest in his country.

“The price of oil is going to go up, whether you like it to or don’t,” said Juerg Kiener, chief investment officer at Swiss Asia Capital Ltd. in Singapore. “If Saudi Arabia fails, then I say you have a fire in the house. They gave out $30 billion of money so maybe they’ll buy time. But I don’t see the problems disappearing.”

Call options grant the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy a security at an agreed price before a set date. The $200 June New York crude options expire May 17. Oil rose to $106.45 a barrel today, the highest intraday price since Sept. 29, 2008

SEE CHART AT LINK

[Demeter]

75. Russia Cashes In on Anxiety Over Supply of Middle East Oil

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/business/global/08oil.html?_r=1&src=busln

Whatever the eventual outcome of the Arab world’s social upheaval, there is a clear economic winner so far: Vladimir V. Putin.

Russia, which pumps more oil than Saudi Arabia, is reaping a windfall from the steep rise in global energy prices resulting from instability in oil regions of the Middle East and North Africa. Riding the high oil prices, the Russian ruble has risen faster against the dollar this year than any other currency, which is helpful because it will curb consumer inflation during an election year.

Russian stocks are buoyant, too: the Micex index closed last week at 1,781, up nearly 6 percent since the beginning of the year. (Monday was a holiday in Russia.)

But the Russians could not step in to offset any potential big drop in global production, because Russia does not have any oil wells standing idle that would allow it to increase production. Right now Russia is pumping oil at its top capacity...

[Demeter]

76. OPEC considers boosting output, no decision yet: Kuwait

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/08/us-kuwait-oil-idUSLDE72705O20110308

OPEC is in consultations regarding a potential boost in oil output but hasn't decided whether to approve one, Kuwait's Oil Minister said on Tuesday.

"We are in consultations about a potential output increase," Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah told reporters as he entered Kuwait's parliament.

Asked if Kuwait has been increasing its own oil production, Al-Sabah said, "We did not increase production, sticking to quotas."

However, Al-Sabah said he believed Saudi Arabia was already boosting production in response to the supply shortfalls from OPEC member Libya, whose bloody conflict has slashed production.

Al-Sabah gave no timeline for when OPEC could decide on any group-wide production boost or whether ministers would convene soon to discuss output policy...

[Demeter]

73. Cyber attack on ministry 'targeted G20 information'

http://www.france24.com/en/20110307-cyber-attack-french-finance-ministry-g20-presidency-target-baroin

France’s finance ministry DISCOVERED IN JANUARY IT was the target of one of the largest ever cyber-attack on a French government office LAST DECEMBER, the government has confirmed. According to experts, the hackers were after documents relating to the G20...Responding to a story published in the magazine Paris Match, Budget Minister Francois Baroin said the spies had accessed several “relatively unimportant” documents...The so-called Group of 20 countries counts the world’s most important economies and is being chaired by France during 2011.

The French Network and Information Security Agency (FNISA), a government agency, told France 24 that the stolen documents “involved international finance and world trade.” Paris Match in its article suggested that French taxpayers’ information had also been targeted...FNISA’s spokesman said operations to secure the finance ministry’s computer system from further attacks required the unprecedented step of shutting down the ministry's internet connection over the weekend.

.........

The internet viruses were introduced via emails to ministry employees FNISA told FRANCE 24. “Trojan Horse” software, or a seemingly benign programme that steals information or harms a system, was used to gain access to computers remotely. "The targeted employees knew the attackers and the virus were introduced in attachments that personally interested those employees,” FNISA said. Once inside the finance ministry’s system, the cyber attackers took control of 150 workstations, out of the 170,000 used in the ministry.

“All the identified victims had the common trait of containing documents related to the G20,” FNISA said. This thesis is backed up by a similar attack six months ago on the Canadian Ministy of the Economy, which hosted the last G20 summit in Toronto.

The identity of the attackers is still unknown, according to Baroin, who added that France’s intelligence services were put on the case and some would not present its first finding for several weeks.

[Demeter]

74. Greek debt price soars as Moody's cuts credit rating below Egypt

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8366707/Greek-debt-price-soars-as-Moodys-cuts-credit-rating-below-Egypt.html

The Greek government has reacted angrily to Moody's decision to cut the country's credit rating below that of Egypt, a move that prompted investors to dump the debt of other struggling European economies....The country's debt was lowered to B1 from Ba1, as the ratings agency warned that Greece faces a shortfall in tax revenue and huge challenges in reforming state-owned companies and its costly healthcare system.

"The sheer magnitude of the task is becoming ever more apparent," said Sarah Carlson, an analyst at Moody's.

The Greek Finance Ministry yesterday described Moody's move as "totally unjustfied".

"Having completely missed the build-up of risk that led to the global financial crisis in 2008, the rating agencies are now competing with each other to be the first to identify risks that will lead to the next crisis," it said.

The row did little to reassures investors, who drove the yield on 10-year Greek bonds to 12.32pc, as prices for Irish and Portguese bonds also fell.

[Demeter]

77. Administration Foreclosure Relief Programs Plagued By Broken Servicers

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/03/11/administration-foreclosure-relief-programs-plagued-by-broken-servicers/

THURSday, the House voted to terminate the FHA Refinance Program by a vote of 256-171. This is one of a number of upcoming votes in the House to eliminate foreclosure mitigation programs. Only one Republican, Joe Heck of Nevada, whose district features one of the worst foreclosure crises in the nation, voted to retain the program. 18 Democrats went along with termination. Another measure on the floor today would cancel out the Emergency Homeowners’ Relief Program, which is a HUD measure.

The White House has promised a veto, so this and other House bills are a bit like spitting into the wind. But the problem with defending these Administration foreclosure programs is their inability to do the job. For instance, this program, which actually has some OK provisions to refinance underwater mortgages where the homeowner is current into sustainable FHA loans, has used just $50 million of the over $8 billion available. Because they again work on a discretionary basis, the Administration puts itself at the mercy of a corrupt servicer industry to decide whether or not to grant the loan modifications or the refinancing.

Similarly, incentives for short sales, where the borrower can quickly sell a home for less than they have left on their mortgage, are running into problems with completion...In many cases, the servicers and the GSEs are just not complying with federal guidelines. The mortgage market has basically become like the Wild West – there’s no real monitor on the side of justice, so every actor is just going their own way and maximizing short-term profit, even when that is to the detriment of the housing market and the economy. Programs from the government that fail to address this aren’t terribly useful.

In fact, because all these servicers are running into a wall of legal trouble of their own causing, not only is the housing market stalled, but foreclosures have dropped significantly. As Yves Smith points out, this reveals how dysfunctional the servicers are right now. The foreclosure mill law firms that they used to contract work out to are bugging out, judges are asking them for more and more verification, and new investigations pop up every day...MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

78. BofA Offers to Help Fix Mortgages...If You're a State Legislator

While nonjudicial foreclosure laws are not known for their excessive generosity, Hawaii's is particularly draconian. In the Aloha State, it's possible for homeowners to have their houses foreclosed on and sold for much less than their full value worth, without ever realizing the foreclosure is underway.

The law dates to 1874 and its abusiveness is rooted in effort to take land from native Hawaiians. Legislators have repeatedly tried to get the law changed, but they never seem to succeed.

Banks Versus Legislation

One reason for this legislative inaction might be the effectiveness of the bank lobby. According to Netra Halperin, who works for a Hawaii legislator, and herself ran unsuccessfully for office last year, two representatives of Bank of America (BAC) recently met with her. In her account of the meeting, which I've excerpted below, BoA's workers offered a state legislator special access to its mortgage department. I'm omitting the legislator's name because only Ms. Halperin was present at the conversation and she is speaking for herself, not for the legislator.

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/dIkUuK

[Demeter]

79. Why Don’t All Major Unions Own Banks? VERY GOOD QUESTION

THERE'S PROBABLY A LAW AGAINST IT...

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/03/12/why-dont-all-major-unions-own-banks/

Seeing that large banks are the most powerful political entity in America and one of the only institutions members of Congress will practically trip over each other in their rush to save from their own mistakes, I’m left wondering why all the major labor unions don’t get in on the action by starting their own banks.

With control of big financial reserves and large numbers of members, the larger unions already have basically all the most important things they need to start successful banks.

Amalgamated Bank, one of the few union banks from the 1920s to survive the great depression, shows that a union-owned bank can be run successfully and not behave like a bastard to their customers.

Most big banks are jerks

Most of the big national banks have basically turned into vampires. They have handled the mortgage crisis in a manner that is often outright fraudulent, and a big part of their business model is to bleed their customers dry with fees. If all the new union banks did was run at cost, so as to give their members accounts free of predatory fees and practices, while reducing the size of the big national banks, it would be a sufficient improvement to make the task worth it.

In addition, the new union-owned banks can provide favorable loans to businesses that are unionized, new union-owned businesses, and loans to members trying to start small companies organized as worker-owned cooperatives.

Greater influence in the world of finance

That is, of course, only the potential tip of the iceberg. The union bank would gain sufficient extra additional financial holdings from members deposits, the union’s deposits, retirement accounts and even municipal holdings. They could use this to expand their political and financial influence, for example, buying sufficient shares of the large companies that are unionized to give the unions significant voting power on the boards. Voting power on the boards is a key part of both the industrial and union success in Germany. If unions can’t do it by direct law here, maybe they can do it by finance.

Given how terrible the banks are in this country, I think if the major unions put a real push behind starting their own banks, it would be very well received. While not ideal, I can see the political writing on the wall in this winner-take-all economy. Unions are in decline and under all-out assault by Republicans. They need political power, and it seems the easiest way is to steal it from the incredibly powerful banks by starting their own.

Simple unity on wages is no longer enough

As our broken political system slowly turns into a plutocracy where political power flows from the few extremely wealthy individuals and corporations, regular workers united for collective bargaining on wages is no longer good enough. Labor unions should strive to be a force for fully unifying regular people’s collective political and, more importantly, financial power.

[Demeter]

81. Amalgamated Bank's CEO resigns

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110307/FREE/110309890

After five years at the helm of the union-owned bank, Chief Executive Derrick Cephas is out. Amalgamated posted a net loss last year, and problem loans appear to be growing...Amalgamated Bank Chief Executive Derrick Cephas has resigned after falling out of favor with bank Chairman Bruce Raynor, sources said. Mr. Raynor, who is president of garment workers union Workers United SEIU, had grown frustrated with the union-owned bank's results in recent years, banking sources said...The CEO's resignation also follows a period during which the bank was in the middle of a protracted dispute between the garment workers and hotel workers unions. As per a divorce agreement reached last summer, Mr. Raynor's union held on to the bank, which has about $4.5 billion in assets.

Mr. Cephas, a former New York state banking superintendent, joined Amalgamated in 2006. His resignation takes effect May 1, the bank said in a statement. Senior bank staff members were informed of the resignation Monday morning.Details on Mr. Cephas' successor were not yet released, although staff were told that a new head has been chosen and will be announced in about two weeks, a banking source said.

...Mr. Cephas took control of the bank with a goal of doubling its annual profits, but a banking source said his emphasis on retail banking wasn't consistent with Amalgamated's roots and that his strategy “hollowed out” the bank's institutional investing business for union pension funds and other large customers. Amalgamated now has 27 retail branches, up from 19 two years ago, with 20 in New York City...During Mr. Cephas's five years as chief, turnover among senior staff members was unusually high, banking sources said, with virtually no senior officers who were there prior to his start remaining.

The bank posted a net loss of $1.2 million last year, compared to net income of $7 million in 2009, due to growing losses from soured loans, according to a regulatory filing. Charge-offs nearly doubled last year, to $48 million, weighing heavily on 2010 results, and problem loans appear to be growing. The amount of real estate and loans on Amalgamated books that are no longer accruing interest rose to at least $118 million last year, from $71 million in 2009....Amalgamated does, however, seem well-capitalized and in a position to weather any further difficulties. Its so-called Tier 1 leverage ratio is 6%, double the minimum required by banking regulators....

[Demeter]

82. The Top Ten Banks in Danger of Failure as of February 25, 2011 are

http://www.investinganswers.com/next-banks-that-could-fail

1. Nexity Bank, Birmingham, AL
2. First Choice Community Bank, Dallas, GA
3. Valley Community Bank, St. Charles, IL -- Failed 2/25/11
4. One Georgia Bank, Atlanta, GA
5. Georgia Heritage Bank, Dallas, GA
6. CreekSide Bank, Woodstock, GA
7. First Sound Bank, Seattle, WA
8. The First State Bank, Stockbridge, GA
9. Bartow County Bank, Cartersville, GA
10. Patriot Bank of Georgia, Cumming, GA

[hay rick]

86. Didn't know there are that many banks left in GA. nt

[Demeter]

89. Shiela's Just Getting around to Fixing That

[Demeter]

83. REALLY COOL EARTHQUAKE PHOTOS BEFORE/AFTER

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm

AMAZING DEVASTATION REVEALED

[Demeter]

84. The Fed Beats Marie Antoinette With “Let Them Eat iPad2s”

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/the-fed-beats-marie-antoinette-with-let-them-eat-ipad2s.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

However, there is no excuse for this telling example of how out of touch Fed officials are, specifically, New York Dudley of the New York Fed. From Reuters:

Dudley faced persistent questions from the audience on food inflation. The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said people forget that even as the price of food is rising, other prices are falling. He mentioned the price of the iPad 2, prompting guffaws from the audience.

Now before you forgive this as standard economist thinking….the Wall Street Journal’s Economics blog makes clear Dudley was speaking to people in Queens:

The central banker hit the iceberg when he was trying to defend his belief–one shared by many private-sector economists–that underlying inflation in the U.S. economy is low despite a worrisome surge in commodity prices which Dudley said the Fed would be “unwise” to overreact to. The grief Dudley got indicates the Fed is facing a growing gulf between how it and the public at large perceives inflation. If this disconnect widens, it could risk undoing the public’s confidence that the Fed will be able to keep price pressures at bay.

Dudley’s day went south when he was pressed by several audience members about how he can view inflation as low when things such as grocery prices are marching higher. One participant asked “when was the last time, sir, you went grocery shopping?”

The central banker told the audience “I certainly acknowledge food prices have gone up.” But he added some prices are lower and noted “Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1, that’s twice as powerful,” as an example of favorable price dynamics. His example was greeted with widespread grumbling in the audience, in a display of conspicuous discontent unusual for a Fed speaking event.

The WSJ piece is still a bit of a fail, in that it attributes the gulf between the Fed and the great unwashed as being due to that food prices are “highly visible” and hence are in everyone’s face when they rise.

Hello! What planet are these people from? Yes, the food and fuel prices are noisy, so the Fed focuses on so-called core inflation. But using only one metric is naive and in this case overlooks the fact that food and fuel loom large in the household expenditures of lower income people. And does Dudley not understand that eating, heating your house, and getting to work are non-discretionary activities, contrary to technology purchases like the iPad?

Plenty of finance ministers and central bankers in emerging economics believe QE2 has played a significant role in stoking commodities inflation, including food prices. There is some evidence to support that view although the jury is very much out (perishable commodities, which cannot be hoarded and thus reflect fundamentals better than ones that are storable, as well as non-exchange traded commodities in India, such as cooking oil, do not show the same degree of price appreciation as exchange traded agricultural goods have). But there is a large cohort that would applaud if the idea that Bernanke had said, “Let them eat iPads” got traction.

[Demeter]

85. A Reason to Stop Banking with Wells Fargo

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/a-reason-to-stop-banking-with-wells-fargo.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Even though deciding which TBTF is the worst is like a having an ugly contest between Cinderella’s sisters, Wells Fargo may deserve pride of place. Yes, the Vampire Squid sorta owns the government. JP Morgan has too many people believing it didn’t need a bailout during the crisis. Ahem, what about a $76 trillion derivatives clearing operation don’t you understand? If AIG or Morgan Stanley had failed post Lehman, JPM would have been next. And it is the most aggressive bank I have come across in the “gotcha” fees and bait and switch as far as retail customers are concerned.

But Wells is sanctimonious and too often has taken the position that it is less badly behaved than other banks, which grates on me. It has played fast and loose with its balance sheet reporting, and has lied to Congressional staffers, claiming it hadn’t engaged in robo signing when there were depositions in the public domain to the contrary.

Hopefully, not many NC readers are having to think seriously about filing for bankruptcy. But the practice described in this post at the San Diego Bankruptcy Attorneys Blog reads as bad faith dealings (and if someone from Wells reading this might dare to disagree, we can have a conversation about the past and ongoing certifications, which are included in SEC filings, that your bank has made as trustee in numerous mortgage backed securities offerings):

Wells Fargo has an interesting corporate policy, and by “interesting” I mean to say “bordering on the criminally fraudulent.” If you have a regular checking account at Wells Fargo, and file for bankruptcy, the bank will freeze your assets — even if you don’t owe them a dime.

Think on that for a second….. You’ve never bounced a check in your life and have never borrowed money from Wells Fargo, not a credit card, not a mortgage, nothing.

But you fall behind on your debts and…you decide your best option is to file for Chapter 7 and get a fresh start. You list a Wells Fargo checking account on Schedule B as an asset, as you’re required to do by federal law, and provide the address of the bank branch and account number.

A week after filing, you go to the ATM but the machine eats your card. You go inside and ask the teller what’s going on, and he says “Sorry, your account’s been frozen.” You ask to speak to the manager, who looks at the same computer screen and also says it’s frozen.

How do you get it unfrozen? How do you not default on your car and mortgage and power bill? According to Wells Fargo’s national policy, they will only release these funds if the bankruptcy trustee appointed in your case asks them to, or if they’re ordered to do so by the court. Which takes at least a month.

My advice to every single one of my clients is to take that money out of Wells Fargo immediately and park it at another bank or credit union where you don’t have any loans or credit cards.

Update 5:30 AM: Reader JoJo in comments confirms my suspicions. This story comes from ABC, “Bank confusion turns into $10,000 problem”

PETALUMA, Calif. (KGO) — The common banking practice of making a deposit turned into a $10,000 nightmare for a Bay Area man and his daughter. Their money disappeared.

Myron Hinrich of Petaluma helps support his daughter, Anne, while she studies film-making at USC.

“She’s struggling in graduate school; she needed to make a rent payment,” Hinrich said.

Anne was low on cash so Hinrich deposited a $10,000 check into Anne’s account at Wells Fargo Bank. However, what happened after that came as a complete shock.

“They said the check was fraudulent, they canceled the account and they didn’t want to see her again,” Hinrich said.

Wells Fargo refused to give Anne the $10,000. Instead, the bank abruptly closed her account and told her to go away. The only explanation? The bank claimed the check was a fraud.

It gets worse. Wells refused to return the money to her father….

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=7996116

[Demeter]

87. Gretchen Morgenson Confirms Lack of Attorney General Investigations into Foreclosure Fraud

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/gretchen-morgenson-confirms-lack-of-attorney-general-investigations-into-foreclosure-fraud.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

This is the key snippet from Gretchen Morgenson’s New York Times column today, which inveighs against Iowa attorney general Tom Miller’s unseemly and peculiar haste to get a deal with miscreant banks inked:

Two people who have been briefed on the discussions, but who asked for anonymity because the deal was not final, told me last week that no witnesses had been interviewed and that the coalition had sent out just one request for documents — and it has not yet been answered.

And the official denial amounts to a confirmation:

Mr. Miller declined to be interviewed about the proposal. But Geoff Greenwood, his spokesman, disputed the notion that the attorneys general have done no investigation. “We have dealt with this issue for some three and a half years on a day-to-day, front-line basis with consumers,” he said. “We know what the problems are, and we know what needs to change.”

Really? All you have is complaints to various AG offices, which I sincerely doubt have been investigated in a systematic manner. If they had been, we would have seen more wideranging action in more states by now. But all they have is accounts from irate homeowners, along with court cases and horror stories reported in the media. That’s self-reported sample, regularly dismissed by the banks as anecdotal and not consequential.

Without an investigation, all we have is “he said, she said.” Despite robo-signing having revealed widespread abuse of court procedures, the AGs seem remarkably unwilling to get to the bottom of things. Since the banks are the ones who have a seat at a table in these negotiations, it’s almost a certainty that their version of the story will get more serious consideration.

If the attorneys general had such a such a good overview prior to the eruption of the robo-signing scandal, why did New York state banking commissioner Richard Neiman implement regulation last October to make clear that New York’s business conduct rules for servicers also covered ones exempt from registering with the state (such as ones regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency)? As Neiman stressed in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post:

With the numerous bank errors that took place in the five months that Dana Milbank tried to refinance his home <"Foreclosures: Big banks' reign of error," Sunday Opinion, March 6>, you could almost laugh that a prominent mortgage servicer happened to pick a nationally recognized columnist to harass. But it is not funny.

Bank regulators across the country hear the same story over and over again. In New York we took the unprecedented step of promulgating regulations to govern mortgage servicers’ treatment of homeowners. Now, we can fully examine servicer activities, use the power of law to enforce our rules and require timely responses for homeowners.

We need national standards to govern mortgage servicer conduct now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should put in place such rules as an early priority. For every columnist affected, tens of thousands of people are suffering who do not have an outlet on the opinion pages to voice their frustration. They do not find it funny, either.

The fact that it takes a letter from a non-deadbeat educated person to get the chattering classes to take mortgage abuses a tad more seriously proves that the officialdom has been, and for the most part, continues to be, willfully blind to the extent of the rot.

IF NOT COMPLICIT---DEMETER

[Fuddnik]

93. Rumor has it that Miller is bucking to be the first head of the CFPB.

Just what the banks need to short circuit Elizabeth Warren.

Admit it. You knew it was gonna happen.

[Demeter]

88. The dollar, the RMB and the euro?

http://mpettis.com/2011/03/the-dollar-versur-the-rmb-and-the-euro/

Barry Eichengreen had a very interesting piece in last week’s Wall Street Journal. In it he argues that we are approaching the end of the period in which the US dollar is the world’s dominant reserve currency, and suggests what that might mean for the world. Here is what he says:

The single most astonishing fact about foreign exchange is not the high volume of transactions, as incredible as that growth has been. Nor is it the volatility of currency rates, as wild as the markets are these days. Instead, it’s the extent to which the market remains dollar-centric.

…The greenback, in other words, is not just America’s currency. It’s the world’s. But as astonishing as that is, what may be even more astonishing is this: The dollar’s reign is coming to an end. I believe that over the next 10 years, we’re going to see a profound shift toward a world in which several currencies compete for dominance.

I wish Eichengreen were right, but I don’t think he is. Eichengreen argues that one of the main reasons for the current dominance of the dollar was simply the lack of plausible alternatives. This is changing, he suggests, because of the rise of the euro and the RMB...


The RMB is unlikely to become a serious reserve currency in the foreseeable future. There are a number of reasons for this. First and most obviously, there are few realistic mechanisms by which the world can acquire RMB. Either China needs to run a large current account deficits, or it needs totally open domestic financial markets in which foreigners can easily acquire domestic RMB-denominated bonds to the tune of several percentage points of China’s GDP annually...We are unlikely to see either for many, many decades. Although China will struggle to bring its current account surplus down, there are only two ways it can do so (remember that the current account surplus is equal to savings less investment).

One way is for a further surge in investment. At current levels, however, investment is already so value-destroyingly high (to coin a new adverb), and it is pretty clear that Beijing is desperate to reduce the economy’s dependence on further investment growth, so we can pretty much dismiss investment acceleration as something that is likely to be maintained over the next decade...The other way is to reduce savings by raising the consumption share of GDP. As I have written before, however, this is going to be excruciatingly difficult, and will likely come about only with a sharp reduction in Chinese GDP growth (in which case one of the main reasons for predicting the rise of the RMB will be undermined). And how long will it take to bring down savings? The household consumption share of GDP was an astonishingly low 35.1% in 2009, while the total consumption share of GDP, including government and business, was 48%. On Wednesday there were reports that Beijing wants to raise the rate by 2-3 percentage points during 12th Five year Plan...Five years ago household consumption was at 40% of GDP, which back then already seemed astonishingly low (and was probably unprecedented in history). It was widely understood back then that such a depressingly low consumption share condemned China to an excessive reliance on investment and a trade surplus for growth. With such low consumption, in other words, it is going to take an awful long time before China can consume all it produces... I think we can pretty much forget about China’s running a large current account deficit in the next decade, let alone one large enough to feed the world’s need for RMB if the RMB is indeed going to be a dominant reserve currency. That leaves the only other way for the world to accumulate large amounts of RMB bonds: China must open up its capital markets to portfolio inflows representing several percentage points of GDP....

That leads to the second reason why I think Eichengreen’s expectations for the rise of the RMB as a reserve currency are unrealistic. The amount of financial sector reforms required before the RMB can even achieve the yen’s level of acceptance is massive, and in my opinion there has been no significant reform, and in fact a lot of retrogression, in the past decade. Beijing simply cannot permit the necessary amount of capital inflow and outflow until the banks are reformed, liberalized, and made creditworthy... it is worth pointing out that the Chinese banking system is one of the least efficient in the world when it comes to assessing risk and allocating capital, and would be bankrupt without repressed interest rates and the implicit (and sometimes explicit) socialization of credit risk. Beijing accepts this because of the tradeoff that gives it banking stability.


The belief in the rise of the RMB, in my opinion, is just a replay of the equally fervent belief twenty years ago in the rise of the yen, and the RMB has many of the same constraints that the yen had, but only more so. The RMB still has a long way to go before it will even match the yen.

SEE LINK FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION ON THE EURO AND THE DOLLAR...

[Demeter]

90. BRITAIN'S VERSION OF WPA: Green Investment Bank must not be compromised, say MPs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12704502

The UK could lose out on hundreds of billions of pounds in green investment and fail to meet climate change targets if the government compromises on its Green Investment Bank, MPs have warned. The Environmental Audit Committee said the bank must be free to raise additional capital from investors.

The government has pledged to establish the bank with £1bn of capital to fund clean energy and low-carbon projects. Concerns are growing the coalition could water down its plans. These also involve placing unspecified proceeds from the sale of government assets into the bank...The MPs said there have been reports of disagreement within the government about whether the Green Bank should be a fully-fledged investment bank, with the ability to borrow money and raise capital, or simply a fund..."Setting up a Green Investment Bank without the power to borrow would be a bit like trying to buy a house without first getting a mortgage offer," said Joan Walley, chair of the committee. "George Osborne has got the deposit, but if he doesn't allow the bank to raise extra capital, the sums are going to fall far short of what is needed."

Business Secretary Vince Cable said he also wanted the Green Investment Bank to grow into a "significant institution", which would help to promote economic growth. "We agree with the committee that the Green Investment Bank should be an enduring bank, which takes investment decisions at arm's length from ministers and be able to reinvest the proceeds from its investments."

...Evidence given to the committee suggests the UK will need to raise between £200bn and £1 trillion over the next 10 to 20 years if it is to meet the government's climate change and renewable energy targets. Traditional sources of private fundraising are only likely to deliver between £50bn and £80bn, accountants Ernst & Young told the committee..."A proper green investment bank... is the shot in the arm the UK economy needs," said Ed Matthew of campaign group Transform UK. "The only cost the Treasury should consider is the cost of failure to unleash this institution's massive potential to re-power our economy."

The previous Labour government committed the UK to reduce its carbon emissions by 80% on 1990 levels by 2050, and for 20% of all electricity consumption to come from renewable energy sources by 2020. The coalition government has said it backs the targets...

[Demeter]

91. How Black is the Japanese Nuclear Swan?

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-13-2011-how-black-is-japanese.html

...Proponents argue that the energy returned on energy invested (EROEI) for nuclear power is sufficient to power our societies, that nuclear power can be scaled up quickly enough as fossil fuel supplies decline, that there will be sufficient uranium reserves for a massive expansion of capacity, that nuclear is the only option for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and that nuclear power can be operated with no safety concerns through probabilistic safety assessment (PSA)...I disagree with all these assertions. Looking at the full life-cycle energy inputs for nuclear power, it seems to be barely above the minimum EROEI for maintaining society, and the costs (in both money and energy terms) are front-loaded...

In my view, nuclear power represents an unjustified faith in the power of human societies to control extremely complex technologies over the very long term. Any activity requiring a great deal of complex and cooperative control will do badly in difficult economic times. Also, no human society has ever lasted for as long as nuclear waste must be looked after. It needs to be held in pools on site for perhaps a hundred years in order to cool down enough for permanent disposal, assuming a form of permanent disposal could be conceived of, approved and developed. During this period, the knowledge as to how this must be done will need to be maintained, and this may be more difficult than is currently supposed.

We need to evaluate the potential for a nuclear future in light of the disaster in Japan. This was not unpredictable, and should have been accounted for in any realistic assessment of nuclear potential. It cannot realistically be described as a black swan event...

We need to assess the risks inherent in using nuclear power in other locations, whether or not the risk they face is seismic (see Metsamor in Armenia, for instance, or Diablo Canyon in California). There are risks in many areas, most of which are grounded in human behaviour, either at the design stage or the operational phase. Human behaviour can easily turn what should be a one in one hundred thousand reactor-year event in to something all too likely within a human lifespan. Nuclear power may allow us to cushion the coming decline in fossil fuel availability, but only at a potentially very high price.

STONELEIGH IS A CERTIFIED NUCLEAR SAFETY SPECIALIST WONK...SEE THE LINK FOR THE COMPLETE DETAILED ANALYSIS. IT WILL SHUT UP THE APOLOGISTS, FOR SURE!

[Demeter]

92. Japan shuts down as economic fears grow by James Quinn and Jamie Dunkley - Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/8378249/Japan-shuts-down-as-economic-fears-grow.html


Japan's giant car industry has announced a major shutdown as fears grow over the economic impact of Friday’s devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami which has crippled much of the north-east of the country.

The three largest motor manufacturers – Toyota, Honda and Nissan – said they would stop production at almost all of their domestic assembly plants. The safety of the workforce and deaths were cited as reasons behind the decision. The electronics giant Sony also said it would be shutting down production. Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered, warned of possible temporary price stagflation and an initial downward move for the country’s economy. "The timing of the disaster could not have been much worse," admitted analysts at Capital Economics, pointing to Japan’s economic contraction in the last three months of 2010.

The disaster forced the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to issue a statement, as it draws up plans for an emergency "quake budget". The BoJ said: "The bank will continue to do its utmost, including the provision of liquidity, to ensure stability in financial markets and to secure the smooth settlement of funds, in the coming week." Naoto Kan, the Japanese prime minister, asked BoJ to "save the country" after politicians from both sides of the political spectrum agreed on the need for the budget to introduce emergency spending to fund rescue and clean-up efforts and to resuscitate the economy.

Economists warned that the closures staged by the motor and electronics companies could be the tip of the iceberg, with other parts of industry likely to feel knock-on effects in the coming days. "Temporary closures of factories and oil refineries and the shutting down of power stations are likely to affect output throughout the country," said Wolfgang Leim of Commerzbank. "Economic output may therefore shrink again slightly in the first quarter."

Between them the three car companies closed 22 assembly plants, while Sony halted production at six of its domestic plants, including a Blu-ray factory where more than 1,000 workers were stranded yesterday. The closures are likely to damage Japan’s exports in the coming months, driving down economic growth yet further. "It is tough to know the extent of the damage and, therefore, also the cost," said Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. "Most of Japan’s recovery is driven by exports so the key is to make sure the yen doesn’t strengthen ."

Mr Lyons pointed out that after the Kobe earthquake in 1995 – which was in an economically more important region – the economy followed a V-shape performance curve, with an initial surge downward but with a strong rebound as policy stimulus and private spending returned.

Meanwhile, insurance analysts estimated that the earthquake could cost the global industry up to $10bn (£6.2bn). Although the Japanese insurance market is large, the amount of businesses and households that take out insurance cover is smaller than in Western markets, according to Risk Management Solutions. Most of the insured losses will be absorbed by global reinsurers such as Munich Re and Swiss Re, although companies operating in the Lloyd’s of London market will also suffer.

[Fuddnik]

94. Markets are going to be interesting tomorrow.

[Demeter]

95. That's Because We Live in Ineresting Times

like that old Chinese curse says.

[Demeter]

96. Max Keiser & David DeGraw: Decentralized global rebellion against neoliberal economic policies

VIDEO INTERVIEW

http://ampedstatus.org/network/members/admin/activity/7111/

THESE GUYS HAVE THE PLAN, THE CONTACTS, THE DATA...WATCH THEM!

[Demeter]

97. The Coming Rout chrismartenson.com

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/coming-rout/53869?utm_source=newsletter_2011-03-12&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_teaser_53870&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_9


...At the time, I speculated that all of the Fed's pronouncements about inflation being almost nonexistent were actually signs that the Fed was taking some behind-the-scenes heat for the inflation its policies was creating. And I worried about what would happen if the Fed were to end the QE program in June.

Let's just say it won't be pretty.

Everything would tank. Stocks, bonds, and commodities. All of the risk assets that have been unnaturally supported by a flood of liquidity, too-low interest rates, and thin-air base money would give up those ill-gotten gains. Gold might behave a bit differently, because along with these market declines will come an enormous amount of uncertainty about the financial system itself, usually a condition for higher gold prices. So I expect gold to correct somewhat, but not nearly as much as everything else, and it could even gain.

The story is, admittedly, getting more confusing by the week, with some calling for hyperinflation and some calling for massive, outright deflation. I am trying to surf the probabilities and stay one step ahead of whatever curve balls are coming our way.

The basic idea is this: The Fed has been dumping roughly $4 billion of thin-air money into the US markets each trading day since November 2010. The markets, all of them, are higher than they would be without this money. $4 billion per trading day is an enormous amount of money. It's gigantic by historical standards. As soon as the QE program ends, the markets will have to subsist on a lot less money and liquidity, and the result is almost perfectly predictable....

Then on March 5th, a much stronger and clearer signal was given, confirming my worries:

Fed Policy Makers Signal Abrupt End to Bond Purchases in June

March 4, 2011

Federal Reserve policy makers are signaling they favor an abrupt end to $600 billion in Treasury purchases in June, jettisoning their prior strategy of gradually pulling back on intervention in bond markets.

“I don’t see a lot of gain to reverting to a tapering approach,” Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart told reporters yesterday. “I don’t think that is necessary,” Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser said last month.

Whoa. This is important news. Not only a cessation of QE, but the possibility of a sudden stop is being telegraphed. This will change everything.

The old saying 'sell in May and go away' might never be truer than this year, although with this sort of a warning, the cautious investor may want to get a head start on things and sell in March or April.

For some time there have been rumors that the Fed has been splitting into factions, with some of the inner team becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the QE program and its effects. But so far they've either spoken in code to reveal their displeasure or quietly resigned. So we're pretty sure there's an admirable level of support within the Fed for ending QE, and it has now bubbled to the surface and reached the public arena.

Of course, there's some form of gobbledy-gook reasoning being floated to justify the plan for a sudden stop rather than a gentle wind-down, and it involves the distinction between 'stocks and flows'...

Who will buy all the Treasury bonds after the Fed steps aside? That is unclear. If there are not enough buyers at these artificially inflated prices, then the price will have to fall until sufficient buyers can be found. Falling bond prices are at the other side of the financial see-saw from rising bond yields; one goes down while the other goes up, and the Fed has been pressing firmly down on yields for a while via the QE II program. When that's over, pressure will be reduced and yields will rise.

[Demeter]

98. A99 Operation Empire State Rebellion – Communication #1

http://ampedstatus.org/a99-operation-empire-state-rebellion-communication-1/

VIDEO COMMUNIQUE DECLARING THE REVOLUTION--PROTECTED BY ANONYMOUS


It's like V for Vendetta, only multiple people. It's real, it's here. It's about time.

[Demeter]

99. About The Network

* People participating in this social network agree to at least one aspect of the common-ground platform mentioned below.


It’s time to mobilize and aggressively move
on common sense political reforms.

We’ve had enough of…

* The Two-Party Oligarchy
* Big Government
* Big Corporate Power
* The Concentration of Power

It’s time to…

* Decentralize
* Create New Political Parties
* Restore the Rule of Law

The economic top one-tenth of one percent of the global population has launched an economic war on us. They are hoarding $39 Trillion in investible wealth, not counting the vast sums they have hidden in offshore accounts. In the United States, we now have the highest and most severe inequality of wealth in our nation’s history. While there is a record number of American citizens currently living paycheck to paycheck, in debt, unemployed, underemployed, without healthcare, on food stamps and in poverty, as our society is breaking down, global bankers have taken our tax dollars and given themselves all-time record-breaking bonuses. The same people who destroyed our economy have been rewarded with trillions of dollars in national wealth. It is now evident that both political parties and all three branches of government, along with the mainstream corporate media, have been bought off by a global economic elite.
As a broad-based network representing people across the political spectrum, we are working together to reach common ground and fight for pivotal political reforms. As long as the economy and government are rigged in favor of the top economic 0.1%, we will all lose.
Here’s a general outline of our common ground platform:

* Enforce RICO Laws
* Break Up the Big Banks
* End the Fed
* Break Up the Mainstream Media
* Shut the Revolving Door
* End Closed Door Lobbying
* Increase Government Transparency
* End Corporate Personhood
* Amend Campaign Finance
* Verify All Votes
* Investigate War Profiteers
* Investigate War Crimes
* End the Wars
* Reopen the 9/11 Investigation
* Restore Civil Liberties
* Uphold the Constitution
* Clean Air, Water & Food
* Reduce Healthcare Costs, Profiteering
* Make Healthcare a Human Right
* Improve Education For All, Reduce Costs
* Reform Prison System
* Reform Drug Laws
* Immigration Reform
* Rebuild Infrastructure
* Protect Internet Freedom
* Empower States’ Rights
* End Corporate Welfare
* Raise Taxes on Richest 0.1%
* Reduce Taxes for 99%

These are the core common ground issues that we must urgently rally around and support. Unless we organize and take decisive action, we will all suffer the consequences of our collective inaction. Any politician who does not urgently move on these issues must be voted out of office and replaced by people who will aggressively fight on these fronts.
If you agree with any of the goals mentioned above and would like to be part of this movement, please join our new social network here.


http://ampedstatus.org/network/about/

[Demeter]

100. Hacker Collective Anonymous To Release Documents Proving Bank Of America Committed Fraud This Monday

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/hacker-collective-anonymous-release-documents-proving-bank-america-committed-fraud-monday

After Julian Assange crashed and burned in his threat to release documents that expose fraud at Bank of America, many thought he had been only bluffing, and that BofA is actually clean. Not so fast. A member of the hacker collective Anonymous, which singlehandedly destroyed "hacker defense" firm HB Gary, who goes under the handle OperationLeakS "is claiming to be have emails and documents which prove "fraud" was committed by Bank of America employees, and the group says it'll release them on Monday" reports Gawker. As to the contents of the possible disclosure: ""He Just told me he have GMAC emails showing BoA order to mix loan numbers to not match it's Documents. to foreclose on Americans.. Shame." If indeed this makes the case against BofA' foreclosure practices stronger, it certainly explains why the banking consortium is scrambling to arrange a settlement, and also why Bank of America recently split off its $2 trillion in mortgages into "good bank" and "bad bank" entities.

As a "teaser", the Anonymous member released a November 1, 2010 email between two Balboa Insurance (a BAC subsidiary) employees, which while not proving any fraud, indicates he/she does indeed have access. The timeline on the email makes sense as it is a few weeks prior to the original disclosure that Wikileaks would expose BofA. Perhaps the Assange team merely handed off its materials to Anonymous, which has previously demonstrated its solidarity with the Australian on various occasions....

Gawker with more on why Brian Moynihan may not sleep too soundly overnight:

OperationLeaks, which runs the anti-Bank of America site BankofAmericasuck.com, says the employee contacted the group to blow the whistle on Bank of America's shady business practices. "I seen some of the emails… I can tell you Grade A Fraud in its purest form…" read one tweet. "He Just told me he have GMAC emails showing BoA order to mix loan numbers to not match it's Documents.. to foreclose on Americans.. Shame."

An Anonymous insider told us he believes the leak is real. "From what I know and have been told, it's legit," he said. "Should be a round of emails, then some files, possible some more emails to follow that." The documents should be released Monday on Anonleaks.ch, the same site where Anonymous posted thousands of internal emails from hacked security company HBGary last month. That leak exposed a legally-questionable plot to attack Wikileaks and ultimately led to the resignation of HBGary CEO Aaron Barr.

It is unclear whether this will be yet another climax-free build up, but Anonymous has certainly proven their mettle by putting HBGary effectively out of business with one masterful hack.

Those I've spoken to in Anonymous are convinced there's something to this. Anonymous has a proven track record with leaks, and Bank of America has been in their crosshairs since they cut off payments to Wikileaks in December. If it's real, it could be big. Keep your eye on anonleaks.ch: It should hit Monday.

We urge readers to check into http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/ first thing Monday - after all this is the portal that released the original damning HBGary evidence, and brought down the firm within weeks. If it can do the same with Bank of America, Monday may just soon be a national holiday.

[Demeter]

101. Japan Earthquake: Impact on Crude Oil, Fuel and Nuclear Power

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/japan-earthquake-impact-crude-oil-fuel-and-nuclear-power

...Crude oil saw a pullback breaking the recent uptrend from the Libya and Middle East unrest. Reuters reported that there were six refineries that account for 31% of Japan's output shut down after the quake and it was unclear when they would reopen. Some media reports suggested the crude oil price drop is largely due to expectation that these refinery shutdowns could mean less imports of oil...So, not surprisingly, I received an email asking whether the drop of crude oil is related to Japan’s devastating earthquake, or more the result of the mass rollover from United States Oil (USO) and the triple expiration as discussed in my previous post..While there’s not one easy answer, a good place to start is to review some oil barrel statistics of Japan.

Japan Imports = 1.6% of World Demand

Based on the U.S. EIA data, Japan imported 4.7 million barrels a day (bpd) in 2009, with total oil refining capacity of 4.6 million bpd at 29 facilities as of January 2010. According to Reuters, the six refineries that are shut down have a total capacity of 1.40 million barrels per day (bpd). That's about 1.6% of the 89.3 million bbl/d global 2011 product demand forecast by the International Energy Agency (IEA)...While Japan is the second-largest net importer of oil in the world after the United States in 2009, the estimated import disruptions due to the earthquake does not appear significant enough to sway world’s crude oil market.

China Trade Deficit - Major Catalyst

From various indications, the drop of crude price after Japan's earthquake could be partly attributed to the knee-jerking reaction to a devastating natural disaster, some risk-off profit taking, USO starting its rollover on March 8, and the fizzled “Day of Rage” protest in Saudi Arabia...However, the major catalyst for the downward pressure on crude oil before and after the Japan earthquake was the surprise trade deficit number--$7.3 billion, the largest in 7 years--coming out of China signaling an possible economic slowdown.

Japan to Increase Energy Imports after the quake

On the other hand, since about 25% of Japan’s electricity is coming from nuclear, the resulted power shortage due to closures of a dozen nuclear reactors after the quake suggests Japan will likely need to increase its imports of petroleum products and other energy sources...The country’s power generation relies mostly on coal and natural gas, which means there will be an increase in imports of diesel (to power generators), and other petroleum products (since part of domestic production is offline), along with natural gas/LNG, and coal, just to keep the the entire nation going in the aftermath.

Fuel Prices Could Spike

The oil import disruption at Japan is unlikely to wrangle an upward momentum out of crude oil. However, the Japanese refinery shutdown happens to coincide with planned shutdowns of crude units led by China and Japan that will cut 2.12 million barrels of output a day, or 6.8% of the region's total, in the April-June quarter, according to Reuters.

Moreover, the second quarter is the typical refinery turnaround season with a substantial amount of crude processing capacity offline. As such, there could be a tightening of the global petroleum products market, and spikes in the prices of petroleum products including gasoil (diesel), gasoline, along with LNG and coal prices. This will likely benefit other Asian refiners in South Korea, Taiwan and China and oil majors such as Shell (RDS) with refineries in the region.

Meanwhile, construction, engineering and industrial material and equipment companies should also benefit from the massive rebuilding effort in Japan. And some analysts also see a technology product price spike and supply crunch since Japan is a major high tech center of the world that could impact earnings in the tech sector.

More Pressure from Triple Expiration

Now, turning back to the crude market in the week ahead, escalating call option trades (see chart)—the highest since July 2009--suggest the major rollover action is yet to occur.

Since there's not a real physical supply shortage, and Cushing is brimming with crude unable to take delivery, more downside could be expected in the April crude contract from March 15 to March 22 with the triple expiration on ICE and NYMEX, which would further pressure both WTI and Brent.

From a technical perspective, $95 seems a solid target for the WTI, and Brent could come down to $109 or $108 range.

.........................................................
In this case, it is most likely a non-event for the crude oil, and the nuclear power basically has met its Deepwater Horizon. Likewise, other Asian refiners and companies specializing in infrastructure building could get an unexpected boost in their business, while consumers would likely feel the pinch in the form of higher fuel and technology product prices.