Weekend Economists' Spring Break March 18-20, 2011

[Demeter]

It's that time of year! ...with humblest apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson.

"In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love" March Madness!

Quite frankly, I sincerely doubt that young men give a fig about love, anymore. Not so as anybody would notice, for sure.

But basketball--a 70 year old woman of my acquaintance was rooting for Memphis over Arizona this afternoon....and her beloved Michigan goes up against first-seeded Duke in the next round...

I confess, I've actually been to a Celtics game, and enjoyed it. I liked playing basketball in gym class (remember gym class? kids used to go two-three times a week, those horrible bloomer/jump suits, new tennis shoes...sigh. I'm dating myself--back to the Jurassic.)



YES! IT'S FINALLY SPRING! PEOPLE ARE WALKING AROUND IN SWEATERS AND LITTLE JACKETS. THE SNOW IS ALMOST GONE (EXCEPT IN JAPAN, WHERE THE TERM NUCLEAR WINTER IS BEING REDEFINED)

The four seasons are determined by changing sunlight (not heat!)—which is determined by how our planet orbits the Sun and the tilt of its axis.

* At the start of spring—the vernal equinox—day and night are each approximately 12 hours long (with the actual time of equal day and night, in the Northern Hemisphere, occurring a few days before the vernal equinox). The Sun crosses the celestial equator going northward; it rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west: SPRING EQUINOX March 20, 7:21 P.M. EDT

http://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-seasons

I hope that everyone gets to enjoy some Spring, this year. Even if it's our last Spring:

Sissel Kyrkjebø - Våren (Last Spring)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J05oDDWm_-0

When our district choir sang this, our text was:

"Whispering winds are calling to say, that Spring is approaching!
The leaves on the trees are unfolding once more, the birds are singing.

Crocus buds show their tiny heads in colors so tender,
Scent of apple blossoms fill the air, to tell of their splendor.

Soon gentle rains from the sky above, bring forth, as with magic,
Spring Eternal is here once again! Yet soon, yet soon,
Comes the Summer, and the Autumn, and the Winter comes
And then we know that each living thing has one last Spring."

Well, enough escapism. Back to the dismal science, economics...and the world's oldest profession...politics.

[Demeter]

1. No Banks Down at 7 PM EDT

Maybe Sheila is busy rigging the world's finances with Uncle Ben? Check back later.

[Demeter]

3. Major U.S. bank dividend actions Friday

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/major-us-bank-dividend-actions-friday-2011-03-18?siteid=YAHOOB

The nation’s biggest bank holding companies are announcing increased dividends, share buybacks, stock issuance and plans to repay their government bailouts, now that the Federal Reserve has given answers to their capital assessment plans.

The banks were under strict rules on spending capital, but the results ease up those rules, allowing them to go forward with plans.

The banks didn’t wait long to proclaim victory: BB&T Corp. put out its increased dividend 24 minutes after the Fed’s announcement went official.

Here’s a list of which banks have said what so far Friday:

BB&T /quotes/comstock/13*!bbt/quotes/nls/bbt (BBT 26.95, -0.04, -0.15%) --16-cent per share quarterly dividend, up by a penny per share, plus a 1 cent one-time special dividend, which raises the first quarter dividend to the new rate. Shares recently were up 2% to $27.41.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm (JPM 45.66, -0.08, -0.18%) --25-cent quarterly dividend, up from 5-cent payout, plus a $15 billion share buyback program with $8 billion expected in 2011. Shares were up 2.9% to $45.86.

Wells Fargo & Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!wfc/quotes/nls/wfc (WFC 31.80, -0.03, -0.09%) --12 cents per share quarterly dividend rate, up from 5 cents per share, plus a 7-cent one-time special dividend and a plan to repurchase 200 million shares. Shares were up 2.1% to $32.02.

US Bancorp /quotes/comstock/13*!usb/quotes/nls/usb (USB 26.87, +0.22, +0.84%) --12.5-cent quarterly dividend rate, up from 5 cents, plus a 50-million share repurchase program. Shares were up 2.5% to $27.01.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!bk/quotes/nls/bk (BK 28.86, -0.02, -0.07%) --No specific rate, but Fed approved plan for “second quarter capital actions, including a dividend increase and share repurchases.” Shares were up 1% to $29.05.

American Express Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!axp/quotes/nls/axp (AXP 44.16, -0.01, -0.02%) --Plans to return, on average and over time, 50% of capital to shareholders. Unlike its peers, AmEx, with quarterly dividends at 18 cents per share, didn’t cut its dividend amid the financial crisis. The company isn’t likely to buy back shares until it announces first-quarter results. Shares were up 2.1% to $44.34.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!pnc/quotes/nls/pnc (PNC 62.51, -0.25, -0.40%) --Board will consider a dividend increase at April 7 meeting for the second quarter. Shares will be repurchased under existing program. Shares were up 2.2% to $63.39.

SunTrust Banks Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!sti/quotes/nls/sti (STI 29.65, +0.06, +0.20%) --The Fed approved its plan to pay back $4.85 billion it holds in government bailout funds, the largest bank amount outstanding in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. SunTrust plans a $1 billion stock sale to assist in paying back TARP, though the Treasury still has to approve the plan. Shares rose 5% to $29.62.

KeyCorp /quotes/comstock/13*!key/quotes/nls/key (KEY 8.93, +0.01, +0.11%) --Plans to repurchase its $2.5 billion in TARP funds and raise $625 million in common stock to fund the repayment. Bank also expects to raise its dividend in the second quarter to 3 cents a share from 1 cent. Shares were up 4% to $9.20.

Morgan Stanley /quotes/comstock/13*!ms/quotes/nls/ms (MS 27.42, -0.01, -0.03%) --The firm is “comfortable” with its capital position while its “priorities” are the continued investment in its businesses and purchasing the rest of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Shares up 1.5% to $27.85.

Capital One Financial Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!co/quotes/nls/co (CO 3.32, -0.01, -0.30%) --Maintains its quarterly dividend at 5 cents a share, and says its capital is strong. Shares up 1.4% to $51.47.

[Demeter]

18. WAGNER'S SPRING SONG

Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond (Spring Song) from Act I, Scene 3 of the German opera, Die Walküre by Richard Wagner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8CYkkgFzG4&feature=related

[Demeter]

16. In Proposed Mortgage Fraud Settlement, a Gift to Big Banks

http://www.truth-out.org/in-proposed-mortgage-fraud-settlement-a-gift-big-banks68578

Lurking in a proposed mortgage fraud settlement with the state attorneys general is a clause that could be worth billions for the big banks.

Yes, I mean the settlement that might extract the supposedly large sum of $20 billion <1> from the banks to settle foreclosure fraud. The one denounced as a "shakedown" <2> by Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.

Despite such rhetoric, the settlement might let the banks avoid tens of billions of write-downs, thanks to a clause with a biblical flavor: the last shall be first.

The proposed agreement -- which is preliminary and subject to intense negotiations being led by Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa -- would allow banks to treat second mortgages, like home equity lines of credit, just like the first mortgages. Under the proposal, when a bank writes the principal down on the first mortgage, the second should be written down "at least proportionately to the first."

Suddenly, the banks would be given license to subvert the rules of payment hierarchy, as Gretchen Morgenson pointed out <3> in The New York Times on Sunday. Yes, the clause says the other alternative is to wipe out the second's value entirely, but given a choice, the banks would be extremely unlikely to do that.

So how is this a gift? Because when the principal on the first mortgage is reduced, the second lien is typically wiped out. The first lien holder has the first right to any money recovered, and the second lien holder has to wait its turn.

The proposal "seems astonishingly generous to the second-lien holders," said Arthur Wilmarth, a law professor at George Washington University. "And who are those? Of course, they are the big mortgage servicers."

And who owns the big mortgage servicers? The biggest banks.


IN OTHER WORDS, THE FAT LADY HASN'T SUNG, YET. THIS OPERA IS GOING INTO EXTRA INNINGS...

[Demeter]

49. nakedcapitalism suggests Sheila is busy suing WaMu ex-executives

a noble pursuit, indeed. Good luck and Godspeed, Sheila!

[Demeter]

50. Do We Need Big Banks?

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/do-we-need-big-banks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

3 guesses...

[Demeter]

70. GEITHNER: WE NEED BIG BANKS TO BE EVEN BIGGER

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/03/geithner-we-need-big-banks-to-be-even-bigger.html

“I don’t have any enthusiasm for ... trying to shrink the relative importance of the financial system in our economy"

-Timothy F. Geithner

According to the man running U.S. economic policy, American banks need to be even bigger in order to take advantage of the 'financial deepening' that is anticipated in emerging markets. So, no, Geithner says, don't shrink the big banks. Make them even bigger.

The problem with this view is that it ignores recent history and all available economic research on bank size. Take the latest study from VoxEU economists for example:

In recent years, many banks have reached enormous size both in absolute terms and relative to their national economies. By 2008:

* 12 banks worldwide had liabilities exceeding $1 trillion, and
* 30 banks had a ratio of liabilities to national GDP higher than 0.5.

Large banks tend to be too big to fail, as their failure would have hugely negative repercussions for the overall economy.

Saving oversized banks, however, may ruin a country’s public finances (Gros and Micossi 2008). Take the example of Ireland; this country provided extensive financial support to its large banks and subsequently had to seek financial assistance from the EU and the IMF in 2010. The public finance risks posed by systemically large banks suggest that such banks should be reduced in size.

Further evidence against big banks can be found from studies on banking technologies. Berger and Mester (1997) estimate the returns to scale in US banking using data from the 1990s, to find that a bank’s optimal size, consistent with lowest average costs, would be for a bank with around $25 billion in assets. Amel et al. (2004) similarly report that commercial banks in North America with assets in excess of $50 billion have higher operating costs than smaller banks. These findings together suggest that today’s large banks, with assets in some instances exceeding $ 1 trillion, are well beyond the technologically optimal scale.

-Do we need big banks?, VoxEU

The economists go on to suggest that bank size may be a function of corporate governance and agency problems. Specifically, the larger the bank, the larger the prestige and remuneration for top bank managers. This is true irrespective of whether bank shareholders benefit, meaning this is a classic agency problem where bank managers and bank owners' interest may diverge. And as we witnessed during the crisis, bank stocks swooned as the system collapsed. But most top bank managers walked away with tens of millions without penalty or sanction. That's how it has worked up until now.

The economist proffer that banks should be limited not just by regulation, but also by bank levies and corporate governance reform.

Good luck with these suggestions. U.S. economic policy is not heading in that direction:

Geithner hunched his shoulders, pressed his knees together, and lifted his heels up off the ground—an almost childlike expression of glee. “We’re going, like, existential,” he said...

We have to think about the fact that we operate in the broader world,” Geithner said. “It’s the same thing for Microsoft or anything else. We want U.S. firms to benefit from that.” He continued: “Now financial firms are different because of the risk, but you can contain that through regulation.” This was the purpose of the recent financial reform, he said. In effect, Geithner was arguing that we should be as comfortable linking the fate of our economy to Wall Street as to automakers or Silicon Valley.

Read more: http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/03/geithner-we-need-big-banks-to-be-even-bigger.html#ixzz1H4oz0xVG

IF TIMMY KNOWS AS MUCH ABOUT ECONOMICS AS HE KNOWS ABOUT EXISTENTIALISM, WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE...

[Demeter]

90. A New “Whocoulddanode” Defense, This Time of Coddling Banksters in the Crisis

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/a-new-whocoulddanode-defense-this-time-of-coddling-banksters-in-the-crisis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

I hate shooting the messenger even when he lets us know that he is a tad invested in the information he is conveying, but sometimes it is warranted. Floyd Norris now tells us that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have been so generous to the banks during the crisis. He cites the usual reasons: the recovery is shallow, the officialdom missed the opportunity created by the crisis to restructure the financial system, sparing bondholders created moral hazard, and we are now stuck with banks in the driver’s seat. His lament, as the headline accurately summarizes, is “Crisis Is Over, But Where’s The Fix?”

The problem is that his account is larded with a rationalization of the decisions made at the time to treat major financial firms with soft gloves:

At the time, rescuing seemed more important than reforming. The world economy was breaking down because of a lack of financing. Trade flows collapsed, and companies and individuals stopped spending. It seemed clear that halting the slide was critical…

A surprising citadel of that second-guessing is at the International Monetary Fund, where researchers this week concluded that the rescues “only treated the symptoms of the global financial meltdown.”

“Second guessing” is simply misleading. It gives the inaccurate impression that decisions made at the time are now being questioned with the benefit of hindsight. But in fact, those decisions were criticized loudly at the time by a vocal minority, including yours truly.

Even during the last window of opportunity to bring the banking industry to heel, in early 2009, when the financiers were still chastened, quite a few people, including Paul Krugman, were calling for nationalization of the sickest banks, which would have been Citigroup and Bank of America. A next best step, as many including Nouriel Roubini, advocated, was wiping out the stock and bondholders. They were the providers of risk capital; no one held a gun to their heads to buy those investments. Yes, this measure (would) have hit smaller banks that had been encouraged by regulators to buy bank preferred stock, but that seemed a too convenient excuse for not taking on the managements of the biggest of the TARP banks.

There were all sorts of alternative approaches discussed as the crisis ground on. September and October 2008 were so gut-wrenching that it’s often forgotten that there were four acute phases, starting in August 2007. The Bagehot rule was invoked repeatedly as a guiding principle (lend freely, at penalty rates, against good collateral) and ignored. The Fed went from being behind the curve to over-reactive, as “75 was the new 25″, meaning the Fed was making sharp policy rate cute when markets got wobbly. A small minority became concerned when the Fed dropped the Fed funds rate below 2%, since it risked entering liquidity trap land with successive reductions (and indeed that is where we seem to be). Well before September 2008, there was ample discussion in econ policy circles of the Swedish response to its early 1990s banking crisis, which included throwing management of troubled institutions out, putting in new teams with clear objectives for their institutions but latitude in how to reach those goals, and setting up a vehicle to manage and work out troubled assets. The IMF even got serious about the question, but because its report on 124 banking crises was issued at the end of September 2008, things were moving too fast for it to get any consideration. Its main finding:

Existing empirical research has shown that providing assistance to banks and their borrowers can be counterproductive, resulting in increased losses to banks, which often abuse forbearance to take unproductive risks at government expense. The typical result of forbearance is a deeper hole in the net worth of banks, crippling tax burdens to finance bank bailouts, and even more severe credit supply contraction and economic decline than would have occurred in the absence of forbearance….

MORE AT LINK--YVES GIVES OUT THE LUMPS TO THE MOST DESERVING

[Demeter]

2. I Never Heard of This Lovely Singer, But She's Done Another Spring Song

Sissel - Vårvindar Friska (Frisky Winds Of Spring)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHW8vjzSRYg&feature=related

and if you want the heavy metal version: (if this isn't heavy metal, forgive my ignorance)

Ultima Thule - Vårvindar Friska

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quj_M1ZeMvU&NR=1

Yet a third arrangement: for a duet:
Ace of Base - Varvindar Friska (Live @ Festival de Viña)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv-5PsKEstY&feature=related

This is in fact a Dance Tune, Evidently--performed by Icelanders in this clip:

Icelandic folk dance - Vorvindar glaðir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us9ASpkOaLo&feature=related

[Tansy_Gold]

5. And for us traditionalists

Vivaldi

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

[Demeter]

7. I was getting there...

How's tricks, Tansy? I just glimpse you with your drive-by postings all week...

Are the cactus in bloom? My little barrel cactus has decided to finally break the buds it's had for nearly a year.

[Tansy_Gold]

46. March has not been particularly gentle for me

The day job dumped on me -- again -- and I had a variety of other obligations, so it's been kinda hit or miss. This may be my first relatively free week-end for almost a month.

I've been mentally humming the Vivaldi for a couple of days now, as temps have finally hit the low 80s and it feels like spring.

We took quite a hit with the frost this winter and lost a lot of the young agaves and yuccas we planted last year, but most of the rest of the plants are coming back fine. The various prickly pear species are getting flower buds and new pads. The bird of paradise (four red-and-orange, one yellow) are sending out new growth. The aloes have started to bloom.

One of the sure signs of spring is the red-tailed hawks perched on the freeway light poles. They're out in force now. Yesterday I had a house finch. . . . in the house. This happens when the BF leaves the doors open.

We don't get much snow and ice here in the shadow of Superstition Mountain, but the seasons do change. I'll try to post some pix over the week-end.



TG, TT

[Demeter]

4. The Forgotten Millions By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18krugman.html

More than three years after we entered the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a strange and disturbing thing has happened to our political discourse: Washington has lost interest in the unemployed.

Jobs do get mentioned now and then — and a few political figures, notably Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, are still trying to get some kind of action. But no jobs bills have been introduced in Congress, no job-creation plans have been advanced by the White House and all the policy focus seems to be on spending cuts.

So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned.

It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon. But unemployment has become a trap, one that’s very difficult to escape. There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record.

In short, we’re well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. Why doesn’t Washington care? ...At this point, the U.S. economy is suffering from low hiring, not high firing, so things don’t look so bad — as long as you’re willing to write off the unemployed.

Yet polls indicate that voters still care much more about jobs than they do about the budget deficit. So it’s quite remarkable that inside the Beltway, it’s just the opposite...

[Demeter]

13. Ohio Governor Gets 3,000 Boos

http://www.truth-out.org/ohio-governor-gets-3000-boos68569

Ohio Governor John Kasich delivered his “State of the State” speech March 8 with all the pomp expected of a new governor setting his agenda.

But 3,000 union members and allies—led by 2,000 firefighters along with teachers, state workers, electrical workers, steelworkers, and many others—had just finished rallying outside the Columbus statehouse damning Senate Bill 5, the governor’s proposal to gut public employee unions.

And now hundreds of protesters packed the hearing gallery, with many more outside, filling the air with boos and “Kill the Bill” chants while the governor spun down-home tales, like one about a young girl who walked up to him during his campaign to say, “Mister, please don’t tax my eggs.”

Seth Rosen, vice president of Communications Workers District 4, said Ohio politics are usually mild. Booing the governor isn’t typical.

The governor and the legislature’s Republican majority certainly don’t have moderation in mind. After a little reworking, the senate passed a bill in early March that ends collective bargaining for most state workers, by a 17-16 vote. The assembly was still considering it at press time...

[Demeter]

39. America's True Crisis

http://www.truth-out.org/jim-hightower-americas-true-crisis68500

The greatest problem our nation faces can be summed up in one word: leadership. OK, make that three words: lack of leadership.

America's corporate, political, media, academic and other leaders aren't. They're not leaders -- because they refuse to stand tall, be bold, offer vision, inspire and ... well, lead. We've got too many 5-watt bulbs sitting in 100-watt sockets. They're squishing the historic can-do spirit of the American people, reducing it to a dispiriting ethic of surrender that says we-shouldn't-even-try.

Start with our leaders' willful abdication of the American dream. They've given up on the notion of producing a shared prosperity that creates a broad middle class. For more than a decade now, Wall Street and Washington have let millions of jobs disappear and pushed wages down. They now yawn at the entrenched jobs crisis that is eating the middle class, and rather than responding to the plight of millions of hard-hit families, they're trying to bust unions and kill minimum-wage laws.

They call it "the new normal," in which the workaday majority of folks should simply ratchet down their hopes and expectations. A national commitment to quality education, health care for all and a decent retirement has been reduced to a "YO-YO" program: You're on Your Own.

[Demeter]

40. HEROES FROM LONG AGO

Congress is not preparing to defend the people of the United States. It is planning to protect the capital of American speculators and investors.... Incidentally this preparation will benefit the manufacturers of munitions and war machines.... Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction!

-Helen Keller at Carnegie Hall January 5, 1916

[Demeter]

6. Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"

The Rite of Spring, original French title, Le sacre du printemps (Russian: Весна священная, Vesna svyashchennaya), is a 1913 ballet with music by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, original choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, and original set design and costumes by archaeologist and painter Nicholas Roerich, all under impresario Serge Diaghilev. The music's innovative complex rhythmic structures, timbres, and use of dissonance have made it a seminal 20th century composition.

In 1973, composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein said of one passage, "That page is sixty years old, but it's never been topped for sophisticated handling of primitive rhythms...", and of the work as a whole, "...it's also got the best dissonances anyone ever thought up, and the best asymmetries and polytonalities and polyrhythms and whatever else you care to name."

A performance of the work lasts about 33 minutes...

While the Russian title literally means "Sacred Spring", the English title is based on the French title under which the work was premiered, although sacre is more precisely translated as "consecration". It has the subtitle "Pictures from Pagan Russia" (French: Tableaux de la Russie païenne)...

The painter Nicholas Roerich shared his idea with Stravinsky in 1910, his fleeting vision of a pagan ritual in which a young girl dances herself to death

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjX3oAwv_Fs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb8njeKBfqw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK64sTi4mKc&feature=related

[Demeter]

8. OPINION PAGE: It's still an empty lockbox

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/17/AR2011031704661.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

Last week, President Obama's budget chief, Jack Lew, took to his White House blog to repeat his claim that the Social Security trust fund is solvent through 2037. And to chide me for suggesting otherwise. I had argued in my last column that the trust fund is empty, indeed fictional.

If Lew's claim were just wrong, that would be one thing. But it provides the intellectual justification for precisely the kind of debt denial and entitlement complacency that his boss is now engaged in. Therefore, once more unto the breach.

Lew acknowledges that the Social Security surpluses of the last decades were siphoned off to the Treasury Department and spent. He also agrees that Treasury then deposited corresponding IOUs - called "special issue" bonds - in the Social Security trust fund. These have real value, claims Lew. After all, "these Treasury bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government in the same way that all other U.S. Treasury bonds are."

Really? If these trust fund bonds represent anything real, why is it that in calculating national indebtedness they are not even included? We measure national solvency by debt/GDP ratio. As calculated by everyone from the OMB to the CIA, from the Simpson-Bowles to the Domenici-Rivlin commissions, the debt/GDP ratio counts only publicly held debt. This means bonds held by China, Saudi Arabia, you and me. The debt ratio completely ignores the kind of intragovernmental bonds that Lew insists are the equivalent of publicly held bonds.

Why? Because the intragovernmental bond is nothing more than a bookkeeping device that records how much one part of the U.S. government (Treasury) owes another part of the same government (the Social Security Administration). In judging the creditworthiness of the United States, the world doesn't care what the left hand owes the right. It's all one entity. It cares only what that one entity owes the world.

That's why publicly held bonds are so radically different from intragovernmental bonds. If we default on Chinese-held debt, decades of AAA creditworthiness are destroyed, the world stops lending to us, the dollar collapses, the economy goes into a spiral and we become Argentina. That's why such a default is inconceivable.

On the other hand, what would happen to financial markets if the Treasury stopped honoring the "special issue" bonds in the Social Security trust fund? A lot of angry grumbling at home for sure. But externally? Nothing.



OH, I DON'T KNOW. WHY NOT ASK THE TUNISIANS, LIBYANS, EGYPTIANS, BAHARANI, ETC? I THINK THIS ARGUMENT HAS MORE HOLES THAN THE AUTHOR'S HEAD.

[Demeter]

87. This is Charles Krauthammer, by the way

Charles seems to feel that there's no force on earth that can wrest any tax money away from the hoarding Obscenely Wealthy class, let alone claw back what they stole from working people...

[burf]

9. 2nd rec

Tansy must have beat me to the punch!!!!

Good evening and a great weekend to all.

[Demeter]

10. Is Haiti Poor?

http://www.truth-out.org/is-haiti-poor68565

That depends on how you define poverty and wealth. Is Haiti poor? No, I would say Haiti is a rich country. We have solidarity and community. We’re raised in compounds with common courtyards and we know that what you have, you have to share with your neighbors. You stand in front of your neighbor’s house and you ask, “Did you drink coffee already today?” You know that your success and your family’s success depend on the community’s well-being. That’s the model we have.

Haiti has other riches, too, like people who work hard for the global economy, in America, the Caribbean, everywhere. We have people working here, too, doing construction, producing agriculture and other products.

But it’s hard for a little country to rise up, especially in our case. We’re still paying a toll because of the independence we got (from France in 1804) in one of the best revolutions the world’s had. The war against us never ended when we got our independence. We helped other people liberate themselves and gain their sovereignty in South America (helping the liberator Simon Bolívar in Venezuela in 1817) and in (the Siege of Savannah in the revolutionary war in) America. We had our own revolution and we were exporting revolution, so there’s still an embargo against us, a barrier blocking us. It’s like Cuba: if Cuba had support, if it weren’t blockaded, there’s no limit to what it could do.

Haiti could go far. But humanity has to become more solidarity-minded so the global economy doesn’t predominate and crush some of us.

And the wealthy need to understand that they can’t take their riches with them. What they have, they should use it for good, because it actually belongs to everyone. As Victor Hugo wrote, we’re all children of God.

MORE OPINIONS AT LINK

[Demeter]

15. Europe's Austerity: Like Something Out of the Brothers Grimm

http://www.truth-out.org/europes-austerity-like-something-out-brothers-grimm68580..


...It is an interesting story, a sort of Grimm’s fairy tale for the 21st century, but it bears about as much resemblance to the cause of the crisis as Cinderella’s fairy godmother does to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

While each country has its own particular conditions, there is a common thread that underlines the current crisis. Starting early in the decade, banks and financial houses flooded real estate markets with money, fueling a speculation explosion that inflated an enormous bubble. In climate and culture, Spain and Ireland may be very different places, but housing prices rocketed 500 percent in both countries.

The money was virtually free, with low interest rates on the bank side, and cozy tax deals cut between speculators and politicians on the other. That kept the cash within a small circle of investors. While Bavarian workers were watching their pay fall, German banks were taking in record profits and shoveling yet more capital into the real estate bubbles in Ireland and Spain. The level of debt eventually approached the grotesque. Ireland’s bank debts, if translated into dollars, would be the equal of $10 trillion.

The Wall Street implosion in 2008 sent shock waves around the world and popped bubbles all over Europe. While nations on the periphery of the European Union (EU) tanked first—Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Romania, Hungary, and Greece, economies at the heart of the EU—Britain, Spain, Italy, and Portugal—were also shaken. According to the Financial Times (FT), total claims by European banks on the Greek, Irish, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese debts alone are $2.4 trillion.

The European Union’s (EU) cure for the crisis is a formula with a long and troubled history, and one that has sowed several decades of falling living standards and frozen economies when it was applied to Latin America some 30 years ago. In simple terms, it is austerity, austerity and more austerity until the bank debts are paid off.

There are similarities between the current European crisis and the 1981 Latin American debt crisis. “In both cases debts were issued in a currency over which borrowing countries had no control,” says the FT’s John Rathbone. For Latin America it was the dollar, for Europe the Euro. Secondly, there was first a period of easy credit, followed by a worldwide recession...

[Demeter]

21. Austerity nation – 45 million Americans on food assistance programs

http://www.mybudget360.com/austerity-nation-45-million-americans-on-food-assistance-programs-financial-shrinking-middle-class-hittng-wallets/

From November to December of 2010 487,000 Americans were added to the food stamp program. Keep in mind this all occurred while the stock market continued to soar and has rallied nearly 100 percent from the lows reached in March of 2009. Working and middle class Americans barely have enough to pay for the monthly bills so speculating in Wall Street is likely the least of their concerns. The data on food stamp usage usually trails the current calendar date by one quarter. The latest data we have is from December of 2010. However, we are adding roughly 300,000 people per month to the food stamp program called SNAP. If that is the case, as of today we now have 45,000,000 Americans participating in the food stamp program. We’ve noted trends in the economy where people line up at mid-night during certain key dates in the month at Wal-Mart locations waiting for their debit cards to refill so they can purchase food for their families.

One of the troubling aspects of this recession is the hidden aspect of the financial pain that it is causing. Many people have no idea their neighbor is in foreclosure until the home is taken back by the bank. It is hard to see this in action and people don’t speak up because of embarrassment. Also with the media thumping its chest about recovery many blame their own failings for their misery. And with the movement of food stamps from embarrassing paper coupons to debit cards, many have no idea how many of their fellow Americans are receiving food assistance. The debit cards blend in with most any other piece of plastic Americans carry in their wallets. The reality however is that 14 percent of our entire population (man, woman, or child) is on SNAP. There has been little stopping this trend. And this is something that has been going on for well over a decade but not many were paying attention because of the massive credit induced housing bubble and the lack of a voice for this group:

[Demeter]

36. Comparative Suffering: Iceland vs. Ireland KRUGMAN

http://www.truth-out.org/comparative-suffering-iceland-vs-ireland68477

[Demeter]

11. Joseph Haydn - The Seasons - Spring (2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVSJ3qrzEWo

[Po_d Mainiac]

12. Not fair! Feets of snow slill on the ground

But I got maple syrup..

[Demeter]

47. Sending you warm wishes

and some pancakes to go with that syrup...

[Po_d Mainiac]

56. Thanks for the thought...Got a few acres of wild blueberries out back

Blueberries and rock maples go well together. Pancakes around here are closer to a 50/50 mix of batter to berries.

[Demeter]

14. Saying No to the Nuclear Option

http://www.truth-out.org/saying-no-nuclear-option68577

Faced with the nuclear crisis in Japan, governments around the world are confronting the vulnerabilities of their nuclear energy programs. And while some European countries, such as Germany and France, are already considering more stringent safety measures--or backing off of nuclear development altogether--in the United States, the Obama administration is pushing forward with plans for increased nuclear energy production.

Ultimately, these questions are the same that the country faced after last summer's Gulf Coast oil spill. As we search for more and more clever ways to fill our energy needs, can we write off the risk of disaster? Or are these large-scale catastrophes so inevitable that the only option is to stop pursuing the policies that lead to them?

Linda Gunter, of the group Beyond Nuclear:

Even if you get away from the safety issue, which is obviously front and centre right now because of what's happening in Japan, and you look at solutions to climate change, then nuclear energy takes way too long to build, reactors take years to come online, they're wildly expensive. Most of the burden of the cost will fall on the U.S. taxpayer in this country, so why go there?...The possibility of it going radically wrong, the outcome is so awful that morally you can't justify it. The reliability of nuclear power is practically zero in an emergency when you have this confluence of natural disasters.

...The Obama administration has always been gung-ho about nuclear energy: The president is from Illinois, after all, where Exelon Corp., one of the countries' biggest nuclear providers, is based. Even in the face of Japan's disaster, the administration is not backing off of its push for nuclear, as Kate Sheppard reports at Mother Jones:

Nuclear power is part of the "clean energy standard" that Obama outlined in his State of the Union speech in January. And in the 2011 budget, the administration called for a three-fold increase in federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants, from the $18.5 billion that Congress has already approved to $54.5 billion. "We are aggressively pursuing nuclear energy," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu in February 2010 as he unveiled the budget....In Monday's White House press briefing, press secretary Jay Carney said that nuclear energy "remains a part of the president's overall energy plan."

The state of safety in the U.S. nuclear industry isn't particularly reassuring, though. As Arnie Gunderson told Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, almost a quarter of American nuclear plants rely on the same design as the one currently faltering in Japan. Even worse, experts have known for decades that the design of this reactor is not safe...

[Demeter]

20. Japanese Company Responsible for Nuclear Catastrophe Is Slated to Build Plants in Texas

http://www.alternet.org/story/150245/japanese_company_responsible_for_nuclear_catastrophe_is_slated_to_build_plants_in_texas?akid=6674.227380.KHNy8W&rd=1&t=22

Obama recently asked Congress for a $4 billion loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors on the Gulf Coast of Texas -- involving Tokyo Electric Power.

I need to speak to you, not as a reporter, but in my former capacity as lead investigator in several government nuclear plant fraud and racketeering investigations.

I don't know the law in Japan, so I can't tell you if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) can plead insanity to the homicides about to happen.

But what will Obama plead? The Administration, just months ago, asked Congress to provide a $4 billion loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors to be built and operated on the Gulf Coast of Texas -- by Tokyo Electric Power and local partners. As if the Gulf hasn't suffered enough...

[Demeter]

25. Merkel vows 'measured' nuclear exit, switch to renewables

http://www.alternet.org/rss/breakingnews/531694/merkel_vows_%27measured%27_nuclear_exit%2C_switch_to_renewables/?akid=6676.227380.C4Ybq4&rd=1&t=12

ANGELA MERKEL FOR PRESIDENT OF THE USA!

..."We want to reach the age of renewable energy as soon as possible. That is our goal," the chancellor told parliament during a fiery speech that drew frequent opposition jeers, indicating the depth of passion over the issue.

Merkel, a former environment minister, called for a "measured exit" from nuclear power and said "everything would be put under the microscope" during a three-month study to consider the future of energy policy in Germany.

Nevertheless, she emphasised that Germany's reactors were "among the safest in the world."

"And I continue to reject the idea that we turn off our reactors in Germany, only then to get our electricity from reactors in other countries. That will not happen while I am around," she vowed...

[Demeter]

29. Chernobyl Expert Says Greed May Lead to Big Trouble in Japan

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/chernobyl_expert_says_greed_may_lead_20110315/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Truthdig%2FEarToTheGround+Truthdig+|+Ear+to+the+Ground

Andreev said a fire which released radiation on Tuesday involving spent fuel rods stored close to reactors at Fukushima looked like an example of putting profit before safety:

“The Japanese were very greedy and they used every square inch of the space. But when you have a dense placing of spent fuel in the basin you have a high possibility of fire if the water is removed from the basin,” Andreev said.

The IAEA should share blame for standards, he said, arguing it was too close to corporations building and running plants. And he dismissed an emergency incident team set up by the Vienna-based agency as “only a think-tank not a working force”:

“This is only a fake organization because every organization which depends on the nuclear industry—and the IAEA depends on the nuclear industry—cannot perform properly.

[Demeter]

30. Europe Hits the Panic Button Over Nuclear Power

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/europe_hits_the_panic_button_over_nuclear_power_20110315/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Truthdig%2FEarToTheGround+Truthdig+|+Ear+to+the+Ground

The EU’s energy commissioner declared that all of Europe’s 143 nuclear reactors would be reviewed for safety and said of the Japanese crisis, “There is talk of an apocalypse and I think the word is particularly well chosen.”

Germany, meanwhile, shut down seven plants built before 1980.

Some have more cause for concern than others. Eighty percent of France’s electricity is generated by atom splitting...

[Demeter]

38. End Nuclear Power Before it Ends Us: Harvey Wasserman

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12494


...In 1980, I reported from central Pennsylvania on what happened to people there after the accident at Three Mile Island a year before. I interviewed scores of conservative middle Americans who were suffering and dying from a wide range of radiation-related diseases. Lives and families were destroyed in an awful plague of unimaginable cruelty. The phrase "no one died at Three Mile Island" is one of the worst lies human beings have ever told.

In 1996, ten years after Chernobyl, I attended a conference in Kiev commemorating the tenth anniversary of that disaster. Now, another fifteen years later, a definitive study has been published indicating a death toll as high as 985,000...so far.

Today we are in the midst of a disaster with no end in sight. At least four reactors are on fire. The utility has pulled all workers from the site, but may now be sending some back in.

The workers who do this are incomparably brave. They remind us, tragically, of some 800,000 Chernobyl "Liquidators." These were Soviet draftees who were sent into that seething ruin for 60 or 90 seconds each to quickly perform some menial task and then run out.

When I first read that number---800,000---I thought it was a typographical error. But after attending that 1996 conference in Kiev, I spoke in the Russian city of Kaliningrad and met with dozens of these Chernobyl veterans. They tearfully assured me it was accurate. They were angry beyond all measure. They had been promised they would not encounter health problems. But now they were dying in droves.

How many will die at Fukushima we will never know. Never have we faced the prospect of multiple meltdowns, four or more, each with its own potential for gargantuan emissions beyond measure.

[AnneD]

53. There are hundreds of...

Geologically stable areas in Texas. Why take a chance building on the gulf coast. We don't get tsumanis but the hurricanes can be a bitch. Why even go nuclear in the first place?

[Karenina]

54. "Why even go nuclear in the first place?"

"We can't handle the waste!" That was my quip in fifth grade 50 years ago...

Do you ever wonder exactly WHAT it will take? :banghead:

[snot]

63. Plus TX has LOTS of wind and sun.

[AnneD]

88. You should see the windmills....

On the mesas in west Texas. They look like an army of giants...to lift from Cervantes. They actually compliment the landscape.

[snot]

89. You mean like this? ;)

http://www.c-cyte.com/NM_SantaFe_2010/source/p1070968-iphone.html

[AnneD]

106. Just a cotton picking minute...

That looks like a cotton field. The ones in west Texas are on top of the mesas. Because of the expansive vista's, they can be seen hundreds of miles away.

[snot]

108. Oops, you're right; this was North Tex.

[AnneD]

111. My guess would have been....

North or NE Texas, Mississippi, or La. If red dirt Ga. or Ok. I know my crops and helped chop cotton in my youth.

[snot]

65. (Like so many replies here,) this shd be in GD.

[Demeter]

69. FEEL FREE TO TRANSPLANT

WE DON'T OWN ANYTHING BUT OUR OPINIONS

[Demeter]

17. Chinese Yueju Opera-Early Spring-A Song of A Widow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7_JDBvkyiM

[bread_and_roses]

19. 5th Rec! There's something I want to say about each of the above posts -

even if it's just another exploding head or an "unbelievable!" But I'm so very very tired. Maybe tomorrow. I don't know.

[Demeter]

22. I know how you feel

Hence the copious amount of sentimental Spring music...otherwise, we might all be cutting our throats, esp. me.

[Demeter]

23. Executive Bonuses Bounce Back

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206903329068840.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

...CEO bonuses at 50 major corporations jumped a median of 30.5%, the biggest gain in at least three years, according to a study of the first batch of corporate CEO pay disclosures by consulting firm Hay Group for The Wall Street Journal.

Top executives collect a lot of different types of pay, including salaries, long-term equity awards and bonuses tied to corporate performance. Bonuses in general are rebounding as some hard-hit industries like autos recover and corporate profits climb...

[Demeter]

35. Salary Ceiling, a Lever for Change

http://www.truth-out.org/salary-ceiling-a-lever-change68472

[Demeter]

24. Russell Ger conducts Copland: Appalachian Spring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9mrXagbva8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qUtIgdDLWA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2j1LRoDKic&feature=related

[Demeter]

26. Following Citizens United, Minnesota Democrats want constitutional amendment clarify ‘natural person

http://washingtonindependent.com/106541/following-citizens-united-minnesota-democrats-want-constitutional-amendment-to-clarify-%E2%80%98natural-person%E2%80%99

Following last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, Minnesota Democrats are proposing a constitutional amendment to define an individual as a “natural person.” The 2010 ruling gave corporations certain rights as “persons” and allowed them to engage in new levels of political activity. Sen. Scott Dibble of Minneapolis said the DFL bill is aimed at curtailing the idea that corporate entities have the same rights as human beings.

The bill, SF683/HF914, puts forward a simple question to voters: “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to define ‘person’ to mean natural person?”

“Corporations have been allowed to funnel vast sums of money into elections which distorts our elections and really amounts to buying elections,” Dibble told the Minnesota Independent. “No other entity could begin to match the amount of money that corporations are capable of spending.”

[Demeter]

37. Unequal Protection, Part I: Corporations Take Over

http://www.truth-out.org/unequal-protection-the-deciding-moment68397

The first thing to understand is the difference between the natural person and the fictitious person called a corporation. They differ in the purpose for which they are created, in the strength which they possess, and in the restraints under which they act.

Man is the handiwork of God and was placed upon earth to carry out a Divine purpose; the corporation is the handiwork of man and created to carry out a money-making policy.

There is comparatively little difference in the strength of men; a corporation may be one hundred, one thousand, or even one million times stronger than the average man. Man acts under the restraints of conscience, and is influenced also by a belief in a future life. A corporation has no soul and cares nothing about the hereafter....

—William Jennings Bryan, in his address to the
Ohio 1912 Constitutional Convention

[snot]

64. +1! One big difference:

an individual can be held responsible for her/his actions, and that possibility can act as a deterrent.

You can hold a corp. liable for its actions, and even impose a "death sentence" on it; but who cares. The same senior execs who caused the corp. to misbehave in the first place simply form or move on to another corp. (OR other organization, including "charitable" orgs).

[Demeter]

27. Simon & Garfunkel - The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KZi-aV0VTk

[Demeter]

28. GOP Rep Against Restoring Tsunami Funding, Warns Against ‘Over-Reacting

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/530566/gop_rep_against_restoring_tsunami_funding%2C_warns_against_%E2%80%98over-reacting%27/#paragraph2

As ThinkProgress and others noted last week, the 2011 budget proposed by House Republicans — as well as the three-week continuing resolution they just passed — eliminates critical funding to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that will hamper the agency’s ability to track and respond to tsunamis. The agency said the cuts “will take away our ability to upgrade tsunami models and will put considerable stress on watch-standers' ability to react.”

The cuts were roundly (SUPPORTED BEFORE) devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But this morning, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) — a Tea Party favorite and rigid ideologue on budget cuts — said he still favors the reduction, and dismissed calls to restore the funding because “we often over-react” to natural disasters:

KING: The tsunami warning centers, it’s really — the timing of that really puts attention on the subject matter. I don’t know that I would go back and look at that. I would ask people to come forward with the facts on this — how badly do we need them and do the tragic events in Japan give us a different perspective. I would look at it from a different perspective. I don’t know I would at this point know say that I’d be willing to make that change. I think we often over-react to emergencies, especially natural disasters, before we assess the limit of the damage, and particularly with the nuclear part of this:

VIDEO CLIP AT LINK

[Demeter]

31. GOP Reopens Fight Over Nuclear Waste in Sacred Yucca Mountain

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/03/japans_nuclear_power_crisis_may_halt_yucca_mountain_waste.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+racewireblog+%28ColorLines%29

A little over a week before an 8.9-magnitude earthquake ripped open a fissure in the Earth, triggered a deadly tsunami and set off a potential worldwide nuclear catastrophe, House Republicans introduced a bill to permit 200 more commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S., “enough to triple current megawatt capacity, by 2040.” Tucked into that bill is a clause that revives the long debate around nuclear waste storage in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, a move that Native American and environmental groups have been resisting for decades.

Nuclear power may not produce pollution like fossil fuels, but it does produce waste that carries with it the risk of radioactive contamination. There’s no expanding nuclear power without pinning down a nuclear waste storage site, which is one of the reasons the House bill calls on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to complete a review of the Yucca Mountain site “without political interference.”

Native American groups have long opposed the construction of a nuclear waste storage site in Yucca Mountain, which is a sacred spiritual and religious site for local Western Shoshone and Pauite tribes.

“A Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository will leak, impacting the land and people of the Great Basin sooner or later,” testified Margene Bullcreek, president of the Native Community Action Council, at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety Licensing Board Panel Construction Authorization Board in 2010.

Bullcreek’s group represents local tribes that have suffered from radiation exposure after U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the area. They say storing nuclear waste in the mountain would desecrate the sacred lands, and also expose local residents to significant health risks.

In 2010 the Department of Energy withdrew its application to pursue Yucca Mountain as a site for a nuclear waste dump, but Republicans have not abandoned the idea.

“It was a political, not scientific, decision,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, McClatchy reported. “It is incumbent on the administration to come up with a disposal plan for this real problem facing our nation.”

[Demeter]

41. Minnesota Republicans Want To Bust Poor People Who Carry Cash

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27717.htm

Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.

On March 15, Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee testified in front of the House Health and Human Services Reform Committee on House File 171. Buechner told committee members, “We would like to address the provision that makes it illegal for MFIP families to withdraw cash from the cash portion of the MFIP grant - and in fact, appears to make it illegal for MFIP families to have any type of money at all in their pockets. How do you expect people to take care of business like paying bills such as lights, gas, water, trash and phone?”

House File 171 would make it so that families on MFIP - and disabled single adults on General Assistance and Minnesota Supplemental Aid - could not have their cash grants in cash or put into a checking account. Rather, they could only use a state-issued debit card at special terminals in certain businesses that are set up to accept the card.

The bill also calls for unconstitutional residency requirements, not allowing the debit card to be used across state lines and other provisions that the Welfare Rights Committee and others consider unacceptable.

Buechner testified, “We’ll leave you with this. It is not right to punish a whole group because of the supposed actions of a few. You in this room could have a pretty rough time if that was the case. It is not right to stigmatize and dehumanize women living the hard life of trying to raise children while living 60% below the poverty level. It is not right to use racist, bumper-sticker hate to inflict human misery for political gain.”

[plumbob]

66. They have a plan - they're burying it right on top of our drinking water

near Andrews, Texas.

State of Texas agreed to stand for all liability if (when) it leaks, and Andrews County passed a bond issue for $70 million to build it to save Harold Simmons, the Dallas billionaire who owns it, money on the interest rate.

So five generations of work will soon be glowing the dark. But since this is the part of Texas west of I-35, we don't matter. "Everyone knows" no one lives out here anyway..

[Demeter]

32. THERE ISN'T A MORE APPROPRIATE SONG AFTER POSTING ABOUT THE GOP THAN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K08akOt2kuo

[Demeter]

33. Radiation Exposure: Fast Facts About Thyroid Cancer and Other Health Risks

Officials in the U.S. and U.K. have released statements assuring the public that there is no imminent radiation threat in these countries. Philippine authorities have had to quash a text hoax that caused some offices and classes to shut down after it warned of thyroid health issues and the dangers of stepping outdoors without a raincoat.

Following are quick facts on radiation exposure and its possible health consequences.

Who is at highest risk of radiation poisoning?

The nearly 200 Japanese people who have been taken to the hospital with suspected radiation exposure and those who were living within roughly 12 miles of the Fukushima nuclear power plant (and have been asked to evacuate) are presumably at higher risk than others. Other risk groups, according to CBS News, include the cleanup workers who have been exposed to the radiation in the nuclear facilities as well as children under 18 and fetuses in the womb — they have the most actively dividing cells in their bodies.

The New York Daily News also reports:

Seventeen U.S. Navy crew members have been contaminated with low-levels of radiation during disaster relief missions in Japan, military officials said Monday.

The radioactivity was detected when the service members returned to the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan aboard three helicopters. They were treated with soap and water and their clothes were discarded.

"No further contamination was detected," the military said.

TIME's Ecocentric blog reports here on the types of radioactive isotopes that were likely to have been emitted by the crippled Fukushima reactors, and what the risks may be to those exposed.

So far, however, the immediate health risks of radiation appear minimal, and levels outside the plant have remained at safe levels.

Why did the Japanese government hand out potassium iodide pills?

After a nuclear event, radioactive iodine may be released into the air and the iodine pills were likely given out to protect those who may be exposed. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), potassium iodide prevents the thyroid gland from quickly absorbing radioactive iodine if inhaled.

However, as the New York Times explains:

Dr. Brenner said the iodine pills were protective, but were "a bit of a myth" because their use is based on the belief that the risk is from inhaling radioactive iodine. Actually, he said, 98 percent of people's exposure comes from milk and other dairy products.

"The way radioactive iodine gets into human beings is an indirect route," he said. "It falls to the ground, cows eat it and make milk with radioactive iodine, and you get it from drinking the milk. You get very little from inhaling it. The way to prevent it is just to stop people from drinking the milk." He said that the epidemic of thyroid cancer around Chernobyl could have been prevented if the government had immediately stopped people from drinking milk.

Crops can also be contaminated. "I wouldn't be eating an apple from a tree close to the plant," Dr. Brenner said.

What is the overall risk of radiation exposure from contaminated food?

In this case, there should be no cause for concern given the reported radiation levels, according to Bloomberg.com. Still, officials in South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines will reportedly be checking food imported from Japan for possible signs of radiation to ensure their safety for consumption.

Is there risk for cancer?

When thyroid cells absorb too much radioactive iodine — either through the air or through contaminated food — it can increase the risk for thyroid cancer, says the American Thyroid Association. Babies and young children are at highest risk as their thyroid glands are most radiation-sensitive. People over 40 are at less risk.

The massive explosion at Chernobyl in 1986 caused an epidemic of thyroid cancer and increases in leukemia rates. By comparison, the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, which released about one million times less radiation, according to the New York Times, did not appear to impact cancer rates even decades later.

The radiation release in Japan appears to be much closer to that of the Three Mile Island incident than Chernobyl.

What is acute radiation syndrome, and what are its initial symptoms?

Exposure to high levels of radiation can cause acute radiation syndrome (ARS), or radiation poisoning. The first symptoms of ARS are typically nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. These symptoms, the CDC says, start within minutes to days after the exposure, and can last for minutes or days. A person with ARS can look and feel healthy, then get sick again later. Later symptoms, which may last hours or months, include loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and possibly even seizures, coma and death. Radiation poisoning also usually causes skin damage.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/03/14/radiation-exposure-fast-facts-about-thyroid-cancer-and-other-health-risks/#ixzz1H0WeTYI4


THIS ARTICLE COMES FROM AN OFFICIAL ORGAN OF MSM PROPAGANDA; I CAN MAKE NO REPRESENTATION AS TO ITS VERACITY...

[Demeter]

34. WEATHER UPDATE

Meteorologists say that the prevailing winds will shift towards Tokyo by Sunday, meaning that if the situation isn't controlled by then, radioactivity that has so far been blown out over the Pacific will begin to move over a densely populated city...

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/530223/nuclear_crisis_--_winds_to_shift_toward_tokyo%3B_power_line_may_not_restore_cooling_at_crippled_reactors%3B_%22miniscule%22_levels_of_radiation_reach_u.s.

Also, radiation has been detected on the West Coast of the U.S. Before you get too concerned though, note that the radiation levels are being described as "miniscule" and not nearly high enough to impact humans...

[Demeter]

42. Japanese Radiation Reaches US

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27715.htm

The first detection of radiation from Japan has been recorded along the West Coast of the United States, but the UN insists the levels of radiation are far below dangerous levels.

The UN's Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization initially issued a statement alleging a radioactive plume could hit California by March 18 – they were right.

American health and nuclear officials, and US President Barack Obama himself have repeatedly said there is no real threat of radiation from Japan and any detected radiation would be in the safe zone.

However, many are still worried.

[Demeter]

55. Japan finds elevated radiation levels in food

Japanese authorities have discovered milk and spinach with elevated radiation levels, the latest worrying development in the nuclear crisis that resulted from the devastating earthquake and tsunami which hit the nation eight days ago.

On Saturday, the country's top government spokesman, said monitors had found traces of radiation higher than the legal limit under Japan’s food safety laws. While Yukio Edano insisted there was no threat to human health, the results mean Japan faces a possible food safety scare on top of the nuclear crisis.

The news came as firefighters resumed spraying water on to the No 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant where engineers and emergency workers are working day and night to tackle problems at six nuclear reactors.

“We can’t say anything definite at this point, but it appears that we were successful in getting some water to the pool at reactor No 3, and the situation is stable,” Mr Edano said.

Speaking about the contaminated food, Mr Edano said monitors had found radiation above the legal safety limit in one sample of milk from a farm in Fukushima prefecture on Friday evening. On Saturday, elevated levels of radiation were discovered in six samples of spinach from Ibaraki prefecture, which were taken more than 30km away from the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/WLR5JJ/MJTKN/TPERSH/PRXOA5/HK/t?a1=2011&a2=3&a3=19

[Demeter]

43. India is world's 'largest importer' of arms, says study

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12729363

[Demeter]

44. US confirms $40bn arms sales in 2009

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/169580.html

[Demeter]

45. Supermoon to make closest pass by Earth on Saturday

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0318/Supermoon-to-make-closest-pass-by-Earth-on-Saturday

The moon will makes its closest approach to Earth on Saturday, appearing closer and larger to the naked eye. The last supermoon was eighteen years ago.,,

[Demeter]

48. When the Oil Price Portends Recession

http://dailyreckoning.com/when-the-oil-price-portends-recession/

...Meanwhile, the financial world seemed to be on the verge of collapse too. Stocks rose 161 points on the Dow yesterday...after a big drop the day before. Gold rose a bit too.

This is the kind of market nervousness that usually resolves itself - in a big drop. Yes, our "Crash Alert" flag - tattered, faded, and frayed - is out. Ignore it at your peril!

The Fed is still pumping $4 billion of new money into the system every day. And the federal government is putting in another $5 billion of deficit spending every day.

With this kind of support, you wouldn't expect asset prices to fall. Instead, they should be soaring.

"Don't fight the Fed," the old timers warn.

But watch out. The Fed might have lost control.

The Great Correction isn't going away. It's intensifying.

As you know, it's been war out there. The feds against the market. The market wants change. The feds fight to protect the status quo.

It's an ancient struggle. But this phase of it has been going on for more than 10 years. The markets try to go down...to correct their mistakes...to reduce the amount of debt in the system. And the feds fight back with overwhelming firepower - forcing prices back up...adding more debt...preventing bankruptcies. And now the battle is heating up.

What to make of it? First, the feds can destroy wealth. They can prevent it. They can move it around. But it's only the private sector - and market forces - that create it.

Second, the more the feds meddle in the markets, the more distorted and grotesque the outcome becomes. Regulation, rigged credit markets, bailouts and subsidies - all pervert the natural outcome of market forces.

Third, the feds' current use of overwhelming force to block a market correction is creating overwhelming unforeseen and pernicious problems. They put money into the system to try to encourage spending and investment. The money pushes up stocks - giving investors more "wealth" to spend. But it also tempts speculators into risky trades...and pushes up oil prices...giving business and consumers higher energy prices...and less money to spend on other things.

Let's look at what happens next...

[Po_d Mainiac]

58. Add the projected drop of 2+% in global GDP from the disaster in Japan

Looks like all the makings of a perfect storm on the horizon.

OR

The ongoing submarining of the U$D (with added negative ballast from QE3-18) continues to buoy the markets. AAPL and crude could trade in the same range.

[Demeter]

51. Who’s Afraid Of Elizabeth Warren?

http://baselinescenario.com/2011/03/17/whos-afraid-of-elizabeth-warren/

...having Elizabeth Warren on the scene – providing an alternative pro-consumer perspective – is apparently increasingly inconvenient to Mr. Geithner. For example, he has expressed displeasure at her engagement in the mortgage settlement process...

IF I WERE TIMMY, I'D WORRY ABOUT MORE THAN JUST ONE SMALL WOMAN...LIKE ABOUT 150 MILLION OF THEM, OUT FOR BLOOD, HIS BLOOD....

[Demeter]

52. Ex-Goldman Banker Behind WSJ 'Smear Campaign' Against Elizabeth Warren

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/ex-goldman-banker-smear-elizabeth-warren_n_837185.html

A Wall Street Journal editorial writer who has been closely involved with the paper's recent attacks on Elizabeth Warren is a former Goldman Sachs banker. The same editorial writer, Mary Kissel, is readying another piece critical of Warren and the new consumer agency, according to a source familiar with the coming article. Like most major newspapers, the Journal does not disclose the authors of its editorials...Kissel recently appeared on the John Batchelor radio show as a representative of the Journal's editorial board to discuss Warren, and repeated the main arguments used in the editorials...Kissel worked for Goldman between 1999 and 2002 as a fixed income research and capital markets specialist. Kissel is listed on the Journal's website as a member of the editorial staff and her bio includes her time at Goldman Sachs and notes that she worked for the company in both New York and London.

On Wednesday, Warren testified before a House subcommittee, providing 34 pages of written answers while submitting to two-and-a-half hours of aggressive questioning from congressional Republicans, who deployed talking points similar to those used in the recent Journal editorials..."There has definitely been an uptick in attacks on her and on the agency over the past few weeks, it's hard to imagine it hasn't been well-coordinated by somebody," said a source close to Warren. "The smear campaign by The Wall Street Journal's editorial board this week includes the most nonfactual and outrageous hit pieces on her yet. If it's true that the author of the editorials and Goldman Sachs coordinated on them, they should both be exposed and called to account."

Bank regulators are not subject to the Congressional appropriations process, because the budgeting game allows banks to lobby against the funding of their own regulator...In a recent interview, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) acknowledged that the House GOP's efforts to curtail funding for the CFPB were essentially an effort to prevent the agency from conducting consumer protection regulation.

On Wednesday, the Journal accused Warren and the CFPB of "extorting billions of dollars from private mortgage servicers" in the agency's role as an advisor in negotiations to settle allegations of widespread fraud in the foreclosure process. The editorial also argues that "Ms. Warren is already using the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to tell banks how and to whom to lend money."

The foreclosure process is in disarray, and even Republican state Attorneys General say that banks have broken the law with improper foreclosures. Consumer advocates have accused banks of levying heavy, improper fees against borrowers, driving them into foreclosure, while other borrowers have been foreclosed on without missing any mortgage payments. Banks have also physically broken into the homes of borrowers in order to pursue foreclosures.

[Demeter]

61. An Advocate Who Scares Republicans By JOE NOCERA

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/business/economy/19nocera.html?_r=2&ref=business

...And thus the real purpose of the hearing: to allow the Republicans who now run the House to box Ms. Warren about the ears. The big banks loathe Ms. Warren, who has made a career out of pointing out all the ways they gouge financial consumers — and whose primary goal is to make such gouging more difficult. So, naturally, the Republicans loathe her too. That she might someday run this bureau terrifies the banks. So, naturally, it terrifies the Republicans.

The banks and their Congressional allies have another, more recent gripe. Rather than waiting until July to start helping financial consumers, Ms. Warren has been trying to help them now. Can you believe the nerve of that woman?

[plumbob]

67. I've been using Elizabeth Warren for a decade now in my economics

classes during banking lessons. She's wonderful.

I hope an errant piano falls on these bastard critics of hers or worse (preferably much worse). But when Rancid Nuggetbutter (Idiot-Texas) is involved, you can be sure that the stupid is out in full force!

[Demeter]

72. Ex-Goldman programmer gets 8 years for code theft

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/19/us-goldman-aleynikov-idUSTRE72H8BK20110319

A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) computer programer was sentenced to eight years in prison on Friday for stealing secret code used in the Wall Street bank's valuable high-frequency trading system.

Sergey Aleynikov, was arrested by the FBI and charged in July 2009 with copying and removing trading code from Goldman before taking a new job at Teza Technologies LLC, a high-frequency trading startup firm in Chicago.

A onetime collegiate-level competitive ballroom dancer, Aleynikov, 41, was convicted of trade secrets theft and transporting stolen property across state lines on December 10 after a two-week long jury trial in Manhattan federal court.

High-frequency, computer-driven trading has become an important and competitive business. The software codes that trade shares in milliseconds are closely guarded secrets....

HE SHOULD HAVE LEAKED IT TO JULIAN ASSANGE...

[Demeter]

73. Ex-Goldman Director Sues S.E.C. Over Galleon Case

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/ex-goldman-director-sues-s-e-c-over-galleon-allegations/?ref=business

Rajat K. Gupta, a former director of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble who has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of leaking confidential information about those companies, on Friday sued the agency.

Mr. Gupta, 62, is accused of tipping Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group hedge fund manager now on trial on securities fraud and conspiracy charges, about Goldman’s and P.&G.’s earnings, as well as information about Warren E. Buffett’s $5 billion in investment in Goldman, just minutes after the board approved it.

Gary Naftalis, a lawyer for Mr. Gupta, has called the S.E.C. accusations, which were filed on March 1, “totally baseless.”

Mr. Gupta’s complaint against the agency, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contends that the S.E.C. violated his rights by bringing its case under the Dodd-Frank Act instead of suing in a court. Dodd-Frank allows the agency to pursue its case in a special administrative proceeding.

By doing so, the S.E.C. is trying to strip Mr. Gupta of the normal protections afforded to defendants in a civil lawsuit, the lawsuit says. Mr. Gupta’s lawyers also questioned whether the S.E.C. could apply the new rules more than two years after their client leaked information to Mr. Rajaratnam.

The lawsuit seeks a trial by jury and an injunction preventing the S.E.C. from pursuing its administrative proceeding against Mr. Gupta....

[Demeter]

91. Insider Trading Case Testimony Suggests McKinsey Types are Stupid Crooks

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/insider-trading-case-testimony-suggests-mckinsey-types-are-stupid-crooks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

I’m still pretty gobsmacked in reading the bits of testimony presented in the financial media’s accounts of the first day of testimony in the SEC’s insider trading case against hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam...I’m struck by how simple it seemed in retrospect for Rajaratnam to suborn McKinsey partner Anil Kumar. Kumar had been pitching Rajaratnam’s fund as a prospective client, since the hedgie claimed to have a budget of $100 million a year to spend on research. But Rajaratnam was cool to Kumar’s proposals. After a charity event, Rajaratnam turned the tables and started wooing Kumar, telling him he was smart, underpaid, and he really just wanted his insights, not the firm’s.

Now partners can in fact bill clients on an unlevered basis (at least in my day), meaning a price that led to a similar level of profit as when working with a normal team with everyone’s cost suitably marked up. They didn’t for practical reasons, namely, it would quickly lead to a burn rate that clients would deem unacceptable. I was brought in by McKinsey to work on a client project a few years after I had left the firm, in the early 1990s when the topic came up. The number then was $20,000 a day. Given how much the firm’s rates increased in the 1990s, I’d guesstimate it would be easily double that by 2004.

So it was pretty apparent what this was really about when Rajaratnam suggested paying Kumar $500,000 a year in via an offshore account .

But here are the parts that indicate a complete lack of a sufficiently criminal mind on behalf of the McKinsey partner. He exchanged information with Rajaratnam on a regular phone line of some sort, I presume his cell phone or perhaps one of his land lines.

I’m far from technology savvy, but I know there are ways to conduct phone calls so that they do not go through any telco central office switch (you set up a computer to be the switch). You and your compatriots need dedicated cell phones to access the private switch. You still run the risk of having your signal intercepted (something which plagues the English royal family). Or as insider trader Dennis Levine did in the 1980s, you use a pay phone (a pain, and you’d presumably need to keep using different ones, which might not be that hard for a jet setting McKinsey type).

But this is the part that strikes me as really barmy:

Mr. Rajaratnam later told Mr. Kumar that he should get someone outside the U.S. to sign the consulting agreement on his behalf with Galleon and had him set up an account with Galleon under Mr. Kumar’s housekeeper’s name in order to reinvest the money with Galleon, Mr. Kumar said. The structure was so McKinsey didn’t know about the payments, Mr. Kumar said.

So Kumar has an agreement, not in his name, and “his” money is in Galleon hands.

That money was in no real sense ever his money. The SEC can seize it, but what ability did Kumar have to get at it? Even if he had been smart about he did negotiate the offshore agreement (UK is very tough; failure to honor contracts that have clear payment and withdrawal arrangements can be argued to be an admission that the company is “trading insolvent”, which makes the directors personally liable) did he have any practical ability to enforce it? His “payment” was just round tripped back to Galleon, he remained dependent on Rajaratnam’s continued good will if he were ever to access a dime. Hence by having control of Kumars account, the hedgie had leverage to keep extracting more from him, independent of continued “payments”.

It may prove a tad ironic if Rajaratnam’s having picked such a mark was what led to his downfall.

[Demeter]

57. Mark Fiore Is a Card!

http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-japan-earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-disaster-lobbyists-obama-animated-video-xeth-feinberg-mark-fiore-anima

[DemReadingDU]

62. LOL, that's a good one!

[Demeter]

59. the mortgage mess--bulk listings

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/class-social-and-traditional-media-and-the-mortgage-mess.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Class, Social and Traditional Media, and the Mortgage Mess

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/on-the-clouded-title-mess-and-the-difficulties-of-cleaning-it-up.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

On the Clouded Title Mess and the Difficulties of Cleaning It Up

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/obama-pressing-for-a-shock-and-awe-mortgage-mod-program-3-million-in-6-months.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Obama Pressing for a “Shock and Awe” Mortgage Mod Program, 3 Million in 6 Months

I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN AND IF I SEE IT

[Demeter]

84. Carrington and the Problems of Mortgage Debt Servicing

WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE PRONE TO MIGRAINES, TMJ SYNDROME, OR VIOLENCE...

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/carrington-and-the-problems-of-mortgage-debt-servicing/

[Demeter]

85. The Folks Who Run Our Economy Believe in the Easter Bunny

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/03/10/the-folks-who-run-our-economy-believe-in-the-easter-bunny/

The folks at the Fed who run our economy apparently believe in the Easter Bunny. And Casper the Friendly Ghost. And Santa Claus.

I mean, I can only conclude the folks over there are completely unhinged from reality given their claim that no people–not a single homeowner–was wrongly foreclosed.

A months-long investigation into abusive mortgage practices by the Federal Reserve found no wrongful foreclosures, members of the Fed’s Consumer Advisory Council said Thursday.

Jason Grodensky, who paid cash for his house yet lost it to Bank of America in “foreclosure” nevertheless. The Fed says there were no wrongful foreclosures.

Christopher Marconi, who got foreclosed by Wells Fargo on a house he didn’t own and had never seen. The Fed says there were no wrongful foreclosures.

Jonathan Rowles, who never missed a payment, who got foreclosed by Chase while he was away in Iraq, in violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The Fed says there were no wrongful foreclosures.

Granted, they came to this conclusion, in part, by defining wrongful foreclosure in a way that totally ignores title problems, failure to serve homeowners, and tack-on charges servicers have used to force people into default so they can foreclose...

[bread_and_roses]

60. "shades of feudalism define much of modern life"

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/18-2

Ominous Clouds: Nuclear Songs Remain the Same
by Randall Amster

... The storyteller Utah Phillips -- whose pro-labor, movement-oriented collaborations with Ani DiFranco in the late 1990s presaged many of today’s issues and responses -- once observed that “freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.” In the U.S. we’ve barely resisted, and thus stand today largely as mere vassals.

Indeed, shades of feudalism define much of modern life. Our serfdom is often masked by the ostensible “freedoms” and myriad creature comforts in our midst, while the “robber barons” continue to acquire wealth and power at our expense. The net result is what I have referred to as a “web of dependency,” in which we are ensnared by a set of forces that provide us with a modicum of “easy living” in exchange for our willing captivity within its spacious confines. As Pink Floyd once inquired, “Did you exchange a walk on part in a war, for a lead role in a cage?” The answer for most Americans is undoubtedly yes, and the effect has been to render us largely complicit with our own subjugation, as I wrote six months ago: “The hardware of our lives, from food and energy to transportation and shelter, is entirely bound up with the workings of a highly mechanized and digitized global economy. And no less so, the software of our existence -- communications, community, entertainment, education, media, politics, and the like -- is equally entwined within that same technocratic system.”

"Indeed." When we can't even assure our food (and in some locals, our water) without dependence on a vast network of profit-seeking entities we are serfs in all but name.

An enduring mystery in all of this is how people can behave so admirably as individuals, or even in small groups (think of that village in the mountains of - France, I think? - where the entire village collaborated in the rescue of Jews hiding from the Nazis) and so appallingly in the large aggregate?

from the same article as above:

Admirably, people have by and large not begun to panic, even as supplies of potassium iodide and other survival-related items have been rapidly disappearing from store shelves across the west. At my local health food store, the search for potential remedies even reached such a degree that all of the stocks of kelp (known as perhaps the best widely-available food product to ward off radiation poisoning) were sold out. Other seaweed items with therapeutic qualities remained -- so I bought them.

There’s no downside here, since I like seaweed anyway and it’s good for you in general beyond whatever properties it might possess as a self-help remedy to stave off the worst effects of fallout. Interestingly, as I cleaned out the remaining three bags of arame, a young woman with a long list of items in hand was nearby, and I could tell she was thinking similarly about what sorts of natural items might be of use in case of radiation exposure in the coming days and weeks. We got to chatting, and I offered her one of the bags of arame I had scooped up, saying somewhat awkwardly that “if we can’t cooperate in the face of the apocalypse, then all hope is lost anyway.” In this brief encounter, it was realized that the existence of an elusive “community” was perhaps the most powerful remedy of all.

As Galadriel said: "The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true. .."

[Fuddnik]

68. Spring Break: Vini, Vidi, Veggie

I came, I saw, I planted my garden. And starting Monday, the pool tiles, deck and lanai all get redone with pavers. Note Rosco peeping in the screen.

[Demeter]

71. It's still too cold and muddy for that here

But I did change 3 cat boxes, do laundry, and wash part of the floor...it's too hard to do chores swathed in three layers of clothing!

[Fuddnik]

75. There's enough habanero's and jalapeno's in there for a meltdown.

Warm you right up. I should get tomatoes by the first week of May. In Ohio, I couldn't even plant until the last week or two of May.

[Demeter]

74. Japan risks credit crunch as yen thunders

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/8389142/Japan-risks-credit-crunch-as-yen-thunders.html

Japan is in imminent danger of a credit-crunch with global implications unless the authorities stabilise Tokyo's stockmarket and take overwhelming action to stop the yen exploding to record levels.

SO, THAT'S WHY THEY ARE DOING IT...AND WHO IS GOING TO LEND A RADIOACTIVE CINDER OF A NATION MONEY?

[Demeter]

76. FHA Commissioner David Stevens Cannot Serve Two Masters: Fire Him Immediately

http://my.firedoglake.com/masaccio/2011/03/15/fha-commissioner-david-stevens-cannot-serve-two-masters-fire-him-immediately/

The Washington Post reports that David H. Stevens will be taking over as head of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Stevens currently serves as Assistant Secretary for Housing in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and as the Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration. He has a conflict of interest so deep that he should be fired at once.

Here is how HUD describes his duties:

Commissioner Stevens has direct responsibility for oversight and administration of the FHA insurance portfolio, which includes multifamily housing, insured health care facilities and well over 20 percent of mortgages in the domestic single family market. Stevens also has responsibility for other programs within HUD, such the regulatory areas of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) and the Secure and Fair Enforcement Mortgage Licensing (SAFE) Act.

Before joining HUD, he worked for Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac, and was CEO of the nation’s largest private real estate firm. He announced his departure last week, saying that he had not accepted any job offers. The reporter, Dina Elboghdady, tells us that he is consulting with HUD lawyers to make sure he follows ethics rules.

His current duties include working on a settlement with the mortgage servicing companies to absolve them of their fraudulent conduct in dealing with American homeowners. The Mortgage Bankers Association represents mortgage originators, like Bank of America and Wells Fargo. These companies own most of the largest mortgage servicers. This is from the Mortgage Bankers Association website:

Make no mistake about it; we are an organization dedicated to helping our members do their business. We actively advocate for our members, and have done so for nearly a century. We have seen the real estate finance industry evolve into one of the strongest and most sophisticated of global markets.

Allowing Stevens to stay on the job, and saying that it comports with ethics rules, is proof that the term “ethics” has lost all meaning. He is working on a settlement that in some news stories calls for a penalty of $20 billion, which only banksters think bears any relationship to the horrifying damage caused by these sharks, through jacked-up fees, fraudulent court filings, dual-track loan modifications and other sleazy tricks played on suffering homeowners. He comes from the industry, and is heading to the group that put out slimy reports condemning any steps that might aid homeowners, including judicial modification of mortgages in bankruptcy...

THE COMMENTS ARE EQUALLY HARSH...

[Demeter]

77. Wisconsin pension plan among most secure

http://stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=556976

The protests in Wisconsin over public workers’ pay, benefits and collective bargaining rights have underscored a dilemma facing many states: the cost of public pensions and how cash-strapped governments should pay for them. But the turmoil overshadows a salient point: Wisconsin may have a budget deficit, but its pension system does not...

[Demeter]

78. Tax Haven USA attracts over $3 trillion in foreign dirty money

http://treasureislands.org/tax-haven-usa-attracts-over-3-trillion-in-foreign-dirty-money/

I have found a number for the amount of dirty money that is attracted into the United States on account of the secrecy facilities it provides: US$3 trillion. Yes, three trillion dollars. Which goes quite some way to explaining why the United States came top of the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index.

The number comes from a letter to Tim Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, sent by every single member of the Florida Delegation to the House of Representatives. They are whinnying about new proposed IRS regulations for the United States to be more transparent about what foreigners earn there. Currently, almost all foreigners can bank in the U.S. in complete secrecy, and evade taxes they owe their own governments. These excellent proposals would see the U.S. co-operating with other countries to help them tax their own citizens properly.

The key section of the letter says:

“Because of the privacy laws of the United States, nonresident aliens are estimated to have deposited over $3 trillion in U.S. financial institutions . . (the United States has) refrained from taxing the interest earned by them or requiring their reporting).”

That is unequivocal. This is not a measure of non-resident deposits, they are saying: it is a measure of how much money foreigners stash in the United States “because of the privacy laws of the United States.” Nearly all the money deposited in Florida banks, by the way, is drained out of Latin America.

Let’s now play with numbers here. Imagine US$3 trillion earning a conservative five percent annually: that’s $150 billion in income. Let’s say those foreigners (nearly all wealthy) ought to pay an average 35% top rate of income tax, but that tax is evaded. That’d be over $50 billion in lost taxes per year.

Which would be, on these numbers, twice the size of total U.S. official development assistance....


Now take this quote from Robert Goulder of TaxAnalysts, cited in Time Magazine:

“Replace the nationalities mentioned in the letter, and you’ve replicated the UBS affair point for point,” says Robert Goulder, international editor in chief at Tax Analysts, a nonprofit publisher about taxes worldwide, which first reported on the Carstens letter. “If you are a Mexican drug lord, you can put as much money as you want into U.S. banks. We ain’t going to tax it, and the Mexicans can’t tax it because they are never going to know about it. It’s the financial equivalent of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’ “

... the dirty money flowing in to Tax Haven USA absolutely does not compensate for the money flowing out. These hot-money inflows are one of the big reasons why Wall Street is so powerful. The money flows in large measure into real estate, pushing up property bubbles; it also flows into government bonds, worsening the macroeconomic imbalances that contributed to the global economic crisis. This stuff not only harms developing countries – it harms the United States. The outflows are a cost to U.S. taxpayers, while the inflows are a benefit only to Wall Street, and indirectly a cost to U.S. taxpayers too...

[Demeter]

79. VIDEO STORE: Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27665.htm

2 HOURS LONG

[Demeter]

80. Iceland’s meltdown: The rise and fall of international banking in the North Atlantic

14 PAGE EXPOSE

http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue56/WadeSigurgeirsdottir56.pdf

[Demeter]

81. Green capitalism: the god that failed

33 PAGE EXPOSE

http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue56/Smith56.pdf

[Demeter]

82. Demise of foreclosure firm could cost courts

THINGS ARE LOOKING REAL BAD FOR FLORIDA--IT'S A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE!

http://www.bradenton.com/2011/03/13/3028961/demise-of-foreclosure-firm-could.html

The demise of Florida’s “foreclosure king” and the free-fall in foreclosure filings could turn the state’s court system into a pauper.

The Law Offices of David J. Stern P.A. announced it will cease foreclosure operations this month, leaving as many as 100,000 Florida foreclosure cases in limbo. Court officials and attorneys say the ensuing delays will further strain a legal system that is running low on operating money because of declining revenue from filing fees.

“I’m not sure how it’s all going to shake out,” said Christopher Forrest, a foreclosure defense attorney in Sarasota. “I’m anticipating it’s going to be a big mess.”

Stern’s Plantation-based law firm was among the most prolific foreclosure filers in Florida, accounting for nearly a third of the state’s 350,000-case backlog. That earned Stern a fortune -- he reportedly has an $18 million yacht docked at his $16 million Fort Lauderdale mansion -- and the “foreclosure king” nickname and led critics to derisively call his law practice a “foreclosure mill.”

Read more: http://www.bradenton.com/2011/03/13/3028961/demise-of-foreclosure-firm-could.html#ixzz1H50Us52O

[Demeter]

83. Lehman Doomed by Lending to Itself in Financial Alchemy Eluding Dodd-Frank

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-11/lehman-failed-lending-to-itself-in-alchemy-eluding-dodd-frank.html

By the time Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ) became the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history, plunging the economy into the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, the firm had made $3 billion in loans to itself in transactions that even today would elude the Dodd-Frank law designed to prevent such financial alchemy.

Lehman turned souring real estate investments into top- rated securities that the bank’s insiders dubbed “goat poo,” according to court records. The securities, called Fenway commercial paper, helped keep Lehman afloat over the summer of 2008, until a trading partner determined they were “worth practically nothing.” That precipitated Lehman’s demise on Sept. 15, 2008, bankruptcy documents and a May 2010 Lehman lawsuit show.

“It wasn’t a mistake to let Lehman fail, it was a mistake to let it live so long,” said Ann Rutledge, a principal with New York-based R&R Consulting and the co-author of two books on structured finance.

Nothing in the 800-plus pages of the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul enacted last year would prevent a bank from using similar techniques to try to make regulators, credit-rating companies and lenders believe it was healthier than it was, said David Skeel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia.

“These kinds of transactions had a lot to do with the financial crisis and Dodd-Frank doesn’t target them in any direct way,” he said...

[Demeter]

86. Americans in Poll Show Scant Confidence as Plurality See Decline

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-10/americans-in-poll-show-little-confidence-with-plurality-perceiving-decline.html

Only 1 American in 7 has faith a lasting economic recovery has taken hold and a plurality say they are personally worse off than they were two years ago.

Almost half of the respondents in a Bloomberg National Poll conducted March 4-7 believe the U.S. is in a “fragile” rebound and could fall back into recession. More than a third of the country believes the U.S. never emerged from recession.

Sixty-three percent of Americans say the nation is on the wrong track, compared with 66 percent who said so in December, which was the lowest in the national mood in the one and a half years the Bloomberg poll has been conducted.

The gloomy outlook contradicts economic data showing an economy on the mend, including six quarters of economic growth, a 95 percent rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index over the past two years and job growth last month of 192,000. The National Bureau of Economic Research officially dated the end of the recession to June 2009.

Almost half of poll respondents say they are personally worse off than they were two years ago, when the country was losing 796,000 jobs a month and the economy was shrinking at a 4.9 percent annual rate. The stock market hit its post-financial crisis low two years ago yesterday.

[Demeter]

92. Share the sacrifice

http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/148205-share-the-sacrifice

In a piece in last week’s edition of The Nation titled “Why Washington doesn’t care about jobs,” Christopher Hayes points out that D.C. is doing much better than the rest of the country economically, which is a significant contributor to what he terms “social distance” from the Americans the government purports to serve. That distance is disorienting and bizarre to those of us outside the Beltway, and is hugely fueled by the annoying conceit of many in the political media that they personally embody the concerns of average Americans. This misguided assumption would be merely amusing if not for the fact that almost the entire political conversation in the U.S. takes place among this small group of people — and that these alleged champions of the middle class inevitably convey the impression that Americans across the land are obsessed with deficit reduction and low taxes, which require deep cuts to 
“entitlements.”

Yet out here in the real world, poll after poll shows that, in fact, Americans are far more concerned with unemployment and favor surtaxes on the wealthy to close the deficit. And so, from time to time, these gilded Regular Joes are forced to regretfully admit that sometimes the people are like dotty old relatives who “just don’t get it” or that they just want a “free lunch” — after which they promptly forget those findings and go back to pretending that the American people see things exactly the way they do.

Even worse than that is the common assertion by these millionaire pundits that “we all” must sacrifice for the greater good and allow Social Security to be slashed. This is usually spoken with such a tone of lugubrious forbearance that one imagines they would like us to believe that while they might be forced to become Wal-Mart greeters in their elder years, patriotic duty demands we all pitch in. They seem to have no idea that the median wage in this country in 2009 was $26,261 — sadly, lower than it was in the year 2000. (Even when you average in the billionaires, it was only $39,269.) Clearly, the average political TV host takes home many times that wage, so this idea that “we” are all “sharing” in the proposed sacrifices is a bit much, particularly in light of the recent extension of the Bush tax cuts, hailed in the media as the greatest piece of legislation since the founding of the republic.

Now, it’s true that these powerful media figures would get a smaller Social Security check and have to kick in more for their Medicare just like the rest of us if these programs are cut. But it’s highly unlikely they will suffer the same financial pinch as the person scraping together a retirement income based on a paltry Social Security benefit and whatever he’s managed to salvage from his wrecked 401(k) and lost housing equity.

It’s very easy to prescribe “shared sacrifice” when you will not personally sacrifice anything at all...

[Demeter]

93. JAPAN'S CRISIS: Yakuza to the Rescue

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-18/japanese-yakuza-aid-earthquake-relief-efforts/

The worst of times sometimes brings out the best in people, even in Japan’s “losers” a.k.a. the Japanese mafia, the yakuza. Hours after the first shock waves hit, two of the largest crime groups went into action, opening their offices to those stranded in Tokyo, and shipping food, water, and blankets to the devastated areas in two-ton trucks and whatever vehicles they could get moving. The day after the earthquake the Inagawa-kai (the third largest organized crime group in Japan which was founded in 1948) sent twenty-five four-ton trucks filled with paper diapers, instant ramen, batteries, flashlights, drinks, and the essentials of daily life to the Tohoku region. An executive in Sumiyoshi-kai, the second-largest crime group, even offered refuge to members of the foreign community—something unheard of in a still slightly xenophobic nation, especially amongst the right-wing yakuza. The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest crime group, under the leadership of Tadashi Irie, has also opened its offices across the country to the public and been sending truckloads of supplies, but very quietly and without any fanfare.

The Inagawa-kai has been the most active because it has strong roots in the areas hit. It has several "blocks" or regional groups. Between midnight on March 12th and the early morning of March 13th, the Inagawa-kai Tokyo block carried 50 tons of supplies to Hitachinaka City Hall (Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture) and dropped them off, careful not to mention their yakuza affiliation so that the donations weren't rejected. This was the beginning of their humanitarian efforts. Supplies included cup ramen, bean sprouts, paper diapers, tea and drinking water. The drive from Tokyo took them twelve hours. They went through back roads to get there. The Kanagawa Block of the Inagawa-kai, has sent 70 trucks to the Ibaraki and Fukushima areas to drop off supplies in areas with high radiations levels. They didn't keep track of how many tons of supplies they moved. The Inagawa-kai as a whole has moved over 100 tons of supplies to the Tohoku region. They have been going into radiated areas without any protection or potassium iodide.

The Yamaguchi-gumi member I spoke with said simply, "Please don't say any more than we are doing our best to help. Right now, no one wants to be associated with us and we'd hate to have our donations rejected out of hand."

To those not familiar with the yakuza, it may come as a shock to hear of their philanthropy, but this is not the first time that they have displayed a humanitarian impulse. In 1995, after the Kobe earthquake, the Yamaguchi-gumi was one of the most responsive forces on the ground, quickly getting supplies to the affected areas and distributing them to the local people. Admittedly, much of those supplies were paid with by money from years of shaking down the people in the area, and they were certainly not unaware of the public relations factor—but no one can deny that they were helpful when people needed aid—as they are this time as well.

It may seem puzzling that the yakuza, which are organized crime groups, deriving their principal revenue streams from illegal activities, such as collecting protection money, blackmail, extortion, and fraud would have any civic nature at all. However, in Japan since the post-war period they have always played a role in keeping the peace. According to Robert Whiting’s Tokyo Underworld and Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes, the US government even bought the services of one infamous yakuza fixer, Yoshio Kodama, to keep Japan from going communist and maintain order. Kodama would later put up the funding to create the Liberal Democrat Party of Japan that ruled the country for over fifty years. When President Obama visited Japan last year, the police contacted the heads of all Tokyo yakuza groups and asked them to behave themselves and make sure there were no problems.

As one members said, “There are no yakuza or katagi (ordinary citizens) or gaijin (foreigners) in Japan right now. We are all Japanese. We all need to help each other.”

But let’s be clear, the yakuza are criminals, albeit with self-imposed restraints, and in their way may actually keep street crime (muggings, purse-snatching, theft) down. Many Japanese still admire or tolerate them. In fact, a Nara Police Prefectural police study found that amongst adults under 40, one in ten felt that the yakuza should be allowed to exist or were “a necessary evil.”

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

A bit of background: Japan has 80,000 members belonging to these criminal organizations, which the police label shiteiboryokudan or literally “designated violent groups”; membership is not illegal although the police regulate their activities, much the way the SEC regulates Goldman Sachs. Their income is largely derived from protection money, security services, financial fraud, stock manipulations, gambling, blackmail, prostitution, and loan sharking. They call themselves “yakuza.” The word comes from a losing hand in traditional Japanese gambling: 8 (ya) 9 (ku) 3(za) which adds up to 20, and is a useless hand. Thus to be a yakuza is to be “a loser.” It’s a self-effacing term. They yakuza don’t call themselves “violent groups.” They exist out in the open; they have offices, business cards, fan magazines. The three major groups, the Yamaguchi-gumi (40,000 members), the Sumiyoshi-kai (12,000) and the Inagawa-kai (10,000) all insist they are chivalrous groups, like the Rotary Club, that they are ninkyo-dantai.

Ninkyo(do), according to yakuza historical scholars is a philosophy that values humanity, justice, and duty and that forbids one from watching others suffer or be troubled without doing anything about it. Believers of “the way” are expected to put their own lives on the line and sacrifice themselves to help the weak and the troubled. The yakuza often simplify it as “to help the weak and fight the strong,” in theory. In practice, the film director Itami Juzo, who was attacked by members of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi because of his films depicting them harshly, said “the yakuza are all about exploiting the weak and disadvantaged in society, and run away from anyone strong enough to stand up to them and their exploitive extortion.” He was primarily correct, I think. However, sometimes, like today in Japan, they live up to their original values.

[Demeter]

94. Japan crisis: 'There’s no food, tell people there is no food’

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8392549/Japan-crisis-Theres-no-food-tell-people-there-is-no-food.html

“I thought we were a wealthy country, but now I don’t know what to think,” he adds, explaining that he is surviving on slowly defrosting food from his home freezer. “You must tell people what is happening here because the Japanese media is too frightened to tell the truth.”

A GLIMPSE AT THE REALITY IN JAPAN, UNVARNISHED--MUST READ

[Demeter]

95. The Stigmatization of the Unemployed

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/the-stigmatization-of-the-unemployed.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

...Many pundits, such as Paul Krugman in his latest New York Times op-ed, have decried the lack of anything remotely resembling adequate responses to the unemployment problem, particularly that of the long-term unemployed. Ronald Reagan, hero of the right, was concerned when unemployment rose over 8% and took a series of corrective measures, including the Plaza Accord, which was a G-5 currency intervention to drive up the value of the yen. So why do we have a nominally Democratic president sitting on his hands in the face of much worse unemployment?

I’d argue that the roots lie in a fundamental change in policy that took place around 1980. The lesson that economists drew from the stagflation of the 1970s was that labor had too much bargaining power. The excessive fiscal stimulus of the later 1960s and the oil price shocks of the 1970s had been amplified by the fact that workers had enough clout to demand and get wage increases when they faces sustained price increases. That of course led to more price increases since higher wages led to higher production costs which led business owners to increase prices of their goods and servicer, thus accelerating the inflation already under way.

The solution, per neoclassical economists, was to use unemployment to keep wage demands in check. Thus having a lower level of employment even in good times and taking other measures, like weakening unions, was key to keeping those pesky workers from ever serving to create a reinforcing inflationary dynamic.

As an aside, there were other convenient (to the capital-owning classes) side effects of this policy. Before, there had been an explicit agreement between unions and employers embodied in the so-called Treaty of Detroit, which was that workers were to share in productivity gains. President Kennedy even warned major corporations that if they did not adhere to this understanding, he’d push through legislation to make sure they did. Since wage growth and productivity growth marched in near lockstep from 1950 to just after 1980, it appears white collar worker benefitted from blue collar bargaining successes...

[Demeter]

96. Nearly 20% of Florida homes are vacant

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/18/real_estate/florida_vacant_homes/index.htm

On Thursday, the Census Bureau revealed that 18% -- or 1.6 million -- of the Sunshine State's homes are sitting vacant. That's a rise of more than 63% over the past 10 years.

Having this amount of oversupply on the market will keep home prices depressed and slow any recovery....

[Demeter]

97. Radioactive iodine found in Tokyo water

http://en.trend.az/regions/world/ocountries/1848894.html

As looming nuclear crisis threatens Japan, the government says small amounts of radioactive iodine have been detected in tap water in Tokyo and five other areas, Press TV reported.

On Saturday, the Japanese government said a sample of tap water from the Japanese capital contained 1.5 becquerals per kg of iodine 131, well below the tolerable limit for food and drink of 300 becquerals per kg.

Japanese authorities have also halted the sale of food produced in areas close to the quake-hit Fukushima Prefecture because radiation above the national safety level has been found in spinach and milk produced in the area, a Press TV correspondent reported.

"This is not at the level that would have any direct effect on your health," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said earlier on Saturday.

[Demeter]

98. Debit cards: $50 spending limit coming?

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/10/pf/debit_cards_limit/index.htm?hpt=T2

Declined! Your debit card may soon be denied for purchases greater than $100 -- or even as little as $50.

JPMorgan Chase, one of the nation's largest banks, is considering capping debit card transactions at either $50 or $100, according to a source with knowledge of the proposal. And the cap would apply even if you run your debit card as credit.

Why? Because of a tricky thing called interchange fees.

Right now, every time you swipe your debit card your bank charges the retailer an average fee of 44 cents, which it shares with its partners. Those little fees, however, add up to about $16 billion per year, according to 2009 data from the Federal Reserve.

But as part of the Wall Street reform legislation that was passed last year, these fees are being slashed. The Fed is currently proposing rules that would go into effect in July and would cap interchange fees at 12 cents.

That's a big enough cut to cost Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) more than $1 billion a year. And Chase may not be alone. Other major issuers are also projecting huge losses from the interchange fee cap.

Joe Price, president of consumer banking for Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), said in an e-mailed statement that the lower fee wouldn't fairly compensate the bank for the infrastructure and services it provides to retailers....Aside from mulling over a limit on transaction amounts, Chase is already testing $3 monthly fees on debit cards and $15 fees on checking accounts in certain states. Additionally, the bank announced in November that it has stopped issuing debit rewards cards.

[Demeter]

99. BofA Segregates Almost Half of its Mortgages Into ‘Bad Bank’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-08/bofa-segregates-almost-half-its-mortgages-into-bad-bank-under-laughlin.html

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the biggest U.S. lender by assets, is segregating almost half its 13.9 million mortgages into a “bad” bank comprised of its riskiest and worst-performing “legacy” loans, said Terry Laughlin, who is running the new unit...The legacy portfolio will hold 6.7 million loans with outstanding principal balance of about $1 trillion, according to a presentation to investors today. The split leaves home loan President Barbara Desoer with about half her previous portfolio, as well as new lending going forward.

Laughlin’s portfolio will include loans that are currently 60 or more days delinquent as well as riskier types of loans the bank no longer originates, such as subprime, Alt-A, interest- only and option adjustable-rate mortgages, he said. He said the portfolios will be completely split by March 31 and that his will be liquidated over time. Of the 13.9 million loans Bank of America services, about 3.5 million are held by the company on its balance sheet. The rest are owned by other investors...

JPMorgan, Wells Fargo

Laughlin’s portfolio includes loans the company originated in addition to Countrywide mortgages. That differs from practices at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), whose legacy books include only loans they acquired through their respective purchases of Washington Mutual and Wachovia.

“Many of the assets that are coming over into the legacy asset-servicing portfolio are delinquent or are expected to go delinquent over the next three years,” Laughlin said. “As borrowers default, we’ll evaluate them for a loan modification.”

Laughlin is also responsible for overseeing foreclosure processes as well as negotiations with investor groups that are demanding the bank buy back faulty loans...Bank of America set aside about $3 billion late last year to settle certain demands from U.S.-controlled mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bank said other claims on so- called private label mortgages could cost an additional $7 billion to $10 billion.

[Demeter]

100. The Class-Domination Theory of Power By G. William Domhoff

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27654.htm

Who has predominant power in the United States? The short answer, from 1776 to the present, is: Those who have the money have the power. George Washington was one of the biggest landowners of his day; presidents in the late 19th century were close to the railroad interests; for the Bush family, it was oil and other natural resources, agribusiness, and finance. But to be more exact, those who own income-producing property -- corporations, real estate, and agribusinesses -- set the rules within which policy battles are waged.

While this may seem simple and/or obvious, the reasons behind it are complex. They involve an understanding of social classes, the role of experts, the two-party system, and the history of the country, especially Southern slavery. In terms of the big world-historical picture, and the Four Networks theory of power advocated on this site, money rules in America because there are no rival networks that grew up over a long and complex history:

* No big church, as in many countries in Europe
* No big government, as it took to survive as a nation-state in Europe
* No big military until after 1940 (which is not very long ago) to threaten to take over the government

So, the only power network of any consequence in the history of the United States has been the economic one, which under capitalism generates a business-owning class that hires workers and a working class, along with small businesses and skilled artisans who are self-employed, and a relatively small number of independent professionals like physicians. In this context, the key reason why gold can rule, i.e., why the business owners who hire workers can rule, is that the people who work in the factories and fields were divided from the outset into free and slave, white and black, and later into numerous immigrant ethnic groups as well, making it difficult for workers as a whole to unite politically to battle for higher wages and better social benefits. This important point is elaborated on toward the end of this document in a section entitled "The Weaknesses of the Working Class."

Moreover, the simple answer that gold rules has to be qualified somewhat. Domination by the few does not mean complete control, but rather the ability to set the terms under which other groups and classes must operate. Highly trained professionals with an interest in environmental and consumer issues have been able to couple their technical information and their understanding of the legislative process with timely publicity to win governmental restrictions on some corporate practices. Wage and salary workers, when they are organized or disruptive, sometimes have been able to gain concessions on wages, hours, and working conditions.

Most of all, there is free speech and the right to vote. While voting does not necessarily make government responsive to the will of the majority, under certain circumstances the electorate has been able to place restraints on the actions of the wealthy elites, or to decide which elites will have the greatest influence on policy. This is especially a possibility when there are disagreements within the higher circles of wealth and influence.

Still, the idea that a relatively fixed group of privileged people dominate the economy and government goes against the American grain and the founding principles of the country. "Class" and "power" are terms that make Americans a little uneasy, and concepts such as "upper class" and "power elite" immediately put people on guard. Americans may differ in their social and income levels, and some may have more influence than others, but it is felt that there can be no fixed power group when power is constitutionally lodged in all the people, when there is democratic participation through elections and lobbying, and when the evidence of social mobility is everywhere apparent. So, it is usually concluded by most power analysts that elected officials, along with "interest groups" like "organized labor" and "consumers," have enough "countervailing" power to say that there is a fluid, "pluralistic" distribution of power rather than one with rich people and corporations at the top....

A FUNDAMENTAL READ

[Demeter]

101. Down to 160 emails

and most of them are obsolete, but I will glean for nuggets....later.


Stay alive, healthy and solvent, everybody, this week!

[DemReadingDU]

102. I get way too many email to read anymore

So I've been unsubscribing from some distribution lists. With Spring and warmer weather, I need to be outdoors walking my dogs!

[bread_and_roses]

103. Our Corporate Overlords don't need a US "middle-class" anymore

Cross-posted from a thread by WillyT: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x688901

http://populist.com/11.6.vanderpol.html

Right Wing Aims for the Kill

It is truly breathtaking to realize that we have gone from seeing our economy destroyed in 2008, the result of several decades of corruption and degeneracy on the part of hedge fund managers and Wall Street tycoons to today’s situation in Wisconsin where public teacher, police and nurse unions are held to be responsible for all our financial problems. That is less than three years time. Did someone whack us all in the head with a 2X4 to make us forget? This latest political comedy is really part of a larger whole which we should start naming for what it is: “the right wing war against the working class.” And for at least 30 years, they have been winning it.

...The corporate elite, which is what funds the right wing, including the AM radio screamers, has found that it no longer needs a prosperous American middle class. There are bigger and fast-growing middle classes in China and India which can now serve as customers for their foreign made goods. Consequently, it wants to shut our government down, except for the military, which it needs to protect it overseas. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the home mortgage deduction, veterans benefits, Pell grants for education, the public school system, all public police and infrastructure services, all are on the block. Will we soon have to have a bake sale to pay the snow plow drivers?

... The outlook isn’t good. We can look at our own local politics to see that. I wonder what will be the situation 20 or 30 years from now. How much further will we have slipped? Or will we learn to stand together and draw the line somewhere? They are doing that in Egypt.

Nope, pretty soon we won't have any snow-plow drivers - at least not for any roads not necessary to "bidness."

I have been thinking this for a good while now - they just don't need consumers in the US - we're small beans to the millions overseas.

Not that any of it is going to matter much. The earth can no longer afford what we call a "middle class" in terms of consumption - not even just for we few here in the US, much less for the millions more. Our destruction of the ecosystem proceeds at such a pace that we'll soon be back to the stone age - if we're lucky. I despair for my child and grand-child. Despair is counter-productive, but I see absolutely nothing on the horizon to ameliorate it, despite the good work of so many.

[Demeter]

104. My Dear, It's Called Revolution

And despite present appearances, we are up for it. It's in our blood and our history and our fiction. I don't even have to say "believe". It is destiny, and nothing will stop it. The fascists, the self-proclaimed "elite" will be utterly destroyed. Because what cannot continue, will not continue.

And the basics that defines a "middle-class" life: the security of food, education, shelter, meaningful work with advancement and leisure, retirement, medical care, and representative democracy; all this can be had for much less than present day costs, if the excess profits to the rentiers are squeezed out.

Just for you:

[bread_and_roses]

110. Thank You! GREAT poster!

Your post lifted my spirits, thank you - and I'd never seen that art - wonderful.

[Demeter]

105. And in local weather

It has turned cold, rainy and very windy. There's a thunderstorm, and we are mere degrees above freezing.

Peculiar weather for any time of year. Thundersnow is something I never heard of (or witnessed) before this year.

The Kid and I went to see "Rango". I knew that since it was Johnny Depp, it would be a tad out of plumb, but this was so campy, the Kid didn't really enjoy it. I fell asleep--partly exhaustion, partly annoyance at the weaving of the plot. I'd wake up for bits of it, like the Clint Eastwood cameo, done by someone who wasn't Clint.

Based on the credits, the creative team thought very highly of themselves...

[snot]

107. I'm really confused about thundersnow. I lived in the northern continental US

in two different states for over 25 years, and never even heard the term. All of a sudden it's not rare anymore -- what happened?

[Demeter]

109. I have to think it's climate change