Weekend Economists "It Was Just Like Magic!" July 15-17, 2011

[Demeter]

Yes, it's the opening weekend for the final Harry Potter film, the second half of the last of the seven ever-increasing-in-size novels set in videotape. We've watched the children of Hogwarts grow up and into their power over the past 12 years or so. They are ready to take over the world. I for one am ready to let them.

The Harry Potter film series is based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling. Distributed by Warner Bros., the series consists of eight fantasy films beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and culminating with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011).

The film franchise is produced by David Heyman and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as the three leading characters, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Four directors have worked on the series: Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and David Yates. When not adjusted for inflation, the series is the highest grossing film series of all time, with over $6 billion in worldwide receipts. Currently, the series consists of seven motion pictures all of which (unadjusted for inflation) are on the all time list of 30 highest-grossing films worldwide.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final novel in the series, is split into two feature-length parts. Part 1 was released in November 2010 and Part 2 was released on 15 July 2011...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_%28film_series%29

Origins

Late in 1997, film producer David Heyman's London offices received a copy of the first book in what would become Rowling's series of seven Harry Potter novels. The book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was relegated to a low-priority bookshelf, where it was discovered by a secretary who read it and gave it to Heyman with a positive review. This fateful act influenced Heyman, who had originally disliked "the rubbish title", to read the book himself. Highly impressed by Rowling's work, he began the process that was to lead to one of the most successful franchises in movie history.

Heyman's enthusiasm led to Rowling's 1999 sale of the film rights for the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Brothers for a reported £1 million (US$2,000,000). A demand Rowling made was that the principal cast be kept strictly British, allowing nevertheless for the inclusion of many Irish actors such as the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French and Eastern European actors in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where characters from the book are specified as such.< Rowling was hesitant to sell the rights because she "didn't want to give them control over the rest of the story" by selling the rights to the characters, which would have enabled Warner Brothers to make non-author-written sequels.[br />
Although Steven Spielberg initially negotiated to direct the first film, he declined the offer. Spielberg wanted the adaptation to be an animated film, with American actor Haley Joel Osment to provide Harry Potter's voice. Spielberg contended that, in his opinion, there was every expectation of profit in making the film, and that making money would have been like "shooting ducks in a barrel. It's just a slam dunk. It's just like withdrawing a billion dollars and putting it into your personal bank accounts. There's no challenge". In the Rubbish Bin section of her website, Rowling maintains that she has no role in choosing directors for the films, writing "Anyone who thinks I could (or would) have 'veto-ed' him (Spielberg) needs their Quick-Quotes Quill serviced." After Spielberg left, talks began with other directors, including: Chris Columbus, Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Demme, Mike Newell, Alan Parker, Wolfgang Petersen, Rob Reiner, Tim Robbins, Brad Silberling, and Peter Weir. Petersen and Reiner both pulled out of the running in March 2000. It was then narrowed down to Silberling, Columbus, Parker and Gilliam. Rowling's first choice was Terry Gilliam. However on 28 March 2000 Columbus was appointed as director of the film, with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films such as Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire as influences for their decision.

“Harry Potter is the kind of timeless literary achievement that comes around once in a lifetime. Since the books have generated such a passionate following across the world, it was important to us to find a director that has an affinity for both children and magic. I can't think of anyone more ideally suited for this job than Chris Columbus. ”

— Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Warner Bros.




Steve Kloves was selected to write the screenplay for the first film. He described adapting the book as "tough", as it did not "lend itself to adaptation as well as the next two books." Kloves was sent a "raft" of synopses of books proposed as film adaptations, with Harry Potter being the only one that jumped out at him. He went out and bought the book, and became an instant fan. When speaking to Warner Bros. he stated that the film had to be British, and had to be true to the characters. David Heyman was confirmed to produce the film. Rowling received a large amount of creative control for the film, an arrangement that Columbus did not mind.

Warner Bros. had initially planned to release the first film over the 4 July 2001 weekend, making for such a short production window that several of the originally proposed directors had pulled themselves out of the running. Eventually, due to time constraints the date was put back to 16 November 2001.

[plumbob]

1. 1st rec!

I amaze myself sometimes.

[Demeter]

3. We Have a Winner!

plumbob, you get to pick a topic, artist, theme, whatever for NEXT WEEKEND! Let me know what you want to feature, and if I can find anything about it, it will be so. Of course, you can add whatever you feel is necessary to do the trick.

Congratulations!

[plumbob]

20. How about Albert Bandura and social cognitive theory?

Social Cognitive Theory is applied today in many different arenas. Mass media, public health, education, and marketing are just a very few. An example of this is the use of celebrities to endorse and introduce any number of products to certain demographics: one way in which social cognitive theory encompasses all four of these domains. By choosing the proper gender, age, and ethnicity the use of social cognitive theory could help ensure the success of an AIDS campaign to inner city teenagers by letting them identify with a recognizable peer, have a greater sense of self-efficacy, and then imitate the actions in order to learn the proper preventions and actions for a more informative AIDS aware community <6>.

Both intended and unintended media effects stem from the Social Cognitive Theory because they illustrates the influence the media possesses in shaping audience behaviors and actions. Intended media effect stress positive behaviors and actions from audiences and can be achieved through education-based entertainment and health campaigns. Through these the media can educate people on dangerous behaviors that are typically not displayed with consequences or punishment in the media. Unlike intended media effects, unintended media effects are typically negative as consequences and punishments for risky behaviors are not displayed. As a result of this, audiences might be more willing to engage risky behaviors they witness in the media, such as smoking. When unhealthy actions are displayed with no consequences it can also reinforce these unhealthy behaviors.


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

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

Social Foundations of Thought and Action
In 1986, Bandura published Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory (see article), in which he reconceptualized individuals as self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting, and self-regulating, in opposition to the orthodox conception of humans as governed by external forces. Bandura advanced concepts of triadic reciprocality, which determined the connections between human behavior, environmental factors, and personal factors such as cognitive, affective, and biological events, and of reciprocal determinism, governing the causal relations between such factors. Bandura's emphasis on the capacity of agents to self-organize and self-regulate would eventually give rise to his later work on self-efficacy.

[Tansy_Gold]

21. Oooh, I like it!!!

Tell me more!

I'm only vaguely familiar with "social cognition" from reading a few of John Jost's articles, primarily "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition."


TG

[Demeter]

25. Well, then, you better all show up and educate me

I never took any marketing courses...any business classes at all, actually.

[Tansy_Gold]

26. Marketing??? What's THAT?????

I know squat about marketing, and I'd better learn some . . . . . fast.




TG, talkin' in riddles again ;-)

[Demeter]

2. 3 BANKS DOWN ALREADY--POOR GEORGIA!

Ameris Bank, Moultrie, Georgia, acquired the banking operations, including all the deposits, of High Trust Bank, Stockbridge, Georgia, and One Georgia Bank, Atlanta, Georgia. The two banks were closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver for each institution. To protect depositors, the FDIC entered into purchase and assumption agreements with Ameris Bank.

All three branches of the two closed banks will reopen during their normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Ameris Bank...As of March 31, 2011, High Trust Bank had total assets of $192.5 million and total deposits of $189.5 million; and One Georgia Bank had total assets of $186.3 million and total deposits of $162.1 million. Besides assuming all the deposits from the two Georgia banks, Ameris Bank will purchase essentially all of their assets.

The FDIC and Ameris Bank entered into loss-share transactions on the failed banks' assets. The loss-share transaction for High Trust Bank was $164.8 million, and the loss-share transaction for One Georgia Bank was $146.3 million. Ameris Bank will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the loss-share agreements...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) for High Trust Bank will be $66.0 million and for One Georgia Bank, $44.4 million. Compared to other alternatives, Ameris Bank's acquisition of the two institutions was the least costly option for the DIF.

The closings are the 52nd and 53rd FDIC-insured institutions to fail in the nation so far this year and the fifteenth and sixteenth in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Mountain Heritage Bank, Clayton, on June 24, 2011.


First Peoples Bank, Port Saint Lucie, Florida, was closed today by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Premier American Bank, National Association, Miami, Florida, to assume all of the deposits of First Peoples Bank.

The six branches of First Peoples Bank will reopen during their normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Premier American Bank...As of March 31, 2011, First Peoples Bank had approximately $228.3 million in total assets and $209.7 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Premier American Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets...As part of this transaction, the FDIC will acquire a value appreciation instrument. This instrument serves as additional consideration for the transaction.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $7.4 million. Compared to other alternatives, Premier American Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. First Peoples Bank is the 54th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the seventh in Florida. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was First Commerce Bank of Tampa Bay, Tampa, on June 17, 2011.

[Demeter]

23. AND ONE FROM ARIZONA!

Summit Bank, Prescott, Arizona, was closed today by the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with The Foothills Bank, Yuma, Arizona, to assume all of the deposits of Summit Bank.

The sole branch of Summit Bank will reopen on Monday as a branch of The Foothills Bank...As of March 31, 2011, Summit Bank had approximately $72.0 million in total assets and $66.4 million in total deposits. The Foothills Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.25 percent to assume all of the deposits of Summit Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, The Foothills Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $11.3 million. Compared to other alternatives, The Foothills Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Summit Bank is the 55th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Arizona. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Legacy Bank, Scottsdale, on January 7, 2011.

[Demeter]

24. TOTAL ESTIMATED BANK LOSSES FOR THE NIGHT: $129.1M

POCKET CHANGE, REALLY.

[Demeter]

4. Apocalypse Investors: How Wall Street Bets on Catastrophic Breakdowns That Destroy Lives

http://www.alternet.org/story/151551/apocalypse_investors%3A_how_wall_street_bets_on_catastrophic_breakdowns_that_destroy_lives?page=entire

Bankers figure that if global markets collapse, they might as well make money out of it...




In the aftermath of the financial collapse, a lot was written about the schadenfreude of watching the masters of the universe take a tumble from their vaunted positions atop Wall Street. But a couple of years later, not only have the hedge fund managers and investment bankers largely reclaimed their bonuses and prestige, but they’ve somehow managed to do schadenfreude one better; instead of deriving mere pleasure at the misfortune of others, they’ve figured out how to make money off it...Writes Azaz Ahmed in the New York Times, “so-called black swan funds — named for rare and unexpected events — offer a way to profit in the event of a market collapse.” They may be called black swans, but they operate more like vultures, hungrily eyeing the faltering economy and waiting to swoop in to tear what’s left to shreds. Along with tail risk funds, which hedge against predictable but improbable events, black swan funds offer a way for investors to insure themselves against losses--and make a bundle selling assets bought on the cheap--in the case of rare or unexpected catastrophes, from a default in Greece to an economic slowdown in China. These kinds of “Armageddon funds” have been in and out of the news since Nassim Taleb’s book The Black Swan topped the bestseller lists in 2007, with most of the conversation proceeding along the lines of “will this kind of investment actually make me a boatload of money or is Wall Street getting punked?”

In the eyes of investors, hedging is simply a strategy for dealing with risk in an uncertain world, and doomsday investing is no different. Bankers know that the system is inherently unstable and that crashes are inevitable. While they don’t want to see global markets collapse, they figure they might as well make money if they do. But the point isn’t so much that people who invest in tail risk hedging are actively rooting for a crisis as that they have no real incentive to avoid one. Instead of trying to make markets more predictable and stable, or prevent the risk of disaster occurring, “apocalypse investors” just try to pick the right crisis to put their money on. Of course, investors have long speculated on things like commodity prices; should we really be surprised that they’re now betting on financial crisis? Perhaps not, but still, if there’s one thing the last financial crisis should have taught us, it’s that inventing new, complicated financial tools that distort risk and make the market less transparent is a terrible idea; MarketWatch likens the selling of black swan funds to “the town pyromaniac going door to door selling fire insurance.”

Tail risk and black swan funds threaten to deepen the disconnect between the consequences of investment decisions for those doing the investing and those suffered by the rest of the world: although wealthy investors occasionally lose staggering sums of money, they’re already far better able to absorb the impact of crisis than those without a cushion. Tail risk and black swan funds just seek to pad that cushion a bit more, offering the wealthy a soft landing when the rest of us hit rock bottom. But then, what should we really expect from a system where a trader can lose a billion dollars and suffer essentially no consequences? You don’t have to be a Marxist to think that strategizing how to benefit from catastrophe sounds like a callous profiteering scheme, or indeed, to realize that the financial system itself is engineered for the gain of private individuals at the expense of public wellbeing. James Montier of the investment management firm GMO writes that “all too often those seeking tail risk protection appear to be motivated by the fear of missing out (not fear at all, but greed).” Economist Tyler Cowen notes that “for the time being, we need to accept the possibility that the financial sector has learned how to game the American (and UK-based) system of state capitalism.” And “game” is the right word: to many traders, investing is just an elaborate set of calculations undertaken with the sole purpose of coming out on top of the earnings pile rather than an actual process for making use of capital with real-world consequences.

The question we need to be asking is whether we’re really okay with a system that deals with the risk of catastrophe by letting rich investors bet their way out of the consequences while everyone else gets screwed (again). The boom in Armageddon funds is simply more evidence--as if we needed it--that the rich live in a different world than the rest of us, and they have little incentive to invest in our shared future. They herald an every-man-for-himself ethos in which the rest of the world can go to hell in a handbasket as long as one’s personal assets are safe; the same kind of ethos that prompts executives to buy $230,000 security dogs or hire private firefighters rather than adequately funding public services...What we need isn’t more ways for reckless investors to protect themselves from the collapse of the system they’ve pushed to the brink; it’s structural reforms that reduce risk for everyone in the long run as well as the short term.

[bread_and_roses]

77. Good article (n/t)

[Demeter]

5. Stealing from Social Security Is NOT a Debt Solution -- Why Do the Media Promote This Dangerous Myth

http://www.alternet.org/story/151601/stealing_from_social_security_is_not_a_debt_solution_--_why_do_the_media_promote_this_dangerous_myth?page=entire

Pursuing a plan to kill social security, politicians are relying on a credulous public and compliant media to ramp up debt panic...





The conventional wisdom among the current generation of school reformers is that bad teachers are to blame for the failure of many of our children to learn. Applying this logic to the current debates over the budget and the economy, we should be pointing a big finger of blame at the media. As survey after survey shows, the vast majority of the public are incredibly ignorant of the most basic facts about the budget and the economy. If we treated their teachers in the media the way the educational reformers treat public school teachers, few economics and budget reporters would have jobs. One needs only to pick up a newspaper or turn on the television to get examples of thoroughly awful reporting. When we hear pledges to reduce the projected deficits over the next 12 years by $2tn or $4tn, how many people have any clue how large these reductions – on which the current debt ceiling talks between President Obama and House speaker John Boehner turn – are, relative to projected spending or projected GDP over this period? (The $4tn figure is 8.7% of projected spending and 3.7% of GDP.) How about that $14.3tn figure for the debt ceiling? That's a really big number, really scary. So is just about every number connected with the United States budget. We are a huge country with a huge economy. Competent reporters would focus on this being about 90% of US GDP.

Is that big? Well, the debt to GDP ratio was over 110% after the second world war. The United Kingdom had debt to GDP ratios of more than 100% for much of the 19th century, as it was establishing itself as the world's pre-eminent industrial power. Japan has a debt to GDP ratio of more than 220% of GDP and can still borrow in financial markets long-term at interest rates of less than 1.5%. So, what's the problem? The politicians who want to cut social security and Medicare obviously want the public to believe that there is a huge problem and – due to the incompetence of the media – they have managed to instill fear throughout the nation about this massive non-problem.

If the media were doing their job, the public would be able to put these debt numbers in context. And the politicians who attempted to exploit fears based on ignorance would be subjected to ridicule. For example, when Senator John McCain was basing his 2008 president campaign on attacking the $1m spent on creating a Woodstock museum, competent reporters would have barraged him with questions as to whether McCain understood that this came to 0.00003% of federal spending. They would ask him how much time he thinks that Congress should spend scrutinising three hundred thousandths of 1% of the federal budget. If Congress spent one minute debating every McCain Woodstock museum-sized expenditure, it would take it 6.3 years to get through this year's budget, assuming that it was in session 24 hours a day, 365 days a year...In the same vein, when a politician asserts that social security is going bankrupt and that there will not be anything left for her children or grandchildren, serious reporters would ridicule her for being ignorant of the social security trustees projections. These projections show that even if nothing is ever done to change the programme, future beneficiaries will always be able to collect a higher benefit than current retirees. The "nothing there for our children" would be treated as a serious gaffe, sort of like then Senator Obama's comment before the Pennsylvania primary about working-class people being bitter and clinging to guns and religion. The difference is that the social security comment has direct relevance for policies that affect people's lives. When a politician complains about President Obama's taxes strangling the economy, reporters should ask them whether they know that taxes are less of a burden on the economy now than at any point since the second world war. A politician who is concerned about tax burdens should be expected to know this.

If economic and political reporters applied the same sort of investigative zeal to economic and budget reporting as they did to Representative Anthony Weiner's twittered underwear picture, we would have a much better informed public. Not only would the news stories that we see and hear be much more informative, but politicians would be less likely to make things up to advance their political agenda....If politicians knew that they would pay a political price for making things up about the budget and the economy, then they would be less likely to do it. But we aren't likely to get competent reporters until it is as easy to fire incompetent ones as it is to fire incompetent school teachers.

[Demeter]

6. Deficit Predators: Everything You Need to Know About the Twisted, Dangerous Debt Ceiling Fight

http://www.alternet.org/story/151593/deficit_predators%3A_everything_you_need_to_know_about_the_twisted%2C_dangerous_debt_ceiling_fight?page=entire

FIRST THE SNARK:

The debt ceiling is an exercise in bad faith. And any deal that cuts social programs will be catastrophic for millions of Americans....

News reports hold that President Obama scored a political victory by agreeing to put Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block to achieve a “go-big” $4 trillion deficit reduction. Speaker Boehner had to concede that Republicans won’t vote for any package that includes tax increases – and the deal died. So the gambit worked and the President emerged with a solid image as the alpha deficit hawk.

To which one can only say: how nice for him.

We’re in a summer that only Salvador Dali could paint, a reality so twisted that one almost yearns for the simple verities of the War on Terror or even the invasion of Iraq. Then as now, to be serious one must be a “hawk.” (The dove is a weakling, a loser, and the owl for practical purposes does not exist.) So let’s review some of the strange and mysterious faces of this ugly, vicious bird...

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

The debt ceiling was first enacted in 1917. Why? The date tells all: we were about to enter the Great War. To fund that effort, the Wilson government needed to issue Liberty Bonds. This was controversial, and the debt ceiling was cover, passed to reassure the rubes that Congress would be “responsible” even while the country went to war. It was, from the beginning, an exercise in bad faith and has remained so every single second to the present day...Today this bad-faith law is pressed to its absurd extreme, to force massive cuts in public programs as the price of not-reneging on the public debts of the United States. Never mind that to force default on the public obligations of the United States is plainly unconstitutional. Section 4 of the 14th amendment says in simple language that public debts, once duly authorized by law and including pensions, by the way, “shall not be questioned.” The purpose of this language was to foreclose, to put beyond politics, any possibility that the Union would renege on debts and pensions and bounties incurred to win the Civil War. But the application is very general and the courts have ruled that the principle extends to the present day....What is going on in Congress at this moment already violates that mandate. It is an effort to subvert the authority of the government to meet and therefore to incur obligations of every possible stripe. It is an attack on the concept of government itself – as the “Tea Party” by its very name would no doubt agree. It therefore paints those deficit hawks who are using the debt ceiling to take budget hostages as enemies of the United States Constitution.

The President, though supposedly a constitutional expert and though sworn to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, will not say this. Instead he appears to treat the Constitution as an optional matter, to which he will not resort, in the hope that by negotiating with the hostage- takers he can reach some reasonable outcome that will preserve everyone’s good name. (The great Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe recently argued that the President cannot defy the debt ceiling on his own. That’s a debatable point.) It is as though Lincoln in 1861 faced with the siege of Sumter had sat down with Confederate commissioners to see what could be worked out...In Washington it appears that this assault on government has a large measure of elite and media support, if not on the crass details or vulgar personalities but because it could conceivably force the parties to do “what they should do anyway” – namely come to a long-term deficit and debt agreement. Such an agreement would cut spending, raise some taxes, put the projected debt-to-GDP ratio on a declining track, and solve the “government’s fiscal crisis.”

What fiscal crisis? The great unasked question in this summer of sound-and-fury is “why?” The United States has many problems at the moment: a high-and-stubborn unemployment rate, a foreclosure catastrophe, a slowing economy that has not recovered and will not recover from the Great Crisis, and the ongoing challenges of infrastructure, energy and climate change. Fiscal crisis? The entire thing is a figment, made up of wise-men’s warnings repeated endlessly and linked to the projections of technicians at the Congressional Budget Office and elsewhere. The projections, as I’ve written here, are made up of two economically impossible arguments. One is that there will be a big economic rebound, restoring near-full employment by 2013 or so. We’re already off that track, as some of us warned from the beginning. Of course, a recovery would reduce the deficit even if nothing were done. But CBO then recreates the exploding debt by assumptions, which include steady growth and low inflation, but sharply higher health-care costs and much higher short-term interest rates. These lead the projected debt to compound skyward, soon surpassing all previous records in relation to GDP.

Is this possible? No it is not. The Federal Reserve would never raise the short-term interest rate as CBO projects, without a prior increase of inflation, which CBO assumes will not occur. If they did, the economy would collapse! And if they don’t, the debt does not compound out of control. I have presented these simple numbers here. For what it’s worth, if you believe the capital markets signal anything, they signal their disbelief in doomsday forecasts, in the long-term interest rate on US government bonds, every single day...Is it possible that cutting government is, by some other path, the way to economic recovery? There are many people who believe fervently in the resilience of the private sector and for whom government is just a burden. Some of those people are pure predators: resource magnates, media magnates, banking magnates. Others have blinded themselves to the role government actually plays in sustaining the advanced networks, human protections and social systems that make up our lives, and imagine that one can go back to the world of subsistence farming, church charity and credit from the corner store. But there were many fewer people in that world, they didn’t do what we do, and they didn’t live nearly so long.

In broad terms, today’s government does four major things:


MUCH MORE AT LINK--TODAY'S MUST READ!

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

James K. Galbraith is a deficit owl. He is the author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. He teaches at The University of Texas at Austin.

[Demeter]

7. Merkel warned on Greek bail-out standoff

Angela Merkel faces pressure to make a quick decision on how to get private bondholders to pay towards a €115bn Greek bail-out

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/VLL54D/HI3M9/WL34UE/8ZAA65/ID/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

[Demeter]

8. France loses out in ‘flight to quality’

The spread to German Bunds hit 77 basis points on Wednesday, marking a sharp break with the past close correlation of 30-40 basis points

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/VLL54D/HI3M9/WL34UE/GDKK76/ID/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

[Demeter]

9. US prepared for military response in cyberwar

The Pentagon is willing to respond militarily to attempts to hack into systems related to its national and economic security

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/VLL54D/HI3M9/WL34UE/ZGBBPM/ID/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

JUST TAKE THEIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS OFF THE INTERNET, AND ELIMINATE ALL EXTERNAL PORTS. IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, GUYS! SECURITY IS A LOW LEVEL FUNCTION.

[Demeter]

31. Terror threat amplified by new technologies, report warns

More cyber terrorism forecast by government as groups use 'off-the-shelf technology' for planning and attacks

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/UXDMSS/ORRHOQ/06MUC/EW7N7Z/97ABJ9/VU/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=13

[Demeter]

10. Strained debt talks test limit of Boehner’s powers

While the House speaker says passage of an increase in the debt ceiling was necessary before the deadline many rank-and-file Republicans scorn the idea

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/VLL54D/HI3M9/WL34UE/WTLLF6/ID/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

[Demeter]

11. John Williams - Harry Potter Symphonic Suite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaMqnYvzE2Q&feature=related

[Demeter]

12. Debt fears drive US youth away from college

Soaring tuition fees are forcing many young Americans to question whether attaining a higher education is worth the time and money

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/VLL54D/HI3M9/WL34UE/YBHH3K/ID/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

[Demeter]

13. Restructuring lawyer indicted for tax fraud

Theodore Freedman, a former senior partner in Kirkland’s restructuring and bankruptcy practice, allegedly cheated the US government out of $1m in taxes

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/AMMR2G/EKRAI/9ZCF2P/HYDD5L/JY/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

[Demeter]

14. Debt deals set to follow stress tests

The results are expected to show about 10 banks out of the 91 tested to fall short of having the required 5 per cent core tier one capital

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/AMMR2G/EKRAI/9ZCF2P/30OOHQ/JY/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

[Demeter]

15. JPMorgan’s profit jumps 13%

Second-quarter profits jump 13%, defying expectations a litany of economic, legal and regulatory challenges would weigh on US banks’ results

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/AMMR2G/EKRAI/9ZCF2P/KQEEXT/JY/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

[Demeter]

16. Citigroup moves closer to credit card U-turn

Improving conditions have caused bank executives to weigh shifting the private-label cards arm from Holdings to a place next to its core credit-card operations

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/FKK3R8/9MEOW/5C8QM7/ZGHUE1/7V/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=14

[Demeter]

17. News Corp boosts buy-back plan to $5bn

News Corp will use $3.2bn of the cash it had stored up for the acquisition of BSKyB to boost its share buy-back programme from $1.8bn to $5bn

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/P75VYY/622KFN/FDFZE/GK5P54/IIDABT/T3/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=13

[Demeter]

18. Duty Calls, See You Later

Do post in my absence...calling all Pottermaniacs...

[DemReadingDU]

19. Pottermaniacs

Wish I could say I am, but alas, I am not.
Never read any of the books, nor seen any of the movies.
:(


But I can K&R!

[Tansy_Gold]

22. Ditto to all, DRDU!

:hi:

[some guy]

27. Gah, what a pathetic group.

Or something.

I'll make it a trio that has neither read the books, nor seen the films. :)

[Demeter]

28. Why the Gold Price Continues to Hit Record Highs By Eric Fry

http://dailyreckoning.com/why-the-gold-price-continues-to-hit-record-highs/


...To review: CDS are a kind of "default insurance." The buyer of a CDS is buying insurance against default by a specific issuer of debt, whether that be a company or a country. The greater the apparent likelihood of a default, the higher the price insurance. That's why the price of a Greek CDS is 1,000 times greater than the price of a Norwegian CDS.

This extreme pricing difference is to be expected. In absolute numbers, the national annual deficits of Greece and Norway are identical. But while the Greeks are running a budget deficit equal to about 14% of its GDP, the Norwegians are running a budget surplus equal to about 14% of GDP. Greece might default tomorrow. Norway is unlikely to default any time this century...or at least not until its North Sea oil runs out.

Interestingly, the price of 5-year CDS on US debt is also higher than that of Norwegian CDS. Both issuers are rated AAA. And not so long ago, CDS prices on both of these sovereign borrowers were identical. For a short while, in fact, Norwegian CDS were more expensive than their US counterparts. But the spread between the two has been widening out during the last several months. In other words, US CDS prices are rising relative to Norwegian CDS.



As of this morning, US CDS are more expensive than the CDS of six other AAA-rated sovereign borrowers. According to CDS buyers, therefore, the United States is somewhat less deserving of its AAA rating than Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands and Germany.

Counterintuitively, despite the threat of downgrades and the rising price of CDS, demand for long-dated Treasury bonds appears to remain fairly strong. Yesterday, the Treasury attracted higher-than average-demand for an auction of 30-year bonds. "The bid-to-cover ratio on the $13 billion in bonds," Bloomberg News reports, "which gauges demand by comparing total bids with the amount offered, was 2.80, versus a 2.64 average at the past 10 sales."...

[Demeter]

29. Cisco Systems to cut up to 14% of workforce

The maker of networking gear may cut 10,000 jobs, 3,000 of them under an early retirement plan, as it tries to cut $1bn in costs from annual budget

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/P75VYY/622KFN/FDFZE/GK5P54/C4M6PV/T3/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=13

[Demeter]

30. US ethanol refiners use more corn than farmers

The US Department of Agriculture estimates that in the year to August 31 ethanol producers will have consumed more than 40% of last year’s harvest

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/P75VYY/622KFN/FDFZE/GK5P54/GDXVTT/T3/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=13

[Demeter]

32. Gupta gets go-ahead for SEC lawsuit

Former McKinsey chief accused of engaging in insider trading wins a motion to proceed with a lawsuit against the US financial regulator

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/B55Y5V/K91WR/KEKLIJ/EX4GDA/JY/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=12

[Demeter]

33. Banks act to woo hedge funds

Banks are offering easier credit terms to hedge funds in an increasingly fierce competition for their business, according to new Federal Reserve survey data.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/B55Y5V/K91WR/KEKLIJ/L9E2RS/JY/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=12

[Demeter]

34. Eurozone to reconsider bail-out fund debt buy

European finance ministers have sent a strong signal they are prepared to begin buying back significant amounts of Greek bonds on the open market

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/5F39HH/3007ZT/VTVRG/ZB17UE/GDX6IG/OS/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=12

[Demeter]

35. Economy suggests scary poll outlook for Obama

The White House sat down to budget talks with one overarching question. How much deeper could next year’s fiscal contraction be?

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/5F39HH/3007ZT/VTVRG/ZB17UE/TU3XL7/OS/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=12

HA! I'M BETTING THE WHITE HOUSE IS LOOKING AT ONLY ONE GAP--THAT IN THE POLLS COMING UP ON THE 2012 ELECTIONS. I SINCERELY DOUBT THAT THERE IS ANYONE IN THE STAFF (ASIDE FROM ELIZABETH WARREN) WHO CAN SEE EITHER THE FOREST OR THE TREES.

IF THE WHITE HOUSE KNOWS THAT THE ECONOMY IS STILL CONTRACTING, THEY SURE AREN'T ACTING ON THAT KNOWLEDGE....

[Demeter]

36. Credit Suisse drawn into US tax probe

The outlook for Credit Suisse darkened on Friday after the Swiss bank revealed it had been formally placed under investigation by the US authorities over allegations it helped rich Americans evade tax.

The move marked a significant escalation in a near four-year battle between the US and Switzerland over the alleged role of some Swiss private banks in helping US clients with undeclared offshore accounts avoid taxation.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/73UJGG/DWWU4X/RP6QL/18TIYG/IIYQ66/QR/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

[Demeter]

37. The Real Harry Potter Magic and True Heroism

The story behind the story of Harry Potter is the story of JK Rowling, his creator.

Unhappily divorced with one kid in diapers, JK took to frantically writing herself a hero, a savior who would lift her out of poverty...

Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE (born 31 July 1965), better known as J. K. Rowling is a British author best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies and been the basis for a popular series of films, in which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts as well as maintaining creative control by serving as a producer on the final instalment.

Rowling is perhaps equally famous for her "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on benefits to multi-millionaire status within five years. As of March 2011, when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling's net worth to be US$1 billion. The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in the United Kingdom. Forbes ranked Rowling as the forty-eighth most powerful celebrity of 2007, and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom. In October 2010, J. K. Rowling was named 'Most Influential Woman in Britain' by leading magazine editors. She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, and Lumos (formerly the Children's High Level Group)...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling

[Demeter]

84. In the Author's Own Words: The single mother's manifesto

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7096786.ece

...So here we are again, taking stock of where we are, and of where we would like to be, both as individuals and as a country. Personally, I keep having flashbacks to 1997, and not merely because of the most memorable election result in recent times. In January that year, I was a single parent with a four-year-old daughter, teaching part-time but living mainly on benefits, in a rented flat. Eleven months later, I was a published author who had secured a lucrative publishing deal in the US, and bought my first ever property: a three-bedroom house with a garden.

I had become a single mother when my first marriage split up in 1993. In one devastating stroke, I became a hate figure to a certain section of the press, and a bogeyman to the Tory Government. Peter Lilley, then Secretary of State at the DSS, had recently entertained the Conservative Party conference with a spoof Gilbert and Sullivan number, in which he decried “young ladies who get pregnant just to jump the housing list”. The Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood, castigated single-parent families from St Mellons, Cardiff, as “one of the biggest social problems of our day”. (John Redwood has since divorced the mother of his children.) Women like me (for it is a curious fact that lone male parents are generally portrayed as heroes, whereas women left holding the baby are vilified) were, according to popular myth, a prime cause of social breakdown, and in it for all we could get: free money, state-funded accommodation, an easy life.

An easy life. Between 1993 and 1997 I did the job of two parents, qualified and then worked as a secondary school teacher, wrote one and a half novels and did the planning for a further five. For a while, I was clinically depressed. To be told, over and over again, that I was feckless, lazy — even immoral — did not help.

The new Labour landslide marked a cessation in government hostilities towards families like mine. The change in tone was very welcome, but substance is, of course, more important than style. Labour had great ambitions for eradicating child poverty and while it succeeded, initially, in reversing the downward trend that had continued uninterrupted under Tory rule, it has not reached its own targets. There remains much more to be done....

[Demeter]

38. The Haunting Harry Potter Theme

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

[Demeter]

39. Mohamed El-Erian: The eurozone must consider sabbaticals for some members

After a long and costly delay, European officials’ narrative about the debt crisis is changing. This is the good news. The bad news is that Europe still lacks the political and technical leadership needed finally to catch up with this damaging crisis. As a result, Europe will soon be forced to consider radical options.

For too long, Europe has pretended that the crisis in its periphery was liquidity-driven rather than solvency-induced. Officials dismissed the need for debt restructuring, preferring a bail out for Greece, Ireland and Portugal that piled new debt on top of an already unsustainable
burden.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/BLH300/DWW1IA/SUO9T/3OBQX7/7A27PG/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15

I DON'T THINK THERE ARE ENOUGH CORNERS IN EUROPE TO STAND ALL THE DUNCES IN....

[Demeter]

40. Mort Zuckerman: America has no choice but to enter its own age of austerity

The American public gets it, even if successive US administrations have not. There are over 12m families who get it particularly well: they are those who owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth. They know we have been running on empty for years, and that a new era of American austerity is the only way to put things right.

No wonder this is being called the most predictable crisis in US history. For who could dispute, when our government must borrow $4.5bn a day just to keep going, that our national debt is now an existential threat? Wimpy, a character in the cartoon Popeye, got our attitude right: “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/JEEHY3/PNGIU/3OBIL2/PFRRPG/HK/t?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=14

AS LONG AS THE AUSTERITY STARTS WITH THE PEOPLE WHO CAN AFFORD IT....NO MORE MONEY TO BANKSTERS, FRAUDS, OR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS!

[Demeter]

41. Two Navy Ships That Cost $300 Million Are Headed To The Scrapyard Without Having Seen A Day Of Servi

http://www.businessinsider.com/two-navy-ships-henry-eckford-benjamin-isherwood-scrapyard-2011-7#ixzz1SGbGirKc

Embroiled by legal battles for more than 25 years, two U.S. Navy ships are finally headed to the scrap heap without ever having sailed and despite the fact that they're almost completely finished.

According to Hampton Roads, the USNS Bejamin Isherwood and the USNS Henry Eckford were commissioned in 1985 at the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Co. to carry fuel to the Navy's fleet around the globe. When the company defaulted on its Navy contract in 1989 the 660-foot ships were sent to Florida for completion, but cost disputes terminated that contract in 1993.

Since then, the vessels have sat 95 and 84 percent complete at the mouth of the James River as part of the mothballed ghost fleet.Because they're single-hulled ships, not the double-hulls required of today's tankers, THE US WILL PAY $10 million to scrap them along with two other ghost ships. This week both vessels are being towed to International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville, TX to be cut up, their innards pulled out and their steel and other metals sold for recycling...

No money will be returned to the U.S. treasury.

[Demeter]

42. Goldman: These Companies Could Get Crushed If The Government Goes Into Austerity Mode

...Goldman Sachs made a list of all the companies that rely on the government for a significant amount of their revenue (20%). We stripped out all the ones that are healthcare/defense related, since those are probably the most immune:

http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-that-will-lose-out-in-austerity-2011-7#roper-industries-inc-1

[Demeter]

43. U.S. Considers Asset Sale To Pay Bills If Debt Limit Is Not Raised

Federal officials have reached out to banks and investors to discuss the government's plans for its paying obligations after August 2 in the event the debt ceiling isn't raise, The Washington Post reports. Among the options being considered to raise revenues while borrowing is prohibited, are the suspension of non-critical payments, and the sale of federally-owned student loans, mortgages, and even gold reserves.

The government is facing a $159 billion deficit in August, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The Post is reporting that financial firms and investors were skeptical of the plans when briefed by Treasury Department officials, arguing there would be chaos in the markets due to speculators quick to scoop up valuable assets at low prices from a cash-starved government. Rating agencies have said any partial default on its obligations, or steps to pay only some of the nation's bills could be met by a downgrade of federal debt — which would cause further economic turmoil.

Read the full report at The Washington Post here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/debt-limit-us-outreach-to-banks-investors-over-possible-default-comes-up-empty/2011/07/14/gIQAHRB5EI_story.html

[Demeter]

44. How Much Should One Man Be Able To Make? By Paul Buchheit

LIMITS TO PAY

...average Americans make the same money, adjusted for inflation, that they made 30 years ago. If the median household income had increased at the pace of American productivity (80%), families would be making $92,000, not $50,000.

How about the superstars at the top? One man (John Paulson) made enough money last year to hire a quarter of a million entry-level health care workers, all by himself. It helped that most of his earnings were subject to a 15% tax rate.

So for those of us just learning to play the free-market capitalism game, here's the question: How much should one man be able to make? $10 billion? $100 billion? $1 trillion? $8 trillion? Wait a minute -- that's ALL of America's income. That wouldn't work, because then some of you wouldn't get your share. You'll have to figure out a means of redistribution. But that's socialism. OK, John Paulson, go for the $8 trillion.

After all, that's the purpose of free-market capitalism, to allow any individual to take all he can get, even if his financial maneuverings contribute nothing to a productive society...

[Hotler]

52. I do not care who you are or what you do it is..

physically and mentally impossible to do enough work in a day 365 days a year to earn a million dollars in pay. You can not go in early enough. You can not stay late enough. You can not do enough math, writing, reading, research, welding, hammering, typing, doctoring, supervising etc.. If you invent something that through its own merits and quality sells enough to earn you a million dollars or more that is different, but work, no.

[Demeter]

56. (It's called theft, extortion, bribery, etc)

And to get that much loot, you have to be able to spread it around to your enforcers....just one big happy Crime Family, with many-headed branches.

[Demeter]

45. Debt Political Theater Diverts Attention While Americans' Wealth Is Stolen By Dennis Kucinich

KUCINICH

The rancorous debate over the debt belies a fundamental truth of our economy -- that it is run for the few at the expense of the many, that our entire government has been turned into a machine which takes the wealth of a mass of Americans and accelerates it into the hands of the few. Let me give you some examples.

Take war. War takes the money from the American people and puts it into the hands of arms manufacturers, war profiteers, and private armies. The war in Iraq, based on lies: $3 trillion will be the cost of that war. The war in Afghanistan; based on a misreading of history; half a trillion of dollars in expenses already. The war against Libya will be $1 billion by September.

Fifty percent of our discretionary spending goes for the Pentagon. A massive transfer of wealth into the hands of a few while the American people lack sufficient jobs, health care, housing, retirement security...Our energy policies take the wealth from the American people and put it into the hands of the oil companies...Our environmental policy takes the wealth of the people -- clean air, clean water -- and puts it in the hands of the polluters. It’s a transfer of wealth, not only from the present but from future generations as our environment is ruined...Insurance companies, what do they do? They take the wealth from the American people in terms of what they charge people for health insurance and they put it into the hands of the few.

We have to realize what this country's economy has become. Our monetary policy, through the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, privatized the money supply, gathers the wealth, puts it in the hands of the few while the Federal Reserve can create money out of nothing, give it to banks to park at the Fed while our small businesses are starving for capital...Mark my words -- Wall Street cashes in whether we have a default or not. And the same type of thinking that created billions in bailouts for Wall Street and more than $1 trillion in giveaways by the Federal Reserve today leaves 26 million Americans either underemployed or unemployed. And nine out of ten Americans over the age of 65 are facing cuts in their Social Security in order to pay for a debt which grew from tax cuts for the rich and for endless wars.

[bread_and_roses]

46. 11th Rec & a K - have read part of 1st book, seen most of the films on the TV

A good friend loved the first book and gave it to me. It did not grab me - my loss, but nothing I could do about it. The ability of a story to evoke the suspension of dis-belief varies from one person to another. It does or it doesn't for me and thee. I've truly wished I could - that's lots of reading! - but I couldn't. I've enjoyed some bits of the films, but am often disappointed in the uneven quality of the special effects. Some have been spectacular, some clunky. I do like the kids, and of course they are miles better than the treacly "Narnia" sermons.

[Demeter]

47. The Emperor Has No Economy

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201171162151617377.html?utm_source=Al+Jazeera+English+List&utm_campaign=132bb43f3d-Newsletter&utm_medium=email

The Associated Press' Paul Wiseman had one of the snappier headlines last week: "The Economic Recovery Turns Two - Feel Better?"..."After previous recessions, people in all income groups tended to benefit," Wiseman wrote. "This time, ordinary Americans are struggling with job insecurity, too much debt, and pay raises that haven't kept up with prices at the grocery store and gas station. The economy's meager gains are going mostly to the wealthiest…A big chunk of the economy's gains has gone to investors in the form of higher corporate profits." Wiseman quoted David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff and Associates in Toronto: "The spoils have really gone to capital, to the shareholders."

Karl Marx, call your office.

More than at any previous time in their lives, Americans looking for answers and facts are forced to read between the lines of press and broadcast accounts that bear little resemblance to reality "on the ground", as they say on cable news. Truth, when it can be coaxed out of propaganda so patently ridiculous that it has become indiscernible from the standard-issue "everything is great, our leaders know best" nonsense of the world's autocracies, is revealed in sloppy contradictions. Wiseman, though flying on the side of the agenda-busting angels, is no exception: is the US economy generating "meager gains" or "spoils"? Hm....On its face the official narrative is false to a laughably Orwellian extreme. The recession is over; the recovery is well underway, they say. However, as The Wall Street Journal reports, the recovery is slow and mainly benefiting big business. "While the US economy staggers through one of its slowest recoveries since the Great Recession," the paper wrote July 5th, "American companies are poised to report strong earnings for the second quarter - exposing a dichotomy between corporate performance and the overall health of the economy." The same "dichotomy" afflicts every industrialized nation except for Germany and Luxembourg, both of which have seen unemployment return to the levels before the global fiscal crisis that began in September 2008....

First, high bottom lines don't necessarily reflect healthy companies. A company can suffer declining sales and market share yet still increase profits by laying off workers, thus reducing payroll expenses. For example, the Internet search giant Yahoo! saw revenues decline 12 per cent in late 2010 yet doubled its profits. How'd they do it? They fired one percent of their workforce. If Yahoo! were to continue this trend, it would soon cease to exist....Second, First World economies are two-thirds reliant on consumer spending. Consumers in the United States, as well as those throughout the world, are in big trouble. The official US unemployment rate is 9.1 percent but the "real rate" - the one calculated the way most other countries do theirs, which includes people whose unemployment benefits have lapsed - is closer to 20 per cent, higher than those of Tunisia and Egypt at the start of the Arab Spring. People who still have jobs have suffered pay cuts both visible and invisible, the latter from galloping inflation in fuel and other costs that government agencies intentionally omit from calculations of consumer price indices.

Can an economy "recover" without its people? Airports and shopping malls throughout the United States are empty. Advertising space on billboards and newspapers go begging. Storefronts from Fifth Avenue in New York to the Las Vegas Strip to small towns in the Midwest are boarded up. The price of homes, which for middle-class Americans are often their sole substantial form of savings, continues to decline after the real estate bubble burst in 2008. Consumer confidence, the measure of people's willingness to part with cash to buy goods and services, is in the tank. When 60 percent of Americans rate the economy as poor, don't count on them to buy stuff. They're not...."Workers' wages and benefits make up 57.5 percent of the economy, an all-time low," wrote the AP's Wiseman. "Until the mid-2000s, that figure had been remarkably stable - about 64 percent through boom and bust alike." ...To the citizens of countries for whom $46,000 a year would seem like a king's ransom, Americans' resentment of CEOs who receive annual salaries on par with the gross domestic products of some nations no doubt seems petty, if not a little silly. Yet they (and the CEOs) should ignore the prosperity chasm at their own peril. American politics, already more divisive as seen through such phenomena as the nativist Tea Party movement on the far right and the anarcho-libertarians of the left, will fracture further until the center (what center?) no longer holds.



*********************************************************************
Ted Rall is an American political cartoonist, columnist and author. His most recent book is The Anti-American Manifesto. His website is rall.com.

[Demeter]

48. Reality Calls, Again

Check back later tonight for more gleanings from the world-wide web! Or clippings from The Daily Prophet....we'll go anywhere for a story!

[xchrom]

49. lucky 13th rec! nt

[xchrom]

50. Europe's banking regulator reveals eight banks fail stress tests

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/15/european-banks-stress-test

Europe's new banking regulator warned that an escalation in the eurozone crisis could pose "significant" challenges even as it announced only eight banks out of 90 had failed an annual check of their financial strength.

A further 16 banks were also deemed to be in a potential danger zone as they only just passed the tests, which looked at the impact on banks' capital cushions of a deterioration in the economy and house prices. However, the tests failed to consider what may happen to banks if a major European country – such as Greece – defaulted on its debt, promoting many analysts to argue the hurdles were set too low.

As the results of the tests were announced by the European Banking Authority (EBA), European Union president Herman Van Rompuy called the leaders of the 17 members of the eurozone to a summit next Thursday to thrash out the much anticipated second bailout for Greece.

Anxiety about Greece continues to put the eurozone under severe stress and Andrea Enria, chairman of the EBA, described current market conditions as "under severe strain" as he said: "Further deterioration in the sovereign debt crisis might raise serious challenges."

[DemReadingDU]

51. Why Americans aren’t buying the debt-ceiling Armageddon talk

7/14/11 Why Americans aren’t buying the debt-ceiling Armageddon talk -Tom Bemis

Washington is trying its hardest to sell Americans on the idea that failure to raise the debt-ceiling will be the end of the world. The rest of the country doesn’t seem to be buying the idea.

Wall Street’s not buying the debt-ceiling Armageddon talk it because they can’t believe Washington would be so stupid. (Or that their lobbyists can’t pry some deal out of their friends.)

Main Street’s not buying it because for a lot of Americans Armageddon’s already arrived.
For millions of unemployed who’ve been out of work for more than 99 weeks, Armageddon is here.
For millions of the unemployed over 50 whose hopes of another job, let alone a comparable one, are gone, Armageddon is here.
For millions who’ve lost their homes, Armageddon is here.

It can always get worse, of course. But for those suffering in such difficult circumstances already, there’s no more bandwidth for fear and worry. Even for those still employed, the notion of another $1 trillion in taxes/borrowing to solve another crises, is just so much noise.

They were told that $700 billion in TARP funds would fix things.
They were told $800 billion in stimulus would fix things.
They were told $4 billion in cash for clunkers would fix things.
They were told Obamacare would fix things.
They were told Quantitative Easing would fix things.
They were told Quantitative Easing 2 would fix things.
Now they’re being told that failure to pass a hike in the debt ceiling will make things really bad.

more...
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2011/07/14/why-americans-arent-buying-the-debt-ceiling-armageddon-talk/

[xchrom]

54. +1 -- sometimes a lack of trust & faith in our institutions is justified. nt

[DemReadingDU]

60. Oh, I do believe the debt issue is very real. However,

I think the debt ceiling is just another way in which the wealthy will be able to do the extend and pretend game to kick the can down the road a bit longer while they take the last bit of our money. It is not designed to help we the people (nor were any of those other programs). It's just another way to bail themselves out of their bad gambling wagers.

[xchrom]

64. yeah -- that's true -- i can't disagree w/ that. nt

[Demeter]

57. Well, You See, Failure to Keep Inflating the Bubble WILL Be Armageddon

for the self-styled economic Elite.

Their paper assets will go up in flames, and they won't be able to jerk the laws around to screw ordinary people any more. There won't be any rigged laws and no paid mercenary enforcers at their beck and call, just as right now there are none for those individuals seeking public assistance.

[Hotler]

53. k&r Thank you Demeter n/t

[Demeter]

55. You Are Welcome!

Thanks for stopping in. Wouldn't do it without some kind of audience...

[Demeter]

58. The Economics of Harry Potter

All the commentary that follows is my own--Demeter

When one goes to examine the superstructure of the Potterverse (short for Potter Universe, I believe), one must first deal with two facts:

1. the point of view of the narrative is an eleven-year-old boy who up until the opening of the story is raised in our Muggle world (Muggle meaning non-magical, and being the PC term for the magically ungifted. Mudblood is the pejorative term for a wizard sport born of Muggle parentage.)
   
   
2. and, JK Rowling, who is very gifted and creative, is either not particularly interested in creating a self-contained, functioning alternate world, or not sufficiently sophisticated to deal with the task.

I suspect both: consistency is not Rowling's forte, nor is her mind working as an "engineer's mind" might. She drew upon myths, legends, fairy tales, all the story-telling creativity of past generations; she didn't even cross over to the "technology" side in the Muggle world, let alone the Wizard's World. Her wizard-created technology is either completely deus-ex-machina or a ripoff of a Muggle artifact.

So too with Wizarding economics. To all appearances, the Wizarding world never left the gold standard. Currency consists of gold Galleons, silver Sickles, and bronze Knuts. The conversion is: 1 Galleon = 17 Sickles = 493 Knuts. Not only have the wizards never moved to the British pound, they evidently never discovered the ease of the decimal system, either. It may be that money doesn't play much of a role in their society, although Potter's best friends, the Weasley family, are constantly obsessed with the poverty they endure with 7 growing children in the family...it is also not clear whether the Galleon is merely a British Isles currency, or a universal wizarding currency.

The coins are produced by goblins, another entirely different magical species of being with lingering enmity towards the wizarding population, due to many centuries of bloody conflict between them and the refusal of the wizards to sell wands to goblins.

The Galleon has numerals around the outside edge which is a serial number referring to the Goblin who cast the coin. It is unknown whether the Sickle or Knut also have these numbers, but it seems likely.

How goblins ended up in charge of the currency and running the banking system is not clear. Despite 7 years of History courses in the Hogwarts curriculum, Harry Potter has never cracked the books nor retained one word of the lectures, and so the reader is also clueless. It is stated, however, that goblins are miners and metal-crafters, hence their affinity to producing swords, jewelry and coins, underground vaults and labyrinths...but what they get for their labors is also not clear.

Magical children born into the Muggle world must exchange their Muggle currency at Gringotts in order to buy school supplies. There is a currency converter available at the Harry Potter Lexicon, the authoritative source of all things magical:

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/galleons.html

To quote from the Lexicon on the subject:

Well, even if you can do the math quickly in your head when you need to make change, it's still not easy. The values of the coins don't always seem to make sense. After all, you can buy a large quantity of sweets from the cart on the Hogwarts Express for eleven Sickles, about two-thirds of one Galleon. So is that all that the Weasleys had in their vault? The price of a pile of candy? And with that they bought books and school gear for all those kids? It just doesn't quite work out.

JKR has stated in an interview (CR) that she estimates the value of one Galleon to be "about five pounds," which works out to around US$9.75 (the exchange rate at the time of the interview was US$7.33). In the introduction to both QA and FB, US$250-million is stated to be the equivelent of 34 million Galleons. That also works out to a value of £5 to the Galleon, at the exchange rate of the time. The price listed on the back of the books, however, is not correct, since US$3.99 would equal less than half a British pound, or 8 sickles and 15 knuts. The book instead incorrectly lists US$3.99 as being equal to 14 sickles and 3 knuts. (Unfortunately, CNN.com uses this incorrect value for their WEB LINKKnuts-to-dollars converter.)

coins image from film This gives us approximate values as follows:

1 bronze Knut = £0.01 (US about 2 cents)

1 silver Sickle = £0.29 (about US$0.57)

1 Galleon = £5.00 (more or less US$9.75)

These rates vary as the exchange rate fluctuates - see the Wizarding World Currency Converter for the current rate.

There is apparently some kind of foreign wizard money that consists of gold coins the size of hubcaps (if Mr. Roberts wasn't simply giving an exaggerated description of Galleons) (GF7).

While wizard money seems to be made from actual precious metals, it also seems to have some sort of magic in it which makes it lighter than normal. Harry handled a bag containing one thousand Galleons-- the prize money from the Triwizard Tournament--as if it were nothing, but a thousand coins made out of gold, even fairly small ones, would weigh a considerable amount indeed, far more than anyone would be able to toss around in a cloth bag. This magic is perhaps an effect similar to Wizard Space.

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/money.html

I suspect the goblin/currency gimmick is a nod to the legendary Gnomes of Zurich...

Gnomes of Zürich is a disparaging term for Swiss bankers. Swiss bankers are popularly associated with extremely secretive policies, while gnomes in fairy tales live underground, in secret, counting their riches. Zürich is the commercial center of Switzerland.

The term was coined by the British Labour Party politician Harold Wilson, then Shadow Chancellor, in 1956 when he accused Swiss bankers of pushing the pound down on the foreign exchange markets by speculation.

The relevant portion of Wilson's speech in the House of Commons ran as follows:

Traders and financiers all over the world had listened to the Chancellor. He had said that if he could not stop wage claims the country was facing disaster. Rightly or wrongly, these people believed the Chancellor. On September 5th, when the T.U.C. unanimously rejected wage restraint, it was the end of an era, and all the financiers, all the little gnomes in Zürich and other financial centres, had begun to make their dispensations in regard to sterling.

Wikipedia

Robert Lynn Asprin, a Libertarian-leaning science fiction writer best known for his humorous MythAdventures and Phule's Company series, made similar references to this term....



All I can add is: the magical folk should get down on their knees in gratitude that they don't have the 4 Stooges: Geithner, Bernanke, Summers and Rubin, in charge of their economics.

[Demeter]

61. Rowling evidently has since hired competent accounting assistance

as witness all the merchandising, including the Harry Potter
World in Orlando...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA0rtgPyPws&NR=1&feature=fvwp

no, I haven't gone, I have no need to go...

[Demeter]

59. Oilphant on Murdoch--An Instant Classic!

http://cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/d8f07c208e25012ee3c400163e41dd5b?width=750.0


Unless something both significant and startling appears, this is all I am going to post on the topic...

[Demeter]

73. FOUND SOMETHING: How Angry Moms Toppled the 'World'

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/10/how-parenting-website-mumsnet-brought-down-ruport-murdoch-s-news-of-the-world.html

Influential British parenting website Mumsnet was instrumental in bringing down scandal-ridden News of the World. Bill Coles reports from London on the remarkable grassroots campaign....It used to be that if a newspaper in Britain ran a scandalous front page, there was only one course of action to those who objected: bleat to the Press Complaints Commission—mostly to no avail. How times have changed.

Charging the bulwark of News of the World recently was an army of angry mums. True, it was Rupert Murdoch who shuttered the 168-year-old paper this weekend—a decision some described as a canny business move—after a series of damaging exposés, mostly by the newspaper The Guardian. But it was a group of articulate and dynamic mothers, members of the influential British site Mumsnet.com, who seized on the public outrage following revelations that people affiliated with News of the World had hacked into the phone of a murdered schoolgirl named Milly Dowler.... Twenty years ago, it was newspapers calling the tune—closing down companies and drumming politicians out of office. Now papers are unable to style themselves “the voice of the people” because if “the people” want to get heard, they go online—in the case of the phone-hacking scandal, hitting News of the World where it hurt: on the bottom line...Doubtless the Press Complaints Commission might, eventually, have weighed in. But with laserlike accuracy, Mumsnet went for the advertisers in a campaign to shame them away from News of the World. And the great slumbering beast of public indignation—dormant during the years when the phone-hacking scandal was confined to the world of celebrities—was finally aroused...Justine Roberts, cofounder of Mumsnet, told The Daily Beast:

“The hacking story had been rumbling along for a while and people hadn’t really engaged with it. On the whole it hadn’t really caught people’s interests, particularly because it was seen to be one media group against another.

“But the Milly Dowler episode put it into huge contrast. People were sickened. On Mumsnet, we have a number of parents who had suffered the loss of a child, and their stories put it all into stark relief. That lit the touch-paper.

“There were already campaigns going on Twitter and Facebook—a lot of other outlets. We just wanted to make the point that we found the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone really offensive and disgusting.

“But there was never any coordinated effort on our part. It was all down to individual users who came up with suggestions. Some of them were saying they were going to cancel their Sky subscriptions; others suggested we should go for the advertisers.

“But Mumsnet is believed to be so influential, and now it’s almost become self-fulfilling.”

Mumsnet currently has 1.6 million unique visitors a month...Mumsnet published a list of News of the World’s advertising clients, complete with email addresses, and encouraged people to voice their complaints directly. There were also links to prepared messages, which asked the companies to reconsider advertising with News of the World. One such message read: “Dear @The-Cooperative, will you be reconsidering your advertising spend with #notw given that we now know they hacked Milly Dowler’s phone?” ...Within hours the campaign went viral, with Mumsnet tweets being retweeted by the thousands, sending the #notw hashtag to the top of the U.K.’s trending topics. Advertisers, who after all make their living gauging the zeitgeist, were not slow in responding. The Ford Motor Company was among the first to pull its advertising, but other blue-chip companies soon followed, including the Lloyds Banking Group, Virgin Holidays, Coca-Cola, Vauxhall, and Renault, with some companies publishing unusually strongly worded statements of revulsion over what seemed to have been a regular practice at the paper. (Coca-Cola, for example, was “shocked.”)

The bringing down of Murdoch’s paper, it seems, had a lot in common with the Arab Spring. “The power of Mumsnet—and all big social-media groups—is that they allow people to collect and organize easily,” Roberts said. “People who care about something can easily start a thread on Mumsnet, and do it from the comfort of their own homes, on their laptop. They don’t have to attend rallies, they don’t have to go anywhere.” The Royal British Legion also weighed in, dropping News of the World as a campaigning partner after it was revealed the paper had hacked the phones of war widows. In just one day, the News of the World brand had become irredeemably toxic....When the paper’s editor, Colin Myler, announced its closure, he told listeners: “The Guardian were out to get us—and they got us.” And, yes, The Guardian deserves credit for relentlessly reporting on the story. But the angry mothers were pretty formidable, too.

[Demeter]

62. Elizabeth Warren Out as Possible Head of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

YVES SEEMS DEAD CERTAIN--BUT THE FAT LADY HASN'T SUNG, YET.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/elizabeth-warren-out-as-possible-head-of-consumer-financial-protection-bureau.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

We have said for some time Warren was not going to get head the new consumer financial protection agency. Obama was not willing to ruffle the banks, and Geithner, who is is most powerful Cabinet member, would not stand for it). Nevertheless, we are disappointed by this outcome. And it seems a bit churlish for this news to be leaked the day after she ran the gauntlet with the House Oversight Panel. From Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama has chosen a candidate other than Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The president’s choice is a person who already works at the consumer agency, the person said today. Obama may make the nomination as soon as next week, another person briefed on the administration’s plans said.

The choice is presumably Raj Date, a former McKinsey staffer and banking industry executive (Capital One and Deutsche Banka) whose name was floated a month ago.

But the Republicans nevertheless lost no opportunity to find opportunities to kick Warren. From FoxNews (hat tip reader Paul Tioxon). In a further sign of how petty and dysfunctional Washington has become, not only have the Republicans said they will approve no one for the CFPB post (and they’ve stymied the approval process for other important government posts) but they are denying pay to any recess appointees to key agencies.

The CFPB was not on the list, which seems curious given that Warren has been a focus of opposition, but given that the tone of the House Oversight Committee grilling of her yesterday was much more restrained than it was in May, perhaps they Republicans have concluded that they have won and too much zeal isn’t a plus (witness the backlash in his district against her chief tormenter, the Representative from Bank of America, Patrick McHenry):

The House on Friday approved an amendment to a 2012 energy and water spending bill that would cut off the salaries of recess appointees to several agencies…

The amendment prevents recess appointees at the Department of Energy, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management from getting paid. Landry suggested that if payments for recess appointees are suspended it would make the job less attractive to potential takers…

Obama has made 28 recess appointments during his presidency, but that is fewer than previous presidents. President Clinton made 139 recess appointments during his two terms while President George W. Bush made 171 in his first seven years

The article notes that this amendment has to go through a lot of hurdles to become law. But if it does, I assume that means anyone who’d be a recess appointment would have to be independently wealthy, which the Republicans no doubt assume means they’d be business friendly....Regardless, this illustrates the Republicans see the Senate approval process as not merely providing advice and consent but as yet another opportunity to drive their political agenda. And while the tension between the Congress and the Executive was designed into the process, differences of degree can and in this case do amount to differences in kind.

[hamerfan]

74. There truly is no hope.

We truly are frikkin' doomed!
They. Do. Not. Care.

[Demeter]

89. WELL, IT'S OFFICIAL: Cordray is Obama's choice to lead Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/07/17/cordray-picked-by-president.html?sid=101

Richard Cordray
Age: 52
Current role: Chief of Enforcement at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Experience: Ohio Attorney General, Jan. 2009 to Jan. 2011; Franklin County Treasurer, 2002-2006; adjunct professor, Ohio State University Coolege of Law, 1989-2002; state representative, 1991-1993; first solicitor general in Ohio's history, 1993-1994; sole practitioner Of Counsel, Kirkland & Ellis, 1995-2007

Other: Has argued seven cases before the United States Supreme Court, including by special appointment of both the Clinton and Bush Justice Departments. Cordray is a graduate of Michigan State University, Oxford University and the University of Chicago Law School. He was editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law School Review and later clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. In 2008, he received a Financial Services Champion award from the U.S. Small Business Administration and a Government Service Award from NeighborWorks America. In 2005, he was named "County Leader of the Year" by American City & County Magazine. In 1987, he was a five-time undefeated "Jeopardy" champ.

President Barack Obama will nominate former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head a powerful new consumer protection agency...At a White House event Monday, Obama will announce his choice of Cordray, 52, who is currently serving as director of enforcement for the new agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. By picking Cordray, Obama hopes to avoid a bruising Senate confirmation battle that would have occurred had he selected Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who came up with the idea and ultimately helped to set up the agency. "Richard Cordray has spent his career advocating for middle class families, from his tenure as Ohio's Attorney General, to his most recent role as heading up the enforcement division at the (bureau) and looking out for ordinary people in our financial system," Obama said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, called the selection of Cordray a "great move. There's no question of Rich's qualifications." He predicted the Senate will likely confirm Cordray for the post "unless they get to be hyper-partisan. My only fear is Republicans don't think we should have consumer protection rules." The Cordray selection places pressure on Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who has voiced objections about some of the powers of a new agency. Brown said, "I fully expect Rob Portman to support Rich Cordray."

Obama acknowledged Warren's leadership in a statement announcing Cordray's nomination, thanking Warren "not only for her extraordinary work standing up the new agency over the past year, but also for her many years of impassioned leadership, and her fierce defense of a simple idea: ordinary people deserve to be treated fairly and honestly in their financial dealings. "This agency was Elizabeth's idea, and through sheer force of will, intelligence, and a bottomless well of energy, she has made, and will continue to make, a profound and positive difference for our country," he said. Warren, who hand-picked Cordray to serve in the agency shortly after his loss in last November's elections, expressed support for his selection. "Rich has always had my strong support because he is tough and he is smart-and that's exactly the combination this new agency needs," she said. "He was one of the first senior leaders I recruited for the agency, and his work and commitment have made it clear that he will make a stellar director."


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

Cordray has been considered a leading contender for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2014. It is unclear whether his nomination to head the bureau will change his future political plans...

SURE--EAT THE SEED CORN, TAKE ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR OFF THE ROSTER AND STUFF HIM INTO A SHIT JOB THAT CONGRESS WILL BE DEFUNDING AT THE EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY...AND SPIT IN THE FACE OF ALL WOMEN AT THE SAME TIME. IT'S A TWO-FER!

[Demeter]

63. Investing in a world of austerity

WHAT IS AUSTERITY, FELLOW ECONOMISTS AND MARKETEERS?

WIKIPEDIA SAYS: In economics, austerity is a policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided. Austerity policies are often used by governments to reduce their deficit spending while sometimes coupled with increases in taxes to pay back creditors to reduce debt. "Austerity" was named the word of the year by Merriam-Webster in 2010.

DICTIONARY.COM SAYS:

aus·ter·i·ty –noun, plural -ties.

1. austere quality; severity of manner, life, etc.; sternness.
   
2. Usually, austerities. ascetic practices: austerities of monastery life.
   
3. strict economy.
   
   http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/07/investing-in-a-world-of-austerity.html
   
   If you are an investor, businessperson or employee, what you care about is outcomes. You want to know what’s likely to happen in the economy and in the markets. That is what this site is all about. Now obviously, I need to have a keen interest in knowing how policy affects outcomes to know what those outcomes are likely to be. So, in that vein, I present you my opinion on what should be done as well as my analysis as to what likely will be done. On the debt ceiling debate, what is clear to me is that fiscal consolidation has negative short-term consequences for the economy. So when I see US policy makers arguing over where to cut spending and by how much, I know this will be negative for economic growth...Now intellectually, you can make all sorts of arguments about the US’s being the sovereign issuer of currency or how the government is not like households or how we need to increase aggregate demand or how the government’s deficit is the non-government sector’s surplus. I certainly do. You can make these arguments until the cows come home. It’s not going to work.
   
   I’m just being realistic here. The reality is that people think more about charts and illustrations like this. And what they see is reckless and out of control spending that must be brought to heel. Now, as I mentioned in the deficit fatigue post, “that is certainly why I advised a more aggressive policy response early both on stimulus and recognition of bad debt. A more aggressive response on these two fronts would have dealt with both structural and cyclical causes of recession.” An aggressive response would have been much more effective in holding deficit fatigue at bay. But that is water under the bridge. We’re here now.
   
   What I see says that cuts are coming. What does that mean then for the economy and markets?
   
   
   
   • Economy: consumers are tapped out and have a debt overhang that is not being whittled away by housing gains or salary gains, where most people get their wealth and income. Were stimulus to recede that would mean an economy operating at stall speed below 2% growth, vulnerable to any exogenous shock.
     
     
   • Jobs: The business cycle works in a self-reinforcing way. Therefore, if stall speed were to mean recession, consumers would cut back, businesses would then shed workers, causing income to decline further, causing business to shed more workers. In recessions, this dynamic continues until inventories and bad debts are drawn down and government’s automatic stabilsers and a draw down of savings stabilise demand. A second dip would cause the unemployment rate to rise much higher than it is at present.
     
     
   • Banks: Another recession would have grave implications for the financial sector because that sector is carrying too many impaired assets at cost. In a downturn, regulatory forbearance cannot hide this as well. These bad debts are crystallized when debtors default. I do not believe extend and pretend in the form of soft-pedaling foreclosures will be effective in preventing a wave of credit writedowns. Because the debt overhang is so high and because consumers will be less creditworthy, credit conditions would reinforce the downward trend of jobs and output. This is negative for bank earnings, and the prospect of bank failures and a loss of capital in bank bonds or bank stocks would increase significantly.
     
     
   • Stocks: margins and earnings are cyclically high. To my mind that means stock prices would be doubly compressed by a downturn, as P/E ratios drop along with consensus baseline earnings estimates; a downturn would confirm that we are in a period of declining price earnings ratios. This is how all secular bull and bear markets work. The swings are due predominately to changes in price-earnings ratios with decade long swings. Higher dividend-paying, less cyclical, lower-beta stocks outperform in that environment.
     
     
   • Bonds: In a downturn, demand would drop, which is bond-friendly due to inflation and interest rate expectations. That is bullish for Treasuries (unless they lose risk-free appeal due to default risk). Corporate bond spreads would widen because of credit and default risk. High yield, therefore, would underperform the most. Municipals would be cash-strapped and suffer a huge wave of defaults that could invite Fed purchases to alleviate liquidity concerns. Clearly, an aggressive policy response might change inflation expectations and cause the outlook to change for treasuries. However, if a downturn began sometime in 2012, I would expect low and declining yields until the policy response had any inflationary impact. Remember, reflation would be a global phenomenon so the US would not be the only country trying to reflate its economy and asset prices.
   
   
   If we see a significant reduction in policy stimulus in the US, along with Europe and China, I anticipate we will see the next downturn by 2012 or 2013 at the latest. Again, this is my baseline case. As I said in March 2008 when the credit crisis was raging, “I expect the likely outcome for the next decade is one of sub-par global growth with short business cycles punctuated by fits of recession”...On the other hand, austerity-light would be my preferred outcome (more stimulus is not a likely outcome; I assign this lower odds, which makes sense given how the debt ceiling debates have developed). Austerity-light could produce a muddle through scenario, which I am hoping for. That is much more benign for jobs, banks, stocks, and corporate bonds and less benign for Treasuries.

[kickysnana]

85. I am thinking of the pig farm in O Brother or this

[burf]

98. Every time I see that picture

it reminds me of my late grandmother. I used to have the honor of driving about 100 miles to pick her up for various family get togethers. We talked alot during those drives.

She told of the "hard times" and how things were then. I guess the most telling of her stories was when she woke up each morning and said a prayer. It was " Dear God, how am I going to feed my children today".

[Demeter]

65. The new "Let them eat cake!" By David Sirota

http://www.salon.com/news/david_sirota/2011/07/13/great_recession_elitism_slideshow

10 shocking, illuminating moments that prove just how out of touch the powerful really are

In the midst of this prole-crushing economic emergency engineered by wealthy speculators and their political puppets, we now find ourselves watching those same modern-day Marie Antoinettes at once celebrating their station and begging for sympathy as if they were the real casualties of the decade-long economic slowdown they created.

There was, for instance, Lebron James' parade of free-agent narcissism in the shadow of an economically destroyed Cleveland -- and then there was one of the architects of that economic apocalypse, Cavaliers owner and Quicken Loans CEO Dan Gilbert, pretending that the move of a single basketball player to Miami was the root of Cleveland's problems, and not the subprime bomb Gilbert himself had dropped on the city.

There was historian Doris Kearns Goodwin suggesting those politicians who followed Wall Street and voted for the bank bailouts exemplified the same heroism as those who fought for the passage of the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.

And, more recently, there was that searing image of President Obama convening a $35,800-a-plate Upper East Side dinner with "a committee of bankers, private equity executives and hedge fund managers" as the economy burns.

But appalling as those examples are, they pale in comparison to the recession's 10 most egregious sets of "Let Them Eat Cake" moments, comments and actions. These are the ones that truly deserve a place in the history books...SEE SLIDESHOW AT LINK

[bread_and_roses]

78. Fantastic article. (n/t)

[Demeter]

66. Regulators Are Said to Weigh Softer Derivatives Rules

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FIX IS IN

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/regulators-weigh-softer-derivatives-rules/?ref=business

Federal regulators are considering backing off a plan to curb Wall Street’s control over the derivatives market, another potential win for the big banks...Last fall, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed rules that would prevent a bank or financial firm from controlling more than 20 percent of any one derivatives exchange or trading facility. Now, regulators are discussing lowering the cap, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The rule, stemming from the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul, was aimed at tearing down monopolies in the $600 trillion market, which played a central role in the financial crisis. But as DealBook reported on Thursday, Wall Street has since begun a fierce behind-the-scenes effort to delay or water down many of the regulatory changes passed by Congress in the aftermath of the crisis. Regulators recently agreed to put off the derivatives rules for up to six months. The commodities agency has held nearly 50 private meetings on the monopoly issue alone, hosting Wall Street titans like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. A group of regulators also traveled to New York this spring to tour some derivatives exchanges.

Afterward, regulators began reconsidering their proposal to cap bank ownership at 20 percent, according to one agency official. The regulators worried that, without financial support from banks, exchanges could fold, this person said....As The New York Times reported late last year, the Justice Department has been investigating possible anticompetitive practices in the derivatives industry:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/business/12advantage.html?_r=2

A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives

On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential. Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk.

In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks. The banks in this group, which is affiliated with a new derivatives clearinghouse, have fought to block other banks from entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and fees freely available. Banks’ influence over this market, and over clearinghouses like the one this select group advises, has costly implications for businesses large and small, like Dan Singer’s home heating-oil company in Westchester County, north of New York City.

This fall, many of Mr. Singer’s customers purchased fixed-rate plans to lock in winter heating oil at around $3 a gallon. While that price was above the prevailing $2.80 a gallon then, the contracts will protect homeowners if bitterly cold weather pushes the price higher. But Mr. Singer wonders if his company, Robison Oil, should be getting a better deal. He uses derivatives like swaps and options to create his fixed plans. But he has no idea how much lower his prices — and his customers’ prices — could be, he says, because banks don’t disclose fees associated with the derivatives. “At the end of the day, I don’t know if I got a fair price, or what they’re charging me,” Mr. Singer said.

Derivatives shift risk from one party to another, and they offer many benefits, like enabling Mr. Singer to sell his fixed plans without having to bear all the risk that oil prices could suddenly rise. Derivatives are also big business on Wall Street. Banks collect many billions of dollars annually in undisclosed fees associated with these instruments — an amount that almost certainly would be lower if there were more competition and transparent prices. Just how much derivatives trading costs ordinary Americans is uncertain. The size and reach of this market has grown rapidly over the past two decades. Pension funds today use derivatives to hedge investments. States and cities use them to try to hold down borrowing costs. Airlines use them to secure steady fuel prices. Food companies use them to lock in prices of commodities like wheat or beef. The marketplace as it functions now “adds up to higher costs to all Americans,” said Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates most derivatives. More oversight of the banks in this market is needed, he said. But big banks influence the rules governing derivatives through a variety of industry groups. The banks’ latest point of influence are clearinghouses like ICE Trust, which holds the monthly meetings with the nine bankers in New York...

MUCH MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

67. As a Watchdog Starves, Wall Street Is Tossed a Bone

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/business/budget-cuts-to-sec-reduce-its-effectiveness.html?_r=2&ref=business

The economy is still suffering from the worst financial crisis since the Depression, and widespread anger persists that financial institutions that caused it received bailouts of billions of taxpayer dollars and haven’t been held accountable for any wrongdoing. Yet the House Appropriations Committee has responded by starving the agency responsible for bringing financial wrongdoers to justice — while putting over $200 million that could otherwise have been spent on investigations and enforcement actions back into the pockets of Wall Street.

A few weeks ago, the Republican-controlled appropriations committee cut the Securities and Exchange Commission’s fiscal 2012 budget request by $222.5 million, to $1.19 billion (the same as this year’s), even though the S.E.C.’s responsibilities were vastly expanded under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Charged with protecting investors and policing markets, the S.E.C. is the nation’s front-line defense against financial fraud. The committee’s accompanying report referred to the agency’s “troubled past” and “lack of ability to manage funds,” and said the committee “remains concerned with the S.E.C.’s track record in dealing with Ponzi schemes.” The report stressed, “With the federal debt exceeding $14 trillion, the committee is committed to reducing the cost and size of government.” But cutting the S.E.C.’s budget will have no effect on the budget deficit, won’t save taxpayers a dime and could cost the Treasury millions in lost fees and penalties. That’s because the S.E.C. isn’t financed by tax revenue, but rather by fees levied on those it regulates, which include all the big securities firms...A little-noticed provision in Dodd-Frank mandates that those fees can’t exceed the S.E.C.’s budget. So cutting its requested budget by $222.5 million saves Wall Street the same amount, and means regulated firms will pay $136 million less in fiscal 2012 than they did the previous year, the S.E.C. projects.

Moreover, enforcement actions generate billions of dollars in revenue in the form of fines, disgorgements and other penalties. Last year the S.E.C. turned over $2.2 billion to victims of financial wrongdoing and paid hundreds of millions more to the Treasury, helping to reduce the deficit...But the S.E.C. has become a favorite whipping boy of those hostile to market reforms. Admittedly the agency has given them plenty of fodder: revelations that a few staff members were looking at pornography on their office computers; a questionable $557 million lease for new office space, subsequently unwound; and the agency’s notorious failure to catch Bernard Madoff. Nonetheless, in the wake of the recent Ponzi schemes, evidence of growing insider-trading rings involving the Galleon Group and others, potential market manipulation in the still-mystifying flash crash, not to mention myriad unanswered questions about wrongdoing during the financial crisis, the need for vigorous securities law enforcement seems both self-evident and compelling...

[Tansy_Gold]

90. Wall Street has NOT been tossed a bone

They've been served a whole side of beef on a platinum platter.


Fuck 'em all. Fuck 'em all.




TG, TT

[Demeter]

99. Second that

Although they're probably going to do it themselves...and royally. This is so exciting, waiting for the shoe to drop...or not.

[Demeter]

68. Food and Water

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2011/07/food-and-water.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EconomistsView+%28Economist%27s+View+%28EconomistsView%29%29

It seems likely enough that one of the largest global security issues in the next fifty years will be food and water. There is a brewing food crisis underway already, with prices for staple grains rising world wide, and poor countries are beginning to experience the consequences. But a crisis in fresh water seems not too far in the future as well. Both these necessities depend on inherently scarce resources: arable land and large sources of fresh water. Along with energy, these goods are crucial to every person and every country in the world; and this in turn suggests the possibility of serious conflict over these resources in the future.

So what makes food and water a global security crisis? How does the possibility of dearth at the family level get transformed into the possibility of international conflict? Rising food prices create social unrest at the national level long before they lead to famine or malnutrition. International grain markets have been unstable over the past decade, with periodic upward spikes in prices. And grain riots have occurred as a consequence in a number of developing countries. This piece from DemocracyNow from 2008 documents demonstrations and riots across a range of African countries, with an interview with Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Here are some updates from the Christian Science Monitor (link) and Energy Bulletin (link), including riots in Algeria in 2011. The bottom line of several of these reports is fairly simple: the international trade system for grains, including especially rice and wheat, periodically undergoes abrupt and prolonged price rises, and these price increases have dire consequences for urban poor and middle class people in the developing world. When a large population mobilizes in protest against rising food prices, national governments are at risk. And this is where the security risk comes in: when countries like Algeria or Morocco suffer serious instability, this has the potential of leading to international instability in the region as well.

Here is another, more distant cause of international tension that comes from the food crisis. Governments are interested in taking steps to provide greater food security for their own populations. And this sometimes involves taking actions that are harmful to other countries or to other populations. One symptom of the pressures mounting on the world food system is a widespread land grab of agricultural land around the developing world. Here is a report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on this issue and a piece from the Guardian that describes the situation a few years ago. The FAO report documents a significant transfer of land ownership from developing countries to middle and upper income countries; this implies serious future constraints on the development possibilities available to those countries. And it suggests a new form of colonialism -- not direct governance, but substantial absentee ownership. This too has the potential for stimulating international conflict.

So what about water? Here is a recent report by the Council for Foreign Relations on the interconnected consequences of fresh water shortages in different parts of the world. In this piece the effects of China's water crisis are traced internationally. Here is an inventory of resources by GlobalPolicy on international conflicts over water; it is a long list of potential conflicts...MORE

[Demeter]

69. Airport Body Scanners Were Improperly Adopted by U.S., Appeals Court Rules

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-15/airport-body-scanners-were-improperly-adopted-by-u-s-appeals-court-rules.html

Airport body scanners that create unclothed images of passengers were improperly adopted by the U.S. as a primary screening tool, a federal appeals court ruled, while allowing their use to continue. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FIX IS STILL IN.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration should have sought public comment before deciding that the scanners, first deployed in 2007, would be used “everywhere for primary screening,” U.S. Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg in Washington wrote for a three-judge panel in the decision issued today...The devices were developed at the direction of Congress, which in 2004 ordered the TSA to give “high priority” to finding new technology for airport screening that could detect chemical, biological and radiological weapons. Privacy advocates objected to the scanners as excessively intrusive and said the TSA failed to follow correct procedure in implementing their widespread use. “Due to the obvious need for the TSA to continue its airport security operations without interruption, we remand the rule to the TSA but do not vacate it,” Ginsburg wrote. The court said that passengers who don’t want a body scan will receive a “patdown” from security agents...

WHAT CANNOT CONTINUE WILL CONTINUE A BIT LONGER...

[Demeter]

70. VIDEO SHOP

Banks Refusing a "Haircut" Behind EU Financial Crisis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY804cUJ_2g&feature=player_embedded#at=20

The Euro Crisis Song (I THINK IT'S CALLED "FUNK" OR MAYBE IT'S DISCO...IT ISN'T G&S!)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/video/2011/jul/14/euro-crisis-song-video

[Demeter]

71. Marshall Auerback: Barack Obama – The Nation’s First Tea Party President

IT MAKES A SICK KIND OF SENSE, REALLY...OBAMA'S FOUND HIS REAL BASE...HIS HOMEBOYS

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/marshall-auerback-barack-obama-the-nations-first-tea-party-president.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

For all its talk of the importance of averting a debt default, Barack Obama is increasingly signaling that major deficit reduction has become more than just a bargaining chip to bring Republicans aboard a debt deal. He actually believes that cutting entitlements and reducing the deficit are laudable goals, which would mark “transformational” moments in his Presidency. Let’s face it: the man is not a progressive in any sense of the word; he’s a Tea Party President through and through...To be sure, it’s tough to make the case that the Tea Party has anything like a genuinely coherent political platform. They hate entitlements, but one of their leading voices in the Senate, Rand Paul, conspicuously avoided any talk of cutting Medicare during his campaign (unsurprising, given how much of his income as an ophthalmologist involved treating Medicare patients). You have Presidential candidate, Michelle Bachmann, pledging never to raise the debt ceiling, yet proposing to slash the federal corporate income tax and eliminate the capital gains and estate taxes.

But for the most part, all share a visceral dislike of “excessive” government spending, buy into the notion that the federal debt levels are “unsustainable” and that entitlements, really need to be “reformed” (i.e. cut back). In that regard, their aspirations appear to have more in common with the President, than their ostensible GOP allies, one of whom, Senator Mitch McConnell, has proposed giving President Obama the power to raise the debt limit on his own through the end of his first term, but to force Democrats to take a series of votes on the debt limit in the months leading up to the election. This would stave off the threat of defaulting on national obligations, but would force the President to be responsible for all subsequent spending cuts and/or tax increases.

On the surface, this would seem to be a great deal for President Obama. He could in theory simply take up Senator McConnell’s offer, raise the debt ceiling and avoid the self-inflicted insanity of draining $4 trillion of aggregate demand from an economy still reeling from massive underemployment and wasted resources. Or the President could, as we and others have suggested in the past), simply invoke the 14th amendment and refuse to enforce a statute that he believes violates the Constitution...Professor Scott Fullwiler has suggested an even more creative way around the debt ceiling: Fullwiler notes that Fed is the monopoly supplier of reserve balances, but that the US Constitution bestows upon the US Treasury the authority to mint coins (particularly platinum coins). Future deficit spending by the federal government could thereby continue to be carried out by minting coins and depositing them in the Treasury’s account at the Fed (for more details see here).

Curiously, the President won’t pursue any of these options. Why?

If, for example, the President genuinely believes that the 14th Amendment does not give him the right to ignore the debt ceiling, he has been loath to give any reasoning for this publicly. He is, after all, a constitutional law professor. Much like the single payer option in health, the President refuses to even put it on the table, even as a negotiating posture. Is it caution, or does the President genuinely believe this guff about the deficit? By the same token, the President might well dismiss Professor Fullwiler’s idea as nothing more than a “gimmick”. But if the alternative is the economic apocalypse regularly described by Treasury Secretary Geithner, then why not deploy this “gimmick” if the alternative is (in the words of Mr Geithner), “catastrophic damage across the American economy and across the global economy”?

As Bill Mitchell has pointed out:

The whole edifice surrounding government spending and bond-issuance is also ‘just an accounting gimmick’. The mainstream make much of what they call the government budget constraint as if it is an a priori financial constraint when in fact it is just an accounting statement of the monetary operations surrounding government spending and taxation and debt-issuance.

There are political gimmicks too that lead to the US government issuing debt to match their net public spending. These just hide the fact that in terms of the intrinsic characteristics of the monetary system the US government is never revenue constrained because it is the monopoly issuer of the currency. Which makes the whole debt ceiling debate a political and accounting gimmick.

MUCH MUCH MORE----TODAY'S MUST READ!

[xchrom]

79. +1

[Demeter]

72. On Early Retirement

http://helaineolen.com/2011/07/14/on-early-retirement/

This week, AARP released a Social Security calculator, designed to demonstrate to the bevy of 50 and 60 somethings out there on the verge of retirement, that it is better to wait till age 66 to file for benefits, instead of taking a reduced monthly stipend at age 62. This, of course, assumes there is a large group of people out there, who would otherwise work till age 65 or 67, but are simply lazy and waiting to take their Social Security benefits so they can put a bumper sticker on their car proclaiming “I’m Spending my Children’s Inheritance,” move to Leisure World and enjoy the senior vida loca.

This is a wrong assumption.

I’ve spent the past several weeks speaking with several of my former Los Angeles Times Money Makeover subjects for my book on the post-2008 world of personal finance. Many are now in their fifties and sixties, and several have indicated to me that they plan to take Social Security at ages that AARP would no doubt deem less than optimum...They are not slackers. They are people who, rather, are suffering from the vicissitudes of life in 2011. If they are unemployed, they are much less likely to find work than people younger than themselves. Others fear they won’t be able to keep up much longer. As economists know, our nation’s productivity gains have been made by longer hours – men in professional and managerial jobs often put in 50-hour workweeks. Contrary to the wishes of desk jockeys in Washington, DC, there really aren’t that many people in there sixties capable of putting in punishing hours on the job. Yes, we are living longer, but it isn’t clear we are living healthier. Sixty ain’t the new 40 or even the new 50, and no amount of wishing is going to make it so.

My Makeover people run the gamut. One told me he was concerned he would not be able to perform his job safely in another year or two. Another told me she wasn’t sure she could put in the hours much longer – and, even if she could, felt that technological changes in her industry might render her job non-essential in the near future. A third, who had continued to teach infant education classes on a part time basis into her seventies, finally had to stop when she physically could no longer pick up the children’s toys. Still others are part of that 50something cohort who simply can’t get hired to anything but the most piecemeal of piecemeal work. And, finally, another group finds themselves losing hours of work caring for sick parents or spouses, an increasing problem according to, yes, AARP, which is releasing a report Monday on the subject.

In other words, I doubt a Social Security calculator is going to do much for the vast majority of people who take their benefits before turning 66 except dump a heap of guilt on them for doing what they will really have no choice about doing. And that’s filing for Social Security before they turn 66.

[DemReadingDU]

76. Spouse and I both decided to take reduced SS at 62

We thought if we waited until 66, the rules might be changed and we might not receive any SS. So we thought if we received some SS benefits at 62, the gov might be less likely to eliminate our benefits if we were already receiving SS. But it's looking increasingly that the gov could reduce what we are receiving in reduced benefits.

[Fuddnik]

91. My wife gets her first check in August.

She technically started collecting at 62 in January, but she's continuing to work, mainly so we have some health insurance.

The way it works, you can earn a little over 13,000 and not have your benefits reduced. They based her projected earnings for this year on last years. Then instead of paying back the $1 for every $2 earned over the limit, they withheld the first seven checks, and she'll get the full benefit amount for the rest of the year.

And AARP is just another insurance broker. I'd take a lot of what they say with a bag of salt. Every knowledgeable person I've ever talked to says to take it the minute you're eligible. You'll come out ahead.

[hamerfan]

75. T. J. had it right

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

[xchrom]

80. looky here: Societe Generale, UBS Recommend Buying Protection Against Breakup of Euro

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-15/socgen-ubs-say-buy-protection-against-euro-breakup-scenario.html

Societe Generale SA recommended buying insurance against a euro “meltdown,” and UBS AG said the Danish krone may offer protection as Europe’s debt crisis threatens to deteriorate.

“It is not too late to get hedges,” SocGen strategists David Deddouche and Olivier Korber wrote in an investor report dated yesterday. “We simply cannot rule out entirely a further dramatic collapse” of the euro against the dollar, and a rebound in the 17-nation currency to above $1.40 “provides a fresh opportunity to hedge against such an event through tail options,” they said.

UBS currency strategist Chris Walker said “a significant escalation in the euro-zone debt crisis, to the extent the existence of the euro is itself threatened, could lead to the abandonment” of Denmark’s currency peg to the euro. Though this would cause short-term volatility, longer term the krone would likely appreciate against other Scandinavian currencies and the euro, he wrote.

[Demeter]

82. tick...tick..tick...

add a few more derivatives to the bomb pile, what difference will it make?

[Demeter]

81. CRANK CALL: CALLING ALL CRANKS

An 'interesting' letter in the Australian Shooter Magazine:

"If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the
Iraq Theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112
deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington, DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same
period.

That means you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the US
capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the U.S., than
you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington.

NOT SO FUNNY FACT: IT ALREADY HAS....

[Demeter]

83. Guess what I found (stole) from kpete!

In my opinion, Obama should be cast as Peter Pettigrew, the false friend who turns into a rat at will...

The Tea Party are Dementors, sucking all the joy out of the world. The Corporate World are the Death Eaters, and as for Voldemort...we don't know if there is one central bad guy, nor what his name is...but I expect his Horcruxes are stored in the bodies of the top banksters...


(Oooh, I am so bad, today! Don't piss me off.)

[xchrom]

86. Fabulous! nt

[xchrom]

87. Rehn backs Irish bailout rate cut

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0717/breaking1.html

EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn has called for the interest rate on Ireland's bailout package loans to be lowered.

Mr Rehn said the State's rescue loans should be made more flexible to help Ireland recover faster from its crisis and ensure its return to debt markets.

"Ireland provides hard evidence that the EU-IMF conditional financial support approach is working," Mr Rehn said in an article published in the Sunday Business Post newspaper.

"The efforts should be encouraged by lengthening the maturities of the loans and lowering the interest rates," the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner said.

[Demeter]

88. It's too hot. I'm going to go swim, eat lunch and see a flick.

which one should I go see....?

[Fuddnik]

92. Has Sarah Palins story hit town yet?

[Demeter]

94. In the People's Public of Ann Arbor? I Don't Think So

Grand Rapids probably has it, though. That's Amway country.

[hamerfan]

93. Horrible Bosses

I've heard good things:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1499658/

[Demeter]

95. Only someone who hasn't actually had a horrible boss could find that concept appealing

[Demeter]

96. Well, We TRIED to See Harry Potter

It was sold out until 10 PM. I got tickets for Thursday, when I think I have some free time...

[Demeter]

97. Lethargy Is Taking Over

Although there is no lack of news, I can't be bothered. Sorry, guys. Even chocolate isn't doing it.

I really wanted a Potter fix...guess there's still time to finish rereading the last book.