Weekend Economists: What Goes Up....June 1-3, 2012

[Demeter]

What goes up for no discernible reason, that is....

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.....and on Wall Street. I think perhaps banksters are too shell-shocked to complain out loud in the press. Visions of torches and pitchforks make for poor sleeping and waking.

But that's stuff for the weekday world. This is the weekend, a time to kick off shoes and explore.

Today we are exploring Blood, Sweat & Tears, a jazz/rock band that I never knew was behind so much of the music I listened to in the past 40 years....Thank you, Po, for forcing me to fill in the gaps in my education! I actually have heard them before and liked them. Now I can put a name to the music.

"Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T&quot is an American music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City. Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles. What the band is most known for, from its start, is the fusing of rock, blues, pop music, horn arrangements and jazz improvisation into a hybrid that came to be known as "jazz-rock". Unlike "jazz fusion" bands, which tend toward virtuostic displays of instrumental facility and some experimentation with electric instruments, the songs of Blood, Sweat & Tears merged the stylings of rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band, while also adding elements of 20th Century Classical and small combo jazz traditions...

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Origin New York City, New York, United States
Genres Pop rock, jazz rock, psychedelic rock
Years active 1967–1981, 1984–present
Labels Columbia, ABC, Rhino, Sony, Mobile Fidelity, Wounded Bird

Associated acts Spinning Wheel


Roster of member musicians:

Al Kooper : keyboards, vocals (1967–1968)
Randy Brecker : trumpet, flugelhorn (1967–1968)
Jerry Weiss : trumpet, flugelhorn, backing vocals (1967–1968)
Fred Lipsius : alto sax, keyboards (1967–1972)
Dick Halligan : keyboards, trombone, horns, flute, backing vocals (1967–1972)
Steve Katz : guitar, harmonica, lute, mandolin, vocals (1967–1973, and as a special guest at some shows 2008–2010)
Jim Fielder : bass, guitar, backing vocals (1967–1974)
Bobby Colomby : drums, percussion, backing vocals (1967–1977)
David Clayton-Thomas : vocals, guitar (1968–1972, 1974–1981, 1984–2004)
Lew Soloff : trumpet, flugelhorn (1968–1974)
Chuck Winfield : trumpet, flugelhorn, backing vocals (1968–1973)
Jerry Hyman : trombones, recorder (1968–1970)
Dave Bargeron : trombone, tuba, horns, bass, backing vocals (1970–1978)
Bobby Doyle : vocals, piano (1972)
Joe Henderson : tenor sax (1972)
Lou Marini Jr. : tenor & soprano sax, flute (1972–1974)
Larry Willis : keyboards (1972–1978)
Georg Wadenius : guitar, vocals (1972–1975)
Jerry Fisher : vocals (1972–1974)
Tom Malone : trombone, trumpet, flugelhorn, alto sax, bass (1973)
John Madrid: trumpet, flugelhorn (1973-1974)
Jerry LaCroix : vocals, alto sax, flute, harmonica (1974)
Ron McClure : bass (1974–1975, 1976)
Tony Klatka : trumpet, horns (1974–1978)
Bill Tillman : alto sax, flute, clarinet, backing vocals (1974–1977)
Luther Kent : vocals (1974)
Joe Giorgianni : trumpet, flugelhorn (1974–1975)
Jaco Pastorius : bass (1975–1976)
Steve Khan : guitar (1975)
Mike Stern : guitar (1975–1977)
Keith Jones : bass (1976)
Danny Trifan : bass (1976–1977)
Forrest Buchtell : trumpet (1975–1977)
Don Alias : percussion (1975–1976)
Roy McCurdy : drums (1976–1977)
Jeff Richman : guitar (1976 fill in for Stern)
Randy Bernsen : guitar (1977-1978)
Barry Finnerty : guitar (1977)
Neil Stubenhaus : bass (1977–1978)
Gregory Herbert : saxophone (1977–1978)
Michael Lawrence : trumpet (1977)
Chris Albert : trumpet (1977–1978)
Bobby Economou : drums (1977–1978, 1979–1981, 1994–1995)
Kenny Marco : guitar (1979)
David Piltch : bass (1979–1980)
Joe Sealy : keyboards (1979)
Bruce Cassidy : trumpet, flugelhorn (1979–1980)
Earl Seymour : sax, flute (1979–1981)
Steve Kennedy : sax, flute (1979)
Sally Chappis : drums (1979)
Harvey Kogan : sax, flute (1979)
Jack Scarangella : drums (1979)
Vernon Dorge : sax, flute, vuvuzela (1979–1981)
Robert Piltch : guitar (1979–1980)
Richard Martinez : keyboards (1979–1980)
Wayne Pedzwiatr : bass (1980–1981)
Peter Harris : guitar (1980–1981)
Lou Pomanti : keyboards (1980–1981)
Mic Gillette : trumpet (1980–1981)
James Kidwell : guitar (1984-1985)
Jeff Andrews : bass (1984-1985)
Taras Kovayl : keyboards (1984-1985)
Tim Ouimette : trumpet, horns (1984-1985)
Mario Cruz : sax, flute (1984-1985)
Ricky Sebastian : drums (1984-1985)
Steve Guttman : trumpet (1985–2005)
Dave Gellis : guitar (1985–1990, 1996, fill in - 1998, 2005– )
Ray Peterson : bass (1985–1986)
Scott Kreitzer : sax, flute (1985–1986)
Teddy Mulet : trombone (1985–1986), trumpet (2005– )
Barry Danielian : trumpet (1985–1986)
Richard Sussman : keyboards (1985–1987)
Randy Andos : trombone (1986)
Tom Timko : sax, flute (1986–1987, 1995, 1998–2001, 2005–2008, 2009–2010)
Tom DeFaria : drums (1985–1986)
John Conte : bass (1986–1987)
Steve Conte : guitar (fill in - 1986)
Jeff Gellis : bass (1987–1990)
Dave Panichi : trombone (1987–1988, 1997–1998)
Glenn McClelland : keyboards (1987–1993, 1998, 2005–)
David Riekenberg : sax, flute (1987–1990, 1995–1998)
Jerry Sokolov : trumpet (1987–1994)
Graham Hawthorne : drums (1987–1988, 1989–1991)
Van Romaine : drums (1988–1989)
Neil Capolongo : drums (1991–1993)
Peter Abbott : drums (fill in - early 1990s)
Charley Gordon : trombone (1987–1994, 2001)
Wayne Schuster : sax, flute (1990–1991)
Larry DeBari : guitar, vocals (1990–1997)
Gary Foote : bass (1990–1994, 1996–2004, 2005– )
Jack Bashcow : sax, flute (1992)
Tim Ries : sax, flute (1992–1993, 1993–1995)
Charlie Cole : sax, flute (1993)
Matt King : keyboards (1994–1998)
Mike Mancini : keyboards (fill in - '80s/'90s)
Franck Amsallem : keyboards (fill in - mid '90s)
Henry Hey : keyboards (fill in - mid '90s)
Ted Kooshian : keyboards (fill in - mid '90s)
Cliff Korman: keyboards (fill in - mid '90s)
Mike DuClos : bass (1994–1996)
James "Hambone" Hamlin : bass (fill in - 1995)
Jonathan Peretz : drums (1995–1997)
Craig Johnson : trumpet (1994–1998)
Matt Milmerstadt : drums (1995, 1998)
Tom Guarna : guitar (1997–1998)
Jon Owens : trumpet (1998–2000)
Charles Pillow : sax, flute (fill in - 1998)
Brian Delaney : drums (1997-1998, 2001)
Dave Stahl : trumpet (fill in - 1995–1999)
Winston Byrd : trumpet (fill in - 1998)
Dave Pietro : sax, flute (fill in - 1998)
Dale Kirkland : trombone (1995–1996, 1998, 1999–2001, 2002–2006)
Pat Hallaran : trombone (1998–1999)
James Fox : guitar (1998–2000)
Dan Zank : keyboards (1998–2000)
Zach Danziger : drums (1998–2001)
Joe Mosello : trumpet (2000–2002)
Gil Parris : guitar (2000)
Gregg Sullivan : guitar (2000–2004)
Phil Magallanes : keyboards (2000–2001)
Andrea Valentini : drums (2001– )
Darcy Hepner : sax, flute (1999 fill in, 2001–2004)
John Samorian : keyboards (2001–2003)
Nick Marchione : trumpet (2002–2004)
Eric Cortright : keyboards (2003–2004)
Leo Huppert : bass (2004)
Steve Jankowski : trumpet (2005– )
Rob Paparozzi : vocals, harmonica (2005–2011)
Scottie Wallace: vocals (alternating with Rob P. - 2005-2006)
Thomas Conner : vocals (fill in - 2006 & 2007, 2012- )
Tommy Mitchell : vocals (Asian tour 2007)
Jens Wendelboe : trombone (2006– )
Chris Tedesco : trumpet (fill in for Mulet - 2006–2007)
Brian Steel : trumpet (fill in for Mulet - 2008)
Bill Churchville : sax (fill in for Timko - 2008)
Ken Gioffre : sax (2010- )
Jon Pruitt : keyboards (fill in for McClelland - 2010)
Ralph Bowen : sax (fill in for Gioffre - 2011)
Dave Anderson : bass (fill in for Foote - 2011)
Jason Paige : vocals (2011-2012)
Bernard Purdie : drums (fill-in for Valentini - Summer 2011)

(Roster provided by Jim Mullen)

Current roster

Jason Paige : vocals
Dave Gellis : guitar
Glenn McClelland : keyboards
Gary Foote : bass
Andrea Valentini : drums
Teddy Mulet : trumpet
Steve Jankowski : trumpet
Jens Wendelboe : trombone
Ken Gioffre : saxophone

If you haven't played with BS&T, you haven't played! Rather like SMW or WEE, actually.

For a continuous 53 number play loop:

&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9BuDK0wXiZP3AiPO19upJod

EVIDENTLY SOMEBODY SPIKED THIS PLAYLIST, SO PLEASE POST YOUR FAVORITES IN THE THREAD....

[girl gone mad]

1. Where have all the 13,000ers gone?

Live by the sword... die by the sword, I guess.

[Po_d Mainiac]

20. or

Play with FIRE, expect to get burned.

That group is looking like a stampede in full retreat.

[Demeter]

2. So far, No Banks Have Been Closed by the FDIC

And I can't say as I blame them. I bet that DC is walking on eggshells these days.

[Warpy]

3. I remember them fondly. Lighting their shows

required both earplugs and sound isolation headsets, but what a show they put on!

In the short term, of course, real life blood sweat and tears will be for naught. We're all stuck playing the endgame of theories those of us on the grumbling left said were a bad idea 40 years ago when the GOP wholly converted to Goldwater's way of thinking and the appalling Milton Friedman won a Nobel. I always thought he won it for the density of his prose rather than the soundness of his ideas and the 40 years of monetarist economic theory in practice have proven me and the rest of the grumbling left correct.

While I'd love to see that particular pendulum shoved back to the left in my lifetime, I'm resigned to the probability that I won't. In the meantime, I do have the satisfaction of telling people they got exactly what they voted for unless they're also on the grumbling left.

[Demeter]

4. Unpaid Overtime: Wage And Hour Lawsuits Have Skyrocketed In The Last Decade

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/30/wage-hour-lawsuits_n_1556484.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Do American companies have a problem with paying their employees? A growing number of workers seem to think so. Collective action lawsuits alleging wage and hour violations have risen 400 percent in the last 11 years, according to a recent post at CNNMoney. In 2011, there were more than 7,000 such lawsuits filed in federal court -- a huge increase since the turn of the century. These lawuits involve workers who claim they didn't get paid the full amount for all the hours they worked -- either because they were improperly listed as ineligible for overtime, or because they simply never got the money for the work they put in. Claims of this kind have become incredibly pervasive in recent years. Lawyers cited in a 2007 Bloomberg story on wage and hour lawsuits estimated that companies may be paying out more than a billion dollars a year to resolve these cases.

It's hard to think of a major company that hasn't had at least one wage and hour suit brought against it lately. In early May, to name one recent example, Taco Bell was hit with a lawsuit alleging that employees were often forced to work unpaid hours -- just the latest in a series of similar accusations the chain has faced. Other companies whose workers have accused them of denying proper pay include Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Bank of America, Oracle, IBM, Fremantle Media and the Hooters restaurant chain.

In general, the weak economy and sluggish labor market have reduced the amount of leverage employees have in their relationship with their managers -- meaning it's been especially easy in recent years for bosses to demand ever more of workers while paying them the same amount as before.

SEE THE LINK FOR SPECIFICS

[girl gone mad]

5. Drachma ‘when issued’ makes new all time high against Gold

It's on!

Are we there yet? 'Greek Drachma' on Bloomberg ticker (PHOTO)



Traders around the world have been staring at their Bloomberg screens, hardly believing their eyes. The electronic information platform has been showing details for possible Greek Drachma trading.

The Bloomberg helpdesk described it as "an internal function which is set up to test."

The news comes in the wake of the heated discussions over the future of the euro zone and the membership of Greece. While many experts insist that Greece should leave the Euro and default, some suggest it should remain the union and introduce a parallel currency to the Euro to repay the country’s debt.

The Head of the European Investment Bank Werner Hoyer said on Tuesday that Greece will be able to remain a member of the union. “Greece will have the opportunity to solve the huge problems that it is facing. Continuing support from the EU will contribute to this, in case, of course, the very Greeks would want that,” Hoyer said.

http://rt.com/business/news/greek-drachma-bloomberg-trades-769/

(Bloomberg has since taken it down.)

[Demeter]

7. A Gold Drachma Might Fix Everything

Of course, nobody will do it....

[AnneD]

141. On Max Keiser....

there was a suggestion of a silver drachma.

http://rt.com/programs/keiser-report/episode-295-max-keiser/

[bread_and_roses]

13. Greek Leftists Lead Poll; Vow to Kill Bailout, Nationalize Banks

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/01-8

Published on Friday, June 1, 2012 by Common Dreams
Greek Leftists Lead Poll; Vow to Kill Bailout, Nationalize Banks
"The time of the Left has come"
- Common Dreams staff

As the June 16 elections in Greece near, the final public polls show that the leftist Syriza party continues to build on it's strong showing in the May 6th elections. Syriza maintains a clear lead over second place New Democracy party: 31.5% to 26.5%.

... "The first act of a government of the left, as soon as the new Parliament is sworn in, will be a cancellation of the bailout and its implementation laws," Tsipras said.

Agence France Presse reports:

ATHENS — Greece's radical leftist party Syriza laid out Friday a manifesto...

... Tsipras promised to boost the minimum wage, hike taxes on the rich and freeze a major privatization drive designed to raise $24.2 billion, a key condition of its bailout deal.

He also pledged to "nationalize and socialize" Greek banks that draw on European support funds to recapitalize themselves after a landmark state debt cut brokered by the previous government in March.

I was so depressed by the Irish vote today - we'll see if the Greeks can stand stronger.

[girl gone mad]

52. Wird die neue Drachme schon gedruckt?

Google Translation of article from German media:

One of the editors known firm of NRW has supplied via an intermediary material for the printing of drachmas to De La Rue. The middlemen, who must remain anonymous as the company wants the printed drachmas but already have seen with my own eyes.

De La Rue declined to confirm or deny the information on Thursday yet. "We generally do not comment on such speculation," said a spokesman. De La Rue produces banknotes for over 150 currencies, and Greece was formerly part of the customer.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht had recently said in an interview with the Belgian newspaper "De Standaard", the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission were already working on emergency situations in case that Greece withdraw from the euro-zone should.

"Eighteen months ago, like the danger of a domino effect existed," said the Belgian EU Commissioner for the paper, referring to the danger of loss of credibility of other debt countries in Europe, "but now departments are working in the European Central Bank and the European Commission to emergency situations in case that does not succeed in Greece. "

http://www.rp-online.de/politik/eu/wird-die-neue-drachme-schon-gedruckt-1.2853675

Hmm.

[Demeter]

6. Can Apple Start Making Their Product in the U.S. Again? The Answer is YES.

BUT WILL THEY?


http://www.nationofchange.org/can-apple-start-making-their-product-us-again-answer-yes-1338530120


1. Labor costs are not the key factor. As Michele Nash-Hoff (President of Electro Fab) and Curtis Ellis (of the American Jobs Alliance) have explained, labor is a small part (probably less than 10 percent) of Apple’s cost of manufacturing, far less than capital equipment, and components. With wages rising in China, and U.S. manufacturing workers actually being far more productive, the labor cost differential become very small.

2. Apple is the rare product that competes on quality, not price. While it may or may not cost more in total to assemble iPads in the U.S., Apple is not competing against dozens of similar products. And so, retail price is not the key criteria because consumers are already buying iPads due to their unique quality and attributes, not "low sticker price."

3. Thanks to high productivity and top quality, U.S. manufacturing offers its own cost-savings and benefits. U.S. manufacturers are recognized as being the most productive, efficient, and safe in the world. A state-of-the-art U.S. manufacturing facility would offer its own cost savings by virtue of its incredibly productive and streamlined assembly processes.

...Apple CEO Tim Cook was quoted this week at an All Things Digital Conference as saying he'd like to see his company make more components, and possibly assemble them, in the U.S.

Specifically, Cook said:

"There are things that can be done in the U.S., not just for the U.S. market but that can be exported for the world...On the assembly piece, could that be done in the U.S.? I hope so, again, one day."

There are stumbling blocks to a possible reshoring of Apple products, though. Andrew Nusca at Between the Lines says that American companies can always "go overseas for greater flexibility, lower price and sheer speed." He also cites the potential shortage of skilled high-tech workers in the U.S. who can tackle the logistical and competitive needs of such competitive, state-of-the-art production. But these are battles worth fighting. For starters, a high-tech facility COULD produce in the manner required by Apple for rapid market response. And as for worker skills needed in such a high-tech industry, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) has repeatedly urged that the U.S. needs to prioritize such training in order to compete successfully in the 21st Century.

All of this is a battle worth fighting, and a very necessary one if the U.S. is to maintain a solid middle class economy. Apple can do it, and so can the U.S. The question is who will take the big step first?

[Tansy_Gold]

14. It should be noted, however,

that "components" also have a labor cost.

The three cost "components" of any manufactured good:

Raw Material
Direct Labor (the direct cost of the labor hours spent making the thing)
Overhead (basically, everything else)

Very few manufacturing operations actually use "raw" materials; the processed or sub-assembled materials come from somewhere else and have a labor and overhead component as well.

Overhead, of course, includes everything from rent and utilities to office staff wages to fringe benefits to janitorial supplies to depreciation on equipment to advertising to shipping to industry lobbyists to. . . . everything.

Direct labor costs may be ONE reason companies have moved operations to cheaper labor markets, but that's not the only reason. The main reason is that ALL these costs are lower and contribute to a fatter bottom line.


Another reason is taxes and the fact that profits can be held in the hands of far fewer people.

Tim Cook is (probably, most likely, almost certainly) talking out his ass.

[Demeter]

8. The Other Side of Gainful Unemployment By Shannon Hayes

http://www.nationofchange.org/other-side-gainful-unemployment-1338561399

“Today, I will do one thing at a time.”

These are the words I’ve been saying to myself each morning lately as I leap from my bed. I mindlessly repeat them while working through when to teach homeschool lessons to my daughters, which emails I need to respond to, when I’m going to make soap, how much beeswax I need to rinse and render, when we’re going to photograph and upload our newest farm products to the online shopping cart, which websites need to be updated, whether I’m needed or not at the farm this day or this week, what spices I need to order for sausage making, whether I’ll find time this day to get the weeds out of the raspberries, if I’ve got enough change for this Saturday’s farmers’ market, when I’m going to get to the dairy farm up the road to pick up butter for making pate to sell, what needs to happen to complete the start up of our new yarn business, which essays and articles need to be written, how I’m going to steer my newest book into publication by September, which photographs still need to get taken for the insert, which presentations need to get written for the fall speaking season, whether or not the blueberry bushes need fertilizing, when I’m going to find the time to take the girls into the woods to gather ramps...In short, as soon as I utter that morning promise, I begin the daily process of failing to honor it as I work myself into a frenzied whirlwind of activity. My life is unusual in that nearly every item on my to-do list is something that I love. But rather than being in-the-moment to enjoy these myriad pleasures, my brain rattles me into a frenzied state, where I am constantly distracted by what else I want to accomplish. Thus, even the act of perpetually doing things I love can leave me cranky, impatient, and difficult to be around.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Bob and I are creative people, unable to fathom a life where we would do one thing for a living. For the last decade, we have managed to carve out a livelihood for ourselves that matched our eclectic interests and our passion to produce beautiful things in harmony with the earth. We call it gainful unemployment. One of my most important contributions to this adventure has been my ability to perpetually come up with new ideas and business schemes, ensuring that the income stream for our radical homemaking household was always diversified, and thus more secure. For the sake of writing this piece this morning, I sat down for the first time and wrote a list of each of our enterprises. We had 16 different ventures.

That makes for a pretty respectable livelihood for two adults who have decided to stay home full-time with their kids. My trouble is that my most important gift in managing a life like this—my ability to envision and implement new ideas while juggling existing responsibilities—is also my greatest burden. I have a brain that doesn’t rest. I lead a life that honors the rhythms of Mother Nature, but the frenetic pace in my head impedes my soul from resonating with her vibrations. I don’t believe I am alone in this quandary. Radical homemakers are scrappy survivors who employ their creativity and ability to learn new skills to build a life outside the destructive confines of the conventional ecologically and socially extractive economy. I’ve been in many radical homemaking households that look like mine—full of chaos, creativity, self-imposed deadlines and interesting business concepts. This is who we are, and we are part of the foundation of a new life-serving economy.

We are on the frontier of something that is totally new. We draw inspiration from pre-industrial households and early American agrarian traditions for our way of life, but we cannot ignore the fact that we must revive these traditions while living in an electronic age; where business, learning and creativity can happen 24-7. There is opportunity in this union. There is also the tremendous hazard that we could take ourselves to a breaking point...

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

Shannon Hayes wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Shannon is the author of Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, The Grassfed Gourmet and The Farmer and the Grill. She is the host of Grassfedcooking.com andRadicalHomemakers.com. Hayes works with her family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm in Upstate New York.

[Demeter]

9. BS&T: The Al Kooper era

Al Kooper, Jim Fielder, Fred Lipsius, Randy Brecker, Jerry Weiss, Dick Halligan, Steve Katz and Bobby Colomby formed the original band. The creation of the group was inspired by the "brass-rock" ideas of The Buckinghams and its producer, James William Guercio, as well as the early 1960s Roulette-era Maynard Ferguson Orchestra (according to Kooper's autobiography).

"Blood, Sweat & Tears" was the name chosen by Al Kooper, inspired after a late-night gig in which Kooper played with a bloody hand. Kooper was the group's initial bandleader, having insisted on that position based on his experiences with The Blues Project, his previous band with Steve Katz, which had been organized as an egalitarian collective. Jim Fielder was from Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and had played briefly with Buffalo Springfield. Kooper's fame as a high-profile contributor to various historic sessions of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and others was a catalyst for the prominent debut of Blood, Sweat & Tears in the musical counterculture of the mid-sixties.

Al, Bobby, Steve & Jim did a few shows as a quartet at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York City in September 1967, opening for Moby Grape. Fred Lipsius then joined the others two months later. A few more shows were played as a quintet, including one at the Fillmore East in New York. Lipsius then recruited the other three, who were New York jazz horn players he knew. The final lineup debuted at the Cafe Au Go Go on November 17-19, 1967, then moved over to play The Scene the following week. The band was a hit with the audience, who liked the innovative fusion of jazz with acid rock and psychedelia. After signing to Columbia Records, the group released perhaps one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the late 1960s, Child Is Father to the Man, featuring the Harry Nilsson song, "Without Her", and perhaps Kooper's most memorable blues number, "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know". The album cover was considered quite innovative showing the band members sitting and standing with child-sized versions of themselves. Characterized by Kooper's penchant for studio gimmickry, the album slowly picked up in sales amidst growing artistic differences between the founding members. Colomby and Katz wanted to move Kooper exclusively to keyboard and composing duties, while hiring a stronger vocalist for the group.

The music of Blood, Sweat & Tears slowly achieved commercial success alongside similarly configured ensembles such as Chicago and the Electric Flag. Kooper was forced out of the group in April 1968 and became a record producer for the Columbia label, but not before arranging some songs that would be on the next BS&T album. The group's trumpeters, Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss, also left after the album was released, and were replaced by Lew Soloff and Chuck Winfield. Brecker joined Horace Silver's band with his brother Michael, and together they eventually formed their own horn-dominated musical outfits, Dreams and The Brecker Brothers. Jerry Weiss went on to start the similarly-styled group Ambergris.

[Demeter]

10. Blood Sweat & Tears - And when I die

&feature=related

[Tansy_Gold]

15. You have outdone yourself, Mme. Demeter

You ALWAYS amaze me with the things you come up with on these threads, but you have gone above and beyond.

[Demeter]

19. What did I do? What did I do?

(Looks around wildly....still groggy from the nap).

[Tansy_Gold]

76. You took a simple suggestion -- "BS&T"

And built it into a veritable encyclopedia. You've connected the works of a (huge) bunch of rock musicians to the current state of the economy. You've brought us all together for discussion and edification and laughter and. . . . community.

You are a true DU treasure.

[Demeter]

86. (Your check is in the mail)

Thanks Tansy!

[Demeter]

11. Future Train Wreck? What the Fed's Zero Interest Policy Means to You and Me By Edward Harrison

http://www.alternet.org/story/155652/future_train_wreck_what_the_fed%27s_zero_interest_policy_means_to_you_and_me?akid=8869.227380.KAUVuP&rd=1&t=25

...what’s your savings account statement saying? Is it telling you you can spend a lot more because you are flush with interest income or is it telling you you better save more if you expect to retire without having to live on cat food? Here’s another question: does this bode well for consumption or ill? Clearly, it bodes ill via the interest income channel but it could bode well if you and I leverage up a bit as debt service costs are down. And that is the point of low rates, by the way.

The Fed is squeezing interest rates down to levels where you see private portfolio preference shifts, a euphemism for the risk seeking return mentality that arises from artificially low real fixed income returns and that forces up risk assets. But this can only go one for so long.

See, eventually there will be another recession and the question should be what happens to all those toxic assets on bank balance sheets. What happens if new loans go sour too? If you recall, US FDIC-insured institutions recorded $35 billion in Q1 2012 accounting gains. But the quality of those accounting gains was dubious. Here’s the key line to note:

Lower provisions for loan losses and higher noninterest income were responsible for most of the year-over-year improvement in earnings.

That means FDIC insured institutions are under-provisioning and earning money through non-lending channels. These institutions are taxpayer guaranteed by the FDIC because they take deposits and lend that money in support of economic activity. Yet, what the FDIC is telling you is that institutions are not earning money through the traditional interest income channel which is the source of their FDIC guarantee. And that’s as you should expect in a permanent zero environment....

MUCH MORE AT LINK

SEE ALSO THE ORIGINAL BLOG: http://www.creditwritedowns.com/ IT'S A GOLDMINE!

[girl gone mad]

16. This is what the monetary policy über alles crowd can't comprehend.

Last edited Sat Jun 2, 2012, 12:04 AM - Edit history (1)

I was just arguing w/ one of these types (lower rates can fix everything) yesterday.

[Demeter]

12. 10 Billionaires' Dirty Tricks to Rig the System By Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks

http://www.alternet.org/story/155661/10_billionaires%27_dirty_tricks_to_rig_the_system?page=entire






Being a billionaire is kind of like being a rock star.

Our money-obsessed society tends to celebrate great wealth as evidence of exceptional talent, innovation or accomplishment. In reality, spectacular fortunes are more likely the result of luck, ruthlessness, cheating, or being in the right place at the right time to exploit an opportunity made possible by the insights and efforts of others who paved the way.

Certainly there's no evidence that members of today's elite are any more talented, creative or hardworking than the elite of a generation ago, who received a fraction of the rewards.

If today's rich have shown unusual talent, it's mostly been a talent for rigging the rules in their own favor.

So let's take a quick look at 10 billionaires and some things they probably don't want you to know about them:

1. John Paulson

2. Larry Ellison

3. Steve Schwarzman

4. Mark Zuckerberg

5. Sandy Weill

6. J.P. Morgan

The disastrous financial deregulation of the 1990s was actually a replay of an earlier deregulation championed by J. P. Morgan, the most powerful banker of the early 1900s. The imperious Morgan, who barked at underlings and vacationed with British royalty, was outraged in 1911 when Howard Taft's Republican administration moved to enforce banking regulations that, for almost fifty years, had barred banks from risky stock trading. Morgan (along with oil and banking potentate John D. Rockefeller) sent two emissaries to the White House to protest the banking crackdown directly to the President. Taft immediately fell into line. He promised to eliminate a crucial banking safeguard, thereby handing Morgan and Rockefeller the power to wreak havoc in the financial markets for almost two decades, culminating in the 1929 crash.

7. Charles Wyly

8. Christy Walton

9. David Koch

10. Warren Buffett

IF YOU WANT THE DIRTY DETAILS, YOU'LL HAVE TO CLICK THE LINK!

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

Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks are the authors of Billionaires' Ball: Glutton and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality [Beacon, $26.95].

[girl gone mad]

17. Shockingly Poor US Employment Data

By Marc Chandler

The US employment report was simply terrible. Adding insult to injury the April was revised lower as well. The dollar initially firmed, but as participants consider the risks of QE3, the upside momentum stalled.

Non-farm payrolls rose 69k, less than half what was expected and the April job growth was cut to 77 from 115k initially. The private sector added 82k jobs vs 87k in April. For the first time since 2011, the unemployment rate ticked up (to 8.2% from 8.1%). Hourly earnings edged up, but by only 0.1% not the 0.2% the consensus forecast. The year-over-year pace of 1.7% is the lowest since Dec 2010. The work week slipped and this is also important in terms of full time equivalent output. Manufacturing added 12k workers, while construction lost 28k. Retail added 2k and the government lost 13k.

The jobs data and revisions would seem to raise the risk of new action by the Federal Reserve as the job growth is stalling. The Us 10-year yield is now below near 1.45%, a record low. The NY Fed’s Dudley earlier this week noted that the risks associated with QE outweighed the likely benefits. It seems extending Operation Twist may be a more realistic possibility.

The jobs data will set the tone for coming economic reports. Manufacturing output is likely to be weak. Construction spending also will likely be soft. May personal income is likely to be soft (it rose 0.2% in April, which was reported today).

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2012/06/shockingly-poor-us-employment-data.html

[Po_d Mainiac]

18. Clock is now running my post to the survey from a couple weeks ago

12K breached within 2 trading sessions? I woodn't be surprised to see a 12 handle on the e/s within the same time frame.

For the same reasons the major indices are now southbound, PM's should rise.

We may soon find out if the JPMorgues' crown is forged from real metal, or just oriented tree fibers (on a par bvalue wise with the ones passed out with a whopper at Booger King)

The next poll question should be "How long before the yield on short term T's, moves to the red side of 0"

IMHO, the best investments are of the ABCD variety (anything bernanke can't destroy)

YMMV

[Demeter]

21. And what would that be? Babies?

I've seen an awful lot of newborns this spring. It's as if people have stopped waiting for the economy to improve. There's usually a baby boom when times are bad. I was surprised that it didn't happen in 2009, but people were hoping their finances would improve before they took the plunge...I'm betting a lot of people can't put it off any more.

The national birth rate plunged during the Great Depression, too....

U.S. Birthrate Declines for Third Year on Economic Worries Nov 18, 2011

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-18/u-s-birthrate-declines-for-third-year-on-economic-worries.html

The U.S. birthrate fell 3 percent last year (2010), the third straight decline, as the economy faltered and women delayed having children.

The birthrate dropped to 66.2 for every 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, the lowest since 1987, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The teen birthrate fell to the lowest since records began, declining 9 percent from 2009, at 34.3 births per 1,000 teenagers.

“You do see people make choices about family size in tough economic times, and that’s consistent with this data,” Preston Britner, professor of human development and family studies at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, said in a phone interview. “In an economy like this you see people making choices about at least delaying childbirth.”

The total fertility rate of 1,932 births per 1,000 women was below the 2,100-birth level at which the population can be replaced, the report said. Without enough children to replace parents as they die, countries may be burdened with the costs of elder care as the population ages and maintaining infrastructure without enough workers.

The two-year recession that began in 2007 has left the U.S. with unemployment hovering at about 9 percent. Extreme poverty doubled in Midwestern metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2005-2009 and rose by a third in the South, according to a report from the Washington-based Brookings Institution. The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 45.8 million in August, and the housing market continues to drag on the economy.

‘Immediate Deterrent’

“If you think about the effects of housing insecurity and an increasing rate of foreclosures, the idea of bringing kids into housing instability may be a more immediate deterrent,” Britner said. “When you already have three kids, so be it, you find ways to make do. But if you’re at the stage where you’re still making decisions, you may want to find ways to delay.”

The only group in which births grew was in women ages 40 to 44, which had its highest rate since 1967 at 10.2 births for every 1,000 women, the report said. The rate for women 45 and over was unchanged at less than one birth for every 1,000.

The cost of raising a first child under the age of 1 in a two-parent household in the Northeast is about $17,000 a year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s cost calculator.

THIS REPORT IS FROM 2002

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aabirthrate.htm

Continuing a 12-year decline, the U.S. birth rate has dropped to the lowest level since national data have been available, according to statistics just released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The rate of births among teenagers also fell to a new record low, continuing a decline that began in 1991.

The birth rate fell to 13.9 per 1,000 persons in 2002, down from 14.1 per 1,000 in 2001 and down a full 17 percent from the recent peak in 1990 (16.7 per 1,000), according to a new CDC report, "Births: Preliminary Data for 2002." CDC analysts say the birth rate is dropping as the increasing life span of Americans results in a smaller proportion of women of child childbearing age.

The birth rate among women of peak childbearing age has also been declining. Birth rates for women in their 20s and early 30s were generally down while births to older mothers (35-44) were still on the rise. Rates were stable for women over 45.

Among teenagers, the birth rate fell to 43 births per 1,000 females 15-19 years of age in 2002, a 5-percent decline from 2001 and a 28-percent decline from 1990. The decline in the birth rate for younger teens, 15-17 years of age, is even more substantial, dropping 38 percent from 1990 to 2002 compared to a drop of 18 percent for teens 18-19.

"The reduction in teen pregnancy has clearly been one of the most important public health success stories of the past decade," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in a CDC press release. "The fact that this decline in teen births is continuing represents a significant accomplishment."

More than one fourth of all children born in 2002 were delivered by cesarean; the total cesarean delivery rate of 26.1 percent was the highest level ever reported in the United States.

Among other significant findings included:

In 2002, there were 4,019,280 births in the United States, down slightly from 2001 (4,025,933).

The percent of low birthweight babies (infants born weighing less than 2,500 grams) increased to 7.8 percent, up from 7.7 percent in 2001 and the highest level in more than 30 years. In addition, the percent of preterm births (infants born at less than 37 weeks of gestation) increased slightly over 2001, from 11.9 percent to 12 percent.

More than one-third of all births were to unmarried women.

The birth rate for unmarried women was down slightly in 2002 to 43.6 per 1,000 unmarried women, reflecting the growing number of unmarried women in the population.

Access to prenatal care continued a slow and steady increase. In 2002, 83.8 percent of women began receiving prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy, up from 83.4 percent in 2001 and 75.8 percent in 1990...

EVEN WIKIPEDIA HAS NO BUNDLE OF JOY

United States

Per U.S. federal government data released in March 2011, births fell 4% from 2007 to 2009, the largest drop in the U.S. for any two-year period since the 1970s.[16] Births have declined for three consecutive years, and are now 7% below the peak in 2007.[17] This drop has continued through 2010, according to data released by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics in June 2011.[18]

Numerous experts have suggested that this decline is largely a reflection of unfavorable uneconomic conditions.[19] This connection between birth rates and economic downturns partly stems from the fact that American birth rates have now fallen to levels that are comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s.[20] A state- level look at fertility, based on a report published by the Pew Research Center in October 2011, points of the strong correlation between lower birth rates and economic distress. In 2008, North Dakota has the nation’s lowest unemployment rate at only 3.1% and was the only state to show an increase (0.7%) in birth rates. All other states either remained the same or declined.

The research center’s study also found evidence of a correlation between economic difficulties and fertility declines by race and ethnicity. Hispanics, who are particularly affected by the recession have experienced the largest fertility declines, especially compared to whites who have smaller economic hardships and smaller declines in fertility. Statistically, from 2008–2009, birth rates declined 5.9% for Hispanic women, 2.4% among African American women and only 1.6% among white women. This may be linked to the fact that Hispanics have suffered the most loses of wealth since the beginning of the recession and are overly represented in terms of unemployment rates.

Other factors such as women’s labor force participation, contraceptive technology, and public policy make it difficult to determine how much, exactly, economic changes are causing fertility changes. Research suggests that much of the fertility decline that occurs during economic downturns is a postponement of childbearing, not a decision to have fewer children or no children at all. Most people plan to “catch up” to their plans of bearing children once the economic conditions turn around. Younger women are more likely than older women to postpone pregnancy because of economic factors since they have more time of biological fertility remaining.[21]

Teen birth rates in the U.S. are at the lowest level in U.S. history.[22] In fact, teen birth rates in the U.S. have consistently decreased since 1991 through 2012, except for a brief increase between 2005 and 2007.[22] The other aberration from this otherwise steady decline in teen birth rates is the 6% decrease in birth rates for 15–19 year olds between 2008 and 2009.[22] Despite these years of decrease, U.S. teen birth rates are still higher than in other developed nations.[22] Racial differences prevail with teen birth and pregnancy rates as well. The American Indian/Alaska Native, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic black teen pregnancy rates are more than double the non-Hispanic white teen birth rate.[23]

[Demeter]

22. LOOKING FOR A GRAPH

[Po_d Mainiac]

24. W8 till there's an app 4 it!

[Demeter]

23. Jeb Bush: 'I'm not going to be VP candidate'

CAN I GET THAT IN NOTARIZED CONTRACT FORM?

http://news.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-im-not-going-vp-candidate-170321156.html

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is reiterating that he won't join Mitt Romney on the GOP presidential ticket.

Bush says no one's asked him to submit personal documents to the team picking Romney's vice presidential nominee. He also says he's certain he won't be asked, either. Bush says he backs his "friend" and fellow Floridian, Sen. Marco Rubio, for the slot.

But the former governor did have some advice for whomever Romney chooses: "Have fun."

Bush was in Washington on Friday to testify at a House Budget Committee hearing. He told the panel he would support higher taxes if the ratio was $1 raised for every $10 cut from spending. But he said it's easy for him to go along with that because he's not a candidate for anything.

[Demeter]

24. FOR THE AFFICIONADOS: THE OFFICIAL BS&T WEBSITE

http://www.bloodsweatandtears.com/

MORE FROM WIKI---

The David Clayton-Thomas era

Colomby and Katz then started looking for singers, considering Stephen Stills and Laura Nyro before deciding upon David Clayton-Thomas, a Canadian singer, born in Surrey, England. Reportedly, folk singer Judy Collins had seen him perform at a New York City club and was so taken and moved by his performance that she told her friends Bobby Colomby and Steve Katz about him (knowing that they were looking for a new lead singer to front the band). With her prodding, they came to see him perform and were so impressed that Clayton-Thomas was offered the role of lead singer in a re-constituted Blood Sweat & Tears. Trombonist Halligan took up the organ chores and Jerry Hyman joined to take over trombone. New trumpeters Lew Soloff and Chuck Winfield brought the band up to nine total members and the new lineup of the band debuted at the Cafe Au Go Go on June 18, 1968, at the beginning of a two week residency.

Eponymous 1968 album Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears, the group's self-titled second album, was produced by James William Guercio and released in late 1968. The album was much more pop-oriented, featuring decidedly fewer compositions from within the band (David Clayton-Thomas, however, had already mounted a solo career as a singer/songwriter over this same time period, beginning with an album released in 1969 by Decca). The record quickly hit the top of the charts, winning Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards over The Beatles' Abbey Road, among other nominees. Blood, Sweat & Tears spawned three major hit singles: a cover of Berry Gordy and Brenda Holloway's "You've Made Me So Very Happy", Clayton-Thomas' "Spinning Wheel", and a version of Laura Nyro's "And When I Die." All three singles reached #2 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart. The commercial and critical acclaim enjoyed by the band in 1969 culminated in an appearance at the Woodstock Festival, in which the band enjoyed headliner status. The Woodstock Movie camera crew even caught the band's opening number, "More and More", as they took to the stage. But the band's manager at the time, Bennett Glotzer, ordered the movie crew to turn off the cameras and leave the stage since the band had not agreed or been paid to be filmed.

Arguably, as a result of Al Kooper's departure, Blood, Sweat & Tears had difficulty maintaining its status as a counterculture icon at a time when record company executives deemed this characteristic importance as a tool to lure young consumers. This was compounded by a United States Department of State-sponsored tour of Eastern Europe in May/June 1970. Any voluntary association with the government was highly unpopular at the time and the band was ridiculed for it. In retrospect, it is now known that the State Department subtly requested the tour in exchange for more amicability on the issuance of a visa to Clayton-Thomas.

After returning to the U.S., the group released Blood, Sweat & Tears 3; produced this time by Roy Halee and drummer Colomby, which was another popular success, spawning hit singles with a cover of Carole King's "Hi-De-Ho" and another Clayton-Thomas composition, "Lucretia MacEvil". While this was a successful attempt to re-create the amalgam of styles found on the previous album, the band once again depended almost exclusively on cover material. Album reviews sometimes focused solely upon the band's willingness to work with the U.S. State Department, without bothering to discuss the actual music. Compounding the image problems of the band was a decision to play at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, widely seen at the time as a mainstream venue for acts that did not engage in radical politics. In 1970, the band provided music for the soundtrack of the film comedy The Owl and the Pussycat , which starred Barbra Streisand and George Segal, further damaging the group's underground reputation.

Following this period of controversy, the group reconvened in San Francisco in January 1971 with jazz writer/saxophonist Don Heckman serving as their producer and, with Dave Bargeron replacing Jerry Hyman, recorded material that would comprise their fourth album, BS&T 4 (June 1971). For the first time since the first album, Blood, Sweat & Tears presented a repertoire of songs composed almost entirely from within the group. Also included on the album is a cover of former member Al Kooper's "Holy John (John The Baptist)". Loaded with hooks and a wide variety of moods (featuring such songs as "Go Down Gamblin'", "Lisa, Listen To Me", "High on a Mountain", "Redemption&quot , BS&T 4 broke into the album charts, resulting in a gold record for the group. Unfortunately, none of the singles from the album managed to land in the Top 30 on any of the singles charts, and the period after the release of the fourth album began the group's commercial decline.

[Demeter]

26. Go Down Gamblin' JAMIE DIMON'S THEME SONG...HELL, ALL THE BANKSTERS!

[Demeter]

27. Wall Street sinks on jobs data, Dow negative for 2012

http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-closes-dire-month-whimper-020837348--sector.html

Stocks fell more than 2 percent on Friday, dragging the Dow into negative territory for the year after a dismal U.S. jobs report added to fears that Europe's spiraling debt crisis was dragging down the world economy.

The S&P 500 closed at its lowest since early January and ended below its 200-day moving average for the first time in 2012 after the Labor Department said employers created just 69,000 jobs last month, the weakest in a year.

The bleak May jobs report caps a week of soft economic data from China and growing problems in Europe as Spain's bank crisis deepened.

The global flight to safety pushed U.S. and German government debt yields to record lows while the VIX <.VIX>, a gauge of U.S. stock market anxiety, jumped more than 20 percent for the week.

"The vast majority of investors are choosing to panic," said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

[Demeter]

28. How Slow Can It (ECONOMY) Go? NYT EDITORIAL

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/opinion/how-slow-can-the-economy-go.html

There are two unavoidable conclusions from the May jobs report: The slow economy is getting slower, and there is no help on the way...The statistics on Friday were daunting. Only 69,000 jobs were created last month, far lower than what’s needed just to keep up with population growth. The job tallies for March and April, shabby to begin with, were revised down, for an average monthly tally of 96,000 over the past three months, versus 252,000 in the prior three months. The weakness was not only displayed in job growth. Average weekly wages declined in May, to $805, as a measly two-cents-an-hour raise was more than clawed back by a drop to 34.4 hours in the length of the typical workweek.

Similarly, the rise in the number of people looking for work is normally considered a sign of optimism, but, on closer inspection, it appears to be simply the reversal of a drop in job-seekers in April. Granted, it is better for jobless workers to be actively looking for work than sitting on the sidelines. But without enough jobs to go around, the inevitable result is higher official unemployment. The jobless rate ticked up from 8.1 percent in April to 8.2 percent in May, or 12.7 million people. Of those, 42.8 percent, or 5.4 million people, have been out of work for more than six months, a profound measure of personal suffering and economic decline.

There’s no sign that Washington is prepared to shoulder this responsibility. President Obama’s last big push for job creation, the $450 billion package proposed last fall, would have created an estimated 1.3 million to 1.9 million jobs by providing aid to states for teachers and other vital public employees, investments in infrastructure and tax breaks for new hiring. It was filibustered by Senate Republicans and not brought up for a vote in the Republican-dominated House, with Republican lawmakers claiming that deficit reduction was more important. Since then, they have balked at even smaller administration proposals, like modest investments in clean-energy projects...Republicans in Congress seem more determined not only to block any boost that President Obama wants to give the economy, but they are preparing to take the nation’s credit rating hostage again over the debt ceiling. Mitt Romney, the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, has no new ideas...

[Demeter]

29. The Mortgage Fraud Fraud By JOE NOCERA

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/opinion/nocera-the-mortgage-fraud-fraud.html

I got an e-mail the other day from Richard Engle telling me that his son Charlie would be getting out of prison this month. I was happy to hear it. Charlie’s ordeal isn’t over yet, of course. When he leaves prison on June 20, Charlie, 49, will move temporarily to a halfway house, after which he will be on probation for another five years. And unless he can get the verdict overturned, he will have to spend the rest of his life with a felony on his record. Perhaps you remember Charlie Engle. I wrote about him not long after he entered a minimum-security facility in Beaver, W.Va., 16 months ago. He’s the poor guy who went to jail for lying on a liar loan during the housing bubble.

There were two things about Charlie’s prosecution that really bothered me. First, he’d clearly been targeted by an agent of the Internal Revenue Service who seemed offended that Charlie was an ultramarathoner without a steady day job. The I.R.S. conducted “Dumpster dives” into his garbage and put a wire on a female undercover agent hoping to find some dirt on him. Unable to unearth any wrongdoing on his tax returns, the I.R.S. discovered he had taken out several subprime mortgages that didn’t require income verification. His income on one of them was wildly inflated. They don’t call them liar loans for nothing. Charlie has always insisted that he never filled out the loan document — his mortgage broker did it, and he was actually a victim of mortgage fraud. (The broker later pleaded guilty to another mortgage fraud.) Indeed, according to a recent court filing by Charlie’s lawyer, the government failed to turn over exculpatory evidence that could have helped Charlie prove his innocence. For whatever inexplicable reason, prosecutors really wanted to nail Charlie Engle. And they did.

Second, though, it seemed incredible to me that with all the fraud that took place during the housing bubble, the Justice Department was focusing not on the banks that had issued the fraudulent loans, but rather on those who had taken out the loans, which invariably went sour when housing prices fell. As I would later learn, Charlie Engle was no aberration. The current meme — argued most recently by Charles Ferguson, in his new book “Predator Nation” — is that not a single top executive at any of the firms that nearly brought down the financial system has spent so much as a day in jail. And that is true enough. But what is also true, and which is every bit as corrosive to our belief in the rule of law, is that the Justice Department has instead taken after the smallest of small fry — and then trumpeted those prosecutions as proof of how tough it is on mortgage fraud. It is a shameful way for the government to act.

“These people thought they were pursuing the American dream,” says Mark Pennington, a lawyer in Des Moines who regularly defends home buyers being prosecuted by the local United States attorney. “Right here in Des Moines,” he said, “there was a big subprime outfit, Wells Fargo Financial. No one there has been prosecuted. They are only going after people who lost their homes after the bubble burst. It’s a scandal.”

The Justice Department has had a tough run recently. Last week, Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general — who was recently given a role by President Obama to investigate the mortgage-backed securities issued during the bubble — complained publicly that he wasn’t getting the resources he needed from the Justice Department. And, of course, on Thursday, a federal judge declared a mistrial on five charges of campaign finance fraud and conspiracy in the trial of the former presidential candidate John Edwards. In the Edwards case, the Justice Department spent tens of millions of dollars, and trotted out novel legal theories, to prosecute a man who was essentially trying to keep people from discovering that he had had a mistress and an out-of-wedlock child. Salacious though it was, the case has zero public import. Yet this same Justice Department isn’t willing to use similar resources — and perhaps even trot out some novel legal theories — to go after the pervasive corporate wrongdoing that gave us the financial crisis and the Great Recession. (I should note that the Justice Department claims that it “will not hesitate” to prosecute any “institution where there is evidence of a crime.”Think back to the last time the federal government went after corporate crooks. It was after the Internet bubble. Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay of Enron were prosecuted and found guilty. Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, went to jail. Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco was prosecuted and given a lengthy prison sentence. Now recall which Justice Department prosecuted those men.

Amazing, isn’t it? George W. Bush has turned out to be tougher on corporate crooks than Barack Obama.

[Tansy_Gold]

84. Your last line

and my 11/25/08 posts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=7922946

makes you wanna don't it?

[Demeter]

89. Wow. That was some thread

I don't think we had met then...I can't image how I would have missed it if we had.

The Kassandra role really sucks, doesn't it?

[Tansy_Gold]

91. Yeah.

And I have never backed down.

I loved the part about how easy it would be to let the boooooosh tax cuts expire. And that's going to happen, . . . when?

You notice how none of them are brandishing their rubber stamps either.

[girl gone mad]

98. We fucking told them, in detail, how it would all play out.

And for our keen insights we were attacked. I remember when they used to start threads calling for me to be banned.

Now that we've all been proven right, we are... still vilified and attacked.

I hope they all bought into the Facebook IPO, and that's the nicest thing I can say about that crowd.

[Tansy_Gold]

99. LOL

on the facebook ipo. i totally agree, except that will be our fault too! ha ha ha ha.

as drdu says, too many of them are still living cloud cuckoo land. it's a dem cloud cuckoo land, but it's still cloud cuckoo land.

[DemReadingDU]

119. LOL - Cloud Cuckoo Land

Tansy - Thanks for the flashbacks to 2008. It is amazing that you specifically were writing these things about the Obama administration nearly 4 years, and it's exactly what has happened! But really, all one has to do is open their eyes and ears, and it's not difficult to figure out. Yet most people still are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.


Cloud Cuckoo Land refers to an unrealistically idealistic state where everything is perfect. ("You're living in Cloud Cuckoo Land, mate.&quot It hints that the person referred to is naïve, unaware of reality or deranged in holding such an optimistic belief.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_cuckoo_land



P.S. I Love your Stamp!

[AnneD]

142. I don't go much into GD anymore....

Cloud Cuckoo Land, just another way of saying crazy. And I refuse to put my hand in the crazy. I'd rather post in a spot where intelligent thoughts are encouraged, posted and defended.

[bread_and_roses]

94. OMG

Last edited Sat Jun 2, 2012, 06:53 PM - Edit history (1)

how did I miss that at the time? I do remember that by the date of that thread I was in a state of stunned disbelief, already despair at the appointments. I may have stopped reading most of the threads.

It all still makes me weep - the lost opportunity.

on (very late) edit to Tansy - meant to say your work in that thread was sterling

[DemReadingDU]

120. That is a great thread!

I don't recall reading it in 2008 because I most likely would have posted in it. However, I must have read before, because when I went to bookmark it now, I had already bookmarked it previously!

[Demeter]

30. Romney's Financial Disclosure Documents Detail Stock Sales

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/01/154174443/romneys-financial-disclosure-documents-detail-stock-sales?ft=1&f=1001

Today at about 4 p.m., Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney filed his public financial disclosure with the Federal Election Commission. The report outlines the former Massachusetts governor's assets and liabilities...

First here's a bit from USA Today on what they've found:

"The report shows the presumptive GOP presidential nominee has sold many stocks he held in a wide range of companies — including Procter & Gamble, Aflac, American Express, Apple, Exxon Mobil, Google and JPMorgan Chase — that were part of accounts managed by Goldman Sachs and Thornburg Investment Management.

"The capital gains earned from the two account sales were reported as being between $100,000 and $1 million each, according to the report."

The paper estimates that Romney is worth between $83 million and $255 million, which is in line with the $190 million to $250 million the Romney campaign had estimated.

On Twitter, Matt Viser of The Boston Globe reports:

"Among the companies Romney sold shares in, according to PFD: Lululemon, Apple, Boeing, Google, Aflac."

"Romney also sold stock in British Sky Broadcasting, the company Rupert Murdoch sought to buy outright"

"Romney still owns between $250,001 and $500,000 in gold."

"Romney speakers fees: Emory University ($11,475), Barclay's Bank ($42,500), Goldentree Asset Manegement ($68k), Intl Frnachise Assoc ($68k)"

"Romney appears to have sold, or consolidated, a decent amount of his holdings. Last year's disclosure was 28 pages. This year's is 20 pages."

COPY OF THE ACTUAL DOCUMENTS AT LINK

[Demeter]

31. Struggling U.S. Economy Drags Down The World by Corey Flintoff

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/01/154161623/struggling-u-s-economy-ripples-around-the-world?ft=1&f=1001

"What matters to the rest of the world is the amount of demand the United States is going to generate," says economist Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell.

"Weak job growth translates to weak domestic demand in the U.S., and that concerns all of the U.S.'s major trading partners," he says.

LIKE THIS IS NEWS. WELL, MAYBE TO CERTAIN PEOPLE WHO HAVE THEIR HEADS IN THE SAND....ANYONE LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP FROM THE US WILL HAVE TO TAKE THE PREDATOR DRONE GAMEBOY FROM OBAMA'S HANDS...

[Demeter]

32. ‘Rockchild’ deal signals US shift

Interview: Lord Jacob Rothschild goes into change in strategy with move to establish strong foothold across the Atlantic in wake of this week’s Rockefeller tie-up

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/MS7EDB/B49CK/EX3B6A/PFXI7Z/AZ/t?a1=2012&a2=6&a3=1

[Demeter]

33. The World's Richest Countries And Biggest Economies, In 2 Graphics

Here are all the countries with GDP of over $100 billion:



Notes
GDP at current exchange rate for 2010. Colors correspond to continents/regions.

Source: World Bank

Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR


Having a very large GDP means a country is an important economic player in the world. But it doesn't necessarily mean the country's citizens are rich.

A better measure for looking at the wealth or poverty of a nation's citizens is GDP per capita (adjusted for the fact that $1 buys more in some countries than in others).

Here are all the countries in the world with GDP per capita over $15,000 a year:



Notes
GDP per capita (purchasing power parity), 2010. *Qatar figure is for 2009, the most recent year available.

Source: World Bank

Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR


MORE

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/05/30/153950742/the-worlds-richest-countries-and-biggest-economies-in-2-graphics

[Demeter]

34. BS&T The Jerry Fisher era

Difficulties arose inside the group between its pop-rock and jazz factions, with Clayton-Thomas refusing to pick sides and eventually choosing to leave in early January 1972 (after playing a final show at Anaheim Convention Center with the group on December 27, 1971 in Anaheim, California) to continue the solo career he had begun concurrently with his role in BS&T. He was briefly replaced by Bobby Doyle (who, reportedly, failed to work out with the band when his voice had problems being heard over the horns), and then Jerry Fisher, who went on to front the next generation of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Fred Lipsius left as well and was replaced by jazz legend Joe Henderson (who did not stay long enough to record), before Lou Marini settled into the new lineup. Another founding member, Dick Halligan, also departed, replaced by jazz pianist Larry Willis (from the Cannonball Adderly Quintet), and Swedish guitarist Georg Wadenius , from the popular Swedish outfit Made in Sweden, joined as lead guitarist around the same time. Amidst the personnel changes, a Greatest Hits album was released, which hit the top 20 and eventually went gold. This record would be the band's final gold album.

During this period of time, a proliferation of bands employing the brass-rock stylings of the group began to compete in the popular music marketplace. Among these groups were Chase, Ides of March and Lighthouse, offering testimony to the legacy of Blood, Sweat & Tears.

The new edition of Blood, Sweat & Tears released New Blood in September 1972, which found the group moving into a more overtly jazz-fusion repertoire. The album broke through the Top 40 chart (the last BS&T LP to do so) and spawned a single ("So Long Dixie", chart peak: 44) that received some airplay. Also included on the record was a cover version of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage," featuring the voice/guitar soloing of Georg Wadenius.

In mid-1973, Katz, who was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the group's leaning towards jazz fusion, decided to leave to pursue a career as a producer (for Lou Reed and others). Winfield departed as well and was replaced by Tom Malone.

Blood, Sweat & Tears' next album, No Sweat (June 1973), continued in a jazz-fusion vein and featured intricate horn work. Tom Malone's stay in the band was brief and he left to make way for jazz trumpeter John Madrid. But Madrid's tenure was likewise short-lived and he never recorded with the band. Both Madrid and Soloff left in early 1974, making way for new horn player/arranger Tony Klatka on their next release, Mirror Image (July 1974), which also saw the addition of vocalist/saxophonist Jerry LaCroix (formerly of Edgar Winter's White Trash), sax player Bill Tillman, bassist Ron McClure and the exodus of original bass player Jim Fielder. This recording features the adoption of a sound pitched between Philly Soul and the mid-1970s albums by Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, along with aspirations to Chick Corea's jazz-fusion group Return to Forever.

Jerry LaCroix left BS&T to join Rare Earth after playing his final show with them at Wollman Rink in New York's Central Park on July 27, 1974. Luther Kent, a blues singer from New Orleans, was recruited to replace LaCroix.

&list=PL0585842E11F2A1EA&index=12&feature=plpp_video

[Demeter]

35. Greek leftists vow to scrap 'deadly medicine' bailout

http://www.alternet.org/rss/breakingnews/937163/greek_leftists_vow_to_scrap_%27deadly_medicine%27_bailout/?akid=8871.227380.paxZDG&rd=1&t=15

COMPREHENSIVE REPORT ON GREECE--RECOMMENDED READING


...Syriza surprised Europe on May 6 by placing second in an inconclusive election that saw voters fed up with salary and pension cuts shift their loyalties to radical parties.

A series of opinion polls published Friday showed that neither Syriza nor its top rival, the conservative New Democracy party, would win an outright majority in new elections called for June 17 after the deadlock....

BUT IT AIN'T OVER UNTIL THE FAT LADY SINGS....I WONDER WHICH GREEK GOD OR GODDESS TOOK DEMOCRACY UNDER ITS PROTECTION...

[Demeter]

36. 'Missing Workers'? Latest Jobs Report is More Bad News

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/937312/%27missing_workers%27_latest_jobs_report_is_more_bad_news/#paragraph2



HOW LONG, OH LORD....

Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.

Psalm 35.17

O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.

Habakkuk 1.2f

How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

Psalm 13.1f

How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

YES, WELL, THAT'S A QUESTION THAT NEVER HAS AN ANSWER...

[Demeter]

37. Chicago Factory Occupiers Form Worker Cooperative

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9500-republic-windows-and-doors-serious-materials-workers-form-cooperative

First, they occupied the factory to get their wages from the bosses that owned the machinery. Then, they occupied their factory to keep the second bosses from shutting down their machinery. And, now, they are on their way to owning and running the machinery.

The group of workers who occupied their Chicago factory in 2008 and again in 2012 incorporated a worker-run cooperative on May 30, 2012. The factory window makers will take over was formerly owned by Republic Windows and Doors and then Serious Energy, and will now be run by New Era Windows, LLC...Armando Robles, president of the United Electrical Workers Local 1110, said that the school of struggle the workers went through with both factory occupations helped them win the confidence to take over their factory.

"We learned how to fight against the bosses and now to negotiate contracts with the owners of Republic and Serious Energy, how to negotiate in contract negotiations and how to make escalating actions before going on strike."

The story began in 2008, when the Republic Windows and Doors Factory shut its doors without paying workers their severance pay or accrued vacation time in "a perfect parable of all that was wrong with the financial crisis." "Just a few days after receiving $25 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, Bank of America cut off the company's credit line, leading Republic's management to immediately and unceremoniously fire all 250 workers without providing the 60 days' notice or 60 days' pay required of them by the federal WARN Act," reported Salon...

THE STORY CONTINUES AT LINK

[bread_and_roses]

56. Shades of early 20th Century Spanish Anarchist Collectives!

Years and years ago, reading something by my hero, Noam Chomsky, he threw in an off-hand reference to villages in Spain keeping everyone fed and alive during the privations of the Civil War by acting as a Collective. I had never in those days heard of, read or been taught anything at all - of course - about this particular chapter in human history. (Noam, out of his vast knowledge, will do that now and again - throw in a reference that lingers in the brain - like an off-hand comment in something to the effect that "the Haitians could teach the US a few things about real Democracy" (this one, too, from years and years ago).

I never followed it up with any sort of scholarly discipline, but it lingered and I've noted the few references I came across over the years. Something in one of the WEE digests a few weeks ago brought it back to mind, and I've been sporadically reading on it here and there on-line.

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

... Anarchists played a central role in the fight against Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War.[citation needed] At the same time, a far-reaching social revolution spread throughout Spain, where land and factories were collectivized and controlled by the workers. All remaining social reforms ended in 1939 with the victory of Franco, who had thousands of anarchists executed.

...1936 Revolution
Main article: Spanish Revolution

Along with the fight against fascism was a profound anarchist revolution throughout Spain.

Much of Spain's economy was put under worker control; in anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%, but lower in areas with heavy socialist influence. Factories were run through worker committees, agrarian areas became collectivized and run as libertarian communes. Even places like hotels, barber shops, and restaurants were collectivized and managed by their workers. George Orwell describes a scene in Aragon during this time period, in his book, Homage to Catalonia:

­"I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized life—snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.--had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master."

The anarchist held areas were run according to the basic principle of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." In some places, money was entirely eliminated, to be replaced with vouchers. Under this system, goods were often up to a quarter of their previous cost. Many today believe that unemployment and industrial production in Catalonia worsened dramatically after collectivization.[15] Yet this is severely untrue, with industrial productivity doubling almost everywhere across the country and agricultural yields being "30-50%" larger, demonstrated by Emma Goldman, Ausgustin Souchy, Chris Ealham, Eddie Conlon, Daniel Guerin and numerous other sources.

Despite the critics clamoring for maximum efficiency, anarchic communes often produced more than before the collectivization. The newly liberated zones worked on entirely libertarian principles; decisions were made through councils of ordinary citizens without any sort of bureaucracy. (The CNT-FAI leadership was at this time not nearly as radical as the rank and file members responsible for these sweeping changes.)

In addition to the economic revolution, there was a spirit of cultural revolution. For instance, women were allowed to have abortions, and the idea of "free love" became popular. In many ways, this spirit of cultural liberation was similar to that of the "New Left" movements of the 1960s.

I have no idea how accurate the production figures cited in this article are - the sources cited are not exactly disinterested or without ideological agenda. But then, of course, neither is the mainstream economic/social history we are all taught. And Noam's approval speaks loudly to me.

I also liked a slogan of the Anarchists quoted in a different section of the article:

The national focus on Republic and reform led the anarchists to cry

"Before the ballot boxes, social revolution!"

In their view, liberal electoral reforms were futile and undesirable, and impeded the total liberation of the working classes.

(my emphasis added)

I have not read "Homage to Catalona" - should have. Should do so.

When I read the following I thought: "OMFG" - even though I've read Labor History, and Noam, and thus learned that we are are utterly deprived of the real history of the intelligence, energy, and heroism of ordinary working class people - both industrial and agrarian - still, this is stunning.

Just a few snippets:

http://libcom.org/library/collectives-leval-2

CHAPTER V
THE ARAGON FEDERATION OF COLLECTIVES

On February 14 and 15, 1937 the Constitutive Congress of the Aragon Federation of Collectives took place in Caspe, a small town in the province of Saragossa which had been freed of the fascists by forces coming from Catalonia. (1) Twenty-four cantonal federations were represented. The list is as follows...

... (1) Abolition of money within the Collectives and the constitution of a common fund by a general contribution of goods and financial resources for use in exchanges with other regions and countries. A ration book to be issued which will be valid for all collectivists. (2)

(2) The examination of the structures of organisation gave rise to what constituted an innovation, by assigning the most important role to the communal organisation: "We accept the communal organisation because it makes it easier for us to supervise activities as a whole in the villages."

Then the traditional geographic-administrative limits were modified on the basis of the needs of the revolution and the logic of a social economy opposed to the arbitrary and capricious carving up by the historic State.

(3) The text adopted on this subject specified that: "In constituting the cantonal federations, as well as the regional Federation, it will be necessary to eliminate the traditional limits between the villages themselves; on the other hand, all working tools will be held in common and raw materials put at the disposal of Collectives requiring them, without any kind of discrimination."

... The third big theme on the agenda was that of the position to be adopted towards the small landowners who refused to enter the Collectives. A Study Commission had been nominated. It consisted of F. Fernandez of the Canton of Angues, Julio Ayoro of Montono, R. Castro of Alforque, R. Bayo of Gudar, E. Aguilar of Pina, and M. Miro of Ballobar. By six votes to one the following Resolution was proposed by the Commission and adopted by the majority:

(1) The small landowners who wish to remain outside the Collective must therefore consider themselves able to be self-sufficient by their own work; they will therefore not be able to benefit from the services of the Collective. Nevertheless their right to act in this way will be respected on condition that they do not interfere with the interests of the Collective.

(2) All agrarian or urban properties as well as the assets of fascists which have been seized, will be held in usufruct by the workers' organisations that existed at the time of the seizure, o n condition that those organisations accept the Collective.

(3) All the estates of landowners which had hitherto been worked by farmers or share-croppers will be transferred to the Collective.

(4) Any smallholder who has remained outside the Collective will only retain as much land as he can cultivate by his own efforts; the employment of workers is absolutely forbidden.

(my emphasis added)

minor edits for grammar and inadvertent erasures

[bread_and_roses]

63. Wondering here - has Consumerism destoyed the possibility of Collectivism?

Am reading contemporary commentaries on the social impacts on inter-personal behavior of the Collectives. These are not "objective," disinterested accounts - but interesting nonetheless:

http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/secI8.html

"Industry is in the hands of the workers and all the production centres conspicuously fly the red and black flags as well as inscriptions announcing that they have really become collectives. The revolution seems to be universal. Changes are also evident in social relations. The former barriers which used to separate men and woman arbitrarily have been destroyed. In the cafes and other public places there is a mingling of the sexes which would have been completely unimaginable before. The revolution has introduced a fraternal character to social relations which has deepened with practice and show clearly that the old world is dead." [Durruti: The People Armed, p. 243]

and

"The atmosphere then, the feelings were very special. It was beautiful. A feeling of -- how shall I say it -- of power, not in the sense of domination, but in the sense of things being under our control, of under anyone's. Of possibility. We had everything. We had Barcelona: It was ours. You'd walk out in the streets, and they were ours -- here, CNT; there, comite this or that. It was totally different. Full of possibility. A feeling that we could, together, really do something. That we could make things different." [quoted by Martha A. Ackelsberg and Myrna Margulies Breithart, "Terrains of Protest: Striking City Women", pp. 151-176, Our Generation, vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 164-5]

(emphasis in original)

I have to wonder - could generations who've grown up so detached from the production of real goods - from food, shoes, and spontaneous song - generations who've been taught that doing is shopping - can we even experience joy anymore from reality?

[Tansy_Gold]

66. it's that word again

Mondragón

Mondragón

Mondragón

Mondragón

Mondragón




You asked: could generations who've grown up so detached from the production of real goods - from food, shoes, and spontaneous song - generations who've been taught that doing is shopping - can we even experience joy anymore from reality?

The simple answer is we won't know until we try. But it's been my experience doing art shows that yes, people DO appreciate The Things That Are Made, and people do understand the Joy of Making.

The more difficult answer is that it takes time. As I was explaining to the BF the other day, so many of the changes we see from the vantage point of 60+ years seem to be sudden or they seem to have easy explanations. Most of those "explanations" are RW bullshit, because history and sociology and anthropology tell us that all these changes have a long string of causes behind them, and no one wants to look at how complex those chains of cause and effect are. So is it just consumerism that made people think of shopping as doing? Well, yes, but it was a whole lot of other things, too.

And of course it's all like the Medusa -- too many heads to be stopped all at once, and if you cut one off, a dozen grow in its place. The only way to stop the corporate snakes is to starve them.

[bread_and_roses]

81. You are - as usual - quite correct*

* "quite right" would be more natural phrasing, but you are never "Right" so I could not use it

As I try to remind myself. After all, from a cursory view, the great social movements always seem to be "sudden" - labor trudges along starving and dying while working 80 hour weeks and then "suddenly" walks out.

"Consumerism" is lazy shorthand for the past - oh, 80+ years, I guess, since Bernay's (sp? right person? Freud's relative) came up with the "science" of Marketing.

And I admit, though - the weight of those years makes me quail. After all, look what became of the promise of our great rising of youth in the '60's.

[Tansy_Gold]

83. There was another great rising of youth just four years ago.

[bread_and_roses]

64. "your 'worker' and 'boss' BDSM fantasy" - ROFL

At least I find it hilarious -

http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/rothbard-we-must-therefore-conclude-that-we-are-not-anarchists#comment-2666

Comment and rebuttal:

"as if "voluntary hierarchy" was compatible with an-archy"

Then anarchy is a self-contradiction. If I wish to hire a laborer to work in a factory I labored to build, and someone else is willing to be hired to fill that position, it would require a ruler (I suppose you would probably call them archons) to enforce a system of prevention.

Nope, if the two of you

Nope, if the two of you wanted to play out your 'worker' and 'boss' BDSM fantasy for a while no one would care. But you wouldn't own the means of production so that as soon as the 'worker' got tired with being bossed around they would be no one to enforce you claim of ownership. 'Communism' as a safe word I guess

"your 'worker' and 'boss' BDSM fantasy ... 'Communism' as a safe word..."


On edit - note also that "I labored to build" - as if s/he built it all by him/herself - right.

[Demeter]

38. Obama Extends the Export-Import Bank

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/business/obama-signs-extension-of-export-import-bank.html

President Obama signed a bill on Wednesday that extends the life of the Export-Import Bank through 2014, ending an unexpectedly fierce political fight over an institution dedicated to financing American exports abroad. Speaking at the signing ceremony to an audience filled with owners of small businesses, Mr. Obama said the reauthorization of the bank was critical to leveling the playing field with China and other countries, which provide similar credit to their export industries.

“We’re helping thousands of businesses sell more of their products and services overseas,” the president said, “and in the process, we’re helping them create jobs here at home. And we’re doing it at no extra cost to the taxpayer.”

Mr. Obama paid tribute to Congressional leaders who brokered the deal to preserve the bank, which was in jeopardy after Tea Party-aligned conservatives in the House and Senate seized on the need for reauthorization as a chance to mothball an agency they say is a purveyor of welfare to big corporations like Boeing and Caterpillar. With the bank facing the imminent closing of its doors, business groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers mobilized a strong lobbying effort that pitted traditional Republican interests against the Tea Party insurgency. The White House threw its support behind efforts to find a compromise...

POLITICS (AND MONEY) MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS, INDEED. I SEE THE IMEX AS A FORM OF CORPORATE WELFARE, MYSELF. AND I DON'T DRINK TEA!

[Demeter]

39. China Lets Currency Weaken, Risking New Trade Tensions

IS THIS TIT FOR TAT?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/business/global/china-lets-its-currency-slip-raising-trade-tension.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1338622287-rcpcXQ4UaUVMn94/OCjgkg

China’s currency dropped further in May against the dollar than in any other month since the Chinese government began allowing the renminbi to appreciate gradually in the summer of 2005. The shift could help Chinese exports but worsen trade friction with Europe and particularly the United States.

By setting weaker and weaker daily “fixings” for the renminbi against the dollar at the start of each day’s trading, China’s central bank has pushed down the renminbi 0.9 percent against the dollar over the last month. The decline in the daily fixings coincides with signs that the Chinese domestic economy is slowing sharply this spring and may need help from stronger exports...

[Demeter]

40. BS&T Reformations

By the close of 1974, Jerry Fisher had decided he'd had enough of BS&T's heavy touring schedule and Bobby Colomby, together with the band's manager Fred Heller, engineered the return of David Clayton-Thomas in the hope of restoring the band to its former level of glory. Since David’s solo career hadn't been too successful, he agreed to rejoin and right before returning, he flew in to meet the current group at a concert in Milwaukee while Jerry Fisher and Luther Kent were still with the band. All three singers ended up on stage together before a wildly enthusiastic crowd.

The next album, New City in April 1975, featured Clayton-Thomas back fronting the band and contained half cover tunes (Janis Ian, Randy Newman, The Beatles, Blues Image) and half original material. New horn player Joe Giorgianni joined for New City, which charted higher (#47) than any of their previous albums since New Blood. This was chiefly the result of an entry in the singles charts with a cover of The Beatles' "Got To Get You Into My Life" , which peaked at #62. But it still did not sell as well as albums from the group's 1969-71 commercial peak period.

In the summer of 1975, BS&T recorded a live album that was released in Europe and Japan the following year as In Concert . This very same album was later released in the US as Live And Improvised in May 1991. The album featured different guitarists on different nights: Georg Wadenius, Steve Khan and Mike Stern , the latter who took over permanently for a time (Jeff Richman filled in for Stern in mid-1976). Jazz percussionist Don Alias was also present for the live album. After its recording, Joe Giorgianni left and was replaced by Forrest Buchtell (formerly of Woody Herman's band).

Around the same time, Bobby Colomby discovered a talented bass player by the name of Jaco Pastorius in Florida. He produced Jaco's first solo album in the autumn of 1975, which was released in the spring of 1976. In late 1975, Jaco toured with BS&T subbing for Ron McClure and when McClure left in early 1976, Colomby arranged for Jaco to join the band, though he stayed for only about three months. On April 1, 1976 Jaco officially joined Weather Report where he became world-famous. When Jaco left BS&T, he was briefly succeeded by Keith Jones, before Danny Trifan stepped in.

In July 1976 More Than Ever , produced by Bob James and featuring guest vocals by Patti Austin, was released but sold disappointingly. After it stalled at US #165, Columbia Records dropped the band. At this time Bobby Colomby, BS&T’s sole remaining original member, stopped touring with the group. Don Alias assumed sole percussion duties before leaving as well to make way for Roy McCurdy.

In 1977 BS&T was signed to ABC Records and they began working on their next release, Brand New Day (November 1977). The album was co-produced by Bobby Colomby. But Colomby's direct involvement with the group ceased after its release, although he continued on as sole owner of the Blood Sweat and Tears trademark. Brand New Day garnered positive reviews, but was not a major seller. At this same time BS&T were said to be recording tracks for an instrumental album with a personnel of Tony Klatka, Forrest Buchtell, Dave Bargeron, Bill Tillman, Larry Willis, Danny Trifan, Roy McCurdy and Mike Stern, but this album never materialized.

During 1977, the BS&T lineup continued to be ever fluctuating. Stern, Trifan, McCurdy, Buchtell and Tillman all departed to be succeeded respectively by Barry Finnerty, Neil Stubenhaus, Michael Lawrence and Gregory Herbert. Randy Bernsen then took over guitar and Chris Albert trumpet when Finnerty and Lawrence left at the close of '77.

In January 1978 the group undertook a European tour that ended abruptly after 31 year old saxophonist Gregory Herbert died of a drug overdose in Amsterdam on January 31, 1978. Rocked by this shocking turn of events, the group returned home and temporarily ceased activity.

In 1979, with the encouragement of longtime BS&T manager Fred Heller, who had numerous requests for the band to play more shows, David Clayton-Thomas decided to continue Blood, Sweat & Tears with an entirely new lineup that consisted of himself and other Canadian musicians (Kenny Marco - guitar, David Piltch - bass, Joe Sealy - keyboards, Bruce Cassidy - trumpet, flugelhorn, Earl Seymour - sax, flute, Steve Kennedy - sax, flute and Sally Chappis - drums, with Harvey Kogan soon replacing Kennedy and Jack Scarangella succeeding Chappis).

The group signed to Avenue Records subsidiary label LAX (MCA Records), with a slightly altered lineup of: David Clayton-Thomas (vocals, guitar), Robert Piltch (guitar), David Piltch (bass), Richard Martinez (keyboards), Bruce Cassidy (trumpet, flugelhorn), Earl Seymour (sax, flute), Vernon Dorge (sax, flute) and a returning Bobby Economou on drums, and with producer and arranger Jerry Goldstein, recorded the album Nuclear Blues (March 1980). The album was yet another attempt to reinvent the group, showcasing the band in a funk sound environment that recalled such acts as Tower of Power and LAX labelmates War (with whom BS&T did several shows in 1980). The album, unfortunately, was regarded by many Blood, Sweat & Tears fans as uncharacteristic of the group's best work. During this period, another live album was recorded at The Street Scene in Los Angeles, California on October 12, 1980 (this was eventually released as Live in February 1995). Robert and David Piltch left shortly after this concert, as did Richard Martinez and Bruce Cassidy. They were replaced by Wayne Pedzwiatr on bass, Peter Harris on guitar, Lou Pomanti on keyboards and Mic Gillette (from Tower of Power) on trumpet. Following more touring, including Australia, this incarnation of the group disbanded in 1981.

Since he did not own the rights to the Blood Sweat & Tears name, Clayton-Thomas attempted to restart his failed solo career in 1983 after taking some time off. This caused complications during his initial months on the road when promoters would book his group and instead use the Blood, Sweat & Tears name on the marquee. Consequently, his manager at the time, Larry Dorr, negotiated a licensing deal between himself and Bobby Colomby in 1984 for rights to tour using the band's name.[2] For 20 years afterwards, Clayton-Thomas toured the concert circuit with a constantly changing roster of players (see roster below) as "Blood, Sweat & Tears" until his final departure in November 2004. Clayton-Thomas, now residing back in his home country of Canada, continues his solo career and does occasional shows using only his name in promotional efforts. The band continued on without Clayton-Thomas. Larry Dorr has been the bands manager (and much more) for over 30 years now and Blood Sweat & Tears is still one of the most popular touring acts of all time. At last count, the overall number of BS&T members since the beginning is up around 140 total people (see roster below).

On March 12 & 13, 1993, Al Kooper organized two shows at the Bottom Line in NYC that were advertised as "A Silver Anniversary Celebration Of The Classic Album The Child Is Father To The Man", which featured Al, Randy Brecker, Jim Fielder, Steve Katz and Fred Lipsius playing together for the first time in twenty five years, accompanied by Anton Fig, Tom Malone, Lew Soloff, John Simon and Jimmy Vivino, as well as a two woman chorus and string section.

The following year, in early February 1994, Al returned to the Bottom Line for his 50th birthday celebration in which he played with members of his new band plus the Blues Project & BS&T. The BS&T lineup at this show was the same as the 1993 Silver Anniversary show, with the exception of Will Lee sitting in for Fielder and John Sebastian (ex-Loving Spoonful) contributing harmonica. Colomby would not allow Kooper to use the name Blood, Sweat & Tears, so the two reunions were billed as "Child Is Father To The Man". This second show appeared as the CD Soul of a Man in 1995. According to page 20 of the CD's liner notes, Steve Katz elected not to allow his performances onto the CD, which were digitally replaced by Jimmy Vivino. Bassist Jim Fielder is said to have added some parts to the CD as well.

Blood, Sweat & Tears continues its heavy touring schedule throughout the world with its current line-up of members, some of whom have been with the band previously during the past two decades. Under the direction of Larry Dorr and founding member/owner Bobby Colomby, the band has enjoyed something of a resurgence. Blood, Sweat & Tears donates money through its "Elsie Monica Colomby" music scholarship fund to deserving schools and students who need help in prolonging their musical education, such as the victims of Hurricane Katrina.[3] Since late 2005, the band has been touring world wide with a refeshed line up and sometimes backs up former Three Dog Night singer Chuck Negron in his shows. The year 2007 witnessed the band's first world tour in a decade. From 2008 through 2010, Steve Katz even returned to appear at BS&T's shows as a special guest. 2011 saw BS&T and Chicago co-headlining a Jazz festival in Stuttgart Germany.

All of the band's albums, with the exception of Brand New Day, are currently available on compact disc. BS&T's first four albums were reissued by Sony Records in remastered editions (typically with bonus material), except for its third album, which has been reissued by Mobile Fidelity. The later Columbia albums have been reissued by Wounded Bird Records, and Rhino Records has reissued Nuclear Blues. Brand New Day was issued on CD in Russia in 2002, although the disc may not have received authorization from copyright holders.

[Demeter]

41. Merkel Says No Taboos on Euro Reform Steps to Calm Market

PANIC, ANGELA?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-31/merkel-says-no-taboos-on-euro-reform-steps-to-calm-market.html

Chancellor Angela Merkel said there should be “no taboos” in plans to rescue Europe’s single currency and euro-area leaders must step up their efforts to convince financial markets that banks will be shielded.

Merkel said she welcomed recommendations made yesterday by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, which included allowing the permanent bailout fund to channel aid directly to banks. Speaking in the Baltic Sea coast city of Stralsund today, the chancellor signaled the EU could work more closely to protect its banks, saying there are “possibilities for greater cooperation.”

“We could certainly make clearer to international financial markets what’s going on in Europe in terms of new institutions and new possibilities in order to relieve the concern that perhaps banks are unstable,” she told reporters. While repeating that leaders should ditch “taboos,” she said some recommendations being discussed would require a change in EU treaties and the trajectory for reforms would be “in the next five to 10 years.”

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU HAVE 5-10 YEARS?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-eurozone-germany-idUSBRE84U0M420120601

Deepening crisis forces Merkel to re-examine euro taboos

How far is Germany prepared to go to save the euro zone?

With Greece's future in the single currency bloc in doubt, Spain scrambling to get a grip on its ailing banks and the euro itself in freefall, the question that has preoccupied crisis watchers for over two years is back in focus like never before.

As in previous "crunch" moments during the crisis, coming up with a clear picture of Berlin's intentions is difficult...

[Demeter]

42. EU lawmakers back venture capital "passport"

CUE THE TSUNAMI!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/31/us-eu-venturecapital-idUSBRE84U0FP20120531

European Union lawmakers approved a draft law on Thursday making it easier to channel funds into start-up companies from next year, inserting a safeguard the venture capital industry fears will make the regime too expensive.

The European Parliament's economic affairs committee voted in favor of the law which creates the first pan-EU "passport" for venture capital (VC) funds, allowing them to market themselves to potential investors across the 27-country bloc.

The sector is currently small, raising only about 4 billion euros ($5 billion) annually because it is fragmented along national lines. There are private placement rules in some countries and none in others, making it harder to persuade investors to step forward and build up funds of size.

Faced with an ailing economy, policymakers hope such funds will help start ups grow into successful firms like internet voice and video service Skype, which was backed by venture capital in its early days...MORE

[Demeter]

43. Euro Shorts Reach Record as Spain, Greece Concern Damp Demand

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-01/euro-shorts-reach-record-as-spain-greece-concern-damp-demand.html

Futures traders boosted bets that the euro will depreciate against the dollar to a record high as concern increased that Spain’s banking crisis will worsen and Greece may exit the 17-nation currency union.

Hedge funds and other large speculators increased wagers on a euro drop for a fourth straight week in the five days ended May 29, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed today. The surge came during a week in which Greece’s anti-bailout political party gained in the polls and as Spanish leaders debated how to recapitalize Bankia group.

“Positions are getting more extended,” said Brian Kim, a currency strategist in Stamford, Connecticut, at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. “It’s not just because of the crisis, but also data getting weak and expectations that the ECB could ease in the second half of the year.”

The difference in the number of wagers on a decline in the shared currency compared with those on a gain, known as net shorts, was 203,415, the most since the euro’s inception in 1999. It was the third consecutive weekly record...

[Demeter]

44. A Terse Warning for Euro States: Do Something Now (DRAGHI)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/business/global/greek-banks-regain-access-to-european-central-bank-loans.html

Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president who pulled the Continent back from the financial brink late last year, is facing an even more daunting challenge as the debt crisis in Spain deepens. But this time, he may have a harder time fashioning a rescue plan that will work.

In a warning to political leaders, Mr. Draghi told members of the European Parliament on Thursday that the central bank is reaching the limits of its powers and now it is up to politicians to move quickly and decisively because the survival of the euro, the Continent’s common currency, is at stake. The structure of the currency union, he said, had become “unsustainable unless further steps are undertaken.”

The note of frustration and urgency in Mr. Draghi’s voice was a sharp contrast to six months ago, when he took over as central bank president and eased the crisis with what was considered a bold easy-money plan that extended some $1.3 trillion in low-interest loans to large banks throughout Europe to restore confidence.

But the success of that plan has been short-lived, underscoring the far more limited authority he has compared with what the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, had at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. And the few options at Mr. Draghi’s disposal help explain why pessimism is growing about Europe’s ability to contain its crisis...

[Demeter]

45. Europeans' Economic Future Has Been Hijacked by Dangerous Ideologues

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/9495-europeans-economic-future-has-been-hijacked

I have argued for some time now that the recurring crisis in the eurozone is not driven by financial markets' demands for austerity in a time of recession, as is commonly asserted. Rather, the primary cause of the crisis and its prolongation is the political agenda of the European authorities – led by the European Central Bank (ECB) and European commission. These authorities (which, if we included the IMF constitute, the "troika" that runs economic policy in the eurozone) want to force political changes, particularly in the weaker economies, that people in these countries would never vote for.

This is becoming more blatantly obvious here in Spain, where the government – run by the rightwing Popular party (PP) – shares the political agenda of the European authorities, perhaps even more than the IMF does. The PP government has taken advantage of the crisis to impose labour law changesthat will make it easier for employers to get out of industry-wide collective bargaining agreements. They have also taken away rights that workers' had to challenge unfair firings. The goal is to weaken labour as part of a longer-term strategy to dismantle the welfare state; these changes have nothing to do with resolving the current crisis, or even reducing the budget deficit. The government has also mandated huge cuts in healthcare spending, at €7bn. This is comparable to cutting 25% of Medicaid spending in the US, something that would be both devastating to the poor and politically impossible. Another €3bn will be cut from education.

Of course, the deficit reduction is making Spain's current recession worse – the Spanish government has estimated that this years' budget tightening will by itself reduce GDP by 2.6%. In a country that has about 25% unemployment and more than half its youth unemployed, this will push hundreds of thousands more people out of work.

The financial markets do have a role in this mess, and they are pushing up Spain's borrowing costs as investors and speculators sell (or short-sell) Spanish bonds. The yield on 10-year bonds has reached 6.69%. But even these rates pose no immediate crisis and the markets are vastly exaggerating the risks of a Spanish default. Spain has to roll over about €85bn of its debt this year, and even if it had to borrow all of that at current rates or higher – which is extremely unlikely – it would not make much difference in Spain's overall debt sustainability or debt service. Spain's projected interest payments on its debt for this year are still at 2.4% of GDP, which is quite moderate....Much more importantly, the ECB could easily intervene in the Spanish bond market and drive these rates down, as it did last November and at other times last year. This would come at no cost to European taxpayers and would require relatively little intervention, since private investors and speculators would immediately respond by buying Spanish bonds as their price began to rise and yields fell. The ECB won't do this because they are using the crisis to force rightwing "reforms" throughout the eurozone – not only in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy – but even in the richer countries, who in December committed themselves to budget balancing that would be politically impossible in the United States....MORE

[Demeter]

47. European money slows to a crawl

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/european-money-slows-to-a-crawl.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

European monetary aggregate data from the ECB came out this week and continues to follow the trends we have seen over the last year.

The annual growth rate of the broad monetary aggregate M3 decreased to 2.5% in April 2012, from 3.1% in March 2012.1 The three-month average of the annual growth rates of M3 in the period from February 2012 to April 2012 stood at 2.7%, unchanged from the previous period.



MORE

[Demeter]

46. Thom Hartmann: Occupy Buffalo Protesters Convinced Their City to End Its Business Ties With JPMorgan

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9543-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann-occupy-buffalo-protestors-convinced-their-city-to-end-its-business-ties-with-jpmorgan-chase-and-more

VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT AT LINK

[Demeter]

48. Wells Fargo's Stumpf Eyes Insurance Pick-Ups

THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT GLASS-STEAGAL FORBADE....AS YVES SMITH SAYS...WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_105/wells-fargo-stumpf-insurance-acquisitions-1049785-1.html

Chief Executive John Stumpf said during an investor conference in New York Thursday that the bank is in the market to buy insurance companies. A key reason: Wells is one of the largest originators of mortgages and used-car loans and that those borrowers all need insurance, he said.

"I love the insurance distribution business," he said at the Sanford C. Bernstein conference.

Stumpf's comments were first reported by Reuters. Stumpf also reiterated his interest in growing the bank's retail brokerage and wealth management offerings, Reuters reported.

Wells Fargo and some of its competitors have been opting to buy niche businesses rather than whole banks. It has not made a bank acquisition in more than three years, instead striking deals for specialty lenders, insurance brokerages and asset-management firms. In recent months it has either announced or completed deals for Merlin Securities, a prime brokerage firm, an energy-lending unit from BNP Paribas and the investment boutique EverKey Global Partners.

[Demeter]

49. Indonesia Proposes 40% Ownership Cap on Banks

http://www.cnbc.com/id/47626911/

Indonesia's central bank said on Thursday it is proposing to cap single ownership in the country's banks at a maximum 40 percent for new investment, from up to 99 percent currently.

Halim Alamsyah, the central bank deputy governor responsible for banking supervision, told analysts on a conference call that individuals or families can only own up to 30 percent of local lenders while financial institutions can own up to 40 percent.

"This new regulation will only hold for new initiatives, new investment...there will not be a retroactive regulation," said Alamsyah.

[Demeter]

50. Goldman Sachs eyes $2tln European bank firesale

http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/goldman-sachs-eyes-2tln-european-bank-firesale-20120601-1zl8t.html

US investment bank Goldman Sachs sees a silver lining in the troubles of Europe's banks, which may need to sell more than $US2 trillion ($A2.07 trillion) in assets, a top Goldman executive says.

European banks, pressed to bolster their capital cushions, are expected to dispose of $US607 billion in assets this year, the majority of them in soured debt, said Gary Cohn, president and chief operating officer of the prestigious Wall Street bank.

They could divest another $US243 billion in assets in 2013, and $US147 billion the following year, Cohn said at a Sanford Bernstein strategy conference in New York on Thursday.
Advertisement: Story continues below

According to Cohn, Europe's total bank deleveraging could exceed $US2 trillion and Goldman Sachs is "well-positioned to intermediate these asset sales".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/goldman-sachs-eyes-2tln-european-bank-firesale-20120601-1zl8t.html#ixzz1wceQERzT

[Demeter]

51. I'll take a short break here, let you all catch up

The birds are chirping, and the room is freezing. I cannot believe that AGAIN I am running the furnace in JUNE.

[DemReadingDU]

53. Embattled Enon police chief resigns

A TV segment was aired Friday evening at the 11 PM news, but has not been posted online, but here is the related article...

6/1/12 Embattled Enon police chief resigns By Mark McGregor
Village Council accepts move, approves a severance deal.

Enon Police Chief Troy Callahan resigned Friday amid “disputes involving the village that are the subject of pending and imminent court action.”

All council members, except Councilwoman Lorri Jenkins, who was absent, accepted his resignation and approved a severance deal during a special meeting late Friday afternoon.

Callahan was not present at the meeting, but told our partners at WHIO-TV via phone: “I believe that my morals, or my job ethics, were starting to be compromised. It was time for me to go.

“I stand up for what I believe in,” Callahan said.

“I wasn’t hired as a baby sitter or night watchman.

“I was hired as a police chief.”

Officials declined the Springfield New-Sun’s request for a copy of the severance deal because it was not yet signed by Callahan or current Mayor Tim Howard.

"We will release it as soon as we can,” Howard said.

more...
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/springfield-news/embattled-enon-police-chief-resigns-1385170.html



6/1/12 Enon embattled police chief steps down By Linda Collins

ENON - Following years of controversy, including multiple allegations of misconduct, the embattled Enon Chief of Police Troy Callahan is gone.

After 33 minutes of deliberation behind closed doors on Friday evening, council members reconvened from an executive session of council and unanimously approved a mediated separation agreement between the village and Callahan that is effective immediately and includes an undisclosed severance pay.

Under the agreement of Resolution 12-04, Callahan must tender his resignation as of June 1. Neither Enon Mayor Tim Howard nor village officials discussed any criminal charges at this time.

The resignation agreement comes only a week after Callahan, who served as the Enon police chief for almost four years, was placed on paid administrative assignment on May 25, following a meeting with Howard.

At that time, Howard directed the police chief to turn in his village-issued service weapon, keys, identification and credentials. Howard also instructed Callahan not to enter any village property without prior notification and permission and not to perform any duties as an employee of the village or as a police officer within the state.

Since his appointment by former Mayor Clifford Vernon in 2008, Callahan has faced several allegations of wrongdoing from village leaders and the community.

"I wonder why the village had to pay the chief to leave, because technically council is not obligated to do so," said Enon resident Ned Clark. "After all, it is the village resident's money being used."

http://fairborndailyherald.com/main.asp?sectionid=168&subsectionid=667&articleid=175741&tm=73983.42



previous posting
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1116&pid=14428

[Demeter]

67. Here's a Cheer From Michigan!

(just change prepositions "to" to "from&quot

Now for a cheer they are here, triumphant!
Here they come with banners flying,
In stalwart step they're nighing,
With shouts of vict'ry crying,
We hurrah, hurrah, we greet you now, Hail!

Far we their praises sing
For the glory and fame they've bro't us
Loud let the bells them ring
For here they come with banners flying
Far we their praises tell
For the glory and fame they've bro't us
Loud let the bells them ring
For here they come with banners flying
Here they come, Hurrah!

(chorus)

Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! FROM Michigan
The leaders and best!

Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! FROM Michigan,
The champions of the West!

(break strain)

We cheer them again
We cheer and cheer again
FROM Michigan, we cheer FROM Michigan
We cheer with might and main
We cheer, cheer, cheer
With might and main we cheer!

[DemReadingDU]

82. Thanks! and lots of cheers from Ohio

[xchrom]

54. what the hell?!?!?! it's cold outside.

***on another note -- i really would look so FAB dressed like that -- snap!

[Demeter]

68. Cold? Why it's now up to 54F!

After starting out at 48F when the birds started up at 4:30 am.

[xchrom]

55. Joblessness Rises: Are We on the Verge of Another Recession?

http://www.alternet.org/economy/155688/joblessness_rises%3A_are_we_on_the_verge_of_another_recession/

The White House must be telling itself there are still five months between now and Election Day, so the jobs picture could brighten. After all, we went through a similar mid-year slump in 2011 but came out fine.

But however you look at Friday’s jobs report, it’s a stunning reminder of how anemic the recovery has been – and how perilously close the nation is to falling into another recession.

Not only has the unemployment rate risen for the first time in almost a year, to 8.2 percent, but, more ominously, May’s payroll survey showed that employers created only 69,000 net new jobs. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised its March and April reports downward. Only 96,000 new jobs have been created, on average, over the last three months.

Put this into perspective. Between December and February, the economy added an average of 252,000 jobs each month. To go from 252,000 to 96,000, on average, is a terrible slide. At least 125,000 jobs are needed a month merely to keep up with the growth in the working-age population available to work.

Face it: The jobs recovery has stalled.

[DemReadingDU]

57. We never left the recession, it's just getting worse and worse

[xchrom]

58. HERE COMES QE3

http://www.businessinsider.com/reinhart-quantitative-easing-2012-6


Vincent Reinhart

Most people agree that yesterday's jobs report was a disaster.
To many, this just meant the chances of more quantitative easing had increased. Surely, this is why gold prices spiked yesterday.
Vincent Reinhart, Morgan Stanley's chief U.S. economist, thinks there's an 80 percent chance that a new quantitative easing program is announced at the June 19-20 FOMC meeting.
"Slower employment growth, worsening strains in European markets, and a gloomier assessment of US politicians’ ability to steer clear of the impending fiscal cliff makes it likely that the Fed will mark down its already tepid forecast," he wrote in a note to clients yesterday.
Here's what he thinks it'll look like:
As our base case, we assume the Fed would purchase $525 billion in 10-year duration equivalents, $475 billion in par amount. We expect the program to last nine months and remove $53 billion par amount of securities from the market each month – in line with previous programs.


Reinhart isn't alone in making at QE call. Bank of America's Michelle Meyer thinks QE is inevitable. The gold market also seems to agree that some form of monetary easing is on its way.




Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/reinhart-quantitative-easing-2012-6#ixzz1wderEAmg

[DemReadingDU]

59. Graham Summers - Sorry Folks, QE 3 Ain't Coming...

6/1/12 Sorry Folks, QE 3 Ain't Coming... Even the Fed Doves Admit It

Once again the US economy is tanking and everyone is talking QE 3. Sorry folks, it ain’t coming. Bernanke said point blank that it was less attractive as a monetary tool as far back as May ‘11.



Q. Since both housing and unemployment have not recovered sufficiently, why are you not instantly embarking on QE3? — Michael A. Kamperman, Waco, Tex.



Mr. Bernanke: “Going forward, we’ll have to continue to make judgments about whether additional steps are warranted, but as we do so, we have to keep in mind that we do have a dual mandate, that we do have to worry about both the rate of growth but also the inflation rate…



“The trade-offs are getting — are getting less attractive at this point. Inflation has gotten higher. Inflation expectations are a bit higher. It’s not clear that we can get substantial improvements in payrolls without some additional inflation risk. And in my view, if we’re going to have success in creating a long-run, sustainable recovery with lots of job growth, we’ve got to keep inflation under control. So we’ve got to look at both of those — both parts of the mandate as we — as we choose policy”



http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/how-bernanke-answered-your-questions/



Even the biggest monetary doves are now agreeing with Bernanke. Bill Dudley, of the New York Fed, who’s been braying for more QE for over a year had the following to say on Wednesday:



Fed's Dudley: If Growth Continues, More Fed Stimulus Unwarranted



The leader of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York repeated Wednesday his expectation that the U.S. central bank will not need to provide additional stimulus to the economy, even as he left the door open to further action.



Acknowledging the options before the central bank each have costs and benefits, New York Fed president William Dudley said "as long as the U.S. economy continues to grow sufficiently fast to cut into the nation's unused economic resources at a meaningful pace, I think the benefits from further action are unlikely to exceed the costs."



http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120530-712819.html



Folks if you’re buying into the whole QE 3 is coming on June 6th argument you’re out of your minds. This is an election year. If the Fed announces QE 3 now, Obama is done. Do you really think this is going to happen when even the Fed’s biggest doves are noting that the consequences of QE outweigh the benefits?



With that in mind, Europe will be collapsing as no one (not the ECB, not the IMF, not the ESM, and not even the Fed) will be stepping in to prop it up. The reason? NONE of these entities have the funds (Europe’s banking system is $46 trillion in size) to do so (bank runs are pushing leverage levels even higher in Spain, Greece and elsewhere).



Moreover, the political environments for their organizations (the US for the Fed and IMF and Germany for the ECB and ESM) will not permit a massive intervention. If the Fed cranks up the printing press, Obama loses any hope of re-election. If the ECB cranks up the printing press, Germany walks. End of story.



On that note, if you’re not preparing for the collapsing of the EU, you need to do so now.

more...
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-06-01/sorry-folks-qe-3-aint-coming-even-fed-doves-admit-it

[xchrom]

61. i wish i didn't live in such interesting times. nt

[Demeter]

69. Ditto

But when life hands you a bunch of lemons....squeeze the life out of those political hacks!

[Demeter]

72. So, Will PD put down the joystick and implement a REAL jobs program?

Or will he retire to Hyde Park and await his war crimes trial?

Wouldn't that be ironic? He said we had to force him--and he meant it.

[westerebus]

85. Reverse psychology.

No. We're not going to do it.

We're not going to do it now.

We thought about it and now is not the time.

There's never a good time including now to do it.

We would do it now, but it's not a good time

When the time comes, we will think about doing it.

The time may come when it becomes necessary to do it.

It may be the time, but we are not in a position that forces us to do it.

Despite all our efforts, circumstances have forced us to consider doing this at this time.

All options are on the table.

Opinions have changed as to the timing.

Given the conditions currently in effect, the time is rapidly approaching.

Today, we are launching, what we hope given the tasks before us, the following programs...

[girl gone mad]

92. I think there's still a good chance they'll do it..

though it will be structured differently than QE1 and QE2.

[westerebus]

103. I'd like to see some effort to help main street.

The FED has pumped the markets which allowed John and Jane Q Public a limited amount of time to draw down from IRAs and anything they invested in with the notable exception of the housing market. That's just not enough to get this economy back on line.

When the euro zone pops, it's going to one big shake out, may be that's what the PTB want.

[xchrom]

60. Nearly Half Of The New Jobs In America Were Created By One Industry

http://www.businessinsider.com/healthcare-employment-accounted-for-nearly-half-the-jobs-gained-2012-6

The economy added a net 69K new jobs in May, according to this morning's Non-Farm Payrolls report.
And nearly half can be attributed to one industry: Healthcare.
Over 30K new jobs were created in this industry.
What's more, as you can see in the chart below (which measures the monthly change in the industry), there hasn't been a single negative month in this industry all through the recession and recovery.




And really, over the long term, if you just look at the growth of this industry, it really is a thing of beauty.

[Demeter]

70. Yes, but I have not affection for my fellow man or woman

and I make a very lousy caregiver....

[xchrom]

62. World’s Richest Lose $24 Billion As Adelson Fortune Drops

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-01/world-s-richest-lose-24-billion-as-adelson-fortune-drops.html

The world’s richest people lost a combined $24.4 billion this week as concerns over Spain’s rising borrowing costs and the sputtering American job market caused global markets to tumble.
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson lost $2.2 billion. Shares of his Nevada-based Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) fell 10.3 percent during the week. On Friday, Macau casinos reported gambling revenue rose 7.3 percent in May, its slowest pace since July 2009. Adelson, 78, is the 22nd richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“We seem to be bogged down in a very sluggish pattern,” John Carey, who helps oversee about $220 billion at Pioneer Investments in Boston, said in a telephone interview on June 1. “The jobs report was discouraging, and it’s been discouraging the past several weeks. It reaffirms this fear that the economy is slowing.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased its 2012 gain after U.S. employers created the fewest jobs in a year and Chinese manufacturing slowed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 2.46 percent on June 1, to close at 1278.04 in New York, its biggest drop since November.

[xchrom]

65. For Europe’s sake, save us from our saviours Slavoj Žižek

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/2093631-europe-s-sake-save-us-our-saviours

Imagine a scene from a dystopian movie that depicts our society in the near future. Uniformed guards patrol half-empty downtown streets at night, on the prowl for immigrants, criminals and vagrants. Those they find are brutalised. What seems like a fanciful Hollywood image is a reality in today’s Greece. At night, black-shirted vigilantes from the Holocaust-denying neo-fascist Golden Dawn movement – which won 7 per cent of the vote in the last round of elections, and had the support, it’s said, of 50 per cent of the Athenian police – have been patrolling the street and beating up all the immigrants they can find: Afghans, Pakistanis, Algerians. So this is how Europe is defended in the spring of 2012.

The trouble with defending European civilisation against the immigrant threat is that the ferocity of the defence is more of a threat to ‘civilisation’ than any number of Muslims. With friendly defenders like this, Europe needs no enemies. A hundred years ago, G.K. Chesterton articulated the deadlock in which critics of religion find themselves: ‘Men who begin to fight the Church for the sake of freedom and humanity end by flinging away freedom and humanity if only they may fight the Church … The secularists have not wrecked divine things; but the secularists have wrecked secular things, if that is any comfort to them.’

Many liberal warriors are so eager to fight anti-democratic fundamentalism that they end up dispensing with freedom and democracy if only they may fight terror. If the ‘terrorists’ are ready to wreck this world for love of another, our warriors against terror are ready to wreck democracy out of hatred for the Muslim other. Some of them love human dignity so much that they are ready to legalise torture to defend it. It’s an inversion of the process by which fanatical defenders of religion start out by attacking contemporary secular culture and end up sacrificing their own religious credentials in their eagerness to eradicate the aspects of secularism they hate.

But Greece’s anti-immigrant defenders aren’t the principal danger: they are just a by-product of the true threat, the politics of austerity that have caused Greece’s predicament. The next round of Greek elections will be held on 17 June. The European establishment warns us that these elections are crucial: not only the fate of Greece, but maybe the fate of the whole of Europe is in the balance. One outcome – the right one, they argue – would allow the painful but necessary process of recovery through austerity to continue. The alternative – if the ‘extreme leftist’ Syriza party wins – would be a vote for chaos, the end of the (European) world as we know it.

[Demeter]

71. Dynamite in a gunpowder factory

This is horrifying news. The Athenian police are idiots.

I don't see how Greece can avoid a bloodbath under these circumstances. And it will be on Angela Merkel's head.

[Demeter]

73. The Career of Reaganite Barney Frank

PERSONALLY, I NEVER LIKED HIM, FOR THE EXACT REASON THAT HE THOUGHT HE WAS A WHEELER-DEALER, WHEN WE NEEDED STATESMEN AND POINT MEN AND FIGHTERS....MEN AND WOMEN OF PRINCIPLE.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/barney-frank-is-a-neoliberal-not-a-liberal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Most Democrats think that they belong to the party of the little guy, the party that attempts to constrain Wall Street. Sometimes a Democrat won’t fight hard enough, or, like Obama, will make political calculations that shave off the better angels of their nature. This myth says that Reagan deregulated, and Bush led us into the financial crisis. In fact, that’s a fairy tale. It was Jimmy Carter who began the deregulation of the financial services industry, who got rid of usury caps, and Bill Clinton that deregulated derivatives and ended Glass-Steagall. The rush headlong into madness has been fully bipartisan, from the get-go. It’s not a surprise that as both Republicans and Democrats shed their liberal wings, in favor of neoliberalism, financial instability increased.

The career of Barney Frank casts a large shadow upon the Democratic approach to financial matters, as he perfectly epitomizes how they behaved throughout this time period. Frank was elected in 1981, as a quintessential Reagan-era Democrat. He is frequently misunderstood, and cast as a liberal. In another era, he would have been such. But he was first and foremost interested in cutting deals, and to that end, his ideology ended up as that of a Reagan-lite. It’s unfortunate, because by the time he had real power in 2008, he had no firm basis upon which to make decisions for the broad public, and ended up consolidating wealth into the hands of a smaller and smaller number of people...Frank is and was no liberal. He’s a bank-friendly Democrat who is believes in neoliberal ideas, but wants to ensure that there is some housing for the poor...

Frank consistently doesn’t believe in pressuring politicians, even though studies show that direct action techniques (especially in the environmental sector) are effective at moving policy changes. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as Frank is first and foremost a political insider. Activism, especially liberal activism, is simply irritating to someone like that...Being an effective politician is a skill, and Frank was operationally competent at running the Financial Services Committee. He could run the floor of the House like no one else, give a magnificent quip, and ensure that every amendment in the committee passed with the vote tallies he wanted. He didn’t do any oversight, as far as I can tell, and was entirely reactive to what other officials wanted from Congress. He wasn’t a leader in any sense, more an incredibly talented follower. I suspect that early in his Congressional career, Frank realized that the big banks, Fannie and Freddie, and the Federal Reserve were the “adults” in the room, and that he wanted to be “serious” about policy-making with the adults. So he eventually became more and more bank-friendly, until the capstone in his career was passing the $700 billion TARP...

MORE

[xchrom]

74. Microwaves transmit stock trades faster than fibre optics

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/06/microwaves-transmit-stock-trad.html


Nowhere is the phrase "time is money" taken more seriously than in the world of high-frequency securities "flash" trading, where the goal is to profit by being first to react to price differences between markets. Trying to tap that market, telecommunications companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars laying submarine cables through the Arctic Ocean to shave milliseconds off the transit time between Tokyo and London.

Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that traders are turning to old-fashioned microwave relay towers to speed deals between New York and Chicago. The newspaper reports that 10 companies have filed applications with the Federal Communications Commission to build such links.

Why microwaves? Is the speed of light too slow, as traders have complained? The Journal reports that microwaves take 4.25 milliseconds to travel between New York and Chicago, beating the 6.55 milliseconds for infrared light traveling through a fibre-optic cable, attributing the difference to more bends in the cable.

That's not quite right. Both light and microwaves are electromagnetic waves, so they should travel at the cosmic speed limit of about 300,000 kilometres per second. At that speed, they should take only about 4 milliseconds to make the 1200-kilometre journey between Chicago and New York.

But that universal speed limit occurs when electromagnetic waves move through a vacuum - they travel more slowly through materials. Light signals travel through the glass core of an optical fibre at about 200,000 kilometres per second. By contrast microwaves go through air, which barely slows them down at all. In the world of high stakes flash trading, even that small difference adds up to big money.



*** that's what we need!

[Hugin]

75. Never mind what a company builds or it's contribution to a quality of life.

[Demeter]

77. Bill Clinton On Bain: 'This Is Good Work' (VIDEO)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/31/bill-clinton-bain-capital_n_1561208.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

HE LOOKS (AND SOUNDS) SENILE, IMO.

[Demeter]

78. Michael Crimmins: Jamie Dimon’s Illegal “Cookie Jar”

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/michael-crimmins-jamie-dimons-illegal-cookie-jar.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

The bad news just keeps on coming in the JP Morgan CIO scandal. We’re getting a lot of salacious detail, but the media manages to continue to miss the bigger picture. On Tuesday, David Henry at Reuters coined a wonderful catch-phrase that should prove difficult for JPMorgan to explain away to its depositors and to the rest of us - “JPMorgan dips into cookie jar to offset ‘London Whale’ losses”.

The main point of the article is that the ‘cookie jar’ contains $8 billion of unrealized gains from the profitable investment of excess deposits. The tricky bit for JPM, its depositors and inquisitive regulators, investors, external auditors, and disgusted citizens is explaining why $1 billion of that reserve was gifted to the CIO desk to cover its trading losses. Trickier still is Dimon’s pledge of the entire $8 billion to cover any further CIO trading losses. Henry reports:

‘JPMorgan Chase & Co has sold an estimated $25 billion of profitable securities in an effort to prop up earnings after suffering trading losses tied to the bank’s now-infamous “London Whale,” compounding the cost of those trades.’

The story estimates that JPM sold $25 billion of the Investment portfolio assets to generate the initial $1 billion gain used to offset the $2 billion losses Dimon disclosed in the May10 press conference. There is no word yet on the size of the losses JPM has incurred since the announcement.

The size of the investment portfolio was reported as $381 billion as of March 31, 2012. At that time the $381 billion portfolio contained underwater assets of $84 billion. Those underwater assets were worth $1.4 Billion less than JPM paid for them. JPM can’t sell them without realizing additional losses, so they will probably not be touched. That leaves investments of $297 billion that can be sold at a profit. The unrealized profit on these items was reported as $9.8 billion as of March 31, 2012. Since then JPM has liquidated assets in the portfolio to realize the $1 billion gain used to offset the CIO trading loss. Based on Reuters estimates the balance of the profitable trades remaining in the portfolio is $272 billion and the remaining unrealized gains available to cover additional losses are $7.4 billion...As a result of the sale, at least 12% of the total investment account reserves that were, in theory, set aside to protect depositors in the event of a market shock, have been raided to prop up the second quarter bottom line. But that assumes you buy the Dimon’s “excess deposits” party line. As Amar Bhide pointed out, much of these funds are actually hot international money, not the cash reserves of retail investors and ordinary businesses. So no matter how you look at this, it isn’t pretty. Either you have JPM raiding deposit reserves to preserve trader and executive pay, or you have Dimon misleading investors and regulators in depicting a profit-driven, risk-seeking trading unit engaged in “hedging” on behalf of “depositors.”, MORE

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

By Michael Crimmins, who has worked on risk management and Sarbanes Oxley compliance for major banks

[Po_d Mainiac]

95. Aw darn

Now Jamie has to morph from being the brilliant Chairman, (who knew his bank inside and out) to the 'kept in the dark' chief executive when the hearings start.

Senator X: "Mr. Dimon, were you aware that assets marked as 'money good' in actuallity had no marketable value?"

JD: "Senator, I honestly didn't know. We have instigated an internal investigation so we can fully understand how this could have happened. At this point, all indications are that this was an error by one of cleaning staff."

[Demeter]

79. Bill Black: Career Limiting Gestures (CLG): Trying to Speak Truth to Congress INSIDE HISTORY LESSON

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/bill-black-career-limiting-gestures-clg-trying-to-speak-truth-to-congress.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

At the large law firm where I began my professional career we were warned about making “career limiting gestures” (CLGs). I confess to being an expert in committing CLGs, such that I am unemployable in the federal government. I’m a serial whistle blower who blew the whistle too often and too effectively on too many prominent politicians and bosses running my agency. One of the proofs of what a great nation America is capable of being is that I survived and the prominent politicians and agency heads who tried so hard to destroy my career and reputation failed. Indeed, in the process they helped to make me an exemplar that public administration scholars use to illustrate how regulators should function. The latest act of Congress disinviting me from speaking truth to power has caused me to ruminate on CLGs. I have concluded that they are essential to effective regulation.

Regulatory CLGs during the S&L Debacle prevented a Catastrophe

(In my most recent column I described the first time that Congress disinvited me from speaking truth to power. This paragraph and the following paragraph recap that event and are mostly a pure “cut and paste” so if you read the prior article you can skip to paragraph four.) When I was the Deputy Director of FSLIC, House Banking Committee Chairman St Germain was helping Speaker Wright hold the FSLIC recapitalization bill hostage to extort favors for Texas control frauds, including Don Dixon’s Vernon Savings (which was providing prostitutes to the State of Texas’ top S&L regulator and was building towards having 96% of its ADC loans in default – which is why we referred to it as “Vermin”). The attack on our agency was that we were mad dogs biased against Texas S&Ls and causing the Texas crisis by closing too many insolvent but well-run Texas S&Ls. Our response had many elements, but one of our principal points was that the Texas S&Ls we were closing were typically control frauds. At this juncture, St Germain’s staffers made a mistake. They requested that we testify on a host of issues, but the invite letter had a zinger, premised on an article saying that the Feds were slow to prosecute frauds in the Southwest. The invite specifically called for us to respond and discuss the role of fraud in the Southwest. We used the opportunity to explain the extensive role of fraud in Texas S&L failures.

The day of the hearing, I walked toward the witness table, but was called over by St Germain’s chief of staff. He proceeded to disinvite us from testifying on the grounds that we had filed non-responsive testimony. (We had, of course, responded to every inquiry they made. They simply hated the response because we documented the enormous role that control fraud was playing in causing Texas S&Ls to fail.)

The head of our agency, Chairman Gray, made me Deputy Director of FSLIC in January 1987 because he wanted me to take the lead in seeking the recapitalization of the FSLIC fund. We had spent all but $500 million of our FSLIC fund to close as many of the worst frauds as possible. That $500 million was supposed to insure roughly $1 trillion in industry insured deposits – an industry that was insolvent by roughly $100 billion. Contrary to the Speaker’s faux facts, we had spent down the FSLIC fund from $6 billion to $500 million by closing far more California than Texas S&Ls because the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBSF) was less overwhelmed than the FHLB Dallas and sent in more receivership recommendations. FSLIC Recap was the agency’s top priority because we were running on fumes and woke up every day wondering what we would do if a national run began on S&Ls...

LENGTHY BUT WORTHY READ

[Demeter]

111. We Must Not Speak Uncomfortable Truths to Power: Why I Won’t be Briefing Congress about Derivatives

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/05/we-must-not-speak-uncomfortable-truths-to-power-why-i-wont-be-briefing-congress-about-derivatives.html

When I was the Deputy Director of FSLIC, House Banking Committee Chairman St Germain was helping Speaker Wright hold the FSLIC recapitalization bill hostage to extort favors for Texas control frauds, including Don Dixon’s Vernon Savings (which was providing prostitutes to the State of Texas’ top S&L regulator and was building towards having 96% of its ADC loans in default – which is why we referred to it as “Vermin”). The attack on our agency was that we were mad dogs biased against Texas S&Ls and causing the Texas crisis by closing too many insolvent but well-run Texas S&Ls. Our response had many elements, but one of our principal points was that the Texas S&Ls we were closing were typically control frauds. At this juncture, St Germain’s staffers made a mistake. They requested that we testify on a host of issues, but the invite letter had a zinger, premised on an article saying that the Feds were slow to prosecute frauds in the Southwest. The invite specifically called for us to respond and discuss the role of fraud in the Southwest. We used the opportunity to explain the extensive role of fraud in Texas S&L failures.

The day of the hearing, I walked toward the witness table, but was called over by St Germain’s chief of staff. He proceeded to disinvite us from testifying on the grounds that we had filed non-responsive testimony. (We had, of course, responded to every inquiry they made. They simply hated the response because we documented the enormous role that control fraud was playing in causing Texas S&Ls to fail.)

Today, I received definitive word that I had been disinvited from a bipartisan briefing of members of Congress on the subject of financial derivatives. I have deleted the name of the staffer because he is not the issue. The relevant email thread is below.

The member of Congress putting the event together is one of the strongest advocates of the need for banking reform. I have assisted the Member’s staff in the past in such efforts. The Member’s chief of staff called me today. His position is that I was never invited to participate and that it was unfortunate that I booked the flights and put UMKC on the hook for the non-refundable fares and hotel before informing his office that I was accepting their inquiry about participation (as opposed to invitation). He explains that it is impossible physically to have me participate and that the decision not to have me participate has nothing to do with concerns about “balance” or “bank bashing.” I emphasize also that, unlike St Germain’s disinvitation the email thread states an interest in inviting me to speak at future briefings. I hope that such invitations will be made. The Member and the Member’s staff were polite while St Germain’s chief of staff was deliberately rude...Nevertheless, I think that the Chief of Staff’s phone call to me explaining their view that I was never invited makes my point. We all know that is simple to add a panelist. What is really going on is that things are so toxic in Congress now, and the largest banks are so sensitive to any criticism, that the progressives fear that any criticism of bank practices that will cause the next financial crisis will be considered “bank bashing” and will cause Republicans to be unwilling to participate. The fact that I have a 30 year record of non-partisan service to the nation on banking matters, including service as a banker with the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, does not count in such a world. We must not speak uncomfortable truths to power. You will see that it is his staff that informed me that the concerns that prevented me from joining the panel were maintaining a “consensus” about the panel’s “balance” and avoiding “bank bashing.”

[Demeter]

80. Egypt's Mubarak gets life in prison for protesters' deaths

I WONDER IF I COULD STAND THE HEAT IN EGYPT...JUST TO LIVE IN A JUST NATION

HOW MANY GENERATIONS BEFORE WE HAVE AN AMERICAN SPRING? WHEN DOES THE 40 YEARS START?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/06/mubarak-gets-life-in-prison-for-deaths-of-egypt-protesters.html

Toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for complicity in the murder of hundreds of anti-government protesters, ending a raucous trial that impassioned the Arab world and shook autocratic regimes across the region.

The verdict stunned this emotionally battered nation and spurred cheers from cities to distant villages. Mubarak and Habib Adli, his former interior minister, who was also sentenced to life, listened to their fates from behind the mesh of a defendants’ cage. Sitting on a stretcher, Mubarak, dressed in a striped shirt and beige jacket, was stone-faced behind dark sunglasses.

The court found no evidence that Mubarak ordered the killings, but blamed him for not using his power to stop days of bloodshed...

I'D LIKE TO SEE THE PREDATOR DRONE IN SIMILAR STATE

[Demeter]

87. Obama Is More Likely To Approve Bombing Iran Than Romney

http://mjayrosenberg.com/2012/05/29/is-obama-more-likely-to-approve-bombing-iran-than-romney/

At the rate we are going, the pro-Iran war lobby could get the war it wants in the next few months, right during the U.S. election campaign. AIPAC and its leadership cadre in Congress (led by Rep. Howard Berman) are now insisting the United States permit ZERO enrichment by Iran, i.e, denying it its rights under the NPT. Berman is a Democrat, speaking for Democrats, and his defection to the full Netanyahu approach makes it likely Obama will fold and give up on negotiations. Given that no Iranian government would ever accept such terms, a war is much more likely.

Many consider that impossible. After all, if President George W. Bush flat-out refused to give Israel permission to attack Iran , why would President Obama say “yes.” The big difference is politics. When the Israelis (via their neocon proxies Vice President Cheney, Elliot Abrams, and others) demanded that Israel be allowed to attack before the ostensibly dovish Obama became president, the hawks had no cards to play. Bush was leaving office and had no need to please the war crowd. Besides he knew that they had destroyed his presidency by duping him into invading Iraq. Why would he give them Iran when, as he told them, no one could predict the implications of attacking. In short, he responded to the idea of war in Iran as he should have reacted to the idea of invading Iraq: with skepticism. His “no” ended the discussion, leaving the war crowd despondent, believing that that their chances of success with Obama were nil. Bush would have been unlikely to agree (following the Iraq failure) even if he had political considerations to worry about. Bush did not rely on AIPAC oriented donors to bankroll his campaigns. Republican presidential candidates (and that includes the likely 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney) are almost entirely funded by business interests. Name a special interest (the old fashioned kind that donates to campaigns to ultimately put money in their own pockets like the Chamber of Commerce or Koch Brothers) and you will find it well-represented among GOP donors. But not the Israel lobby crowd which, no matter what you may think about it, is not about personal greed. Check out the list of Romney’s top donors. These are not people who care about the West Bank, Iran nuclear enrichment or foreign policy issues in general. Their special interest is themselves.

This is not the case with Democratic donors. With corporate money flowing so heavily to the Republicans, Democrats need other sources. One of the Democrats’ largest sources of funding comes from the “pro-Israel” crowd which, like Hollywood executives, have stuck with Democrats through thick and thin. Although the single-issue Israel types, would like to see Jews move toward the Republicans, they don’t. To their credit, even Jewish multi-millionaire business people tend to be liberals who reject the Republican party as being alien and, to be frank, hostile to all minorities – including Jews. Most of these wealthy Jewish donors do not give to Democrats out of hawkishness on Israel although AIPAC and other “pro-Israel” organizations have successfully conveyed the falsehood that they do. In fact, as the polls demonstrate, Jews support Democrats because of their preference for a liberal, tolerant, economically just America not as a form of insurance that the U.S. will not push Israel toward peace. Nonetheless, the lobby has been very successful in conveying that if a donor’s name is Goldberg, the money is about Israel, and now Iran, even though it’s more likely to be about opposing racism or environmental destruction. That is why Obama treads so lightly on all issues that touch the Middle East. His aides tell him that even the slightest deviation from the Netanyahu line will cause “pro-Israel” money to start flowing to the Republicans. That is also why Vice President Biden met with pro-Israel groups right before the just-concluded Iran negotiations to assure them that the United States will not deviate an inch from Netanyahu’s. That commitment produced our refusal to even discuss the easing of sanctions in exchange for Iranian commitments to limit nuclear enrichment. And it was that refusal (and particularly the refusal to defer new onerous sanctions) that killed this round of negotiations and maybe negotiations altogether. After all, why would Iran give up anything unless we are prepared to lift sanctions? What country gives up anything in exchange for nothing or, at best, very little? All this leads me to conclude that Netanyahu may decide to attack during the Obama presidency rather than wait for Romney. One, Romney is unlikely to win. And, two, if he does win, why would he be more willing to approve an attack than George Bush was?

Sure, his campaign rhetoric is stridently hawkish and he has indicated that neocons will dominate his foreign policy team. But that could be just campaign talk, just another Romney attempt to look crazy right to solidify support among the crazy right. As president, however, he is likely to understand, as Bush did, that, as a Republican, he is free to do what he wants to do on the Middle East including refusing to authorize an Israeli attack. After all, unlike Obama, AIPAC-connected donors will not have played a significant role in his election and are unlikely to support him for re-election. Besides, pure business types like Romney (and his supporters) can be surprisingly dovish when it comes to disrupting the world economy not to mention their beloved oil market. These calculations are all obvious enough that one can assume they have occurred to Netanyahu and his lobby too. Romney, for all his tough talk, is both a question mark and fairly immune to the intimidation of U.S. policymakers that is Netanyahu and his lobby’s stock-in-trade. Obama, on the other hand, has been led to believe he is utterly vulnerable to the lobby and its donors – which is why he has proven to be such a pushover for Netanyahu over the past three years. In short, unless somehow there is a breakthrough in the next round of Iran negotiations (June 18 in Moscow), a breakthrough Netanyahu and his lobbyare working hard to prevent, war could be looming. And not under President Romney. Under President Obama. Yes, that could, in the end, cost him the election, but that is not what he is likely to hear from his top advisers these days: the people who raise the money. As always, they will tell Obama that he has no choice but to give Netanyahu what he wants. If past is prologue, he will.

THIS MAKES MORE SENSE OUT OF THE NONSENSE THAT HAS BEEN GOING ON THAN I AM COMFORTABLE ABOUT...

[Demeter]

88. The Morning Plum: If you vote out Obama, you'll feel better By Greg Sargent (ROMNEY CAMPAIGN)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-morning-plum-if-you-vote-out-obama-it-will-make-you-feel-better/2012/06/01/gJQA1svh6U_blog.html

...This may be the most explicit version we’ve seen of the Romney camp’s intended message: if you’re angry or frustrated by your current circumstances, or about how things are going, vote the guy in charge out, and it will make you feel better. The game plan: to get swing voters to cast their vote almost entirely as an expression of frustration and disillusionment with the economic status quo, and by extension with Obama himself, without thinking too hard about the true nature of the alternative Romney is offering.

Or, as Steve Kornacki put it recently: “If you don’t think the economy’s in good shape, don’t ask questions — just vote the guy in charge out.”

With jobs numbers like today’s, it just may work...

&feature=player_embedded

[Demeter]

90. Heads Up! Big Lunar Eclipse Monday

for those who follow that sort of thing

[Roland99]

97. I'll have to peek out the bedroom window Monday morning to catch it during moon set

[westerebus]

104. We're doomed.

[Demeter]

105. Well yeah, but don't blame it on the eclipse

[westerebus]

140. Certainly no fault of the moon.

It's the few suit wearing savages beneath it that are culpable for their transgressions.

[hamerfan]

93. Musical Interlude (no BS&T)

One of my favorite songwriters. Bruce Cockburn. Call It Democracy:

&feature=related

Thank you, Canada, for this treasure. His whole catalog is good. One more (for the road):

&feature=related

[Roland99]

96. MarketWatch: Watch for avalanche of sell orders Monday

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2012/06/01/watch-for-avalanche-of-sell-orders-monday/

Monday’s trading will be the first opportunity stock investors in the U.S. will have to act on a major technical violation that occurred at Friday’s close: The breaking of the 200-day moving average.

This could result in an avalanche of sell signals hitting the market at Monday’s open, since many technical analysts use the 200-day moving average as the dividing line between bull and bear markets. They consider the primary trend to be up so long as the market is trading above its 200-day moving average, and that this trend turns to bearish whenever the market closes below this average—and that is what happened at Friday’s close.

Though the market doesn’t always fall off a cliff upon breaking the 200-day moving average, that certainly is what happened the last time the market broke this key technical level.

That occurred last Aug. 2, on which day the S&P 500 closed at 1,251.46. At its intra-day low just one week later, on Aug. 9, the S&P stood 150 points lower at 1101.54—an extraordinary decline of 12% in just five trading sessions.

[Demeter]

100. Fits in with the eclipse. Thanks for the warning

[Demeter]

101. Most Aid to Athens Circles Back to Europe

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/business/global/athens-no-longer-sees-most-of-its-bailout-aid.html?_r=1

Greece continues to receive billions of euros in emergency assistance from a so-called troika of lenders overseeing its bailout. But almost none of the money is going to the Greek government to pay for vital public services. Instead, it is flowing directly back into the troika’s pockets. The European bailout of 130 billion euros ($163.4 billion) that was supposed to buy time for Greece is mainly servicing only the interest on the country’s debt — while the Greek economy continues to struggle.

If that seems to make little sense economically, it has a certain logic in the politics of euro-finance. After all, the money dispensed by the troika — the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission — comes from European taxpayers, many of whom are increasingly wary of the political disarray that has afflicted Athens and clouded the future of the euro zone. As they pay themselves, though, the troika members are also withholding other funds intended to keep the Greek government in operation.

Last week, the Athens office that tracks revenue said Greece could run out of money by July. If so, Greece could default on its debts — except those due to the central bank, the monetary fund and the European Union.

“Greece will not default on the troika because the troika is paying themselves,” said Thomas Mayer, a senior adviser at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt.

In an elaborate payment system that began after the May 6 election that brought down the Greek government and is meant to ensure that the Greeks do not touch the cash, the big three creditors are now wiring bailout payments to an escrow account in Greece. There the money sits for two or three days — before much of it is sent back to the troika as interest payments on the Greek bonds that Europe accepted under terms of the bailout deal struck in February.

About three-quarters of Greece’s debt, or $229 billion, is now effectively owned by one of the three troika members, according to estimates by the investment bank UBS.

The central bank, in particular, is eager to be paid back, said Mr. Mayer, who has followed the cash. To help calm volatile financial markets, it bought billions of euros in Greek bonds that come due monthly. “It’s why they want to get paid back every month now,” he said. “The E.C.B. bought at a high price and now insists on being paid in full.” Some people close to the situation say the troika is also trying to put financial pressure on Greece to do what it can to collect tax revenue from an increasingly devastated economy. The managing director of the I.M.F., Christine Lagarde, prompted a furor in Greece over the weekend when she chastised Greeks for not paying taxes, in an interview with The Guardian. A Greek government adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity, for fear of alienating the European lenders, said of the troika: “They made sure that the sum for domestic spending is kept small enough to force Greece to dramatically raise its own revenues.”

On its face, the situation seems absurd. The European authorities are effectively lending Greece money so Greece can repay the money it borrowed from them....Since May 2010, Greece has been sent about $177 billion in European taxpayer money to keep the country afloat and ward off a bigger crisis that might threaten the entire currency union. Of that amount, a full two-thirds has gone to pay off bondholders and the troika. Only a third has been earmarked to finance government operations, with only a tiny sliver spent on stimulus projects for the anemic economy...

[kickysnana]

102. Xpost Yesterday: The Lowest Interest Rates in History

If this was posted yesterday sorry for the dupe, I missed it.
Edited to add: (Come to think of it I seem to have missed the last few days. Heat + MS = duh!)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101630404

[Demeter]

106. Greek Left Prepares Nationalization of Energy/Telecom Industries, Key Infrastructure

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/greek-left-prepares-nationalization-of-energytelecom-industries-key-infrastructure.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

What happens when a society’s social contract collapses? That question is being posed in Greece right now. Often what happens is that so-called “swamp things”, like the Greek neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn, emerge. Often, the left begins articulating a genuine alternative vision. And the corrupt rotted center calls in every chip it can, hoping to preserve patronage and corruption. Right now, much of the Euro-elite, when not panicking about Spanish borrowing costs, is watching the anti-bailout Greek left (Syriza) and the pro-bailout center right (New Democracy) running neck and neck in the polls. If Greece goes anti-bailout, it’s going to create tremendous political uncertainty. With much of the left in Europe looking to Greece, a win by Syriza in mid-June could spark similar anti-bailout left-wing alternatives, much as the Arab Spring ignited the Occupy movement.

So what does Syriza actually want? Their political platform is fairly interesting. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras admires FDR’s nationalization of the American banking system in the 1930s and the stimulus pursued by Obama in 2009. But it seems like he may go much further.

SYRIZA will present on Friday its economic manifesto with nine major sectors, including privatization and nationalization issues, salaries and pensions increases and the introduction of a new tax system.

Proto Thema newspaper published an article last Sunday saying that members of SYRIZA announced different measures each time. As a result, the party decided to give a complete answer to such allegations.

One of the party’s main issues will be the nationalization of several former public institutions, including telecommunications and energy companies, as well as airports and ports. SYRIZA members state that, despite yet unknown, their party will find the appropriate way of re-nationalizing these companies, when the time is good for such an action.

Furthermore, the economic team of SYRIZA appears to have found some ways of increasing the country’s income, so that they can make a new tax system based on social justice, development and productive reconstruction. The minimum wage change is a crucial subject, which SYRIZA promises to improve.

And as the Memorandum is of great importance for Greeks, SYRIZA does not clarify whether they will abolish it or just renegotiate it. “It depends on the Europeans’ reactions,” they state, but also stress the fact that the funding provided by Troika serves only their interests and not its budget.

If this platform is for real, and it’s hard to know if it is, it looks like a very aggressive plan to remove the power structure currently running Greece. Shipping, banking, energy, telecom AND cracking down on tax fraud is, well, a lot. It’s not Communism, but it is something we haven’t seen much of except in Iceland. It is an attempt to actually have the state take power from private financial and corporate interests. While we often look at the financial system as a set of interlinked banking institutions and markets, the reality is that it’s just a place where a small group decides how our resources will be allocated. And the austerity debate is a technocratic argument dressing up what is really going on – a giant class war.

You can see why the Eurocrats are terrified of Syriza. It’s not just about financial contagion. As goes Greece, so might go Spain. And so forth. Of course, should the Eurocrats prevent Syriza from being governing, waiting in the wings is the neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn, and they want to place mines on the border to prevent immigrants from getting into Greece and are talking about committing violence against “traitors” against Greece. Personally, I’d take Syriza, even if I owned a lot of European bank debt or had a stake in Greek shipping interests.

[Demeter]

107. Marcy Wheeler: Will Treasury Hire the Guy Who Allowed JP Morgan Help Iran Launder Money?

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/marcy-wheeler-will-treasury-hire-the-guy-who-allowed-jp-morgan-help-iran-launder-money.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Two weeks ago, Treasury fired the guy in charge of FinCEN (the part of Treasury that enforces and tracks Suspicious Activities Reports), Jim Freis, reportedly because he wanted to focus on law enforcement and financial crimes, rather than a more focused counterterrorism focus.

The issue wasn’t Fincen’s speed or personality conflicts, but more about control. To put it simply, Treasury wants more oversight of Fincen’s activities, including additional focus on international areas such as terrorist financing. “Fincen ought to be better integrated and tethered to the policy issues that relate to money laundering, terrorist financing and economic sanctions on behalf of the U.S. government. It’s not as well integrated as it should be,” said a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Freis saw Fincen’s role as more independent, and was primarily concerned with the agency’s role in supporting law enforcement agencies as well as tackling other financial crimes such as mortgage fraud.

And if that isn’t enough to make you wonder about this Administration’s commitment to making banks obey the law, consider that the apparent leading candidate to replace Freis is JP Morgan’s anti-money laundering VP, William Langford. In December 2009, when JPMC extended a $2.9 million loan to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping lines, in violation of WMD sanctions, Langford was the VP at JPMC in charge of money laundering. He was there, too, when JPMC decided not to self-disclose the loan until they had almost been repaid. In the months before March 2011, when JPMC repeatedly claimed it didn’t have 20 documents relating to a wire transfer with Khartoum? Langford was at JPMC for that too. The 9 wire transfers since April 2006 in violation of a range of sanctions? He was there for most of those. And he was probably at JPM–though just barely–when JPMC transferred $20M in gold bullion–a ton of gold!–for an Iranian bank?

Now, presumably all this money laundering and sanctions violating happened in remote corners of JPMC, far from Langford’s views (though you would think his office would be involved in the non-responsive answers about the Khartoum documents and decisions about when and whether to self-disclose some of these violations). There is no reason to believe Langford facilitated any of this money laundering and sanctions violating.

Still, even aside from the whole revolving door problem, from the centrality of JPMC in both the MF Global and JPMC’s own Fail Whale investigations, it seems like Treasury might hire someone who couldn’t keep one bank in line, much less all of them.

[Demeter]

108. This Week in Poverty: Will Janitors Strike in Houston?

http://www.thenation.com/blog/168183/week-poverty-janitors-strike-houston

In Houston, more than 3,200 janitors clean the offices of some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world: JP Morgan Chase, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Wells Fargo, KBR and Marathon Oil, to name a few. For their labor, they are paid an hourly wage of $8.35 and earn an average of $8,684 annually. Two janitors together would earn about $17,300 a year—still well below the poverty line of $22,314 for a family of four.

Yesterday, the contract between the janitors and the cleaning contractors expired. SEIU Local 1 spent the past month trying to reach an agreement to raise the janitors’ hourly wage to $10 over the next three years. But the contractors countered with an offer of a $0.50 pay raise phased in over five years and—according to SEIU spokesperson Paloma Martinez—said that they “wouldn’t budge.” The contractors claimed that the building owners and tenants—the aforementioned corporations—aren’t willing to pay anything close to a living wage.

In response the janitors voted to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike. For workers already struggling on sub-poverty wages, this was no easy decision. “The workers were really insulted by the offer,” said Martinez. “The contractors said they weren’t going to move and they blamed it on the building owners, but we all know the state of the real estate market here.” With the city enjoying the fruits of the energy industry, Houston’s commercial real estate market is indeed the best performing market in the United States in terms of demand. It has the highest number of new corporate real estate projects in the nation, vacancy rates below the national average and rising rental rates.

Nevertheless, the city’s janitors are among the lowest paid in the nation, with workers in cities with far weaker real estate markets earning a significantly higher hourly wage: Cincinnati ($9.80), Cleveland ($10.30), Detroit ($10.97) and Chicago ($15.45) are a few examples. “While many of us do all that we can to provide a decent living for our families, we are paid poverty wages and are full of despair not knowing how are we going to get to the end of the month,” said Hernan Trujillo, who cleans offices in downtown Houston and has been active in organizing his colleagues. “We can’t provide education for our children or buy medicine when we get sick.” MUCH MORE

[Demeter]

109. U.S. Winds Down Longer Benefits for the Unemployed

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/business/economy/extended-federal-unemployment-benefits-begin-to-wind-down.html

Hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans are receiving their final unemployment checks sooner than they expected, even though Congress renewed extended benefits until the end of the year. The checks are stopping for the people who have the most difficulty finding work: the long-term unemployed. More than five million people have been out of work for longer than half a year. Federal benefit extensions, which supplemented state funds for payments up to 99 weeks, were intended to tide over the unemployed until the job market improved.

In February, when the program was set to expire, Congress renewed it, but also phased in a reduction of the number of weeks of extended aid and effectively made it more difficult for states to qualify for the maximum aid. Since then, the jobless in 23 states have lost up to five months’ worth of benefits. Next month, an additional 70,000 people will lose benefits earlier than they presumed, bringing the number of people cut off prematurely this year to close to half a million, according to the National Employment Law Project. That estimate does not include people who simply exhausted the weeks of benefits they were entitled to.

Separate from the Congressional action, some states are making it harder to qualify for the first few months of benefits, which are covered by taxes on employers. Florida, where the jobless rate is 8.7 percent, has cut the number of weeks it will pay and changed its application procedures, with more than half of all applicants now being denied. The federal extension of jobless benefits has been a contentious issue in Washington. Republicans worry that it prolongs joblessness and say it has not kept the unemployment rate down, while Democrats argue that those out of work have few alternatives and that the checks are one of the most effective forms of stimulus, since most of it is spent immediately. After the most recent compromise reached in February, another renewal seems unlikely.

The expiration of benefits is one factor contributing to what many economists refer to as a “fiscal cliff,” or a drag on the economy at the end of this year when tax cuts and recession-related spending measures will all come to an end unless Congress acts. The Congressional Budget Office warned last week that the combination could contribute to another recession next year...MORE

[Demeter]

110. Job recovery is scant for Americans in prime working years

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/job-recovery-is-scant-for-americans-in-prime-working-years/2012/05/29/gJQAnza9zU_story.html

The proportion of Americans in their prime working years who have jobs is smaller than it has been at any time in the 23 years before the recession, according to federal statistics, reflecting the profound and lasting effects that the downturn has had on the nation’s economic prospects.

By this measure, the jobs situation has improved little in recent years. The percentage of workers between the ages of 25 and 54 who have jobs now stands at 75.7 percent, just a percentage point over what it was at the downturn’s worst, according to federal statistics. Before the recession the proportion hovered at 80 percent.

While the unemployment rate may be the most closely watched gauge of the economy in the presidential campaign, this measure of prime-age workers captures more of the ongoing turbulence in the job market. It reflects “missing workers” who have stopped looking for work and aren’t included in the unemployment rate. During their prime years, Americans are supposed to be building careers and wealth to prepare for their retirement. Instead, as the indicator reveals, huge numbers are on the sidelines. “What it shows is that we are still near the bottom of a very big hole that opened in the recession,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. The falloff has been sharpest for men, for whom the proportion had been on a slow decline before the recession. The percentage of prime-age men who are working is smaller now than it has been in any time before the recession, going all the way back to 1948, according to federal statistics. The proportion of prime-age women is at a low not seen since 1988...MORE

[Demeter]

112. Explaining the Rise of Unemployment: Mostly lack of Demand

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/05/explaining-the-rise-of-unemployment-mostly-lack-of-demand.html

Via the NBER, evidence from Atif Mian and Amir Sufi that "Weak household balance sheets and the resulting aggregate demand shock are the main reasons for historically high unemployment in the U.S. economy." This is also evidence for the "balance sheet recession" characterization of the downturn that many of us have been advocating (and it points toward balance sheet repair type policies that go along with this perspective as a key component of attempts to help the economy recover):

Explaining the Rise of Unemployment, by Laurent Belsie, NBER Digest: Unemployment rose dramatically during the Great Recession because highly indebted consumers slashed their spending, according to Atif Mian and Amir Sufi writing in What Explains High Unemployment? The Aggregate Demand Channel (NBER Working Paper No. 17830). They find that shocks to household balance sheets account for 4 million of the 6.2 million jobs lost in the United States between March 2007 and March 2009.

The stage was set for a substantial shock to household balance sheets during the housing bubble. Housing prices rose sharply, but homeowners borrowed even more aggressively. Between 2001 and 2007, household debt doubled from $7 trillion to $14 trillion. Homeowners' debt-to-GDP ratio rose sharply, from 0.7 to 1.0, during the same period. When housing prices collapsed, households were stuck with much higher debt, forcing them to cut back spending, which has shaped the depth and length of the economic slump that followed.

Earlier research by these authors and others had already demonstrated the link between dramatically weaker household balance sheets and plummeting consumer spending. In high-debt U.S. counties, housing prices fell by nearly 30 percent from 2006 to 2010. Households in those counties slashed consumption of durable goods and even cut back grocery spending. In the 10 percent of U.S. counties with the lowest debt-to-income ratios, house prices didn't fall and the fall in consumption wasn't as dramatic. Consumption of durable goods fell 20 percentage points more in high-debt counties than in low-debt counties.

The high-debt counties got that way, at least in part, because of the housing bubble. During the boom, housing prices didn't rise uniformly: the biggest increases came in counties with terrain or regulatory environments that made it more difficult to build new homes. In turn, homeowners in those counties were more apt to boost their debt to unprecedented levels. This finding is important not only because it explains the variability of debt, but also because it points out the absence of a construction boom and bust in many of the most indebted counties.

Mian and Sufi find that employment losses in the non-tradable sector were greater in the U.S. counties with the most highly indebted households than in other counties. In the tradable sector, however, employment losses were more uniform across the United States. The relationship between high debt-to-income ratios and the sharp decline in non-tradable goods purchases allows the authors to estimate the impact of shocks to balance sheets, and therefore on aggregate demand and on nation-wide employment...MORE

[Demeter]

116. Euro zone unemployment hits record high, seen rising

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/uk-eurozone-unemployment-idUKBRE8500EW20120601

Euro zone unemployment has hit a record high, and job losses are likely to keep climbing as the bloc's devastating debt crisis eats away at businesses' ability to hire workers while indebted governments continue to cut staff.

Around 17.4 million people were out of work in the 17-nation euro zone in April, or 11 percent of the working population, the highest level since records began in 1995, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Friday.

"This 11 percent level is going to continue edging up in the coming months and probably until the end of the year," said Francois Cabau, an economist at Barclays Capital who sees the euro zone's economy contracting 0.1 percent this year.

"The economic activity situation tells you the story of the labour market. There's been basically no economic growth since the fourth quarter of last year and indicators are pointing to very weak growth momentum for the second quarter," he said...MORE

[Demeter]

113. Jon Corzine Has Sold This Penthouse With A Great Waterfront View (AT A LOSS)

http://www.businessinsider.com/sold-former-mf-global-ceo-jon-corzines-waterfront-penthouse-in-hoboken-2012-5

Real estate news of the weekend: Disgraced former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine finally managed to unload his waterfront Hoboken penthouse—but he sold it at a discount for $2.8 million, a small drop from his asking price of $2.9 million when the apartment first went on the market in January, according to Bloomberg.

Furthermore, the selling price indicates that Corzine lost 14% on the sale since he bought it for $3.26 million in 2008—that's probably because he really needed the money.

As many know, Corzine is currently embroiled in the aftermath of the MF Global bankruptcy, as many have placed the blame on him for the brokerage firm's demise and the resulting $1.2 billion shortfall in customer funds. Investigators still have made little progress in locating the missing funds, and Corzine has also been sued by multiple former customers of MF Global.

The penthouse has 2 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, with views of the Hudson River and Manhattan.

PHOTO TOUR OF APT. AT LINK

[Demeter]

114. This Is The $4.7 Million DC House DSK Can't Get Off The Market

http://www.businessinsider.com/dsk-cant-sell-dc-home-2012-1#ixzz1kz6ae5Mp

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Anne Sinclair put their Washington D.C. house on the market, they clearly thought it would sell right away. Despite the fact that they bought it for $4 million in 2007, they put the listing price at $5.2 million.

Apparently, though, that's too high. After two months on the market the beautiful Northwest D.C. three-bedroom still needs help attracting a buyers, so DSK has dropped the price by $500,000.

So now is the time to check it out, since it's probably closer your price range.

PHOTO TOUR AT LINK

[Po_d Mainiac]

138. Is the maid service paid up in advance?

[Demeter]

115. NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT

[xchrom]

117. i put on my finest outfit for you all today...

[Tansy_Gold]

123. I knew it even before I looked!

Y'know, for all my socialist talk, I've always had a soft spot for Liz and Phil and the kids. I mean, they didn't choose to be born who they are or to be raised the way they were. I've always gotten the impression that Liz and Phil married because they loved each other; and I knew from the day of the wedding of the year 1981 that it was a mistake. (Chuck is exactly a month and a day younger than I, so we kinda have some common ground there, LOL.)

I'm not saying everything they've ever done is good or right or sensible or doesn't deserve a huge WTF! shout out, but I can think of worse people.


Happy Jubilee, Liz, honey! You're lookin' great! (Well, except for those bows. They're kinda tacky. Looks like they should've been replace a couple of jubilees ago.)

[xchrom]

133. I do love the Royals & no they're not perfect.

I must say the crown might need a trip to the hat maker for a more comfortable fit.

[Po_d Mainiac]

137. That was nice of u to talk about her that way

So who are u, and why are posting as TG?

[Demeter]

118. Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story By Omar R. Valdimarsson

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-20/icelandic-anger-brings-record-debt-relief-in-best-crisis-recovery-story

Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association. “You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.” The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland’s economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don’t want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year.

The island’s households were helped by an agreement between the government and the banks, which are still partly controlled by the state, to forgive debt exceeding 110 percent of home values. On top of that, a Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 found loans indexed to foreign currencies were illegal, meaning households no longer need to cover krona losses. “The lesson to be learned from Iceland’s crisis is that if other countries think it’s necessary to write down debts, they should look at how successful the 110 percent agreement was here,” said Thorolfur Matthiasson, an economics professor at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, in an interview. “It’s the broadest agreement that’s been undertaken.” Without the relief, homeowners would have buckled under the weight of their loans after the ratio of debt to incomes surged to 240 percent in 2008, Matthiasson said.

Iceland’s $13 billion economy, which shrank 6.7 percent in 2009, grew 2.9 percent last year and will expand 2.4 percent this year and next, the Paris-based OECD estimates. The euro area will grow 0.2 percent this year and the OECD area will expand 1.6 percent, according to November estimates. Housing, measured as a subcomponent in the consumer price index, is now only about 3 percent below values in September 2008, just before the collapse. Fitch Ratings last week raised Iceland to investment grade, with a stable outlook, and said the island’s “unorthodox crisis policy response has succeeded.”

Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn....

Legal Aftermath

Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges. Larus Welding, the former CEO of Glitnir Bank hf, once Iceland’s second biggest, was indicted in December for granting illegal loans and is now waiting to stand trial. The former CEO of Landsbanki Islands hf, Sigurjon Arnason, has endured stints of solitary confinement as his criminal investigation continues. That compares with the U.S., where no top bank executives have faced criminal prosecution for their roles in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission said last year it had sanctioned 39 senior officers for conduct related to the housing market meltdown. The U.S. subprime crisis sent home prices plunging 33 percent from a 2006 peak. While households there don’t face the same degree of debt relief as that pushed through in Iceland, President Barack Obama this month proposed plans to expand loan modifications, including some principal reductions. According to Christensen at Danske Bank, “the bottom line is that if households are insolvent, then the banks just have to go along with it, regardless of the interests of the banks.”

[xchrom]

121. WORLD BANK BOSS: We're Headed For "Impending Catastrophe" -- "A Rerun Of Great Panic Of 2008"

http://www.businessinsider.com/world-bank-boss-impending-catastrophe-a-rerun-of-great-panic-of-2008-2012-6



The head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, is about to step down after a 5-year term.
That means he can say what he really thinks.
Here, via the Daily Mail, is what he really thinks about what's going on in Europe and the global financial markets:


financial markets face a rerun of the Great Panic of 2008.
It's ‘far from clear that eurozone leaders have steeled themselves’ for the looming catastrophe amid fears of a Greek exit from the single currency and meltdown in Spain.
‘Events in Greece could trigger financial fright in Spain, Italy and across the eurozone. The summer of 2012 offers an eerie echo of 2008.... ‘If Greece leaves the eurozone, the contagion is impossible to predict, just as Lehman had unexpected consequences.’
'There will not be time for meetings of finance ministers to discuss the outlook and debate the politics.... 'In panicked markets, investors flee to safe assets, sparking other flames.’


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/world-bank-boss-impending-catastrophe-a-rerun-of-great-panic-of-2008-2012-6#ixzz1wjcdH5sC

[xchrom]

122. A European Cold War?

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/06/03/inenglish/1338725698_465027.html

Europe is the world's most important economy. It is the second-largest trading bloc on the planet, the largest donor of aid, and a military superpower. Its aggregated public deficit will be three percent of GDP this year. Its welfare state has been a beacon for decades. It continues to exercise enormous cultural and social influence around the planet. It is the birthplace of democracy, and is also a major international financial center. With the exception of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and the conflict in the Balkans, it has enjoyed peace for more than 60 years. None of which is to say that it doesn't face a range of serious, deep-rooted problems. What's more, along with the United States, it is in the midst of a slow decline in the face of Asia's unstoppable rise.

The euro crisis has already cost the EU five years of growth, which will end up being a lost decade or more if the continent doesn't start working together to find solutions to its many problems. The first of these is that its power base is now completely fragmented, robbing it of any decision-making capacity both domestically as well as internationally, particularly at the fiscal level. The second problem the EU faces is the lack of faith that the peoples of Europe have in it, something that will be very hard to overcome. And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, is the reality that the EU is still very much a work in progress; despite its name, it is far from being a union, and remains largely an economic community. What is missing is political leadership, and that absence is leading to a new cold war between Greece and Brussels due to their seemingly irreconcilable differences.

Brussels regards Greece as the source of the current crisis throughout the euro zone; a financial, economic, social and fiscal crisis, and one that like all crises, is now above all else a political problem - one that is fast spreading what former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called "moral bankruptcy." In short, Greece is a time bomb: its political parties have been unable to form a government in the wake of its elections less than a month ago, and the electorate will now have to vote again this month. Some of the parties that have taken center stage in Greece following the elections are threatening to abandon the agreements signed over the last two years by the previous government with Brussels and that have seen unprecedented spending cuts, which in turn have led to a depression. Brussels says that it is not prepared to renegotiate the agreements, and is threatening to cut off the cash that is keeping the country alive - just. In short, things have narrowed down to a cold war style standoff, and a growing number of pundits now say that this will lead inexorably to the break up of the euro and mutually assured destruction.

"The two sides, Athens and Brussels, both have the nuclear bomb; if Greece pulls out of the euro, it will spark a cataclysm; if Europe cuts off funding, then chaos is assured," said Alexis Tspiras, the leader of the left-wing party that looks set to win this month's elections in Greece, and which will be key to the future of the euro single currency.

[Demeter]

124. This author must have very sore thumbs

because he sure ain't hitting the nail on the head....

[Demeter]

125. General payments freeze takes hold (IN GREECE)

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_27/05/2012_444134

Political uncertainty and fears of a Greek eurozone exit that have recently come on top of the protracted recession and choking lack of liquidity seem to have accelerated the downturn in the real economy, which is near crash condition. Together WITH the rise of the black economy and the freeze in payments, the clearest sign of disintegration is in public revenue collection. After showing a timid rise in the beginning of May, it nosedived right after the May 6 elections. By May 20 the fall was in the order of 20 percent, with taxpayers putting off paying dues and the practice of discounts for not issuing a receipt spreading even to the catering sector. The government, meanwhile, facing the threat of a delay in the disbursement of bailout installments from the troika, has suspended rebates and payments to suppliers of the public sector.

The effects of this mutual suspension of payments between private and public sector are further exacerbated by two factors:

First, the inability of banks to maintain a satisfactory level of liquidity in the economy. Loans have been cut off even to businesses with a sound financial base. Since the beginning of the crisis, deposits have been reduced by about 70 billion euros, while withdrawals have accelerated since the May 6 election. Bank officials estimate the drain in the last 20 days at about 2.5 billion euros. Loans to households and enterprises have fallen by about 11 billion euros in the last two years.

Second, the suspension of credit between businesses, which prefer not to sell at all instead of selling on credit and post-dated checks that may never be paid. This is indicated by the decline in the number of bouncing checks, which is due to anything but brisk business. A recent survey by business consultants ICAP showed that for 74 percent of businesses the priority is not an increase in sales but a reduction in bad credit and the protection of their viability.

The prevailing uncertainty about the economic future of the country has also caused a partial black-out in transactions with foreign firms, some of which have begun suspending payments over fears that either that they will lose their money or that Greek products and services will soon cost less, being denominated in drachmas. For instance, Italian tour operator Veratour notified Greek partner hoteliers on Thursday that, “we shall not be able to make further down payments, at least until the situation in the country becomes a little clearer and stabler… we have to take some time to evaluate likely future scenarios concerning your country.” Foreign suppliers are refusing to send merchandise to Greece if they are not paid cash or without letters of guarantee from foreign banks -- as those from Greek banks are not accepted. Credit is not refused just by foreign firms but also by European institutions. The European Investment Bank (EIB) demanded a change-in-currency clause in its loan contracts with Greek enterprises, such as the Public Power Corporation (PPC). The demand created an uproar and was dropped but EIB seems to be withholding disbursement on various pretexts until the situation becomes clearer.

MUCH WORSE THAN LEHMAN'S

[Demeter]

126. Germany Seeks Financial 'Redemption' for Europe

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-28/germany-seeks-financial-redemption-for-europe

Germans hate the idea of covering the debts of the big spenders of Southern Europe, but the hottest new idea for sharing Europe’s debt burden comes from … Germany. Surprising but true: Germany’s opposition parties have gotten Chancellor Angela Merkel to reconsider an idea floated last winter that involves joint European liability for nations’ sovereign debt. The idea comes from the German Council of Economic Experts, also known as the “wise men.” It’s called the European Redemption Pact (PDF), which sounds a bit religious to the American ear but isn’t intended to be. Since fresh thinking on the European debt crisis is badly needed, it’s worth taking a look at what the wise men advise. Here’s the plan in a nutshell:

The debt of the 17 countries belonging to the single-currency euro zone is split into two parts. The portion up to 60 percent of each nation’s gross domestic product stays on the books, unchanged.

The portion of nations’ debt exceeding 60 percent of GDP is transferred into something called the European Redemption Fund.

The 17 countries are still liable for the portion of their debt that’s transferred in the fund. They have 20 or 25 years to pay it off.

Legally, however, all 17 nations are jointly liable for the debt placed in the fund. This is a way for low-debt nations such as Germany to backstop high-debt nations like Greece, giving peace of mind to their creditors and lowering interest rates.

To make sure countries pay off their debt in the European Redemption Fund, some of their national tax revenue would be earmarked for repayments. They would also have to commit to fixing national finances to free up money for debt service.

Having gotten the rest of their debt down to 60 percent of GDP, countries wouldn’t be allowed to run it back up. There would be automatic “debt brakes,” as Germany and Switzerland already have.

The responsibility of Germany and other creditor nations is strictly limited to the amount of money that’s put into the redemption fund. That makes this plan different from “euro bonds,” which some countries are pushing. Euro bonds would be new bonds for which all the euro zone countries would be jointly liable. There would be no cap on the size of borrowing via euro bonds....Befitting a plan originating in Germany, the proposal is not exactly generous. It’s hard to imagine how a country like Greece could immediately begin repaying the European Redemption Fund while keeping the debt remaining on its books at a mere 60 percent of GDP. But at least it’s something. Establishing the principle of joint liability for debt could open the door to a more forgiving (read: realistic) plan in the future.

MORE

[Demeter]

127. Main points of SYRIZA proposals

http://www.left.gr/article.php?id=759


THE EXIT FROM THE CRISIS IS ON THE LEFT


1. Creation of a shield to protect society against the crisis

• Not a single citizen without a guaranteed minimum income or unemployment benefit, medical care, social protection, housing, and access to all services of public utilities.
• Protection of and relief measures for indebted households.
• Price controls and price reductions, VAT reduction, and abolition of VAT on basic-need goods.



2. Disposal of the debt burden

The national debt is first and foremost a product of class relations, and is inhumane in its very essence. It is produced by the tax evasion of the wealthy, the looting of public funds, and the exorbitant procurement of military weapons and equipment.
We are asking immediately for:
• A moratorium on debt servicing.
• Negotiations for debt cancellation, with provisions for the protection of social insurance funds and small savers. This will be pursued by exploiting any available means, such as audit control and suspension of payments.
• Regulation of the remaining debt to include provisions for economic development and employment.
• European regulations on the debt of European states.
• Radical changes to the European Central Bank's role.
• Prohibition of speculative banking products.
• A pan-European tax on wealth, financial transactions, and profits.



3. Income redistribution, taxation of wealth, and elimination of unnecessary expenses

• Reorganization and consolidation of tax collection mechanisms.
• Taxation of fortunes over 1 million euros and large-scale revenues.
• Gradual increase, up to 45%, of the tax on the distributed profits of corporations (SA).
• Taxation of financial transactions.
• Special taxation on consumption of luxury goods.
• Removal of tax exemptions for ship owners and the Greek Orthodox Church.
• Lifting of confidentiality for banking and merchant transactions, and pursuit of those who evade taxes and social insurance contributions.
• Banning of transactions carried out through offshore companies.
• Pursuit of new financial resources through efficient absorption of European funds, through claims on the payment of German World War II reparations and occupation loan, and finally via steep reductions in military expenses.



4. Productive social and environmental reconstruction

• Nationalization/socialization of banks, and their integration into a public banking system under social and workers' control, in order to serve developmental purposes. The scandalous recapitalization of the banks must stop immediately.
• Nationalization of all public enterprises of strategic importance that have been privatized so far. Administration of public enterprises based on transparency, social control, and democratic planning. Support for the provision of Public Goods.
• Protection and consolidation of co-operatives and SMEs in the social sector.
• Ecological transformation in development of energy production, manufacturing, tourism, and agriculture. These reforms will prioritize nutritional abundance and fulfillment of social needs.
• Development of scientific research and productive specialization.



5. Stable employment with decent wages and social insurance

The constant degradation of labour rights, coupled with embarrassing wage levels, does not attract investment, development, or employment.
Instead, we are calling for:
• Well-paid, well-regulated, and insured employment.
• Immediate reconstitution of the minimum wage, and reconstitution of real wages within three years.
• Immediate reconstitution of collective labour agreements.
• Instigation of powerful control mechanisms that will protect employment.
• Systematic opposition of lay-offs and the deregulation of labour relations.



6. Deepening Democracy: democratic political and social rights for all

There is a democratic deficit in the country. Greece is gradually being transformed into an authoritarian police state.
We are calling for:
• The restoration of popular sovereignty and an upgrade of parliamentary power within the political system:
• Creation of a proportional electoral system
• Separation of powers
• Revocation of ministerial immunity
• Abolishment of economic privileges for MPs
• Real decentralization to create local government with sound resources and expanded jurisdiction.
• The introduction of direct democracy and institutions of self-management under workers' and social control at all levels.
• Measures against political and economic corruption.
• The solidification of democratic, political, and trade union rights.
• The enhancement of women's and youths' rights in the family, in employment, and in public administration.
• Immigration reforms:
• Speeding up the asylum process
• Abolition of Dublin II regulations and granting of travel papers to immigrants
• Social inclusion of immigrants and equal rights protection
• Democratic reforms to public administration with the active participation of civil servants.
• The demilitarization and democratization of the Police and the Coast Guard. Disbandment of special forces.




7. Restoration of a strong welfare state

Anti-insurance laws, the shutdown of social services, and the steep fall in social expenditures under the Memorandum have turned Greece into a country where social injustice reigns.
We are in need of:
• An immediate rescue of the pension system, to include tripartite financing and the gradual consolidation of separate pension fund portfolios into one public, universal system of social insurance.
• A raise in unemployment benefits until the substitution rate reaches 80% of the wage. No unemployed person is to be left without unemployment benefits.
• The introduction of a guaranteed minimum income.
• A unified system of comprehensive social protection covering the vulnerable social strata.



8. Health is a Public Good and a social right

Health care is to be provided for free and will be financed through a Public Health System. Immediate measures include:
• Support and upgrades for hospitals. Upgrade of health infrastructures of the Social Insurance Institute (IKA). Development of an integrated system of first-level medical care.
• Covering the needs of medical treatment in both personnel and equipment, in part by stopping lay-offs.
• Open and cost-free access to medical treatment for all residents in the country.
• Free pharmaceutical treatment and medical examinations for low-income pensioners, the unemployed, students, and those suffering from chronic diseases.



9. Protection of public education, research, culture, and sports from the Memorandum's policies


With regards to education, we are calling for:
• Consolidation of universal, public, and free education, including coverage of its urgent needs in infrastructure and personnel at all three levels.
• Compulsory 14-year unified education.
• Revocation of the Diamantopoulou Law.
• Assurance of self-government for Universities.
• Preservation of the academic and public character of Universities.



10. An independent foreign policy committed to the promotion of peace

The capitulation of our foreign policy to the desires of the U.S. and the powerful states of the European Union endangers the country's independence, peace, and security.
We propose:
• A multidimensional and peace-seeking foreign policy.
• Disengagement from NATO and closure of foreign military bases on Greek soil.
• Termination of military cooperation with Israel.
• Aiding the Cypriot people in the reunification of the island.
Furthermore, on the basis of international law and the principle of peaceful conflict resolution, we will pursue improvements in Greek-Turkish relations, a solution to the problem of FYROM's official name, and the specification of Greece's Exclusive Economic Zone.

The incumbent economic and social system has failed and we must overthrow it!


The economic crisis that is rocking global capitalism has shattered the illusions. More and more, people understand that capitalist speculation is an inhuman organizational principle for modern society. It is also widely acknowledged that that private banks function only for the benefit of the bankers, harming the rest of the people. Big business and bankers absorb billions of euros from health care, education, and pensions.


An exit from the crisis requires bold measures that will prevent those who created the crisis from continuing their destructive work. We are endorsing a new model for the production and distribution of wealth, one that will include society in its totality. In this respect, the large capitalist property is to be made public and managed democratically along social and ecological criteria. Our strategic aim is socialism with democracy, a system in which all will be entitled to participate in the decision-making process.

We are changing the future; we are pushing them into the past!


We can prevail by forging unity and creating a new coalition for power with the Left as a cornerstone. Our strength in this endeavour is the alliance of the People: the inspiration, the creative effort, and the struggle of the working people. With these, we will shape the lives and the future of a self-governed people.


Now the vote is in the hands of the People! Now the People have the power!
In this new election, the Greek people can and must vote against the regime of the Memoranda and the Troika, thus turning over a new page of hope and optimism for the future.


For Greece and for Europe, the solution is with the Left!

[Demeter]

129. Cyprus nears European bail-out

Cyprus is increasingly likely to seek European aid to deal with the impact of the Greek crisis on its own banking system, the country’s central bank governor has told the Financial Times.

In an interview, Panicos Demetriades acknowledged that with a deadline of the end of this month to find at least €1.8bn to recapitalise Cyprus Popular Bank, the country’s second largest lender, recourse to the European Union was becoming more probable. The country, Mr Demetriades said, was at “an important crunch time.”

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/FK0WVO/DXJ2Y/C4F6CC/R3DQIY/MQ/t?a1=2012&a2=6&a3=3


WITH A NAME LIKE PANICOS, HE'S READY FOR THE COMING PANIC....

[Demeter]

130. Gavyn Davies: Can a banking union save the euro?

The European Commission called last week for the formation of a “banking union”, a proposal which the ECB seems broadly to support. This is likely to be the centrepiece of the next Summit on June 28-29. However, like the fiscal union which came before it, the banking union may fail to impress investors sufficiently to end the crisis.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/SPDNKV/ULCJB/5VI1HT/QNKEYR/VU/t?a1=2012&a2=6&a3=3

[Demeter]

134. Visit to Germany: Tsipras Says Berlin Must Back Down on Austerity

AND NOBODY IN POWER WOULD MEET WITH HIM...HE'S LUCKY TO GET IN THE PAPERS.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greek-leftist-alexis-tsipras-calls-on-germany-to-drop-austerity-demand-a-834579.html



Charismatic, eloquent and defiant, the leader of Greece's Radical Left party, Alexis Tsipras, visited Berlin on Tuesday to ram home the message that he will scrap austerity if he wins the June election, and that no one, not even mighty Germany, has the right to evict Greece from the currency...Alexis Tsipras, the leftist leader who could hold the whole of Europe to ransom if he wins the Greek election on June 17, breezed into Berlin on Tuesday to tell Germans they don't own the euro zone, and that they will endanger the whole currency block if they insist on stringent austerity for his recession-hit country. The 37-year-old leader of the Radical Left party (Syriza), which came second in the May 6 election and is expected to emerge as the strongest political force in the repeat vote, reiterated his determination to abandon the radical budget cuts that were imposed on Greece in return for international aid -- a move EU leaders and German politicians in particular have warned could force Greece out of the euro.

The charismatic leader had visited Paris on Monday as part of a tour to convince a skeptical European public that he is not bent on wrecking the euro. In Berlin, he was hosted by Germany's opposition Left Party, which agreed a six-point program with Syriza calling for an end to austerity, taxes on banks and the rich and economic stimulus measures. He didn't get an audience with Chancellor Angela Merkel. But his message to her, conveyed via more than 200 journalists packed into a building just a few hundred meters from her chancellery building, was loud and clear. He had no intention of "blackmailing" the German people, he said. But then he appeared to do just that, saying the bailout terms would have to be renegotiated, or else.

"There is only one path for Europe -- implementing our strategy," he said, speaking in Greek through an interpreter. "Mrs. Merkel recently said -- and I agree with her -- that if one country leaves the euro zone, the next day the financial markets will seek out other countries to evict. And there are countries that have much bigger deficits than Greece, such as Italy with €2 trillion in debts."

MORE

[westerebus]

139. I wish them well.

Ending operation Gladio.







* spelling, again!

[Demeter]

128. Bankia’s unusual bailout

http://www.cityam.com/latest-news/bankia-s-unusual-bailout+

Q How will this bailout work?

A It is not entirely clear, but Madrid is considering a plan where, instead of buying a 90 per cent stake in Bankia for cash, the Spanish government will hand over billions of its bonds instead.

Q How will that help when Bankia needs cash?

A That’s where the European Central Bank comes in. The ECB will accept government bonds as high quality collateral in return for giving out cash. So Bankia will go straight to the ECB, post Madrid’s debt as collateral and get a big cash injection.

Q As the rest of Europe’s banks did earlier this year?

A Not quite, because the ECB is no longer offering three-year cash – though many analysts think it will do so again. Instead, Bankia will tap its monthly lending facility.

Q What is the advantage of doing the bailout this way?

A It means that Spain will not have to tap private markets for the billions required to bail out its banks. That is vital because bond investors are now demanding a punitive 6.5 per cent interest rate to lend to Madrid on a ten-year basis.

Q What makes this unusual?

A It is not that unusual to bail out a bank via a debt-for-equity swap. What is unprecedented is the role of the ECB. The key part that could make this plan work is that the ECB is prepared to treat Spanish bonds differently from how markets treat them. Rather than classing them as an increasingly risky asset, the ECB still classes Spanish debt as high quality collateral. So this is, in effect, another kind of sovereign bailout by Frankfurt, only it is taking place via the ECB’s collateral specifications rather than through direct bond purchases.


I WONDER IF IT WILL WORK...GIVING USELESS PIECES OF PAPER FOR EUROS

[Po_d Mainiac]

136. Ponzi/pyramid schemes have a history of ending badly.

And Spain ain't the only PIIG in need of some grain.

It might work, till it doesn't.

The rumor might show up as a speed bump on a linear graph, but the slopes of the varied indices will respond to gravity in short order.

And the scheme is just dumb enough that it just might be utilized

Which in turn, will likely get the bernank to put in a panic order for ink as the race to the bottom tightens up.

The rumor of which will get a positive reaction from US markets

Actual printing will halt the slide in fuel prices

Which in turn will put the brakes on equities

wash-rinse-repeat

The only difference this time, is all the events could end up playing out in a matter of hours
YMMV

[Demeter]

131. Generali board removes CEO (AIG, THE REMAKE?)

The board of Generali has removed its chief executive, Giovanni Perissinotto, bringing to an end a short but bitter battle between the executive and a Mediobanca-led group of shareholders in Europe’s third-largest insurer by premiums.

Ten of Generali’s 17 board members voted to oust Mr Perissinotto. Five directors, including Mr Perissinotto, voted in favour of the CEO while one abstained and one missed the meeting.

Investment bank Mediobanca, which owns about 13 percent of Generali, and several other large shareholders with stakes of more than 2 percent, began mobilising on Wednesday to oust Mr Perissinotto, whom they blame for the insurer’s recent dismal stock market performance. The coup plans leaked on Thursday and by Friday Mr Perissinotto and the Generali board members seeking his dismissal were engaging in public attacks at each other.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/II2DO9/IEP5S/C4F6CO/QNKEXD/W1/t?a1=2012&a2=6&a3=2

[Demeter]

132. A VULTURE IS BORN...Housing chief leaves Morgan Stanley to launch buy-to-rent fund

http://www.housingwire.com/content/housing-chief-leaves-morgan-launch-buy-rent-fund

Oliver Chang, head of U.S. housing strategy at Morgan Stanley, who has written more about foreclosed homes as an investment opportunity than any other Wall Street analyst, is leaving his firm to start his own buy-to-rent housing fund.

Chang announced his decision on Monday in a resignation letter he submitted to Morgan Stanley obtained by Reuters.

"Having followed this market for the past several years, I believe it represents one of the most compelling investment opportunities available across all asset classes today," Chang wrote in a letter to his former Morgan Stanley colleagues.

[Demeter]

135. Had Enough? Well I have!

All that's left is moaning and fear and old stuff in the inbox...real news is not coming out right now, always a sign of impending doom or change for the worse.

I'm going out to enjoy a beautiful day. See you all later!