STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 27 February 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 27 February 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 26 February 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 26 February 2013
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Dow Jones 13,900.13 +115.96 (0.84%)
S&P 500 1,496.94 +9.09 (0.61%)
Nasdaq 3,129.65 +13.40 (0.43%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.88% +0.01 (0.53%)
30 Year 3.09% +0.01 (0.32%)[font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.



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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Warpy]

1. I'd rec this for the toon alone

but relief is on the horizon: there have been two big drops, meaning institutional investors are grabbing their profits and getting out. Spikes in gold and silver suggest where the money is going.

However, gas prices will soon start to creep back down unless the big money jumps right back in again.

[Fuddnik]

2. There you go talking in circles again.

Gas Prices. I'm driving up to SC this week-end, so it figures.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. that' 'cuz I'm a big wheel. . . . .

[Fuddnik]

4. Krugman is Right about Simpson-Bowles: The Buzzards Circle the Fiscal Cliff -

http://www.economonitor.com/lrwray/2013/02/23/krugman-is-right-about-simpson-bowles-the-buzzards-circle-the-fiscal-cliff/?utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EconoMonitor%20Highlights%3A%20Chinks%20in%20the%20Armor


Author: L. Randall Wray · February 23rd, 2013 ·

In a powerful piece, Paul Krugman blasts Alan Simpson as an ignoramus when it comes to federal government budgets: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/alan-simpson-and-bernie-madoff/?smid=tw-share. He rightly wonders why anyone takes this nutter seriously:

“Simpson is, demonstrably, grossly ignorant on precisely the subjects on which he is treated as a guru, not understanding the finances of Social Security, the truth about life expectancy, and much more. He is also a reliably terrible forecaster, having predicted an imminent fiscal crisis — within two years — um, two years ago…. So what is it that makes Simpson the figure he is? Clearly, it’s an affinity thing: never mind his obvious lack of knowledge, his ludicrous track record, reporters trust and idolize Simpson because he’s their kind of guy.”

Precisely. The nonsense that comes out of the mouths of reporters is simply amazing. It is very hard to give them the usual benefit of the doubt. They must have been bought off, too.

I am only disappointed that Krugman did not include Simpson’s Siamese twin, Erskine Bowles. After all, the dumb and dumber National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform created by President Obama was headed by these two (presumably hand-picked by Pete Peterson). Bowles was selected to create the patina of bipartisanship necessary to gut Social Security and Medicare (the real purpose of all the deficit hysteria). It is important for the Democrats to share the blame for this mess. Indeed, since Republicans have always opposed any spending to help ordinary folk, these programs have always relied on the goodwill of Democrats. Unfortunately, the party of FDR has abandoned all principles. They serve only Wall Street, too.

See my piece from August 2011, where I laid out the purpose of the fiscal cliff: http://www.economonitor.com/lrwray/2011/08/02/the-budget-compromise-congress-creates-a-rube-goldberg-doomsday-machine/.
- See more at: http://www.economonitor.com/lrwray/2013/02/23/krugman-is-right-about-simpson-bowles-the-buzzards-circle-the-fiscal-cliff/?utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EconoMonitor%20Highlights%3A%20Chinks%20in%20the%20Armor#sthash.DakMycDd.dpuf

(snip)

[Demeter]

5. I'm supposed to do something on Feb 27th

I wish I could remember what.

I think it's the energy bill: gas and electric.

Welcome from the Winter Wonderland!

[Fuddnik]

12. Winter Wonderland indeed.

Had a tornado in Downtown Tampa today.

91 mph straight line winds at Cedar Key, about 90 miles north of here. (We're supposed to spend St. Paddy's week-end there for our anniversary)

[tclambert]

15. My guess is shovel the driveway.

Maybe chisel the driveway. There's ice under that 4" of heavy, wet snow. It will get warm enough for salt to work well, if you can afford the salt and don't mind the damage it does.

[Demeter]

17. I think I'll wait for the Spring thaw

Just took a look out the window. It's real bad. I got enough food, and we can make it until March....

[Demeter]

6. How Mexico Got Back in the Game By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-mexico-got-back-in-the-game.html?_r=1&

FRIEDMAN IS A NEOLIBERAL LIBERTARIAN IDIOT...BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE'S UNOBSERVANT...JUST A BIT WARPED WHEN INTERPRETING WHAT HE SEES...

IN India, people ask you about China, and, in China, people ask you about India: Which country will become the more dominant economic power in the 21st century? I now have the answer: Mexico.

Impossible, you say? Well, yes, Mexico with only about 110 million people could never rival China or India in total economic clout. But here’s what I’ve learned from this visit to Mexico’s industrial/innovation center in Monterrey... It’s as if Mexicans subconsciously decided that their drug-related violence is a condition to be lived with and combated but not something to define them any longer. Mexico has signed 44 free trade agreements — more than any country in the world — which, according to The Financial Times, is more than twice as many as China and four times more than Brazil. Mexico has also greatly increased the number of engineers and skilled laborers graduating from its schools. Put all that together with massive cheap natural gas finds, and rising wage and transportation costs in China, and it is no surprise that Mexico now is taking manufacturing market share back from Asia and attracting more global investment than ever in autos, aerospace and household goods.

“Today, Mexico exports more manufactured products than the rest of Latin America put together,” The Financial Times reported on Sept. 19, 2012. “Chrysler, for example, is using Mexico as a base to supply some of its Fiat 500s to the Chinese market.” What struck me most here in Monterrey, though, is the number of tech start-ups that are emerging from Mexico’s young population — 50 percent of the country is under 29 — thanks to cheap, open source innovation tools and cloud computing.

“Mexico did not waste its crisis,” remarked Patrick Kane Zambrano, director of the Center for Citizen Integration, referring to the fact that when Mexican companies lost out to China in the 1990s, they had no choice but to get more productive. Zambrano’s Web site embodies the youthful zest here for using technology to both innovate and stimulate social activism. The center aggregates Twitter messages from citizens about everything from broken streetlights to “situations of risk” and plots them in real-time on a phone app map of Monterrey that warns residents what streets to avoid, alerts the police to shootings and counts in days or hours how quickly public officials fix the problems.

“It sets pressure points to force change,” the center’s president, Bernardo Bichara, told me. “Once a citizen feels he is not powerless, he can aspire for more change. ... First, the Web democratized commerce, and then it democratized media, and now it is democratizing democracy.”

MORE

[Demeter]

7. A World Without Work By ROSS DOUTHAT

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/opinion/sunday/douthat-a-world-without-work.html?_r=0

IMAGINE, as 19th-century utopians often did, a society rich enough that fewer and fewer people need to work — a society where leisure becomes universally accessible, where part-time jobs replace the regimented workweek, and where living standards keep rising even though more people have left the work force altogether. If such a utopia were possible, one might expect that it would be achieved first among the upper classes, and then gradually spread down the social ladder. First the wealthy would work shorter hours, then the middle class, and finally even high school dropouts would be able to sleep late and take four-day weekends and choose their own adventures — “to hunt in the morning,” as Karl Marx once prophesied, “fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner ...”

Yet the decline of work isn’t actually some wild Marxist scenario. It’s a basic reality of 21st-century American life, one that predates the financial crash and promises to continue apace even as normal economic growth returns. This decline isn’t unemployment in the usual sense, where people look for work and can’t find it. It’s a kind of post-employment, in which people drop out of the work force and find ways to live, more or less permanently, without a steady job. So instead of spreading from the top down, leisure time — wanted or unwanted — is expanding from the bottom up. Long hours are increasingly the province of the rich...Of course, nobody is hailing this trend as the sign of civilizational progress. Instead, the decline in blue-collar work is often portrayed in near-apocalyptic terms — on the left as the economy’s failure to supply good-paying jobs, and on the right as a depressing sign that government dependency is killing the American work ethic. But it’s worth linking today’s trends to the older dream of a post-work utopia, because there are ways in which the decline in work-force participation is actually being made possible by material progress.

That progress can be hard to appreciate at the moment, but America’s immense wealth is still our era’s most important economic fact. “When a nation is as rich as ours,” Scott Winship points out in an essay for Breakthrough Journal, “it can realize larger absolute gains than it did in the past ... even if it has lower growth rates.” Our economy may look stagnant compared to the acceleration after World War II, but even disappointing growth rates are likely to leave the America of 2050 much richer than today. Those riches mean that we can probably find ways to subsidize — through public means and private — a continuing decline in blue-collar work. Many of the Americans dropping out of the work force are not destitute: they’re receiving disability payments and food stamps, living with relatives, cobbling together work here and there, and often doing as well as they might with a low-wage job. By historical standards their lives are more comfortable than the left often allows, and the fiscal cost of their situation is more sustainable than the right tends to admits. (Medicare may bankrupt us, but food stamps probably will not.)

There is a certain air of irresponsibility to giving up on employment altogether, of course. But while pundits who tap on keyboards for a living like to extol the inherent dignity of labor, we aren’t the ones stocking shelves at Walmart or hunting wearily, week after week, for a job that probably pays less than our last one did. One could make the case that the right to not have a boss is actually the hardest won of modern freedoms: should it really trouble us if more people in a rich society end up exercising it? The answer is yes — but mostly because the decline of work carries social costs as well as an economic price tag. Even a grinding job tends to be an important source of social capital, providing everyday structure for people who live alone, a place to meet friends and kindle romances for people who lack other forms of community, a path away from crime and prison for young men, an example to children and a source of self-respect for parents. Here the decline in work-force participation is of a piece with the broader turn away from community in America — from family breakdown and declining churchgoing to the retreat into the virtual forms of sport and sex and friendship. Like many of these trends, it poses a much greater threat to social mobility than to absolute prosperity. (A nonworking working class may not be immiserated; neither will its members ever find a way to rise above their station.) And its costs will be felt in people’s private lives and inner worlds even when they don’t show up in the nation’s G.D.P.



THIS IS A MAN WHO NEVER DOES HOUSEWORK, CHILDCARE, NOR NURSING AN ELDERLY OR SICK RELATION OR FRIEND...NOR ANY CREATIVE ART OR CRAFT....

[tclambert]

16. I thought the original idea predicted robots doing all the work and caring for us,

like in the movie I, Robot, just without the robots-take-over-the-world apocalypse. Actually, robots-take-over-the-world might work out, if they do it peacefully and gradually. BUT . . . who owns the robots? Seems to me, the rich end up owning most of the robots and get most of the benefits . . . as usual.

[Demeter]

8. SEQUESTER: Acceptance of Defense Cuts Signals Shift in G.O.P. Focus

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/us/politics/democrats-and-republicans-miscalculate-on-automatic-cuts.html

With Congress unlikely to stop deep automatic spending cuts that will strike hard at the military, the fiscal stalemate is highlighting a significant shift in the Republican Party: lawmakers most keenly dedicated to shrinking the size of government are now more dominant than the bloc committed foremost to a robust national defense, particularly in the House.

That reality also underscores what Republicans, and some Democrats, say was a major miscalculation on the part of President Obama. He agreed to set up the automatic cuts 18 months ago because he believed the threat of sharp reductions in military spending would be enough to force Republicans to agree to a deficit reduction plan that included the tax increases he favored.

“Fiscal questions trump defense in a way they never would have after 9/11,” said Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma. “But the war in Iraq is over. Troops are coming home from Afghanistan, and we want to secure the cuts.”

Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee and one of the lawmakers Democrats had hoped would never accept the military cuts, went almost as far. “Republicans aren’t cookie cutter,” he said, “but we do agree on the basic premise of where we’re trying to go. And if we don’t get our fiscal house in order, it’s very hard to provide for the defense of the nation.”

SO MUCH FOR N-DIMENSIONAL CHESS

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

9. A Costly and Unjust Perk for Financiers By LYNN FORESTER de ROTHSCHILD

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/opinion/carried-interest-an-unjust-privilege-for-financiers.html

OF the many injustices that permeate America’s byzantine tax code, few are as outrageous as the tax rate on “carried interest” — the profits made by private equity and hedge fund managers, as well as venture capitalists and partners in real estate investment trusts. This huge tax benefit enriches an already privileged sliver of financiers and violates basic standards of fairness and common sense. President Obama recently suggested that he would ask Congress to close this loophole. Eliminating the carried-interest tax rate should be an easy sell. It should play to Republicans’ supposed hatred of government handouts and to Democrats’ commitment to social justice.

But because of the financial lobby’s clout, the loophole most likely won’t be closed. If it isn’t, shame on both parties for giving us another reason to distrust our democracy and our capitalist system. While the tax legislation passed on Jan. 1 increased the top individual-income tax rate to 39.6 percent from 35 percent for couples making more than $450,000 and individuals making more than $400,000, it left carried-interest income taxed at just 20 percent. Carried interest is taxed at ordinary capital-gains rates, rather than at the significantly higher ordinary income-tax rates that apply to the wealthiest Americans. The issue came up last year, because Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, had made much of his fortune through private equity.

This special tax treatment for carried interest protects the general partners of private equity, venture capital, real estate, hedge funds and other investment vehicles organized as limited partnerships. (The investment-holding company I run does not receive carried-interest income.) Millions of general partners in investment funds receive carried-interest income when they earn profits for their clients. Since these partners do not have to risk any of their own capital, carried interest is really a taxpayer-subsidized fee for managing their clients’ money — often 20 percent of the profits generated in the fund, and sometimes significantly more than that. No other affluent Americans enjoy this benefit. A brain surgeon, stockbroker, corporate lawyer or actor will have to pay the new top marginal rate percent, while a general partner who manages other people’s money pays, on carried-interest income, only the 20 percent rate on long-term capital gains.

This discrepancy dates from 1922, when the top ordinary-income tax rate was 58 percent and capital gains were taxed at 12.5 percent — a big change from the years 1918 to 1921, when both kinds of income were taxed, in the top bracket, at 77 percent. But the amount of lost government revenue has widened significantly since 2000 as a result of the growth of nontraditional finance. Although the industry keeps a close lid on the total amounts, experts have estimated that there are more than 1,400 private equity and venture capital funds, which collectively manage more than $1 trillion in limited-partnership equity investments and earn an average of $18 billion a year on them that is taxed as carried interest. There are also 8,000 or 9,000 hedge funds managing about the same amount of these investments generating another $18 billion in carried-interest income. And let’s not forget the 1.2 million real estate partnerships, with more than $1.3 trillion in limited-partnership investments, which yield a further $20 billion each year in such income. The difference in revenue to the United States government when this combined income is taxed at 20 percent rather than at 39.6 percent is about $11 billion annually. Indeed, the Real Estate Roundtable, a leading industry lobbying group, puts the estimate even higher, at $13 billion — $5 billion in real estate alone...The first legislative effort to treat carried interest like ordinary income was a bill submitted by Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, in 2007. Annual spending by the private equity, hedge fund and real estate industry lobbies exploded in that year. Predictably, the legislation has been shelved or voted down repeatedly ever since. Although Mr. Obama paid lip service to the removal of the preferential treatment for carried interest during both of his presidential campaigns, he has yet to achieve it...

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


Lynn Forester de Rothschild is the chief executive of E. L. Rothschild, a family-owned investment holding company.

YES, THAT ROTHSCHILD

[Demeter]

10. Barbara Ehrenreich: The Real Story Behind the Crash and Burn of America's Managerial Class

http://www.alternet.org/economy/barbara-ehrenreich-real-story-behind-crash-and-burn-americas-managerial-class?akid=10107.227380.WIF6g3&rd=1&src=newsletter800338&t=4&paging=off

Every would-be populist in American politics purports to defend the “middle class,” although there is no agreement on what it is. Just in the last couple of years, the “middle class” has variously been defined as everybody, everybody minus the 15 percent living below the federal poverty level; or everybody minus the very richest Americans. Mitt Romney famously excluded “those in the low end” but included himself (2010 income $21.6 million) along with “80 to 90 percent” of Americans. The Department of Commerce has given up on income-based definitions, announcing in a 2010 report that “middle class families” are defined “by their aspirations more than their income […]. Middle class families aspire to home ownership, a car, college education for their children, health and retirement security and occasional family vacations”—which excludes almost no one. Class itself is a muddled concept, perhaps especially in America, where any allusion to the different interests of different occupational and income groups is likely to attract the charge of “class warfare.” If class requires some sort of “consciousness,” or capacity for concerted action, then a “middle class” conceived of as a sort of default class—what you are left with after you subtract the rich and the poor—is not very interesting.

But there is another, potentially more productive, interpretation of what has been going on in the mid-income range. In 1977, we first proposed the existence of a “professional-managerial class,” distinct from both the “working class,” from the “old” middle class of small business owners, as well as from the wealthy class of owners. The notion of the “PMC” was an effort to explain the largely “middle class” roots of the New Left in the sixties and the tensions that were emerging between that group and the old working class in the seventies, culminating in the political backlash that led to the election of Reagan. The right embraced a caricature of this notion of a “new class,” proposing that college-educated professionals—especially lawyers, professors, journalists, and artists—make up a power-hungry “liberal elite” bent on imposing its version of socialism on everyone else... The PMC grew rapidly. From 1870 to 1910 alone, while the whole population of the United States increased two and one-third times and the old middle class of business entrepreneurs and independent professionals doubled, the number of people in what could be seen as PMC jobs grew almost eightfold. And in the years that followed, that growth only accelerated. Although a variety of practical and theoretical obstacles prevent making any precise analysis, we estimate that as late as 1930, people in PMC occupations still made up less than 1 percent of total employment. By 1972, about 24 percent of American jobs were in PMC occupations. By 1983 the number had risen to 28 percent and by 2006, just before the Great Recession, to 35 percent.

The relationship between the emerging PMC and the traditional working class was, from the start, riven with tensions. It was the occupational role of managers and engineers, along with many other professionals, to manage, regulate, and control the life of the working class. They designed the division of labor and the machines that controlled workers’ minute-by-minute existence on the factory floor, manipulated their desire for commodities and their opinions, socialized their children, and even mediated their relationship with their own bodies. At the same time though, the role of the PMC as “rationalizers” of society often placed them in direct conflict with the capitalist class. Like the workers, the PMC were themselves employees and subordinate to the owners, but since what was truly “rational” in the productive process was not always identical to what was most immediately profitable, the PMC often sought autonomy and freedom from their own bosses.

By the mid-twentieth century, jobs for the PMC were proliferating. Public education was expanding, the modern university came into being, local governments expanded in size and role, charitable agencies merged, newspaper circulation soared, traditional forms of recreation gave way to the popular culture, entertainment and sports industries, etc.—and all of these developments created jobs for highly educated professionals, including journalists, social workers, professors, doctors, lawyers, and “entertainers” (artists and writers among others). Some of these occupations managed to retain a measure of autonomy and, with it, the possibility of opposition to business domination. The so-called “liberal professions,” particularly medicine and law, remained largely outside the corporate framework until well past the middle of the 20th century. Most doctors, many nurses, and the majority of lawyers worked in independent (private) practices. In the 1960s, for the first time since the Progressive Era, a large segment of the PMC had the self-confidence to take on a critical, even oppositional, political role. Jobs were plentiful, a college education did not yet lead to a lifetime of debt, and materialism was briefly out of style. College students quickly moved on from supporting the civil rights movement in the South and opposing the war in Vietnam to confronting the raw fact of corporate power throughout American society—from the pro-war inclinations of the weapons industry to the governance of the university. The revolt soon spread beyond students. By the end of the sixties, almost all of the liberal professions had “radical caucuses,” demanding that access to the professions be opened up to those traditionally excluded (such as women and minorities), and that the service ethics the professions claimed to uphold actually be applied in practice...MORE


FULL REPORT AT LINK

[Demeter]

11. Meet the Wall Street Billionaire Obsessed With Looting Social Security

http://www.alternet.org/meet-wall-street-billionaire-obsessed-looting-social-security?akid=10107.227380.WIF6g3&rd=1&src=newsletter800338&t=18&paging=off


Fix the Debt financier Peter G. Peterson knows a thing or two about debt: he’s an expert at creating it. Peterson founded the private equity firm Blackstone Group in 1985 with Stephen Schwarzman (who compared raising taxes to “when Hitler invaded Poland”). Private equity firms don’t contribute much to the economy; they don’t make cars or milk the cows. Too frequently, they buy firms to loot them. After a leveraged buyout, they can leave companies so loaded up with debt they are forced to immediately slash their workforce or employees’ retirement security...In 2006, Blackstone ransacked Travelport, a travel reservation conglomerate, piling on $4.3 billion in new debt, then pocketing $1.7 billion to pay shareholders and itself. Travelport promptly fired 841 workers to meet its new debt obligations. It was a great deal for Blackstone but “a horrible one for Travelport,” according to one investment adviser, who described Blackstone as trading in “poisoned waters.”

Now Peterson wants to loot Social Security. For decades he has warned of a “Pearl Harbor scenario” in which spending on Social Security and Medicare causes an epic economic meltdown. Fix the Debt is only his latest project pushing the message that the deficit poses a “catastrophic threat,” and the media have been content to echo his warnings. But people should know better than to be frightened by this chorus of calamity. Peterson is no master of prediction when it comes to economic crises. When an actual threat to the economy—the $8 trillion housing bubble—loomed ominously overhead, Peterson said nothing, even as credit markets froze, subprime lenders filed for bankruptcy and economists like Dean Baker shouted from the rooftops.

The housing crisis provides a good window into the way Peterson operates. In 2007, Blackstone owned the Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, the world’s fourth-largest insurer, which had branched out from municipal bonds into home-equity securities and subprime mortgage debt. FGIC went belly up in 2010, but by that time Peterson had sold most of his shares in a Blackstone IPO that netted $4 billion. Again, Peterson left others holding the bag. The AFL-CIO had warned the Securities and Exchange Commission that the Blackstone IPO was riddled with problems: the firm was structuring itself to avoid regulation and its real assets and values were unknown. Perhaps Chris Cox, George W. Bush’s man at the SEC, should have listened. A year later, Blackstone’s value had dropped 40 percent. Today, it is trading at $18 a share, showing no signs of the recovery that other Wall Street firms have enjoyed. Blackstone shareholders may have been miffed, but Peterson walked away with $2 billion (on top of the fortune he already made from the carried interest tax loophole, which allows fund managers to be taxed at 15 percent rather than the standard 35 percent)—and pledged to spend half of that to convince Americans they have to take a harsher route to prosperity.

Pete Peterson is fond of drawing moral authority from his dad, a Greek immigrant who spent much of his life running a twenty-four-hour diner in Kearney, Nebraska. He says he wants to “preserve the possibilities of the American Dream” for future generations. But this former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire is quite comfortable with corporate welfare for the rich, and not at all happy when the 99 percent benefit from the programs they pay into with every paycheck...Even before Fix the Debt, Peterson launched a massive effort to prop up the Simpson-Bowles commission and its $4 trillion austerity package, a plan that would “destroy Social Security by stealth,” according to Strengthen Social Security. He bankrolled nineteen “America Speaks” town hall meetings to inform the commission’s deliberations, launched the “Owe No” TV ad campaign weeks before recommendations were released, and bankrolled the Concord Coalition’s “Fiscal Solutions” tour to take the message to the heartland. When the commission blew up, Peterson gave Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles a new perch at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

But a funny thing happened on Pete Peterson’s magical misery tour: America spoke back...

[Demeter]

13. Fracking-Fueled Land Grab Cheats North Dakota Tribes Out of $1 Billion, Suits Allege

Native Americans on an oil-rich North Dakota reservation have been cheated out of more than $1 billion by schemes to buy drilling rights for lowball prices, a flurry of recent lawsuits assert. And, the suits claim, the federal government facilitated the alleged swindle by failing in its legal obligation to ensure the tribes got a fair deal.

This is a story as old as America itself, given a new twist by fracking and the boom that technology has sparked in North Dakota oil country. Since the late 1800s, the U.S. government has appropriated much of the original tribal lands associated with the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota for railroads and white homesteaders. A devastating blow was delivered when the Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Missouri River in 1953, flooding more than 150,000 acres at the heart of the remaining reservation. Members of the Three Affiliated Tribes — the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara — were forced out of the fertile valley and up into the arid and barren surrounding hills, where they live now.
But that last-resort land turns out to hold a wealth of oil, because it sits on the Bakken Shale, widely believed to be one of the world's largest deposits of crude. Until recently, that oil was difficult to extract, but hydraulic fracturing, combined with the ability to drill a well sideways underground, can tap it. The result, according to several senior tribal members and lawsuits filed last November and early this year in federal and state courts, has been a land grab involving everyone from tribal leaders accused of enriching themselves at the expense of their people, to oil speculators, to a New York hedge fund, to the federal government's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The rush to get access to oil on tribal lands is part of the oil industry's larger push to secure drilling rights across the United States. Recent estimates show that the U.S. contains vast quantities of oil and gas. As fracking has opened new fields to drilling, and the U.S. has striven to get more of its energy from within its borders, leases from Louisiana to Pennsylvania have been gobbled up. Now the pressure is increasing on one of the last sizeable holdouts — lands owned by Native Americans.

A review of tribal and federal records as well as lawsuit documents reveals a dizzying array of lowball, non-competitive deals brokered by numerous companies, often entwined with the tribal council and with individual landholders on the reservation. But at heart the alleged practices are simple: Tribal leaders and outsiders set up companies to buy drilling rights cheap and flip them later for spectacular profits — in one case earning as much as a 200-fold return in just four years....

MORE AT LINK: http://www.alternet.org/fracking/fracking-fueled-land-grab-cheats-north-dakota-tribes-out-1-billion-suits-allege?akid=10107.227380.WIF6g3&rd=1&src=newsletter800338&t=22&paging=off

[Demeter]

14. 1 Day Late on Rent Can Land You in Jail? A Shockingly Draconian Renters Law

http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/1-day-late-rent-can-land-you-jail-shockingly-draconian-renters-law-hard-times-usa?akid=10107.227380.WIF6g3&rd=1&src=newsletter800338&t=6&paging=off

One evening this past August, Angela and Steve received a knock on the door. The couple opened it to see two police officers standing outside.

“One of them said, ‘We have a warrant for y’all’s arrest. … The next thing I remember is my husband dragging me from the kitchen. I had fainted,” Angela recalled, according to Human Rights Watch. Their crime? The couple was unable to afford their $585 rent payment that month. Two weeks after their rent was due, Steve approached their landlord with half of the money for the rent, but she wouldn’t take it.

“I’ve never been more than one month late. Then they stick this notice on the door and said get out in 10 days,” Steve told Human Rights Watch.

After failed negotiations with the landlord and the near impossibility of finding another place in 10 days, the couple ended up with an arrest warrant and had to appear in court. When the court clerk asked Angela for a mug shot, she broke down and screamed: “Steve, are we going to jail? I don’t want to go to jail!”

Angela and Steve were lucky the judge was a bit understanding: he dismissed all charges and granted them another week to move out. But not everyone is so lucky when it comes to the state of Arkansas' harsh tenant laws. Arkansas is the only U.S. state where tenants can wind up with a criminal record if they can’t afford to pay their rent on time. The state’s “failure to vacate" laws allow landlords, without independent investigation, to charge tenants with a misdemeanor offense and have them arrested if they fail to move out after receiving a 10-day eviction notice. Landlords can give tenants the notice after they are only one day late with their payment...

[xchrom]

18. yes. i created a minor fire storm posting this in gd.

technically they were jailed for failing to vacate.

but of course -- they were broke first -- unable to pay the rent.

where were they going to vacate to?

they were jailed because they were poor -- making it a debtors jailing.

[xchrom]

19. Greece and Spain helped postwar Germany recover. Spot the difference

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/27/greece-spain-helped-germany-recover


People exchanging food for tickets in 1923 Germany. 'Many, including Keynes, argued that [reparations imposed on Germany following the Versailles treaty] led to the rise of the Nazis and the second world war.' Photograph: Keystone/Corbis

Sixty years ago today, an agreement was reached in London to cancel half of postwar Germany's debt. That cancellation, and the way it was done, was vital to the reconstruction of Europe from war. It stands in marked contrast to the suffering being inflicted on European people today in the name of debt.

Germany emerged from the second world war still owing debt that originated with the first world war: the reparations imposed on the country following the Versailles peace conference in 1919. Many, including John Maynard Keynes, argued that these unpayable debts and the economic policies they entailed led to the rise of the Nazis and the second world war.

By 1953, Germany also had debts based on reconstruction loans made immediately after the end of the second world war. Germany's creditors included Greece and Spain, Pakistan and Egypt, as well as the US, UK and France.

German debts were well below the levels seen in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain today, making up around a quarter of national income. But even at this level, there was serious concern that debt payments would use up precious foreign currency earnings and endanger reconstruction.

[Demeter]

22. There is some kind of rule in modern economics

that we are NEVER allowed to follow and repeat any of history's lessons, if they worked to improve people's lives. For the 99%, I mean.

It's a perversity. And a travesty of scholarship.

[xchrom]

20. India issues optimistic economic growth forecast

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-21598743

India's growth rate is set to rise over the coming year after two years of slowdown, according to a forecast from the finance ministry.

The ministry released its figures in an economic survey ahead of the unveiling of the budget on Thursday.

It predicts that economic growth in 2013-14 will be between 6.1% to 6.7%, after having fallen to 5% in 2012-13.

However, the survey calls for more action on job creation and widening the tax base.

[xchrom]

21. Italy's borrowing costs surge after election stalemate

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21601306


Italy's borrowing costs rose sharply at an auction on Wednesday, in the first test of its ability to borrow money long-term at affordable rates after the country's inconclusive election result.

Italy sold the new 10-year government bonds at a yield of 4.83%, up from 4.17% at its last sale in January.

The yield provides an indication of the yearly interest rate Rome would have to pay to borrow new money.

But it did sell all 6.5bn euros' worth (£5.6bn) of 10- and five-year bonds.

[Demeter]

23. The forecast calls for single digit nights this weekend

It's March then! Daylight Savings Time starts in 11 days! Haven't we suffered enough?

We don't get single digits in March!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

24. Apple shareholder meeting could get nasty

Apple shareholder meeting could get nasty

By Patrick May
[e-mail]
mercurynews.com

Posted: 02/26/2013 12:32:50 PM PST
February 27, 2013 1:50 AM GMTUpdated: 02/26/2013 05:50:35 PM PST

CUPERTINO -- There are shareholder meetings. And then there are Apple (AAPL) shareholder meetings.

Its share price is still way off record highs. It had an embarrassing dust-up with a large hedge-fund investor. And there are rumors of a stock split.

So its annual gathering of investors Wednesday in Cupertino could be more interesting for what's NOT on the agenda.

After hedge fund operator David Einhorn successfully sued Apple over its plans to change its articles of incorporation dealing with preferred stock, a federal judge ruled last week that Apple needed to quickly amend its proxy statement, which means the stock issue will not go to a vote.

It's today. You can probably watch live.

Biz Break: Apple rebounds on dubious rumors of stock split, HP and Intel also gain

For live coverage of Apple's shareholders meeting Wednesday, go to www.siliconvalley.com.

Not Apple.com?

http://investor.apple.com/

[Demeter]

25. Ah! Another Miracle Day

well, there are no miracles in Michigan, so I guess I'd better get shoveling...

[xchrom]

26. Wall Street Junk Kings Selling Debt Poised to Lose Value

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-27/wall-street-junk-kings-selling-debt-poised-to-lose-value.html

Wall Street junk-bond underwriters, selling debt at a record pace after the securities returned 19 percent last year, say it’s obvious that prices will drop when interest rates rise. So don’t blame the banks.

“Our job first and foremost is to properly structure deals for companies that can support their debt and perform well,” said Craig Packer, the New York-based head of Americas leveraged finance for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) “The interest-rate risk is just a law of nature.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. are leading firms benefiting from growth in a market where the average underwriting fee is almost three times as big as for selling more creditworthy bonds. At the same time, bankers warn that demand underpinned by Federal Reserve debt purchases could evaporate, driving down prices.

Banks have underwritten $89.6 billion of high-yield debt so far this year, up 36 percent from the same period in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last year’s $433 billion of sales was an all-time high for the asset class and produced about $6 billion in fees, the data show. Meanwhile, investors poured $33 billion into mutual funds and exchange- traded funds dedicated to junk bonds last year, 55 percent more than in 2011, according to Morningstar Inc

[xchrom]

27. Stalling for Time: Greek Reform Effort Slows to a Crawl

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/reforms-stall-in-athens-as-troika-considers-next-aid-tranche-for-greece-a-885723.html

The troika mission has returned to Greece, but this time things are different. No front page headlines are warning about new painful demands made by Greece's international creditors, no government officials are pleading for unity in the three-party coalition in support of unpopular measures. And there is no overhanging fear of a long drawn-out process of evaluation, full of innuendos about a catastrophic default or euro-zone exit.

For the moment, Europe is watching developments in Italy. Following the election debacle there, concerns have reawakened that the euro crisis might return. The Greek government, on the other hand, is confident that the inspection started on Monday by the troika -- comprised of officials from the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- will be over by March 10 and will approve the release of the next two tranches of bailout aid -- €2.8 billion in March and a further €6 billion in April. No one seems to fear a repetition of the drama of the previous troika inspection, which lasted a full five months.

On the contrary, the government in Athens is going on the offensive this time, presenting its own list of demands. The Greek government is determined to push lenders to agree on a list of concessions it hopes will help to alleviate the crisis. They include a lower VAT, or sales tax, for restaurants, the allocation of EU funds to combat unemployment and a new law aimed at making life easier for indebted households.

Reforms Lose Traction

But such complacency seems unfounded given the situation on the ground. The Greek economy remains mired in recession, and is expected to contract by another 4.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2013. The latest statistics show that 27 percent of Greeks are unemployed, and among those under the age of 24, that figure is 62 percent. Many are already fearful of the "Bulgarian syndrome," a reference to the street violence and anti-austerity protests that have shaken the government in Greece's northern neighbor.

[xchrom]

28. Europe Frets over Italy: 'Two Clowns Won the Election'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/european-union-leaders-worry-that-italian-election-may-spur-crisis-a-885816.html

"We finished first, without winning." That's how Democratic Party head Pier Luigi Bersani on Tuesday summed up the results of the Italian election, one which left his center-left camp with an edge in parliament but without sufficient leverage in the Senate. What he didn't say is that the biggest loser ultimately might not be in Italy at all. The biggest loser could be Europe and its efforts to finally emerge from years of crisis.

Those concerns were highlighted on Tuesday as stock and financial markets around the world made clear their discomfort with the political chaos in Italy that has resulted from the deadlocked vote. And more bad news could be on the horizon. The ratings agency Moody's indicated on Tuesday that it may downgrade Rome's credit rating in the wake of the election.
"Instead of increasing visibility on the country's political direction, Italy's recent elections raised the risk that the structural reform momentum achieved under the government of Mario Monti will stall, if not come to a complete standstill," Moody's wrote in a Tuesday report. The agency said it would downgrade the country from its current Baa2 rating -- just two levels above junk status -- if reform efforts wane.

It is hardly an idle concern. The Five Star Movement of former comedian Beppe Grillo emerged as the strongest single party from the election, primarily on the strength of his disdain for the political class and his unrelenting anti-European Union and anti-austerity rhetoric. Silvio Berlusconi, though he lost 4 million voters relative to his 2008 result, was also surprisingly strong -- due in large part to his own rants against the EU and, in particular, against German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

[xchrom]

29. Russia's cash flight to gather momentum

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/CEN-01-270213.html

Last week marked the anniversary of the shocking performance staged by the Pussy Riot punk rock group in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. And this year saw a spectacular increase in the density of "patriotic" political noise silencing common sense in debates over such matters as separation of church and state, homosexual "propaganda" or the adoption of Russian children by American families.

This noise has obscured one truly sensational news item produced by the chairman of the Central Bank, Sergei Ignatiev, who confirmed that Russia, which should have been - and needs to be - a net importer of capital, lost through capital flight US$57 billion in 2012, including $35 billion in "dubious operations" (Vedomosti, February 20). There is nothing new about these



figures, but Ignatiev asserted that more than a half of the dubious money outflow is controlled by "one well-organized group of people", which should have been identified and terminated.

This informed estimate provides a rare insight into the maturity of organized crime in Russia and the scope of the country's corruption.

[Demeter]

30. Quid pro quo? Qui Bono?

According to the AP, a memoir out next month from Robert Bork, the solicitor general under President Nixon, claims that Nixon promised him the next open spot on the Supreme Court after Bork fired Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox in 1973's "Saturday Night Massacre." Bork, who died last December, was ultimately nominated to the High Court by President Reagan in 1987. But he was rejected by the Senate — after hearings that "marked the modern battle lines over judicial nominations," as NPR's Nina Totenberg has said.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/02/26/173018916/book-news-new-claims-about-nixon-in-posthumous-robert-bork-memoir?ft=1&f=1001

ALSO

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/robert-bork-nixon_n_2764530.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ir=Books

Robert Bork: Nixon Offered Next Supreme Court Vacancy After Watergate Firing By MARK SHERMAN

...Bork's recollection of his role in the Saturday Night Massacre that culminated in Cox's firing is at the center of his slim memoir, "Saving Justice," that is being published posthumously by Encounter Books. Bork died in December at age 85.

Bork writes that he didn't know if Nixon actually, though mistakenly, believed he still had the political clout to get someone confirmed to the Supreme Court or was just trying to secure Bork's continued loyalty as his administration crumbled in the Watergate scandal....Bork describes a surreal time in Washington as the Watergate scandal began to consume the government and the country, and a sense of paranoia prevailed.

Bork says that soon after his arrival in Washington in 1973, White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig tried to persuade him to resign as Solicitor General to become Nixon's chief defense lawyer. Bork sought out his good friend Alexander Bickel to discuss the offer. Rather than talk inside Bork's home in McLean, Virginia, they walked along a dark, semi-rural road so that no one would overhear them. Bork turned down the offer.

When Bork and Attorney General Eliot Richardson were called to the Oval Office to discuss plans to indict Vice President Spiro Agnew, the two men ducked into a restroom where Richardson turned on all the faucets so their conversation would not be picked up by electronic eavesdropping....

IT'S AMAZING WE MADE IT TO THE 21ST CENTURY...AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE DID--W, 9/11, AND THE BLOWBACK AND PARANOIA AND FASCISM....

[Demeter]

31. Sequester won’t last, won’t derail economy

Economics policy guru Robert J. Shapiro walked into the White House in 2010: “They said, ‘We think we’re really recovering.’ And I said, “Don’t believe it.’” Extraordinary economic stimuli created the illusion of a recovery, he explained. Consumers and businesses were still loaded with debt and still reeling from losses after the 2008 financial crisis. “Three times we’ve had the economy look like it’s coming back and then it stalled out,” Shapiro said in a telephone interview.

These disappointments came in 2010, 2011 and yet again in 2012, when the economy surprisingly contracted in the fourth quarter. Despite that downturn, there’s even more talk of recovery in 2013, but this time Shapiro isn’t shouting it down.

“I was a pessimist for years,” he said. “Now, I’m an optimist...The pieces for a recovery are in place.” YEAH, THE ECONOMY IS IN PIECES, ALL RIGHT...

Shapiro served as undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs under President Bill Clinton, and is now chairman of a private financial consultancy, Sonecon LLC. He’s also an adviser to the International Monetary Fund and blogs about economic issues at www.sonecon.com. Read Shapiro’s ‘Dark Thoughts on the Coming Sequester’.

Let’s see: Europe and Japan are in recession; China’s growth is slowing; Washington is threatening a sequester showdown; Americans’ paychecks just got smaller after a temporary cut in the payroll tax expired; taxes for the rich increased, too; Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, is warning of disappointing sales growth; we’ve just had one quarter of economic contraction.

But Mr. Pessimist has now turned optimist? MORE

[Demeter]

32. Dark Thoughts on the Coming Sequester

http://www.sonecon.com/blog/?p=769

This week’s bout over federal spending pits Tea Party militants, conservative pundits and most Republican office holders against the President, his congressional allies and most economists who pay attention. But behind the politics, there is simply no economic basis for the immediate spending cuts that would follow the sequester — or immediate tax increases for that matter. The economy is still fragile enough that GDP went negative in the last quarter, when inventory purchases and federal spending both slowed more than usual. And just last weekend, Moody’s credit rating agency stripped the United Kingdom of its AAA rating — not because UK deficits are too high, but because Britain’s premature austerity policies are leaching away the growth required to make its deficits manageable. Moody’s decision only echoed recent warnings from the IMF and World Bank against just such precipitous moves to bring down cyclical deficits.

Back home, President Obama’s odds of prevailing on the sequester would be greater, if those who have made careers out of fetishizing a balanced budget were not receiving quiet support from much of Washington’s split-the-difference political pros, including a clutch of Democrats. Looking out a few weeks, a chorus of self-described centrists and a few liberals could nudge the President into accepting a “compromise package” of substantial, immediate spending cuts and what Ronald Reagan used to call “revenue enhancers.” If it stops there, the economic damage will be contained. But the scenario could turn worse if, as seems likely, such a compromise also becomes embedded in a Continuing Resolution that will cover the rest of the fiscal year and create a new, lower baseline for 2014.

This premature austerity inescapably will weaken the economy, raising deficits even more down the line. Worse, such a bipartisan agreement could reinforce both parties’ natural resistance to contain Medicare spending and build up the tax base, especially over the long-term. And that could finally convince global financial markets that the United States has lost its way economically. The result would be higher interest rates, which in turn would mean even slower growth and higher deficits. What the markets want and have long expected from us is just fiscal common sense. That means, first, sidestep the sequester trap and instead increase federal investments in infrastructure, basic R&D along our technological frontiers, and access for all adults to upgrade their skills. Then follow it up with serious steps to contain long-term Medicare spending and expand the national tax base....

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...NOBODY'S LISTENING, BOB....

[DemReadingDU]

33. Nobody's listening, everyone has other priorities

[Demeter]

34. And their own set of facts

and theory (usually of the conspiracy kind).