STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 1 July 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 1 July 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 28 June 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 28 June 2013
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Dow Jones 14,909.60 -114.89 (-0.76%)
S&P 500 1,606.28 -6.92 (-0.43%)
[font color=green]Nasdaq 3,403.25 +1.39 (0.04%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.48% -0.04 (-1.59%)
30 Year 3.50% -0.06 (-1.69%) [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.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.










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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]

[Tansy_Gold]

1. And so we start the second half of 2013!

Whoppee!

[Demeter]

2. Jump! Jump!

[Tansy_Gold]

4. My sentiments exactly!!!! n/t

[bread_and_roses]

16. And mine (n/t)

[Fuddnik]

26. They need to update that photo.

A picture of the Capitol or the Washington Monument.

[Fuddnik]

3. What's cooking in Arizona?

Besides Tansy.

[Tansy_Gold]

5. Nah, it's just a bit warm

I swore to my husband that if we ever got out of Indiana and made it to Arizona, I would NEVER complain about the heat.

And I never have.

[Fuddnik]

6. Wages fell at the fastest rate ever recorded during the first quarter of this year.

Posted by HiPointDem in GD.

Breaking news alert! Wages fell at the fastest rate ever recorded during the first quarter of this year, the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Hourly wages fell 3.8 percent in the first quarter, the biggest drop since the BLS began tracking compensation in 1947. Productivity rose half a percentage point. The result was that what economists call “labor unit costs” fell 4.3 percent.

In plain English, that means paychecks overall shrank, but work output grew. If you are a business owner, that is news worthy of a toast with a bottle of the finest Cristal champagne, which at $595 is more than the $518 that a median-wage worker earns in a week.

If you have not heard this news about plummeting wages, it is not surprising. Except for right-wing websites, and an item at the liberal Huffington Post, the June 5 announcement went unreported.

The networks and the major newspapers all have staffs of business reporters, yet they missed the third paragraph of the official government announcement that contained this important news.

That is because they are mostly assigned to write about hedge funds, high finance and the latest smartphone app. Hardly any business reporters cover workers or work, and when they do, it is often from the perspective of company executives and investors.

http://angrybearblog.com/2013/06/wages-falling.html

[Tansy_Gold]

7. I wish the banksters would fall that fast. (See Post #2) n/r

[Demeter]

8. Real Disposable Income is Falling at 2008 Rates BY Graham Summers LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-27/real-disposable-income-falling-2008-rates

The biggest single most important item in the GDP report yesterday was the collapse in disposable income for Americans.

Most investors will focus on the drop in GDP growth for 1Q13 and view it as opening the door for the Fed to continue with QE 3 and QE 4 without any tapering in sight. After all, the markets have believed that bad economic news is good news for the markets for four years based on the belief that a weak economy will mean more money printing from the Fed.

However, the real issue in the BEA’s report on GDP growth was the collapse in real per capita disposable income which fell at a annualized rate of 9.21%. That is a truly staggering collapse in incomes. The last time we say anything even close to this was in the third quarter of 2008. That was right after Lehman failed and the entire economy and stock market were melting down. Buckle up, things are getting worse in the US at a truly alarming rate.

AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED OBAMACARE, YET!


I’ve been warning subscribers of Private Wealth Advisory that the economy was going to turn sharply weaker this year. It’s already begun. Indeed, while most investors will look at the GDP report as indicating more QE is coming, commodities certainly didn’t get that signal at all. The commodity index continues to plunge diverging wildly from the S&P 500...One of these asset classes is completely mispricing the economy and the likelihood of more QE. Guess which one it is.



I EXPECT IT'S BECAUSE QE WILL NOT FIX THE PROBLEM.

[bread_and_roses]

17. "US Middle Class is Sliding Toward the Third World"

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/01-1

More Evidence That US Middle Class is Sliding Toward the Third World
by Paul Buchheit

A recent article by Les Leopold informed us that our nation is near the bottom of the developed world in median wealth, probably the best gauge for the economic strength of the middle class.

... To view Column 7 in another way, a middle-class adult in Finland owns $122 for every billion dollars of his or her nation's wealth. In Canada it's $13. In the U.S. it's 60 cents. Only China (40 cents) and India (30 cents) give their middle-class adults less.

Sliding toward?

[Demeter]

9. Democrats Get a Gift From the Roberts Court By ROSS DOUTHAT (BEWARE OF FASCISTS BEARING GIFTS)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/opinion/sunday/douthat-democrats-get-a-gift-from-the-roberts-court.html?_r=1&

BACK in the days when Republicans were reading polls through rose-colored glasses and imagining a Mitt Romney landslide, one of their most plausible arguments was that many pollsters were simply misreading the likely composition of the electorate. There was no way, this theory ran, that core Democratic constituencies would turn out at the same rates as in 2008, when Obamamania was at its peak. Instead, 2012 was set up to be what the conservative writer Ben Domenech called an “undertow election,” in which reduced turnout among young voters and minorities would drag the incumbent down to defeat. This expectation turned out to be wrong on two counts. First, Republicans faced an unexpected (though in hindsight, predictable) undertow of their own, as many conservative-leaning, working-class white voters looked at what Mitt Romney had to offer and simply stayed home. Second, instead of declining as expected after the history-making election of 2008, African-American turnout may have actually risen again in 2012. When the Census Bureau released its turnout analysis last month, it showed blacks voting at higher rates than whites for the first time in the history of the survey.

If you believe Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.’s more overheated liberal critics, last week’s Supreme Court decision invalidating a portion of the Voting Rights Act is designed to make sure African-American turnout never hits these highs again. The ruling will allow a number of (mostly Southern) states to change voting laws without the Justice Department’s pre-approval, which has liberals predicting a wave of Republican-led efforts to “suppress” minority votes — through voter ID laws, restrictions on early voting and other measures. These predictions probably overstate the ruling’s direct impact on state election rules, which can still be challenged under other provisions of the Voting Rights Act and other state and federal laws. But it is possible that the decision will boost the existing Republican enthusiasm for voter ID laws, and hasten the ongoing, multistate push for their adoption. If so, though, the Roberts Court may have actually handed the Democratic Party a political gift. How so? Well, to begin with, voter identification laws do not belong to the same moral or legal universe as Jim Crow. Their public purpose, as a curb to fraud, is potentially legitimate rather than nakedly discriminatory, and their effects are relatively limited. As Roberts’s majority opinion noted, the voter registration gap between whites and blacks in George Wallace’s segregationist Alabama was 50 percentage points. When my colleague Nate Silver looked at studies assessing the impact of voter ID laws, he estimated that they tend to reduce turnout by around 2 percent — and that reduction crosses racial lines, rather than affecting African-Americans exclusively. A 2 percent dip is still enough to influence a close election. But voter ID laws don’t take effect in a vacuum: as they’re debated, passed and contested in court, they shape voter preferences and influence voter enthusiasm in ways that might well outstrip their direct influence on turnout. They inspire registration drives and education efforts; they help activists fund-raise and organize; they raise the specter of past injustices; they reinforce a narrative that their architects are indifferent or hostile to minorities.

This, I suspect, is part of the story of why African-American turnout didn’t fall off as expected between 2008 and 2012. By trying to restrict the franchise on the margins, Republican state legislators handed Democrats a powerful tool for mobilization and persuasion, and motivated voters who might otherwise have lost some of their enthusiasm after the euphoria of “Yes We Can” gave way to the reality of a stagnant, high-unemployment economy. So a lengthy battle over voting rules and voting rights seems almost precision-designed to help the Obama-era Democratic majority endure once President Obama has left the Oval Office. As Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics has pointed out, for all the talk about how important Hispanics are to the conservative future, the Republican Party could substantially close the gap with Democrats in presidential elections if its post-Obama share of the African-American vote merely climbed back above 10 percent — a feat achieved by Bob Dole and both Bushes. If that share climbed higher still, the Democratic majority would be in danger of collapse.

Such a turn of events wouldn’t just be good news for Republicans. It would be good news for black Americans, as it would mean that both parties were competing for their votes. But for now, our politics is headed in the opposite direction. Liberal demagogy notwithstanding, voter ID laws aren’t a way for Republicans to turn the clock back and make sure that it’s always 1965. But they are a good way for Republicans to ensure that African-Americans keep voting like it’s always 2008.

MAYBE...WE WILL SEE IF THE THIRD WAY, LIMP-WRISTED AMONG US ARE WILLING TO WORK THAT HARD. THEY POLITICK LIKE GIRLS CONDITIONED TO BE DEPENDENTS AND "LADYLIKE", AND I HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THEM.

[Demeter]

10. MAYBE THAT'S THE PROBLEM!

[Demeter]

11. European Financial Transaction Tax Delayed

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323683504578567192034185964.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

A plan by 11 European countries to tax financial transactions will be delayed by at least six months as participating governments have yet to agree on key aspects of the new levy, including its scope. The delay is the latest setback for a proposal that has sharply divided the European Union and been met with fierce opposition from the financial industry. Only last month, EU diplomats warned that the plan was likely to be significantly watered down, at least initially.

France, Germany and nine other EU countries had agreed to push ahead with their own levy on share, bond and derivative trades, after discussions for an EU-wide financial-transaction tax broke down last year. The tax was supposed to enter into force on Jan. 1, according to a proposal in February by the European Commission, the EU's executive body. But in an update on its website last week, the commission said the financial transactions tax "could still enter into force towards the middle of 2014," provided that "agreement is found before the end of 2013, and there is a speedy transposition into national law by the participating member states."

The delay represents a victory for the financial services industry, which has lobbied furiously against the plans. The tax aims to discourage speculative trading and ensure that the financial sector pays back part of what it received from taxpayers during the financial crisis. Under the commission's proposal, a 0.1% levy would apply to share and bond trades and 0.01% to derivative transactions between financial institutions, if at least one party was located in the EU.

Opponents including the U.K., Denmark and Sweden worried that a failure to introduce the tax globally would endanger the competitiveness of Europe's financial centers...

SCREW YOUR COURAGE TO THE STICKING PLACE!

[Demeter]

12. War On the Unemployed By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/opinion/krugman-the-war-on-the-unemployed.html

Is life too easy for the unemployed? You may not think so, and I certainly don’t think so. But that, remarkably, is what many and perhaps most Republicans believe. And they’re acting on that belief: there’s a nationwide movement under way to punish the unemployed, based on the proposition that we can cure unemployment by making the jobless even more miserable.

Consider, for example, the case of North Carolina. The state was hit hard by the Great Recession, and its unemployment rate, at 8.8 percent, is among the highest in the nation, higher than in long-suffering California or Michigan. As is the case everywhere, many of the jobless have been out of work for six months or more, thanks to a national environment in which there are three times as many people seeking work as there are job openings. Nonetheless, the state’s government has just sharply cut aid to the unemployed. In fact, the Republicans controlling that government were so eager to cut off aid that they didn’t just reduce the duration of benefits; they also reduced the average weekly benefit, making the state ineligible for about $700 million in federal aid to the long-term unemployed. It’s quite a spectacle, but North Carolina isn’t alone: a number of other states have cut unemployment benefits, although none at the price of losing federal aid. And at the national level, Congress has been allowing extended benefits introduced during the economic crisis to expire, even though long-term unemployment remains at historic highs.

So what’s going on here? Is it just cruelty? Well, the G.O.P., which believes that 47 percent of Americans are “takers” mooching off the job creators, which in many states is denying health care to the poor simply to spite President Obama, isn’t exactly overflowing with compassion. But the war on the unemployed isn’t motivated solely by cruelty; rather, it’s a case of mean-spiritedness converging with bad economic analysis. In general, modern conservatives believe that our national character is being sapped by social programs that, in the memorable words of Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, “turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency.” More specifically, they believe that unemployment insurance encourages jobless workers to stay unemployed, rather than taking available jobs. Is there anything to this belief? The average unemployment benefit in North Carolina is $299 a week, pretax; some hammock. So anyone who imagines that unemployed workers are deliberately choosing to live a life of leisure has no idea what the experience of unemployment, and especially long-term unemployment, is really like. Still, there is some evidence that unemployment benefits make workers a bit more choosy in their job search. When the economy is booming, this extra choosiness may raise the “non-accelerating-inflation” unemployment rate — the unemployment rate at which inflation starts to rise, inducing the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates and choke off economic expansion.

...While cutting unemployment benefits will make the unemployed even more desperate, it will do nothing to create more jobs — which means that even if some of those currently unemployed do manage to find work, they will do so only by taking jobs away from those currently employed. But wait — what about supply and demand? Won’t making the unemployed desperate put downward pressure on wages? And won’t lower labor costs encourage job growth? No — that’s a fallacy of composition. Cutting one worker’s wage may help save his or her job by making that worker cheaper than competing workers; but cutting everyone’s wages just reduces everyone’s income — and it worsens the burden of debt, which is one of the main forces holding the economy back. Oh, and let’s not forget that cutting benefits to the unemployed, many of whom are living hand-to-mouth, will lead to lower overall spending — again, worsening the economic situation, and destroying more jobs. The move to slash unemployment benefits, then, is counterproductive as well as cruel; it will swell the ranks of the unemployed even as it makes their lives ever more miserable.

Can anything be done to reverse this policy wrong turn? The people out to punish the unemployed won’t be dissuaded by rational argument; they know what they know, and no amount of evidence will change their views. My sense, however, is that the war on the unemployed has been making so much progress in part because it has been flying under the radar, with too many people unaware of what’s going on...

WHEN EVERYONE KNOWS AT LEAST ONE PERSON LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED, HOW CAN PEOPLE NOT KNOW? OR DOES "PEOPLE" ONLY REFER TO THE 1%, WHO HAVE JOBS, AND DON'T NEED THEM ANYWAY?

[xchrom]

13. Spain's manufacturing activity at 26-month high

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23125861

Spain's manufacturing activity recorded its strongest reading for more than two years in June, but eurozone unemployment remains at a record high.

An increase in new orders meant Spain's purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 50, up from 48.1 in May.

The monthly survey provides a snapshot of industry condition,s and a reading above 50 indicates growth.

Meanwhile, separate data indicated that the eurozone unemployment rate reached 12.1% in May, its highest level ever.

[Demeter]

14. An Orphan Jackpot By STEVEN RATTNER

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/the-orphan-jackpot/

ONE sure sign that federal regulations and policies are out of whack is when companies start making a business model out of gaming them. That’s particularly true in two areas of government rule making — drug regulation and corporate taxes.

Consider the success of Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Just four years ago, this little-known company was struggling: its share price was measured in pennies, and Jazz had missed a string of interest payments on its debt. Today, its stock has levitated to $68 per share. Jazz accomplished that $4 billion enrichment of its shareholders thanks to well-intentioned federal regulations that deterred competition for its principal product, compliant health insurers, and a Swiss-cheese corporate tax regime. Don’t get me wrong: Jazz’s mainstay, Xyrem, which is currently used by about 10,500 Americans, is a good drug. While it doesn’t cure any deadly disease or even directly prolong life, it does help those with narcolepsy, a debilitating ailment that causes people to fall asleep unexpectedly during the day, and a related condition, cataplexy. Xyrem came to Jazz as the centerpiece of its acquisition of Orphan Medical, so named because of its focus on orphan drugs — those intended to treat uncommon disorders (affecting fewer than 200,000 patients in the United States) that are ignored by many big pharmaceutical companies.

To get drug developers to focus on these relatively small pools of patients, the federal government offers inducements like a 50 percent research-and-development tax credit as well as a longer period of market exclusivity (seven years after Food and Drug Administration approval, rather than the typical five). These long monopolies often give orphan drug makers a free hand to raise prices.

That’s precisely what Jazz has done, often multiple times each year, at an average annual rate of nearly 40 percent. Today, Xyrem costs more than $65,000 per year for the typical user. The drug will account for approximately $550 million in revenue this year, making up a majority of Jazz’s total sales. Last year, Jazz turned 49 cents of every revenue dollar into net profit, an extraordinary margin even for a pharmaceutical company. The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 was intended to encourage drug makers to invest in treatments for underserved diseases, for which research-and-development costs can often be high and the markets for the medicines too small to make the expenditure worthwhile. But Xyrem, which is a modification of a long-available compound, was inexpensive to develop, as new drugs go. Indeed, Jazz paid only $146 million for Orphan Medical, just a fraction of what it now earns each year from Xyrem alone. (The company contends that it has spent considerably on its development.) Central to Jazz’s pricing strategy, moreover, has been the willingness of insurance companies to reimburse the cost of Xyrem, even when physicians prescribe the drug for other ailments (like insomnia), as they are permitted to do. Nearly every patient gets the drug pretty cheaply — Jazz subsidizes co-payments above $35 per month — so few users care what Jazz charges.

The corporate tax system, meanwhile, has further sweetened the pot. As profits began to gush, Jazz was able to avoid a heavy United States tax bill by merging with an Irish company that was one-quarter its size and moving to Ireland, where the tax climes are more convivial. The tax laws didn’t require Jazz’s senior management to decamp; the company’s top four executives are still based in sunny Palo Alto, Calif. And unlike multinationals incorporated in the United States, Jazz can bring unlimited amounts of cash across the Atlantic without paying American tax rates that can reach 40 percent. All told, analysts estimate that Jazz will pay about 18 percent of its earnings in taxes this year.

To be fair, while Jazz’s success in mastering the government’s web of policies and regulations is notable, the company is hardly alone...

[xchrom]

15. China manufacturing growth rate slows

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23123610

China has reported a slowdown in growth of its manufacturing sector, underlining concerns that its economic recovery continues to remain fragile.

The official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a key measure of manufacturing activity, fell to a four-month low of 50.1 in June, from 50.8 in May.

A sub-index of new orders also fell, indicating a weak demand.

The manufacturing and export sectors have been key drivers of China's economic growth in recent years.

[Demeter]

18. Japan has fairies, too, and they were out in full force last night

That's nice.

[xchrom]

19. UK manufacturing growth at two-year high, PMI survey shows

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23127126

UK manufacturing saw its strongest growth in two years in June, according to a survey, boosting hopes of a strengthening economic recovery.

The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 52.5 last month - its highest level since May 2011.

Any reading above 50 indicates growth in the sector.

The figure adds to the increasingly positive data released in recent weeks on the UK economy, which grew by 0.3% in the first three months of the year.

[xchrom]

20. EUROZONE UNEMPLOYMENT AT RECORD HIGH IN MAY

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-01-07-31-55

LONDON (AP) -- Unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro hit another all-time high in May after the previous months' figures were revised down, official data showed Monday.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said the eurozone's unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point in May to the new all-time high of 12.1 percent. That's a new record for the region following the revisions as April's original 12.2 percent estimate was amended to 12.0 percent.

The figures will make sobering reading for the region's politicians as they gather in Berlin this week to tackle the problem of youth unemployment - nearly one in four people aged under-25 in the eurozone are out of work.

Across the eurozone, there were 19.22 million people unemployed, 67,000 higher than the previous month - a closer look at the figures show that Italy was largely behind the increase.

[xchrom]

21. MARKETS SHRUG OFF WEAK CHINESE MANUFACTURING NEWS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-01-07-08-18

LONDON (AP) -- Global stocks mostly rose Monday as long-awaited signs of improvement in Japan's economy helped investors shrug off a weakening in China's manufacturing sector.

The Bank of Japan's closely-watched quarterly "tankan" survey for June showed that the index for major manufacturers rose to positive 4 points from negative 8 in March. It was the first positive figure since September 2011. A positive reading means more companies are optimistic than pessimistic.

The report, along with another survey showing consumer prices stopped falling for the first time in seven months, suggests companies are reacting positively to the weaker yen and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies to revive the economy.

Market gains were tempered, however, by a report showing China's manufacturing decelerated in June for a second month. The survey by HSBC Corp. and a Chinese industry group declined to 48.2 points from May's 49.2 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 indicate a contraction. The drop reflects in part a tightening in lending conditions as Beijing sought to stabilize the credit market.

[xchrom]

22. HK PROTESTS FOR BEIJING-BACKED LEADER TO RESIGN

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_HONG_KONG_DEMOCRACY_PROTEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-01-08-25-06

HONG KONG (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the streets in protest Monday, demanding their widely disliked Beijing-backed leader resign and pressing for promised democratic reforms so they can choose their own top representative.

The annual protest march has become increasingly popular in recent years, underscoring the growing gulf between Hong Kong and the mainland 16 years after the city ceased to be a British colony and came back under Beijing's control.

This year the protesters unleashed their anger at the performance of leader Leung Chun-ying, who has been beset by one controversy after another since he took office a year ago. Leung was not elected but instead picked by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing and pro-business elites.

"One person, one foot! Kick Leung Chun-ying out!" organizers told the protesters, who braved sometimes heavy rain to gather at the march's starting point in a central park. Protesters also turned out despite a Korean pop music festival and other events that critics say were aimed at distracting people from taking part.

[xchrom]

23. NEW EU MEMBER CROATIA PLEDGES REGIONAL TIES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CROATIA_EU?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-01-07-33-38

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) -- In its first day as a European Union member, Croatia on Monday pledged to help other Balkan countries move closer to the bloc and to help bring lasting stability to a region which was engulfed in conflict 20 years ago.

Croatian president Ivo Josipovic met with leaders of other Balkan countries just hours after Croatia became the union's 28th member state. It is only the second former Yugoslav republic to join, following Slovenia in 2004.

Josipovic said Balkan leaders have agreed to future meetings to discuss joint projects and resolve remaining issues weighing on regional ties. EU officials will join the gatherings that will also focus on further EU integration of the region, he said.

"I look at the future with much optimism," Josipovic said, greeting the Balkan leaders "on the first European morning."

[xchrom]

24. GREEK GOVERNMENT, CREDITORS TO RESUME TALKS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GREECE_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-01-08-39-49

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's international creditors are to resume talks in Athens for approval of the next installment of rescue loans, after a two-week hiatus which saw the near collapse of the coalition government.

Ministers responsible for reforms were meeting Monday ahead of talks with the representatives of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission, known as the troika. At stake is approval for 8.1 billion euros ($10.6 billion) from the country's multi-billion bailout fund from other eurozone countries and the IMF.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' government nearly collapsed earlier this month after a small left-wing party pulled out of the coalition in anger over Samaras' decision to shut down state broadcaster ERT and fire its 2,700 employees. The closure was meant to meet targets for public sector staff cuts

[xchrom]

25. economic rebalancing acts

http://www.nationofchange.org/economic-rebalancing-acts-1372605222


We all know how the global economic crisis began. The banks over-lent to the housing market. The subsequent burst of the housing bubble in the United States caused banks to fail, because banking had gone global and the big banks held one another’s bad loans. Banking failure caused a credit crunch. Lending dried up and economies started shrinking.

So governments bailed out banks and economies, producing a sovereign debt crisis. With everyone busy deleveraging, economies failed to recover. Much of the world, especially Europe, but also the slightly less sickly US, remains stuck in a semi-slump.

So how do we escape from this hole? The familiar debate is between austerity and stimulus. “Austerians” believe that only balancing government budgets and shrinking national debts will restore investor confidence. The Keynesians believe that without a large fiscal stimulus – a deliberate temporary increase of the deficit – the European and US economies will remain stuck in recession for years to come.

I am one of those who believe that recovery from the crisis requires fiscal stimulus. I don’t think monetary policy, even unorthodox monetary policy, can do the job. Confidence is too low for commercial banks to create credit on the scale needed to return to full employment and the pre-crisis growth trend, however many hundreds of billions of whatever cash central banks pour into them. We are learning all over again that the central bank cannot create whatever level of credit it wants!

[xchrom]

27. thanks to dainbramaged...the dogs of homeless people

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bryanbrunsell/the-dogs-of-homeless-people-45ct

[xchrom]

28. Spying 'Out of Control': EU Official Questions Trade Negotiations

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eu-officials-furious-at-nsa-spying-in-brussels-and-germany-a-908614.html



Europeans are furious. Revelations that the US intelligence service National Security Agency (NSA) targeted the European Union and several European countries with its far-reaching spying activities have led to angry reactions from several senior EU and German politicians.

"We need more precise information," said European Parliament President Martin Schulz. "But if it is true, it is a huge scandal. That would mean a huge burden for relations between the EU and the US. We now demand comprehensive information."
Schulz was reacting to a report in SPIEGEL that the NSA had bugged the EU's diplomatic representation in Washington and monitored its computer network (full story available on Monday). The EU's representation to the United Nations in New York was targeted in a similar manner. US intelligence thus had access to EU email traffic and internal documents. The information appears in secret documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden, some of which SPIEGEL has seen.

The documents also indicate the US intelligence service was responsible for an electronic eavesdropping operation in Brussels. SPIEGEL also reported that Germany has been a significant target of the NSA's global surveillance program, with some 500 million communication connections being monitored every month. The documents show that the NSA is more active in Germany than in any other country in the European Union.

[Demeter]

29. Sic semper globalism

The Euro is failing, because the hidden goal was German domination of the region...which nobody else signed up for.

Globalism will similarly fail, because the hidden goal is US domination of the world...and not even most Americans are in support of that. let alone the Russians, Chinese (1.2 Billion of them) Indians (1.1 Billion of them), Africa or the rest of WWII battlefields.

The Japanese are too destroyed to care, anymore. They just want to be rescued...and nobody is coming to help.

[Demeter]

30. I think I know WHY they are suppressing the price of gold

to conceal the amount of debasement of all the fiat currencies.

[kickysnana]

31. Just when you think the bag of tricks is just about empty, they pull out one more. n/t