STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 10 December 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 10 December 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 9 December 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 9 December 2013
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Dow Jones 16,025.53 +5.33 (0.03%)
S&P 500 1,808.37 +3.28 (0.18%)
Nasdaq 4,068.75 +6.23 (0.15%)


[font color=black]10 Year 2.84% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=green]30 Year 3.87% -0.01 (-0.26%)[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.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.








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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]

[Demeter]

1. First cut is the deepest

It creates heroes, like Edward Snowden.

[Demeter]

2. SIGTARP proves that some bankers aren’t too big to jail

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sigtarp-the-watchdog-thats-putting-bankers-behind-bars/2013/12/06/9dd2068e-4b25-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html

...At a time when the government is being criticized for not holding senior bank executives liable for crisis-era crimes, a little-known federal agency is compiling a growing list of criminal convictions.At a time when the government is being criticized for not holding senior bank executives liable for crisis-era crimes, a little-known federal agency is compiling a growing list of criminal convictions.

Since 2008, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program has pursued criminal charges against 107 senior bank officers, most of whom have been sentenced to prison. Created to supervise the government bailout of the auto and financial industries, the agency has found dozens of cases of bank executives who misused bailout funds.

SIGTARP has a staff of 170, a budget of $41 million and an enforcement track record that rivals agencies twice its size. The agency’s work has resulted in $4.7 billion in restitution paid to the government and victims. Lawmakers are holding SIGTARP up as a model and questioning why other agencies are not producing similar results...SIGTARP has a strong record, but the office has mainly taken down community bankers, not Wall Street titans, for brazen acts of fraud, some observers say. “The amount of direct evidence of banker wrongdoing in these smaller bank cases is easier to show,” said Mark Williams, a former bank examiner who teaches finance at Boston University...

SIGTARP’s success is in part due to the criminal authority it received from Congress. Unlike regulators, the inspector general can issue search warrants, seize property and make arrests, much like the FBI. It is ultimately up to the Justice Department to determine whether to pursue criminal charges, but the inspector general can move a case along faster, said Michael J. Rivera, a former chief counsel with the inspector general and now an attorney at Venable law firm. The agency is largely charged with ensuring that the 763 financial institutions that received funds from the $700 billion TARP program use the money properly.

MORE

[Demeter]

3. NSA morale down after Edward Snowden revelations, former U.S. officials say

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-morale-down-after-edward-snowden-revelations-former-us-officials-say/2013/12/07/24975c14-5c65-11e3-95c2-13623eb2b0e1_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines



Morale has taken a hit at the National Security Agency in the wake of controversy over the agency’s surveillance activities, according to former officials who say they are dismayed that President Obama has not visited the agency to show his support.

A White House spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden, noted that top White House officials have been to the agency to “express the president’s support and appreciation for all that NSA does to keep us safe.”

It is not clear whether or when Obama might travel the 23 miles up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to visit Fort Meade, the NSA’s headquarters in Maryland, but agency employees are privately voicing frustration at what they perceive as White House ambivalence amid the pounding the agency has taken from critics.

SOMEBODY NEEDS A HUG!

[Demeter]

4. Unemployment Drop Boosts Fed QE Taper Speculation

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-06/payrolls-in-u-s-rose-203-000-in-november-jobless-rate-at-7-.html

...“Unemployment is falling quite dramatically,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York and the top forecaster of the jobless rate for the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “It will continue to move lower, aided by what I’m guessing is going to be stronger GDP growth next year.”

The pickup in hiring signals that companies are more confident demand will improve, while gains in wages and hours reported today give American workers even more reason to spend as holiday shopping gets under way. Stocks rallied on bets the economy is strong enough to withstand a reduction in the Fed’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.

November’s employment gain was the biggest in three months. The median forecast of 89 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 185,000 advance, with estimates ranging from increases of 115,000 to 230,000...

[jtuck004]

5. We Need a Central Bank that Serves Main Street

The Federal Reserve is the only central bank with a dual mandate. It is charged not only with maintaining low, stable inflation but with promoting maximum sustainable employment. Yet unemployment remains stubbornly high, despite four years of radical tinkering with interest rates and quantitative easing (creating money on the Fed’s books). After pushing interest rates as low as they can go, the Fed has admitted that it has run out of tools.

At an IMF conference on November 8, 2013, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers suggested that since near-zero interest rates were not adequately promoting people to borrow and spend, it might now be necessary to set interest at below zero. This idea was lauded and expanded upon by other ivory-tower inside-the-box thinkers, including Paul Krugman.

Negative interest would mean that banks would charge the depositor for holding his deposits rather than paying interest on them. Runs on the banks would no doubt follow, but the pundits have a solution for that: move to a cashless society, in which all money would be electronic. “This would make it impossible to hoard cash outside the bank,” wrote Danny Vinik in Business Insider, “allowing the Fed to cut interest rates to below zero, spurring people to spend more.” He concluded:

. . . Summers’ speech is a reminder to all liberals that he is a brilliant economist who grasps the long-term issues of monetary policy and would likely have made an exemplary Fed chair.

I've never used this smiley, but now seems like a good time...

anyway...

Maybe; but to ordinary mortals living in the less rarefied atmosphere of the real world, the proposal to impose negative interest rates looks either inane or like the next giant step toward the totalitarian New World Order. Business Week quotes Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office: “We’ve had four years of extraordinarily loose monetary policy without satisfactory results, and the only thing they come up with is we need more?”

What a concept. A central bank that works for the working people, not just for the benefit of banksters...

More, here.

[Demeter]

6. FREE AT LAST! GM shares move higher after U.S. sells stake

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gm-shares-move-higher-with-us-selling-stake-2013-12-09?siteid=YAHOOB

Shares of General Motors traded higher in the extended session Monday after the U.S. Treasury announced it had sold the last of its shares in the auto maker.

[Demeter]

26. Treasury sells its last shares in GM, posts a loss of $10 billion

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/treasury-sells-last-stake-in-general-motors-losing-10-billion/2013/12/09/e01bbf2c-6118-11e3-8beb-3f9a9942850f_story.html

LONG SAD STORY AT LINK

[Demeter]

7. Young Americans missing out on job gains: Why so many young Americans feel stuck in place

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-young-americans-are-stuck-in-place-2013-11-20



The unemployment rate for Americans aged 25 through 34 actually rose slightly to 7.4% in November from 7.3% the month before—making them the only age group to see an increase in joblessness during that time period. “We still are not doing great on the jobs front and we’re particularly doing bad with youth,” says Eugene Steuerle, an economist with the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

Economists say the increase shows that many young adults are missing out on much of the job market gains seen since the end of the recession. Recent college graduates are facing fewer job opportunities and slower wage growth than their parents and grandparents did when they entered the job market, says Steuerle. Indeed, the unemployment rate for people aged 20 to 24 years old was 11.6% in November, compared to 7% for workers overall. And the average person working today doesn’t earn the median wage until they are 30 years old, compared to 1980 when the average worker made the median wage by age 26, according to an analysis of census data by the Georgetown University Center on Education.

The weak job gains for younger workers also contribute to a dimmer outlook for the housing market. The share of younger Americans aged 25 to 34 who moved locally – typically a gauge of how many people are buying houses or moving out on their own—fell to 12.7% this year from 13.5% in 2012. according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. The numbers show many young adults are staying with roommates or living with relatives instead of moving out on their own. “They are still hunkered down waiting for the economy to break their way,” says Frey.

To be sure, job figures can swing dramatically, making it difficult to put too much emphasis on any one month, says Steuerle. And not all young workers struggled in November. The unemployment rate for workers aged 20 to 24 dropped to 11.6% last month from 12.5% in October. And those younger workers with higher levels of education were more likely to make a move than those with less schooling. The share of people 25 years old and over with a college degree who moved locally inched higher to 5.3% in 2013 from an all-time low last year of 5.1%.

[xchrom]

8. Volcker Rule Eases Market-Making While Hedges Face New Scrutiny

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-10/volcker-rule-eases-market-making-while-hedges-face-new-scrutiny.html

U.S. financial regulators, taking a landmark step in the five-year effort to rein in Wall Street, decided to curb some types of trading while largely freeing chief executives from personal responsibility in the final version of the Volcker rule.

The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and three other agencies are set to sign off today on the proprietary trading ban, which has been contested by Wall Street banks JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and their industry allies for more than three years.

Wall Street’s lobbying paid off in part. Regulators granted a broader exemption from the ban for banks’ market-making desks, on the condition that traders aren’t paid in a way that rewards proprietary trading, according to a draft of the final rule. The final version also exempts securities tied to foreign sovereign debt from the ban. At the same time, regulators gave banks less leeway for bets considered hedges for other risks.

“It prohibits risky proprietary trading while protecting economically essential activities like market-making,” Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said last week. “Regulators have worked hard to find the right balance that protects our economy and taxpayers while also leaving room for well-functioning financial markets.”

[DemReadingDU]

11. Cancelled

12/10/13 CFTC Cancels Volcker Rule Meeting Due To "Inclement Weather"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-10/cftc-cancels-volcker-rule-meeting-due-inclement-weather

[xchrom]

13. figures. nt

[Demeter]

17. Don't be too hard on them

It's DC. Driving is bad enough on dry pavement in daylight.

And they never have enough snow plows or salt trucks.

[xchrom]

19. they never seem to have enough equipment for the inevitable curve ball mother nature

pitches to them.

oh well -- they can't do any more damage while they sit on their hands waiting for the weather to turn.

i suppose there's that.

[xchrom]

9. Wealthy Go Frugal This Holiday Amid Uneven U.S. Recovery

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-10/wealthy-go-frugal-this-holiday-amid-uneven-u-s-recovery.html



Last holiday season, literary agent Linda Chester bought herself a fur coat, a red Ralph Rucci evening grown and suede leggings from Norman Ambrose. This season, the bicoastal fashion lover settled for costume jewelry earrings from SoHo designer Iradj Moini.

“I am definitely tightening my belt this year,” said Chester, who cited an uneven economic rebound and concerns over a possible stock-market bubble, as well as a desire to spend more on charity. “I really am not looking.”

It’s not just low-income shoppers who are pulling back on spending for loved ones and themselves this holiday season. Wealthy folks are watching their dollars, too.

While the most well-heeled shoppers still think nothing of dropping $4,600 on an Hermes tote, cracks have appeared in the $94 billion U.S. luxury market, especially for companies that cater to “Henrys” -- High Earners Not Rich Yet. Coach Inc. has said customers plan to spend less on gifts and that mall traffic fell sharply last month. Analysts predict Nordstrom Inc.’s fourth-quarter sales may grow less than half the year-ago pace of 6.1 percent. Tiffany & Co.’s third-quarter comparable sales in the Americas were barely higher. Even before Black Friday, Saks Inc., Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and Nordstrom offered 40 percent off on many brands.

[DemReadingDU]

14. Wealthy go frugal?

What kind of propaganda is this?

[Demeter]

18. Everything is relative

(and if the relatives get stiffed...maybe the Wealthy will be, too!)

[xchrom]

10. Germany Bends in Bank-Failure Talks Before EU Summit

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-09/germany-bends-in-bank-failure-talks-before-eu-summit.html

Germany softened its opposition to two key elements of a plan for handling euro-area bank failures as European Union finance ministers race to break a deadlock on the proposal before next week’s EU summit.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble yesterday opened the door to an agreement on giving the European Commission a role in saving or shuttering banks, something he had previously rejected. Germany would also consider splitting talks on the proposed Single Resolution Mechanism, a government official said, with parallel negotiations on a decision-making mechanism and on a common fund that has proven a lightning rod for criticism.

EU leaders have made an agreement on the bank-failure bill a top priority for their Dec. 19-20 meeting, with the goal of getting the law on the books before the European Parliament goes into recess for elections in May. Finance ministers convene today to push for a deal on the proposal, which the European Central Bank says is vital to the bloc’s efforts to prevent future financial crises.

Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who floated the idea of splitting the SRM proposal last week, said the finance ministers will “certainly” meet their deadline. “That’s our task. We need to come to a solution before the end of the month and we will,” he said before chairing a meeting of euro-area finance ministers yesterday.

[xchrom]

12. S&P 500 Rises to Record on Fed Bets Amid Budget Talks

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-09/u-s-stock-index-futures-are-little-changed.html

U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a fresh record, as investors weighed the timing of any cuts to Federal Reserve monetary support amid budget negotiations in Washington.

Sysco Corp. jumped 9.7 percent after the food distributor agreed to buy closely held US Foods in a deal valued at about $3.5 billion. Gilead Sciences Inc. advanced 1.6 percent after getting approval for a hepatitis C pill that may generate more than $6 billion in annual sales. McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) dropped 1.1 percent after November sales missed analysts’ estimates.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.2 percent to 1,808.37 at 4 p.m. in New York, surpassing its previous record of 1,807.23 set on Nov. 27. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 5.33 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 16,025.53. About 5.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 8.9 percent below the three-month average.

[xchrom]

15. China Adopts Board-Game Strategy to Blunt U.S. Pivot to Asia

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-09/china-adopts-board-game-strategy-to-blunt-u-s-rebalance-in-asia.html

The foreign policy strategy emerging from China’s new leadership may include a series of incremental steps calibrated to blunt U.S. influence across Asia and sow doubt about America’s commitment to its allies in the region.

Potential next steps following last month’s imposition of an air defense zone over the East China Sea in the face of U.S. condemnation include more vigorously challenging aircraft that enter the area, imposing a similar zone over disputed territory in the South China Sea and asserting naval control over islands also claimed by other nations.

“Such actions, if they occur, will cause greater worries in the region and increase calls for the U.S. to strengthen its military, diplomatic and economic presence,” said Bonnie Glaser, a senior Asia adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “The risk is of greater U.S.-China strategic competition.”

A year into his term as head of the Communist Party, President Xi Jinping is taking measures to bolster his nation’s standing in the region and counter an increased U.S. military deployment to Asia. The strategy features such steps as the air-zone declaration that fall short of direct confrontation yet in time alter spheres of geographic influence, according to Douglas Paal, director of the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

[xchrom]

16. Three million Greeks cut off from country’s health insurance plan

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/09/three-million-greeks-cut-off-from-countrys-health-insurance-plan/



More than a quarter of Greeks are unable to afford health cover, a medical aid group said Monday, warning that children and pregnant women were at risk.

Doctors of the World (MDM) said more than three million people, or 27.2 percent of the population, cannot pay their contributions to social security and are therefore barred from free healthcare.

“We are very worried by the number of people who have lost access to social insurance,” Anna Maili, head of MDM’s Greek branch, told a news conference.

“This has grave consequences for the health of children and pregnant women,” she said, explaining that many families no longer had infants vaccinated.

[xchrom]

20. China factory output and retail sales fuel recovery hopes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25312798

China's industrial output and retail sales rose in November, the latest in a series of signs indicating a recovery in the world's second largest economy.

Factory output rose 10% from a year ago and retail sales were up 13.7%. This follows a stronger than expected jump in exports in November.

Data released on Tuesday also showed a jump in Fixed Asset Investment.

China's economy has shown signs it is picking up pace after its growth rate slowed in first half of the year.

[xchrom]

21. Japan's economic growth revised down

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25295708

Japan has revised down its growth data for the July-to-September period, after private investment slowed more than expected.

The government said the economy grew 0.3% during the period, down from its initial estimate of 0.5% expansion.

The revised number translates into an annualised growth rate of 1.1%, down from the initial reading of 1.9%.

Japan has unveiled a series of aggressive measures to try to revive the economy after years of stagnation.

[xchrom]

22. Bank of France ups quarterly growth forecast

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25301237

The French economy will grow by 0.5% in the final three months of the year, said the country's central bank.

Rising industrial production prompted the Bank of France to raise its quarterly growth forecast from 0.4%.

The country's official Insee statistics agency is currently predicting 0.4% growth in the final quarter.

The upgrade comes after the bank's business sentiment survey rose to a two-year high in France, which emerged from recession at the start of 2013.

[Demeter]

23. This Calvin Toon is more relevant than it was 20 years ago

http://assets.amuniversal.com/995ba680172a01312ddf001dd8b71c47

[jtuck004]

45. And what a future we are handing to each other...sigh n/t

[Demeter]

24. Wow! Who goosed gold?

[Demeter]

43. Gold futures jump more than $30 an ounce

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-gains-even-as-taper-talk-perks-up-2013-12-09?siteid=YAHOOB

Gold futures climbed by more than $30 an ounce on Tuesday, with analysts attributing the rally to short covering as investors continued to speculate whether the Federal Reserve will begin scaling back its bond-buying program as soon as this month.

The gains for gold and silver are “no doubt due to a large extent to speculative financial investors covering their short positions, having previously built up record-high bets on falling prices,” wrote analysts at Commerzbank AG in a note to clients. ..


HMMMM....

[Demeter]

25. SEC official says final Volcker rule "significantly different"

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/09/financial-regulation-volcker-gallagher-idUKL1N0JO0WS20131209

The final version of the Volcker rule to ban banks from gambling with their own money is "significantly different" from the originally proposed version, making its impact on the markets difficult to gauge, a top U.S. securities regulator said on Monday.

Regulators will release the long-awaited final version of the Volcker rule on Tuesday, following two years of consultation over a rule which Wall Street sees as one of the harshest elements of the post-financial crisis crackdown...Three of the five regulators involved - the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - are slated to vote on the final rule at public meetings. (ONE HAS BEEN CANCELLED, SEE POST BY X, ABOVE) The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the SEC will not conduct public meetings. At the SEC, the five commissioners are voting on paper ballots behind closed doors and will release the vote and public statements on Tuesday morning.

....................................................
The Volcker rule, required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, would force banks to curb their proprietary trading and significantly scale back their investments in hedge funds and private equity funds.

The measure has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy, with banks fearing it will erode their profits and stifle their ability to hedge market risks and engage in legitimate trading activities like market-making.

Federal laws that govern rulemaking in the U.S. require regulators to re-propose a rule and collect fresh public comments if a final version differs drastically from the one that was first proposed.

DISSENT AT LINK

[Demeter]

27. Watchdog warns of chaos in competing derivatives rules

http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCABRE9B80BL20131209

Failure to thrash out a common supervision of the $640 trillion global financial derivatives industry will split markets and bump up costs for end users, a top regulator said on Monday.
Banks who trade interest rate swaps, credit default swaps and other derivatives are looking to the United States and the European Union to harmonize their approach to new rules aimed at making markets more transparent.

Banks worry that rule clashes and overlaps will create legal uncertainties and extra compliance costs. David Wright, secretary general of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), an umbrella group for regulators from across the world, warned it was a "recipe for chaos" that could get messy and anti-competitive.

"There is a model here which is a free for all and I think your costs will go up in a free for all," Wright told a conference organized by ICI Global, an asset management industry body.

Wright said slow progress in reaching transatlantic agreement on derivatives rules could see Asian countries like China and Indonesia going their own way.

"We can honestly say there is a growing frustration, particularly among our Asian Pacific friends about what's happening," Wright said.

"They are fed up being caught between two elephants."

After the 2007-09 financial crisis, in which derivatives played a core role in exacerbating uncertainty due to their opacity, regulators called for trade repositories to be set up to record transactions for regulators to spot risks.... Wright said 22 trade repositories have been opened but the system is not working as they are not connected up. He reiterated his call for a global enforcer that can resolve disputes between countries over market rules. IOSCO, although grouping all top regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Japan's Financial Services Agency and Germany's BaFin, does not have the power to impose the market guidance it draws up or resolve disputes...

[Demeter]

28. Court Blocks Labor Board on Lawsuits

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/business/court-blocks-labor-board-on-lawsuits.html?_r=0

Employers can require their workers to sign arbitration agreements waiving all rights to class-action lawsuits over workplace grievances, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

The ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturns a National Labor Relations Board decision last year that found such agreements conflicted with federal law giving workers the right to pursue collective action to complain about workplace conditions.

The court’s ruling is a win for businesses that want to limit legal exposure from the rising cost of class-action lawsuits over unpaid overtime and other wage violations. But it is a blow to workers who find it easier to band together when challenging the policies at a large company...

I'M THINKING SUPREMES...WHICH IS GOING TO BE A WASTE...

[Demeter]

29. Retirees brace for pension cuts in wake of Detroit bankruptcy ruling

YOU READ IT, I CAN'T

http://www.freep.com/article/20131203/NEWS01/312030159/Retirees-brace-pension-cuts-wake-Detroit-bankruptcy-ruling

[xchrom]

30. EUROPEANS OPEN MARATHON TALKS ON BANK RESCUES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_BANKING_UNION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-10-08-50-07

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Finance ministers of the European Union on Tuesday held marathon talks on how to create a central agency that can rescue banks without using taxpayer money.

One major hitch holding up agreement has been how to finance a fund for banks that are in trouble or are insolvent. Germany has wanted each country to take care of its own banks. The French have been seeking a single EU-wide rescue fund.

Joerg Asmussen, an executive board member at the European Central Bank, said Tuesday that recent bilateral negotiations have narrowed differences. But he said he didn't expect an agreement during the meeting of the 28-nation trade bloc's ministers.

Lithuania's finance minister, Rimantas Sadzius, who was chairing the gathering, was more bullish. At the start of the talks, which were expected to last 18 hours or more, he said there were "strong chances" of a deal by the end of the day.

[antigop]

31. All the plans we make for our futures are delusions

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/12/ilargi-all-the-plans-we-make-for-our-futures-are-delusions.html

What worries me most about the world today, in the last weeks before Christmas and New Year’s Day 2014, is that all the plans we make for our futures and more importantly our children’s futures are DOA. This is because nobody has a clue what the future will bring, and that’s more than just some general statement. Is the future going to be like the past or present? We really don’t know. But we do exclusively plan for such a future. And that’s not for a lack of warning signs.

One might argue that in the western world over the past 50 years or so, we’ve not only gotten what we hoped and planned for, but we’ve even been to a large extent pleasantly surprised. In a narrow, personal, material sense, at least, we’ve mostly gotten wealthier. And we think this, in one shape or another, will go on into infinity and beyond. With some ups and downs, but still.

While that may be understandable and relatively easy to explain, given the way our brains are structured, it should also provide food for thought. But because of that same structure it very rarely does.

The only future we allow ourselves to think about and plan for is one in which our economies will grow and our lives will be better (i.e. materially richer) than they are now, and our children’s will be even better than ours. If that doesn’t come to be, we will be lost. Completely lost. And so will our children.

The ability of the common (wo)man to think about the consequences of a future that doesn’t include perpetual growth and perpetually improving lives (whatever that may mean), is taken away from her/him on a daily basis by ruling politicians and “successful” businessmen and experts, as well as the media that convey their messages. It’s all the same one-dimensional message all the time, even though we may allow for a distinction between on the one hand proposals, and their authors, that are false flags, in that their true goal is not what is pretended, and on the other hand ones that mean well but accomplish the same goals, just unintended.

[Demeter]

32. THE WINDCHILL IS 5F

And clouds are forming...the bright dawn sun is disappearing!

[Fuddnik]

33. The wind chill here, right now is 73.

But later, when the winds pick up, it will drop down to 84.

[Demeter]

34. Here's an Idea! Let the Fed Drop Money into Your Bank Account Instead of Raining it Down on the Rich

http://www.alternet.org/economy/heres-idea-let-fed-drop-money-your-bank-account-instead-raining-it-down-rich?akid=11252.227380.OJQuLt&rd=1&src=newsletter934153&t=15

...At an IMF conference on November 8, 2013, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers suggested that since near-zero interest rates were not adequately promoting people to borrow and spend, it might now be necessary to set interest at below zero. This idea was lauded and expanded upon by other ivory-tower inside-the-box thinkers, including Paul Krugman.

Negative interest would mean that banks would charge the depositor for holding his deposits rather than paying interest on them. Runs on the banks would no doubt follow, but the pundits have a solution for that: move to a cashless society, in which all money would be electronic. “This would make it impossible to hoard cash outside the bank,” wrote Danny Vinik in Business Insider, “allowing the Fed to cut interest rates to below zero, spurring people to spend more.” He concluded:

. . . Summers’ speech is a reminder to all liberals that he is a brilliant economist who grasps the long-term issues of monetary policy and would likely have made an exemplary Fed chair.

Maybe; but to ordinary mortals living in the less rarefied atmosphere of the real world, the proposal to impose negative interest rates looks either inane or like the next giant step toward the totalitarian New World Order. Business Week quotes Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office: “We’ve had four years of extraordinarily loose monetary policy without satisfactory results, and the only thing they come up with is we need more?”


THEY ARE F***ING INSANE! EVEN LISTENING TO LARRY IS A SIGN OF MENTAL ILLNESS

[Fuddnik]

35. Comedy Central should give Summers his own show.

He's almost as funny as Jon Stewart.

[Demeter]

36. U.S. Congress budget talks could produce Tuesday deal, aides say

http://news.yahoo.com/u-congress-budget-talks-could-produce-tuesday-deal-233139678--business.html

A budget deal aimed at avoiding a U.S. government shutdown on January 15 and relieving federal agencies of some indiscriminate spending cuts that are set to begin with the new year could emerge in Congress on Tuesday, congressional aides said on Monday.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray and Republican Representative Paul Ryan are scheduled to meet on Tuesday with the goal of finalizing a deal, according to aides who asked not to be identified.

While Ryan and Murray have not yet struck a deal and negotiations could still fall apart, one of the aides said, "They are very close. You could maybe see a handshake come out of that meeting" on Tuesday.

If such a deal is reached, the specifics could then be given to senators who are holding closed-door meetings during lunches that Democrats and Republicans hold separately on Tuesdays....

OR MAYBE NOT

[Demeter]

37. Wall Street pauses after S&P's record close

http://news.yahoo.com/futures-little-changed-p-500-closes-record-130700292--sector.html

WAITING TO EXHALE...OR RATHER, FOR CONGRESS

[Demeter]

38. America forgives big banks for financial crisis NOT THE ONION

Despite paying record fines and charging high fees, banks are no longer hated

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americans-fall-in-love-with-big-banks-again-2013-12-10?siteid=YAHOOB

Despite the reams of bad press big banks have received for their sometimes questionable antics, a surprising number of Americans say they actually quite like their banks. Customer satisfaction with banks is now at a six-year high, according to a study released Tuesday by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The satisfaction rating rose 1.3% compared with last year, hitting 78 out of 100 (100 is the highest). J.P. Morgan Chase tops the list of big banks in terms of customer satisfaction, scoring 76 out of 100, a 3% climb from last year. Citigroup scored a 74 (up 6% from last year), Wells Fargo, 72 (up 1% from last year) and Bank of America BAC a 69 (up 5% from last year; it is the only big bank that hasn’t yet gotten its customer service score up to pre-recession levels). In fact, overall customer satisfaction with banks is now higher than the average across industries. What’s surprising about this climb in customer satisfaction is that it comes amid a flurry of bad press. Just this year, J.P. Morgan Chase made headlines when it agreed to pay a $13 billion fine (a record high) to settle allegations that it made misrepresentations over its mortgage backed securities that helped exacerbate the financial crisis — and yet it retained the top spot among big banks on this list. ACSI managing director David VanAmburg says that headlines like these don’t have much of an effect on consumers because they don’t impact their day-to-day banking experience in visible ways. Instead, he says, what’s primarily driving the uptick in customer service satisfaction at banks is their generally easy-to-use websites. “More and more banks are creating good websites, and more consumers are using them,” says VanAmburg. And that, he says, is spilling over into the brick-and-mortar locales too, as fewer consumers have to wait in line and deal with customer service reps to do their basic banking.

At the same time, banks have been steadily raising their fees: Checking account fees hit a record high in 2013, according to a survey from Bankrate.com, with banks charging an average of $5.54 in monthly checking account fees and an average of $4.13 to make a withdrawal at an out-of-network ATM. But that also doesn’t seem to be angering consumers too much: “There are ways to get around them,” says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. Of the 473 checking accounts that Bankrate surveyed, 97% were either free or could become free if account holders met certain criteria, like signing up for direct deposit to get the monthly fee waived. Furthermore, though bank fees did tick up in 2013, these increases were slight compared with those in previous years, says McBride.

To be sure, credit unions and smaller banks still beat the behemoths in terms of customer satisfaction. Smaller banks score an 83 out of 100, up 5% from last year; credit unions score an 85 out of 100, up 3.7% this year. And despite big banks getting some love from their customers, those small bank and credit union scores should worry the big banks: Credit union membership hit a record high in 2011 and 2012 and is on track to exceed those numbers this year as well.

So what exactly do consumers like about banks? More than nine in 10 say that the staff at their bank is courteous and helpful, 88% say their financial transactions are completed quickly and 85% report that they are satisfied with the website experience. On the flip side, consumers tend to be less satisfied with the competitiveness of the interest rates their bank offers (the average savings account now offers just 0.45% on average, according to Bankrate.com), the helpfulness of bank call centers and the number and location of their bank’s ATMs.

[Demeter]

39. World's leading authors: state surveillance of personal data is theft

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/10/surveillance-theft-worlds-leading-authors?CMP=ema_565



More than 500 of the world's leading authors, including five Nobel prize winners, have condemned the scale of state surveillance revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden and warned that spy agencies are undermining democracy and must be curbed by a new international charter.

The signatories, who come from 81 different countries and include Margaret Atwood, Don DeLillo, Orhan Pamuk, Günter Grass and Arundhati Roy, say the capacity of intelligence agencies to spy on millions of people's digital communications is turning everyone into potential suspects, with worrying implications for the way societies work.

They have urged the United Nations to create an international bill of digital rights that would enshrine the protection of civil rights in the internet age.

WHY STOP THERE? A UNIVERSAL BILLS OF RIGHTS FOR THE WORLD IS A CAPITAL (PUN INTENDED) IDEA.

IT WILL PUT TTP AND OTHER "FREE TRADE" ON THE TRASH HEAP.

[Demeter]

40. PETITION: A STAND FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

http://www.change.org/petitions/a-stand-for-democracy-in-the-digital-age-3

[Demeter]

41. Tech giants' demand for NSA reform 'a major game-changer', advocates say

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/tech-giants-nsa-reform-surveillance-game-changer?CMP=ema_565

Senior figures behind efforts to curtail the powers of American spy agencies have seized on the decision by the world’s largest tech companies to call for radical surveillance reform, saying the unexpected intervention is a potential “game-changer”.

In an open letter published jointly on Monday, eight tech giants, including Apple, Google and Facebook, said disclosures by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that basic rights and freedoms were being undermined.

The companies – which also include Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, LinkedIn and Twitter, and have a combined value of $1.4tn – called for widespread changes that, if enacted, would end many of the current programs through which governments spy on citizens at home and abroad.

"This is a major game-changer,” Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group, told the Guardian...

[Demeter]

42. Let's get this straight: AIG execs got bailout bonuses, but pensioners get cuts Dean Baker

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/chicago-detroit-pensions-might-be-cut?CMP=ema_565

No one has accused city workers in Chicago or Detroit of bringing down the economy, but they could face pension cuts...AIG had issued hundreds of billions of dollars of credit default swaps (CDS) on subprime mortgage backed securities. When these mortgage-backed securities failed en masse, AIG didn't have the money to back them up. This would have forced AIG into bankruptcy. However Lehman had declared bankruptcy the day before and the world was still engulfed in the aftershocks. The Bush administration and the Federal Reserve board decided that they would stop the cascade of failing financial institutions and bail out AIG. As a result, the government agreed to honor all the CDS issued by AIG and effectively became the owner of the company.

Chicago has been in the news recently because its mayor, Rahm Emanuel, seems intent on cutting the pensions that its current and retired employees have earned. Emanuel insists that the city can't afford these pensions and therefore workers and retirees will simply have to accept reduced benefits.

If the connection with AIG isn't immediately apparent, then you have to look a bit deeper. Folks may recall that AIG paid out $170m in bonuses to its employees in March 2009 with its top executives receiving bonuses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. These were people who not only shared responsibility for driving the company into bankruptcy; they also had been at the center of the financial web that propelled the housing bubble into ever more dangerous territory. In other words, the bonus beneficiaries were among the leading villains in the economic disaster that is still inflicting pain across the country. The prospect of executives of a bailed out company drawing huge bonuses at a time when the economy was shedding 600,000 jobs a month provoked outrage across the country. President Obama spoke on the issue and said that unfortunately no one in his administration was smart enough to find a way that could keep the bonuses from being paid. The problem according to Larry Summers, then the head of President Obama's National Economic Council, was that the bonuses were contractual obligations and they had to be honored. This provides a striking contrast to what might happen to current and former city employees in Chicago and may happen to current and former employers of the state of Illinois and Detroit. In these cases, it seems that the contracts workers had with their employers may not be honored. Employees who worked decades for these governments, with part of their pay taking the form of pensions in retirement, are now being told that these governments will not follow through on their end of the contract.

The differing treatment of contracts in these situations is striking for several reasons. First, the AIG executives stood to gain much more money with their bonuses on a per person basis. In contrast to the six-figure bonuses going to top executives, pensions for Detroit's workers average just $18,500 a year. Pensions for Chicago's workers average over $33,000 a year, but almost none of these workers will get Social Security, so this will be their whole retirement income. In contrast to the top AIG executives, who played a role in bankrupting their company and sinking the economy, no one has accused workers in Chicago or Detroit of doing anything wrong. These were people who taught our kids, put out fires, and picked up garbage. They did their jobs. They also might be excused for thinking that they could count on the governments involved to fulfill their end of the contract. After all, both Michigan and Illinois have provisions in their constitution stating that pensions earned by public sector workers cannot be cut. Since cities like Detroit and Chicago are creations of the state governments, workers for these cities, like workers for the state government, might have thought the state constitution protected their pensions. Apparently they should have hired lawyers who could have explained to them why this is not the case...There is one final noteworthy connection between AIG and the Chicago pension situation. Chicago's Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, was President Obama's chief of staff at the time that no one could figure out how to avoid paying the AIG bonuses. Apparently Emanuel has learned more about voiding contractual obligations now that it is ordinary workers at other end of the commitment.

GOOD THING BAKER ISN'T HOLDING A KNIFE...NOT THAT HE NEEDS ONE

[Demeter]

44. Well, the windchill is up to 8F

and I guess I better get going.

Keep warm, everybody!