STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 12 March 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 12 March 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 11 March 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 11 March 2015
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Dow Jones 17,635.39 -27.55 (-0.16%)
S&P 500 2,040.24 -3.92 (-0.19%)
Nasdaq 4,849.94 -9.85 (-0.20%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.11% -0.04 (-1.86%)
30 Year 2.69% -0.05 (-1.82%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
Market Updates
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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.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts







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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. The cognitive dissonance of the European Union’s position

http://thesaker.is/the-cognitive-dissonance-of-the-european-unions-position/

The problems with the European Union’s basic ideology of course involve Germany’s position more specifically. To see it with the utmost clarity, we must recall the standard mantra of the proponents of Western liberalism, whether they are from the European Union, from the United States or homegrown: the West’s main goal in relation to Russia is to explain that adopting basic liberal values ​inevitably leads to a flourishing economy and happiness all round. If we make any attempt to poke our noses into the real results, they explain that we ourselves are doing everything wrong; specifically, we have created corruption on a massive scale.

I will leave aside the fact that the Western consultants who drilled their liberal values into us were themselves a source of corruption. It’s no secret that many of them lined their pockets during the privatization process, as individuals or corporations. It’s no secret that such privatizations were an entirely criminal process that not only created a huge pool of corrupt officials, but also completely precluded the normal development of small and medium-sized businesses. When the privatization process was coming to an end, the liberal corruptionists morphed into corporate raiders, destroying any businesses that developed outside their control.

All you have to do is look at the wording of bankruptcy laws, court rulings and so on. This situation is the outcome of privatization, and as long as it is not condemned we will be quite naive to expect the country to experience constructive growth. People who have stolen millions if not billions will never allow a normal business environment because they cannot function in normal competitive conditions; most owe their existence to theft from the state’s coffers or to government support.

But let’s get back to the main topic. The people who now govern our country, our entire elite, which was formed from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, espouse the liberal ideology. They are sincerely willing to defend the “sacred right to private property” and take their orders from Washington. They just do not want to take risks or to share power in our country.

Washington often tolerates such situations. Latin American dictators and the Saudi monarchy cannot be called bastions of democracy and freedom. And the U.S. favorite Israel is no angel. But with Russia something went wrong. What happened here is complex and can be discussed at length. It is possible that a quarter century’s worth of efforts to inculcate the people with liberal values ​​failed, and Washington decided that at the start of the global crisis the liberalization policy had to be stepped up. But the Russian elite resisted, fearing genuine popular unrest. Even so, the United States forged ahead...Of course, this situation did not suit the European Union; it was to the liking of neither Brussels nor Berlin, which were doing a great deal of business with Moscow and were firmly convinced that sooner or later they would reap the rewards. And the Ukraine featured in their plans. But the general idea that the center of power for Eastern Europe should not be in Moscow but in Washington was not questioned. And herein lie the problems...

[Demeter]

13. Greece threatens to seize German property as compensation

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31831694

The Greek government has threatened to seize German property as compensation for a Nazi atrocity in World War Two. Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos said he was ready to approve a Supreme Court ruling from 2000 backing payment to relatives of the 218 victims.

The debt-ridden government is already calling for Germany to pay billions of euros in wartime reparations. But Germany insists the issue of compensation was settled in 1990, before the country was reunified. Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday it was Germany's firm belief that the question had been resolved legally and politically.

"We should concentrate on current issues and, hopefully what will be a good future," he said, referring to Greece's financial crisis and the Athens government's proposals for a renegotiation of its bailout package from the EU and International Monetary Fund.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told parliament late on Tuesday that he had a duty to pursue reparations dating back to the Nazi occupation of 1940-44, arguing that Germany had adopted "silence, legal tricks and delays" since reunification in 1990. However, the justice minister went further, saying he was prepared to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling in 2000 relating to the massacre of 218 civilians in the central Greek village of Distomo on 10 June 1944. The court ruled that Germany should pay €28m (£19.7m) to the relatives of those killed, although the decision was not enforced, and the dispute effectively reached stalemate in international courts in the following years. The ruling allowed for German-owned property to be seized as compensation but it was never acted on by then-Justice Minister Michalis Stathopoulos. Among possible assets are property belonging to Germany's archaeological school and the Goethe Institute, a cultural association.

Time of tension

Greek relations with Germany have deteriorated in recent years because of the financial crisis, with Germany one of the big contributors to the eurozone bailout that began in 2010. German ministers have been among the most vocal advocates for budget and income cuts in Greece, which has led to growing resentment among Greeks. The new leftist government in Athens argues that austerity measures be relaxed, a demand opposed by Germany and other eurozone creditor nations. Germany did pay compensation of 115m Deutsche marks in 1960, as part of an agreement with several European countries for the Nazi occupation. But Greece says the 1960 deal did not cover key demands, including payments for damaged infrastructure, war crimes and the return of a forced loan exacted from occupied Greece.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said his country would honour its bailout creditors, but that he would not "abandon its irrevocable demands'" for World War Two reparations.

[Demeter]

2. Ukraine unofficially has 272 percent inflation!

http://thesaker.is/ukraine-unofficially-has-272-percent-inflation/



The WAPO actually says that “it’s hard to overstate how challenged Ukraine is” and “Ukraine’s annual inflation is already 272 percent, and, even worse, is picking up speed. Indeed, its monthly inflation rate is 64.5 percent—which translates to 39,000 percent inflation over a year—more than enough to qualify it for “hyperinflation” status” (read the full article, it is very interesting). http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/01/ukraine-unofficially-has-272-percent-inflation/

[Demeter]

11. IMF's offer Ukraine can't refuse?

http://fortruss.blogspot.ru/2015/03/imfs-offer-ukraine-cant-refuse.html



Vesti Finance reports that Ukraine will receive an IMF credit worth $15.4 billion only after Ukraine reduces its national debt to 70% of GDP. I suppose this is IMF's way of saying "when Hell freezes over" because currently Ukraine's debt is closer to 100% of GDP due to both hand-over-fist borrowing and the collapse of the real economy. The bad news just keep on coming...for example, Ukraine's car production declined by a factor of 10 between January 2014 and January 2015. As a result, and in spite of all the borrowing and running down its hard currency reserves, Ukraine has a 200 billion hryvnya budget hole to close (four times the size of its entire defense budget), which seems rather impossible to do without foreign assistance.

So what is Ukraine to do? It's not really clear what the IMF expects Poroshenko et al. to do in this situation. About the only realistic way by which that level of funding could be raised would be through a massive privatization, a sell-off of whatever property the Ukrainian state still has. This could, of course, include arable land, mineral rights, Ukraine's Black Sea shelf... Let's face it, considering the dire straits in which the country is right now, that's not as crazy an idea as it sounds. Greece has been doing precisely that for the last several years just to qualify for another round of "aid."

The alternative explanation is that the IMF is washing its hands of the Ukraine problem (I know, "Ukraine" and "problem" are synonymous, so the phrase is redundant). I suppose the good news (except for Ukraine--there will be no good news for that country for some time to come) is that the IMF's refusal to fund Ukraine, along with the suspension of the plan to send US instructors to Ukraine and the unwillingness by any country of note (I'm looking at you, Lithuania) to send weapons to Ukraine indicates the West is not trying to fashion Ukraine into some sort of an anti-Russian battering ram. It's just that the Washington-Berlin-Brussels brain trust, operating under the pressure of another looming financial and economic crisis (let's face it, the US will most likely suffer a recession in the last year of Obama's presidency) ignored the possibility that Russia might have a thing or two to say about the balance of power in the region. No, the reason the West supported Maidan was because it expected considerable profit-making opportunities once Yanukovych was gone. It would be just like the '90s, but better! A bonanza of "pennies-on-the-dollar" deals as Western investment funds picked up unprofitable Ukrainian industries.

Does anyone in the West still believe that's a plausible prospect? No. As I wrote some weeks ago, Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk proved an expensive disappointment at best, and an uncontrollable pair of loose cannon (pun intended) at worst. For the IMF to give money to Ukraine right now would not merely mean acquiescence to the fact that money would never be repaid. It would mean acquiescence to the fact Ukraine would use the money to finance another campaign on the Donbass (or the cockamamie wall/fence/ditch with landmines separating Ukraine from Russia, which seems to be Yatsenyuk's pet project and practically his only accomplishment as Prime Minister!), and then turn to the IMF for more money.

So instead the IMF is, in effect, instituting a "pay to play" policy. If Ukraine wants IMF's money, it will have to contribute something of value up front, so as to demonstrate its creditworthiness and general political credibility. If it can't do that, it's on its own. The ball is once again in Poroshenko's court...

[Demeter]

15. IMF PANICS: IMF seeks 'immediate' stabilization in latest Ukraine bailout

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/12/us-ukraine-crisis-imf-idUSKBN0M71D620150312

The International Monetary Fund has agreed to pump $10 billion into Ukraine's troubled economy over the next year, providing swift assistance for the country's struggling finances as part of a larger four-year bailout. The IMF board on Wednesday approved a loan of $17.5 billion, with the bulk of the money heading out the door fast: $5 billion likely by the end of this week and another $5 billion in coming months, IMF officials said. That will be combined with $7.5 billion in loans from other international organizations and an expected $15.4 billion in debt relief that Ukrainian officials hope to negotiate with bondholders.

The program "is very strongly front-loaded during the first year," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in Berlin. "Ukraine has satisfied all the prior actions that were expected and required of it in order to start running the program. ... We are off to a good start." The program aims to provide what Lagarde called "immediate economic stabilization" to a country beset by conflict with Russia and uncertainty about its territorial integrity.

Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said the IMF program's impact should be felt quickly in a country struggling with balance-of-payments problems and a crashing currency. The program "will enable us to stabilize the economy and the financial sector. It will be used to stabilize the currency. It will enable the Ukrainian economy to grow from 2016," Yatseniuk said in a televised statement.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest welcomed the IMF's action, adding: "The United States is working alongside international partners to provide Ukraine with the financial support it needs as it continues to take steps that will transform the Ukrainian economy and strengthen its democracy."

After a year of political upheaval and war, Ukraine's economy is in a tailspin with a currency just back from record lows, the highest interest rates in 15 years, and central bank reserves of just $6.4 billion, barely enough to cover five weeks of imports. The IMF said the economy should grow 2 percent in 2016 after a contraction of about 5.5 percent this year, and by end-2015, Kiev should have enough reserves to cover about three months of imports.

The IMF last year approved a $17 billion, two-year loan to Ukraine, but deemed the effort insufficient to support economic reform while the government continued battling pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine following Russia's annexation of the Crimea region.

[MattSh]

20. IMF Approves $17.5 Billion Ukraine Bailout (and Greek pensioners pay)

To all those Greeks who are wondering why their government is raiding their pensions so it can make recurring payments to the IMF, here is the answer:

IMF BOARD SIGNS OFF ON $17.5 BLN FOUR-YEAR LOAN PROGRAM FOR UKRAINE -- IMF CHIEF LAGARDE

IMF'S LARGARDE SAYS UKRAINE HAS MOVED TOWARD TALKS WITH HOLDERS OF ITS PUBLIC SECTOR DEBT WITH A VIEW TO IMPROVE MEDIUM-TERM SUSTAINABILITY

LARGARDE SAYS UKRAINE PROGRAM AMBITIOUS, INVOLVES RISKS; SAYS THERE IS "REASONABLY STRONG PROSPECT OF SUCCESS

LAGARDE SAYS UKRAINE OFFICIALS SHOW STRONG COMMITMENT TO REFORM

That said, there are risks. Such as a civil war:

LAGARDE SAYS CONFLICT IN EASTERN UKRAINE POSES RISKS TO LOAN

But that's ok because:

LAGARDE SAYS MINSK CEASEFIRE LARGELY HOLDING FOR NOW

Oddly enough, that is not what the US said yesterday and today, when it used the breakdown in the ceasefire as the pretext to send tanks and armors to Latvia and Humvees and drones to Ukraine.

That said, this is great news for Gazprom whose gas payments from the Ukraine for the next several years are now assured. The only question is how long will it take the current puppet government to syphon off enough funds into various illegal ventures and offshore accounts before the IMF has to step back in a la Greece with bailout #2.

And as a reminder, this is what the IMF said a month ago when the IMF proposed its $17.5 billion bailout for the first time:

Complete story at - http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-11/imf-approves-175-billion-ukraine-bailout

[Demeter]

3. Very interesting interview of Paul Craig Roberts with Ellen Brown! (UPDATED)

GREECE, GERMANY, AND THE EU--PODCAST AT LINK

http://thesaker.is/very-interesting-interview-of-paul-craig-roberts-with-ellen-brown/

[Demeter]

4. After a Bounce, Wage Growth Slumps to 0.1%

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/business/economy/jobs-report-unemployment-february.html

The economy is adding jobs at a rapid pace, the Labor Department reported on Friday, but there’s still one major holdout to the recovery: wages.

Employers increased their payrolls by 295,000 workers in February, exceeding expectations, and the unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent, its lowest point since the spring of 2008. But wage gains continued to lag, rising only 0.1 percent in February for private-sector workers after a reported 0.5 increase in January.

That resulted in a mere 2 percent advance over a year earlier, washing away the encouraging jump in January.

Despite the disappointing wage numbers, the report prompted a new round of optimism about the economy’s comeback from the recession along with fresh talk on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates at its June meeting rather than wait until September...

[Demeter]

5. The New Jobs Report Shows Janet Yellen’s Quandary in a Nutshell

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/upshot/the-new-jobs-report-shows-janet-yellens-dilemma-in-a-nutshell.html?abt=0002&abg=1

The biggest decision that Janet Yellen has faced in her year-old Federal Reserve chairmanship was laid bare in a single report on the domestic job market released Friday.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent as job creation continued at a strong pace. Joblessness is now within the 5.2 to 5.5 percent range that Fed leaders say reflects a sustainable level over the long run.

For a Fed that has spent the last seven years doing everything it can think of to try to get the job market on track, that translates to: Mission Accomplished. And by traditional central bank thinking, that would mean it’s waited long enough to raise interest rates to prevent the economy from overheating.

But by other measures in the same report, overheating is a distant worry. Average hourly earnings rose only 0.1 percent, and have now risen less than 2 percent over the last year — pretty much what they’ve been doing for five years straight. The number of people in the labor force actually declined, suggesting that the pool of potential workers who neither have a job nor are looking for one is growing, not shrinking.

All of that points to a job market that still has a great deal of room to run before the Yellen Fed needs to do much of anything...

[Demeter]

6. Credit Suisse to replace long-standing CEO Dougan

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/10/creditsuisse-ceo-idUSL5N0WB49Q20150310

Long-standing Credit Suisse boss Brady Dougan is set to quit as chief executive of the Swiss bank as soon as Tuesday and will be replaced by Prudential head Tidjane Thiam, people familiar with the moves told Reuters.

Thiam, a former Ivory Coast government minister who has led Prudential since 2009, will become one of the few top insurance executives to transition into banking when he takes charge of Zurich-based Credit Suisse, a global lender reeling from U.S. penalties and under increasing regulatory scrutiny. Despite failing to overcome a shareholder rebellion when attempting to take over Asia-focused insurer AIA in 2010, French-speaking Thiam has brought value to investors by focusing on Asia as a key driver of profit.

"Tidjane will have a broader view," said Sally Yim, vice president at Moody's Investors Service.

"Credit Suisse has had different issues throughout the years and someone with a diverse background could look at its strategy with a fresh pair of eyes."

MORE

[Demeter]

7. EU court upholds blocking of Deutsche Boerse/NYSE Euronext merger

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/eu-courts-deutsche-boerse-idUSL5N0WB12720150309

A European Union court upheld on Monday the European Commission's decision in 2012 to block a planned merger of Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext.

The Commission blocked the deal to create the world's biggest stock exchange because it said it would have created a "near monopoly" in European financial derivatives.

The deal, one of a number to be challenged by international regulators, was scrapped. Indeed, at the end of 2012, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) acquired NYSE Euronext, with Euronext subsequently spun off and floated.

Deutsche Boerse nevertheless contested the Commission's decision on three issues...

[Demeter]

8. Draghi-backed report urges review of sovereign debt treatment

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/10/us-markets-debt-draghi-idUSKBN0M61GF20150310

Regulation may have led banks to invest too much in sovereign bonds, and there needs to be a global review of the regulatory framework for holding such debt, Europe's early warning financial risk body said in a report.

The report by the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), which was backed by ECB President Mario Draghi, recognized the difficulty in reforming the existing framework without rocking sovereign debt markets.

However, the ESRB, a body designed to give early warnings set up as one of Europe's responses to the financial crisis, warned that existing regulations "may have led to excessive investment by financial institutions in government debt."

"The current regulatory framework of sovereign exposures held by financial institutions needs to be re-examined at a global level," Draghi said in a foreword to the report.

"I trust that the report will help to foster a discussion which, in my view, is long overdue," he added.

[Demeter]

14. Euro Drops to 12-Year Low as Draghi Snaps Up Bonds

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-11/euro-races-to-record-drop-amid-draghi-qe-as-dollar-dominates

The euro slumped below $1.05 for the first time in 12 years after European Central Bank purchases of sovereign debt sent yields to record lows across the region. The shared currency is the biggest loser among its developed-market peers after ECB President Mario Draghi reiterated the central bank’s commitment to spur inflation. A U.S. retail-sales report Thursday may add to speculation the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year after jobs data last week beat economists’ forecasts.

“The divergence between U.S. and euro-zone monetary policies is widening significantly and is clearly pressuring the euro lower,” said Mitul Kotecha, the Singapore-based head of Asia-Pacific currency strategy at Barclays Plc. “The speed of the move has been more rapid than many people have been anticipating.”

The euro slid as much as 0.5 percent to $1.0495, the weakest level since January 2003, before trading at $1.0541 as of 6:42 a.m. in London from $1.0547 on Wednesday. The 19-nation common currency dropped 0.2 percent to 127.85 yen. The single currency has weakened a record 12.9 percent this year, with still almost three weeks before the quarter ends, eclipsing the 10.6 percent decline during the credit crunch in the third quarter of 2008.

The euro is 22 percent undervalued, the most among Group-of-10 counterparts, according to purchasing-power parity data compiled by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development.

[Demeter]

9. Obama plans to make it easier to pay your student loans

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2015/03/10/obama-plans-to-make-it-easier-to-pay-your-student-loans/

President Obama signed a presidential memorandum Tuesday directing federal agencies to overhaul the way Americans repay their student loans.

The move is the latest in a series of steps the administration has taken to promote college access and affordability, including expanding a program that caps student loan payments to 10 percent of a person’s income for 20 years. It comes at a time when student debt has surpassed $1.3 trillion and the average graduate is leaving school with nearly $29,000 in education loans.

To highlight the importance of affordability, Obama unveiled his plan Tuesday at Georgia Institute of Technology, a school routinely ranked as one of the best bargains in education.

“Every borrower has the right to an affordable repayment plan,” said Obama. “Every borrower has the right to quality customer service, reliable information, and fair treatment, even if they struggle to repay their loans.”

The new presidential memorandum, entitled the Student Aid Bill of Rights, calls for the Education Department to create a new Web site by July 2016 to give borrowers a simple way to file complaints and provide feedback about federal student lenders, servicers, collection agencies and even their schools. The portal is supposed to help the department to quickly respond to complaints.

Much of the president’s plan involves improving the way borrowers interact with student loan servicers, the middlemen who collect and apply loan payments. Obama will require companies, including Navient and Nelnet, to alert borrowers when their loans are transferred to another firm or if they fall behind on payments.

“We have to recall the bitter lessons that were learned from our experience in the mortgage industry, which shows us that quality servicing doesn’t just happen,” Treasury Deputy Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin said on a call with reporters Monday evening. “Servicing…is a part of the borrower experience that may not be completely transparent and comprehensible to borrowers.”

HANG ON TO YOUR WALLETS, STUDENTS! MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

12. The Student Debt Time Bomb: Indebted students are a force to be reckoned with.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/03/11/student-debt-time-bomb

There’s a generational time-bomb ticking — and the student debt crisis is the trip wire.

Adults under 35 disproportionately bear the brunt of escalating inequality.

America’s educated youth are graduating into an economy with stagnant wages and a torn safety net. Federal and state budget cuts, meanwhile, have spiked tuition costs and cut public services that aid young workers, such as transportation and affordable housing.

A rumble of legitimate discontent is mounting from the 40 million Americans saddled with student debt totaling $1.16 trillion — a number expected to increase to $2 trillion by 2022. College debt now touches one in five U.S. households and exceeds total credit card indebtedness.

The most frustrated students are blocking highways over tuition hikes. Others are launching “debt strikes” by refusing to pay the for-profit schools that bilked them.

Many more are defaulting after facing the stressful realization that they can’t find a job that pays enough to repay their debt. Over half of outstanding student loans are presently in deferral, delinquency, or default.

The student debt debacle has huge implications for the future. The average college graduate is now almost $30,000 underwater, with some on the hook for over $100,000.

This debt keeps young people from starting families, buying houses, and taking risks on new businesses. It also exacerbates the growing problem of wealth inequality and declining social mobility, since it gives debt-free graduates from wealthier families an enormous head start over their peers.

Many baby boomers without kids in college don’t fully appreciate how the economy is tilted against the rising generation — or how much higher education financing has changed from previous generations.

Since the 1970s, tuition rates have risen over 1,000 percent, while state funding of universities has declined by 40 percent. And the proportion of young Americans with education debt more than quadrupled, from 5 percent to 22 percent.

The powerful student loan industry lobbied for — and got — draconian laws that penalize student debtors more than people holding mortgages, car loans, or credit cards. Servicers can garnish young graduates’ wages and disability payments to get their due.

And not even bankruptcy can cancel out these loans.

In some states, student debtors who fall into default can lose their professional certifications and even their driver’s licenses. Imagine borrowing money to get a nursing or cosmetology degree, falling behind in your payments, and having your source of livelihood revoked.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Other countries have offered free public higher education for decades.

In the 30 years after World War II, the government expanded access to debt-free college for millions of Americans. These included GI Bill recipients, but also millions of men and women without military service records who attended the great public universities of our land, paying a tuition bill they could afford with only a summer job.

Lawmakers should reverse the cycle of state budget cuts in higher education that shift tuition costs onto students and their cash-strapped families. Some states are considering creating “opportunity trust funds,” capitalized by state estate taxes on the richest 1 percent, to finance debt-free public education.

The national Strike Debt movement calls on Congress to spend an additional $15 billion a year to make public education free. They could accomplish this by cutting out for-profit colleges and the parasitical college loan industry, and by simplifying the existing labyrinth of education subsidies.

The vast majority of college debtors still suffer in isolation, viewing their struggle as a personal problem, not a societal issue. But this is about to change. When college debt borrowers wake up and flex their political muscles, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

[Demeter]

10. Obama Absurdly Declares Venezuela a Security Threat

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41198.htm

Yesterday the White House took a new step toward the theater of the absurd by “declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela,” as President Barack Obama put it in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner.

It remains to be seen whether anyone in the White House press corps will have the courage to ask what in the world the nation’s chief executive could mean by that. Is Venezuela financing a coming terrorist attack on U.S. territory? Planning an invasion? Building a nuclear weapon?

Who do they think they are kidding? Some may say that the language is just there because it is necessary under U.S. law in order to impose the latest round of sanctions on Venezuela. That is not much of a defense, telling the whole world the rule of law in the United States is something the president can use lies to get around whenever he finds it inconvenient.

That was the approach of President Ronald Reagan in 1985 when he made a similar declaration in order to impose sanctions — including an economic embargo — on Nicaragua. Like the White House today, he was trying to topple an elected government that Washington didn’t like. He was able to use paramilitary and terrorist violence as well as an embargo in a successful effort to destroy the Nicaraguan economy and ultimately overturn its government. (The Sandinistas eventually returned to power in 2007 and are the governing party today.)

The world has moved forward, even though Washington has not. Venezuela today has very strong backing from its neighbors against what almost every government in the region sees as an attempt to destabilize the country....

[Demeter]

16. ANYBODY WANT TO GUEST HOST ON WEE?

I'm going out of town Friday...if anyone wants to start WEE for Friday night, that would be great! Otherwise, if there are no takers, expect to see WEE on Saturday morning.

Yes, I do occasionally do a prison break....

[MattSh]

22. Can I pick my own topic?

I could put something up early Saturday, my time, which would be about 2AM Saturday your time.

[Demeter]

23. but of course! Be my guest. And thanks for volunteering, I really appreciate it.

Now I can go with an unburdened heart...

[Demeter]

17. Local Michigan Legislator Proposes Ending Daylight Saving Time

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2015/03/12/michigan-legislator-proposes-ending-daylight-saving-time/

A state legislator aims to eliminate daylight saving time in Michigan, the standard that calls for clocks to be moved forward an hour in spring and back an hour in fall.

Ann Arbor Democratic Rep. Jeff Irwin introduced legislation Wednesday that would direct the state to follow the standard time of the zone in which it is located.

“As we have all experienced this week, changing schedules for daylight saving time is stressful and unnecessary. In the days after the spring time shift, there are well-documented increases in road and workplace accidents, as well as heart attacks,” Irwin said in a statement.

Daylight Saving Time was instituted in the United States during World War I in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. The passage of the Energy Policy Act in 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks — from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November.

THE SNAP POLL ATTACHED TO THIS ARTICLE IS RUNNING 71-29 IN FAVOR OF KILLING DST!

MY HERO!

[Demeter]

18. Bills Would End Daylight Saving Time In Oregon, Hopefully Pave The Way For Everyone

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/12/end-daylight-savings-time-oregon_n_6852880.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business

There are many good arguments to be made for ending Daylight Saving Time (DST).

The biggest one: There's no real reason to do it.

DST became a fixture in the United States during World War II, and started in part to save energy, according to SF Gate. Over time, however, we've learned that changing the clocks back and forth every year can actually increase energy consumption.

The whole process is also really obnoxious and can ruin your sleep and relationships.

Bills introduced in the Oregon Senate would give voters there an opportunity to put an end to DST, according to KOMO. It they pass, Oregon would follow Hawaii and Arizona as the only states that don't follow the time change...


THE SNAP POLL ON THIS ARTICLE IS RUNNING 2:1 !

[DemReadingDU]

21. Think daylight saving time saves energy? Think again.

From 2007

3/11/07 Think daylight saving time saves energy? Think again.

Time is a strange thing. I'm not talking about the concept of time the way Einstein would think about it, but the time on the clocks. What the clocks around the world tell us is only something that we have all agreed upon. There is no natural 1:37 pm, it's a human construct. And, as such, we can magically make it be 12:37 pm if we want to. But we have to agree on it. And this agreed-upon change happens twice a year in parts of America. In much of America today, people are once again trying to remember how to set their wristwatches and stove clocks ahead one hour. Why? Because last night we started daylight saving time for 2007. But how did this time change start? Do we all benefit equally from the change? And what does this have to do with green cars? And why did we "spring forward" three weeks earlier this year and will "fall back" a week later in the year?

If there is one easy way to think about why we do the daylight saving ritual every year, it's that the move saves energy. Just look at how the California Energy Commission explains daylight saving time: "One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it saves energy. Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV."

How can one argue with that? Well, Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time can. As he told NPR that the idea that more daylight equals energy savings is a crock.

"I'm certainly not a fan of the idea that it save energy," he said. "It turns out that every time Congress has studied it, it's been told that we haven't saved anything. In fact, the best study we have is from the Nixon era when he went on a desperate attempt of year-round daylight saving as a result of the OPEC oil embargo and he came up with nothing by way of saving except the potential again. Here's the problem with daylight saving as an energy saver: we tend to want our computers and our televisions and our radios when we want them. More important, daylight saving really pushed Americans out of the house at the end of the day. And when Americans go out of the house, they may go to the ballpark, they may go to the mall, but they don't walk there. They get into their cars.

Daylight saving increased gasoline consumption, something the petroleum industry has known since 1930. ... This has been [a] tremendously effective spending policy. Retail stores love daylight saving. Because when we have an hour of sunlight after work, Americans tend to go shopping. The first and most persistent lobby for daylight saving in this country was the Chamber of Commerce, because they understood that if their department stores were lit up, people would be tempted by them. In 1986, Congress gave us an extra month of daylight saving time. That's when we went from six to seven months, which is the period we've been living with recently. In that Congressional hearing, [the] golf industry alone, these are industry estimates, told Congress one additional month of daylight saving was worth 200 million dollars in sales of golf clubs and greens fees. The BBQ industry said it was worth 100 million dollars in additional sales of grills and charcoal briquettes. ... For 25 years, the candy industry has wanted to get Halloween covered by daylight saving, figuring that if children have an extra hour of daylight, they'll collect more candy. In fact, they went so far during the 1985 hearings on daylight saving as to put candy pumpkins on the seat of every Senator hoping to get a little favor. They didn't get it then, but they got it this time." (Note this is my own transcription, not NPR's. I think I got everything right, but, you know...)


more...
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/11/think-daylight-saving-time-saves-energy-think-again-or-not/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

19. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (03/12/2015)

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20150411.pdf

U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Washington, D.C. 20210
Release Number: USDL 15-411-NAT
Program Contacts: Tom Stengle [phone] Tony Sznoluch [phone]
Media Contact: [phone]

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, March 12, 2015

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 289,000, a decrease of 36,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 5,000 from 320,000 to 325,000. The 4-week moving average was 302,250, a decrease of 3,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 1,250 from 304,750 to 306,000.

There were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent for the week ending February 28, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending February 28 was 2,418,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up 2,000 from 2,421,000 to 2,423,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,416,750, an increase of 12,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 2,403,500 to 2,404,000.
....

UNADJUSTED DATA

....
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending February 21 was 2,891,641, an increase of 84,821 from the previous week. There were 3,450,757 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2014.