STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 13 July 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 13 July 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 10 July 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 10 July 2015
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Dow Jones 17,760.41 +211.79 (1.21%)
S&P 500 2,076.62 +25.31 (1.23%)
Nasdaq 4,997.70 +75.30 (1.53%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.40% +0.01 (0.42%)
30 Year 3.19% +0.01 (0.31%) [font color=black]


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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
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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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
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
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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. Oh-oh! Friday the 13th comes on a Monday, this month, which means

Last edited Sun Jul 12, 2015, 08:03 PM - Edit history (1)

A whole rotten week of bad luck (following several months of it). Same old, same old!

The Kid and I saw "The Minions" Sunday. It was a laugh-fest for parents and grandparents who have passing familiarity with the 60's....don't think the kiddies will catch much of that. It was another form of escapism for me, though. And since I had the presence of mind to put a roast in the oven on low with baking potatoes, we were able to eat a real Sunday dinner upon returning home. I must remember that trick. Both the Kid and I feel better with real, regular meals.

Meanwhile, the not-a-laugh-a-minute Eurozone comedy of economics rages on...

[Demeter]

2. Tsipras has just destroyed Greece

EXAGGERATION--THIS WAS THE WORK OF MANY

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2015/07/tsipras-has-just-destroyed-greece/

Greek chaos has reached a whole new level this morning with the release of its proposed compromises with the Eurozone. Here is the text in full: SEE LINK

...This is basically the same proposal as that was just rejected by the Greek people in the referendum. There are some headlines floating around about proposed debt restructuring as well but I can’t find them. This makes absolutely no sense. The Tsipras Government has just:

renegotiated itself into the same position it was in two months ago;
set massively false expectations with the Greek public;
destroyed the Greek banking system, and
destroyed what was left of Greek political capital in EU.

If this deal gets through the Greek Parliament, and it could, given everyone other than the ruling party and Golden Dawn are in favour of austerity, then Greece has just destroyed itself to no purpose.

Markets are drawing comfort from the roll-over but how Tsipras can return home without being lynched by a mob is beyond me. And that raises the prospect of any deal being held immediately hostage to violence.

[Demeter]

3. Germany won’t spare Greek pain – it has an interest in breaking us Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek f

reece’s financial drama has dominated the headlines for five years for one reason: the stubborn refusal of our creditors to offer essential debt relief. Why, against common sense, against the IMF’s verdict and against the everyday practices of bankers facing stressed debtors, do they resist a debt restructure? The answer cannot be found in economics because it resides deep in Europe’s labyrinthine politics.

In 2010, the Greek state became insolvent. Two options consistent with continuing membership of the eurozone presented themselves: the sensible one, that any decent banker would recommend – restructuring the debt and reforming the economy; and the toxic option – extending new loans to a bankrupt entity while pretending that it remains solvent.

Official Europe chose the second option, putting the bailing out of French and German banks exposed to Greek public debt above Greece’s socioeconomic viability. A debt restructure would have implied losses for the bankers on their Greek debt holdings.Keen to avoid confessing to parliaments that taxpayers would have to pay again for the banks by means of unsustainable new loans, EU officials presented the Greek state’s insolvency as a problem of illiquidity, and justified the “bailout” as a case of “solidarity” with the Greeks.

To frame the cynical transfer of irretrievable private losses on to the shoulders of taxpayers as an exercise in “tough love”, record austerity was imposed on Greece, whose national income, in turn – from which new and old debts had to be repaid – diminished by more than a quarter. It takes the mathematical expertise of a smart eight-year-old to know that this process could not end well...

MORE: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/10/germany-greek-pain-debt-relief-grexit#img-1


...And there’s the rub. After the crisis of 2008/9, Europe didn’t know how to respond. Should it prepare the ground for at least one expulsion (that is, Grexit) to strengthen discipline? Or move to a federation? So far it has done neither, its existentialist angst forever rising. Schäuble is convinced that as things stand, he needs a Grexit to clear the air, one way or another. Suddenly, a permanently unsustainable Greek public debt, without which the risk of Grexit would fade, has acquired a new usefulness for Schauble. What do I mean by that? Based on months of negotiation, my conviction is that the German finance minister wants Greece to be pushed out of the single currency to put the fear of God into the French and have them accept his model of a disciplinarian eurozone.

[Demeter]

5. A Grexit Looks Almost Inescapable YVES SMITH THROWS IN TOWEL

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/07/a-grexit-looks-almost-inescapable.html

Despite my generally dour outlook, I never thought we’d arrive at the insane juncture we are at now, that of a Grexit being all but baked in. This would be a catastrophic outcome, most of all for the Greek 99%. If a Grexit comes to pass, it should deservedly blacken the names of everyone involved, most of all Merkel, whose incrementalism meant that all of the unresolved contradictions of the Eurozone produced intensifying pressure on its fault lines, and Greece proved to be the breaking point. But as we’ll see soon, her finance minister Wolfgang Schauble would also get a particularly large badge of dishonor.

You don’t need to know much to know that the odds of Greece escaping a Grezit are becoming vanishingly small as time progresses, and there is perilously little time left. And mind you, this sorry trajectory is occurring even after the Greek government prostrated itself and offered to meet even more stringent conditions than its voters overwhelmingly rejected in a referendum less than a week ago.

Greek banks will die by the end of the day Monday if the ECB does not give them more liquidity under the ELA. That pretty much means a Grexit. Even if they get some ELA funds, it’s almost certain depositors will suck the money right out unless very stringent measures are taken to make sure the funds are used almost entirely on behalf of importers (and even that could be abused to get cash out).

The ECB will not give more funds under the ELA unless it gets a guarantee from Eurozone members. That is just about as hard as getting a deal done, despite much smaller amounts of money at risk, but it is the only mechanism that looks to be open for an 11th hour respite.

Too many Eurozone members are opposed to Greece for a deal for it to get done on Sunday...

AND THEN, SHE CALLS OUT SCHAUBLE....

[Demeter]

12. Revolution by proxy GREECE'S OWN RIGHT-WING RAG

http://www.ekathimerini.com/199295/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/revolution-by-proxy

On restless summer nights, Syntagma Square becomes inundated with television crews and foreign correspondents doing stand-up reports beside the noisy skaters, offering interesting footage to go along with their interesting reports. (As cartoonist Dimitris Hantzopoulos recently commented in Kathimerini, Alfred Hitchcock himself couldn't match the thriller qualities of the Greek crisis.) Most of these correspondents are well-meaning but there is something very vexing about many of their reports: the voyeuristic glee they seem to take in imminent disaster, the disinterested nature of their grief, the ersatz emotion with which they imbue their oral and written testimonies.

These modern-day wannabe Lord Byrons come to the country for a few days, thoughtlessly invade our everyday lives and try to describe it in broad brushstrokes and stereotypes drawn from their often-scant knowledge of our mythology and history. And it is a reality that is so complex, even we have become dumbstruck, sleep-deprived observers. The result of their attitude is irritating statements such as a recent tweet by British journalist Paul Mason in which he likened those who oppose government policy to the Greeks who collaborated with the Nazis in World War II, but also in the calls from Nobel Prize-winning (and other) columnists urging the Greeks to proudly vote “no” in Sunday's referendum. Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz and Wolfgang Munchau felt compelled to inform us that they supported the government line in the vote – all from the comfort of their offices in New York, Brussels and London.

Their personal revolution is one carried out by proxy – we are the protagonists and they mere spectators. Their Western way of life, not just in its material aspects but also in terms of its values, is guaranteed. Our position in Europe is at stake and these helpless romantics are calling on us to commit suicide in the name of resistance...

[Demeter]

13. Greek debt crisis: Goldman Sachs could be sued for helping hide debts when it joined euro

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR THIS ONE--AND IT BETTER NOT BE IN A US OR EUROPEAN COURT

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greek-debt-crisis-goldman-sachs-could-be-sued-for-helping-country-hide-debts-when-it-joined-euro-10381926.html



Goldman Sachs faces the prospect of potential legal action from Greece over the complex financial deals in 2001 that many blame for its subsequent debt crisis.

A leading adviser to debt-riven countries has offered to help Athens recover some of the vast profits made by the investment bank.

The Independent has learnt that a former Goldman banker, who has advised indebted governments on recovering losses made from complex transactions with banks, has written to the Greek government to advise that it has a chance of clawing back some of the hundreds of millions of dollars it paid Goldman to secure its position in the single currency...

[DemReadingDU]

31. Greece wins euro debt deal – but democracy is the loser

7/13/15 Greece wins euro debt deal – but democracy is the loser by Paul Mason

After an all-night negotiation during which Greek prime minister was subjected, according to one observer, to “mental waterboarding”, there is the basis of a deal to keep Greece in the euro. As I write, the Greek side do not have a document, but we have some details.
Greece will have to implement the tough austerity measures demanded by its lenders, plus hand €50bn of assets to a privatisation fund, where sales will be used to pay down debt.
In return it will get a new, third bailout deal reportedly worth €54bn; a promise of discussions on restructuring its debt; and a bridging loan to finance the repayments it cannot make. It is this – plus the imminent reopening of the banks under an ECB emergency lending scheme – that will allow PM Alexis Tsipras to save any kind of face with his own supporters, who are fuming.

If you doubt how it might play on the Greek streets, consider the headline of Dimokratia, a conservative tabloid: “Greece in Auschwitz: Schauble attempts eurozone holocaust”.

Last night the eurozone leaders presented Greece with an ultimatum that shredded all vestiges of control the government has over the economy going forward, and reversed every law it has put through parliament since being elected with 36 per cent of the vote in January.
While Greeks vented, and the hashtag #ThisIsACoup went viral across the globe, Tsipras and his team negotiated. They knew that to have any chance of getting the deal through parliament they must free themselves of IMF involvement, resist the foreign-held privatisation fund, get some commitment to debt reprofiling and an assurance that the ECB will turn the taps of emergency lending back on to the banks.

I said last night that without these things there was no chance of getting the austerity measures through parliament. It seems this morning that each of the measures has been fudged: so the privatisation fund remains in Athens, not Luxembourg; the IMF invovement is still there but apparently muted; the debt restructuring is there but unspecified.
So I am still not certain this will pass.

To understand what happens next you have to understand that, first, the Greek centre and conservative right is so morally and organisationally shattered by its defeats in the January election and the June referendum that it cannot simply take over.
There is only a parliamentary majority if Tsipras leads it.
The rebels in his party come in two genres: the hard left of the Left Platform, whose leader Panayotis Lafazanis abstained in Saturday’s parliamentary vote and may be sidelined in the coming days; and a more organic left, known informally as the 53 group, whose MPs voted yes on Saturday but can go no further.
The Syriza newspaper Avgi spelled out the party’s approach going into the negotiations: they must accept and vote through the outcome of negotiations in order to stay in power, because the overthrow of a government by the EU is unacceptable (nor indeed possible given the parliamentary arithmetic).

The eurozone took itself to the brink last night, and we will only know for certain later whether its reputation and cohesion can survive this.
The big powers of Europe demonstrated an appetite to change the micro-laws of a smaller country: its bakery regulations, the funding of its state TV service, what can be privatised and how. Whether inside or outside the euro, many small countries and regions will draw long-term negative lessons from this. And from the apparently cavalier throwing of a last-minute Grexit option into the mix by Germany, in defiance of half the government’s own MPs.
It would be logical now for every country in the EU to make contingency plans against getting the same treatment – either over fiscal policy or any of the other issues where Brussels and Frankfurt enjoy sovereignty.

Parallels abound with other historic debacles: Munich (1938), where peace was won by sacrificing the Czechs; or Versailles (1919), where the creditors got their money, only to create the conditions for the collapse of German democracy 10 years later, and their own diplomatic unity long before that.
But the debacles of yesteryear were different. They were committed by statesmen. People who knew what they wanted and miscalculated. It was hard to see last night what the rulers of Europe wanted.
What they’ve arguably got is a global reputational disaster: the crushing of a left-wing government elected on a landslide, the flouting of a 61 per cent referendum result. The EU – a project founded to avoid conflict and deliver social justice – found itself transformed into the conveyor of relentless financial logic and nothing else.

Ordinary people don’t know enough about the financial logic to understand why this was always likely to happen: bonds, haircuts and currency mechanisms are distant concepts. Democracy is not. Everybody on earth with a smartphone understands what happened to democracy last night.


http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/greece-wins-euro-debt-deal-democracy-loser/4155

[Demeter]

33. Pyrrhic victory, anyone? Of course, that was a Roman term, not Greek

A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Someone who wins a Pyrrhic victory has been victorious in some way; however, the heavy toll negates any sense of achievement or profit (another term for this would be "hollow victory&quot .

The phrase Pyrrhic victory is named after king Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War. After the latter battle, Plutarch relates in a report by Dionysius:

The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one other such victory would utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him, and almost all his particular friends and principal commanders; there were no others there to make recruits, and he found the confederates in Italy backward. On the other hand, as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained, but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war.

—Plutarch

In both of Pyrrhus's victories, the Romans suffered greater casualties than Pyrrhus did. However, the Romans had a much larger supply of men from which to draw soldiers and their casualties did less damage to their war effort than Pyrrhus's casualties did to his.

The report is often quoted as "Another such victory and I come back to Epirus alone", or "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined."

The Greek people are going to walk on this deal, I am certain. Turn about is fair play, and the Greeks are not a suicidal people.

[mother earth]

4. For the fans of "Of Two Minds", Charles Hugh Smith, his take on this time it is different...

Published on Jul 12, 2015

Plenty of people think there could be another financial calamity as early as fall of 2015. What is financial writer Charles Hugh Smith’s timeline? Smith predicts, “I see the motivation and the trend unfolding along those lines. They may be able to save it for another quarter, or maybe it will be the first quarter of 2016. We don’t know the exact timing, but they just keep winding the spring tighter and tighter. It is an attempt to control the exact circumstance they are all afraid of, which is the wheels falling off. All the spying, the manipulation and the propaganda are all about trying to control events. So, when things spin out of control, they will have already used all the tools they have. . . . I definitely think there is going to be some sort of event, and we are starting to see it now. Maybe they will stretch it out to September or October, which we all know is historically when crashes tend to occur. Then, they might unleash some sort of save, QE 3,4,5,6, whatever and pull things out of a hat. That would cover things up again for another few months, but I definitely think by 2016 that there are going to be events that they are going to be unable to control. . . . These wild swings in the market are reminiscent of 1929."

[mother earth]

6. Matt Taibbi: Eric Holder Back to Wall Street-Tied Law Firm After Years of Refusing to Jail Bankers

Published on Jul 8, 2015

http://democracynow.org - In the latest sign of the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, recently retired U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is returning home — to the corporate law firm Covington & Burling, where he worked for eight years before becoming head of the Justice Department. During his time at Covington, Holder’s clients included UBS and the fruit giant Chiquita. The law firm’s client list has included many of the big banks Holder failed to criminally prosecute as attorney general for their role in the financial crisis, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. We speak with Matt Taibbi, award-winning journalist with Rolling Stone magazine. "I think this is probably the single biggest example of the revolving door that we’ve ever had," Taibbi says.

------

How much more of this revolving door crap is our country going to put up with?

[Fuddnik]

7. There is a God!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026967078

[Demeter]

8. And He hates me

I can think of other comics more worthy of resurrection....Calvin and Hobbes, Farside, and some that never get posted in my corner of the world anymore, if they are still in print...

I never saw the attraction. Maybe it's a guy thing.

[DemReadingDU]

18. Never heard of it

[Fuddnik]

21. Go to the library.

Some of the best damned liberal humor anywhere.

Think of Doonesbury with animals and a sense of humor.

[MattSh]

22. Agreed. One of the classics!

[Demeter]

34. If you like Frat Boy humor

[Demeter]

9. U.S. Primary Bond Market Seized Up, Junk Bond Issuance Frozen, Chaos in China, Greece, Puerto Rico,

U.S. Primary Bond Market Seized Up, Junk Bond Issuance Frozen, Chaos in China, Greece, Puerto Rico, Commodities Cited by Wolf Richter

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/07/10/junk-bonds-issuance-seizes-mauled-by-china-greece-puerto-rico-commodities/

It was enough financial upheaval for an entire year, but all crammed into a couple of weeks:

“Global market volatility,” the “debt crisis in Greece,” “China’s equity market plunge” and the chaotic “efforts to stabilize” it, “declining commodity prices,” “fresh shocks from Puerto Rico,” topped off with “an extended outage on Wednesday for the NYSE.” This is how LCD HY Weekly by S&P Capital IQ described the atmospherics of the US bond markets during the week.

It was when the booming if somewhat dented US bond markets took a broadside: Issuance of investment-grade bonds had seized up for the seven trading days in a row prior to Tuesday! In the junk-bond market, no new issuance made it to market at all this week, the first non-holiday week with zero issuance since July 2013, the peak of the Taper Tantrum. And in the prior week, only two deals for a measly total of $1 billion were priced. For all practical purposes, the primary junk-bond market has seized up. Companies could have sold bonds. But in the chaos surrounding the markets, they would have had to offer a higher yield than anticipated, and deals were put on hold, pending better times.

This chart shows how junk bond yields spiked during the Taper Tantrum in the summer of 2013, as the market grappled with the until then inconceivable idea that the Fed would taper QE out of existence. This blew over, and the high-yield market returned to the halcyon days of yore. But in the summer of 2014, oil began to crash. This time it was energy companies that dragged down bonds. Yields spiked to 7.59% by December. It too blew over, sort of, but since June 1, new pressures have been building up:



And now this debacle: a week during which no junk bonds came to market. During the same week last year, eight junk-rated issuers sold in total $6.78 billion in bonds. Year-to-date, $185.7 billion in junk bonds have been issued, down 2.5% from the same period last year, the first time since early February that sales have dropped below last year’s pace.

“Things are on hold. Higher quality stuff can get done at a price, but no one wants to do that,” a head high-yield banker told LCD.

BEING RISK-ADVERSE AS I AM, I'M NOT AT ALL ALARMED. BETTER TO HAVE QUALITY THAN QUANTITY, IMO.

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

10. Seven big things to know about Hillary Clinton’s new plan for the economy

THE THINGS I WILL ATTEMPT TO READ FOR THE BENEFIT OF SMW...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/11/embargo-seven-reasons-why-hillary-clinton-believes-inequality-is-a-choice/

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate and former secretary of state, will deliver a major speech on economic policy on Monday, laying out in more detail her diagnosis of went wrong with the economy and, in broad strokes, how she will approach fixing it, the campaign says. She will make clear, according to a campaign official, that she doesn't believe wage stagnation and growing inequality are simply facts that we have to live with, caused by trends outside our control. Rather, she will say that the U.S. has the power to change these patterns if we make the right policy choices.

Here are seven ways to understand why Clinton is making the case:

(1) Clinton's top goal is raising median incomes

(2) She believes policy can help raise worker pay and reduce inequality

(3) In particular, she is looking to boost women's pay

(4) And Clinton is looking to make sure more women are in the workforce

(5) Clinton believes the federal minimum wage should be lifted

(6) And she believes tax policy changes that favor the wealthy are misguided

(7) She also wants to make corporations, particularly on Wall Street, more focused on long-term returns


LET'S CONDUCT OUR OWN BRIEF AND UNSCIENTIFIC POLL, LADIES:

DO YOU SUPPORT ANY OF THESE REPUTED GOALS OF HILLARY'S?

[Hotler]

29. Sure there items there that I agree with, but

Last edited Mon Jul 13, 2015, 02:34 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't believe her or trust her. She is cut from the same cloth as most of the politicians before her, say one thing to get your vote and turn around and stab you in the back. She is too cozy to the moneyed interest in this country and has no clue to the plight of the working folks. I will not vote her even if she is our only choice, I'll write my own name in.

[Fuddnik]

32. Bill the Cat is my write-in.

[Demeter]

35. You and me both. I've seen this show before

and it never ends well for the People. Plus, she's got Bill and all his minions to guide her--'nuff said!

[Demeter]

11. Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, explained in 11 basic facts

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/10/8924517/puerto-rico-bankrupt-debt

PRETTY GRIM HISTORICAL SUMMARY AT LINK

[Demeter]

14. The NYSE got off easy BY Linette Lopez

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-nyse-got-off-easy-2015-7


On Wednesday the NYSE halted trades for three hours as it tried to understand a glitch in its system. Trades were rerouted to dark-pool exchanges, investors didn't lose money, and the NYSE was back online in three hours or so. But according to software experts, the NYSE got lucky.

"So far this is the worst I've seen since the NASDAQ blackout," Eric Hunsader, CEO of market-research firm Nanex, told Business Insider a few moments after the halt was announced.

The NASDAQ had a similar issue back in August 2013. In the simplest of terms, both issues were caused by a software update or upgrade messing with each exchange's "securities information processor" (SIP) — the program that determines the price of stocks. In both cases the exchanges were shut down for hours. The NYSE shut its system down when customers started noticing irregularities in trading. They were having gateway issues and, instead of going into emergency mode, the NYSE decided to go dark and look under the hood to see what was wrong.

"I did not feel like we had the level of trust in our systems that is required," NYSE President Tom Farley told Bloomberg TV. "... I made the decision, let's suspend trading at the New York Stock Exchange, in part ... because those New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks continued to trade elsewhere during the day."

So no harm, no foul, right?

*****

"Most IT applications have dead code," software expert Lev Lesokhin of CAST told Business Insider after the incident. "It's in there just hanging out in the code base but none of the live modules are calling it. If you don't have structural oversight then you don't know if your new live code could be calling the dead code."

You also don't know what that dead code will do once it calls the live code. In Goldman's case, an error sent unintended orders to flooding through American exchanges. Most of those orders were canceled and Goldman said any losses “would not be material to the financial condition of the firm.” The point here is that we've seen all of this before over and over again. Exchanges fought against an SEC regulation requiring them to report glitches more often, but it went through anyway. That doesn't mean, though, that oversight of these systems has improved to the point that textbook issues are a thing of the past...

"We're not just 'one line of code away from disaster,'" Hunsader said on a phone call with Business Insider. "There's way of having software limp along. It's not all or nothing. You can have software that functions, maybe not perfectly, but functions nonetheless."

Better than nothing.


IDDUNNO, MAYBE A HACKER WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE FIXABLE....

[Demeter]

15. Big changes coming for hip, knee surgery payments

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102822717



The federal government ... proposed reforming the way Medicare pays many hospitals for hip and knee surgeries, offering extra payments to some and imposing penalties on others depending on the outcome of the operation. The proposal represents the latest effort by the Obama administration—a major one, in this case—to move the health-care system toward paying providers for so-called quality health outcomes instead of for specific procedures such as x-rays and blood tests.

Medicare in 2013 spent $7 billion on hospitalizations alone for hip and knee replacements, which are among the most common surgeries for beneficiaries of that federally run health coverage system for senior citizens. About one-quarter of those procedures would fall under the five-year payment plan proposed Thursday.

"We are asking health-care providers that offer hip and knee replacements to treat these surgeries as one complete service instead of a collection of individual services," said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. "We are committed to changing our health-care system to pay for quality over quantity, so that we spend our dollars more wisely and improve care for patients."

"By focusing on episodes of care, rather than a piecemeal system, hospitals and physicians have an incentive to work together to deliver more effective and efficient care," Burwell said.

If the proposal related to hip and knee replacements is approved, it could take effect as soon as Jan. 1 at more than 800 hospitals in 75 metropolitan areas scattered around the United States, in cities including New York and Los Angeles, as well as small one such as Lubbock, Tex., and Flint, Mich. An estimated 25 percent of the 400,000 such surgeries performed annually would be covered by the new payment model, which would be mandatory for hospitals in the affected regions. Those hospitals and doctors, home health agencies and nursing facilities involved in caring for patients undergoing the surgeries would receive a "bundled payment" for their treatment as opposed to being paid for individual services. Lessons learned from the program could be applied elsewhere in the U.S. for not only hip and knee replacements, but for other medical treatments, officials said.

The plan is expected to realize more than $150 million in savings over five years, according to Dr. Patrick Conway, deputy administrator for innovation and quality and chief medical officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

***********

The proposal is subject to a 60-day public comment period.

HANDWAVING AND PEARL CLUTCHING FOLLOW...

[Demeter]

16. Lehman's Fuld defeats employee lawsuit over retirement losses

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/10/us-lehman-fuld-employee-lawsuit-idUSKCN0PK2C520150710?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

A U.S. federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc employees seeking to hold onetime Chief Executive Richard Fuld liable for their retirement plan losses as the Wall Street bank plunged into its 2008 bankruptcy.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan rejected claims that Fuld breached an obligation to share what he knew about Lehman's fast-deteriorating finances with officials who oversaw the plan, where Lehman stock was an investment option.

The judge also rejected claims that those officials breached their fiduciary duty to employees by letting them invest in Lehman stock, resulting in millions of dollars of losses.

Investors said the officials ignored mounting public concern about Lehman's health, failed to explore whether hidden risks made the stock unsafe, and did not consider whether "special" circumstances, including a regulatory ban on short sales of large bank stocks, made the share price unreliable.

"The true objects of plaintiffs' ire may well be the Lehman executives whom plaintiffs allege made material misstatements regarding the financial health of the company to the detriment of participants in the securities markets," Kaplan wrote.

Nonetheless, he said the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act "is not the statutory mechanism to pursue such claims."

SO THERE!

[Demeter]

17. IMF Cuts World Growth Outlook (AGAIN?)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-09/imf-cuts-world-growth-outlook-as-risks-rise-from-greece-to-china

VIDEO REPORT AT LINK

The IMF cut its forecast for global growth this year, citing a weaker first quarter in the U.S. and warning that financial-market turbulence from China to Greece clouds the outlook.

The world economy will grow 3.3 percent in 2015, less than the 3.5 percent pace projected in April and slower than the 3.4 percent expansion last year, the International Monetary Fund said in revisions to its World Economic Outlook released Thursday in Washington. The fund left its forecast for growth next year unchanged at 3.8 percent.

While the IMF left its 2015 projections for China and the euro area unchanged from April, it singled out both economies as areas sources of potential risk. Chinese stocks have tumbled in recent weeks and Greece is struggling to reach a deal with European creditors to stay in the euro area...Much of the global downgrade was driven by the U.S., which the fund now sees growing 2.5 percent this year, compared with 3.1 percent in April. The IMF this week reiterated its recommendation that the Federal Reserve hold off raising interest rates until the first half of next year, when wage and price inflation are expected to pick up.

The IMF characterized the U.S. setback as “temporary,” saying the world’s biggest economy remains poised for an acceleration of consumption and investment as wages rise and employers hire workers...

HOW LONG DOES TEMPORARY HAVE TO RUN BEFORE IT'S THE NEW NORMAL?

[Demeter]

19. 3 reasons the average American may be worse off than Greece

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY FOR GREEKS

http://fortune.com/2015/07/09/3-reasons-average-americans-may-be-worse-off-than-greece/?xid=yahoo_fortune

Greece may be dealing with a debt crisis, but the average U.S. household may have more to lose...The fate of debt-troubled Greece is now only days away from being decided...
Whatever happens, the average American may be worse off than Greece. Here are three ways to look at it:

Americans actually have more debt relative to income earned

Between its government and its banks, Greece owes 323 billion euros to creditors and its debt-to-income (GDP) ratio is 177%, according to Trading Economics. In other words, Greece owes 1.77 euros for every euro it earns. The average U.S. household, by comparison, owed $204,992 in mortgages, credit cards, and student loans in mid-2015 on a median household income of $55,192, according to data compiled by Sentier Research. This translates to a debt-to-income ratio of 370%, which is much worse than Greece!

Indebted U.S. households carry an average credit card balance of $15,706, according to NerdWallet. Now consider that on average Greece pays only 2.6% of GDP in interest on its debt, according to estimates by think-tank Bruegel cited by The Telegraph. By contrast, the national average interest rate on a U.S. credit card is 15%, according to a report by CreditCards.com, which means $2,355 of annual interest on a balance of $15,706 and 4.2% of median income. This spikes even more sharply on higher interest credit cards, or in the case of a missed payment, which can lead to nearly 30% in interest and therefore 8.5% of median income. Combine this with stagnant wages for most Americans and the point is that while Greece may have a serious problem, average Americans are living pretty close to the edge themselves, and in the event of a crisis, may face an even more painful reckoning.

Greece’s debt can be wiped out, but not yours

If Greece gets rescued, its debt will likely be restructured or forgiven; and if not (and it exits the eurozone), it will have the option to default on its debts to outside lenders, including the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, since it won’t need them to support its economy anymore. Sure, it will likely be a long time before anyone lends to Greece again, but sovereign debt by its very nature is unsecured. A lender can’t exactly take a lien on the Greek islands, for example. So either way, the nation has some protection.

Individual debt, on the other hand, is governed by a different set of rules. If the average American declares bankruptcy, many big components of his or her debt, like student loans (which account for nearly 10% of total household debt, according to the New York Federal Reserved) aren’t usually forgiven. Barring special circumstances, you owe these debts till you die (and sometimes even after). Many other forms of debt like credit cards or tax bills are also usually not subject to default, or at least the vagaries of a bankruptcy court judge, and can result in freezing of assets and wage garnishing. All that puts Americans, especially those in the lower-income bracket, in a virtual debt prison compared to the leeway available to a nation like Greece (albeit, not without pain).

Greece can print money, but you can’t

Regardless of the outcome of the Greek financial drama, let’s look at the basics. The primary reason for Greece to exit the euro would be the near insolvency of its banks. In times of crisis, banks need money to be propped up; without outside aid, they can collapse. Greece can’t print euros, since it’s a joint currency controlled by the eurozone, so if it can’t reach a deal with lenders, it would have to adopt a new currency – the drachma. With its own currency, it can print money, which then enables it to sustain its banking system. Not a great solution since printing money can encourage inflation, but the flip side is it can avert an immediate crisis and allow the nation to survive.

Unfortunately, that luxury is not available to you and I. So any debt we take on will have to be repaid with our hard-earned earnings at some point, and that’s an important reminder to all of us to be prudent in how we conduct our lives. America’s debt-fueled consumer lifestyle may be attractive and heady, but it can lead to terrible consequences if it continues unchecked.

S. Kumar is a tech and business commentator. He has worked in technology, media, and telecom investment banking.

[Demeter]

20. Are Big Banks Using Derivatives To Suppress Bullion Prices? By Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42344.htm

We have explained on a number of occasions how the Federal Reserves’ agents, the bullion banks (principally JPMorganChase, HSBC, and Scotia) sell uncovered shorts (“naked shorts”) on the Comex (gold futures market) in order to drive down an otherwise rising price of gold. By dumping so many uncovered short contracts into the futures market, an artificial increase in “paper gold” is created, and this increase in supply drives down the price. This manipulation works because the hedge funds, the main purchasers of the short contracts, do not intend to take delivery of the gold represented by the contracts, settling instead in cash. This means that the banks who sold the uncovered contracts are never at risk from their inability to cover contracts in gold. At any given time, the amount of gold represented by the paper gold contracts (“open interest’) can exceed the actual amount of physical gold available for delivery, a situation that does not occur in other futures markets.

In other words, the gold and silver futures markets are not a place where people buy and sell gold and silver. These markets are places where people speculate on price direction and where hedge funds use gold futures to hedge other bets according to the various mathematical formulas that they use. The fact that bullion prices are determined in this paper, speculative market, and not in real physical markets where people sell and acquire physical bullion, is the reason the bullion banks can drive down the price of gold and silver even though the demand for the physical metal is rising. For example last Tuesday the US Mint announced that it was sold out of the American Eagle one ounce silver coin. It is a contradiction of the law of supply and demand that demand is high, supply is low, and the price is falling. Such an economic anomaly can only be explained by manipulation of prices in a market where supply can be created by printing paper contracts.

Obviously fraud and price manipulation are at work, but no heads roll. The Federal Reserve and US Treasury support this fraud and manipulation, because the suppression of precious metal prices protects the value and status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and prevents gold and silver from fulfilling their role as the transmission mechanism that warns of developing financial and economic troubles. The suppression of the rising gold price suppresses the warning signal and permits the continuation of financial market bubbles and Washington’s ability to impose sanctions on other world powers that are disadvantaged by not being a reserve currency.

It has come to our attention that over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives also play a role in price suppression and simultaneously serve to provide long positions for the bullion banks that disguise their manipulation of prices in the futures market. OTC derivatives are privately structured contracts created by the secretive large banks. They are a paper, or derivative, form of an underlying financial instrument or commodity. Little is known about them. Brooksley Born, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC) during the Clinton regime said, correctly, that the derivatives needed to be regulated. However, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary and Deputy Secretary Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Arthur Levitt, all de facto agents of the big banks, convinced Congress to prevent the CFTC from regulating OTC derivatives. The absence of regulation means that information is not available that would indicate the purposes for which the banks use these derivatives. When JPMorgan was investigated for its short silver position on Comex, the bank convinced the CFTC that its short position on Comex was a hedge against a long position via OTC derivatives. In other words, JPMorgan used its OTC derivatives to shield its attack on the silver price in the futures market.

During 2015 the attack on bullion prices has intensified, driving the prices lower than they have been for years. During the first quarter of this year there was a huge upward spike in the quantity of precious metal derivatives. If these were long positions hedging the banks’ Comex shorts, why did the price of gold and silver decline? More evidence of manipulation comes from the continuing fall in the prices of gold and silver as set in paper future markets, although demand for the physical metals continues to rise even to the point that the US Mint has run out of silver coins to sell. Uncertainties arising from the Greek No vote increase systemic uncertainty. The normal response would be rising, not falling, bullion prices.

The circumstantial evidence is that the unregulated OTC derivatives in gold and silver are not really hedges to short positions in Comex but are themselves structured as an additional attack on precious metal prices. If this supposition is correct, it indicates that seven years of bailing out the big banks that control the Federal Reserve and US Treasury at the expense of the US economy has threatened the US dollar to the extent that the dollar must be protected at all cost, including US regulatory tolerance of illegal activity to suppress gold and silver prices.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.

[Demeter]

23. New Mexico Cops Bummed They Can't Just Steal People's Money Anymore

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/new-mexico-cops-bummed-they-cant-just-steal-peoples-money-anymore

Asset forfeiture has accounted for more than 20% of police dept. operating budgets—and that's now banned...A New Mexico law that has just gone into effect bars police from seizing people's property without first convicting them of a crime, and the cops are already complaining. Equally bad, the cops say, is that when seizures are allowed, the money will now go to the state's general fund instead of to the law enforcement agency that seized it.

As the Farmington Daily Times reported, law enforcement is already yearning for the good old days. Without that incentive, they may just seize less stuff, and they might even reduce drug law enforcement, they said.

"We're going to try not to seize," said Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe, warning that "I don't think that they anticipated how much it's going to hit local law enforcement, and we're still trying to figure out how bad it's going to hit us."

Sgt. Kyle Dowdy, director of the Region II Narcotics Task Force, told the newspaper that without the money generated from asset forfeitures, "the task force may have to reduce the amount of equipment it buys, such as wiretaps and cameras, and train less often." Such training "is essential to catching criminals who are constantly changing the methods they use to distribute drugs," he added.

THIS IS SIGNIFICANT---THE FEDS HAD MOVED TO SUPPRESS FORFEITURE UNDER FEDERAL LAW, BUT THE STATES HAD THEIR OWN LOOPHOLES. NOW NEW MEXICO HASN'T.

FASCISM JUST TOOK A TINY STEP BACK.

MORE AT LINK

...That law didn't reform civil forfeiture; it abolished it. That's the way it should be, said Farmington's Republican state representative, Rod Montoya.

"Should people's property be seized and potentially even sold without there being a trial and proof of guilt?" he asked. "No."

The police will have to learn to live with it, and not just in New Mexico. A similar bill became law this year in Montana, and one passed in Wyoming, only to be vetoed by the governor. Minnesota and North Carolina are the only other states that completely ban civil asset forfeiture, but the clamor for reform is growing louder both in the states and in the Congress, where a bill introduced in both houses, the FAIR Act, would restrict, but not eliminate, civil asset forfeiture. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is the Senate sponsor.

[Demeter]

24. Greece Talks Stall After 15 Hours as Tsipras Makes Last Stand

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-13/greece-talks-stall-after-15-hours-as-tsipras-makes-last-stand

Emergency talks to keep Greece in the euro stalled after 15 hours as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rejected creditor demands for the creation of an independent fund to sell state assets and sought to minimize the role of the International Monetary Fund in a third bailout....Merkel led demands that Greece pledge assets to the fund to raise as much as 50 billion euros ($56 billion). Having accepted demands to cut pensions and raise sales taxes in exchange for as much as 86 billion euros in new aid, Tsipras held out on the privatization plan Monday morning in Brussels.

“What’s happening to Greece at the negotiations is waterboarding,” Nikos Filis, the parliamentary spokesman for the governing Syriza party, said in an interview with ANT1 TV.

Regarding the asset fund, Tsipras told leaders he had no mandate to sell half his country, according to an EU official...

SO, MERKEL IS SHAUBLE'S SOCK PUPPET. THAT EXPLAINS A LOT.

...The summit and the finance ministers’ meeting that preceded it featured skirmishes pitting hardliners against others. Hollande rejected the notion floated by Germany to suspend Greece from the currency. Earlier, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble snapped at European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.

Anonymous ancient proverb, wrongly attributed to Euripides... the thought can be traced back to the play Antigone by Sophocles but even this appears to be a borrowing from an earlier, lost Greek play

[Demeter]

25. UPDATE: Greece Capitulates to Creditors’ Demands to Cling to Euro

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-13/eu-demands-tsipras-capitulation-as-bailout-costs-spiral-ic1mkgo3

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras surrendered to European demands for immediate action to qualify for up to 86 billion euros ($95 billion) of aid Greece needs to stay in the euro. After a six-month offensive against German-inspired austerity succeeded only in deepening his country’s economic mess and antagonizing his European counterparts, there was no face-saving compromise on offer for Tsipras at a rancorous summit that ran for more than 17 hours.

“Trust has to be rebuilt, the Greek authorities have to take on responsibility for what they agreed to,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the meeting ended just before 9 a.m. in Brussels Monday. “It now hinges on step-by-step implementation of what we agreed.”

The agreement shifts the spotlight to the parliament in Athens, where lawmakers from Tsipras’s Syriza party mutinied when he sought their endorsement two days ago for spending cuts, pensions savings and tax increases. They have until Wednesday to pass into law key creditor demands, including streamling value-added taxes, broadening the tax base to increase revenue and curbing pension costs.

Disaster Averted (A CASE OF COUNTING CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH!)

While the summit agreement averted a worst-case outcome for Greece, it only established the basis for negotiations on an aid package, which would also include 25 billion euros to recapitalize its weakened financial system...With Greece running out of money and its banks shut the past two weeks, the summit was billed as its last chance to stay in the euro. Greece has been in financial limbo since the government missed a payment to the International Monetary Fund and allowed its second rescue package to lapse on June 30.

Did Greece Have a Better Deal Before the Referendum? (NO--IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ANOTHER LUCY WITH THE FOOTBALL MOMENT. THIS IS LIKE A PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW--TIRING FOR ANYONE OVER THE AGE OF 3)

“The Greek government has accepted practically everything,” Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in an interview. “It accepted all the crucial and important points.”

The conditions that Tsipras swallowed comprised a laundry list of unfinished business from Greece’s two previous bailouts and a new demand for the government to transfer 50 billion euros of state assets to a holding company that will seek to either sell or generate cash from them. His creditors rejected Tsipras’s pleas for a cut in the face value of Greek debt of about 310 billion euros. HE DIDN'T!

Debt Discussions

Merkel said interest-payment grace periods and longer maturities will “be discussed once there is a successful evaluation of the new Greek program.” As the summit approached its climax in the early hours of Monday, the main session broke at least four times to allow Tsipras to confer with associates in Athens, according to one official with knowledge of the talks. Tsipras told the creditors he’d enforce party discipline in parliament, the official said. The terms are significantly tougher than those he labelled “blackmail” when he persuaded Greek voters to reject them in a referendum a week ago.

Calling that vote “has turned into one of the most expensive economic policy mistakes in the European Union for a long time,” Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London, said in a note to clients Monday. “The much bigger sums which creditors now need to offer and the tougher conditions Greece now has to meet make it harder for both sides to deliver on the bargain.”

Return to Athens

In addition to requirements on pensions and sales taxes, measures that Tsipras accepted last week, the leaders demanded that creditor representatives return to Athens with full access to ministers and a veto over relevant legislation, intrusions that he has long rejected.

THERE YOU HAVE IT--COMPLETE CAPITULATION--SELLING THE GREEKS INTO SLAVERY TO GERMANY. THAT WE SHOULD LIVE TO SEE THIS!

“We had to succeed,” said French President Francois Hollande. “If Greece had left the euro zone what would the world have said? That the euro zone wasn’t able to maintain its integrity? That Greece couldn’t assume its responsibilities? That France and Germany couldn’t propel this project forward?”

WELL, D'UH!


Tsipras said that the deal had prevented the banking system collapsing but will inevitably harm the economy. He’ll return to Greece to face a political backlash that may force him to organize a government of national unity or call new elections after retreating from his campaign promises to lift wages and throw off the yoke of austerity.

“We put up a hard fight for the past six months and we fought to the end in order to get the best out of it, to get a deal which will allow the country to stand on its feet and the Greek people to keep fighting,” Tsipras said in Brussels.

Nikos Filis, the parliamentary spokesman for Tsipras’s governing party, said that Greece had been “waterboarded” by euro-area leaders during the negotiations and accused Germany of “tearing Europe apart” for the third time in the past century. “#ThisIsACoup” became the most-trending Twitter hashtag in both Greece and Germany overnight.

Greece’s banks remain shut and capital controls will remain in place when they reopen, as soon as this week if there’s a deal, Economy Minister George Stathakis told Mega TV. The banks are expected to stay closed on Monday, so the ECB won’t need to adjust its now-frozen emergency credit line to the banks right away, an EU official said as leaders were meeting. The ECB’s Governing Council is slated to review the banks’ situation again on Monday when the Greek government is set to renew a bank holiday and capital controls decree expiring today.

THE GREEK GOVERNMENT WILL FALL, GREECE WILL WALK AWAY FROM ITS DEBTS AND THE EURO, AND THE EURO WILL FALL. GERMANY WILL HAVE DESTROYED ITSELF ONCE AGAIN.

I DO HOPE EVERYONE IS HAPPY, OVER THERE. WHAT MAROONS!

[Demeter]

26. Greek Fury Meets Resignation at Demands for Concessions

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-13/greek-fury-meets-resignation-at-demands-for-concessions

VIDEO INTERVIEW AT LINK WITH KIT JUCKES, LOCAL EXPERT ON EUROZONE

Greek officials and media reacted with fury to the latest European demands for spending cuts and tax hikes, with some resorting to imagery from World War II and the U.S.- led war on terror to describe their predicament.

Greece is being “waterboarded” by euro-area leaders, Nikos Filis, the parliamentary spokesman for the ruling Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, said on ANT1 TV Monday morning. He accused Germany of “tearing Europe apart” for the third time in the past century.

Newspapers leveled similar allegations at Germany, which led the hard-line camp at all-night talks that ended with an agreement on the terms needed to open a third bailout for Europe’s most-indebted country. European Union President Donald Tusk, announcing the deal after 17 hours of negotiations, said it would entail “strict conditions” and end the threat of Greece exiting the euro.

“The government is trying to get the least bad, the least catastrophic deal,” Labor Minister Panos Skourletis said on ERT TV. “Talk of a Grexit shouldn’t take place when Greece has its back to the wall.”

The tone of Greek reaction illustrates the obstacles for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as he seeks domestic approval for a deal that creditors called the country’s last chance to stay in the euro. European leaders insisted Greece’s parliament now approve measures including placing state assets in a dedicated fund in exchange for as much as 86 billion euros ($96 billion) in new financing.
Passing Laws

“The agreement is difficult, but we averted the transfer of public property abroad, we averted the plan to cause a credit crunch and the collapse of the financial system,” Tsipras said after the summit. “We put up a hard fight for the past six months and we fought to the end in order to get the best out of it, to get a deal which will allow the country to stand on its feet and the Greek people to keep fighting.”

According to the initial text for a deal presented to European leaders, Greece needs to pass laws by July 15 to raise sales taxes, cut pension payments, alter the bankruptcy code and enforce automatic spending cuts if the next budget misses its targets. A key sticking point was the involvement of the International Monetary Fund, which Tsipras at one point called “criminal.”

Those measures will be difficult for Tsipras to sell to a public that voted decisively in a July 5 referendum to reject an earlier austerity package that was less onerous than the measures under discussion now. The premier, who was elected on an anti-austerity platform in January, also faces the challenge of keeping Syriza together through upcoming parliamentary votes.

“Greece at Auschwitz,” read the headline of the right-wing Demokratia newspaper on Monday, printed before the deal was announced. The front page of the Syriza-affiliated daily Avgi said “Germany is destroying Europe again.” Mainstream papers were more restrained, with best-selling Ta Nea running “Gordian Knot” as its front-page headline.

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

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, asked about the perceived harshness of the measures, denied that the Greek people were being “humiliated.” “There are no winners and there are no losers,” he told reporters in Brussels. “It is a typical European arrangement.”

In order to pass the required legislation, Tsipras will probably have to rely on support from opposition parties. That could splinter his ruling coalition and force new elections, further deepening Greece’s political and economic turmoil.

On her way into work in central Athens on Monday morning, Despina, a 37-year-old shop assistant who declined to give her last name, said she was taken aback by the weekend’s news. “I’m surprised by how hard the Germans are pushing,” she said. “The Europeans are trying to make us collapse.”

Others only wanted an end to the standoff.

“I’m fed up with being fed up,” said Christina, 37, a secretary in an IT company who also declined to give her last name. “This crisis is never ending. We’ve now reached the point where as a nation we must decide what’s the lesser shock: staying in the euro with the conditions imposed on us, or a Grexit.”

WHICH IS WHERE TSIPRAS WANTED TO TAKE THE NATION, IN THE FIRST PLACE

BUT DID HE HAVE TO DESTROY HIMSELF AND HIS PARTY TO GET THERE?

[DemReadingDU]

30. The Banksters win again, n/t

[Demeter]

27. SPEAKING OF SLAVERY

[Demeter]

28. Time to put my own chains back on....have a good day, all!

[antigop]

36. How Will The Greek Privatization Fund Work?

http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/07/13/how-will-the-greek-privatization-work-the-short-answer/

One of the linchpins of the deal struck Monday morning to prevent Greece’s exit (for now) from the eurozone is a fund that will manage the sale of the country’s state-owned assets. The deal requires that the fund at some point generate €50 billion in cash from the asset sales, to be used for various purposes: half for repaying money borrowed from the eurozone to recapitalize Greek banks; a quarter for investments; and a quarter for reducing the government’s debt burden.