Stock Market Watch: Tuesday, April 1, 2008

[Demeter]

Source: DU

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday April 1, 2008

COUNTING THE DAYS
DAYS REMAINING IN THE * REGIME 295
DAYS SINCE DEMOCRACY DIED (12/12/00) 2627 DAYS
WHERE'S OSAMA BIN-LADEN? 2352 DAYS
DAYS SINCE ENRON COLLAPSE = 2643
Number of Enron Execs in handcuffs = 19
ENRON EXECS CONVICTED = 10
Enron execs conveniently deceased = 3
Other Arrests of Execs = 54

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U.S. FUTURES & MARKETS INDICATORS
NASDAQ FUTURES-----------------------------S&P FUTURES

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AT THE CLOSING BELL WHEN BUSH TOOK
OFFICE on January 22, 2001
Dow - 10,578.24
Nasdaq - 2,757.91
S&P 500 - 1,342.90
Oil - $27.69/bbl
Gold - $266.70/oz.

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON March 31,
2008>

Dow... 12,262.89 +46.49 (+0.38%)
Nasdaq... 2,279.10 +17.92 (+0.79%)
S&P 500... 1,322.70 +7.48 (+0.57%)
Gold future... 921.50 -17.50 (-1.63%)
30-Year Bond 4.31% -0.04 (-0.90%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.41% -0.03 (-0.98%)






GOLD,
EURO, YEN, Loonie and Silver>

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PIEHOLE ALERT

Heads Up!
Preliminary info on appearances by Bush & Co. throughout
the country. Details & links are added as they become
available so check back. And if you know more, are organizing
something, or would like to, contact [e-mail]

For information on protests and other actions
Citizens For Legitimate
Government>

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Read more: This site under new management (Check the date)

[Demeter]

1. Today's Market WrapUp: Pedal to the Metal

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm

Precious metals "store of value" in global financial storm
BY TONY ALLISON

Commodities, including precious metals, have lately been lauded as the sector-du-jour by the momentum-investing crowd. Suddenly, the mainstream financial media is fervently discussing the merits of fertilizer companies, farm equipment companies, and even gold mining companies. Wall Street is piling on late to the commodity bandwagon, while waiting for tech and financials, the true darlings of the street, to recover. They may have a bit of a wait. The Nasdaq is still not even half of its 5132.52 peak reached on March 10th, 2000. The financials are now experiencing their very own bursting bubble. Technology and financials were down 15% and 14%, respectively, in the first quarter ending today.

The Fed Steps on Monetary Pedal

One of the reasons for the decade-long commodity bull market is that sound money policies by the Federal Reserve have been thrown overboard, causing the dollar to weaken dramatically against tangible assets, as well as other major currencies.

The markets typically react with euphoria when the Fed takes “aggressive” action to “fix” the current problems. Unfortunately, the Fed solves nothing by throwing more money at problems ironically created by excessive Fed money creation. The euphoria is invariably short-lived. All the Fed can do is make the situation worse, or trade one problem for another. Countries throughout history have tried, and failed, to print their way to lasting prosperity. The road to Zimbabwe is now visible in the distance. Hyperinflation is not prosperity; it is economic enslavement.

Dysfunctional Global Financial System

As the Fed deals with a multitude of challenges, from sub-prime loans to credit default swaps to derivative melt-downs to major bank insolvencies, it is obvious we have a dysfunctional system. This may just be the culmination of decades of undisciplined credit and massive debt creation since the US dollar became the de facto reserve currency in 1971.

The only real weapon available to the Fed to fight these challenges is creating more newly minted money and throwing it into the fray. And the Fed has now taken on 29 billion dollars in very questionable loans to bail out the banking system, as it opens up its balance sheet to even greater taxpayer risk. The odds favor larger and more widespread bailouts, as the Federal Reserve and other central banks struggle to plug the spreading holes in the global financial dike.

Given this background, it is no surprise to see this gradual shift of wealth from financial paper assets to tangible assets as people around the world seek a safe-haven “store of value” in the ongoing currency debasement storm. With the recent financial system breakdowns of the last year, the shift has grown more rapid and more emotional. Notice in the following paragraphs that a certain market expert was concerned about deficit spending and inflation over 40 years ago.

Wisdom From a Young Alan Greenspan

“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all their bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.

This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists’ antagonism toward the gold standard.”
– “Gold and Economic Freedom” – 1966 by Dr. Alan Greenspan

As of 1975, gold was once again legal for Americans to purchase. Perhaps one ought to heed this ironic warning from the architect of our current financial debacle.

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2. Today's Reports

Auto Sales Mar

Briefing.Com 5.0M
Consensus 5.1M
Prior 5.0M

Truck Sales Mar

Briefing.Com 6.5M
Consensus 6.6M
Prior 6.6M

Construction Spending Feb

Briefing.Com -1.0%
Consensus -0.9%
Prior -1.7%

ISM Index Mar

Briefing.Com 48.0
Consensus 47.5
Prior 48.3

[UpInArms]

59. U.S. March ISM manufacturing index 48.6% vs 48.3% in Feb.

13. U.S. March ISM manufacturing index above 47% consensus
10:01 AM ET, Apr 01, 2008 - 13 minutes ago

14. U.S. March ISM manufacturing index 48.6% vs 48.3% in Feb.
10:01 AM ET, Apr 01, 2008 - 13 minutes ago

[UpInArms]

71. Construction spending falls 0.3% in Feb. from Jan.: Commerce

05. Construction spending falls 0.3% in Feb. from Jan.: Commerce
10:07 AM ET, Apr 01, 2008 - 7 minutes ago

06. Feb. private construction outlays down 0.5% vs. Jan.
10:07 AM ET, Apr 01, 2008 - 7 minutes ago

07. Residential construction dips 0.9%, Commerce says
10:07 AM ET, Apr 01, 2008 - 7 minutes ago

08. Commercial construction slips 0.1% vs. Jan.
10:07 AM ET, Apr 01, 2008 - 7 minutes ago

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3. Oil near mid-$101 after falling Monday By GILLIAN WONG / AP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices


Oil prices held steady Tuesday after sliding more than $4 a barrel in the previous session on concerns about waning demand for crude and a general sell-off in commodities. Speculators have poured money into commodities in recent weeks as a hedge against inflation and a weakening dollar, which neared its all-time low against the euro Monday. But instead of buying on Monday, traders sold off a wide range of commodities, from precious metals and gasoline to pork bellies and soybeans.

"The oil market's sentiment has turned bearish for the time being," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "The trigger event was the collapse of Bear Stearns."

Crude futures started plunging in March after the U.S. Federal Reserve-backed sale of Bear Stearns Cos. to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March created fears of deeper economic problems.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose 14 cents to $101.72 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday Tuesday in Singapore. The contract had dropped $4.04 to settle at $101.58 a barrel on Monday.

Analysts are split on oil's direction. Many think the dollar will weaken further and send oil prices to new record highs in coming months. Others say the current high prices can't be sustained. "All the latest data out of the U.S. shows demand in the first quarter has actually shrunk versus the same period last year," Shum said. "That's a very strong sign of how much stress the U.S. economy is going through and how that has impacted demand."
Barring new supply disruptions, Shum predicted oil prices to fall.

Crude prices have been easing on reports of relative calm in Iraq, where two attacks on oil pipelines in Basra last week had raised concerns about a plunge in exports. An official with the country's South Oil Co. said Saturday that operations were back to normal.

Heating oil futures dropped 0.68 cent to $2.8993 a gallon while gasoline prices added 0.22 cent to $2.6293 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 9.1 cents to $10.01 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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4. Congress has big questions for Big Oil By H. JOSEF HEBERT / AP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_on_go_co/congress_oil_2

Big Oil is once again being called on the carpet. Senior executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies were to appear before a congressional committee Tuesday where they were likely to find frustrated lawmakers in no mood for small talk. The lawmakers were scheduled to hear from top executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co., BP America Inc., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, which together earned about $123 billion last year because of soaring oil and gasoline prices.

"These companies are defending billions of federal subsidies ... while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone," complained Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., in previewing the hearing. Markey, chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said he wants to know why, with such profits, the oil industry is steadfastly fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks, stretched over 10 years.

The House last year and again on Feb. 27 approved legislation that would have ended the tax breaks for the oil giants, while using the revenue to support wind, solar and other renewable fuels and incentives for energy conservation. The measure has not passed the Senate.

The oil industry has argued on Capitol Hill and at the White House that the tax breaks are needed to assure continued investment in exploration, production and refinery expansions. President Bush has promised to veto any such bill, saying that the oil companies should not be singled out.
The threat of nationwide $4-a-gallon gasoline, perhaps this summer, and $100-a-barrel oil is producing strong political reverberations, even as lawmakers acknowledged there is little that Congress can do to bring prices down.

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103. Crude pivots off early losses, back atop $102 mark

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/crude-reverses-losses-rebounding-above/story.aspx?guid={D73ED20D-E257-45DB-93CD-3BC8E8B8E727}&siteid=yahoomy


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures reversed losses that earlier Tuesday carried the benchmark contract below $100 a barrel, gaining modestly to move back above the $102 level.
Crude for May delivery rose 57 cents, or 0.6%, to $102.15 a barrel in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Petroleum products contracts turned higher as well.

The crude contract dropped more than $2 to an intraday low of $99.55 earlier, in line with weakness in other commodities, as gains in the U.S. dollar pressured dollar-denominated commodity prices.
"It looks like oil found some support below $100," said Phil Flynn, vice president of futures brokerage Alaron Trading. "The oil bulls still think there is value ... at around $100 a barrel."

Also on Nymex, May reformulated gasoline gained 3.39 cents to $2.661 a gallon and May heating futures rose slightly to $2.9129 a gallon. May natural gas declined 15.5 cents to $9.946 per million British thermal units.

Weighing on oil earlier had been strength in the U.S. currency.

Crude prices, denominated in dollars, tend to rise when the greenback falls, as a weaker U.S. currency makes crude less expensive to buyers holding other currencies. It also eats into oil producers' dollar-denominated revenue and forces them to raise prices.

Crude surpassed $110 a barrel on March 12, mostly boosted by a sliding dollar. As the dollar strengthened, the crude contract started losing ground and on Monday dropped more than $4 a barrel.

The strength in the dollar also pummeled other commodities Tuesday. Gold and other metals futures fell sharply on Tuesday.

The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a benchmark barometer gauging the prices of major commodities, lost 1.5% to 381.15.

Inventories expectations

Also factored into Tuesday's trading were the expectations for what weekly U.S. petroleum stockpiles, due out Wednesday, will show.

Analysts surveyed by Platts, an energy information provider, expect U.S. crude supplies to show a buildup of 2.8 million barrels last week. The Energy Information Administration reported last Wednesday that U.S. crude stockpiles held steady at 311.8 million barrels in the week ended March 21.

Analysts surveyed by Platts were also expecting a decline in gasoline stocks of 2.7 million barrels, which would be the third consecutive week that inventories fall, and a 1.4 million barrels drop in distillate stocks, in line with historical norms.

Also affecting crude's trading was the latest data on the manufacturing sector. U.S. manufacturers continued to cut back production in March, but at a slower pace, the Institute for Supply Management reported.

The U.S. is the world's largest oil consumer. Worries that the economy is falling into recession have repeatedly pressured oil prices.

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5. UBS in capital hike after huge loss, chairman goes By Thomas Atkins

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080401/bs_nm/ubs_dc_3


UBS AG doubled its writedowns from the subprime crisis, parted company with its chairman and asked shareholders for more emergency capital on Tuesday in a second dramatic attempt to reverse its fortunes. The Swiss bank wrote down an additional $19 billion on U.S. real estate and related assets, causing a net loss of 12 billion Swiss francs ($12.03 billion) in the first quarter, and said it would seek 15 billion francs through a rights issue of shares. It is also hiving off ailing portions of the bank into a separate unit.

The moves were more dramatic than expected by many, deal a new blow to the world's largest wealth manager and make it the bank hardest hit by the credit crisis. "It's a kitchen sink job. They've separated all their toxic waste. If they're going to finance that then everyone is saying this is the beginning of the end, this is the last capital increase," said a London-based trader.

UBS shares were up 6 percent to 30.52 francs at 3:26 a.m. EDT.

The crisis claimed the head of the bank's chairman, Marcel Ospel, widely criticized for letting Switzerland's flagship bank sail blithely into dangerous waters in an ambitious bid to become the world's biggest investment bank. Ospel said he decided to leave the job after the bank was forced to go to shareholders for a second time in as many months for emergency capital. The group's lawyer, Peter Kurer, was proposed as his replacement.

[Demeter]

6. UBS plans $19 bln write-down, 1Q loss around $12 billion By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ubs-plans-further-19-bln/story.aspx?guid={FB432404-34EC-415B-9EEA-5A0942D12C21}&siteid=yahoomy


LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Swiss banking giant UBS on Tuesday revealed a further $19 billion hit from the credit crisis, doubling its write-downs so far, and said it will have to issue around 15 billion Swiss francs ($15.1 billion) in new shares to shore up its capital base. The latest hit means UBS will report a net loss of around 12 billion francs for the first quarter and marks the end of the road for beleaguered Chairman Marcel Ospel, who will step down later in April.

Shares in UBS, however, jumped around 6.4% in early Swiss trading as analysts said the move appears to be a concerted effort to draw a line under the firm's mortgage woes. Analysts also said that Ospel's departure would likely be welcomed by shareholders. The stock had already fallen more than 60% from its 2007 high as further big write-downs were seen as inevitable.

UBS has been the worst-hit European firm in the credit crisis. It previously raised around $13 billion from the government of Singapore and a Middle East investor after reporting a loss of 12.5 billion francs for the fourth quarter of 2007.

[Demeter]

81. UBS 1Q Losses to Equal 1/3 of Equity

The word was out earlier today that UBS was going to take a stunning first quarter writedown of $18 billion (the total turned out to be $19 billion), far and away the largest credit crunch writedown to date.

But for my money, the attention-getting number is the quarter's net loss in relation to equity: $12 billion, in comparison to a book value of SFr 35.6 billion as of year end (the dollar and Swiss Franc are more or less at parity these days). That's 1/3 of the big bank's equity. No wonder my trader buddies put UBS high on the list of Firms at Risk of Serious Trouble.

Bloomberg noted:


The bank will raise 15 billion francs ($15.1 billion) in fresh funds from shareholders to replenish capital, Zurich-based UBS said in an e-mailed statement today.

Now if you were a shareholder, would you be so keen to give more equity to a business that lost a third of its net worth in a mere three months? UBS got a capital injection of Sfr 19 billion last year, much of it from friendly sovereign wealth funds. I'm sure they'll be delighted to stump up more cash.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/04/ubs-1q-losses-to-equal-13-of-equity.html

[Demeter]

7. France to bring EADS insider-trading charges

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/french-regulator-finds-evidence-insider/story.aspx?guid={A3A8C4A4-364E-4982-91DA-05ACC2F0C83D}&siteid=yahoomy


Regulator finds evidence of insider trading, misinformation at Airbus parent
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- France's stock-market regulator on Tuesday said it will bring insider-trading charges related to allegations that executives at EADS sold shares ahead of an announcement that the rollout of the Airbus A380 superjumbo would be delayed.

In its announcement, after an 18-month investigation, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers said it found evidence of insider trading and the publication of misleading information.

The regulator didn't provide further details on the incidents. The probe started after EADS division Airbus revealed that its A380 superjumbo was delayed, news that led to several profit warnings at the European aerospace and defense giant.

The AMF said it will now pass its conclusions along to an internal sanctions committee, and let the as-yet-unidentified suspects defend themselves. AMF also is handing its conclusions to the Paris prosecutor.

[Demeter]

8. Quarter was a bad one for stocks, no matter how you look at it By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/quarter-bad-one-stocks-no/story.aspx?guid={4BDBBE93-A33A-4B4D-9189-4DF020806F2D}&siteid=yahoomy

ANNANDALE, Va. (MarketWatch) -- There's no doubt that the first quarter was a bad one for the stock market.

Over the past 112 years since the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDUDow Jones Industrial Average
$INDU) was created in 1896, there have been only 12 others in which it lost more during the first quarter of the year than it did this year.

To put that statistic another way, 88% of the first quarters during the Dow's history have been better than the one that just finished.

And the data paint an even worse picture if we focus on just the fourth year of the presidential election-year cycle, of which there have been 27 during the Dow's history prior to this year. In none of those 27 did the Dow lose as much as it did in 2008's first quarter, when this benchmark lost 7.6%.....


Mark Hulbert is the founder of Hulbert Financial Digest in Annandale, Va. He has been tracking the advice of more than 160 financial newsletters since 1980.

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9. Lehman to raise $3 billion capital

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080331/bs_nm/lehman_capital_dc_2

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.N), an investment bank beset by rumors of not having enough funding, said it plans to raise $3 billion of capital.

Lehman's shares fell nearly 5 percent in aftermarket trading to $35.85, after the planned offering of convertible preferred shares was announced.

Lehman said in a statement that it has received significant interest from several key institutional investors in the deal.

Lehman has been one of the few major U.S. investment banks to avoid raising additional capital. The other one is Goldman Sachs Group Inc. But Merrill Lynch & Co Inc and Morgan Stanley have each raised billions of dollars of capital in recent months.

Lehman, the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, said it can sell up to another $450 million of additional convertible preferreds to meet extra demand.

Rumors have swirled around Lehman since the demise of Bear Stearns Cos Inc (BSC.N) but Lehman has said in recent weeks that it has some $200 billion of assets it could sell or borrow against, and that its ability to borrow directly from the Federal Reserve should dispel questions about its solidity.

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins; editing by Gunna Dickson)

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100. Lehman raises $4 billion of capital to quell critics By Dan Wilchins

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080401/bs_nm/lehman_dc_5

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.N) raised $4 billion of capital on Tuesday in a deal that could boost Lehman's outstanding share count by about 15 percent, but could also stop questions about the investment bank's stability.

Lehman's shares rose 13.8 percent, as the offering assured the market that the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank had the support of major investors, even after rumors of looming writedowns have drubbed its shares.

"The deal appeared to have gone pretty well. People feel comfortable with Lehman, unlike the situation around Bear Stearns," said Lee Delaporte, director of research at Dreman Value Management.

The convertible preferred share offering soothed investors that are concerned about the global financial sector, after the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos and more than $200 billion of bank writedowns globally for subprime mortgages and other toxic assets.



Lehman's shares rose $5.46 percent to $43.10 on the New York Stock Exchange in early afternoon trading.

THRE'S MORE--BRING A BARF BAG

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10. Senate's Dodd: Paulson plan "not even close" By Kevin Drawbaugh

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080331/pl_nm/usa_economy_regulation_dodd_dc;_ylt=Ai53vUVWAY05MUik05TJTcSs0NUE


...Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said he welcomed the plan offered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, but questioned its relevance in addressing falling home prices, rising foreclosures and the imminent threat of recession.

"To talk about overhauling the regulatory system is a wonderful idea. But frankly it doesn't relate to the issues we're grappling with," Dodd said on a conference call. "The failure of the administration to utilize the tools they've been given over the years. ... That's the problem, not reorganization."

Amid a deepening crisis in housing and credit markets, Paulson on Monday issued a sweeping plan that calls for giving the Federal Reserve more authority over Wall Street, cracking down on mortgage brokers, reshuffling the duties of some agencies and setting up a federal insurance regulator. Although the plan has been under development for many months, Dodd said he had not been asked for input on it. Noting that some of the ideas in the Paulson plan have been under discussion for years, Dodd said reorganizing the government was not the problem.



Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the same conference call with reporters that he plans to seek a procedural vote on the Senate floor on Tuesday on a foreclosure prevention bill that Republicans blocked in February. The bill, drafted by Democrats, would let judges erase some of the mortgage debt of homeowners in bankruptcy, a contentious proposal backed by homeowner advocates but opposed by bankers. It would also devote more federal money to fixing abandoned properties and funding debt counseling, as well as give hard-hit homebuilders a tax break.
The White House has threatened to veto the bill, calling it too costly and a bailout for lenders and speculators.

[Demeter]

11. Paulson's Financial Fix: Less regulation, More Power to the Fed By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19657.htm

31/03/08 "ICH" -- -It is being billed as a “massive shakeup of US financial market regulation”, but don't be deceived. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposals for broad market reform are neither “timely” nor “thoughtful” (Reuters) In fact, its all just more of the same free market “we can police ourselves” mumbo jumbo that got us into this mess in the first place. The real objective of Paulson's so called reforms is to decapitate the SEC and increase the powers of the Federal Reserve. Same wine, different bottle. Paulson's real motive is to preempt the regulatory sledgehammer that is set to descend on the entire financial industry following the 2008 election. There's growing fear that a President Obama may tote his firehose down to Wall Street and flush out some of the debris that has collected in the market's dark corners...
If Paulson's plan is approved in its present form, Congress will have even less control over the financial system than it does now and the same group of self-serving banking mandarins who created the biggest equity bubble in history will be able to administer the markets however they choose without the annoyance of government supervision. That's exactly what Treasury Secretary and his pals at the Fed want; unlimited power with no accountability.

Paulson is expected to lay out guidelines and principles that are intended to help regulators supervise the financial markets. According to AFP: “The President's Working Group on Financial Markets said the current regulatory structure is working well despite calls by some US lawmakers.”
In other words, the failing banking system, the housing meltdown, and the frozen corporate bond market are all signs of a robust financial system? This may be the most incongruous statement since “Mission accomplished”. The system is imploding and real people are being hurt by the fallout. Thirty years of industry-led lobbying has dismantled the regulatory regime which made US financial markets the envy of the world. The credibility and transparency are gone along with Glass-Steagall and government oversight of the explosive growth of over-the counter derivatives instruments. Now the system is prey to all types of dodgy debt instruments, suspicious "dark pool" trading and off-balance sheets operations which further reinforce the belief that cautious investment is no better than casino gambling.

"The regulatory line of sight today is by the counterparties," the official said, adding that the guidelines should be "beneficial to industry." (AFP) How is that different than saying, “Caveat emptor"? That's not a motto that inspires confidence. Many people still naively believe that planning their retirement should not have to be a Darwinian tussle with a crafty junk-bond salesman.

Under Paulson's plan, the Federal Reserve will be granted new regulatory powers, but whatever for? The Fed doesn't use the powers it has now. No one stopped the Fed from intervening in the mortgage lending fiasco, or the ratings agency abuses or the off-balance sheets shenanigans. They had the authority and they should have used it. The Fed knew everything that was going on---including the mushrooming sales of derivatives contracts which soared from under $1 trillion in 2000 to over $500 trillion in 2006---but they decided to cheerlead from the sidelines rather than do their jobs. The fact is, they were worried that if they got involved they might upset the gravy-train of obscene profits that was enriching their bankster friends.

What nonsense. The house is on fire and hyperventilating Hank is still wasting our time with this rubbish. The real problem is that Paulson and his buddies at the Federal Reserve think of the financial system as their personal fiefdom so they refuse to loosen their hoary grip even though the economy is listing starboard and the water is flooding into the lower decks...No one elected Paulson to do anything. He has no mandate. He is an industry rep. who has worked exclusively for a small group of wealthy investors who have put the entire country at risk with their toxic mortgage-backed bonds, their reckless Ponzi-type speculation, and their off-book chicanery. Paulson should be removed immediately and returned to his wolf's lair at G-Sax. If Bush is serious about straightening out Wall Street, then bring in Eliot Spitzer. He's available. And he'll do what it takes to clean house, that is, put a truncheon-wielding robo-cop in every trading-pit at the NYSE, and dispatch government accountants to every office of every CFO making sure they have a Big Red Pen in one hand and a taser in the other. That's the only way to get the attention of the bandit-class...

Paulson's plan is a non starter. The era of sandbagging, supply-side banditry is over. Good riddance.

[Demeter]

19. On Paper, Wall Street Gets Its Way By JENNY ANDERSON NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/business/01wall.html?ref=business


More than a year ago, when the markets were flying high, a chorus of alarm went up on Wall Street. Talk spread that the United States risked losing its edge in the financial world. But the threat that many executives saw was not the credit crisis then looming — it was the threat of excessive litigation and overregulation. Wall Street urged Washington to lighten up. The financial industry could not get what it wanted then, but it may get what it wants now. If adopted, the sweeping overhaul of the system overseeing the American financial system proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. on Monday could hand Wall Street investment banks a major victory in their years of effort to streamline regulation. While the plan is unlikely to gain Congressional approval soon, and may go nowhere in a partisan election year, it echoes many of the seemingly subtle and yet profound changes that Wall Street has been lobbying for all along.

One change Wall Street wants is for regulators to shift from policing the industry with hard and fast rules — do this, don’t do that — to using looser “principles” that might be open to interpretation. Another is to modernize the hodgepodge of state and federal regulators that sometimes overlap and compete with one another...Proponents of the principles approach say it is more efficient. They point to the meteoric rise of London as a global financial center, which has fueled worries that New York might one day lose its title as the world capital of capital. The Financial Services Authority, Britain’s main financial regulator, relies on principles rather than rules.

Some former American regulators, however, wonder whether Wall Street deserves a longer leash, especially at such a chaotic time in the markets and the broader economy. After all, the financial industry has had plenty of scrapes with regulators in recent years, over issues ranging from conflicted stock research to questionable mortgage investments. “Some advocates want broad principles that will not be enforced,” said Harvey J. Goldschmid, a former Democratic commissioner at the S.E.C. who now teaches at Columbia Law School. “You take that approach and the problems of subprime and securitization will look like minor bumps compared to the mess we will have in the future.”



Hal S. Scott, the Harvard Law School professor who directed the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, said on Monday that he agreed with many of the Treasury’s short-term recommendations. But he argued that the government should not waste its time with the medium-term proposals and instead move directly toward more radical reform with a principles-based system. “Too often we have a problem and we say ‘here’s a rule’ and then people figure out a way to get around the rule,” Mr. Scott said. “We’d be better off with a principle.”

Still, Wall Street has until recently flourished despite — and sometimes because of — the current regulatory system. Markets for some complex investments, like collateralized debt obligations, do not appear to have been policed by anyone. And no agency has effectively addressed the huge leverage in the system, a problem that seriously compounded the recent crisis. Indeed, as the industry has increased its profits geometrically in recent years, the size of agencies like the S.E.C. has not kept pace. As a result, regulators have struggled to react to seismic changes in the industry, like the rise of hedge funds and the proliferation of financial products that are traded in the shadows among firms, rather than openly on exchanges. That has former S.E.C. commissioners wondering why turning the commission into a different agency would improve things. “It’s the height of disregard to America’s investors to abolish the one agency that has done something to protect the public from the baser urges of Wall Street,” Mr. Breeden said. But he admitted change was hard. “It’s not so clear that just because you draw simpler charts and simpler boxes, the system works better,” he said.

................This Has to Be the Best Irony of the Article:...............

“I thought it was a major step forward,” Thomas A. Russo, chief legal officer of Lehman Brothers, said of the proposal. “The world became homogenized, but the regulatory structure stayed within the same straitjacket.”

[Demeter]

22. Under the Treasury's Plan, Fed Would Lose a Key Power By Neil Irwin WAPO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102356.html


Conventional wisdom has it that the Federal Reserve is a big winner in the Treasury Department's plan to overhaul how the financial system is regulated.

But the Fed would give up its power to regulate the day-to-day affairs of banks, responsibilities that many in the institution view as essential to its role as guardian of the economy -- even as the central bank gains new powers to insert itself into the affairs of any business creating risk for the financial system as a whole.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. is trying to turn the complicated muddle that is the U.S. banking regulatory system into something more coherent. To that end, he would replace a sprawling set of regulators aiming to ensure the soundness of the nation's financial institutions -- including the bank-supervision arm of the Fed, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration -- with a single Prudential Financial Regulatory Agency.

The Fed has indicated neither explicit support nor opposition to the Treasury plan. But leaders of the central bank have in the recent past vigorously opposed stripping their institution of its role supervising bank holding companies...In the Treasury Department's plan, the Fed would lose the responsibility for day-to-day monitoring of banks' financial stability. It would gain a more loosely defined ability to monitor and correct risks to the entire financial system, whether they come from banks, investment firms or hedge funds.

To many people with ties to the central bank, that is a lousy trade.

[Demeter]

27. Neutering the Markets DailyReckoning.com

What the commentators, pundits, and policymakers are thinking about is how to ‘fix’ problems in the capital markets. Most of them couldn’t fix a flat tire, of course. But that doesn’t stop them. They imagine that they can find the hole in the world’s money system...and patch it.

“U.S. readies overhaul of financial regulation,” is today’s big headline in European version of the Wall Street Journal . The article goes on to tell us that a whole group of changes are coming our way. As near as we can tell, these changes mean nothing – they are simply rearranging the bureaucrats’ desks. This is the plan put forward by Hank Paulson, former Goldman chief executive and now head man at the Treasury.

Critics charge that it doesn’t go far enough...that it is really an extension of the deregulation trend that got us into trouble in the first place. A whole chorus of whiners is now calling for re-regulation of the financial institutions – with heavy emphasis on mortgage lending.

“Free market thinking takes hit from U.S. economic crisis,” reports an AFP story. “Bush mortgage bailout in the works,” adds the New York Post .

Alas, ‘improvements’ seem unavoidable.

March 14th, 2008, was the ‘day the dream died,’ according to Martin Wolf in the Financial Times . The dream was the dream of “global, free-market capitalism,” says the report. The world’s wake-up call came, it continues, when the Fed decided to bailout Bear Stearns.

The ‘dream’ was more like a hallucination, in our opinion. We can imagine that we live in a free market world. But the world’s central banks have been fixing the price of credit, fudging the numbers on inflation, and printing money all along. Now that we have a crisis on our hands – embellished and exaggerated by central bank planning – the long knives are out for ‘free enterprise.’

The ‘Anglo-Saxon’ model – as full of illusions, conceits and absurdities as it is – is still the best model, because it allows fools and their money to part company relatively quickly. Every other model merely slows it down...gumming up the gears with special privileges, protections, and government-granted larceny. The real problem in today’s capital markets is not that the machinery of capitalism is broken, but that it’s working. And that is what the reformers aim to stop. They want to ‘fix’ the markets... like you would ‘fix’ a stray cat – so it couldn’t have kittens. What they really want is to neuter the market...spay it, so it is a cuddly pet, but one that doesn’t give you any trouble.

So far, U.S. homeowners have lost probably about 12% of the wealth they thought they had in their houses. The total capital value of the residential housing market is about $20 trillion. So, a 12% loss is equal to about $2.4 trillion. A few foreign housing markets have been hit harder – Ireland, Spain and Iceland, for example.

The equity markets have been hit by similar losses. Equity funds alone have seen $100 billion of cash pulled out by nervous investors. But here – something curious – “In an ugly global crisis, U.S. markets not so bad,” another WSJ headline.

In 2008, the Dow is down 7.9%. But foreign markets are down more. France has lost twice that amount. Germany has dropped even more – 18.7%. But the biggest losses are in the go-go markets of the East. Indian stocks have lost nearly 20% of their value. The Shanghai stock market has fallen 32%.

Overall, non-U.S. and Canadian markets are down about 15% – meaning, that the world’s equities have taken a loss of about $4.5 trillion in local currency terms...or about $3 trillion when measured in dollars. (The dollar has gone down so that dollar-based investors have lost less on foreign markets than local investors.)

We have been pointing out that these huge reductions in the implied wealth of the world’s investors weigh heavily on the deflation side of the scales. The money people thought they had is disappearing. To a hedge fund investor, the vanished money may mean nothing more than a missing digit on his portfolio report. But to a marginal homeowner, the losses force him to change his standard of living – cutting back on expenses so as to balance his family budget. For not only does he have less money, his costs keep going up. Every three months the American Farm Bureau buys a typical bag of groceries. This quarter, the price was up 8.9% over a year ago. And gasoline? It’s up 64 cents a gallon over the last 12 months.

“Economic downturn worsens in March,” says Money Watch.

A good part of the world economy seems to be drifting into a slump – despite the efforts of the feds to keep the money flowing.

“Capital shortage lingers despite Fed’s latest steps,” reports the WSJ . The banks are rebuilding their balance sheets; they’re not taking on more risky credits.

Analysts will take aid and comfort from the performance of the U.S. market so far this year; they will see it as a sign of strength that American equities have sunk less than others. But it is really a sign of weakness. While foreign markets soared over the last 10 years, U.S. stocks went nowhere. Having not gone up, now they’re not going down. And while they are not going anywhere, the value of the dollar continues to fall – wiping out stockholders’ real wealth. In terms of what they can buy on world markets, U.S. stock market investors have lost 25% to 30% of their purchasing power over the last decade. They’ll probably lose another 30% over the decade ahead.

And so, we turn our weary eyes back to Japan. The sun set on the land of the rising sun 18 years ago – when the air went out of Japan’s bubble and the Nikkei crashed.

Japanese authorities have been pumping ever since – but the air leaks out about as fast as it goes in. This year alone, the Nikkei has lost 16% of its value, bringing it down to a level that is less than one-third its peak in 1989.

In real terms, we suspect that that is where U.S. stocks will end up too – maybe five years from now...maybe ten years.

But – not without a fight!

“Japan’s ‘lost decade’ offers dire pointers for the Fed,” says a headline in the Financial Times today. The pointer is that the Fed should act fast and aggressively to bailout the banks and homeowners. According to legend, Japanese officials dithered. They failed to react quickly enough so that by the time they finally got moving, it was too late...a deflationary slump was already underway and impossible to reverse.

Ben Bernanke went over to Japan years ago to offer advice on how to get out of the deflationary trap. Now, he has a chance to show the world how it’s done. Will he succeed? We doubt it.

[Demeter]

12. Top U.S. Housing Official Resigns By RACHEL L. SWARNS NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/washington/31cnd-jackson.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON — Housing secretary Alphonso R. Jackson resigned on Monday, saying that he needed to devote more time to his family. The announcement came as federal authorities were investigating whether he had given lucrative housing contracts in the Virgin Islands and New Orleans to friends.
His resignation, effective April 18, also comes as the Bush administration is increasingly relying on the department’s Federal Housing Administration to help stanch the widening foreclosures.

In recent weeks, Mr. Jackson had faced mounting pressure to leave his post. The FBI has interviewed several of his employees, and two senior Democratic senators called on him to resign, saying the allegations of wrongdoing had undermined his leadership. Lawmakers have also raised concerns about accusations that Mr. Jackson had threatened to withdraw federal aid from the Philadelphia Housing Authority after its president refused to turn over a $2 million property to a politically connected developer.

Mr. Jackson, who assumed his post as secretary in 2004, did not address those allegations during his brief statement in the 10th floor briefing room of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development...Mr. Jackson said that he had worked hard to keep families in their homes, to revitalize public housing and to preserve affordable housing. “During my time here, I have sought to make America a better place to live, work and raise a family,” he said.

He left the room without taking any questions.

Before Mr. Jackson’s resignation, federal officials had said that 130,000 vulnerable homeowners have refinanced to FHA loans, and they expect that number to increase to 300,000 by the end of the year. Critics have said much more needs to be done....

[whistle]

13. I like the cartoon at the bottom, but it is not Uncle Sam (American public)

...that the Federal Reserve is trying to keep afloat, it is Uncle Sam's Wall Street nephews who have speculation and gambling debts lashed onto their feet which is sinking the economy!:yoiks:

[Demeter]

14. The Decline And Coming Fall Of US Hegemony By K Gajendra Singh

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19656.htm

...An editorial titled ' Collapse of U.S. economy ' in Belleville Intelligencer of 27 Feb, 2008 confirms , by now generally accepted ill health of US economy . Harry Koza in the Globe and Mail recently quoted Bernard Connelly, the global strategist at Banque AIG in London, that the likelihood of a Great Depression is growing by the day. Martin Wolf of U.K.'s Financial Times cited Dr. Nouriel Roubini of the New York University's Stern School of Business, who outlines how the losses of the American financial system will grow to more than $1 trillion, an amount equal to all the assets of all American banks.

The next domino to fall will be credit card defaults, and after that... who knows? There are so many exotic funds out there, with trillions of dollars in paper - or rather computer-screen money - all carrying assorted acronyms, and all about to disintegrate into nothingness. Over the next couple of years, scores of banks that have thrived on these devices, based on quickly disappearing equities, will fail.

The most frightening forecast so far comes from the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin (GEAB), "The end of the third quarter of 2008 (thus late September, a mere seven months from now) will be marked by a new tipping point in the unfolding of the global systemic crisis.
"At that time indeed, the cumulated impact of the various sequences of the crisis will reach its maximum strength and affect decisively the very heart of the systems concerned, on the front line of which (is) the United States, epi-centre of the current crisis.

"In the United States, this new tipping point will translate into - get this - a collapse of the real economy, (the) final socio-economic stage of the serial bursting of the housing and financial bubbles and of the pursuance of the U.S. dollar fall. The collapse of U.S. real economy means the virtual freeze of the American economic machinery: private and public bankruptcies in large numbers, companies and public services closing down."

"We are not experiencing a "remake" of the 1929 crisis nor a repetition of the 1970s oil crises or 1987 stock market crisis. What we will have, instead, is truly a global momentous threat - a true turning point affecting the entire planet and questioning the very foundations of the international system upon which the world was organized in the last decades."

[Demeter]

15. As Jobs Vanish and Prices Rise, Food Stamp Use Nears Record By Erik Eckholm

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/us/31foodstamps.html?sq=food%20stamps&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1207047844-9X+JNFCbStVsctZ1q3nlnw

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s...recent rises in many states appear to be resulting mainly from the economic slowdown, officials and experts say, as well as inflation in prices of basic goods that leave more families feeling pinched. Citing expected growth in unemployment, the Congressional Budget Office this month projected a continued increase in the monthly number of recipients in the next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1 — to 28 million, up from 27.8 million in 2008, and 26.5 million in 2007.

The percentage of Americans receiving food stamps was higher after a recession in the 1990s, but actual numbers are expected to be higher this year. Federal benefit costs are projected to rise to $36 billion in the 2009 fiscal year from $34 billion this year.

In Michigan one in eight residents now receives food stamps. “Our caseload has more than doubled since 2000, and we’re at an all-time record level,” said Maureen Sorbet, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Human Services.



Food stamps are an entitlement program, with eligibility guidelines set by Congress and the federal government paying for benefits while states pay most administrative costs.
Eligibility is determined by a complex formula, but basically recipients must have few assets and incomes below 130 percent of the poverty line, or less than $27,560 for a family of four.
As a share of the national population, food stamp use was highest in 1994, after several years of poor economic growth, with an average of 27.5 million recipients per month from a lower total of residents. The numbers plummeted in the late 1990s as the economy grew and legal immigrants and certain others were excluded.

[Demeter]

20. Business Off in Several U.S. Regions, Indexes Show REUTERS

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/business/01econ.html?ref=business



Business activity declined in several regions of the United States this month, according to new data released on Monday.

The index from the National Association of Purchasing Management-New York showed that local business activity fell to 425.8 in March, from 427.7 in February.

Separate reports also showed that business activity in the Milwaukee area and manufacturing activity in Texas also contracted in March.

In the factory-heavy Midwest, business activity also shrank in March, for the second consecutive month, while a price component rose, highlighting worries of recession and inflation.

The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago business barometer rose to 48.2, from 44.5 in February, but remained below the 50 level that separates contraction from expansion.

“This report has a strong stagflationary feel to it with activity continuing to contract, but with prices pressures intensifying,” analysts at Bear Stearns said in a note on the Chicago report.

Still, the Chicago index figure was better than the 46.0 result from a Reuters poll, and Wall Street took an optimistic view of the data.

The good news for economic bulls came in the form of a sharp rise in the Chicago report’s employment index, to 44.6 in March, from 33.5 in February. That was the biggest one-month employment gain since February 2002.

Also, the new-orders index jumped to 53.9 in March, from 48.8 in February. The measure of prices paid jumped to 83.9 in March, however, from 79.4 in February. That is its highest since June 2006.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’s Texas monthly manufacturing index of general business activity slid to minus 22.7 in March, from a negative 21.4 in February. It was the ninth consecutive reading below zero, indicating contraction.

Another report showed help-wanted postings on major American-based Internet job boards were down 0.6 percent in March from a year ago, the measure’s first decline ever, year over year.

[formercia]

26. Just in time for the election

here comes Martial Law.

[Tansy_Gold]

86. Question and long musing: What would the collapse look like. . . .

. . . . and is there anything that can be done by anybody to prevent it?

Once again, my usual disclaimer. I'm not an economist, I don't know anything about the stock market and derivatives and banking/financial macro-crises beyond what I've learned from SMW.

But here's what it looks like to me:

The whole bubble is, like all bubbles before it, a gigantic Ponzi scheme, in which the first investors expect to be bailed out by bringing in more investors. This includes the concept of credit/debt, each being the flip side of the same coin: Credit means satisfying a need/want now with dollars anticipated to be earned in the future, aka bringing in more investors (even if those "investors" are one's own paychecks).

The problem arises when there aren't sufficient additional investors. As the money funnels its way to the top -- or, on the other side, fails to funnel its way to the bottom -- the situation for the folks on the bottom becomes dire. And it will continue to increase in direty/direness (is either of them a word?) until the whole pyramid collapses.

When we're dealing with just the credit/debt crisis, in which consumers have essentially mortgaged more of their future than they can handle, the resolution seems to be fairly simple and obvious: stop buying shit you don't really need, live a little (or a lot) more frugally for a while, pay off the debts, and bring yourself into your own future. This is the scenario of the guy who buys a new truck every year, paying no attention to the fact that he has paid on the original loan less than the depreciation on the truck he's trading in. At the end of a number of years of doing this, he discovers he's got a $20,000 truck loan on a truck that's only worth $10,000. The solution: Stop buying a new truck every year, drive the one you've got until it's paid for, and start over.

Unfortunately, this drastic measure works on a micro scale, but it has far-reaching impact on a more macro scale, because the frugality of one family/economic unit is one thing, but when millions and millions of families stop buying new shit, er, stuff, the economy that's based on producing all that stuff goes into a tailspin. If no one's buying new trucks, the truck plants shut down and the workers are laid off and they buy even less. As the truck plants shut down, so do the companies that make the parts for the trucks and their employees are laid off and they buy less.

This, in my probably uninformed and naïve estimation, is a Depression. As difficult as it may be, it is survivable, but it is not something that's amenable to any kind of a quick fix. It's part of the natural cycle of capitalism, which is essentially a Ponzi scheme at heart: driven by new investors/consumers, always need new infusions of cash/wealth for the "economy" to grow.

But what we have now seems to be a crisis formed from two elements, which may or may not be tangentially related. The credit/debt crisis of the American consumer economy is one thing. It's based on policies of buy buy buy, spend spend spend, the inherent spirit of capitalism to own/sell things today and pay for them tomorrow. This includes the owning/buying/selling of homes, even to people who couldn't/can't pay for them (regardless of the reason they couldn't/can't pay for them).

The other element is this invisible economy based on the "selling" of things that don't even exist: derivatives, CDOs, SIVs, MBSes, etc. These are just plain gambles: Investment Bank A bets with Hedge Fund Q that X derivative is going to go up. Insurer LV takes part of the bet to guarantee that Investment Bank A won't really lose any money, and Insurer DF takes part of it to protect Hedge Fund Q. Equity Fund NZ buys in by leveraging its $10bn assets to acquire a $30bn interest in Hedge Fund Q. And so on. (Have I got this even minimally right? If not, I suppose you can just stop reading now and go back to coffee and donuts. ;-) )

In all of that invisible economy, the only thing that represents anything real, anything tangible, is the $10bn that Equity Fund NZ holds. Or maybe it's the investment that Investment Bank A is betting with. Regardless -- none of the gambling should affect the consumer economy! It's not being played with real money!

Furthermore, the quintessential rule of "playing the market" should always be not to play with money you can't afford to lose. And if the money you're playing with is someone else's money, especially money someone else entrusted to you to keep it safe, you should be in jail. Otherwise, you're just a common thief.

In my mind, the hedge funds, the investment banks, the equity funds, none of them need to be bailed out. They are gamblers, and they are addicts, and they are deluded and greedy and batshit crazy for thinking any of this would actually work to create wealth for the economy. All it does is suck real wealth out of the economy.

Is this a marxist analysis? Maybe. I don't know even enough about marxism to know for sure. But common sense tells me that when you're trading in things that don't exist, in a shadow economy that doesn't exist, you ought to get paid in money that doesn't exist, too. You shouldn't be paid in real money from a real economy.

Let the goddess-damned hedge funds and equity funds and investment banks fail. They aren't the real economy! The real economy is the factories and the hospitals and the stores and the homes and the schools and the bridges. As far as I can see, all of this goes back to that wonderful calvinistic notion that wealth is not something that's actually to be earned, but something that's to be acquired as a sign of God's approval. This God who drove the English colonists here four hundred years ago didn't demand that they work, didn't demand that they be honest, didn't demand that they look out for their fellow creatures or the rest of their planet. He only held out the tantalizing temptation that, "If you get wealthy, no matter what the means, it'll prove that I approve of you."

I don't think there's a way to break the cycle of greed instilled in our financial economy. This kind of thinking infects us in ways we take so for granted that we aren't even consciously aware of it. Many of our best economic thinkers, even the liberal ones, don't dare touch on it. Indeed, we are "morally" flawed if we examine the concept of wealth as a measure of morality.

And until we do that, I don't think we can stop the collapse. I don't think Obama can stop it. I'm not sure Al Gore, if he turned his campaign from fighting global warming to fighting global bankruptcy, could stop it.

Can we survive it? Oh, I think the human race can survive it, maybe, if we don't go into nuclear meltdown over it. Even the American experiment can survive it, but I don't know if enough of us have the will, the determination, or even the skills to survive it. One thing we will have to do, however, is get over the notion of wealth, regardless how it's acquired, as a badge of morality. We need to learn to respect actions, not acquisitions.

But what do I know?


Tansy Gold, always learning, but never seeming to learn to shut up.

[Wednesdays]

89. Call me a pessimist, but...

The last time we had a big meltdown like that--the Great Depression--it planted the seeds of World War II...which began with fascism's blitzkrieg and ended with nuclear weapons... :(

[Demeter]

91. WWII Was Started by the Terms of WWI

which so devastated Germany, that Hitler seemed like a good idea. And good old American corporate knowhow was right there, helping Hitler. Otherwise, he'd never have gotten off the ground.

[Demeter]

90. If We Replaced Consumerism With Public Commonwealth Spending

not only would the hoards of excessive wealth stop piling up, but so would the excessive debts due to medical and educational expenses that not so endowed incur.

If we replaced paper-shuffling with production of goods, our international imbalances would also shrink. I know shipping by ocean liner is supposedly the cheapest thing in the world, but that's only if one doesn't count the environmental and economic costs associated with outsourcing.

And if we had an educated population that could think real thoughts even if one hand were tied behind their backs, we'd have our Constitution back.

We'd probably get out reputation back, too.

But first we must raise taxes on those who have excessive wealth. So you know where that's going to go.

[starroute]

96. The original colonists deserve more credit than that

The Puritans who settled New England never expected to get rich. They were just looking for a "sufficiency" -- enough land and income to live on without distracting them from higher things.

It was only when the land proved so fruitful that many of them found themselves getting wealthy beyond their expectations that they had to turn their religion around to explain why God really wanted them to be rich. Even then, frugality and hard work remained the norm in more places than not.

The idea of wealth as a sign of divine grace is neither as old nor as deeply ingrained as you suggest, and there's plenty of basis for building something better.

http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/colonial/13england1.html

New England demanded hard labor to make a farm and offered little prospect of getting rich. A critic insisted that in New England, "the air of the country is sharp, the rocks many, the trees innumerable, the grass little, the winter cold, the summer hot, the gnats in summer biting, the wolves at midnight howling." But in classic Puritan fashion, the New English thanked their God for leading them to a land where they had to work hard. One explained:

"If men desire to have a people degenerate speedily, and to corrupt their mindes and bodies too ... let them secke a rich soile, that brings in much with little labour; but if they desire that Piety and Godlinesse should prosper ... let them choose a Country such as which may yield sufficiency with hard labour and industry."

[Demeter]

New England's Wealth Came from Fishing, Slavery and Industrial Revolution

Not from farming. Trust me--they are lucky to grow grass. The merchants and their shipping helped, too.

The Triangle Trade: molasses from the Indies, to rum, to slaves who grew the cane for the molasses.

Then shipping from the new factories to the world. Bringing in the raw materials, taking out the finished goods.

[Hugin]

107. I admire your ability to express your thoughts...

Other than that. I have no idea. :/

[Tansy_Gold]

109. Thanks, Prag!

I appreciate the admiration even more than usual today.

:hi:

[Ghost Dog]

114. Perhaps relevant to your thought-piece,

I found this article, linked from DU here, and its comments, which led here amongst other places, provided plenty of food for thought and inspiration for action.

One related DU action I see trying to fly here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3090021#3090724

[Hugin]

121. Ah, very interesting.

Thanks Ghost Dog. :)

[Tansy_Gold]

130. Thanks, GhostDog, for the interesting links

Framing an argument/point is important, I believe, and the AlterNet article does a good job of illustrating that.

While I don't go out of my way to try to educate my more benighted friends, I did have a conversation this morning with a couple of people who HAD NO CLUE about the operations of a corporatist-capitalist economy. They HAD NO CLUE that corporations have no obligation to protect the jobs of their employees, or keep promises made to retirees, or refrain from polluting the environment. They HAD NO CLUE that corporations are legally obligated to make money for the stockholders -- and any other benefits to workers, the community, the environment, etc., are secondary to that primary function. When I explained some of the reasons behind the current "financial markets crisis," they were dumbfounded.

I went into the issues of the funny money that comprises the whole derivatives market and how the derivatives market isn't regulated and only a handful of people really know what's going on and maybe not even them. I mentioned the whole business of the oil execs appearing before congress to explain why they need to continue to get tax breaks when they're already making $123 BILLION a year. I tried to explain how the corporate PTB use advertising/propaganda to sucker the consumers into buying things they don't need and thus funneling "real" money into the pockets of the people who don't work, who don't make things, who just siphon off the cream of the wealth created by farmers and machinists and shoemakers and textile weavers and miners and teachers and doctors. I cited examples of how the various layers of "middlemen" jacked the prices of various commodities -- from strawberries to sneakers -- up by adding layers of profit without adding layers of real value.

We had this conversation -- in the course of which I told them without apology that I'm a socialist -- and it was civil and polite and never deteriorated into anything remotely resembling argument. On point after point after point after point, they agreed with me. Cayne of Bear Stearns shouldn't have been allowed to sell his shares for $61.3 million. Angelo Mozilo should be in jail for what he did to CountryWide and all the customers who are losing their homes. On and on and on and on, they agreed with me.

And at the end, they all said they would continue to shop at Wal-Mart, no matter how many jobs Wal-Mart had shipped to China, because "I'm not paying full price for groceries" or "I like being able to buy everything in one place" or "I'm not going to let the terrorists keep me from buying all the stuff I can afford to buy."

Which, of course, is why I rarely discuss economics/politics with these particular "friends."

Tansy Gold, who does have other friends who get it

[DemReadingDU]

133. That is why I like to read the SMW thread

Here, we all get it.


:hi:

[DemReadingDU]

132. Great writing, thanks for your thoughts

I think you've said it all, nothing more to add.

[Roland99]

16. Thanks, Demeter!

:hi:

[Demeter]

17. Good Morning, Roland!

any morning that starts above freezing is a good one--how low my standards have fallen!

[Hugin]

43. Hey!

Looking good! :hi:

[Demeter]

46. Thanks Prag!

I'm trying to post in a more organized fashion, grouping topics. This is difficult with a cat crawling all over me. Give them food, water, clean litter, and they still demand things--just don't know what!

[Hugin]

51. Well, you see...

You're paying attention to something other than the cat. Cats are like that. ;)

[TalkingDog]

70. A cat's understanding of life vs. a dog's.

Dog:

She loves me and pets me and feeds me and plays with me....she must be a God!


Cat:

She loves me and pets me and feeds me and plays with me....I must be a God!


Cat's cannot concieve of a world where there could possibly be anything more interesting than them. If you are paying attention to something else, you must be horribly confused. They are merely trying to redirect your attention to that which is truly important.


Have a great April Fools Day. I, for one, have been waiting for 8 years for it to be over.

[Demeter]

72. That's More LIke Groundhog's Day--Bill Murray Style

and it looks like the public is going to finally do some personal growth, just as Bill's character did.

[Hugin]

75. Yep, it's been One LONG April Fool's Day...

And I'm -not- amused.

[AnneD]

79. At one time...

cats WERE gods-and they have never forgotten it.

[Karenina]

21. Ditto!

:hi:

[Demeter]

24. Good to See You!

[AnneD]

31. Morning Marketeers.....

:donut: and lurkers. We will be upgrading our computer system today so I will be off line after 12 noon-that is no April Fool's joke.

My daughter has her Senior Recital today at 5:00 pm CST. That is no April Fool's joke. She's stretched tighter than a snare drum today. I have checked and re-checked the arrangements and set ups. I brought some nice clothes to change into (besides my usual scrubs) and I will pick up some nice flowers to present to her and her instructors this afternoon on the way to the school. I charged up my phone so I can call Mom and she can hear the program as my daughter plays. We are literally waiting to exhale. The little bird is about to take flight from the nest.

And the April Fool's Day Joke....The Oil Company CEO's will be on Capital Hill and frankly, I don't know who will be made the bigger fool, Congress or the American People. As the Bard once wrote, they are full of "sound and fury, signifying nothing."


Happy hunting and watch out for the bears.

[Demeter]

33. Good Luck to the Diva!

and chocolate and champagne for the mother!

[Karenina]

35. I'm SO THERE with you all, Anne!!!

:loveya:

[AnneD]

42. Thanks ....

for you well wishes, prayers, and kind thoughts.

It has been a nerve wracking week-from custodial dad not paying or making arrangements to extended practices. I will be thankful when it is over and I actually get to enjoy her performance.

[Hugin]

45. Good luck!

I'm sure the recital will be terrific. :thumbsup:

[antigop]

54. Hope it goes well... I am all too familiar with recitals! n/t

[Demeter]

18. Mexico: American-Owned Bank Bombed By ANTONIO BETANCOURT NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/world/americas/01briefs-AMERICANOWNE_BRF.html?ref=world

A homemade bomb destroyed the entrance of a branch of Citigroup’s Mexican subsidiary, Banamex, in southern Mexico City, causing no injuries. No one claimed responsibility, but small guerrilla groups have previously attacked foreign-owned banks.

[kineneb]

87. natives are getting restless...

jungle drums good.
next come the Fed kazoo band.

[Demeter]

88. Natives Are Always Restless

Invasions are like that.

[Demeter]

23. Bush Names 2 Democrats For SEC: Vacancies Were Unfilled for Weeks By Mike Musgrove WAPO

Correction to This Article
This article misstates the terms of two nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission. If their nominations are approved by the Senate, Elisse B. Walter will serve until 2012 and Luis A. Aguilar will serve until 2010. The article also misstated Walter's title at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Walter is a senior executive vice president.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/28/AR2008032803510.html

The Bush administration nominated two Democrats Saturday to fill vacancies on the Securities and Exchange Commission. For several weeks, during a period of market turmoil, only three of the commission's five seats have been filled, all by Republicans. The party of the president is limited to three seats.

The administration nominated Luis A. Aguilar, a partner with the law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge in Atlanta, and Elisse B. Walter, a senior vice president at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a nongovernmental regulator of securities firms.

Aguilar served as a top lawyer at Invesco, an investment company. Early in his career, he worked as an SEC staff lawyer. Some Democrats and shareholder advocates have criticized Aguilar for comments he made casting doubt on the effectiveness of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which was designed to increase corporate accountability and rebuild investor confidence in the wake of corporate scandals such as Enron's.

Walter has held several posts at the SEC, where she worked for over a decade. She is also the former general counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a former chief operating officer at the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) submitted the names to the White House for vetting in November. At the time, the selection process caused tension between these leaders and union officials; one side wanted to give business more freedom and the other lobbied for increased regulation.

Roel C. Campos, a former SEC commissioner who left last year, said it is "a very crucial time" for the agency to have both parties represented. Otherwise, he said, any steps the SEC takes "could appear to the investment community to be politically motivated."

The SEC declined to comment on the two nominees as they have not been confirmed by the Senate.

Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, said the administration hopes the candidates will be confirmed quickly. "As the Senate gets back in session next week, we are hopeful they will promptly make progress on clearing the pipeline of the over 200 nominations pending on the Hill," she said.

If confirmed, Aguilar would fill the position left by Annette L. Nazareth, a term that would last into 2012. Nazareth left the SEC in January to work in private practice. Walter would serve for two years, finishing Campos's term.

WONDER WHO GOT THE JOB OF KICKING THE PRESIDENTIAL ASS?

[Demeter]

25. In Sale to Bank of America, Countrywide Executives to Get $19 Million in Stock AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032901838.html

Countrywide Financial's chief executive and president will receive a combined $19 million in stock next week as part of the company's pending takeover by Bank of America, according to a regulatory filing.

The payments of stock valued at $10 million for chief executive Angelo R. Mozilo and $9 million for President David Sambol were disclosed in a regulatory filing late Thursday by Bank of America.

The payments, described as "performance-based" stock rights and grants, are required by agreements the executives struck with Countrywide less than a year before the subprime meltdown forced the mortgage lender to sell itself, according to the filing.

Some lawmakers were incensed by the payouts.

"It's perverse for Bank of America to reward the principal architects of the bad business practices that caused this housing crisis," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

Mozilo, who is expected to retire after the takeover, previously agreed to give up $36.4 million in cash severance benefits. But after his departure, he will receive company-paid life and health benefits worth $21,084 and medical benefits worth an estimated $85,000.

Bank of America also disclosed in the filing that it would pay Sambol $28 million to stay with the company. The bank wants Sambol to lead its consumer mortgage business when the deal is complete.

Bank of America is in the process of acquiring Calabasas, Calif-based Countrywide for about $4 billion in stock. Bank of America agreed to the acquisition in January, and the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

[Demeter]

28. Sad Anniversary / DailyReckoning.com

On 321gold.com, economist Antal Fekete reminds us that this is the 75th anniversary of the seizure of U.S. gold stocks by the presidential diktat of a certain Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“I remember my grandmother telling me about her sentiments as she was faced with the decision of whether or not to turn in the family gold coins,” Byron King tells us.

“Back in 1933, my grandmother was a young widow raising four children during the depths of the Great Depression. She taught school in Pittsburgh and supplemented her living with private tutoring. She had some of her savings in a local bank, and some of the rest in gold coins that she had accumulated over time. Her ‘gold’ savings added up to about $2,000 – about 50 gold $20 pieces, and various other gold coins of lower denomination – which was a lot of money back then. If something had happened to my grandmother, the gold was all that would keep the children out of some orphanage.

“Within a few days of FDR being inaugurated in March 1933, he issued a Executive Order requiring that all citizens and others subject to the jurisdiction of the United States turn in and redeem their gold coins in exchange for an equivalent value of U.S. currency.

“So my grandmother went to the bank and asked the bank manager what he thought she should do. He became very serious, and pulled out a piece of paper. He started reading to my grandmother the possible penalties that she could suffer if she failed to turn in her gold coins. The penalties included prosecution, fines and even imprisonment. So my grandmother – suitably intimidated – took the gold coins out of hiding, and turned them into the bank. The U.S. government eventually melted down the coins, into what are called ‘gold melt’ bars. The paper currency immediately began its long period of depreciation due to inflation.”

[AnneD]

47. Mom tells me of my...

saintly great grand father having his gold coins seized at the bank. He had worked hard to save and give one to each grandchild as a legacy when they turned 21. The government robbed him and subsequently-us. I come by my mistrust of the Government naturally.

[UpInArms]

29. dollar watch

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=i

Last trade 72.254 Change +0.376 (+0.52%)

Euro Stalls Ahead of Looming US Event Risk

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/topheadline/Euro_Stalls_Ahead_of_Looming_1207022946725.html

For the uptrend to be violated, EURUSD would need to close below 1.5730. As that has not been the case, we see current price action as consolidation rather than a trend change. The current lull looks to owe itself to looming event risk, with ISM Manufacturing data due tomorrow and Nonfarm Payrolls on Friday. As the docket clears, we see a return to upside momentum eyeing a test of the psychologically significant 1.6000.

<snip>

EUR/USD

Strategy: Bullish at 1.5730, Targeting 1.6000

Last week, EURUSD rose from support near 1.5340, a level where an upward-sloping trend line and the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of 1.4439 –1.5900 rally intersect. The ascent was once again capped at 1.5900, last week’s target level. The pair now finds itself range-bound between the highest close of the previous bullish run near 1.5730 and the 1.5900 double top. For the uptrend to be violated, EURUSD would need to close below 1.5730. As that has not been the case, we see current price action as consolidation rather than a trend change. The current lull looks to owe itself to looming event risk, with ISM Manufacturing data due tomorrow and Nonfarm Payrolls on Friday. As the docket clears, we see a return to upside momentum eyeing a test of the psychologically significant 1.6000.



...more...

Does the Federal Reserve Have a Plan B?

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/bio1/Does_the_Federal_Reserve_Have_1206998652985.html

The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates, bailed out a US bank for the very first time since the Depression and announced that they are willing to swap their safe US Treasuries for risky and dubious mortgage backed securities. Despite their efforts however, the US economy is still in trouble and liquidity in the money markets remain a problem, which leads everyone to wonder whether the Federal Reserve has a Plan B. According to the UK Telegraph, the Federal Reserve is “eyeing the Nordic Style Nationalization of US banks” as a temporary solution to the US financial crisis. Between 1991 and 1993, Norway, Sweden and Finland nationalized several institutions and their efforts have been touted as one of the most successful central bank rescues in recent history. Nationalization will not be taken favorably by the currency market, especially when it hits the newswires. Remember when the Bank of England announced that they were nationalizing Northern Rock back in April? The British pound fell 300 pips in 3 days. With interest rates already at 2.25%, how much further could the Federal Reserve cut interest rates? The low point in the past decade has been 1 percent, but the continual rise in the price of consumer staples such as rice, will force the central bank to stop turning a blind eye to inflation. Short of printing money, the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet will limit what they can do. Two weeks ago, the Fed committed to swapping 60% ($420 billion) of its $700 billion balance sheet of safe and secure US Treasuries for risky and dubious mortgage backed securities. These extreme measures indicate one of two things (or both), which is that desperation is forcing the Federal Reserve to become more creative or they are running out of options.
With 2 year US Treasury yields falling to 1.5 percent, the market is still averse to risk and everyone knows that the worst is not behind us. Can the Federal Reserve print money? Yes, they can do whatever they want, but printing money also adds to inflationary pressures. With commodity prices already on the rise, Americans may not be able to handle even higher living costs. This week, Bernanke will be testifying before the Joint Economic Committee and it will be interesting to see if he brings up a Plan B. However before Wednesday, we are expecting the manufacturing ISM report. With Chicago PMI bouncing back, manufacturing ISM could also beat expectations.

...more...

[Demeter]

32. Morning!

Glad you can watch the dollar--I can't bear to!

[UpInArms]

34. g'morning to you Demeter!

the dollar is one of my obsessive/compulsive watches -

:hi:

[Demeter]

94. I Doubt that the Fed Has Even a Plan A

never mind a Plan B.

[Ghost Dog]

115. Euro slips on weak eurozone data

LONDON (AFP) - The European single currency slid against the dollar on Tuesday after weak economic releases in the eurozone, analysts said.

In European trading, the euro sank to 1.5684 dollars from 1.5778 in New York late on Monday.

Against the Japanese currency, the dollar climbed to 100.20 yen from 99.69 on Monday.

"The greenback is finding some support from a number of factors as the new trading month gets underway," said CMC Markets analyst James Hughes on Tuesday.

"There is clearly some confidence coming from plans to monitor US financial markets a litter more closely, but perhaps most significant has been the big drop in German retail sales for February."

German retail sales in February fell by an inflation-adjusted 1.6 percent from January.

Economists had expected a modest rise of about 0.5 percent.

Preliminary data released from the statistics office showed that compared to February 2007, retail sales were up 2.4 percent in nominal terms but off 0.3 percent when adjusted for inflation.

In addition, dealers digested news that manufacturing activity in the 15 nations sharing the euro slowed in March to the lowest level since October, according to final results from a widely watched survey.

The NTC Research's purchasing managers index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector eased to 52.0 points from 52.3 points in February, in line with a provisional estimate.

A figure above the 50-point level indicates a growth in activity, while any below it signifies a contraction.

Economist Howard Archer, at the Global Insight consultancy in London, said that although the eurozone manufacturing sector was holding up, it was struggling against numerous headwinds -- which would eventually prompt the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut interest rates.

"Although it is by no means collapsing overall, manufacturing across the eurozone is clearly being buffeted by the strong euro, elevated oil and commodity prices, muted consumer spending, softer growth in key export markets and tighter credit conditions," Archer said.

/... http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080401/bs_afp/forexeurope_080401110805;_ylt=AmP1wIm.xbw_4NaVimWnNXemOrgF

[Demeter]

30. THE VOYAGES OF THE ECONOMIC ENTERPRISE by The Mogambo Guru

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Writers/MogamboGuru.html

To get a “feel” for how crazy things got, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph reports that “Bear Stearns had total positions of $13.4 trillion. This is greater than the U.S. national income, or equal to a quarter of world GDP – at least in ‘notional terms.’”

If you are like me, you gulped in horror at the revelation that this one bunch of people had made that kind of a huge, humongous, staggering load of un-imaginable, un-payable commitments! More than the total income of everybody in the country! These are huge commitments, sort of like the kind you find out about, but only AFTER you say “I do” and sign the marriage license, which is when you start to find out that “commitments” in marriage entails getting a job and keeping it! No matter how much you hate it! Which you do, because your bosses and co-workers are all idiots (and don’t get me started on the idiocy of the customers!) then you come home after hours and hours of that boring crap with your stupid, pathetic little paycheck in your hand, and at the end of the month you still have no money left over because your wife spent it on the kids and herself, and then one day, prices have risen so high that you run out of money before payday comes around again, and you discover that you have maxed out all your credit cards, and you have borrowed against all your equity in your house, and you have borrowed money from all of your friends, and now you find it was all for nothing and you have wasted your life with the empty promises of “family, friends, faith and community”, and you want your youth back! I was cheated out of my life!

So you can see how big commitments like this are dangerous, but Mr. Evans-Pritchard ignores me and my penetrating, poignant analogy, and says that the problem at Bear Stearns was that through using “‘swaps’, ‘swaptions’, ‘caps,’ collars,’ and ‘floors’”, they were able to float $13.4 trillion of this weird financial derivatives crap, and that “this heady edifice of newfangled instruments was built on an asset base of $80 billion at best.”

$13,400 billion was what was leveraged on a measly $80 billion? Leveraged 167 times? Bear Stearns had less than 1% in the pot? Hahahaha!

COLUMN CONTINUES WITH A BODY SLAM AT GREENSPAN AND AN EXCELLENT STAR TREK METAPHOR (ORIGINAL SERIES, NATCH!) SEE LINK

ONE OF MOGAMBO'S BEST EVER!

[Hugin]

49. You know what this means?

Today's Market Melody is...


Wait for it...



Wait for it...



Wait for it...


"Where No Man Has Gone Before" -- Alexander Goldsmith!

Oooooo... Ooooooooooooooo... Oooooooo... <-- lyrics :)


(*Gold*smith... Oh, geeze, there I go adding yet another heavy metal to this thread. Ozy will be miffed. :eyes: )

Nifty Star Trek gimmies here: http://timstvshowcase.com/startrek.html

[Demeter]

52. Live Long and Prosper, Prag!

"Sadly, I shall do neither. I have killed my captain and my friend" Sob!

Trek---is there any other reality?

[AnneD]

36. One man's mortgage nightmare

The mortgage market meltdown has dealt Jim Halbert a double whammy.

First he lost his job because of it, and now the former mortgage underwriter for defunct Houston-based Aegis is worried he's about to lose his home.

To avoid joining the more than 3,000 Houston-area homeowners who already have lost their homes to foreclosure so far this year, he did what lenders tell strapped borrowers to do: Call them for help to work something out before things get out of hand.

But Halbert, who was also recently diagnosed with leukemia, said his lender told him he couldn't be helped because he was current on all his payments, thanks to his now-depleted savings.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5663899.html

The current 'help' programs that the Bush Admin has developed are a cruel hoax-but you could have guessed that.

[AnneD]

37. Lawsuits question disability claims

The Social Security system is choking on paperwork and spending millions of dollars a year screening dubious applications for disability benefits, according to lawsuits filed by whistle-blowers.

Insurance companies are the source of the problem, the lawsuits say. The insurers are forcing many people who file disability claims with them to also apply to Social Security — even people who clearly do not qualify for the government program.

The Social Security Administration defines "disabled" much more stringently than the insurers generally do, so it rejects most of the applications, at least initially. Often, the insurers then tell their claimants to appeal, the lawsuits say, raising the cost.

The insurers say that requiring a Social Security assessment is a standard practice and that there is nothing wrong with it. The policies they sell allow them to coordinate their benefit payments with others to make sure no one is paid twice. Thus, if a disabled person can get benefits from somewhere else — like workers' compensation, a disability pension or Social Security — the insurance company can reduce the benefit check by that amount.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5663691.html

Gee, wonder if the insurance companies are trying to wriggle out of their obligations by frustrating or intimidating the workers, or is it my imagination? :think:

[burf]

50. The insurance companies

are making money off the deal. When my wife became disabled, she had a policy through work and they told her to file SS. She did and after some appeals and a whole lotta hassles, she was awarded SS. They insurance company (Metlife) to her they were due the SS money. We asked to see a form where she waived her benefits and were told that was the terms of the policy. We went to court and lost. Its covered under ERISA, The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (IIRC) a law that provides for neither retirement nor income security.

[AnneD]

38. Colorado fraud law would be the harshest

DENVER — For 30 years, Lew Ellingson loved being a telephone man.

His job splicing phone cables was one that he says gave him "a true sense of accomplishment," first for Northwestern Bell, then US West and finally Qwest Communications International.

But by the time Ellingson retired from Qwest last year at 52, he had grown angry. An insider-trading scandal had damaged the company's reputation, and the life savings of former colleagues had evaporated in the face of Qwest's stock troubles.

"It was a good place," he said wistfully. "And then something like this happened."

Now, Ellingson is the public face of a proposed ballot measure in Colorado that seeks to create what supporters hope will be the nation's toughest corporate fraud law.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5663661.html

About damn time we have some accountability.:evilgrin:

[AnneD]

39. Mexico's remittances down 2.8 pct

MEXICO CITY — Mexicans living abroad are sending less money to relatives back home.

The Bank of Mexico says remittances totaled $3.4 billion in the first two months of 2008, down 2.8 percent from $3.5 billion in the same period last year.

The bank said Monday on its Web site that it expects little or no growth in remittances this year after they rose 1 percent to a record $23.98 billion in 2007.

Remittances are the country's second-largest source of foreign currency inflows after oil exports.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/5663638.html

This will have a BIG social impact in Mexico. This has been the trend as of late.

[DemReadingDU]

40. Dr. Greenspan's Amazing Invisible Thesis

3/31/08 Dr. Greenspan's Amazing Invisible Thesis By JIM MCTAGUE

IN ALL LIKELIHOOD, ALAN GREENSPAN has more honorary Ph.D.s than any living economist, which is no mean feat -- regardless of the chortling chorus of critics who suggest he played midwife to the first great economic crisis of the 21st century and thus is overly lionized as a financial genius. He has honorary degrees enough to fill a fair-sized wall, including parchment from Yale, Harvard, Notre Dame, Colgate, Wake Forest, Pennsylvania, Edinburgh (Scotland). The Doctor-Doctor also received an honorary knighthood in 2002 at Balmoral from Queen Elizabeth II. Sorry to say, this accolade did not come with a suit of armor.

Greenspan, who left the Fed in 2006 but is still consulted as a genius, might find a metallic exoskeleton exceptionally comforting come May, when the University of Texas Press publishes an unflattering book by Robert Auerbach entitled Deception and Abuse at the Fed: Henry B. Gonzalez Battles Alan Greenspan's Bank.

Auerbach, a veteran Fed basher, portrays Greenspan as a real-life Professor Marvel -- who, through double-talk or "garblement," transformed himself into a mighty economic wizard à la Oz. Auerbach strongly implies that Greenspan's 1977 Ph.D. from New York University was obtained in a few months with little more rigor than a matchbook-cover art degree and that Greenspan has kept his Ph.D. thesis secret in order to protect his vaunted academic reputation.

Although Auerbach's evidence is circumstantial, it certainly is provocative. For years, NYU told the public that, at Greenspan's request, the thesis was locked away from public view in a vault at its Bobst Library. Auerbach himself was told this in January 2004 when he tried to obtain a copy.

"Normally," writes Auerbach, "a Ph.D. dissertation in a field such as economics must be in a form sophisticated enough to be usable in research, must make a contribution to the existing body of knowledge, and must be original, unpublished work. When approved, the Ph.D. candidate is normally required to supply a bound copy of the dissertation, which remains in the university's library and is available for future researchers to consult."


Unlike Greenspan, Auerbach writes: "No one should be given the immense powers bestowed on the Board of Governors and the FOMC without having his or her credentials publicly examined."

If only Greenspan's thesis were available to examine.

more...
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB120675340444773623.html?mod=b_hpp_9_0002_b_this_weeks_magazine_home_right

[AnneD]

41. Pa. Truckers Protest Fuel Prices

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Scores of truckers took to the highways and streets around the Capitol on Monday and blasted their horns to protest rising fuel prices.

As the protest convoy circled the block, about 100 people gathered on the Capitol steps to urge state lawmakers and Gov. Ed Rendell to eliminate Pennsylvania's highest-in-the-nation diesel fuel tax of 38.1 cents per gallon.

Consumers also pay state taxes of 32.3 cents per gallon on gasoline, 11th highest in the nation.

"All the state taxes and the federal tax must come off of fuel," said Mark Kirsch, an independent truck driver from Myerstown who organized the protest. "We're going to take our country back."

Truckers around the country have been talking about a protest or strike as high diesel prices and low freight rates have pushed an increasing number of truckers into bankruptcy. Reposessor Nassau Asset Management repossessed 110 percent more trucks in 2007 than it did in 2006, according to president Edward Castagna.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5662233.html

Coming from a trucker family-this has legs. Enough truckers are pissed off between the fuel prices and NAFTA truckers. Last time we had this was in the 70's and I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again.

[Wednesdays]

95. Sure, let's see what happens when they eliminate gas taxes

There won't be any roads or bridges left for the truckers to drive on.

Never mind that the oil companies get more than $2.75 per gallon, feeding their multi-billion dollar profits. No...lookie over there at that shiny thing...the 32 cent tax. Yeah...the high prices are all the librul govmint's fault! :spank:

[AnneD]

97. I think they are barking up the wrong tree.....

I think we should eliminate the tax credits fot oil companies and sell oil leases for their true value not the gimme rates.

[DemReadingDU]

44. Krugman: Is Iceland the victim of a financial conspiracy?

March 31, 2008, 10:03 am
The North Atlantic conspiracy
Is Iceland the victim of a financial conspiracy?

Such things really do happen. During the 1997-1998 financial crisis there was, almost certainly, a financial conspiracy against Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, several major hedge funds engaged in a “double play”, shorting both the city-state’s stock market and its currency. The alleged plan was to put the HKMA in a double bind: it would be forced either to raise interest rates to defend the Hong Kong dollar — driving stocks down — or to devalue the currency. Either way the hedge funds thought they’d make a killing. They were, however, caught in a bear trap when the HKMA did the unexpected and bought up a large fraction of the HK stock market.

There was also, according to Australian officials I talked to at the time, a deliberate effort to drive down the Aussie dollar.

Now, Iceland is making similar allegations:

The cost to protect the bonds of Iceland’s three biggest lenders from default rose after central bank Governor David Oddsson said “unscrupulous dealers'’ are trying to break the country’s financial system.
…
Oddsson called for an international investigation into attempts to drive Iceland’s economy “to its knees,'’ in a speech on March 28. The central bank was forced to raise its benchmark rate to a record 15 percent last week to defend the krona after a 30 percent slump against the euro this year.
…
Attacks on the country’s Reykjavik-based banks “give off an unpleasant odor of unscrupulous dealers who have decided to make a last stab at breaking down the Icelandic financial system,'’ Oddsson said at the central bank’s annual meeting in Reykjavik. “They will not get away with it.'’
One interesting point: it appears that the Icelandic authorities particularly suspect Bear Stearns.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/the-north-atlantic-conspiracy/


3/31/08 Iceland Bank Default Swaps Rise Amid `Unscrupulous' Speculating
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aR1Zh_j.F83M&refer=home

[Demeter]

48. One Might Think That the US Dollar Was The Next Target

but that would be crazy, wouldn't it? :tinfoilhat:

[Zynx]

53. It has been already to some extent. It is harder to manipulate though because its market is so much

larger than Iceland or Hong Kong.

[Demeter]

55. So Alternatively, Just Smash the Whole Economy to Bits?

Some game plan.

[Hugin]

57. Congrats!

Demeter... In case you weren't watching, this was your 16,000th post at DU! :party:

[Demeter]

58. No!

I'm going to lie down now....I feel a little faint.

[Zynx]

56. Commodities Tumble as U.S. Recession Risk Weighs on Oil, Copper

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aP_SR6uSyZHo&refer=home

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Commodities including oil and copper fell for a third day as mounting concerns over the U.S. economy lead the second rout in raw materials prices in less than a month.

Manufacturing in the U.S. probably contracted last month at the fastest pace in almost five years, economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast before an Institute for Supply Management report today. UBS AG and Deutsche Bank AG together announced $22.9 billion in writedowns as contagion from the collapse of the subprime loans market spreads to European banks.

<snip>

This is the biggest "no shit" analysis I have ever seen. The idea the commodities bull market could survive a full fledged U.S. recession is fantasy.

[Demeter]

60. It's The Copper Plumbing From Vacant Houses

Midnight Recyclers glutting the market....

[Zynx]

62. Considering the housing boom drove copper to a great extent, I think this is expected.

[Hugin]

64. Of the commodities...

I would expect Gold to return to a normal growth curve soon. So, this is a buying opportunity for those so
inclined. Also, there was a report yesterday Indian Investors are currently going light on gold. There seems
to be a supply.

But, Oil is going to stay high because it's being used as a 'hedge' and I'm worried about the staple foods as well.
This is a fiscal environment which is ripe for 'gouging' and even with all of the babbling about regulation yesterday...

Recent events in reality lead me to believe we're in a "Buyer Beware" Zeitgeist and those who control just about everything,
Like It That Way!

[Zynx]

67. Gold has been above a normal growth curve for two years.

Also, gold doesn't really work that way:

[BadgerLaw2010]

92. Gold does not have a normal growth curve.

At least not one on a meaningful time scale. This is the asset that did less than nothing for a quarter-century between the last spike and the current spike.

$500 an ounce in 1981, $500 an ounce in 2006, and if you bought in 1981, you had lost money even in absolute terms as of 2005.

Compare that to stocks, bonds or normal real estate.

[abelenkpe]

61. I give up

Is it just a big april fools prank? Why would the dollar and markets go up while businesses are busy writing down 4 and 19 billion dollars and advertising the fact that they need to go begging for funds in order to shore up their balance sheets? Am I missing the joke here or something?

[RantinRavin]

65. All the markets are connected

Right now you are seeing a massive drop in the commodities markets. People invested in those are pulling their money out and need some palce to put it. Right now they are buying dollars and equities, this is causing a rise in those values.

The markets are no longer being driven by fundamentals of what is happening now, but by hedge bets against what may happen.

[Zynx]

69. The 30-60% rise in commodities in the space of less than a year was hardly driven

by "fundamentals" either. There are fundamentals there to be sure, but not to justify those run ups.

[RantinRavin]

73. My point exactly

In the 90's the big "in" thing was Tech, especially the dot com craze. When that went bust in late 2000 through 2001 investors needed someplace else to place their bets. That's when the commodities markets took off. I believe you are going to see that bust in the next year or so, and investors will need another "in" thing to drive up prices to see their insane profits.

[Timefortruth]

74. But buying dollars doesn't make sense either

since the fed is printing them at such an alarming rate. It seems absurd to invest in most stocks with the recession looming, the very best one can hope for there is that inflation keeps stocks stable. But the herd moves.


So the answer is that every market will cycle through bubbles now and it is impossible for an investor to know which is the next bubble?

[Zynx]

78. Stocks anticipate recessions in advance. They usually bottom out half way through them.

[Timefortruth]

80. This recession hasn't started

You suggest it's almost over?

[Zynx]

84. No, but the largest stock market declines usually hit before they even start.

Also, I think this recession probably has started and we are just waiting for the data to confirm it. We have never had such terrible retail sales absent of a recession.

Additionally, certain areas of the market, such as consumer staples do very well during recessions. I remember my Procter and Gamble during the last one.

[slipslidingaway]

93. Agree and that is why we need to separate the economic news

and numbers from market movements.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x37175

"...Although we've detailed so many of the now current reasons why in discussions over the recent past, a standout anecdote is the fact that the LEI (leading economic indicators) report for February that hit the Street a few weeks back has now shown us a consistent five straight months of decline. We'll spare you an exhaustive look at historical precedent when we tell you that the LEI of the last half year is completely consistent with initial recessionary periods past. In essence, it's corroborating the fact that recession has already arrived, although "officially" that fact will be revealed some time in the future when its usefulness as a piece of factual investment information will be essentially useless. By the way, if the LEI deteriorates meaningfully further from here in the coming months ahead, it will be suggesting a severe or lengthy recession to come, as opposed to the mild recession we believe the consensus is expecting (if any recession at all) and the LEI suggests for now..."

[Hugin]

83. My thoughts exactly. n/t

[Hugin]

66. No, no joke...

It's a tragedy if you ask me. ;(

[Zynx]

68. Currency markets have been very volatile for some time.

The issue is that the dollar may have reached a point where it is undervalued.

[Timefortruth]

76. How can the dollar be undervalued

when the government issues it without regard to underlying value?

This is very confusing.

[Zynx]

77. Oh, there are reasons for it to drop, the issue is that it may have declined too far.

[Timefortruth]

82. But how is that possible?

The government is borrowing and infusing dollars at an increasing rate. The policies which caused the drop are accelerating, not retracting. There is no increased underlying value, in fact the opposite.

[Zynx]

85. Let me explain it to you in the following way with a stock example:

Let's say a company is trading at $100 a share. Its earnings per share is at $10. A recession hits and its earnings are projected to fall to $9 a share. The stock declines to $90. The recession deepens, fear sets in, uncertainty reigns and the estimates of earnings drop to $7 a share, an even steeper reduction. Because people see the earnings numbers coming down at a faster rate, they don't know where estimates will bottom out and instead of taking it to $70 as would be justified, they push the stock down to $40 a share, far below its fair value.

This sort of thing happens in all markets. In the case of the dollar, the ECB and BOJ have been printing plenty of money of their own and there is a lot of speculation that the banking situation in Europe is about to worsen as the English and Spanish property bubbles unwind. Such a situation would make the dollar comparatively more attractive.

[fedsron2us]

134. Maybe but the UK property market is not EURO based

and neither Spain nor Ireland which have the most extreme Eurozone property bubble are not core EURO economies. Germany which is the mainstay of the European currency has seen hardly any real estate inflation at all.

[Roland99]

63. Here is an interesting (albeit off-topic) news bit...

In a bid to save both the teams and the taxpayers money, the New York Mets and the New York Yankees have agreed to a stadium-swap deal instead of building all-new stadiums. The move is designed to keep the landmarks (Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium) actively in-use to preserve not only their own historic nature but the essence of baseball, itself.

Groups of fans from both teams have become more than upset at the thought of playing "home" games in "enemy" territory but many others welcome the chance to savor more seasons in the classic arenas.

[specimenfred1984]

98. WEEEE, 2 corrupt banks only lost $20 billion last quarter, ain't it great?

What a huge buying opportunity to invest in horrible frauds, WEEEEEE! Let's all dump the mountains of gold we've accumulated and buy criminally manipulated stocks!

Everything is so wonderful!

BARF, PUKE, SPEW...

[Demeter]

99. Somebody (Besides Me) Must Be Out of Their Minds

What is driving the Dow up 330 points?!!

[Demeter]

101. Banks boost Wall Street as credit fears ease By Kevin Plumberg

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080401/bs_nm/markets_stocks_dc_28;_ylt=Aii5YHBgwxH_VBxV4zDMcKqb.HQA

Stocks rallied on Tuesday, buoyed by bank stocks, which surged on strong demand for a Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.N) share offering and a huge UBS writedown that signaled the worst was behind it.

Shares of Lehman jumped 11 percent on Tuesday after the bank said it raised $4 billion of capital after an offering of convertible preferred shares, bolstering its balance sheet and erasing fears that it was facing the same predicament as Bear Stearns (BSC.N), which nearly collapsed two weeks ago.

The financial sector also benefited from news that Swiss investment bank UBS AG (UBSN.VX) wrote down an additional $19 billion on U.S. real estate and related assets, in addition to unveiling a massive increase in capital. U.S.-listed shares of UBS (UBS.N) surged 12.5 percent to $32.42 on speculation that the bank was wiping its slate clean.

"We're moving away from the credit crisis storm. It's dying down," said David Kelly, chief market strategist with JPMorgan Funds Management. "Now we just have whatever bad economic weather there is. That is much safer territory for Wall Street."


"Financials are cheap right now, and if investors can get comfortable that they are near or at a bottom, they can start putting money to work in the sector." said Mark Schlarbaum, a trader at Global Capital Management in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

JPMorgan's Kelly added that the stock market's rally also was being driven by investors' relief that liquidity issues did not cause another Bear Stearns-style meltdown before the quarter end.

Widespread uncertainty in stock markets around the world led global equity and equity-related underwriting volume in the first quarter of 2008 to fall to $100.6 billion, the lowest level since the first quarter of 2003, according to Thomson Financial data.

Beside the banking sector, semiconductors gave the market more fuel for gains on Tuesday. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange semiconductor index (.SOXX) was up 3.8 percent. Among the best-performing shares were SanDisk Corp's (SNDK.O) stock, up nearly 10 percent at $24.75 on the Nasdaq.

[Hugin]

105. Likely story... Uh huh... Yeah right...

In lieu of reality. :eyes:

[Ghost Dog]

116. UBS, Deutsche losses mount, but bank fog clearing

LONDON (Reuters) - UBS and Deutsche Bank took a $23 billion hit on their risky assets and the Swiss bank asked investors for more cash on Tuesday, but Europe's bank shares rallied on hopes that the end of another torrid quarter could mark a turning point.

UBS (UBSN.VX) unveiled a $19 billion writedown to double its losses on the value of toxic assets and became the hardest hit bank from the U.S. subprime crisis and subsequent credit crunch. It also parted company with its chairman and said it will hive off ailing businesses into a separate unit.

"The one saving grace in this is that banks are acting quickly to highlight their exposure," said Peter Dixon, economist at Commerzbank. "The quicker the bad news is out in the open, then the quicker we can start to repair the problems."

"The Japanese crisis of the early 1990s was exacerbated by the failure of banks to admit the degree of their problems," he noted.

News that UBS is seeking to raise 15 billion francs ($15 billion) through a rights issue in a second emergency attempt to shore up its balance sheet was not a surprise, but the scale of the capital-raising was more dramatic than many expected.

Its shares leapt 11 percent as some viewed the bold move as more positive than smaller, regular writedowns, which one analyst had said could result in "death by a thousand cuts."

"It's a kitchen sink job. They've separated all their toxic waste. If they're going to finance that, then everyone is saying this is the beginning of the end, this is the last capital increase," one trader said.

By 1325 GMT the DJ Stoxx European banking sector index (.SX7P) was up 4.6percent at 359 points, its highest level for a month and 16 percent above its 3-1/2 year low two weeks ago.

Britain's Barclays (BARC.L) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), Italy's Unicredit (CRDI.MI) and France's Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) all jumped over 6 percent.

"It's too early to say we're definitely through the worst of this, but it would appear from the market's reaction today to what UBS has done, and from recent interest in buying distressed assets, that maybe we can at least start to see the end of the apparent freefall in certain asset values," said Leigh Goodwin, bank analyst at Fox-Pitt, Kelton.

...

"More significant (than UBS) is the anticipation that Paulson is going to lead a global concerted effort to free up the credit crunch," said Simon Maughan, analyst at MF Global.

"For a long time we've been worried about moral hazard ... we're now past that point, what we're trying to do now is save the banking system, and the price that banks will pay is tougher regulation going forward."

A banking conference in London hosted by Morgan Stanley attended by top executives and investors had also helped to lift the mood, analysts said.

/... http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080401/bs_nm/banks_europe_dc;_ylt=Aml70p1qH4sGIxl1ONETfh6573QA

[Zynx]

119. Many of these financial stocks have gotten pummeled in the past on nothing but rumors

and speculation. I remember when State Street's stock last year dropped from $70 a share to $60 on fears of insolvency, but those turned out not to be true and it went from $60 to its current $84. Speculation cuts both ways.

[Hugin]

104. I've dubbed this the "Gomez Addams" Effect...

I don't know if you ever saw the '60s TeeVee series, but, like Morticia would cut the blooms off of roses and then
place the thorny stems tastefully arranged in a vase. Gomez was the same way about Stocks and Investments. Seems
to be the way the market works these days.

[Demeter]

106. Love It!

and as the man said, it's a nice way to start the second quarter. Especially when the first was such a bust.

The theme from Addams Family would make a nice selection. We could all snap fingers together.

[Hugin]

108. I'll put it in the Queue for Tomorrow...

Although, today being April Fewls day might be a better choice and then do a rerun of the Star Trek theme tomorrow.

[cosmicdot]

125. they really are a screa-um

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL_9zdu4iVw 1:00
(including Crest toothpaste advert)

sing and snap along ...

They're creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They're all together ooky,
The Addams Family.

Their house is a museum
Where people come to see 'em
They really are a scream
The Addams Family.

(Neat)
(Sweet)
(Petite)

So get a witches shawl on
A broomstick you can crawl on
We're gonna pay a call on
The Addams Family.

[Hugin]

126. Thanks for digging that up, cosmicdot.

Uh, well... I could've phrased that differently. :rofl:

[Demeter]

127. You Are Shameless! My Thanks Too, Cosmic Dot

I've bookmarked it for future nostalgia.

[wordpix]

112. think this would make a great cartoon for tomorrow's Stock Market board

Morticia arranging the thorns with "US debt," "subprime mortgages," "housing market," "bank writeoffs..." etc. written on each thorn. pRes Monkeyman looking over her shoulder saying something like, "That certainly is a productive bush out there."

[wordpix]

110. "What is driving the Dow up 330 points?!!" Could it be the $9.2 trillion US debt?

THAT is something the bushies and their pals on Wall St. do NOT like to mention.

Neither does the MSM.

[Hugin]

113. Are you sitting down?

It's closer to $9.4 Trillion now. :o



http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

[Zynx]

120. The Federal Government is not directly purchasing stocks. That is fantasy.

Our debt has been accumulated far more stupidly than that.

[Zynx]

118. There's a feeling capital concerns at financial companies are easing.

It's the inverse of what sent them plunging in the first place. It's speculation both ways.

[specimenfred1984]

122. That's the propaganda, thanks for repeating it

Who is speculating is the real question? The big banks/investment firms/insurance/real estate/derivative/frauds is who. Who should be regulated and not allowed to "speculate" on the level(s) they did today and in the past to prevent massive fraud? They should be. This is NOT speculation by innocent little gamblers with a few extra bucks to play with, this is widespread fraud, propaganda, embezzlement, conspiracy and corruption.

Americans had a trust in our financial system, a belief that a person could invest in what they were being told they were investing in, but not anymore. The "speculation" today was market manipulation by huge fascist firms who do now follow any laws and could care less about the United States 1 day from now, much less a year or 10 years from now. Dismissing an entire system of corruption as "speculators" is the same type of dismissal of torture and war crimes as "a lapse in judgment".

This is an entire system of fascism.

[Hugin]

123. Well said, specimenfred1984.

Putting people back to sleep with pretty talk is only at best a short term solution and as we're seeing
the short term solutions are only getting shorter and the whammy at the ultimate end is getting larger
and more severe.

But, these short term thinkers can't quite see that and/or they just don't care. What's it to them?

It's like the saying about Breakfast... "The Chickens are 'Involved', but, The Pigs are 'Committed'."

Unfortunately, the people pulling the strings are the Chickens and guess who is the Pigs.

They're just trying to finish the term and then they're out of Dodge. What I find amazing is that McCain
doesn't get is that he's being set up just like the rest of them. Is he oblivious? senile? what?

[Demeter]

128. The Betting Is Senile, and Reports Are already Leaking Out

unlike St. Ronnie, who got the royal coverup for nearly all 8 years.

[Zynx]

124. I never said the speculators were insignificant. They have been driving the market both ways.

Thanks for calling me a fascist sympathizer, though.

[Demeter]

102. Ford says U.S. sales fell 14 percent in March

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080401/bs_nm/ford_sales_dc_2;_ylt=AmxVt.bpDgkeSg9LIEvw61ib.HQA


Ford Motor Co (F.N) said on Tuesday its U.S. sales fell 14 percent in March as weaker sales of trucks and sport-utility vehicles more than offset gains for its new vehicles, such as the Edge crossover.

Sales of light trucks were down 16.7 percent from a year earlier, while car sales were down 9.6 percent.

The automaker said its retail sales were down 17 percent, while sales to fleet customers, including car rental agencies, were down 13 percent.

Sales of Ford's market-leading F-Series pickup trucks were down almost 24 percent. Overall, Ford sold 227,143 vehicles compared with 264,975 a year earlier.

The results were broadly in line with the expectations of industry analysts, who had forecast weak sales results across the industry in March due to the ongoing housing slump, tighter credit and more cautious consumer sentiment.

Ford was the first of the six major automakers to report monthly sales results for the U.S. market, the world's largest.

Ford shares were up over 2 percent at $5.85 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

[wordpix]

111. just keep those big 12 mpg trucks coming, Ford, and see how low you can go

[JNelson6563]

117. Hooray!

Things are great and foreign investors plan to keep buying large quantities of our Treasury Notes foreeeeeeeverrrrrrrrr!!!! I'm giddy!!!!!!

*sigh*

Julie

[Demeter]

129. Maybe Not You, Julie, But Somebody Obviously Is

400 points--that's some April Fool's Joke!

[DemReadingDU]

131. I wonder if there is another bank about to go under?

Remember a few weeks ago when the market shot up, and 3 days later, Bear Stearns was close to being bankrupt? When the market rockets to the moon, I'm thinking that the big investors want to get out their money before the stock plummets again.