STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday June 7

[ozymandius]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday June 7, 2010

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON June 4, 2010

Dow... 9,931.97 -323.31 (-3.26%)
Nasdaq... 2,219.17 -83.86 (-3.78%)
S&P 500... 1,064.88 -37.95 (-3.56%)
Gold future... 1,218 +0.40 (+0.03%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.17 -0.04 (-1.09%)
30-Year Bond 4.10 -0.03 (-0.80%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren

Bush Administration Officials Charged = 1
Name(s): Richard Lopez Razo

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 11

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This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.

Read more: du

[ozymandius]

1. Today's Report

15:00 Consumer Credit Apr
Briefing.com -$2.0B
Consensus-$2.0B
Prior $2.0B

http://www.briefing.com/Investor/Public/Calendars/EconomicCalendar.htm

[ozymandius]

2. Oil extends losses to near $70 as stocks sink

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell to near $70 a barrel Monday in Asia, extending losses as regional stock markets sold-off amid fears Europe debt crisis is spreading.

Benchmark crude for July delivery was down $1.06 to $70.45 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time after falling to as low as $69.51 earlier in the session in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $3.10 to settle at $71.51 on Friday.

Weak U.S. employment data for May and fresh fears that Hungary must slash government spending to avoid a debt default have undermined confidence in global economic growth and oil demand.

In other Nymex trading in July contracts, heating oil fell 1.32 cents to $1.9445 a gallon and gasoline dropped 1.33 cents to $1.9820 a gallon. Natural gas was down 3.5 cents at $4.762 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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

[ozymandius]

3. Hungary eyes budget cuts, market says signals mixed

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary's government vowed to cut spending on Monday as it strove to repair damage from comments last week about a possible Greece-style debt crisis, but a renewed pledge of tax cuts kept markets on edge.

Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said the country's new center-right Fidesz government, which took office on May 29, would stick to the budget deficit target of 3.8 percent and would need to cut spending worth 1.0-1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to do so.

But he later said the government could introduce a flat personal income tax for families, lower than current rates, which would be hard to square with commitments agreed under a 2008 bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Citing unnamed sources, online news portal Index reported the government was considering levying a special tax on banks and channeling private pension funds to the state system as a way to boost revenues and hit its budget deficit goal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100607/bs_nm/us_hungary_economy

[ozymandius]

4. Slowdown looming but no double dip

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The global economy looks likely to avoid a relapse into recession, although the next six months may be anemic, with three main causes for concern.
Fears of Europe's festering debt troubles refuse to subside. Friday's U.S. employment data was a disappointment. And China's red-hot economy may be cooling a bit.

These all point to a looming economic slowdown, but it would probably take something more serious to trigger another all-out global slump.

Policy mistakes would include raising interest rates or slashing government spending too soon. The European Central Bank and Bank of England both hold policy-setting meetings on Thursday and are widely expected to hold short-term borrowing costs steady at record lows.

For those fearful the U.S. economy is backsliding, Friday's employment report was downright frightful. The private sector managed to generate just 41,000 jobs in May, far short of the 190,000 that economists had expected.

Ironically, the weak state of the labor market may help keep the U.S. economy out of another recession. Because companies have been reluctant to rehire or expand despite a growing economy, they have little need for further cutbacks even if demand falters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100606/bs_nm/us_economy_weekahead_outlook

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I do not agree with the last paragraph. A recession is measured through comparative analysis with previous quarters. Faltering demand in any sector creates its own feedback loop into the greater economy. It is a virtual guarantee that in the next quarter we will not see auto, housing and retail data as we have seen previously.

[ozymandius]

30. Double Dip — Or Just a Soft Patch ?

Ritholtz says "soft patch", unless deficit hawks get their way:

Our story so far: Economists as a group, completely missed the oncoming credit crisis, recession, and market collapse. In the beginning of 2009, they did not discern the economic revival. They sure as hell missed the March 2009 market bottom and forthcoming 78% rally.

Now, with Q2 of 2010 coming to a close, many have begun chattering about a double dip recession. A Google search for double dip recession generates 3,470 recent news items.

While I suggest you ignore those forecasters who — repeatedly — got it wrong, let’s at least look at the data to see what has the dismal crowd all hot and bothered.

The key factor regarding all of this slowing data is that it is suggestive of an economy that will continue to expand, albeit at a slower pace. None of this data is highly aberrational, and none of it is consistent with past double dip recessions.

Indeed, even Capex and employment plans for the upcoming year show a potential upswing. ISI reports that their mid-year survey of CFOs shows the percentage of companies planning to boost their capex & hiring in 2010 has increased markedly. This would be heading in the opposite direction if we were on the verge of a double dip recession.

Ironically, it is the new breed of Deficit Hawks are the ones pushing for a double dip recession. After decades of profligacy, they now seem to want fiscal austerity in the United States — just when the economy is most vulnerable. They apparently have failed to learn the lessons of 1929-33 and 1937-38.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/06/double-dip-or-just-a-soft-patch/

[fasttense]

44. Seems to me most people agree we are going into another global

economic slow down. They seem to be only arguing about the severity of the slow down.

It's like the old joke where some rich politician ask a wealthy donor if she would sleep with him for a million dollars and she blushes and coyly smiles. Then when he asks her to sleep with him for $10 she gets insulted and asks "What kind of woman do you think I am?" The politician answers "We've established what you are madame, now we're merely bickering over price."

[TalkingDog]

75. Soft Patch?

You mean like this:




Technically, they are soft patches....thousands and thousands of oily soft patches.

[tclambert]

5. Re: Cartoon--BP reportedly just called MacGyver.

Or was it MacGruber? At any rate, expect stock prices to soar for duct tape, chewing gum, and paper clip manufacturers.

[ozymandius]

8. Hee Haw!

Like a sucker - I put my entire nest egg in rubber bands. Dang!

[AnneD]

13. Ozy.....

I am sure your investments will snap back.

[girl gone mad]

17. In the meantime..

his budget will be stretched.

[Demeter]

20. Would You All Show Some Consideration Here?

First of all, it's Monday. Second of all, I was up until midnight defrosting the freezer, since the Kid neglected to shut the door and in this humidity it froze into a solid block of ice...and it's a mere 52F--more like the UP than Ann Arbor this morning. And the flooding isn't going to go down any time soon.

I feel hung over, without the benefit of drinking. Not to mention blurry. Not in the shape for humor.

Friday's performance was one for the records. Doesn't look like anyone even tried to slow the drop.

And as for gas, it went up a dime this weekend, for no discernible reason.

Disaster was the right theme for this weekend.

[DemReadingDU]

23. our gas went up over 30 cents

last week $2.34, now $2.65, and some stations, $2.69

:(

[hamerfan]

25. Gas dropped here

A nickel/gallon drop, but being WA state, it's still way high. Regular unleaded is $3.07/gallon. $2.85 at Costco.

[Juneboarder]

88. We're about the same...

Down here in San Diego. Although, it went from about $2.99 to $3.09 over the weekend for me...

[tclambert]

109. Could be worse, D. Did you hear the news from Dundee, about 12 miles south of you

down US-23? Tornadoes smashed houses and a high school. Even worse in Ohio.

[Demeter]

111. Yeah, My Buddy in Tecumseh Told Me It Was Bad

It's going to be that kind of summer--all downhill from here.

[ozymandius]

67. Har!

That's a stretch!

[DemReadingDU]

18. LOL

MacGyver always had great innovations, get him on this gushing oil to stop the flow soon!

[AnneD]

93. He could fix the BP spill with...

a paper clip, a mirror, and a handful of Ozy's rubber bands.

[Hugin]

82. Fer cryin' out loud!

CALL OPRAH! DO IT NOW!

[ozymandius]

6. Growing ranks of long-term jobless face tough odds

WASHINGTON – If you lose your job these days, it's worth scrambling to find a new one — fast. After six months of unemployment, your chances of landing work dwindle.

The proportion of people jobless for six months or more has accelerated in the past year and now makes up 46 percent of the unemployed. That's the highest percentage on records dating to 1948. By late summer or early fall, they are expected to make up half of all jobless Americans.

Economists say those out of work for six months or more risk becoming less and less employable. Their skills can erode, their confidence falter, their contacts dry up. Their growing ranks also will keep pressure on Congress to keep extending jobless benefits, which now run for up to 99 weeks.

What's causing the rising ranks of the long-term jobless to exceed the pace of other recessions?
Mainly, it's the depth and duration of the job-slashing this time. Since the recession began in December 2007 through May this year, a net 7.4 million jobs have vanished. The unemployment rate has surged nearly 5 percentage points: From 5 percent in December 2007 to 9.7 percent in May.

Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, points to the "sheer scale of the falloff in demand for workers" this time. It's left more people out of work for longer stretches. And it's intensified competition for each opening.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100605/ap_on_bi_ge/us_long_term_unemployed

[Lochloosa]

7. Locking.

:evilgrin:

[ozymandius]

9. That was just mean.

:rofl:

[Lochloosa]

10. Blood Pressure go up a few points?

:7

[ozymandius]

11. for a moment

Then I relaxed when I did not see a shadowy figure by your name.

[AnneD]

14. Now now children....

play nice.
Good April Fool's Day joke though. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Roland99]

15. *snort*

;)

[ozymandius]

12. World stocks hit by fears over US jobs, Hungary

PARIS – World stock markets tumbled Monday and the euro hit a new four-year low in the wake of poor U.S. jobs figures and amid fresh fears that the debt crisis that began in Greece is spreading to Hungary.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 1.2 percent at 5,066.77 while Germany's DAX slipped 0.8 percent to 5,889.71. The CAC-40 fell 1.3 percent to 3,410.93.

The selling was sparked in Asia earlier Monday on fears that Europe's debt problems could spread after a Hungarian official said last week that the nation was at risk of a Greek-style fiscal crisis. The government met over the weekend and distanced itself from the comments.

Asian indexes closed sharply lower Monday: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock plunged 380.39 points, or 3.8 percent, to 9,520.80, with investors cautious before Japan's new leader, Naoto Kan, forms his Cabinet on Tuesday.

South Korea's Kospi lost 1.6 percent to 1,637.97 while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 2.8 percent at 4,325.9. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 2 percent to 19,378.15. Benchmarks in mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan also slid.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100607/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

[ozymandius]

69. The Other Scary Jobs Chart: The Mass Exodus From The Workforce

Friday's jobs report was pretty rough, but actually the unemployment rate dipped to 9.7%. That's because, despite the lack of private sector hiring, a large swath of jobseekers decided to, for whatever reason, quit the workforce.

As Annaly Capital Management (via PragCap) notes, the civilian labor force fell by 322,000 May.

The spike up in the total flow from those "unemployed" to "not in the labor force" follow what looked like a couple of months worth of the reverse: people moving on net from not in the labor force to the unemployed, looking segment.

What it looks like is that a lot of frustrated workers were sold on the idea that there was some kind of recovery underway, and then realized they'd been lied to.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-other-scary-jobs-chart-the-mass-exodus-from-the-workforce-2010-6#ixzz0qAoOfreq

[Roland99]

16. Index Futures: Recovering 10K today?

S&P 500 1,069 +2.60 +0.24%
DOW 9,955 +9.00 +0.09%
NASDAQ 1,841 +6.25 +0.34%


as I recover from some mild sunburn....

[DemReadingDU]

19. MAAG

Mondays are always green!

:)

[Demeter]

21. It's odd that gold is falling

Either someone needs cash, or speculators are being squeezed out.

[DemReadingDU]

22. Maybe both!

[Po_d Mainiac]

43. a 2% drop off the high is not exactly falling off a cliff

shy of a couple weeks in May where it hit the $1240 range, Au is still in the range of the high's hit in Dec. 09

15Jan09/$810 per toz
28Dec09/$1070 per toz
09Apr10/$1160 per toz
^Today $1214 per toz

Also keep in mind that this is Ponzi (etf/paper) metal. The hard stuff is selling at 15% +/- spot/melt in the US and (last week) upwards of $1700(U$D) in Fra and Ger.

[Demeter]

49. Good PointIt's hard to know what a real price is, with all this phony paper stuff

I will check the spot prices from now on.

[Po_d Mainiac]

103. Now a mere 0.6% off the high

positioned long on PM's and so short on the /ES, I need a ladder to reach the ground .....This was a good day.

[ozymandius]

24. BP after the spill: Bankrupt, bought, or business as usual?

FORTUNE -- Despite some progress over the weekend to slow the flow of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP is still struggling to find a meaningful bright spot since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded more than a month ago. The London-based oil and gas producer recently announced it won't be until possibly August before crews can permanently stop what has become the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

The event has all the makings of a corporate nightmare: BP (BP) shares have plummeted. Lawsuits have already emerged. The U.S. government has launched criminal and civil investigations into the Gulf Coast oil spill. Its credit ratings have been cut. And the reputation that BP built as being an eco-friendly oil company has been severely tarnished, if not destroyed.

• Faced with mounting expenses, it's certainly possible that BP may cut payments to shareholders.

• BP's shares have fallen about 40% since the start of the disaster. With such a dramatic drop in market capitalization, it's hard not to wonder if the company's stock could get so cheap that a competitor swoops in for a takeover.

• In a more dramatic scenario, what are the chances of BP dissolving altogether or undergoing a major reorganization under Chapter 11?

http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/04/news/companies/gulf_coast_BP_bankruptcy_odds.fortune/index.htm

---

The least likely scenario is that BP will recover fully from this disaster and that everything will be just fine, minus any regulatory changes and oversight standards.

[Demeter]

27. I Dunno, Ozy

The Brits may bail BP out just like Obama did Goldman, and for the same reason: market share and political blackmail.

[ozymandius]

34. The liabilities are enormous.

BP is an anchor for the British pension system. This speaks volumes about the state of the UK public welfare system when David Cameron emotes his chagrin over the state of U.K. budget deficits.

Meanwhile, BP has only started being consumed with lawsuits that stand a great chance of going international - and the gusher is not 100% capped yet.

Also weighing heavily: Hayward is an idiot. If I were a BP lawyer then I would recommend that his jaws be wired shut as a precautionary measure.

All this adds up to bad things for everyone but beyond the level of "bidness as usual". I just don't see how anything can revert to the status quo of two months ago..

[Demeter]

47. Which is a good thing

That status quo was not worth it to the world. the Obscenely Wealthy are going to take a massive haircut--and they will be lucky if it isn't more than a scalping, going down to the neck ala Francaise.

[ozymandius]

41. Renegade Refiner: OSHA Says BP Has “Systemic Safety Problem”

Two refineries owned by oil giant BP account for 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the refining industry by government safety inspectors over the past three years, a Center for Public Integrity analysis shows. Most of BP’s citations were classified as “egregious willful” by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and reflect alleged violations of a rule designed to prevent catastrophic events at refineries.

BP is battling a massive oil well spill in the Gulf of Mexico after an April 20 platform blast that killed 11 workers. But the firm has been under intense OSHA scrutiny since its refinery in Texas City, Texas, exploded in March 2005, killing 15 workers. While continuing its probe in Texas City, OSHA launched a nationwide refinery inspection program in June 2007 in response to a series of fires, explosions and chemical releases throughout the industry.



http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2085/

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Status quo is simply not an option. The Horizon disaster has cast sharp focus on BP's egregious disregard for workplace safety, environmental stewardship and ethics.

[tclambert]

108. Exxon's stock has dropped about 14% during the same period.

So has just about everyone else's. BP is down about 35%. A stock deal is not out of the question. Cash always works. Mergers and acquisitions often use borrowed money. Ah, who's willing to float big loans, though? That could be the hold-up.

[Demeter]

26. FROM EARLY MAY: Ecuador water law sparks protests

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/20105712310338191.html



Police in Ecuador have used tear gas and batons in clashes with protesters trying to reach the national assembly in the capital, Quito.

The clashes on Thursday came as about 1,500 people joined a protest against a proposed new law that would regulate water resources.

The protesters say the proposed law discriminates against indigenous groups by allowing private companies to divert water that local people have depended on for generations.

There have been sporadic protests over the bill since it was first sent to congress in February.

The indigenous groups say it could set the stage for privatising some water supplies, robbing local communities of control over their natural resources.

"We have called on our local organisations to join this protest," Marlon Santi, head of the Indigenous Confederation of Ecuador, told reporters outside congress in Quito.

UPDATE: Ecuador lawmakers fail to reach water bill deal

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N13177732.htm

Ecuadorean lawmakers on Thursday failed to reach a deal on suspending debate of a contested water bill that has sparked protests by indigenous groups who fear it threatens their rights to natural resources.

President Rafael Correa says the bill will better regulate the water system. But the failure by lawmakers to agree over the bill opens the way for more indigenous protests over an issue that is a political headache for his leftist government.

Lawmakers were ruling on a motion by Congress President Fernando Cordero to postpone debate over the bill for six months while indigenous communities were consulted over the impact of the proposal on their territories.

Opposition and some pro-government lawmakers blocked an attempt to reach a deal on postponement.

"The water law will be voted on the day we can have the consultations," Cordero said after the vote though no date was set to resume debate on the proposal.

While Ecuador's indigenous groups were instrumental in toppling previous governments, analysts say Correa has a solid grip on power and indigenous leaders are more splintered than in past protests when thousands descended on Quito.

---------------------------------------------------------

Correa, a U.S.-trained former finance minister, came to power in 2007 with broad indigenous support after promising to challenge the political old guard many Ecuadoreans blamed for years of instability in the world's largest banana exporter.

Correa still has more political capital than predecessors after introducing measures such as increased welfare spending for the poor and striking out at foreign investors. But he has seen his popularity wane as the OPEC nation's economy flagged during the global economic crisis.

"We are not going to move from here until our concerns are clearly addressed."

The administration of Rafael Correa - which took office in the Andean nation of 14 million people in 2007 with wide indigenous support - says the law is needed to decentralise and better regulate Ecuador's water system.

'Liars'

Congress, where Correa has a majority, tried to calm the situation on Thursday, saying it would "sift through observations and suggestions from all sectors to approve the best law possible".

Correa has also defended the bill calling the protest leaders "liars".

"They do not scare me at all," he said, announcing he would organise a march in favour of the water bill.

"Water belongs to the indigenous people, but also to the mixed-race people. The water belongs to everyone."

Some indigenous groups from outside the capital tried to enter the city on Thursday, witnesses said. But when security forces stopped them, they blocked roads with stones and branches.

Native Standoff Over Water Bill on Hold

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51504

The Ecuadorean legislature's decision to hold a non-binding vote among the country's indigenous communities on a controversial water bill that sparked weeks of protests by native groups has calmed things down -- for now.

Fernando Cordero, the head of parliament, managed to ease tempers among the indigenous movement by proposing a "non-binding pre-legislative consultation" among Ecuador's native peoples, who make up nearly 40 percent of the population of close to 14 million.

The initiative has postponed for several months the legislative vote on the government's water reform bill, which indigenous associations say would give mining companies and agribusiness privileged access to water and would hurt their small farms, while left-leaning President Rafael Correa argues that it would better regulate the water system.

Consultations on the impact of bills or projects like mines, oil drilling or logging on native territory are provided for in the constitution in effect since 2008, in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, which requires prior, free and informed consent, and participation by indigenous peoples in the benefits generated by projects.

In response to Congress's decision to hold a consultation process, the indigenous associations temporarily suspended the demonstrations and roadblocks that they have been staging for the last two weeks in seven of the country's 24 provinces to protest the water bill.

On Tuesday, the national election council underscored that the non-binding consultation and vote on water reforms would be the first of its kind in the world. The Constitutional Court, meanwhile, confirmed that a prior consultation process is mandatory under the principle of participation by indigenous groups, but not the incorporation of the results, because that is up to the legislators to decide.

But this point is likely to give rise to a renewal of tensions in the crisis between the government and the three main indigenous associations opposed to the bill: the powerful Ecuadorean Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), the National Federation of Peasant, Indigenous and Black Organisations (FENOCIN), and the Federation of Evangelical Indigenous Peoples and Organisations of Ecuador (FEINE).

In fact, the native leaders are already demanding that the results of the public participation process be binding, arguing that the constitution does not state otherwise.

The organisational capacity of the indigenous movement in Ecuador, which has been widely commented on for years by local and international observers, was once again seen this month in the protests that forced Congress to postpone the vote on the water bill and announce the public input process.

Ecuador forms part of the Andean subregion, which is considered to be rich in water resources. According to United Nations statistics, this country has 40,000 cubic metres of water a year per capita, compared to averages of 3,200, 2,000 and 900 cubic metres in Asia, Western Europe and North Africa, respectively.

The indigenous associations are calling for several modifications of the water reform bill.

The first is that the law strictly respect the order of priorities for water use established by the new constitution, which states that water resources must be destined first to human consumption, then to irrigation for domestic food production, next to maintaining adequate levels of flow in the rivers to keep ecosystems alive, and finally to non-food productive activities.

The most radical indigenous leaders make a literal interpretation of this point, opposing the use of water in export-oriented agriculture, aquaculture or mining.

But this interpretation is rejected by Congress, and has caused serious concern among key productive sectors in Ecuador, such as cut-flower, banana and shrimp producers.

The native leaders are also opposed to any activity by the mining industry, which requires enormous quantities of water and is highly polluting.

The government, however, has a keen interest in developing the mining industry, and has just renewed the entire legal framework in which it operates, as well as the mining permits. As a result, exploration for copper and gold has resumed in the south and southeast of the country.

In addition, since the very first draft of the bill was presented, CONAIE has accused the Correa administration of trying to privatise water administration.

But the constitution stipulates that water is a national good for public use, and that private companies can only administer supplies by means of concessions granted by the government.

However, the indigenous associations, along with community water systems and local authorities, are demanding that the concessions be replaced by permits, which would come up for renewal every two years.

Another issue in dispute is the creation of a sole water authority, as established by the constitution.

The government bill empowers the president to appoint a ministerial-rank national water secretary to head the new agency.

But CONAIE wants a "plurinational council", comprised of a majority of representatives of indigenous organisations and community water systems, and a minority of government delegates.

The indigenous associations are also demanding that water use be free of charge up to a certain limit. But on this point they run up against resistance from the community water systems, made up of both indigenous people and mestizos (persons of mixed-race Spanish and Amerindian descent).

Some 10,000 self-managed community water systems operate in Ecuador. Of these, 7,000 provide water for human consumption -- in some cases simply untreated piped water -- and 3,000 distribute water for irrigation, according to the non-governmental Foro de Recursos Hídricos (Water Resources Forum).

These systems provide, on average, 15 cubic metres a month per family, at a cost of 1.00 to 1.50 dollars. If the new law requires that water be free of charge, as CONAIE is demanding, the community water systems would go broke.

And the final demand voiced by the leaders of the indigenous associations is that local communities in the highlands be paid to keep certain areas untouched, as water production reserves.

Through the consultation process, the government can appeal directly to the grassroots native communities, bypassing the leadership in CONAIE and other associations.

These organisations were formerly Correa's allies and helped get him elected in 2007. But in 2009, relations began to deteriorate. And in the past few weeks, the president has repeatedly lashed out at the groups' leaders. (END)

[mbperrin]

113. I hope sincerely that those who are trying to steal the very water of life

and sell it for a profit get absolutely everything they deserve. And quick.

[Demeter]

28. 15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America By Gus Lubin

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/04/09/businessinsider-15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4.DTL

GRAPHIC PORN AT LINK

[Roland99]

73. Would be nice if several of those charts were updated to 2009-2010

Although, Obama's tax changes last year wouldn't really be doing much other that a slight reduction in the dropoff, like taking the foot off the accelerator while heading down a 10% slope.

[Demeter]

29. Would You Put Up With What is Being Asked of the Greek People? By Tony Bonsignore

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25400.htm

Want to know exactly why public anger in Greece is running at such explosive levels? Then take a look at the austerity measures currently being debated by the Greek parliament.

The BBC reports that as part of the IMF/ EU bailout Greek leaders are proposing the following measures:

* Public sector pay to be frozen till 2014;
* Public sector salary bonuses – equivalent to two months’ extra pay – to be scrapped or capped;
* Public sector allowances to be cut by 20%;
* State pensions to be frozen or cut, with the contribution period up from 37 to 40 years;
* The average retirement age raised from 61 to 63, and early retirement restricted;
* VAT to be increased from 19% to 23%;
* Taxes on fuel, alcohol and tobacco raised to 10%;
* A new one-off tax on profits to be introduced, plus new gambling, property and green taxes.

On their own any one of these measures would probably be enough to prompt significant political disquiet; taken together they represent a catastrophic setback to the financial aspirations of the average Greek.

It certainly wasn’t what the Greek population voted for when they entered the EU in 1981 and adopted the single currency two decades later.

The country’s government argues that it has no choice it if is to avoid an even greater catastrophe.

‘We are all responsible so that it does not take the step into the void,’ prime minister Karolos Papoulias argues, warning that the country is on the ‘brink of the abyss.’

Others, though, argue that Greece is being held to ransom by the EU and the IMF for ideological reasons, and that there are other more equitable options available.

Leave the single currency, for example, or nationalise Greece’s banks.

Or even default or restructure - and leave those German and French banks with massive holdings of Greek debt to deal with the consequences of their own investment folly.

More broadly, protestors argue that they are being made to pay for a crisis they did not cause, and which wealthy speculators are still profiting from.

That is inherently unfair, they say, and it must not be allowed to pass.

It all adds up to a huge dilemma for the Greek government.

Here in the UK on general election day, meanwhile, the main political parties are digesting yesterday's news from the European Commission that our economy now has the biggest budget deficit in the 27-nation EU.

The UK, of course, with its own currency, has many more policy options that Greece, and its economy is not nearly in the same mess as Greece's. Not yet, anyway.

'The first thing for the new government to do is to agree on a convincing, ambitious programme of fiscal consolidation in order to start to reduce the very high deficit and stabilise the high debt level of the UK,' said EU commissioner Ollie Rehn.

'That's by far the first and foremost challenge of the new government. I trust whatever the colour of the government, I hope it will take this measure.'

Today's Money Blog question, then, is one which goes to the heart of the political crisis which is gripping the Eurozone at the moment; it might even be a question asked of us by the next government, whatever hue they might be.

Put simply: would you put up with what is being asked of the Greek people?

[DemReadingDU]

40. It isn't just the Greeks

Other countries are having austerity measures invoked, too. What I don't get, is that the U.S. thinks it is immune from austerity measures and we are supposed to spend, spend more, charge, charge more. It's as if the U.S. acts like it doesn't have any debt problems, nor any money problems at all.

Until the dam breaks, and it's the same old story...We never saw it coming, no one could have forseen.
Then they'll be asking for MacGyver!


edit to add chart for other countries austerity measures

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/visualizing-austere-europe









wow, that's a big chart!

[Demeter]

57. No one will escape the cuts, warns Cameron

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7145201.ece

The British way of life will have to change, David Cameron will warn today as he readies the country for the biggest cuts in government spending since the Second World War.

Using some of his strongest language yet, the Prime Minister will give warning that the cuts will affect every person in the country and the effects will last for decades to come.

The coalition Government plans to consult widely before making an announcement, likely in November. Public meetings will be held and people will be invited to go online and tell ministers about their priorities.

Mr Cameron will say that the Government will need to take the whole country with it as it begins the process of tackling the £156 billion deficit. He hopes the public consultations will minimise the prospect of strikes and demonstrations over cuts to benefits and jobs.

Mr Cameron will argue that a failure to act now would mean higher interest rates, higher mortgage charges and lower employment.

The spending review will examine the role and purpose of government in the modern age.

Ministers are attempting to woo business figures such as Lord Browne of Madingley, the former head of BP, to help civil servants to manage the difficult task ahead. Cabinet members will be asked to rove beyond their ministerial briefs to assist colleagues and avoid working solely in the interests of their own departments.

Mr Cameron’s speech today in Milton Keynes comes against a darkening economic backdrop. The Government’s new Office of Budget Responsibility is expected shortly to downgrade its official growth forecast from the current Budget estimate of 3 per cent in 2011 to closer to 2 per cent.

He will say: “It is precisely because these decisions are so momentous, because they will have such enormous implications and because we cannot afford either to duck them or to get them wrong that I want to make sure we go about the urgent task of cutting our deficit in a way that is open, responsible and fair.”

While Mr Cameron is emphasising the decisions to target welfare spending and the size of the State, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has insisted that there would be no return to the “sink or swim” economics of the Thatcher era. “Fiscal retrenchment does not mean a repeat of the 1980s,” he said.

But the new Government risks squandering the goodwill of some of the country’s highest earners. The Times can reveal that anger is growing over changes to pension arrangements sneaked through in legislation shortly before the election.

From next April, hundreds of thousands of workers who earn more than £150,000 will have the tax relief on their pension contributions reduced significantly. Currently, if a higher-rate taxpayer puts £20,000 into a pension pot every year, tax breaks mean that he or she only pays £12,000 towards the sum. Under the new rules, the cost will rise to £16,000. This comes on top of the 50 per cent top rate of tax introduced for those earning over £150,000, and a row over coalition plans to raise capital gains tax.

Richard Lambert, the Director- General of the CBI, said that it was a bad move in every way and would make it harder for the UK to attract and retain talent. Miles Templeman, the head of the Institute of Directors, asked the Government to think again.

[ozymandius]

60. Remind me of the this equation.

Who is on the other side of this deal? Who gets the money from the cuts?

Governments the world over are entering a new feudal age.

[mrdmk]

99. The Conservatives are pissing their collective pants over this

Divide, conquer, I got mine and leave everything else to waste power-play...

Some food for thought: Greece has one of the most socialist economy and the highest percentage unionized workers in the world. Kostas Karamanlis (Conservative) was the Greek Prime Minister during the time which Goldman Sachs was running roughshod with the Greek economy.

[girl gone mad]

107. I think this sums it up:

Stolen from a poster at Calculated Risk.

[Demeter]

31. Home Prices Are Falling Again

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/05/housing.html

Home prices fell 3.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared to the fourth quarter of last year. But prices are still above where they were last spring.

That's according to the latest update of the Case-Shiller index, out this morning.

The decline came even as the government and the Fed threw the kitchen sink at the housing market, an effort that included the Treasury paying people to buy houses and the Fed buying more than $1 trillion in mortgage bonds.

Here's a graph that shows the Case-Shiller 20-city composite over the past several years; that number on the right indicates that, as of March, home prices had risen about 43% since January, 2000. But as the graph shows, prices are way down from the peak of the bubble.

?t=1274790749

LINK INCLUDES TABLE OF RECENT PRICE TRENDS BY REGION

[Demeter]

32. Romania braces for austerity

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Money/Story/STIStory_523829.html

ROMANIA braced on Friday for a wave of protests after the president unveiled austerity cuts in public sector wages and pensions to meet a deficit target set by the IMF and avoid a Greek emergency scenario.

'This programme to cut public expenses was inevitable,' President Traian Basescu said during a press conference on Thursday after a meeting with IMF and European Union representatives in Bucharest.

Wages in the public sector are to be cut by 25 per cent, Mr Basescu said, adding that 'all salaries, including the minimum one, will be affected.' Pensions will be slashed by 15 per cent, just like unemployment benefits.

These cuts should help Romania 'avoid an extremely difficult situation, generated not so much by what is going on in its own economy, as by developments in the region,' he said, in a reference to the Greek crisis.

Romania last year pledged to trim the bloated civil service and freeze public wages and pensions in exchange of a 20-billion-euro aid package from the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank. But with reforms slower than expected, the deficit threatened to balloon beyond the 5.9 per cent target set by international lenders.

Moreover, the IMF has reduced Romania's growth forecast for 2010 from 1.3 per cent to 0.8 per cent. In 2009, its economy contracted by 7.1 per cent. Mr Basescu said the government had chosen the 'bitter pill' of slashing public spending instead of raising taxes. The cuts will be effective from June. -- REUTERS, AFP

[Tansy_Gold]

45. Excuse me, but why aren't you reporting on all the sacrifices

being made by the rich people?






:crickets:








TG

[ozymandius]

46. It's either a slow news day

or a news blackout. I am sure the rich and powerful like to keep their sacrifices "private" to avoid embarrassingly congratulatory remarks.

[Demeter]

33. Goldman stung by backlash in China

GO CHINA!


Public criticism of Goldman Sachs has come to China, where the investment bank has been lambasted in articles in state-controlled media
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/IOCBMM/GKR8CG/LSLXF/HDPNG3/KEJWO5/82/t

[ozymandius]

36. That only means that, if in print, then it is part of government policy.

Language like that would not exist in Chinese media without government approval.

[Demeter]

50. I Know!

:evilgrin:

That's what makes it so deliciously satisfying.

[Po_d Mainiac]

76. Didn't a Mainland banker get

a cranial lead injection a couple month back?

[Demeter]

112. I Tought It Was LIfe Without Parole

but maybe that was a different crook.

[Po_d Mainiac]

115. My bad...it was a rogue trader

http://www.reuteroquers.com/article/idUSTRE5B71VC20091208

But I could make the argument that the squid would fit in that category :hi:

[Demeter]

35. G-20 Fails on Bank Tax, Calls for Joint ‘Principles’ (Update1)

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-05/g-20-fails-on-bank-tax-calls-for-joint-principles-update1-.html

Group of 20 nations failed to agree on a proposal to impose a global tax on banks that was aimed at making the financial industry shoulder the cost of bailouts, settling instead for a common set of guidelines.

G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors said in a statement in Busan, South Korea, that governments will take account of each nation’s “circumstances and options.” The result allows nations such as Canada, China and Brazil, whose banks suffered less during the global financial crisis, to skip introducing a tax. European countries and the U.S. have advocated the levy.

“If we’re living in an ideal world, a global financial tax would be a good idea but in reality, it is almost impossible to implement,” said Tomo Kinoshita, an economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong. “There are too many obstacles.”

Yesterday’s statement leaves in place an initiative to seek tighter global standards for capital levels at banks, which is a “more practical” way to help reduce the risk of financial crises, Kinoshita said. Banks have opposed the effort, warning that the costs may curb credit expansion and economic growth.

European governments and the U.S. have advocated a bank tax to be adopted in every major country to prevent lenders from relocating to jurisdictions that don’t charge the levy. The International Monetary Fund was asked by the G-20 last year to recommend how to tax the industry.

Ministers yesterday said they now recognized that there’s a “range of policy options” open to countries and agreed instead to adopt “principles” that protect taxpayers and reduce the risks of further crises.

Canada’s Opposition

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, speaking at a press briefing at the conclusion of the two-day G-20 gathering in Busan, said the plan lacked majority backing among G-20 nations and is a “distraction.” He said “there is no agreement” to proceed with a tax.

Instead, Canada has proposed that countries force lenders to keep “contingent capital” on hand to ensure taxpayers don’t end up paying the bill for any future bailouts. Such securities could convert to equity in a time of crisis to ensure that lenders remain well capitalized.

The IMF recommended that financial institutions’ non- deposit liabilities and the sum of their profit and compensation should be taxed to help pay for future bailouts. Led by Canadian opposition, G-20 officials at a meeting in Washington pushed back talks by ordering the IMF to study the issue further.

IMF Task

“The problem is not uniformity, the problem is to do things which are consistent and that do not create arbitrage in terms of regulation and taxation,” the fund’s Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in Busan, Korea’s second-largest city. The principles will be written in a way that avoids inconsistency in the different systems, he said.

The G-20 separately said that “it is critical that our banking regulators develop capital and liquidity rules” tough enough to ensure lenders can withstand further crises. The rules should be agreed by November, with implementation targeted for the end of 2012, the statement said.

At stake for banks is the potential need to raise as much as $375 billion in fresh capital under the proposals being discussed, according to estimates by UBS AG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. predicted in February that annual earnings at 13 of the largest banks would drop by $20 billion.

Europe, U.S.

Michel Pebereau, chairman of BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank, and Clemens Boersig, chairman of Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest, wrote to G-20 leaders last month on behalf of the European Financial Services Round Table, a lobbying group, saying the new rules would harm bank lending more than capital markets. “Most European countries mainly have a banking- dominated financial system,” they wrote, noting that credit outstanding as a percentage of gross domestic product is almost twice as high in the 27-nation EU as in the U.S.

U.S. banks have made opposite arguments in their meetings with regulators and in letters to the Basel committee: The rules will harm them more than European and Asian lenders. New definitions of capital wouldn’t count certain assets used only by U.S. banks, and the liquidity standards underrate the stability of deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the lenders said.

“A fair degree of national discretion will be essential,” the American Bankers Association wrote in April.

British Plan

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that Britain will push ahead with a plan to implement a tax and that he will unveil further details in his June 22 budget. The U.K. wants tax revenue to finance general government expenditure, marking it aside from other European nations who want the tax to fund future bailouts.

“If one country goes alone in the bank tax, there will be a risk of regulatory arbitrage,” said Venkatraman Anantha- Nageswaran, who helps manage about $140 billion in assets as global chief investment officer at Bank Julius Baer & Co. in Singapore.

[Demeter]

37. Asia Governments Consider Capital Controls, HSBC, Barclays Say

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601208&sid=aOqCxEdXQedo

Asian countries, facing inflows of funds, are considering capital controls as a policy response, officials at HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays Plc said.

“It’s a policy option that’s on the table,” Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC, said today at the World Economic Forum in Ho Chi Minh City. HSBC is having talks with government officials about the possibility, Neumann said. “There’s a growing appetite to do so.”

The recommendation comes after the International Monetary Fund in April voiced its support for taxes on capital inflows to help stem excessive appreciation in some Latin American currencies. A United Nations agency last month also touted similar measures, saying China, India, Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea are most at risk from swings in short-term capital.

Taiwan’s central bank governor told an Asian Development Bank meeting last month that developing nations need to adopt curbs to address “disorderly” foreign-exchange moves. Some Eastern European countries last year considered introducing capital controls, according to Kevin Lu, chief financial officer of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency of the World Bank, which issues coverage against such risks.

“Sometimes, speed bumps are needed,” said Michael Drexler, global head of strategy at Barclays’ investment banking unit, said at today’s conference in Ho Chi Minh City. While capital controls never work in the long run, they can be useful for shorter periods if governments are clear about the objectives, timeframe and exit strategy, he said.

Economic Risk

Asian countries may benefit from capital controls to help limit inflows that pose a risk to their economies and financial systems, the Asian Development Bank said in a May 18 report. Net private inflows to Asia’s developing economies are expected to be $272.4 billion this year, compared with $282.9 billion in 2009, the Manila-based lender said, citing a forecast by the Washington-based Institute of International Finance.

The amount of money pouring into the region may strengthen as central banks from India to Malaysia raise borrowing costs to fight inflation, widening the interest-rate differential with the U.S., Europe and Japan, the ADB said.

Taiwan in November banned foreigners from parking their money in time deposits to counter speculation on its currency that may hurt exports. Brazil in October slapped a levy on foreign purchases of stocks and bonds in a bid to restrain the real’s appreciation.

[Demeter]

59. G-20 Clash Over Recovery Risks ’Sub-Potential’ Growth (Update1)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=ajjdwY8IJU.4

Global policy makers are starting to clash over their individual prescriptions for recovery as Europe demands lower budget deficits while the U.S. warns against pushing exports instead of domestic demand.

At a meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs in Busan, South Korea, June 4-5, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the world cannot again bank on the cash-strapped U.S. consumer to drive growth and urged other nations to stimulate their own demand. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said fiscal tightening in “old industrialized economies” would aid the expansion by shoring up investor confidence.

Each strategy carries threats for the global rebound that the G-20 said faces “significant challenges.” Continued stimulus risks bondholder revolt over rising debt burdens, while spending cutbacks could worsen unemployment. Relying on exports leaves the world prone to trade wars and competitive currency devaluations as countries seek to give their companies an edge.

“The world may end up in a period of sub-potential growth for two or three years,” said Venkatraman Anantha-Nageswaran, who helps manage about $140 billion in assets as global chief investment officer at Bank Julius Baer & Co. in Singapore. “We need to accept that all of us cannot simultaneously grow our way out of trouble.”

The fragility of the recovery from last year’s worldwide recession was evident as the G-20’s finance ministers and central bankers gathered to shape the agenda for this month’s summit of their leaders in Toronto.

Stocks Tumble

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed at a four-month low on June 4 after government figures showed U.S. employment rose less than forecast in May. The euro today fell to as low as $1.1889, its weakest level since 2006 amid concern Hungary is nearing a debt crisis.

G-20 officials signaled deeper concern about the economic and fiscal outlooks than when they last met in April. In a statement released after their talks ended June 5, they promised to “safeguard recovery,” yet replaced an endorsement of budget stimulus with a pledge to pursue “credible, growth-friendly measures to deliver fiscal sustainability.” Countries can still fan domestic growth “within their capacity,” they said.

Capital Standards

Officials separately targeted deadlines of November to design new rules to raise the quality and quantity of capital held by banks and December 2012 to introduce them. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was among those to say the process for enactment may be extended. A European and U.S. proposal to tax banks globally to cover the cost of bailouts was defeated.

Banks have warned that the capital proposals may impinge on credit and growth. UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, has estimated the proposals may force banks to raise as much as $375 billion in fresh capital.

In a sign of tension among the world’s economic policy chiefs, Geithner flagged concern that others are turning to cheaper currencies and fiscal restraint, leaving their rebounds reliant on foreign rather than domestic buyers for strength.

“Stronger domestic demand in Japan and in the European surplus countries” is needed, Geithner said in a June 5 press briefing in Busan. “The value of the G-20 is to help each of us individually recognize the importance of economic policies that are in our broad collective interest.”

The conundrum is that governments are all trying to harness a rebound in trade, which the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Analysis last week estimated grew 3.5 percent in March, more than double February’s pace.

Pernod, Toshiba

Companies from French beverage maker Pernod Ricard SA to Japan’s Toshiba Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. are counting on foreign demand to stoke earnings. Pernod said last month that for every 1 percent drop in the euro versus the dollar, its earnings before interest and taxes rise 12 million euros ($15 million).

Toshiba, Japan’s biggest memory-chip maker, said May 11 it aims to quadruple profit in three years as foreign sales climb. Nissan, Japan’s No. 3 automaker, the next day forecast earnings to more than triple in a year on North America and China sales.

In the U.S., President Barack Obama aims to double exports over five years, while China is refusing to bow to international pressure to allow an appreciation in the yuan, which it has held at 6.83 per dollar for almost two years to help its exporters.

Japan’s Kan

Japan’s new prime minister, Naoto Kan, enters office with a reputation for favoring a weak yen after saying as finance minister that he wanted the currency to fall “a bit more.” French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said June 4 the euro’s drop below $1.20 is “good news” after a gain that was “penalizing our exports.” Britain’s Osborne said last week in Beijing he is “keen” to make the U.K. more trade-driven.

“If everyone’s expecting to export their way out of trouble, who will be buying?” said Alvin Liew, a Singapore- based economist for Standard Chartered Plc. “Countries may resort to inward-looking policies and protectionist sentiment.”

China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, has been a source of global demand to date, with a surge in imports helping narrow the nation’s trade surplus. The excess shrank to $8.2 billion in May from $13.4 billion a year ago, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of a government release this week.

China’s Limit

At the same time, measures by Premier Wen Jiabao’s government to slow the expansion and avert asset bubbles mean China’s ability to pull the global economy will be limited, Stephen King, chief economist at HSBC Holdings Plc, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today.

“Where does demand stimulus come from -- not from China, China has already been growing too quickly,” King said.

The upshot for a global economy chasing weaker exchange rates is a “zero-sum story,” according to Michala Marcussen, head of global economics at Societe Generale SA in London. She calculates that while a 10 percent depreciation of the euro boosts euro-area growth by 0.7 percentage point, that is offset by weakness in the U.S. and China, leaving overall world GDP just 0.2 percentage point stronger.

Governments are looking overseas for growth because they need to pare fiscal deficits at home. The International Monetary Fund calculates the G-20 nations’ budget shortfalls will average 6.8 percent of gross domestic product this year, up from 0.9 percent in 2007.

“For the vast majority, addressing finances, budget consolidation, is priority No. 1,” French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said in Busan. “There are some voices, definitely a minority, that insist on the need to underpin growth.”

European officials said June 5 in Busan that budget tightening must come next year, while Geithner advocated a “mid-term” horizon for deficit reduction.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at a press briefing that a study by the fund showed fiscal consolidation, without market deregulations that would bolster domestic demand, could shave as much as 2.5 percentage points off global growth and cost 30 million jobs.

[Demeter]

63. G20 drops support for fiscal stimulus

Finance ministers of the world’s leading economies have been so spooked by the sovereign debt crisis that they have decided they can no longer wait until economies are growing strongly before they remove fiscal stimulus
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/WDI4RR/5CWRUY/B49CK/IYU3HC/FXIZLO/B7/t

[ozymandius]

66. Did Cheney offer them his standard greeting?

Because, with this move, they have taken a huge step toward fornicating with themselves.

[ozymandius]

70. A Good Crisis Wasted ( and Geithner tilts at windmills)

Excerpt:

Chinese policymakers are not willing to upset the export cart at the same time they are dealing with start-stop internal issues. Where this all ends for the US is painfully obvious. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote in an open letter to the G20 finance ministers:

...achieving a strong and sustainable global recovery requires that we make further progress on rebalancing global demand. Given the broader shifts underway in the U.S. economy toward higher domestic savings, without further progress on rebalancing global demand, global growth rates will fall short of potential. In this context, we are concerned by the projected weakness in domestic demand in Europe and Japan. In keeping with the Pittsburgh Framework on Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth, the necessary shift toward higher savings in the United States needs to be complemented by stronger domestic demand growth in Japan and in the European surplus countries, and sustained growth in private demand, together with a more flexible exchange rate policy, in China.

Don Geithner, tilting at windmills. His battles are futile. Financial markets know it, sensing that the global growth cannot be sustained on the back of the US alone. Of course, this was always the case; demand in the US alone was never sufficient to recreate the fabled "V" recovery of the 1980s. Market participants also know that US policymakers have their finger in the dam of a tidal wave of competitive devaluations. The Dollar, for all its warts, remains the big dog of reserve currencies, and Geithner fears the global pandemonium that would result from an actual US response to the currency manipulation of others. Thus the postponed report on currency manipulators becomes another case of "extend and pretend."

In the end, why continue to hold the Euro on what is increasingly the myth of global rebalancing? It is clear European policymakers want a weaker Euro, and US policymakers are powerless to prevent a stronger dollar. At least we are getting cheaper oil as a result.

When it all shakes out, the US will actually be asked to do more, not less. Lower interest rates will discourage saving and diffuse a political barrier to enhance fiscal stimulus in the US. Goodness, as I write this, the yield on the 10 year is again below 3.20%. Clearly, the world is looking for more, not less AAA debt, and the US will eventually be the last nation willing to issue it. Moreover, eventually the persistent unemployment problem will weigh on politicians such that while they might bluster on about deficit spending, they will forced to do just that. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve claims to be prodding banks to lend more aggressively.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/timduy/2010/06/a-good-crisis-wasted.html

[Demeter]

77. Sorry Timmy! Nobody's Gonna Save the Globalist Cabal

because nobody has benefited from it. Except the cabal, which will shortly find itself about a head shorter. FRSP!

So take that back to your puppet masters. And then retire somewhere safe. You are too well-known to drop into obscurity, and might be confused by an angry population as being one of the cabal, instead of one of its lackeys.

[Demeter]

38. Money can't buy love Private-equity firms battle to keep their tax perks

http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=16274637

“PRETTY much everybody hates us,” admits one private-equity executive. The industry once wore its unpopularity as a badge of honour. Now it is a liability as Congress considers removing some of the tax perks that helped inflate the private-equity bubble. “There’s no senator or congressman who represents the interest of private equity,” says the executive. Not even the charms of the industry’s big hitters seemed to have worked. Stephen Schwarzman (pictured), the boss of Blackstone, one of the largest buy-out firms, travelled to Washington, DC, to lobby against the proposals. To no avail, it seems. The House of Representatives has already passed them and the Senate is due to consider them this month.

The legislation in question is the “American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010”. This would change the tax treatment of “carried interest”, or the profits that private-equity firms and other investment partnerships make when the funds they run perform well. Currently, carried interest is taxed at the lower rate of capital gains (15%), as opposed to income (35%). The bill suggests changing this and taxing 75% of carried interest as income and 25% as capital gains, starting in 2013. That might sound fiddly, but the sums involved are big. The tax change would help raise around $18 billion over ten years and affect mostly buy-out shops, venture-capital firms, real-estate partnerships and some hedge funds.

Opponents of the bill say that carried interest deserves capital-gains treatment because it is a long-term investment and carries risk. Buy-out shops don’t get any of the profit unless the fund performs well for investors, and they get their cut of profits only after investors are paid back. But the idea that a benefit received can be classified as a capital gain simply because it is risky seems specious. After all, payments from bankers’ bonuses to authors’ royalties fluctuate, yet are still classified as income. Furthermore, the bulk of the original cash in private-equity funds, from which all profits are ultimately made, is not supplied by managers but by clients. They actually stump up the capital, and will continue to be taxed at the lower rate.

Support is growing for the idea that carried interest is actually compensation for services rendered (for example, choosing which companies to buy and then helping to monitor them), and should be taxed as income. Victor Fleischer, a professor of law at the University of Colorado at Boulder, says carried interest is a “quirk” in America’s tax code that allows some of the richest workers in the country to pay lower taxes than others do on their bonuses.

Many executives privately admit that carried interest is a grey area and should probably be taxed somewhere in between capital gains and income. That hasn’t stopped the industry funding a big lobbying effort and making dire predictions about the proposals’ implications. Doug Lowenstein, who runs the Private Equity Council, the industry’s lobby group, says that the tax change could wreck buy-out shops by discouraging young talent from going into private equity and driving buy-out firms to relocate to countries that offer more favourable tax treatment.

Josh Lerner, a professor at Harvard Business School, says the tax change won’t “have the cataclysmic effect” the industry claims it will. The private-equity industry won’t leave America en masse and will adapt its compensation structure to keep talent. The fairest objection comes from venture-capital firms, says Mr Lerner, which depend more on carried interest than buy-out shops to incentivise managers. But there is no way to carve out venture capital from the bill, without risking buy-out shops wiggling their way through that hole too.

Carried interest is not the only concern weighing on the minds of private-equity bigwigs. Another provision in the bill would change the tax treatment of publicly traded private-equity firms, such as Blackstone and Fortress Investment Group. Currently, listed partnerships don’t have to pay corporate income tax as an entity, but that would change, starting in 2020. This could discourage other buy-out shops from floating their shares, and may dent share prices for those that are already quoted on the stockmarket.

Private-equity firms have more than just Congress to worry about. In Britain the new government is considering raising capital-gains tax and closing loopholes, and a decision is expected soon from Australia’s tax office about whether the country should tax carried interest as income or capital gains. In the meantime, buy-out shops are already trying to figure out ways to adapt by changing the structures of their deals, says Steve Puccinelli of Investcorp, a private-equity firm. On past performance there’s a good chance they’ll come up with something.

[Demeter]

39. New bonds to help cash-strapped states also benefiting Wall Street

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/06/AR2010060603606.html?hpid=topnews

New federally subsidized bonds that have proven wildly popular in helping cash-strapped state and local governments fund roads, schools and other construction projects also offer a windfall to a less obvious beneficiary: Wall Street banks.

Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase and other firms that dominate the U.S. underwriting market stand to earn millions, if not billions, of dollars under a planned expansion of the Build America Bonds program, which provides tax credits to local and state governments seeking to finance capital projects. Major banks lobbied heavily for the program's expansion under a jobs bill recently passed by the House and under consideration in the Senate.

The bonds, first issued last year as part of President Obama's stimulus package, were a key factor in reviving the moribund municipal bond market over the past year. They also provide two key benefits for Wall Street firms: new customers who would not usually buy municipal debt and, in many cases, higher commissions than those for traditional tax-exempt bond deals.

Investment banks have earned more than $670 million from selling the bonds, with average fees nearly 20 percent higher than traditional tax-exempt bond issues over the past 14 months, according to new data from Thomson Reuters. The data also show that fees have come down in recent months as the bonds have become more widely known to investors.

Wall Street firms and financial trade groups worked hard to urge Congress to extend the program and maintain subsidies higher than those favored by the Obama administration, according to congressional aides and industry officials. Goldman extolled the program's virtues in print ads this year while the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) did the same when it hosted a conference at the Newseum.
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James P. Esposito, managing director at Goldman, told a House subcommittee last month that the bonds "are proving to be a major success with issuers and investors alike" and that they provide "a compelling financing tool for states and municipalities to meet their borrowing needs."

But the bond boom has prompted criticism from some taxpayer advocates and lawmakers, including Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who has blasted the Build America program as another de facto bailout package for major banks. The crux of the argument is that federal subsidies allow banks to charge higher fees than needed because state and local governments are already saving so much money on the deals. Grassley also worries that the program is encouraging governments to pile up too much debt.

"These are sweetheart deals for everybody but the taxpayer," said Steve Ellis, vice president for programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense. "The real winners are the banks who are putting together these deals, raking in great fees and trading the bonds in the secondary market. . . . Investors can turn around, resell and pocket a quick profit. Nice gig if you can get it."

The IRS has signaled that it might step up audits on Build America Bonds over concerns that issuers are pricing them too low. The warnings rattled municipal bond markets in recent days, prompting IRS officials to reassure investors that its review will be limited.

Few would dispute that the program has been popular. The Treasury Department said last week that more than $106 billion in Build America Bonds have been issued since April 2009, with estimated savings of $12 billion to local governments and other issuers. The bonds now constitute over 20 percent of the municipal bonds market, officials said.

"Build America Bonds have had a very strong reception from state and local governments as a way to provide financing for critical building projects in a way that minimizes costs to taxpayers," Alan B. Krueger, chief economist at Treasury, said in a statement last week.

Under the current program, Treasury pays a 35 percent subsidy on the interest rate of the bonds directly to the city, state or other government entity that issues them. The arrangement dramatically lowers the borrowing cost for local governments while providing lower costs for investors, including pension funds and other major funds that do not usually dabble in the municipal market.

The House jobs bill approved late May would extend the program through 2012 and slowly lower the federal subsidy to 30 percent. The administration favored 28 percent, which it considers revenue-neutral, though Grassley's office disagrees. The net cost of the program approved by the House would be about $4 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Among the customers is the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which has conducted two bond issues under the program to fund the planned 25-mile Metro extension along the Dulles Toll Road.

E. Lynn Hampton, the authority's interim president and chief executive, said the bank fees were not out of line considering the complexity and newness of the project.

"I think over time the fees will come down as taxable investors get more used to these products," Hampton said.

That may already be happening, according to new Thomson Reuters data. Starting at an average of nearly $8 per $1,000 a year ago, the average bank fee for Build America Bonds dropped to about $6.25 per $1,000 in the second quarter, the data show. Treasury says that is nearly the same as the average fee charged for traditional municipal bonds during the same time period.

Michael Decker, a municipal securities expert at SIFMA, said that the criticism of bank commissions is overblown and that many parties -- from state and local investors to major retirement funds -- benefit from the availability of Build America Bonds. "It means local and state governments are able to build more roads and other projects at a lower cost," he said.

[Demeter]

42. Hungary Is Playing Political Games on Debt

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/business/global/07euro.html?pagewanted=1&src=mv

By the numbers, Hungary is not Greece.

Its budget deficit is about one-half that of Greece. It does not use the euro and so could, if pressed, lift exports by devaluing its own currency, the forint. And it is in the middle of an economic overhaul program with the International Monetary Fund and can call upon an additional $2 billion if needed.

But that did not prevent the politically charged comments made last week by senior Hungarian officials from sending world markets into a tailspin on Friday.

The reason, perhaps, is that the newly elected center-right prime minister, Viktor Orban — like other political leaders in Europe — is finding it nearly impossible to satisfy two very different constituencies: disaffected voters who are unwilling to see their pay and benefits cut further, and the European Union, the I.M.F. and bond investors, who are demanding ever deeper austerity measures as a way of reducing debt.

Compounding this dilemma is the increasingly stagnant condition of the European economies. On Friday, Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Union, released data showing that euro zone economies grew just 0.2 percent in the first quarter, putting the region last among all the major global economies — even behind slumbering Japan.

Japan, however, has a new and comparatively activist prime minister who some analysts say will stimulate its long-dormant domestic economy. So worries are now building that Europe will become the world’s next growth laggard.

If Europe’s recovery is snuffed out by its debt problems, it will pose a danger to the global economy as a whole — a threat highlighted over the weekend in a letter the United States Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, sent to finance officials at a Group of 20 summit meeting in South Korea.

“Without further progress on rebalancing global demand, global growth rates will fall short of potential,” Mr. Geithner wrote. “In this context, we are concerned by the projected weakness in domestic demand in Europe and Japan.”

Spain, Greece and Ireland are battling to balance the growth-choking effects of government austerity programs, while Germany — to the disappointment of many — seems to be focusing more on pushing through its own budget cuts instead of stimulating its economy, which grew only 0.2 percent last quarter.

And while Britain’s growth rate of 0.3 percent last quarter beat that of the euro zone, its own economy — more reliant on government spending than peripheral euro zone economies like Greece and Spain — will also suffer when the new government of Prime Minister David Cameron follows through with its promises of deep cuts in public spending.

Against this backdrop of slower growth in the euro zone, in Britain and in surrounding Eastern European economies like Hungary, last week’s inflammatory comments by Hungarian government spokesmen carried a more powerful punch.

Peter Szijjarto, a spokesman for the new prime minister, was quoted Friday by news agencies as saying that the Hungarian economy was in a “very grave situation.” He even raised the specter of a default, saying such speculation “isn’t an exaggeration.”

The day before, Lajos Kosa, a vice president of Fidesz, the governing center-right party, and other officials warned that Hungary was in danger of suffering a Greek-style crisis, with budget deficits possibly reaching 7.5 percent of G.D.P. this year. (They were officially 4 percent of gross domestic product in 2009.)

After the comments, the forint slid, the yield on 10-year Hungarian government bonds surged and shares on the Budapest Stock Exchange tumbled.

Over the weekend, the Hungarian government took pains to assure shaken investors that it was nowhere near bankrupt and that it intended to meet the deficit target of 3.8 percent of G.D.P.

Mr. Szijjarto also said Sunday that the introduction of a 16 percent flat tax on personal income was among the possibilities discussed at a three-day meeting on the country’s economy.

The notion that Hungary might report a higher deficit has raised concerns within the country about the accounting of past governments and the possibility that they relied heavily on off-balance-sheet mechanisms to finance large infrastructure investments.

Speaking on background, government officials and bankers advising the government said over the weekend that Hungary was committed to continuing the deficit reduction begun by the outgoing Socialist government. And while they admitted that it was possible the deficit could overshoot its 2010 target, they said this would be caused more by differences over how to account for the finances of municipal and government-owned public entities than Greek-style number massaging.

Nonetheless, while likening Hungary to Greece may unnerve international investors, the comparison has domestic political merits. On the one hand, it could steel a reluctant populace for tougher spending cuts to come; on the other, it gives the government bargaining power to push through tax cuts and other deficit-busting measures that might stimulate growth.

“It is all about growth now,” said a government official who declined to be identified, having not been authorized to speak publicly.

Such political gamesmanship could also backfire, with investors bolting the forint, as happened last week, and refusing to continue to finance the budget deficit. (Recent bond auctions have already been met by very weak demand.)

“If you were a neoconservative banker, you could believe that they were going to pursue a proper internal devaluation — and if you were an indebted small businessperson in the countryside, you could believe they were going to cut your taxes to offset increased loan repayments,” said Mark Pittaway, a history professor at the Open University in Britain with an expertise in Hungarian politics and economics. “Even with a perfect economic situation, not all of these things could be true, and some parts of this constituency were going to be very upset.”

Indeed, according to Goldman Sachs, Hungary’s projected growth rate of 0.1 percent is one of the lowest in all of Europe, and a number of analysts in Hungary are forecasting a negative number — although that would be an improvement over the 6.2 percent contraction in 2009.

In Hungary — a small, open economy that traditionally depends on exports to drive growth — there is also a view that officials invoked the specter of a Greece-style financial meltdown to talk down the value of the forint and thus make Hungarian exporters more competitive in world markets.

But 75 percent of Hungary’s exports go to a slowing euro zone economy, whose officials seem more inclined to talk down the euro to spur the region’s own exports, rather than work to stimulate domestic demand. Given that, Hungary is unlikely to get the desired effect of a sharp increase in exports.

So, although the politics of last week’s comparison to Greece may well have been local, the cause of it — Europe’s declining growth — will remain decidedly global as long as Hungary’s debts and deficits remain as high as they are.

[ozymandius]

48. Debtors’ Prism: Who Has Europe’s Loans?

IT’S a $2.6 trillion mystery.

That’s the amount that foreign banks and other financial companies have lent to public and private institutions in Greece, Spain and Portugal, three countries so mired in economic troubles that analysts and investors assume that a significant portion of that mountain of debt may never be repaid.

The problem is, alas, that no one — not investors, not regulators, not even bankers themselves — knows exactly which banks are sitting on the biggest stockpiles of rotting loans within that pile. And doubt, as it always does during economic crises, has made Europe’s already vulnerable financial system occasionally appear to seize up. Early last month, in an indication of just how dangerous the situation had become, European banks — which appear to hold more than half of that $2.6 trillion in debt — nearly stopped lending money to one another.

The European Central Bank estimates that the Continent’s largest banks will book 123 billion euros ($150 billion) for bad loans this year, and an additional 105 billion euros next year, though the sums will be partly offset by gains in other holdings.

Analysts at the Royal Bank of Scotland estimate that of the 2.2 trillion euros that European banks and other institutions outside Greece, Spain and Portugal may have lent to those countries, about 567 billion euros is government debt, about 534 billion euros are loans to nonbanking companies in the private sector, and about 1 trillion euros are loans to other banks. While the crisis originated in Greece, much more was borrowed by Spain and its private sector — 1.5 trillion euros, compared with Greece’s 338 billion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/business/global/06toxic.html?hp

---

If no one knows who holds all the paper - then who receives the proceeds from the austerity measures?

[Demeter]

51. Bank on it--Somebody Knows

watch whose lips are moving...in twisted and unnatural ways.

[Demeter]

53. ECB's Trichet says bank stress tests nearly complete

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65411920100605

Europe is close to completing stress tests on its banks to gauge their ability to withstand a market slump and the results should be published to help restore market confidence, top European Central Bank officials said on Saturday.

Washington has been urging Europe to conduct such tests in the belief that publishing similar assessments of U.S. banks heed bolster confidence on Wall Street and prodded banks to raise needed extra capital.

The ECB said last week that euro zone banks faced potential writedowns totaling 195 billion euros by the end of 2011.

Speaking after a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said he expected the authorities to take stock of the stress test exercise done according to guidelines from the ECB and the EU's executive, the European Commission.

"I expect appropriate communication will take place at that moment," Trichet told a news conference.

The tests are being conducted by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) which is made up of the EU's 27 national bank regulators.

The results will be passed on to EU finance ministers.

Details of a previous test were made public only in broad terms with no reference to individual banks.

Mario Draghi, the Bank of Italy governor who heads the Financial Stability Board, said Europe should take a leaf out of Washington's book and publish the results.

"The decision of the U.S. government to undertake these tests last year and publish them had a very beneficial impact both on the market and on the banks themselves," Draghi told reporters in Busan.

"It clears the air and basically puts the banks in a condition they would be able to raise capital. I think we should aim at doing the same," said Draghi, who is also a member of the ECB governing council.

U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, urged Europe to make further efforts to restructure and recapitalize its banks.

In response to a question on whether Europeans should take additional steps, such as disclosures of stress tests, Geithner said the basic commitment to transparency in America's bank stress tests had been critical to recapitalizing banks.

"Markets work better when people have a better sense of how to assess risk, markets work better when they're not operating in the dark," Geithner told a news conference in Busan.

European banks needed to undertake a serious effort to improve their transparency, Draghi said.

Italy's banks are properly capitalized and not under threat from market volatility due to worries over the economic problems of Hungary and Greece, Draghi added.

I HAVE A FEELING "STRESS TEST" IS ANOTHER WORD FOR "CALL" IN THIS POKER GAME.

[ozymandius]

56. I suspect these "stress tests" will be as thoroughly unconvincing as the sham

tests conducted here in the U.S. under Geithner's slight-of-hand.

Stress test - my ass. If they're using the Geithner standard then the stress test will reflect an unemployment rate that has already been surpassed as the u.e. ceiling.

No. I don't have faith in their methods.

[ozymandius]

52. Utter folly posing as wisdom. Incredible.

Lost Decade, Here We Come

The deficit hawks have taken over the G20:

“Those countries with serious fiscal challenges need to accelerate the pace of consolidation,” it added. “We welcome the recent announcements by some countries to reduce their deficits in 2010 and strengthen their fiscal frameworks and institutions”.

These words were in marked contrast to the G20’s previous communiqué from late April, which called for fiscal support to “be maintained until the recovery is firmly driven by the private sector and becomes more entrenched”.

It’s basically incredible that this is happening with unemployment in the euro area still rising, and only slight labor market progress in the US.

But don’t we need to worry about government debt? Yes — but slashing spending while the economy is still deeply depressed is both an extremely costly and quite ineffective way to reduce future debt. Costly, because it depresses the economy further; ineffective, because by depressing the economy, fiscal contraction now reduces tax receipts.

Yet the conventional wisdom now is that these countries must nonetheless cut — not because the markets are currently demanding it, not because it will make any noticeable difference to their long-run fiscal prospects, but because we think that the markets might demand it (even though they shouldn’t) sometime in the future.

---

This posting is well worth the read, especially the wonkish parts.

[Tansy_Gold]

54. Follow the (paper) money. Follow the (paper) money.

Follow follow follow follow.
Follow the (paper) money!

[FarCenter]

83. Money doesn't matter, sovereign bonds don't matter -- derivatives matter

What are the derivatives positions on various country's debt?

No one knows.

[Tansy_Gold]

87. Exactly.

And that's what some of us have been saying here since, oh, well, I guess just about since Enron. AND HOW LONG AGO WAS THAT???????????????

It's all very discouraging at times.



"Dear Dorothy:

Hate Oz. Took the shoes. Find your own way home.


Love, Toto."




TG

[Demeter]

90. Stop! You're Killing Me!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Tansy_Gold]

92. I saw it on a T-shirt in a gift shop

in the Century City Marketplace or whatever the shopping center is across from the Century Plaza Hotel in LA. Cracked me up totally. Never forgot it.


Tansy Gold, who helped reunite a distraught owner and a lost dog this week-end

[AnneD]

94. Good for you Tansy....

I've done that a time or too. It's a good feeling. The older I get-the more sympathy I tend to have for children and esp. animals.

AnneD, who pays extra to eat eggs from cage free chickens and sustainable crops.

[InkAddict]

114. Hehehe...I own that shirt, Tansy...

along with one that says "Don't Make me Get My Flying Monkeys"

[Demeter]

55. Easy Money to Stick Around Fed Unlikely to Raise Rates as Euro-Zone Crisis Keeps Pressure on Economy

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704726104575290630379860058.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Investors spent much of early 2010 wondering when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would start to tighten financial conditions to rein in the substantial support to the U.S. economy. Instead, Europe is doing the job for him.

Worries about the 16-nation euro zone's financial turmoil has pushed U.S. stocks lower and the dollar higher, made risky debt in the U.S. costlier compared with less-risky debt, inflated interest rates for the short-term loans that banks make to one another and helped slow down the issuance of commercial paper.

As a result of that, along with meager job growth and low inflation, the odds that Mr. Bernanke will soon reverse the easy-money policies that have greased the wheels of the financial system since the crisis began are far smaller than they seemed just a few months ago.

"I don't think economic conditions yet call for it," Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said in an interview.

James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said the latest signs of strain are reinforcing the central bank's cautious economic outlook. "You've got more risk out there of a tail event occurring," he said in an interview.

Still, the growing pressure on the market isn't severe enough yet to alarm Fed officials. Mr. Bullard said there are powerful offsets to the recent downturn in stock prices and some of the troubles surfacing in credit markets.

For example, the decline in long-term government bond yields is helping to hold down interest rates broadly. Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have fallen below 5%, fueling mortgage refinancing.

Mr. Fisher expects the U.S. economy to slow a bit in the second half of 2010 and inflation to remain subdued. Recent strains in financial markets could "take a little bit out" of economic growth, he said Friday. The Dallas Fed chief added that he isn't "overly preoccupied" about it, partly because credit markets aren't showing "too many signs of distress" and stock volatility is normal.

Futures markets see less than a 50-50 chance that the Fed will push the federal funds rate up to 0.5% by December from its current level just below 0.25%. That is a major shift since the beginning of May, when an increase was viewed as almost a sure thing.

Many investors also are backing down from predictions of aggressive Fed action next year. Futures-market prices suggest that investors expect the fed funds rate to hit 0.75% by July 2011. In early April, the market put the rate at more than 1.25%.

There are plenty of signs of tighter financial conditions. Some efforts to raise capital have been scrapped in the past few weeks. Radiation-monitoring specialist Mirion Technologies Inc. and Smile Brands Group Inc., a provider of support services to dentists, withdrew initial public offerings in late May, while airline operator Allegiant Travel Co. backed away from a $250 million junk-bond sale.

Overall issuance of junk bonds in the U.S. came to a standstill late last month, and interest rates on junk bonds climbed to roughly 2.4 percentage points above Treasury bonds, up from a spread of 1.8 percentage points in April.

Meanwhile, issuance of investment-grade corporate debt slowed to a total of $75.6 billion in April and May, down from the year-earlier $183.6 billion, according to research firm Dealogic.

In the "repo" lending markets where Wall Street banks get short-term loans to finance their securities holdings, activity is down 46% from a year ago, while commercial loans made by banks are down 17.5%.

The next test of the Fed's intentions will come at its meeting June 22-23. So far, with the exception of Thomas Hoenig, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City president and an inflation hawk who wants to move quickly, officials have given little indication that they want to start moving toward higher interest rates.

Well before making any move, the Fed would remove language from its policy statement assuring investors that rates will stay very low for an "extended period." So far, Fed officials haven't indicated that they are moving in that direction.

"For the foreseeable future, the Fed is going to keep the 'extended period' language," says Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

A Goldman financial-conditions index, which tracks the combined effect of stock-market moves, interest rates and the dollar, has deteriorated since April.

Its move was equivalent to a half percentage-point increase in the Fed's benchmark federal funds interest rate, Mr. Hatzius says. That has been only partially offset by a decline in oil prices, which put more money into the pockets of Americans.

[Demeter]

58. ADDING INSULT TO INJURY: U.S. Urges Some G-20 Nations to Stimulate Domestic Demand

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/business/06summit.html?src=busln

The American Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, told his counterparts at a Group of 20 conference on Saturday that they should not rely on spending by American consumers for their economic recovery, and he urged Japan, Germany and China to bolster domestic demand.

“We discussed how the ongoing shift toward higher saving in the United States needs to be complemented by stronger domestic demand growth in Japan and in the European surplus countries, and by sustained growth in private demand,” Mr. Geithner said.

He spoke at the end of a two-day conference of finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s 20 leading economies, who gathered to discuss ways of shoring up a fragile global recovery in the face of the European debt crisis.

The discussions focused on striking a balance between two conflicting fiscal strategies: continuing to stimulate recovery, which the Americans prefer, and reining in deep deficits, the primary concern in Europe.

The United States wants countries with trade surpluses, like Germany and China, to stimulate domestic demand, fearing that tighter fiscal policy will impede growth and endanger the still-nascent recovery.

“Fiscal consolidation should be ‘growth-friendly,’ ” Mr. Geithner told reporters, saying the “pace and composition of adjustment” should vary across countries.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the International Monetary Fund said that euro zone countries saddled with huge debts “have to consolidate strongly even if it has some bad effect on growth,” Reuters reported.

In a joint statement, the finance ministers and central bank governors said: “Those countries with serious fiscal challenges need to accelerate the pace of consolidation.”

But in a nod to American concerns on growth, the statement said, “Within their capacity, countries will expand domestic sources of growth.”

Their statement will serve as an outline when the national leaders of G-20 countries meet in Toronto on June 26 and 27.

The ministers also expressed strong support for Europe’s nearly $1 trillion bailout to help countries cope with the fallout from unsustainably high debt levels.

Mr. Geithner repeated the American position that China should let its currency appreciate to help make its economy less dependent on exports and to bolster domestic demand.

The participants also haggled over the thorny issue of reforming supervision of banks and other financial institutions to stop the world from plunging into a re-run of the 2008-9 recession.

The finance minister of Canada, Jim Flaherty, said there was “no agreement” on a global bank levy to pay for future bailouts.

[ozymandius]

64. How does Geithner, this banking shill, propose to simulate demand and with what money?

It appears that our Treasury Secretary is speaking in circles.

[ozymandius]

68. G20 Heated Debates; Europe Politely Tells Geithner Where To Go (HA!)

Demands for more stimulus fell by the wayside as concern over sovereign defaults and budget deficits caught the attention of G20 participants. Reading between the lines, it seems Europe politely told Geithner to go to hell.

Nothing But Hot Air

The G-20 meeting was useless. The market had already forced Europe’s hand with the action in credit defaults spreads in Greece, Portugal, and Spain as compared to Germany.

The same thing happened in the UK when Gordon Brown was tossed out of office.

US, Japan, China Day of Reckoning is Coming

Trichet’s comment that the best contribution to the global rebound is to achieve fiscal sustainability is certainly accurate. Unfortunately, that comment will fall on deaf ears as Geithner, Bernanke, and the Obama Administration clowns are completely clueless.

At some point, the market will get extremely tough with the US, China, and Japan in regards to deficit spending, interest rates, currency pegs, and financing debt. However, there is no telling exactly when those days of reckoning will come or in what order they happen.

http://www.philstockworld.com/2010/06/06/g20-heated-debates-europe-politely-tells-geithner-where-to-go/

[Demeter]

61. Chinese bank IPO set to fall short

Agricultural Bank of China’s initial public offering is likely to raise much less than the $30bn total it had hoped for when it sells shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/IOCBMM/GKR8CG/LSLXF/HDPNG3/BMXCUB/82/t

[Demeter]

62. Merkel ready to make spending cuts

Berlin is close to agreeing changes to welfare provision and a big reduction in the size of its armed forces in a bid to get to grips with government spending
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/WDI4RR/5CWRUY/B49CK/IYU3HC/D4D2UV/B7/t

[ozymandius]

65. "a big reduction in the size of its armed forces"

That is very smart. Perhaps those forces, minus their gadgetry, can be re-tasked to provide domestic infrastructure support.

[ozymandius]

71. Little change at trading open

9:38
Dow 9,938.09 6.12 (0.06%)
Nasdaq 2,222.48 3.31 (0.15%)
S&P 500 1,065.52 0.64 (0.06%)

[Roland99]

72. 9:49am - heading south

Dow 9,905 -27 -0.27%
Nasdaq 2,213 -6 -0.29%
S&P 500 1,063 -2 -0.20%
GlobalDow 1,718 -24 -1.40%
Gold 1,215 -2 -0.20%
Oil 71.21 -0.30 -0.42%

[Roland99]

74. now it's up 19.

a little volatile but in a tight range.

[Demeter]

78. More than Volatile--Frantic

Man the pumps, ye swabbers!

[bread_and_roses]

104. LOL - I guess the pumps were short-handed

too many swabbers down-sized, maybe? Or maybe just too much water under the bridge (to mix metaphors)? One thing for sure - the Captains have no intent to let this tide lift all boats - nor do they intend to go down with the ship.

We need a mutiny.

[Po_d Mainiac]

79. U can c the same curve on the U$D/EUR chart

The inverse on PM trades.

Starting to wunner if ECB's are looking to let the banks fall in favor of boosting exports (lowering the EUR) and getting real mfg growth :shrug:

The race to the bottom may be on, and the first to hit bedrock gets to move on to the next round. The crowd in the penthouse might prefer achieving terminal velocity, to using the elevator when they figure it out.

How's the turbo working Tim?

Just a thought YMMV

[TalkingDog]

80. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, June 7, 2010

Draconian Rules Much? Under the "Government in Sunshine" (wtf? what are we, 10 year olds?) rules, they have to inform us of the meetings. Yet, they are also telling us that it's a closed meeting. So they are required to tell us they are meeting so we can't come?.....

Anyway...they are purportedly discussing rates. But I have a feeling it will look much like today's cartoon.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/meetings/2010/20100607/advancedexp.htm

Review and determination by the Board of Governors of the advance and discount rates to be charged by Federal Reserve Banks.

[DemReadingDU]

81. Bernie Madoff: F*** My Victims

6/7/10 Bernie Madoff: F*** My Victims

Bernard Madoff, the author of the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, told inmates at the Butner prison where he is serving his 150 years jail sentence that his victims deserved what happened to them, because they were rich and greedy, according to an article in New York Magazine.

One evening a fellow prisoner kept asking Madoff about the victims of his $65 billion scheme and Madoff, angered, said: "F*** my victims. I carried them for twenty years, and now I'm doing 150 years," the magazine reported.

Madoff saw his years as the mastermind of the gigantic pyramid scheme as a "nightmare" and he told investigators that he wished he had been caught six, eight years before he was, according to the article.

He was past apologizing and created his own version of events in prison, the magazine wrote.

"People just kept throwing money at me," Madoff is said to have told a prison consultant who advised him on how to endure prison life. "Some guy wanted to invest, and if I said no, the guy said, 'What, I'm not good enough?'?"

Shannon Hay, a drug dealer who lived in the same prison unit as Madoff, told New York Magazine that the swindler shared with him his version of events.

"He told me his side. He took money off of people who were rich and greedy and wanted more," Hay, who was released in December, was quoted as saying.

In prison, Madoff is regarded as a success, is admired and has fans, the magazine wrote.

It quotes Robert Rosso, who serves life in prison, who wrote on a Web site he founded that Madoff is "a hero. He's arguably the greatest con of all time."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/37551164



A Rogues Gallery of Financial Crimes
http://www.cnbc.com/id/28282110/

[Demeter]

84. Where's Zero Mostel When We Need Him?

I can see it now...

[Demeter]

85. You Have GOT to See This!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrpPGZfEycc

[Hugin]

86. Could you write a little summary...

Please. For the YouTube impaired. :)

[Demeter]

89. It's a Fraiser Version of Star Trek Voyager

I'm not sure what else I can say.

[Roland99]

97. LMAO!!!

[Hugin]

91. Changes in China Could Raise Prices Worldwide (NYT)

SHANGHAI — The cost of doing business in China is going up.

Jason Lee/Reuters

Cooks gather for a meeting outside a restaurant in Beijing. The Beijing municipal government last week said it would raise its minimum wage 20 percent to about $140 a month.
Coastal factories are raising salaries, local governments are hiking minimum wage standards and if China allows its currency, the renminbi, to appreciate against the U.S. dollar later this year, as many economists are predicting, the cost of manufacturing in China will almost certainly rise.

Although the salaries of factory workers in China are still low compared to those in the United States and Europe (the minimum wage in southern China is close to $125 a month), economists say the changes will eventually ripple through the global economy, driving up the prices of everything from T-shirts and sneakers to computer servers and smart phones.

“For a long time, China has been the anchor of global disinflation,” said Dong Tao, an economist at Credit Suisse, referring to how the two decade-long shift to manufacturing in China helped many global companies lower costs and prices. “But this may be the beginning of the end of an era.”

The shift was dramatized Sunday, when Foxconn Technology, one of the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturers and the maker of everything from the Apple iPhone to Dell computer parts, said that within three months it would double the salaries of many of its assembly line workers.

More here... (Tell 'em Hugin sent ya.) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/business/global/08wages.html?src=busln

___________________________________________________________________________________

Using my amazing Holmesian powers of deduction I learn two things from this article.

1. The great outsourcing is about to come to a sudden end... (and, NO! Mr. Smartest-in-the-universe, China is not ABOUT to let you have your factory or equipment back. It's as well as NATIONALIZED, idiots.)

2. If this is being talked about in the NYT, it's well past time to do anything about it. It's sort of in the same vein as Brian Williams reading Breaking News... :spray:

[Festivito]

95. Debt: 06/03/2010 13,056,249,966,400.12 (DOWN 2,039,884,771.38) (Thu)

(Up some. Good day.)

(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 8,577,329,845,866.97 + 4,478,920,120,533.15
UP 4,027,515,403.86 + DOWN 6,067,400,175.24

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 309-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.23 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,232.06 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.70, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 13 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 309,400,608 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 04/09/2010 15:49 -> 309,034,742
Currently, each of these Americans owe $42,198.53.
A family of three owes $126,595.58. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 to 31 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 5,874,064,548.77.
The average for the last 30 days would be 4,307,647,335.77.
The average for the last 31 days would be 4,168,690,970.10.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 168 reports in 246 days of FY2010 averaging 6.82B$ per report, 4.66B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 962 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.4 and 18.0T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
06/03/2010 13,056,249,966,400.12 BHO (UP 2,429,372,917,487.04 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,146,420,962,888.40 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof10 +1,700,990,453,066.12 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linear Projection

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
05/12/2010 +000,782,970,242.92 ------------********
05/13/2010 +003,301,759,550.17 ------------*********
05/14/2010 -000,440,383,687.55 ---
05/18/2010 +000,360,533,772.20 ------------******** Tue
05/19/2010 +000,208,812,715.15 ------------********
05/20/2010 +010,103,129,083.31 ------------**********
05/21/2010 +000,263,393,058.28 ------------********
05/24/2010 +000,371,674,396.55 ------------******** Mon
05/25/2010 +000,937,216,055.27 ------------********
05/26/2010 +001,057,190,066.84 ------------*********
05/27/2010 +015,241,764,354.27 ------------**********
05/28/2010 -000,294,414,430.12 ---
06/01/2010 +078,359,726,143.31 ------------********** Tue
06/02/2010 +000,523,171,733.61 ------------********
06/03/2010 +004,027,515,403.86 ------------*********

114,804,058,458.07 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4411946&mesg_id=4411949

[Festivito]

96. Debt: 06/04/2010 13,050,588,009,652.62 (DOWN 5,661,956,747.50) (Fri)

(Up a little. Good day.)

(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 8,577,523,981,934.06 + 4,473,064,027,718.56
UP 194,136,067.09 + DOWN 5,856,092,814.59

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 309-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.23 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,231.99 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.70, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 13 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 309,407,254 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 04/09/2010 15:49 -> 309,034,742
Currently, each of these Americans owe $42,179.32.
A family of three owes $126,537.96. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 to 31 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 4,983,367,039.08.
The average for the last 30 days would be 3,654,469,161.99.
The average for the last 31 days would be 3,536,583,059.99.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 169 reports in 247 days of FY2010 averaging 6.75B$ per report, 4.62B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 961 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.4 and 18.0T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
06/04/2010 13,050,588,009,652.62 BHO (UP 2,423,710,960,739.54 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,140,759,006,140.90 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof10 +1,685,736,992,880.28 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linear Projection

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
05/13/2010 +003,301,759,550.17 ------------*********
05/14/2010 -000,440,383,687.55 ---
05/18/2010 +000,360,533,772.20 ------------******** Tue
05/19/2010 +000,208,812,715.15 ------------********
05/20/2010 +010,103,129,083.31 ------------**********
05/21/2010 +000,263,393,058.28 ------------********
05/24/2010 +000,371,674,396.55 ------------******** Mon
05/25/2010 +000,937,216,055.27 ------------********
05/26/2010 +001,057,190,066.84 ------------*********
05/27/2010 +015,241,764,354.27 ------------**********
05/28/2010 -000,294,414,430.12 ---
06/01/2010 +078,359,726,143.31 ------------********** Tue
06/02/2010 +000,523,171,733.61 ------------********
06/03/2010 +004,027,515,403.86 ------------*********
06/04/2010 +000,194,136,067.09 ------------********

114,215,224,282.24 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=102&topic_id=4416173&mesg_id=4416933

[Roland99]

98. 3:29pm - looking...bearish?

Dow 9,861 -71 -0.72%
Nasdaq 2,179 -40 -1.80%
S&P 500 1,054 -11 -1.04%
GlobalDow 1,709 -33 -1.91%
Gold 1,245 +27 +2.24%
Oil 71.28 -0.23 -0.32%

[DemReadingDU]

100. No MAAG?

Somebody forgot today is Monday, Mondays are always green!
:eyes:

[Tansy_Gold]

110. the cost of gold

There is gold in Arizona. There is gold in the Superstition Mountains.


The Robert Cooper mentioned in the article below is my neighbor, and my mechanic. The article only touches briefly on the simmering but really vicious feud between the Search and Rescue squad and our new sheriff, the one who treks with McCain in other counties and longs for a border wall. I've spent time -- and money -- at Pro-Mack Mining. The BF is friends with ol' Teton Ken and we've chatted with Ron Feldman up at the Goldfield Ghost Town. And of course Superstition Mountain is the view from my yard. Under the big mesquite in front of the house there's an old gold pan, with a hole rusted through the bottom.



http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-04-22/news/fool-s-gold-prospectors-have-looked-for-the-lost-ducthman-gold-for-a-century-but-jesse-capen-figured-he-could-find-it-he-probably-died-trying/

<snip>
Capen was obsessed with the legendary mine. Though Jesse barely mentioned the subject to family or friends, they found more than 100 books and maps on the subject in his apartment after his disappearance. Capen saved up vacation time for two years so he could take a month off from his job as a bellhop at a Denver hotel, giving him plenty of time to search. Last summer, he traded his car for a Jeep with four-wheel drive. The vehicle is perfect for navigating the yard-high drop-offs on the pocked three-mile dirt "road" leading up to the Tortilla Trailhead.

Capen had been out to Arizona to look for this mine — probably the most legendary lost mine in American history — at least two other times in the past decade, though no one knew about one of the trips until after he disappeared and his computer files were searched. All in all, it's made for a hell of a mystery.
<end snip>


TG

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

101. "C'mon 7!"

Six! Fuck!

[TalkingDog]

102. Today in Small Town America

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8506587

Cross Post from GD

[Tansy_Gold]

105. .

:hug:

My mother-in-law was county treasurer in a rural county in Indiana. I could see the courthouse in my mind as I read your piece.

Bucolic, indeed, but not without its tragedies.


Sincere sympathies,


Tansy Gold

[Robbien]

106. If this is the same story

no one would have any clue as to why the person did what she did from the article. The only clue is that the article said she was a former employee.

Unlike the article, your account made the reader feel it.


SPD probes apparent suicide in government building
http://www2.statesville.com/content/2010/jun/07/spd-probes-apparent-suicide-government-building/
From staff reports

Published: June 7, 2010

The Statesville Police Department is investigating an apparent suicide this afternoon that took place at a government building.
Police said a former employee of Iredell County's planning department entered her former workspace Monday morning and apparently killed herself.
Statesville Police officials told the R&L it it appears that the person entered the planning department offices — located in the county office building at 349 N. Center St. in Statesville — shortly before noon on Monday wielding a gun.
Capt. D.B. Johnson said that when employees saw the gun, they sealed themselves in their offices and soon thereafter heard a gunshot.
Police identified the woman as 38-year-old Stephanie Whitlock of Statesville.
Iredell County Manager Joel Mashburn confirmed that Whitlock formerly worked in the county's planning department. Mashburn would not give more details about her or her work history with the county.
Most employees of the office building were sent home following the incident. Mashburn said the building will open tomorrow at regular time but said a grief counselor would be on hand.
"And I am going to encourage employees to talk with the counselor," Mashburn said.
"It's tragic," he added.

[TalkingDog]

116. That would be the one. But as expected, no mention in the larger local broadcast news

[ozymandius]

117. My reply here, as there...

I am so horrified over this event, TalkingDog. My condolences to everyone touched by this tragedy.

[AnneD]

118. This is so incredibly sad....

this is the collateral damage from this depression that doesn't make the news.