STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, May 25, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, May 25, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON May 24, 2011

Dow 12,356.21 -25.05 (-0.20%)
Nasdaq 2,746.16 -12.74 (-0.46%)
S&P 500 1,316.28 -1.09 (-0.08%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.11 -.00 (-0.06%)
30-Year Bond 4.25 +0.00 (+0.09%)

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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
Dishonorable Mention: former House majority leader, Tom DeLay

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

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 12

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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

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Today's Reports

May 25 07:00 MBA Mortgage Index 05/20 NA NA +7.8%
May 25 08:30 Durable Orders Apr -2.0% -2.0% 4.1% 2.9%
May 25 08:30 Durable Orders -ex Transportation Apr 0.5% 0.6% 2.3% 1.8%
May 25 10:00 FHFA Housing Price Index Mar NA NA -1.6%
May 25 10:30 Crude Inventories 05/21 NA NA -15K

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/Investor/Public/Calendars/EconomicCalendar.htm#ixzz1NMPt0B4I

[DemReadingDU]

37. Durable Goods Orders in U.S. Likely Fell in April

5/25/11 Durable Goods Orders in U.S. Likely Fell in April

Orders for U.S. durable goods probably fell in April, reflecting less demand for aircraft and disruptions in supplies of auto parts stemming from the earthquake in Japan, economists said before a report today.

The projected 2.5 percent decrease in bookings for goods meant to last at least three years follows a 4.1 percent jump in March that was the biggest in six months, according to the median forecast of 81 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Orders excluding the volatile transportation category may have gained 0.5 percent.

more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-25/orders-for-u-s-durable-goods-probably-declined-in-april-on-aircraft-cars.html

The report comes out at 8:30, I always chuckle at likely and probably in the same article

[DemReadingDU]

57. US durable goods orders slump in April on autos, aircraft

5/25/11
New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods fell more than expected in April to record their largest decline in six months as aircraft and motor vehi 536870914 1668048160

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders dropped 3.6 percent after an upwardly revised 4.4 percent rise in March, which was previously reported as a 4.1 percent increase.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected orders to decline 2.2 percent last month.

Durable goods orders are a leading indicator of manufacturing and the report suggested some cooling in factory activity as the auto sector deals with a shortage of parts

more...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/idUSCAT00544320110525



edit: not sure what those numbers are for in the first sentence, maybe secret code for something?
:eyes:

[xchrom]

81. US STOCKS-Wall St slips on data, chance of technical rebound

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/markets-stocks-idUKN2511736320110525

NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell slightly on Wednesday after data pointed to a slowdown in U.S. growth, but a technical rebound was possible with the benchmark S&P 500 at its lowest in a month.

The S&P 500 index closed at its lowest level in over a month on Tuesday and ended below its 50-day moving average for a second straight day. The Dow closed lower for a third session.

"The continuation of concerns about Europe, about the economy growing at a slower pace is weighing on the market, but the S&P 500 is right at its 100-day moving average of 1,314, and there is a good chance we will see a bounce today," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners LLC in New York.

New orders for long-lasting durable goods posted their largest decline in six months in April as aircraft and motor vehicle orders tumbled, a government report showed. For details, see

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil under $99 in Asia on fears of weak fuel demand

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Oil prices fell to below $99 a barrel Wednesday in Asia amid indications of weakening fuel demand in the U.S.

Benchmark oil for July delivery fell 73 cents to $98.86 a barrel at midday Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.89 to settle at $99.59 on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude for July delivery was down 74 cents at $111.79 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, said traders took profits after data released late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute showed a large gain in gasoline supply.

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

[xchrom]

16. Brent hovers beneath $113 on demand worries

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/us-markets-oil-idUSL3E7G601S20110525

(Reuters) - Brent crude futures hovered below $113 a barrel on Wednesday as concern about weak gasoline demand ahead of the U.S. driving season and a rebounding U.S. dollar weighed on prices.

Crude oil inventories fell less than expected, renewing fears high prices are cutting into U.S. gasoline consumption, where the start of the driving season will be officially marked by Memorial Day this weekend.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) said crude inventories fell 860,000 barrels for the week ended May 20, lagging expectations of a 1.3 million-barrel draw.

Gasoline stocks also hinted at weakening demand, rising 2.4 million barrels, after analysts had forecast a 300,000-barrel build. <API/S>

[xchrom]

82. UPDATE 1-Nigeria says resolving Exxon oil license dispute

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/nigeria-exxon-idUKLDE74O1HI20110525

ABUJA, May 25 (Reuters) - Nigeria is making progress towards resolving a dispute with U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) over oil licensing renewals covering fields producing more than 500,000 barrels per day, the state oil firm said on Wednesday.

Exxon said last week it signed agreements in 2009 with the Nigerian government for the long-term renewal of licenses OML 67, 68 and 70, which it operates as part of a joint venture with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC).

The Nigerian government has said these licenses are invalid and Exxon needs to express a new interest in acquiring leases for these valuable oil blocks. An NNPC spokesman said the oil major had now done this.

Exxon decline to comment.

[xchrom]

3. morning everyone!

:donut:

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. U.S. Stock Futures Fall; Applied Materials Drops on Forecast

U.S. stock futures declined, indicating that the index may extend a one-month low, as Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) forecast earnings that missed estimates.

Applied Materials, the world’s largest producer of chip- making equipment, dropped 3 percent in German trading. Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) slipped as a report said that the five biggest U.S. banks may face at least $17 billion in civil lawsuits.

June contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.1 percent to 1,308 at 10:09 a.m. in London after the gauge yesterday fell to its lowest level since April 19. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures retreated 48 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,308 today.

“Risk off is the predominant theme this morning,” said Ioan Smith, a London-based director at Knight Capital Europe Ltd. “Applied Material’s forecast is also big for investor sentiment.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-25/u-s-stock-index-futures-fall-applied-materials-bank-of-america-decline.html

[xchrom]

5. asia: Taiwan steps up FTA race

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/ME26Cb01.html

AIPEI - Singapore has begun talks on a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan, making the city-state the first nation that doesn't recognize Taiwanese statehood to dare such a move. The hoped-for pact is pregnant with more political than economic significance.

As bilateral free-trade agreements strongly imply both countries possess proper statehood, in the past, no nation had risked to start FTA talks with Taiwan for fear of hefty reprisals from China. But to the Chinese leadership, Singapore is a much trusted player.

"Singapore breached the gap between China and Taiwan when it presented the so-called 1992 Consensus," said Albert Shihyi


Chiu, an assistant professor in Tunghai University's Department of Political Science. "Beijing can be assured that Singapore will engage Taiwan only as long as the Taiwanese government doesn't use the process as a political tool to imply Taiwanese statehood."

[xchrom]

6. delete -- wrong place. nt

[xchrom]

38. Sony Web Sites in Canada, Thailand Breached as Attacks Multiply

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/sony-web-sites-in-canada-thailand-breached-as-attacks-multiply/443119

Sony Corp., the electronics maker reeling from the second-largest online data breach in US history, said hackers attacked Web sites affiliated with the company in Canada and Thailand.

Intruders accessed data, including names and e-mail addresses, on about 2,000 customers via Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB’s Canadian Web site, which has been taken down, Atsuo Omagari, a spokesman at Tokyo-based Sony, said by telephone today.

Sony detected the attack on Wednesday, a day after uncovering an intrusion into a Web site in Thailand, he said. The company is also investigating possible breaches at Web sites in Japan and Indonesia, he said.

Sony said yesterday intruders accessed a unit’s Web site in Greece, compromising the information of about 8,500 customers, days after online-service unit So-net Entertainment Corp. said a breach led to the misuse of user names and passwords of 128 customers.

[xchrom]

40. Rupiah Drops as Europe Debt Crisis Deters Risk Taking

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/rupiah-drops-as-europe-debt-crisis-deters-risk-taking/443098

Indonesia’s rupiah fell as concern Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis is deepening deterred risk taking, curbing appetite for emerging-market assets.

Overseas funds sold $129 million more local stocks than they bought in the first two days of the week, exchange data show, and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index of regional stocks dropped 0.4 percent today. Belgium had the outlook on its AA- investment-grade credit rating lowered to negative by Fitch Ratings on May 23. Fitch slashed Greece’s debt rating by three levels last week, while Standard and Poor’s cut Italy’s credit- rating outlook.

“The overarching factor is still the Europe problem from the sovereign debt issues to political uncertainties,” said Joanna Tan, a Singapore-based regional economist at Forecast Singapore Pte. “Risk-off sentiment is picking up again.”

[xchrom]

42. Glencore Shares Down 2.8% in Hong Kong Debut

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/glencore-shares-down-28-in-hong-kong-debut/443079

Shares in Swiss commodities giant Glencore opened 2.8 percent lower in their Hong Kong trading debut Wednesday, after the shares' London debut drew a tepid response following the year's biggest IPO.

The firm's shares touched HK$64.65 ($8.31) in early trading, down from their HK$66.53 IPO price, with the world's biggest commodities trader by revenue raising about $10 billion ahead of the dual listing.

[xchrom]

105. Asia stocks fall; Shanghai drops on growth fears

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asia-stocks-fall-shanghai-drops-on-growth-fears-2011-05-25

An earlier version of this story misstated the closing value for New Zealand’s NZX 50 index, which ended down 0.2%, not up 0.2%. The corrected version follows.

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Most Asian markets ended lower Wednesday, with Chinese shares dragged down on worries about the nation’s slowing economic growth and high inflationary pressures.

The Shanghai Composite /quotes/comstock/16k!i:000001 CN:SHCOMP -0.92% dropped 0.9% to 2,741.74 for its fifth straight day of losses. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average /quotes/comstock/64e!i:ni225 JP:NI225 -0.57% fell 0.6% to 9,422.88, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 /quotes/comstock/27w!i:xjo AU:XJO -0.95% gave up 1% to 4,584.70, South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.3% to 2,035.87 and in afternoon trading, India’s Sensex /quotes/comstock/29m!sensex XX:SENSEX -0.91% lost 0.9% to 17,846.58.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index /quotes/comstock/08s!i:hsi HK:HANGSENG +0.07% ended 0.1% higher at 22,747.28.

[xchrom]

112. Japan's GDP outlook slashed again by OECD

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/25/c_13893858.htm

TOKYO, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its global economic outlook report released Wednesday said Japan must reduce its budget deficits and downgraded its forecast for the nation's gross domestic product for the second time in two months.

In its latest report the paris-based OECD, comprising 34 of the world's richest nations, said that Japan has yet to produce credible plans to stabilize its burgeoning debt and needs to specify how it will achieve such goals.

The report said recession-hit Japan would post negative growth figures in 2011 with its real gross domestic product contracting 0. 9 percent from the previous year, amplified by the ongoing impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The organization downgraded its forecast from last month's expectations for growth of 0.8 percent due to a severe loss of production and output following the March 11 disasters.

[westerebus]

7. Second rec.

[xchrom]

8. south asia: How India can emerge a winner in this ‘supercycle’

http://www.firstpost.com/economy/india-supercycle-15347.html

Put India under a microscope — as we all do everyday — and its many deficiencies show up starkly. Everything from mass poverty to the rotten infrastructure to massive corruption to the skewed sex-ratio (and much else) gets magnified a thousand-fold, leaving one in absolute despair.

Which is perhaps why it helps to take the long view on India — from the business end of a telescope, rather than a microsope. The picture that emerges then, of an India over a slightly longer time horizon, is much more hope-inspiring, although not without challenges.

Just ask the economists at Standard Chartered Bank, who have put out a research report in which they see India emerging a “winner in the current global super-cycle”.

The report, lead-authored by Chief Economist Gerard Lyons, offers a 360-degree perspective on India, and doesn’t flinch from looking hard at the many challenges it faces, but it is nevertheless extraordinarily bullish , summing up India as “tomorrow’s story and today’s opportunity.”

[xchrom]

13. Gross injustice to Indian investors, says NGO

http://www.firstpost.com/business/compensation-to-us-investors-unfair-says-shareholders-body-14930.html

Yesterday, we wrote about the incongruity of shareholder compensation in India vs the US taking the Satyam case as an example. Simply put, American shareholders were compensated for their loss but India does not have the tort law that will allow shareholders to sue companies that seeks to defraud them.

Midas Touch Investors Association, a Delhi-based association went to the Supreme Court seeking compensation for investors who lost money in the Satyam case. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition and asked the association to seek another recourse. Virendra Jain, who heads the association, does not think there is any.

“Indian investors have no chance of getting any compensation like those in America,” he said. In an interview with Firstpost he says that investor protection cannot be complete without the remedy of compensation.

[xchrom]

14. Market grinds lower; 5300 make or break level for Nifty

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/local-markets/market-grinds-lower-5300-make-or-break-level-for-nifty_546429.html

The NSE Nifty-50 index continued to grind, ending the session just above the all-important support level of 5300.

A break below 5300 would now confirm the head and shoulder top reversal pattern. The projected price decline goes all the way to 4750 mark, however, that looks far from the current levels. The level of 5300 has been a major trend line support for the Nifty in last 18 months highlighting the significance of this level.

Capital goods, IT, realty and telecom stocks were reeling under selling pressure today. Selective buying was seen in consumer durables stocks.

The Sensex shut shop at 17847.24 down 164.73 points or 0.91% and the Nifty closed at 5349.20 down 45.65 points or 0.85%.

[xchrom]

15. Market could see further weakness: ING's Tim Condon

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/market-outlook/market-could-see-further-weakness-ing39s-tim-condon_546421.html

n an interview with CNBC-TV18, Tim Condon, Head of Research, Asia, ING Financial Markets says, the markets could see some further weakness from here.

He further says, there are doubts about the strength of the global economy. “I think that these doubts crystallise in the area of the peripheral European debt problems. That is something that investors need to get their heads around before they are going be comfortable taking risks any time soon,” he adds.

Also read: Don't hurry to buy into momentum stocks, says Mehraboon Irani

Below is the verbatim transcript of his interview with CNBC-TV18's Mitali Mukherjee. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: There has been a run of weakness in market. Is it looking like there is a sharper correction coming or will markets remain rangebound as they have?

A: I think we could see some further weakness from here. There are doubts about the strength of the global economy. I think that these doubts crystallise in the area of the peripheral European debt problems. That is something that investors need to get their heads around before they are going be comfortable taking risks any time soon.

[xchrom]

18. Doha round must consolidate progress made so far: Commerce minister

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Doha-round-must-consolidate-progress-made-so-far-Commerce-minister/articleshow/8566987.cms

NEW DELHI: Commerce and industry inister Anand Sharma said on Wednesday that the Doha round of world trade talks must continue to build on the progress already made but cautioned that attempts to re-open issues on which substantial progress has been made would be counterproductive.

Sharma is participating at the informal trade minister's meeting on the sidelines of the OECD meeting in Paris and is expected to push for gains made so far in the Doha round. Fresh efforts have been mounted to push the Doha round of global trade talks launched in the Qatari capital nearly ten years ago but analysts do not expect any rapid progress given the US presidential elections next year.

"It is clear that with such a complex agenda to be negotiated amongst 154 members, the round cannot be rushed. It is worth noting that much time and effort has gone into it over the last ten years and the results must not be lost. This is a good opportunity to discuss on what lies ahead in Doha, after the WTO Director General and the negotiating chairs brought out the comprehensive reports of 21st April 2011. The reports map the progress made thus far while pointing to the wide gaps that remain unresolved across all WTO issues", a government statement quoted Sharma as saying.

[xchrom]

24. India’s State Bank Aims for Top 50 After 99% Profit Plunge

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-25/india-s-state-bank-aims-for-top-50-after-99-profit-plunge.html

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- State Bank of India Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said its 99 percent drop in earnings represented “a quarter we’d like to forget” as the lender embarks on an expansion plan aimed at making it one of the world’s top 50 lenders by assets.

The bank expects a widening in net interest margins to help turn around its business, supported by the sale of 200 billion rupees ($4.4 billion) of shares to the government and other shareholders by Sept. 30, or end-2011 in a “worst-case” scenario, Chaudhuri, 57, said in an interview at the bank’s Mumbai headquarters yesterday.

State Bank, with more than 13,000 branches, is trying to revive earnings and replenish capital that has declined to just under 12 percent of assets, less than two-thirds the level of ICICI Bank Ltd., the second-biggest lender in the South Asian nation. Chaudhuri, who became chairman on April 7, said a focus on credit quality is critical to expanding the balance sheet of the bank, which he said isn’t ranked among the top 70 lenders by assets worldwide.

“Assuming the top 100 banks retain the current rates of growth, SBI should move into the top 50 banks in about six or seven years,” said R Srinivasan, an analyst at India Infoline Ltd., a Mumbai-based equities researcher. The milestone may come within five years if India’s economic growth accelerates to 9 percent or more, he said.

[Demeter]

58. By making fewer mistakes than anyone else, financially

They are just riding on the fact that they kept the banksters out...otherwise, they have no claim to superiority.

[xchrom]

103. china and india both keeps reins on their banks & india -- i'm not sure

but their banks aren't allowed to play in the derivatives game?

didn't their PM once famously say -- we don't know what derivatives are?

[Demeter]

109. "We Don't Buy Things We Don't Understand"

was the gist of their decision--I'm trying to find a quote...

[xchrom]

84. UPDATE 1-India April local fuel sales up 4.2 pct y/y-govt

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/india-oil-sales-idUKL3E7GP23920110525

May 25 (Reuters) - India's local oil product sales rose an annual 4.2 percent in April, slower than the previous month, government data showed on Wednesday, but is likely to have picked up in May as dealers tanked up in anticipation of a price hike.

Local oil product sales, a proxy for domestic oil demand in Asia's third-largest oil consumer, rose to 12.63 million tonnes in April. In March India's refined fuel consumption rose an annual 4.9 percent.

For a table on India's oil products sales, imports and exports, see

Demand for diesel is expected to rise in May as vehicles and diesel-fuelled gensets were used for election campaigning. Also, dealers normally maintain high inventory ahead of fuel price hikes.

[xchrom]

116. India pledges $5bn to help African states meet the MDGs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/25/india-pledges-5bn-to-help-african-states-meet-mdgs

India pledged $5bn in aid to Africa, an amount almost equivalent to its own annual healthcare budget – $5.9bn – on Wednesday, the last day of the second India-Africa summit at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Africa, one of the weakest links in the realisation of the millennium development goals (MDGs), will also have a partner in India for capacity building and expertise sharing over the next three years. The Indian presence will not only enhance commerce and infrastructure but include other key development areas, such as education and training.

This was Africa Day, the day New Delhi pulled out all stops to cement its "historical links" with Africa and, possibly as some critics would argue, to rival China's huge presence on the continent.

"A new vision is required for Africa's development and participation in global affairs," said India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, before the summit, which opened on Friday. "We do not have all the answers but we have some experience in nation building, which we are happy to share."

The Indian delegation that showed up in Addis Ababa – including the prime minister and trade minister, Anand Sharma – was a clear sign that the South Asian nation considers the continent of Africa to be important, and a major "growth pole".

[xchrom]

9. PRECIOUS-Factors to watch on May 25

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/markets-precious-idUSLDE74O06R20110525

LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - Spot gold edged lower on
Wednesday as the dollar rose, having hit a three-week high the
prior session, although concerns over the impact of a possible
Greek debt default on other euro zone economies helped lift
euro-denominated gold to a record.

For latest market report, click on .



PRICES
* Spot gold XAU= was bid at $1,523.30 an ounce at 0637 GMT
compared with $1,525.75 late in New York on Tuesday. It earlier
hit a record of 1,085.74 euros an ounce

* Silver XAG= was at $36.35 from $36.53.

* Platinum XPT= was at $1,761.99 from $1,761.55

* Palladium XPD= was at $732.97 from $732.53

[Po_d Mainiac]

35. IB announced further margin increases (re commodities)

This time there does not appear to be any panic setting in. This wood be logical (the lack of down pressure) if in fact the weaker hands have been flushed outa the system. PM's have already recovered from the time the above story was posted.

My money is on a further disconnect between the paper and physical markets. Bullion bars and coin are either in short supply, or when available, trading at large premiums above spot. YMMV

[xchrom]

100. Gold futures gain, silver rallies 3%

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-futures-edge-lower-in-electronic-trading-2011-05-25

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures traded higher on Wednesday, shaking off some weakness in floor trading as the dollar came off its highs, and silver futures rallied 3%.

Gold for June delivery /quotes/comstock/21e!f:gc\m11 GCM11 +0.23% rose $5.50, or 0.4%, to $1,528.80 an ounce in the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded as low as $1,521.30 an ounce, at times in the black during electronic trading on a higher dollar.

Concerns about Greece’s debt and its implications for the euro zone continued to bring safe-haven.

Investors on Wednesday also grappled with news U.S. durable-good orders were sharply lower in April, rekindling worries of a economic slowdown and providing another leg of support for gold.

[xchrom]

10. Justice Dept. and SEC Allow Companies to Investigate Themselves

http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Justice_Dept_and_SEC_Allow_Companies_to_Investigate_Themselves_110524

When it comes to investigating corporations of bribery and other crimes, the federal government prefers to save money—and allow suspects to conduct their own probes—than perform their own snooping from start to finish.

Whether the concern is foreign or domestic corruption by U.S. companies, the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission have increasingly allowed corporations to hire teams of lawyers and accountants to interview employees, gather electronic records and sift through documents, according to The Washington Post. Then, federal investigators review the results and decide whether to step in and probe the situation themselves or if they should indict anyone.

For corporations, conducting the internal investigations is not cheap. Diebold, which makes ATMs, spent $16 million, Avon more than $130 million and Siemens about $950 million. However, if the Siemens figure seems impressive, it is worth noting that it was still cost-effective for the company. In addition to the $950 million, Siemens paid fines of $800 million. But the $1.7 billion total was still less than the $2.7 billion that it could have been fined for bribing foreign officials. And not a single Siemens executive or employee had been prosecuted by the Justice Department.

[xchrom]

11. France's Lagarde formally announces IMF bid

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IMF_FUTURE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-25-06-17-46

PARIS (AP) -- French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announced Wednesday that she will seek the top job at the International Monetary Fund, a candidacy that has widespread support across Europe.

Lagarde had remained silent about whether she wanted the job, and said she came to the decision after "mature reflection" and consultating with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"If I'm elected I'll bring all my expertise as a lawyer, a minister, a manager and a woman" to the job, she said.

The IMF's last managing director, Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, quit last week after he was accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid.

Many European countries, including Germany and Britain, have offered their backing to a candidacy by Lagarde to run the IMF, which provides billions in loans to shore up the world economy.

[Po_d Mainiac]

36. And the BRICS are saying nyet. n/t

[Demeter]

49. I'm hoping the BRICS win

With friends like her, Europe doesn't need any enemies. The banksters must be checked, and their home planet is a good place to start.

[DemReadingDU]

51. BRICS

I need to document/bookmark the BRICS so I can remember these countries:

In economics, BRICS is a grouping acronym that refers to member countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It is typically rendered as "the BRICS" or "the BRICS countries" or alternatively as the "Big Five or Five States." BRICS is thought to be developed smoothly into the Asian Economic Forum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS

[xchrom]

70. china supports lagarde.

it was yesterday? that i posted that.

[Demeter]

73. I wondered why

I can't see her protecting China's investment in Eurodebt...

[xchrom]

87. they were one of the first ones calling for

some one other than a european -- so what changed i don't know.

[DemReadingDU]

63. Christine Lagarde was in movie 'Inside Job'

short 1 minute clip from movie 'Inside Job'
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3176241689/

[xchrom]

12. Greek political concerns weigh on stocks, euro

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-25-06-28-12

LONDON (AP) -- Concerns that Europe's debt crisis may be worsening, particularly in Greece, kept stock markets in check Wednesday while soft Japanese economic figures added to the evidence suggesting that the global economic recovery is running out of steam.

Stocks are failing to recover much from Monday's steep losses as investors' appetite for risk remains low given a broad range of concerns. When investors are reluctant to take on risk, stocks invariably suffer.

The current bout of jitters, which have lasted for around a month, have been based on two main factors - that the global economy is faltering and that Europe's debt crisis is deepening.

Greece continues to be the main driver of European debt concerns, even more so after meetings Tuesday indicated a lack of consensus between the government and the opposition. The EU has repeatedly stressed that it's vital that politicians in Greece agree on the broad outlines of an austerity strategy beyond the end of the government's current term in 2013.

[Demeter]

17. 5th Rec! I'm Ba-aack!

For a while, anyway. I don't want another day like that for a while....a lifetime will do.

Is the souffle finally collapsing? Are we getting the REAL new world order, at last?



Demeter, who has actually made souffle (chocolate!) in what seems like another lifetime...

[xchrom]

19. ...

yay! :yourock:

[Fuddnik]

47. I warned you. She likes chocolate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cds-OKBCto&feature=youtu.be

My first attempt at film-making.

Don't pay any attention to the yard mess. They did it.

[Demeter]

50. Wouldn't you know it's raining (pouring) again?

Yesterday, when even finding time to breathe was a challenge, it was a beautiful day to garden. I have 5 flats to put in...before they expire. Sigh.

[DemReadingDU]

55. I gave up planting annuals, although they are so colorful around the yard

and I don't mulch either. So whatever perennials come up, that's what I get.

Usually I get a few daffodils, then columbine, then shasta daisies, and a few black-eyed susans.

But this year, the lamb's ear is taking over. I don't mind the lamb's ear in the back yard to keep out weeds and it's thick enough to deter a muddy yard from the dogs. But those lamb's ears are migrating to the side yard and that's a no-no. I see a day of pulling out those stragglers.

[Demeter]

85. Aren't you supposed to eat lamb's ear?

[DemReadingDU]

101. I had never heard that, but I Google

and looky what I found

http://www.islandfoodie.com/mache.htm

http://mysticwicks.com/archive/index.php/t-51102.html


lots more out there in the blogosphere

[Po_d Mainiac]

130. A shame you ain't closer

I'm having trouble giving stuff away fast enough

[Demeter]

20. Greek assets could go to ‘fund of experts’

European leaders are pushing to impose measures that would ensure the Greek government lives up to its promise to deliver €50bn ($70bn) in privatisation proceeds, amid scepticism that Athens can carry out the sell-offs

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/C5Z7ET/52KB7/YH3ZWI/OJESE6/HK/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=24

AFTER FIGHTING SO HARD TO GET ITS HISTORY BACK FROM THE BRITS, I HARDLY THINK THE GREEKS WILL STAND FOR THEM STEALING ITS FUTURE...

[Demeter]

21. SFO chief seeks 50% salary rises for staff

The head of Britain’s white-collar crime agency (SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE--WHERE CAN WE GET ONE OF THOSE?--DEMETER) wants to raise salaries by 50 per cent in a bid to stem a flow of departures, attract high-calibre recruits from private practice and compete with better-funded regulators

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/IOCBMM/0GTULA/CWSVD/IY5NW1/A7CC5Y/9A/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=23

[Demeter]

22. GE to invest in buoyant gas market

General Electric is making ‘a big bet on gas’ in an attempt to benefit from the increased use of the fuel for power generation, in part as a back-up to variable renewable energies such as wind and solar power

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/5F39HH/C57MF2/YGZ3O/NSDHIE/FXMXBQ/HK/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=25

[Demeter]

23. Buy-out groups hit record in sales spree

Private equity groups have cashed in a record amount of money by selling companies in the past two months as they aim to hand cash back to investors to attract them into their next funds

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/5F39HH/C57MF2/YGZ3O/NSDHIE/KEKE0Z/HK/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=25

[Demeter]

25. Murdoch signals push into education

News Corp chief executive outlined a vision for personalised learning and more engaging lessons delivered by the world’s best teachers to students via the internet

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/5F39HH/C57MF2/YGZ3O/NSDHIE/OJEJAW/HK/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=25

DEAR GOD, NO!!!

MADFLORIDIAN EXPLAINED IT ALL--MUNICIPALITIES ARE TIRED OF TRYING TO DO IT ALL IN EDUCATION, SO THEY BUY INTO THIS NOTION OF "PRIVATIZING" EDUCATION SO THAT THE HEADACHES ARE CONTRACTED OFF TO SOME "ENTREPRENEUR" WHO HAS PROMISED TO DO MORE WITH LESS....THING IS, THE ENTREPRENEUR IS INTO PROFIT, NOT EDUCATION...AND THEY DO MORE PROFITS WITH LESS ACTUAL LEARNING THAN ANYONE EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE..

THERE IS NO CHEAP WAY TO RAISE THE NEXT GENERATION, EVEN FOR CANNON FODDER. SOLDIERS HAVE TO KNOW STUFF IN THE MODERN ARMY--AND VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT SUFFICIENT TRAINING! IT APPEARS THE MODERN AMERICAN "BUSINESS PEOPLE" HAVE TO LEARN THIS LESSON THE HARD WAY--MEANWHILE, THE KIDS AND THEIR PARENTS TAKE A BEATING AND GET NOTHING FOR THEIR TAX DOLLARS...

[Demeter]

26. Japan slides to trade deficit as exports fall

Japan’s trade balance in April fell into a deficit for the first time in three months as the disruption to parts supplies stemming from the March 11 disaster in northeastern Japan, sharply curtailed the country’s exports.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/0QSDPP/M9EQWX/3CWTA/1815JQ/GK5K8V/T3/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=25

SOUNDS LIKE A GAME OF LAST MAN STANDING

[Demeter]

30. Hyundai warns of domestic production halt

The South Korean automaker warns of wide-scale disruption at its domestic plants because a strike at its main parts supplier will force the group to halt production of most models

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/JIKXCV/ULCJB/26LMHO/JIWWHY/XL/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=24

[xchrom]

27. OECD raises growth outlook for US, Europe in 2011

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_OECD_WORLD_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-25-07-30-35

PARIS (AP) -- Prospects for economic growth in the United States and the eurozone have improved and are predicted to hit 2.6 percent and 2 percent this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday.

Overall forecasts for real GDP growth in the OECD's 34 member states, comprising most of the world's major economies, remained steady at 2.3 percent in 2011.

Japan stands out negatively. Its economy is now predicted to contract by 0.9 percent because of the March earthquake that devastated hundreds of homes and businesses along the northeast coast.

The Paris-based OECD had predicted last November that real GDP in Japan would grow at a modest 1.7 percent, on a par with the eurozone, and that the United States would expand by 2.2 percent.

Global growth is now pegged at between 4.25 percent and 4.5 percent this year.





:shrug:

[Demeter]

28. China faces worst drought in 50 years

Monsoons that flood the middle Yangtze river did not arrive this year and officials say rainfall in Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang is at its lowest level in more than 50 years

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/0QSDPP/M9EQWX/3CWTA/1815JQ/26H6SU/T3/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=25

[Demeter]

29. Tax charge takes Sony into $3bn loss

Electronics group reported a surprise Y260bn ($3.18bn) net loss and said the effects of Japan’s March earthquake and tsunami could do lasting damage to its ability to make money at home

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/JIKXCV/ULCJB/26LMHO/PREE0T/XL/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=24

[Demeter]

31. More banks targeted in New York probe

Seven international lenders now said to be under scrutiny in New York state attorney-general’s investigation into mortgage practices

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/JIKXCV/ULCJB/26LMHO/LQKKG3/XL/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=24


GOTTA START SOMEWHERE, MIGHT AS WELL PICK THE LOW-HANGING FRUIT FIRST

[Demeter]

32. Treasury set to make small profit in sale of AIG stock

The insurance group and its largest investor, the US Treasury, are poised to raise at least $8.7bn through a sale of stock on Tuesday, handing the federal government a small profit on the deal, people familiar with the matter said

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/JIKXCV/ULCJB/26LMHO/3OHHYC/XL/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=24

[Demeter]

33. Lawsuit links Cisco with China crackdown

Senior executives at Cisco Systems worked closely with Chinese government security agents to tailor hardware and software they knew would be used to track, detain and torture followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, according to a US federal lawsuit filed last week.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/JIKXCV/ULCJB/26LMHO/C522N9/XL/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=24

[DemReadingDU]

34. Gretchen Morgenson interviewed on NPR Fresh Air

5/24/11 How 'Reckless' Greed Contributed To Financial Crisis

Gretchen Morgenson, who covers world financial markets for The New York Times, has been untangling the complex foreclosure mess and efforts to reform government regulations on Wall Street for several years. Now Morgenson and co-author Joshua Rosner have written a book about the origins of the financial meltdown.

In Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon, Morgenson and Rosner describe how regulators failed to control greed and recklessness on Wall Street. Morgenson focuses on the managers of Fannie Mae, the government-supported mortgage giant. She writes that CEO James Johnson built Fannie Mae "into the largest and most powerful financial institution in the world."

But in the process, Morgenson says, the company fudged accounting rules, generated big salaries and bonuses for its executives, used lobby and campaign contributions to bully regulators, and encouraged the risky financial practices that led to the crisis.

Morgenson is an assistant business and financial editor and a columnist for The New York Times and the author of the Forbes publication Great Minds Of Business. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her "trenchant and incisive" coverage of Wall Street. Joshua Rosner is a managing director at the independent research firm Graham Fisher and Co., which advises regulators and institutional investors.

more, also book excerpt, and audio...
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/24/136496032/how-reckless-greed-contributed-to-financial-crisis

[Hotler]

43. +1 n/t

[Demeter]

52. I caught part of a report on Fannie Mae's Johnson on NPR yesterday

and what he did to it....shocking! But only standard practice in America, I'm afraid.

[Demeter]

39. US Healthcare: Profits Before Patients

What is the point of having the world's best medical facilities if citizens don't have the money to access healthcare?

By Rose Aguilar

When Stan Brock started Remote Area Medical (RAM) in 1985, never in his wildest dreams did he think his services would be needed in the United States, the wealthiest country in the world.

RAM began as an all-volunteer mobile medical clinic that provided free and immediate health care to people living in remote areas of the Amazon rainforest. In 1992, he was asked to bring the clinic to Knoxville, Tennessee. He was shocked by what he saw.

"People were in desperate need of the most basic care," he said at RAM's most recent expedition in Oakland, California last month. "It didn't occur to me when I first came to this country, but it wasn't long before I could see there were similarities between people who don't have access to healthcare in a place like the Amazon and people who have access but can't afford it in America - and they're all in the same boat."...

[Demeter]

41. There's no way out for Greece By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28179.htm

Stocks plunged on Monday as Europe's sovereign-debt crisis deepened and bond yields across the EU periphery headed sharply higher. The euro fell hard against the dollar ($1.40) while the Greek 10-year bond spiked to 17 percent before mounting a modest comeback. The situation is getting desperate. Most economists now believe that Greece will have to restructure its debt. But bondholders are doing everything they can to make sure that doesn't happen because they stand to lose billions on their investments. So, they've thrown their weight behind ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet, EU policymakers, and the IMF, all of which are trying to pressure Greece to accept harsher austerity measures in order to avoid default. But the plan isn't working. Greece's finances are getting worse by the day. Something will have to be done soon or Greece's troubles will send markets into a nosedive.

The problem is simple; the current belt-tightening policy has failed, so it's time to move on to Plan B. But the folks in charge don't want to change policies because then the banks (who own a large share of the bonds) would take a hit on their investments. So, the fiasco drags on while the debts pile up and while peaceful street demonstrations turn into violent conflagrations. The bigwigs at the EU and ECB would rather see cities across the continent descend into a bloody free-for-all than lose one euro on their original investment...This does not make any economic sense, except from the point of view of creditors that want to make sure that these countries are punished for their “excesses” – although for the most part, it was not over-borrowing but the collapse of bubble growth and the world financial crisis and recession that brought them to this situation. Unfortunately, the view of the creditors is that which prevails among the European authorities....

When will it end? So long as these governments are committed to policies that shrink their economies, their only hope is that the global economy will pick up steam and pull them out with demand for their exports. This does not look likely in foreseeable future – the rest of Europe is not growing that rapidly and the U.S. economy is still weak." ("Eurozone’s Periphery Needs to Challenge Right-Wing European Authorities", Mark Weisbrot, CEPR)


What Greece needs is a way to dig out, which means debt forgiveness and a hefty fiscal stimulus package to rev up activity and put people back to work. Unfortunately, the EU doesn't have a mechanism for delivering fiscal aid to the weaker states. All they can do is extend loans to the struggling members and encourage them to slash domestic spending as much as possible. But that just increases unemployment, decreases revenues and makes and even bigger hole. The whole process just fuels public outrage which further exacerbates the economic troubles. The best thing to do is nip the problem in the bud; figure out what needs to be done and then do it. By dragging their feet, the ECB and IMF have only increased the chances of another meltdown...If Greece goes under, then it could take Portugal, Ireland and (perhaps) Spain along with it. So why is ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet dilly-dallying? Does he really think the problem is just going to go away? And why did French Finance Minster Christine Lagarde (who is the leading candidate to replace ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn) announce that "that a rescheduling or reprofiling of Greek debt is NOT an option (and that) executing the planned austerity program, proper implementation of privatization, and commitments across the political spectrum in Greece are the key for a solution in Greece" ("France's Lagarde: Option Of Rescheduling Greek Debt Not On Table", Wall Street Journal)...

[Hotler]

44. k&r n/t

[Demeter]

45. Does ‘merika have a culture? By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28178.htm

...America’s former culture--accountable government, rule of law and presumption of innocence, respect for others and for principles, and manners--has gone by the wayside. Many Americans, especially younger ones, are not aware of what they have lost, because they don’t know what they had...

THE REST IS QUIBBLING OVER THE DEFINITION OF "INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY" AND CAN BE IGNORED, BUT THIS ONE TRUTH REALLY STUCK HOME. I'D POST IT IN EDITORIALS, BUT THEY'D ONLY DELETE ME UNDER THEIR PREJUDICE AGAINST BOTH THE AUTHOR AND THE SOURCE BLOG. DU HAS SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS OF ITS OWN TO SOLVE...IT ACTS LIKE THE CRANKY OLD MAN FAR TOO OFTEN...

[xchrom]

48. +1

[Fuddnik]

61. A lot of people around here don't realize they're parroting Ed Meese.

"If they were innocent, they wouldn't be suspects".

They seem to think we operate under Napoleonic Law, meaning you're guilty until you prove yourself innocent. Think back to the lynch-mobs around here when the Duke La Crosse case happened.

You're right, it does belong in Editorials, where everyone could see it, but it's verbotten.

[bread_and_roses]

120. I have to beg to differ....

... though I hate differing - but I don't think that was ever the real culture of "America." Not of its leaders, nor in its actions. What seems different to me now is the blatancy. It seems to me that in the past, our Imperial Adventures (think Iran,1953, South America, too many to list, etc...among myriads of other violations both domestic and foreign ...) and tyrannical violations of civil rights were more disguised (though, come to think of it, what could be more blatant than McCarthyism...than racism in the South, esp, though the North had its share?)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it seems to me that in past the PTB worked harder to maintain the fiction that thus was our culture. And indisputably, even the fiction is something - it gave us a wedge, an angle, a lever with which to fight injustice. Now that we've completely abandoned the fiction, what do we have left?

[Demeter]

131. It depends on how long a span of history one examines

there WAS a US culture, into which each of the 9 regional "provinces" added a little seasoning...but toxic elements have replaced the nurturing ones. I wouldn't say all the poison came out of the South--Yankees provided their own Calvinism and con games--but the Civil War split the nation in ways it has yet to mend. Similarly, the Fundies can't take all the credit for the religious conflicts, everyone except the atheists has been playing in those muddy waters.

Coming from a recent (100 years) immigrant family, my family knew what was American and what wasn't. And we wanted to be Americans first, in public, and Polish Catholics in family life, union members at work, capitalists (small c) in our spare time with our savings. It was the definition of freedom, incarnate. This was the culture of the post-WW2...now long since buried with the Greatest Generation. (By the way, Mr. Clinton, what made that generation great was its humbleness. Phychopaths stood out like a sore thumb, and were shunned. Or imprisoned.)

Now, Corporations want us all to be corporate drones 24/7/365. And that's where I don't fit in, nor do most people.

I think,B&R, that you are pointing out early signs of the Culture Wars...when the great emergencies of the Depression and WWII were over, and the solidarity broke apart.

[bread_and_roses]

133. Your last sentence rings very true to me ...

Certainly, and just to be clear, I did not mean to be exculpatory of the North re: racism. I saw enough of it growing up, just outside Pittsburgh, and that in the "good old days" when there was plenty of union work at the steel mills and we didn't have a food bank on every corner.
edit:typo - (cat insists on weaving in front of my face while I try to type)

[xchrom]

46. Exxon facing questions about natural gas push

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EXXON_SHAREHOLDERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-25-08-05-43

DALLAS (AP) -- Exxon rode higher oil prices to a $30 billion profit last year. But shareholders at its annual meeting Wednesday are likely to ask pointed questions about its big push into natural gas.

Since buying XTO Energy last year for $29 billion, Exxon Mobil Corp. has become the largest natural gas company in the United States.

So far, the deal has backfired. Natural gas prices remain far below 2008 levels. That's one reason, analysts say, Exxon's stock has lagged behind that of rivals Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

[Demeter]

53. Obama's Private Killing Machine: Killing Our Way To Defeat

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28166.htm

VIDEO CLIP

They're known as "JSOC" -- Joint Special Operations Command. They report directly to the president and, as National Journal reporter Marc Ambinder put it "operate worldwide based on the legal (or extra-legal) premises of classified presidential directive." John Nagl, a former counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. Petraeus, described JSOC's kill/capture campaign to FRONTLINE as "an almost industrial-scale counterterrorism killing machine." http://to.pbs.org/mpzodl

[Demeter]

54. Barack Obama agrees to form joint national security body with UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/23/barack-obama-security-board-with-uk

Barack Obama will announce during his first state visit to Britain this week that the White House is to open up its highly secretive national security council to Downing Street in a move that appears to show the US still values the transatlantic "special relationship".

A joint National Security Strategy Board will be established to ensure that senior officials on both sides of the Atlantic confront long-term challenges rather than just hold emergency talks from the "situation room" in the White House and the Cobra room in the Cabinet Office...



MAKES ME WONDER WHAT HE'S REALLY UP TO OVER THERE...NOT THAT I'M PARANOID, JUST FAR TOO BURNED TO THINK IT'S GOOD.

[Demeter]

56. 10 Steps to Defeat the Corporatocracy By Bruce E. Levine

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/151018

Many Americans know that the United States is not a democracy but a "corporatocracy," in which we are ruled by a partnership of giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite and corporate-collaborator government officials. However, the truth of such tyranny is not enough to set most of us free to take action. Too many of us have become pacified by corporatocracy-created institutions and culture.

Some activists insist that this political passivity problem is caused by Americans' ignorance due to corporate media propaganda, and others claim that political passivity is caused by the inability to organize due to a lack of money. However, polls show that on the important issues of our day - from senseless wars, to Wall Street bailouts, to corporate tax-dodging, to health insurance rip-offs - the majority of Americans are not ignorant to the reality that they are being screwed. And American history is replete with organizational examples - from the Underground Railroad, to the Great Populist Revolt, to the Flint sit-down strike, to large wildcat strikes a generation ago - of successful rebels who had little money but lots of guts and solidarity.

The elite spend their lives stockpiling money and have the financial clout to bribe, divide and conquer the rest of us. The only way to overcome the power of money is with the power of courage and solidarity. When we regain our guts and solidarity, we can then more wisely select from - and implement - time-honored strategies and tactics that oppressed peoples have long used to defeat the elite. So, how do we regain our guts and solidarity?

1. Create the Cultural and Psychological "Building Blocks" for Democratic Movements
2. Confront and Transform ALL Institutions that Have Destroyed Individual Self-Respect and Collective Self-Confidence
3. Side Each Day in Every Way With Anti-Authoritarians
4. Regain Morale by Thinking More Critically About Our Critical Thinking
5. Restore Courage in Young People
6. Focus on Democracy Battlefields Where the Corporate Elite Don't Have Such a Large Financial Advantage
7. Heal from "Corporatocracy Abuse" and "Battered People's Syndrome" to Gain Strength
8. Unite Populists by Rejecting Corporate Media's Political Divisions
9. Unite "Comfortable Anti-Authoritarians" and "Afflicted Anti-Authoritarians
10. Do Not Let Debate Divide Anti-Authoritarians

DETAILS AT LINK

NOW, THIS IS A LOT OF "INTERIOR WORK", PSYCHING UP THE NATION TO INSTITUTE REAL CHANGE (NOT THE HOPEY-CHANGEY THING--WHICH REFLECTES DIRECTLY ON POINT # 6), AND I AGREE THAT THIS WORK MUST BE DONE FIRST.

I HAD HOPED THAT IT WAS BRED IN THE BONE OF AMERICANS, BUT THAT WAS TWO GENERATIONS AGO, I FEAR.(POINT 5, AND THE Paul Craig Roberts QUOTE ABOVE).

[Demeter]

59. Welcome to Debtors' Prison, 2011 Edition

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28176.htm

Some lawmakers, judges and regulators are trying to rein in the U.S. debt-collection industry's use of arrest warrants to recoup money owed by borrowers who are behind on credit-card payments, auto loans and other bills.

More than a third of all U.S. states allow borrowers who can't or won't pay to be jailed. Judges have signed off on more than 5,000 such warrants since the start of 2010 in nine counties with a total population of 13.6 million people, according to a tally by The Wall Street Journal of filings in those counties. Nationwide figures aren't known because many courts don't keep track of warrants by alleged offense. In interviews, 20 judges across the nation said the number of borrowers threatened with arrest in their courtrooms has surged since the financial crisis began.

The backlash is a reaction to sloppy, incomplete or even false documentation that can result in borrowers having no idea before being locked up that they were sued to collect an outstanding debt. The debt-collection industry says such errors are extremely rare, adding that warrants usually are sought only after all other efforts to persuade borrowers to pay have failed.

Earlier this month, Washington state's House of Representatives passed by a 98-0 vote a bill that would require companies to provide proof a borrower has been notified about lawsuits against them before a judge could issue an arrest warrant. All 42 Republicans voted for the legislation, which is expected to pass the state's Senate and be signed into law by the governor. A trade group representing debt collectors supports the bill and says the changes are needed because some companies are abusing Washington's existing law by improperly arresting borrowers...

THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JAILING DEADBEAT DADS WHO WON'T PAY WHEN THEY ARE PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF MEETING THEIR OBLIGATIONS TO THEIR CHILDREN'S SUPPORT, AND ARRESTING THOSE WHO HAVE NOTHING AND TAKING AWAY THEIR LIVELIHOOD...ONE WOULD BE EXPECTING TOO MUCH TO HAVE THAT DIFFERENCE RECOGNIZED IN A COURT OF LAW IN THIS COUNTRY...

[Demeter]

60. The U.S.: Where Europe Comes to Slum By Harold Meyerson

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-meyerson-europeans-20110515,0,3990894.story

The U.S.: Where Europe Comes to Slum--Its leading companies are investing in the U.S. because they can do things here they would never think of doing at home...The newest slumlord in Los Angeles is a pillar of German capitalism. Earlier this month, the city attorney's office filed suit against Deutsche Bank, the world's fourth-largest bank, for letting many of the more than 2,000 L.A. homes it has foreclosed on descend into squalor and decay.

A yearlong city investigation of the properties on which Deutsche Bank foreclosed turned up tenants compelled to live in crumbling apartments the bank would not fix, houses taken over by gangs, faucets from which water either wouldn't flow or wouldn't stop, and the occasional unidentified dead body. Nothing, in other words, that would be allowed to happen to bank holdings in Frankfurt, the neat-as-a-pin German city that is home to Deutsche Bank and much of the rest of German finance.

Deutsche Bank responded to the suit by blaming the loan servicers that were supposed to have maintained the bank's properties. But City Atty. Carmen Trutanich insisted the blame belonged with the owner. "We are not going to allow them to play the shell and nut game," he said.

But slumming in America is fast becoming a business model for some of Europe's leading companies, and they often do things here they would never think of doing at home. These companies — not banks, primarily, but such gold-plated European manufacturers as BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Siemens, and retailers such as IKEA — increasingly come to America (the South particularly) because labor is cheap and workers have no rights. In their eyes, we're becoming the new China. Our labor costs may be a little higher, but we offer stronger intellectual property protections and far fewer strikes than our unruly Chinese comrades...

[Demeter]

62. Trapped by the Euro, Yet Dependent on It by: Paul Krugman

http://www.truthout.org/trapped-euro-yet-dependent-it/1306244564

...Europe’s program for Greece is not working; it’s not even close to working. At the very least there must be a debt restructuring that actually reduces the debt burden rather than simply stretching it out. And the longer this situation remains unresolved, the less hope I have that Greece will be able to stay with the euro, even if it wants to.

Greek Out

An Argentine commenter notes that Argentina, in addition to letting the peso drop, both defaulted on its debt and imposed temporary restrictions on bank withdrawals. Indeed. Something similar would have to happen for a Greek exit from the euro to take place.

But bear in mind that the first piece is already a foregone conclusion: everyone knows that Greece won’t repay its debt in full. The problem is that even if the country defaults on its debt, it still faces the problem of wages and prices way out of line with the core euro countries. So devaluation is what you do when default isn’t enough.

As for the second point, the main argument against the possibility of a euro breakup has been precisely that any hint of exit would unleash the mother of all bank runs. So how could exit take place? I argued some time ago that it would have to happen in the context of a banking crisis that forces a temporary closure of the banks — something along the lines of the Argentine corralito...

[Demeter]

64. Why the Rich Love High Unemployment

http://www.truthout.org/why-rich-love-high-unemployment/1305061465

[Demeter]

65. Goldman Braces for Federal Subpoenas

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/112782/goldman-braces-federal-subpoenas-wsj?mod=bb-budgeting&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives expect to receive subpoenas soon from U.S. prosecutors seeking more information about the securities firm's mortgage-related business, according to people familiar with the situation.

Officials at the New York company believe the Justice Department will demand certain documents and other information, possibly within days, these people said. Spokesmen for Goldman and the Justice Department declined to comment Thursday.

Subpoenas don't necessarily mean criminal charges against Goldman or individuals at the firm are inevitable or even likely....

[Demeter]

78. The People vs. Goldman Sachs PART 4

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?page=4

...Timberwolf, the most notorious of Goldman's scams, was another car whose engine exploded right out of the lot. As with Hudson, Goldman clients who bought into the deal had no idea they were being sold the "cats and dogs" that the bank was desperately trying to get off its books. An Australian hedge fund called Basis Capital sank $100 million into the deal on June 18th, 2007, and almost immediately found itself in a full-blown death spiral. "We bought it, and Goldman made their first margin call 16 days later," says Eric Lewis, a lawyer for Basis, explaining how Goldman suddenly required his client to put up cash to cover expected losses. "They said, 'We need $5 million.' We're like, what the fuck, what's going on?" Within a month, Basis lost $37.5 million, and was forced to file for bankruptcy.

In many ways, Timberwolf was a perfect symbol of the insane faith-based mathematics and blackly corrupt marketing that defined the mortgage bubble. The deal was built on a satanic derivative structure called the CDO-squared. A normal CDO is a giant pool of loans that are chopped up and layered into different "tranches": the prime or AAA level, the BBB or "mezzanine" level, and finally the equity or "toxic waste" level. Banks had no trouble finding investors for the AAA pieces, which involve betting on the safest borrowers in the pool. And there were usually investors willing to make higher-odds bets on the crack addicts and no-documentation immigrants at the potentially lucrative bottom of the pool. But the unsexy BBB parts of the pool were hard to sell, and the banks didn't want to be stuck holding all of these risky pieces. So what did they do? They took all the extra unsold pieces, threw them in a big box, and repeated the original "tranching" process all over again. What originally were all BBB pieces were diced up and divided anew — and, presto, you suddenly had new AAA securities and new toxic-waste securities.

A CDO, to begin with, is already a highly dubious tool for magically converting risky subprime mortgages into AAA investments. A CDO-squared doubles down on that lunacy, taking the waste products of the original process and converting them into AAA investments...Goldman knew the deal sucked long before it dinged the Aussies in Basis Capital for $100 million. In February 2007, Goldman mortgage chief Daniel Sparks and senior executive Thomas Montag exchanged e-mails about the risk of holding all the crap in the Timberwolf deal.

MONTAG: "CDO-squared — how big and how dangerous?"
SPARKS: "Roughly $2 billion, and they are the deals to worry about."

Goldman executives were so "worried" about holding this stuff, in fact, that they quickly sent directives to all of their salespeople, offering "ginormous" credits to anyone who could manage to find a dupe to take the Timberwolf All-Americans off their hands. On Wall Street, directives issued from above are called "axes," and Goldman's upper management spent a great deal of the spring of 2007 "axing" Timberwolf. In a crucial conference call on May 20th that included Viniar, Sparks oversaw a PowerPoint presentation spelling out, in writing, that Goldman's mortgage desk was "most concerned" about Timberwolf and another CDO-squared deal. In a later e-mail, he offered an even more dire assessment of such deals: "There is real market-meltdown potential."


...Last year, in the one significant regulatory action the government has won against the big banks, the SEC sued Goldman over a scam called Abacus, in which the bank "rented" its name to a billionaire hedge-fund viper to fleece investors out of more than $1 billion. Goldman agreed to pay $550 million to settle the suit, though no criminal charges were brought against the bank or its executives. But in light of the Levin report, that SEC action now looks woefully inadequate. Yes, it was a record fine — but it pales in comparison to the money Goldman has taken from the government since the crash. As Spitzer notes, Goldman's reaction was basically, "OK, we'll pay you $550 million to settle the Abacus case — that's a small price to pay for the $12.9 billion we got for the AIG bailout." Now, adds Spitzer, "everybody can just go home and pretend it was only $12.4 billion — and Goldman can smile all the way to the bank. The question is, now that we've seen this report, there are a bunch of story lines that seem to be at least as egregious as Abacus. Are they going to bring cases?"

[Demeter]

66. Forget About Libya: Let's Invade the Caymans and Get the Offshore U.S. Corporate Loot Back!

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12710

If you were to look in the dictionary for a definition of the word "loot," you would find the following: "Goods usually of considerable value taken in war". But no matter how you get your hands on it, loot is still loot. According to Merriam-Webster, when nations seize loot, it is called war. However, when individuals seize loot, we call them pirates. But sometimes nations can act like pirates too...Merriam-Webster also defines the word "loot" as "something appropriated illegally often by force or violence." Even nations can do that! And if your nation is bound and determined to act like a pirate, then might I suggest that it follow Captain Jack Sparrow's excellent example and go off to the Caribbean to do its plundering, right?

According to journalist Nicholas Shaxson, author of "Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens," there are anywhere between ten and 20 trillion U.S. dollars sitting offshore at the moment. "Half of world trade is processed in one way or another through tax havens. It's all around us, and it's absolutely huge." (An absolute Must-Read if you want to understand American politics and economics today.) And many of these huge "offshore" holdings are located in the Caribbean. Good to know!

Of course plundering Libya does have its good points, I'll be the first to admit. By sacking and pillaging its oil-producing cities for their loot, there is much swag to be had -- especially if you are working for BP. However, dollar for dollar, the Cayman Islands have much more loot to offer than almost anywhere else in the world -- and I'm not just talking about some eye-popping booty here either. Unlike Libya, the Cayman Islands are also offering a really first-class place to invade. Just imagine all those billions and trillions of dollars stored in the bank vaults at Georgetown, just lying there waiting to be had. And them thar hearty treasures are easy pickings too -- because the Caymans, unlike Libya, doesn't even have an army to defend itself. No major guided missile systems, no nuclear weapons, not even very many tanks. Plus the hotels in the Caymans are much nicer than the ones in Libya, giving Anderson Cooper much more comfortable digs to report from than in the Middle East.

...If the United States is into the pirating game -- and it surely appears to be, after having successfully looted Iraq's oil, Afghanistan's heroin trade, Vietnam's central location and all that prime real estate in Palestine -- then I would like to suggest that it's time for America to GO BIG and loot the Cayman Islands too. Ah, the Caymans -- where all America's oligarchs' vast pirate swag always ends up eventually anyway. So let's eliminate the middleman here and go straight to the end of the booty rainbow itself.

[Demeter]

67. Why March-April's Job Gains Will Collapse This Summer

http://www.truthout.org/why-march-aprils-job-gains-will-collapse-summer/1305911757

Every spring for the last three years, the business press and government policy makers declare with great fanfare that the job market in the US has finally turned the corner; sustained recovery in job creation has begun. But every summer following their pronouncements, the opposite occurs: employment and job creation retrenches from the spring and declines.

In recent months, the US Labor Department has reported that jobs for March and April 2011 grew by more than 200,000 each month. Apart from the fact that 130,000 new workers enter the labor force each month, and, therefore, the "net" gain is really only 70,000 (and a third to half of gains represent part time and temp workers), the 200,000 jobs represent an apparent relative improvement over the dismal job creation picture since last June 2010. But appearances are deceptive, and sometimes even false.

How real is the job growth in recent months? And will it continue for the remainder of 2011? Our answer to the first query is "not very" and to the second, "not likely." Here's why.

If the past three years, 2008-2010, are any indicator, employment gains that occur in the spring are not a true, reliable indicator of actual job creation. And the gains of this spring will once again likely disappear in the coming summer-fall of 2011.

The reason has to do with serious problems with the way the Department of Labor calculates employment gains every spring, and in particular, during the second quarter of April-June. When the economy is growing, the problems in calculation are minimal. But when the economy is in a deep downturn, or remains stagnant, the problems are exacerbated...



This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

[Demeter]

68. The IMF after DSK by: Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research

http://www.truthout.org/imf-after-dsk/1306042817

Now that Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned from his position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it is worth taking an objective look at his legacy there. Until his arrest last week on charges of attempted rape and sexual assault, he was widely praised as having changed the IMF, increased its influence and moved it away from the policies that – according to the fund's critics – had caused so many problems for developing countries in the past. How much of this is true?

Strauss-Kahn took the helm of the IMF in November of 2007, when the IMF's influence was at a low point. Total outstanding loans at that time were just $10bn, down from $91bn just four years earlier. By the time he left this week, that number had bounced back to $84bn, with agreed-upon loans three times larger. The IMF's total capital had quadrupled, from about $250bn to an unprecedented $1tn. Clearly, the IMF had resources that it had never had before, mostly as a result of the financial crisis and world recession of 2008-2009.

However, the details of these changes are important. First, the collapse of the IMF's influence in the decade prior to 2007 was one of the most important changes in the international financial system since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in 1971. Prior to the 2000s, the IMF headed up a powerful creditors' cartel that was able to tell many developing country governments what their most important economic policies would be, under the threat of being denied credit not only from the fund but also from other, then larger lenders such as the World Bank, regional lenders and sometimes even the private sector. This made the fund not only the most important avenue of influence of the US government in low- and middle-income countries – from Rwanda to Russia – but also the most important promoter of neoliberal economic "reforms" that transformed the world economy from the mid 1970s onward. These reforms coincided with a sharp slowdown of economic growth in the vast majority of low- and middle-income countries for more than 20 years, with consequently reduced progress on social indicators such as life expectancy and infant and child mortality.

The IMF's big comeback during the world recession did not bring the middle-income countries that had run away from it back to its orbit. Most of the middle-income countries of Asia, Russia, as well as Latin America, stayed away, mostly by piling up sufficient reserves so that they did not have to borrow from the fund, even during the crisis. As a result, even a low-income country like Bolivia, for example, was able to renationalise its hydrocarbon industry, increase social spending and public investment, and lower its retirement age from 65 to 58 – things it could never do while it was living under IMF agreements continuously for 20 years prior. Most of the IMF's new influence and lending would land in Europe, which accounts for about 57% of its current outstanding loans...

[Demeter]

69. Wall Street Banker Peter Peterson and the Deficit Ostriches by: Dean Baker, Truthout

http://www.truthout.org/peter-peterson-and-deficit-ostriches/1306162389

Last spring, Wall Street investment banker Peter Peterson hosted a lavish, daylong conference devoted to the budget deficit. One of the highlights was an appearance by President Clinton. Clinton boasted of how he had wanted to cut Social Security back in the mid-90s but Congressional leaders from both parties wouldn't let him.

The cut he had wanted would have reduced the annual cost of living adjustment by 1 percentage point annually. This would have left seniors in their 70s, 80s and 90s with Social Security benefits today that are about 15 percent lower than their current level. How great would that have been?

Peterson is back with Round II this week, another lavish affair devoted to the deficit. President Clinton will again be playing a starring role, although it is not clear whether he will still be boasting about his wish to cut Social Security benefits.

What is clear is that Peterson is using his vast fortune to push an agenda that has little to do with deficit reduction, and everything to do with cutting Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that are vital to ordinary working people...

[xchrom]

71. German Prostitutes Speak Out 'Corporate Sex Parties Are Commonplace'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,764830,00.html

Monique doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. The newspapers have been full of lurid accounts of how German insurer Hamburg Mannheimer treated its best salesmen to a sex party with prostitutes in Budapest four years ago. "So what?" she shrugs, treading out a cigarette. "If the insurance customers ended up footing the bill that would be the last straw. But please don't go on about the morals of it!"

Monique, 32, is a Berlin-based prostitute and says she has been hired for similar corporate parties a number of times. The pattern is always the same. At first the gentlemen pretend to be surprised, laugh coyly, try to appear immune to the amorous intentions of the ladies, apologetically point to their wedding rings. But after a few more drinks those rings tend to disappear in their jacket pockets. The shyness melts away -- and the party gets going.

"They could save themselves all the play-acting at the start," says Monique, a brisk businesswoman. After all, time is money. "In the end they can't keep their hands off you and can't get enough." The guys who insist they're happily married usually turn out to be the friskiest ones later on, she says.

Monique isn't her only stage name. "Sometimes I'm Isabel, sometimes Vivian -- depending on whether I'm being elegant or doing a 'Pretty Woman,'" the attractive, dark-haired woman says with an infectious laugh. She has a gemstone planted in one of her front teeth. She admits she's had a touch of plastic surgery here and there. But she's still categorized as "natural" in the escort business, and she's proud of that.

[xchrom]

72. Stocks slide on risks to global economic recovery

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WALL_STREET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-25-09-40-18

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are opening lower for a fourth straight day as Europe's debt crisis worsens and orders for factory goods fall more than expected.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 35 points, or 0.3 percent, at 12,321, in early trading Wednesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down 4, or 0.3 percent, at 1,312. The Nasdaq composite is down 5, or 0.2 percent, at 2,741.

Greece's government has been unable to agree on how to control that country's debt. News that Japanese exports slipped in April heightened concerns about the global economic recovery.

[Demeter]

74. Thunder and Lightning, to go with the Downpour, Now

Looks like heavy weather on the DOW...

[Demeter]

122. And now, for something so completely obscure yet pertinent

In The Wet
By Rolf Harris & Bruce Harris
Copyright 1967 by Castle Music Pty. Limited, Sydney, Australia.
Ardmore & Beechwood Limited, 363 Oxford Street, London, W.1.


Look out here comes the wet
In the wet, in the wet,
In the wet, in the wet.
It gets about as wet as it can get
Now it's raining cats and dogs
And I can't stand croaking frogs
O brother it's wet.

I wish I had a quid
For ev'ry frog I've seen
A man'd be a millionaire for sure
But you can't earn a crust
And you pray to see some dust
When you're caught in the darn downpour.

In the wet, in the wet,
In the wet, in the wet.
It gets about as wet as it can get
Now it's raining cats and dogs
And I can't stand croaking frogs
O brother it's wet.

They say that when you want
To sort a problem out
You just roll yourself a cigarette and think
Have you tried to strike a light
When your pants are out of sight
And you're up to your elbows in the drink.

In the wet, in the wet,
In the wet, in the wet.
It gets about as wet as it can get
Now it's raining cats and dogs
And I can't stand frogs
O brother it's wet.

I'm droving in a 1000 head of short horned beef
And I've pushed 'em till their eyes grew dim
But the cows can't float
And I can't find a boat
And it's too late to teach 'em how to swim.

In the wet, in the wet,
In the wet, in the wet.
It gets about as wet as it can get
Now it's raining cats and dogs
And I can't stand those croaking frogs
O brother it's wet.

I've climbed out on this branch here
And believe you me
There's not one dry square inch of ground
And it's still a month or two
Before the wet is through
I'll lay you 6 to 4 a man gets drowned.

In the wet, in the wet,
In the wet, in the wet.
It gets about as wet as it can get
Now it's raining cats and dogs
And I can't stand croaking frogs
O brother it's wet.

I got fungus growing on me dungarees,
I got fungus on me dungas
And water on the knees.
It's the mad crazy country in the wet
Wo-oo, a mad crazy country in the wet
Wo-oo, a mad crazy country in the wet.

Unfortunately, I can't find a recording on line...but he's Australia's forerunner for Weird Al.

[xchrom]

75. europe: UK household spending slumps to near two-year low

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/25/uk-household-spending-slumps-low

Household spending has slumped to its lowest rate in nearly two years, underlining the sluggishness of Britain's economy. The weakness in consumer spending even before the public spending cuts have fully kicked in will boost expectations that the Bank of England will not rush to raise interest rates in coming months, despite high inflation.

However, the OECD, one of the west's leading economic thinktanks, called on the Bank of England to start raising interest rates this year to prevent inflation – currently at 4.5% – taking hold in the UK. In its twice-yearly report, the Paris-based organisation said Threadneedle Street would have to steadily increase borrowing costs over the next 18 months despite weak economic growth.

Revised figures from the Office for National Statistics confirmed that the UK economy grew by 0.5% in the first three months of the year, following a drop of the same magnitude in the fourth quarter of 2010. The two quarters taken together suggest the economy was stagnating rather than continuing its recovery from recession. Some economists had hoped for a small upward revision to 0.6%.

Household spending shrank by 0.6% between January and March, the biggest quarterly drop since the second quarter of 2009 when the economy was mired in recession.

[xchrom]

76. Interest rates must be raised this year, OECD warns

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/25/interest-rates-must-rise-oecd

The west's leading economic thinktank warned the Bank of England on Wednesday that it would have to start raising interest rates this year to prevent inflation taking hold in the UK.

In a downbeat assessment of the prospects for the economy, the Paris-based OECD said Threadneedle Street would have to steadily increase borrowing costs over the next 18 months despite the weakness of growth.

The OECD reiterated its support for the government's deficit-cutting strategy, but said George Osborne should remove exemptions on VAT in order to boost public spending on Britain's infrastructure.

And it said a full-break up of Britain's banks should remain an option even though the Independent Commission on Banking set up by the coalition has so far backed only more limited reform of the financial system.

[xchrom]

77. Bank of Scotland fined £3.5m over complaints handling

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/may/25/bank-of-scotland-fined-complaints-handling

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) today fined Bank of Scotland £3.5m for mishandling complaints about its retail investment products, and ordered it to pay £17.5m in compensation. The watchdog said this was the largest ever fine for complaints mishandling.

Between 30 July 2007 and 31 October 2009, the bank received 2,592 complaints about sales of its Collective Investment Plan, Personal Investment Plan, Guaranteed Growth Bond, Isa Investor and Guaranteed Investment Plan – many from older customers with little or no experience of investment products.

Bank of Scotland, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, wrongly rejected up to 45% of complaints that should have been upheld, the FSA said. To date, BOS has paid £2.4m in compensation to customers whose complaint was upheld following its own internal review, but the FSA said it expects further compensation of about £15m will be paid once further reviews have been completed by the end of July 2011.

In early May 2011, Lloyds Banking Group said it had put aside £3.2bn to cover compensation claims relating to mis-sold payment protection insurance.

[xchrom]

80. Mortgage approvals down by 6%

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/may/25/mortgage-approvals-down-bba

Mortgage approvals fell by 6% in April to 29,355, down from 31,205 in March and a steep fall of 18% on the 35,840 mortgages approved in April 2010, according to the British Bankers' Association (BBA).

Seasonally-adjusted gross mortgage lending fell by 5% year-on-year in April to £7.9bn, but the figure is 1% up on March 2010, when lending totalled £7.8bn.

However, the non seasonally-adjusted figures paint a bleaker picture, showing a monthly fall of 10% in gross mortgage lending between March and April 2011.

The number of remortgage approvals in April were 12% lower than the previous month and 7% lower than in April 2010, while approvals for equity withdrawal continue to be "subdued" at 22% lower in April 2011 than April last year.

[xchrom]

86. Europe's sun belt rich move more cash to London

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/uk-wealth-europe-idUKTRE74O1XV20110525

(Reuters) - The tycoons of Europe's troubled southern periphery are buying up homes in London's billionaire enclaves and shifting cash to the City's banks as they flee the euro zone's debt crisis.

Estate agents report buyers from Spain, Italy and Greece are muscling in on the residential market in London's elite neighbourhoods such as Mayfair and Belgravia, joining established colonies of rich Russians, Indians and Gulf Arabs.

Data from upmarket British property consultant Savills shows that buyers from Spain, Italy and Greece have increased their share of property purchases in central London's smartest neighbourhoods since the start of the year.

[xchrom]

88. Russia to auction part of oil and gas deposit off Sakhalin

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/25/c_13893572.htm

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Russia has planned to auction part of a hydrocarbon deposit in the Sea of Okhotsk off its Pacific Island of Sakhalin, local media reported.

The Russian government has instructed the Subsoil Use Agency to hold a tender this year for the deposit, which has over 16 million metric tons of estimated oil reserves, and 9.93 billion cubic meters of natural gas, the report said.

The deposit in the Sea of Okhotsk skirts the northern side of the Chaivo oil and gas deposit, which is part of the Sakhalin-1 project, the report said.

[xchrom]

92. Economy 'unlikely to grow' in 2011

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0525/breaking17.html

The Irish economy is unlikely to expand in 2011 as tax increases and other austerity measures cause private domestic demand to shrink further, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said today.

The OECD made the prediction as part of its global economic outlook, forecasting 2.3 per cent growth for Ireland in 2012.

"Ireland is continuing to undertake a comprehensive and vital adjustment programme to reduce its macroeconomic imbalances and restore its banking system to health," the OECD said. "Despite robust export growth, weak domestic demand and ongoing fiscal consolidation have prevented an economic recovery from unfolding so far."

The OECD said a "modest upturn" of output was expected this year as domestic demand stabilises, before gathering pace in 2012.

[xchrom]

94. Stress test results may be delayed

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0525/breaking32.html

The publication of pan-European bank stress tests, due in June, could face delay as national regulators debate how to implement and interpret the rules, three people familiar with the matter said.

German banks were on track to pass the test after two landesbanks recently changed their capital structrure, these sources also said today.

German regulator BaFin said stress test data had been submitted to the European Banking Authority and there were no preliminary findings.

The EBA will, within the next couple of days, set a date for publication of the stress test results, one source said.

[xchrom]

96. Farmers stage Dublin protest

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0525/breaking8.html

Thousands of farmers protested in Dublin today to highlight what the Irish Farmers’ Association claims is failed legislation which is allowing the powerful grocery multiple trade to “fleece farmers to bolster their profits”.

The protest began at Merrion Square shortly after 12pm and was followed by a march on the offices of Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton.

Up to 4,000 people were involved in the march which has caused widespread traffic disruptions in the Merrion Square and Dawson Street area.

Today's protest is a response to the raid on IFA head office by the Competition Authority a fortnight ago.

[xchrom]

106. Europe stocks struggle; C&W off, Commerzbank gains

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/europe-stocks-lower-cw-sinks-on-results-2011-05-25

MADRID (MarketWatch) — European stocks struggled to push higher on Wednesday afternoon, with banks such as Commerzbank AG supporting on the upside, but persistent sovereign-debt worries and a lower start for Wall Street kept gains at a minimum.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index /quotes/comstock/22c!sxxp ST:STOXX600 +0.66% rose 0.3% to 276.31 in afternoon trading, though most regional indexes were in the red.

Narrow losses greeted Wall Street at the start of trading after U.S. government data showed orders for durable goods fell short of expectations last month.

France’s CAC 40 index /quotes/comstock/30t!i:px1 FR:PX1 +0.23% and the German DAX 30 index /quotes/comstock/30p!dax DX:DAX +0.24% each fell around 0.1%, to stand at 3,907.98 and 7,140.95, respectively.

[xchrom]

107. delete -- wrong place. nt

[xchrom]

110. OECD pessimistic about employment prospects in Spain

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/25/c_13893893.htm

MADRID, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Wednesday predicted modest economic growth and higher unemployment for Spain, citing the collapse of the real estate sector in the debt-ridden country.

In a twice-yearly Economic Outlook published Wednesday, the OECD said the unemployment rate in Spain will stand at 20.3 percent at the end of the year, compared with a 19.1 percent forecast in November.

Meanwhile, GDP growth will slow to 0.9 percent this year, significantly below the government's forecast at 1.3 percent, but slightly above the EU expectation of 0.8 percent.

For 2012, the report forecasts that the Spanish economy will grow 1.6 percent, downgraded from 1.4 percent in its November report. The report raised its unemployment forecast to 19.3 percent from a previous 17.4 percent.

[xchrom]

124. S&P calms fears of automatic Irish downgrade

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/25/standard-poors-irish-downgrade

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has said it would not automatically downgrade Ireland if Greece was to restructure its sovereign debt.

On Tuesday, rival agency Moody's warned of a chain reaction for the 17-nation eurozone if Greece was allowed to default next month, saying Portugal and Ireland could be downgraded several notches from investment grade to junk.

"We would have to assess the situation as and when that occurred. In terms of the ratings, we focus on the fundamentals, the medium to long-term macroeconomic growth prospects, the fiscal position," said S&P's lead analyst for Ireland, Trevor Cullinan.

S&P last month cut Ireland's debt rating by one notch to BBB+ after stress tests revealed another €24bn (£20.8bn) black hole in the accounts of the nation's four main banks.

[hamerfan]

79. K&R!

For a great thread with a wealth of good info-links. Thanks to all!

[Demeter]

83. A Thought Worthy of Contemplation

from Joel Bowman at DailyReckoning.com:

"...As you are no doubt increasingly, perhaps even unnervingly, aware, the debate over "fight vs. flight" - that is, whether to move yourself and/or capital to safer pastures abroad or to stay at home and "stand your ground" - is becoming, by the day, more intense.

With each new stimulus package and boneheaded bureaucratic boondoggle, with each new law designed "for your own good," and with each and every freshly printed dollar bill, the noose around your personal and financial freedoms tightens just a little bit more. What to do?

For some, the America they so dearly love is worth saving at almost any cost. They have families and businesses in the country, things they cannot easily leave behind or forget. Others argue that the republic is simply beyond repair, that the debt obligations foisted upon the masses by their supposedly benevolent government are now so great as to have choked off any hope of a meaningful recovery anyway.

Still, for others, America was never so much a place on a map as an idea in the minds of free men and women. It exists wherever they are, whether it's working their land in the Midwest or building startups in Chennai, India. They are entrepreneurs who value the chance to pursue life, liberty and happiness any way they deem fit. These folks and others are starting to wonder if that idea, that core principal of freedom, isn't best pursued elsewhere..."

WELL, JOEL, AFTER ALL THIS TIME, I THINK WE SEE THAT THE PRINCIPLES OF AMERICA'S FOUNDING ARE NOT JUST FOR AMERICA--BUT DESIRED BY ALL PEOPLE, SAVE THOSE PSYCHOPATHS BENT ON UNBRIDLED GREED AND UNLEASHED POWER. SO IT MAKES NO SENSE TO CUT AND RUN. IF WE CAN'T DEFEND OUR FOUNDING PRINCIPLES HERE, WHY SHOULD ANY OTHER PEOPLE GIVE THEM CREDENCE ELSEWHERE?

[Demeter]

89. Speculators charged with manipulating oil market YOU GOTTA READ THE WHOLE THING! DYNAMITE!

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/24/114711/speculators-charged-with-manipulating.html

A group of financial speculators made $50 million by manipulating the price of oil in 2008, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Tuesday. The high-profile case underscores how high prices for oil and gasoline increasingly are believed to result significantly from financial speculation rather than solely from conventional market forces of supply and demand.

In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, CFTC attorneys alleged that a group made up of oil speculators Parnon Energy Inc., Arcadia Petroleum Ltd. and Arcadia Energy (Suisse) S.A. unlawfully manipulated trading of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The civil charges are for alleged manipulation during the first four months of 2008, when crude oil was on its way up to the all-time high of $147 a barrel. The CFTC complaint alleges that the three companies and two executives conspired — during a period of relatively tight oil supplies — to amass big quantities of oil for next-month physical delivery. They were dominating and controlling supply, even though they were not commercial users of oil. The documents allege that these traders in January 2008 held 66 percent of the 7 million barrels of oil they expected to be in storage at the end of February in Cushing, Okla., where benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude is delivered.

The companies allegedly held this large physical position on the final day of trading in the futures market for February delivery — an unusual move since they had no commercial need for the oil...In holding this deliverable oil off the market, the companies sought to artificially inflate the price of oil futures contracts — sending the signal that supplies would remain tight. Meanwhile, these same companies made large bets in the futures market that the price of oil would plummet in ensuing months. When they eventually sold their deliverable oil at a loss, that didn't matter to them, because they had switched their bets and were now aggressively betting that oil prices would drop in the futures market, the CFTC alleged.

MORE MORE MORE!

[xchrom]

90. +1

[Demeter]

91. EU's Barnier eyes commodity speculation controls

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-eu-markets-idUSTRE74N66G20110524

IT'S WORTH A TRY; BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.

[Demeter]

93. EU Lawmakers Endorse Clearing Rules for OTC Derivative Trades

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-24/eu-lawmakers-endorse-clearing-rules-for-otc-derivative-trades.html

SOMEBODY'S PUT THE REGULATORY BEE IN EUROPE'S BONNET...COULD IT BE THE THREAT OF THE IMF TAKING OVER THE CONTINENT?

[Demeter]

95. EU lawmakers back derivatives crackdown

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/uk-eu-derivatives-idUKTRE74N5HX20110524

A European Union lawmakers' committee has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a draft law to standardise derivatives so they can be moved through central clearing houses to reduce risk and improve transparency.

Derivatives trading, much of it transacted between banks, is used to guard against damaging moves in interest rates, inflation or commodity prices, but their open-ended and opaque nature made it hard to assess exposures in the $600 trillion (370.73 trillion pounds) sector when U.S. bank Lehman Brothers collapsed at the height of the financial crisis.

The devastating impact of that uncertainty on financial markets left regulators determined to shine a light on the sector to avoid any repeat.

The European Parliament's economic affairs committee meeting in Brussels voted by 36 to 1 in favour of the proposal, but there remain several hurdles before it becomes law....

[xchrom]

98. ...

:thumbsup:

[lovuian]

126. thank you EU where is AMERICA on derivitives????

they need to be regulated

[Demeter]

97. As ice melts and technology improves, interest in Arctic grows

As declining sea ice and better mapping and technology make the Arctic more accessible, nations with interests there — including the United States — are beginning to stake their claims on the resource-rich region.

Russia planted a flag on the seafloor below the North Pole in 2007. Denmark announced this week that it would ask the United Nations to recognize the North Pole as an extension of Greenland, its territory. The U.S. sent a secretary of state to a meeting of eight Arctic nations earlier this month for the first time, a sign that Americans also have their eye on the region's potential resources.

"This region matters greatly to us," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after the conference in Nuuk, Greenland.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/24/114695/as-ice-melts-and-technology-improves.html#ixzz1NNMyHPrn

[Demeter]

99. Elizabeth Warren and House Republicans clash over consumer agency

SHE WIPES THE FLOOR WITH THEM...

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-elizabeth-warren-20110525,0,777294.story

[Demeter]

119. President Obama: Appoint Elizabeth Warren to Lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign/sign_warrent_recessappointment/?action_id=6769907&akid=.454704.SmZrb8&rd=1&source=e1-warren

[xchrom]

102. australia: Australia bank stocks see no respite ahead

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/australia-bank-stocks-see-no-respite-ahead-2011-05-24

SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Australian banks have seen their share prices slide over the past month, and some analysts don’t see any improvement coming soon for the sector.

During May, Commonwealth Bank of Australia /quotes/comstock/22x!e:cba AU:CBA -1.79% /quotes/comstock/11i!cbauf CBAUF -3.54% shares have lost 6.7%, Australia & New Zealand Banking Ltd. /quotes/comstock/22x!e:anz AU:ANZ -0.46% /quotes/comstock/11i!anewf ANEWF -0.22% are down 10.7%, Westpac Banking Corp. /quotes/comstock/22x!e:wbc AU:WBC -0.55% /quotes/comstock/11i!webnf WEBNF -5.95% shares are 13.2% lower, and National Australia Bank Ltd. /quotes/comstock/22x!e:nab AU:NAB -1.93% /quotes/comstock/11i!naubf NAUBF +3.15% shares have lost 3.8%.

Some of the moves can likely be explained by broader-market action, with the Australian share market down 4.4% so far this month, including a 0.6% drop for the S&P/ASX 200 index /quotes/comstock/27w!i:xjo AU:XJO -0.95% in Wednesday morning trading.

Other Asian markets were putting in a slightly better performance, with Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average index /quotes/comstock/64e!i:ni225 JP:NI225 -0.57% down 0.4%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index /quotes/comstock/16k!i:000001 CN:SHCOMP -0.92% falling 0.2% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index /quotes/comstock/08s!i:hsi HK:HANGSENG +0.07% declining 0.6%. However, South Korea’s Kospi /quotes/comstock/64e!ks11 XX:$SEU -1.26% outpaced the ASX’s drop to lose 0.8%.

[Demeter]

104. Chrysler repays $7.6B to U.S., Canada, thanks White House for 'a second chance'

http://www.freep.com/article/20110524/BUSINESS0103/110524029/Chrysler-repays-7-6B-U-S-Canada-thanks-White-House-second-chance-

WHY AM I HEARING ECHOES OF THIS?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc6aufHz-i0

[xchrom]

108. U.S. economic confidence spikes, but could prove temporary

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/25/c_13892728.htm


WASHINGTON, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Gallup's economic confidence index this week reached its highest level since mid-February, continuing along a positive trend that started in the week after the death of top terrorist Osama bin Laden earlier this month.

Still, confidence could wane if consumer sentiment is not reinforced by additional positive economic reports, Gallup reported on Tuesday.

Indeed, the U.S. economy is by no means out of the danger zone, and a number of factors could thwart confidence: The U.S. and global economies seem to be slowing, according to a number of economic reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been down for three weeks in a row and jobless claims continue to run above 400,000, suggesting that job growth is insufficient to put a dent in the U.S. unemployment rate.

The battle over raising the U.S. federal debt limit seems to be heating up as U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warns of dire financial consequences if Congress does not act. Moreover, there exists a feeling of deja vu as the European debt situation has surfaced once more, as it did about this time a year ago, Gallup said.

[Demeter]

111. Lunchtime!

Bon appetit, y'all!

(Dang, I want some chocolate souffle now...)

[xchrom]

114. i've been thinking about it ever since you mentioned it. nt

[Demeter]

115. I don't even know where the recipe is any more

We're talking the '70's.

[xchrom]

117. well i'm impressed you used to make them.

i love to cook -- but i don't do them.

i love to eat them though.

[Demeter]

118. I used to do a lot of things

and most days, I wish I still were doing those things...instead of the scut work I do now.

[xchrom]

121. ...

:hug: here's hoping you get to do them again.

i know i love being a Homo Homebody -- doing Homey things.

[xchrom]

113. ok -- i'm posting this cause i LOVE martha.

Martha Stewart Living hires advisers; shares soar

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/9664097

NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) - Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has hired Blackstone Advisory Partners, signaling it could strike a partnership or sell a stake in the company and sending shares up more than 30 percent.
At the same time, the company's founder, Martha Stewart, announced on Wednesday that she expected to rejoin the board of directors in the third quarter.
The company, known for its flagship magazine and brands, said it hired Blackstone after having been approached by other parties interested in becoming a partner or investing in it.
But it cautioned, "there is no assurance that the exploration of strategic partnerships and other opportunities will result in a partnership or transaction."




i am SO hoping she will make an appearance on the Fabulous Beekman Boys.

[bread_and_roses]

123. "the capitalist order"

A telling quote:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/25-0

Missouri’s Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder was interviewed on a Tea Party radio program saying, “They sit around…matter-of-factly discussing violent overthrow of the capitalist order or the existing order, the workers taking to the streets and committing violent acts of industrial sabotage.”

emphasis added

[xchrom]

125. +1

[Demeter]

127. The way things are going

it's gonna happen, whether Pete Kinder approves or not. No industrial sabotage, though--just financial--for the Obscenely Wealthy.

[DemReadingDU]

128. Charles Hugh Smith: Things Are Spinning Out Of Control

a few snippets

5/25/11 Things Are Spinning Out Of Control

What the Fed is actually doing is starving the real economy and thus precluding any gains in employment as it diverts the national income to fatten the insolvent banking cartel.

Does anyone seriously believe their scam can endure? As I described in Your Pick, Ben, But One Goes Off the Cliff (April 22, 2011), the Fed's policies are setting up multiple double-binds. The Fed cannot finesse the unraveling of the entire financialization project.

The Fed claims it can force the real economy to "grow" by forcefeeding it credit. But all the Fed is really doing is fattening the banking cartel with guaranteed profits (borrow from the Fed for free and then deposit the funds at the Fed for interest) and enabling another speculative frenzy which generates fees and profits for the banking cartel while the U.S. taxpayers play bagholder.

Simply put, things are spinning out of the Fed's control. The Fed has been transferring the wealth of the nation to the banking cartel and the financial Power Elite for three long years, and the fraud at the heart of their claim to be "stimulating" the real economy is now in plain view.

Things are spinning out of control. Trends are beyond the feeble grasp of central financial authorities. Power is based not just on controlling events in the real world but on the perception of having some control over the real world. Once the central banks' control over large-scale trends and systems is revealed as illusory, then the unraveling of the Status Quo's powers will gain momentum.

more...
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay11/out-of-control5-11.html
or
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-pops-things-are-spinning-out-control

[Demeter]

129. wow. We have a Jeremiah here

God’s personal prediction to Jeremiah, “Attack you they will, overcome you they can’t,”<13> was fulfilled many times in the Biblical narrative,Jeremiah was attacked by his own brothers,<14> beaten and put into the stocks by a priest and false prophet,<15> imprisoned by the king,<16> threatened with death,<17> thrown into a cistern by Judah’s officials,<18> and opposed by a false prophet.<19> When Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem in 586 BC,<20> he ordered that Jeremiah be freed from prison and treated well.<21>

Jeremiah is one of the main prophets of the Hebrew Bible. His writings are put together in the Book of Jeremiah.

In Judeo-Christianity, Jeremiah is traditionally credited with authoring the Book of Jeremiah, 1 Kings, 2 Kings and the Book of Lamentations <3> with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple. Judaism considers the Book of Jeremiah part of its canon, and regards Jeremiah as the second of the major prophets. Christianity regards Jeremiah as a prophet while Catholicism in particular regards him as a saint. The New Testament quotes Jeremiah,<4> and it has been interpreted that Jeremiah “spiritualized and individualized religion and insisted upon the primacy of the individual’s relationship with God.”<5> Islamic tradition, meanwhile, also includes Jeremiah in the prophetic pantheon, and Jeremiah is listed as a prophet in all the collections of Stories of the Prophets.

Jeremiah came from a landowning family.<6> It is mentioned that he had a joyful early life,<7> however, the difficulties in Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations have prompted scholars to refer to him as “the weeping prophet.”<8> Jeremiah was called to prophetic ministry in c. 626 BC,<9> a few years after Josiah king of Judah had turned the nation toward repentance from the widespread idolatrous practices of his father and grandfather. Jeremiah’s job was to reveal the sins of the people and explain the reason for the impending disaster (destruction by the Babylonian army and captivity),<10><11> “And when your people say, 'Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.'"<12> The Lord said to Jeremiah:

Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord.

– Jeremiah 1:17-19 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah says that Jeremiah was called by Yahweh to prophesy Jerusalem’s destruction <24> that would occur by invaders from the North.<25> This was because Israel had been unfaithful to the laws of the covenant and had forsaken God by worshiping the Baals.<26> The people of Israel had even gone as far as building high altars to Baal in order to burn their children in fire as offerings to Baal.<27> This nation had deviated so far from God that they had actually broken the covenant, forcing God to withdraw his blessings. Jeremiah was guided by God to proclaim that the nation of Israel would be faced with famine, be plundered and taken captive by foreigners who would exile them to a foreign land. SOUND FAMILIAR TO TODAY?

[xchrom]

132. +1

[plumbob]

134. k&r for the evening crowd!

Final exams start tomorrow, this is a driveby.