The Legendary Weekend Economists! April 15-17, 2011

[Demeter]

We may not be the stuff of legends, not even in our own minds, but legends, myths, and misconceptions drive the human mind far more than even the most honest scientist will admit. It's only embarrassing when it happens and catches us unaware...

Consider the Legend of Faust, or Faustus for the classically inclined:

http://www.faust.com/ WOULD YOU BELIEVE FAUST HAS HIS OWN WEBSITE?

Faust (pronounced ‘fowst’) or Faustus is a scholar who sells his soul to the Devil. Although fictional in literature, the legend is based on an actual magician who lived in the area of northern Germany in the fifteenth century.

Once idealistic, he is now disillusioned and bitter with despair. He foresakes God and makes a perilous deal with the Devil in which he commits his soul to eternal damnation in return for power and knowledge in this life.

The legend has inspired many great writers, musicians, and other artists. The two most famous works on the Faust theme are Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, and Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s Faust.

While Goethe’s Faust has been called the definitive Faust, there is no one Faust story, instead, there are hundreds or thousands of variations on the theme in theatre, music, film, poetry, art, and literature.

We live in a time that is overrun with Fausts and Faust-imitators.

Any CEO who puts profits ahead of workers, customers, and environment is a Faust.

Any politician who compromises his duties and ethics for money and power is a Faust.

Anyone who takes present pleasure or gain over future misery, in the belief that the future never comes, is living a Faustian bargain with an unforgiving world.

The Future has come. And there will be a housing shortage in Hell.

[Demeter]

1. SIX BANKS DOWN!

Bartow County Bank, Cartersville, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Hamilton State Bank, Hoschton, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of Bartow County Bank.

The four branches of Bartow County Bank will reopen during their normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Hamilton State Bank...As of December 31, 2010, Bartow County Bank had approximately $330.2 million in total assets and $304.1 million in total deposits. Hamilton State Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 1.0 percent to assume all of the deposits of Bartow County Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Hamilton State Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and Hamilton State Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $247.5 million of Bartow County Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $69.5 million. Compared to other alternatives, Hamilton State Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Bartow County Bank is the 29th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the seventh in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Citizens Bank of Effingham, Springfield, on February 18, 2011.



New Horizons Bank, East Ellijay, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Citizens South Bank, Gastonia, North Carolina, to assume all of the deposits of New Horizons Bank.

The sole branch of New Horizons Bank will reopen on Monday as a branch of Citizens South Bank...As of December 31, 2010, New Horizons Bank had approximately $110.7 million in total assets and $106.1 million in total deposits. Citizens South Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 1.0 percent to assume all of the deposits of New Horizons Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Citizens South Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and Citizens South Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $84.7 million of New Horizons Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $30.9 million. Compared to other alternatives, Citizens South Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. New Horizons Bank is the 30th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the eighth in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Bartow County Bank, Cartersville, earlier today.



Nexity Bank, Birmingham, Alabama, was closed today by the State of Alabama Banking Department, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with AloStar Bank of Commerce, Birmingham, Alabama, a newly-chartered bank, to assume all of the deposits of Nexity Bank.

The sole branch of Nexity Bank will reopen on Monday as a branch of AloStar Bank of Commerce...As of December 31, 2010, Nexity Bank had approximately $793.7 million in total assets and $637.8 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, AloStar Bank of Commerce agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and AloStar Bank of Commerce entered into a loss-share transaction on $384.2 million of Nexity Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $175.4 million. Compared to other alternatives, AloStar Bank of Commerce's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Nexity Bank is the 31st FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Alabama. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was First Lowndes Bank, Fort Deposit, on March 19, 2010.



Superior Bank, Birmingham, Alabama, was closed today by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Superior Bank, N.A., Birmingham, Alabama, a newly-chartered bank subsidiary of Community Bancorp LLC, Houston, Texas, to assume all of the deposits of Superior Bank.

The 73 branches of Superior Bank will reopen during their normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Superior Bank, N.A...As of December 31, 2010, Superior Bank had approximately $3.0 billion in total assets and $2.7 billion in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Superior Bank, N.A. agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and Superior Bank, N.A. entered into a loss-share transaction on $1.84 billion of Superior Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $259.6 million. Compared to other alternatives, Superior Bank, N.A.'s acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Superior Bank is the 32nd FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Alabama. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Nexity Bank, Birmingham, earlier today.



Rosemount National Bank, Rosemount, Minnesota, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Central Bank, Stillwater, Minnesota, to assume all of the deposits of Rosemount National Bank.

The sole branch of Rosemount National Bank will reopen on Saturday as a branch of Central Bank...As of December 31, 2010, Rosemount National Bank had approximately $37.6 million in total assets and $36.6 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Central Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $3.6 million. Compared to other alternatives, Central Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Rosemount National Bank is the 33rd FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Minnesota. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Community National Bank, Lino Lakes, on December 17, 2010.



Heritage Banking Group, Carthage, Mississippi, was closed today by the Mississippi Department of Banking and Consumer Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Trustmark National Bank, Jackson, Mississippi, to assume all of the deposits of Heritage Banking Group.

The eight branches of Heritage Banking Group will reopen on Monday as branches of Trustmark National Bank...As of December 31, 2010, Heritage Banking Group had approximately $224.0 million in total assets and $196.2 million in total deposits. Trustmark National Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.15 percent to assume all of the deposits of Heritage Banking Group. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Trustmark National Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and Trustmark National Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $156.4 million of Heritage Banking Group's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $49.1 million. Compared to other alternatives, Trustmark National Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Heritage Banking Group is the 34th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Mississippi. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was First National Bank, Rosedale, on June 4, 2010.

[Demeter]

2. EST. LOSSES SO FAR TONIGHT: $588.1M

Sheila must have unloaded a lot of takeover assets and raised some cash...I notice several takeovers involved premium payments, too.

The South got hit pretty hard tonight. There were a couple of major banks there, too.

[burf]

8. Good evening Demeter!

Isn't Sheila quitting her job in a couple of months of so? I thought I read something about it a while back. Maybe if she is quitting, she might just be doing the spring cleaning before she leaves.

Are there any solvent banks left in Georgia?

BTW, a weather update, cold and snow tonight, low of 25. Had to go out and check the new calves this evening to make sure they are ok. So far so good.

[Demeter]

10. Brrrr!

We are mostly staying above freezing, although the cold wind, gray skies and icy rain don't make for much of a spring.

The forsythia are blooming, though.

If you have a link about Sheila, post it. I hadn't heard that (I haven't heard much, actually).

How many joyous events are you expecting this year?

[burf]

15. After a little looking around,

I found this.


When Sheila Bair steps down next year from her post at the helm of the FDIC, she should leave in her wake a crowd of community bankers swathed in mourning and lamenting her departure

Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/industry-news/banking-finance/2010/11/12/fdic-chief-sheila-bair-strengthened-community-banks#ixzz1JeMPwc4a

I asked because I haven't heard anything lately.

On the home front, we have four new ones and only one more to go.

[Demeter]

17. Excellent Article on Sheila--That's a Great Find. Then there's Elizabeth

Two Unreasonable Women

http://www.truthout.org/two-unreasonable-women/1302678000

...Let me offer two examples of people today who deserve our applause for rankling the establishment and, in turn, enduring its furious abuse: Sheila Bair and Elizabeth Warren. Both are daring to bring a stronger consumer and public-interest voice into the closed, cliquish and often self-serving world of banking.

Bair heads the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which gives a big helping hand to banks by insuring their customers' deposits. The FDIC is also supposed to help consumers and taxpayers by regulating banks. And -- my goodness -- unlike some of her predecessors, she has chosen to do both jobs, including providing tough enforcement of regulations to prevent bank failures, foster real competition and deter banker finagling.

At a recent meeting, financial chieftains showed their appreciation for her work (and their ugly side) with a cascade of catcalls, guffaws, snorts and boos as she spoke.

Booed by bankers. I'm sure that's unpleasant at the moment -- but what a badge of honor!

Likewise, Warren is under constant attack by Wall Street bosses and the flock of Republican Congress critters who shamelessly serve them. She helped create and is now setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a watchdog over banker abuses. To show their gratitude, the bankers got their GOP mad-dogs to slash the bureau's budget and simply eliminate Warren's salary.

To add your voice in support of these two "unreasonable" women, go to Bankster USA: www.banksterusa.org.

[Demeter]

3. The Story Outline of Faust

Faust has studied for years without satisfactory progress, loosing his faith and his idealism. In frustration he becomes a black-magic sorcerer and summons the Devil. The demon Mephistopheles (or Mephisto) appears. Together they make a pact in which Mephistopheles offers to serve Faust for a period of time, at the cost of Faust’s eternal soul.

Mephistopheles is a difficult servant, and Faust is challenged by his tricks, lies, and deceptions. Despite their adventures, Faust accomplishes little or nothing of substance while beguiled by his power–he wastes it with frivolous tricks and indulgences. Faust futilely strains to revoke his pact under the burden of growing disgrace and damnation, but is humbled by Satan. Will Faust become a true super-man and be saved, or will he prove his human weakness and be seduced by the cunning of the devil and his own baser instincts? Is Faust the sort of man, and is this pact the sort of thing that God can forgive? Can Man step outside the embrace of God and face the world on his own to become free?

Today, the name “Faust” has become attached to tales about a person of power whose pride and arrogance lead to his doom. The term faustian has come to mean a tarnished deal for worldly power or knowledge at the expense of a higher (spiritual) value or reward, or, simply, “possession” with a thirst for skill or knowledge.

http://www.faust.com/

[Demeter]

4. Conscientious Millionaires Request Higher Taxes in Letter to President

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/559929/conscientious_millionaires_request_higher_taxes_in_letter_to_president/#paragraph3

While the GOP appears to have a certain disdain for any American who's not rolling around in piles of money like Duck McScrooge, it's worth remembering that not all wealthy people are humanity-hating dollar-hoarders. That's one lesson from the letter drafted by the so-called 'Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength' -- a coalition of rich folks beseeching President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner to do the sane thing and raise their taxes.

Over 40 millionaires formed the group last year during the debate over the Bush Tax Cuts, and they've banded together again over the budget. National Journal:



The Millionaires—a group that includes producer and director Doug Liman, actress Edie Falco, the founder of Ask.com, and top Google engineers—wrote that the United States has helped them succeed financially, and they are willing to help the country do the same.

“Our country has been good to us. It provided a foundation through which we could succeed,” the group wrote. “Now, we want to do our part to keep that foundation strong so that others can succeed as we have.”

[Demeter]

5. Scientists Find Link Between Global Warming and Earthquakes

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/560158/scientists_find_link_between_global_warming_and_earthquakes/#paragraph2

I'M AGNOSTIC ABOUT THIS---READ IT IF YOU WILL, AND I WILL LOOK FOR SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE 'HARD SCIENCE' TO BACK IT UP....

[Po_d Mainiac]

61. There was a Cleveland City Club lecture carried by NPR

a couple weeks ago on the issue....Fascinating stuff.

I do not have a link and my DSL is dragging an anchor.

[fasttense]

77. I have always suspect as much.

Thanks for posting this. It seems to have gone viral and is all over the internet.

[Demeter]

6. Fiscal Scandals: Goldman Sachs May Have Misled Investors, Banks Investigated for Collusion

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/559930/fiscal_scandals%3A_goldman_sachs_may_have_misled_investors%2C_banks_investigated_for_collusion/#paragraph3

today, there are not one but two gems for you to gnaw on, via Daily Beast.

First, a two-year Senate Panel inquiry into Goldman Sachs has shown the firm may have misled both Congress and investors about housing market securities. Senator Carl Levin, D-MI, wants the Justice Department and the SEC to investigate 'whether Goldman Sachs violated the law by misleading clients who bought the complex securities known as collateralized debt obligations without knowing the firm would benefit if they fell in value,' reports Bloomberg.

Last year, Sachs employees -- including CEO Lloyd Blankfein -- testified under oath that Goldman Sachs did not bet against the mortgage market for profit -- and if the probe finds otherwise, they could be indicted for perjury, as well. “In my judgment,” said Senator Levin in a press briefing, “Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled the Congress.”

And in a separate matter, US investigators are looking into whether big banks worked together to alter interest rates during the financial crisis, reports the WSJ. The DoJ and the SEC suspect institutions such as Bank of America and Citigroup colluded to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), by understating their borrowing costs and keeping the global loan rate artificially low -- knowingly affecting trillions of dollars around the world and putting global finances in peril.

And if you want to get madder, there's also:

How 12 Multinational Corporations Avoid Paying Taxes

http://www.alternet.org/economy/150598/how_12_multinational_corporations_avoid_paying_taxes/?page=entire

[Demeter]

7. SOURCES FOR THE FAUSTIAN STORY

There have been many tales about people who make pacts with the Devil. One of the oldest versions known is that the tale of Theophilus of Adana. Furthermore, it was not uncommon for people of unusual abilities and accomplishments to be suspected of making a pact with the Devil, and it was well known (particularly during the times of the witch hunts) that witches made real or implied pacts with the Devil to get their powers.

The Faust story was based on a real magician and alchemist known as Dr. Johann Georg Faust who was active in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and seems to have originated in northern Germany. According to Leo Ruickie and others, “Faust(us)” was an assumed name.

“Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

King James’s Bible Galatians Chapter 5 20-21

There are other tales that may have contributed to the Faust tale, although they may also have a common origin or have influenced each other.

In Polish folklore there is a tale of a Pan Twardowski who lived in Kraków. Pan Twardowski sold his soul to the Devil for magical powers, and raised the ghost of the wife of the King. He was carried off by the Devil, but dropped on the moon, where he lives to this day. According to Melanchthon, an associate of Martin Luther, who claimed to have known the real Faustus, the historic Faustus had studied in Kraków, suggesting a common root for the two tales.

There are also older tales which will have influenced the Faust theme, for if they didn’t influence it directly, they were earlier versions of a similar train of thought–a tinge of rebelliousness against God which predates even Christianity (and of course, the tales of the ancient arts of conjuring and divination were always hovering in the background, despite the Church).

One influence may have been Jacob Bidermann’s treatment of an 11th century legend of the Damnation of the Doctor of Paris, Cenodoxus.

Another source may be a fourteenth or fifteenth century Dutch play, Mary of Nijmegen. It tells the story of a young woman who takes a demon called One-Eyed Moenen as her teacher to learn the seven liberal arts (rhetoric, music, logic, grammar, geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy). Mary regrets, repents and seeks forgiveness. She eventually receives her reward in heaven.

A possible inspiration of Marlowe’s version in particular is John Dee (1527-1609), who practiced forms of alchemy and science, and developed Enochian magic. Other possible inspirations include alchemists such as Paracelsus and Agrippa who were contemporary to the historical Faustus, though it might be safer to assert that alchemy was an inspiration, as were witchcraft, the occult and nascent Freemasonry.

[Demeter]

9. If the US Doesn't Pull Every Soldier from Iraq by Midnight, Dec. 31, 2011, Expect Serious Trouble

http://www.alternet.org/story/150588/if_the_us_doesn%27t_pull_every_soldier_from_iraq_at_midnight%2C_dec._31%2C_2011%2C_expect_serious_trouble?akid=6823.227380.WfKzRI&rd=1&t=8


...Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was finished eight years ago this past Saturday; Shi'ite Sadrists and most Sunnis regard April 9 as the ignominious day Iraq was annexed by Washington. Iraq is that Arab nation that was under a no-fly zone for a decade - and then had almost all of its society and infrastructure smashed by the Pentagon (neo-conservative Washington dreamed of rebuilding it, for a profit).

So this is what the Sadrists sent as a gift card to the "liberators"; you'd better leave our land by the end of 2011, for good, as agreed. Or else one of the Pentagon's ultimate nightmares will be back; a revived, revamped Mahdi Army unleashing guerrilla tactics.

Muqtada's gift card message - he continues to study theology in the Iranian holy city of Qom - was delivered via his spokesman Salah al-Obaidi and backed up by a million-man-march across Baghdad. The masses came from all over Iraq's south and from Diyala province to the east (the crowds were smaller because security closed off streets and bridges leading to the rally, near a US military base.)

The message came like clockwork, just one day after Pentagon head Robert Gates visited northern Iraq to convince the Nuri al-Maliki government to, well, keep occupying the country to an indefinite future. By then, the US State Department had already announced it wanted to keep an army of mercenaries and what could amount to thousands of bureaucrats in the largest US Embassy in the world. The mercenaries allegedly will protect the bureaucrats. Talk about American exceptionalism....

[Demeter]

11. Some People Like to Be the Devil in the Faustian Legend

Revealed: Confidential Document Shows Oil Company's Strategy to Con Landowners into Giving up Drilling Rights

http://www.alternet.org/story/150597/revealed%3A_confidential_document_shows_oil_company%27s_strategy_to_con_landowners_into_giving_up_drilling_rights?page=entire

WE KNOW THEM AS MARKETERS, SALESMEN, CONMEN, LOBBYISTS AND ADVERTISING AGENCIES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_Oe-jtgdI

The Music Man "Ya Got Trouble" with the Incomparables: Buddy Hackett and Robert Preston

[Demeter]

12. Why Cutting Deficits Now Is (Literally) Psychotic

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/559266/why_cutting_deficits_now_is_%28literally%29_psychotic/#paragraph3

"Psychosis" is a mental illness whose sufferers can't differentiate between fantasy and reality. In that sense, the president's speech, like the vast majority of mainstream reporting on the deficit debate, is nothing short of psychotic.

Most Americans probably don't understand the theory by which high deficits can hurt the economy. It goes like this: you run high, sustained deficits, and investors lose confidence in your ability ro pay them back. Because they view your debt as riskier than they did before, you then have to raise interest rates in order to entice them to buy your bonds.

The higher interest rates, in turn, make it more expensive for businesses in the private sector to get the financing they need to expand their operations and hire more staff. So, what started with a high level of public debt effectively "crowds out" private investment and hurts job creation. That's the theory, and it is a valid one in certain circumstances...

[girl gone mad]

13. k & r

[Demeter]

14. 88 Thousand Former Obama Supporters Pledge NOT to Help in 2012 if Medicare/Medicaid Are Cut

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/559006/88_thousand_former_obama_supporters_pledge_not_to_help_in_2012_if_medicare_medicaid_are_cut/#paragraph5

TO QUOTE VERIZON: CAN YOU HEAR US NOW?


...Here's the text of the pledge:

President Obama: If you cut Medicare and Medicaid benefits for me, my parents, my grandparents, or families like mine, don't ask for a penny of my money or an hour of my time in 2012. I'm going to focus on electing bold progressive candidates -- not Democrats who help Republicans make harmful cuts to key programs.

And here's how many have signed it, according to the PCCC earlier today: "In less than 1 day, 88,000 Obama-2008 supporters pledged to withhold donations and volunteering from Obama if he cuts Medicare/Medicaid. This includes over 26,000 volunteers who gave 1.1 million volunteer hours in 2008 and over 43,000 donors who gave $8.2 million to Obama in 2008."

That's a lot of time and money.

[DemReadingDU]

21. Some things should not be cut

Social Security should be in that list too.

[Demeter]

23. There is another group for that, mentioned in the article

[Demeter]

16. WE'LL PICK IT UP FROM HERE IN THE MORNING

Share your stuff in my absence...I'm off to dreamland!

[Demeter]

18. Jim Hightower Sounds the Alarm

http://www.truthout.org/two-unreasonable-women/1302678000

They're back. Actually, they never left, they just laid low while the heat of political anger blew over...They are the schemers and scammers of Wall Street who devised the Phantasmagoric Money-From-Nothing Good Times Machine that was fueled by indecipherable derivatives and other financial fairy dust. If you're presently stuck in hard economic times, you have them to thank, for it was their hocus-pocus that -- poof! -- imploded our economy in 2008.

Responding to public outrage, President Obama and the Democratic Congress passed a reform bill last year that tightened the rules on these tricksters. But now -- with Wall-Street-hugging Republicans running the House and Obama himself turning into Wall Street's best buddy -- the schemers and scammers are demanding that Washington loosen those pesky rules so they can restart that Good Times Machine for their own fun and profit.

For example, the biggest banks are pressing hard for the Treasury Department to exempt a derivatives game called "foreign-exchange swaps" from any regulation. These gamble on the ups and downs of foreign currencies. Not only are they explosively risky, they're massive, with some $4 trillion being bet on them every day...A hiccup in this speculative game can ruin the day of a whole country. But a handful of Wall Street giants rake in about $9 billion a year handling these high-rolling bets, and they don't want the public even seeing what they're doing."Don't regulate us," they insist, "trust us." After all, they say, this currency game is the one derivatives market that did not crash in 2008.

Not so fast, slick. The only reason the market for foreign-exchange swaps didn't crash is that the Federal Reserve poured more than $5 trillion into foreign central banks that year to prop it up.

[Demeter]

19. Why Public Support for Free Trade Will Collapse Soon

http://www.truth-out.org/why-public-support-free-trade-will-collapse-soon/1301986800

For once, some good news: public support for free trade will almost certainly collapse over the next few years. On this issue, the public is way ahead of the political class in the quality of its thinking., and the average hardware store owner in Nebraska understands the real economics involved better than the average U.S. Senator.

Public opinion certainly continues to turn against free trade: an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll in September 2010 found 53% of Americans believing free trade agreements hurt the U.S., with only 17% believing them beneficial. (The split had been 30% vs. 39% in the dot-com boom year of 1999.) 86% named outsourcing to low-wage nations the key cause of America’s failure to emerge fully from recession and create jobs, significantly outranking choices like the federal deficit. The turn against free trade was sharpest among the affluent and cut across boundaries of class, region, and political affiliation.

As of early 2011, there are four missing prerequisites for free trade to explode as an issue and collapse as a policy: SEE LINK FOR SPECIFICS

Make no mistake: we are heading for a big economic paradigm shift here.

[Demeter]

20. 10 Industries Headed for the Dead Pool

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Special-Features/Slideshow/Dying-Industries/Slide1.aspx

...A recent report from IBISWorld indicates that of 200 industries on the decline in the United States today, 10 are in particular danger of disappearing altogether...The 10 industries fall into two categories: those falling victim to technological advances, such as video rental and landline phone carriers, and those decimated by competition from other countries, like textile and other mills. Whatever the reason, if you are someone looking to build a career, your safest bet is to steer clear of these 10 industries.

SEE SLIDE SHOW AT LINK

[Demeter]

22. Consumer Spending Slowdown Threatens Recovery

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/04/11/Consumer-Spending-Slowdown-Threatens-Recovery.aspx

THOROUGHLY DEPRESSING GRAPHIC PORN

[Demeter]

24. LESSONS FROM THE PREVIOUS CIVIL WAR--FOR USE IN NEXT

The reflection up on events of 150 years ago continues. I'll try to corral them all here.

[Demeter]

25. Civil War at 150: Debt Lessons from Lincoln

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/04/12/Civil-War-at-150-Debt-Lessons-from-Lincoln.aspx?utm_source=The+Fiscal+Times+Latest+News&utm_campaign=e0fae81ad6-Latest_News_from_The_Fiscal_Times_04_13&utm_medium=email

One hundred and fifty years ago today, the United States entered into war with itself, embarking on what would become a four-year-long conflict and one of the country’s early major fiscal tests. In 1864, President Lincoln said of the Civil War, “It has produced a national debt and taxation unprecedented, at least in this country.”

Indeed, public debt increased 15 times over between 1861 and 1865. But under Lincoln, the Union was careful to maintain sound fiscal footing. For the first time in the country’s history, Americans would pay federal income taxes. By today’s standards, those 1861 rates seem downright quaint: 3 percent on income above $800 and 5 percent on those living outside the country. The following year the law was revised to levy a 3 percent tax on income beyond $600 and 5 percent on earnings over $10,000. But those quaint rates generated 25 percent of the Civil Wars’ costs, according to Robert Hormats, author of The Price of Liberty, which details the financing of American wars.

At the same time, Lincoln’s Treasury secretary, Salmon P. Chase, oversaw the creation of both the first federal currency, in 1862, and a national banking system, in 1863. A standardized currency enabled the United States to issue $500 million in war bonds, and the banks provided a market for them. “The national banking system was created primarily for the purpose of buying these government bonds to back the issue of national bank notes ,” explains Roger L. Ransom, author of several books on the Civil War, including Conflict and Compromise: The Political Economy of Slavery, Emancipation, and the American Civil War...After the Civil War ended, the U.S. government insisted on paying off the war debt – it called in all of the “greenbacks,” according to Ransom, resulting in “the longest deflationary period in American history.” This led to widespread economic tumult, including labor revolts, which culminated with country adopting the gold standard in 1900.

...Despite the country’s current deficit problems, the War on Terror* cost only 1.2 percent of GDP at its highest in 2008, according to a 2010 report by the Congressional Research Service. In 1865, by contrast, the northern states spent 11.3 percent of GDP on the Civil War. And the percentage increase in federal debt during the Civil War far outstrips the percentage increase during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. The explanation: In the 1860s, the United States economy was smaller and far less developed. As a result, overall productivity was much lower, given that manufacturing was still in its infancy (no assembly line yet), and the majority of the population working in agriculture had a very low per capita output.

War Costs Then and Now

Civil War *

Total estimated cost of the Civil War: $4.2 billion (about $84 billion in today's dollars)

Cost as a percentage of GDP in peak year: 11.3 percent (1865)

Total debt at the start of the Civil War: $64.8 million (about $1.296 billion in today's dollars)

Total debt at the start of the Civil War: $2.2 billion (about $44 billion in today's dollars)

Percentage increase in public debt: 1,543 percent

War on Terror

Total estimated cost (as of July 2010): $1.121 trillion

Cost as a percentage of GDP in peak year: 1.2 percent (2008)

Total public debt at the start of the Iraq War: $6.2 trillion

Total public debt today: $14.3 trillion

Percentage increase in public debt: 230 percent

*Costs are guesstimated for inflation based on modern metrics. There is no consensus on how to measure inflation before 1913.

[Demeter]

26. "Unequal Protection": The Boston Tea Party Revealed

They {those who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence} meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which would be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening the influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere. The assertion that “all men are created equal” was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be—as, thank God, it is now proving itself—a stumbling block to all those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism.

—Abraham Lincoln, speech in Springfield, June 26, 1857, commenting on the Dred Scott decision of the U.S. Supreme Court

http://www.truthout.org/unequal-protection-boston-tea-party-revealed/1301986800

HISTORY LESSON FOR AMERICA AT LINK

[Demeter]

27. A Global Tsunami, Courtesy of the Fed

The Fed is in a bind. No matter which way it turns, utter failure is a risk. Putting more money into the system risks no less than the dollar itself. Stopping quantitative easing (QE) risks plunging the economy and financial system into another period of turbulent decline. It looks like the Fed is going to choose the latter.

In a recent report, I made the case that pressure was building on the Fed to end its QE 2 program in June, and that if it did, there would be an enormous rout in the stock, bond, and commodity markets. That analysis still stands.

This new two-part report will analyze the many competing factors, both for and against, that will determine whether QE 2 really is the end of the Fed's efforts at printing up a recovery, or merely the event that precedes QE 3.

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/global-tsunami-courtesy-fed/55822?utm_source=newsletter_2011-04-09&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_teaser_55822&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_13

[DemReadingDU]

28. ZeroHedge: Inflation explained

4/15/11
From the bears who explained quantitative easing so that even CNBC anchors now know what POMO is, comes the follow up: Inflation explained. So easy that no Ivy League Ph.D. is guaranteed to understand it.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/inflation-explained
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL7V9BnJXO8&feature=player_embedded#at=152


11/30/10 Quantitative Easing Explained (Obscenity Free Edition)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JO43HH7CXQ&feature=relmfu

[Demeter]

29. That was Depressing--Pun intended

[Demeter]

30. AND HERE'S MORE: 7 Examples of How the Poor Are Being Robbed to Give More Wealth to the Rich

http://www.alternet.org/story/150543/7_examples_of_how_the_poor_are_being_robbed_to_give_more_wealth_to_the_rich?akid=6811.227380.0Km3RO&rd=1&t=28

...According to the Financial Times, there are now more people living in poverty in the US than at any time in the last 50 years. Foreclosure filings were nearly four million in 2010, up 23 percent since 2008, according to RealtyTrac.

[DemReadingDU]

35. That's depressing too

:(

[Demeter]

31. THE DOCUMENTED FAUST

The Faust story first appeared in print in 1587 in the form of a chapbook (a cheap book or pamphlet), Historia & Tale of Doctor Johannes Faustus. Although the earlier tales may be sources of inspiration for the Faust tale, this chapbook is the first known printing of the traditional Faust legend, which was essentially re-told by Marlowe and then Goethe, with variations.

The chapbook was translated into English by a “P. F., Gent” in 1592 as The Historie of the Damnable Life, and Deserved Death of Doctor Iohn Faustus (now lost). Christopher Marlowe used this work for his play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus several years later (published around 1600).

Marlowe’s work was read by Goethe, who had also seen puppet plays on the Faust theme performed in the streets as a youth. Inspired by these and other stories, he wrote his great work Faust.

Why “Faust?”

People wonder where the name “Faust” or “Faustus” come from, and what it signifies. Inasmuch as there was a recorded historical person of that name who seems to have provided the inspiration for the story, we are left to wonder if that was a natural family name, or a nom de plume, and if the later, if the use of the Faust name provides any clues into his origins and identity.

Certainly “Faust” is a family name, and “Faustus” is a Latinized version of that. Apart from that, the German word “faust” means “fist;” the Latin adjective “faustus” means “auspicious” or “lucky;” and “fustum” is the Latin word for a doctor’s staff.

In Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician, Leo Ruickbie notes that it was not unusual for people to take on a Latinised nom de plume, deduces that Faust’s full name provides clues to his true identity and to his association with the growing Renaissance humanism movement, and attempts to place both the historical and fictional Fausts into their contexts in history.

[Demeter]

58. The Faust Legend By Professor Kuno Francke

http://www.bartleby.com/60/204.html

THE FAUST legend is a conglomerate of anonymous popular traditions, largely of mediæval origin, which in the latter part of the sixteenth century came to be associated with an actual individual of the name of Faustus whose notorious career during the first four decades of the century, as a pseudoscientific mountebank, juggler, and magician, can be traced through various parts of Germany. The “Faust Book” of 1587, the earliest collection of these tales, is of prevailingly theological character. It represents Faust as a sinner and reprobate, and it holds up his compact with Mephistopheles and his subsequent damnation as an example of human recklessness and as a warning to the faithful to cling to the orthodox means of Christian salvation. 1

THE ELIZABETHAN “DOCTOR FAUSTUS”

From this “Faust Book,” that is, from its English translation, which appeared in 1588, Marlowe took his tragedy of “Dr. Faustus” (1589; published 1604). In Marlowe’s drama Faust appears as a typical man of the Renaissance, as an explorer and adventurer, as a superman craving for extraordinary power, wealth, enjoyment, and worldly eminence. The finer emotions are hardly touched upon. Mephistopheles is the mediæval devil, harsh and grim and fierce, bent on seduction, without any comprehension of human aspirations. Helen of Troy is a she-devil, and becomes the final means of Faust’s destruction. Faust’s career has hardly an element of true greatness. None of the many tricks, conjurings, and miracles, which Faust performs with Mephistopheles’s help, has any relation to the deeper meaning of life. They are mostly mere pastimes and vanity. From the compact on to the end hardly anything happens which brings Faust inwardly nearer either to heaven or hell. But there is a sturdiness of character and stirring intensity of action, with a happy admixture of buffoonery, through it all. And we feel something of the pathos and paradox of human passions in the fearful agony of Faust’s final doom. 2

THE LEGEND IN GERMAN POPULAR DRAMA


...To the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, then, Faust appeared as a criminal who sins against the eternal laws of life, as a rebel against holiness who ruins his better self and finally receives the merited reward of his misdeeds. He could not appear thus to the eighteenth century. The eighteenth century is the age of Rationalism and of Romanticism. The eighteenth century glorifies human reason and human feeling. The rights of man and the dignity of man are its principal watchwords. Such an age was bound to see in Faust a representative of true humanity, a champion of freedom, nature, truth. Such an age was bound to see in Faust a symbol of human striving for completeness of life.

THE VERSION OF LESSING

It is Lessing who has given to the Faust Legend this turn. His “Faust,” unfortunately consisting only of a few fragmentary sketches, is a defense of Rationalism. The most important of these fragments, preserved to us in copies by some friends of Lessing’s, is the prelude, a council of devils. Satan is receiving reports from his subordinates as to what they have done to bring harm to the realm of God. The first devil who speaks has set the hut of some pious poor on fire; the second has buried a fleet of usurers in the waves. Both excite Satan’s disgust. “For,” he says, “to make the pious poor still poorer means only to chain him all the more firmly to God”; and the usurers, if, instead of being buried in the waves, they had been allowed to reach the goal of their voyage, would have wrought new evil on distant shores....Much more satisfied is Satan with the report of a third devil, who has stolen the first kiss from a young, innocent girl and thereby breathed the flame of desire into her veins; for he has worked evil in the world of spirit, and that means much more and is a much greater triumph for hell than to work evil in the world of bodies. But it is the fourth devil to whom Satan gives the prize. He has not done anything as yet. He has only a plan, but a plan which, if carried out, would put the deeds of all the other devils into the shade—the plan “to snatch from God his favorite.” This favorite of God is Faust, “a solitary, brooding youth, renouncing all passion except the passion for truth, entirely living in truth, entirely absorbed in it.” To snatch him from God—that would be a victory over which the whole realm of night would rejoice. Satan is enchanted; the war against truth is his element. Yes, Faust must be seduced, he must be destroyed. And he shall be destroyed through his very aspiration. “Didst thou not say he has desire for knowledge? That is enough for perdition!” His striving for truth is to lead him into darkness. With such exclamations the devils break up, to set about their work of seduction; but, as they are breaking up, there is heard from above a divine voice: “Ye shall not conquer.” ...MORE--GOETHE, FOR EXAMPLE!

Note 1. Harvard Classics, xix, 205.
Note 2. H. C., xix, 9ff.

[kickysnana]

32. Gold is still trending up. The chart for SMW Friday is still active. n/t

[Demeter]

33. Glencore lifts veil on market dominance

The Swiss-based commodities firm has revealed it commands at least half of some of the world’s most important publicly traded metals markets on the day of its IPO launch

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/18L5S8/52KB7/UU9R45/IY751Q/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=15

[Demeter]

34. Signals on Madoff ‘ignored at JPMorgan’

Senior JPMorgan Chase executives were aware of suspicions that Bernard Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, according to an updated court filing from the trustee

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/18L5S8/52KB7/UU9R45/WLJFZT/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=15

[Demeter]

36. Julius Baer in €50m tax deal with Germany

Group becomes the first Swiss private bank to reach a settlement with the German authorities over its potential role in helping rich customers to evade paying tax

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/18L5S8/52KB7/UU9R45/NSXDGP/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=15

[Demeter]

37. Goldman on the defensive

If there is one area that congressional investigators believe contains the key to possible criminal probes into Goldman Sachs’ role in the crisis, it’s the ‘big short’

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/18L5S8/52KB7/UU9R45/GKA7PK/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=15

[Demeter]

57. Skimpy Coverage of Levin-Coburn Report From WSJ, NYT

http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/skimpy_coverage_of_levin-cobur.php


...So here are some of the main things you don’t know about the Levin-Coburn report if you just read The Wall Street Journal and/or The New York Times papers, and missed good coverage by McClatchy, The Huffington Post, and Bloomberg (and a bit of so-so from the FT):

— That Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the subcommittee that release the report, wants to refer Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and other Goldman executives to the Justice Department for prosecution for lying to Congress and for defrauding investors. Everybody reported that but the two big papers.

Today, in a second-day story, the Financial Times looks at the possibility of a criminal case against Goldman.

— That Goldman screwed a client in a manner similar to how Wachovia worked over the Zuni Indian Tribe, for which Wells Fargo (which acquired Wachovia) had to pay an $11 million fine last week. The Huffington Post has that, reporting that it involved selling a slice of the infamous Timberwolf “shitty deal” for 42 percent more than Goldman had marked it.

— That Goldman’s Hudson-Mezzanine-2006-1 deal, which the Journal got a scoop on a couple of weeks ago, looks like another Abacus, the deal that cost Goldman $550 million...

MUCH MORE AT LINK ON THE VAMPIRE SQUID GETTING HUNG BY ITS TENTACLES

[Demeter]

38. E-books overtake US paperbacks

Sales of e-books in February tripled over the previous year to $90.3m, the Association of American Publishers reported, exceeding adult paperback sales of $81.2m

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/18L5S8/52KB7/UU9R45/D4C2FY/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=15


ANYBODY HERE GOING THE E-BOOK WAY? I HAVE YET TO SEE THE ATTRACTION, BUT THEN, I'M HARDLY "ON THE GO"...IT SEEMS A DAMN-FOOL WAY TO AMUSE ONESELF, AND EXPENSIVE, TOO. TOO COMPLICATED.

[Fuddnik]

43. I love my Nook!

If I see a book review, or something by an author I like, BAM!. I thirty seconds, I have it on my Nook, and PC. No trip to the store, no gas used, no time wasted. And I can waste a lot of time in a bookstore. I'm worse than a woman in a shoe store. :hide: :spank: :hide:

Also, there are millions of books you can download for free. And most libraries carry e-books that you can download from home, on loan for two weeks. And with the Nook, you can share or loan a book to another Nook reader for up to two weeks.

I know that if I travel, half of my suitcase is filled with books. Now I've got this little guy that will hold up to 1,500 books + music! Now, if it could just mix cocktails!

[Demeter]

44. See, I never go anywhere

I am rarely out of Ann Arbor. Having finally gotten home, I'm in no hurry to stray. Even if I could afford it, and didn't have to worry about the Kid or the cats, I wouldn't want to go most places.

I'd like to go back to Europe--hell, I'd live there, if I could figure out a way. But travel in general? Been there, done that.

Not having to store physical books has its appeal. But the books I've kept (actually paid money for) have a physical appeal....

[hamerfan]

71. I just talked myself out of a Kindle.

I can get a whole lot of used paperbacks for the same price. The Kindle's big attraction for me was the changeable font/text size. As my eyes have gotten older, reading gets harder and harder. Reading glasses work.
Kindle does offer a lot of classics for free, here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=2245146011

Then there are format wars, and I'd need to repurchase a lot of ebooks that are on my real bookshelf now.

And I just didn't think it was worth the trouble. YMMV.

[Fuddnik]

72. That's why I went with a Nook instead.

Everybody else publishes in Epub or Pdf format. If you go with a Kindle, you're married to Amazon.

Right now, I've got 5 bookcases full of books, and more lying around. And I donate them by the case to Goodwill, and our library. And, I can change the font size on the Nook as well. I take it with me to the gym, and have no problem reading on the treadmill or eliptical machines.

[Demeter]

39. Bosch warns of Japan effect on global economy

The German group says that the crisis will cut global economic growth by a quarter of a percentage point and could put a big dent in planned increases in car production

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/18L5S8/52KB7/UU9R45/YHF3MG/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=15

I PREDICT THAT THE "JAPAN EFFECT" WILL PUT A 20% DENT IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. WE ARE ONLY BEGINNING TO SEE THE FALLOUT (WORD CHOSEN SPECIFICALLY) OF THE NUCLEAR VOLCANOES OF FUKUSHIMA. I ALSO PREDICT MANUFACTURING WILL BE COMING BACK TO THE US AS A RESULT. AND IF WE ARE VERY LUCKY, NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY WILL HAVE THE FINAL STAKE PUT THROUGH ITS HEART. It is too much to expect the immediate and permanent shutdown of all nuclear reactors, but I expect they will be gradually decommissioned.

[Demeter]

40. Cash bonus for Morgan Stanley chief

Morgan Stanley paid James Gorman $14m, including the first cash bonus awarded to its chief executive in six years, for his performance during an eventful first year at the investment bank’s helm.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/18L5S8/52KB7/UU9R45/26ULXV/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=15

[Demeter]

41. China first-quarter GDP grows 9.7%

The Chinese economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter and inflation rose to its highest level in almost three years despite months of government attempts to slow surging growth.

China’s gross domestic product increased 9.7 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier the government said on Friday, down slightly from 9.8 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of 2010, but still faster than most economists had predicted.

Meanwhile, benchmark consumer prices rose 5.4 per cent from the same period a year earlier in March, a big increase over February’s 4.9 per cent
and the highest reading in 32 months.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/3JFELL/TPJV4T/SUO9T/26UHOK/RNIJ5S/36/t?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=15

[Demeter]

42. Slip-sliding into Recession By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27898.htm

In June, the Fed's bond buying binge (QE2) will end and the economy will have to muddle through on its own. And, that's going to be tough-sledding, because QE2 provided a $600 billion drip-feed to ailing markets which helped to lift the S&P 500 12% from the time the program kicked off in November 2010. Absent the additional monetary easing, the big banks and brokerages will have to rely on low interest rates alone while facing a chilly investment climate where belt-tightening and hairshirts are all-the-rage and where consumers are still licking their wounds from the Great Recession. None of this bodes well for the markets or for the millions of jobless workers who continue to fall off the unemployment rolls only to find that the social safety net has been sold to pay off the mushrooming budget deficits...First, let's look at the stock market and an article by Marketwatch's Mark Hulbert:

"There have been only four other occasions over the last century when equity valuations were as high as they are now, according to a variant of the price-earnings ratio that has a wide following in academic circles. Stocks on each of those four occasions would soon suffer big declines....

The four previous occasions over the last 100 years that saw the CAPE as high as they are now:

The late 1920s, right before the 1929 stock market crash

The mid-1960s, prior to the 16-year period in which the Dow went nowhere in nominal terms and was decimated in inflation-adjusted terms

The late 1990s, just prior to the popping of the internet bubble

The period leading up to the October 2007 stock market high, just prior to the Great Recession and associated credit crunch

To be sure, a conclusion based on a sample containing just four events cannot be conclusive from a statistical point of view. Still, it will be hard to argue that the current stock market is undervalued or even fairly valued...." ("History bodes ill for stock market," Mark Hulbert, Marketwatch)

Well, that doesn't sound too good, does it? The markets appear to be at a tipping point while consumers are still deleveraging to get out of the red. But at least another credit expansion is underway, right? Isn't that what Bernanke just said two weeks ago? That's should keep the economic-flywheel spinning-along until consumer demand picks up, right?....Ahhh, if it was only true. But, it's not. There is no credit expansion; it's just more public relations fluff like "green shoots" and "self sustaining recovery". Here's a blurb from Gluskin Sheff's chief economist David Rosenberg who breaks down in the credit picture in plain English:

"Consider this: We know that consumer credit, ex-student loans, is still contracting. And we know from National Federation of Independent Business that "the vast majority of small businesses (93 percent) reported that all their credit needs were met or that they were not interested in borrowing."...

And this---also from The Big Picture blogsite:

"The new U.S. consumer credit numbers reflect an economy that is reaccelerating, and that is very bullish for growth - as well as inflation. All in all, U.S. household credit surged by $7.62 billion in February, ramping up faster than at any other time since June 2008.

I respectfully beg to differ. While the story gives a passing nod to the rise in student loans, the fact of the matter is that student loans are virtually the whole story, and the downward trend/trajectory in credit, save that category, has really not reversed." ("Fade the Consumer Credit Headline", The Big Picture)

Sure, student loans and subprime auto loans have been surging, but that's mainly due to crafty sales-hype and government subsidies rather than real organic demand. The truth is, consumers are still hunkered down and adding to their savings. They're shunning additional debt regardless of low rates and other inducements. So demand is still weak and getting weaker as food and energy prices soar. And, while its true that core inflation is still hovering around 1%, headline inflation has zoomed to 0.5% in the last month alone. What does it mean? It means that the average working slob can't buy Mom that new waffle-iron because he shot the wad filling his behemoth SUV with CITCO unleaded....It's the same for retail sales, which increased by a whopping 0.4% in March. Only, don't drill too far into the numbers or you'll find the truth, that apres gasoline, the number drops to a paltry 0.1%, hardly worth mentioning. So, times are tough for consumers and they're about to get a lot tougher as the GOP-led Congress takes its meat cleaver to the 2012 budget and the states are forced to dump payrolls and slash services to the poor and needy. It's all bad.

Is it any wonder why small business owners are so dejected and don't see a glimmer of light anywhere? Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal:

Small business owners became more worried about the economy in March, according to data released Tuesday....The National Federation of Independent Business‘s small-business optimism index fell 2.6 points to 91.9 in March....

Despite worries about future demand, small business owners plan to increase their selling prices. The report said the seasonally adjusted net percentage of owners reporting higher selling prices increased to 9% in March, from 5% in February. The reading has risen 20 percentage points since last September, the report said.

The NFIB said a major force behind the price increases is the elimination of excess inventories. The report also said profits are “badly in need of some price support.”....

The increased pessimism among small business owners in March echoes more downbeat views among U.S. consumers that showed up in two major surveys of household attitudes last month. ("Small-Business Optimism Declines", Wall Street Journal)

Not only are small business owners feeling depressed, but consumer confidence is plunging as well. This is from Gallup:

"Americans' optimism about the future direction of the U.S. economy plunged in March for the second month in a row, as the percentage of Americans saying the economy is "getting better" fell to 33% -- down from 41% in January.

Economic Optimism Declines Across Demographic Groups

While upper-income Americans remain more optimistic than their lower- and middle-income counterparts, optimism among both groups declined substantially in March. Despite Wall Street's strong first quarter performance, the percentage of upper-income Americans saying the economy is getting better fell to 41% in March from 50% in January, leaving it at the same level as a year ago. Lower- and middle-income Americans' economic optimism also fell in March, to 32%, from 40% in January....

Gallup's Economic Confidence Index Also Takes a Plunge in March....

...American consumers face several major challenges. Soaring gas and food prices not only reduce disposable income but also discourage additional spending as the cost of necessities increases. Global events, continued political battles about the budget in the nation's capital, and a weak, if modestly improving job market add to consumer uncertainties. As a result, it is not surprising that consumer confidence plummets even as Wall Street continues to do well.

However, if consumers continue to lack confidence and spending doesn't increase, it is hard to see how the U.S. economy can continue its modest improvement..." ("U.S. Economic Optimism Plummets in March", Gallup)

So, yes, the rich and well-heeled are feeling quite good about things of late, but the rest of us are in a constant state of near-panic just trying to figure out how we're going to keep the wolves away from the door. That may explain why--after 10 years of Bush & Obama--a growing number of Americans have given up on capitalism altogether. It's true! Take a look at this from GlobeScan:

"American public support for the free market economy has dropped sharply in the past year, and is now lower than in China, according to a GlobeScan poll released today.

The findings, drawn from 12,884 interviews across 25 countries, show that there has been a sharp fall in the number of Americans who think that the free market economy is the best economic system for the future.

When GlobeScan began tracking views in 2002, four in five Americans (80%) saw the free market as the best economic system for the future—the highest level of support among tracking countries. Support started to fall away in the following years and recovered slightly after the financial crisis in 2007/8, but has plummeted since 2009, falling 15 points in a year so that fewer than three in five (59%) now see free market capitalism as the best system for the future....

The results mean that a number of the world’s major emerging economies have now matched or overtaken the USA in their enthusiasm for the free market. The Chinese and Brazilians, 67 per cent of whom regard the free market system as the best on offer, are now more positive about capitalism than Americans.... ("Sharp Drop in American Enthusiasm for Free Market, Poll Shows", GlobeScan)

Whoa! How do you like them apples? The Chinese like capitalism more than Americans now. Can you believe it? And look at the beating that free markets took under Obama; down a hefty 15 points in one year, even worse than Bush?!? And, do you know why? Because even though things were scarier under Bush, most people still believed we could turn things around at the ballot box. Now they know they can't. Now they know the system is broken on a fundamental level and the changes they want can't be achieved through the political process. And Gallup wonders why we're so depressed?...That's why the end of June could be the tipping point, because when QE2 ends, deflationary pressures will reemerge and the economy will begin to teeter...Eventually policymakers will see that fiscal stimulus is the only way to pull the economy out of the mud, but only after they have exhausted all the other options.

[Demeter]

45. In Further Research on Faust, It Seems the Template for Science vs. Religion

The scientist, thwarted by the ineffable, unconquerable mystery of Reality, turns to the Devil (instead of God) to gain mastery over men and nature. God punishes him. Moral of the story:

Better a Stupid Believer than a Smart Scientist.

Well, that might have worked in the 1600's, until science got its feet under it and produced more than random explosions and gruesome poisonings (until recently, at least). And for those in this nation, still stuck in the 1600's, or passionately longing to return to those mythical times, there is no law against it, worse luck.

But our modern-day Fausts treat Science and Technology as a Slave or Mercenary, used to subdue the Earth beat other people into submission and out of their worldly goods. Well, in Japan, we see how well the Earth took it. here's even a theory that the earthquakes and tectonic plate movements are in response to climate change. And as for "other people", well, let's ask the Tunisians, Libyans, etc., etc,...and Wisconsins.

More and more, I wish the Amerindian beliefs in ecology, nature, etc. had gained a greater foothold in this country. Damn you, John Wayne and your kind!

[Demeter]

46. U.S. Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/555216/u.s._military_spending_has_almost_doubled_since_2001/

A new report released today by SIPRI, a Swedish-based think tank, reveals that U.S. military spending has almost doubled since 2001. The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade.

U.S. spending on the military last year far exceeded any other country. We spent six times more than China — the second largest spender. Overall, the world expended $1.6 trillion on the military, with the United States accounting for the lion’s share:


THE QUESTION THAT IMMEDIATELY COMES TO MIND:

WHY DO WE HAVE TO DEPEND ON THE SWEDES FOR THIS INFORMATION?

[Demeter]

47. For a translation of Goethe's Faust

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/faustidx.html

For summaries of other's versions:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/faust.html

Abstracted from the Faust Chapbook of 1587

Johann Faustus was born in Roda in the province of Weimar, of God-fearing parents.

Although he often lacked common sense and understanding, at an early age he proved himself a scholar, mastering not only the Holy Scriptures, but also the sciences of medicine, mathematics, astrology, sorcery, prophesy, and necromancy.

These pursuits aroused in him a desire to commune with the Devil, so--having made the necessary evil preparations--he repaired one night to a crossroads in the Spesser Forest near Wittenberg. Between nine and ten o'clock he described certain circles with his staff and thus conjured up the Devil.

Feigning anger at having been summoned against his will, the Devil arrived in the midst of a great storm. After the winds and lightning had subsided the Devil asked Dr. Faustus to reveal his will, to which the scholar replied that he was willing to enter into a pact. The Devil, for his part, would agree:

1. to serve Dr. Faustus for as long as he should live,
2. to provide Dr. Faustus with whatever information he might request, and
3. never to utter an untruth to Dr. Faustus.

The Devil agreed to these particulars, on the condition that Dr. Faustus would promise:

1. at the expiration of twenty-four years to surrender his body and soul to the Devil,
2. to confirm the pact with a signature written in his own blood, and
3. to renounce his Christian faith.

Having reached an agreement, the pact was drawn up, and Dr. Faustus formalized it with his own blood.

Henceforth Dr. Faustus' life was filled with comfort and luxury, but marked by excess and perversion. Everything was within his grasp: elegant clothing, fine wines, sumptuous food, beautiful women--even Helen of Troy and the concubines from the Turkish sultan's harem. He became the most famous astrologer in the land, for his horoscopes never failed. No longer limited by earthly constraints, he traveled from the depths of hell to the most distant stars. He amazed his students and fellow scholars with his knowledge of heaven and earth.

However, for all his fame and fortune, Dr. Faustus could not revoke the twenty-four year limit to the Devil's indenture. Finally recognizing the folly of his ways, he grew ever more melancholy. He bequeathed his worldly goods to his young apprentice, a student named Christoph Wagner from the University of Wittenberg .

Shortly after midnight on the last day of the twenty-fourth year, the students who had assembled at the home of the ailing Dr. Faustus heard a great commotion. First came the sound of a ferocious storm and then the shouts--first terrifyingly loud then ever weaker--from their mentor.

At daybreak they ventured into his room. Bloodstains were everywhere. Bits of brain clung to the walls. Here they discovered an eye, and there a few teeth. Outside they found the corpse, its members still twitching, lying on a manure pile.

His horrible death thus taught them the lesson that had escaped their master during his lifetime: to hold fast to the ways of God, and to reject the Devil and all his temptations.

[Demeter]

48. Doug Casey's "Galt's Gulch"

this little bit of gossip speaks for itself

From Bill Bonner of DailyReckoning.com

"Argentina isn't perfect, but I don't know what's better," said our old friend, Doug Casey.

Doug has built a community in Northwest Argentina. He intended it as a Galt's Gulch...a place where like-minded people could live in agreeable circumstances, even if the rest of the world fell apart.

"How's it coming?" we asked.

"It's incredible. It might be the only new development in the world that actually is working. We've finished the golf course...and the spa and the clubhouse. We've got tennis courts. Polo fields. There's a boutique hotel coming in. Houses are being built.

"I decided to take a trip around the country to look at what was going on in other new, comparable communities. But none of them are comparable. Ours is easily the best place in Argentina. Maybe it's the best place in all of Latin America, I don't know.

"We already have a sports spa...now we're going to build an aesthetic spa. And we're putting in a movie theatre. It's really amazing. I'm going to start my own house there soon. It will be the first house I've ever built. I want to get it finished before the world economy collapses."


SO, WHERE'S THE AGRICULTURE, POWER GENERATION, WATER SUPPLY, MEDICAL RESOURCES, MANUFACTURING....? WHAT A PAIR OF INFANTS.

THIS MAKES ME THINK OF THE IDIOT ARCHITECH WHO BUILT OUR COMPLEX:

--THE LAUNDRY MUST BE CARRIED THROUGH BOTH THE DINING ROOM AND KITCHEN, CLEAN OR DIRTY.
--THERE IS NO PLACE TO PUT A VACUUM CLEANER, BROOM, MOP, OR OTHER CLEANING SUPPLIES, EXCEPT YOUR BEDROOM CLOSET. THE FURNACE ROOM IS OFF LIMITS DUE TO THE FIRE CODE.
--THE COAT CLOSET HOLDS FOUR COATS COMFORTABLY--FOR A HOUSE THAT IS RATED FOR 6 PEOPLE, IN A CLIMATE THAT REQUIRES SEVERAL DIFFERENT WEIGHTS OF COATS. PLUS BOOTS.
--THERE APPEARS TO BE NO INSULATION IN THE OUTSIDE WALLS; AND OF COURSE, NONE IN THE WALLS BETWEEN UNITS, EITHER.

I KNOW WHERE THIS SENILE MAN LIVES. IT IS ONLY MY BUSY SCHEDULE THAT PREVENTS ME FROM GIVING HIM SOME PRACTICAL LESSONS IN DESIGN...AND THE DESIRE NOT TO END UP ON DEATH ROW.

[Demeter]

49. Student loans and "for-profit colleges: "They're worse than you think" By Mike Whitney

Student loans are a big business. In fact, student debt now exceeds $895 billion which is more than the total Americans owe on their credit cards. And, most of these loans are underwritten by the US government, which means that the taxpayer is on the hook when students can't repay the debt. This is a big problem, because many of the people taking out loans are not really qualified for college, so they end up dropping out of school and defaulting on their loans putting themselves in long-term debt while passing the bill along to Uncle Sam. But not everyone loses on the deal. In fact, the institutions that help unqualified applicants get loans, do quite well. After all, they're paid in full by the government. If this sounds like it might be a scam; it's because it is. All the recruiters need to do is find a credulous subject, bamboozle him into signing on the dotted line, and hold his hand for the first few weeks of the new semester. That's all it takes to net a big government payout. Here's a rundown of how it works from an article by Chris Kirkham at the Huffington Post:

"The goal, employees say, is getting “starts”: students who fill out the paperwork for student loans and make it through at least four weeks of their first five-week course. That is the point at which the university is able to keep the student’s federal aid money, regardless of whether they continue their studies. After that, according to the Ashford employees, any form of counseling drastically drops off.

“There were numerous times when I enrolled students and thought, ‘All I’ve got to do is babysit them for four weeks,’” said a former leader in the admissions department, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified because he is still employed at another for-profit university. “I’d be thinking, ‘Come on, this person is clearly not ready to go to school.’ But I’d call you, pump you up, keep you confident for four weeks, and once I knew you completed, you were forgotten. It’s easy when I’m counting the money.” …

According to the Ashford employees, the pressure drives recruiters to enroll students who they know have little chance of success: people who openly say they have no regular access to a computer or the Internet, despite the exclusively online course offerings, and even those who acknowledge they have difficulty reading.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27891.htm

[Demeter]

50. "Five Objectives of the United States In Africa" By Guns and Butter

AUDIO PODCAST

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27894.htm

[Demeter]

51. The Pre-Death Thoughts of Faust BY N. A. BERDYAEV (BERDIAEV)

http://www.berdyaev.com/berdiaev/berd_lib/1922_059.html

MUSINGS BY A RUSSIAN ON THE LEGEND OF FAUST IN THE 20TH CENTURY:

The fate of Faust -- is the fate of European culture. The soul of Faust -- is the soul of Western Europe. This soul was full of stormy, of endless strivings. In it there was an exceptional dynamism, unknown to the soul of antiquity, to the Greek soul. In its youth, in the era of the Renaissance, and still earlier, in the Renaissance of the Middle Ages, the soul of Faust sought passionately for truth, they fell in love with Gretchen and for the realisation of his endless human aspirations it entered into a pact with Mephistopheles, with the evil spirit of the earth. And the Faustian soul was gradually corroded by the Mephistophelean principle. Its powers began to wane. What ended the endless strivings of the Faustian soul, to what did they lead? The Faustian soul led to the draining of swamps, to the engineering art, to a material arranging of the earth and to a material mastery over the world...

[Demeter]

52. Enemy lurking inside your fridge: Half of meat in America contains harmful bacteria

AGAIN, WHY IS THIS COMING FROM ABROAD, THE UK, TO BE PRECISE?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1377384/Half-meat-America-contains-harmful-bacteria.html#ixzz1JevACfxx

...Researchers bought 136 packages of chicken, turkey, pork, and ground beef at 26 grocery stores or supermarkets in five cities and found that 47 per cent contained Staphylococcus aureus, known as S. aureus or staph...The main concern over staph is the risk of skin infection through touching tainted meat, cnn.com reports.

But following simple precautions such as cooking meat thoroughly, washing hands after handling meat, and keeping raw meat separate from other foods to prevent cross-contamination can neutralise the risk of infection...

The (RESEARCHERS) concluded that the variety and number of S. aureus strains found shows that the livestock themselves are the source of the bacteria, rather than contamination during processing and packaging...Mr Price said that every year farmers give millions of pounds of antibiotics to farm animals, most of them healthy, to make them grow faster and to prevent, rather than treat, diseases.

The combination of bacteria, antibiotics and livestock living in close quarters creates the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive and mutate, he added....

[Demeter]

53. AUSTRALIA'S Aborigines to block uranium mining after Japan disaster

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/aborigines-to-block-uranium-mining-after-japan-disaster-2267467.html

...The Mirarr are the traditional owners of land where uranium has been mined for more than 30 years and exported all over the world. Tepco, which operates the Fukushima plant, is a long-standing customer of Ranger, the principal mine...

Although the traditional owners have received royalties of more than A$200m (£129m) from Ranger, Ms Margarula told a parliamentary inquiry in 2005 that mining had "completely upturned our lives, bringing greater access to alcohol and many arguments between Aboriginal people, mainly about money".

She added: "Uranium mining has also taken our country away from us and destroyed it – billabongs and creeks gone for ever. There are hills of poisonous rock and great holes in the ground with poisonous mud."

...Australia has the world's largest reserves of uranium, with great quantities identified at a mine called Olympic Dam, in South Australia...

[Demeter]

54. Why economists stubbornly stick to their guns By John Kay

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a9a9d46c-6790-11e0-9138-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1JhwviR1q

Last week, a group of eminent economists gathered in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to review responses to the financial crisis at a conference organised by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a group founded by financier George Soros. The event led me to reflect on the phenomenon of confirmation bias, or the tendency to find evidence to support what one already believes.

...The crash challenges established views, people will tell you, but this seems to be a recommendation to others, rather than a personal statement. Lessons have been learnt, they will say, but the lesson most people have learnt is that they were right all along.

This bias receives organisational reinforcement, too. In politics and corporate life there is strong competition to support the opinions of the great leader, be it the head of the International Monetary Fund, or a major bank. Media developments also make it all-too-easy today to find information only from sources that reflect one’s existing opinions; think Fox News or the blogosphere.

...Not everyone suffers from confirmation bias. If I eschew a visit to Atlas Shrugged, it will be because the plot is silly and the prose turgid, not because of its message. I also believe, on a dispassionate view of the evidence, that the crisis shows tougher regulation of the banking industry is preferable to supervision of its conduct – a view I have always shared with Sir John Vickers. I did misinterpret some elements of the crisis, believing that the securitisation bubble would create mayhem in the hedge fund sector rather than, as it did, in the major banks. But the outcome still provides strong support for the notion, a view I have long had, that risk capital is best provided by smaller institutions in close touch with investors, not the banks to which we entrust our savings. Funny, isn’t it, how even one’s errors confirm the power of one’s ideas?

[Demeter]

55. THE DEVIL TEMPTS FAUST WITH A WOMAN

Faust-Opera by Gounod. Mikhail Svetlov-bass-Mefisto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0Bhm9YQiU


AND THE WOMAN WAS TEMPTED BY JEWELS


Renee Fleming "Jewels song" Faust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWcPJsOqWrw&feature=related

AND IT ALL ENDS BADLY, OF COURSE

Faust's Final Scene : Jean Dupouy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZZiAWC_bIw&feature=related

[Demeter]

56. Why Isn't FCIC Commissioner Peter Wallison Facing Criminal Prosecution After He Lied To Congress?

GOOD QUESTION!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/15/967275/-Why-Isnt-FCIC-Peter-Wallison-Facing-Criminal-Prosecution-After-He-Lied-To-Congress

[Demeter]

59. As entertaining and educational as this is

I have to go justify my existence now....see you all later!

[bread_and_roses]

60. great theme, Demeter. And soooooo apt

we have a truly tragic example playing out on the national stage....

I just got home from a long stressful visit with family, topped by a nine hour drive from hell itself (how thematic!) - have to go regroup, but hope to be able to read some of the entries and maybe even contribute something tomorrow.

cold, wet, rainy here - high winds too. stay warm, all.

[Demeter]

63. ty!

We must be in the same storm system. Somebody mentioned the S word, but I refuse to believe it.

[Demeter]

62. Faustian Figures We Have Known

When I think of the Presidents I personally have endured, I think Richard Nixon best epitomizes Faust.

A Faustian character has two aspects: insatiability (or greed), whether it be power or riches or knowledge; and the willingness to cheat, or corruptibility. The result of the Faustian figure, following his failings, is always tragedy for himself and for all those whose lives he touched. In that respect, King Midas is a Faustian figure, too.

Nixon wanted to be President so bad, he could taste it. And once he got a taste, he was addicted. Watergate and the Dirty Tricks were all to ensure his re-election. Nixon didn't serve at the will of the People; in his mind he was the only possible choice, and it was his job to "protect" the People from their own misguided folly, so that HE remained president, make no mistake about that.

We laugh at Nixon, sure. He was ridiculous. But there was the tragedy that he was a smart man. He didn't have to be so hungry. He just didn't know the meaning of the word "enough". He could have been a great President, but "greatness" wasn't enough. He had some truly inspired proposals, but no ability to work with others to get them passed. So he tried to cheat.

While it's tempting, I cannot cast Kissinger as the Devil. Kissinger could have been another Faust, if he'd had any nobility whatsoever. He's more of a Peter Pettigrew.

President Carter never really succumbed to temptation, not to the extent of tragedy, at least. He was a better president than this country deserved.

Bill Clinton could easily play Mr. Applegate, however (see last weekend's Damn Yankees). He was no Faust, either. Clinton's tragedy is that he got away with it all, but didn't get to enjoy it the way he thought he would.

As for the GOP side, that's a whole 'nother story. Pod people, is my guess. Not a shred of humanity in any of the three: Ronnie, Poppy, W.

And as for the current CiC? Well, the opera ain't over till the fat lady sings. But the country may get up and leave the theater at intermission.

[Demeter]

64. "We are losing the information war" - Hillary Clinton.

You can't have a war with information. It either is, or it isn't.

You CAN have a propaganda war. But that would be too honest. Sometimes, Hillary scares me. She reminds me too much of my fundie Aunt, engine at full throttle, and nobody steering.

[Demeter]

65. So, Now You Know--Thanks, Dilbert!

[Demeter]

66. Japan nuclear crisis 'over in nine months'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13107846

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has said it expects to bring the crisis under control within nine months.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it aimed to reduce radiation leaks in three months and to cool the reactors within an extra three to six months.

The utility said it also plans to cover the reactor building, which was hit by the huge quake and tsunami on 11 March...



I CALL BS. OR WISHFUL THINKING.

[AnneD]

68. And if you believe that....

I have some fresh gulf oysters I can sell you real cheap!

[Fuddnik]

75. As long as they ain't mountain oysters, I'll take them.

http://www.mntesticlefestival.com/

[AnneD]

67. A different take on Faust...

I never cared for Faust. I came across the story through science fiction or maybe classical music. I liked the story bases of Brigadoon. A beloved preacher offered his life to protect his 'flock' so ever night the town remains while the world around them advances 100 years, thus keeping them safe from evil.

After thinking about it, I did some quick research and think it just may not be in my DNA.

The closest Faustian legend in Cherokee legend is called "How the Cherokee learned the Rattlesnake Song".

The Cherokee system was based more on responsibility for wrongful actions than on the notion of "justice" in the western sense of the word. Rather than justice, the Cherokee system was ideal for keeping balance and harmony in the spiritual and social worlds.

One day, some Cherokee children were playing outside, when a rattlesnake crawled out of the grass. They screamed and their mother ran outside. Without thinking, she took a stick and killed it. Her husband was hunting in the mountains. As he was returning homethat night, he heard a strange wailing sound. Looking around, he found himself in the midst of a gathering of rattlesnakes, whose mouths were open and crying. "What is the matter," the man asked the snakes.

The rattlesnakes responded, "Your wife killed our chief, the Yellow Rattlesnake today. We are preparing to send the Black Rattlesnake to take revenge." The husband immediately accepted their claim and took responsibility for the crime.

The rattlesnakes said, "If you speak the truth, you must be ready to make satisfaction." The price they demanded was the life of his wife in sacrifice for that of their chief. Not knowing what else might occur, the man consented. The rattlesnakes told the man that the Black Rattlesnake would follow him home and coil up outside his door. He was to ask his wife to bring him a fresh drink of water from the spring. That was all. When the man reached home, it was very dark.

His wife had supper waiting for him. "Please bring me some water," he asked her. She brought him a gourd from the jar, but he refused it.

"No," he said. "I would like some fresh water from the spring." His wife took a bowl and stepped outside to get him some fresh water. The man immediately heard her cry. He went outside and found the Black Rattlesnake had bitten her and she was already dying. He stayed with her until she was dead. The Black Rattlesnake then crawled out of the grass. "My tribe is now satisfied," he told the husband.

He then taught the man a prayer song. The Black Rattlesnake told him, "When you meet any of us here after, sing this song and we will not hurt you. If by accident one of us should bite you, sing this song over the person and he will recover."

And the Cherokee have kept this song to this day.

[Demeter]

69. Faust is a Tough Pill to Swallow

The notion that anyone would seek such superhuman advantage over his fellow humans is disgusting and frightening.

And yet, here we are.

Pychopaths surround us, control the government and the economy and society's basic dialog. Psychopathy is the reigning cultural story of the day.

It's rather like Frankenstein turned into Frankenstein's monster. It's time for the peasantry to pick up the torches and pitchforks and slay the monster.

I guess this comes out of the trauma inflicted upon peaceful European countryside being suddenly overrun by invaders...although Encyclopedia Britannica claims there were probably two real historical Faust personages, and the legend sprang up around that kernel of truth:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/202814/Faust

Faust, also called Faustus, or Doctor Faustus, Faustus, hero of one of the most durable legends in Western folklore and literature, the story of a German necromancer or astrologer who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. There was a historical Faust, indeed perhaps two, one of whom more than once alluded to the devil as his Schwager, or crony. One or both died about 1540, leaving a tangled legend of sorcery and alchemy, astrology and soothsaying, studies theological and diabolical, necromancy and, indeed, sodomy. Contemporary references indicate that he was widely traveled and fairly well known, but all observers testify to his evil reputation. Contemporary humanist scholars scoffed at his magical feats as petty and fraudulent, but he was taken seriously by the Lutheran clergy, among them Martin Luther and Philippe Melanchthon. Ironically, the relatively obscure Faust came to be preserved in legend as the representative magician of the age that produced such occultists and seers as Paracelsus, Nostradamus, and Agrippa von Nettesheim.

Faust owes his posthumous fame to the anonymous author of the first Faustbuch (1587), a collection of tales about the ancient magi—who were wise men skilled in the occult sciences—that were retold in the Middle Ages about such other reputed wizards as Merlin, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon. In the Faustbuch the acts of these men were attributed to Faust. The tales in the Faustbuch were narrated crudely and were further debased with clodhopping humour at the expense of Faust’s dupes. The author’s vivid descriptions of Hell and of the fearful state of mind of his merciless hero, as well as his creation of the savage, embittered, yet remorseful fiend Mephistopheles were so realistic that they inspired a certain terror in the reader.

The Faustbuch was speedily translated and read throughout Europe....

AND THE POPULAR TASTE FOR HORROR LITERATURE HASN'T ABATED SINCE.

[Demeter]

70. Apparently, We Also Have the Historical Faust to thank for the Persecution of Witches

http://repo.lib.virginia.edu:18080/fedora/get/uva-lib:497919/uva-lib-bdef:103/getDynamicView?behav=getObjectBrowse&id=dv3-30

...In 1509 a Johann Faust from Simmern (a principality
incorporated into Württemberg in 1504) received the
A.B. at Heidelberg; if he was Tritheim's Faust, later
tradition was right in claiming that the astrologer was
born at Knittlingen (the chief town of Simmern) in the
early 1480's. In 1513 Conrad Mudt (Mutianus Rufus,
supporter of Reuchlin and friend of Melanchthon) saw
and heard Georg Faust at Erfurt; he wrote to a fellow
humanist that this “immoderate and Foolish braggart,”
calling himself the “demigod from Heidelberg,” before
astonished listeners “talked nonsense at the inn.” The
accounts of the bishopric of Bamberg record a payment
in 1520 to “Doctor Faustus” for casting the Prince-
Bishop's horoscope; in 1528 the town council of Ingol-
stadt forbade the soothsayer Jörg (i.e., Georg) Faust
to remain in their city; and in 1532 the junior burgo-
master of Nuremberg recorded denial of entry to “Dr.
Faust, the great sodomite and necromancer.” From
1532 to 1536 the same “philosophus” practiced medi-
cal alchemy and soothsaying in the Rhineland and
Lower Franconia with some success; he is reported to
have died in 1540 or 1541 at a village in Württemberg.


During Faust's earlier years, i.e., before the Refor-
mation, humanists and theologians gave little or no
credence to the pretensions of the shabby exploiter of
contemporary interest in magic. In the course of time,
however, some successes—and, obviously, unflagging
self-advertisement—established his reputation as a
soothsayer and necromancer, and various Protestant
theologians, among them Luther and Melanchthon,
alluded seriously to his diabolical powers. Soon after
his death it was said that he had been destroyed by
the Devil, with whose demons he claimed to have
consorted, and many traditional tales of the super-
natural became attached to his name. Some were col
lected, ca. 1575, by Christoph Rosshirt in an illustrated
manuscript still preserved, by which time there was
possibly in circulation a Latin or German manuscript
account of his life. From this hypothetical work may
derive the story-line of the earliest published work
exclusively devoted to the Faust legend...

This first Faust-book, the work of an anonymous
Protestant with theological training, immediately be-
came a best seller. There were several printings of it,
including an unauthorized edition with additional ma-
terial, in 1587; by 1600 it existed in English, Danish,
French, and Dutch translations, as well as in further
modified and augmented German versions. The last
lengthy Faust-book (1674) was reprinted as late as
1726, only to be replaced in popular favor by a shorter
chapbook (1725) whose anonymous author (ein
Christlich Meynender, “a man of Christian principles”)
interpreted the legend as a demonstration of the harm-
ful consequences of pre-Lutheran superstition.

Popular interest in Faust thus coincided almost ex-
actly with the heyday of general belief in witchcraft
as a punishable heresy. The story of the Renaissance
charlatan (or self-deluding magus) became a conflation
of folkloristic motifs of greater and lesser antiquity,
all now attached to a recently contemporary exemplar
of man damned for using forbidden powers. In many
societies tales have been told of sorcerers and magi
who, if not deified, came to terrible ends because they
failed to control the natural forces they unleashed
(legend of Pope Sylvester II; Frankenstein motif), or
because they insufficiently propitiated the supernatural
beings who enabled them to control these forces. Fear
and envy of a successful elite well explain the universal
fondness for myths of this type, although conservative
piety and a deepfelt human need of religious mystery
may also underlie them.

Faust's vagrant life made him an elusive and myste-
rious figure whose supernatural attainments could nei-
ther be verified nor disproved, and he quickly became
the protagonist of a modern magus myth—its hero
insofar as he represented the thirst of an age of geo-
graphical and scientific discovery for new knowledge
and power, its villain insofar as these threatened
accepted religious and theological assumptions. For
although some men thought of magic as applied science
(H. C. Agrippa, De occulta philosophia <1531>, Ch. 42:
“Natural magic is... nothing but the chief power of
all the natural sciences... —perfection of Natural
Philosophy and... the active part of the same”;
Giordano Bruno: Magus significant hominem sapientem
cum virtute agendi, “A magician signifies a man of
wisdom with the power to act”), science itself seemed
frightening for many more, so that even the most
reputable alchemist or other scientist could arouse
ambivalent feelings.

Magic, though widely practiced in later antiquity,
had been regarded by intellectuals as vulgar super-
stition (cf. Theocritus' and Vergil's Thessalian eclogues,
and Lucian's Philopseudos, §14) and was used as a
serious literary motif chiefly to heighten the depiction
of mythical and historical horrors (plays of Seneca;
Lucanus' Pharsalia). As oriental religions permeated
the Greco-Roman world, however, and their exponents
vied for influence, a literature of theological propa-
ganda developed in which rival magics occupied a
central place. The most important of these religions
was Christianity, which claimed exclusive rightness for
its own magic, labeling all other “illicit” (Augustine,
De civitate Dei xii, 14)....

[Demeter]

73. In Local News

We are under a wind advisory (40 mph) and it's tried to sleet twice this morning that I know of. the forecast is two inches of snow, but I've got to hope they are mistaken.

The daffs are opening, the forsythia is on the verge, the hyacinths are in full bloom. This can't be happening!

The Kid and I are off to see the Magic Flute in Detroit. Give you a fuller report when we return, plus maybe another posting or twelve.

[Fuddnik]

74. On the opposite end of the spectrum......

We had a pool deck and lanai opening party. The pool water was 90 degrees (solar panels). We just got back from taking the dogs down to the dog beach, and letting them romp in the Gulf for a while. They had a riot, and are ready to sleep for the rest of the day.

[Fuddnik]

76. Kick and Rec!