STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 12 July 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 12 July 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 11 July 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 11 July 2012
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Dow Jones 12,604.53 -48.59 (-0.38%)
S&P 500 1,341.45 -0.02 (0.00%)
Nasdaq 2,887.98 -14.35 (-0.49%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.52% +0.01 (0.66%)
30 Year 2.61% +0.01 (0.38%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.




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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Po_d Mainiac]

1. r/e toon

tuff to tell the difference.

But party affiliation makes little difference to the puppet masters.
YMMV

[Tansy_Gold]

5. I think that's the point of the 'toon

I saw this one and it just seemed to echo what so many of us have been saying for so very very long.

[kickysnana]

6. Even Jesse is depressed at how things turned out. n/t

[Roland99]

36. .....

*rimshot*

[tclambert]

9. My feeling is that Obama has done some good. Too slow to suit me. But Romney!

Lord, he would undo all the good and take us back to the time-tested disaster of Bushonomics. He doesn't even pretend to have learned anything from the many, many, many blunders of the Bush years. All the stuff that caused problems--tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, millions lacking health care--that's the stuff he wants to do more of.

So I have to disagree with the thrust of the cartoon. I do see a huge difference between these candidates in policy, not just party affiliation. I wish Obama had pushed hard initially for a much bigger jobs program, something to get unemployment below the magic 6% mark. But Romney makes no secret that he's willing to lay off millions of public sector workers, including such vital people as police, firefighters, and teachers. Allow him in, and we're guaranteed another depression.

[Tansy_Gold]

34. Oh, tc, I don't think you're disagreeing at all! ;-)

At least, now with the way I read the toon.

My take was that even though the complaints against Obama are legitimate and those complaints do kind of paint him and his policies as not a whole lot different from the other party, the other party has gone so far off the deep end, and Romney would take them even further into madness, that at least Obama isn't quite that loony.

[Demeter]

38. Oh, how our standards have been debased. n/t

[Tansy_Gold]

61. No argument there!

When our choice is between one who is rotten and corrupt and dangerous on the one hand and on the other hand one who is fanatical, manaical, absolutely rotten, totally corrupt and globally dangerous, yeah, our standards are trashed to the nth degree.

[Hugin]

41. I have to agree, TC.

Due to the Blaring Right Wing Media Filter... I can't say I know what President Obama really says or believes.

This has been the most maligned Presidency, EVER! ( and... Let's be frank, this is true for one reason, only. )

So, come November ( with that one reason in mind... ) I will pull that lever, push that button, or fill in that dot with a clear conscience.

Not that it will matter... Romney WILL try to steal it. It's how he's wired. If he is allowed to steal it, well, that's on us. Isn't it?

A side note to mention... Deep down, I think Obama has been campaigning against Romney since before Obama was elected. Many of his actions and statements over the past administration have been consistent with this. I'm willing to extend the benefit-of-a-doubt that once he is re-elected we MAY see a different Obama.

[Demeter]

45. Actually, there are TWO Reasons

and the second one is that this Administration has betrayed its supporters, repeatedly, in the vain hope of cozening its enemies. Performance, as well as prejudice, are at work here.

[Tansy_Gold]

63. True, too too painfully true

I think this is why so many of us on the true left -- the real progressives and socialists and FDR/Wellstone Dems -- feel so betrayed, so suckered. And that is not a good thing.

If Obama really wanted to secure his re-election and his legacy both -- BOTH, not just one or the other -- he could have proceeded with a truly progressive agenda. His base would have solidified and the left-leaning center and indies would have held. That kind of agenda would have brought jobs and prosperity back, if not to "party like it's 1999 in cloud cuckoo land" levels but at least headed in the direction of improvement. And that might even have pulled some of the working class pukes, the "what's the matter with Kansas?" types back to at least considering the Dem platform.

But it all goes back to that November 2008 assembling of the economic team with all right wing assholes like Geithner and Summers and Rubin -- and it's been rightward ho ever since.

It's the betrayal that hurts more than anything, and the sense that not only were we played for suckers but that we can't really do much about it.

[rusty fender]

56. I totally agree with the toon

There are 2 words that sum up why I will be voting for Obama: Supreme Court.

[just1voice]

2. I DARE you to post that cartoon in a NAACP thread, LOL

Only because the propaganda responders are all about the NAACP today. Post it a week from now and nobody would give a flying fck.

[Fuddnik]

3. Ooooh! That will get you a spanking.

[Demeter]

4. Fly By Post

Out of a committee meeting, onto a paper route....Whee! Someday, I must give up this mad, carefree existence....

[Demeter]

7. Not a happy day in Japan

And gold and silver are sliding....

[Demeter]

8. Ain't it the truth?

[xchrom]

10. morning! great toon!

[Hotler]

28. Hope you are feeling better. Those pancakes sure look good. mmmmmmm! n/t

[xchrom]

31. i am! -- sinuses are not infected and i seem to have acclimated for now.

i love pancakes -- don't get to have them very often -- but they are wonderful.

[Po_d Mainiac]

57. I got gallons of syrup. The real stuff.

But, sweet and chemo just don't mix :sob:

[xchrom]

70. So sorry. I hope you're doing ok?

I've been through it 2xs - terrible.

[Po_d Mainiac]

73. Love waking in the AM and thinkin I gargled with battery acid overnight...

BTW, I don't do the pity thing....waste of time.

Just me third bout....still got 6 lives left!

[xchrom]

74. ha!

very good...

[Demeter]

35. Warning: I'm coming over for breakfast

I really ought to eat breakfast more often. Not to mention sleep once in a while....

[xchrom]

42. i here ya, sister-woman, i hear ya. nt

[xchrom]

11. Bank Of Korea Unexpectedly Cuts Benchmark Interest Rate

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-12/bank-of-korea-unexpectedly-cuts-benchmark-interest-rate.html

The Bank of Korea unexpectedly cut borrowing costs for the first time in more than three years and Australia reported a decline in employment as Europe’s debt crisis damps growth in Asia.
Governor Kim Choong Soo’s officials lowered the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate by a quarter percentage point to 3 percent, the first cut since February 2009. In Australia, the number of people employed fell by 27,000 in June, the statistics bureau said in Sydney. Japan altered its stimulus program without adding extra money, while Indonesia left rates unchanged.

The sixth straight daily decline in Asian stocks highlighted concern that exports and financial markets are threatened by Europe’s failure to end a crisis that has weakened banks and triggered sovereign bailouts. Signs of improvement within Japan’s economy may have encouraged the central bank to refrain from a bigger step than boosting an asset-purchase fund while scaling back a credit loan facility.
“What we’re seeing is a global policy response from Europe to China and now Korea to stave off a deep recession,” said Kong Dong Rak, a fixed-income analyst at Taurus Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul.

[DemReadingDU]

12. Futures Point to Lower Start

7/12/12 appx 5:30am

Stock index futures pointed to a weaker open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 and the Dow Jones down 0.3 to 0.4 percent.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-index-futures-point-lower-092945795.html

[xchrom]

13. Stocks Fall On Growth Concern As Euro Drops; Bonds Rally

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-12/asian-stocks-fall-for-sixth-day-as-central-banks-meet-yen-gains.html

Stocks (MXWD) dropped for a seventh day, extending the longest losing streak since November, on concern the global recovery is faltering. The euro weakened to a two- year low, the yen rallied and government borrowing costs from Germany to South Korea declined to records.
The MSCI All-Country World Index lost 0.8 percent at 7:25 a.m. in New York. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 0.8 percent after the U.S. gauge closed little changed yesterday. Germany’s two-year note yield fell to a record minus 0.029 percent, with 10-year U.S. Treasury yields within five basis points of the lowest ever. The yen strengthened more than 0.5 percent against all 16 of its major peers, while the euro depreciated to the lowest since June 2010 against the dollar. Oil slipped 1.3 percent and silver slumped 1.6 percent.

South Korea lowered interest rates today for the first time in more than three years and Australian employers unexpectedly cut payrolls. Manufacturing output in the euro area rebounded in May as growth in Germany offset a drop in France. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s June meeting showed yesterday that only two policy makers backed more bond purchases to bolster growth.
“The global economy is deteriorating faster than central banks can ease policy,” said Tomomi Yamashita, a senior fund manager in Tokyo at Shinkin Asset Management Co., which oversees about $6.3 billion. “Your best bet is to hold on to cash.”

[xchrom]

14. The Euro Is Getting Absolutely Destroyed Today

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-euro-is-getting-absolutely-destroyed-today-2012-7

We noted earlier that the euro had sunk below $1.22—an important benchmark value for the currency.
But it just keeps continuing to fall, now hitting new lows of $1.2172.
Rising European bond yields in the secondary market and a sinking value of the currency generally indicate increasing doubts about the European economy. However, a cheaper euro is ultimately better for struggling European economies like Italy and Spain, as labor and exports become cheaper, too.
That said, it's hard to believe right now that the Italian and Spanish economies will be able to pick up quickly enough to allow both countries to grow out of their problems in the current situation.
Here's a look at how the currency has performed so far today:




Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-euro-is-getting-absolutely-destroyed-today-2012-7#ixzz20POlSSVs

[Demeter]

39. And the Converse--Dollar Powering Ahead as All Flee to "Safe Haven"

look at PM, for example....

[Demeter]

68. Oil seems to be "pegged" or capped at $86/bbl WTI

in spite of everybody's efforts to move it higher...

[Demeter]

15. 'Wall Street Journal': Seven Years After Burst Bubble, 'The Housing Bust Is Over'

AN INTERESTING CONCLUSION---IF ONE IGNORES THE FORECLOSURE TSUNAMI TO COME...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/11/156627434/wall-street-journal-seven-years-after-burst-bubble-the-housing-bust-is-over?ft=1&f=1001

The Wall Street Journal is calling it without any couching. The headline:

'The U.S. Housing Bust Is Over'

The lede:

"The housing market has turned—at last.

"The U.S. finally has moved beyond attention-grabbing predictions from housing 'experts' that housing is bottoming. The numbers are now convincing.

As the Consumerist explains, the Journal is looking at four things: Home prices are slowly increasing; the sales of existing single-family homes are rising; housing starts are healthier and home building is "finally contributing to [the] GDP."

Calculated Risk, one of the most respected financial blogs, reminds us that they came to the same conclusion in February.

"For the housing industry, the recovery has started," Bill McBride writes. "As I've noted before, the debate is now about the strength of the recovery, not whether there is a recovery."

The bottom line, reports the Journal, is that from here on out, housing "is unlikely to drag the U.S. economy down further."

[Demeter]

26. Michael Olenick: The Real Estate Market’s Continuing Data Vacuum

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/michael-olenick-the-real-estate-markets-continuing-data-vacuum.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Michael Olenick, creator of NASTIACO, a crowd sourced foreclosure document review system (still in alpha). You can follow him on Twitter at @michael_olenick or read his blog, Seeing Through Data: http://seeingthroughdata.com/

As markets seized in 2008 as counterparty risk became apparent and bankers stopped lending to one another Treasury knew that they had a problem, though when they tried to find the source of the problem – rather than the symptom – they found a black hole, a dearth of data...I’ve been working on a database of loan-level information aggregated from investor reports for a long time now. It’s a massive, complicated, expensive, and tedious project. To put it into perspective so far I have 11.74 million mainly bubble-era loans covering 378.3 million payment records. It covers every state, everywhere, though focuses more on states that had heavier Alt-A and subprime exposure and is loaded onto what is essentially a supercomputer that would be unaffordable except Amazon rents it. When finished I’ll cross-reference it to property records information to see if information relayed to investors on delinquencies, losses, and the generalized state of the trusts matches what is being filed in courthouse records.

Substantive surprises pop out when one studies detailed primary data. For example, while trying to figure out how long until the banks started to pound people to the pavements again I found an interesting tidbit: JP Morgan and Bank of America have been writing off their subprime loans at a furious clip lately. In March and April, using ZIP codes that begin with 334 – my own beloved and severely impaired West Palm Beach, FL backyard – I found that the top MBS issuers writing off loans were, in this order, Bear Stearns, J.P. Morgan Mortgage Acceptance Corp., Merrill Lynch, First Franklin, and Lehman LXS. The former two are, of course, JP Morgan and the latter two are, of course, Bank of America. JPM hides their Washington Mutual loans or I’d expect that Lehman’s spot would be taken by WaMu. Writing off bad-debt is usually caused by short sales, principal reductions, or finished foreclosures. Since the pace of the write-offs exceeds the number of REOs – which, as the want-ads show is relatively low – it’s clear that the banks have been dumping debt, which is a positive step towards reaching a housing floor. I was impressed – almost shocked at the prospect about writing something positive about either bank (something I’ll admit that’s never happened) – that I called JPM asking what they were doing. After being bounced around by a few people they failed to return my calls; maybe their own PR people have forgotten how to manage a positive inquiry after all these years.

I’ve been asked to publish my data, for free of course, but I have a family and employees to feed, plus a tech powerhouse to maintain, though if it was affordable I would if I could. At least I’ll continue writing about it, albeit with the caveat that deriving patterns from massive and complex data-sets can sometimes lead to substantive findings but at other times is no more useful for divining economic insights than a Rorschach test...I was able to cull my data because of rules and practices promulgated during the Bush era. Few people thought that business and government could get much worse but – as we watch JPM openly flout requirements to open the WaMu data depository to the public, and leave the legacy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac data private – this seems like the latest Obama letdown. We can argue until we’re red and blue in the face about the meaning of various so-called economic indicators, and we can transfer those tea leaves to digital paper in easy-to-read graphs and charts. But the fact is even my own enormous database is still missing an enormous number of loans, and companies who have access to the information are highly conflicted by industry capture.

Maybe we’ve reached a bottom, like the cheerleaders relentlessly proclaim, or maybe we’ll reach one in 2013, like the economists of Fannie Mae predict, or maybe we’ve reached a place where prices will remain stagnant – neither going up nor down much – as Prof. Robert Shiller predicts. Or maybe there are regional bubbles driven my microeconomic trends, like the rise in Miami condos driven by South American investors or the bump in Arizona real-estate driven by cash-rich cold Canadians...

[Demeter]

27. UPDATE: WhaleMu – JP Morgan’s Next Surprise?

http://seeingthroughdata.com/2012/05/15/whalemu-jp-morgans-next-surprise/

In an admittedly strange twist of timing JP Morgan, the same JP Morgan that just announced a surprise $2 billion loss caused by the “London Whale,” became the first and only of 26 banks disclosing subprime investor data to flip me the digital bird, refusing access to the public loan-level performance data for their Washington Mutual loans. WaMu, one of the most reckless subprime lenders, was swallowed whole by JPM and they’re having serious indigestion. Nelson D. Schwartz and Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times verify that the purpose of the Chief Investment Office — the London Whale — is to offset risk caused by the Washington Mutual loans...It isn’t hard to figure out why JP Morgan doesn’t want anybody looking into and through their garbage. I have not been able to ascertain whether these reports are required under disclosure requirement Regulation AB (the law itself seems to say yes, but the experts I spoke to gave divergent readings). Whether they are or aren’t, JPM’s refusal — when everybody else cooperated speaks for itself.

As those loans sour, and they continue to rot like a dead skunk on a hot July day, the bets needed to offset the losses are increasing. It looks like the bank, peering into that portfolio they refuse to share, is becoming more than a little bit desperate. Like a compulsive gambler after a multi-day bender resulting in crippling losses they decided to double down rather than walk away, leading to their current whale of a surprise and likely a mirror-image follow-up for the WaMu losses this was supposed to offset.

For anybody who believes that JPM’s position is normal .. it isn’t. Twenty-six other banks quickly popped open the doors to their repositories, as they’re required to do. Perennial bad-boy Aurora Loan Services is the only other one that’s ignored my requests, though since it looks like they’ve sold their servicing operations the jury’s out whether their silence is purposeful or whether there’s nobody home on the other side of those requests.

...My database, which includes everything except WaMu loans thanks to Jamie, is finally almost finished. But even in preliminary form it is clear that the AAA-rated senior tranches — the ones that really were never supposed to take losses — are toast that’s burning worse by the day. Servicers, trustees, government officials have been doing anything to delay the inevitable losses but when people don’t pay their mortgages, and housing has declined by over 50% in many of their markets, there’s only so much accounting chicanery they can do: the money just isn’t there....It sounds likely that it won’t be long until Dimon reports another ten-figure surprise that I’m sure he’ll apologetically pawn off on the US taxpayer. For anybody asking “um — isn’t this over — didn’t all this fall apart back in 2008?” the answer is not really. That mega-meltdown was really a mini tremor caused by the lower and smaller tiers of these securities; last time junior visited to stir things up but this time papa’s walking down the street carrying a mean look and a big stick. That’s because the mezzanine level tranches of most bubble-era MBA are either gone or guaranteed to be gone — finally eaten up by current or pending losses — leaving the lower AAA tranches to take their place as the bearer of losses. This was never supposed to happen. Everybody knew that CDOs created from the lower tranches were risky, even if the ratings agencies said otherwise, but nobody thought the meltdown would last this long that the actual top tranches would be nicked. But the data couldn’t be clearer: those bottom level A-class tranches of yesterday are the new bottom level M-class tranches of yesterday...

MORE AT LINK. HE'S VERY WORDY, BUT INFORMATIVE..GIVES A GOOD LOOK AT THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

[Demeter]

29. THE BANKER'S LAMENT

[Demeter]

32. The Mortgage Condemnation Plan: Fleecing Municipalities as Well as Investors (Updated)

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/the-mortgage-condemnation-plan-fleecing-municipalities-as-well-as-investors.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Beware of financiers bearing gifts.

A scheme proposed by a group called Mortgage Resolution Partners, which is being considered by San Bernardino, CA, to use the traditional power of eminent domain to condemn mortgages, was pretty certain to be a non-starter, so I’ve ignored it. But it’s gotten enough attention to have roused the ire of a whole host of financial services industry lobbying groups, as well as endorsements from Bob Shiller and Joe Nocera, and a thumb’s down from Felix Salmon, so it looked to be in need of serious analysis.

One of the big problems with this plan, which seems to have been overlooked so far, is that any municipality who goes down this path is likely to be the designated bagholder. Mind you, that isn’t based just on the general tendency of municipalities to be easy prey for clever bankers, but also based on the few, but nevertheless troubling, operational details that have been made public.

This is the theory of how the plan would work, from one of its prime promoters, law professor Robert Hockett:

Protecting the citizenry and heading off blight is what municipal eminent domain authority is for…And it is for them to do so in partnership with private investors who effectively render the Plan publicly costless – just as we’ve done since the earliest days of our republic in carrying out and financing local projects

If you believe that, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.

No, this plan isn’t a “partnership”. There has been troubling little detail about what Mortgage Resolution Partners will do or how it will be paid. This whole process has been hidden from public view. Why wasn’t the original request for proposal made public? Why haven’t the operational arrangements, as in what the roles and obligations of the parties are, and most important, what the fees are, been reported anywhere?

The way this plan works is that MRP and its allies plan to steal. And no, I’m not exaggerating. But the odds are high that if this program were to go anywhere, it would be a costly and embarrassing disaster for its municipal backers.

MASSIVELY MORE

[Demeter]

59. Eminent domain, MBS and the U.S. Constitution: A one-sided fight? Alison Frankel

http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/2012/07/11/eminent-domain-mbs-and-the-u-s-constitution-a-one-sided-fight/

If you’re already inclined to suspect governments of overreaching, boy will you hate the plan San Bernardino is contemplating.

About half of the homeowners in the newly bankrupt California city are underwater, which means they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. In conjunction with a San Francisco outfit called Mortgage Resolution Partners, San Bernardino is considering a plan to exercise eminent domain and seize mortgage liens on some of those underwater homes. As my Reuters colleagues Matt Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan were the first to report, the eminent domain scheme works like this: With financing from an outside operation such as MRP, the city would condemn underwater mortgages and purchase them in the name of the public good for a court-determined fair market price. The financier would then make new mortgage loans to homeowners under modified terms before turning around and selling the modified loans to outside investors. As eminent domain proponents describe the plan, it’s a winner for everyone: Homeowners see their loan principal reduced and get to keep their houses, financiers turn a profit on the resold mortgages and the city avoids the blight of foreclosed homes, which drive down property values and destroy neighborhoods.

But there are also losers in the eminent domain model: investors in mortgage-backed securities. San Bernardino is talking about exercising eminent domain only over mortgage loans that have been bundled into private securitizations. Those mortgages are owned by MBS trusts, which, under eminent domain, would be forced to accept fair market value for underlying loans they don’t want to sell. To add insult to injury, the San Bernardino plan proposes that only performing loans be part of the initial wave of eminent domain seizures. That’s to reward homeowners who have managed to live up to their mortgage obligations. But from the perspective of MBS investors, seizing loans that are still being paid on time means they’re being stripped of an ongoing revenue stream.

You can see why MBS investors and other industry groups are up in arms about the eminent domain solution to the foreclosure crisis. To them, it’s tantamount to government-sanctioned theft. At the end of June, a coalition of 18 powerful players, including the American Bankers Association, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Association of Mortgage Investors, sent a joint letter of protest to the San Bernardino Board of Supervisors. “We believe that the contemplated use of eminent domain raises very serious legal and constitutional issues,” the letter said. “It would also be immensely destructive to U.S. mortgage markets by undermining the sanctity of the contractual relationship between a borrower and creditor, and similarly undermining existing securitization transactions.”

WELL, SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE, AND ALL THAT...MASSIVELY MORE AT LINK

[Tansy_Gold]

65. Looks like dishonor among thieves to me

If it's all funded by "outside investors," that's tantamount to letting one bunch of parasites have free access to the loot another bunch of parasites has already stolen.

THEY'RE ALL FUCKING CROOKS. OFF WITH ALL THEIR HEADS!

[xchrom]

16. HORRIBLE: Greek Unemployment Rate Climbed To 22.5%

http://www.businessinsider.com/greek-unemployment-rate-225-2012-7

There's no sugar coating it.
Greece's economy is still getting worse. According to the latest data, the unemployment rate jumped to 22.5 percent in April, up from 22.0 percent in March.
Markit Economics notes that this is double the average unemployment rate across the 17-country euro area.
Youth unemployment is at a staggering 51.5 percent, note Alberto Nardelli.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/greek-unemployment-rate-225-2012-7#ixzz20PPkeUnA

[xchrom]

17. It's Cheaper To Produce Electricity, But Electric Bills Are Going Up

http://www.businessinsider.com/electricity-bills-natural-gas-2012-7

NEW YORK (AP) — A plunge in the price of natural gas has made it cheaper for utilities to produce electricity. But the savings aren't translating to lower rates for customers. Instead, U.S. electricity prices are going up.
Electricity prices are forecast to rise slightly this summer. But any increase is noteworthy because natural gas, which is used to produce nearly a third of the country's power, is 43 percent cheaper than a year ago. A long-term downward trend in power prices could be starting to reverse, analysts say.
"It's caused us to scratch our heads," says Tyler Hodge, an analyst at the Energy Department who studies electricity prices.
The recent heat wave that gripped much of the country increased demand for power as families cranked up their air conditioners. And that may boost some June utility bills. But the nationwide rise in electricity prices is attributable to other factors, analysts say:
— In many states, retail electricity rates are set by regulators every few years. As a result, lower power costs haven't yet made their way to customers.
— Utilities often lock in their costs for natural gas and other fuels years in advance. That helps protect customers when fuel prices spike, but it prevents customers from reaping the benefits of a price drop.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/electricity-bills-natural-gas-2012-7#ixzz20PQSNHWd

[Demeter]

19. 3. The Grid is in dire need of investment

4. Profit, profit, profit!

[Demeter]

33. AEP Ohio Wants To Pass Costs Of Outage Repairs To Customers

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/07/09/columbus-aep-ohio-wants-to-pass-costs-of-outage-repairs-along-to-customers.html

AEP Ohio estimates its spent millions to restore power to hundreds of thousands of Ohioans after storms hit June 29 and July 1. An AEP Ohio spokeswoman said that the company planned to ask the Ohio Public Utilities Commission to pass costs to customers.

“We pass on what the commission allows us to pass on,” said AEP Ohio spokeswoman Terri Flora. “(It’s) not a guarantee, and it’s not automatic.”

PUCO approved a similar request to past costs along to customers after the ice storm of 2004. PUCO allowed AEP to pass along $25 million in clean-up costs. PUCO approved a bill for nearly $27 million after remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Ohio in 2008, 10 Investigates’ Paul Aker reported. AEP Ohio said that those bills were just part of the cost to turn the lights back on for Ohio customers...10 Investigates uncovered that the costs ratepayer have picked up for repairs have not hurt the company’s bottom line. Last year, AEP Ohio earned $1.9 billion in profits, $700 million more than the previous year, Aker reported.

A large amount of the profits goes to shareholders.

10 Investigates also uncovered records that showed internal pressure for AEP Ohio to modernize its infrastructure – things like poles, lines and transformers. Flora said that AEP Ohio’s infrastructure was not a factor in clean-up and repair costs because, “this region of the country does not expect 80- to 90-mile-per-hour winds.”

PUCO spokesman Matt Butler said that the commission does not consider AEP Ohio’s profit margin when it decides whether to approve a rate hike for clean-ups. “We’re looking specifically at the cost associated with that storm,” Butler said. Butler said that the commission would decline AEP Ohio’s request under certain situations. “We would tell them ‘no’ if we saw the cost and didn’t think those costs were appropriate,” Butler said.

[Po_d Mainiac]

43. Beware the hidden costs of so-called

renewable mandates in the RPS.

[Demeter]

18. Voice from the Past: FDR

&w=420&h=315

&feature=fvwrel

Maybe a Weekend on FDR?

I have two choices for myself on Friday: either Euchre Night, or the Celtic Festival Pub Night with Mr. Pretty Legs kilt contest and Limerick Contest, and men in kilts...and I am torn.

I expect the weather at 5PM will be the determining factor. In either event, I will get the thread up early, but someone else will have to handle bank closings, unless we wait until Saturday.

[Demeter]

21. Weimar America: Four Major Ways We're Following In Germany's Fascist Footsteps

http://www.alternet.org/story/156078/weimar_america:_four_major_ways_we%27re_following_in_germany%27s_fascist_footsteps?page=entire

What happens when a mature industrial nation turns its back on democracy and lets its right-wing elite destroy the middle class? We've seen this movie before...It may sound like America in 2012. But it was also Germany in 1932.

Most Americans have never heard of the Weimar Republic, Germany's democratic interlude between World War I and World War II. Those who have usually see it as a prologue to the horrors of Nazi Germany, an unstable transition between imperialism and fascism. In this view, Hitler's rise to power is treated as an inevitable outcome of the Great Depression, rather than the result of a decision by right-wing politicians to make him chancellor in early 1933.

Historians reject teleological approaches to studying the past. No outcome is inevitable, even if some are more likely than others. Rather than looking for predictable outcomes, we ought to be looking to the past to understand how systems operate, especially liberal capitalist democracies. In that sense, Weimar Germany holds many useful lessons for contemporary Americans. In particular, there are four major points of similarity between Weimar Germany and Weimar America worth examining:

1. Austerity. Today's German leaders preach the virtues of austerity. They justify their opposition to the inflationary, growth-creating policies that Europe desperately needs by pointing to the hyperinflation that occurred in 1923, and became one of the most enduring memories of the Weimar Republic. Yet the austerity policies enacted after the onset of the Depression produced the worst of Germany's economic crisis, while also destabilizing the country's politics. Cuts to wages, benefits and public programs dramatically worsened unemployment, hunger and suffering...So far, austerity in America has largely taken place at the state and local levels. However, the federal government is now working on undemocratic national austerity plans, in the form of so-called "trigger cuts" slated to take effect at the end of 2012. In addition, there's the Bowles-Simpson austerity plan to slash Medicare and Social Security benefits along with a host of other public programs; and the Ryan Budget, a blueprint for widespread federal austerity should the Republicans win control of the Congress and the White House in November.
   
   
2. Attacks on democracy. Austerity was deeply unpopular with the German public. The Reichstag, Germany's legislature, initially rejected austerity measures in 1930. As a result, right-wing Chancellor Heinrich Brüning implemented his austerity measures by using a provision in the Weimar constitution enabling him to rule by decree. More notoriously, Hitler was selected as Chancellor despite his party never having won an election -- the ultimate slap at democracy. Both these events took place amidst a larger backdrop of anti-democratic attitudes rampant in the Weimar era. Monarchists, fascists and large businesses all resented the left-leaning politics of a newly democratic Germany, and supported politicians and intellectuals who pledged to return control to a more authoritarian government...Democracy is far older in the United States today than it was in Germany during the early 1930s. But that doesn't mean that democracy is actually respected in practice today; it only means that attacks on it can't be as overt as they were in Weimar Germany. From the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling to Republican voter ID laws to austerity proposals that bypass the normal legislative processes (remember the Supercommission?), American democracy is under similar direct threats now.
   
   
3. Enabling of extremists...
   
   
4. Right-wing and corporate dominance. ALSO MEDIA
   
   DETAILS AT LINK
   
   Robert Cruickshank is a political activist and historian, and a senior advisor to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. The views expressed here are his own.
   

[DemReadingDU]

25. Most Americans aren't paying attention

Most are texting or watching TV, absorbed in themselves.

One of my sisters even told me that we have laws and regulations, so there is nothing to worry about.

[Po_d Mainiac]

44. If that sister moves in

U'r gonna need a trough full of Kool-Aid.

[Demeter]

20. My horrorscope is trying to tell me something

Aries:

You may get a bit lazy today because something tells you that everything is going to be OK. You know that worrying won't help matters, even if some things are not quite right. The fact is that there aren't any quick fixes to life's current intriguing dilemmas, so let yourself off the hook for now. There is nothing you must do except be fully present in the moment. The rest will follow.

[Demeter]

72. Uranus Goes Retrograde tomorrow

and Mercury sometime next week, I think.

[Po_d Mainiac]

75. u wanna rephrase that, rosebud? n/t

[Demeter]

76. If the shoe fits, Po

[Roland99]

22. Today's Reports

[Roland99]

23. Unemployment claims >>>>

Four-week claims average drops 9,750 to 376,500
U.S. weekly jobless claims fall 26,000 to 350,000
Jobless claims at lowest level in four years

(holiday shortened week, btw)

[Roland99]

24. US Import Prices >>>>

U.S. import prices fall 2.7% in June
U.S. import prices minus fuel drop 0.3% in June

[Roland99]

48. Natural-gas supplies up 33 bln cubic feet: EIA

[Roland99]

49. 30-year-mortgage rate falls to record low of 3.56%

[DemReadingDU]

30. Simon Johnson: The Market Has Spoken, and It Is Rigged

Last edited Thu Jul 12, 2012, 09:49 AM - Edit history (1)

edit, this posting was too long.


7/12/12 Simon Johnson: The Market Has Spoken, and It Is Rigged
.
.
Anyone who takes personal responsibility seriously should want all those involved to be held accountable – to the full extent of the law in all jurisdictions. Anything that lets individuals escape consequences will further undermine the legitimacy that underpins all markets. Bankers should be leading the charge to clean up their industry. Nevertheless, five arguments put forward in the last 10 days, singly or collectively, attempt to provide some sort of cover for what happened at Barclays. None of these arguments have any merit.

First, it is argued that this kind of cheating around Libor has been going on for a long time.

Second, it is also asserted that “everyone does it.”

Third, Libor-rigging is defended as a “victimless crime.” This is untrue.

Fourth, some contend that it is the regulators’ responsibility and fault that there was cheating on Libor.

Fifth, the weakest argument is, “It was only a few basis points, here and there” (where a basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point, i.e., 0.01 percent).

Robert E. Diamond Jr., who resigned last week as chief executive of Barclays, reportedly said, “On the majority of days, no requests were made at all” to cheat on Libor. The Economist, which does not make a general habit of criticizing prominent people in the financial sector, observed, “This was rather like an adulterer saying that he was faithful on most days.”

Power corrupts, and financial market power has completely corrupted financial markets. Barclays and the other global megabanks involved in fixing Libor have brought their own industry very low – completely destroying the legitimacy on which sensible financial intermediation needs to be based.
Who trusts a banker at this point? The collateral damage is enormous. Who in their right mind would buy a complex derivative product from Barclays or anyone else implicated in this growing scandal?


http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/the-market-has-spoken-and-it-is-rigged/?smid=tw-share

[Demeter]

47. Good job!

[DemReadingDU]

37. Video: Surviving The Dust Bowl

Last edited Thu Jul 12, 2012, 10:16 AM - Edit history (1)

Video: Surviving The Dust Bowl

appx 50 minutes

&feature=player_embedded



Several analogies in it to today's world of greed and loss.
At the end...
"People are thinking differently about taking care of the land."
"Don't fool yourself."
"You can't convince me we've learned our lesson."
"It's just not in our blood, to play a safe game."

[xchrom]

40. KRUGMAN: We Need More Deficit Spending To Avoid A Full-On Depression

http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-on-the-deficit-2012-7

n order to avoid a full-on depression, the U.S. government needs to ignore the size of the deficit and start spending to stimulate the economy, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman tells us.
"Somebody has to spend more than their income, and, for the time being, that has to be the government," says Krugman.
But what about the deficit, that so many people are concerned about. After all, Krugman was something of a deficit hawk during the Bush administration.
He notes two things: One is that the deficit spending under Bush was totally wasteful, and that that should have been time to pay down debts. But he also says he's learned from watching the US and Japan that it's much harder for a country to have a debt crisis than he previously appreciated.

***video at link.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-on-the-deficit-2012-7#ixzz20PoEe4ic

[Demeter]

46. No, Dr. Krugman; Paul, may I call you Paul?

We need Glass-Steagal and all the other Pecora Commission regulations reinstated, marginal tax rates returned to the Eisenhower era (scaled for inflation, of course), reinstatement of the Estate Tax in its full glory, removal of "extra-special-interest" tax loopholes that Romney and other vultures use, economic tariffs and the repudiation of Trade Agreements, the banksters persecuted for fraud, mortgage forgiveness by the govt. and real jobs now ala WPA.

And that's just a start.

Before pouring in the money, stop the ratholes up. Otherwise, it all leaks out into the Hoards of the .1%.

[xchrom]

50. ...

[Tansy_Gold]

67. I call him Paulie all the time.

And I speak condescendingly to him, too.

'Cause I'm mean and arrogant and disrespectful and BITCHY.

[Hotler]

78. My kind of woman. n/t

[Roland99]

51. S&P 500 Futures On Brink As Banks Lead Losses on Libor Probe

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/sp-500-futures-brink-banks-lead-losses-libor-probe

[Demeter]

52. Go Fairies! Hold that Line! 12.5! 12.5!

What BS.

[Demeter]

53. NY Fed to release Libor documents Friday

BANK STOCKS TANK IN ANTICIPATION...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/us-usa-fed-libor-idUSBRE86B00V20120712

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York will release on Friday documents showing it took "prompt action" four years ago to highlight problems with the benchmark interest rate known as Libor and to press for reform, an official at the regional U.S. central bank said on Wednesday.

As early as 2007, the New York Fed may have discussed problems with the setting of the London Interbank Offered Rate with Barclays Plc, the British bank currently at the center of the Libor scandal and investigation.

This week, U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer requested transcripts related to such conversations between the Fed bank and Barclays. The New York Fed expects to provide on Friday even more documents than those requested by the congressman, according to a source familiar with the plan.

More than a dozen banks are under investigation by authorities in Europe, Japan and the United States over suspected rigging of the Libor, which is used in contracts worth trillions of dollars globally. Some 16 banks contributed to the setting of dollar Libor rates in 2008, the period at the center of the investigations. So far Barclays has been the only bank to admit any wrongdoing.

[Demeter]

54. U.S. probing failed broker PFGBest's use of small auditor REAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/us-broker-pfgbest-auditor-idUSBRE86B02N20120712

U.S. futures industry investigators are looking into why Iowa-based collapsed brokerage PFGBest used a tiny accounting firm that appears to be operating from inside a suburban Chicago home to audit its books, according to a person familiar with the matter. Experts said the use of such an auditor should have been a red flag to regulators of a futures brokerage with more than $500 million in assets and several hundred employees across the United States as well as in Shanghai and Canada.

There are comparisons with the way convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff used an auditor operating out of a strip mall in suburban New York and convicted swindler Allen Stanford's investment firm retained a little-known auditor on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

PFGBest's financial statement ended December 31, 2010, shows that a firm called Veraja-Snelling Company, based in Glendale Heights, Illinois, certified that the futures broker was in compliance with federal commodities regulations governing the segregation of customer money...The CFTC is looking into the role of the auditor as it continues to investigate PFGBest, said the person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly. When reached at her Glendale Heights home on Tuesday night, Jeannie Veraja-Snelling, who listed herself an officer of the firm when she registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in February 2010, said she could not talk about PFGBest.

"I don't know what's going on. I just found about it all an hour ago so I can't talk about it," said Veraja-Snelling, appearing distraught. A PFGBest spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment...In the 2010 report, Veraja-Snelling & Co wrote that there were no material weaknesses involving internal controls and that the "corporation's practices and procedures were adequate." The NFA confirmed that the accounting firm, which has no disciplinary history with Illinois financial regulators and has not been accused of any wrongdoing, also audited PFGBest's 2011 financial statements. It was not clear if it was still PFGBest's auditor at the time of its bankruptcy filing on Tuesday...

MUCH MORE AT LINK

THIS POOR WOMAN HAS BOUGHT HERSELF A HEAP OF TROUBLE

[Po_d Mainiac]

77. Two names stick out on the NFA's Board

One is MFG, and the udder is PFG.

[Demeter]

55. (Eurozone) Banks slash ECB overnight deposits, but sit on cash

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/us-ecb-deposits-idUSBRE86B0AS20120712

Banks slashed the amount of money they parked at the European Central Bank after it stopped paying interest on overnight deposits on Wednesday, but there was no sign they were using it to lend more or buy the bonds of crisis-hit euro zone states.

The unprecedented cut in deposit rates to zero - approved last week - means banks now get nothing for parking cash at the ECB and officials hope that will nurture more interbank lending by encouraging lenders to look for more profitable options.

ECB policymaker Josef Bonnici said the plunge in overnight deposits - to 325 billion euros from more than 800 billion a day earlier - was "encouraging" and said he expected to see a rise in loans to firms and consumers as a result...

THE FARCE IS STRONG IN THIS ONE...MUCH MORE INTERESTING DISCUSSION AT LINK

[Demeter]

58. Why is the response to economic crisis not more serious? Anatole Kaletsky

http://blogs.reuters.com/anatole-kaletsky/2012/07/12/why-is-the-response-to-economic-crisis-not-more-serious/

The state of the world economy these days reminds me of the famous telegram from an Austrian general, responding to his German counterpart toward the end of World War One. The German described the situation in his sector of the Eastern front as “serious but not catastrophic”. In the Austrian sector, the reply came, “the situation is catastrophic but not serious”. In much of the world today the economic situation is verging on catastrophic, but “not serious” seems a perfect description of the political response.

Four years after the Lehman crisis, economic activity and employment in the OECD has not yet returned to its pre-crisis level. Unemployment is at postwar highs in every major European country apart from Germany and, while the U.S. jobless rate is now a little below its postwar record, it has been stuck above 8 percent for longer than at any time since the Great Depression. And in Britain, the long-term loss of output assumed by the government’s latest budget forecasts implies, according to Goldman Sachs calculations, that the six months of the post-Lehman crisis did greater permanent damage to the country’s productive capacity than the Great Depression or World War Two.

Now consider the response. In the U.S., the four years since Lehman have been dominated by economic debates among politicians, media commentators and business leaders on issues that are almost totally irrelevant to unemployment and the pace of economic recovery: how to reduce long-term budget deficits and whether to tweak the top rate of income tax from 36 percent to 39.6 percent. In Britain, the biggest economic controversy this year has been the extension of value added tax to hot pies. Europe’s response to the deepest economic depression in living memory – and an even more alarming xenophobic nationalism that threatens the literal disintegration of the euro and the European Union – has been to debate the bureaucratic “modalities” of bank regulations, fiscal treaties and pension reforms in the next decade.

How to explain this insouciance in the face of the gravest threat to the Western world since the height of the Cold War? In the U.S. and Britain the answer is straightforward, if unappealing: party politics. In Britain, the Conservative-Liberal coalition has managed to lay all the blame for the country’s economic troubles on Labour’s Gordon Brown, so far at least. Thus there has been very little public pressure on the Cameron government to change its economic policies, and no political advantage in doing so. In the U.S., the Obama administration’s efforts to revive the economy with public spending have been stifled by congressional Republicans, while Democrats have thwarted conservative ideas about using tax cuts to stimulate enterprise, investment and consumption. Business leaders and media opinion-formers have aggravated this political impasse by whipping up fears about budget deficits, despite the record-low yields set by the markets on U.S. Treasury bonds. The good news is that U.S. politics created a self-stabilizing feedback of sorts. If the U.S. economy continues to deteriorate, the Republicans will probably win both the presidential and congressional elections and would then be free to pursue an aggressive tax-cutting policy modeled on Reaganomics. Big tax cuts would doubtless increase budget deficits, but they might well pull the U.S. out of recession as they did in 1983. If, on the other hand, the U.S. resumes tolerable levels of economic growth and employment creation, then a re-elected Obama administration would have a strong mandate to overcome or co-opt what would then be a chastened Republican opposition.

Now for the bad news, which comes, of course, from Europe...

INTERESTING TAKE ON EURO'S FAILINGS AND DEFICITS

"REAGANOMICS" TO THE RESCUE? THIS IS OBVIOUSLY NOT ONE OF THE US 99% TALKING!

[Demeter]

60. Democracy Reaches Its Limit By Douglas French HOW THE OTHER SIDE THINKS

IT'S ALWAYS NICE TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF SQUIRRELS INHABIT THE BRAINS OF THE FASCISTS

http://dailyreckoning.com/democracy-reaches-its-limit/

Government finance at all levels seems to be unraveling. The city of Stockton, California declared bankruptcy. North Las Vegas, Nevada would be in the same boat if the state of Nevada allowed for it. Michigan’s state government has taken over the management of four cities, and the state’s largest city — Detroit — has a $200 million deficit and has made a deal with the governor for the state to have a hand in fixing the city’s financial problems. On the federal level, the bond rating agencies — S&P and Moody’s — have dared to downgrade the government’s debt.

On the other side of the pond, Greece is an accident that keeps on crashing. Spain’s government is propping up its banks with European Union help, so that these banks can keep proping up the government by buying the government’s bonds — the equivalent of two drunks holding each other up. And the sad fact is Italy, Portugal and possibly France are not far behind.

In a recent interview, Hans-Hermann Hoppe — the author of the forthcoming The Great Fiction: Property, Economy, Society and the Politics of Decline — explained:

“… it is democracy that is causally responsible for the fatal conditions afflicting us now. The number of productive people is constantly decreasing, and the number of people parasitically consuming the income and wealth of this dwindling number of productive people is increasing steadily. This can’t work in the long run.”

Democracy is just a wealth-distribution (and ultimately wealth-destruction) scheme that pits the taxpayers vs. the tax eaters. In the case of Europe, Germany and the Netherlands produce and save, while Greece, Spain, Portugal and the rest consume. Eventually, a bankruptcy will bring to light the truth about democracy, which, Hoppe explains:

“…is nothing more than an especially insidious form of communism, and that the politicians who have wrought this immoral and economic madness and who have thereby enriched themselves personally (never, of course, being liable for the damages they have caused!), are nothing more than a despicable bunch of communist crooks.”

...Democracy, simply, in Hoppe’s view, decivilizes society. Civilized people save and plan so as to take care of themselves and their families in the present and future. Fiscal conservatism and prudence is valued in a nondemocratic society, as are sound ethics. Democracy undoes the tendency for people to act cooperatively and responsibly...

DID YOU KNOW THAT TAXATION IS A "PROPERTY-RIGHTS VIOLATION"?

SIMPLY AMAZING BULLSHIT--NOT ONE WORD ABOUT CORPORATE WELFARE AND CRONYISM AND DE FACTO SLAVERY AT NON-LIVING WAGES...JUST "EAT THE POOR, BEFORE THEY EAT YOU".

[Demeter]

62. Regulators’ Shake-Up Seen as Missed Bid to Police JPMorgan

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/shake-up-at-new-york-fed-is-said-to-cloud-view-of-jpmorgans-risk/

After the financial crisis, regulators vowed to overhaul supervision of the nation's largest banks. As part of that effort, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in mid-2011 replaced virtually all of its roughly 40 examiners at JPMorgan Chase to bolster the team's expertise and prevent regulators from forming cozy ties with executives, according to several current and former government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But those changes left the New York Fed's front-line examiners without deep knowledge of JPMorgan's operations for a brief yet critical time, said those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because there is a federal investigation of the bank. Forced to play catch-up, the examiners struggled to understand the inner workings of a powerful investment unit, those officials said. At first, the examiners sought basic information about the group, including the name of the unit's core trading portfolio.

By the time they got up to speed, it was too late. In May, JPMorgan disclosed a multibillion-dollar trading loss in the investment unit.

HOW VERY CONVENIENT! AND WHO IS ON THE NY FED BOARD? WHY, IT'S OUR GOOD BANKER, JAMIE DIMON! CEO OF JP MORGAN! HOW YA DOIN', MR. DIMON?

[Demeter]

64. I can't take any more of this -- time for some food. And reality

The fantasies of Capitalism (Big C) are not nutritious for the 99%.

Besides, staring at those pancakes is making my stomach react.

[Demeter]

66. Still, it could be worse--in the jungles of "not clued in"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014164063#post1

[Tansy_Gold]

69. . . . . . .

amazing. just totally amazing.

and not in a good way.

[Ghost Dog]

71. No taxation without representation?

No democracy without education.