STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 8 April 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 8 April 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 5 April 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 5 April 2013
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Dow Jones 14,565.25 -40.86 (-0.28%)
S&P 500 1,553.28 -6.70 (-0.43%)
Nasdaq 3,203.86 -21.12 (-0.65%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.71% +0.02 (1.18%)
[font color=black]30 Year 2.89% 0.00 (0.00%)[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
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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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
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
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.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."








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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]

[Warpy]

1. Wow, look at those oil futures fall off a cliff!

Maybe the big money guys realize somewhere in their little lizard brains that the Keystone is going to be a much tougher sell after the Mayflower disaster, even though they've kept much of the media out and will likely and very quietly buy up the worst properties with a tidy profit to the owners.

[Demeter]

4. Well, look at the global situation

The Middle East is in a daily state of near-spontaneous combustion, and the Israelis are too stupid to care. Iraq is a failure, Afghanistan is a failure, Egypt is a failure, Syria is a failure, Mali is a failure...the list is endless. Iran is a temptation for the forces of Destruction...simply because leaving it alone would rankle the long memories of the State Dept.

Europe is dying of Elitism. All the notions that they "fixed" things have fallen through. And there's a very angry Russian bear on their border. How long can the Norweigens, Swedes, Danes and Icelanders hold out? Finland's already thrown in the towel, but they are in the Neocon-Neoliberal camp, aligned with Merkel.

In the Land of the formerly Free and never demonstrably Brave, we are also succumbing to Elitist poisoning of the economy and politics on all levels.

Asia...well, it's hard to know about Asia. They are adept at making do, and the grand gestures, but as for sustainable progress in running a country....the jury is still out.

It's not a good time to be wildly speculating and jerking prices around...for one thing, the currencies are in constant and unpredictable flux.

Our wars are mostly fought on the economic plains...only the BFEE still thinks in terms of physical domination.

[Warpy]

11. I can't contradict much of what you say except

nitpick that we can't rule out countries that dumped their governments during the Arab Spring because revolutions can't be properly evaluated for many years and now is exactly the time to be wildly speculative if one has the ready cash and access to be. Trends can be worked quite nicely going both ways. It's only we small fish who don't have all the information who get screwed if we try it. If we see funny money has flooded in on Monday and follow it, we can be sure it will be taken out in early trading on Tuesday before we are allowed to do anything and that we will be left holding the (empty) bag.

Revolutions are always a mess for years while various factions jockey for position and the Old Guard who changed uniforms in order to be the New Revoutionaries are either kept on or kicked out.

[Demeter]

12. I think the Big Guys are really afraid of Islam

and that would be because their sins are coming home to roost.

[Fuddnik]

13. I can hardly wait for Chomsky's next book.

"Failed Worlds"

[Demeter]

2. Nothing surprises me any more

But would it really need an external application to generate the kind of congenital-appearing stupidity we have witnessed?

Wouldn't a liberal application of greenbacks have the same effect, with no counter-indications?

[Tansy_Gold]

3. It would. . . .

but they would never apply a "liberal" amount of $$$.

[Demeter]

5. That's what corporations and think tanks and SuperPacs are for

Other People's Money, you know.

[Demeter]

6. A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse DAVID GRAEBER MUST READ!

http://www.thebaffler.com/past/practical_utopians_guide#.UV706VJxLI8.twitter

What is a revolution? We used to think we knew. Revolutions were seizures of power by popular forces aiming to transform the very nature of the political, social, and economic system in the country in which the revolution took place, usually according to some visionary dream of a just society. Nowadays, we live in an age when, if rebel armies do come sweeping into a city, or mass uprisings overthrow a dictator, it’s unlikely to have any such implications; when profound social transformation does occur—as with, say, the rise of feminism—it’s likely to take an entirely different form. It’s not that revolutionary dreams aren’t out there. But contemporary revolutionaries rarely think they can bring them into being by some modern-day equivalent of storming the Bastille. At moments like this, it generally pays to go back to the history one already knows and ask: Were revolutions ever really what we thought them to be? For me, the person who has asked this most effectively is the great world historian Immanuel Wallerstein. He argues that for the last quarter millennium or so, revolutions have consisted above all of planetwide transformations of political common sense.

Already by the time of the French Revolution, Wallerstein notes, there was a single world market, and increasingly a single world political system as well, dominated by the huge colonial empires. As a result, the storming of the Bastille in Paris could well end up having effects on Denmark, or even Egypt, just as profound as on France itself—in some cases, even more so. Hence he speaks of the “world revolution of 1789,” followed by the “world revolution of 1848,” which saw revolutions break out almost simultaneously in fifty countries, from Wallachia to Brazil. In no case did the revolutionaries succeed in taking power, but afterward, institutions inspired by the French Revolution—notably, universal systems of primary education—were put in place pretty much everywhere. Similarly, the Russian Revolution of 1917 was a world revolution ultimately responsible for the New Deal and European welfare states as much as for Soviet communism. The last in the series was the world revolution of 1968—which, much like 1848, broke out almost everywhere, from China to Mexico, seized power nowhere, but nonetheless changed everything. This was a revolution against state bureaucracies, and for the inseparability of personal and political liberation, whose most lasting legacy will likely be the birth of modern feminism.

A quarter of the American population is now engaged in “guard labor”—defending property, supervising work, or otherwise keeping their fellow Americans in line.

Revolutions are thus planetary phenomena. But there is more. What they really do is transform basic assumptions about what politics is ultimately about. In the wake of a revolution, ideas that had been considered veritably lunatic fringe quickly become the accepted currency of debate. Before the French Revolution, the ideas that change is good, that government policy is the proper way to manage it, and that governments derive their authority from an entity called “the people” were considered the sorts of things one might hear from crackpots and demagogues, or at best a handful of freethinking intellectuals who spend their time debating in cafés. A generation later, even the stuffiest magistrates, priests, and headmasters had to at least pay lip service to these ideas. Before long, we had reached the situation we are in today: that it’s necessary to lay out the terms for anyone to even notice they are there. They’ve become common sense, the very grounds of political discussion.

Until 1968, most world revolutions really just introduced practical refinements: an expanded franchise, universal primary education, the welfare state. The world revolution of 1968, in contrast—whether it took the form it did in China, of a revolt by students and young cadres supporting Mao’s call for a Cultural Revolution; or in Berkeley and New York, where it marked an alliance of students, dropouts, and cultural rebels; or even in Paris, where it was an alliance of students and workers—was a rebellion against bureaucracy, conformity, or anything that fettered the human imagination, a project for the revolutionizing of not just political or economic life, but every aspect of human existence. As a result, in most cases, the rebels didn’t even try to take over the apparatus of state; they saw that apparatus as itself the problem....

[Demeter]

7. PROVOKING!

...While the new free market ideology has framed itself above all as a rejection of bureaucracy, it has, in fact, been responsible for the first administrative system that has operated on a planetary scale, with its endless layering of public and private bureaucracies: the IMF, World Bank, WTO, trade organizations, financial institutions, transnational corporations, NGOs. This is precisely the system that has imposed free market orthodoxy, and opened the world to financial pillage, under the watchful aegis of American arms. It only made sense that the first attempt to recreate a global revolutionary movement, the Global Justice Movement that peaked between 1998 and 2003, was effectively a rebellion against the rule of that very planetary bureaucracy...

[Demeter]

8. Broadcasters Struggle To Tap Into The 'Zero TV' Crowd

EVERY WEEK I GET SOLICITATIONS FROM ATT, COMCAST, DIRECT TV, ETC. TOO BAD I DON'T HAVE A FIREPLACE....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/07/176510513/broadcasters-struggle-to-tap-into-the-zero-tv-crowd?ft=1&f=1001

Broadcasters will convene in Las Vegas this week to discuss how to win back the so-called "Zero TV Crowd:" a rapidly growing demographic of people who don't subscribe to cable or satellite TV services.

The Associated Press reported that this group largely opts for Internet streaming of TV shows and movies, either on their computers, or through mobile devices like their phones or tablets. Subscriptions to online sites like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon are climbing, eliminating the need for traditional viewing habits, which require the viewer to follow network schedules and sit through commercials. This is a big concern for broadcasters as their ad revenues fall at alarming rates. Here's the AP:

"While show creators and networks make money from this group's viewing habits through deals with online video providers and from advertising on their own websites and apps, broadcasters only get paid when they relay such programming in traditional ways. Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from Zero TV viewers will be zero."

The Nielsen Company gets the credit for the "Zero TV" label, after introducing it in its 2012 Cross-Platform Report. According to the study, the U.S. went from about 2 million in 2007 to more than 5 million Zero TV households now. The Hollywood Reporter wrote in February that Nielsen will begin tracking Internet usage along with traditional rating measures in order to keep up with this rising trend. Now broadcasters need a way to follow suit in order to reach the "Zero TV" crowd online.

I'VE NEVER BEEN THAT TRENDY BEFORE!

[hamerfan]

14. Cool!

I'm a zero and didn't even know it.

[Demeter]

9. The March jobs report shows continued slow growth, bought at great cost

http://fabiusmaximus.com/2013/04/07/employment-49783/

Summary: The news media focuses on the month-to-month changes in the jobs report, which consist mostly of noise. Strong months confirm the optimists; weak months confirm the pessimists. The trend of growth remains the real story, with the US economy near stall speed — supported only (like the other developed nations) by massive multi-year fiscal and monetary stimulus. Slow growth bought at great cost. A cost we cannot long continue to pay, borrowing and squandering the money ($ which instead could be rebuilding America). Just like Japan since 1989.

Here we examine the March employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They conduct two surveys: one of households, one of businesses. They are not directly comparable, each giving different perspectives on the US economy. This report paints a picture consistent with the many other streams of information about the economy: slow growth. Slowing slow growth, as shown by this from ECRI:

?w=600

To understand the jobs report one must first understand the recovery of which it is one aspect: during this period the government’s public debt increased $1.1 trillion — 6.8% of GDP (see debt here and GDP here), one of the higher fiscal deficits in the world. Our shiny recovery results from massive borrowing and spending.

In other words, organic growth has not yet resumed. The US economy has stabilized and slowly improves only due to the massive “drugs” of monetary and fiscal stimulus (the former boosted with QE3 as the latter winds down). Both have severe side-effects, which at some unknown point in the future will become problematic or untenable. But the worst side effect was unexpected: the stimulus eliminated pressure for reform. We have had the New Deal stimulus without the New Deal reforms (some of which failed, but the others laid the foundation for the great post-war boom).

(3) The Household survey

The Current Population survey is a simple survey of households, with large error bars but no revisions. It’s worth watching because it’s the basis for the headline unemployment rate, it gives some useful data not in the more-accurate business (establishment) survey, and because some research suggests that the household report shows inflection points before the establishment survey.

Here are the numbers, in thousands, not seasonally adjusted. Note that 1/3 of the new jobs during the past year are part-time jobs.


.

Description March 2012 March 2013 Change Change
Employed 141,412 142,698 1,286 0.9%
…Employment-population ratio 58.3% 58.2% -0.1 0.0%
Full-time 113,916 114,796 880 0.8%
Part-time 27,497 27,902 405 1.5%
Unemployed 12,904 11,815 -1,089 -8.4%
…Unemployment rate 8.4% 7.6% -0.8 -2.5%
.

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

10. FACEBOOK UNVEILS NEW WASTE OF TIME by Andy Borowitz

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/04/facebook-unveils-new-waste-of-time.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(104)

Before a rapt audience at Facebook headquarters Thursday, Facebook C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg unveiled new software that he promised “will totally change the way you are wasting your life.” Explaining the development of Facebook’s new phone software, Home, Mr. Zuckerberg said, “Our research showed that Facebook users still had a few hours a day when they were leading somewhat healthy and productive lives. Our new software will change all of that.”

Mr. Zuckerberg said his developers had worked for months developing Home, “which seizes control of your phone and makes it good for little other than Facebook—much like many Facebook users themselves.” By bombarding the user with status updates on a twenty-four-hour basis, he boasted, “Home transforms Facebook from just a social network into something akin to a neurological disorder.”

As the audience applauded that pronouncement, Mr. Zuckerberg added, “At Facebook, we want to be a million voices inside your head.”

When one member of the audience worried whether Home would give Facebook even more access to private information about one’s life, Mr. Zuckerberg reassured the questioner, “After using Home for several weeks, you will have no life.” While clearly proud of his latest product, Mr. Zuckerberg gave notice that he did not intend to rest on his laurels: “At Facebook, we will never stop striving to replace real experience with something soulless and empty.”

[Demeter]

15. Also explains Obamacare

[Demeter]

16. Think Your Bank Deposits Will Always Be 100 Percent Guaranteed by the FDIC? Think Again

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/15500-think-your-bank-deposits-will-always-be-100-percent-guaranteed-by-the-fdic-think-again

I think this is a huge story, and it takes very little to tell it. These are the basics on deposit confiscation and how we got there:

■ You know that the EU-forced solution to the failure of banks in Cyprus is to require the Cypriot government to confiscate (“tax”) deposits. That news is everywhere you look; it’s not in dispute or doubt. The latest has depositor losses at 60% due to the bailout-related “one-time” tax.

■ “Confiscating deposits” is exactly the opposite of “insuring deposits,” which is what is required in the EU, and also offered by the FDIC (as the ads say, “your deposits are insured up to $250,000? .

■ The next monster taxpayer-financed bank bailout could spark a revolution. Find me anyone who isn’t a friend of Big Money who doesn’t hate the Bush-Obama bailout. Dem, Republican, Libertarian, frog-on-a-rock — no one liked the bailout.

■ This takes a taxpayer-financed bailout off the table as the next way to make bankers whole when they stumble.

■ But bankers are going to stumble soon, and big. The derivatives market is huge, and they’re aggressively reversing the tepid Dodd-Frank derivatives regulations as we speak. Of course, friends-of-big-banks in Congress are helping (that’s you, Ann Kuster).

■ So the next big bailout (which is coming) will have to come from somewhere else.
Guess where that “somewhere else” is? Deposits.

Nations have already started to institute rules that enable deposit confiscation
There’s an international move by national governments to write regulations that permit deposit confiscation in the case of bank failure. This is exactly the Cyprus model, and if the news stories are correct, confiscating deposits was being considered or enabled prior to Cyprus bank-failures.

New Zealand (h/t a very alert reader last week; my emphasis and paragraphing):

National [Government] planning Cyprus-style solution for New Zealand

The National Government are pushing a Cyprus-style solution to bank failure in New Zealand which will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts, the Green Party said today.

Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is Finance Minister Bill English’s favoured option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails under OBR, all depositors will have their savings reduced overnight to fund the bank’s bail out.

“Bill English is proposing a Cyprus-style solution for managing bank failure here in New Zealand – a solution that will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman. “The Reserve Bank is in the final stages of implementing a system of managing bank failure called Open Bank Resolution. The scheme will put all bank depositors on the hook for bailing out their bank.

“Depositors will overnight have their savings shaved by the amount needed to keep the bank afloat. …”

Here’s what the New Zealand government says about “Open Bank Resolution” (my emphasis):

What is an OBR?

The Open Bank Resolution policy is a tool for responding to a bank failure. It allows the bank to be open for full-scale or limited business on the next business day after being placed under statutory management (as a result of, for example, an insolvency event). This means that customers will be able to gain full or partial access to their accounts and other bank services, whilst an appropriate long-term solution to the bank’s failure is identified. …

Why should depositors bail-out banks?

The OBR policy is designed to ensure that first losses are borne by the bank’s existing shareholders. In addition, a portion of depositors’ and other unsecured creditors’ funds will be frozen to bear any remaining losses. To the extent that these funds are not required to cover losses as more detailed assessment of the position of the bank is completed, these funds will be released to depositors. At a high level, this outcome replicates the outcome that would apply in the event that a failed bank was liquidated. The primary advantage of the OBR scheme, however, is that depositors would have access to a large proportion of their balances throughout the process. This contrasts with what would happen under a normal liquidation, where depositors might not have access to any of their funds for a significant period.

Why aren’t deposits guaranteed?

During the recent global financial crisis the government took the decision to put in place a temporary guarantee on retail deposits. On 11 March 2011 the Minister of Finance announced that further guarantees would not be provided following the expiry of the existing scheme. Furthermore, the Minister ruled out the possibility of introducing a compulsory deposit insurance scheme.

http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/finstab/banking/4368385.html

Read the rest if you like. That’s a government of New Zealand publication.

Just as the New Zealand plan has been in process for a while, so is a similar plan in the U.S. and the U.K. This piece is making the rounds and making waves. It should (again, my emphasis; h/t a must-read DownWithTyranny piece):

It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Ellen Brown

Confiscating the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few Eurozone “troika” officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Bank of England dated December 10, 2012, shows that these plans have been long in the making; that they originated with the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland (discussed earlier here); and that the result will be to deliver clear title to the banks of depositor funds. …

Although few depositors realize it, legally the bank owns the depositor’s funds as soon as they are put in the bank. Our money becomes the bank’s, and we become unsecured creditors holding IOUs or promises to pay. (See here and here.) But until now the bank has been obligated to pay the money back on demand in the form of cash. Under the FDIC-BOE plan, our IOUs will be converted into “bank equity.” The bank will get the money and we will get stock in the bank. With any luck we may be able to sell the stock to someone else, but when and at what price? Most people keep a deposit account so they can have ready cash to pay the bills.

The 15-page FDIC-BOE document is called “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.” It begins by explaining that the 2008 banking crisis has made it clear that some other way besides taxpayer bailouts is needed to maintain “financial stability.” Evidently [the writers anticipate] that the next financial collapse will be on a grander scale than either the taxpayers or Congress is willing to underwrite …

No exception is indicated for “insured deposits” in the U.S., meaning those under $250,000, the deposits we thought were protected by FDIC insurance. This can hardly be an oversight, since it is the FDIC that is issuing the directive. …

December 10, 2012 was pre-Cyprus. Deposit-confiscation wasn’t something cooked up on the fly. It’s been in the works for a while, by all the international Bigs. Note that the source of the negotiations is “the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland.” This is indeed international.

Bottom line

This proves three things, I think:

1. Major governments exist, in part, to make sure no banker takes a loss anywhere in the world, regardless of risky behavior on the part of the banks. The world and its governments serve the bankers.
   
   
2. The next banking crisis is anticipated to dwarf the last one, and the Bigs have been making plans to bail it out with depositor funds, not taxpayer funds. Cyprus is just the first implementation.
   
   
3. Loss of deposit insurance is coming to the U.S.
   
   The Rich vs. the Rest. "All your money are belong to us" indeed. The outcome has bloodshed written all over it.

[Demeter]

17. Republican senator sees Obama budget offer as positive IT'S STARTED

http://news.yahoo.com/republican-senator-sees-obama-budget-offer-positive-172514864--business.html

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday became the first prominent Republican to publicly praise, however lukewarmly, the budget proposal the White House outlined last week.
Graham said that while he believes President Barack Obama's plan is overall bad for the economy, "there are nuggets of his budget that I think are optimistic," and that could set the stage for a broad bargain to put the nation's finances on a stronger footing. He was speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

Graham, a conservative who has deviated from party positions in the past, and has said he would consider raising up to $600 billion in new tax revenue if Democrats accept significant changes to Medicare, the government health program for elderly Americans, and Medicaid, the health safety net for low-income people.

The White House on Friday said the president would propose a budget that would offer cuts to so-called entitlement programs such as Social Security, a retirement program, and Medicare in exchange for increased tax revenues and a commitment to spend money on education and infrastructure repair. Obama's proposal, which will formally be made public on Wednesday, is a symbolic document, and both the Senate and House of Representatives have already passed their own budget resolutions. SYMBOLIC MY FOOT! The president's aides have said he hopes to use the offer to appeal to enough middle-of-the-road lawmakers of both parties to pass a broad deal to reduce the budget deficit. Obama also hopes to reverse the deep spending cuts that automatically kicked in March 1 as a result of the failure of the White House and Congress to reach an agreement on replacing them.ROBBING THE ELDERLY TO PAY THE PENTAGON...SWEET!

Graham's reception of the president's budget proposal is warmer than his fellow Republicans and some of the president's own allies have accorded it so far...

LET'S HOPE HE STAYS A MINORITY OF ONE

[Demeter]

19. Insurance and Freedom By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/opinion/krugman-insurance-and-freedom.html

President Obama will soon release a new budget, and the commentary is already flowing fast and furious. Progressives are angry (with good reason) over proposed cuts to Social Security; conservatives are denouncing the call for more revenues. But it’s all Kabuki. Since House Republicans will block anything Mr. Obama proposes, his budget is best seen not as policy but as positioning, an attempt to gain praise from “centrist” pundits.

No, the real policy action at this point is in the states, where the question is, How many Americans will be denied essential health care in the name of freedom? I’m referring, of course, to the question of how many Republican governors will reject the Medicaid expansion that is a key part of Obamacare. What does that have to do with freedom? In reality, nothing. But when it comes to politics, it’s a different story. It goes without saying that Republicans oppose any expansion of programs that help the less fortunate — along with tax cuts for the wealthy, such opposition is pretty much what defines modern conservatism. But they seem to be having more trouble than in the past defending their opposition without simply coming across as big meanies. Specifically, the time-honored practice of attacking beneficiaries of government programs as undeserving malingerers doesn’t play the way it used to. When Ronald Reagan spoke about welfare queens driving Cadillacs, it resonated with many voters. When Mitt Romney was caught on tape sneering at the 47 percent, not so much.

There is, however, an alternative. From the enthusiastic reception American conservatives gave Friedrich Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom,” to Reagan, to the governors now standing in the way of Medicaid expansion, the U.S. right has sought to portray its position not as a matter of comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted, but as a courageous defense of freedom. Conservatives love, for example, to quote from a stirring speech Reagan gave in 1961, in which he warned of a grim future unless patriots took a stand. (Liz Cheney used it in a Wall Street Journal op-ed article just a few days ago.) “If you and I don’t do this,” Reagan declared, “then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.” What you might not guess from the lofty language is that “this” — the heroic act Reagan was calling on his listeners to perform — was a concerted effort to block the enactment of Medicare.

These days, conservatives make very similar arguments against Obamacare...

MORE AT LINK...IT'S TWISTY, LIKE ALL GOP BRAINWASHING AND REPROGRAMMING

[Demeter]

18. The Slow Death of the American Author By SCOTT TUROW

I THINK A BETTER TITLE MIGHT BE THE SLOW DEATH OF PUBLISHING HOUSES THAT GOUGE COLLEGE STUDENTS...

LAST month, the Supreme Court decided to allow the importation and resale of foreign editions of American works, which are often cheaper than domestic editions. Until now, courts have forbidden such activity as a violation of copyright. Not only does this ruling open the gates to a surge in cheap imports, but since they will be sold in a secondary market, authors won’t get royalties.

This may sound like a minor problem; authors already contend with an enormous domestic market for secondhand books. But it is the latest example of how the global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors’ income streams. It seems almost every player — publishers, search engines, libraries, pirates and even some scholars — is vying for position at authors’ expense.

Authors practice one of the few professions directly protected in the Constitution, which instructs Congress “to promote the progress of Science and the useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” The idea is that a diverse literary culture, created by authors whose livelihoods, and thus independence, can’t be threatened, is essential to democracy.

That culture is now at risk. The value of copyrights is being quickly depreciated, a crisis that hits hardest not best-selling authors like me, who have benefited from most of the recent changes in bookselling, but new and so-called midlist writers...

[Demeter]

20. DING-DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD! ‘Iron Lady’ of British Politics Dead at 87

WELL, THAT BUMPS GRUMPY CAT!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/world/europe/former-prime-minister-margaret-thatcher-of-britain-has-died.html

Margaret Thatcher, a towering, divisive and yet revered figure who left an enduring impact on British politics, died on Monday of a stroke, her family said.

“It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning,” a statement from her spokesman, Lord Tim Bell, said.

Lady Thatcher had been in poor health for months. She served as prime minister for 11 years, beginning in 1979. She was known variously as the ‘Iron Lady,’ a stern Conservative who transformed Britain’s way of thinking about its economic and political life, broke union power and opened the way to far greater private ownership.

She was leader of Britain through its 1982 war in the Falklands and stamped her skepticism about European integration onto her country’s political landscape for decades.

[Warpy]

35. I couldn't sleep so I got up at 6 AM to find this

[bread_and_roses]

36. good riddance

I remember my fury - easily reignited - that this was touted as a victory for women ....

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/04/08-0

Published on Monday, April 8, 2013 by Democracy Now!
Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013): Tariq Ali on Late British PM’s Legacy From Austerity to Apartheid

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died at the age of 87. Thatcher was Britain’s first female prime minister, serving three terms in office. Known as the "Iron Lady," Thatcher became synonymous with austerity economics as a close ally of President Ronald Reagan. She famously declared to critics of neoliberal capitalism that, "there is no alternative." Her long-running battle with striking British miners dealt a major blow to the union movement in Britain and ushered in a wave of privatizations.

On foreign policy, Thatcher presided over the Falklands War with Argentina, provided critical support to the Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet, and famously labeled Nelson Mandela a "terrorist" while backing South Africa’s apartheid regime. We go to London to discuss Thatcher’s legacy with Tariq Ali, British-Pakistani political commentator, writer, activist and editor of the New Left Review.

[xchrom]

21. Bank of Japan begins stimulus sending Yen lower

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22061773

The Japanese yen has dropped to its lowest level since 2008 against the US dollar after the central bank began the latest round of its stimulus programme.

The yen fell as low as 98.85 against the dollar, before rebounding slightly.

Investors said the central bank's plan to buy assets worth trillions of yen, which has government backing, would continue to weaken the currency.

As a result, the yen may break through the 100 mark against the dollar as early as this week

[xchrom]

22. Portuguese shares fall after court blocks spending cuts

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22061875

Portuguese shares fell on Monday after a court said spending cuts aimed at cutting debt were unconstitutional.

The PSI 20 share index was down 1.6% in early trading, while bond yields, an indication of the risk attached to lending to Portugal, remained above 6%.

Portugal's prime minister said Friday's court ruling meant it would have to make other deep spending reductions.

Pedro Passos Coelho said social security, health, education and public enterprises would have to be cut.

[Demeter]

26. WILL THE BANKSTERS OVERRIDE THE CONSTITUTION?

Stay tuned, Marketeers!

[xchrom]

23. Greek bank shares plunge after merger plans called off

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22061879

Shares in Greek banks have fallen up to 30% after plans to merge two of them them were called off on fears the new entity would be too big to manage.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) and Eurobank fell by 30% in morning trade, while Alpha and Piraeus lost up to 20%.

On Sunday, a finance ministry source said a planned merger would not now go ahead, although the four would be recapitalised.

There had been fears a merged bank would be too dominant in the market.

[xchrom]

24. Luxembourg 'open' to bank transparency, Luc Frieden

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22058565

Luxembourg would consider greater transparency of its banking sector to help curb tax evasion, the finance minister has told a German newspaper.

In an interview published on Sunday, Luc Frieden said he wanted to "strengthen co-operation with foreign tax authorities".

Luxembourg is known for its highly secretive banking sector.

Germany is among the countries which say it is being used by foreign customers as a tax haven.

[xchrom]

25. Obama Drops Stimulus for Benefit Cut to Woo Republicans

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-08/obama-abandons-stimulus-for-benefit-cut-to-win-over-republicans.html

Less than a week after job-creation figures fell short of expectations and underscored the U.S. economy’s fragility, President Barack Obama will send Congress a budget that doesn’t include the stimulus his allies say is needed and instead embraces cuts in an appeal to Republicans.

“This is not our ideal budget,” Gene Sperling, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, told Bloomberg Television. “This does reflect a compromise offer. There’s measures in here we would prefer not to take.”

Obama’s budget for fiscal 2014, set for release April 10, will propose reducing Social Security recipients’ annual cost- of-living adjustments by changing the inflation calculation, according to an outline released last week. The Medicare insurance program for the elderly would be cut by reducing payments to health-care providers and drug companies and imposing more costs on high-income beneficiaries.

While the White House hasn’t yet released specific dollar figures for the budget, administration officials said the plan puts the country on a path toward lower deficits, cutting the gap by $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years.

[Demeter]

27. DEFINITION OF INSANITY APPLIES HERE

Didn't he get his payoff in writing before the last election?


What a doofus!

[Doctor_J]

31. Can you X-post this in P2013 or GD?

It belongs in both

[xchrom]

32. oh sure. nt

[Fuddnik]

37. Don't go there!!!!!

Tansy and Demeter sprayed that stuff in the 'toon out there.

It's crazy!

[xchrom]

38. too late!

[Demeter]

39. I did NOT!

I live green...no pesticide, herbicide, intellecticide here....(Herb would be very upset! So would my rather large Pest...I mean, Kid)

[Roland99]

28. at the open, US markets are mixed

[font color="red"]U.S. 10yr 1.72 +0.01 0.36%
Dow 14,538 -28 0.19%
S&P 500 1,552 -1 0.08%[/font]
Nasdaq 3,207 +4 0.13%
GlobalDow 2,086 +7 0.34%
Gold 1,575 -1 0.06%
Oil 93.13 +0.42 0.45%

[xchrom]

29. Liberals Furious Over Obama's Budget — Krugman Predicts Plan Will Blow Up In His Face

http://www.businessinsider.com/liberals-furious-at-obamas-chained-cpi-2013-4

***SNIP

Liberals are already livid.

Congressman Jerry Nadler — who is part of the Democratic party's Progressive Caucus — slammed the reports in a comment made on Friday:

I am quite concerned by reports that the forthcoming White House budget proposal might include chained CPI and other accommodations to Republicans determined to dismantle our social safety net and the progress our nation has made since the New Deal. I must reiterate that I will never support any reductions in Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits – and chained CPI is a direct reduction in Social Security benefits. Along with my fellow progressives, I will vehemently oppose any such cuts.

We cannot lose sight of the facts. Social Security is one of the bedrocks of our middle class society and is an essential safety net for millions of American seniors and their families. Millions of Americans rely on Social Security benefits for medical care, food, housing, and other needs. We cannot force seniors to pay even more to fill the hole left by unnecessary and irresponsible cuts to Social Security.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/liberals-furious-at-obamas-chained-cpi-2013-4#ixzz2PsZcrlUw

[xchrom]

30. European Government Borrowing Costs Are Plunging — And It's All Thanks To Japan

http://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-investors-buying-european-government-bonds-2013-4

Government borrowing costs – as measured by 10-year sovereign bond yields – are hitting record lows across the euro zone "core" today.

In France, 10-year yields have fallen to 1.75 percent. The Belgian 10-year is at 1.95 percent, the Dutch 10-year is at 1.62 percent, and the Austrian 10-year is at 1.49 percent.



European leaders will be quick to take the credit. Economic austerity for troubled economies in the euro area periphery in need of financial assistance is still the main agenda. The idea is that markets reward the countries willing to undertake painful austerity measures with lower borrowing costs.

Linking austerity measures to lower borrowing costs, however, is a bit of a shaky exercise, as Pawel Morski points out. After all, the French economy is enduring a deepening recession, and the others are stumbling as well. A much simpler explanation for the steady march lower in euro zone bond yields is the introduction of monetary measures by the ECB last summer to pacify markets.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-investors-buying-european-government-bonds-2013-4#ixzz2Psb2ChUz

[xchrom]

33. Lilly Pulitzer Knew a Secret to Women's Clothing: Dresses Are Practical{vintage lovers!}

http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/lilly-pulitzer-knew-a-secret-to-womens-clothing-dresses-are-practical/274759/



Throughout my life, I've accumulated several articles of clothing by Lilly Pulitzer, the fashion designer who died Sunday at 81: a pair of navy corduroys, a white cardigan, a green sleeveless top, a pink-and-green bandana, a pink-and-yellow skirt, and, of course, many, many dresses, the signature piece that got Pulitzer started in fashion more than half a century ago.

Pulitzer's marketing materials try to associate her clothes with the Palm Beach good life. "Life's a party," LilyPulitzer.com declares. "Dress like it." Lilly Pulitzer stores have a beach-party atmosphere, with pink wallpaper and scallop-shell-framed mirrors and cheery staff eager to help you look your best.

But what's drawn me back to her clothes so many times over the years isn't their fabulousness, but rather how easy they are to wear. The cords and cardigan have kept their color and shape despite years of regular machine washing. Even more practical have been the dresses. Most of the dresses I've bought from Lilly Pulitzer have a comfortable, roomy fit and a flattering A-line style. They're lightweight and brightly colored—perfect for keeping cool (and hiding sweat) on a warm day. Her clothing's usefulness makes sense considering her start in the clothing business. As her Associated Press obituary explains, she was drawn to bold prints not because they were fashionable, but because they were practical:

In the late 1950s, the Palm Beach socialite had time to spare and a wealthy husband who owned citrus groves, so she opened an orange juice stand just off the island's main shopping street. Pulitzer needed to hide all the juice stains on her clothes, though. Instead of just putting on an apron, she asked her seamstress to make some sleeveless dresses in colorful fruit prints, and a fashion staple was born.

[xchrom]

34. European investor confidence declines more than forecast

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/europe/european-investor-confidence-declines-more-than-forecast-1.1352696

European investor confidence declined more than economists forecast this month, after the bail-in of Cypriot bank depositors rattled financial markets, the Sentix research institute said today.

An index measuring sentiment in the euro-area fell to minus 17.3 from minus 10.6 in March, the Limburg, Germany-based institute said. That's the second drop in a row and the lowest reading since December.

Economists had predicted a decline to minus 12.8, according to the median of 18 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. A gauge of economic expectations decreased to 0.5 from 8.3, while a measure of current conditions fell to minus 33.5 from minus 27.8.

Cyprus is gradually easing the first capital controls in the euro's history after depositors were called on to contribute to a bailout that will reshape the island nation's banking industry. That pushed the price of insuring against default higher for banks across the euro area, adding to obstacles to economic recovery for the 17-nation region.