STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 10 February 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 10 February 2012[/font]

SMW for 9 February 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 9 February 2012
[center][font color=green]
Dow Jones 12,890.46 +6.51 (0.05%)
S&P 500 1,351.95 +1.99 (0.15%)
Nasdaq 2,927.23 +11.37 (0.39%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.04% -0.01 (-0.49%)
[font color=red]30 Year 3.18% +0.01 (0.32%)
[font color=black]




[center][/font]

[HR width=85%]

[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]


[/center]

[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

[/center]

[center]

[/center]

[HR width=95%]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
[center]
Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
[center]
The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
[center]
LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
[center]
Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
[/center]

[div]
Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS



[HR width=95%]

[center]

[HR width=95%]
[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]

[Demeter]

1. A Truer Cartoon Was Never Penned

We was had, and it was a gang bang. And it hasn't stopped yet. Because we are still living and working our dutiful little bodies into the grave, trying to stay alive.

We need a cure for parasites. A permanent one.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. It was the very first one I saw, and sooooo accurate

And sooooooooooooo depressing.

And I don't even have a mortgage!!!

[DemReadingDU]

15. great toon!

[Demeter]

2. The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/the-top-twelve-reasons-why-you-should-hate-the-mortgage-settlement.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

As readers may know by now, 49 of 50 states have agreed to join the so-called mortgage settlement, with Oklahoma the lone refusenik. Although the fine points are still being hammered out, various news outlets (New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal) have details, with Dave Dayen’s overview at Firedoglake the best thus far.

The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that the SEC is about to launch some securities litigation against major banks. Since the statue of limitations has already run out on securities filings more than five years old, this means they’ll clip the banks for some of the very last (and dreckiest) deals they shoved out the door before the subprime market gave up the ghost.

The various news services are touting this pact at the biggest multi-state settlement since the tobacco deal in 1998. While narrowly accurate, this deal is bush league by comparison even though the underlying abuses in both cases have had devastating consequences...

Here are the top twelve reasons why this deal stinks:

1. We’ve now set a price for forgeries and fabricating documents. It’s $2000 per loan....

2. That $26 billion is actually $5 billion of bank money and the rest is your money...

3. That $5 billion divided among the big banks wouldn’t even represent a significant quarterly hit.

4. That $20 billion actually makes bank second liens sounder, so this deal is a stealth bailout that strengthens bank balance sheets at the expense of the broader public.

5. The enforcement is a joke. The first layer of supervision is the banks reporting on themselves.

6. The past history of servicer consent decrees shows the servicers all fail to comply.

7. The cave-in Nevada and Arizona on the Countrywide settlement suit is a special gift for Bank of America, who is by far the worst offender in the chain of title disaster

8. If the new Federal task force were intended to be serious, this deal would have not have been settled. You never settle before investigating...

I CAN'T GO ON...SEE LINK

[Demeter]

4. YVES SMITH'S CONCLUSION

12. We’ll now have to listen to banks and their sycophant defenders declaring victory despite being wrong on the law and the facts. They will proceed to marginalize and write off criticisms of the servicing practices that hurt homeowners and investors and are devastating communities. But the problems will fester and the housing market will continue to suffer. Investors in mortgage-backed securities, who know that services have been screwing them for years, will be hung out to dry and will likely never return to a private MBS market, since the problems won’t ever be fixed. This settlement has not only revealed the residential mortgage market to be too big to fail, but puts it on long term, perhaps permanent, government life support.

As we’ve said before, this settlement is yet another raw demonstration of who wields power in America, and it isn’t you and me. It’s bad enough to see these negotiations come to their predictable, sorry outcome. It adds insult to injury to see some try to depict it as a win for long suffering, still abused homeowners.

[DemReadingDU]

16. How much more do the banks want from us people?

silly me, the banks want everything
the people will end up with nothing

[Tansy_Gold]

21. They will take until. . ..

we stop giving.

We (collectively, and present company excepted, of course) are enablers of this. Eventually, some of us will reach a point of having had enough and more than enough, and finally something will happen. It will not be something good. Those of us who are not doing that something yet -- and that's all of us -- are essentially enablers of the system that is eating us alive.

Perhaps we should start a solidarity with Greece, encouraging the Greek people to stand firm until their "government" defaults. If they were the cradle of democracy once, they should try for a rebirth. Or maybe "second coming"???



TG

[DemReadingDU]

35. Well, we are 'forced' to enable the bank system by auto-deposits of paychecks, ss checks, etc.

And technology has made it easy to continue to enable the bank system via auto-payments of bills.

And some people seem to believe that we are going to a totally electronic system of money, no cash.

If this becomes true, we will never be able to stop enabling the bank system....unless we have nothing.

Is this where the Greek people are heading...to nothing?

Is this the model for other countries that will default?

[Tansy_Gold]

39. Oh, I understand that.

But people will always find a way to subvert the system, and in fact they have to.

Capitalism is a ponzi scheme. It is not and cannot be self-sustaining. A peaceful and bloodless and painless revolution is possible, but it's not likely. Revolution, however, is inevitable. how and when are the only questions left to be answered. Not if.

[tclambert]

65. I had to chase a couple of them away from my sofa cushions just yesterday.

I wonder what Mitt Rmoney's sofa cushions are like?

[Loge23]

52. The less-than 4% solution.

It is estimated that the under-water foreclosure mortgages total over $700B.
$26B, the amount of this ridiculous "settlement" doesn't even pay for the paperwork.
We are so F#@$&ed in this "land of opportunity".

[Roland99]

54. "You never settle before investigating... "

BINGO!!

[Demeter]

5. Janet Napolitano Personifies US Myopia

http://www.theautomaticearth.org/Earth/janet-napolitano-personifies-us-myopia.html

Janet Napolitano is a former Attorney General, and later Governor, of Arizona. She’s currently the US Secretary for Homeland Security. Last week, she wrote a piece for Reuters that shows Ms. Napolitano has blinders on that are so thick, every American should fear her and all she represents and stands for. First, here’s what she wrote:

The urgent need to protect the global supply chain


Every day, staggering numbers of air, land and sea passengers, as well as millions of tons of cargo, move between nations. International trade and commerce has long driven the development of nations and provided unprecedented economic growth. Indeed, our future prosperity depends upon it.

At the same time, threats to trade and travel — whether from explosives hidden in a passenger’s clothing or inside a ship’s cargo, or from a natural disaster — remind us of the need for security and resilience within the global supply chain.

For instance, just three days after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear tragedies struck Japan last March, U.S. automakers began cutting shifts and idling some plants at home. In the days that followed, they did the same at their factories in more than 10 countries around the world.

Ten years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we [..] continue to see the determination of individuals and groups to disrupt economies by targeting our transit and cargo systems. Understanding the seriousness of these threats underscores the need for a continued focus on protecting the global supply chain.

Just as important, we must move away from the outdated dichotomy that we have to choose between trade and travel efficiency, and trade and travel security. Security and efficiency must no longer be seen as mutually exclusive. It is possible to enhance security without increasing wait times, creating more paperwork and driving costs higher – and we are doing so already.

As I announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, the United States released a National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security, the product of more than two years of collaboration across the U.S. government, and with international and domestic public and private partners.

The National Strategy, created with the input of more than 60 subject matter experts and hundreds of supply chain stakeholders, takes a whole-of-nation approach to global supply chain systems, with two explicit goals: promoting the efficient and secure movement of goods; and fostering resiliency.

Ms. Napolitano sees two threats to the global supply chain. Nature and terrorists (or she might think of it as God and terrorists, for all I know). She sees it as her task to protect Americans from the fall-out from both factors. This must be done by improving security and efficiency. A National Strategy is in the works. You just carry on! What Napolitano doesn't address at all, not with one single word, are the real threats to the global supply chain. Which makes the meaning of "Security" in Homeland Security doubtful at best.


First of all, the supply chain, of course, is its own threat. Carrying millions of megatons of "stuff" around the planet daily, that could just as well be made inside the countries that import it, is a crazy idea. It is possible only because transport is -artificially- kept dirt cheap. Which in turn is possible only because we discount a thousand externalities, like pollution from planes and trucks etc. that "serve the chain", like rising domestic unemployment numbers in importing nations, like the collapse in domestic manufacturing capacity, like the often degrading working conditions for people oversees who produce "stuff" for citizens of richer nations, who themselves would never accept such conditions. And, from a wider perspective, the fact that the citizens of these richer nations get poorer all the time precisely because they lose jobs and wages if and when others far away can be made to work for far less money. If you would buy "stuff" produced by you neighbor, (s)he would have a job, and be able to buy what you produce. Now that you don't, you’ll both be either unemployed and/or work for much lower wages down the line.

As for the knowledge economy idea we've been fed, look at unemployment numbers in the west: it doesn't work. You've been fooled, punked, had. It only seemed to work for a while because we were all borrowing cheap money. Which leads straight to threat number two. The second real threat to the global supply chain, one that also gets zero attention from Napolitano, is the credit crisis. She knows perfectly well that without sufficient credit, the supply chain will collapse. But she prefers instead to talk about terrorism, so you will too. Let's pick an enemy that is not us. There is hardly a single store in the western world, and hardly a single ship or truck, that can run for more than a few days without credit in one form or the other. Business loans, rolling business credit lines, letters of credit, everything is bought and guaranteed with borrowed "money". When that disappears, most ships and trucks and stores will too. That credit is already disappearing, and it hasn't even started for real yet. Just wait till the realization dawns that we cannot prop up every single bank and sovereign nation with central bank zombie money. That trying to do so seals the sorrowful fate of ourselves and future generations, condemning any and all to barrel scraping poverty. In Europe and America, the hundreds of billions of dollars used to bail out anything deemed too big to fail, whether it's Greece or Goldman Sachs, have already led to the first rounds of austerity. Many more, and far more severe ones, will certainly follow. But that is not what Janet Napolitano thinks of when she contemplates threats to the global supply chain....MORE....If Janet Napolitano were either smart, honest or on your side, let alone all three, she would have written a completely different article under the title The urgent need to protect the global supply chain. The fact that she has not should serve as yet another reminder of where Washington's priorities lie.

If the US government were serious about protecting both the global supply chain and the American people, it would take measures to cut dependence on the chain, which is indeed under a lot of threats, albeit not primarily the ones Napolitano mentions. That is what Homeland Security should focus on. But with blinders the size of Napolitano's, that is impossible. The only possible conclusion therefore is that it's not a good idea to depend on Homeland Security for your security. Janet Napolitano is either very ignorant, or she willfully ignores the real threats. Which either makes her completely unfit to be Secretary for Homeland Security, or the ideal person for the job. It all depends on how you look at it, or what you wish to defend: your plush seat in society or the people's access to energy and other goods and services. You can't have both. Whether Napolitano understands this or not is really immaterial for you and me. She's not in our corner, and that's all we need to know. If she chooses to ignore the real threats to our lives, we have no choice but to ignore her, and the entire system she represents.

[tclambert]

67. Does she means she's against pirates?

I suppose they are really bad eggs.

[Demeter]

6. It's Well Past Time for Plan Z

http://www.theautomaticearth.org/Finance/its-well-past-time-for-plan-z.html

Mario Draghi captured the utter ineptitude of him and every other Eurocrat out there when he said the following at today’s press conference in response to a question about a Greek exit: “To have a Plan B means defeat already. I am confident that all the pieces of this will fall in the proper places.”

Most 5-year old children in pre-school have already been told not to believe that they can always win and that “winning isn’t everything”, but Draghi & Co. still refuse to consider the possibility of failure even as it is staring them in the face. What’s really disturbing is that the stakes here are obviously much, much higher than they are on the playground. These people should have already been thinking about Plans X, Y and Z, but they’re telling us they can’t even make it to B.

I hate to break it Mr. Draghi, but everyone else, including the German government (read the Eurozone’s back-stopper of last resort), other sovereign governments of Europe and the rest of the world, do have a Plan B for when, not if, the current Euro experiment fails. Whether those plans will make a bit of difference is an altogether different question, but they do exist. They acknowledge the fact that all the pieces can’t simply “fall in the proper places”. Most of the pieces to this puzzle don’t even exist.

Like, for instance, the capital that is actually required to drag the entire Euro periphery along while the world falls into the unmitigated depths of economic depression. The ECB can issue another few trillion euros of under-collateralized loans to European banks, but, as mentioned before, this will merely make it exponentially harder for both European economies to grow and European banks to remain solvent (as opposed to flush with more short-term liquidity than they know what to do with)...

[Demeter]

7. Watchdogs to drag shadow banks into the light (IT'S A FAIRY TALE FOR OUR TIMES)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/07/banking-shadow-idUSL5E8D71UI20120207

Beyond the reach of regulators, and about half the size of the world's banking industry, a thriving breed of "shadow banks" is emerging that could trigger the next chapter in the global financial crisis. Spurred by this concern, the watchdogs are turning their attention to the fringes of the global financial system, where hedge funds and money market funds are filling the gaps left by retreating banks.

"In America, increased financial activity is taking place between non-banks which are subject to little or no regulation, and Europe is catching up fast," said Godfried De Vidts, director of European Affairs at ICAP, a brokerage firm that trades only with large professional clients, such as investment banks.

The effort is the latest attempt by regulators to make the financial system safer, four years after the start of the global banking crisis. This has already led to a rewriting of the rules that will change the face of banking for good.
Tough new rules on capital requirements for banks -- known as Basel III -- are forcing banks to increase their safety buffers, while the U.S. "Volcker rule" bans overly risky bets by banks on financial markets. And opaque unlisted derivatives will have to be traded on exchanges in the future, rather than directly between banks in "over the counter" deals.

But despite these efforts, large swathes of the financial system remain outside the remit of the regulators, even though they provide essential funding to banks, and were at the heart of the global financial crisis. This sector, known as "shadow banking" -- much to the chagrin of the people operating in it -- is huge. The size of the sector was some $60 trillion in 2010, making it as big as roughly half the global banking industry...A run on its funds is as much a real risk for a shadow bank as it is for a normal bank, regulators say, and could have devastating consequences for the global financial system because the two sectors are so closely linked...Governments stood behind their banks when the interbank lending market dried up at the onset of the crisis, bailing them out with billions of dollars to protect depositors. But shadow banks would have no such fall-back option.

POLITICAL TARGET

Another risk identified by the Financial Stability Board (FSB)- the powerful body mandated by the G20 group of the world's richest economies to draw up new rules for shadow banking - is that they could be used to avoid financial regulation and attract risky activities that are banned elsewhere...The FSB has signalled a two-pronged approach to regulating shadow banking, with tough rules such as possible capital charges and limits on the size and nature of a mainstream bank's exposure to shadow banks. Other shadow banking activities which are seen as less systemically risky could face greater transparency requirements. Critics of this regulatory drive say that the definition the FSB uses to describe shadow banks is intentionally vague, allowing them to probe and potentially regulate corners of the financial universe that are seen as harmless. "The politicians want a reason for the crisis and shadow banking seems to be the target," said Richard Comotto, an academic at the ICMA centre at Reading University...Much of the debate centers around collateral - securities such as bonds or shares that guarantee a loan much in the same way as a property in a mortgage - which has become scarce after the crisis, making it harder for banks to lend.

The unsecured interbank lending market has almost completely dried up because banks have stopped lending to each other, so banks need more collateral to continue lending to clients. Much of this originates in shadow banks. Europe's banks for instance, are paying insurers and pension funds to take bonds that are hard to sell in exchange for better quality ones, in a desperate bid to secure much-needed cash from the European Central Bank (ECB). And blue-chip companies like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Peugeot are among firms providing cash to banks, in a reversal of the established roles of clients and lenders. These deals between companies and banks take place in the so-called repo market, another large part of shadow banking, used to raise short-term funding against collateral....The repo market, which in Europe alone is roughly 6 trillion euros in size, is another explicit target for the FSB, which has suggested these markets need the help of clearing and settlement houses to reduce risk. People working in the repo industry say the instruments themselves are safe and regulators should instead focus on the way banks use them. But many bankers are unwilling to take a public position, as the FSB has started working on the matter. Behind-the-screens discussions are already taking place with people in the industry. That meant banks have little to gain from picking a battle over shadow banking, said Karen Peetz, vice chairman at Bank of New York Mellon, a large player in the repo market...

[Demeter]

8. Bernanke Holds to 2014 Low-Rate Pledge Even as Unemployment Rate Declines

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-08/bernanke-holds-to-2014-low-rate-pledge-even-as-unemployment-rate-declines.html

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is holding to his pledge to keep borrowing costs close to zero at least through late 2014 even after unemployment unexpectedly fell to a three-year low.

Bernanke told the Senate Budget Committee in Washington yesterday that the decline in the jobless rate to 8.3 percent in January veils weaknesses in the U.S. labor market. Fed officials last month said they didn’t expect such progress until the fourth quarter.

“It is very important to look not just at the unemployment rate, which reflects only people who are actively seeking work,” Bernanke said in response to a lawmaker’s question during his testimony. “There are also a lot of people who are either out of the labor force because they don’t think they can find work” or who have taken part-time jobs.

The comments suggest Bernanke won’t alter his 2014 rate pledge until he sees faster economic growth, strong employment gains over many months or a risk that what he calls “subdued” inflation may speed up, said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. The Fed chairman has held the benchmark federal funds rate at zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008...

BERNANKE SPEAKS TRUTH? WHAT NEXT?

[Demeter]

9. Schneiderman's settlement sucks -- and we're not afraid to say so.

Jane Hamsher, Firedoglak​e.com email

Wells Fargo, Citi, Ally/GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America just sealed a deal with 49 State Attorneys General that will release them from liability for out-right defrauding millions of homeowners. In exchange, families defrauded by the banks can apply for what amounts to 2 months rent ($1,800-$2,000) compensation for losing their homes.

As former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Kouril said on FDL this morning, "The court system will be permanently corrupted by forged and perjurious documents... This settlement is an incredible breach of the social contract between the government and the governed."

We are especially disappointed in the "Justice Democrats" -- particularly Attorney Generals Eric Schneiderman and Kamala Harris -- whose complicity proves that any faith in their moral fiber or independence was misplaced. When Timothy Geither and the Obama White House pressed them to fold, they did so. At a time when America needs leaders to fight for justice and accountability, they chose to advance their own careers by protecting the corporations and bankers of the oligarch class -- hoping that a few press releases filled with platitudes echoed through an expensive propaganda machine will fool a credulous public.

It won't.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/02/08/49-state-foreclosure-fraud-settlement-will-be-finalized-thursday/

[Demeter]

13. Bailed-Out Banks Won't Create Jobs: What Next?

http://www.truth-out.org/bailed-out-banks-wont-create-jobs-what-next/1328301295


...The S&P-Fortune 500 largest corporations today sit on more than $2 trillion in cash, and they refuse to spend and invest it in America and create jobs here at home. The big-tech, big-bank and pharmaceutical companies sit on another cash hoard of more than another $1 trillion sheltered offshore and refuse to bring it home to create jobs. Nineteen big banks sit on still another $1 trillion and refuse to lend to small businesses to create jobs.

If big banks and big business refuse to create jobs with their cumulative $4 trillion bailout cash hoard, then the government must tax it, take it back from them and directly create jobs itself. The US needs a 21st-century New Deal, including an immediate creation of a Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) program similar to the one created in 1933. In just 90 days, the CCC created the equivalent of 1.2 million jobs in today's economy. In the mid- and longer term, what the economy needs now is a 21st century Works Progress Administration (WPA), which created, between 1935 and 1940, the equivalent of what would be 25 million jobs today.

More specifically, the US needs a new Alternative Energy Public Investment Corporation (AEPIC), in which the government would invest directly in alternative energy infrastructure. The modern-day CCC would be called the Civilian Reconstruction Corporation (CRC) and would directly build, repair and maintain urban areas and implement urban renewal measures. Today's US economy needs a Community Health Services Administration (CHSA) to build medical clinics in communities and provide direct health services to the working poor, those on Medicaid, and the 50 million uninsured. And the 21st Century Works Progress Administration (21WPA) should target job creation in non-infrastructure and non-health-services employment across all other industries and occupations.

The $4 trillion to fund these direct job creation programs is there. There's no need to raise the deficit or debt. If the super wealthy and their big corporations and banks won't spend the trillion-dollar bailouts US taxpayers provided them, the only alternative is for the government to reclaim those trillions and spend it on direct job creation programs itself.

*******************************************************************
Creative Commons License

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

*******************************************************************

Jack Rasmus

Jack Rasmus is the author of "Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression" (Pluto Press and Palgrave Macmillan, May 2010) and the forthcoming book "Obama's Economy: Recovery for the Few" (same publishers, 2011). His blog is jackrasmus.com and web site: www.kyklosproductions.com.

[DemReadingDU]

17. It's about saving themselves, they really don't care about us people

all for them, none for us

[Demeter]

33. They cannot save themselves by continuing their crimes

any more than an alcoholic can cure himself by drinking--unless you consider death a cure.

And everything the banks have done that wasn't according to Hoyle IS A CRIME AND SHOULD BE PROSECUTED, NOT ENABLED.

[DemReadingDU]

38. It doesn't appear anything has really changed

The foreclosure settlement was just another enabling of the banksters. No one is going to be prosecuted.

Perhaps when some nut starts killing the banksters, something will change. I don't like violence, but when people get squeeze and squeezed until they have nothing, what is their to lose?


And knowing alcoholics, death is usually their cure.

[Demeter]

40. Exactly, only worse

Because we are all dying, as is our legacy, and our species and our planet.

[DemReadingDU]

42. yeh, it is

I often contemplate how much we will witness during the rest of our lifetime. As it seems now, things are devolving slowly and most people aren't even aware of it.

However, if there is a major disruption, perhaps a world financial banking holiday, that would trigger a quicker implosion.

I fear my kids and grandkids will see the most changes, if they survive.

[Hotler]

55. Reading your post about an alcohlic drinking themselves to death .....

I thought of this song.

&feature=related

[Demeter]

31. Housing deal set to boost US economy

The $40bn settlement between US regulators and banks could drag house prices down in the short term if banks start to seize homes again


Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/C43HH0/3CWTA/DWQAB1/AMFNY6/B7/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=10

LET'S FORGET ABOUT CRIMINALITY, JUSTICE, AND THE RULE OF LAW...WE'LL BEAT THE ECONOMY DRUM, WHEN IT COVERS UP OUR "ELITE" CRIMES.

[xchrom]

10. a little music to accompany the 'settlement'...

[Hotler]

62. Chrom, who does that song? Sounds like the Young Cannibals. n/t

[xchrom]

63. That's the GAP band.

FYC was more new wave less funk/disco.

[xchrom]

11. mornings are so rude...

then again i believe others have accused me of being the same.

[Tansy_Gold]

36. Why do you hate mornings?

Are you just grumpy in the morning?

My son used to be like that. . . . . oh, mornings with Kevin were horrible times!

I just get up and start -- whatever.

[xchrom]

37. i'm grumpy and SLEEPY.

and it's all an interior thing -- to watch me -- you wouldn't think.

but i am extroverted introvert.

[DemReadingDU]

41. I've become more grumpy

It's not morning. Like Tansy, I just get up and do whatever.

But so much is going on in the world, and most people don't pay attention. They are so clueless. I know I can't change them, they have to open their own eyes. But when they laugh at me for making extra preparations, I get grumpy.

[Tansy_Gold]

49. More gumpy, more distrustful, more aloof

Much less willing to let people get close to me in a psychological/emotional sense, much more willing to see anything and everything in a negative light.

And I trust no one.

[Demeter]

56. Why Should You? Trusting No One is Learning From Experience

be glad that you can learn. So many can't, while the others won't.

[Hotler]

61. +1, I let very, very few get close to me anymore. n/t

[xchrom]

12. China tangled up in industrial espionage

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NB11Ad01.html

It looks like someone got their hands caught in DuPont's cookie jar. The jar in question was DuPont's closely-held knowhow in the manufacture of titanium dioxide.

According to a criminal indictment unsealed in US federal court on February 8, USA Performance Technology Inc (USAPTI), a company in Oakland, California, conspired to sell DuPont's trade secrets and a major Chinese state-run corporation, Pangang Group, conspired to acquire them.

The criminal indictment represents an escalation of DuPont's complaint from a civil suit that had been percolating through the US courts in 2011. That means 2012 will see a high-profile, election-year criminal case encapsulating a plethora of hot-button issues that can be summarized with the phrase "Chinese



government engages in industrial espionage to rip off US companies".

Titanium dioxide is one of DuPont's workhorses, contributing some US$2 billion to DuPont's annual sales of $40 billion and a disproportionate amount of net income, perhaps $300 million or more per annum, to DuPont's bottom line. The chemical is a pigment that makes things white, especially paints, paper, and plastics, but also many other things, like toothpaste. It is responsible for the unnatural whiteness of the filling in Oreo cookies, for example.

Titanium dioxide is extremely dirty, unpleasant, and costly to make. Using the traditional sulfate process developed in the early 20th century, production of one ton of titanium dioxide can generate over 60 tons of acid-tainted wastewater. Or the sulfuric acid can be recovered from the wastewater - at a cost three times greater than that of virgin acid.

[xchrom]

14. India signals long-term partnership with Iran

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2012/02/09/india-signals-long-term-partnership-with-iran/

India figured as Iran’s number one crude oil customer in January. That may be difficult to believe but it is indeed a statement of fact. Actually, India stepped up its imports of Iranian oil by 37.5 percent, which helped Iran offset a 50 percent cut in Chinese purchases resulting from a dispute in pricing. China now imports around 250000 barrels a day as against India’s 550000 barrels a day, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Of course, what stands out is that New Delhi’s Iran policy is crystallising. India will concentrate on its self-interests in a highly fluid regional security scenario without in the least being ideological about the winds of change blowing through that region. This is the message one gets. Indeed, the US-Iran standoff is primarily geopolitical and it doesn’t concern India, which is in any case not in the business of ‘regime change’.
In all probability, Washington too will eventually get to see the futility of this standoff and will move toward engaging Tehran. Despite the western rhetoric, the fact remains that sanctions against Iran failed to work through the past 30 years. Even a noted Iran-baiter like French president Nicolas Sarkozy is warning that a military strike against Iran serves no purpose.
Now, coming back to India’s oil imports from Iran, Washington will continue to dissuade Delhi from trading with Tehran. The US state department spokesperson told reporters Tuesday that the talks with the visiting Indian foreign secretary in Washington included “how India might find alternative sources… This is a two-track policy, both to encourage countries to wean themselves from Iranian oil, but also to work with suppliers around the world to help countries find alternative sources of supply.”
However, what Washington overlooks is that India’s economic relationship with Iran as such is also at stake here. Without oil imports, India-Iran trade virtually packs up. Delhi’s robust efforts to work out a reliable payment mechanism for the trade with Iran underscores that it intends to not only sustain the present level of trade but do all it can to boost the trade by stepping up India’s exports to Iran. The government is mounting a “huge” business delegation to Iran in end-February to explore the opportunities for tapping those sectors that are being vacated by the western countries following their embargo against Iran. It is a long-term approach that India is adopting, keeping in view the fact that Iran is a rich country potentially which offers a big market for India’s exports.

[Demeter]

18. Tie U.S. Recovery Program to Economic Indicators: Peter Orszag

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-08/tie-u-s-recovery-program-to-economic-indicators-peter-orszag.html

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT AND TROUBLING IDEA. "STABILIZERS" ARE SOCIAL BENEFITS. CREATING A PERMANENT "KETTLING" OF PEOPLE FROM THE "ELITE" SO THAT THE "ELITE" CAN RIPSAW WHATEVER, WHENEVER, AND THE PRICE IS REMOVED TO A LATER DATE...IT'S LIKE PENICILLIN FOR ORGIES...EXCEPT, THE GONORRHEA GERM IS BECOMING RESISTANT...

...Automatic stabilizers are components of the budget that cushion the blow from an economic decline, without the need for emergency congressional action. For example, when the economy weakens, tax revenue falls and certain forms of spending -- such as unemployment insurance -- automatically increase. The net result is to attenuate the impact of a recession, by providing stimulus right when it’s needed. As the economy recovers, the stabilizers recede, mitigating the longer-term effect on the budget deficit.

What’s crucial is that, once the automatic stabilizers are put in place, they do the work. They remove the need both to guess about the economy and to overcome legislative inertia.

In the U.S., automatic stabilizers offset about 20 percent of an economic shock after two years, according to research by Glenn Follette and Byron Lutz of the Federal Reserve. In Europe, the effect is even larger, research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests. The automatic stabilizers in Europe offset a shock by about 10 percentage points more than in the U.S...

(Peter Orszag is vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup Inc. and a former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama administration. The opinions expressed are his own.)

[xchrom]

19. U.S. futures lower with Greece, data in focus

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-futures-lower-with-greece-data-in-focus-2012-02-10?dist=beforebell

MADRID (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures fell Friday, tracking losses in Asia and Europe after more conditions were demanded for Greece to get fresh aid. Consumer-sentiment data and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are in the spotlight for later.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/4222696 DJ2H -0.56% fell 61 points, or 0.5%, to 12,781 and those on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index /quotes/zigman/782502 SP2H -0.82% slipped 8.6 points, or 0.6%, to 1,339.70.

Nasdaq 100 futures /quotes/zigman/2978008 ND2H -0.83% fell 12.50 points to 2,548.50.

[xchrom]

20. Foreclosures to Climb Before Bank Deal Helps U.S. Housing Market

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-09/foreclosure-deal-to-spur-new-wave-of-u-s-home-seizures-help-heal-market.html

The $25 billion settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses may result in a wave of home seizures, inflicting short-term pain on delinquent U.S. borrowers while making a long-term housing recovery more likely.

Lenders slowed the pace of foreclosures as they negotiated with attorneys general in all 50 states for more than a year over allegations of faulty and fraudulent paperwork used to repossess homes. With yesterday’s agreement, banks are likely to resume property seizures.

“The best thing about the settlement, frankly, is that it will be done,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist for Seattle-based Zillow Inc. (Z), a provider of home-sales data. “The shadow of the settlement hung over the market for a year now.”

The backlog of foreclosures has trapped homeowners in properties they can no longer afford, depressed neighborhood prices by increasing the number of abandoned homes and led banks to tighten mortgage credit standards because of uncertainty about the cost of their potential obligations. Foreclosure starts fell 46 percent in December from October 2010, when the investigation into the so-called robo-signing of mortgage documentation began, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc.

[xchrom]

25. Why the Foreclosure Deal May Not Be So Hot After All

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209

So the foreclosure settlement is through.

A few weeks back, I was optimistic about it – I had been worried that it was going to contain broad liability waivers for all sorts of activities, and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that its scope had essentially been narrowed to robosigning offenses.

However, now that the settlement is finalized, and I've had time to think about it and talk to people who know far more than I do about this, I'm feeling pretty queasy.

It feels an awful lot like what happened here is the nation's criminal justice honchos collectively realized that a thorough investigation of the problem would require resources they simply do not have, or are reluctant to deploy, and decided to accept a superficially face-saving peace offer rather than fight it out.

So they settled the case in a way that reads in headlines like it's a bite out of the banks, but in fact is barely even that. There will be little in the way of real compensation for stuggling homeowners, and there are serious issues in the area of the deal's enforceability. In fact, about the only part of the deal we can be absolutely sure will be honored in full is the liability waiver for the robosigning offenses.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209#ixzz1lz9DxsaS

[xchrom]

22. Fed Plays Wall Street Favorites in Secret Deals

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-10/fed-plays-wall-street-favorites-in-secret-bond-deals-mortgages.html

The Federal Reserve secretly selected a handful of banks to bid for debt securities acquired by taxpayers in the U.S. bailout of American International Group Inc., and the rest of Wall Street is wondering what happened to the transparency the central bank said it was committed to upholding.

“The exclusivity by which the process has shut out smaller dealers is a little un-American,” said David Castillo, head of sales and trading at broker Further Lane Securities LP in San Francisco, who said he would have liked to participate. “It seems odd that if you want to get the best possible price that it wouldn’t be open to anyone who wants to put in the most competitive bid.”

After inviting more than 40 broker-dealers to take part in a series of auctions last year, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York asked only Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Barclays Plc (BARC) to bid on the full $13.2 billion of bonds offered in two sales over the past month. The central bank switched to a less open process after traders blamed the regular, more public disposals for damaging prices in 2011. This week, Goldman Sachs bought $6.2 billion of bonds in an auction.

The selectivity has irked firms that weren’t also given the chance to profit from the auctions, and raises the question of whether the Fed got the highest price for U.S. taxpayers, who gave insurer AIG a $182.3 billion bailout. The New York Fed resumed its sales of the assets in January after the market recouped a portion of last year’s losses.

[Demeter]

23. iEmpire: Apple's Sordid Business Practices Are Even Worse Than You Think

http://www.alternet.org/story/154043/iempire%3A_apple%27s_sordid_business_practices_are_even_worse_than_you_think?page=entire

New research goes beyond the New York Times to show just how disturbing labor conditions at Foxconn, the "Chinese hell factory," really are...The buzz about Apple’s sordid business practices is courtesy of the New York Times series on the “iEconomy. In some ways it’s well reported but adds little new to what critics of the Taiwan-based Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, have been saying for years. The series' biggest impact may be discomfiting Apple fanatics who as they read the articles realize that the iPad they are holding is assembled from child labor, toxic shop floors, involuntary overtime, suicidal working conditions, and preventable accidents that kill and maim workers.

It turns out the story is much worse. Researchers with the Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) say that legions of vocational and university students, some as young as 16, are forced to take months'-long “internships” in Foxconn’s mainland China factories assembling Apple products. The details of the internship program paint a far more disturbing picture than the Times does of how Foxconn, “the Chinese hell factory,” treats its workers, relying on public humiliation, military discipline, forced labor and physical abuse as management tools to hold down costs and extract maximum profits for Apple.

To supply enough employees for Foxconn, the 60th largest corporation globally, government officials are serving as lead recruiters at the cost of pushing teenage students into harsh work environments. The scale is astonishing with the Henan provincial government having announced in both 2010 and 2011 that it would send 100,000 vocational and university students to work at Foxconn, according to SACOM.

Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation, told AlterNet that “Foxconn is conspiring with government officials and universities in China to run what may be the world's single largest internship program – and one of the most exploitative. Students at vocational schools – including those whose studies have nothing to do with consumer electronics – are literally forced to move far from home to work for Foxconn, threatened that otherwise they won't be allowed to graduate. Assembling our iPhones and Kindles for meager wages, they work under the same conditions, or worse, as other workers in the Foxconn sweatshops.”

MORE

[hay rick]

53. So what are you going to believe?

1 or 2 stories about Foxconn or 100 stories about Saint Steve?

[Demeter]

58. Guess

1.1 Billion Chinese can't be all wrong.

[Demeter]

24. Chinese imports fall sharply in January

Chinese imports fell sharply in January, a sign of sluggish domestic demand that will fuel concerns about whether the fragile global economy can count on China as a bastion of growth.

Adding to the grim picture, China’s exports also dipped last month as its companies felt a chill wind from Europe’s debt troubles. Exports fell 0.5 per cent year on year, the first decline since late 2009.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/SPAW1X/VTVRG/QNHQ5V/WT54BL/ID/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=10

[Demeter]

27. Chinese inflation jumps in 4.5%

Chinese inflation jumped in January, breaking a streak of five straight monthly declines, but seasonal factors were largely to blame and price pressures were expected to weaken in the coming months.

The consumer price index rose 4.5 per cent from a year earlier, up from December’s 4.1 per cent pace. The main cause of the rebound was a shopping blitz before last month’s Chinese New Year holiday, which pushed up food prices, an effect which has regularly been seen in the past and is likely to be temporary.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/PFC2AO/CWSVD/TU8JWI/SPAORP/CM/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=8

[Demeter]

32. Wukan challenges party line on democracy

Chinese leaders and academics argued China was not suited to democracy and it would slow down economic development

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/C43HH0/3CWTA/DWQAB1/AMFNYI/B7/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=10

[Demeter]

26. Bank of England raises stimulus by £50bn

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep interest rates at their current record lows on Thursday and authorised further gilts purchases totalling £50bn, in line with economists’ expectations.

The move brings the size of the total gilts purchasing programme, known as Quantitative Easing, to £325bn and suggests that, despite recent signs that the UK economy is picking up after a trough in the middle of last autumn, the Bank’s policymakers do not feel confident there is enough momentum for demand to build on its own.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/NA70KK/XH4Y5J/SUO9T/U16RKV/SPAAXN/1G/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=9

[Demeter]

28. Brokers suspended in Libor inquiry

Almost a dozen traders and brokers in London and Asia have been fired, suspended or put on leave by their employers as a multinational probe into alleged manipulation of crucial global lending rates accelerates

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/OZMCDD/SPA70L/Q38E1/VLOFKY/8ZJIBP/W1/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=8

[Demeter]

29. Probe reveals scale of Libor abuse

Regulators are investigating how certain traders seemed to influence the movement of benchmark rates to profit from related derivatives

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/7ASUTM/52KB7/MSUXPS/5VQ9X7/ZH/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=10

[Demeter]

30. Draghi attacks bankers over ECB fears

The president of the ECB has accused bankers of ‘statements of virility’ for saying they fear a stigma from accepting long-term ECB loans

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/C43HH0/3CWTA/DWQAB1/VLM5O6/B7/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=10

I HAVE TO HOPE SOMETHING GOT LOST IN TRANSLATION...LIKE THEIR MINDS

[Roland99]

34. Agreed Upon Greek Bailout "Unagreed" 24 Hours Later As LAOS Leader Changes Mind, Euro Tumbles

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/agreed-upon-greek-bailout-unagreed-24-hours-later-laos-leader-changes-mind-euro-tumbles

Remember the pomp and circumstance with which Venizelos showed up in Brussels yesterday carrying a two paragraph statement from Lucas Papademos in hand, saying Greece promises it has agreed to agree to make idiotic "pledges"? Well, as was largely suspected by cynical old us, even that "deal" has lasted not even a whopping 24 hours.

GREECE'S KARATZAFERIS SAYS CAN'T VOTE FOR TROIKA ACCORD AS IS - BBG
GREEK FAR-RIGHT PARTY LEADER SAYS ELECTIONS WOULD NOT PROVIDE A SOLUTION NOW, WOULD NEED MORE TIME

This is coming from the LAOS coalition member whose support for the Troika accord was supposedly in place yesterday.Alas, without his endorsement, the whole thing is off. And just to complete the sheer chaos that is about to be unleashed in Greece:

Greek far right party leader says asks for reshuffle of Papademos technocrat gov

-> Kiss this whole thing goodbye. Just as Germany wanted all along. And the EURUSD, which lately had traded with the sheer idiocy with which one trades US 3x beta stocks, and which had soared on what was glaringly idiotic hopes that this time, just this time, things in Greece would be different, tumbles.

[DemReadingDU]

43. I think TPTB are planning behind the scenes for the Greek default

They are getting their ducks all lined up, planning how they will profit from the default.

But, whatever is done for the default of Greece, the same thing will be counted on to be done for Italy, Portugal, Spain, and other countries.

I truly don't see all these defaults going smoothly.

[Roland99]

45. The Global Reset

Steve Ballmer got it a few years ago (interspersed with ideas of how Microsoft can still fit in):
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-02-07/tech/30066819_1_pc-sales-global-economy-innovation/2

[AnneD]

59. I think you are right DemReading...

Greece has defaulted in all but action. I have seen so many articles that state so much as that. All this talk about orderly default, etc,etc. It is all over but the crying....

[Roland99]

44. DJIA -100 already. Indexes down about 1%. Oil down nearly 2%.

[xchrom]

46. World’s Dumbest Traders Were at Credit Suisse: Jonathan Weil

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-10/world-s-dumbest-traders-were-at-credit-suisse-commentary-by-jonathan-weil.html

***snip

Still, their forays into illegality were so painfully dimwitted they deserve to be celebrated, if only to distract us from a more unnerving aspect of their story: In all probability, lots of other bankers committed the exact same kinds of acts during the financial crisis. And the vast majority of those who did will never be prosecuted, mainly because they weren’t so dense about the way they did it.

Imagine this: You are a Wall Street trader during the summer of 2007, specializing in complex mortgage bonds that no human being is capable of fully understanding. What little you do grasp about these bonds is that if their values go down too much, your year-end bonus won’t be as high as you want it to be.

Now You See

You also realize the bonds aren’t as valuable as they once were, because the market is collapsing. Maybe you don’t know exactly how much they are worth. But you certainly know grossly inflated prices when you see them. These are the values you want to show on your bank’s books. So you huddle constantly with some of your closest colleagues to cook up ways to make sure the numbers are much higher than they should be when you go to mark your trading book to market prices each day.

Normally, this might be a reliable Wall Street strategy for self-enrichment. The beauty of these assets is they are so illiquid and trade so infrequently, there is rarely a correct answer for their proper value. Judgment and subjectivity rule the day. Even giant overstatements could prove difficult for auditors to challenge. This is why it’s almost unheard of for anyone to face criminal charges for intentionally overvaluing assets like these.

[xchrom]

47. Greece strikes as bailout stalls

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0210/breaking10.html

?ts=1328886025
Riot police take up their positions at the Greek parliament ahead of protests against planned reforms by the coalition government in Athens. Photograph: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

Unions in Greece began a two-day general strike against planned austerity measures, a day after the country’s crucial international bailout was put in limbo by its euro zone partners.

Frustrated by days of dithering, bailout creditors have given Greece until the middle of next week to fully meet demands for new harsh cutbacks. Otherwise, the debt-crippled country will lose its rescue loan lifeline, go bankrupt next month and probably leave the euro.

“We are experiencing tragic moments,” deputy prime minister Theodoros Pangalos told parliament. “These days are the last acts of a drama that we all hope will lead to a happy conclusion with a voluntary reduction in our public debt and implementation of a framework by 2015 that will allow the economy to stabilise.”

The Greek coalition government, led by prime minister Lucas Papademos had hoped some of the heat had been taken out of the crisis after leaders agreed to a raft of austerity measures they hoped would pave the way for the €130 billion bailout package.

[girl gone mad]

60. LIVE: The Greek Government Is Falling Apart

tick, tock...

Although hopes for a positive outcome in Greece were buoyed by news that Greek politicians had come to an agreement on austerity measures yesterday, that enthusiasm has quickly vanished.

Eurozone finance ministers rejected the deal in its current form, saying that it still didn't go far enough in cutting down Greece's unsustainable public debts.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble estimated that Greece's public debt could remain as high as 136 percent of GDP in 2020 according to Bloomberg, despite strict stipulations that Greece bring its public debts down to 120 percent by that year.

Markets are sour, the euro is diving, and suddenly the picture no longer looks rosy in Greece.

We'll keep you up to speed throughout the day right here with all the latest news coming out of Greece.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/live-latest-from-greece-2012-2#ixzz1m0b0sdvm

[xchrom]

64. Ruh-Roh. Nt

[Tansy_Gold]

66. we need rummy is frosted. n/t

[xchrom]

68. i haven't seen RIF in a long time. nt

[xchrom]

48. Banks' reliance on ECB funding falls {ireland}

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0210/breaking24.html

rish banks borrowings from the European Central Bank fell to under €100 billion in January, but analysts speculated that the sharp decline was due to funding transfers.

According to the figures, Irish banks' funding from the Central Bank totalled €92.6 billion at the end of last month, compared with €107.2 billion at the end of December.

But Glas Securities took a cautionary approach to the news, saying it was sceptical that about whether the drop should be seen as positive for the Irish banks.

"It is important to note that the headline figure includes non-Irish banks who access the ECB from an Irish subsidiary," Glas wrote.

[xchrom]

50. video report at link} In Bailing Out Greece, Germans Eye 'Functional, Surviving Euro'

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june12/germany_02-09.html

European Union finance ministers said Thursday Greece would have to make even more austerity cuts to receive bailout money, even if there is a new government. Margaret Warner reports from Germany on how citizens of the continent's richest country feel about the EU's latest debt relief package for Greece.

[xchrom]

51. Core machinery orders plunge 7.1% {japan}

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20120210a3.html

Key machinery orders dropped a sharper than expected 7.1 percent in December to ¥733.2 billion, the first decline in two months, affected by weakness in some technology sectors, government data showed.

Core private-sector orders, excluding those for ships and from utilities, marked a downturn following a strong 14.8 percent expansion of in November, the data showed Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted figure for orders, an indicator of future capital spending by companies, logged a 5 percent fall, also weaker than market forecasts.

Analysts said the contraction was due largely to a reaction to the previous month's gains.

[DemReadingDU]

57. S&P Downgrades 34 Of 37 Italian Banks

2/10/12 S&P Downgrades 34 Of 37 Italian Banks

S&P just downgraded 34 of the 37 Italian banks it covers. Below is the full statement. And so get get one second closer to midnight for Europe's AIG equivalent: A&G. As for S&P, this is the funniest bit: "We classify the Italian government as "supportive" toward its banking sector. We recognize the government's record of providing support to the banking system in times of stress." Even rating agencies now have to rely on sovereign risk transfer as the only upside case to their reports. Oh, and who just went balls to the wall Italian stocks? Why the oldest (no pun intended) contrarian indicator in the book - none other than permawrong Notorious (Barton) B.I.G.G.S.

edit - click link to read statement
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/sp-downgrades-34-37-italian-banks-full-statement

[Roland99]

69. Greek Cabinet Approves 2nd Loan Pact: Official

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-10/papademos-wins-cabinet-approval-for-budget-steps-to-secure-second-bailout.html

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos obtained approval from his Cabinet for deeper budget cuts needed to secure a second package of international aid, clearing the latest hurdle in his race to prevent financial collapse.

Cabinet approved the 287-page document unanimously, said a government official, who declined to be named. The approval means the 300-seat Parliament will vote, probably tomorrow, on budget measures amounting to 7 percent of gross domestic product over the next three years and a debt swap to slice 100 billion euros off more than 200 billion euros of privately-held debt.

“The social cost this program implies will be limited compared to the economic and social catastrophe that would follow if we don’t adopt it,” Papademos told his ministers earlier, according to an e-mailed transcript of his comments. “The completion of the program and financial support will cement our country’s future in the euro area.”

The approval capped a week of tension in Athens as European Union and International Monetary Fund officials argued with Greek government officials over the conditions required to secure the 130 billion-euro ($172 billion) rescue package. Papademos reached agreement with the three party leaders supporting his interim government hours before a crucial meeting of euro area finance ministers in Brussels on Feb. 9, only to be told the measures needed more work.

EURUSD going vertical.

[DemReadingDU]

70. “The social cost this program implies will be limited compared

“The social cost this program implies will be limited compared to the economic and social catastrophe that would follow if we don’t adopt it”


I think the people are not going to like these deeper budget cuts