STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 2 July 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 2 July 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 1 July 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 1 July 2015
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Dow Jones 17,757.91 +138.40 (0.79%)
S&P 500 2,077.42 +14.31 (0.69%)
Nasdaq 5,013.12 +26.26 (0.53%)


[font color=black]10 Year 2.42% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=red]30 Year 3.21% +0.01 (0.31%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
Market Updates
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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
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Yahoo Finance
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
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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
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
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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."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts







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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]

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Why it's not over (bonus toon)

Last night, a seventh black church burned. Seven in the two weeks since the Charleston terrorist attack.

[Demeter]

2. This is why I never go south of the Ohio River, if I can help it

I have a hard enough time passing as a Yankee...or a hayseed Midwesterner from a fly-over state.

(I'm actually European royalty in exile....)


Scraping the back lists of the inbox, folks....everyone is holding breath, waiting for something definitive to write about. And that could take a while. Other than the Dancing Supremes, that is, the rest of the world is on vacation (or in hiding).

So, enjoy the peace while it lasts. It shouldn't be too long....there are too many lit fuses. And after all, you know what's coming...

[Warpy]

7. I drove the length of Alabama during the Judge Roy Moore flapdoodle in 2003

I figured a battered pickup truck would allow me to blend well enough that nobody would particularly notice the NM tag on it. They set a benchmark for hate radio that no one anywhere has exceeded, not even on short wave.

It was scary. I didn't stop, no matter how hungry I got.

These church burnings aren't copycat, they look organized. I hope the DOJ diverts resources from chasing phantoms on the left to chasing the very real terrorists on the far right. That's the only way to stop these people and they have to be stopped.

Consider that every democracy that has fallen has done so because of the far right. There are no exceptions.

[Fuddnik]

9. Oh yeah, I remember driving through Georgia in 2004. Especially around Macon.

My Canary Yellow S-10 pickup, plastered with Kerry bumperstickers, and many anti-repuke stickers.

I got more birds than I'd ever seen. And yelled obscenities. When I finally got to Cleveland, it was all honks, and thumbs up.

[Demeter]

3. The economic plan that could save America (but scares conservative billionaires senseless)

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/29/the_economic_plan_that_could_save_america_but_scares_conservative_billionaires_senseless/

Guaranteed government jobs would be a huge boon to the American worker — and deprive the rich of their power...Long-term unemployment is the scourge of modern economies. In a society where people take value from work, unemployment is destabilizing and degrading. A bout of long-term unemployment can permanently scar workers, leaving them with lower wages and fewer usable skills. Last year, Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker put forward a persuasive case for a return to full employment as the palliative to unemployment. But it’s increasingly clear the private sector cannot create full employment on its own. Even at the height of the Clinton boom, millions of African-Americans and low-skilled workers were jobless. To get full employment, progressives should embrace an idea that hasn’t surfaced recently in mainstream American political dialogue: a universal government job guarantee.

In a recent article, Derek Thompson explored a future “world without work.” While his article was well-researched and informative, it misses a key point: For inner-city Black Americans, “a world without work” is not a dystopian future, but a present reality. As Mark Levine writes, “By 2010, in five of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, fewer than half of working-age black males held jobs. In 25 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, fewer than 55 percent of working-age black males were, in fact, employed.” In a recent Center for Economic Policy Research report Cherrie Bucknor notes the Black/white gap in employment rates “increased during the recent recession and is still larger than its pre-recession level.” Reniqua Allen refers to this reality as the “permanent recession” that Black men face. People of color are the first to lose jobs during a recession and the last to gain them in a recovery. Further, many future losses from new technology will occur in heavily racialized sectors, like retail and fast food. Occupational segregation means that people of color, and particularly women of color, will bear the brunt of job losses. Racial justice requires addressing the future of work.

A government job guarantee has a long history in American politics. As Theda Skocpol notes in “Social Policy in The United States,” during the recession of the 1890s, the American Federation of Labor (which later merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations to form AFL-CIO), requested public works to abate the recession. They repeated these demands during the early 1900s, and after World War I demanded that “a nation that sent men into battle had a moral and political obligation to make sure they had jobs when they returned home.”

However, the AFL were opposed to government-sponsored unemployment insurance. Skocpol cites Alex Keyssar who writes that, “unionists stressed that public works programs were preferable to simple poor relief in three respects: They paid workers a living wage rather than a pittance; they permitted jobless men and women to avoid the demoralizing consequences of accepting charity; and they performed a useful public service.” However, over the past decade, the government hasn’t guaranteed jobs; instead ,conservative austerity policies have lead to millions of public sector jobs being cut.



MORE

[Demeter]

4. Chapter 4: Who guards the guardians? The conflicting interests of investment arbitrators

FROM Corporate Europe Observatory:Exposing the power of corporate lobbying in the EU

http://corporateeurope.org/trade/2012/11/chapter-4-who-guards-guardians-conflicting-interests-investment-arbitrators

When I wake up at night and think about arbitration, it never ceases to amaze me that sovereign states have agreed to investment arbitration at all [...] Three private individuals are entrusted with the power to review, without any restriction or appeal procedure, all actions of the government, all decisions of the courts, and all laws and regulations emanating from parliament.

Juan Fernández-Armesto, arbitrator from Spain

Investment arbitrators are hidden from public view, barely mentioned in international media. This is perhaps not surprising, given that most people’s eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the words. Yet this small group of elite lawyers have been granted unprecedented power to judge cases that affect millions of people.

When companies sue governments in international arbitration tribunals, investment arbitrators have the power to divert taxpayers’ money to corporations. They can decide to penalise governments for ensuring people’s human rights to health, access to water or electricity as well as the right to a healthy environment. This field of law is certainly not short of technocratic detail and obtuse legalese, but it has a much broader relevance when we understand the role that this group of lawyers play in decisions that affect ordinary people’s lives.

Advocates claim an international arbitration system is needed because national courts are not sufficiently neutral. They say that only international arbitration courts can provide the neutral ground to deal with investors’ concerns. That means that investment arbitrators become the guardians of investment arbitration, and confidence in the system is based on their perceived independence. Yet investment arbitrators are hardly neutral guardians, who stand above the law. In fact, they are crucial actors in the arbitration industry, with a financial interest in the existence of investment arbitration. Arbitrators, to a far greater degree than judges, have a financial and professional stake in the system. They earn handsome rewards for their services. Unlike judges, there is no flat salary, no cap on financial remuneration.

Arbitrators are people to whom others entrust their wealth and welfare.

William W. Park, investment arbitrator

Arbitrators’ fees can range from US$375 to US$700 per hour depending on where the arbitration takes place. How much an arbitrator earns per case will depend on the case’s length and complexity, but for a US$100 million dispute, arbitrators could earn on average up to US$350,0005. It can be far more. The presiding arbitrator in the case between Chevron and Texaco v. Ecuador, received US$939,0006. In another case, the Tribunal president billed for 719 hours at an hourly rate of US$660 plus VAT...

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

5. THE GREEKS SPEAK (AND FRIENDS OF GREEKS)

PM Tsipras says Greek creditors didn’t accept reform plan

...In his official Twitter account Tsipras said the international creditors have never been so persistent in rejecting reform plans, neither in Ireland nor in Portugal...

http://twitter.com/abarden/status/613639293974638592/photo/1

MORE AT http://rt.com/business/269359-greece-debt-crisis-tsipras/

Breaking with Creditors’ Power: The Importance of the Greek Debt Audit By Fanny Malinen

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42233.htm

The world’s eyes are once more on Greece. I had the opportunity to visit Athens in mid-May, joining a knowledge exchange organised by the Political Economy Research Centre at Goldsmiths, University of London. The Greek government had just days before paid their international creditors with money from pension funds and other public organisations. There seemed little reason for optimism that the government would not give in to the pressure and accept the austerity that would come with the next debt payments.

I was told the city was far less militarised than during the previous government, even though there is still a riot police bus near every square. I could feel a whiff of expectations in the air of the city. People seemed to like the governing party Syriza mostly because they were not the previous government. Yet the government was not at that point standing strong against the creditors that own 80 per cent of Greece’s debt: the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF. What has changed in the last few weeks?

Can't pay or shouldn't pay?

Of course, there are many factors. It has long been clear to economists – and most people who are not high-ranking EU officials – that it is impossible for Greece to pay its debts in full. But 'can’t pay' is different from 'shouldn’t pay'. The argument is gaining traction that the loans to Greece never benefited the people and should therefore be written off.

In April the speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, Zoe Konstantopoulou, launched a Truth Committee on Public Debt. The committee consists partly of international experts, many of whom also participated in the similar process that led to Ecuador defaulting on billions of dollars’ worth of loans to international creditors in 2008. Many of the Greek participants are not affiliated with Syriza. Giorgios Mitralis, a member of CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt) Greece, told us that, surprisingly many are officials who had worked for the previous government. There are also grassroots activists who have been campaigning for a citizens’ debt audit since 2011 – a reminder that Greece’s rejection of austerity has grown out of years of hard work by social movements.

The Debt Truth Committee published its first findings this week. 'Greece not only does not have the ability to pay this debt, but also should not pay this debt, first and foremost because the debt emerging from the Troika’s arrangements is a direct infringement on the fundamental human rights of the residents of Greece,' it states. 'Hence, we came to the conclusion that Greece should not pay this debt because it is illegal, illegitimate, and odious.' The European Central Bank over-stepped its mandate by imposing political conditions on its loans. Other EU countries’ bilateral loans did not benefit the Greek people but instead European financial institutions. The IMF knew that the conditions attached to their loans were undemocratic and in breach of human rights Greece is obliged to respect under domestic and international law. These are some examples of the illegal, illegitimate and odious nature of the Greek debt.

MORE Fanny Malinen is a London-based freelance journalist and member of Debt Resistance UK, which challenges debt injustice on a personal and political level. She went to Athens as part of a knowledge exchange organised by the Political Economy Research Centre, Goldsmiths, University of London, with support from the ESRC.

Where did the Greek bailout money go?

Less than 10% of the money was used by the government for reforming its economy and safeguarding weaker members of society...Only a small fraction of the €240bn (£170bn) total bailout money Greece received in 2010 and 2012 found its way into the government’s coffers to soften the blow of the 2008 financial crash and fund reform programmes.

Most of the money went to the banks that lent Greece funds before the crash.

Unlike most of Europe, which ran up large budget deficits to protect pensioners and welfare recipients, Athens was then forced to dramatically reduce its deficit by squeezing pensions and cutting the minimum wage.

MORE http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/29/where-did-the-greek-bailout-money-go?CMP=ema_565

Joseph Stiglitz: how I would vote in the Greek referendum

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/29/joseph-stiglitz-how-i-would-vote-in-the-greek-referendum?CMP=ema_565

The rising crescendo of bickering and acrimony within Europe might seem to outsiders to be the inevitable result of the bitter endgame playing out between Greece and its creditors. In fact, European leaders are finally beginning to reveal the true nature of the ongoing debt dispute, and the answer is not pleasant: it is about power and democracy much more than money and economics.

Of course, the economics behind the programme that the “troika” (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) foisted on Greece five years ago has been abysmal, resulting in a 25% decline in the country’s GDP. I can think of no depression, ever, that has been so deliberate and had such catastrophic consequences: Greece’s rate of youth unemployment, for example, now exceeds 60%.

It is startling that the troika has refused to accept responsibility for any of this or admit how bad its forecasts and models have been. But what is even more surprising is that Europe’s leaders have not even learned. The troika is still demanding that Greece achieve a primary budget surplus (excluding interest payments) of 3.5% of GDP by 2018....

...It is hard to advise Greeks how to vote on 5 July. Neither alternative – approval or rejection of the troika’s terms – will be easy, and both carry huge risks. A yes vote would mean depression almost without end. Perhaps a depleted country – one that has sold off all of its assets, and whose bright young people have emigrated – might finally get debt forgiveness; perhaps, having shrivelled into a middle-income economy, Greece might finally be able to get assistance from the World Bank. All of this might happen in the next decade, or perhaps in the decade after that.

By contrast, a no vote would at least open the possibility that Greece, with its strong democratic tradition, might grasp its destiny in its own hands. Greeks might gain the opportunity to shape a future that, though perhaps not as prosperous as the past, is far more hopeful than the unconscionable torture of the present.

I know how I would vote.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is University Professor at Columbia University. His most recent book, co-authored with Bruce Greenwald, is Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress.

Starvation Is The Price Greeks Will Pay For Remaining In The EU By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42157.htm

...if the Russian and Chinese governments had any sense, they would pay Greece to default and to leave the EU and NATO. The unravelling of Washington’s empire would begin, and the threat of war that Russia and China face would go away. The Russians and Chinese would save far more on unnecessary war preparation that saving Greece would cost them.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.

[DemReadingDU]

8. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in Athens

video at link

7/1/15 Europe has suffered a reputational catastrophe in Greece
The eurozone has shown itself unable to manage its basic moral responsibilities
.
.
We can already see that the EU itself has suffered a reputational catastrophe on several fronts. This is of far greater importance in the sweep of events than daily twists and turns in Athens.

It has brought about a state of affairs where a member of its own eurozone family has become the first developed country in history to default to the IMF.

Let us be clear what this means. The currency union itself is delinquent. The rich countries of northern Europe are refusing to pay African, Asian and Latin American states. Blaming it on Greece alone does not wash.

The eurozone has shown itself unable to manage its basic moral responsibilities. Russian president Vladimir Putin could hardly resist his own wicked dig, professing “great concern” over the EU’s vanishing credibility.

This default is doubly shameful given that the original IMF-Troika loan in 2010 was not intended to save Greece. The extra debt was imposed on an already bankrupt Greek state to buy time for the euro, against Greek interests.

Leaked documents leave no doubt that the real purpose was to save monetary union and the European banking system - and to avert a “Euro-Lehman”, in the IMF’s own words - at a time when the eurozone had no defences against contagion.

Worse, the bitter showdown has made brutally explicit what many long suspected, that sovereign democracies count for nought when push comes to shove in Euroland.

The European Central Bank is not the chief villain, perhaps, in the latest chapter. It is in an impossible position. Yet citizens across Europe can see with their own eyes that the ECB has been rationing emergency liquidity (ELA) for a prostrate country as a tool of political pressure, and that it forced Syriza to take the drastic step of shutting the banks by freezing ELA at €89bn.

It is an odd spectacle to watch a central bank with a treaty duty to uphold financial stability take the deliberate decision to precipitate the collapse of banks that it regulates. But the deeper point is that the insane construction of the euro - a naked currency union without fiscal and political foundations - must inevitably tend to authoritarian monetary dystopia in the end.

It is, however, too soon to conclude that Syriza will buckle to creditor demands. It is certainly hard to read the real intentions of Mr Tsipras. His defiant stand on Wednesday night is starkly at odds with the letter he sent to EMU officials earlier in the day and the IMF on Tuesday that seemed, at first blush, to make big concessions. But nothing is ever what it seems in this weird drama.

“Those who say we have a secret plan for Greece to exit euro are lying,” he swore, with an impressively straight face. He denied that a “No” vote implies Grexit - though the leaders of France, Germany and Italy say it means exactly that - knowing that few Greeks are yet willing to take such a drastic step.

Yet one might suspect - and I have not made up my mind - that he and Syriza’s inner circle concluded in April that they could not do business with an EMU regime that acts solely as the enforcement arm of the creditors.

They may have concluded that demands for further fiscal contraction were economic lunacy - a view shared by the Nobel fraternity and the US Treasury - and that no serious debt relief was on the table, and therefore they would do better to default and restore a Greek sovereign currency.

If so, they cannot admit it. They must make it appear that the decision was forced upon them, just as France’s Leon Blum had to tell white lies to free his country from the Gold Standard in 1936.

Syriza officials are fully aware that the likely consequence of a “No” vote would be a parallel currency - or IOUs - along with the nationalisation of the banks along the lines of the “Icelandic Model”. Syriza’s Left Platform has already drawn up plans along these lines. Variants almost certainly exist in the Greek finance ministry.

Such action implies a return to the drachma in short order. The Greeks would continue to insist that the country remains a member of the euro, with full legal rights - blaming the creditors and EU bodies for acting illegally. Only by doing so could they ensure that the full losses from Grexit fall on the ECB and the EMU bail-out funds, while the assets of Greek citizens remain legally protected in foreign accounts, free to return later to rebuild a new banking system.

If you were of a suspicious mind, you might wonder whether Mr Tsipras has not in fact lured European leaders and officials into a legal trap, and that they have fallen for the bait.

His Byzantine negotiating tactics may make perfect sense after all. Just a thought.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11712098/Europe-has-suffered-a-reputational-catastrophe-in-Greece.html

[Demeter]

6. Putin extends Western food ban for one year

http://www.wort.lu/en/international/retaliatory-measures-putin-extends-western-food-ban-for-one-year-558ac48f0c88b46a8ce5bd39

Russian President Vladimir Putin LAST Wednesday extended a ban against most Western food imports for a year, after EU foreign ministers agreed to prolong sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict until January 2016.

"The government turned to me with an appeal to extend the measures," Putin told a government meeting.

"In accordance with this letter today I signed a decree to extend certain special economic measures with a view to ensuring Russia's security," he said in comments released by the Kremlin.

"We are extending our retaliatory measures by one year beginning from today."

Russia had been expected to prolong the ban for six months after EU foreign ministers formally agreed Monday to prolong damaging economic sanctions against Russia until January 2016, to ensure it fully implements Ukraine peace accords. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday said he would ask Putin to extend the embargo on Western food imports as well as sanctions targeting certain foreign trade transactions by another six months. Officials led by Putin have previously said the sanctions have proved a boon for Russian domestic industries and have helped boost Russian agriculture.

Moscow has said the EU decision to announce the extension of the anti-Russian sanctions on June 22 - the day Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 and is now the official Day of Remembrance and Sorrow in the country - reeked of cynicism.

Brussels has hit Russia's banking, oil and defence sectors hard and, along with the United States, it has warned more sanctions could follow unless Moscow lives up to its February commitments to withdraw support for the rebels and use its influence with them to implement the peace deal for Ukraine. Russia retaliated with the embargo on most Western food imports last year. The conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Kiev has killed over 6,500 people in the past 15 months. Moscow denies sending troops to Ukraine and says any Russians fighting there are volunteers.

[Demeter]

10. JUNE 10 Here are all the CEOs and politicians going to the top secret Bilderberg Conference

http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-ceos-and-politicians-invited-to-2015-bilderberg-conference-in-austria-2015-6

A select group of global elite gatherED in Telfs-Buchen, Austria, on JUNE 11 for a super secret annual conference where they can discuss politics, foreign policy, and economics freely. The Bilderberg Conference has been running since 1954 and according to its barebone website was "designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America." Attendees hold "informal discussions to help create a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations." Topics for discussion this year include artificial intelligence, cyber security, Greece, Iran, and the US elections.

But it will be almost impossible to find out what is said on these topics as Bilderberg is closed to journalists. Because of this, conspiracy theorists believe it is where the global elite plot how to rule the world.

What we do know, however, is who will be attending. Some notable names include Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn Cofounder Reid Hoffman, and British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. Here's the full list:

Henri de Castries, AXA Group, Chairman and CEO
Paul M.Achleitner, Deutsche Bank, Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Marcus Agius, PA Consulting Group, Non-Executive Chairman
Thomas Ahrenkiel, Danish Intelligence Service (DDIS), Director
John R. Allen, US Department of State, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL
Roger C. Altman, Evercore, Executive Chairman
Anne Applebaum, Legatum Institute, Director of Transitions Forum
Matti Apunen, Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, Director
Zoë Baird, Markle Foundation, CEO and President
Ed Balls, Labour Party, Former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Impresa SGPS, Chairman
José M. Barroso, European Commission, Former President
Nicolas Baverez, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Partner,
René Benko, Founder, SIGNA Holding
Franco Bernabè, FB Group, Chairman
Ben van Beurden, Royal Dutch Shell, CEO
Laurent Bigorgne, Institut Montaigne, Director
Laurence Boone, French government, Special Adviser on Financial and Economic Affairs to the President
Ana Botín, Banco Santander, Chairman
Richard Svein Brandtzæg, Norsk Hydro, President and CEO
Oscar Bronner, Standard Verlagsgesellschaft, Publisher
William Burns, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, President
Patrick Calvar, DGSI, Director General
Henri de Castries, Bilderberg Meetings, Chairman; AXA Group, Chairman and CEO
Juan Luis Cebrián, Grupo PRISA, Executive Chairman
Edmund Clark, TD Bank Group, Retired Executive
Benoît Coeuré, European Central Bank, Member of the Executive Board
Andrew Coyne, National Post (Canada), Editor, Editorials and Comment
Mikael L. Damberg, Swedish government, Minister for Enterprise and Innovation
Karel De Gucht, Belgian government, Former EU Trade Commissioner, State Minister
Thomas E. Donilon, Former U.S. National Security Advisor; O'Melveny & Myers, Partner and Vice Chair
Mathias Döpfner, Axel Springer, CEO
Ann Dowling, Royal Academy of Engineering, President
Regina Dugan, Google, Vice President for Engineering, Advanced Technology and Projects
Trine Eilertsen, Aftenposten, Political Editor,
Merete Eldrup, TV 2 Danmark A/S, CEO
John Elkann, EXOR, Chairman and CEO; Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Chairman
Thomas Enders, Airbus Group, CEO
Mary Erdoes, JP Morgan Asset Management, CEO
Rona Fairhead, BBC Trust, Chairman
Ulrik Federspiel, Haldor Topsøe, Executive Vice President
Martin S. Feldstein, NBER President Emeritus; Harvard University, Professor of Economics
Niall Ferguson, Harvard University, Professor of History, Gunzberg Center for European Studies
Heinz Fischer, Austrian government, Federal President
Douglas Flint, HSBC, Group Chairman
Christoph Franz, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Chairman of the Board
Louise O. Fresco, Wageningen University and Research Centre, President and Chairman Executive Board
Kenneth Griffin, Citadel Investment, Founder and CEO
Lilli Gruber, “Otto e mezzo”, La7 TV, Executive Editor and Anchor
Sergei Guriev, Sciences Po, Professor of Economics
Gönenç Gürkaynak, ELIG Law Firm (Turkey), Managing Partner
Alfred Gusenbauer, Former Chancellor of the Republic of Austria
Victor Halberstadt, Leiden University, Professor of Economics
Erich Hampel, UniCredit Bank Austria, Chairman
Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind, Vice President of Engineering
Wolfgang Hesoun, Siemens Austria, CEO
Philipp Hildebrand, BlackRock, Vice Chairman
Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
Wolfgang Ischinger, Munich Security Conference, Chairman,
Jacobs Kenneth, Lazard, Chairman and CEO
Julia Jäkel, Gruner + Jahr, CEO
James A. Johnson, Johnson Capital Partners, Chairman
Alain Juppé, Mayor of Bordeaux, Former Prime Minister
Joe Kaeser, Siemens AG, President and CEO
Alex Karp, Palantir Technologies, CEO
Gilles Kepel, Sciences Po, University Professor
John Kerr, Scottish Power, Deputy Chairman
Ilhan Kesici, Turkish Parliament, MP
Henry Kissinger, Kissinger Associates, Chairman
Klaus Kleinfeld, Alcoa, Chairman and CEO
Klaas Knot, De Nederlandsche Bank, President
Mustafa Koç, Koç Holding, Chairman
Henry Kravis, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Co-Chairman and Co-CEO
Marie-Josée Kravis, Hudson Institute, Senior Fellow and Vice Chair
André Kudelski, Kudelski Group, Chairman and CEO
Kurt Lauk, Globe Capital Partners, President
Carola Lemne, The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, CEO
Stuart Levey, HSBC, Chief Legal Officer
Ursula von der Leyen, German government, Minister of Defence
Thomas Leysen, KBC Group, Chairman of the Board of Directors
Shiraz Maher, King's College London, Senior Research Fellow, ICSR
Christina Markus Lassen, Danish government, Head of Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Security Policy and Stabilisation DNK
Jessica Mathews, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Distinguished Fellow
James Mattis, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University USA
Pierre Maudet, Vice-President of the State Council, Department of Security, Police and the Economy of Geneva CHE
David I. McKay, President and CEO, Royal Bank of Canada CAN
Nuray Mert, Columnist, Professor of Political Science, Istanbul University TUR
Jim Messina, CEO, The Messina Group USA
Charles Michel, Prime Minister BEL
John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg LP USA
Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist GBR
Mario Monti, Senator-for-life; President, Bocconi University ITA
Leena Mörttinen, Executive Director, The Finnish Family Firms Association FIN
Craig Mundie, J. Principal, Mundie & Associates USA
Heather Munroe-Blum, Chairperson, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board CAN
Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands
Michael O'Leary, CEO, Ryanair Plc IRL
George Osborne, First Secretary of State and Chancellor of the Exchequer GBR
Soli Özel, Columnist, Haberturk Newspaper; Senior Lecturer, Kadir Has University TUR
Dimitri Papalexopoulos, Group CEO, Titan Cement Co. GRC
Catherine Pégard, President, Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles FRA
Richard Perle, N. Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute USA
David H. Petraeus, Chairman, KKR Global Institute USA
Panagiotis Pikrammenos, Honorary President of The Hellenic Council of State GRC
Heather Reisman, M. Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc. CAN
Gianfelice Rocca, Chairman, Techint Group ITA
Gerhard Roiss, CEO, OMV Austria AUT
Robert E. Rubin, Co Chair, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Secretary of the Treasury USA
Mark Rutte, Prime Minister NLD
Karim Sadjadpour, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace USA
Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, Leader, Partido Socialista Obrero Español PSOE ESP
John Sawers, Chairman and Partner, Macro Advisory Partners GBR
Selin Sayek Böke, Vice President, Republican People’s Party TUR
Eric E. Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google Inc. USA
Rudolf Scholten, CEO, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG AUT
Jean-Dominique Senard, CEO, Michelin Group FRA
Karl Sevelda, CEO, Raiffeisen Bank International AG AUT
Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General, NATO INT
Alexander Stubb, Minister of Finance FIN
Katrin Suder, Deputy Minister of Defense DEU
Peter D. Sutherland, UN Special Representative; Chairman, Goldman Sachs International IRL
Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman, BP plc; Chairman, AB Volvo SWE
Olaug Svarva, CEO, The Government Pension Fund Norway NOR
Peter A. Thiel, President, Thiel Capital USA
Loukas Tsoukalis, President, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy GRC
Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons INT
António M. Vitorino, Partner, Cuetrecasas, Concalves Pereira, RL PRT
Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman, Investor AB SWE
Vin Partner Weber, Mercury LLC USA
Martin H. Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial Times GBR
James D. Wolfensohn, Chairman and CEO, Wolfensohn and Company USA
Robert B. Zoellick, Chairman, Board of International Advisors, The Goldman Sachs Group USA

[Demeter]

11. Pillage and Class Polarization: The Rise of “Criminal Capitalism” By James Petras

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42113.htm

Introduction: About 75% of US employees work 40 hours or longer, the second longest among all OECD countries, exceeded only by Poland and tied with South Korea. In contrast, only 10% of Danish workers, 15% of Norwegian, 30% of French, 43% of UK and 50% of German workers work 40 or more hours.

With the longest work day, US workers score lower on the ‘living well’ scale than most western European workers. Moreover, despite those long workdays US employees receive the shortest paid holidays or vacation time (one to two weeks compared to the average of five weeks in Western Europe). US employees pay for the costliest health plans and their children face the highest university fees among the 34 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In class terms, US employees face the greatest jump in income inequalities over the past decade, the longest period of wage and salary decline or stagnation (1970 to 2014) and the greatest collapse of private sector union membership, from 30% in 1950 down to 8% in 2014. On the other hand, profits, as a percentage of national income, have increased significantly. The share of income and profits going to the financial sector, especially the banks and investment houses, has increased at a faster rate than any other sector of the US economy. There are two polar opposite trends: Employees working longer hours, with costlier services and declining living standards while finance capitalists enjoy rapidly rising profits and incomes. Paradoxically, these trends are not directly based on greater ‘workplace exploitation’ in the US. The historic employee-finance capitalist polarization is the direct result of the grand success of the trillion dollar financial swindles, the tax payer-funded trillion dollar Federal bailouts of the crooked bankers, and the illegal bank manipulation of interest rates. These uncorrected and unpunished crimes have driven up the costs of living and producing for employees and their employers. Financial ‘rents’ (the bankers and brokers are ‘rentiers’ in this economy) drive up the costs of production for non-financial capital (manufacturing). Non-financial capitalists resort to reducing wages, cutting benefits and extending working hours for their employees, in order to maintain their own profits. In other words, pervasive, enduring and systematic large-scale financial criminality is a major reason why US employees are working longer and receiving less– the ‘trickle down’ effect of mega-swindles committed by finance capital.

Mega-Swindles, Leading Banks and Complicit State Regulators

Mega-swindles, involving trillions of dollars, are routine practices involving the top fifty banks, trading houses, currency speculators, management fund firms and foreign exchange traders. These ‘white collar’ crimes have hurt hundreds of millions of investors and credit-card holders, millions of mortgage debtors, thousands of pension funds and most industrial and service firms that depend on bank credit to meet payrolls, to finance capital expansion and technological upgrades and raw materials. Big banks, which have been ‘convicted and fined’ for mega-swindles, include Citi Bank, Bank of America, HSBC, UBS, JP Morgan, Barclay, Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsch Bank and forty other ‘leading’ financial institutions. The mega-swindlers have repeatedly engaged in a great variety of misdeeds, including accounting fraud, insider trading, fraudulent issue of mortgage based securities and the laundering of hundreds of billions of illegal dollars for Colombian, Mexican, African and Asian drug and human traffickers.

They have rigged the London Interbank Official Rate (LIBOR), which serves as the global interest benchmark to which hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial contracts are tied. By raising LIBOR, the financial swindlers have defrauded hundreds of millions of mortgage and credit-card holders, student loan recipients and pensions.

Bloomberg News (5/20/2015) reported on an ongoing swindle involving the manipulation of the multi-trillion-dollar International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) fix, a global interest rate benchmark used by banks, corporate treasurers and money managers to determine borrowing costs and to value much of the $381 trillion of outstanding interest rate swaps.

The Financial Times (5/23/15, p. 10) reported how the top seven banks engaged in manipulating fraudulent information to their clients, practiced illegal insider trading to profit in the foreign exchange market (forex), whose daily average turnover volume for 2013 exceeded $5 trillion dollars.

These seven convicted banks ended up paying less than $10 billion in fines, which is less than 0.05% of their daily turnover. No banker or high executive ever went to jail, despite undermining the security of millions of retail investors, pensioners and thousands of companies.

The Direct Impact of Financial Swindles on Declining Living Standards

Each and every major financial swindle has had a perverse ripple effect throughout the entire economy. This is especially the case where the negative consequences have spread downward through local banks, local manufacturing and service industries to employees, students and the self-employed. The most obvious example of the downward ripple effect was the so-called ‘sub-prime mortgage’ swindle. Big banks deliberately sold worthless, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligation (CDO) to smaller banks, pension funds and local investors, which eventually foreclosed on overpriced houses causing low income mortgage holders to lose their down payments (amounting to most of their savings). While the effects of the swindle spread outward and downward, the US Treasury propped up the mega-swindlers with a trillion-dollar bailout in working people’s tax money. They anointed their mega-give-away as the bail out for ‘banks that are just too big to fail”! They transferred funds from the public treasury for social services to the swindlers. In effect, the banks profited from their widely exposed crimes while US employees lost their jobs, homes, savings and social services. As the US Treasury pumped trillions of dollars into the coffers of the criminal banks (especially on Wall Street), the builders, major construction companies and manufacturers faced an unprecedented credit squeeze and laid off millions of workers, and reduced wages and increased the hours of un-paid work.

Service employees in consumer industries were hit hard as wages and salaries declined or remained frozen. The costs of the FOREX, LIBOR and ISDA fix swindles’ fell heavily on big business, which passed the pain onto labor: cutting pension and health coverage, hiring millions of ‘contingent or temp’ workers at minimum wages with no benefits. The bank bailouts forced the Treasury to shift funds from ‘job-creating’ social programs and national infrastructure investment to the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) sector with its highly concentrated income structure. As a result of the increasing concentration of wealth among the financial swindlers, inequalities in income grew; wages and salaries were frozen or reduced and manufacturers outsourced production, resulting in declines in production. Employees, suffering from the loss of income brought on by the mega-swindles, found that they were working longer hours for less pay and fewer benefits. Productivity suffered. With the total breakdown of the ‘capitalist rules of the game’, investors lost confidence and trust in the system. Mega-swindles eroded ‘confidence’ between investors and traders, and made a mockery of any link between performance at work and rewards. This severed the nexus between highly motivated workers, engaged in ‘hard work, long hours’ and rising living standards, and between investment and productivity. As a result, profits in the finance sector grew while the domestic economy floundered and living standards stagnated.

Financial Impunity: Regulatees Controlling the Regulators

Despite the proliferation of mega-swindles and their pervasive ripple effects throughout the economy and society, none of the dozens of federal or state regulatory agencies intervened to stop the swindle before it undermined the domestic economy. No CEO or banker was ever arrested for their part in the swindle of trillions. The regulators only reacted after trillions had ‘disappeared’ and swindles were ‘a done deal’. The impunity of the swindlers in planning and executing the pillage of hundreds of millions of employees, taxpayers and mortgage holders was because the federal and state regulatory agencies are populated by ‘regulatory administrators’ who came from or aspired to join the financial sector they were tasked with ‘regulating’. Most of the high officials appointed to lead the regulatory agencies had been selected by the ‘Lords of Wall Street, Frankfurt, the City of London or Zurich.’ Appointees are chosen on the basis of their willingness to enable financial swindles. It therefore came as no surprise on May 28 2015 when US President Obama approved the appointment of Andrew Donahue, Managing Director and Associate General Council for the repeatedly felonious, mega-swindling banking house of Goldman Sachs to be the ‘Chief of Staff’ of the Security and Exchange Commission. His career has been typical of the Washington-Wall Street ‘Revolving Door’. Only after fraud and swindles evoked the nationwide public fury of mortgage holders, investors and finance companies did the regulators ‘investigate’ the crimes and even then not a single major banker was jailed, not a single major bank was closed down. There were a few low-level bond traders and bank employees who were fired or jailed as scapegoats. The banks paid puny (for them) fines, which they passed on to their customers. Despite pledges to ‘mend their ways’ the bankers concocted new schemes with their windfalls of billions of Federal ‘bailout’ money while the regulators looked on or polished their CV’s for the next pass through the ‘revolving door’. Every top official in Treasury, Commerce and Trade, and every regulator in the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) who ‘retired to the private sector’ has ended up working for the same mega-criminal banks and finance houses they had investigated, regulated and ‘slapped on the wrist’. As one banker, who insists on anonymity, told me: ‘The most successful swindlers are those who investigated financial transgressions’.

Conclusion

Mega-swindles define the nature of contemporary capitalism. The profits and power of financial capital is not the outcome of ‘market forces’. They are the result of a system of criminal behavior that pillages the Treasury, exploits the producers and consumers, evicts homeowners and robs taxpayers. The mega swindlers represent much less than 1% of the class structure. Yet they hold over 40% of personal wealth in this country and control over 80% of capital liquidity. They grow inexorably rich and richer, even as the rest of the economy wallows in crisis and stagnation. Their swindles send powerful ripples across the national economy, which ultimately freeze or reduce the income of the skilled (middle class) employees and undermine the living conditions for poor working-class whites, and especially under and unemployed Afro-American and Latino American young workers. Efforts to ‘moralize’ capital have failed repeatedly since the regulators are controlled by those they claim to ‘regulate’.

The rare arrest and prosecution of any among the current tribe of mega-swindlers would only results in their being replaced by new swindlers. The problem is systemic and requires deep structural changes.

The only answer is to build a political movement independent of the two party system, willing to nationalize the banks and to pass legislation outlawing derivatives, forex trading and other unnatural parasitic speculative activities.

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York.

[Demeter]

12. MICHAEL HUDSON ON RUSSIA, UKRAINE, AND THE WEST

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42111.htm

[Demeter]

13. Morales: EU Should Free Itself from Shackles of IMF

Bolivian President Evo Morales urged European countries to release themselves from the “shackles of the North American Empire” by turning their backs on the International Monetary Fund. Speaking to RT while in Brussels for the EU-CELAC summit, Morales equated the IMF with U.S. “imperial dominance,” and suggested that the EU join forces with Latin America to become independent. “I would want to conclude an alliance with Europe to free ourselves together from (the U.S.) imperial dominance and its neocolonial mentality which seeks hegemony,” he said.

“Everything is well here in Latin America: Bolivia is showing significant economic growth due to the fact that we have gained political independence. The U.S. no longer governs our country through its embassy and doesn’t make decisions for us. The IMF doesn’t decide for us in the economy sector,” he added.

Morales also went on to reaffirm his solidarity with Russia in the face of U.S. sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine. “We fully support Russia’s struggle for its sovereignty as well as fully understand the existing differences in Ukraine. It is necessary to be guided by what the people want. You cannot impose your will in the pursuit of geopolitical interests,” he said.

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Morales-EU-Should-Free-Itself-from-Shackles-of-IMF-20150614-0025.html. If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

[Demeter]

14. US Allocates 'Democracy Funds' for Cuba JUNE 13

Despite claiming to be taking steps to normalize relations with Cuba, the U.S. has allocated funding for the NED. The US Committee on Appropriations approved on Friday US$30 million for “programs to promote democracy and strengthen civil society in Cuba, of which not less than US$8,000,000 shall be for NED,” as quoted from the committee report. The NED is the National Endowment for Democracy, a fund used by the U.S. to undermine left-wing and socialist governments and support opposition groups by supposedly promoting “democracy.”

“The Committee directs that funds shall only be used for programs and activities pursuant to section 109(a) of the Cuban Liberty and Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 and section 1705 of the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA) of 1992, and shall not be used for business promotion, economic reform, entrepreneurship or any other assistance that is not democracy-building,” the report states. The committee also stipulated that any locally awarded grants of over US$1 million should be to groups in Cuba that have “experience promoting democracy” there.

If the project for 2016 funding is approved by congress, it will be in addition to US$20 million already assigned for this year. The measure comes as the U.S. said last year that it wanted to normalize relations with Cuba, and the two countries have since held a number of talks. Last month the U.S. removed Cuba from its list of so-called terrorist countries, but it has not yet put an end to its decades-long economic blockade on the island. Further, yesterday the Appropriations Committee also did not approve funding for opening a U.S. embassy in Cuba.

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Allocates-Democracy-Funds-for-Cuba--20150613-0009.html. If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

[Demeter]

15. U.S., Venezuela launch quiet diplomacy to ease acrimony BE CAREFUL, VENEZUELA!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/01/us-venezuela-usa-exclusive-idUSKCN0PB5WR20150701

The United States and Venezuela have embarked on their most extensive dialogue in years in an attempt to improve their acrimonious relations, according to a senior U.S. administration official. The quiet diplomacy, the extent of which has not been previously reported, is a sign that U.S. detente with Communist Cuba may be helping to reshape another troubled Latin American relationship. The official, who has direct knowledge of the high-level talks, cautioned that the process is at an early stage.

The effort by Latin America's most ardently anti-Washington government and major U.S. oil supplier to improve relations comes as President Nicolas Maduro struggles with a decaying state-led economy that has been left more isolated by close ally Cuba's warming U.S. ties. Maduro made the first move in March - around three months after Washington and Havana announced on Dec. 17 they were seeking to restore diplomatic ties - by requesting a "direct channel of communication" with U.S. President Barack Obama and the State Department, said the official. Cuba and the United States announced on Wednesday they had agreed to restore ties.

"He realized that if we can talk to the Cubans, we can talk to him," the official told Reuters, adding: "We approached it very carefully because we had seen this before, but there was also U.S. concern that the relationship was reaching such a dangerous point that it risked breaking completely."

WATCH OUT FOR THE FORKED TONGUE, MADURO

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

16. ACE buys upmarket Chubb in biggest ever insurance takeover

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/01/us-chubb-corp-m-a-ace-idUSKCN0PB4G220150701

Swiss insurance giant ACE Ltd (ACE.N) will buy upmarket property insurer Chubb Corp (CB.N) for $28.3 billion to get access to wealthy clients who pay higher premiums at a time when fierce competition has cut deeply into the industry's profit margins.

The takeover, the biggest ever in the insurance sector, will create the world's largest property and casualty insurer by underwriting income.

Rock-bottom catastrophe insurance premiums, the rise of catastrophe bonds, low interest rates and stiff competition have prompted a wave of acquisitions among underwriters.

MORE

[Demeter]

17. DOJ subpoenas airlines over keeping ticket prices high

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/01/politics/doj-subpoenas-airlines-unlawful-coordination/

VIDEO AT LINK

The Justice Department has sent subpoenas to several major airlines as part of an investigation into "possible unlawful coordination" to limit capacity increases, and thereby keeping ticket prices high, a department spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The department sent civil investigative demand letters to airlines on Tuesday, Justice spokeswoman Emily Pierce said.

At issue is whether different airlines are coordinating to keep capacity -- the number of seats available on planes -- stable, having the effect of keeping ticket prices high.

How the airlines have coordinated isn't immediately clear, but among the evidence that investigators is considering includes public comments by airline executives and industry analysts.

MORE

[Demeter]

18. Republican senators demand liquidation plan for U.S. Ex-Im Bank

EX-IM IS HISTORY, AND THE WORLD HASN'T ENDED---YET

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/01/us-usa-eximbank-liquidation-idUSKCN0PB65I20150701

Seven conservative Republican senators demanded on Wednesday that the U.S. Export-Import Bank disclose plans to begin liquidating its assets after the government trade lender's charter expired amid congressional inaction.

Ex-Im can no longer seek or process new applications for loans, loan guarantees and trade insurance, but it has said it will stay open to continue servicing $112 billion in existing obligations. The agency's operating budget has been approved through Sept. 30.

The suspension of Ex-Im's new business operations on Wednesday marked a partial victory for conservatives campaigning to close the bank, which they say promotes "crony capitalism" and interferes in free markets by subsidizing large, politically connected companies.

But Democrats and moderate Republicans hope to revive the trade bank later this month by attaching charter renewal legislation to a "must-pass" highway and rail transit funding bill.

MORE

[Demeter]

19. E.U. slams the door on talks with Greece before Sunday referendum

FINE! BE LIKE THAT!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/greece-eases-snub-of-bailout-demands-but-deal-prospects-remain-unclear/2015/07/01/bc168214-1f68-11e5-a135-935065bc30d0_story.html

European officials on Wednesday slammed the door on any further negotiations with Greece before a national referendum planned for Sunday, daring the Athens government to go ahead with a vote that holds peril for the country no matter which option Greeks choose.

“There will be no talks in the coming days,” Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters Wednesday evening. “We will simply await now the outcome of the referendum on Sunday.”

The hard-line European stance came on a day when Greek authorities had seemed to waver in their determination to proceed with the vote, and it appears to reflect an emerging European view that Athens is in a no-win situation.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced the referendum last weekend to give Greek voters a chance to weigh in on the spending cuts that Europe has demanded as a condition of financial rescue. But the exact stakes in the vote have been unclear since Greece’s old bailout program expired Tuesday, making the country the first developed nation to miss an International Monetary Fund repayment deadline.

The government has urged a “no” vote, a choice that European officials say would trigger Greece’s exit from the euro zone. A “yes” vote could cause Tsipras’s government to collapse.

MORE

[Demeter]

20. Greece just defaulted, but the danger is only beginning

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/30/greece-just-defaulted-but-the-danger-is-only-beginning/?hpid=z1

Greece has just joined Sudan, Somalia, and Zimbabwe in the rogue's gallery of countries that are in default to the International Monetary Fund. Not only that, but it's the first rich country to ever do so after it missed its €1.5 billion payment on Tuesday.

As a practical matter, though, this isn't quite as bad as it sounds. That, more than anything else, tells you how serious the situation is in Greece right now: a debt default isn't even their biggest problem. So what is? Their banks. And the good news, insofar as there is any, is that this default shouldn't make things any worse for them. That's because the credit rating agencies technically won't even count this as a "default" since it's not on private investors. That, in turn, means the European Central Bank should still, if it wants, have the wiggle room to consider the Greek government solvent enough to keep guaranteeing the bonds its banks have. Why does that matter? Well, without that guarantee, the banks can't use those bonds as collateral for ECB-approved emergency loans, and without those emergency loans, they would collapse. So this default shouldn't make Greece's financial system disintegrate overnight, which is about all it can ask for at this point.

That's not to say that there will be no consequences. Just that they're negligible. Sure, Greece won't be able to get any more help from the IMF until or unless it pays them back. And this default does give the other euro zone countries the right to call in all the money Greece owes them at once. But Greece needs a bailout from Europe more than the IMF, and it's not like Europe is going to force it into another default while they're negotiating that. Besides, if Europe really wanted to force Greece out of the euro, it has other ways of doing so.

The story, in other words, hasn't changed. Greece is broke, and is trying to get a better deal than it's gotten before by threatening to default. Well, now that's not just a threat. So now the question is whether that will make Europe offer concessions that it wasn't willing to before. Don't bet on it. Europe rejected Greece's plea to extend its current bailout past its expiration today, and German Prime Minister Angela Merkel has said she won't consider Greece's offer for a new bailout until after the country's referendum on whether it wants to stay in the euro or not on Sunday. Greece's government, for its part, has suggested that it'd be willing to cancel the vote for the right deal, which makes it seem unlikely that it will happen at all. In other words, all this—the default, the referendum, the brinkmanship in general—has been a gambit to get something out of Greece's lenders, and it doesn't look like it's going to work. The only thing Europe has offered is to talk about restructuring Greece's debt in October if it goes along with austerity now.

But the real deadline here is July 20th. That's when Greece is supposed to pay the ECB €3.5 billion that if it defaulted on would almost certainly result in the ECB immediately pulling the plug on its banks...

THERE'S EVER SO MUCH MORE, AT LINK

[DemReadingDU]

21. Michael Hudson and Bill Black interview

6/30/15 Greece: On Behalf of Europe …

JESSICA DESVARIEUX, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News. I’m Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
I’m joined now by Bill Black, as well as Michael Hudson.


DESVARIEUX: So Bill, I’m going to start off with you. Can you just explain to our viewers who’s actually getting bailed out in this deal. Are creditor banks the ones benefiting at the end of the day?

BLACK: Well, the same people are getting bailed out that have been getting bailed out from the beginning of the Greek crisis, and that is foreign banks. So this money just moves in sort of an elaborate circle from the Troika, which is the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF, through the Greek government, through the Greek banks, and then they pay the foreign creditors. And they pay them just enough that they don’t have to recognize a loss for accounting purposes.

As Michael will explain, of late the big investors tend to be American hedge funds, as opposed to what used to be primarily French banks.

DESVARIEUX: Okay. Michael, I want to ask you about the role of French banks in all of this. Can you just speak to this, give us a sense of how they even got entangled in Greek debt.

HUDSON: Well, today’s problem with the debts really stem back from 2010 and 2011 when Greece obviously couldn’t pay. When Greece joined the Eurozone, it falsified its debt figures. The head of its central bank worked with Goldman Sachs to make it complicated derivatives to hide it all, and that was Lucas Papademos.

Well, in 2010 right after the PASOK party came to power in Greece, they revealed the fact that their figures had been fudged all along, and that the debt was so large that Greece couldn’t pay. So the International Monetary Fund, which hadn’t been making loan–almost had no customers in the world, had its European staff calculate. And the staff unanimously said, Greece can’t pay these debts. These are fraudulent debts that are all, that are way beyond the ability to pay. They’ve got to be written down. And the board of directors agreed.

But Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was the head of the IMF when he wasn’t going to the sex parties, wanted to run for president of France. And he talked to Sarkozy, and Sarkozy said, wait a minute, French banks are the largest holders of Greek debt. If Greece doesn’t pay and writes them down, the French banks will go under. And German banks are the second. But then at the G8 meetings in 2011, President Obama went over along with Tim Geithner and said, our big campaign contributors are on Wall Street, and they’ve made huge bets that Greece can pay. If Greece doesn’t pay, then all these gamblers and derivative players are going to lose their bets. You’ve got to sacrifice Greece and you’ve got to drive it into poverty, and lend the Greek government the money to pay the bond holders so that our Wall Street banks won’t lose money.

So the European Central Bank told the IMF if you want to be a player, you’ve got to ignore what the stats said, and they did. And the European Central Bank and the IMF paid over 100 billion Euros to the bond holders. So Greece, instead of owing private bond holders, owed the IMF and the European Central Bank.
Now the European Central Bank wants to get paid, but the debts can’t be paid. So the central bank says, okay Greece. Sell us your islands. Sell us your ports. Sell us your lands. Sell us your raw materials. This is foreclosure time. And if you can’t pay, we want everything in the public domain. And you also have to impose austerity. You have–only 20 percent of your population has emigrated. You only have a 60 percent unemployment rate for youth. You’ve got to increase the unemployment rate to 80 percent, double the emigration, in order for us to make the loans to your government that will turn right around and pay us.


much mroe...
http://michael-hudson.com/2015/06/greece-on-behalf-of-europe/

[Demeter]

23. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

I'm in a mood.

[mother earth]

24. TY! nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

22. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (07/02/2015)

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20151283.pdf

News Release
Connect with DOL at http://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, July 2, 2015

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending June 27, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 281,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 271,000. The 4-week moving average was 274,750, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 273,750.

There were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7 percent for the week ending June 20, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 20 was 2,264,000, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up 2,000 from 2,247,000 to 2,249,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,252,500, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 2,237,000 to 2,237,500.

UNADJUSTED DATA

....
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 13 was 2,147,542, an increase of 46,150 from the previous week. There were 2,469,219 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2014.