STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, June 23, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, June 23, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON June 22, 2011

Dow 12,109.67 -80.34 (-0.66%)
Nasdaq 2,669.19 -18.07 (-0.68%)
S&P 500 1,287.14 -8.38 (-0.65%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.96 -0.01 (-0.47%)
30-Year Bond 4.20 -0.01 (-0.26%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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    William Black: This Economic Disaster    Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn

Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren
Dishonorable Mention: former House majority leader, Tom DeLay

Bush Administration Officials Charged = 1
Name(s): Richard Lopez Razo

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 12

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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.

Read more: du

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Today's Reports

Jun 23 08:30 Initial Claims 06/18 425K 413K 414K
Jun 23 08:30 Continuing Claims 06/11 3700K 3680K 3675K
Jun 23 10:00 New Home Sales May 290K 305K 323K

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/investor/calendars/economic/2011/06/20-24/#ixzz1Q5v1z8p3

[DemReadingDU]

48. Jobless claims rise more than expected

6/23/11 Jobless claims rise more than expected

New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting little improvement in the labor market this month after employment stumbled in May.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week's figure was revised up to 420,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims to edge up to 415,000 from a previously reported count of 414,000.

The claims report covers the survey period for the government's closely watched data on nonfarm payrolls for June.

more...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Jobless-claims-rise-more-than-rb-2297336641.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

[Fuddnik]

52. Oh Noes!!!!!!!! Not again?

Upward revisions? More than expected? I'm sure Ben Bernanke knows how to fix this.

[DemReadingDU]

67. QE3!

[Johnny Harpo]

71. Ben Will Stick His Head Farther Into The Sand....

or up his behind.

As will Timmy, and sad to say, so will our President.

These guys JUST DON'T GET IT!

How can things get any better when those trying to fix the problem, are the same ones who caused it in the first place? (aka Timmy G)

[TalkingDog]

80. Captain Obvious Notes: Bernanke Admits He’s Clueless On Economy’s Soft Patch

http://blogs.forbes.com/afontevecchia/2011/06/22/bernanke-admits-hes-clueless-on-economys-soft-patch/


In his second post-FOMC press conference, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke touched on every topic, admitting that the recovery was weaker than expected and that beyond temporary factors like supply chain disruptions in Japan and high energy prices, he was at a loss as to what was causing the soft patch. In a Q&A session with reporters, Bernanke said a disorderly default in Greece would have significant effects on the U.S. economy, while adding that the Fed still had several tools at its disposal to pump up the economy.

snip

With markets at a crossroads, amid a cooling economic recovery and a dangerous Greek crisis threatening the euro and the global economy, reporters grilled Bernanke and asked many of the right questions.

Brutally honest, Bernanke admitted that he had no clue what was actually causing the current fragility in the U.S. economic recovery. While the FOMC statement assigned blame outside of the U.S., pointing at Japan along with rising food and oil prices, Bernanke was put on the spot by a reporter who noted the inconsistency behind that explanation and a lowering of long term forecasts. Bernanke took the hit, admitting only some of the factors were temporary and that he didn’t know exactly what was causing the slowdown, but that it would persist. “Growth,” said Bernanke, “will return into 2012.” (Read No Recovery Possible While U.S. Consumer Continues Deleveraging).

[Fuddnik]

81. Because they're not the least bit interested in fixing it.

The corporations have won. Now, all they're interested in doing is separating us from the rest of our money, and reducing us to coolies.

We need to shut the whole country down and run them all out of it. Send them to a ice little Randian island paradise to live.

Say, an island like Alcatraz. Or Bikini Atoll.

[Demeter]

84. Second that

Of course, there will have to be strict limits on what they can take with them...like Survivor, perhaps....

[lark]

101. They want the economy to be reallly really bad

so American will elect a Repug who will gut all corporate rules & regulations, end minimum wage & the requirement to get an education (privatize all schools), criminalize both abortions and all methods of birth control except rubbers since they frequently fail, end environmental rules & collective bargaining and select the next supreme court justice. They want to return us to the 800's with the rich being the nobles and the rest of us being serfs. Even the middle ages protected trade unions & "they" don't even want that.

[Pale Blue Dot]

55. Jobless claims rise more than expected

(Reuters) - New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting little improvement in the labor market this month after employment stumbled in May.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week's figure was revised up to 420,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims to edge up to 415,000 from a previously reported count of 414,000.

The claims report covers the survey period for the government's closely watched data on nonfarm payrolls for June.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/23/us-usa-economy-idUSTRE75K3E820110623

The teacher layoffs have begun to take effect. This is going to get MUCH worse.

[Pale Blue Dot]

56. lol - I was a little late on this, apparently.

:-)

[DemReadingDU]

61. We were probably reading and posting at the same time!

:)

[DemReadingDU]

62. Much worse for area school districts here too

Hundreds of school teachers, plus administrators and support staff to be eliminated.
:(

[Turbineguy]

70. When they cut down on administrative staff

you know things are bad.

[plumbob]

74. Teacher layoffs in Texas were about 10,000 for this month - total will be 100,000

by August, along with 10,000 state employees. That's ONE state - the one I live and teach in.

But I'm sure somebody will still be surprised.

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil falls below $94 on US economy pessimism

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell to below $94 a barrel Thursday in Asia amid investor concern U.S. economic growth and crude demand could disappoint this year.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was down $1.51 to $93.90 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $1.24 to settle at $95.41 on Wednesday.

In London, Brent crude for August delivery was down $1.81 to $112.40 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Wednesday that the U.S. economy is weaker than previously forecast, and lowered this year's gross domestic product growth estimate to 2.9 percent from 3.3 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. U.S. Stock-Index Futures Fall Before Home-Sales, Jobs Data; IBM Declines

U.S. stock futures retreated, indicating the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will fall for a second day, as investors awaited a report that may show home sales declined.

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) dropped 0.4 percent in Frankfurt. Pfizer Inc. (PFE) climbed 2.5 percent after a study showed its experimental blood thinner prevented more strokes with less major bleeding than the traditional treatment in patients with irregular heartbeats.

S&P 500 futures expiring in September slid 0.5 percent to 1,274 at 10:45 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined 43 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,980.

The S&P 500 has retreated 5.6 percent from this year’s high at the end of April amid weaker-than-estimated economic data and concern about Europe’s debt crisis. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities has still risen 2.4 percent in 2011 on government stimulus measures and better-than-expected earnings.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-23/u-s-stock-index-futures-fall-before-home-sales-jobs-data-ibm-declines.html

[DemReadingDU]

65. DJIA Futures down -124

http://money.cnn.com/data/premarket/

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. Full Transcript Of Ben Bernanke's "I Have No Idea Why The Economy Will Get Better But It Will" Speec

As noted in the title, for all those who wish to reread how Bernanke justifies the fact that he has no idea why the economy will improve, but it just will, damn it, here it is, complete with the full Q&A.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/full-transcript-ben-bernankes-i-have-no-idea-why-economy-will-get-better-it-will-speech-and-

Transcript at the link.

[Pale Blue Dot]

6. Jim Grant Says All The Things That Ben Bernanke Avoided During His Press Conference, And Much More

Considering the only soundbite that was relevant from Ben Bernanke's 45 minute 2:15pm oratory was that "we don't have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting" America, and the entire civilized world, could have done just as well without it. Instead, we should have listened to Jim Grant, who once again correctly identifies all the things that the Fed chairman should have said (Bernanke certainly focused on the other side): "What we are not going to get is a concession that QE2 has achieved its unintended consequences, namely a lower dollar exchange rate, a higher gold price meaning weaker confidence in the dollar, slower economic growth and a higher measured rate of inflation. Those are some of the things that have come out of this experiment and let us call it by its name money printing...How do we know that this 30% gain in the Russell and 20% gain in Dow since the Chairman spoke in August, how are we to know these are real values. The prices are up, but are people who are buying these stocks on the back of the Fed, are they doing something wise from an investment point of view, and if the market is too high because the Fed has put it there, what does the Fed do when the market comes down, which opens the fate for QE3." And on a far more important topic which we will soon hear much more of, namely extensive US money market exposure in Europe, which will be completely locked up if, pardon, when there is a major liquidity run in Europe snagging American money market liquidity: "The money market mutual funds have nothing to do in this country cause rates are zero, go to Europe. So money market mutual funds investors are taking quite ponderable risks for about a 0% return, these funds are yielding a few basis points only. But to get those few basis point, these funds are crossing the Atlantic right smack dab in the middle of the European banking crisis. This is a prime example of the unintended consequences of this massive intervention by our central bank." Indeed, this is just one simple example of the massive clusterfuck, which certainly does not need Greece's $5 billion notional in CDS, to make the Lehman liquidity freeze seems like a little melting ice cube. And since everyone now agrees that Greece will default, and it is only a matter of time, all the trillions in dollars in the shadow and open banking systems that we have been exposing for years now, will suddenly be locked up in the forms of 1 and 0 in computers belonging to institutions that are no longer operational. And most unfortunately, the man in charge of it all, has a quivering lip problem.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jim-grant-says-all-things-ben-bernanke-avoided-during-his-press-conference-and-much-more

[Pale Blue Dot]

10. Bernanke Admits He Doesn't Know Why We Have a Weak Economy... But He's the One Who Weakened It

In "Bernanke Admits He’s Clueless On Economy’s Soft Patch", Forbes blogger Agustino Fontevecchia notes:

Brutally honest, Bernanke admitted that he had no clue what was actually causing the current fragility in the U.S. economic recovery. While the FOMC statement assigned blame outside of the U.S., pointing at Japan along with rising food and oil prices, Bernanke was put on the spot by a reporter who noted the inconsistency behind that explanation and a lowering of long term forecasts. Bernanke took the hit, admitting only some of the factors were temporary and that he didn’t know exactly what was causing the slowdown, but that it would persist. “Growth,” said Bernanke, “will return into 2012.”

Specifically, Bernanke said today:

We don't have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting.

Well, it is obvious to anyone who has been paying attention what's causing the slow down, and if Mr. Bernanke doesn't know, he should be fired.

As I've repeatedly explained since 2008, all independent economists and financial experts know why the economy is weak ... and everything the Fed has been doing has been weakening it.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/06/proof-that-bernanke-should-be-fired-he.html

[Pale Blue Dot]

11. Bernanke Admits He’s Clueless On Economy’s Soft Patch

Brutally honest, Bernanke admitted that he had no clue what was actually causing the current fragility in the U.S. economic recovery. While the FOMC statement assigned blame outside of the U.S., pointing at Japan along with rising food and oil prices, Bernanke was put on the spot by a reporter who noted the inconsistency behind that explanation and a lowering of long term forecasts. Bernanke took the hit, admitting only some of the factors were temporary and that he didn’t know exactly what was causing the slowdown, but that it would persist. “Growth,” said Bernanke, “will return into 2012.” (Read No Recovery Possible While U.S. Consumer Continues Deleveraging).

“Bernanke was just summing up what has happened in the markets, what has been priced in,” explained Nick Kalivas of MF Global. “But the Fed has taken extraordinary measures to support the economy, they have done what they can and monetary policy isn’t a solution for everything,” added Kalivas, pointing at problems with the fiscal situation and the debt ceiling debate.

While Wednesday’s remarks came as little surprise, the blunt discussion of inflation and slowing economic growth offered little inspiration to load up on risk assets like equities.

The Fed chairman was explicit about the situation in Washington, directly slapping Republicans in the face saying “I don’t think sharp immediate cuts in the deficit would bring more jobs.” Having made clear before that Congress should raise the debt ceiling, Bernanke explained budgetary problems are very long run in nature. (Read Apocalyptic Bernanke: Raise The Debt Ceiling Or Else).

http://blogs.forbes.com/afontevecchia/2011/06/22/bernanke-admits-hes-clueless-on-economys-soft-patch/

Sorry if it seems like I'm hammering on this, but I think this press conference was extraordinary.

[Demeter]

32. So are the Critiques

and the market only dropped 80 on this? Of course, he didn't speak until 2 PM.

[DemReadingDU]

68. Well that doesn't instill any confidence

Maybe the Bernank was trying to tell us the markets are about to turn downward.

[Po_d Mainiac]

38. The bernanke needs to be the soft spot in the road..n/t

[Johnny Harpo]

72. Sort Of Like Wishing For A Pony?.....

[Demeter]

78. And getting a truckload of Horse Poop

[Hawkowl]

96. Horsepoop is useful

Unlike Bernake, it makes excellent fertilizer.

[Name removed]

98. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. Investors Pull The Most Money From Domestic Mutual Funds Since September As Margin Debt Deleveraging

Begins.

Two notable observations in market technicals: first, from the NYSE, May margin debt declined for the first time since the May 2010 flash crash, and after peaking at $320.7 billion in April, the May sell off saw hedge funds and other levered investors modestly contract their gross leverage to $315.4 billion. Additionally, net leverage, or total net credit aka investor net worth, increased modestly from an all time record low of ($75) billion to ($67) billion. Still, leverage is at very precarious level should the ongoing drop in asset prices be met with an actual cash outflow in the form of redemptions. Which brings us to the second observations: according to ICI, domestic equity mutual funds, saw an 8th straight week of outflows in the week ended June 15, with the mount hitting $6.9 billion, or the highest in not only 2011, but the highest since September of 2010. Year to date nearly $10 billion in redemption requests have hit funds, meaning the only saving grace to an all out liquidation would be an increase in asset prices, which however now that additional monetary easing is off the table, will be a very difficult accomplishment. Incidentally, since the beginning of 2010, equity mutual funds have seen total withdrawals to the tune of $108 billion: not a great amount in the grean scheme of centrally planned things, but quite substantial nonetheless.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/investors-pull-most-money-domestic-mutual-funds-september-margin-debt-deleveraging-begins

[Pale Blue Dot]

7. Senate To Vote Tomorrow On Bill To Repeal Government Authority To Provide Loans To IMF

Tomorrow, in an amendment to bill S.679, aimed at streamlining presidential appointments, proposed by Jim DeMint, the Senate will vote around noon as to whether or not to end the "U.S. government's authority to provide loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and rescind related appropriated amounts." Another fun amendment to the same bill comes from David Vitter, whose amendment "would end the ability of the White House to appoint policy "czars," and prohibit funds for salaries and expenses for appointed czars." But it is the DeMint amendment that will be the focus of attention, since should the US, as primary source of capital for the IMF, which itself is a key contributor of funds to the Troica, so desperately needed to bail out Greece, no longer have legislative freedom to use taxpayer funds to bailout European countries, things in Greece and in half of Europe, may soon turn very ugly.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/senate-vote-tomorrow-bill-repeal-government-authority-provide-loans-imf

[Demeter]

33. Ask me if I care if the IMF is put out of business. Go ahead, Ask Me.

Maybe the GOP isn't a crazy as it seems....and if this kind of aimless spinning puts an end to the drug war, that could be good.

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. Sunny Sheu: Murdered for Investigating NY Foreclosure Judge Joseph Golia?

The details are thin but they sure don’t smell right. The short form is that Sunny Sheu had his house stolen from him by fictive buyers who used forged documents. Judge Golia of Queens engaged in what appears to be highly questionable behavior in failing to reverse the sale. Sheu started investigating the judge, was told by policeman who specifically referred to information he had provided about Golia, and that if he didn’t drop it, he’d wind up dead. Sheu disregarded their warning and did wind up dead. The authorities are also refusing to honor requests for information regarding Sheu’s death made under New York’s Freedom of Information Act. This story has been publicized by Foreclosure Fraud and The Daily Bail and I hope it gets more traction.

...

The cornoner’s report found that Shue died of a blow to the head which caused his brain to bleed. Conveniently, a police report says a witness saw Sheu collapsed. The coroner admitted in an interview that his only basis for his conclusion that Sheu died as a result of the fall was the witness report. The authorities have refused to release the police report or any 911 call, denying requests made by ABC News and Black Star News under New York’s Freedom of Information Act.

Ilovelawyers says that the NYPD originally said Sheu died of head trauma but later changed the their story to claiming that Sheu died of an an aneurism, which is inconsistent with any reading of the coroners’ remarks.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/sunny-sheu-murdered-for-investigating-ny-foreclosure-judge-joseph-golia.html

Lots of circumstantial, but troubling, detail at the link.

[Demeter]

34. wow

the whole world is turning into Chicago of the 1920's. I think I have a theme for the weekend....

[xchrom]

41. i love that idea.

work in a little boardwalk empire.

[Demeter]

47. What's that?

oh, well, you can add that since I don't see TV.

[xchrom]

69. Ah! I didn't realize. Nt

[AnneD]

103. Star treks....

A piece of the action.

[girl gone mad]

95. Stunning.

[xchrom]

9. Top o' the Morning to All!

:hi: :donut:

[Demeter]

35. Ditto!

:hi:

[xchrom]

12. asia: Lone Star, Woori test Korea's credentials

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/MF24Dg01.html

Two labels long defined South Korea's business environment. Korea Inc signaled that this was state capitalism, with industrialization and markets shaped by government in a mix not unlike China today. Fortress Korea, second, meant export-led growth was a one-way street. While striving to penetrate global markets, Seoul vigorously defended and sheltered its own.

That was then. Joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1996 imposed more openness, while the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis exposed key vulnerabilities. Under Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) these were effectively tackled. A new kind of interventionism rescued rotten banks, but strictly to resell them later. Most buyers were foreign, for Kim opened the


economy and welcomed inward investment.

Even his more left-wing successor, Roh Moo-hyun, in 2007 signed a free-trade agreement with the United States. Yet four years on, the KorUS FTA remains unratified, opposed by the usual suspects - special interests and populism - in both countries. Happily another big FTA, with the European Union, comes into effect on July 1. This will bring further market opening and mutual benefits, even though like KorUS it leaves major service sectors - health, education - largely off limits.

The current president, Lee Myung-bak, is an ex-Hyundai chief executive and avowedly pro-business. Chairing the Group of 20 last year, his rhetoric was of globalization. Yet at home it is another story, as witness the fate of the last two banks nationalized in 1998 that still await reprivatization.

[xchrom]

13. China's gas imports jump

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/MF24Cb01.html

MONTREAL - China's gas imports jumped nearly a third in May from a year earlier to a record 2.6 billion cubic meters (bcm), according to the country's National Development and Reform Commission, with half delivered by pipeline from Central Asia. The rest was in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Increased imports are helping China to achieve its goal of having gas contribute as much as 10% of its energy consumption mix by 2020, but at an ever-higher cost, as domestic prices are lower than import cost.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, lost 5 billion yuan (US$773 million) last year on imports of natural gas from Central


Asia, according to Caijing, because domestic sales prices are lower than import prices. Losses this year will increase, with importing one cubic meter of natural gas meaning a loss of 1 yuan, the China Coal Resource web site reported in April, citing unnamed CNPC sources. China itself produced 42.6 bcm during the first five months of the year.

Turkmenistan alone provided half of China's total of 11.4 bcm pipeline-plus-LNG gas imports over the first five months of 2011, according to the CNPC newspaper, as reported by China Daily. The country has projected receiving 17 bcm of natural gas from Turkmenistan during the present calendar year, as the Central Asian Gas Pipeline (CAGP, Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China) ramps up to a 30 bcm/y capacity by the middle of next year on the way to the 40 bcm/y capacity planned for 2013.

[xchrom]

16. Sega hacked in latest cyberattack

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/06/201161944850635888.html

Japan's Sega Corp has become the latest victim of hacking by cyber criminals, joining a growing list of video game companies that have been attacked.

The company sent an email to users of the Sega Pass system on Friday warning that their personal information, including email addresses, dates of birth, and passwords, had been stolen from the company's online database.

The company declared, however, that no financial information was at risk.

"Please note that no personal payment information was stored by Sega as we use external payment providers, meaning your payment details were not at risk from this intrusion," the company said.

[xchrom]

24. China data show almost flat growth: HSBC

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-data-show-almost-flat-growth-hsbc-2011-06-22?dist=beforebell

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — China’s manufacturing activity eased in June to its slowest rate of expansion in 11 months, barely above the level indicating no growth at all, according to preliminary results from a key survey published Thursday.

The HSBC flash Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) eased to 50.1 in June, down from 51.6 in May.

The new export orders component indicated contraction at an accelerating rate, while new orders remained expansionary, although at a slower rate.

Meanwhile the employment subindex showed conditions were now contracting, reversing from an expansion.

[xchrom]

31. HK shares down, shrug off late Shanghai surge

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/23/markets-hongkong-china-stocks-update-idUKL3E7HN19C20110623

HONG KONG, June 23 (Reuters) - Chinese shares rose by the most in three months on Thursday, outperforming other stock markets in Asia, lifted by cement and other construction-related stocks as investors bought into them on anticipated demand.

Cement stocks have outperformed this week, lifted by local Chinese media reports on a plan to allow local governments to sell bonds to ease funding strains on low-cost housing projects.

Thursday's gains helped the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index outperform its regional peers as it ended up 1.5 percent to 2,688.3 points with turnover spiking to its highest in six sessions, extending a two-session winning streak since hitting the lowest level in nine months on Monday.

Some dealers also cited a comment by a senior law-maker saying the central bank should suspend raising bank reserve rates requirements as partly responsible for the late rally, spurring Bank of China to a 2.3 percent gain.

[Pale Blue Dot]

14. "Growing Your Way Out of Debt" Is a Fantasy

The Status Quo consensus is that "kicking the can down the road" a.k.a. "extend and pretend" will work because "Greece, Spain, Ireland et al. are going to "grow their way out of debt." That is a fantasy.

Here's why.

1. There's a funny little feature of debt called interest.

2. A funny little feature of interest is that when people see you're at risk of default, they start charging you more to borrow their money.

3. Governments over-promise future benefits to win elections in the here and now.

4. Cheap abundant credit has a funny little consequence: asset bubbles.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune11/growth-fantasy6-11.html

Great overview. Much more at the link.

[xchrom]

15. To the Last Drop

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2011/06/20116227153978324.html

The small town of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is facing the consequences of being the first to witness the impact of the Tar Sands project, which may be the tipping point for oil development in Canada.

The local community has experienced a spike in cancer cases and dire studies have revealed the true consequences of "dirty oil".

Gripped in a Faustian pact with the American energy consumer, the Canadian government is doing everything it can to protect the dirtiest oil project ever known. In the following account, filmmaker Tom Radford describes witnessing a David and Goliath struggle.

I shot my first film, Death of a Delta, in Fort Chipewyan in 1972. I shot it with a hand crank Bolex camera with a maximum 26-second wind. I had to make sure people knew what they were talking about. There was no time for red herrings. In our new film, To the Last Drop, the latest in digital HD and Cineflex cameras capture the landscape of northern Alberta as never before.

But while technology can go through multiple revolutions in 49 years, the issue that drives both our films remains the same: the rights of downstream communities, and the need to recognise those rights, no matter how powerful their upstream neighbours.

[DemReadingDU]

36. Reading the subject, I thought was about coffee

:donut:

[Festivito]

17. Debt: 06/21/2011 14,344,512,410,044.14 (DOWN 11,776,024.05) (Tue, DOWN some.)

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 51-billion dollars. Good day.)
Late! Running!
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 9,732,784,354,381.01 + 4,611,728,055,663.13
DOWN 5,323,373,908.56 + UP 5,311,597,884.51

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 312-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.20 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,202.26 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.61, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 312,279,392 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $45,934.87.
A family of three owes $137,804.6. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 18 reports in the last 30 to 32 days.
The average for the last 18 reports is -54,777,371.92.
The average for the last 30 days would be -32,866,423.15.
The average for the last 32 days would be -30,812,271.71.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 251 reports in 365 days of FY2010 averaging 6.58B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
There were 176 reports in 264 days of FY2011 averaging 4.45B$ per report, 2.97B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 579 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.3 and 17.3T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
06/21/2011 14,344,512,410,044.14 BHO (UP 3,717,635,361,131.06 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,651,794,027,380.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
FY2011 +0,782,889,379,152.40 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,082,403,876,479.64 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
05/25/2011 +010,640,781,539.65 ------------**********
05/26/2011 -005,228,052,393.61 --
05/27/2011 +000,285,108,497.37 ------------********
05/31/2011 +005,592,179,988.61 ------------********* Tue
06/01/2011 +013,072,944,722.02 ------------**********
06/02/2011 -000,912,177,803.85 ---
06/03/2011 +005,646,446,089.80 ------------*********
06/06/2011 -002,705,846,785.55 -- Mon
06/07/2011 -004,526,140,661.35 --
06/08/2011 +009,230,133,015.51 ------------*********
06/09/2011 +006,779,036,856.95 ------------*********
06/10/2011 +000,090,705,816.97 ------------*******
06/13/2011 -002,477,556,635.49 -- Mon
06/17/2011 -003,280,766,773.26 --
06/21/2011 -005,323,373,908.56 -- Tue

26,883,421,565.21 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4892349&mesg_id=4892947

[Festivito]

102. Debt: 06/22/2011 14,344,500,633,576.27 (DOWN 11,776,467.87) (Wed, UP some.)

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 51-billion dollars. Good day.)
Garage door fixed. Dinner for Kenny.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 9,741,622,782,226.81 + 4,602,877,851,349.46
UP 8,838,427,845.80 + DOWN 8,850,204,313.67

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 312-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.20 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,202.19 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.61, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 312,286,592 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $45,933.77.
A family of three owes $137,801.31. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 23 reports in the last 30 to 33 days.
The average for the last 23 reports is -43,381,267.93.
The average for the last 30 days would be -33,258,972.08.
The average for the last 33 days would be -30,235,429.17.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 251 reports in 365 days of FY2010 averaging 6.58B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
There were 181 reports in 265 days of FY2011 averaging 4.33B$ per report, 2.95B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 578 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.3 and 17.3T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
06/22/2011 14,344,500,633,576.27 BHO (UP 3,717,623,584,663.19 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,651,794,027,380.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
FY2011 +0,782,877,602,684.50 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,078,303,113,131.48 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
06/02/2011 -000,912,177,803.85 ---
06/03/2011 +005,646,446,089.80 ------------*********
06/06/2011 -002,705,846,785.55 -- Mon
06/07/2011 -004,526,140,661.35 --
06/08/2011 +009,230,133,015.51 ------------*********
06/09/2011 +006,779,036,856.95 ------------*********
06/10/2011 +000,090,705,816.97 ------------*******
06/13/2011 -002,477,556,635.49 -- Mon
06/14/2011 -005,676,305,314.31 --
06/15/2011 +005,724,686,785.42 ------------*********
06/16/2011 -004,915,287,264.64 --
06/17/2011 -003,280,766,773.26 --
06/20/2011 -001,398,167,502.39 -- Mon
06/21/2011 -005,323,373,908.56 --
06/22/2011 +008,838,427,845.80 ------------*********

5,093,813,761.05 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4893505&mesg_id=4893532

[Pale Blue Dot]

18. U.S. Commercial Property Prices Decline on Distressed Sales, Moody’s Says

U.S. commercial property prices fell in April as sales of distressed assets made up a large share of transactions, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index dropped 3.7 percent from March and 13 percent from a year earlier. It’s now 49 percent below the peak of October 2007 and at its lowest point in data going back to December 2000, the company said in a report today.

The index, which measures broad national price trends, has fallen for five straight months as sales of distressed properties undermined real estate values. Investor demand is strongest for well-leased buildings in major markets such as New York and Washington, which are viewed as less risky in a sluggish economy.

“In a case of the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker, major asset/major market prices have recovered more than half of their post-peak losses, while prices for distressed transactions continue to bounce around the bottom,” Moody’s said in the report.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/u-s-commercial-property-index-falls-to-record-on-distressed-properties.html

[xchrom]

19. The Country's Deadliest Jobs

http://www.sfweekly.com/2011-06-22/news/fatality-injuries-workplace-statistics-joe-eskenazi/





Last week, San Francisco offered a final farewell to firefighters Vincent Perez and Anthony Valerio (except for Jeff Adachi, who was booted out). Gargantuan, citywide funerals for departed firefighters are, sadly, a long tradition. Much is asked of firefighters, and, unfortunately, much has been given.

There are easier ways to earn a living than by fighting fires; use of the word "fire" in your job title essentially guarantees dangerous and difficult work. You could hardly be blamed for venturing that firefighting is one of the nation's most lethal professions. But you'd be wrong. In fact, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more janitors die on the job than firefighters. A lot more.

In 2009, the United States suffered 4,551 fatal occupational injuries. Of these, 29 were firefighters. Forty-one were janitors. The deadliest profession by number of mortalities was "driver/sales workers and truck drivers" at 647 — "transportation incidents" claimed nearly 40 percent of all fallen workers, and drivers are at constant risk. Other professions counterintuitively outdying firefighters: grounds maintenance workers (154); carpenters (84); taxi drivers and chauffeurs (55); amusement, gambling, and recreation industries — excluding bowling (36); and bartenders (3


http://www.sfweekly.com/2011-06-22/news/fatality-injuries-workplace-statistics-joe-eskenazi/

[Demeter]

37. Where Not to Look for a Job (Yet): Worst-Performing Businesses of the Year

http://blogs.forbes.com/sageworks/2011/06/22/where-not-to-look-for-a-job-yet-worst-performing-businesses-of-the-year/?partner=yahoofpapp

1. Land Subdivision -9.9%
2. Motion Picture and Video Industries -5.6%
3. Nonresidential Building Construction -3.8%
4. Architectural and Structural Metals Manufacturing -2.9%
5. Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors -2.4%

While construction-related businesses such as land developers, commercial builders, and foundation pourers are still seeing declining sales and are unlikely to be populating the job boards yet, we expect this to change by next year. At the beginning of the construction supply chain are logging companies and sawmills which have both (finally) seen growth upwards of 15% in the last 12 months after three and four years respectively of declining revenues. Another positive sign for construction is that publicly-traded construction companies seem to be on the leading edge of the real estate industry recovery.

Entertainment industries, such as the motion picture industry listed above and other amusement and recreation-related industries such as golf courses, bowling alleys, and art galleries are still declining in revenue or seeing very slow growth (less than 1%) this year. While many of these types of businesses are using super coupons from the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial to pick sales back up at least in the short-term, these non-necessities will likely be the last to fully recover.

[xchrom]

40. oy. nt

[Pale Blue Dot]

20. Trichet Says Risk Signals Are Flashing Red as Debt Crisis Threatens Banks

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said risk signals for financial stability in the euro area are flashing “red” as the debt crisis threatens to infect banks.

“On a personal basis I would say ‘yes, it is red’,” Trichet said late yesterday in Frankfurt after a meeting of the European Systemic Risk Board, referring to the group’s planned “dashboard” to monitor risks. “The message of the board is that” the link between debt problems and banks “is the most serious threat to financial stability in the European Union.”

Trichet, who chairs the ESRB, made the remarks as European leaders meet in Brussels to discuss how to stave off a Greek default, while preparing a second bailout. The EU is trying to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that followed the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ) and resulted in European governments setting aside more than $5 trillion to support banks.

The yield difference, or spread, between 10-year German bunds and Greek securities of a similar maturity was at 1,388 basis points today, up from 1,317 at the beginning of the month. Swaps on Greece rose 25 basis points to 2,012, signalling an 82 percent chance of default within five years, according to CMA.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/trichet-says-risk-signals-red-as-debt-crisis-threatens-banks.html

[Pale Blue Dot]

21. Biggest Banks May Get Boost From Basel

The biggest banks may face the stiffest additional capital requirements under plans being considered by global regulators, a premium that may give them a financing advantage over their smaller competitors.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision meets in the Swiss city today to discuss how much extra capital the world’s largest and most systemically important banks will be forced to hold to avert another financial crisis. About 25 banks may have to hold more than the 7 percent core Tier 1 capital required by the Basel rules, according to Morgan Stanley analysts.

While the plans may force lenders such as Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) to hold more capital, they may conversely make it cheaper for them to borrow as the lenders will have an implicit state guarantee as being too big to fail, analysts and lawyers said. HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) Chairman Douglas Flint said in March he “absolutely” wanted Europe’s biggest lender to be classified as systemically important as it would make the bank more attractive to investors and clients.

“Everybody is worried they will be left behind by not being on the list,” said Simon Gleeson, a financial-regulation lawyer at Clifford Chance LLP in London. “It’s politically unpalatable to admit it, but there is an effective guarantee on certain firms, which only will be strengthened by the creation” of so-called systemically important financial institutions.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/biggest-banks-may-get-funding-help-in-basel-regulators-bid-to-shrink-them.html

This seems like a bizarre bit of spin. If holding more capital gives big banks a competitive advantage, why aren't they doing so now? Odd.

[Po_d Mainiac]

43. And just the opposite of a risky consumer

or sovereign government getting cornholed with higher rates, the banksters get cheaper money. Talk about fucked up logic.

On second thought, I fergut who writes the rules. Nevermind.

[xchrom]

22. World's millionaires set $42.7 trillion record

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/23/BU9J1K0BKJ.DTL&type=business

Number of the day

$42.7 trillion

That's how much wealth was held last year by the world's millionaires, topping the previous record of $40.7 trillion in 2007, according to Capgemini and Merrill Lynch. The number of individuals with at least $1 million of investable assets rose 8.3 percent to 10.9 million after markets rebounded following the financial crisis. The Asia-Pacific region contributed 3.3 million members to this global club, topping Europe for the first time and closing in on North America's 3.4 million.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/22/BU9J1K0BKJ.DTL#ixzz1Q64STgLW

[xchrom]

23. Taking medical debts out of credit equation

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/23/BU6K1K188V.DTL&type=business

Consumers would have medical debt - up to $2,500 per collection account - removed from their credit reports within 45 days of paying or settling the debt under a bill introduced in Congress this month.

Today, medical debt that has been turned over to collection agencies can remain on a person's credit report for up to seven years, even if the debt eventually gets paid or settled for less than the full amount. That can hurt the person's ability to get a home, car or other loan.

"This is single-handedly holding our economy back," says Rodney Anderson, a Texas mortgage banker who personally hired lobbyists to get a bill sponsored after discovering that more than 40 percent of the people who applied for mortgages with his company had medical debt on their credit reports. Many of these debts were $100 or less but often caused a steep drop in an applicant's credit score.

Sponsors of the bill say medical debt is unlike other debt because people don't choose to get sick or injured. They add that many medical debts reported to collection are the result of billing errors and insurance disputes.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/22/BU6K1K188V.DTL#ixzz1Q65IBQin

[Po_d Mainiac]

59. Why do I think there is more to this story?

Hmm..
When banksters lips move, (or quiver) they lie
When banksters hire lobbyists, it ain't to do Joe/Jane Sixpack any favors
Terms such as 'many' when used by banksters, often just means more than zero.

I may be full of shit on this, but the gut says this is an attempt to allow riskier loans, which of coarse demand higher rates.
:tinfoilhat:

[xchrom]

25. Atlanta City Council Poised to Cut Retirement Benefits for City Employees

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-23/atlanta-city-council-poised-to-cut-retirement-benefits-for-city-employees.html

Atlanta’s City Council may begin closing a $1.5 billion pension shortfall by reducing retirement pay for current employees and allowing them to contribute to a 401(k)-style plan.

The proposed benefit reduction, which may come to a vote today, is among several changes under negotiation. An alternative measure would increase employee pension contributions while keeping existing benefits.

Atlanta’s response to what Mayor Kasim Reed has called a crisis mirrors the situation in cities and states across the county. Benefit changes in the ninth most-populous city may help up the ante for public workers elsewhere. Employee lawsuits followed after Colorado, Minnesota and South Dakota changed cost-of-living adjustments to retirement checks.

“We have a $1.5 billion unfunded liability that’s poised to grow exponentially,” Peter Aman, the city’s chief operating officer, said in an interview in his office last week. “It will become untenable.”

[xchrom]

26. europe: FTSE driven lower as global recovery flags

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/23/markets-britain-stocks-idUKLDE75M0W920110623

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Commodity stocks and banks suffered the biggest losses as investors fled from risk on Thursday, driving Britain's FTSE 100 back towards the 5,700 level in response to growing doubts over the global economic recovery.

Investors fled cyclical stocks such as miners and integrated oils , which fell in tandem with commodities, after comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve and data from China on Wednesday, muddied the demand outlook.

The Fed downgraded its growth outlook for the United States and appeared to pour cold water on hopes for another round of quantitative easing.

Meanwhile, data from China, the world's largest consumer of commodities, showed factory-sector growth was close to stalling in June, leaving little incentive for investors to buy equities.

[xchrom]

27. Retail sales down for first time in a year, says CBI

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/23/retail-sales-fall-according-to-cbi-index

Sales of goods on Britain's high streets fell for the first time in a year this month as rising prices and low pay deals forced consumers to tighten their belts.

The monthly health check on the retail sector from the CBI showed that 33% of shops and stores questioned said business was up on a year earlier while 34% said it was down.

With the boost to spending provided by the royal wedding and warm weather last month quickly fading, the employers' organisation said the rounded balance of -2 points on its index was the first time since June 2010 that sales had not grown.

The CBI said there had been a marked turnaround from May when the number of retailers saying annual sales growth was up exceeded those saying it was down year-on-year by 18 points.

[xchrom]

28. Nick Clegg calls for public to get shares in bailed-out banks

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/23/nick-clegg-banks-public-shares

A giveaway of government-owned shares in RBS and Lloyds, worth hundreds of pounds to British taxpayers, is being proposed by the deputy prime minister.

Nick Clegg has set out his plan in a letter to the chancellor, George Osborne, in which he says such a move would create 46 million shareholders and allow a form of collective ownership of the banks.

Previous sell-offs of shares in state utilities attempted by the Thatcher administration were derided as gimmicks or short-term tax giveaways since the mass of shares were either immediately sold on or resold to the big pension funds within two years.

Conservatives are likely to argue that denationalisation of the banks, brought into semi-public ownership in the years following the banking crash in 2007, should either be used to reduce the deficit, provide tax breaks or even restore public spending. In practice, the shares are not likely to be sold in the short term since the banks' share prices have not yet recovered and they are not ready for sale.

[xchrom]

29. Greek debt crisis: Germany says UK must help fund bailout

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/22/greek-crisis-germany-uk-bailout

The German government signalled yesterday that Britain would need to contribute to the new EU bailout being negotiated for Greece despite David Cameron's repeated assertions this week that the issue is a "red line" for the government.

The conflicting messages from Berlin and London paved the way for a likely clash between Germany and Britain at an EU summit opening in Brussels on Thursday and will unleash howls of protest from the eurosceptic media and the prime minister's backbenchers if he is forced to pledge more for Greece's rescue.

The bulk of the new bailout – the second for Greece in just over a year – is to come from a €440bn fund guaranteed by the other 16 governments of the eurozone.

But a separate European commission-administered fund of €60bn, for which Britain is also liable and which is known as the European financial stability mechanism (EFSM), should also be used for part of the proposed Greek rescue, senior German government officials said.

[Demeter]

49. Why don't all the the big English banks take a haircut, and we'll call it even?

And all the Obscenely Wealthy can see their paper profits go up in smoke.

[xchrom]

54. +1

[xchrom]

30. Airbus trounces Boeing with another record order

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/06/23/airbus-trounces-boeing-with-another-record-order.html

Airbus is trouncing Boeing in their race to be the world's biggest planemaker, claiming over $72 billion dollars worth of orders and commitments at the Paris Air Show, where the popularity of its new fuel-efficient jets twice broke records for the largest order ever.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders and AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes signed off Thursday on an $18.5 billion order for 200 of Airbus' new A320neo aircraft, which has proven to be the star of the aviation industry's premier event.

The order is the largest ever, eclipsing the previous record set just Wednesday by another A320neo customer, Asian carrier IndiGo. Airlines often negotiate discounts on large deals.

The announcement was made at the Paris Air Show, where Airbus has cashed in on airlines' desire to reduce sky-high fuel costs and cut their carbon dioxide emissions.

[Demeter]

39. AARP's Hidden Agenda--Boost MediGap Insurance

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/06/22/AARP-Hidden-Agenda--Boost-MediGap-Insurance.aspx

WERE YOU SURPRISED THE AARP DECIDED TO SUPPORT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE CUTS? I WASN'T. SEE THEIR OWN WEBSITE ARTICLE:

http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-02-2011/obama_budget_cuts.html

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/06/22/AARP-Hidden-Agenda--Boost-MediGap-Insurance.aspx

Across the country, seniors are scratching their graying heads and wondering: what happened to my AARP? How can an organization that champions the interests of retired people have embraced Obamacare’s huge cuts to Medicare, and now waffle on Social Security? The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that the AARP “is dropping its longstanding opposition to cutting Social Security benefits,” an assertion AARP officials have been scrambling to counter.

Seniors may wonder, what drives AARP? Their confusion is anything but age-related. While AARP wants to be known as an advocacy group for older people, it is first and foremost an insurance vendor. Members might be surprised that in fact their fees constitute but a small fraction of AARP’s income. In 2009, AARP took in just under $1.4 billion in revenues; membership dues contributed only $246 million of the total.

Royalties from products sold under the AARP banner – mostly health insurance—contributed $657 million. United Healthcare Corporation, AARP’s single largest insurance partner, accounted for 65 percent of royalty income, which has almost tripled since 2002. Meanwhile income from membership, has increased a respectable but smaller 32 percent even though the number of members has dropped. Advertising revenues (in their various publications) added another $113 million and grants from the federal government totaled $105 million.

Underlying the conflicts of interest presented by its commercial activities, a report released earlier this year by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee highlights AARP’s very profitable insurance business and claims that AARP “stands to make upwards of one billion dollars over the next ten years” as a result of provisions in Obamacare – a bill it strenuously championed. Members of the House committee want AARP’s tax-exempt status revoked; they have sent their report to the IRS which, according to a House spokesman, is in “information finding mode.” ...

[bread_and_roses]

45. I wasn't surprised either

They are a scam and a sham. As is the fake "health care" bill - as we all know. A gift that just keeps on giving - to the insurers. There's a post somewhere around here about our champion Admin changing the rules to make challenging the Vampire Insurers harder ... another big "surprise" I suppose, to anyone not paying attention ...

...I haven't been around much. Have retreated to fantasy - reading "Game of Thrones." It's quite good, to my surprise.

[Fuddnik]

50. Have you been watching the HBO series?

Season One just ended Sunday. I can hardly wait for Season Two next year.

[bread_and_roses]

57. Yes, I loved it -

- why I got the first book. Looking forward to season two also.

[Fuddnik]

63. I just checked the books at B&N.

Maybe it's time to read some fiction again. I need a diversion.

[Demeter]

42. Americans Worse Than When Obama Inaugurated by 44%-34% Margin

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/americans-worse-now-than-when-obama-inaugurated-by-44-34-margin-in-poll.html

Fewer than a quarter of people see signs of improvement in the economy, and two-thirds say they believe the country is on the wrong track overall, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted June 17-20.

“Gas prices are higher, grocery prices are higher, transportation prices are higher,” says poll respondent Ronda Brockway, 54, an insurance company manager and political independent who lives in a suburb of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “The jobs situation nationwide is very poor.”

By a 44 percent to 34 percent margin, Americans say they believe they are worse off than when President Barack Obama took office in early 2009, when the U.S. was in the depths of a recession compounded by the September 2008 financial crisis and the economy was losing as many as 820,000 jobs a month.

The gloom covers the immediate future, with fewer than 1 in 10 people expecting unemployment to return to pre-recession levels within the next two years, and it extends to the next generation. More than half of respondents say their children are destined to have a lower standard of living than they do, upending a traditional touchstone of the American Dream. ..

[DemReadingDU]

44. Primary objective of the ECB in Greece and the FSA in the UK is the same: Protect the bondholders

From the poster London Banker...

6/22/11 Protect the Bondholders?

The latest twists and turns in the Greek bailout fiasco have combined with a disturbing insight into FSA attitudes here in the UK to make me concerned that the system may now be distorted beyond peaceful reform. In fact, the danger of harmful destabilisation may be much worse because supervisor actions reinforce poor outcomes.

I am told that the primary objective of the ECB in Greece and the FSA in the UK is the same: Protect the bondholders.

Perhaps I am naive, but I did not realise that the FSA saw this as its primary mission until someone at the FSA bluntly told me so and someone in the markets confirmed it independently as only just and proper that this should be so.

If protecting bondholders from bad debt really is the primary objective of the supervisors, then the supervisors have become the problem. Capitalism does not work when capitalists are shielded from the economic risks that they freely undertake for profit when they enter into private contracts for debt finance. If bondholders know that they can get the ECB and the FSA to tilt the field in their direction, they have no incentive to balance yield against risk. They should just go for yield wherever they find it, and trust the ECB and FSA to ensure that they get their money whatever happens to the company, the depositor, the employee or the taxpayer who foots the ultimate bill for their yield.

If the objective of current official interaction with the markets is to prevent market determined outcomes, then we are in for a very ugly period of instability. The market is going to force a market outcome. The officials standing in the way can influence who profits from the market clearing, but the market is going to clear. If the officials have decided that the bondholders always win, then the rest of us will always lose. And once the rest of us - the companies, depositors, employees and taxpayers - remember that we have political power, then we will change the system.

This is what we are seeing in Greece on the streets. The Greek people have realised that the government works for the bondholders; the ECB works for the bondholders; the IMF works for the bondholders. They now understand what was not clear before: No one works for the people.
.
.
I suddenly have a lot more sympathy for the Greek people than I did a fortnight ago. Come the revolution here, I may be in the streets too.

more...
http://londonbanker.blogspot.com/2011/06/protect-bondholders.html

[Demeter]

64. Stuffing bondholders | Edward Harrison |

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009/03/stuffing-bondholders.html


Most ordinary Americans feel a certain sense of rightoues indignation about the helping hand the U.S. banking industry is receiving from government. This sense of aggrievement (GRIEVANCE?) is only made worse by suggestions that government is not only protecting the banks themselves but their bondholders as well. I have sympathy for this point of view because it represents a moral hazard that condones the recklessness which created this financial crisis. However, I must confess to being a reluctant convert to the 'save the bondholders' movement. Let me explain why...But before I do, let me outline why debt holders should take a haircut. A week ago I posted an article highlighting an Oppenheimer research piece which said the following:

To preferred and subordinated debt holders, Geithner is effectively saying the following: “If the bank holding company in which you hold capital instruments is in dire need of common equity capital, then come to terms with them or we will do it for you! You knew at the time that you purchased this paper that they were not FDIC insured deposits, but rather capital instruments of a bank holding company. If the company in which you invested is in dire trouble, you too should share some of the pain and not expect 100 cents on the dollar.”

The long and short of this comment here is that the U.S. government may finally be ready to move up the capital structure to preferred shareholders and debt holders to make sure they share some of the financial losses with equity holders before more taxpayer money is spent. Rightfully so. Debt holders will have to lose some of their principal. The question is how much and what will they receive in return...My problem here is that the holders of bank liabilities - depositors and creditors - have other options. They can always withdraw their support from an institution that they feel will fail - creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. This means that taking too much of a haircut on bondholders, especially senior bondholders, will undermine confidence in the system. In the Swedish example from the 1990s, this was recognized and a blanket guarantee was given to all depositors and creditors of institutions deemed to be solvent. In September 1992, the Swedes issued a press release declaring that liabilities would be guaranteed.

The press release declared that the purpose of the blanket guarantee was that "households, enterprises and other holders of claims can feel secure." However, the immediate reason for the press release was actually the fear of losing foreign financing facilities. Swedish banks were heavily dependent on foreign financing of their activities. Short-term foreign borrowing represented about 40 per cent of total bank borrowing. If this funding were to dry up, it would not be possible for the Riksbank to maintain the pegged krona rate.

For the policy-makers there was no alternative but to issue a blanket guarantee to support the krona. In the currency turmoil, where speculation had forced the central banks of the United Kingdom, Finland and Spain, among others, to let their currencies float, the peg of the krona came under heavy speculative pressure. The blanket guarantee - already a drastic measure in itself - was thus an attempt to eliminated foreign fears that Swedish commercial banks would not be able to meet their financial obligations. The guarantee was successful in the sense that foreign confidence in the solvency of the Swedish commercial banks remained intact.

In addition, this stop-gap measure proved highly beneficial, as it expanded the options for the Riksbank to support banks regardless of their financial position. Through the press release, the Riksbank was given the option to lend to any commercial bank operating in Sweden, even to those that were on the brink of insolvency, because the press release represented a State guarantee for the liabilities of the banks.

This is a solution that was geared to address the 'Bear Stearns problem', where lines of credit are pulled and a firm goes under before it is clear that said firm is actually insolvent. Bear is gone but this problem still exists. Witness GE Capital, which just a few days ago announced that it would issue U.S.-guaranteed bonds in order to avoid liquidity constraints on rolling over debt.

GE Capital, the finance arm of U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co, plans to sell more bonds under a government guarantee program, a source involved in the deal said on Monday.

The benchmark-sized offering is expected to price early this week, said the source, declining to be identified because he was not authorized to disclose details about the sale.

Benchmark-sized offerings are typically at least $500 million.

These bonds are rated AAA and have low coupons because they are guaranteed by the government. This government-insured bond program for the likes of General Electric and Goldman Sachs is the effective equivalent of the blanket guarantee given in Sweden in 1992. In essence, the government is saying, "you can issue bonds as if you were a government-sponsored enterprise. Take the free money from the lower yields and recapitalize yourselves." My preference is for these organizations to find funding from private investors. This will not happen, however, if those same investors are stuffed on their existing holdings. However unpalatable a senior debt guarantee might be, it seems a wise option to consider.

SEE ORIGINAL LINK FOR OTHER LINKS TO EXCERPTED MATERIALS

[Demeter]

66. Haircuts for Bond Holders

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/haircuts-for-bond-holders/

“The bond market is getting more scared every day. At some time, the government is going to say enough is enough, the only way we will give you more cash is if the bondholders have to be hit.”
-Gary Austin, PDR Advisors



We have been lambasting the AIG bailout as a backdoor rescue for Goldman and others. It is unconscionable that the taxpayer must make good the speculative, off-exchange bets made by hedge funds.

There is another group that has also been (unfairly) made whole: The Bond Holders.They lent momey to poorly run, insolvent institutions, and somehow expect to see a return of a 100% of their capital.That makes no sense whatsoever.

In bailout deals such as Bear Stearns, Citgroup and Bank of America, they garnered a 100% return of invested capital (i.e., lonas). I suspect that is fast coming to an end. In the event of any pre-packaged receivership workout (aka Nationalization), the bond holders are going to have to take a big hit...

MORE!

[DemReadingDU]

94. London Banker Update

London Banker said...
@ All
I want to make very clear that I am not suggesting malfeasance or corruption at the FSA, ECB or anywhere else. These are good people - for the most part - who are struggling to do a difficult job well. The system is set up to self-reinforce the interests of those with the most assets and power, and that leaves the rest of us on the sidelines. It is the self-reinforcing dynamic of the system as it works in practice that is the problem, not the people in it.

For example, when regulations are put out for comment, it is the banks with the biggest compliance departments and most pricey lawyers who make the most compelling case for regulations that favour their narrow interest. They will almost always prefer regulations that create a competitive bias by imposing higher costs or complexity on smaller players. Over time, the system reinforces them, and freezes everyone else out. When their self-interest becomes parasitical, unbalanced and dangerous to the rest of the economy, there is no adequate representation or sophisticated player with sufficient interest to counter the threat and prevent harm.

Similarly, when there is a job opening, it will be most appealling to someone already established and experienced in the industry. He or she will find it difficult to resist the social pressure to accommodate what seems like reasonable pressure to relieve present pain that is easily measured at the cost of future, theoretical social gain that will always remain difficult to substantiate.

Especially in a crisis, when many regulators have been struggling to contain damage for three years, it will always be easier to go along with assurances from the bankers that "a little more time" will help them put their balance sheets in order and prepare for a default. Since the EU periphery has been on the verge of default for quite long enough now that everyone gets it, even China, that story seems a bit dog-earred. But if you are the regulator who will have to face the BBC or the Parliamentary inquiry or even resign in disgrace for any losses actually realised in black and red, maybe it might still be compelling to "extend and pretend" just a bit more.
23 June 2011 09:34

http://londonbanker.blogspot.com/2011/06/protect-bondholders.html?showComment=1308846895971#c2959843435988480893

[Demeter]

46. F.B.I. Seizes Web Servers, Knocking Sites Offline

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/f-b-i-seizes-web-servers-knocking-sites-offline/?hp

The F.B.I. seized Web servers in a raid on a data center early Tuesday, causing several Web sites, including those run by the New York publisher Curbed Network, to go offline. The raid happened at 1:15 a.m. at a hosting facility in Reston, Va., used by DigitalOne, which is based in Switzerland, the company said. The F.B.I. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the raid.

In an e-mail to one of its clients on Tuesday afternoon, DigitalOne’s chief executive, Sergej Ostroumow, said: “This problem is caused by the F.B.I., not our company. In the night F.B.I. has taken 3 enclosures with equipment plugged into them, possibly including your server — we cannot check it.” Mr. Ostroumow said that the F.B.I. was only interested in one of the company’s clients but had taken servers used by “tens of clients.” He wrote: “After F.B.I.’s unprofessional ‘work’ we can not restart our own servers, that’s why our Web site is offline and support doesn’t work.” The company’s staff had been working to solve the problem for the previous 15 hours, he said. Mr. Ostroumow said in response to e-mailed questions that it was not clear if the issues would be resolved by Wednesday...Mr. Ostroumow declined to name the client targeted by the F.B.I. and said that he did not know why it had drawn their interest. It was also unclear why the agents took more servers with them than they sought, he said.

A government official who declined to be named said earlier in the day that the F.B.I. was actively investigating the Lulz Security group and any affiliated hackers. The official said the F.B.I. had teamed up with other agencies in this effort, including the Central Intelligence Agency and cybercrime bureaus in Europe...DigitalOne provided all necessary information to pinpoint the servers for a specific I.P. address, Mr. Ostroumow said. However, the agents took entire server racks, perhaps because they mistakenly thought that “one enclosure is = to one server,” he said in an e-mail.

DigitalOne had no employees on-site when the raid took place. The data center operator, from which DigitalOne leases space, passed along the information about the raid three hours after it started with the name of the agent and a phone number to call. Before learning of the raid, Mr. Ostroumow, who is in Switzerland with the rest of his team, thought the problem was a technical glitch, he said.

"They seek him here, they seek him there
Those FIBBIES seek him everywhere
Is he in heaven or is he in hell?
That damned elusive LUL!"

WITH APOLOGIES TO— Emmuska Orczy (BARONESS AND AUTHOR OF The Scarlet Pimpernel)

[Demeter]

51. That cartoon is missing a couple of features

One is the massive iceberg in front of the boat, that cannot be avoided...

And the other is the lush island full of friendly natives that the jetsam will find within reach. Of course, whether the jetsam integrates into the new, classless society is another question...

[Demeter]

53. Stuffing bondholders in Greece and Ireland AND BEYOND--MUST READ

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/06/greece-ireland-bondholders.html

INCLUDES SCORN HEAPED UPON TIMMY...

[Demeter]

58. Economic Historian 'Germany Was Biggest Debt Transgressor of 20th Century'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,769703,00.html

Think Greece's current economic malaise is the worst ever experienced in Europe? Think again. Germany, economic historian Albrecht Ritschl argues in a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, has been the worst debtor nation of the past century. He warns the country should take a more chaste approach in the euro crisis or it could face renewed demands for World War II reparations...
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Ritschl, Germany is coming across like a know-it-all in the debate over aid for Greece. Berlin is intransigent and is demanding obedience from Athens. Is this attitude justified?

Ritschl: No, there is no basis for it.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Most Germans would likely disagree.

Ritschl: That may be, but during the 20th century, Germany was responsible for what were the biggest national bankruptcies in recent history. It is only thanks to the United States, which sacrificed vast amounts of money after both World War I and World War II, that Germany is financially stable today and holds the status of Europe's headmaster. That fact, unfortunately, often seems to be forgotten.

GOOD HISTORY LESSON--THE STUFF THEY DIDN'T TELL US IN HIGH SCHOOL--THE ECONOMIC STORY

[Demeter]

60. US Gov't: No quick fix for leaky nuclear reactors IN US

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/22/national/main20073181.shtml#ixzz1Q6VBHEje

U.S. nuclear power plant operators haven't figured out how to quickly detect leaks of radioactive water from aging pipes that snake underneath the sites — and the leaks, often undetected for years, are not going to stop, according to a new report by congressional investigators.

The report by the Government Accountability Office was released by two congressmen Tuesday in response to an Associated Press investigation that shows three-quarters of America's 65 nuclear plant sites have leaked radioactive tritium, sometimes into groundwater...No leak is known to have reached aquifers that hold the drinking water supplies of public utilities, though tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, has contaminated residential drinking wells near at least three nuclear power plants. The tritium in those wells did not surpass the federal health standard. Though mildly radioactive, tritium poses the greatest risk of causing cancer when it ends up in drinking water.

SEE LINK FOR MAP OF SITES (IT'S INTERACTIVE!)

[DemReadingDU]

73. DOW -208

[Roland99]

77. -221...Oil below $91/bbl. IEA to tap oil reserves

Dow 11,886 -224 -1.85%
Nasdaq 2,633 -36 -1.36%
S&P 500 1,265 -22 -1.73%
GlobalDow 2,031 -44 -2.11%
Gold 1,519 -34 -2.20%
Oil 90.90 -4.45 -4.67%


Crude futures sink amid IEA move to release stocks
IEA will release 60 million barrels to offset disrupted Libyan supplies
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-falls-back-below-95-a-barrel-2011-06-23

[Demeter]

87. Obama Taps Petroleum Reserve. Consider This Q.E. 3

http://blogs.forbes.com/christopherhelman/2011/06/23/obama-taps-petroleum-reserve-consider-this-q-e-3/

(There are some days it doesn't pay to chew through the restraints, and this is one of them...THAT MAN is taking the oil we paid premium prices for, and giving it away to foreign nations!)



Today the International Energy Agency announced that it would release 60 million barrels of oil from global stockpiles. More than half of that will come from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve...Crude oil prices and shares of oil companies plunged on the news, with Brent crude down more than $6 to $107 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate off $5 to $90. Shares of ExxonMobil, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum were all down 3% in mid-morning trading. The Dow was down 220 points.

The timing of this move comes just days ahead of the end of the Federal Reserve’s second quantitative easing program. In the absence of continued Fed buying of Treasuries, and the liquidity it adds to the financial markets, moving to reduce oil prices will be another helping hand to the U.S. economy. Knocking $20 a barrel off oil prices would reduce America’s annual oil spend by some $150 billion.

In a release this morning explaining the move, the IEA said the releases would amount to 2 million barrels per day. The IEA said the intent is to replace Libyan crude missing from the market, adding that it said there is increasing likelihood of summer oil supply shortfalls, especially in China, where petroleum demand is up 9% over last year and chronic electric power shortages have forced Chinese to turn to diesel generators. Some economists have predicted that shortages this summer could drive crude up to record highs. (See: Could We See A Summer Oil Shortage? This Economist Says Yes. )

The coordinated nature of this move indicates that planning has been underway for some time. Last week came the revelations that Saudi Arabia had in the weeks running up to the recent contentious OPEC been in secret talks with the Obama administration to balance Libyan outages by swapping light crude out of the SPR in exchange for cut rate Saudi heavy crude. The light crude released into the U.S. market by the SPR will free up crude for delivery elsewhere in the world...

IS IT A ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT YET?

[Demeter]

88. READ THE WHOLE THING

On a global scale, this is the third time IEA member-country stocks have been used. IEA member countries released oil stocks in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina damaged offshore oil rigs, pipelines and oil and gas refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. The only other occasion IEA member countries mandated a stock release was at the time of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990/1991...

Member countries have different stockholding systems. Some have large reserves of public stocks, like the US, Japan and Germany, which can be offered to the market through loans or sales. Other countries have sizeable stockholding obligations on commercial oil industry operators which can be lowered in order to make these volumes freely available to the market. In some instances, a combination of public stocks and reduced obligation on industry is used, and it would be up to each country to decide how make additional oil available to the market. Finally, stocks can be in the form of crude oil of various grades, products or a mixture of the two.

MORE AT LINK

[DemReadingDU]

75. Derivatives Cloud the Possible Fallout From a Greek Default

6/23/11 Derivatives Cloud the Possible Fallout From a Greek Default

It’s the $616 billion question: Does the euro crisis have a hidden A.I.G.?

No one seems to be sure, in large part because the world of derivatives is so murky. But the possibility that some company out there may have insured billions of dollars of European debt has added a new tension to the sovereign default debate.

The looming uncertainties are whether these contracts — which insure against possibilities like a Greek default — are concentrated in the hands of a few companies, and if these companies will be able to pay out billions of dollars to cover losses during a default. If there were a single company standing behind many of these contracts, that company would be akin to the American International Group of the euro crisis. The American insurer needed a $182 billion federal bailout during the financial crisis because it had insured the performance of mortgage bonds through derivatives and could not pay on all of them.

more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/business/global/23swaps.html?_r=1

[Demeter]

79. That Deafening Silence Tells Me That It IS AIG!

Murphy's Law, never repealed.

[Demeter]

76. Down 227 at 11 AM--Mission Accomplished, Ben!

Oh, you weren't trying to do that? My Bad.

[TalkingDog]

82. Just an observation

[StarburstClock]

83. In the news: "Investors Dump Risky Assets", LOL

If "investors" actually sold their "risky assets" there wouldn't be anything left. Bonds are backed by trillions in debt, stocks are manipulated, commodities are price-fixed, etfs are wildly speculated on, including gld and slv. Wouldn't it be funny if the headlines actually read what's really going on: "Goldman Sachs Needs Money Today" or "Market Manipulators Decide To Ripoff Longs Today".

"Investments" is a world of lies backed by murderous military capitalists here in the Propaganda States of America.

[Fuddnik]

85. Boner's asshole pulls out of bipartisan budget talks.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/23/6925554-gops-cantor-pulls-out-of-bipartisan-budget-talks-


GOP's Cantor pulls out of bipartisan budget talks

From NBC's Luke Russert
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has abruptly pulled out of bipartisan budget talks led by Vice President Joe Biden, saying that an impasse over taxes cannot be resolved without direct negotiations between the president and Speaker of the House John Boehner.

In a statement, Cantor said that Democrats are insisting that tax increases must be part of the debt limit deal but that there is not sufficient support in the GOP-majority House to pass any tax hikes.

"Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be resolved before discussions can continue," he said. "Given this impasse, I will not be participating in today's meeting and I believe it is time for the President to speak clearly and resolve the tax issue. Once resolved, we have a blueprint to move forward to trillions of spending cuts and binding mechanisms to change the way things are done around here."

At his weekly briefing, Boehner said that he understands Cantor's "frustration" and that he believes the Biden talks can continue if Democrats take tax increases off the table.

Jon Summers, communications director for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, quickly countered in a tweet, writing that the stakes of the debt talks are too high for "people to take their marbles & go home. The American public expect more than this."

(snip)

[Hawkowl]

97. ?

When I glanced at the title of your post, I got "Boner pulls out of asshole". Had to double check which bulletin board I was on.

[Fuddnik]

99. There was a post a couple of weeks ago on the front page, during the Weiner episode.

It was titled "John Boehner just texted me a picture of his asshole".

It was a picture of Eric Cantor.

[DemReadingDU]

86. Saab runs out of cash to pay wages

6/23/11 Saab runs out of cash to pay wages

Saab, the Swedish car company renowned for its sometimes quirky designs, moved closer to bankruptcy Thursday after it conceded that it didn't have any money to pay employees' wages.

After months of production stoppages and problems with paying suppliers, Saab said the situation is so dire that it won't be able to pay its 3,700 employees, raising doubts over how long the brand can survive.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110623/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_sweden_saab

[Fuddnik]

89. Aflac vs Bernanke.

Bernanke Lies Half Life Reduced To Under One Day As Aflac Scrambling To Shore Up Liquidity On European Exposure
Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/23/2011 11:33 -0400

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bernanke-lies-half-life-reduced-under-one-day-aflac-scrambling-shore-liquidity-european-expo



Yesterday during his press conference, the Chairman uttered his latest lie: "We have asked the banks to essentially do stress tests and ask, looking at all their positions, all their hedges, what would the effect on their capital be if -- if Greece defaulted...The answer is that the effects are very small.” Enter Aflac to prove that the half life of Bernanke's lies is now under 24 hours. From Bloomberg: "Aflac Inc. (AFL), the largest seller of supplemental health insurance, may issue as much as 100 billion yen ($1.24 billion) in debt as it records losses tied to investments in banks from Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Second-quarter losses on the assets will probably be about $610 million, the Columbus, Georgia-based insurer said today in a statement." Additionally, Aflac CEO Amos has added invesments in public utilities and Japanese government debt to minimize the company's exposure in Europe. Yet what is truly hilarious is that as the EFSF's spokesman Christof Roche just announced in commenting on the sale of 2016 bonds from the CDO, "Asian investors bought 46.5% of the bonds issued yesterday." In other words, by transferring exposure to Japan, Aflac is merely gaining exposure to Europe through yet another insolvent government. But such is life in the unwind phase of the biggest global ponzi ever conceived, in which the smallest mark to market event on the global financial balance sheet in which everyone's assets are someone's else liabilities and vice versa, will launch the biggest house of cards collapse in history.

[Pale Blue Dot]

90. Malloy: Layoffs will be 'large scale' and quick (CT - 7500)

A special session of the legislature is expected next week to approve a revised budget that Malloy says will be ready Monday. It is likely to call for 7,500 layoffs, a number large enough to bump the unemployment rate from 9.1 percent to 9.4 percent.

He waved off a question about whether he was disappointed that Connecticut soon would join the ranks of states slashing its public-sector workforce.

"I don't have time to be disappointed," Malloy said. "We move forward. I've been clear that one way or another we were going to have a balanced budget."

The $40 billion biennial budget passed last month by the General Assembly relied on Malloy obtaining concessions and labor savings worth $700 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and $900 million the following year

http://www.ctmirror.org/story/13048/malloy-layoffs-will-be-largescale

This will be a disaster all over the state, but particularly where I teach in Hartford. Malloy has done some things right, but this has been botched from the get-go, and Malloy (like Walker in Wisconsin) is blaming the unions.

[Pale Blue Dot]

91. Council OKs $1.8 billion budget, hundreds of layoffs (Houston, TX - 750)

The Houston City Council on Wednesday cemented plans to lay off 747 employees, reduce library hours and slow the pace of health inspections in approving a $1.8 billion general fund budget that cuts $100 million in spending in the upcoming year.

The overall spending plan totals $4 billion, including $1.8 billion from the tax- and fee-supported general fund. The remaining $2.2 billion involves the city's enterprise funds, such as the airport and water utilities divisions, which generate their own revenues through user fees.

Fiscal year 2012 begins July 1.

The Council considered dozens of amendments during several hours of discussion Wednesday, but adopted the mayor's proposed budget with no substantive changes.

Mayor Annise Parker spent the spring looking for ways to close a huge budget gap caused, in part, by a decrease in tax collections and ballooning pension obligations. She balanced the budget without a tax increase.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7622711.html#ixzz1Q7VRFinZ

[Pale Blue Dot]

92. Gannett layoffs include 4 NJ newspapers (Nationwide - 700)

Pink slips went out at four New Jersey newspapers owned by Gannett Co. as part of 700 layoffs nationwide.

Thirty-six positions were lost at the Asbury Park Press, the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, the Courier News of Bridgewater and the Daily Record of Parsippany.

Thomas M. Donovan, president and publisher of the Press and vice president of the company's East Group says all departments were affected.

Tuesday's cuts marked Gannett's largest round of layoffs in two years and the latest in a string of austerity measures imposed since print advertising began to fall in 2006.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9O13JAG1.htm

[Pale Blue Dot]

93. What's Driving Rising Wall Street Layoffs?

Although they probably won't garner a lot of sympathy from most Americans, bankers are being laid off in higher numbers this year. From January through May, the financial sector cut 11,413 jobs. That's a 21% increase over last year's tally of 9,431 over the same period, according to outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Should this concern us?

While many Americans won't be all that sad to hear about Wall Street layoffs, they should be. Often, financial sector layoffs foreshadow broader layoffs in the economy, for reasons explained here. So if these cuts are occurring because firms' expect weaker profits -- or losses -- going forward due to the economy slowing down, then these layoffs are a very worrying indicator.

But that's not the only possible reason for more layoffs. Challenger, Gray & Christmas provides a couple of other possibilities. One could be the new financial regulation. Some new rules are beginning to take effect. If they cut into profits, then banks will slash jobs.

In another very specific way, new regulation may be causing layoffs. New compensation rules are causing labor costs to rise. Banks are increasing salaries and shrinking bonuses. If they cannot as freely utilize incentive as for compensation, then they'll have to pay the lower performers more and cut their employee pool accordingly. I spoke with a banker last night whose firm is naming this reason for its recent layoffs.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/whats-driving-rising-wall-street-layoffs/240904/

:puke:

[Roland99]

100. LMAO at the PPT! Right on schedule!