STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, November 15, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, November 15, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON November 14, 2011

Dow 12,078.98 -74.70 (-0.62%)
Nasdaq 2,657.22 -21.53 (-0.81%)
S&P 500 1,251.78 -12.07 (-0.96%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.00 -0.06 (-2.96%)
30-Year Bond 3.05 -0.06 (-1.96%)

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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

Nov 15 08:30 PPI Oct -0.2% -0.2% 0.8%
Nov 15 08:30 Core PPI Oct 0.2% 0.1% 0.2%
Nov 15 08:30 Retail Sales Oct 0.6% 0.4% 1.1%
Nov 15 08:30 Retail Sales ex-auto Oct 0.3% 0.2% 0.6%
Nov 15 08:30 Empire Manufacturing Nov 0.0 -0.8 -8.48
Nov 15 10:00 Business Inventories Sep 0.0% 0.2% 0.5%

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/investor/calendars/economic/2011/11/14-18/#ixzz1dm60mfLB

[Roland99]

50. Nov. Empire State index 0.6 vs. -8.5 in Oct.

[Roland99]

51. U.S. producer prices drop 0.3% in October

[Roland99]

52. Retail sales details >>>

Retail sales unchanged in September at 1.1% rise
8:30a

Retail sales up 7.2% compared to one year earlier
8:30a

Retail sales minus autos climb 0.6% last month
8:30a

U.S. retail sales rise 0.5% in October

[xchrom]

57. U.S. Retail Sales Rise, Beat Forecast on Electronics Gains

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/u-s-retail-sales-rise-more-than-forecast-on-electronics-autos.html

Retail sales rose more than projected in October as Americans snapped up Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhones and demand for automobiles improved, giving the world’s largest economy a boost entering the final quarter of 2011.

The 0.5 percent gain followed a 1.1 percent increase for September, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was a rise of 0.3 percent. Purchases of electronics jumped by the most in two years.

Consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, needs to keep growing to bolster the expansion as the European credit crisis threatens to slow sales overseas. Nonetheless, retailers like Macy’s Inc. (M) and Kohl’s Corp. (KSS) plan to use discounts to lure shoppers during the holiday season as unemployment hovers around 9 percent and wage gains fail to keep up with inflation.

“Households continue to spend at a pace that can keep the U.S. economy comfortably out of recession,” said Eric Green, chief market economist at TD Securities in New York. “These numbers give me more confidence that retailers’ expectations of stronger sales growth this holiday season will come true.”

[Roland99]

59. I gotta feeling Jan/Feb 2012 ain't gonna be pretty re: Retail sales.

[Demeter]

61. The Grinch Isn't Going to Have a Change of Heart, this Xmas

underwear for everyone!

[AnneD]

75. Hey...

I resemble that remark.

We are adding to our pantry this year. Since we did not have a hurricane, we are splurging this Christmas and getting solar radio, solar flashlights, and a few other sundry camping items.

[Roland99]

77. Spending vs. Earnings

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil hovers near $98 ahead of inventories data

SINGAPORE – Oil prices hovered near $98 a barrel Tuesday in Asia amid expectations that U.S. crude inventories are falling in a sign demand could be increasing.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 2 cents at $98.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 85 cents to settle at $98.14 in New York on Monday.

Brent crude was up 30 cents to $112.19 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Crude has surged about 30 percent from $75 on Oct. 4 amid growing investor optimism that the U.S. economy would avoid recession this year. Traders are now mulling whether weak economic growth will boost demand enough to justify further price gains.

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

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. U.S. Stock-Index Futures Decline on Europe

U.S. stock futures declined as concern that European leaders are still struggling to manage the debt crisis overshadowed reports that may show retail sales and manufacturing improved in the world’s largest economy.

Kellogg Co. (K), the maker of Corn Flakes cereal and Keebler cookies, fell in Germany after Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. cut its recommendation on the stock. Geron Corp. (GERN) tumbled 17 percent after saying it is ending stem-cell therapy research to focus on cancer drugs.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in December fell 1.1 percent to 1,238.3 at 6:10 a.m. in New York, as Italy’s benchmark borrowing costs soared above 7 percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures retreated 111 points, or 0.9 percent, to 11,949.

“Earnings are behind us and now we come back to the problem of instability in Europe,” said Virginie Robert, Paris- based managing director at Raymond James Asset Management International, which oversees about $30 billion. “Borrowing costs aren’t where they should be and that is hurting the market. U.S. economic numbers will be closely watched.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/u-s-stock-index-futures-decline-on-concern-over-europe-s-crisis-response.html

[Roland99]

4. Europe: Italy 10-year bond yields rise back above 7%

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/italy-10-year-bond-yields-rise-back-above-7-2011-11-15?link=MW_home_latest_news

[Roland99]

5. Spain borrowing costs jump at bill auction

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/spain-borrowing-costs-jump-at-bill-auction-2011-11-15?link=MW_home_latest_news

[Demeter]

7. EU targets "Big Three" rating agency dominance

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/11/us-eu-ratingagencies-idUSTRE7AA47520111111

The European Union... unveils its third broadside against credit rating agencies since the financial crisis began, and this time the Big Three face a direct hit where it hurts....Thursday's mistaken downgrade by Standard & Poor's of France's sovereign debt won't help a sector seen by policymakers as an "oligopoly" that fomented and exacerbated market turmoil globally and more recently in the euro zone.

"This reinforces my conviction that Europe must have rigorous, strict and solid regulation for credit rating agencies," said Michel Barnier, the EU financial services chief who wrote the draft law that will be published Tuesday.(TODAY) A key element will be a civil liability framework in the case of serious misconduct or gross negligence, Barnier said in response to the S&P error which sparked major market moves.

The 27-country bloc has already approved two rules, the first forcing agencies to seek authorization and a second requiring them to report directly to a new EU regulator. But the latest measure goes much further by trying to end the global dominance of S&P, Moody's and Fitch Ratings seen by many Europeans as being too U.S.-centric, even though Fitch is listed in Paris. The plan will curb how agencies rate sovereign debt -- a sensitive issue as the euro zone tries to restore investor confidence in its bonds after bailouts of three members....With most top firms and banks rated by two if not all of the "Big Three," if would mean that after one to two years users must switch to using some of the 10 or so smaller agencies registered in Europe, such as Euler Hermes. Investors in Asia or the United States may not be familiar with the smaller European agencies, making them think twice about investing, rating agency officials argue. This would come at a time when European companies will have to rely more on bond markets for raising money as their traditional source of capital, the banks, conserve cash to build up safety buffers...Smaller agencies would also be given business without having to compete on price or quality...


BLACKOUTS

Another core element is to give EU states powers to introduce temporary "blackouts" or a ban on ratings on their sovereign debt in "particularly exceptional circumstances." The EU was furious when last year an agency downgraded the debt of Greece just as it was putting together the country's first bailout package, seen as making the task harder...The bloc will also next Tuesday finalize another step to try to take market pressure off its sovereign debt: the European Parliament will vote through a ban on "naked" or uncovered credit default swaps linked to government debt....Finance and ratings agency officials say both measures are simply a case of shooting the messenger while the real problem lies at the door of heavily indebted countries.

[plumbob]

24. As usual, until THEIR ox is gored, everything is seen as peachy.

These criminal enterprises called ratings agencies need to be eliminated. Their manipulated information is worse than none.

[xchrom]

6. no sleep for me last night.

:donut: changing weather meant stuffed up sinuses -- that and two dogs who would NOT sleep.:mad:

[Demeter]

9. Poor Baby!

I've been really seriously working on sleep....feel like a whole different person.

[xchrom]

13. oh that is excellent, miss demeter!

:toast:

[Demeter]

79. I'm trying to decide if I like that new person

It feels very funny, out-of-body.

[xchrom]

8. Should Consumers Embrace Banks' New Scattershot Approach to Fees?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/should-consumers-embrace-banks-new-scattershot-approach-to-fees/248436/

Earlier this month, when Bank of America and others reversed their plans to create a fee for debit card usage, some consumers cheered. They felt like their complaints were heard, enabling them to escape additional fees after all. Such optimism may have been a little premature. Banks aren't simply accepting that they will make less money from their retail customers due to new financial regulation. Instead, they're making up that money in other ways, quietly adding new fees for services or increasing the size of other fees that already exist.

A New York Times article by Eric Dash today provides some examples of the fee changes:

Need to replace a lost debit card? Bank of America now charges $5 -- or $20 for rush delivery.

Deposit money with a mobile phone? At U.S. Bancorp, it is now 50 cents a check.

Want cash wired to your account? Starting in December, that will cost $15 for each incoming domestic payment at TD Bank. Facing a reaction from an angry public and heightened scrutiny from regulators, banks are turning to all sorts of fees that fly under the radar. Everything, it seems, has a price.

Who could have seen this coming! Banks didn't want to forgo billions of dollars in revenue after all. This should shock no one.

But is it good or bad for customers? It depends on your perspective. The nice thing about the debit card usage fee was that it was utterly transparent. It would have allowed customers' fees to be a little clearer and a little simpler. For comparison shopping, such policies are preferable.

[xchrom]

10. How the 19th Century's Occupy Wall Street Found a Message—and Won

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/how-the-19th-centurys-occupy-wall-street-found-a-message-and-won/248213/

Corporate greed. Businesses amassing fortunes at the expense of workers. Frustrated, disgruntled, fed up masses. Protests, strikes, and violence.

Think I'm talking about Zuccotti Park? Actually, I'm describing the landscape in the 1880s during the height of the Industrial Revolution, but it sounds eerily familiar. At that time, workers were struggling with horrible work conditions: 14-hour workdays and six day work weeks, children laboring in factories, unhealthy and unsafe work conditions, and low pay.

The workers eventually hit a breaking point. They knew that their work environment was unhealthy and that their lifestyles were unsustainable. They were slaving away and making dismal pay, while the industrialists prospered like never before. They were at the losing end of extreme income inequality. They had a low standard of living, and no time for civic and community participation, due to their long hours. They were the 99% of the 19th century. And they were fed up.

And so, a movement was born. Not an organized, coordinated, political movement, but a messy, multi-pronged, social movement. Laborers took to the streets en masse: protests erupted. Some turned bloody and captured national attention. Into the 20th century, the movement unfolded in fits and starts across the county -- at times loud and active, at other times quiet and dormant. Response from the public and business was mixed. Some unions threw their weight behind the movement, while others did not. The workers didn't have a clear set of policy demands. They didn't coordinate a cohesive messaging strategy. They were fueled by concerns about the mal-distribution of income, dismal working conditions, and their strength in numbers.

[Demeter]

33. 10 Ways the Occupy Movement Changes Everything By David Korten, Sarah van Gelder and Steve Piersant

http://www.nationofchange.org/10-ways-occupy-movement-changes-everything-1320943628

Before the Occupy Wall Street movement, there was little discussion of the outsized power of Wall Street and the diminishing fortunes of the middle class. The media blackout was especially remarkable given that issues like jobs and corporate influence on elections topped the list of concerns for most Americans. Occupy Wall Street changed that. In fact, it may represent the best hope in years that “we the people” will step up to take on the critical challenges of our time. Here’s how the Occupy movement is already changing everything:

• 1. It names the source of the crisis.
  The problems of the 99% are caused by Wall Street greed, corrupt banks, and a corporate take-over of the political system.
  
  
• 2. It provides a clear vision of the world we want.
  We can create a world that works for everyone, not just the wealthiest 1%.
  
  
• 3. It sets a new standard for public debate.
  Those advocating policies and proposals must now demonstrate that their ideas will benefit the 99%. Serving only the 1% is no longer sufficient.
  
  
• 4. It presents a new narrative.
  The solution is no longer to starve government, but to free society and government from corporate dominance.
  
  
• 5. It creates a big tent.
  We, the 99%, are made up of people of all ages, races, occupations, and political beliefs, and we are learning to work together with respect.
  
  
• 6. It offers everyone a chance to create change.
  No one is in charge. Anyone can get involved and make things happen.
  
  
• 7. It is a movement, not a list of demands.
  The call for transformative structural change, not temporary fixes and single-issue reforms, is the movement’s sustaining power.
  
  
• 8. It combines the local and the global.
  People are setting their own local agendas, tactics, and aims. But we also share solidarity, communication, and vision at the global level.
  
  
• 9. It offers an ethic and practice of deep democracy and community.
  Patient decision-making translates into wisdom and common com-mitment when every voice is heard. Occupy sites are communities where anyone can discuss grievances, hopes, and dreams in an atmosphere of mutual support.
  
  
• 10. We have reclaimed our power.
  Instead of looking to politicians and leaders to bring about change, we can see now that the power rests with us. Instead of being victims of the forces upending our lives, we are claiming our sovereign right to remake the world.

Like all human endeavors, Occupy Wall Street and its thousands of variations and spin-offs will be imperfect. There have already been setbacks and divisions, hardships and injury. But as our world faces extraordinary challenges—from climate change to soaring inequality—our best hope is the ordinary people, gathered in imperfect democracies, who are finding ways to fix a broken world.

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

This article is adapted from the book, This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement edited by Sarah van Gelder and the staff of YES! Magazine and published November 2011 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Sarah van Gelder and David Korten are co-founders of YES! Magazine; Steve Piersanti is publisher of Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This article is available under a Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs (CC BY-ND) license, which allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the original publication of this book (photos not included). More on the book and other resources can be found at www.yesmagazine.org/owsbook.

[xchrom]

49. +1

[happyslug]

82. The difference between the 1880s and now and less then their appear

For example, the first census where more Americans lived in Urban areas as opposed to Rural Areas was 1920, thus sometime in the 1910s the switch occurred. More and more people had been moving from the Rural Areas to the Urban areas since 1800, but that was more then offset by immigrants who moved right into new farms opening up on the frontier. In 1890 the US Census bureau determined the Frontier no longer existed, "there was no longer a clear line of advancing settlement, and hence no longer a frontier in the continental United States".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Old_West#End_of_the_Old_West

This "Clear line" had been the definition of the American Frontier for many decades before 1890. Prior to 1850, there had been only one line, heading west from the East Coast. Starting in 1850, a new "Frontier" line had been started from the West Coast do to the settlement of California and Oregon. By the 1880s the Frontier for all practical purposes no longer existed in the Continental US, but most Americans still lived in Rural areas.

The Civil War Debt had been paid off in 1874, the quickest the US had ever paid off a war debt. The main purpose of this was to get the US Dollar back to $20 to an ounce of Gold. Do to the amount of Gold mined in California in the 1850s (Something like 1/3 of all gold ever found was mined in the 1850s in California) the actual value of gold in real terms (i.e. what you could buy with it) had fallen all through the 1850s, leading to a massive inflationary period that kicked the US economy into high gear. This provided the industry capacity for the North to Defeat the South in the Civil War. The problem was at the end of the Civil War, California Gold Production had dropped severely, so the value of gold in real terms had been going up since the late 1850s (The US printed paper money during the Civil War to pay its was debts, thus the US Dollar dropped to $2.67 US Dollars to One Canadian Dollar by July 11, 1864, and until the 1870s the US issued just Paper Money, down to Dimes, only Cents and Nickels were minted and released into general circulation till the 1870s, and till the Nickel came out in its predecessor the Half dime, along with the "Three Cent piece" had been withdrawn from General Circulation with all the other Silver Coins).

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2007/10/31/dollarjump.html
http://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/Documents/dollar/

Now, by 1874 the US Dollar had returned to $20 to an ounce of gold, and coin circulation resumed and the previous paper currency was withdrawn. While the price of Gold had stabilized by the 1870s, the price of Silver continued to fall. By the 1880s the value of silver in the Silver Dollar was only 55 cents (Do to the Currency reforms of 1857, the amount of Silver in a US Dollar had been just under One Dollar in value, just to point out the huge drop in the Price of Silver between 1857 and the 1880s). At the same time the desire to get the US Dollar to $20 an ounce of Gold had caused HUGE DEFLATION during the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s (Causing what Economist refer today as the "Long Depression" through at that time it was called the "Great Depression" a term now reserved for the 1930-1938 Depression). This lead to a huge increase in Farmers losing their farms and a demand that the Government do something about it. The Solution agreed on was the free Minting of Silver to cause a very limited amount of Inflation to kick the economy into high gear. By calling for Free Minting of Silver the fear of the huge inflation of the Civil War Period was addressed, no one advocated the printing of Paper money, thus the Price of silver was a "check" on inflation.

When modern Economists look at the Long Depression today they see what was needed was inflation and the free minting of Silver Dollars would have provided that inflation needed to give the economy the kick it needed. The problem was Wall Street did its world wide trade based on the value of Gold and wanted US Dollars to be at $20 an ounce of Gold. Minting of Silver Dollar would have increased the number of dollars to buy an ounce of gold (In 1934 FDR saw what was happening in the Great Depression what had happened in the Long Depression and revalued the price of US Dollars to $35 an ounce, a price it stayed at till Nixon had to chose between fighting the war in Vietnam OR keeping the US Dollar at $35 an ounce, Nixon choose the war in Vietnam).

Thus the "Free Silver" movement of the 1880s was a call to end the Deflation that had been hitting America since the 1870s (and ended when inflation returned with the Gold Finds in South Africa, Australia and Alaska in the late 1890s, do to these new mines the value of gold in real terms dropped and we again saw inflation even as the Dollar stayed at $20 to a ounce of gold).

I go into the above details, for while the US had inflation from 1970s till 2008, we also saw Wall street increase its power so that when deflation hit about 2005 Wall Street still boomed. Worse most of the inflation of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s hurt the working class (Just like the deflation of the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s hurt the working class and farmers).

With Mechanization of Agriculture since WWII, other then farmers who do farming on the side, very few small farmers exist. Most "Small farmers" of today, are Working Class stiffs who own a small farm on the side. Most get to the actual employment by Automobile (Thus this also increases the US dependence on Oil). Thus my use of the term "Working Class" would include most "Small Farmers" today, through in the 1880s the term "Small Farmers" were a large subset of its own (But with huge common interests with the Working Class).

Given these difference, the call during both time periods is the same, Inflation even if it hurts Wall Street. Wall Street KNOWING it such controlled inflation would hurt them oppose the change. This call for Inflation was also connected with a call for increase regulation of Wall Street, best shown by then Former President Herbert Hoover's comment on the New Deal, Hoover called the New Deal "Bryanism without Bryan".

What was "Bryanism"? IT was the basic demand of the left wing of the Democratic Party from 1896 till the 1960s for economic reforms, including regulation of the Banks and Wall Street, to make sure neither the Banks nor Wall Street are able to use the Government to make sure they get most of the benefits of the economy, even as the rest of the economy goes to hell (I.e. Small Farmers in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s), people earning less then twice the Median Income (About $80,000, Median Income is about $45,000). This included government support for Unionization so that people can get together and bargain with somewhat nearer equal power then as individuals vs Corporation.

Bryan was hated by the GOP and Wall Street. He not only wanted Economic Reforms, he was the SYMBOL of that reform (He was this called the "Great Commoner" during the 1890s till his death in 1925). Anything he said, and any position he took was taken to cartoonish extreme to make him look bad..

The best example of the attack on Byran is reflected in most people's opinion of Bryan which is in turned based on the Play and Movie based on the Scoope's Monkey Trial, Inherit the Wind. The problem is the fact in the movie and the actual case vary drastically from each other. For example, in the mover Scooped is jailed for teaching evolution, in real life Scoopes had been asked by the local Chamber of Commerce to said that he did so they can have the trial in their town and reap the benefit of all the people coming in to see the trial (Yes, he only accepted the job for he was the local winning high school Football coach thus was popular in town). In the Movie Scoopes was arrested and jailed, in real life he was arrested and then set free on bond (The Bond was paid by the Chamber of Commerce as part of the deal for Scoopes to say he talk human evolution). In the Movie the Bryan Character is treated with High Respect while Scoopes attorney is hated. In real life BOTH Byran and Darrow were given dinners by the Chamber of Commerce (Two different dates) to make sure both sides were treated the same (And Scoope attended BOTH dinners, in the dinner with Bryan, Bryan walked up to him, they talked and Bryan asked if Scoopes had the money to pay the fine and if Scoopes did not Bryan would do so, Scoopes replied that had been taken care of). At the tend of the trial the Byran Character takes a fit when the Judge just fines Scoopes, in real life no such thing occurred, in fact Bryan made a good speech part of which is by byline below. Bryan problems with Evolution had nothing to do with Science or even Religion (The bible used in the Actual Trial was introduced by Darrow, Bryan supplied the Court with his copy of Darwin's books on evolution, books Bryan had read and wrote about over the previous 20 years, but a book Darrow admitted he never was able to get past the first 50 or so pages).

Yes, Bryan is portrayed as a bigoted religious nut case in the Movie "Inherit the Wind" when the actual case shows a person concerned about how Science can be used to do more harm then good UNLESS you have some controls to make sure it does more good then harm (In many ways Bryan's position in the Scoope's Monkey Trial anticipated the German Scientific Tests done on twins in the Death Camps in WWII, Bryan opposed seeing people as mere animals to be subject to testing like any other living item, the position the Nazis took as to the Jews in the Death Camps, but something to be value. Bryan used Religious terminology to justify his position, but such terminology can be avoided (Which Bryan did when he testified at the Trial). Religion was brought into the Trial by Darrow, Bryan's side avoided it for they position was the will of the people should be followed and if the People find something in science that is harmful to society, the people, as the people paying the taxes for public education, should be able to ban what they perceive to be harmful. Please note Bryan did NOT oppose the teaching of Evolution, nor did the law in question ban the teaching of evolution, the law just banned teaching HUMAN EVOLUTION, which at that time (and in some ways continued to this case) is tied in with Social Darwinism (Which Bryan opposed not only on religious grounds but economic grounds for it justified screwing the poor and working class).

Yes, this is a lot of details on Bryan, but I bring it up to show how hated he was and he was hated more for his view on economics then his religious beliefs. His opponents just used his view on religion as one means to attack him and people who followed him (Which included Darrow). It also shows how the Right Wing divides the left, Bryan wanted a discussion of teaching evolution in Public Schools and saw the Trial as the first step in such a national debate. The GOP saw it as an opportunity to divide the left by showing much of the left that their prime leader was an extremist.

My favorite story of the Trial was when a reported saw another reporter typing away his report on the trial as the trial just began. When he asked the other reported why he was typing before anyone testified, the second reported retorted "I know what my editor wants". The Right wing saw the Scoopes trial at one more attempt to attack Bryan and the American Left, and did so.

I bring this all up for what we see in economics in the late 1800s we are seeing again. Attacks on any electable leftie for anything (Religion, lack of religion, comments on oil and Peak Oil, anything). No debate on any subject, even when the other side is setting the stage for a debate. Divide the left on whatever issues you can. Thus Bryan call for a debate on evolution was ignored, for it was to useful to the right as a way to divide the left, a debate would have lead to a common understanding on how to treat something (in the 1920s evolution, today abortion).

The right position in the late 1800s and today is the same, attack anyone who tries to protect the 99% of the population from the 1% using every available means. Attack those people who can organize the left (As Bryan could in the 1890s-1920s) while giving the poor nothing.

Just a warning from the past, support a popular leftie even if you do NOT agree with him or her 100%, but go with a radical but electable leftie. Right now, beside Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean and John Edwards I can NOT think of a true electable leftie (Yes, I know Edwards did while his wife was dying, I an thinking of terms of his position as to economics NOT who he sleeps with). We have to rally around someone, like the Democratic Left of 1896-1925 rallied around Bryan. We have no one like Bryan today, but one of these three MAY get to that level (my money is on Howard Dean).

[Demeter]

11. Nearly 29% of mortgaged homes underwater, report finds By Jane Hodges

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/08/8687925-nearly-29-of-mortgaged-homes-underwater-report-finds

A whopping 28.6 percent of homeowners with mortgages owe more on their loans than their homes could sell for, according to quarterly data released Tuesday by Zillow, a real estate website. That's up from 26.8 percent in the second quarter. Home values declined only 0.2 percent from the second quarter but were down 4.4 percent year over year...The rising percentage of homes with "negative equity" or "underwater" status is due largely to how long the foreclosure sale process takes rather than home value fluctuations, said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. Prior to the "robo-signing" scandal around foreclosures that came to light in 2010, the negative equity rate hovered in the 21 to 23 percent range, but has been in the 26 to 28 range since due to added delays in foreclosure sales. While the rate of foreclosures is dropping, the time required for foreclosures to sell has lengthened.

"We're in uncharted waters," Humphries said in an interview. "More than one in four homes underwater and about 9 percent unemployment is a recipe for more foreclosures." Homes with underwater status are often considered risks for future foreclosure, since owners could have trouble refinancing or selling and may opt for a foreclosure via "strategic default" if they feel they will never regain their lost equity. Humphries estimates that home values will bottom out in 2012 at the earliest and said the foreclosure market will remain "robust" for the next two to four years.

In several cities, more than half of all homes with mortgages are underwater, including Phoenix (66.2 percent), Atlanta (58.7 percent), Riverside, Calif. (51.4 percent), Tampa (56.5 percent) and Sacramento (50.9 percent). Other big metro areas with a high percentage of underwater homes include Miami-Fort Lauderdale (46.7 percent), Chicago (46.2 pecent), Cleveland (41.5 percent) and Denver (38.5 percent).

The seemingly endless housing industry recession has caused a radical shift in opinion around home ownership. A new survey found that only 52 percent of Americans still consider home ownership the American dream, while 48 percent consider it more of a nightmare. The survey, by Columbus, Ohio-based Home Value Insurance Co., found that one-third of respondents thought buying a home was a risky investment and 18 percent said they were "not sure" they'd advise a younger person to buy one. About 85 percent said they consider now a bad time to sell but a good time to buy, while 23 percent of owners said they were likely to sell within five years. The American dream is one that dies hard. A survey down earlier this fall by Trulia, a real estate portal, found that 70 percent of respondents still consider home ownership the American Dream, while 21 percent disagreed.

[Demeter]

12. Nearly half of mortgages in Chicago area underwater

http://www.wgnradio.com/business/breaking/chi-nearly-half-of-mortgages-in-chicago-area-underwater-20111107,0,3918549.story?track=rss

A little more than 46 percent of all single-family homes with a mortgage in the Chicago area were underwater in the year's third quarter, far more than the nation as a whole.

The percentage of homes in the Chicago area with negative equity, meaning more is owed on the mortgage than the value of the underlying property, rose 9 percent from the second quarter, according to a report scheduled to be released Tuesday by real estate website Zillow...In Illinois, the delinquency rate increased to 6.57 percent, from 6.28 percent, Transunion said.

"I didn't think this was a particularly bad housing report," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist. "We are much closer to the end of the housing recession than the beginning. I still think of Chicago being more of an average case of housing recession. It's nowhere in the league of Phoenix and Vegas."

The numbers are one indication of the demand there may be for the Obama administration's plan to expand its mortgage refinancing program to homeowners who pay their mortgage on time but have been unable to take advantage of low mortgage interest rates because sinking home values have left them with insufficient equity to refinance their loans.

Officials have said the number of participants in the Home Affordable Refinance Program could double from the current 894,000 by loosening the lender guidelines for government-backed mortgages and removing the current maximum cap of a 125 percent loan-to-value ratio. The program still would exclude homeowners whose loan-to-value ratio is less than 80 percent, but some legislators have called for that to change, too.

Specific details of the program are scheduled to be announced Nov. 15.

[Demeter]

14. 10 Million American Families Sliding Toward Foreclosure By Sherwood Ross

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29652.htm

Of the 55-million families with mortgages, 10.4-million of them “are sliding toward failure and foreclosure”—a tragedy that will depress the U.S. housing market for years to come, a result of too many houses for sale and too few buyers....That’s the blunt conclusion of distinguished economics journalist William Greider, to be published in an article in the November 14th issue of The Nation magazine. America’s “Economic recovery will have to wait until that surplus (excess houses) is gone, because the housing sector has always led the way out of recession,” Greider says. “The more housing supply exceeds demand, the more prices fall. The more prices fall, the more families get sucked into the deep muddy. The vicious cycle is known in the industry as the death spiral. So far, there’s no end in sight.” Greider says the solution is to forgive the debtors: “Write down the principal they owe on their mortgage to match the current market value of their home, so they will no longer be underwater. Refinance the loan with a reduced interest rate, so the monthly payment is at a level that the struggling homeowner can handle.” Forgiving the debtors is the right thing to do, Greider continues, “because the bankers have already been forgiven. The largest banks were in effect relieved of any guilt for their crimes of systemic fraud or for causing the financial breakdown—when the government bailed them out, no questions asked.”

Far from a show of gratitude, Greider notes the response of the banks has been ugly. “Right now, these trillion-dollar institutions are methodically harvesting the last possible pound of flesh from millions of homeowners before kicking these failing debtors out of their homes—the story known as the ‘foreclosure crisis.’” The largest and most powerful banks are standing in the way of the solution and the Obama administration “is standing with them,” Greider adds, “because bankers and other creditors would have to take a big hit if they were forced to write down the debt owed by borrowers. The banks would have to report reduced capital and their revenue would decline if homeowners were allowed to make smaller monthly payments.”...President Obama, he says, “seems to be playing a sly double game—protecting banks from sharing the pain while proclaiming sympathy for embattled homeowners.” Greider adds, “The government, in effect, has been sheltering banks from facing the hard truth about their condition.” Banks may be valuing mortgages or mortgage bonds at 85 cents on the dollar when their true market value is closer to 30 cents. “That strengthens the case for a general and orderly write-down now: if many of these loans aren’t ever going to be rapid, then the assets now claimed by the banks are imaginary.”

Greider quotes Stephen Roach, a Morgan Stanley economist and lecturer at the Yale University School of Manaagement, who says, “Some form of debt forgiveness would be a clear positive. Debt forgivness is a big deal when so many Americans are underwater and unable to keep up with their payments… With debt reduction, people would feel less reluctant to spend money on new things. If you can do that, then companies will feel more confident about future demand, less reluctant about hiring more workers.” Roach believes the government can instruct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which hold some $1.5 trillion in housing loans or mortgage-backed securities, to take a write-down on their outstanding loans. “Then the government can put pressure on the banks to do the same thing. The banks will resist, but they have to go along if the government is forceful enough,” Roach says....



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

Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based public relations consultant “for good causes” who writes on political and military topics. Reach him at [email protected]

[Demeter]

15. Over Half of All U.S. Tax Subsidies Go to Four Industries. Guess Which Ones? By Joe Romm

http://www.nationofchange.org/over-half-all-us-tax-subsidies-go-four-industries-guess-which-ones-1321200366

Citizens for Tax Justice has analyzed corporate tax rates from 2008 to 2010. The report examines over half of the Fortune 500 companies

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the richest industries get the biggest subsidies, starting with finance and Big Energy. That’s how the 1% operate.

Notably, 56 percent of the total tax subsidies went to just four industries: financial, utilities, tele-communications, and oil, gas & pipelines.



But hey, Solyndra got a $500 million loan and went bankrupt so that is story the media focuses on over and over again, rather than the big robbery in broad daylight.

[xchrom]

16. More Evidence That Judges Have Had it With Banks

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/more-evidence-that-judges-have-had-it-with-banks.html

Today, we linked to an article in the New York Times that illustrates a considerable change in the attitude of some judges in the wake of the robosigning scandal. Before, the assumption was that of course, the bank was right and any borrower trying to block a foreclosure had better have an awfully compelling case. But a lot of judges were stunned by the level and institutionalization of bank abuses of procedure. And in a small, happy note, some of the employers of the worst foreclosure mills are finally cutting them lose. Per Michael Olenick, Fannie Mae has ceased doing business with the Baum law firm in New York (the one with the now notorious 2010 Halloween party that made fun of mortgage borrowers fighting foreclosures as future homeless people).

We first got wind of this decision below from Matt Weidner. Frankly, it reads like a parody, but we got it from April Charney, and it does have the stamps you’d see on the real deal. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it even if it is an artful fabrication, and even more if someone with access to Pacer can confirm that it is genuine.




it's a move in the right direction -- but there will have to be more judges who step on the banksters before i'm happy.

[xchrom]

17. asia: Nisshin Steel and Nippon Metal to Merge

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/nisshin-steel-and-nippon-metal-industry-set-to-merge/

Nisshin Steel and Nippon Metal Industry on Tuesday announced plans to merge in a deal that would create the second-largest maker of stainless steel in Japan.

The companies, which have a combined market capitalization of $1.6 billion, expect to complete the merger by October 2012. Nisshin, which already owns a 5 percent stake in Nippon Metal, has a stand-alone value of $1.4 billion.

The firms said they planned to create a holding company for the newly combined business, but did not provide specifics on the merger.

[xchrom]

20. Bank of America to Sell Most of Its Stake in Chinese Lender

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/bank-of-america-to-sell-more-of-ccb-stake/?src=dlbksb

Bank of America announced on Monday that it would sell most of its remaining holdings in China Construction Bank to a group of unidentified investors, in a bid to bolster its capital buffer.

The deal, which is projected to raise $1.8 billion, comes as the bank faces questions about its financial health.

Investors, in part, are worried that the bank doesn’t have the balance sheet strength to cover its mounting legal liabilities and to deal with more global concerns like the sovereign debt crisis. Since the beginning of the year, shares of Bank of America have fallen by more than 60 percent.

With shareholder confidence faltering, the bank has moved to shed noncore assets and allay fears about its capital position.

[xchrom]

23. IMF says Chinese banks face risks, urges quick action

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15732276

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that China's financial system "faces a steady build up in vulnerabilities".

In a review, publicly released on Tuesday, the IMF said that banks were robust enough to withstand isolated shocks.

But not, it said, combined exposure to credit, property and currency risks.

The IMF has urged reforms, including allowing banks to rely more on market mechanisms such as interest rates.

[xchrom]

35. Riken-Fujitsu supercomputer remains global No. 1; China in second place

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111115x2.html

A supercomputer developed by Riken, a government-backed major research institute, has retained its No. 1 ranking as the world's fastest in computing speed, according to a twice-yearly ranking by the U.S.-European TOP500 project.

The K supercomputer being developed jointly with Fujitsu Ltd. at the institute's facility in Kobe retained the top spot, which it first captured in June as the first Japanese computer to do so in seven years.

The feat came amid intense competition as countries race to develop ever faster supercomputers to conduct simulations in research and development in the fields of science, industry and military.

The name K draws on the Japanese word "kei" for 10 to the 16th power, with the word representing the system's performance goal of 10 petaflops.

[xchrom]

37. APEC leaders talk up trade, fret over debt

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111115a2.html

HONOLULU — Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have vowed to deepen cooperation on boosting trade and ensuring sustainable economic growth while indicating their concerns over "significant downside risks" to the regional economy, such as the European debt crisis.

As the leaders of the 21-member forum also pursued concrete steps Sunday toward a "seamless" regional economy during their weekend summit in Hawaii, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda for his part announced Japan's policy of joining multilateral talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade framework. Nine APEC countries have already been taking part in the negotiations.

To promote "green growth" in the region — one of the key agenda items of this year's summit — the leaders struck a deal to cut tariffs on environmentally friendly goods to 5 percent or less by 2015.

In their Honolulu Declaration, the Pacific Rim leaders reiterated their commitment to promoting trade liberalization and streamlining and coordinating regulations with the aim of bringing APEC economies closer and increasing opportunities for growth.

[xchrom]

69. China’s Central Bank Sells One-Year Bills at Lower Rate for Second Week

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/china-s-central-bank-sells-bills-at-lower-rate.html

China’s central bank sold one-year bills at a lower rate for a second week, pushing government bond yields lower on speculation policy makers will keep pumping cash into the economy.

The People’s Bank of China issued the bills at 3.4875 percent, beneath its benchmark deposit rate for the first time since January and compared with 3.5733 percent at a Nov. 8 sale, according to a trader at a primary dealer required to bid at the auctions. The monetary authority today issued 52 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) of the securities, the most in six months.

“That’s one of the central bank’s fine-tuning measures,” said Guo Caomin, a bond analyst at Industrial Bank Co. In Shanghai. “The central bank wants to curb demand for one-year bills and ensure capital injections.”

The yield on 3.26 percent government bonds due June 2014 fell two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 3.10 percent in Shanghai, according to the Interbank Funding Centre.

[Demeter]

18. Bank Transfer Day and its Impact a Week Later By Brian Walker

http://www.nationofchange.org/bank-transfer-day-and-its-impact-week-later-1321116357

NationofChange was on the scene in San Diego on the 5th of November, documenting and marching in solidarity with the Bank Transfer Day and Occupy movements. Protesters, as well as some interested pedestrians, marched at high speed while shouting “Show me what Democracy looks like”, and then in unison “This is what Democracy looks like!” and “The People, United, will never be defeated!” around downtown starting at the San Diego Civic Center. The march stopped at a Bank of America and other local establishments to express frustration and to – most importantly – actively transfer money out of the predatory banking institutions. The human microphone was the most common form of mass communication as we marched, chanted, and displayed our resolve....

The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) conducted a survey which found that Bank Transfer Day brought $90 million in new loans, and $80 million in new savings accounts to credit unions nationwide, illustrating the power of the unified consumer and placing strong pressure on the big banks to get their act together or lose their place at the top. Even without considering the impact it is having on financial institutions, consumers who switched to credit unions will see long-term benefits from signing up for local banking, as opposed to large banking corporations, by avoiding a pile of costs associated with a banking philosophy that profits from your mistakes and errors.

With stricter rules and stacking fees, as well as a growing distaste for banking institutions which are seen as tax dodgers who are unwilling to contribute to the society that enriched them, banking consumers have been migrating away from big business financial institutions and switching over to credit unions. According to CUNA, between the start of September and November 5th, more than 650,000 people had made the change in to a credit union, compared to only 80,000 people on a normal month and more than the total of all people who switched in 2010. Credit Unions added at least 40,000 new customers on Bank Transfer Day alone, and ABC recently released a report which called the mass migration a “bank revolt,” emphasizing the seriousness of the movement and the public awareness it has bred.

Some banks may have retreated on those $5 debit fees but hundreds of thousands of Americans are on the move, outraged at banking practices in general, and Bank Transfer Day was a success.

[AnneD]

76. My friendly local CU....

tells me that enrollment/transfers are still going strong, even after transfer day. They were just rated one of the top ten businesses to work for in Houston. I love going in to do business. How many people can say that about their bank?

[xchrom]

19. Barclays Capital Rises, ‘Big-Boy Checkbook’ in Hand

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/barclays-capital-rises-big-boy-checkbook-in-hand/

The American pipeline operator Kinder Morgan struck one of the biggest deals of the year nearly a month ago with its $21.1 billion purchase of a rival, the El Paso Corporation.

What was just as notable was the financing backing the deal — a $13.3 billion loan package arranged by Barclays Capital, one of the largest financing efforts that the bank had made on its own. It was the second time this year that the British investment bank took the initial financing of a megadeal upon its shoulders. In August, Barclays lent $8.3 billion to Hewlett-Packard to help pay for its $11.7 billion purchase of the British software company Autonomy.

Those loans are part of Barclays’ continued efforts to move into the top ranks of advisers on mergers and acquisitions, a campaign begun when the London bank purchased the bulk of Lehman Brothers’ North American investment bank in 2008.

As of last Thursday, Barclays was ranked seventh among worldwide merger advisers, having participated in 148 deals worth more than $290 billion, according to data from Thomson Reuters. That is a step up from the ninth place that the company held in each of the last three years.

[xchrom]

21. europe: Eurozone economy grows 0.2% in third quarter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15733372

The economy of the 17-nation eurozone grew by 0.2% between July and September compared with the second quarter, according to official data.

The Eurostat statistics agency also recorded GDP growth for the 27-nation European Union at 0.2% in the third quarter of the year.

Economists expect Europe's economies to slow sharply in the final quarter.

The figures came as the difference between interest rates on French and German bonds reached a record.

[xchrom]

25. UK October inflation falls to 5%

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15733539

The rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation in the UK fell slightly to 5% during October, down from a rate of 5.2% the month before.

Falls in the price of food, air transport and fuel helped to push the inflation rate lower.

Despite the drop, the rate still remains well above the Bank of England's target of 2%.

Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation - which includes mortgage interest payments - also fell to 5.4% from 5.6%.

[xchrom]

26. Jobs market 'slow, painful contraction' predicted

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15715460

The UK labour market faces a "slow, painful contraction" with firms delaying recruitment of more staff, a key report suggests.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) predicted the jobs market would worsen in the medium term amid global economic "turmoil".

Its quarterly survey of 1,000 employers found firms' future hiring plans dwarfed by likely public sector losses.

A separate Barnardo's report said jobless teenagers were being "ignored".

[xchrom]

27. European shares extend falls as bond yields rise

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/15/markets-europe-stocks-idUKL5E7MF24T20111115

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - European stocks fell on
Tuesday, adding to the previous session's decline, with banks
among the biggest losers as investors saw euro zone bond yields
rising to alarming levels, and worried that policymakers were
unable to stem the trend.

The yield on the Italian 10-year benchmark
rose back to 7 percent on Tuesday, a level seen as highly risky
for Italy's borrowing costs. Meanwhile Prime Minister-designate
Mario Monti met the leaders of Italy's biggest two parties to
discuss the sacrifices needed to reverse a collapse in market
confidence in the euro zone's third-biggest economy.

"There's uncertainty on the composition of the government in
Italy. It's taking longer than people perceived it would do.
That's pushing up the yields," said Andrea Williams, who manages
$2.1 billion in assets for Royal London Asset Management.

Williams said she was looking at increasing holdings in
companies less exposed to the euro zone crisis, such as
Scandinavian banks and firms operating in emerging markets.

[xchrom]

32. Germany and France post solid growth but outlook bleaker

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/15/uk-europe-economy-idUKLNE7AE00J20111115

(Reuters) - Germany and France posted solid growth in the third quarter but those euro zone countries at the sharp end of the debt crisis are faring much worse and analysts expect bleaker times ahead across the currency bloc.

The German economy grew 0.5 percent in July-September, in line with market forecasts, and second quarter growth was revised up to 0.3 percent from 0.1.

France expanded by 0.4 percent on the quarter, data showed on Tuesday, having contracted by 0.1 percent in the previous three months.

The euro area's debt crisis is likely to make matters worse in the months to come with countries such as Italy, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain forced to adopt tough austerity measures in order to stop the bond market driving them towards default.

[xchrom]

55. German Economy Defies Crisis

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,797895,00.html

The debt crisis has been a burden for almost all of Europe, but Germany continues to dodge the worst economic side-effects. Gross domestic product jumped considerably in the country between July and September, growing by 0.5 percent over the previous quarter. On Tuesday, the German Federal Statistical Office released its first estimate showing that GDP grew by 2.6 percent compared with the same period the previous year.

The Statistical Office has also revised its figures for spring, indicating that growth was stronger than previously assumed. During the period, GDP grew by 0.3 percent instead of the 0.1 percent previously assumed.

The reasons for the stable growth are myriad:

* The labor market is developing in a robust manner. Germany's Institute for Employment Research (IAB), a labor market think tank, is calculating that unemployment in 2012 will drop from 2.984 million to 2.868 million.
* Interest rates on corporate loans are currently very low. Companies are easily able to access fresh capital at favorable conditions, making it easier for them to invest or expand.
* Wages are rising for millions of people in Germany. In numerous industries, unions have successfully wrestled wage increases of several percent out of employers.
* At the same time, researchers anticipate that consumer prices will rise only modestly. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, one of Germany's leading economic think tanks, is forecasting an inflation rate of less than 2 percent in 2012.

[xchrom]

72. Sweden’s FSA May Force Banks to Adopt Tougher Risk Models

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/sweden-s-fsa-may-force-banks-to-adopt-tougher-risk-models.html

Sweden’s financial regulator may force banks to apply tougher risk weightings to their mortgage assets in an effort to restore investor trust.

A risk weighting floor on mortgage assets “is definitely something that we are looking into,” Martin Andersson, director-general of the Stockholm-based FSA, said in an interview today. “If risk weights continue to go down to zero, everybody would agree that is not okay.”

Swedish banks, whose total assets are more than four times the size of the economy, rely on mortgage credit for much of their business. Sweden’s $180 billion mortgage-securities market is almost twice the size of the country’s government-bond market. Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves, who is also the chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, this month warned that low risk weights are a “cause for concern.”

Under Basel II, the precursor to the latest set of regulatory standards proposed by the Basel Committee, Swedish mortgage assets were given risk weightings of 5 percent to 10 percent, according to the FSA. The European Banking Authority last month told lenders to raise that level to as high as 40 percent, as part of a temporary requirement that runs until the end of 2012.

[xchrom]

73. European Stocks Resume Decline as Monti Struggles to Win Political Support

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/stock-futures-drop-in-europe-as-monti-faces-resistance-bhp-rio-may-drop.html

European stocks resumed their decline as Italy’s premier in waiting Mario Monti struggled to get political parties to help form his new Cabinet and the country’s biggest defense company forecast an unexpected loss.

Finmeccanica SpA (FNC) sank 18 percent, saying it will sell 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in assets after predicting a loss for this year. Cable & Wireless Worldwide Plc (CW/) plunged 21 percent as the company suspended future dividend payments and named a new chief executive officer. UniCredit SpA (UCG) slid 3.5 percent as banks posted one of the worst performances of the 19 industry groups in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.

The benchmark Stoxx 600 fell 0.2 percent to 237.95 at 3:08 p.m. in London. The gauge has declined 18 percent from this year’s high on Feb. 19 as policy makers struggle to contain a debt crisis that has Greece on the edge of a default.

“There is still a lot of tail risk in Europe,” Peter Garnry, an equity strategist at Saxo Bank A/S, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television from Hellerup, Denmark. “We want to be in a more hedged position going forward. In Europe and Asia, we would definitely take the position of being neutral. We’ve shifted towards consumer staples and health care.”

[Demeter]

22. The Global Super-Rich Stash: Now $25 Trillion By Sam Pizzigati

http://www.nationofchange.org/global-super-rich-stash-now-25-trillion-1321201867


...In today’s astoundingly unequal global economy, banks can go either of two routes — or both — to bag ever bigger returns. They can squeeze the 99 percent with nuisance fees and penalties. Or they can cater to the richest of the rich....But both routes have bumps. The 99 percent can squeeze back, as they did earlier this month when Americans by the tens of thousands shut down their Bank of America accounts to protest the bank’s $5 debit card greed grab. And the richest of the rich? To cater to these fortunates, you have to first find them. That can be difficult. Fortunately, financial industry consulting firms have stepped up to help. These firms have started publishing annual global wealth surveys that pinpoint where banks — and luxury retailers and anyone else who wants in on top 1 percent action — can find “high” and “ultra high” net-worth individuals. Last week, a new global firm — the Singapore-based Wealth-X — entered the global wealth survey fray, joining a crowded field that already includes Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, the Boston Consulting Group, Credit Suisse, and Deloitte LLP. Each of these firms has tried to carve out a unique market niche. The Wealth-X specialty? The world of the ultra rich, those individuals who can claim at least $30 million in net worth. And the researchers at Wealth-X haven’t just counted these ultras in their first annual global wealth census. They’ve tiered them.

For the entire world — and major nations — Wealth-X teases out subsets of the super rich, from the $30-to-$50 million set to the $1 billion and up. For the first time, thanks to Wealth-X, we can compare the barely ultra with the comfortably ultra and those super ultras who can make the comfortables seem pinched. “Our report maps exactly where the biggest money is located,” Wealth-X CEO Mykolas Rambus boasted at a Geneva news conference last week, “and just how much there is.” The Wealth-X research answers “how many” as well. The firm counts 185,795 individuals worldwide with at least $30 million net worth. These ultra high net-worth individuals — UHNWs — hold $25 trillion in combined wealth....In that class, Americans pack a bunch of the rows. Of the near 186,000 global ultra rich, 57,860 — 30 percent — carry U.S. passports. These American ultras hold a combined net worth of $7.6 trillion, an average of $131.4 million each.






The most amazing part of this? America’s ultra rich could easily pay this 5 percent annual wealth tax for the next ten years and remain as rich as ever. That’s because wealth begets wealth. All those trillions of dollars America’s ultras are currently holding don’t sit under some mattress. The ultra wealthy have those trillions invested in assets that generate short- and long-term returns. If America’s ultras averaged returns on those investments not that far above 5 percent over the next ten years, they could pay the wealth tax and still end the decade with higher personal net worths than when the decade began....Back in the 1990s, a public-spirited financial industry superstar — multimillionaire San Francisco money manager Claude Rosenberg — spent a sizeable chunk of his personal fortune campaigning to get a similar message across about the enormous wealth of the wealthy. Rosenberg’s particular point: America’s fabulously rich could hike their annual contributions to charity by tenfold and still end up with higher personal fortunes. Rosenberg started a research group dedicated to sharing this message and the analysis behind it. He wrote a book and peppered the periodicals that rich people read with op-eds that detailed his group's number crunching. In the year 2000, Rosenberg’s researchers would document, households with $1 million or more in income could have given $128 billion more to charity than they actually did in fact give, without losing any net worth over the course of the year.



Claude Rosenberg died three years ago at age 80, his message to the super richessentially totally ignored. The vast increase in charitable giving by the rich he had hoped to inspire never materialized...The message to the rest of us from Rosenberg’s noble effort? The excess wealth our ultra wealthy hold, if put to the public good, could change the trajectory of America’s future. The ultra wealthy don’t seem to be willing to do that putting on their own...With a few tweaks of our tax code, we could do that putting for them.

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

28. To the Jobless Economy By Martin Ford

http://www.nationofchange.org/jobless-economy-1320682932

Nearly all economic forecasts agree that high unemployment in much of the developed world will most likely persist for years to come. But could even this dire projection underestimate future unemployment rates? As improvements in computers, robotic technologies, and other forms of job automation continue to accelerate, more workers are certain to be displaced, and job creation will become even more challenging. Most economists dismiss concern that this might lead to long-term structural unemployment. Indeed, the idea often elicits outright derision. The conservative media in the United States recently mocked President Barack Obama for suggesting that automation might hurt employment growth. But Obama was right to raise the question. A very large percentage of jobs are, on some level, essentially routine and repetitive. It seems likely that, as computer hardware and software continue to improve, many of these job types will become susceptible to automation, particularly to machine learning...This is not far-fetched science-fiction technology, but rather a simple extrapolation of the expert systems and specialized algorithms that currently land jet airplanes, trade autonomously on Wall Street, or beat nearly any human being at chess. IBM’s Watson – the computer that prevailed on the television game show Jeopardy! – suggests that machine-learning algorithms could soon be able to take on a number of cognitive tasks. As this technology improves, the systems that it enables will begin to match or exceed the capability of human workers in many routine job categories – a group that includes many workers with college degrees or other significant training. Many service-sector workers also will be threatened by the continuing trend toward technologies that turn their jobs over to consumers.

One of the most extreme historical examples of technology-induced job loss is, of course, found in agriculture in developed countries. In the late 1800’s, roughly three-quarters of all workers in the US were employed in agriculture. Today, the number is around 2-3%. Advancing mechanization eliminated millions of jobs...Clearly, when developed countries’ agricultural sectors shed workers, long-term structural unemployment did not result. Workers were eventually absorbed by other sectors, particularly with the growth of industrial manufacturing, and average wages and overall prosperity increased dramatically – an excellent illustration of the so-called “Luddite fallacy.” This is the idea – generally accepted by economists – that technological progress will never lead to significant rates of long-term unemployment. The reasoning is roughly as follows: as labor-saving technologies improve, some workers lose their jobs in the short run, but production becomes more efficient. That leads to lower prices for the goods and services produced, which in turn leaves consumers with more money to spend on other things, boosting demand – and employment – across nearly all industries.

The problem today is that we are not talking about rapid automation of a single economic sector like agriculture. When agriculture became mechanized, there were other labor-intensive sectors that could absorb millions of workers. There is little evidence to suggest a similar outcome this time around. As more workers are automated out of more employment sectors, there must come a “tipping point,” beyond which the overall economy simply is not sufficiently labor-intensive to continue absorbing workers who lose their jobs due to automation (or globalization). Beyond this point, businesses will be able to ramp up production primarily by employing machines and software. Structural unemployment will become inevitable. But, if automation is relentless, the basic mechanism for putting purchasing power into the hands of consumers will break down. Imagine a fully automated economy. Virtually no one would have a job (or an income); machines would do everything. Long before we reached that point, mass-market business models would become unsustainable. Where would consumption come from? And, if it is still a market (rather than a planned) economy, why would production continue if there were no viable consumers to purchase the output?

In developed countries, the most disruptive impact to the job market would come from substantial automation of the service sector, which now employs the majority of workers. In developing countries, the impact will be greatest in manufacturing, and factories there already are rapidly putting in place labor-saving technology. For example, Taiwan-based Foxconn, a major electronics producer and employer in China, recently announced plans to introduce huge numbers of sophisticated manufacturing robots. Unemployment resulting from automation in the Chinese manufacturing sector could ultimately complicate China’s efforts to rebalance its economy toward increased domestic consumption – an objective that most economists agree is critical for the country’s long-term prosperity. If consumers see only an economy in which jobs are relentlessly automated away, and if it appears that additional education or training provides little protection, they will adjust their discretionary spending accordingly. And, given their concerns about long-term income continuity, traditional policies like stimulus spending or tax cuts would be ineffective.

So, are we approaching the “tipping point” where automation fuels structural unemployment?

Most economists object that the very assumption that such a point exists is speculative. But when one considers today’s advanced-country malaise – years of stagnating or declining wages for average workers, growing income inequality, increasing productivity, and consumption supported by debt rather than income – there certainly seems to be ample reason to speculate. Let us hope that a rigorous analysis of historical economic data does not arrive after the tipping point has been reached.

[xchrom]

29. PRECIOUS-Gold hit by market sell-off, Europe debt fears grow

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/15/markets-precious-idUKL5E7MF1DX20111115

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Gold fell on Tuesday, hit by a sell-off in financial markets and a drop in the euro against the dollar, with persistent doubts about Europe's ability to tackle its growing debt crisis prompting investors to remain cautious.

Although gold is supported by its safe-haven allure, it is prone to spillover from any sell-off in the wider financial market as sentiment remains fragile.

Spot gold fell 0.8 percent to $1,765.19 an ounce by 0950 GMT from $1,779.89 late in New York on Monday.

Italian bond yields rose towards 7 percent and even non-German triple-A rated issuers saw premiums over safe haven Bunds mark new highs, underscoring the challenges facing Europe in containing its debt crisis.

[xchrom]

34. Gold bull Paulson sells third of bullion holdings

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/15/uk-gold-paulson-idUKLNE7AE01020111115

(Reuters) - Hedge fund manager and long-time gold bull John Paulson slashed his bullion holdings by a third in the third quarter, data showed, dampening sentiment in the gold market on Tuesday.

Paulson & Co. cut its holding in the SPDR Gold Trust to 20.3 million shares from 31.5 million at the end of the second quarter, a U.S. regulatory filing showed late on Monday.

The sale is equivalent to about 1.1 million ounces of gold worth about $1.94 billion, based on current prices.

Paulson held on to his large bullion investments earlier in the year after billionaire financier George Soros liquidated almost his entire $800 million sake in gold in the first quarter. His holdings have been closely watched since then.

[Demeter]

39. Paper Gold? Or the Real Thing?

"The reason behind Paulson's liquidation of gold was unclear. ANZ said he might be transferring positions from SPDR, an exchange-traded fund, to physical holdings to cut management fees charged by the SPDR.

"We doubt Paulson's gold fever has run its course," the note said.

The liquidations could also be linked to redemptions. Paulson's Advantage Plus fund lost nearly half of its value by the end of September after sharp falls in some of its equity holdings such as Bank of America (BAC.N) and Hewlett Packard (HPQ.N).

Paulson, who uses the SPDR gold holdings to hedge currency risk for investors, said earlier this month redemption requests totalled about 8 percent of the fund's total value, estimated around $30 billion."

GETTING OUT OF SECOND-HAND HOLDING TO FIRST HAND, IT LOOKS LIKE....

[Po_d Mainiac]

42. Paulson's funds have been tanking

That he actually did sell, should not come as any surprise. The outflows from his accounts have been written about in several venues, and I can't imagine what the margin calls have bled off.

What is notable (and positive for the PM's) is that A) it did not tank the Au market and B)The market had no problem absorbing 34tons over a 3month period.
YMMV

[xchrom]

46. thanks -- precious metals are a mystery to me -- you and miss d provide

great explanations for what happens.

[AnneD]

78. There is much manipulating in metals....

not as much as there is in the SM ie the HFT, the holding of trades to shave off a few % points on a trade and a complete and utter failure to prosecute criminals make it all but impossible for the average person that doesn't keep up with business news to trust WS to trade fairly. Once the trust is gone, what is the point.

But metals are concrete. They can trade the certificates and mining stock until judgment day, but physical possession of metals is reality baby :smoke: and that is the one thing that escapes these WS types, reality.

These folks have fudged, forged, defrauded for so long, they don't know what is real anymore. They don't know that is like to do an honest days work for an honest days wage.

However, reality is about to bite them in the ass. They will not be able to cover the deals they made. Those of us with the physical stuff will see the true price discovery-not the manipulated price. They should be worrying about what some of those folks they sold that worthless paper to is going to get back. Some of their investors will not take so kindly to being dicked around. Look for some interesting 'suicides' by contortionist brokers (or my fav-drug od's in a hot tub).

[Demeter]

80. When, Oh Lord?

Confusion and retribution!

[AnneD]

83. Soon my child,

soon.

[AnneD]

84. That they absorbed so much...

to my way of thinking just shows how much PM were oversold!!!!

[Demeter]

30. Wall Street Traders Have Profited More Under Obama than in Eight Years Under Bush By Travis Waldron

http://www.nationofchange.org/wall-street-traders-have-profited-more-under-obama-eight-years-under-bush-1320684558

As protesters around the country take to the streets to protest the excesses of Wall Street banks that benefited from a federal bailout and quickly returned to profitability, new data from the financial industry has shed light on just how profitable those banks have been since the financial crisis brought the American economy to its knees three years ago...Wall Street banks experienced years of unprecedented growth under President Bush, at least until the crisis of 2008. But in the two-and-a-half years since President Obama took office, the largest Wall Street banks have grown even larger, and profits at banks and trading firms have risen even faster than they did under Bush, the Washington Post’s Zachary Goldfarb reports:

Wall Street firms — independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They earned more in the first 2 1/2 years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show. <...>

The largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, earned $34 billion in profit in the first half of the year, nearly matching what they earned in the same period in 2007 and more than in the same period of any other year.

Securities firms — the trading arms of big banks and hundreds of other independent firms — have fared even better. They’ve generated at least $83 billion in profit during the past 2 1/2 years, compared with $77 billion during the entire Bush administration, according to data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

The relatively quick recovery on Wall Street has been bolstered not only by the policies of Washington politicians, but by questionable business practices. Banks have begun profiting off public goods such as unemployment benefits and food stamps, issuing those benefits to unemployed, impoverished Americans on debit cards that carry heavy fees. Cash-strapped state governments, meanwhile, have addressed budget shortfalls by shifting pension plans to Wall Street-run private accounts, further boosting the banks’ bottom lines.

Despite this evidence that banks haven’t suffered under Obama, Republicans and Wall Street traders and lobbyists are attempting to make Wall Street’s windfalls even larger. Industry analysts told the Post that the Dodd-Frank financial reform law will stabilize the future of the financial industry even as it has “crimped bank profits” slightly. But that hasn’t stopped lobbyists from spending millions of dollars to make its rules and regulations more Wall Street friendly, and it hasn’t stopped Republican presidential candidates from lining up to support the law’s wholesale repeal, even if they aren’t always quite sure what the law actually does.

[Demeter]

31. The One Percent Turns Class War into Generational War By Dean Baker

http://www.nationofchange.org/one-percent-turns-class-war-generational-war-1320762224


Major news outlets like the Washington Post and National Public Radio constantly bombard us with news pieces on the budget deficit. Invariably these stories focus on the cost of “entitlements,” which most of us know as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The story pounded home in these pieces – often explicitly – is that these programs, that primarily benefit the elderly, are creating the basis for a generational war between the young and the old. The media focus both contributes to and follows the Washington policy debate. At the moment, we have the congressional “supercommittee” scheming to produce a deficit-reduction plan that will almost certainly involve large cuts to all three programs. There is a commonly repeated view in Washington policy circles, based on no evidence whatsoever, that there will be a disaster if the supercommittee comes up empty handed. This means that members of the committee are feeling great pressure from the 1 percent to produce a package with big cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. It is truly impressive how the Washington elite have managed to make these modest protections for the country’s working population (the 99 percent) into the greatest problem facing the country. The obsession with cutting these programs is occurring at a time when we have more than 25 million people unemployed, underemployed or who have given up looking for work altogether. One might think that Congress would convene a supercommittee to get people back to work rather than figuring out a way to undermine programs that people need, but it’s the 1 percent that pay for elections, not the 25 million workers suffering from their greed and incompetence.

Since almost no one can be immune to the hysteria that the media have created around the cost of these programs, it is worth putting it in some context. Starting with Social Security, the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office show that the program can pay all benefits through the year 2038 with no changes whatsoever. Even if we never did anything, the program would be able to pay more than 80 percent of scheduled benefits well into the next century. Since the value of benefits is projected to rise through time, 80 percent of the projected benefit in 2040 is considerably higher than the average benefit received by retirees today. Therefore the often-repeated comment that there will be nothing there for our children or grandchildren is a telltale sign of ignorance or dishonesty. The cost of making the program fully solvent for its 75-year planning horizon is projected at 0.58 percent of GDP. By comparison, the increase in annual spending on the military as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is 1.7 percent of GDP, almost three times as much. The upward redistribution from the rest of us to the 1 percent over the last three decades was 6 percent of GDP or more than 10 times as much as this shortfall. But it is only shortfall in Social Security that the media want us to see as a crisis.

The health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid, pose more of a problem, but this is because the U.S. health care system is dysfunctional. We pay more than twice as much per person as do people in other wealthy countries with little, if anything, to show in the form of better outcomes. (We rank near the bottom of wealthy countries in life expectancy.) If we had the same per person health care costs as people in Germany, Canada or any other wealthy country, we would be looking at long term budget surpluses, not deficits. But controlling costs involves reducing the income and profits of the 1 percent. It means reducing payments to insurers, drug companies, medical equipment manufacturers and highly paid medical specialists. Rather than control costs, the folks in Washington would rather make people pay even more for health care. This is why we see proposals like raising the age for Medicare eligibility to 67 or turning the program into a voucher system. Both plans are likely to protect the income of health care industry, while making it even more difficult for current or retired workers to cover their health care costs.

The public should realize that “generational warfare” is an agenda that was deliberately designed by the 1 percent to distract the rest of us from the class war that they have been successfully waging over the last three decades. Rather than have a public debate on the policies that have redistributed so much income upward, the 1 percent want to pit children against their parents and grandparents, forcing them to fight over crumbs. In this context, the only victory that the supercommittee can hand to the 99 percent is a blank sheet of paper. People will have enough things to worry about this Thanksgiving without adding a congressional plan to slash their Social Security and Medicare.

[Demeter]

36. The Undeserving One Percent? By Raghuram Rajan

http://www.nationofchange.org/undeserving-one-percent-1321030191

It is amazing how the “one percent” epithet, a reference to the top 1% of earners, has caught on in the United States and elsewhere in the developed world. In the United States, this 1% includes all those with a 2006 household income of at least $386,000. In the popular narrative, the 1% is thickly populated with unscrupulous corporate titans, greedy bankers, and insider-trading hedge-fund managers. Reading some progressive economists, it might seem that the answer to all of America’s current problems is to tax the 1% and redistribute to everyone else.

Of course, underlying this narrative is the view that this income is ill-gotten, made possible by Bush-era tax cuts, the broken corporate governance system, and the conflict-of-interest-ridden financial system. The 1% are not people who have earned money the hard way by making real things, so there is no harm in taking it away from them.

Clearly, this caricature is based on some truth. For instance, corporations, especially in the financial sector, reward too many executives richly despite mediocre performance. But apart from tarring too many with the same brush, there is something deeply troubling about this narrative’s reductionism. It ignores, for example, the fact that many of the truly rich are entrepreneurs. It likewise ignores the fact that many of the wealthy are sports stars and entertainers, and that their ranks include professionals such as doctors, lawyers, consultants, and even some of our favorite progressive economists. In other words, the rich today are more likely to be working than idle. But what might be the most important overlooked fact is that the rise in income inequality is not just at the very top, though it is most pronounced there. Academic studies suggest that the top tenth percentile of income distribution in the US, and elsewhere, is also moving farther away from the median earner. This is an inconvenient fact for the progressive economist. “We are the 90%,” sounds less dramatic than “we are the 99%.” And, for some of the protesters, it may not even be true.

Perhaps most problematic, though, is that something other than plutocrat-friendly policies is largely responsible for the growing inequality. That something is education and skills. True, not every degree is a passport to a job. Freshly-minted degree holders, especially from lower-quality programs, are finding it particularly hard to get a job nowadays, because they are competing with experienced workers who are also jobless. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate for those with degrees is one-third the unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma. Close examination suggests that the single biggest difference between those at or above the top tenth percentile of the income distribution and those below the 50th percentile is that the former have a degree or two while the latter, typically, do not. Technological change and global competition have made it impossible for American workers to get good jobs without strong skills. As Harvard professors Claudia Golden and Larry Katz put it, in the race between technology and education, education is falling behind. To acknowledge the fact that the broken educational and skills-building system is responsible for much of the growing inequality that ordinary people experience would, however, detract from the larger populist agenda of rallying the masses against the very rich. It has the inconvenient implication that the poor have a role in pulling themselves out of the morass. There are no easy and quick fixes to education – every US president since Gerald Ford in the mid-1970’s has called for educational reforms, with little effect. In contrast, blaming the undeserving 1% offers a redistributive policy agenda with immediate effects.

The US has tried quick fixes before. Income inequality grew rapidly in the last decade, but consumption inequality did not. The reason: easy credit, especially subprime mortgages, which helped those without means to keep up with the Joneses. The ending, as everyone knows, was not a happy one. The less-well-off ultimately became even worse off as they lost their jobs and homes. The US needs to improve the quality of its workforce by developing the skills that are relevant to the jobs that its firms are creating. Several steps can be taken towards these goals, including improving community attitudes towards education, reforming schools, tying the curriculum in community colleges and vocational institutions more closely to the needs of local firms, making higher education more affordable, and finding effective ways to retrain unemployed workers. None of this is easy or likely to produce results quickly, and some of it may require more resources. While eliminating inefficient spending, especially inefficient tax subsidies, can generate some of these funds, more tax revenues may be needed. The rich can certainly afford to pay more, but if governments increase taxes on the wealthy, they should do it with the aim of improving opportunities for all, rather than as a punitive measure to rectify an imagined wrong.

HAVE AT IT, MARKETEERS! THIS PIECE DESERVES EVERYTHING YOU CAN THROW AT IT

[AnneD]

81. Matthew 7:5 ISV

You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

per Jesus, if that wasn't clear.

[Demeter]

38. Trigger Happy: Why Deficit Cuts Should Be Triggered Only When Unemployment Reaches 5% By R. REICH

http://www.nationofchange.org/trigger-happy-why-deficit-cuts-should-be-triggered-only-when-unemployment-reaches-5-percent-13210225

On planet Washington, where reducing the federal budget deficit continues to be more important than creating jobs, everyone is talking about “triggers” that automatically go into effect if certain other things don’t happen. Yet no one is talking about the most obvious trigger of all — no budget cuts until the official level of unemployment falls to 5 percent, its level before the Great Recession.

The biggest trigger on the minds of Washington insiders is $1.2 trillion across-the-board cuts that will automatically occur if Congress’s supercommittee doesn’t come up with at least $1.2 trillion of cuts on its own that Congress agrees to by December 23. That automatic trigger seems likelier by the day because at this point the odds of an agreement are roughly zero. Here’s the truly insane thing: The triggered cuts start in 2013, a little over a year from now. Yet no one in their right mind believes unemployment will be lower than 8 percent by then. The cuts will come on top of the expiration of extended unemployment benefits, the end of a payroll tax cut, and continuing reductions in state and local budgets — all when American consumers (whose spending is 70 percent of the economy) will still be reeling from declining jobs and wages and plunging home prices. Even if Europe’s debt crisis doesn’t by then threaten a global financial meltdown, this rush toward austerity couldn’t come at a worse time. In other words, what will really be triggered is a deeper recession and higher unemployment.

Democrats on the supercommittee are acting as if they haven’t met an unemployed person. They’re proposing $2.3 trillion in deficit reductions — half from spending cuts (including $350 billion from Medicare), half from tax increases. To make the tax increases palatable to Republicans, Democrats want to give Congress a chance to find the new revenues by overhauling the tax code. If that effort fails, automatic tax increases would be triggered. The top tax rate won’t rise (another bow to Republicans) but top earners’ itemized deductions will be limited. Oh, and by the way, under the Democrats’ proposal, spending cuts and tax increases, triggered or not, would start in 2013.

The President (remember him?) is still hawking his $450 billion jobs bill, but he’s having a hard time being heard above the deficit-reduction din — in large part because he himself is simultaneously calling for deficit reduction, and most people outside Washington can’t make sense of how we do both. The public is confused because they don’t get it’s a matter of sequencing. We need to do more spending now in order to bring back jobs and growth, then do less spending in the future — after the economy is once again generating jobs and growth. That’s why it make more sense for Democrats to propose a deficit reduction plan that goes into effect only when jobs are back. The trigger should be the rate of unemployment — and a 5 percent rate would signal we’re back on track. True, the unemployment rate is an imperfect measure of how bad things are (it doesn’t include everyone who’s working part-time but needs a full-time job, and those too discouraged to look for work), but at least it’s a useful way of comparing how much worse or better we are than we’ve been. And it can’t be fiddled with (the Bureau of Labor Statistics guards the calculation like gold in Fort Knox)...

[DemReadingDU]

40. NPR: What, If Anything, Will Speed Economic Recovery?

11/15/11 What, If Anything, Will Speed Economic Recovery?

Despite a constant flow of economic setbacks at home and abroad, the U.S. economy has been growing. But it hasn't been growing swiftly or adding many jobs. Steve Inskeep talks with David Wessel of The Wall Street Journal, and Zanny Minton Beddoes of The Economist, about how the U.S. will generate economic growth in the future.

audio at link, appx 9 minutes
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/15/142336152/will-anything-besides-time-speed-up-economic-recovery

[Demeter]

41. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRUST AND STUPIDITY?

[Demeter]

43. Merkel urges stronger union to back euro

German chancellor appeals to her Christian Democrat supporters to raise their sights beyond the current turbulence in financial markets

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/R5WAEE/2O582U/87I64/QNPOFN/QNB3EA/82/t?a1=2011&a2=11&a3=15

HERE COMES THAT IRON FIST...NO VELVET GLOVE IN SIGHT, EITHER

[Demeter]

44. IMF warns on Chinese financial system

IMF says China’s financial system faces vulnerabilities
The Chinese financial system faces “a steady build-up in vulnerabilities” that require the government to relax its grip on banks, the exchange rate and interest rates, the International Monetary Fund said in its inaugural evaluation of China’s financial sector.

The IMF applauded the progress that China has made in giving freer rein to market forces and strengthening regulation, but warned of a series of short-term risks facing the world’s second-biggest economy, from defaults on infrastructure projects to the rise of shadow banking.


Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/R5WAEE/2O582U/87I64/QNPOFN/HYFIMJ/82/t?a1=2011&a2=11&a3=15


DON'T GO FOR THE STING, CHINA! IT'S A CON GAME!

[Demeter]

45. BofA to reduce CCB stake with $6.6bn sale

Move is in line with Brian Moynihan’s strategy as the US lender looks for ways to boost its capital position to appease nervous investors

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/NJT9VB/GYN7Q/FKY3XI/WTCHFU/VU/t?a1=2011&a2=11&a3=15

[Demeter]

47. Anadarko reveals Colorado shale oil find

Reservoir thought to hold up to 1bn barrels of recoverable oil, unlockable using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing methods pioneered for shale gas

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/NJT9VB/GYN7Q/FKY3XI/MS1JD6/VU/t?a1=2011&a2=11&a3=15

[Roland99]

48. Rosenberg, Krugman vs. Summers, Bremmer

Watch Rosenberg And Krugman Debate Larry Summers and Ian Bremmer On Whether The US Is Turning Into Japan
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/watch-rosenberg-and-krugman-debate-larry-summers-and-ian-bremmer-whether-us-turning-japan

video:
http://www.livestream.com/munkdebates/video?clipId=pla_d7d2cf8b-0c2e-4b6f-8122-8556e089620d

[Demeter]

53. UniCredit announces €7.5bn cash call

Italian bank reports €10.4bn third-quarter net loss caused by Greek bond impairments and significant goodwill writedowns

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/NJT9VB/GYN7Q/FKY3XI/MS1JD0/VU/t?a1=2011&a2=11&a3=15

[Demeter]

54. UBS appoints Ermotti as chief executive

UBS has appointed Sergio Ermotti as its permanent chief executive, removing uncertainty surrounding its future leadership two days before a crucial meeting with investors.

Mr Ermotti, a former UniCredit and Bank of America Merrill Lynch executive, has been the acting chief executive of the Swiss group since September, after a $2.3bn rogue trading scandal prompted its former chief executive, banking veteran Oswald Grübel, to stand down.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/19JYUU/AME7J4/FDFZE/C4XR5Q/WTC82M/OS/t?a1=2011&a2=11&a3=15

[Roland99]

56. Commodity Customer Coalition Objects to JP Morgan Super-Priority Protection Over MF Global Customers

The Commodity Customer Coalition Objects to JP Morgan's Super-Priority Protection Over MF Global Customers
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/commodity-customer-coalition-objects-jp-morgans-super-priority-protection-over-mf-global

Last week, we noted many peculiarities with respect to the MF Global bankruptcy, not the least of which is the first-lien protection granted to JP Morgan Chase only two days after the bankruptcy, which gives the bank (MF Global's largest creditor) priority claim over MF Global's own customers--an unprecedented act within the futures industry. To date, an estimated $600 million of what were supposed to be segregated customer funds remains missing, and the remaining cash in thousands of customer accounts, including that of farmers, producers and speculators alike, remains frozen.

Only yesterday, after collaboration with other customer attorneys, James Koutoulas filed an objection to JP Morgan's super-priority protection. Inquiries, including those of other MF Global customers and the media may made through the Commodity Customer Coalition website.

The text of the Objection follows. The full filing here: (http://mfglobalcaseinfo.com/pdflib/83_15059.pdf)

[Demeter]

58. The "Golden Rule" is in Full Force

[AnneD]

86. He who has the gold rules...

:shrug:.

[Demeter]

60. Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not By Deena Stryker

http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/728.1

An Italian radio program's story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion. As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here's why:

Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatized, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many English and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalized, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.

Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution. But only after much pain....

[Demeter]

62. Reality Calls

and tonight is Board Meeting...morituri te salutant!

[xchrom]

63. have a good one miss demeter -- and i hope the board meeting

goes as well as it can.

:hi:

[Demeter]

64. Personally, I'M hoping for a miracle

or a power failure...

[xchrom]

67. ...

:spray:

[Tansy_Gold]

74. Ditto!

(to both the wish for good luck AND the spew!)

[Demeter]

85. I think I got a miracle!

Illness will deplete the board's ranks tonight...of one of the most problematic members. A walkout, should one become necessary, is even possible...thanks everyone! I'm sure your influence on randomness contributed!

[xchrom]

65. Fed Independence Risked by Coziness to Treasury

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/fed-employees-serve-treasury-in-assignments-deepening-crisis-forged-ties.html

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York employees who analyze American International Group Inc. (AIG)’s finances report to work each day at the New York Fed even though their supervisors are at the Treasury Department in Washington.

The analysts are among about 40 Fed staffers temporarily assigned to the Treasury in the past four years in an expanded flow of brainpower, according to records provided by the Fed in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. A range of junior and senior Fed employees had stays at Treasury offices including domestic finance, markets, international affairs and the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The AIG arrangement is emblematic of how the ties between the central bank and the Treasury have persisted and deepened since they joined forces to combat the financial panic of 2008. The challenge for the Treasury is to avoid becoming too dependent on Fed help -- and for the Fed to avert the increasing perception, especially among Republicans, that it’s too cozy with a Democratic administration.

“The mingling of the staff seems to me not to be wise from the point of view of maintaining, quite strictly, the independence of the central bank from the Treasury,” said William Poole, who was president of the St. Louis Fed bank from 1998 to 2008 and served on Republican President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

66. Down 6.66!

:scared:

[Roland99]

68. oh, lookie there. Markets are Back in Black. The U.S. Consumer to the rescue!

ha!

[xchrom]

70. Speculators Lift Bullish Raw-Material Bets to Seven-Week High: Commodities

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/speculators-lift-bullish-raw-material-bets-to-seven-week-high-commodities.html

Speculators increased wagers on rising commodity prices to a seven-week high as signs of resilient U.S. growth boosted prospects for demand.

Money managers increased combined net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 5.3 percent to 840,972 contracts in the week ended Nov. 8, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. That’s the highest since Sept. 20. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of 24 raw materials has jumped 12 percent since Sept. 30, rebounding from two straight quarters of losses.

U.S. consumer confidence topped forecasts this month, data showed on Nov. 11. Retail sales rose more than expected, the Commerce Department said today. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained in five of the past six weeks. The outlook for commodity demand has recovered since September, when the GSCI tumbled 12 percent, the biggest monthly drop since November 2008, on concern that Europe’s debt crisis would send the global economy into another recession.

[xchrom]

71. South Africa’s Risk of Stagflation Increasing, Reserve Bank Governor Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/south-africa-s-risk-of-stagflation-is-rising-reserve-bank-governor-says.html

South African Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus said there is a risk of stagflation in the domestic economy as price pressures increase and the economic recovery remains weak.

While it’s uncertain how long the global slowdown will last given the European debt crisis, the Monetary Policy Committee isn’t taking into account a “meltdown” in the euro-region in the bank’s growth forecasts, Marcus said in a speech in Johannesburg today.

The central bank held its benchmark interest rate at a 30- year low of 5.5 percent last week to support the economy’s recovery as a weaker rand boosts import costs. Inflation, which reached 5.7 percent in September, is forecast by the bank to exceed the 3 percent to 6 percent target range this quarter and remain outside the band until the fourth quarter of 2012.

“The combination of rising inflation and sluggish domestic growth holds the risk of a stagflationary environment,” Marcus said. “Monetary policy will maintain its focus on achieving the inflation target over the medium term, but will remain sensitive to the domestic economic situation.”

[hamerfan]

87. K&R! n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

88. Magical 12000!

:woohoo: