STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 16 April 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 16 April 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 13 April 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 13 April 2012
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Dow Jones 12,849.59 -136.99 (-1.05%)
S&P 500 1,370.26 -17.31 (-1.25%)
Nasdaq 3,011.33 -44.22 (-1.45%)


[font color=green]10 Year 1.98% -0.04 (-1.98%)
30 Year 3.13% -0.05 (-1.57%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison



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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Demeter]

1. Whoa Nellie! Asia's taking a dive!

the shape of things to come....Ben has come to the end of his rope (finally) and perhaps now someone will hang him. It's past time for new leadership in our financial affairs...at the very least.

[girl gone mad]

20. Yeah, it was rough.

Financials got hit hard. The crisis in Europe is not going away. Is this the sound of the can hitting the end of the road?



*Nikkei Closes Down 1.74% At 9,470.64

[Demeter]

22. One can only hope

I'd like the nonsense to stop, for my kids' sake, at least. If it stops effectively enough, even Boomers could benefit.

[Demeter]

2. While as a Rule, Men are Clueless, GOP men are Abusive, too.

Last edited Mon Apr 16, 2012, 07:55 AM - Edit history (1)

Good cartoon, Tansy.

AND BY THE WAY, MITT....IT IS YOU! AS WELL AS THE COMPANY YOU KEEP.

[Tansy_Gold]

55. And....

...the company that keeps you.

[Demeter]

3. I don't know about you all, but I'm not looking forward to this week

It is Board meeting Tuesday. (Groan)

And I am starting not one, not two, but too many to count hot topics...things that periodically burst into flame, and that I haven't managed to fireproof, yet.

(I will admit that some things HAVE been rendered flame-retardant in the 8+ years I've been at it. I can't take credit by myself, but honestly, allies have been thin on the ground, and subject to change without notice and for specious reasons. I'm a technician, an engineer, a problem solver, dammit! NOT a politician.)

It is unfortunate that there isn't a good, gentle way to do topic introduction, but when nearly everyone is determined to cram everything into one 3-hour meeting a month, and most refuse to respond to email, if in fact they even read them, at other times of the month, I don't know what else to do.

Planning requires time and mental effort, research, discussion, etc. I don't have allies (well, I have two, but one is wavering about staying involved, and a third is excessively temperamental) other than staff, when they aren't overwhelmed by events, for planning, nor is there any committee that does global planning....just ad hoc efforts of limited domain.

I hate to have things blow up out of nowhere...especially when trouble is obviously brewing and a strategic intervention could solve the problem before it becomes a major crisis. I also hate to be the only one paying attention with an attention span longer than 5 minutes....

One sweet lady asked me why I didn't want to be President of the condo association. I told her I think the current board members hate me enough, already. I don't want a mass exodus of board volunteers. I'm sure the blame for the recent resignation is laid at my door, unfairly IMO. The guy was over 80 and in poor health and had a very bad winter with multiple illnesses and severe family stress to deal with. Plus, he was impatient and unrealistic. He wanted to double the condo fees, immediately. Nobody's going to pay $500-$700 a month on top of any mortgage to live at our place. The resale market would collapse. We are already pretty high for Ann Arbor, although reasonable, given our present amenities.

The community can't yet count on enough talent coming up the ranks (although there are two (TWO) very qualified volunteers for the recently vacated board position....)

I am sure I will bore you all in exhaustive detail throughout the week. Thanks for listening! I really needed that.

[Demeter]

4. US probes Cobalt’s links in Angola (VAMPIRE SQUID ALERT)

Three of the most powerful officials in Angola have held concealed interests in an oil venture with Cobalt International Energy, the Goldman Sachs-backed explorer whose operations in one of the world’s most promising energy frontiers are under investigation by US authorities, the Financial Times has learned.

The recently departed head of the national oil company and an influential general confirmed to the FT last week that they and another general have held shares in Nazaki Oil and Gáz, the local partner in a Cobalt-led deepwater venture launched in early 2010.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/R5WAEE/TUWVIQ/VTVRG/30XMUO/NJZ1FQ/MQ/t?a1=2012&a2=4&a3=15

[Demeter]

5. Petty Cash for a Wall Street Giant? Goldman Sachs Slapped on Wrist With $22 Million Fine COMMENTARY

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/880415/petty_cash_for_a_wall_street_giant_goldman_sachs_slapped_on_wrist_with_%2422_million_fine/#paragraph4

Goldman Sachs got fined again.

Goldman Sachs agreed on Thursday to pay securities regulators $22 million to settle accusations that it did not have adequate policies in place to stop stock research tips from being passed inappropriately to its biggest clients.

But, I wonder, does the firm even notice the loss of $22 million? Isn't that like when we drop a penny and decide it's not even worth the energy to bend down and pick it up? Why do we still have pennies again? And why do we pretend that we can change the behavior of financial behemoths by slapping them with penny fines? I mean, seriously, look at their earnings.

Assailed by critics on all sides, Goldman Sachs did what it does best on Tuesday, smashing estimates for its first-quarter results and setting aside $5.23bn (£3.2bn) to pay its staff.

The bank reported net revenues of $11.89bn and net earnings of $2.74bn for the first quarter which ended on 31 March, 2011.

They are making billions in profit every quarter. And they received a $22 million fine? That's not even the cost of doing business. That doesn't even cover their catering bill.

[Demeter]

11. A Lesson in Defection From Goldman Sachs By Nathan Schneider

http://www.nationofchange.org/lesson-defection-goldman-sachs-1334409931

Just about in time for Occupy Wall Street’s half-birthday last month, there was what might ostensibly seem to be a fitting reason to celebrate: Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith quit his job and, to massive fanfare, penned a New York Times op-ed denouncing what his company has become. With those 1,300 words, Goldman’s stock price dropped 3.4 percent, vanishing more than $2 billion from its worth and necessitating a commiserative house call from the mayor of New York.

The trouble is, Smith didn’t really echo any of the Occupy movement’s concerns. There was no mention of the company’s habit of self-serving market manipulation, contributing to downturns from the Great Depression to the Great Recession, or its present hijacking of the very political system tasked with regulating it. The word “bailout” does not appear. What really seemed to disturb Smith, rather, was that this institution was putting its own interests before those of its obscenely wealthy clients. (He had personally worked with “two of the largest hedge funds on the planet, five of the largest asset managers in the United States, and three of the most prominent sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia.”) The company from which he’d once learned that obscenely wealthy clients come first was betraying that solemn trust so as to enrich its obscenely wealthy self. This was unconscionable, in Smith’s view, so he decided to give his longtime employer a big kick in the shins — all, it seems, in the service of a hope that Goldman Sachs might once again defraud the universe in a more gentlemanly fashion.

As Occupy-six-months-on has become the subject of dutiful retrospectives, the thought of Smith’s article keeps weighing on me as a big reminder of what the movement might seek to undertake, should there be the wherewithal to do so. Historically, the climax of just about every story of effective civil resistance is the moment of defection — when some crucial segment of the old guard goes turncoat and throws down with the voice of the people: Soldiers refuse to fire, prisoners go free, politicians ditch the party line. For Occupy in particular, imagine cops putting down their clubs, Bank of America breaking itself up, or senators giving back their corporate-given cash. So, what does it take to make this happen? When do people make that about-face, and write that damning op-ed? It’s fortuitous, while we’re asking these questions, that Eyal Press’s new book, Beautiful Souls, has recently appeared to tell us a bit about just that. This study of “saying no, breaking ranks, and heeding the voice of conscience in dark times” relates the stories of several ordinary heroes who, from World War II to the present day, have turned into defectors of various sorts, often with repercussions that reached far beyond themselves...One upshot of the book, which was highlighted in a recent public conversation at New York University between Press and the Open Society Foundations’ Aryeh Neier, is that the voice these defectors tended to be heeding was not a distant abstraction or a universal truth, or even a jolt of compassion. Banally enough, actually, it was often a matter of simply wanting to live up to the very standards espoused by the institutions from which these people ended up dissenting. An elite soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces always thought he was part of “the most moral army in the world” — until he saw firsthand its treatment of innocent Palestinians. A Salvadorean immigrant believes that the U.S. financial-services industry in which she has excelled rests on bedrock of fair regulation and honest governance — until she asks too many questions about a shady offshore bank and is fired. These are people who had spent years in their institutions, who’d hedged their livelihoods and their personal integrity on the values by which these institutions supposedly operate. They believe, perhaps with reason, that those values have merit, and they had lots of practice making everyday decisions with those values in mind. Hearing their institutions denounced outright, therefore — say, by protesters marching on the sidewalk outside their office — doesn’t tend to swing these “true believers,” as Press calls such people, because the values at the heart of their institutions seem so right. Greg Smith, whose utter devotion to Goldman Sachs’ supposed core values is the premise of his denouncement, is as true a believer as they come. And it is precisely these kinds of people, Beautiful Souls suggests, who can end up being the most likely and effective whistleblowers and the most crippling defectors, the instant they’re forced to realize that their institution fails to live up to its own cherished values.

Think about it for a moment, and this actually stands to reason. Of course we would be more likely to make sacrifices on behalf of values to which we’ve already committed our lives or careers, the values that our clients and subsidiaries and loved ones have been hearing us espouse for years on end. Saul Alinsky noticed this phenomenon as well. He wrote, in his Rules for Radicals:

Since the Haves publicly pose as the custodians of responsibility, morality, law, and justice (which are frequently strangers to each other), they can be constantly pushed to live up to their own book of morality and regulations. No organization, including organized religion, can live up to the letter of its own book. You can club them to death with their “book” of rules and regulations.

Zoom back, then, to Occupy. The movement’s usual mode of attack against corporations or police departments it doesn’t like is to shout slogans about how bad they are. “Fuck Monsanto” and “fuck the police” are particularly popular refrains in New York lately. One could argue that Greg Smith reminds us that there’s a better — and perhaps more nonviolent — way: If you want to get an institution to eat itself alive, don’t just denounce it altogether. Instead, find ways to make its most committed and loyal members consider whether the institution really lives up to its own cherished values, and let them do their thing. They’re the ones who can stir up far more trouble with far less effort than anyone on the outside ever could....Then again, despite eliciting far less buzz in the mainstream media or sympathy from Mayor Bloomberg, the Occupy movement’s West Coast Port Shutdown on December 12 of last year, which targeted properties owned by Goldman Sachs, hit the company’s stock price almost twice as hard as Greg Smith’s op-ed. That kind of approach also has an appealing honesty. When a company’s cherished values really are intolerable — in Goldman’s case, protecting the wealth of the 1 percent — perhaps there’s no substitute for simply going into the streets and shutting it down.

[Demeter]

17. The Latest SEC/Goldman Sachs Sweetheart Deal is the Worst One Yet

http://www.nationofchange.org/latest-secgoldman-sachs-sweetheart-deal-worst-one-yet-1334413159

The sweetheart deals just keep coming. Lawbreakers at one bank after another are let off the hook as their shareholders write a check. And then they go out and repeat the illegal behavior they promised not to do in the last settlement. It shouldn't be surprising that this keeps happening over at the SEC - especially as long as Robert Khuzami continues to serve as Director of the Commission's Division of Enforcement. But while each of these deals has been shameful, destructive, and outrageous, the $22 million agreement with Goldman Sachs which the SEC announced today - another one in which the guilty party "neither confirms nor denies wrongdoing" - looks like the worst one yet. The SEC has the power to shut Goldman Sachs down for what it did, and the offenses it describes are felonies. But they just gave out another slap on the wrist - no, make that a pat on the wrist - with today's announcement.

The Worst Thing

It's not just the fact that the SEC continues to ignore the public's outrage by letting bankers off scot-free. And it's not just that this kind of irresponsible behavior ensures that the law breaking will continue. Its not just that crooked bank executives are allowed to "neither admit nor deny wrongdoing." It's not even the fact that this time around the SEC has worded its announcement in a clumsy attempt to obscure the criminal behavior of Goldman's employees - although that's one of this agreement's worst features. No, what makes this deal the worst we've seen in a long while is the timing. Most of the other recent sweetheart deals dealt with crimes that led up to - and created - the 2008 financial crisis. But this time Goldman Sachs is walking away from crimes its bankers committed as recently as last year. That's been the SEC's pattern under both the last President and the current one. The number of repeat offenses compiled by the New York Times for these SEC deals is mind-blowing. No wonder the SEC didn't appear before reporters to announce this latest settlement, choosing instead to announce in an email. Cowardly - but then, would you want to show your face in public after signing a deal like this?

THE CRIME

An "asymmetrical" client could execute a quick $1,000,000 trade and walk away with sixty grand before lunchtime. That kind of information is very lucrative ...

The Punishment

... and very illegal. It's a violation of Section 15(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act and is punishable as a felony. It's so illegal, in fact, that Goldman Sachs could be closed down entirely, either temporarily or permanently, "in the public interest." That sounds right. But everybody on Wall Street knows that's not going to happen. And as long as there's no real downside - no prosecutions, no big fines coming out of a banker's personal pockets - there' s no reason to stop.

The Perp

But then, that's Goldman's way of doing business - sleazy, preferential, and highly illegal. These charges resemble "spinning," the practice of letting preferred clients by into an IPO at inside-the-deal prices so they could immediately sell them off - usually at a big profit. (It was that corrupt practice that eventually ended Meg Whitman's membership on Goldman's board and led to a lawsuit from shareholders of eBay. That's the company whose CEO chair made Whitman a desirable client at the time. The suit was settled for $3 million.)

The Cover-Up

In the SEC's words, the "huddle" and "ASi" processes "created a serious and substantial risk that analysts would share material, nonpublic information...Goldman did not establish, maintain, and enforce adequate policies and procedures to prevent such misuse." But those are weasel words. If you read the SEC brief in detail, it's clear that Goldman didn't just "create a serious and substantial risk" that insider information would be illegally shared. The SEC's records make it pretty clear that information was illegally shared. And they tried to cover it up. Ideas from the huddles were tracked on spreadsheets called "Records of Ideas," but the were later withheld from Goldman's own surveillance analysts. The SEC report then notes that "Even when alerts regarding trading ahead of research changes were triggered by Goldman's surveillance system, all but one were closed with no further action after only a limited review." And even when the surveillance system showed evidence of insider trading, despite the cover-ups - activity like a big buy or sell right before a major announcement - Goldman did nothing to follow up. Senior Goldman officials knew what was going on and did nothing, as you can tell from sentences in the SEC's report like this one: "During 2007, members of Goldman's Compliance Division drafted a proposed insert concerning huddles for the ... Global Policies and Procedures Manual, but no such policy was ever implemented."

The "Enforcer"

And yet the strongest words we heard from Director of Investigations Khuzami was that "Higher-risk trading and business strategies require higher-order controls." He added (in writing, of course; he didn't face reporters) that "despite being on notice from the SEC about the importance of such controls, Goldman failed to implement policies and procedures that adequately controlled the risk that research analysts could preview upcoming ratings changes with select traders and clients." In other words, they promised not to commit this crime anymore so we let them off with a warning. Now they've done it again - and we're letting them off with a warning. But don't worry. "Respondent (Goldman) has agreed that "it shall cease and desist from committing or causing any violations and any future violations of Section 15(g) of the Exchange Act."

Well, alrighty then!

MORE OUTRAGE

But we haven't heard word one from the Justice Department about any pending criminal investigation. But then they're not answering our media inquiries down there nowadays, so citizens will have to ask them - or the White House - themselves: Where are the indictments?

[Demeter]

6. US inflation eases as gasoline prices decelerate

http://www.alternet.org/rss/breakingnews/880425/us_inflation_eases_as_gasoline_prices_decelerate/?akid=8579.227380.rB2kdj&rd=1&t=14

Growth in US consumer prices slowed in March, thanks to decelerating gasoline prices, but inflationary pressures remain strong, government data showed Friday. (QUERY: IF THE CPI SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDES FOOD AND ENERGY COSTS, HOW CAN A DECREASE IN GASOLINE LEAD TO LOWER CONSUMER PRICES, AT LEAST, AS FAR AS MAKES ANY DIFFERENCE TO PEOPLE-GOVERNMENT POLICY?)

Consumer prices rose 0.3 percent in March, easing from February's 0.4 percent rate, the Labor Department said, matching analyst expectations. Prices rose across energy, food and all items in the March consumer price index (CPI) basket. But the slowdown in inflation from February was mainly due to gasoline prices, which rose 1.7 percent in March, stepping back from a 6.0 percent surge the prior month.

"The gasoline index continued to rise, more than offsetting a decline in the household energy index and leading to a 0.9 percent increase in the energy index," the Labor Department said.

Food prices increased 0.2 percent after being flat in February. Prices for meats, poultry, fish and eggs jumped 0.8 percent, the largest increase since May 2011. Excluding the more volatile food and energy prices, "core" CPI, the rate watched by the Federal Reserve for interest rate decisions, rose to 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent the prior month. The year-on-year rise in CPI was 2.7 percent, easing from the prior month's 2.9 percent rate.

Core CPI edged up to 2.3 percent from 2.2 percent year-on-year.

Though inflation is above the Fed's 2.0 percent benchmark, the central bank says that higher oil prices are transitory and maintains inflation does not warrant a tightening of its ultra-low interest rates, aimed at propping up economic growth.

"The good news is, overall CPI is decelerating, but core prices still have some zing left," said Jennifer Lee at BMO Capital Markets Economics.

"Nonetheless, inflation is not at the top of the Fed's worry list right now, and getting the economy firmly back on its feet is the goal."

RIGHT. OF COURSE, IT IS. SOUNDS LIKE A CASE OF "LIES, DAMN LIES, AND STATISTICS" TO ME.

[Demeter]

7. Obama Secret Service Agents Pulled From Colombia Over "Involvement With Prostitutes"

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/881185/obama_secret_service_agents_pulled_from_colombia_over_%22involvement_with_prostitutes%22/#paragraph4

DEMETER COMMENTARY:

YOU KNOW WHY I DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF THIS? I THINK THAT THE AGENTS HAD A BIG SNOW PARTY. I DON'T THINK IT WAS SEX, BUT DRUGS, AND SO EMBARRASSING FOR A US PRESIDENTIAL EMPEROR TO VISIT HIS FIEFDOM, WHICH HAS BEEN TORN APART BY THE DRUG WAR, WITH MASSIVE INTERNAL DEATHS AND DESTRUCTION, NOT TO MENTION INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT, AND HAVE HIS SECRET POLICE GO TO POT OR WORSE...WHILE HE'S PONTIFICATING ABOUT THE NECESSITY OF CONTINUING THE WAR ON DRUGS...

THE HYPOCRISY STINKS, EVEN FROM THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY.

TO HOLD SUCH A DOG AND PONY SHOW IN COLOMBIA, TO BEGIN WITH, AND REFUSE TO INCLUDE CUBA, NEXT TIME THERE WON'T BE ANYONE BESIDES CANADA THERE....

CALL ME PARANOID....I DON'T CARE. :tinfoil:

[Demeter]

9. Drone Summit: Killing and Spying by Remote Control (STRIKING BACK AGAINST EMPIRE)

http://www.alternet.org/story/154966/_drone_summit%3A_killing_and_spying_by_remote_control?page=entire


Drone proliferation is slowly waking up members of the U.S. public who have intensifying concerns about extrajudicial drone killings and about the onset of a surveillance society in America. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress seems more interested in promoting drone proliferation than in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities. Three years ago, members of the U.S. House of Representatives formed a special caucus to address issues related to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). For the most part, prior to the formation of the Unmanned Vehicle Caucus, drone regulation had been left almost entirely to the executive branch, largely the Department of Defense and the CIA. Recognizing that drones were not only increasingly occupying domestic and foreign airspace but were also advancing on the ground and in global waterways, the House leadership last year broadened the name of its group from the UAV Caucus to the House Unmanned Systems Caucus.

Drones are proliferating with virtually no governmental oversight.

Yet the mission of the bipartisan drone caucus, which includes liberal and conservative representatives, is not to regulate drone operations but to promote them. Financial interests — campaign contributions from drone manufacturers and the income flowing into districts from drone bases and production plants, not concerns about the lack of congressional oversight — spurred the creation of the drone caucus. Over the past three years, the concerns of the drone caucus have mirrored the concerns of the drone industry about access to domestic airspace, export controls and the modestly declining military budget.

The U.S. public has other concerns, joining others around the world already alarmed about killer strikes and surveillance by drones. Frustrated by government secrecy and the lack of accountability, several prominent nongovernmental organizations have joined forces to sponsor the "Drone Summit: Killing and Spying by Remote Control" in Washington, D.C., on April 28–29. “We are bringing together drone-strike victims, human rights advocates, robotics technology experts, journalists and military experts,” says Medea Benjamin of the women’s piece group CodePink. Other sponsors includes two legal advocacy organizations, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the London-based Reprieve. The summit’s objective is to inform the American public about the widespread and rapidly expanding deployment of both killer and surveillance drones. Drones are at the very center of the new U.S. paradigm in foreign policy, say summit organizers. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta describes them as “the only game in town.” That being the case, the public and policy community need to be closely involved. “Right now it’s a secret game out of democratic control,” says Benjamin. “We have to change that.”

Billed as the first international drone summit (other than those sponsored by the drone industry), the Drone Summit aims to raise awareness and discuss the full range of ethical questions posed by the use of drones.

“The Drone Summit is an important means of penetrating the mystique and political rhetoric surrounding the use of drones,” explains Tara Murray, deputy legal director of Reprieve, a London-based legal advocacy organization that is cosponsoring the summit.

“Concerns surrounding drones transcend political and national boundaries,” stresses Murphy, noting that the summit is encouraging all members of the public and the policy community to attend “regardless of political affiliation or nationality.”

Participants at the drone summit will hear the testimonies of victims of drone strikes in South Asia. As Murray points out, the U.S. government’s “hit lists” leads to the targeted killing of both U.S and non-U.S. citizens. This practice, she says, “ignores the constitutionally enshrined principle of due process” and will likely concern “anyone with a commitment to the rule of law, civil liberties and checks on executive power.” The summit organizers dismiss the notion that they are antitechnology Luddites. Echoing the common perspective of the summit organizers, Murray observes, “Drones are ultimately a tool, and their impact depends primarily on human decisions.”

“We are not antitechnology, and all scientific discoveries, if used in right way, have helped humanity a great deal,” says Shahzad Akbar of the Pakistani Foundation for Legal Rights, which represents drone victims. “But the question is,” he says, “can we trust a program which is being run for the last eight years with no information to its process and under no accountability, having killed almost 3,000 people whose identities are not known to their killers?”

The lack of oversight over drone operations and the booming international drone industry has alarming implications for war and peace. Yet, as the summit organizers note, drone proliferation is also rapidly advancing on the home front. Drones are also being deployed domestically for “border security” and law enforcement. Predator drones are hunting immigrants and drug smugglers on the northern and southern borders. Both the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department are working with the drone industry to get lightweight drones into the arsenals of metropolitan police and county sheriffs. Congress recently mandated that the Federal Aviation Administration open up domestic airspace to private and commercial drones by 2015 and that it immediately speed up the licensing process to permit the deployment of government (military, homeland security and law enforcement) drones in commercial U.S. airways.

“As drones become an increasingly common form of warfare, and as their presence expands at home, it is time to educate ourselves, the U.S. public and our policymakers about drone proliferation,” says Medea Benjamin, the author of the forthcoming book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.

“As remotely controlled warfare and spying race forward, it is also time to organize to end current abuses and to prevent the potentially widespread misuse both overseas and here at home,” she warns.

Among the topics the workshops will discuss include disputed legality of drone warfare, compensation for victims, transparency and accountability for drone operation, domestic drone surveillance, and development of autonomous drones. Speakers will include leading figures from such organizations as Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International-USA, ACLU, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the International Committee for Robot Arms Control. The summit will kick off at 9 a.m. on April 29 and continue all day until 9 p.m. Those interested in attending the summit, which will be held at 900 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., can register online. The following day the summit will host a strategy session at 100 Maryland Avenue NE to network, discuss and plan advocacy efforts focused on various aspects of drones, including surveillance and targeted killings. Organizations endorsing the summit include the Center for International Policy, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Global Exchange, Peace Action, United for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the Washington Peace Center and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

The fundamental issue that concerns summit organizers is the near-total lack of transparency and accountability in drone proliferation, at home and abroad. With respect to killer drones, Leili Kashani, advocacy program manager for the Center for Constitutional Rights, explains: “The executive branch of the U.S. government is claiming the authority to target and kill any individual anywhere in the world, including American citizens, without any judicial process or oversight, and without any transparency or accountability. It is subverting the Constitution and international law in assuming the role of judge, jury and executioner.” Participation in the summit, says Murray, will be an important step in reining in uncontrolled drone proliferation. The lack of congressional oversight means that the drones operations are vulnerable to abuse,” she warns, “and civil society institutions should be evermore vigilant in monitoring the use and impact of drones.

To register for the summit, go to http://bit.ly/HKhyGy.

[Demeter]

10. Revealed: CISPA -- Internet Spying Law -- Pushed by For-Profit Spy Lobby

http://www.alternet.org/story/154977/revealed%3A_cispa_--_internet_spying_law_--_pushed_by_for-profit_spy_lobby?page=entire

A cyber security bill moving swiftly through Congress would give government intelligence agencies broad powers to work with private companies to share information about Internet users. While some critics are beginning to organize online against the legislation, defense contractors, many already working with the National Security Agency on related data-mining projects, are lobbying to press forward. Like many bad policy ideas, entrenched government contractors seem to be using taxpayer money to lobby for even more power and profit. The proposal, H.R.3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, introduced by Congressmen Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), provides companies and the government “free rein to bypass existing laws in order to monitor communications, filter content, or potentially even shut down access to online services for ‘cybersecurity purposes.’” Though the bill has been compared to SOPA given its potential to smother free speech on the Internet, the ill-fated copyright legislation that inspired an intense lobbying battle earlier this year, much of the tech community has has joined with copyright interests to support CISPA.

A full list of companies and trade groups supporting the legislation, from Facebook to AT&T, can be found here AT LINK. Combing through the lobbyist disclosure forms, Republic Report noticed that two of the top firms spending a lot of money to pass CISPA are major National Security Agency (NSA) contractors:

– Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC): A major government IT firm, CSC has several large contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies. CSC provides “secure information technology infrastructure for the NSA … [to] secure and non-secure telephony and network services, distributed computing services, and enterprise and security management at the NSA headquarters and its surrounding offices.” CSC already works on a pilot program that directly relates to the data-mining project envisioned by CISPA. According to disclosures reviewed by Republic Report, CSC currently contracts with Navigators Global LLC, a Republican-led lobbying firm, to promote CISPA.

– Sciences Applications International Corporation (SAIC): Another major defense contractor, SAIC provides a variety of services to the NSA. The NSA is one of SAIC’s “primary clients” — the firm is helping the intelligence agency build a massive data-mining center in Utah. Lobbying disclosures reviewed by Republic Report show that SAIC has contracted with the firm Dennis Miller Associates to lobby on CISPA.

As the Center for Democracy and Technology explains, CISPA vastly expands a current information gathering effort between the NSA and private firms:

The legislation is being billed as an expansion of a collaboration between the National Security Agency (NSA) and major ISPs dubbed the Defense Industrial Base Pilot. Under the DIB Pilot, the NSA shares classified cyberattack signatures and information about cybersecurity threats with large ISPs that provide Internet service to major defense contractors.

Other current NSA data-mining contractors are lobbying to pass CISPA. Northrop Grumman has at least 10 registered lobbyists promoting the bill. Lockheed Martin has a comprable number of lobbyists doing the same. But CSC’s team of 26 registered lobbyists reflects the company’s dependence on government contracts for profit. And registered lobbyists are only part of the influence operation. CSC also helps finance trade associations, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is also pushing hard to pass the CISPA. Like the for-profit college industry, which uses taxpayer money to lobby for even more taxpayer money while defrauding students, the extent to which private sector firms with government spy contracts are lobbying for broader power should alarm everyone.

[Demeter]

8. The "Keating Five" Corruption Story Has Lessons for the Citizens United Era HISTORY

http://www.alternet.org/story/154963/the_%22keating_five%22_corruption_story_has_lessons_for_the_citizens_united_era?page=entire

Tough, smart, effective, and apolitical regulators are key to avoiding rampant fraud and future financial crises...April 9, 2012 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the most infamous savings and loan frauds -- Charles Keating’s successful use of five U.S. Senators to escape sanction for a massive violation of the law. The Senators were Alan Cranston (D. CA), Dennis DeConcini (D. AZ), John Glenn (D OH), John McCain (R. AZ), and Donald Riegle (D. MI). They became infamous as the “Keating Five.” I was one of four regulators who attended the April 9, 1987 meeting and took the notes of the meeting, in transcript format, that were so detailed and accurate that the Senators testified that they were sure I had tape recorded the meeting. (The reality is that I owe my note taking abilities to Bill Valentine, my high school debate coach, and experience debating for the University of Michigan.) Reviewing my (near) transcript of the April 9 offers a large number of important lessons that would have allowed us to avoid future crises. We suffered the crises because we ignored all the lessons about which approaches are criminogenic and which are successful. The transcript shows four things that work. First, we were apolitical as regulators. I worked closely in the same regional office with my three regulatory colleagues for years, but I do not know their political affiliation (if any). We went after the S&L frauds and their political cronies regardless of party. Second, we were vigorous and fearless enough as regulators that the frauds (e.g., Keating) feared us. Keating knew that despite his fearsome political power and reputation for trying to ruin his opponents we (the regional S&L regulators based in San Francisco) would never back off. Third, we were effective. The April 9 meeting exemplified how a largely ineffective office had improved greatly in two years. Ed Gray, the head of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, inherited an agency driven by an anti-regulatory dogma that was actively making things worse. Gray had been a strong supporter of deregulation. Gray’s great virtue is that he listened to the facts and looked for patterns. What he realized was that the large failures followed a consistent pattern. They were (to use modern criminology jargon) “control frauds” – seemingly legitimate entities controlled by officers who used them as “weapons” to defraud the S&L’s creditors and shareholders. Gray knew that S&Ls that were still open and followed the same pattern were growing at an average annual rate of 50% and that hundreds of similar S&Ls were entering the industry annually. Gray perceived, correctly, that business as usual would produce a catastrophe.

Gray began to reregulate the industry in 1983. That was extraordinary on several dimensions. The Garn-St Germain bill (drafted by Gray’s predecessor, Richard Pratt) that deregulated the S&L industry was enacted in 1982. It passed with one opposing vote in each chamber. For Gray to begin to reregulate the industry only a year later was an enormous repudiation of the will of the Congress, the Reagan administration, neo-classical economics, the anti-governmental zeitgeist, and the agency’s traditional position. It also required Gray to reverse his embrace of deregulation. To succeed in his push to reregulate the industry Gray had to take on, simultaneously, the House, the Senate, the administration, the S&L trade association (rated the third most powerful in America by some political scientists), economists, much of his own agency, and the media. Astonishingly, Gray’s reregulation succeeded and because it was so prompt it contained the crisis and prevented a trillion dollars in fraud losses and a Great Recession. By contrast, reregulation began in the current crisis in 2009 (the effective date of the Federal Reserve’s rule finally banning liar’s loans (fraudulent mortgage loans made without verifying the borrower’s income). The nine year-to-ten year delay in reregulation (measured from passage of Gramm-Leach-Bliley (1999) or the Commodities Futures Modernization Act (2000) allowed fraud to become epidemic and hyper-inflate the financial bubble, producing the Great Recession.

One of the early rules Gray pushed to stem the crisis restricted “direct investments” e.g., taking an equity risk rather than making a conventional loan). This was the rule that served as the flashpoint for the Keating Five meeting. Gray realized that he needed to resupervise the industry as well as reregulate it. Gray doubled the number of examiners and supervisors – in 18 months. He personally recruited the two individuals with the best reputation in the U.S. as effective financial regulators, Joseph Selby and Michael Patriarca, to serve respectively as the top field regulators in our Dallas and San Francisco office, which had jurisdiction over Texas, California, and Arizona – the epicenters of the S&L fraud crisis. James Cirona, the President of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBSF), strongly supported Patriarca and made the crackdown on the frauds his top priority. The Bank Board in general and the FHLBSF in particular rapidly became far more effective regulators, particularly with respect to frauds like Keating. The four regulators at the April 9 meeting were Cirona, Patriarca, Richard Sanchez (Lincoln’s “Supervisory Agent”), and me.

Our examiners and supervisors discovered and documented Lincoln Savings’ officers’ frauds and resultant disastrous direct investment and lending practices. Bart Dzivi’s discovery of Lincoln Savings, Drexel Burnham Lambert (dominated by Michael Milken), and Arthur Andersen’s (AA) combined fraud is one of the great finds of all time. In the course of reviewing thousands of pages of seemingly routine underwriting documents on junk bonds he noticed that some of the pages were not numbered sequentially and that in one or two files (out of hundreds) the purportedly contemporaneous (and carefully undated) underwriting documents contained information that became available only after the purchase of the junk bonds. Dzivi realized that the most likely explanation was that the supposed underwriting documents were created after the fact and then stuffed into the files to make it appear that Lincoln Savings engaged in underwriting before it purchased junk bonds. Dzivi’s insight prompted an enforcement investigation led by Anne Sobol that proved the file stuffing and discovered and document widespread forgeries of documents and signatures designed to cover up the massive violation of the limits on direct investments.

MUCH, MUCH MORE
**********************************************************************

Bill Black is the author of 'The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One' and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He spent years working on regulatory policy and fraud prevention as Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention, Litigation Director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and Deputy Director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement, among other positions.

[Demeter]

12. Reinventing the World Bank, Again By Ana Palacio

http://www.nationofchange.org/reinventing-world-bank-again-1334504841

With three nominees now in the running to become the World Bank’s next president – Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Colombian Finance Minister José Antonio Ocampo, and the United States’ nominee, Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim – this is the moment to step back and assess the Bank’s trajectory. Unless the Bank’s next president has a clear vision of the way ahead, and the gravitas to withstand the institution’s internal pressures, he or she will be swallowed up by its complex machinery and unwieldy processes.(NOTE: ACCORDING TO RADIO REPORT, OCAMPO HAS WITHDRAWN IN FAVOR OF OKONJO-IWEALA...DEMETER)

Global attention has been focused on weighing the three candidates’ strengths and qualifications, particularly their economic and financial credentials. But the real challenge lies in providing direction for the World Bank that reflects the world as it is, and re-calibrating the Bank’s tools accordingly. Inevitably, the new course hinges in part on recognizing that economics and finance, while integral elements of all areas of the Bank’s activities, are no longer the institution’s main drivers.

The World Bank’s traditional instruments have been (and still are) low-interest loans, interest-free credits, and grants. But the Bank’s core philosophy has rested on lending, with interest, to middle-income countries and channeling the ensuing funds to the poorest countries eligible for assistance. Today, owing to the conditionality of its loans, the Bank is losing competitiveness vis-à-vis the plethora of actors, both public and private, that crowd the development scene. Meanwhile, the Bank is emerging as a vital – indeed, indispensable – source of expertise and technical assistance, as well as a provider of global public goods. Building on these strengths, the Bank must be willing to understand its client countries’ realities, rather than pontificate, and to balance its country-based work with its global roles. While lending is progressively thinned out and retained only for the poorest countries, the Bank must adopt the lean hub-and-spoke structure of a strategic consultancy or a “knowledge bank.” The organization must reformulate its mission, moving away from the idea of being the “West’s Bank,” the “BRICS’ Bank,” or, for that matter, a bank at all. What is unambiguous today is a growing intolerance for bad governance and corruption – a collective rejection evident in countries as diverse as Burma, Congo, Russia, and Bolivia, not to mention Arab countries from Syria to Morocco. At the same time, the biggest threat to the international order comes from failing, failed, post-conflict, and conflict-ridden states. For the past two decades, as part of the soul-searching triggered by the collapse of communism, the World Bank has been seeking to make governance and anti-corruption efforts integral to its work on economic growth and poverty reduction in the developing world. But, beyond eloquent rhetoric, these changes have been incremental, and have been superimposed on the Bank’s operations, rather than becoming part of its organizational DNA....MORE

The international community cannot afford a World Bank that, anchored in the world of the past, loses its relevance. No other institution can fulfill the Bank’s formidable potential as a center of knowledge and a coordinator of development policies. The mandate of the Bank’s next president will be crucial in making or breaking an institution that the world desperately needs in the century ahead.

[Demeter]

13. Proposals Raising the Normal Retirement Age for Social Security Would Lead to Increase in Inequality

http://www.nationofchange.org/proposals-raising-normal-retirement-age-social-security-would-lead-increase-inequality-1334500601

Social Security remains the most important source of income for most Americans in their retirement. Nonetheless, there are many proposals for cutting benefits that get serious consideration, including increasing the normal retirement age. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research examines the impact of raising the Social Security retirement age and its effect on the distribution of wealth from loss of future Social Security benefits.

“The full retirement age for Social Security is already scheduled to increase to 67 over the next 10 years,” said Dean Baker, a co-director of CEPR and an author of the report. “Despite the fact that each year of increase in the normal retirement age is equal to a cut in benefits of 6 to 7 percent, some policy makers are calling for raising the retirement age as high as 70.”

The report, “The Impact on Inequality of Raising the Social Security Retirement Age,” projects the impact of a gradual increase of the normal retirement age on various demographic groups, looking at each quintile of the wealth distribution, as well as the richest 1 percent. The paper also contains separate projections for homeowners and non-homeowners, single individuals and couples in several age cohorts. These projections demonstrate that Social Security wealth is a much larger share of wealth for the bottom four of the five groups. As a result, an increase in the retirement age would cause an increase in inequality.

“Since those in the top income quintile have vastly more wealth than those in other quintiles, a loss of 7 percent of Social Security benefits will not affect their total wealth as dramatically as those in the other four quintiles,” continued Baker.

For example, non-homeowner couples in the lowest wealth quintile aged 35-44 in 2012 would see an 18 percent decline in wealth from a further increase in the retirement age. By contrast, the top quintile in the same age cohort would see a decline of just 8 percent. For the bottom quintile of homeowners in the 55-64 cohort, the increase in the retirement age implies a cut in wealth of more than 2 percent. The reduction in wealth for those in the top quintile is less than 1 percent.

Proponents of making immediate changes to Social Security often justify calls for reform by saying that the program faces a looming shortfall. However, the Congressional Budget Office projects that Social Security can pay all scheduled benefits through 2038. Even with no changes whatsoever to the program, Social Security will still be able to pay more than 80 percent of benefits until 2070 and only slightly less than that for decades afterward. And while some might argue that we are living longer and should retire later, this justification makes little sense for workers in physically who would find it difficult to work into their late 60s. Also, most of the gains in life expectancy have gone to high-income workers. As this report demonstrates, proposals to raise the retirement age would lead to a substantial upward redistribution of wealth.

GIVEN THE COMPLETE COLLAPSE OF THE LABOR MARKET IN THIS COUNTRY FOR ALL AGES, AND THE BARE FACT THAT ANYONE OVER 40 IS UNEMPLOYABLE DUE TO HEALTH INSURANCE AND EXPERIENCE COSTS, RAISING THE SOCIAL SECURITY AGE SEEMS A VICIOUS KICK IN THE TEETH OF PEOPLE WHO WOULD WORK WELL, IF THEY WERE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY.

[Demeter]

15. You’re on Your Own, Kids By Robert Scheer

http://www.nationofchange.org/you-re-your-own-kids-1334322881

...The death of American liberalism as a significant moral force can be traced to the point in 1996 when President Bill Clinton signed legislation that effectively ended the main federal anti-poverty program and turned the fate of welfare recipients, 70 percent of whom were children, over to the tender mercies of the states. With a stroke of the pen, Clinton eliminated what remained of New Deal-era compassion for the poor and codified into law the “tough love” callousness that his Republican allies in the Congress, led by Newt Gingrich, had long embraced.

The ensuing wave of state-imposed eligibility restrictions was designed to replace the war on poverty with a war on welfare recipients, with the result that in this time of economic crisis the poor have nowhere to turn. It also allowed states to play in a meanness derby, cutting the welfare rolls and forcing many of the desperate to cross state lines to locales where they might survive. “My take on it was the states would push people off the assistance lists and not let them back on, and that’s just what they did,” said Peter B. Edelman, who resigned from the Clinton administration over this issue and who told the Times for the recent article, “It’s been even worse than I thought it would be.” Edelman, now a law professor at Georgetown University, was a close friend of the Clintons. His principled resignation was a rare exception to the cheerleading by Democrats who celebrated President Clinton’s betrayal of the poor as shrewd triangulation. Clinton himself had to be fully aware of the depth of that betrayal because he had governed one of the poorest states. In an interview I did with him for The Los Angeles Times when he was still the governor of Arkansas, he was very clear on two points concerning socially responsible welfare reform: It required federal standards, and it would cost more money because the well-being of children was at stake. “To do it, you need more money … for education, training, transportation, and child care.”


...Well, glory be, hope is on the rise. A recent and well-documented Indiana University study concludes that the number of Americans living beneath the poverty line has risen 27 percent during the recession, leaving 46 million former fetuses living large on a new hope diet.

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

This article was originally posted on Truthdig.


Robert Scheer, editor in chief of Truthdig, has built a reputation for strong social and political writing over his 30 years as a journalist. His columns appear in newspapers across the country, and his in-depth interviews have made headlines. He conducted the famous Playboy magazine interview in which Jimmy Carter confessed to the lust in his heart and he went on to do many interviews for the Los Angeles Times with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and many other prominent political and cultural figures.

[Demeter]

53. Is Georgia Waiting for Its Jobless to Just Kill Themselves? How State GOPers Made Unemployment Hell

http://www.alternet.org/story/154810/is_georgia_waiting_for_its_jobless_to_just_kill_themselves_how_state_gopers_made_unemployment_hell_on_earth?akid=8593.227380.U-G4IR&rd=1&t=8

...As legislators raced toward adjournment in the waning hours of their mandated 40-day annual session in late March, they trampled on the well-being of those who will become unemployed in the months ahead. It’s already hard enough to get, and keep, jobless benefits here in the Peach State. The pay is paltry, there’s a long wait to get the first check, and there’s little hope of getting additional benefits if claimants can’t find a job in six months....

...to file for unemployment benefits. The computer application process took two hours to complete. A state worker, after checking Joe’s application, told him he would not get his first benefit check until his claim had been certified by a DOL officer at headquarters in Atlanta. The call, he told Joe, should come in several days.

Only when he was certified could Joe start receiving $330 per week from the state. When Joe protested that he was making much more than that and had many bills to pay, the worker gave Joe the facts of life: everyone on unemployment in Georgia gets $330 a week -- TV anchors, stockbrokers or coffeehouse baristas. And once taxes were withheld, the DOL worker said the weekly payout would be closer to $280....Days came and went. There were no calls from the Department of Labor brain trust. Several days became several weeks....After a month, Joe called a supervisor at his local Labor Department office. She had no trouble understanding his financial fix. The problem, she said, was that the Department was so understaffed from budget cuts that claims certifiers were overwhelmed. She explained the obvious: Georgia’s jobless rate remains stubbornly high so there are more “Joes” filing for help every single day and the same small number of state workers....

READ IT TO WEEP

[Demeter]

14. 10 Big Companies That Pay No Taxes (and Their Favorite Politicians)

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/04/top-tax-dodging-companies-politicians

Between 2008 and 2011, 26 major American corporations paid no net federal income taxes despite bringing in billions in profits, according to a new report (PDF) from the nonprofit research group Citizens for Tax Justice. CTJ calculates that if the companies had paid the full 35 percent corporate tax rate, they would have put more than $78 billion into government coffers.

Here's a look at the 10 most profitable tax evaders and the politicians their CEOs, employees, and PACs give the most money to: READ IT AND WEEP

[Demeter]

16. BoA Forecloses On Homeowner With Disabled Daughter After Offering Her A Modification

http://www.nationofchange.org/bank-america-forecloses-homeowner-disabled-daughter-after-offering-her-modification-1334330695

A California woman is facing foreclosure from Bank of America after taking out a loan to make her home more accessible for her disabled daughter, shining light on yet another improper foreclosure practice perpetuated by America’s largest banks. Dirma Rodriguez fell behind on her original loan after spending thousands of dollars installing tile floors and a wheelchair ramp to make it easier for Ingrid Ortiz, her daughter who has cerebral palsy, to move around the house. When Rodriguez fell behind on her original loan, Bank of America offered her a trial modification. Even though Rodriguez kept up with those payments for more than a year, the bank sold her home at auction, and the new owner is pursuing eviction, the Los Angeles Times reports:

Rodriguez took out a loan to retrofit her house for her special-needs daughter. After she fell behind on her payments, the Bank of America lowered her monthly obligation, but then sold the house at a foreclosure auction last September. The new owner, a house flipper from El Segundo called West Ridge Rentals, moved to evict the family. [...]

Bank of America inherited Rodriguez’s loan from Countrywide. After her payment jumped, and she fell behind, the bank placed her in a trial loan modification. She made her payments faithfully for 13 months and was awaiting a permanent modification package when the bank sold her home out from under her, she says.

Rodriguez’s story, unfortunately, is not unique. Thanks to the process known as dual-tracking, banks have thrown thousands of homeowners into foreclosure even while offering those same homeowners loan modifications. As a result, homeowners who were willing to make new, lower payments to stay in their homes are often evicted anyway. Dual tracking, along discriminatory, fraudulent, and deceptive practices, led Bank of America and other Wall Street banks to settle a $25 billion suit with the federal government last month. Trial modifications like the one given to Rodriguez, whose loan is backed by Freddie Mac, are supposed to last three months before the terms of the modification are made permanent if all payments are made. Rodriguez says she made 13 consecutive payments, but Bank of America told the Times that it still wants to be sure she can afford the payments before it makes the modification permanent. “I don’t want a free house,” Rodriguez told the Times. “I just want to make my payments.”

Luckily for Rodriguez, local activists have taken up her cause. Occupy Fights Foreclosure helped her stave off a scheduled eviction on March 26, and the company that bought her home at auction is willing to return it if Bank of America pays it back. The bank, which set the whole process in motion, is now considering giving her a modification that would allow her to keep the home.

[Demeter]

18. Europe’s Economic Suicide By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/krugman-europes-economic-suicide.html

On Saturday The Times reported on an apparently growing phenomenon in Europe: “suicide by economic crisis,” people taking their own lives in despair over unemployment and business failure. It was a heartbreaking story. But I’m sure I wasn’t the only reader, especially among economists, wondering if the larger story isn’t so much about individuals as about the apparent determination of European leaders to commit economic suicide for the Continent as a whole...

THAT'S WHAT HAS ME PUZZLED, TOO, DR. KRUGMAN. I MUST BE MISSING THE HIDDEN BENEFITS OF DESTROYING THE NEST AND THE NESTLINGS AND THE TREE THEY LIVE IN... FOR THE 1% ELITISTS.

[Demeter]

19. Making Visas-for-Dollars Work By ANN LEE (OR, AMERICA'S ECONOMIC SUICIDE)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/reform-the-eb-5-program.html

AMONG the most popular tools for attracting foreign investment to the United States is the EB-5 program. It seems like the perfect win-win: any foreigner who invests between $500,000 and $1 million here, and creates at least 10 domestic jobs from that investment within two years, gets a green card.

Given how many high-worth investors are clamoring to enter the United States, the program could have a significant effect on American unemployment. Indeed, it has brought in some $1 billion over the last fiscal year, and the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness has called for the program to be “radically” expanded over the next few years.

Unfortunately, the program is so rife with fraud and corruption that it could actually have the opposite impact and deter investment. To regain its credibility, the program must make a number of changes to enable more transparency and demand more competence from its operators...

GEE, COULD THAT BE BECAUSE THE UNDERLYING PREMISE IS SO BOGUS?

[xchrom]

21. morning

[Demeter]

23. Ain't it the truth!

But somehow, we will survive. I hope. although, with our horoscope, I doubt it:

You don't know what to make of today's events because you truly want reality to support your fantasies. But it is challenging to believe in your dreams if they're not supported by the people in your life. Nevertheless, it's not a good idea to give up. Although it isn't easy to be patient as messenger Mercury enters your sign, suppressing your restlessness now is more useful than quitting too soon. Keep working toward your goal and others will eventually understand your motives.

This is NOT the kind of prediction I need on Board Meeting week! But, it's accurate! I know that for a fact, already. I'm not supported by the people in my life, especially on the board...

[Demeter]

24. Dilbert shows us how

Seems as if nowadays, revenge is the only way of living well....

[xchrom]

25. i was thinking of your board meetings as i read that!

hang tough, miss demeter here's to you!

[Demeter]

30. Tempting as it may be

8 AM is a little early to start drinking alcohol...even in mimosas. And I don't stock champagne...

Why not? Good question..I guess because champagne should be enjoyed at leisure...

[xchrom]

33. 11:oo am for mimosas -- brunch -- 4:00 pm for the start of the cocktail hour.

i only rarely get to do brunch -- and it really is one of my fav things -- every one has time to linger and the food is usually very scrummy indeed.

[xchrom]

26. Gold glitters for North American mining students

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47055371/ns/business/#.T4wDxO1qP8s

When Travis Howard started his degree at the Colorado School of Mines four years ago he decided to pursue a double major in mechanical engineering and metallurgy to give himself the best chance of landing a high-paying job when he graduated.

Turns out he had nothing to worry about. The 21-year-old, who dropped his mechanical classes to focus on mining after his second year, has accepted a job with Kinross Gold Corp at a starting salary of $64,000 a year plus bonuses.

With graduation still a month away, "pretty much everyone is sitting on an offer or two," said Howard of his classmates, adding that some students were juggling four or five offers.

In fact, students at the Colorado School of Mines are some of the most employable in the country - 94 percent of 2011 graduates from the mining engineering, metallurgy and materials, geological engineering, and geophysics programs have jobs.

[Demeter]

27. What do you want to bet that kid hasn't been lower than a basement, yet?

Although, there ARE mines in Colorado...so he could have some actual exposure...

[xchrom]

28. i find the whole thing fascinating -- 64,000. a year to start.

yeah it's hard to imagine he's been in a very deep hole.


nice find on the johnny cash -- love him.

[xchrom]

29. Spain 'probably in recession'

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0416/breaking25.html


Spain's economy minister admitted that the country has probably tipped into its second recession since 2009, as government debt yields climbed back towards danger levels today on concerns that Madrid will miss its strict budget deficit targets.

Official data on total economic output in the first three months of this year is not due until April 30th. However, economy minister Luis de Guindos said gross domestic product was likely to have fallen a similar amount to the October-December period of 2011 when the economy shrank 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

Two successive quarters of falling GDP mark a recession, which has been widely expected in Spain, but Mr de Guindos said the downturn may not be as bad as first thought.

"At the moment I see a first quarter with a similar pattern to the last quarter of last year," Mr de Guindos said in an interview published in El Mundo newspaper.

[Demeter]

31. What was their first clue?

50% unemployment among the under 40 group? Riots? Mysterious foreigners buying up real estate?

[xchrom]

34. ...

[DemReadingDU]

39. probably???

How many countries are there that probably aren't in recession?

[xchrom]

41. the Power of the Snark is strong in SMW today...

[Demeter]

44. We only reflect the greater world

We aren't enough to change it....yet.

[Tansy_Gold]

45. ...

And I just got up!

[Demeter]

48. I have all these Monsanto Attack Articles

Nation for Change is doing a knife job on them....I just hesitate to flood the sensibilities of the readership with the Monsanto topic, on top of all the other good news we have....because people are just waking up, or eating, or drinking, or feeling reasonably calm and functional....

Maybe later, when the rage has kicked in.

[xchrom]

32. China's economic growth falls to 8.1%

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0414/1224314729277.html


ECONOMIC GROWTH in China, the world’s second largest economy, fell to its lowest level in nearly three years in the first quarter, but analysts said they expect a rebound in coming months.

China’s economy expanded 8.1 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday, slowing from 8.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

China’s rapid growth has been falling steadily since 2010 as a slump in global demand has put pressure on its exporters and Beijing tightened lending and investment curbs to cool an overheated economy and surging inflation.

Chinese data is closely watched as a serious slump in China would badly hit demand for fuel, industrial goods, raw materials and consumer goods at a volatile time for the global economy. European and US growth is still weak.

[xchrom]

35. Spanish debt heading towards crisis levels

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/uk-markets-global-idUKBRE83F0DW20120416

(Reuters) - Spain's debt yields broke above 6 percent on Monday as investors worried about its budget, knocking the euro and sending safe-haven German bonds to a record last set at the height of the euro zone crisis.

Signs of slowing global growth also undermined sentiment in commodity markets while European equity markets were mostly in positive territory after sharp falls last week.


Spanish stocks were lower, however, reflecting concerns about the country's ability to finance its deficit and debt with borrowing costs on the rise.

"We're back in full crisis mode," Rabobank strategist Lyn Graham-Taylor said.

"It is looking more and more likely that Spain is going to have some form of a bailout."

[xchrom]

36. Six percent of UK's wealthiest pay less than 10 percent tax - data

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/uk-britain-tax-idUKBRE83E0KZ20120416

(Reuters) - Some six percent of Britain's wealthiest people used tax reliefs to reduce their tax bills to less than 10 percent, according to data published by the Treasury on Monday, which it said highlighted the need to make the tax system fairer.

Last month's decision by chancellor George Osborne to cap the level of tax relief on charitable donations to 25 percent of income has drawn howls of protest from within his own Conservative party as well as from charities, who argue that the move will significantly hit donations.

The Treasury figures show that 3 percent of people with earnings of between 1 and 5 million pounds paid less than 10 percent tax in the 2010-11 financial year.

[Demeter]

37. Green Slime Drives Our Financial Crises BILL BLACK

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8530-green-slime-drives-our-financial-crises

“Pink slime” just had its fifteen minutes of fame. BPI, the producer of pink slime, calls it “Lean Finely Textured Beef.” BPI’s slogan is “expect a higher standard.” Pink slime starts with fatty tissues that are inherently more likely to be repositories of salmonella and e coli infections. The tissues are shredded and rendered and most of the fat drained off. The pink slime, however, is still more likely to be infected after this processing and that makes it dangerous and can make it smell spoiled. BPI’s “innovation” was to gas the pink slime in Mr. Clean (ammonia) to try to kill bacteria and reduce the stink. The resultant pink slime is then frozen into bricks and shipped in bulk. Pink slime was originally limited to dog food, but it has secretly been fed to Americans for a decade. Major hamburger chains, grocery stores, and school lunch programs added it to make up 15% of our burgers. The government didn’t require disclosure of pink slime or ammonia. Tests have established that pink slime remains more likely to harbor dangerous bacteria and that the only way to reduce that problem is to add so much Mr. Clean that the pink slime stinks and tastes awful. Because BPI could not sell the product if it continued to stink and taste awful they reduced the amount of Mr. Clean they used in processing and the risk of the pink slime harboring dangerous bacteria rose. The New York Times revealed the pink slime scandal in a story that ran on December 31, 2009. Unfortunately, it buried the lead. The story broke the news that Gerald Zirnstein, a government microbiologist, had dubbed the product “pink slime” in 2002, but it did so around the 25th paragraph and the story did not generate a demand for reform. A few weeks ago, Kit Foshee, a former BPI employee fired for blowing the whistle on pink slime, helped make the secret adulteration of hamburgers with pink slime a scandal. Once the public focused on pink slime they decided that they did indeed “expect a higher standard” for their burgers and BPI lost so much business that it closed three of its four plants producing pink slime.

The infected, odiferous, and bad tasting pink slime (aka, the “higher standard”) secretly added to our burgers for over a decade would be embarrassing to any system that pretends to the label “free enterprise,” but it has special resonance amongst economists. Adam Smith’s most famous saying, which captures his central vision of markets, is a seemingly paradoxical tale about butchers. He wrote that we could rely on the butcher providing us with wholesome meat not because of his altruism, but because of his far more reliable devotion to self-interest. Our butcher may not care about us, but he cares about whether he gets our business. This causes him to act reliably as if he cared for our well-being. He knows that if he sells us unfit meat we will cease buying meat from him and his business will fail. Pink slime is inconceivable in Adam Smith’s ode to the self-interested butcher. Relying on corporate butchers’ self-interest (greed) has been proven to be unreliable by the pink slime deception. Greedy corporate butchers taught that they should not really care about the customer’s well-being realized that they could maximize their self-interest by selling us pink slime as long as they could do so secretly.

Modern finance theory extended Smith’s paradoxical tale about the butcher to the financial world. Theorists assured us that financial markets were, absent regulation, reliably “efficient” because they were “self-correcting.” Any pricing error created a profit opportunity for trades and those trades removed the pricing error. “Accounting control fraud” is impossible because it would create a consistent pricing bias by overstating the value of the securities issued by the frauds. The markets exclude fraud so effectively that “a rule against fraud is not an essential or … an important ingredient of securities markets” (Easterbrook & Fischel 1991). “Private market discipline” adds to the impossibility of accounting control fraud. Creditors suffer severe losses and fail if they make imprudent loans. They have an incentive to develop the experience, expertise, and systems to ensure that they underwrite superbly prior to making large, risky loans. A lender’s central expertise should be underwriting and an investment bank’s central expertise should be “due diligence.” The biggest banks and investment banks, which pay starting compensation of well over $100,000 should have incomparable skills in conducting, respectively, underwriting and due diligence.

It is, therefore, inconceivable under modern financial and economic theory that the financial crisis we continue to suffer from could occur.(!!! !!!) As with the perversion of Adam Smith’s reliable butcher into a corporate butcher specializing in aiding the secret adulteration of our burgers with pink slime, however, the CEOs of our leading financial firms have adulterated our financial system with green slime (the color of our money.) Pink slime was limited to 15% of our burgers and it generally does not makes purchasers sick. Green slime became one-third of the mortgages made in 2006 and close to 100% of our collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Green slime typically caused severe financial losses. The financial CEOs did not add Mr. Clean to their green slime to reduce its endemic infestation by pathogens. They did, however, tell us to “expect a higher standard.” Indeed, they ensured that the rating agencies would rate the green slime “AAA” and the outside auditors would give clean financial opinions to financial statements claiming that green slime was “prime” and free of adulteration. The meat butchers and the financial butchers called their slimed products “prime” – prime meat and prime loans. Green slime drove the current crisis, just as it did the Enron era frauds and the second phase of the S&L debacle. Studies of “liar’s” loans have shown their fraud incidence to be 90% — they are virtually all fraudulent. The Orwellian term that BPI used to disguise the nature of pink slime was “Lean Finely Textured Beef.” The Orwellian term the industry favored to disguise the nature of green slime was “Alt-A.” “A” signifies that the mortgage is of the lowest credit risk – it is “prime.” “Alt” is short for “alternative” and, falsely, implies that the loans were underwritten by an alternative process. Failing to underwrite, e.g., by verifying the borrower’s income, is not an “alternative” means of underwriting. Honest mortgage lenders do not make liar’s loans (the term that the lenders used in private to describe their green slime) because they create severe “adverse selection” and encourage endemic fraud. Both results mean that the expected value of making such loans is negative. In plain English, that means that the lender will suffer catastrophic losses and fail.


AND IT GOES ON, AND ON, AND ON...YORAM SHOULD WATCH OUT, I THINK BILL BLACK HAS A FUTURE AS A STAND-UP ECONOMIST, TOO.

[Demeter]

38. Vermont Senate Resolves to Abolish “Corporate Personhood”

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8517-vermont-senate-resolves-to-abolish-corporate-personhood

Montpelier - The Vermont State Senate voted today calling for an amendment to the Constitution that would make clear that corporations are not people and money is not speech and can be regulated in political campaigns. The vote was 26-3. State Senator Virginia Lyons (D) spearheaded the effort, working with Move to Amend in 2011 to introduce a resolution that came back this year.....

For a list of cities that have passed resolutions or that have campaigns in progress see: http://movetoamend.org/resolutions-map.

[Demeter]

42. Rewriting the Rules of the Global Economy - Creating Economics That Improve People's Lives

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8526-rewriting-the-rules-of-the-global-economy-creating-economics-that-improve-peoples-lives

...The current popular US dissent over the extreme concentration of wealth and the marginalization of the voices of the majority has long precursors in US social movements. The farmers' movements of the 1870s, the populist movement of the 1890s, the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) and other militant labor unions from the dawn of the 20th Century through the 1950s, the civil rights and Black, Chicano, and Native nationalist movements from the 1960s on, and many other social movements... all have been rooted in calls for a more equitable division of power and economic resources. Parallel struggles, in many different forms, have occurred throughout the world.

The global justice movement, also known as the anti-globalization movement, exploded around the global South in the 1980s, when new draconian reforms demanded by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), as conditions for loans, destroyed national economies and the lives of those within them. The World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999 and the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington in 2000, when hundreds of thousands of residents of the US and Europe turned out into the streets to protest the trade and financial regimes, marked something new: active alliance from the global North. Since then, organized populations everywhere have worked in their own countries and transnationally to subvert the rules of the global economy, where the wealthiest citizens, corporations, and counties make the decisions for all of us. The people's movements have reminded us that economic globalization, which we are told is the only possible economic order, only commenced at the end of World War II, and that we do not have to accept it as it currently exists.

Those who are flooding streets today in Spain, Portugal, and Greece, and the millions who have preceded them around the world, all posit an alternative vision for economies: that they be just, that they provide for all without exploitation, that they place the well-being of human beings and the environment over profit, and that everyone gets to be part of shaping them. They believe that economic relationships should be driven by our desire to nurture each other and our communities, not by the competition and greed often underlying the corporate market. And they have won dramatic victories....

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

Deborah James has been a leader in the global movement for economic justice for decades. Today she serves as Director of International Programs at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, where she campaigns against the expansion of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and for improved US policy in Latin America. Below she speaks about how international financial institutions hinder countries' efforts at poverty alleviation, instead prioritizing corporate interests. She also describes citizens' efforts to oppose the power of these institutions, and tells of the countries that have made strides toward freeing themselves from the economic chains, providing inspiration to us all.

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

MUCH MORE AT LINK--MUST READ!

[xchrom]

40. Exxon, Rosneft to sign strategic deal - sources

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/uk-exxon-rosneft-idUKBRE83F0CM20120416

(Reuters) - Russian state oil firm Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and U.S. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) will sign a wide-ranging strategic partnership on Monday at Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's residence, sources familiar with the matter said.

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson was expected to attend the event at Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow at 4 p.m. (1200 GMT), one of the sources told Reuters.


The landmark deal will grant Rosneft access to projects in North America, where Exxon is developing hard-to-recover reserves in West Texas, the Canadian province of Alberta and in the Gulf of Mexico, industry sources told Reuters last week.

The two companies will also seek to transfer know-how from those projects to develop Rosneft's own vast reserves of so-called 'tight' oil held in non-porous rock in Western Siberia.

[xchrom]

43. Tokyo's Nikkei dips on Spanish debt concerns

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/markets-japan-stocks-idUKL6E8FG0DO20120416

* Exporters stumble on euro zone worries

* Nippon Steel gains on revised profit report

* U.S. earnings seen as catalyst for market rebound

By Sophie Knight
TOKYO, April 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average
fell 1.7 percent on Monday as investors cut their exposure to
risky assets in response to fresh concerns over the euro zone
debt crisis after Spanish bond yields soared.

Exporters dependent on the European market were heavily
sold, with TDK Corp, Konica Minolta Holdings Inc
and Nikon Corp shedding between 2.2 and 3.9
percent as the euro slipped below 105 yen.

"Even after the European Central Bank's liquidity operation
earlier this year, the yields of Spain's government bonds are
continuing to rise, which reflects investor doubts over its
finances and this concern came to the fore last week," said
Fumiyuki Nakanishi, general manager of investment and research
at SMBC Friend Securities.

The Nikkei closed down 167.35 points to 9,470.64, falling
below 9,500, a key psychological level.

[Demeter]

47. As we all expected

Too bad the Europeans aren't worried....or Ben. Asians seem to have a greater grounding in reality...ever since Japan's serial implosions....

[xchrom]

46. RPT-European shares extend gains after US data

ttp://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/markets-europe-stocks-data-idUKL6E8FG8CO20120416

(Reuters) - Europe's equity markets extended gains on Monday after stronger than expected U.S. retail sales data, which bolstered confidence in the health of the world's biggest economy.

By 1238 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.9 percent at 1,037.31 points - a session high. (Reporting By Toni Vorobyova)


*** that's the whole article

[xchrom]

49. World Bank president to be named soon

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17728302


The World Bank is poised to announce its next president.

The choice is between Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the US nominee, Jim Yong Kim.

For the first time ever, the US domination of the World Bank is being challenged - but the American is still the favourite to become the next boss.

On Friday, Colombia's Jose Antonio Ocampo pulled out of the race, calling the selection process a "political exercise".

[Demeter]

64. Well, It's the American/Korean Physician

whoopee for the team.

[Demeter]

50. Banks urge Fed retreat on credit exposure

Lenders warning of significant international consequences if single counterparty limit, part of the Dodd-Frank Act reforms, is passed into law

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/YBI521/6ADGM/62YWTM/WTY04V/7V/t?a1=2012&a2=4&a3=16

[Demeter]

51. Barclays’ tax deals face US scrutiny

The IRS is set to square off with Bank of New York Mellon in court in the first of several lawsuits over deals the UK lender structured for banks

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/YBI521/6ADGM/62YWTM/7APXJQ/7V/t?a1=2012&a2=4&a3=16

[xchrom]

52. Why the Eurozone Crisis Is Getting Worse

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/project_syndicate/2012/04/the_eurozone_problem_s_will_get_worse_unless_they_adopt_a_growth_strategy_.html

Since last November, the European Central Bank, under its new president, Mario Draghi, has reduced its policy rates and undertaken two injections of more than 1 trillion euros of liquidity into the eurozone banking system. This led to a temporary reduction in the financial strains confronting the debt endangered countries on the eurozone’s periphery (Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland), sharply lowered the risk of a liquidity run in the eurozone banking system, and cut financing costs for Italy and Spain from their unsustainable levels of last fall.

At the same time, a technical default by Greece was avoided, and the country implemented a successful—if coercive—restructuring of its public debt. A new fiscal compact and new governments in Greece, Italy, and Spain spurred hope of credible commitment to austerity and structural reform. And the decision to combine the eurozone’s new bailout fund (the European Stability Mechanism) with the old one (the European Financial Stability Facility) significantly increased the size of the eurozone’s firewall.

But the ensuing honeymoon with the markets turned out to be brief. Interest-rate spreads for Italy and Spain are widening again, while borrowing costs for Portugal and Greece remained high all along. And, inevitably, the recession on the eurozone’s periphery is deepening and moving to the core, namely France and Germany. Indeed, the recession will worsen throughout this year, for many reasons.

[Demeter]

54. Because the First Rule of Holes Is Being Violated

sheesh

[Demeter]

56. The Business of a Better World: Can a New Kind of Corporation Save Us and Our Economy?

http://www.alternet.org/story/154976/the_business_of_a_better_world%3A_can_a_new_kind_of_corporation_save_us_and_our_economy?page=entire

...It doesn't seem to matter if corporations cripple the economy, destroy communities or trash the environment, it's still an all-you-can-eat buffet for them. The 2010 Citizens United decision was icing on the cake. Politicians eat from the hand of the corporate kingmakers. The rest of us muscle for the crumbs. It hasn't always been like this. When the American colonies were first starting out, incorporation was granted for things that would benefit the public good -- like building roads. But corporations, by today's definition, are obligated to make as much money as they can. They are legally beholden to shareholders and the bottom line and that makes being "good" difficult and risky.

"The public benefit has all too often been subverted as a result," writes Francesca Rheannon on the Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire. "Those corporations that sincerely wanted to operate according to the Triple Bottom Line (variously characterized, but traditionally defined, as 'People, Profits, Planet') have had to privilege profit over the other two goals, or risk shareholders' wrath if pursuing environmental or social goals lessened potential financial returns."

But that may be changing with the nonprofit B Lab, which started a program less than two years ago to certify a new kind of corporation -- a Benefit Corporation or B Corp. In that short time over 500 companies have become B Corps. Legislation to change corporate law and make B Corps official entities has been signed in seven states -- Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont, Virginia, California, Hawaii and New York -- with legislation pending in seven more states. The folks behind B Corps believe that, "Governments and nonprofits are necessary but insufficient to solve today's most pressing problems. Business is the most powerful force on the planet and can be a positive instrument for change." Our vision is simple yet ambitious: to create a new sector of the economy which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. This sector will be comprised of a new type of corporation -- the B Corporation -- that meets rigorous and independent standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency....The B Corp process assesses companies on their environmental, community and workforce impact....

"One of our roles as an organization is to educate the consumer," said Maureen McHugh, Equator's vice-president of operations. "We feel strongly that this is a positive role for business." The B Corp label helps them take the conversation with consumers to another level. It becomes not just about ensuring a "green" or socially conscious end product, but about guaranteeing the entire process is sustainable and fair. "Capitalism is changing -- we are moving to more of a stakeholder economy. Equator coffee is such an identifiable chain from the farm to here -- there are so many stakeholders in that chain," said Russell. And the B Corp program helps to make that chain transparent to consumers and investors. Russell see B Corps as the changing face of business. "There is a shift happening, there is a need for it. It can't just be about shareholder value, it's about everyone in the chain, all boats have to be raised or I don't know where the capitalism model will go if we don't go in this direction."... B Corp, however, holds a company accountable for not just its impact, but its mission. In fact B Corps have a Declaration of Interdependence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That we must be the change we seek in the world.

That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered.

That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all.

To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.

Last month B Labs released its list of the top companies that are the "best for the world." In terms of overall impact, they highlighted companies such as Method Products, Better World Books, Global Green Energy Corp, Namaste Solar, Piedmont Biofuels, New Resource Bank, Re:Vision Architecture, to name a few. They also recognized the top performers for environmental impact like Patagonia, Bullfrog Power, Guayakí Sustainable Rainforest Products, IceStone, gDiapers, Larry's Beans. For community impact there was Change.org, Care2, Cap Global, Virginia Community Capital, Ideal Network and for worker impact there was Exponent Partners, Heller Consulting, King Arthur Flour Company, Peaceworks Technology Solutions, Sungevity. The full list of top companies can be found here, along with high-fives for most impactful small companies, too. While there are a few big names on the list -- like Patagonia, Method and Change.org -- many of the companies are ones most consumers likely haven't heard of. As Alex Goldmark writes for GOOD -- that's because many of these companies are actually business-to-business operations. "These businesses deserve twice the recognition because they don't face the same public pressure to go green," writes Goldmark. "Of the 19 companies that took the title 'best for overall impact,' more than a third are business-to-business. Another third also provide some mix of consumer- and commercial-focused offerings ... B Lab measures results and brings us companies that toil away on principal even when nobody's looking."

It's easy to see why a consumer would seek out a B Corp when looking for a product or service. But there is more in it for companies than just winning over progressive-minded consumers and earning the accolades. "For one thing, Benefit Corporations can't be held liable by courts for failing to place profits over everything else," writes Jamie Raskin for the Nation. "This is an important shift in law. The fear of shareholder litigation has driven many public-spirited businesses, most famously Ben & Jerry's, to take the high bid rather than the high road in a corporate takeover fight. Becoming a Benefit Corporation declares legal independence from the profits-über-alles model. More important, having Benefit Corporation status sends a powerful message to shareholders, employees, business partners and consumers about what kind of company you're running."

***********************
Right now the mighty power of 500 B Corps may be a drop in the bucket compared to the huge multinationals that control our economy and politics. But our business-as-usual model in recent decades has put us on the fast track to financial and ecological ruin. Without a dramatic shift toward revolutionary change, we're in a mess of trouble. By changing the way we do business, B Corps may be providing an invaluable part of the equation for change.

"It may take a while to displace the rent-seeking leviathans that get rich off lobbying, power plays, pyramid schemes and defense contracts," concludes Raskin. "Then again, a lot of those companies have relocated their operations abroad in search of cheaper labor, while the Benefit Corporations are taking root and blossoming right here in America, restoring the bonds of community while doing honest commerce. This is what economic recovery looks like."

[Demeter]

57. Okay, the Fairies are in control, and I'm outta here

If it gets really unreal, I'll be back with the Monsanto stuff....and some fairy-cide.

[Demeter]

58. In other news

The downpour of 10 am is over, the humongous Low is over the UP, and the jet stream is blowing by at 65mph on the ground....I was going to throw papers, but I think that might be futile under these conditions.

The sun is out, It's warm enough to open windows.

[Ghost Dog]

60. Never forget: The markets can remain irrational...

... longer than you can.

PS: There have been no riots in Spain... yet. Riots, that is, in the usual sense of violent action by a "crowd". So far, there has only been violent action by a small group of "vandals"... action which has so-far resulted supportive of the status quo. Get your news from the MSM, especially 'overseas' news, and, well, you know what to expect.

[Roland99]

61. They seem to have quite the DOW bias today, though.

[Ghost Dog]

62. Both DOW and EUR-USD positive.

Weird or what?

[Roland99]

63. Bizarro World

[Eugene]

59. Spain, Italy slide further into euro zone crisis

Source: Reuters

Spain, Italy slide further into euro zone crisis

By James Mackenzie and Sarah Morris

ROME/MADRID | Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - Spain and Italy faced growing market pressure on Monday, stoking fears of a new phase in the euro zone debt crisis as Madrid's budget problems threatened to drag in other southern European economies.

Yields on Spanish 10-year bonds have climbed over 6.1 percent, nearing levels that caused general market panic when Italy was in the same position late last year.

Italian 10-year yields stood at almost 5.6 percent, while the yield on safe-haven German Bunds was just over 1.6 percent, the lowest since the height of the financial turmoil in 2008.

"We are back in full crisis mode," said Rabobank strategist Lyn Graham-Taylor.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/us-eurozone-idUSBRE83F0W420120416