STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 18 January 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 18 January 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 17 January 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 17 January 2013
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Dow Jones 13,596.02 +84.79 (0.63%)
S&P 500 1,480.94 +8.31 (0.56%)
Nasdaq 3,136.00 +18.46 (0.59%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.88% +0.01 (0.53%)
30 Year 3.07% +0.01 (0.33%) [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 - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
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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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.



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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. Too close to the truth for comfort

that cartoon...

[Tansy_Gold]

2. The best ones

always are. . . .

[Demeter]

3. Think 1%

[Demeter]

4. Robert L. Citron dies at 87; central figure in O.C. bankruptcy

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-robert-citron-20130117,0,766939.story

Robert L. Citron, the Orange County treasurer whose bad bets on exotic Wall Street investments resulted in what at the time was the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, died Wednesday. He was 87. Citron died at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange of complications from a heart attack, said his wife, Terry Citron.

Until the 1994 financial collapse, Citron was a low-key bureaucrat who won praise from Orange County supervisors for earning much higher yields from the county's complex array of investments than many other government agencies. His investment pools attracted funds from governments around the country as well as from schools, cities and public agencies.

The county declared bankruptcy Dec. 6, 1994, buffeted by losses that, when the final count was tallied, amounted to $1.64 billion. The county was forced to postpone repayments on bonds it had sold, ruining its credit rating, but eventually repaid its creditors in full. The bankruptcy sent shock waves through Wall Street and the municipal bond markets. It also made national headlines, with some asking how such a prosperous county could become insolvent...A grand jury investigation would later find that the treasurer who over the years won so much praise for his investment skills relied upon a mail order astrologer and a psychic for interest rate predictions as the county's treasury began to falter. Citron pleaded guilty to six felony counts, including filing false statements to participants in the Orange County Treasury Investment Pool. His lawyer, David Wiechert, submitted medical testimony indicating that Citron was in the early stages of dementia. Citron was sentenced to work in the county jail, sorting inmates' requests for personal items by day before returning to his home in Santa Ana. He never spent a night behind bars but worked for months in the jail's commissary. He remained on probation until 2002.

In a 1997 interview with The Times, Citron insisted that he was duped into making rashly imprudent investments by Merrill Lynch. He became a key witness in Orange County's $2-billion lawsuit against the investment giant. The suit said that Citron was a "pigeon" for greedy brokers at the investment house....Merrill Lynch maintained that the bankruptcy was Citron's fault. It later settled the case with the county, paying $400 million.

MORE

[Demeter]

5. Obama team to form agenda group

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-obama-team-form-agenda-group-044702839--politics.html

In an unprecedented move, President Barack Obama's vaunted political organization is being turned into a nonprofit group — funded in part by corporate money — to mobilize support behind the president's second-term agenda.

Democratic officials familiar with the plan said Thursday the tax-exempt organization will be called Organizing for Action and seek to harness the energy of the president's re-election campaign for future legislative fights. Officials said the group will be separate from the Democratic National Committee and advocate on key policy issues such as gun control and immigration, train future leaders and devote attention to local issues around the nation.

The president's 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, will serve as the group's national chairman, and White House official Jon Carson is leaving the administration to become its executive director. The officials said the organization plans to accept donations from individuals and corporations — and disclose their identities — but not take money from lobbyists and political action committees, a move in line with donor rules set up for the president's Inaugural Committee. It will have offices in Washington and Chicago, the officials said...Coming just days before Obama's second inauguration, the move represents the first time a sitting president has ever transformed his presidential campaign operation into an outside group with the express purpose of promoting his agenda.

...The group's board of directors will include several former White House and campaign aides, including former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, top campaign officials Stephanie Cutter, Jennifer O'Malley-Dillon and Julianna Smoot, and Frank White, a businessman and prominent Obama donor. White House aide David Plouffe, the 2008 campaign manager, is expected to join the board after he leaves the administration later this month. Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod will serve as a consultant to it...Obama's political apparatus, which paired traditional grassroots techniques with cutting-edge technology to fundamentally change the electorate, was groundbreaking when it was created for the 2008 campaign. It signed up legions of backers, collected information about them and linked them to each other through the Internet. It also used sophisticated new tools — and mounds of data it had culled — to identify sporadic or new voters, and ensure they turned out on Election Day...After he won, Obama decided to house the backbone of his campaign — his massive email list, which at the time included roughly 12 million to 13 million contacts, its technological functions and its network of neighborhood team leaders — at the DNC, which historically has served as the president's political arm...

THINGS THAT MAKE ONE GO "HMMMM...."

[Demeter]

7. Even After Reelection, Obama’s Corporate Money Train Keeps Right on Moving

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/lynn-parramore/even-after-reelection-obamas-corporate-money-train-keeps-right-moving?akid=9935.227380.5Wm6Mg&rd=1&src=newsletter779169&t=16

Just in case you thought that Obama was ready to work for us citizens because he doesn't need to be reelected, get this: The President has set his sights on his “legacy” – inviting presidential historians to dine and asking speechwriters to compose with history in mind. Sounds natural enough, right?

Here’s the rub: Legacies cost money. Big money.

Writing for Bloomberg, Lisa Lerer and Jonathan D. Salant share the happy tidings of Obama’s never-ending fundraising focus, explaining that the President will launch his legacy-building initiative by giving a great big embrace to Corporate America for his inaguration:

“The former Illinois senator who in 2008 campaigned for president pledging to curb the role of money in politics has decided to accept unlimited corporate dollars for his second inauguration. His shift from four years ago, when he banned company funding, marks an early strategic step toward building the organization that will finance his presidential library, foundation and other post-White House aspirations, advisers say.”

The price tag of the presidential library alone? At least $500 million. And there’s only one way to get that kind of dough now that wealthy supporters of his campaign feel tapped out: corporations like AT&T and Microsoft. (Clinton got a lot of his library cash from the Bank of America Foundation and Cisco). Companies that fork over all these dollars, of course, often have agendas to push in Washington – a situation that most certainly spells conflict-of-interest. But not to worry! The White House has announced that its lawyers would vet each donor and make very sure no such nasty things happen. What a relief.

Perhaps Obama could simply affix the logos of these companies to his lapel during the festivities. Or maybe sell naming rights to the party: The Microsoft Presidential Inauguration 2013. At least that way we'd be clear whose business comes first.

[AnneD]

26. Again....

I would like to push for truth in advertising laws or labeling of content laws. Anyone elected or appointed to a federal post should have to wear a patch on their clothing much like the NASCAR drivers with the largest donor patch placed closest to their hearts. That way there would be less confusion as to where their loyalties were.

[Demeter]

6. More Americans leave parental nest in boost for housing

http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-more-americans-leave-parental-nest-boost-housing-060654191--sector.html

Americans are feeling increasingly confident in the future and more and more are striking out to set up their own homes, a move that is helping propel the housing recovery....The deep financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009 kept many Americans from leaving their parents' nests and drove others back into them, putting a sharp brake on the pace at which new households formed. Household growth averaged about 500,000 per year from 2008 through 2010 - less than half the rate seen at the height of the housing boom in the years just before that. The pace in 2010 was the weakest since 1947.

But the rate at which individuals or families are getting their own homes picked up over the past two years, underpinned by a steady if tepid economic recovery and gradual labor market gains. In 2011, households increased 1.1 million and they grew closer to 1.2 million last year.

"The rise in household formation bodes well for the housing recovery. Instead of having too many houses, we are turning to a situation where there aren't enough," said Guy Berger a U.S. economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.

Indeed, housing has turned from the economy's sorest spot to its brightest, with new building activity at 4-1/2-year highs. Housing activity in turn spurs related areas like furniture...

AFTER 5 YEARS OF DREAM DEFERRED, PEOPLE WOULD DO ANYTHING TO GET OUT OF THE BASEMENT...

[xchrom]

8. Nina Simone - I put a spell on you.

[xchrom]

9. Is it game over for UK retail?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2013/jan/18/game-over-uk-retail-wages-jobs

As far as the City is concerned, it is game over. The depressed state of retail sales – not just in December but in the previous two months as well – means the UK's national output shrank in the fourth quarter. That leaves the economy halfway towards a triple-dip recession and, with the snow falling, at the mercy of the weather in the first quarter of 2013.

The 0.1% decline in spending could hardly be classified as a surprise. Wages are not going up as quickly as prices; house prices are flat; people are worried about losing their jobs. Hardly the ingredients for a bumper Christmas.

Nor is the outlook going to improve rapidly in 2013, even with the likely aggressive discounting by retailers desperate to get rid of excess stock. Inflation is higher than the Bank of England anticipated and millions of families have just seen their child benefit cut.

A couple of words of caution are in order. Firstly, retail sales make up less than 50% of overall consumer spending, and there has been more upbeat news from some of the sector not included in the latest bulletin from the high street. Sales of new cars have been strong throughout 2012.

[xchrom]

10. Is the eurozone's core cracking up?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/18/eurozone-core-cracking-up-germany

While all eyes have been on the European periphery, has the core been cracking? The Bundesbank has lowered its forecast for German annual GDP growth in 2013 to 0.4%. The Central Bank of the Netherlands expects Dutch GDP to shrink by 0.5% this year – and to contract further in 2014.

The eurozone crisis may be entering its third stage. In the first stage, beginning in the spring of 2008, the locus of the North Atlantic crisis moved from the United States to the eurozone. Banks in the eurozone came under pressure, and interbank tensions increased.

In the second stage, starting in the spring of 2009, the crisis spread to the sovereigns, as investors grew increasingly worried that propping up banks would strain government finances. In turn, sovereign weakness made the banks appear riskier, and the banks and their home governments became joined at the hip.

Throughout the crisis, it has been widely assumed – at least so far – that the eurozone core would remain solid, and would continue to write the cheques for the periphery's distressed governments and banks. That assumption appeared plausible. A "two-speed" Europe was the new normal.

[DemReadingDU]

11. Monday 1/22/13 PBS Frontline: The Untouchables

FRONTLINE investigates why Wall Street’s leaders have escaped prosecution for any fraud related to the sale of bad mortgages.

click to watch short trailer
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/untouchables/



Press Release...
More than four years since the financial crisis, not one senior Wall Street executive has faced criminal prosecution for fraud. Are Wall Street executives “too big to jail”?

In The Untouchables, premiering Jan. 22, 2013, at 10 P.M. on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE producer and correspondent Martin Smith investigates why the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has failed to act on credible evidence that Wall Street knowingly packaged and sold toxic mortgage loans to investors, loans that brought the U.S. and world economies to the brink of collapse.

Through interviews with top prosecutors, government officials and industry whistleblowers, FRONTLINE reports allegations that Wall Street bankers ignored pervasive fraud when buying pools of mortgage loans. Tom Leonard, a supervisor who examined the quality of loans for major investment banks like Bear Stearns, said bankers instructed him to disregard clear evidence of fraud. “Fraud was the F-word, or the F-bomb. You didn’t use that word,” says Leonard. “By your terms and my terms, yes, it was fraud. By the [industry's] terms, it was something else.”

Former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), who was appointed to fill Joe Biden’s long-held Senate seat when he was sworn in as vice president in January 2009, was determined to see bankers in handcuffs. “I was really upset about what went on on Wall Street that brought about the financial crisis,” Kaufman recalls. “That doesn’t happen if there isn’t something bad going on.”

Yet Kaufman left office in late 2010 frustrated by the lack of criminal prosecutions. Jeff Connaughton, Kaufman’s chief of staff, remains convinced that the DOJ failed to make prosecuting Wall Street a top priority. “You’re telling me that not one banker, not one executive on Wall Street, not one player in this entire financial crisis committed provable fraud?” asks Connaughton. “I mean, I just don’t believe that.”

more...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/untouchables/press-release-23/

[xchrom]

12. +1

[Hotler]

22. Now is not the time to point fingers. n/t

[Demeter]

25. Of all the gin joints in all the world...

Hi Hotler! Fancy meeting you here!

[tclambert]

33. I am above the law!

[xchrom]

13. GE EARNINGS RISE ON EMERGING MARKET GROWTH

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EARNS_GENERAL_ELECTRIC?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-01-18-08-30-11

NEW YORK (AP) -- General Electric Co.'s net income rose 8 percent in the fourth quarter as earnings at all of the conglomerate's industrial segments improved due to growth in developing economies.

GE, based in Fairfield, Conn., reported net income of $4 billion Friday on revenue of $39.3 billion for the quarter. Last year during the same period the company earned $3.7 billion on sales of $38 billion. Per share earnings rose to 38 cents from 35 cents last year.

The company's operating profit per share was 44 cents, a penny higher than analysts polled by FactSet expected. GE's revenue also beat analysts' expectations of $38.8 billion.

GE shares rose 80 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $22.10 in premarket trading.

[xchrom]

14. Algeria oil industry: 'Dark cloud' over production

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21079501

The situation with oil workers taken hostage in Algeria puts a "dark cloud" over the country's production, an international energy body has said.

Several hostages have been killed.

The International Energy Agency said that "political risk writ large" dominates much of the energy market, "and not just in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya or Venezuela".

The IEA also raised its forecast for global oil demand this year on the back of Chinese and US demand.

[xchrom]

15. Sterling weakens against the euro

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21068861

The UK pound has continued to weaken against the euro, falling below the 1.20 level for the first time since early April 2012.

Currency traders said that concerns over the UK's AAA credit rating and relationships with the European Union were undermining sterling's strength.

The pound was worth just over 1.19 euros in trading late on Thursday, making a euro worth about 83.5 pence.

That means UK tourists exchanging money are like to get fewer euros.

[Demeter]

16. The Smartphone Have-Nots By ADAM DAVIDSON

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/magazine/income-inequality.html?ref=magazine&_r=0

....Mishel’s session at this year’s meeting of the American Economic Association, titled “Inequality in America,” tellingly coincided with other sessions called “Extreme Wage Inequality” and “Taxes, Transfers and Inequality.” As the financial crisis wanes, economists are shifting their attention toward a more subtle, possibly more upsetting crisis in the United States: the significant increase in income inequality. Much of what we consider the American way of life is rooted in the period of remarkably broad, shared economic growth, from around 1900 to about 1978. Back then, each generation of Americans did better than the one that preceded it. Even those who lived through the Depression made up what was lost. By the 1950s, America had entered an era that economists call the Great Compression, in which workers — through unions and Social Security, among other factors — captured a solid share of the economy’s growth.

These days, there’s a lot of disagreement about what actually happened during these years. Was it a golden age in which the U.S. government guided an economy toward fairness? Or was it a period defined by high taxes (until the early ’60s, the top marginal tax rate was 90 percent) and bureaucratic meddling? Either way, the Great Compression gave way to a Great Divergence. Since 1979, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bottom 80 percent of American families had their share of the country’s income fall, while the top 20 percent had modest gains. Of course, the top 1 percent — and, more so, the top 0.1 percent — has seen income rise stratospherically. That tiny elite takes in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income and controls nearly half its wealth.

The standard explanation of this unhinging, repeated in graduate-school classrooms and in advice to politicians, is technological change. (!) The rise of networked laptops and smartphones and their countless iterations and spawn have helped highly educated professionals create more and more value just as they have created barriers to entry and rendered irrelevant millions of less-educated workers, in places like factory production lines and typing pools. This explanation, known as skill-biased technical change, is so common that economists just call it S.B.T.C. They use it to explain why everyone from the extremely rich to the just-kind-of rich are doing so much better than everyone else.

For two decades, Mishel has been a critic of the S.B.T.C. theory, and that morning in San Diego, he argued that broad technological innovation has been taking place so steadily for so long that the rise of computers simply can’t explain the recent explosion in inequality. After all, when economists talk about technological innovation, they are thinking beyond smartphones; they’re usually considering innovations that affect production. Business innovations — like the railroads, telegraph, Henry Ford’s conveyor belt and the plastic extruders of the 1960s — have occurred for more than a century. Computers and the Internet, Mishel argued, are just new examples on the continuum and cannot explain a development like extreme inequality, which is so recent. So what happened?

The change came around 1978, Mishel said, when politicians from both parties began to think of America as a nation of consumers, not of workers. President Jimmy Carter deregulated the airline, trucking and railroad industries in order to help lower consumer prices. Congress chose to ignore organized labor’s call for laws strengthening union protections. Ever since, Mishel said, each administration and Congress have made choices — expanding trade, deregulating finance and weakening welfare — that helped the rich and hurt everyone else. Inequality didn’t just happen, Mishel argued. The government created it.

AMEN!

[Mojorabbit]

36. I love this piece. Thanks! nt

[xchrom]

17. Spain’s disposable workforce

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/01/16/inenglish/1358340444_463072.html

There is another dramatic situation to add to the ongoing drama of massive unemployment in Spain. This other scenario plays itself out quietly, and in many workplaces, people have gotten used to living side by side with it. We are talking about job exploitation.

The economic crisis has spawned an entire caste of unscrupulous employers who are making the most of the situation and exploiting their workers to the fullest. Of every 100 work inspections carried out in 2012 (figures are available through to November 30), irregularities were found in 23.9 percent of cases (job exploitation is only one of a long list of possible workplace irregularities). In the hotel and restaurant sector, the figure is closer to 30 percent.

"Spain has a serious problem with social awareness," says Juan José Camino Frías, deputy director general for Social Security, Irregular Economy and Immigration Inspections. "There is an excessive tolerance [of abusive job conditions], which is extremely serious."

Frías notes that it is not just about workers' rights being violated, but also about social security contributions not being paid - contributions that would help with the growing need to cover unemployment insurance payments in the current climate.

[xchrom]

18. Merkel ally boosts Irish debt campaign

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0118/1224328998665.html

Ireland’s campaign to ease its debt burden received a boost last night when an ally of German chancellor Angela Merkel said it “could make sense” to extend the repayment period of the Anglo Irish Bank/Irish Nationwide promissory notes.

Norbert Barthle, budgetary spokesman for Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), indicated Berlin would have no issue if such a deal was agreed between the Government and the European Central Bank (ECB).

“I would see no negative consequences if the repayments were extended to ease the burden on Ireland,” Mr Barthle told The Irish Times. “As far as the repayment period is concerned, an extension could make sense.”

Until now, Berlin has always avoided commenting on negotiations on the €30.6 billion promissory note, an IOU issued in 2010 to wind up Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.

[Demeter]

19. It's 9AM and 15-19F and NO SNOW!

I refuse to be this cold if there's no snow to show for it.

We will be exploring the Tuareg, that elusive and inscrutable tribe of the Sahara as our Weekend Theme. (Anything to get warm, or at least think about it)

[westerebus]

23. After four days of rain and gloom,

the snow came last night around 6pm. Two inches with a frosted topping and by 9am this morning, the roads were back to blacktop. At 1045am it's 37F and sunny in central Virginia.

[xchrom]

20. Japanese Stocks Had A Huge Day As Leaders Discussed One Of The Most Taboo Ideas In All Of Economics

http://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-stocks-had-a-huge-day-as-leaders-discussed-one-of-the-most-taboo-ideas-in-all-of-economic-policy-2013-1

The story remains that the government is pursuing aggressive monetary and fiscal easing. That's weakening the yen, boosting inflation hopes, and boosting stocks.
According to Nikkei.com, the big rally comes as the Bank of Japan and the Ministry of Finance (Japan's Treasury Department) are talking about cooperating more on policy.
This is one of the most taboo concepts in modern economics. Traditional economists will go pale, and the blood drain from their faces at the mention of non-independent monetary policy.
The Treasury is supposed to do fiscal policy. The central bank is supposed to do monetary policy.
And that's that.
Well Japan is in the process of breaking that rule, and the market is loving it. And as economist Paul McCulley wrote in a new paper, that's a good thing... in times of liquidity traps, etc., you need the government and the central bank to move together, with the same purpose, even if it means "monetizing" the debt or lost independence.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-stocks-had-a-huge-day-as-leaders-discussed-one-of-the-most-taboo-ideas-in-all-of-economic-policy-2013-1#ixzz2IKtyJPzf

[Demeter]

21. But they are starving the workers and the poor by cutting wages and charity

No way anyone but the 1% benefits from this....

[just1voice]

24. "personal finance industrial complex"

---...From financial "coaches" to leading academics paid to tout dangerous products, members of what former financial columnist Helaine Olen calls the "personal finance industrial complex" are ripping us off, preying on our fears and ensuring that our financial futures are anything but secure. Olen exposes the bogus -- and well-compensated -- advice issuing from the mouths of slick celebrities like Suze Orman, David Bach, Dave Ramsey, and Jim Cramer....---

http://www.alternet.org/economy/wake-america-were-paying-billions-personal-financial-advice-and-its-making-us-poorer

[AnneD]

28. Those of you that know me for a while....

know I would not let this pass without a comment. And please do not take this personally.

In this country, financial literacy is not taught. As a result there are many folks, even those drawing down large sums of money that live from paycheck to paycheck. They make foolish choices with their money and then boom, something happens and a chain of events are unleashed and they find themselves under water, drowning in debt. They haven't a clue as to how they got there or how they can get out.

I have read many of these personal finance gurus. And I have gleaned something from all of them that was worth the price of the book. The latte factor idea from Bach made me look at the little things that can add up. From Orman I gleaned that I need to put my financial needs at the top of the list as women are inclined to take care of everything and everyone and put themselves last. I have thumbed through Cramer, Sheets, and others. I have gone to many seminars and get rich quick scams. I have always learned a few things, even from those folks.

But by far, my go to personal finance guru has been Dave Ramsey. Many of the personal finance folks have a microwave approach, but he has a crock pot approach. We probably cannot be further apart politically but then money in this country isn't red or blue but green. From his Total Money Make Over and Financial Peace, I did do a total money make over and achieved financial peace that had allude me most of my adult life. I learned to do a budget and stick to it, how to be debt free, the value of baby steps and a debt snowball, how to spot scams, determine insurance that is best for me, etc.

Many of the form you need are offered as free down loads and they are simple to use. But here's the catch....You have to actually use them. Now about the books, tools, classes, personal appearances, and radio show. Yes, I did them all. But now I liken that to an alcoholic going to an AA meeting. It helps keep you on the wagon.

Yes you will have lapses, after all we are only human. But I like Ramsey because he keeps it real (esp his radio show). I have many times heard him throw a lifeline to a person that was overwhelmed. He is the first to tell you most of his products are marketing but he offers enough quality free stuff. He is Christian and makes no bones about it. Many of his classes are offered in a variety of churches and once you pay for a Financial Peace class, it is lifetime. He is into improving yourself by reading books. I have checked out many on his list from the library and they were worthwhile.

So I guess the bottom line is this. There is no one way and no one person has all the answers. Find what works for you and your personal finances and really work it. Make changes, even the smallest changes when applied in a targeted direction can yield big results. Work hard to be debt free (a house is an acceptable debt if it is a house you can afford). Being debt free is the cornerstone of building any wealth.

[tclambert]

34. Hmm. Education as a way to cure people acting stupidly. What an idea.

What? An idea?

For a long time I had thought some people just can't handle delayed gratification. If you put a candy in front of a child and tell them they'll get two pieces if they can keep themselves from eating that one, some kids just can't help themselves. Grab, bite, it's gone, and the crying and complaining starts. And those kids grow up to be adults who cannot save money. Any money in their savings account has to, has to get spent. Bad cases spend the money in their minds before they receive the paycheck or tax refund. Really bad cases actually spend it before they get it.

But maybe you can teach people the benefits of delayed gratification. Maybe they can learn to plan ahead. Ah, yes, I remember now. I have long thought that schools should teach every student to play chess. It is a game where planning ahead and considering the consequences of your actions provide a clear advantage. I always felt that was a major hole in our academic training.

[AnneD]

40. We have devolved......

from a nation of chess players to a nation of checker players.

[Demeter]

27. Taxpayers Picking Up Tab For Foreclosure Fraud

http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/01/18/taxpayers-picking-up-tab-for-foreclosure-fraud/

As if more evidence was needed that Wall Street has rigged the game in its favor, the IRS is going to allow the banks that engaged in a massive nationwide program of mortgage fraud to write off their settlement:

Consumer advocates have complained that U.S. mortgage lenders are getting off easy in a deal to settle charges that they wrongfully foreclosed on many homeowners.

Now it turns out the deal is even sweeter for the lenders than it appears: Taxpayers will subsidize them for the money they’re ponying up.

The Internal Revenue Service regards the lenders’ compensation to homeowners as a cost incurred in the course of doing business. Result: It’s fully tax-deductible.

The New Untouchables. Break the law, get a bailout. Break the law again, get a tax subsidy.

At least one lawmaker, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, wants regulators to bar the tax deductibility of the lenders’ costs..

“It is simply unfair for taxpayers to foot the bill for Wall Street’s wrongdoing,” Brown wrote in the letter dated Thursday. “Breaking the law should not be a business expense.”

But it is, Senator Brown! In fact, breaking the law is not just a business expense for Wall Street, it’s their business. The Finance, Insurance, Real Estate (FIRE) sector of the economy does not actually produce anything. The only way Wall Street can make tremendous profits is through fraud and chiseling.

From the New Yorker:

For years, the most profitable industry in America has been one that doesn’t design, build, or sell a single tangible thing…

Lord Adair Turner, the chairman of Britain’s top financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, has described much of what happens on Wall Street and in other financial centers as “socially useless activity”—a comment that suggests it could be eliminated without doing any damage to the economy…”It is possible for financial activity to extract rents from the real economy rather than to deliver economic value,”…

Paul Woolley, a seventy-one-year-old Englishman who has set up an institute at the London School of Economics called the Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality. “Why on earth should finance be the biggest and most highly paid industry when it’s just a utility, like sewage or gas?”… “It is like a cancer that is growing to infinite size, until it takes over the entire body….

Financial markets, far from being efficient, as most economists and policymakers at the time believed, were grossly inefficient. “And once you recognize that markets are inefficient a lot of things change.”…

Even after all that has happened, there is a tendency in Congress and the White House to defer to Wall Street because what happens there, befuddling as it may be to outsiders, is essential to the country’s prosperity. Finally, dissidents like Paul Woolley are questioning this narrative. “There was a presumption that financial innovation is socially valuable,” Woolley said to me. “The first thing I discovered was that it wasn’t backed by any empirical evidence. There’s almost none.”

And now after blowing up the housing market, fraudlently foreclosing on homeowners, sabotaging the independent foreclosure review process, and paying a meager settlement – Wall Street gets to write it all off on their taxes.

What a country.

[Fuddnik]

30. Well, that's shocking!

NOT

[Egalitarian Thug]

32. "But, nobody could've predicted..." n/t

[tclambert]

35. Well, now, ya don' wanna make 'em give up some bonus money to pay for their crimes.

That might de-incentivize them. Or some other made-up corporate bullshit term.

[Roland99]

29. Nice FAFRU!

Friday Afternoon Faerie Ramp-Up

[Demeter]

31. That's the untold story of the week.

[DemReadingDU]

38. I do not have smart phone either, just a cellphone for emergencies

I don't do texting either. Personally, I don't even like talking on cell phones. Landline is fine with me, we still have AT&T. Our neighbor uses phone service via cable, but occasionally the cable goes out, then then phone would be out too. But in Ohio, there is a proposed bill that landline companies can leave the state, leaving customers without phone service. Don't these landline companies understand that some customers live in areas w/o cell or cable service? Crazy.

[kickysnana]

39. The only phone service that survived after the levee break in NOLA was landlines.

in some places. Life savers.

I think I might have to make a grid to figure out what we want, need. Sleeping on the decision didn't help.