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Tansy_Gold

(17,815 posts)
Mon Apr 1, 2013, 08:29 PM Apr 2013

STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 2 April 2013

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 2 April 2013[font color=black][/font]


SMW for 1 April 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 1 April 2013
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Dow Jones 14,572.85 -5.69 (-0.04%)
S&P 500 1,562.17 -7.02 (-0.45%)
Nasdaq 3,239.17 -28.35 (-0.87%)


[font color=green]10 Year 1.83% -0.04 (-2.14%)
30 Year 3.09% -0.05 (-1.59%)[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 - 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=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.





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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]


37 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 2 April 2013 (Original Post) Tansy_Gold Apr 2013 OP
Wells Fargo’s “Reprehensible” Foreclosure Abuses Prove Incompetence and Collusion of OCC Read more a Fuddnik Apr 2013 #1
Refinance? Demeter Apr 2013 #2
Underwater! Fuddnik Apr 2013 #25
April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day Demeter Apr 2013 #3
Thanks for pointing this out, Demeter. Hugin Apr 2013 #4
Another site Demeter Apr 2013 #11
Thanks for bringing it up Demeter.... AnneD Apr 2013 #27
Those mothers wouldn't make it without the amazing teachers Demeter Apr 2013 #29
Mattress with built-safe! DemReadingDU Apr 2013 #5
Madre de Dios! Demeter Apr 2013 #6
The Bed Bunker DemReadingDU Apr 2013 #8
That might be more practical for a guest bed not in regular use Demeter Apr 2013 #10
It is not for pizza money..... AnneD Apr 2013 #28
How do you remember all these places! DemReadingDU Apr 2013 #30
Believe me... AnneD Apr 2013 #31
Funny Story DemReadingDU Apr 2013 #34
Jeeze.... AnneD Apr 2013 #37
That's my way of thinking too... Ghost Dog Apr 2013 #32
Believe me.... AnneD Apr 2013 #33
Electronic theft is mind boggling DemReadingDU Apr 2013 #35
Why We Tax: A Timely Reminder for Tax Day By Sam Pizzigati Demeter Apr 2013 #7
Three Ways to Tame Wall Street By Sheila Bair Demeter Apr 2013 #12
That Giant Sucking Sound...it's the Oligarchs Demeter Apr 2013 #16
Where's "The Revolution"? By Bernard Weiner Demeter Apr 2013 #20
The Crisis Papers! DemReadingDU Apr 2013 #36
Survival of the Brokest in Cyprus Bailout Demeter Apr 2013 #9
Cauliflower Pickles{indian} xchrom Apr 2013 #13
The world economy's winners and losers in 2013 xchrom Apr 2013 #14
It's still a lovefest between Wall Street and regulators xchrom Apr 2013 #15
Eurozone crisis demands one banking policy, one fiscal policy – and one voice xchrom Apr 2013 #17
Eurozone unemployment hits record high of 12% xchrom Apr 2013 #18
Underwater: The Netherlands Falls Prey to Economic Crisis xchrom Apr 2013 #19
Life after the Fall: The Aftermath of the Cypriot Banking Collapse xchrom Apr 2013 #21
Household savings rate hits new record low{spain} xchrom Apr 2013 #22
SHUT UP, SAVERS! xchrom Apr 2013 #23
Fannie Mae Reports Its Biggest Profit In History, And It Has Written A Gigantic Check To Taxpayers xchrom Apr 2013 #24
Household Debt Could Be A Game Changer For Retirees xchrom Apr 2013 #26

Fuddnik

(8,846 posts)
1. Wells Fargo’s “Reprehensible” Foreclosure Abuses Prove Incompetence and Collusion of OCC Read more a
Mon Apr 1, 2013, 08:53 PM
Apr 2013
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/04/wells-fargos-reprehensible-foreclosure-abuses-prove-incompetence-and-collusion-of-occ.html

Monday, April 1, 2013
Wells Fargo’s “Reprehensible” Foreclosure Abuses Prove Incompetence and Collusion of OCC

Two bankruptcy cases in Louisiana that have revealed systematic, persistent foreclosure abuses by Wells Fargo have gotten enough media attention that it is inconceivable that banking regulators don’t know about them. The lack of any intervention, or even so much as a throat-clearing by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is yet another proof of how the regulator apparently sees its role as fronting for banks rather than enforcing rules.

This story is back in the news thanks to an appeals court smackdown of Wells, which has engaged in a long-standing war of attrition with one of the plaintiffs, a Michael Jones. The reason for the appeal was that the bank was fighting the judge’s imposition of punitive damages of $3.1 million for Wells’ “reprehensible” conduct.

We wrote about the underlying case a year ago. Bankruptcy judge, Elizabeth Magner of the Eastern District of Louisiana, had found Wells Fargo guilty of egregious foreclosure abuses in a 2007 case, Jones v. Wells Fargo. In it, the bank admitted that the types of overcharges it made in bankruptcy cases were “part of its normal course of conduct, practiced in perhaps thousands of cases.” The judge awarded damages and recovery of attorney fees on top of repayment of the impermissible charges, and ordered the bank to fix its accounting.

Fast forward four months, and another case appears in Mangers’s court with the same sort of verboten charges, proving that Wells has not taken the required corrective measures. As the Center for Public Integrity described it:

In an April 2008 ruling, Elizabeth Magner, a U.S. bankruptcy judge in New Orleans, rejected the two charges [for broker price opinions charged when the parish in which the home was located was evacuated thanks to Hurricane Katrina] as invalid. She also disallowed 43 home inspections, 39 late charges, and thousands of dollars in legal fees charged to the Stewarts’ account.

Almost every disallowed fee was imposed while the Stewarts were making regular monthly payments on their home…

Magner determined that Wells Fargo had been “duplicitous and misleading” and ordered the bank to pay $27,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees. She also took the unusual step of requiring the servicer to audit about 400 home loan files in cases in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Wells fought successfully to keep the results of the audit under seal, and last summer a federal appeals court overturned the part of Magner’s ruling that required the audit. But two people familiar with the results told iWatch News that Wells Fargo’s audit had turned up accounting errors in nearly every loan file it reviewed.

Now remember that Wells at first agreed to injunctive relief in the original case, Jones, then changed its mind. Wells repeatedly engaged in scorched earth tactics. Again from Magner:

While every litigant has a right to pursue appeal, Wells Fargo’s style of litigation was particularly vexing. After agreeing at trial to the initial injunctive relief in order to escape a punitive damage award, Wells Fargo changed its position and appealed. This resulted in:

1. A total of seven (7) days spent in the original trial, status conferences, and hearings before this Court;
2. Eighteen (18) post-trial, pre-remand motions or responsive pleadings filed by Wells Fargo, requiring nine (9) memoranda and nine (9) objections or responsive pleadings;
3. Eight (8) appeals or notices of appeal to the District Court by Wells Fargo, with fifteen (15) assignments of error and fifty-seven (57) sub-assignments of error, requiring 261 pages in briefing, and resulting in a delay of 493 days from the date the Amended Judgment was entered to the date the Fifth Circuit dismissed Wells Fargo’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction;47 and
4. Twenty-two (22) issues raised by Wells Fargo for remand, requiring 161 pages of briefing from the parties in the District Court and 269 additional days since the Fifth Circuit dismissed Wells Fargo’s appeal.

The above was only the first round of litigation contained in this case….

The appeals court affirmed the original bankruptcy court ruling and increased the compensatory award (the recovery of costs for the poor litigant Jones) to $170,000. The case went back to Magner to determine what punitive damages should be (remember, the injunctive relief was in lieu of punitive damages, but Wells took that off the table). Oh, and Stewart with its charming BPOs during Katrina had shown up in the interim.

Magner issued a tough ruling, including the afore-mentioned $3.1 million in punitive damages. Wells, predictably, appealed.

Last week, the appeals court issued a terse ruling against Wells, wasting minimal ink in dismissing Wells’ arguments and noted in passing,
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/04/wells-fargos-reprehensible-foreclosure-abuses-prove-incompetence-and-collusion-of-occ.html#Z8r2w5FzCKfPuG3X.99

(snip) More disgusting conduct at top link.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I absolutely hate this bank. They're always trying to pull some bullshit. They have my mortgage via Wachovia takeover. I closed 3 checking accounts there 2 years ago. Went to the credit union. And the fact that regulators and Congress and the Dept of Justice are aware of it, makes it all even more disgusting.

All Hail Hope and Change! If you have any change left after these bastards are done with you. I wish I could get rid of the mortgage with them tomorrow, I'd pay the fees just to be away from them.

Wachovia was a little crooked, but they were almost a pleasure to do business with.





 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
3. April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day
Mon Apr 1, 2013, 11:28 PM
Apr 2013
http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/world-autism-awareness-day

As some of you know, my elder daughter is afflicted with autism. She was born March 31st, not quite an April Fool for us...so the choice of April 2 is painfully ironic. But any other day of the year would cause similar pain for someone else, I suppose.

There are many theories, but I have empirical evidence that the genetics of too many copies of "logic" genes is the prime reason for the condition. There are some that try to guilt us with "environmental triggers", "diet", "vaccines" and "heavy metal poisoning", but I give them as much credence as that old fraud Bettelheim's "refrigerator mother" theory. If it can be "cured", it wasn't autism.

In meiosis, the genes, by and for which we all exist to serve and mix and propagate, get wild and crazy. They turn each other on and off, add or delete copies, producing the incremental changes that lead to genetic drift, evolution, and birth defects. Sometimes they have help: genetic disruptors like chemicals, radiation, or disease. And sometimes there are social factors: the near genocide of the Ashkenazim, coupled with their desire to intermarry, collected and reinforced a number of genetic traits that make some individuals of that heritage prone to cancer, for example. Ditto the sickle cell anemia.

Another, more recent social factor has been feminism. The freedom granted to girls to study at the peak of their abilities as engineers, lawyers, scientists, and other highly logical endeavors, instead of being shuffled into the ranks of grade school teachers and nurses, or randomly-matched housewives and spouses, also meant that they would meet and most likely marry men of similarly constructed minds and genetics. The lesson here is that you can have too much of a good thing. Humans are not going to evolve into Vulcans by genetic drift... instead, they will produce a generation of children with autism.

The science is still in its formative stages, the cure is non-existent. There is only prevention, by genetic counselling, when a sufficient number of the relevant genes have been identified, on the foreseeable horizon.

While the species needs its logicians and scientists, it treats them with scorn...perhaps because of the shadow of autism that can be detected in the parents of the generation that has the fully-developed syndrome. The autistically afflicted are different in behavior and so many other things that the neurotypical can only, through long-term exposure, exercise of great patience and the gift of bottomless empathy, get a peek into such a differently-organized mind.

So while some may take the Jerry Lewis approach, I will instead take the scientific one: now that you are aware, you must take some preventative action!

Hugin

(32,769 posts)
4. Thanks for pointing this out, Demeter.
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 03:46 AM
Apr 2013

I have several friends who are on the autistic spectrum and although they can be the most challenging friends at times they are also among the most rewarding friends, too.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
27. Thanks for bringing it up Demeter....
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 02:09 PM
Apr 2013

I deal with it in some form or fashion every day. My autism kids can be the most exasperating and the most heart warm souls, all at the same time. I have a nurse friend that has a grown up high functioning autistic child. She will soon reach a major milestone and move out on her own. She has a job and a boyfriend. I give all the credit to her Mom. I have known them for most of the daughter's life. Any Mom (or parent) of a special needs child has a well deserved crown waiting for them in heaven no doubt.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
29. Those mothers wouldn't make it without the amazing teachers
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 02:52 PM
Apr 2013

and my Kid has had several. I don't know how they do it...and I doubt I could teach anyone else what they taught me. They can do magic...I can only try to imitate as a gift of love.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
6. Madre de Dios!
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 08:59 AM
Apr 2013

And it's not April Fools any more, either.

The only difficulty I can see is getting enough currency...the ECB doesn't like to print money, nobody does, they'd rather handle bits: it's cheaper.

And we are well aware it is the scarcity of gold which makes it a useful store of value.

The problem is that we need a better way to handle the person-person transfer of the results of productive labor (which would eliminate most financing right at the start), in a way that can't be forged, stolen, misappropriated, faked or ponzied.

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
8. The Bed Bunker
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 09:13 AM
Apr 2013

Whether you want to conceal your firearms, jewelry, precious metals or important documents, you can rest assured that your valuables are not only protected by world class vault systems but, equally important, are cleverly hidden in heavily disguised locations only you are aware of.
http://bedgunsafe.com/

The BedBunker LT is made in the USA. The Body is made from roll formed 14 guage steel to minimize welds.The body has a return flange for added strength. All welds are WSA certified.
more...
http://bedgunsafe.com/bedbunkers/bedbunker-lt/






 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
10. That might be more practical for a guest bed not in regular use
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 09:29 AM
Apr 2013

Would be a real pain in the ass to have to take the entire bedroom apart to access money for the pizza...

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
28. It is not for pizza money.....
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 02:26 PM
Apr 2013

that is why you keep a basket on the kitchen counter. If you are broken in to-give them a few easy targets to make them think they got something.

My favorite... The dummy wall socket-safe. All it takes is an exacto knife and an outlet cover. Plug in a lamp for that hiding in plane site look. Everyone just thinks the light bulb burnt out when the lamp doesn't work. I can make fake coke or cleaning cans, etc. that are as good as the ones they sell. I can make lots of places.

I learned this skill because I was a saver and I shared a room with my sister and had 2 brothers. They were always going through my stuff trying to pinch my money. Even mom would hit me up for a loan now and again. They never found my places.

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
30. How do you remember all these places!
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 05:12 PM
Apr 2013

Are you keeping a cheat-sheet so you don't forget? With my foggy brain, I probably would then forget where the cheat-sheet is located!

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
31. Believe me...
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 05:20 PM
Apr 2013

I remember. I am in an apartment now so I have less places but when I get my own place, that will be the interesting thing. My daughter stashes money just like I do. She will go though my things very carefully when I pass. We frequently laugh about putting bills in books. Put the cheat sheet in a bank safety deposit box. Take 10% of that Wells Fargo!

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
34. Funny Story
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 08:12 PM
Apr 2013

My mom would hide things too. She passed away appx 10 years ago, and as we were going thru her house, we found stashes of money in several places. But the funniest thing wasn't the money. It was her expensive jewelry.

We knew she had a few diamond rings, a diamond watch, and a diamond necklace. But we could not find them anywhere. It turned out that in the evenings, mom would often do knitting as she was watching TV. And in the large bag that held her balls of yarn, was a very small bag that contained the diamond jewelry!

We were so relieved because we were trying to sort thru all the stuff to give to various organizations. And the jewelry could have easily been given to an anonymous person.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
37. Jeeze....
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 09:26 AM
Apr 2013

I knit too and never thought about that. And believe me, if the house were on fire, I sure as heck would grab my stash and needles, probably before my jewlery.

 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
32. That's my way of thinking too...
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 05:36 PM
Apr 2013

... But, we've just leaked some of the secret, compromised some of our security, AnneD.

All they need to discover now is exactly where we live, then, search very carefully.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
33. Believe me....
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 05:52 PM
Apr 2013

sites present themselves, and I sure don't give them all away.

And if the truth be told, I would rather a hard working burglar take money from me the old fashioned way than a bankster take my wealth with a pen stroke.

The EU banksters are really getting crazy. I bet many folks (in Italy, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, esp) in the EU are rethinking their ideas on banking since Cyprus. And if they aren't...they should. Worst theft since MF Global, IMHO.

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
35. Electronic theft is mind boggling
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 08:19 PM
Apr 2013

I had always assumed that the banksters would implement capital controls to limit the amount that one would be able to withdraw at any specific time. i.e. $300.

But I never dreamed that these thieves would impose a 'tax' to confiscate 20%, 40%, 60% of the amount over E100,000. As if any percentage is safe nowadays.


 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
7. Why We Tax: A Timely Reminder for Tax Day By Sam Pizzigati
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 09:12 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.nationofchange.org/why-we-tax-timely-reminder-tax-day-1364829791

April 15 is fast approaching and Americans are naturally thinking about taxes. But most of us won’t be thinking about taxes the same way Americans once did. Over the past half-century, we’ve had a profound transformation in our attitudes toward income taxation. How profound? Consider the tax perspective of Randolph Paul, the corporate tax attorney who helped shape federal tax policy during and after World War II. Randolph Paul probably thought about taxes — and their role in our society — as deeply as any American of his time. Paul lived and died taxes, literally. In 1956, he slumped over and passed away while testifying about tax policy before a U.S. Senate committee. Paul’s tax career had started decades earlier. In 1918, just a few years after the federal income tax went into effect, Paul began specializing in tax law. By the 1930s, he had become one of Wall Street’s top tax experts. His clients ranged from General Motors to Standard Oil of California, and probably no one in America knew the tax code — loopholes and all — any better.

That knowledge made Randolph Paul invaluable to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. In 1940, Paul helped New Dealers write an excess profits bill. In 1941, right after Pearl Harbor, he joined the Treasury Department and worked to make sure that all Americans, the wealthy included, contributed financially to the war effort. Paul succeeded. By 1944, the federal income tax had become a major presence in American life. Most Americans, for the first time ever, were paying income tax — and rich Americans were paying the most taxes of all. During the war, the tax rate on income over $200,000, about $2.6 million today, jumped to 94 percent...Two years after the war, back in private practice, Paul published his masterwork, the ultimate distillation of his thinking about tax policy. His new book, Taxation for Prosperity, presented a carefully argued case for continuing high wartime tax rates on peacetime high incomes. Taxation for Prosperity drew a distinction between “a mature economy” and a “mature approach to economic problems.” The immature in a mature economy, Paul noted, preach “the gospel that taxes are for revenue only.” In fact, Paul would argue, taxes in a mature economy offer us “powerful instruments for influencing the social and economic life of the nation.” With “well-planned taxes,” we could avert a next depression.

By “well-planned taxes,” Paul meant progressive taxes, steeply graduated levies that kept as much money as possible in the pockets of “people in the lower brackets.” Lower-income people, Paul explained, “have a higher propensity to spend.” Their spending keeps “the wheels of industry turning.” For people in higher income brackets, by contrast, a “well-planned” tax system meant high tax rates.
“The people with high incomes can best afford to contribute to the support of the government,” as Paul noted, “and the failure to impose substantial taxes in the upper brackets would seriously injure the morale of the rest of the taxpaying public.” High taxes on people of high income, Paul continued, also “perform the valuable service of preventing more saving than our economy can absorb,” soaking up the excess that would otherwise wind up devoted to destabilizing speculation.


Could taxes on the rich ever go too high? That danger, Paul acknowledged, does exist in an economy that “depends upon the profit motive.” So taxes on the rich ought always be kept at a level that “fosters economic activity.” But the “need for this incentive,” Paul added, fades away “when we reach the highest brackets.” At that point, tax rates ought to rise “very sharply ” to help “counteract undue concentration of wealth.” In other words, Paul summed up, we need a tax system that keeps “the nation’s wealth” from flowing “into the hands of too few.” Over the next two decades, in the 1950s and 1960s, we had a tax system that for the most part played that role. Tax rates on America’s rich hovered at high, near World War II-era levels, and average Americans, over the course of these years, prospered as never before.

Since then, we’ve gone in the opposite direction. Our nation’s tax experts — and the elected officials they advise — no longer think about taxes as a tool for combatting our “undue concentration of wealth.” They see taxes as a matter of raising revenue pure and simple.

Randolph Paul considered that attitude “immature.” We should, too.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
12. Three Ways to Tame Wall Street By Sheila Bair
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:02 AM
Apr 2013
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15317-three-ways-to-tame-wall-street

In her 2012 book, Bull By The Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street From Wall Street and Wall Street From Itself, former FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair offers dozens of recommendations for reforming our regulatory system to do what it was meant to do. We’ve excerpted three of our favorites.

1. Keep the Consumer Agency

I don’t know how anyone can say that we have done a good job of protecting consumers in financial services. Payment shock mortgages with abusive prepayment penalties, fee-laden credit cards, excessive overdraft fees — these are three examples of the types of products where disclosures have been inadequate and the products too complex for consumers to understand what they were getting themselves into. Moreover, the situation is worse with regard to nonbank financial providers, for example, payday lenders and money remitters, who charge fees and interest equivalent to several hundred percent. Similarly, the most abusive subprime loans were typically made by nonbank mortgage originators.

Pre-Dodd-Frank, the Federal Reserve Board had the job of writing the consumer rules for financial products, and its efforts were woefully inadequate. The core problem, I believe, was that the Fed’s responsibilities for monetary policy and safety and soundness supervision always came first. Insufficient attention was given to what was happening to consumers. What’s more, when the Fed did write consumer rules, they were generally lengthy and highly complex, making it difficult for consumers to understand their rights. The complexity and cost of complying with the rules also forced many community banks out of the business of consumer lending.

It is a very good thing that Congress has now created an agency devoted exclusively to consumer protection. I have high hopes that this new agency will work hard to simplify and strengthen consumer protections, while bringing much-needed enforcement of consumer rules to the nonbank sector. People of goodwill can differ on the structure of the new agency. I prefer that a regulatory agency have a board instead of a single director. A board brings a diversity of viewpoints that can help guard against regulatory capture, which is one of the reasons why I believe the OCC — if we keep it — should also be headed by a board. But the continuing debate about the structure of the consumer agency should not impede its ability to carry out its important functions. The agency deserves to have a Senate-confirmed head to lead it.

2. End the Revolving Door

When things go wrong, it’s usually the presidentially appointed heads of the agencies who take the heat. But in reality, the vigor with which rules are interpreted and enforced relies heavily on career staff. I have always been an advocate and supporter of career staff. While other agencies hired legions of advisers from the industry during the crisis, I pretty much relied on the FDIC’s career staff to carry out the FDIC’s vital mission.

If we want good people in government, we need to treat them with respect and let them know we value their work. If we signal through our hiring policies that we value industry professionals more than those who have chosen government as a career, we hurt morale and make it less likely that examiners and others will assert themselves against the industry when necessary. That is not to say that all career staff are perfect. I have seen many instances when career staff have been too deferential to industry wishes. At the FDIC, I did not want our examiners to be combative with the banks. But I did want them to exercise independent judgment and to understand that their job was to protect the public interest, not the banks.

It’s not just the examiners who can fall captive to industry viewpoints. The lawyers and economists who work at agencies can also be far too accommodating, if not gullible, when it comes to industry arguments. Lawyers in particular can become too focused on maintaining an agency’s jurisdiction, its “turf,” at the expense of good regulatory policy. For instance, for years, the SEC and CFTC fought over which of them should regulate over-the-counter derivatives. With the agencies divided, the industry went to Congress and secured legislation banning both of them from regulating the industry.

I would like to see financial regulators, particularly examiners, develop a stronger esprit de corps. I would like to see financial regulation be viewed as a lifelong career choice — similar to the Foreign Service — rather than a revolving door to a better-paying job in the private sector. There should be a lifetime ban on regulators working for financial institutions they have regulated. We should impose higher educational and professional experience requirements for examiners and other staff when they enter government service, but also stronger training programs, ongoing educational support, and better pay. To be sure, industry experience can be helpful to a financial regulator, but that should be provided through government-paid industry tours of duty instead of an endless stream of staff moving back and forth between regulatory agencies and financial firms.

One area where a revolving door does make sense would be a requirement that federal regulatory staff accept rotations to other agencies. The financial regulators are not the only agencies where squabbling and infighting impede effective performance. We experienced tragic intelligence failures prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks because of a lack of coordination and information sharing among law enforcement agencies. To promote better cooperation, the intelligence community has undertaken a mandatory rotation program for senior staff. This “joint duty” program requires all senior intelligence officials, as a condition of promotion, to undertake a duty rotation at another intelligence agency. Senators Joseph Lieberman, Susan Collins and Daniel Akaka have introduced legislation to expand this program to include more agencies, and the Partnership for Public Service has recommended a similar program for the entire civil service. Just as it is doing for the intelligence community, requiring rotations of senior staff among the various financial regulators could help guard against regulatory capture and improve coordination and collaboration among the various financial agencies.

At the end of the day, we can pass all the laws and write all the rules that we want, but if we don’t have good-quality people interpreting and enforcing them, our efforts at reform are destined to fail. Too often, media scrutiny and public interest are focused on the legislative battles and high-profile rule writings and not enough on the nuts and bolts of enforcing the rules. We have a number of good people in government, and we need to recruit more. Better policies to promote independence of judgment and breadth of perspective among career staff are essential if financial reform efforts are to succeed.

3. Reform the Senate Confirmation Process

By statute, the heads of all of the major financial regulatory agencies are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. When the president and Senate are unable to agree on a nominee to head an agency, an acting head is named. As I write this in mid-2012, three of the seven major financial agencies do not have Senate-confirmed heads: the FDIC, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (or FHFA, the GSE regulator), and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). In addition, the Office of Financial Research — which was created by Dodd-Frank for the important task of centrally collecting and analyzing financial data to identify systemic issues before they become problems — does not have a Senate-confirmed head.*
Responsibility for this rests with both the president and the Senate. Amazingly, notwithstanding the role of the GSEs in contributing to the financial crisis, it was not until late 2010 that President Obama submitted to the Senate a nominee to head FHFA. Similarly, notwithstanding the importance of ensuring effective supervision of the nation’s big national banks, it was not until 2011 that he submitted his own nominee to take charge of the OCC.

But the Senate has not behaved well either. It inexplicably blocked a Nobel laureate to serve on the Federal Reserve Board and a well-regarded state bank supervisor to head the FHFA. Well-qualified nominees to head the FDIC and OCC and to serve on the FDIC and Federal Reserve boards have had their confirmations held up for months. It is very difficult for the leadership of those agencies to function with Senate confirmations hanging over their heads. Every decision, of course, ends up being weighed against whether it will antagonize anyone in the Senate. Under Senate rules, a single senator can hold up a nomination for months.

Financial regulators are not the only ones who have been held hostage to the Senate’s confirmation processes. Virtually all other agencies of government have had their leadership held up at one time or another because of the vagaries of Senate rules. Judicial vacancies can languish for months or years as senators wrangle over whether to confirm nominees. Typically, the delay has nothing to do with the candidate. Rather, senators use nominations as leverage. For instance, when I was nominated to serve in the Bush Treasury Department in 2001, my nomination was quickly confirmed by the Senate, but the nominations of several of my Treasury colleagues were held up for months by a member of President Bush’s own party, Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Helms had no objections to any of the nominees; rather, he wanted the Treasury Department to change one of its trade policies related to textile imports.

Regardless of which party is in control of the Senate, nominations are frequently held up to extract concessions from the administration. Indeed, the current Senate leadership has been known to call them “high-value targets.” The unpredictable nature of the Senate confirmation process deters good people from entering government service. We want administrations to draw from Main Street talent throughout the country in recruiting people to accept senior government jobs. Yet what person in his or her right mind would willingly submit to a highly public and unpredictable Senate confirmation process, with no certainty about when he or she will be able to start the new jobs? Moving to Washington is a huge undertaking for the average Main Street American. You have to sell or rent your house, find a new house, find new schools for your kids, and if your spouse works outside of the home, he or she will want to find a new job. To undertake a career opportunity that risks being held up for months or longer is a burden many qualified individuals and their families are unable to accept.

Nominees should be guaranteed an up‑or-down vote on their confirmations once the Senate committee with jurisdiction has approved their nomination. Senate committees have functioned pretty well in processing nominations; the holdups have really occurred on the Senate floor. The occasional unqualified candidate can be screened out in the committee. But once the committee has acted, the nominee should have an up‑or-down vote within thirty days. If we want high-quality people of integrity to serve in government, we need to treat them with courtesy and respect, not as potential hostages in a high-stakes game of political cat and mouse. The Senate needs to reform the confirmation process. Otherwise, the only people left willing to take those jobs will be politically connected Washington lobbyists.


* Note: Since publication of Bair’s book, the directors of two of the agencies she mentions have been confirmed by the Senate. Martin Gruenberg was confirmed as Chairman of the FDIC in November, 2012. He had been serving as acting director since the summer of 2011. And in January, Richard Berner was confirmed as director of the Office of Financial Research. President Obama nominated Berner for the position in December, 2011.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
16. That Giant Sucking Sound...it's the Oligarchs
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:26 AM
Apr 2013
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15319-that-giant-sucking-soundits-the-oligarchs

...why is it that America's oligarchs have managed to obtain so much wealth, while the rest of us have nearly nothing, and that one of America's wealthiest businessmen can afford to buy a yacht and a mansion, when a Hispanic woman just trying to survive is barely able to pay for a can of soup? It's thanks in part to the high levels of financial secrecy in the U.S.

The Tax Justice Network's Financial Secrecy Index highlights places around the world that provide the safest havens for tax refugees – otherwise known as millionaires and billionaires who want to escape having to pay their fair share to help their economies so that they can accumulate massive piles of wealth. And, not surprisingly, the United States ranks 5th in the 2011 Financial Secrecy Index, behind the traditional tax havens of Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong. In other words, as millions of Americans struggle to survive each and every day, the wealthiest Americans, the oligarchs, are accumulating vast sums of wealth, without anyone saying a word, or raising a finger.

Just look at Mitt Romney. During the campaign of 2012, there was a huge battle over his disclosure, or lack thereof, of just how rich he is. And in the end, while Romney did disclose some information about his assets, including the fact that he was able to hide the vast sums of wealth in tax havens across the globe.

The bottom-line is that the outrageous levels of wealth inequality in America have been driven in large part by our society's coddling of, and the media's willful ignorance towards, our nation's oligarchs. For too long, the wealthiest Americans have been able to slip under the radar, while robbing us blind. The Reaganomics era has seen the largest transfer of wealth from working people to the very, very rich in the history of the world – trillions of dollars. As Elizabeth Warren pointed out a few weeks ago, if workers wages had kept up with productivity in the years since Reagan, like they did during the generations before Reagan, the minimum wage today would be over $22.

It's time to start calling our oligarchs what they are – oligarchs. And tax cheats. And people who have corrupted both our politicians, our media, and our market-based economic system.

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
20. Where's "The Revolution"? By Bernard Weiner
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:35 AM
Apr 2013
http://truth-out.org/news/item/15303-wheres-the-revolution

So here we are in the Spring of 2013, nearly five months after Barack Obama's re-election and the Senate added new liberal members, and not much has changed. And it doesn't look like anything major will change. Wall Street once again is engaged in reckless financial games, the Congressional Republicans are still behaving like tantrum-prone children who can't get their way and are willing to take the economy and government down with them, the global climate is creating weather havoc everywhere while carbon emissions are essentially unchecked, the Israelis and Palestinians are locked in stasis, even the mildest gun regulation bills face little chance for success when pitted against the NRA, Europe continues to force "austerity" on the backs of the middle-class while the wealthy continue their essentially free ride, the GOP leadership's post-election "autopsy" urges a change in tone as they try to expand the base but Republican office-holders and candidates can't seem to stop themselves from continuing to behave like ignorant, arrogant louts. And so on, etc. etc. Rinse and repeat. It seems an appropriate time for a good, old-fashioned sum-up of historical context and analysis as to how we got to this scary place and how things potentially could change...BRIEF SUMMARY OF HISTORICAL RECORD...

What can be done? At the very least, the Liberal/Left, now scattered, must become a united, active force. At first, it seemed likely that the Occupy movement might be that political generator. But that exciting development faded away fairly quickly. Most liberals, it seems, can engage their political passions only in brief spurts, but tend to forget that revolution, even a social revolution, needs infrastructure, money and great patience -- years, decades, of hard, slogging work. The Right has spent decades building and putting their infrastructure in place; they can simply outspend, out-organize, outwait whatever the disheveled Left can throw at them -- and they also, by and large, have the forces of police control behind them.

It took several years for the radicals/progressives of the '60s to cobble together the various organizations and factions (anti-war, pro-democracy, civil rights, women's lib) to create The Movement. Finally, they had a counter-weight to the rightwing, and could mobilize quickly and powerfully when called upon to do so.

As was true in the '60s and now in our own time, the objective conditions for "revolution" would appear to exist in America, and elsewhere across the globe. Unrestricted capitalism has created too many problems, seismic cracks are appearing in institution after institution, the populace in country after country is angry and looking for intelligent direction as governments continue in throe to corporate power and the obscenely wealthy who pull the strings.

WHY ISN'T IT HAPPENING?

CONCLUSIONS AT LINK

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
36. The Crisis Papers!
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 08:26 PM
Apr 2013

They used to post years ago on the old DU. I have missed reading Bernard Weiner and Ernest Partridge.
I will need to review their website for other articles I have missed.
http://www.crisispapers.org/

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
9. Survival of the Brokest in Cyprus Bailout
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 09:25 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-01/survival-of-the-brokest-in-cyprus-bailout.html

Just when it looked like the banking crisis in Cyprus couldn't get any weirder, here's another odd twist: The broke are buying the brokest.

Last week Athens-based Piraeus Bank SA said it would pay 524 million euros ($673 million) to buy the Greek branches of Bank of Cyprus Pcl, Cyprus Popular Bank Pcl and Hellenic Bank Pcl, including all of their loans and deposits. Two days later, Piraeus released its own financial results, which showed the company had a shareholder deficit of 2.3 billion euros.

Note that I said deficit -- not equity. Piraeus said it had 72.7 billion euros of liabilities as of Dec. 31, compared with 70.4 billion euros of assets. But why let something like a huge hole in the balance sheet stop a big Greek bank from proceeding with a new acquisition spree?
Piraeus said it will pay for the purchase by issuing new shares to the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, a bailout kitty that the European Commission set up for Greece's banking system in 2010. Piraeus will receive 7.9 billion euros of "capital advances" from the fund, according to a March 28 presentation on the bank's website. It's a bailout to fund a bailout, and then some.

Many bank customers in Cyprus itself weren't so fortunate, of course. Uninsured depositors at Bank of Cyprus face 40 percent losses or more as part of the country's rescue terms. The outlook is much worse at Cyprus Popular, which is being shut down. Greece may be luckier than its people realize. OR ALTERNATIVELY, THE EURO FINANCIAL SYSTEM IS MORE CORRUPT THAN HUMAN MINDS CAN COMPREHEND OR RATIONALIZE.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
13. Cauliflower Pickles{indian}
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:15 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/bal-arneson/cauliflower-pickles.html


NGREDIENTS

4 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 heaping tablespoon chopped ginger
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
8 green cardamom pods
5 garlic cloves
4 cups cauliflower florets (about half a large cauliflower)
2 cups sliced carrots
3 whole dried red chilies
1 onion, chopped


DIRECTIONS

Sterilize 3 pint/500 ml mason jars and their lids (See Cook's Notes.)

Place a large pot onto the stove top and add the vinegar, sugar, ginger, cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, mustard seeds, smoked paprika, peppercorns, salt, cardamom and garlic. Turn the heat to medium and bring to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add the cauliflower, carrots, chilies and onion, and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Carefully spoon the vegetables evenly into the sterilized jars, sliding a chili into each jar, and then top with the hot vinegar. Place the lids firmly in place and leave on a counter top to cool completely. Store the jars in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Cook's Notes: Properly-handled sterilized equipment will keep canned foods in good condition for years. Sterilizing jars is the first step of preserving foods.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
14. The world economy's winners and losers in 2013
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:18 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/02/world-economy-winners-losers-2013


Portuguese student protests against austerity measures. Austerity fatigue in the eurozone periphery is clearly evident. Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP

In the last four weeks, I have travelled to Sofia, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, London, Milan, Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, Istanbul, and throughout the United States. As a result, the myriad challenges facing the global economy were never far away.

In Europe, the tail risk of a eurozone break-up and a loss of market access by Spain and Italy were reduced by last summer's decision by the European Central Bank to backstop sovereign debt. But the monetary union's fundamental problems – low potential growth, ongoing recession, loss of competitiveness, and large stocks of private and public debt – have not been resolved.

Moreover, the grand bargain between the eurozone core, the ECB, and the periphery – painful austerity and reforms in exchange for large-scale financial support – is now breaking down, as austerity fatigue in the eurozone periphery runs up against bailout fatigue in core countries like Germany and the Netherlands.

Austerity fatigue in the periphery is clearly evident from the success of anti-establishment forces in Italy's recent election; large street demonstrations in Spain, Portugal, and elsewhere; and now the botched bailout of Cypriot banks, which has fueled massive public anger. Throughout the periphery, populist parties of the left and right are gaining ground.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
15. It's still a lovefest between Wall Street and regulators
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:23 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/01/wall-street-still-getting-away-insider-trading-manipulation


People around the world are wondering why no one from Wall Street has gone to jail from the financial crisis. Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP


For years, people have been asking the question: in all of the financial crisis, why hasn't anyone from Wall Street gone to jail?

The answer is simple: because the Washington regulators who investigate Wall Street are intent on providing no proof that anyone ever did anything wrong.

When the Securities and Exchange Commission puts the heat on a bank or hedge fund for doing something inappropriate, the negotiations follow a predictable dance. The first step is that the SEC gathers evidence that the banks or hedge funds broke the rules. Much of that information is provided by the banks themselves, since the SEC has a small budget and no resources to chase the thousands of instances of Wall Street malfeasance every day. Regulators like the SEC are outmatched and underfunded. The second step is that the bank, confronted with the possibility of public humiliation, agrees to pay a fine to settle the allegations. The third step is that the bank agrees to a press release in which it "neither admits nor denies" any wrongdoing.

So this is the problem: courts can't send anyone to jail without proof. But the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators don't allow proof of guilt in their investigations. This is designed specifically to keep the banks out of court. And that's why there are no significant cases around Wall Street malfeasance: they're practically impossible.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
17. Eurozone crisis demands one banking policy, one fiscal policy – and one voice
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:27 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2013/apr/01/eurozone-crisis-banking-fiscal-union


taly's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. By focusing on the eurozone’s minnows, the markets risk overlooking a far bigger potential problem in Italy. Photograph: Alessandro Di Meo/EPA

It had all started to look quite promising. The US was picking up, China had avoided a hard landing and in Japan the early signs from the new government's anti-deflation approach were encouraging. Even in Britain, the first couple of months of 2013 provided some tentative hope – from the housing market and consumer spending, mainly – that the economy might escape another year of stagnation.

Then Cyprus came along. The last two weeks of March brought the crisis in the eurozone back into the spotlight, and by the end of the month the story was no longer rising share prices on Wall Street on the back of strong corporate profitability or the better prospects for Japanese growth. It was, simply, which country in the eurozone would be the next to require a bailout.

The past few days has seen what Nick Parsons, head of strategy at National Australia Bank, has called the "reverse Spartacus" effect after the scene at the end of Stanley Kubrick's epic in which captured slaves are offered clemency if they identify the rebel leader. All refuse.

In the aftermath of Cyprus, it has been a case of "I'm not Spartacus". Four members of the eurozone felt the need to issue statements explaining why they were different from the troubled island in the eastern Med. We now know that Portugal is not Spartacus, Greece is not Spartacus, Malta is not Spartacus and Luxembourg, which has the highest ratio of bank deposits to GDP in the eurozone, is not Spartacus. As Parsons noted wryly, Italy was unable to say it was not Spartacus because it still doesn't have a government to speak on its behalf. Otherwise it would probably have done so.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
18. Eurozone unemployment hits record high of 12%
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:31 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/02/eurozone-unemployment-record-high

Unemployment across the 17 EU countries that use the euro has hit 12% for the first time since the currency was launched in 1999.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said the rate in February was unchanged and at the record high after January's figure was revised up from 11.9% to 12%.

Over the month, 33,000 people in the eurozone joined the ranks of the unemployed. Spain and Greece continued to suffer from unemployment rates above 26%, and many other countries saw their figures increase to uncomfortable levels.

Germany, however, has an unemployment rate of just 5.4%, putting Europe's biggest economy in a better position that the US, where the rate is 7.7%.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
19. Underwater: The Netherlands Falls Prey to Economic Crisis
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:34 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/economic-crisis-hits-the-netherlands-a-891919.html


Michel Scheepens is familiar with risk. The 41-year-old oversees the energy market for the Dutch bank ING, and it's his job to determine whether his employer should finance such projects as a wind farm in Cyprus or a gas-fired power plant in Turkey. Until now, it was always other people's money that was involved.

For some time, however, Scheepens has been experiencing what a poor investment feels like on a personal level. Six years ago, the father of three bought half of a duplex for his family in the commuter town of Nieuw-Vennep, near the North Sea coast. The red brick building cost €430,000 ($552,000), but the bank generously offered him a loan of €500,000, so that there was enough money left over for renovations, along with notary and community fees. Scheepens had intended to resell the house after a few years, as is common in the Netherlands. But then prices tumbled following the Lehman bankruptcy. If the family were to sell the house today, it would have to pay the lender €60,000. His house is "onder water," as Scheepens says.

"Underwater" is a good description of the crisis in a country where large parts of the territory are below sea level. Ironically, the Netherlands, once a model economy, now faces the kind of real estate crisis that has only affected the United States and Spain until now. Banks in the Netherlands have also pumped billions upon billions in loans into the private and commercial real estate market since the 1990s, without ensuring that borrowers had sufficient collateral.

Private homebuyers, for example, could easily find banks to finance more than 100 percent of a property's price. "You could readily obtain a loan for five times your annual salary," says Scheepens, "and all that without a cent of equity." This was only possible because property owners were able to fully deduct mortgage interest from their taxes.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
21. Life after the Fall: The Aftermath of the Cypriot Banking Collapse
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:36 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/cypriots-look-for-a-future-in-crisis-stricken-country-a-891852.html

The sun is rising over Cyprus, the temperature is 22 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit) and the air feels like silk. On a morning like this, Pavlos Loizou, who works with his father in one of the island nation's largest real estate firms, would normally get into his silver Land Rover, rush over to Limassol or Larnaca, appraise building lots, take happy customers out to lunch and earn a lot of money in the process. At least that's the way it has been in recent years.

Loizou, 33, is tall, boyish-looking and polite. He studied finance in London and Cambridge, and he seemed to be headed for a magnificent future. Not anymore.

"I do know one thing," he says. "I'm not giving up."

On a morning like this Andreas Neocleous, a 73-year-old man and a behind-the-scenes mover and shaker in Cyprus, would normally drive out to the shore in Limassol shortly after sunrise. He would do his yoga exercises on the beach in the early morning light and then drive home again, shower and eat a light breakfast. At about 7:30, he would be sitting in his office, drinking green tea. He would stay there all day, working until late in the evening -- as always.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
22. Household savings rate hits new record low{spain}
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:39 AM
Apr 2013
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/04/02/inenglish/1364912773_010200.html

Spain's household savings rate declined to a new record low last year as rampant unemployment and the loss of spending power due to inflation and wage cuts forced families to dip into their piggy banks to make ends meet.

According to figures released Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), households set aside 8.2 percent of their disposal income last year, the lowest rate since the INE began compiling the series in 2000. The figure was down 2.8 points from a year earlier.

The INE said disposable income in the fourth quarter declined 4.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, a fall of 7.835 billion euros to 176.766 billion. Wages in the period declined 8.5 percent, with was barely offset by slight increases in income from other sources such as interest rates and deposits.

Also as a reflection of the fact that over a quarter of the working population is now out of a job, benefits received by households rose 1.0 percent, while social contributions declined by 7.7 percent and taxes fell 1.6 percent.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
23. SHUT UP, SAVERS!
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:48 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2013/04/08/130408ta_talk_surowiecki

BBen Bernanke may look like a mild-mannered academic, but, according to a chorus of critics, the chairman of the Federal Reserve is one of history’s great thieves. Over the past four years, the Fed has kept interest rates near zero and has pumped money into the economy by buying trillions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities and government debt. The idea is that a so-called “loose” monetary policy can help galvanize a weak economy—for instance, by encouraging businesses to invest and hire and by making it easier for people to buy homes. But, to his detractors, Bernanke is guilty of waging a “war on savers”—fleecing people, especially retirees, of hundreds of billions of dollars that they could have earned in interest. Among many conservatives, this notion has become mainstream. Last year, both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan regularly attacked the Fed for keeping interest rates too low, and, when Bernanke testified before Congress in February, Senator Bob Corker, of Tennessee, upbraided him for “throwing seniors under the bus.”

Certainly, it’s not the easiest time to live off interest income. The average rate on a savings account is less than 0.25 per cent. Long-term certificates of deposit offer rates well below inflation, and even a ten-year government bond yields less than two per cent. No wonder people with lots of savings want the Fed to start tightening—to stop buying bonds, and to raise interest rates. But most Americans depend on wages and salaries for their livelihood, not on interest income, and higher interest rates would hurt the job market, which is still weak, with unemployment near eight per cent and wages barely rising. Also, most Americans have more debt than savings, which means that they benefit directly from lower interest rates. Only an estimated seven per cent of all financial assets nationally are directly held in interest-bearing assets (like CDs or savings bonds). Even seniors, one of the groups most obviously hurt by low interest rates, get only ten per cent of their income from interest payments. Bernanke has been accused of waging class warfare and forcing senior citizens to eat cat food, but the simple fact is that people who are net savers are, on average, wealthier than those who aren’t.

And what if the Fed did raise interest rates? It’s unlikely that savers would be better off in the long run, since the move would slow down the economy as a whole and perhaps even tip us back into recession. Most savers aren’t just savers, after all: they are also workers or homeowners or stock-market investors—groups that need a growing economy to prosper. Even people who live entirely off interest rely on economic growth. “There’s this myth that monetary policy is a zero-sum game,” Scott Sumner, an economist at Bentley University who has become an influential advocate for a more expansionary Fed policy, says. “But it’s perfectly possible that looser monetary policy could make both savers and borrowers better off. When the economy is weak, tight money makes the whole pie smaller. When the economy is robust, we get more output, which means more real income, and that usually means higher rates of return for investors.” Indeed, the biggest culprit when it comes to low interest rates isn’t the Fed: it’s the weak economy, which has held down the demand for credit and made us all risk-averse. That’s why interest rates are low across most of the developed world—even in countries where central bankers haven’t been buying up assets the way the Fed has.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2013/04/08/130408ta_talk_surowiecki#ixzz2PJkmQ8nr


Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2013/04/08/130408ta_talk_surowiecki#ixzz2PJkcyjmO

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
24. Fannie Mae Reports Its Biggest Profit In History, And It Has Written A Gigantic Check To Taxpayers
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:50 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.businessinsider.com/fannie-mae-reports-its-most-profitable-year-in-history-2013-4

Fannie Mae — the much-hated, government-backed entity that needed a massive bailout and gets accused of inflating the housing bubble -- just reported its biggest annual profit in history.
From the announcement that came out this morning:
Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTC) today reported annual net income of $17.2 billion for 2012 and quarterly net income of $7.6 billion for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with a net loss of $16.9 billion for 2011. The improvement in the company’s full-year and quarterly net income was due primarily to improved credit results driven by a decline in serious delinquency rates, an increase in home prices, higher sales prices on Fannie Mae-owned properties, and the company’s resolution agreements with Bank of America.
So the comeback that we're seeing around the country in housing and credit is benefiting Fannie Mae big time.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fannie-mae-reports-its-most-profitable-year-in-history-2013-4#ixzz2PJlGW7X5

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
26. Household Debt Could Be A Game Changer For Retirees
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 10:56 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.businessinsider.com/rising-household-debt-could-add-burden-2013-3

More and more Americans are spending their golden years racking up debt—a trend that if left unchecked could derail entitlement reform and alter the traditional pattern of wealth being transferred from older to younger generations.

For the past several decades, millions of senior citizens have been able to enjoy relatively safe retirements, in part due to a lifetime of savings, private pensions, Social Security, Medicare, and home ownership.

Several recent studies indicate that the degree of safety might be eroding, as personal debt has become a way of life for a growing number of Americans older than 65:

* The Census Bureau reported last week that the median amount of household debt for Americans older than 65 had more than doubled between 2000 and 2011, climbing from $12,702 to roughly $26,000. Seniors experienced the largest percentage increase of any age group. Their individual debt loads are still below the overall median of $70,000, but the more than doubling stands out in an economy recently defined by consumers deleveraging.


Read more: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/03/28/Rising-Household-Debt-a-Game-Changer-for-Seniors.aspx#page1#ixzz2PJmkX7xv
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