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Tansy_Gold

(17,815 posts)
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 07:38 PM Apr 2013

STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 3 April 2013

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


SMW for 2 April 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 2 April 2013
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Dow Jones 14,662.01 +89.16 (0.61%)
S&P 500 1,570.25 +8.08 (0.52%)
Nasdaq 3,254.86 +15.69 (0.48%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.86% +0.01 (0.54%)
30 Year 3.12% +0.01 (0.32%) [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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[div]
[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]


71 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 3 April 2013 (Original Post) Tansy_Gold Apr 2013 OP
A Year Older, and No Wiser, Alas Demeter Apr 2013 #1
Happy Birthday. Good planning to miss April 1st. kickysnana Apr 2013 #2
I can't really take credit for that Demeter Apr 2013 #13
Yes you did. Baby makes the decision when to be born. kickysnana Apr 2013 #71
Happy Birthday! Fuddnik Apr 2013 #3
And a few years, I hope Demeter Apr 2013 #6
Happy Birthday, Demeter! hamerfan Apr 2013 #4
I'm eating for free or cheap, today Demeter Apr 2013 #7
110+ Restaurants That Offer Free Birthday Food! jtuck004 Apr 2013 #65
Happy Birthday! snot Apr 2013 #8
That's so sweet of you! Thanks! Demeter Apr 2013 #14
Happy birthday friend. May you have a wonderful day. n/t Hotler Apr 2013 #27
I have hope for that change, at least Demeter Apr 2013 #38
A very very happy b'day to you! (n/t) bread_and_roses Apr 2013 #31
Thanks! So, far, so good! Demeter Apr 2013 #39
Alas? Why yes you have a very fine alas. westerebus Apr 2013 #57
Thank you, I think Demeter Apr 2013 #60
Happy Birthday Demeter... jtuck004 Apr 2013 #5
It won't be for lack of trying, jtuck Demeter Apr 2013 #15
Hm, You are one day younger than my dad! DemReadingDU Apr 2013 #28
Plus a few years....geez, does everybody think I'm in the parental cohort? Demeter Apr 2013 #40
Sauce for the gander Demeter Apr 2013 #9
You are braver than I..... AnneD Apr 2013 #30
The local one is okay Demeter Apr 2013 #47
Bingo. Enjoy the day and life, Demeter & all Ghost Dog Apr 2013 #41
It's sunny here, at least Demeter Apr 2013 #48
The Rise of the Super-Rich: Is the Economy Just Going Through a Bad Patch? By Olivia Ward Demeter Apr 2013 #10
This Is What Happens When Congress Is for Sale Demeter Apr 2013 #16
Excellent. A propos: People in the UK now fit into seven social classes Ghost Dog Apr 2013 #43
DRONING ON: Boeing Helps Kill Proposed Law to Regulate Drones Demeter Apr 2013 #11
Germany Sees Rise of Campaign Against Combat Drones Demeter Apr 2013 #12
Happy Birthday, Miss Demeter! xchrom Apr 2013 #17
I'm still waiting on Persephone, though Demeter Apr 2013 #49
If the A&P would quit running those specials on Pomegranate...n/t jtuck004 Apr 2013 #50
I Love Pomegranate! Demeter Apr 2013 #52
IMF to Contribute 1 Billion Euros to Cyprus Rescue xchrom Apr 2013 #18
Courtesy of US taxpayers. Bah humbug! Demeter Apr 2013 #51
Algorithms Play Matchmaker to Fight 7.7% U.S. Unemployment: Jobs xchrom Apr 2013 #19
Given the general quality of Human Resource Depts. Demeter Apr 2013 #53
PM Manmohan Singh: India economic downturn temporary xchrom Apr 2013 #20
North Korea blocks South workers from Kaesong zone xchrom Apr 2013 #21
Promising but Perilous: German Firms Put Off by Russian Corruption xchrom Apr 2013 #22
Record High: European Jobless Rates Show North-South Rift xchrom Apr 2013 #23
STEAMROLLED BY BIG DATA{w/ a referrence to dilbert} xchrom Apr 2013 #24
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE INTERNET PRODUCTIVITY MIRACLE? xchrom Apr 2013 #25
I'm more productive with the Internet Demeter Apr 2013 #55
Home Prices Soar At The Fastest Rate In 7 Years xchrom Apr 2013 #26
I'm starting to feel rich again already! Fuddnik Apr 2013 #32
! xchrom Apr 2013 #34
Your time to refinance may come quick (and go quicker) Demeter Apr 2013 #56
STOCKS ARE HELD BACK BY WEAK PAYROLL REPORT xchrom Apr 2013 #29
"The Insurance Industry Shows Obamacare Who's Boss" bread_and_roses Apr 2013 #33
+1 xchrom Apr 2013 #35
And then there's this - from Donna Smith on likely premium under ACA bread_and_roses Apr 2013 #36
You knew it wasn't health care reform form the gitgo.... AnneD Apr 2013 #45
:::sigh::: yep. rubber stamp time again Tansy_Gold Apr 2013 #54
The sad thing is, it isn't even Heath INSURANCE Reform Demeter Apr 2013 #58
The GOP is not the only party.... AnneD Apr 2013 #62
Administration Hits Pause On Health Exchanges For Small Businesses Demeter Apr 2013 #68
Eurozone crisis live: Portuguese government faces no-confidence vote xchrom Apr 2013 #37
Bit Coin...Some food for thought. AnneD Apr 2013 #42
Must go to bar already. Fuddnik Apr 2013 #44
Why not. Ghost Dog Apr 2013 #46
Wish I could join you Demeter Apr 2013 #59
Wish you had shared ..... AnneD Apr 2013 #63
April 3, 2013 Happy 40th birthday, cellphone! Demeter Apr 2013 #61
"The banks weren't deregulated, they were decriminalized." jtuck004 Apr 2013 #64
Cypriot Finance Minister Resigns BRING IN ANOTHER GOLDMAN! Demeter Apr 2013 #66
SAC's Cohen must face fraud claims by ex-wife Demeter Apr 2013 #67
What? No Fairies? Demeter Apr 2013 #69
Just a blip. It takes a bigger blip to bring on the fairies. n/t Hotler Apr 2013 #70
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
7. I'm eating for free or cheap, today
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 07:56 AM
Apr 2013

The kids are taking me to Denny's, where my breakfast will be free....and then for lunch and dinner, the older one and will visit some other generous places....

 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
65. 110+ Restaurants That Offer Free Birthday Food!
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 03:07 PM
Apr 2013
Here

I did a google search for > free food on your birthday <


That's just one site, there are several. Leave some for me, I'm going to take advantage of a couple of these on Monday
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
38. I have hope for that change, at least
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 11:09 AM
Apr 2013

Can't remember last year's, but it wasn't great, and the year before was simply awful...so even a good breakfast is a good change.

westerebus

(2,976 posts)
57. Alas? Why yes you have a very fine alas.
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:42 PM
Apr 2013

I'll take a wise alas over a dumb alas any day of the week.


Happy birthday!

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
60. Thank you, I think
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:52 PM
Apr 2013

Dauntless: Ohhhhh… I liked her!
Larken: So did I.
Dauntless: Why…
Knights: Why…
All: Why…
Dauntless: Must every princess get the bird?
Lady Rowena: It's just absurd!
Lady Agatha: I never heard a test so difficult to pass!
Dauntless: Alas, a lass is what I lack, I lack a lass, alas alack.
Knights:
Throughout the land no one may wed Ladies:
'Til Dauntless shares his marriage bed Ohhh…

Ladies:
The lonely spinster's life! Go… And get the prince a royal wife

(Dauntless, disconsolate, leaves)

All:
We have an opening for a princess, For a genuine, certified princess.
Ladies:
Tell us when you intend to end this dilemma we're in!
Knights:
None of the ladies give a fig for livin' in sin!
All:
We have an opening for a princess, for a beautiful, bona-fide princess.
Ladies:
Where's the dutiful knight who'll right all the wrong we've been done?
Knights:
None of the ladies are having any fun.
Ladies:
What to do?
Knights:
What to do?
Ladies:
What to do?
Knights:
What to do?
Ladies:
Pity the ladies-in-waiting.
Knights:
Pity the gentleman too.
Ladies:
Four,
Knights:
Six,
All:
Eight, ten, eleven, twelve contenders in a row..
Knights:
They came, they were tested

Ladies: Then swiftly requested to go…

Ladies: Knights:
Oh… Blow

…For a princess the trumpet, sound the fife!
For a genuine, certified princess.


Knights:
Go and get the prince a royal wife!
Ladies:
Tell us when you intend to send a girl who can pass
Knights:
None of the ladies are havin' any…
All:
No one is havin' any, No one is getting any younger, and it's been God knows how long since

Knights:
We have an opening for a princessLadies:
For a genuine, certified princessWe have an
Opening for a princess


All:
We have an opening for a princess who's good enough,
nice enough, sweet enough, smart enough,
rich enough for our poor prince!


 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
5. Happy Birthday Demeter...
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 05:44 AM
Apr 2013

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="

?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Everybody's wishing
Me a happy birthday
Everybody's wishing
You a real good time
Everybody's wishing
Me a happy birthday
Everybody's wishing
Me a real good time
...



I sincerely hope you can make it a good one!
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
40. Plus a few years....geez, does everybody think I'm in the parental cohort?
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 11:16 AM
Apr 2013

I'm a Boomer, and proud. Right in the middle of the PIP, too.


AnneD

(15,774 posts)
30. You are braver than I.....
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 09:54 AM
Apr 2013

I refuse to eat at Denny's, even if it is free on my birthday. It is never too early to raise a glass and toast a friend on their birthday.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
47. The local one is okay
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 11:59 AM
Apr 2013

Thanks for the toast!

Because it's paper night, I'll raise my glass tomorrow.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
48. It's sunny here, at least
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:00 PM
Apr 2013

Still far colder than it ought to be...34F at noon...perfect for January, ridiculous for April!

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
10. The Rise of the Super-Rich: Is the Economy Just Going Through a Bad Patch? By Olivia Ward
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:15 AM
Apr 2013
http://truth-out.org/news/item/15452-the-rise-of-the-super-rich-is-the-economy-just-going-through-a-bad-patch


So the rich are different. What’s it to you?

Quite a lot, if you see some of the recent analysis of the growing gap between the 1 per cent and the rest of us whose chins are barely bobbing above the financial waves.

Chrystia Freeland’s new book Plutocrats: the Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else throws a hand grenade into the (hopeful) belief that the economic system is just going through a bad patch. This week Plutocrats won the Lionel Gelber Prize for best English language non-fiction book on foreign affairs. Freeland will speak at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs on April 15. Her message is both ground-breaking and chilling. Hyper-rich plutocrats are not only living on an ideological Pluto, but their power, influence and vast wealth are creating a global gated community that bodes ill for the majority here on Earth.
Freeland, now digital editor at Thomson Reuters, shared her thoughts from her office in New York:

Q: Are we seeing a whole new order of capitalism?

A: We are. Business has really gone global. Capital flows have gone global. It’s partly the result of globalization and technology and those trends are related. They have a broader reach. It means if you have a brilliant idea, like the 17-year-old kid who invented the algorithm, Yahoo will spot it and buy it for $30 million. What that means is you have this winner-take-all phenomenon becoming much more powerful. It results in a thin slice at the top of the economy getting the lion’s share.

Q: And its first loyalty is to acquiring and expanding wealth.

A: It’s not necessarily about personal choice, it’s about a flawed way of thinking. By the nature of their business and their lives today they are inevitably pulled into a globalized world. They have much less connection and fewer ties to their national community. And their rewards are in the global world.

Q: Like Cyprus, where international money goes to hide from the national tax man.

A: Business has slipped the traces of national government. One way to think about it is the collective realization that you are no longer a captive of a nation state.

Q: You’ve focused on the richest 0.1 per cent. What did you discover about them?

A: One of my favourite anecdotes was from a private equity guy who said that Beijing and New York look a lot alike: same restaurants, same people. He said it with genuine sentiment. If you put an ordinary person on the street for five minutes they won’t be confused.
But for people in this space, those cities really are similar. It’s a disconnect that shapes their world view and their politics. Not just in subtle ways. There’s also a disconnect of economic interests – Henry Ford said that you need to pay workers enough to buy your cars. That was the deal of post war America. The core idea was that the middle class needed to prosper because they were the consumers your business depended on. Now there are other markets.

Q: If the middle class – let alone the poor – don’t count to the power brokers, is the welfare state becoming extinct?

A: It’s both more necessary and harder to get political support for it. The middle class is hollowed out. Equality of opportunity is also eroded. Social mobility is getting worse. My favorite metaphor is that the distance between the rungs on the ladder is getting bigger.
The middle class needs more support. But the state’s ability to tax individual companies and the wealthy – and their view that it even matters – is less.

Q: And the effect on democracy?

A: These things are connected. One danger is that as you gain greater economic power, inevitably you use it to exert political influence. In the U.S. the most obvious sign is the “super PAC” (which can raise unlimited funds for political causes). But even more important is the tremendous money spent on lobbying. It’s a human instinct to slant the rules of the game in your favour. As the gap (between very rich and the rest) gets greater their political influence also grows. When the middle class is hollowed, it’s harder to be engaged in the political process.

Q: Any lights at the end of this tunnel?

A: I think the process (of growing inequality) is inevitable. Economic forces pushing it are really powerful, and if anything, are getting stronger. The forces widening the gap will increase rather than weaken. But it’s good to be optimistic. And it’s important to remember we have been there before. The strains imposed by the industrial revolution were in some ways worse. The poor were poorer and the system more closed – yet we got to a better place. I don’t think it will happen in a day and it won’t be easy. I see it as our generation’s work of citizenship.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
16. This Is What Happens When Congress Is for Sale
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:31 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/15424-this-is-what-happens-when-congress-is-for-sale


On Tuesday, President Obama signed into law H.R 933, a continuing resolution appropriations bill that had been approved by Congress – both the House and the Senate – just days earlier. And while the bill sounds fairly innocuous by itself, buried 78 pages into it was a provision that protects GMO and biotech companies like Monsanto from nearly all forms of judicial oversight.
First it was the gun manufacturers, who, in 2005 got Senator Larry Craig to attach the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” to a funding bill. That bill made it illegal for you and me – or the victims of Sandy Hook in Newtown – to sue weapons manufacturers or those who sell their products. Tobacco companies can – and have been – sued, but not gun manufacturers. In fact, you can sue just about anybody – except gun manufacturers.

And AT&T – you can't sue them, either, along with other telecom giants, because the “Protect America Act of 2007” that “reformed” FISA provides “full immunity from civil suits” to the phone companies for snooping on you and illegally sharing the info with the Bush administration.

And now they've done it again – just last week – with many of Monsanto's products.
Despite calls from more than 250,000 Americans to veto the bill, President Obama went ahead and signed it anyway, giving giant agribusiness companies like Monsanto free rein to develop, plant and sell all sorts of genetically modified crops, despite the wide range of health and safety concerns surrounding them. According to Greenpeace International, the provision in H.R. 933, “will effectively bar US federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of genetically engineered (GE) crops even if they failed to be approved by the government's own weak approval process and no matter what the health or environmental consequences might be.”

MORE
 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
43. Excellent. A propos: People in the UK now fit into seven social classes
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 11:28 AM
Apr 2013
... The BBC Lab UK study measured economic capital - income, savings, house value - and social capital - the number and status of people someone knows.

The study also measured cultural capital, defined as the extent and nature of cultural interests and activities.

The new classes are defined as:

Elite - the most privileged group in the UK, distinct from the other six classes through its wealth. This group has the highest levels of all three capitals

Established middle class - the second wealthiest, scoring highly on all three capitals. The largest and most gregarious group, scoring second highest for cultural capital

Technical middle class - a small, distinctive new class group which is prosperous but scores low for social and cultural capital. Distinguished by its social isolation and cultural apathy

New affluent workers - a young class group which is socially and culturally active, with middling levels of economic capital

Traditional working class - scores low on all forms of capital, but is not completely deprived. Its members have reasonably high house values, explained by this group having the oldest average age at 66

Emergent service workers - a new, young, urban group which is relatively poor but has high social and cultural capital

Precariat, or precarious proletariat - the poorest, most deprived class, scoring low for social and cultural capital

The researchers said while the elite group had been identified before, this is the first time it had been placed within a wider analysis of the class structure, as it was normally put together with professionals and managers.

At the opposite extreme they said the precariat, the poorest and most deprived grouping, made up 15% of the population...

/... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22007058
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
11. DRONING ON: Boeing Helps Kill Proposed Law to Regulate Drones
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:17 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15826

Boeing, the aircraft manufacturing giant from Seattle, helped defeat a Republican proposal in Washington state that would have forced government agencies to get approval to buy unmanned aerial vehicles, popularly known as drones, and to obtain a warrant before using them to conduct surveillance on individuals.

Local authorities in Seattle and in King county experimented with conducting surveillance from Draganfly Innovations drones last year, only to cancel both programs in the fact of public protest. "I'm not really surprised that people are upset," said Jennifer Shaw from the American Civil Liberties Union, a human rights group that campaigned against the drones. “It's a frightening thing to think that there's government surveillance cameras overhead.”

On February 7, 2013, David Taylor, a Republican member of the state legislature, introduced a bill to regulate drone use. The proposed law quickly won support from several Democratic party politicians on the state Public Safety Committee.

Alarmed by the growing bipartisan coalition, Boeing jumped into the fray. “We believe that as the technology matures, best practices and new understanding will emerge, and that it would be counterproductive to rush into regulating a burgeoning industry,” Boeing spokeswoman Sue Bradley wrote in a statement. (The company makes a variety of drones from the Unmanned Little Bird and the A160 Hummingbird helicopters to the ScanEagle which has been used in Iran and Iraq and the proposed new X-45C combat aircraft)

After the company approached several lawmakers, Frank Chopp, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington state, canceled a scheduled March 13 vote on the bill. Instead Jeff Morris, another Democrat who chairs the House Technology and Economic Development Committee, was asked to lead a “more comprehensive study of surveillance issues.”

“This is all about profit,” said a disappointed Taylor. “This is about profit over people’s rights.”

ONE LESS GOP MEMBER TO EDUCATE....ONE FEWER? WILL THE GRAMMARIAN HELP ME OUT?
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
12. Germany Sees Rise of Campaign Against Combat Drones
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:20 AM
Apr 2013
http://truth-out.org/news/item/15439-germany-sees-rise-of-campaign-against-combat-drones

Leading national and local peace and justice organizations in Germany have launched a major campaign to oppose the German government's recently revealed plan to acquire combat drones (weaponized drones). The organizations met together in Hannover earlier this month to begin the joint campaign. As a first step, they drafted an appeal—"No Combat Drones"—which was made public this past Sunday. Close to one hundred German organizations and hundreds of individuals have already endorsed the Appeal, signaling a very strong interest in this issue.
The Appeal will be circulated throughout Germany during the annual Easter weekend peace marches. The German activists plan to continue the campaign until the German government and military agree to abandon the plan to make use of combat drones.

Among the NATO member countries, so far only the U.K. and Italy have weaponized drones, in both cases acquired from the U.S. The drones in use by the German military up to now have been unarmed, for example, the Heron I that Germany leases from Israel for reconnaissance in Afghanistan. The German military has turned to the U.S. forces to request occasional drone strikes in Afghanistan. Some time ago the German government announced plans to work together with France to produce a European combat drone that is to be ready by 2020 -- but that seemed a long while off.

But in August 2012, Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told several leading German newspapers that he would like to obtain an Israeli or U.S. combat drone for the German military (Bundeswehr) almost immediately. "The new weapons have a huge advantage: They are more targeted," he told the German daily Die Welt. "And the better one can target, the less damage there will be." The announcement by de Mazière that the Bundeswehr wanted to obtain combat drones was met by hefty criticism in leading German media. For example, in October the prestigious German daily Süddeutsche published an article with the title "Drones are Terror" by a renowned German specialist in international criminal law, Professor Kai Ambos.

Then in January, in answer to an official inquiry by the Left Party of the German Parliament, Merkel's government admitted that the planning for combat drones had advanced well beyond just being a wish of the Defense Minister. Indeed, her government had already made the decision to acquire them in the near future. Many parliamentarians were outraged. Both the Left Party and the Green Party submitted formal motions against the German government's plan to obtain combat drones. The motions have not yet been scheduled for parliamentary debate...Even members of the SPD and the FDP expressed strong reservations. For example, the senior SPD parliamentarian Thomas Opperman told Spiegel Online: "I'm opposed to a hasty decision because this brings a new quality to warfare. We need a broad societal and parliamentary debate about the ethical and legal boundaries of the deployment of combat drones and not some backroom decision. It is entirely inappropriate that the public and parliament have learned of these plans more or less by accident."...

YEAH, LIKE THOSE YAHOOS IN AMERICA
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
49. I'm still waiting on Persephone, though
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:02 PM
Apr 2013

My baby will be returning to the community in July, though! Maybe by then we will be having Spring, too!

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
18. IMF to Contribute 1 Billion Euros to Cyprus Rescue
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:38 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-03/imf-to-contribute-1-billion-euros-to-cyprus-rescue.html

The International Monetary Fund will contribute about 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) as part of a rescue program for Cyprus that aims to stabilize the nation’s banks and reduce public spending, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said.

The IMF announced a staff-level agreement with Cyprus on the 10 billion-euro program, hashed out with euro-area authorities on March 25. The deal calls for Cyprus to restructure its two largest banks, reduce budget deficits and adjust its wage and pension systems. The euro moved higher on the announcement of the pact with Cypriot authorities.

“This is a challenging program that will require great efforts from the Cypriot population,” Lagarde said in a statement. “We believe that it provides a durable and fully financed solution to the underlying problems facing Cyprus and provides a sustainable path toward a recovery.”

Lagarde and European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said they “stand by” Cyprus, according to a joint statement accompanying the IMF announcement. That statement said Cyprus has agreed to a “well-paced fiscal adjustment” that balances short-term and long-term needs.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
51. Courtesy of US taxpayers. Bah humbug!
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:28 PM
Apr 2013
?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1305516693353

CHART: Who Funds The IMF?

http://dailybail.com/home/chart-who-funds-the-imf.html

The correct answer is... you. This chart explains in simple terms why you often hear that U.S. taxpayers are bailing out foreign nations - because we provide approximately 17% of IMF funds.

UPDATE - Read this bit of IMF madness:
http://dailybail.com/home/sources-in-washington-say-imfs-pot-of-cash-could-be-
expanded.html

Sources In Washington Say IMF’s Pot Of Cash Could Be Expanded From $350 Billion To $3.5 Trillion

It is no secret that IMF head Christine Lagarde wants a massive increase in the size of the IMF's bailout fund. She's been lobbying publicly along those lines for the past month. What is new is the dollar figure now being floated. Keep in mind as you read this story that U.S. taxpayers contribute roughly 18% of all IMF funds, so the $3.5 trillion headline figure means $700 billion from the United States.

Any IMF funding increase would have to be approved by Congress, and judging by the blistering response below from Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers (the leading U.S. anti-IMF advocate), it will not be an easy sell.

---

NOTE - In the excerpt below we have changed all figures to U.S. dollars.

Source - Daily Mail

Sources in Washington said the IMF’s pot of cash could be expanded to $3.5 trillion.

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, said the current war chest of around $350 billion ‘pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries’ and needs to be expanded to deal with ‘worst-case scenarios’.

Following crisis talks in Washington at the weekend, Mrs Lagarde said: ‘The Fund’s credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-case scenarios. Our lending capacity looks comfortable today but pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries and crisis bystanders. It will be useful to discuss, soon, the needs and contingency options.’

---

Now for some sanity on this issue:

U.S. Has Already Contributed $100 Billion + to Bailouts

“We Cannot Take the ‘Too Big to Fail’ Philosophy to a Global Level”

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference, released the following statement today after International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director Christine Lagarde distributed a document at an IMF steering committee meeting warning that the IMF’s growing participation in European bailouts means the organization will likely need to increase its global bailout fund – a fund to which U.S. taxpayers have already contributed over $100 billion:

“At a time when the federal government is borrowing $5 billion every day on top of a $14 trillion national debt, we should not be funneling billions of dollars through the IMF to bail out Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and other European countries. The European Union was set up to be an economic competitor to the United States, and therefore, any bailout funds should come from the E.U., not the U.S.

The global debt crisis was caused by too much spending and borrowing and that crisis will not be solved by more spending and borrowing. We cannot take the ‘too big to fail’ philosophy to a global level. The only thing ‘too big to fail’ is America itself.”

The U.S. is the leading contributor to the IMF, providing the organization with 17.3 percent of its funding.

---

Meanwhile, the IMF makes no secret of their desire to abandon the dollar and create their own world reserve currency.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
19. Algorithms Play Matchmaker to Fight 7.7% U.S. Unemployment: Jobs
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:42 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-03/algorithms-play-matchmaker-to-fight-7-7-u-s-unemployment-jobs.html

When Monique Nyampong graduated from Long Island University last May, she wished she had a headhunter who knew of employers with openings that would be right for her.

She got the help she needed in the form of a patented computer algorithm developed by AfterCollege Inc. (0135042D), an online job board that analyzed 12 years’ worth of data it has stored about its users and business clients to find the best positions for her. A month after registering her profile on the service, she found a management-training opportunity with Consolidated Edison Inc. sitting in her inbox. She’ll start the job in June.

“I felt like it gave me specifically what I wanted, like it was catered to me,” Nyampong, 25, who lives in Queens, New York, said of the service.

Job-search services like AfterCollege are racing to develop software that thinks and acts like a human recruiter, examining what kinds of workers and companies are drawn to each other so a computer can recommend vacancies to job seekers and candidates to hiring managers. With unemployment at 7.7 percent, more than 12 million Americans are looking for work while almost 4 million openings go unfilled, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Targeted matches may help the labor market work better, according to Alvin Roth, an economist at Stanford University near Palo Alto, California.



***oh pardon me...that's my skepticism rolling around all over the place.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
53. Given the general quality of Human Resource Depts.
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:32 PM
Apr 2013

I can see all of business switching to computer-generated hires...and the results could be no worse, I suppose...

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
20. PM Manmohan Singh: India economic downturn temporary
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:46 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22011617

India's PM Manmohan Singh has said he is confident the country's economy will bounce back and that the current downturn is "temporary".

Mr Singh said he did not believe "our future is at 5% growth" and added that India "can get back to 8% growth rate".

India's growth has dipped in recent months, mostly due to a slowdown in its manufacturing and services sectors.

Foreign investors have also been wary of entering the Indian market amid a delay in key reforms.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
21. North Korea blocks South workers from Kaesong zone
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 08:50 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22011207

North Korea has stopped South Koreans from crossing the border to work at the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone, for the first time since 2009.

Seoul said about 800 South Koreans who had stayed overnight at the complex were being allowed to return.

Kaesong is a crucial revenue source for the North, which has not indicated how long the entry ban will last.

Pyongyang has threatened the South and the US in recent weeks, and has vowed to restart a mothballed nuclear plant.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
22. Promising but Perilous: German Firms Put Off by Russian Corruption
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 09:08 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/german-investors-discouraged-by-corruption-in-russia-a-892043.html

The Hotel Ukraine in Moscow is still graced with the emblem of the former Soviet Union, which features wreaths of grain encircling the Soviet star. The upscale Italian restaurant on the 29th floor offers a sweeping view past the symbols of the former communist empire to those of the modern age, the gleaming skyscrapers on the opposite bank of the Moskva River.

Down below is an armada of black, luxury sedans, looking as small as toy cars, interspersed with the occasional red Ferrari or yellow Lamborghini. The restaurant serves spaghetti with crabs from the Kamchatka Peninsula for €50 ($64), and bottles of Château Pétrus for about €10,000. Business executives in tailored suits go there to celebrate their latest deals. They often raise a glass to President Vladimir Putin, who they see as the guarantor of Russia's stability.

Putin sees himself the same way. Next weekend, he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will jointly open the Hannover Messe 2013, which showcases Russia this year. At the trade fair, Putin will present an impressive record to the representatives of German industry.

The economy of the world's largest country in terms of land mass grew by 3.4 percent last year. Unemployment is at 6 percent nationwide, significantly lower than in Western countries, and the government had a balanced budget last year, following a surplus in 2011.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
23. Record High: European Jobless Rates Show North-South Rift
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 09:10 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/euro-zone-unemployment-hits-record-high-a-892137.html

Euro-zone unemployment data released on Tuesday provided yet further evidence of the widening economic rift between the stable north and the struggling south.

The rate was 12 percent in February, unchanged from an upwardly-revised 12 percent in January, initially reported as 11.9 percent, said Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. It was the highest rate since the creation of the euro in 1999.

In the 17-nation bloc, 19.07 million were registered as unemployed, Eurostat estimated. In the full 27-member European Union, the unemployment rate rose to 10.9 percent from 10.8 percent.

The difference between the northern and southern euro member states is striking. Austria, Germany and Luxembourg had jobless rates of 4.8 percent, 5.4 percent and 5.5 percent respectively, while Greece and Spain were the hardest hit with rates of over 26 percent each. Portugal's unemployment stood at 17.5 percent.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
24. STEAMROLLED BY BIG DATA{w/ a referrence to dilbert}
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 09:26 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/steamrolled-by-big-data.html



Five years ago, few people had heard the phrase “Big Data.” Now, it’s hard to go an hour without seeing it. In the past several months, the industry has been mentioned in dozens of New York Times stories, in every section from metro to business. (Wired has even already declared it passé: “STOP HYPING BIG DATA AND START PAYING ATTENTION TO ‘LONG DATA’.”) At least one corporation, the business-analytics firm SAS, has a Vice-President of Big Data. Meanwhile, nobody seems quite sure exactly what the phrase means, beyond a general impression of the storage and analysis of unfathomable amounts of information, but we are assured, over and over, that it’s going to be big. Last summer, Jon Kleinberg, a computer scientist at Cornell, said in the Times that “The term itself is vague, but it is getting at something that is real… Big Data is a tagline for a process that has the potential to transform everything.”

Most of what’s written about Big Data is enthusiastic, like Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schonberger’s gushing ode “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think,” which is currently selling briskly on Amazon, or the recent Times article on Mayor Bloomberg’s geek squad, and how “Big Data’s moment, especially in the management of cities, has powerfully and irreversibly arrived.” But despite the sense of excitement and promise surrounding the industry, Big Data isn’t nearly the boundless miracle that many people seem to think it is.
* * *
The reason scarcely anybody used to talk about Big Data is that, until very recently, it didn’t exist—most data had been, by current standards, small potatoes. Now, Big Data is mainly measured in terabytes (trillions) and petabytes (quadrillions); within a decade, even those numbers may seem quaint.

As companies like Google have shown, more data often means newer and better solutions to old problems. Last year, I wrote about how Google significantly improved spell-checkers by using massive databases of users’ self-corrections to do work that previously required hand-crafted algorithms focussed on the intricacies of English spelling and the psychology of typing. Google’s new trick wouldn’t work if you only had a few user searches to draw on, but if you have trillions of searches from many millions of users, across a hundred and forty-six languages, it’s pure genius—and a technique that can be rapidly applied to different languages with relatively little manual labor. And it’s just one of hundreds or perhaps thousands of innovations driven by the sheer mass of data that we’re capable of storing, wrangling, and manipulating. Cukier and Mayer-Schonberger’s book, for example, explains how the artificial-intellegence researcher Oren Etzioni created Farecast (eventually sold to Microsoft, and now part of Bing Travel), which scraped data from the Web to make good guesses about whether airline fare would rise or fall. Coupled with some advances in statistical techniques, Big Data is now de rigueur—to the point, almost, of being a kind of new religion, nicely parodied in Dilbert last summer: “In the past, our company did many evil things,” Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss says, “but if we store Big Data in our servers we will be saved.”

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/steamrolled-by-big-data.html#ixzz2PPGaTLfL


Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/steamrolled-by-big-data.html#ixzz2PPGQzbjg

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
25. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE INTERNET PRODUCTIVITY MIRACLE?
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 09:28 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/04/what-happened-to-the-internet-productivity-miracle.html



With The New Yorker launching a new online science-and-technology hub today, along with our Elements blog, I thought it a good time to step back and look at the impact of the communications revolution in a broader way than asking whether Samsung is becoming the new Apple. (Although that’s an interesting question.) Ever since I joined the magazine, in 1995, the Internet and technologies associated with it have been transforming the American economy in ways too varied and myriad to retread here. Even now, though, almost twenty years on, there’s precious little agreement on what it all means for productivity growth and living standards, which usually amount to pretty much the same thing over the long term. (Over decades rather than months and years, wages and salaries tend to track productivity growth pretty closely.*)

Back in the late nineteen-nineties, there was a lot of optimism about the future, and it wasn’t all emanating from those lucky souls who had gotten in early on the I.P.O.s of companies like Yahoo and Amazon. Many economists, with Alan Greenspan prominent amongst them, believed that over time the heavy investments in new information and communication technologies (I.C.T.) that companies were making would lead to rapid growth in productivity and wages. There was much discussion of a third industrial revolution, with the Internet playing the role that the steam engine played in the early nineteenth century and electricity played in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

For a time, the Labor Department’s productivity figures appeared to support the idea of an Internet-based productivity miracle. Between 1996 and 2000, output per hour in the non-farm business sector—the standard measure of labor productivity—grew at an annual rate of 2.75 per cent, well above the 1.5 per cent rate that was seen between 1973 and 1996. The difference between 1.5 per cent annual productivity growth and and 2.75 per cent growth is enormous. With 2.75 per cent growth (assuming higher productivity leads to higher wages) it takes about twenty-six years for living standards to double. With 1.5 per cent growth, it takes a lot longer—forty-eight years—for living standards to double.

No wonder people were excited. If the productivity growth rates of the late nineties could be sustained, Americans of the future wouldn’t merely be richer than their parents: they’d be twice as rich. Even after 2000, when the Internet stock bubble burst, productivity growth remained high. In fact, it rose further. During the four years from 2001 to 2004, output per hour increased at an annual rate of 3.5 per cent. Despite the mayhem on the Nasdaq, the Internet-productivity miracle seemed to be alive and well. And with all the talk of “Web 2.0”—2004 was the year that Tim O’Reilly, a notable Silicon Valley booster, held a conference devoted to that topic—the technology optimists argued there was plenty of scope left for further gains. Broadband penetration was rising rapidly. Social networking was in its infancy, as was the mobile revolution. Once practically everybody was permanently online, with the entire resources of the Internet at their fingertips, surely productivity would take another quantum leap.


Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/04/what-happened-to-the-internet-productivity-miracle.html#ixzz2PPHFgOqW
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
55. I'm more productive with the Internet
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:36 PM
Apr 2013

Industry with huge hierarchies wouldn't see much improvement...because they are rigid, not because of the Internet.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
26. Home Prices Soar At The Fastest Rate In 7 Years
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 09:32 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.businessinsider.com/home-prices-soar-at-the-fastest-rate-in-7-years-2013-4

CoreLogic's home price index improved 10.2 percent in February, the largest year-over-year change in seven years.
Nevada led all states, with prices increasing 10.3 percent in February.
Arizona and California were No. 2 and No. 3, and Phoenix and L.A. were first and second among large cities.
Here's the national chart:


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/home-prices-soar-at-the-fastest-rate-in-7-years-2013-4#ixzz2PPI7yv4r

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
29. STOCKS ARE HELD BACK BY WEAK PAYROLL REPORT
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 09:50 AM
Apr 2013
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WALL_STREET_OPEN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-03-09-47-21

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are little changed shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street following a weak survey on hiring last month.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged up down 10 points, or 0.07 percent, to 14,649 early Wednesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off a point at 1,568. The Nasdaq composite was up a point at 3,256.

Payroll processor ADP said its survey shows U.S. companies added fewer jobs in March compared with the previous month as construction firms held off on hiring.

bread_and_roses

(6,335 posts)
33. "The Insurance Industry Shows Obamacare Who's Boss"
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 10:24 AM
Apr 2013

Like we didn't already know? I linked to this off the yahoo home page, of all places ...

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/02/the-insurance-industry-shows-obamacare-whos-boss.aspx

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known loosely as Obamacare, was passed in 2010 to completely reform our current health-care system...

... Part of those reforms -- as we found out in February through a statement released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS -- included what was expected to a mid-single-digit drop in reimbursements for insurers who provided Medicare Advantage plans.

... There was serious concern from the get-go for insurers like Humana (NYSE: HUM ) , Universal American (NYSE: UAM ) , UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH ) and Health Net (NYSE: HNT ) ... These insurers made it clear that if these rates were to continue into 2014 they would simply reduce the amount of benefits offered and shrink the overall scope of the provider network.

The idea of higher premiums and fewer benefits didn't sit too well with Congressional lawmakers, insurers, or insurance advocacy groups, which took to aggressive lobbying since the decision was announced in February. Last night, that lobbying turned out to be wholly worthwhile.

As a warning shot aimed directly across the bow of Obamacare, the insurers operating in the Medicare Advantage industry were informed by the CMS on Monday that it had decided to reverse its original recommendation of a 2.3% reimbursement cut in 2013 in favor of a 3.3% increase in the rate of reimbursement!

bread_and_roses

(6,335 posts)
36. And then there's this - from Donna Smith on likely premium under ACA
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 10:35 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/29-5

Published on Friday, March 29, 2013 by Common Dreams
Good Friday Health Care Options: Go Bare or Go Broke?
by Donna Smith

... Then there is me. Being able to purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange/marketplace will not change this scenario up much as premiums for people like me – over 55 and a two time cancer survivor – will be anything but affordable. Sure, insurance companies will be forced to write a policy for me, but they’ll also be able to charge me a huge amount – likely more than the $803 my health benefits under COBRA will cost now. And that cost is without dental or vision coverage. To add those features would push my costs to nearly $1,000/month in premiums. Add my husband? Now we’re talking almost $2,000/month for both of us even though Medicare remains his primary coverage.


Gee ... how "affordable"!!! Sing his praises! Change we can believe in!!!

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
45. You knew it wasn't health care reform form the gitgo....
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 11:31 AM
Apr 2013

Last edited Wed Apr 3, 2013, 01:27 PM - Edit history (1)

If it had been true reform, the health care lobby would have been screaming bloody murder. Just MHO, YMMV.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
58. The sad thing is, it isn't even Heath INSURANCE Reform
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:44 PM
Apr 2013

and the worst part is there are so many Koolaid drinkers on this site....who cannot take in a fact that contradicts their fantasies.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
68. Administration Hits Pause On Health Exchanges For Small Businesses
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 03:29 PM
Apr 2013
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/04/03/176131602/administration-hits-pause-on-health-exchanges-for-small-businesses?ft=1&f=1001

The Obama administration is delaying the start of a key piece of the Affordable Care Act. Workers in small businesses will have to wait an additional year to be able to choose from more than one plan in the marketplaces that start next January. The delay — first proposed in regulations issued last month and confirmed earlier this week — is the first acknowledgment by the administration that it won't be able to meet the tight timetable it has set to get these health exchanges up and running by October 1, when enrollment is set to begin.

The delay has disappointed some backers of the law. "A major selling point of the small business exchange is that small business owners will be able to simply select a particular level of coverage that they want their employees to have, and then their employees will have the ability to choose from multiple plans within that level of coverage," says John Arensmeyer, CEO of the advocacy group Small Business Majority. Without a menu that includes multiple plans, he says, the exchanges "will be less attractive." SINGLE PAYER BY DEFAULT! The change won't affect the options for individuals in the health exchanges. While most people refer to the exchanges as a single entity, there are actually two separate pools: one for individuals and another one for employees of small firms. Individuals will have a choice of plans from the start. But insurers complained about not having enough time to set up competing plans for the small business exchange, formally known as the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP.

As a result, the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday, "We have proposed that in 2014, a SHOP may elect to have businesses choose one plan to offer employees, and in 2015 employees will be able to choose from the full range of plans in the Marketplace." That's basically the way most small business health insurance works now — the boss chooses a health plan for all the employees. But the delay is not necessarily a bad thing, says Jay Angoff. He's a former Obama health official and Missouri Insurance Commissioner now back in the private sector. He says when the exchanges begin offering multiple plans is less important than whether they do what they were designed for. Angoff says he's all for giving the government more time to make sure that the plans compete to offer the best coverage at the lowest possible price. AND IF YOU BELIEVE THAT..."And I do think if it results in the exchanges using their bargaining power, establishing a competitive bidding process, that it's a good thing, not a bad thing," he says. "Because it will give the exchanges more time to set up a process which will force insurance companies either to charge reasonable rates or not sell through the exchanges at all."

Joel Ario, who helped set up the health exchange program at HHS and has also since returned to the private sector, says he won't be surprised if opponents of the law see the delay as the first indication that the Department of Health and Human Services won't be able to meet its deadlines. But he doesn't think that's the case. "I think it shows that the agency is going to focus on the must-do's," he says. "and the nice-to-have's will have to in some cases wait. And this is one of those 'it- would-be-nice-to-have-but-not-essential' for 2014." Small businesses that support the law will still have a reason to join when the exchanges first go live next year. If they do, they could be eligible for new tax credits that can lower the cost of providing coverage. And there is already a push for the administration to try to reverse its decision to delay the choice feature. But this definitely represents another bump for a law that has already seen some rough roads.

NO MATTER HOW THIN THEY SLICE IT, IT'S STILL BALONEY!

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
37. Eurozone crisis live: Portuguese government faces no-confidence vote
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 10:44 AM
Apr 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/03/eurozone-crisis-live-portuguese-government-no-confidence-vote


A demonstrator wearing a mask of Portuguese prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho, carries a sign with the words "Leader of organized crime against the people", at a protest in Lisbon last week. Photograph: Armando Franca/AP

Portugal opposition calls for removal of "incompetent" government
Portugal's opposition party has called for a renegotiation of the country's EU/IMF bailout package and labelled the government an "incompetent" one which must be replaced.

Socialist leader Antonio Jose Seguro, presenting a largely symbolic no confidence motion, said his party was against the spending cuts the government agreed to. He said (as reported by Reuters):

Your government is destroying Portugal and there is only one solution - to replace the incompetent government.

But the prime minister, whose centre-right coalition has a comfortable majority, said the country had to comply with the programme to guarantee funding, and the no-confidence vote created a climate of political instability. He said a bailout renegotiation would lead to a second bailout.

Fuddnik

(8,846 posts)
44. Must go to bar already.
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 11:30 AM
Apr 2013

Against Tansy's advice, I stuck my hand in the crazy.

Must drink now. Heavily. It's the only thing that will clean off brain cells.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
59. Wish I could join you
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:47 PM
Apr 2013

The grandpuppy is playing with the carpenters, barking every time they go out or in, and generally driving me crazy.

The wood floors are gorgeous...the baseboards are cut and polyeurethaned, the doors are stunning...and the mess is gonna take me the rest of the year to clean up...

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
61. April 3, 2013 Happy 40th birthday, cellphone!
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 01:17 PM
Apr 2013
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/happy-40th-birthday-cellphone-2013-04-03?siteid=YAHOOB


?uuid=bfe89dd4-9c69-11e2-a906-002128040cf6

1973: The Motorola DynaTAC2

Forty years ago today, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first cellphone call. Let’s take our mobile phones on a walk down Memory Lane to see the transformation of these devices. A lot has changed since Cooper walked onto the streets of New York four decades ago and placed the first mobile call to his rival Joel Engel at Bell Labs. The size, for starters, has changed dramatically. Cooper’s first phone weighed 2.5 pounds, was 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 1.75 inches wide. Now compare that to the smartphone in your pocket—it’s unlikely it weighs more than 10 ounces. And while modern mobile phone users may not be able to even fathom using a 1980s brick phone, it was quite the accessory back in the days. Just check out this commercial for one of the first Motorola phones. To get your hands on such a bad boy you had to find $3,995 in your pocket, so it’s not just the size that has changed over time but also the price. At left, Cooper in later years, holding the groundbreaking phone.
 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
64. "The banks weren't deregulated, they were decriminalized."
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 03:00 PM
Apr 2013

This was the first comment in a story on Crooks and Liars.

I thought it should be memorialized here.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
66. Cypriot Finance Minister Resigns BRING IN ANOTHER GOLDMAN!
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 03:19 PM
Apr 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/business/global/cypriot-finance-minister-resigns.html

Michalis Sarris, the Cypriot finance minister who negotiated Cyprus’s bailout agreement with international creditors, resigned on Tuesday, citing the beginning of a government inquiry into the collapse of the country’s banking industry. President Nicos Anastasiades accepted the decision by Mr. Sarris to step down, and the government quickly appointed Harris Georgiades, the deputy finance minister, as his replacement.

On the heels of Cyprus’s 10 billion euro, or $13 billion, bailout announced last week, a political blame game has broken open in the halls of power. Mr. Sarris has faced strong criticism for his handling of the crisis and had been under pressure from some factions in the Cypriot Parliament to step down. He is also one of several people now facing an investigation by Cypriot officials over his role in the country’s banking crisis. Before taking the helm as finance minister in the government that came to power in February, Mr. Sarris was chairman of the board of Laiki Bank, which effectively collapsed last week. Laiki is being merged into the Bank of Cyprus in a deal under which depositors will lose up to 60 percent of their savings in excess of 100,000 euros. Under his watch, a stint of eight months through August 2012 in which he tried to salvage Laiki, the bank suffered steep losses, mostly on a mountain of soured loans to Greek and Cypriot businesses and individuals. Cypriot banks also took a hit from their heavy holdings of Greek government bonds, which incurred big losses in the international bailout of Greece.

On Tuesday, some of the curbs Cyprus imposed on removing money from banks were softened. The restrictions had particularly hurt businesses that were not permitted to make large payments on debts they owed in the past two weeks. The Finance Ministry lifted the ceiling on transactions between accounts and other banks to 25,000 euros from 5,000 euros. Other restrictions remain in place, including 300 euro daily withdrawal limits.

Mr. Anastasiades on Tuesday appointed a three-judge panel to look into how and why Cyprus edged close to a financial disaster that threatened to make it the first country to exit the euro. In a speech, he said the crisis arose from inept actions and omissions by people in charge of the banking sector and the economy. Mr. Sarris had been at the front lines of the bailout negotiations, which led to one abortive deal more than two weeks ago in Brussels, followed by the final agreement early last week. The most contentious decision in the first deal, which the Parliament rejected, would have imposed a 6.75 percent tax on bank deposits of less than 100,000 euros. Before it was abandoned, the plan was roundly criticized by economists in Europe and elsewhere as threatening the integrity of the deposit insurance system throughout the 17-country euro zone...“Mr. Sarris’s credibility was at near zero both nationally and with foreign lenders after he supported the first failed plan to tax depositors and then returned empty-handed from Moscow,” said Mujtaba Rahman, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group...The main provisions of the bailout deal will remain in place, including the breakup of Laiki Bank and the overhaul of the Bank of Cyprus. But the Cypriot Parliament must still vote on a memorandum of understanding with the so-called troika of international organizations — the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund — that agreed to the bailout. That memorandum, still being drafted, will outline the budget cuts and other conditions Cyprus will have to meet to receive its allotments of money. A parliamentary vote is expected in coming weeks. The governments of Germany and Finland, under their national rules on bailout loans, are also expected to seek the approval of their Parliaments...Michael Olympios, chairman of the Cyprus Investor Association, is among the many critics of the bailout deal because it wiped out the shareholders of Bank of Cyprus and will impose losses of up to 60 percent on depositors with more than 100,000 euros in their accounts. “The troika is pushing us from recession to depression,” Mr. Olympios said, adding that the country may yet need to leave the euro zone. “It doesn’t matter if Mr. Sarris leaves and someone new comes in. If you don’t change the policies that are being imposed on us, then forget it.”

MORE AT LINK
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
67. SAC's Cohen must face fraud claims by ex-wife
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 03:22 PM
Apr 2013
http://news.yahoo.com/lawsuit-ex-wife-sacs-cohen-revived-appeal-141612901--sector.html

An appeals court has revived a lawsuit by the former wife of Steven A. Cohen, founder of hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, who accused the billionaire of hiding $5.5 million from her during proceedings that led to their 1990 divorce. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said a lower court had erred in dismissing fraud-based claims by Patricia Cohen, who had sued her ex-husband in 2009. The appeals court also revived claims of racketeering and breach of fiduciary duty, while upholding the dismissal of an unjust enrichment claim. "I'm delighted," Howard Foster, a lawyer for Patricia Cohen, said on Wednesday. "It looks like the court agreed with us on all the major issues."

Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Pierre Leval said Patricia Cohen had made a "plausible" allegation that Steven Cohen had concealed the $5.5 million during negotiations on a separation agreement in 1989, which preceded the divorce. He noted that the court's decision did not address whether Patricia Cohen's fraud claims had merit. "This is a procedural ruling and not a ruling on the merits," said Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for SAC Capital Advisors. "As we have said from the outset, these decades-old allegations by Mr. Cohen's former spouse were patently false and entirely without merit. We will continue to defend against them vigorously."

The revival of the lawsuit comes amid mounting pressure on Steven Cohen over an insider trading investigation that led to last Friday's arrest of Michael Steinberg, one of Cohen's closest confidantes at SAC Capital. Steinberg pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy over alleged insider trading in computer company Dell Inc and chipmaker Nvidia Corp. The charges made him the ninth person implicated or charged with insider trading while working at Cohen's $15 billion hedge fund. Also in March, SAC affiliates reached two civil insider trading settlements totaling nearly $616 million with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. One of the civil settlements has won court approval. SAC neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in either case. Steven Cohen has not been accused of wrongdoing.

REAL ESTATE DEAL

The divorce case revolved around a $9 million real estate deal that Steven Cohen had pursued through an entity called SAC Trading Corp. Patricia Cohen alleged that her ex-husband had invested the money to buy New York City real estate in early 1986, only to be told later that year by Steven and his brother, co-defendant Donald Cohen, that the money was lost. In fact, she said $5.5 million of the money had been returned to her ex-husband by January 2007, and he eventually claimed to have written off the entire investment.
She said this eventually caused him to value his net worth, as of 1989, at less than $8.2 million.

Wednesday's decision overturned a March 2011 dismissal of Patricia Cohen's case by U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell, who has since gone into private practice. Holwell had ruled that Patricia Cohen failed to show that her former husband misled her about the $5.5 million or that he was involved in civil racketeering. He also said Patricia Cohen waited too long to bring her claims. But the appeals court found that Patricia Cohen did not wait too long, in part because she claimed to have learned about the $5.5 million payment in a chance discovery in 2008. It also said Holwell ruled correctly in dismissing an unjust enrichment claim brought by Patricia Cohen. The 2nd Circuit returned the case to Manhattan federal court for further proceedings before a different judge.

In court papers, Patricia Cohen had accused Steven Cohen of launching SAC Capital in 1992 in part with proceeds from an alleged illegal insider trading tip in 1986 about General Electric Co's acquisition of RCA. Steven Cohen had been a top trader at Gruntal & Co at the time, and according to a deposition transcript during an SEC probe repeatedly asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The SEC ended the investigation without filing charges against Cohen. Patricia Cohen's allegations over the divorce do not address recent probes involving SAC.
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