Weekend Economists: See the Kittehs! May24-27, 2013

[Demeter]

Yes, it's so bad, we are reduced to photos and clips of our furry friends (or fiends, depending).

I don't know why, or how, it got so bad so fast. I was listening to the Diane Rehm show (Diane was off, so it was much more bearable. Her voice is really not up to the job, and hasn't been for years), and the pinch-hitter from the BBC mentioned that she had 15 topics to cover in an hour.

Well, we have 3 days, if you count Monday, and at least that many aspects of the global political economy to track. So let's get going.

[Demeter]

1. I doubt that anyone has the nerve to close a bank on a federal holiday....

but I'll keep checking.

[Demeter]

2. Why Is Europe So Messed Up? An Illuminating History by John Cassidy

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/05/austerity-an-irreverent-and-timely-history.html?mbid=nl_Daily%20%28247%29

The big news of the past week had nothing to do with the I.R.S. or Benghazi. It was the confirmation that, while the American economy continues to recover from the disastrous financial bust of 2008 and 2009, Europe remains mired in a seemingly endless slump.

On this side of the pond, the Congressional Budget Office announced that, with the economy expanding, tax revenues rising, and federal spending being restrained, the budget deficit is set to fall to about four per cent of Gross Domestic Product this year, and to 3.4 per cent next year. The latter figure is pretty close to the average for the past thirty years. At least for now, the great U.S. fiscal scare is over—not that you’d guess that from listening to the public debate in Washington. In Europe, things are going from bad to worse. New figures show that in the seventeen-member euro zone, G.D.P. has been contracting for six quarters in a row. The unemployment rate across the zone is 12.1 per cent, and an economic disaster that was once confined to the periphery of the continent is now striking at its core. France and Italy are both mired in recession, and even the mighty German economy is faltering badly.

Why the sharp divergence between the United States and Europe? When the Great Recession struck, U.S. policymakers did what mainstream textbooks recommend: they introduced monetary and fiscal-stimulus programs, which helped offset the retrenchments and job losses in the private sector. In Europe, austerity has been the order of the day, and it still is. Nearly five years after the financial crisis, governments are still trimming spending and cutting benefits in a vain attempt to bring down their budget deficits.

The big mystery isn’t why austerity has failed to work as advertised: anybody familiar with the concept of “aggregate demand” could explain that one. It is why an area with a population of more than three hundred million has stuck with a policy prescription that was discredited in the nineteen-twenties and thirties. The stock answer, which is that austerity is necessary to preserve the euro, doesn’t hold up. At this stage, austerity is the biggest threat to the euro. If the recession lasts for very much longer, political unrest is sure to mount, and the currency zone could well break up. So why is this woebegone approach proving so sticky? Some of the answers can be found in a timely and suitably irreverent new book by Mark Blyth, a professor of political economy at Brown: “Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea.” Adopting a tone that is by turns bemused and outraged, Blyth traces the intellectual and political roots of austerity back to the Enlightenment, and the works of John Locke, David Hume, and Adam Smith. But he also provides a sharp analysis of Europe’s current predicament, explaining how an unholy alliance of financiers, central bankers, and German politicians foisted a draconian and unworkable policy on an unsuspecting populace. The central fact about Europe’s “debt crisis” is that it largely originated in the private sector rather than the public sector. In 2007, Blyth reminds us, the ratio of net public debt to G.D.P. was just twelve per cent in Ireland and twenty-six per cent in Spain. In some places, such as Greece and Italy, the ratios were considerably higher. Over all, though, the euro zone was modestly indebted. Then came the financial crisis and the fateful decision to rescue many of the continent’s creaking banks, which had lent heavily into property bubbles and other speculative schemes. In Ireland, Spain, and other countries, bad bank debts were shifted onto the public sector’s balance sheet, which suddenly looked a lot less robust. But rather than recognizing the looming sovereign-debt crisis for what it was—an artifact of the speculative boom and bust in the financial sector—policymakers and commentators put the blame on public-sector profligacy.

“The result of all this opportunistic rebranding was the greatest bait-and-switch operation in modern history,” Blyth writes. “What were essentially private-sector debt problems were rechristened as ‘the Debt’ generated by ‘out-of-control’ public spending.”

...It’s all quite mad, but that doesn’t mean it will end anytime soon...

MORE MADNESS AT LINK

[Demeter]

3. NOT ENOUGH KITTEHS!

[Demeter]

4. Rooftop Revolution: How Solar Energy Is Putting Power Back in the Hands of the People

http://www.alternet.org/environment/rooftop-revolution-how-solar-energy-putting-power-back-hands-people?akid=10468.227380.UqnlIX&rd=1&src=newsletter843853&t=12&paging=off

Rarely do we switch on an appliance or flick on the lights and consider the source of energy. Yet, in the past few years, we have become more conscious about the mountains being blown up in Appalachia to extract coal or the massive onslaught of gas drilling and fracking on new shale formations. Danny Kennedy’s new book, Rooftop Revolution: How Solar Power Can Save Our Economy -- and Our Planet, turns our endless search to keep looking down for future energy sources and simply asks us to look up for it. The sun, he argues, is waiting to be tapped for clean, cheap energy if we can get our heads out of the sand.

Danny Kennedy, Greenpeace activist, Project Underground founder and long-time campaigner, decided to apply his organizing skills to harness the sun’s energy. Choosing to do something about our energy crisis and climate change, he founded Sungevity with a small group of trusted friends in 2007. Now, Sungevity is one the world’s leading residential solar-energy companies and is the exclusive residential solar partner for Lowe’s.....

[Demeter]

5. Mixing Cat Wisdom with Science and Solar Politics

http://www.amazon.com/The-Solar-Cat-Book-Augustyn/dp/0898150183
http://www.amazon.com/The-Return-Solar-Cat-Book/dp/0972994904

SEE THE BOOK: http://www.solarcat.com/solarCat/index.html

[Demeter]

6. Pritzker Understated Income, Files Amended Disclosure

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-22/pritzker-understated-income-files-amended-disclosure.html

Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker "inadvertently" understated a portion of her income by at least $80 million in a disclosure form required for her nomination to be U.S. Commerce secretary and has amended the document. (QUOTE MARKS ARE MINE--DEMETER) Forms released online last night by the Office of Government Ethics show that Pritzker earned additional income for consulting work on hundreds of trusts, including family trusts, beyond what she disclosed last week. The omission, discovered by Pritzker’s financial advisers, was due to a clerical error, said Susan Anderson, the nominee’s spokeswoman.

“It is a substantial amount and we moved to correct the mistake as soon as it was discovered,” Anderson said in an e-mailed statement.

I'LL BET THEY DID!

Documents released last week show Pritzker received $32.2 million for a decade’s worth of consulting on the restructuring of domestic trusts. The filings released yesterday show she earned at least $80 million for that work, according to Bloomberg’s compilation of the data. The revised total is in addition to the amount reported last week, according to Anderson. Pritzker, whose family founded Hyatt Hotels Corp, is scheduled to testify on her nomination before the Senate Commerce Committee tomorrow. She disclosed last week that she earned $54 million in consulting fees last year for a similar restructuring of trusts based in the Bahamas, also over 10 years. The Bahamas’ income wasn’t changed in the amended disclosure document. The nominee is worth more than $1.5 billion, according to estimates from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. If confirmed, she would be among the wealthiest Cabinet officials in U.S. history. The income in Pritzker’s amended filing includes some in-kind fees, the equity interests of which had already been listed in her original disclosure forms, according to Anderson.

“Ms. Pritzker was engaged by the U.S. trustee of trusts for the extended Pritzker family for advice on restructuring trust investments for the purpose of dividing assets along individual family lines,” Anderson said. They included investments in Hyatt, Marmon Holdings Inc., Union Tank Car Co. and non-hotel real estate investments including the Hyatt Center office tower in Chicago, she said.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A)

Marmon and Union Tank, both based in Chicago, are units of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRK/A). Pritzker provided advice on the restructuring, management and, in some cases, sale of the assets, Anderson said. The trustee sought her services because of her business background and knowledge about the trusts’ investments, she said. “The fee reflects 10 years of service and all applicable taxes have been paid,” Anderson said. Pritzker, chairman of Pritzker Realty Group LLC, is a former non-executive chairman of TransUnion Corp. and is a Hyatt board member. She has said she will give up her board position with the hotel company if confirmed.

............................................

Senators on the committee that will consider the nomination said the amended disclosure won’t have much sway in a confirmation that may pivot more on issues such as her role in 2001 collapse of Superior Bank in Illinois.

“She has a fair amount of wealth, so those things can be complicated to fill out,” said Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who was elected in 2010 with backing by the Tea Party. He said Pritzker made a positive impression on him during a recent one-on-one meeting, although he said he still needs to hear her responses to questions about the bank and other matters before he decides how he’ll vote.

[Demeter]

7. GOOD ADVICE FOR OUR TIME FROM A COOL CAT

[Demeter]

14. Obama Commerce Pick Pushes Past Controversy at Hearing

AS IF SUCH WEAKLINGS AS CONGRESSMEN WOULD STAND UP TO A .001% WOMAN, EVEN IF SHE WAS "PICKED" BY "THAT MAN" (ACTUALLY, IT WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND, BUT...)

?w=560

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/obama-commerce-pick-seen-pressed-on-bank-role-trusts.html

Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker sailed toward confirmation as U.S. Commerce secretary after satisfying some critics over her offshore investments and role in a bank’s collapse during testimony at a Senate committee.

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the top Republican on the Commerce Committee that considered the nomination, said today Pritzker probably will be confirmed after a recess for U.S. Memorial Day next week...

[Fuddnik]

67. Of course they'll confirm her.

She's just the kind of corporate slime they love.

When you have ONE THOUSAND AND FIVE HUNDRED MILLIONDOLLARS, A mere $80 million in Fuddnik dollars, would be a nice dinner out, with a decent bottle of wine. Easy for "them" to forget.

I repeat, capitalist corporate slime.

No offense meant to slime.

[westerebus]

28. What's $80 million between friends?

We're talking Chicago politics here. The WH can't fill the National Labor Relations Board, but, they can find time to put this nomination forward?
Well the good news is the next recession is scheduled for the spring of 2015.

[Demeter]

8. Boom or Bubble? by James Surowiecki

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2013/05/27/130527ta_talk_surowiecki?mbid=nl_Daily%20%28249%29



With the stock market setting new highs on a nearly daily basis, even as the real economy just slogs along, there seems to be one question on everyone’s mind: are we in the middle of yet another market bubble? For a growing chorus of money managers and market analysts, the answer is yes: the market is a house of cards, held up by easy money and investor delusion, and we are rushing all too blithely toward an inevitable crash. Given that we’ve recently lived through two huge asset bubbles, it’s easy to see why they’re worried. But in this case the delusion is theirs.

The bubble believers make their case with a blizzard of charts and historical analogies, all illustrating the same point: the future will look much like the past, and that means we’re headed for trouble. Smithers & Company, a London market-research firm, says that, according to a number of market indicators, stocks are, by historical standards, forty to fifty per cent overvalued. The bears admit that corporate profits are high, which makes the market’s price-to-earnings ratio look quite normal, but they insist that this isn’t sustainable. They think that earnings will return to historical norms, and that, when they do, stock prices will be hit hard. Today, after-tax corporate profits are more than ten per cent of G.D.P., while their historical average is closer to six per cent. That’s a vast gap, and it’s why bears believe that the market is, in the words of the high-profile money manager John Hussman, “overvalued, overbought, overbullish.”

It’s certainly unusual for corporate profits to soar during a slow recovery. But the argument for a stock-market bubble is flawed: when it comes to the role that corporations play in the U.S. economy, the present looks very different from the past, which means that historical comparisons to the nineteen-fifties, let alone the thirties, tell us little. The four most dangerous words in investing may be “This time, it’s different.” But this time it is different.

Take taxes: one big reason that after-tax corporate profits are much higher than their historical norm is that corporations pay much less in taxes than they used to. In 1951, corporations had to pay almost half of reported profits in taxes. In 1965, they had to pay more than thirty per cent. Today, they pay only around twenty per cent.

Then, there’s globalization. Many of the “American” companies in the S. & P. 500 are multinationals: a study of two hundred and sixty-two of them found that, on average, they got forty-six per cent of their earnings from abroad. This is a relatively new phenomenon. As late as 1990, foreign earnings accounted for only a small fraction of corporate profits in the U.S. Today, they account for almost a third of corporate earnings, and they’ve nearly tripled since 2000. So comparing corporate profits only to American G.D.P. yields a false picture of how companies are doing. The global economy, even with its current woes, is projected to grow more briskly than the U.S. economy over the next decade, so corporations will continue to benefit.

Finally, the decline of unions and the sluggish labor market have enabled corporations to cut payrolls, thus keeping profits high. The result is that labor’s share of the economy has fallen steeply. Skilled workers are still in demand, but most workers have little bargaining power. This could change if there is another economic boom—during the tech bubble, in the late nineties, wages did rise briskly—but, even in that case, corporate profits would likely stay high, as increased sales would make up for narrowing profit margins.

The underlying issue is that in recent decades there’s been a shift in the U.S. economy: it’s become far more congenial to businesses and investors. The fundamental trends that have driven the profit boom are unlikely to be reversed. That doesn’t mean that companies are going to be able to keep slashing their way to profit growth. As Doug Ramsey, the chief investment officer for Leuthold Weeden Capital Management, told me, “It’s hard to see how companies can get profit margins much higher, unless they want to see massive labor strikes across the country.” But keeping profits where they are doesn’t look all that difficult, which makes stocks today quite reasonably priced. It’s still possible that investor hysteria could eventually inflate stock prices, or that investor panic could send them crashing, but there is no profit bubble and, for now, no stock-market bubble, either. For investors, that’s obviously good news: there’s nothing wrong with profits, and the rebound of the stock market has helped restore many Americans’ battered finances. Still, it’s unsettling that companies and investors are doing so well while the economy as a whole is stuck in the mud. Throughout the postwar era, high corporate profits were coupled with rising wages and strong economic growth. Today, there’s a growing divide between the fortunes of corporate America and those of the majority of Americans. You might hope that people could make back as investors some of what they’re not getting as workers, but in fact only about half of Americans have any money in the stock market, and most of those who do have only small sums. What’s more, the crash of 2008 scared many ordinary investors out of the market, so they haven’t benefitted from the recent profit boom at all. “There’s a lot of residual shell shock at work, and that’s made investors still pretty gun-shy,” Ramsey said. The stock-market boom is real, but most Americans have been left on the outside looking in.

THE OLD "THIS TIME IT'S DIFFERENT' ARGUMENT! THIS MAN IS CRAZY. ANYBODY WHO CAN SPOT THE FLAW IN HIS ARGUMENT CAN PICK NEXT WEEKEND'S THEME! POST YOUR CRITICISMS BELOW:

[Demeter]

9. ANGRY KITTY SAYS:

[Demeter]

10. EU leaders look to end Apple-style tax avoidance schemes

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/21/us-eu-tax-idUSBRE94K10Z20130521

Growing concern in European capitals about aggressive tax avoidance by high-profile corporations such as Amazon, Google and Apple looks set to steal the agenda of a European Union summit in Brussels on Wednesday.

The summit was originally called to discuss energy policy and tax coordination, but press reports in Britain, France and the United States exposing how little tax major international companies have been paying by carefully structuring their European operations has forced the issue up the agenda.

France and Britain in particular have grown concerned by the sheer scale of the legal tax schemes, with a U.S. investigation revealing on Monday that Apple Inc (AAPL.O) had paid just 2 percent tax on $74 billion in overseas income, largely by exploiting a loophole in Ireland's tax code...

[Demeter]

11. SOMEBODY NOTICED!

[Demeter]

55. $150 bn lost in tax havens enough to end extreme poverty twice over – report

http://rt.com/news/tax-havens-developing-world-644/

Oxfam, the UK based charity, estimates that some $18.47 trillion is being held by individuals in tax havens around the world. Of this some $7.18 trillion is in accounts situated in British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. Tax lost in tax havens is enough to end global extreme poverty twice over according to new figures published by Oxfam, Wednesday.

Although a deal was done earlier this month to get some of these tax havens to be more transparent and share tax information, there is still no tax deal on the table that will benefit poor countries who are struggling to reclaim billions of dollars. In the agreement British tax havens in the Caribbean have said they will provide information on offshore bank accounts.

Tax havens take desperately needed cash from poor countries as well as from citizens at home who are being hit by austerity measures, the international agency said....The $156 billion in lost tax revenue is estimated by Oxfam to be just a fraction of the total tax lost, as it only reflects the amount of tax individuals are neglecting to pay and doesn’t include tax dodged by companies that costs poor countries a further $160 billion a year...

[Demeter]

56. Apple’s Irish Tax Strategy Explained

http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2013/05/21/apples-irish-tax-strategy-explained/

...A new Senate report alleges that Apple (AAPL) blows through a loophole that capitalizes on the difference between U.S. and Irish rules regarding tax residency to avoid paying corporate income taxes.

The report says the move let Apple shift at least $74 billion away from the Internal Revenue Service between 2009 and 2012. The report also alleges that Apple uses shell operations in Ireland to avoid U.S. taxes.

But Apple hotly disputes that characterization. Apple says its Irish units are not “offshore operations,” but instead run a huge chunk of Apple’s global business, which the Senate report also indicates.

Apple says its international headquarters in Cork, Ireland, employs 4,000 workers. These workers are responsible for selling Apple products to consumers and businesses in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Asia and the Pacific, information that is noted, too, in the Senate report.

The 4,000 workers at Apple’s base in Ireland “are engaged in manufacturing, customer service, sales support, supply chain and risk management operations and finance support services,” Apple’s testimony says.

Apple says 61% of its sales come from overseas, which is why two-thirds of its $144.7 billion in cash and equivalents is parked overseas, cash which supports growth, including things like acquisitions or opening new stores...

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2013/05/21/apples-irish-tax-strategy-explained/#ixzz2UJoVai00

[Demeter]

12. EU watchdog to tighten securitised debt rules

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/22/eu-banks-securitisation-idUSL6N0E320L20130522

European Union regulators have proposed tighter safeguards on sales of the type of securitised debt that became untradable in the financial crisis, forcing taxpayers to rescue banks.

Securitisation is the consolidation of loans such as mortgages and credit cards and selling them as bonds to investors, with loan repayments paying the interest. When such bonds based on sub-prime U.S. home loans became untradable in 2007, a global crisis unfolded to engulf lenders who held the bonds. The securitisation market has remained moribund since then and its revival is seen by policymakers as key to funding sluggish economic growth and weaning lenders off cheap central bank money.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) on Wednesday published draft rules for consultation that toughen up from 2014 existing guidelines for preventing a recurrence of the sub-prime debacle. The rules, to be applied across the EU, will lay down how regulators supervise the market, ending the current system which allows some market participants more flexibility. The EBA said the rules will reassure investors that securitised debt is less likely to become untradable.

Sellers of the debt must keep a 5 percent portion of the issue as an incentive to keep issuing standards high. Banks that buy securitised debt and fail to check the seller has complied with the new safety rules will get an automatic 250 percent penalty capital surcharge on the purchase. The 5 percent slice in future can only be retained by the originator, sponsor or original lender, with no third party allowed to do this as some supervisors currently allow. The watchdog said this rule will hit the managed collateralised loan obligation (CLO) sector which pools payments on many business loans. Issuance between 2009 and 2011 was only 3 billion euros, compared with 130 billion in September 2007 alone. Most CLO managers would struggle to come up with the resources to fulfil the retention requirements, EBA said.

This month the European Central Bank decided to start talks with the European Investment Bank and the EU Commission on reviving the asset-backed securities market. But banks see a contradiction between such support from top policymakers and tougher rules from regulators on the ground...

THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING! MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

13. WHAT DO YOU THINK? WILL IT WORK?

[Demeter]

15. DIA's art collection could face sell-off to satisfy Detroit's creditors

http://www.freep.com/article/20130523/NEWS01/305230154/DIA-s-art-collection-could-face-sell-off-to-satisfy-Detroit-s-creditors

The once unthinkable is suddenly thinkable.

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is considering whether the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts should be considered city assets that potentially could be sold to cover about $15 billion in debt.

How much is the art at the DIA worth? Nobody knows exactly, but several billion dollars might well be a low estimate.

Even the possibility has set off a sharp reaction. The DIA hired a bankruptcy lawyer to advise it, and philanthropist and DIA patron A. Alfred Taubman said this evening that “it would be a crime” to sell any of the DIA’s collection to satisfy city creditors.

“I’m sure Mr. Orr, once he thinks about it, will certainly not choose that as one of the assets,” Taubman said. “It’s not just an asset of Detroit. It’s an asset of the country.”

I AM REMINDED OF WHAT HAPPENED TO IRAQ'S NATIONAL MUSEUM.

THIS ONE HITS TOO CLOSE TO HOME, PEOPLE.

I VISITED THE DIA LAST WEEKEND. I'M A MEMBER, FFS!

[Demeter]

16. DIA says art collection a public trust, not for sale

http://www.freep.com/article/20130524/BUSINESS06/305240065/DIA-Kevyn-Orr-Detroit-bankruptcy

The Detroit Institute of Arts issued a statement this morning saying it believes the financially strapped City of Detroit cannot sell DIA artwork under the terms of the museum’s operating agreement with the city.

The DIA also cited the “exacting standards required by the public trust (and) our profession” in saying the city could not sell artwork to satisfy its creditors.

The issue of a possible sale of artwork broke publicly Thursday evening when the Free Press reported that Kevyn Orr, the city’s emergency financial manager, was considering a sale of artwork to raise money as part of broad-based resolution of the city’s massive debt problems...

[Demeter]

17. Who IS this Clown, You Say?

I'm paid up on my taxes now, city's emergency financial manager says

...Montgomery County Circuit Court records show the State of Maryland has filed four liens in the last four years against the $1-million Chevy Chase, Md., home where Orr lives with his wife, Dr. Donna Neale, and their two children...

[Demeter]

18. I woke up from my nap...time to go find my bed

Sleeping on the keyboard leaves marks on my face.

[Fuddnik]

19. DEMETER WINS A DUZY!!!!

Even if she didn't want the cigar (chocolate).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022898526

[Demeter]

20. All credit must go to Tansy Gold for her skill at picking cartoons

Every comedienne/comedian needs a straight man (or woman). Except maybe Robin Williams. His split personality covers both jobs, I presume.

[bread_and_roses]

24. Congrats to Demeter and Tansy

- an aside: scanning down that thread (which I'd never looked at before) I learned I could find out how many "star" members have me on ignore. I was quite disappointed to learn it was only 5. I would have expected at least 50. I will make an excuse for myself in that I'm not around much.

[Demeter]

26. I've got 15 on Ignore--and I'm only Ignoring 11

Last edited Sat May 25, 2013, 10:27 AM - Edit history (1)

same reason...I don't have time for this as a recreational sport.

Truly, I cannot imagine anyone taking offense with anything you've posted, b&r. Maybe they hit the wrong button?

[Hugin]

57. Congratulations, Demeter.

I only have two ignoring me...

[AnneD]

135. I have 3....

Grandpa always use to say if you didn't stand for something, you'd fall for anything. He would chastise me for not doing better.

[jtuck004]

99. I didn't know that either - thank you

9 are ignoring me, only surprised it's not higher.

I'm the kind of person that, if I were in a church with the choir singing "Nearer My God to Thee", might point out that it's because we are all being sucked up by a tornado. They seem to hate that reality stuff.

It's probably just as well, and it's a great time saver. I don't do well in prostrating myself before arguments based on faith, political or religious (and it's increasingly hard for me to tell the difference these days).

Thank you again.

[Demeter]

21. American economy doomed

[bread_and_roses]

22. Love the Kittehs! (n/t)

[bread_and_roses]

23. There's rejoicing in DU Land over ACA rates in CA

Which makes me think they are far more clueless than Kittehs!

You can take a look here: http://coveredca.com/

Not to mention that all those crowing and lauding over the "tax credits" or subsidies or whatever we're calling them seem unaware that the very same people paying these oh-so-"affordable" (not) rates are going to be "subsidizing" the profits of the Vampire insurers for the benefit of which this monstrosity was cobbled together.

[Demeter]

27. I know

They will have to learn the hard way. Innumeracy and illogic and lack of budgeting skills and critical reasoning, all coming home to roost.

I swear that those who write such praises are covered by union-negotiated health plans with no deductibles, or maybe government-paid health care.

[Demeter]

25. There Was Frost on the Grass This Morning

It was 91F on Monday. Today, the first day the pool opens, and it's frost and a high of 66F.

I give up.

[Demeter]

29. The Real Reason For US Drone Attacks Editorial By The Crescent

Drone attacks kill innocents and create enemies. This is precisely what the American war industry wants: endless supply of enemies for endless war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35069.htm

PRECISELY WHY MY SKEPTICISM METER PEGGED THIS WEEK, WITH THE BIG DECLARATION OF THE END OF THE WAR ON TERROR....

[Demeter]

30. Why Disinformation Works By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35064.htm

Have you ever wondered how the government’s misinformation gains traction?

What I have noticed is that whenever a stunning episode occurs, such as 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, most everyone whether on the right or left goes along with the government’s explanation, because they can hook their agenda to the government’s account. The leftwing likes the official stories of Muslims creating terrorist mayhem in America, because it proves their blowback theory and satisfies them that the dispossessed and oppressed can fight back against imperialism. The patriotic rightwing likes the official story, because it proves America is attacked for its goodness or because terrorists were allowed in by immigration authorities and nurtured by welfare, or because the government, which can’t do anything right, ignored plentiful warnings. Whatever the government says, no matter how problematical, the official story gets its traction from its compatibility with existing predispositions and agendas. In such a country, truth has no relevance. Only agendas are important.

A person can see this everywhere. I could write volumes illustrating how agenda-driven writers across the spectrum will support the most improbable government stories despite the absence of any evidence simply because the government’s line can be used to support their agendas. For example, a conservative writer in the June issue of Chronicles uses the government’s story about the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to argue against immigration, amnesty for illegals, and political asylum for Muslims. He writes: “Even the most high-tech security systems imaginable will inevitably fail as they are overwhelmed by a flood of often hostile and dangerous immigrants.” The writer accepts all of the improbable government statements as proof that the brothers were guilty. The wounded brother who was unable to respond to the boat owner who discovered him and had to be put on life support somehow managed to write a confession on the inside of the boat. As soon as the authorities have the brother locked up in a hospital on life support, “unnamed officials” and “authorities who remain anonymous” are planting the story in the media that the suspect is signing written confessions of his guilt while on life support. No one has seen any of these written confessions. But we know that they exist, because the government and media say so.

The conservative writer knows that Dzhokhar is guilty because he is Muslim and a Chechen. Therefore, it does not occur to the writer to wonder about the agenda of the unnamed sources who are busy at work creating belief in the brothers’ guilt. This insures that no juror would dare vote for acquittal and have to explain it to family and friends. Innocent until proven guilty in a court has been thrown out the window. This should disturb the conservative writer, but doesn’t. The conservative writer sees Chechen ethnicity as an indication of guilt even though the brothers grew up in the US as normal Americans, because Chechens are “engaged in anti-Russian jihad.” But Chechens have no reason for hostility against the US. As evidence indicates, Washington supports the Chechens in their conflict with Russia. By supporting Chechen terrorism, Washington violates all of the laws that it ruthlessly applies to compassionate Americans who give donations to Palestinian charities that Washington alleges are run by Hamas, a Washington-declared terrorist organization. It doesn’t occur to the conservative writer that something is amiss when martial law is established over one of America’s main cities and its metropolitan area, 10,000 heavily armed troops are put on the streets with tanks, and citizens are ordered out of their homes with their hands over their heads, all of this just to search for one wounded 19-year old suspect. Instead the writer blames the “surveillance state” on “the inevitable consequences of suicidal liberalism” which has embraced “the oldest sin in the world: rebellion against authority.” The writer is so pleased to use the government’s story line as a way of indulging the conservative’s romance with authority and striking a blow at liberalism that he does not notice that he has lined up against the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence and rebelled against authority.

I could just as easily have used a left-wing writer to illustrate the point that improbable explanations are acceptable if they fit with predispositions and can be employed in behalf of an agenda.

Think about it. Do you not think that it is extraordinary that the only investigations we have of such events as 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing are private investigations, such as this investigation of the backpacks:

There was no investigation of 9/11. Indeed, the White House resisted any inquiry at all for one year despite the insistent demands from the 9/11 families. NIST did not investigate anything. NIST simply constructed a computer model that was consistent with the government’s story. The 9/11 Commission simply sat and listened to the government’s explanation and wrote it down. These are not investigations.

The only investigations have come from a physicist who proved that WTC 7 came down at free fall and was thus the result of controlled demolition, from a team of scientists who examined dust from the WTC towers and found nano-thermite, from high-rise architects and structural engineers with decades of experience, and from first responders and firefighters who were in the towers and experienced explosions throughout the towers, even in the sub-basements.

We have reached the point where evidence is no longer required. The government’s statements suffice. Only conspiracy kooks produce real evidence.
AND OF COURSE, WE NO LONGER GO THROUGH THE TRIAL PROCESS: OSAMA BIN LADIN, PREDATOR DRONE STRIKES, GITMO...THE LIST GOES ON. SUMMARY EXECUTIONS WITHOUT EVEN POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION TO PRESENT TO THE PUBLIC. ASSASSINATION, IF YOU CAN CALL SUCH RANDOM MURDERS "ASSASSINATION". PERSONALLY, I'D CALL IT TERRORISM AGAINST ANYONE, ANYWHERE, FOR ANY OR NO REASON, A COMPLETE ABUSE OF POWER.

I COULD CONTINUE, BUT PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS DOES IT FOR ME. THE DIATRIBE CONTINUES AND IS WELL WORTH THE READ.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

[snot]

61. This is just a Demeter-appreciation post,

one of many deserved.

[Demeter]

64. Aw, shucks. It'snot, is it?

Last edited Sat May 25, 2013, 06:13 PM - Edit history (1)

As much as you appreciate my efforts, I appreciate your attention so much more...


This would be pointless without an audience.

[xchrom]

31. How Did Major Hedge Fund Earn 30% Returns for 20 Years Straight? Lots of Cheating.

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/how-did-major-hedge-fund-earn-30-returns-20-years-straight?akid=10485.277129.Pc4wuw&rd=1&src=newsletter845591&t=3

How would you like to invest $10,000 and watch it grow over 20 years into $1,461,920? Well that's what happened at the giant hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, which made a 30% return for 20 years in a row.

How is it possible to make such profitable investments again and again and again? The U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, believes he has the answer: SAC is cheating ... again and again and again. In fact, Bharara suggests that hedge funds that engage in insider trading may be rotten to the core:

"Given the scope of the allegations to date, we are not talking simply about the occasional corrupt individual; we are talking about something verging on a corrupt business model, for the defendants seem to have taken the concept of social networking and turned it into a criminal enterprise. " [refers to a 2011 hedge fund indictment, not the current case against SAC.]

To date, nine current and former SAC employees face insider trading criminal charges stemming from their work at the firm. Four have pled guilty and two are still fighting their indictments. Now the head of SAC, multi-billionaire Stephen A. Cohen (note the initials), will be subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. The federal strategy may be to indict the entire hedge fund and shut it down, according to the New York Times.

[Demeter]

36. Well.....that explains a lot

Last edited Mon May 27, 2013, 08:44 AM - Edit history (1)

In fact, it explains everything EXCEPT why any governmental agency gives a damn...

Why this particular criminal enterprise? Why now? Why not bigger and badder ones, that affect more real people? Whom did they piss off, and how?

[Demeter]

83. Blackstone notifies Cohen's SAC it intends to pull money

http://news.yahoo.com/blackstone-notifies-cohens-sac-intends-pull-money-pension-154556025.html

Billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen is losing the financial support of Blackstone Group Inc, the largest outside investor in his embattled SAC Capital Advisors, which is yanking much of its client money, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters.

A pension consultant, in a May 21 letter to clients, said Blackstone has notified Cohen that it intends to "fully redeem" a significant portion of the roughly $550 million the investment firm has invested with the $15 billion hedge fund. The letter from pension consulting firm Russell Investments said Blackstone submitted its redemption notice to SAC Capital sometime before May 15 because of ongoing concerns about the insider trading investigation that continues to engulf Cohen's fund.

Blackstone's investment with SAC Capital is through several investment funds known as hedge fund of funds and also through separately managed accounts it maintains for clients. The decision to redeem from SAC Capital impacts only client money invested in its hedge fund of funds, according to the letter. It's not clear how much of the $550 million is in those hedge fund of funds and it is not clear what Blackstone is advising clients who have money in separately managed accounts that is invested with SAC Capital.

Russell did say in the address to its pension clients that Blackstone "expects to receive 100 percent of investors' capital by year-end." Russell, which manages $173 billion in assets and oversees a number of index funds, also provides advice to pensions and institutional investors on where to invest their dollars in hedge funds. The timing of Blackstone's request to withdraw money from SAC Capital is critical because it came before the hedge fund told investors on May 17 that its cooperation with federal authorities was no longer unconditional. Soon after, news broke that federal prosecutors had issued grand jury subpoenas earlier this month to Cohen and several of his top executives, seeking their testimony about insider trading at the hedge fund. The decision by Blackstone, which has invested with SAC Capital for at least a decade, is a big blow to the 56-year-old fund manager, who is widely regarded as one of the most successful traders of his generation. Blackstone - which manages about $46 billion in hedge fund investments for public pensions, foundations, corporations and wealthy individuals - is seen as something of a bellwether for other investors in the $2.2 trillion hedge fund industry because of its stature...Outside investors in SAC Capital like Blackstone, who account for roughly $6.75 billion of the $15 billion managed by Cohen, have until June 3 to decide whether to submit redemption notices for the second quarter. In the first quarter, outside investors notified Cohen they intend to withdraw about $1.7 billion of that $6.75 billion by year's end. People close to SAC Capital said Cohen, who has roughly $8 billion of his money invested in SAC Capital, is bracing for another large round of redemption requests. The speculation is growing in the hedge fund world that if Cohen gets another large round of redemption requests, he may opt to return all the outside money and convert SAC Capital into a family office — an unregistered firm that manages money just for himself and his friends and family. SAC Capital is one of the world's larger hedge funds with 1,000 employees.

MORE

[xchrom]

85. hmmmmmph

'an unregistered firm that manages money just for himself and his friends and family.'

[Democracyinkind]

32. How fucking economically bold are the Swiss?

As you all know, the Swiss have started an epic political struggle to wrest control of the country from the gnomes of Zurich.

On March 3 the first round was won by the sovereigns' decision to accept the 20th amendment to the Constitution, which mandates strict shareholder control over corporate salaries, going as far as fining shareholders who fail to regulate manager compensation.

This fall en even more bold amendment will be voted on by the people: An amendment to cap the maximum wage in any given company at 12x the amount of the lowest salary... Now the fatcats - among them the largest criminal enterprise in the world, currently going by the name of "Glencore" - are threatening to leave the increasingly progressive boat! The huge mannatee indeed:

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Glencore_head_considers_taking_company_abroad.html?cid=35731562

Passage of the 1:12 initiative would be “a catastrophe” for commodities giant GlencoreXstrata and could lead the company to leave Switzerland, said the firm’s CEO, Ivan Glasenberg, in a Sunday interview with the SonntagsZeitung.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Salaries_the_great_social_and_moral_divide.html?cid=34665536

Since the mid-1990s, the wage gap has been widening in Switzerland. In response to public outrage two popular initiatives have been launched. But the question remains whether it is possible to define fair or excessive salary at all.

Get that? They're so afraid that a majority of the people believe that 12x the amount of the lowest wage in a corporation is more than enough that they're bringing out the shills to muddy the waters... Guess what... Populist resentment of overreaching by the elites is NEVER dissuaded and calmed by proclaiming that "things are complicated to define...". Fuck that. 12x the amount of the lowest wage paid is more than enough... If you wanna be one of the fatcats at least have the common decency to offer meaty scraps and not just crumbs.

Obviously, I am going to vote for it. This country deserves better owners. In other news, Switzerland is currently spreading its cheeks for China, as the Gnomes want in on the Renmibi racket and are willing to sacrifice what is left of the manufacturing sector as an entrance fee. Gotta love those free trade agreements... the people don't want them but get them anyway. Meanwhile Switzerland is on lockdown so that those Pesky Swiss citizens of Tibetian origin won't ruin free trade like they did 10 years ago, when the Chinese were boo-ed out of Switzerland. Democracyinkind was a protester then, barely 16 years old, protesting about Tibet and Free Trade while the principle of our school (which the delegation visited) ordered the groundskeeper to chase us off with a broom.
This time protests have been relegated to "free speech zones" and we're getting free trade with China, ready or not. Yippie aye.

Obviously I am drunk and rambling on a Saturday afternoon. I feel like I should ad something about being due beer and travel money.

Anyways. That's the news from the gnomish front. Thanks, as usual for a great thread.

[Demeter]

35. Thank You!

We hadn't heard about this (at least, I hadn't). Please return with more nuggets; sharing information is the first step to problem-solving. You are greatly appreciated!

[Demeter]

33. 10 things cats won’t tell you When the claws come out, watch your wallet OUR THEME!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-cats-wont-tell-you-2013-05-24?siteid=YAHOOB

1. “My love doesn’t come cheap.”

Americans own more cats than any other pet, with 36.1 million households owning 74 million cats in 2012, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. (For comparison, some 43.3 million households own a collective 69.9 million dogs.) Experts say that cats’ popularity is in part due to their reputation for being more self-sufficient: They don’t need to be walked or bathed, and can more easily be left alone during a long workday. “Cats have been identified as an ideal pet,” says Dr. Kevin T. Fitzgerald, a veterinarian with VCA Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver. “It’s a convenience thing, and we’re a society based on convenience.”

But convenient doesn’t mean inexpensive. Owning a cat costs an average $670 per year — $90 more than a small dog and just $25 less than a medium dog, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Although dog owners tend to spend more on toys, treats and medical bills, cat owners more than make up for the gap with typical litter costs of $165 per year, and food bills that, at $115 a year, are more than double those of a similarly sized pooch. Then multiply those bills. Per AVMA figures, cat-owning households are more likely to have more than one, an average 2.1 cats versus 1.6 for dog-owning households. Put those numbers together, and a cat owner’s wallet is likely to be lighter than his dog-owning neighbor’s.

2. “I pretend I’m fine, even when I’m not.”

3. “My bad behavior is a result of your bad behavior.”

4. “You might be a cat person, but that doesn’t mean I’m your type.”

5. “Now that you have me, good luck getting an apartment.”

6. “Cat food is just a part of my food pyramid.”

7. “I don’t actually have nine lives, you know.”

8. “Eating out of a can or bag is as bad for me as it is for you.”

9. “I’m a menace to (bird, mouse) society.”

10. “I’m not really that funny.”

WELL THEN, MAYBE THE AUTHOR HAS A DUD FOR A CAT....SHE CONCLUDES:

Cats, being cats, ignored repeated requests for comment for this story.

[xchrom]

34. N.Y. attorney general lays out complaints against Wells Fargo, Bank of America

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/ny-attorney-general-lays-out-complaints-against-wells-fargo-bank-of-america/2013/05/24/82196ff2-c4a9-11e2-9fe2-6ee52d0eb7c1_story.html

Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other large banks are dragging their feet in processing homeowners’ requests for lower monthly payments under the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a letter obtained Friday by The Washington Post.

Earlier this month, Schneiderman threatened to sueWells Fargo and Bank of America for violating the terms of the agreement, which was brokered last year between 49 attorneys general and the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers over foreclosure abuses.

New York’s top prosecutor said his office received 339 complaints that the two banks were not complying with the timeline requirements of the agreement. Homeowners said the banks took more than 30 days to respond to their requests to reduce interest rates or loan balances.

“We have learned that several other states have identified similar, recurring deficiencies by the participating servicers,” Schneiderman said in a letter dated May 23 to the monitor of the settlement, Joseph Smith. The attorney general told Smith that he intends to sue if the monitoring committee failed to bring the banks in line.

[Demeter]

37. If I could afford it, I'd live in New York State

but instead, I'm in Michigan. The scenic beauty and camaraderie makes up for the lack of justice and democracy....mostly. Except for the frost this morning, which I cannot in justice lay at the feet of the state government...

[xchrom]

40. i'm thinking about turning on the heat here. nt

[Tansy_Gold]

62. My new a/c is working just fine n/t

[Fuddnik]

65. My pool ia almost 90 degrees.

And the solar heating is off.

[Demeter]

69. Oh, the pool is heated

but you have to get out into a breeze, after. At least, by 9 PM you have to get out...

I have plans: enclose the pool, rebuild the pool house so that instead of a shack, one step above a two-holer, it's a real building with real plumbing, insulation and heat, and lockers; install a hot tub and exercise room, maybe a sauna, and run it 365 days, if not 24 hours...

Of course, this is after the $2.5 million (minimum) road rebuilding project.

Because, back in the 60's and 70's, building codes were rather primitive, these "roads" consist of a couple of inches of asphalt over slippery, greasy, water-logged clay over a high water table. And since they are not built to city code and there's no room to get the proper size and easements, we the condo association have to maintain them in perpetuity. So we are attempting to put in proper drainage and roadbed (you know...gravel and stuff, curbs, the works), so that we don't spend a small fortune EVERY YEAR patching it. And water cutoffs for the buildings, so the water department will take ownership of the water mains, and sewer repairs, so they will take the sewer mains off our backs...

It's a lifetime job. One of several I seem to have been ensnared into.

On the other hand, my paying job takes no investment beyond a working car...so this is my "career".

[Warpy]

70. it's in the 90s here in the high desert in NM

The fact that it's a dry heat means the fan works just fine. Woe be to me when I step out of the moving air, though.

[Fuddnik]

74. "It's a dry heat".

So is a blowtorch.

[Warpy]

93. And on the worst days, it kinda feels like that

or at least opening the oven door and walking inside when there are errands to run.

Still, a fan does the job here on all but the hottest days.

[AnneD]

134. I have yet to see desert heat...

that can't be cured by nightfall.

[Demeter]

38. EU tax summit backs US-led drive to tackle banking secrecy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/22/eu-tax-summit-banking-secrecy

European leaders have thrown their weight behind a gathering international crackdown on tax evasion, backing US-led efforts to develop a new global template to combat banking secrecy.

Amid mounting public outrage in Britain, France, Germany and Ireland over individual and corporate tax scandals, an EU summit pledged to clamp down through the sharing of information on the assets and gains of nationals banking in other countries.

"There is real momentum growing on tax," David Cameron said in Brussels. He said he hoped to make his chairmanship of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland next month a turning point.

"At the international level, the EU will play a key role in supporting and promoting the automatic exchange of information as the new international standard," the summit agreed, welcoming "ongoing efforts made in the G8, G20 and OECD to develop a global standard"...

[Demeter]

46. EU Seeks Country-by-Country Tax Disclosure for Large Companies

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/eu-seeks-country-by-country-tax-disclosure-for-large-companies.html

The European Union will seek to make large companies disclose the taxes they pay and profits they make on a country-by-country basis as it seeks to crack down on firms evading their obligations.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s financial services chief, will seek to put the transparency rules in place “as quickly as possible,” Chantal Hughes, his spokeswoman, said in Brussels today. The measures would also cover subsidies that companies receive, she said.

“It’s the equivalent of what we already do for banks,” Hughes said. “The idea is therefore to expand that to all large companies operating in the European Union.”

WHEN IN DOUBT, TAX!

[Demeter]

39. In Virginia's Fairfax County, Robbing Banks for the CIA

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-18/in-virginias-fairfax-county-robbing-banks-for-the-cia#r=most%20popular

In a white-walled interrogation room in a small Virginia police station last June, two detectives were trying to get Herson Torres to crack. Surveillance video tied him to two attempted bank robberies in the area during the past week. The skinny 21-year-old didn’t have a criminal record and seemed nervous, but he wasn’t talking. The detectives showed him pictures of his brother and father. They told Torres he could be sent to prison for as many as 25 years.

“If I tell you, you’re not going to believe me,” Torres said. He was crying as he told them an incredible story about being recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency to participate in a secret operation testing the security of Washington-area banks. He said he’d been assigned to rob a half-dozen banks over four days. And he told them about Theo, the man who hired him and gave all the orders—even though Torres had never met him.

Angry, his interrogators accused him of making up a ridiculous story. Still, Torres persuaded them to look at the text and e-mail messages on his cell phone; he also gave them the password to his Facebook (FB) account and urged them to retrieve a copy of the Defense Intelligence Agency immunity letter from his glove compartment. The police locked up Torres on a charge of attempted robbery and examined the evidence. By the end of the night, they weren’t sure what was going on, but they suspected Torres might be telling the truth...

I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IN THE LEAST...THIS STORY HAS A SURPRISE ENDING, THOUGH!

[Demeter]

41. IF INTRIGUE IS NOT YOUR THING...

[xchrom]

42. These 31 charts will destroy your faith in humanity

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/24/these-31-charts-will-destroy-your-faith-in-humanity/?tid=ts_carousel

Earlier this week, Rob Wile of Business Insider posted his graph-heavy opus: “31 Charts That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity.”
Naturally, we here at Wonkblog were all eager to see the results. But we’d quibble a bit with Wile’s interpretations of the data. His charts all struck us as horrible news. So we’re re-analyzing them here with the proper, gloom-heavy spin:

1) Inter-state wars are on the rise since 2002. Zoom in on that pink line:


2) Dictatorships still exist:


3) We haven’t eradicated human slavery:


4) People around the world are becoming just as lazy as the French:



***or...the french actually have lives.

[Demeter]

44. And of course, the usual suspicion of Massaged Statistical Data applies

[xchrom]

47. oh indeed -- this was just for fun. nt

[Demeter]

43. Terracide and the Terrarists By Tom Engelhardt

http://www.nationofchange.org/terracide-and-terrarists-1369404366

We have a word for the conscious slaughter of a racial or ethnic group: genocide. And one for the conscious destruction of aspects of the environment: ecocide. But we don’t have a word for the conscious act of destroying the planet we live on, the world as humanity had known it until, historically speaking, late last night. A possibility might be “terracide” from the Latin word for earth. It has the right ring, given its similarity to the commonplace danger word of our era: terrorist.

The truth is, whatever we call them, it’s time to talk bluntly about the terrarists of our world. Yes, I know, 9/11 was horrific. Almost 3,000 dead, massive towers down, apocalyptic scenes. And yes, when it comes to terror attacks, the Boston Marathon bombings weren’t pretty either. But in both cases, those who committed the acts paid for or will pay for their crimes.

In the case of the terrarists -- and here I’m referring in particular to the men who run what may be the most profitable corporations on the planet, giant energy companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Shell -- you’re the one who’s going to pay, especially your children and grandchildren. You can take one thing for granted: not a single terrarist will ever go to jail, and yet they certainly knew what they were doing...

How to Make Staggering Amounts of Money and Do In the Planet

...Call it irony, if you will, or call it a nightmare, but Big Oil evidently has no qualms about making its next set of profits directly off melting the planet. Its top executives continue to plan their futures (and so ours), knowing that their extremely profitable acts are destroying the very habitat, the very temperature range that for so long made life comfortable for humanity. Their prior knowledge of the damage they are doing is what should make this a criminal activity. And there are corporate precedents for this, even if on a smaller scale. The lead industry, the asbestos industry, and the tobacco companies all knew the dangers of their products, made efforts to suppress the information or instill doubt about it even as they promoted the glories of what they made, and went right on producing and selling while others suffered and died...

GREAT SOURCE ARTICLE! MUST READ

[DemReadingDU]

45. Court Is Not Allowed To Come Into Your House and Repurpose Your Wife

5/24/13
In Showing Undue Hardship, Court Is Not Allowed To Come Into Your House and Repurpose Your Wife By Elie Mystal
9th Circuit, Bankruptcy, Morrison & Foerster, Student Loans

Regular readers of this blog know that you cannot discharge student loan obligations through bankruptcy absent a showing of undue hardship. If you go broke borrowing money for expensive cars, houses, and monkeys/butlers, no problem, file for bankruptcy and start over. But if you go broke trying to better yourself through education, the government will make you beg and prove that you are sad and hopeless. Wonderful system we’ve got here.
.
.
The court can’t look at your household and suggest that you pimp out your wife. So at least that’s something…

The case arises out of the sad story of Michael Hedlund. Hedlund graduated from the University of Oregon and then Willamette Law School in 1997. He then failed the bar twice, missed a third opportunity to sit for the bar when he locked his keys in his car, and ended up as a juvenile counselor. He owed $85,000 in 1999 (can you imagine what that would be for a 2013 grad?), and defaulted on his loans. Bad things continued to happen, and eventually he filed for bankruptcy.
.
.
But to me, the most “vexatious” finding from the district court is this one:

Finally, the court observed that Hedlund and his wife had chosen to live as a single-income family, “a life-style that few today can afford.”

Who in the f**k does this court think it is? The Hedlunds have kids. The court has no right to dictate how they are cared for. For all we know, the wife’s earning potential wouldn’t cover child care costs. And even if it would, a court cannot essentially order a man to pimp out his wife to pay his debts. It’s one thing for a court to look at finances, but this crosses a line into judging the Hedlunds’ marital relationship. It’s disgusting. What’s the next step? “While Mrs. Hedlund doesn’t have a lot of skills, she is pretty and athletic enough to at least be a stripper, a fact that seems to not have occurred to Mr. Hedlund before filing for bankruptcy.”

In reversing the district court, the Ninth Circuit addressed this directly:

There was considerable evidence showing that Hedlund had maximized his income, and the [bankruptcy] court properly declined to attribute Mrs. Hedlund’s underemployment to Hedlund’s bad faith.

Thank God. It’s hard enough to show undue hardship without that court judging what your wife does for a living.

http://abovethelaw.com/2013/05/in-showing-undue-hardship-court-is-not-allowed-to-come-into-your-house-and-repurpose-your-wife/

[Demeter]

50. And the Two Shall Be Made One

another good reason for atheism...and separation of Church and State!

[Demeter]

48. NYSE says AEP, NextEra trades stand after crash at open NO MORE MULLIGANS?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/23/us-markets-usa-stocks-aep-nextera-idUSBRE94M0WD20130523

All trades in American Electric Power Inc (AEP.N) and NextEra Energy Inc (NEE.N) in a crash that happened in the first minute of trading on Thursday will stand, the New York Stock Exchange said, following the latest in a flurry of unexplained sharp drops in the market. The stocks each dropped more than 50 percent in the first minute of trading, though ended just down slightly.

The share drops were the latest such incidents for the market since the May 6, 2010, "flash crash," a computer-driven trading glitch that caused a sudden afternoon tumble in the major U.S. indexes. Last week, the NYSE canceled trades in Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N) after a blip in trading cut the market value of the company by 99 percent.

The latest event generated criticism from NextEra and others over what it means for investors. "This is naturally a concern for all our shareholders and potential shareholders," said Moray Dewhurst, vice chairman and chief financial officer of NextEra Energy. "This type of market behavior is not what we would expect from a well-functioning and well-regulated exchange." The NYSE said while all transactions in those shares in the first minute of trading will stand, all trades in AEP at or below $46.03 in that period, and all trades in NextEra at or below $76.19, will be marked with an "aberrant report indicator." An aberrant report indicator is used to indicate the market believes that the trade price does not accurately reflect the prevailing market for the security, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Shares of AEP dropped as much as 54 percent while NextEra sank 62 percent, both hitting their lowest price of the day right at the opening, but ended the session with small losses. The Standard & Poor's utility index .SPLRCU, which contains both AEP and NextEra, led declines on the S&P 500. It ended down 0.8 percent, after having fallen as much as 8.1 percent earlier.

Individual stock moves of 10 percent or more in a five-minute period usually trigger a trading halt, based on SEC rules, but the rules do not apply to the first 15 minutes of trading or the last 30 minutes of a session. The exchanges are able to cancel trades in the event of irregular or erroneous activity. To further reduce volatility, the SEC has approved a program called "limit up/limit down" on all major stock exchanges. But the program is just starting to be introduced on large-cap stocks..."Essentially you have a market that's unprotected for the first 15 minutes of the day and the last half hour," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. He noted, though, that the newer rules should help prevent the problem from happening in the future. The limit up/limit down program aims to halt the trading of U.S.-listed stocks if they moved outside a recently traded price range. "Limit up/limit down was effective April 8, (but) there is a further rollout period by ticker in alphabetical order," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a recent research note. "So while a stock may be part of the S&P 500, it may not enter the pilot until a few weeks into the rollout."

IN OTHER WORDS....THEY SMELL A RAT. ABOUT TIME, TOO.

[xchrom]

49. Maryland pressing for expanded powers over hospitals

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/maryland-pressing-for-expanded-powers-over-hospitals/2013/05/24/8adf92fe-b8c1-11e2-b94c-b684dda07add_story.html

In a world of constantly rising health-care costs, Maryland has long stood alone. Through a novel system that gave regulators unusual leverage to set prices, the state delivered care at a price that grew slower than elsewhere in the country — even at some of the nation’s most renowned hospitals.

But after saving an estimated $45 billion for consumers over four decades, the system is in danger of running aground. Hospital expenses have risen so relentlessly in recent years that the original price controls now appear unsustainable.

In its place, Maryland officials are pressing for an expansion of the state’s authority over its hospitals. The new system would not only set prices for the procedures they perform but also cap the growth in their overall spending.

The proposal has ignited a debate in Annapolis and beyond over how far the government should go in reining in sky-
rocketing health-care bills. Advocates for the plan say it is the most effective way to curb costs and that it could serve as a model for the rest of the country.

[Demeter]

51. Worse Than Watergate? The Ultimate White House Scandal Matrix

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/white-house-scandal-matrix?utm_source=feedly





A SYNOPSIS OF EACH PLOTTED (!) SCANDAL FOLLOWS...NOWHERE IS THERE LISTED THE BANKSTER/FRAUD/CHEATING ECONOMIC SCANDAL THAT HAS RAGED FOR THE PAST 30+ YEARS, OF COURSE! IT WOULD MAKE EVERY OTHER SCANDAL EVAPORATE.

[Demeter]

52. The Growing Global Challenge to Monsanto's Monopolistic Greed By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35070.htm

The common problem we face is the power of concentrated wealth and monopolistic corporate interests. This has created a crony capitalist economy that uses government to further enrich the wealthy at the expense of the people, often threatening our basic necessities for life.A clear example of this is found in the behavior of the chemical and seed corporation, Monsanto.Monsanto threatens the world's food supply; this is a major challenge of our era. This struggle is central to the global ecosystem, economy and energy crises. Monsanto also pushes poisonous chemicals into the environment and promotes agricultural practices that exacerbate climate change.

Monsanto's actions truly affect each of us. They put their profits over the need for healthy foods, diverse seed supplies and the stability of the agricultural economy. They employ a variety of tools to control access to seeds and aggressively push genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and toxic chemicals despite serious safety concerns about them. And they accomplish this with great help from the US government.

When President Obama appointed a Monsanto lobbyist, Michael Taylor, as the "food czar" (officially the deputy commissioner for foods) - avoiding the Senate confirmation process, which would have brought public attention to the appointment - it was one more example of how corrupted both parties have become by corporate influence...

DETAILED CHARGES AGAINST MONSANTO FOLLOW; SEE LINK

....As it is with many other issues, the future of the world's food supply boils down to the people vs. concentrated wealth and corporate power. It highlights the corruption of government and the need for a real democracy in which people are allowed to make choices for themselves on basic issues like what kind of food they eat and what kind of plants they want to grow. Popular resistance to concentrated wealth is growing as more people demand the right to control their own lives.

[Demeter]

53. back to my regularly-scheduled life

Sigh. See you all later.

[Demeter]

54. What is the U.S. REALLY Doing in Syria? By Stephen M. Walt

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35048.htm

INTERESTING SPECULATIVE ARTICLE...I THINK HE'S GOT A GOOD SENSE OF THE SITUATION.

[Hugin]

58. Fine art.

[Hugin]

59. Look for this at the cinema.

[Hugin]

60. To see this movie.

And it's sequel...

[Demeter]

66. Sorry it took me so long, Hugin. Great art!

How can you have only 2 Ignores? You don't post much, do you? Not lately, anyway...

[kickysnana]

63. This is Mama Kitty doing her Grumpy Cat Impression

[Demeter]

68. I have had kitties in my day...I have two now, really cranky cats

I swear the cats are getting grumpier as I get older....

or maybe it's me?

[DemReadingDU]

77. Maybe both!

I just had my old grumpy cat to the vet on Friday. She is literally biting out her fur. The vet gave her a steroid shot, and liquid antibiotics twice a day for a week. An easy way to give the liquid medicine is to mix it in a spoonful of babyfood chicken or beef.

I have combed the cat for fleas too, but there are none that I can see. Unfortunately, the combing removed even more fur. There really isn't much fur left on her, poor kitty

[Demeter]

71. I'm just back from meeting my new neighbor!

a darling kitten, 3 months old, named Annaleena, with medium long hair, a black and gray calico with an enormous purr....her new parents are adorable, too!

[Demeter]

72. Gerald Celente on the New Renaissance and Big Non-State Trends Changing the World

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34917.htm

THE MAN HIMSELF---TRANSCRIBED, EVEN!

[Demeter]

73. It’s Not Just One Bad ‘Apple’

http://billmoyers.com/2013/05/24/its-not-just-one-bad-apple/

Earlier this week, a Senate panel investigated how Apple avoided billions in taxes through a web of offshore subsidiaries “so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen.” Although the company may have achieved, in the words of Sen. Carl Levin, the “holy grail of tax avoidance,” senators didn’t accuse Apple of doing anything illegal and it is by no means alone in its use of loopholes and gimmicks to avoid paying taxes.

Here’s a list, topped by Apple, of 10 companies that increased their offshore holdings in the past year.



The U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent — one of the highest in the world — but as The New York Times reported yesterday, the effective corporate tax rate (what companies actually pay) “fell to 17.8 percent in 2012 from 42.5 percent in 1960,” according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Another chart from the Citizens for Tax Justice shows 10 companies that managed to do much better than average, paying little or no taxes for the past five years. Dollar amounts are numbers in millions and “rate” is the effective tax rate that the companies paid.

[DemReadingDU]

78. Outrageous

And we the people get poorer and poorer.

[jtuck004]

75. JP Morgan Hired to Consult Finance Ministry

U.S. lender JP Morgan will act as a consultant to Russia's Finance Ministry with the aim of boosting the country's credit rating and improving the image of the economy as a whole.

The firm was selected based on a number of criteria such as experience and quality of work, including in the Russian market and the proposed strategy of interaction with rating agencies, Vedomosti reported.

...

In February, an agreement was signed by the Economic Development Ministry and the Russian Direct Investment Fund with Goldman Sachs.The investment bank was hired to improve Russia's image overseas and attract institutional investors.

Goldman Sachs will receive a payment of about $500,000 over three years.

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/jp-morgan-hired-to-consult-finance-ministry/480483.html#ixzz2UOOiSKqb
The Moscow Times
_______________________________________________________________________________________________


If I were an average working Russian, I would look at this as a greater threat than all the nuclear missiles ever built, I think.

[DemReadingDU]

76. Riots in Stockholm, Sweden

5/23/13 Swedish riots rage for fourth night
Police attacked and cars torched in Stockholm suburbs as unrest sparked by long-term youth unemployment and poverty spreads

Hundreds of youths burnt down a restaurant, set fire to more than 30 cars and attacked police during a fourth night of rioting in the suburbs of Stockholm, shocking a country that dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to solve youth unemployment and resentment among asylum seekers.

Violence spread across the Swedish capital on Wednesday, as large numbers of young people rampaged through the suburbs, throwing stones, breaking windows and destroying cars. Police in the southern city of Malmo said two cars had been set ablaze.
.
.
The disturbances appear to have been sparked by the police killing a 69-year-old man wielding a machete in the suburb of Husby earlier this month, which prompted accusations of police brutality. The riots then spread to other poor Stockholm suburbs.

"We see a society that is becoming increasingly divided and where the gaps, both socially and economically, are becoming larger," said Rami Al-khamisi, co-founder of Megafonen, a group that works for social change in the suburbs. "And the people out here are being hit the hardest … we have institutional racism."

more...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/swedish-riots-stockholm



5/25/13 Sweden riots spread beyond Stockholm despite extra police

There has been a sixth night of rioting in Sweden's capital, Stockholm, despite police reinforcements being deployed. Cars were set alight in poor suburbs inhabited largely by immigrants, although the unrest was reportedly not as serious as on previous nights. The rioting also spread outside the capital for the first time on Friday, with youths torching vehicles and buildings in two towns.
more...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22656657

[xchrom]

79. Visa and Mastercard ask federal court to legalize transaction fees

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/25/visa-and-mastercard-ask-federal-court-to-legalize-transaction-fees/



US credit card giants Visa and Mastercard sued retailers that rejected a multibillion-dollar settlement over transaction fees and asked the court to rule the fee practices weren’t illegal.

The latest legal maneuver comes after years of legal battles over so-called “swipe” fees retailers must pay credit cards in each transaction.

Last year, in a proposed settlement, Visa, MasterCard and some banks that issue their cards agreed to pay more than $6 billion to millions of merchants that had sued them for allegedly fixing the card use fees.

But a number of retailers and trade groups — including behemoths such as Walmart, Target and Macy’s — have rejected the deal, saying it would not address the underlying concerns over how the fees are set.

[xchrom]

80. Bankia was an “elephant in the room,” BBVA chief says

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/24/inenglish/1369413780_525307.html

The chairmen of rival banks to nationalized BFA/Bankia questioned the reliability of the earnings presented by the lender and the feasibility of its recapitalization plan shortly before it was taken over by the state Orderly Bank Restructuring Fund (FROB) in May of last year.

That was the gist of what emerged from testimony given to High Court Judge Fernando Andreu by Emilio Botín of Banco Santander, Francisco González of BBVA, and CaixaBank’s Isidro Fainé on Friday based on talks they held with Economy Minister Luis de Guindos.

The then chairman of Bankia, former economy minister and IMF chief Rodrigo Rato, estimated that the bank needed an injection of seven billion euros from the state to repair the damage to its balance sheet caused by its exposure to the ailing real estate sector. The bank also reported earnings of 300 million euros. After Rato stood down and the FROB took over, the bank restated its 2011 earnings to show a loss of 21.238 billion euros, the largest in Spanish corporate history. The state subsequently had to inject 22.424 billion euros into the group to keep it afloat, the bulk of the 40 billion euros Spain borrowed from its European partners to clean up the sector.

Bankia was an “elephant in the room,” González told Andreu, an assessment Botín and Fainé concurred on, according to judicial sources present at their testimony. The BBVA chief said Rato’s evaluation of the situation at bank was “hardly credible” and “overly optimistic.” González said accounting presentations are a bit like a “piece of chewing gum,” meaning that items can be stretched.

[xchrom]

81. Could a pair of minority groups spell the end of Spain's two-party system?

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/22/inenglish/1369228317_043995.html


A demonstration by 15-M protestors in Barcelona. / GIANLUCA BATTISTA (EL PAÍS)

The opinion polls all agree: Spain's two-party system is suffering from a kind of burnout that has not been seen in recent years. And the main beneficiaries of the steady decline in voter support for the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Popular Party (PP) are the leftist coalition United Left (IU) and the center party Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD).

IU - which is a veteran association of communists, republicans and environmentalists, and typically garners between three and 10 percent of the vote at general elections - and the UPyD - a newcomer to the political scene, which has been quickly gaining traction on a socially progressive, economically liberal program - are both facing a turning point that will test their organizations, their internal structures and their campaign promises.

A recent simulation of election results conducted by the polling firm Metroscopia showed IU and UPyD obtaining 16 percent and 11 percent of the vote, respectively, more than twice what they achieved at the November 2011 general elections.

Analysts concur that support for Spain's two traditional parties is eroding due to their mismanagement of the economic crisis - first the Socialists, and now the PP - and because of the litany of corruption scandals that are making the news. At the same time, the minority parties are riding a wave of popular demand for a democratic overhaul of the system, promising a different approach and fewer vested interests.

[xchrom]

82. Not so much a brain drain as forced exile{spain}

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/20/inenglish/1369050837_208748.html

For the last three years, Spain's scientific community has been warning about the impact of government austerity measures: the deep spending cuts aimed at reducing the country's deficit could mean the dismemberment of a research structure that has taken many years, a great deal of money, and much effort to create. Academic institutions' funding budgets are being slashed, leaving many of the country's best and brightest with no choice but to look for opportunities abroad. Spain's brain drain is not a voluntary process: to all intents and purposes, the country is driving away the very people who should be leading the next generation of scientists and researchers.

People like Nuria Martí. The 33-year-old is just one of those directly affected by the government's 31-percent (1.4-billion-euro) cuts to R&D between 2009 and 2012. Martí was fired from the Prince Felipe Research Center (CIPF) in Valencia in 2011. She has just signed off on one of the most important works on stem-cell research in recent years at the Oregon Health & Science University, in the United States, where she now works.

Martí's case made the headlines in Spain, as has that of Diego Martínez, a 30-year-old recently named the European Physics Society's young physicist of the year, but who has been turned down for a grant by the post-doctoral Ramón y Cajal Program, a scheme set up in 2001 to "strengthen the capacity of the research and development groups and institutions in Spain by injecting new blood into the system," according to its first call for proposals. Martínez and the many others turned down for funding have no recourse to appeal.


Nobody working at the Ramón y Cajal Program questions the body's selection process, based on international criteria. But they do point out that the cuts mean that growing numbers of young scientists are being denied an opportunity to pursue research in Spain. In 2011, 250 grants were available; last year that figure fell to 175.

[xchrom]

84. Four Latin nations take large steps forward to forge “a real trade bloc”

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/05/23/inenglish/1369331091_290523.html


A handout picture provided by Colombia's Presidency shows Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (c) meeting his counterparts from Peru, Ollanta Humala (l), and from Chile, Sebastián Piñera (r), in Cali. / JUAN PABLO BELLO (EFE)

The presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru, who met on Thursday in Cali for the VII Pacific Alliance Summit, have made huge advances on economic integration for their Latin American nations after pledging to free up 90 percent of their trade this year.

Made up of four of the fastest-growing economies in the region, the bloc has important geopolitical consequences for the rest of the continent, and it is edging in on Mercosur — the trade group made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela — whose negotiations have been stalled for years. It has also made greater advances before the final negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) — which is being pushed by the United States — have been finalized.

Formally established in June last year, the four countries of the Pacific Alliance make up 35 percent of Latin America’s GDP, and account for 50 percent of exports sent abroad from the continent. Its total population exceeds 200 million people and the entire bloc represents a real challenge to emerging Brazil.

It also presents a new model for regional integration, and is geared toward strengthening democratic institutions, encouraging the free movement of goods, capital, services and people, and penetrating the Asian markets.

[xchrom]

86. 'Indonesia is seeing a new corporate colonialism'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/25/indonesia-new-corporate-colonialism


Burnt tree stumps in a cleared Sumatran forest. Photograph: Kemal Jufri / Greenpeace

Land conflicts between farmers and plantation owners, mining companies and developers have raged across Indonesia as local and multinational companies have been encouraged to seize and then deforest customary land – land owned by indigenous people and administered in accordance with their customs. More than 600 were recorded in 2011, with 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The true number is probably far greater, say watchdog groups.

The Indonesian national human rights commission reported more than 5,000 human rights violations last year, mostly linked to deforestation by corporations. "Deaths of farmers caused by the increase in agrarian conflicts all across Indonesia are increasing," said Henry Sarigih, founder of the Indonesian Peasant Union, which has 700,000 members.

"The presence of palm oil plantations has spawned a new poverty and is triggering a crisis of landlessness and hunger. Human rights violations keep occurring around natural resources in the country and intimidation, forced evictions and torture are common," said Sarigih. "There are thousands of cases that have not surfaced. Many remain hidden, especially by local authorities," he says.

Communities complain that they are not warned, consulted or compensated when concessions are handed out and that they are left with no option but to give up their independence and work for minimal wages for the companies.

[xchrom]

87. Single bank watchdog becomes mammoth project for ECB

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/26/uk-ecb-banks-supervision-idUKBRE94P04420130526

(Reuters) - The European Central Bank faces a race against time to set up a watchdog for the euro zone's 6,000 banks and risks having an under-equipped team in place when it begins the task in mid-2014.

The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) marks the first step towards a banking union, Europe's plan for a more integrated financial system that foresees a mechanism to wind down non-viable banks and a deposit guarantee scheme being set up later.

The union aims to break the link between governments and banks to prevent taxpayers from having to bail out failing lenders in future and to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis.

Europe's leaders have given the central bank the task of setting up the SSM, but the project risks a stumbling start.

***how easy would it be to corrupt a single watch dog entity?

[xchrom]

88. French budget minister warns tax evaders to confess now

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/26/uk-france-tax-idUKBRE94P06A20130526

(Reuters) - Budget Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said French taxpayers holding bank accounts abroad must make them known to authorities now or face much tougher penalties for tax evasion, as France seeks to end years of lax oversight.

The Socialist government, in line with European partners, is leading a crackdown on tax avoidance that deprives the state of up to 50 billion euros (£42.7 billion) in revenue annually, according to a Senate commission report published last year.

Parliament will start in June to debate a draft law reinforcing tax oversight that foresees tougher penalties for evaders including stiffer prison sentences, which can last up to seven years for the worst offenders.

"I call on all those who have bank accounts abroad to abide by the law now by getting in touch with tax authorities," Cazeneuve told Europe 1 radio on Sunday. "If they refuse to respect the law, they will face much harsher penalties."

[Demeter]

89. France seizes a million doses of fake Chinese aspirin

AS IF WE DIDN'T HAVE HEADACHES ENOUGH ALREADY

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/25/france-seizes-a-million-doses-of-fake-chinese-aspirin/

French customs officers have seized 1.2 million doses of counterfeit aspirin from China, the biggest haul of fake medicines ever in France and the EU, the economy ministry announced Saturday.

The goods, seized May 17 in the northwestern port of Le Havre, were hidden in a cargo of tea that arrived from China, the ministry said in a statement. The powder was mostly glucose and contained no active ingredients.

The fake aspirin was to have been sent to a Spanish company based in the Balearic Islands for distribution in the Iberian peninsula, the south of France and French-speaking Africa, the ministry said.

[Demeter]

90. How to know if you have enough to retire

RULE OF THUMB (TOM THUMB)IF YOU HAVE TO ASK, YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-know-if-you-have-enough-to-retire-2013-05-25-1710307?siteid=YAHOOB

Odds are high that you haven’t saved enough money to retire in the manner in which you desire. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can easily gauge just how close or far away you might be. And the first to thing to check is how much you have set aside for retirement.

The average so-called full-career worker at a large employer needs to have 11 times their pay, after Social Security, set aside at age 65 in their retirement nest egg to expect to have sufficient assets to get through retirement.

Or least so says research conducted by Aon Hewitt, which has been studying whether workers at large firms will have the financial resources to meet their post-retirement needs since 2008. Including Social Security, you will need 15.9 times pay to maintain your standard of living throughout your retirement years.

According to Aon Hewitt’s Real Deal 2012 Retirement Income Adequacy at Large Companies study, workers who have 11 times pay set aside when combined with Social Security will be able to replace in year one of retirement 85% of their pre-retirement income. Read that research. The 85% rule of thumb reflects one’s final salary, adjusted for decreased savings and taxes, increasing medical costs and changing expenditures in general, and inflation.

Of course, there are some adjustments that must be made to this rule of thumb based on your income. (We’ll talk more about that in a second.) But in essence, one quick way to determine if you’re on track to having enough money for retirement is to divide your assets earmarked for retirement by your salary....

[Demeter]

91. How America's Retirement Crisis Is Crushing the Hopes of a Generation of Young People

THE OBVIOUS FOLLOW-UP ARTICLE...

http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/how-americas-retirement-crisis-crushing-hopes-generation-young-people?akid=10486.227380.IAvfK2&rd=1&src=newsletter845794&t=4&paging=off

The crucially important but largely missing context of today's debate over so-called “entitlement reform” (read: slashing Social Security benefits and shifting more healthcare costs onto seniors) is that we stand at the early stages of what's shaping up to be a massively painful retirement crisis. And while there has been a long-term project among granny-bashing “entitlement reformers” to fuel a sort of intergenerational class warfare by accusing "greedy geezers" of hurting young people's prospects, the reality is that this growing retirement crisis is hurting not only older workers and retirees, but also the newest entrants into the workforce, a generation of young Americans whose prospects are far bleaker than those enjoyed by their parents. If you're nearing retirement age – or have a parent or grandparent nearing retirement age – you're no doubt aware of how 40 years of stagnant middle-class wages and the disastrous shift from traditional pensions to 401(k)-type plans has made a dignified retirement all but impossible for all but the very well-to-do. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the share of private sector workers responsible for their own retirement savings increased nearly four-fold between 1980 and 2008 (PDF).

This trend has been an integral part of what Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker called the “great risk-shift,” in which the burden of paying for education, healthcare and retirement has been increasingly shifted from corporations and the government onto the backs of individuals and families. This graphic from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities tells the tale:




Wall Street, and its allies in Washington, swore that this transition to private accounts would harness the awesome power of the market to make us all wealthy in our golden years. In Forbes, Edward Seidle writes, “as a former mutual fund legal counsel, when I recall some of the outrageous sales materials the industry came up with to peddle funds to workers, particularly in the 1980s, it’s almost laughable—if the results weren’t so tragic.”

There was the “Dial Your Own Return” cardboard wheel of fortune that showed investors which mutual funds they should select for any given level of return. Looking for 12%? Load up on our government plus or option income funds! It was that easy to get the level of income needed in retirement, investors were told.

Like so many promises of the vaunted “new economy” popularized by Ronald Reagan and supported by both parties since, this was a scam with disastrous consequences. According to Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of economics at the New School for Social Research, “seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts.” She adds: “The specter of downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle- and higher-income workers. Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day.”

MORE AGONY AT LINK

[snot]

94. An aspect that worries me is that most of these projections

assume much lower inflation than I think we are or will actually be experiencing during the next 10 or more years, at least in the kinds of things seniors actually have to spend most of their money on – food, energy, healthcare.

[Demeter]

95. What worries me the most is that they don't give a care.

The 1% got theirs, and yours and mine. Conclude the proverb for yourself. It's Sunday, and I'm too dressed up to be profane.

[Demeter]

92. How the Fed could ruin your summer holiday

http://news.yahoo.com/fed-could-ruin-summer-holiday-132815909.html


...U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made it clear in congressional testimony this week that the central bank could very well entertain a change in policy sooner than many had predicted. That would mean providing less stimulus to the economy by cutting back on its bond buying program. The result was an unsettling bout of volatility, with Treasury yields jumping while stocks slid, as investors feared the Fed's support might start to recede. And that means this could be a summer when investors may find the waves are not only on the beach.

While Fed-watchers are hard-pressed to see a turning point at the bank's June policy meeting, there are plenty of other spots this summer when the Fed could start to prepare markets for change. Besides the June meeting, there is a policy meeting in July and the release of minutes from both those meetings that will follow. There are three Fridays where monthly jobs data will be released, and plenty of inflation readings and other, lesser economic datapoints. And of course, there are other potential flashpoints. Will an heir to Bernanke emerge? Will the annual monetary policy symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this August matter without Ben Bernanke? Here's what to watch for this summer on the Fed front:

1. FED MEETINGS AND MINUTES
   
   Fed policymakers meet twice more before the September 2 Labor Day holiday this year: June 18-19 and July 30-31. In addition, the minutes of those Federal Open Market Committee meetings will be released three weeks later. The June meeting is likely "as good a target as any" for a signal from the Fed about their future plans, said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington, D.C. The Fed doesn't want to startle investors, because that would be disruptive. Expect plenty of flags, through meeting statements and minutes, before policymakers make any movements.
   
   
2. DATA DELUGE: JOBS VS INFLATION
   
   The Fed's dual mandate means that both jobs and inflation data will be key. Labor data has been more encouraging of late, with the unemployment rate down to 7.5 percent. The Fed has said it wants to see the rate fall to 6.5 percent before it raises interest rates. The data has been spotty enough that policymakers could want more consistency. Non-farm payroll growth has averaged about 208,000 monthly over the past six months but has dipped below that level in some months. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said he would like to see growth of 200,000 each month before cutting back on bond purchases, also referred to as quantitative easing. Also far from target is inflation. The Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which is the measurement most watched by the Fed, was only at 1 percent in March. The April reading is due on May 31. "They would be more comfortable with inflation at 2, 2.5 percent," said Wilmer Stith, co-manager of the Wilmington Broad Market Bond Fund in Baltimore. With inflation hardly threatening, there are few price pressures to argue for ending the flood of easy money, and the data only goes to underscore the relative weakness of the economy, Stith noted.
   
   
3. THE NEXT FED CHAIR?
   
   Bernanke hasn't officially bid adieu to the Fed, but he is clearly eyeballing the door. His second term ends in January, and there has been no official announcement about his future at the Fed. "I don't think that I'm the only person in the world who can manage the exit (from quantitative easing)," he said earlier this year.
   
   
4. WITH OR WITHOUT BEN: JACKSON HOLE
   
   Bernanke may be opening the way for possible successors by skipping the Jackson Hole gathering later this year due to an unspecified scheduling conflict. While Fed Vice-Chair Janet Yellen is emerging as the favorite to hold the position next, Bernanke and company have so far been quiet. The Fed honcho's absence could mean Jackson Hole offers little in the way of news, in which case, head to the beach and read that trashy novel you've been meaning to get through. But maybe not...Bernanke's absence on the schedule could open up a spot for an heir-apparent to take the spotlight instead. If that is Yellen, "perhaps that is going to be the platform for her to gain even more recognition nationally," Stith said.
   
   
5. DEBT CEILING DEBATES - YES, THIS AGAIN
   
   One thing investors and traders may not have to worry about is a debt ceiling crisis in Washington. The government probably won't breach its congressionally authorized borrowing limit until at least Labor Day.
   
   The perfect bookend to summer, in other words.

[Demeter]

96. I went to see the new Star Trek film

and I am sorry to say that if this doesn't kill the franchise, nothing will.

It was a good (well, tolerable) idea, gone horrible in execution. There are too many directors trying to cover up bad directing with lots of special effects.

There is no point in paying extra for the 3D version, either. It wasn't used to good effect, if it was used at all.

[Demeter]

100. There are plot holes big enough to drive a starship through

and they did, repeatedly.

This is after "dream analysis"...thinking about it in my sleep.

[Demeter]

97. Join us here tomorrow

I've been up for 18 hours now, so I'm going to crash. See you sometime afer the sun comes up. Maybe it will get above 60F by then...

[Fuddnik]

98. Same Bat-Time....Same Bat Station!

[Demeter]

101. ‘A’ Is for Avoidance

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/a-is-for-avoidance.html?_r=0

Even before last week’s Senate hearing on Apple, it was clear that the aggressive use of tax havens and other tax avoidance tactics had become standard operating procedure for global American companies.

Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard were the focus of a similar Senate hearing last September, while Google, Amazon and Starbucks have drawn recent scrutiny in Europe. And, of course, there is General Electric, which achieved a perfect zero on its United States tax bill in 2010. In fact, G.E. was reputed to have the world’s best tax avoidance department until Apple came along with tactics to stash some $100 billion in Ireland without paying taxes on much of it anywhere in the world and, apparently, without breaking any law. And that is the problem. Rampant corporate tax avoidance may not be illegal, but that doesn’t make it right or fair. As corporate tax revenue has withered as a share of the economy and as a share of total revenue, Washington has leaned more heavily on individuals to pay for government. In 2012, personal income taxes and payroll taxes raised $1.9 trillion, compared with $242 billion raised from corporate taxes, a disparity that contributes to widening inequality and, in turn, to a slow economy and less social mobility. Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that fully taxing the profits sheltered abroad by American corporations would raise an additional $42 billion in revenue this year, enough to end more than half the spending cuts in the sequester.

Yet it is not clear that lawmakers are committed to stopping widespread tax avoidance. Instead, they may further entrench the system, or even make it worse. The most immediate issue involves a tax repatriation holiday. Under the law, American corporations can defer paying tax on their profits as long as the money is held abroad. Apple is one of nearly two dozen major corporations pushing for a tax holiday, which would permit corporations to bring their foreign-held profits to the United States over the course of a year at a discounted tax rate. A tax holiday in 2005 dropped the rate from 35 percent to 5.25 percent, enticing corporations to repatriate some $300 billion. It was billed as a way to create jobs and boost investment, but it was a total policy failure. The repatriated money was mostly used for dividend payments, share buybacks (which tend to raise executive pay) and severance pay for employees laid off in corporate restructuring. The holiday rewarded aggressive tax avoidance, with 77 percent of the repatriated profits coming from tax haven countries, according to the Government Accountability Office. Worse, that tax holiday encouraged American companies to come up with even more ways to shift profits abroad in anticipation of a second tax holiday. Since the last holiday ended, profits held in foreign countries have skyrocketed, according to expert testimony at the tax avoidance hearings in the Senate last year. American corporations now have an estimated $2 trillion stashed abroad.

Some American corporations are also lobbying for a new “territorial” tax system, which would, in effect, be a permanent holiday: profits made or shifted abroad would be forever untaxed in America, even if the country where the profits were held was a haven with no or low taxes. That would further encourage the shift of jobs, investment and profit abroad — exactly the wrong policy direction. Equally pernicious is the notion, shared by members of both political parties, that corporate tax reform should be “revenue neutral” — meaning that it should simplify the code but not raise any taxes. That is absurd. It would leave the nation chronically short of revenue and increasingly reliant on working people to shoulder the tax burden.

PRESCRIPTION FOR TAX CODE CHANGES FOLLOWS...

[Demeter]

102. How Corporations Are Subverting Attempts to Rein in Their Power

http://www.alternet.org/environment/how-corporations-are-subverting-attempts-rein-their-power?akid=10486.227380.IAvfK2&rd=1&src=newsletter845794&t=22&paging=off





In 2009, when the government of El Salvador refused to issue an environmental permit to a Canadian mining corporation, community activists in Las Cabañas rejoiced. For years they had been fighting a pitched battle against the efforts of the company, Pacific Rim, to mine for gold in their region - plans that included the dumping of toxic arsenic in their rivers. It was not a campaign without risk. Four Salvadoran anti-mining activists have been assassinated in the course of their courageous efforts. That victory, however, may well prove to carry a high cost for the people of El Salvador. In a legal assault filed in a World Bank trade court, Pacific Rim is now demanding $315 million in compensation payments from the Salvadoran government, an amount equal to one third of the country’s annual education budget.

That is just one example among many where citizens have fought for and won an important policy victory only to find that victory undermined by corporations using the growing web of international investment rules and arbitration courts. There are many others. Public health campaigners in Uruguay won a huge victory in 2010 when the national government passed new health laws to discourage tobacco consumption. Even though those new laws (including aggressive new warnings on cigarette packages) directly mirrored the guidelines of the World Health Organization, the U.S. corporate tobacco giant Philip Morris retaliated with a $2 billion legal action against the government.

Nowhere is this muscle-flexing by multinational corporations a greater threat than on issues related to sustainable development. The result is a little known but enormous legal obstacle planted directly in the policy path toward a sustainable future. The Democracy Center has just documented that threat in an important new report released this week: Unfair, Unsustainable and Under the Radar: How Corporations Use Global Investment Rules to Undermine a Sustainable Future.

For many this system of corporate-driven investment rules and “dispute resolution” burst into public view a decade ago when Bechtel, the San Francisco-based engineering conglomerate, sued the people of Bolivia for $50 million following the now-famous Cochabamba Water Revolt, after investing just $1 million in the country. A global citizen campaign aimed at the corporation ultimately forced Bechtel to drop that case for a token payment of 30 cents. Yet in the years since, the pile of corporate cases has only grown ever higher...

MUCH MORE

[Demeter]

103. See How Citigroup Wrote a Bill So It Could Get a Bailout

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/citigroup-hr-992-wall-street-swaps-regulatory-improvement-act?utm_source=feedly

On Friday, the New York Times reported on the front page that Citigroup drafted most of a House bill that would allow banks to engage in risky trades backed by a potential taxpayer-funded bailout. The Times notes that "Citigroup’s recommendations were reflected in more than 70 lines of the House committee’s 85-line bill." Special-interest lobbyists often play a role in writing legislation on the Hill, but such sausage-making is rarely revealed to the public. In this instance, members of Congress and a band of lobbyists have been caught red-handed, and Mother Jones has obtained the Citigroup draft that is practically identical to the House bill. As you can see in the side-by-side comparison below, the lobbyists for Citigroup really earned their pay on this job.

The bill, called the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act, was approved by the House financial services committee in May and is headed for a vote on the House floor soon. It would gut a section of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act called the "push-out rule." Banks hate the push-out rule, which is scheduled to go into effect on July 13, because this provision will forbid them from trading certain derivatives (which are complicated financial instruments with values derived from underlying variables, such as crop prices or interest rates). Under this rule, banks will have to move these risky trades into separate non-bank affiliates that aren't insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and are less likely to receive government bailouts. The bill would smother the push-out rule in its crib by permitting banks to use government-insured deposits to bet on a wider range of these risky derivatives.

Here is the key section of the legislation that Citigroup cooked up compared to the same section of the final bill:

YOU GO LOOK, I JUST CAN'T....

[Demeter]

104. I don't see anyting!

[bread_and_roses]

105. "The Real Numbers: Half of America in Poverty -- and It's Creeping toward 75%"

http://www.alternet.org/economy/real-numbers-half-america-poverty-and-its-creeping-toward-75-0

AlterNet / By Paul Buchheit
The Real Numbers: Half of America in Poverty -- and It's Creeping toward 75%
May 26, 2013

The Census Bureau [3] has reported that one out of six Americans lives in poverty. A shocking figure. But it's actually much worse...

1. Almost half of Americans had NO assets in 2009...

3. Based on wage figures, over half of Americans are now IN poverty.

According to IRS data, the average household in the bottom 50% brings in about $18,000 [9] per year. That's less than the poverty line [10] for a family of three ($19,000) or a family of four ($23,000).

Census [11] income figures are about 25% higher, because they include [12] unemployment compensation, workers' compensation, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, public assistance, veterans' payments, and various other monetary sources. Based on this supplemental income, the average household in the bottom 50% brings in about $25,000, which is just above the $23,000 poverty line for a family of four.

4. Based on wage figures, 75% of Americans are NEAR poverty.

... And as Congress continues to cut life-sustaining programs, its members should note that their 400 friends on theForbes list [20] made more from their stock market gains last year than the total amount of the food [19], housing [21], and education [21] budgets combined.

But not to worry! The ACA is ALMOST HERE!

ah, yes. The ACA. Under which, if they lived in CA, a couple I know intimately (ahem), with a decent income but who's meager savings have been - literally - zero-ed out, assuring them poverty in old age - by family members who's jobs were lost and never returned, who've had no means of support for small children (welfare being what it is these days since the Deform is not - believe me - of any use (most ESPECIALLY if one is actually trying to work, takes temporary or part-time jobs, which the system punishes you for by, for instance, depriving you of Day Care subsidies which then, of course, mean you are beggared if you try to work but "sanctioned" (cut off) if you have to quit because you can't afford the care ...oh, I could go on and on ...but to get to the point: this couple, under CA's health "reform" would now pay roughly 12% of their income for health "care" .... Oh, Frabjous Day Hoorah Hooray!

[Demeter]

106. A Budget That Tightens Belts by Emptying Stomachs

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15033/a_budget_that_tightens_belts_by_emptying_stomachs/

A time-honored tactic of conservative lawmakers is to “starve the beast”by defunding government programs. In the case of food stamps—the quintessential whipping boy for budget hawks—they’re going a step further by trying to starve actual people.

The House of Representatives and Senate have proposed the United States “tighten our belts” by slashing billions of dollars from poor people’s food budgets. The main mechanism for shrinking the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding is the removal of “categorical eligibility.” Basically, most states have used this policy to streamline enrollment: Families are made eligible for food stamps based on their receipt of other benefits, such as housing or childcare subsidies. That often means broadening eligibility for working-poor families or those with overall household income or savings that exceeds regular, stricter thresholds for qualifying for food stamps.

Now the House and Senate farm bill proposals, particularly the House plan, seek to “save” billions more by cutting categorical eligibility. Under the House farm bill budget, which cuts $20.5 billion in SNAP over 10 years, benefits would be eliminated for “nearly 2 million low-income people, mostly working families with children and senior citizens,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). (The Senate bill also cuts SNAP but only by about $4 billion over 10 years). In addition, the cuts would devastate poor students, because SNAP eligibility has enabled 210,000 low-income children to qualify for free school meals. That means more hunger pangs for kids in the cafeteria, and an emptier refrigerator waiting for them at home. Meanwhile, their working-poor parents may find themselves buying cheaper, less nutritious food to stretch budgets, or turning to the local food pantry, or facing cruel trade-offs like delaying rent payments to pay for groceries or leaving a health problem untreated.

According to Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy with the CBPP, the House proposal would end up cutting food stamps for people who hold minimal assets--poor families who have held onto a car to get to work, for example, or with savings just above $2,000. So at a time when wealth has declined for 93 percent of households, poor families who have built up a modest nest egg may be rewarded with the indignity of hunger. The typical food stamp family doesn’t fit the stereotype of the shiftless poor or “welfare queens,” Dean explained via email:

A typical working family that qualifies for SNAP benefits due to categorical eligibility is a mother with two young children who has monthly earnings just above the program’s monthly gross income limit ($2,069 for a family of three in 2013). On average, the families above that limit who qualify for SNAP as a result of categorical eligibility have combined child care and rent costs that exceed half of their wages. The approximately $100 per month in SNAP benefits they receive covers about one-fourth to one-fifth of their monthly food budget.

In addition to bumping people out of categorical eligibility, the House proposal would hit the so called “heat and eat” policy — a mechanism used by some states to coordinate heating assistance payments with food stamps. As a result, according to the CBPP, “about 850,000 low-income households, which include about 1.7 million individuals, would lose an average of $90 a month in SNAP benefits.”

All these cuts are absurdly out of sync with economic realities of the working poor. (They’re also heaped on top of a current cut to food stamps due to the expiration of a temporary boost from the federal stimulus package.)...


BUT YOU KNEW THAT ALREADY

[Demeter]

107. Banner Week for Politicians Trying to Keep Poor People Hungry and Sick

http://gawker.com/banner-week-for-politicians-trying-to-keep-poor-people-509850767

If you're a conservative politician looking to make sure the American underclass eventually dies off either through malnutrition or disease, boy, has it been a pretty great week for you!

First, Louisiana Senator David Vitter, sad little boy and lover of prostitutes, proposed an amendment to the long-delayed farm bill that would make certain ex-cons ineligible from food stamps for life. Senate Democrats working on the bill accepted this amendment, because at this point, why not? The amendment would ban convicted murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from ever receiving the ability to buy food for themselves, even after their release from prison, making life harder for people who have already paid their debt to society.

And life is already pretty easy for ex-cons in America, especially because our justice system never convicts people of crimes they never committed...

To top off this great achievement in American politics, the Times is running a piece today on the courageous Republican governors who are refusing to expand Medicaid to the poorest residents of their states, because their state would have to pay a pittance to do so (the federal government would do the rest under the Affordable Care Act). ....

AND SO ON, AND SO FORTH

[Demeter]

108. Delinquent US student loans hit record high, with over $100 billion past due

http://rt.com/usa/record-high-us-student-debt-775/

The number and value of overdue student loans has reached an all-time high in the US as nearly a third of 20- to 24-year-olds are currently unemployed, according to a report by the Department of Education.

With continued concern regarding rising college costs, the amount of outstanding student loans has now reached $1 trillion, making that the largest category of consumer debt in the US aside from home mortgages.

According to the new report, eleven per cent of school loans - one hundred and ten billion dollars' worth - are now seriously delinquent, meaning at least 90 days past due. That is a sharp increase from the 6 per cent reported in the first quarter of 2003....

[Demeter]

109. The Case for 4% Inflation

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/05/the-case-for-4-inflation.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29


Yves here. Some readers are likely to recoil at the idea that more inflation might be a good thing. But the flip side is that economists are still fighting the war of the 1970s. The 1970s stagflation was the result of a specific set of conditions that look very remote now: a recent past of budget deficits when the economy was already strong leading to currency depreciation (Nixon going off the gold standard) which also hurt the Saudis (who lost out because oil was denominated in dollars), leading them to retaliate with oil price increases. And because labor had bargaining power, unlike now, the combination of too much unintended stimulus (the deficits were the result of an unwillingness to raises taxes, since they’d perceived to be the result of needing to fund the unpopular Vietnam War) plus a commodities shock led not just to inflation, but an increasing rate of inflation.

What makes inflation hated now is that workers have no leverage, so stagnant wages plus inflation means a declining standard of living. Similarly, an increase in the level of inflation hurts investors. But if an inflation rate is not terribly high and doesn’t rise, bond yields and securities prices will adjust to reflect that level of inflation. In other words, what hurts workers is when pay increases lag inflation in a meaningful way, and when investment returns don’t include an adequate inflation premium...

LONG POSTED TECHNICAL ARTICLE WHICH CONCLUDES:

Conclusion

Since the double-digit inflation of the 1970s, central banks have sought to reduce inflation and keep it low. Recent history teaches us that inflation has fallen too low. Raising inflation targets to 4% would have little cost, and it would make it easier for central banks to end future recessions.

[Demeter]

110. In One Chart, Here's How Investors Are Massively Giving Up On Commodities

http://www.businessinsider.com/commodity-outflows-2013-5

One of the big themes of the year has been the sell off in commodities.

Gold, of course, has had a rough year. But so too have industrial commodities like copper.

Whereas past commodity downturns have been closely associated with declines in risk assets, there's a sense this time of the "supercycle" coming to an end.

And indeed while U.S. equities remain within a hair of all-time highs, and inflows into stocks spike, there's been a big decrease in money going into commodity funds.

This chart from Jefferies tells the story:

Commodity funds continued to experience significant net outflow. The latest amount of net outflow stood at a net US$2.1bn. Recent 15 consecutive weekly outflows totalled a net US$23bn. YTD net withdrawals cumulated to U$24bn. Commodity funds saw net inflows of US$17bn for the full year in 2012. This is the fourth yearly inflow while the total amount of injections in 2012 topped the four-year period.

[xchrom]

111. Austerity About-Face: German Government to Gamble on Stimulus

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/german-government-to-test-stimulus-instead-of-austerity-a-901946.html


Wolfgang Schäuble sounded almost like a new convert extolling the wonders of heaven as he raved about his latest conclusions on the subject of saving the euro. "We need more investment, and we need more programs," the German finance minister announced after a meeting with Vitor Gaspar, his Portuguese counterpart.

The role he was slipping into last Wednesday was new for Schäuble. The man who had persistently maintained his image as an austerity commissioner is suddenly a champion of growth. If Germany couldn't manage to trigger an economic recovery, "our success story would not be complete," he said. And as if to convince even the die-hard skeptics, he added: "The German government is always prepared to help."

After three years of crisis policy, it was an impression shared by very few people in countries like Portugal, Spain and Greece. They are more likely to associate Schäuble and his boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel, with austerity mandates ushering in hardship, deprivation and unemployment.

But a new way of thinking has recently taken hold in the German capital. In light of record new unemployment figures among young people, even the intransigent Germans now realize that action is needed. "If we don't act now, we risk losing an entire generation in Southern Europe," say people close to Schäuble.

[Demeter]

122. That hypocritical bastard!

[xchrom]

112. 'Passed from War to War': Germany's Small Arms Exports Double

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-weapons-manufacturers-double-small-arms-exports-a-902101.html

German weapons manufacturers are making more money than perhaps ever before when it comes to exporting small arms, raking in the highest sales since government record-keeping began in the late 1990s, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Monday.

The value of approved exports in 2012 was about double that of the year before, with small arms and their components bringing in some €76.15 million ($98.5 million), the paper said, citing an Economy Ministry response to a parliamentary inquiry by the far-left Left party.

The lowest level of small arms exports was €37.9 million in 2011, down from the second-highest level of €70.4 million in 2009. Among the small arms contracts approved in the record year of 2012, Berlin approved some €6.5 million in exports to Saudi Arabia -- a sum that amounted to more than half of such weapons sent to the Middle East and North Africa. Sales of ammunition for these weapons, however, dropped from €34.6 million in 2011 to €18 million in 2012.

Germany defines small arms according to European Union standards, which specify them as including automatic pistols, machine guns and both partially and fully automatic weapons.

[xchrom]

113. China Said to Study U.S. Property Investments With Reserves

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-27/china-said-to-study-investing-reserves-in-u-s-property-market.html

China is studying the possibility of investing a portion of its $3.4 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves in U.S. real estate, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange began the study after seeing signs of a recovery in the U.S. property market, said the people, who asked not to be identified as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. China may acquire properties, invest in real estate funds or buy stakes in property companies, they said. The safety of the investments will be the top priority, said the people, who didn’t elaborate on a timetable or other details.

China has set up an operation in New York to make alternative investments in the U.S., an effort by the country’s foreign-exchange reserves manager to diversify away from U.S. government debt, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing people it didn’t identify.

Prices for single-family homes increased in 89 percent of U.S. cities in the first quarter as the housing market extended its recovery following a five-year slump. The median sales price rose in 133 of 150 metropolitan areas measured from 74 year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on May 9.

[Demeter]

114. The Bestiary: Native fauna of the Democratic Party

IF I WERE SUICIDAL, I'D POST THIS MORE WIDELY

IF I WERE CRAZY, I'D USE IT FOR A WEEKEND THEME

ENJOY!

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/bestiary.html#CRACKPOT

[bread_and_roses]

127. I did! (enjoy, that is)

... if one can hold back the waves of despair, it's quite funny... especially, for me, the "FAFs" - since I came into adulthood with the "Second Wave."

[xchrom]

115. Stiglitz Says Too Soon to Cut U.S. Stimulus as Growth Not Normal

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-26/stiglitz-says-premature-for-fed-to-reduce-u-s-monetary-stimulus.html

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said it would be premature for the U.S. Federal Reserve to reduce monetary stimulus even if there’s little evidence it helped the world’s largest economy.

“It’s the only stimulus,” the Columbia University professor said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Jordan May 25. “Clearly the economy is not back to normal, and to accept this as the new normal would be really wrong.”

U.S. stocks dropped and Treasuries fell for a fourth week, the longest slide since August, after Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the Fed may cut the pace of asset purchases if policy makers see indications of sustained growth. Orders for durable goods increased more than forecast in April, signaling the economy will get a lift in the second half of the year.

The U.S. economy “is still in the recovery phase, so maintaining the momentum of the growth is still a main issue” even after strong growth in the past few months, International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing DirectorZhu Min said in an interview on the same day in Jordan.

[xchrom]

116. Japan Gets Wrecked Again

http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-may-27-2013-5

For the most part, it's likely to be a very quiet day, thanks to the Memorial Day holiday in the US.
But the big story is Japan once again, where stocks went out close to the lows.
The index fell 3.2%. That follow last Thursday 7% crash and Friday's mediocre gain.
The violent swings in the market is the world's biggest stories, as everyone anxiously awaits to see if a major unwind is really in place.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-may-27-2013-5#ixzz2UV6vDxcw

[xchrom]

117. Is Germany Finally About To Do What It Takes To Save Europe?

http://www.businessinsider.com/is-germany-finally-about-to-save-europe-2013-5

Since the European economic crisis began, Germany has widely been viewed as an impediment to recovery.

Monetary stimulus seems to violate the German constitution, and the government's view is that all countries across the Eurozone should pursue fiscal discipline and German-like structural reforms.

This famous Venn Diagram from @pawelmorski basically explains the situation.



Eventually, the ECB was able to address a critical component of the crisis (against the objections of the Bundesbank) when it established the OMT program, which promised to backstop government bond markets, provided said governments were willing to pursue reforms.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/is-germany-finally-about-to-save-europe-2013-5#ixzz2UV7sJ5qk

[Demeter]

118. THE EU SOLUTION FOR THE EUROZONE BY TOM TOLLES

http://assets.amuniversal.com/b13101c0a6bd0130d4b7001dd8b71c47

[Demeter]

119. THE 1% SOLUTION TO POVERTY

http://assets.amuniversal.com/bcb3c9109fbe0130cf1e001dd8b71c47

[Demeter]

120. AND THE GOVERNMENT'S SOLUTION TO EVERYTHING

http://assets.amuniversal.com/6bb65a109e2c0130cdd0001dd8b71c47

[Demeter]

121. Political intelligence firms set up investor meetings at White House By Tom Hamburger

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-intelligence-firms-set-up-investor-meetings-at-white-house/2013/05/26/73b06528-bccb-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_print.html

Wall Street investors hungry for advance information on upcoming federal health-care decisions repeatedly held private discussions with Obama administration officials, including a top White House adviser helping to implement the Affordable Care Act.

The private conversations show that the increasingly urgent race to acquire“political intelligence” goes beyond the communications with congressional staffers that have become the focus of heightened scrutiny in recent weeks.

White House records show that Elizabeth Fowler, then a top ­health-policy adviser to President Obama, met with executives from half a dozen investment firms in 2011 and 2012. Among them was Kris Jenner, a stock picker with T. Rowe Price Investment Services who managed its $6 billion Health Sciences Fund.

Separately, an officialin the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid spoke in December with managers of hedge funds, pension plans and mutual funds in a conference call. The official, Andrew Shin, was pressed during the 50-minute call for information about upcoming Medicare decisions but declined to discuss matters still under agency review, according to people familiar with the call...

[Demeter]

123. It's so crazy, it just might work!

[Demeter]

124. Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession By Barbara Garson REVIEW

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/26/1207650/-Book-review-Barbara-Garson-s-Down-the-Up-Escalator#

About a chapter into reading Barbara Garson's Down the Up Escalator, I was wondering why I bothered. I've read so many of these books and articles and written so many of these blog posts. They lay out the policies that benefited the rich over everyone else and allowed the financial manipulations that crashed the economy. They tell us stories of people caught in this terrible economy. Maybe they remind us of the policies we already know could start to fix the problem. But we've seen that all before. We know what happened. We know the policies that would fix it. What we don't know is how to get there, how to overcome a broken Senate and a gerrymandered House and both political parties being more responsive to big money than to working people. What could this book offer that was new? What could any book offer that's new, beyond the faint hope that this will be the book that gives us a new way of talking or thinking about our economy and politics and somehow turns the tide? Well, Garson's book won't do that. But it still turned out to be more interesting and engaging than I expected in those early dispirited evenings of reading, maybe because it wears Garson's alert human gaze so close to the surface. In fact, she's straightforward about the same sense of frustration I felt in those early chapters. When a woman whose home is being foreclosed on says to her, "I prayed about
9going to be interviewed by Garson), and then I said 'I'll go meet her. I'll go because she is tiny. She can't do me no harm,'" Garson writes:

Oh, God, I can't hurt her, because I'm small. "No, I'm not going to do you any harm," I said, "but I'm not going to do you any good. That's the problem." Then I moved to Alice's side of the booth and cried because my books never do anyone any good.

That sense of human connection and care is woven through Garson's compelling rendition of the economic story we've come to know so well, the squeeze not just on people at the bottom but people who were—or at least thought they were—in the middle, as well. As a result, Down the Up Escalator does add to all those other books, to Jacob Hacker's The Great Risk Shift and Donald Barlett and James Steele's The Betrayal of the American Dream, to name a couple I've reviewed in the past. Down the Up Escalator is rich with information (as of August 2010, "nearly 8 percent of African-American families had lost a home in the Great Recession compared with 4.5 percent of white families," for instance). It reports on just what happens in foreclosure courts and makes blindingly clear how badly the deck is stacked against families struggling to keep their homes not by focusing on the worst of those courts but by focusing on one of the best.

But more unusually, it offers a vision through Garson's eyes of how destabilized our understanding of the economic world we live in has become. She shows how people who thought, not unreasonably, that their comfortable lives were stable lives had the rug pulled out from under them when they were laid off and, despite solid work histories, couldn't find new jobs; how people could think they were getting ahead until suddenly they were underwater. She's clearsighted about mistakes some of her subjects made along the way, but also about the enormous structural challenges that all of them faced—that most of us face. Our sense of class, of what kind of lives and stability people should have according to their education and employment histories, has become unmoored; Garson writes:

I was still mildly shocked to hear well-dressed professionals coolly consider default. But I was beginning to realize that white Californians who drive new cars and speak TV announcer English may be poorer than they look. I don't know exactly what these women earn; it's enough to make air commuting worthwhile. But apparently, it hadn't been enough to own middle-class homes in pre-crash California. At least not as I understand home ownership.

She turns this gaze on a home health aide and on a woman with old, old New England money who has only recently learned "that I did not have an 'income' as in a Jane Austen novel. I had a finite amount of money"; on a blind woman losing her home because of a mortgage the mentally disabled cousin she cares for had been tricked into signing and on a banker who, at a relatively low level, did the kind of work that contributed to the financial crisis, a man about whom Garson writes, "There was no sense asking him about social value. You can't undo a master's in business administration in one afternoon."

I went into the reading of Up the Down Escalator feeling dispirited because it was sure to be full of sad, illuminating stories reinforcing how screwed working people are, without any means of changing things. And it is full of them, and the forces keeping the economy organized this way are as overwhelming as they ever were. But Garson's curious eye and warm presence throughout the book create a sense of connection rather than the hopelessness I'd feared feeling. As for her policy prescription, the one that inevitably comes at the end of such books, leaving you thinking, "I know, I know, but how?" Garson skips over restoring Glass-Steagall or passing a public option or ending subsidies for big oil companies—the things that on most days are the policies we fantasize about. Instead, she has a simple answer: "It's time for a Jubilee."

[Demeter]

125. Prostitution: Sex doesn’t sell -- An old industry is in deep recession

NO DOUBT PART OF THE FREE-MARKET, GLOBALISM BONANZA

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21578434-old-industry-deep-recession-sex-doesnt-sell

TIMES are tough for Debbie, a prostitute in western England who runs a private flat with other “mature ladies”. She does two or three jobs a day. A year ago she was doing eight or nine. She has cut her prices: “If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t still be open.” She says that she can now make more money doing up furniture and attending car-boot sales than she can turning tricks. George McCoy, who runs a website reviewing over 5,000 massage parlours and individuals, says that many are struggling. Sex workers tell him they have been forced to hold down prices. Like other businesses, massage parlours and private flats are suffering from rising rents and energy costs. Even Mr McCoy’s website is under the cosh: visitor numbers are down by a third.

In part, this reflects the sluggish economy. Overall consumer spending at the end of 2012 was almost 4% lower than its 2007 peak. And Vivienne, an independent escort in the south who works part-time to supplement her income as a photographer, says paying for sex is a luxury: “Food is more important; the mortgage is more important; petrol is more important.” She is offering discounts out of desperation, reckoning it is better to reduce prices by £20 ($30) than to have no customers at all. Another woman says that some punters are just as anxious to talk about the difficult job market as they are to have sex. The days of being able to make a full-time living out of prostitution are long gone, reckons Vivienne, at least in larger towns and cities. “It’s stupidly competitive right now,” she laments. More people are entering prostitution, agrees Cari Mitchell of the English Collective of Prostitutes. Some working women in Westminster say they have halved their prices because the market has become so saturated. In London, and increasingly elsewhere, immigrants provide strong competition. But Sophie, an expensive escort in Edinburgh, says she is seeing an influx of newbies including students and the recently laid-off, many of them offering more for less.

Parts of the sex trade are comparatively hale. At the top end of the market, Marie, another escort in Scotland, says custom has not dried up. Girls increasingly report requests for discounts, she says. But those who lower their prices sometimes swiftly raise them again, deterred by the kind of customer who is attracted to bargains. The market for dominatrices is holding up well, too, according to Mr McCoy. Some of the cheapest massage parlours, such as Club 25 in Sheffield (the price is in the name), attractive to the skint, are busy. Some newcomers are offering cut-price services such as webcams and phone sex. On the streets, where prices are lowest and life is harshest, things are more desperate. Georgina Perry, the service manager for Open Doors, an NHS centre in east London that offers health services to sex workers, says that in the past few years some former prostitutes who had found low-paid work, for example as cleaners, have returned to the sex trade as other jobs have become harder to find. The women are back on the streets, charging £20 at most. Many of these changes reflect broader trends in Britain’s unstable, part-time economy. But the danger in sex work is greater than in other industries. Newcomers advertising on websites include photos of their faces, their e-mail addresses and offers of risky services in their profiles, says Sophie, the Edinburgh escort, aghast. Moving around in search of clients, prostitutes must deal with unfamiliar and potentially dangerous men. Since July 310 have contacted Ugly Mugs, a scheme that encourages sex workers to report violence, although only around a quarter went to the police. Sex workers are taking greater risks for smaller returns.

[Buzz Clik]

126. This thread has a serious psychological disorder.

Some odd combination of being bipolar and schizophrenia.

[Demeter]

128. It reflects the current culture

Thanks for joining us.

[Buzz Clik]

132. Tis quite comfy here. I"ll stay.

[Demeter]

133. Glory Be! Another Convert brought into the Fold! Welcome, Friend!

During the week, we congregate at Stock Market Watch, also of this forum.

Themes are only for the weekend (usually), so that the OP doesn't commit suicide halfway through from the stupidity that gets posted from the economic presses. Rather like a distraction...from the pain of Reality.

[Demeter]

129. For Many, Affordable Care Act Won't Cover Bariatric Surgery

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/05/27/186310916/for-many-affordable-care-act-wont-cover-bariatric-surgery?ft=1&f=1001

OF COURSE NOT! WE ARE IN THE INSURANCE BUSINESS, NOT THE HEALTH BUSINESS!

[Demeter]

130. Madoff Home for Sale, Tennis Court (but Not the Cognac) Included

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/nyregion/selling-a-madoff-home.html?_r=0

The lush white mansion for sale at 34 Pheasant Run in Old Westbury on Long Island makes a grand first impression. It has a long, winding driveway; a tennis court; a two-bedroom pool house surrounded by lavish gardens; a parade of antiques in its hallways; and marble in hues of lapis and gold throughout the ground floor. In many ways, the house is quite beautiful. But it is also a place full of shadows, a haunting just visible in its empty silver picture frames and in the red, white and blue signs that hang on every door: “United States Marshal,” the signs say. “No Trespassing.”

The shadow behind all that opulence is other people’s money. This was one of the residences of Peter B. Madoff, chief compliance officer at the firm owned by his older brother, Bernard L. Madoff. Peter Madoff pleaded guilty last year to a host of crimes, including falsifying documents and lying to regulators. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit all of his and his family’s assets to the government, so they could be sold, piece by piece, and the proceeds distributed to victims of his brother’s Ponzi scheme. The Marshals Service took possession of the Old Westbury home in January, and late last month it put the property on the market for $4.495 million.

“When dealing with a home this grandiose, the outside world can lose sight of where all these fine things come from,” Kevin Kamrowski, a deputy U.S. marshal, said in an e-mail. “Everything in this home was obtained on the backs of other people.”

When the Marshals Service takes over a property, a well-practiced process is set in motion. First, the house is secured and the locks are changed; motion-sensing security systems and surveillance cameras might be installed. (In the foyer of the Madoff property, there is a sturdy-looking gray box standing on an ornate little table. Feel free to wave at it.) Next, contractors are hired to do a bit of maintenance, and a real estate management company brings in a local agent to the sell property. In a high-profile case like this one, the Marshals Service helps to select the sales team. An important preliminary: Every single piece of property that is not a part of the house itself is indexed, appraised and tagged. At the house on Pheasant Run, in the 600-square-foot formal living room, a forest of little white tags swing from every surface. They are on gold-color lamps, crystal candlesticks and a delicate wooden coffee table piled high with books, including “Dog Painting: The European Breeds,” “Dog Painting: A Social History of the Dog in Art” and “A Breed Apart.” Above the fireplace, centered over a mantel of dark wood and darker marble, the dog theme continues, with a painting of what appears to be a chocolate Labrador retriever. Nearby, a painting of a blond toddler playing with another dog — also large, but this time shaggy — hangs in a gilded frame. In the library, two smaller dogs reside together in a frame above a sofa.

And if you were to take them off the wall, you would find a little white tag behind every one. Even the patio furniture, the dog dishes in the kitchen, and bottles of gin and Cognac in a mirrored bar in the corner of the library are tagged and numbered. Once the house is sold, its contents will be auctioned to the public, in what will surely be one of Long Island’s best-attended tag sales. Despite these little touches, the house generally does not feel like a criminal’s lair. Indeed, like any other high-priced home for sale, it has been carefully staged to show its prettiest face to potential buyers. A bit of landscaping was done here, some robes were hung in an immense bathroom over there, and there was even an elaborate picnic spread arranged in a basket on the kitchen table, complete with checkered napkins and cutlery.

“This was staged with, believe it or not, my recommendations and the hard work of the U.S. Marshals office,” said Shawn Elliott, the broker brought in to sell the property. “Every single book in here was actually taken off the shelf, tagged and numbered, and then put back.”

One book, however, was left out, prominently displayed on a table in the library: “A Code of Jewish Ethics, Volume 1: You Shall Be Holy,” by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. As a part of the staging, the asset forfeiture division of the Marshals Service tries to remove personal effects, like clothing, that might walk away during a tour, or might remind potential buyers of who once padded down these hallways in his slippers. A small bedroom is stacked high with cardboard boxes full of clothing and other items that will eventually go to auction. Photographs removed from frames get returned to the family. Even with a name as notorious as “Madoff,” there is no felon discount on a home like this. Bernard Madoff’s Manhattan apartment was sold for $8 million and Peter Madoff’s Park Avenue two-bedroom for $4.6 million, prices in line with the market at the time. Some personal belongings can even fetch inflated prices, like Bernard Madoff’s Mets jacket, which sold at auction in 2009 for $14,500. Some potential buyers who have come through the Old Westbury house have been curious about the Madoffs, Mr. Elliott said. But for his part, he tries to think about the scandal as little as possible.

“The less I know about a situation, for me, the better,” Mr. Elliott said. “My job as the real estate broker on this is to get the victims as much money as humanly possible.”

Mr. Elliott has received offers on the property, but none has been accepted yet. When the house is finally sold, the proceeds will go to a victims compensation fund administered by the Justice Department, which has so far recovered more than $2.3 billion for Madoff victims. A separate fund for property and proceeds associated with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities is being administered by Irving Picard and has so far recovered $9.345 billion. Though Peter and Marion Madoff’s primary residence was in Manhattan, they owned the house in Old Westbury for more than 20 years, and despite best efforts, that amount of history can be difficult to completely scrub away. As of last week, there were still a few stray signs of the lives lived in that house before: a pair of reading glasses sitting on a marble countertop; two jars of marmalade left in the back of a bare refrigerator; and inside a long pearl box in Mrs. Madoff’s bathroom, there was a single artificial fingernail tip, painted a warm shade of cotton candy pink.


3.5 MINUTE VIDEO TOUR AT LINK: TITLED "IT'S A STEAL!"

[Demeter]

131. I'M CALLING IT A WRAP

This thread is long enough for most purposes....see you all on the Tuesday SMW!