STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 7 June 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 7 June 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 6 June 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 6 June 2013
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Dow Jones 15,040.62 +80.03 (0.53%)
S&P 500 1,622.56 +13.66 (0.85%)
Nasdaq 3,424.05 +22.57 (0.66%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.07% -0.04 (-1.90%)
30 Year 3.24% -0.04 (-1.22%)[font color=black]


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

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.










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

[Demeter]

1. There is no king of England

And the House of Windsor isn't that hard up for work.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. And the House of Obama

Isn't working very hard.

Come to think of it, it isn't working at all.

[Demeter]

3. Dysfunctional or lazy, corrupt or just pure ignorant?

Or some horrendous combination of them all?

[Tansy_Gold]

19. All of the above. n/t

[siligut]

21. A combination of stymied and overwhelmed?

[Tansy_Gold]

25. Add that to

inexperienced and unprepared, and you've got a recipe for, um, disaster.

There is something to be said for machine politics -- it's able to get things done. Obama had no machine behind him, no political infrastructure. I think LBJ was the master of this, and he got so much done that he shouldn't really have been able to get done under the circumstances. That's not saying it was all good stuff, but he got it done nonetheless.

Obama's infrastructure was a huge vacuum waiting to be filled. And it sucked in a whole lot of garbage, starting from, oh, I'd guess right around 24 November 2008.

In many ways, I think Obama will be viewed from the perspective of history as almost as much a failure as his predecessor. He has liked being President, it's cool and he's the first Black man in the office, an accomplishment (?) that can never be taken away from him. But doing the job of president, getting things done, he hasn't done much. At least GWB didn't sweat it; he knew he was just there for the ride. I don't think Obama has a clue yet.

And the rest of us are paying dearly for his eight years of glory.

[siligut]

27. GWB went along with the PTB

Unfortunately machine politics have become progressively more corporate since WWII. Sell-outs will always have an easy time, everybody who is anybody gets richer. I agree that Obama's "support system" was weak at best and more likely false and detrimental. He didn't help with his "innocence" in keeping and hiring RWers.

However, he saved us from Romney and I will forever hold him dear. And I still have hope, Obama has accomplished more than the RW ever expected and he is still learning. I do not believe any Democrat would have preferred Romney. Romney would have been the watershed that Reagan was, dismantling everything that stands in the way of Dominionism.

[Demeter]

28. The WORST Problem is: Obama Doesn't Learn--from his mistakes or anyone else's

I suspect this is not a sign of inability, but of total co-optation and captivation by the Money Men. After looking at Obamacare, I am convinced of it.

In other words: we was had.

[Tansy_Gold]

32. The first step to learning from one's mistakes is

To recognize what a mistake is.

I don't think Obama believes he is capable of making mistakes. There's a Nixonian "If the president does it, it's legal" sense of rightness with Obama, only it's "If I did it, then it's right. I don't make mistakes. I can't make mistakes. It's just not possible."

That's why it's so easy for him to get suckered: People tell him what he already believes about himself and so he recognizes how brilliant and wise they are.


Yes, he saved us from Romney. :::sigh:::: Small consolation.

[siligut]

33. Maybe he was had?

Cooperation with the money men has and always will be, at least until the Apocalypse or second-coming, mandatory. Obama doesn't have a magic wand, he has to have people cooperation and money buys cooperation.

[Demeter]

4. CEOs Group Calls Too-Big-to-Fail Bill Threat to U.S.-EU Accord

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-03/ceos-group-calls-too-big-to-fail-bill-threat-to-u-s-eu-accord.html

Prospects for a new trade agreement with the European Union are being threatened by measures that would boost capital requirements for the biggest banks, a group representing U.S. chief executive officers said in a letter.

Legislation including a bill proposed by Senators Sherrod Brown and David Vitter would hurt both the financial services industry and “globally engaged U.S. businesses” by forcing banks to shrink, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) Chairman and CEO Douglas R. Oberhelman wrote to lawmakers in his role as head of the Business Roundtable’s International Engagement Committee.

“At the very moment of opportunity to increase transatlantic regulatory coherence and U.S. competitiveness, legislation is pending in Congress that, if enacted, would take the United States in the opposite direction,” Oberhelman wrote to leaders of the House Financial Services Committee and House Ways and Means Committee.

The bill sponsored by Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, would impose a 15 percent capital requirement on so-called mega-banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp. to reduce systemic risk and remove the perception they’d be bailed out in a crisis. The letter from the Business Roundtable, whose members include the heads of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), General Electric Co. (GE) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), aligns the Washington-based group with financial industry lobbying against new restrictions for banks.

SO, THE TBTF BANKSTERS ARE IN CAHOOTS WITH THE TOO-BIG-TO-LIVE GLOBAL CORPORATIONS...

[Demeter]

5. Stock Exchanges Seek Curbs on Dark Pools to Fight Exodus

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-06-04/dark-pool-curbs-sought-by-u-dot-s-dot-exchanges-fighting-trading-exodus

Three large U.S. stock exchanges are lobbying for new limits on dark pools and other competitors, arguing that too much trading has become hidden on private venues that create more cost and volatility in public markets.

Chief executive officers of NYSE Euronext (NYX) Inc., Nasdaq OMX Group Inc (NDAQ). and Bats Global Markets Inc (BATS). have met in Washington over the past two months with lawmakers and the Securities and Exchange Commission. They’ve asked for a rule that could divert more orders to exchanges rather than trading in dark pools or within a broker’s inventory.

The exchanges say that more than a third of all stock transactions now occur without pre-trade prices being made public, up from 16 percent in January 2008. They are pressing the SEC to make market restructuring a priority as the agency resets under its new chairman, Mary Jo White.

“We are protecting the sanctity of the public quote, and you can expect us to continue to protect it with meetings we’ll be having and raising awareness of the issue in a very public way,” NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer said in an interview...

AND THEY BOTH ARE IN CAHOOTS WITH THE EXCHANGES...WHILE SCREWING THEM BEHIND THEIR BACKS, OF COURSE...

[Demeter]

6. A Quasi Explanation

...Dark pools, which don’t publish bids or offers on shares, were set up to allow large investors to trade big blocks without having news of their orders move the price. NYSE and its peers contend that the original rationale no longer applies because, they say, the average trade size in dark pools has fallen to about 200 shares. As a result the private venues are becoming less-regulated versions of traditional exchanges, they said.

SEC rules currently protect investors from receiving a worse price than the best available bid or offer. The exchanges want the SEC to pass a “trade-at” rule, which would require brokers to route an order to an exchange unless they can improve on the best public quote by a defined amount. Since Canada imposed such a rule last year, quoted spreads and volatility have fallen, the exchange’s CEOs told White during a presentation May 1.

Brokers and operators of dark pools are trying to blunt the lobbying campaign, saying there’s no evidence that off-exchange trading hurts investors. Academic studies of fragmented markets have come up with varying results. Some found that dark trading is associated with wider bid-offer spreads on stocks and higher levels of volatility, while others have concluded it’s associated with lower transaction costs and better prices...

MUCH MORE DISCUSSION AT LINK

[Demeter]

7. Apple Import Ban on Old IPhones Stokes Samsung Patent War

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-04/apple-faces-u-s-import-ban-on-some-devices-after-samsung-win.html

Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s first loss against Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) in a U.S. patent case could mean a ban on imports of some older devices including the iPhone 4 while lessening prospects of the largest smartphone makers ending their legal battles.

The U.S. International Trade Commission’s decision, posted in a notice on its website yesterday, covers the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 3G sold for use on networks operated by AT&T Inc. (T), T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS) and two regional carriers, General Communication Inc. (GNCMA) in Alaska and CT Cube LP in Texas.

With dozens of lawsuits spread across four continents in their battle for a greater share of the $293.9 billion market for smartphones, each side can now claim a victory in the U.S. With plenty of litigation remaining, Samsung’s victory probably won’t bring the two sides closer to settling, said Will Stofega, a program director at Framingham, Massachusetts-based researcher IDC.

“There’s too much skin in the game now,” he said. “It’s almost so ugly I don’t think they’ll come to any agreement. Both companies have a lot of cash and are generating a lot of money. It’s not like they have to worry about paying the legal bills.”

IS THIS WHAT WE PEASANTS HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO?

[Demeter]

8. Swiss stability anchors banks in choppy tax waters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/04/wealth-summit-swiss-idUSL5N0EG2Y820130604

The world's wealthy will continue to trust their fortunes to stable, neutral Switzerland even as a clampdown on tax evasion undermines the country's secrecy laws, Swiss bankers said.

"The worn-out cliche has it that the sector was built on banks offering shelter to tax frauds and illicit money. This is a gross distortion," former Deutsche Bank head Josef Ackermann told the Reuters Global Wealth Management Summit in Geneva.

Ackermann, now chairman of Zurich Insurance, said the success of the Swiss financial industry was a result of enduring political, economic and social stability, as well as factors such as low taxes and a multi-talented workforce.

"That is why the scope and quality of Switzerland's financial sector has been, and continues to be, difficult to replicate abroad," he said.

"The unique blend of factors, much more than tax-related motives, have defined the competitive edge of Swiss private wealth management."

Strict secrecy laws, which protect the identity of bank clients, have helped Switzerland to become the world's biggest offshore financial centre, with $2 trillion in assets...


I'D GUESS THAT THE FIX IS IN...THEY HAVE DESIGNED A SECRET, MAYBE EVEN LEGAL, WORKAROUND...

[Demeter]

9. A Letter to Verizon Customers by Andy Borowitz (IS IT ACTUALLY SATIRE, OR SECRET CODE?)

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/06/a-letter-to-verizon-customers.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20%28134%29

Today, President Obama issued the following letter to all Verizon customers:

Dear Verizon Customers,

Yesterday it came to light that the National Security Agency has been collecting millions of phone records from you each and every day. Since that news was released, many of you have called the White House with questions and concerns about this new program. To save my time and yours, here are answers to three of the F.A.Q.s (Frequently Asked Questions) we’ve been hearing from you:

1. Will I be charged extra for this service?

I’m happy to say that the answer is no. While the harvesting and surveillance of your domestic phone calls were not a part of your original Verizon service contract, the National Security Agency is providing this service entirely free of charge.

2. If I add a phone to my account, will those calls also be monitored?

Once again, the answer is good news. If you want to add a child or any other family member to your Verizon account, their phone calls—whom they called, when, and the duration of the call—will all be monitored by the United States government, at no additional cost.

3. Can the National Security Agency help me understand my Verizon bill?

Unfortunately, no. The National Security Agency has tried, but failed, to understand Verizon’s bills. Pease call Verizon customer service and follow the series of electronic prompts.

I hope I’ve helped clear up some of the confusion about this exciting new program. But if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to call the White House. Joe Biden is standing by.

God bless America,

President Obama

[Demeter]

10. NSA Whistleblowers: “All U.S. Citizens” Targeted By Surveillance Program, Not Just Verizon Customers

THIS IS UNFORTUNATELY NOT SATIRE

http://www.nationofchange.org/nsa-whistleblowers-all-us-citizens-targeted-surveillance-program-not-just-verizon-customers-13705319

A leaked court order has revealed the Obama administration is conducting a massive domestic surveillance program by collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon customers.

The Guardian newspaper published a classified order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court directing Verizon’s Business Network Services to give the National Security Agency electronic data, including all calling records on an "ongoing, daily basis." The order covers each phone number dialed by all customers, along with location and routing data, and with the duration and frequency of the calls, but not the contents of the communications.

We’re joined by Shayana Kadidal, senior managing attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, and two former National Security Agency employees turned whistleblowers: Thomas Drake and William Binney. In 2010, the Obama administration charged Drake with violating The Espionage Act after he was accused of leaking classified information to the press about waste and mismanagement at the agency. The charges were later dropped. "Where has the mainstream media been? These are routine orders, nothing new," Drake says. "What’s new is we’re seeing an actual order and people are somehow surprised by it. The fact remains that this program has been in place for quite some time it was actually started shortly after 9/11.

The PATRIOT Act was the enabling mechanism that allowed the United States government in secret to acquire subscriber records from any company." Binney, who worked at nearly 40 years at the NSA and resigned shortly after the 9/11 attacks, says: “NSA has been doing all this stuff all along and it’s been all the companies not just one. And I basically looked at that and said if Verizon got one, so did everybody else. Which means that, they’re just continuing the collection of this kind of information of all U.S. citizens.”

[Demeter]

11. The NSA news might be a birthday for the New America! (WISHFUL THINKING)

http://fabiusmaximus.com/2013/06/07/nsa-surveillance-51145/

Summary: These are special days! The New America approaches as the Second Republic (under the Constitution) dies. Our children are the victims. Powerful elites are the agents. We are the cause. Recent events show this to any who choose to see.

Watching the little people

This week we learned more about the extent of the National Security Agency’s surveillance. Do not see this as an event, but as a step in a process. Slowly we are broken to accept a harness designed by our ruling elites, administered by their agents — the government. Slowly since WWII, more quickly since 9-11, the government has extended its supervision over us. Not to control our daily acts — as in 1984 — but to limit our activities. Limit our ability to manage our own affairs.

The changes come slowly. Not like a frog being boiled, because frogs are smart and jump out of the pot. More like bondage porn, where a sub slowly surrenders to the domination by the will of another. Surrendering responsibility, the burden of self-government.

We cannot admit the harsh truth, and so take comfort in lies.

We yield to the government to save us from the shadowy threat of jihadists – who one day over a decade ago killed a fraction of those who die each year in traffic accidents, or suicide by guns. From other causes we cannot bother to address, because we spend so much on security (internal and external, formerly known as police and defense). We yield to an organization which probably no longer exists in significant form (bequeathing their name to nationalistic movements who fight us because we go to their lands and fight them).

We yield to the government because they — and our ruling elites — are too strong. We let the democratic machinery of the Republic lie unused because we know that resistance is futile.

In fact we yield because it is easier for us. More comfortable.

MORE REVELATION, AND AN AGGREGATION OF PUBLISHED NEWS ON THE MATTER AT LINK

[AnneD]

34. How do you know...

that some of those unexplained fees on your bill don't wind up in the NSA slush fund?

Remember the movie Office Space where they stole fractions of pennies by rounding up the price of the stock share and ended up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in a weekend.

How long did AT&T soak us with a fee that was for the Spanish American War?

Just some food for thought.

[Demeter]

12. SEC suspends trading in 61 OTC companies until June 14

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/03/sec-otc-trading-idUKL1N0EF1PE20130603

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday announced it was temporarily suspending trading of 61 companies listed on over-the-counter exchanges, saying public information about the operating statuses of the companies was in question.

"The Commission cautions brokers, dealers, shareholders, and prospective purchasers that they should carefully consider the foregoing information along with all other currently available information and any information subsequently issued by the company," the SEC wrote in a statement, though it didn't give additional details on the questions that had been raised about the information.

Extreme Motorsports of California, Fidelity First Financial Corp and Oxford Capital Corp were among the companies being suspended. Some of the companies listed, including 3CI Complete Compliance Corp and AHPC Holdings, did not have a web site or phone number to reach for a comment.

The suspension, which began at the open of trading on Monday, will last until 11:59 p.m. June 14.

THESE ARE COMPANIES THAT APPARENTLY AREN'T COMPANIES AT ALL, BUT SHELLS CREATED FOR FRAUDULENT PURPOSES...

[Demeter]

13. U.S. regulators propose scrutiny of AIG, Prudential, GE Capital (FINALLY!)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/04/financial-regulation-fsoc-idUSL1N0EF1ZB20130604

U.S. regulators on Monday proposed designating American International Group Inc, Prudential Financial Inc and GE Capital for heightened regulatory oversight, in a long-anticipated move aimed at cracking down on risks to markets. A group of regulators known as the Financial Stability Oversight Council said it had voted to propose dubbing certain non-bank financial companies "systemically important," or so big their failure could destabilize financial markets.

Regulators did not name the companies involved. AIG, Prudential and GE Capital, the financial services arm of General Electric Co, all said on Monday that they had been notified that the risk council had proposed designating them. A final determination by the council that a firm is systemically important would trigger extra regulatory scrutiny by the Federal Reserve.

"Today, the council took another important step forward by exercising one of its principal authorities to protect taxpayers, reduce risk in the financial system, and promote financial stability," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who chairs the oversight council, said in a statement.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank law created the risk council and gave it the power to bring big, non-bank firms under the Fed's oversight after several such companies flirted with failure or had to be bailed out during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Companies tagged for extra oversight would have to participate in regular stress tests, comply with new capital requirements and write living wills, or blueprints for how they could be taken apart if they were to fail. The risk council has so far designated eight large clearinghouses and other firms that handle trillions of dollars in transactions as systemically important. Observers have been expecting a new round of designations for months. Members of the risk council initially said they hoped to designate non-bank companies by the end of 2012.

"It's almost three years since they enacted the statute and, you know, if these were truly institutions that are menacing to the system, which is what they are supposed to be, then it seems like we should have known it more than three years late," said Cornelius Hurley, a professor of banking law at Boston University.

Critics of the risk council's process, on the other hand, argue that regulators have not sufficiently explained why they believe the non-bank companies under consideration would destabilize financial markets if they were to fail. Others say tagging some companies systemically important could send a message to markets that those companies would be bailed out in a crisis because regulators believe they are "too big to fail."

"Designating any company as 'too big to fail' is bad policy and even worse economics," said Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who is the chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, in a statement.

The oversight council is already the subject of a lawsuit, and other challenges could come later. Companies have 30 days after the council votes to contest a proposed designation by requesting a hearing. The council then has 30 days to hold the hearing. Prudential said in a statement that it was considering whether to request a hearing. AIG spokesman Matthew Gallagher declined to comment on whether the company would appeal. Russell Wilkerson, a spokesman for GE Capital, said the company was "reviewing the details of the determination" and declined to comment further.

THE GAME IS BEING RESET FOR HIGHER STAKES

[Demeter]

14. ‘Temporary’ farm subsidy program may finally meet the reaper

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/temporary-farm-subsidy-program-may-finally-meet-the-reaper/2013/06/02/3e20d25e-c25b-11e2-97fa-0f57decebbbf_story.html

...one cockeyed farm-aid program that was supposed to end in 2003. It didn’t: Congress kept it alive and now hands out almost $5 billion a year using oddly relaxed rules. As long as recipients own farmland, they are not required to grow any crops there. Or live on the farm. Or even visit it. The program is one of Washington’s walking dead — “temporary” giveaway programs that have staggered on years beyond their intended expiration dates. Letting them live is an old and expensive congressional habit, still unbroken in this age of austerity.

Now, both the House and Senate are trying to kill off this budget leftover, 10 years late...“It’s something that was supposed to die that has gotten an extra decade of life. So, do the math,” said Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, which has fought these subsidies for years. In all, the program has cost at least $46 billion more than it was supposed to.

For elected officials, a temporary program is a little act of political magic; it allows them to take credit for creating a program and also for ending it — all at once. The hard job, of course, is actually letting the thing die. That task is pushed off to future officials, who often push it off again. So Washington is now full of “temporary” programs that are old enough to vote. The Essential Air Service program, a subsidy for flights to small airports, was supposed to expire in 1988. It’s still alive. The widely popular research and development tax credit has been a temporary measure since 1981. It was renewed, along with more than 50 other temporary programs, in January’s “fiscal cliff” deal.

And — buried among the USDA’s array of aid programs for farmers — there is this death-cheating, farming-optional farm subsidy...

[Demeter]

15. LCH Begins N.Y. Service to Give Customers U.S. Bankruptcy Cover

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-03/lch-begins-n-y-service-to-give-customers-u-s-bankruptcy-cover.html

LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd., owner of the world’s largest interest-rate swap clearinghouse, began a U.S.- based service to give customers the protection of American bankruptcy law.

LCH.Clearnet is announcing the system nine months after the London-based exchange bought the International Derivatives Clearing Group LLC in New York from Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and other investors. The expansion “is a direct response to client demand for a domestic clearing service in the U.S.,” the company, which renamed the New York clearinghouse LCH.Clearnet LLC, said in an e-mailed statement today. The U.S. service provides for segregation of client collateral that is put up to back trades at the clearinghouse, Richard Prager, head of global trading at BlackRock Inc., said in the statement. It “promises not only to enhance client asset protection, but provide asset managers with the functionality necessary to efficiently clear interest-rate swaps,” he said.

Asset managers who traded swaps with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. are still fighting in court to retrieve collateral given to the dealer’s London office. Lehman, one of the largest swaps dealers at the time, filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2008 and didn’t separate swaps collateral from its own assets in the unregulated market, an industry practice at the time.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act imposed regulations on the $633 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market, including the requirement that most swaps be processed by clearinghouses.

LCH.Clearnet LLC’s member banks are Barclays Plc (BARC), BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc. (C), Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), Nomura Holdings Inc. and UBS AG, according to the statement.

[Demeter]

16. Germany to ease Spanish businesses financing woes

AFTER KILLING OFF THE SPANISH BANKS AND THE SPANISH ECONOMY...

http://www.dw.de/germany-to-ease-spanish-businesses-financing-woes/a-16856441

Germany is planning to set up a credit facility for small and medium-sized firms in Spain under efforts to drive down their financing costs. Germany is awash with cheap money due to its top-notch credit ratings. Germany's state-owned KfW bank was charged with setting up a bilateral loan program with its Spanish counterpart ICO, aimed at providing low-interest loans worth about 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion), a German Finance Ministry document said. The document, which was obtained by AP news agency on Monday, said KfW would be granting ICO 800 million euros in a ten-year loan coming at a total liability, including interest, of 1 billion euros. In addition, it added, KfW was currently in talks to support two existing ICO company lending programs with another 100 million euros.

The credit facility needed to come rapidly to solve the Spanish companies' acute financing problems, enabling small and medium-sized firms with solid business models to secure their existence and create new jobs, AP quoted from the document. Businesses in debt-laden countries such as Spain are suffering from a lack of access to credit as the country's economy is mired in recession. Even when banks are willing to lend, the interest rates demanded are much higher than in Germany. By contrast, Germany can borrow money at extremely low interest rates as it enjoys top-notch credit ratings.

The document signed by Deputy Finance Minster Steffen Kampeter indicated that KfW business financing could also be extended to other heavily-indebted eurozone countries such as Portugal.

Meanwhile, Spain's international lenders have praised the country for getting its ailing banking sector back into shape. Experts from the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary fund (IMF) said Monday that Spanish banks would enjoy better solvency and liquidity. Last year, the so-called troika of international lenders granted Spain bailout loans totaling 100 billion euros to help shore up the country's banking sector struggling under bad loans from the collapse of the property market in 2008.

[Demeter]

17. BBA Reduces Libor Rates After Scandal

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-03/bba-reduces-libor-rates-after-scandal.html

The British Bankers’ Association ceased quoting Libor for eight maturities and stopped all quotes for two currencies, in line with its plan to cut the number of benchmarks following the rate-rigging scandal.

The London-based lobby group ceased publishing Libor for the Canadian and Australian dollars at the end of last month, according to its website. It discontinued maturities such as the two-week, five-month and 11-month tenors for all remaining currencies. That brings the number of quoted rates to 37, according to the BBA. Rebecca Park, a spokeswoman for the BBA, declined to comment on the process, first announced in November.

The move follows a regulator’s review of the London interbank offered rate after Barclays Plc (BARC) was fined a record 290 million pounds ($445 million) last year for rigging the benchmark. Martin Wheatley, a managing director at the Financial Services Authority, recommended cutting the number of quoted rates to as few as 20 from 150, because the lack of trades in some currencies and maturities makes it almost impossible for the banks that contribute to the rate to state their borrowing costs accurately.

Libor is calculated by a poll carried out daily by Thomson Reuters Corp. on behalf of the BBA that asks firms to estimate how much it would cost to borrow from each other for different periods and in different currencies. The top and bottom quartiles of quotes are excluded, and those left are averaged and published for individual currencies before noon in London.

[xchrom]

18. Cyprus and the Quest for Safe Havens

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/06/07-1


Protesters hold up their hands as they protest outside the parliament in capital Nicosia, Cyprus. (File)

As the European financial crisis waxes and wanes, one hears a familiar refrain in the business press and on such business-boosting media as CNBC. When the risk of default in Greece or Spain appears imminent, US Treasury bonds increase in value and thereby decline in yield. The popularity of and extraordinarily low yields on such bonds are explained as symptom of a “flight to safety.”


What the media seldom ask is whether there is any safe haven any more and whether individuals managing their pension accounts can or should be asked to find the havens on their own. The latest twist in the saga of the European union’s single currency, the Euro, is anything but reassuring on this score.

Is there any safer haven than money in an insured saving account or certificate of deposit? The decision by the government of Cyprus—albeit later amended—to tax, ie partially confiscate, even small deposits exposes one more finger of instability in the world financial structure. Ellen Brown, president of the Public Banking Institute, reminds us that: “Although few depositors realize it, legally the bank owns the depositor’s funds as soon as they are put in the bank. Our money becomes the bank’s, and we become unsecured creditors holding IOUs or promises to pay.”

If we do not have an absolute title to the money we deposit in a bank, what happens if the bank experiences a run? In this context it is important to recognize that even prudent, well run banks—and there are many—can experience runs started by false rumors regarding the bank’s solvency. The bank may face more demands for deposit redemption than it has in reserves and thus becomes bankrupt, one more ugly manifestation of the self-fulfilling prophecies that can grip social life.

[Demeter]

29. The Question That Should Be Asked: Safe from WHAT?

Losing your money to taxes is at least predictable, and you get something for it, if the government isn't too corrupt.

It's the unpredictable, uninsurable losses that people ought to be seriously worrying about: confiscation, theft, ponzi fraud and that old Zimbabwe style inflation fear.

[xchrom]

20. senators swoon over billionaire pritzker

http://www.nationofchange.org/senators-swoon-over-billionaire-pritzker-1370526845

Had She Offered Them Her Ring, They Would Have Kissed It

While the fawning millionaire courtiers who populate the United States Senate fall all over themselves to smooth the way for Chicago billionaire Penny Sue Pritzker Traubert to become the next Secretary of Commerce, one might wonder what the country is getting here. In terms of hope and change, for example, what might Pritzker (she goes by her maiden name) portend in light of her public record?

On May 2, President Obama nominated Pritzker, his formidable fund raiser for more than a decade, to fill the vacancy at the Commerce Dept. With an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion, Pritzker, 54, is married to Dr. Bryan Traubert and they have two children, Rose Pritzker Traubert and Donald Pritzker Traubert. Pritzker is a graduate of Harvard College, 1981, and Stanford Law School, 1984.

In the early 1990s, she was on the board of a family-owned bank that was a pioneer in the subprime loan business. The Pritzger family bank, Security Bank in Illinois, was also a pioneer in packaging all-but-worthless loans into all-but-worthless securities that the bank sold to unsuspecting customers. Security Bank failed in 2001, at the time the largest bank failure in a decade. Accused of unsound financial activities and predatory lending, the Pritzkers agreed to pay the U.S. government $460 million in fines (over 15 years) – a settlement in which Pritzker and her bank naturally admitted no wrongdoing.

"It was the right thing for us to do, because both for the depositors and for us as a family," she testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on May 23.

[Demeter]

30. Another reason to be glad that Leona Helmsley is dead

Does he know how to pick them, or what?

[bread_and_roses]

36. We proceed apace in our descent into serfdom

with the likes of this vampire to rule over us

[Fuddnik]

37. Is there even ONE Senator with the courage to put a hold on the nomination?

I would have said "balls", but maybe Elizabeth Warren can come through.

[xchrom]

22. UBS under formal investigation in France over tax evasion

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22810780


French authorities are formally investigating UBS for allegedly helping wealthy clients open undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland.

The Swiss bank is suspected of "complicity in illegal sales practices", an official at the Paris prosecutor's office told the BBC.

It also allegedly set up a shadow accounting system that masked transfers between French and Swiss bank accounts.

UBS said it was cooperating with authorities.

[xchrom]

23. German central bank cuts growth forecasts for 2013 and 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22810772

Germany's central bank has cut its growth forecast for the country, but says the outlook for the economy has "become brighter".

The Bundesbank expects the economy to grow by 0.3% this year, down from an earlier forecast of 0.4%.

In 2014, it expects 1.5% growth, down from a previous estimate of 1.9%.

The Bundesbank suggested that the worst could be over for the eurozone, saying that in the euro area "the economy appears to be bottoming out".

[Demeter]

31. The Bundesbank is PROFOUNDLY Delusional

and very short-sighted.

[xchrom]

24. European Central Bank cuts growth forecast

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22796454


The European Central Bank (ECB) has revised down its eurozone growth forecast as it voted to hold rates at historic lows.

The ECB now expects the euro area to contract by 0.6% this year, having earlier predicted a GDP fall of 0.5%.

ECB President Mario Draghi said the Bank still saw "downside risks" for the eurozone economy, but insisted a gradual recovery would begin in 2014.

The ECB's benchmark rate was kept at 0.5%, after being cut last month.

[xchrom]

26. Interior Minister: Germany to Get Tough on 'Poverty Immigrants'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-interior-minister-expell-eastern-european-poverty-immigrants-a-904415.html

The German government is toughening its stance on economic refugees from Bulgaria and Romania, who it says have become a burden on social services. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told an audience of his European counterparts in Luxembourg on Friday that Germany will take measures to prevent poor immigrants from the two Eastern European countries from entering the country under false pretences to collect welfare benefits.

Friedrich, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democractic Union (CDU), said he wants to "align the issue with our current national legislative initiatives" and give these new arrivals a message: "If you are working here illegally -- no matter how -- then please go back to where you came from!" he said on Friday.
The issue was prompted by complaints from German communities claiming that an increasing number of people are arriving from Romania and Bulgaria with the help of organized gangs, obtaining a business license and applying for benefits a few months later under the pretences that the business has been unsuccessful.

Friedrich says that those who are found defrauding social services will be expelled from the country, despite the fact that they are granted the right to work and travel throughout the member states as citizens of the European Union. They will also be banned from returning to Germany for a certain length of time, Friedrich added, saying: "Then, if they are picked up somewhere, they can be kicked out of the country again with little hassle, and this is crucial."

[AnneD]

35. I remember traveling thought Europe...

shortly after the breakup of Serbia (put there were folks from Yemen, Algeria and Tunisia). There were hundreds of beggars around the Notre Dame and at night you stepped over those sleeping in the Metro. They had no passports and when the police came through-you would have thought a bomb had gone off folks were scurrying about.

We took the Chunnel and man was security tight on both sides. These young French security agents (kids really) toting guns that were almost half their size. Young kids with a little bit of authority and weaponry always makes my ass pucker-they are so dangerous. A British agent explained to us that England was an island and as such once a person presented there they could get on the welfare system easily (like Cubans getting citizenship due to setting foot on dry land here in this country). The bus was late leaving Paris due to a stow away and we did not make it to the Chunnel in time. We had to wait until the traffic direction changed. We were basically in lock down and AGAIN our luggage got a thorough perusing.

It left such an impression on me that when I saw V for Vendetta and The Children of Men...I really believe that is our future. We may see the word fugee (economic refugee) and their incarceration a reality.