STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 3 July 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 3 July 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 2 July 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 2 July 2013
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Dow Jones 14,932.41 -42.55 (-0.28%)
S&P 500 1,614.08 -0.88 (-0.05%)
Nasdaq 3,433.40 -1.09 (-0.03%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.47% -0.01 (-0.40%)
[font color=black]30 Year 3.48% 0.00 (0.00%) [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]

[Hugin]

1. ...

[Demeter]

2. Cyprus to Swap 1 Billion Euros of Bonds to Meet Aid Conditions JUNE 27

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-27/cyprus-to-swap-1-billion-euros-of-bonds-to-meet-aid-conditions.html

Cyprus offered to swap 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of its shorter-dated government bonds for others with longer maturities, seeking to meet the requirements of the 10 billion-euro rescue deal agreed on in March. The nation will exchange “a number of existing local government bonds” due between 2013 and 2015 for five new bonds with equal coupon rates and five- to 10-year maturities, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement. Cyprus avoided a financial collapse in March by bowing to demands from creditors to shrink its banking system in exchange for aid. Greece pushed through the biggest sovereign restructuring in history in 2012 to maintain access to its rescue funds.

“This was one of the ways that was set out in the memorandum of understanding for them to cover their funding gap,” said Lefteris Farmakis, an analyst at Nomura International in London. “It shouldn’t be an issue. It was explicitly said that this was going to be a voluntary exchange, which means that they are targeting domestic holders and in all probability they have some recourse over them.”

The Nicosia-based Finance Ministry didn’t provide any more details about the bonds that will be exchanged. Cyprus’s 6 percent bond maturing in January 2015 yielded 11.31 percent at 5 p.m. in London, down from 15.90 percent three months ago. The government’s 6.1 percent securities due in April 2020 yielded 13.16 percent.

‘Economic Recovery’

“We welcome today’s announcement by the Cypriot authorities to launch a voluntary debt exchange,” the European Commission and International Monetary Fund said in a statement. The swap will “ensure adequate funding at terms that support long-term public debt sustainability, an essential step towards Cyprus’s economic recovery,” they said...

ISN'T THIS CALLED "EXTEND AND PRETEND"?

[Demeter]

3. Obama's housing pick endorses abolishing Fannie, Freddie

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/27/us-usa-housing-regulator-idUSBRE95Q1CB20130627

U.S. Representative Mel Watt, President Barack Obama's nominee to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, on Thursday welcomed legislative efforts to abolish the two mortgage companies and said he would consider letting them reduce loan principal for underwater borrowers. Watt made the remarks at a Senate hearing on his nomination, which marked the start of his uphill push to win confirmation as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The 67-year-old North Carolina lawmaker has received little support from Republicans, who question whether he has the technical expertise to regulate the government-run companies, which own or guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages.

The so-called government-sponsored enterprises were placed into conservatorship in September 2008 at the height of the financial crisis as they veered toward insolvency. Since then, they have been propped up with $187.5 billion in taxpayer funds, although they have now returned to profitability. Democrats and Republicans alike want to reduce the government's footprint in the mortgage market and put more of the risk of lending onto the private sector, but they disagree on whether the government's role should be eliminated entirely. Watt told the Senate Banking Committee the current system was ripe for reform and that there was work to do to "find the right path out of a status quo that no one believes is desirable." He welcomed a bipartisan effort by some committee members who introduced a bill earlier this week to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a government reinsurer of mortgage securities that would backstop private capital.

"The good news is that a broad consensus has emerged on the direction that our next steps must take us - towards a system driven by private capital that minimizes the risk to taxpayers," said Watt, a member of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

If confirmed by the full Senate, Watt would become an influential voice on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The companies were chartered by Congress to expand mortgage finance, but operated as private, profit-making entities before they were seized by the government. They buy mortgages from lenders and repackage them as securities for investors. In remarks unlikely to win any Republican allies, Watt said he would likely take a second look at an Obama administration proposal to reduce loan principal for borrowers whose Fannie or Freddie-backed mortgages are worth more than their homes. The current head of FHFA, acting Director Edward DeMarco, has blocked the proposal, to the chagrin of Democrats, but with the support of most Republicans, who worry about helping irresponsible borrowers at taxpayer expense. Watt said he would study the issue and make a "responsible decision" if confirmed. He also noted that home prices are rebounding, shrinking the number of underwater borrowers. "You should have no doubt that I will be a strong and aggressive advocate for the taxpayers in this role," Watt said.

POLITICAL OR TECHNICAL EXPERTISE?

Analysts say Republican opposition could easily scuttle Watt's nomination, given that he will likely need to secure a super-majority of 60 votes in the Senate to overcome procedural hurdles. Democrats control the chamber by only a 54-46 majority. Senator Richard Burr of Watt's home state of North Carolina is the only Republican who has said he will back the nomination. Watt's nomination is the second attempt by the White House to fill the FHFA position. The previous nominee was blocked by Republicans and eventually withdrew...The committee's chairman, Democrat Tim Johnson, called Watt "well qualified" and said he wanted to move the nomination expeditiously. The panel is expected to vote on the nomination as early as July, according to a committee aide. "It is my hope that this time politics will be put aside so that we can focus on the management and oversight of the housing finance system," Johnson said. The committee's ranking Republican, Mike Crapo of Idaho, said the position "requires very specific expertise" and questioned Obama's selection of a politician to fill the post. "Any nominee in this important position must be politically independent and have the necessary policy and technical expertise," Crapo said...Watt defended what he called his "technical qualifications" and told the panel he has "the skill set to do the job." He said his expertise would allow him to help Congress with any future housing reforms.

[Demeter]

4. New EU rules may not catch all market abuse

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6a900be8-df25-11e2-881f-00144feab7de.html#axzz2Xyv6iJl4

Europe’s most senior markets regulator has warned that new rules agreed by Brussels may not fully catch potential market abuse by high-frequency traders. Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority, said new rules agreed on Wednesday would strengthen its ability to monitor markets but oversight of complex trading strategies could still be difficult. European policy makers on Wednesday finalised new rules to tackle insider trading and market abuse and clamp down on attempted manipulation of the foreign exchange markets and benchmarks such as Libor.

“We believe that, with robust consolidated post trade information, almost all misconduct can be detected either at firm, venue or market level,” he said. “A true minority, like cross-market layering, will still be hard, but not impossible to detect,” he told delegates at the annual meeting of the Federation of European Stock Exchanges in Berlin.

Regulators have become concerned about their ability to monitor markets and hand out tougher penalties amid the growing use by investors of high-speed computers to trade in and out of markets in fractions of seconds. Mr Maijoor said he was most concerned about layering – in which a brokerage deliberately makes and then cancels large amounts of orders, creating a false impression of liquidity in a stock. Under European rules, exchanges and trading venues are largely responsible for monitoring suspicious trading patterns. Arlene McCarthy, the rapporteur in the European parliament for the Market Abuse Review, told the conference that: “We didn’t get where we wanted to be on cross-border surveillance?.?.?.?but we did want to impress the states that there can be co-operation.”

...Mr Maijoor also stressed to regulators to clarify rules for a single operator of a unified system to report the prices of trades from across fragmented markets. Unlike the US, Europe lacks a price reporting system, known in the industry as a consolidated tape. Take-up of various industry initiatives has been weak, with users complaining that the service is too expensive and quality of information poor. Critics also argue that the provision of trade data are an important generator of revenues for incumbent exchanges.

“I do not know if the new rules will effectively bring at least one truly, full consolidated tape; but I think that it would be a lost opportunity if, as some say, they did not,” he said. “We know how important it is to get a consolidated tape. For market surveillance, for assessing the quality of services to investors, you need to have an overview of the market.”

Policy makers in Brussels are preparing for final negotiations over the legislation governing the region’s securities markets, known as Mifid. Discussions to finalise the new rules are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

[Demeter]

5. How an Israeli billionaire wrested control of one of Africa’s biggest prizes.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/08/130708fa_fact_keefe?mbid=nl_Daily%20%28276%29

One of the world’s largest known deposits of untapped iron ore is buried inside a great, forested mountain range in the tiny West African republic of Guinea. In the country’s southeast highlands, far from any city or major roads, the Simandou Mountains stretch for seventy miles, looming over the jungle floor like a giant dinosaur spine. Some of the peaks have nicknames that were bestowed by geologists and miners who have worked in the area; one is Iron Maiden, another Metallica. Iron ore is the raw material that, once smelted, becomes steel, and the ore at Simandou is unusually rich, meaning that it can be fed into blast furnaces with minimal processing. During the past decade, as glittering mega-cities rose across China, the global price of iron soared, and investors began seeking new sources of ore. The red earth that dusts the lush vegetation around Simandou and marbles the mountain rock is worth a fortune.

Mining iron ore is complicated and requires a huge amount of capital. Simandou lies four hundred miles from the coast, in jungle so impassable that the first drill rigs had to be transported to the mountaintops with helicopters. The site has barely been developed—no ore has been excavated. Shipping it to China and other markets will require not only the construction of a mine but the building of a railroad line sturdy enough to support freight cars laden with ore. It will also be necessary to have access to a deepwater port, which Guinea lacks.

Guinea is one of the poorest countries on the planet. There is little industry and scarce electricity, and there are few navigable roads. Public institutions hardly function. More than half the population can’t read. “The level of development is equivalent to Liberia or Sierra Leone,” a government adviser in Conakry, Guinea’s ramshackle seaside capital, told me recently. “But in Guinea we haven’t had a civil war.” This dire state of affairs was not inevitable, for the country has a bounty of natural resources. In addition to the iron ore in the Simandou range, Guinea has one of the world’s largest reserves of bauxite—the ore that, twice refined, makes aluminum—and significant quantities of diamonds, gold, uranium, and, off the coast, oil.

As wealthy countries confront the prospect of rapidly depleting natural resources, they are turning, increasingly, to Africa, where oil and minerals worth trillions of dollars remain trapped in the ground. By one estimate, the continent holds thirty per cent of the world’s mineral reserves. Paul Collier, who runs the Center for the Study of African Economies, at Oxford, has suggested that “a new scramble for Africa” is under way. Bilateral trade between China and Africa, which in 2000 stood at ten billion dollars, is projected to top two hundred billion dollars this year. The U.S. now imports more oil from Africa than from the Persian Gulf...

MORE

[Demeter]

6. Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

[xchrom]

7. {i'm just sure this is unintended and comes as a surprise}Portugal borrowing costs rise amid looming

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23160037

Portugal borrowing costs rise amid looming crisis


Portugal's borrowing costs have risen sharply amid fears of a growing political crisis in the country.

Yields on the country's benchmark 10-year bonds moved above 8% in early trading, while the stock market fell more than 6%.

Earlier this week, the resignations of two leading ministers put pressure on Portugal's coalition government.

The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, said he was following the situation "with concern".

[xchrom]

8. Egypt unrest pushes light crude oil over $100 a barrel

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23156854


The price of US light crude oil has risen above $100 a barrel for the first time since September 2012 on concerns over political turmoil in Egypt.

US light crude rose more than 2% to $101.80 a barrel in Asia trade. Brent crude also rose 1% to 105.20 a barrel.

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi has rejected an army ultimatum to resolve the turmoil by Wednesday, triggering concerns that the crisis may escalate.

There are fears this may hurt oil supplies through the Suez Canal.

[Demeter]

14. War Talk

Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, [who] infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done. And I am Julius Caesar.”

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/dubiousquotes/a/caesar_quote.htm


I can find no verifying source stating unequivocally that Caesar said or wrote this. I did locate one obscure message board, discussions between professors of Latin literature, where one guy asked his colleagues if they knew whether or not it was true, and the two replies he received were skeptical.

It sounds rather like something Caesar might have said, but I have this "thing" for truth and accuracy (even if the sentiment supports my personal belief system). Could you apply your research talents to discover if ol' Julius did, in fact, write or say this?



Dear Reader:

It's odd, to say the least, to find a passage attributed to Julius Caesar (born 100 B.C., died 44 B.C.) that never appeared anywhere in print before 2001. It's equally odd that while the quotation is cited in dozens of Internet discussions concerning post-9/11 political developments, it never turns up in any articles or books about Julius Caesar himself. If it's to be found among his own writings, no one has yet been able to pinpoint where.

The passage has also been attributed (most famously by a red-faced Barbra Streisand) to William Shakespeare, who presumably would have composed the lines for his historical play, Julius Caesar. They're nowhere to be found in that work, however. Apart from one brief phrase within the quote — "And I am Caesar" — which vaguely echoes the closing words of a Shakespearean couplet ("I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd / Than what I fear; for always I am Caesar.&quot , the language is anachronistic and distinctly un-Shakespearean. The words "patriotism" and "citizenry" were unknown in Elizabethan England. The Bard's Julius Caesar spoke in iambic pentameter, not mediocre prose.

Short of the culprit stepping forward, there's little likelihood of finding out who actually did come up with this politically convenient load of baloney. We know it wasn't Shakespeare, and we can be reasonably sure it wasn't Julius Caesar. It does bear all the earmarks of a "classic" Internet hoax.

THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT ANY LESS TRUE...JUST CONCEALS THE AUTHOR!

The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.

Arthur Koestler

[xchrom]

15. !

'The passage has also been attributed (most famously by a red-faced Barbra Streisand) to William Shakespeare'

i'm just SURE that is true!

[DemReadingDU]

22. and our gas jumped from $3.21 to $3.45 yesterday

[Fuddnik]

23. Ours dropped to $3.21 yesterday. Haven't been out yet today.

[Demeter]

27. Gas up 30 cents for holiday /war in Ann Arbor

[Warpy]

30. Al Jazeera says the Egyptian military is making an announcement

in about 30 minutes. They're expected to say that the military will form the interim government with elections to be held in the future.

That's probably the best outcome at this point. The Egyptians weren't ready for a theocratic dictatorship, which is where Morsi seemed to be headed.

[xchrom]

9. Wealthy Americans Benefit From Banks Hunting Jumbos

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-03/wealthy-going-big-to-save-as-jumbo-mortgages-are-cheapest.html

Americans are finding it pays to go big when borrowing to buy a home.

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) lead banks that are offering jumbo mortgages, those too big for government programs, at rates at or below taxpayer-backed loans. On average, the extra cost of 30-year fixed jumbo loans reached a six-year low of 0.16 percentage point last month, according to data provider HSH.com. Bigger adjustable-rate mortgages with payments that can rise after five years ended last week 0.09 percentage point cheaper, the most since at least 1998.

While rates for conventional mortgages surged last month by the most in two decades, financing costs for million-dollar homes are becoming a relative bargain. Deposit-rich banks needing to make loans are suppressing rates to compete for wealthier customers as home prices soar in expensive areas from Manhattan to San Francisco.

“Lately, our jumbos are either in line with conforming or better,” said Karen Mayfield, the mortgage banking national sales manager at BNP Paribas SA’s San Francisco-based Bank of the West unit. “Slowly but surely, the gap has closed in the past six months, and it’s really become much more obvious in the market over the past 30 days.”

[xchrom]

10. What Happens in Detroit Won’t Stay in Detroit

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/what-happens-in-detroit-won-t-necessarily-stay-in-detroit.html

In Detroit, a reckoning is near. A recent report from the city’s emergency manager on its deteriorating finances reads like a municipal adaptation of the Book of Revelation.

The city’s population has dropped by about a quarter since 2000. Its rate of violent crime is five times the national average. Fires are rampant. Streetlights don’t work. The budget deficit is nearly $380 million, while long-term liabilities may total more than $17 billion. Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, has even considered selling the city’s art collection.

Orr is now negotiating a reorganization plan with unions, creditors and bond insurers. If those talks fail, Detroit could become the largest city in U.S. history to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. The unions should strive to make a deal before that happens, even if it means forcing retirees to take substantial pension and benefit cuts. State taxpayers should recognize that it’s in their best interests to help those retirees out. And Orr must avoid unduly violating bondholders’ trust. The consequences of failure could reach well beyond Detroit.

Union leaders, understandably, don’t want to deny benefits to pensioners who loyally paid into their plans their whole careers. But if Detroit heads to bankruptcy court, Orr will be empowered to reject contracts, modify collective bargaining agreements and force cramdowns on parties that don’t consent to his proposed reorganization. That means pensioners could end up with significantly less than Orr is now offering them.

[Demeter]

16. YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN! Snyder signs bill that spells end for Buena Vista and Inkster schools

http://www.freep.com/article/20130702/NEWS06/307020105/inkster-buena-vista-schools-district-dissolution

The Buena Vista and Inkster school districts are preparing for the worst — closing before the school year even begins.

The districts’ demises have been years in the making as the number of students and finances in the two cities have been on a steady decline. But the final blow came Tuesday when Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill that will allow the state Superintendent of Education and Treasurer to dissolve small, deficit-laden school districts.

The final determination of the future of the two districts will be made in “days, not months,” said Snyder. “We have to make sure that we put our students first.”

DON'T YOU LOVE THAT GOP SMIRK? WHILE THEY GUT THE STATE LIKE A BUTCHERED HOG...

[xchrom]

18. ...

[xchrom]

11. Egypt Crisis Deepens as Mursi Refuses to Step Down

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/egypt-s-mursi-asks-military-to-withdraw-two-day-ultimatum.html


Opponents of President Mohammed Morsi hold a large Egyptian flag during a protest outside the presidential palace, in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 2, 2013.

Egypt’s military said it was ready to sacrifice itself in the fight against “fools,” while President Mohamed Mursi vowed to defend his legitimacy with his life as time ran out on the army’s ultimatum to end the political crisis.

The showdown is pitting the country’s first democratically elected president against detractors who claim he’s sold out the goals of the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak to advance Islamist interests. Clashes between his supporters and critics left at least 18 dead and 619 wounded over the past 24 hours, said Ahmed El-Ansari, deputy head of the national ambulance service.

“If the price of safeguarding legitimacy is my own blood, I am ready to sacrifice it,” Mursi said in a late night televised speech. “There is no alternative to constitutional legitimacy.”

The army said July 1 it would impose its own plan if Mursi didn’t end Egypt’s political crisis and meet the people’s demands within 48 hours. The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper summed up the stakes in a headline reading: “Today: Removal or Resignation.”

[xchrom]

12. Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Ratings Cut by S&P

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/barclays-credit-suisse-deutsche-bank-ratings-cut-by-s-p.html

Barclays Plc (BARC), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) had their credit ratings lowered by Standard & Poor’s as new rules and “uncertain market conditions” threaten their business.

Long-term counterparty credit ratings for Barclays and Deutsche Bank were cut to A from A+, while Credit Suisse Group was reduced to A- from A, S&P said yesterday in a statement. S&P also affirmed its A long-term rating and A-1 short-term rating on UBS AG (UBSN), according to the statement. The outlook for all four companies is stable.

Banks are still in recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, which drove some economies into recession and spawned new regulations and legal probes. The four European lenders are among the most exposed to proposed rules that could reduce revenue from trading and investment banking operations, the ratings firm said.

“We consider that these banks’ debtholders face heightened credit risk owing to the industry’s tighter regulation, fragile global markets, stagnant European economies and rising litigation risk stemming from the financial crisis,” S&P said. “A large number of global regulatory initiatives are increasingly demanding for capital market operations.”

[xchrom]

13. U.S. Gears to Impose Stricter Rules on 8 Largest Banks

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/tarullo-says-fed-very-close-to-leverage-ratio-proposal.html

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are among eight U.S. banks facing new domestic rules on capital and debt that would be even stricter than global standards approved yesterday.

Lenders will be forced to maintain a ratio of capital to assets that exceeds the 3 percent floor set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo said yesterday. Another measure would compel banks to hold a minimum amount of equity and long-term debt to help authorities dismantle failing lenders, Tarullo said.

The remarks show U.S. regulators plan to ratchet up demands for bigger buffers against losses to prevent a repeat of the 2008 credit crisis, ignoring bankers who say lending and profit will suffer. The measures would come on top of toughened global standards known as Basel III that Fed governors approved unanimously, even as Tarullo said parts remain too weak.

“We’re in the first few chapters of a horror story for the big banks, with the worst to come,” said Coryann Stefansson, a managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “It’s clear that the U.S. is willing to push for stronger capital.”

[xchrom]

17. BOOM: US COMPANIES ADD MORE JOBS THAN EXPECTED

http://www.businessinsider.com/june-adp-jobs-report-2013-7

The June ADP employment survey results are out.
Private U.S. companies added 188,000 jobs in June, up from 134,000 in May.

This was better than the 150,000 economists were looking for.

"The job market continues to gracefully navigate through the strongly blowing fiscal headwinds. Health Care Reform does not appear to be significantly hampering job growth, at least not so far," said Moody's Mark Zandi. "Job gains are broad based across industries and businesses of all sizes."



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/june-adp-jobs-report-2013-7#ixzz2XzBNpKm0

[Demeter]

19. Crime of Alleviating Poverty: Local Community Currency Battles Central Bank of Kenya By Ellen Brown

http://www.nationofchange.org/crime-alleviating-poverty-local-community-currency-battles-central-bank-kenya-1372688200


Former Peace Corps volunteer Will Ruddick and several residents of Bangladesh, Kenya, face a potential seven years in prison after developing a cost-effective way to alleviate poverty in Africa’s poorest slums. Their solution: a complementary currency issued and backed by the local community. The Central Bank of Kenya has now initiated charges of forgery.

Complementary currencies can help eradicate poverty. Proving that may be difficult in complex economies, due to the high number of factors influencing outcomes. But in an African slum with little of the national currency available, supplying residents with an alternative currency has a positive effect that is obvious, immediate and incontrovertible.

This was demonstrated when Will Ruddick, an American physicist, economist and former Peace Corps volunteer, introduced a complementary currency into a Kenyan slum called Bangladesh, near the coastal city of Mombasa. Will’s local development organization, Koru-Kenya, worked with over one hundred small business owners in Bangladesh, who agreed to give each other the equivalent of 400 shillings (about €3.5 or $4.60) in mutual credit in the form of business vouchers called Bangla-Pesa. Half of the vouchers would be available for spending on each others’ products and services, and half would be spent into the community on public projects such as waste collection and health services. Allocation decisions were democratic and transparent, and the new currency was backed entirely by the community’s own resources and insured by a system of group guarantors, not by the Kenyan government or a development agency. The project was launched on May 11, 2013. The immediate effect was an increase in sales of 22%. That meant increasing incomes and purchasing power by 22%. These exchanges were of goods and services that without the additional currency would have been thrown away or gone to waste, not because they were unmarketable but because potential customers did not have the money to buy them. Introducing Bangla-Pesa worked to move the economy forward at full capacity, connecting the community to its own resources when the only things lacking were those slips of paper called “money.” A compelling video on the project AT LINK.

The successful Kenyan experiment quickly earned endorsements from the United Nations, The Hague and the International Reciprocal Trade Association. Indeed, no other poverty alleviation or local governance program can compete with the cost-effectiveness of this approach, which is easily replicable in poor communities across Africa. The plan was to expand it to other villages in a democratic grassroots fashion so that it could provide a local medium of exchange for people throughout the continent. This would be done via mobile phones with a system provided by Community Forge, an organization based in Geneva that supports the development of community currencies worldwide. But that plan was unexpectedly interrupted on May 29th, when Will and five other project participants were arrested by Kenyan police and thrown in jail. Besides Will, who is married to a Kenyan aid worker and is a new father, the others include local community business owners who are parents and grandparents, a youth activist, a volunteer mother, and the caretaker of seven orphan children. The police at first accused the group of plotting a terrorist overthrow of the government, claiming that Bangla-Pesa was linked to the MRC, a terrorist secessionist group. When that link was easily disproven, the Central Bank of Kenya was called in and charges of forgery were formally placed. Will and his fellow suspects have been released for now on a bail of EUR 5,000 and await trial on July 17th. If convicted, they face seven years in a Kenyan prison. Despite these perilous circumstances, Will remains optimistic. “The exciting thing,” he says, “is that these systems really do show a means of poverty reduction – and my hope is that after this case we’ll be allowed to spread them to slums across Kenya. There have been years of precedent for Complementary Currencies as a solution to poverty, and today there is no doubting it.”

Successful Precedents from Switzerland to Brazil SEE LINK


THIS IS TRULY "GRASS-ROOTS" QUANTITATIVE EASING! PUTTING MONEY IN THE HANDS OF PEOPLE WHO WILL SPEND IT

[xchrom]

20. EURO CRISIS ON: Portugal Crashes After Finance Minister Resigns

http://www.businessinsider.com/portuguese-market-falls-2013-7

***SNIP

The cause? The Finance Minister has resigned in a dispute over austerity.

From WSJ:

Mr. Gaspar said in his resignation letter that he had first offered to step down last October amid evidence that public and political support for the country's austerity program was fading. Protests and strikes have become more common since then, and some lawmakers from the governing coalition have joined its critics in saying austerity is doing the country more harm than good.

"It is my conviction that my exit will contribute to reinforce your leadership and cohesion within the government," Mr. Gaspar wrote to Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho in the letter.

Europe is red across the board.

Germany is down 1.5%. Italy is off 1.8%. Spain is down 2.6%.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/portuguese-market-falls-2013-7#ixzz2XzCc5ykM

[Demeter]

21. Wednesday is Paper Night

and the Kid and I are off to the dentist this morning, which is cloudy and cool, humid but not raining.

Yeah, Life sucks. Not matter what change we get, it's not a change for the better, just a continuous fight to stave off entropy.

[AnneD]

29. Another taken off your to do list...

Hope it went well.

I have missed the July 4th festivities three times in my life; once while in Switzerland, once in India, and now in Canada.

The Canada day celebrations made up for it a bit but every year since Governor Bush's takeover, the Fourth of July just makes me sad. Not for what it stands for, but what we have become. I really use to love my country but now, not so much. I have tried to hold on to what our founding fathers had but the vision has been perverted and diverted.

The American Dream was just that, a dream.

[Fuddnik]

24. I came to the realization last night that I know know the Devil himself.

If not the Devil, then a very high ranking minion. I personally know the guy who's negotiating the TPP.

We have a very well connected Dem in Tampa, named Frank Sanchez. He served in the Clinton Admin, and was one of the first top Florida Dems to come out in support of Obama. He was named Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade by Obama, and after he was investigated for about a year, the Republicans allowed his confirmation to proceed.

I first met him in 2004, the day Kerry named Edwards as his running mate, and they made their first public appearance that night in St. Pete. He was a good friend of my campaign manager. And we ran into each other many times over the next few years at candidate fund raisers, and events. The last time I saw him, we were at a fundraiser for Jan Schneider, who was running to replace Katherine Harris in Congress (until Rahm recruited a repuke to run against her in the primary).

I managed to piss him off that night when I said I was considering running against DINO Bill Nelson in the primary. Haven't seen him since.

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aopn/201306110021.aspx

Lots more on Google. Frank Sanchez, tpp

[AnneD]

25. One of the nice things about vacations ....

Last edited Wed Jul 3, 2013, 02:19 PM - Edit history (1)

Is that you have time to reflect. So Fudd, here is some food for thought.

There were a group of folks in the Dem party that could not gain power in the party because of a strong FDR liberal wing. Now this is America and third parties don't do well. They looked around and saw a weak and demoralized GOP and began working to revive it. In the process, they enriched their pockets by stripping wealth from public trust, like healthcare (Medicare,medicaid), taking public trusts private like air waves, public education, etc. The more they promised tax reform, the stronger they got...and the richer. At the same time, a group with a similar mind set looked at the dispirited weakened Dem party and decided to do the same thing. They cared not for the values of the party, but only sought to enrich themselves. They figured if they could get a cool, liberal looking spokesman, we would find these measures easier to swallow. Basically they needed a Judas Goat.

And here we are today, with a political system that does not reflect but instead enslaves the population. Canada is looking better and better.

[antigop]

28. Business Week says Hillary played a leading part in drafting the TPP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101667554

How interesting that an ex-Goldman Sachs vice chair was Clinton's undersecretary for "economic growth".

[Fuddnik]

31. If she did, she can consider herself DOA in 2016.

With me, she already is.

[antigop]

32. nope, there are too many people who want a female prez soooo badly.....nt

[Demeter]

34. Elizabeth Warren--the Anti-Hillary, Anti-1%!

[Fuddnik]

35. I love Elizabeth Warren, but I fear for her.

But she hasn't been around Washington long enough to know how to navigate it. Most importantly, she doesn't know who to avoid like the plague.

The biggest problem is that all the bad actors are entrenched in both parties. And they have the experience and know how to stop any reform in it's tracks. Both houses and the judiciary are bought off by the corporations. The Executive is full of Council of Foreign Relations flacks. Ever notice how bad foreign and domestic policy never improve? Look at them. Nothing ever improves? Both parties flacks work side by side to keep a continuity of bad, self-serving policy.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

26. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (07/03/2013)

Released a day early this week, due to the holiday.

ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (07/03/2013)

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/ETA20131285.htm

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending June 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 343,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 348,000. The 4-week moving average was 345,500, a decrease of 750 from the previous week's revised average of 346,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent for the week ending June 22, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 22 was 2,933,000, a decrease of 54,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,987,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,969,250, a decrease of 9,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,978,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 333,920 in the week ending June 29, a decrease of 2,595 from the previous week. There were 369,826 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.
....

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 22 were in California (+6,181), New Jersey (+4,952), Oregon (+2,076), New York (+1,882), and Massachusetts (+732), while the largest decreases were in Pennsylvania (-4,238), Florida (-2,050), North Carolina (-2,009), Ohio (-1,679), and Kentucky (-1,466).

== == == ==

Good afternoon, Freepers and DUers alike. I ask you to put aside your differences long enough to read this post. Following that, you can engage in your usual donnybrook.

I have been posting the number every week for at least a year. I seriously do not care if the week's data make Obama look good. They are just numbers, and I post them without regard to the consequences. I welcome people from Free Republic to examine the numbers as well. They paid for the work just as much as members of DU did, so I invite them to come on over and have a look. "The more the merrier" is the way I look at it.

I do not work at the ETA, and I do not know anyone working in that agency. I'm sure I can safely assume that the numbers are gathered and analyzed by career civil servant economists who do their work on a nonpartisan basis. Numbers are numbers, and let the chips fall where they may. If you feel that these economists are falling down on the job, drop them a line or give them a call. They work for you, not for any politician or political party.

The word "initial" is important. The report does not count all claims, just the new ones filed this week.

Note: The seasonal adjustment factors used for the UI Weekly Claims data from 2007 forward, along with the resulting seasonally adjusted values for initial claims and continuing claims, have been revised. These revised historical values, as well as the seasonal adjustment factors that will be used through calendar year 2012, can be accessed at the bottom of the following link: http://www.oui.doleta.gov/press/2012/032912.asp

[bread_and_roses]

33. Thank you, mahatmakanejeeves

I really appreciate these posts. Especially when, for instance, I hear a segment on NPR on the "Recovery" that asks why it's still so hard out there for so many working folks but scarcely gives more than a nod to the UI picture.