STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 13 January 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 13 January 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 10 January 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 10 January 2014
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Dow Jones 16,437.05 -7.71 (-0.05%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,842.37 +4.24 (0.23%)
Nasdaq 4,174.67 +18.47 (0.44%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.86% -0.05 (-1.72%)
30 Year 3.80% -0.03 (-0.78%) [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.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.








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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]

[tclambert]

1. Sound fiscal reasons exist to cut those poverty programs:

They don't make money for oil companies, whereas wars with oil-rich countries do. So, you know, we can spend trillions on war with no attempt to "pay" for it, whereas any help for poor people, well, that's just fiscally irresponsible.

[Demeter]

2. but..but..but

Food stamps makes money for JPMorgan! And those minimum wage jobs paying employees with debit cards, more money for banksters....

There's always a fiddle that can be played, if you are creative enough with the financial end of it.

[tclambert]

5. You know, you'd think Wal-Mart would lobby FOR these programs

since they help support so many of their employees who would starve on the wages Wal-Mart pays them.

[Warpy]

4. Well, those poverty programs make money at the pump

but you're right, since the biggest consumer of oil in this country is the military, fighting useless wars around the planet is much more profitable.

[Demeter]

3. I burned out on poverty this Weekend

The burnout is because the solutions are known, tested, acceptable, and TPTB refuse to implement them. Too much "Not Invented Here" going around.

And, "How Do I Make an Obscene Profit Off This?"

[jtuck004]

6. That elephant above ought to be saying "pogroms". It's beyong refusing to impelement them.

The evil bastards are actively trying to hurt people. The programs are already in place, yet they want to reduce the amount? It isn't making their money worth more. Their money is far more diluted by the dollars that are printed for the banks QE, money which is then just banked at the FED, not loaned out for investment, and with profit raked off by banks. If they were concerned about profit, they would shut off that tap and their profits would immediately be greater. If they were concerned about profit they would cut those checks to $10,000 and start mailing them to working people, where they would goose the economy beyond their wildest imagination.

The reduction has precisely two outcomes. 1) It puts the most vulnerable people in greater pain. 2) It reduces the amount consumers spend in this economy. Those folks spend every freakin' nickel they have, and in an economy which is 70% consumer spending, that's EXACTLY what you want. It's how those who own the corps make their money - it's almost direct transfer payments to their corporate HQ, which increase their profits.

Instead these evil, greedy bastards, including the spineless bastards who allow it, (who, instead of using their position of power to speak out wait for ordinary people to be hurting so badly that they take to the streets, where they will be beaten by the police and jailed, just so their position and income won't be threatened), are actively trying to hurt these people just to make themselves feel more important. They are nothing but bullies and pimps.

It's an act of violence for which they are, so far, not being held accountable.

[DemReadingDU]

11. Eventually the people will hold them accountable

May still take awhile, but when the people are hungry and have nothing for food, nor money, nor job, then the people get desperate. Desperate people do desperate things.

[Demeter]

20. I think that the 1% must be desperate, then

Nothing else explains their suicidal positions.

Desperate about what, one asks. Being anything less than Numero Uno?

Or finding that it doesn't matter how much material wealth they accumulate, they will never have one reliable friend? Or immortality? Or family that cares?

[xchrom]

7. loss of jobless aid leaves many with bleak options

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LOSING_UNEMPLOYMENT_BENEFITS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-01-12-13-47-34

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A cutoff of benefits for the long-term unemployed has left more than 1.3 million Americans with a stressful decision:

What now?

Without their unemployment checks, many will abandon what had been a futile search and will no longer look for a job - an exodus that could dwarf the 347,000 Americans who stopped seeking work in December. Beneficiaries have been required to look for work to receive unemployment checks.

Some who lost their benefits say they'll begin an early and unplanned retirement. Others will pile on debt to pay for school and an eventual second career. Many will likely lean on family, friends and other government programs to get by.

They're people like Stan Osnowitz, a 67-year-old electrician in Baltimore who lost his state unemployment benefits of $430 a week. The money put gasoline in his car to help him look for work.

[DemReadingDU]

13. When unemployed don't look for a job, the unemployment rate decreases

Only the unemployed who actively look for work, are counted in the official unemployment rate. According to John Williams of ShadowStats, the true unemployment rate is approaching 23%. Wow!


?hl=ad&t=1389365936


http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

[xchrom]

8. Volkswagen plans $7bn North America investment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25708528

German carmaker Volkswagen has said it will invest $7bn (£4bn) in North America over the next five years as it looks to boost its sales in the region.

The firm will also launch a new sports utility vehicle (SUV) in the US - one of its biggest markets - in 2016.

It also reiterated its goal of selling a million Volkswagens and Audis - its luxury brand - in the US by 2018.

Volkswagen has set its sights on becoming the world's biggest carmaker by then.

[xchrom]

9. US Supreme Court to hear Argentina case

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25703682

The US Supreme Court has agreed to rule on whether Argentina's assets are protected from hedge funds seeking to be paid back.

The long-running legal saga started after Argentina's record debt default more than 11 years ago.

The country objected to a lower court ruling that gave creditors the power to pursue its non-US assets.

Argentina's petition to the highest US court also has the support of the US government.

[xchrom]

10. GOLDMAN: By Almost Any Way You Look At It, This Market Is Getting Expensive

http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-market-valuation-is-lofty-2014-1

These three paragraphs pack a major punch. Bulls should take heed:

The current valuation of the S&P 500 is lofty by almost any measure, both for the aggregate market as well as the median stock: (1) The P/E ratio; (2) the current P/E expansion cycle; (3) EV/Sales; (4) EV/EBITDA; (5) Free Cash Flow yield; (6) Price/Book as well as the ROE and P/B relationship; and compared with the levels of (6) inflation; (7) nominal 10-year Treasury yields; and (8) real interest rates. Furthermore, the cyclically-adjusted P/E ratio suggests the S&P 500 is currently 30% overvalued in terms of (9) Operating EPS and (10) about 45% overvalued using As Reported earnings.

Reflecting on our recent client visits and conversations, the biggest surprise is how many investors expect the forward P/E multiple to expand to 17x or 18x. For some reason, many market participants believe the P/E multiple has a long-term average of 15x and therefore expansion to 17-18x seems reasonable. But the common perception is wrong. The forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500 during the past 5-year, 10-year, and 35- year periods has averaged 13.2x, 14.1x, and 13.0x, respectively. At 15.9x, the current aggregate forward P/E multiple is high by historical standards.

Most investors are surprised to learn that since 1976 the S&P 500 P/E multiple has only exceeded 17x during the 1997-2000 Tech Bubble and a brief four-month period in 2003-04. Other than those two episodes, the US stock market has never traded at a P/E of 17x or above.

As you can see in this chart, since 1976, the only times that PE ratios have been higher than where they are now were during the tech bubble.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-market-valuation-is-lofty-2014-1#ixzz2qHR40g7U

[xchrom]

12. India Has Officially Eradicated Polio

http://www.businessinsider.com/india-has-officially-eradicated-polio-2014-1

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India on Monday marked three years since its last reported case of polio, paving the way for it to be declared free of the crippling virus and boosting efforts to wipe out the disease globally, the Organization (WHO) said.
The country's last case of the wild polio virus was detected on Jan 13, 2011, in a two-year-old girl in the state of West Bengal. Three years without any new cases means India can be declared polio-free.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.

"We give huge credit to the government... It makes us extremely proud and highly responsible for having helped the government to reach this incredible achievement," India's



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/india-has-officially-eradicated-polio-2014-1#ixzz2qHXm7AdS

[xchrom]

14. Canada Hopes To Strike Gold In Grief Stricken Greece

http://www.businessinsider.com/canada-hopes-to-strike-gold-in-grief-stricken-greece-2014-1


The tyrannosaur of the minerals, this gold nugget in quartz weighs more than 70 ounces (2 kilograms).

OURANOUPOLI, Greece (Reuters) - A Canadian quest to mine for gold in the lush forests of northern Greece is testing the government's resolve to prove Europe's most ravaged economy is open again for business.
The Skouries mine on Halkidiki peninsula - a landscape of pristine beaches and rolling hills dotted with olive groves - is among the biggest investments in Greece since it sank into a debt crisis four years ago.

But it has set Greece's desperate need for finance to rebuild the economy against the interests of its vital tourism industry, and aroused anger on the peninsula - site of the famed Mount Athos monasteries - over the environmental cost.

Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold Corp took over the project in 2012, promising to invest $1 billion over the next five years as part of a plan to mine eventually source up to 30 percent of its global gold production in Greece. Yet preliminary work on the mine, which is supposed to open in 2016, has set off months of politicking and protests.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/canada-hopes-to-strike-gold-in-grief-stricken-greece-2014-1#ixzz2qHZ6Y9zQ

[xchrom]

15. No, Wall Street Is Not Going To Pay $50 Billion More Over The Financial Crisis

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/01/10/3148861/wall-street-50-billion-inflated/

Banks are using the government’s flawed settlement with JP Morgan (JPM) to calculate their likely legal bills stemming from mortgage market abuses tied to the financial crisis, signaling that the same misrepresentations about the costs of that settlement could soon spread across the rest of Wall Street.

While the banks say they expect a combined $50 billion in further settlement costs, the actual price tag is likely to be dramatically lower thanks to the tax deductions and other inflating factors featured in last fall’s settlement with JPM. According to the government and the bank, the price tag on the JPM deal was $13 billion, a larger sum than any company had ever paid in a legal deal with the feds. The news that banks are basing their expectations on the JP Morgan deal isn’t surprising since the government has been explicit about using that deal as a template for future settlements.

But almost all of that was tax deductible, and $4 billion of the total was not actually payments, but credit toward its punishment for taking “consumer relief” actions that were already in its financial best interests. The deal let prosecutors appear to be getting tough on Wall Street around the five-year anniversary of the financial crisis, but it will really only cost the bank less than half of the price tag touted by the government and lamented by the bank’s attorneys.

Like the deal with JPM, the $50 billion figure gives the appearance of a major crackdown — the kind of broad effort Attorney General Eric Holder promised at the end of last summer after years of criticism that the Justice Department had been too soft on Wall Street abuses and failed to pursue financial crisis wrongdoing cases against “too big to jail” banks — without actually offering a meaningful penalty for the industry. Holder has denied that the banks are too big to jail, but his department also has a track record of exaggerating its accomplishments with regard to the financial industry. At one point, Holder claimed credit for five times as many criminal charges relating to mortgage fraud as had actually been initiated on his watch. (In contrast with the administration’s lax financial crimes enforcement, all seven women who protested at Justice Department headquarters and at the offices of the Wall Street law firm where Holder and some of his top staff worked prior to serving President Obama faced prosecution.)

[Tansy_Gold]

18. This is one of my "I could be totally wrong, but...." posts

It seems to me, ignorant though I am of the workings of "The Market" and especially "the markets," that levying a fine on a corporation is a wasted effort.

Regardless what kind of corporation it is -- financial, manufacturing, whatever -- the legal entity of the Inc. has the power to just raise its prices and pass along the cost of the fine to the ultimate consumers of its product or service. The Inc., being only a legal construct and not a real person, feels no pain or sorrow or shame or guilt, and goes on its merry way.

The stockholders -- and of course the officers, executives, and employees -- are for the most part protected from any harm, at least financially, because they merely operate the Inc. and pass along the expenses of the fine into the cost of doing business and make the consumer pay.

Fines, regardless of size, therefore do nothing in the way of "punishing" the Inc. at all. I guess it's a way of recouping some money to the government, but if nothing really changes, if the business practice that led to the fine isn't seen as having a negative impact on the bottom line, why bother?

Seems to me, as I've been saying since I got involved in this discussion lo these many years ago, the ONLY form of punishment that will really turn things around -- and which will never happen under any corporate-sponsored administration -- is to start lopping the heads off of the corporations. Whether through RICO or some other means, break the fuckers up so they're no longer TBTF, and kill the miscreants. Put them out of business. Put the CEOs and executives and stockholders that hey, your investment is at risk if you continue to allow these Inc.s to operate in a manner that is injurious to the general welfare. Legally the stockholders might not be liable for prosecution individually, but if they face the loss of their investment, they might take some action to curb the behaviors that previously benefited them.

But again, what do I know?

[Demeter]

21. You know this Congress and WH will never do such a thing

Those are their patrons and buddies you're threatening with removal from power.

[Tansy_Gold]

32. Oh, I know that perfectly well

Which is why I don't expect it, or even hope for it, from the type of administration we have now. (That is, totally bought by the corporations.)

I'm just trying to facilitate the dialogue that explores the fallacy -- if there is one -- behind the application of "fines" to corporations as a means to prevent future abuses/crimes.

It's not as if the crimes of administrations go completely unnoticed or unremarked upon. Certainly the situation in New Jersey is evidence of that. Whether there are ever consequences for the perps, well, that remains right now to be seen. (If they are GOP, they can of course be murderous coke-heads, wife-beaters, diaper-wearing sleazeballs and it won't matter.) And whether there is anyone at all on the other side, whether a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren, to speak up and explore this notion also remains to be seen.

But public opinion can effect legislative change, even if only slowly and gradually. (That's the "liberal" way, not the "radical" way; and I am much more radical than I am liberal.) A dialogue that engages public opinion and even, perhaps, changes public opinion, might be worth encouraging.

[xchrom]

16. Federal Reserve Said to Probe Banks Over Forex Fixing

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-13/federal-reserve-said-to-probe-banks-over-forex-fixing.html

The Federal Reserve is investigating whether traders at the world’s biggest banks rigged benchmark currency rates, raising the risk that firms will be penalized for lax controls as regulators look for wrongdoing.

The Fed, which supervises U.S. bank holding companies, is among authorities from London to Washington probing whether traders shared information that may have let them manipulate prices in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market to maximize their profits, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter, asking not to be named because it’s confidential.

“The Fed has discretion whether to and how much to fine the banks if deficient controls or lack of supervision resulted in traders at these banks manipulating currency rates,” said Jacob S. Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor and now a lawyer at Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker PA in Potomac, Maryland.

The Fed punished firms for internal-control lapses last year as it worked with state and federal authorities on cases involving Iranian sanctions and botched derivatives bets. The foreign-exchange inquiry looks at benchmark WM/Reuters rates used by companies and investors around the world.

[xchrom]

17. Banks Seek to Limit Volcker With Challenge to Meaning of ‘Own’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-13/banks-seek-to-limit-volcker-with-challenge-to-meaning-of-own-.html

U.S. banks are seeking to limit the reach of the Volcker Rule by challenging its definition of what it means to own a hedge fund or private-equity fund.

The opening gambit was made by the American Bankers Association, the industry’s biggest lobbying group, which said in a federal lawsuit filed last month on behalf of community banks that regulators had defined too broadly what it means to have an ownership stake. A week later, four other organizations, including the Financial Services Roundtable, sent a letter to bank-supervisory agencies making the same point.

Regulators, who spent more than two years writing the rule, defined ownership widely to capture all economic interests a firm might have in restricted funds. The ABA said it should be narrower, focusing only on equity, and that buying debt a fund sells doesn’t qualify as ownership. If the industry succeeds in getting the definition narrowed, that could allow banks to have the ties to funds the rule intended to outlaw.

“Wall Street can create any kind of instrument that can look like debt on paper but act and feel like equity,” said Matthew Dunn, a director at Deloitte & Touche LLP. “So without a wide-cast net for ownership, they could skirt the rule’s ban by structuring funds that they control and benefit from, but technically don’t own.”

[xchrom]

19. Pritzker Scion Backs Pot Plans as Getting High Gets Legal

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-13/pritzker-scion-backs-pot-plans-as-getting-high-gets-legal.html

Robert Frichtel will have 10 minutes to persuade a roomful of investors in Las Vegas to part with as much as $6 million for a business leasing space for growing marijuana.

Frichtel’s firm will be among 12 companies making pitches Jan. 23 to as many as 70 angel investors assembled by the ArcView Group, based in San Francisco. Members include Joby Pritzker, whose family started Hyatt Hotels Corp. (H), and Adam Wiggins, co-founder of Heroku Inc., a software maker acquired by Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM)

“Everybody is running toward this as the next entrepreneurial wave -- the green rush,” said Frichtel, 50, president and chief executive officer of Advanced Cannabis Solutions Inc. (CANN), based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Investment interest in the marijuana industry has surged since Colorado and Washington voters in 2012 legalized sales to anyone 21 and older. Long lines formed when Colorado retail shops opened Jan. 1. Twenty states, including California and Massachusetts, now allow the medical use of marijuana. New York may be next under a plan announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

[Demeter]

26. Visions of a Future to Come

http://assets.amuniversal.com/74f2e1b05dae01316701001dd8b71c47

[xchrom]

22. Fed Seen Sticking to Gradual Tapering Plan After Payrolls Miss

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/payrolls-in-u-s-rise-less-than-forecast-jobless-rate-at-6-7-.html


The Federal Reserve will stick to its plan for a gradual reduction in bond purchases, economists said after a government report showed that U.S. employment rose at the slowest pace in three years in December.

The Fed will reduce purchases by $10 billion at each of the next six meetings this year before ending the program in October, according to the median forecasts of 42 economists in a Bloomberg survey.

The 74,000 gain in payrolls was the weakest since January 2011, Labor Department figures showed yesterday in Washington. The coldest December in four years probably contributed to a slump in hiring at construction and recreation companies, while industries such as health care and accounting also cut staff.

“The weather probably did play a big role,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “It’s a reminder that the improvement is not going to be a straight line.”

[Demeter]

34. Trying for a Command Economy

as in "Lazarus, I bid you live and rise".

Delusions of doing God's work, again, instead of their own.

[xchrom]

23. Portugal Sees Possible Bond Auctions Before It Exits Bailout

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-13/portugal-sees-possible-bond-auctions-before-it-exits-bailout.html

Portugal’s Secretary of State for Treasury Isabel Castelo Branco said she “estimates” it will be possible for the country to sell bonds through auctions before its bailout program ends in the middle of May.

“It’s above all a sign that we have access with some regularity,” Castelo Branco, 46, said in an interview at the Finance Ministry in Lisbon late on Jan. 10. “Being able to again sell through auctions is a goal, and it means we will be in a more regular program of debt issuance.”

Portugal is trying to regain full access to debt markets with the end of its 78 billion-euro ($106 billion) rescue program from the European Union and International Monetary Fund approaching. The country has been relying on banks to sell bonds, including last week’s sale of 3.25 billion euros of five-year notes and two other deals in May and January 2013.

European nations frequently hire banks when they offer new securities to boost demand for the debt. After requesting a bailout in April 2011, Portugal stopped selling bonds until January 2013, although it continued holding bill auctions. Debt agency IGCP plans to auction as much as 1.25 billion euros of bills on Jan. 15.

[Demeter]

24. Official Ann Arbor lows last Week: -15F and -16F

Last edited Mon Jan 13, 2014, 02:01 PM - Edit history (1)

and that's when my baby's furnace died...it's all fixed now (for the moment).

IT's also 60 degrees warmer, this week...

[Demeter]

27. Today's Aries Horrorscope

Even if you have been successfully holding it all together, your schedule might feel as if it could fall apart today. Luckily, this isn't as chaotic as it sounds, for you are invigorated by the buzz of activity all around you. Respond to whatever unfolds with a high level of enthusiasm, for you may not be able to tell what's most important until after the fact. In the meantime, keep your options open and enjoy the ride.

Not to worry, it's already falling apart....at 8:30 in the morning....

[xchrom]

25. EU Praises Danish Covered Bonds Amid Liquidity Status Review

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-12/eu-praises-danish-covered-bonds-as-liquidity-status-is-reviewed.html

The European Commission said it will take into account the particular strengths of Denmark’s covered bond market as it reviews a proposal by Europe’s bank regulator to give the securities second-class liquidity status.

“The Commission is aware of the crucial importance of the covered bond market,” Chantal Hughes, spokeswoman for the European Union’s financial services chief Michel Barnier, said in a Jan. 10 e-mail. “The Commission also recognizes the long tradition and solidity of Danish covered bonds, in particular, and their good liquidity characteristics, even in times of acute stress.”

Denmark’s $555 billion mortgage-backed covered bond industry has been in shock since it emerged in November that the European Banking Authority would advise against giving the securities the highest liquidity status. In doing so, the London-based EBA is going against the findings of its own technical report, published a month earlier. Instead, the EBA recommends that the top grade be reserved for government debt, including bonds from bailed out nations such as Greece and Portugal.

The EBA’s guidance is advisory and the commission will prepare standards that should “specify which assets qualify as being of high and extremely high liquidity/credit quality,” Hughes said in the e-mail.

[xchrom]

28. Iran Gets Sanctions Relief Jan. 20 as Nuclear Deal Begins

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-13/iran-gets-sanctions-relief-jan-20-as-nuclear-deal-begins.html


Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear activities starting Jan. 20 under a deal with world powers, triggering the easing of some sanctions and the start of a six-to-12 month timetable to reach a permanent accord.

Iran and the so-called P5+1 countries -- China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S., plus Germany -- reached an understanding on how to implement a deal reached in November, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement yesterday.

Iran “has agreed to specific actions that halt progress on its nuclear program and roll back key parts of the program,” Obama said. The agreement restricts Iran’s nuclear activities and imposes more intrusive inspections. In return, Iran will benefit from sanctions relief, which the U.S. values at $6 billion to $7 billion over six months.

“It’s not a general opening up of trade, the main sanctions will remain,” U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC today. “There are specific sanctions that will be suspended.”

[Demeter]

29. Why Unemployment is so High

[xchrom]

30. 4 Reasons Why the Corporate Income Tax Should be Doubled—Not Abolished

4 Reasons Why the Corporate Income Tax Should be Doubled—Not Abolished

http://www.alternet.org/economy/4-reasons-why-corporate-income-tax-should-be-doubled-not-abolished



***SNIP

1. Corporations Have a Proven Record of Spending Tax Breaks on Themselves

The evidence comes from 2004, when a "repatriation holiday" allowed corporations to bring their profits home at a much-reduced tax rate. But they used over 90% of the money to "enrich shareholders and executives" by paying dividends and buying back their own stock. At the same time, they cut jobs and research spending. A Senate subcommittee called the whole affair a "failed tax policy" that shouldn't be repeated.

***SNIP

2. They Only Pay Half of Their Tax Obligation

Mr. Kotlikoff claims that "the United States may well have the highest effective marginal corporate income tax rate of any developed country." But the effective rate in the U.S. is not high at all, and it keeps dropping. For over 20 years, from 1987 to 2008, corporations paid an average of 22.5% in federal taxes on their profits. Since the recession, this has dropped to an outlandishly low 10% -- even though their profits have doubled in less than ten years. Even taking into account IRS figures that reduce taxable income to about two-thirds of profits, their 10% tax rate increases to only 15%. They should be paying over twice as much.

***SNIP

3. They've Stopped Investing in America

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides job data by size of business. A review of job gains and losses reveals that since the recession:

--Almost 4 million jobs have been lost, almost all at companies with less than 50 employees or more than 1,000 employees.

--Only 2% of the jobs were lost at medium-sized companies (100 to 999 employees).

***SNIP

4. Their Vision of Tax-Free Prosperity is a Delusion

Mr. Kotlikoff cites the "Irish Miracle" of the 1980s, which led to "a massive inflow of capital, with over 1,000 multinationals setting up shop." The authors of a New York Times article explain, "Simply put, the Irish miracle was a mirage driven by clever use of tax-haven rules and a huge credit boom that permitted real estate prices and construction to grow quickly before declining ever more rapidly." In other words, a bubble.

[Demeter]

31. More well-known U.S. retailers victims of cyber attacks

http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-more-well-known-u-retailers-victims-cyberattacks-024345910--sector.html

Target Corp and Neiman Marcus are not the only U.S. retailers whose networks were breached over the holiday shopping season last year, according to sources familiar with attacks on other merchants that have yet to be publicly disclosed.

Smaller breaches on at least three other well-known U.S. retailers took place and were conducted using similar techniques as the one on Target, according to the people familiar with the attacks. Those breaches have yet to come to light. Also, similar breaches may have occurred earlier last year.

The sources said that they involved retailers with outlets in malls, but declined to elaborate. They also said that while they suspect the perpetrators may be the same as those who launched the Target attack, they cannot be sure because they are still trying to find the culprits behind all of the security breaches.

Law enforcement sources have said they suspect the ring leaders are from Eastern Europe, which is where most big cyber crime cases have been hatched over the past decade....

MORE

[DemReadingDU]

33. Is any plastic safe?

Eventually, security could be breached at most retailers and people using credit/debit cards could be victims. And how far back do the perpetrators gain access to personal info? Forever?

Use cash, but that has its own drawbacks too.

[Demeter]

35. Food stamps, maybe?

That's plastic now.