STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 25 February 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 25 February 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 24 February 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 24 February 2014
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Dow Jones 16,207.14 +103.84 (0.64%)
S&P 500 1,847.61 +11.36 (0.62%)
Nasdaq 4,292.97 +29.56 (0.69%)


[font color=black]10 Year 2.74% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=red]30 Year 3.70% +0.01 (0.27%) [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.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.








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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. Is economy merely suffering from a cold?

SHORT ANSWER: NO. LONGER ANSWER: WHAT ARE YOU, BLIND?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-economy-merely-suffering-from-a-cold-2014-02-23?siteid=YAHOOB

The state of confusion about the U.S. economy boils down to one question: How much is bad weather responsible for a slowdown in growth in early 2014?

Bullish forecasters put virtually all the onus on the weather. Consumers put off purchases of autos, homes and other items while they stayed off the roads and hunkered down inside. Many businesses also experienced major disruptions. The Great Lakes mostly froze over for the first time in over a decade, for example, and that put shipments of critical raw materials such as coal and iron ore on ice.

“The bears are right when they say it’s not just the weather,” said Neil Dutta, head of economics at Renaissance Macro Research. “But it’s mostly about the weather. It’s really gasping for straws to think otherwise.”

Skeptics who see little change in the underlying pace of U.S. growth — a mediocre 2% or so — acknowledge the dampening effect of wintry weather. Yet they also see signs the economy is reverting to its post-recession pattern of up-and-down growth. They point to sluggish wages, softer consumer spending and business investment, and a housing market that was starting to cool off even before the weather did. Read: Why skeptics don’t see faster growth in 2014.

The latest batch of data this week, unfortunately, won’t add much clarity to the debate.

Americans probably won’t show a lot more confidence in the economy, a pair of consumer surveys is likely to indicate. Sales of new homes are projected to fall in January because of the harsh weather. And the sharp markdown that’s expected in fourth-quarter growth figures won’t tell us a whole lot about what’s going on in the new year.

It could be months before the true direction of the economy becomes visible again.

IF YOU ARE THAT DEPENDENT ON PHONY NUMBERS, YOU MIGHT WANT TO SWITCH TO TEA LEAVES...

[Demeter]

2. HSBC to announce bonuses totaling $4 billion: report

http://news.yahoo.com/hsbc-announce-bonuses-totaling-4-billion-report-130206106--sector.html

HSBC will announce staff bonuses totaling just under 2.4 billion pounds ($4 billion) globally for 2013 and is expected to report a significant rise in pretax profit, Sky News reported on its website on Saturday without citing its sources...Europe's biggest bank is expected to announce the size of its bonus pool on Monday along with its yearly results. Bonus payments remain a sensitive issue as many Britons still blame banks for the 2008 financial crisis, after which the state was forced to bail out RBS and Lloyds.

Earlier this month Barclays prompted an angry reaction from politicians and labor unions after it increased its bonuses by 13 percent to 2.4 billion pounds, even as it announced plans to axe 12,000 jobs. Sky quoted an unnamed source saying the rise in variable pay or bonuses at HSBC would be smaller than its likely increase in earnings. The broadcaster also reported Gulliver's bonus was just over half the maximum he could have received under the terms of his contract and that he would be paid a deferred share award of 3.7 million pounds under the bank's long-term incentive plan...Referring to an unnamed source close to the bank, Sky also said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver will receive a 1.8 million pound bonus as part of an overall pay deal worth more than 7 million pounds, though this would be less than his previous year pay deal of 7.4 million...He would also take a cash payment in lieu of pension contributions alongside his basic salary of 1.25 million, giving the total of more than 7 million, according to an unnamed source.

AND THAT'S WHY GROWTH WILL NOT REACH 3.5%

[Demeter]

7. HSBC hands allowances to hundreds of bankers to avoid EU bonus cap

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/24/hsbc-bankers-multimillion-pound-eu-bonus-cap?CMP=ema_565

A defiant HSBC is handing its chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, allowances worth £32,000 a week – on top of his £1.2m salary – to get around the EU's cap on bonuses, in a move that is expected to be replicated by the other high street banks.

HSBC became the first UK bank to reveal how it will sidestep the pay restrictions imposed by Brussels, as it further fuelled the debate over City pay by also revealing that 239 of its bankers received more than £1m last year. Gulliver, the boss of Britain's biggest bank, hit out against the new rules, which restrict bonuses to 200% of salary even with shareholder approval, but the TUC accused HSBC of "soaraway boardroom greed".

The £1.7m "fixed pay allowance", paid in shares every three months on top of Gulliver's salary, will ensure he is paid a minimum of £4.2m a year, up from £2.5m now. Similar allowances, in shares that cannot be sold for five years, are being handed to 111 top bankers at HSBC, while another 554 are to be handed extra payments in cash.

The move prompted Labour to call for a repeat of its bonus tax while the Robin Hood Tax campaign said the payments bolstered its argument for a tax on financial transactions...

MORE

[Fuddnik]

3. One-Percent Jokes and Plutocrats in Drag: What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society

Long and good.


http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html



Recently, our nation’s financial chieftains have been feeling a little unloved. Venture capitalists are comparing the persecution of the rich to the plight of Jews at Kristallnacht, Wall Street titans are saying that they’re sick of being beaten up, and this week, a billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, proclaimed that “the 1 percent is being picked on for political reasons.”

Ross's statement seemed particularly odd, because two years ago, I met Ross at an event that might single-handedly explain why the rest of the country still hates financial tycoons – the annual black-tie induction ceremony of a secret Wall Street fraternity called Kappa Beta.

“Good evening, Exalted High Council, former Grand Swipes, Grand Swipes-in-waiting, fellow Wall Street Kappas, Kappas from the Spring Street and Montgomery Street chapters, and worthless neophytes!”

It was January 2012, and Ross, wearing a tuxedo and purple velvet moccasins embroidered with the fraternity’s Greek letters, was standing at the dais of the St. Regis Hotel ballroom, welcoming a crowd of two hundred wealthy and famous Wall Street figures to the Kappa Beta Phi dinner. Ross, the leader (or “Grand Swipe”) of the fraternity, was preparing to invite 21 new members — “neophytes,” as the group called them — to join its exclusive ranks.

Looking up at him from an elegant dinner of rack of lamb and foie gras were many of the most famous investors in the world, including executives from nearly every too-big-to-fail bank, private equity megafirm, and major hedge fund. AIG CEO Bob Benmosche was there, as were Wall Street superlawyer Marty Lipton and Alan “Ace” Greenberg, the former chairman of Bear Stearns. And those were just the returning members. Among the neophytes were hedge fund billionaire and major Obama donor Marc Lasry and Joe Reece, a high-ranking dealmaker at Credit Suisse. [To see the full Kappa Beta Phi member list, click here.] All told, enough wealth and power was concentrated in the St. Regis that night that if you had dropped a bomb on the roof, global finance as we know it might have ceased to exist.


(snip) and much more at link

[Demeter]

4. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) To Cut 2,000 Additional Jobs

http://www.ibtimes.com/jpmorgan-chase-nysejpm-cut-2000-additional-jobs-1557673



JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) is planning to cut 2,000 more jobs on top of 13,000 to 15,000 job cuts already planned, the Financial Times reported Monday. An announcement is expected on Tuesday.

The cuts are a results of a combination of less demand for mortgage refinancing and JPMorgan’s use of labor-saving technology. Online financial services allow the largest bank in the United States to rely less on physical locations and of course, humans. JPMorgan’s new strategy will mean smaller branches and a heavier reliance on online banking. The company will display a “branch of the future” at its headquarters on Park Avenue in New York City on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase currently employs around 255,000 people and it made $17.9 billion in net income last year. In 2009 there was a total of almost 100,000 bank branches across the U.S., but around 3,000 of those closed by 2013.

JPMorgan Chase isn’t the only bank to trim down. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) too has been cutting jobs to from day-to-day retail operations. It reportedly spends $3 billion a year developing technology like mobile banking. Bank Of America eliminated more than 25,000 jobs in 2013 as a part of a plan it says will save $8 billion per year.

As of Monday, JPMorgan Chase has the highest stock price of all of the Big Four banks at $58 per share. Citigroup (NYSE:C) is around $49 per share, Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) is at $46 per share and Bank Of America sits at $16 per share.

[Demeter]

5. How Morgan Stanley Has Raked in Billions by Manipulating the Prices of Everyday Commodities

http://www.alternet.org/books/great-american-disconnect-seven-fundamental-threats-our-democracy

...Once upon a time, commodities traders were highly specialized in their fields and their discipline was so narrow that it was largely misunderstood. Because it represented such a small portion of the vast economic market of debt and equities, it existed in the shadows of the global marketplace...the story of Sam Siegel and Vincent Kosuga, an unlikely duo...Siegel owned cold-storage facilities on the outskirts of Chicago, which held and distributed, among other things, onions delivered by farmers from around the country. Kosuga was a boisterous, larger-than-life farmer and amateur chef from the Catskills who grew onions that would find their way to Siegel’s warehouses. The man could cook just about anything as long as the recipe called for onions. Perhaps his greatest concoction, however, was the scheme he cooked up while trading onions on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the “Merc”) with his storage partner-turned accomplice, Sam Siegel. Both men made good money hedging their onion farming and gathering operations by trading onion futures in the 1950s at the Merc. Like most of the men they traded alongside, Siegel and Kosuga possessed iron constitutions for risk. To outsiders theirs was a bizarre world filled with a ragtag bunch of gamblers who spoke furiously with their hands, called one another by their trading nicknames and kept mostly to themselves. It was an insular existence. Then one day Siegel and Kosuga’s activities drew an unwelcome light on the clandestine world of commodities trading and prompted Congress to blacklist onions from trading on the exchanges.

According to Lambert, here’s how it went down. Because Kosuga controlled a large portion of onion growth and both men had the capacity to store excess supply along with the financial wherewithal to purchase contracts for delivery from other onion growers, they effectively controlled the price when the product came to market. It was a classic “corner.” When the harvest came in 1956, they bet against the same growers they contracted with by placing sell orders in the Merc while simultaneously dumping their excess inventory, thereby flooding the market with onions and driving prices into the ground. In an instant, Siegel and Kosuga made millions while many farmers went broke, buyers were left bewildered and onions were rendered worthless. Their plan worked so well that President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Onions Futures Act in 1958 to prevent the trading of onions forever. Onions, it seemed, were too important to allow unscrupulous speculators to monkey with....

....In today’s world Siegel and Kosuga are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Except these guys won’t be caught because they changed the rules. They control the markets, the exchanges, the products that are traded and the currencies we use. They have the ability to name their price then bet against their own recommendations. It’s the perfect modern corner. And it has the markets behaving badly and acting counter-intuitively. It is why exchanges no longer react to normal market forces like supply and demand, weather patterns and monetary policy. It is why oil prices remain high during a recessionary period and weak demand, why the dollar has retained relative strength despite “quantitative easing,” and why food prices remain out of reach for people in developing nations. It is why deregulation failed the public and enriched companies like Goldman and Morgan. These companies do more than move the markets. They move economies. Nixon may have started the ball rolling by repealing Bretton Woods and Obama might be powerless to control it today, but every Congress and president in between have been complicit in the world’s greatest shell game that moves money from around the globe into the accounts of just a handful of firms.

An important aspect to the commodities market is that there has always been a ceiling to the transactions and every investment made in the United States, for example, must be overseen by the CFTC. This market cap and theory of transparency kept the commodities market in relative obscurity against its much bigger counterparts, the stock market ($36 trillion), bond market ($82 trillion) and the punishingly high derivatives market (estimated between $600 trillion and $1.2 quadrillion). With a few structural changes to the regulatory environment, the commodities market grew from a little over $10 billion in assets to more than $450 billion over the past decade. Expressed as a percentage, this growth is stunning. But compared to the other trillion-dollar markets commodities are still relatively small, which begs the question as to why such rapid growth is such a big deal. Michael Masters, the managing member of Masters Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund that invests in private equity, answered this very question in 2008 when testifying before the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. His testimony is now widely quoted by the anti-speculation critics who decry the lack of oversight created by the Enron loophole.

“Commodities futures markets are much smaller than the capital markets, so multibillion-dollar allocations to commodities markets will have a far greater impact on prices,” Masters stated. Essentially, introducing investment banks and hedge funds that have deep pockets and no one looking over their shoulders has the singular ability to move the entire market. It’s like allowing professional athletes to compete in the Olympics. It’s what Masters referred to as “demand shock.”

MORE

[Demeter]

6. AIN'T IT THE TRUTH!

Last edited Tue Feb 25, 2014, 04:59 AM - Edit history (1)

[Demeter]

8. Income Inequality: Why Krugman Won't Save Us

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/24/1279850/-Income-Inequality-Why-Krugman-Won-t-Save-Us?detail=email

There is a feeling among the masses generally that something is radically wrong. They are despairing of political action. They say the only thing you do in Washington is to take money from the pockets of the poor and put it into the pockets of the rich. They say that this Government is a conspiracy against the common people to enrich the already rich. I hear such remarks every day.

Oscar Ameringer, 1932

According to the author of What's the Matter With Kansas?, Paul Krugman won't save us:

“Inequality” is the most basic issue of them all, the very reason for liberalism’s existence. It is about who we are and how we live. Virtually every other liberal cause pales by comparison. This is the World War II of political subjects, and if we are going to win it must be a people’s war, not a Combat of the Thirty between the plumèd knights of the Beltway.

Thomas Frank, writing for Salon, is skeptical that no matter how well-intended and accurate the arguments of pols like Robert Reich and Nobel-adorned economists like Paul Krugman, no matter how plainly and persuasively they lay out the case, the issue of ever-widening class division in this society will only be met and resolved by a popular, grassroots movement, not by the paladins of Washington or their cohorts and critics within the Beltway. The reason is that the issue goes to the heart of Americans' existence, our very perception of ourselves as a people. The reordering of our society that we see happening all around us is simply not a subject that can be dissected by a series of articles in the New York Times, nor solved by lectures in a Berkeley classroom. This is not an academic subject at all. To view it as such anesthetizes us from the reality:

“Inequality” is not some minor technical glitch for the experts to solve; this is the Big One. This is the very substance of American populism; this is what has brought together movements of average people throughout our history....

Frank also doesn't believe "Inequality" is a word that does the problem justice, and in fact lends itself to the types of wonky, chart-driven discussions we are all familiar with. It also opens the door to endless political "debate" about something which should be quite visceral:

It is a pleasant-sounding euphemism for the Appalachification of our world.

Frank notes that unlike their forebears, Democrats today run from the word "class." But he searches in vain for another way to characterize the totality of what has happened to the country in the last three decades:

I]n the ever-rising cost of healthcare and college, in the deindustrialization of the Midwest and the ballooning of Wall Street, in the power of lobbying, in the dot-com bubble, in the housing bubble, in the commodities bubble. It was made possible by the signal political events of our time: the collapse of the New Deal coalition; the decline of labor; the infernal populism of the New Right; the fall of antitrust and the triumph of deregulation; the rise of Ronald Reagan, and after him Newt Gingrich, and after him George W. Bush, and after him the Tea Party, all of them bringing their pet tax cuts with them to Washington.

All the terminology and analysis in the world, he says, isn't going to solve a problem that ultimately comes down to a vast theft of wealth deliberately conceived and executed by the wealthy. No charts, no "roundtable discussions," no debates, no think-tanks and no Blue-ribbon Presidential task forces are going to reverse this course. This course will only be confronted and reversed by ordinary people, fed up, conscious of what has been done to them, talking and organizing amongst themselves and demanding--or taking--action. The movement must come from the bottom up, not from the top down:

I]n its basic, brutal thrust — something dead simple: Inequality happened because our leaders set out to make it happen...[.]

* * *

The rich got so goddamn rich, in other words, because the signature policies of the Great Right Turn were designed to make them rich. And, as the world knows, these policies weren’t limited to Republicans; Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama—plus, of course, their resident economists and cabinet members—all more or less endorsed the basic tenets of the free-market faith. They are all implicated.

(Italics in the original).

While Occupy Wall Street (already a distant memory) famously "changed the conversation," it is more than the conversation that needs changing. And it's not going to be changed by aging kulaks like myself, for example. When the generation that finally and fully comprehends the magnitude of the deception that has been foisted on them--the narrowing of their futures resultant from massive student loan debt, inadequate employment options and an indifferent, exploitative corporate culture more concerned about protecting its own bottom line than providing real opportunity--that is when the "changes" will be far more than just "to the conversation."

And when that happens, a lot of people aren't going to like it.

[xchrom]

9. NO EASY BAILOUT PLAN FOR STRUGGLING UKRAINE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_UKRAINE_BAILOUT_BLUES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-25-06-42-34

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine needs money, and fast - in weeks, not months. But bailing out the country of 46 million people will not be a matter of simply writing a big check.

For one, Ukraine has already burned the main international financial rescuer, the International Monetary Fund, by failing to keep to the terms of earlier bailouts from 2008 and 2010.

Now it needs help again, and its economic and financial problems are worse than before.

The currency is sliding, raising concerns that companies that owe money in foreign currency could go bust. Banks are fragile. A rescue with outside lenders can't be agreed until there's a government. And Russia could make things worse by demanding on-time payment for natural gas supplies or withdrawing a recently granted break on the price.

[xchrom]

10. GERMAN EXPORTS DRIVE Q4 GROWTH

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-25-03-18-27

BERLIN (AP) -- Exports helped propel the German economy to 0.4 percent growth in the fourth quarter while domestic demand dropped, underlining concerns that Europe's largest economy is relying too heavily on foreign trade.

The Federal Statistical Office said Tuesday that exports accounted for 1.1 percentage points of fourth-quarter 2013 gross domestic product, while domestic demand subtracted 0.7 percentage points.

In the same report the office confirmed its preliminary report from earlier in February that the economy grew a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter and also 0.4 percent overall in 2013.

Germany's trade surplus hit a record high in 2013, underscoring criticism from the U.S., the International Monetary Fund and others that it's relying too heavily on exports and not doing enough to encourage domestic demand.

[xchrom]

11. CHINA LABELS JAPAN A 'TROUBLE MAKER'

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_JAPAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-25-07-34-33


BEIJING (AP) -- China on Tuesday labeled Japan a "trouble maker" that is damaging regional peace and stability, firing back at earlier criticism from Tokyo over a spike in tensions in northeast Asia.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying was responding to comments by Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida that China's military expansion in the region is a concern, although Kishida stopped short of calling China a threat.

Hua told a regularly scheduled news conference that China's military posture is purely defensive and Japan is stirring up trouble with its own moves to expand its armed forces and alter its pacifist constitution. She accused Japanese officials of making inflammatory statements aimed at denying or glorifying the country's militarist past, and said Japan should explain its strategic intentions.

"I think everybody will agree with me that Japan has already become a de facto trouble-maker harming regional peace and stability," Hua said.

[xchrom]

12. VIOLENCE SPREADS TO ANOTHER BANGKOK PROTEST SITE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_THAILAND_POLITICS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-25-06-54-38

BANGKOK (AP) -- Violence spread Tuesday to another anti-government protest site in Thailand's capital following weekend explosions that left five people dead, including four children, security officials said.

Deputy National Police spokesman Anucha Romyanan said gunmen attacked a protest camp near Lumpini Park in downtown Bangkok early Tuesday. He said shots were fired from a car and a motorcycle at protest site guards there and at another protest site near the upscale Ratchaprasong shopping area.

On Sunday, a grenade attack at Ratchaprasong killed a 6-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother. A 5-year-old girl died Saturday from another attack on a rally site in the eastern province of Trat and a second 5-year-old girl succumbed to her wounds Tuesday.

The attacks, for which no one has been arrested, are the latest in a spate of protest-related violence roiling Thailand over the past three months. The protesters want Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign to make way for an appointed interim government to implement reforms aimed at ousting her powerful family from politics, but she has refused.

[xchrom]

13. EU REVISES GROWTH FORECASTS UP SLIGHTLY

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/eu-revises-growth-forecasts-slightly

BRUSSELS (AP) — Economic growth across Europe is expected to be slightly stronger this year as the recovery gains ground, according to the European Commission's new forecast released Tuesday.

The 18-country eurozone's economy is expected to grow by 1.2 percent in 2014 and by 1.8 percent next year — 0.1 percentage points more each year than predicted in the Commission's last forecast in November.

"The strengthening of domestic demand this year should help us to achieve more balanced and sustainable growth," said Commissioner Olli Rehn, the bloc's top economic official. "The worst of the crisis may now be behind us."

Spain stands out as firmly turning the page on a two-year recession. The Commission doubled its 2014 growth outlook for the country to 1 percent. Its high unemployment rate, however, is expected to fall only slowly below 26 percent this year.

[xchrom]

14. Italy’s Youngest Ever Prime Minister Vows ‘Radical Change' In Impassioned Speech

http://www.businessinsider.com/italys-youngest-ever-prime-minister-vows-radical-change-in-impassioned-speech-2014-2

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called for a "radical and immediate change" in recession-hit Italy as he outlined his new government's reform agenda before winning a crucial confidence vote in the Senate early Tuesday.
In an energetic and impassioned speech to parliament, Italy's youngest-ever premier reiterated plans for rapidly overhauling the tax system, jobs market and public administration in a bid to tackle the country's ailing economy.

"If we lose this challenge the fault will be mine alone. No-one has an alibi anymore," the 39-year-old said as his fiery speech prompted jeers and insults from opposition benches.

"This is an Italy of possibilities, an Italy of fundamental change," he said, stressing the "urgency" of implementing reforms in "a rusty country... gripped by anxiety".



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/italys-youngest-ever-prime-minister-vows-radical-change-in-impassioned-speech-2014-2#ixzz2uL7sw98c

[xchrom]

15. Yanukovych's Fall: The Power of Ukraine's Billionaires

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/how-oligarchs-in-ukraine-prepared-for-the-fall-of-yanukovych-a-955328.html

Nobody told Ukrainian parliamentarian Yuri Blagodir that you had to be physically fit to be a representative. But last Thursday, the ability to run fast suddenly became a key skill. Just before 10 a.m., the parliament in Kiev was finally assembling in an effort to find a way out of the spiraling chaos that had gripped the country. Then came the order to clear the building.

Gunfire rang out, explosions shook the government quarter and special police and secret service units rushed to the scene. The opposition, it was said, intended to storm the parliament and the seat of government.

Blagodir, 40, ran up the street along with the other parliamentarians, away from the city center and away from the parliament building. They felt like they were running for their lives -- a pack of representatives being hunted by the people they represented.

It was afternoon before they returned to their workplace and the greatly anticipated special session only began at 5 p.m. For Yuri Blagodir, the session was of particular importance. Just a day earlier, he had still been a member of the Party of Regions, the governing party led by President Viktor Yanukovych.

[DemReadingDU]

16. Another "Successful Banker" Found Dead

2/24/14 Another "Successful Banker" Found Dead

The dismal trail of dead bankers continues. As The Journal Star reports, a successful Lincoln businessman and member of a prominent local family died last week. Former National Bank of Commerce CEO James Stuart Jr. was found dead in Scottsdale, Ariz., the morning of Feb. 19. A family spokesman did not say what caused the death. This brings the total of banker deaths in recent weeks to 9 as Stuart is sadly survived by three sons and four daughters.

more...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-24/another-successful-banker-found-dead



What did these bankers know?

[DemReadingDU]

17. Karl Denninger has closed his forum, but occasionally will write his tickers

Very long posting...

2/25/14 In Closing
.
.
Therefore what was is no longer. The Market Ticker will continue to publish articles at my whim if events catch my eye, much as Musings used to before The Ticker existed. I suspect there will be plenty that I want to comment on in the coming months and years. However, all comments will be moderated and will appear whenever I get around to looking at and approving them, starting here and now. The rest of what was Tickerforum has been closed.

Bonne chance mes amis.
http://market-ticker.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?post=228802

[xchrom]

18. The Increasingly Unequal States of America Income Inequality by State, 1917 to 2011

http://www.epi.org/publication/unequal-states/

Specific findings include:

Between 1979 and 2007, the top 1 percent took home well over half (53.9 percent) of the total increase in U.S. income. Over this period, the average income of the bottom 99 percent of U.S. taxpayers grew by 18.9 percent. Simultaneously, the average income of the top 1 percent grew over 10 times as much—by 200.5 percent.

Lopsided income growth characterizes every state between 1979 and 2007.
In four states (Nevada, Wyoming, Michigan, and Alaska), only the top 1 percent experienced rising incomes between 1979 and 2007, and the average income of the bottom 99 percent fell.

In another 15 states the top 1 percent captured between half and 84 percent of all income growth between 1979 and 2007. Those states are Arizona (where 84.2 percent of all income growth was captured by the top 1 percent), Oregon (81.8 percent), New Mexico (72.6 percent), Hawaii (70.9 percent), Florida (68.9 percent), New York (67.6 percent), Illinois (64.9 percent), Connecticut (63.9 percent), California (62.4 percent), Washington (59.1 percent), Texas (55.3 percent), Montana (55.2 percent), Utah (54.1 percent), South Carolina (54.0 percent), and West Virginia (53.3 percent).

In the 10 states in which the top 1 percent captured the smallest share of income growth from 1979 to 2007, the top 1 percent captured between about a quarter and just over a third of all income growth. Those states are Louisiana (where 25.6 percent of all income growth was captured by the top 1 percent), Virginia (29.5 percent), Iowa (29.8 percent), Mississippi (29.8 percent), Maine (30.5 percent), Rhode Island (32.6 percent), Nebraska (33.5 percent), Maryland (33.6 percent), Arkansas (34.0 percent), and North Dakota (34.2 percent).

[xchrom]

19. Rate Cut Promise Leads to Corporate Tradeoff in Tax Code Redo

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-25/promise-of-rate-cut-means-corporate-tradeoff-in-code-redo.html

Republicans have spent the past three years promising to significantly reduce personal and corporate tax rates without increasing the budget deficit. They’re about to show how.

Representative Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, will release a draft bill this week that’s being closely watched by corporate lobbyists and lawmakers. The plan will point up the tradeoffs in reshaping the tax code and altering U.S. tax breaks for retirement, housing, energy, charity, health care, capital gains and finance.

“It gives people a chance to see in stark relief what it takes to get a broader-based, lower-rate code,” said Jonathan Traub, a former senior aide to Camp. “It’s incredibly difficult. There are few provisions in the code that are sort of broadly agreed by everybody to be loopholes. A rate reduction benefits everybody, but it’s very expensive.”

The plan has little chance of becoming law this year. Even so, the response from lawmakers, business groups and the public will test an idea that has been at the center of Republican economic policy.

[xchrom]

20. European Stocks Slide as Yen Gains on Weakening Yuan

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-24/asia-futures-gain-as-won-forwards-signal-rally-oil-rises.html

European stocks declined from a six-year high as Vivendi SA and Fresenius Medical Care AG posted results that missed estimates, while the yen strengthened on concern a weakening China’s yuan will hurt growth. Copper fell, and Ukraine’s currency slid to a record.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.3 percent at 8:33 a.m. in New York. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) futures fell 0.2 percent. Japan’s currency appreciated 0.2 percent to 102.26 per dollar. Copper slid 0.6 percent and West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.2 percent. The yuan weakened 0.5 percent, the most on a closing basis since November 2010, and the Shanghai Composite Index slid 2 percent. The hryvnia tumbled 6.4 percent as Ukraine delayed a vote on selecting a government.

China’s yuan dropped for a sixth day, ending weaker than the central bank’s reference rate for the first time since September 2012. In the U.S., reports will probably show U.S. home prices rose in December while consumer confidence eased this month, according to Bloomberg surveys of economists.

“There are increasing financial risks out of China,” said Witold Bahrke, who helps oversee $55 billion as a senior strategist at PFA Asset Management in Copenhagen. “This is increasing the deflation risks for the global economy from a devaluation strategy. We in fact do not know for sure what intentions the Chinese might have exactly, and that uncertainty is reflected in today’s weakness.”

[xchrom]

21. Italy and France to lag Germany in euro zone recovery

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/25/uk-eurozone-economy-idUKBREA1O0SU20140225

(Reuters) - Germany is set to accelerate away from France and Italy in 2014 as the fragmented euro zone economy gradually recovers from its worst crisis, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

In a departure from the gloom of recent years, Brussels slightly increased its growth prediction for the bloc's 9-trillion-euro economy to 1.2 percent in 2014 from an earlier 1.1 percent.

It was powered chiefly by an expected 1.8 percent jump in the euro zone's biggest economy Germany.

The statistics also made clear the scale of the challenge facing Italy and its new prime minister, Matteo Renzi, in turning around the bloc's third-largest economy. The Commission predicts meagre growth of 0.6 percent this year.