STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 23 February 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 23 February 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 20 February 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 20 February 2015
[center][font color=green]
Dow Jones 18,140.44 +154.67 (0.86%)
S&P 500 2,110.30 +12.85 (0.61%)
Nasdaq 4,955.97 +31.27 (0.63%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.11% +0.04 (1.93%)
30 Year 2.71% +0.01 (0.37%)[font color=black]


[center][/font]

[HR width=85%]

[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]
(click on link for latest updates)
Market Updates
[/center]

[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

[/center]

[center]

[/center]

[HR width=95%]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
[center]
Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
[center]
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
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
[center]
Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
[center]
LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
[center]
Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
[/center]

[div]
[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.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts







[HR width=95%]


[center]

[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]

[RandySF]

1. I'm seeing a lot of anecdotal evidence of improvement here.

When I was unemployed during the deepest part of the recession, I would take my kid to school and have no problem finding a seat on the train back into downtown. Now the trains are packed from door to door. And last holiday season, I never in my life saw so many people in and around Union Square.

[Demeter]

2. I'm back from a great party--you all should have been there!

But now I am dead tired and going for lights out. See you in the morning, maybe..

[Fuddnik]

3. Did you at least bring us some cake?

[Demeter]

4. Better than that!

Chocolate dipped fresh strawberries, from Florida!

The weather held, so people could come out....cabin fever has set in. We had a little soiree: 3 living, published writers in attendance! It was very convivial.

[DemReadingDU]

18. Nice!

You put in a lot of time with various social events to get people to interact and have a good time.

[Fuddnik]

19. Plant City strawberries are just coming in to season now.

And the 10 day Strawberry Festival starts this week. Who the hell knew that Kevin Costner had a band?

[xchrom]

5. The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-important-things-in-the-world-right-now-feb-23-2015-2

Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Monday.

1. Greece must submit a list of economic reforms today to international creditors after securing a four-month extension on its bailout deal.

2. HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver kept millions in a Swiss bank account when he moved from Hong Kong to London.

3. In an unexpected announcement, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito will step down in late June.

4. US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Geneva to meet with his Iranian counterpart for another round of nuclear talks.

5. Turkish soldiers entered Syria to evacuate troops guarding an Ottoman tomb in an area controlled by Islamic State militants.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-important-things-in-the-world-right-now-feb-23-2015-2#ixzz3SZGC5Zn5

[Demeter]

6. Greece: The Way Forward By James K. Galbraith

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41069.htm

The Greek government is in Brussels to discuss the full range of economic issues with its European partners, including budgets, debt and structural reforms. At issue is whether funds will be available to keep paying the bills, on policy terms that Greece can accept.

Two factors complicate this issue. The first is the past Memorandum, alongside a set of tight deadlines, created by the previous government in part to entrap the new one. The second is the European decision-making process, which gives great apparent weight to governments of small countries, many of whom are internally insecure. The easiest path for them is to insist on no changes; anything else amounts to self-rejection.

So far, the Greek achievement consists of stating raw truths in rooms full of self-serving illusions. This exposes contradictions, bringing on facile ripostes, easily rebutted. It also brings on threats and menacing gestures, intended to test resolve. The Greek government seems to have met that test.

It can now proceed to the next step.

The next step is to define carefully what may be accepted. As for reforms, as much as 70 percent of the previous memorandum is (and always has been) common ground. That which is not – fire-sale privatizations, destructive labor market liberalizations and the unreachable 4.5-percent target primary surplus – can be spelled out. Reasonable language to describe the process of discussion to follow may be found.

When this is done, the final decision will be up to Europe – and to Germany, above all. Will Berlin continue to squeeze, in order to pressure, and so risk bringing on a Greek collapse? If so, it will be better to know soon. But Europe may well decide, if not from pragmatism then from a larger strategic vision, that Greece cannot be allowed to fail. In that case, agreement may be reached and the revival of Greece may begin.

James Galbraith is the author of “The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth.”

[mother earth]

23. It's that simple, really, there is no choice but to deal...

But Europe may well decide, if not from pragmatism then from a larger strategic vision, that Greece cannot be allowed to fail. In that case, agreement may be reached and the revival of Greece may begin.

[xchrom]

7. US oil inventories have hit record highs

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-oil-prices-dip-after-lunar-new-year-as-us-inventories-hit-record-highs-2015-2

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped in early Asian trade on Monday after much of the region returned from the Lunar New Year holiday, with Brent futures testing support around $60 a barrel and U.S. contracts hovering around $50.50.

Following a steep fall from June 2014 to six-year lows, oil prices have recovered around a third of their value since mid-January, with benchmark Brent contracts jumping almost $20 a barrel to $63 a barrel last week as traders closed long-standing short positions in reaction to a falling U.S. rig count.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-oil-prices-dip-after-lunar-new-year-as-us-inventories-hit-record-highs-2015-2#ixzz3SZKytVr5

[xchrom]

8. OBAMA CALLS FOR TIGHTER RULES ON RETIREMENT ACCOUNT BROKERS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_INVESTMENT_ADVICE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-02-23-06-07-22

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is proposing tougher restrictions on brokers who manage Americans' retirement accounts, reigniting a confrontation with the financial services industry over rules affecting trillions of dollars in 401k and other savings accounts.

The change would put brokers - who sell stocks, bonds, annuities and other investments - under the stricter requirements for registered financial advisers when they handle clients' retirement accounts.

[xchrom]

9. GERMAN BUSINESS CONFIDENCE RISES FOR 4TH STRAIGHT MONTH

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-02-23-04-32-28


BERLIN (AP) -- A closely-watched measure of German business confidence released Monday rose for the fourth straight month in February in another positive sign from Europe's largest economy.

The Munich-based Ifo institute said its indicator rose to 106.8 points from 106.7 the month before.

[Demeter]

10. Hundreds Mark 50 Years Since Malcolm X's Assassination SATURDAY,Feb. 21

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/hundreds-mark-50th-year-malcolm-xs-assassination-29122356

Activists, actors and politicians gathered Saturday in New York City to honor civil rights leader Malcolm X with a ceremony at the Harlem site where he was assassinated 50 years ago. About 300 people converged to hear remarks from one of Malcolm X's six daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, as well as elected officials. The ceremony was held at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, formerly known as the Audubon Ballroom.

A blue light shone onto the floor in the exact spot where he was gunned down. A mural with images of Malcolm X adorned a wall.

"He was just a young man who gave all that he possibly could," Shabazz said after a moment of silence marking the time of his death.

Malcolm X, whose full name was El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was 39 when he was shot in the theater on Feb. 21, 1965, as he was preparing to address several hundred of his followers.

By the time he died, the Muslim leader had moderated his militant message of black separatism and pride but was still very much a passionate advocate of black unity, self-respect and self-reliance. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of murder in his death. He had repudiated the Nation of Islam less than a year earlier.

MORE

[xchrom]

11. HSBC blames 'challenging year' as profit falls 17%

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31583501


The bank blamed the negative effect of $2.4bn in fines and settlements and UK customer redress for the sharp fall.

The results follow allegations, which emerged earlier this month, that HSBC had helped people evade UK tax using hidden HSBC accounts in Geneva.

HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver saw his overall pay for the year fall to £7.6m from £8.03m in 2013.

[mother earth]

22. Of course it has been a challenging year for them, money laundering was exposed. It's been more of a

challenging year for all of us who believed in the justice system, but of course, we know better now.

The Geneva thing is just more icing on the cake, isn't it? Oh those poor l%ers....always looking for a free meal.

[Demeter]

12. Ukraine must pay for Russian gas sent to rebel areas: Medvedev

OOH! A HIT! A PALPABLE HIT! THAT'S GOTTA SMART!

http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-must-pay-russian-gas-sent-rebel-areas-173837735.html

Ukraine must pay for Russian gas being supplied to rebel areas in the country's war-torn east, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday, raising the possibility of another gas dispute in the midst of winter. Russian gas giant Gazprom began direct deliveries to separatist areas on Thursday in addition to other areas of Ukraine after Kiev temporarily cut supplies. Ukrainian state firm Naftogaz had warned that it would not pay for deliveries to rebel areas.

"According to existing contractual obligations, Kiev must pay for the Russian gas," Medvedev wrote on his Facebook page. Medvedev said Ukraine's current payments would only cover three of four more days of supplies at current volumes, taking into account the new shipments to rebel bastions Donetsk and Lugansk.

Russia only supplies gas to Ukraine when it is paid for in advance.

Medvedev said in a statement on his website that referenced his talks with President Vladimir Putin that "we will have to, as usual, make a difficult decision" if Kiev did not pay. The prime minister said however that Russia "will continue to deliver gas," adding that supplies to separatist areas in eastern Ukraine were being done for humanitarian reasons. Naftogaz confirmed the cut-off in the east and said it had been due to pipeline damage caused by fighting, but said that it later resumed supplies.

Ukraine says Russia has backed the rebels with troops and weapons in the conflict that has wracked the country's east since April. Russia denies the allegations.

[MattSh]

24. And less people to pay for that gas...

Heroes of the Euromaidan Revolution are Leaving Ukraine | VICE

One year ago, Dasha Oratovska and Sasha Zakhovaieva fled from Kyiv's Independence Square as riot police launched an assault on anti-government protesters, firing flares and rubber bullets into the crowd. Sasha lost consciousness and was dragged by a friend to a makeshift hospital in the nearby Trade Unions building. The building soon caught fire, forcing doctors and wounded protesters to evacuate. As the Euromaidan Revolution reached its bloody crescendo, Dasha found Sasha sitting, dazed, on St. Sophia Square, a short distance from Independence Square.

Six months later, Dasha left Ukraine, likely permanently. Sasha remains in Kyiv but has begun formulating contingency plans should the violence in the country's east creep west.

They are not alone. Ukrainians are fleeing the country in record numbers: since February 2014, 600,000 Ukrainians have sought asylum or other forms of legal stay in neighboring countries, and thousands more have moved to the U.S. and the European Union. Others have fled illegally: Poland reported a 100 percent increase in the number of detentions of illegal Ukrainian immigrants last year.

But the emigrants are not only asylum seekers. They are the Western-leaning intelligentsia, the professional classes with relatives abroad, and the students of the Maidan who first organized protests against former President Viktor Yanukovych's kleptocratic and violent government in November 2013.

Since the overthrow of Yanukovych last year, a Russian-backed secessionist movement has claimed the lives of 5,400 people and injured 13,000. The recent ceasefire has done little to quell the violence. Inflation is skyrocketing, hitting 25 percent in December. The hryvnia, Ukraine's national currency, has lost two-thirds of its value against the dollar over the past year. This devaluation has crushed Ukrainians' purchasing power, particularly for western goods, and severely limited their mobility: the average monthly Ukrainian salary was $384 in January 2014. By December 2014, it was down to just $261.

There is little reason to stay; the brain drain from Ukraine is accelerating.

Compassionate, diminutive, and curly-haired, Dasha got her undergraduate degree at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine's most prestigious university. Trained as a social worker, she was an active volunteer while living in Ukraine, working regularly with drug addicts and patients at a psychiatric hospital in Kyiv before leaving for the Netherlands last summer. Dasha says she and other recent émigrés are conflicted about whether or not to return. "Many will not go back," she predicts. Spending months protesting for an unfulfilled vision was taxing: "I can't say that I want to return home soon. As I was standing on the Maidan last winter, I realized how difficult it would be for me to stay in Kyiv."

Complete story at - http://www.vice.com/read/the-heroes-of-the-euromaidan-revolution-are-leaving-ukraine-979

NOTE: Although this is a new story, the numbers all pretty much all understated, some by a good margin.

[Demeter]

25. Big Breathless Report on NPR This Evening

about how Russian conscripts are being ordered off to Rostow and into Ukraine, forced to sign contracts for indefinite terms, and their poor mothers are searching for them, badgering the recruitment offices, etc.

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/23/388520565/russian-conscripts-may-be-part-of-fighting-force-in-ukraine

Kelly McEvers speaks with AP Moscow Correspondent Laura Mills about her coverage of Russian conscripts being sent to Ukraine.

Audio will be up in 2 hours....

[Demeter]

13. Short on machine guns, German army armed turrets with broomsticks

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/short-on-machine-guns-german-army-armed-turrets-with-broomsticks/

Late last year, as the German Bundeswehr was considering rebooting its expensive, failed Euro Hawk drone program, the army of the country with the fourth largest economy in the world fielded its newest armored vehicles in a major military exercise in Norway with broomsticks painted black and lashed in place of missing machine gun barrels. That detail was part of a German Defense Ministry report leaked to Germany's public television network ARD that exposed widespread shortages of basic combat equipment. According to the report, the Bundeswehr units deployed as part of a test of NATO's Rapid Response Force in September were far from combat-ready: they deployed with less than a quarter of the night vision gear required. The units were also missing 41 percent of the P8 pistols and 31 percent of the MG3 man-portable machine guns they were supposed to deploy with. And none of the GTK Boxer armored vehicles that deployed were equipped with their primary armament—the 12.7 mm M3M heavy machine gun.

The NATO Rapid Reaction Force is supposed to be made up of 4,000 troops and related equipment that can be deployed in times of crisis within 48 hours. The force was assembled as a response to the growing crisis in Eastern Ukraine, where rebels alleged to be receiving material and perhaps even direct military support from Russia pushed back the Ukrainian military even as a cease-fire was supposed to begin...According to a Defense Ministry spokesperson, Germany's contingent for the reaction force was fully equipped two weeks ago, and the vehicles that the Bundeswehr deployed to Norway didn't need to be armed—they were serving only as mobile command center vehicles. The spokesman told the German English-language news site The Local, "Why the soldiers still simulated a weapons system is professionally incomprehensible."

But the German military as a whole suffers both from a shortage of equipment and general disrepair. Germany spends less than most European countries as a percentage of its gross domestic product on defense, and as the chairman of Germany's Green Party, Cem Özdemir, noted in September, most of the Bundeswehr's equipment "could come from the junkyard," according to an article in Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung—and that is more from poor management of spending, he insisted, than underfunding.

The Euro Hawk is perhaps the most high-technology manifestation of that failure of management. The drone system, developed by Northrop Grumman from an older version of the US military's Global Hawk unmanned aerial system (UAS), cost Germany nearly a billion dollars before its cancellation in 2013, after it was determined that Euro Hawk would not have the anti-collision capabilities required to get airworthiness certification from European Union aviation officials. In an effort to get a benefit out of the sensor system that made up nearly a third of that cost, the Defense Ministry tried adapting it to other manned aircraft, but the effort failed. Now that the Obama administration is moving for the sale of US drone systems overseas, Germany may instead buy a newer version of the Global Hawk to carry the system.

[Demeter]

14. A Whistleblower's Horror Story By Matt Taibbi

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/a-whistleblowers-horror-story-20150218

Years after blowing the whistle on Countrywide, Michael Winston is bogged down in the courts, and fighting for his life...

SEE LINK

[Demeter]

15. How a NJ lawyer is fighting to make banks liable for violent deaths at the hands of extremists

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-19/are-credit-suisse-rbs-standard-chartered-hsbc-and-barclays-terrorist-banks-

Steven Vincent had just left a money exchange in the southern Iraqi city of Basra when a group of men in police uniforms drove up in a white truck and grabbed him and his translator. It was Aug. 2, 2005. Vincent, a freelance American journalist, had reported on the war for two-and-a-half years. British troops occupied Basra, but he operated without an embed arrangement. British and Iraqi authorities later found Vincent on the outskirts of the city shot dead. The Iraqi translator survived.

Three days earlier the New York Times had published an op-ed article by Vincent, “Switched Off in Basra,” in which he described the infiltration of the local police by Iranian-backed Islamic extremists. “Steven was executed for what he wrote,” says his widow, Lisa Ramaci. She’s set up a foundation in his name that donates money to the families of Iraqis injured or killed because of their work with U.S. journalists. And Ramaci did something else. In November she joined a lawsuit on behalf of relatives of U.S. soldiers and civilians who’ve died in Iraq as a result of violence linked to Iranian-backed militias and terrorist groups.

The suit, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., seeks hundreds of millions of dollars not from death squads, whose members aren’t likely to show up with lawyers in tow. Instead, it targets five of the largest banks in the world: HSBC, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Standard Chartered, and Royal Bank of Scotland. “Defendants,” the suit declares, “committed acts of international terrorism.” The suit, known as Freeman v. HSBC, takes its name from lead plaintiff Charlotte Freeman, whose husband, Brian, an Army captain, died in a Jan.?20, 2007, attack by Iranian-trained militants in Karbala, Iraq.

This far-fetched-seeming attempt to pin culpability for violent deaths on bankers relies on an intricate theory of causation: The European-based banks have handled hundreds of billions of dollars in international transfers for Iranian financial institutions. The Iranian financial institutions, in turn, have moved money for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite Iranian paramilitary organization, and for Hezbollah, the militant Shia movement based in Lebanon and backed by Iran. The Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah have trained and armed Shia groups in Iraq that have kidnapped, shot, and blown up Americans, including Vincent and Freeman....MORE

[Demeter]

16. Eric Holder Gives Prosecutors 90 Days to File Wall Street Collapse Charges

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29181-in-last-gasp-attempt-to-shake-corrupt-reputation-holder-gives-prosecutors-90-days-to-file-wall-street-collapse-charges


POLISHING HIS RESUME---I MEAN, LEGACY, AND THAT OF HIS FECKLESS BOSS AND BFF.

[Demeter]

17. Sharing Economy Must Come Inside Regulatory Tent

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/sharing-economy-must-come-inside-regulatory-tent.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

New internet businesses are transforming dusty old industries. The current wave includes Uber (hire cars), Airbnb (accommodation) and Freelancer (labour services).

But there have been plenty of others over the past twenty years. Email has bankrupted postal services. Skype put a rocket under telephone companies. Google has transformed information and advertising.

There will be plenty more in the near future.

How do the new wave of internet businesses fit into regulatory structures that were designed for a bricks-and-mortar world?

Badly!

The Productivity Commission is currently investigating the barriers facing new businesses. It is taking particular interest in digital start-ups. However, the problems go much deeper.

There are three regulatory challenges for Australia when dealing with internet businesses in the sharing economy:

1. How do we protect consumer interests?
   
2. How do we avoid vested interests using regulation to stop entry and competition?
   
3. How do we prepare for future competition issues?

Consumer protection

Your Uber car is involved in an accident. The driver has standard insurance, not commercial insurance. So any property loss is not covered.

You rent an Airbnb apartment only to find out that the apartment has been sublet in violation of the lease. You are evicted.

You lease out your apartment on Airbnb. A few days later the police call. The apartment has just been raided. The tenants were using it as a pop-up brothel.

MORE

[Demeter]

20. Rent walkouts point to strains in U.S. farm economy

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rent-walkouts-point-strains-u-062853372.html

Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed. Some grain farmers already see the burden as too big. They are taking an extreme step, one not widely seen since the 1980s: breaching lease contracts, reducing how much land they will sow this spring and risking years-long legal battles with landlords. The tensions add to other signs the agricultural boom that the U.S. grain farming sector has enjoyed for a decade is over. On Friday, tractor maker John Deere cut its profit forecast citing falling sales caused by lower farm income and grain prices.

Many rent payments – which vary from a few thousand dollars for a tiny farm to millions for a major operation – are due on March 1, just weeks after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated net farm income, which peaked at $129 billion in 2013, could slide by almost a third this year to $74 billion. The costs of inputs, such as fertilizer and seeds, are remaining stubbornly high, the strong dollar is souring exports and grain prices are expected to stay low.

How many people are walking away from leases they had committed to is not known. In Iowa, the nation's top corn and soybean producer, one real estate expert says that out of the estimated 100,000 farmland leases in the state, 1,000 or more could be breached by this spring. The stakes are high because huge swaths of agricultural land are leased: As of 2012, in the majority of counties in the Midwest Corn Belt and the grain-growing Plains, at least 40 percent of farmland was leased or rented out, USDA data shows...Grain production is, however, unlikely to be affected in any major way yet as landowners will rather have someone working their land, even at reduced rates, than let it lie fallow. But prolonged weakness in the farm economy could send ripples far and wide: as farms consolidate, "there would be fewer machinery dealers, fewer elevators, and so-on through the rural economy," said Craig Dobbins, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University.

Possibly also fewer new farmers.

TOO MUCH IDLE RENTIER CASH BUYING UP FARMLAND...IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME

MORE

[Demeter]

21. Goldman Sachs Raises Top End of Legal Loss Range to $3 Billion By Justin Baer

FROM WSJ

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised the top end on its range of “reasonably possible” legal losses to about $3 billion, the Wall Street firm said Monday in a regulatory filing. Bank’s range of possible legal losses had been $2.5 billion in November...