STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 9 April 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 9 April 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 8 April 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 8 April 2015
[center][font color=green]
Dow Jones 17,902.51 +27.09 (0.15%)
S&P 500 2,081.90 +5.57 (0.27%)
Nasdaq 4,950.82 +40.59 (0.83%)


[font color=red]10 Year 1.90% +0.03 (1.60%)
30 Year 2.53% +0.02 (0.80%) [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]

[mother earth]

1. “we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but we will say that heroes fight like Greeks.”

Payback Time 04.08.151:36 PM ET

Even as Greek PM Schmoozes Putin, He Demands Germany Pay Its Nazi Debt

The attempt to claim reparations from Berlin may be an act of desperation, but it reminds Greeks of the desperate times they survived as heroes during WWII.

“Our allies the Greeks, have seen off the Italian army,” said Winston Churchill near the height of the Second World War. “Hence,” he declared, “we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but we will say that heroes fight like Greeks.”

Those words live on in Greece’s national imagination.

The war irretrievably scarred the country. Some figures estimate that almost one in ten Greeks died fighting the Nazis—and it wasn’t in vain. Greek resistance at the Battle of Crete on May 20, 1941, caused the Germans more loss of life in a single day than the Wehrmacht had experienced up until that point. Even more importantly, Greek resistance delayed the German invasion of the USSR by almost two months, dramatically changing the outcome of the war.

But Greece paid heavily for its bravery. Entire villages were massacred in retaliation for the actions of resistance forces that continued to fight on after the Germans had conquered the country. The Greeks suffered pervasive war crimes, looting and heavy damage to property as well as a €10.3 billion occupation loan that the Bank of Greece was forced to pay the Nazis.

It is these issues—and the wounds they have left—that Greece’s new hard left governing party Syriza is now seeking to exploit in its ongoing battle with the International Monetary Fund and European Union led by Germany, to which it owes hundreds of billions of euros.

The E.U. is demanding payment of its loans; the Greek government is doing its best to renegotiate the terms. In the latest rhetorical blow in this ongoing saga Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has demanded that Germany pay—literally—for the destruction it visited on his country almost 70 years ago.

After only a few months in power, and desperately trying to stave off bankruptcy, the new government’s general accounting office has found the time to calculate (for the first time in Greece’s history) that Germany owes it nearly €279bn ($303bn) in reparations.

The Germans reject the claim, pointing to a payment of 115 million Deutschmarks they made to Greece in 1960, and consider the matter closed. This didn’t stop Tsipras bringing the demand up in a recent meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

It’s a typical Syriza move: deeply populist and somewhat cynical as it seeks to distract from the vast sums Greece owes to its creditors—most immediately an outstanding €450m loan from the IMF due this week—and to build on widespread anti-German sentiment across Greece at the same time.

“The Germans are trying to take over Europe again,” is a comment I’ve heard in various forms over the past few years in Greece as bitterness at the harsh, German-led austerity reforms that successive Greek governments have been forced to impose on their people in exchange for massive cash bailouts has grown. Greeks have seen their standard of living plummet as salaries and pensions have been slashed and unemployment risen to around 25 percent of the population.

Syriza was elected on a platform that promised to end the austerity measures. Its rhetoric was aggressive and confrontational—promising Greek voters a Syriza government wouldn’t bend to E.U. demands. But so far it has been forced to backtrack because its still needs E.U. funds in order to avoid going bankrupt. The fighting rhetoric has so far not been matched by deeds.

So the rhetoric continues.

Full article:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/08/even-as-greek-pm-schmoozes-putin-he-demands-germany-pay-its-nazi-debt.html

(posted in GD as well. I wanted to post here for April 9th since it is the due date for Greece. What happens next? )

[Demeter]

2. Ask the Moirai, not me!

I don't know about anyone else, but I've had a hell of a week, for no discernable reason except bloody Fate.

[mother earth]

18. Greece Meets Deadline to Repay IMF Bailout Loan

Demonstration organized to protest Athens’ decision to pay $494 million installment

http://www.wsj.com/articles/greece-pays-imf-loan-1428570520?mod=rss_whats_news_us
ATHENS—Greece has met the deadline for repaying part of its loan from the International Monetary Fund, a senior finance ministry official said Thursday, as the country’s cash reserves continue to dry up.

The installment, which was due Thursday, was worth some €460 million ($494 million).

The repayment comes after Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said Sunday at a meeting with IMF head Christine Lagarde in Washington that his government would meet “all obligations to all its creditors.” His comments were seen as an effort to end speculation—fueled partly by other Greek officials in the past week—that Athens might delay the payment.

Freeing up money to repay the IMF and other creditors, while also prioritizing the payment of pensions and public-sector wages, is forcing Greece to delay other domestic spending to make ends meet.

Greece’s Syriza-led government has been locked in negotiations with its international creditors since coming to power in late January, but progress has so far been very slow.

A more detailed plan for revising Athens’ bailout program was discussed during a meeting of eurozone finance ministry officials in Brussels late Wednesday, aiming to end a standoff and unlock a slice of much-needed financial aid.

An informal meeting of eurozone finance ministers is scheduled for April 24, when the Greek government hopes that an agreement will be reached.

But the overhauls that creditors want, including further cuts to pensions and tax increases, in a country reeling from years of drastic austerity, could split or bring down the government of left wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, which was elected in January on an antiausterity ticket.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Thursday that his government is no longer prepared to sign to any economic overhaul just to receive a tranche of its bailout from international creditors.

“We are not going to sign on the dotted line just to get the next loan tranche,” Mr. Varoufakis said at an economics conference in Paris.

Among its near-term debt burdens, Greece must repay IMF loans of about €770 million on May 12, while maturing treasury bills in the next two months also create a challenge, as foreign investors are increasingly unwilling to buy new issuance and Greek banks have been ordered by the eurozone banking supervisory authority not to increase their exposure.

A demonstration has been organized Thursday afternoon in central Athens to protest against the government’s decision to pay the IMF.

The protest has been organized through a social media community called “Write Off Debt Now” and the public sector umbrella union ADEDY has also called on their members to participate.

The IMF repayment has become a contentious issue among Greeks in recent days, with everyone from taxi-drivers to students arguing whether the government took the right decision or not.

[mother earth]

20. I don't know about the Moirai, but seems the people themselves are demanding public debt write off.

The battle is on. The installment was made, but the desperation remains while interest mounts.

[Demeter]

3. Financial Capitalism vs Productive Capitalism

GUESS WHICH KIND RULES TODAY....

http://www.planck.org/publications/Financial-Capitalism-vs-Productive-Capitalism/

THE SITUATION

Once upon a time financial paper was as good as real assets. These days are gone. The oversupply of financial paper has eroded the trust in the real value of this paper. As first financials and now also nations collapse under their debt, financial paper looses it credibility at fast pace. Preventing this credibility decline in financial paper was the main reason why

a) the banks had to be saved (burdening the nation’s balance sheets to/over the max) and

b) the nations had to be saved (burdening the balance sheets of the yet good performing nations to/over the max).

But there’s no money left to save the banks (only in the USA this is still possible: as they have the advantage of still operating the global reserve currency) and there’s no money left to save the nations. Those last two ‘conventional’ (10 years ago they where to outrageous to imagine/consider/discuss) barriers to support the credibility of financial paper has become useless. The only barrier left standing to support the financial paper in the Global West is the dollar as global reserve currency and that barrier is eroding at fast pace too. But yet more nations make extra-dollar trade pacts with other nations. And yet more central banks make extra-dollar currency swaps with other central banks. By this all the weight of the dollar on the global economy is declining very fast and with that the barrier of last support for financial paper in the Global West is eroding too.

Just one example: the FED/FRB has bought by its POMO schedules the last year $ 40 billion of MBS and $ 45 of US gov debt per month, as otherwise they would not be sold and both the banks and the USA itself was hitting bankruptcy within one month. The US banks are supported by a money flow of near zero interest rates that could be lend out with huge margin spreads, with paper of any quality (even toxic) as collateral. But both games depend completely on the global demand for dollars (and that demand is declining). On top of this is the FED/FRB with other OMO schedules since Black Monday (October 22, 1987) on the stock and currency markets: making these markets also not real but managed too. Add to this all the currency swaps the FED/FRB makes with other major foreign central banks (ECB etc) and you know that markets are managed and an in-crowd is profiting big time on both insider trading as the volume of these interventions. Financial Capitalism at its worst.

When the decline of the global demand for the dollar has reached a certain threshold the Global West will only have two options:

1) doing the same with the euro as has been done with the dollar (the euro area buying out the dollar area), but this demands a global trust in and therefore use of de Euro far beyond current levels: so this option is not that valid, or

2) merge of the dollar and the euro into one new Global West currency as possibility of last resort, they will offer nations that join a debt discount and therefore all nations of the Global West will join (it will not improve anything, it only will deliver a huge stagnation of the Global West, so it has no future and will eventually default/explode/end.

Other nations outside the Global West will not join: there no incentive for them to be looted again by the same nations that did that the last 200 years. Therefore the merger of the dollar and euro into one centrally lead economy of the Global West will divide the world in a centrally lead declining economy in the Global West and in multiple not centrally lead emerging economies in the Global East and Global South.

Buying imports/resources/energy will become too expensive for the Global West: the elite of the Global West will try to extend their reign for sometime but then this modern day EUUSR i.e. Forth Reich with the name NAR (Northern Atlantic Republic) will collapse. Savings and pensions will be vaporized by defaults and inflation. The social security nets of the nations will be abolished by the end of money supply possibilities (no loan possibilities and no money creating possibilities anymore: reaching the end of the elastic of possibilities). Think Russia in 1991 shortly after the end of the USSR.

Democracy (government by the people for the people) will be watered down towards just a ‘nice’ low level as marketing coat/trick needed to deliver some legitimacy. Therefore an active, powerful, investigating, critical free press is more important than democracy and will more insure the public interest than politicians. This view is against the Western Ideology, but that makes it not less true: Western Ideology is polluted and watered down to a large extent. Western style of government only wears democracy as nice marketing coat, but has moved away from its roots towards democracy without demos. The ultimate goal of all these ‘free’ trade agreements is making the merge between government and big business unaffected by people’s votes/interests. Western style democracy is just an hollow marketing slogan with not that much of its original content, but still thriving on ‘branding’ of the old content. Governments are by nature always heading towards more power concentration, towards less serving the demos and more serving themselves and those who can afford to pay for lobbyists i.e. influence: Government for the self-promoted elite, by the self-promoted elite, not for the people, by the people. Achieving public interest is just a game for beginners. Narrow private interests will run the government in cooperation with the administrative elites. Not watching/protecting that of value will have its price.

The price of having chosen financial capitalism above productive capitalism is more and more becoming clear for the Global West as it more and more has to be paid: this process of payment is just started and will not end soon: there are no limits to their parasitism on the real economy. Financial Capitalism concentrates wealth by the market. Productive capitalism distributes wealth by the market. Financial Capitalism is also not sustainable (not in the inequality it creates, nor in the unemployment it creates, nor in the break down of social safety nets it demands, nor in the value/trust/credibility of the papers it issues), productive capitalism delivers sustainability (if one external condition is met: moving in the direction of making production as clean as possible: otherwise its benefits will be eaten out by its damages).

SOLUTION AT LINK


COPYRIGHT NOTE
(texts can be republished freely when the source location is mentioned or the source link is provided)

[mother earth]

21. How will this era be defined? Reform is a must.

There is a Chinese curse which says "May he live in interesting times." Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind. And everyone here will ultimately be judged -- will ultimately judge himself -- on the effort he has contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and goals have shaped that effort.

Taken from Robert F. Kennedy's Day of Affirmation Speech,
South Africa, June 6, 1966

[Demeter]

4. China Spoils Washington's Economic War against Venezuela

http://russia-insider.com/en/financial-war-us-china-granted-venezuela-billion-loan/5220

The article originally appeared at German Economic News. Translated for RI by Anita Zalaldinova

In the coming months China will lend Venezuela, which faces bankruptcy, ten billion dollars. These funds are part of a bilateral agreement. For China it’s a way to quench its energy needs, while the US continue the confrontation line with Venezuela.

Venezuela is under the threat of sovereign default. In providing two five-billion dollar loans, China has become an important partner for the struggling country. The first part of the loan is the joint Chinese-Venezuelan Fund, and will be directed into major projects, CNBC reported. The agreement will be signed later this month. China extended the terms of the loan to five years, giving Venezuela more breathing room, as the terms are typically limited to three years.

The second part of the loan will be used in the oil industry. China will support investments in oil fields, intended to help Venezuelan oil company PDVSA increase production, the official said. 96 percent of Venezuela's foreign exchange revenue comes from the export of raw materials.

The recent fall in oil prices is one contributor to Venezuela financial pressure. Interest rates on bonds have risen again. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed the US is responsible for the fall in oil prices late last year. "Are you aware that an oil war rages?" said Maduro on Monday in a broadcast speech to businessmen. "This war has one goal – to destroy Russia." In addition, it is also directed against Venezuela "to destroy our revolution and bring about a collapse of the economy."

MORE

[Demeter]

5. Can't keep my eyes open...good night, all!

Sorry for the lack of material...

[Crewleader]

6. Today's Cartoon

[Demeter]

7. Which code is that?

[MattSh]

17. Don't have a clue what this one's about...

One of the benefits of living outside the USA, I guess.

[Demeter]

25. I don't have a clue either, although technically, I live in the US

I live in a very different one than most people, even among those in Ann Arbor....

[Demeter]

8. J.D. Alt: A Push-Pull Model for Cooperative Markets Financed by Sovereign Spending

A HIGH-WONK POST ON HOW TO GET GOOD POLICY

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/04/jd-alt-push-pull-model-cooperative-markets-financed-sovereign-spending.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

[Demeter]

9. Eurex Margin Call Said to Be Behind DuessHyp’s Collapse

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-31/margin-call-from-eurex-said-to-trigger-duesshyp-collapse

The near-collapse of Duesseldorfer Hypothekenbank AG, the German lender hit by Heta Asset Resolution AG’s debt moratorium, was prompted in part by a margin call from Eurex, people familiar with the matter said. Eurex, Europe’s largest derivatives market, asked DuessHyp to post additional collateral as the German bank faced writing down its 348 million euros ($375 million) of bonds issued by Austria’s Heta, said the people. The hit to the bank’s capital from the Heta losses and the extra posting of margin forced the lender, laden with swaps, to seek a rescue, said the people. The Association of German Banks, or BdB, on March 15 said it would back DuessHyp, a lender to public entities, and a day later agreed to buy the company from U.S. private equity firm Lone Star Funds.

The repercussions of winding down Heta, a bad bank that became the first institution to be resolved under new European Union rules for bank failures, are an example of how one firm’s collapse can spread across the region. German and Austrian banks’ finances have been damaged by losses induced by Heta. At the same time, investors are reassessing the risk on 1.3 trillion euros of state-guaranteed debt in the euro area...

DuessHyp’s trouble began when Austrian regulators ordered a debt moratorium on Heta March 1, forcing the bank to consider writing down the bond holding that exceeded the bank’s 233 million euros of core capital as of June 30. BdB stepped in to rescue the lender two weeks later. DuessHyp held swaps with a notional value of 13.8 billion euros as of June 30, after cutting the holdings from 17.6 billion euros at the end of 2013, according to its half-year report. That included interest-rate swaps with a notional value of 13.3 billion euros and cross-currency swaps of 500 million euros, both used to hedge risks, the lender said, without providing details on its counterparties.

A margin call is a demand on an investor to deposit additional funds with a broker or clearinghouse after the value of its trading position falls below a predetermined point.

“The derivative portfolio is bigger than the total assets, which is pretty significant and unusual for a bank with such a simple business model,” said Patrick Rioual, a credit analyst at Fitch Ratings. “This is mostly a legacy from the past, because before the crisis they underwrote all sorts of assets from different countries and in different currencies and they used swaps to hedge the risks.”

DERIVATIVES--NOT ONLY GOOD FOR BANKRUPTING LARGE CITIES--CAN TAKE DOWN BANKS, AND EVEN COUNTRIES (THINK GREECE)

[Demeter]

10. 5 Myths about Greece the Banksters need you to believe

http://stopshouting.blogspot.mx/2015/04/5-myths-about-greece-banksters-need-you.html


...the legacy media that is the de facto public relations wing of the IMF and World Bank are in overdrive to continue to advance the narrative that Greeks are irresponsible, indolent, the visit (TO MOSCOW) is an amateurish attempt to blackmail Germany, and further evidence that the Syriza government is out of its depth. Those who continue to buy into the IMF propaganda without pause should consider these points, before they decide whether or not they want to continue to do the legacy media's work for them by reporting their key talking points almost verbatim in the comments section of every blog or media account of the current contretemps. This should not be relied upon as a comprehensive list, but rather a starting point for your own investigation and research:

Talking Point 1: The Greeks are "lazy" and brought this on themselves.

Economic and other data sourced from independent watchdog groups state otherwise.
Pointing to one key economic factor, Average Working Hours per year, the Groningen University Growth and Development Center found that between 1995 and 2005, Greece was consistently the EU country with the highest number of annual work hours per employee. In 2011, the work-hours for Greece was 2,032 - in contrast to the US, in the same time period, which clocked in at 1,836. US work hours have continued to decline, to a current average of approximately 32 hours per week. (Very few Americans would attribute this decline due to "laziness" or "indolence", but would point to external factors, such as the Obama administration's policies that have driven employer's shift from fulltime workers with benefits to part-time staffing with limited or no benefits)...It would seem that the IMF talking point doesn't match the information gathered by independent sources regarding the work ethic of Greeks.

Talking Point 2: Greece's Economy is so small it doesn't matter

Greece is a tiny country, constituting only 2.2% of the EU population, but a regional economic powerhouse. Out of 28 EU member states, Greece's economy clocks in at a respectable # 13. The Greek Merchant Navy, still the largest in the world, represents over 15% of global shipping. Greek shipping is an important player on the world stage in international commerce, making sure those Dollar Stores shelves are kept packed to the brim with tchochkes from around the world. Greek shipping comprises approximately 20% of their national GDP, and the worldwide contraction in shipping activity, as indicated by the shrinking Baltic Dry Index, is one of the many factors putting pressure on the already struggling Greek economy. The permanent removal of Greek ships from inventory will have long lasting impacts for everyone who relies upon imports of any type.

Since joining the EU, Greece's economic growth has consistently been above the EU average, which is one of the reasons that investors were willing to advance the government of Greece additional funding. ...The main concern for EU banksters is that if Syriza takes a strategic default, it may set off a chain reaction among other EU nations (Spain, Italy, Portugal) that have the same underlying fundamentals which are at the root of Greece's difficulties, and which the German finance minister has essentially admitted that they have no solution that they can propose outside of those already on the table, which only serve to further punish and hammer the Greek working classes.

Talking Point 3: Greeks are poor and want "something for nothing"

Greece is a developed country which enjoyed a high standard of living with a ranking of #29 worldwide in 2012. In 2009, by a variety of measures, the purchase parity of Greeks was 98% of that of French citizens. By 2013, that value had fallen precipitously to 73%. At the same time, youth unemployment shot up dramatically, to peak in 2013 at 65%, and has not decreased in any reasonable measure. A country with not just an "underemployed" but unemployed young adult population is a country on track for generational and demographical disaster. Greeks are well aware of the dangers inherent in a "lost generation" and part of the ideological battle with the Troika is that none of the measures demanded by their creditors address or alleviate this significant cultural and demographic problem. Spending for Greek social programs (welfare, healthcare and pensions, but excluding education) constitutes approximately 30% of the state budget, but the Troika is demanding further cuts. Contrast this to the US 2015 projected spending on a similar package of social welfare benefits, which is expected to consume 62%.

A greater concern for the IMF, which bases its policies on a belief that inflation will pull global economies out of recession is that Greece is already in the beginning state of deflation - with a CPI (Consumer Price Index) of -2.2% in 2015 in year over year comparison to 2014. Consumer spending is also declining at a pace that will accelerate the underlying tensions.

Talking Point 4: Greece will back down in the 11th hour, because they have nowhere else to go...

Discounted by the western press is the understanding that Greece is a major regional player and influence-maker in the Balkan region. Greece's economy is larger than all of the Balkan region countries combined, and they have been major investors in the Balkan states since the fall of communism. Greek industries are major investors in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and the former Yugoslavia. While these tiny struggling countries are not on the radar of the large G20 countries, their significance should not be dismissed, as at least one worldwide conflagration was set off by ancient ethnic and geographic tensions in the Balkans. Greece has been a unifying social and economic broker, helping to bring these countries into the developed nation fold. The Balkans, along with Cyprus, are also ideologically and culturally aligned with Russia and not the West. The Orthodox church is the largest Christian cohort after the Roman Catholic church, and still retains significant influence in the countries where it is the dominant religion. Putin has with great calculation aligned himself with the leadership of the Orthodox church, setting off an identity revival as a foil to the perceived decadence of the West and the decline of the Roman Catholic and Protestant sects of the Christian faith. Putin is using this social-cultural lever to pry the "Orthodox states" away from alignment with the West and into the Russian orbit. He has already successfully used soft cultural power to bring Cyprus into the Slavic sphere, and it is not unreasonable to believe that Greece may find safe harbor in Moscow as well. In addition to loans and credit extensions, energy agreements, Putin is also willing to open up Russia's domestic markets for Greek agricultural products, at a time when other Greek industries are contracting and the rural areas of Greece are most impacted by the Troika austerity package. It is as much a needed ideological victory as an economic one for the Syriza cabinet.

Talking Point 5: Greece will never leave the EU or NATO

I will go into this in further detail in another post, but the idiom "blood is thicker than water" may hold true here. As mentioned previously, Greece is naturally culturally and ideologically aligned with other Orthodox states in the Balkans. At a time when the Greek people have been made to feel "humiliated", creating a new regional dynamic, backstopped by Russia, where they can continue to be viewed as the economic and social powerhouse, is an attraction that the obdurate Saxons and Teutons shouldn't dismiss out of hand.

That is a very brief summation - in a later post, I will try and explain why Greece's problems can be laid at the doorstep of that group everyone loves to hate - Goldman Sachs, how it followed a template GS has used over and over again, and how Greece is the canary in the coalmine for everyone else.

[mother earth]

26. Excellent. nt

[Demeter]

11. Putin: Greece did not seek financial aid from Russia

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32213161

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras did not ask for financial aid from Russia during talks in Moscow, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said. There had been speculation that Mr Tsipras would seek Russian aid to ease Greece's debt crisis, and to counter pressure from its creditors in the EU.

Mr Putin said Russia would consider loans to Greece for big joint projects, potentially in the energy sector. But analysts say Russia's own economic woes mean any help would be limited.

Greece's new government is embroiled in negotiations with the EU and IMF to unblock a bailout package and could run out of funds within weeks.

Russia was among Greece's leading trade partners before sanctions on its energy industry and Greece's own economic difficulties reduced trade between the two countries by 40%.
Mr Putin called for trade relations to be restored, and said the two leaders had discussed "various ways of co-operating, including major projects in energy...Under these plans, we could provide loans for certain projects," he said, adding that it was not a question of aid. One of those plans is for a pipeline called "Turkish Stream", to channel natural gas from the Turkish-Greek border into Greece.

[Demeter]

12. Greece raises 1.1 billion euros, sells all 6-month T-bills on offer

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/08/uk-eurozone-greece-tbills-idUKKBN0MZ0X020150408

Greece raised 1.138 billion euros ($1.24 billion) at an auction of six-month Treasury bills on Wednesday, moving the full amount on offer in the first of two sales this month as it tries to roll over debt and navigate its way through a cash crunch. Despite Athens' increasingly dire financial position, it was able to find domestic buyers to plug a gap of about 350 million euros (254 million pounds) stemming from foreign investors' refusal to roll over their own Greek T-bill holdings. The T-bills were sold at a yield of 2.97 percent, however, unchanged from a previous sale in March and the highest rate in 11 months. Athens is now paying to borrow for six months almost twice what Portugal pays to borrow for 10 years.

Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas put a brave face on the situation.

"It was a successful issue," he told Reuters. "Domestic investors covered the whole issue, including the share held by foreign investors."

********************************************

T-bills are the only source of commercial borrowing for the country's leftist-led coalition government which has already hit a 15 billion euro cap on such issues set by its EU/IMF lenders. The European Central Bank has turned down Greece's appeals to raise the limit on short-term debt issuance on grounds that the EU treaty bars monetary financing of governments. Greek banks - the main buyers in auctions - have been told by the ECB they cannot add to their holdings of Greek government debt to plug any gap resulting from foreign investors fleeing the sales.

Athens faces another refinancing test on April 15, when 1 billion euros of three-month paper matures.

[Demeter]

15. Greece will make $485 million loan payment to IMF on Thursday

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/09/us-eurozone-greece-payment-idUSKBN0N00LO20150409?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

[Demeter]

13. ILARGI WRITES A MASH NOTE TO RUSSIA'S CENTRAL BANKER

HIGH PRAISE INDEED!

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/04/ilargi-russias-central-bank-governor-way-smarter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

[Demeter]

14. The Doom Loop: Andrew Haldane writes about equity and the banking system

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n04/andrew-haldane/the-doom-loop

In 1989, the CEOs of the seven largest banks in the US earned an average of $2.8 million, almost a hundred times the annual income of the average US household. In the same year, the CEOs of the largest four UK banks earned £453,000, fifty times average UK household income. These are striking inequalities. Yet by 2007, at the height of the financial sector boom, CEO pay at the largest US banks had risen nearly tenfold to $26 million, more than five hundred times US household income, while among the UK’s largest banks it had risen by an almost identical factor to reach £4.3 million, 230 times UK household income in that year.

How do we make sense of these salary increases? Easily, in fact. During the go-go years, bank profits reached spectacular highs. Bank shareholders remunerated managers for delivering these riches; CEO pay grew almost exactly in line with shareholder returns. Reality then intervened. The heart-stopping global recession of the last few years was largely induced by financial sector excess. The long-term costs of the crisis are likely comfortably to exceed a year’s global income.

The continuing backlash against banking, as evidenced in popular protests on Wall Street and in the City of London, is a response not just to the fact that the world is poorer, as pre-crisis riches have turned to rags, but to the way these riches were privatised, while the rags are being socialised. This disparity is nothing new. Neither, in the main, is it anyone’s fault. For the most part the financial crisis was not the result of individual wickedness or folly. It is not a story of pantomime villains and village idiots. Instead the crisis reflected a failure of the entire system of financial sector governance.

In the first half of the 19th century, the business of banking was simple. The UK had around five hundred banks and seven hundred building societies. Most of the former operated as unlimited liability partnerships: the owners-cum-managers backed the banks’ losses with every last penny of their own personal wealth. The building societies operated as mutually owned co-operatives, with ownership, control and liability all pooled. Financial sector assets amounted to less than 50 per cent of annual UK GDP.

Banks’ balance sheets were heavily cushioned. Shareholder funds – so-called equity capital – protected depositors from loss and often accounted for as much as half of the balance sheet. Cash, and liquid securities such as government bonds, enabled banks to meet their payment obligations to depositors. They accounted for about a third of banks’ assets. Banking systems maintained broadly similar arrangements across the US and Europe. This relationship between governance and balance sheet was mutually compatible. Owing to unlimited liability, control was exercised by investors whose personal wealth was on the line – a potent incentive to be prudent with depositors’ money. Bank directors – the major shareholders responsible for day to day management – excluded investors who didn’t have sufficiently deep pockets to bear the risk. Shareholders were firmly on the hook, and had a strong incentive, in turn, to make sure that managers didn’t step out of line. Managers monitored shareholders and shareholders managers. In this way, the 19th-century banking model kept risk-taking in check.

The global environment was changing, however...

MORE

[DemReadingDU]

16. French air traffic strike prompts hundreds of cancellations

4/9/15 French air traffic strike prompts hundreds of cancellations

Hundreds of flights to and from France have been cancelled as air traffic controllers begin industrial action.

The SNCTA union - France's largest - called the two-day strike in a dispute over working conditions.

Later on Wednesday, the DGAC civil aviation authority asked airlines to halve scheduled flights on Thursday.

Short-haul flights have been the worst affected but France's largest airline, Air France, said long-haul flights were still operating.

The airline added that 60% of medium-haul flights from and to Paris' main airport, Charles de Gaulle, would still operate, but that it would ground two out of three flights at Paris' second-largest airport, Orly.

"Disruption is expected over the whole country," the DGAC said in a statement.

Travellers have been advised to contact their airline.

more...
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32203876

[mahatmakanejeeves]

19. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (04/09/2015)

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20150572.pdf

U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Washington, D.C. 20210
Release Number: USDL 15-572-NAT
Program Contacts: Tom Stengle [phone] Tony Sznoluch [phone] Media Contact: [phone]

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, April 9, 2015

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending April 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 281,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 268,000 to 267,000. The 4-week moving average was 282,250, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since June 3, 2000 when it was 281,500. The previous week's average was revised down by 250 from 285,500 to 285,250.
....

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7 percent for the week ending March 28, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 28 was 2,304,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since December 9, 2000 when it was 2,263,000. The previous week's level was revised up 2,000 from 2,325,000 to 2,327,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,360,750, a decrease of 27,500 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since January 13, 2001 when it was 2,360,500. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 2,387,750 to 2,388,250.
....

UNADJUSTED DATA

....
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending March 21 was 2,617,970, a decrease of 141,794 from the previous week. There were 3,163,363 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2014.

[mother earth]

22. Global Capitalism: April 2015 Monthly Update, Richard Wolff

http://www.rdwolff.com

http://www.democracyatwork.info/

[Fuddnik]

23. Love me some Richard Wolff.

But, I'll have to come back to this later tonight.

[Demeter]

27. THIS IS IMPORTANT! THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN LEARN THIS YEAR

This is what we need to know....this is where we have to make a change.

[Fuddnik]

28. I was watching Wolff on LinkTV last night.

[mother earth]

29. Absolutely. I post his updates each month on vid/mm, this is there too, and he is

always informative. I thought this month's really brought home the truth. He is no nonsense in all of his talks, and entertaining as well.

[tclambert]

24. I really like the idea of putting Wilma Mankiller on the 20 dollar bill.

First, the name Mankiller. Second, she was the first female chief of the Cherokee nation. And you may remember Andrew Jackson, the current face on the twenty, was the President who sent the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. In your face, Jackson!