STOCK MARKET WATCH - Tuesday, 28 February 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 28 February 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 27 February 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 27 February 2012
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Dow Jones 12,981.51 -1.44 (-0.01%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,367.59 +1.85 (0.14%)
Nasdaq 2,966.16 +2.41 (0.08%)



[font color=black]10 Year 1.92% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=green]30 Year 3.04% -0.01 (-0.33%) [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
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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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[div]
Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS



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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]

[xchrom]

1. buongiorno!

[Tansy_Gold]

7. Oooh, that looks good!

Too good to drink!

That's why I always just have plain ol' iced coffee, no frou-frou, because I don't like to mess up works of art by drinking them.

Dinner last night at Organ Stop Pizza, in Mesa, AZ. Music was excellent, but had no expectations of anything great from the pizza. Turned out to be the best pizza I've had in at least a decade.

Unfortunately, that delightful respite put me about three hours behind on the day job, so I'd better get myself busy. No rest for the wicked, and the righteous don't need it!

[xchrom]

8. whaaaa?!?!?! no rest for the wicked?

i'm in trouble!

[Tansy_Gold]

9. yeah, X, you 'n' me both. n/t

[Fuddnik]

12. Don't believe her!

I'm pretty wicked, and I get plenty of rest.

Until this dog keeps nudging me incessantly with a ball to throw.

[xchrom]

14. ...

[Roland99]

20. ooo...love that song!

[xchrom]

21. indeed!

[AnneD]

28. LOL LOL LOL....

I suffer from MKITPTUS (my knitting is too precious to use syndrome). I must admit, I developed it after hubby lost the cap I knitted for him a week after I made it for him.

I am recovering though. For theraphy, I am knitting a burp cloth for a teacher's new baby. I will not, however be knitting anything for hubby anytime soon. If he buys me some super expensive yarn made from fetal merino lambs from the Scottish highlands, meh I might reconsider. Until then he is Knittous Nongratus.

[xchrom]

37. Knittous Nongratus

& for knitting!

[xchrom]

2. Maersk Bets Against European Recovery as Trade Dips

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-27/maersk-bets-against-european-recovery-as-recession-kills-trade.html

Maersk Line (MAERSKB) is betting European efforts to escape a recession this year will fail as the world’s biggest shipping company shifts its business away from the debt- plagued region.

“We think there will be negative growth in Europe this year and that is affecting our view of Asia-Europe trade,” Trond O. Westlie, chief financial officer of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S (MAERSKB), the owner of Maersk Line, said yesterday in an interview in Copenhagen. “The solution that Europe is trying to take is different from the solution that the U.S. is taking. We believe that general growth will be higher in the U.S.”

Europe’s bid to end its crisis by imposing budget cuts on its most indebted members is showing signs of choking economic growth. The 17-nation euro area will shrink 0.3 percent this year, as eight countries suffer economic contractions, the European Commission said last week. European imports fell 0.9 percent in December and Maersk, the largest carrier on the Asia- to-Europe route, plans to cut 22,000 containers a week to respond to the slump. That represents about 2 percent of the region’s sea-borne trade.

“The world is going to have slow growth, things are going to be volatile and this will be the case for a somewhat long period of time,” Westlie said. “Our effective growth rate is going to be challenged because we have a relatively higher exposure to Asia-to-Europe trade compared to our exposure elsewhere in the world.”

[xchrom]

3. Orders for U.S. Durable Goods Probably Fell

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-28/orders-for-u-s-durable-goods-probably-decreased-in-january.html

Orders for U.S. durable goods probably declined in January for the first time in four months as aircraft demand slowed, economists said before a government report today.

Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years fell 1 percent after a 3 percent increase the prior month, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Demand for durable goods excluding transportation equipment was little changed after four consecutive gains, economists projected. Home prices fell and consumer confidence increased, other reports may show.

Factories remain at the forefront of the expansion that began in June 2009, spurred by a stronger auto demand and business investment in equipment. At the same time, rising fuel costs and an economic slowdown in Europe may temper the industry that accounts for about 12 percent of the world’s largest economy.

“Manufacturing is generally resilient,” said Sean Incremona, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York. “We don’t see it accelerating but it can continue to see a pickup.”

[Po_d Mainiac]

4. here's the cup Guvnah

&feature=player_embedded

[xchrom]

5. Tilting at Oil Rigs

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39600/?p1=BI


High stakes: Neil Renninger is chief technology officer of Amyris, a company that makes chemicals and biofuels using genetically-modified yeast.
Amyris

As an undergraduate in the mid-1990s, Neil Renninger was part of an MIT blackjack team that won millions at casinos by using card counting to beat the house. Yet the stakes were low compared with what he tried next: he cofounded Amyris, a synthetic-biology company that attempted to take on the oil companies by making biofuels.

For now, the luck seems to be with the oil companies. Advanced-biofuels companies like Amyris, which has engineered yeast to make a hydrocarbon that's a replacement for diesel, were supposed to have been producing hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel by now. But that is proving far more difficult—and more costly—than they imagined. Some, such as Range Fuels, have run out of funding and filed for bankruptcy.

Earlier this month, Amyris also said it would all but exit the fuel business and focus on making low-volume specialty chemicals like moisturizers. "We did well playing blackjack. We'd easily win well into the seven digits as a team," says Renninger, who is chief technology officer of Amyris. "But fuels and chemicals are a multitrillion-dollar business." The scale is different by "orders of magnitude," he says.

Some green energy companies, like competitors LS9 and Gevo, battery maker Seeo, and electric-car maker Tesla Motors, were started or staffed by young engineers from schools like Stanford and MIT, who resolved to apply their talents to challenges such as climate change rather than heading to the pharmaceutical industry or Wall Street. By the mid-2000s, enthusiastic students were swelling enrollment in undergraduate energy courses, while the U.S. Department of Energy was putting out calls for "the best and the brightest ... to transform the global energy landscape."

[Po_d Mainiac]

6. MBIA looking to bloody the water

(MBIA has been granted leave to depose former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, for instance.)

http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/New_York/News/2012/02_-_February/MBIA_tells_judge_of_newly_uncovered_Countrywide_fraud_database/

They got whistle blowers and emails

[Demeter]

27. Betcha the statute of limitations ran out

Still, at least it didn't take 60 years....

[Po_d Mainiac]

31. My thinkin is on the line of perjury before CONgress Oct. 16, 2010

[Demeter]

40. Like Capone on Tax Evasion

anyway you can

[xchrom]

10. Deficit last year well over two points above target {spain}

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/02/27/inenglish/1330372249_710505.html

Spain overshot its deficit-reduction target by 2.5 percentage points last year, strengthening the administration’s argument that Brussels should soften the agreed goal for this year. The figures presented by Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro on Monday showed the shortfall in the government’s finances in 2011 came to 8.51 percent of GDP, well over the target of 6 percent, and above the estimate of 8 percent given by the Popular Party (PP) government in December.

The central administration’s deficit last year was only 0.3 percentage points above its target of 4.8 percent of GDP, while the Social Security system booked a slight shortfall of 0.09 percent of GDP when it was expected to post a surplus of 0.4 percent. The main culprit was the regions, whose combined deficit of 2.94 percent of GDP was more than double the target of 1.3 percent.

Shortly after raising the alarm about the deficit, the government announced a budget savings package of 15 billion euros. The deficit target for this year of 4.4 percent of GDP will require the administration to make further budget savings of over 25 billion euros amid another recession.

Earlier this month, the European commissioner for economic affairs, Olli Rehn, urged the Rajoy government to push ahead with drawing up this year’s budget. Reuters at the time quoted unnamed EC officials as saying the PP may have inflated the deficit for 2011 and that it was delaying unveiling the budget because of Andalusian regional elections on March 25. The PP denied those allegations.


*** that's the whole article.

[xchrom]

15. Spain's State Deficit at the end of 2011 was 8.51 percent of GDP

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_33861.shtml

The final number for the Spanish state deficit at the end of 2011 has finally been confirmed by the Government to have been higher than all the forecasts at 8.51% of GDP. The number was confirmed on Monday afternoon by the Minister for Public Administrations, Cristóbal Montoro.

The outgoing Socialists had claimed the yearend target of 6% would be met. The number is even higher than Brussels was expecting, having insinuated recently that it would be under 8%.

The Brussels demand for the end of this year is 4.4%, but Mariano Rajoy has already indicated he wants to be given a more reasonable goal. Brussels say they won’t talk about it until he has published the 2012 budgets, now set for March 30.

Much of the overspend came from the regional administrations which went over the limit of 1.3% to present a deficit of 2.9%.
Castilla La Mancha had the highest overshoot at 7.3%, Murcia had 4.33%, Cantabria 4.04%, Cataluña 3.72%, Valencia 3.68%, Asturias 3.64%, Andalucía 3.22%, Castilla y León 2.35% and the Basque Country 2.16%. Madrid is the only region to have met the objective at 1.13%.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_33861.shtml#ixzz1ngSH6hp8

[DemReadingDU]

11. video: How Goldman Sachs Helped Mask Greece's Debt

2/20/12 How Goldman Sachs Helped Mask Greece's Debt
Nick Dunbar, author of 'The Devil's Derivatives', reveals how the country turned to investment bank Goldman Sachs for help getting around the deficit rules. In his report for Newsnight, some of those who did the deal, talk publicly for the first time.

appx 10 minutes

&feature=player_embedded

[xchrom]

13. Livin' la vida troika: Portugal's pain as the screws tighten on public spending

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/02/27/inenglish/1330345963_302545.html



João António Espadeiro, 84, lives in the small town of Morão, in the Portuguese region of Alentejo, 200 kilometers east of Lisbon and just 10 kilometers west of the border with Spain's Extremadura region. His wife died of cancer two months ago. Since then, his only company is a skinny, yapping little dog.

Espadeiro is ill, and has had a pacemaker for years. He dispiritedly shows the reporter around the courtyard on this cold and sunny winter morning. Standing near him is Vania Paias, part of the team of doctors and ambulance drivers that serves the district. Espadeiro points at his chest and says he is in bad shape, but that he often skips his periodic visits to the hospital in Évora, 70km away, because the ambulance costs 36.50 euros and he cannot afford it.

Ever since medical transportation for non-emergency patients stopped being free - part of Portugal's bailout conditions - Espadeiro has to make sure he does not use up too much of his 475-euro pension on ambulance rides.

Paias knows more cases like this one: the woman in a wheelchair who no longer goes to physiotherapy in Évora; the diabetic who learned how to inject himself with insulin; the woman who died of breast cancer because, without the ambulance, she'd have to take the 8am bus to Lisbon and return on the same route at 10pm.

[xchrom]

16. Europe stocks turn mostly lower after U.S. data

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/europe-stocks-turn-mostly-lower-after-us-data-2012-02-28

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets headed mostly lower Tuesday after data showed orders for U.S. durable goods sank 4% in January, more than the 1.3% fall economists had expected. The Stoxx Europe 600 index /quotes/zigman/2380150 XX:SXXP -0.38% was 0.3% lower at 263.07 after trading as high as 265.03 earlier in the session. The U.K. FTSE 100 index /quotes/zigman/3173262 UK:UKX -0.24% was off 0.2% at 5,904.09, while the German DAX 30 index /quotes/zigman/2380246 DX AX -0.41% lost 0.2% to 6,834.37. The French CAC 40 index /quotes/zigman/3173214 FR X1 -0.26% shed 0.1% to 3,436.97.

[xchrom]

17. for a while there -- the smilies didn't show up -- now they are back.

but i kinda like 'em.

[xchrom]

18. Petrobras climbs in Brazil after oil discovery

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/petrobras-climbs-in-brazil-after-oil-discovery-2012-02-24

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Brazilian stocks rose Friday, with a climb in shares of market heavyweight Petroleo Brasiliero SA cutting slightly into the benchmark’s decline for the holiday-shortened week.

The Ibovespa /quotes/zigman/1467794 BR:BVSP -1.06% advanced 0.2% to 65,942.73, with preferred shares of Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, /quotes/zigman/265276/quotes/nls/pbr PBR +0.33% /quotes/zigman/182970 BR ETR4 -0.53% up 2.3% after the state-run oil producer said it found light crude oil below the deep-water Santos Basin off the coast of Sao Paulo state.

Light crude, which has a lower density and viscosity than other types of oil, is more valuable to refiners because it produces a higher percentage of gasoline and diesel fuels.

The discovery pushed up the Petrobras’s year-to-date gain to 14%. It also came during the same session that saw crude-oil futures jump above $109 a barrel to hold nine-month highs. April crude /quotes/zigman/2203138 CLJ2 -0.66% has gained on worries among investors about the potential for supply disruptions as Iran eyes a halt in oil exports to some European countries

[Roland99]

19. Goldman: Germany Is Now On The Hook By €1 Trillion (Or 40% Of GDP)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/goldman-germany-now-hook-%E2%82%AC1-trillion

Goldman Sachs, in estimating the impact of tomorrow's LTRO, lets one slip, namely the fact that despite popular German expectations that European bailouts occur at the ECB level, and Germany is fairly isolated from what happens in Greece (which as of today no longer stays at the ECB, but shifts right through to the Bundesbank) thereby reducing the risk of runaway debt inflation, the true price to Germany is substantial to quite substantial. €1 trillion to be precise. Which just happens to be 40% of German GDP...

To wit:

The ECB’s second 3-year refinancing operation (LTRO) kicks-off today, with results announced tomorrow at 10:15 GMT. Around EUR200bn is expected to be drawn from (mostly small-medium) banks in the seven countries that have requested loans to be pledged as collateral through the respective national central banks (the number is obtained by applying a 2/3 haircut to a pool of EUR600-700 bn eligible credit claims). The consensus figure for the entire operation is around EUR500bn, similar to the size of the first refinancing. A higher headline number would have positive first order implications for broader markets, indicating that ‘excess liquidity’ is available to Euro area depository institutions. The focus will then shift on where such liquidity will eventually be deployed. Data for January released yesterday showed that credit to the Euro area private sector has stabilized, but not recovered after the sharp decline at the end of last year.



Staying in the Euro area, the vexed issue of the size of the so-called ‘firewalls’ remains unresolved, and will likely come up again at the Euro leaders summit on Thursday and Friday (March 01-02). The debate crystallizes the tension between ‘financial stability’ and ‘moral hazard’ that has characterized the European sovereign and banking crisis right from the start. Calls on Germany and other core states to combine the lending capacity of the EFSF and the ESM and thus provide a bigger protection against tensions in Greece are increasing. But with peripheral spreads in retreat, largely thanks to the ECB’s ‘all-you-can-take’ term funding operations, the fear in some quarters is that of removing incentives for the peripheral sovereigns (and banks) to continue deleveraging. Germany is the country that has pushed the most for PSI in Greece in an attempt to foster future market discipline, but is also the one that has the biggest stake in conditional aid programs to the periphery and seen its ‘target 2 imbalance’ vis-à-vis the EUR periphery reach almost EUR 1trn on the latest count.

So how long before fake German indignation turns real: €1 trillion in sunk PIIGS costs, €2.5 trillion, or 100% of German GDP? €5 trillion?

[Demeter]

29. Germany's Mercantilism (Export Oriented Economy) Caused the Pain

for their own gain, so it seems only fair...

[xchrom]

22. Retail sales fall 3.7% in January {ireland}

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0228/breaking13.html

The volume of retail sales fell by 3.7 per cent in January, suggesting that consumers felt the pinch of VAT increases introduced in December’s budget.

Figures released this morning by the Central Statistics Office show that the volume of retail sales was down 3.7 per cent month on month, while there was an annual decrease of 0.8 per cent.

When motor sales are stripped out, the retail sales decreased by 1.6 per cent, compared to December 2011, with an annual decrease of 2.7 per cent.

While sales in the motor trade saw the biggest drop – a fall of 21.3 per cent – department stores saw an 18.4 per cent decrease in the volume of goods sold on a monthly basis, suggesting that the annual January sales failed to lift consumer sentiment.

[xchrom]

23. Portugal passes bailout review

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0228/breaking29.html

Portugal has passed the third review of its €78 billion bailout programme by the European Union and IMF but the country's economic slump will deepen this year, finance minister Vitor Gaspar said today.

Officials from the European Union and IMF will recommend disbursement of the bailout's next tranche of €14.6 billion after finding Portugal has met fiscal goals and launched reforms to make the economy more competitive, the minister said.

"The result (of the evaluation) was positive despite unfavourable conditions," Mr Gaspar told journalists. "The mission (of officials) confirmed the fulfillment of the criteria demanded by the terms."

But Mr Gaspar changed the government's outlook for this year's economic slump - the deepest since the 1970s - to a contraction of 3.3 per cent from a previously forecast 3 per cent decline. He also said unemployment, which is already at record highs, would worsen both this year and next.

[xchrom]

24. China's middle class now a key economic constituency

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0228/1224312478841.html

ASIA BRIEFING: THE HEADLINES in the Asia story tend to linger on the swelling ranks of super-rich, while occasionally pausing on the still vast numbers of poor people. But Irish companies keen to make money in the continent should be looking somewhere in the middle.

Asia is predicted to add 2.5 billion people to the world’s middle classes in the next 20 years, and nowhere can you see this more easily than in China. “The Chinese middle class is growing rapidly and people have money to spend,” says Liam Casey, founder and chief executive of the international supply chain management company PCH.

“There is a phenomenal appetite for foreign brands in China and Irish companies should move quickly to sell products in this market,” says the Corkman, who has major operations in Shenzhen, Cork and the US.

The Chinese middle class is burgeoning – there are more than 300 million bourgeoisie and this could reach 75 per cent of the population by 2050. The middle class could be three times bigger than that of the US, and that within a generation. And while it sounds odd that a Marxist-Leninist group should be so reliant on the bourgeoisie it is supposed to abhor, the Communist Party finds that its key area of support is in middle class Chinese.

[xchrom]

25. Home prices hit new lows

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-home-prices-20120228,0,1131448.story

A key gauge of home prices in the nation's largest cities fell in December to its lowest level since the start of the housing crisis in mid-2006.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 American cities fell 1.1% from November to December and 4% from December 2010. Eighteen out of the 20 cities tracked by the index posted declines and Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa,Fla., each saw average home prices hit new lows.

“In terms of prices, the housing market ended 2011 on a very disappointing note,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices. “While we thought we saw some signs of stabilization in the middle of 2011, it appears that neither the economy nor consumer confidence was strong enough to move the market in a positive direction as the year ended."

All of the California cities in the index posted declines from the prior month. Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco fell 1.1%, 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. The drop continues a slide that began last year as sales weakened and the jobs picture remained bleak.

[girl gone mad]

32. Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Decline 4%

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities dropped more than forecast in December to the lowest level since the housing crisis began in mid-2006, indicating foreclosures are hampering the industry’s recovery.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities fell 4 percent from a year earlier, after decreasing 3.9 percent in November, a report from the group showed today in New York. The median forecast of 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 3.7 percent decline.

Distressed properties returning to the market mean prices will stay depressed, prompting buyers to wait for cheaper bargains and impeding construction. While sales have begun to stabilize, a rebound in home values may take time, underscoring Federal Reserve policy makers’ concern that weakness in housing is blunting their efforts to spur the economic expansion.

“We’re still dealing with a lot of distressed properties and very low absolute levels of demand,” said Sean Incremona, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York, who accurately projected the 4 percent drop. “We’re not seeing any of the stabilization in housing activity filter through to prices.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-28/home-prices-in-20-u-s-cities-decline-4-.html

[FarCenter]

36. Almost all the housing price decline was by April 2009, with only some metro areas declining since.

The following is the seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller index value for the metro area divided by the maximum value ever attained for the metro area.

Most metro areas are essentially unchanged since April 2009 with fairly minor percentage moves up or down since then. The exceptions are Chicago, Seattle, Portland and Las Vegas, which are down about 10% since April 2009, and Atlanta, which is down 14%.

Atlanta is down a lot recently. There may be a specific Atlanta metro reason for the decline there.

[pre]
,Apr-07, Apr-09, Dec-11
TX-Dalla, 100%, 92%, 91%
CO-Denve, 98%, 89%, 89%
NC-Charl, 99%, 89%, 83%
MA-Bosto, 95%, 82%, 83%
OH-Cleve, 97%, 81%, 80%
NY-New Y, 98%, 80%, 75%
OR-Portl, 100%, 80%, 71%
DC-Washi, 94%, 67%, 71%
WA-Seatt, 100%, 79%, 69%
GA-Atlan, 100%, 79%, 65%
IL-Chica, 99%, 74%, 64%
MN-Minne, 98%, 65%, 64%
CA-San D, 93%, 58%, 60%
CA-Los A, 98%, 59%, 59%
CA-San F, 97%, 55%, 59%
MI-Detro, 91%, 57%, 53%
FL-Tampa, 95%, 60%, 52%
FL-Miami, 99%, 53%, 49%
AZ-Phoen, 96%, 47%, 44%
NV-Las V, 97%, 48%, 38%[/pre]

Sorry about the formatting -- apparently the PRE tags don't work any more.

[xchrom]

39. +1

[xchrom]

26. Analysis - New central bank cash glut risks "monetary anarchy"

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/28/uk-investment-money-idUKTRE81R13Q20120228

(Reuters) - The scale of money printing in the West has become so massive that the world may fall prey to "monetary anarchy," with traces of bubbles appearing everywhere.

At least that's what some critics see in the latest round of cash pumping by major central banks.

It is also an eerily reminiscent of 2011, when similarly generous monetary easing sparked higher oil prices, slowed the recovery and stoked speculative hot money flows into vulnerable emerging markets.

The European Central Bank alone is expected to lend another half trillion euros or more of super-cheap money to banks on Wednesday, following Japan and Britain which have already injected fresh cash. The Federal Reserve has promised to keep interest rates low until 2014 and act further if needed.

[Ghost Dog]

30. Ufff... Britain is being rebuilt in aid of corporate power

... Another eight weeks I'm due to spend here. Can I stand it ...

They used to do it subtly; they don't bother any more. Last week a column in the Telegraph argued that businesses should get the vote. Though they pay tax, Damian Reece maintained, they have "no say in the running of local or national government". To remedy this cruel circumscription, he suggested that elections in the UK should follow the example set by the City of London Corporation. This is the nation's last rotten borough, in which ballots in 21 of its 25 wards are controlled by companies, whose bosses appoint the voters. I expect to see Mr Reece pursue this noble cause by throwing himself under the Queen's horse.

Contrast this call for an extension of the franchise with a piece in the same paper last year, advocating an income qualification for voters. Only those who pay at least £100 a year in income tax, argued Ian Cowie, another senior editor at the Telegraph, should be allowed to vote. Blaming the credit crisis on the unemployed (who, as we know, lie in bed all day devising credit default swaps and collateralised debt obligations), Cowie averred that "it's time to restore the link between paying something into society and voting on decisions about how it is run". This qualification, he was good enough to inform us, could exclude "the majority of voters in some metropolitan areas today". The proposal was repeated by Benedict Brogan, the Telegraph's deputy editor.

No representation without taxation: wasn't that Alan B'stard's slogan in the satirical series The New Statesman? Votes for business, none for the poor: this would formalise the corporate assault on democracy that has been gathering pace for the past 30 years.

This column is a plea for distrust. Distrust is the resource on which democracy relies. Distrust inspires the scrutiny and accountability without which representation becomes a lie. Distrust is all that stands between us and bamboozlement by people who, like Reece, Cowie and Brogan, channel the instincts of the billionaire owners of newspapers and broadcasters.

/... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/27/britain-rebuilt-in-aid-corporate-power

[Demeter]

41. They Are Positively Barmy

I hope that's the appropriate translation for "freakin' nutz".

Sure, let's go back to the 1700's. And slavery. Why not?

[xchrom]

33. Threatened Goldman Japan workers unionize

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120228zg.html

The past year has been anything but business as usual for the financial industry. Faced with a frosty economic climate, financial service companies have been busy chopping dead wood. Last year, 200,000 financial service jobs ended up on the cutting block worldwide.

In Japan, that meant layoffs at famous firms including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings, Mizuho Financial Group, and the not-so-famous, such as Spanish bank Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.

At Goldman Sachs Japan, things became so unusual that some of its staff even took the remarkable step of unionizing after the firm's attempts to force workers to voluntarily resign — and thus sidestep the notoriously tough restrictions on layoffs under Japanese labor law — apparently backfired. Instead of quitting, the company's actions spurred some employees to heed the call for workers of the world to unite, and they formed what's believed to be Goldman Sachs' first-ever employee union.

Goldman, known for its close connections to governments and the most powerful corporations, has been cutting jobs worldwide. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the financial giant eliminated 2,400 jobs in 2011 in response to a 26-percent drop in revenue. Goldman Sachs Japan representatives declined to divulge how many of its 1,300 employees have received pink slips.

[Hotler]

34. Good for them. n/t

[xchrom]

35. I thought so. White collar unions is

Something the world really needs.

[Demeter]

42. What the world needs now (is not love, sweet love)

It's worker-owned cooperatives and the total destruction of the multinationals.

[xchrom]

45. In the late 60s and early 70s - the high school and college

Debate teams were swamped w/ topics re: the environment.

'multinational' as a source of the problems came up then time and again.

Nothing has changed except it's gotten worse.

[xchrom]

38. Greece cuts minimum wage as austerity drive begins

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/28/uk-greece-idUKTRE81R1FM20120228

(Reuters) - Greek ministers agreed deep cuts to the minimum wage on Tuesday, slashing living standards for low-paid workers as Athens began implementing measures demanded by international lenders in return for a 130 billion euro (110 billion pound) rescue package.

Cabinet approved the cuts, which will hit workers already struggling after more than four years of deep recession, as it signed off on a series of steps agreed in principle by parliament last week, a government official said.

The move, which will pass into law without the need for further parliamentary approval, imposes a 22-percent cut on the standard minimum monthly wage of 751 euros. For those under 25, the cut will be even more brutal, a 32-percent reduction.

In addition, it will impose a public-sector wage freeze until the unemployment rate, currently 21 percent, falls below 10 percent.

[AnneD]

43. World Bank warns: China is a ticking time bomb

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — “It’s as if 2008 never happened,” warned a BusinessWeek editorial last year. A new crash is certain to complete what the 2008 meltdown started but failed to complete — reform Wall Street.

Everybody knows Wall Street’s still playing the same speculative games that triggered the 2008 crash: Bankers and politicians never learned history’s lessons from the 2008 crash, that our “mutant capitalism” is eating at America’s soul, handicapping future generations — we will repeat them.
<snip>
And just when you though it couldn’t get worse: The World Bank warns that China is headed for collapse. Imagine China crashing. The country holding over a trillion of America’s debt. The same China that’s running all over the world like a 19th century Wild West robber baron, using reserve dollars they got from years of financing America’s costly wars and cheap toys.

<snip>
China’s Super Rich and America’s Super Rich are both self-destructing
Meanwhile back home, Washington, Wall Street and Main Street are so transfixed on our bizarre 2012 election drama, “American Idol” and other titillating reality shows that most fail to see what’s happening outside our narrow vision — like the World Bank’s game-changing new report predicting China’s headed for a major collapse that will sabotage the global economy.

Yes, a collapse of China. And what’s really fascinating is how China’s predictable doomsday scenario parallels America’s. Yes, we know America’s elite Super Rich gained virtual control over Washington the past three decades. And now, ironically, that same bizarre capitalism is sabotaging the goose that laid the golden egg for China’s Super Rich too.

more....

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/world-bank-warns-china-is-a-ticking-time-bomb-2012-02-28?link=MW_story_popular

interesting.....

[Demeter]

44. Precinct Report

At 4 PM we had ~110 voters, all but 2 casting ballots in the GOP primary. We no longer do the absentee ballots, so we have no idea how many there are.

The Democratic ballot permits 1) Obama, 2) Uncommitted

The Dems. have primary because Obama didn't withdraw his name. More money for poll workers...

I'm trying to stay awake. Our busiest times are opening and closing when the turnout is so low and slow.

Dinner's ready...see you tomorrow!