STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 21 December 2015

[Tansy_Gold]

Last edited Sun Dec 20, 2015, 07:31 PM - Edit history (1)

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 21 December 2015[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 18 December 2015

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 18 December 2015
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Dow Jones 17,128.55 -367.29 (-2.10%)
S&P 500 2,005.55 -36.34 (-1.78%)
Nasdaq 4,923.08 -79.47 (-1.59%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.21% +0.01 (0.45%)
30 Year 2.92% +0.02 (0.69%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
Market Updates
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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
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Yahoo Finance
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
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
08/03/15 Former City (London) trader Tom Hayes found guilty of rigging global Libor interest rates. Each fo eight counts carries up to 10 yr. sentence.
08/21/15 Charles Antonucci Sr, former pres. Park Ave. Bank sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for bribery, fraud, embezzlement, and attempt to steal $11MM in TARP bailout funds, as well as $37.5MM fraud on OK insurance company. To pay $54MM in restitution and give up additional $11MM.
09/21/15 Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn apologizes for VW cheating on air quality standards with emission testing avoidance device. Stock drops 20%, fines may total $18B.
09/22/15 Stewart Parnell, CEO Peanut Corp. of America, sentenced to 28 years in prison for selling salmonella-tainted peanut butter that killed nine.
12/17/15 Martin Shkreli, former CEO Turing Pharmaceuticals and notorious price gouger, arrested on securities fraud charges. Posted $5M bail, resigned as CEO.




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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]

[Tansy_Gold]

1. And bonus 'toon in honor of the newest member

to our wall of shame.

[Proserpina]

2. I wondered if you caught that

(your eee key got stuck in December there)

(or you stepped into a spot of melted ice cube)

both excellent cartoons!

[Tansy_Gold]

4. I was going to add him for Friday

but there weren't any good toons. I figured there's be toons over the week-end that would provide the appropriate commemoration of the event.

I'll fix the e.

[DemReadingDU]

6. Good toons, thanks! n/t

[Proserpina]

3. How Managerialsm/ Generic Management Damaged the American Red Cross

because we don't have enough to worry about...bet this started with Lynne Cheney!

http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-managerialsm-generic-management.html

The American Red Cross is a storied non-profit organization. It provides disaster relief, provides a major part of the US blood supply, and has important public health teaching functions, such as teaching cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (look here). Nonetheless, its operations have become increasingly controversial. ProPublica has been investigating them for years. The latest ProPublica report, entitled “The Corporate Takeover of the Red Cross,” showed how this renowned organization has suffered under generic management/ managerialism, providing another case study showing how bad generic management and mangerialism are for health care and public health.

We have frequently posted about what we have called generic management, the manager’s coup d’etat, and mission-hostile management. Managerialism wraps these concepts up into a single package. The idea is that all organizations, including health care organizations, ought to be run people with generic management training and background, not necessarily by people with specific backgrounds or training in the organizations’ areas of operation. Thus, for example, hospitals ought to be run by MBAs, not doctors, nurses, or public health experts. Furthermore, all organizations ought to be run according to the same basic principles of business management. These principles in turn ought to be based on current neoliberal dogma, with the prime directive that short-term revenue is the primary goal (sometimes in the for-profit sphere called the shareholder value principle, look here.)

The ProPublica article showed how the leadership of the American Red Cross was given over to generic managers; how they ran the organization based on generic business management principles; and how the results were bad for the organization’s mission. I will address each point with quotes from the article, and add the commentary that was lacking in a straight investigative journalistic report...

Yves here (Naked Capitalism). What Poses describes as “managerialism” is a form of looting: coast on an established brand name and goodwill while degrading the actual service in order to pay the top executives more...

a horror-show of detail follows...

Summary

The Red Cross Board of Governors, largely composed of well paid business managers (e.g., a former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, a senior vice president of Eli Lilly, the chief financial officer of Home Depot, the executive vice president of Target), decided that a generic manager using a managerialist approach could cure the organization’s perceived ills. The new CEO, who lacked any obvious experience or training relevant to the Red Cross mission, hired her former cronies at AT&T and Fidelity as managers. The new team cut costs, laid off employees, centralized management, and focused on marketing. The apparent results were fewer, less experienced, upset staff; fewer volunteers; declining interest in public health training products; and worsening disaster response.

Thus, once again, generic managers and managerialism have laid low a formerly proud charity. Unfortunately, this one also happens to have vital public health and disaster relief roles that have now been severely compromised....

[kickysnana]

8. Doles no doubt. But the total aid that reached the Haitian People was a crimminal.

[Proserpina]

5. The Fed’s New “Operation Twist”: Twisted Logic for Bank Profits at the Expense of the Real Economy

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/12/the-feds-new-operation-twist-twisted-logic-for-bank-profits-at-the-expense-of-the-real-economy.html

Yves here. I hope you’ll circulate this article widely. It explains why the Fed’s effort to depict interest rate increases as necessary given the state of the “recovery” and the prospects for inflation are obviously false. The rate rises are all about bolstering financial firm profits, as if banks have a right to them. In other words, this is a continuation of the process set forth in Simon Johnson’s landmark 2009 article, The Quiet Coup. From the overview:

The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets…recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform.

One could imagine a more honest case for rate increases: that sustained negative real yields promotes speculation (witness the proliferation of Silicon Valley unicorns), hurts retirees and savers, and puts the viability of long-term investors like life insurers and pension funds at risk. But given how weak this recovery is, and that deflationary pressures are strong, any rate increases should be accompanied by more fiscal spending. Yet the Fed has not said a peep on that front and instead hope the confidence fiary will come to the rescue.

The fact that the Fed is embarking on a policy that will perpetuate the financial system being outsized relative to the real economy, particularly when more and more academic studies confirm that that is negative for growth, confirms that the Fed needs fundamental governance changes to reduce bank influence and increase democratic accountability. A place to start might be having all the regional Fed presidents be nominated by the President and subject to Congressional approval.

By Gerald Epstein, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

****
It was telling that the first question asked by a reporter in Fed Chair’s Janet Yellen’s press conference following the announcement was not a question at all. The reporter blurted out a sigh of relief: “Finally!” he exalted...

...how did Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve justify their rate increase now, despite strong signs that there is little economic basis for doing so?

Call this the Fed’s “New Operation Twist”: an exercise, not in twisting the term structure of interest rates to lower long rates and raise short rates as in earlier times, but an exercise in twisted logic, plain and simple....

Here is an example of the Fed trying to play the classic game of the “confidence fairy” – we will raise your confidence by pretending we are confident. But it is rather more like “whistling past the graveyard”: with the data out there for everyone to see, most are unlikely to be fooled. It is also a little like saying: we are going to get in our truck and run you over because we are confident that you are strong enough to take it.

And here is, perhaps the strangest twisted logic of all: Yellen said that they want to raise rates now, because they are worried that if there is a downward shock to the economy, with interest rates at the zero bound they will have fewer tools (less ammunition) to counteract the shock.

Doesn’t this sound like she is saying: we are going to create a downward shock, so later it is easier to counteract it?

The final example is the argument that they want to raise rates pre-emptively now, before there is any clear sign of excessive inflation, because lags in monetary policy mean that if they wait they might be too late and then they will have to raise rates more abruptly and this will be even more disruptive.

We must ask the question: who does more rapid increases disrupt? The answer is likely to be the speculative financial markets, and the banks who might find that the speculative positions they take have been mistaken. So here, in paying excessive concern for the financial speculative markets, the Fed is willing to raise interest rates before the labor market is really ready...


...By the later phases of QE, though, most banks in the US did not continue benefiting from loose monetary policy and then the attitude of Wall Street toward expansionary policy likely faded. As Tom Ferguson and I showed in the case of prematurely aborted expansionary monetary policy in the 1930’s, the banks began to lose more from lower interest rates than they gained in asset price appreciation and expanded demand.

The result is that the more standard pattern identified by the IMF and BIS economists of lower interest rates hurting bank profits has likely returned. And with it has been the blistering pressure to raise rates...

It's always about the banks, isn't it?

[Proserpina]

7. Michael Hudson: The IMF Changes its Rules to Isolate China and Russia

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/12/michael-hudson-the-imf-changes-its-rules-to-isolate-china-and-russia.html

The nightmare scenario of U.S. geopolitical strategists seems to be coming true: foreign economic independence from U.S. control. Instead of privatizing and neoliberalizing the world under U.S.-centered financial planning and ownership, the Russian and Chinese governments are investing in neighboring economies on terms that cement Eurasian economic integration on the basis of Russian oil and tax exports and Chinese financing. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) threatens to replace the IMF and World Bank programs that favor U.S. suppliers, banks and bondholders (with the United States holding unique veto power).

Russia’s 2013 loan to Ukraine, made at the request of Ukraine’s elected pro-Russian government, demonstrated the benefits of mutual trade and investment relations between the two countries. As Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov points out, Ukraine’s “international reserves were barely enough to cover three months’ imports, and no other creditor was prepared to lend on terms acceptable to Kiev. Yet Russia provided $3 billion of much-needed funding at a 5 per cent interest rate, when Ukraine’s bonds were yielding nearly 12 per cent.”(1)

What especially annoys U.S. financial strategists is that this loan by Russia’s sovereign debt fund was protected by IMF lending practice, which at that time ensured collectability by withholding new credit from countries in default of foreign official debts (or at least, not bargaining in good faith to pay). To cap matters, the bonds are registered under London’s creditor-oriented rules and courts.

On December 3 (one week before the IMF changed its rules so as to hurt Russia), Prime Minister Putin proposed that Russia “and other Eurasian Economic Union countries should kick-off consultations with members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on a possible economic partnership.”(2) Russia also is seeking to build pipelines to Europe through friendly instead of U.S.-backed countries.

Moving to denominate their trade and investment in their own currencies instead of dollars, China and Russia are creating a geopolitical system free from U.S. control. After U.S. officials threatened to derange Russia’s banking linkages by cutting it off from the SWIFT interbank clearing system, China accelerated its creation of the alternative China International Payments System (CIPS), with its own credit card system to protect Eurasian economies from the shrill threats made by U.S. unilateralists.

Russia and China are simply doing what the United States has long done: using trade and credit linkages to cement their geopolitical diplomacy. This tectonic geopolitical shift is a Copernican threat to New Cold War ideology: Instead of the world economy revolving around the United States (the Ptolemaic idea of America as “the indispensible nation”), it may revolve around Eurasia. As long as the global financial papacy remains grounded in Washington at the offices of the IMF and World Bank, such a shift in the center of gravity will be fought with all the power of the American Century (indeed, American Millennium) inquisition...U.S. lobbyists have just changed the IMF rules to remove a critical lever on which Russia and other governments have long relied to enforce payment of their loans.

The IMF’s Role as Enforcer of Inter-Government Debts

...Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov accused the IMF decision of being “hasty and biased.”(4) But it had been discussed all year long, calculating a range of scenarios for a long-term sea change in international law. The aim of this change is to isolate not only Russia, but even more China in its role as creditor to African countries and prospective AIIB borrowers. U.S. officials walked into the IMF headquarters in Washington with the legal equivalent of financial suicide vests, having decided that the time had come to derail Russia’s ability to collect on its sovereign loan to Ukraine, and of even larger import, China’s plan for a New Silk Road integrating a Eurasian economy independent of U.S. financial and trade control. Anders Aslund, senior fellow at the NATO-oriented Atlantic Council, points out:

The IMF staff started contemplating a rule change in the spring of 2013 because nontraditional creditors, such as China, had started providing developing countries with large loans. One issue was that these loans were issued on conditions out of line with IMF practice. China wasn’t a member of the Paris Club, where loan restructuring is usually discussed, so it was time to update the rules.

The IMF intended to adopt a new policy in the spring of 2016, but the dispute over Russia’s $3 billion loan to Ukraine has accelerated an otherwise slow decision-making process.(5)

*********
The IMF thus is breaking four rules: Not lending to a country that has no visible means to pay back the loan breaks the “No More Argentinas” rule adopted after the IMF’s disastrous 2001 loan. Not lending to countries that refuse in good faith to negotiate with their official creditors goes against the IMF’s role as the major tool of the global creditors’ cartel. And the IMF is now lending to a borrower at war, indeed one that is destroying its export capacity and hence its balance-of-payments ability to pay back the loan. Finally, the IMF is lending to a country that has little likelihood to refuse carrying out the IMF’s notorious austerity “conditionalities” on its population – without putting down democratic opposition in a totalitarian manner. Instead of being treated as an outcast from the international financial system, Ukraine is being welcomed and financed.

The upshot – and new basic guideline for IMF lending – is to create a new Iron Curtain splitting the world into pro-U.S. economies going neoliberal, and all other economies, including those seeking to maintain public investment in infrastructure, progressive taxation and what used to be viewed as progressive capitalism. Russia and China may lend as much as they want to other governments, but there is no international vehicle to help secure their ability to be paid back under what until now has passed for international law. Having refused to roll back its own or ECB financial claims on Greece, the IMF is quite willing to see repudiation of official debts owed to Russia, China or other countries not on the list approved by the U.S. neocons who wield veto power in the IMF, World Bank and similar global economic institutions now drawn into the U.S. orbit. Changing its rules to clear the path for the IMF to make loans to Ukraine and other governments in default of debts owed to official lenders is rightly seen as an escalation of America’s New Cold War against Russia and also its anti-China strategy.


_______

It's as long as a book! Shows how Ukraine was used to screw Greece and vice versa, and so much more!

[Ghost Dog]

23. Imperialist Aggression

Clearly.

[Hotler]

9. This is a fair question. ....:-)

Grab your popcorn.
There was/is a rightous rant over there the HRC crowd is dog piling on.
All that is needed is for someone to go over there and mention Olive Garden for Italian and that thread could really take off. Just saying.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=925573

[Proserpina]

10. I read the headline, and couldn't go on, I was laughing so hard

when I reach some inner control again, I will have to look for the Olive Garden tie-in.

[Proserpina]

11. "sac de pomme de terre."

there went my self-control, again!

Okay, deep breaths..

upon reflection, it should probably be "saque du pomme de terre", calling upon my fashion French and my cooking French...

[Proserpina]

12. I got to the end--still don't get the Olive Garden point, though

There are some seriously mentally deficient people on that thread, as well as the humor impaired, out in full force.

And it is an ugly, unflattering outfit, even for New Hampshire, which has different standards than civilized places. The NYC crowd probably had to take emergency bathroom breaks themselves, seeing that.

[Hotler]

19. If I remember correctly there was a big dust up...

in the Lounge over whether Olive Garden was true Italian or not. This must have been back on DU#1 or DU#2 way before the juries.
Some people got banned then also I think.

[Proserpina]

21. Okay....

You know that's really sick, don't you?

In America what is true ANYTHING, anyway? America is a hoarder's paradise of treasure and junk scavenged from all over the globe, both physical objects, cultural mores, and intellectual outputs. And from this hodge-podge came all the innovation that used to drive the American economy, the American hegemony and the American dream.

Now, it's all crumbling, because the Enlightenment's Principles and the Puritan's Ethics that founded and drove this engine of humanity have been trashed on the altar of Profit. Nothing else counts but the Golden Calf, American style:



And the treasure is turned into trash.

[corkhead]

16. this blew up on DU as well as elsewhere:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Hagerty

2012 Olive Garden review

In March 2012, for her "Eatbeat" column, Hagerty wrote a review of a recently-opened Olive Garden restaurant in Grand Forks, ND. The review was overall positive, stating that "the chicken Alfredo ($10.95) was warm and comforting on a cold day," and calling the Olive Garden "the largest and most beautiful restaurant now operating in Grand Forks."[1] The review began to be linked to by various blogs the day after it was published, due to the novelty of an unironic, positive review of a chain restaurant. In an interview, she said she was unfazed by the attention, though she found much of it "rather condescending".[10] She was covered by Good Morning America, appeared March 20, 2012 on Anderson and interviewed on The Today Show and CNN, among others.

Her son James R. "Bob" Hagerty, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, wrote an article in that newspaper about her newfound fame.[11] He noted that "She doesn't like to say anything bad" in her reviews, and "If she writes more about the décor than the food, you might want to eat somewhere else."[11]

[Proserpina]

17. Ah...have you ever BEEN to Great Forks, ND?

The Olive Garden was probably the biggest thing since sliced bread to come in there.

[Proserpina]

13. CEO Martin Shkreli Arrested For Securities Fraud by Ian Welsh

http://www.ianwelsh.net/martin-shkreli-arrested-for-securities-fraud/


Shkreli is the pharma CEO who famously raised the price of an AIDS drug over 5,000% and bought an one issue Wu-Tang record that no one else will hear if he doesn’t want them to.

Securities arrests don’t happen by accident, and they don’t happen just because someone has committed securities fraud. There is so much securities fraud that practically anyone involved the markets beyond the retail investor level could be charged with something. Many investigations are ongoing at any given time, only a few can or will be prosecuted and prosecuting someone as rich as Shkreli is always a political decision.

This is a message:

Rook the proles as much as you want, but don’t scream it to the world. We have a good thing going here, sonny, and we don’t tolerate people who might wreck it.

Despite his cartoon villain behaviour, Shkrell is far from the worst CEO in America.

Billionaires may do as they please. The only rule is “don’t destroy the game”.

[Proserpina]

14. This startup bets up to $10,000 that your marriage will end badly

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/16/this-startup-bets-10000-that-your-marriage-will-end-badly/?tid=sm_tw



Should you place a bet on eternal love?

A new startup in Seattle will fund your wedding. Up to $10,000. Even the nacho cheese fondue fountain. The catch: If your union crumbles, at six months or 25 years, you must pay them back — with interest. Swanluv will review your relationship and set an interest rate based on your compatibility. Co-founder Scott Avy won’t reveal the couple-selection criteria or the interest range. He said simply that the number “won’t be too crazy.” But Swanluv, he said, won’t directly profit from heartbreak. Cash from divorces — and there will be divorces — will cover someone else’s future nuptials. Avy said he plans to sell advertisements to generate revenue, although he wouldn't say what kind or to whom.

Swanluv’s sustained growth, as the business model apparently stands now, depends on a whole lot of lovers breaking up.

The idea came to Avy when a recently engaged roommate complained about wedding costs. He thought: Why should money stand in the way of love? “Swans, they mate for life,” said Avy, a product manager at Expedia by day. “That’s what we’re trying to get behind, everlasting marriage.” People, however, don’t always mate for life. People also have mortgages, child support, divorce attorney fees — does Swanluv really want to slap them with a failed marriage bill?

“We’re not forcing anyone to sign up,” Avy said. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve gotten hundreds of emails telling me how meaningful this is.”

He wouldn’t say whether Swanluv has attracted investors, or how many couples will receive a check once the company officially launches in February. The contracts, he added, include a clause that charges only one partner if abuse ends a marriage. Swanluv’s offer comes as the cost of walking down the aisle surges. A survey of 16,000 brides by XO Group, which owns TheKnot.com, found that the average cost of a wedding (sans honeymoon) was $31,213. The share of never-married adults in the United States, meanwhile, has reached a historic peak, according to the Pew Research Center. One in five adults today older than 25 have never been married, compared with one in 10 during the 1960s.

Economists say millennials are more likely than previous generations to put off marriage, thanks, in part, to student loan debt. More than a quarter of the respondents in the Pew survey of never-married adults said they’re not financially prepared for the milestone. Over the past 30 years, both marriage and divorce rates have steadily declined. Researchers have long sought to understand what makes some marriages last while others implode. Evidence suggests age, location, education, financial health and previous partnerships may influence a relationship’s strength.

Perhaps the strongest indicator of everlasting love is your number of ex-spouses. The likelihood of divorces surges with each marriage, according to Census Bureau statistics. Roughly 40 percent of first marriages in the United States end in divorce, while nearly two-thirds of second marriages and three-quarters of third marriages dissolve. When you move in together may also play a role. Couples who share a home, unmarried or married, before the age of 23 are much more likely to later split than those who wait until they’re 28, according to research from the nonpartisan Council on Contemporary Families. Nicholas Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah, argues marital timing is important, labeling teens and those older than 30 as particularly high divorce risks. His analysis of data from the National Survey of Family Growth found the chances of breaking up shrink each year from your teens into your late 20s and starts rising again in your 30s. After 32, he wrote, the odds of splitting increase by 5 percent each year.

Your diploma(s) might also hint at your romantic future. Over half of marriages of people who didn’t complete high school end in divorce, compared to 30 percent of marriages of college graduates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Your financial history may predict your success in love, too. A report from the Federal Reserve Board suggests people with higher credit scores are more likely to form a committed relationship, even when controlling for education and income. And love longevity tends to vary by location. The South and West had the most marriages in 2012 (with rates of roughly 19 per 1,000 people), the most recent Census data shows, but the regions also tied for the lead in divorces (10 per 1,000). Alaska, Maine, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Nevada saw the highest divorce rates. Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York saw the lowest. Researchers said couples on the East Coast wait longer to wed, which may curb the marital turbulence.


or, you could just not spend money on a fancy wedding....and bank the savings for your divorce...Mom recommends not marrying, and so far, I haven't

[Ghost Dog]

15. Rain In Spain

LBN: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1293745

[Proserpina]

18. We are back in gloomy, drippy November, again

My least favorite month. It's positively DANK outside, and will be until Wednesday, which is forecast to reach 60F and stay there 24 hours, then plunge back down around freezing, without even a hint of snow...

[Hotler]

20. Nice job Harry.

Hospitality and Gambling Interests Delay Closing of $1 Billion Tax Loophole

WASHINGTON — In the span of a mere 11 days this month, $1 billion in future federal tax payments vanished.

As congressional leaders were hastily braiding together a tax and spending bill of more than 2,000 pages, lobbyists swooped in to add 54 words that temporarily preserved a loophole sought by the hotel, restaurant and gambling industries, along with billionaire Wall Street investors, that allowed them to put real estate in trusts and avoid taxes.

They won key support from the top Senate Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, who responded to appeals from executives from casino companies, politically powerful players and huge employers in his state. And the lobbyists even helped draft the crucial language.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hospitality-and-gambling-interests-delay-closing-of-dollar1-billion-tax-loophole/ar-BBnLn5X?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp

[Proserpina]

22. He can't retire too soon for this nation's sake

You would expect this of Hairy Reed....the broken reed. May this be his parting shot.

[Fuddnik]

24. Yeah, but then we'll probably get stuck with Shoomer.

He represented Wall Street on 9/11, ya know?

[Proserpina]

25. Oh dear