STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 28 March 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 28 March 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 27 March 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 27 March 2012
[center][font color=red]
Dow Jones 13,197.73 -43.90 (-0.33%)
S&P 500 1,412.52 -3.99 (-0.28%)
Nasdaq 3,120.35 -2.22 (-0.07%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.18% -0.05 (-2.24%)
30 Year 3.30% -0.03 (-0.90%) [font color=black]


[center][/font]

[HR width=85%]

[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]


[/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
[/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]
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
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



[HR width=95%]

[center]
[HR width=95%]
[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Demeter]

1. Ain't Nuthin' Wrong wit' that pitcher....

After all, we have this policy of not tolerating any errors...or crimes...by the 99%

The One Percent Doctrine (ISBN 0-7432-7109-2) is a nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind about America's hunt for terrorists since September 11th. On July 24, 2006, it reached number 3 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

It assesses the ways in which American counter-terrorism agencies are working to combat terrorist groups. In the narrative, Suskind criticizes the Bush administration for formulating its terrorism policies based on political goals rather than geopolitical realities.

The title comes from a story within the book in which Vice President Dick Cheney describes the Bush administration's doctrine on dealing with terrorism:

“ If there's a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping al-Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. It's not about our analysis ... It's about our response. ”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_Percent_Doctrine

HEY! I THINK I'VE GOT A TOPIC FOR THE WEEKEND! NOW, WHAT KIND OF MUSIC/ART/THEATRE TO GO WITH IT? MUSIC BY MENSANS? (I DON'T KNOW OF ANY) I DO KNOW M'S WRITE A LOT OF BOOKS....GET A LIST EVERY MONTH.

[Demeter]

2. Thank Goddess It's Wednesday

(well, somewhere in the world it is...and it will be here soon)

I had a horrible end to Tuesday. Nobody I know died, locally...except of embarrassment.

[Demeter]

3. Why We Have to Go Back to a 40-Hour Work Week to Keep Our Sanity

http://www.alternet.org/story/154518/why_we_have_to_go_back_to_a_40-hour_work_week_to_keep_our_sanity?page=entire

40 HOURS WOULD BE A VACATION, FOR ME

One hundred fifty years of research proves that shorter work hours actually raise productivity and profits -- and overtime destroys them. So why do we still do this?

BECAUSE STUPID GREEDY BOSSES ARE GETTING SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, ESPECIALLY SALARIED SLAVES WHO AREN'T COVERED BY COLLECTIVE BARGAINING....

If you’re lucky enough to have a job right now, you’re probably doing everything possible to hold onto it. If the boss asks you to work 50 hours, you work 55. If she asks for 60, you give up weeknights and Saturdays, and work 65.

Odds are that you’ve been doing this for months, if not years, probably at the expense of your family life, your exercise routine, your diet, your stress levels, and your sanity. You’re burned out, tired, achy, and utterly forgotten by your spouse, kids and dog. But you push on anyway, because everybody knows that working crazy hours is what it takes to prove that you’re “passionate” and “productive” and “a team player” — the kind of person who might just have a chance to survive the next round of layoffs.

This is what work looks like now. It’s been this way for so long that most American workers don’t realize that for most of the 20th century, the broad consensus among American business leaders was that working people more than 40 hours a week was stupid, wasteful, dangerous, and expensive — and the most telling sign of dangerously incompetent management to boot.

It’s a heresy now (good luck convincing your boss of what I’m about to say), but every hour you work over 40 hours a week is making you less effective and productive over both the short and the long haul. And it may sound weird, but it’s true: the single easiest, fastest thing your company can do to boost its output and profits -- starting right now, today -- is to get everybody off the 55-hour-a-week treadmill, and back onto a 40-hour footing.

SHE'S PREACHING TO THE CHOIR

[Tansy_Gold]

4. As a former labor cost analyst with major manufacturing companies. . . .

My experience isn't all that extensive, but I can tell you this much:

Productivity in terms of dollars produced per hour actually went up slightly when overtime was offered.

Productivity went up slightly more if there had been a period of slowdown immediately preceding the overtime.

Productivity in terms of COST of goods produced per hour declined significantly with overtime.

Cost of adding personnel far outweighed the decrease in dollar productivity in the short term.

By the time the long term cost of adding personnel would have outweighed the decrease in dollar productivity, the need for overtime was past.

The guessing game involved trying to determine when to hire more people to counter the decrease in dollar productivity.

In every single company I've worked for that encountered this situation, greed actually cost the company money. If they had added personnel at the beginning, they'd have gotten more dollars per hour. Every. Single. Time.

[Demeter]

5. Say What?

I know I've had a shitty day, and I'm about as sharp as a moldy graham cracker, but what was your conclusion?

Did you say overtime works out only in short spurts, as opposed to a regular weekly regimen?

And if the demand for labor is increasing long-term it's better to hire right away than to burn out the existing employees?

I'm really tired, sorry.

[Tansy_Gold]

16. Even on a shitty day, your brain works just fine

you're exactly correct.

Short term, overtime is effective. Occasional overtime is effective. Sometimes it's more effective than others.

Long term it's not.

[Demeter]

6. Plastics Put Solar on the Verge, Again

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/867101/plastics_put_solar_on_the_verge%2C_again/#paragraph5

In what was once a Polaroid factory 50 miles south of Boston, a high-tech company is printing sheets of solar cells made of plastic, trying to create tomorrow's energy source amid the tumult of today's energy market.

The solar collectors made by the Konarka company in New Bedford, Ma., are thin and transparent. They curl into lightweight rolls and can be unfurled and put on a wall or a tent or an impoverished hut to begin producing electricity – though feeble electricity at this point – from sunlight.

Scientists in university and private labs worldwide have raced to make these plastic solar cells practical for 30 years. A recent succession of efficiency gains has researchers, investors and companies convinced the effort is finally close to success.

"This will be 'energy to go,'" said Steffanie Rohr, head of marketing for Heliatek, a German company that also has plans to begin commercial production of 1-foot by 4-foot plastic solar strips this year...

[Po_d Mainiac]

35. The spectrum of sunlight includes the U/V bands

U/V rays degrade polymers (plastics)

Photovoltaic materials require sunlight to produce the movement of electrons (electricity)

Is this a problem?

IMHO, ATC will be directing drones around flocks of migrating swine sooner.

[Demeter]

39. It's one of those USE IT UP, THROW IT OUT Designs

that fill the landfills across America...

[Demeter]

7. Free Ride! Meet the Companies That Don't Even Pretend to Pay Taxes

http://www.alternet.org/story/154653/free_ride!_meet_the_companies_that_don%27t_even_pretend_to_pay_taxes?page=entire

...Big business apologists like to tell us that the U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent is too high, and makes companies less “competitive” with foreign firms. Yet we all know that corporations hire legions of wily accountants to find loopholes that often bring their tax rate down to next to nothing.

In 2008, Goldman Sachs paid a laughable 1.1 percent of its income in taxes. That same year, it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an $800 billion bailout, courtesy of you and me. Let’s savor that irony for a moment, as we recall that the bailout is not all we paid for Goldman Sachs to operate its rapacious business, which, as the cynical editors of Bloomberg recently reminded us, apparently has no obligation to serve humanity. We pay for its employees to be educated. We pay for the infrastructure required to facilitate its business. We pay a gargantuan sum in “defense spending” which essentially funnels our tax dollars into protections and path-smoothing that allows Goldman Sachs to operate in, and to penetrate, foreign markets.

Paying 1.1 percent for all this largesse is surely a joke. And an even bigger travesty is that many outsized firms pay nothing at all, as General Electric famously managed to do in 2010, despite showing $10.5 billion in profits. GE is not alone. According to a report from Citizens for Tax Justice, 37 of the biggest American corporations did not pay one red cent in taxes in 2010. Financial services, you’ll be thrilled to know, received the largest share of all federal tax subsidies over the last three years, despite the fact that the size and recklessness of that industry is one of the greatest dangers to our economic well-being.

But increasingly, the biggest punchline of all is a growing breed of firms that are classified as “non-taxable.” That’s right. These firms pay zilch. Nada. Zippo.

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

8. Hitler’s Blackberry By Dan Denning

http://dailyreckoning.com/hitlers-blackberry/

Poor old Ben Bernanke has a deflation phobia. He sees it everywhere the way the kid in The Sixth Sense saw dead people. And Bernanke is equally terrified of falling stock prices (and their effect on consumer confidence). Falling stock prices are what some people call deflation, or asset price deflation. Bernanke, the governor of the US Federal Reserve, believes the Fed made the Depression a Great Depression by raising interest rates too soon during the US recovery. He won’t make that mistake again! He will simply not allow stocks to fall...The Fed chairman’s recent speech to the National Association for Business Economics lit a fire under US stock prices. All the US indexes charged ahead. And even gold got off the mat to close higher. Stocks are addicted to lower interest rates and yesterday they got a nice satisfying hit. Bernanke is on the record for saying he’ll keep US rates low until 2014. Yesterday he repeated his willingness to keep rates low, saying,

“Further significant improvements in the unemployment rate will likely require a more-rapid expansion of production and demand from consumers and businesses, a process that can be supported by continued accommodative policies.”

It’s a bizarre world. The Fed chairman thinks lower rates are needed to produce more economic growth. Growth will produce jobs. Jobs will lead to spending. Only then can interest rates — the price of Fed money — be raised. It’s a shame he can’t understand that the US rate policy is unsound. And since the rest of the world more or less keys off from US interest rates, an unsound US monetary policy leads to an unsound global monetary policy. By “unsound” we mean a policy that keeps interest rates too low, leads to asset price inflation, and a giant boom in debt.

This is all well-worn territory to long-time Daily Reckoning readers. If there’s anything comforting about the tenacity of Bernanke’s stupidity it’s that you have time to narrow down your stock holdings in a rising market. It’s much better to exit the market when stocks are floating along on a sea of liquidity than when they are crashing down. But then that’s the issue now, isn’t it? As scared as Bernanke is of the 1930s, he and his central banking colleagues around the world are even more scared of another Lehman Brothers. This was a point we made at our Sydney conference. The lesson of Lehman is that central bankers will simply not allow another major financial institution to fail. They can’t afford to.

The financial system is still so leveraged and interconnected (mostly through the derivatives market) that regular infusions of credit and the monetization of government debt are required to keep it at a steady level. In some ways, the deflation you’d normally expect at the end of a credit bubble is actually happening right now — it’s just disguised by the huge growth in central bank balance sheets. In other words, stock markets have become a giant charade. The indexes don’t communicate useful or accurate information. Prices have become more influenced by the supply of credit in the system than the underlying earnings of the businesses on listed exchanges. The whole thing looks suspiciously like a racket designed only to benefit the banks, the brokers, and the bureaucrats who nominally regulate them. It’s kind of refreshing to say that, although we concede we could be wrong. It’s refreshing because once you acknowledge that the game you’re being asked to play is rigged, you can choose not to play the game. This makes your asset allocation decisions a lot easier. For instance, we bought more gold bullion this morning...

[Demeter]

9. Counting on Millennial Homeownership By Addison Wiggin

03/27/12 Baltimore, Maryland – The report that got us started on this tangent this morning: Home prices in 20 U.S. metro areas are now as low as they were nine years ago, according to the just released Case-Shiller Home Price Index.


S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices

In other words, housing prices are back where they were when the space shuttle Columbia blew up and Washington was about to foment the doctrine of “preventive war” in Iraq.

Good times.

(The index’s year-over-year decline works out to 3.8%. It would likely have been worse if the weather in January had felt, well, more like January.) Alas, the Case-Shiller is but one of several limp housing numbers that have been released in recent days.

“From home builder sentiment to housing starts,” writes Diana Olick, one of the more sensible observers of the housing market in the mainstream press, “to home builder earnings right through to sales of newly built homes, there was not one hopeful headline in any of it…”

That Ms. Olick is employed by CNBC is one of those freakish facts we can chalk up only to… who knows, sunspot activity. A year ago, in these pages, we covered a study from Wells Fargo gushed that “there are 51.5 million potential first-time homebuyers born between 1979 and 1991. Roughly 6 million more of these Millennials are reaching the prime home buying age than baby boomers did in 1977.” The “Millennial” generation – age 30 and under – concluded the Housing Wire[link], will ride to the housing market’s rescue… restoring the National Association of Realtors (NAR) version of the American Dream.

And yet, one year on the opposite appears to be happening.

“Homeownership rates for young adults have plunged back down to near-1990 lows,” writes the aforementioned Neil Howe, “despite record-low interest rates and very attractive prices for a new home.”

Homeownership Rate for Americans Under Age 35

What’s more, first-time buyers are disappearing: From 2009-11, only 9% of people age 29-34 got a first mortgage. A decade earlier, it was 17%. The reasons are legion: According to a Chicago Fed study, several factors are at work: Young couples are waiting longer to have kids… thus the urgency to buy a home is less. They’re also at what the study delicately calls “heightened income risk”… or what you and I would call “unable to find a dang job.” Unemployment among people 25 and younger is double that for people older than 25. Too, their inflation-adjusted wages are lower than a decade ago. All of these downward pressures on the “Y me?” generation arrive at a bad time.

“For someone in his or her 30s,” Mr. Howe continues, citing a separate New York Fed study, “the average college loan balance is now $28,500, and balances over $50,000 are common.

“Debt at this level stifles consumer spending and can render many young people ineligible for home mortgages, no matter how low the interest rate.”

Conclusion: If you’re expecting a Millenial to come and prop up your “investment” in a primary residence… well, dude, he or she might be around the corner looking for a cheap rental instead.

Read more: Counting on Millennial Homeownership http://dailyreckoning.com/counting-on-millennial-homeownership/#ixzz1qMpA54vh

[Demeter]

10. And there goes the NIKKEI--Banzai!

The breaking bubble heard round the world...

[Fuddnik]

13. Asia as a whole is not looking too happy.

[DemReadingDU]

20. The Bernank will do something today to make it better

[Demeter]

22. I hadn't Even Heard He Was Ill!

oh, not that?

[Demeter]

11. horrorscopes!

Aries

This is a good time to make big moves at work, as you'll show up Monday to find all the furniture's gone and everyone has relocated to a new office somewhere outside Gary, IN.

Taurus

You'll experience a desire to strengthen old bonds of friendship, so it's really too bad that everyone who has known you for more than two years hates you.

Gemini

You'll be roundly condemned by members of the Academy of Country Music when, despite their specific instructions, you let your babies grow up to be cowboys.

Cancer

Mercury in retrograde in your sign is a signal that you're about to be run over by some guy backing up his Mercury, which is in turn a sign that the Zodiac is getting just plain lazy.

Leo

While the smiling old woman isn't lying about her award-winning cupcakes, she is withholding crucial information regarding the depraved and sadistic nature of the local cupcake awards.

Virgo

You thought a life of safari adventures, epic cookouts, and jungle cats awaited you, but it turns out the local Waffle House was not in fact advertising for a "lion cook."

Libra

You find yourself unable to comply with simple requests this week, as you lack the internal resources to "be cool," "get down," or "boogie."

Scorpio

This sign of the Zodiac will be phased out this week and its duties subsumed by other signs. During this time of change, please assume that you will have a torrid romance with a stranger or be hit by a train.

Sagittarius

The stars indicate you will wonder for the rest of your life what would have happened if you had just gone ahead and kissed that girl at the party the other night.

Capricorn

You'll be devastated but not surprised to learn your life is a cheap remake of that of St. Pilaster of Avens, who died in 1421 in a very similar grease fire.

Aquarius

While the pursuit of true love should be your guiding principle in life, the girl at the coffee shop will melt the eyes out of your head with a well-aimed pot of French Roast Sumatran if you don't stop bothering her.

Pisces

Only minor and mostly cosmetic changes this week.

[Demeter]

12. As an Aries Tried and True, I wouldn't Be Surprised

and it wouldn't be the first time, either....yes, I expect the entire condominium association will vacate overnight for Calumet City, where the baking powder comes from, or Munster, where Herman, Lily and Grandpa live...

More space for me.

[Fuddnik]

14. Well, Taurus has me pegged.

And it doesn't usually take two years.

[Demeter]

15. We love you regardless, Doc

You know, the folks that hang around here aren't very good at stupidity...tolerating it, I mean. Not in themselves or others.

I guess today we need a Fuddnik Appreciation Shout Out!

Have at it, everyone!

I, for one, love your dogs, your garden photos, and your offbeat humor!

[Po_d Mainiac]

19. U think da bull got u pegged?

What could possibly go wrong?

[Demeter]

17. By the way, both Mercury and Mars are STILL retrograde

And according to some geek, today is technically the real Ides of March...since Rome used a lunar calendar....

[Po_d Mainiac]

18. Mercury won't catch back up the Sun till April 4th

Mars will take another 10 days.

But pissing straight down on a flat rock, has a lot more to do with our day than the effect of the planets.

[AnneD]

64. Depends on who...

is doing the pissing I guess, eh Pod.

Fudd, you know we are yo peeps. Your hairy butt children keep you in line if SWT and your bride can't.

Working in medicine-I am not so quick to blow off celestial influences. I can, with a degree of accuracy, tell the phase of the moon and placement of the moon by what type of cases comes into the clinic.

[Po_d Mainiac]

69. Whether the plumbing is internal or external

you're always gonna end up with yellow feet

[AnneD]

72. LOL LOL LOL....

Sounds like a credo to me.

[DemReadingDU]

21. video: A Brief Look at the 2012 French Political Landscape

per Jesse: I doubt that most non-French readers will know the complete cast of characters, but the video is so well done and funny in and of itself that it is worth showing. Its not Pixar, but I was impressed. And the caricatures cross the language barrier. I would like to see something as witty and clever done with the American or British cast of characters. appx 4.5 minutes
P.S. The words are French, some funny scenes

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/03/brief-look-at-2012-french-political.html

[Demeter]

23. Well, that was pretty bizarre

At least the GOP only shoots their mouths off.

[Demeter]

24. Hello, World

I was going to sleep in, but the Kid had other ideas...and when I am awake enough, we will Have Words....

[Demeter]

25. Activism Shuts Down ‘Pink Slime’ Plants By Anthony Gucciardi

http://www.nationofchange.org/activism-shuts-down-pink-slime-plants-1332862704

In response to serious health activism that has spread like wildfire over the ammonia-treated ‘pink slime‘ product once commonly found in school lunches and supermarkets alike, the top producer of the toxic ingredient has shut down production in 3 out of 4 of its plants for 60 days. According to the corporate administer of Beef Products Inc, a South Dakota-based company, the ‘temporary’ closure may soon become “a permanent suspension.”

Even McDonald’s was forced to remove the pink slime amid calls from activists in a campaign spearheaded by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Meanwhile, a startling 70% of supermarket ground beef maintained the slime. The pink slime is made up of leftover meat from beef after all of the muscular cuts have been removed. The meat is not muscle, but fat trimmings and connective tissue that are separated from the bone. Jamie Oliver says that the result is what would be sold at the cheapest form for dogs.

“Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form for dogs and after this process we can give it to humans,” said the TV chef.

Due to immense resistance to the pink slime preceeding this production halt, the USDA also announced that it would drop pink slime from school lunches. The large scale victory over pink slime follows a long line of consistent health victories. Corporations are continually being forced to answer to their consumers, who are increasingly becoming more aware of what is in the food products they consume on a daily basis. Companies like Campbell’s have begun abandoning BPA, the cancer-linked chemical found in can linings and plastic containers, and soda makers Coca-Cola and Pepsi are being forced to remove carcinogenic ingredients from both of their products.

Activism is not only effective, but it is viral. These recent food accomplishments show that the consumer does have control over the corporation — you just have to act upon it. Now it’s time to go after other toxic ingredients currently lurking in the food supply, and start to demand a more health-conscious and sustainable dietary environment. You have an effective voice — spread the word!

[AnneD]

65. We will we be able to get....

GM out of our food, crops, and food chain. No one wants it and yet they keep shoving it down our throats.

[xchrom]

26. rise and shine!

?1329841049

[Tansy_Gold]

62. I'M OFF WORK THE REST OF THE WEEK!!!

Slept in until 6:00.

[xchrom]

63. YAY! Nt

[Demeter]

27. Occupy Groups Reimagine The Bank by Margot Adler

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/27/149443425/alternative-banking-groups-aid-occupy-movement?ft=1&f=3

...Occupy isn't in the headlines so much these days, but work continues behind the scenes. The Alternative Banking Group of Occupy Wall Street meets weekly in different places. Members are older than some might think — in their 30s, 40s and 50s — and many work or formerly worked in the financial industry.

"We have almost no consensus opinion, except that the system is not working," says Cathy O'Neil, who often facilitates the group that is working on legislation and regulation to reform the financial system. "A lot of these people are from finance or have a background in law or SEC regulation. There's lots of people from banks and hedge funds."

She herself was a quant — a quantitative analyst at a hedge fund. She even worked with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers for a while, but she got disillusioned. Within the Alternative Banking Group are smaller groups working on specific projects. O'Neil talks about their plans for a mobile app to help people move their money away from large banks.

"It would show you which credit unions you're eligible for, which is a big obstacle for people," O'Neil explains, "where the ATMs are in your neighborhood, what kind of paperwork you would need, and what the investing philosophy of that credit union is and what their services are."

...Another group wants to create a new kind of bank. One of the facilitators of the Occupy Bank Working Group is former British diplomat Carne Ross. He says it's amazing that the banking system is so broken that some people in finance share the concerns of people who were sleeping in New York City's Zuccotti Park — the heart of the Occupy movement.

"To the extent that actually we're talking about setting up an alternative system, that's pretty radical stuff," Ross says. "And the fact that you have Wall Street bankers, former regulators, hedge fund traders, as part of that project, I find pretty striking."

... this new bank, if it existed, would fulfill the values and ideals of Occupy Wall Street. "A bank that would be democratic, that would be owned by its employees and by its customers; it would be transparent, it would follow banking practices that did not expose the broader economy to systemic risk," he says. And ultimately, the dream is a national bank. Ross believes that if you change banking, you change the whole nervous system of the economy. But he realizes it's a tall order to take on the banking system. The regulatory obstacles are huge, and failure is very possible. The Occupy Bank Working Group is inspired by innovative financial institutions like the ShoreBank. Started in the 1970s, it was once the largest certified community development financial institution in the U.S., but it failed during the financial crisis...The group is looking to partner with or acquire an existing financial institution to create the Occupy Bank — democratic, transparent, accessible, competitive — but it shouldn't maximize profits over everything.

I SEE NO NEED TO REINVENT THE CREDIT UNION OR THE SAVINGS AND LOAN, BUT I'M NOT A BANKING INSIDER...

[xchrom]

28. The Chinese Market Got Crushed Again Last Night

http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-march-28-2012-3

US are up a little bit, but there's a pretty solid amount of negativity out there, following the US' late-day selloff yesterday.

Asia was down across the board, with China in particular getting clobbered, losing 2.65%.

In Europe, markets started off lower, but are now mostly rallying.

Meanwhile, Italian yields are ticking higher again, as the 10-year now yields 5.12%. Definitely a trend to keep an eye on.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-march-28-2012-3#ixzz1qPY54Ts8

[xchrom]

29. The Farmers Are Beating The Hunters In The Stock Market {i don't know what this is}

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-hunter-and-the-farmer-whose-side-are-you-on-2012-3

***snip

The Hunter – or stock picker

Everyone loves to pick stocks - who doesn’t enjoy getting deeply ensconced in the story of a stock and seeing it multi-bag. There’s nothing as wonderful as being right and knowing that you knew it all along. And fortune has followed for the investors who’ve been skillful enough to pick and hold onto the right stocks for an entire career. Such luminaries as Anthony Bolton, Bill Miller or Warren Buffett have become legends in our time as the long term greats of the art.

***snip

The Farmer – or quantitative portfolio investor

There is though a rapidly growing group of investors that are far more interested in ‘characteristics’ than companies who seek to ‘harvest’ systematic mispricings from the rough of the stock market through quantitative techniques. In a stock market that’s predominantly dominated by the far more numerous hunter, these quants have found they have a lot of easy crop. Hunters tend to be a very emotional lot prone to both chasing prey to unsustainably lofty heights and discarding them too hastily aside which allows the quants to profit from their over reaction.

While many think of quants as modern hedge fund employees even Ben Graham, the original guru of mid 20th century value investing, can be regarded as one. Graham bought up the kinds of stocks you wouldn’t even wish on your mother in law seeking safety in numbers. Individually these stocks looked like train wrecks, but collectively they offered him something special - excessively beaten down assets selling at less than their liquidation value which were in aggregate likely to be re-rated.

This approach has been mirrored far more often in recent years by a variety of quantitative techniques such as those espoused in the ‘Magic Formula’, designed to pick up good cheap companies, or the scoring techniques of Josef Piotroski which aim to highlight companies that have a high probability of turnaround. While these simple techniques can work well, hedge funds have taken the quantitative model and put it on steroids - targetting all kinds of ethereal areas to profit from that we won’t go into here.

Read more: http://www.stockopedia.co.uk/content/the-hunter-and-the-farmer-whose-side-are-you-on-65034/#ixzz1qPZboZAH

[Demeter]

30. Could Defeat in Court Help Obama Win? By ROSS DOUTHAT

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/could-defeat-in-court-help-obama-win/

If the Supreme Court decides to strike down the new health care law’s individual mandate to purchase insurance, it will represent a remarkable election-year rebuke for President Obama – the rejection, by the nation’s highest court, of a central provision of his main domestic policy accomplishment. It might also help him win re-election. The unpopularity of the president’s health care bill is a settled reality of American politics. But as liberals have long hastened to point out, not every provision of the bill is unpopular. If you isolate the legislation’s various components, many of them poll reasonably well.

The individual mandate, though, tends to be far less popular than the legislation as a whole. In a recent Reason/Rupe poll, 50 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of the health care legislation, while 62 percent believe the mandate is unconstitutional. In a Washington Post/ABC News poll, 42 percent of respondents said that the Supreme Court should invalidate the entire law – but another 25 percent said that the court should keep the law but throw out the individual mandate. The mandate’s defenders note that many Republican politicians used to support an individual mandate, and that what was once a fringe libertarian critique of mandates has only lately become the conservative party line. But while the Republican flip-flop is real enough, this wasn’t a case of conservative politicians kowtowing to radical ideologues. It was a case of conservative politicians recognizing – as had Obama himself, when he attacked Hillary Clinton for supporting a mandate during the 2008 Democratic primary campaign — that what looked like a “fringe” anti-mandate sentiment was actually shared by a large majority of Americans.
The fact that a provision is unpopular, of course, doesn’t make it unconstitutional. As the Duke University law professor Stephen Sachs argues in a recent paper, the case for the mandate’s constitutionality is “uneasy” without necessarily being wrong: Given existing precedents and current legal doctrine, it’s possible to find plausible justifications for the powers that the health care bill’s authors are claiming in this case...

...If the federal government can impose regulations and fines not only when people are engaged in commercial activity but as punishment for not engaging in a particular form of commerce as well, what precisely can’t it do? If the state can effectively “create commerce in order to regulate it,” as Justice Anthony Kennedy put it in during Tuesday’s oral arguments, then what limiting principle would prevent the Congress from, say, penalizing people for stargazing instead of renting movies, or walking to work instead of buying cars or using public transportation, or buying cheese instead of broccoli? Even the mandate’s defenders tend to concede that the provision rests on an extremely broad view of Congressional power. The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn, for instance, argues that a broccoli mandate might be slightly too specific to survive constitutional scrutiny. But he acknowledges that under his view of the enumerated powers, “Congress could, for example, force everybody to obtain food vouchers, join a grocery club, or demonstrate they had plans for paying for their food — paying some sort of fine if they did not.” (And then of course those grocery clubs would be subject to federal regulation, which could presumably be tweaked to ensure that they mostly offered foods like … broccoli.) It’s precisely this specter of an unconstrained federal leviathan reaching into every area of life, from the auto dealership to the light bulb aisle, that helped spark the backlash against President Obama and the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. In effect, the country responded to a period of Democratic ambition by voting to constrain liberalism – and once that constraint was accomplished, they found themselves inclined to like their liberal president a little more.

One could imagine something similar happening with the individual mandate debate. If the Supreme Court invalidates the mandate, the justices’ traditional “presumption in favor of severability” will probably ensure that the rest of the legislation remains intact – which might reassure moderate voters that the health care bill wouldn’t actually trample their liberties, because the courts are on the case. Stripping away the law’s most unpopular component might make the rest of it marginally more popular. And setting a clear limit on liberalism’s ability to micromanage Americans’ private decisions might make voters feel more comfortable voting to re-elect their micromanager-in-chief...Obviously, eliminating the insurance mandate would create various policy headaches, because the legislation isn’t designed to work without one. (This is presumably why the Obama White House has taken the risky course of arguing that the mandate isn’t severable from the rest of the law.) But there are a number of potential workarounds available, many of which wouldn’t be seen as such an aggressive imposition on private liberty....

I'M NOT WORRIED...I'M SURE THAT ANY SOLUTION THE PRESIDENT PICKS WILL BE... TOTALLY WRONG.

"LEADERSHIP" IS DOING THE RIGHT THING; "GOOD MANAGEMENT" IS DOING THINGS RIGHT. I'M NOT GOING TO SPECIFY WHAT THIS ADMINISTRATION DOES,BECAUSE I INTEND TO STAY HERE....

[bread_and_roses]

36. Dear Mr. Douthat: Forcing people into the clutches of vampire insurance is not "liberalism"

- or maybe it is "liberalism" but it sure ain't "progressive-ism. "

The insanity of people demonstrating to be allowed to pay the vampire insurers is so crazy that it's enough to make this atheist believe we're reached "the end of days" as the nutcases like to so fearfully predict.

From the moment we started talking about the "affordability" of health care in individual, rather than collective societal terms we lost.

[Demeter]

41. We are well past 1984

which was only "futuristic" by 15 years...

[Demeter]

31. Abu Dhabi eyes £10bn injection into RBS

Discussions have been held for an investment, as part of a complex transaction that would help pave the way for the UK government’s exit

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/62FMXO/B49CK/DWJUWC/R3MWLW/4O/t?a1=2012&a2=3&a3=28

THIS STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN...WHAT'S THE QUID PRO QUO?

[Demeter]

32. New York court rejects claim against UBS

The fraud suit brought by HSH Nordbank over its purchase of a complex mortgage product was dismissed by a judge who found it to be a ‘sophisticated’ investor

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/62FMXO/B49CK/DWJUWC/30SFAX/4O/t?a1=2012&a2=3&a3=28

OH, DEAR...CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!

[Demeter]

33. MF Global won praise for risk handling UPDATE

Last edited Wed Mar 28, 2012, 11:27 AM - Edit history (1)

Promontory Financial found that the broker-dealer had a ‘robust enterprise-wide risk management’ programme, five months before its bankruptcy

The consultancy Promontory Financial found that MF Global had a “robust enterprise-wide risk management” programme in early 2011, five months before the US broker-dealer’s high exposure to European debt led to its bankruptcy.

In a report to MF Global’s board dated May 12 2011, Promontory noted MF Global’s “remarkable turn-around” of leadership and culture since it was retained in 2009 following an alleged trading scandal.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/0QSDPP/DWTKCE/XBAN6/FKFQ8N/R3M4EU/ZH/t?a1=2012&a2=3&a3=27

[Demeter]

34. BATS chairman stripped of title

Joe Ratterman remains the company’s president and chief executive following its botched initial public offering last week

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/62FMXO/B49CK/DWJUWC/QN741K/4O/t?a1=2012&a2=3&a3=28

[Demeter]

37. Did the US Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Cheney's New Heart? Yes.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13405

...(WHAT) is the fate for millions of struggling American citizens with zero health care coverage and millions more who are under-insured with plans that have high co-pays, high deductibles and often limited coverage. Many plans today have lifetime caps on how much insurance companies will pay for health care. Generally, that amount is capped at around $2 million. That sounds like a lot of money but over a person's lifetime it may evaporate in a matter of a few years or even months if that person happens to have a debilitating, life-threatening medical condition.

One wonders, how much did it cost the U.S. taxpayers to cover Mr. Cheney's multiple heart ailments and operations? How much did it cost to get a transplanted heart and the accompanying critical care that he will need during his recovery? One wonders how many times over has his care exceeded the lifetime cap of the average workers' health insurance maximum?

...A few years ago on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart's guest was ultra-conservative William Kristol. The subject was health care coverage and who should be entitled to it. Stewart posed a question: "If the best taxpayer-paid-for health care system in the world is good enough for the U.S. military then why shouldn't the rest of American citizens be entitled to the same right?" Kristol replied, "Because they don't deserve it."

....Be well, Mr. Cheney, knowing that all those sick days you spent in Walter Reed and at George Washington University hospitals recovering with your transplanted heart, you could be one of those struggling seniors or young American workers who are living paycheck to paycheck, wondering how they can feed their families. And they can only pray that they never become as sick as you have been because they would never in their wildest dreams have expected to get a modicum of the wonderful health care that you have received...

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

Afternote: Cheney's transplant, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, was apparently covered by both Medicare and his federal insurance as a former vice president.

"Heart transplants are covered by Medicare," according to an USA Today article on Dick Cheney's guesstimated $500,000 heart transplant.

[AnneD]

66. New heart....

$500,000. Wooden stake $2.95. Fertile imagination, priceless. For somethings, you don't need Mastercard.

[DemReadingDU]

67. +++

[xchrom]

38. How Hedge Fund Vampires Use Insider Info to Extract Their Dishonest Fortunes

http://www.alternet.org/news/154719/how_hedge_fund_vampires_use_insider_info_to_extract_their_dishonest_fortunes/

Ever wonder how hedge funds can make 20 percent returns during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, while your savings account grows smaller? Ever wonder how it’s possible for the top hedge fund manager in 2011 to make $1,442,308 an hour, while it takes the average American family over 29 years to earn that much?

Well, a slew of financial writers are quick to tell you that the answer is simple: hedge fund managers are simply much smarter than you are, so get used to it. But that's nonsense.

Hedge funds make enormous sums of money because they have an edge – one that pushes them out to the ethical limit...and beyond. Their edge often depends on obtaining privileged information that is inaccessible to the rest of us. Sometimes they get information illegally through well-paid sources inside corporate boardrooms, as Raj Rajaratnam did before he was sentenced to 11 years in the hoosegow. In other cases, hedge funds can buy it from congressional “sources.” And they even can get it for free when one of their own is appointed to the highest councils of government.

This sets up a vicious cycle – hedge fund money buys more information which leads to more hedge fund money which buys more information. It doesn’t take long for hedge funds to turn Washington into a wholly owned subsidiary.

[xchrom]

40. France poised to release strategic oil reserves

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_OIL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-28-07-08-46

PARIS (AP) -- France's government says it is considering releasing oil from its strategic reserves as part of a U.S.-led effort to increase supply to bring down high prices.

Industry Minister Eric Besson said "the United States asked, and France welcomed this hypothesis."

Government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said France is waiting for recommendations from the International Energy Agency before tapping its oil reserves.

She said the French government is also pressing oil-producing countries to release more oil on the markets to ease prices.

[Demeter]

42. WaPo Annual Report Reveals Widespread Accreditation and Legal Problems at Kaplan University

Kaplan University is the blood bank for The Washington Post and supplies The Washington Post Corporation with 58 percent of its revenue.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8059-washington-post-annual-report-reveals-widespread-accreditation-and-legal-problems-at-kaplan-university

On February 29, 2012, The Washington Post Company released its 2011 10-K annual report. The report detailed accreditation problems at Kaplan College medical training programs all across the country. The annual report also revealed a dramatic decline in Kaplan's fortunes. Revenues at Kaplan Higher Education declined $500 million in 2011. Kaplan Inc.'s operating income declined from $347 million in 2010 to $89 million in 2011, and total enrollment declined from 97,000 to 75,000.

The fact that Kaplan Higher Education is failing to meet basic accreditation standards related to the training of medical personnel is a public health and safety concern. For example, at Kaplan's radiology program, it has been alleged that Kaplan failed to have a published pregnancy policy consistent with state and federal laws and make this policy known to female students.

The WaPo annual report established a disturbing pattern of accreditation problems which is not compatible with a legitimate academic institution. Kaplan and other for-profit colleges want to have access to federal education money, but time after time, their actions demonstrate that they are unwilling to behave like real academic institutions. Kaplan's answer to regulatory problems is to pay off politicians to weaken or rescind troublesome rules and regulations, thus reducing oversight, disclosure and transparency.

...........Kaplan was only one of five radiology programs nationwide to ever have their certification involuntarily withdrawn in 2011. Yet despite being unable to meet basic accreditation standards, Kaplan has been charging $42,000 for their two-year radiology certificate, while nearby Los Angeles City College charges $2,000 for a two-year radiology associate's degree.........Kaplan was exposed by a local TV station for misleading students, for months, about accreditation status. The reporter even uncovered that Kaplan had never even applied for accreditation, despite being eligible to do so. Within days of the story's broadcast, Kaplan offered students a settlement and volunteered to surrender its license to operate the dental assisting program in North Carolina....In addition to the aforementioned accreditation problems, the 2011 annual report disclosed that Kaplan has been subject to the following legal proceedings: two class-action lawsuits, five false-claims whistleblower lawsuits, an employment discrimination lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a Senate inquiry, and subpoenas and investigative demands from the attorneys general of Illinois, Massachusetts, Delaware and Florida....

[Demeter]

43. Conclusion

The Washington Post Company's diversified portfolio of legal problems detailed in their 2011 annual report is astonishing, and should force the public to sit up and take notice. Furthermore, by failing to report on the extensive legal troubles at Kaplan, The Washington Post has also ceased being a real newspaper, preferring to conceal more than it reveals.....Kaplan University was once known as the cash cow of The Washington Post company. Now, it is little more than a legal albatross for its sugar daddy. Tragically, the Post Company's answer to Kaplan's declining domestic fortunes has been to export their educational product internationally. Kaplan International was one of the only divisions of the Washington Post Company to show growth in 2011, with a $100 million increase in revenues. This tells us that our struggle against Kaplan and the for-profit college industry is now international.

[xchrom]

44. Europe set to speed up building of new bailout

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-28-08-03-47

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The 17 countries that use the euro are debating building up their new rescue fund to its full (EURO)500 billion ($670 billion) capacity faster than originally planned as part of a broader plan to beef up the currency union's financial firewalls.

The European Stability Mechanism will have a capital base of (EURO)80 billion, paid in by eurozone governments. This (EURO)80 billion - together with (EURO)620 billion in a form of payment guarantees from the member governments - can then be used to raise up to (EURO)500 billion on financial markets and with banks.

Under current plans, the countries' capital payments into the fund would be spread out until 2015. Two installments worth a total of (EURO)32 billion would be paid in this year, while the remaining (EURO)48 billion would come in three annual (EURO)16 billion slices.

That would mean that, when it comes into force in July, the ESM would only be capable of lending out some (EURO)200 billion in new rescue loans.

[Demeter]

45. Inequality Is Rising, but the Swedes Are No Americans By Paul Krugman

(No, but they are people, and greedy, selfish psychopathic people are driving the inequality. It doesn't just happen. I was in Sweden in the 70's, listening to the professional classes bemoaning the taxes they had to pay. They should have been glad that they were actually getting a truly Great Society for their money, instead of a series of Vietnam-style wars of failed conquest like we got...Demeter)

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

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8146-inequality-is-rising-but-the-swedes-are-no-americans

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, the authors of the book "Why Nations Fail," recently reacted on their blog to the economist Allan Meltzer's claim that the top 1 percent is surging everywhere, even in Sweden, so it's not a proper political issue.

"There are significant cross-country differences in the trends in inequality, and it is far from obvious that all of these changes are explained by global trends," they wrote in response to commentary by Mr. Meltzer published in The Wall Street Journal on March 9. "There is therefore a prima facie case that other factors — and yes, domestic and political ones — have also played a major role in increase in top inequality in the U.S."

As Mr. Acemoglu and Mr. Robinson say, there's other strange stuff in Meltzer: how does a rising premium for education explain soaring shares for a tiny segment of the highly educated? The premise about a global shock doesn't stand up to evidence — not even the evidence Mr. Meltzer presents. And you have no business talking about international income distribution if you don't know about the invaluable World Top Incomes Database. What does this database tell us about Sweden versus America?

MORE

[Demeter]

46. Obama takes Bush’s secrecy games one step further By Glenn Greenwald

http://www.salon.com/2012/03/26/obama_takes_bushs_secrecy_games_one_step_further/singleton/

The ACLU is suing the Obama administration under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), seeking to force disclosure of the guidelines used by Obama officials to select which human beings (both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals) will have their lives ended by the CIA’s drone attacks (“In particular,” the group explains, the FOIA request “seeks to find out when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, and how the United States ensures compliance with international laws relating to extrajudicial killing”). The Obama administration has not only refused to provide any of that information, but worse, the CIA is insisting to federal courts that it cannot even confirm or deny the existence of a drone program at all without seriously damaging national security...

What makes this so appalling is not merely that the Obama administration demands the right to kill whomever it wants without having to account to anyone for its actions, choices or even claimed legal authorities, though that’s obviously bad enough (as I wrote when the ACLU lawsuit was commenced: “from a certain perspective, there’s really only one point worth making about all of this: if you think about it, it is warped beyond belief that the ACLU has to sue the U.S. Government in order to force it to disclose its claimed legal and factual bases for assassinating U.S. citizens without charges, trial or due process of any kind”). What makes it so much worse is how blatantly, insultingly false is its claim that it cannot confirm or deny the CIA drone program without damaging national security....Everyone in the world knows the CIA has a drone program. It is openly discussed everywhere, certainly including the multiple Muslim countries where the drones routinely create piles of corpses, and by top U.S. Government officials themselves.

But then when it comes time to test the accuracy of their public claims by requesting the most basic information about what is done and how execution targets are selected, and when it comes time to ask courts to adjudicate its legality, then suddenly National Security imperatives prevent the government even from confirming or denying the existence of the program: the very same program they’ve been publicly boasting and joking about. As the ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer put it after Obama publicly defended the program: “At this point, the only consequence of pretending that it’s a secret program is that the courts don’t play a role in overseeing it” – that, and ensuring that any facts that contradict these public claims remain concealed....it literally removes our highest political officials from the rule of law.

IN OTHER NEWS: NO HOPE, NO CHANGE, NO HOPE OF CHANGE

[Demeter]

47. Lobbyists, Guns and Money By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/opinion/krugman-lobbyists-guns-and-money.html?_r=1

Florida’s now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. And it’s tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos but by big corporations.

Specifically, language virtually identical to Florida’s law is featured in a template supplied to legislators in other states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed organization that has managed to keep a low profile even as it exerts vast influence (only recently, thanks to yeoman work by the Center for Media and Democracy, has a clear picture of ALEC’s activities emerged). And if there is any silver lining to Trayvon Martin’s killing, it is that it might finally place a spotlight on what ALEC is doing to our society — and our democracy.

What is ALEC? Despite claims that it’s nonpartisan, it’s very much a movement-conservative organization, funded by the usual suspects: the Kochs, Exxon Mobil, and so on. Unlike other such groups, however, it doesn’t just influence laws, it literally writes them, supplying fully drafted bills to state legislators. In Virginia, for example, more than 50 ALEC-written bills have been introduced, many almost word for word. And these bills often become law.

(GIVING NEW MEANING AND IRONY TO THE PHRASE: SMART-ALEC)

...ALEC isn’t so much about promoting free markets as it is about expanding crony capitalism...Think about that: we seem to be turning into a country where crony capitalism doesn’t just waste taxpayer money but warps criminal justice, in which growing incarceration reflects not the need to protect law-abiding citizens but the profits corporations can reap from a larger prison population.

Now, ALEC isn’t single-handedly responsible for the corporatization of our political life; its influence is as much a symptom as a cause. But shining a light on ALEC and its supporters — a roster that includes many companies, from AT&T and Coca-Cola to UPS, that have so far managed to avoid being publicly associated with the hard-right agenda — is one good way to highlight what’s going on. And that kind of knowledge is what we need to start taking our country back.

[Demeter]

49. The 1 Percent’s Doctrine for the 99 Percent

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8108-the-1-doctrine-for-the-99

A little over a year ago, while researching the Confederacy's economy, I stumbled across this unnerving graph charting the value of America's "stock of slaves" in the last decades before the Civil War.



This graph tells the real story behind the South's secession: the value of the South's "slave stock"—the property of the ruling class — soared as secession approached, reaching an almost 90-degree angle in those final years before Harper's Ferry. The South's ruling class seceded to protect their riches, period. From afar, if you didn't know that human "slave stock" was the asset being charted, you could easily mistake this graph, and its parabolic trajectory, for one of the many destructive asset bubbles this country has suffered right up through our own time...The graph comes from a grim working paper, "Capitalists Without Capital," written in the late 1980s by a UC Berkeley economist, Richard Sutch, and a UC Riverside historian, Robert Ransom. As they showed, slavery produced huge profits for southerners who invested in slave capital — to the detriment of all other portfolio investments, as the value of slaves soared in the mid-19th century. By that time, by far the largest cotton-growing states' wealth was in slave stock, not in real estate or other investments. The slave trade was outlawed in 1808; but the slave population quadrupled from 1 million in 1800 to 4 million in 1860 — encouraged by slaveowners who "bred" their human stock, thereby multiplying their profits as the value of each slave rose. Slavery is often portrayed by revisionist historians as somehow antithetical to market capitalism; in reality, slavery was a winning portfolio investment, the very incarnation of just how evil "free-market" capitalism can be. As the authors write:

"If slaves ... were an investment included in the asset portfolio of the planter/entrepreneur, they helped satisfy the owner's demand for wealth. But unlike most other forms of capital, which depreciate with time, the stock of slaves appreciated. Thus, the growth of the slave population continuously increased the stock of wealth."

Soaring Profits

What makes this graph so disturbing for us in 2012 is what it suggests about today's "1 percent" — and how they view the rest of us. It gives form to the brutal crackdown on the Occupy protests — and suggests darker things to come as we try to free ourselves from their vision of civilization, and our place in it. Contrast that with this McKinsey report put out a few years ago by the director of the consulting group's New York office. Titled "The New Metrics of Corporate Performance: Profit Per Employee," the report argues that the best performing firms in our increasingly financialized era are those companies that have learned to squeeze ever-larger profits out of each employee — and not by the more traditional "return on investment" metric. The McKinsey report looked at the world's 30 largest companies between 1995 and 2005, and found that their return on human capital more than doubled, from an average of $35,000 profit per employee to $83,000, leading to this rather frank and nauseating conclusion:

"If a company's capital intensity doesn't increase, profit per employee is a pretty good proxy for the return on intangibles. The hallmark of financial performance in today's digital age is an expanded ability to earn 'rents' from intangibles. Profit per employee is one measure of those rents. If a company boosts its profit per employee without increasing its capital intensity, management will increase its rents."

Extracting rent from "employees" as a business strategy: This is supposed to be the language of feudalism, not modern advanced capitalism — and yet this is the cutting edge in 21st century capitalist thinking, unashamed and unvarnished:

"One way to improve a company's profit per employee is simply to shed low-profit employees. But if they generate profit greater than the cost of the capital used to support their work, shedding them actually reduces the creation of wealth."

As with slave stock in a Southern investor's portfolio, the McKinsey report argues that as a corporation learns to successfully extract rent from its employees, the more employees it extracts rent from, the greater its aggregate profits. To compare "the 99 percent" to African slaves would be crude; but the mindset of "the 1 percent" then, as now, is eerily consistent. They view the rest of us not as human beings with rights, but as livestock whose meat is "rent" to be extracted. This is the language of plutocratic capitalism, a brutal system totally incompatible with democracy and antithetical to republican government and civilization. It is the language of misery, and misery is what "the 1 percent" is promising "the 99 percent" for years to come, in ever-greater doses.

Mark Ames

Mark Ames is editor of The eXiled Online and author of the book Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion from Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine and co-author with Matt Taibbi of The eXile: Sex, Drugs and Libel in the New Russia.

[Demeter]

51. Chris Hedges | Totalitarian Systems Always Begin by Rewriting the Law

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8095-chris-hedges-|-totalitarian-systems-always-begin-by-rewriting-the-law

...The NDAA implodes our most cherished constitutional protections. It permits the military to function on U.S. soil as a civilian law enforcement agency. It authorizes the executive branch to order the military to selectively suspend due process and habeas corpus for citizens. The law can be used to detain people deemed threats to national security, including dissidents whose rights were once protected under the First Amendment, and hold them until what is termed "the end of the hostilities." Even the name itself—the Homeland Battlefield Bill—suggests the totalitarian concept that endless war has to be waged within "the homeland" against internal enemies as well as foreign enemies...

The 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force Act, the employment of the Espionage Act by the Obama White House against six suspected whistle-blowers and leakers, and the Homeland Battlefield Bill have crippled the work of investigative reporters in every major newsroom in the country. Government sources that once provided information to counter official narratives and lies have largely severed contact with the press. They are acutely aware that there is no longer any legal protection for those who dissent or who expose the crimes of state. The NDAA threw in a new and dangerous component that permits the government not only to silence journalists but imprison them and deny them due process because they "substantially supported" terrorist groups or "associated forces."

...Glenn Greenwald, the columnist and constitutional lawyer, has done the most detailed analysis of the NDAA bill. He has pointed out that the crucial phrases are "substantially supported" and "associated forces." These two phrases, he writes, allow the government to expand the definition of terrorism to include groups that were not involved in the 9/11 attacks and may not have existed when those attacks took place....

Totalitarian systems always begin by rewriting the law. They make legal what was once illegal. Crimes become patriotic acts. The defense of freedom and truth becomes a crime. Foreign and domestic subjugation merges into the same brutal mechanism. Citizens are colonized. And it is always done in the name of national security. We obey the new laws as we obeyed the old laws, as if there was no difference. And we spend our energy and our lives appealing to a dead system.

MUCH MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

52. STOP THE NDAA PETITION

https://www.stopndaa.org/

[xchrom]

48. Consumer confidence dips on fears of inflation

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/27/10886067-consumer-confidence-dips-on-fears-of-inflation

Consumer confidence dipped in March, while Americans ratcheted up their inflation expectations to the highest level in 10 months, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday.

The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes eased to 70.2 from an upwardly revised 71.6 the month before. Economists had expected a reading of 70.3, according to a Reuters poll.

February's figure was originally reported as 70.8.

The expectations index fell to 83.0 from 88.4, though the present situation gauge gained to its highest level since September 2008 at 51.0 from 46.4.

[xchrom]

50. Obama Has Made a Mess of the World Bank Succession

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-27/obama-has-made-a-mess-of-the-world-bank-succession.html

Barack Obama’s decision to nominate Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank has been well received.

The prevailing view is that Kim is a smart solution to a tricky little problem: How to maintain a strong U.S. role in the bank while bowing to the growing economic might of developing nations such as China.

I don’t think so.

First and foremost, the appointment of Kim, a U.S. citizen, would perpetuate the indefensible custom by which an American heads the World Bank and a European runs the International Monetary Fund. Until Kim’s name was put forward, there was wide agreement that the job calls for a highly qualified non- American. The strength of sentiment against the traditional stitch-up is what made the nomination to succeed Robert Zoellick, who steps down from the bank this summer, more awkward for the White House than usual.

The unstated position of those who praise the choice seems to be that Kim isn’t entirely American, that his Asian name makes him the next best thing to a foreigner. How clever: The White House gets to appoint both an American, thus preserving its feudal privilege, and a non-American, thus being an enlightened world citizen. The core of this reasoning is the dumbest kind of racism. So far as I know, the U.S. has just one class of citizenship. Kim is an American.

[Demeter]

53. It's much more layered than that

there's the whole totally-unqualified-sock-puppet aspect...

But yes, this is a monumental, lifetime achievement kind of disrespect to the whole damn world...or at least 99.9% of it.

[FarCenter]

56. Based on his track record in "Partners in Health" and at WHO, he's an "enlightened world citizen"

[Demeter]

58. But did he stay at a Holiday Inn?

Somehow, I doubt it.

[FarCenter]

60. Almost everyone has at one time or another

They are a brand of Intercontinental Hotels Group, plc.

http://www.ihgplc.com/

[Demeter]

54. US economic model broken, says survey

http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fe692804-71d0-11e1-b853-00144feab49a.html#axzz1pd6xsnL3

Almost two-thirds of working-age adults believe the US economic model “no longer works for the majority of Americans” according to research.

Of those who thought the system no longer worked, 51 per cent said they were not prepared to take risks with savings, showing how concerns about economic fairness lead to caution about the risky investments that the system depends on...

“If the American economic system is set up to reward risk takers, what happens when the majority of Americans are no longer willing to take risks?” said David Bowers, managing director of Absolute Strategy Research, a London-based investment consultancy that commissioned the research.

WHAT INDEED? AND WHY WOULD LONDON CARE?

Fairness was the biggest perceived flaw in the economic model – only 20 per cent of Americans said it “distributes wealth and income fairly”. Majorities said the US system did not provide equal opportunities for everyone or reward people for their hard work and skill. Concerns about the US economic model were similar across different ages and genders, with wealthier and better educated Americans only slightly less likely to conclude that the system was broken. There was a sharp political divide, however, with 77 per cent of self-identified Democrats agreeing that the system was broken compared with 51 per cent of Republicans. Among independents, 64 per cent thought that the economic model no longer worked, suggesting an opportunity for Mr Obama if he can convince this swing block of voters that his policies will improve the system...

[FarCenter]

55. Terrifying TV chimera born from Sharp, Foxconn lords' fling

Foxconn owner Hon Hai Group has given limping Sharp a crutch by buying a stake in the Japanese electronics maker and pouring a few billion yen into its LCD business.

Taiwanese Hon Hai will hand over ¥66.9bn ($806m, £507m) for a 9.9 per cent stake in Sharp - and will fork out another ¥66bn for a 46.5 per cent stake in the joint venture telly business Sharp has with Sony.

LCD shipments worldwide have slowed for everybody, but Sharp is also suffering, along with Sony and Panasonic, from a major kicking in the market by Korean electro-behemoth Samsung. Sharp forecasts a net loss of ¥290bn ($3.5bn, £2.19bn) for the year ending March 31.

"The market surrounding electronics industry is becoming severe, with rapid price decline due to the development of digital technology and increasing competition in a global market," Sharp said in a statement on the deal with Hon Hai. "We believe timely action is necessary to tackle these changes in the market."

Japanese trio Sharp, Sony and Panasonic are taking harder hits in the LCD sector because they have struggled to stay competitive as they battle against a strong yen.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/28/sharp_foxconn_lcd_deal/

Chinese-Japanese tie up to do battle with the Koreans. (Although a large chunk of LCD computer screen production is Taiwanese.)

[Demeter]

57. That's as much bad news as I can stand this morning

It's paper night, so wish me a safe route.

I interviewed with the distributer of the NYT and WSJ and FT and IBD and other lesser papers last week. This man, who treated me with contempt in previous encounters, was positively beaming if not flirtatious, and complimentary. Suspicions aroused, I entered into discussion of the available routes.

For delivering more papers than I do now, 7 days a week as compared to 3 (if you count the free ads) and driving a route 2 to 3 times longer, an extra $80 bucks a week. I'd be working to subsidize the Grey Lady and whatever they call the Rupert Rag. No gasoline price increase clause, no nothing. Certainly, no profit.

I cordially declined the offer. Now I understand the warmth...he thinks I'm an idiot for pursuing this line of work, too. When the manager holds the workers in contempt, both get what they deserve.

Now, off to deal with a bad day...just a guess on my part, based on statistical analysis of the past 25 years or so...

[Demeter]

59. Or, as Dilbert Puts It

[xchrom]

61. Spain We are building a “war economy”

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1706381-we-are-building-war-economy

One hundred days after the inauguration of his government with its absolute majority, Mariano Rajoy can point to at least three major economic reforms: in labour, in finances, and in budgetary stability. Looking beyond the opinions that might be expressed on each of them (all point in the same direction: to satisfy the obligations imposed by Brussels and to reassure the markets) the PP government cannot be accused of inaction.

The result so far, however, has not been the intended one. The EU is suspicious, and Spain has overtaken Italy at the forefront of problems associated with risk premium, moving into the red zone of eurozone investor concerns. Moreover, in recent days, the Spanish economy has come in for the severest attacks from the main bibles of the global economic press, from various reports by investment banks and, most ironically, from the Italian prime minister himself, Mario Monti, who said "Spain is giving Europe serious concerns".

Monti has probably pointed the finger at Spain to distract the eyes of the markets from Italy’s difficulties and the political fragility of his own reforms. Such policies – of deflecting harm onto one’s neighbour, of every man for himself – abounded in the Great Depression.

[Demeter]

68. Ali Naimi - There is no rational reason for high oil prices

It is clear that sustained high prices are starting to take their toll on European economic growth targets. They are contributing to trade balance deficits and feeding inflationary pressures. It is an unsatisfactory situation and one Saudi Arabia is keen to help address.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/AMUDS7/9MEOW/IIPB9Z/II6AXX/LE/t?a1=2012&a2=3&a3=28

THEN HAVE THE HOUSE OF SAUD TAKE OUT GOLDMAN SACHS...THAT OUGHT TO FINALLY BRING PEACE TO THE MIDDLE EAST, AS WELL.

[kickysnana]

70. Counted votes today on our Senior Council election today for our Low Income building.

It is nice to have a squeaky clean, "nice' election once in a while even if it is just local.

[Demeter]

71. Reform has to start somewhere

Congrats!