Weekend Economists Seek a 1% Solution March 30-April Fool's Day 2012

[Demeter]

Well, not only is it the end of the week, it's also the end of the month. And what a month it was! There was revelation after revelation of outright criminality from the 1%, special treatment written into tax law and other laws, wheeling and dealing in basics that the 99% couldn't begin to dream about, let alone have access to.

Well, WEE don't forget, and we are keeping a list. Along with the latest scandal and scuttlebutt, I'm planning to repost the "lowlights" of March, for those that missed it and for posterity...I think that would be good practice for each end of each month.

Top sales reps, weight loss champs, blue chip firms, Warren Buffett, Navy SEALs, Olympians, and other winners all understand the power of 1%. Packed with actionable ideas, The 1% Solution shows you how to power up your next 30 days and then keep on going at a permanently higher level. Because it's based not upon opinion, but upon solid research that's backed up with real-life examples, this book is for those who want to be better right now.

Connellan notes, for example, that while it's virtually impossible to be 100% better than your competition, it's very possible to be 1% better in hundreds of things.

Connellan draws on three sources for the practical solutions he offers:

1. His background as a Research Associate and Program Director at the Michigan Business School where he was responsible for the design and implementation of 72 management development programs a year.

2. His street experience as an entrepreneur who started a company in the health promotion field and built it into a network of 1200 instructors serving 300 hospitals and most of the Fortune 500 companies. More than 1,000,000 people went through its programs and two different Surgeon General reports cited the firms program quality.

3. His current work as a keynote speaker and consultant whose clients include such diverse organizations as FedEx, TD Canada Trust, Marriott, Sobeys, Sony, Acura, BMW, Rogers Communications, Canadian Tire, Neiman Marcus, Home Depot, Target, and the military.

As part of his research, he looked at individuals who worked to improve their personal and work lives. While most everyone put in a lot of effort, he found one key difference between those who won that battle and those who lost that battle.

The winners had a structure a structure that gave them a disciplined focus and the losers didn't.

If you're interested in a proven structure for work and personal success, this book belongs in your library right now because as one reviewer said The 1% Solution really does give you the magic formula for 'How to Make Your Next 30 Days the Best Ever.'

There's a snake oil salesman born every minute, and the modern ones all go to business school to teach the next generation.... http://www.amazon.com/The-1-Solution-Work-Life/dp/0976950626


This is a special weekend, too. Tomorrow is Birthday Frenzy, my own personal form of March Madness, which started 29 years ago with a frantic trip from Nashua to Concord General, where the midwife's backup worked. I managed to avoid a Caesarean by half an hour (the operating rooms were full), and the Kid was born with minimal invasive procedures, for which I am eternally grateful.

And then of course, Sunday is April Fool's Day. I wish I could promise typical April foolery, but in a thread like this, it's all a matter of $$$ and sense, or lack thereof. Economics as currently practiced is exceptionally foolish. It would be hard to top that. But everybody is welcome to try.

?w=593

With my luck, it will snow....

[Demeter]

1. ONE BANK DOWN, AND IT'S TOO CLOSE TO HOME FOR COMFORT!

Fidelity Bank, Dearborn, Michigan, was closed today by the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with The Huntington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio, to assume all of the deposits of Fidelity Bank.

The 15 branches of Fidelity Bank will reopen on Saturday as branches of The Huntington National Bank. Depositors of Fidelity Bank will automatically become depositors of The Huntington National Bank. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to applicable limits. Customers of Fidelity Bank should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from The Huntington National Bank that it has completed systems changes to allow other The Huntington National Bank branches to process their accounts as well.

This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Fidelity Bank can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of December 31, 2011, Fidelity Bank had approximately $818.2 million in total assets and $747.6 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, The Huntington National Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets....

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $92.8 million. Compared to other alternatives, The Huntington National Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Fidelity Bank is the 16th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Michigan. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Community Central Bank, Mount Clemens, on April 29, 2011.

[Demeter]

2. The Supreme Court and the ACA: Is Health Care Unique and Does it Matter?

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2012/03/26/the-supreme-court-and-the-aca-is-health-care-unique-and-does-it-matter/

...The Obama Department of Justice and many of the law’s supporters have argued that health care is somehow unique. They note the health insurance market is such a large part of the economy, that everyone will eventually use a health care service at some point, that the mandate is necessary for the federal government to achieve its goal of expanding coverage.

All the arguments I’ve seen for the uniqueness of health care are, in my opinion, seriously lacking as a legal and logical argument. Of course a federal mandate to buy insurance would greatly affect the interstate commerce for health care, but any mandate would do that. If the government mandated everyone to buy cars, guns, gym memberships, emergency phones, or vegetables it would result in significant changes to the economics of these products and society as a whole.

If the Supreme Court decides that health care is unique for some reason that allows it to uphold the individual mandate, it will presumably do so in a way that limits the precedent it sets. The precise contours of the logic the Court uses to define health care’s uniqueness could help shape the scope of the federal government’s powers for a generation.

It is also possible that the Court could decide that health isn’t unique, but determine that isn’t legally required to uphold this mandate. The Court could find this mandate to buy insurance, and by default almost any mandate to buy a product, constitutional under the commerce clause since such action would impact interstate commerce...

OR THEY COULD CAN THIS ABORTION, AND FORCE CONGRESS TO DO A PROPER SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM...

[Demeter]

5. Nightmare Scenario: Supreme Court Guts Public Healthcare and Guarantees Private Insurance Monopoly

http://www.alternet.org/story/154764/the_nightmare_scenario%3A_supreme_court_guts_public_healthcare_and_guarantees_the_private_insurance_monopoly?akid=8500.227380.2C4aID&rd=1&t=15

At the U.S. Supreme Court this week, most of the attention has focused on whether the new federal healthcare reform can require every American to have a health plan. But as the hearings ended on Wednesday, another prospect came into view that could satisfy the conservative justices' obvious displeasure with the law and it is far more chilling—striking down the expansion of state-run Medicaid programs.

Should the conservatives remove the individual mandate from their bullseye and replace it with Medicaid, it would give right-wing ideologues and the private sector a historic political victory at the expense of a slice of society the GOP has no qualms about beating up: low-income people, particularly women; communities of color; and other underrepresented people.

“It probably would require the court to be really bold, to strike down a program passed by Congress under its spending power, and to do so for the first time in 76 years,” wrote Lyle Denniston for ScotusBlog. “But the temptation was very much in evidence in the final round of the court’s hearings this week on the Affordable Care Act. If that happens, it probably would be done by a 5-4 vote.”

That scenario is more than troubling: wiping out the government’s largest expansion of healthcare for low-income people since the 1960s while enshrining a private sector monopoly on future healthcare delivery. If Denniston’s instincts are correct (he has been covering the court for 54 years) it would be an explosive invitation to political class warfare with implications stretching far beyond the public health sphere....

MORE AT LINK

MUST READ! WAY TO GO, PRESIDENT OBAMA (EXPLETIVES DELETED)

[Demeter]

6. What Happens to Health Care if the Court's Conservative Activists Just Strike Down the Mandate?

http://www.alternet.org/story/154742/what_happens_to_health_care_if_the_court%27s_conservative_activists_just_strike_down_the_mandate?page=entire

The answer—if the court does not throw out the entire law—is that quite a bit would remain...The court focused on three scenarios about the coverage mandate: eliminate it entirely; strike it and related requirements that insurers must sell policies to people with pre-existing conditions and limit costs associated with those policies; or invalidate the entire law. The justices faced a fourth choice, leaving the entire law intact.

There did not appear to be any consensus, even among the conservative justices, to throw out the entire law; they literally laughed at the prospect of taking a red pen to its 2,700 pages and crossing out lines page by page. Instead, they and lawyers on both sides put forth arguments about the consequences of all these scenarios. The conservative justices clearly suggested that they would like to see the mandate go, but were hesitant about undermining the entire law and did not trust that Congress could fix it.

The session, and another one on Wednesday afternoon looking at whether the reform was coercing states to expand their Medicare programs for low-income people against states’ wills, raise the question of what would remain of the landmark reform if the court takes out what the government says is its heart—the mandate that all Americans have health care.

The answer—if the court does not throw out the entire law—is that quite a bit would remain. A dozen new major policy initiatives would still be on the books in federal and state law. But a more fundamental question would then arise: who would pay for all these steps to cover the uninsured and create new and more affordable options for the middle class? The new Urban Institute study found that only 6 percent of the U.S. population would be subject to the mandate and penalties for not buying insurance under the law. The reform’s opponents and the government have argued the mandate is the heart of the law. But it is the "heart" of the law not because it is extending care to tens of millions of Americans, but because it is siphoning the money needed to pay for all the envisioned reforms...

MORE...ANOTHER MUST READ

[Demeter]

11. What's Going to Happen to the Affordable Care Act?

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/873989/what%27s_going_to_happen_to_the_affordable_care_act/#paragraph4

The third day of oral arguments on the Affordable Care Act saw many justices seem to take a dim view of the severability of the mandate from the rest of the Affordable Care Act. That in turn creates a real pickle for Scalia and his friends. Their choices are essentially these:

1) Vote to uphold the ACA, and thus the notion that the Federal Government can place a mandate on individual citizens to purchase a product offered by private companies;

2) Vote to uphold the rest of the ACA, but not the individual mandate--despite the fact that the pre-existing condition provision doesn't really work without the mandate; or

3) Strike down the law in its entirety.

Nothing new there. But as any analyst worth their salt will note, the oral arguments are essentially window dressing for journalists, even as the Court has become much, much more political of late in its decision-making. The justices are wholly unlikely to make their decisions about the law based on the last three days; these decisions, like Bush v Gore and Citizens United, are going to made based on political calculations.

That's where it gets tricky, even for the conservative jurists.

Option #1 to uphold the ACA would seem to be unlikely at first glance. Conservatives hate the law, hate the President, and have an incentive to deliver what they might consider a humiliating blow to the Administration. The notion that the federal government can compel private purchases also grates against the modern conservative ethic.

On the other hand, repealing the Affordable Care Act has become a major rallying cry for the conservative establishment, and one of the key arguments Republicans use to mobilize their case to elect them in 2012. It's entirely probable that if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, the mobilization effect will work in reverse. There will be a lot of angry people with pre-existing conditions, as well as a lot of angry youth under 26 and their parents. Progressives will work all the harder to pass single-payer healthcare in blue states, since it will have become clear that no federal solution to skyrocketing healthcare costs is in the offing. And it will mean that the onlysolution left on the table to resolve the issue would be some form of single-payer. Not that anything resembling single-payer would be passed now or anytime within the next 15 years--but eventually it would have to happen as the current Fox News audience dies away and Millennials become the adult voting majority. Politically, in both the short and long term, allowing the ACA to stand judicially is probably a conservative's best bet.

Severing the mandate would appear to be the worst option of all. It would arguably create an even more progressive law unless the pre-existing condition section were stricken out. But to go down that path would require the Court to determine insofar as it can the workability of every single piece of the very lengthy bill--a prospect that Scalia compared to cruel and unusual punishment. It would also mean unprecedented activism on the part of the Court. It's one thing to strike down the most contested and hard-fought legislative accomplishment perhaps in decades. That's judicial activism enough. But it's quite another for the Court to going through the law piece by piece to figure out what parts of it would work legislatively if the mandate were curtailed. It would put the Court in a fairly unprecedented position of actually and truly legislating from the bench, and we all know how conservatives supposedly feel about that. At the end of the day, politics are going to be the deciding factor in what will likely be another 5-4 vote. The Court's four staunch conservatives will need to vote against it to maintain credibility from their own base, even as unelected officials. But I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the ACA will be upheld in the end, if for no other reason than that it doesn't really serve the interests of anyone--from liberals to conservatives to the Justices themselves--to do otherwise.

By David Atkins | Sourced from Hullabaloo

I DOUBT IT, DAVE...THESE GUYS ARE NUTS AND HAVE BEEN FOR SOME TIME. AND THEY GET AWAY WITH MURDER..THIS WOULD JUST BE MORE OF THE SAME....

[Demeter]

13. Krugman: Healthcare Ruling Could Prove Supreme Court is Motivated by Politics, Not Constitution

YA THINK?

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/874469/krugman%3A_healthcare_ruling_could_prove_supreme_court_is_motivated_by_politics%2C_not_constitution/#paragraph5

FULL ARTICLE AT:

Broccoli and Bad Faith By PAUL KRUGMAN


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/opinion/krugman-broccoli-and-bad-faith.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

...Given the stakes, one might have expected all the court’s members to be very careful in speaking about both health care realities and legal precedents. In reality, however, the second day of hearings suggested that the justices most hostile to the law don’t understand, or choose not to understand, how insurance works. And the third day was, in a way, even worse, as antireform justices appeared to embrace any argument, no matter how flimsy, that they could use to kill reform...

...As I said, we don’t know how this will go. But it’s hard not to feel a sense of foreboding — and to worry that the nation’s already badly damaged faith in the Supreme Court’s ability to stand above politics is about to take another severe hit.

[Demeter]

28. The Nine Circles of the ACA Garrett Epps

http://prospect.org/article/nine-circles-aca

By Wednesday afternoon, the Supreme Court was pondering whether Congress itself was unconstitutional.

...If you want to know how strange things got, consider that a Justice of the United States Supreme Court suggested that the Court should invalidate the entire 2,700-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) merely to save him the trouble of reading the whole thing. That suggestion came from waggish Scalia, who wore the chicken-eating smile of a man who has counted to five. He made the comment during the morning argument, which concerned an issue—“severability”—that was supposedly hypothetical: If the Court strikes down the minimum-coverage (i.e., “individual mandate”) provision of the ACA, should it strike down only that part, other related parts as well, or the whole thing? Scalia’s question captures the conservative majority’s attitude toward Congress. Congress wrote this monstrosity; it is beneath our notice. “What happened to the Eighth Amendment?” Scalia asked assistant solicitor general Erwin Kneedler. “You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages?”

The government argues that if the mandate is struck, the Court should also strike only the “guaranteed issue” and “community rating” provisions, which forbid discrimination in issuing policies or premium rates on the basis of pre-existing conditions. Paul Clement, arguing for the 26 states that have challenged the Act, echoed Scalia: Everything must go. H. Bartow Farr III, a court-appointed amicus, argued that the Court could strike only the mandate and leave everything else intact. (Fresh, rested, and unencumbered by an actual client, Farr made the best argument of the day, and he was the only one the Justices listened attentively to—perhaps because they had not heard him for hours Monday and Tuesday.)

The severability argument did not seem hypothetical, but deadly earnest, as the government and the more liberal Justices scrambled to preserve some shred of the progressive victory embodied in the ACA. Hefting a copy of the statute, Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out that it includes a multitude of provisions, governing, for example, Black Lung disease and the Indian Health Service: “there is biosimilarity, there is breast feeding, there is promoting nurses and doctors to serve underserved areas, there is the CLASS Act, etcetera.” These things have nothing to do with the mandate. Why should the Court strike them? But to Scalia, the Act should be invalidated because Congress can’t be trusted to fix it. “It's unrealistic to say leave it to Congress, as though you're sending it back to Congress for Congress to consider it dispassionately: On balance, should we have his provision or should we not have provision? That's not what it's going to be.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy turned conventional doctrine on its head. Judicial restraint would seem to require invalidating as little of the ACA as possible. Not here though, Kennedy said to Kneedler: “You are echoing the earlier premise that it increases the judicial power if the judiciary strikes down other provisions of the Act. I suggest to you it might be quite the opposite. We would be exercising the judicial power if ... one provision was stricken and the others remained to impose a risk on insurance companies that Congress had never intended. ... That, it seems to me, can be argued at least to be a more extreme exercise of judicial power than ... striking the whole.”

IMHO, CONGRESS HAD NO BUSINESS LUMPING EVERYTHING TOGETHER...IT'S LIKE PUTTING A POORLY SET, PURPLE DYED RUG IN WITH THE WHITES...BAD MOVE!

...In the afternoon, the question was was whether the Court should move beyond the ACA and gut the government’s spending power, the principal tool of cooperative federalism. In such programs, Congress appropriates funds to the states, and if the states accept them, they agree to administer the funded programs according to federal standards. The ACA offers states massive new Medicaid funding, but to get it they must expand their eligibility rules for low-income people. Clement argued that this was “coercive.” The precedent for this argument was as follows: nothing. But seriously, he told the Court, this Medicaid expansion was such a good deal for the states that they couldn’t turn it down, and that was coercion. And besides, he said, if they didn’t comply, the statute said they would lose all their Medicaid funding...

[Demeter]

34. Single-Payer or Bust Steve Erickson

http://prospect.org/article/single-payer-or-bust

Striking down the individual mandate leaves only one of two options: adopt a system in which government pays for health care, or do nothing....The great irony of Obamacare, of course, is that its most controversial provision, and the thing about it that has rallied conservatives against it, was itself a conservative article of faith for the past two decades right up to the moment that Barack Obama embraced it; and this is the notion—originally advanced as a response to Clintoncare by the right-wing Heritage Foundation and then championed until as recently as three years ago by Republicans, including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former speaker Newt Gingrich—that the government could and should compel individuals to take responsibility for buying their own health insurance. The right liked this idea precisely because it put the financial onus of health care on individuals rather than where President Bill Clinton believed it belonged: on the businesses that employ individuals.

IN WHICH CASE, IF THE SUPREMES STRIKE DOWN THE MANDATE, THE RIGHT WING HAS BEEN KNEE-CAPPED. IT'S AN EXPENSIVE, BUT EFFECTIVE WAY OF STOPPING THAT PARTICULAR RATHOLE...BUT A SUSTAINABLE, EFFECTIVE UNIVERSAL COVERAGE, SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE BILL WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT MORE USEFUL AND CHEAPER.

Both history and budgetary reality dictate either some kind of health-care reform or monetary cataclysm. Should the Court strike down the mandate on the basis that, as Kennedy put it Tuesday, the compulsion forcing individuals into the health-care market fundamentally changes the relationship between the individual and the state, and should the Court thereby demolish the first-ever such reform to pass Congress, it’s not overstating things to suggest that the decision will leave the country in a kind of crisis. While it’s difficult to imagine that the Justices are unaware of this, it’s hard to know to what extent they take such a consequence into consideration, notwithstanding Justice Antonin Scalia’s musings during Wednesday’s session about what is legislatively feasible (this from the most outspoken critic of judicial activism, by which Scalia means not activism from the right but from the left). In the meantime the Obama campaign has three months to ponder what lemonade is to be made from the lemon and whether such a crisis can or should be transformed into a referendum. To be sure, this is a cynical consideration in the face of the havoc that overturning the act will have wrought, but campaigns are in the business of cynicism, and as they’ve done so often Republicans will cast the argument in its most malevolent terms, aimed at the heart of Obama’s legitimacy as both president and American, suggesting that the subversion of the Constitution by a former constitutional scholar pledged to uphold it verges on the impeachable.

YES, THERE IS THAT ASPECT TO CONSIDER...AND I HAVE BEEN, FOR THREE YEARS...DO I HEAR A DRONE? HABEAS CORPUS, ANYONE?

It’s still not unthinkable that the Court could decide in favor of Obamacare 6-3, with Scalia, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas the dissenters. Both Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts have enough historical ego to weigh not only where all this is going and where it could all lead but where it could leave the Court—and Roberts and Kennedy—in the eyes of history. They may already suspect posterity will take a dim view of recent court decisions involving voter registration and campaign financing, and whatever their personal ideological misgivings, neither may want to be attached to what in practical terms can only be one of the most controversial and pandemoniac decisions since Dred Scott. In what currently unfolds as the Be-Careful-What-You-Wish-For Election, the Court’s ruling has the clear capability of enflaming and motivating whichever side “loses” and thrusting ownership of this vexing issue on whichever side “wins”—including Republicans if the individual mandate they once cherished and now so loathe is struck, and Democrats if the act is upheld and thus becomes something to be defended before a public conflicted and confused about the issue from the outset. When the assumption in a geometric equation turns out to be wrong, the mathematician starts over, and sometimes the assumption proves something else entirely.

BUT VERY UNLIKELY. ASSES DON'T CHANGE THEIR SPOTS.

[Demeter]

38. As Health Law Is Contested, Developing a Plan B

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/business/awaiting-a-ruling-on-the-health-law-mandate-and-reviewing-alternatives.html?_r=1&ref=business

State officials and insurance executives are devising possible alternatives to the coming federal requirement that most Americans buy health insurance, even as the Supreme Court hears arguments about the constitutionality of the mandate. The options being discussed include imposing state requirements that people get insurance, penalties for people who delay and automatic coverage enrollment. While it is unclear which way the court will rule, state officials and insurance executives say they have no choice but to prepare their options before the proposed mandate goes into effect in 2014. “We’re always working on Plan B — always,” said Senator Karen Keiser, a state lawmaker in Washington State who leads a group tackling the issue.

“It will be up to state legislators, that is where the power will move,” said Ms. Keiser, a Democrat. “We have a lot of options at the state level.” OH, REALLY? PARDON MY SCOFF.

Some Wall Street analysts predict that if the federal mandate is struck down and the rest of the law is upheld, the industry will quickly shift its focus to alternatives, particularly those that enable the states to bolster enrollment, so enough healthy people sign up and premiums do not skyrocket. “The states are obviously not wanting the health insurance market and exchanges to spiral out of control,” said Jason Gurda, who follows insurers for Leerink Swann. In Georgia, where the legislature has not yet authorized the development of an exchange to buy and sell insurance as required by the law, the state’s insurance commissioner, Ralph T. Hudgens, says he knows he may have to come up with a marketplace, regardless of how the Supreme Court rules. He said he opposed the mandate, but he believed the exchange could make it easier for citizens to buy policies. “Whether the mandate is struck down or not, Georgia is under the edict to establish an exchange,” he said. Although unlikely, given the political opposition and current unpopularity of the federal mandate, some states, following the example of Massachusetts, could authorize their own mandates requiring people to buy coverage or pay a penalty. States could also make it difficult for people to enroll only when they needed care by setting limited periods when individuals could sign up or by imposing penalties on those who waited, although that could require a change to the federal law. Individuals could be also be automatically enrolled by their employer unless they opted out, although some groups are already challenging an existing provision in the law that requires employers to automatically enroll any new workers in a health plan as overly burdensome.

The law could also be modified to allow states to continue to use high-risk pools, where people with expensive medical conditions might go to get more heavily subsidized coverage. And while the current law requires insurers to cover anyone with a pre-existing condition, Congress could contemplate allowing insurers to exclude an existing medical condition if someone waited to enroll only when they needed care. “There are alternatives to the mandate,” said Andrew Dreyfus, the chief executive of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state most closely watched as an indication of how the federal law may play out because of its adoption of a similar law, under then-Governor Mitt Romney, now running for the Republican nomination for president. One way Massachusetts brought down the cost of coverage for individuals, for example, was to merge that insurance market with the one for small businesses, where the premiums were lower, which other states could also do, Mr. Dreyfus said. The state also started a marketing campaign, featuring the Boston Red Sox, to try to persuade young people to enroll.

“You could have a market, but it would be a more dysfunctional market,” Mr. Dreyfus said.

YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN! 6 BLIND MEN ENCOUNTERING THE ELEPHANT...

[bread_and_roses]

15. I saw that too - and had the same reaction as your last sentence

with the addition of -

WAY TO GO, PUSILLANIMOUS SO-CALLED "PROGRESSIVES" WHO DECIDED TO ROLL OVER FOR THIS ABOMINATION!

I was utterly aghast when not only did Obama bail on his promises and his campaign rhetoric but the entire "progressive" community declined to go to the wall and challenge him.

I railed when "we" failed to challenge him by demanding Single-Payer and not a "public option." Would I have settled for a true "public" option - yes. But you don't start out at the table with your bottom line.

I hate to say "I told you so" (not meaning you, Demeter, of course) but this one I called from the beginning. When the demand was phrased as "affordable" coverage I railed that using that phrase was defeat in and of itself - it was a recipe for disaster.

I have been in such a rage over the abomination that was passed, and over "our" (including my Sisters and Brothers in Labor) cowardly supine acquiescence in it.

[Tansy_Gold]

50. Amen. n/t

[Hotler]

91. Fucking sad! n/t

[Demeter]

3. Gas Prices Explained

[Demeter]

4. Moody’s takes actions on seven Portuguese banks; Outlook negative

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2012/03/full-text-moodys-takes-actions-on-seven-portuguese-banks-outlook-negative.html

The following is the text of a ratings action on Portuguese banks initiated today

Actions conclude review initiated on 15 February 2012

Madrid, March 28, 2012 — Moody’s Investors Service has today taken rating actions on seven Portuguese banks and banking groups. The senior debt and deposit ratings for four banks were downgraded by one notch, aligning their ratings at the same level or one notch below the ratings of the Portuguese government, which was downgraded to Ba3 from Ba2 on 13 February 2012. The debt and deposit ratings of Banco Santander Totta (a subsidiary of Banco Santander S.A.) were lowered by two notches to Ba1. The debt and deposit ratings of Banco Comercial Portugues (BCP) and of Caixa Economica Montepio Geral (Montepio) were confirmed at Ba3. All ratings have a negative outlook.

The downgrades of most of the banks’ debt and deposit ratings reflect Moody’s downgrades of their standalone bank financial strength ratings (BFSRs), which are driven by the following key factors:

– Expected further deterioration of banks’ domestic asset quality and profitability given the country’s poor economic outlook which is driven in part by the austerity measures needed to address the sovereign’s weakening credit profile

– Additional asset risks stemming from banks’ substantial holdings of government-related debt

– Prolonged and ongoing lack of access to private wholesale funding sources;

While none of these pressures are new, in Moody’s view they continue to mount against the backdrop of the ongoing euro debt crisis. Positively, Moody’s recognises the supportive stance toward the Portuguese banking system by its government and the euro area authorities including the ECB. However, as discussed further below, Moody’s has concluded that this supportive stance does not fully offset the aforementioned negative drivers.

All of the banks’ standalone credit assessments have negative outlooks, reflecting the very challenging operating environment, which will likely continue to exert negative pressure on the banks’ operating performance. The negative outlooks on the banks’ debt and deposit ratings reflect the negative outlook on their standalone credit assessments and on the Portuguese government’s Ba3 bond rating.

Today’s rating actions conclude the review for downgrade of Portuguese banks, initiated on 15 February 2012 (see "Moody’s Reviews Ratings for European Banks&quot . That review was part of Moody’s wider review of European financial institutions driven in part by (i) the difficult European operating environment caused by the prolonged euro area crisis; and (ii) and the deteriorating creditworthiness of certain euro area sovereigns (including Portugal).

Moody’s has also concluded its review of systemic support currently incorporated in the ratings of subordinated debt of Portuguese banks, which was initiated on 29 November 2011, and removed all systemic support from these ratings.

As a result, the subordinated debt (and, where applicable, junior subordinated debt) ratings of two banks (Banco Comercial Portugues and Banco Espirito Santo) have been affected, since the ratings on those securities are now being notched off these banks’ adjusted standalone credit assessments, which do not incorporate government support assumptions. This action reflects Moody’s view that creditors holding subordinated debt of Portuguese banks are more likely to suffer losses than holders of their senior unsecured debt in the event that the government provides financial support to the banking system.

RATING ACTIONS OVERVIEW

* Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD): The standalone BFSR was downgraded to E+ (mapping to B1 on the long term scale) from D (Ba2) and the debt and deposit ratings were downgraded to Ba3/Not Prime from Ba2/Not Prime.

* Banco Comercial Portugues (BCP): The standalone BFSR was downgraded to E+ (B2) from E+ (B1) and the debt and deposit ratings was confirmed at Ba3/Not Prime.

*Banco Espirito Santo (BES): The standalone BFSR was downgraded to E+ (B1) from D- (Ba3) and the debt and deposit ratings were downgraded to Ba3/Not Prime from Ba2/Not Prime. Espirito Santo Financial Group (ESFG, the parent of BES): The debt ratings were downgraded to B2/Not prime from B1/Not Prime.

* Banco BPI (BPI): The standalone BFSR was downgraded to E+ (B1) from D (Ba2) and the debt and deposit ratings were downgraded to Ba3/Not prime from Ba2/Not Prime.

*Banco Santander Totta (BST): The standalone BFSR was downgraded to D- (Ba3) from D+ (Ba1) and the debt and deposit ratings were downgraded to Ba1/Not Prime from Baa2/Prime-2.

* Caixa Economica Montepio Geral (Montepio): The standalone BFSR was confirmed at D- (Ba3) and the debt and deposit ratings were confirmed at Ba3/Not Prime.

* Banco Internacional do Funchal (Banif): The standalone BFSR was downgraded to E+ (B2) from D- (Ba3) and the debt and deposit ratings were downgraded to B1/Not Prime from Ba3/Not Prime.

A full list of affected ratings can be found at this link: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBC_140945

For additional information on bank ratings, please refer to the webpage containing Moody’s related announcements:http://www.moodys.com/bankratings2012

MORE AT LINK

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

Edward Harrison is the founder of Credit Writedowns and a former career diplomat, investment banker and technology executive with over twenty years of business experience. He is also a regular economic and financial commentator on BBC World News, CNBC Television, Business News Network, CBC, Fox Television and RT Television. He speaks six languages, a skill he uses to provide a more global perspective. Edward holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.

[Demeter]

7. Thomas Frank: How Americans Have Gotten Played -- Over and Over and Over Again

http://www.alternet.org/story/154735/thomas_frank%3A_how_americans_have_gotten_played_--_over_and_over_and_over_again?page=entire

In the 12 hapless years of this millennium, we have looked on as 3 great bubbles have inflated and burst, each with consequences more dire than the last. First there was the “New Economy,” a millennial fever dream predicated on the twin ideas of a people’s stock market and an eternal silicon prosperity; it collapsed eventually under the weight of its own fatuousness. Second was the war in Iraq, an endeavor whose launch depended for its success on the turpitude of virtually every class of elite in Washington, particularly the tough-minded men of the media; an enterprise that destroyed the country it aimed to save and that helped to bankrupt our nation as well. And then, Wall Street blew up the global economy. Empowered by bank deregulation and regulatory capture, Wall Street enlisted those tough-minded men of the media again to sell the world on the idea that financial innovations were making the global economy more stable by the minute. Central banks puffed an asset bubble like the world had never seen before, even if every journalist worth his byline was obliged to deny its existence until it was too late.

These episodes were costly and even disastrous, and after each one had run its course and duly exploded, I expected some sort of day of reckoning for their promoters. And, indeed, the last two disasters combined to force the Republican Party from its stranglehold on American government—for a time.

But what rankles now is our failure, after each of these disasters, to come to terms with how we were played. Each separate catastrophe should have been followed by a wave of apologies and resignations. Taken together— and given that a good percentage of the pundit corps signed on to two or even three of these idiotic storylines—they mandated mass firings in the newsrooms and op-ed pages of the nation. Quicker than you could say “Ahmed Chalabi,” an entire generation of newsroom fools should have lost their jobs. (AND JAIL TIME! ---DEMETER)

MORE AT LINK

[rfranklin]

8. Groupon shares fall on downward sales revision (the con job begins to unravel)

Groupon shares hit in after-hours trading

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Shares of Groupon Inc. fell Friday evening after the daily-deals firm downwardly revised its fourth-quarter earnings and sales.

Stock in Groupon /quotes/zigman/7212269/quotes/nls/grpn GRPN +3.84% lost 6.4% to trade at $17.20, but pared declines of more than 10%, as the company said revisions in its fourth-quarter results reduced revenue by $14.3 million and net income by $22.6 million, or 4 cents a share.

Groupon backed its outlook for the first quarter of 2012.


The Chicago-based company said it revised the results on concerns from its auditor about accounting for customer refunds. The changes stemmed from a shift in “deal mix and higher price point offers, which have higher refund rates,” Groupon said in a statement.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/groupon-shares-hit-in-after-hours-trading-2012-03-30?dist=afterbell

[Fuddnik]

9. Well, it's 8:00pm. Time for the "Not Keith Olbermann Show Anymore".

Fired again, and replaced by Elliot Spitzer. I'll miss KO.

Now I'll opt out for the 50-50% solution.

Take a glass. Fill it with ice, which will take up about 50% of the volume. Fill the remaining 50% with vodka.

Good night and good luck.

[Demeter]

10. Robert Greenwald on the New Film 'Koch Brothers Exposed' -- the 1% at Its Very Worst

http://www.alternet.org/story/154741/robert_greenwald_on_the_new_film_%22koch_brothers_exposed%22_--_the_1_at_its_very_worst?page=entire

Robert Greenwald and his Brave New Foundation debuts their feature-length film, an exposé of the right-wing brothers' massive reach... tonight! Koch Brothers Exposed, in New York. (The DVD is available here
http://promailv5.fulfillmentconcepts.com/v5fmsnet/OeCart/OEFrame.asp?Action=NEWORDER&cmenunodseq=&FromFav=&PmSess1=22822&pos=BNF012&v=2

; see the two-minute trailer for the film on the last page of this article.) Koch Brothers Exposed weaves together a series of short films produced over the course of the last year or so as part of an online video campaign of the same name. As principals of Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held corporation in America and one of the nation's top polluters, the Koch brothers have grown notorious for their funding of think-tanks and astroturf organizations that aim to deregulate business and scale back government programs such as Social Security, Medicare and the new healthcare reform law.
Koch Brothers Exposed zeroes in on several aspects of the Kochs' impact by focusing on the people most affected by the brothers' use of their billions to buy politicians and ignore regulators. In North Carolina, we meet high school students whose lives would have been gravely impacted had Koch-allied politicians succeeded in undoing the desegregation of the Wake County school system. In Arkansas, the filmmakers take viewers to a community that is riven with cancer, the likely result of toxic dumping by a Koch-owned paper plant. We meet voters in Missouri and Texas who find themselves disenfranchised by a voter-ID law pushed by an organization funded with Koch money.

Before becoming an activist filmmaker, Robert Greenwald enjoyed a long career in the world of commercial film and television, directing the feminist classic, The Burning Bed, and earning a Peabody Award for Sharing the Secret, a 2000 made-for-TV movie about a teenager with an eating disorder. He also directed the cult classic, Steal This Movie, about his late friend, Abbie Hoffman -- which may speak to where his heart was all along. The advent of Fox News launched Greenwald into the role of an activist when his Brave New Films launched with Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. Since then Brave New Films and Brave New Foundation have produced a torrent of video shorts and films, including Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Rethinking Afghanistan and Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers.

AlterNet sat down with Greenwald to discuss the value of storytelling as an organizing tool -- and to explore just what makes the Koch brothers "the 1 percent at its very worst."

INTERVIEW FOLLOWS AT LINK

[Demeter]

12. Every Progressive Should Know About the "Budget for All" That Would Support the 99%

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/873696/every_progressive_should_know_about_the_%22budget_for_all%22_that_would_support_the_99/#paragraph4

Every progressive should know about the Congressional Progressive Caucus's "Budget for All." In fact, every American should know about this budget. But the corporate news media sure isn't going to tell people. So you should help get the word out. Read and Share the One-Page Handout.
http://grijalva.house.gov/uploads/CPC%20Budget%20One-Pager%20FINAL.pdf
Email this post to friends, relatives, and especially to your right-wing brother-in-law.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus has put together a "Budget for All" that "puts Americans back to work, charts a path to responsible deficit reduction, enhances our economic competitiveness, rebuilds the middle class and invests in our future." This budget "makes no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits, and asks those who have benefited most from our economy to pay a sensible share."

Our Budget Puts Americans Back to Work

Our budget attacks America’s persistently high unemployment levels with more than $2.9 trillion in additional job-creating investments. This plan utilizes every tool at the government’s disposal to get our economy moving again, including:

• Direct hire programs that create a School Improvement Corps, a Park Improvement Corps, and a Student Jobs Corps, among others.

• Targeted tax incentives that spur clean energy, manufacturing, and cutting-edge technological investments in the private sector.

• Widespread domestic investments including an infrastructure bank, a $556 billion surface transportation bill, and approximately $2.1 trillion in widespread domestic investment.

Our Budget Exhibits Fiscal Discipline

• The Budget for All achieves $6.8 trillion in deficit reduction, hits the same debt to GDP ratio as the Republican budget, and has lower deficits in the last five years, but does so in a responsible way that does not devastate what Americans want preserved.

• We achieve these notable benchmarks by focusing on the true drivers of our deficit – unsustainable tax policies, the wars overseas, and policies that helped cause the recent recession – rather than putting the middle class’s social safety net on the chopping block.

Our Budget Creates a Fairer America

• Ends tax cuts for the top 2% of Americans on schedule at year’s end

• Extends tax relief for middle class households and the vast majority of Americans

• Creates new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires

• Eliminates the tax code’s preferential treatment of capital gains and dividends

• Abolishes corporate welfare for oil, gas, and coal companies

• Eliminates loopholes that allow businesses to dodge their true tax liability

• Calls for the adoption of the “Buffett Rule”

• Creates a publicly funded federal election system that gets corporate money out of politics for good

Our Budget Brings Our Troops Home

• Responsibly and expeditiously ends our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving America more secure at home and abroad

• Modernizes our military to address 21st century threats and stop contributing to our deficit problems

Protects American Families

• Provides a Making Work Pay tax credit for families struggling with high gas and food cost 2013-2015

• Extends Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child and Dependent Care Credit

• Invests in programs to stave off further foreclosures to keep families in their homes

• Invests in our children’s education by increasing Education, Training, and Social Services

Let people know that there is a budget alternative that respects We, the People.
By Dave Johnson | Sourced from Campaign for America's Future

[Demeter]

14. Visa, MasterCard scramble after massive data breach

http://www.alternet.org/rss/breakingnews/874478/visa%2C_mastercard_scramble_after_massive_data_breach/?akid=8503.227380.6FqFok&rd=1&t=17

Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said that industry sources revealed that numbers from more than 10 million credit card accounts were stolen in the breach, with the entry point being a New York City taxi and parking garage company. The thieves evidently stockpiled stolen credit card numbers for months before beginning to use them, according to the analyst. Indications were that the culprits were part of a Central American crime gang, Litan told AFP.

"It sounds like they went into an administrative privilege account at the taxi company and stole electronic data from a central server," Litan said. "So, if you've paid a NYC cab in the last few months with your credit or debit card, be sure to check your card statements for possible fraud."

Visa and MasterCard both said they were investigating the breach, which they stressed involved a "third party" and not their internal networks. The credit card companies have sent warning notices to people whose accounts might be at risk of fraud.

"Visa has provided payment card issuers with the affected account numbers so they can take steps to protect consumers through independent fraud monitoring and, if needed, reissuing cards," the company said in a statement.

OH, THAT WILL FIX EVERYTHING

[Demeter]

16. 10 Most Obscene Lifestyles Choices of America's 1% Elite

http://www.alternet.org/story/154644/10_most_obscene_lifestyles_choices_of_america%27s_1_elite?page=entire

Complaining about having to do their own dishes, or bragging about $800,000 car garages, the 1 percenters are all but screaming “let them eat cake” from the ramparts...

YOU HAVE TO READ THIS...AND REMEMBER...IT'S NOT AN APRIL FOOL

[Demeter]

17. Challenge the 1% EMAIL NOTICE

Dear XXXXX,


100,000 people in small towns and big cities across America are coming together for an unprecedented national nonviolent direct action training. The 99% Spring is about calling out a system that was set up by and for the 1%, and re-imagining our economy to reflect the needs, visions, & values of the 99%.

http://npa-us.org/99-spring

Last month, we asked you to help us put some of the most abusive corporations in America on notice. We hand-delivered letters to the corporate offices of Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Wal-Mart, and others—letting them know they should expect to hear from the 99% at their annual shareholder meetings this Spring.

Now these big bad corporations seem to be getting a little nervous.

Wells Fargo, for one, decided to try and nip the impending brand damage in the butt, and agreed to meet with us in Iowa on Monday.

A group of us—workers, retirees, immigrants, the unemployed, and families fighting foreclosures—are meeting with Wells Fargo VP, Jon Campbell, to lay out what it means to stand with 99%: stop foreclosing on millions of hard-working Americans, divest from the payday lending and private prison industries, and start paying your fair share in taxes.

But we're not going to get Wells Fargo or other corporations to change without you in the fight.

It's going to take massive public pressure to ultimately change their behavior, as well as calling out policy makers and the 1% who support these abusive corporations.

Are you ready to stand with us, and 100,000 others, to challenge major corporations and the 1% this Spring? Sign up for a 99% Spring event today. http://civic.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=268&rc=99NPA

…need further evidence that the 99% Spring is going to be worth your while? Watch the recent Bill Moyers preview video, and our 99% Spring promo video.

http://npa-us.org/news/99-spring-bill-moyers-journal-preview-clip/032712

http://npa-us.org/99-spring



Thanks for all you do,

–Ian, Amanda, Jordan and the rest of the NPA Team

[Demeter]

18. The Shadow of Depression By J. Bradford DeLong

http://www.nationofchange.org/shadow-depression-1333114236

Four times in the past century, a large chunk of the industrial world has fallen into deep and long depressions characterized by persistent high unemployment: the United States in the 1930’s, industrialized Western Europe in the 1930’s, Western Europe again in the 1980’s, and Japan in the 1990’s. Two of these downturns – Western Europe in the 1980’s and Japan in the 1990’s – cast a long and dark shadow on future economic performance. In both cases, if either Europe or Japan returned – or, indeed, ever returns – to something like the pre-downturn trend of economic growth, it took (or will take) decades. In a third case, Europe at the end of the 1930’s, we do not know what would have happened had Europe not become a battlefield following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland.

In only one instance was the long-run growth trend left undisturbed: US production and employment after World War II were not significantly affected by the macroeconomic impact of the Great Depression. Of course, in the absence of mobilization for WWII, it is possible and even likely that the Great Depression would have cast a shadow on post-1940 US economic growth. That is certainly how things looked, with high levels of structural unemployment and a below-trend capital stock, at the end of the 1930’s, before mobilization and the European and Pacific wars began in earnest.

In the US, we can already see signs that the downturn that started in 2008 is casting its shadow on the future. Reputable forecasters – both private and public – have been revising down their estimates of America’s potential long-run GDP. For example, labor-force participation, which usually stops falling and starts rising after the business-cycle trough, has been steadily declining over the past two and a half years. At least some monetary policymakers believe that recent reductions in the US unemployment rate, which have largely resulted from falling labor-force participation, are just as valid a reason for shifting to more austere policies as reductions in unemployment that reflect increases in employment. And much the same processes and responses are at work – with even greater strength – in Europe.

Most important, however, has been what looks, from today’s perspective, like a permanent collapse in the risk-bearing capacity of the private marketplace, and a permanent and large increase in the perceived riskiness of financial assets worldwide – and of the businesses whose cash flows underpin them. Given aging populations in industrial countries, large commitments from governments to social-insurance systems, and no clear plans for balancing government budgets in the long run, we would expect to see inflation and risk premiums – perhaps not substantial, but clearly visible – priced into even the largest and richest economies’ treasury debt. Sometime over the next generation, the price levels of the US, Japan, and Germany might rise substantially after some government shortsightedly attempts to finance some of its social-welfare spending by printing money. The price levels are unlikely to go down. Yet the desire to hold assets that avoid the medium-term risks associated with the business cycle has overwhelmed this long-run fundamental risk factor. But the risk that the world’s investors currently are trying to avoid by rushing into US, Japanese, and German sovereign debt is not a “fundamental” risk. There are no psychological preferences, natural-resource constraints, or technological factors that make investing in private enterprises riskier than it was five years ago. Rather, the risk stems from governments’ refusal, when push comes to shove, to match aggregate demand to aggregate supply in order to prevent mass unemployment. Managing aggregate demand is governments’ job. While Say’s law – the view that supply creates its own demand – is false in theory, it is true enough in practice that entrepreneurs and enterprises can and do depend on it. If the government falls down on the job, John Maynard Keynes wrote 76 years ago, and

“demand is deficient…the individual enterpriser...is operating with the odds loaded against him. The game of hazard which he plays is furnished with many zeros,” which represent “the increment [by which] the world’s wealth has fallen short of...savings,” owing to “the losses of those whose courage and initiative have not been supplemented by exceptional skill or unusual good fortune. But if effective demand is adequate, average skill and average good fortune will be enough.”

For 62 years, from 1945-2007, with some sharp but temporary and regionalized interruptions, entrepreneurs and enterprisers could bet that the demand would be there if they created the supply. This played a significant role in setting the stage for the two fastest generations of global economic growth the world has ever seen. Now the stage has been emptied.

[Demeter]

19. While White House Emphasizes Easing Student Debt Burden, Fed Contractors Play Hardball Marian Wang

http://www.nationofchange.org/while-white-house-emphasizes-easing-student-debt-burden-fed-contractors-play-hardball-1333114240

It was with some fanfare that the Obama administration announced last fall that it was ramping up a program to help students with federal loans reduce their monthly payments. Under the program, payments are adjusted based on how much students earn — what’s known as income-based repayment. Yet, even while the administration has emphasized easing the burden for student borrowers, some contractors with the Department of Education appear to be exacerbating it. Bloomberg reported this week that some federally contracted debt collection agencies have been playing hardball with borrowers who are behind, insisting on payments the borrowers can’t afford — even when federal student-loan rules allow more leniency. The debt collectors have an incentive to be tough. As Bloomberg explains:

Under Education Department contracts, collection companies “rehabilitate” a defaulted loan by getting a borrower to make nine payments in 10 months. If they succeed, they reap a jackpot: a commission equal to as much as 16 percent of the entire loan amount, or $3,200 on a $20,000 loan.

These companies receive that fee only if borrowers make a minimum payment of 0.75 percent to 1.25 percent of the loan each month, depending on its size. For example, a $20,000 loan would require payments of about $200 a month. If the payment falls below that figure, the collector receives an administrative fee of $150.

The Department of Education is trying to balance its interest in helping struggling borrowers and stewarding taxpayer dollars, department spokesman Justin Hamilton told Bloomberg. Striking that balance, it seems, hasn’t been easy. Consumer advocates chafed when President Obama, as part of a deficit-reduction plan promoted last fall, recommended allowing debt collectors to robo-call the cell phones of borrowers who fell behind on federal student loans and other debts to the government. That plan didn’t get far. But the measure resurfaced as a line item [PDF] in Obama’s proposed 2013 budget last month.

As Bloomberg noted, federal student-loan rules require that collectors work out “reasonable and affordable” payments with borrowers to get them back on track, but the rules don’t spell out how such a calculation should be made. The Department of Education is meeting with key student-loan stakeholders this week to discuss, among other things , whether to use the income-based repayment formula to help set that standard. (As it stands, only borrowers who are current on their federal loans are eligible for help via income-based repayment.)

One thing that isn’t on the table at these rule-making meetings? A measure hailed by some advocates as potentially the single most important rule change for student borrowers who’ve become severely disabled and are seeking a discharge of their federal student loans. As we reported last year, the department initially pledged to overhaul the program and consider whether to simply accept Social Security determinations of disability instead of its current complex and opaque process. The department subsequently backed off that fix. Now it isn’t even on the agenda.

[Demeter]

20. The Age of Obama: What Went Wrong (and How to Fix It) By Van Jones

http://www.nationofchange.org/age-obama-what-went-wrong-and-how-fix-it-1333121682


The 2008 campaign was a campfire around which millions gathered. But after the election, it was nobody’s job or role to tend that campfire. The White House was focused on the minutiae of passing legislation, not on the magic of leading a movement. Obama For America did the best that it could, but the mass gatherings, the idealism, the expanded notions of American identity, the growing sense of a new national community, all of that disappeared. It goes without saying that clear thinking and imaginative problem solving are easier in hindsight, away from the battlefield. I was in the White House for six months of 2009, and I was outside of it afterward. I had some of the above insights at the time, but many did not come to me in the middle of the drama and action. Most are the product of deeper reflection, which I was able to do only from a distance. Nonetheless, the exercise of trying to sort out what might have been and trying to understand why nobody was able to make those things happen in real time has informed this book and shaped my arguments going forward.

Let me speak personally: looking back, I do not think those of us who believed in the agenda of change had to get beaten as badly as we were, after Obama was sworn in. We did not have to leave millions of once-inspired people feeling lost, deceived, and abandoned. We did not have to let our movement die down to the level that it did. The simple truth is this: we overestimated our achievement in 2008, and we underestimated our opponents in 2009. (AND WE DIDN'T KNOW WE HAD A MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, EITHER, VAN--DEMETER)

We did not lose because the backlashers got so loud. We lost because the rest of us got so quiet. Too many of us treated Obama’s inauguration as some kind of finish line, when we should have seen it as just the starting line. Too many of us sat down at the very moment when we should have stood up. Among those who stayed active, too many of us (myself included) were in the suites when we should have been in the streets. Many “repositioned” our grassroots organizations to be “at the table” in order to “work with the administration.” Some of us (like me) took roles in the government. For a while at least, many were so enthralled with the idea of being a part of history that we forgot the courage, sacrifices, and risks that are sometimes required to make history.

That is hard, scary, and thankless work. It requires a willingness to walk with a White House when possible—and to walk boldly ahead of that same White House, when necessary. A few leaders were willing to play that role from the very beginning, but many more were not. Too many activists reverted to acting like either die-hard or disappointed fans of the president, not fighters for the people.

The conventional wisdom is that Obama went too far to the left to accommodate his liberal base. In my view, the liberal base went too far to the center to accommodate Obama...

HE HAS AN INTERESTING ARGUMENT AND POINT OF VIEW...READ MORE AT LINK


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

Van Jones adapted this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions, from his new book, Rebuild the Dream.

[hamerfan]

21. Musical Interlude

REM, It's The End Of The World As We Know It (with lyrics):

[Tansy_Gold]

22. How I will be spending April Fool's Day

My artists' group is sponsoring a show on Sunday, and I have been using my mini-vacation this week to try to build up inventory. Today was really my first fully productive day in the sense of having finished -- or almost finished -- a few items.



I cut this from a slice of crystal-centered agate that my elderly neighbor gave me. The photo of course doesn't do it justice, as the top is all sparkly with interior crystal faces plus there is another layer of crystals between the two red bands.







This is another crystal-and-agate slice from the neighbor. He is in his late 70s now and is nearly blind; he and his dad collected these rocks 30-40 years ago. I should have the wrap on this completed tomorrow.

[Demeter]

23. Gorgeous!

I found a tiny agate like that in Lake Superior, and tumbled it...too small for jewelry, but I liked it.

My dream is to get a summer place so I can hunt agates...and a life that permits it.

[DemReadingDU]

24. Very lovely!

[xchrom]

29. that is wonderful! nt

[Tansy_Gold]

86. No foolin'. . .

[Mojorabbit]

97. Just beautiful Tansy. nt

[Demeter]

25. Break Up the Big Banks, Says the Dallas Fed By Robert Reich

http://www.nationofchange.org/break-big-banks-says-dallas-fed-1333113336



Taxpayers will be on the hook for another giant Wall Street bailout, and the economy won’t be mended, unless the nation’s biggest banks are broken up. That’s not just me talking, or the Occupier movement, or that wayward executive who resigned from Goldman Sachs a few weeks ago. It’s the conclusion of the Dallas Federal Reserve, one of the most conservative of the Fed’s regional banks. The lead essay in its just released annual report says a cartel of giant banks continues to hobble the recovery and poses an ongoing danger to the economy.

Wall Street’s increasing power remains “difficult to control because they have the lawyers and the money to resist the pressures of federal regulation.” The Dodd-Frank act that was supposed to control Wall Street “leaves TBTF [too big to fail] entrenched.” The Dallas Fed goes on to argue that the Fed’s easy money policy can’t be much help to the U.S. economy as long as Wall Street is “still clogged with toxic assets accumulated in the boom years.” So what’s the answer, according to the Dallas Fed? It’s “breaking up the nation’s biggest banks into smaller units.”

Thud. That’s the sound the report hitting the desks of Wall Street executives. They and their Washington lobbyists are doing what they can to make sure this report is discredited and buried. When I spoke with one of the Street’s major defenders in the Capitol this morning he snorted “Dallas represents small regional banks that are jealous of Wall Street.” When I reminded him the Dallas Fed was about the most conservative of the regional banks and knew first-hand about the dangers of under-regulated banks — the Savings and Loan crisis ripped through Texas like nowhere else — he said “Dallas doesn’t know its (backside) from a prairie gopher hole.”

So as Republicans make the repeal of “Obamacare” their primary objective (and Alito, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and perhaps Kennedy sharpen their knives) another drama is taking place at the Fed. The question is whether Bernanke and company in Washington will heed the warnings coming from its Dallas branch, and amplify the message.

COME ON, ROBERT, YOU KNOW WHAT WASHINGTON WILL THINK...

[Demeter]

26. White House Burning: Putting Out the Wrong Fire By Dean Baker

http://www.nationofchange.org/white-house-burning-putting-out-wrong-fire-1332940580

I have enormous respect for Simon Johnson. I first recall seeing him one late evening on a Bill Moyers segment in the middle of the financial crisis. I couldn't quite believe that the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund was complaining about the oligarchs in the financial industry using their control of the U.S. government to bail out their bankrupt banks. This was more likely attributable to too much alcohol or too little sleep than anything that could really be happening in this world...Remarkably, it turned out to be true. Ever since the beginning of the financial crisis, Johnson, along with his co-author James Kwak, has been a tireless proponent of financial reform. Their blog, Baseline Scenario, is an essential source for those following the debate over financial reform, as well as other issues. Their last book, 13 Bankers, is a great account of the growing concentration in the financial industry that left us with too-big-to-fail banks.

Given their heroic role in the financial reform debate, I am not anxious to criticize Johnson and Kwak's new book, White House Burning. But there are some important areas of difference that deserve attention. The basic thesis of White House Burning is that the country is on an unsustainable fiscal path. Unlike some of the Chicken Littles leading the budget debate, Johnson and Kwak are responsible in how they lay out the case. There is no nonsense about runaway government spending. They explicitly refute this story. Most categories of government spending, except defense, have remained constant or fallen as a share of GDP since the budget surplus days of the late 90s. They also point out that the story of excessive entitlement spending is misleading. They note that Social Security benefits are relatively modest and badly needed given the lack of other forms of saving for retirement.

The culprit in the growth of entitlement spending is health care costs. Johnson and Kwak note that the U.S. already pays far more per person than do people in other wealthy countries and has little to show for this extra expense. This gap in spending is projected to rise hugely in the decades ahead, which leads to outsized growth in spending on Medicare, Medicaid and other government health programs. Their remedies are mostly reasonable. There is no slashing of government spending, although I would not push the plan to raise the retirement age for Social Security. They propose increasing taxes on the wealthy, mostly through taking back the Bush tax cuts, raising the tax rate on capital gains to 28 percent, and limiting tax deductions.

While the solutions do not especially upset me, I do very much disagree with the diagnosis of the problem. The most immediate issue is that we have a fire at the moment in the form of too little demand leading to too much unemployment. This is wrecking the lives of millions of workers and their families. Johnson and Kwak understand this and certainly do not argue for deficit reduction in the short-term, but their focus on a longer-term deficit problem can be distracting from the more urgent problem. Perhaps more importantly, their chain of causation can lead to false conclusions. They note that the United States has been able to borrow from abroad very cheaply because developing countries have wanted to accumulate vast amounts of foreign reserves (i.e. dollars). The reason is to protect themselves from having to face the harsh conditions that were imposed on the East Asian countries by the IMF and U.S. Treasury following the East Asian financial crisis....However, the logic here can be flipped. Because developing countries are buying up vast amounts of dollar assets, the United States is running a large trade deficit. The foreign purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds and other dollar assets raise the price of the dollar, making imports cheap in the United States and our exports expensive for people in other countries. This increases our imports and reduces our exports. In other words, our foreign lenders are not doing us a favor; they are driving our trade deficit. The trade deficit leads to a huge gap in demand. This gap in demand can only be filled by a large budget deficit or a large deficit in private savings over investment, that is basic national income accounting. Before the crisis, the housing bubble filled the demand gap by leading to boom in residential construction and also by pushing household savings to zero as housing bubble wealth-driven consumption helped to spur economic growth. No one can seriously want to see us return to that sort of growth path, which only leaves the option of budget-deficit-driven growth. In other words, until we reduce the value of the dollar enough to get our trade deficit down to more normal levels, we will need large budget deficits to sustain high levels of employment. Rather than being a problem, the budget deficit is a solution to a problem created elsewhere...CONCLUSION AT LINK

[Demeter]

27. A World Bank President We Can Get Behind? By John Cavanagh and Robin Broad

http://www.nationofchange.org/world-bank-president-we-can-get-behind-1333032103

FIRST USEFUL COMPARISON OF THE CANDIDATES I'VE READ...

[xchrom]

30. after a lovely evening of dining on butter shicken w/ rice and cauliflower -- i find this

a drizzly, rainy morning

[xchrom]

31. Sweden backs limited tax on share purchases

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_TAXING_FINANCIAL_TRADES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-31-06-38-25

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Tentative support from Sweden for a small levy on share purchases may open the door for a limited tax on financial transactions in the European Union.

Europe is looking for a way to recoup some of the billions of euros (dollars) national governments spent on saving banks during the financial crisis. However, a Franco-German plan for a broad tax on financial transaction, including purchases of bonds and derivatives, has been rejected by Britain and Sweden. Derivatives are complex financial instruments whose use has grown exponentially in recent years.

The U.K. and Sweden fear that taxing most financial trades would push banks and other financial institutions to relocate to other financial centers in the U.S. and Asia - ultimately leaving governments with even less tax revenue.

But on Saturday, Sweden's finance minister indicated that he may back a small levy that would primarily target shares - a much less radical proposal than the one Germany and France had foreseen for Europe.

[Demeter]

32. Organized Money From Cities, Unions and Churches Moving Out of Big Banks

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8172-organized-money-from-cities-unions-and-churches-moving-out-of-big-banks

It's getting expensive these days to be a bad citizen in America, if you're a major bank. A growing number of cities around the country have passed, introduced or drafted responsible banking ordinances that hit big financial institutions where it hurts most - the pocketbook. Los Angeles drafted a responsible banking ordinance in March that assesses banks that do business with the city based on foreclosure data; in February, Kansas City, Missouri, passed a resolution ordering the city manager to only do business with banks that don't engage in predatory lending; and in November, New York City introduced legislation that would force banks that want to hold city deposits to submit community reinvestment plans. And just days ago, in Massachusetts, the city of Brockton was persuaded to move its money out of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase altogether after they refused to negotiations on loan modifications for homeowners facing foreclosure. The movement to divest from banking institutions continues to gain ground, as cities with large amount of capital join individuals, unions and congregations in pulling their money out of banks, or looking more carefully at the conditions a financial institution must meet to hold their money....Legislation is also being considered in "Austin, Boston, the Bay Area (San Francisco/Oakland, CA), Chicago, Minneapolis, San Jose, CA, and Portland, OR.," according to The New Bottom Line.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase have all come under fire since they were bailed out by the federal government in 2008 for actions that community groups say may have helped their stockholders, but often left people facing unfair foreclosure. These included predatory lending, robo-signing of foreclosure documents and risky investments....While divestment from big banks began as a progressive issue, with the Occupy movement taking on the rallying cry as well as groups like Move Our Money, Berger says that "if you are in a city with a very high foreclosure rate, you don't have to be progressive to see that it's costing the city money.It's become a common sense issue," said Berger.

While the sheer financial power of cities makes them a huge player in the divestment movement, other groups that could have an impact have also jumped on board. These include churches and union groups, both of which have economic muscle and a connection to the community, said Tim Lilienthal, lead organizer for bank accountability with the Pico National Network...The Pico group estimates that 25 different congregations in their network have together moved $30 million from big banks. Most recently, a San Jose priest made headlines when he diverted $3 million from Bank of America to a local credit union.

The primary demand coming from the groups that Berger and Lilienthal work with is for banks to agree to large-scale principal reduction, a move that they say could help thousands of homeowners. Principal reduction would reduce the amount of money that underwater homeowners, who owe more money than their houses are worth, are paying on their mortgages and, thereby, stem the tide of foreclosures. ProPublica has called the issue "one of the most politically charged debates about the housing crisis," and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has been vehemently against the proposal. According to a report by The New Bottom Line, principal reductions by big banks would create one millions jobs annually, save taxpayers money and would let the average family pay $500 per month less on their mortgage. Until this aim is achieved, Lilienthal said he sees the divestment movement continuing to grow. "What we are aspiring to is not just think about where we are moving our money out of," he said, "but also think of our money as being kind of an organized force."

[Demeter]

33. Matt Taibbi: Bank of America Is a “Raging Hurricane of Theft and Fraud”

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8145-matt-taibbi-bank-of-america-is-a-raging-hurricane-of-theft-and-fraud

There are two things every American needs to know about Bank of America.

The first is that it's corrupt. This bank has systematically defrauded almost everyone with whom it has a significant business relationship, cheating investors, insurers, homeowners, shareholders, depositors, and the state. It is a giant, raging hurricane of theft and fraud, spinning its way through America and leaving a massive trail of wiped-out retirees and foreclosed-upon families in its wake.

The second is that all of us, as taxpayers, are keeping that hurricane raging. Bank of America is not just a private company that systematically steals from American citizens: it's a de facto ward of the state that depends heavily upon public support to stay in business. In fact, without the continued generosity of us taxpayers, and the extraordinary indulgence of our regulators and elected officials, this company long ago would have been swallowed up by scandal, mismanagement, prosecution and litigation, and gone out of business. It would have been liquidated and its component parts sold off, perhaps into a series of smaller regional businesses that would have more respect for the law, and be more responsive to their customers.

But Bank of America hasn't gone out of business, for the simple reason that our government has decided to make it the poster child for the "Too Big To Fail" concept. Because it is considered a "systemically important institution" whose collapse would have a major, Lehman-Brothers-style impact on the economy, two consecutive presidential administrations have taken extraordinary measures to keep Bank of America in business, despite a staggering recent legacy of corruption schemes, many of which were simply overlooked by regulators.

This is why the question of whether or not Bank of America should remain on public life support is so critical to all Americans, and not just those millions who have the misfortune to be customers of the bank, or own shares in the firm, or hold mortgages serviced by the company. This gigantic financial institution is the ultimate symbol of a new kind of corruption at the highest levels of American society: a tendency to marry the near-limitless power of the federal government with increasingly concentrated, increasingly unaccountable private financial interests...

[mother earth]

53. Love Matt Taibi. He tells it like it is, always. A raging hurricane of theft and fraud, and they

should be jailed instead of bailed out.

[Demeter]

35. Robert Reich / Lopsided Recovery: The Economy Is Rebounding ... Only Just for the Rich

http://www.alternet.org/story/154776/lopsided_recovery%3A_the_economy_is_rebounding_..._only_just_for_the_rich?akid=8507.227380.cBxY9R&rd=1&t=22

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the economy grew at a 3 percent annual rate last quarter (far better than the measly 1.8 percent third quarter growth). Personal income also jumped. Americans raked in over $13 trillion, $3.3 billion more than previously thought. Yet it’s almost a certainly that all the gains went to the top 10 percent, and the lion’s share to the top 1 percent. Over a third of the gains went to 15,600 super-rich households in the top one-tenth of one percent. We don’t know this for sure because all the data aren’t in for 2011. But this is what happened in 2010, the most recent year for which we have reliable data, and there’s no reason to believe the trajectory changed in 2011 or that it will change this year. In fact, recoveries are becoming more and more lopsided. The top 1 percent got 45 percent of Clinton-era economic growth, and 65 percent of the economic growth during the Bush era.

According to an analysis of tax returns by Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Pikkety, the top 1 percent pocketed 93 percent of the gains in 2010. 37 percent of the gains went to the top one-tenth of one percent. No one below the richest 10 percent saw any gain at all. In fact, most of the bottom 90 percent have lost ground. Their average adjusted gross income was $29,840 in 2010. That’s down $127 from 2009, and down $4,843 from 2000 (all adjusted for inflation). Meanwhile, employer-provided benefits continue to decline among the bottom 90 percent, according to the Commerce Department. The share of people with health insurance from their employers dropped from 59.8 percent in 2007 to 55.3 percent in 2010. And the share of private-sector workers with retirement plans dropped from 42 percent in 2007 to 39.5 percent in 2010.

If you’re among the richest 10 percent, a big chunk of your savings are in the stock market where you’ve had nice gains over the last two years. The value of financial assets held by Americans surged by $1.46 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2011...But if you’re in the bottom 90 percent, you own few if any shares of stock. Your biggest asset is your home. Home prices are down over a third from their 2006 peak, and they’re still dropping. The median house price in February was 6.2 percent lower than a year ago.

Official Washington doesn’t want to talk about this lopsided recovery. The Obama administration is touting the recovery, period, without mentioning how narrow it is...Republicans would rather not talk about widening inequality to begin with. The reverse-Robin Hood budget plan just announced by Paul Ryan and House Republicans (and endorsed by Mitt Romney) would make the lopsidedness far worse – dramatically cutting taxes on the rich and slashing public services everyone else depends on. Fed Chief Ben Bernanke – who doesn’t have to face voters on Election Day – says the U.S. economy needs to grow faster if it’s to produce enough jobs to bring down unemployment. But he leaves out the critical point. We can’t possibly grow faster if the vast majority of Americans, who are still losing ground, don’t have the money to buy more of the things American workers produce. There’s no way spending by the richest 10 percent – the only ones gaining ground – will be enough to get the economy out of first gear.

[Demeter]

37. Tax Breaks Exceed $1 Trillion: Report

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303812904577299923495453562.html

A congressional report detailing the value of major tax breaks shows they amount to more than $1 trillion a year—roughly the size of the annual federal budget deficit—and benefit wide swaths of the population...The new report, by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, underscores how far-reaching many of the tax breaks are, which makes changing them a politically daunting task.

They include the exclusion from taxable income for employer-provided health insurance, the biggest break, at $164.2 billion a year in 2014; the exclusion for employer-provided pensions, the second-biggest, at $162.7 billion; and the exclusions for Medicare and Social Security benefits. Other big breaks include the mortgage-interest deduction, third-largest; taxing capital-gains income at lower rates than other income; the earned-income credit for the working poor; and deductions for state and local taxes.

...House Republicans point to data showing that upper-income taxpayers benefit much more per capita from tax breaks than lower earners, so reducing breaks across the board would maintain a progressive system, they say. THEY SAID WHAT? CAN MY EYES DECEIVE ME?

[Demeter]

41. Gretchen Morgenson: Wall Street Really Does Enjoy a Different Set of Rules Than the Rest of Us

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/gretchen-morgenson-wall-street-really-does-enjoy-different-set-rules-rest-us/72774?utm_source=newsletter_2012-03-24&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_72774&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_63

Gretchen Morgenson has earned a Pulitzer-winning career from exposing abuse and conflicts of interest on Wall Street. In this interview, she confirms that there is indeed a second set of rules enjoyed by our elite financial institutions, largely unfettered by the constraints that apply to the rest of us. Consequences for failure and fraud are very different under this second set of rules -- in fact, they're practically rewarded. Accountability, by all prudent measures, has become non-existent. The extraordinary measures the U.S. deployed to deal with the great contraction in 2008 only served to exacerbate these imbalances. What's sorely needed now is a national dialogue on whether we're willing to allow this to continue. What benefits are we receiving by enabling these elite to enjoy such different standards? What type of system and rules might work better for our interests?

...Gretchen sees a lot of instability in financial markets that have been allowed to balloon further even though the underlying causes of the '08 crash haven't been resolved. She cautions investors to avoid risk (despite the Fed's encouragements), pay down debt, and have a defensive plan in place should the markets suffer another serious correction in the near future.

On the Two Sets of Rules

Honestly, the transfer of wealth that has been created, that has been taken from the saver -- and from the taxpayer, do not forget -- to “mend the financial system” or to keep it from falling off the cliff, is extraordinary...

On the Lack of Accountability

The idea that forging signatures, that notarizing very important legal documents really improperly in thousands of cases -- maybe millions -- the idea that that is somehow is going to be allowed to go on with just sort of a penalty of some kind or a fine and not prosecuted in the criminal courts, I think it is amazing. It is really counter to what we have all been led to believe was the course of action in such a case...


AND MORE! LISTEN TO PODCAST INTERVIEW AT LINK

[Demeter]

36. The Truth About the U.S. Postal Service By Jim Hightower

http://www.nationofchange.org/truth-about-us-postal-service-1332942353

Each day, six days a week, letter carriers traverse 4 million miles toting an average of 563 million pieces of mail, reaching the very doorsteps of our individual homes and workplaces in every single community in America. From the gated enclaves and penthouses of the uber-wealthy to the inner-city ghettos and rural colonias of America's poorest families, the U.S. Postal Service literally delivers. All for 45 cents. The USPS is an unmatched bargain, a civic treasure, a genuine public good that links all people and communities into one nation.

So, naturally, it must be destroyed.

...gloomsayers claim the national mail agency is bogged down with too many overpaid workers and costly brick-and-mortar facilities, so it can't keep up with the instant messaging of Internet services and such nimble corporate competitors as FedEx. Thus, say these contrivers of their own conventional wisdom, the Postal Service is unprofitable and is costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year in losses. Wrong. Since 1971, the postal service has not taken a dime from taxpayers. All of its operations — including the remarkable convenience of 32,000 local post offices — are paid for by peddling stamps and other products. The privatizers squawk that USPS has gone some $13 billion in the hole during the past four years — a private corporation would go broke with that record! (Actually, private corporations tend to go to Washington rather than go broke, getting taxpayer bailouts to cover their losses.) The Postal Service is NOT broke. Indeed, in those four years of loudly deplored "losses," the service actually produced a $700 million operational profit (despite the worst economy since the Great Depression).

What's going on here? Right-wing sabotage of USPS financing, that's what.In 2006, the Bush White House and Congress whacked the post office with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act — an incredible piece of ugliness requiring the agency to PRE-PAY the health care benefits not only of current employees, but also of all employees who'll retire during the next 75 years. Yes, that includes employees who're not yet born! No other agency and no corporation has to do this. Worse, this ridiculous law demands that USPS fully fund this seven-decade burden by 2016. Imagine the shrieks of outrage if Congress tried to slap FedEx or other private firms with such an onerous requirement. This politically motivated mandate is costing the Postal Service $5.5 billion a year — money taken right out of postage revenue that could be going to services. That's the real source of the "financial crisis" squeezing America's post offices. In addition, due to a 40-year-old accounting error, the federal Office of Personnel Management has overcharged the post office by as much as $80 billion for payments into the Civil Service Retirement System. This means that USPS has had billions of its sales dollars erroneously diverted into the treasury. Restore the agency's access to its own postage money, and the impending "collapse" goes away.

The post office is more than a bunch of buildings — it's a community center and, for many towns, an essential part of the local identity, as well as a tangible link to the rest of the nation. As former Sen. Jennings Randolph poignantly observed, "When the local post office is closed, the flag comes down." The corporatizer crowd doesn't grasp that going after this particular government program is messing with the human connection and genuine affection that it engenders. America's postal service is a true public service, a grassroots people's asset that has even more potential than we're presently tapping to serve the democratic ideal of the common good. Why the hell would we let an elite of small-minded profiteers, ranting ideologues and their political hirelings drop-kick this jewel through the goal posts of corporate greed? This is not a fight merely to save 32,000 post offices and the middle-class jobs they provide — but to advance the BIG IDEA of America itself, the bold, historic notion that "yes, we can" create a society in which we're all in it together.

THE TWO GREATEST "SINS" OF THE POST OFFICE, IN FASCIST EYES: IT PERMITS FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS TO BE EXERTED IN AN AFFORDABLE WAY, AND IT'S UNIONIZED.

NOT TO MENTION, THEY'D LOVE TO PRIVATIZE IT AND SKIM OFF ALL THE MONEY THEY CAN FROM A GROANING, SUBJUGATED POPULACE...

[bread_and_roses]

43. exactly. it also fosters community - another sin

All those little "brick and mortar" operations are places where seniors, poor people, college students not only get services but actually see other human beings - even interact with them! Letter carriers get to know people on their route. THIS MUST NOT BE ALLOWED!

[mother earth]

51. Demeter, once again, the work you do on this board is invaluable. Keep up the good work. I learn

something each time I come here.

[Demeter]

39. Was MF Global Worth More as a Carcass?

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-12-19/was-mf-global-worth-more-carcass

Attempts are being made to sweep MF Global under the media rug in hopes that investors simply forget the eighth largest bankruptcy in US history despite clear allegations of documented fraud surrounding the firm and its politically connected former president, Jon Corzine. The problem is, astute financial observers are aware of the corruptive behavior of Mr. Corzine, certain regulators and the US justice system. Some are calling into question the security of the entire US financial system, not just the commodity industry. At the center of questionable activities is the bankruptcy process itself, loaded with recognizable personalities. Among them, Louis Freeh, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who has been accused of dragging his feet on a fraud investigation of top MF Global executives update: and is under investigation by the Treasury Department for allegedly taking money from a designated Iranian terrorist group. A trustee for the creditors in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, JP Morgan Chase, MF Global’s largest creditor, was said to have actively recruited Mr. Freeh for the trustee position, despite his law firm having but a handful of lawyers and no commodity industry or bankruptcy experience. However, because this is a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the process can drag out and Mr. Freeh and his related business endeavors could stand to pull in over $100 million in fees on the “plum case.”

Some say Mr. Freeh is rewarding JP Morgan by soft-peddling a fraud investigation despite his role as a federally appointed trustee and the apparent nod by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that anointed Mr. Freeh status as the DOJ’s eyes and ears on the case. Falsification of documents given by MF Global to regulators in the final days of the firm’s survival was alleged in Congressional Testimony by CMEGroup Chairman Terry Duffy, and knowledgeable industry sources speculate a web of fraudulent activity lies underneath the surface. The key to uncovering this evidence could be the MF Global back office, members of which are currently requesting immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony. Strategically leaked press reports have cited investigators as saying the “case has gone cold,” and speculation widely exists that Mr. Corzine will not be convicted. These “cold case” claims are being made despite the fact that press reports claim the MF Global back office has not been interviewed and neither have top MF Global executives, who are still working for the firm (and apparently set to collect bonuses).

This is the case that is currently threatening the stability of the entire US financial system, establishing the template for future potential looting by the TBTF banks with the help of complicit and captured revolving door regulators and ex-government officials. It is the case that many speculate is being swept under the rug of media attention.

&feature=player_embedded

[xchrom]

40. Barcelona in the General Strike

http://blogs.elpais.com/trans-iberian/2012/03/barcelona-in-the-general-strike.html

http://blogs.elpais.com/.a/6a00d8341bfb1653ef0168e96edfbf970c-550wi

In Barcelona the General Strike was two parts civilised calm to one part chaotic unease.

As a Briton, the idea of a general strike is - for better or for worse - something from the history books: the last one in the UK was in 1926 and strikes, when they do happen, tend to be localised and short. They’re also pretty bad-tempered affairs: underground drivers threatening to strike on New Year’s Eve, for example, where disruption to party goers will be at its maximum.

That is the whole point, of course, and I’m certainly not criticising their right to do it. Nevertheless, it was strangely refreshing to see unions sitting down with the Catalonian Generalitat to work out minimum levels of service in the days before the strike. This may be a legal condition of the Strike rather than any sign of largesse but to British eyes it seemed eminently civilised.

Equally, when a friend of mine needed to visit the emergency dentist yesterday on the day of the General Strike he was seen quickly, efficiently and with none of creeping shame of crossing a picket line.

This, however, is not to say that the Strike was a failure: where I live, in the centre of Barcelona, it looked as if around 50% or more of shops were shut and if anyone disagreed with the Strike they kept their views to themselves.

The main demonstration march in Barcelona also took place in an atmosphere of civilised calm. One peculiarity that has always struck me about demonstrations here is how they can encompass thousands of different viewpoints. So, while the target of the demonstration might be budget cuts and labour reform, individual attendees will use the occasion to call for anything from an independent Catalonia to animal rights. The contrast with Britain, where protest marches tend to be about one specific issue (such as the massive anti-Iraq war marches of 2003) is marked.

[Demeter]

42. GERALD CELENTE PODCAST ON IRAN, INFLATION, GOLD AND MORE

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2012/3/18_Gerald_Celente_files/Gerald%20Celente%203:18:2012.mp3

[xchrom]

44. Child labour re-emerges in Naples

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1722081-child-labour-re-emerges-naples

7 a.m. in San Lorenzo in the heart of Naples: the kid is struggling to carry a heavy crate of canned goods through a humid labyrinth of city streets. Dressed in his faded overalls, hoodie and and busted trainers, little Gennaro has already begun his day at work.

No one is surprised to see him slaving away at such an early hour. In September 2011, Gennaro found work in a grocery shop. On the job six days a week and 10 hours a day, he stocks shelves, unloads orders and delivers shopping to customers in the neighbourhood.

Gennaro dreamed of becoming a computer programmer, now he is a shop assistant – the most common profession for Neopolitan child workers. He is paid in cash, earning less than a euro an hour. In a good week he can expect to take home 50 euros. Gennaro has just turned fourteen.

Gennaro’s mother, Paola Rescigno, never thought there would come a day when she would deprive her son of school. For 20 years, she and her husband lived in a 35-square-metre flat that gave onto an interior courtyard in the San Lorenzo neighbourhood, the most densely populated area in the city centre.

[Demeter]

45. Muppets 1 Gollums 0 (THE PEOPLE VERSUS GOLDMAN SACHS)

http://thepriceofeverything.typepad.com/files/muppets-1-gollums-0.pdf

―It was just past 7:00 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, September 13, 2008. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, went into his home library and dialled into a conference call with two dozen members of his management team.
―You are about to experience the most unbelievable week in America ever, and we have to prepare for the absolutely worst case, Dimon told his staff..

―..Here‘s the drill, he continued. ―We need to prepare right now for Lehman Brothers filing [for bankruptcy]. Then he paused. ―And for Merrill Lynch filing. He paused again. ―And for AIG filing. Another pause. ―And for Morgan Stanley filing. And after a final, even longer pause, he added: ―And potentially for Goldman Sachs filing.
There was a collective gasp on the phone.

- From ‗Too Big To Fail‘ by Andrew Ross Sorkin.

I have no problem with the staff of Goldman Sachs earning millions. I have no problem with their 16-hour work days (or the fact that they seem to turn many of their number into Gollum-like bald freaks well before their time). I have no problem with their clannish, hubristic, insular culture, having never wanted to work for the Moonies. My main problem with Goldman Sachs is that if it operated like any other business in the world, when it and its business model effectively failed in 2008 it should have been allowed to fail properly, and closed down.

But that is not what happened. Despite self-serving articles like that from Nader Mousavizadeh in this weekend‘s FT (―the bank navigated the crisis with far greater skill and discipline than its rivals (and at a far lower cost to taxpayers), the reality is that Goldman Sachs was almost certainly just as bust as Lehman Brothers in those dark days of 2008.

The difference is that Lehman Brothers wasn‘t allowed to convert itself into a bank holding company and borrow emergency funds directly from the Federal Reserve. Goldman was, despite not being a bank in any conventional sense of the word.

But that is only to be expected, given that Goldman Sachs and its alumni have managed to infiltrate themselves into every branch of the US administration. The US Treasury Secretary who oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Programme and who bailed out Goldman Sachs at the time, for example, was former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs and, yes, Gollum lookalike, Henry Merritt ―Hank Paulson. The trend is not limited to the US (although the Chief of Staff to the current US Treasury Secretary, Adviser to the current US Treasury Secretary, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Chairman of the President‘s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Commissioner to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Undersecretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, and Ambassador to Germany all previously worked for Goldman Sachs), given that the current President of the European Central Bank, probably the most important person in European finance, Mario Draghi, also used to work for Goldman Sachs – as, coincidentally, did the current Prime Ministers of Greece and Italy. And the current head of Greece‘s debt management agency...

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

46. Time for the Birthday Frenzy (Groan)

Maybe it is the Kid's excessive, compulsive behavior, resembling the 1%ers unending greed, that makes her birthday (and Christmas, and to lesser extents, Halloween and Easter) real ordeals for me. Reality will never be enough. And our reality is rather small. She had a 3 hour party with friends yesterday, and cake and all, but it's never enough....

The Kid has a genetic reason for such unreasonable behavior. Maybe the 1% does, too. That's my charitable take on the self-styled Elite. It won't happen again.

I'll be back (I hope).

[xchrom]

47. happy birthday to your daughter! take care of your self

in all the celebrations

[xchrom]

48. Japan Production Decline Undercuts Signs of Recovery: Economy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-30/japan-production-decline-undercuts-signs-of-recovery-economy.html

Japan ’s industrial production unexpectedly dropped in February, undercutting signs of an economic rebound in the first quarter as policy makers assess whether to apply further stimulus.

Factory output slid 1.2 percent from the previous month, the Trade Ministry said in Tokyo today, after a 1.9 percent gain in January. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 1.3 percent increase. The unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent and consumer prices excluding fresh food unexpectedly rose 0.1 percent, government reports showed.

The Bank of Japan (8301) has come under pressure by a group of lawmakers to bolster stimulus efforts, with a board member this week questioned on the idea of adopting a Federal Reserve-style “operation twist,” swapping short-term bonds for longer-dated securities. While the first gain in five months in consumer prices prompted the yen to strengthen, inflation remains distant from the 1 percent goal that the BOJ announced last month.

“They’ll have to maintain their easing stance for a while to prop up the economy,” said Hiroshi Miyazaki, chief economist at Shinkin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, referring to BOJ policy makers. “A slight increase in prices won’t make the BOJ optimistic.”

[xchrom]

49. World’s Richest Gain $13 Billion as Batista Gets 8th Spot

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-30/world-s-richest-gain-13-billion-as-batista-gets-8th-spot.html

The 20 richest people on Earth gained a combined $12.5 billion this week as Brazilian Eike Batista’s net worth surged $7.2 billion after he sold a stake in his commodities empire.

The 55-year-old tycoon sold 5.6 percent of his EBX Group Co. holding company to Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. for $2 billion on March 26. That lifted him to eighth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. He held the spot for three days before sliding back to 10th as shares of his oil producer, OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, fell by 2.2 percent yesterday.

“Eike’s business accomplishments demonstrate that Brazil is the real deal,” Eric Saucedo, a partner at New York-based merchant-banking firm Tricap Partners & Co., said in an e-mail. “You did not see this in previous years.”

Billionaire fortunes rose as global stocks posted the best first-quarter rally since 1998 amid signs of economic improvement in Europe and the U.S. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose for the sixth week of the past seven, adding 0.8 percent to close at 1,408.47.

[girl gone mad]

52. Austerity Measures Prompt Spanish Workers To Strike

Workers walked off the job in Spain on Thursday, halting public transport, closing schools and leaving hospitals with emergency staff only. The general strike was called by unions in response to the conservative government's labor reforms, which let companies opt out of collective bargaining agreements and fire workers more cheaply. But more punishing austerity could still be to come, as Spain tries to whittle down its budget deficit under pressure from Brussels.

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/29/149635811/pushed-by-auserity-measures-workers-strike-in-spain

[Demeter]

54. I think we need some musical interludes...music, by the numbers!

&feature=related

&feature=related

[hamerfan]

55. Some great music here, Demeter!

Three Little Birds is one of my favorites.
Thanks!

[Demeter]

56. That was the best recording I could find

if you can find a better one, please post it.

And you can keep the sequence going, if you like!

[Fuddnik]

57. No, this is not from The Onion, or an April Fool's joke!

Man struck by lightning hours after buying lottery tickets
'It kind of scrambled my brain and gave me an irregular heartbeat'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46915119/ns/us_news-weird_news/#.T3e51tUU6So

updated 3/31/2012 5:12:05 PM ET


KANSAS CITY, Kansas — A Kansas man was struck by lightning hours after buying three Mega Millions lottery tickets, proving in real life the old saying that a gambler is more likely to be struck down from the sky than win the jackpot.

Bill Isles, 48, bought three tickets in the record $656 million lottery Thursday at a Wichita, Kan., grocery store.

On the way to his car, Isles said he commented to a friend: "I've got a better chance of getting struck by lightning" than winning the lottery.

Later at about 9:30 p.m., Isles was standing in the back yard of his Wichita duplex, when he saw a flash and heard a boom -- lightning.

(snip)

[xchrom]

58. morning

[Demeter]

60. Did the Kid get YOU up, Too?

I finished the papers and went to bed at 2 AM. She'll be the death of me....

[xchrom]

62. Sorry, Demeter. What happened to me was

Effie got hot and started panting.
That was about 4 - I gave her the boot but I was awake then.

[Demeter]

64. Children are a trial, whether they come with fur or not

[xchrom]

71. tis true

[Demeter]

59. Three Major Banks Prepare for Possible Credit Downgrades

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/three-major-banks-prepare-for-possible-credit-downgrades/



The New York Times MOODY’S RATINGS OF BANKS’ DEBT

Moody’s has threatened to downgrade some of the country’s biggest banks, and Wall Street is now scrambling to mitigate the fallout. Having a strong credit rating is critical to banks, which depend on the confidence of their trading partners. Source: Moody’s Investors Service


Moody’s Investors Service, one of the two big ratings agencies, has said it will decide in mid-May whether to lower its ratings for 17 global financial companies. Morgan Stanley, which was hit hard in the financial crisis, appears to be the most vulnerable. Moody’s is threatening to cut the bank’s ratings by three notches, to a level that would be well below the rating of a rival like JPMorgan Chase....Credit ratings are particularly important for financial companies, which greatly depend on the confidence of their creditors and the companies they trade with. A high credit rating enables banks to put up less money, which they can borrow cheaply, while a lower credit rating can mean they have to put up more money and perhaps pay more for their loans. The three banks that stand to be the most affected by a ratings downgrade have already said that they would have to put up billions of dollars more in collateral to back trading contracts.

Having a substantially lower credit rating than rivals, however, could do much wider damage over time. It could affect billions of dollars in trading contracts that are an important business for Wall Street. Many of these contracts demand that the company on the other side of a trade have a high enough credit rating....The potential problem for Citigroup and Bank of America is mitigated by the fact that much of their trading of contracts — bets on changes in interest rates, currency values and the like — is done through higher-rated subsidiaries. Morgan Stanley noted that only about 8 percent of its over-the-counter derivative trading contracts would be affected by a three-notch downgrade. Still, the company has spoken to trading partners about rewriting contracts to allow for more leeway on credit quality and has had internal discussions about moving some trading activities to a bank subsidiary that has a slightly better rating than the company, according to people briefed on these discussions but not authorized to speak on the record. James P. Gorman, chief executive of Morgan Stanley, has met with Moody’s several times since February to try to limit the fallout of any ratings move, according to these people. A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, Jeanmarie McFadden, said the company had spent more than two years restructuring its business so that it was “less risky and less capital intensive,” something that should help its rating. She noted that in 2011 Standard & Poor’s gave Morgan Stanley an A- rating with a negative outlook, which was a downgrade but not nearly as severe as the one Moody’s is contemplating...

If Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s had both rated Morgan Stanley the equivalent of Baa2 at the end of last year, the bank has estimated it might have had to post $6.5 billion to finance additional collateral pledges and payments to terminate contracts...the impact of a downgrade will be felt deeply in the multitrillion-dollar market in derivatives, which are financial contracts that enable banks and their clients to make bets based on the movements of things like stocks, bonds, currencies and interest rates. Many of these contracts contain triggers that activate if a bank’s credit rating falls below predetermined levels. When a ratings trigger is set off, a customer may have the right to terminate the trade, move it to another bank or demand that the bank post more collateral. This can erode the profitability of the trade for the bank, which has to factor in the cost of the collateral.

It is very tricky to be a large trading bank with a rating below A.

Derivatives trades that are set up to exist for more than five years would be the most vulnerable to downgrades. In these trades, a bank’s customers are agreeing to expose themselves to the bank’s credit risk for a long time. Long-term trades can also be the most profitable derivatives that a bank does.

“Clients will take that long-dated business to JPMorgan or Goldman,” said Brad Hintz, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “That’s a problem for Morgan Stanley.”

Most of the banks that dominate the derivatives market book nearly all their trades at commercial bank subsidiaries, which have higher ratings than their parent companies. These bank subsidiaries at Citigroup and Bank of America might end up with an A3 rating after the threatened Moody’s downgrade — two notches above the Baa2 rating their parent companies could be saddled with. Morgan Stanley’s bank subsidiary would fall the furthest, to a Baa1 rating. Citigroup appears to do essentially all of its derivatives trading through a bank, while Bank of America does three-fourths, according to figures published by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a bank regulator. The picture is different at Morgan Stanley. Less than 5 percent of its outstanding derivatives were booked at a commercial bank at the end of 2011, according to the figures. Moving business to this subsidiary would take time and could require regulatory approval.

The downgrade could speed up the shift of derivatives trades to central clearinghouses, something that is being pushed by regulators.

[Demeter]

61. Sweden moving towards cashless economy

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57399610/sweden-moving-towards-cashless-economy/

Sweden was the first European country to introduce bank notes in 1661. Now it's come farther than most on the path toward getting rid of them...The contours of such a society are starting to take shape in this high-tech nation, frustrating those who prefer coins and bills over digital money. In most Swedish cities, public buses don't accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices — which make money on electronic transactions — have stopped handling cash altogether. "There are towns where it isn't at all possible anymore to enter a bank and use cash," complains Curt Persson, chairman of Sweden's National Pensioners' Organization...Bills and coins represent only 3 percent of Sweden's economy, compared to an average of 9 percent in the eurozone and 7 percent in the U.S., according to the Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella organization for the world's central banks....The Swedish Bankers' Association says the shrinkage of the cash economy is already making an impact in crime statistics. The number of bank robberies in Sweden plunged from 110 in 2008 to 16 in 2011 — the lowest level since it started keeping records 30 years ago. It says robberies of security transports are also down. "Less cash in circulation makes things safer, both for the staff that handle cash, but also of course for the public," says Par Karlsson, a security expert at the organization.

The prevalence of electronic transactions — and the digital trail they generate — also helps explain why Sweden has less of a problem with graft than countries with a stronger cash culture, such as Italy or Greece, says economics professor Friedrich Schneider of the Johannes Kepler University in Austria. "If people use more cards, they are less involved in shadow economy activities," says Schneider, an expert on underground economies...The flip side is the risk of cybercrimes. According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention the number of computerized fraud cases, including skimming, surged to nearly 20,000 in 2011 from 3,304 in 2000. Oscar Swartz, the founder of Sweden's first Internet provider, Banhof, says a digital economy also raises privacy issues because of the electronic trail of transactions. He supports the idea of phasing out cash, but says other anonymous payment methods need to be introduced instead. "One should be able to send money and donate money to different organizations without being traced every time," he says...

For the second year in a row, Sweden ranked first in the Global Information Technology Report released at the World Economic Forum in January. The Economist Intelligence Unit also put Sweden top of its latest digital economy rankings, in 2010. Both rankings measure how far countries have come in integrating information and communication technologies in their economies. Internet startups in Sweden and elsewhere are now hard at work developing payment and banking services for smartphones. Swedish company iZettel has developed a device for small traders, similar to Square in the U.S., that plugs into the back of an iPhone to make it work like a credit card terminal. Sweden's biggest banks are expected to launch a joint service later this year that allows customers to transfer money between each other's accounts in real-time with their cell phones.

Most experts don't expect cash to disappear anytime soon, but that its proportion of the economy will continue to decline as such payment options become available. Before retiring as deputy governor of Sweden's central bank, Lars Nyberg said last year that cash will survive "like the crocodile, even though it may be forced to see its habitat gradually cut back."...But there are pockets of resistance. Hanna Celik, whose family owns a newspaper kiosk in a Stockholm shopping mall, says the digital economy is all about banks seeking bigger earnings. Celik says he gets charged about 5 Swedish kronor ($0.80) for every credit card transaction, and a law passed by the Swedish Parliament prevents him from passing on that charge to consumers. "That stinks," he says. "For them (the banks), this is a very good way to earn a lot of money, that's what it's all about. They make huge profits."

THEY'LL BE SORRY...

[Demeter]

63. The HFT Revolution: 6 Reasons Why High Speed Trading Is Taking Over the Markets

http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/cris-sheridan/hft-revolution-six-reasons-why-its-taking-over-markets

...I believe we should at least understand the basic reasons why HFT is revolutionizing the market since it appears almost certain that it will eventually dominate not just the stock market (as it does now), but also foreign exchange, futures contracts, and the derivatives market. More than likely, without any major changes by regulatory bodies around the globe, HFT will quickly gain asset-wide dominance of the entire global financial marketplace. Here are the six reasons why I believe this to be true:

1. Scientific or technological advancement and innovation

This one's a no-brainer. The only comment worth mentioning is that, as noted by others, some of the software being utilized for pattern recognition HFT goes back to Cold War weapons technology used for detecting stealth aircraft (see Kevin Slavin's TED talk presentation: How Algorithms Shape Our World). Also, a large number of the PhD scientists, computer programmers, and physicists that developed the supercomputers and software necessary for closely mapping the dynamic topology of "financial space" came straight out of CERN labs attempting to unlock the secrets of the universe by smashing atoms together near the speed of light. The only difference is that this technology is being used now to unlock the secrets of universal profit by smashing stocks, futures, and various currencies apart in the Large Hadron Collider that has become our markets. Has it been successful so far? I don't know, perhaps companies paying over a quarter of a billion dollars laying cables across the Atlantic just to shave 6 milliseconds from their trades says something.

2. High correlation of asset classes

Over the past two decades there has been a steady increase in correlation among various asset classes, most especially in the stock market. According to Hedge Funds Review, "The correlation of value and growth stocks to the performance of the S&P 500 has spiked from less than 0.3 in the 1991-95 period to 0.99 and 0.98 respectively over the past five years. The correlation of non-US stocks to the S&P 500 is up from 0.34 in the early 1990s to 0.85, while emerging market stocks have a correlation of 0.79 compared with 0.38 going back 20 years."

Cited in the same article above, Stuart Rosenthal, CEO of Factor Advisors, says that "correlation is the new risk" and that they see "no signs that cross-asset correlations will decline." Instead, he believes that the longer-term trend is up. So how does this relate to HFT you ask? Having a low or negative correlation between various asset classes, stocks, etc. is the fundamental building block of traditional portfolio management and the main way to realize the benefits of diversification. Complex quantitative models fine-tuned over the years by financial analysts determine just the right allocation of stocks, bonds, currencies, and other assets based on their relative correlation to one another so that the volatility of an investor's portfolio can be minimized. With correlations increasing, the traditional model of investing loses its effectiveness. If we put buy-and-hold diversification strategies on one end and HFT on the other, the move towards greater correlation shifts a greater percentage of capital towards research, development, and execution of speculative momentum trading with HFT leading the charge.

3. Opaque financial information / accounting data

Most companies can't afford a team of financial analysts to wade through 50 pages of financial reporting data in order to detect earnings manipulation and accounting irregularities. Furthermore, even if they could, that still doesn't guarantee they'd be able to decipher the complex quantitative pricing of a company's derivative positions. Warren Buffet highlighted this issue in his often quoted 2002 annual report by saying, "derivatives severely curtail the ability of regulators to curb leverage and generally get their arms around the risk profiles of banks, insurers and other financial institutions. Similarly, even experienced investors and analysts encounter major problems in analyzing the financial condition of firms that are heavily involved with derivatives contracts."

As the "major problems in analyzing the financial condition of firms" go up—especially through the pervasive use of derivatives—the process of discovering a company's intrinsic value becomes more costly. Successful traders have long circumvented this problem in connecting fundamentals to market price by simply relying upon pure technical and momentum based strategies. What's most interesting, however, is that this process requires little in the way of human intuition and more upon the strict adherence of a mechanical strategy. The best will even tell you that emotion simply clouds your judgment—something that machines don't have any problems with.

4. Volatility (HFT as applied calculus)

With market uncertainty posed by fear over a Eurozone collapse, war with Iran, political debt-wranglings, foreign exchange fluctuations, excess liquidity, central bank intervention, fat-tail or "black swan" events, and numerous other problems facing us today, it is no wonder the markets are highly volatile. Then again, the markets have always had more or less volatility—one of the major ways we define risk. So how do you minimize this risk to investors? The answer you'll often hear is through diversification and long holding time periods. That is, the less correlated your assets are and the longer you hold them the more likely you are to overcome the temporary ups and downs of the market. The only problem with this, of course, is that sometimes people end up buying at a market top and don't get back to even until ten years later, if at all. Thus, as many of us know, volatility can have drastic effects both in the short and long term and can defeat the most perfectly constructed portfolio.

So where does HFT fit in? At some point, someone must've thought: "Why don't we apply the basic rules of calculus to the stock market? A stock (or asset's) price is really a complex curve exhibiting non-linear behavior so, rather than trying to predict its direction, let's simply break it into a series of extremely small intervals that capture its motion in real-time. The faster our execution speed the more we can profit from the market's every move." When you consider that calculus revolutionized the field of mathematics and helped bring about the Industrial Revolution, applying its basic (and yet completely unorthodox) principles to the market is no trivial matter.

5. Cost of human capital

As mentioned previously, it takes a team of financial analysts to sift through all the companies they invest in to detect earnings manipulation and accounting irregularities. If you're a large investment bank you can afford it. If not, you simply pay for their expensive research. Either way, you're still spending a lot of money. Of course, that still doesn't include the various portfolio managers, brokers, and other high-paid positions that typically accompany a successful investment firm. With high frequency trading firms, machines do most of the work. No more portfolio manager, analyst, or broker. Instead, you have people that watch blips on the screen all day to make sure the machines are humming a profitable tune. For the most part, it's a self-running operation. To a large investment bank, hedge fund, or trading firm the math is pretty simple: Cut half your workforce, find someone to develop a new HFT strategy in futures contracts or the foreign exchange market, and rent out a few rows of servers co-located to the NYSE. Excluding the math geek(s), your costs of human capital have gone down dramatically. All further funds can go directly towards upgrades or expansion into colocation centers around the world.

6. Regulatory changes

The last reason for the HFT revolution (or the "Rise of the HFT Machine" as Nanex and Zerohedge refer to it) is largely accredited to measures enforced by the SEC some years ago in order to enhance and modernize the existing market structure. As told in Deus Ex Machina, "Regulation NMS (National Market System) minimized the required time of trade execution from the normal 30 seconds down to 1, making the dependency upon high speed computer-driven orders almost a necessity." Whether the massive 523 page document was a necessary overhaul of the extremely outdated market structure or a test case for the unintended consequences that result from poor planning, I'm not sure...perhaps both. Either way, according to Paul Rowady of the TABB Group, the regulatory changes made by the SEC that now favor high frequency trading will probably end up with explosive results. As he writes in Real-Time Market Data: Circus of the Absurd: "Like the lighting of a long fuse, the market structure we have today in US equities results from Regulation NMS. Intended to foster the competing forces of low costs (through competition) and high transparency (through a consolidated quote and last sale data-feed mechanism), the byproduct of these rules is essentially the mad frenzy over tiny slivers of liquidity that we have today. When mixed with increasing levels of automation since the 1970’s...the fuse that was lit with Reg NMS so many years ago just might be leading us to a bomb."

THEY'LL BE SORRY, TOO....

NONE OF THIS DATA MANIPULATION AND ELECTRONIC TRADING IS SAFE FROM BASIC COUNTERFEITING... INDEED, COUNTERFEITING BECOMES A PIECE OF CAKE...CHANGE A FEW BITS, AND YOU ARE LITERALLY GOLDEN.

THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME ENDURING CONNECTION BETWEEN A CURRENCY AND THE REAL WORLD OF LABOR AND RESOURCES. THERE AREN'T MACHINES BIG ENOUGH AND FAST ENOUGH TO CATCH CROOKS.

OR...IT'S BACK TO BARTER AND THE 1% GET SHUT OUT OF THE ECONOMY ALTOGETHER...SINCE THEY PRODUCE NOTHING OF VALUE... I COULD LIVE WITH THAT!

[Demeter]

65. Can America’s Descent Possibly Be Reversed? By Scott Lazarowitz

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30951.htm

...I have been trying to get people to understand America’s current police state...to say that America is becoming like Nazi Germany is not an exaggeration. But too many people glance over such assertions in disbelief, perceiving such things as absurdities. They are in denial, and just do not want to believe what’s going on.

...public officials are obligated to disobey unlawful orders, even those issued by the President of the United States. If the President orders suspension of civil liberties and basic rights protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, then governors, mayors, state troopers, police officers and military personnel must disobey those unlawful orders. Those officials have sworn to an oath to obey the Constitution, not to obey the President of the United States. “But we’re at war!” some people cry. No, sorry. Regardless of what the warmongers say, there is no time ever to excuse violations of the people’s rights and their liberty, during war or peacetime.

America is dangerous now, but the reason isn’t because of Islamic terrorists – it’s because of government bureaucrats, central planners run amok. The problem is that bureaucrats who MUST have war and expanded powers, including suppression of civil liberties, will change the laws to suit their narcissistic needs for more power...America is dangerous because too many amongst the general population are no longer raised with a sense of moral values and personal responsibility. Americans seem to get easily swept up into a national fervor for war, for killing and death. Just look at these past ten years of destruction that our government has caused overseas, and the American people’s passive acceptance of it based on the government’s emotion-driven propaganda.

...In continuing their apparent militantly exceptionalist attitude, and with much ignorance as well (especially of Muslims), many Americans now seem to have an insatiable craving for violence, sadism, cruelty, torture, murder, blood and death...Like The Hunger Games, America has a corrupt, degenerate central government that has grown into a monstrous Leviathan, consisting of professional bureaucrats and politicians who seem to delight in pitting one group of Americans against another, with class warfare and governmental-provocation of racial conflicts, and struggles between police and civilians. It is as though Washington’s political class wants to see conflicts between armed government agents and everyday civilians, via the drug war, the “war on terror,” and thousands and thousands of needless regulations and laws that could cause the most innocent amongst us to be on the receiving end of a criminal S.W.A.T. team raid....

UNFORTUNATELY, THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOL JOKE, EITHER

[Demeter]

66. A Primer for Those Considering Expatriation

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/primer-considering-expatriation1/72717?utm_source=newsletter_2012-03-24&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_72717&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_63

A growing number of Americans are frustrated with the way in which their economy has been managed and are becoming increasingly concerned about future measures the governement may take to keep its coffers full.

A question that is arising with increasing frequency is: does expatraition offer a viable protection to those concerned about a more financially-intrusive US system?

The answer is 'yes', it does offer a completely legal solution for ending your obligation to pay US income, captial gains, and gift taxes on your worldwide income. But it is certainly not for everyone and should only be pursued after lengthy and diligent consideration.

And before you begin dreaming of a tax-free future, you should realize that the United States imposes taxes on a broader basis than any other country. The United States is one of two countries, and is the only major country, that imposes significant income, capital gains, gift, and estate taxes on its non-resident citizens.

In virtually all other countries, individuals end their liability to pay income tax after a sustained period of non-residence, generally one year or longer. But to legally and permanently end U.S. tax liability on their worldwide income, U.S. citizens must also give up their U.S. citizenship and passport. This process is called "expatriation."

Yes, it's a radical step. However, if you're a U.S. citizen, you can make nearly all of the preparations for a possible future expatriation without permanently leaving the United States. This is a four-step process:

Phase 1. Relocate your assets from the United States to other jurisdictions, preferably where the assets won't be taxed.

Phase 2. Identify foreign countries where you would consider living,

Phase 3. Obtain a suitable second passport

Phase 4. Expatriate—give up your U.S. citizenship and passport

Once you've accomplished the first three phases, summarized here in Part I of this report, the final step—expatriation—is much easier than if you're starting from scratch. Part II of this report describes the expatriation process.

Are you a good candidate for expatriation? You are, if:

You are comfortable living outside the United States, or are already doing so
Your spouse and children are comfortable living outside the United States, or are already doing so; and
You have already or are capable of shifting the majority of your income and assets outside the United States.

MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

67. Part II: Important Consequences of Expatriation

http://www.chrismartenson.com/martensonreport/important-consequences-expatriation?utm_source=newsletter_2012-03-24&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_teaser_72720&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_63

In this second part, we explain:

The nuts and bolts of expatriation, including the legal process of expatriation
The tax consequences of expatriation
The immigration consequences of expatriation
The pros and cons of U.S. investments once you expatriate
The tax consequences should you choose to spend more than a few months each year in the United States after expatriation

Once you've obtained a second passport and qualified for residence in another country, you can begin the legal process of expatriation.

To do so, you must make an appointment with a U.S. consulate. You generally cannot expatriate within the territorial boundaries of the United States. The consular officer will explain the consequences of expatriation and have you sign some forms.

Two or more appointments may be necessary to complete the process. At the end of whatever sequence of visits applies at the consulate you choose, you'll then hand in your U.S. passport. Anywhere from several weeks to several months later, you'll receive an official document called a "Certificate of Loss of Nationality" (CLN). With the receipt of this document, you will have officially relinquished your U.S. nationality...

[Demeter]

68. US House of Representatives Approves Plan to Destroy Medicare, Medicaid and Food Stamps

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30947.htm

The US House of Representatives has adopted a budget resolution that calls for privatization of Medicare and the elimination of Medicaid, food stamps and many other federal entitlement benefits. The resolution is part of a bipartisan campaign to slash spending on social programs.

All but ten of the Republican majority in the House backed the resolution—and those ten wanted even bigger cuts. All Democrats voted against the resolution, while offering their own proposals that called for somewhat less drastic cuts in spending and token tax increases on the wealthy.

Not a single resolution was offered that called for increasing spending to meet social needs as the American economy staggers through a fifth year of economic slump and mass unemployment.

The budget was drafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who last year offered the first-ever proposal for the complete abolition of Medicare. It passed the House but not the Senate...MORE

[Demeter]

80. Govt to keep info on Americans with no terror ties

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INTELLIGENCE_DATABASE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The U.S. intelligence community will now be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration guidelines.

Until now, the National Counterterrorism Center had to immediately destroy information about Americans that was already stored in other government databases when there were no clear ties to terrorism.

Giving the NCTC expanded record-retention authority had been called for by members of Congress who said the intelligence community did not connect strands of intelligence held by multiple agencies leading up to the failed bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas 2009.

"Following the failed terrorist attack in December 2009, representatives of the counterterrorism community concluded it is vital for NCTC to be provided with a variety of datasets from various agencies that contain terrorism information," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement late Thursday. "The ability to search against these datasets for up to five years on a continuing basis as these updated guidelines permit will enable NCTC to accomplish its mission more practically and effectively."

The new rules replace guidelines issued in 2008 and have privacy advocates concerned about the potential for data-mining information on innocent Americans....MORE

[Demeter]

81. Republicans and Democrats Both Want to Kill You!

http://ilene.typepad.com/ourfavorites/2012/03/republicans-and-democrats-both-want-to-kill-you-.html

...Robert Reich points out that, in announcing the Republicans’ new budget and tax plan Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said “We are sharpening the contrast between the path that we’re proposing and the path of debt and decline the president has placed us upon.” But the plan doesn’t do much to reduce the debt. Even by its own estimate the deficit would drop to $166 billion in 2018 and then begin growing again.

The real contrast is over what the plan does for the rich and what it does to everyone else. It reduces the top individual and corporate tax rates to 25 percent. This would give the wealthiest Americans an average tax cut of at least $150,000 a year. The money would come out of programs for the elderly, lower-middle families, and the poor.

"So what’s the guiding principle here?" asks Reich. "Pure social Darwinism. Reward the rich and cut off the help to anyone who needs it."...

MORE

Do you see a theme here? We are being de-humanized by both parties in our Government. They already took away your right to Liberty under the Patriot Act, and Paul Ryan and his cronies are making the Pursuit of Happiness a game for the top 1% only, and now we have Eric Holder saying that the right to Life is not so much a guarantee under the constitution as it is a sort of conditional privilege - as long as you don't piss off anyone in power...

I'D SAY THIS WAS A MUST READ ARTICLE...

[Demeter]

69. Supreme Court Judges Have Access to Guaranteed Care, Shouldn’t You? By Rose Ann DeMoro

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/30-0

Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer did not have much in common during the three days of debate on the 2010 healthcare law before the Supreme Court March 26-28. But they did share one essential characteristic. All four will never have to worry about guaranteed access to healthcare. They won’t have to worry about being bankrupted by medical bills, about being denied needed treatment their doctor recommended because some insurance bean counter deemed it ‘experimental’ or ‘not medically necessary.’ They won’t have to worry about being barred from choosing the provider of their choice because they were ‘out of network’ or forced to keep an unwanted job to maintain their present employer-paid coverage.

Why? It’s not just because of their wealth, or even their federal paychecks or federal health plan. It’s because all four are over 65, and thus eligible for Medicare – which gives the four justices the same guaranteed coverage that every other American at 65 has. The same coverage that all Americans need and deserve.

Regrettably, none of those roadblocks are removed under the law the judges spent so many hours debating. More striking, this case which dominated the court’s agenda and massive media coverage this week did not need to be in front of the court at all. If, the Obama administration and the Democrats on the Hill had fought for the reform they should have pursued from the outset – lowering the Medicare age to zero.

For more than 45 years, Medicare has stood the test of time and law. It works, even when its opponents try to underfund or privatize or destabilize Medicare. Today Medicare remains a more efficient, cost effective, humane system for delivering healthcare, and guaranteeing it to everyone who is eligible, in a far superior manner to the broken dysfunction privatized insurance system that is based on profit and ability to pay, not on patient need...Single payer, Medicare for all. If Medicare is good enough for grandma, and for Scalia and Breyer and Kennedy and Ginsburg, it ought to be good enough for all of us.


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Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the 160,000-member National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of nurses, and a national vice president of the AFL-CIO. Follow Rose Ann DeMoro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NationalNurses

[Demeter]

70. Asset-backed securities markets improves-Fed survey WHOOPEE FOR THEM

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/usa-fed-lending-idUSW1E8E800C20120329

The markets for commercial mortgage-backed securities have improved over the last three months, the Federal Reserve reported in its quarterly survey of senior credit officers released on Thursday.

Markets for securities linked to commercial mortgages and consumer assets, such as car loans and credit card payments, are more liquid for the three months ending in February than in the previous two quarters, said the report.

[xchrom]

72. Iraq March Crude Exports Rise to Highest in Post-Hussein Era

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-01/iraq-s-march-crude-exports-rise-to-2-317-million-barrels-a-day.html

Iraq’s crude oil exports and revenue rose in March to their highest levels in the nine years since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled former President Saddam Hussein, the head of the State Oil Marketing Organization said.

Exports of crude averaged 2.32 million barrels a day, generating monthly sales of $8.4 billion, Falah al-Amri said today in a telephone interview in Baghdad.

“We expect export levels to increase further this month,” he said.

Iraq holds the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, according to data from BP Plc that include Canadian oil sands. The Arab nation depends on crude exports for money to rebuild the economy after decades of war and sanctions. Iraq has awarded 15 licenses for oil- and gas-drilling rights to foreign companies in the post-Saddam Hussein era, and it plans a new licensing auction in May.

Iraq in March exported an average of 1.92 million barrels a day by sea from its southern Basra terminal and 399,000 barrels a day from the northern oil hub of Kirkuk through a pipeline to Turkey, al-Amri said. Export volumes decreased in January and again in February because bad weather halted marine shipments for several days each month, he said.

[Demeter]

73. Gold is Manipulated (But That's Okay)

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/gold-manipulated-thats-okay/72892?utm_source=newsletter_2012-03-31&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_teaser_72892&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_64

The price of gold is being actively managed by central planners and their proxies. The main culprit here appears to be the US authorities, as the manipulation is most apparent in the US open gold market. For the most part, this 'management' has resulted in letting the price of gold rise, but not too much, or too quickly...The price of gold has always been an object of interest for governments and central bankers. The reason is simple enough to understand: Gold is an objective measure of the degree to which fiat money is being managed well or managed poorly. As such, whenever paper money is being governed poorly, the price of gold becomes an important barometer. And this is why the actual price of gold is a strong candidate to be 'managed.' Or 'influenced'. Or 'manipulated'. Whichever word you prefer, they all convey the same intent....Some who are reading this are likely having an eye-rolling moment because they hold a belief that there is no conspiracy to manage the price of gold. This is an interesting belief to hold because it runs heavily against the odds. It's similar to holding the belief that the house in Vegas does not have a statistical advantage....we'll simply note that the people who hold this belief -- and you may be among them -- react to the concept at a visceral level, often with strong emotions such as anger or contempt, and even anxiety. When a strong emotional response surfaces during a conversation of ideas, it usually means that beliefs are in play -- neither facts nor logic. Experience has taught me that when someone becomes dismissive or angry or hostile when the idea of price manipulation is discussed, it's best to simply drop the conversation and move on. No combination of logic or facts is effective against a deeply-held belief. It's better to wait until some new evidence calls that belief into question, opening the door for revisiting the topic. But for those with an open mind, there is a very interesting trail of dots to connect.

...It is my opinion that the price of gold is being actively managed and/or overseen by official parties. On a strictly qualitative level, I hold this opinion because if I ever found myself in charge of a system of money rooted in confidences, as is our current fiat regime, I would consider the active management of the price of gold one of my fiduciary responsibilities. Gold is an important signaling mechanism, and our entire money system is faith-based. Of course anything and everything that could cast doubt on that system would be controlled if it could be controlled. To emphasize the point: If gold were suddenly to spike up to $5,000 an ounce, all sorts of troubling questions would emerge for people. Such as, is there something wrong with the dollar? Is the world falling apart? A rapid spike in the price of gold would certainly cause people to question the current state of the world of fiat money, and that is an unpardonable sin when your money is, at root, faith-based. Instead of asking why do you think the price of gold is controlled? I ask, why do you think the price of gold is NOT controlled?

Managed Prices and Signals

Aside from my opinion that our faith-based fiat money system mandates the management of the price of gold as a matter of fiduciary responsibility for those in power, here are some other facts that we have in our possession:

The quantity of money is managed

The price of money is managed (via interest rates)

Because interest rates are being managed (mangled?) to near zero, it means risk tolerances and preferences are being managed towards taking on higher risk

The price of oil is openly managed, with strategic releases from time to time

The price of food and energy are managed via subsidies, both direct and hidden

Official statistics (e.g., GDP. inflation, employment) are heavily biased, massaged, and managed to tell a rosy story vs. a more realistic version, which means that perceptions are managed

Out of all these efforts, certainly the one with the most dramatic impact is the management of the price of money. That sets the stage for nearly every ill that follows, especially including the encouragement of taking on additional risk and the inevitable malinvestments that result...Critics of the idea of price manipulation might scoff and ask, if gold is manipulated, as you say, then how do you account for the 590% price increase over the past 11 years The idea here is that if gold were manipulated or controlled, there's no way it would have 'been allowed" to increase by that much.

MASSIVE HISTORY LESSON EDITED OUT HERE

So, if the price of gold is subject to manipulation -- or influence or control, if you prefer those terms instead -- in a way that reliably holds the price in check, then why should we buy it? In a few important ways, it's because of the very fact that gold remains the subject of so much official concern and secrecy. The laws of supply and demand tell us that anything with a cheaper-than-market price will experience stronger-than-usual demand. In the case of gold, we might suspect that purchases of gold have been bolstered by a weaker-than-otherwise price. Among those benefiting from buying cheaper-than-otherwise gold would be anyone and everyone who has bought gold lately. Private and official purchasers alike have been getting a very good price, indeed. Where you and I can be thankful for less expensive gold as we add to our holdings, so, too, can India and China be pleased at the national level. If a future gold standard is in the works, then whoever has the gold at that point in time wins. To any given nation, official gold stocks held by the central banks represent just one stock of gold, with that held by private parties representing another. India has always had a robust domestic gold market and is among the strongest of the strong hands. Gold goes into India and just never seems to come back out. China legalized and then modernized the gold market for its citizens, and gold sales there have been increasingly robust over time. Germany recently faced a 'call from within' to repatriate the gold that is currently held in its name in reserve by the New York Fed, perhaps channeling the concern that said gold would be safer within its own borders than in the US. Given the confidence-shaking rehypothecation fraud perpetrated by MF Global, a bit of caution on the part of foreign concerns regarding the US's trustworthiness is warranted. All told, we are seeing a very interesting game play out around gold, and my suspicion is that it is the possibility of eventual re-monetization that motivates some of the moves. If this comes to pass, the gold price suppression will prove to be a most unfortunate mistake, providing short-term political and market cover for excessive money printing while sacrificing long-term advantage to those taking the other side of the suppression trade.

[Demeter]

74. How High and When to Sell?

http://www.chrismartenson.com/martensonreport/how-high-when-sell?utm_source=newsletter_2012-03-31&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_teaser_72905&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_64

Executive Summary

Confiscation and/or excessive taxation of gold seem low risks at the moment
Our price projections for gold
How to know when to sell your gold
What to exchange your gold for


Confiscation and/or Taxation

Here is a quick aside on the prospect of confiscation and/or additional and punitive taxation of gold (and silver) because it comes up often. I think neither is especially likely at this point.

Confiscation will become a concern for me if:

Gold is ever remonetized. Should gold become the international choice of cross-border balancing, as I expect it might some day, the chance of it being ‘nationalized’ will skyrocket. However, as was true in the 1930s in the US, I fully expect that holders of gold will be compensated for their holdings.
Gold is demanded for oil. Should a current oil-exporting nation demand that it be paid in gold instead of cash, I would expect gold to be nationalized.
Gold crosses $5,000/ounce. Once gold becomes a significant store of value compared to other sources such as money market funds or 401k plans, it might become a target of choice for revenue-strapped governments. As it is right now -- on a relative basis vs. the equity or bond markets -- the size of the entire gold market is a tiny, puny store of value, and therefore not really worth the government's effort.

Should any of these things change, I believe we will have weeks, if not many months, of forewarning of confiscation or additional taxation...

[Demeter]

78. Charles Biderman: The Problem with Rigged Markets

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/charles-biderman-problem-rigged-markets/73098?utm_source=newsletter_2012-03-31&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_teaser_73098&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_64

"Even Wile E. Coyote had to come back down to earth sooner or later", says Charles Biderman, founder of TrimTabs Investment Research. In his opinion, the prices of stocks and bonds - enabled by excessive financialization of our economy and central bank money printing - have been defying gravity for a dangerously long time. If we continue to do all we can to preserve the status quo -- to maintain "phony" asset price levels as Charles calls them -- at best we will restrict overall growth and handicap the economy. The problem isn't so much the unfairness and malinvestment evident in a rigged market. As Charles shrewdly asks: what happens when the market becomes un-rigged?

We've never experienced the unwinding of an entirely manipulated financial system, so we can't predict for sure. But at this point, a painful collapse of our markets and loss of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency seem entirely plausible.

On Market Manipulation

The market is rigged. In January of ’10, I went on CNBC and on Bloomberg and said that there is no money coming into stocks, and yet the stock market keeps going up. The law of supply and demand still exists and for stock prices to go up, there has to be more money buying those shares. There is no other way in aggregate that that could happen.

So I said it has to be coming from the government. And everybody thought I was a lunatic, conspiracy theorist, whatever. And then lo and behold, on October of 2011, Mr. Bernanke then says officially, that the purpose of QE1 and QE2 is to raise asset prices. And if I remember correctly, equities are an asset, and bonds are an asset.

So asset prices have gone up as the Fed has been manipulating the market. At the same time as the economy is not growing (or not growing very fast).

On the Future of the Dollar

At some point, the world is going to recognize the Emperor is naked. The only question is when.

Will it be this year? I do not think it will be before the election, I think there is too much vested interest in keeping things rosy and positive. And I just do not see it happening soon.

However at some point, hard money wins out over phoney money. And of the investor class or those with capital, which right now seems to be the emerging markets, they are buying gold and bullion and they are not buying dollars. Or China appears to have slowed their buying of dollars, even though China might be having their own growth problems, or their own bad debt problems. But Singapore and all those other countries with huge cash flows, the emerging world, I would not be surprised -- maybe by 2013 of 2014 -- seeing a non-US dollar alternative currency by those countries.

On the Challenge Facing Investors

We are in strange, uncharted territory.

I think is very important for people to realize, in 1981, before the market crossed 1,000, the Dow crossed 1,000 in early ’82, and stayed above that, the value of all U.S. Stocks was about $800 billion. And in October of ’07, it peaked at $22 point something trillion. And it is back up to $19.4 trillion.

So in 1981, there was maybe 100 hedge funds or less, I am sure less. And maybe 100 or so equity mutual funds. And 3,000 stocks, you know, institutional size and sorts back then. Now there is still 3,000 stocks, but there is 4,500 equity mutual funds, 10,000 hedge funds. The real wealth created in the last 30 years has been in the equity market, not in earnings. I mean earnings are up several times, four or five times take home pay is up -- but the market is up 19-20 times.

Over that time, we have the boomers entering their peak earning years, as well as technical advances like the Internet. You know, more people in the last 30 years have gone from calorie insufficiency to calorie sufficiency as a percentage of the population than going back to the first time we industrialized in the 19th century. So it is like this huge increase in wealth and calories and our goal across the globe, and a lot of that money went into the real estate markets and went into the equity markets -- and boosted home prices, and stock prices dramatically, and now it is unwinding.

All booms create excesses and excesses are painful as the excesses from the boom are worked off and worked out. And that is the process we are in, and in the past it has taken 13 to 17 years to work off those excesses. And we are still not even through year five.

PODCAST AT LINK

[Demeter]

75. Nature of Self-Defeating Convictions

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8229-nature-of-self-defeating-convictions

One of the curious realities of modern America is how many people – especially white males – have been propagandized into siding with a “free-market” power structure that treats them like tissue paper, to be used and thrown away. Poet Phil Rockstroh says he encounters many such confused souls in his native South...To this day, I retain close ties to a number of Southern friends and contacts who did not ventured far from home. As the years trundled on, I’ve witnessed the quality of life and emotional well-being of these friends, hailing from both laboring and middle-class origins, experience a steep, accelerating decline.

I’ve gazed upon the tormented faces of men I know, now deep in middle age, who are facing the prospect of never again holding a steady job that affords them a sense of dignity. As a consequence, all too many of these men — men who I thought I knew well — have been rendered sullen, spiteful, and, much to my heart’s duress, an unreachable shell of their former self. As their economic prospects diminished, their denial and displaced rage grew malignant. In the case of a couple of my friends, their resistance to reality became so vast, toxic, and all-encompassing that any attempt at dialog proved prohibitive.

Emblematic of this situation is my strained-to-the-limit friendship with Vince (not his real name) who, due to the carnage inflicted on the U.S. laboring class by so-called free market “values,” has been chronically under or unemployed since the Wall Street bankster-perpetrated crash of late 2008. Yet Vince remains stubborn in his refusal to connect his dismal plight with the reality-resistant political notions he clutches. To this day, he describes himself as a “conservative libertarian — a proud believer in the values of the free market.” This conviction, coming from a member of the laboring class, is analogous to a slave proclaiming he is a believer in the auction block and the verities of his master’s whip. Worse, as the day-to-day humiliations exacted by the corporate state continue to inflict deeper, more emotionally debilitating wounds, the more Vince reacts like a wounded animal … lashing out at all but those who bestow him with the palliative of rightwing demagogic lies that distort the source of his suffering by means of directing his rage at a host of scapegoats i.e., phantom socialists (and, of course, their OWS dirty hippie dupes) whose, schemes, he insists, have denied him his rightful place among the serried ranks of capitalism’s legion of winners. My apologies to Vince and all of his likeminded brethren of my native region: Although we rose from the same Southern soil, I’ve never had a knack for telling reassuring lies … for conjuring the sort of displaced emotional resentments and engaging in the brand of bigot-whispering that is the stock and trade of contemporary red-state conservatives.

Conversely, I have shown some promise in encouraging people to embrace the reality of their circumstances, and passing on the hopeful news that they are stronger than they know. … Withal, the act of carrying the burden of denial in a marathon flight from feelings of angst and despair is the force that exhausts one’s energy and demoralizes one’s spirit. This is why such a large number of those whose lives have been degraded by the deprivations of the present economic order will not focus their anger at Wall Street grifters: If capitalism, by the very nature of the system, allows a swindlers’ class to not only legally exist — but to thrive — then it follows that there must be something flawed about the nature of capitalism itself. Accordingly, a depressing revelation waits at the margins of Vince’s (and other downtrodden true believers in the existence of free-market fairy dust) sense of awareness: that the energies of one’s life have been devoted to the maintenance of an elaborate lie; not only have your labors been for naught — but your sacrosanct convictions have laid the groundwork for the crime that was committed against you. You have spent your life as an accessory to your own robbery...

MORE

[Demeter]

76. After Six Months, a Look at What Occupy Wall Street Has Accomplished

http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7351:after-six-months-a-look-at-what-occupy-wall-street-has-accomplished

Since its beginning, Occupy Wall Street and the protests it spawned across the country have faced critics who say it has no goals and wouldn’t achieve any substantial accomplishments. “In fact, the sum total of what Occupy Wall Street has accomplished is zero,” a New York Post columnist wrote in November. “Inspiring chat around the national watercooler is not an achievement.”

The movement turned six months old last Saturday, and a closer look at its record of achievement reveals that it has done more than spark conversation around Wall Street’s watercoolers. Occupy groups have shifted the national debate on taxes and inequality, helped homeowners stay in their homes, forced major policy issues to the forefront of debate at the state and federal level, and gotten the attention of the institutions they’ve challenged most forcefully. With that in mind, ThinkProgress compiled a brief list of Occupy Wall Street’s accomplishments over its first six months:

Income Inequality: The 99 Percent movement refocused America’s political debate, forcing news outlets and eventually politicians to focus on rising income inequality. While debt and deficits were the primary focus of the media before the movement started, their attention after the movement began shifted to jobs, Wall Street, and unemployment. By the end of October, even Republicans were talking about income inequality, and a week later, Time Magazine devoted its cover to the topic, asking, “Can you still move up in America?”

Occupy Our Homes: The movement has drawn attention to many of the predatory, discriminatory, and fraudulent practices perpetrated by banks during the foreclosure crisis, and across the country, Occupy groups, religious leaders, and community organizations have helped homeowners prevent wrongful foreclosures on their homes. Activists in Detroit are working to save their fifth home, and similar actions have taken place in cities like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Atlanta. The movement has drawn so much attention that local political leaders and even members of Congress have stepped in to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

Move Your Money: On Bank Transfer Day, activists helped more than 40,000 Americans move their money from large banks to credit unions, and more than 650,000 switched to credit unions last October. Religious groups have taken up the cause as well, moving $55 million before Thanksgiving. This year, a San Francisco interfaith group moved $10 million from Wells Fargo and other groups marked Lent by moving more money from Wall Street. As a result, analysts say the nation’s 10 biggest banks could lose $185 billion in customer deposits this year “due to customer defections.”

Fighting For Positive Policies: Occupy groups have pushed for positive policy outcomes at both the state and federal levels. Occupy The SEC submitted a 325-page comment letter on the Volcker Rule, a regulation to rein in big banks. Pressure from protesters forced New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to reverse his opposition to a millionaire’s tax, and activists fought Indiana Republicans’ union-busting “right-to-work” law, and have pushed big banks to stop financing destructive environmental practices like mountaintop removal mining in coal states.

Though many of the camps across the country have been disbanded, the 99 Percent Movement isn’t going away. Organizers have continued fighting at the state level, pushing back against banks on fraudulent foreclosures and other issues, and have now turned their attention to the 2012 presidential elections. Movement leaders in New York, meanwhile, are developing high-tech ways to organize protests and keep the movement going. Occupy is starting to assert a political influence, pushing multiple candidates and even running for office themselves — in both Maine and Pennsylvania, former Occupy activists are running for public office.

“It’s changed the language,” one protester told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s brought out a lot of issues that people are talking about. … And that’s the start of change.”

[Demeter]

77. We Win When We Live Here: Occupying Homes in Detroit and Beyond

http://www.nationofchange.org/we-win-when-we-live-here-occupying-homes-detroit-and-beyond-1332948366

A truck pulling an enormous construction dumpster came rumbling down Pierson Street in northwest Detroit on January 31. It was a cold Michigan morning, and the whole street was slick with ice. The 20 activists standing on Bertha and William Garrett’s front lawn had been there for over an hour. One Teamster had been waiting since 4:30 a.m. because he was afraid the dumpster would come early; as a driver he knew that his co-workers often worked before the rest of the world woke...The coalition of neighbors and activists — including People before Banks, Occupy Detroit, Moratorium NOW!, Jobs for Justice and the Local 600 United Auto Workers — all knew that by city ordinance an eviction must occur within 48 hours of the dumpster arriving in front of a foreclosed home, that without a dumpster there would be no eviction. Blocked and confused, the driver left.

That afternoon, 65-year-old Bertha Garrett lay down on the floor in front of the office of the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, and refused to leave until the bank agreed to negotiate her eviction. The next day, the Garretts’ lawyer received a call from Mellon Trust’s lawyers asking the family “to call off the dogs.” Less than a month later, Bertha Garrett signed papers to buy back her home for $12,000.

Across the country, homeowners, activist organizations, lawyers, unions, and Occupiers are uniting to create a direct-action campaign against foreclosures. In Minneapolis, a former Marine erected an anti-foreclosure fence around his block to win a loan modification. In Nashville, a 78-year-old civil rights activist stopped Chase’s eviction by occupying her home with neighborhood support. In San Diego and L.A., 24-hour front-lawn occupations saved two families’ homes. In Rochester, New York, nearly 1,000 people protested outside Wells Fargo, winning a family an indefinite stay and prompting the bank to fire their foreclosure law firm. In Atlanta, front-lawn occupations have stopped the eviction of two homes, a homeless shelter, and a historic church. In New York City, Occupiers stopped home auctions by singing in the courtroom and moved furniture into a Bank of America branch, arguing that the taxpayers’ $230 billion (and counting) bailout bought Americans not only the right to resist eviction, but also the right to live inside the bank itself.

As preexisting anti-foreclosure organizations and Occupy merge, the campaign is spreading to nearly every major city, with front-lawn occupations, eviction defense teams or auction blockades currently underway in Boston, Tampa, Maui, Detroit, Nashville, Birmingham, New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Delaware and cities across California. These successful anti-foreclosure actions are not merely one crack in the armor of a historically unjust global economic system. Because the housing market bubble was responsible for the collapse, foreclosures powerfully represent the hypocrisy of the current system, in which the orchestrators of the bubble receive trillion-dollar bailouts, and the victims of its burst receive eviction notices. It’s no wonder that the most recognizable symbol of Occupy — the tent — is a form of shelter. In this era, housing is the personal made political. Homes are both the symbolic and real site of Wall Street’s injustice, as well as an opportunity for collective intervention....MORE

[Demeter]

79. Curacao’s central bank freezes credit

http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/curacao%E2%80%99s-central-bank-freezes-credit

The Central Bank of Curacao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) – autonomous Caribbean countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands - has announced it will introduce a credit freeze for commercial banks for at least six months. The severe credit measure is an attempt to tackle mounting debts on the balance of payments and a downward trend in the foreign currency reserves, CBCS director Emsley Tromp said....Earlier this month, Curacao and Sint Maarten, together with Argentina, were designated as "major money laundering countries," by the US State Department, moving them up a notch on a money laundering watchlist. A report issued by the annual International Narcotics Control Strategy moved the two Caribbean islands and Argentina to the list of "jurisdictions of primary concern" from the less acute "jurisdictions of concern" category. The report said the three have become "major money laundering countries," or those "whose financial institutions engage in currency transactions involving significant amounts of proceeds from international narcotics trafficking."

Curacao, Sint Maarten and Argentina join a wide-ranging list of 66 countries that includes Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, China, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.

[Demeter]

82. Countries 'hoarding' crude oil, say analysts VIDEO REPORT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17511050

[Demeter]

85. Several Reasons Why Gasoline Prices are so High

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Gas-Prices/Several-Reasons-Why-Gasoline-Prices-are-so-High.html

When President Obama took office, regular gasoline cost $1.85 a gallon. Now its hit $4.00 per gallon in many cities, and some analysts predict it could reach $5.00 or more this summer. Filling your tank could soon slam you for $75-$90.

This winter was warm. Our economy remains weak. People are driving less, in cars that get better mileage, even with mandatory 10% ethanol. Gasoline is plentiful. Misinformed politicians and pundits say prices should be falling. They claim our pain at the pump is due to greedy speculators and greedier oil companies that are exporting oil and refined products. Their explanation is superficially plausible – but wrong.

Energy Information Administration (EIA) data show that 76% of what we pay for gasoline is determined by world crude oil prices; 12% is federal and state taxes; 6% is refining; and 6% is marketing and distribution. Global markets set the price that refiners pay for crude oil.

World prices are driven by supply and demand, and unstable global politics. That means today’s prices are significantly affected by expectations and fears about tomorrow....Moreover, oil is priced in US dollars, and the Federal Reserve’s easy money, low interest policies called quantitative easing – combined with massive US indebtedness – have weakened the dollar’s value. It now costs refineries more dollars to buy a barrel of crude than it did three years ago...Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has made it abundantly clear that he wants to “boost gasoline prices to European levels” – $8 to $10 per gallon! He’s already half way to his goal.

[Demeter]

87. Why Don't Young Americans Buy Cars?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-dont-young-americans-buy-cars/255001/

Kids these days. They don't get married. They don't buy homes. And, much to the dismay of the world's auto makers, they apparently don't feel a deep and abiding urge to own a car...Unfortunately for car companies, today's teens and twenty-somethings don't seem all that interested in buying a set of wheels. They're not even particularly keen on driving. The Times notes that less than half of potential drivers age 19 or younger had a license in 2008, down from nearly two-thirds in 1998. The fraction of 20-to-24-year-olds with a license has also dropped. And according to CNW research, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 buy just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, a far cry from the peak of 38 percent in 1985. At a major conference last year, Toyota USA President Jim Lentz offered up a fairly doleful summary of the industry's challenge.

"We have to face the growing reality that today young people don't seem to be as interested in cars as previous generations," Lentz said. "Many young people care more about buying the latest smart phone or gaming console than getting their driver's license."

The billion-dollar question for automakers is whether this shift is truly permanent, the result of a baked-in attitude shift among Millennials that will last well into adulthood, or the product of an economy that's been particularly brutal on the young. There are plenty of reasons to suspect the latter. The Millennials have become notorious for delaying, or entirely skipping, the traditional markers of adulthood. But as my colleague Derek Thompson has argued, that's largely because the economic milieu that shaped their parents' and and grandparents' lives has disappeared. How can you buy a home when you're underemployed and saddled with student debt? Why would you want to after the horror of the collapsing housing bubble? And why would a 25-year-old woman get married when so many of the men she knows are out of work, while she's financially independent?

...Of course, Millennials are more likely than past generations to live in an urban community, and this may be part of what terrifies car markers. About 32 percent reside in cities, somewhat higher than the proportion of Generation X'ers or Baby Boomers who did when they were the same age, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report. But as the Wall Street Journal reports, surveys have found that 88 percent want to live in an urban environment. When they're forced to settle down in a suburb, they prefer communities like Bethesda, Maryland, or Arlington, Virginia, which feature plenty of walking distance restaurants, retail, and public transportation to nearby Washington, DC...If the Millennials truly become the peripatetic generation, walking to the office, the bus stop, or the corner store, it could mean a longterm dent in car sales. It's doubly problematic if they choose to raise children in the city. Growing up in the 'burbs was part of the reason driving was so central to Baby Boomers' lives. Car keys meant freedom. To city dwellers, they mean struggling to find an empty parking spot...

[Demeter]

88. No McMansions for Millennials

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2011/01/13/no-mcmansions-for-millennials/

Here’s what Generation Y doesn’t want: formal living rooms, soaker bathtubs, dependence on a car.

In other words, they don’t want their parents’ homes.

Much of this week’s National Association of Home Builders conference has dwelled on the housing needs of an aging baby boomer population. But their children actually represent an even larger demographic. An estimated 80 million people comprise the category known as “Gen Y,” youth born roughly between 1980 and the early 2000s. The boomers, meanwhile, boast 76 million.

Gen Y housing preferences are the subject of at least two panels at this week’s convention. A key finding: They want to walk everywhere. Surveys show that 13% carpool to work, while 7% walk, said Melina Duggal, a principal with Orlando-based real estate adviser RCLCO. A whopping 88% want to be in an urban setting, but since cities themselves can be so expensive, places with shopping, dining and transit such as Bethesda and Arlington in the Washington suburbs will do just fine.

“One-third are willing to pay for the ability to walk,” Ms. Duggal said. “They don’t want to be in a cookie-cutter type of development. …The suburbs will need to evolve to be attractive to Gen Y.”

[xchrom]

83. China says manufacturing rises again in March

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_MANUFACTURING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-04-01-04-53-20

SHANGHAI (AP) -- Chinese manufacturing gained momentum for a fourth straight month in March, helped by a recovery in the auto, tobacco and electronics sectors, though analysts said conflicting data suggest lingering weakness.

The state-affiliated China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said Sunday that its purchasing managers index, or PMI, rose 2.1 points to 53.1 in March, up from February's 51.0 and January's 50.5. A reading above 50 signifies expansion.

The rise in new factory orders suggests a recovery in some industries, though federation analyst Zhang Liqun said there were still worrying signs of weakness in exports, investment and consumer demand.

That was evident in a second set of data, from HSBC, which said that after adjusting for seasonal factors, its PMI index for China for March was 48.3, down from 49.6. HSBC'S index, which tends to reflect trends in the export sector more strongly than the official index, has remained below 50 for five straight months, and recorded its lowest average reading in three years in the first quarter, HSBC said.

[Demeter]

84. IRS Audit Rate Nears 30% for Those Making $10 Million and Up

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-22/irs-boosts-audit-rate-to-almost-30-for-those-making-10-million.html

The Internal Revenue Service in 2011 audited 29.93 percent of taxpayers who reported more than $10 million of income, according to statistics released today.

That’s up from an audit rate of 18.38 percent in 2010 and 10.60 percent in 2009 for a group that consists of 0.01 percent of taxpayers. Overall, the agency’s rate of audits for individual taxpayers stayed constant at 1.11 percent.

Joe Perry, partner-in-charge of tax services at the accounting firm Marcum LLP in New York, said he has seen a ten- fold increase in clients being audited, including at least five under the more intense scrutiny of a new IRS task force that is targeting high net-worth taxpayers.

“Those are very time consuming and costly,” said Perry, who represents several clients with incomes exceeding $10 million. “It’s worse than a root canal.”

For U.S. taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes between $5 million and $10 million, the audit rate rose to 20.75 percent from 11.55 percent. People making between $200,000 and $500,000 were audited at a 2.66 percent rate...The IRS is quicker to audit individual returns than in the past, sometimes contacting people within months of their return being filed, Perry said...In 2009, the IRS created a special unit to examine the tax returns of high-wealth individuals....

[Demeter]

89. I haven't posted one April Fool

Which is depressing, given what I have posted....I'm going to start the day now....see you all on Monday's Stock Market Watch! And watch out for those fools...they're everywhere!

[Po_d Mainiac]

95. BHO

There, fixed it for u

[Demeter]

96. That's more like a nightmare than a joke, but I appreciate the effort

[xchrom]

90. BRICS leaders edge closer to setting up development bank

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/29/business/india-brics-summit/index.html?hpt=ila_c2

New Delhi (CNN) -- The leaders of five of the world's top emerging economies moved closer Thursday toward establishing a development bank that could one day serve as an alternative to the World Bank.

The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- collectively known as the BRICS -- "agreed to examine in greater detail a proposal to set up a BRICS-led South-South Development Bank, funded and managed by the BRICS and other developing countries," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India.

The leaders were meeting in New Delhi on Thursday for their fourth annual summit. Finance ministers from the five countries have been directed to look into the idea of the development bank and report back at the next summit, Singh said.

The leaders also asked the International Monetary Fund to speed up changes in its governance to better represent the developing world as a voting bloc.

[Demeter]

93. Taking their cue from Chavez, who ate the IMF's and World Bank"s lunch in S. and Central America

More power to them.

Dethrone the Anglo-American Elitists and their engines of war, economic or military!

Help us take our government back!

[Demeter]

92. How I spent my April Fool's Day

After finishing the papers at 2 AM, and calling for replacements for the 3 incomplete ones, I got 4.5 hours sleep, to be wakened by the other members of the house crawling around in the dark, making lots of noise.

2 hours of blogging, a hot bath, breakfast, and then 3.5 hours (so far) trying to defrost the freezer (cleaning and napping meanwhile). There must have been 10 lbs of ice in there...I can tell how the past months have gone by today's state of the freezer, and the age of its contents (ulp). Another hour, and it should be possible to fit everything in again, and start using it up in a first in /first out basis...

Now that I can see what has been squirreled away, I can say with confidence we will eat well for at least 6 months even if I never buy another piece of meat for the duration. I didn't even realize I had some of it...must start an inventory system...maybe have a computer in the kitchen...

And THAT'S an April Fool's joke, if ever I heard one. The kitchen barely holds a person and a microwave....it would take extensive renovations (badly needed, and in planning) to make this house a home, this kitchen a re real kitchen where one could could and can and have enough room to roll piecrust.

I just haven't had the time or money these past 15 years....life is what happens!

[hamerfan]

94. Musical Interlude

Relevant to this thread not at all, but a great song: