STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday December 28

[ozymandius]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday December 28, 2010

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON December 27, 2010

Dow 11,555.03 -18.46 (-0.16%)
Nasdaq 2,667.27 +1.67 (+0.06%)
S&P 500 1,257.54 +0.77 (+0.06%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.32 -0.01 (-0.18%)
30-Year Bond 4.42 +0.02 (+0.50%)

---

Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

---

Handy Links - Market Data and News:Economic Calendar    Marketwatch Data    Bloomberg Economic News    Yahoo! Finance    Google Finance    Bank Tracker    
Credit Union Tracker    Daily Job Cuts

Handy Links - Economic Blogs:
The Big Picture    Financial Sense    Calculated Risk    Naked Capitalism    Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong      Bonddad    Atrios    goldmansachs666    The Stand-Up Economist

Handy Links - Government Issues:
LegitGov    Open Government    Earmark Database    USA spending.gov

Handy Links - Videos:
The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class    Charlie Rose talks with Roubini    Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
    William Black: This Economic Disaster    Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn

Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren
Dishonorable Mention: former House majority leader, Tom DeLay

Bush Administration Officials Charged = 1
Name(s): Richard Lopez Razo

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 11

---

---

This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.

Read more: du

[maddezmom]

1. Happy to be the first rec!!

:hi:

[ozymandius]

3. Good morning, maddezmom.

:donut: :donut: :donut:

[ozymandius]

2. Today's Reports

09:00 Case-Shiller 20-city Index Oct
Briefing.com -0.2%
Consensus 0.1%
Prior 0.59%

10:00 Consumer Confidence Dec
Briefing.com 56.0
Consensus 56.1
Prior 54.1


more

[Pale Blue Dot]

34. Case-Shiller down .8 %

Surprise!

[ozymandius]

36. Some areas were walloped.

Wall Street Journal:

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index fell 1.3 percent in October from September. All cities recorded monthly price declines.

Atlanta recorded the largest decline. Prices there fell 2.9 percent from a month earlier.

more here

[burf]

44. Consumer confidence also down

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — An index of U.S. consumer confidence declined in December on concerns about jobs in the present and future, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.

Confidence fell to 52.5 in December from an upwardly revised 54.3 in November.


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-confidence-dips-on-job-worries-2010-12-28


Someone please explain to me how consumers who are not confident in their economic future spend like maniacs for the holidays. Or perhaps someone is trying to blow smoke up our skirts?

[Demeter]

4. BofA’s ‘Sloppy’ Prime Mortgages Add to Pressure for Buybacks

Background Info...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/bank-of-america-s-sloppy-prime-mortgages-increase-pressure-for-buybacks.html

Bank of America Corp., battling demands for almost $13 billion of refunds from mortgage investors, reported that the fastest-growing group of claims involves loans to people with the best credit scores. Claims for refunds on prime mortgages surged 150 percent to $3.6 billion in the first nine months of 2010, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said last month in its quarterly report. Claims on subprime loans, made to borrowers deemed more likely to default, were little changed at $579 million. Mortgage investors can demand refunds from a bank if a loan was based on faulty data about the home or borrower.

Overdue prime mortgages set a record this year, opening more loans to scrutiny for defects that could entitle investors to a buyback. The Congressional Oversight Panel said last month that too many repurchases could rattle the financial system, and Bank of America’s stock dropped 27 percent this year through yesterday, partly on concern that $4.4 billion of reserves stockpiled to cover such costs won’t be enough...The ultimate cost to the industry could range from $54 billion to $106 billion, according to a Nov. 29 report from Paul Miller, the banking analyst at FBR Capital Markets.

Spreading Demands

The jump in refund claims, mostly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, may signal that repurchases tied to prime loans will spread to the rest of the industry, according to Christine Clifford, vice president of Access Mortgage Research & Consulting Inc. in Columbia, Maryland. With the U.S. jobless rate stuck above 9 percent for 18 months, more of the most creditworthy borrowers will miss payments, she said. “When there is a default, Fannie and Freddie are more likely to audit the loan,” said Clifford, a 27-year veteran of the business. “This is a big problem and I don’t think it’s contained.”

Bank of America, the biggest by assets in the U.S., is the only firm among the top four home lenders to disclose the credit quality of loans tied to the refunds, also called putbacks. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan said on Nov. 4 that any losses will be “manageable through earnings in the next couple of years.”

LOTS MORE DETAIL AT LINK

[ozymandius]

7. Everything that anyone ever learns about property rights has

been up-ended with this mortgage fiasco. MERS deserves to be scrapped, burned and scattered to the four winds. Bank of America is now the target of TWO class-action lawsuits about its mortgage lending and foreclosure practices. Every idea, based on hundreds of years of precedent, has been assaulted in just he past ten years with these banksters' business deals.

[Po_d Mainiac]

18. “manageable through earnings in the next couple of years.” ????

:wtf:

Where are the indictments? :grr:

[ozymandius]

20. They do seem confident don't they?

I wonder why BoA executives believe they will be around in a 'couple of years'.

[Po_d Mainiac]

31. Ayuh

How long ago did the topic about 'clawbacks' get raised in this thread? And the MSM is just now starting to discuss it?

The only way BAC "earns" (gag/choke) it's way out is if the US currency goes into the Zimbabwe black hole.

The only other way the major mortgage originators remain more than a faint memory in a 'couple' years, is if the regulators formally legalize fraud. This may well be the path taken

[Demeter]

33. I Thought Fraud Had Already Been Legalized

along with war crimes, and crimes against humanity...after all, it's all right if you're a Republican (even if you claim to be a Democrat).

[Po_d Mainiac]

37. If the class action suits against BAC get tossed, then u are correct.

Since that has not yet occurred, there still may be a shade of 'hope' left.

[ozymandius]

5. Oil rises near $92 as OPEC signals no output hike

Lots of speculating going on...

SINGAPORE – Oil prices rose to near $92 a barrel Monday in Asia as some OPEC ministers signaled the group doesn't plan to boost output to cool the recent jump in crude.

Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said at a meeting in Cairo over the weekend that the full group would likely not meet until June to discuss production quota policy. OPEC, which accounts for about 40 percent of global crude output, left quotas unchanged at a meeting earlier this month.

In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil rose 0.9 cent to $2.55 a gallon, gasoline futures fell 0.14 cent to $2.44 a gallon and natural gas dropped 6.4 cents to $4.02 per 1,000 cubic feet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[Demeter]

6. The Data and the Reality By BOB HERBERT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/opinion/28herbert.html

I keep hearing from the data zealots that holiday sales were impressive and the outlook for the economy in 2011 is not bad.


...Nearly two-thirds of the unemployed workers who were surveyed have been out of work for a year or more. More than a third have been jobless for two years. With their savings exhausted, many have borrowed money from relatives or friends, sold possessions to make ends meet and decided against medical examinations or treatments they previously would have considered essential.

Older workers who are jobless are caught in a particularly precarious state of affairs. As the report put it:

“We are witnessing the birth of a new class — the involuntarily retired. Many of those over age 50 believe they will not work again at a full-time ‘real’ job commensurate with their education and training. More than one-quarter say they expect to retire earlier than they want, which has long-term consequences for themselves and society. Many will file for Social Security as soon as they are eligible, despite the fact that they would receive greater benefits if they were able to delay retiring for a few years.”

No one is forecasting a substantial reduction in unemployment rates next year. And, as Motoko Rich reported in The Times this month, temporary workers accounted for 80 percent of the 50,000 jobs added by private sector employers in November...

The fact that so many Americans are out of work, or working at jobs that don’t pay well, undermines the prospects for a robust recovery. Jobless people don’t buy a lot of flat-screen TVs. What we’re really seeing is an erosion of standards of living for an enormous portion of the population, including a substantial segment of the once solid middle class.

Not only is this not being addressed, but the self-serving, rightward lurch in Washington is all but guaranteed to make matters worse for working people. The zealots reading the economic tea leaves see brighter days ahead. They can afford to be sanguine. They’re working.

[ozymandius]

11. Diminished Human Capital

I have been re-reading Economics for Dummies (which would make a really good textbook except for the title). The unit on Human Capital is extremely relevant to this Herbert column.

The book says:

"If you put a person to work for which she has high human capital, she will produce much better or much more output than a person with low human capital, even though they both supply the same amount of labor in terms of hours worked."

We are in a transformative era in which people with high human capital are losing, or have lost, their jobs. At the same time, people just finishing technical training and higher education are entering the workforce. Their knowledge, energy and skills will diminish if they do not find work right away in their chosen field. In the short-term, these conditions will erode productivity. The combination of these conditions in the long-term (experienced people with high human capital being long-term unemployed and newly educated people struggling to find employment) does not bode well for the future of worker satisfaction and the sustainability of any economic progress that may be summarized as a "recovery" of sorts.

[Demeter]

8. America in Decline: Why Germans Think We're Insane

http://www.alternet.org/story/149324/america_in_decline%3A_why_germans_think_we%27re_insane?page=entire

...The European Union has a larger economy and more people than America does. Though it spends less -- right around 9 percent of GNP on medical, whereas we in the U.S. spend close to between 15 to 16 percent of GNP on medical -- the EU pretty much insures 100 percent of its population.

The U.S. has 59 million people medically uninsured; 132 million without dental insurance; 60 million without paid sick leave; 40 million on food stamps. Everybody in the European Union has cradle-to-grave access to universal medical and a dental plan by law. The law also requires paid sick leave; paid annual leave; paid maternity leave. When you realize all of that, it becomes easy to understand why many Europeans think America has gone insane...Some social scientists think that making sure large-scale crime or fascism never takes root in Europe again requires a taxpayer investment in a strong social safety net. Can we learn from Europe? Isn't it better to invest in a social safety net than in a large criminal justice system? (In America over 2 million people are incarcerated.)

Unlike here, in Germany jobless benefits never run out. Not only that -- as part of their social safety net, all job seekers continue to be medically insured, as are their families.

In the German jobless benefit system, when "jobless benefit 1" runs out, "jobless benefit 2," also known as HartzIV, kicks in. That one never gets cut off. The jobless also have contributions made for their pensions. They receive other types of insurance coverage from the state. As you can imagine, the estimated 2 million unemployed Americans who almost had no benefits this Christmas seems a particular horror show to Europeans, made worse by the fact that the U.S. government does not provide any medical insurance to American unemployment recipients. Europeans routinely recoil at that in disbelief and disgust.

[Demeter]

9. Nearly 100 Bank Beneficiaries of TARP Funds at Risk of Failure

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/412338/nearly_100_bank_beneficiaries_of_tarp_funds_at_risk_of_failure/#paragraph4

The Wall Street Journal has been keeping tabs on the fiscal health of bailed out banks--the ones receiving TARP money during the apex of the financial crisis. And the results aren't the pretty picture of recovery one would hope.

They've found through reporting that more and more of these beneficiary banks are backsliding towards insolvency.

The total, based on an analysis of third-quarter financial results by The Wall Street Journal, is up from 86 in the second quarter, reflecting eroding capital levels, a pileup of bad loans and warnings from regulators. The 98 banks in shaky condition got more than $4.2 billion in infusions from the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Meanwhile, the official list of "troubled" banks by the FDIC has also grown...

SEE ALSO:

http://topics.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203568004576044014219791114.html

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/tarp-banks-at-risk-of-failure/bailouts/

[Demeter]

17. Obama administration steps up monitoring of banks that miss TARP payments

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/27/AR2010122704236.html?hpid=topnews

The Obama administration has begun monitoring the high-level board meetings of nearly 20 banks that received emergency taxpayer assistance but repeatedly failed to pay the required dividends, according to Treasury Department officials and documents. And it may soon install new directors on some of their boards.

The moves come as the number of banks that failed to make at least one dividend payment to the government rose to 132 in the last quarter. These "deadbeats," as they are sometimes called, are virtually all community lenders and collectively received billions of dollars in taxpayer assistance.

In addition to those firms, seven others have failed, resulting in the total loss of the government's investment...

[Demeter]

26. Going Bankrupt: 100 Bailed Out Banks

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/12/going-bankrupt-100-bailed-out-banks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBigPicture+%28The+Big+Picture%29

The WSJ reports today that nearly 100 U.S. banks that got TARP funds from the federal government in Q4 2008 are in danger of going bankrupt.

So far, 7 bailout recipients have failed, resulting in more than $2.7 billion in lost TARP funds. The balance of the remaining potential failures relatively small banks — the median size was $439 million in assets, and the median TARP infusion was $10 million apiece:

SEE MAP AT LINK OF BUSTED BANKS 2008-2010 IMPRESSIVE SUMMARY!

[Demeter]

10. Have a Cup of Cheer--I Think We Need It

[AnneD]

12. Hot chicks.....

that will get you going in the morning.

[Demeter]

14. Morning AnneD

You are up early!

Can't tell if those chicks are hot--maybe just comfy?

[AnneD]

46. Morning Demeter.....

they are in a coffee cup so I put 2+2 together, but I am the first to admit that math new or otherwise is not my strong suit.

Actually I was involved in a bit of deceptive advertising. Somewhere in Duluth some poor guy will key in hot chicks and maybe he will be directed to this site and learn something valuable. or maybe he is a farm boy and be turned on.

[burf]

45. They appear to be quite comfortable.

Not too hot, not too cold. The Goldilocks chicks.

[AnneD]

47. The Dixie Chicks to you sir....

we have been off the gold standard for some time.

Let him Fly Dixie Chicks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrn17soPpQQ

edited to give us some nice music from a much maligned group.

[burf]

51. My observation is based on

personal experience. If the chicks were too warm, they would be trying to get out of the cup or away from the heat source. If they are too cold, they would be piling on top of each other trying to keep warm.

BTW, they appear to be what we called a heavy layer assortment. Feed 'em for about four months and start collecting eggs. They you can have "Dixie Chick Omelets".

Good day!

[AnneD]

60. I remember my Aunt's kitchen being filled....

with little peeps in the winter and toasting oats for them to eat. They went outside as soon as weather permitted. It was fun to round them up in the evening to put them to bed. I would round them up in a bowl and put them in their cage. And yes they do hop out if it is too warm.

Hope you didn't take offense as none was intended, I was making a weak econ/farm joke. A Dixie Chick omelet is good, but Dixie fried chick is good too.

[ozymandius]

13. Charming!

Such precious little peeps. That is a fine antidote du jour.

[xchrom]

15. recommend

[Demeter]

16. AIG secures $4.3bn in credit lines

US insurer bailed out by Washington during the financial crisis comes a step closer to independence from government as it says it has secured $4.3bn in credit facilities

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/P75VYY/BMHHJR/GYN7Q/FX6RNI/HDBIKO/ID/t?a1=2010&a2=12&a3=28

[ozymandius]

19. Baby boomers near 65 with retirements in jeopardy

We really need to do something to transform our retirement system. My first suggestion: transition back to the pension as the principle means of benefit.

CHICAGO – Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they're hoping to retire. Starting in January, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years.

There are several reasons to be concerned:

• The traditional pension plan is disappearing. In 1980, some 39 percent of private-sector workers had a pension that guaranteed a steady payout during retirement. Today that number stands closer to 15 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.

• Reliance on stocks in retirement plans is greater than ever; 42 percent of those workers now have 401(k)s. But the past decade has been a lost one for stocks, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index posting total returns of just 4 percent since the beginning of 2000.

• Medical Costs. Health care expenses are soaring, and the availability of retiree benefits is declining.

more

I believe that the 401(K) has been one of the most sophisticated devices ever devised to steal from workers. While the funding of this retirement plan operates similarly to the traditional pension scheme - the nature of stock markets underscore inherent unreliability in sustaining a steady payout for the decades that people live past the traditional retirement age. Market dips, crashes and wild manipulation of stock values make the 401(K) a very unreliable vehicle for long-term planning.

[AnneD]

48. I am of the niche in the Boomer generation.....

when they really started transitioning actively. Front Line did a great piece on the 401k's. It was never intended to replace pensions and social security. We are essentially the first guinea pigs. Now if Wall Street was functioning as it was when this first came into being (buy and hold, invest in the long term), it might have worked. But with todays climate of closing local factories and ship the jobs overseas to save three cents on a share-it is doomed to failure. It was an invest in your economy vehicle.

I have a small 403b but my main retirement vehicle is my state pension. Right now there is a lot of 'pension envy', ignorant people thinking that state, municipal, and government workers are on the gravy train. I deliberately went in to state employment for the benefits. As a single working mom, it was the only way I could take care of my baby and take care of me in my later years. I took at the time a 10k pay cut to go from a hospital to the schools. The difference now is 20-30k. As frugally as I live-that would have been a large retirement nest egg. And now, this late in the game folks want to change the rules?

Texas has funded more than other state retirement systems and we watch the managers like hawks. Every paycheck, 6% has come out of my check. In the beginning, I did not have much but after 20+ years it adds up. I have paid for that benefit as I have also paid into the Social Security system though I cannot draw from it fully or get SS benefits should my husband die (how fair is that).

The retirees have been taken for a ride and their money swindled from them. I have concluded that the police state like crackdowns are starting now because some of these thieves are afraid of what will happened when this armed population wakes up to the fact that their money has been stolen.

I don't want much, just a place to live in some degree of comfort, to be able to pay my bills, buy my medicines, pay for my groceries, and do a few things. That is it. Peaceful enough, but if I and cheated out of this, then all hell will break loose.

[Pale Blue Dot]

21. Abysmal Volume Means Lowest Participation Trading Holiday Week In Years

One look at today's trading volume speaks volumes about the state of the market. While today is not the lowest volume day in the past several years, it closely competed with Thanksgiving for the worst participation day in 2010. Furthermore, keep in mind that traditionally record low volumes are reserved for the days just before the New Year. Which means that since we have three more trading days until the end of the week, we will certainly see at least a one day in the upcoming three, when the volume will be the lowest recorded probably this century. Welcome to the new volume normal, when two computers pass three shares to each other all day long. And if there is one thing the flash crash should have taught us, is that computers take months to accumulate a position, and milliseconds to unload... Also what this non-existent volume means for broker commission sales, we leave it up to Dick Bove's abacus.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/abysmal-volume-means-lowest-trading-holiday-week-years

Zero Hedge seems to be the only economic blog talking about the trading volume - how low it is and who is doing it. I'm fascinated by this topic because there are still so many people that equate stock market success with economic health (including many on this website). The truth seems to be that what little trading is going on is being done by the large institutional investors and the PPT.

[Pale Blue Dot]

22. Shanghai Drops To Two Month Low, As Chinese Stocks Are S&P Performance Mirror Image YTD

Even though news of the Chinese rate hike have so far spared the US stock markets, the Shanghai Composite, the SHCOMP, is now down 5 days in a row, and is back to a level last seen in October 2010, at 2,733, following a 1.7% overnight decline. What is more peculiar is that the main Chinese index is now down almost 15% from the highs reached in the recent upswing, specifically the 3,160 close from November 8. Yet during this entire time, the US stock market continues to melt up on ever lower volumes, and if futures are any indication, last night's latest drop in Chinese stocks will be ignored yet again, as the reverse decoupling thesis is now the prevalent paradigm, 4 short months after it was China's turn to "grow" the world out of the re-recession.

The charts below show the relative performance of the S&P and the SHCOMP on a one month and YTD basis. What is interesting is that the two are mirror images on a YTD basis, with the S&P up 12%, while Shanghai is underperforming by the same amount.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/shanghai-drops-two-month-low-chinese-stocks-are-sp500-ytd-mirror-image

Charts at the link.

[ozymandius]

24. I'm with you. The misconception of stock market values

is one of the most troubling barriers to communicate honestly about where we stand in terms of economic health. I question the psychology of respondents to consumer confidence surveys, wondering if their answers are based on observing the Dow or a similarly nonsensical average.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

30. "...when two computers pass three shares to each other all day long."

:)

[Demeter]

41. Nice Work If You Can Get It

Awesome bennies, and NO responsibility!

[Demeter]

23. End the FED as We Know It VIDEO

http://vodpod.com/watch/5179730-end-the-fed-as-we-know-it?u=ampedstatuscom&c=ampedstatus

[Demeter]

29. Keiser Report: Cables, Crises & Cyber Currencies VIDEO

http://vodpod.com/watch/5181282-keiser-report-cables-crises-cyber-currencies?u=ampedstatuscom&c=ampedstatus

Banksters, MBS, Wikileaks, oh, my!

[Demeter]

53. Michael Hudson Video

http://ampedstatus.com/video.php

[Pale Blue Dot]

25. Flickinger Says Winter Storm a `Net Win' for Retailers

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, talks about the impact of the U.S. East Coast snowstorm on the retail industry. He speaks with Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness." (Source: Bloomberg)

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/2073072/flickinger_says_winter_storm_a_net_win_for_retailers

Before I became a teacher I was was a general manager of a Staples store for 7 years. Storm like this were never good for business - even if people did buy more "hats and scarves". I've been struck this year by the relentless cheerfulness of those talking about holiday sales. It seems completely out of touch with reality, and I wouldn't be at all surprise if the official numbers end up "shocking and surprising" Wall Street.

[Demeter]

27. Any Negative Info Will Be Buried in the Back Pages

in late January--early February....or whenever it can no longer be ignored.

[AnneD]

49. Reminds me of the time I lived in Alaska....

the crime rate went up with the spring thaw. Seems all the bodies would start coming down the river. That was the bad news. The good news was that they were usually in good condition due to freezing. So Death really took a holiday I guess.

[DemReadingDU]

39. Retail Sales Rebound, Beating Forecasts

12/28/10 Retail Sales Rebound, Beating Forecasts

Americans are splurging as though it’s 2007 again.

Shoppers spent more money this holiday season than even before the recession, according to preliminary retail data released on Monday.

After a 6 percent free fall in 2008 and a 4 percent uptick last year, retail spending rose 5.5 percent in the 50 days before Christmas, exceeding even the more optimistic forecasts, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks retail spending.

The rise was seen in just about every retail category. Apparel led the way, with an increase of 11.2 percent. Jewelry was up 8.4 percent, and luxury goods like handbags and expensive department-store clothes increased 6.7 percent. There was even a slight increase in purchases of home furniture, which had four consecutive years of declining sales. The figures include in-store and online sales, and exclude autos.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/business/28shop.html?src=busln


50 shopping days for Christmas!
Did the season get longer this year to compare the retail purchases this year, to purchases of the shorter season last year?

[ozymandius]

28. Two More Home Runs from Pro Publica

It's time to review the year that was.

The Year in Wall Street Investigations

Let's start at the ground level, with selling risky mortgages to homeowners. Nobody symbolized the subprime market -- from its growth to its downfall -- better than former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. This fall, the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a $67.5 million settlement with Mozilo in its only major case against a financial executive. The SEC charged Mozilo with praising Countrywide to investors while internally doubting its lending standards. As part of the settlement, Mozilo admitted no wrongdoing.

Though nearly every bank is rumored to be under investigation, the year was marked by one major case looking at the CDO business. In April, the SEC accused Goldman Sachs of creating a mortgage deal that was designed to fail. The SEC's argument was that Goldman's hedge-fund client helped design the deal specifically to bet against it -- without Goldman explaining the relationship to investors. In July, Goldman settled for $550 million (or about two weeks' worth of profit), admitting a "mistake" but no wrongdoing.

more from Pro Publica

Investigations galore! Yet, sadly, there have been no criminal charges and few civil charges filed against banksters.

Speaking of banksters: Pro Publica offers this review of the state of fraudclosure.

Where Things Stand: Foreclosure Paperwork Scandal

Iowa's Attorney General Tom Miller, the point man on a 50-state joint investigation of the foreclosure scandal and mortgage servicing industry, has said that a quick settlement with banks and loan servicers is unlikely and that settlements would be worked out "one bank at a time." He's also said that criminal charges are a possibility. "We will put people in jail," Miller told homeowners and advocates in Des Moines earlier this month. The states' joint investigation remains ongoing, and some states have separately sued banks for deceiving homeowners fighting foreclosure.

On the federal level, the status of the investigation by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other banking regulators is less clear. The OCC, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC are currently divided over new rules proposed by the FDIC that would rein in the bank abuses that may be causing improper foreclosures, according to the Huffington Post.

more here

The article touches on other aspects foreclosure fiasco such as New Jersey's Justice Rabner who will call mortgage lenders and servicers into his courtroom next month to explain their foreclosure practices.

[Demeter]

32. Why Is It So Cold? Should the Big Freeze Alter Our Approach to Climate Change?

MASSIVE CLIMATE ANALYSIS

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/why-it-so-cold-should-big-freeze-alter-our-approach-climate-change

[DemReadingDU]

40. I'm ready for summer

:)

[Demeter]

42. Not I

Last summer was nigh unbearable.

[AnneD]

50. Nor I.....

summers in Houston Texas are brutal.

[Tansy_Gold]

58. I'm with you, DRDU.

Some people can't understand how anyone deals with day after day after week after month of 100+ temps, but I just don't like cold. For me, 40 degrees is cold, and we're expecting rain/snow and hard freeze on Thursday. YUCK-O!

We'll have Fiesta Bowl fans flocking out here to take pictures of snow on Superstition Mountain. . . .



TG, TT

[Demeter]

35. Game Changer Why Wikileaks will be the death of big business and big government.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/80481/game-changer?page=0,0

I confess that I’m torn. I had the same cranky reaction to Time’s Person of the Year choice as pretty much the entire Internet: It’s hard to see the calculation that makes Mark Zuckerberg more influential than Julian Assange in 2010. Still, there’s something about this conventional wisdom that’s annoying in its own right.

When people riff about the impact of Wikileaks, you typically hear how it’s forever changed diplomacy or intelligence-gathering. The more ambitious accounts will mention the implications for journalism, too. All of that’s true and vaguely relevant. But it also misses the deeper point. The Wikileaks revolution isn’t only about airing secrets and transacting information. It’s about dismantling large organizations—from corporations to government bureaucracies. It may well lead to their extinction...In a Wikileaks world, the greater the number of people who intimately understand your organization,* the more candidates there are for revealing that information to millions of voyeurs.

Wikileaks is, in effect, a huge tax on internal coordination. And, as any economist will tell you, the way to get less of something is to tax it. As a practical matter, that means the days of bureaucracies in the tens of thousands of employees are probably numbered. In a decade or two, we may not only see USAID spun off from the State Department. We may see dozens of mini-State Departments servicing separate regions of the world. Or hundreds of micro-State Departments—one for every country on the planet. Don’t like the stranglehold that a handful of megabanks have on the financial sector? Don’t worry! Twenty years from now there won’t be such a thing as megabanks, because the cost of employing 100,000 potential leakers will be prohibitive.

...Perhaps more importantly, Wikileaks is a self-perpetuating phenomenon. Pre-Wikileaks, a would-be leaker’s only shot at wide-scale circulation was a newspaper or magazine. The problem with such outlets is that they tend to have their own views on how a story should be told. They interview corporate spokespeople and government officials to get their side of the story. They may bow to a censor’s request to suppress information. Wikileaks, on the other hand, promises mass distribution without the filter. And the more the organization proves it can get leaked information in front of tens of millions of readers, the more leakers will flock to it...

[xchrom]

38. kick

[DemReadingDU]

43. Who Killed the Disneyland Dream? - Frank Rich

posted in Editorials by groovedaddy...

12/26/10 Who Killed the Disneyland Dream? - Frank Rich
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x578356


Did anyone watch the 30-minute 1956 movie Batstow home-made movie that Frank Rich discussed in his article?
Really creative how this Barstow family entered a contest for Scotch tape, and won a 7-day trip to Disneyland. It's a trip backwards in time. The ladies wore dresses, and everyone was trim. If you have 30 minutes, I found the link at ZeroHedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/who-killed-disneyland-dream

[Roland99]

52. Just read that article

Was about to post it :)

[Demeter]

54. All About Silver--Is China Behind It?

http://www.investmentrarities.com/ted_butler_comentary12-21-10.shtml

[Po_d Mainiac]

56. Butler is one of the smart guys in the room...I read this last week

This line from the next to last para cracked me up

"Let’s face it – someone is and has been short on silver, all the way up from the single digits. It will go down as the single dumbest trade in history when all is said and done"

$30 Ag at the close should trigger more than a few margin calls.

Buying the hard to back up the missing metal behind the ETF's just got a bit more painful.

[Festivito]

55. Debt: 12/24/2010 13,866,145,290,604.69 (UP 968,727,418.38) (Fri)

(Up some. My computer did not notice the 23rd yesterday morning. Regardless of how that happened, both updates are made on yesterday's thread. Good day.)
Ahh, lunch. Buddy's Ministroni is not that great. Needs some heat. Ah! It's on the table.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 9,326,420,947,617.17 + 4,539,724,342,987.52
DOWN 1,321,466.66 + UP 970,048,885.04

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 311-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.22 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,215.53 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.65, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 310,990,592 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $44,587.02.
A family of three owes $133,761.07. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 3,538,909,796.58.
The average for the last 30 days would be 2,595,200,517.49.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 251 reports in 365 days of FY2010 averaging 6.58B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
There were 59 reports in 85 days of FY2011 averaging 5.16B$ per report, 3.58B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 758 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.9 and 17.8T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
12/24/2010 13,866,145,290,604.69 BHO (UP 3,239,268,241,691.61 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,651,794,027,380.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
FY2011 +0,304,522,259,712.90 ------------* * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,307,654,409,355.40 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
12/06/2010 +000,077,038,802.53 ------------******* Mon
12/07/2010 +000,178,077,201.68 ------------********
12/08/2010 +018,541,141,818.10 ------------**********
12/09/2010 +000,426,018,289.04 ------------********
12/10/2010 +000,085,971,333.21 ------------*******
12/13/2010 -000,140,409,571.73 --- Mon
12/14/2010 +000,270,507,131.41 ------------********
12/15/2010 +035,075,952,728.32 ------------**********
12/16/2010 -002,942,603,716.29 --
12/17/2010 +002,071,215,295.43 ------------*********
12/20/2010 -000,083,147,973.47 ---- Mon
12/21/2010 +000,210,432,562.88 ------------********
12/22/2010 +000,569,620,034.56 ------------********
12/23/2010 +001,962,709,844.10 ------------*********
12/24/2010 -000,001,321,466.66 -----

56,301,202,313.11 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4674132&mesg_id=4674141

[Festivito]

61. Debt: 12/27/2010 13,874,000,269,245.64 (UP 7,854,978,640.95) (Mon)

(Down little. Good day.)
Late talking with neighbor.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 9,326,361,803,446.91 + 4,547,638,465,798.73
DOWN 59,144,170.26 + UP 7,914,122,811.21

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 311-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.22 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,215.31 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.65, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 311,012,192 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $44,609.18.
A family of three owes $133,827.55. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 to 31 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 3,625,330,221.85.
The average for the last 30 days would be 2,658,575,496.03.
The average for the last 31 days would be 2,572,814,996.15.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 251 reports in 365 days of FY2010 averaging 6.58B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
There were 60 reports in 88 days of FY2011 averaging 5.21B$ per report, 3.55B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 755 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.9 and 17.8T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
12/27/2010 13,874,000,269,245.64 BHO (UP 3,247,123,220,332.56 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,651,794,027,380.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
FY2011 +0,312,377,238,353.90 ------------* * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,295,655,590,899.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
12/07/2010 +000,178,077,201.68 ------------********
12/08/2010 +018,541,141,818.10 ------------**********
12/09/2010 +000,426,018,289.04 ------------********
12/10/2010 +000,085,971,333.21 ------------*******
12/13/2010 -000,140,409,571.73 --- Mon
12/14/2010 +000,270,507,131.41 ------------********
12/15/2010 +035,075,952,728.32 ------------**********
12/16/2010 -002,942,603,716.29 --
12/17/2010 +002,071,215,295.43 ------------*********
12/20/2010 -000,083,147,973.47 ---- Mon
12/21/2010 +000,210,432,562.88 ------------********
12/22/2010 +000,569,620,034.56 ------------********
12/23/2010 +001,962,709,844.10 ------------*********
12/24/2010 -000,001,321,466.66 -----
12/27/2010 -000,059,144,170.26 ---- Mon

56,165,019,340.32 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4675079&mesg_id=4675414

[DoBotherMe]

57. K&R

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

59. k