STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, June 22, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, June 22, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON June 21, 2011

Dow 12,190.01 +109.63 (+0.90%)
Nasdaq 2,687.26 +57.60 (+2.14%)
S&P 500 1,295.52 +17.16 (+1.32%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.96 -0.03 (-0.84%)
30-Year Bond 4.20 -0.02 (-0.36%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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Handy Links - Market Data and News:Economic Calendar    Marketwatch Data    Bloomberg Economic News    Yahoo! Finance    Google Finance    Bank Tracker    
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Handy Links - Economic Blogs:
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Brad DeLong      Bonddad    Atrios    goldmansachs666    The Stand-Up Economist

Handy Links - Government Issues:
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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 = 12

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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

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Today's Reports

Jun 22 07:00 MBA Mortgage Index 06/17 -5.9% NA NA +13.0%
Jun 22 10:00 FHFA Housing Price Index Apr NA NA 0.3%
Jun 22 10:30 Crude Inventories 06/18 NA NA -3.406M
Jun 22 12:30 FOMC Rate Decision Jun 0.25% 0.25% 0.25%

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/investor/calendars/economic/2011/06/20-24/#ixzz1Q0Mk2reK

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil falls below $94 after mixed US supply report

Oil prices fell below $94 a barrel Wednesday after a crude supply report reflected mixed signs about U.S. demand and the dollar strengthened against other currencies.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for August delivery was down 82 cents to $93.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 54 cents to settle at $94.17 on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude for August delivery was down 41 cents to $110.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories fell 81,000 barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted a drop of 2.0 million barrels.

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

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. U.S. Stock Futures Drop as Adobe Falls

U.S. stock futures retreated, following a four-day rally for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as the Federal Reserve meets to set its benchmark interest rate and decide whether to increase stimulus measures.

Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) slid 1 percent in early New York trading after forecasting profit that fell short of analysts’ estimates. Altria Group Inc. (MO), the owner of Philip Morris USA Inc, dropped. Aerovironment Inc. (AVAV) rose after saying that earnings will beat analysts’ predictions.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in September slipped 0.3 percent to 1,284.5 at 7:21 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined 21 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,058.

The S&P 500 has risen for four days after a six-week slump brought it within half a point on June 16 of erasing this year’s gain. Stocks rose across the globe yesterday, with the S&P 500 rallying the most in two months, as investors anticipated that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou would win last night’s vote of confidence in his government, enabling the Greek premier to pursue further austerity measures to shore up the country’s finances.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/u-s-stock-index-futures-drop-as-adobe-declines-following-profit-forecast.html

[Demeter]

12. The Party's Over

The speculators are on notice that they can no longer get away with it. Europe's even going for laws! Here we file court challenges, after the damage is done...but without commodities, without real estate, where else can the money go but into Treasuries or stocks?

SO: will we be seeing another miracle on Wall St. today?

[DemReadingDU]

20. Miracle on Wall street? Probably!

:evilgrin:

[xchrom]

3. morning!

:donut: :hi:

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. Morning! Sorry I'm late.

I'm on vacation, and I was at a summer solstice party last night; if you put 2 and 2 together it equals: hangover. :-)

[xchrom]

13. LOL! awesome -- happy solstice to you. nt

[Demeter]

14. I'm green with envy

I spent solstice at a board meeting...the hangover from that wasn't pleasant to acquire...

Fortunately, it didn't go as badly as I feared, basically due to running out of time. I'm going to have to plant people in the homeowner Q&A session more often...

[Fuddnik]

16. Had my hangover yesterday.

After a nine hour drive from SC, I needed vodka and dog therapy. Now I need follow up treatments for the rest of the week.

[Demeter]

27. Skoal! Prosit! Nastrovya! L'Chiam!

Unfortunately, I cannot indulge until Thursday--this is my night to fling papers...

[Pale Blue Dot]

6. Previewing Today's 12:30 EDT FOMC Decision, And The Fed's Options Should The Economy Not Rebound

Just like yesterday's G-Pap vote of confidence was largely a snoozer and a "sell the news" type of event, so today's FOMC meeting and subsequent press conference, will likely disappoint, despite the 2 Year now trading at an Operation Twist 2 "priced in" 0.358%. It is certain that this expectations of at least some modest Fed intervention has slipped into equities. Thus, should Gross' prediction of a tentative QE3 announcement today fall through, and remember that the S&P has to be about 20% lower for the green light in our humble opinion, look for Waddell and Reed to be put under quarantine again at 12:30 when the decision is released.

Here is what one can expect from the FOMC in 5 hours, courtesy of Ran Squawk:

FOMC rate-decision due at 1230 EDT followed by Fed’s Bernanke press-conference at 1415 EDT

It is expected that owing to recent weakness in US economic data, alongside adverse external factors such as the ongoing Eurozone debt concerns, Japanese earthquake and nuclear crisis and tension in the MENA region, the Fed will refrain from any monetary tightening for the time being. At the same time, the central bank is unlikely to opt for another round of Treasury and TIPS purchases as the ongoing debate over the issue of the US debt ceiling together with recent rating agency concerns surrounding country’s ballooning deficit are likely to prove a further deterrent to “QE3”.

In the accompanying press conference, Bernanke is expected to reiterate that the FOMC seeks monetary and financial conditions that will foster price stability and promote sustainable growth in output. He is also expected to support the policy of reinvesting principal payments from agency debt and mortgage-backed securities in longer-term Treasury securities. This would ensure the total face value of domestic securities held in its System Open Market Account (SOMA) is at approximately USD 2.6trl. The Fed will likely keep the fed fund target unchanged in the range of 0%-0.25%, and the chairman may note a disappointing non-farm payroll figures for the month of May, which saw an addition of a meagre 54K jobs to the economy. However, Bernanke is likely to emphasise that the recent weakness is temporary in nature and will dissipate in due course.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/previewing-todays-1230-edt-fomc-decision

[Pale Blue Dot]

7. Elijah Cummings Asks Darrell Issa Why It Is Taking So Long To Subpoena The Big Banks On Fraudclosure

Describing new evidence of illegal foreclosures, inflated fees, and other widespread abuses, Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings wrote to Chairman Darrell Issa today to request that the Committee issue subpoenas to require mortgage servicing companies to produce previously-requested documents. “You have not hesitated—in other investigations—to issue subpoenas in a matter of days when your deadlines were missed, so it is unclear why a different standard applies to this investigation,” Cummings wrote. “This same sense of urgency should apply even when the targets of the Committee’s investigation are banks.” On February 10, 2011, the Committee voted unanimously to investigate “the foreclosure crisis including wrongful foreclosures and other abuses by mortgage servicing companies.” “If mortgage servicing companies are allowed to disregard requests for documents that are integral to this investigation, the Committee’s integrity will be called into question and, more importantly, abuses may continue,” Cummings wrote. Today’s letter from Cummings marks the fourth in a series of letters he has sent to Issa over the past six months urging the Committee to take action on wrongful foreclosures and other egregious abuses by mortgage servicing companies. On May 24, Cummings sent a letter to Issa requesting that the Committee issue subpoenas to six mortgage servicing companies that have refused to provide documents relating to foreclosure abuses. “The best long-term solution that our Committee can offer in response to illegal acts committed by mortgage servicing companies is vigorous investigation, oversight, and reform,” Cummings added. “Inaction will tacitly reward abuse and signal tolerance for major corporate wrongdoing.” So... what's wrong with that exactly?

Below is the letter.

June 21, 2010

The Honorable Darrell E. Issa
Chairman
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Today marks the six-month anniversary of my first letter to you requesting that the Committee investigate widespread and systemic abuses by mortgage servicing companies, including illegal foreclosures, inflated fees, and fraud against American homeowners. This is now my fourth letter to you on this subject.<1>

In my previous letter on May 24, 2011, I requested that you issue subpoenas to six mortgage servicing companies that are refusing to provide relevant documents to the Committee. My previous letters set forth in great detail the specific allegations of abuse committed by mortgage servicing companies and the specific steps I have taken to obtain the information voluntarily. I have also provided you with copies of the written correspondence from the mortgage servicing companies stating in clear terms that they will not provide the necessary information unless duly authorized subpoenas are issued.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/elijah-cummings-asks-darrell-issa-why-it-taking-so-long-subpoena-big-banks-fraudclosure

[Demeter]

26. +1M

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. "This Is Not A Program to Salvage the [Greek] Economy, It's a Program for Pillage Before Bankruptcy"

The best quote on the Greek parliament's vote of confidence for Prime Minister George Papandreou - and thus his austerity plan:

"This is not a program to salvage the economy, it's a program for pillage before bankruptcy," said Alexis Tsipras, head of the small opposition Left Coalition.

It's not just Greece.

As PhD economist Michael Hudson said in 2009:

- The giant financial institutions have already killed their host - the real American economy

- Since they realize that the American economy is dead, they are trying to suck as much blood out of America as possible while the corpse is still warm

- Because the American economy is dead, their plan is to soon jump to another host. They will ship all of their money overseas.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

[xchrom]

17. +1

[DemReadingDU]

19. Curtis Mayfield - People Get Ready

Reading elsewhere this morning, I saw this video as a response to the above washingtonsblog


Curtis Mayfield - People Get Ready
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOXmaSCt4ZE&feature=related%22

[Demeter]

28. Not if We don't let them

Capital outflow controls! Stat! AND take down the Zombies and free up our capital.

[DemReadingDU]

30. Democracy vs Mythology: The Battle in Syntagma Square

6/18/11 Democracy vs Mythology: The Battle in Syntagma Square

<snip>
Alex Andreou: I have never been more desperate to explain and more hopeful for your understanding of any single fact than this: The protests in Greece concern all of you directly.

What is going on in Athens at the moment is resistance against an invasion; an invasion as brutal as that against Poland in 1939. The invading army wears suits instead of uniforms and holds laptops instead of guns, but make no mistake – the attack on our sovereignty is as violent and thorough. Private wealth interests are dictating policy to a sovereign nation, which is expressly and directly against its national interest. Ignore it at your peril. Say to yourselves, if you wish, that perhaps it will stop there. That perhaps the bailiffs will not go after the Portugal and Ireland next. And then Spain and the UK. But it is already beginning to happen. This is why you cannot afford to ignore these events.


He goes on to dispel 6 propaganda myths currently being spread in the media


another <snip>
This is why the matter concerns you directly. Because this is a battle between our right to self-determine, to demand a new political process, to be sovereign, and private corporate interests which appear determined to treat us like a herd, which only exists for their benefit. It is the battle against a system which ensures that those who fuck up, are never those that are punished – it is always the poorest, the most decent, the most hard-working that bear the brunt. The Greeks have said “Enough is enough”. What do you say?

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/alex-andreou-democracy-vs-mythology-%E2%80%93-the-battle-in-syntagma-square.html
or direct link
http://sturdyblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/democracy-vs-mythology-the-battle-in-syntagma-square/

[Demeter]

38. Greek opposition dashes hopes for unity

Antonis Samaras, Greece’s opposition leader, said his party would vote against the government’s latest round of austerity measures, dashing the hopes of foreign creditors that the nation’s political classes would unite in a last-ditch effort to prevent a sovereign debt default.

“They’re asking me to support the same kind of medicine for someone who is dying from that medicine. I won’t do it,” Mr Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, told the Financial Times in an interview on Wednesday.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/OZMCDD/MSQDAU/FDFZE/26TI80/GKWIGE/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=22

[Demeter]

40. The Greek Tragedy Is All about Politics Now

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/06/21/The-Greek-Tragedy-Is-All-about-Politics-Now.aspx

Greeks in the streets, as they have been in the tens of thousands almost daily, have brought Europe’s debt crisis to a new and highly volatile stage. Austerity plans are political now, and there’s no stepping back from this truth...There have been protests around Europe before last week’s sometimes-violent clashes in Athens. But nothing before these latest Greek demonstrations brings the point home so plainly: There are limits to the spending cuts and structural reforms that any government can impose without a clear display of shared sacrifice.

Immediately at issue in the Greek crisis is a €12 billion ($17.2 billion) tranche of funds from the European Union that Greece needs by next month if it is to avoid a calamitous default. This is part of a €110 billion rescue package Prime Minister George Papandreou negotiated with the EU and the International Monetary Fund last year. In Athens this week, Papandreou has to get a fractious, tippy ship of state behind his promised reforms as he negotiates not only his next installment but a new rescue package worth an additional €100 billion

It can work, although as of Tuesday morning European finance ministers were still trying to negotiate specific bailout terms. No one on either side sees any benefit in a Greek default. But the key to success now is winning sufficient faith from the Greek people that they are not bearing the full burden of a crisis they did not create while lenders elsewhere reap large benefits from it by way of handsomely high returns.

“Anyone who has gone into Greek securities over the past two years has enjoyed high-risk premiums,” says Alfred Steinherr, chief European economist for the Globalist Research Center. “It seems obvious now that they should share the responsibilities.”

[Pale Blue Dot]

9. Republican Lynch Mob Looking Awfully Hard to Find Rope With Which to Hang Elizabeth Warren

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Elizabeth Warren beat, although my expectation is that the skirmishes now will pale in significance compared to whatever does or does not happen on what the Republican hope will be her ritual execution at the full committee hearing of the House Oversight committee on July 14.

This situation has become an intriguing bit of political theater. The Republican have increasing become one-trick ponies. Their strategy has been to take an extreme position, scream like bloody murder, act like they have no intention of negotiating, and watch the Dems capitulate. But particularly with Obama, capitulation is tantamount to throwing Br’er Rabbit in the briar patch: it’s exactly where the Democrats like to go, but they need political cover for selling out their badly abused “base”.

The hyperventilating and bullying strategy backfired spectacularly last month in subcommittee hearings with Warren chaired by Patrick McHenry. But the Republicans have convinced themselves that if they double down, they’ll come out winners. I don’t know how much of this is reptile brain reflex on overdrive, in that they are capable only of fight or flight and even flight is no longer an option.

These Republicans have styled themselves as prosecutors; McHenry ludicrously kept demanding yes or no answers, when his hearing was not an investigation and Warren was not and has never been a sworn witness which makes the not proven claim that she was less than candid not terribly damning. Yet real litigators, unlike these Perry Mason (or worse, Tom Cruise) wannabes, are very careful when likeable women are on the stand. They know beating up on the fairer sex is not acceptable in polite company.

So as a warm-up for July, the Republicans have also been trying Warren in the press, but so far that isn’t getting much traction. The right wing organization Judicial Watch released the results of a Freedom of Information Act request last Thursday which requested, among other things, for “any and all” communications that Warren had with state attorneys general.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/republican-lynch-mob-looking-awfully-hard-to-find-rope-with-which-to-hang-elizabeth-warren.html

[Pale Blue Dot]

10. Poll: 44% of Americans Say Worse Off Under Obama

Two years after the official start of the recovery, the American people remain pessimistic about their current economic circumstances and longer-term prospects.

Fewer than a quarter of people see signs of improvement in the economy, and two-thirds say they believe the country is on the wrong track overall, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted June 17-20.

“Gas prices are higher, grocery prices are higher, transportation prices are higher,” says poll respondent Ronda Brockway, 54, an insurance company manager and political independent who lives in a suburb of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “The jobs situation nationwide is very poor.”

By a 44 percent to 34 percent margin, Americans say they believe they are worse off than when President Barack Obama took office in early 2009, when the U.S. was in the depths of a recession compounded by the September 2008 financial crisis and the economy was losing as many as 820,000 jobs a month.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/americans-worse-now-than-when-obama-inaugurated-by-44-34-margin-in-poll.html

[Demeter]

29. And the rest are in Denial

[Pale Blue Dot]

11. Cost of Wars a Rising Issue as Obama Weighs Troop Levels

WASHINGTON — President Obama will talk about troop numbers in Afghanistan when he makes a prime-time speech from the White House on Wednesday night. But behind his words will be an acute awareness of what $1.3 trillion in spending on two wars in the past decade has meant at home: a ballooning budget deficit and a soaring national debt at a time when the economy is still struggling to get back on its feet.

As Mr. Obama begins trying to untangle the country from its military and civilian promises in Afghanistan, his critics and allies alike are drawing a direct line between what is not being spent to bolster the sagging economy in America to what is being spent in Afghanistan — $120 billion this year alone.

On Monday, the United States Conference of Mayors made that connection explicitly, saying that American taxes should be paying for bridges in Baltimore and Kansas City, not in Baghdad and Kandahar.

The mayors’ group approved a resolution calling for an early end to the American military role in Afghanistan and Iraq, asking Congress to redirect the billions now being spent on war and reconstruction costs toward urgent domestic needs. The resolution, which noted that local governments cut 28,000 jobs in May alone, was the group’s first venture into foreign policy since it passed a resolution four decades ago calling for an end to the Vietnam War.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/us/politics/22costs.html?_r=1&hp

[Roland99]

15. "Calling insanity when I see it" - (a blog to keep an eye on, perhaps)

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thisisinsane/2011/06/17/calling-insanity-when-i-see-it/

[xchrom]

18. interesting:

'I’m not getting paid for this blog. I am not raising money for anything. What’s my ulterior motive? I want people to be happier. I want people to stop being robbed by the Wall Street establishment. I want people to realize there’s more to life than the latest headline or “buy this stock now!” announcement, which is usually a lie of some sort.'

[Po_d Mainiac]

21. This yahoo has been around for a while

As per most of the garbage that flows out of 'Market Watch' he is no different.

Last week he wrote:
Here’s what happened, in 200 words or less: Japan had an earthquake, their manufacturing output was the worst in 60 years that month, and so it reduced the parts that were getting shipped to our factories which, in turn, affected our output and employment. If our auto factories don’t get auto parts, they don’t hire people. Period. Next month, when they get the auto parts, they will hire people. When Japan spends $300 billion to rebuild in the next few months, we will see a complete reversal of the data. In fact, we will see a boom in our data.

This so-called 'insight' just got trashed with the announcement by GM that they are laying off labor, not due to a lack of parts, but due to the fact they swamped dealers with exces inventory.

[Fuddnik]

23. I read some of the articles on his homepage.

For somebody who's not pimping stocks, he sure is pimping stocks.

And he says there was no internet bubble. Just an IPO bubble.

Sounds like another Market Watch asshole to me.

[Roland99]

25. Thanks...I hadn't looked back to anything he'd written before.

I'm tiring of the Daily Reckoning and their BUY GOLD BUY SILVER crap.

[Po_d Mainiac]

43. ROFLMAO....n/t

[xchrom]

35. Thanks for the education! Nt

[DemReadingDU]

22. and it just began a few days ago!

home link
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thisisinsane/

[DemReadingDU]

24. U.S. Postal Service to Stop Paying Into Pension Fund

6/22/11 U.S. Postal Service to Stop Paying Into Pension Fund

The U.S. Postal Service, facing insolvency unless it gets approval to delay a $5.5 billion payment for worker health benefits, will suspend contributions to an employee retirement account to save $800 million this year.

The Postal Service will stop paying employer contributions to the defined-benefit Federal Employees Retirement System, which covers about 85 percent of career postal workers, it said today in an e-mailed statement. The $115 million payment, made every other week, will stop on June 24, the statement said.

Suspending payments to the retirement account will help “conserve cash and preserve liquidity,” the statement said. The agency estimates it has overpaid the retirement account by $6.9 billion and has asked Congress to pass legislation to return that money.

“We believe we have already satisfied our current funding obligations,” David Partenheimer, a Postal Service spokesman, said in an e-mail. “The Postal Service believes there will be no impact on employees.”

The suspension will save the Postal Service $800 million through the end of its fiscal year, it said. The agency said it still needs Congress to enact laws that would help cut costs and restore financial stability.

more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/u-s-postal-service-will-suspend-contributions-into-employee-pension-fund.html

[Demeter]

31. "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future" Robert Reich's new book

http://www.truth-out.org/aftershock-next-economy-and-americas-future-eccless-insight/1308588325

EXCERPT AT LINK

Excerpted from Aftershock by Robert B. Reich. Copyright © 2010 by Robert B. Reich. Excerpted by permission of Vintage, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

[Demeter]

32. Organizing on Wobbly Ground: Learning From "Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks"

http://www.truth-out.org/organizing-wobbly-ground-learning-solidarity-unionism-starbucks/1308684065

The decline of unions does not mean the end of the labor movement. Indeed, the last few years have seen a proliferation of new kinds of worker organizations and workers' rights campaigns. Some of the most exciting of late have been conducted by community-based groups (rather than workplace-based unions), such as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and those part of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

In Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks, a recent pamphlet published by PM Press, Daniel Gross and Staughton Lynd highlight an increasingly important feature of today’s labor movement—nonunion workers using direct action strategies protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)—while examining the Industrial Workers of the World’s (IWW)'s ongoing efforts to organize Starbucks. During the last decade, Chicago-based IWW has seen a resurgence of organizing activity and visibility. That's in part because the 106-year-old international union, which once had 100,000 members but is now only a fraction of that size, formed the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) in 2004 in New York City. It was the coffee chain's first union, and it has since expanded. The Starbucks campaign is remarkable because it draws from both IWW's history and the best practices of worker centers, which are the principal heir of the union's rich organizing legacy. Ironically, today’s IWW activists, or Wobblies, can learn from worker centers. In fact, one sign of the IWW's revival is the emergence of the IWW-affiliated Lucy Parsons Workers' Center in Chicago. Gross and Lynd’s pamphlet is particularly instructive to Wobblies who are challenged by the task of reaching out to workers in need of organizing...


Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks is useful because it names and describes a collection of strategies nontraditional worker organizations like worker centers increasingly employ. This is particularly true for groups that do not limit their organizing by industry or geographic community. Instead of seeking geographic or industry monopoly power, worker centers like New Brunswick’s New Labor, Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, and the organization I work for, Arise Chicago, choose to build a base of workers organized around the principles and power of direct action and mutual aid.

This means workers joining together to change conditions and terms of work, regardless of what or where their work is. In a recent and typical Arise Chicago action, a retired factory worker, social worker and home healthcare worker joined a butcher to confront his boss about paying the minimum wage, signing a discrimination-free workplace statement, and covering the medical costs of a work-related injury. Worker centers are effective in mobilizing marginalized and low-wage workers because they are rooted in the communities they organize, address workers’ immediate needs and develop them into leaders...

The IWW has a long and fascinating history of solidarity unionism, even before the passage of the NLRA in 1935. From its founding in 1905, the IWW was radical in its aim to organize workers as a single class, instead of as members of a particular trade or industry...Gross and Lynd’s good storytelling and legal tutorial should serve as a basic introduction to solidarity unionism for rank-and-file worker activists. And with its attractive and portable zine design, political cartoons and accessible text, the pamphlet speaks to today’s workers in a way that should serve as a model to other IWW activists and worker center activists alike.

[Demeter]

33. The Endgame on the Debt Ceiling BY Dean Baker,

http://www.truth-out.org/endgame-debt-ceiling/1308576216

As we know, President Obama and his team do not appear to be very effective negotiators when it comes to dealing with the Republicans in Congress. Last December, the Republicans forced the president to renew the Bush tax cuts for the rich. More recently, they got him to make $38 billion in cuts to the 2011 budget even though all his economists know that the economy actually needs more stimulus, which more means spending...Since the president is having so much trouble dealing with the Republicans, the rest of us should lend him a hand. One way we can do this is by etching out what the end game looks like in the battle over raising the debt ceiling...As it stands now, we are being told that the Republicans are insisting that there will be no increase in the debt ceiling without large cuts to the budget. Since the Republicans won't go along with any major cuts to the military budget, this means big cuts to the rest of the budget. These cuts would have to include cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and possibly Social Security as well, since everything else in the non-military portion of the budget does not amount to much. According to this story, President Obama might be forced to make major cuts to the core social insurance programs in order to prevent the disaster of a debt default that would result from not raising the debt ceiling.

However the actual picture is a bit different. There is no doubt that the failure to raise the debt ceiling would be very bad news for the economy. If the government had to default on its debt, it would shake the financial markets even more than the collapse of Lehman in September of 2008. We would see a freeze-up of lending and companies would be forced to dump millions of workers, as they could no longer meet their payrolls...But, even in this disaster scenario, there would still be a tomorrow. In other words, after the financial crisis, the economy would still be there. We would still have the same capital stock, infrastructure, skilled work force and state of technical knowledge as we did the day before the crisis. The government and the Federal Reserve Board would have the power to reflate the economy to get it back on its feet just as they did when they engaged in the massive spending needed to fight World War II.

While the country will still be left standing following a debt default, there is one important sector that will not be standing: Wall Street. A debt default would almost certainly make all the major banks insolvent as they would have to mark down the value of US government debt, which had been held as a completely safe asset. The loss of value would also apply to all the assets backed by the government, such as the mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Even when the economy revived, the US financial sector would never hold the same place in the world as it does today. Without the ironclad financial backing of the US government standing behind them, the Wall Street gang could never again be the dominant actor in international financial markets.

This fact is essential in understanding the endgame on the debt ceiling. Suppose that we get to the dates in August when the Treasury has reached the limit of its ability to shuffle accounts and literally can no longer pay its bills. Secretary Geithner will at that point make an announcement that in three days there is an X billion payment on Treasury bonds coming due. He will say that the government does not have the money in the bank and will, therefore, have to miss this payment. The markets will then go into turmoil. We will see the same sort of plunge in the stock market that we saw when the House voted down the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) the first time back in September of 2008. At that point, the Wall Street boys will be screaming their heads off at Speaker Boehner and the rest of the Republican leadership. The news media would all be running clips with depression footage, telling us that another Great Depression looms just around the horizon...


FOR THE STARTLING CONCLUSION---CLICK ON THE LINK! (MADE YA LOOK!)

[TalkingDog]

34. Why 2011 is much worse than 2008 - file under: No Shit Sherlock

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-2011-is-much-worse-than-2008-2011-06-22

Looking at the financial headlines over the past week, it is 2008 all over again, only this time with names of people, places and financial institutions that are harder for most of us to pronounce.

snip

Whether it is global leaders, foreign financial institution executives, rating agency professionals or investors, they are all reading from the same 2008 playbook.

Leaders want time; bankers want capital; the agencies want calm; and investors just want out.

We have once again reached the point where everyone knows that the problem is solvency, not liquidity. And in an interconnected, interdependent, global financial/sovereign complex — or what I now simply call the “interplex” — where everything is somehow a derivative of something else (and vice versa), it is just a matter of your degree of impact.

/snip

[Demeter]

36. Canada May Have the Cure For US's Medicare Ailment by: Paul Krugman

http://www.truth-out.org/canada-may-have-cure-us-medicares-ailment/1308663144

I keep hearing people say that Medicare in its current form is not sustainable in the United States, as if that were an established fact. It’s anything but.

What is Medicare? It’s single-payer coverage for the elderly.

Other countries have single-payer systems that are much cheaper than ours — and also much cheaper than private insurance in America. So there’s nothing about the form that makes Medicare unsustainable, unless you think that health care itself is unsustainable.

What is true is that American Medicare is expensive compared to, say, Canadian Medicare (yes, that’s what they call their system) or the French health care system (which is complicated, but largely single-payer in its essentials); that’s because American-style Medicare is very open-ended, reluctant to say no to paying for medically dubious procedures, and also fails to make use of its pricing power over drugs and other items. So Medicare will have to start saying no; it will have to provide incentives to move away from fee-for-service, and so on and so forth. But such changes would not mean a fundamental change in the way Medicare works...

READ ON A LINK FOR MORE STARTLING CONCLUSIONS

[Demeter]

37. NICE WORK I F YOU CAN GET IT:Clarence Thomas Decided Three Cases Where AEI Filed a Brief After Bribe

http://www.truth-out.org/clarence-thomas-decided-three-cases-where-aei-filed-brief-after-aei-gave-him-15000-gift/1308668882

ACTUAL HEADLINE: Clarence Thomas Decided Three Cases Where AEI Filed a Brief After AEI Gave Him a $15,000 Gift

In 2001, a conservative, corporate-aligned think tank called the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) gave Justice Clarence Thomas the gift of a $15,000 bust of Abraham Lincoln. At the ceremony presenting Thomas with this very expensive gift, AEI president Christopher DeMuth explained that the bust was “cast in 1914 by the great neo-classical sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman.”

Watch it:
VIDEO AT LINK

AEI, however, is not simply in the business of giving luxurious gifts to Supreme Court justices — it is also in the business of litigating before the United States Supreme Court. ThinkProgress uncovered three briefs that AEI filed in Thomas’ Court after Thomas received their $15,000 gift. Thomas recused from none of these three cases, and he either voted in favor of the result AEI favored or took a stance that was even further to the right in each case:

* Riley v. Kennedy: AEI filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision preventing a change in Alabama’s voting law from going into effect. Justice Thomas did not recuse, and he joined the Supreme Court’s decision reversing the lower court.

* Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1: AEI filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decisionupholding a local school district’s desegregation plan. Thomas joined the majority opinion reversing the lower court’s decision, and he filed a lengthy concurrence defending that result.

* Whitman v. American Trucking Association: AEI joined a brief asking the Supreme Court to allow the EPA to consider the costs of implementing new air quality standards before it issued them. Thomas’ concurring opinion went much further than AEI asked him to go, suggesting that the law authorizing EPA to issue these standards is unconstitutional.

Although there is no evidence that AEI gave Thomas the $15,000 gift specifically to buy his vote in a particular case, Thomas’ decision to sit on cases where his benefactor has a demonstrated interest creates a very serious appearance of impropriety. No one would trust a judge to hear their case if they learned that someone on the other side of the case had given that judge a rare and expensive gift.

[Demeter]

39. Hold that Line! Hold that Line! oooops....forget about it

[Demeter]

41. How it went so wrong in America

http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/06/22/why_is_the_u_s_economy_so_much_worse/index.html

Finally, some data from the International Monetary Fund that proves, once and for all, that red-white-and-blue-bleeding patriotic conservatives are right: America truly is an exceptional nation. From 2007-2009, the percentage increase in U.S. unemployment was more than double that of most other advanced industrial nations. In a global recession, the abysmal performance of U.S. labor markets reigned supreme.

...The question of whether U.S. unemployment is structural rather than cyclical is an ongoing controversial topic of debate among economists that has big implications for government policy. If most unemployment is cyclical, then government fiscal stimulus geared to boosting demand should have a big job-creating effect. If it is structural, however -- if there's a mismatch between the jobs available and the skills of workers -- then the challenge becomes much more sticky. But looking at the chart that compares the U.S. so depressingly to the likes of the U.K. and France and Portugal, another, more historically oriented question jumps out: How did we get here? Why did the U.S. do so much worse than everyone else? What makes us so special?

There's at least one easy explanation: The U.S. was the epicenter of the financial crash, so it stands to reason that the U.S. would get hit the hardest. Our housing bubble skyrocketed so high and crashed so hard that even now, almost half a decade after the first cracks started to show in the boom, the U.S. residential housing market still doesn't appear to have hit bottom. Even worse, economic historians tell us that it's always harder to recover from a recession caused by a credit crunch than from more mundane shocks -- an oil price spike, or runaway inflation, or stock market meltdown. The U.S. was ground zero for both the massive housing bust and the financial crisis. It's no wonder that we're still reeling.

But there's a deeper, more troubling factor to consider, one that gets at the heart of political and economic differences between the U.S. and Europe. The rap against Europe, from a free market point of view, has always been its "inflexible" labor markets. Strong unions and strict government rules make it relatively difficult for European employers to cut their payrolls. In the United States exactly the opposite is true -- by the 21st century, American unions had been reduced to a shadow of their former strength, and employers faced dramatically fewer limitations on their hiring and firing policies.

Charts of the day: The rise in structural unemployment

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/06/20/charts-of-the-day-the-rise-in-structural-unemployment/





VERBIAGE AT LINK

[Demeter]

42. Fed acknowledges economy in soft patch

The US Federal Reserve kept monetary policy frozen after its June meeting as it acknowledged that the economy has run into a soft patch.

The central bank said that interest rates will remain on hold at 0 to 0.25 per cent for an “extended period” and it will continue to reinvest in its securities portfolio. That will keep the Fed’s balance sheet at around $2,800bn in size.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/19JYUU/C4M20I/YGZ3O/V1F52P/4062NG/KI/t?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=22

[Fuddnik]

44. The Ben Bernank must have given a hell of a speech.

Market was up about 12 points, I run to the bank and it closed down 80.

[Festivito]

45. Debt: 06/20/2011 14,344,524,186,068.19 (DOWN 35,325,856.73) (Mon, DOWN some.)

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 51-billion dollars. Good day.)
Humid night.
(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)
= 9,738,107,728,289.57 + 4,606,416,457,778.62
DOWN 1,398,167,502.39 + UP 1,362,841,645.66

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 312-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.20 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,202.33 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.61, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ 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 312,272,192 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 $45,935.96.
A family of three owes $137,807.89. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 18 reports in the last 30 to 31 days.
The average for the last 18 reports is -54,123,148.37.
The average for the last 30 days would be -32,473,889.02.
The average for the last 31 days would be -31,426,344.21.
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$/day.
There were 176 reports in 263 days of FY2011 averaging 4.45B$ per report, 2.98B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 580 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.3 and 17.3T$.
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)
06/20/2011 14,344,524,186,068.19 BHO (UP 3,717,647,137,155.11 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 +0,782,901,155,176.40 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,086,535,823,723.90 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
05/25/2011 +010,640,781,539.65 ------------**********
05/26/2011 -005,228,052,393.61 --
05/27/2011 +000,285,108,497.37 ------------********
05/31/2011 +005,592,179,988.61 ------------********* Tue
06/01/2011 +013,072,944,722.02 ------------**********
06/02/2011 -000,912,177,803.85 ---
06/03/2011 +005,646,446,089.80 ------------*********
06/06/2011 -002,705,846,785.55 -- Mon
06/07/2011 -004,526,140,661.35 --
06/08/2011 +009,230,133,015.51 ------------*********
06/09/2011 +006,779,036,856.95 ------------*********
06/10/2011 +000,090,705,816.97 ------------*******
06/13/2011 -002,477,556,635.49 -- Mon
06/17/2011 -003,280,766,773.26 --
06/20/2011 -001,398,167,502.39 -- Mon

30,808,627,971.38 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=4891125&mesg_id=4892136

[Festivito]

46. Debt: 06/21/2011 14,344,512,410,044.14 (DOWN 11,776,024.05) (Tue, DOWN some.)

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 51-billion dollars. Good day.)
Off and on rain, storms, tornados, ll oh my!
(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)
= 9,732,784,354,381.01 + 4,611,728,055,663.13
DOWN 5,323,373,908.56 + UP 5,311,597,884.51

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 312-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.20 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,202.26 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.61, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ 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 312,279,392 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 $45,934.87.
A family of three owes $137,804.6. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 18 reports in the last 30 to 32 days.
The average for the last 18 reports is -54,777,371.92.
The average for the last 30 days would be -32,866,423.15.
The average for the last 32 days would be -30,812,271.71.
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$/day.
There were 176 reports in 264 days of FY2011 averaging 4.45B$ per report, 2.97B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 579 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.3 and 17.3T$.
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)
06/21/2011 14,344,512,410,044.14 BHO (UP 3,717,635,361,131.06 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 +0,782,889,379,152.40 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,082,403,876,479.64 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
05/25/2011 +010,640,781,539.65 ------------**********
05/26/2011 -005,228,052,393.61 --
05/27/2011 +000,285,108,497.37 ------------********
05/31/2011 +005,592,179,988.61 ------------********* Tue
06/01/2011 +013,072,944,722.02 ------------**********
06/02/2011 -000,912,177,803.85 ---
06/03/2011 +005,646,446,089.80 ------------*********
06/06/2011 -002,705,846,785.55 -- Mon
06/07/2011 -004,526,140,661.35 --
06/08/2011 +009,230,133,015.51 ------------*********
06/09/2011 +006,779,036,856.95 ------------*********
06/10/2011 +000,090,705,816.97 ------------*******
06/13/2011 -002,477,556,635.49 -- Mon
06/17/2011 -003,280,766,773.26 --
06/21/2011 -005,323,373,908.56 -- Tue

26,883,421,565.21 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=4892349&mesg_id=4892947

[Demeter]

47. Today's Miracle got Cancelled Due to Lack of Interest

or maybe, the miracle is that it didn't drop further...