Economy
Related: About this forumSTOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 8 June 2012
[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 8 June 2012[font color=black][/font]
SMW for 7 June 2012
AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 7 June 2012
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Dow Jones 12,460.96 +46.17 (0.37%)
[font color=red]S&P 500 1,314.99 -0.14 (-0.01%)
Nasdaq 2,831.02 -13.70 (-0.48%)
[font color=black]10 Year 1.64% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=red]30 Year 2.74% +0.01 (0.37%) [font color=black]
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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center][font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Got up to 80F Thursday, nowhere to go but up...
NIKKEI is going down, though....
Warpy
(111,480 posts)I went to an outdoor concert last night and it wasn't bad, not even when it started before the sun went down.
Dry heat really is different from the hot, steamy stuff back east.
I see the Dow is up a bit today. Now if they will duct tape Bernanke's mouth shut, maybe it'll stay up.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)o why did the founders of the euro fail to establish an exit mechanism for the weaker constituent parts of the eurozone? For the most cogent explanation, lets turn to our friend, Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis:
-Source
But the eurozones architects failed to follow through with the logic of a political union. Nobody cares about trade imbalances in the Canadian confederation. And nobody would care if Alberta, for example, were to run perpetual trade surpluses with the other 9 provinces. Fiscal transfers from the strong to the weak are part of the Canadian bargain in a full national union. Had Europe adopted a similar federal structure, the Greek and Spanish issues would be moot.
As it stands, however, the architects of the euro have created a doomsday machine and a gift for speculative capital. Which brings me to our second view: in a scholarly paper Sudden Stops In The Euro Area, Silvia Merler and Jean Pisani-Ferry, (Bruegel Policy Contribution, March 2012), the authors tell us that throughout the evolution of the architecture of the European monetary union, it was assumed that deposit movements from one country to another would all be smoothly handled by the market mechanism.
In one of the earliest papers on European monetary union, Ingram (1973) notes that in such a union payments imbalances among member nations can be financed in the short run through the financial markets, without need for interventions by a monetary authority. Intercommunity payments become analogous to interregional payments within a single country3. This view was not challenged in the debate of the 1980s and the 1990s on the economics of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It quickly became conventional wisdom. The European Commissions One Market, One Money report (1990) similarly posits that a major effect of EMU is that balance-of-payments constraints will disappear [..]. Private markets will finance all viable borrowers, and savings and investment balances will no longer be constraints at the national level4.
However, as early as 1998 Peter Garber challenged this benign view. He recognized that if there was any skepticism about the cohesion of the euro, the European monetary union was a perfect mechanism for fostering an unmanageable bank run.
To our knowledge, the only one to challenge this benign view was Peter Garber in a 1998 paper on the role of TARGET in a crisis of monetary union (Garber, 1998). The paper insightfully recognized that the federal structure of the Eurosystem and the corresponding continued existence of national central banks with separate individual balance sheets made it possible to imagine a speculative attack within monetary union. According to Garber, the precondition for an attack must be skepticism that a strong currency national central bank will provide through TARGET unlimited credit in euros to the weak national central banks. His conclusion is that as long as some doubt remains about the permanence of Stage III exchange rates, the existence of the currently proposed structure of the ECB and TARGET does not create additional security against the possibility of an attack. Quite the contrary, it creates a perfect mechanism to make an explosive attack on the system.
And clearly, that is what we are seeing today. Incredibly, Europes leaders still apparently believe they can bluff their way out of the problem. They have been herd-like, like the gnu; they have put their heads in the sand, like the ostrich...Apparently this remarkable denial behavior persisted even after the current euro crisis broke out with the revelation of grave fiscal problems facing Greece in late 2009. It seems that it persisted even when the euro crisis engulfed all of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain in 2010 and early 2011...
westerebus
(2,976 posts)"Fostering an unmanageable bank run."
Paging Mr. Paulson, Mr. Hank Paulson. Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Mr. Geitner, Mr. Rubin, Mr. Summers, Mr. Bernanke, Mr Issa...
Any body at the SEC. The CFTC. The FDIC. Justice. Any body.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)westerebus
(2,976 posts)Roland99
(53,342 posts)oh wait....I forgot I was cut off.
dangit!
westerebus
(2,976 posts)The vapors of market euphoria can cause strange behaviors often exemplified by Parisian quirks ala St. Jerry Lewis.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)In chess, zugzwang is a situation in which a player cannot move without putting himself in a worse position - and it neatly describes the situation facing the Chinese government. With growth slowing more than expected and indicators pointing south, Beijing cut interest rates on Thursday for the first time since the height of the financial crisis in late 2008, lowering benchmark lending and deposit rates by 25 basis points to 6.31 per cent and 3.25 per cent respectively.
However, many economists and analysts from inside and outside the government are warning of the dangers involved in a fresh round of stimulus and easy credit that could reinflate a property bubble and exacerbate stark structural imbalances in the economy.
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/WDI4RR/QNXODV/LSLXF/OR6ENW/30U5RT/VU/t?a1=2012&a2=6&a3=7
bahrbearian
(13,466 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Since the financial crisis, US banks have been rapidly reducing their reliance on wholesale funding. Large time deposits (CDs) went from 21% of the total bank liabilities prior to Lehman to around 13% today (chart below).
Banks are not marketing these accounts as aggressively as the used to (not offering very attractive rates on CDs as they did in the past) and there is also less customer demand. People are uneasy about locking up their money for six months to earn less than a quarter of a percent. And not many customers want to lock their money up for a longer period. Plus those who have more that $250K on deposit need to worry about bank credit risk on a CD that is locked up for a longer period.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wNinwJp9bJE/T806Ba09ItI/AAAAAAAAFs8/aw2fJJznL3I/s1600/6month+CD+rate.png
In addition, banks are reducing their reliance on other "non-deposit" funding - such as borrowing from other banks, commercial paper issuance, etc. The chart below shows the total percentage of bank liabilities that would be considered wholesale funding.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-20t-BqUSsbk/T809Qz7yE2I/AAAAAAAAFts/g5u6PZ5oAzA/s1600/Large+time+deposits+Plus+Borrowings.png
The problem with these sources of funding is that they can quickly disappear, as was the case during the 2008/2009 period. Having been burned by not picking up on such bank risks prior to the crisis, rating agencies became aggressive in downgrading banks who have too much reliance on wholesale funding...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)snot
(10,549 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Which means it took 35 minutes to get this machine up and running properly (or at least well enough to say "Bon jour!"
xchrom
(108,903 posts)i went back to safari because of firefox updates issues -- i can't for the life of me figure out what the problem is.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)They throw out a change, and wait for the crash reports to figure out if there were any mistakes...then when they figure out what's wrong, they fix it. This could take a while....
On the other hand, when it's good, it's VERY good.
snot
(10,549 posts)Roland99
(53,342 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)Chinese shipyards are failing to find new work 20 months after Premier Wen Jiabao sought to encourage ordering by pledging $5 billion of loans to Greek vessel owners, who control the worlds biggest merchant fleet.
The move by state-run banks was announced by Wen in October 2010 and they have distributed about $1 billion since then, according to XRTC Business Consultants, the Athens-based adviser to China Development Bank Corp., which is coordinating the lending. Danaos Corp. (DAC), Greeces largest container-shipping line, was one of the companies to take a loan, said the companys president, John Coustas.
It was a time-consuming and painful exercise, Coustas said in an interview in Athens. The project was a political statement that was not really matched by the will of the banking system over there to proceed with the actual money, he said.
Almost 90 percent of Chinas shipyards received no orders this year and about 28 percent have secured none since the end of 2009, Clarkson Plc (CKN), the worlds largest shipbroker, said May 16. Shares of China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group (1101), Chinas largest non-state builder, fell 55 percent in the past year, valuing the company at HK$13.6 billion ($1.8 billion).
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Portugals economy shrank for a sixth quarter in the three months through March as the government tries to cut spending to trim its budget deficit.
Gross domestic product declined 0.1 percent from the fourth quarter, when it fell 1.3 percent, the Lisbon-based National Statistics Institute said in an e-mailed statement today. That matches a preliminary report on May 15. GDP dropped 2.2 percent from a year earlier.
Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is facing a recession and rising unemployment as he seeks to meet the terms of a 78 billion-euro ($97 billion) aid plan from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. As the countrys borrowing costs surged, Portugal last year followed Greece and Ireland in seeking a bailout.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Leader of Italys technocrat government says it is no longer backed by the countrys so-called big powers
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/16FK5J/K91WR/08XVBH/62TXGK/FW/t?a1=2012&a2=6&a3=8
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Although Greece represents only 2% of the European Unions GDP, the impact of those choices will be wide. The Greek crisis is fundamentally the result of its membership of the eurozone. Greece is paying the price for a belief in the ancient fallacy that possessing hard money puts a weak economy on a par with the strong. In reality, hard money is more likely to destroy a weak economy, a lesson about to be re-learned in Portugal, Ireland and Spain. Greece is heading for an exit from the euro and the rest of the eurozone periphery is likely to follow, with severe implications for the monetary union. Coping with an exit will require the reintroduction of economic controls, a major retreat from the neoliberal, pro-market approach to economic policy.
The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is often presented as a political step in the integration of Europe, a demonstration of solidarity among Europeans. The reality is quite different. The euro is an international reserve currency that can compete against the dollar and serve, first and foremost, the interests of big banks and enterprises in Europe. It is a peculiar form of money, created from nothing by a hierarchical alliance of independent states.
There are two fundamental problems with the construction of the euro, reflecting its peculiar make-up and leading to its failure. The first is the contradiction between monetary and fiscal policy. The monetary space of the EMU is homogeneous, and the European Central Bank (ECB) allows banks to borrow against the same interest rate benchmarks. But the fiscal space of the EMU is heterogeneous, and each state ultimately exercises sovereignty in collecting taxes and spending. The union has attempted to deal with the problem by imposing fiscal discipline via the Stability and Growth Pact, or the much harsher Fiscal Compact. But national sovereignty over fiscal matters has not been abolished.
The second problem is a much less noticed but equally severe contradiction: The monetary space of the EMU is homogeneous but its banking space is heterogeneous. There is no such thing as a European bank, only French, German, Spanish and other banks. Even though banks can obtain liquidity from the ECB in the European space, they are obliged to turn to their own state when their solvency is in doubt. Banks operate with transnational money, but they are ultimately national...
GOOD ANALYSIS AND SUMMARY. MORE AT LINK
Costas Lapavitsas is a professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a member of Research on Money and Finance; his latest book is Crisis in the Eurozone, Verso, London, 2012.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 8, 2012, 12:53 PM - Edit history (1)
http://www.alternet.org/story/155731/how_to_end_the_nightmare_of_jobless_america?akid=8904.227380.ecZDZB&rd=1&t=22Researchers look at some of America's "dead zones" and discuss how to move stalled economies...
(FIRST THEY WOULD HAVE TO REMOVE DEAD POLITICIANS, AND STALLED REGULATIONS SHOULD BE MOVED..DEMETER)
Last Friday's bleak numbers showed unemployment ticking up a tenth of a point, from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent. But largely absent from the discussion are the American cities where the jobs crisis is nothing new -- areas that have been experiencing an ongoing unemployment nightmare since well before the financial crash. We can call them Americas "dead zones" metropolitan and micropolitan areas where the unemployment rate has been at least 2 percentage points higher than the national average for five, 10 or 20 years.
Conventional wisdom assumes that economically distressed areas exist only in inner-city slums or rural backwaters. But dead zones, although plagued by persistent high unemployment, rarely fit those stereotypes. Rather, they come in all shapes and sizes; these cities are not necessarily crime-ridden or poverty-stricken. In fact, many dead zones have median incomes at or even above the national average. Instead, they share sustained, and in many cases are begrudgingly resigned to, high unemployment rates regardless of the national business cycle.
In general, between 25-35 percent of their residents incomes are provided by government aid, compared to 17 percent nationwide. Between 25-40 percent live on $30,000 a year or less. The workforce in most dead zones has a low education level, with more than 50 percent possessing just a high-school degree or less. Most jobs in dead zones are in low-end service industries, especially retail. Such jobs offer few prospects for upward mobility or skill enhancement.
A few dead zones are on the right track, while others are clearly headed down the wrong track. Shining a spotlight on five specific cases gives us clues to the scope of the predicament, and also potential solutions. We'll compare Henderson, North Carolina; Seneca, South Carolina; and Kokomo, Indiana with dead zones that seem doomed to further stagnation Hanford, California and Natchez, Mississippi.
DETAILS AT LINK
wiki65
(3 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)The Spanish government will request the activation of a European rescue plan this weekend in order to recapitalize its banks, Reuters has reported this morning, citing two official EU sources and another source from the German government.
The news agency added that a conference call is scheduled for Saturday for the euro-zone economy ministers, to discuss the details of this bailout plan.
One of the sources said that Spain will request assistance on Saturday afternoon, which would make it the fourth European Union country to seek help, although the details of the program are expected to be much less extreme and less interventionist than the other bailouts seen so far.
In Spain, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who just 10 days ago was denying that there was any need for a bailout, said that the government does not comment on speculation, and referred to statements made on Thursday by Rajoy himself.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)YEP, THE GOOD TIMES HAVE BEEN CANCELED FOR THE DURATION...SUCK ON IT, SPECULATORS! NO MORE WILD PARTIES.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/crude-oil-tumbles-as-dollar-rises-equities-fall-2012-06-08?siteid=YAHOOB
Roland99
(53,342 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)One analyst has a serious call against Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) calling for the company to be dead in five years to eight years. Ironfire Capital founder Eric Jackson made the call. Dead does not exactly translate to 'bankruptcy' but his take is one which the Facebook nation might want to consider. This is a call that is not exactly breaking news, but it falls right into the ongoing pessimism against this company as CNBC featured Jackson's call today.
Facebook won't be able to evolve and this third wave of web companies is likely to fall out the success down the road. Jackson even noted a risk to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) over the next five years. He thinks that the world of just typing search into a box on your PC is going away and that Google was very slow into entering social media. His call is not that Facebook is going bankrupt, but that another entrant will be the next big thing.
Jackson was cautious back on May 4 ahead of this key IPO, but he was much less pessimistic and thought it would pop at the IPO. His call now shows that Facebook would be like MySpace or Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) down the road which may still be profitable, but as a shell that still exists at only a tiny level from the peak...
snot
(10,549 posts)That's a very big deal.
just1voice
(1,362 posts)People post pictures of their kids and suck up to rich people, it's boring as hell. Plus, there's a reason why people stop being friends with people in real life, they don't like them anymore. Finally, privacy concerns will become much more of a concern in the near future.
Tansy_Gold
(17,894 posts)truer words were never spoken.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)European stocks were set to break a three-day winning streak on Friday, as markets tracked losses in Asia, following disappointing remarks from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and a fresh downgrade of Spain...
This week was all about hope, but unfortunately hope doesnt contain a strategy. The markets wanted to see some policy action first from the ECB and then from Bernanke and they didnt get it, said Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank.
ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER
Roland99
(53,342 posts)* April trade gap above consensus of $48.0 bln
* U.S. April trade gap with China $24.6 billion
* U.S. April trade gap narrows 4.9% to $50.1 bln
* March trade gap rev $52.6 bln vs $51.8 bln prev
Roland99
(53,342 posts)April U.S. wholesale inventories up 0.6%
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany is ready to back the use of all existing euro-area instruments to help stabilize the 17-nation euro region.
With the financial crisis raging, the German government is willing to deploy the tools at hand whenever needed to bolster the euro region, she told reporters today at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
In view of the current difficulties, its important to emphasize that we have created the instruments of support in the euro zone, that Germany is ready to work with these instruments whenever that is necessary and that this is an expression of our firm desire to keep the euro area stable, the chancellor said. Merkel didnt outline to which tools she was referring...
BECAUSE SHE'S EITHER LYING OR DELUSIONAL. OR BOTH. CERTAINLY DESPERATE.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)President Barack Obama has spent much of his term trying to get Chancellor Angela Merkel in his corner, only to find the German leader wont easily bend to U.S. will.
Five months before the presidential election, the stakes are rising. Obama, in advance of a G-20 summit and European Union crisis meetings, is urging Merkel to take actions aimed at forestalling a euro region financial meltdown that would threaten the U.S. -- and his campaign.
If Europe implodes, Obama probably wont be re-elected, Gary Smith, executive director of the American Academy, a research group in Berlin that promotes trans-Atlantic ties, said in an interview. Yet helping any U.S. president right now wouldnt be on Merkels radar screen. The divisions about what needs to be done are so fundamental and public.
IT WOULD BE A MARRIAGE MADE IN HELL....FOR BOTH OF THEM
Demeter
(85,373 posts)As several newspapers have recently highlighted, Germany is slowly but surely moving toward a plan to combine much of Europes bad debt into a single fund with the idea of paying it off over 25 years. The latter proviso is key, as the bonds are temporary, and therefore compliant with recent decisions by Germanys Constitutional Court, which has ruled against permanently surrendering Germanys budget-making power to another entity.
The worsening crisis has led to a sweeping effort to chart a new path forward for the union, one that encompasses fiscal integration, Europe-wide banking supervision, and tighter coordination of economic policies.
German leaders have not provided details of a potential deal and not every country may be eager to sign on but it would be likely to mean an expansion of executive power in Brussels over fiscal targets in member states and supervision of their banks, along with Europewide deposit insurance. It would go far beyond what was contemplated for Europe even six months ago.
Thats the good news, right? To be sure, some form of a banking union is necessary, and it probably has to come sooner, rather than later. Given the magnitude of euro deposits which have already flooded into Germanys banks, a euro area FDIC on its own could well be too little, too late, given the mounting deposit run. We could be looking at trillions of euros of bank deposits in the periphery countries now residing in German banks. Why would these depositors move their money back to, say, Spanish banks at this juncture? Nothing short of a commitment to infinite liquidity provision to banks will do. The Target 2 balances understate the extent of the run, as the ECB somehow finances ELA claims on periphery banks and ECB repos have to some degree financed deposit runs from these banks as well.
Ironically, for all of Germanys complaints about bailing out Europe, if they insist on extracting more pounds of flesh from the already emaciated periphery, the euro zone itself could collapse, and Berlin would be on the hook in more than one way for these lenders of last resort claims as well. More importantly, these claims would be largely unenforceable for Germany if the entire system collapses...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The world economy is in grave danger. A lot depends on one woman...TO THE lifeboats! That is the stark message bond markets are sending about the global economy. Investors are rushing to buy sovereign bonds in America, Germany and a dwindling number of other safe economies. When people are prepared to pay the German government for the privilege of holding its two-year paper, and are willing to lend Americas government funds for a decade for a nominal yield of less than 1.5%, they either expect years of stagnation and deflation or are terrified of imminent disaster. Whichever it is, something is very wrong with the world economy.
That something is a combination of faltering growth and a rising risk of financial catastrophe. Economies are weakening across the globe. The recessions in the euro zones periphery are deepening. Three consecutive months of feeble jobs figures suggest Americas recovery may be in trouble (see article). And the biggest emerging markets seem to have hit a wall. Brazils GDP is growing more slowly than Japans. India is a mess (see article). Even Chinas slowdown is intensifying. A global recovery that falters so soon after the previous recession points towards widespread Japan-style stagnation.
But that looks like a good outcome when set beside the growing danger of a fracturing of the euro. The European Union, the worlds biggest economic area, could plunge into a spiral of bank busts, defaults and depressiona financial calamity to dwarf the mayhem unleashed by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The possibility of a Greek exit from the euro after its election on June 17th, the deterioration of Spains banking sector and the rapid disintegration of Europes cross-border capital flows have all increased this danger (see article). And this time it will be harder to counter. In 2008 central bankers and politicians worked together to prevent a depression. Today the politicians are all squabbling. And even though the technocrats at the central banks could (and should) do more, they have less ammunition at their disposal.
Made in Athens, made worse in Berlin
In one way it seems unfair to pick on Mrs Merkel. Politicians everywhere are failing to actfrom Delhi, where reform has stalled, to Washington, where partisan paralysis threatens a lethal combination of tax increases and spending cuts at the end of the year. Within Europe, as Germans never cease to point out, investors are not worried about Mrs Merkels prudent government, whose predecessor restructured the economy painfully ten years ago; the problem is a loss of confidence in less well-run, unreformed countries. But do not get too sympathetic. To begin with, past virtue counts for little at the moment: if the euro collapses, then Germany will suffer hugely. The downgrading of some of its banks this week was a portent of that. Moreover, the undoubted mistakes in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Spain and the other debtor countries have been compounded over the past three years by errors in Europes creditor countries. The overwhelming focus on austerity; the succession of half-baked rescue plans; the refusal to lay out a clear path for the fiscal and banking integration that is needed for the single currency to survive: these too are reasons why the euro is so close to catastrophe. And since Germany has largely determined this response, most of the blame belongs in Berlin...
Roland99
(53,342 posts)Tansy_Gold
(17,894 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 8, 2012, 09:10 AM - Edit history (1)
Do you know what caused the financial crisis? If you don't know what caused it, how can you have any idea in hell how to fix it?
If you do know what caused the financial crisis, are you addressing the causes and reversing the policies that enabled them, or are you tilting at windmills?
Don't be a fucking idiot, Angela. Worse, don't be a fucking liar.
Think troops not ECB.
" Deploy the tools at hand."
" Keep the Euro area stable."
Demeter
(85,373 posts)that sent a chill up my spine...like being eaten by a grue.
westerebus
(2,976 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 8, 2012, 06:05 PM - Edit history (1)
Didn't the FCC or SEC ban the grue or was that AOL or FB?
I can never get them straight.
One is fictitious, the other fantasy.
Like politics and the economy.
Is that a mixed metaphor?
One more thing on my list of mind crimes.
* missed a word again, like that never happens..
Roland99
(53,342 posts)DOW 12,345 -61.00 -0.49%
NASDAQ 2,521 -9.75 -0.39%
FTSE 100 5,407 -41 -0.75%
CAC 40 3,043 -28 -0.92%
DAX 6,102 -42 -0.68%
FTSE MIB 13,374 -172 -1.27%[/font]
IBEX 35 IDX 6,508 +70 +1.09%
EURUSD down a penny at 1.246
US 10yr yields down 8bps at 1.57
Demeter
(85,373 posts)From manufacturers in the Midwest to upscale retail shops in Manhattan, a wide variety of American companies are feeling the pinch of Europes economic contraction, helping to hold back recovery in the United States.
Ford, the iconic U.S. car company, says that Europeans are not only buying fewer cars but also replacing fewer parts. Kraft Foods, which is behind such brands as Swedish Fish and Dentyne, says sales of candy and gum in Europe are lagging. And jeweler Tiffany & Co. says fewer European tourists are shopping at its flagship Fifth Avenue store.
...The problems in Europe add to the reasons that big U.S. companies, despite record profitability, havent revved up domestic hiring enough to bring the unemployment rate below 8 percent. Other factors include the lingering wounds in the U.S. economy from the financial crisis and recession, as well as fears that the economy could dip back into recession if automatic tax hikes and sharp spending cuts take effect at years end...
ANY EXCUSE WILL DO
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Yanis Varoufakis: Solidarity Euro-Style Finnish Loans, ECB Bond Purchases, EFSF Tough Love and Assorted Horror Stories from the Postmodern Euro-Workhouse
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/yanis-varoufakis-solidarity-euro-style-finnish-loans-ecb-bond-purchases-efsf-tough-love-and-assorted-horror-stories-from-the-postmodern-euro-workhouse.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
The world seems convinced that Europe, perhaps under duress, put together a large Solidarity Fund (the EFSF) for the purposes of helping the fiscally-stricken Eurozone member-states avoid bankruptcy once they were frozen out of the money markets. The criticisms waged at this type of solidarity centred on two issues: First, that the Funds size was not large enough (and thus unable to help Italy and Spain). Secondly, that this Fund resembles more a Victorian Workhouse whose real purpose was not to show solidarity to its residents but, rather, to make their life so unpleasant as to deter able-bodied workers from ever seeking its assistance.
The first criticism, about the EFSF-ESMs size, is true but irrelevant. As I have argued from day one of the EFSFs creation, its problem is not its size but its CDO-like structure. Turning to the second criticism, that it resembles a Dickensian Workhouse, Spains current predicament is instructive: To get money to give to its decrepit banks, the nation must be humiliated and undergo further fiscal waterboarding so that Italy and others are deterred from turning to the EFSF for help. In this sense, when Europes functionaries say that there is no need for further action on Spain since the EFSF is available to help, they are inviting the Spanish to enter the Workhouse for a life of undeserved misery on behalf of their bankers. And they have the audacity to call this solidarity with the Spanish people.
Still, many commentators are prepared to give Europes leaders the benefit of the doubt. To think of the EFSF-Workhouse like the Victorians did: better than the alternative of being left on the street to perish; a place where tough Victorian love is practised in order to refresh Europes puritan ethic. Well, be that as it may, I invite those who would like to think this way, to consider the following two examples with a view to establishing whether they are consistent even with this Victorian view of solidarity...
xchrom
(108,903 posts)?1339073642
When they talk about the MoU in Portugal they are not referring to their famous compatriot, the coach of Real Madrid. The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding on specific economic policy conditionality) is the final word over the economic lifeblood of this country of 10.6 million people, who when the calendar leafs over to April have a tendency towards radical changes.
In April 1974, the Carnation Revolution ushered in democracy. And in April 2011, following in the footsteps of Ireland and Greece, the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Socrates was forced to go to the European Union with a dramatic plea for help.
A month later, that help took the form of a bailout worth 78 billion euros capital at an interest rate of about four percent, handed over in instalments and accompanied by a whole litany of deep and painful reforms. The fine print for sorting out the finances of Portugal, to let the country return to the markets by September 2013, lies in the hands of the troika made up of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank, whose representatives periodically descend on Lisbon to audit the books.
Weve gone from the scissors to the saw
One of those check-ups came just this week. Its the fourth in the year that the Portuguese have been living under the troika. This type of audit of the commitments that have been met is carried out over two weeks by a squad of young technicians with laptops looking for figures, deadlines and documents. Meanwhile, three senior officials are in charge of contacts at the political level: Abebe Selassie (IMF), Jürgen Kröger (European Commission) and Rasmus Rüffer (ECB).
snot
(10,549 posts)the Google Finance link in the OP no longer works.
They've also moved or gotten rid of their basic stock index charts that I had bookmarked.
Tansy_Gold
(17,894 posts)They change their page all the time. I have no control over that.
snot
(10,549 posts). . . The requested URL was not found on this server."
Hmmm.
westerebus
(2,976 posts)Tansy_Gold
(17,894 posts)Oh, no offense taken, snot.
once they changed it without warning and I couldn't find the stuff I needed to post the front page! Thought I was losin' my freakin' mind!
DemReadingDU
(16,001 posts)Video at link...
6/8/12 The American Dream Is a Myth: Joseph Stiglitz on The Price of Inequality
Income inequality has become the subject of much debate in this country, in large part because of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In his latest book, The Price of Inequality, Columbia Professor and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz examines the causes of income inequality and offers some remedies. In between, he reaches some startling conclusions, including that America is "no longer the land of opportunity" and "the 'American dream' is a myth."
While we all know stories of people who've moved up the social stratosphere, Stiglitz says the statistics tell a very different story. In the last 30 years the share of national income held by the top 1% of Americans has doubled; for to the top 0.1%, their share has tripled, he reports. Meanwhile, median incomes for American workers have stagnated.
Even more than income inequality, "America has the least equality of opportunity of any of the advanced industrial economies," Stiglitz says. In short, the status you're born into whether rich or poor is more likely to be the status of your adult life in America vs. any other advanced economy, including 'Old Europe'.
For example, just 8% of students at America's elite universities come from households in the bottom 50% of income, Stiglitz says, even as those universities are "needs blind" meaning admission isn't predicated on your ability to pay. "There's not much mobility up and down," he says. "The chances of someone from the top [income bracket] who doesn't do very well in school are better than someone from the bottom who does well in school."
Because the children of those at the top of society tend to do better than those at the bottom thanks, in part, to better education, health care and nutrition the income inequality that's slowly emerged over the past 30 years will only widen in the next 10 to 20 years.
If the root causes of income inequality go unaddressed, America will truly become a two-class society and look much more like a third world economy, Stiglitz warns. "People will live in gated communities with armed guards. It's a ugly picture. There will be political, social and economic turmoil." (Hence the book's subtitle: 'How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future')
The good news is Stiglitz believes this "nightmare we're slowly marching toward" can be avoided, citing Brazil's experience since the early 1990s as an example of a country that has reduced income inequality. Among other things, he recommends improving education and nutrition for those at the bottom of society, and eliminating "corporate welfare" and other policies which "create wealth but not economic growth."
For example, he cites the provision in Medicare Part D which forbids the federal government from negotiating prices with the drug companies. Over 10 years, that rule will generate approximately $500 billion for the industry, he estimates, but no tangible benefit for taxpayers or the economy as a whole.
Importantly, Stiglitz believes inequality of wealth and opportunity are hurting the overall economy, by limiting competition, promoting cronyism and keeping those at the bottom from reaching their potential. "What I want is a more dynamic economy and a fairer society," he says, suggesting income inequality is ultimately detrimental to those at the top, too. "My point is we've created an economy that is not in accord with the principles of the free market."
video at link...
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/american-dream-myth-joseph-stiglitz-price-inequality-124338674.html
Roland99
(53,342 posts)IOW, markets are now in the black.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)And I'll Have Another is scratched
Roland99
(53,342 posts)Tansy_Gold
(17,894 posts)For all the horse lovers --
No Triple Crown this year as I'll Have Another has been scrubbed from the Belmont Stakes due to leg problems.
Good decision. While a Triple Crown winner might be "good" for the sport, it's suffered from too many tragedies and needs some kindness to the animals that make it all happen.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Tarbender!
Took me a couple seconds to figure it out.
I wonder if there's ever been a horse named Tarbender?
westerebus
(2,976 posts)Not in the hunter-jumper association listings. I did know a horse named: with a twist. Owner's had an day glow orange RV that everybody knew as the Great Pumpkin. So when someone got invited to the great pumpkin for cocktails they would be asked if they would like a twist with their drink? If they said yes, they would have to buy the horse a beer. Fun times.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)but only to benefit the banksters. She's hurting Germany by her inability to deal with reality.
When the global economy figures out a workaround and cuts Germany out of the picture, the banksters will go under, taking the Euro and most of the people on the continent with them. Unfortunately, Bernanke and Geithner and Predator Droneboy will probably bail out the American cousins, again.
Kassandra
Tansy_Gold
(17,894 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)(I think it's Greece)
Demeter
(85,373 posts)THE GREAT UNWIND ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-07/credit-index-and-rate-swaps-will-be-first-cleared-gensler-says.html
Interest rate and credit index swaps will be the first derivatives to face clearing requirements this year under the Dodd-Frank Act, said U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Gary Gensler.
The agencys staff is preparing recommendations to require clearing of fixed-to-floating interest rate swaps as well as indexes of North American investment grade and high-yield credit swaps, Gensler said in a speech prepared for the Sandler ONeill Global Exchange and Brokerage Conference in New York.
Dodd-Frank, the 2010 financial-regulation overhaul, intends for most swaps to be guaranteed by clearinghouses that seek to reduce risk in trades by standing between buyers and sellers. Largely unregulated swaps helped fuel the 2008 credit crisis.
Swaps market reform also benefits markets by increasing the use of central clearing, which promotes the financial integrity of markets and lowers the risks of the highly interconnected financial system, he said in the speech.
The CFTCs clearing determinations will probably also include basis swaps and forward rate agreements. Overnight index swaps in U.S. dollars, Euros, British pounds and Japanese yen will probably also face the clearing determination, Gensler said. Some European iTraxx, high volatility and crossover iTraxx indexes will probably also face the clearing requirement, he said.
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT BEST-LAID PLANS...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The Federal Reserve released a proposal to enact an international agreement on higher capital standards for banks, known as Basel III, that largely rejects pleas by the U.S. banking industry to soften parts of the new standards. U.S. banks have pushed the Fed to allow them to more heavily count mortgage servicing rights and the unrealized gains and losses of certain securities toward their capital requirements than allowed by Basel III, but the U.S. central bank's draft rule closely follows the international agreement.
The Fed board voted 7-0 on Thursday to put the proposal out for public comment. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and the Comptroller of the Currency are expected to approve the proposal soon as well.
The Basel agreement is the cornerstone of efforts by international regulators following the 2007-2009 financial crisis to make sure the global banking system is more resilient. The new standards would force banks to rely more on equity than debt to fund themselves, so that they are able to better withstand significant losses. It is up to each country to write rules to implement the Basel agreement for its banks. The accord, which is to be phased in from 2013 through 2019, will require banks to maintain top-quality capital equivalent to 7 percent of their risk-bearing assets, about three times what they are required to hold under existing rules. The Fed proposal adheres to this standard.
Banks have mostly agreed this minimum level is necessary. The biggest banks, however, have balked at a part of the agreement to have 28 global "systemic" banks hold as much as an additional 2.5 percent capital buffer. This provision would hit the largest international financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Deutsche Bank AG. The Fed draft proposal released on Thursday does not address the capital buffer for the largest banks; it will be considered at a later date. MORE
Demeter
(85,373 posts)British Prime Minister David Cameron reiterated his opposition to a financial transaction tax on Thursday, saying in Berlin that it would drive away business to areas of the world which don't have such a tax.
Speaking to students with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Norway's Jens Stoltenberg at Merkel's office, Cameron also ruled out once more any chance of Britain joining the Merkel-led "fiscal compact" for budget discipline, agreed by 25 EU states.
"There are some things that angry people would like us to do, and some not so angry people, like a financial transactions tax that in my view would drive a lot of financial services to whatever country didn't have them," he said.
"That would be a bad policy because it would mean fewer jobs and would be bad for our economy," said Cameron.
NEVER MIND THAT THE ECONOMY WOULD STOP BLOWING UP EVERY FEW YEARS...